Patch 4.1 - Druid and PvP Perspective

Well, 4.1 has finally hit the PTR and combing through the patch notes, there are several intersting things that need to be pointed out related to both druids and PvP.  Here are some of the interesting things I have found so far.

1) Zul'Aman is Back - Ok, I know this has nothing to do with PvP, but Zul'Aman is a druid dream.  Every boss from the 10 man raid during BC had to do with druids.  From the bear boss to the lightning boss, all of them were druid related.  I can't wait to get in there and go crazy.  I mean Zul'Garab is cool, but Zul'Aman was my second raid instance ever cleared.  Of course, I wonder if they are going to kill off Harrison Jones again.

2) DKs get a Battle Rez - I will be honest, I never would have seen this.  First of all, they have had Raise Ally for quite some time, but it made you into a ghoul.  Now, it actually brings you back to life.  It is the first time a melee has a rez (Yes, I know feral druids and enhancement shaman melee, but it is the first time a dedicated melee get it.) and it is only the second class to get a battle rez.  After mages got Time Warp, which was equivalent to Heroism/Bloodlust, I guess we should have seen some class was gonna get a battle rez.  I just thought it might be priest or shaman, I never could have guessed DKs would get it.

3) Resilience Scaling - Now, just reading through what they say about resilience scaling, it could be a little confusing.  What is the reason behind this change?  You know that Blizzard said they wanted to stop people from doing the 2 and 2 on dps/healing caster gear to get the additional resilience.  This is partly an answer to that.  Once you get above 32.5% damage mitigation, the effect decreases.  What does this mean?  Assuming season 10 starts around the time of patch 4.1, we are going to want to get our 4 piece bonuses.  In addition, since our resilience will be higher, we may actually want 1 or 2 PvE pieces to allow for more damage.  For healing classes, they will likely want to stick with full PvP gear however since they tend to get focused a little more than DPS.

4) Cyclone Duration Decreased - In 4.0.6, it increased up to 8 seconds.  Then, they hotfixed it back down to 6 seconds.  Now, they are going to decrease it again down to 5.  I'm not really surprised since cyclone is an incredibly powerful spell, but a lot of other traps last 8 seconds.  There should be some way whether a glyph or something to make it longer for PvP use.

5) Starsurge Nerf - As much as I hate to say it and as much as I love 40k hits on players in full PvP gear, this was needed.  Starsurge was incredibly powerful in PvP, maybe overpowered to be exact.  I mean, it is still 32k hits, but at least it is not half of their health bars.

6) Lifebloom Nerf - Having been playing some resto in PvP as my secondary spec, this was unfortunately  needed as well.  If the bloom critted, it was returning anywhere from 35k to 50k health to a player in PvP.  I have been protecting the flag carrier with 2 of the healers down, had a bloom hit, and the flag carrier stayed alive even while they were focused on him.  Now, if I can just remember not to refresh Lifebloom by stupidly hitting buttons until it blooms.

7) Swipe Cooldown Reduced - I don't tank anymore, but I'm sure I speak for all feral druid tanks when I say, Thank the frickin' Lord.  Having to rotate Swipe and Thrash on almost perfect 3 second intervals is tougher than it looks.

8) Solar Beam More Responsive - My favorite CC tool in BGs just got a little better.  I'm hoping that when the notes say "more responsive", it is if any part of the player is in the Solar Beam, it will silence them.

9) Flag Carrying Debuff Changes - I may have been the only person to do this, but as someone who routinely is on offense trying to get our flag back, I smiled a little when I saw the changes to the flag carrier debuff.  It starts off at increased damage of 10%, then stacks 10% per minute.  Plus, they can't run anymore as they are limited to 100% run speed after 7 minutes.  Yes, even druids and their travel form.

10) Battleground Changes - This BG was typically determined in the first few minutes, but not anymore.  They are setting it up now where you get transported to another graveyard instead of the same graveyard where you die.  This means capturing nodes will be a whole lot easier.  However, this also means that defending nodes will be a lot harder and will take a lot more coordination.  In addition, in Twin Peaks, if you die in the enemy base, you will spawn back at your base.  This will give the defending team some time to breathe and get caught up before another assault comes in against their flag carrier.  This is also likely going to change some strategy since you will want to wipe groups coming in at your flag carrier.  

I know these are preliminary notes and I'm 100% sure there are going to be changes along the way.  However, this should give you some idea of what they are planning for 4.1. 

I Don't Work on My Birthday (So I Give You A Secret Santa Guest Blog Post by Leafshine)

You know when people have their birthdays around Christmas time and you occassionally get a gift that they tell you is for both Christmas and your birthday.  This kind of thing happened today.  I got a Blog Azeroth Secret Santa blog post yesterday, which is both a Christmas and a birthday present.  Today's Guest Blog post is by Leafshine of Lust for Flower.  I hope you enjoy the blog post.

You know how at every Christmas party, there’s someone who turns up late, brings a rubbish Secret Santa present, and generally embarrasses everyone?

Hello, sorry I’m late, sorry this is late and so shoddy. Where’s the dancefloor?

