WoW Classic WotLK: Druid Leveling Guide (1-80)

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Human Made

Penned by Sarah Arnold

Sarah loves RPGs, sandboxes, and sims. She's played every expansion of World of Warcraft and WoW Classic and spent hundreds of hours modding and playing Bethesda games.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Druids are the only class in World of Warcraft that can fill any role in a group: melee dps, ranged dps, healer, or tank. Their versatility doesn’t end there, though. Druids can also shapeshift on the fly for faster running, swimming, and flying. They have some of the most useful and unique abilities in the game in the form of Innervate and Rebirth. In this guide, we’ll help you with leveling a druid from 1 to 80 as quickly as possible in WotLK Classic.

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Best Druid Leveling Spec

We’ll be using the feral talent specialization for this druid leveling guide. Balance is also a viable option for leveling, but feral offers less downtime and will therefore be quicker for leveling. Restoration is not recommended unless you are going to do most of your leveling in a dungeon group.

Unlike in retail World of Warcraft, you will need to visit your class trainer in order to learn new spells as you level up. Trainers are located in every major faction city as well as each of the starting zones. You should train at least every few levels, because new ranks and new spells can make a huge difference to your damage and efficiency.

Gear and Stats

As a feral druid, here are the stats you should look for on gear, in order of importance:

1. Agility increases your Attack Power and Critical Strike and is your most valuable stat. You should be able to find it on gear without having to look around too much.
2. Attack Power increases the damage you do with most of your abilities and is the main secondary stat you should aim for.
3. Critical Strike increases your damage by causing more of your abilities to critically hit.
4. Strength increases your Attack Power, but is not quite as good for you as Agility.
5. Armor Penetration increases your damage by ignoring more of the enemy’s armor, but is rare to see at lower levels.
6. Haste speeds up your attacks, increasing the amount of damage you can do over any given window of time.
7. Hit is much more important at level 80. You won’t see much of it as you level, but when you do, it’s good to grab.
8. Stamina does nothing to boost your damage, but is important for your survivability. It should come naturally on your gear without needing to look for it.
9. Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration when you are out of combat, but it isn’t worth taking over combat stats.
10. Intellect increases your total mana pool, which shouldn’t be something you need to worry about as a feral druid.

Druids can use cloth and leather armor, with leather offering the best armor value. You should focus on the stats above rather than worrying too much about armor, but for the most part, your preferred stats will appear on leather and not cloth.

For your weapon, druids can use both one- and two-handed maces as well as staves, polearms, and daggers. Keep in mind that each individual weapon type has its own separate skill in WoW Classic. If you swap to a different weapon type, you may need to level its skill before you can be effective with it.

As far as choosing your weapons, always look for the weapon that has the highest DPS stat. This will usually be a two-handed weapon.

Best Heirlooms for Feral Druid

Heirloom gear is well worth getting if you have a level 80 character and are able to purchase it. They scale with your level so that you don’t have to keep replacing your gear as you go. Chest and shoulder pieces also provide a buff to your experience gained, increasing your leveling speed significantly.

These are the heirloom pieces you should look for if you are leveling a druid:

• Shoulder: Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders
• Chest: Stained Shadowcraft Tunic
• Trinket: Swift Hand of Justice
• Trinket: Discerning Eye of the Beast
• Weapon: Repurposed Lava Dredger

Guide to Leveling a Druid in WotLK

Now let’s get to leveling!

Level 1-9

Rotation: Starting out, your only damaging ability will be Wrath, so you’re going to be casting it a lot until level 10. Be sure to keep Mark of the Wild up on yourself, and maintain Thorns once you learn it at level 6. Use Healing Touch to keep yourself healthy.

Level 10-19

Travel Form: You get to go fast before everyone else gets their mounts at level 20. Travel Form is learned at level 16 and will allow you to get around a lot faster. You’ll also learn Aquatic Form, which lets you swim faster.

Talents: At level 10, you’ll be able to choose your first talent. Here are the recommended talents for this level range:

• Level 10-14: Ferocity (5/5)
• Level 15-16: Savage Fury (2/2)
• Level 17-19: Feral Instinct (3/3)

Glyphs: At level 15, you will be able to use your first glyphs. For your major glyph, Glyph of Maul is recommended until Glyph of Claw becomes available at level 20. For your minor glyph, Glyph of Dash will prove incredibly useful.

Rotation: At level 10, you’ll learn Bear Form, so you can finally stop casting Wrath. But it won’t be much more exciting since your only damaging ability at first will be Maul. At level 16, you’ll learn Swipe, which you should start using when fighting multiple enemies or if you have rage to burn. At level 18, start pulling enemies with Faerie Fire (Feral).

Level 20-29

Mount: You can buy your first mount at level 20. The basic ground mount has a speed of 60% (Travel Form is 40%) and costs five gold. Head to the starting zone or capital city for your race to purchase a mount as soon as you can. Even with Travel Form, it’s often preferable to use a mount.

Talents:

• Level 20-21: Feral Switftness (2/2)
• Level 22-24: Sharpened Claws (3/3)
• Level 25-27: Predatory Strikes (3/3)
• Level 28-29: Primal Precision (2/2)

Glyphs: You won’t unlock any new glyphs until level 30. However, you should replace Glyph of Maul with Glyph of Claw at level 20.

