Now consider how the horde only had access to warriors and druids before, and how the alliance has Dead Mines while the horde has Ragefire Chasm as their first instance. Maybe the reason Bear Form come at level 10 is so you are able to tank the first instances?

Or maybe there really is no reason at all. Cat Form doesn’t have a quest line anyway, just give it to us at level 10, and still keep the Bear Form quest line at level 10. It will make the Bear Form quest much easier, too.

Then delay Travel Form to level 20. Then make a Swift Travel Form at level 40 that runs at 100%! Okay, that’s just wishful thinking…

I also think it’s unlikely they’ll give Cat to us at level 10. But the reason may very well be that they consider the new Bear Form “fixed” for leveling needs. Remember they want to take out on-next swing, which means significant changes to Bear Form.

Bear doesn’t help you do that

Cat does.

I think just a straight up swap of Cat & Bear (and related abilities) in regards to when they are trainable would solve basically all problems. Although to be fair it’s been SO LONG since I levelled from 10-20 (and I think it was in Vanilla) that I don’t really remember what I did.

1-10: Level a crappy version of a mage from 1-10
10-20: Level a crappy version of a warrior from 1-10
20-40: Level a crappy version of a rogue from 1-20

Every time you learn a new role, the game attempts to reteach you how to play the new role by more or less giving you a very small amount of abilities and slowly building off of them. By the time other classes are in their 20s and 30s, they’ve had many levels teaching them skills that build on each other. Druids, however, keep getting “reset” every 10 levels, and are stuck with incredibly simplistic and boring abilities as the game tries to ease the druid into their new role.

I think that your suggestions would go a long way to helping druids while leveling. On next attack abilities are boring, and bear form could definitely use something that isn’t swipe or maul before level 40. Cat form desperately needs an opener earlier, preferably pounce. I also wish that Ferocious Bite would be learned at level 20, and would be changed to an exact eviscerate mirror (no excess energy consumption… it’s potentially imbalanced for pvp in some cases with the LOL12kFBCRITS, it’s difficult to use in PvE, and it’s annoying everywhere).

Paladin is a little boring before you get Judgement of Light at level 4, druids are _painful_ before you get cat form at 20.

I leveled a paladin in 3.0 and druid in 3.2, if bear form feels like a demi-god, then the ret paladin would be god himself at that level.

I did try chain killing with Rip and Rake, although it feels more like a waste of energy. Rake and about three or four Claws will usually finish off a mob. There’s little reason to close with Rip instead of Claw and leave the mob chewing on you.

Rake should be your first attack right after you contact with the mob. One style of play is to open with Shred from stealth. Stealth > Shred > Rake > Claw > Claw > Claw > mob already dead or will die from another one or two white swing. Then you stealth and start on the next mob with Shred again.

When you learn Ferocious Byte, your rotation becomes Stealth > Shred > Rake > Claw > Claw > FB to finish off the mob.

There’s nothing wrong with multi-mob bleeding, but there’s also nothing wrong with Stealth and Shred openers. I don’t think cats are necessarily “meant” to play multi-mob bleeding. Stealth and Shred openers are just as effective—indeed, this effectiveness is exactly what makes Rip useless (for this playstyle).

But in any case, I think most of us would agree that “cat form is fine”. The question of Rip is that something like Ferocious Bite makes more sense at this level. The real pain in leveling a druid is before cat form.

And I agree with LXj. The real source of the pain is rage starvation between 10 and 20. If Maul doesn’t cost us our white swing rage income, Bear would really become the unstoppable killing machine. It is for this reason I believe warrior and bear leveling will feel fresh after Cataclysm comes out, since they’re planning on taking away the on-next swing mechanic.

Regardless, I never had much of an issue with leveling up Feral. When I got Bear form I felt like a demi-god, demolishing anything, popping a few heals on myself when necessary, never dying. It was fun.

As far as Rip goes, I think if you’re not using Rake and Rip when leveling to chain kills, you’re doing it wrong. You shouldn’t expect Rip to be there to take down one target then move on to the next. You should expect to Claw, Claw, Rake, and Rip, and run to the next target while the first one bleeds to death. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to drop FB down a few levels. But it really is level 30 and above when classes/builds start to distinguish themselves.

I’d be up for some adjustments to the 10-30 leveling process, and I like the suggestions. I just wonder if those complaining about the deficiencies might not just want to rethink how to play as a hybrid. Because really, that’s how the Feral is best played while leveling. Learn to really use shape-shifting and healing and the occasional damage spell, and the class opens up quite a bit, unfortunately to be harshly pigeon-holed in end-game.