Seeing as how this forum is pretty much dead, I am declairing myself as the All-Knowing Druid Guru.

Ask anything about the Druid class, and I'll give you an answer.

*crickets chirp*

ok...since my work has banned all of my other websites...I accept you as my Guru.

I am a 22 druid on a pve server. i had taken some time off and i am now returning.
i logged in yesterday and i felt really clueless on what i was doing...

how should i be attacking...
should i be in human form, cast and then switch to bearform?

should i just be in cat form sneaking around and then dps my pull?

what should i be doing? heheh

what gear should i look out for now as i level?

thanks for the help.

Well, what to do kinda of depends on your talent build. Are you Balance? Feral? Resto?

If you are resto, respec to Balance or Feral to level. You can always respec later.

Depending on your build, here's what you need to do;

If you are Balance: Cast roots, get to max range and nuke away. If roots breaks early, which it will more often than not, re-root or shift to bear. Your Feral DPS will be pretty crappy, so stick to bear to absorb damage, or to get off a Bash then a re-root. You shouldn't be getting hit too much, but Roots is the worst crowd control in the game so it will happen. You can always bash then get off a regrowth by the time the bash stun is over.

If you are Feral: Stealth up to your target, Shred them from behind, then claw your way to victory. At this point, your Feral options are still rather limited. Rip only if the mob is going to live for about 12 seconds or more, enough time to get the full use out of the bleed effect. If things get bad, shift to bear form, bash, root and nuke until the mob is dead. Once you get Tiger's Fury, Stealth to the mob, pop TF, wait for a tick or two so you get 90ish energy, then shred, claw, rake. Once again, if the mob is going to live for another 10 seconds, pop a Rip on him. Don't forget you can always bash, root, then heal if things look bad.

Feral is nice for leveling due to very little down time. Cat form your target down, shift out to heal yourself, then back to cat to DPS. By the time you need to heal again you should have most, if not all, of your mana back.

Gearwise, once again it depends on your spec. If you are Balance try to stack all the Int and Stam you can. More mana = less down time drinking. For Feral, look for Str, Stam, and Agi. You get more of a steady DPS boost from Str, and more burst damage from Agi.

Here's a quick breakdown.

1 Str = 2 Attack Power in all forms.
1 Agi = 1 Attack Power in cat form only.
1 Agi = 0.05% crit, 0.05% dodge, and some extra armor in all forms. 20 agi = 1% crit and dodge.

Just remember that high crit% doesn't mean anything if you are hitting like a girl. A healthy mix of Str and Agi is best.

One last thing: ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep a set of gear for healing. You will be expected to heal in instances more often than DPSing or Tanking. Your heal set should focus on Int and Stam. Don't worry about keeping it on you all the time, you can store it in the bank, but have one handy. When you are in instances, only pick one type of gear to roll on. I know it's tempting to roll on everything since you can pretty much use it all, but tell your party "Hey I'm gonna be rolling on heal gear" or "Hey, I'm gonna be rolling on feral gear." Even though you will most likely be healing, feel free to roll on DPS gear. If your party doesn't like it, tell them to find a new healer, and get yourself a new group.

What about weapon procs in BC (in feral forms)?

weapons can proc in feral forms in the expansion (a recent change). So now we can get crusader procs, windfury, etc in feral forms.

We can also use potions and bandages in forms as well.

Last 2 posts were correct up untill now. This has been changed back. No COH no pots and no bandages in forms.

Xarim:
Well, what to do kinda of depends on your talent build. Are you Balance? Feral? Resto?

If you are resto, respec to Balance or Feral to level. You can always respec later.

Depending on your build, here's what you need to do;

If you are Balance: Cast roots, get to max range and nuke away. If roots breaks early, which it will more often than not, re-root or shift to bear. Your Feral DPS will be pretty crappy, so stick to bear to absorb damage, or to get off a Bash then a re-root. You shouldn't be getting hit too much, but Roots is the worst crowd control in the game so it will happen. You can always bash then get off a regrowth by the time the bash stun is over.

If you are Feral: Stealth up to your target, Shred them from behind, then claw your way to victory. At this point, your Feral options are still rather limited. Rip only if the mob is going to live for about 12 seconds or more, enough time to get the full use out of the bleed effect. If things get bad, shift to bear form, bash, root and nuke until the mob is dead. Once you get Tiger's Fury, Stealth to the mob, pop TF, wait for a tick or two so you get 90ish energy, then shred, claw, rake. Once again, if the mob is going to live for another 10 seconds, pop a Rip on him. Don't forget you can always bash, root, then heal if things look bad.

