Druid Class Overview
Druids are the most versatile specialization in World of Warcraft, and able to perform all four roles: Tank, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS and Healing, making them a great starting class if you are not sure of what role you would like to perform at maximum level. As masters of Nature, they also transform into various animals and even a Tree / Moonkin in order to perform their multiple roles.
Introduction to Druid
Druid is the most versatile hybrid class in the game. Druids can melee
or ranged DPS, tank, and also heal. Tank Druids use Rage like Warriors, Melee Druids
use Energy like Rogues, and Ranged or Healer Druids use Mana
like most other casters and healers. Because of gear similarities due their primary
attribute being shared, you will usually find Ranged/Healing hybrid Druids who use
Intellect or Tank/Melee Druids who use Agility, and only rarely Druids
who mix both Intellect and Agility specializations.
Druid Specializations
Druid is able to choose
from four specializations: Guardian, Feral,
Balance, and Restoration.
Guardian — Druid is the new tanking specialization and the equivalent of old Feral Tank. While it is very easy to learn and play, it no longer has the high off-tanking damage potential that it used to because it is now a purely tanking focused specialization. Regardless, it is a tank that scales well with gear and will become a strong tank in later tiers.
Feral — Feral is now a pure melee DPS specialization and can no longer off-tank defectively outside of the short
Heart of the Wild windows. As compensation, it will be a very competitive damage specialization in Mists, especially once
Rune of Re-Origination can be obtained from the Throne of Thunder raid.
Balance — is a strong ranged DPS based on the
Eclipse mechanic, which provides regular periods of high burst damage. The specialization also sports multiple damage over time effects with
Moonfire and
Sunfire. Finally, it has great spread damage dealing potential with multi-dotting and
Starfall.
Restoration — is a healing over time focused healer with many spells designed for this purpose such as
Lifebloom,
Wild Growth,
Rejuvenation, and
Regrowth. The instant cast nature of many of these spells provides great mobility while healing, and you will be able to do great spread healing by targeting all players at range with your heals over time.
What Specialization Should I Play?
Each Druid specialization is very different and the specialization you should play depends on how you like to enjoy the game. Play Guardian if you wish to relax while tanking, Feral is fantastic for players who enjoy min-maxing melee DPS due to its complex snapshotting mechanics, Balance is a strong and simple ranged DPS that brings an unique fantasy and a mix of damage over time and burst damage, and Restoration is one of the best spread raid healers and only healer that relies heavily on healing over time effects.
Guardian
Guardian benefits from a very simple playstyle where much of your
survivability comes from passive sources, allowing you to focus on the encounter
mechanics rather than your tanking rotation, and scales well with gear later in
the expansion.
Feral
Feral is a complex melee to play due to having Energy, Combo Points,
and plenty of damage over time snapshotting with
Rip and similar bleeds.
This complexity is rewarding on its own, but you will also be able to do very high
DPS once you master it, especially once specialized gear such as
Rune of Re-Origination
is unlocked.
Balance
Balance is a great caster to bring at least one of for raiding
because of its unique damage profile which emphasizes multi-dotting many targets
at once and using
Starfall for high spread damage. This allows Balance
Druids to shine on encounters where most other DPS, ranged or melee, would have
a hard time dealing area damage due to their targets being heavily spread apart.
Restoration
The heavy healing over time kit of Restoration gives it a unique
flavor and allows it to stand out in the Mists of Pandaria meta as the best healer
for healing while moving. Often, heals over time provide a valuable cushion against
incoming damage, and they are usually also the best way to heal far away allies
against consistent damage, making Restoration a powerhouse in the spread area healing
niche.
How Viable is Druid in Mists of Pandaria?
Druid should be one of the most represented
classes in Mists of Pandaria due to being the only class that can cover all roles
with a single character. Guardians are strong
and easy to play tanks, while Ferals have a high
skill cap and are engaging to play. Balance
is a strong ranged DPS class with an unique damage profile and multiple rare raid
buffs, making it an easy pick for any sort of group. Finally, Restoration
also has an unique playstyle heavy on heals over time, which is a perfect fit for
movement heavy fights and heavy rot damage, and is one of the most mobile healers
which makes it easier to deal with encounter mechanics while healing.
Races for Druid
In Mists of Pandaria Classic Druid can be played as
Worgen or Night Elf if you are playing Alliance, and as Troll or Tauren if you are
Horde. Worgen are the best Alliance Druids due to Darkflight and
Viciousness, while Troll are the best Horde Druids due to
Berserking
and
Beast Slaying, unless you highly value the extra Stamina provided by
Tauren
Endurance.
Alliance
Night Elves are not a very good race for non-tank Druids, but
Quickness is a good ability for tanks.
Worgens were one of the two new races added back in Cataclysm.
Viciousness is the main racial offered, granting 1% crit chance which makes it the best racial for DPS and Healer Druids on Alliance. You will also get
Darkflight, giving you a 2 minute movement speed cooldown.
Horde
Trolls are a great choice for all roles due to their strong cooldown
Berserking. This grants 20% Haste, which helps your throughput significantly when needed.
Taurens are a good tank race due to
Endurance, which grants you 5% more base health. Note that base health is only the raw health that you gain from levels and does not scale with your gear at all, making this only about a 1% increase in total health at maximum level in raiding gear.
War Stomp can also occasionally be useful to stop enemy casts.
Gearing and Stats
Druids are relatively easy to gear due to a lack of competition for most Leather
pieces, especially Intellect ones where they are the only class that wants to roll
on them due to Leather Specialization, which forces each class to
equip only its highest armor class available.
Druid are able to wear Cloth and Leather armor, as well as using a large
variety of weapons, including Daggers, Fist Weapons, Staves, Maces, and Polearms.
What is important is using gear that has your primary stat (Intellect for Balance
and Restoration, Agility for Guardian and Feral) and is Leather in the case of armor,
as it does not really matter whether you use a Dagger or a Fist Weapon outside of
cosmetic concerns.
Your stat priority as a Guardian should be as follows: Stamina
> Hit > Expertise > Crit > Agility > Haste > Mastery > Dodge.
Feral prioritizes Agility > Hit > Expertise > Mastery
> Crit > Haste.
Balance will instead want to prioritize Intellect > Spirit,
Expertise, or Hit > Haste > Crit > Mastery.
Finally, Restoration will aim for Intellect > Haste > Spirit
> Mastery > Crit.
Agility Druids will face competition from Rogue and there will be high competition from many classes for some of the more rare weapons, trinkets, and jewelry pieces.
Druid Addons and Macros
Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life in Azeroth. Listed below are some of our recommended Addons and Macros for smoothing out your gameplay.
Changelog
- 15 Jun. 2025: Page added.