WoW Classic Druid Leveling Guide 1-60
Welcome to our Classic leveling guide for Druids. Here, you will learn how to efficiently level your Druid all the way to Level 60.
If you were looking for TBC Classic advice, please refer to our TBC Classic Druid leveling guide.
Foreword
Druids are exceptionally fast levelers, only slightly falling behind Hunters in speed. However, Druids also require much more work and finesse to play at peak efficiency. With multiple forms, healing spells, utility spells, and damaging spells, Druids have the largest toolkit out of any class, allowing you to adapt to any situation. Feral is the best Druid leveling spec, and allows the use of different animal forms, such as Cat Form and Bear Form. These animal forms use Energy and Rage to deal heavy melee damage while letting their Mana regenerate, allowing them to make heavier use of natural Mana regeneration than any other Mana user. This natural efficiency is what gives Druids their leveling speed, allowing them to heal quickly, pull new mobs, and keep regenerating Mana, with very little downtime required.
Spec Options
Druid has many potential specs, but Feral will be your fastest leveling spec if you plan to play solo. Feral allows you to regenerate Mana passively while efficiently killing enemies in Bear Form and Cat Form.
Balance allows you to level as a caster, focusing on using your Nature and Arcane damage spells to kill enemies. While leveling will be slower than Feral, the gearing will allow you to easily heal dungeons while leveling, which can be better in a group.
Druids can also level as Restoration, but it is by far the worst option if you plan to level alone. In groups, Restoration will do quite well, but you do not need the Restoration talents to heal; Balance will serve you better while allowing you to also quest and deal damage when needed.
Weapons and Quests for Leveling Druids in WoW Classic
To guide you in your weapon upgrades and the class-specific quests you can do while leveling up, we have two guides that you may find useful.
Leveling in a Group as a Druid
Contrary to popular belief, leveling in a group can be extremely efficient, even better than solo leveling in some cases. While Druids are one of the faster solo leveling classes, they also perform very well with a partner or with a group. Druid in duos typically will level faster than playing solo, as Druid is exceptional at supporting other DPS. Druid performs very well when paired with high DPS classes like Warrior or Warlock. As an added benefit, this class can also opt to tank or heal dungeons, offering more options to your group.
Leveling Strategy as a Druid
As a Druid, your goal is to spend Mana in bursts before swapping into either Bear Form or Cat Form to finish enemies off. While in a form, your Mana will continue to regenerate, allowing you to swap out once enemies are dead and use it to heal, buff, or cast Moonfire or Wrath to pull new enemies from range.
Basic Leveling Strategy
For Levels 1 through 10, you will be mainly focused on using Moonfire, Wrath, and melee attacks. Keep in mind the 5 second rule, where your Mana only starts regenerating after not casting for 5 seconds. This means you should always try to front load your spells and finish enemies off with melee attacks.
Once you hit Level 10, you get Bear Form, which is your largest power spike that you will experience on your journey to 60. Once you have Bear Form, you now have a way to deal damage without using Mana. This is important because it allows you to front load your Mana to either do damage or heal yourself before switching into Bear Form to finish enemies off. You will be naturally resilient enough in Bear Form to tank multiple enemies, so do not be scared about pulling 2-3 enemies at a time, but any more and you will run into problems.
At Level 20, you get Cat Form, which is the form you will spend most of your time in up to 60. You will want to focus on using Claw and Rake to generate combo points before using Ferocious Bite to finish enemies off. Prowl is also a powerful tool and should be utilized whenever possible to sneak past enemies you do not want to fight.
Beyond Level 20, do not be afraid to use Bear Form sometimes whenever you feel like you might need to take less damage. While Bear Form is less damage than Cat Form, you take way less damage and will be at a lower risk of dying. In general, try to go Bear Form if you are dealing with multiple enemies at once, but use Cat Form for when you are only attacking one target. You can also make use of your crowd control abilities like Entangling Roots and Hibernate if too many enemies are being pulled to limit the number you need to deal with.
Other Tips
- Teleport: Moonglade - get used to using this ability whenever you need to train, vendor, or repair your gear. If you set your hearthstone to the inn closest to where you are currently questing, then you can teleport to Moonglade to take care of whatever you need before hearthing back to wherever you are questing.
- Once you get your mount at Level 40, do not underestimate how valuable Travel Form and Cat Form can be when moving. Specifically, you need to be moving for more than 20 seconds for it to be worth using your mount and not just casting Travel Form, since it is an instant cast.
- If you plan to do dungeons at all, keep a set of Intellect/Spirit gear in your bags. With some good pieces, you can heal through most dungeons while still having Feral talents, which could help you get into a dungeon group, since healers are harder to come by while leveling.
- Only use Swipe when you are attacking 3+ targets, which should only be happening if you are leveling in a group as more of a tank.
Professions While Leveling
If your goal is to hit Level 60 as fast as possible, it is not recommended to pick up Professions while leveling. However, some professions are very useful for either leveling or at Level 60, and can be worth the time investment to level early on. First Aid is a must have profession at max level due to the no Mana cost healing it provides, and learning it early on can be useful while leveling. Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning all are great choices for making gold towards your first mount, and can also be useful for helping to level other important professions later on, such as taking Mining to help level Engineering.
If you are going Restoration at Level 60, it might be advisable to take Professions that you can level without needing to kill enemies, such as Herbalism and Alchemy.
How to Advance as a Druid at Level 60
Well done on hitting maximum level in WoW Classic! Now that leveling is over, you can learn more about level 60 gameplay by reading our Druid Endgame Guides, which covers every facet of gameplay at 60 in detail.
In addition, you can also read the following guides.
- Our PvP Druid Guide is where you can find PvP builds for all 3 specializations, as well as various tricks and tips for PvP combat.
- Goldmaking Guide for Druids is a page with details on where / how to farm gold quickly as a Druid when you are Level 60.
Changelog
- 01 Nov. 2024: Minor page enhancements.
- 02 Sep. 2019: Improved description of Bear Form questline.
- 29 Aug. 2019: Improved presentation of talent picks by level.
- 15 Jul. 2019: Page added.
More Classic Druid Guides
Classic Leveling Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Reputation Guides
This guide has been written by Impakt, an Officer in BDGG, the #2 North American guild on retail. In addition to live WoW, he has also been a classic theorycrafter and enthusiast for many years. You can watch him stream on Twitch, or follow him on Twitter.
- Molten Core Tuning Detailed, Coming After Weekly Reset
- Molten Core Trash Mob Immunity Hotfix
- Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair Now Live in Season of Discovery Phase 4
- Higher Libram and Burning Essence Droprate Hotfix Coming + Fire Resist Explanation in SoD P4
- Molten Core Season of Discovery Details and Launch Date and Time
- Rise of the Zandalari Patch Coming to Cataclysm Classic on July 30th!
- SoD World Boss Resurrection Issues: July 18th
- World Bosses Live Now in Season of Discovery Phase 4