Feral is nice for leveling due to very little down time. Cat form your target down, shift out to heal yourself, then back to cat to DPS. By the time you need to heal again you should have most, if not all, of your mana back.

Gearwise, once again it depends on your spec. If you are Balance try to stack all the Int and Stam you can. More mana = less down time drinking. For Feral, look for Str, Stam, and Agi. You get more of a steady DPS boost from Str, and more burst damage from Agi.

Here's a quick breakdown.

1 Str = 2 Attack Power in all forms.
1 Agi = 1 Attack Power in cat form only.
1 Agi = 0.05% crit, 0.05% dodge, and some extra armor in all forms. 20 agi = 1% crit and dodge.

Just remember that high crit% doesn't mean anything if you are hitting like a girl. A healthy mix of Str and Agi is best.

One last thing: ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep a set of gear for healing. You will be expected to heal in instances more often than DPSing or Tanking. Your heal set should focus on Int and Stam. Don't worry about keeping it on you all the time, you can store it in the bank, but have one handy. When you are in instances, only pick one type of gear to roll on. I know it's tempting to roll on everything since you can pretty much use it all, but tell your party "Hey I'm gonna be rolling on heal gear" or "Hey, I'm gonna be rolling on feral gear." Even though you will most likely be healing, feel free to roll on DPS gear. If your party doesn't like it, tell them to find a new healer, and get yourself a new group.

Within my guild I call myself "all-knowing", here though, I will call myself a level 60 balance Druid. I basically agree with what you said here, with one minor difference. I believe by this level you have Starfire. So if you are balance, I have found this to be most effective....

1) Starfire
2) roots
3) Moonfire (for the DoT)
4) Fairie Fire
rinse and repeat.

Once roots break (again, I agree they will...get improved root or the equivalent in BC, sorry forget the name ATM) you have a couple of choices. As suggested, bear with a stun, pop, heal, re-shift method works very well. What I did (granted I was chastised a lot for it) was to focus on melee weapons and just keep Rejuv. on myself with the occasional regrowth when needed. I used a 2h mace (I have see several threads saying only staff or dagger, I disagree for this exact reason) until I was about 50ish. There are several +magic (heal/damage) maces I have found and by the time the mob gets to you, there is only a fairly small amount of health left on it, and a DoT on it so the melee part is relatively short lived. Again, this is only my method and I was chastised often for it as I am "not a fighter in human form". Again, I disagree. If you go balance and are allowed to cast in a group, practice aggro control (that is don't get it) as warriors get a little upset if you keep pulling there thunder, uh, I mean aggro.

I do agree with keeping a set of healer gear, and letting the party know you intend to roll on it. Again, cloth wears can get upset if you win a roll for cloth when you are a "leather wearer". My response to that is normally, I am healing right?? If I can't roll on cloth that will help, I will start casting or leave. I have found that of all the classes (and I have played them all), you must "stand up" for yourself the most as a Druid as very few players know anything about a Druid other then they heal. Again, all this is just my opinion.

Ok, now....

/flameon

Pulling with Starfire then casting roots is actually more favorable than casting roots then starfire.

Why? Because you get a large damage spell off first, and then slow the mob down second. Starfire then roots, or roots then starfire, either way the mob will not reach you, so why not get that extra damage in before roots breaks?

2 handers (staff or mace) are the BEST weapons for feral or balance Druids alike. Since they are used by both hands, they have the most stats on them. While Druids can use daggers, they are pretty much useless since they have lower stats and we cannot dual wield. In fact, a warrior or pally with a one hander and a shield will get more stats than us simply because they have more items equipped. Choosing a mace or a staff is entirely up to the player. Just pick whatever has the best stats for what you want to do.

As a Druid you WILL have to stand up for yourself. There are so many people out there that just want a Druid to "stfu and heal me noob" that it gets frustrating after awhile. From levels 1-59, assuming decent gear and talent spec, we are equal to Warriors for tanking, Mages for nuking, and Rogues for melee DPS. From 60 on, we practically stop scaling, making feral and balance much less desirable in a raid setting... but that is a whole other story.

