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Help with Balance leveling - talents?
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Post by
Yetiking
Hi guys. I've just started leveling a druid for the first time after running with an enhance Shaman, and I'm really enjoying lazering everything.
I have a couple of questions about leveling moonkin though (and I know they say feral is faster at first, but I tried it and didn't like it. Don't like rogue either)
First, here is my spec so far:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0xGc0iho
I went with brambles because I'm mainly soloing and the increased damage helps me finish mobs off more quickly without casting more spells at the very end.
At first glance, Lunar guidance seemed like a good talent to have, but at this stage (and even at late stages), 12% of INT as SP seems like a small increase, maybe not worth 3 points yet.
My soloing rotation is Roots>SF>SF>SF, then if they're close to dead, I melee while they die on my thorns or I'll throw in a Wrath if they could use a little more damage.
Any suggestions on where to go from here? And glyphs? Also, i'm not satisfied with my mana pool/regen, so is Dreamstate worth it?
Thanks a lot.
EDIT: One other (tiny) mana saving tip I do is to use Nature's Grasp when it's up instead of roots. I just pull with a couple of SF's with NG on, then step away and continue the rotation. Saves a few mana every minute.
Post by
Heckler
You sound like you have things under control. Knowing when to control your mana output is the best thing you can do for yourself at this level for mana-life, if you can handle the boredom of ticking away the last 10% of a mobs life on Thorns / Melee, you should get quite a bit of time O5SR to regen. Dreamstate is relatively weak for mana regen, but obviously it will have -some- effect. Sadly, until you start getting 'proper' caster gear, which really doesn't happen until Outland and beyond, you're going to be OOM and drinking,
a lot
.
The only glyph I can really recommend for your playstyle is
Glyph of Entangling Roots
, 20% isn't much, but might work out to an additional Starfire before they're in your face. Also, with Brambles, you should take full advantage of the +75% damage from Entangling Roots, the glyph may allow one extra tick per cast.
Glyph of Insect Swarm
is also quite a nice DPS boost, with a pretty non-consequential penalty while leveling.
Post by
Yetiking
Thanks for the reply. I have the roots glyph, and the IS one seems like it would be a nice little boost.
I assume I should get +Spell damage gear if and when I can find it, and otherwise, stack INT primarily? (for leveling).
Also, I was thinking of hopping over to resto to pick up IMotW, Furor, and Master Shapeshifter after hitting 40 before continuing down the Balance tree. Would that make sense, or would I be better served going deep into balance first? I was thinking
this
at 40, then
this
at 52, then play it by ear after that. Maybe pick up some mana regen or just keep going toward eclipse and E&M.
Thanks for your feedback!
Post by
RobbieG1o11
I am also leveling Balance, and because most of my armor is cloth, Improved Mark of the Wild is a must for me, I'll just have to wait till 42 for Moonkin, or respec at 40 so I can have Moonkin at 40, and just put the 2 points back into IMotW as I level.
Post by
Gemily
Yes, gear for spellpower, intellect, and at lower levels (especially without Moonkin Form) stamina is nice.
You don't want Furor until you've actually gotten moonkin form, so take your IMotW points and get right back to the balance tree. Lunar Guidance might not sound too good, but before Outlands a lot of your gear might not even have SP and only be Int+Stam (unless they've changed the low level gear). So grabbing Lunar Guidance will ensure that you get SP even if it's not on the gear.
I also strongly suggest Nature's Majesty + Nature's Grace. 20% faster is a big deal. You don't seem to incorporate moonfire, I know a lot of druids don't, I always did though. Having a dot ticking away at their health seems a plus to me.
Something like
this
is what I would suggest to get to Moonkin Form as soon as possible.
Post by
290199
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Yetiking
I'm hearing a couple of you say that Nature's Grace is pretty great - I don't see it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but 3 points seems like a lot. When I'm soloing, Say I root the mob, get a starfire crit (I'm about 12% for starfire crit right now), so then another SF takes 2.4 sec to cast, then I hit another one, still under nature's grace, so I get 2 SF's off in 4.8 sec. That's cool.
However, with where I am right now, I usually only shoot off 3 SF's before the mob is dead, so I don't really care if that takes 9 seconds or 7.8 seconds.
I suppose as my crit% rises and NG has higher uptime, it could add up...
Am I missing something? Again, I just feel like 3 points is a lot to spend for killing a mob 1.2 seconds quicker.
Post by
Heckler
Just look at extremes, lets say you could keep 100% uptime on N.G. (you can't, but that's the theoretical MAXIMUM benefit of the talent.) This equates to a flat 20% increase in DPS (x% haste yields +x% dps when spamming abilities). At 80, it also causes a lot more nifty things to happen, but you're leveling so we can say that the MOST it could do for you, in a situation where you are spamming non-stop, is increase your DPS by 20%.
In reality however, your uptime is going to be much much lower, and as you said, you spend more time moving between mobs than spamming Starfire at them. Basically I agree with you that at your level, its not that great, probably not worth 3 talent points. But at 80, when you realisitically
will
see 50% uptimes or more, a flat 10%-20% increase in your DPS is absolutely essential, and is a bargain at 3 talent points.
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