Druid guide

What Forever changed

• Revive is a new out-of-combat resurrection at level 12, beside Rebirth. Omen of Clarity (20) and Nature's Grasp (10) are trained, not talents.
• Cat Form now comes from a level-20 quest chain in Moonglade that also teaches Prowl, Claw and Rip. Skyborne learn Bear Form from new quests on Zephras Isle.
• Weapon damage counts in Cat and Bear Form: Claw, Shred and Primal Bite scale with your weapon, and Cat Form gives only 12 attack power plus Agility (Classic 40).
• Tiger's Fury is gone. Shifting Power turns 55% of base mana into 40 energy on a 16-second cooldown, the Forever answer to powershifting; Furor no longer gives free energy on a shift.
• Bears get Primal Bite (the renamed Mangle, no debuff), Lacerate at 42 and Berserk. Frenzied Regeneration heals up to 100% of your health. Swipe gains 3% of attack power and Primal Bite threat is roughly doubled. Bear and Dire Bear threat bonus is +50%, crit Rage +100%, and Rage from damage taken works.
• Balance gets Eclipse (Wrath speeds up the next two Starfires), Genesis and Nature's Majesty; Wrath is cheap and does +50% damage; Hurricane has no cooldown.
• Restoration gets Wild Growth (a party HoT), Gift of the Earthmother (1-second global cooldown on instant heals) and a Swiftmend that no longer eats the HoT. HoTs can crit.
• Leader of the Pack (melee and ranged crit) and Moonkin Form (spell crit) are both raid-wide, so one of each covers the whole raid and neither wastes the other.
• All forms are immune to Disarm, Barkskin is free and usable in form, Entangling Roots works indoors (one target at a time), and Growl has an 8-second cooldown.
• Every tree has a one-point milestone talent at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points. Moonkin Form, Berserk and Wild Growth sit at 31, so they need level 40.

Every spell, new and changed ones marked, by spec: Balance, Feral Cat, Feral Bear, Restoration.

Strengths

• Can fill any role, and switch in an emergency: tank a mob in Bear, throw a heal, or res a player.
• Two resurrections: Rebirth in combat and Revive out of it.
• Brings Mark of the Wild (1 hour), Innervate, curse and poison removal, Faerie Fire and a party crit aura.
• The best mobility in the game: Travel Form at 30, Prowl, Dash, Cat speed from Feral Swiftness indoors too, and every shift breaks roots and snares.
• Very little downtime: HoTs and self-heals between pulls, and mana regenerates while you fight in form.

Gaps you plan around

• No reliable interrupt, no silence and no snare. The Bear Feral Charge tooltip says it interrupts, but Blizzard says Druids can't; treat it as untested.
• Bear threat was weak in player reports after the first fixes. Bear Form's threat bonus is now +50%, Rage from damage taken works and Demoralizing Roar causes threat; no player has reported a pack pull since. Swipe's 3% attack-power scaling is small and Feral Instinct no longer adds threat.
• Hybrid DPS is tuned about 5% below the pure classes, and cats have no cleave by design: Warriors are "the kings of cleave".
• No magic or disease removal; crowd control is roots, Hibernate on beasts and dragonkin, and Bash.
• Levels 1 to 10 are slow: you fight with Wrath and Moonfire until Bear Form.