Easiest spec to level as

[PalliePower]

Well, as the title says: "What's the easiest spec to level a druid as and why?"

I've already decided that when she's 80 she's going to be resto but I leveled my paladin from 10-70 as holy (had a group to level with) and I don't think leveling a healer alone would be much fun or time efficent.

Thanks for any helpful input.

[Xacez]

Feral

No mana issues

[Holynerd]

Feral

[PalliePower]

Excuse my noobie-ness but, feral cat or feral bear? :<

If it's feral cat, I hear this works a lot like a rogue, which would be neat, kinda, since I have an 80 rogue as well.

[IamTheJesusMonk]

I'm going to go and disagree with everyone else and say balance.

I've been leveling this way and I've found it to be really quite fun and easy.

Plus, with your plan on going resto at 80, you'll already have spellpower gear from leveling so you won't need to gather a second set of gear.

Just my 2cp

[Baabinator]

I'm going to go and disagree with everyone else and say balance.

I've been leveling this way and I've found it to be really quite fun and easy.

Plus, with your plan on going resto at 80, you'll already have spellpower gear from leveling so you won't need to gather a second set of gear.

Just my 2cp

Agreed,

Starfire, moonfire, roots, wrath -till dead-. Repeat

[Silenthand]

Feral is, Imo faster due to no mana issues, but boomkin is always fun. You can still chose SP gear from quests as feral if you was planning going resto though.

[shags the penguin]

feral
cat or bear you asked, well both

Use cat for solo mobs and easy things that can be nuked down in seconds by cat, however use bear to solo group quests and deal with extra mobs you pull

Take both cat and bear talents however miss some tanking and some dps ones that only really matter at 80.


However its painful slow to level as resto unless your grouped, though duel spec resto and feral at some point for instances and just to make sure you learn the play style of tree

GL hope you enjoy tree at 80 I know I do

[Separate]

I tried boomkin from like 49-54 and had to switch back to feral, way to much drinking involved to level at the pace I enjoy.

[Keile]

Agreed,

Starfire, moonfire, roots, wrath -till dead-. Repeat

I twinked out a balance druid with heirlooms: SP Shoulders, Headmasters Charge, SP trinket, and then the Haste Trinket. +29 SP on the staff, but anyway i found it as easy to level as an equally geared ret pally i also leveled (and he had the advantage of the +30 stam enchant working because this was before 3.1).

I just open with a Starfire, it crits the things almost dead, 2 wraths and its over the thing doesnt even touch me. Mana trouble? Now and then i have to drink but i can USUALLY last long enough between innervates that i dont have to stop, depends on how many crits i get to proc my boomkins +2% mana return. And having SP while leveling means my HoTs heal me more effectivley than a Ferals would (oh and i can heal instances too! Healers on my server at my druids level, 48, are hard to find so i advertise as being a healer and get groups way easier than when i just wanted to DPS :P)

Now I'm not sure how a regular balance would do since i twinked mine out, but if you can heirloom one it will serve you well.

[Nangz]

feral all the way

only time i ever had to drink was if i pulled more then 2 after i went full heal

only bad part is finding a good weapon rest of gear is rogue gear

try a mace

it is a lot like a rogue

open with shred (backstab) then u get ravavge (like ambush) then u get pounce like cheapshot (i think in that order if not ravage and pounce are reversed)

use class untill level 50 when mangle u get from talents which is a pure upgrade
it should go pounce,shred (mangle before if u have it) rake then claw till dead fero bite to finish

[Solux]

There's a few options here and it's your choice.

Feral all the way, which is doable using the Ambush tactics killarth mentions, but I found much easier with Feral Faerie Fire, Rake, Claw, Claw, Bite. Most things will die with a Finisher and replace Claw with Mangle once you get access to it at level 50. The reason I say this is cat stealth is quite a bit slower than Rogue stealth and getting into position behind a mob can take time. Hitting in the face with the equivalent of Sinister Strike > Eviscerate tends to speed things up, but does mean you'll have to stop once in a while to heal until you can get Leader of the Pack, which will usually keep you topped off.

