Talk: Druid

Swim Speed

error:

On the main page it says that the swim speed is increased from the standard 50% of run speed to 100% of run speed. If this is correct then the spell description is incorrect. The spell description says it increases swim speed by 50%.

The wiki is right about the final speed. (meaning swim speed is 2/3 of normal running speed) Or the wiki is right about the initial speed. (meaning the aquatic form moves at 75% of run speed) Or the spell description is wrong and the form actually increases swim speed by 100%.

Could someone test this and found out what it really is? thanks.

It's possible that the tooltip means it increases your swim speed by 50% of base (read: run) speed. While this might seem a very convoluted description, percentages in WoW are almost never clear as to what they are referring. I'll see if I can find a definitive answer.--Aeleas 01:52, 27 April 2006 (EDT)

I understood the math in specific terms at one point, but don't feel like getting into it right now. I know that swim speed in aquatic form is basically equal to normal run speed on land (~99%), though. My post on thottbot [1] might help you figure out how run speed percentages work. --Aeroxima 08:28, 4 June 2006 (EDT)

If anyone is confused by the above conversation, then here are the facts: Both descriptions are correct. When swimming in normal form, your movement speed is reduced by 50 percent. So in aquatic form, swim speed is increased from 50% of run speed to 100% of run speed, for swimming in aquatic form is just as fast as normal run speed on land. Aquatic form increases swim speed by 50 percent. Both descriptions are saying the same thing. Hope this helps negate any confusion that might spring up from above. --Mesethusela (talk) 02:26, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Commentary

This is a very satisfying class to play that has a huge range of abilities and tactical possibilities:

• Human (Night Elf) form has a good range of weapons including entangling roots and faerie fire to keep those pesky rogues where you can see them. In addition, the druid has a full range healing spells including a 'rebirth' spell which has a riduculously long cooldown time (30 mins!) and requires a reagent - I'd like to see one of those constraints lifted...
• The aquatic form is great for those underwater quests - no need to breath (or carry underwater breating potions); when you run out of breath, switch to aquatic form and recharge your breath meter. Swim speed potion adds to the already boosted speed of aquatic form.
• The cat form is a cool-looking rogue-type character complete with backstab, stealth ability and sprint(dash) speed boost. Due to the speed of attack, two cat form druids attacking at the same time do a lot of damage and can keep a caster from doing anything undesirable!
• Bear form provides a respectable tank who can't be disarmed and has a simple but effective set of spells including a stun, demoralizing roar and multiple-enemy swipe.
• Travel form - the cheetah. Acquiring this at lvl30 makes everything closer. Instead of waiting for lvl 40 to get a mount, the druid tuns into one! OK, it's not as fast as a horse but any speed boost is appreciated.

Is there a downside ? Some people complain that being the jack-of-all-trades has the inevitable consequence that you are master of none but druids are at least master healers.

The huge range of capabilities of the druid make it always fun to play - all you need is endless mana !

The major downsides I see is other players' attitudes. Basically, if you're a druid - most people will want you to heal, if you're a feral druid - you still heal, if you're a balance druid - you still heal, if you're a versatile druid (like me) - you just heal. Druids are incredibly powerful, and given the right talent build and gear can do all three jobs at about 60-90% performance compared to the specialized class, whereas putting talents and gear in just one job will give you up to 120% performance compared to the specialized class. However, if you're in a group with some less open-minded players, you're likely to be forced into doing a job you haven't designed your character for; which in turn leads to people complaining loudly about you not doing your job well enough. Luckily for us, Blizzard introduced a lot of new feral and balance gear in the Burning Crusade expansion, meaning we are no longer mistaken for a healing-only class. Also, given the new endgame class jobs where druids can now tank / dps / cast, the changes have been passed down to new players who like to imitate endgame when they instance, so you're likely now going to be able to play a druid how it is meant to be played. Anyway, druids > all, thanks for listening -- Yoda  talk / cont 16:39, 26 January 2007 (EST)

