I know that I can level, but is it going to be painfully slow? Are there things that I should know to make it more damage oriented? I usually play solo.
I found it painfully slow killing things.
2 Likes
Gather as many mobs as you can and cleave them all down! Makes it the fastest leveling spec 
2 Likes
Leveling as guardian in the dungeon system is probably the fastest way to level.
Instant ques. God mode status due to bad scaling. It’s pretty great.
1 Like
Yes. I tried it from 1-70 back when we still had 120 levels. I think I made it to 65 before I switched to Balance and never looked back.
While I agree with this, you can also do quests that require clearing entire zones when you’re bored.
I have lvled many toons, but I have never been one to sit and Grind out fast spawning mobs. Maybe in the Beginning of the exp’s where a lot of people are lvling/questing at the same time.
I have found questing/objectives to be a very efficient way to lvl. So Feral it is typically my Go To for lvling. Feral gets steady insta heals and more defensives. Stealth Rake, Dot and go, things typically die quick.
If you want to que as a bear for a dungeon, you already have a Agi weap.
Can you? Yes
Are there faster ways? Probably
With as easy as it is to swap specs, why not use them all?
If quests are targetted, or gathering style. Feral.
Then if I have a quest that is “Kill 20 of these things”, Bear and Cleave.
Wanna queue quickly? Bear or Resto
Fewer defensives. Weaker heals. Smaller health pool, weaker against multiple mobs.
Trust me, I’m a feral main and will vouch for Feral day in and day out. But Guardian is where it’s at. Even for questing/objectives (which is what I was referring to as well) because there’s always conveniently mobs in the way, on the way, or they are the quest/objective.
Go gather up 5 mobs at any level below 60, and see which one does better. Hint: it’ll be Guardian. Gather mobs at range with Moonfire with no cooldown, swipe (AoE) has no energy charge, and is spammable, a bigger health pool, and a lot stronger on demand heals if required.
The only thing that may be faster as Feral while leveling is single target scenarios (boss/elite mobs).
I’ve leveled multiple druids over the years and guardian is the way to go. Single target is low but you can pull everything in sight and walk away. Can’t do that as feral / balance.
I remember back in tbc when quests would say 3 or 5 players recommend. You would see people I general chat saying “guys I need help with x”.
Meanwhile im just casually soloing everything like…. Huh?
Those 3-5 people quests are cake this Exp. While leveling in (Fate) i would just Stealth Rake, TF and Convoke. Mob’s generally Sub 50% before they left the stun.
Packs of mobs, are grouped or spread out often. Typically its 1-3 mobs clustered and then another 15-20 yards away. Occasionally as Guardian I would have leashing problems if the mobs didn’t die fast enough. Perhaps I just don’t have the patience to lvl guardian. I felt I had enough defensives between Incap Roar/Frenzy Gen, bash, Barkskin, SI, regrow procs to cycle through and get me out of any hairy situation. Leaving me to Dot up 3 to 5 comfortably…with the first one dead before I Finished the 3rd.
To each their own. I couldn’t level as guardian unless multiple people were in the area to help kill things faster
Yeah…. it hasn’t meant what it used to for a long time.
It is possible to level as Guardian for sure.
You will have good cleave, will survive large pulls and can even solo group quests.
However, your single target damage is like 1/3 of a dps spec. But someone like leveling boomie will die to a pack of 6-9 mobs, while as a level 30+ you can prob live through a pack of 20 just fine.
Best way to level as tank is through dungeon finder. Tanks get pretty fast queues.
In ye olden time, we’d just say it was a druid thing lol. Except for hunters, they did druid things better than druids did on soloing…BUT STILL.
There are so many exploits (ahem… creative mechanic uses and efficiency optimization tactics) for leveling in the game now, especially for old content.
Just google a few videos and you’ll be 1-48 in something like 7 hours.
After that Threads of Fate.
1x torghast with quests
then do the 4 base quests to fill each zone’s bars (by doing their area bar quests and a few dailies)
That should put you at 57ish.
Then run 3 or 4 instances for legendary pattern.
You can get leggo patterns before opening venari/legendary crafting?
That’s a good point, probably not.
But still running those instances should put you to 60.
Ill second this, I have leveled about 5 druids to max and guardian is the way to go, you get instant dungeon queues, and if you want to quest you just do massive pulls with no risk of dying, it’s way faster than the dps specs.
As a guardian, your single target damage is hot trash, but you should have no problems moonfiring like 20 mobs at a time and just thrashing them all down.