Rotation: You finally get Cat Form at level 20! You also get Prowl, which allows you to sneak around enemies when you don’t want to waste time fighting. Here’s your new kitty cat rotation:

1. Use Faerie Fire (Feral) to pull.
2. Use Tiger’s Fury on cooldown (you get it at level 24).
3. If your target is going to live for at least 12 seconds and you have 4 or 5 combo points, use Rip.
4. If your target won’t live for at least 12 seconds and you have 4 or 5 combo points, use Ferocious Bite.
5. Use Claw to build combo points.

Level 30-39

Talents:

• Level 30: Feral Charge (1/1)
• Level 31-32: Primal Fury (2/2)
• Level 33-34: Nurturing Instinct (2/2)
• Level 35-39: Heart of the Wild (5/5)

Glyphs: At level 30 you can use a second major glyph. Glyph of Rake is the best option for solo leveling.

Rotation: With Glyph of Rake, you can add Rake into your rotation:

1. Use Faerie Fire (Feral) to pull.
2. Use Tiger’s Fury on cooldown.
3. Use Rake if the target does not have the debuff.
4. If your target is going to live for at least 12 seconds and you have 4 or 5 combo points, use Rip.
5. If your target won’t live for at least 12 seconds and you have 4 or 5 combo points, use Ferocious Bite.
6. Use Claw to build combo points.

Level 40-49

Mount: At level 40, you can upgrade your mount. An epic ground mount has a speed of 100% and costs 60 gold. You will most likely need to return to the same vendor you purchased your level 20 mount from.

Talents:

• Level 40-42: Survival of the Fittest (3/3)
• Level 43: Leader of the Pack (1/1)
• Level 44-45: Improved Leader of the Pack (2/2)
• Level 46-48: Predatory Instincts (3/3)
• Level 49: Infected Wounds (1/3)

Glyphs: You won’t unlock any new glyph slots in this level range.

Rotation: At level 44, you’ll learn Barkskin, which you should use if you find yourself taking a lot of damage. Otherwise, you can continue what you’ve been doing.

Level 50-57

Talents:

• Level 50: Mangle (1/1)
• Level 51-53: King of the Jungle (3/3)
• Level 54-56: Improved Mangle (3/3)
• Level 57: Infected Wounds (2/3)

Glyphs: At level 50, you can use a second minor glyph. Glyph of Thorns may prove useful. You should also replace Glyph of Claw with Glyph of Mangle from here on out.

Rotation: At level 50, you get Mangle (Cat), which should completely replace Claw in your rotation. You should also start saving Tiger’s Fury to use when your energy gets low, since the King of the Jungle talent causes it to restore energy.

Level 58-67

Zones: Head to Outland as soon as you reach level 58. The items you can get there are much better than those in the lower level zones.

Flight Form: You can learn Flight Form from your class trainer at level 60. This gives you a flying speed of 150%, the same as a standard flying mount. It’s very cheap compared to buying a flying mount, and it’s an instant cast! You will need to have trained epic riding skill to learn this ability. You can also purchase a flying mount at level 60 if you choose, but there’s not much reason to do so.

Talents:

• Level 58: Infected Wounds (3/3)
• Level 59: Survival Instincts (1/1)
• Level 60: Berserk (1/1)
• Level 61-62: Improved Mark of the Wild (2/2)
• Level 63-65: Furor (3/5)
• Level 66-67: Naturalist (2/5)

Glyphs: You won’t get any new glyph slots until level 70.

Rotation: At level 60, you can add Berserk into your rotation, right after Faerie Fire. Use it on cooldown for some extra damage.

Level 68-80

Zones: Head to Northrend as soon as you reach level 68. The quest rewards are much better and you can start working on the reputations you will need at level 80.

Swift Flight Form: You can learn Swift Flight Form at level 70 for a mere 20 gold. This is a huge savings from buying an epic flying mount, which costs 5100 gold! Swift Flight Form will give you a flight speed of 280%, the same as an epic flying mount. You will still need to learn Cold Weather Flying if you want to fly in Northrend. This can be done at level 77 for 1000 gold, or if you already have a level 80 character, you can purchase a Tome of Cold Weather Flight for your druid to use as early as level 68. Northrend flying trainers are located in Dalaran, Storm Peaks, and Sholazar Basin.

Talents:

• Level 68-70: Naturalist (5/5)
• Level 71: Omen of Clarity (1/1)
• Level 72-74: Natural Shapeshifter (3/3)
• Level 75-76: Master Shapeshifter (2/2)
• Level 77-80: Feral Aggression (4/5)

Glyphs: At level 70, you can use a third minor glyph. Glyph of Aquatic Form offers a unique benefit. You won’t get the third major glyph slot until level 80.

Rotation: At level 75, you learn Savage Roar. You should add it to your rotation right after Berserk.

Congratulations on level 80!

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Thanks for reading! Hopefully this guide has helped you with leveling your druid through WotLK Classic. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, and be sure to subscribe to High Ground for more useful guides!

Happy gaming!