kitty or boom for cata leveling

[sparks]

I have played kitty while leveling to 80 and found it ok after 50.
Once I got to 80 it was bear and heals.
Now that we have 80-85 is kitty best or some are saying no boomer is best.

Which is it?
Looking for fast and safe.

[Zani]

Well i'm playing as boomkin for some while , lvled as feral till 60 ===> boombastickin => 80 and boomastickin to 85 !

Personal choice to be honest

[Clawtrocity]

If you plan to level feral, I'd suggest doing it in bear form seeing as you'll have no downtime at all. If you want to go hardcore stack agility gear and just bear it up. Obviously use cat to prowl and sneak past as much as you can for some quests, but if you're fighting, just AoE tank it and stay bear.

I think feral is still better than moonkin, but I haven't tried leveling as a boomkin with the new mana mechanics. If you can constantly run around and kill stuff before it hits you and never run out of mana, then boomkin is efficient also.

[Deleted]

Well Im going Feral, kitty or bear. I leveled feral till 60 or something and changed to boomkin and changed back to feral at 75 I think. I leveled much faster as a kitty, with little downtime, as compared to my boomkin. walking is faster as well + charging the next mob, in my opinion gives less time leveling in that respect. Since most people loot, just Nuking mobs from a distance still gives the added time to walk to em. Although, its always faster leveling when you dont loot at all

For me its also a matter of personal taste

[gollie]

I'm going to level my main as feral, my alt as boom.

[Shyzhi]

I leveled from 80 - 85 as a rogue in cata beta, useing quest rewards and replacing my PVP stuff (to see if it was still easy in the greens / blues) i had hardly any downtime due to the hot rogues got, And feral druids is pretty much the same. I think feral cat will be wise to level as. And seeing as feral can tank / dps i think it will be fine tanking a normal instance as feral cat (in bear form ofc) aswell. So you can level as cat and tank a few instances as bear and rocket to 85 ^^

[Deleted]

I have both boomkin and feral spec on my druid, and i find that Boomkin, regardless of downtime (which with innervate, really isn't much) generally burns through content quicker. Of course it depends on which you like to play. A lot of people like sneaking past mobs to whatever they're trying to get to. Me? I pop trees and starfall and run through them. Sure i might occasionally die, but i find it fun. And fun's what the game is all about! Plus the extra experience from actually killing mobs vs just sneaking past them makes a difference when leveling.

[Kama]

I havent played in Cata beta but from what i hear, a dps pulling multiple mobs means certain death due to the large increase in health/dmg from the mobs themselves. I wouldnt recommend popping starfall and pulling a bunch of mobs. I think whichever you can do higher single target as would be best and just going with what you want to play.

[Deleted]

Same as Kama, from what I hear, at 83+ there are (non elite) mobs who can seriously rape your ass, even when 1v1. I heard that its not even possible to level priests (I know this is druid forum) as holy (or was it disc) because of some marksman mobs somewhere who just pump dmg into you so hard you gotta go shadow to actually kill them before they kill you. I cant remmember where I heard this though...

Anyway feral was the way to go for almost 6 years, I think now balance might get a chance. Its ranged, roots stuff and has spellpower and mana for powerful healing which obviously will be needed when soloing from now on.

[Deleted]

Feral all the way, man.

[Antenorra]

I'm going to level my main as feral, my alt as boom.

lol. I'm backwards, I'm leveling my main boomkin, my alt feral.

[Kawakazi]

Personal choice.

If you are feral make sure you get the nurturing instinct talent. Will make cat form have 0 down time and you can solo a lot of 3 man elites.

[Sinizine]

Around 83ish or so mana can be a little bit of an issue so raid spec'd boomkins may want to invest in the mana talents come Cata. Anyways, Boomkins can really abuse the hell out of being able to stay in eclipse for so long. Compliment that with the increased CC (instant roots/ rooting multiple mobs) as well as most melee creatures nearly killing themselves if you thorn right, on top of healing yourself, and you have a pretty powerful leveling toon. They have eased the mana issues down since I leveled my druid on the Beta, so it'll probably be even easier.

[Riavan]

I figured bear might be a good option if mobs are really that hard past level 73

[Duncanîdaho]

It really just comes down to the fact that at some point your eventually gonna HAVE to drink to regain mana if your boom. If your a kitty or a bear you will have no downtime, ever, and still take down mobs just as fast.

If it was me, I would go feral.

[Eudoxuz]

hhmmm i lvled my druid on beta as boomkin with NO mana break AT ALL frm 80-85.. if you lose any HP against a mob, u got to use your lifebloom, costs no mana at all xD and lvling as boomkin makes u take advantage of your roots again, i tell you, u have to use it in 84 to be able to keep up without any breaks coz mobs will hit about 8k :b but... ull have no downtime tho, im gonnna try out feral in cata for sure, thats ma main specc anyways:b

[sparks]

wow it seems that people are saying both are ok.
I was talking to some beta people (LAST )month and they said F this I am going boomer...you can't do damage and survive as a kitty.
maybe they fixed it.
Right now I am bear and heal and I wish I could triple spec LOL

for those who have played beta how about the gear if the first 2 areas for those who have played beta. Is there enough to find some good stuff for dual or triple builds?
Reason I asked was in tbc you had a lot of choices on gear, so 1 spec was all you could work in. In wrath it was better since you had 2 starting areas and the gear was basically the same in both.

Yep we have 2 starting areas in cata as well. I saw the drops in deep and the blue weapons were amazing. Too bad you can't get more than 1

I keep saying kitty since I have always leveled with one but boomer with roots sounds nice....
In my healer gear I have 3k spell damage and 800 regen, but with less than 600 haste, can I work a boomer with that?

[Netherwolf]

I'm going to level as feral and rush for server first 85 druid. I mainly hope to gain speed from the lack of downtime, cc if things get too rough, stealth to skip mobs that isn't necessary to kill while perhaps be able to solo [2] group quests. Thorns works just as well as feral as for boomkins, and we don't get any pushbacks and have great tools for survival.

If mobs are as annoying at it sounds in cata survival will be required so there's less downtime from corpse running. Now i just have to steal a beta account somewhere to check out the quests... =P

[zelamonster]

Having played the beta, I would say feral is still fastest. A lot of the appeal of boomkin comes from the ability to AOE more efficiently, but the design of many of the zones works against that. Mobs are usually more spread out than they have been in previous expansions, and often interspersed with "flavor" mobs that aren't actually required for any quest. Combine that with the fact that you'll have more downtime due to the fact you're a mana user and the fact that there are a lot of places you have to kill an elite in order to move forward.

You'll still be able to level as boomkin, of course. It will just be slower IMO.

[Sinizine]

There's very few real elites while leveling. Almost all of the elite quests involve gimmicks of some sort that let anyone solo them. Either you use vehicles, or quest items, or NPCs help you, or it's a public quest type of thing where anyone in range can do it, even opposing faction, and thay'll drop an item to be looted by all. Most of the real group quests are in Twilight Highlands, and later in Twilight Highlands too, where you'll most likely have hit 85 by the time you reach them.