[Druid]Bear AoE grinding/leveling - DETAILED!

[krazy1killa]

I haven't seen many people doing this and druids are one of the BEST classes to AoE grind with. Please read the whole guide before you try this. If you aren't that interested in how to do this and care more about why/how this works go to section 5 and 6.

The color coding is nothing more than to make it a bit easier to seperate ideas. Link still show up in white!

Sections:
1. Requirements
2. Spec
3. Gear/Enchants/Glyphs
4. Macros
5. Howto
6. Areas
7. Notes/Explanation(Summary)


1. REQUIREMENTS

What is required?
A druid 42+
But reccomended is a druid level 57+(Explained in Spec section)
Depending on your server at most I would say 100g is needed. (Explained in gear section.)
This will be needed later in the guide too but you will have to go into menu->interface->Camera find the follow setting and change it to none/off instead of smart.

2. SPEC

I am going to list the spec so as you level you put your new points as they should go but assuming you start at level 57(Meaning the first 46 points are a given). After I list the talents I'm going to link the level 80 spec.

-5/5 Ferocity - 5/5 Feral Aggression - 3/3 Feral Instinct - 3/3 Thick Hide - 2/2 Feral Swiftness - 1/1 Survival Instincts - 3/3 Sharpened Claws - 3/3 Predatory Strikes - 2/2 Primal Fury - 1/1 Feral Charge - 3/3 Natural Reaction - 5/5 Heart of the Wild - 3/3 Survival of the Fittest - 1/1 Leader of the Pack - 2/2 Improved Leader of the Pack - 3/3 Protector of the Pack -(Going into Resto tree now)- 2/2 Improved Mark of the Wild - 1/5 Furor(This is at 57) - 5/5 Furor - 3/3 Natural Shapeshifter - 1/1 Omen of Clarity - 2/2 Master Shapeshifter - 5/5 Naturalist -(Balance tree now) 5/5 Genesis -

That is how you will continue your points this comes out to level 77 becuase at 78-80 a different spec could be used depending on preference.
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft (level77 spec)

level 78-80 (The points would go into brambles in the balance tree each level this would make thorns damage high but you deal 10% less damage thus making it preference.) Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft (level80 spec)

3. GEAR/ENCHANTS/GLYPHS

Part of this section will be general.

You should gear and enchant everything for stam>strength>agi. (Enchanting not needed but gearing is!)

This is the part where 57+ is needed the most important part! Enchant Weapon - Lifeward - Spell - World of Warcraft (Enchant Weapon - Lifeward) This is the godsend to this spec. Without it this guide would be terrible. Heals for 250-400 and procs ALOT!

Glyphs: Glyph of Maul, Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration, Glyph of Survival Instincts
(Links of glyphs Glyph of Maul - Item - World of Warcraft
Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration - Item - World of Warcraft
Glyph of Survival Instincts - Item - World of Warcraft )

4. MACROS
These will be straight copy and paste macros with explanations after

a.
/cast survival instincts
/cast frenzied regeneration
/cast Barkskin

This macro is essentially an OH SHI- button it will first increase your HP so frenzied regen is better then uses barkskin this will heal you enough to keep you alive the whole duration atleast.

b.
#showtooltip Swipe (Bear)(Rank 7)
/cast Swipe (Bear)(Rank 7)
/cast maul

This is your swipe attack button. Maul is off the gcd as it uses auto attack swings. Maul will be used to kill your main target and one other so switching targets is essential at some point.

5. HOWTO

This is most likely going to be the most lengthy and important part of this guide. With these methods 10+ mobs is easy to take on. (This part will not cover what to kill only how to kill it. See section 6.) Now before you go on I will tell you there are two similar yet different methods read the first before the second. The first method is if you want loot or an easily controlled group (Better for beginning.) This is going to be step by step so it may look long but its not.


---First Method (Easy/Loot Method)
--Note: Step 1-4 should be done without moving more than 10 feet after pulling first mob
-Note2: This requires Camera Follow option in the Camera section of Interface to turned from smart to off!

1. Pull a group of mobs or just a single mob near lots of others.
2. Keep mobs infront of you so you can dodge
3. Use Faerie Fire and Growl to pull far away mobs
4. Use demoralizing roar every 5 seconds as you are pulling with Faerie Fire, and Growl.
5. Start moving towards more mobs while keeping things infront of you (Face mobs and walk backwards)
6. Dont forget step 4
7. Use Growl and Faerie Fire to keep pulling things
8. Once you get to 60%-80% or you think you can't or shouldn't pull anymore STOP moving
9. Once all are infront of you use the swipe macro
10. Every 15 seconds reapply demoralizing roar
11. Keep spamming swipe macro
12. If below 10% and you think you will die use the OH SHI- button and while frenzied regen is going STOP ALL ATTACKING except demo roar every 15 seconds.
13. If done as said the huge number of mobs are dead infront of you. Either continue to pull (after healing) or loot.
14. It is recommended you don't too much as you lose alot of time. Unless you are 80.

