Every week, Shifting Perspectives examines issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, we haul ourselves to Outland and are shocked to discover that +spellpower sometimes comes on leather. The above video is the result of an idle question I was asked recently by a friend: "So how much damage would you guys do in caster form meleeing?" I started to answer and then realized I had no idea. The notion of actuallyhittingsomething with aweaponis utterly foreign to the class. We have claws and a can of celestial pain for that nonsense if provoked, but still, the question was pretty interesting, particularly because after seeingPrinnygod's commentfrom last week I started to wonder about all the different ways you could level as a Druid if you deliberately avoided Cat and Moonkin. Sure, you'd be a gibbering wreck at the level cap, but that's beside the point. Blizzard once hada talent called Weapon Balance in the Balance treethat improved our melee damage with weapons by 10% --they were expecting us to hit things. I wondered how that would have worked out if Druid talent trees had never been overhauled. So I took my main to the mobs outside the Argent Tournament and smacked stuff while running a stopwatch. What you'll see here is a level 79Frostbrood Whelpwith 12,600 health which took me 34.4 seconds to kill, with two global cooldowns devoted to casting aRejuvenationand then aLifebloom. I'm currently on a Feral (Bear) spec and thus wearing gear thatdoeshelp one's melee damage, mind you, but that still works out to a godawful 366.28 DPS. The moral of our little story can be found at the end of the video.Master of Armsis going to be a real trip. Oh well. Fortunately for us, we don't have to level like that, but regrettably I have no new trainable abilities to discuss this week. We'll look at the new 51-point talents you'll be getting, but apart from that, levels 51 through 60 are more of the same old thing. However, they will go faster than previous levels (or at least seem to do so), as both Balance and Feral have some important damage and utility talents under their belts now. LEVEL 52
Cower, rank 2: standard upgrade. Again, you're probably not going to find much use for this.
Claw, rank 5: standard upgrade, but Claw is absolutely worthless as a damage skill if you're Feral and have Mangle. The two abilities have the same energy cost, but Mangle does substantially more damage while also increasing the damage from bleeds and Shred. Point being, there's no reason to have Claw on your bars at this point.
All set? Head for the Blasted Land portals that you'll now find in your factions' major cities (located next to the portal trainers, or in their general area) and get thee to Outland.Both Balance and Feral players will notice rather quickly that there's a lot of Druid leather among the quest rewards and instance drops, which is a lovely change from the relative 1-58 gear drought for Balance particularly. You'll also note that the same or similar gear rewards are often present across a variety of quests, which is a fantastic opportunity to build a halfway-decent offset -- and you're going to want to do precisely that. Why? After leveling two characters recently through Outland, it's apparent that, while the flood of new Death Knights has ebbed somewhat, they're still a significant portion of the leveling population. Ferals in particular are going to face a lot of competition for melee DPS and tank slots in groups. Now that it's relatively easy to build a healing offset -- and so incredibly easy to find a healing slot in 5-mans -- I'd advise all Druid players to try their hand at healing Outland 5-mans. LEVEL 60 Get ready for an extraordinarily expensive level, but at least you'll save money on one thing...
Gift of the Wild, rank 2: standard upgrade. The new rank comes with a new (and slightly more expensive) reagent cost, Wild Thornroot, so don't forget to pick some up after you train this.
Rebirth, rank 5: standard upgrade. As with previous ranks, this one requires a new (and slightly more expensive) reagent, the Ironwood Seed, so you've got another reason to hit a reagent vendor.
Oh, yes, and here's what you're really turning 60 for:
F*#& YEAH FLIGHT FORM: Newly-improved to 150% speed and an absolute godsend for leveling purposes, Flight Form (and later Swift Flight Form) is your bestest buddy. While it's only usable out of combat, it's nonetheless insta-cast and fabulous for leveling efficiency, transportation, and -- forgive me -- healing on the "fly." Moreover, you can't be knocked out of flight form while damaged (with the exception of the bombs tossed out during Netherwing air races, which you won't have to worry about for 10 levels anyway), which is a huge bonus over normal flying mounts. You even getExpert Ridingtrained for free while picking up Flight Form. What's not to love (except for the long ears if you're a Tauren)? Some of the tricks you can use:
Getting enough altitude while damaged, shifting out to cast Rejuvenation andLifebloom, and popping back into form before you hit the ground. Continue on your merry way while the HoT's tick. Herbalists can also use Lifeblood without having to leave form, incidentally.
