The Horde Leveling Guide

Tauren Druids

Welcome to the Where to, When to, and How to Guide on Being A Druid in WoW!

Welcome to the life of a druid, where nature, quite literally, is your ally.

Druids are only offered in two races in WoW, Tauren of the Horde, and Night Elves of the Alliance, but since this IS the “Horde Leveling Guide”, I’m going to leave you Night Elves at this point and talk to my fellow Horde, so go away now, shoo!

This is strictly Horde business!

This post is an introductory overview, I’ll shortly be doing an in depth talent build for each tree, so you’ll have all the druid info you need at your finger tips.

So if you need a druid feral spec, it’ll be covered. If you need a balance build for raiding, we’ll cover it. Stop in again soon to find out more!

An Introduction To The Druid Class

Horde friends!! Welcome. Nature truly is your ally… I say this due to the characteristics of druids – our damage spells are either Arcane of Nature, our Healing spells are ALL nature, and any physical damage is (or should be) done while in a form taken from nature, be it Bear, Dire-Bear, or Cat form.

What’s the difference between Bear and Dire-Bear?

I hear that a lot, and I’ve even asked it myself once. Dire-Bear form is different from Bear form in the way that Plate is different from Mail, that is, the armor value is higher.

The important thing to remember is that bear form gives a 180% armor contribution from items while Dire-Bear gives a 370% contribution, so consider it the equivalent of a different class learning to wear a new armor type.

Keep in mind that druids do not learn a higher armor than leather. We start with it, and we end with it. Our “armor upgrade” is Bear Form, which is learned at lvl 10 and is replaced by Dire-Bear form at lvl 40 (which is the same as when a different class learns to upgrade their armor type).

In Short, Bear form is a Tanking form, but we’ll get back to that later.

Cat form is acquired at lvl 20, and its not too difficult to tell that it is the Melee DPS (Damage Per Second) form for druids.

Upon taking cat form, a druids melee attack power (AP) is increased by 40+ your agility rating, that is, if you had zero agility it would give you +40 AP, and if you had 60 agility, it would give you +100 AP.

Both Bear form and Cat form are learned in the natural progression of a druid’s leveling. The forms themselves do not require a talent specialization, but to be effective in either form will require that talent points be spent appropriately in the Feral Talent Tree. With each form comes various beast abilities, Claw, Maul, Swipe, Growl etc, these skills are not available in non-Feral forms, and casting non-feral spells while in feral form will force you back to humanoid form.

Travel Forms:

At lvl 30, you are able to learn Travel Form, in this form your appearance is that of a cheetah, and your movement speed is increased by 40%. Note that regular riding mounts have a 60% speed increase, so if you’re looking to level and travel fast, a little investment in an actual mount can go along way.

Flight form (60% Speed Increase) is available at lvl 68, and has an upgrade at lvl 71 to Swift Flight form (280% Speed Increase), you are required however to train your riding skill to 300 for Swift Flight form.

Note: Your land based Travel form does not have an upgrade like Flight form, so if you revisit the Classic World, and do not have a land mount, you will be limited to a 40% speed increase.

Talent Based forms:

The only two forms not covered thus far are the Moonkin and Tree of Life forms. To be a Moonkin (commonly referred to as “Boomkin” for it’s DPS spell abilities) you need to learn the 51 point talent in the Balance Talent tree. Likewise to be a Tree of life you are required to learn the 51 point talent in the Resto (Restoration) Talent tree. A player cannot be both without doing a respec or, now with Dual-Speccing, activating a second spec which has the appropriate talents.

– Jimster from Eitrigg

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Related posts:

1. Druid Leveling Guide: Races, Forms and Balance
2. Druid Changes in Patch 3.2
3. How To Use a WoW Leveling Guide

Tags balance, build, druid, Druids, feral, guide, resto, spec, talents