Poo. If you’re not flagged for PvP, you can go anywhere as long as you avoid guards. If Horde players don’t like it, tough titty. /lick is a good command for that. 'Course
if you go over there with PvP enabled then you’re asking for what you get.
(Vice versa is also true, seeing Horde in predominantly Alliance areas doesn’t bother me a bit)
I have a 37 NE druid that I’ve been either soloing with or playing with my SO (a hunter). First off, escort quests like protecting the professor, are almost impossible to solo anywhere near the level they are. A lot of people just don’t bother with that one (also, Deep Ocean, Vast Sea). jayjay is right, if you’re determined to never do anything but solo, yeah, you can probably get to 60 but a whole huge chunk of the later game stuff will be off limits to you.
Groups do tend to like druids that heal. One thing to remember is that regrowth and your highest level healing touch can heal really rather a lot of hit points. When regrowth gets a critical heal, it’s the best healing spell in the game. Don’t bother using that much mana to heal, say, a mage or a rogue. Keep a lower level healing touch in your bar to heal someone without as many hit points, and save the regrowths and high rank healing touch for a warrior or a paladin. Rejuv, being instant cast, is extremely useful. Fight, fight, fight, oops, attracted one too many! Run! But cast rejuv on yourself, since you son’t have to stop running to cast it. Or, if you’re in a group and someone is very low on hit points, rejuv first to keep them up while you cast healing touch or regrowth. Tranquility, which maybe you’ll get later or maybe you already have it (I don’t remember) is mostly for out-of-combat group healing. It costs a whole bunch of mana, and channelling can be interrupted if something attacks you. The restoration talent tree has a bunch of useful things for healers. You can get talents that reudce your chance of being interrupted while casting healing touch or regrowth, increase your chance to get a critical heal, things like that.
Your resurrect spell (rebirth) is one of the few in-combat resurrects. It does have a 30 minute timer, so if you get in a group with someone else who can resurrect, and the resurrect can wait til after the fight, let them do it. When the tank goes down fighting the boss, then use rebirth. (Oh yeah, if you group to do an instance have your rebirth reagent. Really. Don’t forget to go buy them, and it’s not a wasted slot.)
My main strategy for soloing is starfire, moonfire, faerie fire, start attacking. If it’s a mob close to my level, that begining turns into starfire, roots, starfire til they break out, then moonfire, faerie fire. You will rpobably be soloing mobs (or quests) slightly below your level; such is the nature of soloing. I can take out a mob of my level but it’ll be a long close fight. Stick to green quests, or yellow quests near the top of the yellow section. Probably don’t bother with escort quests.
If you’re trying to pull mobs that are at or 1-2 levels below your level, definitely stick with faerie fire, as it has a better chance of not pulling multiples. Better yet, if the mobs are that close to your level and they’re packed in so you can’t pull them singly, don’t fight them yet.
Are you a leatherworker? You want to look into getting Green Whelp Armor, a fabulous chest piece that has a 5% chance of putting a mob to sleep when it hits you, when you get to 30. Leatherworkers can make it, but the pattern is drop-only. I got one while I was farming the green dragon whelps for the scales that it takes to make them. The whelps are 35-37, so you may want to see about buying this piece of armor, rather than making it yourself (if you’re a leatherworker).
If you fight is feral form (bear or cat), the dps on your weapon doesn’t matter. Only the stats that it adds to carry over to your form. Get something that adds to strength or agility or both. I don’t spend a lot of time in feral forms, so I don’t have alot of tips, other than maybe start a warrior and a rogue and play them up to level 10 or so to get a handle on the way they fight.
Ok, ok, really long post. Sorry, but I hope some of this helped. What server are you on?
Hi! and Thanks!
I’m on Thunderhorn.
So, I should learn how to use regrowth? It never really gave me any kind of boost that I could see. I think I’m gonna go back to Stonetalon Mountain-- which is where I’m now presently stuck trying to kill level 23 thru 28 mobs. At level 26, I’m having a hard time with the rougefeathers and slayers.