*ahem*

In fact, I’m so very late with this that it barely counts as a Christmas present at all does it? It’s more of a New Year’s gift. And that gives me an idea…

Best in Slot Healer Resolutions for 2010

As told by a slightly drunk Leafy to that pretty woman from accounts in the inappropriate dress…

1.  Take a while to sit back and enjoy the lore - this expansion is just chock full of the crunchy, lovely lores. Each new zone is much more a geographical representation of a storyline that a place where you quest. And, if you’re into the healz, as so many of us are, there’s so much world-healing to be done. Have you seen my newly-erected world pillar? Feel free to touch it. It’s rock hard. Literally.

2.  Learn to Love Ultimate Triage - remember that dreadful quest in Theramore, back in the day? Where you had to triage patients to get the next level of First Aid? That’s our new playstyle, that is. And there’s only one way to prepare. You’re going to need wit, humour and an eye for damage. So, rent entire series of M*A*S*H, and get to grips with life in wartime…

3.  This space to let. Apply Leafshine t. Druid, that inn in the Dwarven section of Stormwind, Eastern Kingdoms. Reasonable rates.

4.  Come to Terms with Your Inner Healer - This is clearly an expansion where Blizzard expects - nay, demands, that we are altaholics. The 80 to 85 content is barely going to cover an average weekend holed up in a dingy motel while the heat with the cops dies down after the last time you… Oh. So other people don’t spend time like that? Never mind. The 80 to 85 content isn’t going to last very long at all, so you’re going to be levelling alts. And you’re going to end up dual-speccing to healing. Face it. You’re too used to not queueing for randoms. However attractive standing at the back and pewpewing might seem, given a 20 minute wait for some hardcore Stonecore, you’re be back in bandages as soon as you can say “dual-spec me harder, baby”.

5.  Don’t Leave Your Staff in the Ground - you just know a Worgen will urinate on it to territory mark. Bad dog!

6.  Make http://www.leafshine.net your homepage. You KNOW it makes sense.

7.  Don’t Hit On The Stonemother. She’s Ratters’ Girl Now. (Link: http://needmorerage.blogspot.com/2010/12/across-cavern-our-eyes-met.html)

8.  Make a Point of Admiring Druid Healers’ Gear. It ain’t going to make them feel any better about what’s been done to tree form, but you have an outside chance of scoring, so it’s got to be worth a go, right? “Hey, darlin’, that Tier 11 you’re wearing would look great on my floor…”

9.  Race and Name Change - You’ll need this to keep raiding if you’ve followed New Years’ Resolution #8 closely enough.

10.  Don’t Stand In The Fire. Unless you really need that Feat of Strength.

Now, fetch your coat, and let’s blow this place…

4.0.1 Feral Tanking and Threat Building

It has been a while since I have done a feral tanking blog post, but I have been trying to tank a little more in anticipation of leveling in Cataclysm and getting used to the 4.0.1 changes.  And unfortunately, swipe spam does not work anymore.  Neither does putting Maul with all of your abilities.  They have actually done this with all the tanking classes to make it harder to just AoE tank. (Consecration has a long cooldown.  So does Death and Decay) So since you have lost two major spammable threat builders, what do you do now?  Here is what I have been doing to hold aggro in 5 mans as well as a rundown of stats important for bears right now.

AOE Trash

If Feral Charge is up, I will charge into a group if possible.  Some groups aren't possible so with those, I pull with Faerie Fire.  While I'm charging in, I will Faerie Fire the first target.  From there, if the group is around me, I will Swipe.   From there, I will Tab target the next target and hit Mangle.  I will then Tab target the next target and hit 3 Lacerate.  By then, Swipe should be up again.  I repeat this until every target has Mangle and 3 Lacerate on them, although if DPS is sufficient, I get nowhere close.

Bosses

I Feral Charge in and put up Faerie Fire.  Then I hit Mangle.  Then I stack my Lacerate up to 3.  Then I use Pulverize, which clears my 3 stack of Lacerate.  I reapply my Lacerate up to 3.  If Pulverize drops off, I reapply Pulverize.  If Beserk procs, I hit Mangle.  Mangle is still a great threat builder and should be used on cooldown.  Swipe should be used if adds spawn, like Prince Keleseth in Utgarde Keep.  Maul should only be used if you have a lot of rage.  If you have low rage, use Faerie Fire to help with a little bit of threat.

You still will get overzealous DPS who want to try to win Omen.  If that is the case, you still have Taunt and Challanging Roar as aggro capturers as well.

Stats

Most of this information, I have gotten from Kalon at Think Tank (see blog list).  Since all extra armor is gone from leather pieces now, we basically want to use the highest armor, highest stamina, and highest agility pieces we can.  All 3 of these things all come as we get better armor.  A 4T10 277 bear is going to have more stamina, armor, and agility than a 4T10 264 bear.  The major stats that we are looking for are in this order. 

1) Hit/Expertise - We need to make sure that we are hit capped so that we are not missing our abilities.  A missed ability could make the difference between your DPS pulling or you holding aggro.  Expertise is along the same line.  It makes sure that your attacks do not miss.  If you are hit capped but not expertised capped, I would reforge hit into expertise if possible.  Vice versa is true as well if you are expertised capped but not hit capped.

2) Stamina - Stamina is still the king of tanking.  While agility does help with dodge rating, critical strike chance, etc, there is diminishing returns and you will eventually get hit by something.  That is where having high enough stamina becomes important.  This is still the major thing you gem for in 4.0.1.