Feral, then Balance.
Balance was very poorly itemised in Vanilla WoW, which means everything before level 57-58 has stat distributions which make it tough to be a laserchicken. If you're looking at wearing leather as a Panzerkin (tank-like moonkin), you're quite a bit better off waiting until Outland Gear is accessible. After you can get the right stats, levelling by AoE made Balance Druids a very welcome change in Outland and Kitties can't start coming close to that until they receive swipe at 71.

Balance all the way:
You're going to be a bit squishy doing this, since you'll be in about 90% cloth until you hit Outland to get the stats you need to even be viable, but it can be done. Not getting Moonkin form until Level 40 means you're running around in caster form in cloth most of the time. It's not all bad though, with Roots you can solo some very nasty things, but as others have said you do need water.

Essentially, Feral is seen by most as being simpler because it's lower maintenance. If you want something different or a challenge though, add in some balance to spice things up. It will have the advantage of saving you lots of bag slots once you start collecting healing gear as caster gear has at least some useful stats on it for either Boomkin or Resto and I'm a big fan of learning some class tricks before you hit the 80 instances.

I should also add Feral Swiftness and the extra 30% move speed that brings in Cat form makes a big difference to levelling speed.

[highslime]

Feral is much lower maintenance, as others have mentioned. The fun of it doesn't hurt either.

[dambros]

Hi there,

I'd like to use this thread to avoid creating a new one and I believe my question fits here.

I have a lvl51 feral druid and I'd like to know if there is a better rotation than I'm doing to help me level faster.

So far it ahs been:
Pounce>FF>Shred>Mangle>Rake>Mangle x3>Ferocious Bite

Thanks.

[Knuffelbert]

I tend to not use pounce most of the time, requires stealth which is slow (you can run to the target and at the time he "adds" pop stealth so he runs towards you, requires some skill though) and doesn't deal much damage as the mob dies before the bleed finishes. I either just mangle / rake till death or when using pounce mangle than shred (only if you talented shred, and really first use mangle as it increases shred dmg if Iit didn't change). Ferocious Bite as a finisher, but not often as I don't wait for energy to refill when attacking next mob.

(a bit more heal intensive without breaks and stuns but was never an issue for me)

[dambros]

Is it possible to get a Pounce>Mangle>Shred off during the 4sec (talented) stun?

It requires 135 (50+42+43) energy for me right now.

[kATTEKONGEN]

Hi there,

I'd like to use this thread to avoid creating a new one and I believe my question fits here.

I have a lvl51 feral druid and I'd like to know if there is a better rotation than I'm doing to help me level faster.

So far it ahs been:
Pounce>FF>Shred>Mangle>Rake>Mangle x3>Ferocious Bite

Thanks.

Do nto use FF, waste of a GCD on mobs

[procne]

id say go for what seems more fun for u. leveling to 80 will take some time, why not have fun with it? some ppl prefer melee chars, others like casters. both feral and boomkin should be fine. and judging by what you (OP) said it seems that you dont know druid class too well. just take ur time and learn it. unless u wanna grind to 80 asap and start arena/raiding :S

well with boomkin u have this profit that u may use some boomkin gear for resto when u reach 80

[axxey]

I'd say boomkin has higher fun factor but feral cat better efficiency/easier.

Cat stealth is slow, very rarely do you use it one mob after another, killing every second or 3rd mob from stealth is effective.

Pounce, kill, feral charge, kill, faerie fire kill, rinse repeat.
Don't waste energy on kill moves where a couple white hits will suffice and there's follow up target in range to use energy on before hit max energy.

Get at least one point in imp leader when you have enough levels, pop hots fairly regularly as your mana regen from crits allows. Downtime = 0.

[phluff]

you can get 2 shreds in during a pounce stun if you're specced into shred less energy cost, and you should 2 shreds get them low