Equipping Your Endgame Druid

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Bear Form Druid - Overview

The success of a Bear Form Druid is dependant on their ability to tank, crit and dodge melee. Recommendations indicate that Leader of the Pack's +3% crit will be a good spend to increase your aggro on mobs, so 31 points in the feral tree will be your best bet. The strongest tanking build is a 11B/35F/5R build.

Key Talents

Balance Talents

  • Natural Weapons +10% physical damage.

Nice to Haves:

  • Nature's Grasp, Natural Shapeshifter, Omen of Clarity

Feral Talents

  • Ferocity -5 Energy/Rage to a Druid's basic attack abilities
  • Feral Instinct +15% threat
  • Feral Charge In combat charge, like intercept.
  • Sharpened Claws +6% crit
  • Primal Fury +5 rage when you crit in Bear form
  • Savage Fury +20% damage from your main attack abilities
  • Faerie Fire -armor and +threat on your target. Threat is added even if the debuff already exists. Equivalent of 100 damage worth of threat. No cost.
  • Heart of the Wild +20% Int in Caster Form, +20% Strength in Cat form and +20% Stamina in Bear form! With 300 Stamina this represents 600 health. With 400 Intellect this represents 1200 Mana.
  • Leader of the Pack +3% crit for everyone in the party. This is a nice to have if you are going over 30 points Feral.

Restoration Talents

  • Furor 10 Rage or 40 Energy immediately upon shifting.

Equipment (raid)

The goal for Bear for Druids is to maximize Armor, then Stamina, then damage ability. Agility and Stamina are your best bet when looking for equipment stats. Any 60 druid with blues can Main Tank the 5-10 man instances with a good group. What this means for anyone wanting to tank anything above the 5-10 man raids is that you will need raid level gear in order to put yourself in par with warriors. There is not alot to choose from pre 20/40 man raids, so it most likely won't be listed here. Look at building your armour up to 10,000-11,000 in bear then you can sacrifice some of your other gear for stam and then agil.

Items that have exceptional Armor:

Chest

Feet

Hands

Head

Legs

Shoulders

Waist

Wrist

Back

Finger

Trinket

Items with Exceptional Stamina:

Chest

Feet

Hands

Head

Neck

Shoulders

Waist

Wrist

Cat Form Druid - Overview

The success of a Cat Form Druid is dependant on their attack power and ability to crit. In this form, a druid is much like a rogue, having stealth and positional attacks. A difference here from a Moonkin Form build will be that you don't necessarily have to have 31 points in your Feral Tree. Getting all the Talents that increase Cat abilities would involve 11 points in Balance and 36 points in Feral, leaving 4 spare points. Often tough choices must be made to reduce damage output to increase flexibility.

Key Talents

  • Ferocity -5 Energy from Claw and Rake makes for faster combo point generation
  • Sharpened Claws +6% crits, yummy
  • Savage Fury +20% damage from Claw and Rake.
  • Heart of the Wild +20% to Strength in cat form. You'll lose alot of intellect in Cat gear, so the +20% Intellect in caster form helps also when you need to shift out to heal.
  • Natural Weapons from the Balance Tree. 10% more damage from all attacks is excellent and stacks with Talents like Savage Fury.

Very nice to have:

  • Blood Frenzy Crits add a combo point. Its like 5/5 Seal Fate(Rogue) for 17 total Talent points!
  • Improved Shred -12 Energy when using Shred, very nice. Analysis indicates this talent is most useful with 2 points invested.
  • Feline Swiftness +30% speed outdoors in cat form. Near 100% stealth speed! 4% Bonus to dodge is quite nice as well, less cleaves. Very useful for PvP.
  • Feral Instinct increases stealth just like Master of Deception(Rogue).
  • Faerie Fire (Feral) Ability to reduce your target's armor, stackable with Sunder. Generates 100 damage worth of aggro (Equivalent to getting a really weak crit on white damage. Just don't spam it). Absolutely free to cast while shapeshifted.

Nice to have:

  • Leader of the Pack +3% crit to everyone in your group. Melee will love you. Not strictly necessary but quite nice.
  • Omen of Clarity from the Balance Tree. Allows for random free Energy attacks or spells. Can be used to burst damage or apply Mana free heals.


NOTE: An build focused on sustained DPS (ie. Raid DPS) includes Blood Frenzy, Improved Shred, and Omen of Clarity for absurd Shred output. Druids can't really compete with other classes in damage per special attack, so we spam specials. Any druid that has more than 20 points in Feral and plans to PvP should absolutely have Faerie Fire. It's one talent point, and makes rogues cry themselves to sleep at night. Omen of Clarity can be nice in PvP as well for an extra shred when you really need it or a free heal in a protracted fight.

Equipment

Focus on Strength as a cat form Druid gets 2 AP per point of Strength. Once you have exceeded 1,000 or so AP, try to build +crit without sacrificing attack power.

