Druid Shapeshift forms
The Druid's most notable ability is shapeshifting into different forms. All the forms are obtained from the trainer (or from spending talent points) and are no longer obtained with quests.
|Humanoid Form||Level 1||Druid's natural state. Capable of casting all Druid spells using mana, without limitation on school. Also known as "caster form."|
|Level 8||Can do Melee DPS and has a mode similar to Rogue class.
|Level 15||Can tank or off-tank the way a Warrior or Paladin or Deathknight does.
|Level 16||Increases swim speed by 50% and allows underwater breathing.
|Level 16||Gives a 40% run speed increase.
|10 points in balance talents||A spellcasting form that gives nearby party members an additional 5% critical chance to spells cast. In Moonkin form
|Tree of Life (druid ability)||30 points in restoration talents||Transforms the Druid into a Tree of Life for 30 seconds that increases healing by 15%. In Tree of Life form:
|Increases movement speed by 150% (equal to regular flying mounts).
|Increases movement speed by 280% (equal to epic flying mounts).|
For all forms, the following applies:
- The Druid is immune to polymorph in all forms except the default, humanoid form.
- Switching from polymorphed humanoid to another form breaks polymorph.
- Shapeshifting also breaks all movement-impairing effects (like or ) and roots ( or ) except the 3-second daze that can proc when one is attacked from behind by a melee attack.
- Depending on the form, the Druid is considered either humanoid (Caster and Moonkin), beast (Travel, Aquatic, Bear, and Cat), or elemental (Tree of Life); and thus is vulnerable (or immune) to different spells. This also applies to being tracked.
- Shapes are not buffs or magical effects, thus they may not be dispelled.
For a full list of Druid Feral form abilities, see Druid abilities. While shapeshifted into Bear, Cat, Aquatic, Travel, or Flight Form:
- The Druid is considered a Beast.
- Mana regeneration still continues at the same speed as out of the form.
- Mana-reducing abilities such as have no effect while in Bear, and Cat forms (valuable in PvP);
- will continue to tick. It can however be removed as it is a poison.
- Weapons with a "Chance on hit" effect as well as "Chance on hit" enchants such as and will now proc. "Chance on hit" effects built into armor pieces (as opposed to weapons), such as the 's proc also work as of 3.02.
- Weapon DPS and weapon +damage enchants have no effect, however, armor enchants such as the enchant, and armor pieces such as the that boost weapon damage do work. The bonus damage from Weightstones and Sharpening Stones also does work. Weapon enchants that boost stats such as Attack Power and Agility rather than weapon damage also work.
- Items with an "Equip: When hit ..." do work in forms. Some examples of these items are the and 's damage, sleep and proc.
- Weapon skill with the equipped weapon has no effect. Instead, the natural weapons always have the maximum weapon skill for their level.
Shapeshifting and Disguises
If you shapeshift while wearing any disguise, your form buff will remove the disguise buff. This is because it has a blanket effect and can cause unexpected bugs when two buffs are stacked. Items like the were changed in 2007 to not stack with Druid forms so that it would not cause any future problems. Subsequent issues have arisen, such as the jet-pack required for Gunship Battle, giving the message "Cannot use whilst shape-shifted". This can make completing some achievements more challenging for feral and balance druids, such as , requiring creative thinking such as spending the battles as a gunner in Wintergrasp.
Feral Form Appearance
Each race has a distinct model for its bear and cat forms, and there are five different textures for each model. These textures correspond to the skin tone of Tauren druids, or the hair color of the other races. Druids can change their design at any time by visiting a barbershop and choosing a new skin tone or hair color as appropriate for their race. Since there are more hair colors and skin tones than unique textures, some colors and tones will produce the same designs. The hair and skin colors chosen will, in most cases, correspond to the colors seen in the design of each form. Similar colors that share a particular cat texture will not necessarily share the same bear texture.