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Druid Talent Trees and Builds

The following is a discussion of the various talent’s available to druids and their relative utility.

BALANCE TALENTS
Improved Wrath
Decreases the casting time of Wrath by .1 seconds per point. 5 point limit.
A balance druid who plans to invest heavily in the balance tree will find this useful, as talents further down the tree make wrath hit for more damage and potentially cast even faster. If you intend to go heavily into the balance tree and cast ranged damage spells primarily, this is a very useful talent. For druids with little interest in balance, its not particularly useful.

Nature’s Grasp
While active, any enemy that strikes the caster has a 35% chance of being afflicted by entangling roots. 1 talent point.
Improved Nature’s Grasp
Increases the chance of Nature’s Grasp activating by 15/30/45/65%. 4 talent points total.
Investing one point in this ability grants you a new spell called nature’s grasp, which can be cast once a minute. Once cast, for the next 45 seconds anything that strikes you in melee combat has a chance to be rooted just as if you cast entangling roots on them. This root will consume the spell, so anyone striking you after the first attacker is rooted suffers no ill effects. Placing 5 points in it means that 100% of the time, the first thing to strike you will be rooted.

This spell is only marginally useful in PvE…it only works outdoors so its useless in most dungeons, and in any group situation if you are doing things correctly you as a druid will never be getting hit. The spell really shines in PvP, where it provides an effective way for a druid to get some distance between himself and an enemy that’s attacking him. Rooting an enemy can, if you’re lucky and the root doesn’t break early, give you enough time to heal and then either escape or get some distance and start up a nice slow casting damaging spell. In group PvP, rooting a warrior or rogue can render them largely ineffective, as they are left to plink away with their ranged weapons and can’t close with the enemy. When you’re jumped by a warrior or especially a rogue you’ll almost never be able to get off a root spell w/ him beating on you, but casting this is instant and let’s his attacks do the rooting for you.

If you are speccing primarily in restoration or feral, but want this ability, anymore than 2 points isn’t really necessary. At the speed a rogue, warrior, or hunter pet is hitting you, a 50% chance to root them means they will almost certainly be rooted after 2 or 3 swings anyway. A feral druid aiming for the feral abilities in the next level of the balance tree will probably find putting the necessary 5 points into this more valuable than going into improved wrath.

Improved Entangling Roots – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Gives you a 40/70/100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage when casting entangling roots. 3 point limit.
If you choose improved wrath over Nature’s grasp this can be a useful ability. If you have nature’s grasp, however, it is somewhat superfluous, as instead of casting entangling roots, which, even with this spell can still be stopped by a counterspell, kick, stun, gouge, etc, you can cast the instant nature’s grasp spell and let your opponent’s attacks trigger the root while you do something else. There are generally better choices for your talent points than this ability, although a pure balance druid would get more use out of it than most.

Improved Moonfire – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Increases the damage and critical strike chance of your moonfire spell by 2/4/6/8/10%. 5 talent point limit. Prerequisite for vengeance.
This spell makes one of your primary damaging spells, moonfire, significantly better. It is also a prerequisite for the Vengeance ability, which is a necessity if you are speccing as a ranged damage dealing balance druid. This talent is almost a requirement for a balance druid, but there are better places for a feral or restoration druid to spend their points.

Natural Weapons – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Increases melee damage in all forms by 2/4/6/8/10%. 5 point limit. Prerequisite for Omen of Clarity.
In and of itself, this ability is primarily aimed at feral druids, as at high levels a 10% damage increase is very significant. Druids interested primarily in focusing purely on feral will spec far enough into balance to get this ability, while balance and restoration druids will only likely be interested in it because it leads to Omen of Clarity. In their caster form, a druid’s melee attack doesn’t do enough damage to make this worthwile.

Natural Shapeshifter – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Decreases the cost of shapeshifting spells by 10/20/30%. 3 point limit.
A very useful ability for feral druids who want to be able to shapeshift a lot, as the nature of their gear means they have far smaller mana pools than balance or restoration druids. Balance druids who spec very far into the tree to get Moonkin form will also find this ability useful, although it is not a necessity for them.

