What kind of skills can a class get from a Druid's Symbiosis?

Question

One of the rumors that many PvPers have been talking about is Mages being able to get Healing Touch from a Druid's Symbiosis, effectively wiping out one of the Mage's largest weaknesses: the inability to heal. However, I've noticed that no one has mentioned any skill besides Healing Touch, making me wonder if Mage's choose Healing Touch for it's effectiveness, or because they don't have a choice.

How does the receiving player choose which ability to copy from the Druid (if they have a choice, at all)? Is there a limit to what abilities the receiving player can receive?

Answer 1

Update for version 6.0:

With patch 6.0 (Warlords of Draenor expansion), Symbiosis has been removed from the game.

Original post:

Receiving players have no choice in what they get from the druid, and the druid has no choice on what they get from the player. It's all based off class. The most recent lists I've found (dating from the 26th of July, as these have changed a number of times in the beta) are below.

The skill for the non-casting player:

_Class_          _Spec_             _Skill_
Death Knight     Blood              Might of Ursoc
                 Frost/Unholy       Wild Mushroom Plague
Hunter           All                Dash
Mage             All                Healing Touch
Monk             Brewmaster         Survival Instincts
                 Mistweaver         Entangling Roots
                 Windwalker         Bear Hug
Paladin          Holy               Rebirth
                 Protection         Barkskin
                 Retribution        Wrath
Priest           Discipline/Holy    Cyclone
                 Shadow             Tranquility
Rogue            All                Growl
Shaman           Enhance/Elemental  Solar Beam
                 Restoration        Prowl
Warlock          All                Rejuvenation
Warrior          Arms/Fury          Stampeding Shout
                 Protection         Savage Defense

The skill for the casting druid:

_Class_       _Balance Druid_    _Feral Druid_   _Guardian Druid_ _Restoration Druid_
Death Knight  Anti-magic Shell   Death Coil      Bone Shield      Icebound Fortitude
Hunter        Misdirection       Play Dead       Ice Trap         Deterrence
Mage          Mirror Image       Frost Nova      Frost Armor      Ice Block
Monk          Grapple Weapon     Clash           Elusive Brew     Fortifying Brew
Paladin       Hammer of Justice  Divine Shield   Consecration     Cleanse
Priest        Mass Dispel        Dispersion      Fear Ward        Leap of Faith
Rogue         Cloak of Shadows   Redirect        Feint            Evasion
Shaman        Purge              Feral Spirit    Lightning Shield Spiritwalker's Grace
Warlock       Unending Resolve   Soul Swap       Life Tap         Demonic Circle: Teleport
Warrior       Intervene          Shattering Blow Spell Reflection Intimidating Roar

Unfortunately links don't work inside code tags, so if you want to see the details on the skills here are links/tooltips for all of them.

Answer 2

Each class will receive an ability based on the specialization that they have chosen. There is no way to choose what ability you receive without changing your spec.

This is a list of all the abilities granted based on what specialization you have.

As you can see, some classes have no choice at all, like Mages will always receive Healing Touch no matter what spec they are, and Hunters will always receive Dash, etc.

This even goes so far as to have it so that only one spec for a class is different. As an example, Death Knights only gain 2 different abilities, one for both frost and unholy, and one for blood.

It works the opposite way for druids too, they will gain an ability based on their own spec, and the class they use the ability on.