WoW Druid

It seems that the majority of the time Druids talk about crowd control (CC) the Cyclone spell is the first that comes to mind followed by Roots. Both of these spells are great, of course, but they have some limitations depending on the situation. Cyclone only lasts for a few seconds. Roots has the additional DOT damage, which is nice, but it can break and if you’ve got a ranged melee or caster rooted they can still hit you. When it comes to beasts and Dragonkin the Hibernate spell can be your go-to CC spell in the PvE environment.

Hibernate is a great little spell that can easily be forgotten about. With a 20 second effect time this can give you all the time you need and more to heal up, take a breather and generally handle way more than you should be able to. When it comes to some mini bosses or Elite mobs Hibernate lets you get in over your head and come out alive on the other end. Also, when it comes to handling adds what’s better than a repeatable 20 second CC?

Few things of note: 1) Any damage breaks this spell so beware of your DoTs (I’m talking to you Moonfire and Insect Swarm). When you get a bad pull resist the urge to Moonfire the add and just put it to sleep. Pound the snot out of your target until dead. If it takes you longer than 20 sec just reapply the Hibernate to the add and continue on. 

2) You can only do this to one mob at a time. I mean really, if you could put the whole dungeon to sleep at once wheres the challenge? If you have Mob A asleep and cast on Mob B, Mob A will wake up. 

3) This will draw aggro. You’d think that the fuzzy beasts and Dragonkin of Azeroth would welcome the chance to catch a few seconds of sleep but no, it really seems to piss them off. When is the last time you saw an animal or Dragonkin get some sleep for Pete’s sake? The only time I can image they get some shut eye is during server maintenance but what do I know? Once this effect wears off your target will come after you so be ready for it. 

4) Hibernate will interrupt an action your target is attempting. So, imagine you’ve got some nasty Dragonkin caster warming up a big damage spell that you’d rather not take in the face. With a pretty quick 1.5 second cast time Hibernate works perfectly to a) stop them from doing what they want to do and b) keep them off you for a while. 

5) When out mining or collecting herbs this is a great spell to have handy. At higher levels you can swoop in with the Druid Flight Form, put a mob that is too close for comfort right to sleep, grab your stuff and be gone before they knew what hit them. Handy. 

6) When in a PvP situation, like the Battlegrounds, this spell can be useful…sort of. It’s quick to cast and works great against Hunter pets (screw you big red tigers!), other Druids in Cat, Travel or Bear forms and Shamans you can catch in Wolf form. With a 20 second down time, however, most players will click out of this if they can. Be ready for it and reapply Hibernate fast. Also, with the chaotic nature of the BG’s the chances that someone will leave your target alone for a while is pretty small but if you need just a few seconds to heal/run away/cry like a baby it works great. 

Dust off this handy spell and get it into your normal rotation! Thanks!