CLASS: Druid guides

Table of contents

• Rolling and levelling a Druid
• Playing the Druid class
• Gear lists and guides
• Specs and talents
• Raiding as a Druid
• Endgame as a Druid

Rolling and leveling a druid

• Why choose a Druid?
  So, you've been thinking of rolling a Druid. You've seen Druids in your guild tanking Heroics or Prince Malchezaar and clawing faces and chewing limbs as a Ferocious Cat, or maybe you've seen the incredibly smooth and powerful healing of your favorite Golden Tree. Or maybe the last thing you saw in PvP was a Feathered Owlbear bringing down the Wrath of the Starfire on your head, or holding you immobile and helpless with their Whirlwind. Whatever the reason, something about the Druid class interests you, and maybe you'd like to know a bit more before making the plunge.
• Your first steps as a Druid
  Well, when you start your new Druid at level 1, you won't be clawing faces. Instead, you will be leveling as a caster... a ranged DPS caster for levels 1 - 10, and likely on towards 20. By knowing how to set yourself up in advance with the in-game Options, useful User interfaces and Addons, you'll find yourself leveling up as a caster painlessly, and may even come to enjoy the versatility of some of the Druid's powerful casting abilities.
• Druid leveling 1-5
  Your first five levels set the tone for how your Druid will feel. It's all about casting spells for ranged combat. You're going to want to spend as much time burning them down on the run as you can, and minimize the time you spend whacking them in the face with your stick.
• Druid leveling 6-10
  So far in our series of Druid leveling tips, we started with preparing to play a Druid, and then covered the basic strategies of levels 1 through 5. Today we're going to talk about weapon skills, Entangling Roots and your first real Druid specific challenge; the level 10 Bear Form quest chain.
• Leveling a Balance Druid
  Brew up some Goldthorn Tea, settle back, and let's take a look at respeccing to Balance with a full-on Balance build from 58 on through to 70 with Nasirah from A Tale of Two Druids, followed up with leveling from 10 to 70 as a mix of Balance and Restoration with Phaelia of Resto4Life.
• Druid leveling and Talent specs
  Explore Leveling Talent specs in more detail, and not just levels 11-20, but leveling all the way to 70.

Playing the Druid class

• Making macros for a Druid
  You too can make a few handy shortcuts through macros that will make your gameplay experience better and your reflexes faster.
• Handy AddOns for your Druid
  These addons help you solve a couple problems that many druids are likely to face, helping you get at important druid information that isn't easily available in the standard interface.
• Online Druid resources
  Highlights of online gear guides, build guides, play guides, and wikis that provides useful information for the WoW Druid.
• Bear Tanking Strategies Part 1
  Much of this discussion will center around tanking after reaching level 70, but the foundation of this series will explore information valuable to bear tanks of all levels, including exactly how Threat works, various methods of pulling, and how to work with your group to keep the target's attentions on you, and not your squishy friends.
• Bear Tanking Strategies Part 2
  Staying alive blends into two different philosophies: Survivability is your ability to still be alive after taking a big old whack from the boss, or suffering spiky irregular damage the healer was unprepared for. Mitigation is your ability to avoid or reduce taking that damage altogether. Today, we are going to focus on staying alive, and how to plan your gear choices effectively.
• Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense Skill for PvE
  There are three combat mechanics that have a direct bearing on the Feral Druid in PvE at level 70, and each have a functional upper limit on how much you need, before adding more becomes a waste of points. The three combat mechanics I'm talking about are Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill.
• The Druid Soulstone
  We've all wiped in an instance from time to time. It is significantly easier to keep going when a rezzer has a self-rez ability so the group doesn't have to waste time running back to the instance. Soulstone and Reincarnation are wonderful things. The Druid's Rebirth spell can also be used occasionally to save the party the walk of shame back to the instance.
• Druid Flight Form FAQ
  Flight Form is a Druid shapeshift that's only usable in Outlands and turns you into a Stormcrow, allowing you to fly. This means a free, instant-cast flying mount, basically, as well as free flying mount training (which is much more expensive). People have a lot of questions about Flight Form and we have the answers.

Gear Lists and Guides

• Awesome tank gear and how to get it easily
  Let's just assume that you're leveling up your feral druid, thinking about when you reach 70 and wondering what kind of gear you're going to need going into the high-end 5-person instances and raiding. The thing you might not know is, as you're leveling up towards 70, some of the best of these high-armor items are easily available through quests.
• Awesome Moonkin gear and how to get it easily part 1
  Like the bear gear list, but, you know, for Balance Druids.
• Awesome Moonkin gear and how to get it easily part 2
  Waist, Feet and Wrist items are categorized here.
• Awesome Moonkin gear and how to get it easily part 3
  Jewelry, Trinkets, Weapons, Gems and Enchants finish up this series.
• Drops for Druids in Zul'Aman
  Boos by boss, we break down the drops for all Druid specs.
• Drops for tanks in Patch 2.4's 5-man, Magister's Terrace
  In addition to the Badge Loot and Faction Rewards that come with Sunwell, here are the choice tank drops in the patch's 5-man.
• Phat Loot Friday: Earthwarden
  Spotlight on one of the best feral tanking weapons in the Outlands.
• Phat Loot Friday: Staff of Beasts
  An excellent feral staff for mid 60s Druids.
• Sunwell Badge Loot for Druids
  This treatment looks exclusively at the new leather gear offerings available in 2.4 and assumes that you won't have access, or at least immediate access, to the new 25-man raid Sunwell Plateau.

