Feral Druid

Terms to know

Powershifting

A macro used to exit and enter a shapeshifting form instantly to either use a pot, or remove a snare / movement impairing effect, or to regen energy or rage with Furor talent.

Making Space

Druid is the master of escape. They cannot be polymorphed, rooted or snared, and have many outs in dangerous situations. They are also excellent kiters in the open world, using Bash, Hibernate, Entangling Roots, and Nature's Grasp. Focus on gear with highest stats overall because every stat is utilized by Druid.

Kiting

Keeping dangerous enemies at a distance and killing them without taking damage or reducing damage taken.

Important Skills, Talents, Debuffs

Omen of Clarity (Talent)

Enters the Druid into a Clearcasting state after a melee attack in any form (Proc). Clearcasting reduces mana, rage or energy by 100% for your next damage or healing spell. Can be learned as early as level 21. Third tier of balance tree. MUST BE CLICKED LIKE A BUFF (10 minute duration)

Nature"s Grasp (Talent)

An instant cast roots that procs after being hit in melee form. Can be anywhere from 35%-100% based on improved talents. One of the most important abilities to escape or control two mobs.

Brutal Impact (Talent)

Gives Pounce (cat opener stun) and Bash (bear stun) 1 extra second duration.

Feral Charge (Talent)

Charges an enemy, rooting them and interrupting spellcasting school for 4 secs. (Bear). Can also be used to create space by charging another mob or critter.

Natural Shapeshifter

Reduces mana cost of all shapeshifting forms by up to 30%.

Natural Weapons

Improves physical damage in all forms by up to 10%.

Abolish Poison (Skill)

Attempts to cure 1 poison, and then 1 more every 2 seconds for 8 seconds.

Remove Curse (Skill)

Removes one curse from target.

Faerie Fire (Skill)

Decreases the armor of the enemy by a large percent based on rank.

Heart of the Wild (Talent)

Increases your Intellect by up to 20% - additionally while in bear form your Stamina is increased by up to 20% and cat form your Strength by up to 20%.

Furor (Talent)

Provides instant 40 energy (cat) or 10 rage (bear) at 5/5 talents.

Innervate (Skill)

Increases mana regeneration at 400% over 20 seconds and costs only 28 Mana.

Talent builds

Level 10-24

Your first point recommendation is Nature's Grasp. This would be followed by Improved Wrath, Natural Weapons and Omen of Clarity. If you are still dying at low level, an alternative is to max out Improved Nature’s Grasp. Between Levels 25-30 you will be respecing if you took Improved Wrath so make sure to save 1 gold.

Level 25-60

Once you respec you will want to likely run a build similar to this. There are variables here in talent points that will be explained. Once you have your 14 points into the balance tree, you will want to max out Furor (5/5) in the tier 1 resto tree. The benefit of this is any time you enter bear form you will always have enough rage to Bash (stun) or to Feral Charge (later on), which is incredibly important for making space in hardcore.

You will want to take 5/5 Ferocity, 2/2 Brutal Impact, 5/5 Thick Hide, Feral Charge, 3/3 Predatory Strikes, 2/2 Savage Fury, Feral Faerie Fire (Quality of Life more than necessary talent) 5/5 Heart of the Wild for your Level 54-58 push when gear gets harder to come by, this will be your powerspike for the final levels. In this build I have 3 points in Feral Aggression but you can place them anywhere you"d prefer - Primal Fury or Blood Frenzy are great choices as well. Feline Swiftness is not a necessary talent for this build.

Professions

Alchemy / Herbalism

Single handedly the most important / viable hardcore profession for Druid. Druid utilizes every stat and elixirs provide INT AGI STR and STAM as well as regen, absorb potions of different schools of magic, elixir of mongoose and more. Mana potions are much more valuable to a druid than healing potions and alchemy allows you to craft them easily, as these are harder to find on vendors. Druids can pick herbs in form which makes it easy to run around and gather what you need.

Bear form (Level 10)

Speak to the Great Bear Spirit in Moonglade to take on the Trial of the Bear. These Moonkins HIT HARD - it"s easier to be successful closer to 12. - Root and slowly kill to ensure defeat! Try not to go out of mana

Defeat Lunaclaw and speak to her to gain the strength of heart (Darkshore, Moonkin caves outside Auberdine.)

Defeat Lunaclaw and speak to her to gain the strength of heart ((Barrens, just outside of Camp Taurajo))

Aquatic Form (Level 16)

Shiny bauble in Moonglade Lake. Be careful not to drown!

