World of Warcraft - Druid Leveling Guide

You know, whatever RPG I played, I never fancied the idea of playing the moon-howling werewolf, brute-transforming hulk, leaping catwoman or feathery shaman. I just didn’t picture myself a worthy hero, walking on all-fours! C’mon, it’s degrading. I honestly didn’t feel any sort of anxiety for starting a druid in World of Warcraft and it was one of the last classes I leveled up. Part of my discomfort with playing a dr00d was the silliness of the first 20 levels. I honestly hated my druid for the first 20 levels, but since my guildies kept pushing me on with cries of “it gets better once you go cat” I told myself I should give it a go regardless. Well level 20 came and my, oh my, did things change. IMO, once you get catform, start pouncing and never look back until you’re 40-50 or so. There’s really no need to sway from the feral tree, regardless of your playing style: If you like soloing and grinding, feral offers the fastest downtime, best get-away-from-tight-situation abilities and best of all, extra movement speed (it might not seem like a huge bonus at first, but count the number of hours you’ll be saving up till level 70 and you’ll be surprised). If you like instancing, chances are you won’t be main healer, since there’s little room for healing leather gear when starting up. And a druid healing in AP gear is….well you know. It’s like having an enhancement shaman healing an entire part: it’s simply not efficient and at some point it becomes downright impossible. However, tanking in bear form is something you should really get into. Not just because it’s fun, but because it’s A. easy to get a group as tank, B. called upon on all playing levels, C. efficient. Let’s take a look at some essential talents you need to hit, and why you need to get them: Ferocity – less cost = more use = faster DPS = faster leveling. Easy enough, right? Feral Instinct – this may seem something that can be skipped at first glance, but mind you, it’s actually quite useful for getting to quest objectives quicker, getting to veins or herbs without causing havoc around you and of course, sneaking up on enemies :) Sharpened Claws – not noticeably good in the beginning, but scalable with leveling. Feral Charge – great for picking up mobs one after another, giving you an extra second or so of damaging without getting hit and better gankability :) I wouldn’t consider discarding any other leveling talents found in my build, but these ones are really the essential ones. Another talent you could try out is Brutal Impact, which increases your stun duration. Although some would argue it’s a PVP talent extraordinaire, it got me out of one too many sticky situations while leveling as to not consider it for this purpose. Try it, it might save your virtual life some day.