Thinking about this a lot more now!

[Wardemon]

So as i made a druid for the first time since i started WOW back in BC. The more i level the toon the more i see the importance of it. I have decided to level as balance, and i know a lot of folks will say that cat is the best, and i'm sure it is, but i really like balance. As i am now level 74 almost 75 i find a lot of folks either saying things like " go cat", or " why are you not cat?" , but i simply reply that i like this class. But what has really caught me off guard and what this post is about is my second talent build. If the tank leaves a dungeon , i have found most people will just say " hey drood go bear". Now i have read somewhat on how to tank as druid, but it hasn't been a focus at all. So i tried it once or twice and mind you i was geared for balance only, and i was amazed at how folks still complained. I told them up front that i had never tanked with a druid before, but still they insisted i tanked the rest of the dungeon. I asked guildies for a quick run down and one person said to just growl swipe in mobs and go. I laughed and decided to go for it. it worked somewhat but i was not enjoying it. I was constantly rounding up folks and taunting. My question is: do i need to have my second spec feral tanking for situations like this , grab gear and such or just play what i like and if a tank leaves just tell the group that i simply just do not tank. What do most folks that play balance do? Do you go resto as your second spec? This class has so many options that i feel like i am almost not doing it justice if i do not fill a tank or resto roll as my second spec. I know that it really does not matter what i really do to level, but i just do not want to feel like crap because i do not wish to fill in for a missing tank.

[Sprucelee]

No, only ferals tank.

The only "clinch" spec you might be able to cover appropriately as balance would be resto. You have solid spell power and mana to do some "ok" healing.

But having bear form and a couple bear abilities does not allow a caster druid to tank. You need to have a feral spec for that, and gear honeslty. It can be just a kitty spec, but needs to be feral of some sort.

Lots of misinformation while leveling tbh. When I just started I had many people tell my kitty to heal whenever we lost one, and it just makes it not fun for anyone to do something you were not intended to do. You might be able to squeeze by, but like you said...no fun. When i had to heal as kitty it was pretty annoying to tell everyone to stop every second to drink...

On a side note, there have been "panzerkins" before. Tanking in Moonkin spec has been done successfully by some... though more of a novelty if you want to attempt that

[Mudkiper]

Resto and Balance share a lot of gear and a lot of BIS items, as for feral being better then balance.. I wouldn't really agree, on a straight single target DPS fight then maybe, but when theres more then one target Balance just becomes a lot stronger.

Leveling speed balance vs feral, well.. I got realm first 85 as balance just multidotting everything.

[PHsname]

While leveling you'll get that a lot. Once you get to max level, you wont get that at all.

Just keep a Bear off spec for now until you hit 85. It'll get you through dungeons faster. Bear tanking kind of sucks before lvl83 (I think) when you get Thrash, but it beats waiting around for a long time 'cause a tank logged.

[Deleted]

1. you don't need a proper tank for dungeons until around lvl 70+, and even then if you have some BOA-equipped fellow dungeoneers you will be on the good side without a proper tank.

2. leveling as feral or boomkin is a moot point at best. one thing that is for sure is that you have way lower downtime as feral, but on the other hand balance multidotting speeds things up if you know how to kite. long story short just play with what you want to play.