Any Druid 39 guides?

[Rayekk]

or is there any point in rolling a 39 druid? I've got freefoot in the 29's now, but I'm not liking it as much as I'd hoped, and I'm thinking of ways to make him more fun. Leveling to 39 is an option, since now 3.1 is going to level the playing field a bit.



Thoughts on spec, roll gear and such?

 

[Fìalotta]

or is there any point in rolling a 39 druid? I've got freefoot in the 29's now, but I'm not liking it as much as I'd hoped, and I'm thinking of ways to make him more fun. Leveling to 39 is an option, since now 3.1 is going to level the playing field a bit.



Thoughts on spec, roll gear and such?

U men that we will get xp ion bgs havent this just been a rummor since tbc came out?

 

[Bansil]

haha, got ya^^

lvling the druid is best you can do. give a hint on what you wanna do...



best case you will get all the gear for every setup, but if you think it is too much work to do, give us a direction.



feral -> very good FC / viable dmg with good support

balance -> insane dmg (possible) and a very good support/offheal

resto -> powerful but very active healer. you need to care for yourself a lot.



any thoughts?

 

[Rayekk]

U men that we will get xp ion bgs havent this just been a rummor since tbc came out?

No- not at all- I mean - have a 29- and I'm not liking him, becasue he's kinda gimp, unless I want to heal or FC (and I already FC in the 19's) so I'm looking at the posisbility of leveling him to the 39's- but I don't want to end up with another "gimped" class. if he'll be stuck as a FC/healer in the 39's then I'll not want to bother.



*the "level the palying feild" thing was in refernce to the nerfing onf leg & shoulder enchants and Librams-

 

[Rayekk]

feral -> very good FC / viable dmg with good support

How viable? I raid on an 80 Boomkin, so having a mini-me isn't the goal- i'm really looking to be feral, if it's viable...

 

[Bansil]

hm, not as viable as a rogue/mage/pally/lock.



you won't ROCK the world on your own, but teamed up you are one of the best support possible. i would favour balance, but feral is a good choice too.



if supporting sounds like fun to you...do it.

besides this playing a 39 boomkin is far away from raiding on lvl 80.

 

[Fìalotta]

How viable? I raid on an 80 Boomkin, so haveing a mini-me isn't the goal- i'm really looking to be feral, if it's viable...

39 twink druids can be nasty as feral atlest pre wolk there coude be

monstly doing 29 now as my 39 twink hunter got lvled from 29 twink stage coz of mistakly ding=(

 

[Druiddroid]

feral druids, when played properly, can output very constant DPS as well as throw in some pretty good burst. the problem with feral druids is that they are only good for single target DPS and they don't have many interrupts. for example, as a rogue/mage/lock, you can kick/CS/spelllock. but a feral druid has to be in bear form and use bash or feral charge, and typically a feral druid DPS's in cat form.

 

[Bansil]

i teamed up with a feral on my rogue once...there is almost nothing that will leave the stunlock alive. and we almost never died, cause we had a lot of CC and some heal in our pockets...



he did some very impressive things, like switching in healing weapons and such things...if you do it right, the druid is a very powerful team member. so is the shaman.

 

[nosoup4crr]

On a scale of 1-10, the feral's DPS in the first 4 seconds of a fight is a 9. Very few classes can put out the burst as consistently as they can (mostly because of their 30% crit). Not only that, but during that burst, your target is stunned. In 4 seconds, if both of your shreds are crits, you'll put out about 1.1k-1.4k damage (depending on target's armor). After those first 4 seconds, a feral druids DPS is probably around a prot paladins...I'd rate it a 1, maybe a 1.5.



The key is to switch your rolls to maximize your potential. After those first 4 seconds (and maybe a faerie fire), you can switch to bear to either interrupt a spell cast, bash a target for extra control, or tank until you get a nature's grasp on the target. go travel/caster in order to throw around a heal to a teammate or root an opponent. OR, you can cheetah form to restealth. The situation dictates the best move. The strength of the class is that you do have all of those options.



Once you've made the most of the following 6-8 seconds, you can go back to cat form with 100 energy, shred, shred, FB--and have the potential for another 1.5k damage in a 5 second time frame.

 

[Druiddroid]

i wouldn't say a druid's DPS is that of a prot paladin after the stun. i think the DPS is actually pretty decent. it's very very consistant, albeit there aren't a lot of huge numbers. you can rake and rip to place two dots on your target constantly if you want. the main problem is that you don't have interrupts, can only do good single target dps, and are vulnerable to stuns.