Xarim:

2 handers (staff or mace) are the BEST weapons for feral or balance Druids alike. Since they are used by both hands, they have the most stats on them. While Druids can use daggers, they are pretty much useless since they have lower stats and we cannot dual wield. In fact, a warrior or pally with a one hander and a shield will get more stats than us simply because they have more items equipped. Choosing a mace or a staff is entirely up to the player. Just pick whatever has the best stats for what you want to do.

you do know that offhands exist in the game, right?

saying that 2h weaps are the 'BEST' is very vague. plus you cant just say things like that because who knows what level of gear people have available to them. aka unless you are getting the legendary staff, the best weapon combos for feral, balance, AND healing all exist with a 1hander+offhand.

on another note, I am in beta on Blades Edge [PvP] (too bad i wanted to fight some of the warcry admins but they are on the pve server i believe). I am currently 47pts in balance and can answer just about anything in regards to damage output, viability, etc etc. (only lvl 61 though)

you do know that offhands exist in the game, right?

saying that 2h weaps are the 'BEST' is very vague. plus you cant just say things like that because who knows what level of gear people have available to them. aka unless you are getting the legendary staff, the best weapon combos for feral, balance, AND healing all exist with a 1hander+offhand.

on another note, I am in beta on Blades Edge [PvP] (too bad i wanted to fight some of the warcry admins but they are on the pve server i believe). I am currently 47pts in balance and can answer just about anything in regards to damage output, viability, etc etc. (only lvl 61 though)

And you do know that to get the best one handers to use with off hands you need to be killing outdoor raid bosses or running AQ? Only a very small percentage of players ever see any content outside of MC, and this number is even smaller for Druids as we are the least played class. Unless you are resto specc'd, one hander + off hand will generally give you less of a boost than if you picked up an epic mace or staff, and if you are feral there's only ONE off hand that will benefit you.

Tome of Knowledge is the only off hand with any stats other than casting ones, and even the Tome is more of a hybrid off hand than a full feral off hand. As far as off hands go, unless you are seeing end game content, the main hand/off hand combos you are getting are going to be worse stat wise than if you just got a 2 hander.

My post was centered more towards the "average" and/or "casual" player who will probably never get the chance to see some of the really nice gear that would make a one hander and off hand viable. This may change in the expansion, but I'm not in beta so I have no clue what the itemisation is like.

all im saying is you made a generalization about gear that isnt accurate because your assuming what people have access too.

and if you still arent killing any orbs at this stage of the game, then youre either a new player or youre someone who barely plays to care about getting a good weapon for feral/balance.

id say a small % of players see naxx bosses dying, but using the MC statement- eh thats a bit outdated.

Torondor:
all im saying is you made a generalization about gear that isnt accurate because your assuming what people have access too.

and if you still arent killing any orbs at this stage of the game, then youre either a new player or youre someone who barely plays to care about getting a good weapon for feral/balance.

id say a small % of players see naxx bosses dying, but using the MC statement- eh thats a bit outdated.

The generalization is valid simply because the vast majority of players are not raiders, or if they are they have not passed BWL and seriously, what hardcore raider is going to come into this topic asking about what weapons are best for them? Raiders with BWL+ on farm status are the smallest player base in the game. If you think a feral or balance spec druid has an easy-to-access one hand/off hand combo (we'll say anything BWL or prior) that is better than a 2 hander staff/mace, feel free to prove me wrong. Not to mention that the HUGE majority of Druids will be healing in said instances and most aren't even allowed to bid on anything that isn't healing gear... but that's a different arguement altogether.

Most ORBS are on farm status by select guilds. They know when they spawn, and have scouts posted at the spawn points so they can be the first people there. Unless you are lucky, there's a fairly small chance to actually down one. Some servers even have "alliances" where cross factions guilds will help each other out or have an agreement to not grief each other while they are downing the bosses. Hell, on my server the top couple guilds can down any of the dragons with only 10 people.

yea but, as per ORBS, do they still? theres really no gear there for them (the high end raiders). i figured that by now, if a dedicated group felt like camping a spawn, they should be able to take down a dragon.

Most top guilds know the spawn times almost down to the exact minute and will kill them just so others can't, or for bragging rights. As far as gear... their mains are decked out head to toe in the best stuff they can get, but all of them have an alt or two that they'll bring to the ORBS to get them geared up, since alts generally won't be taken to the main raids.

what is a good staff for lvl 29 ir 60. can u link me to website that has stats for it?

what is ir 60?

for weapons etc, check out the items database on this site, or other similar databases such as wow.allakhazam.com, or thottbot.com

Diggz:
ok...since my work has banned all of my other websites...I accept you as my Guru.

I am a 22 druid on a pve server. i had taken some time off and i am now returning.
i logged in yesterday and i felt really clueless on what i was doing...

Holy crap, I just did the same thing! Same level, same feeling of cluelessness. Oi.

Thanks to those of you who stepped in to help here. :)

Celsus123:
what is a good staff for lvl 29 ir 60. can u link me to website that has stats for it?

