Druid builds

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Classes:
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PvE guide:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
PvP guide:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Useful macros:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr

Though Druids are a hybrid class, the differences between builds of the same specialization tend to be fairly minor because of the great amount of must-have talents embedded inside each tree. The 3 trees are Balance, which improves the druid's ranged DPS, Feral, which improve the druid's animal forms, allowing him to Tank or Melee DPS effectively, and Restoration, which improves the druid's healing abilities.

For the purpose of classification within this article, builds which have less than 41 points in any one talent tree have been classified as hybrid. Otherwise, the ordering within each section is in descending number of points in the primary talent tree. Each build has its advantages and disadvantages, and there is no "best" build within each tree except in cases where you have a firm idea of what you want your Druid to do. For example, a tanking build that puts points into Thick Hide is clearly superior to a build that dismisses the talent. Despite this, it is ultimately up to the individual decide which talent build is most suitable to their chosen play style.

When raiding, opting for a more traditional, non-hybrid raid build is likely to be a necessity as it will allow you to maximize your contribution to the raid, whether your role is DPS, tank, or healer.

Balance

Balance druids specialize in offensive ranged spell casting.

Starter Raiding Build (55/0/16)

This is a starter build for raiding. It features Improved Faerie Fire to make up for the difficulty of obtaining spell hit in pre-raid gear. When beginning raiding your spell crit and mana regeneration will be low, making it difficult to go the distance in long boss fights, so maximum talents have been spent in mana conservation and regeneration talents like Moonglow, Dreamstate and Intensity.

Further Raiding Build (55/0/16)

Once your gear has enough hit, crit, intellect and spirit on it, you can move points from Moonglow, Dreamstate and Intensity and place them in DPS talents like Celestial Focus, Improved Insect Swarm and Improved Moonfire and still maintain your mana over a long fight.

PVP Starter (66/0/5)

Feral Combat

Feral druids specialize in animal forms: cat form for physical damage and bear form/dire bear form for tanking.

For information about feral druid tactics, see Druid tactics/Feral.

Basic Raid Tank (0/58/13)

Takes all the tanking talents, skips primal precision since it's more of a cat/DPS talent. Rend and Tear and Primal Gore are now essential for tanking because lacerate ticks critting grants Savage Defense.

Raid DPS (0/55/16)

Takes all the talents that boost only Cat Form DPS. Feral Swiftness has been included to keep up with moving bosses. It is really the most optional Talent and can be used in survival instincts, nurturing instincts or improved leader of the pack.

Raid DPS #2 (0/55/16)

Similar to the build above, but leaves out Feral Aggression and adds Feral Charge, Nurturing Instinct, and Imp. Leader of the Pack. Also moves some points from Furor into Imp. Mark of the Wild for the extra stats. Gem for agility and gear for crit. Hit isn't needed as much for cats due to Primal Precision.

PvP Cat (0/60/11)

This build is most ideal in pvp battlegrounds. Predatory Instincts may be substituted for Protector of the Pack if your emphasis is more on feral cat. However, the dynamic nature of Battlegrounds would probably need you to use the bear form quite often, so Protector of the Pack will probably come in handy (especially when combined with savage defense)

Arena Cat (0/58/13)

A variation of the Battlegrounds build above that exchanges Protector of the Pack for Predatory Instincts and Brutal Impact for Improved Mark of the Wild. Improved Mark increases the resistances, attributes, and armor of you and your teammates (and since the team is likely not made up of two druids, this makes for a nice added bonus). I chose to remove brutal impact since this build's focus is on cat form, and you won't get to use pounce except maybe once or twice (or none if they have a rogue that out-stealths you). link title

Restoration

The restoration tree empowers the druid's heal over time spells (HOTS) and their other generic healing spells.

For more information on restoration druid tactics, see Druid tactics/Restoration.

Raid Resto (14/0/57)

A stock build for healing in raids.

Mana Efficient Raid Resto (11/0/60)

Recommended Glyphs: Swiftmend, Nourish, and Innervate.

A variation focused on a more efficient nourish for heavy raid healing fights.

External links

General

talentchic.com TalentChic
Popular Druid Builds taken from armory and sorted by popularity

World of Warcraft Community Site "Informative and useful Druid threads"
Sticky thread on the EU Blizz class forum, listing most of the useful threads.

Moonkin

World of Warcraft Community Site "What 3.0 Means for (PvE) Moonkin"
Efejel's thread on Moonkin 3.0.

World of Warcraft Community Site "Balance One-Stop Shop"
Efejel's excellent post on equipment, stats, talents, etc. Currently out of date, but still contains many useful pieces of information.

ElitestJerks.com Theorycrafting Think Tank, Druid: Balance

ElitestJerks.com Efejel's Moonkin DPS spreadsheet discussion thread.

Resto

World of Warcraft Community Site [Guide] "How to be an effective Resto Druid"
Protto's guide has a few minor errors, but is a solid start for Resto druids.

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