I’m currently level 12. I was looking at Wowhead’s Druid HC leveling guide and it suggested first 10 points (lvl 20) go exclusively into Balance talents. Icy Veins guide is the opposite - going into feral talents first. Any thoughts on pros cons of each path (ease of play).
Additionally, what is the cost increase to unlearn talents. I know it goes up every time you unlearn them.
Thanks
I’ve been enjoying their Hardcorpse leveling guides. I don’t agree with everything, but I find their recommendations fit my slow/steady playstyle better than Icy Veins’.
Going down balance first is a bit of a trap. Auto root is kind of nice to have when you’re spamming wrath until you get bear form but at those levels almost no mob is a real risk 1v1. You’ll feel compelled to respec down feral tree at level 20 at the latest and that’s 1g wasted, which is tremendously valuable at that level.
IMO it’s not worth missing out on kitty movement speed boost as soon as it’s available.
Feral is one of the absolute best HC leveling specs with almost no downtime. One stack of level 15 water may very well last you all the way until you can upgrade to level 25 water.
I believe respec costs progress 1, 5, 10, 25 then 50g?
Thanks for detailed reply. I already sunk 2 points in Balance, but I think I mist start the feral tree and consider a respec later down the road.
I started with furor, so I can bash as soon as I swap to bear, then have been working down the feral talents
I am running as a bear with a 4 person group on that character though, so that did influence my descion.
Feral talents (go figure) are curious. Once you approach 60 and are considering max raid performance, if that’s your thing, the sharpened claws talent in balance is your biggest DPS boost per point. And Furor, in Resto tree, helps quite a bit with initial aggro for bear and is essential to be remotely competitive as cat.
Until then, while leveling, feral talents are just too good for solo play. Fast fast fast kitty who earns two combo points per crit makes the world a much better place.
Feral leveling is the way to go. As someone that has leveled more druids on both factions than I can count (of all specs.) You don’t need the points in balance to get to 20, and you’ll appreciate the speed boost immediately.
It’s pretty much the same thing for paladin BTW. Ret for speed boost, then do what you want after.
As someone who’s leveled an obscene amount of paladins I would normally agree with this, but divine intellect and spiritual focus add so much effective health it’s hard to pass them up early in a HC setting. The int give you and extra heal and being able to reliably cast a heal with something eating your face is very helpful.
Personnaly i prefer the 30% speed from feral.
Feral is the way to go by far. If you really want it, you can put one point into nature’s grasp and then the rest feral which is what I did on my druid, but honestly I never used it. As long as you play smart, druid is pretty safe.
5/5 ferocity
3/5 Feral instinct or 5/5 if you wanna skip brutal impact
2/2 Brutal impact
2/2 Feline swiftness
After this you can continue down feral tree as you will be leveling 99% feral or bear. You could also get 5/5 furor then go back to the feral tree.
After Feline swiftness go
3/3 sharpened claws
3/3 Predatory strikes
2/2 blood frenzy
1/1 Faerie fire (Feral)
2/2 savage fury
Its hardcore I assume you’re not going to tank as bear but if you’re then get
2/2 Primal fury. If you find yourself in bear form a lot I would get primal fury anyways.
IF not primal fury then fill Feral instinct out or brutal impact depending on what you went earlier.
5/5 heart of wild
Leader of pact
5/5 furor
conc is arguably way better than some movespeed at 20
Not if you value your time.
Slow and steady wins the Hardcorpse race.
By this point, unless you’ve just joined HC, you should have a bank alt with at least a few gold from previous/other characters. I’m going balance to 20, then respeccing into feral. There are so few decent feral talents compared to improved wrath and natural weapons.
If you’re unsure about how you’ll do for gold at lvl 40, the 1 gold may seem significant, but if we’re being honest, it’s just a few minutes of grinding the right mobs at lvl 39.
Feral from 20+ is definitely the way to go for safe and efficient leveling.
Just my 2c
lol. not all of us are going the cheesy bank alt route 
Even so, by level 20, 1g shouldn’t be a problem.
Bear form is miles faster than spamming wrath and drinking what are you on about?
The very first talent in the feral tree is the exact talent for druid leveling.
Not only is it faster but you don’t have to respec
I think they mean getting grasp, 10% melee damage, clarity and imp thorns (is that 20 points?)
It isn’t faster.
And you can wrathx2/moonfire/bear if you like. Mixing the two works best whether you’re balance or feral <20