Original by Berius, 38 NE druid, Knights of Valor on Burning Legion. This thread was a sticky on the old druid forums, and we request it for being stickied.

(Latest changes to the FAQ: Added 1.8 changes, and some "are Druids overpowered?" sentences and removed "Is the Druid a good class?". Also shortened the intro a bit and totally changed the "What talents to pick" section. Actually, I changed the part about attributes)

Hello, I'm Berius. I'm just a Druid, a regular Druid, nothing special. But I wrote those Frequently Asked Questions, hope you like the read.

OMG what has happened in 1.8?!?!?!
The most important changes:
- Hurricane (AoE spell) is now a trainable skill available at level 40-50-60!
- Swipe has no cooldown
- Tranquility (AoE heal) is now 25% cheaper to cast, and has only 5 minutes cooldown
- Talent refund, all talents can be respent! This is because the Druid class has had some significant talent changes, read http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/1p8/druid/talents.html for some more info!

Everyone say that the Druid is overpowered now! Is that true?
No, simply. The Druid is a hybrid class, and thus has some strengths and potential in 1-1 PvP. Thing is, the damage outcome hasn't changed for Druids, only the talents have. And the talents might look overpowered, but considering our melee damage, for example, is weak to start with, our damage output will not get close to the one of a Rogue, nor do we have a Rogues' other abilities.

Also remember that a Druid cannot have everything: Nature's Swiftness, Innervate, Omen of Clarity, and the nice dps boost from Balance and Feral talent trees. Try to play a Druid and see that playing a Druid doesn't mean that you will own all classes.

Is the Druid a fun class to play?
Oh yeah, if it's something, it's fun! Atleast if you don't like to do same things over and over. We have the choices, so all we gotta do is use them, and there are so many combinations of all of our spells and abilities. We can play healer of the party, a really good tank, even a damage-dealer, or the fun all-in-one we're designed to be.

What about PvP? Is the Druid good at this?
Simply, yes. But then, what class isn't good at PvP? World of Warcraft is a quite balanced game now, and all classes excel at different things. In order to be really good in PvP as a Druid, you have to have perfect timing, good "know-what-to-do", nice equipment and some luck. With those ingredients you can play any class well in PvP.

What is Moonglade?
At level 10 all Druids get a spell that teleports them to Moonglade at will. Moonglade lies in northern Kalimdor and has free flight connection to both Darnassus and Thunderbluff (only to the capital of YOUR race). The flight master is in the middle of Nighthaven. Here you also get all of your Druid quests.

Myself, I save some really nice time when I am going to go from Azeroth to Kalimdor, I just teleport to Moonglade and have a few flights. Moonglade is contested territory on PvP servers, meaning Tauren and Night-Elven Druids can fight withing the Druidic village. However it isn't recommended, both because guards can see you and because it isn't a nice thing to do, to kill other Druids.

When do I get my forms?
10-Bear form (you have to do a quest for it)
16-Aquatic form (you have to do a quest that's long and difficult)
20-Cat form
30-Travel form
40-Dire Bear form (same as Bear, but with 360% armor bonus instead of 180%)

Tell me more about Travel Form?
Sure, Travel form is a form that costs low mana but has no special abilities. The difference between Travel form and Caster form is that Travel form cannot use any spells or abilities, but has an increased movement speed by 40%. This is comparable to mount speed which is 60% extra, so Druids actually don't really need a mount for travelling, although a mount is a good status symbol. As other shapeshifting abilities, it is instant cast and removes all movement-impairing effects, so it is a really good escape form. It can only be used outside.

Aww...how do I do that aqua form quest?
Ask a fellow Druid on your server, he might be nice enough to help you. Otherwise, check old threads on this forum, or search the internet. It is doable, just takes time and is difficuly. My advice is to go to moonglade and get the quest, and get the pendands when you happen to be around their location. The flight masters in moonglade will give you hints on the locations (they're in the middle of moonglade).

Any hints on Druid professions?
You can pick whatever you feel for, but it's very advisable to have atleast one gathering professions. Some examples of valid options:

Herbalism/Alchemism: Create buffs and potions for yourself and make some money out of selling them.
Skinning/Leatherworking: Craft your own armour

What race should I pick, Tauren or Night Elf?

Well here is a basic and simple comparison and guide for what race to pick when playing a Druid.
We will first start with a some information about the two different races.

Tauren:

Nature Resistance: +10 nature resistance.
Cultivation: +15 to herbalism.
Endurance: Max health increase by 5%.
War Stomp: 2 sec 8 yard aoe stun, affecting up to 5 enemies, has a 2 min recast. This one is good to have against multiple attackers when you want to get a regrowth off without natures swiftness.

