5 Druids team leveling

[balton]

Hi people.

What is the fast way to leveling a 5 druids team on retail (start at lvl 1)?

Questing, only dungeons (what is the bests?), grind...

[Truelle]

Questing isn't too bad at all... most quests are multi-box friendly....

[kate]

With the double xp buff you can get 2-3 levels per run of a dungeon, using the dungeon finder. In the early dungeons just stealth to the last bunch and wreck the boss.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I did my 5-druid group I think as feral up to TBC, then switched to Balance as the green gear you get rather quickly from quests made the switch easier. I stuck to that up to Pandaland and then dual-specced one to bear (with melee gear) so I had at least one optional tank for those occasional world elites. I haven't touched them since they hit 110 but they were pretty easy to level.

[Purpleflavor]

I didnt do it this way on my druids, but i think stealthing to bosses and skipping all of the trash mobs in random dungeon queue is fastest.

On teams that can queue randoms i do randoms only one time for quests, if it's a repeat i dont do it. I'll quest if it's a repeat until i get fresh dungeons again.

On teams that cant queue randoms (5xhunters) i just quest as it's really fast these days with double exp and they fixed almost all group unfriendly quests.

If leveling less than 5 characters, using the party sync method, with a separate account, and repeating really good quest hubs is the fastest.

For dungeons as 5xdruids i found Bearx4Boomkin to be best. Feral doesnt cut it, or at least i was too lazy to set up a predatory swiftness system management. You need 1 bear for a lot of the bosses.

For questing i thought feral was fastest until flying and then it's all about equal. No need for a bear tank at all except maybe the hardest elites in the game and even then you can manage with gimmicks (treants ect). But even 5bears are fast questing.


When you hit WoD, open your garrisons and then fly around and just do the world quests, they are almost all kill quests. While going from world quest to world quest, pick up any treasures you see along the way with the Dreanor treasures addon. Make your way to Gorgrond and kill the big Elites that drop quest items. There's a 90-100 guide on wowhead that shows in detail.

When you hit Legion things start to get unfriendly. I suggest you open your Orderhall campaign up until you pick a starting zone and get the F out of there since it's so solo oriented. I go back for my artifcts and finish the campaign later. Do invasions or quest.

When i get to BFA i do each of the zone intro questlines and most of the pvp campaign, because i'm going to have to do them eventually so i might as well get it out of the way. I wouldnt use any other method even if its much faster. Besides you reach 120 now with just one zone, so spreading it out evenly to open phases is the best option imo.

If you dont have your Heirloom gear upgraded to at the very least 110, :(

[kate]

Chain running random dungeons and stealthing to the boss is vastly faster than questing, by an insane margin, albeit quite boring.

[Purpleflavor]

Chain running random dungeons and stealthing to the boss is vastly faster than questing, by an insane margin, albeit quite boring.

Wonder how difficult it would be to do this with hunters.

[kate]

Wonder how difficult it would be to do this with hunters.

It wouldn't be as effective because you can't random queue with just DPS, so you don't get the HUGE bonus at the end, which is what makes dungeons so fast. For hunters, just quest. I'm leveling a vulpera team right now and while it isn't nearly as fast as dungeons, it's pretty good, and you can do zones that focus on kill and drop quests vs. pick up quests. I like to just run and gun constantly, so I'm always getting xp when I run around; I don't stop to loot since there's nothing worth much while leveling in the old content anyway.

[creedence]

this weekend i was having some difficulties trying to run chain dungeons with
1 bear + 1 resto + 3 boomks

switched to:
1 bear + 4 boomks... all team with restoration affinity and boomks healing with clique works great!

now DPS is "ok" and heals are really good and easy!

[kate]

this weekend i was having some difficulties trying to run chain dungeons with
1 bear + 1 resto + 3 boomks

switched to:
1 bear + 4 boomks... all team with restoration affinity and boomks healing with clique works great!

now DPS is "ok" and heals are really good and easy!

Were you only healing with the resto character? If so, that would be hard, yes. If you were healing with everyone, I'd be hard pressed to figure out where your trouble was.

