What am I missing? Please Help!Follow

The good news is you're past the hard part. The first 20 levels for a druid is a known pain as we don't have cat form's solo friendly skills and we're not far enough into a talent tree to define our play style.

It's been a while, but cat form takes until 22 or 24 when you get the skills you really need it in to start producing damage. Might need to check what skills you'll get in the new few levels.

Specialization is a big problem for this class. Are you wearing a mix of caster and feral gear (int/spi vs str/agi)? How are you using your first few talents?

Hang in there a tiny while longer - druids take a long time to come into their own and you aren't out of the woods yet, but you should start seeing some big and happy changes over the next few levels.

Also, you may be running into problems if you're trying to be master of all trades with one set of gear (and talent points). I suggest leveling feral if you plan on playing solo at all, putting your talents into a feral build and gearing up mainly with STA, AGI, and STR. You can still heal your party when you need to; when you get a drop or a quest reward that has INT/SPI, hold onto it. Even swapping out a few pieces when it's time to play healer will help your heals greatly. I hear there are many mods that can help make changing outfits fast and easy, someone else may be able to recommend one.

It doesn't surprise me that the lock is out DPS'ing you at this level (and I dunno, maybe he will always out-DPS you depending on your individual characters). Talk to him when you're level 40, have comparable DPS as well as being invincible and able to save his butt in a pinch besides. He may even shed tears.

As for whether it's for you, ask yourself what you want out of your gameplay. As a druid, your versatility is your strength, even though it seems like a weakness now. Learn to adapt to any situation your party is in and shift seamlessly into whatever role is needed. If that doesn't sound like it's for you and your dream is to be at the top of every DPS meter (which is a perfectly lovely dream), you can still play a druid, but you won't be getting everything out of it, and you may find it less frustrating to choose another class.

I also don't agree with you that it's "quitting" to stop playing a class you aren't enjoying. You need to find out what you are, and be that.

I do think though that if you really want to give a druid a shot, unfortunately you have to play one for at least 36 levels to get a true feel for what the class is like.



Edited, Oct 10th 2007 4:05pm by teacake

It's probably a mix of factors, first make sure your talents are straight (generally feral, and there are other threads on suggestions for builds) and that you have different sets of gear for each role you want to take, int/spi one for casting and agi/str one for feral. Trying to perform a variety of roles in a mixed set of gear will leave you fairly week.

Next is experience with the class, on my second druid to level I could take groups or mobs my own level on and come out ok, but it requires using different skills.

If you have two mobs try rooting one (assuming they are melee fighters) and then dpsing the other in cat form, with only one mob on you you shouldn't have trouble killing it. Then you can reroot the next one (if you need to back away and heal) or just kill it.

Get used to using all of your abilities, if you start off against a mob in cat form and find you are taking too much damage, switch to caster, cast rejuv on yourself and then change to bear. If you're still low on health then bash the mob and switch back to caster for a longer heal.

Your killing speed may not match up to that of 'pure' dps classes, but you should be able to balance that with survivability. Back in the day when level 60 was as good as it got I was in Corins Crossing in EPL having a bit of trouble. I pulled a couple of mobs who then ran away and called friends, or some spectres popped up and called friends etc. I managed to kill 9 mobs, continously fighting until I got overwhelmed. This was specced resto gear and in not overly great gear (think mainly wildheart). My bf was watching and amazed at all the tricks I could pull to stay alive. Even now he likes watching me fight and curses everytime I shift from cat, heal myself and then go into bear (he plays a warrior and a rogue and thinks it's rather unfair that I can mimmic either of his characters and also heal myself on the same toon).

But it's taken me a long time to learn my druid and there are still areas where I could improve (namely pvp - which I suck at). If you really want a druid then stick with it (rested xp can help), as you get higher your cat form will increase in number of skills and so should become much better at killing with.

Healing wise, I find most classes quite limited at lower levels. have a seperate set for healing, try not to use regrowth too often, instead use rejuv for dps who take damage but aren't likely to be hit again any time soon, and two ranks of healing touch (full rank and I like one that heals about 60% of the full rank) so you can heal people taking damage, but don't have to wait until they are nearly dead for your spell to be efficient. I'd say druids are no worse than any other class at healing at low levels (or any level for that matter), it's just a skill that takes time to learn.

Thank you so much for all the insight!

I do really want to have a druid, but it sounds like I'm looking for too much too soon.

I probably should have mentioned that I also have a Priest, Mage and Hunter, so on some subconscious level I'm probably comparing my poor druid to their healing/dps/tank (with level 70 tiger) abilities even though I know that's not right.

I'm going to look into one of those "outfitter" mods to make gear changes easier. I'm sure it will help my priest too.

We found out last night that our other "groupie" just took over several of his nephews characters around my Druid's level, so we're going to experiment with different groupings.

