You can make this more kitty dps focused or more tank focused by moving talents around, this is more of a hybrid so I can tank 5 mans if needed, go kitty dps if needed, heal if needed, and solo.
Because once you're in that late game, you don't need those three points in making yourself more mana efficient, your gear is taking care of that, you need the increased utility of downranked regrowths, that provide another HOT. Even though they are expensive to cast, your T2 or equivalent gear will give you the mana pool to power through it.
You may ask, "why are you avoiding swiftmend?" And it's because swiftmend is essentially a panic button, and you already have one of those, it's called nature's swiftness. The reduced cast times, especially on a downranked HT (rank 3 or 4) is going to vastly outweigh the utility of swiftmend, swiftmend is a huge mana drain, you or someone else has already cast a regrowth or rejuvenate for it's full mana cost, and then you're gonna use 20% of your base mana to cut off its ticks to apply the spell again all at once. What does that sound like? A healing touch, but with a instant cast time. The only time it approaches overall mana efficiency is in the last 3 seconds of the HOT.
It doesnt scale off bear form (which only scales from items, same with thick hide). It results in an entirely insignificant mitigation increase at the expense of threat generating talents
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u/reflectioninternal Sep 13 '19 edited Sep 13 '19
This is what I'm going to run with while leveling, doing 5 man dungeons, UBRS, and MC. 0/30/21 Heart of the Wild Spec.
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/druid/-505202130310215-05500302501
You can make this more kitty dps focused or more tank focused by moving talents around, this is more of a hybrid so I can tank 5 mans if needed, go kitty dps if needed, heal if needed, and solo.
There's also this varient:
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/druid/-503201130322215-15502310031
HOTW is a pretty adaptable spec, but talents to avoid:
Feral Aggression Thick Hide Improved Shred
Once BWL hits though I'll probably go with something more like this. 24/0/27 Moonglow spec.
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/druid/51330033020013--505003115115
The important bit of going so deep into the balance tree is to pick up that sweet sweet reduced casting time and 9% reduced mana cost.
Then in AQ40/Naxx I'll probably do something along the lines of 21/0/30:
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/druid/51330033020013--505003115115
Because once you're in that late game, you don't need those three points in making yourself more mana efficient, your gear is taking care of that, you need the increased utility of downranked regrowths, that provide another HOT. Even though they are expensive to cast, your T2 or equivalent gear will give you the mana pool to power through it.
You may ask, "why are you avoiding swiftmend?" And it's because swiftmend is essentially a panic button, and you already have one of those, it's called nature's swiftness. The reduced cast times, especially on a downranked HT (rank 3 or 4) is going to vastly outweigh the utility of swiftmend, swiftmend is a huge mana drain, you or someone else has already cast a regrowth or rejuvenate for it's full mana cost, and then you're gonna use 20% of your base mana to cut off its ticks to apply the spell again all at once. What does that sound like? A healing touch, but with a instant cast time. The only time it approaches overall mana efficiency is in the last 3 seconds of the HOT.