Hit X (or whatever hotkey you use for sitting) while on the ground in order to perch.
Herbalists and Skinners can pick herbs and skin without ever leaving form, making the Druid a superlative farmer for both professions.
The famous Rawrbomb if you're feral. Due to so many feral builds these days not incorporating 5/5 Furor, you may need to Enrage as you plummet in order to get the rage you'll need for Feral Charge:
Macro /mountspecial and use it while you're sitting.
The insta-cast nature of the ability makes it a fantastic escape tool even in world PvP; pop Dash or Travel Form to outdistance an opponent, get the hell out of combat, and take to the air as fast as you can. Heal up and stealth back. This also works for mobs; as long as you can get airborne, you'll (usually) be safe.
You'll find more tricks here on the Wowwiki page on flight form.
Once you're all done giddily playing around with Flight Form (and I seriously spent hours and hours doing nothing but flying around after I got it), take a peek at your 51-point talents: BALANCE 51-POINT TALENT -- STARFALL: One of the loveliest spell graphics in the game, Starfall is a powerful fire-and-forget damage ability that you'll be making good use of at 80 with some experience under your belt, but at 60 I feel more obligated to warn you about its potential drawbacks while you're learning how to use it. While soloing and leveling it's -- regrettably -- an extraordinarily easy way to get yourself killed. The stars hit all around you within a 30-yard range, which is slightly less than the range of your other damage abilities assuming you haveNature's Reach(which extends the range of your Balance spells to 36 yards). As a general rule of thumb, if you can hit something with aWrath, be prepared for Starfall to aggro it. In a densely-populated mob area or 5-man, it's not unusual to pop Starfall for the purpose of damaging one group and accidentally aggro the next. Because the spell also chains to any mob that's within 5 yards of a mob that gets hit, you can also snag patrols. You may want to head to a low-level area in order to experiment with when and where to pop Starfall for maximum effect. Once you get the hang of it, Starfall's nothing but gravy, and very pretty, high-damage gravy at that. For AoE situations, Starfall +Hurricane= mobs go boom. FERAL 51-POINT TALENT -- BERSERK: I'm still holding out hope that Blizzard will give this a somewhat different animation. I'd really wanted something along the lines ofBestial Wrath, because an enormous, angry bear/cat would easily be the best Feral animation of all time. That little green circle -- what is that? Anyway,Berserk is invaluable as the Druid's only Fear breakapart from resorting to a PvP trinket, and both Bears and Cats will get great use from it in PvE and PvP. For Bears, Berserk is the only source of multi-target burst threat you're going to get, so you're going to want to pop it on any large pulls and tab-target to spread the love around (don't forget that you can keep queuing Maul while using Mangle). You'll also want to pop it on fights likeKing Dred,Auriaya,Argent Confessor Paletress, and/orFaction Championsto avoid or escape Fear. Cats will want to pop Berserk for Fears as well, but they'll also get a lot out of it in conjunction withSwipeon trash pulls for absolutely unbelievable AoE damage. For single-target DPS, use it withHeroism/Bloodluston raid bosses to pump out the most damage possible.
Every week, Shifting Perspectives examines issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, we begin to enjoy our brand-new Bear and Cat forms in earnest. Hail and well met, Druids. I apologize for my lack of comments onthe last Shifting Perspectives, but I was away that week on vacation with abysmal hotel wireless. After spending 20 minutes trying to send a single reply, I gave up and decided that my time on vacation was better spent gorging myself on the offerings of the resort's culinary school. 4 days ofcoquilles St. Jacques, filet mignon, and venison sausage in puff pastry left me unable to move, but fortunately I have recovered sufficiently to roll myself,Violet Beauregarde-style, in the direction of the laptop for today's column. Levels 10 through 20 will be among your most interesting and frustrating as a Druid, and they're certainly among the most volatile; as ofpatch 3.2, you will gain 4 of the Druid's possible forms within these levels, with the biggest alteration to your playstyle likely to occur at 20 with Cat form. Be forewarned that this resulted in a fairly lengthy, 3-part article. Ready to go?
