TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

The Basics

It’s very important for any class to set a right foot forward when they begin the game. Race and class are very important decisions and that’s not different with the Druid. As a matter of a fact, race selection with the Druid class changes the play style dramatically!

Be sure to check out our Druid forum if you ever have any questions about your Druid or have something to add to this guide.

Getting Started

The first thing for you to consider about the Druid class is this: Is the Druid class right for you? The Druid class is kind of unique in that it’s not for everyone. While it is the jack of all trades (healing, tanking, stealthing) it’s the master of none. Some may argue that here or there it’s better and they are probably right. However, generally speaking it’s not the best at a certain field at all times. So without that understanding and a good understanding of what the class is about you’ll probably find the class to be under whelming. That’s why we’ve come up with a good list of what a Druid is and isn’t so that it may help you in choosing and understanding the class.

• Druids use Nature’s power to attack their enemies and support their allies. The majority of their damage comes either in the form of spells if they go Balance and stay in Moonkin Form, melee damage from their shape shifted forms (Bear for tanking and Cat for DPS), or from supporting their allies as a healer..
• Druids can shape shift into a Warrior, Rogue, Priest, and Mage like form (with various training and levels). Each of these forms give the class depth and flexibility.
• Druids can switch between their various forms quickly and easily, meaning that one second they can tank, the next they can heal, and then the next they could be in their DPS/stealth form doing massive damage.
• Druids can tank like a Warrior using bear form. However, they lack the Warrior specific gear for important encounters.
• Druids can stealth like a Rogue but can’t obtain the Rogue like talents nor the massive amount of skills Rogues have.
• Druids can heal like a Priest (well more like a Shaman/Paladin) but they can’t use many of the support spells Priests have. They make excellent raiding/instance healers though. Their Tree of Life form helps with this.
• Druids can cast damage spells sort of like a Mage. With their Moonkin talent they are able to transform into a Mage like form (an Owlkin) and from there can do some massive spell damage. However, this build is very gear dependent and some of it is not readily available.
• Druids are known as amazing small scale PvP healers and currently (Patch 2.0-2.4) rule 2v2 and 3v3 Arena healing.

In a quick summary, you could say that the Druid is a class that can do everything well, but not everything perfectly. Great for people who like doing it all and other related things.

Druid Forms - Shapeshifting

The thing that most separates Druids from other classes is their shapeshifting ability. Druids have many different forms that they can shapeshift into to function differently. While in each different form they gain access to different abilities, and if they attempt to use an ability that they can not use in that form they revert to caster form. Their forms are as follows:

• Caster Form: This is your normal form, where you appear as your Night Elf or Tauren self. When you use most caster abilities or potions you automatically revert to this form.
• Bear Form: This is your tank form. The bear form comes with a rage bar and abilities very similar to the Warrior skill set. Very useful for tanking and can provide some offensive damage.
• Cat Form: This is your melee DPS form. The cat form comes with the ability to stealth and abilities very similar to the Rogue skill set. Very useful for sneaking around and for causing massive attack damage. This is the form most used while leveling a Druid.
• Swimming Form: Useful for swimming, as you can get around in water without a speed penalty and you do not need to return to the surface to breath.
• Moonkin Form: This is your caster DPS form. Limits what you can cast but boosts your damage output and provides a passive spell crit buff to party members.
• Tree of Life Form: This is an optional healer form for restoration Druids. It boosts your HoT (Heal over Time) healing ability, but limits what you can cast and your mobility.
• Flight Form: This form allows you to fly (in places that allow it).
• Travel Form: This is your ground travel form. IT boosts movement speed by 40% while outdoors and allows quick get away from dangerous areas.

As of Patch 2.3 switching forms is instant and does not trigger the global cool down. As an added bonus Blizzard also enabled an option that allows you to cast a spell available in caster form while in an alternate form and it will automatically change forms for you before casting (given you have enough mana). If you prefer to disable this you can with the /console autoUnshift 0 command.

