Nab's Druid Guide Part I - General Information and Mechanics

[fiere redfern]

I recently found a -very- comprehensive guide for druids on the wowhead forums - it includes information for the druids new to the shapeshifting 'scene, as well as general mechanics questions (been trying my damnedest to find out just what the stupid hit/armor caps are myself). Begin repost... now! (original can be found here: http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=7506&p=79523)

Introduction
Welcome to Nab’s druid guide. In these posts I hope to create a one-stop resource for the most common druiding questions, using a combination of my personal experience and the best theorycrafting I’ve been able to track down. First, let me tell you who I am and what I am not.

I rolled a druid back in 1.0 and have been playing her ever since. I’ve been feral from day one, which I think gives me a pretty in-depth understanding of feral mechanics, and a pretty good understanding of healing mechanics. I am not a hardcore raider or a hardcore PVPer, as my Armory will attest, but I am pretty darn good at what I do.

What do I do? I have tanked, DPS’d, and healed at every stage from 1 to 70. I’m not a moonkin expert or a tree expert, though I understand a fair amount about them. I’ve done some 25-man raiding and no 40-man raiding (basically, I just don’t enjoy large raids). I do not have a lot of PVP experience, so you will not find in-depth PVP advice here. It may show up once in a while by accident, but this is primarily a PVE guide.

This guide is not The Final Word on druids, just what I’ve learned. Treat it as advice (sometimes very well-informed advice, sometimes less well-informed advice), not rules.

Class Overview
If you’re really new to the druid class, this section is designed to tell you what we can do and what the different druid trees are for. This is not the section that dissects individual talents, just an introductory overview.

What is the point of a druid?
The point of a druid is that we can fill almost any role in the game: main tank, off-tank, healer, melee DPS, caster DPS. Pretty much the only thing we can’t do is provide CC in instances, since our indoor CC (Hibernate) is only useful against beasts and dragonkin, and there just aren’t that many beasts or dragonkin in instances right now. Unlike other hybrid classes like the paladin that have to respec to change roles, a druid can usually perform at least two roles quite well with nothing more than a change of gear. Druids allow you to experience the greatest variety of play styles in the game in a single class, and they provide great “flex” spots in raids and instances. For instance, instead of taking two prot warriors, one of whom will be wasted on single-tank fights, you can take a druid, who can be an extra tank, extra DPS, or extra healer as needed, all in the same run.

What are the druid talent trees?
Aesthetically, balance is the Druid as Nature’s Avenger. Mechanically, balance is our spellcaster DPS tree. Balance provides the highest potential DPS of all the druid trees both in raids and in PVP. Because its talents focus on spellcasting, it hybridizes well with the restoration tree, and even full balance druids can be very powerful healers.

Aesthetically, feral is the Druid as Shapeshifter. Mechanically, feral is our melee tree. Feral covers both the druid tanking talents as well as the core melee DPS talents, giving a feral druid excellent tanking capability and good DPS (though not as good as balance) all in the same tree. The tradeoff for this single-tree versatility is that many core feral talents are deep in the tree, meaning the feral tree is not very friendly to hybrid builds. Feral is more PVE-focused than the other trees, and most druids agree that feral is the weakest tree in arena PVP.

Aesthetically, restoration is the Druid as Nurturer. Mechanically, restoration is our healing tree. Restoration provides relatively few new mechanics to the druid healer, but significantly increases the power of a druid’s existing healing tools. Restoration druids synergize extremely well with other healing classes and are also extraordinarily powerful in arena PVP.

[fiere redfern]

Leveling Feral
I’ve never leveled a druid as anything other than feral, so I will restrict my leveling advice to that spec. I am also not going to tell you where to level. This section is about how.

Feral is, everyone agrees, the fastest druid leveling spec. This is for two reasons. First, it combines excellent survivability with good DPS in a single spec. Second, it lets your mana regen between fights, so you can heal up every fifth pull or so and then let your mana regen again, resulting in almost no downtime.

A common practice for druids wishing to spec balance or restoration is to level as feral until 50 or 60, and then respec once most of their leveling is behind them.

