Druid

The Druid is a shape-shifting hybrid class, one of the most versatile classes in the game. Like other hybrids they primarily play their active talent specialisation, and can switch to other roles mid-fight or mid-raid, to adapt to changing situations. They have a unique set of shape-shift forms they transform into to carry out those roles effectively.

Overview


A druid can fulfil any of the roles through their talent trees and appropriate gearing:


 * Tank by specializing in Feral Combat and using Bear Form.
 * Damage (caster) by specializing in Balance and using Moonkin Form
 * Damage (melee) by specializing in Feral Combat and using Cat Form
 * Healer by specializing in Restoration and using Tree of Life (druid ability) (a cooldown).

Druids can switch between most forms in combat, albeit temporarily and with lower effectiveness, making them uniquely flexible in both PvE and PvP. Using a form for which the druid is not specialized and geared will not provide their strongest abilities, but this switching can often "save the day" when the group is "in a pinch". For example, if the tank dies in the last minutes of a boss fight, a Feral Combat druid could switch from Cat Form to Bear Form to fill the role. If the healer runs out of mana or becomes incapacitated, a Balance Druid could drop to humanoid form to heal until they recover. Likewise in PvP, a Balance or Feral Druid can drop their form to provide limited healing and any druid can switch into Bear Form for that extra second of survival needed to hold enemies off from capturing a resource.

A Druid's versatility and day-saving abilities are not limited to their hybrid nature. As they level up, they also gain a:
 * Resurrection spell Rebirth, the only one that can be used on any player whilst in combat - Shaman can only use Reincarnation on themselves and Warlock Soulstone must be placed before the fight starts (Although Soulstone and a Death knights Raise Ally will become a similar spell to Rebirth in patch 4.1.0)
 * Regular resurrection spell Revive which can save dead party or raid members a long run back from the Graveyard
 * Mana restoration spell Innervate should they, a healer or the top caster DPS run out of mana
 * Cleansing spell Remove Corruption to remove poisons and curses (and, if a restoration druid has taken the talent Nature's Cure, magic)
 * Group or single buff Mark of the Wild to increase increases the targets' strength, agility, stamina, intellect, and resistances
 * Crowd control options of varying strength and length
 * Various faster travel forms - VERY important for PvP, and survival during questing:
 * Aquatic Form allows them to breathe and travel at increased speed underwater
 * Travel Form 40% faster than normal run speed and can be cast in combat, making it a great escape tool
 * Ferals can add two Talent points into Feral Swiftness making cat form 30% faster than normal running speed.
 * Dash (druid ability) can boost cat form speed for 15 seconds
 * Flight Form which is as fast as a normal flying mount, but has the additional advantage of being an instant-cast spell, allowing the Druid to gain flight in situations other classes cannot
 * Swift Flight Form which is as fast as an epic flying mount, and has zero cast time.

The ability to re-specify to completely different roles makes Druids a flexible class choice, but one that requires a lot of skill, adaptability and "outside of the box" quick-thinking to play well. However, if you ever tire of playing one role, you need not create another character, you simply re-specify to a new one, at less cost and considerably less effort. For this reason it makes a good starting character for players undecided what role they wish to play, but who then often go on to specialise and create other characters such as a stealthy, high-damage dealing melée rogue, a strong plate-wearing warrior tank, a nuking arcane mage or a gentle holy healing priest.

Ability to Fill Non-Healer Roles
Historically, hybrids were not designed to cause as much damage as "pure" damage dealers such as Mages, Warlocks, Hunters and Rogues. For quite some time, Feral Druids also were afflicted by several weaknesses when compared with other tanking classes. Druids often also encountered doubt from less-experienced players that their class could fulfill certain roles successfully. These days, it is possible for a druid to fill any role as well as (or, in certain situations, even better than) the class that they were made to mimic. This is largely due to changes made to the class since the release of the game, many of which stem from ideological changes implemented by the developers who have indicated that they now feel that building a group should be centered on "bringing the player, not the class." Other help has come from Blizzard's official endorsement of the Druid as one of their 'tapped' tanking classes, and all of this combined with improved damage-dealing capabilities has helped legitimize the Druid class as something other than a healer. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a druid to vary their role from encounter to encounter, moving from main tank to off-tank to melee DPS to healing or caster. With practice, many druids can play their class in all roles successfully.

