Druid Leveling Guide 1-60 for Classic WoW

Check out our druid leveling guide 1-60 for Vanilla / Classic WoW to help you leveling faster. Here you’ll find the best spec, gear and addons, to be the first druid to reach lvl 60!

Druids are very good at leveling, don’t depend on gear much and have the highest movement speed in the game. Druids have excellent starting area progression in a Fresh Realm Environment due to the reduced congestion of both Mulgore and Teldrassil.

Druids get 2 majors buffs while leveling. First at level 10, Druids unlock Bear Form via a quest. Bear form allows the Druid to gain sustainability while killing enemies faster. At level 20, druids get Cat Form, also through a quest, giving them access to the Improved Cat Form talent: the ability to run 30% faster when outdoors. Combined with the stealth of the cat form, those abilities give the druid advantages that no other classes match.

During the leveling phase, Druids are able to perform well as tank, heal or DPS. The Bear Form gives the druid a high threat generator spell: Swipe.

In Cat Form, Druids offer the group a wide variety of possibilities, like a battle res, off heals, off tanking and more.

As Healers, the only restriction is your resurrection spell, which has a long cooldown.

Questing is where Druids are the most effective. With stealth, high movement speed and a decent single-target damage output, quests will be done fast.

Druids are one of the most underrated and underrepresented classes in Classic but don’t be fooled by the supposed “hybrid role”. In the right hands, Druids are highly capable in every aspect the game has to offer and we highly recommend giving them a shot.

Tier 1 Leveling Speed

Highest Movement Speed in the Game

Amazing Questers

Low Gear Dependence

High Sustain

Strong Self Healing

Decent Crowd Control

Can Tank, DPS, or Heal

Can Stealth

Animal Forms offer Dynamic Gameplay

Hard to kill in Open World PvP

Slow Start at Lvls 1-10

Mediocre Single Target Kill Speed 40+

No “Regular” Resurrection.

Here is our selection of the best druid race in wow classic for PvE or PvP.

Alliance PvE & PvP : Night ElfQuickness: Dodge chance increased by 1%, always useful in PVEShadowmeld : To avoid ganks and to regen while stealthed.

Horde PvE & PvP : TaurenWar Stomp: Very useful when you have a lot of enemies next to you.Endurance : More health: more survival!

Here are some tips to progress quickly during your leveling as druid in classic wow.

Ideally you should kill mobs of the same level, as they grant 100% of their base XP rewards. If a mob is 1 level higher you will only gain a portion of its base XP reward. This effect also works in reverse and even more radically. If you are killing a mob that is even 1 level below, you will gain 10-20% less xp.

Front Load Spells / Abilities to get natural mana regeneration ticking again ASAP, per the 5 second rule, then finish mobs with white damage.

Adjust your damage rotation cycle - this is true for all classes. Think about and implement a viable strategy for each new spell acquisition as your rotation will vary at different stages of the game depending on a number of variables such as monster level, armor capacity / resistance, total number of health points, etc.

Be adaptive with your damage rotation cycle - this is true for all classes. Think as your rotation will vary at different stages of the game based on a number of variables such as what ranks of spells / abilities do you have, mob lvl, mob abilities, armor / resistance, total hit points etc.

Keep your Food + First Aid up to date!

Spend a burst of mana on damage or healing then swap to animal form and engage your target(s). Your mana will start to naturally regenerate even while you use abilities in Cat Form / Bear Form forms since these abilities cost Rage or Energy. It is really important that this mana regeneration is tracked by way of an addon.

Continue to engage and kill targets, usually 2- or 3 until your mana is close to being full again. As it’s close to 100%, pop out of animal form back into to caster form.

At this point you want to spend your mana again on something productive. You can spend it on damage to your next target through Wrath / Moonfire, Roll a couple HotS, or even just Re-buff yourself. Swap back to animal form. Repeat.

Animal Form

Your mana will continue to regenerate naturally while in animal forms. Rage or energy based abilities will not prevent mana per the 5 second rule to be interrupted.

Teleport : Moonglade

Use Teleport Moonglade as a second Hearthstone. Set your Hearthstone to wherever you are questing, and Teleport: Moonglade when you need to go back to a major city for training

Bear Form

Bear Form is incredibly strong at all stages of the leveling experience. By sitting in Bear form in potentially dangerous areas you shave off a minor amount of kill speed for a dramatic increase in survivability.

Healing Touch

Rank 4 Healing Touch is the most mana efficient healing spell in the game.

