Just one thing that really bothers me. One of my favorite sets is the craftable Wild Draenish armor set. My playstyle uses a primary feral build with 11 points in Ballance to obtain Improved Moonfire and Insect swarm. On a PvP server, I find too often I need an insta ranged attack to improve my DPS, and these two upgrades in the ballance tree have really proven worth it. Insect Swarm in particular is an ecellent low mana sustained DPS spell needed in a relativly low Mana Pool feral/hybrid build. At any rate, the Wild Draenish set really compliments this play style.

http://thottbot.com/?set=614

This set is directed toward the true hybrid druid with stats for Feral (+str, +agi) decent armor, and stats for casters (+int) as well as some nice stamina. The Bonus include +damage&Healing as well as some nice +STA and +Healing set bonuses.

Since this set is green and ranges from lvl 58-65, it is not an end-game set. The only thing that even comes close is the single lv 69 leather item "Stylin Jungle Hat"

http://thottbot.com/i25682

So why no end game hybrid set like this? Specificcally with +dmg AND +Heal with STR and AGI stats? I know you can mix and match, but that kills your ability to get set bonuses.

I mean, for a true hybrid class, you would think you would have a true hybrid set of armor. Any thoughts on why a similar end game set does not exist? Is Blizzard saying hybrid is not a legitimate end-game PvP/PvE option?

The feral and balance trees and playstyles don't really compliment each other very well, and neither does gear designed for both. If you want gear that adds bonuses to both, just get caster gear in some slots and feral gear in others. I wouldn't hold my breath for blizzard to release some brand new itemization that would probably be used by less than 5% of one of the least played classes in the game.

To me, str/agi and spelldamage are completely contrary stats that don't belong on the same gearset, as you can only ever capitalize on one or the other at a time; either you're in caster form and missing out on feral dps, or you're in feral form and missing out on caster dps. +Healing has a use, as you can shift to blow your spare mana and shift back; and int has a point as it increases that mana pool, allowing you to shift more and heal more between shifts. Spelldamage and feral stats? It's simply bad itemization.

Between feral charge, nature's grasp, entangling roots, sprint, travel form, +movespeed cat talent, being able to break snares and roots, and +movespeed pvp set bonuses, druids really really don't have a problem with closing to melee, so your emphasis on instant ranged dps seems odd. If you simply do the math you'll see that melee stats are far more beneficial for increasing your damage done than +spelldamage being applied only to two dots.

If you really want some spelldamage when you find yourself at range, weapon swap when you shift out of bear/cat, and click a +dmg trinket.

I can see your points, but still...they went to the trouble to create the Wild Draenish (and other pre TBC sets) in the first place so it makes no sense to me not to follow up to end game. I also respectfully disagree about feral and Ballance not working together. They do if you use them correctly. Two insta dots help on targets that are running away, they can be used to open a fight at range when you are already in combat and cant stealth. There are just too many situation where in large PvP fights you simply cannot maximize your DPS using only feral forms. Not to mention you may be required to stay back an heal/DPS because you have pleanty of tanks but not enough healers or DPS. I guess I like being able to help my team be adapting on the fly...I like to think that makes me a different kind of threat and asset than just roaming around in bear form hoping to get a Mangle crit and pray my bash does not get doged.

Well, my plan is to use this set (assuming i can make the push in Leatherworking from 360-375 and farm heroics)

http://www.thottbot.com/?set=618

The craftable Windhawk set seems to be the best bet for overall +damage and +healing and has decent armor. Not sure what I will do with my other slots...probly 5man drops/quest items for rings/cloak/trinket and 4 items of the PvP dragonhide set (head. gloves, legs, boots) FTW. And the Earthwarden of course...only 10 more Steamvalt runs now...gah...

"Hybrid" gear is rejected by the vast majority of druids. Most players don't want to water down their primary role for stats that are used on a minority basis. The gear that you want would be disenchanted by 90+% of druids.de.

It would be interesting to play a tri spec druid with a gearset to back it up. An upgraded wild draenish set with lots of sockets could fit the bill, along with an end of dreams upgrade.

One thing your guys have to keep in mind is that the value of a Hybrid Druid places much more emphasis on the ability of the player to adapt and be effective at whatever role they are filling at the time. Even assuming the end game gear for a hybrid existed, few would choose it becasue of the difficulty of the playstyle, not its effectiveness. Most toons are one trick pony's. Rogues Stunlock and crit you to death, Warlocks fear you and dot you to death, Pally's bubble and bore you to death...well, you get the point. A druid (and to a lesser extent a shaman) are the only classes that could potentially beat you by attacking and defending using a variety of playstyles. In 5V5 you never know what your are going to face. Being able to become a backup Tank, Healer, melee, or Caster DPS gives your team an edge...at least a potential edge. Again, assuming you know when and how to alter your role.

As an example, opening a 5v5 stealthed in Cat, doing the Pounce, Mangle, Rake, maim dance...pop out, heal the tank, Dot the casters, cyclone the healer, then go bear and charge/bash...adaptablility means your team has less predictablility...in general I think that is a good thing...but I know I am in the Minority.

Jumping on the pile - this is a bad idea.

Your description of 5v5 is OK, except nuking with such a modest amount of spell damage isn't going to do very much, even if you had the set you wanted. A rejuvenation uses the same GCD as moonfire, but heals for much more especially when you consider that +heal is cheaper then +damage. If the other team is attacking you, you need to get back to bear ASAP. If not, throw out a root or start catting something down.

If you remove the nuking, which is by far the weakest part of your sequence, you can go with the Moonglade or Gladiator's sanctuary sets, which will serve you very well.

A better question would be where's the end-game feral crafted gear. It's especially sad as we (kind of stupidly) share set tokens with warriors and priests, two numerous classes with multiple sets of gear, in our 25 man runs we typically have 10-12 of those classes, so it's hard to get tokens.

I can sort of understand why most of the raid drops are orientated to rogues, although given that far too many of them seem to have no agility on then which is sad.

Before they added a couple of recipes in the last patch that drop in raid zones, there was only heavy clefthoof that I'd really consider feral druid gear, and that was pretty crappy. It has since been buffed, but it is still blue and no match for the BoP sets that every other spec in the game seem to get.

But the gear does exist for this playstyle. All you have to do, as several have suggested already, is wear a mixture of feral-styled pieces and balance-styled pieces. Voila! True end-game hybrid gear!