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[WoW]Druids: CLOSED SLIGHTLY EARLY
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
The first part of this OP will be class updates. The middle is for people new to the class. The last part is for people that have returned to the class or recently hit 85.
This is the druid thread, where we discuss the aforementioned class.
What is a druid?
A druid is a hybrid class, meaning that they can spec for several roles. Druids are unique in that they can spec for every role in the game: tank, healer, melee and ranged dps.
The druid's major mechanic is shapeshifting, which allows them to turn into a variety of creatures. By doing so, the druid gains the power to perform a specific role, but at the loss of his or her original spells. The roles are:
Bear Form: Tank
Cat Form: Melee DPS
Moonkin Form (spec only): Ranged DPS
Tree of Life (spec only): Temporary Healing Buff
Druids also have a few forms available that allow to to easily traverse various terrains. They are:
Travel Form: Boosted Land Speed
Aquatic Form: Boosted Water Speed and Water Breathing
(Swift) Flight Form: Enables Flight
Races
Alliance
Night Elves
They are the original druids, at least in modern times. Thus, they are the most common race of druid, and tend to hold the most stations of leadership within druidic organizations.
The druid becomes stealthed until they move or are attacked. Eliminates all thread until canceled. Two-minute cooldown.
Increases the level of your prowl's stealth effect.
Reduces chance to be hit by physical attacks by 2%.
Increases run speed while dead by 75%
Resistance to nature spells increased by 1 per level.
Bear Form
Cat Form
Moonkin Form
Swift Flight Form
The Worgen
Originally humans of Gilneas suffering from a curse, the worgen had their own form of druidism prior to the worgen incursion. It was the night elves, however, that allowed the Gilneans to further their druidic education.
Increases the druid's movement speed by 40% for 10 seconds.
Increases critical strike chance by 1%.
Increases nature and shadow resistance.
Increases skinning by 15, decreases skinning time by one second and skinning does not require a knife.
Allows you to swap between human and worgen form (cosmetic racial).
Increases movement speed based on riding skill level (cosmetic racial).
Cat Form
Bear Form
Moonkin Form
Worgen Swift Flight Form
Worgen Tree of Life
Worgen Color Chart Part 1
Worgen Color Chart Part 2
Horde
The Tauren
Tauren claim that they were the original druids many generations ago, but the art of druidism had been lost. While it is unknown if these claims are true, what is known is that the tauren of today learned the craft from the night elves as the result of a friendship between Hamuul Runetotem and Malfurion Stormrage.
Stuns all nearby enemies for two seconds.
Increases base health by 5%.
Increases herbalism by 15 and decreases herb gathering time by one second.
Resistance to nature spells increased by 1 per level.
Bear Form
Cat Form
Moonkin Form
Swift Flight Form
Trolls
During the battle for Echo Isles, the Darkspear tribe encountered an unlikely ally in the druid Zen'tabra. A vision of the Emerald Dream had showed her how to connect to the spirits in a way not known to trolls. After her assistance in reclaiming the Isles, many former loa priests and witch doctors set upon the path of the druid.
Increases casting and attack speed by 20% for 10 seconds.
Increases health regeneration by 10% outside of combat. Also allows the druid to maintain 10% of normal health regeneration in combat. And there's nothing you can do about it.
Increases damage done to beasts by 5%.
Increases chance to crit with bows and throwing weapons by 1% (druid cannot use these weapons).
Decreases the duration of movement impairing effects by 15%.
Bear Form
Cat Form
Moonkin Form
Swift Flight Form
Tree of Life
Female Troll Chart for Form Colors
Male Troll Chart for Form Colors
FAQ
How does Eclipse work?
Eclipse is actually pretty straightforward. You have three spells that generate either Lunar or Solar Power.
Wrath: Lunar
Starfire: Solar
Starsurge: Whichever will bring you closer to an eclipse.
Generally, once you have Solar or Lunar power, you can only gain power towards that Eclipse. So Wrathing while you have, say, 55 Solar Power should not reduce your solar power. Once you hit 100 of either power, your spells of the opposite element are boosted. Spamming Starfire will eventually lead to a nature damage boost whereas Wrath will lead to a arcane damage boost. This boost affects ALL spells of that element, not just Wrath, Starfire and Starsurge. Also, Starsurge is both Arcane and Nature damage, so it gets a buff from both eclipses!
Once in an eclipse, casting the buffed spells that generate Solar/Lunar Power will slowly bring you back to the opposite side of the bar. So, once I hit a lunar eclipse, casting Starfire will slowly move my bar towards a solar eclipse. Other spells like, Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Hurricane, etc. will benefit from the eclipse but WILL NOT move your eclipse bar in any way! When the bar hits or passes the middle, you will lose the eclipse and the process will start again when you get enough power for the next eclipse.
