Bout to start leveling my resto druid. I mostly used feral aff in BFA but I haven’t paid much attention to the druid changes. Which do people like better nowadays?
Balance affinity helps when you want to contribute damage (as long as your team isn’t requiring spam healing it’s fun to pop into boomkin and run a dps rotation of sorts) or need more range on your heals.
Feral affinity is nice in raids and dungeons when you need to be moving out of mechanics quicker - it can also give a dps boost but requires you to be in melee range which can be trouble with certain mechanics that require a ranged (ranged mechanics will still hit you in cat form as a healer).
Guardian affinity is when you need more survivability such as during raid progression until you learn a fight.
I switch between all 3 depending on the content I am doing. For the most part, I run balance affinity (because who doesn’t want to be a laser chicken!) but there are times when the other two are called for.
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Balance is incredibly useful in that it increases the max range we can cast our spells (you don’t need to be in moonkin form for this)
Also if you plan on going Night Fae for covenant, Balance Affinity + Heart of the Wild + Convoke is ncie burst dmg for when its needed or you get time. Running into melee might waste alot of that time you got during a burst window.
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In Raids Guardian Affinity tends to perform better, since you get that passive damage reduction. But Balance Affinity is pretty good too since it not only gives you offensive power, but also increases the range of your spells.
Look, here’s the thing. The interwebs tells me that Balance Affinity is the best choice as it offers the most damage output potential, especially when combined with the Heart of the Wild talent.
While that may be true, I find the SL changes to balance to be super awkward and clunky. I understand, and am happy, that Balance is putting out some great numbers. Unfortunately, I just don’t find it fun to play. So you take a super awkward and clunky spec and you make it even more awkward and clunky in affinity form. It’s just not fun! Additionally, I did some basic testing and found that while it was more damage than feral affinity, it wasn’t by that much (at least, when you don’t have Heart of the Wild).
So for me, as a personal preference, I take Feral. Not as much damage, but the gameplay is smoother. Also, I can pool 5 combo points before a part of a fight I know I’ll need it and then dump my bleeds or a FB when needed. The whole experience feels a lot closer to what I feel like Druid class fantasy should be.
Not that I put a ton of stock in that, but it is kinda fun to bounce in and out of kitty while healing my group.
So after all that, the short answer is, pick whichever one makes you happy and just do that 
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for mythic+ i prefer feral affinity. could be a play style preference.
the speed is something i couldn’t get used to losing, even for the range of the balance affinity.
you also have access to extra stun - which i would rather have over typhoon. just things to think about.
i’m kind of glad there’s another choice other than feral affinity for PvE tbh…gives the class more flavor. I also like playing off meta things when i game so that’s a plus if balance continues to grow in popularity (:
I’ve been fighting it, but balance is probably better. Melee is super dangerous this expansion, convoke seems to be more effective in boomkin, and you can cast a variety of spells (cleanse, regrowth, rebirth, roots, sunfire, moonfire) from boomkin without shifting and eating a global. If you get the double LB legendary you can even cast LB from Boomkin form.
Typhoon also feels a lot more useful than maim.
I love the Guardian AOE stun in m+
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I feel that the damage as resto is wholly uneeded and I doubt any fight has every been won or lost because of the healer was dpsing.
I find more use out of the damage reduction and incap roar than I do shifting and dpings. In pugs there is so much crap going on that by the time you shift to moonkin someone needs a heal and more than a regrowth - so you have to pop out of form.
Try each one and see what works for you. I can’t let go of feral rake stun, so I choose feral.
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well for now you’re probably right, but from experience i can attest that this is not a true statement. When I was pushing +20+ King’s Rest in BFA, if i wasn’t putting out a minimum amount of dps on a teeming/fortified week, it was not a doable thing.
I think there’s a breakpoint in mythic+ (which is likely the +20’s and beyond) where the dps from a healer is mandatory. that’s why you see teams at the top running very specific compositions with the same exact healers in each one.
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Feral 100%. shifting into any form GCD is bad, but balance is double bad as all your damage is cast time. I can pop into cat swipe 3 times before you can starfire once. Plus boomy means you have to stand still, very dangerous 90% of the time in M+
Also boomy spells all use mana even if a low amount, dont know about you but on heavy healing weeks i do not usually have the mana to waste this way where ferals is all free mana regen time.
While balance may be better on paper, in practice feral tends to do better.
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Balance is probably better overall but, Feral feels better. I shift into cat form a lot for the extra speed boost. 15% passive is not enough. I’ve activated the Tireless Pursuit Conduit lately and keep the 40% speed boost after shifting out of cat form for 4 seconds. If you like moving fast and don’t mind powershifting give it a try. I have a hard time giving up the speed boost.
With all of this said, FIX MASTER SHAPESHIFTER FOR FERAL!!!1!
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Boomkin for Typhoon hands down without a question.
big agree here…seems there’s some bugs still with the class.
i am very happy thorns got fixed for the WM though lol
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