So, after over a year, my druid has finally made it to Northrend this week. For the longest time, I was stuck in the 30s/40s levels and just couldn't find the desire to level up in the old world zones. Cataclysm has changed that and all the new quests and changes to the zones made it much less of a grind. Combine that with the random LFD goody bags that you get for completing a random dungeon and I was nearly fully kitted out in blue-quality gear.

A lot of this mini-guide also applies to leveling other classes through the Northrend zones now that Cataclysm is out.

Getting started

First off, don't go to Northrend before level 68. Even if you can. Even if you're bored to tears with Outland zones. While you can grind through the rest of level 67 on the level 68-69 shoveltusks (in Howling Fjord) or rhinos (in Borean Tundra), it's slow and tedious. But it's a good way to use up all those extra bandages that you had leftover from Outland.

Make sure to pickup the ability to fly in Northrend (Cold Weather Flying). You'll want to pick this up in Stormwind or Ogrimmar before heading north, otherwise you'll have to go to Borean Tundra to get it trained (or take a flight to Dalaran). The ability to fly around the starting zones in Northrend at 68 makes everything about twice as easy to do. You'll be able to skip over mobs that aren't part of your quest instead of spending time wading through everything to get where you want to go.

Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord?

This is a bit of a toss-up. Personally, I love the look and feel of Howling Fjord (HF) much more then Borean Tundra (BT). But prior to having the ability to fly, HF was a very difficult zone (at times) to get around due to all of the cliffs and obstacles. Borean Tundra was easier to get around, but a lot of people felt it was bland and uninspired.

The main goal in BT/HF is to get all of your Outland gear replaced. By the time you finish either BT or HF, you should have replaced 90% of your gear with item level 138 green quality items. You could conceivably even manage this by level 70 if you look at WoWHead and figure out which quests you should prioritize. Because you're going to replace nearly *everything* in BT/HF, I'm not going to go through and give a detailed gear list.

The secondary goal in BT/HF should be to complete every possible quest in both zones. That will take you easily into 72-73 and since all the mobs will be slightly below your level, you'll be able to rip through quests. In WoW, quests are probably 2/3 to 3/4 of your XP, so as long as the quests don't go grey there's no big downside to running them after they've turned green in your quest journal.

If you absolutely get bored with BT/HF, you can move into Dragonblight at 72 or Grizzly Hills at 73. Prior to that, most quests will be inaccessible due to level.

Once you get at least half your gear replaced with iLevel 138+ items, you're good to go at queuing up for random dungeons as DPS. If you want to bear tank, I suggest waiting until at least 69 with almost all items replaced with Northrend greens. Between quests and doing random dungeons, it won't take you very long to get to 72-73 and get into the mid-levels.

The mid-levels

Here are the minimum require levels in order to take quests in the mid-level zones. You might be able to pickup a few before these levels, but 80-90% of them fall into the following level ranges:

72-75 Dragonblight
73-75 Grizzly Hills
75-77 Zul'Drak
76-78 Sholazar Basin

The goals in the mid-levels should be to gain XP from quests, get a few pieces of gear in the 160-185 item level range, and get to level 80. Any gear that would require more then 3-4 days of dailies to grind rep for should be ignored and I would suggest not basing your gear choices around dungeon drops either. Anything that would require you to farm for more then an hour or two is also not worth it (with a few exceptions). Gear that is a quest reward, especially blue gear is worth prioritizing. There's also a lot of mid-level crafted gear which you can easily farm the materials (or buy them off the Auction House).

The main reason that it's not worth grinding/farming too much is that as soon as you hit 80, you'll start getting 10% XP from the critters (and quests?) and you'll be replacing all your gear in Mount Hyjal or Vashj'ir.

Mid-level gear choices

Here's the list of blue-quality gear that seems to be easily obtainable and is feral druid friendly. I tend to focus on bear gear, because I like to tank. The key stats are AGI+STA in about equal amounts (maybe a bit more STA), followed by crit/expertise/hit. I generally gem for AGI, enchant for expertise then STA, and use AGI/STA food (Blackened Dragonfin). Strength is not a good feral druid stat any longer and should be avoided if there is AGI/STA gear instead. But sometimes (rings, necklaces, trinkets) there are no good AGI/STA choices so you have to go with STR/STA items.

74 (Head) Horns of Electrified Terror (dungeon quest)
77 (Head) Helm of the Avenging Protector (quest)

78 (Hands) Handwraps of Preserved History (dungeon quest)
78 (Hands) Seafoam Gauntlets (crafted)

75 (Legs) Tattooed Deerskin Leggings (dungeon quest)
78 (Legs) Leggings of Visceral Strikes (crafted)

73 (Waist) Belt of Vengeful Purification (quest)
74 (Waist) Strange Voodoo Belt (dungeon quest)

72 (Wrist) Scorned Bands (dungeon quest)
73 (Wrist) Shackles of Dark Whispers (dungeon quest)

77 (Ring) Jagged Ice Band (quest)
77 (Ring) Frog-Toe Band (quest)
78 (Ring) Ring of Earthen Might (crafted)

74 (Neck) Betrayer's Choker (dungeon quest)
77 (Neck) The Severed Noose of Westwind (quest)

72 (Trinket) Automated Weapon Coater (quest)

73 (Cloak) Cloak of Harsh Winds (crafted)

74 (Relic) Idol of Perspicacious Attacks (honor points)
- This is one of the sole exceptions to the "do not grind" rule. There just aren't many good relics for feral druids in Northrend. This one is worth running some battlegrounds or dailies for.

77 (Chest) Dark Arctic Chestpiece (crafted)
78 (Chest) Exotic Leather Tunic (dungeon quest)

73 (Shoulder) Shoulderpads of Abhorrence (dungeon quest)
77 (Shoulder) Shoulderpads of Fleshwerks (quest)
77 (Shoulder) Charred Leather Shoulderguards (quest)

74 (2H) Staff of the Sorrowful Chieftain (quest)
75 (2H) Icier Barbed Spear (quest)