Fusion
Wednesday, 9th August 2006, 13:45
Behind every great group, there lies a great druid. Without further adieu, I present the Druid's Bag o Tricks.
===============================
PVP
General
- When spamming moonfire, the DoT will not tick until you stop spamming. Instead, cast rank ten moonfire then spam with rank nine. The full DOT of 10 will tick while you spam the direct damage using rank 9. (NOTE: dont spam moonfire)
- While running away, it is possible to jump, mid-air spin, moonfire your enemy, and mid-air spin back before you hit the ground to continue running forward with no loss of speed.
- It is possible to drop combat in pvp while you have an enemy rooted. It is then possible to prowl.
- Feral charge can also be used as an escape, if you can find someone 25 yards away.
- Innervate and Nature's Swiftness can and will be dispelled.
- By using Noggenfogger Elixir it is difficult for the enemy to tell what form you're in.
- You *could* bash, shift out of bear form, shift into cat form, get behind an opponent and shred them. (waiting on 1.12.... :/ )
- Hitting a target who is sitting down guarantees a critical.
- Warriors, Hunters, Shaman, and non-Felhunter Warlocks are particularly vulnerable to roots. Some have trinkets that will dispel the root, but a re-root will leave them stuck there.
- You can shift out of a form while feared to immediately start a heal when the fear breaks, but you can't shift into a form while feared.
- The graphics for moonfire, starfire, roots and even heals have no horizontal approach on your target (as opposed to wrath). By hiding behind objects that don't block line of sight, like trees and rocks, you can cast at players without revealing where you are.
Engineering
- Using the mind control cap while in forms removes the chance of backfire (cant mind control a beast) although the target can still resist it.
- Bomb + Heal makes druids happy.
Druid
- Druids in forms can be hibernated.
- Root a druid when he/she is in caster form. When the druid shifts to a feral form to break your roots you can NS+Hibernate them.
- You can Soothe Animal druids who are in forms. (has no effect)
Hunter
- Hunter's can use "Scare Beast" on you while you are in forms.
- Hunter Stings are poisons and can be removed. This includes viper sting.
- Viper sting will not drain your mana if you are in cat or bear form. However innervate will regenerate you mana while you are in cat or bear form.
- Hunter's pets will stop attacking their target and attack you for a couple of seconds if you growl them. Great for getting them off clothes and healers.
- If you know a hunter has a trap out, do a challenging roar before you step on it and his pet may break you right out.
- Hunters (and druids) track humanoids will not track you in forms but track beasts will.
Shaman
- Grounding Totem eats Feral Charge.
- You can hibernate Ghost Wolfs.
- Shifting will momentarily free you from the slowing totems effect. However you will be reslowed again if you remain in range as the debuff is quickly reapplied.
- Shaman can dispel your buffs including HoTs, Natures Swiftness and Innervate.
- If you swipe a Shaman you won't hit his totem. If you swipe the totem you can hit the Shaman
Warlock
- Warlocks felhunters can dispel your buffs including HoTs, Natures Swiftness and Innervate.
- You cant be seduced in forms.
Rogue
- You can demoralizing roar rogues out of stealth.
- Faerie fire still allows rogue to vanish as an escape mechanism but they will not restealth.
- Root + FF + Root will usually hold a rogue in place.
- If you're prowling after a stealthed rogue, open with FF rather than try to ravage/pounce. Their cheap shot has better range than your damaging openers and they can do it from any side.
- In a rogue heavy battleground help stay stealthed and start stalking them back. Wait for a rogue to jump someone, FF the rogue, heal their target, root them.
- You cant get sapped in forms.
- If you see an ally get Cheap Shotted by a rogue, open with Pounce, to ruin their stunlock.
- Blind counts as a poison.
Warrior
- Cat form's Rake and Rip bleed effects completely ignore armor.
- FF can be used to put warriors in combat and prevent them from using Charge.
Mage
- Opening with pounce often tricks mages into burning their blink before you've used charge or stun.
- You can decoy a heal by starting to cast it and cancelling it. Many casters run spell alert.
- You can shapeshift while counter spelled.