If you plan to respec at 50, I would recommend this as a leveling build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGMsfroLZVx0z

If you plan to respec at 60, I recommend this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGMsfrotzioVx

You might think that, while soloing, you won’t attack from behind very much, so 2/2 Shredding Attacks is a waste. For most classes this is true, but for cats (as you can see in my discussion of melee DPS) Shred is light-years better than either Claw or Rake, so you should attack from behind as often as possible. A good opener in cat form is

1. Pounce
2. Shred x2
3. Rip if at 4 CP, Rake otherwise

and POW, the mob is dead before he even gets to turn around. This is why 2/2 Shredding Attacks and 2/2 Brutal Impact are, surprisingly, excellent leveling talents.

Many druids find leveling difficult in their teens. At this level they have only their balance spells and bear form to work with, forcing them to either use all their mana or rely on a form that is not actually meant for DPSing. To these druids, I offer the following encouragement:

• When I was your age, we leveled barefoot in the snow both ways and we liked it.
• Hold out until your mid-20s at least. At level 20 you get cat form, which will make your leveling much easier, not to mention far more fun.

As you will quickly discover, cat form is best when it isn’t getting hit. Being a cat is kind of like being an egg with a sledgehammer: you can dish it out, but you aren’t so good at taking it. This is why a good solid opener is ideal for cat grinding. However, if you have to fight many mobs at once don't be afraid to just shift into bear and outlast them. This can also be useful for farming situations where you're competing with other players for mobs - just tag three of them in bear form and swipe them all to death.

Low-level Instances
At some point in your leveling career you will undoubtedly be called upon to enter an instance or two. Instances are a lot easier than they used to be (in the snow, I tell you! Barefoot!), but they’re still a good place to practice the basic skills that you will need at level 70 such as proper tanking, DPSing, and healing. No need to wait to level 70 to learn to play your class.

Much of the advice I give about tanking and DPSing elsewhere applies to low-level tanking and DPSing as well, except that you don’t have the all-important Mangle. Not to worry. Just take Mangle out of the equation.

For cat form instance DPS, that means your low-level rotation is very simple:

1. Shred to 4 combo points
2. Rip if the mob isn’t being Ripped already
3. Repeat 1-2

Low-level tanking is slightly more complicated. Since you don’t have either Mangle or Lacerate, you must rely on Maul and Swipe. Maul is your highest-threat attack but very rage costly. Swipe is far less threat but better rage management. There are two schools of thought about low-level tanking rotations:

The first school of thought says to try and get as close to the level 70 rotation as possible, which means:

1. Spam Swipe
2. If you’re Swiping every 1.5 seconds and still have extra rage, Maul until you’re out of rage
3. Repeat 1-2

The second school of thought says to just spam your highest-threat ability, which means:

1. Spam Maul
2. If you’re Mauling every 2.5 seconds and still have extra rage, spam Swipe until you’re out of rage
3. Repeat 1-2

Which works best for you will depend rather sensitively upon your gear and your DPSers’ DPS, so I can’t recommend one over the other. I myself had great success using the first (Swipe > Maul) and just making it a rule to always tank 3 mobs at a time, to ensure I had enough rage to do whatever I wanted. Your mileage may vary.

Even as a low-level feral, you can and should volunteer to heal any instance you come across if you have picked up a set of healing gear. In fact, it's worth it to pick up three sets of gear, even as a feral. All level 70 druids should have a DPS set for cat/moonkin, a tanking set for bear, and a healing set for caster/tree, and you might as well get into the habit early. Leveling is so fast these days that you won't build up a complete set for each probably until you hit the mid-50s at least, but you might as well get into the habit early. Low level (i.e., before 57) the stats you want to emphasize in your gear for the different sets are these:

• Cat DPS: agility > strength > crit rating > AP > hit rating


• Bear tanking: armor > stamina > agility/strength (agi and str equally in my opinion, before you can get a feral attack power weapon to take care of your bear form AP)


• Caster healing: +heal > intellect > mp5 > spirit

So how do you heal as a low-level feral? The key is to conserve mana by using your most mana-efficient spell, only when absolutely necessary. You should work to estimate how fast your tank’s HP is dropping and how long it will take to cast a spell that will heal him back to full, and hone that skill. Ideally you want your heal to go off just at the moment that it will heal him to 100% - no more, no less.