Oh, I remember that quest. Yeah, the roguefeathers and the slayers are the hard ones there. Definitely learn regrowth - it may only demonstrate its usefulness if you’re grouped with some class that usually has tons of hit points, but if you find yourself suddenly really low on hit points, nothing beats a rejuv followed immediately by a regrowth. The heal over time parts stack, so you’ll end up getting a tick or two of rejuv, a big chunk from regrowth, and then both heal over times. A good combination if you’re in a bit over your head.
Have you tried the Wetlands for questing? There’s some good stuff for your level there. Sida’s Bag if you could use a 10-slot bag (the quest itself is a little low, the ooze’s that the bag is on are low 20’s). There’s a “kill murlocs” quest series that’s around level 25, and a series at a dwarven excavation with raptors that I think you could start. In fact, check out this page: http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/qlookup.html?zone=18 It’s a list of the quests in Wetlands, including where to start them and what level they are. Stonetalon is a little sparse for quests (the series with the gnome is a lot of fun, but I hope you are or know an alchemist, it took me forever to get the potions for it).
I’ve had that bag for a week and didn’t think to look inside! I thought it was one of those off-hand type combat enhancer thingamabobs! 10 slots?! I’ve got all my back slots filled with 8 slots and one six slot. This Herbalist says “Yay for extra slots!”
I second the paladin suggestion for soloing. I haven’t played too much lately, but I have a 43 dwarf paladin that can solo pretty well. I still look up groups for instances, but when I go mining I like to hog all the metal for myself. My basic strategy is this: I chose mining and smithing for my professions so I can make my own equipment, and I’ve decided to specialize in weaponsmithing. There are some high level smithing plans that only the maker can use. A lot of paladins choose engineering instead for the funky gadgets, or they first do smithing then dump it at some point and pick up the other. I wear the heaviest armor I can get my hands on, with a balance between strength for damage output and stamina for survival. Usually about half my stuff is my own work and the rest is drops. I have Devotion Aura and Holy Shield maxed out for big defense, but I also keep a good 2-hand weapon on switch for enemies that don’t hit so hard.
The real trick with a paladin is knowing how to juggle your Seals. These are instant spells that you cast on your weapon and last for 30 seconds; alternatively, once it’s on your weapon you can transfer it to your enemy with the Judgment spell and it will last on them for 30 seconds, possibly with a slightly different effect. You can then put a new seal on your weapon, so you have to know what seals work well together to get the effect you want. If I need to replenish myself, I cast Seal of Light for healing, transfer it over so anyone that hits the target gets healed, then cast another Seal of Light, or maybe a Seal of Wisdom for mana. Or if I want to stun the enemy I cast Seal of Justice, which has a chance to stun them. When it’s about to run out, or the enemy is getting low on hitpoints, I cast Judgment with Seal of Justice to keep them from running.
Most of the time I can take on a single elite up to 1 or sometimes 2 levels above me, depending on their particular skills. For normal monsters I can generally handle a single enemy 4 levels higher, up to 3 enemies 2 levels higher, or a good handful of my level or a bit lower. It can get dicey though, so I try not to push it. If things get bad, I have a few protection spells that render me invulnerable for a few seconds so I can run away.
Leeeeroy Jennnnnkins!
I also have a lvl 43 dwarf Paladin and mostly solo.
I don’t solo because I’m antisocial or anything- but rather because I often can’t commit to playing for X minutes/hours to ensure everybody does what they need. However, if you do solo exclusively, you are missing a bit in terms of instance dungeons, which are fun to do and net good xp/quest xp/loot.
I am a retribution-specced Paladin (focusing on damage), using a slow, 2 handed sword that has a wound proc (random chance of doing 90-100 wound damage), enchanted with fire (random chance to do 40 fire damage). With Seal of Command (random chance to do holy dmg=wpn damage), one swing with my sword has a chance for all 3 of the ‘extra’ damage abilities to go off, allowing me to unload upwards of 700 damage in one (VERY LUCKY) shot. 