- When mages blink away from you, they open the option for you to run directly away from them. At this point you can either leave the fight or restealth.
Arathi Basin
- Moonfire is great to knock people off of the flag. Swipe is even better. Hurricane is a dot, it wont break people from capping the flag.
- If you're in AB, and you're guarding the Farm area, kill the rats for a full rage bar. They have an high spawn rate. This will prevent you from stealthing
Warsong Gulch
- Free Action potions + preemptive abolish poison can make you all but unstoppable for getting out of the flag room (can still be feared, so hope the trinket is up)
- If you find yourself standing above a battle (flag room roof, on a balcony etc.) and want to help your friends, cast Hurricane. The horde will be targeting your friends and can't look up through the clouds to acquire you.
- Alternatively, against a class that can easily get rid of your root, is often better to root a support class escorting them that can easily be rooted (such as a priest or shaman).
- Even against classes that can dispel roots that are running with a flag, it is often worth casting to make them spend the second or two to dispel it.
- If you're tailing the flag carrier up the tunnel and your team doesn't have the enemy flag, feral charge/bash him, shift to cat, and dash up the tunnel to grab and get out via the top exit before he can cap. Good luck.
Alterac Valley
- Sleep rams in AV before taming them.
===============================
General Game Dynamics
Caster
o You can Faerie Fire while not facing your target(great for kiting).
o Insect swarm not only can be used while not facing target, but doesn't reset your swing timer, while Moonfire and Rejuv do.
o Natures Swiftness will remain on until it is used or dispelled. The 3 min cool down begins after it is consumed.
o Don't have thorns up if you're using crowd control such as Hibernate or the Goblin Rocket Helm. If the target hits you as the CC lands on the target, the reflected damage from thorns will break it.
o You can root indoor targets as long as you are casting from outdoors.
o You can activate Natures Grasp before mounting and have it proc without dismounting.
o Barkskin makes Hurricane / Tranquility uninterruptible from damage. Spell cancelling effects such as kicks / stuns will still interrupt your casting.
o Barkskin lessens falling damage
o Innervate regenerates the same amount of mana regardless of whether or not the buffed caster is casting.
o Be sure to fully utilize hibernate / roots / soothe to gather herbs and mines
Feral
o You count as a beast in forms not a humanoid.
o Your feral attacks are not in time with Humanoid attacks. It is possible to Shred then change to caster and instantly hit with your hand weapon
o Healing touch rank 5 is the lowest level that gains a full bonus from +healing, while rank 4 is the highest level with a reduced casting time.
Bear
o You can't use Demoralizing Roar or Growl while silenced.
o Swipe can proc the Maelstrom Card/Heart of Wyrmthalak (etc) on any of the targets it hits.
o As a bear-formed feral druid, you can use critters to your advantage. Throwing a Faerie Fire(feral) on them will keep you in combat, meaning you get to keep your rage for longer. You may even generate extra rage.
o Feral Charge can serve as a good short term root, not just a spell interrupt;
o Feral Charge followed by a root can help tie enemies down when you need to heal.
o If you hit Maul before you charge youll have a hefty hit straight off.
o Frenzied Regeneration works even if you are stunned granted you can cast the instant before youre stunned
o Frenzied regeneration (bear form) is not changed by +healing gear,
o Carefully read the growl description, it's only useful if you don't currently have aggro.
Cat
o You can get shred off if you are facing the person and run through them a little bit, your head sticking out of their back.
o Open fights with Tigers Fury and then wait until you have a full energy bar to actually attack. This will not break stealth.
o Cat form + dash is faster than travel form.
o The 20% attack speed reduction from barkskin wont effect your dps from cat form special moves only cat form auto attack.
Travel
o Aquatic form works in lava.
o Cheetah form is the cheapest way to break movement impairing effects
o Cheetah form and seal form use your caster form weapon damage and attack speed.
