boosting with druid?

[johnny555]

gone are the days where swipe only hit 3 mobs at a time. seriously, that was a terrible limitation. now i run through instances like butter with my druid. actually think its a lot more fun than with my pally. now... my pally has limitations. hammer of the righteous hits 3 only? whaaaa???

Which spec do you use for running instances? My druid is currently specd for feral dps for leveling(now at 76), would picking up the tanking talents be
ncecessary for boosting?

I have three battlechests due before the weekend and keyclone installed. Should be a fun experience getting it all configured.

[elsegundo]

gone are the days where swipe only hit 3 mobs at a time. seriously, that was a terrible limitation. now i run through instances like butter with my druid. actually think its a lot more fun than with my pally. now... my pally has limitations. hammer of the righteous hits 3 only? whaaaa???

Which spec do you use for running instances? My druid is currently specd for feral dps for leveling(now at 76), would picking up the tanking talents be
ncecessary for boosting?

I have three battlechests due before the weekend and keyclone installed. Should be a fun experience getting it all configured.

not necessary at all. just stick with your cat talents as most of them already helps you in bear.

also you should opt for dps gear vs tanking gear. in bear form your armor bonus is already multiplied by 5, and your stamina bonus is erm... i forget, but you get higher stam anyway. dont be tempted to switch out your dps gear for tanking gear as you probably wont need it.

also also, if you watch those tanking videos on youtube, they might help... but with a druid, you can catform/stealth and prowl to the very end of the pull, then pull from the back... grab mobs as you head back towards the team. with a pally you cannot do that as you cannot stealth through. instead, youre forced to double back (which is time you're not attack but getting hit).

RFC hordeside is your first instance. for alliance, it would be sfk. yes, sfk. deadmines is linear with too many nooks (where the miners are) and has a lot of patrols if you're not careful. also not all bosses can be pulled with the group, as the tauren (you know the guy with the chest) will stun you. if he stuns you while there's 20 defias on you, that's a bad thing. sfk also has a quick shortcut to the beginning. something you dont see with deadmines.

[olipcs]

One quick thought:
If I would boost with a druid, I would spec him Moonkin as long as the mobs are beneath 50 (or maybe 60).
Because with 'Starfall' you have the best AOE-Pull mechanism, and with Moonkin-Form, combined with Hurricane the needed AOE to down the mobs..
...running cathedreal like this should be realy easy for example.

A possible boosting Build for this could look like this .
Key Talents would be:
- Starfall
- Owlking Frency
- Mondkin Form
- Gale Winds
- Celestical Focus

[elsegundo]

this[/url] .
Key Talents would be:
- Starfall
- Owlking Frency
- Mondkin Form
- Gale Winds
- Celestical Focus

=]


i will try that on my balance druid!! thanks.

[shaeman]

I was boosting with my feral druid last night (he's cat dps spec) - It was absoultey fantastic.

WIth the druid I cleared the initial corridor, parked my lowbies, and stealthed to the doors. As an 80 you can open the doors without aggroing the guards on either side. Initially I would stealth in, faerie fire the boss then switch to bear and gather up as many mobs as I could on the way back. However I did seem to take more damage that way (and I actually died once when I tried to put on barkskin and hit thorns instead. My night elf form doesn't take damage so well and it took me a couple of seconds to notice. Stupid and embarrasing ).

Later I would just faerie fire the boss in cat , hit sprint and run straight through the fountain, drop down to the pool, and go round the corridor to line of sight the casters. I would then switch to bear and melee them all down.

I did have issues with runners who seemed to run off, and at the point where they would return seemed to aggro on my lowbies and kill one of them before I noticed. I got a bit better noticing this. after I killed the initial pull I would spend a quick couple of minutes rounding up those i missed (I hit the instance cap anyway so had time to do this).

I went from 20/21 to 29/30 on two characters in about 2.5 hours all told (not including the running time from ironforge to the instance)

This wasn't a chore at all - compared to my previous boosting experience in there on a level 70 hunter a few months back where I could have banged my head on the desk to relieve the monotony.

One issue I had - after pulling the first boss I would never drop out of combat. Turns out the lady boss had spawned but just stood in her room. If one of my characters had died and battleres wasnt up I couldn't res them. In the end I found I could just shadowmeld to drop combat then res them. Then clean up any stragglers.

[elsegundo]

it took me two readings of that post to figure out you were talking about SM Cath.

the instance is a bit tricky to pull all at once. last i did it i was 70 in a mix of green/blue gear and when swipe only hit 3 at a time. it was annoyingly slow. indeed the runners are annoying as well as the guys that heal themselves. i took my time in that instance. usually doing several pulls before the boss.

i would love to go back at 80 and one-pull the whole instance. =]

[shaeman]

I do apologise - how on earth could I forgot to state it was cathedral.

You should definitely, definitely go back and try it. I never tried boosting with a druid before - but swipe hitting only 3 would have bored me to tears.

I'm hoping to go back in there tonight and want to hit 45 before I leave. Although no doubt I'll get distracted by a few heroic runs.

[Knobley]

I did have issues with runners who seemed to run off, and at the point where they would return seemed to aggro on my lowbies and kill one of them before I noticed. I got a bit better noticing this.

Here's what I think is happening to you. The runners aren't coming back and smacking your lobies. The runners are going off and fetching guys who never noticed your druid running thru, and THOSE mobs are smaking your lobies.

[elsegundo]

I do apologise - how on earth could I forgot to state it was cathedral.

You should definitely, definitely go back and try it. I never tried boosting with a druid before - but swipe hitting only 3 would have bored me to tears.

I'm hoping to go back in there tonight and want to hit 45 before I leave. Although no doubt I'll get distracted by a few heroic runs.

yea swipe with the 3 mob limit is very annoying. a lot of my damage used to be through thorns. i would love it when i crit, because then i'd get some health back! frenzied regen, a healtstone, and a healthpot and i would be ok. but now i might pop a frenzied regen. thats it. i'll go back to Cath sometime soon. it will be fun boosting some random lowbies. =]

and about the runners, i find that if i pull into the hallways, then runners will run around inside the hallways. if i pull them outside into a courtyard, they will run around in the courtyard. very rarely do they run into the next room. also, while' swiping, i'd run my team close by, but out of LOS so they dont get caught by anyone yes still close enough to get exp.

[shaeman]

In SM cathedral I solved the runner issue.

I parked my lowbies at the rack of weapons as you turn left immediatly after entering the instance. (so in the first corridor).

Previously I had line of sighted the casters by moving round the doorway towards my lowbies. Instead I started line of sighting them the other way. So my big bear butt was pressed up against the end wall of the corridor. The runners ran of as usual, but never got within aggro range of my lowbies.

I've since moved on from Scarlet monastery, and am now boosting my team in stratholme.

All I can say is Druid boosting rocks.