3) Agility - Agility helps critical strike chance, which helps with Savage Defense procs, and dodge rating, which increases our effective health.  While we should gem stamina, there are a few enchants that have agility, for example, cloaks.  Agility is now a much better stat, especially when combined with mastery.

4) Mastery - With reforging, we could do a lot of fun stuff with mastery.  The bear's mastery is that increases the size of your Savage Defense by 4% per mastery point.  If you have excess hit and excess expertise, I would highly recommend changing some of that hit/expertise to mastery (since you can't reforge it into stamina, agility, or armor anyway).

5) Armor - The only reason it is down this far is because armor gets better as we get better gear.  I would not gem or enchant for armor though.

So hopefully, this will get you started tanking post 4.0.1. and into Cataclysm, because I'm fairly certain the quick level way will be through the LFD, especially with them putting the quest givers right at the entrance of the instance. 

Oh Blizzard, You Soothe Us and Then Rip Our Hearts Out

Well, well, well Blizzard.  Almost a month after 4.0.1, you still manage to surprise me a little and it is something I have not seen anybody pick up on until last night.  Here is what happened:

Last night, we were on 25 man LK doing "Been Waiting a Long Time For This".  We only had one hunter. (Hi Loganw!!!)  We were trying to find out how to take off the enrage off of the Shambling Horrors.  Looking through our spellbook, another druid saw that we had a small change to one of our talents.

Soothe - Removes an Enrage effect from a target

Now before, we would never cast Soothe.  We always had hunters to take off enrage effects.  Looking at the history of it, this was changed in 4.0.1 to make it useful for druids.  It is also castable in any form which means feral tanks can remove an enrage effect and make it a lot easier to tank. And, yes, Soothe works against the Shambling Horrors.

This means that as of 4.0.1, druids now have an interrupt (Solar Beam), a silence (Solar Beam), a snare (Typhoon unglyphed), a knockback (Typhoon unglyphed), a melee CC (Entangling Roots), a beast CC (Hibernate), and an enrage remover (Soothe).  Druids are becoming more and more of a nice CC/utility tool. 

However, as soon as Blizzard gave us something new and awesome like a tool to remove enrages, they have to change it a little.  Currently, it is an instant cast.  In the latest beta patch, they changed it to a 1.5 second cast.  Now, I don't know yet if it will be modified by haste to come down to a single GCD since I have heard we have insane amounts of haste at 85.  If it does, it will make it better.  If not, then hunters will have an even bigger advantage when taking enrage off of enemies although they can take enrage off of three subjects at once now.

So, the next time you need the enrage off of something and you don't have a rogue or hunter, just remember that as a druid, you can also remove that enrage effect now.

7 Rules for Pleasing a LFD Tank

While running Maraudon (again) on my pally/shaman duelboxing combo, I ran into the first instance in LFD of someone telling me to go faster and make big pulls.  When I asked him if he was the tank, he decided to be a smartass and start pulling ahead of me.  So, I told him knock himself out.  He was a pally healer and so I thought I would just sit back, eat up 3 times the XP as everybody else, and eventually watch him kill himself, which he did.  With both of my characters being the only other rezzers in the group, I essentially told  him that I was not going to rez him and he would be better dropping group.  Eventually, the entire group decided to vote kick him and we get another healer.

However, this experience made me think back to my main and all the LFD groups that I have tanked with him.  Yes, we all run into the people who wants us to go faster or pull bigger because they want to get through an instance faster.  And I understand the mentality of getting through an instance quickly.  However, speed and efficiency are not the same thing.  Don't believe me.  Remember trying to go quickly through the section up to Loken after the lightning boss when you first started heroic Halls of Lightning.   Those pulls were about efficiency, not speed.  To this day, I see undergeared people wipe constantly in Halls of Lightning because they choose speed over efficiency.

So, whether you are a DPS or a healer, how do you keep your LFD tank happy?  Let me give you the ways to keep a LFD tank happy.

1) Tank Decides the Speed of the Instance - I personally don't care if you want me to pull the whole room in front of the first boss in Drak'theron Keep.  I'm the tank and I'm doing what is good for me and the group.  If  you don't like the speed I'm going, too bad.  You can either drop group and wait for the next queue or you can live with it.  Besides, Wrath instances are nothing like older 5 mans and none of them take long anyway.

2) Healers Must Speak Up - I'm focusing on nothing but the next pull.  If you are the healer and you need mana to heal, you better speak up.  Nothing is worse for me as a tank than pulling and 5 seconds after I pull, I see the healer say in party chat "Mana".  If we wipe because of it, that usually will lead me to starting a vote kick against the healer.

3) Healers Priority:  Tank -> Themselves -> DPS - As the tank, I will protect you, but you better heal me as first priority.  Unless you yourself are at low health, you should heal me first because in any 5 man instance, we can kill the boss as just the tank and healer.  It may take a while, but we can do it.  After that, if DPS is being stupid, you can heal them.

4) DPS Should Not Be Stupid - This is more than the obvious things like don't pull, etc.  This means drop aggro if you grab it.  This means that if you don't have a way to, run to the tank, not away so that I can get aggro back.  Don't stand in stupid stuff like slime puddles, etc.