For the most part your most efficient spell while leveling is Healing Touch, but that changes as you get more and more +heal gear (and as you get brand-new ranks of spells). The following chart might be helpful:

• AT LEVEL 30:

Regrowth is already more efficient than Healing Touch
Rejuvenation becomes more efficient than HT at +250 heals

• AT LEVEL 40:

Regrowth: +120 heals
Rejuvenation: +340 heals

• AT LEVEL 50:

Regrowth: +150 heals
Rejuvenation: +395 heals

• AT LEVEL 60

Regrowth: +0 heals (already better)
Rejuvenation: +605 heals

• AT LEVEL 70

Regrowth: +1155 heals
Rejuvenation: +705 heals
Lifebloom: +0 heals (already better)[/list]

[fiere redfern]

Questions about Druid Mechanics
This section will cover common questions about druid gameplay mechanics. This section is not opinion, it’s fact (or at least as close to fact as the best of the community’s researchers can get us to). If you see any errors, please point me to the research thread where you discovered the error and I will correct it accordingly.

What is the defense cap?
The defense cap is defined as the point at which a character can no longer be critically hit, even by a raid boss. Although usually tanks treat the defense cap as the same for all mobs, technically speaking the defense cap depends on the level of the mob you're fighting:

• If the mob is the same level as you, the defense cap is 5.0% crit reduction


• If the mob is one level above you, the defense cap is 5.2% crit reduction


• If the mob is two levels above you, the defense cap is 5.4% crit reduction (heroic bosses)


• If the mob is three levels above you, the defense cap is 5.6% crit reduction (raid bosses)

For feral druids with 3/3 Survival of the Fittest , that means 2.60% crit reduction from defense or resilience to hit the raid boss defense cap. 2.60% crit reduction solely from defense would require 65 defense, for a total of 415 defense, which is exactly 156 defense rating. But the real answer is to get to 2.60% crit reduction through any combination of defense and resilience available.


Wait, so do defense and resilience stack for purposes of determining my chance to be critted? Yes.


What is the hit cap?
The hit cap for all physical attacks, in any form, depends on what level mob you’re fighting:

• If the mob is the same level as you: 5.00% = 79 hit rating


• If the mob is 1 level higher than you: 5.50% = 86.9 hit rating = 87 hit rating


• If the mob is 2 levels higher than you (heroic bosses): 6.00% = 94.8 hit rating = 95 hit rating


• If the mob is 3 levels higher than you (raid bosses): 9.00% = 142.2 hit rating = 143 hit rating

What is the spell hit cap?
The spell hit cap also depends on the level of your target:

• If the mob is the same level as you: 3.00% = 37.8 spell hit rating = 38 spell hit rating


• If the mob is 1 level higher than you: 4.00% = 50.4 spell hit rating = 51 spell hit rating


• If the mob is 2 levels higher than you (heroic bosses): 5.00% = 63 hit rating


• If the mob is 3 levels higher than you (raid bosses): 16.00% = 201.6 spell hit rating = 202 spell hit rating

How is damage determined in cat form and bear form?
The DPS of your weapon is irrelevant and always will be. Each of your feral forms (bear and cat) has its own built-in weapon with a speed of 2.50 and 1.00, respectively. The base damage range of those weapons depends solely upon your level, and caps out at 55 DPS at level 70. Your “feral weapons” are of course affected by attack power, haste rating, armor penetration, etc. just like any other melee weapon.


What effect does my weapon skill have on my damage/crit chance in cat form and bear form? None whatsoever. You have a special weapon skill called "feral combat skill" that doesn't show up on your character sheet and is automatically maxed for your level, so you never have to worry about leveling your weapon skill. That means you can be level 70, have a skill of 1 in 2H maces, and you will still hit just as hard as if you had 350 skill. Of course, weapon skill affects your melee damage in caster form and moonkin form just as you’d expect.


What procs/enchants work in feral forms?
Weapon enchants or effects that proc on hit (even if the proc chance is 100%, such as +7 damage to 2H) do not work on weapons in feral forms. Everything else (i.e., stat enchants on weapons such as +35 agility to 2H) does. Enchants or effects that proc on a hit but do not come on a weapon (such as [item]Crystalforged Trinket[/item] or [item]Enchant Ring â€" Striking[/item] do work in feral forms.