Fun
o Go moonkin. Use an orb of deception. Mount. Click off orb of deception. Mounted moonkin!
o You can dance in Feral Forms to bring humor and flavor into the world
Items All Druids Should Try
o Green Whelp Armor
o Tide Charm
===============================
Raiding / Grouping
Scarlet Monastery
- You can farm a decent amount of gold by doing SM in bear form at 60 and just aggro'ing 5-6 mobs at a time. <3 swipe
Blackwing Lair
- Hibernate can be used as a psuedo-counterspell for beasts or dragonkin that use abilities with a casting time. Chaincast hibernate while dps is going on, and they can never complete their spells.
- During then nef fight, if you're in the middle of casting a spell when nef does the druid call, you shapeshift into cat, but if you dont move, you still get the spell off.
- You can sleep a sheep if it was originally a beast or dragonkin otherwise it will not work. This prevents them from wandering, they may also remained asleep when sheep breaks (not from damage).
ZG
- Well placed hibernates can be used as a pseudo counter spell against Soulflayers.
Baron
- You can innervate yourself in the Baron fight, then switch to bear/cat form - you'll regen the mana, and avoid the burn.
Alliance
- When regaining mana through Judgment of Wisdom stacking, Rank one moonfire can be used a "wand", it's cheaper than the mana you get back and you can spam it.
Onyxia
- Anytime you're swimming with a group of people (ie. on your way to Onyxia) wait for someone to put you on autofollow. Now pull them underwater and use seal form to outrun them. Their autofollow will disengage and they'll drown.
Misc
- Cat form with feline swiftness and feral faerie fire is great for kiting world bosses and elites to lowbie towns. Just run away while spamming FF.
- Feral charge works in mid-air. This is especially useful for enemies with huge knockbacks. While a warrior would have to first switch to beserker stance, intercept, and presumably then switch out of beserker, druids can often charge back in before they even hit the ground.
- Combat rezzes can prevent wipes. If everyone knows it will be a wipe, combat rez a priest or other repeatable rezzer, making sure they know not to 'accept' the rez yet. Once the wipe is over and the mobs run back to their original spots, the rezzer can then accept your rez and bring back the rest of the group.
- Got aggro? Drop to cat and cower (kinda like a druid fade). This also can works if you are FF pulling for a Tank without ammo.
For all the druids who love their class, I tip my hat to you. For those self hating druids, I hope you will soon discover the error of your ways.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=984494&p=#post984494
===============================
PVP
General
- When spamming moonfire, the DoT will not tick until you stop spamming. Instead, cast rank ten moonfire then spam with rank nine. The full DOT of 10 will tick while you spam the direct damage using rank 9. (NOTE: dont spam moonfire)
- While running away, it is possible to jump, mid-air spin, moonfire your enemy, and mid-air spin back before you hit the ground to continue running forward with no loss of speed.
- It is possible to drop combat in pvp while you have an enemy rooted. It is then possible to prowl.
- Feral charge can also be used as an escape, if you can find someone 25 yards away.
- Innervate and Nature's Swiftness can and will be dispelled.
- By using Noggenfogger Elixir it is difficult for the enemy to tell what form you're in.
- You *could* bash, shift out of bear form, shift into cat form, get behind an opponent and shred them. (waiting on 1.12.... :/ )
- Hitting a target who is sitting down guarantees a critical.
- Warriors, Hunters, Shaman, and non-Felhunter Warlocks are particularly vulnerable to roots. Some have trinkets that will dispel the root, but a re-root will leave them stuck there.
- You can shift out of a form while feared to immediately start a heal when the fear breaks, but you can't shift into a form while feared.
- The graphics for moonfire, starfire, roots and even heals have no horizontal approach on your target (as opposed to wrath). By hiding behind objects that don't block line of sight, like trees and rocks, you can cast at players without revealing where you are.
Engineering
- Using the mind control cap while in forms removes the chance of backfire (cant mind control a beast) although the target can still resist it.
- Bomb + Heal makes druids happy.
Druid
- Druids in forms can be hibernated.
- Root a druid when he/she is in caster form. When the druid shifts to a feral form to break your roots you can NS+Hibernate them.
- You can Soothe Animal druids who are in forms. (has no effect)
Hunter
- Hunter's can use "Scare Beast" on you while you are in forms.
- Hunter Stings are poisons and can be removed. This includes viper sting.
