Need some levelling/spec advice

[tehealadin]

Hi, I have a lvl 73 feral druid at the moment, however I have been pondering a re spec. Basically, I think cat form is fun, however it is hard to get into an instance since I hate tanking, I just aint good at it if the pull has more than 2 mobs. Healing though, I'd enjoy that more, plus it would mean I could do instances more often.

I wanted to know, what is it like levelling as a resto druid? I've levelled from 10-73 as feral, so feral is all I know, so any tips or advice would be really welcome, I don't want to respec and spend a fortune on new gear to go out and get my ass handed to me lol.

I assume they can do decent damage with +spell power gear. What stats do I need to stack? I know int/sp are the 2 all healers need, what about crit/spirit? I know spirit is important to a druid, so should I put every effort into stacking it?

What about solo play/questing, what spells should I look to? Obviously I'd work it out as I went, but I'd like to hit the ground running with this once I respec, so I'd like to know as much about playing and levelling a resto druid as possible.

[Wrinklefinger]

I leveled from 70-80 as a healer. Soloing wasn't bad, wasn't super great either. I did alot of instances. At 80 I'd cleared quests in Borean, dragonblight, HJford, and part of the basin. didn't touch the others.

Search the armory for "wrinklefingr" on the durotan server to see my talent tree.

[Degrador]

I wanted to know, what is it like levelling as a resto druid?

I can't really speak from experience but as a level 80 resto druid in full epics I can tell you that resto druid DPS sucks really bad. If you want to do instances then feral really is the way to go - you've got tanking where you need it and decent DPS where you don't.

I assume they can do decent damage with +spell power gear.

As mentioned, at level 80 with 2.1k SP I can do maybe 1000-1200 DPS if I'm going all out. Given I was about to do 1500+ DPS at level 70 when I was balance, and easily 4k+ as balance at 80, I really wouldn't call it 'decent'.

What stats do I need to stack? I know int/sp are the 2 all healers need, what about crit/spirit? I know spirit is important to a druid, so should I put every effort into stacking it?

For a resto druid in healing you want to stack SP as high as possible. After than, get as much int / spirit as you need so your mana will last the fight (I think most of us here agree that about 800 int & 800 spirit is all you need). After that, get Haste to reduce your GCD on HoTs to 1s (15.4% haste assuming you've got GOTEM), and then get Crit I guess. Neither of those are particularly great though.

What about solo play/questing, what spells should I look to? Obviously I'd work it out as I went, but I'd like to hit the ground running with this once I respec, so I'd like to know as much about playing and levelling a resto druid as possible.

If you've got Nature's Grace then Wrath will typically be your best spell for DPS while Resto (at least that's what I've found). Generally if I'm soloing standard quest mobs I'll open with a starfire immediately followed by moonfire and then another starfire, then wrath spam to finish em off.

IMO if you want to heal instances but still do questing as resto, I'd probably look to get a hybrid spec. For instance, here's a level 73 spec that has the essentials out of the Resto tree while giving you the basics of balance so you've at least got something to help the DPS: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...h=211500040601

I don't think you'd have any trouble healing instances with that spec, whilst your DPS spells have the very important Starlight Wrath and Vengeance, and the rest of the talents in the Balance tree will help your healing as well. The only things it's really missing from Resto is GOTEM, which really shouldn't be necessary in 5 mans, and Wild Growth, which again while useful could easily be lived without in 5 mans. In terms of the glyphs, none of the balance ones are all that great for levelling (except maybe Wrath), but the healing ones are still quite good to have, particularly Regrowth given it'll be your main spell for healing the party.

[Morganskunk]

Questing as a healer druid?

Fairy fire, Moon fire, spam wrath

LoL thats what I do for my dailies - faster with my spell gear than to go cat with feral gear and 0 mana regen.

Otherwise, level as a cat and its alot faster. Dont waste your time respeccing, unless u hit 78 and then want to grind the hell outta instances and get the gear u need. then get readyfor heroics, thats what I did

[Solux]

Basically, I think cat form is fun, however it is hard to get into an instance since I hate tanking, I just aint good at it if the pull has more than 2 mobs.

This is fair enough. Since Swipe doesn't hold aggro well against any class with Quality AoE, you need to tab around, changing targets and put a Maul/Mangle on each one to make sure they stick to you. Once that's done, keep swiping all the while and go back to your main target for a while, then the other targets again.

I can't help much with the Resto section, but the idea of a slightly hybrid spec from Degrador sounds like the way to go.

[Degrador]

Questing as a healer druid?

Fairy fire, Moon fire, spam wrath

Why Faerie Fire?

[Morganskunk]

Haha I meant star-f - ff only reduces armour.