The Glade 4.0

So for Christmas my daughter received the World of Warcraft Battle Chest and the Wrath of the Lich King. As such we made sure we got her her first 60 day game card.

I have given a few RL friends of mine her character name since she is on our server, and our faction.

I have not given her any of their information though.

When first installing her 10 day trial I made her look at each race and I explained what little I knew about each class and let her make the decision on which class to play. She chose a Night Elf Druid to play (a class I know less about than all of the others combined). I created a little Night Elf Hunter to spend time with her (and reap the benefits of the whole recruit a friend thing.)

It is difficult letting her develop her own play style, I see her doing things I would do differently, and I want to tell her how I think she should 'do it right'. But this is her game; not mine.

Now we just need to get her a b-net authenticator.

oh and to the point: Any advice that I could give her on how to play a druid? Not as "here is how to do it right" but as "hey, a few people who play druids do this.... you may want to consider it."

For example: she will be asking about talent specs soon... I am clueless.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Simplest advice, feral to level. Bear form is the hardest to kill, cat form lets her be sneaky, water form is fun, etc. On the talent tree just look for the stuff that makes bear a better tank.

Have fun, and definitely, let her learn from her own mistakes. When she asks for advice tell her the least you can and let her ask for more.

Teach her /dance right away. Most kids really enjoy the occasional flip NEs do while jumping.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Got this one already. She absolutely loves the /dance command.

Next comes etiquette... do not do that naked in an auction house.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Cat Durid is 4 fite!

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Holy shitsnacks!

Druid:

1) Feral to level, resto if grouping - dual spec at 40 ftw.

2) talentchic.com will give you popular druid builds and glyphs. Think of it as 'this is what people like' but I'd agree that she should look at and ask you before making any choices she's unsure of. Omen of Clarity is popular for the start of the feral druid level talents because FREE (not instant - sorry, edit) cast heal with a quick shift ftw.

3) Sta > Agi if you have a hunter to bring some DPS.

4) Tanking leather is rare in early game, so you may need to let your pet do the majority of tanking, and teach her aggro management between her and the pet.

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Once, I was a ranger
Then, I was a warlock
And a mage
And a paladin
Now, I seek to be myself

With one and a half Druids under my belt, I second the suggestions already made in this thread! Druids are definitely the most fun class.

As to talents, I will specifically second the idea of going down to Omen of Clarity in the Resto tree. That's 11 points in Resto, but all of them will actually benefit Feral. Furor is particularly useful, though Imp Mark of the Wild was made useful for Feral since I last leveled a Druid, so the decision isn't as clear cut anymore. If respeccing is an option at 50, I would suggest respeccing and ditching those 11 points temporarily so she can buy Mangle, which is absolutely ridiculously OP for leveling in the 50s... but then again if she's always a bear playing with others, maybe the difference won't be huge enough to warrant it.

If she's going to level Feral with this bear plan mentioned, I can come up with a list of gear that spans the 20-50ish range, since the useful pieces are spread out few and far between. I doubt farming instances for specific pieces is all that appealing though. :p There is a pretty crazy weapon that's fairly fast to farm, however, not far into the back door of Gnomeregan. Cooldown clicky is as awesome as it seems. :p

Like you say though, it's her game. I'd probably just not sweat the small stuff and only aim for things like doing each instance once (perhaps once overleveled so you don't need a full group to do it.) Maybe give some BGs a try. Pretty sure Druids are crazy overpowered in WSG 10-19 bracket now, but I don't know how common twinks are which is a definite buzzkill.

Wowhead's druid forums have an excellent guide to both Feral leveling and Balance leveling.

I found my hunter ridiculously OP, and still do at 80, at least compared to my paladin.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

When levelling, I found that while my hunter definitely killed faster, a Protection Paladin or Warrior could actually beat harder opponents (or more opponents at once), which made completing certain quests solo far easier as a paladin or warrior.

(And yes, Prot Warrior is the best levelling spec! My god, the things are indestructable and do more damage than an equivalently levelled elite target just by standing there facing their opponent.)

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Meh.

I like my Prot war, but leveling the hunter was so much easier.

I'm actually talking about the absolute faceroll DPS in instances.

I have my warrior (75) Dual specced Fury/Prot, and they're both fun.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I found out she is also playing with a human warrior.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

As long as the warrior has a good job and can support the family.

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Holy shitsnacks!

lol.

I only mention it because I found it amusing, she is taking my original advice without realizing it

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Ever since the talent rework for Burning Crusade, protection warriors have gotten a lot more soloing capabilities. At launch, it was a ***** to level that way because you couldn't kill anything in a timely manner. Although instances were nice once people figured out you held aggro on everything and didn't die.

I also had loads of fun leveling a destruction warlock. The whole, "do this spec to level, and switch to this at x level for y purpose" schtick never sat well with me. I like to see how my toys work, rather than having to learn how to play all over again once I'm max level. Yeah, I didn't have all the fancy pets and **** that the demonologists had, that made fighting mobs easy because the pet did all the work. I made the peoples go boom and fall down.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Once upon a time, leveling as a prot warrior was like having your junk waxed by a spooky woman named Helga. I know, I did it, and I still have the scars. That's not so much the case anymore.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

My daughter is playing as a human warrior. I have her going up Arms but I had her get some of the tanking spec stuff near the bottom of the protection tree and the crit thing on the first level of fury. She can't afford a dual spec yet, and I wanted her to have something that would allow her to be a viable tank in groups at the pre-60 level but still not be taking all afternoon to kill a few mobs in Stranglethorn or Azshara or whatever.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Leveling a protection warrior wasn't that bad. There was always some night elf hunter you could conscript to kill things for you. And unlike other warriors, you never had pissing matches with your prospective partner over how much damage you dealt.

Though protection is actually able to deal viable soloing damage now, especially up around level 40-50.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.