Leveling a druid (what moves to use): Levels 21-40

You can find the first part of this guide here, which covers which moves to use from 1-20 and how your strategy changes over time. Now that you have cat form, feral combat will really start to shine, so lets continue.

Level 22
You get two abilities at this level, one of which is key for leveling. One is Soothe Animal, which allows you to get closer to a beast- or dragonkin-type enemy before they attack you. I've used it once or twice, but its largely useless since you can Prowl right past enemies. The other is Shred, a high damage ability for Cat Form that you can only use when you are behind an enemy. As such, your new strategy for battling your foes should be to start in prowl (unless their name is in yellow text, in which case you only need to move behind them), move behind your enemy without them seeing you, use Shred, and then proceed as you have before, using Claw until they are at 60-70%, then Rip, then Claw until they die. If an enemy tries to run away from you when it is at low health, use the opportunity to use Shred to finish them off.

Level 24
You get three key abilities at this level. One is Rake, an ability for Cat form that causes damage over time and adds a combo point. It's a pretty awesome ability, especially when paired with its glyph, which I highly recommend you pick up. With Rake, your new strategy should be to start in Prowl, then use Shred, Rake, then go back to your normal strategy. If Rip's duration runs out and your target has more than 50% health, use it again. The second ability you get is Tiger's Fury. It provides a flat damage boost for six seconds, and with only a thirty second cooldown, I'd recommend you use it frequently. It's use will become more specialized as you level up and get new talents, but for now, use it when you need a burst of damage. I recommend using it at the beginning of a battle so you can get the maximum effect from it. Your final new ability at this level is Remove Curse. Not much explanation needed here; you will be bothered by curses no more! Like remove poison, you can't use this in Cat or Bear Form.

Level 26
You get two abilities at this level. One is Abolish Poison, a flat upgrade to Remove Poison. You should replace Remove Poison with Abolish Poison on your action bars. It's use isn't that different, so it won't actually affect your strategy. The second ability is Dash, an ability that increases your speed in Cat Form. Use it when things get hairy and you need to make an escape.

You should also start investing in Predatory Strikes. Although that instant heal is mostly meant for PvP, it can still be useful while leveling when things get hairy. If you need to face a powerful enemy, you can use this to get an instant heal in while fighting him.

Level 28
You get two more abilities at this level, but neither are very useful while leveling, so I won't give them much explanation. Challenging Roar is an emergency ability for when you are tanking an instance, you have lost control of the mobs, and you need to get them to attack you again. Cower is honestly not that useful; the threat reduction it causes could be accomplished by simply stopping your attacks, which would also save you energy. It might be useful in lower-level instances when your tank isn't that great. If that is the case, then use it when an enemy is attacking you and you want to get it to attack the tank instead.

Level 30
For a ten-factor level, this one doesn't give you a lot of new stuff. One new spell is Tranquility, a large group-heal on a long cooldown. Because it's channeled, it's not too useful while you are solo-ing, but using it in an instance when you are a DPS and your healer has just died (or just needs some help) can save the group. Assuming you picked the right talents, you'll also get Feral Charge. The Bear Form version probably won't see much use outside of instances, but the Cat Form version will be quite useful for you. Once you get it, go out and try in on an enemy; the first few times are always fun. If you didn't get the glyph of rake, then you can use this to catch up with an enemy who runs away from you when it has low health. You can also use it if you want to immediately get behind an enemy, which can be useful when you are prowling and can't figure out how to get behind an enemy without them noticing you.

Level 32
In order to make up for the disappointing amount of new abilities from that last level, you get some awesome ones this level. One is Ferocious Bite, which uses combo points like Rip, but causes instant damage instead of damage over time. As such, your new strategy should be to rack up the combo points until your enemy is around 25% health or you get five points. Once either case happens, use Ferocious Bite, then start again. If you manage to get five combo points and your target still has 75% health, use Rip. That won't happen frequently, but if it does, you'll get more damage out of Rip.

