Tanking/DPSing as Feral with one spec?

[Bytes]

Is it possible now in Wrath? Will it be possible in Cataclsym?

I've never played Druid before, I'm going to make one in Cataclysm and I want to know, will I be able to have two specs, Feral (DPS/Tank) and Restoration, and be able to Tank/DPS effectively or do I have to put all the talents towards DPS or tanking talents?

Here's a talent thing I made in the MMOchampion talent calculator for DPS/Tanking: http://www.wowtal.com/#k=-w1zVqrkZ.9uf.druid

[scorch109]

It's easily possible, it's just for the most part pointless with dual spec.

[Bytes]

It's easily possible, it's just for the most part pointless with dual spec.

....How is it pointless? "Feral (DPS/Tank) and Restoration" I want to be able to do all three things, Heal, DPS, and Tank.

[Deleted]

Atm it is possible, but I doubt you'll tank awesome or do nice dps. By taking the cat talents you wont have enough points to all the bear talents and so on

[Duilliath]

Sure it's possible. You can also walk 50 miles to work instead of drive a car.

Question is, why would you bother to be subpar and waste your time instead of doing either one properly?

[Balance]

Sure it's possible. You can also walk 50 miles to work instead of drive a car.

Question is, why would you bother to be subpar and waste your time instead of doing either one properly?

This basically.No point in being sub-par at both when you can just duel spec for tank and heals.

[Richmond]

Echoing the above really.

Sure it is possible at the moment (i don't tend to look at the Cata talent trees as they are not finalised yet) but putting points in certain talents will gimp you on others.

If i had to make one (i dont because thats why they made dual spec) it would look similar to this. Taking all the mandatory tank talents and using the remaining points in, Shredding attacks (a must for feral DPS), Predatory instincts and the last 2 in KoTJ.

By doing this i missed out on MSS completely (very bad idea for both Cat DPS and Bear TPS) and Imp LotP, which i suppose isn't such a bad thing if you already raid with another feral.

Why be the jack of both trades and the master on none?

Take it from someone that has raided Resto/Tank since they release dual spec, you will hardly ever (like 1 time out of 10) be in the position that you will be required to heal rather than tank. I'm now my guilds MT and if i had to heal, then that means we have to find another tank, just doesn't make sense. Just go with Tank/DPS or DPS/Healer. Working with them both is a waste of resources.

[Cortano]

To the original poster: its possible, it looks like it will continue to be possible, comments from the dev's indicate that supporting a hybrid build is in line with their overall goals.

I assume you will not be 'main tanking' progression mobs, rather filling in as an off-tank and heroics; switching to be a reasonable DPS as needed.

In Cataclysm, I would lean toward something like this (just mentally switch the positions of heart of the wild and furor):
http://www.wowtal.com/#k=-8xJfRlA.9uf.druid

I've got two points in there that I am not entirely sure where to stick yet.

You'll take 6% more spell damage than a full bear spec (that's about 30 resistance), but you have all the rest of the tanking goodies. In heroics and off-tanking you can't rely on another tank to provide interrupts/debuffs... so grab the slow+snare and stun+interrupt. These are solid soloing+PvP picks as well.

You'll be losing 4% crit off NSS/MSS, 4% off your shreds (~1% overall loss), and maybe a bit of else depending where those extra points get spent. So, maybe 95% of the damage of a pure DPS spec. This is just fine for a secondary spec/role, soloing, battlegrounds, etc.

If you want to do PvP/battlegrounds, drop those extra points into Nuturing Instinct, otherwise you'll probably be putting them into charge or primal fury.

You will need to swap glyphs around, or take an additional dps loss there as well.

[getefix]

....How is it pointless? "Feral (DPS/Tank) and Restoration" I want to be able to do all three things, Heal, DPS, and Tank.

With decent tank gear you can tank effectively in cat gear (not heroic ICC or RS though). You need decent dps gear and a full dps spec with glyphs in order to keep up with dps in any raid.

To a newbie, the gear looks the same and bear and cat share the same talent tree, but they are just impossible to do well together.

