Fun with the Arena server
by Amanda Dean 
Apr 15th 2008 at 8:30AM
I had the opportunity to play on the Tournament Realm with Amanda Miller and Adam Holisky on Friday night. Yes, we got schooled but we had a great time. As Amanda mentioned I rolled a Resto Druid, but I specced short of tree form. I was most interested in mobility. I usually heal arenas as a Resto Shaman. I really enjoy the mobility of the druid, and I'm afraid I would lose that in tree form. Take a look at my spec, for those of you who know Druid better than I, tell me where can I improve?
I absolutely love the tournament realm. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to play Druid, and it encourages me, and I may very well level one on my live realm. I think I will try a Warlock next. I've enjoyed the tournament server so much that I haven't even logged into my home realm. I would probably get bored with just playing WoW as an E-sport full time on an arena realm, but I've found the realm to be worth the price of admission.
One thing that I have noticed is that the vast majority of the teams that I've squared off against were on Horde side. I wonder why that is. Is it that Arena players are drawn to the Horde? Does the Horde have better racial abilities?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
woeye Apr 15th 2008 8:42AM
And in the end no one will play a resto shaman or holy paladin anymore. Yeah, pretty cool. Let's boost resto druids in 2vs2 over 500%, shall we?
Gumby Apr 15th 2008 9:10AM
Woeye, your furious rage lacks a certain amount of... relevance.
I've played with several variations of a similar spec to the one you're using there, and I've honestly gotten more use out of Naturalist than Nature's Focus. If people even look at me, and I'm casting an interruptible heal, it's interrupted. Whereas every now and then, if I'm not under fire and a fat healing touch can be thrown, the reduced .1 to .3 seconds (depending on spec) gives me a sliver more time to do the next thing on my list.
A timely Omen of Clarity from an autoattack has occasionally saved my ass, though I'm not currently using it there's nothing wrong with it.
Everything else is pretty tasty.
ejunk Apr 15th 2008 9:04AM
the link to your spec doesn't work.
yrs-
Ejunk!
Nav Apr 15th 2008 9:05AM
As for tree form in the arena, BAD idea tree form is classified as the druid being an elemental and thus fair game for banishment. hope that helps
Kethlyr Apr 15th 2008 9:04AM
Three words: Omen of Clarity
adam3039 Apr 15th 2008 9:13AM
LOL who honestly specs into omen of clarity for arena? nub.
Belarn Apr 15th 2008 10:35AM
People who like having a low mana buff that helps stop your self heals being purged.
However, auto-attacking is not such a good idea - staying at range is the whole idea of arena resto druidage.
cheefbird Apr 15th 2008 2:06PM
One word: NO
gareth Apr 15th 2008 10:21AM
I just hope they make arena only available on arena realms, it would be great to get that gear progression feeling going properly in WoW again alone.
pudds Apr 15th 2008 9:11AM
Link to your spec doesn't work. Based on the (small) image, it looks like you're specced 11/11/39.
I'd suggest dropping 3 points from Balance (Improved Moonfire and Insect Swarm), and instead 42 into Resto (one more point in Nature's focus, Improved Regrowth and Empowered Rejuvenation)
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0zjZVMhoZVcIxcq0xsx
adam3039 Apr 15th 2008 9:15AM
It depends on druid preference, Insect swarm, though not as popular, is still viable for arena, but yeah, 8/11/42 is the much more popular choice.
pudds Apr 15th 2008 9:14AM
As to the excess of horde teams, I'd say its probably due to the proliferation of druids. Alliance does have some nice racials (Escape Artist, Perception), but Tauren have better racials (Warstomp, +5% HP) than Night Elves.
adam3039 Apr 15th 2008 9:16AM
heh Warstomp and the HP bonus are nice, but I honestly prefer the ability to shadowmeld + Drink :) Especially with my hunter for 2's
wudielox Apr 15th 2008 9:21AM
...no one should ever mistake "popular" for "best". The Hills (on MTV) is popular...it is far from being even close to the best.
Todd Apr 18th 2008 11:10AM
And thats the reason I will probably never roll on a T server,
To many asshats and emo's, I like pvp from time to time, but if I want to play it all the time .. I'll just go death match in another game
bsides Apr 15th 2008 11:28AM
Horde is mostly fun, that's all :)
(oh just kidding, please don't throw stones)
Outrager Apr 15th 2008 12:53PM
I've only been resto in arenas for a week (I'm the guild's offtank most of the time), but I've learned a few things. First, I don't tihnk I've ever used Healing Touch except with Nature's Swiftness. And I can't think of any situation where casting a Healing Touch would have helped. It's probably better to Regrowth and Swiftmend.
As for your talent tree, the way I have mine set up is almost the same as yours, but I took 2 points from Empowered Rejuvenation (Resto) and put it into Nature's Reach (Balance). The extra range you get for cycloning and entangling roots really helps out.
cheefbird Apr 15th 2008 2:08PM
Your spec is the insect swarm variation on the cookie-cutter resto build. It works great and boosts your interrupt (feral charge) and your entangling roots while giving you the boost to your heals you need out of the resto tree.
Some choose to go without the insect swarm and use the 3 points in resto, but Its all personal choice really.
And to the people touting omen of clarity... you're almost never melee'ing in arena except when you feral charge and bash, which isn't all that often considering FC's cd. Waste of a point IMO but if you have the extra point, i guess go for it... not that big of a deal in the end.
Den Apr 15th 2008 7:08PM
8/11/42 was really popular in S1 and most of S2, but the reality is you never use tree form (unless a mage decides to spam sheep on you when you want to cast regrowth). The insect swam spec is probably used more now days but there are a lot of small variations in the spec meaning it isn't highly represented on sites that troll the armory. But when you add the 3 variations up it at least equal to 8/11/42
34/0/27 is also really fun to play, and can be very effective in 2v2, but personally I've found it is starting to hurt a little bit with more double dps teams being successful in 2s.
To answer the original question, it is the exact same spec I use. So imo no need to change anything :P