One piece is in north Darkshore (48,11) and one is in Westfall (21,36) Be careful of reef sharks!

First piece (29, 29), Silverpine Forest and second, (56,8) Sludgen Fen, Barrens

Dealing with danger

Use Nature’s Grasp as soon as you realize you’re in trouble. Keep Rejuvenate rolling as long as you have the mana to do it. Stay in bear form as much as possible as you run.

At Level 26, you get Dash. Make sure to use this defensively to escape bad situations and continue to use Nature’s Grasp.

As soon as you get Feral Charge (bear) you can actually use it to create space to get away from bad situations. You can charge a nearby critter or a less dangerous enemy to make space between a bad situation and your character. With the Furor talent, you will have enough rage to bash instantly or to feral charge as soon as you go into bear form.

Travel Form becomes your get of out jail free card at level 30, but still make sure to use Nature’s Grasp and go bear to mitigate if you are taking heavy damage or getting dazed (especially useful if being hit by melee mobs). Do not rely on cheetah in every situation - it is one of your weakest forms and should be treated as such.

Using your forms efficiently

Cat

Due to the toolkit being subpar from level 20-36, Cat form should only be used in single target mobs at level or below that can be bled. Cat form surge of power comes after level 36 when you have the full range of abilities including: Pounce, Ravage, Rip, Rake, Tiger’s Fury and Ferocious Bite.

• Kittyweaving - Using cat form to fish for Omen procs with 1.0 attack speed as it only procs off auto attacks. You can then use your Clearcasting to cast a max rank heal, Moonfire or any melee ability.
• Dash - An incredibly important cooldown that should be saved for dire situations where you need to escape. Keep in mind if you need to shapeshift out of Cat once you use , you lose the speed bonus.

Bear

Due to Thick Hide, Frenzied Regeneration, Feral Charge, Demoralizing Roar and other talents bear is the form you’d be in when you feel unsafe or are fighting multiple adversaries. In a situation where you feel like you need to run, bear form is the default form to use (instead of cat) because of the added health and armor and the ability to create space with bash and feral charge.

Caster

Young Druids (Level 1-25) have Improved Wrath, Moonfire and Entangling Roots available to help control situations until Bear form becomes stronger. Due to the lack of abilities that create rage generation, you want to avoid face tanking mobs with full health. Many people die at lower levels due to overpulling mobs and not having many outs due to the lack of abilities.

Stat analysis

Druid isn’t incredibly gear or weapon reliant but there is still value to keeping an arsenal of gear in your bags!

• For Innervate - You will want a weapon with a lot of Spirit if you can find one (Spirit will increase the amount of mana your regenerate)
• With Natural Weapons - Your melee weapon can actually do a lot of damage if your weapon skill is up to par for times you get stuck in caster form. You can also regen mana this way while rolling hots on yourself.
• While in form - Druid in form uses maces and staves as "stat stick" so you don’t have to worry about top end or speed when in forms. You can also use 1 handed daggers, maces and offhands but they are not recommended.

Do not shy away from gear with intellect or spirit because of shapeshifting, spellcasting and health & mana regeneration!

Hardcore Druid Leveling Guide

Looking for a step-by-step leveling guide that is tailored for the Hardcore Druid leveling experience?

Click below to visit RestedXP and download their awesome add-on to start receiving in-game directions. The guide is free for the first 20 levels, so give it a try!

Important Macros

Travel form from any form, Aquatic form in the water

#showtooltip
/cancelform [noform:2/4]
/cast [swimming] Aquatic Form; [noswimming] Travel Form

Consumable use in Bear Form (not spammable)

#showtooltip Greater Stoneshield Potion
/cancelform
/use Greater Stoneshield Potion
/cast Dire Bear Form

Basic Powershift (not spammable) (replace with bear form for bear powershift)

#showtooltip
/cancelform
/cast Cat Form

Powershift Cat with any instant consumable use (not spammable)

#showtooltip
Major Mana Potion
/cancelform
/use Major Mana Potion
/cast Cat Form

Powershift Cat (spammable)

#showtooltip
Cat Form
/cancelform [noform:3]
/cast [form:3] Cat Form
/cast [noform:3] !Cat Form

Powershift Cat with any instant consumable use (spammable)

#showtooltip
Major Mana Potion
/cancelform [noform:3]
/cast [form:3] Cat Form
/use Major Mana Potion
/cast [noform:3] !Cat Form

Any form into Dash

#showtooltip
Dash
/cancelform [noform:3]
/cast [noform:3] Cat Form
/cast Dash