Leveling FormFollow

You've never played a Druid past level 20, have you?

Okay, I'll be nice then.

At level 10 you'll get your first animal form: the Bear. It increases your armor value (equal to mail armor), increases your health and gives you various Bear abilities that can only be used while in this form, such as Maul (on-next-swing damaging attack), Bash (stunning attack) and Demoralizing Roar (lowers the physical damage of nearby enemies).

The Bear form is somewhat identical to the Warrior class and the Bear form is considered the Druid's tanking form due to the high armor and health values you have in it. At lower levels you'll spend most of your time in this form, simply because it's awesome and because you deal more damage with it than Moonfire/Wrath spam.

At level 16 you will get your second form, the Aquatic form (or Sea Lion as some call it). This form doesn't have any special attacks or abilities, other than a passive ability that increases your swim speed by 50% and allows for you to breathe under water. This form can only be activated while in water.

Once you hit level 20 you will get your third form, the Cat form. While in this form your attack power is increased by a lot and you gain some Cat abilities that focus more on damage than the Bear form abilties. You get things like Claw (instant damaging attack), Rip (finishing move that causes you target to bleed over time) and Ferocious Bite (finishing move that deals a large chunk of damage).

While the Bear form mimics the Warrior class, the Cat form mimics the Rogue class. A lot of the attacks and the energy consumption system is just like that of the Rogue. Just like you use rage instead of mana in Bear form. Like a Warrior.

At level 30 you get your fourth form, the Travel form (or Cheetah). Just like the Aquatic form, this form doesn't have any special abilities other than a passive ability that increases your movement speed by 40% or so (a bit slower than a mount). This form can only be used while outside.

Once you reach level 40 you get an upgrade for your Bear form, the Dire Bear form. Basically you gain more armor when you shift into the Dire Bear form. It was added because at level 40 the Warrior, Hunter, Shaman and Paladin classes get plate and mail armor (from mail and leather) whereas the Druid stays leather (like the Rogue). So to get the Dire Bear armor values up to plate armor values they had to make this upgrade. The Dire Bear form looks just like the standard Bear form. Unfortunately.

At level 68 you get your fifth form, the Flight form (or Storm Crow). Just like the Aquatic and Travel forms, the Flight form doesn't have any abilities except it increases your movement speed to that of a standard mount (+60%) and it allows you to fly! And it's an instant cast so you can run off a cliff and shift to a bird and fly away. Requires you to be out of combat and can only be used in Outland as well.

You get an upgrade for Flight form (Swift Flight form) at level 70, after doing a long quest chain that requires you to do certain instances in heroic mode.

That about covers the forms you get. Although you are able to gain two more forms (though not at the same time) through talent point placement. The Moonkin form (Birdman) increases your armor as well as gives you certain spellcasting beneficial abilities. It's the offensive spellcasting form and is the 31-point talent of the Balance talent tree. The Tree of Life form grants you a lot of healing beneficial abilities. It's the 41-point talent of the Restoration talent tree.

To summarize it, Bear is for tanking (taking damage) and Cat is for DPS (dealing damage). The key is to use each form for the right situation. Don't stay in one form, switch! If you pull a lot of mobs you might want to go Bear so you can soak up the damage and survive, but there's no reason staying in slow-motion Bear form if you're only fighting one target at a time.

The key to success as a Druid is to utilize all the abilities given to you. Versatility is our motto. Our mantra. While each form mimics another class, it's not as powerful as the pure class and staying in one form all the time makes you a lesser version of that class. Mixing all our forms is what makes us strong.

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Edited, Jan 19th 2008 5:14am by Mazra