Okay, I've been playing WoW for a month and my druid for a few weeks. I have the summers off so I've had plenty of time to play. My druid dinged 60 this morning and the xp requirements went through the roof.

My guild mates tell me I should always be playing rested. So far I haven't. I've been doing quests as fast as possible with a minimum of killing (prowl is awesome). As a result I've probably logged a lot more hours than most people, but I've gotten 2-3 levels a day. I can't do that from 61-70, obviously. I love my druid, he's so much fun, but it looks like I'll have to set him aside for a while. Though I really want to hit 61 for Omen of Clarity.

So what's the best way to get to 70? Play him once a week and kill everything that moves while questing? Every 5 days? How does rested work? If I farm herbs does that count against the whole "rested" thing or does the timer only count down when you're killing?

Quest. Quest. Quest.

Rested XP is nice, but I ignored it when leveling. Just quest, quest, quest.

You might level faster per hour of playing by storing up rested XP then using it, but really who wants to wait up to a week and a half to store up rested XP. You'll level faster by just doing quests.

The amount of rested/not rested XP is not effected by quests or professions, just when you are killing mobs.

For example: If you have 2,500 xp and "well rested" until 5,000 xp ... if you complete a quest, you will have 3,500 xp and "well rested" until 6,000 xp.

In my experience, if you are grinding to your next lvl by killing mobs, well rested is better, but questing is the same either way ;)

For me, I didn't get too worried about rested/not rested, but whenever possible I'd log out in an inn. In Outlands, you're never too far from an inn/hearthpoint.

I played for a couple of hours most days, maybe skipping one or two days here and there, and usually used up my rested XP gained overnight in an inn during that couple of hours. Didn't do any grinding mobs, just quest, quest, quest.

Prowl is nice but you're missing out on some nice XP there between you and your quest objectives.

I'm not endorsing grinding on mobs, but instead of actively avoiding what is between you and your objective, kill it, kill it, kill it.

While the amount of XP from 59 - 60 and 60-61 seems like a big jump, the XP gained from quests in Outlands is higher as well so it's not so bad.

In Beta my DK is 64 and in Zangramarsh right now, and even though they increased the speed of leveling between 60 - 70 it is not as noticeable as it was between 20 and 58.

I still kill everything between me and my quest objective. It might take me longer to get there, but I get there and back with a blue or some greens, maybe some potions, and a lot more XP than those that just run in and out ;)

Well good question! And first it might help to identify what you plan to do at 70. I say that because once you get to 70, there is no more XP. BUT...if you want to craft or get rep items then you may want to plan which quests you do or don't do based on that.

Use Wowwiki for the reputations you plan to grind (if any). They have great charts that show what gets you rep at what reputation levels. Most reps give full reputation for the quests available, but some things stop giving rep at friendly, or honored, etc. Make sure to exhaust the lower level ones now unless you are in a hurry to get to 70 for a specific purpose.

I'm 70 and I'm grinding stupid nagas for Sporeggar rep. I could have killed those nagas and saved the quests when I was levelling. I would have got XP and loot that I could have used then. Also, quests at 70 give decent money.

My vote would be on running instances (money, xp, loot) and saving the quests for a bit.

Thanks for the advice!

I don't know what I want to do at 70. In EQ I was a hardcore endgame raider. in WoW I'm in a guild with only a few people all from my home town who raid on Thursday nights. It'd be nice to be able to raid with them at the very least. I want to get my herbalism and alchemy to 375, and I can see myself being sucked into the whole reputation grind.

That said, I'm a little clueless about the whole rep/reward thing. I'm exalted with Darnassus and pretty close with Stormwind and Ironforge but that's about it. I'm waffling between Aldor and Scryers, but leaning towards Scryers because I think they have better +crit items.

In terms of killing everything, before it was very risky. More than one add and I was dashing or dying. Now...well, after a day in HF and a few cheap upgrades from the AH, I'm ready to kill anything that moves. (It moves...attack! It's the Fel Reaver...I'm down!). My power, AC and hit points have increased by over 50%.

I'm a bit worried there won't be enough quests to get from 61-70 if I don't kill everything that moves, with or without rested xp.

Well first off, your alliance. I can't help with that. :duel2:

Secondly, no Omen of Clarity or Feral Charge at 60??? I'm no expert but I see a respec in your future. I wouldn't wait another 2 levels for those gems.

