Basic Druid Facts

"You're an animal"

over the course of the game, the druid gets 4 forms. well, 5 forms actually, but the last form is just an upgrade to a previous form, identical in looks but different in name and stat boosts.

bear form - level 10
sea form - level 16
cat form - level 20
travel form - level 30
dire bear - level 40

each of these forms adds to a druid in some way; bear/dire bear for tanking, cat for DPS, sea form for faster underwater movement + unlimited breath, and travel form for +40% faster movement on land.

each form has all the benefits and negatives of being a beast. while shifted, druids are immune to polymorph (making them very good anti-mage classes) and the act of shifting breaks the druid from any root effects.

this comes at a steep cost however; shifting to bear/dire bear or cat form requires 25% of the druids current max mana. fast, numerous shifting only becomes possible once you get travel form, since travel form is about 10% of your total mana.

this makes druid exceedingly good at getting away. once a druid gets travel form and the rank 2 dash for cat form, we can easily outrun anyone, even mounted people (for a short period of time). its generally not worthwhile to chase a druid unless you have some kind of ranged stun moves and can slowly close the gap with them. for those who know about desolace, i was chased halfway from ghost walker post to darkspear village by a palading on a warhorse. i was in travel form. i juked, faked, did 180's and more, all to try and confuse him so i could stay away from the 10 yard range of his hammer of justice, which he kept trying to do by overrunning me and dismounting before i could react. he eventually got me, but at the cost of his entire group, who my horde allies easily dispatched thanks to them not having their healer.

moral? dont chase a druid.


"Balance? NERF PALLIES!....oh, you mean druid balance"


the balance spells of a druid are primarily our nukes. moonfire, wrath, entangling roots, thorns, starfire and hurricane all belong to the balance tree, and can all be learned or enhanced by a talent in there. three learnable skills, natures grasp, hurricane, and omen of clarity, also belong to this tree.

wrath - basic DD spell, nothing fancy. caps out at 2 sec cast time, can be reduced to 1.5 by talents. low mana cost, no other effects, very straighforward. can be good consistent damage with +nature spell items on and the cast time reduction.

natures grasp - self-buff that gives you a 35% chance to cast root on a target that hits you in melee combat. 1 charge. can be enhanced 4 times to a maximum of 100% chance. basically, this is an insta-cast once-per-minute self-buff that allows a druid to get a quick, instant root off on an enemy that attacks him. great for if you survive the initial rogue attack while soloing, or if some opposing player just wont leave you alone and you dont have time to cast roots. also good in pve for helping deal with adds.

moonfire - instant cast DoT spell that has an intial DD factor as well. at level 33, with moonfire rank 4 (i believe) i deal 34 damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds, with an initial damage range of about 65-90 (give or take). instant cast means a druid can spam this (at the cost of his *entire* mana pool) to take down a single target, but the cost is rarely worth the benefit. most druids use this as often as possible in caster form, as its a great pve tool (good for stopping runners too) and in pvp it can wreck havoc for healers on the opposing side, as they watch theyre entire groups life leech away slowly. can be enhanced with talents to make it deadlier, cost less mana, and have a higher crit and damage rate. successive casts of moonfire reset the DoT, so spamming it effectively defeats half of the spells power.

starfire - heavy DD spell. can be enhanced with talents to add a stun effect (max of 15% chance), decrease mana cost, increase damage (max of 10%) or increase damage and crit rate. long casting time (3.5 secs) means this spell is mainly an opener, or used on targets engaged with someone(thing) else.

omen of clarity - learnable talent skill that lasts for 5 minutes and gives your weapon a chance to proc a clearcasting state, which reduces the mana cost of your next damage or healing spell by 100%. often combined with natures swiftness to get a free, instant heal once every 3 minutes, OoC gives solo druids incredible staying power in pve or very small scale pvp (using the root+joust method).

entangling roots - the signature druid spell. roots one enemy for progressively longer time/more damage as the rank of the spell goes up. my current root (rank 3 i believe) lasts 21 seconds and deals 15 damage every 3 seconds (i think). damage increases chance of it breaking early, and the recent patch makes it unlikely to last longer than 15 seconds on targets, unless the druid vastly overpoweres that target (i.e. 10 level+ difference). great at stopping runners or holding down soft targets for the swarm to maul in large scale pvp.

thorns - reciprocating damage buff. put this on a friendly to make them deal 9 nature damage to their enemy whenever they are hit. can be upped with talents to provide a 50% chance to deal +100% damage when the player is hit. not a huge amount of damage (9 is the current damage at my rank of thorns, it starts out at 3) but especially vs faster attacking classes (rogues, dual wielding warriors and hunters, cat form druids) thorns can make a significant dent. best on heavy armor guys like warriors, paladins, and mail shaman and hunters, its power is largely lost on cloth wearers due to their inability to take much physical damage.

hurricane - point blank area effect spell (PBAOE) that is learnable by a talent if 30 points have been put into balance (31st point learns hurricane). requires channeling, lasts for 10 seconds, gives a -20% attack speed debuff to enemies within a 10 yard radius while dealing (at rank 1) 51 damage per second. the downside of this is that hurricane is channeled, making it very easy for a smart player to reduce the (at higher levels, 1k+ mana cost) high price of the spell down to 2-3 seconds of mediocre damage. many many druids consider hurricane to be almost useless, both in pvp and pve. since its an unlimited target spell, more targets = more effectiveness, but in the case of pve, no tank could lockdown 3+ mobs for long enough to get any real use out of hurricane, and in pvp, a druid would have to be right on the front lines for best use, which in large scale battles, is suicide.

so the consensus is that hurricane really isnt that great an ultimate. however, the rest of the balance tree shines nicely, and i have faith that blizzard will make hurricane useful, but not overpowered, in time.