5) DPS Should Out DPS Tank - Now, I know, tanks cheat a little bit on trash with this because we all have really powerful AoE attacks.  But the tank should not be the number one on DPS on bosses.  Now, yes, I understand some people in LFD are not geared and are trying to gear up.  That is fine and I'm happy to carry those people.  But if you are equal with me on gear, you better out DPS me.

6) Think About the Tanks Needs - More than heals and buffs, but think specifically for each type of tank.  On my druid tank, I just need to get rage.  I can shape shift until I get 10 rage or just enrage and start pulling.  As a paladin, I need mana, at least while leveling.  As a DK, I may need to let my runes regenerate.  Also, if the tank is just starting and you overgear the tank, you may want to wait because you will likely pull aggro.

7) Know the Fights - If there is a fight that will incapacitate the tank for a bit, you better know what to do.  The instance that I'm thinking of is Zul'Farrak.  There are mobs in there that polymorph the tank into a frog.  During that time, don't be insane.  Just wait and survive until the tank comes back and gets aggro.  Also, if you have a way to cleanse the status effect, clear it so that I can continue tanking.  The more you know about the fights, the easier for the tank.

How To Level A Druid - Resto vs Balance vs Feral

I received some interesting questions via my Twitter feed lately about what is the best way to level a druid.  Honestly, it is an interesting decision, even more so with Cataclysm coming out and getting class defining abilities at level 10.  Let me go through each of the specs and give the pros and cons of leveling that way.

Restoration - The advantages of leveling restoration is that  you get pretty quick queue times in LFD.  The disadvantage is that you really can't do much else.  You may be able to kill some mobs for quest with some balance spells, but they will be nowhere near as effective.  Unless you really want to level as a healer as a challange, I would probably avoid this one.

Balance - I love raiding as a balance druid.  Leveling is a bit more difficult, at least until Cataclysm.  You don't get Moonkin Form until you are deep in the Balance tree.  You don't get Eclipse until you are deep in the Balance tree.  You don't get Starfall until the very end of the Balance tree.  In Cataclysm, this will change.  The advantage is once you get all of these things, you can start to kill stuff quickly.   But that is not until level 60.  Nothing better than Starfall, Barkskin, and Hurricane a pack of mobs.  Of course, you also have downtime regaining mana, even with Innervate.  Also, using LFD may mean some wait time, especially before you get duel spec at level 40.

Feral - My raiding love will always be Balance, but my leveling love is Feral.  Why is that?  First, there is very little downtime.  If you are questing, you go cat form and like a rogue, you can kill stuff before it even turns around.  If I am using LFD, it is instant tank queues.  It is by far the fastest leveling spec definitely before level 60 and more than likely after level 60.  And in Cataclysm, it will still be the fastest way to level since everybody will want to be in LFD to see the new content.  Second, you have the forms from level 20 on.  You can start tanking at level 10 as a bear and you can start DPSing as a cat at level 20.  Third, you can change their color by going to the hair salon.  I love my white polar bear.  Finally, people love bear tanks.  Swipe spam plus glyphed Maul means most DPS can burst out AoE immediately.  The only tank I have seen it similar with is paladin. 

So what does this all mean.  Here are my recommendations.  Pre-level 60, no question, it is Feral all the way. (At least until Cataclysm).  After level 60 and you can pick up Starfall, you can Feral or Balance, but I still prefer Feral in my opinion for speed.  Resto is for the people who want a challenge while leveling.  Not necessarily the fastest, but still okay.

The Rookie Druid: Part 5: Druid versus Priest - A Guest Blog Post by Viktory

Welcome to the final part of this week long series by my guild mate, Viktory.  Today, he talks about the contrast between his main and his alt and why his alt may be his main sooner rather than later.

Last time I talked about how people should research and learn the details of their class. After all, that bear form icon does not mean someone who has always played Boomkin can say they know how to tank by default.

Now here I am debating whether I want to push my druid up as my new main in Cataclysm. So beyond learning the class and the tactics, I have to decide which I like more; my (now level 58) druid, or the disc priest I used through all of Wrath.

Step One of any good research is compare and contrast.

So I made a quick list:

Druid vs Priest
X Tank Healing  X
X Raid Healing   X
X Smart Heal     X
X Ranged DPS  X
X Raid Buffs      X
X Melee DPS     -
X Cool Dances   -
- Sexy in Armor X

So, after everything is tallied up, it comes down to whether you want to play a kitty and have cool dances, or if you would rather look super sexy in your armor and have everyone else in your raid envious of how good you look. Sort of a Jackie O./Marilyn dichotomy if you will.

But wait, what about.... BATTLE-REZ!?!

Holy crap, way to keep an ace in the hole, druids.

No doubt, if I was looking from a purely raid-utility standpoint, the druid would win, hands down. Plus, with Hit Rating becoming a factor of Spirit, Boomkin/Resto gearing will be even easier than Shadow/Disc gearing is today.

So now it looks like it’s time to push this character to 80 and get some raids in while the gettin’ is good. No better way to decide than to try it out, right?

The Rookie Druid: Part 4: Bear to Boom - A Guest Blog Post by Viktory

Welcome to part 4 of the week long series on a rookie druid, written by my guild mate Viktory.  Today, he discusses moving from tanking to lazer chicken.

