Let us start with the Druid class side tree. Unlike the other classes Druids have four talents at the top in the first row. This is for the four specializations that druids have. Depending on your specialization depends on which one you get for free at what looks like level 10. Balance getting Starfire and Starsurge, Feral getting Rake and Thrash, Guardian getting Frenzied Regeneration and Thrash, Restoration getting Rejuvenation and Swiftmend. The tree layout really suggests on your “affinity” specialization to go along with your main specialization. I will take this time to speak about the loss of the Affinity talents. The only thing that is lost with the removal of the Affinity talents is the passive gain from them. Could they add this back in? It is kind of in and kind of not. The passives gained from the Affinities are on the Druid class tree side except for one. The Restoration passive healing is not there but is in the Restoration tree. That is talent should be brought from the Restoration tree to the druid tree to allow others to take it. Right now, Restoration Affinity is a highly taken talent because of the passive healing and the crowd control it gives you.

If you start off going Balance specialization you gain as said above, Starfire and Starsurge. To progress to the middle group of talents, rows 5, 6, and 7, you first need to spend eight talent points. With the first two abilities free your next talent point is Moonkin Form, the only Form Druids must spend a talent on to get. At this point giving all Druids Moonkin form like the rest of the Forms should not be a problem for the Druid a player plays are also called a Druid of the Grove and in lore those Druids do not take only one Form on. What could they add in to replace Moonkin Form on the talent tree I am not sure. After getting Moonkin Form you have two options, really no options, you can take Nurturing Instinct which increases healing and magical damage up to 6% for three points in total, and you have access to Hibernate a long crowd control ability that effects beasts and dragonkin. After taking both, you will be at 5 points spent meaning you need to spend three more talent points. Well as a Balance Druid you are not going to want to go with any Feral or Guardian talents so that really leaves you with the Restoration talents. Putting one point in Rejuvenation, one point into Swiftmend, and one point into Remove Corruption will unlock the middle talent rows. Now you able to take Astral Influence, the Affinity passive for Balance talent in Shadowlands if you are not Balance, a two-point talent that increases the range of all your abilities. Cyclone, a short crowd control ability that makes a target invulnerable for only 6 seconds for one talent point. A talent that Blizzard has not decided on the name yet or if they want to keep it or not that increases the healing done and taken by only 3% and does not change when the second point is added. You first choice node which you can pick either Wild Charge or Tiger Dash. Wild Charge changes depending on the form you are in. Tiger Dash now does not replace Dash but looks to give you another ability unless the tool tip is wrong. Row six opens after taking one of the row five talents that connect to one of these. I will not go over each connection unless it is important to note. Typhoon, a knock back that Balance druids start with right now and what the Affinity gives for the crowd control. Sunfire, our second damage over time ability that well get but does damage in an area of effect and only gives the main target a damage over time effect. Soothe, dispelling all enrage effects on the target. Row seven gives you access to, Improved Sunfire that gives the damage over time effect to all that are hit by Sunfire now. Wild Growth, a ten second cooldown ability that adds a heal over time effect to five people within thirty yards of the target. Stampeding Roar, a 2-minute cooldown ability that increases all friendlies within fifteen yards a movement speed boast for 8 seconds. All the talents I just mentioned are required to take to open rows 8, 9, and 10 for you need to spend a total of 20 talent points and have connections from row 7 to row 8.  The only two talents that I mentioned above that connect from row seven to row eight are Stampeding Roar and Wild Growth. These two talents connect to another choice node, Mass Entanglement that roots all enemies within fifteen yards of your target, or Ursol’s Vortex that pulls enemies to the middle if they try and leave the area of effect and then slows them down after the pull. Improved Rejuvenation which increases Rejuvenation duration by 3 seconds for one point. Lycara’s Teachings which gives you adds 6% to a secondary stat depending on your Form for three talent points. Ursine Vigor that increases your health and armor for 4 seconds when you go into Bear Form. Only three of these nodes are usable to Balance, the choice node, Improved Rejuvenation, if you are going down Restoration also, and Lycara’s Teachings. Ursine Vigor does not go anywhere. After taking those three talents you can take Innervate, making a friendly healer cast spells without spending mana for 10 seconds, Renewal a 1 minute thirty second cooldown ability that heals you for 30% of your maximum health, and Improved Stampeding Roar which reduces the cooldown of Stampeding Roar by 60 seconds. Each of those are one-point talents. You now can take the bottom two talents, Nature’s Vigil, which for 30 seconds depending on your specialization, can either do area damage when you heal or area healing when you damage, and Heart of the Wild, which for 45 seconds empowers abilities not associated with your specialization you picked. I can see Nature’s Vigil being useful for Mythic+ runs but otherwise these talents are not that interesting. Only reason you would take these is because you have the points to spend. For even after taking both you have one point left, and I suggest taking Improved Barkskin which increases the duration of Barkskin by 4 seconds. If you only take one, Nature’s Vigil most likely, you can also take Improved Frenzied Regeneration, which increases healing you received while you have Barkskin active.  I highly recommend that as Balance you go down the Restoration talents for you will more often need the extra healing, in soloing content, in Raids, or in Mythic+ when something happens to the healer, and you can’t get them up right away this way you can help try and keep the group alive. Because of this I do suggest that you take both Nature’s Vigil and Heart of the Wild. Both can give you a major healing bonus in times of need.