If this is confusing, think of it this way: while shapeshifted you are not swinging your hammer, you’re swinging your paw. A [item]Crystalforged Trinket[/item] adds 7 damage to whatever your weapon is, be it hammer, cat paw, or girlie night elf open palm strike. A [item]Dark Iron Pulverizer[/item] can only proc when you hit with your [item]Dark Iron Pulverizer[/item], which you never do in feral forms. Mongoose doesn’t work because you enchanted your weapon with Mongoose, which you aren’t swinging in forms. If you could enchant a ring with Mongoose, it would work in forms.


Isn’t it true you have a 0.000000000000001% chance to be critted no matter what you do?
Maybe. The truth is that nobody knows. There are a few documented cases of “uncrittable” tanks being critted. Some of those cases can be explained â€" the tank accidentally hit the “sit” button at the time (default X), making the next hit a guaranteed crit, or the mob had mind controlled a feral druid, giving it the +5% crit buff from Leader of the Pack, or whatever. A very few cases cannot be explained, which means one of three things:

• You really do have a 0.00000000000001% chance to be crit no matter what you do (unlikely; this explanation sounds suspiciously like a common misconception about floating point arithmetic)


• They really can be explained by a more mundane cause like the tank sitting down or MCing a feral druid, but everybody involved has either forgotten or didn’t pay enough attention in the first place


• Some mobs have a higher-than-average crit chance, but we don’t know precisely which mobs or how much higher their crit chance is

So far, opinion seems to be leaning towards either the second or third possibility

[fiere redfern]

(Cont.)

How do the bear form and dire bear form multipliers work exactly? What effect does Thick Hide have?
The bear forms add the listed armor percentage to your base (i.e., 100%) armor percentage. So bear form gives you 100% + 180% = 280% total armor (i.e., take the armor on the item and multiply by 2.8 to find out how much armor you would have wearing that item in bear form). Dire bear form gives you 100% + 400% = 500% total armor (i.e., multiply by 5). Thick Hide applies to both your base armor and the bear armor. So bear form with 3/3 Thick Hide gives you 100% x 1.1 + 180% x 1.1 = 308% (multiply by 3.08). Dire bear form gives you 100% x 1.1 + 400% x 1.1 = 550% (multiply by 5.5).


Are armor kits multiplied by bear form? What about armor from agility?
Or armor from Devotion Aura? Or Stoneshield Potions? Nope. A light armor kit is 8 armor even in dire bear form. 1 agility is still only 2 armor, even in dire bear form. Only armor actually on an equippable item gets multiplied.


What is the armor cap?
The armor cap is the point at which you hit the maximum damage reduction from armor (75.00%). The cap depends on the level of mob you’re fighting:

• For a level 70 mob, the armor cap is 31673


• For a level 71 mob, the armor cap is 33075


• For a level 72 mob, the armor cap is 34478


• For a level 73 mob, the armor cap is 35880

What are my stat conversions?

• 1 strength = 2 AP in all forms


• 1 agility = 1 AP in cat form only


• 1 agility = 2 armor in all forms


• 14.73 agility = 1.0% dodge in all forms


• 25 agility = 1.0% crit in all forms


• 1 stamina = 10 HP in all forms


• 1 int = 15 mana in all forms


• 79.97 int = 1.0% spell crit in all forms


• 1.8 spi = 1mp5 not casting


• 6 spi = 1mp5 casting with 3/3 Intensity

What are the Combat Ratings conversions?

• 15.76 Expertise Rating = 4 Expertise (-1.00% dodge and -1.00% parry)


• 15.76 Hit Rating = -1.0% miss chance


• 12.62 Spell Hit Rating = -1.0% spell miss chance


• 22.08 Crit Rating = +1.0% crit chance


• 22.08 Spell Crit Rating = +1.0% spell crit chance


• 15.76 Haste Rating = +1.0% haste


• 15.76 Spell Haste Rating = +1.0% spell haste


• 18.9 Dodge Rating = +1.0% dodge chance


• 2.4 Defense Rating = 1 defense skill


• 1 Defense Skill = +0.04% chance to be missed, +0.04% chance to dodge*


• 25 Defense Skill/60 Defense Rating = +1.00% chance to be missed, +1.00% chance to dodge


• 39.4 Resilience = -1.0% crit chance, -2.0% crit damage, -1.0% DoT damage

Does Heart of the Wild apply to all attack power in cat form, or just items with AP on them?
All attack power, whether you get it from strength, AP, Battle Shout, Unleashed Rage, enchants â€" all attack power.
* 1 defense skill also grants +0.04% chance to parry and +0.04% chance to block, but druids can't parry or block in the first place, so we don't receive these bonuses.

