The Druid Leveling Guide
for Cataclysm 4.3

Now we return you to your regularly scheduled guide:

Leveling the WoW Druid, Contents:

Introduction

This page has been updated for the Cataclysm 4.3 patch.

Night Elf Druid in Mists of Pandaria gear

Druids are a truly great class and, more importantly, a fun one. They present what I would say is the greatest variety among all the various classes in WoW. Variety counts for a lot; it keeps you interested and having fun. Tired of melee? Go Balance, or Restoration perhaps. At all times you still remain capable of fulfilling up to three or more roles such as: Tank, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, and Healer.

Still, even more important is that, no matter the role, Druids provide effectiveness.  When properly talented they can tank with the best of them or, for the purposes of this guide, dish out massive amounts of melee damage in cat form.

While some Druids can go nuts at high level, what with having to juggle several forms and individual gear sets for each form, this is something you won't have to worry about while leveling. Stick with Feral/Cat gear and you'll be fine. You can get the multiple gear sets after hitting 85. This is where the in-game equipment manager comes in handy. Dual build into a Bear and you'll be set, since the builds are very similar.

If you're brand new to the World of Warcraft understand that the Druid will be one of your most challenging class choices for the end game, for the above reasons. There are just so many possibilites that it's easy to get a little lost. Stick to one build while leveling and you will have an easy time of it.

Read on and I’ll give you some help towards leveling your Druid in the most efficient and fun manner possible.

Note: Mists of Pandaria is going to change everything in terms of talents, mana, and more. We'll update this page accordingly when Mists launches. A couple of notes though:

• Druids will have four specs: Balance, Feral (cat form,) Guardian (Bear form,) and Restoration
• Prime Glyphs will be gone, only 3 Major and 3 Minor glyphs will be available.
• Some talents have become abilities common to all Druids
• Each spec of Druid will have several unique abilities
• There are 6 tiers of three talents each. You will be able to pick one from each tier. Any talent can be picked by any spec of Druid and there will no longer be levels of talents. You will either have the whole talent (instead of spending 1 to 3 points in it) or not have it.

This page covers the basics to leveling your Druid. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource on everything Druid related, from builds to leveling to PvP to Raiding to earning gold, check out the Killer Guides Druid guide.

The Short Druid Leveling Guide

(See below for the longer version)

Race: Only four races can be Druids and Pandarens won't be one of them.

• Worgen's crit bonus is a damage add and they're good at Skinning.
• Night Elves have a slightly higher dodge, so will be slightly better tanks.
• Trolls have an attack speed increase, and do more damage Vs beasts.
• Tauren have a bit more health and can stun nearby opponents (which is pretty useful.)
• More about races

Professions: Skip the crafting profs if you're leveling, they're time consuming and expensive to level. If you're rich and don't care about the time, then go for it. Otherwise, pick two gathering professions from: Herbalism and/or Mining and/or Skinning.

See below for more professions info.

Build: Like no other class in WoW Druids really can play any role in the game. You can do it all: Tank, ranged damage, melee damage, or healer.

For leveling we suggest the feral cat form. Here's the build with glyphs. If you like tanking dungeons then a feral bear is a great way to go. Here's our feral bear build.

• If you need to blast to 85 as fast as possible then check out this in-game leveling guide.

Gear and Stats:

• Leather armor at all times, esp. after 50.
• Stack Stam at low levels, for survivability.
• Otherwise Agility is way better than anything else (even for Bears.)
• Crit is a nice secondary stat and Haste is good, too.
• You have zero use for Strength, Int, Spirit. Even Bears.
• Use a two-handed weapon (staff) with the highest possible DPS. Get Ag on it if you can.
• Enchants, if you can afford them, should be Agility > attack power > Crit
• Gems, if you can afford them, should be Agility ("Delicate" gems)
• Resilience is only needed if you PvP. You can get a full PvP set at 70 (from the arena vendors.)
• Heirloom gear can take any enchant that can be applied to an iLevel 1 item.
• more stats

Leveling

• Questing is much faster than it once was and is competitive (if you're a cat) with dungeons and PvP leveling.
• Dungeoning is much faster if you like Bear tanking, since the queue times to get into the dungeons are very short.
• PvP leveling can be very fast if you side wins. Help them win.
• Dungeons give you the chance of getting better gear than you will through questing.
• PvP gives you access to better gear via honor points.
• More tips

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Races

Pick the race that you like the best. None of the racials are devastating, so go with what you like.

