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 Primary attribute being shared, you will usually find Ranged / Healer Druids (Intellect) or Tank / Melee Druids (Agility), and only rarely Druids who mix both Intellect and Agility specializations.

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

• / Feral — Feral is both the tanking spec and melee DPS spec. It is commonly used as an off-tank, as you can go Cat Form when not actively tanking in order to do respectable DPS for a tank. When used as a pure melee DPS, Feral is usually on the lower damage side, encouraging off-tanking when using this specialization.
• 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 (which becomes Sunfire when in a Solar Eclipse) and Insect Swarm. Finally, it has great area burst damage potential with Wild Mushroom.
• 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 most of these spells provide 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.

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 Tank benefits from a very simple 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. Feral DPS is considerably more complex to perform well, however, making it a rewarding specialization to master.

Balance is one of the best casters to bring to 10-man raids because it brings most caster raid buffs by itself, such as Moonkin Form and Earth and Moon. It also has a simple, yet engaging, rotation and rewards knowledge of the encounter through Wild Mushroom, which must be pre-placed where multiple enemies will be ahead of time in order to deal significant damage.

The heavy healing over time kit of Restoration gives it a unique flavor and allows it to stand out in the Cataclysm metagame of high health pools which take a long time to refill. Often, heals over time will have the job of topping players up, 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.

Druid should be one of the most represented classes in Cataclysm 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 is a strong ranged DPS class with an unique damage profile and many caster 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 the high health environment of Cataclysm, and is the most mobile healer which makes it easier to deal with encounter mechanics while healing.

In Cataclysm 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.

• Night Elves are not a very good race for non-tank Druids, but Quickness is a good ability for tanks.
• Worgens are one of the two new races added in Cataclysm. Viciousness is the main racial offered, granting 1% crit chance. At level 85, 1% crit chance is 180 stats, making this the best racial for DPS and Healer Druids on Alliance. You will also get Darkflight, giving you a 2 minute movement speed cooldown.

• Trolls can now be Druids and 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.

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 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: Agility > Expertise > Hit > Crit > Haste > Stamina > Mastery. If you are instead focusing on Feral DPS, go with Agility > Mastery > Hit > Expertise > Crit > Haste.

Balance will instead want to prioritize Intellect > Spell Power on a weapon > Spirit or Hit > Haste > Mastery > Crit.

Finally, Restoration will aim for Intellect > Spell Power on a weapon > Haste to the 21.4% soft cap > Mastery > Crit > Spirit, which can have higher value if Mana is an issue > Stamina.

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.

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.