While you can stay in an eclipse and say, spam moonfire, you want to go back and forth between eclipses because our mana regeneration relies on hitting eclipses regularly. Balance has a fairly rotation-based style of play, and deviating from that rotation can be lead to a sad oomkin if you are too careless.
Why am using another race's Swift Flight Form?
This is (finally) fixed in 4.0.6. Don't ask me why it took so long.
What race should I be?
The differences are minor enough to pick what you want to look like. But if you insist...
PvE: If you want to tank, then Tauren or Night Elves are the top picks. For everything else, it's Troll or Worgen.
PVP: This is where things get a bit more interesting. Trolls are decent if you're going Moonkin for burst damage, but Tauren's warstomp is excellent and allows for easy Cyclones (the extra HP doesn't hurt either). Voodoo Shuffle is fairly useless, but there are times when you don't want to waste shifting out of a snare. For Horde, the likely choice is Tauren.
For Alliance, the Night Elf Shadowmeld is AMAZING to drop target. This will rid you of pets and drop you as any player's target, so even if they want to, they cannot send the pet out again. From there you can easily restealth for openers. The Worgen, however, are getting a major buff to Darkflight. It'll stack with ALL speed buffs except Dash. This means it will stack with Feline Swiftness or (for non-ferals) Stampeding Roar, effectively giving druids another Dash. I'd say this is a toss-up, but Worgen will most likely be useful in more situations whereas Night Elves are best when they are the primary target in arena or BGs.
Patch 4.0.6
-
Barkskin is no longer dispellable.
Entangling Roots now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Healing Touch is now trained at level 78, up from level 3.
Hibernate now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Lacerate damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.
Mangle (Bear Form) weapon damage (at level 80+) has been reduced to 235%, down from 300%.
Mangle (Cat Form) weapon damage percent (at level 80+) has been increased to 460%, up from 360%.
Maul damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.
Moonfire mana cost has been reduced from 18% to 9%.
Mount Up: This guild perk now applies to Flight Form and Swift Flight Form as well.
Nature's Grasp now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Nourish is now trained at level 8, down from level 78.
Omen of Clarity can no longer trigger from helpful spells (aka heals), unless the Restoration talent Malfurion's Gift is chosen.
Prowl is no longer broken by enemies using Demoralizing Shout or Demoralizing Roar.
Rake damage has been reduced by 10%.
Rejuvenation is now trained at level 3, down from level 8. In addition, its mana cost is now 20% of base mana.
Rip damage has been reduced by 10%.
Shapeshifts: Entering or leaving a shapeshift no longer cancels root effects. It continues to cancel movement slowing effects.
Shred weapon damage percent (at level 80+) has been increased to 450%, up from 350%.
Skull Bash's lockout time has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 5.
Soothe is now instant cast, down from 1.5 seconds.
Worgen and troll druids now have new art for Swift Flight Form.
Talent Specializations
Balance
Fungal growth duration has been increased to 20 seconds, up from 10. In addition, it should now be much more responsive when detonating Wild Mushrooms.
Moonkin Form now grants 15% damage reduction instead of increased armor. In addition, shapeshifting in or out of this form now breaks roots. Note this is not stated in the tooltip.
The Shooting Stars buff duration has been increased to 12 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
Starfall will no longer strike targets that are not in combat and will now drop stars at a slightly faster rate.
Sunfire mana cost has been reduced from 18% to 9%.
Total Eclipse (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 33%.
Typhoon mana cost has been reduced by 50%.
Wild Mushroom is now instant cast, down from 0.5 seconds. In addition, the radius of detonation has been increased to 6 yards, up from 3, and damage done increased by 30%.
Feral
Berserk (instant Mangle proc) now has a new Spell Alert identifier. In addition, Berserk no longer breaks Fear or makes the druid immune to Fear.
Blood in the Water: Timing on this effect has been improved so that Ferocious Bite will immediately refresh Rip, rather than be slightly delayed (which gave a chance for the Rip to expire despite being refreshed).
Infected Wounds now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
Pulverize weapon damage percent has been reduced to 80%, down from 100%.
Restoration
Disentanglement (new specialization): Causes shapeshifting to remove roots in addition to snares.
Empowered Touch now also affects Regrowth. In addition, after Tree of Life is no longer active, this talent will only refresh the most recently cast or refreshed Lifebloom, and will not refresh other copies of Lifebloom.
Natural Shapeshifter has been reduced to a 3/6-second increase to Tree of Life's duration, down from 5/10.
Nature's Bounty no longer affects Swiftmend, but now has a new effect. When the druid has Rejuvenation on 3 or more targets, the cast time of Nourish is reduced by 10/20/30%.
Symbiosis (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 16%.