 
As I detailed above, my RAF partner and I had agreed to spec as tank and healer so that we could always get rapid queues in the LFD system, owing to a third friend’s endorsement that RAF + LFD = fast levels without questing.

Only problem was.... well, there were lots of problems. The most basic of which was, as we got higher in level, I became more reliant on the the pug dps to do their jobs right and work together. At the same time, I swear that my threat generation did not scale up at the same rate as their dps. I had found myself in a system where despite getting fast queues, instances were taking 2-3x longer than they should because careless people were causing wipes.

I fully admit that I am picky/arrogant/impatient/you-name-it, and that this is amplified when I am the tank. I’m not sure what causes this, because as a healer (especially one who raids with Matticus) we’re always taught that we MUST heal the stupid.

Perhaps the issue is that when I’m tanking, I figure I have everything under control, very much “here’s some mobs, come whack them with your weapons and let’s move on in an orderly fashion”. Any deviation from this causes me to /facepalm.

I think the final step was when I kept getting orange-side Marudon runs with those damn plants that reset aggro and stun everyone. Hooray! Such a great mob design! Actually, it probably was a good mob design when 1-60 was supposed to be a hard journey, but nowadays everyone wants to zoom, and this run was agonizing, again and again.

So right about the time I hit level 50, I went to Moonglade and just told my partner that I was making the switch, I was going to try life on the feathery side.

Let me tell you, the difference was exactly what I needed. After 50 levels of tanking, here I was rejuvenated (druid pun intended)

I was destroying quest mobs that before I just sorta held in place and growled at.

I didn’t mind the wait time between queues, I was typically able to squeeze in a quest or two between each BRD run (...and boy was I glad not to be tanking in BRD. That place needs a transit system)

And the topper; blowing things up is FUN. So fun, in fact that while the first 50 levels took 89 days to level up, on the last day I was able to crank out 8 levels in only a couple hours and had a blast (druid pun not intended) doing it.

I know the other day I sort of bemoaned people who try to play their different specs badly, but you know who’s worse? People who never try the other specs at all. You’re a hybrid for a reason. If you only ever wanted to be ranged DPS, you’d have been better off rolling a Warlock (we all know Blizzard loves THEM). But you shouldn’t be just a boomkin or a cat or a tree. You can get dual-spec at 40 now for a reason. Go out, have some fun. Screw up in some random lowbie dungeons where everyone else is “teh suck” as well.

I did it, and I liked it, and that’s probably what saved this toon from languishing away, incomplete.

The Rookie Druid: Part 3 - Class Versus Player - A Guest Blog Post by Viktory

This is Part 3 in the series by my guild mate, Viktory.  Today, he looks at the hybrid conundrum, flexibility and why some people lack it.

   

I raid on a Priest.

I know that this is a Druid blog, so I’ll pause for a few minutes to allow you to list off the ways that Priests drool and Druids rule.

About done?
Okay, so here’s my take.

Three specs covering all four roles you’ll find in a raid offer great opportunity to be flexible and a solid role player for your guild, but also opens the door to great amounts of FAIL.

Just as with every class, I’ve raided with some really good druids, and some fairly crappy ones. I think that druids (and to a less extent the other hybrid classes) are plagued by both the opportunity to play multiple roles, and players who just don’t quite get it.

These days, I raid on both my healing and DPS specs on the same character, switching based on the fight and raid composition. (Meaning I get abused to fill whichever spot we have the least of) I applied to the guild as a disc priest understanding it would be a part-time spot, and when an opening came up for a shadow priest, I figured raiding was better than sitting on the bench.

In doing so, however, I accepted that I was responsible for putting up solid numbers in both specs.

What I sadly see happen more often with druids, though, is when I come across an applicant, pug or social who thinks their druid can play all three specs equally well with a minimal amount of adjustment. And they FAIL at it.

Yes, the great advantage of the class is that a druid CAN play any role. Unfortunately, not every player can play every role, and those ones who don’t hold up their end make a lot of hybrids look bad.

Clearly, though, I shouldn’t form my opinion of the class just based on the quality of player I have grouped with. I have faith that as I learn to play my rookie druid, I can figure out how to contribute in each spec, and while I may not like playing feral DPS, I’m sure that I’d put in the same level of research before trying to raid as one.

...and that research is exactly what spawned this post. Why don’t more people try to play multiple specs very well?

Do people really like playing resto/balance/feral to the exclusion of the other specs, and to the point that they are willing to be benched for someone who’s more flexible?

The Rookie Druid: Part 2 - Cheap Labor (LFG Adventures) - A Guest Blog Post by Viktory

This is part 2 in a week long series by Viktory, a guild mate of mine in Conquest, about leveling his new druid.  Also, after part 1, he said he wanted to see some Lolcats, so here it goes.

 

Now I had a RAF partner and a plan, but I still had to learn how to play the class, and, oh yeah, level up the toon.  To that end, we decided that instead of power-leveling on our mains and hitting 60 in 19 hours, as I did on my priest pre-3.0, we would actually play the low levels.  Further, I would go feral and he would go resto, so we could exploit the insta-queues in LFD as we leveled.

Let me tell you, this worked pretty good about 1/2 the time. 

The rest of the time, here's what I ran into:

●        That one dps that blizzards/consecrates/volleys before I even got to the pull

●        The dps who really wants to tank extra pulls while we're still on the main group; I’m looking at YOU retadins.

