The Enigma Order

I am sitting down to write this, without really knowing where i want to go with this post.
It is mainly aimed toward feral druids, but it includes the balance and resto tree, to give some intresting alternatives.

I have heard several comments, and read alot of posts about what to go for, as the ultimate tank, and still i miss something, more precisly, how to be the ultimate tanking druid, with the possibilities we have atm as druid tanks in Enigma Order.
Also i have given resto and balance some thoughts, and im writing this, in hope that im not the only one with these thoughts about the druid class.

I also often ask myself; Is beeing a druid tank, really what my guild needs from me? Are we to many feral druids, and are we greedy when it comes to loot, since we are sharing loottable with priests and warriors (and resto druids), that in some eyes, are more important, than the feral tank or dpsing druid.

Also, i want to know what is optimal for druids as a class. - Our future, strength and weaknesses in raids etc, and im writing this in the hope, that the druid group will read it, and end up to be the meanest druids machines out there
Also im doing this post, to share my thoughts and ideas with everyone, who might be intrested in listning. This is not a "what to do" post. Dont comment as it is, but share your thoughts behind the stuff i bring up. If i did'nt want feedback, i would not write this. This is also not a "druid only" post, but a post that i hope other classes will share their points of view about.

Feral druids:
Feral druids always complained, that there were no set for us in retail. Even with the introduction of AQ40 sets, we were faced with a more hybrid gear, than an actual feral set. When TBC got introduced, we also got introduced a more capable feral tree, together with alot of new items with feral stats, even a "..of the eagle" called "of the bandit" and "of the champion", that really suported cat and bear druids out there.

We also got introduced to the new T4 and T5 sets, and alot of druids suddenly realised, that the nightmare with a healing set raid-instance drop only were over. Many of us was very happy about this. Many of us finally saw this as an oppotunity to do what we thought we should do, pre retail raiding.. A jack in the box class, beeing able to do it all, but not as powerful as primary classes, but with our own touch.

Now we are all starting to collect our T4 and some even T5 pieces, trying to be the best out there, whatever it meens like a feral, moonkin or as restoration druid.

I want to share my thoughts about the name "feral", before going further.
Feral druids... both hated and loved in instances, but what exactly are ment by a "feral" druid? For most people, (including me from time to time) feral are often linked with a druid, that can step in, as the warrior or rogue in a group or a raid.
This however, is not quite true. While we know shadowpriest for beeing shadow dps, protection warriors as tanks, or frostmages as some who concentrate on frost spells, a feral druid is not only a tank or a melee oriented dps class.

A feral druid can be a melee oriented druid variation of a rogue, or an imitation of the warrior or paladin tank.
The phrase "feral" are actually just a word to descripe what tree we are focusing on, but not what specific role we are geared for.
The reason druids do so well in both forms are most of the time based on the following factors;
1. Bearform have stats aiming for tanking, while catform has stats aiming for dps. - You can compare this to the 3 warrior stances;
battlestance: the druid in casterform, with out any "special abilities.
Defensive stance: bearform. this is where it gets exciting. The armor from items are multiplied up, giving stuff like agility another role than just something i need to have to crit. with agi supporting both armor, crit and dodge makes it very nice for tanking, as it is the main focus of our defense, since we cant block, like the defensive stance warrior can.
Bezerger stance; catform. this is our way to dps targets down fast. Suddenly, agility is not used for armor, but for crit, and in this stance, things like strenght can be more important, since it grant us more attack power.
2. The druid have collected a dps and tank set, allowing the druid to be a support class, filling out the missing spot in a group or a raid.
3. the set consist of simular stats, that, depending on what form we are in, are rewarding us a different outcome. - This however does not meen that the druid can dish up rogueish dmg and at the same time be able to tank something, as well as if the druid was assigned as a pure dps or pure tank, and theirfor would exchange some parts of their gear to something else. This is also the reason if you group with a druid who are tanking, they will roll on dps gear too, since they often use catform to grind when soloing, and not bearform.
This is also the reason we dont want to roll warriors or rogues. As a feral druid, we love to tank and be able to dps, what ever the situation is.. For some reasons, alot of players don't understand this, unless they have a druid of their own, or some insight in how, the druid forms work.

Gear:
What is the best for us?
Malorne is an awsome feral set, so is nordrassil, but what about differences in the sets? Should we go for Nordrassil as a feral tank, or maybe be more "large" about the feral T5 set? Dont get me wrong.. im totally in love with the Nordrassil set, but is it really worth it, to spend alot of dkp for the intire set, and especially with a place like SSC in mind, where we should try and focus not only on great tanking gear, but also on resistances if we are their as tanks.

Let me try and be more specific..

Malorne Harness (feral set)
Armor 2674   
Strength 181   
Agility    150   
Stamina    158   
Intellect 79
Hit Rating 12       
Crit Rating 24               



Nordrassil Harness (feral set)
Armor 2977
Strength 208   
Agility    161       
Stamina    196       
Intellect 80   
Hit Rating 32   


source: http://sjrich.com/beargear/

On the two pictures, i havent included gems, since the site wont let me custumize it, eg; 2 blue gem sockets etc, but i have encluded enchants on back, chest, head, legs and weapon. I've also decided to inset some easy to get gear; (questrewards belt and bracers - earthwarden, defensering from Old hillsbrad normal run and the exhalted violet tower ring. trinkets are badge with might are hard to get, but not impossible and mark of tyranni.)
Also note that the gear only have 405 defense because of the missing gems.