Special Mention: Stealth
I mention the stealth mechanics here rather than in the cat form section because stealth is really not a DPS ability, but can be very useful while leveling. Before we begin, I should be clear that stealth is not the same as invisibility (which I won't cover here because druids can't become invisible).

Stealth decreases the range at which players and mobs can see you (and thus, react). Druids have an invisible "stealth skill" called Subtlety that doesn't appear on their character sheet and always increases by 5 for each level (thus at level 70 you have a base Subtlety skill of 350). All characters also have a Stealth Detection skill, which also doesn't appear on their character sheet and always increases by 5 for each level (thus at level 70 you have a base Stealth Detection skill of 350).

At equal levels of Subtlety and Stealth Detection, a stealthed character can be seen 5 yards away. Each 5 points of skill changes that range by 1 yard either way, up to a maximum of 10 yards and a minimum of 1 yard. So for example:

• If a stealthed cat has a Subtlety of 350, a Stealth Detection of 340 could only see him 3 yards away


• If a stealthed cat has a Subtlety of 350, a Stealth Detection of 365 could see him 8 yards away


• If a stealthed cat has a Subtlety of 5, a Stealth Detection of 400 could see him 10 yards away

Keep in mind that Stealth Detection only works for your frontal 180 degree cone. A level 1 cat could sneak up on a level 70 human warlock with Perception popped, Hyper-Vision Goggles, a Catseye Elixir, and a Felhunter out, and still be undetected as long as the cat approached from behind.

The night elf racial Shadowmeld increases Subtlety by 5 points, so effectively night elves have a base stealth detection range of 4 yards. Each rank of Feral Instinct increases Subtlety by another 5 points. Thus a stealthed night elf cat with 3/3 Feral Instinct would have 370 Subtlety, and be detectable by somebody with 350 Stealth Detection from the minimum of 1 yard. A tauren cat with 3/3 Feral Instinct has a base detection range of 2 yards.

There are various other ways of increasing your Subtlety or your Stealth Detection. I refer you to this article for a list.

[Tolwen]

"wall of text crits you for 40k!"
nice find Fi:) havn't read all of it yet but will do so.

[fiere redfern]

Haha, Tol =)

Added the formatting, so hopefully it's a little less wall'o'text-y now.

[fiere redfern]

Also - gonna add parts two and three (bear tanking/cat dps'ing) after I get out of class.

[Arcdelad]

very good info fiere!

I think some of it is prior to the latest patch major druid changes...

for example:

What are my stat conversions?


1 strength = 2 AP in all forms
1 agility = 1 AP in cat form only
1 agility = 2 armor in all forms
14.73 agility = 1.0% dodge in all forms
25 agility = 1.0% crit in all forms
1 stamina = 10 HP in all forms
1 int = 15 mana in all forms
79.97 int = 1.0% spell crit in all forms
1.8 spi = 1mp5 not casting
6 spi = 1mp5 casting with 3/3 Intensity

1 STR with talents and the cat AP multiplier is about 2.4 AP
1 AGI = 1.2 or 1.3 AP rounded up
16 AGI = 1% crit

STA also has a bear form multiplier which makes 1 pt = more....i think the overall strategies of Naab are good, but there are some mathematical flaws and other here...

[Vengeance]

Gonna go ahead and state my disagreement about the agi>str>ect ect... for cat dps
STR and AGI SHOULD be about equal in terms of dps...only at ONE point does agi become better then str,and even then its better to balance them out for high ap and also high crit...unless hes refering to the later stages of cat dps, I stand by this 

[Arcdelad]

well...im teetering on 4k AP (should be extremely close after my BG bracers are in hand and i upgrade my whole primalstrike set) and I have at least 150 more AGI than i do STR (in base elf form)...

STR is better for AP, but the extra benefits of AGI i think are overall more worthwhile...you definitely need to balance out both stats, but i think crit cannot be stressed enough for a cat form druid...im at 38% crit now with motw - this means i am critting a lot, getting extra combo poiints all the time, etc etc which i think is invaluable...