Best play style for Lone Druid?

I've been wanting to practice my Lone Druid and I've read up on a lot of guides on him and the strategies that I've seen is you either lane with him till level 9 and jungle to get Radiance and Skull Basher OR you go jungle with him from level 1 to level 9. My question to you is which play style is best for this awesome character??

I have tried both, after learning to Micro and before I was good at it. I am not very good with him and don't understand him.

However I seem to see him a lot better laneing and then going to the jungle. I don't actually think I have had a good Lone Druid on my team, but I have seen him take on a most teams. Best of luck to you.

druid is a solid jungler - but Gold per minute will be slower compared to a solo lane - it will depend on the composition of your team - due to the bear, he also makes a good solo off laner..
pro players will also lane him - then go into true form so he has more survability from ganks.

I like to build an attack speed range type druid, but that's just because people don't expect it (I skip levelling true form)
my build is generally mjo and basher for both druid and bear - then focus on druid, with skadi's and other DPS items (possibly life steal)

that said I haven't played him for a while too ;)

However - as a noobie player jungling will be much easier - if you're good with druid, then laning is fine..

A jungling Lone Druid is exactly like a jungling Lifestealer: both of them can do it, but it's not even comparable to laning. N'aix's Open Wounds (even though it's nerfed) and Feast make him a good and solid trilane (or even dual lane) carry, while Lone Druid's bear can win a 2vs1 fight or, even if you die a bunch of times, keep the gpm higher than while jungling.

Off-laning with him in pub games is rather simple: pull the creep wave to your tower with the bear, reach a quick level 2 then farm paying attention to your positioning. After level 7 you can try to last-hit with the bear exclusively, as his damage will be enough to both harass and farm.
The mid lane is also viable, especially against enemies without an escape mechanism ( Drow Ranger, Sniper and Huskar, talking about pubs): when the mid is going for a gank, pushing is a piece of cake.

About the item progression, unless you can get a really quick Radiance (~20-25 minutes including Phase Boots, Orb of Venom etc. on the bear) the Maelstrom + Skull Basher build is definitely viable. Add the Assault Cuirass and you get a durable solo pusher and aura holder which can temprarily disable his targets.

Ok so first things first. Spirit bear is your hero. Lone druid is just a grumpy old man who follows him around. Keep that in mind for your items. Lone druid himself is extremely squishy. Even in true form, you have no escape.
That said, he does offer some great buffs to the bear.

As far as laning vs jungle.
Safe lane Tri Lane - this isn't a bad spot because you essentially have 4v1 on that lane if you can micro. However, there are better late game carries out there.
Mid lane- this is currently my favorite way to play him. You can out tank most heroes with your bear, check runes with out losing xp/cs (send bear). And if their mid leaves to gank you can put out a lot of Damage. Only drawback is your not going ganking with him. Entangle is too unlikely.
Off lane - not a fan of this anymore. Your bear nets then 300 gold for the kill. Early game their supports will nuke tge hell out of your bear and still keep you from farming. There are much better off lane choices.
Off lane safe lane - if your team goes for an offensive tri lane, this is where it's at. With you and your bear, you can harass, cs, pull, double stack and Basically own that lane. In an offensive Tri Lane, generally you are going for a quicker win then a defensive one as the bear drops off late late game.

As far as getting better at micro, you want the druid back while the bear goes nuts on towers and heroes.
To practice your micro, start a custom game with a mate, both go mid then spend 10 minutes in lane. Aim for max last hits and deny him his. Ideally you want a cs of 100 (both lay hit and deny score combined)
Also, do this solo on the safe lane while stacking Camps and pulling your own creep wave.

With regards to items, you need to look at the other team. Radiance is awful vs tank heroes however there's nothing funnier then chasing down agility heroes with just the bear.
Mjol, skull Basher and ac will let you kill most heroes and are much easier to build (hyperstone is 2100 vs 3800 for relic. )
Hope all this helps

Thanks for all the help and advice! :) All this will definitely help me master Lone Druid in the coming time :D