Selecting a Race

Picking a race as a Druid is a relatively easy choice, since only one race per faction can be a Druid.. This means your main choice is really if you want to join the Horde or Alliance.

Both races are similar and provide just as good of a Druid as anything else. Tauren’s War Stomp is a wonderful racial that will always be useful to a Druid while the Shadowmeld can make sneak attacks easier, although Druid’s do come with the stealthy cat form.

Resources for Getting Started

If you need additional help in leveling up or finding places to level then see these other extremely helpful resources that should aid in getting you started:

• Making Money Guide
• Alliance 1-60 Guide / Horde 1-60 Guide
• PvP Survival
• City and Starting Region Guides
• Weapons Guide
• Where to Adventure
• Must Know WoW Tips

Choosing a Profession

• Herbalism and Alchemy
  Maybe not the best choice for a Druid, since using a potion takes you out of form and returns you to caster form. Potions are always helpful in an emergency though and they do sell well. Flasks and elixirs are always useful as well though, and again sell for good money on the auction house.
• Mining and Blacksmithing
  Druids should avoid this combo as they can't make anything for themselves that is decent.
• Mining and Engineering
  Engineering is only mildly useful for Druids. Not hugely though
• Skinning and Leatherworking
  Druids can make leather for themselves and others. Some of the high level gear is near best in slot, and certainly best in slot short of raid, badge or PvP gear. This is always a good selection.
• Mining & Skinning or Herbalism & Skinning
  A combination of gathering skills is often times the best choice when starting out. Selling everything you gather on the Auction House can create enough money to fund new armor, weapons, and even a mount! This is the BEST way to go while leveling up to about level 60! Once you have gotten to a point where you need something from a crafting profession, then you can drop it and get a more permanent trade skill.
• Tailoring & Enchanting
  Tailoring is an OK choice for a Druid. No, not to create your own gear, but because of the things it can make when you're level seventy. You can create the various types of specialty cloth that sells for great money. Spell thread is also a great thing to boost your stats and the ability to make it is great as it always sells well in the auction house.

Important Stats

Being a hybrid class Druids rely on all of the statistics. Which ones are most important depend on which specialization you take and what you plan on doing.

If you play a feral build then you need strength for attack power, agility for attack power and dodge, and stamina to take hits. If you spend most of your time tanking, then stamina is the most important of the three. If you spend most of your time in cat form doing DPS then you want strength and agility.

If you play a balance build (IE: Moonkin), then you will be looking for intelligence and spirit. This will allow you to have a large mana pool and faster mana regeneration.

If you play a restoration build, then your main concerns will again be intelligence and spirit. Again to have a mana pool and regeneration rate, however spirit may be slightly more important here, especially if you raid heal where long fights are normal.

Strength
Increases your Attack Power thereby increasing your damage.

1 Strength = 2 Attack Power
14 Attack Power = 1 DPS (Damage per second)
Therefore
7 Strength = 1 DPS

Stamina
Increases your health points. This is important for any build, but especially critical for tanks since your objective is to be able to take damage.

1 Stamina = 10 Health points

Intellect
Increases your mana pool and your critical hit chance with spells.

1 Intellect = 15 Mana
100 Intellect = 1% Spell Crit

Spirit
Spirit raises your health and mana regeneration rate. While it is noticeable at higher levels of spirit, it takes a significant number of points in this to regain mana quickly enough that you will not want to stop and drink to gain it back. To further complicate this, spirit is affected by your intelligence as well.

4 Spirit = 1 Mana regenerated every 2 seconds (affected by intelligence)

Agility
Agility increases the following: attack power with ranged weapons, armor, critical hit chance and your chance to dodge attacks. The ranged weapon bonus is meaningless to Druids as we can not use ranged weapons. The main reason to boost agility for a druid is for the attack power, dodge and critical hit %.

1 Agility = 1 Attack Power
2 Agility = 1 Armor point
20 Agility = +1% to Critical hit
20 Agility = +1% to Dodge

Ability Bonuses