By Hitcher

Table of Contents

1. Talents Builds & Glyphs
2. Gear (Gems, Enchants, Choices)
3. Compositions
4. Strategies & Macros

1. Talent Builds

I’ll go over the possible specs for 2vs2 first, due to 2 comes before 3 and there by I will not defy logic.

1.1 – 2vs2 Talent Builds

Insect Swarm - Haste Gear Equivalent - http://wow335.gamestool.net/druidt.php?5432000120301000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230033312031502211350113230]

A note regarding this build, it’s mostly assembled to play with a second caster, such as a Warlock or Mage. Both comps are viable, Warlock is better in 2vs2 than Mage when accompanied with a Druid, however Mage/Druid hard-counters quite a few comps such as Warrior/X which makes it really fun to snipe nerds. As you can see 3/3 in Celestial Focus is nice for the pushback protection but more so the haste. This build is best used with an offensive gear set, meaning anywhere between 300 ~ 500 Haste (anything beyond 450 is in my opinion overkill and a bad trade-off towards spell power).

Glyphs: Swiftmend, Barkskin, Insect Swarm

Insect Swarm – Moonfire/IS/Wrath (all-around build) - http://wow335.gamestool.net/druidt.php?5532200120001000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230033312031502221350013230

This is generally the build I prefer to play with, the 10% Damage & Critical Strike rating can be really good in a situation where you’d usually just Wrath to finish of a target, I see myself using this a lot when playing every comp really, aside from Warrior/Druid because that’s just an overall slow-play comp where you just apply IS and when you have mana to spare, Moonfire. This build is close to the previous one, you get a bit less Haste but the Moonfire trade-off is in my opinion definitely worth it. This is my 2vs2 build at all times besides when I’m paired with a Warrior.

Glyphs: Swiftmend, Barkskin, Insect Swarm

Insect Swarm - Passive & Never OOM - http://wow335.gamestool.net/druidt.php?2532200120301000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230033312031502231350213200

This is a Build you definitely want to take a look at when you play Warlock/Druid and Warrior/Druid. It basically evolves around keeping your mana high while keeping Insect Swarm (and potentially Moonfire) up at all times, this creates a ridiculous amount of pressure and I’ve found myself in situations where we’d actually OOM a Warrior/Paladin in 2vs2, when we coordinate drinks and innervates with Shield Wall & Shield Block. This spec is what I generally use when playing Warrior/Druid, try it out!

Glyphs: Swiftmend, Barkskin, Insect Swarm

Wild Growth – Rapid Wrath (Offensive WG Build) - http://wow335.gamestool.net/druidt.php?5532000120000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230033312031502211350113251

This build is pretty good when playing Warrior/Druid on ladder. It more or less makes Priest/Rogue and Warrior/Paladin easier. Why? Wild Growth is crazy good and you have lower GCD on your HoT’s which means you do more Lifeblooms per minute when your Warrior is getting spam dispelled. It has a really nice edge as well with the customary 2vs2 reduced cast time on Wrath. It’s definitely worth taking a look at, and is possibly also viable in Warlock/Druid but I prefer not to use it because I hate being too cheesy.

Glyphs: Swiftmend, Barkskin, Insect Swarm

I am aware there are more builds out there which would include Nature’s Grace, but I steer clear from that Talent due to it’s gimmicky nature, it’s a wild card and not worth taking over the other talents in the Balance tree which ‘re actually good (Celestial Focus, Imp. Moonfire, ..).

1.2 – 3vs3 Talent Builds

Wild Growth – Spirit Oriented (Mana Build) - http://wow335.gamestool.net/druidt.php?0532000120000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230033312031502331350313251

This is an awesome build, I will now tell you why. The way this build is played by me, and after throwing the statistics at a few of my team members, they have come to agree with me, is as following. You will use the Spirit Gear-set I linked below, which means you’ll have an absolutely ridiculous amount of mana regeneration and healing power (note: use Tree form as MUCH as possible due to 15% more Spell Power from Spirit when in Tree). The pro’s of this build are thus far the regeneration and overall healing output, the cons however are that your burst healing is pretty gimped due to the lack of Nourish & Regrowth talents (and Glyph). This is a build I tend to use when I play a Caster/Caster/Healer setup. The amount of control this sort of setups provides makes it so that you very rarely have to heal a target up, this is of course taking into account that you keep your team topped off by use of Lifeblooms & Wild Growth.

