A true jack of all trades, Druids can do everything well without being great at anything. Such is the burden of “hybrid” classes. It’s especially true in Classic WoWPvP. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play it: being polyvalent is a strength and druids can easily adapt to any situation, giving them the chance to turn around any fight.
Moreover, all of the Druid’s specs are viable in PvP, although most players will turn to the Restoration spec for its HoTs. Add to that good crowd control and excellent mobility that will make other healers jealous. This is why Druids, even as healers, are often a go-to flag carrier in Warsong Gulch. Don’t forget that your specialization will decide the role you’re going to play in any BG.
The Druid’s versatility also gives him a lot of choices in the talent tree, from the classic Feral/Resto to Boomkin or hybrid specs. Don’t be afraid to experiment, try new things and make your own builds. Otherwise, follow the guide!
1. Picking a race for PvP
There is only one race you can play as a Druid in either faction: Night Elf for the Alliance and Tauren for the Horde. Classic WoW being largely about communities, your choice will mostly be on which faction you want to play, depending on where your friends/family/guildies are. The choice here only matters for people who want to maximize their character: the differences are notable.
Alliance PvP : Night Elf
Quickness: +1% dodge : useful against melee classes.Shadowmeld : allows you to avoid ganks and regen Health and Mana without having to worry.
Night Elf is the only option for Alliance Druids. Aside from the dodge bonus, which is also a of high-end enchantment, Night Elves can become invisible when in humanoid form in order to prepare Entangling roots to root an unaware opponent. They also have the highest base agility of any race, which is nice for Feral Druids.
Horde PvP : Tauren
War Stomp: Very useful to stun enemies that get dangerously close (or to cancel an enemy’s cast) or to give your tank some time to grab aggro in Alterac Valley.Endurance : More Health, better survivability!
Taurens are to the Horde what Night Elves are to the Alliance. Because of their heavy frame, Taurens gain an additional crowd control and 5% more Health, giving them better survivability as a DPS and making them excellent tanks in Battlegrounds where that comes into play (Warsong Gulch as a Flag Carrier or tanking bosses in Alterac Valley.
2. The best PvP Specs
Druids can pick from a variety of viable specs in PvP.
2.1 The Standard, Restoration 7/13/31
Regardless of their specialization, Druids are a hybrid class, necessarily versatile : sometimes a tank, sometimes a healer, sometimes a DPS. The 7/13/31 spec is the jack of all trade thanks to talents such as Nature's Grasp or Feral Charge. Both crowd control specs are easy to reach without making your healing output worse thanks to Nature's Swiftness or Swiftmend, allowing you to get an ally out of trouble.
After those 4 talents, the rest of the talent points can be allocated wherever you want. Since we’re nice here at WoWIsClassic, we’ll recommend you follow the above build in order to maximize your healing potential and allow you to get out of trouble with grace and elegance.
2.2 Heart of the Wild 1/29/21
If you love animals and you dream of becoming a cat or a bear, this build is for you! You’re still versatile and it’s one of the most powerful PvP Druid builds thanks to 3 talents: Nature’s Grasp, Heart of the Wild, and Nature’s Swiftness. In addition to the crowd control and panic button, the 29 points in the Feral tree will make your animal forms extremely powerful, allowing you to deal serious damage.
Despite being mainly a DPS spec, the Heart of the Wild spec also lets you heal and use spells such as Moon Fire, Nature’s Swiftness, Wrath, and quickly switch between Cat Form and Bear Form to deal damage. This build allows you to everything well.
2.3 Feral 14/32/5
If your role is dealing heavy melee damage, Feral is the way to go. Using Dire Bear Form or Cat Form allows you to switch from tank to DPS and to deal solid damage with Shred, Rake and Rip.
Feral Druids’ gameplay in PvP is close to PvE’s. You start fights stealthed and use Pounce to stun a target, apply bleeds and continue dealing damage with Maul and autoattacks. This spec is also excellent against kiting: changing forms removes any root or slow, and you also have Feral Charge and Dash.
