How to win as a druid

[fatra]

Hello,
lately, i am getting really desparate in PVP, gettint totaly raped by some classes and i have absolutly no clue how to counter them.

Warlock:
I allways trinker first fear, decursing myself. I have tried face warlock in cat form. I tried healing myself and survive how he goes oom, but nothing helps. I can get killed by warlock 4 lvls lower.

Mage:
I jsut cant cast spell against mage and rjuvation is not enough to keep me alive. I cant kill him in cat form, because he kites me and shapeshifting cost too much mana.

Shaman:
Absolutly destroyed when i shapeshift out of bear form to heal myself. Dont have enough dmg to kill him either.

Can someone give me some advices how to counter these classes? Right now i cant even run away from them. They just kill me in seconds.

[Blaze]

This is vanilla, some classes just match up better against others. Warlocks are a tough fight as feral, especially when you take into account soulstone and sacrifice at lower levels.

Mages you can usually do well against, but you definitely need improved shapeshifting and a full mana bar (and maybe even innervate). You're basically a rogue with no vanish kick or improved sprint so you may need a mana potion to continue shifting in and out to kill a mage.

Shamans beat feral, pretty much every spec of shaman beats feral. Maybe if you're 1/29/21 with better gear you'd be able to burst a shaman down and NS heal without worrying about earth shock, but as it stands they'll purge your hots and innervate - and you don't have a kick to interrupt their heals.

Welcome to vanilla.

[Lorilay]

I only fight warlocks when they're at 10% hp and have pulled at least 3 mobs. That's your most reliable strategy 1v1 as a druid.

[Jeddite]

Feral Druids in classic WoW are terrible (absolutely horrendous) at dealing damage. Sure, that's just my perspective -- others may disagree. That said, Cat Druids are exceeding weak due to the lacking talents in the Feral tree. Plus, the overall wonkiness of Druid talents in classic Wow (e.g. Omen of Clarity in the Balance tree.) that just can't be avoided. If you want to PVP as a Feral Druid, you can do very well as a flag carrier in WSG -- provided you gear yourself for tanking and not for damage-dealing.

Cat Druids really don't start not being weak in PVP until TBC when you get the Mangle talent (with it's synergy with Shred). Druids in general are on the weak side in classic WoW (due to Blizzard's design perspective about hybrid classes -- at the time). Outgearing your opponents will help, but Claw -> Shred just doesn't have the damage potential to make Cat Druids good duelists. And until Bear Druids get Lacerate (also TBC), it will likely be hard to duel Warriors and Rogues with Maul alone.


But you asked "how to win". Well... in Classic WoW, hybrids were pigeon-holed into raid healing (Blizzard developers said as much, in so many forum posts way back when). Restoration Druids are excellent in PVP: heal-over-time spells, the single "biggest" direct heal, and unparalleled mobility. Feral Druids can be excellent flag-runners and PVP tanks. I don't have much direct experience with Balance Druids at Level 60 -- I expect they do very well when they're landing Starfires on unsuspecting enemies, but they probably suffer some of the same 1v1 challenges that Feral Druids do.

[Takefive]

Druids have nice chances to win some classes if we are talking about the "duels" at lvl60. Warriors, mages, rogues, hunters. It's almost impossible for me to defeat warlocks, priests or shamans lol. But it's in a common way of the "duel" understanding when two people are fighting each other on the some kind of meadow or arena. Efficiency of this class depends on many conditions/restrictions (That's fair for all other classes). Like you have nice movement speed bonuses and ability to use roots outside the buildings and at the same time you can't even shapeshift to the travel form inside. Or you can have many advantages because of an environment if you can get out from enemy los whenever you want to. Jump off a high cliffs in cat form lol, try to kite your enemy, try to use different talents and gear, use strong parts of your class.

Every class is good at something. For example I don't think you can kill any mage if he is playing extremely defensive or just trying to escape. You are oom and die if you continue attempts to kill that guy. However druids are pretty good at pvp and fun to play. I found them completely op at lvl ~35. And you know - sometimes win means supporting or avoiding of fight.

Also you all remember those first days of Nostalrius when druids were stealing every quest mob with moonfire in starting areas ;D That was sort of domination in pvp too.