Sounds to me like I just need to practice using all the different abilities of a druid, and roll with whatever the situation calls for. Funny, I started a druid to get more versatility into my play time.... now that I have it, I don't know what to do with it!!!!

Thanks again for all the help!

There is your problem. Leveling a druid solo you MUST go feral to level quickly! Respec, focus on damage talents in the feral tree and your levels will fly. My druid is currently level 42 and I kill stuff faster then my 46 rogue can. I also take less damage then the rogue and can heal when needed. Never run out of mana because all I use it for are buffs and heals. I can also fairly easily take on 3-4 guys my same level. I just start in bear form and kill 1 or 2, pop out and HoT to give me time to get a big heal then go to cat form and tear up the last 1 or 2. Try it, you will have a much easier time. Good luck!

Edit: Just noticed you said you group with a Lock and pally. In that case you should just go full resto and heal them. But I would still suggest you try feral build since it sounds like that is what you are after.

Edited, Oct 11th 2007 9:44am by Synisterx

On the addon front, I use an addon called 'closetgnome' to change my gear (available from the Ace wiki).

I find it quite easy to make and update sets and it doesn't change gear with forms (some people might want this, but I prefer choosing what I'm wearing).

Feral id generally thought to be the better levelling tree for druids. You'd probably want to hold off until about level 40 with going balance (when you can get moonkin form) as at lower levels the caster side of druid is fairly weak. Not saying it's impossible (I levelled as resto first time around), but you should find it easier to level and have less down time with feral rather than balance.

if you have any points in balance i would suggest a single point in nature's grasp. it can save your life when you accidently aggro 2 mobs in kitty or other form. at least it gives you a chance early in the battle to walk away from it somewhat. (while outdoors)

additionally the first piece of easily available gear is only 1 level away. at level 22 toughened leather gloves is available (if you don't want to go though bfd for naga battle gloves) and at level 27 barbaric bracers. both of them are readily available at your local ah. once you have enough damage and armor, leveling is slightly easier. pps. focus in one area with few deviations for druids at low levels and get gear that reflect that area (though getting offspec gear from the inevitable times when you need to heal or tank in parties is good) we're druids we focus on one area but are prepared to switch out as necessary.

pps. I usially start out a combat in caster form at 20. blast x1. roots, fairy fire, kitty, wait wait, rake, claw, claw, lacerate, claw claw claw. = one dead mob. (though sometimes I throw an intstant hot on before I turn kitty.)

after I get pounce...

pounce, fairy fire, rake, shift, roots, walk away, blast, roots, kitty, wait wait, rake, claw claw bite, dead mob with minimal damage.

In fact, even if you don't have any other points in balance, I recommend spending a point on Nature's Grasp. Just don't go "improving" it...too many great talents in the feral tree.


I find barbaric bracers so good that I actually recommend that people throw +7 strength on 'em. With that enchant you won't see an upgrade until your 40s in my experience.



Urh? : /

- Blast? You mean either Wrath or Starfire?
- Lacerate? You mean rip, I think. Lacerate is a level 66 bear form attack.
- Why root 'em right before engaging melee where they can hit you anyway?
- Why no moonfire in the mix for the DoT?

For a casting-based opener until you get the good cat openers, I recommend:
Roots, Moonfire, Starfire, Wrath if you can sneak it in, Rejuvenation as they get to you, then shift to Cat or Bear to finish them off, depending on their level and remaining HP. Usually cat form unless they are 2+ levels above you or you pulled more than one.

If one of your attacks breaks roots, which I've never found to be too much/frequent of a problem personally, you can pop into cat or bear earlier, just be sure to squeeze off a moonfire and rejuvenation before you go animal on their asses.

Well locks are supposed to have high dps, and druids aren't supposed to DPS or heal that well. On my lock i did Durnholde at 66 and got 2nd dps (Only topped by a lvl 70 elemental shammy doing the kara attunement) and 2nd healing too. But druids are a fun class to play, and when you hit 68 you'll be laughing at all the nubs down below you that have to spend 900g for they're flying mount while you have to spend 8g.

Oh. What's the punishment?

I call Ignorance?

Honestly do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? Druids are not supposed to DPS well? HA! Even Ret pallies DPS well and balance/feral druids DPS damn good. As a matter of fact if balance druids didnt have to worry about aggro control we would probally be on par with a mage, though still be a 10% or so away from surpassing them.

Now this is where I question if you really have any end game credibility at all. Druids have the strongest heal in the game. Druids have Hot's. Druids even got an uber leet AoE spell. Druids have such a variety in spells that it is our strongest tree. We are generally known as the second best healers in them game, and the best healer in Arena.

Thanks for all the great info. As it looks right now, I'm going to be more of a tank AND healer for a little bit in our group. That should be good versatility practice... I also see alot of deaths happening until I get the hang of it, but it's worth a shot.