A Difficult Class to Level
Druids used to be quite uncommon because many players found them difficult to level despite claims from others that they were the best soloing class in the game. Unlike most other classes, a Druid did not unlock sufficient abilities to fill each role at an early level; instead these abilities were learned at comparatively higher levels. Thus, a player who had chosen to play a Balance druid might find the class difficult to play until they unlocked Moonkin Form and Innervate. A player who had chosen to play a melee (Feral Combat, Cat Form) druid might get frustrated and give up before unlocking Cat Form at level 20. This made the very early game difficult for the Druid, as they were often lacking abilities needed to fulfill their desired role as well as other classes of the same level could. As expansions have been released and the class has been adjusted, this problem has been gradually alleviated and more and more players have been choosing druids. Now, with the release of Cataclysm, this is finally no longer a problem at all. When a druid chooses a specialization at Level 10, they immediately receive all of the abilities they need to enjoy that style of play.

Background



 * We are the preservers of the balance, now and forever, as Malfurion lies in the Dreaming. Never forget this. - Kal of Dolanaar

Druids are keepers of the world who walk the path of nature, following the wisdom of the Ancients and Cenarius, healing and nurturing the world. To a druid, nature is a delicate balance of actions, in which even the smallest imbalance can create storming turmoil from peaceful skies. Druids draw their power from this wild energy, using it to change their shapes and command the forces of nature. Traditionally druids chose the path of a specific animal totem. Since the invasion of the Burning Legion, however, most druids have undergone a number of reforms, including encouraging the study of magic from all totems. Druids who do this are known as druids of the wild.

History
According to tauren mythology, Cenarius instructed them first in druidism as recounted in their myth Forestlord and the First Druids. As it stands the night elves claim the first druid with Malfurion Stormrage, an idea challenged by the tauren beliefs. He would lead the night elves through the War of the Ancients and the long years that followed. With the creation of the World Tree Nordrassil, the kaldorei druids were bound to Ysera, and her realm, the Emerald Dream, in which they spent centuries of their immortal lives. The Cenarion Circle was formed as the governing society of druids, based in sacred Moonglade.

Locked in slumber in their barrow dens for generations, the druids awoke to meet the threat of the Burning Legion during its recent invasion. After Archimonde's defeat, the druids chose to remain in the waking world and help to rebuild their shattered lands. The Legion's attack left a terrible scar on the natural order, and the druids seek to heal it.

The night elf druids were recently joined in the Cenarion Circle by the tauren druids. It is not clear from the current game content if the tauren learned druidism separately from the night elves or if they were taught by the night elves. Conflicting information in the Warcraft universe further exacerbates the confusion. Either way, the tauren and the night elf druids do not participate in the Alliance/Horde conflict, but coexist peacefully within the Cenarion Circle.

Cenarius is the patron entity of all druids. However, each group of druids has its own special patrons and some even have the ability to transform into a being that looks like their patron. Many druids will take on an animal companion based on their patron.

Druids belong to many different organizations or types including the Cenarion Circle, Cenarion Expedition, Druids of the Claw, Druids of the Talon, Druids of the Wild, Druids of the Fang, Druids of the Antler, Druids of the Grove and Druids of the Scythe.

Warcraft Encyclopedia
Druids come and go as they please, and their goals typically have little to do with the "civilized" world. Unaffiliated with any specific government, the primary druidic organization on Azeroth, the Cenarion Circle, answers to no one save itself. The highest rank that a druid can have is that of archdruid, and there are only a few archdruids on Azeroth. At the moment the Cenarion Circle's leader is Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage, also the first mortal druid on Azeroth.

Through their deep connection to life and nature, druids are able to take on an unusually large variety of roles. Probably a druid's best-known role is that of a healer. Druids are justly famed for their ability to restore life, cure poisonous wounds, and remove curses. Indeed, restoring and protecting the planet is one of the top priorities for all druids. Still, to regard a druid as merely a healer is a dangerously simplistic assumption that has led to the defeat of many an unwary foe. A druid's empathy with the creatures of the wild also allows him to shapeshift into the forms of other animals. For example, a wounded druid whose magical energies are running low might abruptly take on the form of a bear in order to better withstand further injury. Alternatively, the druid might shift into the form of some large cat, sneak up behind an enemy, then pounce and deliver a fierce flurry of melee attacks. Even the deepest oceans can be explored by a druid, who can simply shift into an aquatic creature, allowing him to stay underwater as long as needed.
 * Strengths, Abilities, and Underlying Motivations