Improved Thorns – Requires 10 points in Balance Tree
Increases the damage caused by your thorns by 25/50/75%. 3 point limit.
Not particularly useful in most situations. Ideally, a druid is never being hit anyway, if they are playing well, except during solo content, where the extra damage isn’t that great anyway. Can be useful to feral druids to help them hold aggro better, but there are more valuable abilities to spend points on. There are certainly places and situations this talent could be useful, but they are few and far between.

Omen of Clarity – Requires 10 points in Balance Tree, and 5 in Natural Weapons.
When active, any melee attack has a chance to cause the caster to enter a clearcasting state, decreasing the mana/rage/energy of your next damage or healing spell or ability by 100%. Last 5 minutes when cast. 1 talent point.
In simple terms, this gives you a new spell that you can cast on yourself. While the spell is active (5 minutes), every time you swing your weapon or attack in feral forms you have a chance to activate (proc) a clearcasting state. When you are in this state, your next spell or ability will be free.

This spell is incredibly useful when you are leveling up your druid. Being able to throw down a free heal during a fight or a free moonfire greatly decreases the amount of time you need to spend regenerating mana and health while you are grinding for xp, leading directly for leveling faster. In feral forms, this can let you put out even more damage, as it can proc and let you use an ability that would normally cost energy or rage for free. The energy and rage you save can then immediately be used to activate the ability again, effectively doubling the damage.

In the end game, this ability is slightly less effective. In PvE, any monster you are fighting where mana conservation is a real concern means you, in general, aren’t going to be meleeing it. In PvP, for most druids, meleeing a target isn’t the best strategy, and some classes (priests and shamans) will use their abilities to remove the omen from you anyway. It can be very useful in feral forms, but it doesn’t proc nearly as often in cat form as you would like, so the damage increase isn’t that significant. It can be a very useful ability, but it definitely is not required to be an effective druid. Balance and Restoration druids should keep in mind that, while this ability only costs 1 talent point, it effectively costs 6, as you are forced to put 5 points into natural weapons, which isn’t really useful for a balance or restoration druid.

Nature’s Reach – Requires 10 points in Balance tree.
Increases the range of your wrath, starfire, hurricane, moonfire, faerie fire, and entangling roots spells by 10/20%. 2 point limit.
Very useful for PvP for any druid, and especially useful for a balance druid in both PvE and PvP. A good choice for any druid who wants to use ranged magic primarily.

Vengeance – Requires 15 points in Balance tree and 5 points in improved moonfire.
Increases the critical strike damage of your Starfire, moonfire, and wrath spells by 20% per point. 5 point limit.
Makes a druid’s ranged damage spells deal significantly more damage when they crit. Almost a required talent for a balance specced druid, too high in the tree to be attainable for anyone else. If you are speccing balance, get this.

Improved Starfire – Requires 15 points in Balance tree.
Reduces the casting time of starfire by .1 sec per point and gives a 3% chance to stun for 3 seconds per point. 5 point limit.
2 nice effects for Starfire, a primary casting spell for a balance specced druid, and, again, too high in the tree for a non balanced specced druid to get. If you’re speccing up balance, get it.

Moonglow – Requires 20 points in Balance tree.
Reduces the mana cost of your moonfire, starfire, wrath, healing touch, regrowth, and rejuvenation spells by 3% per talent point. 3 point limit.
Balance druids don’t have innervate, so they tend to have mana issues. This talent helps alleviate them, although it is a trade off between getting it and some other nice abilities. Not a necessity for a balance druid, but nice to have if you have the room for it.

Nature’s Grace – Requires 20 points in Balance Tree.
All spell criticals grant you a blessing of nature, reducing the casting time of your next spell by .5 seconds. Prerequisite for Moonfury.
If you have specced this high into balance, get this. With this many points in balance you will crit relatively often, and the reduced casting time for the next spell just increases your dps even more. Combined with improved wrath, a couple lucky wrath crits can allow you to machine gun out wrath spells at a rate of 1/second, causing a surprising amount of damage.