Glyphs: Swiftmend, Barkskin, Innervate (depends on setup)

Wild Growth - Burst Oriented (Casted Heals Build) - http://wow335.gamestool.net/druidt.php?0532000120000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230033312031502501353113251

This is a build I usually pick up if I’m only facing one team, this team is 99.5% an ATC. When I use this build I will always use Glyph of Nourish over Glyph of Barkskin, because I know I’m good enough to position myself in a way that swapping to me is near impossible. The healing output of this build, burst-wise is ludicrous. You actually do more HPS than a hard-casting Holy Paladin, which is insane. However you will have to be very mana conservative and coordinate drinks/innervates with your teammates, if you don’t you will only be delaying the execution and eventually you’ll lose due to being out of mana. This build basically means that you can afford to play incredibly offensive with Cyclones (if they are currently targeting your team members and not you) and actually be able to pick someone up if you keep HoT’s on them by hardcasting Nourish.

Glyphs: Swiftmend, Barkskin, Nourish

Wild Growth – Rapid Wrath  (Offensive WG Build) - http://wow335.gamestool.net/druidt.php?5532000120000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230033312031502211350113251

This is also a build I like to use a lot when I’m playing a Caster/Caster/Healer setup. It allows you to put out immense pressure when coordinated correctly. Assuming a wrath hits for 2.1k per cast, 23% Haste (Gear & Talents included, this is pretty realistic), this means you’ll be pumping out ~1 second Wraths. That is, in combination with Mage/Warlock burst, an unhealable amount of damage. This is a very fun spec to play, and is viable in mostly MLD & LSD. The cons are that you lose mana regeneration and healing output, this is however not a problem in MLD because you have a lot of crowd control.

Glyphs: Swiftmend, Barkskin, Innervate

2. Gear (Gems, Enchants, Choices)

I will try to be as clear as possible here since there are literally hundred variations, let us state that you always use 5/5 Main-set (Kodohide), WF Spirit Bracers, WF +Hit Neck, 264 PvP Trinket & Idol of the Black Willow, Memory of Malygos (Ring) & Valanar’s Other Signet Ring (Ring), Memory of Malygos always has a Veiled Ametrine but Wowhead no longer supports WoTLK so the gem’s been removed, all other gems are the WoTLK equivalents.

2.1 Enchants are as following, these never change,

• Head: Arcanum of Dominance
• Shoulders: Inscription of Dominance
• Cloak : +35 Spell Penetration
• Chest: +40 Resillience
• Bracers: +30 Spell Power
• Gloves: +28 Spell Power
• Legs: +50 Spell Power +50 Stamina
• Boots: Tuskarr’s Vitality
• Main-Hand: +63 Spell Power

2.2 Gear Sets

Note: Ignore Gems on Wowhead, I have written down the guidelines you should follow beneath each set.

Spirit Set – Mana Regeneration Oriented with Haste secondary - http://www.wowhead.com/profile=33035931

This set matches my Insect Swarm All-Around Build & my 3vs3 builds with Mana Orientation. I go really heavy on spirit due to the fact that I’ve got 3/3 in Living Spirit and 3/3 in Revitalize, being in Tree Form grants you an even bigger lead due to the healing power you gain (mind Banish). The spell power you lack by not taking +23 Spell Power gems, is more or less returned by Imp. Tree of Life, so make us of it valiantly. You also have a lot of resillience, if you are playing a Caster/Caster/Healer setup with this particular talent build I recommend you replace either the boots and/or belt by Professor’s Bloodied Smock & Blessed Cenarion Boots, when gemming you should follow this rule:

• Blue Socket = Purified Dreadstone and 3x Mysterious Dreadstone
• Red Socket = Purified Dreadstone
• Yellow Socket = Turbid Eye of Zul

Haste Set - (Resillience Secondary) - http://www.wowhead.com/profile=33035962

A set which is mostly used in Caster/Caster/Healer setups as it provides only a little amount of Resillience. Some people prefer to replace the Belt or the Boots by the PvP equivalent, this isn’t something I do due to the fact that when you play with good partners, the 100 resillience is not going to make any difference, peels will. When on the other hand, the 100 Haste might make the difference when juking or trying to land a clutch Cyclone (imagine Fel. Dom, after a trinket on a Paladin to prevent bubble, etc.), when gemming you should follow this rule:

• Blue Socket = Mysterious Dreadstone x3 & Royal Dreadstone
• Red Socket = Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Yellow Socket = Durable Ametrine

All-Around Set - (Spell Power, Resillience, Mana Reg., Haste) - http://www.wowhead.com/profile=33035976

This is a set I use when playing Caster/Melee/Healer, it provides you with a very solid amount of resillience and spell power, while still maintaining a very good amount of mana regeneration. The haste is quite low but it’s generally not needed as you won’t be casting as much in WLD/RLD/HLD/.. due to the fact that you’re mostly timing Cyclones with swaps, and during the duration of the Cyclone you land, you’ll most likely Regrowth once or twice to get the HoT up and heal your team up somewhat, after that you’d just spam the normal HoT’s, when gemming you should follow this rule:

• Blue Socket = Mysterious Dreadstone x3 & Purified Dreadstone
• Red Socket = Durable Ametrine
• Yellow Socket = Durable Ametrine

3. Compositions

I will rank the compositions in order of actual ladder viability and success rate. I would like you to know that this list is for me personally, not at all the correct order of how fun and rewarding certain comps are, I find some lesser comps a lot more fun to play, but they’re undeniably worse than the others.