- Viper sting will not drain your mana if you are in cat or bear form. However innervate will regenerate you mana while you are in cat or bear form.
- Hunter's pets will stop attacking their target and attack you for a couple of seconds if you growl them. Great for getting them off clothes and healers.
- If you know a hunter has a trap out, do a challenging roar before you step on it and his pet may break you right out.
- Hunters (and druids) track humanoids will not track you in forms but track beasts will.
Shaman
- Grounding Totem eats Feral Charge.
- You can hibernate Ghost Wolfs.
- Shifting will momentarily free you from the slowing totems effect. However you will be reslowed again if you remain in range as the debuff is quickly reapplied.
- Shaman can dispel your buffs including HoTs, Natures Swiftness and Innervate.
- If you swipe a Shaman you won't hit his totem. If you swipe the totem you can hit the Shaman
Warlock
- Warlocks felhunters can dispel your buffs including HoTs, Natures Swiftness and Innervate.
- You cant be seduced in forms.
Rogue
- You can demoralizing roar rogues out of stealth.
- Faerie fire still allows rogue to vanish as an escape mechanism but they will not restealth.
- Root + FF + Root will usually hold a rogue in place.
- If you're prowling after a stealthed rogue, open with FF rather than try to ravage/pounce. Their cheap shot has better range than your damaging openers and they can do it from any side.
- In a rogue heavy battleground help stay stealthed and start stalking them back. Wait for a rogue to jump someone, FF the rogue, heal their target, root them.
- You cant get sapped in forms.
- If you see an ally get Cheap Shotted by a rogue, open with Pounce, to ruin their stunlock.
- Blind counts as a poison.
Warrior
- Cat form's Rake and Rip bleed effects completely ignore armor.
- FF can be used to put warriors in combat and prevent them from using Charge.
Mage
- Opening with pounce often tricks mages into burning their blink before you've used charge or stun.
- You can decoy a heal by starting to cast it and cancelling it. Many casters run spell alert.
- You can shapeshift while counter spelled.
- When mages blink away from you, they open the option for you to run directly away from them. At this point you can either leave the fight or restealth.
Arathi Basin
- Moonfire is great to knock people off of the flag. Swipe is even better. Hurricane is a dot, it wont break people from capping the flag.
- If you're in AB, and you're guarding the Farm area, kill the rats for a full rage bar. They have an high spawn rate. This will prevent you from stealthing
Warsong Gulch
- Free Action potions + preemptive abolish poison can make you all but unstoppable for getting out of the flag room (can still be feared, so hope the trinket is up)
- If you find yourself standing above a battle (flag room roof, on a balcony etc.) and want to help your friends, cast Hurricane. The horde will be targeting your friends and can't look up through the clouds to acquire you.
- Alternatively, against a class that can easily get rid of your root, is often better to root a support class escorting them that can easily be rooted (such as a priest or shaman).
- Even against classes that can dispel roots that are running with a flag, it is often worth casting to make them spend the second or two to dispel it.
- If you're tailing the flag carrier up the tunnel and your team doesn't have the enemy flag, feral charge/bash him, shift to cat, and dash up the tunnel to grab and get out via the top exit before he can cap. Good luck.
Alterac Valley
- Sleep rams in AV before taming them.
===============================
General Game Dynamics
Caster
o You can Faerie Fire while not facing your target(great for kiting).
o Insect swarm not only can be used while not facing target, but doesn't reset your swing timer, while Moonfire and Rejuv do.
o Natures Swiftness will remain on until it is used or dispelled. The 3 min cool down begins after it is consumed.
o Don't have thorns up if you're using crowd control such as Hibernate or the Goblin Rocket Helm. If the target hits you as the CC lands on the target, the reflected damage from thorns will break it.
o You can root indoor targets as long as you are casting from outdoors.
o You can activate Natures Grasp before mounting and have it proc without dismounting.
o Barkskin makes Hurricane / Tranquility uninterruptible from damage. Spell cancelling effects such as kicks / stuns will still interrupt your casting.
o Barkskin lessens falling damage
o Innervate regenerates the same amount of mana regardless of whether or not the buffed caster is casting.
o Be sure to fully utilize hibernate / roots / soothe to gather herbs and mines
Feral
o You count as a beast in forms not a humanoid.
o Your feral attacks are not in time with Humanoid attacks. It is possible to Shred then change to caster and instantly hit with your hand weapon
o Healing touch rank 5 is the lowest level that gains a full bonus from +healing, while rank 4 is the highest level with a reduced casting time.