Moonfury – Requires 25 points in Balance Tree, 1 point in Nature’s Grace.
Increases the damage of your wrath, moonfire, and starfire spells by 2% per point. 5 point limit.
If you have specced this high into the balance tree, you are focusing primarily on magic damage, so this is a good place to drop any points necessary to get to 30 and get moonkin form. The damage bonus isn’t spectacular, but since you are primarily focusing on damage by this point you may as well augment your strength.

Moonkin Form – Requires 30 points in Balance Tree.
Transforms the Druid into Moonkin form. While in this form all party members have their spell critical chance increased by 3%, and the druid’s armor is increased by 360%. Cannot cast balance spells in this form.
This talent gives you a new form to transform into along with all the other forms available to druids. The moonkin can soak up physical damage as well as a bear, and can cast ranged damage spells that crit often, as well as provide a very nice buff to party members. Moonkin are susceptible to running out of mana, but they can soak up a lot of punishment and do a respectable amount of damage while they do have mana available. While you’ll hear many mages and warlocks argue that moonkin are a waste because they can’t deal ranged damage as well as those classes, Moonkin druids still have all the versatility of a standard druid as long as you realize you don’t have to play the entire game in moonkin form. Currently, moonkin is probably the least popular way to spec a druid, so be prepared for people who don’t understand your class to question your decision to spec moonkin and get angry with you if you choose to go moonkin over heal in a group situation.

FERAL TALENTS
Ferocity
Reduces the cost of your maul, swipe, claw and rake abilities by 1 rage or energy per point. 5 Point Limit.
A decent opening level talent, using less points for your abilities is never a bad thing. More useful for bear form than cat form, as 5 points off of Maul or Swipe is worth significantly more than 5 points off of claw or rake.

Feral Aggression
Increases the attack power reduction of your demoralizing roar by 8% per point, and the damage of your ferocious bite by 3% per point. 5 point limit.
Arguably a superior ability for cat form druids, who are interested in increasing the damage of their ferocious bite by as much as possible. Demoralizing roar can be useful, but in general if you are tanking its better to be able to use your aggro building abilities (maul and swipe) more often through a decreased rage cost than take slightly less damage. Feral druids will have to take one of these abilities to progress up the tree, and both offer good benefits, so its largely a personal choice.

Feral Instinct – Requires 5 points in feral tree.
Increases threat caused by attacks in bear and dire bear form by 3% and reduces chances for enemies to detect you while prowling in cat form. 5 point limit.
A useful ability for any feral druid, this talent lets you hold aggro better in bear form and stealth more effectively in cat form. With this talent maxed out you will be as difficult to see in stealth as most rogues. This can be a good place to put points to move up in the tree, but is not vital for any druids unless they plan to tank extensively in bear form.

Brutal Impact – Requires 5 points in feral tree.
Increases the stun duration of bash and pounce by .5 seconds per point. 2 point limit.
This is a very useful ability for any druid. Increasing bash’s duration by an extra second allows for plenty of time for a druid in bear form to bash, shift to caster for a 2 second regrowth, and shift back to bear before the enemy can react. A vital ability for fighting any melee classes. The increased duration to pounce’s stun is a nice bonus as well.

Thick Hide – Requires 5 points in feral tree.
Increases your armor contribution from items by 2% per point. 5 point limit.
If you plan to tank extensively in bear form, this is a great ability to have. If you, like most druids, do not intend to main tank any dungeons except in an emergency, there are better places to spend your points.

