Druid guide for WoW Forever

The druid is the most complete hybrid in the game: it can tank, deal melee damage, cast from range and heal, and it switches roles by switching forms. In its normal form it uses mana to cast; in Bear Form it fights with rage, like a warrior; in Cat Form it uses energy and combo points, like a rogue. It wears cloth or leather, never mail. Shifting costs mana and it is rarely the best at any single job, but it levels solo very comfortably and fits any gap in a group.

Balance (damage)

Damage caster with Wrath (nature) and Starfire (arcane). In Classic it is the tree with the worst mana problems and it still is, but Forever gives it a treat: Wrath deals roughly 50% more base damage.

Feral (damage and tank)

One tree with two roles. In Cat Form it is melee damage with stealth and attacks that build combo points; in Bear Form it is a tank with multiplied armour. That is why this site shows it with two stat and gear variants: Feral (cat) and Feral (bear).

Restoration (healing)

A heal-over-time healer: Rejuvenation, Regrowth and Tranquility for the whole group. Forever adds Wild Growth, which does not exist in Classic, and lets its periodic heals crit.

The druid has eight documented changes in build 1.60.1.70009, more than most classes, and three of them touch the same thing: healing crits. In Classic, periodic heals cannot crit. In Forever, Rejuvenation, Tranquility and Wild Growth (a spell that does not exist in Classic) can now land critical hits. For Restoration, crit goes from nearly useless to worth something.

On the damage side, the big change is Wrath: its base damage goes up by roughly 50%. It is the spell every druid kills with at level 1 and the one Balance uses all the way up. Thorns improves in a different way: in Classic its damage was fixed when cast; in Forever it updates on the fly with your spell power.

Feral gets three tweaks. Primal Bite is a new Forever ability that was called Mangle in the beta and applied a signature debuff; it is now renamed and loses that debuff. The talent the beta had renamed Primal Fury gets its Classic name and icon back, Blood Frenzy. And Feral Charge in Cat Form can no longer be cast on allies. The notes give neither Primal Bite's damage nor its cost, and we will not make them up.

On top of that, the druid can already test the Cooldown Manager (off by default) and on gamepad it gets its own Shapeshift flyout.

Recommendation: Feral from 10 to 60, in Bear Form until you get Cat Form and in Cat Form from then on. It is the tree that depends least on mana: in form you fight with rage or energy and save your mana for healing. Balance levels better than in Classic thanks to Wrath, but it still runs dry early; keep it for group play.

How the climb breaks down, broadly:

• From 1 to 10, Wrath is your weapon. With the damage increase it kills noticeably faster than in Classic.
• From 10 to 20, Bear Form: it takes a beating, builds rage from hitting and being hit, and you can drop out of it to heal. Use this stretch to tank a dungeon or two.
• From 20, Cat Form for questing: stealth lets you choose your fights. Keep Thorns up at all times.
• From 30, Travel Form speeds up everything else.

Talents, broadly: Feral up to the 16-point milestone (new in Forever; if you would rather not think, there are two class presets), prioritising Cat Form damage and crit, plus Blood Frenzy. A reset costs 1 silver in the beta, so you can level as Feral and heal on a given night without going broke.

Pacing in Forever:

• No level scaling: zones keep their fixed level. Orange mobs eat too much mana in self-healing; move zones.
• Spend your Legacy Points if this is your main: Well Rested, the example perk Blizzard has shown, gives more rested experience.
• Stop at the campsite before every dungeon: repairs, vendors and up to three one-hour buffs crafted by other players.

The table above has four profiles. Balance wants spell power, then spell hit and crit, and mana per 5 seconds weighs in because mana is its big problem. Feral (cat) is a regular melee: agility and strength almost level (1 strength gives 2 attack power), with hit and crit above everything; weapon damage does not matter because forms ignore it. Feral (bear) flips the order: stamina, armour and agility, because Bear Form multiplies leather armour and the bear cannot parry or block.

Restoration wants healing and spell power, then mana per 5 seconds and spirit. A Forever-specific nuance: our weights, built for level 60, give crit little value because periodic heals cannot crit in Classic. With Rejuvenation, Tranquility and Wild Growth now able to crit, our reading is that crit is worth somewhat more than the table shows; we have not measured it yet, so the number stays until we have data.

At level 20, the beta cap, the druid's gear comes mostly from Leatherworking. Feral (bear) wears four Leatherworking recipes (the brawler's hood and gloves, Defender's Leather Pants and the Deviate Scale Belt); Feral (cat) wears three, and Balance three plus two from Tailoring. Restoration combines three Leatherworking pieces (the wisdom's leather set) with three from Tailoring (the pristine circlet, gloves and sash). Most of them are new Forever recipes.

From dungeons, Balance gets three pieces: Tree Bark Jacket and Ghamoo-ra's Bind from Blackfathom Deeps and Mindthrust Bracers from Shadowfang Keep, which it shares with Restoration. Feral (cat) heads to Wailing Caverns (Glowing Lizardscale Cloak and Gloves of the Fang) and The Deadmines (Smite's Mighty Hammer, a two-hander). Feral (bear) takes the Blackened Defias Armor from Edwin VanCleef, also in The Deadmines, and the Defias Renegade Ring from The Stockade. The trinkets have no known source in our database yet.

Higher up, the Scarlet Monastery is the key stop, with eight different BiS-marked items for the druid, followed by Razorfen Downs and Blackrock Depths with three each. Forever's new dungeons have no BiS-marked loot for the druid in our data yet. The breakdown per level and slot is on the druid BiS page.

The druid is still a matter of night elves for the Alliance and tauren for the Horde, as in Classic, and Forever adds the Skyborne of both factions, the class's two new combinations. The Skyborne pick a faction at character creation, start on Zephras Isle with their own level 1 to 12 adventure and have two active and two passive racials, not yet detailed for the druid.

The only racial changed in this build that affects the druid is the tauren's Cultivation: in Forever it requires a character level equal to the herb's level divided by 5, and herbs needing 300 or more skill are learnable at level 60. Otherwise, choose by faction and looks.

Skinning + Leatherworking is our recommendation for almost any druid in Forever, and the data backs it: all four variants wear three or four Leatherworking pieces in the level-20 BiS, and Feral still has several at 30 and 50. Skinning also levels itself while you kill beasts. Forever adds more than 600 new recipes and a passive bonus per profession.

If you plan to heal, Tailoring covers Restoration's other three pieces, but pairing it with Leatherworking leaves you with no gathering; in our opinion it pays off more to commission the pristine pieces. For gold, Herbalism + Alchemy (with the Cultivation change if you are a tauren). First Aid saves mana and Cooking gives a small experience bonus through crafted food. Each profession's leveling path is in the profession guides.

• Staying in normal form for everything. Wrath has improved, but mana still runs out. From 10, fight in form.
• Forgetting Thorns. In Forever it scales on its own with your spell power: no need to recast it after a gear change.
• Picking a Feral weapon for its damage. Forms ignore weapon damage. What counts is the agility, strength and attack power it gives.
• Tanking in Bear Form with cloth pieces. Bear Form multiplies leather armour; a cloth piece with better stats almost always loses.
• Writing off crit as Restoration. Your periodic heals can now crit: do not chase it, but do not throw it away.
• Looking for Mangle in beta guides. It is now Primal Bite, with no debuff; and the beta's Primal Fury is Blood Frenzy again.
• Pushing orange quests. Without level scaling, they are lost one mana bar at a time. Rotate zones.
• Ignoring the cheap respec. At 1 silver, try Restoration on a dungeon night.