[Tam]

get BS trinket with 30 sec immunity to fear effects and rape any horde fearspamming mongol
or restorative pot, but in this case use trashbufs aka barkskin/NG/r1 rejuv if mongol with FH

[Ravni]

Your best bet for 1v1 is resto, especially at lvl 60 and with higher gear levels, particularly with the pvp set speed bonus. You can slowly whittle away mages & warriors at max range with moonfire+insect swarm & travel form while rejuv/swiftmending any damage that you take - it will take a very long time to beat a frost mage though. Fire mages are actually more deadly, as they can get a couple lucky stun procs and just burst you down. Kiting with high latency is difficult though.

You can do the same thing against hunters except kite them in their deadzone instead of at range with travel form. Moonfire, insect swarm, then kite at 5-10 yards or just melee them in travel form. Unshift/reshift if they start to get range after a wingclip (they will die long before you go oom). Rejuv/swiftmend any damage you take, and barkskin to root them or hibernate the pet if you like but that isn't even required. Make sure you shift out of travel form quickly if they start to cast fear beast. You might need innervate, but It becomes almost comically easy once you get tier2+ level healing gear.

You won't beat a good prep rogue with cooldowns if he gets the jump on you, but they are very beatable if you initiate the fight. Pvp trinket + the speed set bonus are vital as the speed allows you to instant unshift-reshift into bear to drop crippling and then move faster than the rogue, which forces a sprint - so if you can survive through two sprints you win. Likewise, nature's grasp should force a vanish/blind. If the rogue dodges your bash you are in trouble, but tidal charm & engineering help a lot here too. Keep abolish poison on yourself any time you are outside of bear, and try to keep faerie fire/dots up as much as you can too (keep track using dotimer and reapply early).

You won't beat any healer or hybrid with healing spells 1v1 no matter what spec you are, but they should likewise pose little threat to stop you from running away. You won't beat a halfway competent warlock 1v1 no matter what you do.

[tunguska]

I disagree with some of the others, and would go as far to say that feral druids are very strong in pvp.. with the right gear and tactics.

As a feral druid (in pvp), you cannot forget about your mana pool, because once you are OOM you are dead. So keep this in mind and try to mix and match your itemization to have a good mix of stam/int and attackpower/crit. Get yourself mark of tyranny, smoking heart of the mountain, warden staff, etc. You can easily get yourself over 10k armor, and have a very strong chance at defeating warriors/rogues/hunters.

For mages, start off in cat form and open with a tiger fury+ravage, and quickly shred or claw. Once they blink quickly swap into bear form and charge them. DURING the charge you can shift into cat again, so by the time the charge finishes you are already in cat form in front of your oponent, with the right talents you should have at least 60 energy at this point and can proceed to shred/claw them, and bite or rip them with your 3-5 combo points at this time. Chase them until they frost nova or kite you again, hop out toss a rejuv on yourself, go into bear form and keep on them (charge cooldown should be up again). Don't shift TOO much or you will go OOM, so you gotta figure that part out.

Another good trick for mages, is wait until after they blink, THEN charge and use your bash. This will give you ~5 seconds to cast a heal, and you can usually even squeeze off a full blown healing touch, then back into cat form for deeps. The talents to reduce shifting costs are you friend, and furor 5/5 is a must.

Shamans will kill you. Purge your hots, shock you when you heal, and have too much armor and survivability to burst down. Sorry.

Warlocks are almost impossible if soul link, but other more damage oriented specs can be managed. Although you will usually lose that fight.

rogues/warriors/hunters you should have a very good chance against, but again it depends on how skilled you are. A good trick for these melee classes is to use your feral charge which will "lock" them in place, keep running through them after you charge, shift out and cast roots. Make sure to fairie fire if it's a rogue. This could give you a moment to heal, re-stealth, and get the jump on them again.

Feral druids take a lot of skill, and a lot of tactics. They are not easy, and most of them suck, hence why people will tell you that the class itself sucks.

Good luck brother!

[Sham]

One thing you should know about vanilla. If you want to win in solo PvP, be prepared. Tons of potions, engineering (iron granades are amazing even at 60. 3 second stun to interrupt casts or to heal yourself), healing herbs from Felwood. There are tons of different trinkets that could help different classes.

Dont rely only on your class abilities. Take advantage of everything that game has to offer. Also against shamans and mages mastering fake casting is a must. Start heal - interrupt instantly - he shocks/counterspells - you heal.