Feline Swiftness – Requires 10 points in feral tree.
Increases movement speed by 15% in cat form while outdoors per point, and dodge by 2% per point.
A great ability for feral druids, feline swiftness is useful for fighting in cat form and escaping from enemies. Cat form druids often seek to get behind their targets in order to use shred, and this ability makes that significantly easier. This ability also provides some protection from other players who may try to get you to chase them as they periodically do damage to you or “kite” you in PvP- since feral druids have low mana pools, and cat form has no ranged attack or slowing ability, classes like hunters, priests and warlocks may attempt to just stay out of range of a druid in cat form, forcing them to waste mana shifting to caster to try to damage or slow them down. With this ability, the druid can easily catch up to anyone trying this strategy. Feline swiftness is recommended for any druid speccing this far into the feral tree.

Feral Charge – Requires 10 points in feral tree. Causes you to charge the enemy, immobilizing and interrupting any spell being cast for 4 seconds. 1 talent point.
Another incredibly useful ability, recommended for any druid speccing this high into the feral tree. This ability really shines in PvP…it lets you close with your enemy quickly and, if timed right, interrupt spellcasting, something druids normally have a difficult time doing. This is best used if combined w/ the Furor talent in the restoration tree, which provides instant rage upon shifting. With full furor and feral charge, its possible to see an enemy begin casting, shift to bear and use the instant rage furor generates to charge him immediately, interrupting the spell and locking his casting for a few seconds. While not particularly useful in PvE, once you are used to having it in PvP you will find it difficult to live without.

Sharpened Claws – Requires 10 points in feral tree.
Increases your critical strike chance by 2% per point in bear and cat form. 3 point limit.
If you are speccing mostly feral, to the point that you plan to do the majority of your fighting in forms, this is a great talent, and is highly recommended. Druids speccing high into balance or restoration will probably not use it enough to make it worthwhile. Because it is a prerequisite for blood frenzy and primal fury, its almost a requirement for a feral druid.

Blood Frenzy- Requires 15 points in feral tree and 3 points in Sharpened claws.
Your critical strikes on combo point adding abilities in cat form have a 50% chance per point to add an extra combo point. 2 point limit.
An incredibly useful talent for a cat focused druid, especially combined with sharpened claws and crit increasing gear. Extra combo points mean a good deal of extra damage in a quicker amount of time. Every feral druid should have this.

Primal Fury – Requires 15 points in feral tree and 3 points in Sharpened claws.
Gives a 50% chance per point to gain an additional 5 rage anytime you critical strike while in bear or dire bear form.
The bear equivalent of blood frenzy, this ability is very useful for druids specced for tanking. Generic feral druids will probably find more use out of blood frenzy, as in many cases you will build rage quickly enough anyway that you will not be able to use it fast enough anyway. Unless your druid is going to be tanking a lot, this ability is probably less advantageous than blood frenzy.

Predatory Strikes – Requires 15 points in feral tree.
Increases your attack power by 50% of your level per point. 3 point limit.
Essentially, at level 60 this talent, when maxed, will give you 90 additional attack power. (Level 60 x 150% = 90). This is not a great ability in and of itself, but it is a prerequisite for the incredible Heart of the Wild ability, so any feral druid fully speccing into the feral tree will have to get this.

Improved Shred – Requires 15 points in feral tree.
Decreases the energy cost of your shred ability by 6 points per point. 2 point limit.
This is a good ability, although it is in many cases overshadowed by some other abilities in the tree. Maxing it drops shred’s energy cost from 60 to 48, meaning w/ a full energy bar you can use it twice in a row. If you plan to do damage in cat a lot and have a way to get behind an enemy (not possible when soloing normally, but doable w/ a group or in pvp), this can be a good ability to have. Not a necessity.

Faerie Fire (Feral) – Requires 20 points in the feral tree.
Decreases the targets armor by 575 for 40 seconds. While affected the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Castable in cat form or bear form. 1 point.
This lets you cast the normal druid faerie fire spell from bear or cat form, decreasing the targets armor and keeping them visible. It is much more useful than that spell, however, for two reasons.