You can heal yourself, (although not very well) to last longer in fights. You don’t have any big instant heal but still have enough to top yourself up after a bad trade. Keep in mind that mana is a limited resource and changing forms costs a lot of it! If you don’t have much mana don’t expect being able to heal yourself too often. Keep in mind that you’re also an easy prey while in humanoid form.
3. PvP Stats for DPS Druids
There are a few differences in PvPcompared to PvEstats, although those will allow you to increase your damage or survivability. Let’s take a look at the main differences:
5% Hit Cap
You only need 5% bonus hit chance in PvP to guarantee your attacks will hit against level 60 players.
Stamina
In PvP, having a large Health pool means having a better survivability. If your goal is to get good ranks, you will need to get a lot of Stamina, notably via PvP armor sets.
4. Items and consumables:
Potions and consumables shouldn’t be used in duel because they’re not Fair Play. They’re very powerful items that can easily turn the tide of any fight. Before any duel, talk to your opponent and decide on a rule for consumables. If you cheat you’ll end up with a bad reputation.
Potions:
Free Action Potion : Very popular in PvP.Limited Invulnerability Potion : Very useful against melee opponents!Mighty Rage Potion : Instantly gives you some rage if you need some as well as increased Strength.Beware: this potion shares a cooldown with Health potions.Living Action Potion : Not unlike Free Action Potion but with a few differences: it gets rid of current CC effects (unlike the other one) and because of this it only lasts for 6 seconds. It will only be available in phase 4 however so in a while.
Consumables:
Poussière magique / Large Rope Net: Rare items allowing an additional crowd control effect. Only use when in dire straits.Whipper Root Tuber : Doesn’t share a CD with potions, making it useful to regain some health.Flash Bomb : Useful against feral Druids or to scare away a Hunter’s pet.Heavy Runecloth Bandage : Must-haves in PvP, very useful throughout the game. You need these to keep your health up in most situations.Alterac Manna Biscuit : Best food item in the game. You can buy them from Alterac Valley’s quartermaster instead of begging Mages for food every day.
Items:
Gnomish Rocket Boots / Nifty Stopwatch: Increase your mobility.Goblin Rocket Helmet : Very useful in 1v2 or 1v3.Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector, Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector, Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector : Reflects elemental spells, very powerful against casters.Spider Belt : Useful against mages and other classes that can lock you in place.Charme des flots : Fantastic PvP trinket that will be in high demand.Linken's Boomerang : Easter Egg Quest item that is very useful if you don’t have good PvP trinkets.Thorium Grenade and Iron Grenade : very useful PvP tools, long range stuns that also deal moderate AoE damage.Goblin Sapper Charge : this item can change the odds of most fights. During phase 1, its 750 damage explosion is almost 30% of most level 60 players’ Health pool: massive! Remember that you can get hit by those yourself!
5. Dueling tips against every class
Although they’re the nemesis of many classes, Rogues must adapt their strategies to defeat their enemies without endangering themselves. There’s no « typical » solution or rotation for Rogues, it entirely depends on who you’re facing.
Against Warriors:
Warriors will make you sweat but you can deal with them fairly easily with Dire Bear Form thanks to its massive armor and Health gain. Don’t try to stay in melee, start by kiting them with Entangling Roots and Nature's Grasp, Moonfire and Insect Swarm. If you’re in trouble, throw in a Rejuvenation then resume the fight. Just be careful not to get attacked when in humanoid form: the Warrior’s Intercept could be a big problem.
As with most classes, engineering gives you a significant advantage when fighting a Warrior. Using items such as Iron Grenade or Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector to stun or root the Warrior will help you keep a handle on the fight. Other items can also help such as Tidal Charm.