Tree of Life duration has been reduced to 25 seconds, down from 30.
Wild Growth healing has been increased by 30%, and the cooldown has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10.
Glyphs
Glyph of Entangling Roots redesigned. It now reduces the cast time of Entangling Roots by 0.2 seconds, rather than making it instant cast.
Glyph of Regrowth now causes the heal-over-time effect to refresh itself on targets at or below 50% health, up from 25%.
Glyph of Wrath now increases damage done by Wrath by 10% and no longer requires Insect Swarm on the target.
This is the druid thread, where we discuss the aforementioned class.
What is a druid?
A druid is a hybrid class, meaning that they can spec for several roles. Druids are unique in that they can spec for every role in the game: tank, healer, melee and ranged dps.
The druid's major mechanic is shapeshifting, which allows them to turn into a variety of creatures. By doing so, the druid gains the power to perform a specific role, but at the loss of his or her original spells. The roles are:
Bear Form: Tank
Cat Form: Melee DPS
Moonkin Form (spec only): Ranged DPS
Tree of Life (spec only): Temporary Healing Buff
Druids also have a few forms available that allow to to easily traverse various terrains. They are:
Travel Form: Boosted Land Speed
Aquatic Form: Boosted Water Speed and Water Breathing
(Swift) Flight Form: Enables Flight
Races
Alliance
Night Elves
They are the original druids, at least in modern times. Thus, they are the most common race of druid, and tend to hold the most stations of leadership within druidic organizations.
The druid becomes stealthed until they move or are attacked. Eliminates all thread until canceled. Two-minute cooldown. Increases the level of your prowl's stealth effect. Reduces chance to be hit by physical attacks by 2%. Increases run speed while dead by 75% Resistance to nature spells increased by 1 per level.Bear Form
Cat Form
Moonkin Form
Swift Flight Form
The Worgen
Originally humans of Gilneas suffering from a curse, the worgen had their own form of druidism prior to the worgen incursion. It was the night elves, however, that allowed the Gilneans to further their druidic education.
Increases the druid's movement speed by 40% for 10 seconds. Increases critical strike chance by 1%. Increases nature and shadow resistance. Increases skinning by 15, decreases skinning time by one second and skinning does not require a knife. Allows you to swap between human and worgen form (cosmetic racial). Increases movement speed based on riding skill level (cosmetic racial).Cat Form
Bear Form
Moonkin Form
Worgen Swift Flight Form
Worgen Tree of Life
Worgen Color Chart Part 1
Worgen Color Chart Part 2
Horde
The Tauren
Tauren claim that they were the original druids many generations ago, but the art of druidism had been lost. While it is unknown if these claims are true, what is known is that the tauren of today learned the craft from the night elves as the result of a friendship between Hamuul Runetotem and Malfurion Stormrage.
Stuns all nearby enemies for two seconds. Increases base health by 5%. Increases herbalism by 15 and decreases herb gathering time by one second. Resistance to nature spells increased by 1 per level.Bear Form
Cat Form
Moonkin Form
Swift Flight Form
Trolls
During the battle for Echo Isles, the Darkspear tribe encountered an unlikely ally in the druid Zen'tabra. A vision of the Emerald Dream had showed her how to connect to the spirits in a way not known to trolls. After her assistance in reclaiming the Isles, many former loa priests and witch doctors set upon the path of the druid.
Increases casting and attack speed by 20% for 10 seconds. Increases health regeneration by 10% outside of combat. Also allows the druid to maintain 10% of normal health regeneration in combat. And there's nothing you can do about it. Increases damage done to beasts by 5%. Increases chance to crit with bows and throwing weapons by 1% (druid cannot use these weapons). Decreases the duration of movement impairing effects by 15%.Bear Form
Cat Form
Moonkin Form
Swift Flight Form
Tree of Life
Female Troll Chart for Form Colors
Male Troll Chart for Form Colors
FAQ
How does Eclipse work?
Eclipse is actually pretty straightforward. You have three spells that generate either Lunar or Solar Power.
Wrath: Lunar
Starfire: Solar
Starsurge: Whichever will bring you closer to an eclipse.
Generally, once you have Solar or Lunar power, you can only gain power towards that Eclipse. So Wrathing while you have, say, 55 Solar Power should not reduce your solar power. Once you hit 100 of either power, your spells of the opposite element are boosted. Spamming Starfire will eventually lead to a nature damage boost whereas Wrath will lead to a arcane damage boost. This boost affects ALL spells of that element, not just Wrath, Starfire and Starsurge. Also, Starsurge is both Arcane and Nature damage, so it gets a buff from both eclipses!
