Balance or Feral? [Druids]

The true answer is.... it depends.

They are both great DPS and fun to play with the recent patches, but they both have their pros and cons. For leveling, many prefer Feral because of the no mana worries. But Balance and Feral are way different in every way. Stats needed on gear, rotation, types of attacks, etc... For those that don't know, Balance is spell casting, such as Wrath. And Feral is basically a rogue in kitty form. Balance spec at level 40 gets Moonkin form, for this reason they are called "Boomkin". Here are some pros and cons of each spec...

Balance

Good
~~~Flexible damage, you may choose to crit, to spam spells or to DoT
~~~Give a spell crit increase to your party or raid
~~~Innervate(can be used by all speccs) is a great thing to have if your or a healer in your party or raids mana runs out
~~~Not as common, but still very useful in raids.

Bad
~~~Hard to manage mana at lower levels especially, but Moonkin form now gives you 2% of your base mana from critting which helps much more later on with higher crit rates.
~~~DPS is often lower than feral

Feral

Good
~~~Works as both a tank and dps spec.
~~~For tanking you have more health than other tank classes although you have less armor and you get crit-immune by spec(Survival of the fittest)
~~~For dpsing your damage is decent and with good gear it´s just as good as a rogues.
~~~One good thing, that rogues doesn´t have, is a chance to gain an additional combo point on your target when you crit(Primal Fury).

Bad
~~~Tanks only have one AoE attack(Swipe)
~~~Energy can be an issue in cat form, make sure you get Omen of Clarity in the resto-tree
~~~Much harder to play for beginners
~~~Complicated rotation

Stats needed for each spec:

Balance:
~Int
~Stam
~Crit
~Haste
~Hit Rating
~Spell Power

Feral:
~Agility
~Stamina
~AP
~Armor Penetration
~Crit Rating
~Expertise
~Haste

Obviously at these lower levels you wont find all this on gear, but if it isnt on this list... it isnt for you. (Int is not for Feral... Agi is not for Balance)

With all this being said, it is ultimately up to you. But in my opinion feral is better for leveling until higher levels, then it is even more of a decision. I hope some of the things said here will help you make a decision!