Feral and Balance Druid Leveling

Welcome to the World of Warcraft!  Hopefully, you have chosen to be a Druid (it doesn't matter which faction - alliance or horde) and a druid is a great class to level.  Leveling a druid is quick and easy, no matter if you choose to level as a Feral Druid or as a Balance Druid.  The reason for this is that you are still able to heal up after you get some damage, which is a great added bonus. In this article, I will go through describe a great Feral leveling build and a great Balance leveling build. The Restoration tree can be partially used as you will see, but a full Restoration build will slow down your leveling (and our goal is to level as quickly as possible and make as much gold as possible).

FERAL DRUID
As a Feral Druid that wants to level up fast you should specialize in your Cat Form ability because cat form is better for leveling than the Bear Forms available.  Bear form will later become your main focus if you plan on becoming a tank.  Cat form will be your main focus while leveling because of the massive DPS you can do.  There are some talents that are better for Bears then for Cats so these can be skipped.  Please note that this is a solo leveling build that focuses on maximizing the damage of your Cat Form.

Here is a great example of Feral leveling build.

Instead of telling you why the talents that I chose are chosen, I will tell you why you can skip the ones that are not chosen:

Feral Instinct: Swipe is a Bear’s ability so you can skip it. The reduced chance to become visible is not really important while leveling (though... there are times you could use it).

Thick Hide: This talent supports the tanking kind of Druids, not adding anything to quicker leveling.  Possibly a good choice for later on - if you decide to tank.

Brutal Impact: It is more of a Bear ability since it reduces the cooldown of Bash and makes Bash last 1 more second. While for a cat it only gives an additional 1 second to his Pounce stun duration. It’s not bad though so that’s why you can spend a point here.

Natural Reaction: Pure Bear talent.

Primal Tenacity: Not really important for leveling purposes. You will remain in Cat Form and fear and Stun effects are not a killer while leveling.

BALANCED DRUID
While it is still possible to level extremely quick as a balanced druid, I much prefer the feral route.  However, if you really want to level Balanced, I can give you a few tips here too!  As a Balance Druid you just try to get as much possible damage while not running out of mana too often.  This is a very tricky process to get down, but once you do, you can be pretty much unstoppable.

Here is a great example of Balance leveling build.

Again, instead of telling you why the talents that I chose are chosen, I will tell you why you can skip the ones that are not chosen:

Genesis: Isn’t really worth it since Moonfire and Wasp Swarm are the only Dot’s that can be used.

Brambles: Yes, a lot of Entangling Roots can be used while leveling + Thorns, Bark skin and Treants boosted.

Improved Faerie Fire: More something for raids, you don’t want to spend time casting this on a mob.

While you shouldn't completely use the Restoration tree for leveling, you should add some Restoration talents to this build because of three reasons: Improved Mark of the Wild, Naturalist, and Omen of Clarity.  Improved Mark of the Wild is still one of the better buffs out there and highly sought after in party quest.  Naturalist which increases your damage done by 10% - which will result in faster leveling.  Finally, Omen of Clarity which gives you a chance to use your abilities without spending energy, is another great choice.

What Makes Druids Better?
Simply put, survivability.  Since druids are a strong hybrid class, they have the ability to heal themselves when they need too.  This not only helps you level fast (the key to leveling fast is minimizing death and maximizing playing time)  but it also helps you save gold because you don't have to buy food - as often.

Hopefully you got a good overview of how to build your druid to maximize leveling speed.  Almost all Chinese power levelers use the Feral build when leveling Druids.  This saves a crap load of time and you don't have to wait for mana to recharge or use precious gold for mana drinks.  Let me know how you like to level druids or how you plan on leveling your druid and be sure to keep checking back for more information as I will be updating rapidly.  Enjoy your stay and I hope to help you become the next Legend of the World of Warcraft!