Bear
o You can't use Demoralizing Roar or Growl while silenced.
o Swipe can proc the Maelstrom Card/Heart of Wyrmthalak (etc) on any of the targets it hits.
o As a bear-formed feral druid, you can use critters to your advantage. Throwing a Faerie Fire(feral) on them will keep you in combat, meaning you get to keep your rage for longer. You may even generate extra rage.
o Feral Charge can serve as a good short term root, not just a spell interrupt;
o Feral Charge followed by a root can help tie enemies down when you need to heal.
o If you hit Maul before you charge youll have a hefty hit straight off.
o Frenzied Regeneration works even if you are stunned granted you can cast the instant before youre stunned
o Frenzied regeneration (bear form) is not changed by +healing gear,
o Carefully read the growl description, it's only useful if you don't currently have aggro.
Cat
o You can get shred off if you are facing the person and run through them a little bit, your head sticking out of their back.
o Open fights with Tigers Fury and then wait until you have a full energy bar to actually attack. This will not break stealth.
o Cat form + dash is faster than travel form.
o The 20% attack speed reduction from barkskin wont effect your dps from cat form special moves only cat form auto attack.
Travel
o Aquatic form works in lava.
o Cheetah form is the cheapest way to break movement impairing effects
o Cheetah form and seal form use your caster form weapon damage and attack speed.
Fun
o Go moonkin. Use an orb of deception. Mount. Click off orb of deception. Mounted moonkin!
o You can dance in Feral Forms to bring humor and flavor into the world
Items All Druids Should Try
o Green Whelp Armor
o Tide Charm
===============================
Raiding / Grouping
Scarlet Monastery
- You can farm a decent amount of gold by doing SM in bear form at 60 and just aggro'ing 5-6 mobs at a time. <3 swipe
Blackwing Lair
- Hibernate can be used as a psuedo-counterspell for beasts or dragonkin that use abilities with a casting time. Chaincast hibernate while dps is going on, and they can never complete their spells.
- During then nef fight, if you're in the middle of casting a spell when nef does the druid call, you shapeshift into cat, but if you dont move, you still get the spell off.
- You can sleep a sheep if it was originally a beast or dragonkin otherwise it will not work. This prevents them from wandering, they may also remained asleep when sheep breaks (not from damage).
ZG
- Well placed hibernates can be used as a pseudo counter spell against Soulflayers.
Baron
- You can innervate yourself in the Baron fight, then switch to bear/cat form - you'll regen the mana, and avoid the burn.
Alliance
- When regaining mana through Judgment of Wisdom stacking, Rank one moonfire can be used a "wand", it's cheaper than the mana you get back and you can spam it.
Onyxia
- Anytime you're swimming with a group of people (ie. on your way to Onyxia) wait for someone to put you on autofollow. Now pull them underwater and use seal form to outrun them. Their autofollow will disengage and they'll drown.
Misc
- Cat form with feline swiftness and feral faerie fire is great for kiting world bosses and elites to lowbie towns. Just run away while spamming FF.
- Feral charge works in mid-air. This is especially useful for enemies with huge knockbacks. While a warrior would have to first switch to beserker stance, intercept, and presumably then switch out of beserker, druids can often charge back in before they even hit the ground.
- Combat rezzes can prevent wipes. If everyone knows it will be a wipe, combat rez a priest or other repeatable rezzer, making sure they know not to 'accept' the rez yet. Once the wipe is over and the mobs run back to their original spots, the rezzer can then accept your rez and bring back the rest of the group.
- Got aggro? Drop to cat and cower (kinda like a druid fade). This also can works if you are FF pulling for a Tank without ammo.
For all the druids who love their class, I tip my hat to you. For those self hating druids, I hope you will soon discover the error of your ways.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=984494&p=#post984494