Against Hunters
Against Hunters you will want to close the distance and stay in their dead zone (between 3 and 6m). Be aware of the CD of Scatter Shot and Freezing Trap : they will use this combo to gain some distance to damage you. To ensure victory, figure out the Hunter’s spec because if he’s Beast Mastery he will have an additional crowd control that can turn the tide of the fight.
One of your core abilities to deal with your opponents is Feral Charge which allows you to close the distance with the Hunter. If you get hit by a trap, go into bear form to gain Health and armor and not take too much damage. Beyond that, keep Moonfire and Insect Swarm on the Hunter and don’t forget his pet: you can kill it or control it with Hibernate. Careful if you attack the Hunter in animal form: he can Fear you
Against Warlocks:
Warlocks are tough opponents because of their many dots: Corruption, Curse of Agony and Immolate, but also instant burst spells such as Shadowburn and Conflagrate. They also have several crowd control spells. Moreover, you also need to deal with their summoned demon, notably the Succubus and her Seduction. As a Druid you will need to whittle them down with Moonfire and Insect Swarm, and like against most casters, use Feral Charge and Bash at the right times to interrupt dangerous spells such as Fear and give you a chance to heal yourself.
Against Druids:
Like most mirror matchups in Classic WoW, the result of this duel will be mainly down to your equipment and your opponent’s, but also how reactive you are. Tip: If they start the fight in animal form, don’t forget that you can use Hibernate and follow up with Starfire. Don’t forget the opponent can also do that, so use Bash and Feral Charge properly.
As with most classes, engineering gives you a significant advantage when fighting another Druid. Items such as Iron Grenade or Goblin Rocket Helmet will help you control the enemy druid and make a big difference. Other items such as Tidal Charm can also help.
Against Rogues:
Rogues have a whole arsenal to control their opponents, notably Blind, and can destroy you quickly if they take you by surprise with Preparation. Luckily, Druids can decurse their poisons (including blinds) with Abolish Poison. Better than a decurse, this spell works for a duration, allowing you to regularly heal from his attacks while remaining in animal form.
Your goal is straightforward : avoid getting stunlocked by Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot, else you will end up saying /hi to the Soulkeeper, and counter him with. Faerie Fire will prevent the Rogue from becoming invisible, and try keeping Moonfire and Insect Swarm active on your target throughout the fight. Don’t forget to control the rogue with Entangling Roots and/or Nature's Grasp to give you some breathing room and heal yourself.
Against Paladins:
Paladins have many abilities with long cooldowns that can will cripple them if they’re forced to use them too early. The most annoying combo being Blessing of Protection and Holy Light, but be also aware of his Lay on Hands and Divine Shield. This matchup is likely to turn into a battle of attrition where whoever has to waste too many resources will lose. Unlike most melee specs, Paladins deal a lot of spell damage so your Dire Bear Form won’t be as effective as usual. However, since they don’t have any ability beyond Hammer of Justice to close the distance, you can try kiting them and damaging them with Moonfire and Insect Swarm.
Against Priests:
Duels against priests can be awkward because they can dispell your buffs with Dispel Magic and make you flee with Psychic Scream, which has a fairly low cooldown. If you’re fighting a Shadow Priest, be aware of their random crowd controls with Blackout and of Silence. You will need to make decisions quickly: it’s hard to survive against Shadow Priests because of their powerful toolkit. Try to interrupt as many Mind Blast as possible with Feral Charge and Bash.
Against Shamans:
Shamans, like Priests, can dispell your HoTs with Purge. Shamans can also deal massive damage even with low spellpower. The most dangerous combo is Chain Lightning + Nature's Swiftness + Lightning Bolt followed by Earth Shock. They can also deal consistent damage with shocks that have a very low cooldown. Between Purge and Earth Shock, healingyourselfwillbe a problem. Feral Charge to interrupt Lightning Bolts and Chain Lightning and keep running around the Shaman to be in his back when he finishes his casts.
