Hotbar, attack skills and when to use what..Follow

Howdy all...

I've just taken over my fiance's lvl 41 tauren druid. She played it for a while, then decided she really didn't like it, it didn't fit her play-style, etc. Fair enough...she gave it 40 levels, tried resto and feral and played with balance and it just wasn't what she wanted to do. So, the cow's been sitting abandoned in the barn for 2-3 months now, and I decided I'd give it a go.

Trouble is, I know next to nothing about druids save for the most basic stuff one learns through the natural course of things...they can tank, they can DPS...melee and casting, they can heal...all depending on spec of course.

I specced her to Feral (focusing on cat) for purposes of leveling, hit the auction house and picked up a full set of level-appropriate STR/AGI/STA gear, then went to set up her hot bar....and was totally stumped. Many of these talents, skills and abilities look almost identical! Rip, Shread, Tear, Ravage, Rake...wow.

Basically, what I'm looking for is a quick crash course in Feral Druid 101...what attacks do you open with, what attacks do you use after that, what closers, and...then what? How's your basic Feral Druid fight progress? What sort of set-up and button placement do you use on your hotbar?

Also, since I assume at some point I'm going to have to pop into Bear form even though I'm going to stick with cat form for the most part, I'd appreciate the same info with regards to Bear form, and suggestions on when to do it.

Thanks for any and all help!

Edited, Apr 13th 2007 2:40pm by AzraelWarraven

I usually play on a laptop, with a trackpad below the keyboard, so both hands are in roughly standard position, and I use both for hotkeys. I use the default q-w-e-a-s-d movement keys and find 'f' too important for targeting to switch to something else. So I use the standard 1...0 keys for many commands, as well as y-u-i-h-j-k. (Whatever commands some of those may have executed I can get with the mouse, as they don't need to be done quickly, mid-battle.) In general, I also try to assign keys to similar functions across my various characters and druid forms. E.g. '=' is Shadow-meld in caster form, Prowl in cat form. '4' is Rejuvenation in druid caster, Renew on my priest. '0' is healing potion and '-' is mana potion on all characters, shift+'0' is bandage, ',' is the most common buff (Mark of the Wild, Arcane Intellect, Power Word: Fortitude), etc.

6, the hardest to reach, is for the rare Ravage, and 5 is Pounce; neither of them needs to be hit again while the fight is in progress (except if for curing a poison or curse in caster form, but that's usually okay to take a half second to reach).
As others note, the standard sequence (with my keys for it) is Pounce (5) from any direction -> Faerie Fire (9) with right hand while using left to move behind the target if I'm not already -> Shred (4) (no Mangle for me until 61) -> Shred -> Claw (2) or Rake (3) -> Rip (7) or Bite (8). So my right hand is free to pan the camera or whatever during most of the sequence and then pops up to hit the finishing move. I don't have much trouble now using my left hand fingers simultaneously for movement and attacking.

Choosing moves: Always open with Pounce except against a sitting cloth-wearer in PvP. Keep the Mangle debuff up (when you have Mangle). Shred from behind if you can (during the Pounce stun, and throughout the fight if you have a tank holding aggro). Rake is better than Claw against bleeders, but only once at a time (so you don't overwrite the DoT), and you might as well Claw if the fight's about to be over. Similarly, Rip is better than Bite, but only against bleeders when the fight's not going to end right then. Simple, eh?

In bear form, 2 is still for the single-target, spam-it-if-not-doing-anything-else attack, Maul. (NB, as Itharr teaches, it might not be good actually to spam this when you need to build rage.) Since bears can't use potions, 0, normally for healing, is Frenzied Regeneration and -, for mana, is Enrage.

Edited, Apr 14th 2007 5:12pm by GoedelOnNathrezim

if it's not elite, it generally won't last long enough for a rip to be better than bite. at least, that's been the case for me while leveling my feral to 67...

also, i like to pounce -> mangle -> and then shred instead of rake. even without brutal impact, the stun usually lasts long enough to get the energy for it. it's just a question of when your energy bar gets the tic.

having ~25% crit rate, i don't usually bother with pounce in favor of tiger's fury -> ravage. i think this would work better than pounce before you get mangle anyway, but don't quote me on that.

after an opening, all that's left is to claw or mangle for more combo points and let go with either bite or rip.

FFF immediately after either the pounce combo or a ravage -- the sooner you reduce its armor, the more damage you do =) shouldn't need to be worried about cower for a long while yet (just depends on where you're in a threat-limited fight).

if you get an add, shift to bear in order to save healing later or finish off your target in cat and then heal before cat again to continue. if you get three mobs, go bear immediately to finish a target and then use bash and roots to squeak in a heal before bear again. without mangle, you'll basically just be mauling. keep FFF and roar up at all times to make the fights that much easier.

if you're tanking in bear: swipe is your friend! be sure to have aggro on all mobs involved in a fight so that they don't run at your healer (or anyone else) after the first spell s/he casts. if there's an off tank, be aware of whether or not you need to save a taunt to peel it off him. i heard once that thorns causes hate, if that's the case, only put it on people you want to have the aggro from it. in solo, it doesn't matter and you should just keep thorns up if you like the damage.

so then! i set up my bars thusly =)

cat: claw (now mangle), bite, shred, prowl, ravage, rake (now maim), rip

bear: taunt, mangle (when you get it), roar, maul, swipe, charge, frenzied regen, enrage, challenging roar

caster: starfire, moonfire, rejuv, HT, regrowth, wrath (now lifebloom), roots, hurricane, decurse, remove poison, thorns, motw (barkskin, tranquility and wrath are on my alt-bars along with things like racials and potions and whatnot)

i don't put my abilities in any order of importance, i have them arranged so that i can reach the abilities i want to when i usually need to. for healing, i have them all close together and in a good position for my index finger. for dps, mangle and shred are close to my ring-finger and bite can be reached quickly by my middle finger (for runners). for tanking, taunt is ready for an immediate use and abilities like mangle that i have to spam constantly are in reach while dangerous or situational abilities like challenging roar are out of my way.

i don't use tranquility much (a shame, i love the sparkles!), so it's on my alt bar along with barkskin which i don't want to accidentally use. i keep buffs and cures on my action bar because i may need to spam those and i don't want to need a combination key at the same time for it.

Edited, Apr 16th 2007 5:03pm by FractalSynapse