 

[elesian]

Balance ALL the way. Forget feral druid unless your running FC, your damage stinks, and beyond pounce and rip you are a one trick poney. Sure, you last a long time with bear form + HOT, but what are you actually achieving on a 3k ret pally? Viability increases quite a bit on arena however, due to the all-around support you can offer.



Resto's IMO go down too easy for a healer. Too easily locked down/interrupted. low mitigation, no get out of jail cards on more than 1 mob. You have to be extremely skilled and vigilant at all times. Everything i've witnessed at 39 tells me that you have the worst survivability out of all healing classes.



Balance is incredible, you will regularly rock the DPS charts, in both sustained and burst. Great utility, and your hots will still be semi decent with SP stacking. Balance, or stamina stacked bearform/travelform FC.

 

[Druiddroid]

balance is a good spec at 39 too, but it has less survivability than a DPS feral druid. also, high balance DPS comes from wrath spam and starfire, which require you to stand still. a feral druid can move around very well and chase down almost anything, granted it's DPS isn't too high.



also, while resto druids don't necessarily have a ton of CC tricks at 39, they have travel form. this alone gives them a very high capability of surviving other classes. it costs a relatively small amount of mana to cast too, so you can use it on multiple slows. it depends on the situation what their survivability is compared to a holy paladin, disc priest, or resto shaman. druids have speed, paladins have high heals, priests have instant casts, shamans have EB/ghost wolf/grounding

 

[useabandage]

feral is meh if you are going to be solo q'ing, if you can run with a mage or rogue you can do some considerable damage as well as heal, tbh I think you would be much better off going to 49 if you wanted to go feral, worst feeling in the world is being oom and unable to shift back into form.

 

[Bansil]

49 is cool due to dualspecc. but you will hate mara after it^^

 

[Rayekk]

49 is cool due to dualspecc. but you will hate mara after it^^

I already hate mara!

 

[elesian]

The point is though, resto druids do not have the survivability WHILST healing. It's all well and good dropping into travelform, but even then, between ranged attacks and stuns, a determined team are going to drop you. Fast. Holy Paladins, Resto shamans, Disc/Holy Priests can take a lot of blow WHILST healing your dps and your fc. Allowing your DPS to clear up, and your fc tank to not wipe.

 

[Dejana]

Balance druids got nerfed badly after patch 3.0, kinda why i prefer to be on lock or pally these days, gone are the days of 2.2k Starfires every 2nd or 3rd shot and replaced with 1.8k every ten. Resto druids sem to be hardest to kill followed by pally with their bubble and lay of hands still up, having stealth and the opportunity to charge up your first starfire without your victim seeing you is priceless, better than ambush imo.

The big problem is the low hp, rogues that know how to stun lock (which there aren't many thank god) and get the first shot will kill you. Also the talent Celestial Focus which gives you a 10% chance to stun on starfire is absolutely crap, more like 0.1 % chance imo.

 

[elesian]

One of my guildies is a 'balanced' balance druid, and regularly appears in the top 1-3 slots on damage meter. With 350sp i'm sure he would be rocking my world.



Read what you said "the hardest to take down". My point is that 'the optimal healer should be the hardest to take down, whilst, healing'. That's certainly not druid. Hands down, in 39 bracket i'd take the Holy Pally/Resto Shaman, Holy/Disc Priest, probably in that order, before i would take a 39 resto druid.



An almost unstoppable combination i find is a balance druid/resto pally/and sub-hemo rogue. I do not exaggerate when i say this combination has taken on a twice, three times our numbers (and not necessarily scrubs) and come out alive.

 

[Druiddroid]

It's all well and good dropping into travelform, but even then, between ranged attacks and stuns, a determined team are going to drop you. Fast. Holy Paladins, Resto shamans, Disc/Holy Priests can take a lot of blow WHILST healing your dps and your fc. Allowing your DPS to clear up, and your fc tank to not wipe.

a skilled and determined team should drop your healer anyways. what can a shaman do to survive that a druid can't against that same team with ranged attacks and stuns?



druids might not be necessarily the best healers out there, but to say they don't have a lot of survivability seems like an odd claim. they have bear form, travel form, cat form + dash, faiery fire (against rogues), nature's grasp, hots, entangling roots, and a very quick healing touch cast (if glyphed).