The best thing about druids is their ability to instantly change forms to match the situation. While I’m a bit more confined with my dual-boxing pair, taking full advantage of this isn’t something I’m willing to give up.

When it comes to dual-boxing druids, keeping everyone in the right form can be a bit crazy. I can’t depend on just the default buttons to keep everything in order– especially since Pattern works with both Resto and Balance spells. (The amazing vanishing Boomchicken is a frustrating thing!)

So this is run down on the different forms/stances and the best way to macro them into compliance…

Druid Stances

STANCE	IS	OR	OR
Stance 0	Caster/Nightelf
Stance 1	Bear
Stance 2	Aquatic (Sea Lion)
Stance 3	Cat
Stance 4	Travel (Cheetah)
Stance 5	Moonkin	Tree of Life	Flight Form
Stance 6	Flight Form

Stances 5 and 6 are a little tricky. Stance 6 will only exists if the druid has a Moonkin or Tree form, otherwise the list ends with Stance 5.

So Pattern has six stances and Recognition has five.

Changing Stances

Stance 0	/cancelform
Stance 1	/cast Bear Form
Stance 2	/cast Aquatic Form
Stance 3	/cast Cat Form
Stance 4	/cast Travel Form
Stance 5	/cast Moonkin Form
Stance 5	/cast Tree of Life
Stance 5 or 6	/cast Flight Form
Stance 5 or 6	/cast Swift Flight Form

Changing stances into anything other than 0 (Caster Form) triggers the global cooldown. This includes changing into the form you are currently in (see Powershifting below)

Note: Tree of Life is no longer a static form but lasts 25 seconds and is on a 3 minute cooldown. Woe.

Powershifting

If you /cast the same form you are already in it will reset the stance to 0 (caster). This is Evil™ and Annoying™ and The Reason Pattern Keeps Dying™ … I did mention the whole reason I wrote this post was so I could fix my macros, right? *grin*

Adding a ! in front of the form name will simply recast the spell instead of canceling it. This will trigger the GCD, but is useful for making sure you stay in the form or getting of rid of movement slowing effects and/or generating rage (bear) and energy (cat) from Furor.

The following would simply recast the Moonkin form:

/cast !Moonkin Form

Limitations to Forms

Some of the forms have limitations on when/where they can be cast.

FORM	LIMITATION
Aquatic Form	[swimming]
Flight Form	[flyable] and [nocombat]
Travel Form	[outdoors]

Note: You can’t fly in Wintergrasp when the BG is running, but the macro will still see it as ‘flyable’.

You can use these limitations to have the macro automatically choose which form is best:

Swiss Army Macro

As an example, let’s take Pattern:

IF	Then
[combat]	!Moonkin
[swimming]	!Aquatic Form
[indoors]	!Cat Form
[outdoors]	!Travel Form
[flyable]	!Flight Form

Would be:

/cast [combat] !Moonkin; [swimming] !Aquatic Form; [indoors] !Cat Form; [outdoors] !Travel Form; [flyable] !Flight Form;

So this macro will automatically pick the form I need at the moment and after I cut and paste it over to Recognition I’m set! (Nothing like a little beta testing!)

Note: The macro will stop at the first true condition, which is why you don’t have to specify [nocombat] for Flight Form.

How To Amuse Others

I may possibly have mentioned that I am addicted to shifting for no good reason whilst running around Stormwind… Possibly. So here is the macro that lets me spend my time confusing the heck out of people who don’t know dual-boxing exists:

/castsequence Bear Form, Cat Form, Travel Form

Hitting this button whilst running around should cycle you through all three forms

Or if you want a specific order (such as: Bear->Cat->Travel->Bear)

/cast [stance:4] Bear Form; [stance:1] Cat Form; [stance:3] Travel Form

And that’s the basics of the various druid forms and how they work in macros. Got questions? Just gimme a holler and I’ll see if I can help!