Despite this, I still have a 1-handed hammer and a shield, just in case I have to take on an Elite. With devotion, I have 50% damage reduction. What I usually do is activate Seal of Light, Judge it on the mob, then cast Seal of Wisdom. Every swing gives me a bit of life and mana back (randomly), but along with 2 immunity shields, Lay on hands (gives me ALL my HP back, usable once an hour) and my stun, I can hold out for a long time.
sorry for the overwhelming ignorance, but WoW? Has someone been and gone and released another AD&D game whilst I wasn’t looking? Do tell…
World of Warcraft. It’s set after the events of Warcraft III and the expansion, and is currently breaking all kinds of sales records.
These are important points. As your levels progress in WoW more of the content becomes group oriented. There are still quests to fetch X bear asses for NPC Y but they do get dull after a while. The replayability and fun of the game for me is in conquering obstacles with the aid of others (just started Molten Core, takes 40 lvl 60s a full day to get anywhere when you are starting out). It is my opinion that you will enjoy WoW more and for longer if you get more into the social side. You might start by sending out a zone chat in moonglade asking for some advice, most druids I’ve met are quite friendly people and you may get a mentor. Once you have some advice as to what to do (pretty much filling in for whatever role the party is weak in is my impression of druids, very versatile) you should start grouping with people at every opportunity. You should realise that in the 20s most ppl are still learning what their class and new abiliities can do and that it will take a while to find your feet, stick with it if you can, druids are very slow soloists and you may get bored at later levels if you are not in a group. Also note that there are a great many people playing this game and you do not have to put up with jerks, if someone is being repeatedly obnoxious every time a mistake is made just remember not to group with them in future. Over time you should be able to find a group of people with whom you get on and who group well together, at that point consider forming a guild or joining one. A good guild or core group of friends will vastly enhance your WoW experience over and above soloing.
As for what a group will normaly look like there are 4 basic strategic things you can do in a WoW group:
Tank: The tank is normally the class with the most armour. Their job is to get hit so others don’t. They should also ideally have skills that force the mobs to attack them rather than other party members (this is called keeping aggro and the skills are called taunts in general) warriors normallly fill this role but a bear form druid is a good replacement(I believe your taunt is called growl).
Healing: The healers main job is to keep the tank alive via repeatedly casting heal spells. It sounds like a boring job but it really isn’t, Slacker above would be able to tell you far more about this than me. Priests and druids find this to be their best role. Most lvl 60 druids will be in this category with full restoration spec (worry about this a lot later)
DPS: Damage Per Second. These classes job is to kill the mob that is attacking the tank, they do more damage than other classes but typically do not survive attacks as well. Rogues, mages and to a lesser extent hunters fill this role in a group. A cat form druid might be ok but this is your weak point in role filling.
Crowd control (CC): sometimes you find that there are more monsters than you can handle. Crowd control strategies alllow you to ‘thin the herd’ via removing mobs from combat temporarily until you finish the ones you have. Many classes have crowd control vs different mob types, mages can polymorph humans, warlocks can banish elementals and you can sleep beasts. Good planning in the use of CC is the single biggest factor in determining your groups survivability in tough encounters. Most CC breaks inf the mob is stuck in combat so the group will have to learn not to hit the sheep, people get a lot better at this as they level.
In summmary I have provided a basic intro to group dynamics along with a few hints and tips as to how to get involved as well as some encouragement to do so, good luck and have fun
Counselwolf 60 NE hunter - Turalyon EU
Tedcrilly 26 UD Priest - Turalyon EU
numerous sub 20 others
Not to mention entangling roots, which, as a solo druid, I use to keep my target from running back to its crowd when it hits its panic level and pulling more mobs than I can handle.
Slightly off-topic, but I had to go to Westfall with my NE druid last night to get the other half of the Sea Lion Pendant (for the aquatic form quest) so I decided to try out the chicken pet quest. I’m now the proud owner of a Prairie Chicken Companion!