All that is true, right up to where blizzard decides that people playing druids are having too much fun, and beats us with the nerf bat again...and again, and again...--Azaram 23:16, 8 March 2007 (EST)

All that is not true. Just so no readers get cocky, I have to say that specializing into one role does not give 120% performance, for that would mean that druids are better at any role than any class, plus able to heal themselves and others. Obviously this is not true. While druids are very powerful, and due to their need to specialize so much and their strong talents, the end-game druid will be one of the most formidable characters in the game. But specializing to a role gives about 90 percent performance to a druid. A druid may play a role he/she is not specialized in with about 60-70% performance. However, any shortcomings in a druids' battles are made up for by their ability to shift out and heal themselves, then shift back. Due to the druids' great lack of stuns compared to other melee classes, that ability to heal is dampened somewhat, where it would otherwise nearly ensure a victory against a character of equal level. So while the druid is not quite as efficient at any one role than the intended class, their versatility makes sure they are just as powerful as any class. --Mesethusela (talk) 02:47, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Possible Errors

"The Druid cannot be polymorphed"

The druid can be polymorphed, but can break the polymorph at will by shifting.

Note what is quoted above is after "While shapeshifted into Bear, Aquatic, Cat, Travel, Flight, or Dire Bear form:". Druids are in fact immune to polymorph while they are shapeshifted. So, there is no error with that data. --Moonbunny 14:57, 28 February 2007 (EST)

Items with a "Chance on hit" portion and "Chance on hit" enchants such as Enchant Weapon - Crusader and Enchant Weapon - Lifestealing will not activate.

Items with a "proc" will not work for a druid in animal form, as we are not hitting the target with the weapon, but rather with our paw-weapon. However, "chance on hit" refers to any type of hit and does work for a druid in form. If the text on the weapon indicates that hitting with the weapon causes the "proc" then it does not work. There are currently only a few weapons in game that say "chance on hit", so far those do seem to work. Whether that is intended or not, is unknown.

I thought they fixed this in 2.0.1? -- Djn 09:47, 5 January 2007 (EST)

Itemization

The Druid information page has at least two references to Druid itemization issues, that gear is lacking except for healing. While largely true prior to the Burning Crusade expansion, I question if this issue is still present post expansion. There seems to be much feral and balance Druid gear in the game now. I'm wondering if the main page should be edited to reflect this fact.

Restoration druids

Minor editing dispute, I class restoration druids as the best healers in the game, as to many of my close friends. Should the main page be edited so it no longer reflects the views of players but rather states facts and facts only? In this case I believe it's not possible to give an objective view of the healing class comparisons since many people think their own class is best at healing, or base their comparison on personal experience which is not necessarily representative of entire classes.

Anyway thanks for taking notice, I hope it can be cleared up soon. -- Yoda  talk / cont 16:32, 26 January 2007 (EST)

I think Shamans that spec in Dual Wield (Enchancement) should be the best healers if they have two weapons with +Healing on :) By the way... I don't play as a shaman, I play as a Paladin (Blood Knight). --Oscararon 11:48, 11 February 2007 (EST)

I completely support the idea of restoration druids being the best healer class. I am a balance druid, and I can commonly heal just as well as priests in raid situations. You may notice that above I said that a druid specializing into a role gets about 90% performance. This is the exception. Perhaps this is why many people view druids as good for nothing but healing. They are just great healers. --Mesethusela (talk) 02:53, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

But I would like to add that resto druids are only the best in terms of longevity and mana efficiency. Holy-spec paladins and priests are able to keep players alive just as well, but a restoration druid happens to be the most mana-efficient healer in WoW. So they are, in my opinion, the best long instance healer. And also, now that I am higher up in balance, I do notice a difference in my healing. I can't really heal as well as a holy priest. I was actually wrong... --Mesethusela (talk) 23:06, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Whether Resto Druids are the "Best Healers" or not depends on what you compare them to and what kind of healing you are talking about:

• For HoTs, Druids kick the butts of all other healing classes (especially in Tree of Life Form; they only get ONE heal, Swiftmend, that isn't at least part-HoT, and that one is dependent on either a Regrowth or Rejuvination effect already on the target).
• For mana efficiency, they are roughly equal to Paladins; Tree of Life Form gives a "+Healing received" buff to all party members (so each heal gives back more health), and the mana cost of all the Druid's spells in this form is reduced by 20% (less mana being used for each heal).
• Compared to other healing classes/specs, Druids are, overall, closest to Priests. A properly specced and geared Resto Druid can rival a Holy Priest (if not surpass one). In my opinion, they are equal in healing capability; the only difference is that Priests primarily use direct heals, while Druids use mainly HoTs or HoT/direct-heal combos. Felindre

Draenei (lost ones) druids? Arakkoa druids?

If you go to Zangarmarsh, specifically the Feralfen village, it seems some broken draenei have adopted druidism (http://thottbot.com/?n=1051743). They can shapeshift into an owl form, as well as use wrath, except it is blue instead of green. Now, here's something interesting. They have been influenced by the Arakkoa and are worshipping them as bird-gods, it is mentioned by some NPCs they have adopted them as their totems. Now, this raises the question- A) Can druids exist on a planet without Cenarius, B) Did Cenarius visit outland ans teach some native species druidism? and C) Are the Arakkoa versed in druidism? Or is this just another case of "lorelol"? Omacron

Looks like "lorelol" or rather "loremeh". Since Druids don't draw their power from Cenarius, but from nature, its flora and fauna, there could be druids on antorher planet, Cenarius was simply the primal teacher of both Elves and Tauren druids. Cenarius visiting Outland wouldn't fit into the timeline. Outland druids could have been an interesting story, provide some lore to flight form and its limitation to outland, and if there were Broken druids, surely the Cenarion expedition would be interested, try to make contact and learn from them. The Feralfen story looks rather like a quick hack, "Hey we have some broken shamans, hunters, warlocks in the tribes, why not add some druids?". --Hurax 12:09, 13 May 2007 (EDT)

More proofs here --> http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=20270

AOE

I see that the page says that druids lack AOE, However the hurricane/Barkskin combo deals very heavy damage, so while their AOE has a 1 min cooldown, that doesn't mean that they have no true AOE, beside, the aggro gained is a good thing as most druids that play balance end up being a off tank.

(Please sign your messages with four tildes) One AOE that requires two cooldowns to be useful is not good AOE. It does work, but it's more a close-combat spell rather than any kind of ranged, as unless you cast it right on top of you the first thing they do is run out from under it. It is helpful in some instances, but desperately needs updating, either a slow effect (to keep them in it at a distance) or it's very own nocastus interruptus. At least they realized that the only time it's ever cast is when barkskin is available, since it's worthless without that... --Azaram 11:07, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Druid AoEs aren't very useful compared to other those of other classes, since they don't have good mana efficiency, as well as the fact that they only get 2 (not counting Bear Form's Swipe ability; it only affects mobs in front of the Druid).

Hurricane does okay damage, but the cost only makes it good for occasional casts, or to build threat (tanking as a Moonkin, or to get threat at the start of a fight before dropping into Bear Form).

Tranquility is a good AoE heal, but the cooldown makes it worthless for anything but emergencies or to heal the party after a tough fight (downing a final boss, for example). The threat caused makes it dangerous to use in a fight (tanks would kill for that kind of threat generation), unless you put points into Improved Tranquility.

Felindre

Lore

What happened to the lore page on this? Now it just links you to the main page. This is all the classes, what's going on? Mr.X8 00:56, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

It's across the relevant pages now, rather than being repeated on the lore page. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 01:33, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Dire Cat?

I looked at the section on the expected WotLK changes, and I noticed the information on Druid Forms said that there would be a "Dire Cat Form." Does anyone know how this will differ from regular Cat Form; Dire Bear is supposed to be like the Warrior's change from Mail to Plate armor, but what change in the Rogue class does Dire Cat represent? Felindre