The power of the druid team is that everybody but the tank is a healer. I use Vuh Do and an ISBoxer repeater region, and so when I mouse over a character on the Vuh Do bar and right click, everybody but the tank will stop casting and then cast Regrowth on the targeted character. 1-4 Regrowths provide a substantial initial heal and then a good HoT which will be enough to bail you out of most any situation. Then it's back to DPSing. The left click is set to have everyone cast Regrowth on themselves (except the tank), and the middle button is set to have the Resto cast whatever AoE heal is there and everyone else casts Regrowth on themselves (except the tank).

If you're only healing with the one character, yeah, it's gonna be a lot harder.

After level 45, my boomks go resto affinity, my resto goes balance affinity, and it's basically like I have 4 boomkins and the same amazing healing.

Also, if you had 4 boomkins, one of them being set to a healing role when you queue for randoms, that one was being forced to resto spec anyway during the dungeon.

[Purpleflavor]

Also, if you had 4 boomkins, one of them being set to a healing role when you queue for randoms, that one was being forced to resto spec anyway during the dungeon.
In randoms you can respec them inside the dungeon.

[kate]

Good to know - for some reason, nothing I did let me do that when I was first trying, so I didn't bother.

[Truelle]

When my teams hit Legion I don't bother doing the intro quests which have to been done solo in scenarios...you can just drop off the side of Dalaran and then swim over and start questing.. I never unlocked flying in Legion so it my even be possible to just fly over...

[creedence]

After level 45, my boomks go resto affinity, my resto goes balance affinity, and it's basically like I have 4 boomkins and the same amazing healing.

Also, if you had 4 boomkins, one of them being set to a healing role when you queue for randoms, that one was being forced to resto spec anyway during the dungeon.

good idea! i will tweak!

i was 4 full bomks using respec at start of every dungeon for the restoration...

so, is the dps of a restoration druid with balance affinity good enough for random dugeons?

[kate]

Yeah, it's solid enough for randoms up until dungeons aren't worth doing, and still solid enough after if you want to keep going.

[Clon3d]

where is this point?
I think it must be 100, because of legion assaults?

Will try this week.

[creedence]

where is this point?
I think it must be 100, because of legion assaults?

Will try this week.

in Warlords of Draenor you can go all the way with "bonus objectives quests", from level 90 to 110...
with party sinc you can do every quest two times...

[jak3676]

I haven't leveled a new team since BfA started, but it used to the fastest way to level through WoD was just to fly around and collect all the treasures. Each collection was the same exp as a quest turn in. Just download "Handy Notes" and "Dreanor Treasures" then fly around and collect them all with the whole team at once. You'll get enough exp to level all the way through WoD before you've even collected them all. (but for whatever reason the exp/treasure for legion and MoP was not as generous.)

[daviddoran]

With the 100% exp buff, Draenor treasures are a very fast way to level up, provided you have WoD flying unlocked already. You can also do the "bonus objectives" for some good exp. And you can add another 20% exp for a short time by buying an item with garrison resources called https://www.wowhead.com/item=120182/excess-potion-of-accelerated-learning. You can't apply the buff once you hit 100, but it's effect still is active, so it's best to use one right before hitting 100, then hit as many treasures as you can until it wears out.

And for Legion, if you have the time, waiting for the legion invasions is a very fast way to get from 100-110.

And if you want a quick way to get from 110-120, and don't care about gear/gold or quest chains, you can repeatedly kill the "gryphon nappers"in Tiragarde about once a minute, and the exp scales with the player's level. It's even faster if you have the toons on different servers. You just kill, then disband group, find which char has them up, have that char invite, kill, repeat. You don't really get much gold, just a bit here and there, and some grays/greens/linens. The faster you kill them, the better. It's super easy to do while watching a movie or something. This method even works if you are leveling more than 5 toons, such as as 8 boxing with two groups of 4.

Here's a video of some people using the multiple realms trick. It's still decent to just kill and wait for respawn, this method is a bit extreme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmnHnass9bc Technically you can go from level 1 to 120 on these guys, but it's very ineffecient at lower levels. Maybe useful if you have a spare slot that would otherwise go unfilled.

[Purpleflavor]

Problem is, WoD leveling is sooo fast with the Gorgrond elite quests and WQ's that you dont have time to even go for treasures. it's the fastest leveling in the game. And if you have a spare spot in your party for party sync'ing you can do it twice. But if you just enjoy flying around the treasure hunter leveling is still 2nd best.

