The Countdown's On - Return of the Bucket List

Props if you understand the reference behind this pic.

In July, I started a bucket list of what I wanted to accomplish in Cataclysm.  Like every good bucket list, it is good to go back and see where you came from and where you are at now and what you have left to accomplish.  Especially considering we now have a definitive date for Cataclysm.  So, here is the list with some of my comments thrown in.

Redhawks

Heroic:  Storming the Citadel (25 Player) - Done

Heroic:  The Plagueworks (10 and 25 Player) - Done

Heroic: The Crimson Hall (10 Player) - Done

Heroic: The Frostwing Halls (10 and 25 Player) - Done and Done

Bane of the Fallen King (10 Player) - We have decided not to try HM LK on 10 or 25.

The Light of Dawn (25 Player) - We have decided not to try HM LK on 10 or 25.

Heroic:  Fall of the Lich King (10 and 25 Player) - No HM LK means this will not happen.

Full House (25 Player) - Done

I'm On a Boat (25 Player) - Done

Dances With Oozes (25 Player) - Done

Flu Shot Shortage (25 Player) - Done

Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion... (25 Player) - Done

Portal Jockey (25 Player) - I missed the day we did this, but it is easy.  Will probably get soon.

All You Can Eat (25 Player) - Done

Been Waiting a Long Time for This (25 Player) - Done

Neck Deep in Vile (25 Player) - Working on it.  Will likely get it this week.

Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 and 25 Player) - 10 man is done. 25 man will be done soon.

Heroic:  The Twilight Destroyer (25 Player) - We may or may not do this.

Stokin' The Furnace (10 Player) - Since trying to get drakes, we haven't focused on old Ulduar.

Firefighter (10 Player) - Since trying to get drakes, we haven't focused on old Ulduar.

I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning (10 Player) - Since trying to get drakes, no Ulduar.

Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10 Player) - Hopefully will have soon once we get ICC drakes.

Observed (10 or 25 Player) - May or may not get to try this out.

A Tribute to Insanity (25 Player) - We are close.  We can get to Anub with all 50 left. Just have to down him in one shot.

Call of the Grand Crusader (25 Player) - When we take down Anub, we will have this.

The Immortal (25 Player) - May do this in off time before Cataclysm.

Earth, Wind, and Fire (10 or 25 Player) - Probably not going to happen. No PUG will do this.

Redrobin    
The Plagueworks (10 Player) - Done

The Crimson Hall (10 Player) - Done

The Frostwing Halls (10 Player) - Done

The Frozen Throne (10 Player) - Done

Fall of the Lich King (10 Player) - Done

So looking at what is actually possible with the guild, there is not a lot left:

Redhawks  

Portal Jockey (25 Player)

Neck Deep in Vile (25 Player)

Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 Player)

A Tribute to Insanity (25 Player)

Call of the Grand Crusader (25 Player)

Of course, as time goes on, new stuff gets added.  These are the new additions to the bucket list.

Redhawks  

Tailoring to 450

Jewelcrafting to 450

Honor capped

High amount of Justice Points

Redrobin   

310% Mount Without Paying 5k Gold

Honor capped

High Amount of Justice Points

Redider     

Level 78

Skinning to 450

Herbalism to 450

Redvulture   

Level 78

Mining to 450

Start Leveling Blacksmithing

So, some things are done, some things will likely not get done, and new things get added.  Whatever the case, the countdown is on for Cataclysm.  We will have 4.0 in the next few weeks, the world event, and just as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Deathwing will tear apart Azeroth on 12/7/10. (Too soon?)

Operation Gnomergan: How It Should Have Been Handled

Last night, I stayed up past our raid time to finish Operation Gnomergan.  My impression of it was kind of nonchalant.  Think about the epic quest lines that have occurred in Wrath of the Lich King.  Wrathgate.  The ICC 5 Mans.  The trolls and Drak'Tharon Keep/Gundrak.  Even the Black Knight quest line was better in my opinion than Operation Gnomergan and that was mostly making fun of Monty Python.  Yes, it did have its funny moments like the speeches from Bravehart and Independence Day, but the payoff does not equal what I went through.  Especially considering it is going to be an endless loop until Cataclysm.  And what did I get for my effort.  Some gold, a novelty item that turns me into a gnome, (I'm wondering what it will do for my gnome mage) and a cloak.

So looking back, could it have been handled differently?  Maybe.  Here are some of my thoughts on how it could have been handled.