First, when fighting rogues, it is incredibly useful to keep faerie fire on them so they can’t stealth or vanish. W/out this ability, a rogue can easily use vanish to escape if you are beating him, or get back into stealth to gain access to his powerful abilities which can only be used from stealth. Few PvP experiences for a druid are more satisfying than watching a rogue afflicted by faerie fire try to vanish and see his confusion as he realizes he is still there for all the world to see.

Secondly, the armor reduction of this ability increases physical damage to your target. The armor reduction isn’t enormous, but it can be significant, especially against targets w/ relatively low armor to begin with. Unlike the caster version, where you most likely aren’t going to be doing physical damage after you cast it, using the feral version means you are probably in a form and doing physical damage anyway, so it’s a direct boost to your damage per second (dps). Finally, this ability is 100% free to use…it requires no energy in cat form and no rage in bear form, so it is a sustained, limitless increase to your damage as long as you remember to cast it. There is no reason every enemy you fight shouldn’t have this on them at all times. All in all, a great ability for any feral druid to have.

Savage Fury – Requires 20 points in the feral tree.
Increases the damage caused by your claw, rake, maul and swipe abilities by 10% per point. 2 point limit.
If you are speccing purely feral, this is a good ability to have, as its increase to maul and claw are significant (rake and swipe are used to build combo points and hold multiple target aggro respectively, they aren’t really designed for damage). If you are going for a flexible build with a focus beyond simply maxing out the numbers of those two abilities, however, there are better places to spend your points.

Heart of the Wild – Requires 25 points in the feral tree, and 3 points in predatory strikes.
Increases your intellect by 4% per point in caster form, strength by 4% per point in cat form, and stamina by 4% per point in bear form.
This is the jewel of the feral tree, and the reason many players spec feral in the first place. At 5 points, this provides a 20% increase to whichever stat is most useful to your current form. Because it is percentage based, this ability scales in power with your gear, which is another bonus…the better gear you get, the better an ability this becomes. There’s not too much else to say about it, this is one of the primary reasons to spec feral, it is a necessity for a feral druid.

Leader of the Pack – Requires 30 points in the feral tree.
While in cat or bear form, the leader of the pack increases the ranged and melee critical strike chance of all party members (including yourself) within 45 yards by 3%. 1 point.
For one talent point, a 3% increase in crit chance is a great bargain, and hunters and rogues who are grouped with you will love you for it. Keep in mind, however, that by getting it you are by necessity putting 31 points into the feral tree, preventing you from getting the incredibly useful Nature’s Swiftness ability which is located at 21 points in the balance tree. For druids interested purely in fighting in forms, Leader of the Pack is a great ability, but keep in mind the trade off you make by getting it, as you will forfeit the incredible versatility of Nature’s swiftness.

RESTORATION TALENTS
Improved Mark of the Wild
Increases the effect of your Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild by 7% per talent point. 5 point limit.
5 points in this talent makes the druid’s class buff, Mark of the Wild, even better. Its not an absolute necessity, but for any druid focused on healing it’s the no-brainer first choice in the restoration tree, and its useful for all druids. Most talent builds will pick this up.

Furor
Gives you a 20% chance per talent point to gain 10 rage when you shift into bear form and 40 energy when you shift into cat form. 5 point limit.
This is obviously a feral druid talent despite its place in the restoration tree. If you are solely focusing on healing its not particularly valuable. A feral druid or a hybrid that intends to use forms a good deal will find it very useful. Your dps in cat form will increase because you can use abilities faster, and in bear form the instant range opens up some possibilities when combined with other bear talents, the most common being the instant shift/feral charge to disrupt a spell being cast. Without this talent, even if you have feral charge you won’t have the rage to use it immediately after shapeshifting. This is a very versatile talent and is highly recommended if you have any intention of using bear and cat form with some frequency.

Improved Healing Touch – Requires 5 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the casting time of healing touch by .1 seconds per talent point. 5 point limit.
Making healing touch cast slightly faster is useful, but the primary reason for any druid to get this is that it’s a prerequisite to Nature’s Swiftness. Therefore, any druid speccing moderately into the tree will have to get this ability.

