Convince me to start a druid for 2.3 leveling!Follow

Hi guys, I'm having quite a dilemma choosing my next class to level :P If anyone has any suggestions or wanna share their point of view, please do...

This is what I'm thinking of atm...with the upcoming 2.3, I want to level some of my alts. Either I level my Rogue sitting at 48, Shaman at 43, or I start a druid. Druid was the first char I played, got it to 43 and had loads of fun.

So, what do you guys think? Druids are nice with the versatility, and they're quite efficient in downtime terms when you get cat form and some nice talents. Otherwise rogues, especially combat is fun, but they're a blast at 49 pvp, so are shammys...

If you have anything to say, please do so :)

Thanks in advance!

I'm starting mine up right now.

It's gonna be a blast. :D

After a deadmines run with an unfortunately bad group, I fell in love with my druid after learning first hand how versatile you can be while playing one.

I'm specced for dps, but during this run I was also tanking some parts, healing some other parts, while still being probably the highest dps in the instance.

You want to heal? you can!
you want to tank? you can!
you want to be melee dps? you can!
you want to be spell dps? you can!

Druids have the most versatility out of any class, and can accomidate almost any play style (that plus feral druids have possibly the least down time out of any class)

"(that plus feral druids have possibly the least down time out of any class)"

The only class I've played with lower downtime is affliction warlock.

yes, the 8/11/40+2 build is the ideal resto arena build. excellent support, disruption, and survivability all wrapped into a single build.

My first and main toon is my druid and always will be. I'm currently in the process of leveling a toon of each class to 70 though (hunter 70, mage 65, priest 47, Shammy 30's, Pally 20's, Rogue, Lock, Warrior teens).

I'm doing this to get a good knowledge of the strengths of each class and spec (helpfull now that I am guild leader). I can't wait to get this done so I can then level my bank toon who will be a 70 Moonkin :)

I leveled as a balance druid (focused on range but did offheal and offtank on occasion) to L 55 or so, went resto from 55 to 60 and was main guild healer at L 60 for awhile... then switched to feral a few months before the Burning Crusade and was main tank in my guild all the way up to L 70.

As my guild "matured" we found we had an excess of tanks and not enough healers so I specc'd resto, and now often lead in healing in Kara and sometimes in Gruul.

Yet... a month ago we had our main offtank go on an extended leave, and we were lacking an OT for Kara so I respecc'd to a 42 resto/19 feral build, and I now often offtank for Kara up through curator. And yes, it works-- I hold aggro well enough and have enough armor and dodge that I can be kept up against the early bosses in Kara as an OT. I sometimes am tapped to main tank regular five-persons and do that fine.

So now I'll often lead in healing the nights I heal, and I'll OT successfully in Kara when that's needed (though I'm obviously not close to being a "real" tank like our MT is). I'll even DPS some nights, though that's the weakest of my three abilities I think (well caster DPS is even weaker).

You want versatility and the ability to change specs and have a toon that feels "brand new"? Druids are a blast :).

Just dinged over 26, myself. It's amazing how you can fight and fight and fight in Cat form, finally drop below 50% health, switch back to Humanoid form, and be at 100% mana every time.

Figure out whether it's more efficient to Healing Touch->Regrowth, or Regrowth->Rejuvenation, then switch back to Cat form and go back to killing. Only downside is having to regain your Energy, so it's not like a automatic thing to go right back to killing. Short pauses after healing.

Simply amazing at what you can do as a Feral Druid

Unless you like to wait until the very last second to shift out and heal yourself, a single HT should be enough. Otherwise just pop a Rejuv before shifting back. Regrowth is often too costy and you'll lose part of its benefits. (In my opinion)

My 40 Druid got 1.6k health at the moment, which I find reasonable.
HT: 936-1120 (avg of 1028)
Regrowth: 405-457 (avg of 431) plus 427 over time.

Unless I was down to 200 life, which is far too close to death to be considered a reasonable time to shift out and heal, as it should be done much sooner, a large part of the HoT portion of Regrowth would be lost. And Regrowth isn't a cheap spell as such.

So basically you cast two costy spells in a row and benefit only so much from the second one. In a combat situation, that is different, but then you wouldn't use HT at all unless you have Nature's Focus. Regrowth+Rejuv will still help you more.

Now, perhaps you did not noticed the context in which I said that:


So yeah, doing HT->Regrowth will often be a waste of mana, even though in most cases you will be able to regen it before the next shift out. It's just that it may happen you make a bad pull right away and need to shift out again to heal during the combat and find you do not have the mana to do so, or to shift again afterward.

really, all you need for druid OTing is 12 points into feral for ferocity, feral instinct, thick hide and feral charge (yes, charge is necessary). more is nicer of course, especially sharp claws (since crits add a significant amount of "free" threat so to speak), but as long as your DPS isnt too aggro crazy, and youre not on a timered fight, those 12 points are generally enough.