            Now normally I would cover the two damage dealing specializations back-to-back to compare them but sense this is just the Druid Class tree side I want to talk about if you went Restoration. Why you might ask, well because the Restoration is the same as Balance when it comes to picking talents. As Restoration you will have an easier time gearing up to help your Balance side abilities more than the other two. For right now there is no way to empower your melee abilities for Feral or Guardian if you go as Restoration. Because of this I see only Balance talents as the only option to take in Raids, Mythic+, and world content.  As Restoration you make the best use of both Heart of the Wild and Nature’s Vigil. Heart of the Wild is best used in boss fights after you stack your healing over time spells on the tank or if your tank can take a few good hits for 45 seconds. Nature’s Vigil use on big group pulls will be very strong if one thing is true.  Again, I have not been in the Beta, so I am not sure on this point.  If healing over time effects count towards the effects of Nature’s Vigil, then in big pulls every one minute and 30 seconds you as a Restoration Druid might scare some of your damage dealing teammates for you might beat them in damage per second from just your healing abilities only. But because I have not had a chance to test this out or not, I cannot say this will work. Even if healing over time effects do not trigger Nature’s Vigil’s casting Regrowth back-to-back with Innervate active on you will still pushout massive damage to enemies around your target you are healing. So, there is no downside to taking this talent as Restoration.

            I would like to go over if you pick Feral as your specialization now. Please remember that I am only talking about the Class side of the tree and not the specialization side tree. As I stated above, you start with both Rake and Thrash already. To move into the middle row of talents, rows 5-7, you need to spend eight talent points. Now Feral and Guardian are paired in the tree, meaning that the talents for Guardian are next to the Feral talents. It is highly suggested that Blizzard wants Feral to off Specialize as Guardian, but I would not suggest that. Instead, I would suggest that you go down the Restoration talents. For the first 8 talent points you would take Rip, a single target combo point spender that adds a damage over time effect to the target, Swipe, an area of effect damage ability that hits all enemies around you, Main, a combo point spender that stuns the target also, Killer Instinct, which increases your physical damage and armor, Rejuvenation, that adds a heal over time to a friendly target, Swiftmend, a massive single target heal that require the target to have a healing over time effect on them, Remove Corruption, removes curses and poisons from target, and Nurturing Instinct which increases your healing and magical damage.  If you took all these it totals to twelve points, I would suggest that you only go until you have the eight required to open the middle then come back when needed to get to the bottom set of talents.  In the middle rows there is not much for feral, only three useful abilities. Feline Swiftness which increases your movement speed only, Primal Fury which gives your critical strikes the ability to give you a second combo point, but to get Primal Fury you need to take Feline Swiftness, and Skull Bash which interrupts the target. There is one other ability that is not worth taking if one thing holds true later. With only four points spent there you will have twelve points spent and needing another eight to move to the next set of rows. This is where you go back and grab the talents in the Restoration side, so the four you skipped in the top area and picking up the following also. Wild Charge, changes depending on your Form, Soothe, removes enrage effects, Stampeding Roar, the un-named talent that comes off Remove Corruption, and Wild Growth. Getting all these right away would not hurt you much for the bottom set of rows are not that great for Feral. In the bottom rows I would suggest that you only take the following. Mighty Bash, to stun targets, Lycara’s Teaching, for a stat increase, Renewal, to heal yourself for 30% of your health, Improved Rejuvenation, increases Rejuvenation healing over time effect by 3 seconds, the choice node on the right that leads to Innervate, which gives healers free casts for 10 seconds, and finally Nature’s Vigil.  Now if the same thing for Restoration holds true for Feral bleed effects, then this talent will be a go to talent. If every bleed effect triggers Nature’s Vigil, then the healing gained from this talent will be strong. Heart of the Wild is not a great talent, you will never use this talent to tank, maybe healing if something happens to the healer but thing you would need to sacrifice a utility talent that is more useful.