Until the end of the Third War, druids periodically visited the Emerald Dream to monitor the ebb and flow of life on Azeroth. Today such a visit has become more difficult due to Nordrassil's poor health. Druids possess a deep understanding of the way in which all living things depend upon one another. Whenever this delicate equilibrium is disrupted, the druid works to restore the balance. To that end, a druid can use his connection with the Emerald Dream to exert a calming influence over animals, even forcing some into a temporary state of hibernation. Just as the druid can wield peace and somnolence, however, the druid can tap into the fury of nature itself. Terrible storms have responded to a druid's call. Thorns have sprouted from the druid's skin to wound his attackers. Even previously harmless roots have grown up out of the soil at greatly accelerated speeds in order to entangle a foe.

Races
The Druid class is the most limited class concerning races. Only two races per faction can become a Druid:

Druid Talent Specializations
Druid talents are split into three categories:


 * Balance - for spellcasting damage.
 * Feral combat - for tanking like a warrior (Bear Form) and melee damage dealing like a rogue (Cat Form).
 * Restoration - for healing with mainly hots.

It is important to note that each Druid talent tree contains some talents which are useful if specializing in one of the other trees. For example: some Furor in the Feral Combat talent modifies maximum mana; Genesis in the Balance tree increases periodic healing; and Master Shapeshifter in Restoration increase the damage for balance and ferals. Note that you must have at least 31 points in the main tree before the other trees are unlocked.


 * Balance Druids specialize in damage spells and gain an additional Moonkin Form, turning them into an efficient ranged spellcaster that is somewhere between a mage and a shadow priest in play style, in the equivalent of mail armor. They excel at nuking single targets as well as providing effective off-healing and crowd-control support. With the Wrath of the Lich King expansion providing them very effective multiple-target spells, they are now nearly on a par with any of the other casting classes. Their damage can be variable, due to the Eclipse mechanic - a unique scale where they will use Nature spells such as Wrath or Arcane spells such as Starfall to get back to before the mid-point of the start or end of the Eclipse Bar, where their damage is greatly increased.


 * The Feral tree enhances both of the Druid's melee forms, allowing them to tank and melee DPS more efficiently. The Talents in this tree usually enhance both forms; however some talents separate the two roles, and gear also makes a difference.  Bear Form provides armor and health similar to a warrior and Cat Form has damaging special moves similar to a rogue; with the ability to heal themselves to boot.  Lack of downtime between fights and flexibility in their armor and DPS are their strong points.  Since they still have all of the core Druid abilities and use very little mana, they make excellent support casters as well, even if they have chosen the path of melee DPS.


 * Restoration Druids take points in improving their healing spells and an additional Tree of Life Form. Restoration Druids have by far the best heal-over-time (also known as HoT) spells of all healing classes, effectively allowing them to continue healing while incapacitated, and have one multiple-target healing spell. In addition, the mobility offered by their heal-over-time spells makes them especially effective in PvP, though the duration of these HoTs was reduced in patch 4.0.1 to no longer outlast a stun. This, together with their good mana efficiency and in-combat resurrection ability, makes them an effective healing class.

For an in-depth look at the talents, please see the Druid talent analysis page.

Good talent calculators can be found here:
 * Wowhead
 * WoWTal

Armor and weapons


Druids are able to wear cloth and leather armor only, and gain additional benefits from wearing completely leather.

Druids start out with different weapons depending on race. Druids can fight with a staff, dagger, one-handed mace, two-handed mace, fist weapon and polearm. "Held in off-hand" items can still be used, but they cannot dual wield.

Tanking feral Druids cannot use shields, but in bear form their armor, dodge, and other mitgation eliminate the necessity.

Gear Requirements for Druids
A properly geared Druid, with an effective Talent tree, is capable of fulfilling any role. Druid players need to be aware that this versatility comes at a cost — a separate and specially designed gear-set is needed to fill any role to any significant degree of success. While a rogue may only have to change weapons and gems when they change specifications, they can use the same gear for each one. A druid, on the other hand, has completely different gear requirements for Restoration and Feral. In order to truly fulfil a hybrid role, Druids require several complete sets of gear (as well as resistance sets for PvP). This is expensive in time, bag space, and gold.