1. LSD (Affliction/Elemental)

I’m not sure how I can emphasize enough just how good this setup is. The amount of pressure an Affliction Warlock can dish out when left alone is beyond ridiculous, even when being tunneled, the Shaman and Druid can provide an unfair amount of peels for the Warlock to be able to cast and go where he pleases (slightly over-extend to land a Fear for example). You have Heroism, which is for obvious reasons insanely good. But one of the more important aspects, for me easily more important than Bloodlust, is the fact that you have a secondary class who can heal, and in this case heal for a considerable amount, for a considerable amount of time. In Affliction LSD, the Shaman’ll most likely be usin 258 Solace meaning he won’t struggle too much with mana. If played right you should also be able to Innervate your Shaman from time to time.

Your role in this setup varies a lot, there are a few different play styles you can utilize and it’s not really possible for me to tell you which one is better as it depends on your individual skill level and synergy with your team mates. I will assume (no offence of course!) that you’re new to the class and setup. In that case you should sit back and heal most of the game, you can occasionally toss out a Cyclone to assist your teammates when they’re bursting, and when you have momentum you should go in and Cyclone more than at the start of the game, but always stay in a position where you cannot be swapped to, which means you should never cross a map diagonally but run in a square, with this I mean that you should only run on the grid which would connect the pillars, [url= http://i.imgur.com/1jPUw.jpg]as displayed in this fantastically painted image I made[/url]. It is however quite important that you do land your Cyclones when needed, so don’t play too passive, for these starting players I would advise to make use of my Spirit Set and “Wild Growth Mana Regeneration Oriented” talent build. More advanced players can make use of the “Wild Growth – Rapid Wrath” talent build while using the Haste Set, this allows you to Cyclone faster, more and HoT your team members up faster, please note you should always HoT -before- your team member drops low, this will allow you to keep your team relatively high on HP and gives you the liberty to crowd control more.

2. MLD (Destruction/Frost)

This composition is arguably as good as Affliction LSD, it has -the- most crowd control you can have in a setup, three crowd control spells on different diminishing returns. The combined burst of a Destruction Warlock & a Frost Mage is not healable, and scoring a kill on either of them is almost as impossible as surviving for longer than two minutes. The comp evolves around setting up a chain of crowd control and then just bursting something down, if you fail to kill your current target, cc him and swap to someone else. You should always Banish a warlock pet before going on him to make him lose Soul Link (25% damage), if your team mate Warlock isn’t able to do it, you should attempt to Cyclone it as it will have the same effect.

Your role in this setup is fairly easy, you will connect your Cyclones with Fears & Polymorphs while keeping your team alive, you can usually do this with just HoT’s & Swiftmend. Make good use of Wild Growth as it will allow you to more or less neglect the Warlock pet as it’ll be taking damage from Soul Link, the HoT itself is generally also really good to pick up your team or keep them topped off against team that have certain types of AoE pressure, think of Unholy DK’s, Bladestorm, Affliction Warlocks here. This setup allows you to play very freely and you should make use of this, emphasize on your Cyclones, try cloning Warriors of your Warlock to grant him more casting time, and perhaps root the warrior after you Cyclone him. You should always check if Spell Reflect is up before you do so, so fake-casting is good for two reasons, you can fake focus interrupts, spell lock and Spell Reflect. If you do get Reflected, don’t have the “omg-gotta-trinket-reflex”, it happens to the best of us, it’s not predictable. I’ve faked 3 times before with 0.1 second left (so not stopping halfway into the cast) and then get reflected on your 4th actual cast where you finish the Cyclone, it’s a bit of a mind-game and a good Warrior will eventually be able to reflect a Cyclone, this isn’t a deadly sin, if you’re Cycloning the warrior it means you have pressure already, else he’d be getting Sheeped/Feared. Don’t trinket if you don’t need to. However it’s for obvious reasons better not to get it reflected, and if you fake a few time, I estimate you’ll have 85% success rate with landing your Cyclones.

