Hello! I'm new to WoW but not new to TDG, having played a druid in EQ for 5 years.

I started playing WoW on July 2. Starting WoW on my holidays was a terrible idea. So far I've got a 27 Warrior (duoing with my wife's 27 Shadow Priest), 31 Druid (soloing) and a newbie Hunter (duoing with my wife's newbie Hunter). Incidentally, can someone come over and do my laundry?

y druid (feral kittycat) is the most enjoyable character I've ever played in an online game. Stealth, high dps, healing, porting... he's just so much fun.

I'm slowly wrapping my brain around the new concepts and terminology (what's pre-BC?). I read a tip by tlbj6142 (thank you!) that made my druid even more fun; I was going to skip Faerie Fire and focus on damage. Now I've discovered the joy of pulling in cat form!

And thus to my confuzzlement: "don't get Thick Hide, armor is worthless while questing." Beg pardon? From my EQ days, better AC = more damage mitigation = higher life expectancy. Is an extra second of Pounce (which admittedly I don't have yet) really worth 8% less armor?

BC (Burning Crusades) is the first expansion to WoW. So, "pre-BC" often refers to the days prior to the expansion, anyone who doesn't have access to the Outlands (the region created in BC) or just those that are lower than lvl 58 (you have to be lvl 58 to access the portal that takes you to the Outlands, though you can get a port from a Mage, or Warlock, if you want access sooner).

Thick hide doesn't provide enough mitigation while leveling as your gear will mostly suck in terms of armor (if 80% of your gear doesn't have a "green" armor value, TH doesn't really help). So, it is better to spend those talent points elsewhere while leveling. If you are serious about tanking (bear form), pick up thick hide as your last three talent points. You won't need them before then. The ability to cast Rejuev or Regrowth on yourself every 4-5 mobs more than makes up for it. I even put Rejuve and Regrowth on my Cat form hot bar. As soon as you click on them you will automatically shift to caster form (just a few months ago you had to shift out first then cast, so it is much, much less painful now to self-heal while leveling).

Leveling is all about solo DPS. Maximize your solo DPS and leveling is quicker. Plus most Kitty gear gives you quite a bit of agility which gives you more dodge. A dodged hit does no damage. ;)

Brutal Impact helps in several ways...

On a PvP server it helps with Feral Charge to stun an aggressor (or victim) for a bit longer so you can shift out to heal, run away, etc.

For solo questing it allows you to use Pounce-->Shred->Shred->(Optional Shred if OoC Procs) before the mob even gets one hit on you. I use this technique often when there is a caster mob at the "front door" of some village. Prowl up and pounce, him. He'll be dead before the guard on the other side of the door knows it. And, my favorite, for those quests in which you have to kill Bob. But Bob has 2 guards that walk along side him. Buff up with any scroll you might have lying around in your bag, cast hots on yourself, Cat form, prowl. Pounce->Shred..... the boss. Loot his head, eyeball, liver or whatever and then Dash out from his body guards.

Thanks! I'll respec when I get Pounce.

Speaking of agility, I've been struggling a bit with the whole strength - agility - stamina thing. If I understand things correctly, agility gives more criticals and better dodge, but strength helps with attack power which gives bigger criticals. So Strength > Agility generally speaking, but +5 agility is probably better than +2 strength. Is there a formula people use? To what extent should stamina be a factor? I've got a blue 2 handed mace that gives +11 stamina, but I could try to find something that gave strength and agility instead.

At level 31 my critical chance in kitty form is something like 15.71%. Is that good, bad, average?

I'm resisting the urge to flood this thread with questions. Admire my restraint!

Until I hit the Outlands, I did this...

AP == 1 point
str == 2 points
agi == 1.5 points

Total up the value of a piece. The one with the higher value wins! Use +sta, +hit and +crit as tie-breakers. This bascially makes "of the tiger" the best gear you can get. Though it lacks +sta. So, throw in a few "of the monkey", or "of the bear" pieces and you'll have a great leveling kit. Once you hit the Outlands, the quest rewards become actually useful unlike pre-BC quests which give nearly worthless rewards.

Once you get to the Outlands, things get a bit more complicated when evaluating gear. I suggest an addon called Pawn. Plug in the values I gave above until you are lvl 58. Once you reach lvl 58, use values from Emmerald's Cat DPS (not the High DPS) info tab. That will help you evaluate gear. Though you will still need to figure out somethings yourself (set bonus, proc type buffs, etc.).

One more thing. Unless you have money pouring in, resist the urge to buy items from the AH. You can get by with random drops and quest rewards while you level. Remember you need ~600g at lvl 60 to buy your fast land mount.

I had plenty of money when I leveled my Druid (it was my second toon), so I would buy 2-5 pieces off the AH every 5-8 levels to help max out my DPS. Once I hit the Outlands, the AH purchases mostly stopped because the quest rewards are so nice.

Also, it looks like you will be leveling as a team. That makes it go so much quicker as you will have a boat load of DPS. Plus you can heal and tank if needed (group quest). This means you will have even less of a need to have "good gear" while leveling.

You are right Grim about more armor = less damage you take, but the small amount you will gain at that level isn't as worth it as an extra second on stun or pounce. As tlbj said, thick hide is a talent to take at level 70 if you should decide to tank seriously. 10% of 1,000 armor is much less noticible than 10% of 10,000 armor.

Two more things...

1) Ask as many questions as you want.
2) For your hunter, check out www.tkasomething.com it is a TDG-like site for hunters. Nice friendly folks. Though, quite a bit more traffic than this site.

Hallo new druid :>

On the value of strength, agility, and stamina.

Stamina gives you an increase to your maxmimum health of 10 per point of stamina. That's all it does.

Strength increases your attack power by 2 per point of strength.

Agility affects a lot of different stats. Per point, it increases your attack power by 1, your dodge and critical strike chances by a small amount, and also gives you a small amount of armor.


On which to prioritise, I would say agility and strength are of roughly equal value while you are levelling up. Strength does give more consistent damage but critting a lot is a fast way to burn through a lot of mobs while questing.

Once you enter the outland at level 58, agility starts to become the clearly more important stat. That is because in the Outland feral druids can get much better weapons that give a very significant increase to attack power in feral forms. Consequently you need less strength to have good attack power, and the crit chance and other stats you receive from agility become more desireable.


-Annikk