Weapon and Armor Statistics


Unlike other classes, druids tend not to use their weapons to actually hit mobs. As such they gain more from the +Stats of the weapon than the raw damage number than other classes. Bear in mind that, though a stat may be "better" than another, the mix of these statistics need to be balanced. An excess of haste will very quickly result in an Oomkin (Out of Mana Moonkin), and a tank without Hit is likely to miss the boss and find it hard to keep threat from over-keen warlocks, mages and hunters. Other things to consider are:
 * Whilst levelling, you may need to favour a particular stat more heavily to compensate for talents or gear not yet available, for example more spirit to regain mana
 * It is early Days in Cataclysm and raids are still learning what the "best" stats mixes are
 * Not all fights are the same: some are a DPS race, some are survivability; you may need to adapt your gear or food to suit and carry spare items accordingly
 * Blizzard make frequent "adjustments" through patches and hot-fixes
 * End-game tier raiding gear may favour different mixes

For PvP, Resilience and Spell Penetration are additional useful statistics. In WotLK around 1000 Resilience was advised for battlegrounds, 1500 considered the minimum for arenas. This has changed in Cataclysm.

Feral Tank

 * Stamina, Dodge, Strength/Agility, Expertise, Hit, Mastery, Crit, Haste
 * Stamina gives extra Health
 * Mastery gives Savage Defender

Feral DPS
. Hit to cap > Agility/Strength > ... Attack Power, Expertise, Haste, Crit, Mastery
 * Hit Rating impacts your ability to not miss when attacking a creature or player of a higher level than you. At 17% Hit, you will not miss at 3 levels above you, at 0% you will miss at least 5% of the time.
 * Agility gives
 * Strength gives
 * Expertise reduces the likelihood the enemy will parry or dodge your melée attack
 * Haste
 * Critical Strike Rating
 * Mastery gives Razor Claws

Balance DPS
. Spirit/Hit to cap (1742) > Intellect > Spellpower > Haste (3102 soft-cap) > Critical Strike Rating / Mastery


 * With Balance of Power spirit translates 1:1 to +hit, making it easier to collect gear which doubles up as useful for a restoration spec. A raiding druid should ALWAYS be hit capped as a 40K miss means a severe dent in DPS, even if it means re-forging, eating hit food or, if more than 5% off, gemming.
 * Hit gives a minor attack power boost to treants
 * Intellect gives spellpower, increases the mana pool and increase Crit
 * Spellpower increases the damage from every spell cast
 * Haste reduces the time to cast non-instant spells such as Wrath and increases the number of ticks on Damage over Time (DoTs)
 * Critical Strike increases the likelihood that a spell will do double damage though since Cataclysm it is no longer required to proc Eclipse
 * Mastery Rating gives Total Eclipse to do 12% +1.5% for every point of Mastery, 179.28 of Mastery Rating, extra damage during eclipse, i.e about half the time. This may prove to be a stronger statistic in high-end raiding gear.

Restoration
. Intellect > Spell Power > Spirit > Haste > Crit/Mastery


 * Intellect gives spellpower, increases the mana pool and increase Crit
 * Spellpower increases the healing from every spell
 * Spirit gives mana regeneration, you will need more of this in Cataclysm than WotLK
 * Haste reduces the time to cast non-instant healing spells such as Healing Touch and increases the number of ticks for Heal over Time spells such as Lifebloom
 * Critical Strike Rating increases the likelihood that a spell will do double the healing. Some spells such as Living Seed proc on crit
 * Mastery gives Symbiosis which increases healing done to targets with a HoT on them.

Shape-shifting
The Druid's most notable ability is shape shifting into different forms. All the forms are obtained from the trainer and can no longer be obtained with quests.



For all forms, the following applies:
 * The Druid is immune to polymorph in all forms except the default, humanoid form.
 * Switching from polymorphed humanoid to another form breaks polymorph.
 * Shapeshifting also breaks all movement-impairing effects (like Slow or Hamstring) and roots (Frost Nova or Entangling Roots) except the 3-second daze that can proc when one is attacked from behind by a melee attack.
 * Depending on the form, the Druid is considered either humanoid (Caster and Moonkin), beast (Travel, Aquatic, Bear, and Cat), or elemental (Tree of Life); and thus is vulnerable (or immune) to different spells. This also applies to being tracked.
 * Shapes are not buffs or magical effects, thus they may not be dispelled.