For tanks, both sets lack defense. With a total of 415 defense combined with the "survival of the fittest talent, we will get crit immune against bosses.
- why is this something we need to know?? You can not consider yourself as a serious tank, if you cant get the needed defense. If you are to tank, remember that armor, dodge and stamina are your primary defense against bosses. If bosses are able to crit you, you can be dead within a second. Beeing crit immune also makes you a more reliable tank for the healers, as you wont be as spiky to heal, like warriors tend to be.
What if you have more than the required defense? is that a waste? - It sertainly are not
Every defense skill over 415 adds to dodge (+parry and block for wrriors) so defense are never wasted if you want to make the best as a tank in raids.

I know the Nordrassil Harness has more armor, agi and stamina compared to the Malorne Harness. Does this meen that you are going to be a better tank if you wear Nordrassil? IMO, no. It is perfectly possible to reach the current armor cap with Malorne. What i see is the different between the sets are the dps possibilites. These sets, especially the Nordrassil was designed to druids in catform, where the malorne set is focusing on the druids in bearform.

This i back up with the setbonuses in mind...

The Nordrassil feral 2 set bonus are;
When you shift out of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Cat Form, your next Regrowth spell takes (-2).1 fewer sec. to cast.
This setbonus is useless as a tank. You are tanking so you cant be forced out of form to heal your self, even if regrowth became an instant cast, you still had to consider the fact, that you would loose your rage, and the global cooldown would not make you go back into form imidialy.

The Malorne 2 set bonus however are;
Your melee attacks in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form have a chance to generate 10 additional rage.
Hello rage!! it even procs alot too - rage is something we can use as tanks. Right now, as it is, druid tanks have no problems with rage, but this bonus is espicially nice if you are MT2 or an OT. It also helps in cases where you know healing on you will be critical, and you need to pop feral
regeneration.

compairing the 4th setbonuses i hope speaks for it self;

Malorne:
Increases your armor by 1400 in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form.
again 1400 armor added to the 2674 armor from the set. Enough for me with 4/5 parts of malorne to reach armor cap in tankgear.

Nordrassil:
Your Shred ability deals an additional 75 damage, and your Lacerate ability does an additional 15 per application.
15 more from lacerate = more dmg = more treat. - this can be discussed to be more usefull than the armor cap, but you can gain treat from enchants, gems, raidbuffs etc too, just like you can gain armor. Personally i go for armor at this state, since i dont have to have a paladin with devotion aura, but with frost aura instead, if that is the case. This i think is a matter of what you are wearing in addition to your 4 (or 5) piece Nordrassil.

To sum up what im trying to say so far is; Dont waste gems and money on defense enchants/gems for T5. If you want a T5 feral set, you should focus on hit, crit and more damage, and instead use malorne for tanking.

i still need to update my neck and 1 ring and exchange my head enchant with the defense enchant, but as you can see, this is very nice tanking stats for a druid wearing 4/5 T4 items;



Balance druids:
As it is now, balance druids are, what the feral druids were "pre TBC". As balance you are capable of dishing dmg out, but you lack the utility that the feral druid has in different cases;
1.The feral druid does not spend mana on anything else than shapeshifting. This meens that you cant support heal for a sertain amount of time, without loosing mana, and theirfor, not able to sustand your current damage output, like etc a cat druid can.
2.Your tools are limited. are you forced away from arcane, you only have 1 direct dps source (wrath) to use. - In addition, druids have the worst crowd control of all classes. A weak cyclone, that only gives a few seconds, a hamstring, that only work outdoors, and complete lack of forms, (yes, i see bearform and catform as almost useless for a caster druid, especially in raids.
3.agro reduction. IF you get agro, you have the moonkin armor to help you take the hits for a few seconds, but if your tank cant get it off you, you are almost as good as dead.
Thats why i see leather balance drops as much more valuable than cloth, to a sertain degree.

Gear:
When it comes to choosing between Malorne or Nordrassil regalia i see the difference as;

Malorne:
2:Your harmful spells have a chance to restore up to 120 mana.
4: Reduces the cooldown on your Innervate ability by (-48) sec.
mana regen. You last longer in long fights. Innervate will go from 6 min to 5.12 sec, and everytime you cast, you have a chance to recive some of the mana spend.

VS

Nordrassil:
2:When you shift out of Moonkin Form, your next Regrowth spell costs 450 less mana.
4: Increases your Starfire damage against targets afflicted with Moonfire or Insect Swarm by 10%.
defense and offensive. You will be able to "backup heal", or save the healers mana a bit, by healing ourself for less mana + you have a chance to get our spells to work together. This ofcause depends on, that the mob are not immune to nature or arcane.

