This is a great druid leveling guide that I found while browsing the WoW Forums. Thank Jaegor and Lissanna for their contributions and visit her druid leveling blog at http://www.restokin.com/druid-leveling-guide/
Originally, v.1.12 was posted by Jaegor, 60 Feral Druid, Dark Iron, Panda Attack
Updated and maintained post-2.1 by: Lissanna, 80 druid, Elune
Also found at my blog: http://www.restokin.com/druid-leveling-guide/
Druid leveling guide – Feral and Balance are recommended as solo specs for questing.
Introduction:
This guide is for new druids starting out. It is specifically geared towards build construction for PvE leveling. This guide underwent major changes for Cataclysm, and I will continue updating it as things change.
The first thing to understand is that feral is the most efficient/fastest spec for solo leveling, especially now that you get cat form at level 8. Feral druids level in cat form, and attack their opponents up close in melee range using attacks with Energy as a resource and combo points for big finishing moves.
Balance druids can level solo perfectly fine. However, you will have to drink more often. This is still a good option if you enjoy being a caster, where you can root things away from you and hit them with damage spells using mana as your resource. At higher levels, balance druids get moonkin form to turn into a big owl-beast.
If you are leveling up in instances, sometimes you want to be a tank (a feral druid focusing on bear form), or a healer (a resto druid focusing on using healing spells). I will have tank & healing leveling info available for Cataclysm at a later date. I recommend that you pick up a cat or balance build as your first talent spec, and then pick up a tank or healing when you can get your dualspec feature activated (at level 40 for 100 gold).
Table of contents (v 4.0.3a)
This guide had been reorganized to put all the feral stuff together in the first 3 posts, then 3 posts for moonkin, 1 post for healing, 1 post for tanking, and one FAQ covering all the specs at the end of the guide. I reorganized the guide based on complaints that the last version was too hard for people to find information, which I agreed with.
Feral Leveling Sections (3 posts) :
2. Feral Leveling talent Spec
3. Feral Spells & abilities
4. Feral Glyphs & gear
Balance Leveling sections (3 posts):
5. Balance Leveling talent Spec
6. Balance Spells & abilities
7. Balance Glyphs & Gear
Healing & Tank (bear) leveling:
8. Dualspec Healing Leveling
9. Dualspec Tanking Leveling
All Specs:
10. Q&A and additional resources
2) Feral Leveling talents version 4.0.3a:
Level 10 – choose “feral” in the talent summary page. You get a talent point at level 10 and then another point every odd level as you are leveling up to 80. From 81 to 85, you get one talent point every level.
*Talents at 10 & 11: Feral swiftness (tier 1) to move faster in cat form. You get cat form at level 8 now, so moving faster before you get a mount will be helpful. Also increases dodge (you get hit less).
* 13 thru 17: Furor (Tier 1) gives you energy when you shift into cat form so you don’t have to wait after shifting. Also gives rage in bear form when you hit level 15. At the lowest levels, you should still shift out to do things like heal sometimes.
* 19 & 21: Primal Fury (tier 2) gives you more combo points in cat & more rage in bear when you crit. For cat, you get off more finishing moves faster, which is good.
* 23 thru 27: Fury swipes (teir 2) is a neat damage increasing talent that makes your auto-attacks proc for extra damage.
* 29: Feral charge (tier 3) gives you a new ability that allows you to charge up to your target fast.
Talents (0/11/0) http://wowtal.com/#k=-wwzW.a8t.druid.
* 31 & 33: Predatory Strikes (tier 1) This ability gives you an instant cast heal when you use a finishing move, and increases damage for ravage when you use it for your opener.
* 35 & 37: Feral aggression (tier 2) increases ferocious bite damage, and makes your feral faerie fire stack up to 3 faster.
* 39: Leader of the Pack (tier 4) increases crit chance, and you gain health/mana when you crit. You won't have to shift out to heal as much once you get this.
* 41 & 43: Brutal Impact (Tier 4) has a couple really neat effects that should be useful for leveling, such as increasing the stun durations and lowering the cooldown on skull bash.
* 45 & 47: Infected Wounds (Tier 2) Reduces movement speed & attack speed of your targets (so, they won't hit you as fast, and can't run away as fast).
Talents (0/20/0) http://wowtal.com/#k=-avfZm9.a8t.druid.
* 49: Survival Instincts (tier 5) Survivability ability to help keep you from dieing when things start to hit hard or gain up on you. Works in cat or bear, but is typically a bear survivability cooldown.
* 51, 53, & 55: King of the Jungle (Tier 3) Gives you more energy in cat form when you use tiger's fury, and enrage gives you more damage in bear form.
* 57 & 59: Nurturing Instinct (Tier 4) Increases your healing ability based on your agility, and when you run instances, heals done to you are increased.
* 61 thru 65: Rend & Tear (Tier 6) Shred & maul do more damage, and ferocious bite crits more on bleeding targets.
* 67: Pulverize (tier 6) you probably have to use bear form some, so you might as well pick it up.
Talents (0/30/0) http://wowtal.com/#k=-av-Xsjc.a8t.druid.
