Druid Talent Guide

This guide provides an overview of the most popular druid talent builds, how to use them and what they are for. CHECK OUT THIS EXTREMELY in depth druid guide, it covers everything you'll ever want to know about your druid.

The Druid is arguably the most unique class in World of Warcraft. Depending on your talent specialization, the druid can do quite literally every major job in the game: Tanking, healing, melee DPS, and spell DPS. As such, the three talent trees of the Druid are relatively self-contained to do whatever job you choose, and have some of the best talents in the game for your chosen role in each of them. Played well, the versatility of the Druid makes it an extremely difficult opponent to take down.

Feral Combat - 1/49/11

Feral is one of the most popular Druid trees, primarily because investing fully in the tree gives you all the talents you need to effectively fill two roles: tanking and melee DPS. In the Feral tree, there are really only two talents that aren't worth getting as long as you're performing one of those two duties: Feral Aggression's effects simply aren't worth the five points when compared to the rest of the tree, and Nurturing Instinct's healing bonuses can be safely passed if you aren't healing as a major role -- and if you plan to, the Feral/Resto hybrid druid build further down the three will probably be more up your alley. The eleven points in Restoration go a very long way to aid Feral viability, as all three talents picked up have strong benefits to feral forms as well as aid in shapeshifting and getting off quick heals, which is a large part of the survivability of a Feral Druid.

Moonkin - 48/0/13

The talents in the Druid's Spell DPS tree, while very good, don't quite measure up to the extra role gained by going Feral or the obvious group appeal of Restoration. Still, if that's the role you wish to pursue and are willing to chase down the right druid gear to do it, a Moonkin build can serve you well. As is the case with most Druid pure builds, it's easier to tell you what not to get: Control of Nature's casting protection is simply not worth the three points it asks of you. Brambles, while not so bad a talent in and of itself, is easily passed over for better talents. Improved Faerie Fire can be good if you plan on doing groups or raids as a Balance Druid -- if that's the case, it's advised to take three out of Celestial Focus to put into that talent. The remaining points are put into a few Restoration talents. Improved Mark of the Wild is good considering you're unlikely to shift into Feral forms very often, while the healing speed granted by Naturalist and the mana saved via Natural Shapeshifter help you in throwing out heals when necessary.

Restoration - 1/0/60

Many of the talents in the Druid Restoration tree are the envy of every other healing class in the game. It's very difficult to argue against taking any of them as long as you plan to primarily heal groups or raids, and as such, the more Feral-oriented Furor and Balance-oriented Natural Perfection are all you should reasonably pass up. Tree of Life is somewhat debated, and while it does have some viability depending on the situation, the limitations it places on you may not work with your healing style well, so it may take some experimentation to see how it works for you. The last floating point I chose to put in Nature's Grasp, simply because that's where I thought it would make the most difference, but minor tweaks are as always up to you.

Feral Healing - 0/40/21

It's the bane of many a Priest, Shaman, Druid, and Paladin that since you're able to heal, you're often expected to heal. It's possible to get some of that heat off your back by dipping into Restoration to pick up a few mainstays, including the always-useful Nature's Swiftness, while using the rest in Feral to still give you some choices in your role and allowing some solo viability. Of note is that, in this build, you pick up Nurturing Instinct, which is sub par for a pure Feral Druid but a great healing aid for a hybrid. Considering the limit of points, you may want to decide whether to focus more on Cat DPS or Bear Tanking for your Feral tree; a couple talents such as Thick Hide are obviously marginal for cats, while some like Shredding Attacks have minimal impact on bears. Either choice could allow you to put a few in Predatory Instincts or Primal Tenacity, but such a choice is not game breaking.

Balance Healing - 40/0/21

Similar to the Feral Healing build, but if your non-healing tree of choice is Balance. The choice of talents in Restoration is very similar to that build, save the switch of Furor and Improved Mark of the Wild, with the primary focus being getting to Nature's Swiftness. The Balance tree is essentially an abridged version of the full Balance build: you're able to reach Moonkin and pick up Dreamstate (which is also a great mana restoration talent for healing), and the loss of Wrath of Cenarius and Force of Nature aren't too keenly felt, especially considering the sizable healing boost. Again, whether you solo/PvP or do instance groups more should influence whether you put three points into Celestial Focus or Improved Faerie Fire.