The question of "which race" for your new Druid used to be a "difficult" one, Horde (Tauren) or Alliance (Night Elf.) With Cataclysm the choices are more varied. Troll might be the best pick, generally:

1. Alliance - Night Elf
• Shadowmeld requires you to stay still. It drops aggro, so you can s'meld > stealth. Since you already have a (cat form) stealth ability, it's somewhat redundant.
• Quickness makes you slightly harder to hit, which is always nice.
  
  
2. Horde - Tauren
   • a little more health than other races and they get ...
   • War Stomp, which is a nice stun for cats and bears. Casters will generally find it to be useful in isolated situations, such as in PvP or any other time where you need to stun the opposition and run out of there.
     
     
3. Alliance-Worgen:
• Can periodically run faster, which is pretty nice, but it does not stack with your travel form or your increased speed talents.
• Increased Critical chance makes a small, but useful overall damage increase.
• Reduced duration of curses and diseases is nice, but will see little use outside of PvP.
  
  
4. Horde-Trolls:
   • Berserk increases attack and casting speed which is nice.
   • Regeneration increased slightly, but you won't notice or care, especially since you can heal.
   • Greater damage against beasts will help you to level just that much faster.
   • Increased crit chance with throwing weapons and bows, but you have little use for that.
   • Reduced duration of movement impairing effects is nice in PvP, but your shapeshift also breaks you out of these effects.

Trolls look like they may be the most efficient class for Druids, but player interest and skill will more than make up for any racial differences. Pick the one you like.

Training Note: If you don't want to train in your native zone? Horde Druids can go to the Blood Elf area, since there is a druid trainer in Silvermoon City (why?) There's also one in Stormwind for Alliance Druids. Ask the guards for the trainer locations.

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Professions

If you're a new player then skip all of the crafting professions for now. They're expensive to level and cash will be tight. If you really want to then go ahead, just be aware of the approaching poverty. If you need a bigger stack of gold then see our gold guide. If you're already rich then ignore this advice.

Certain crafting professions, however, are better than others while leveling. The gathering professions are great for earning cash and can provide raw materials if you just have to learn a crafting profession.

• Skinning - good for making gold and adds to your crit rating. You'll be killing a bazillion skinnable critters anyway, so you might as well take it.
• Herbalism - also good for the gold and provides a small heal effect. That heal will also Haste you for a decent amount for 20 seconds.
• Mining - Very good for cash and builds stamina.

Profession combinations:

1. Skining and leatherworking - this cuts the costs to leveling leatherworking by a lot and you can make your own gear. If you're decked out in heirlooms you won't care much until the end-game.
2. Herbalism and Alchemy - also a nice pair. You can make a variety of useful potions and even sell some of them. Due to Mixology (nothing to do with Bartending, sorry) you get more benefit from your own potions than the other guy gets from yours.
3. Mining and skinning - a very nice cash making combo and you'll get the stam and crit rating increases.
4. Herbalism and skinning - A nice cash maker and you can give the herbs to an Alchemist or the skins to a leatherworker to make stuff for you.

Also consider:

• Cooking for the buffing foods (increases to Stamina, Spirit, etc.)
• Fishing for cooking mats
• First aid: I like to have it, some don't. It's not nearly as necessary as it is for non-healers. Sometimes you're low on mana, though, and it's nice to have. Also, you can heal yourself while remaining in beast form. Besides, what else are you going to do with al that cloth? Sell it? (Not a bad idea.)