And you can certainly do all the quests in HFP (Thrallmar and Mag'Har rep) and I'd do the daily for the towers anytime you can. Some good early on rewards you can buy at Thrallmar.

Zangarmarsh is where you'll want to pay attention to your Cenarion Expedition Rep. You'll get these 'Unidentified Plant Parts' that you turn in for rep with CE up until I think Honored (again check Wowwiki) and occasionally you may get an 'Uncatalogued Species'. SAVE those. Don't turn em in until you can't get rep from the 'Unidentified Plant Parts' any longer. Those will give you a good boost into the next reputation level and there is some good stuff for Alchemists in Zangarmarsh. (Transmute Primal Earth to Fire from Sporeggar and Transmute Primal Water to Air from Cenarion Expedition).

If you don't have an energy meter, get one. Make sure to launch your Pounce just prior to the next energy tick. You should be able to Pounce > Mangle > Shred and go from there. An OOC proc in there usually means dead before they can hit you. I usually Maim if they're over 25% or are runners, but if they're almost dead a Ferocious Bite works well to.

Feral Charge can get you out of sticky situations. Pop to Bear and target a snake or another mob, and you're suddenly up to 25 yards away, popping travel form, and getting the heck out of Dodge. Our strength is our utility. Master everything and use a sh!t-ton of macros. ALWAYS camp in an Inn or City and if you don't have rested bonus, dust off an alt. One of them should always have rested bonus. :grin:

Good luck!

Hello new druid :> Welcome to our druid grove !

Rest is Blizzard's way of rewarding players for returning to the game.

It's more efficient in terms of time vs exp to play with rest, but if you want 70 fast just gogogo quests and instances :>


-Annikk

I chose to get Mangle at 50, which meant Omen of Clarity at 61. I've got Furor 5 and Naturalist 5 so OoC is my next talent.

I didn't realize there were dailys at 60. I thought those started at 70.

I have zero macros so far. I've made a few attempts to create macros based on existing designs, with absolutely no success. No luck in creating a macro that heals, turns me to a cat and prowls (yes, I know, better to do it manually), no luck in creating a pounce-mangle macro (pounce works fine, the mangle never lands). The Feral Charge idea is interesting but 10-20 as a Bear left me with an absolute loathing of that form. From 20-60 I have never been anything other than cat or night elf. I know, I know, use the class to its fullest.

Another thing to consider is that back in Nov 07 Blizzard increased the XP gained per quest and reduced the XP needed to gain a level for levels 30-60 by nearly 30%. So, you have been spoiled by a huge buff that was given out nearly a year ago. Now that you have started playing in "current" content your leveling experience is more inline with what blizzard expects. Once LK is released the XP gained and XP required for 60-70 are being changed as well (as seen in the beta).

Just make sure you log off every night in an inn (or inside a major city like Shat) and you'll be fine. I only played 2-3 hours per night 4-5 nights per week when I leveled and never ran out of rest bonus from lvl 40 thru 70. A day off here or there, a weekend on vacation and suddenly you have almost a full bar of rest XP.

But if you are playing 4+ hours per night 7 days a week, it just isn't going to happen.


One more thing, don't worry about FC. You don't really need it until you start tanking often. And, frankly, I wouldn't bother tanking until you get lacerate. By then, you'll have too many talent points, so you can waste one on FC.

I agree that FC (feral charge) isn't a great levelling talent, but calling it a "waste" of a talent point is going a bit far imo :>
Feral Charge is one of the most fun bear abilities, and has numerous uses in tanking and pvp.

On macros, Grimjonn can you tell us a bit more about what problems you are facing with macros? Do you know how to open the macro window and create a new macro, then put the macro on a hot bar? If so, and you just want to know what the correct code for a macro is, take a look at this thread (http://wow.thedruidsgrove.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12548) which has some pre-prepared code you can just copy and paste in. :>

If you would like assistance to make a macro that performs a specific function and it isn't covered in that thread, let us know what you want it to do and some of our macro demons will surely step in to halp.


-Annikk

If you are looking for a great CE rep guide check out this thread (http://wow.thedruidsgrove.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12571). The second message was written by a very clever bear that did quite a bit of forward planning. He should be given praise for his work.