Is your 29 going to be a twink? If so, are you going for melee DPS, caster DPS, healing/support, or flag running?

What spec is your 60 going to be? What instances do you or your guild have access to?

firehorde:
Last 2 posts were correct up untill now. This has been changed back. No COH no pots and no bandages in forms.

I meant to address this earlier, but better late than never.

Pots, bandages, procs, and talking to NPC's while in forms were all implemented in a beta patch. It was even in the patch notes. A week or two later, Blizzard reps came out and said "Sorry, it was a bug that occured while we were trying to enable talking to NPC's in forms and has been removed." This started a HUGE uproar, on both the official US and European forums.

About a week ago, a rep on the EU forums posted and said that they are looking into pots and procs in forms, and will decide which ones we can and cannot use.

So we will get SOME pots and SOME procs back. Better than nothing I suppose.

probably caster and healing dps...so i should focus on stam and int...but im a tauren, so stam is no prob...but i cant find any good weapons on the ah. and my guild is kind of random, it ranges from lvl 6 to lvl 59

im a bit confused, but if you are level 60 and your guild is a bit random, i would suggest hittin the pvp scene hard starting tuesday. the honor system will be brand new and it won't take too long to get a sweet weapon. yea it still will be a grind, but if you went only for a weapon first, it will probably take 1/10 of the time.

I'm a bit confused as well. Do you need gear advice for a level 60 or a level 29?

29 for now, but i might lvl up to 60

thats great!! so keep up the gud work,. thanks.,

Aaaaa..! For Balance Druids... There's no need to go feral <.< just Moonkin form, and use:

Starfire> Entangling Roots> Faerie Fire> Moonfire> Insect Swarm> Wrath

Now if the "sucker" unties im self XD Wich i doubt he will until u use Wrath or when u use Moonfire cause Insect Swarm barelly never releases the "sucker" (who ever the moob is) if you'r still casting and u have no time to re-Root cause the "sucker" it's geting near use Nature's Grasp and between 1-3 hits max the dude will be tied again and u just go back and re-do:

Starfire> Moonfire> Insect Swarm> Wrath

If ur being "Gang Banged" xD relly on: Rejuvenation> Regrowth> Healing Touch> Lifebloom - ( If the ganging gets hugly and you'r 64+)

If it's a small group use: Entangling Roots on 1 guy if u have Nature's Grasp charged than use it 1 guy will get rooted so its 1 less Entangling Root you'll have to cast, wich takes time... and time means less HP. Than root the outhers and run XD or kill 1 by 1.
If u are the type of guy that likes to finish in style than make them suffer and when all the moobs are almost dead use Rejuvenatio/Regrowth (so if they escape the roots you wont R.I.P. so easily) than Hurricane, and kill them all at same time XD (If you'r 64+ use Lifebloom in case the Gangsters are kicking your ass).

Just remenber you'r a Druid with all the buffs u have and Moonkin Form giving u extra help on Armor and Attack power you'll be doing good even just with what you've got, but some priest extra help it's always welcome too =P

Ouh 1 more thing xD If your enemie is damn thug like a nigga use Barkskin. All damage taken is reduced by 20% and while protected damaging attacks will not cause spellcasting delays, so you'r gonna screw the dude up, sence it lasts 12 secs you have time to cast lots Wraths fast casting and nice damage while u get less damage, and if your still losing lots HP u can cast Healing Touch without worrying if u gonna die cause the dude gonna delay your casting befoure you cast. THE END :D

Damn big spech ( Hugo Chaves ) XD if you readed all grants cause you have the patience of a Saint =P

Hope this helps some 1. "TO BE CONTINUED!" LOOOOL Joking rest in peace bros i wont talk anymore xP

For pvp, try arenajunkies.com . They have some useful guides and dicussions as well.

Ok since you seem to be the one i need to talk to i want to ask you a few questions about my boomkin. i have been thinking about my talents and glpyhs. I have two different talent specs one for starfall dps and one for dot dps im wondering if you can help me out on what tanent spec i should go for overall increase in my dps i pull about 4.5k self buffed right now on the heroic target dummy but ofcourse I want it to increase.

Here are the two builds and glyphs.
Starfall... http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0tG0uiIscdIVhouZbxckb:uiIzmM
DOTs...http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0EG0uVIscdIVhohZbxczb:ufrzmM

it is simply moving those few points and changing glyphs but i am wondering witch would be the bigger dps increase.

would like a fast response plz.

Taar is my druid
stormscale is the server he is on