Druid Class Overview

Last updated on Jun 17, 2023 at 17:28 by Seksixeny 3 comments

Druids are masters of Nature and can transform into various animals and even a treant in order to perform their roles. They are also the only class which can perform all four roles by themselves (Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS), which makes them extremely versatile and a great starting class if you are not sure of what role you would like to perform at maximum level.

1.

Druid Playstyle

Druid uses Mana to cast their spells, and has access to unique Animal Forms which transform the Druid into an animal with unique abilities that allow the Druid to perform all roles in the game. Some of these forms have different resources: Dire Bear Form IconDire Bear Form has Rage, which is used for some abilities and gained by auto-attacking and taking damage, and Cat Form IconCat Form has Energy, which regenerates over time and allows you to use abilities. Cats also have Combo Points which are built by certain abilities, such as Shred IconShred, and can be used to increase the damage of special attacks, such as Ferocious Bite IconFerocious Bite.

Druids are also the only class that can resurrect allies during battle, allowing your group to recover from mistakes, especially if a critical role like the tank dies!

Finally, Druid is a hybrid class, able to take the role of a healer, tank and melee DPS within the same specialization, and also play as a ranged caster DPS, making it the most versatile class in the game.

Druid Class Crest WotLK Guide
2.

Druid Specializations

Druid is able to choose from three specializations: Balance, Feral Combat, and Restoration. All three specializations play very differently from each other, focusing on Ranged DPS, Tanking / Melee DPS, and Healing, respectively.

  • Balance Druid is a Ranged DPS specialization with powerful area-of-effect damage and a simple damage rotation which mostly alternates between two nuke spells.
  • Feral Combat can be either a Melee DPS or a Tanking specialization, depending on the specific talents you take. Feral Tanks are sturdy and easy to play, although they have less tools than the tanks of other specializations, while Feral DPS have high potential but also one of the toughest rotations to master.
  • Restoration Druid is a Healer specialization that focuses on applying a variety of heals-over-time to your allies in order to keep them healthy and energized through Revitalize IconRevitalize.
2.1.

What Specialization Should I Play?

Druid is the only class in the game which can perform all four main roles (Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, and Ranged DPS), making them extremely versatile and a great class to learn all aspects of the game with. They also make for great farmers and have an excellent leveling experience due to their multiple forms, which include an instant-cast flying form!

Balance is the most likely Druid specialization to be stacked in raids, as strong ranged DPS classes are rare and highly needed in raids. Their strong AoE profile also combines well with world and leveling content, allowing you to pull multiple enemies with damage-over-time effects and simply run around until they eventually die. They have a few decent PvP compositions, but are not a strong PvP class at the highest level.

Restoration is a solid healer, and one that you are likely to want to have in your raid group for its unique heal-over time-profile, which smooths out raid and tank damage, and for Revitalize IconRevitalize, which can have significant DPS value when it procs on Energy / Runic Power / Rage classes. They also have a few good PvP compositions, making them a great all-round healer.

Feral Combat Tank is one of the easiest ways to begin tanking in Wrath, as their rotation and gearing process are both very simple. While they also have less tools than other tanks to help the raid with, they are very sturdy and hard to kill, even at low gear levels. These characteristics along with their stealth and mobility ability makes them one of the best PvP base defenders and flag carriers in Battlegrounds.

Feral Combat DPS has one of the most complex rotations in Wrath, and is adequately rewarded for performing it well with one of the highest single-target DPS potentials, especially as Armor Penetration gear becomes more common in later phases. In PvP they are absolute terrors with excellent mobility, damage, and instant cast spells after using finishers due to Predatory Strikes IconPredatory Strikes, and they are also part of some of the best Arena compositions in the game.

3.

What are the Best Playable Races for Druid?

In Wrath Classic Druid can be played as Night Elf if you are playing Alliance, or Tauren if you are Horde. There are no other options.

4.

Gearing a Druid

Druids are relatively easy to gear due to a lack of competition for most pieces, along with multiple important pieces coming from crafting professions. You will still face high competition for some of the more rare trinkets and jewelry pieces, however.

Druids are able to wear Cloth and Leather armor, asd well as using a large variety of weapons, including daggers, fist weapons, staves, maces, and also polearms.

5.

Druid Addons and Macros

Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life: below are some of our recommendations to help get the most out of your time playing the game.

6.

Druid Leveling Guides

Druids are excellent at leveling, whether solo or in a party. Balance Druid can pull whole zones with DoTs and Starfall IconStarfall, while Feral DPS Druid has 0 downtime and simply moves from mob to mob while instantly self-healing on the way. Restoration and Feral Tank Druids are more specialized, raid-oriented specs, providing the tools to heal or tank in the end-game.

7.

Are Druids viable in Wrath?

Druid is one of the most represented classes in Wrath due to being the only class that can cover all roles with its four sub-specializations. While Feral Tank is not as relatively strong as it was in TBC, it is still a strong tank. Balance becomes a truly strong ranged DPS, brought for its damage and not just the group buffs. Restoration and Feral DPS continue to be very solid specs that you are likely to see in your groups.

8.

What are the biggest changes from TBC for Druids?

Balance Druid gains Starfall IconStarfall, Eclipse IconEclipse, and a reworked, much stronger Hurricane IconHurricane. Restoration's Lifebloom IconLifebloom loses most of its TBC power but other heals-over-time such as Rejuvenation IconRejuvenation are now much stronger, and the new Nourish IconNourish spell provides a strong direct heal. Feral Tanks lose their traditionally high avoidance scaling due to diminishing returns, but are now immune to Crits from talents alone. Finally, Feral DPS gains instant casts after finishers and a strong DPS cooldown in Berserk IconBerserk.

9.

How many Druids should be in a raid?

You will usually see three or four Druids in most 25m raids. The most important thing for 25m raids is ensuring you have all raid buffs covered, which one Druid of each specialization tree can help with, but bringing two or more Balance Druid is a great way to make use of Spell Power leather gear and Vanquisher tokens, while also covering AoE needs and ensuring a healthy amount of ranged DPS.

10.

Changelog

  • 17 Jun. 2023: New layout for Phase 3.
  • 28 Aug. 2022: Page added.
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