Once in an eclipse, casting the buffed spells that generate Solar/Lunar Power will slowly bring you back to the opposite side of the bar. So, once I hit a lunar eclipse, casting Starfire will slowly move my bar towards a solar eclipse. Other spells like, Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Hurricane, etc. will benefit from the eclipse but WILL NOT move your eclipse bar in any way! When the bar hits or passes the middle, you will lose the eclipse and the process will start again when you get enough power for the next eclipse.
While you can stay in an eclipse and say, spam moonfire, you want to go back and forth between eclipses because our mana regeneration relies on hitting eclipses regularly. Balance has a fairly rotation-based style of play, and deviating from that rotation can be lead to a sad oomkin if you are too careless.
Why am using another race's Swift Flight Form?
This is (finally) fixed in 4.0.6. Don't ask me why it took so long.
What race should I be?
The differences are minor enough to pick what you want to look like. But if you insist...
PvE: If you want to tank, then Tauren or Night Elves are the top picks. For everything else, it's Troll or Worgen.
PVP: This is where things get a bit more interesting. Trolls are decent if you're going Moonkin for burst damage, but Tauren's warstomp is excellent and allows for easy Cyclones (the extra HP doesn't hurt either). Voodoo Shuffle is fairly useless, but there are times when you don't want to waste shifting out of a snare. For Horde, the likely choice is Tauren.
For Alliance, the Night Elf Shadowmeld is AMAZING to drop target. This will rid you of pets and drop you as any player's target, so even if they want to, they cannot send the pet out again. From there you can easily restealth for openers. The Worgen, however, are getting a major buff to Darkflight. It'll stack with ALL speed buffs except Dash. This means it will stack with Feline Swiftness or (for non-ferals) Stampeding Roar, effectively giving druids another Dash. I'd say this is a toss-up, but Worgen will most likely be useful in more situations whereas Night Elves are best when they are the primary target in arena or BGs.
Sterica on
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This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Problem with Moonkin is the dependence on the Lunar/Solar eclipse cycle. If they have to move during a Starfire-spam period this severely cuts into their dps. Second problem is the poor variance of stats, because they get lots of talented hit (they always have a Moonkin present, after all), the haste cap for Wrath is very low and I think they reach the crit cap for certain spells.
But 3.3.3 has some Moonkin love, especially by buffing Starfall.
Speaking of which, I was threat capped in yet another VoA last night, begging for HoSs and getting nothing.
edit: It's even more difficult because by the time you realize you are catching up to the tank, rip has 10 seconds and rake still has 6. So even if you stop attacking you are still generating a shit load of aggro.
SW:Tor - Tao - Kryatt Dragon Server
Popping Barkskin, Starfire and tossing up Hurricane can make things go dead very quickly.
but its probably slower than feral, unless you've got some raid gear.
Good job Rorus.
I'm used to ranged dps, and terribad at melee dps in a group so this seems like the logical choice.
From what i've read Hit Cap > Spell Power > Crit to 35% > Haste. How is the T9 I already have the chest as it's quite good for Resto as well.
SW:Tor - Tao - Kryatt Dragon Server
For 5 mans in badge-level 4t9, putting enough in balance for nature's grace is enough. Empowered Touch, Regrowth and Living Seed in resto, as well as all the mandatory talents.
For 10 man raids, emphasize a little more on haste, but keep an eye on crit if you're holding onto 4t9.
For t10 and up, respec to 3/3 Celestial Focus and stack haste till 735. This, paired with Gift of the Earthmother and full raid buffs drops your GCD on your hots down to 1.0 seconds. Then spam Rejuv across the raid with a Wild Growth every 6 seconds to epeen the healing meter.
For dungeons in the 70-80 range, don't bother with the balance stuff. Spec straight up the tree to Wild Growth and fill in with the extra stuff off to the side as you go. Lean away from the lifebloom crutch, but when you do use it stack to 3 as fast as possible, and let it bloom off for mana return.
Mmmmm....toasty.
I piss off a lot of people farming eternal fires by dropping out of the sky in cat form and FFFing everything.
Feral is still awesome if only because you can go bear and slowly swipe-tank things down.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Any suggestions? Usually go wrath until lunar, starfire until solar, refresh dots when they expire and treants/starfall on every cooldown.
Thanks for confirming.
I'm running the icc 5 mans and toc10/25 for upgrades for the 219 stuff but haven't had any luck at all. Will keep at it. Got a 245 ring kicking about but it'd put me under hit cap, that's why the 219 ring is there but I might swap it out and go with hit food until I can pick up the hit else where.
I mean, obviously it's probably a bad idea for progression content, but should be ok for lower tier stuff and things like Ony/VoA?
For comparison, I don't have 100% pure tank stuff yet, but buffed my health went from 36k to 50k (I think) when I switched from dps to tank gear.
Doesn't seem to be any agility rings with armor on them though, bleah.