Specs and talents

• Build Shop: Druid 0/11/50
  Full Resoration talent spec with a little feral love for emergencies.
• Build Shop: Druid 43/0/18
  Moonkin own all with this Druid Build Shop spec.
• Build Shop: Druid 0/47/14
  The feral build that has taken the druid community by storm since The Burning Crusade launch.
• Druid leveling and Talent specs
  Explore Leveling Talent specs in more detail, and not just levels 11-20, but leveling all the way to 70.

Raiding as a Druid

• Bear Tanking Strategies Part 1
  Much of this discussion will center around tanking after reaching level 70, but the foundation of this series will explore information valuable to bear tanks of all levels, including exactly how Threat works, various methods of pulling, and how to work with your group to keep the target's attentions on you, and not your squishy friends.
• Bear Tanking Strategies Part 2
  Staying alive blends into two different philosophies: Survivability is your ability to still be alive after taking a big old whack from the boss, or suffering spiky irregular damage the healer was unprepared for. Mitigation is your ability to avoid or reduce taking that damage altogether. Today, we are going to focus on staying alive, and how to plan your gear choices effectively.
• Defense Cap defined
  Many WoW players (and several of our readers) often comment that there is no such thing as a defense cap. This is true in the strict sense that there is no upper limit on how much defense you can have, nor any statistical diminishing returns. However, that's not to say that there's not a point where the utility provided by more defense starts to fall off – so there is a point where the utility given by more defense actually provides a practical diminishing return, and that point is referred to as the defense cap.
• Maximum Stamina
  If you want to live through any boss fight as a tank, the one thing that you need above all else is health. Stamina, which gives ten health for every one point of stamina, is by far the most important stat that a tank needs in order to do their job well.
• Raid Rx: Consumed
  Yes, gear has a lot to do with such a high healing number, but lest we forget the impact of consumables.
• Raid Rx: Overhealing FTW
  Waaay back when dinos first started populating Un'goro Crater, raid healers had many methods of seeing whose liquid excrement would travel farther. Amongst these, the universal and most prized of those contests was Overhealing (OH).
• Raid Rx: Healing Assignments
  Being an avid WoW Insider reader and a Raid RX loyalist, you've been working hard to get ready for your first 25-man raid. You have your pre-raid check list done. Seven healers including yourself are ready to heal and be healed. This week I'm going to cover the final step in getting your behiny mixed up in some 25-man raid healing action: Healing Assignments. Or, as I like to call it: "This is where I control your raid life. Those cookies better be in the mail!"
• Raid Rx: Unkicking butt, a Grid story
  Ok. Stop the QQ'ing right there. I know WoW Insider has covered Grid before and mentioned it last week, and even I've talked about it in passing. What's the difference now? I'm covering nitty gritty, the stuff you need to know to make your raiding life easier.
• AddOn Spotlight: Healbot Continued part 1
  By taking some of the busy work out of casting healing spells, buffs and keeping the party free of curses, poisons and/or diseases, programs like Healbot Continued can take you from being a good healer to being a stellar and indispensable member of any group.
• AddOn Spotlight: Healbot Continued part 2
  Further ways to configure this popular healing addon.

Endgame as a Druid

• Raid Rx: I feel the need for speed part 1
  Today we're going to cover how to get around inherent casting latency.
• Raid Rx: I feel the need for speed part 2
  The last time we parted ways, you had been left with some casting lag reduction homework. This was the first step in pumping up your healing per second (HPS) with little in the way of capital cost. Today we're going to cover spell haste.
• Raid Rx: I feel the need for speed part 3
  This week I'm going to finish the series with an in-depth look at the remaining haste gear by class, including what's available now and what's coming up in Patch 2.4.
• The Art of War(craft): Motion Theory in PvP part 2
  Last week we went over the importance of motion in PvP. Unlike in most PvE encounters, movement is vital to PvP. Kiting and taking advantage of line-of-sight is standard fare, so unrestricted movement is essential. Thankfully, in World of Warcraft, plate- and cloth-wearers alike move at relatively the same speed. It's difficult to imagine PvP at a plodding pace, which is why movement-impairing spells and abilities are key to PvP.
• The Art of War(craft):Twinking for PvP part 2
  Last week, we discussed the matter of twinks and PvP. In many occasions, twinks exist purely to PvP, dominating lower-bracket Battlegrounds with their über-gear. In fact, there is no shortage of twink complaint threads on the World of Warcraft forums. Whatever one might feel about twinks, it's an ongoing phenomenon that shows no signs of letting up.
• See also: Raiding as a Druid
• See also: Specs and talents