Night Elf:

Nature Resistance: +10 nature resistance.
Quickness: +1% dodge.
Wisp Spirit: 50% movement bonus to when dead, really good if you die loads :)
Shadowmeld: A stealth skill. It is as effective as normal stealth, but you cannot move while using it. Amongst good uses is that you can drink/eat while stealthed, and can start channeling a spell-you will only be revealed when the spell is cast, allowing you a caster-form surprise attack on an enemy. Shadowmeld also increases you Prowling effectivity somewhat.

Race Comparison:

Night Elf has Shadowmeld as the main bonus function, a way to hide or escape from followers, also a good way to rest up with some kind of safe mode. Shadowmeld also gives a slight prowl(stealth) bonus to the Night Elf so that you will be slightly better at prowling than a Tauren.

Night Elves also have a higher base agility and a bonus to dodge ("Quickness"), although Tauren have more base strength and a bonus to hp ("Endurance")
Night Elf Wisp form is not much to compare with, it's not really useful but it's also not bad to be able to outrun all others in ghost form.

Tauren has War Stomp as the main bonus function, a good tool to have when you have several enemies on your back and you need to get a heal off, regrowth or a low healing touch. The Night-Elves lack this extra stun, so War Stomp makes a difference. Tauren also have a greater herbalism skill, so you'll be more effective as a Herbalist if you choose Tauren. The 5% hp increase isn't to be overestimated, since 2000 base hp would only result in a 100 hp bonus.

Both Races have +10 Nature resistance.

Conclusion:

War Stomp is an active tool that might save you from a few deaths and perhaps should be considered better then Shadowmeld, though Shadowmeld creates a different kind of playingstyle or atleast allows you to play differently, being able to stealth and wait for your pray or to rest while stealthed is quite good. Shadowmeld also gives that extra stealth bonus. NOTE that cat form prowl (stealth) does not allow you to drink or eat food.

Herbalism skill increase with Tauren is also quite good for a druid so this might also be a factor for you when you decide.

If you're so boring that you only look at racial abilities, I'd have to say the Tauren have slightly better such. However, this IS NOT what you should decide by. What are your friends gonna play, Alliance or Horde? Which race looks best? Would you rather like to quest in Horde lands or Alliance ones? And would you like to kill Forsaken and Trolls, or Human and Gnomes?

Reserved1

reserved 2.

Having a 60 Tauren druid on a PVP server and working on my alliance druid also on a PVP server, I'd have to say both have their advantages as well as disadvantages. From my point of view , leveling the tauren was easier then the nightelf because of Mulgore which leads into the barrens and the barrens has Wailing Caverns as an instance which offers Good quest rewards as well as loot from named mobs. I'm not going to focus too much on that though because I havent seen the low lvl instances for the Alliance yet, the only one i know of is Deadmines, which you have to travel to the other continent to get too, where as with the tauren, your first instances from lvl 15-25(ish) are right there, and if you want to go to the other continent all you have to do is take the zepplin from Durotar where as with the NE you have to travel through the wetlands which can be dangerous at lower lvls, not only because of monsters but because it is contested.


just my Input on the topic =)

<3 Naid

I'd like to add one piece of advice. If you budding Druids plan to go Feral at some point and do some serious tanking (you should it's way more fun than healing imo), then choose Enchanting as your profession. This is the only way to get yourself a Smoking Heart of the Mountain (they are made by Enchanters and are Bind on Pickup), which is the 2nd best Bear tanking trinket in the game.

Nice Post keep it up :)

Hi,

I had some questions about the druid class. These are basic questions but I couldn't find them in the sticky's. They are about the Druid stats. I feel a bit stupid asking.

I was wondering how many % crit and AP druids get in Bear and Cat form from agility and strenght. Also I would like to know how Proc rates work. Lets say I get TuF. Will the procrate still work in Bear form? And for trinket/enchants with proc rates?

Thnx in advance,

Culuriene

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Q u o t e:
Hi,

I had some questions about the druid class. These are basic questions but I couldn't find them in the sticky's. They are about the Druid stats. I feel a bit stupid asking.

I was wondering how many % crit and AP druids get in Bear and Cat form from agility and strenght. Also I would like to know how Proc rates work. Lets say I get TuF. Will the procrate still work in Bear form? And for trinket/enchants with proc rates?

Thnx in advance,

Culuriene

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1)Critical:
At level 60 we need 20points of Agility to gain 1% critical in both Bear/Cat form...(1% dodge too)

2)Attack Power:
Bear form:1Strenght=2 AP...agility gives no bonus to AP in bear form
Cat form:1 Strenght=2 AP...1agility=1 AP

3)Weapons proc:
We dont get it in Animal form!From the weapon we currently use when in animal form we get :
a)Its +stats
b)the equip/use benefits but NOT the chance on hit things
We dont get its dps either...dps is based on animal form/our level and totall stats(strenght-agility-talents)

I am told by other druids that the chance on hit that trinkets got we get it in Animal form but i cant confirm from personal experience since i have yet to use such a trinket:)

PS:i made this post at a time that server was offline so in case i remembered numbers wrong plz correct me fellow Druids!