* 69: Berserk (teir 7) lowers the energy cost of your cat abilities, and stops you from being feared.
* 71 thru 75: Heart of the wild (restoration tier 1) You can now put talent points in a secondary tree, which you should do at this point. Heart of the wild will increase your cat attack power by 10%.
* 77 & 79: Natural Shapeshifter (Resto Tier 1) With the level cap being increased soon, you should pick these up to prepare for the level cap increase.
Talents at level 79: (0/31/5) http://wowtal.com/#k=-bKG3cA51.a8t.druid.
* Level 81: Master shapeshifter (Resto tier 2) Increases crit in cat form, and increases damage in bear form.
Level 82 & 83: Blood in the water (Feral Tier 6) refreshes Rip when you use ferocious bite on targets at low health. This is more useful at high levels where your targets have large hit points, or when you are running instances and fighting bosses.
Level 84 & 85: Primal Madness (Feral tier 5) Another energy increasing talent.
Talents at level 85 (0/35/6): http://wowtal.com/#k=-bKGS2-9Y.a8t.druid.
At this point, however, you would need to re-spec and pick up an actual end-game talent build designed for feral druids, as you shouldn't be running heroics or raids with this leveling spec.
Level 10 – choose “feral” in the talent summary page. You get a talent point at level 10 and then another point every odd level as you are leveling up to 80. From 81 to 85, you get one talent point every level.
*Talents at 10 & 11: Feral swiftness (tier 1) to move faster in cat form. You get cat form at level 8 now, so moving faster before you get a mount will be helpful. Also increases dodge (you get hit less).
* 13 thru 17: Furor (Tier 1) gives you energy when you shift into cat form so you don’t have to wait after shifting. Also gives rage in bear form when you hit level 15. At the lowest levels, you should still shift out to do things like heal sometimes.
* 19 & 21: Primal Fury (tier 2) gives you more combo points in cat & more rage in bear when you crit. For cat, you get off more finishing moves faster, which is good.
* 23 thru 27: Fury swipes (teir 2) is a neat damage increasing talent that makes your auto-attacks proc for extra damage.
* 29: Feral charge (tier 3) gives you a new ability that allows you to charge up to your target fast.
Talents (0/11/0) http://wowtal.com/#k=-wwzW.a8t.druid.
* 31 & 33: Predatory Strikes (tier 1) This ability gives you an instant cast heal when you use a finishing move, and increases damage for ravage when you use it for your opener.
* 35 & 37: Feral aggression (tier 2) increases ferocious bite damage, and makes your feral faerie fire stack up to 3 faster.
* 39: Leader of the Pack (tier 4) increases crit chance, and you gain health/mana when you crit. You won't have to shift out to heal as much once you get this.
* 41 & 43: Brutal Impact (Tier 4) has a couple really neat effects that should be useful for leveling, such as increasing the stun durations and lowering the cooldown on skull bash.
* 45 & 47: Infected Wounds (Tier 2) Reduces movement speed & attack speed of your targets (so, they won't hit you as fast, and can't run away as fast).
Talents (0/20/0) http://wowtal.com/#k=-avfZm9.a8t.druid.
* 49: Survival Instincts (tier 5) Survivability ability to help keep you from dieing when things start to hit hard or gain up on you. Works in cat or bear, but is typically a bear survivability cooldown.
* 51, 53, & 55: King of the Jungle (Tier 3) Gives you more energy in cat form when you use tiger's fury, and enrage gives you more damage in bear form.
* 57 & 59: Nurturing Instinct (Tier 4) Increases your healing ability based on your agility, and when you run instances, heals done to you are increased.
* 61 thru 65: Rend & Tear (Tier 6) Shred & maul do more damage, and ferocious bite crits more on bleeding targets.
* 67: Pulverize (tier 6) you probably have to use bear form some, so you might as well pick it up.
Talents (0/30/0) http://wowtal.com/#k=-av-Xsjc.a8t.druid.
* 69: Berserk (teir 7) lowers the energy cost of your cat abilities, and stops you from being feared.
* 71 thru 75: Heart of the wild (restoration tier 1) You can now put talent points in a secondary tree, which you should do at this point. Heart of the wild will increase your cat attack power by 10%.
* 77 & 79: Natural Shapeshifter (Resto Tier 1) With the level cap being increased soon, you should pick these up to prepare for the level cap increase.
Talents at level 79: (0/31/5) http://wowtal.com/#k=-bKG3cA51.a8t.druid.
* Level 81: Master shapeshifter (Resto tier 2) Increases crit in cat form, and increases damage in bear form.
Level 82 & 83: Blood in the water (Feral Tier 6) refreshes Rip when you use ferocious bite on targets at low health. This is more useful at high levels where your targets have large hit points, or when you are running instances and fighting bosses.
Level 84 & 85: Primal Madness (Feral tier 5) Another energy increasing talent.
Talents at level 85 (0/35/6): http://wowtal.com/#k=-bKGS2-9Y.a8t.druid.
At this point, however, you would need to re-spec and pick up an actual end-game talent build designed for feral druids, as you shouldn't be running heroics or raids with this leveling spec.