One more thing read this article (http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/04/15/shifting-perspectives-gearing-your-bear-tank-from-70-to-karazha/) 7 times. Then print it out and place in the back of your toilet for bathroom reading. With the correct planning (and some gold), you can tank low heroics (like hSP and hUB for CE rep!!) and the front half of kara the day you ding 70.

Good luck.

I'm a bit worried there won't be enough quests to get from 61-70 if I don't kill everything that moves, with or without rested xp.I just read this. Don't worry. There is a surplus of XP in the Outlands. Even without rest bonus you'll probably ding lvl 70 in the early part of Netherstorm.

I hit 70 with both of my toons after completing one-third of the quests in BEM. I did nothing but questing and only ran 2-4 Outland instances before reaching 70. But, then, I had rest XP from lvl 40+.

Agreed with tlbj. I hit 70 (never even thinking about rested xp) before I hit netherstorm and had two zones of quests left to do (Nether/SMV).

Also, these Druid guides (http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&board=3) on WowHead are amazing for a beginning Druid. Read them!

One more thing, don't worry about FC. You don't really need it until you start tanking often. And, frankly, I wouldn't bother tanking until you get lacerate. By then, you'll have too many talent points, so you can waste one on FC.

So you're telling him not to tank until lvl 66? Druids make phenomenal tanks for Ramps, BF, UB and and SP, all of which can be done before lvl 66. In the early 60's I found that Druids were the prefered tanks, as 90% of warriors were dps spec for leveling, and most pallies were ret. Grim, if somone is LF Tank for any lowbie instance, go for it. Might as well try out everything a druid has to offer (and learn on the way so when you level and eventually hit 70, you know what to expect)

I'd say take (edit: I meant OoC) at lvl 61 if you are already 1 point away, then go back and fill in some of the feral talents. Make sure you have SoTF. I'd go with a build that looks like this: http://tb01.thottbot.com/druid/t#/5b,mjDO/5502 then fill out PI, put the next 3 in PT, finish Shredding Atacks, Put 1 point in NG, then with your last 3 either grab intensity, or fill out Thick Hide. Thats the way I leveled, just my 2c

one more thing... enjoy the leveling. It's tempting to just race to 70, but have fun with it :) WoW becomes a HUGE rep / money / honor / mats grind when you hit 70. As has been said, its a good idea to be smart about which factions you want to become Exalted with (Cenarion Expedition is the most important for a Feral Druid). And by just doing quests, and occasional dungeons you will most likely ding before even hitting Netherstorm. My warrior lvld with all rest (alt), and hit 70 in Shadowmoon Valley with just under 10 days /played. I hadn't even gone into BEM or Netherstorm.

Not sure if you enjoy PvP at all, but there are some amazing rewards that you can get right when you hit 70 if you save up some honor before ding'ing. if you do want to pick up some of those shiny PvP epics when you are 70, I'd recommend getting the honor for them at lv 69 in the 60 - 69 bracket. A geared lv 69 feral will dominate the BG's there and it'll be a lot of fun running around killing lvl 66's and 67's in greens, and the occasional lv 62 mage that you can Stealth up behind and 1shot ravage then spam /sit on his corpse :evilgrin: (most dont have any resiliance so you can literally 2 shot them in that bracket. go go feral insane critrate). Once you ding 70 and are undergeared and try to go into the bg's, you will find really nasty fully epic'd people that have been 70 forever and have insane gear that you can't even touch. The difference between a toon in full PvP or PvE epics and one in quest greens / blues at 70 is similar (though not quite so drastic) as the jump between your gear level when you entered Outlands and started upgrading your gear. I wish I would have kept both my warrior and druid in the 69 bracket for longer... man that was fun being unstoppable.

In the end, try everything, find out what you like, be smart and have fun!

*edit spelling

Oh...my....god...

So tlbj6142 and Claritondeus say Cenarion Expedition is a big deal, says the clueless druid? I wonder what the reputations are. *eyes bug out* I just spent most of my remaining gold on freaking plants! Between the fast mount and the rep stuff I have 40 gold to my name. I should hit honored with CE tomorrow. Too bad I'd already gotten 250 rep with CE from HF quests, but at least I learned before I'd done too many of them.

So some of the rep rewards have sockets. I wonder if sockets are like sockets from Diablo. This one has three red sockets. I wonder what a red gem does. *tappity tappity tappity* Oh dear lord, look at all of them. My brains are leaking out my ears.

I have the feeling it's only going to get worse.

Oh...my....god...

