WoW Classic Druid Leveling Guide

Welcome to our druid leveling guide for WoW Classic! Druids are one of Azeroth’s most unique classes, using their shapeshifting ability to dispatch of their enemies. With shapeshifting, druids have the ability to fulfill any combat role in the game, making them excellent at leveling. Any class with healing tends to be great for leveling, but druids take this further with plenty of damage and utility at their disposal!

While level 60 druids typically play as Restoration, you’ll need to play completely differently while you level. The Restoration specialization doesn’t deal good damage, a big requirement of making leveling efficient. The best way to level a druid is to actually utilize Cat Form and build as a Feral druid, making their playstyle similar to a rogue, but with plenty of healing and spells to back it up.

To successfully level your druid, there are several things you can learn to make the process quicker and easier! We’ll cover all of that in this guide, including how you should play and build while leveling. Druids are definitely one of the easier classes to level past level 20, but we’ll also include some leveling tips to speed things up.

Pros

• One of the quickest classes to level.
• Excellent soloing capabilities thanks to Bear Form and Healing Touch.
• Great utility providing crowd control.
• Not dependant on gear or weapons to succeed.
• Very versatile with use of forms and spells.
• Getting around is a breeze with stealth, a sprint, and Travel Form.

Cons

• First 10-20 levels can be tough without Bear Form and then Cat Form.
• Lower damage output than pure damage-dealing classes.
• Usually relegated to healing with Restoration once you reach level 60.
• Understanding and juggling various resources can be confusing.

General Leveling Tips

Reaching level 60 is no quick task in Classic WoW, meaning you’ll spend a great deal of time during the leveling process. You can shorten this duration with some of the following tips, but your biggest focus should be on having fun! This ultimately comes down to picking the right class for your desired gameplay, but it also means taking time to enjoy the journey. Every gear and spell upgrade you get is significant and you’ll feel how it adds to your power. Picking a class is a huge commitment, but the versatile druid gives you a taste of several different combat roles, so you can’t really go wrong with one!

Here are some helpful tips to make the leveling process simpler and hassle-free:

• Try to fight enemies one at a time. It can often take you several seconds, or even a minute or two just to kill one enemy. When you throw another into the mix, you’re receiving double the damage while having double the health pool to clear through! This is a quick recipe for death, so pull slow and steady!
• Make sure to fight enemies that are the same level as you as often as possible. You will only gain full experience from enemies that are the same level. Lower level enemies offer less experience, although are easier to fight. On the other hand, higher level enemies not only give more experience, but are also tougher to kill!
• Grouping up is almost always beneficial. Even though druids make fantastic soloing classes, they’re perfect for any group. Grouping up will allow you to tread into much more dangerous areas and quickly dispatch of targets with focused fire from multiple characters.
• Don’t run out of food and water! You will have some passive health and mana regeneration from Spirit, but it won’t be enough to keep you sustained. There’s nothing worse than running out of mana when you don’t have water and you’re nowhere near town.
• Considering much of the glamor of WoW Classic is in the journey, try to keep the immersion by figuring quests out yourself! Your map won’t display quest turn-in locations or objective areas, which makes them more engaging and challenging! If you’re ever truly stuck, don’t feel bad about looking them up!
• One thing that can really slow down your leveling progress is choosing poor leveling zones. Some zones are designed for Alliance, while others are oriented for the Horde. Make sure you choose the appropriate zones for your faction and level, prioritizing those that you already understand well or have quest-giving hubs that are closely grouped.

