WoW: Druid Guide 1-10 Part Two
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft correspondent James Wood writes this guide to playing a level 1-10 Druid in Blizzard's massively popular game. This is Part Two.
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All you have to do is follow the road out of Red Cloud Mesa. Don stop to pet anything on the way.
Druids and Their Day Jobs
If leveling unhindered is your fancy, don’t take professions at all, but you will suffer later on if this is your first character in WoW. The gold gained from certain professions will keep you from floundering later on.
Professions
Alchemy
Support with: Herbalism
Prices for healing potions don’t tend to be very impressive, but marketing potions with great worth in PvP (Free Action and Living Action Potions, for example), can net considerable amounts of gold. The only hitch will sometimes be the amount of reputation that you must gather for the factions that sell alchemy recipes.
Blacksmithing
Support with: Mining
Equipment can fetch high prices in the auction house, but only when a dungeon run by one 80 isn feasible. You can also place extra sockets in your rings, but that ‘s about all the usability you can get for a Druid Blacksmith.
Enchanting
Enchanting is difficult to level, but you can often get recipes and ask people to bring their own materials for enchanting their gear. Most of them will be generous enough to give you a tip in gold. And later on, you can place enchantments on your rings that will support your choice of Druid build.
Engineering
Support with: Mining
Engineering can net you good headgear and enhancements for your armor, along with grenades for an added stun and damage. Though there not a lot that you can sell at the auction house, what you can sell will appeal to achievement hunters. Sell the pets that you can create for tidy sums of starting gold, like Mechanical Squirrels, then progress to the more lucrative Tranquil Mechanical Yetis. When it finally available to you, make or sell Mechano-Hogs or Mekgineer Choppers for tips or full-on profit.
Herbalism
Goes well with: Alchemy and Inscription
Druids require less effort than all other classes because of one thing: Gathering herbs does not throw you out of animal form, cutting your gathering time. And because herbs will always be in high demand among Inscribers, especially the weeks before and during Darkmoon Faire, expect to make a lot of money after an hour worth of herb gathering.
And Herbalism gives you a new rank of healing that doesn’t require mana for every 75 levels. Quite useful when you’re out of mana and desperate for healing.
Inscription
Support with: Herbalism
Darkmoon Faire cards are where the most money can be made, but even the glyphs you create fetch good prices depending on their use. The downside is that some of the glyphs need to be discovered before you can begin creating them. But Major glyphs are available from trainers, so the lack of discovered glyphs shouldn keep you down.
Jewelcrafting
Support with: Mining
Gems sell and players will always want gems to place in their sockets. And there are rare gems available to Jewelcrafters only that will be better than any gems other players can use. And there are rings for level 10 players to sell, long before players can acquire rings through dungeons, quests and rare monster loot, so your earnings can start early.
Leatherworking
Support with: Skinning
There’s not a lot of profit to be made from creating gear that can be replaced by an 80-assisted dungeon raid. And just like Blacksmithing, a lot of the high-payout items are only available once you e reached Grand Master status. And with enough recipes, you can keep yourself supported with your own gear for Balance, Feral, or Restoration until you can find replacements from dungeons.
Mining
Goes well with: Blacksmithing and Engineering
Thorium and Mithril are often the way to go on some realms, with prices reaching 60 gold for one stack because of the high requirements to progress in Blacksmithing. Once in Northrend, Titanium can net a lot of cash too, along with raw gems for Jewelcrafters. And there the +50 Stamina once you e at 450 Mining. Bear Forms without talent buffs can see an extra 10-12 stamina with Toughness.
Skinning
Goes well with: Leatherworking
Just like Herbalism, you don’t shift out of your animal form to skin, but you still need to kill beasts. Unlike Herbalism, most of your gathering attempts will yield few skins unless the beast was elite. You l have to sell most of your loot in bulk, but not at impressive prices for any of those materials.
If you’re after more damage, Skinning also offers a small boost to your critical strike rating every 75 levels.
Tailoring
Tailoring isn’t recommended for Druids, even if the Tailor-only cloak upgrades benefit all three Druid types. Check the bag trends, but bags will sell unless people are crazy enough to buy enough of Haris Pilton bags before they come to you for Frostweave Bags.
Level 8
Entangling Roots and Nature Grasp
Now you get to know about Roots What is a Root? It’s an effect that literally roots your target in place, preventing them from running, but not from using abilities or attacking normally while you’re in range.
Without Cat Form to dish out major damage, you’ll only be left with Moonfire, Wrath and your normal attack for monsters. And if you can hit monsters with normal attacks, they’ll be hitting you too.
Entangling Roots changes that. By casting this spell first, you lock a target in place until the game sees fit to release it either by damage dealt or the duration. But don’t mourn the loss of your white damage. While you might spend more mana on casting spells, you’ll also be taking less damage and spend an equal or less amount of time beating your target into submission. No damage done to you means no spellcast delay, which means that Rank 2 Wrath really will cast for 1.7 seconds.
From this point on and until you get Cat Form, REMEMBER:
- STAY OUT OF MELEE RANGE
- ENTANGLING ROOTS, MOONFIRE, then SPAM WRATH
- RECAST ENTANGLING ROOTS if necessary
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It not hurting me, it not hurting me, and it not hurting me!
Nature’s Grasp is just Entangling Roots without the cast time, but it requires the enemy to be within striking distance of you. The buff only lasts 45 seconds, so save it for when you need to beat a hasty retreat, heal uninterrupted, or fire off the finishing Wrath.
Level 10
Bear Form
You should get mail from one of your Druid trainers about Bear Form once you e reached level 10. The bad news is that you e going to have to do a quest for it, so stop playing with the creatures and get it done. Ask the guards at Thunder Bluff (Tauren) or Darnassus (Night Elves) for directions to your Druid trainers.
If you do go Bear Form, it won’t be as glamorous as you like to think. You have more armor and health in Bear Form, but you only have one attack skill and it can only be cast when you attack! Compare that to your normal mana-using form, which can hit with three attacks in the span of a second or two more than a Bear Form attack. You also won take much damage at all if you followed the combo I mentioned above.
For now, save Bear Form for saving your hide while you heal with Regrowth and Rejuvenation. Cast them on yourself, then drop into Bear Form and let your HP regenerate.
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It not made of win yet, nor does it look cute and cuddly with teeth like that.
Talent Points
When you hit level 10, you’ll see a new message beneath your stat bonuses that mentions something about gaining a talent point What is a talent point? It’s what will separate your Druid class from all the other Druid classes.
If you need a greater opinion on where to spend your first talent point, check HERE, but I suggest putting a point into Starlight Wrath. You can reset your talent trees later to switch to Feral Combat.
