Druids .. just how did you level?

[Frojax]

I'm working on a druid team for the second time now, I deleted the first lot in a rage. But this time I am determined to get them up there.

The question is, what's the best way to do it, I'm planning on a 5xBoomkin team, but wrath and moonfire don't seem very mana efficient or effective at the moment, but having messed with bear form, it's terrible. My 5xDK team is a joy to play, considering they are all melee, I figured there wouldn't be much difference for the druids, but they have problems with range and all kinds.

Also, I'm very new to druids and noticed that I only gain weapon skill when not in bear form, does this mean that forms don't take weapon skill into consideration, only the damage of the weapons used?

Thanks

[Redbeard]

Cant answer the 5x leveling, but will answer the weapon skill question. You are always assumed to have max weapon skill in bear form, yes. Feral forms do NOT take weapon damage into consideration. At some point you will get to weapons (i think they might have only made the change for level 60+ weapons but im not sure, ive been max level for too long) that have a stat called feral Attack power on them, which is based on the weapon damage. Until you see that, weapons are just stat sticks for you and you are compensated by stats inherent to the forms themselves.

Hope thats helpful.

edit: If you browse http://www.wowhead.com/?items=2.5#0-3+1 youll notice that all TBC and WOTLK 2h maces have feral attack power shown. Some of the level 60 stuff does too but some of it doesnt so at some point they start giving you that stat, dont know what the cut off is exactly.

[Frojax]

That's a huge help, thanks Redbeard.

[CommanderChaos]

After a few months experimentation, I finally fired up 4 RAF accounts about two weeks ago. My first team to 60 was 5xBoomkins (only took two weekends!!!) I didn't start using tourguide until about lvl 30 or so, but it made a huge difference. I found that if 5xStarfire didn't kill a certain level mob, then 10xWrath usually did the trick. Insect Swarm is surprisingly mana efficient, and will kill anything your level if you care to wait that long. I didn't worry about trying to keep them all in leather, just took the quest rewards that gave the best int, stam, or spellpower. I didn't replace my lvl 2 staff until the mid-50s. Mana was never a problem, except in the short time I spent in an instance at a low level. Never drank. Average with RAF is 4-5 quests per level, which stayed the same from lvl 1 all the way up to 60. This was insanely easy with RAF. Without RAF, which may be your choice since you've already got a lot of accounts, the only difference would be time.

[CommanderChaos]

More thoughts here that might be more helpful to you: When I leveled up my original solo druid, I was never willing to put cloth on him, even when he was specced balance. This resulted in an extremely disappointing boomkin experience. Balance druids need int and spell power to be remotely playable, and leather gear that provides that in proper quantity is very rare pre-BC. So dress them up as mages and they'll rock.

[Frojax]

Thanks CommanderChaos, just the info I needed. I've been picking up +int rewards, just in case and I'm on RAF, so I'll just go with balance and look forward to Boomkin form

Cheers

[elsegundo]

with 5 boomkin you can probably kill mobs easily enough to have cloth gear. cloth is awesome. dont be afraid to use it if it improves your stats.
i tell this to other classes as well, hunters dont need to have mail gear completely, as well as pallies dont need to have everything plate. whats important is the gear, especially when fighting ranged. i was running a holy pally through an instance and some really nice mail pants dropped. she wouldnt take it because it was mail, but i told her she's giving up 200 armor points for 15 int, 12 stam and 10 strength, plus three sockets. wtf?? i'd give up 200 armor points in a heartbeat for that. so dont be too bent on just getting leather and thats it.

if you're a dps-cat, then yes, leather is what you want. but for boomkins, if you dont want less damage, use barkskin. or use entangling roots while you nuke.
i would do one entangle roots, the four moonfire, then wrath. mob proceeds to die. easy enough? lol

[algol]

Wrath spam.

[Stealthy]

Wrath spam.

This. And as a Boomkin, you won't start seeing any decent leather gear until Outland. It will be mostly cloth until then...

The good news is your mana efficiency will jump when you get the Vengeance & Lunar Guidance talents (you'll be killing mobs in less casts) and Dreamstate (much faster mana regen).

You'll also get to the point where you can one shot non-elite mobs with 5 x Starfire...should be a cakewalk after that.

Cheers,

S.

[turbopinto]

My druids on horde and alliance, both teams are lvl 60 and I went feral to do it. The method: 1X pounce, run through target on all characters spamming mangle. No target (other than elites) lasts more than 2 hits per character. With improved leader of the pack the healing is enormous, and the trail of dead things is long. If you are having problems with an elite not dying, switch to bearform and continue the fight that way, instashift form, cast 5x rejeuvinate, and shift back. I never trained bearform on my horde toons, so that tells you how often I have problems like that.

Eventually for instances I'd go 1 bearform, 3x moonkin, and 1 resto just to try it out.

Oh yeah, and in AV when everyone rushes vann or drek, then about 15 sec into the fight, cast 5x tranquility. You will probably draw aggro and die, but almost nobody else will. Man people love watching EVERYONE get healed for rediculous amounts of health.