Druid Specific Gameplay Advice

• Druids technically have two buffs. Mark of the Wild is a fantastic boon increasing your armor, stats, and resistances that lasts 30 minutes. Thorns will cause damage to anyone that attacks you, lasting 10 minutes. There is no reason not to have both buffs active on yourself at all times!
• Use all your spells immediately so that you’ll be able to benefit from MP5. After not using a spell for 5 seconds, you’ll start to regenerate mana in combat. This means you can start pulls with a spell or heal, then immediately switch to attacking with Cat Form.
• When traveling between locations, quests, or even monsters, you’ll always want to use Travel Form for quicker movement speed. If you know you can benefit from the full 15 second duration, use Dash whenever it is available for even-quicker traveling speed!
• Your combo points only stick to one enemy. Make sure you use them before switching targets, otherwise you’ll have wasted them.
• If you only want to pull one enemy, but there’s another close nearby, use Entangling Roots to keep one at bay! You can also use the Nature’s Grasp talent to have this naturally applied to an enemy that attacks you.
• If you plan on healing, rank 4 of Healing Touch is the most mana-efficient heal you can use once you learn it. Until then, it can be extremely helpful to throw a Rejuvenation on yourself before switching into Cat Form.
• Interrupting isn’t something that you can do easily as a druid in Cat Form. You’ll need to switch to Bear Form and use Feral Charge. Alternatively, you can cast Bash, also requiring Bear Form, but which will also stun the target.
• Your mana will continue to regenerate naturally while in animal forms. Rage or energy based abilities will not prevent mana per the 5 second rule to be interrupted. Shifting into a Form counts as a spell, which affects your mana regen, whereas shifting out does not.
• Use Teleport Moonglade as a second Hearthstone. Set your Hearthstone to wherever you are questing, then Teleport: Moonglade when you need to go back to a major city for training.
• Remember that Entangling Roots and Travel Form are only usable outdoors.
• There are no diminishing returns on mobs with Entangling Roots.
• Bleed damage bypasses armor so it is effectively pure damage.

Cat Form vs. Travel Form vs. Mount

• If your next point of travel is 16 seconds or less away and you have points in Feline Swiftness, you should use Cat Form to get there.
• If your next point of travel is 24 seconds or less away, you should use Travel Form.
• Any further distances will be quickest with a 60% mount.

Stat Priority

1. Agility
   • Without a doubt, your strongest stat is Agility. Not only does Agility give you useful Attack Power, but it also gives you a slight boost to your Crit chance and Dodge chance. This makes it great for increasing your damage, but it can also help keep you alive!
   • Increases Attack Power by 1 per point.
   • Increases Crit by 1% per 20 points.
   • Increases Dodge by 1% per 20 points.
2. Strength
   • Strength is great because it also boosts your Attack Power, twice as much as Agility in fact. Unfortunately, it doesn’t grant any other benefits.
   • Increases Attack Power by 2 per point.
3. Stamina
   • Your next best stat is going to be Stamina. This increases your max health, allowing you to soak more hits and giving you extra time before needing to cast a heal.
   • Increases health points by 10 per point.
4. Spirit
   • Spirit is also an excellent stat to pick up while leveling. This will increase your out-of-combat health and mana regeneration, which means less downtime eating and drinking. This indirectly increases your leveling speed.
   • Increases health & mana regeneration rates.
5. Intellect
   • You’ll also want Intellect, but it isn’t as important as any other stats above. This will increase your maximum mana pool, allowing you to cast more spells. Most of your time will be spent in Cat Form though, making mana much less important.
   • Increases mana points by 15 per point.

Rotation

Your rotation is going to constantly evolve as you level up. Several abilities are fantastic to use, but require a specific level before you can train them. With that in mind, you should remove any abilities that you don’t have access to yet in your rotation, but don’t forget to incorporate them once they become available to you!

Prior to level 10, you can only use spells in your humanoid form. You’ll want to pull with Moonfire, and then immediately pelt enemies with Wrath. Stop to heal yourself if need be.

Your top priority is to apply Faerie Fire (Feral) once you’ve unlocked it in the talent tree. This reduces your target’s armor, making you deal more damage! This does require you to be level 30, so you can use Moonfire as a ranged pull ability until you get there.

After pulling you’ll want to apply a Rake for the bleed effect. Now you can simply use Claw until you’ve generated 5 combo points. If you know your target will still have at least half their health after spending combo points, use Rip. Otherwise, cast Tiger’s Fury, and then finish with Ferocious Bite.

If you have multiple targets on you, you’ll want to switch to Bear Form. Immediately cast Demoralizing Roar once you have the rage. Any other rage you can spend on Maul.

