Druid Class Overview

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 favored stats being shared, you will usually find Ranged / Healer Druids who focus on Spell stats or Tank / Melee Druids who focus on Attack Power generating stats, and only rarely Druids who mix both.

Druid is able to choose from three specializations: Feral, Balance, and Restoration.

• Feral — is a hybrid melee-DPS and tank specialization which focuses on survivability and threat generation while in Bear Form, but also on melee damage while in Cat Form.
• Balance — is a caster-DPS specialization that brings damage-over-time effects and important debuffs such as Insect Swarm and Improved Faerie Fire, while also improving the damage of casters in their group through Moonkin Form.
• Restoration — is a healer specialization, which heals allies through heal-over-time effects such as Lifebloom. As most of these heals are instant-cast and act over a long period, Restoration Druids are excellent at stabilizing targets and healing proactively, making them amazing in TBC Arenas.

Each Druid specialization is very different and the specialization you should play depends on how you like to enjoy the game. Feral is fantastic for players who enjoy both tanking and melee DPS, Balance is a strong 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.

Besides its power as an off-tank, Feral Druid Tank benefits from a very simple tanking playstyle where most of your survivability comes from passive sources, allowing you to focus on the encounter mechanics and timings to shift into DPS with Cat Form rather than your tanking rotation. Playing the DPS part of the specialization or as a pure Feral Druid DPS is considerably more complex, however, making it a rewarding specialization to master.

Balance Druid is a great caster to bring to groups because it brings unique caster buffs such as Moonkin Form and the powerful debuff Improved Faerie Fire. It also has a simple rotation, making it a great caster for beginners or players looking to have a relaxed time while playing.

The heavy healing over time kit of Restoration Druid gives it a unique flavor and allows it to stand out in the TBC PvP Arena meta, as it makes allies very difficult to kill while allowing for little counterplay due to most heals being instant cast. Their healing style is also well suited for tank healing in PvE, and they have a great utility kit for PvP including the new Cyclone.

Druid should be one of the most represented classes in TBC due to being the only class that can cover all roles with a single character. Feral Tanks are strong and easy to play tanks that can also seamlessly swap to Feral DPS mid fight, making them the best off-tanks in the game. Balance brings strong caster buffs while sporting an unique damage profile, making it an easy pick for caster groups. Finally, Restoration also has an unique playstyle heavy on heals over time, which is a perfect fit for the high health environment of TBC, and is the most mobile healer which makes it easier to deal with encounter mechanics while healing.

If you are still deciding if the Druid class is the proper choice for you, feel free to check out the video below from WillE, an avid player and long time content creator for World of Warcraft! This video will give you a solid overview of what Druid is like to play in The Burning Crusade.

Feral and Restoration Druids are relatively easy to gear because they favor specialized gear that is only useful to them, such as Wolfshead Helm, Feral Attack Power weapons, or Leather gear with Spirit. Balance Druids unfortunately, gear very similarly to their cloth caster counterparts, making them just as hard to gear for the most part.

Druid are able to wear Cloth and Leather armor, as well as using a large variety of weapons, including Daggers, Fist Weapons, Staves, and Maces. What is important is using gear that has your favored stats (Spell Damage for Balance, Spell Healing for Restoration, Agility or Strength for 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 Feral Tank should be as follows:

1. Expertise up to the 6.5% cap vs bosses;
2. Agility;
3. Stamina;
4. Physical Hit up to the 9% cap vs bosses, 5% in PvP;
5. Strength;
6. Critical Strike;
7. Haste;
8. Dodge;
9. Defense;
10. Attack Power.

If you are instead focusing on Feral DPS we recommend the following stat priority:

1. Agility;
2. Physical Hit up to the 9% cap vs bosses, 5% in PvP;
3. Expertise up to the 6.5% cap vs bosses;
4. Strength;
5. Critical Strike;
6. Haste;
7. Attack Power.

Balance will instead want to prioritize:

1. Spell Hit up to the 16% cap vs bosses, 3% in PvP;
2. Spell Damage;
3. Spell Haste;
4. Spell Critical Strike;
5. Intellect.

Finally, Restoration will aim for:

1. Spell Healing;
2. Spell Haste;
3. Spirit;
4. Mp5;
5. Intellect.

Agility Druids will also face competition from Rogues and there will be high competition from many classes for some of the more rare weapons, trinkets, and jewelry pieces.

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.