1) Level 80 Heroic 5 man Dungeon - Wouldn't it have been much better to do all the lead up to open up the heroic 5 man dungeon version of the event.  I don't even care if it drops higher than ICC 5 man gear, but it would have seemed a lot more epic.  Plus, it would be like the ICC 5 mans where you would have the High Tinkerer with you instead of Jania. 

2) Phased Event - Ok, so your first foray into Gnomergan left it to where you were exploded out of the area and back to Ironforge.  Fine.  Don't end the quest line there.  Make it to where you have to figure out what you need to take care of the bomb.  There can even be multiple stops along the way, but don't just stop it until most of your goal is succeeded.  I felt like at the end I did all of that for nothing except some cheap laughs and a little gold.

3) Make More Tie Ins With Cataclysm - Imagine the reason that the gnomes did not get further is because of a massive earthquake that backed them up to the surface instead of a bomb going off.  It would have seemed better if there was more of a tie in to what is going to happen.  Even Blizzard said this is part of the Cataclysm world event.  It should feel like it.

4) Make Rewards More Valuable - If I got more than a novelty item, I would have said ok.  Maybe some Frost badges (not that I need them on my main) or an epic shirt even with no stats.  Or even a pet or a title would have made it worth it.  It just has to seem that the reward is worth the time I invested in it. 

I have not done the troll event so it might be better, but as of right now, I was sorely disappointed with Operation Gnomergan.  I'm really  hoping Blizzard comes out and says this is only part 1.  I really am hoping.

Also, I am going to be on Leet Sauced tonight, which is a new podcast that is being started by some guys in my guild.  I would encourage you to check them out when the episodes start coming out. I will add the site to my links soon.  Also, any other podcasters out there, I'm open for coming on your show as well.

Recommendations for Cataclysm Guild Reputation (Blog Azeroth Shared Topic)

In Cataclysm, there will be two major changes coming for guilds.   The first is the guild perks, which look incredible.  Whether it is faster leveling for alts or a mass resurrection, all of them sound incredible.  The second major change that is directly related to this is guild reputation.  I'm sure to get the full benefit of the guild perks, you need to get exalted with your guild.  This could be incredible or incredibly bad.  Let me give some recommendations on how to make it awesome.

1)  GM Should NOT Be Giving Out Guild Rep - This would just seem cheap on every level.  You could get your raid team to exalted immediately.  And then you would have people changing to guilds where they get full perks immediately.  I have a feeling Blizzard wouldn't do this anyway.

2) Guild Tabard Gives Rep In Guild Raids - Just like the tabards in 5 mans in Wrath gives you rep with different factions, the guild tabard should give you guild reputation in raids.  Preferably, this would be in guild raids, but I don't know if there is a way to tell if the raid makeup is X% of your guild so it may just be any raid.

3) Major Achievements Equal Major Guild Rep - Having got Glory of the Icecrown Raider on my main, I could see where achievements could be linked to guild reputation.  But not puny achievements like catch 50 fish.  They have to be major achievements.  This could include raid achievements, Loremaster achievements, PvP achievements, and profession achievements.  Wouldn't it be great to get guild reputation when you max out your cooking and can bring fish feast or whatever the equivalent will be in Cataclysm.  The harder the achievement, the more reputation it should give too.  For example, clearing a raid in heroic mode should give more guild rep than normal mode.

4) Different Guild Ranks Get Different Rates of Reputation - This would encourage guilds to tighten up their ranks.  Put their core raiders in a certain rank if they are a raiding guild or major PvPers in different ranks.  This would also allow demotion of people who miss a few raids and have to earn their way back into getting full reputation for raids.  And, yes, officers should get more guild reputation because they have to devote time outside of just raiding to the guild in getting raids setup, etc.  And yes, the GM should get more guild rep. (Though I could argue they should start exalted, but that is just my opinion.)

5) Heroic 5 Mans Could Give Small Amounts of Rep - I would put a major stipulation on this one though.  All 5 members must be in the same guild.  With the LFD tool, that is easy to figure out since it will be on the same server and they can see who is partied up when they start then look at the guild name.

6) Giving Money/Supplies To The Guild Bank Should NOT Give Rep - That is just not fair for people who don't have the money or supplies to donate to the bank.

7) Guild Rep Should Spread Across the Account - This would be for only alt characters in that same guild.  This would encourage people to bring their alts into their mains guild and give more to their guild to make it stronger.  If a person is a member of two guilds, then their alts would get rep in either guild but it would not cross over to the other guild.