No-raid required gear:
Strength Items

  • Dragonhide Helm - 16 Sta, 11 Str, Agi and Int, 9 Spi, 16 Atk Power, +13 to all spells. All around goodness.
  • Phantasmal Cloak
  • Conqueror's Medallion BRD - All around good stats
  • Flamescarred Shoulders Dire Maul - All around good stats
  • Defiler's Leather Shoulders - Can't be beat.
  • Breastplate of Bloodthirst Crafted - takes a LONG time to collect the mats but well worth it for all those stats!
  • Primal Batskin Jerkin - Crafted but requires ZG materials
  • Cadaverous Armor - 8 Str, 8 Agi, 60 Attack Power. 84 total attack power from one piece! No stamina though.
  • Devilsaur Gloves - 9 Stamina, 28 Atk Power, +1 crit and +1 hit when matched with the leggings.
  • Might of the Timbermaw Crafted - Honoured Timbermaw * note* there are quite a few better cat belts
  • Defiler's Leather Belt - Best blue belt in the game when matched with its set.
  • Warbear Woolies Crafted - Can't beat +28 str here
  • Dragonhide Leggings - 12 Sta/Str/Agi/Spi, 9 Int, 18 Atk Pow, +1 dodge. 4 piece bonus of increased speed is very, very nice to have.
  • Devilsaur Leggings - 12 Sta, 46 Atk Pow, +1 crit and +1 hit when matched with the gloves.
  • Abyssal Leather Leggings of Striking - 15 Sta/Str/Agi and +1 Crit. Very nice item to have for if/when you replace the Devilsaur Gloves.
  • Defiler's Leather Boots - beat the PvP set except for the 4 piece speed bonus
  • Blood Guard's Dragonhide Boots PvP Reward - not that great but the best to be found for boots
  • Legionnaire's Band WSG - 8 Sta, 12 Str, 11 Agi - Not bad for 300 flag captures.
  • Darkmoon Card: Maelstrom - +200-300 nature damage proc

Crit Items

Set bonuses:

  • PvP set: 2 pieces: +40 Atk Power - 4 pieces: +15% speed in Bear/Cat/travel form - 6 pieces: +15 Sta
  • Defiler's Set: 2 pieces: +5 Sta - 3 pieces: +1% crit
  • Cadaverous Garb: 2 pieces: +3 Defense - 3 pieces: +10 Atk Pow - 4 pieces: +15 resist all - 5 pieces: +2 hit
  • Stormshroud: 2 piece: 5% chance of dealing 15-25 nature damage to target - 3 piece: 2% chance to restore 30 Energy

Raid required gear:

Fire Resist Gear

For some encounters in the game, Lava Packs, Geddon and Ragnaros in MC and Vaelastraez in BWL, Fire resist gear is key to staying alive and contributing. To this end every toon raiding in these ares is expected to obtain a decent amount of Fire Resist gear.

Fire Resistance

  • Head: Molten, Supreme (29), Cenarion (10), Felhide (8), Helm of Fire (5)
  • Shoulders: Fireguard (22), Adventurer's, Supreme (21), Volcanic (18), Flamescarred (11), Stormrage (10)
  • Chest: Adventurer's, Supreme (29), Volcanic (20), Cow King's, Flamestrider Robes, Nightbrace, Cenarion, Stormrage (10), Thick Silithid (5)
  • Bracers: Adventurer's (15), Cinderhide (10), Dragonspur (4)
  • Gloves: Adventurer's, Supreme (21), Bloodfire (10), Doomhide, Aged Core Leather (8), Cenarion (7)
  • Belt: Lava (26), Adventurer's (21), Flamescarred (20), Corehound, Molten (12), Cenarion (7)
  • Leggings: Adventurer's (29), Volcanic (20), Salamander, Stormrage (10)
  • Boots: Corehound (24), Adventurer's, Supreme (21), Coal Miner, Stormrage (10)
  • Cloak: Fireproof (18), Onyxia Scale (16), Flames, Master's, Masterwork, Supreme, Wildfire (15), Mageflame, Smokey's (10), Chromatic (9), Crimson Silk, Fire Salamander (7), Fire, Shrouded Mists (6), Blackflame, Dragon's Blood, Fiery, Firebane, Inferno (5)
  • Amulet: Prismatic (16), Drakefire (15), Blazefury (12), Elder Magus, Onyxia Tooth, Sanctuary (10), Emberfury (7)
  • Ring: Opal (22), Ragnaros Core (18), Opalescent (17), Ocean's Breeze, Tidal Loop (15), Ascension, Binding, Dragonslayer's, Elemental Circle, Multicolored (10), Archmagus (6)
  • Trinket: Blazing Emblem, Onyxia Blood (15), Royal Seal (10), Ward (8) Smoking Heart (7)
  • Weapon: Sulfuras (30), Elemental Mage Staff (20), Finkle's (15), Kindling, Mastersmith's, Sunrazor (10), Ebon Hand (7), Staff of Protection (6), Amberseal, Blanchard's (5)


Healing Druid - Overview

The success of a Healing Druid is dependant on their ability to uhh ... heal. You don't necessarily need the 31 points in Restoration but Innervate one of the best skills in the game for someone using alot of mana. There are two basic build structures used for Restoration Druids.