• Single Target (Cat Form): Faerie Fire (Feral) (keep applied) >Rake >Claw to 5 combo points >RiporTiger’s Fury / Ferocious Bite
• Multiple Targets (Bear Form): Demoralizing Roar >Maul

Rotation by Level

The early levels while leveling Druid can be a bit slow. Front load spells, usually 1-2 Wraths followed by Melee animation cancel into Moonfire, then finish mobs with melee attacks to get natural Mana regeneration ticking again ASAP.

Moonfire or Rejuvenation immediately after your melee auto attack connects as you can cast these instants without delaying your next swing more than a .1 or .2s.

You will primarily use Healing Touch to recover at this stage as you get Regrowth at 10. Rejuvenation should be front loaded right after a casted ability.

To survive and kill multiple mobs focus all Mana usage on burst healing, then auto attacking for a while to regen letting Thorns slowly bring the mobs down. Rinse and repeat.

Big power spike in leveling speed at level 10 when Bear Form comes online. Maul does pretty high damage and should be used over Swipe even when fighting 2+ mobs. You can use Swipe if you have excess Rage and you are fighting 3+.

Against single targets use Enrage on cooldown as the downside of 27% Base Armor Reduction is negligible. Consider pooling Rage and interrupting with Bash when against caster mobs.

Against multiple targets forego using Enrage as your added damage vs damage taken is likely no longer efficient. Instead use Demoralizing Roar against 2+ mobs to decrease enemy Attack Power.

While you get Cat Form at 20, there will be many instances in this level bracket where it’s preferable to sit in Bear Form. One reason is that you don’t have an efficient finisher for your combo points in Cat Form at this stage and don’t even get Shred till 22. Secondly, you are penalized more swapping from caster to cat than caster to bear as you start with potentially 0 Energy as Furor isnt 5/5 till 27.

At 24 you get Rake. At this point you should start opening with it as your first combo point.

26+ use Dash on cooldown for 50% speed increase when you know you will be running for 15 seconds straight. You also get Travel Form at 30 and this should be used whenever out of combat moving to and from objectives.

You get Faerie Fire (Feral) at 31 and Ferocious Bite at 32 which is your first efficient finisher to use with your combo points. Claw / Shred to 4 Combo Points then Ferocious Bite.

Cat Form really starts to shine once Feral Faerie Fire and Ferocious Bite come online and should be prioritized more.

You get Pounce at 36 offering you a 2 second stunlock opener if need be.

Talent Path

Even though Restoration is the best end-game specialization for a druid, you’ll have a much better time leveling as Feral. However, you won’t receive Bear Form (or talents for that matter) until level 10. Furthermore, you won’t even learn Cat Form until level 20. Because of this, there are some druids that like to start with the Balance tree at level 10, placing points into Nature’s Grasp, Improved Nature’s Grasp, and Natural Weapons. This will give you the greatest damage boost between level 10-20, but you’ll need to reset your talents at level 20 if you choose to do this.

Abilities to Train

• Level 1-20 – Learn every ability and upgrade that you can train. You’ll also want to complete the quest that unlocks Bear Form.
• Level 28 – Claw rank 2
• Level 30 – Faerie Fire (Feral) rank 1, Mark of the Wild rank 3
• Level 32 – Ferocious Bite rank 1
• Level 38 – Claw rank 3
• Level 40 – Mark of the Wild rank 4, Ferocious Bite rank 2
• Level 42 – Faerie Fire (Feral) rank 2
• Level 48 – Ferocious Bite rank 3, Claw rank 4
• Level 50 – Mark of the Wild rank 5
• Level 54 – Faerie Fire (Feral) rank 3
• Level 56 – Ferocious Bite rank 4
• Level 58 – Claw rank 5
• Level 60 – Mark of the Wild rank 6, Ferocious Bite rank 5

Alternative Builds

Noteworthy Aspects: 5/5 Feral Aggression, 5/5 Furor before 1/1 Nature’s Grasp, 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter, 0/2 Imp Shred. Getting 2/2 Blood Fury right as you hit 32 for Ferocious Bite.