I have the feeling it's only going to get worse.

lol... it WILL get worse! then it'll get better... a LOT better...

you'll get a LOT of useful information here, and be directed towards sites that have the numbers of World of Mathcraft crunched, if that's your thing. Don't sweat it though. First and Foremost, it's just a game that's meant to be enjoyed!

Sockets are for gems. :>

You put gems into sockets. If you have an item with 2 red sockets, putting 2 red gems in it will allow you to get the "socket bonus", whatever that may be. It's usually some small amount of stats, like +4 stamina or +6 attack power or something.

You can put any colour of gem into any colour of socket (except meta - only meta gems go in meta sockets). But if the colours don't match you won't get the bonus. So just decide whether you want the bonus or not, and if you don't, ignore the colours. :>


-Annikk

An update: I am halfway through 61 and have started on Zangarmarsh. I've got 2 group quests left in Hellfire which I'll hopefully do today with a friend's 70 hunter. I was trying not to go to Zangarmarsh until 62 so I did a bunch of quests in EPL and Silithus but that didn't help much. I probably should just grind away but I'm itching to get my hands on some ragveil.

I picked Omen of Clarity at 61. It is a great effect!

I'm running into a trinket glut. I have or will be getting:

- Alchemist's Stone (+5 to all stats)
- Strength of the High Chief (+50 attack)
- Charm of Alacrity (+192 to dodge when clicked)
- Bladefist's Breath (+26 critical, +200 power when clicked)

Which two do I use?

Bladefist's and Strength for questing IMO.

Pretty soon you will be getting all kinds of good trinkets.

Have you picked up your Mangle Idol from HFP? that thing will last you forever.

Oh yes, I got the Mangle idol yesterday. I'm quite surprised my first relic was so good.

Any other must-have druid items for a low-60s feral kitty?

Hrm, I quested up until level 66 then basically just instance grinded my way through the last four. It wasn't hard because I did get a lot of bleeding rest exp but even without it was some pretty nice exp for a clear. As a feral druid, tanking will be your best bet to get runs. Everyone wants a tank.

Just a small word of advice. Don't spend too much money on unidentified plant parts if you're an herbalist. You get them all the time and they drop like mad and you don't really need exalted with CE until 70. Though seriously, getting from revered -> exalted was a headache for me. I think I gave up and spent around 250g on coilfang armaments because I was getting sick of Coilfang instances.

But yeah, I only did the quests up until like Zangarmarsh (I have like three zones of undone quests that I can do for cash now though :D ) and half of Terokkar. I basically spent my last three levels in a mixture of Durnholde/Auchindoin instances. A lot of those instances give decent exp, rep and they're not really hard.

Grim, Check the AH every now and then and if you see a Braxxis staff of slumber (http://tb01.thottbot.com/i31186), pick that up (assuming its less than 50g), and swap it out whenever you go to bear. It gives you an additional 550 armor and 39 stamina, which multiply in bear form. You need to be 64 to use it, but it'll last as a tanking weapon till you are 70 and exalted with CE (main reason to get exalted is for your uber Earthwarden: http://tb01.thottbot.com/i29171)

In Hellfire there is a quest right off the bat for a Blue chest piece that is really good which will last you as a tanking piece until you hit 70. (http://tb01.thottbot.com/i28051)

Finally if you do some of the PvP quests in hellfire to get Honor Hold / Thrallmar marks of honor you can pick up a nice trinket: http://tb01.thottbot.com/i27921

Sounds like you are doing well druid, you've picked up some of the best items from the Hellfire Peninsula quests already :> The mangle idol and Blackhand's Breadth, for example.

As far as trinkets go, here is what I would suggest:

- Use Blackhand's Breadth and Strength of the High Chief for questing and dps.

- Keep Charm of Alacrity and use it for tanking instances.

- Keep Alchemist's Stone because you can upgrade it to a really uber version (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=13503) at level 70.


It isn't worth doing any quests in the old world now that you can do Outland quests.

Now that you're almost honoured with the Cenarion Expedition - the most important faction for feral druids - go to Zangarmarsh and do all the quests there. If you get any opportunity to go to an instance in Zangarmarsh (Slave Pens, Underbog, Steam Vaults, in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest), I'd recommend going as it can be a lot of rep. Slave Pens and Underbog stop giving rep at revered.

As for uber items to get, I have 2 recommendations.