●        A healer who fell asleep/watched tv (hey, wait... my RAF-partner was healing me, why did I have to use cool-downs on trash?)

●        Party members who don't pay attention and drag in extra pulls, then run the mob AWAY from the tank...../facepalm

●        Instances I had never run on any toon (hello Mauradon, why are you the worst place to run back to after a wipe?)

●        DPS that want full clears instead of just the assigned run

On that last point, I've come to realize that this is because while I had insta-queues, and thus turned a HIGH profit on the LFD bonus multiplied by RAF, these dps were waiting 15-45 minutes for a run that yielded 1/3 the xp I was getting.  A regrettable difference, but not something that I was often swayed to deviate from.  Hey, gotta get THIS alt up, not everyone else's alt.

Stay tuned for the end of the bear and the birth of Kaboom!

The Rookie Druid: Part 1 - Background and RAF Start - A Guest Post by Viktory

Welcome to the first in a week long series of post by a guild mate of mine, Viktory.  He is an incredible priest in our guild.  This week, he is going to be discussing the process of leveling his druid and I hope you enjoy it.  

When I unpacked WoW and created my first character (link:http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Greymane&cn=Toronus), was a druid.  I figured "hey, here's a class that can do damage and heal and looks like I have few options how I want to play it". 

I went along happily leveling this character as balance-spec, spending copious amounts of time in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin, right up until Patch 1.8 was released.  Yes, I quit playing balance when Boomkins (known as "oomkins" in those days) came out. ::Queue the booing::  Not that I didn't like the class changes, but leveling was going too slow and my hunter alt became more appealing.

Fast-forward 4 years to this summer, I’m raiding ICC-25 HM on my priest, have 80 hunter and warrior alts, and yet as I read the first class changes from Cataclysm, I realized that I wanted a druid again.  Having fond memories of PvP, I tried playing my original toon, but couldn't pick up the mechanics as easily as I'd hoped, and, in truth, I'd geared him pretty awkwardly back then, and was disgusted with myself for it.

To solve these problems I got myself a RAF (recruit-a-friend) partner and convinced him that between raiding, work and social-life, we should level a pair of druids.  Sounded like a great idea:

●        Flexible gearing as we leveled (oh wow, every piece of gear that comes out of those blue bags is useful for one of my three specs?  Shoot, that's awful!)

●        Hate tanking? Go Boom!  / Bored healing? Go Boom! / Don't like Boom? What's wrong with you?  Meh, go play a kitty and eat your cheezburger.

●        I'd always wanted to pull off a squadron of boomkins for world pvp. 

C'mon, flight-form in, multiple burst dps, flight back out; tell me that's not totally bad-ass.

Goodbye Omen of Clarity And My Likely Balance Raiding Spec at 85

Yesterday, they finally decided to release the new 31 point talent trees.  Before I go into what I feel the raiding spec will be for balance druids, I feel like I need to do a eulogy for the druid's friend, the one thing all druid specs had in common, Omen of Clarity.

Omen of Clarity, you were a good talent.  We enjoyed the free actions that you allowed us to have.  Whether it was a free Shred in kitty form, a free Mangle in bear, a free Starfire during a Lunar Eclipse, or a free Rejuvenation, you were the druid's best friend.  Now Blizzard has decided it is time for you to go out to pasture.  And while I'm sure we will see your ghost in Tier set bonuses again, it will not be the same without you.  Thank you for two expansions of love to us druids.  You will be missed.

Ok, sadness about Omen of Clarity over.  Here is what I feel the level 85 balance spec will look.  Again, this is based on just what we know now and nothing else.  Also recognize that you must spend at least 31 points in a tree before taking talents from other trees.  This definitely changes how leveling will work, but will do nothing for our end game raiding spec.  Just remember to put your first talent point in the balance tree or you will be paying a respeccing fee. 

Tier 1 Balance Talents:  Nature's Grace, Starlight Wrath, and Genesis are all worth taking in terms of raid utility.  Nature's Grace will increase haste.  Starlight Wrath will decrease cast times.  Genesis will increase DoT damage.  I would max out everything in the first row.

Tier 2 Balance Talents:  I HATE our Tier 2 Balance talents with a passion. On one hand, we have Moonglow which reduces the mana cost of our spells.  On the other hand, we have Lunar Justice, which only affects targets that give experience and honor.  If I had to guess, Lunar Justice will be used for leveling and Moonglow will be for raiding.   I also think you will have to max out Moonglow because the Tier 2 Restoration talents are not things we need or want as balance.

Tier 3 Balance Talents:  Honestly, from this point, you are going to take and max every balance talent left.  Blizzard did a really great job at taking out the unnecessary talents from the balance tree.  Improved Eclipse is an easy choice.  It gives us more lunar or solar power with critical strikes and gives up more if we are hit by something.  Starsurge is one of our new spells that when combined with Lunar Guidance in Tier 4 will give us an interrupt and give us lunar or solar power.  Balance of Power is also in this tier, which gives us 4% hit plus changes 100% of our spirit to hit.  With no more improved faerie fire, this will become much more important although every piece of caster leather gear is going to have spirit on it.