They need to name some NPCs in Westfall Garrison and Keilor…
I refuse to contemplate that spell, a druid can exploit it to kill me via moonfire spam without a single thing I can do. Damn roots
In addition for the benefit of the OP I visited the WoW forums so you don’t have to deal with the signal to noise ratio thereThis thread covers a great deal of basic druid related questions
But that only works outside. It does not help me at all in Blackfathoms Deep or in a cave or mine.
I read that thread and it was very informational-- except for the stuff I didn’t understand. There’s also a bunch of threads about how terrible Druids are as a class. I started a Human Warrior and a Gnome Warlock at the same time. My druid is at level 27, my Warlock at 15 and my Warrior is at 10-- this shows the relative amount of time I play each character.
I like my Warlock, she kicks butt and my plan for her is to make her rich. I do not like the Warrior at all. She just a big, stupid, clumsy thug.
I’d really like to start a Druid and Warlock on a roleplaying server, I think I’d enjoy that. Only I’m afraid I’ll have to chat in some stupid dialect all the time and I’m a bad enough chatter as it is.
Well, you have to understand that half the people on the WOW forums are whiney 14 year olds. If you believe the forums, * every * class is terrible and has been horribly nerfed by the developers.
That’s true, but hunters are the worst. They’re actually starting to develop paranoid conspiracy theories about how much the developers and forum mods hate their class and are trying to make it unplayable so their darling warlocks will become that much more valuable or something…
I meant to write “hunter forums are the worst”…
The real problem question for hunters is: What am I doing here that some other class couldnt do better? every other class has a reasonable answer to that in an instance, we don’t. Until that question gets answered you’re going to see a lot of directionless whinging (and some very directed complaints like the 1.4 and1.5 patch DPS nerfs that got taken out via criticism avalance).
In general the forums are there for the stickied posts detailing the class basics which are often very good. I think 14 may be an overestimate as to the competency of some of the posters.
As for druids being terrible, They are not, levelling a druid is however very slow, your survivability is huge but you do not kill quickly, unfortunately you get points for killing things quickly, not surviving. This is part of my motivation in urging you to party, a reputation as a good group healer will ensure that you have plenty of parties looking to take you on nice XP heavy instance runs rather than killing 2000 winterspring yetis per level at 55+ (I did this, it is very dull)
Actually, we are unfinished, but I’m not going to whine about it. The biggest problem I have with being a hunter is how boring it gets after lvl 48 - that and how every hunter past 43 has King B, the white tiger, as a pet because he’s the only one with a perk left after the 1.3 patch nerfed the others. So at 54, my hunter has been sitting in the inn for weeks while I leveled my Shammy up to 43.
And, it’s not Warlocks the devs love. If you read the forums, it’s Warlocks that are the worst and all Shamans need to be nerfed. Of course, if any of the crybabys actually played a Shaman, they’d see what a complete class was like.
But, if you really want to dish out some damage and have an easy time soloing, go for a shadow priest. They are nasty as hell and have THE BEST spell in the whole game - Mind Control. Ever wished you could make the murlocs beat up each other instead of you? Well, you can. It’s also fun to MC a mob that has heal or buff abilities and make them cast them on your own party. Great fun!
Don’t believe it. I run with a feral specced lvl 60 Druid and he kicks butt like nobody’s business.
You said you didn’t know the chat commands so here are the main ones…
Chat Commands:
Hit Enter to bring up the prompt
/guild message
(/g) Send the message to your guild chat channel.
/party message
(/p) Send the message to your party chat.
/reply message
(/r, R) Send the message to the last player to whisper to you.
/say message
(/s) Send the message to people around you.
/yell message
(/shout) Send the message to people around you (very big radius, near zone-wide).
/whisper name message
(/w, /tell) Whisper the message to target player.
You can also click on a name in the chat log to talk directly to them - works like “Whisper”