            Moving onto the last specialization for the Druid class tree, the Guardian specialization. As mentioned above you start with Frenzied Regeneration, a self-heal that heals for 24% of your health over 3 seconds, and Thrash, an area of effect damage ability that hits all enemies around you and adds a damage over time effect to all that you damage. You want to grab the talents that improve or help your main specialization first. Swipe a one-point talent that does area of effect damage but does not leave a damage over time effect on enemies. Killer Instinct, a three-point talent that increases physical damage done and increases your armor. Ironfur, a one-point talent that increases your armor base on your agility for 7 seconds. Improved Barkskin, a one-point talent that increases Barkskin duration by 4 seconds. Improved Frenzied Regeneration, a one-point talent that has Barkskin and Frenzied Regeneration increases healing received by 20%. After grabbing these you can move into your affinity talents. Again, I suggest that you grab the Restoration Talents over all else. Self-healing in the open world can increase how fast you level as a tank for that is what a Guardian Druid is. Other talents to take when able and does not keep you from progressing down the tree. Rejuvenation, a self-healing healing over time ability, Swiftmend, a single target massive heal that requires a heal over time effect on the target to use, Remove Corruption, gets ride of curses and poisons, and Nurturing Instinct, increases your magical damage and healing. This talent plays well into the Guardian side tree which I will cover later. On Rows 5-7 the options for Guardian Druids are low and most of the talent points in these rows will be spent on utility. Here are the Guardian Druid talents that you should select. Skull Bash, a one-point ability that interrupts target, Thick Hide, a two-point ability that reduces all damage taken, Ursoc’s Endurance, a one-point talent that gives you an absorb shield when you use Barkskin or Survival Instincts. Now for the utility talents in these rows, Wild Charge, a one-point talent that changes depending on you Form, Soothe, a one-point talent that removes enrage effects of target, Stampeding Roar, a one-point talent that increases the parties movement speed, Un-named talent that is a two-point talent increases healing done and healing taken, and Wild Growth, a one-point talent that connects to a choice node on row 8 and is only taken because of the choice node.  On the final group of talent rows, rows 8-10, you have very limited options.  A choice node that gives you three option of Incapacitating Roar, stuns enemies around you but breaks if enemy is hit, or Mighty Bash, stuns target for 4 seconds, the choice nodes are all ways a one-point talent either way, Well-Honed Instincts, a two-point talent that  triggers when you fall below 40% health every 90 seconds that casts Frenzied Regeneration on you, Lycara’s Teaching, a three-point talent that increases a secondary stat depending on your Form, Renewal, a one-point talent that heals you for 30% of your maximum health, and another choice node off of Wild Growth which you can pick either Mass Entanglement, roots enemies within 15 yards of target, or Ursol’s Vortex that draws enemies to the middle and then applies a slow to them.  With the utility that you have in these last rows there is no reason to go all the way down to the 10^th row.

            Now you might have noticed that I completely stayed away from one of the three bottom talents. That would be the talent Furor, as I do not see any real use for this. It only triggers after spending 15 seconds in a different Form then you are already in. Meaning you must go from Moonkin to Bear back to Moonkin after another 15 seconds or any other combination of which you can think. And for what you might ask, well for 4 seconds of free abilities usage that uses Mana, Energy, Rage, or Astral Power. If you include the global cooldown of one second, then in truth you get two abilities maybe a third if you are lucky. But cannot do anything like that again for another 11 seconds. This Talent might work if used for PvP, but we have a separate PvP talent system in place. This talent needs to go away and be replaced by something or change it up to be more useful. All three talents at the bottom of the tree points to the druid being able to adapt to what is going on and I like that idea, but Furor does not fit well into it. It on the bottom left side below Well-Honed Instincts which is only useful for Guardian Druids or Druids in PvP.

            This is my thoughts of the Druid Class Tree coming in Dragonflight as of September 15, 2022. I know the Beta is not done and hopefully some of these issues are looked at by Blizzard for I am not the only one seeing the problems in the tree. I will next talk about the specialization side trees.