"Come get some lovin' from Mama Nature"

healing. its probably what druid does best. we have heal over times, single, large heals, an aoe heal, and even a heal+heal over time spell, along with one of the most intense mana regen skill in the game.

healing touch - basic single target heal. heals a massive amount of damage relative to character level. one healing touch of max rank at my level can heal me for about 80% of my total life, which amounts to roughly 900 hp. its a varying heal tho, with a range of about 700-900 at its current rank. talents can reduce its mana cost and decrease chance of being interrupted while using it (up to a max of 15% reduction in cost, and 60% chance of avoiding interrupt). caps out at 3.5 second cast time.

rejuvenation - standard heal over time spell. instant cast, heals a low-moderate amount of hp, this spell is best used when low on mana, you need to worry about managing hate, or youre on the run. its usually more than enough to stave off any number of DoT's from other classes. can be improved thru talents for a +15% bonus to its healing (3% per point with 5 points max). one of druids bread-and-butter skills, regardless of form or build.

regrowth - combination healing touch and rejuvenation spell. heals a large amount (roughly half of my highest rank healing touch currently) of hp directly, with a roughly equivalent amount over the next 15 seconds (i think its 15 secs). great for use while shifting from caster to an animal form, as it provides a lot of healing while we are unable to heal. its also a great way to give staying to someone under fire while also healing them directly. 2 second casting time makes it ideal for situations where you cant use natures swiftness for an instant heal, but you need the large initial surge from healing touch. can be enhanced with a talent for +50% chance critical rate, effecitvely making regrowth the most mana efficient heal in the game (when it crits).

mark of the wild - everyone knows this, and everyone loves it. gives +to armor, stats, and starting at rank 5, resistances. talent enhances its effect by up to 35% (7% per level, 5 levels). every druid uses this, and imp. motw is often taken by all druids, regardless of build.

natures swiftness - learnable skill that can be used once every 3 minutes to make the next nature spell instant. this applies to wrath, entangling roots, and all druid heals, but is almost exclusively used for healing touch to save the druid or an ally when time is short.

tranquility - you all probably know this, but its a 10 second PBAOE healing spell that heals party members for 94 every 2 seconds (at rank 1). talent can be used to reduce channel interrupt change by up to 80% (40% per point, 2 points max). mostly situational, it does have its uses in large scale pvp and in instances for after battle healing. also sometimes used to draw large amounts of aggro to the druid, who will then switch to bear form and tank as long as possible while the rest of the party gets away or kills off the rest of the mobs.

innervate - for those of you from FF, ill say this; innervate is to refresh what crack is to coffee. its a high-powered shot of mana regen that burns like a brilliant flame; that is to say, very brightly, but for a very short time. 400% mana regen for 20 seconds, once every 6 minutes, allowing 100% of mana regen to occur while casting. this gives the druid the ability to spam a great deal of spells in battle, or can give a mage carte blanche to really go nucking futz in battle. great for a heavy shot of mana to any class that can make use of it, it will (from what im told) generally refill your mana bar about 2.5 times before it wears off. whether that number is static for all classes, or just applicable to druids, i cant say, but there it is. like hurricane, this is a learnable skill which a druid can acquire at the 31st talent point spent in restoration (level 40 at the earliest).


Miscellaneous

skills that dont really fall into one category or another (as described above).

hibernate. puts beasts and dragonkin to sleep. effective at disabling hunter pets and shifted druids. two ranks of this skill exist, the first allowing sleep of up to target level 40 to happen, the second giving sleep of all target levels.

faerie fire. reduces armor and keeps that target from stealthing. anti-rogue device, its also good on heavy target to make them easier to take down in melee combat. lasts 40 secs.

cure poison. questable skill, removes one poison effect from the target. instant cast.

abolish poison. attempts to remove 1 poison effect from the target, and an additional poison effect once every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. costs more than cure poison, but good if youre in an area with lots of poisonin' going on. instant cast.

abolish curse. removes a curse from the target. instant cast. great at cutting the bottom out of some warlocks ability to deal damage, and good at getting rid of negative debuffs in general.

rebirth - combat rez. short casting time (2 seconds i believe), it restores the target to life with a large amount of life and mana (anywhere from 25-75%, depending on class...it restores a static amount, so a hunter will have near full mp, but probably about half hp, whereas a mage will have near full hp, and probably about 1/4 mp). requires a reagent, and can only be used once every 30 minutes. only rez useable in combat in the game.