Druid Arena Guide
Druids are remembered for being the most popular class in arena during Seasons 3 and 4. Before WoTLK Druids resto build was really the only viable build. Druids restoration build has become a lot less effective since WoTLK was released, but their other builds have become more viable. It's not uncommon anymore to see a Balance or Feral druid in the arena.
Druids aren't the champions of 2v2 that they once were, but can still hold their own. Choosing the right team and spec for a druid is the most important thing. (This sounds cliche'd but I thought it should be repeated). As a Druid you will have to adapt to your team, for example if you're in a 5v5 team and it consists of the following; Frost Mage, Elemental Shaman, (You), Holy Paladin, Death Knight you will want to spec Balance since the team mostly is built of Spell Casters.
Or say your team is Warrior, Death Knight, Ret Paladin, (You), Holy Paladin. You will want to spec feral since your team consists of more melee. Both of these examples are of course assuming you aren't needed to heal. (Also don't bitch and complain that these make ups aren't ever used, they are EXAMPLES for a reason ;D)
Druids are a semi difficult class to master in the Arena, you will have to know when the best time to shape shift is and when to use Nature's Swiftness (If you spec resto). Druids have very important abilities while shape shifted, which makes it crucial to know what you're doing. Below I'll list some of the abilities that you should keep in mind.
Bear:
360% Armor when you're in bear form (Keep this in mind)
Bash
Feral Charge (Talent)
Cat Form:
Feral Charge (Talent)
Stealth
Pounce
Dash
Aside from the advantages your forms give you, don't forget your Entangling Roots ability and Cyclone.
Tips
- Always buff you and your group with Mark of the Wild and Thorns before the arena begins
- Starting out in Cat form so you can stealth is a commonly used advantage for druids
- If you're resto spec, make sure you don't go into your Tree of Life form if you are fighting a warlock, it will allow him to banish you
- Try to keep track of when someone uses their pvp trinket, this will tell you whether or not they can break your next cyclone early
- You can cure curses and poisons, remember this.
- Cyclone is not effected by Blessing of Freedom and can not be Dispelled or Bubbled out of.
- Make sure to communicate with your team, nothing is more frustrating then when a druid Cyclones someone and a Mage casts a Frostbolt and it says "Immune"
- Shape shifting will break all movement impairing effects and polymorph.
Specs
Restoration: This is the most common spec you will see a druid as in Arenas. You can easily determine if a Druid is resto if he is in his "Tree of Life" form. A resto druid may also have an ability called Swiftmend, depending on how far into the tree he goes. As a resto druid you are very durable to "The Mana Game" which means it will be very hard for a opposing team to beat you by you running out of mana.
If you get low on mana you can run away, stealth then drink up. Be careful to pay attention to your team mates health while you are drinking. In order to defeat a resto druid you will need to control him long enough to kill his team mate, or burst him down.
Feral: Feral druids are becoming more common in arenas, but not as common as a resto druid. Feral druids are very tough to kill if they are in bear form. They aren't so tough in cat form, however. The only way you should try to take down a Feral druid first is if he is in cat form, otherwise leave them alone. A good tactic to use is to always put just enough pressure on him to "Freak him out" and make him stay in bear.
As a Feral druid you will want to focus on annoying the shit out of your enemies healers with feral charge, your gouge ability and bash. The more you stun and interrupt an enemy healer the better.
Balance: As a moonkin druid your main purpose in arena will be to annoy your enemies with Cyclone and roots, a extremely close second is to obviously, blow shit up. Balance druids are very similar to Ret Paladins in the fact that they do a lot of "Shock" damage. What this means is they do a whole bunch of damage instantly and then don't do any damage for 2 to 3 seconds. Usually your main line up will be Star Fire, Moonfire, Wrath. Or you may jut spam Wrath, do what is best for the situation.
To take down a balance druid you will want to beat him up bad enough to force him out of his Moonkin form to Nature's Swift heal himself. At this point you will want to quickly stun him and kill him.
Tactics
As a druid regardless of your spec 9 times out of 10 I recommend you come out of the starting area stealthed. This will allow you to better assess the team you're up against and may give you a chance to get a pre-emptive strike. If you really want to keep your opponents guessing don't buff your team mate so they don't know you're a druid!
The general tactics will change for you based on your spec, but some will almost always stay the same. The druid is best as a support, healer roll. They can annoy the shit out of the enemies team with Cyclone and Roots. If you're the only healer it may be hard to control the enemies, but if you find a 5v5 with two healers you can really shine.
A good tactic to use if you have feral charge in 5v5 is to Cyclone one healer and feral charge the other one. (Try to make sure the other one is casting a spell to interrupt it). By this time the other healer may of trinket'd so you can bash him. If you're a Tauren to finish it off you can pop out of bear and warstomp.
Also as a Druid, don't just hog Innervate for yourself, if you're at quarter mana and a team mate is out of mana, toss him the Innervate. (Obviously use your best judgment, if its a Ret Pally, he probably doesn't need it.) As a druid you will need to learn the abilities you have, perfect the times to use them and most importantly, know why you're using them.
If you would like to learn more about the Druid class click here to see my Druid class guide.