Best Raiding Specs - A Guide to Win

[BoomKing]

tbh for moonkins i think subtlety talent can be a bit useless, the -threat enchant on cloak can cover some of it, also nature's focus is very nice when you gotta heal when theres aoe or such....
for pure PvE nature's grasp if pretty much useless but still worth 1 point, and if you have any spare points id suggest putting some into celestial focus, no interrupts on wrath spams can be very helpful 6):

[Kezah]

The hunter speccs look good, except for the BM specc I'd rather take two points from Endurance Training to get Bestial Discipline. More focus is always nice.

[Tankotron]

yeah that fire mage spec is really good.. most mages i see have that

[DZY351378]

Some thoughts on the Resto Build:

I've always thought that sticking 61 pure into Resto was a complete waste of talent points. Given possible styles of dryud healing (full-time tree or full-time caster - switching between either often is an extremely painful mana sink except for emergency NSHT situations), you will never use half of those talents. Furor? Omen of Clarity? Nature's Focus/Tranquil Spirit when the only time you'll ever use HT is for NSes, and then proceeding to -not take Naturalist or Empowered HT-? Imp Tranquility? Tranquility has very limited usage as a 10 minute cooldown, and you'll have Barkskin up by then, anyway!

You will be surprised how effective a proactive Resto Druid in caster form can be. If you save on Tranquil Spirit, Imp Tranquility, Furor/Omen of Clarity/Master Shapeshifter, Nature's Focus and grab that Empowered Healing Touch for the NSes, Naturalist (note that 2.5sec specced 2sec Healing Touches, at sufficiently high +healings, can do as much 'burst' healing as a high rank Regrowth will boast - at a fraction of the mana), you will be able to place quite a number of points in the Balance tree, making it both easy for a resto druid to farm outside of raids, and be effective during raids. Take your pick between Control of Nature and Brambles - the former allows you to be proactive whenever something goes bad during trash, with Roots being very valuable in instances like Zul'Aman and usable as well in Black Temple/Mount Hyjal's outside areas and Thorns dealing out a significant amount of extra threat, especially for AoE pulls where a warrior is made to tank a number of mobs. The dead ringer for putting Balance points here, however, is Insect Swarm for fights where the problem is damage intake as opposed to mana upkeep over long fights - merely having it takes out half the reason to even pack a Balance druid in your raid, and having a healer provide 2% damage mitigation is a very sweet deal indeed. And during this, your HoTs will still be ticking just as hard, and the NSHTs that you used to rely on are still going as strong! You won't be using HTs for normal healing very often, for as Tree, a downranked Regrowth won't dent your mana bar, even if spammed.

The point I make here is simply that placing 61 points in Resto is rather dumb, no matter what your healing style might be. If you find yourself shifting into feral forms or in/out of Tree Form that often in a PvE environment, spamming Tranquility for all the wonderful overheals it gives you... perhaps you might want to find a new modus operandus for healing.

[Pilely]

Pwnage Spec

[WickedCitizen]

I commend you first and foremost for making a well thought-out point. Due to my main class being a druid let me explain why 61 pure restoration is in fact a good thing. The "only" raiding advantage to having a balance/resto build is Insect Swarm. Bramble's threat is virtually non-existent and frankly I won't allow a raider to spec himself for trash. (That's inefficient.)

Insect Swarm. One person does it. A doomkin can do it, or you can have a balance/resto druid do it (which we do). However, you can't cast IS in Tree form which we all know. Switching in and out will surely dispose of your mana quickly as IS only lasts 12 seconds. So having Tree Form and IS is virtually worthless as I'm sure we both can agree. Now, what you've gained with Insect Swarm is this: Only 2% of the time your 11 talent points will be worth anything on a boss fight. As simple as it can be put, that's the truth. You're not there for damage. You're not there for your ability to solo-grind. Your job is to keep people alive.

Assuming you're going the balance/resto route... you've given up Tree of Life. Tree of Life not only reduces the mana cost of your abilities by 20% 100% of the time, it also applies a +healing received bonus to your entire party 100% of the time... not to mention it scales with gear (i.e. the more spirit, the more +healing your party receives). Now lets look at the downsides to Tree of Life:

1) You're unable to Healing Touch. - Though this is very limiting, I feel as though druids aren't meant to be burst healers... which evident by our HoTs. We're buffers.

2) You're slow. - This is my #1 problem with Tree of Life. There's so many fights nowadays that the ability to move is so imperative. However, if you're bringing the right players, there's not a fight in the game that a tree can't move fast enough to react to... even shadowfiends on Illidan. If by some reason the old reflexes aren't up to par anymore and you can't... you can always shift to dash or something.

Omen of Clarity is a very very very very situational talent. I choose it simply for the Reliquary of Souls boss in BT. When the raid hits 0/0 mana... clearcasting can save your tank.

Natural Shapeshifter is there basically for nothing but the times in which you have to book it to a certain spot or away from something for as little mana as possible... like on Supremus, Mother Shahraz, Archimonde, Azgalor, etc.

Nature's Focus is taken for Regrowth plain and simple.

Tranquil Spirit is a last pick filler there for basically reducing the mana cost of when you have a oh-shit party moment and you need to Tranquility real quick. I've found it particulary useful on several aoe damage fights.

Improved Tranqulity is another last pick filler for basically the same reasons as Tranquil Spirit.

Other talents are pretty self-explanatory.

I hope you understand now why 61 points in restoration is never "dumb", just a plight for efficiency.

Some thoughts on the Resto Build:

I've always thought that sticking 61 pure into Resto was a complete waste of talent points. Given possible styles of dryud healing (full-time tree or full-time caster - switching between either often is an extremely painful mana sink except for emergency NSHT situations), you will never use half of those talents. Furor? Omen of Clarity? Nature's Focus/Tranquil Spirit when the only time you'll ever use HT is for NSes, and then proceeding to -not take Naturalist or Empowered HT-? Imp Tranquility? Tranquility has very limited usage as a 10 minute cooldown, and you'll have Barkskin up by then, anyway!

You will be surprised how effective a proactive Resto Druid in caster form can be. If you save on Tranquil Spirit, Imp Tranquility, Furor/Omen of Clarity/Master Shapeshifter, Nature's Focus and grab that Empowered Healing Touch for the NSes, Naturalist (note that 2.5sec specced 2sec Healing Touches, at sufficiently high +healings, can do as much 'burst' healing as a high rank Regrowth will boast - at a fraction of the mana), you will be able to place quite a number of points in the Balance tree, making it both easy for a resto druid to farm outside of raids, and be effective during raids. Take your pick between Control of Nature and Brambles - the former allows you to be proactive whenever something goes bad during trash, with Roots being very valuable in instances like Zul'Aman and usable as well in Black Temple/Mount Hyjal's outside areas and Thorns dealing out a significant amount of extra threat, especially for AoE pulls where a warrior is made to tank a number of mobs. The dead ringer for putting Balance points here, however, is Insect Swarm for fights where the problem is damage intake as opposed to mana upkeep over long fights - merely having it takes out half the reason to even pack a Balance druid in your raid, and having a healer provide 2% damage mitigation is a very sweet deal indeed. And during this, your HoTs will still be ticking just as hard, and the NSHTs that you used to rely on are still going as strong! You won't be using HTs for normal healing very often, for as Tree, a downranked Regrowth won't dent your mana bar, even if spammed.

The point I make here is simply that placing 61 points in Resto is rather dumb, no matter what your healing style might be. If you find yourself shifting into feral forms or in/out of Tree Form that often in a PvE environment, spamming Tranquility for all the wonderful overheals it gives you... perhaps you might want to find a new modus operandus for healing.