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Druid in PVE PVE, or player versus environment, is a major part of anybody's gameplay because, well, you gotta get to 60 somehow. (Yes, you -can- earn xp from pvping starting at level 10, but it would take years to advance to 60 via pvp.) Luckily, druid is a great PVE class. Not usually a fast leveling one, but damn good at it nonetheless. PVE Solo Single/Multiple Non-Elite Mobs A druid is excellent at soloing your average mob(s), quite possibly being the best soloer in the game. A druid can take on multiple mobs like no other class. Bear form gives you more HP and massive armor and can heal with Frenzied regeneration. Shifting out and barkskin for uninterrupted caster heals, and Nature's swiftness for instant nearly full life heal (talent). If things go bad, you can shapeshift out of all snares and simply run away. Any non-elite will die easily to simple moonfire + caster melee -or- bear form -or- cat form. You can use any of your forms and still be able to take out most PVE mobs, even if you have to shift out for healing sometimes. There are many ways to kill non-elite mobs, as they are usually very easy. Below I outline some popular methods to take on these mobs: - The no down time, slow method (requires +int/spir gear): Against mobs with low amounts of health and armor, this way works. Just moonfire/insect swarm the mobs and melee them in caster form, occasionally tossing rejuv on yourself. Because it takes a long while to kill mobs this way, you also have little to no downtime and will probably be at full health and mana or close to it at the end of each battle. This method is good to use in heavy ganking areas where you want to be at full health and mana at all times to prevent someone from coming in and 1 shotting you. - The Bear attack and go AFK method (requires heavy +armor and reasonable atk power gear): If you have sufficient armor in bear form and good attack power, and you are facing mobs that have moderate to low armor that do not run away, you can use auto attack and still beat them. You can also use maul, etc, of course but I usually like to save up rage for Frenzied regeneration. - The rogue-clone attack method (may require feral spec and a lot of atk power gear): Using cat form is probably the fastest way to kill mobs if you have the right gear and spec for it. You would get rogue like dps, but since you armor stinks and you have no evasion, etc, you probably will have to shift out to heal quite a lot. Another advantage of fighting in cat form is your access to Track Humanoids. - Moonfire spam method (requires moonkin form): Actually, this method doesn't require you to use moonfire spam. It's a combination of melee, moonfire, wrath, etc. in moonkin form. Since moonkin form gives you 360% armor bonus, you should be able to withstand the hits from the mob(s) you are fighting. This might be a drain on your mana, so watch out for gankers. Most players, of course, like to mix up the above methods for variety and fun. Different methods also work better for different types of mobs. Single Target Elite Mobs Any melee-oriented outdoor elite will succumb to the druid's power of rooting and DoTing with moonfire and insect swarm if you have it. Running out of mana? No problem. Keep rooting while regening mana. Roots at the moment does not have diminishing returns in PVE, and if you have innervate, things are even easier. Examples of outdoor elites you can solo with ease: Volchan, Stone Guardian, Hederine Slayer PVE Groups In groups, both early levels and end game, 95% of the time you will be expected to heal. It’s not that druids aren’t capable tanks or damage dealers, but it’s just that healers are so rare. So no matter what your spec is, you should always have a set of healing gear. The default druid blue set, Wildheart, is a healing set in itself. And early game intellect gear is easily attainable. If you don’t wish to heal in a group, make sure your group knows ahead of time, as most of the time they are specifically looking for you to heal. The druid class on every server ranks as one of the least played classes, yet druids are very sought after for groups because their healing capabilities are on par with a priest’s, thus you should never have trouble looking for instance groups or entry into an end game raiding guild. Healing Primary healing as a druid is a bit more difficult than as a priest. You don't have shield, flash heal or fade to rely on. But you can still be a viable healer. Heal over time is your specialty, so try to toss a rejuv on all targets around 80-85% health, especially those taking damage. Rejuv causes very little aggro, so that's definitely a plus. Regrowth costs a lot of mana, but is great for the secondary HoT. Most battles don't last that long, so using it on the tank when he or she is around 60% health will keep the 2 HoT's ticking for a while. Regrowth is also fast cast, so in emergencies when you need to throw off a heal fast, that's what you got to use. Healing Touch is a 3.5 second cast (3.0 with talents) so it has to be timed well. It's rarely usable when you are up against mobs who do a lot of burst damage. (Captain Kromcrush comes to mind). For typical mobs starting the cast at 40% life is sufficient for plate but cloth casters can die in 3-3.5 seconds so it's probably not a good idea to use HT on cloth unless you have nature's swiftness. Aggro is hard to deal with as a druid. Subtlety is a talent that reduces aggro from mobs. If you constantly find yourself aggroing mobs I suggest getting this talent. Healing Touch and Regrowth are spells that cause a lot of aggro, so if rejuv is sufficient, stick to it and do not overheal. You can shift to cat form and use cower, but this method is risky and is not guaranteed to lose aggro. I would shift to bear form and call for help from your group mates. Bear form should last you a while. If you still have aggro after being a bear for a while, hit frenzied regeneration and enrage. Tanking Druids are very capable tanks. A mistake many people make is to spam growl on every cooldown. That is not a good idea. You should only use growl on targets that are NOT actively attacking you. To keep aggro you use other high aggro-gaining abilities, such as demoralizing roar, maul, swipe, and faerie fire feral if you have it. Since patch 1.8 maul does not activate global cooldown anymore, so if you have enough rage you can alternate-spam the 2. Both are high aggro-gaining moves, and after using them a couple of times, it'll be hard for you to lose aggro. If you are feral spec and have decent feral gear, you'll be doing fairly good damage. That damage also helps you hold aggro. If you find that you can't keep aggro on one guy, stun them. This should give whoever that mob is attacking a break. I feel that bear tanks are underrated because people don't realize that druids in bear form can use frenzied regeneration when low on life, and those with NS can shift out -> NS -> almost full heal and then back to bear, while all a warrior tank can do is gulp down a pot. Damage Dealing Damage
dealing is fairly easy; unfortunately you will almost never receive
this role for instances. You only have to compete with... let's
see, rogues, hunters, mages, warlocks for the few available DPS
slots. You can approach DPS in two ways. Balance spec for moonfire,
starfire, wrath spam, or feral cat dps. Both types of DPS, with
the right gear, will bring you to the top few in damage. There's
not really much to say about the easiest job of them all in an
instance group, but if you'd like to check out the combat page
to see your options, do click
here. |