Warning : Only Outdoors

Entangling Roots and Travel Form are only usable Outdoors.

Talent Furor

5/5 Furor will allow you to swap Bear form and immediately have enough rage to charge, making Feral Charge a much much better tool.

Leveling Speed can be divided into three categories: Travel Time, In Combat Time, and Out of Combat Time (Regen). The sum of these three parts is equal to your leveling speed.

Travel Time refers to the time you spend moving from objective to objective out in the open world.

In Combat Time is the amount of time you spend fighting.

Out of Combat Time refers to the amount of mandatory time you spend recovering eating, drinking, healing, bandaging, etc.

Travel Time is what you will be doing the most of, thus talents or abilities that increase movement speed will likely have the highest impact on leveling speed. That's why druid is a T1 leveling class.

The more important is the optimization of the time you use. Every second you gain is a level you gain faster, while having new abilities allowing you to push harder on the game.

Here is the best addon list for leveling as a druid:

Druid Bar / Druid Mana Bar <- Click for Link to Addon(s)

Movable mana bar that keeps track of your current mana, even in a shapeshifted form like bear or cat. This is super important.

XP / Hr  Tracker <- Click for Link to Addon

Track your leveling efficiency with precision. You will have insights such as EPH (XP / Hour), EPM (XP / Minute), and Average XP per kill.

Outfitter <- Click for Link to Addon

Addon allows you to swap gear back and forth easily. This is useful for switching into your Spirit Set between combat to reduce regeneration downtime.

Energy Tracker <- Click for Link to Addon

Addon that tracks ticks in your energy regeneration.

Prowl : Spam Prowl/cast [nocombat, stance:3, nostealth] Prowl; [nocombat, nostealth] Shadowmeld

Travel Form : Spam Travel Form + Rejuv – the WSG flag carrying macro/cancelaura [stance:1] Dire Bear Form; [stance:2] Aquatic Form; [stance:3] Cat Form; [stance:4] Travel Form; [stance:5] Moonkin Form; [mounted] Striped Nightsaber/castsequence [nostance] reset=12 Rejuvenation, Travel Form, Travel Form, Travel Form

Earthbind Totem Killer :/target totem

/cast [harm] Moonfire(Rank 1)

From lvl 10 to 20, The Flat damage increase through Natural Weapons will provide better pound for pound value than the rage reduction of Ferocity in Feral Combat. Also, a fast Nature’s Grasp can help increase survivability.

Here is the order to choose your talents from lvl 10 to lvl 19 (from left to right)

Once you hit lvl20, it's time to boost your leveling EXP rate / hours, by using the new Cat Form. Respec at 20: proceed as Follows through Feral Tree:

Here is the order to choose your talents from lvl 10 to lvl 60 (from left to right)

Slow leveling speed in this bracket. Front load spells, usually 1-2 Wrath followed by Melee animation cancel into Moonfire, then finish mobs with melee attacks to get natural mana regeneration ticking again ASAP.

Moonfire or Rejuvenation immediately after your melee auto attack connects as you can cast these instants without delaying your next swing more than .1 or .2s.

You will primarily use Healing Touch to recover at this stage as you get Regrowth at 12. Rejuvenation should be front loaded right after a casted ability. To survive and kill multiple mobs focus all mana usage on burst healing, then auto attacking for a while to regen letting thorns slowly whittle mobs down. Rinse and repeat.

Here is the single target cycle of dps to respect for these levels

Multi-target rotation:

Once lvl 10, it's time to do the bear form quest.

1. Start the Quest at Kal the Druid Trainer in Dolanaar, Teldrassil (Coords 56,60).2. Go to Darnassus, set your Hearthstone there, and then talk to Mathrengyl (Coords 35, 8).3. Teleport to Moonglade and talk to Dendrite Starblaze (Coords 56,29).4. Talk to the Great Bear Spirit to the left of the building (Coords 38.7, 27.2).5. Hearthstone back to Darnassus and talk to Mathrengyl (Coords 35, 8).6. He will send you to fight a Moonkin named Lunaclaw in Auberdine.7. To find the Moonkin Stone, go to a cave in Darkshore east of Auberdine ( Coords 43 , 61)8. Go back to Mathrengyl in Darnassus and get Bear Form (Coords 35, 8)!

Once lvl 10, it's time to do the bear form quest.