After reading through the comments onour 1-9 guide, I feel obligated to note that these guides are being written with the following assumptions: 1. I assume that you do not have access to BoA items. It's just a nice bonus if you do. 2. I assume your Druid is not starting life as the offspring of a wealthy main, with an array of BoE items awaiting them as they level. Not everyone's that well-off -- and even if you are, there's no law saying your Druid is on the same server (or of the same faction). I won't tell you to do something that only a character with 1,000g worth of gear and enchants can realistically do at a certain level. 3. I assume that you're not necessarily familiar with the game at large or with the gameplay of a ranged/melee DPS. The readership demographic forWoW.com leveling guidesruns the gamut from very experienced players of multiple classes to people who have only just bought the game yesterday. I do apologize to more experienced players who may resent being given advice they don't think they need, but when I started this game I did not know my arse from my elbow. I have very vivid memories of spending an afternoon wiping over and over again trying to getSupervisor Fitzsprocketdone, and have no desire to inflict that on anyone else. /endapologia pro leveling guide sua LEVEL 10 Your shapeshifting odyssey begins, but you've got a few other things to train first:
Mark of the Wild, rank 2: standard upgrade, but very nice in that now you'll get +2 to all attributes in addition to extra armor. Again, keep this up at all times.
Nature's Grasp, rank 1: This is essentially an insta-cast version of Entangling Roots, with the caveat being that a mob or enemy player has to hit you in order for it to trigger. When you cast Nature's Grasp, you'll notice yourself gaining a buff. If nothing hits you while Nature's Grasp is active, it simply fades away and won't do anything. If something does hit you, it gets rooted. Because NG is castable in all combat forms and Tree of Life, it's a good escape skill to hit when you're fighting a melee mob (or a caster mob you can line-of-sight) and your health is dangerously low. Hit NG, take off, the mob will get itself rooted on its next hit, put some distance between yourself and the enemy, then heal up.
All done shelling out to that extortionist posing as a class trainer? All right, let's get started. Your trainer will now offer you the first Druid class quest for Bear form. While different, the Night Elf and Tauren experiences are still largely the same -- The Alliance chain:
Heeding the Call: Get thee to Mathrengyl Bearwalker in Darnassus. You'll find him on the second level of the Druid trainers' tree in the Cenarion Enclave (35,8).
Moonglade: You'll be taught the Teleport: Moonglade spell and asked to find Dendrite Starblaze. Cast it, and you'll find yourself in front of a house in Moonglade. Dendrite is located inside on the second floor (56,30).
Great Bear Spirit: Dendrite asks you to find and speak with the Great Bear Spirit in Moonglade, who is located in the northwestern end of the zone at 39,27.
Back to Darnassus: With your lesson learned, Dendrite packs you off to Darnassus on a free flight. The Cenarion Circle flightmaster (who provides courtesy flights for all Night Elf Druids to Darnassus) is located at 44,45 at the south point of Nighthaven. The Alliance-affiliated flightmaster (you might as well pick up the flight path while you're here) is located in southern Moonglade at 48,67.
Body and Heart: Mathrengyl will send you to Darkshore to fight Lunaclaw, a level 12 NPC who needs to be summoned at the Moonkin Stone (43,46 inside the central cave). This is due east and just outside of Auberdine. I would advise reading the comments on the Wowhead entry linked, as it has several helpful tips, but Lunaclaw is not a difficult fight; you'll spend more time clearing pesky moonkin mobs than you will fighting him. Once you sprinkle the Cenarion moondust on the Moonkin Stone, it'll take 1-3 seconds before Lunaclaw actually spawns and runs into the cave from outside. As he does, toss a Rejuvenation on yourself, Moonfire him, then Wrath him to death. Once he's dead, talk to his spirit and head back to Mathrengyl in Darnassus.
The Horde chain:
Heeding the Call: Get thee to Turak Runetotem on Elder Rise in Thunder Bluff. He's the NPC ahead and to your left as you enter the Druid tent.
Moonglade: You'll be taught the Teleport: Moonglade spell and asked to find Dendrite Starblaze. Cast it, and you'll find yourself in front of a house in Moonglade. Dendrite is located inside on the second floor (56,30).
