Leveling as druid, Boomkin or Feral?

[Mograinejenkins]

Hello
Lately i want to level my 67 night elf druid
But i dont know whats the best way to level him, Feral or boomkin.

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...on&n=Greenlike

this is mainly in Boomkin gear as i am boomkin atm:P

P.s I wear Cloth BoA items since ive got a 58 priest and warlock, so i can use them for 3 chars

[bigjenk]

They are both fine ask yourself do you want to level as melee or caster and if you do instances while leveling do you mind tanking or healing. Its really just personal choice.

Going for pure speed feral is probably slightly faster due to no drinking although havent played my druid since the innervate change so might be easier.

[Mograinejenkins]

Do you think boomkin has the most survivalbillity?

[Deleted]

No. Feral has the most survivability, feral can solo *almost* any group quest you get involving single elites, feral has no downtime at all. Feral is faster aswell, because of the run speed boost.

You can still level just fine as boomkin, its just not going to be as optimal as feral.

[Mograinejenkins]

Ok thanks for the information so far
But 1 more question, i guess its not really hard but any good rotation for feral dps as cat form?
i guess it goes, Entering combat>Mangle>Mangle>Mangle>Mangle>Leaving combat?

[Deleted]

either will work fine it honestly depends on what gear you can get or have (You'll get a lot more Moonkin gear leveling due to cloth etc... then fearl imo).
TBC I level'd feral which was fun but when I was instancing with friends I had a lil trouble sometimes healing if it got tricky.
WoTLK I went moonkin to level was cake all the way through (Gear was changed for spellpower etc... so made life easier gear wise).

Being honest if ur considering level'ing as feral I'd suggest just doing it as bear , it's fun and easy as hell.

[Xelf]

For me, moonkin was more fun to level ( 70-80 ) but while feral you do solo everything in your path, it may be abit faster aswell since you dont stop ever 1 minute to have a drink. Feral is boring but atleast it gets the job done. Me as a high end raiding gear (sunwell at the time), I was able to 2man instances along with a ret pally on 78-80. Talkin about Nexus since you dont really have to kill the bosses, we just farmed the trash.
While moonkin, you may drink often and be vulnarable to alot of damage, you have fun chain pulling and AoEing down mobs with Starfall (then it had stun, witch proc'd quite often), and just watching a chicken kill stuff.

In 60-70, Feral is better only because its safer as Outland questing is crap.

0-60 dont remember :P

[tauromania]

feral is a no-stop grinding machine (with ILoP u even get mana when crit!) , moonkin is a nearly-no stop grinding machine. if u cn do 3 min without rec then level boomkin, otherwise feral ftw. of course depend of what u prefer

[Sunshine]

But 1 more question, i guess its not really hard but any good rotation for feral dps as cat form?
i guess it goes, Entering combat>Mangle>Mangle>Mangle>Mangle>Leaving combat?

Check out the leveling sticky.

[Scunosi]

I leveled fine as Boomkin back before Wrath, I can't really remember that far back tho. ^^' I'd assume being able to heal yourself or others makes you just as useful as a feral who can tank or dps, but really if you already have the gear and spec for Boomkin you might as well go the cheapest route and just stay Balance.

At least that's what I'd do. >.>

Plus there's all that added Balance stuff now, Typhoon and Starfall greatly increase your surviability. Unless of course Starfall aggros ten mobs you didn't see before. Yikes.

[Xafucoke]

I leveled boomkin from 0 - 80... extremely fast... especially when you can preheal regrowth rejuv, pop starfall, hurricane a shitton of mobs at once..

[anywherenotes]

Boomkin is fine, and personally I liked it more than feral.

As boomkin you start at a distance, cast a couple of spells before mob gets to you, mob may hit you once, and you got an armor multiplier (which cats don't).

I do believe that in optimal world feral is faster. However if you want to play a boomkin (which I kind of did), than boomkin leveling will be faster. Personally I started dying a lot less when I went boomkin. The issue of 'oops I pulled an extra mob' isn't a big deal if the first mob is dead by the time second one gets to you.

[Sunshine]

I still believe that the "optimal" leveling spec is the one you like better -- the one which will make you want to play. If you really like ranged caster dps and don't like the melee playstyle, trying to level as feral is about as good as trying to dps a boss while dead, and the same for leveling balance if you much prefer melee.