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Q u o t e:
Hi,

I had some questions about the druid class. These are basic questions but I couldn't find them in the sticky's. They are about the Druid stats. I feel a bit stupid asking.

I was wondering how many % crit and AP druids get in Bear and Cat form from agility and strenght. Also I would like to know how Proc rates work. Lets say I get TuF. Will the procrate still work in Bear form? And for trinket/enchants with proc rates?

Thnx in advance,

Culuriene

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A normal feral druid with decent gear should have about 30% crit .. about 200+ strenght and 240+ agility.

Thanks a lot for this :)

What would you druids say would be bettter for leveling, Resto/balance or feral or balance or feral resto or resto? Thanks :) keep up tha good work!!

I leveled a resto druid when I started in 1.5, and was 60 1.7, before the boost. I would say feral is the best way to lvl, cause what ever specc u do, balance or feral, u need gear to back it up. Feral gear is way easier to get then balance as low lvl. But wow is about having fun=) So choose the build ur most comftirble(misspell?) with;)

I made a balance pvp video once, but didn't really have the gear to back it up:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8838769452470070530

But on my feral video, I had gear so I liked feral most:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7578445905419474941

i'm been a feral druid but i'm not closed minded i tried balanace at level 41 i'm not use to being a spellcaster contantly so i would say feral is more fun! i normally use some balance spells but when burning legion comes out the talents points are mixed e.g. natural weapons which is a balance atm is going to be resto and so is omen of clarity!

Well I shearched 1 page of this druid forum but I dont have the patient the look over all the 45pages of topics doh'.
So I dont know if its a FAQ or not but its my question and I really eager to knwo the answer.
The lesser arcanum of Tenacity gives 125 armor to leg or head slot item.
My question is : will I get the armor multiplier for this 125 armor in bear form?
I red post in other places and there were both who siad yes and siad no.
So whats the truth than?

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Q u o t e:
Having a 60 Tauren druid on a PVP server and working on my alliance druid also on a PVP server, I'd have to say both have their advantages as well as disadvantages. From my point of view , leveling the tauren was easier then the nightelf because of Mulgore which leads into the barrens and the barrens has Wailing Caverns as an instance which offers Good quest rewards as well as loot from named mobs. I'm not going to focus too much on that though because I havent seen the low lvl instances for the Alliance yet, the only one i know of is Deadmines, which you have to travel to the other continent to get too, where as with the tauren, your first instances from lvl 15-25(ish) are right there, and if you want to go to the other continent all you have to do is take the zepplin from Durotar where as with the NE you have to travel through the wetlands which can be dangerous at lower lvls, not only because of monsters but because it is contested.


just my Input on the topic =)

<3 Naid

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Since this is ages-old, I was thinking of making a revision sometime. Is there interest for that? (I know it'll take time to get replies to this, but asking doesn't hurt)

So, is there any wish for Berius' Druid FAQ v2.0 (or Foor's Druid FAQ, the name of my new Druid main, haha...)

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Q u o t e:
Since this is ages-old, I was thinking of making a revision sometime. Is there interest for that? (I know it'll take time to get replies to this, but asking doesn't hurt)

So, is there any wish for Berius' Druid FAQ v2.0 (or Foor's Druid FAQ, the name of my new Druid main, haha...)

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Yes :)

Great FAQ, must say - some people do really dont know that druids are like other classes - just a mix.

Now, im in a dilemma.
Knowing that im getting closer and closer to lvl 60, i cant help but wonder if it is it for me. I am a feral druid, and i love it to death, i dont see myself changing talents to be resto or balance cous its just not my thing... -BUT-... Feral druids have NO CHANCE of going to big raids. Ive seen it before, and it annoys me to my gutters.

So, what can I do? Lie, or just yknow. Miss out of ZG, MC and stuff like that?

There is good Feral gear to be found in Dire Maul (mostly the West and North parts I think) and other places. Just because you are specced Feral doesn't mean you cannot join raids, some guilds accept all specs.

Just remember to bring your best healing gear and be ready to heal. Ask the raid leader if you should heal on bosses only, or all the time. Often they can tell you to use your own judgement, so wear a mix of Feral/Resto gear and do whatever you think is most useful to the raid, in Molten Core it is easiest and saferst to stand back being a support class, but in Zul'Gurub a Cat or Bear is more free to move around.

You're not close to 60, not by a far shot, so don't worry if you feel for rerolling. If you like your Druid though, go for it! With a good attitude (not "I just wanna DPS KK?") and good contacts/applications, you can get your fair share of endgame too. And trust me, healing isn't all that boring after all...