Well they needed to do something to feral, but what they needed to do was drop the damage a bit, not the HP/Armor bonus. A warrior will out aggro a bearform, so that is one advantage, if you make it so Warriors outdo damage wise, then you have an even tradeoff between a feral druid and a Warrior. Damage vs Extra Armor, and the reduced damage would balance out ferals in pvp, who can dps and heal, would then be moderate dps and heal. I just don't like the reduced armor and health. Plus, unless the druid has the nice middleground gear (wildheart, pvp sets, this new dreanic set) then they lose either a lof of mana or a lot of damage if they are in the wrong gear. Feral gear = 2k mana for me. Caster gear = 30dps loss in damage as feral. I was fighting a frost mage and I either couldn't do enough damage or he could outlast me(duh) because of which gear I used.
As for starting a druid, its like other classes where you decide what type you want to be and then go with that. I like druid, because you need to know how to play every class and then adjust to the situation. I've made 3 druids, one to like lvl 20, one to 30 and now this 60. For everyone, I invested at least 1 point into nature's grasp as a talent, even if I wasn't Balance. It's just a handy little trick to have. Early on, you'll rely on casting spells and rooting enemies. Then soloing with bear, then soloing with cat.
PvP wise, feral is/was nice. What I dod a lot is land the first hit in cat form, maybe stick my bleeds onto the target, shift out and heal if I need to, then go to bear form and finish them off. Moonkin spam is for runners/finishing someone off, but is mana costly. If you go far with the druid, you'll need two sets of armor, Casting and Feral. Balance is kind of nice because then you can just rely on one set mostly, with int and +spell damage boosts. You will get asked to tank AND to heal eventually. Even though I'm mostly rest, I've both tanked and healed ievery nstance from SM to BRD.
Also another talent I like, which I think they should put back in balance, is Omen of Clarity. It gives you a free skill use on proc, and is very useful in bear and catform, and nice in moonkin. Pretty useless as a healer though. Most of my soloing and pvp damage relies on two rest talents, Omen of Clarity procs and another that gives +10% damage in all forms.
Druid tanking you need to use your taunt, and when you lose aggro and they run, your bash and then retaunt. Druid healing you rely on Healing over Time spells like rejuv and regrowth. Early on, Healing touch is okay, but the 3 sec cast(with talent reduction that is, longer than that without the talent investment) is too long for important heals. Regrowth is like a healing touch split in half, so that plus rejuv and you can heal over various damages. You still will use healing touch when you need emergency big heals, and I think it's rather lame Tree form can't use Healing Touch, but blah. Catform is just playing a rogue without vanish and saps. Shred = backstab, ferioucs bite = eviscerate, ravage = ambush. But early on your cat skills are limited and you're one finishing move a dot.
Oh and of course, druids are the best flagrunners in WSG. You invest in the feral speed boost and you can pwn the 20, 30 and maybe 40 brackets. You stealth in, grab flag, kitty/cheetah zoom across the map and then protect yourself in bear form. You run in like a rogue, out like mr. speed boots and back home like a warrior. And all those dots you use to put on runners as a warlock? Well druid can hot right over them. Just get use to quickly shapeshifting to free yourself of movement slowing effects. SHapeshifting gets rid of every movement effect except a freeze trap or stun. So if a mage frost novas you, just shift out, if you have crippling poison on you, shift out, curse of exhaustion, shift out. Just don't overshift yourself out of mana. Cheetah form is pretty cheap mana wise, so its easier to cheetah shift back and forth, but bear and cat get costly.
