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Roles, Tactics, U.I.

There are two different styles of play In WoW, and the Druid is well suited for both. Playing solo and playing in a group. Although the Druid is suited for both the roles he will play in two styles of play are very different.

Solo

When going it alone, the best way I have found to play is usually engage enemies that are a couple of levels lower than yours. As a Druid can't wear heavy armor, they can't take much damage, before having to heal or disengage, from a fight. Basically I try to be a pull one or two enemies at most and deal with them one at a time. Also remember stealth is your friend. I can't count how many times I have rested stealthed while amongst a group of monsters just outside their area of vision. I find the best way to pull a monster away from its friends is to use Wrath, or Moonfire

Group

When playing in a group, the best idea is to decide what role you are going to play. Druids can be almost anything, so having it made clear what your role will be is important. There is nothing funny about having everyone die because the priest thought you were going to heal and you decided to tank without telling the party first.

Role

There are two basic roles a druid can adopt. The first is a feral combat Druid. These types of druids use their bear form to tank for the party, or their cat form to take the place of a rogue. With talents that mimic the abilities of both a rogue and a warrior, a feral combat druid will fit into most groups quite easily

The second role is that of a healer. In this case the Druid would stay out of combat and keep the party alive. While not as good as a Priest, druids also have some pretty good spells like rejuvenation, tranquility, and regrowth that suit their role as a healer. One thing to keep in mind is although they can use rebirth to resurrect party members they can only use it once every 30 mins.

It is best if you decide which way you want to play before hand, as it will save money from not needing to get retrained.

Tactics

Timing of spells is a very important tactic to learn. First of all buff before adventuring. Mark of the wild and Natures Grasp are two early buffs that should always be in place. In the early stages of the game, when soloing, a fight will usually go along the lines of: wrath, moonfire, wrath, attack, attack wrath. This tactic is used for mobs that are far

enough away to get the second wrath in before hand to hand. When fighting mobs of similar level to you by the time you reach combat the mobs should be down at round 1/3 of their hit points. Your attacks with your melee weapon allow for mana regeneration and you usually finish off the mob with wrath. After obtaining the entangling roots spell, another tactic to use is to root the mob and fire away at it from a distance. Once the mob gets free and into hand to hand switch over to bear form and continue on fighting.

In a group after it is decided what role you’ll play it is best to stick to that role.

If you are the healer in the group stay in caster form out of harms way.Getting aggro when healing your party is always a problem. Here are some points to consider when healing:

Healing aggro = level + number of heals + type of heals.

The lower the level you are vs the mob, the more aggro you get.

The more healing you have to do, the more aggro you get.

The larger spells you use, the more aggro you get.

For druids, regrowth grabs the most aggro, healing touch will grab some, rejuvenation practically none.

So it follows that you should not heal right away, and after doing a major heal on a tank, take a break for a bit.

Also any healing done before a battle will not generate aggro, so good ahead and cast rejuvenation/regrowth, just don’t cast right after the battle starts. In the unfortunate event you do get the mob aggro switch to bear form until the mob can be pulled off you.

If your chosen role is tank, debuff the group before the fight and then switch to bear form. Your higher armor in bear form means you can tank. Maintain and continue to hold the mobs aggro through use of abilities like Growl, Maul and Challenging roar.

If your role is going to be high damage, buff your party and then switch to cat form. Wait until the mob is engaged and stay behind it. Abilities like Pounce, Ravage and Shred can only be used from behind a mob. In cat form watch your combo meter closely and use finishing moves after you fill the combo meter. Once the combo meter has five points in it, it is maxed out. There is no point in not using those pints to their fullest potential.

U.I. Setup

User Interface. There are 6 bars for your abilities, so there is more than enough room to have everything you need on a toolbar.One buil in benifit of the standard U.I in the game, is each form brings up it's own bar.

One thing I do suggest is to have a tradeskills bar, a combat bar and a healing bar. Seperating your abilities will help you not to mistakenly try to craft leather items in the middle of a fight!

Talent Builds

Balance (AKA: Moonkin) Build

This build is for druids that want to pretend to be mages, slinging spells at their opponents from a distance. While this was always an overlooked form, it is gaining some popularity since it can put out some very good damage once geared properly. As a side bonus you will be fairly survivable since you gain the same armor bonus as bears form druids do.

Balance
5/5 Improved Wrath
2/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp
5/5 Improved Moonfire
5/5 Natural Weapons
2/2 Nature’s Reach
1/1 Omen of Clarity
5/5 Improved Starfire
5/5 Vengeance
3/3 Moonglow
1/1 Nature’s Grace
5/5 Moonfury
1/1 Moonkin

Restoration
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Nature’s Focus
1/1 Insect Swarm

Feral
None

Restoration Healing Build

This build is for all the pure healer Druids out there. It grabs almost every talent there is that improves your healing. It also gets as many auxiliary survival type talents as possible, such as Omen of Clarity and Natures Grasp. I can think of no other build that allows a druid to be as solid a healer as this build. Don't expect to ever be able to do much damage on your own though!

Balance
5/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp
5/5 Natural Weapons
1/1 Omen of Clarity
1/2 Nature’s Reach

Restoration
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Improved Healing Touch
3/3 Reflection
1/1 Insect Swarm
5/5 Subtlety
5/5 Tranquil Spirit
3/3 Improved Rejuvenation
1/1 Nature’s Swiftness
5/5 Gift of Nature
5/5 Improved Regrowth
1/1 Innervate

Feral
None

Restoration PvP Healing Build

For all those druids that are into PvP combat and are called on to heal, this build looks at improving the survivability of the basic healer build by going into the balance talent tree. While not able to keep up to the pure healing build in big mana efficient heals it does get a bunch of useful extras. It can be used as a general healer build if you want to still be able to solo.

Balance
2/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp
Feral
5/5 Ferocity
2/2 Brutal Impact
3/5 Feral Instinct
1/1 Feral Charge
2/2 Feline Swiftness
3/3 Sharpened Claws
2/2 Blood Frenzy

Restoration
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Furor
5/5 Improved Healing Touch
1/1 Insect Swarm
5/5 Tranquil Spirit
3/3 Improved Rejuvenation
1/1 Nature’s Swiftness
5/5 Improved Regrowth
1/1 Innervate

Feral
None

Feral DPS Build

This build is for the players that want to play their druid rogue style, doing as much melee DPS as possible. It focuses on everything that allows them to kill their opponent as fast as possible while in cat form.

Restoration
5/5 Furor

Balance
5/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp
5/5 Natural Weapons
3/3 Natural Shapeshifter
1/1 Omen of Clarity

Feral
5/5 Feral Aggression
3/5 Feral Instinct
2/2 Brutal Impact
2/2 Feline Swiftness
1/1 Feral Charge
3/3 Sharpened Claws
2/2 Improved Shred
2/2 Blood Frenzy
3/3 Predatory Strikes
2/2 Savage Fury
1/1 Faerie Fire (Feral)
5/5 Heart of the Wild
1/1 Leader of the Pack

Comments

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? We would love to hear from you! Please post in our Druid Class guide forum, or email me at messiah@tentonhammer.com

Ten Ton Hammer's Class Guides - Druid	Class Guides Rogue Guide Hunter Guide Warrior Guide Priest Guide Druid Guide Warlock Guide Shaman Guide Druid Guide Paladin Guide
Druid Guide: Basics | Quests | Trainers | Weapons and Armor | Spells | Talents | Roles and Tactics / Playing a Druid | Feral Druid Guide | Forums | Leveling Guides