For a full list of Druid Feral form abilities, see Druid abilities. While shapeshifted into Bear, Cat, Aquatic, Travel, or Flight Form:
 * The Druid is considered a Beast.
 * Mana regeneration still continues at the same speed as out of the form.
 * Mana-reducing abilities such as Mana Burn have no effect while in Bear, and Cat forms (valuable in PvP);
 * Viper Sting will continue to tick. It can however be removed as it is a poison.
 * Weapons with a "Chance on hit" effect as well as "Chance on hit" enchants such as Enchant Weapon - Crusader and Enchant Weapon - Lifestealing will now proc. "Chance on hit" effects built into armor pieces (as opposed to weapons), such as the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might's proc also work as of 3.02.
 * Weapon DPS and weapon +damage enchants have no effect, however, armor enchants such as the Enchant Ring - Striking enchant, and armor pieces such as the Crystalforged Trinket that boost weapon damage do work. The bonus damage from Weightstones and Sharpening Stones also does work.  Weapon enchants that boost stats such as Attack Power and Agility rather than weapon damage also work.
 * Items with an "Equip: When hit ..." do work in forms. Some examples of these items are the Naglering and Darkmoon Card: Wrath's damage, Green Whelp Armor sleep and Shattered Sun Pendant of Resolve proc.
 * Weapon skill with the equipped weapon has no effect. Instead, the natural weapons always have the maximum weapon skill for their level.

Shapeshifting and Disguises
If you shapeshift while wearing any disguise, your form buff will remove the disguise buff. This is because it has a blanket effect and can cause unexpected bugs when two buffs are stacked. Items like the Noggenfogger Elixir were changed in 2007 to not stack with Druid forms so that it would not cause any future problems. Subsequent issues have arisen, such as the jet-pack required for Gunship Battle, giving the message "Cannot use whilst shape-shifted". This can make completing some achievements more challenging for feral and balance druids, such as With a Little Helper from My Friends, requiring creative thinking such as spending the battles as a gunner in Wintergrasp.

Feral Form Appearance
Each race has a distinct model for its bear and cat forms, and there are five different textures for each model. These textures correspond to the skin tone of Tauren druids, or the hair color of the other races. Druids can change their design at any time by visiting a barbershop and choosing a new skin tone or hair color as appropriate for their race. Since there are more hair colors and skin tones than unique textures, some colors and tones will produce the same designs. The hair and skin colors chosen will, in most cases, correspond to the colors seen in the design of each form. Similar colors that share a particular cat texture will not necessarily share the same bear texture.

Spells


For a full list of spells, see.

All druids (depending on their level, as the spells are gained with training) can cast the following spells, though they may have to drop out of "form" to cast them:
 * Buffs on themselves or others:
 * Mark of the Wild
 * Thorns (though since {Patch 4.0.1} this has had a limited duration, but greater effect)
 * De-buff on enemies:
 * Faerie Fire or Faerie Fire (Feral) depending on form
 * Crowd control
 * Cyclone
 * Entangling Roots
 * Hibernate
 * Soothe
 * Instant damage-over-time:
 * Moonfire
 * Insect Swarm
 * Damage dealing:
 * Wrath
 * Starfire
 * Healing:
 * Lifebloom
 * Rejuvenation
 * Nourish
 * Healing Touch

Beyond this, druids change gear and specialise their talents. Like the other "hybrid" damage-dealing classes, (warriors, paladins and priests), they are potentially almost as powerful as the "pure" classes they are similar to, though their range of spells is smaller and therefore less versatile. As with all classes, actual damage depends on how well the character is played, geared, gemmed, glyphed and how well talent points have been allocated. There are no "pure" healing or tanking classes.


 * Balance druids have additional caster damage spells; similar to mages (pure), warlocks (pure), and priests (shadow)
 * Feral druids have additional
 * damage mitigation (tanking) "spells"; similar to warriors (protection) and paladins (protection)
 * or melée damage dealing "spells"; similar to, hunters (pure), rogues (pure), warriors (fury or arms) and paladins (retribution)
 * Restoration druids have additional healing spells; similar to priests (holy or discipline) and paladins (holy)

End-game expectations


Before the Burning Crusade expansion most Druids were healers in the end game, and in Burning Crusade most were healers or feral damage or, towards the end, tanks. The Wrath of the Lich King expansion brought new itemization, talents and spell boosts that have made Druids of any talent specialization viable in the end-game: Player-versus-Player and raids. The introduction of Mastery and other changes in Cataclysm has yet to be determined as only a few "hard core" guilds have progressed far (as of end of December 2010) with Cataclysm raids.

