No, I’m not talking about your level 80 spec, either. I don’t expect to see level 80 for some time, so I’m not even thinking about the new end-game right now. What do you plan to do out of the gate? Stick with the basic spec you’ve been running, with a few tweaks for new talents? Or are you considering a major spec overhaul?
Just as this is the best time to change your main, for many of the same reasons it’s the best time to change your spec.
Take healing classes, for instance. I will freely admit that I did not level as a healing spec. Leveling as a healer should be reserved for the purists among us, or those who know they will ALWAYS have a group.
Me? I’m a casual player, and much of my game time is spent alone. For that reason, healing specs don’t make sense while I’m leveling. Now that +healing and +spell damage have gotten together to have their love child in +spellpower, healers should see a healthy boost in their DPS and, therefore, their solo-ability.
Still, that’s not good enough for me. If I’m going to be alone a lot of the time, which I am, I want to BURN STUFF DOWN!
When I copied my druid over to the beta server, I first took an inventory of my gear. I had some very nice kitty gear, and I initially went with a feral spec. It made sense since that’s how I leveled and I knew how to play that way.
But, well, it just didn’t seem fun anymore. I suppose after 50 levels worth of cat form, it lost its luster just a bit.
So I went back to the drawing board. I looked at my shiny purple healing gear, and noticed for the first time that it was some pretty dang good caster DPS gear. Well, it just turns out that there is one druid spec I have NEVER tried. Boomkin.
That’s right. Boom Boom, baby! I have no experience with this spec. I’ve never even looked at the talents, other than the first 2 tiers or so for my extra points as a tree. I just kind of went on down and picked up everything that sounded good to me. I’m not going to bother posting my spec, as I couldn’t even tell you what it is.
What I CAN tell you, though, is that I am having a LOT of fun with it already. I’ve played the tree for a long time, and I never see crits for more than 2-3k at the most. With my hacked together boomkin spec, I found myself routinely critting in the 5k range.
Now that’s fun. Killing mobs before they even get to you? Priceless.
Soloing in my live resto spec boils down to a lot of roots and a lot of lifeblooms. Feeling the raw power of the Boomkin is quite a change indeed.
So this post is for you, healers of the world. Don’t be married to your PvE raiding spec. You’ve got leveling to do here!
Maybe you play a CoH priest, and you’ve had shadow envy for awhile. Now is the time to explore your dark side.
I’m sure you healadins are at least a LITTLE intrigued by the newfound power of the ret pally. Give it a try.
Brain healing shammys, now is the time to unleash your inner chain lightning.
Trust me when I tell you this, going from a healing spec to a DPS caster spec is a LOT of fun. It’s kind of like putzing around in an old Yugo for awhile, and then your friend loans you his Ferrari. It’s thrilling to melt pavement for awhile and give the hamsters in your Yugo a rest. Don’t hesitate to give you resto spec a, well, rest!
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I was thinking of trying out my feral gear come the expansion, but I love my boomkin too much for that to last long I think… we shall see soon enough I guess!
I have just recently switched to resto, so I can get groups for the <80 instances, I played a solo-kitty all the way to 70 so I didn’t even enter Hellfire Ramparts until after I had my swift flying form and had killed Prince Malchezaar.. feels like I missed out a bit.
I’m in the same boat. Leveled though old world as feral, went boomkin for outland and healed pretty much the day I dinged 70. Just today I pulled out the gear I’d collected for feral and respec’d just for kicks. I do miss it. I’m sure I’ll have an even harder time choosing after the patch goes live and my nice healing epics become casting epics and I can boomkin again.
Funny you come up with this now. I’ve been considering if I should switch to boomkin with the next patch. Right now I level as feral (67 right now) and wonder if I should try something new
I leveled to 70 as a balance druid, and loved being boomkin! It was a great deal of fun. Then I went resto, which I find is highly appreciated in any group, though not as much fun solo. I haven’t been 70 long, so I am still getting the hang of that. I have not done feral yet, but I might try that for a while until I get to 80. That way I can be a well rounded druid.
BTW – your blog is a great deal of help for we casual playing druids who have not been playing for very long. I’ve just been playing a year, so I still have a long way to go.
I leveled to 70 as feral and I the plan was to bear tank. It didn’t turn out that way. The guild I am in has plenty of great tanks but was usually in a pinch for healers. So I re-spec’d and have been resto ever since. I plan to stay that way and I am leveling a warrior should I decide to take another crack at tanking.
That said, with the patch coming out soon (tomorrow?), I’m going to dump all 61 points into resto. This is it:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZZf0IubugVuAIst
Now here is to hoping Healbot and Lifebloomer don’t break. =)
Okay, the link doesn’t work. I have no idea why.
There are no doubt millions of healers around the world who are gonna go do some serious facemelting this evening, but this is particularly nice idea for pvp druids. We’ve always had 3 sets of pvp gear – one feral, one caster, and one healer. Why is this especially good? Because you can now buy 2 pieces of kodohide and 2 pieces of wyrmhide for two +35 set bonuses to max out your resilience…and the spell power bonuses are almost the same for both sets (one has more int and less dmg).
Need to be a boomblaster for this 5v5? You’re a quick respec away. Now you need a healer for your 2v2? Ditto. All with the same set of gear.
I’m soo happy I could…turn into an owlbear an moonfire spam you do death!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!