Start in Feral tree:

• 5/5 Ferocity
• 5/5 Feral Aggression
• 2/2 Feline Swiftness

Proceed into Restoration tree:

Proceed into Balance Tree:

• 1/1 Nature’s Grasp

Back to Feral Tree:

• 3/3 Sharpened Claws
• 2/2 Blood Frenzy
• 1/1 Feral Charge
• 2/3 Predatory Strikes
• 1/1 Feral Faerie Fire
• 2/2 Savage Fury
• 3/3 Predatory Strikes
• 1/2 Brutal Impact
• 5/5 Heart of the Wild
• 1/1 Leader of the Pack

Return to Balance tree:

• 4/4 Improved Nature’s Grasp
• 5/5 Natural Weapons
• 1/1 Omen of Clarity
• 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter

Noteworthy Aspects: 5/5 Feral Instincts > Aggression, 1/1 Nature’s Grasp before 5/5 Furor, 3/3 Imp. Thorns, 0/2 Imp Shred. Getting 2/2 Blood Fury right as you hit 32 for Ferocious Bite.

Start in Feral tree:

• 5/5 Ferocity
• 5/5 Feral Instinct
• 2/2 Feline Swiftness

Proceed into Balance tree:

• 1/1 Nature’s Grasp

Proceed into Restoration tree:

Back to Feral tree:

• 1/1 Feral Charge
• 3/3 Sharpened Claws
• 2/2 Blood Frenzy
• 2/3 Predatory Strikes
• 1/1 Feral Faerie Fire
• 2/2 Savage Fury
• 3/3 Predatory Strikes
• 1/2 Brutal Impact
• 5/5 Heart of the Wild
• 1/1 Leader of the Pack.

Return to Balance tree:

• 4/4 Improved Nature’s Grasp
• 5/5 Natural Weapons
• 1/1 Omen of Clarity
• 3/3 Improved Thorns

Noteworthy Aspects: 1/1 Nature’s Grasp First, 2/2 Brutal Impact, 3/5 Feral Instinct > Aggression, 2/2 Imp. Shred

Start in Balance tree:

• 1/1 Nature’s Grasp

Proceed to Feral tree:

• 5/5 Ferocity
• 2/2 Brutal Impact
• 3/5 Feral Instinct
• 2/2 Feline Swiftness
• 1/1 Feral Charge

Back to Restoration tree:

Return to Feral tree:

• 3/3 Sharpened Claws
• 2/2 Blood Frenzy
• 2/3 Predatory Strikes
• 1/1 Feral Faerie Fire
• 3/3 Predatory Strikes
• 2/2 Savage Fury
• 4/5 Feral Instinct
• 5/5 Heart of the Wild
• 1/1 Leader of the Pack

Proceed back into Balance tree:

• 4/4 Imp. Nature’s Grasp
• 5/5 Natural Weapons
• 1/1 Omen of Clarity
• 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter

Noteworthy Aspects: 5/5 Feral Aggression , 1/1 Nature’s Grasp before 5/5 Furor, 0/2 Imp Shred, 3/3 Reflection, 5/5 Tranquil Spirit, 1/1 Nature’s Swiftness, 2/2 Enrage

Start in Feral tree:

• 5/5 Ferocity
• 5/5 Feral Aggression
• 2/2 Feline Swiftness

Proceed into Balance tree:

• 1/1 Nature’s Grasp

Proceed into Restoration tree:

Back to Feral tree:

• 1/1 Feral Charge
• 3/3 Sharpened Claws
• 2/2 Blood Frenzy
• 2/3 Predatory Strikes
• 1/1 Feral Faerie Fire
• 2/2 Savage Fury
• 3/3 Predatory Strikes

Return to Restoration tree:

• 5/5 Improved Healing Touch
• 3/3 Reflection
• 2/2 Enrage
• 5/5 Tranquil Spirit
• 1/1 Nature’s Swiftness

Proceed back into Feral tree:

• 1/2 Brutal Impact
• 4/5 Heart of the Wild

Noteworthy Aspects: The Flat damage increase through Natural Weapons will provide better pound for pound value then the rage reduction of Ferocity in Feral Combat. Also a fast Nature’s Grasp can help increase survivability.