Aside from their abilities, the feral forms (both cat and bear) and the moonkin form provide a moderate support aura for the Druid's group: increasing critical chance for ferals, and spell haste for moonkins; Innervate during long fights; Faerie Fire debuff to reduce armor; and in-combat Rebirth resurrection in emergencies, particularly if glyphed for full health.


 * Restoration Druids are still excellent for "Healing over time" (HoTs) and instant-cast heals.
 * In raid encounters, where there is a lot of movement, and cast times are often interrupted, a Druid is quite effective in healing where their spells can be cast on the run.
 * In arenas, Resto Druid teams are particularly feared by many due to the Druid's ability to quickly cast HoT's on both partner and self, and the ability to keep out of harm's way with Travel Form, effectively kiting most opponents.


 * Feral Druids can fill the core role of tanking well. Like other dual-specification hybrids, they may also change form and gear switch between tanking and melée DPS on bosses or mobs depending on whether more, or fewer, tanks are required. However, they do not always have to re-spec in order to do so, resulting in less down-time in the raid. While Warriors, Paladins and Death Knights have significant advantages on some raid bosses, Feral Druids have:
 * the unique flexibility to switch from tanking to to melée DPS within the fight, if the add they are offtanking dies. While Protection Warriors and Paladins are rather limited to tanking with their talent trees, many talents of the Feral tree are useful for both tanking and melée damage.
 * relatively high stamina and hence health points, allowing them to "soak" huge amounts of damage, but, in return require more healing to "top them back up".
 * In PvP, feral druids abilities to stealth almost as well as rogues, and then HoT and switch to travel form to escape, make life difficult for some caster classes.


 * Balance Druids have become more popular in end-game raiding with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
 * Their casting damage is less random-number generated with the introduction of the Eclipse Bar and they bring various useful attributes, such as the famous Moonkin Aura, which increases haste by 5%, as well as the debuff Earth and Moon, which increases the amount of damage spell casters in their party or raid can deal.
 * Their ability to off-heal has been restricted with Cataclysm as it now costs more mana, resulting in lower ability to damage the boss.
 * In PvP, Boomkins can have variable success. At the end of Burning Crusade and WotLK, a fully-PvP geared, enchanted and gemmed Moonkin could come in the top 10% of battleground scoreboards in terms of damage.
 * Their ability to stealth and then cast a 1.4 second, 40K Starfire (if on the right part of their lunar cycle, and if it procs a critical hit) can be one of the best ways to eliminate warlocks and other casters in a one-shot. Followed by Entangling Roots and another Starfire warriors (if their escape mechanisms are on CD) can also be removed in two.
 * They are still just as vulnerable to rogues' stun-locks as ever. There are few successful balance druids in arena teams.

Patch notes

 * As of Patch 4.2
 * Druids now gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, down from 2. They continue to gain 2 attack power per point of Agility while in Cat Form or Bear Form. In addition, Cat Form's scaling rate from gear upgrades was slower than other classes, which was causing them to fall behind in damage with higher item levels. To counter the Strength change and improve scaling, several abilities had their coefficients modified.
 * Innervate now grants an ally target 5% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds, but still grants 20% of the druid's maximum mana over 10 seconds when self-cast.
 * Lunar Shower has been redesigned. When casting Moonfire, the druid gains Lunar Shower. Lunar Shower increases the direct damage done by Moonfire by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of Lunar Shower, Moonfire generates 8 Solar Energy, and Sunfire generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of Lunar Shower. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either Starfire or Wrath).
 * Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.
 * As of Patch 3.2
 * If you already possess a 310% speed mount, your Swift Flight Form's speed will increase to 310%
 * Druids are able to customize the appearance of their Feral forms.
 * Druids are able to customize the appearance of their Feral forms.

Cataclysm changes
{{Bluepost|poster=Bashiok|title=Cataclysm Class Preview: Druid|date=04/09/2010 05:59:15 PM PDT|link=http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24262387043|body= In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm we’ll be making several changes to class talents and abilities. Here you will get a glimpse into some of the changes we have in store for the druid. The information you’re about to read is certainly not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview of some of the exciting new things to come. Let’s kick things off by checking out some of the new druid spells and abilities!

New Druid Abilities
Thrash (Level 81): Thrash deals damage and causes all targets within 10 yards to bleed every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. The intent here is to give bears another button to hit while tanking. Talents will affect the bleed, such as causing Swipe to deal more damage to bleeding targets. 5-second cooldown. 25 Rage.

