1: A moonkin should be able to act as a second tank for the duration of the fight, especially on “swap tanks at XX stacks” while in moonkin spec and gear (INT), at least when using the raid/dungeon finder tool
2: A moonkin should be able to use the Melee utility such as an interrupt on a 10 second cooldown.
3: When a moonkin in moonkin spec and gear (INT) fights as a cat for the entire encounter, he should be within 10% of the damage he would have done as a Moonkin.
4: A moonkin should be able to heal for the duration of a fight and have HPS within 10% of a same ilvl healer

You may argue that is not balanced, etc, but let me remind you that you can do this now anyways using dual-spec and a second gear set. This would naturally be balanced anyways if I kitty form in caster gear simply by virtue of not having any spec rotation buttons/glyphs/enchants/gems. So, lets just make life easier for all druids and let them be hybrids full time.

Where things get messy is letting Druids perform an off spec well in the middle of a fight. Think phase 1 of Alysrazor let a moonkin go kitty so he can interrupt the adds, but then switch to moonkin for the other phases. We cannot do that now, but I think it would be awesome to do so.

Blizzard already said if you want to sit in your spec and not shift, then nothing really changes. They also said that if you choose to switch specs you get a temporary 30% buff to your primary spec when you go back so you can “catch up.” What if you can shift out as a bear and heal for up to 10 seconds before your armor/dodge fall off? Of shift into cat and DPS (and do good DPS) while still tanking. What if this hybrid design allowed Blizzard to do 3 tank bosses and 4 healer raid encounters?

I think the possibilities can be fun, but at a minimum we must:
1: Not be penalized in our main spec if we choose not to shift
2: Be almost as good as the original when we shift (at least 90%)
3: Be able to be a hybrid 100% of the time, not just on a cooldown
4: Make gear matter less. Just make ilvl=dps,hps,time to live regardless of what form you are in. I’m fine if you just throw away +INT leather gear entirely and I know Monks would thank you.

This system would never had been possible with the existance of the talent system. But with that out the window, depending on how deep they make specialization, Druids could finally be a viable hybrid.

All that said, I regularly drop form as a bear tank but I only use it two times: If the boss is not on me and I need to tranq, or if I need to Brez someone who is critical (it is a wipe if I don’t) and I have a cooldown to give me protection durring that cast.

Cataclysm certainly put emphasis on using more crowd control and utility cds. I rarely saw people use anything in wrath, and nowadays, if you don’t use an utility cd or help with crowd control, you get labeled a bad player in any role you are in. This swung the limelight back to the very heart of the Druid community: shape shifting, and essentially, just about how well Druids should be able to use cds in their off spec form in any game play setting.

When you add in the issue of *how* druids should do it. Some restoration druids want to be able to still heal in the restoration capacity while going cat in a pinch, as Beru has said. Or, accept that the utility druids can bring to raids and appreciate that as part of being a druid, as Whoweeat has pointed out so far, at the expense of simply being able to use something in their off spec.

The issue is, just how well can you use your off spec talents? I can see how that would be very difficult to balance for both pve and pvp. A restoration druid is hard enough to kill as it is, and if they are able to heal on the move in cat form, the pvp community will be crying out for a nerf. A moonkin shouldn’t be able to heal as well as restoration druids can or tank as well as a bear can. Off specs need to be limited to a point where we can gain at least some usefulness and not be over powered in raids or pvp.

Yes, some classes like holy paladins can cast cds on a whim without wasting a GCD to switch forms but it isn’t without sacrifice too. If a prot paladin tried to chain heal divine light, he’d end up right beside the smear on the ground that used to be the bear tank that tried to heal. You have the class/role trinity, and when you factor in off specs, some of them really clash. It’s unfortunate but it is what it is and I honestly don’t see how Blizzard can ever fully balance that out, especially for Druids. I believe that they are trying to help this out by allowing access to things like Nature’s Swiftness to all druid specs, so we also get an instant spell added to our toolbox and that is at least an option if that’s what we really want to have. This brings us a little closer to what paladins are able to do on a whim with spells like LoH. Shape shifting is something you get to do as a Druid, even if it’s at the expense of not having access to your main role in your shifted form.

I honestly never saw this as a bad thing. While performance in shifted forms does still need some work, I still get excited every time I shift. I don’t think, “I can’t heal when I’m cat,” when I shift, I go, “Ok, now Dash over there and shift to bear/enrage/bash to stun that add!” It requires certain finesse to pull that off, and I enjoy it as an fanatical shapeshifter, haha. I’m going to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt for now, and see what they come up with to address this.

In the mean time… Beru… I hope you’ve been basking in that glower of your ragnaros kill

Be well!

Tier 1 – 1*
Tier 2 – 0
Tier 3 – 0
Tier 4 – 0
Tier 5 – 1 – 1*
Tier 6 – 2 – 1*

* = Technically requires shifting but its major effect is instant and can be macro-ed to be back in caster form within that same GCD.

So that’s 66% of talents that don’t require any shifting at all, and 83% that don’t require any time in another form. I’m not seeing “vast majority” here Lissanna, I’m seeing plenty of choice for a non shifter. Maybe I’m looking at a very different talent picture than you, I’m using the on on wowhead. Looks to me that what blizzard is doing is allowing someone that want to do the multi form game, the choice to accomplish that at a viable level.