What is Front Shredding?

Front Shredding refers to a clever manipulation of game mechanics which allow you to use Shred from the front. Shred deals a whopping 225% damage plus bonus damage, however, the drawback is that you are only able to use it from behind.

Steps:

• Get as close to the mob as you possibly can without it backing up, basically hover right on top of it.
• Begin a tight strafing pattern back and forth left and right with strides just long enough for the mob to appear like it’s turning directions exposing its back.
• Bind Shred to something easily spammable. I highly recommend scroll up or down on the mouse wheel.
• While strafing back and forth, spam your Shred. If done correctly you should have opportunities while strafing back and forth to use Shred from the front.
• Your initial attempt to get the front Shred off can potentially be unsuccessful before your next energy tick. To hedge your bet against wasting energy ticks, start the fight with Tiger’s Fury to give yourself some buffer time to get the front Shred off.

Front Shred Speed Build:

This is a front Shredding build optimized for maximum speed.

Start in Balance Tree:

• 1/1 Nature’s Grasp
• 4/4 Improved Nature’s Grasp
• 5/5 Natural Weapons

Respec at 20 to:

• 5/5 Ferocity
• 5/5 Thick Hide
• 1/2 Feral Swiftness

Proceed as follows through Feral tree:

• 2/2 Feral Swiftness
• 3/3 Sharpened Claws
• 2/2 Improved Shred
• 3/3 Predatory Strikes
• 1/1 Feral Faerie Fire

Proceed into Balance tree:

• 1/1 Nature’s Grasp
• 4/4 Improved Nature’s Grasp
• 5/5 Natural Weapons
• 1/1 Omen of Clarity

Proceed into Restoration tree:

Return to Balance tree:

• 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter

Back to Feral tree:

• 2/2 Blood Frenzy
• 2/2 Savage Fury
• 5/5 Heart of the Wild
• 1 Leader of the Pack

Class Quests

• Bear Form: There’s only one really important class quest to complete, the one that gives you Bear Form! You’ll unlock access to this at level 10 and you’ll want to complete it immediately. Until level 10, you’re restricted to casting spells in humanoid form. Bear Form, despite the limited damage it offers, is still stronger than trying to cast spells. With Bear Form you gain your first shapeshifting form, giving you your first taste of what the class is all about!
• Cure Poison: You can obtain this quest at level 14. This spell can be useful in Wailing Caverns and other small group content. Cure Poison can also prove useful when you are fighting a rogue.
• Aquatic Form: This quest is obtainable at level 16. 50% speed increase while in water can be very useful in the open world.

• Start Quest at Kal the Druid Trainer in Dolanaar, Teldrassil.
• Go to Darnassus, set your Hearthstone there, then talk to Mathrengyl.
• Teleport: Moonglade and talk to Dendrite Starblaze.
• Talk to the Great Bear Spirit to the left of the building.
• Hearthstone back to Darnassus and talk to Mathrengyl.
• He will send you to fight a Moonkin named Lunaclaw in Auberdine.
• To find the Moonkin Stone, go to a cave in Darkshore east of Auberdine.
• Go back to Mathrengyl in Darnassus and get Bear Form.

• Start Quest at Gennia Runetotem, Druid trainer in Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore.
• Go to Thunder Bluff, set your Hearthstone there, talk to Turak Runetotem.
• Teleport: Moonglade and talk to Dendrite Starblaze.
• Talk to the Great Bear Spirit to the left of the building.
• Hearthstone back to Thunder Bluff and talk to Turak Runetotem.
• He will send you to fight a Moonkin named Lunaclaw in the Barrens.
• To find the Moonkin Stone, take the road from Mulgore to the Barrens.
• Go back to Turak Runetotem in Thunder Bluff and get Bear Form.