Tier 4 Balance Talents:   I already discusses why you are going to want to take Lunar Guidance in the Tier 3 explanation, but the biggest reason is more solar or lunar power when you need it.  At first, I thought that Solar Beam was going to be more of a PvP talent due to its silence.  However, after doing Ruby Sanctum, I'm almost certain we are going to be using this a lot in Cataclysm.  Gale Winds will be good for trash mobs that don't require CC and will help Typhoon as a knockback.  Also, it increases our Cyclone range, which we will be using more for CC as well. 

Tier 5 Balance Talents:  Tier 5 starts with Euphoria, a.k.a the reason I hate our Tier 2 talents even more.  Besides getting more lunar and solar energy, we get 12% of our mana when we hit an Eclipse.  Considering how often we hit Eclipses now, we are not gonna run out of mana unless we are AoEing.  And if Hurricane counts as a nature spell, we seriously are never gonna run out of mana.  From there, it is our treants, which we would pick up anyway and Owlkin Frenzy which increases our spell damage.

Tier 6 Balance Talents:  Overall, moonkins are getting alot in Cataclysm.  In just the Balance tree, we get an interrupt, a silence, and now a slow with Fungal Growth.  Wrath of Cenarius is interesting in that it likely means we will be casting Moonfire alot more and moving since we will get this buff refreshed when we are moviing.

Tier 7 Balance Talents:  Starfall.  Get it.  Love it.

Feral Talents:  Yeah, sorry feral talents.  There is literally nothing I could want from your tree for my moonkin although I will point out two things.  One, mangle is becoming a standard attack across all druids because it is not in the tree at all.  Second, props to Blizzard for naming a talent "Nom Nom Nom".  Please keep it that way Blizzard.

Restoration Talents:  With 5 points left out of the 41 points, I would pick up Blessing of the Grove for the Moonfire damage increase in combination with Wrath of Cenarius.  I would also pick up Furor to increase our intellect which will in turn give us more spellpower.  You could argue to take Perseverance instead of Moonglow to decrease damage taken by 6%, but it is still not a great talent.  Plus, you still have to put at least 1 point in Tier 2 of balance to get to Tier 3.

Some time later, I will come back and look at the feral tank and the mage.  Mage is going to be tough though because we don't know which will be the highest DPS yet.

Also, remember our Christmas in July contest.  We are getting some entries now, but you still have a good chance to win a FigurePrint of your character.

The Ten Commandments of Battle Rezzing

It seems like the easiest thing for a druid.  When you see a raid member go down,  you know that you have the ability to get them up quickly. However, this can backfire very quickly for you and the person your rezzing.  Let me share my story of battle rezzing fail.

On the night we downed 10 man Lich King, one of our earlier attempts was going along smoothly.  We were in the transition phase between phase 1 and phase 2.  All of a sudden, one of my fellow raid members went down.  A battle rez was called for by the raid leader and he called on me to get him up.  I cast the battle rez not thinking about location.  It was just as the area where I was standing was two seconds away from collapsing.  So my raid member got the battle rez then immediately fell off the platform because there was no platform where I was standing.  Since it is hard to get through the valkyrie phase with one less DPS, a wipe was called.  A wipe that could have been prevented if I would have followed the ten commandments of battle rezzing.

Yes, I like trollcats/lolcats.  You will see a lot of cat pictures.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF BATTLE REZZING (as told by Ceiling Cat to Redhawks)

1) Thou shalt not cast battle rez unless called upon by raid leader. - This is a general rule.  There is no reason to battle rez if a wipe is going to be called two seconds later.

2) The druid that calls dibs on battle rez first has dibs. - There is nothing worse than having two battle rezs go off when only one is necessary.  You just wasted a cool down and a possible battle rez for later.

3) Thou shalt not cast battle rez in a location that will not be available in 10 seconds. - This is the commandment I broke.  Why the limit of 10 seconds?  Because 10 seconds will be enough time for the person being rezzed to take the rez, be healed up to full, and get buffs that can be cast.  Fights where this hold true is Lich King transition phases, 3rd phase of Professor Putricide depending on where you are standing, and Rotface slime pools.

4) Thou shalt not battle rez in times of massive raid wide damage. - If you know the raid is about to take massive raid wide damage, do not use your battle rez.  If you use it, you will have someone rezzed who has a small percentage of his health and then getting hit with the raid wide damage.  Fights where this occur is Marrowgar during bone storm, Deathwhisper if bolts are not being interrupted like they should be, Festergut prior to gastric bloat explosion, Rotface prior to unstable ooze explosion, Blood Queen during air phase, Dreamwalker if a blazing skeleton is up, Sindragosa if it is air phase, and Lich King if vile spirits are about to attack in phase 3 or it is the transition phases with Pain and Suffering being cast on the raid. 

5) Thou shalt not battle rez during times which certain distance must be maintained. - If it is a fight where distance must be maintained between raid members, it is recommended to not battle rez during that time.  Now sometimes it can come and go, like during Blood Council with Empowered Shock Vortex.  Other times, it is better to pick the best time, like with the Festergut fight.  The best time to rez during Festergut is when you are in position to get the spores buff/debuff since you know you won't get the vomiting debuff and can't spread it to the person you just rezzed.  Other notable fights with this include Saurfang if you have Blood Boil, Putricide if you are stunned by the green ooze during unstable experiment, air phase of Blood Queen, if you are marked for beacon during either air phase or phase 3 of Sindragosa, or if you are marked for defile during Lich King phases 2 or 3.