[kate]

I stop dungeoning around 75 because I get some that are annoying to box as part of the random rotation, depending on the team comp.

75-80 I just do Hellfire Peninsula or Zangarmarsh or Borean Tundra. Takes maybe 2 hours if that?
80-90 Pandaria - mix of treasures and parts of the various zones that are kill/loot quests. I usually do this in something like 4-5 hours total, maybe a little longer.
90-100 - Draenor flying around and getting treasures where they align with the bonus objectives, and also sometimes grabbing a quest if it's just a kill all. Stupid fast, like 2 hours maybe, or 3 if you do the intro instead of just getting a mage to port you.
100-110/111 - Legion Assaults usually I let the team rest and do two assaults and maybe questing

[creedence]

....And if you have a spare spot in your party for party sync'ing you can do it twice....

this!

[sync00]

I use Vuh Do and an ISBoxer repeater region, and so when I mouse over a character on the Vuh Do bar and right click, everybody but the tank will stop casting and then cast Regrowth on the targeted character.
How do you set up Vuhdo so the bars on the same on each toon? I sort by name but it only sorts the other party members not the whole team.

[edit] I think I found it. Uncheck the 'You First' option.

[Tiny_d]

Just wanna add I am finding 4 x Resto + Guardian way higher DPS while levelling in instances, just so much passive healing and spam dps with Balance Affinity is actually higher than Balance by a margin till 90 at least.

[Purpleflavor]

Just wanna add I am finding 4 x Resto + Guardian way higher DPS while levelling in instances, just so much passive healing and spam dps with Balance Affinity is actually higher than Balance by a margin till 90 at least.

I tried that, but if i remember correctly i was annoyed that i still had to go into moonkin form to cast starsurge. I also found playing balance with resto affinity i wouldn't have to shift for any offensive spells or to heal with regrowth, and i had the same passive healing from Ysera's gift as balance as i did while resto. And the pvp talents while not in a dungeon were superior for balance.

This was just my experience with the two comps, i would love to hear more perspectives. How much more dps does resto do?

[z0k]

If you do dungeon finder, in most cases, you can simply stealth to the last boss, kill it, get a level, move on to the next. Dungeon finder only requires you to kill the last boss/objective. This works best for 1-60 although does have mixed results on dungeons as to whether or not you can stealth through it. It does work on a good number of dungeons though.

[Purpleflavor]

If you do dungeon finder, in most cases, you can simply stealth to the last boss, kill it, get a level, move on to the next. Dungeon finder only requires you to kill the last boss/objective. This works best for 1-60 although does have mixed results on dungeons as to whether or not you can stealth through it. It does work on a good number of dungeons though.

which 1x4 specs did you prefer? Gonna level some Zandalari trolls for the transmog

[z0k]

which 1x4 specs did you prefer? Gonna level some Zandalari trolls for the transmog

boomies and a guardian

5x boomies if you want a fun challenge. I swapped one of my druids to guardian in the late 30s

[Tiny_d]

I tried that, but if i remember correctly i was annoyed that i still had to go into moonkin form to cast starsurge. I also found playing balance with resto affinity i wouldn't have to shift for any offensive spells or to heal with regrowth, and i had the same passive healing from Ysera's gift as balance as i did while resto. And the pvp talents while not in a dungeon were superior for balance.

This was just my experience with the two comps, i would love to hear more perspectives. How much more dps does resto do?


Since they revamped instance leveling there are times thing's just hit like a truck, Once I got efflorescence x 4 on pre pull and just nuke there aint much that can put a dent in the team so mostly spread Moonfire around and I have a GSE macro that does Starsurge priority and alternates 3 x Wrath and a luna strike to take advantage of the lunar strike bonus.

DPS? I mean numbers? Gosh hard to give due to the rate of leveling but I do recall around 70 (I think I checked) and Balance was doing around 300 dps and Resto 650, like many classes while leveling spell coefficient seems way of on certain specs.

IDK I found the majority of instances had stealth finding mobs or mobs placed to prevent this I have to say I think this is mostly Chinese whispers repeated as fact while there are for sure places you can do this, the majority you cannot, Im currently blasting a 5 druid team now and that is my experience at any rate.