Class Guide
DRUID
Introduction
Welcome to the Ultimate Feral Druid Guide. We hope to create a one-stop resource
for the most common druiding questions, using a combination of my personal
experience and the best theorycrafting I’ve been able to track down. First, let
me tell you who I am and what I am not.
I rolled a druid back in 1.0 and have been playing him ever since. I am not
a hardcore raider or a hardcore PVPer, but I am pretty
darn good at what I do.
What do I do? I have tanked, DPS’d, and healed at every stage from 1 to 70. I’ve done some 25-man raiding and
but no 40-man raiding (basically, I just
don’t enjoy large raids). I do not have a lot of PVP experience, so you
will not find in-depth PVP advice here. It may show up once in a while by
accident, but this is primarily a PVE guide.
This guide is not The Final Word on druids, just what I’ve learned. Treat it as
advice (sometimes very well-informed advice, but advice nonetheless).
Class Overview
If you’re really new to the druid class, this section is designed to tell
you what we can do and what the different druid trees are for. This is not the
section that dissects individual talents, just an introductory overview.
What is the point of a druid?
The point of a druid is that we can fill almost any role in the game: main tank,
off-tank, healer, melee DPS, caster DPS. Pretty much the only thing we can’t do
is provide CC in instances, since our indoor CC (Hibernate) is only useful
against beasts and dragonkin, and there just aren’t that many beasts or
dragonkin in instances right now. Unlike other hybrid classes like the paladin
that have to respec to change roles, a druid can usually perform at least two
roles quite well with nothing more than a change of gear. Druids allow you to
experience the greatest variety of play styles in the game in a single class,
and they provide great “flex” spots in raids and instances. For instance,
instead of taking two prot warriors, one of whom will be wasted on single-tank
fights, you can take a druid, who can be an extra tank, extra DPS, or extra
healer as needed, all in the same run.
What are the druid talent trees?
Aesthetically, balance is the Druid as Nature’s Avenger. Mechanically,
balance is our spellcaster DPS tree. Balance provides the highest potential DPS
of all the druid trees both in raids and in PVP. Because its talents focus on
spellcasting, it hybridizes well with the restoration tree, and even full
balance druids can be very powerful healers.
Aesthetically, feral is the Druid as Shapeshifter. Mechanically, feral is
our melee tree. Feral covers both the druid tanking talents as well as
the core melee DPS talents, giving a feral druid excellent tanking capability
and good DPS (though not as good as balance) all in the same tree. The tradeoff
for this single-tree versatility is that many core feral talents are deep in the
tree, meaning the feral tree is not very friendly to hybrid builds. Feral is
more PVE-focused than the other trees, and most druids agree that feral is the
weakest tree in arena PVP.
Aesthetically, restoration is the Druid as Nurturer. Mechanically,
restoration is our healing tree. Restoration provides relatively few new
mechanics to the druid healer, but significantly increases the power of a
druid’s existing healing tools. Restoration druids synergize extremely well with
other healing classes and are also extraordinarily powerful in arena PVP.
 Leveling
Feral
I’ve never leveled a druid as anything other than feral, so I will restrict my
leveling advice to that spec. I am also not going to tell you where to
level. If you would a step by step guide to leveling, I suggest either
Joana’s Horde Leveling
Guide, or Brian Kopp’s
Leveling Guide for Alliance. This section is about how.
Feral is, everyone agrees, the fastest druid leveling spec. This is for two
reasons. First, it combines excellent survivability with good DPS in a single
spec. Second, it lets your mana regen between fights, so you can heal up every
fifth pull or so and then let your mana regen again, resulting in almost no
downtime.
A common practice for druids wishing to spec balance or restoration is to level
as feral until 50 or 60, and then respec once most of their leveling is behind
them.
You might think that, while soloing, you won’t attack from behind very much, so
2/2 Shredding Attacks is a waste. For most classes this is true, but for cats
(as you can see in my discussion of melee DPS) Shred is light-years
better than either Claw or Rake, so you should attack from behind as often as
possible. A good opener in cat form is...
- Pounce
- Shred x2
- Rip if at 4 CP, Rake otherwise
and POW, the mob is dead before he even gets to turn
around. This is why 2/2 Shredding Attacks and 2/2 Brutal Impact are,
surprisingly, excellent leveling talents.
Many druids find leveling difficult in their teens. At this level they have only
their balance spells and bear form to work with, forcing them to either use all
their mana or rely on a form that is not actually meant for DPSing. To these
druids, I offer the following encouragement:
- When I was your age, we leveled barefoot in the snow
both ways and we liked it.
- Hold out until your mid-20s at least. At level 20 you
get cat form, which will make your leveling much easier, not to
mention far more fun.
As you will quickly discover, cat form is best when it isn’t getting hit. Being a cat is
kind of like being an egg with a sledgehammer: you can dish it out, but you
aren’t so good at taking it. This is why a good solid opener is ideal for cat
grinding. However, if you have to fight many mobs at once don't be afraid to
just shift into bear and outlast them. This can also be useful for farming
situations where you're competing with other players for mobs - just tag three
of them in bear form and swipe them all to death.
Continue to
Leveling Feral Page
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