6) If at all possible, thou shalt not battle rez in places that will be damaged soon. - In some fights this is next to impossible.  Everybody has had a battle rez go off during Lady Deathwhisper only for the place you are standing to get hit with death and decay a second later.  This becomes the responsibility of the person being rezzed though communication with the person casting the rez is important.  If you see it, tell them to hold off on rezzing until that area is clear.  Just because you send the battle rez does not mean they have to take it.  Other times though, it is clearly on the rezzer.  If you see malleable goo headed towards you during the Professor Putricide fight, stop the battle rez cast and move and then recast your battle rez.  If you cast it, they will more than likely get hit and be dead.  In addition, you may still get hit by it and then you have two dead raid members instead of one.  Pretty much every fight in ICC has some mechanic where this would hold true.

7) Thou shalt realize situations where you shall not battle rez at all. -  This is where Mark of the Fallen Champion during Saurfang comes into play.  If you rez him, your raid member will die again and will heal Saurfang for even more.  Another place where this comes into play is the Blood Queen fight after somebody has been mind controlled.

8) DPS is not as important as battle rezzing a fellow raid member but tanking and healing hold precedence over battle rezzing. -  Yes, you may get shifted out of cat form or moonkin form to battle rez, but your job at that point is to battle rez your raid member.  Your lower DPS will be excused for getting a raid member up and downing a boss.  Now if  you are a healer and it is a choice between battle rezzing and keeping the tank up, keep the tank up.  If it is a choice between tanking or battle rezzing, tank or have another tank taunt the boss off of you so you can battle rez.  I have seen some tanks who can cast Barkskin and then battle rez, but I have only seen that in 5 man dungeons and not raid environments.

9)   Thou shalt not battle rez on trash. - Lazy people can come back in during trash pulls and catch up with you or just wait until the end of the trash and rez them normally.  Save battle rezes for bosses only.

10) If you have a choice between battle rezzing a druid and another player, thou shalt battle rez the druid. - The most obvious reason behind this is that if you battle rez the druid, they can battle rez the other player.  Remember to follow the other commandments when following this one.

That is my ten commandments of battle rezzing.  Why did I choose the ten commandments to pass these rules along.  First, I had ten things to say about battle rezzing.  Second, and the bigger reason, is all druids will be guilty of breaking one of these at times.  Nobody is perfect, just like nobody is perfect in keeping the actual Ten Commandments.  This is just a part of raid awareness and is something that takes developing when playing as a druid.

First Druid Steps (a.k.a This Is Inadequate)

I have a lot of hopes in Cataclysm for the druid class.  I hope Wild Mushroom is as awesome as it sounds it will be.  I hope that the Lunar/Solar Balance UI is easy and takes away what seems like a lot of random number generation and luck.  But my biggest wish for druids in Cataclysm is please Blizzard, for the love of all that is good and holy,  make the first 20 levels not suck so hard.

In a class that is suppose to be about shape shifting to different forms, we get nothing, zilch, nada until level 10.  And at level 10, we get bear form.  Is it better than nothing? Yeah, I guess so.  It also helps since you can start tanking in LFG at about level 15.  However, we do not get the cat form that lets us kill mobs quickly until level 20.  Before then, we are stuck with balance spells with no moonkin form, no eclipse mechanic, etc.  Yes, we are able to heal ourselves and we do have a little better survivability up front than other classes but that is not enough and it doesn't let us get the full feel of the class.

Here are some of my thoughts on what Blizzard could do to make the level 1-20 experience better for druids.

1) Start with a cat form.  People have been wanting dire cat form and what they can say is at level 20, you get dire cat form.  You can even make dire cat form the exact same as cat form now.  This way, you at least get something to start off with when leveling a druid that makes you feel like a druid.

2) I really think that feral cat will be one of two very viable leveling specs in Cataclysm.   You have to remember that Eclipse is moving from a talent to the third leg of the balance mastery system.  That means that if you put your first point into balance, you will start having eclipse at that point.  Eclipse from level 10 could be very interesting.  You still wouldn't get moonkin form until the appropriate level (see below on what I think an "appropriate level" should be), but you could easily level as balance.

3) Bears do not get mangle until very late in the feral tree.  This really should be a tier 1 or tier 2 feral talent since it is an important part of threat generation.  That would make people want to start tanking at an earlier level.  

4) For those who choose to level as balance, give them moonkin form earlier.  For those who wish to level as resto, allow them to have the Tree of Life cooldown sooner (Sorry, resto druids.  I always liked Tree of Life form).  This will open up the whole class to leveling in an easier manner regardless of spec.

5) Keep travel form at the current level of 16.  Also, I would say take away aquatic form, but I have a feeling we are going to be using that more than ever in Cataclysm.

I'm sure there are more ideas and I hope Blizzard does something to improve early druid leveling.  Once you get up to higher levels, druids are incredible. (As I heard someone say once, druids are one respec away from doing your job better than you.)  However, you do have to put up with some very tough first levels to get to the awesomeness of the druid class.

P.S.  I meant to do this in an earlier post, but I want to give a big thanks to a fellow moonkin blogger, Qieth over at  Qieth's Quips for the new banner for this blog.  It is awesome looking.