Your second new ability is Ravage. This ability can only be used when prowling and behind an enemy, but causes more damage than Shred, so start using it in lieu of Shred to start battles. Here is a useful macro that allows you to use Ravage while prowling and Shred when not. I recommend you pick the red question mark as your icon so that it will show the icon of whatever ability you want to use.
#showtooltip [stealth] Ravage; [nostealth] Shred
/cast [stealth] Ravage
/cast [nostealth] Shred
Your final new ability is Track Humanoids, which really shines in PvP. If you are out on your own, you'd do better to have some sort of tracking ability for a gathering profession active instead. Otherwise, you can keep this active if you wish.

Level 36
You get two new abilities, one of which will change your life while you are leveling. The less exciting one is Frenzied Regeneration, a fairly useful ability when you are fighting in bear form (say, against multiple enemies or one elite) and you need some self-healing. Because it consumes rage when used, I suggest not using it until you have at least 80 rage and then only using auto-attacks while it is active so that you can generate more rage. You'll get the most benefit out of it that way. As you continue to level, you'll generate rage more quickly, so you'll be able to use some abilities while using this, but for now, you'll maximize its effect by not using anything else.

The other ability you get is Pounce, another ability that can only be used while prowling. It stuns the enemy for three seconds and causes damage over time, making it an almost completely superior ability to Ravage, which causes less damage over all. While your enemy is stunned, you can move behind them and use Shred for some extra damage. If you have Brutal Impact and Shredding Attacks, you can even use Shred twice. Here's a nice macro that I use to save space on my actions bars. It uses Pounce when prowling and Rake when not prowling. I recommend you pick the red question mark as your icon so that it will show the icon of whatever ability you want to use.
#showtooltip [stealth] Pounce; [nostealth] Rake
/cast [stealth] Pounce
/cast [nostealth] Rake

Because of your plethora of new moves, this should be your new strategy when facing one enemy in Cat Form: start in Prowl, use Pounce, then move behind them and use Shred until the stun wears off. Then use Rake, then use claw until you have five combo points or the enemy is around 25% health, at which point you should use Ferocious Bite. If you manage to somehow get five combo points and your enemy has 75% of his health or more, use Rip. If your enemy isn't dead yet, then use claw until you have five combo points or it is at 25% health, at which point you should use Ferocious Bite. If Rake's duration runs out and the enemy still has a fair amount of health, use it in lieu of Claw. Repeat until one of you dies, hopefully him. Don't forget about shifting out to heal yourself, especially if you have Predatory Strikes.

Level 40
This is a big level for druids. Not only do you get a slew of new moves, but you also get the talent Leader of the Pack. Long the signature talent of feral druids, this is an amazing ability, even when you aren't in a group, although that is where it shines the most. When you are on your own, though, think of it as another Sharpened Claws that you only needed to spend one talent point in, as opposed to three.

Now for your new abilities. The most significant one is Dire Bear Form, a direct upgrade to Bear Form. The only real difference is the Dire Bear Form provides a bigger boost to your armor, since Warriors and Paladins get access to plate armor at this level, giving them more armor as well. Another significant ability is Innervate. Which restores mana to your target. As a feral, it should fill your mana bar, so by using it, you'll never need to drink water again (if you ever did need to). Use Innervate on yourself when you are running low on mana, like if you were a bit overzealous in healing yourself and ran out of mana, and you need more to re-enter your forms. You can also use it while in a group to keep the healer's mana up if he/she begins to run out.

You also get some interesting passive abilities at this level. One is Feline Grace, which reduces all damage you take from high falls while in Cat Form. It's a pretty significant reduction, and with it, short falls that would damage most other classes won't damage you. You still can't survive really high falls with this ability, but regardless, from now on, enter cat form before jumping off of ledges. You also get Savage Defense, an ability that turns crit rating into a tank stat. Whenever you get a critical strike in Bear Form, with Savage Defense, you will get a shield that absorbs damage from the next attack that strikes you. It's a boost to your Bear Form defenses that comes from a stat that also increases your damage; what more could you ask for?

Your final new ability is Hurricane, a channeled area-of-effect spell, but if you are leveling feral (as I have suggested), you won't find much use for it. If you are facing multiple enemies, you should be in Bear Form anyways, in which case Swipe should be your attack of choice.

That's it for this week. If you get this far, keep plugging away; the druid class is about to get a whole lot more fun.