1. Start the Quest at Gennia Runetotem, Druid trainer in Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore (Coords 50,62)2. Go to Thunder Bluff, set your Hearthstone there, and talk to Turak Runetotem (Coords 75, 27).3. Teleport to Moonglade and talk to Dendrite Starblaze (Coords 56,29).4. Talk to the Great Bear Spirit to the left of the building (Coords 38.7, 27.2).5. Hearthstone back to Thunder Bluff and talk to Turak Runetotem (Coords 75, 27).6. He will send you to fight a Moonkin named Lunaclaw in the Barrens.7. To find the Moonkin Stone, take the road from Mulgore to the Barrens ( Coords 41.9 , 60.9)8. Go back to Turak Runetotem in Thunder Bluff and get Bear Form (Coords 75, 27)!

Big power spike in leveling speed at level 10 when Bear Form comes online. Maul does pretty high damage and should be used over Swipe even when fighting 2+ mobs. You can use Swipe if you have excess rage and you are fighting 3+.

Against a Single Target use Enrage on CD as the downside of 27% Base Armor Reduction is negligible. Consider pooling rage and interrupting with Bash when against caster mobs.

Against Multiple Targets forego using Enrage as your added damage vs damage taken is likely no longer efficient. Instead use Demoralizing Roar against 2+ mobs to decrease enemy Attack Power.

Single target rotation:

Multi-target rotation:

While you get Cat Form at 20, there will be many instances in this level bracket where it’s preferable to sit in Bear Form. One reason is that you don’t have an efficient finisher for your combo points in Cat Form at this stage and you don’t even get Shred until 22. Secondly, you are penalized more swapping from Caster to Cat than from Caster to Bear as you start with potentially 0 energy, since Furor won’t be 5/5 till 27.

At 24 you get Rake. At this point you should start opening with it as your first combo point.

26+ use Dash on Cooldown for 50% speed increase when you know you will be running for 15 seconds straight. You also get Travel Form at 30 and this should be used whenever out of combat moving to and from objectives.

Single target rotation:

Multi-target rotation:

You get Faerie Fire (Feral) at 31 and Ferocious Bite at 32 which is your first efficient finisher to use with your combo points. Claw / Rake to 4 combo points then Ferocious Bite

Cat Form really starts to shine once Faerie Fire (Feral) and Ferocious Bite come online and should be prioritized more.

You get Pounce at 36 offering you a 2 second stunlock opener if need be.

Single target rotation:

Multi-target rotation:

While stacking Strength over Agility might seem better at first glance, at low levels the AP gained from stats doesn’t translate very well into faster kill speed. The AP power curve is linear requiring substantial amounts of AP to go from let’s say 12 hits to kill a mob to 11 hits.

14 AP = 7 Strength = 14 Agi = 1 DPS

At least by stacking crit you can sometimes get lucky and get the occasional high temporary burst damage. Crit also becomes significantly more valuable once the Blood Frenzy talent comes online.

Stamina’s effect on a Druid in all forms:Increases Hit Points by 10 per 1 point of Stamina.

Strength’s effect on both Cat Form and Bear Form:Increases Attack Power by 2 per 1 point of Strength.

Agility’s effect on both Cat Form and Bear Form:Increases Druid’s Cat Form Attack Power by 1 per point of Agility. 20 Agility is equal to 1% Crit and 1% Dodge. In Bear Form Agility doesn’t provide Attack Power.

Intellect: Increases Mana by 15 Points per 1 point of Intellect.

Spirit: Increases Out of Combat Health / Mana Regen Rate

Tunic of Westfall - Chest -Lvl 14 - Dungeon Quest Reward “The Defias Brotherhood” Deadmines

Triprunner Dungarees - Pants - Lvl 25 - Dungeon Quest Reward “The Grand Betrayal” Gnomeregan

Loksey's Training Stick - Staff - Lvl 31 - 10% Drop chance from Houndmaster Loksey Scarlet Monastery

Ironshod Bludgeon - Staff - Lvl 37 - 20% Drop chance from Ironaya in Uldaman

Masons Fraternity Ring - Ring - Lvl 40 - Dungeon Quest Reward “Divino-matic Rod” Zul’Farrak

Wolfshead Helm - Head - Lvl 40 - Crafted by Leatherworkers - Great for Powershifting

Warden Staff- Staff - Lvl 43 - BoE Epic Weapon .025% Chance World Drop

Devilsaur Gauntlets - Hands - Lvl 53 - BoE Rare Crafted by Leatherworkers

Devilsaur Leggings - Legs - Lvl 55 - BoE Rare Crafted by Leatherworkers