The Crafting Professions

• Alchemy is great for making all kinds of useful potions, and not just for healing (though having an instant heal on your action bar is rather nice.) As an alchemist you get greater effect from your own potions, including the pots that increase your stats. At the high end you will get +80 extra Agility from Flask of the Winds.
• Blacksmithing will allows you to create some decent weapons, especially at the high end. Spend some time Mining and you will have enough raw materials to keep yourself going. Also at the high end you can add a self-only gem socket to your bracers and gloves.
• Enchanting is very expensive to level, so make sure you have lots of gold or a steady stream of cheapo magic items to disenchant into parts. This skill will allow you to enchant your items as you level, allowing you to be that much more efficient. At the high end you will be able to put a self-only enchant on your rings.
• Engineering will allow you to make all kinds of nifty toys, including those motorcycles. The problem is that Engineering is easily as expensive as any other skill to level. High end engie gadgets can be fused to your gloves to provide a nice buff.
• Inscription is one of the better money making crafting professions, depending on your server. Gather or buy lots of herbs to level this profession. The high end will give you a very nice shoulder enchant.
• Jewelcrafting allows you to gather gems from ore (and sell them) and to also cut those gems into something that people can put into their sockets. At the high end you can create and use three gems that add more stats than the ones the common people get to use.
• Leatherworking will provide you with some pretty decent gear. Combine it with skinning and you will be able to level that skill without too much pain. At the high end you will be able to create a bracer enchant, that's self-only, that's much nicer than the Enchanting spell.
• Tailoring is not a profession that you will have much use for, since you don't wear cloth, unless you want to make your own cloaks, capes, or clothing. Tailoring will also allow you to make a self-only cloak enchant, which is rather nice.

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Cataclysm Druid Leveling Build

Click here to skip to the leveling build

Feral is the best of the leveling trees for the typical Druid player. We're not focusing on raiding or high-end content here, just leveling: grind out the quests and kill lots of mobs. Feral, specifically cat form, is excellent at doing just that. It's pretty darn good at laying down the damage in PvP and instances, too.

Dungeon leveling - If you want to level up mostly in the dungeons then you can be ranged or melee damage, healer, or tank and your build will depend on your exact role. Tanks have very short wait times for the dungeons. The only question is this: how many times do you want to run the same random dungeon and how well do you play with random groups? See our bear tanking guide if you want to give it a shot. If you want to level as Restoration then just grab the build from our Resto guide.

PvP leveling - Kill fast, die faster. PvP is awesome for leveling if your side is winning. Go in with a well-oiled guild group and you'll level fast. Go in with a random group that would rather fail than win and you might as well do quests. We have a Druid PvP page if you want to go that route.

Traditional leveling, aka questing. Gather 'em up and knock 'em out. This has the big advantage of not having to deal with iffy groups and allowing you to schedule it on your own time. You can also mix this up with PvP anyway and the dungeons. Also, questing is about as fast as either PvP or Dungeon leveling these days.

If you're questing then get a leveling guide that's smart enough to track it all for you and you'll be 85 before you know it.

With the Cataclysm talent system there are a couple of things to be aware of (this will change again in Mists of Pandaria:)

• Once you pick a talent tree/specialization you're locked into that one tree until you spend 31 points in that tree. After that you can spend points in the other trees.
• You get certain abilities automatically with each tree
• 31 points gets you to the top tier talent and 41 points (at 85) is all you get. Note that you do not have to buy that top talent to move into the other trees, once you have spent those 31 points.
• Mastery is a trainable ability, at 80, that gives you a bonus to some ability, such as increased damage. Cataclysm gear will often come with Mastery rating and stacking that rating will improve the bonus.

At level 10 you pick your first Feral talent and then you're locked into that tree. You will also pick up the Aggression, Mangle and Feral Instinct abilities at that time. At 80 you can train Mastery which buffs a primary feature of your feralness. Hover over the links for the most up to date info.

• Mangle - Damages the target and adds a bleed.
• Aggression - increases attack power by 25%
• Vengence - as you take damage, in Bear form, you gain attack power (which increases your damage and, therefore, threat.) Has no application to cats.
• Feral Instinct - you're harder to detect while prowling
• Mastery: Savage Defender / Razor Claws - For the former, damage absorbed by the Savage Defense ability is greatly increased. For the latter, it greatly increases the damage from your bleed effects.

