Boxing feral druids

[Purpleflavor]

You are right. I am having a blast playing druids. They have a ton of heal, they have a ton of utility. A ton of "oh shit buttons". They would be even better if balance druids were more mobile.

Have you ever tried feral druids? Wonder how viable they are.

They are below average, but very very very fun. They are possibly the most squishy spec in the game. It really took me a lot of hours learning how to use them, because they are meant to be kiting machines when solo. That's how they dominate in solo pvp when well played, they kite like no other. So when i box them i pay far less attention to my followers than any other comp, i dont use a movement key in my IWT to stop runners either. Runners are great for this group. My druids are everywhere jumping, leaping, running away, like a crazy cat fight, but it's orchestrated. Their pvp talents mostly stack so you get 50% crit free, which makes macroing their abilities easier as a group.

In pve they are okayish, their mobility shines and any group of 5 can clear 99% of world content so they are top tier for open world pve. They squish in dungeons, you need to set one to bear, and if doing harder dungeons one to resto, and at that point you should really not be using ferals at all. Any druid spec can stealth to bosses so they dont even have that niche.

I felt the biggest issue next to being super squishy, was healing. Predatory Swiftness is difficult to manage. It's rare that all druids would get a proc when you needed one, and when you used it to heal you'd find 2-3 druids leave form and start casting regrowth. Though it wasnt a roadblock, more of a speed bump, because you were forced to make them stop casting or finish the cast and then shift back into feral. This means that you absolutely have to set up spammable shift macros and hotkeys that will not cancel forms if mashed. I used "stance/form" swapping action bars, kind of complicated but makes things run smooth.

I often found myself feeling limited compared to 5 bears and especially boomkins. I considered resto in cat affinity, but it looked too daunting to even try and didnt seem to solve the squishyness. Because when an enemy pops their one shot macro on you, you pop. On Boomkins you have far more armor and defensives, it's night and day. On bears i could take a nap and come back with 3 people trying to kill me for 30 minutes.

If i had to recommend this comp, i would push the mobility and stealth. There's nothing like it. Being squishy isnt a problem when they never see you coming. You can always respec for dungeons. We spend a large majority of our time in the open world, and this comp, when you've got it down and settled in, is top tier.


If anyone has any specific questions, i'll do my best to answer from my experiences.

[schmonz]

Thank you for this detailed impression. Probably i will try feral druids. Currently i am just very happy with my balance druids.

[nodoze]

They are below average, but very very very fun. ...
In pve they are okayish, their mobility shines and any group of 5 can clear 99% of world content so they are top tier for open world pve. They squish in dungeons, you need to set one to bear, and if doing harder dungeons one to resto, and at that point you should really not be using ferals at all. Any druid spec can stealth to bosses so they dont even have that niche.

I felt the biggest issue next to being super squishy, was healing. ...

I often found myself feeling limited compared to 5 bears and especially boomkins. I considered ...

If i had to recommend this comp, i would push the mobility and stealth. There's nothing like it. Being squishy isnt a problem when they never see you coming. You can always respec for dungeons. We spend a large majority of our time in the open world, and this comp, when you've got it down and settled in, is top tier.

If anyone has any specific questions, i'll do my best to answer from my experiences.

Thanks for sharing those experiences.

Do you think 2 Druids + 3 Night Elf Hunters with Prowling Spirit Beasts (Night Elves leveraging Camouflage and ShadowMeld) would give you a team that could do well stealth-ing around in the open world and in dungeons?

I really like the idea of an full stealth capable team and would like it to be viable in both open world and Mythic dungeons... I think my main tank may end up being a Protection Paladin for my 3 Hunters+Resto Druid but I am thinking of having a Druid Tank on that same account to be able to swap in for fun.

[Purpleflavor]

Thanks for sharing those experiences.

Do you think 2 Druids + 3 Night Elf Hunters with Prowling Spirit Beasts (Night Elves leveraging Camouflage and ShadowMeld) would give you a team that could do well stealth-ing around in the open world and in dungeons?

I really like the idea of an full stealth capable team and would like it to be viable in both open world and Mythic dungeons... I think my main tank may end up being a Protection Paladin for my 3 Hunters+Resto Druid but I am thinking of having a Druid Tank on that same account to be able to swap in for fun.

The hunters move a lot slower in stealth, so you would have to manage that, but 60 seconds is plenty of time to handle most stealth needs. I wouldn't do it unless they were nelfs though, so you could also use shadowmeld for those times you need more time hidden. For trivial things, you'll find the two druids are baggage unless spec'ed boomkin or resto.

Druid tanks are the best tanks as of now for SL's. Druid hunter trinity is just as good as pally/shaman/hunter trinity in SL's imo, and not much harder to play. If you can manage the resto druid you're golden.