Symbiosis – A Druid Primer

There’s been many questions about the new druid ability, Symbiosis. I’ve written a quick primer below, which includes some notes, tables listing the current spells granted to each combo, and some recommendations for good combinations for PvE and PvP. Enjoy!

Notes:

The druid’s level 87 ability, Symbiosis, grants both the casting druid and his/her friendly target one new ability. The ability received by the druid is based on the druid’s spec and the class of the target. The ability received by the target is based on the target’s spec and class.

• Symbiosis is a 6 second cast and cannot be cast in combat. (This is slated to be reduced to 2 seconds in 5.1.)
• Cannot be cast on other druids, for obvious reasons.
• Symbiosis effects last 1 hour and persist through death, similar to a flask.
• Symbiosis effects are canceled if the player and target are too far apart.
• Once cast, the new ability appears in the spellbook of both characters, and may be dragged to an action bar and interacted with normally.

Tanks:

Target:	Balance Gets:	Feral Gets:	Guardian Gets:	Restoration Gets:	Target Receives:
Blood Death Knight	Anti-Magic Shell	Death Coil	Bone Shield	Icebound Fortitude	Might of Ursoc
Brewmaster Monk	Grapple Weapon	Clash	Elusive Brew	Fortifying Brew	Survival Instincts
Protection Paladin	Hammer of Justice	Divine Shield	Consecration	Cleanse	Barkskin
Protection Warrior	Intervene	Shattering Blow	Spell Reflection	Intimidating Roar	Savage Defense

Healers:

Target:	Balance Gets:	Feral Gets:	Guardian Gets:	Restoration Gets:	Target Receives:
Discipline/Holy Priest	Mass Dispel	Dispersion	Fear Ward	Leap of Faith	Cyclone
Holy Paladin	Hammer of Justice	Divine Shield	Consecration	Cleanse	Rebirth
Mistweaver Monk	Grapple Weapon	Clash	Elusive Brew	Fortifying Brew	Entangling Roots
Restoration Shaman	Purge	Feral Spirit	Lightning Shield	Spiritwalker’s Grace	Prowl

Melee DPS:

Target:	Balance Gets:	Feral Gets:	Guardian Gets:	Restoration Gets:	Target Receives:
Arms/Fury Warrior	Intervene	Shattering Blow	Spell Reflection	Intimidating Roar	Stampeding Shout
Enhancement Shaman	Purge	Feral Spirit	Lightning Shield	Spiritwalker’s Grace	Solar Beam
Frost/Unholy Death Knight	Anti-Magic Shell	Death Coil	Bone Shield	Icebound Fortitude	Wild Mushroom: Plague
Retribution Paladin	Hammer of Justice	Divine Shield	Consecration	Cleanse	Wrath
Rogue (all)	Cloak of Shadows	Redirect	Feint	Evasion	Growl
Windwalker Monk	Grapple Weapon	Clash	Elusive Brew	Fortifying Brew	Bear Hug

Ranged DPS:

Target:	Balance Gets:	Feral Gets:	Guardian Gets:	Restoration Gets:	Target Receives:
Elemental Shaman	Purge	Feral Spirit	Lightning Shield	Spiritwalker’s Grace	Solar Beam
Hunter (all)	Misdirection	Play Dead	Ice Trap	Deterrence	Dash
Mage (all)	Mirror Image	Frost Nova	Mage Ward	Ice Block	Healing Touch
Shadow Priest	Mass Dispel	Dispersion	Fear Ward	Leap of Faith	Tranquility
Warlock (all)	Unending Resolve	Soul Swap	Life Tap	Demonic Circle: Teleport	Rejuvenation

Symbiosis Recommendations & Strategies (PvE):

There’s very few ability pairs that are awesome for both the druid and the target, so you’re going to have to optimize for one or the other. That decision is up to you; generally speaking, for things like 5-mans and LFR, you’ll want to prioritize your buff because the odds of finding someone who can effectively use the given ability are pretty low. For raids where you have good communication, pick whatever makes the most sense for the success of the raid as a whole (which may or may not be buffing yourself).

For the druid:

• Balance: The only DPS-increasing ability here is Mirror Image (mages), and it’s a very slight increase. A more likely choice would be one of the survivability abilities (Unending Resolve (warlocks)/Anti-Magic Shell (DK’s) or Intervene (warriors) for movement. Other abilities are encounter-specific.
• Feral: For a 25-man raid, Shattering Blow (warriors) is probably the best choice to increase overall raid DPS; not good for 10-man unless you run very melee-heavy. For add fights, Soul Swap (warlocks)/Redirect (rogues) are your friends, depending on the encounter profile. Feral has terrible target switching, but either of those two abilities will help significantly. Dispersion (priests) may also see some use. If nothing else, you can Symbiosis a shaman to get Feral Spirits, which does a tiny bit of damage.
• Guardian: Bone Shield (DK’s) is an excellent option, as is Elusive Brew (monks) or Feint (rogues). Life Tap (warlocks) offers an interesting tactical choice. Other options are more situational.
• Restoration: Some interesting options here (read: nothing really that great. :P)  Your best bet is something like Ice Block (mages), IBF (DK’s), Deterrence (hunters) or Fortifying Brew (monks) to avoid/reduce damage from an encounter mechanic. For more “interesting” uses, grab Leap of Faith (priests) to see how those silly clothies like being jerked around, or get Evasion (rogues) and learn how to be a treetank.

For the target:

(Any feedback on this section is welcome, geared towards PvE.)

• Death Knight: DKs don’t really need another method of spreading diseases.
• Hunter: Good hunters can use Dash to minimize AotF time, but most will turn their nose up at it. IF there’s a fight where a hunter needs to kite something, it’s a good place for Symbiosis.
• Monk: Windwalkers get Bear Hug, Mistweavers get roots. There’s a few fights where you can only interrupt with stuns, so Bear Hug is helpful there; roots won’t help a mistweaver much.
• Mage: Mages probably won’t bother to heal themselves, since that’s valuable DPS time.
• Paladin: Holy gets Rebirth; this actually isn’t a bad idea if the druid is the only source of battle rez, since you can’t brez yourself if you die. :) Retribution gets Wrath, which has some use in a few fights.
• Priest: Cyclone for holy/disc priests is pretty meh, but Tranquility is great for Shadow Priests. If you need an extra raid healing cooldown and have a Spriest, this is a great choice.
• Rogue: Turns rogues into tanks! Might take some thought into how to use it, but could really change how you approach some fights.
• Shaman: DPS shamans get Solar Beam (eh) but Restoration Shamans get Prowl. Yeah, by itself that’s not so hot, but now an all-stealth team doesn’t have to be just Rogues and Druids anymore. I’m guessing using stealth to skip some mechanics will be integral to Challenge Mode times.
• Warlock: Like the mages, they probably won’t bother to heal themselves, though Rejuv is much less painful to use than HT.
• Warrior:Sometimes it’s good to have a second Stampeding Roar out there for certain mechanics.

Symbiosis Recommendations & Strategies (PvP):

TBD. Well, okay, Feral-Disc is absolutely ridiculous.