I dont have much to say about moonkins as a spec. I know they can do alot of dmg, but it stands in the way for the "support" role, that the druids are -like it or not, this goes for all druids, no matter what spec we are.
Maybe Malorne is the best way to go for the balance druid, since its setbonuses are focused around mana regen. It really doesnt give you more dmg, compaired to the Nordrassil 4th set bonus.

Untill balance druids get some better raid tools, i dont see the use of a balance spec in raids, but more in 5 man instances or PvP. it is abit like the sublity rogue, where you rely on fast fights, just with far less options as a doomkin.


Resto druids:
I have been trying out the resto aspect of raiding in TBC, but im not utter impressed with the results. Tree of life are a very powerfull restoration tool, if it is used in the right situations, but i belive, that it from time to time, are not worth speccing. Either in combats, where hots simply cant keep up with the damage output from a boss, or where it simply gets "in the way" of the healing flow.
On the other hand, im very impressed with the resto druids preformance in Arena and battlegrounds. Were i to PvP with my druid fulltime, it would be as resto, without tree of life.

Maybe im not used to the change from the old resto druid, where downranking healing touch was some of the most powerfull spam healing a druid could do. This is a matter of what each individual feels comfortable with, and my intention with this post is not to discuss restoration druids in raids.
Remember that im an old resto druid, and have been restoration for along time while raiding, and back then i loved it. I was also restoration/hybrid when i lvled up 0-60, due to the fact, that natures swiftness and innervate was what i considered the strongest asset of the druid at that time.

Let's break the restoration T4 and T5 set down to their setbonuses..

Malorne rainment:
2: Your helpful spells have a chance to restore up to 120 mana.
4: Reduces the cooldown on your Nature's Swiftness ability by (-24) sec.
Just like the balance set, these bonuses focus on mana regen + less cooldowns. For malorne it's also required to have natures swiftness, wich are a trainable talent and optional. This meens that they force you to choose a talent to get anything out of the setbonus. But since natures swiftness are such a powerfull talent, optional after only spending 21 talents in the tree, i cant really imagine any serious restoration spec without this skill.

VS

Nordrassil rainment:
2: Increases the duration of your Regrowth spell by 6 sec.
4: Increases the final amount healed by your Lifebloom spell by 150.
Both setbonuses are additions to your current spells, with in the end makes you are more "powerfull" healer. 6 seconds on regrowth are alot. depending on your +healing, it really add alot of healing, with out costing extra. Lifebloom are a bit more tricky, especially when you are multiple healers, since it ticks like a hot, but heals a really nice amount after the dot. It can be wasted on a tank with full HP, but at the same time, it can land at a critical spot, leaving all healers a bit more "safe" since they will have the time to get off a big heal.

From beeing the most powerfull spec for a druid raiding wise, restoration druids are now on pair with feral druids. This is the 2 types of specs, viable in raids, and what people always ask you for. From beeing the head on majority spec for raiding druids, we start to see that the ferals are just as visible in raids, as restoration is.


The conclusion:
Restoration has for a long time been the way to go. With the introduction of TBC, things were about to change that to a whole new direction.
Prior to TBC, i bet 90% of all druids were restoration. (im talking about raiding druids here)
There were ofcause some, who were feral, but it was a disliked spec to many, and many raidleaders had to little knowlegde about the feral druid, to give them a chance in raids. This cannot be blamed. Blizzard introduced the druid class so late before the game release, that there wasnt any items for druids (see the part, where i am talking about "of the bandit/champion") making the druid class lacking in many ways. Druids were almost bound to the restotree to stand a chance against primary classes, and even here, we lacked a bit.
This lasted almost untill AQ40, where we got our first hybrid gear, and some non-set leather items, that we could wear for better dps. Where rogues got their dmg from T1 to T3, druids were stuck with rogue dungion set 1, LW crafted rogue items and some few world epic drops. (warden staff is a nice example) This meens, that the only feral druids who had a chance was those who; PvP'ed for the hybrid feral set, or those, like us Enigma druids, who had access to AQ40, with are a small amount of the players out there at that time.


If i am to conclude anything about the T4 and T5, it would be;
Tanks go for T4
Cats go for T5
Healers go for T5
Balance druids awaits a buff, before even considering to bid on T4 or T5.

As i see it, all tanking druids should aim for the T4 to start with. Compared with the right accessories you will fastly become a "perfect" tank (not thinking about resistance fights here), because you already have some really nice ulitily to customize your tanking gear.
T5 will only grant you slightly better stats, and are better suited on healers or warriors as it is now. This does not meen that you shouldnt pass on T5, but instead ask yourself, is it really nessesary to outbid everyone, when i mostly gain dps enchancements by it. -And if you really want T5, then ask yourself, how can i benefit the guild. In my eyes the Nordrassil restoration set are superior in everything, and are by far the most rewarding when it comes to raiding in a guild, where its not about "me", but about "us".

I really hope that by this post, i set some new thoughts into you druids, and the rest, standing on the side, looking at us. I recommend that you all reply to this, to help us druids get better, and preform the best in raids, in the future to come.


by mojorising.