1. One that you can go and get right now at your level - the ever-delightful Druid Leaf (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28111), with which you can make an endless supply of Druid Pods (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28112). :> It's from a quest called "Oh, It's On!" from the Sporeggar faction. It begins here (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=17857).

This is a really nice item even at level 70 - I have always kept mine with me. You can only have a maximum of 20 Druid Pods at any one time, but with that said I have NEVER run out of pods. It's really nice never having to worry about having food/water anymore. I think that it is well worth the 2 bag slots. :>


2. At level 66 the first thing you should do is find a 5man group, preferably with a 70 tank and healer, and go and do this quest line (http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=9962) in Nagrand. The reward of interest is a really awesome dps staff called Staff of Beasts (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25761) - lots of feral dps stats and 375 attack power in feral forms. This will improve your grinding/questing speed a lot.


Happy hunting druid :>


-Annikk

1. One that you can go and get right now at your level - the ever-delightful Druid Leaf, with which you can make an endless supply of Druid Pods. :> It's from a quest called "Oh, It's On!" from the Sporeggar faction. It begins here.

Absolutely one hundred percent agree with this. While it's of limited use in 5 mans/raids it is worth its weight in gold for every day questing and grinding. As a mana user on both chars it's even more valuable. 10 free mana/health recovery a day for 0 cost is not to be sniffed at.

Wow. Thank you for the suggestions, Annikk! Before the servers went splodey this morning I went from Unfriendly to Friendly with the Sporeggar. (I turned in 12 Bog Tentacles, 20 Mature Spore Sacs and 20 Glowcaps which I'd been picking up because I'm an insane herbalist). I'd set my sights on the Staff of the Wild, but I hadn't yet noticed the Druid Leaf reward.

The purple Alchemist's Stone is...sick. Very, very sick. I want one.

I'll be honest. Instances scare the bejeebers out of me. I've been playing for a month. I have healing reflexes honed by 5 years of raiding in EQ....but I have no real idea how to group in WoW. In EQ I had hotkeys to announce what I was pulling, who I was healing, target's target, etc. I don't have that with WoW yet. If I get to be DPS in a group, great. The MT? I don't know if I'm geared for it, let alone have the skill. The PH? Again, I don't know if I have the skill, or more importantly the timing.

If you've gotten all the quest rewards from HFP and some from Zang, you're most likeley geared for tanking.

Do you have target of target set up in your User Interface? If not, that's really helpful to notice when you lose the mob you are tanking's attention so you can know to throw a quick taunt.

In instances, the best way to deal with assignments is by using 'icons'. You do this when in a party by right clicking on the target's icon / health bar next to yours up top, and selecting the icon you want to assign to it in the drop down menu. The icon will show up over his head and everyone in your party can see it.

Typical assignments are: Skull = First Kill, X = Second Kill. Then you can assign a moon, star, circle, triangle or w/e for whatever cc you have in the group.

Kill order is based off of the icons: Prior to pulling, hit enrage and wait for full rage, then when you pull the skull (with FFF) hit your maul button. This will queue up a maul so that when the first kill target (Skull) gets to you you hit him with a maul and a quick Mangle, then switch to the X and hit it with a mangle, then go back to Skull and alternate between swipe and mangle. You shouldnt have any problem holding aggro, as the dps in your group should focus first on skull then on X, which will both be glued to you :). And ideally the CC will be doing their job, and the sheep / trap / sap isn't broken until the X is down. Really good groups have enough CC so that you only have to tank one mob at a time.

It's scary your first few times, but you will quickly realize how good of tanks druids are, and your friends list will fill up very quickly of people looking for a big bare.

Actually as far as trinkets go, I think there's some much better choices than the upgraded Alchemist Stone.

Actually, the Mark of Tyranny (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=13966) from Blackrock Spire is still one of the best bear tanking trinkets in the game.

And hunting in Ogri'la in Blade's Edge will eventually drop the Depleted Badge which can be used for the Badge of Tenacity (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32658#comments)

You would be hard pressed to do better tanking than those two combined. DPS is a different story and Bladefist's Breadth is going to be equipped for quite some time I suspect. :thumbup:

In raw stats the alchemists stone isn't as impressive as others, but there is a lot to be set for getting +all stats, and the equip: effect is so awesome.. :>


-Annikk

It will be even more awesome when we can use pots in our forms. :grin: