World of Warcraft: Druid Guide Level 1-10, Part One
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft correspondent James Wood writes this guideto playing a level 1-10 Druid in Blizzard's massively popular game. This is Part One.
Level 1-10 Part 1
Druids do it like animals! And you l be doing it like animal at level 10 or 20. But there even more to them than just shifting into a bunch of forms with different abilities and limitations. A Druid can be a tool of war, a healer or a protector, filling every role (and bank slots with gear for every purpose, those gear hogs).
Freshen Up Before You Fight
If you e new to World of Warcraft, then you will need some basic resources to help you get by. The most important of these resources are addons. For starters, get Cartographer and QuestHelper. I used these two and still do for most of my questing needs. Cartographer also has compatibility with several other addons that you may likely use later in the game.
The same site that those two hyperlinks refer to also contains several other addons that might be of interest to you, so click even if those two aren’t your cup of Thistle Tea.
I Prefer the Horns, Honestly
Right now, you’re probably sitting in the character creation screen, flipping between Night Elves and Tauren, wondering where the other Druid-capable races are. There aren’t any more than those two and there probably won’t ever be any more unless Blizzard removes the race restrictions (Fat chance!). So forget thinking about the racials and ask yourself: Alliance or Horde?
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Shadowglen
Level 1 The Birds, Bees, Trees and Plains
If you’re a Night Elf, you’ll start in Shadowglen, Teldrassil (a gigantic tree). Tauren start on the Red Cloud Mesa, Mulgore. Open your map by pressing “M”, take in your surroundings, then close it. QuestHelper will mark your map with locations for quests later.
First, take a look at your hotkey bar. It starts at the bottom left of your window. Notice your first three keys: Attack, Wrath and Healing Touch. Attack is self-explanatory and doesn’t need to be among your hotkeys, so throw it out. Wrath is your bread-and-butter Balance attack and you’ll see a whole lot of it until you’re level 20 and decide to switch to Feral Combat. Healing Touch is your healing spell, mostly to target you and save your behind, but don’t cast it when you only have less than 10% of your health left or you’ll probably be dead before the 1.5-second cast is done.
Now click on the nearest person that has a giant yellow “!” over their heads. This is a quest NPC and there are many like it, but this one should be your first. I’ll let QuestHelper point you to the objective, but reading the quest text is usually enough at this stage in the game.
It won’t be long before these NPCs ask you to kill something as part of their quest. And there are a lot of different types of quests which sometimes require more people than you alone.
Now, get to killing… or gathering… or whatever. For now, just Wrath and Wrath and Wrath until the enemy falls down and doesn’t get back up again.
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Red Cloud Mesa, home of fresh meat.
Druids Keep It Clean
Notice the baglike icon whenever you put your mouse over the dead enemy? That means that it can be looted for items that will give you money (most of the time). Items can either have gray, white, green, blue, purple, or even orange names, with their worth ascending in the color order given. You’re not going to see anything above green for a little while, so just sell whatever you find unless you can use it or want to disenchant it.
If you do have a green item that you can’t or don’t want to use, collect a few more and have them disenchanted to put a small boost in your gear. But whatever you do, DO NOT wear the items you want disenchanted unless you’re an Enchanter. Soulbound items cannot be traded and thus, cannot be disenchanted by other players.
Dress like a Druid
After completing your quest and paying a visit to the respective quest NPC, they’re going to give you a reward which will be equipment. ALWAYS take Leather-class armor. Leather is the highest type of armor that Druids can wear and there will be every type of Leather gear for every type of Druid. Only take Cloth-class gear if you’re desperate for the enchantment on it.
Before you reach Cat Form, any green-named equipment that you find should be equipped. Prioritize equipment that upgrades your intellect, stamina or both.
If it’s enchantments that you’re looking for, ask an Enchanter to put Minor Health – Chest and Minor Health – Bracers on your equipment. They only cost 2 Strange Dust total. Those materials are the most common find from low-level greens, so 1 or 2 green items should be enough to cover that.
Pick Up Some 1337 Skills
After completing your first quest, you will now have money. And unless you’ve been living in a cave and using moss and leaves for food and toilet paper, you’ll know that you will need that money. Visit your Druid trainer who will either be in one of the huts in Red Cloud Mesa’s village (for Horde) or in one of the outer rooms on the higher-levels of the tree in Shadowglen (for Alliance).
Even if you’re still Level 1, pick up Mark of the Wild (Rank 1) from your trainer, then take a look at the rest of the skills available to you at the later levels. The money that you need will be available to you later after a few quests.
Cast your new spell on yourself before you start fighting, then recast it whenever it runs out. Most damage done to you by enemies in the starting area will be reduced by 4-8 points with Mark of the Wild.
Into the Wild Blue Yonder… Or Another Part of the Giant Tree
When you’re done with the starting area, head to the newbie village outside the starting area. There will be a quest NPC that will point out the starter village for you.
Before you go there, make sure you at least have the following spells from the Druid trainer in the starting area.
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Honestly, all Night Elf locations look the same within the Great Tree. This is Dolanaar.>
Mark of the Wild (Rank 1) Moonfire (Rank 1) Rejuvenation (Rank 1)
Once you’ve turned in the quest, take a look around the new village which will be Bloodhoof Village for Tauren and Dolanaar for Night Elves (NOT Starbreeze Village unless the taste of furbolg fist down your mouth appeals to you). First, talk to the innkeeper and set the new village as your home. There will also be a Druid trainer around there, along with several profession trainers. Not all of the game’s professions will be available at that point, but the cities will have them.
