Druid (WoW)  

See also: Druid ability list, Druid talent trees
For a more detailed set of information about the class, see Druid FAQ.

Theme

Druids are the protectors of nature, power spellcasters that possess the unique ability to shapeshift themselves into other creatures to take a more physical approach to situations. Like nature itself, druids are very versatile and adaptive.

Available Races

Night Elves were the original druids. Cenarius taught select Night Elves the ways of druidism, and it gradually spread throughout their society. Night Elves, in general, are very close with nature, and the druid is perhaps the class that represents them best. According to lore, only male Night Elves were selected to be druids. While that fact is mostly overlooked in World of Warcraft, druids were said to slumber in barrows for generations, walking the Emerald Dream, and many of these barrows do exist in the game. The most renowned Night Elf druid, and according to legend, the first, was Malfurion Stormrage.

Tauren also hold very ancient ties to the druidic way. While Cenarius may have also spoken to the Tauren himself, it is said that current Tauren were taught druidism through Hamuul Runetotem, who in turn learned it from Malfurion. The Tauren are also very natural people, and druidism fits with their culture extremely well.

See also: Druid Lore.

Class capabilities

Weapon proficiencies:

• One-handed Mace (starting skill for Tauren)
• Two-handed Mace
• Dagger (starting skill for Night Elves)
• Fist Weapon
• Staff (starting weapon)

Armor proficiencies:

• Cloth
• Leather

While a druid's natural fighting prowess is not that strong and he will tend to rely on spells to heal and defend himself, druids are best known for their ability to shapeshift into a bear or a cat. While druids possess a few other forms, these are the most functional, as cat form allows the druid to behave as though they were a rogue, and bear form makes him function like a warrior. Cat form does allow druids to stealth like a rogue would.

The three talent areas of the class are Balance, Feral Combat, and Restoration. Balance focuses on the ability to deal spell damage, while restoration focuses on the healing side of their magic. Feral Combat is meant for enhancing the capabilities of cat and bear form, and it is possible to take talents that focus on one and not the other.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Druids are extremely versatile, the textbook definition of hybrid. Unfortunately, while druids can fill just about any role in the game, they can only perform one role at a time. Druid talents are generally quite powerful so the druid can keep up with more focused classes for a chosen role, but will usually lag behind considerably in other areas. (A restoration druid will usually not be a very good tank.)

Regardless, druids can be one of the best healing classes in the game, especially with much stronger heal-over-time spells, or they can choose to be an excellent tank that makes up for a lack of a shield or parry skills with tremendous amounts of armor. Catform druids can put out almost rogue-like damage and druids that focus on spell damage are often a great asset to the raid as they do have the ability to fill in on one of these other roles in a pinch.

Group roles and expectations

A group cannot fairly make expectations of a druid without knowing their specialization. Unlike a warrior where it is assumed they will hopefully tank, or a rogue who knows his job is to deal damage, druids can fill very different roles and because they are usually good at one in particular, it is up to the group to know this when filling out the group. However, like any class that has healing spells, the druid will be expected to heal if the group needs heals (unless they are the one tanking since they can't do that in bear form!)

The only role a druid can normally not fill is crowd control, however they can still put beasts and dragonkin to sleep with Hibernate.

Class Quests

Druids have quite a few quest lines to tie into their learning of different forms. At level 10, both druid races have quests that send them to Moonglade to learn about bear form. Over the next few levels, they will also get quests for learning to cure poison and for aquatic form. Although the class-only quests lie dormant for a while (except for the level 50 quests all classes have,) at level 70 druids can go through a special quest series to upgrade their flight form to match the speed of epic mounts.

For a complete list of druid quests, look here.