One involves getting as many Restoration Talents as you feel comfortable without losing flexibility in other trees. These builds range from 31 points in Restoration up to 46 points (Taking all but the two feral Talents in the Restoration tree).

Another approach is to enhance your eficiency as a caster by taking the Moonglow Talent in the Balance tree for a 24B/27R build. This build focuses on Moonglow and Nature's Grace in the Balance tree and their addtive effect with Improved Healing Touch, Nature's Swiftness, Tranquil Spirit, and Gift of Nature. Combining these Talents will allow for the highest Healing efficiency. The Druid will also have maximized their healing per second for the Druid's Healing Touch spell.

Key Talents

  • Nature's Swiftness - allows for an instant cast spell, such as Healing Touch, once every 3 minutes.
  • Gift of Nature - 10% better healing for every spell. High Bang for the buck.

Very nice to have:

  • Innervate - a large amount of mana regen at any time once per 6 minutes. This is considered by many to be a Druid's main reason for existance.
  • Subtlety - virtually a must have for PvE reasons. Druids have no other way to reduce or shed aggro, short of switching to Cat form and using cower at the cost of ??% of their base mana pool.
  • Moonglow - 9% less mana cost for nearly every Balance or Restoration spell. Combined with Tranquil Spirit, Healing Touch will cost 19% less than base cost.
  • Nature's Grace - chance to proc an effect that causes the next spell to cast .5s faster. More healing or damage per second.
  • Improved Healing Touch - prereq for Nature's Swiftness
  • Improved Mark of the Wild - One Druid in a raid should have this for a 35% boost to the best buff in the game.
  • Nature's Focus - Reduces the effect of damage on Healing spells.
  • Improved Regrowth - 50% chance to crit a regrowth heal.

Nice to have:

  • Insect Swarm - prereq for Gift of Nature
  • Tranquil Spirit - prereq for Innervate.
  • Reflection - 15% of normal spirit based mana regen during the 5 second rule extends a Druid's mana pool. Druids get less regen per point of spirit than other healing classes so this Talent is worth a bit less than it is for other classes.

Equipment

Equiping a druid for healing is best done with +healing items and secondly +int. Especially if you aren't restoration specced, you won't have the healing power or healing time bonus. Any of the cenarion or stormrage (or beyond into the new genesis set from AQ) sets will give you a big boost to healing. If you're looking for above and beyond here are some more goodies.

Moonkin Form Druid - Overview

The success of a Moonkin Form Druid is dependant on their ability to crit spells. At least 31 of their talents will be in the Balance Tree but there are many options of where to put the other 20 points once you reach 60. Don't forget about your Barkskin here as it gives you a damage reduction while it also prevents spell interruption.

Key Talents

  • Improved Wrath Reduces the cast time of your Wrath spell by 0.1 sec. This spell is great for firing off one after the other for some quick damage and doesn't tie you up casting as much as Starfire.
  • Nature's Grasp and Improved Nature's Grasp - Casts Roots on a target that hits you. Great for keeping melee foes at bay while you cast away.
  • Improved Moonfire Increase damage and crit chance of Moonfire by up to 10% - Gives great bonus for Moonfire spams with crits around 600-700 damage when used with Vengeance and Moonfury.
  • Vengeance Increases crit bonus of Starfire, Moonfire and Wrath by up to 100% - Starfire usually is critting around 1200 - 1400 damage with this combined also with Moonfury.
  • Moonfury Increases damage of Starfire, Moonfire and Wrath by up to 10% - nuff said - damage, damage, damage.
  • Thick Hide Increases your armour from items by up to 10% - great for mitigating any melee damage from anything that gets too close.
  • Insect Swarm Decreases target's chance to hit by 2% and also gives a DoT - cheap spell that comes in handy for chasing down victims. The green glow annoys people too!

Equipment

You really want to find as much +1% spell crit gear as you can. The armour bonus from Moonkin will make up for any lack of armour that you sacrifice for spell crit, so a good idea might be to equip some cloth items (which are more plentiful than leather items with this stat).

No Raid required gear:


Having these items along with your bonus from Moonkin form and bonus from Int (you should be over 200 Int by now) will give you at least a crit bonus of 9% along with anything from your talents - Moonfire alone will be around 20%.

Raid Required Gear


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