Stampeding Roar (Level 83): The druid roars, increasing the movement of all allies within 10 yards by 40% for 8 seconds. Stampeding Roar can be used in cat or bear form, but bears might have a talent to drop the cooldown. The goal of this ability is to give both bears and cats a little more situational group utility. 3-minute cooldown. No cost.

Wild Mushroom (Level 85): Grows a magical mushroom at the target location. After 4 seconds the mushroom becomes invisible. Enemies who cross the mushroom detonate it, causing it to deal area-of-effect damage, though its damage component will remain very effective against single targets. The druid can also choose to detonate the mushroom ahead of time. This is primarily a tool for the Balance druid, and there will be talents that play off of it. No cooldown. 40-yard range. Instant cast. Maximum of 3 mushrooms which can be stacked on each other for major damage. You can also talent it to slow down the target after they explode;

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
In addition to the new abilities listed above, we intend to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics with which you’re already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of our goals for each spec.


 * All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks. Haste will also benefit Energy generation while in cat form.
 * Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.
 * We want to add tools to cat form and depth to bear form. If a Feral cat is going to fill a very similar niche to that of a rogue, warrior or Enhancement shaman, it needs a few more tools -- primarily a reliable interrupt. Bears need to be pushing a few more buttons just so the contrast between tanking and damage-dealing is not so steep.
 * Barkskin will be innately undispellable.
 * We will be buffing the damage of Mangle (cat) significantly so that when cat druids cannot Shred, they are not at such a damage-dealing loss.
 * Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent. All druids can still remove poisons with Cure Poison and remove curses with Remove Curse.

New Talents and Talent Changes

 * Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.
 * We want to make the Feral cat damage rotation slightly more forgiving. We do not want to remove what druids like about their gameplay, but we do want to make it less punishing to miss, say, a Savage Roar or Rake. The changes here will be on par with increasing the duration of Mangle like we did for patch 3.3.3.
 * Balance druids will have a new talent ability called Nature’s Torrent, which strikes for either Nature or Arcane damage depending on which will do the most damage (or possibly both), and moves the Eclipse meter more (details below). The improved version of Nature's Torrent also reduces the target's movement speed. 10-second cooldown.
 * Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth.
 * We plan on giving Feral cats and bears a Kick/Pummel equivalent -- an interrupt that is off the global cooldown and does no damage. We feel like they need this utility to be able to fill the melee role in a dungeon or raid group, and to give them more PvP utility.
 * We want to make sure Feral and Balance druids feel like good options for an Arena team. They need the tools to where you might consider a Feral druid over an Arms warrior, or a Balance druid over a mage or warlock. Remember that the PvP landscape will probably look pretty different for Cataclysm with a focus on rated, competitive Battlegrounds.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

 * Balance
 * 1) Spell Damage
 * 2) Spell Haste
 * 3) Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance.


 * Feral (Cat)
 * 1) Melee Damage
 * 2) Melee Critical Damage
 * 3) Bleed Damage: Feral druids will receive two sets of passive bonuses depending on whether the druid is in cat or bear form. Bleed Damage will be improved for cats. Savage Defense is the current bear mechanic for converting crits into damage absorption and will be improved for bears.


 * Feral (Bear)
 * 1) Damage Reduction
 * 2) Vengeance
 * 3) Savage Defense: Feral druids will receive two sets of passive bonuses depending on whether the druid is in cat or bear form. Bleed Damage will be improved for cats. Savage Defense is the current bear mechanic for converting crits into damage absorption and will be improved for bears.


 * Restoration
 * 1) Healing
 * 2) Meditation
 * 3) HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.


 * Vengeance: This is a mechanic to ensure that tank damage (and therefore threat) doesn’t fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will give them a stacking attack power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character’s unbuffed health. For boss encounters we expect that tanks will always have the attack power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Feral tree and the druid is in bear form -- these values will be smaller at lower levels. Remember, you only get this bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Feral tree and are in bear form, so you won’t see Balance, Restoration, or Feral druids in cat form running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to make tank gear more or less the way we do today -- there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so the Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but overall the goal is that all four tanks do about the same damage when tanking.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and ask that you provide your initial thoughts and feedback on what was presented here. Please keep in mind, what you’ve just reviewed is a work in progress and as we move closer to the Cataclysm beta, you’ll see these changes as well as others continue to develop in response to testing and feedback. }}