Druid Sub-Class Names

Lore Story
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Within the greater scope of Druidism, there seems to be a number of subdivisions based around what aspects of Druidism one focuses on most. Druids of the Claw for example focus mostly on the reverence of Ursoc and Ursoc or Ashmane, perfecting the usage of bear and cat forms respectively.

My question is what defines the following other subdivisions of Druids as a whole, and what gameplay “spec” (Balance, Restoration etc.) would you use to describe them?

  • Druids of the Talon
  • Druids of the Wild
  • Druids of the Moon
  • Druids of the Grove

As always, many thanks in advance to relevant answers.

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There are indeed specialized subgroups within druidism. Although some of them are very, very easy to attach to one of the in-game druid specializations, not all of them are.

Druid subgroups differ, lorewise, by their chosen patrons. For example, a Druid of the Talon follows the teachings of Aviana, the Mistress of Birds. A Druid of the Claw follows Ursoc and Ursol (as you rightfully pointed out!) but not Ashamane – that would be the Ashen, protectors of the Fangs of Ashamane and followers of Ashamane’s teachings. There are also Druids of the Branch, who (presumably) follow the teachings of Aessina. But since this isn’t really your question, I won’t ramble about this.

First, the Druids of the Talon. They are Druids who chose Aviana as their patron, and it shows in that they take the form of birds. But it is very hard to slot the Talons into an in-game specialization; the bird form is a general ability usable for all specializations. With what little overlap they have, I’ll probably say Balance is your best bet – but in general, all work for Druids of the Talon.

Druids of the Wild are a tricky one, because these are Druids that follow all paths; they learn all forms, they learn all kinds of magic, and are essentially jack-of-all-trades. They do not lock themselves to one Wild God. Generally, the PC Druid is considered a Druid of the Wild, considering they have mastery over all forms and are able to pick whatever specialization they want in-game. So, any specialization!

We know very, very little about Druids of the Moon. However, the namesake of the Druid subgroups often refers to what they do or who they follow (e.g Antler = stags = Malorne, Talon = birds = Aviana). We see, however, that Druids of the Moon shapeshift into Moonkin and that means they, combined with their name, makes them a very, very likely participant for the Balance specialization.

Druids of the Grove are much like Druids of the Moon in that we know fairly little (even less than the Moon druids, actually). I don’t think they have any particular specialization that they can really be assigned to, considering they are very vague. In-game, they often simply seem bound to one place/one “Grove” that they protect (see: Alterac Valley). As such, it’s nigh impossible to place them into a specialization because we simply know too little about their capacities.

A little correction here: although Druids of the Claw were showed as being able to use Cat form in the past (and they probably are!), they do not follow Ashamane as their patron. That would be the Ashen, protectors of the Fangs of Ashamane who consider the Panther to be their patron.

I hope this was clear enough. The post became a lot longer than I wanted it to be - let me know if you have questions!

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The idea that struck me for what a Druid of the Talon would be was a Druid that not only specialised in their flight form, but how to use it seamlessly in combat situations too, such as clawing as their enemies or in the case of friends, spiriting them away to safety like the Eagles in the Tolkien universe.

And I suppose then that while the Druids of the Wild are jacks-of-all-trades, they are masters of none in the sense that they can never command themselves with the same prowess in bear form for example as a Druid of the Claw can? Or is it the opposite direction in that Druids of the Wild have/aim to master every path to its highest degree and become “super druids” so to speak?

PS: Very informative answer, highly appreciated.

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Druids of the Antler worship Malorn.
Druids of the Fin worship the aquatic wildgod who the druids get their aqua forms from.
Druids of the Flame worshiped Ragnoros.
Druids of the Branch were the ones to look after world trees.
Druids of the Scythe were the original Worgen.
Druids of the Fang were the ones you fought in Wailing Caverns.
Druids of the Nightmare worshiped Xavius and the Nightmare.

What defines them is who they worship are their primary wildgod and the totem they wield in respect of that wildgod.

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Lorewise, that generally seems to be the case. In-game, however, we have less luck - there is no in-game spec that works with travel form. And I believe that was what your question was about, unless I misunderstood!

Since I spot you’re from Argent Dawn and in the The Eternal Leaf guild, I’ll assume you’re also somewhat into roleplaying; there, we don’t really have restrictions. You can emote that you are attacking in bird form, and people can use their imagination to assume it so.

The former is correct! Although Druids of the Wild take from all walks of druidism, they’re never going to be a master of one form much like a Druid of the Claw/of the Talon/etc etc will be. After all, the latter focuses on one whereas the former does not.

Also, I want to state that the term Druid of the Wild is non-canon; the concept isn’t because we see it in-game, but the term is because it comes from the RPG game which is non-canon.

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Player characters technically fall into:

Druids of the Claw - Guardian
Ashen Druids - Feral
Druids of the Branch - Restoration
Druids of the Moon - Balance

Druids of the Talon tend not to take part in combat, working instead as the Circle’s scouts and spies.

Although we can change specialization, like with other classes, you aren’t really considered to be a merger of all of them so we aren’t actually “Druids of the Wild”. The only characters close to that are the NPC Archdruids.

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Probably most well known Druid of the Talon is Thisalee Crow, she’s a quest giver in Hyjal, Gorgrond, then in Legion she became our follower/champion/whatever and in BfA she takes part in the Darkshore warfront.

In-game she’s basically Feral, using cat form in combat.

In WC3 however Druids of the Talon were a bit different. They were basically ranged spellcasters that could turn into a storm crow. Their spells (beside ranged auto-attack) were Faerie Fire (a debuff that reduced enemy armor) and Cyclone (works basically just like WoW skill with the same name)

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  • Hybrid
  • MasterToNon
  • NoOneWantsMeInRaids ; ;

Srsly, Its a real shame that in classic druids will be the least played due to the above names that represent them.

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Hey, don’t you dis those fluffy totem poles. I like my buff thank you :wink:

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