8) Dinging Max Level Should Bring You to Friendly - Once you ding 85, you should get Friendly status with your guild to encourage you to start getting into raiding and get more benefits and rep.  Of course with the expansion after Cataclysm, people will carry their exalted reputation if they stay with the same guild.  Of course, if you change guilds, you start at Neutral with the new guild.

9)  Leveling Does Not Give Guild Rep - While you are leveling, you are probably not giving much to a guild at that point in terms of benefits so you should not get guild rep.  The exception would be if you are leveling an alt in your main guild where it would go across your account.

10)  Only Negative Rep Should Be Leaving the Guild - You can move bad players to a rank where they won't get rep, but you should only lose rep by leaving the guild where you will have to start over.   

I'm hoping Blizzard will take some of these recommendations into account when they are building the guild reputation system.   I love the idea, but I hope they make it so it encourages people to strengthen their guild and make it better.  

Dungeon Armor Sets (a.k.a Nailed It)

When they announced hero and valor points replacing badges a few months ago, I talked about the possibility of bringing back pre-raid tier gear, which was known at one time as the dungeon armor sets.  Well, it appears that this is going to happen according to the latest information from MMO Champion.

From the data mining of the latest Cataclysm build, they have found the cloth armor sets for what appears to be the dungeon armor set.  With this information, there is some likely information that can be taken from this.

1)   Will Be Attainable One of Two Ways - MMO Champion stated that this gear will likely be drops in the 5 man heroic dungeons.  I tend to disagree with this.  Blizzard has set up a standard of buying one Tier behind gear with hero points and buying the latest raid gear with valor points.  My guess is that these will be buyable with hero points with the possibility of making them stronger with drops from 5 man dungeons, like tokens.  However, it is still possible that you will have to get the dungeon tokens to get the initial dungeon gear.

2)  Will Not Have Set Bonuses - I tend to think that Blizzard believes that the raiding sets of gear should have bonuses for classes.     With pre-raid gear, I would not be surprised if they put no bonuses on them.  This means that any class of the same cloth type will likely have the same gear.  A shadow priest, mage, and a warlock should all be wearing the same pre-raid dungeon gear with the only differences in gemming and enchants to show their preferences in stats.

3)  Will Make Dual Specs More Important - If you have easily attainable pre-raid dungeon sets, you will have no excuse to not have gear for both your sets.  Now some classes, like mages, can likely use the same dungeon armor set since there will be no set bonuses to warrant using two different sets of gear.  However, with druids, I will likely have my moonkin set and my bear set.

4) Will Set a Bare Minimum Standard for Raiding - In other words, if you at least don't have the pre-raid dungeon set, don't show up for raids because you are not going.  Naxx made it very easy for you to go in with blues and be somewhat successful.  I have a feeling this will not be the case in Cataclysm. You will need the dungeon armor set in order to get in and start raiding.

Of course there are some unanswered questions still about gearing in Cataclysm.  When will the Tier 10 gear be replaced with new gear or will we enter new raids and heroic dungeons with Tier 10?  If it is dungeon drops, will it be classed based like tokens currently are?  Will there be heroic dungeon gear that will surpass the dungeon armor set or will we get all 5 pieces of the dungeon armor set?  Hopefully, these questions will be answered sooner rather than later.

Remember, 7/31/10 is the last day to enter the Christmas in July contest.  As of right now, there are 6 entries so everybody is winning something.  If you enter, you will have a very good chance of winning something for just posting.

Twitter Dev Chat from 7/16/10 - My Thoughts On Blizzard's Thoughts

Blizzard decided that after the insanity that was RealID and with the addition of 31 point talent trees, it was time to do another Twitter development chat.  Here are some of my personal thoughts about the general and druid specific things from that chat.

1) For the Love of God, Stop Asking About Guild Housing - Blizzard has done this chat a few times now and every single time, someone thinks it would be a good question to ask about guild housing.  Blizzard has said no, it is not going to happen.  If you are that hard up for guild housing, go play Age of Conan with nobody else.

2) Glyphing Has Become Interesting - Giving the description of the new glyphs, it is starting to sound like that some passive abilities are going to become new glyphs.  This means that maybe Omen of Clarity is not dead.  My guess is passive abilities will either become Prime or Major glyphs.  Minor glyphs are going to be the fun glyphs. (Like Polymorph: Penguin)


3) Mastery Capping Will Not Happen - I'm thinking by their descriptions that only 7 pieces of gear will have mastery on it (Head, Chest, Wrist, Hands, Waist, Legs, and Feet) and there will be no mastery gemming or enchanting. Thus it will be impossible to hit a mastery cap.  I could see shared items like weapons, rings, cloaks, trinkets, and neck pieces having mastery, but I still don't think it will be cappable.  That being said, you will still want as much as mastery as possible regardless of your class.