Druid Forms:

With 4.0 the level at which the various forms are obtained has changed. Also, the quests to obtain these forms are no longer required, though you can still do them if you like.

• Cat form is obtained at level 8
• Bear form is 15
• Aquatic form is also 15
• Travel form is 16
• Flight form is 60
• Moonkin form is a Balance talent and you’ll be level 29
• Tree form is the top resto talent and you’ll be level 69

(Just because people often ask: If you do the quests you will need to go to Moonglade. You will find a Teleport to Moonglade spell in your spellbook. )

Cataclysm Feral Leveling Spec (cat form)

The build:

This build is intended to get you to the top talent, Berserk (31 points,) ASAP. After that point you can buy more feral or go into the other trees. This build assumes that you are usually in cat form and are solor questing for the most part.

That said, this build will server you well in dungeons as "damage," (DPS) and also in PvP. If you really want to crank through the levels mixing up questing, dungeons, and PvP then get a smart leveling guide.

This is just a suggested build, feel free to shuffle things around depending on your game.

Get to level 85, Fast

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Feral Druid Leveling Spec, Bear form

The build:

As above, this Bear build is intended to get you to the top talent, Berserk (31 points,) ASAP. After that point you can buy more feral or go into the other trees. This build assumes that you are usually in Bear form and takes the tanking talents.

That said, this build will server you well in dungeons as "Tank" and also in PvP. If you really want to crank through the levels mixing up questing, dungeons, and PvP then get a smart leveling guide.

This is just a suggested build, feel free to shuffle things around depending on your game.

Get to level 85, Fast

Stats and Gear

The order of your ststs is...

1. Agility is your #1 stat, whether Bear or Cat, and scales better with level. At the highest levels it is much better than other stats.
2. Mastery, from level 80, will be the 2nd best stat.
3. Stamina is useful for leveling and very useful for Bear tanks. At low levels stack up as much as you can (you should be able to find some cheap Stam enchants.)
4. Strength - Forget Str, get Ag. whether you're Bear or Cat.
5. Intelligence - Essential for caster builds, not at all important for bear/cat builds.
6. Spirit - Of no value to anything druidic.
7. Reforging (level 80+) - If you care to do this you should reforge everything into Mastery. It's not a big deal until you hit the end-game content.
8. Hit, Crit, Haste, etc., to be reforged into Mastery.
9. Resilience - only for PvP, useless otherwise. Pretty uncommon on gear before level 70. At 70 you can get a full set of the epic arena gear (from the Dalaran arena vendor) for less than 2k honor.

At lower levels, gear that is "of the Monkey" or "of Agility" or "of the Bandit" is what you want to look for. At level 77 start grabbing Cataclysm gear, the stats are far better than non-cataclysm gear.

Weapons

Weapon damage factors into your claw damage. You want to be looking for two handed weapons that do as much damage as possible, next for weapons that have stats on them. So the priority is:

1. Weapon DPS
2. Agility
3. Stam
4. Secondary stats (at high level) to be reforged into Mastery.

Gems and Enchants

Gem sockets don't really appear on gear until the 50s and then it usually only on high end gear. High end gems can be expensive and you will level quickly enough that you probably will be out of that piece of gear fairly soon.

Gear with gem sockets usually has a bonus of some kind for socketing the "correct" color of gem. If you are going to use gems then I suggest that you just ignore the bonus and stick a red Agility gem in that socket. Agility gems will be of the Delicate variety.

If you're a bear tank then gem for Stamina.

Note that Mists of Pandaria gems will be much better than Cataclysm gems. If you're gemming your gear then you should upgrade as soon as possible. Go here if you need tips on how to get more gold to buy those gems.

Enchants

While leveling I will often look for cheap enchants. Visit the Auction House and browse Consumable > Item Enhancement, then search on cloak, boot, etc. Sort the items to show the cheapest first. You will often be able to find useful enchants selling for very little money. (The Auctionator Addon makes this sorting very easy.)

Buffs

You can get scrolls and foods to buff your Stamina or Agility. Stam scrolls are generally dirt cheap these days, so buy a bunch or talk to your friendly, neighborhood Inscription expert.

The better buffed you are the faster your leveling will go. Keep your Armor and Agility buffs up at all times.