[Tryinmilkme]

With decent tank gear you can tank effectively in cat gear

?????

[Elunedra]

well depending on gear realy, i am IC25 geared and i tank heroric in full dps gear & spec lol

dps gear gives more TPS and more absorbtion tru SD, the avoidnece you loose is verry small lik 5% but the health pool is like 20K or more lower

if you want todo both you will do fine but if you want ot raid high end contant such as IC25 or RS thne you choose one of them and focus on it

[scorch109]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0ZxGGsfrz0eochuVkbAczb is a basic spec to do both, i used to use it for heroic putricide to extend the time before it was a wipe in p3 cause of too many tank stacks. and I've tanked heroic fester in a full cat spec cat gear up to 2 inhales when one of our tanks went offline lol. more depends on healers then on you at this point since people had 60k hp at the start of hard modes and tahts about what a cat geared bear has.

[Bytes]

Alright, thanks for the help everyone, I'll just use Feral (Tank), and Restoration.

[Richmond]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0ZxGGsfrz0eochuVkbAczb is a basic spec to do both, i used to use it for heroic putricide to extend the time before it was a wipe in p3 cause of too many tank stacks. and I've tanked heroic fester in a full cat spec cat gear up to 2 inhales when one of our tanks went offline lol. more depends on healers then on you at this point since people had 60k hp at the start of hard modes and tahts about what a cat geared bear has.

You lose 6% dodge and infected wounds with this spec, i wouldn't advise it at all. Makes for a pretty cruddy tank and only half decent DPS.

[Cortano]

You lose 6% dodge and infected wounds with this spec, i wouldn't advise it at all. Makes for a pretty cruddy tank and only half decent DPS.

Richmond's spec is pretty good, although you can probably change out his points in Primal Precision once you are hit/expertise(dodge) capped.

[scorch109]

As dps with that spec all you lose is ferocious bite damage which depending on the fight, and the few fights it'd be even slightly viable for you lose more or less nothing. Losing 6% dodge isn't that bad and neither is losing infected wounds when the only fights you'd want a spec like that would be festergut and putricide and both of those you'd be a secondary or third tank on the same mob, thus infected wounds does nothing, but increasing dps does a significant amount, also swapping towards feral aggression instead of MSS is simple enough for people over there crit cap. for saying it makes for pretty cruddy dps. you lose 15% on an ability you use max 8 times a fight with an amazing amount of omen procs, if you average that out you lose about 15k damage over an entire fight maybe a little more. that isn't gamebreaking.
Full points in KotJ are much more important then MSS and FA for dps anyways which is completely mising in your spec. The spec i posted is pretty much a full dps spec losing minimal abilities to gain protector of the pack thick hide and SI the only 100% needed tank talents.

[emni]

I don't think think the answer to your question is as clear-cut as many here make it out to be. The reason is that it heavily depends on what you are trying to tank.

So can you have a hybrid cat/bear in normal instances? Absolutely.
Heroics? Currently yes, but in Cataclysm heroics will be harder and you might want to maximize your tanking ability so you don't spend hours finishing a single heroic.
PuG and farm raids? This can work depending on how good your group is ofc.
Progression raids? No. If you are serious about progressing with a guild, half-assing either tanking or DPS is not going to be good for the raid.

All in all, you will still need 2 separate sets of gear and 2 separate sets of glyphs (and backup glyphs currently, which will cost a lot of money, but in cataclysm this is changing).

In current scenario, if all you do is PuG 6/12, then go for it. If you do heroic modes and plan on killing LK, don't.

[Bytes]

Thanks again for the help guys.

http://www.wowtal.com/#k=-kfWhzcdn.9uf.druid <-- is that spec any good?

[Cortano]

In current scenario, if all you do is PuG 6/12, then go for it. If you do heroic modes and plan on killing LK, don't.

If "resto" is your raiding spec, DEFINITELY do it.

[Greenmahn]

Ok wowtal is currently suffering some issues with links some people see teh spec you wanted others arent
so here is a wowhead of the spec he posted well the one it showed for me anyway http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#0ZfMhfRubzMckcGo