My Offspec for Cataclysm

I'm going to be a balance druid for Cataclysm.  I put up with all the garbage they have slung my way for this long I'm not about to roll something else.  I am however, open to a new offspec for my druid.  We will have another druid in our group.  Blueshield will be switching to Bluevine and he'll be tanking.  I asked him what he was going to do with his offspec and he wasn't sure.  Then again if every fight requires two tanks which they have in tier 10 than his offspec won't matter.

Option one is resto.  With the gear changes they are making it will be even easier to keep a resto set.  I still should have no competition on spell leather gear.  I like healing, and I really like the direction the resto tree is heading.  We have a lot a great spells but have been pigeon holed into two.   When I get my chance to heal I'm looking forward to using more spells and handling something other than hotting the raid.

At the moment we have 3 folks who plan on healing for Cata.  When we have had three other healers I haven't healed at all.  As long as most content requires 2 healers your fourth healer isn't going to be healing much.  Of course two of our three healers have switched mains more than once this expansion so who knows how long they'll be healing.  The other is burned out on healing, he hasn't been showing up to all of our raids anymore.  Whether I decide on resto as my offspec or not I'm going to be collecting the gear as I can.  There is no chance that I'll not be needed to heal at some point.

Option 2 is feral dps.  This one is the most interesting to me right now.  I like the idea of switching from ranged to melee depending on the boss.  This would provide a lot of flexibility for us.  Nights where we are heavy in either ranged or melee I can help balance things out.

There are a lot of issues that could come up.  Gear being the first, how would I roll on gear and what would I prioritize.  Balance would be my main spec and spell leather would be mine.  If I have a rogue and bear druid to roll on gear my feral set will be behind my balance one.  I would be passing on all leather until two others have it and passing to even more when it comes jewelery.  I'm not sure I'd be able to keep the gear competitive.

I also wouldn't want to get stuck as a cat all the time.  Balance is my main spec and I wouldn't want to shelf it for weeks for whatever reason.  Another downside of two dps specs is long random queues.  I generally don't mind, but if I'm in a hurry I don't want to have to respec to get a faster queue.

Option 3 is feral tank.  This really isn't an option, tanking really isn't my thing and requires more responsibility in raid setting than I can handle.  I generally have a tv on and two children asking me questions while I raid.  I just don't see having a pve spec that won't see the light of day other than randoms.  I would just use it for instant random queues, which is easily done with a resto spec which I would have a lot more use for.

Option 4 is balance pvp.  It would be nice if Blizzard let you have more than two specs.  For an inflated price of course.  Looks like they are planning on giving balance druids tools to compete rather that just an insane aoe spell every 60 seconds (hoping to have both).  If I'm not needed to heal and can't keep up a freal set it would be nice to use my offspec for pvp.  Not having to respec for arenas/pvp would be pretty nice.

Well, I'm starting to work on a feral set again, I had one but vendored it for bag space.  I'm also going to brush up on my balance pvp.  The better I am with a fairly gimp spec the better I'll be if the spec becomes good.  That's all.