3. LSD (Destruction/Elemental)

This is possibly an easier variant of the Affliction LSD, as Destruction Warlocks’ survivability is even higher and Shadowfury is an insanely good spell to peel/land CC with. The cons of this setup as Destruction is that you’ll have slighlty less pressure against good mirrors and double healer teams, you also have nothing to cover your Immolate or Flame Shock, Entangling Roots, etc.. However it’s also a really strong setup, the same rules apply for a restoration druid as in the Affliction version, the main difference lies within the two damage dealers.

4. WLD (Affliction/Arms)

Amazing setup, incredibly fun and rewarding to play. However, you need good players, very good players in order to make it work at high level. It’s generally not going to beat an equally skilled MLD/LSD/RLS, so you really have to outplay your opponents, this is possible! I can’t say I recommend this setup if you just want to get high on the ladder, but I would definitely recommend this comp if you want to become a druid which is actually good in every setup, because I can guarantee you once you get good as WLD, you’ll be good as a druid in Caster/Caster/Healer as well, due to the fact that those comps are simply easier to play. In WLD you’ll have to play incredibly defensively however you need to know when to run out and Cyclone. You cannot sit back and heal because against most teams that just won’t cut it. For example, when you play against RMP, you survive the opener by getting peels, I generally try not to Barkskin the opener and make sure I have 4/5 HoT’s + Abolish Poison ticking on me all the time while keeping at least Rejuvenation & Regrowth ticking on your teammates (pet included). If you have full HoT’s and your team members are capable players, you should be able to survive the opener without having to trinket or Barskin. A good RMP might do a bit of a strange opener where they’ll open with a sheep on the Warrior, Cheap Shot -> Gouge -> Kidney – > Garotte on you as the Mage & Priest burst down your Warlock. The easiest way to detect this opener by an RMP is by checking who they dispel and who the priest targets as he runs in. If they do open on your Warlock as stated above, he should not Spell Lock the mage but lock the priest instead if he casts Holy Fire/Smite, unless he has already dispelled your two HoT’s, in which case you should tell him to spell lock the second casted Frost bolt (a good mage is always going to fake the first Frost bolt in order to juke spell lock). After that, tell your Warlock to Teleport & kite the Mage/Priest around the pillar. If this opener does not work for an RMP, it’ll have pretty harsh consequences for them as the rogue will have wasted his opener, wasted a Vanish and the Mage/Priest will both have wasted their haste spells (Icy Veins/Power Infusion), your Warrior will also be on Polymorph DR. In this case, you should get on the Priest as soon as possible with Reck/Bladestorm, when your Warrior does this, it is of vital importance that you keep the rogue away from him. Bash -> Clone is always a good idea. Keep Faerie Fire up at all times. When playing WLD you should tell your team mates to swap a lot. The general idea is that the warrior goes on a target which has full DoT’s (including Haunt, very important!), and the Warrior only swaps to a target which already has full DoT’s, if not the swap will be easier to deal with for the opponents.

4. Strategies & Macros

4.1 Macros

General Resto Macros:

Nature’s Swiftness – Cyclone

#showtooltip
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Cyclone

Nature’s Swiftness – Hibernate

#showtooltip
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Hibernate

Focus Cyclone

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus] Cyclone

Focus Roots

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus] Entangling Roots

Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch

#showtooltip
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Healing Touch

Innervate Self

#showtooltip Innervate
/Cast [@player] Innervate

Focus Hibernate

#showtooltip Hibernate
/cast [@focus] Hibernate

Focus Faerie Fire

#showtooltip Faerie Fire
/Cast [@focus] Faerie Fire

4.2 Strategies(Rotations, CC Usage, Etc..)

I’ll start of with how I generally heal. You should try to keep your team hotted up at all time, you should always have Regrowth and Rejuvenation on your teammates including pets. Use Wild Growth on cooldown. When you’re faced against a team where you’re getting dispelled, you should spam Lifebloom if there are several interrupts (think of MLS here), Swiftmend as soon as a teammate drops 5k HP. You shouldn’t be afraid to use Nourish, it’s a very powerful spell. However, you have to prioritize Swiftmend over Nourish, it’s a good spell but you can still get interrupted. So, be careful when using it, don’t get locked out.

As far as Crowd Control goes, you can brew amazing CC chains, the main thing you have to do is communicate. Communication is the spine of every setup you play, tell your team what you’re doing, before you do it, while you’re doing it and after you’ve done it. You should always keep Faerie Fire on rogues, and if you play WLD just try to put it up on as many people as you can, your Warrior will do more damage and it’s one more debuff for your opponents to dispel. If you follow all of these pointers, you should wind up doing pretty well. If you have any issues, you can always contact me on AT, named Hitcher / Hitcherx.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and it taught you something. – hitcher