This is just like my opinion man.
Quick Links
-Stats-
-Gear-
-Trinkets-
-Talents-
Races
Alliance: Night Elf
That's it really. Having access to Shadowmeld is just too powerful. Whether you need to drop combat to rez or drink. Cancelling a spell being cast on you. This ability won't give any number increases but is a contender for best racial ability of all races.
Horde: Tauren (Highmountain / Standard) Or Troll
Darkspear Troll
A haste buff that lines up well with your Innervate allowing you to really spread your heals efficiently.
Tauren
War stomp is a solid stop on a shortish cooldown. Not always needed in PvE content but certainly strong in PvP.
Highmountain Tauren
A movement ability that also stuns targets. Again, another good form of AoE CC, Druids in my opinion don't need the extra movement but you can always make an argument for why you may want it.
Stat Weights
From my memory in previous expansions. Resto Druid continues to want Haste above all other stats. The remaining secondary stats will probably be shifted around a bit and If I were to guess. Stat prio will look like ILvl>Haste>Mastery>Crit>=Vers. Start of expansions are very stat starved so we’ll be looking to maximize Harmony and only then be searching for the other two (Vers & Crit).
Gear
For the expansion start I’m going to forgo covering loot and trinkets and we’re going to focus solely on talents.
Trinkets
Insert same comment about gear.
Talents
Now the fun part. We’ve lost our season four tier set so our triage healing has taken a hit, but druids are still looking to be like one of the choices for the meta healer in mythic plus.
To start, much of our gameplay is unchanged. Even though Resto Druid has undergone class and spec tree changes. How you’re playing right now at the end of Dragonflight is essentially how you’ll be playing during season one of The War Within. The main difference or loss in my opinion is the removal of access to Moonkin form outside of Balance. No more flapping down some jump skips.
Some key changes to focus on are the removal of Adaptive Swarm and the introduction of Call of the Elder Druid. I’m indifferent to the Adaptive Swarm change as actually utilizing it came down to just playing a weak aura game. It was a decent spell numbers’ wise but felt uninvolved gameplay wise. Call of the Elder Druid is a very interesting addition and will be going into more detail on it later.
Regarding Hero talents, it’s looking to be Keeper of the Grove for Raid and Wildstalker for Mythic Plus. Gameplay wise our hero talents are mediocre at best. They may do a decent amount of healing and DPS but they are not changing how we play at all.
Raid
Talent Link:
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This is shape shifting up to be the build I will be going into raid with if it were to open tomorrow.
Starting with the class tree, circled in green are some talents I want to highlight. Renewal is in a new location and is a must take now. Lycara’s Teachings is now only a two point node which feels awesome. Ursoc’s Spirit is a decent buff for when bear form is needed to survive too. Outside of these three, the rest of the tree is more or less the same nodes being taken for raid.
The spec tree is where this starts to get interesting. First off, don’t take Flourish anymore, go with Photosynthesis. Overtime Flourish has lost a lot of value and it’s looking like it’s finally time to ditch it. In raid Flourish will still be the go to but my gut says the days of Flourish ramping are soon to be over. Swiftmend having two charges with Prosperity is a huge buff with Soul of the Forest synergy. Thriving Vegetation is a much needed buff to how Rejuvenation functions and feels amazing. We’re still taking Tree of Life, still taking Germination etc… But one last note, Dreamstate may prove to have some nice interaction with Control of the Dream in the hero talent section. Something to keep an eye on if the cooldown reduction and damage reduction from Inner Peace isn’t needed.
Mythic Plus
Talent Link:
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Going with my gut here, this would be the build I feel most comfortable on. The jack of all trades loadout for the jack of all trades class.
Starting with the class tree first. Circled in green, Druid is able to take their interrupt without giving up as many talent points now making this an always take. Talents circled in yellow are what I deem to be optional. Fluid form is a very interesting talent in theory but I just don’t see myself running it. I’ve become too accustomed to the rhythm of Druid that even a change like this would be a no for me dog. Innervate and Improved Dispel are dungeon dependent with Innervate probably being taken until players become familiar with the new dungeons and encounters. Talents circled in orange may come down to group composition. Will we need the extra range of spells, will a knock back or disorient be more useful? We’ll have to revisit this build sometime in the future and find out.
Building from the ground up, the talents in red should look familiar if you played in Dragonflight but if not. Verdancy and Undergrowth are what makes Druid feel strong in keys. Since we’re dropping Flourish just make sure Lifebloom is on yourself when you need to ramp and heal the party. The talents in green are where this gets spicy. Call of the Elder druid allows us to proc Heart of the Wild every minute when we shift into cat or bear form for 10 seconds. Which then feeds into the talent below it, Dream of Cenarius which enables our damage abilities to heal nearby allies. Heart of the Wild is now a healing cooldown and rewards us for doing damage. Last but not least the talents in yellow are where it gets fuzzy. I think with the tank changes, having Verdant infusion will be greatly beneficial at the start of the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Prosperity wins out in the end but starting off I'm going with Verdant Infusion. Improved Regrowth seems mandatory to supplement the Clearcasting Nourishes we had from our season four tier set. However, time will tell if this talent point is needed elsewhere.
Weak Auras
Externals on You https://wago.io/-jC2P_4gF
Stagger Indicator https://wago.io/LlIfeGUf6
Runic Power Tracker https://wago.io/GHTE-Q8Od
Mark of the Wild Check https://wago.io/MarkOfTheWild
Ability Frames https://wago.io/LuxthosDruidWarWithin/101