Foods of certain types buff your Stamina at low levels and other stats at higher levels. Get cooking or keep an eye on the Auction House for interesting foods. Check WoWhead.com for current recipes appropriate to your level. Also, prices and availablility on the AH vary wildly, so keep that in mind when shopping.

Scrolls add to your Stam or Ag and are generally very cheap to buy, but with 4.0 they are considered "battle elixers" and won't stack with other battle elixers or potions.

Potions can add to various stats as well as recover health and/or mana. Consider Herbalism and Alchemy to keep yourself in Pots as you level.

Quest Rewards - Every now and then a quest reward will provide a buff or buffing item. An example is in Tranquillen (Ghost Lands) where one of the quest givers will give you potions Vs undead in return for undead parts.

Get leveled, fast

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Leveling Tips

Questing - This guide assumes that most of your leveling will be by doing quests. This has the additional benefit of gaining fly points, rep gains, incidental farming for gaining cash, and so on. Also, you don't have to be on someone else's schedule or deal with the sometimes quirky group dynamics.

The in-game quest guide will show you where to go so that you can knock off your quests in an efficient order. It's a big improvement over the old way (of looking things up on some website,) but it's much slower than a real leveling guide.

Note: Save the quests that take you out of an area (such as to the big city) for when you have several of them and/or your are done with the local quests.

Grinding - feel free to grind if you want to slow your leveling speed down. Other than grinding certain mobs for cash and prizes there is little value to grinding. Plus, it's boring.

Dungeons - Starting at level 15 you can start using the random dungeon finder. If you enjoy grouping then it's a good way to level more quickly than otherwise. If you do not enjoy dungeon teams then you can skip them with nothing lost except a bit of leveling speed.

• You will be Queueing as "Damage" (DPS) and your wait times will usually be anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. Sometimes longer. So combine your dungeoning with questing. If you're tanking (and as a Cat, you're not) then Queues are rarely longer than 2 minutes. Our Feral Bear page will have tanking info.
• If you are new to dungeoning then figure out which member of the group is "the tank" and stay near him. Listen for instructions, ask questions when needed, and keep a thick skin in case some party member hasn't had his drugs yet.
• Dungeon teams tend to move quickly, so pay attention and keep up.
• Good guilds often run their own dungeon teams. These are usually more fun or more tolerant of mistakes and new players than random dungeon groups.
• You can pick up some decent gear by dungeoning, but you might want to keep an eye on gear from the Auction House, in case your gear isn't dropping or you're not winning the rolls.

PvP Leveling - Random battlegrounds are much like the random dungeons, except that you get to kill other players. If you win you can level very quickly. Losing isn't any faster than questing. You also gain Honor Points which can be traded to certain vendors for nice gear.

• Most of the BattleGrounds (BGs) have control points to fight over and/or flags to grab and return.
  • A couple (Altarac Valley (AV) and Isle of Conquest (I of C) ) have generals to kill, in addition to the control points.
  • Strand of the Ancients is all about the tanks and braking down the fortress walls (or defending against such.) As always, fighting in the middle areas is useless.
• All of your efforts should be to defend and control those points, to kill those defending their points, to return (or help to return) the flag, or to kill the other flag carrier.
• If you're not fighting near a flag or carrier then you are gaining less honor than you could be and you are not helping your team, which means you will gain a lot less XP when you lose.
• By the way, the extra speed that you get from Feral Swiftness makes you a pretty good flag carrier in Warsung Gulch and Eye of the Storm.

Leveling Tips

• Make an alt to live at the auction house. Send all of your white loot, and better, to the alt to post on the AH. This will save lots of time. Vendor all the gray stuff.
• Carry the biggest bags you can afford.
• Always log out at an inn to get the "rest XP" bonus.
• Minimize downtime by carrying potions and foods so that you can regain health quickly.
• Buffing foods make you that much tougher and/or allow you to kill things just that much faster.
• Potions of Healing and Troll's Blood potions mean less form switching, less mana use, and less downtime. Hardly essential, especially for Druids, but a healing potion on the action bar can be a lifesaver.