WoW: Forever
Druid
Druid is four classes in one character, and Forever changed its most important gearing rule: your weapon's damage now scales Bear and Cat form, where in Classic it did not matter at all.
Which spec?
| Spec | Role | Levelling | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance | Ranged DPS | Viable, slower | Eclipse twisting, and Wrath got 50% more damage on 24 September |
| Feral — Bear | Tank | Your form from 10 to 20 | Leather tanking on rage and dodge, with no block and no parry |
| Feral — Cat | Melee DPS | Best from 20 on | Energy and combo points, and +30% movement speed permanently |
| Restoration | Healer | Slowest | HoTs, Swiftmend, and 1-second-cooldown Rejuvenation |
Bear and Cat share one tree and mostly one build, which is why they get separate pages: the rotations, stat priorities and gear are completely different even where the talents are not. Bear is the only form you have from 10 to 20. Cat Form does not exist until level 20 and now comes from a quest chain in Moonglade, not a trainer.
Two habits from Classic you must unlearn. Your weapon's damage now counts in Bear and Cat Form — three sources confirm it, so the weapon is chosen on damage, not as a stat stick. And powershifting is dead: Furor no longer grants a flat 40 energy on entering Cat Form, so dropping and re-entering form refills nothing.
Restoration is honestly rated: "You will be very hard to kill, but our damage is just too low to do the job efficiently."
Is Druid for you?
Play Druid if you want to be able to do any job in the game on one character, and you accept a slow and slightly confusing first twenty levels.
Levelling milestones
| Level | What you get |
|---|---|
| 1 | Wrath, Healing Touch, Mark of the Wild — now +385 armour and 1 hour |
| 4 | Moonfire, Rejuvenation |
| 8 | Entangling Roots |
| 10 | Bear Form, learned by completing a class quest. Plus Growl, Maul, Nature's Grasp is now trained (it was a talent) and reworked to a guaranteed root, and Teleport: Moonglade |
| 12 | Revive, new in Forever — an out-of-combat resurrect at level 12, which Classic never had |
| 14 | Cure Poison — via a class quest |
| 16 | Aquatic Form, Swipe |
| 18 | Faerie Fire — now usable in Cat and Bear form |
| 20 | Cat Form, Claw, Prowl, Rip, and Omen of Clarity is now trained (it was a talent) and procs off spells, heals and melee |
| 22 | Shred |
| 30 | Travel Form — not as fast as a mount, but instant, and ten levels earlier than one |
| 40 | Dire Bear Form, mount |
| 42 | Lacerate, new |
| 44 | Barkskin — now costs nothing, and the Classic downsides are gone |
| 50 | Gift of the Wild — now party and raid |
Tree of Life and Flight Form do not exist in Forever. Moonkin Form is still the 31-point Balance capstone, so it arrives at 40 — but it is no longer a dead aura: it grants the party 3% crit to all damage at 45 yards and doubles your Omen of Clarity proc rate.
Which race
Alliance — Night Elf. Elune's Light gives +10% crit for 15 seconds, a genuine burst cooldown Night Elf never had, and Shadowmeld improves Prowl.
Horde — Tauren. Endurance now gives +5% health and +1% hit, and War Stomp is usable while shapeshifted in Forever, which it was not in Classic — so every form gets an area stun.
One honest caveat: Plainsrunning does not stack with Cat Form or Travel Form, so it is worth less to a Druid than to other classes. The same applies to Skyborne's Skysight.
Skyborne can be Druids on both factions — the only new path into the class, with forms made specifically for the race.
Quality of life
- Take the highest-DPS two-hander you can get and keep sharpening stones on it. This is the opposite of the Classic rule and it is the most commonly missed Druid fact in Forever. Polearms are new to Druid and trainable from 20.
- Bear Form at 10 comes from a class quest — go to your trainer the moment you hit 10, because until then you are a cloth-damage caster.
- Travel Form at 30 is your mount ten levels early. Instant cast, and you can interact with most world objects without dropping it. You can gather herbs in it.
- Consumables now work while shapeshifted, so a bear can drink a rage potion and a cat can use a Thistle Tea. Forever also adds dual specialisation and an equipment manager, so switching between bear, cat and caster stops costing gold.
What changed from Classic
| Change | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Weapon damage now scales Bear and Cat form | Chase weapon DPS, not weapon stats. The reverse of Classic |
| Revive added at level 12 | An out-of-combat resurrect, twenty-eight levels before Rebirth |
| Nature's Grasp and Omen of Clarity now trained | Both were talents; Omen now procs off melee too |
| Faerie Fire usable in forms | The separate feral version is gone |
Swiftmend moved to Restoration tier 4 | A healer gets it about fifteen levels earlier, and it no longer consumes the heal-over-time |
| Barkskin costs nothing | And no longer slows your casting |
| Hurricane's cooldown removed | Fixes the Balance area-damage hole |
| Consumables usable in form | A bear can drink a potion |
| Mangle is called Primal Bite | Older guides use the old name |
At level 60
Unknown. No source publishes a Druid build past 30, and nobody has ever been in Moonkin Form, so whether Forever's reworked version makes Balance a real raid specialisation is untested. For bear tanking specifically, one published assessment is that Feral remains the only tank with no straightforward way to become immune to critical strikes, and it cannot block or parry — it has dodge, armour and health only. Raids open 9 December.