With a typical Resto Druid spec for Arena, the Druid will have access to:

• Caster Form
  
• Bear Form
  
• Cat Form
  
• Travel Form (Cheetah)
  
• Tree Form (potentially)

In addition to each having their own strengths or specialized roles, any change in form by a Druid allows them to break movement impairing effects and polymorph.





Caster Form - Caster, or normal, Form is pretty obvious as a Druid has access to all its spells and abilities aside from the specific Bear/Cat Form damage and crowd control talents.




Bear Form - In Bear, the Druid gains four times its armor in caster form. Instead of describing this functionally just think of it this way. A Druid in Caster Form is about the same as a rogue in terms of armor, in Bear Form a Druid is basically a holy Paladin. Additionally their stamina is increased by 25% making their health pool go up considerably.

The damage output of a Bear Form resto Druid is nothing to worry about but as mentioned above, its crowd control and Feral charge can be huge game breakers. One other important factor for Bear Form is that a Druid’s mana pool is replaced by Rage similar to a Warrior making it impossible to mana drain them.


Cat Form – A resto Druid will start in Cat Form to be Stealth (Prowl) and to open with its crowd control ability Pounce. Beyond that there are only three main reasons to go Cat Form during an Arena match.

The first is getting away from a melee-based class which is only really effective when used with Dash. A Cat Form Druid has no run speed bonus over Caster Form. The second is to do some damage without using mana. A Cat Form Druid won’t do amazing damage but he can kill a Hunter or possibly a Warlock pet especially if they can Line of Sight the pet from his master. Finally, Cat Form avoids mana drain as the Druid’s mana is replaced by energy similar to a Rogue.


Travel Form – This is the true escape form for a Druid. Travel Form gives an additional 40% movement speed bonus. However, it lacks any defensive abilities making it just as weak as Cat Form and Caster Form.

Additionally, a Druid’s mana pool is not removed unlike Cat Form and Bear Form meaning a Druid can by mana drained while in Travel Form.


Tree Form – While some resto Druid’s will have this ability, it’s rarely used in Arena matches, particularly against Warlocks as the Tree form is considered an Elemental and can therefore be banished by a quick Warlock.

Another downside is that a Druid’s movement speed is reduced by 20%. The resto Druid’s spell repertoire is also reduced to fewer spells then in caster form. The only real positive for Arena matches is that the mana cost of all those spell it can cast are reduced by 20%.