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Group Role - Druids
by Kemotaha
Druids are the most versatile class of the game. Each of their Talent Trees creates a whole different type of play. As such, Druids get to experience a little bit of a lot of classes and they can be the perfect fill-in for a lot of groups because they can mold to fit different roles. Here are the different trees:

Balance: The Balance tree enables the druids increase their casting with upgrades for most of their offensive spells. The tree culminates in the Moonkin form. The Moonkin increase its armor by 360% giving the druid much more armor. They are able to cast balance spells only in Moonkin form. In this form they give a +3% crit buff to all casters in their party. This tree is similar to a mage or a warlock.

Feral: This tree the most common used to level. It gives the druid an opportunity to increase their DPS and cause some damage. The talents in this tree increase the capabilities of the bear and the cat form. The bear form gives abilities similar to a warrior with the capacity to tank or off-tank. It increases the Druid's Armor by 360% and increases their threat and stamina. The Cat form is a great Melee DPS character similar to a rogue. It increases Agility and lowers the druids threat. The culmination of this tree is a +3% crit buff to all Melee/Ranged attacks to all party members.

Restoration: This tree is the path followed by most end game druids before the 1.7 patch. This was because the tree culminates with innervate. This powerful spell increases the target's mana regeneration by 400% and lets the mana regeneration work while the target is casting a spell. Casters love This because they can refill their mana when a druid casts this on them in combat. This tree also contains all the upgrades to the healing spells.

Solo/Leveling Role

Most often druids will level by using the feral tree. This gives them the ability to be tougher in bear form and do more damage. It also allows them to preserve their mana since the druid doesn't use mana when shifted. If self healing is needed, the druid can shift out of bear/cat form, cast a heal, and shift back to bear/cat form.

Group Role

The Group role for a druid is somewhat dependent on what spec they are. However they are also called on to do things that they are not specced for.

Balance Druid: The Job of a balance Druid is to be a caster. They are in Moonkin form. They wait for the tank to establish aggro. The target the off-tank's target first and work on bring them down. The Druid also needs to remember that the goal is not all-out damage. If they get a big crit, it is probably wise to tone down the amount of damage done so you don't steal the aggro off of the tank or off-tank. Once the off-tank's target it down, the druid changes focus to the next target. You need to make sure that a tank has aggro before attacking any target unless you want the mob's aggro on you. Also The Balance druid is the only caster that can take some serious damage in Moonkin form. If a mob goes for a healer (cloth wearer) and the main-tank and off-tank are occupied, then unload on that mob to pull the target off of the healer (cloth wearer) and on to you so they don't go down.

Feral Druid: In Bear Form, a feral druid makes an awesome off-tank if no other warrior is there. They have taunt spells that can cause a mob to attack them, They also have an AOE taunt that will pull multiple targets to them. Remember though not to use the AOE taunt unless you are far enough away not to pull the Main-Tank's Mobs off of them. A Bear is also the best tank against a boss or mob that polymorphs people. That is because as a bear the druid is considered a beast not a humanoid and cannot be polymorphed.
In Cat form, the druid needs to wait until the tank has established aggro. Usually they are stealthed because their biggest hit is ravage. Once the druid uses ravage, especially if you crit with it, you should use cower to reduce your threat and cause the mob to not attack you if it turned on you. Also once you use a finishing move, you should also use cower because it will cause your aggro to go up and you don't want the tank to lose it.

Restoration: This type of Druid is a healer. Healers should focus on the Main Tank while he is getting aggro and the off-tank as needed. No big spells should be used unless necessary since healing spells generate as much aggro as damage spells. Druid need to remember that most of their heal spells have a heal over time aspect to them. This allows you to heal a person earlier and have your affect go longer with less aggro. Rejuvenation should be used when they have just a little health gone, Regrowth when you need a boast before the heal over time kicks in. Healing touch is the big heal. It will cause mobs to break off from their targets and come to you. Use it when needed, but remember that it has a 3 second cast time. This means you shouldn't cast it when someone has only 1% of health left. You need to start it when they have 20-25% health left and are going down slowly. If their health is going down faster you might need to start it at 50% health. Innervate should be used on the casters that Heal, and crowd control.

Other tips:

There is one more big reason why druids are strong contributors to most parties. They have one of the best buffs in the game. The Gift of the Wild increases both armor and all stats. It is cast on a whole party at the same time. It does cost reagents to cast, as does your battle rez. Make sure that you have enough reagents before you enter a raid. A 40 man raid requires 8 reagents for each time you buff the whole raid. You can use the Mark of the Wild if someone dies until it is time to buff the whole party again. As for your battle rez, another unique Druid ability, can only be used once every 30 minutes. It will bring a person up with health and mana so that they can fight right away. In most fights, if things get out of control and a priest dies, they are probably the first person to battle rez. However if there is no tank up and there are still healers, bringing a tank up will allow the mobs to get back into control. You need to know what type of party you are in, and who you should bring up. Check with the raid leader to see if they have a preference.

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Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Kemotaha

Reserved

Iliana

Now that Innervate is a lvl 40 spell learned by ALL druids, there shouldn't be pressure for druids to respec resto by guilds or other players. BUT, swiftmend (insta-heal that consumes regen spell) is a very handy spell to have when you're in a pinch to heal someone.

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|TG-Defiant| - It's you and me against the world. We attack at dawn.

You're a great friend but if we're ever chased by zombies I'm tripping you.

Anah

I played Anah recently in a raid (ony) and was amazed at the effectiveness increase due to swiftmend. No matter how much of your HoT has elapsed, you get the whole thing from swiftmend, so if you keep rejuvination up on a MT, as I always do, at any point the health dips, I have a 1121 instant-cast heal, for like 250 mana. Incredible.

The versatility of the druid is sometimes not utilized. Druids can fill any role the group needs them to, but they don't do it quite as well as the primary in that role, with a few exceptions, who are very good at their role and have gear that makes them better. Druids need to be willing to fill the role needed by the group. We seem to have a few too many druids who don't like to heal, and refuse to come out of their specialty form, whether it's cat, bear, or moonkin. We tend to go into these instances light on healing, as is pointed out by skeet's post on class balance. Every druid may be called on to heal at some point, and should be prepared to do so if called. Any Druid who is a self-professed "lousy healer" and therefor refuses to heal, should only be able to fill a slot appropriate to the form they stay in. Many classes have the option of specializing in another branch, like shadow priests. If a shadow priest refuses to come out of shadow form to heal, they should not take a priest slot (luckily we don't have any who won't heal as needed).

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Anahlahna and Friends