Equipment

• Druids can use cloth and leather armor. Leather will provide a slightly better physical damage resistance, but your main priority is to pick equipment that provides you with useful stats. If you find cloth gloves with plenty of Agility, they’ll definitely be an upgrade over a pair of leather ones without them.
• This also makes weapons less important for a druid. Your attack damage is not calculated based off the damaging stats of your weapon (damage range, DPS), but instead is a combination of your stats. Weapons tend to offer the most stats compared to other pieces of gear, which makes them important, but not because your damage is solely dependent on them.
• Leatherworking gear is especially useful for druids. You can craft several pieces as you level up that have plenty of Agility. When you get to higher levels, you can craft things like Wolfshead Helm, great for giving you Energy/Rage when swapping into a form. You can also craft Devilsaur gear, which can give you an extra edge in the last few legs of leveling!

Noteworthy Feral Gear

• Tunic of Westfall – Chest -Lvl 14 – Dungeon Quest Reward “The Defias Brotherhood” Deadmines
• Triprunner Dungarees – Pants – Lvl 25 – Dungeon Quest Reward “The Grand Betrayal” Gnomeregan
• Loksey’s Training Stick – Staff – Lvl 31 – 10% Drop off Houndmaster Loksey Scarlet Monastery
• Ironshod Bludgeon – Staff – Lvl 37 – 20% Drop off Ironaya in Uldaman
• Masons Fraternity Ring – Ring – Lvl 40 – Dungeon Quest Reward “Divino-matic Rod” Zul’Farrak
• Wolfshead Helm – Head – Lvl 40 – Crafted by Leatherworkers – Great for Powershifting
• Warden Staff – Staff – Lvl 43 – BoE Epic Weapon .025% Chance World Drop
• Devilsaur Gauntlets – Hands – Lvl 53 – BoE Rare Crafted by Leatherworkers
• Devilsaur Leggings – Legs – Lvl 55 – BoE Rare Crafted by Leatherworkers

Professions

Professions definitely aren’t a requirement to level, but they can make the process much more enjoyable. Not only do they give you a break from the typical grind of questing and killing, but they can offer you substantial equipment and consumables. If you take the time to level your professions, your character will be much stronger overall. Not only that, but professions are a great way of making gold, something that becomes quite important if you want to purchase a mount!

Here are some great professions to train while leveling a druid:

• Skinning – Skinning is a great first choice for a druid because you’ll already be up close to enemies when they die. Not only that, but the leather you’ll acquire can be used to level up leatherworking, turning it into quite useful gear!
• Leatherworking – Leatherworking is a fantastic profession to have for any leather-wearing class. You can make several pieces of gear to make yourself stronger while leveling. You can also create armor kits, which can give you an extra sense of security and tankiness!
• Herbalism – If you don’t want to be a leatherworker, you can also take up herbalism. Herbalism will allow you to gather herbs necessary for alchemy. You can also combine it with skinning for a great gold-generation combo. Tauren also have a natural bonus to herbalism, making them prime candidates for this profession.
• Alchemy – Alchemy is another fantastic profession for leveling. You can make several different potions and elixirs that offer useful bonuses. Whether you need some mana regeneration, health restoration, or agility, you can find some kind of alchemy concoction for that!

Useful Macros

#showtooltip Maul /startattack /cast Maul

#showtooltip Swipe /startattack /cast Swipe

Cancel Form and Cast Entangling Roots

#showtooltip Entangling Roots /cancelform /cast Entangling Roots

Hurricane Mouseover

#showtooltip Hurricane /cast [@cursor] Hurricane

Cancel Form Cast Moonfire

#showtooltip Moonfire /cancelform /cast Moonfire

Dismount Stealth

#showtooltip Prowl /dismount /cast Cat Form /cast Prowl

Powershifting – Powershifting is referring to going from a shift form to your race form back into your shift form again.

Powershift Bear Form Potion

#showtooltip /cast [stance:1] Bear Form /use [stance:0] Healing Potion /cast [nostance:1] !Bear Form

Dash to Cat Form From Any Form

#showtooltip Dash /cancelform [noform:3] /cast [noform:3] !Cat Form /cast [noform:3] Dash