Returning Player Druid Frustration

Hello all:

I am returning to the game after a long break (2018) and I am finding it hard to play a Druid again. I leveled as a Moonkin and ran 10 mans as a Resto and I had a lot of fun. I leveled a lock when I started playing again and I wanted a melee character to run also.

I leveled up to about 15 and decided to use my Shadowlands boost to get her up to 50. I spec’ed feral using information from Icy Veins and the Method site.

I am doing terrible! On single mob fights I am usually at 20% or lower in health when completed; if I pull more that one mob, I usually die. I have a “raid cleave” build (I can’t include the link, it is on their Feral Druid page, second build) and I’m trying my best to use the rotations from both Method and Icy Veins; they are very similar. I went with this build for the AOE abilities compared tot he single target build.

My goal with this character is to level by questing and have fun farming some of the old dungeons. Hopefully if I ever figure her out I will be able to do some level 70 dungeons and other end game content.

I achieved two levels last night before I had to log off; I have never been so frustrated playing a game. I believe that the green gear that was given with the boost isn’t up to the level that I am try to play at? I tried to replace some items last night at the AH but everything was selling at several hundred to over 1k gold for lack luster gear.

Any help with suggested builds, easy rotation for learning how to play the feral class and gear upgrades would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Have you tried Guardian?

Hello fellow warden of nature.

I too recently just leveled my druid up in hopes to make a return to its glory. Much like you I play balance and love to heal. I did also try feral just like yourself.

With that being said I learned very quickly that all the way up to 70 is a learning experience. Learn the core mechanics of the class/spec you are playing. Please dont get caught up on numbers, they will come with gear.

Onthat note, your gear score is VERY VERY low, I would also suggest checking the AH to see if you can get easy and cheap replacements or of course running some dungeons. Not only the loot drops from the bosses but you also get a chest at the end. If you have heirlooms that would be best as they scale with you as long as you upgrade them.

There are tons of guides on youtube.

I also highly recommend using the Druid Discord as well!

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Thank you for the replies:

Haralfnu: I tried tanking early on my original druid and I did not enjoy it.

Khronnkah. I had a feeling that the boost gear was very low. I did look on the AH there just wasn’t anything that I could afford. I’ll try some questing and see if I can get some gear. I have two pieces of leather heirloom that scale to 90 I believe. I will put those on to replace some of the level 63 gear.

Am I better with the single target build or just stick with the raid cleave and work toward gear?

Its the gear like others have said. I leveled from 60 to 70 as oomkin and just got chunked along the way. Once you get geared game goes back to normal. If go single target build, and swap to the aoe builds if you do a dungeon. It lets you save the builds and swap between them easily.

Like most dps, you cant pull many mobs until you have great gear. You should do 1 mob at time.
If you want to pull many you should play tank mode

Pretty much this. Boosted gear is really bad and should be replaced as soon as you have the option to. It is playable, but will make your life a lot harder.

Side note if you’re tight on gold, thankfully a lot of money making guides point to content outside of dragonflight. You can net yourself an easy 100k gold with a little research/work.

I didn’t mean specifically to tank, though. If you are just questing/doing world content I would recommend Guardian.

It all comes down to gear honestly. You can only pull as much as you can safely kill.

Sure being in tank spec makes it easier because your toolkit changes but thats not to say you cant do it as Boomkin, its just going to take using the right tool for the right job.

Spec into things thatll help you CC/Space create. Get your instant casts lined up so you can burst a surprise mob. As a druid you get to pick what form you take and that can include popping into bear and getting some regen going.

We are playing the most versatile class ( Fight me if you dont agree ), we have a lot of tools but figuring out what works for your spec and your playstyle is most important. Also if you are part of a guild most people could make you some decent gear at about 60ish.

Dont fret itll get easier!

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I ran three of four pug runs last night. I gained 4 levels and updated 8 pieces of gear. One epic, two blue and the rest greens that were double the stats as the boost gear. I was doing almost double the damage that I had and felt much more comfortable. I updated my spec and changed a few things around in my rotation. I am definitely getting more comfortable. I’m just not used to moving around in a fight while on the target. It takes awhile to go from running a caster to a melee.

Thank you all for your input!

2 Likes

Great news!

I’m with these others. I was a feral druid long ago in vanilla-cataclysm before I stopped playing. I got back in on Dragonflight and it was all different. I was recommended to go guardian for leveling and questing and it is definitely amazing. Gotta kill 10 things? Grab as many as you can and you won’t die. Boom, quest done.
I started tanking after that and found I really enjoyed it.
I leveled a kul tiran druid up as boomkin and resto and healing was ez mode but just not my play style. Moonkin was also not fun for me so I switched him to tank as well.

new to druid as well, level one up to 20 feral, i find constantly needing energy, lots of time just stand there can’t do anything instead of spamming dmg, am I missing something? and dps is low, this is frustrating design

The only place you should be having energy problems is possibly bosses while leveling. At level 21 you can get Tireless Energy.