---Second Method (Hard Method/Best EXP gain)
1. Once you have the first method down you should understand how to generally kill pull and keep things infront of you.
2. Instead of stop moving and attacking in this method follow steps 1-7 but skip step 8.
3. Keep pulling mobs with Faerie Fire and Growl as you use swipe and Demoralizing shout WHILE moving backwards keeping all mobs infront of you.
4. For a break in damage Use demoralizing roar then feral charge something wait for the pack to catch up then continue.

6. AREAS

In this section I will give a few examples of areas and then explain what mobs will work. I will however not list all the leveling areas for this. I may update/edit this thread with locations for everylevel!

First place is the good ol' vultures/buzzards in Hellfire. Level 57-65. Both vulture areas here work. Bonestripper Vulture - NPC - World of Warcraft and Bonestripper Buzzard - NPC - World of Warcraft

These are both good mobs becuase they are closely grouped and have no special/ranged attacks.

The best area and fastest area I have found yet would be the Rhinos north of Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra. level 68-76. These are more tightly clumped non-aggresive mobs with no bad special/ranged attacks. Demoralizing shout is great for these pulls.

7. NOTES/EXPLANATION(SUMMARY)

First I want to explain why this guide works. With this spec gear and glyphs you will take very little damage and do very little damage, you will have lots of HP and will dodge alot, gain a huge amount of rage fast, you will GAIN alot of HP from critting/hitting mobs!... I am going to add a screen shot of a typical pull to show you how many I can pull and how easy it is to stay alive with 20+ mobs on you, this will also show the CRAZY amounts of heals you get.
Another big thing is savage defense which absorbs alot.

The only reason this works is becuase Lifeward procs off swipe which means every swipe you gain around 2-3k HP

This will just be either an area where I add random stuff or just tips and whatnot.

Swipe can be used to pull just like demoralizing shout as it hits everything close to you.






EDIT: I want to say I posted this thread at 3:53 and I'm going to post this thread on the WoW forums at 4:00 on Wensday may 13 2009 as to show this is not being taken from that forums I'm posting in here first.
EDIT2: I've decided I'm not going to post on wow forums due to the thought of a nerf to lifeward becuase of this so disregard edit1.

[BaboonX]

Compared to specing moonkin and AoE'ing is this really worth it? Better off killing single targets in cat form imo.

[krazy1killa]

Yes you can nonstop pull 20+ mobs and kill them. From quests at 70-80 its usually 5-8 hours a level I was getting enough exp for 3 hours a level.

[Accountant]

If you are pulling 20+ mobs, Darkmoon Card: Heroism - Item - World of Warcraft will also proc alot with the swipe macro

[krazy1killa]

Heroism and anything with a heal proc without an internal CD is good. Edited with pictures of healing/an easy pull.

[Zing!]

Very nice, would love to see a video.

[krazy1killa]

Yea, I *may* make a video. I need to get a video capture program before I can though :/

[mokio]

Looks really good, time to get lifeward on my staff

[pewpewlazerz]

this is pretty nice, i've wanted to level a druid... i just hate leveling.

[shinnoobi]

You said 42+ would that mean I would use say lifestealing/crusader instead of Lifeward?

[krazy1killa]

You said 42+ would that mean I would use say lifestealing/crusader instead of Lifeward?

Well sure but I was just saying 42 becuase that is the lowest level it would even *possibly* work. I don't reccomend leveling like this until 57.

[shinnoobi]

Even at 57, doesnt lifeward req a level 60 weapon? or would you be using quest rewards with no level req and only iLevel?

[krazy1killa]

Even at 57, doesnt lifeward req a level 60 weapon? or would you be using quest rewards with no level req and only iLevel?

Item level isn't the same as required level just like level 80 gear has the item level of 213. level 57 becuase that is when lifeward can be used.

[hubridnox320]

Decent Idea.. although for a hardcore quester there probably isn't that much of a difference..

[shinnoobi]

Item level isn't the same as required level just like level 80 gear has the item level of 213. level 57 becuase that is when lifeward can be used.

From what i know some items without actual level requirements the enchant goes by the item level thats y i ask. I looked at lifewarding, and if i remember correctly it requires an item level 60 or higher. Doesnt it?