Improved Enrage – Requires 5 points in Restoration tree.
Your enrage ability now generates 5 rage points instantly per talent point. 2 point limit.
Another feral ability hidden in the restoration tree. This ability is useful if you plan to spend a lot of time in bear form. Most druids won’t find it worthwhile however, its too situational to get a great deal of effective use. Consider it for a heavily specced bear-form feral druid, but otherwise there are better places to spend your points.

Nature’s Focus – Requires 5 points in the Restoration tree.
Gives you a 14% chance per talent point to ignore interruption to your healing touch, regrowth, and tranquility spells from damage. 5 point limit.
This sounds like a nice talent, and in some situations it can be useful, but in general it is not that worthwhile. In PvE, in general unless you are soloing you should not have anything hitting you while you are trying to cast a heal, and if you are soloing its unlikely the mob is hitting you enough that you need to get a heal off incredibly quickly, if you’ve picked a target of your level. In very high end PvE, if a monster goes off the tank and gets on you you’re going to die almost regardless of what you do, so this becomes pointless.

In PvP, it has some larger benefits, but keep in mind it only helps w/ damage interruption, not special abilites. So you will still find your spell’s cancelled by a rogue’s kick, warrior’s shield bash, mage’s counterspell, etc. When something is doing damage to you you are almost always better off trying to root him and get away rather than just taking it while trying to get a heal off.

This isn’t a terrible talent, but there are better places to put your points in the restoration tree.

Subtlety – Requires 10 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 4% per talent point.
This ability is only focused on PvE, so if you are mostly interested in PvP its pointless. It can be very helpful in PvE in extremely high level raiding dungeons, as management of threat becomes a very big part of winning some encounters. Many druids’ claim it is not necessary, but it can certainly smooth over any small issues you might have controlling your threat while healing. Definitely don’t get it when leveling up, but consider it once you begin to get into the top end raiding dungeons. Don’t be surprised if some guilds require all their druids have this ability.

Reflection – Requires 10 points in Restoration tree.
Allows 5% of mana regeneration per point to continue while casting. 3 point limit.
Normally, whenever you cast a spell your natural mana regeneration (based on spirit), stops for 5 seconds after the spell is cast. Reflection means that you will still regenerate a small amount during this time. This isn’t a particularly useful ability pre-level 60, as the majority of fights won’t require you to be regening mana over a long period of time. In raids, however, especially once your gear begins to improve, it can be very useful. In some of the top level fights in the game, which can take from 10 to 20 minutes, every little bit of mana regen is helpful. Definitely skip this while leveling up, but if you are interested in end-game raids strongly consider it once you hit 60.

Insect Swarm – Requires 10 points in Restoration tree.
The enemy target is swarmed by insects, decreasing chance to hit by 2% and causing 324 nature damage over 12 seconds. Instant cast, 160 mana.
For one talent point, this is a very nice ability to pick up. While the DoT that it applies is relatively small, it is almost the equivalent of having a second moonfire DoT on the target, and most non-elite mobs will die surprisingly quickly w/ those two DoT’s on them. While the chance to hit decrease isn’t large, it doesn’t hurt to keep it on any melee mob at all times. It’s very useful during raids, as it does affect raid bosses, making the tanks slightly more capable of mitigating damage.

In PvP a restoration specced druid will almost certainly be trying to outlast his opponent….insect swarm is a cheap, mana efficient way to keep the damage coming on the enemy player.

Tranquil Spirit – Requires 15 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the mana cost of you healing touch and tranquility spells by 2% per point. 5 point limit.
On its own this is a pretty worthless place to put 5 talent points. However, if you are speccing full restoration in order to get innervate, you have to put 5 points here. If you are only going far enough into Restoration for Nature’s Switfness put your points elsewhere. If you are getting innervate, you don’t have a choice.