Great Beat Spirit: Dendrite asks you to find and speak with the Great Bear Spirit in Moonglade, who is located in the northwestern end of the zone at 39,27.
Back to Thunder Bluff: With your lesson learned, Dendrite packs you off to Thunder Bluff on a free flight. The Cenarion Circle flightmaster(who provides courtesy flights for all Tauren Druids to Thunder Bluff) is located at 44,45 at the south point of Nighthaven. The Horde-affiliated flightmaster (you might as well pick up the flight path while you're here) is located in southwestern Moonglade at 32,66.
Body and Heart: Turak will send you to the Mulgore/Barrens border to fight Lunaclaw, a level 12 NPC who needs to be summoned at the Moonkin Stone (42,60 just before the border with Mulgore. Essentially, take the road out of Mulgore and hang a right as you exit into the Barrens). As with the Night Elves' version of Lunaclaw, this is not a difficult fight, but you have slightly more advance warning of Lunaclaw's approach then they will (here he has to come around a tree and walk a little bit longer to reach you). Toss a Rejuvenation on yourself, Moonfire him, then Wrath him to death. Once he's dead, talk to his spirit and head back to Turak in Thunder Bluff.
Basic melee: At this level, nothing to write home about, but it will be slightly better than your caster form's melee attack.
Growl: This is your single-target taunt, forcing a mob to attack you for 3 seconds. This only finds use while tanking or distracting a mob off someone else; you don't have to spend any time convincing mobs to attack you while you're soloing. As of patch 3.0.8, it has a 30-yard range but is still considered a spell. In other words, you can be silenced out of the ability to taunt. While this may sound odd, it's still nothing compared to one of the most unbelievably stupid mechanics once in the game; beforepatch 2.3, Growl's chance to hit was also subject to +spell hit, which you've probably noticed is not exactly a common stat on tanking gear. Thus tanks were saddled with a ghastly 17% taunt failure rate on raid bosses like Al'ar, which often had fatal results. Show of hands; who misses that?
Maul: This is a clone of the Warrior ability Heroic Strike right down to the threat coefficient. It replaces your next white attack (i.e. auto-attack or basic melee) with a stronger yellow (i.e. special) attack. This has the unfortunate effect of consuming not only the rage cost of the skill itself, but also cancels the rage you would have generated from a white attack landing. Consequently, Maul gobbles both existing and potential rage, and is one of the primary culprits behind the Bear's horrible rage efficiency at this level (more on this in a moment). But it's an invaluable threat and damage tool at later levels and, like Heroic Strike, needs to be spammed for maximum threat generation, so hotkey it someplace easily accessible (however, due to its effect on rage generation, I wouldn't recommend macroing it to other abilities yet).
Your Druid trainer will also teach you:
Demoralizing Roar: This is a useful attack power-reduction tool versus melee enemies, but probably not worth the global cooldown (GCD) to put up at this level. What little rage you'll be generating will be needed for DPS. Demo Roar can be useful as an initial aggro tool on multiple enemies, but it's minimal threat at best; you want to slap it up to reduce incoming damage, not to generate aggro.
Once you've gained Bear Form, you'll notice something about its offensive capability; it doesn't have any. Many Druids who go through the initial class quest are disheartened to find that taking their shiny new form out for a test drive is like being strapped to a chair watching paint dry to the accompaniment of Wagner's Ring Cycle. You will typically kill more quickly in caster form, to the point where, even if you plan to level Feral, it may be worth your time to spec Balance between 10 and 19. So no, you're not doing it wrong -- caster form really is better for the moment. Reading over what I've written, I'm a little uncomfortable with how gloomy much of it sounds, but after leveling two Druids recently through this content to make sure it's current for present concerns, I'm still struck at how agonizing the early Bear really is. So I just want to say this before we get any further; at 80 you'll be mowing through enemies like a hot knife through butter, soloing old raids and heroics, and uttering a disdainful laugh at the phrase "group quest." Hang in there.
Both Balance and Feral players will notice rather quickly that there's a lot of Druid leather among the quest rewards and instance drops, which is a lovely change from the relative 1-58 gear drought for Balance particularly. You'll also note that the same or similar gear rewards are often present across a variety of quests, which is a fantastic opportunity to build a halfway-decent offset -- and you're going to want to do precisely that. 
Moonglade