Improved Rejuvenation – Requires 15 points in Restoration tree.
Increases the effect of your rejuvenation spell by 5% per point. 3 point limit.
As a restoration specced druid you’ll be using rejuve a lot, and this just makes it better for a small talent point investment. This is a good place to put some points if you’re speccing up far into restoration.

Improved Tranquility – Requires 20 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the threat caused by tranquility by 40% per talent point. 2 point limit.
Tranquility is such a situational spell that this is almost useless. Probably one of the least useful talents a druid has access to, not worth bothering with at all.

Nature’s Swiftness – Requires 20 points in Restoration tree and 5 points in Improved Healing Touch.
When activated, your next nature spell becomes an instant cast. 3 minute cooldown.
Nature’s Swiftness (NS) is one of the highlights of the druid restoration tree. Many druid builds revolve solely around whether they get NS or not. The uses for this spell are almost endless. A NS Healing Touch can save a druid in almost any situation, giving them in effect almost a 2nd life bar worth of health. The same ability can save a party member who takes some sort of spike damage, or is beset by damage dealers in PvP. NS can be combined w/ entangling roots to stop someone trying to flee, or hibernate to immediately take a beast mob or hunter’s pet out of action. Once you learn to use NS effectively, it’ll be tough to imagine playing without it. If you are speccing far enough into restoration to get here, always get this ability.

Gift of Nature – Requires 20 points in Restoration tree and 1 point in insect swarm.
Increases the effect of healing spells by 2% per point. 5 point limit.
This is a good talent to fill in the gaps if you are going for a full restoration build, but it is not essential for a druid to be a good healer. Every little bit helps, and a druid solely interested in healing should definitely pick this up. Otherwise, there are other places to spend points that give a great deal more versatility.

Improved Regrowth – Requires 25 points in Restoration tree.
Increases the critical effect chance of regrowth by 10% per point. 5 point limit.
With this talent, at level 60 with decent gear, a druid’s regrowth spell will crit somewhere in the 60-70% range, meaning the initial heal will be about as big as a healing touch, w/ the HoT thrown in for good measure. Since regrowth is significantly faster to cast than healing touch, this is of great benefit. Regrowth becomes much more useful with this talent, and it is a requirement for any druid seriously interested in speccing as a primary healer.

Innervate – Requires 30 points in Restoration tree, 5 points in Tranquil Spirit.
Increases the target’s mana regeneration rate by 400% and allows 100% of regeneration to continue while casting. Lasts 20 seconds, 6 minute cooldown. 1 point.
Like Nature’s Swiftness, Innervate is the jewel of the druid’s restoration tree. In general, in dungeon and raid situations, you will want to use this primarily on yourself or another druid or priest. Since the mana it regens is based off of the targets spirit, high spirit players like druids and priests gain the most benefit. Use innervate early and often…many big boss fights take longer than 6 minutes, and if you see a priest down around half mana, give it to them early so you have a chance to use it again later in the fight. Also be sure to educate people about how innervate works….you do not need to stop all casting to get its full effect, it will regen just as much mana if you cast the whole 20 seconds than if you stand and do nothing.

Don’t let people bully you into saying innervate should only be used on priests, but also don’t be dogmatic and say you’ll only use it on yourself. The person who needs it most is the one who is out of mana and therefore ineffective. If that’s you, use it on yourself instead of the priest who’s half full…if a priest needs it and you are getting by, give it to them. A druid’s role is to make the whole raid work better, and being flexible w/ targets for innervate goes a long way toward accomplishing that.

Innervate is also very useful in PvP, especially in one on one fights where a restoration druid is seeking to outlast his opponent and gradually wear him down. Innervate essentially gives you a new mana bar every 6 minutes…don’t forget about it, and use it when you need the mana.

There is a tendency with innervate (and other long cooldown abilities), to hoard them for when you really need them. Try to avoid this, and if you think an ability is useful, use it. 6 minutes passes surprisingly quickly in WoW, and you’ll often find the cooldown is done well before you need the ability again.