4) Blizzard has A LOT to Do with Druids Still - Only to get me as close to a heart attack as I have ever been, I thought that Omen of Clarity, Typhoon, and Moonkin form were all being taken out when the 31 point talents came out.  Thankfully, those were more errors than anything.  Omen of Clarity may be out, but Typhoon and Moonkin form will come back.  They said they have a lot to do with all the classes, but it really seems like all the druids still need a lot of work.

5) Welcome Back, Moonfire - Moonfire is going to become the Balance druid's friend when moving.  We are going to be spamming it on the move since it will have a new nuke capability as well as its normal DoT ability.  Plus, with some of the suggested talents, it will be refreshed by just moving.  Don't even have to spam it to get more effect out of it.

6) Eclipse Will Be Awesome - From their description, an Eclipse will last until either the Balance bar either returns to center or 45 seconds.  So, it does not sound like you will be able to store up a Lunar Eclipse and then use it for a boss.  However, 45 seconds is a lot of time to move and then start casting.  What we don't know is how much solar power we get for each Starfire cast.   We know that if we critically hit with either a Starfire or Wrath, we get 12 of the appropriate power per the talents.  I'm also guessing that when moving from a Lunar Eclipse to a solar eclipse that 1 Solar Power = - 1 Lunar Power and vice versa for a Solar Eclipse.  These means we have to subtract out 100 Lunar Power to get back to center during a Lunar Eclipse.  Another thing with Eclipse is possibly finding ways to prolong the Eclipse.  If you get near center, you may cast Wrath a few times in the middle of the rotation to get a few more Lunar Eclipse procs in the 45 seconds.  And mastery will affect how much damage we put out during our Eclipses.  I think the balance druid's new goal will be to get an Eclipse, make it last 45 seconds, and then get to the opposite Eclipse.

7) Duel Speccing Will Be Earlier and Cheaper  - Thank God.  If you are going to tell people they have to put their first 31 talents in one tree, you have to provide a way to duel spec earlier.  I'm hoping either level 10 or 20.  More likely, it will be level 30.

8) Spec Specific Talent at Level 10  - Awesome.  I think it will make every spec a viable leveling spec, whether you are leveling doing quest or just LFG.  (I'm trying to level my DK while staying in the DK starting area and just DK tanking with heirloom gear.)  Balance druids will have Eclipse.  Feral druids will have Mangle.

9) Intellect Stat is About to Explode - End game raiders currently have around 3-4k spellpower unbuffed.  When asked what the conversion rate is, they basically said it is 1 intellect for 1 spellpower.   That means one of two things.  Either they want to decrease how much spellpower everybody has or they are about to have a lot of intellect on gear.  I tend to think it is the latter.

10) Hybrid Specs Are Still Not Back - I was hoping for a combination feral spec that could do good kitty DPS and tank.  Apparently, that is not happening.  They are actually making it a point that a DPS feral spec is different enough from a feral tank that it cannot be combined.  Also, goodbye Restokin for PvP.  But that is okay, because between Starfall, Moonfire Spam, and our AoE silence, moonkins will be incredible in PvP.   

Hopefully, they will have even more answers for us as we get closer and closer to Cataclysm.  Speaking of Cataclysm, if you think you know when the release date is going to be, enter our Christmas in July contest for some cool free stuff.

Finally, I mentioned WoWCentric not to long ago.  Well, it is up and running now and you can find a big link on the right side.  You will find druid and raiding content from me as well as great content from a bunch of other bloggers, podcasters, etc.  Bookmark it, visit it daily, and see some great content.

Patch 3.3.5 and Other WoW News - A.K.A Catching Up

Last week, I had the inspiration for the emblem and gearing new 80s articles that I completely neglected a bunch of WoW news.  So, for the first post this week, I wanted to just go through some of the major news that came out last week including one breaking story from today.

1) Path of the Titans Gone - As someone who has max leveled cooking and first aid, I'm glad that it won't be an absolute requirement now to level archaeology.  I'm still gonna do it, but at least it is not going to determine raid ability.

2) Guild Talent Trees Gone - As much as I like my GM, I'm glad that he doesn't have to make the decision on where to put guild talent tree points.  I know when they announced it, they thought it would be something to bring guilds together.  What it actually would do is destroy guilds with arguments, fighting, etc.  I still like the fact that they are going to keep guild leveling for additional benefits though.

3) New Glyph Changes - I love both of the changes they have announced for glyphs.  One, they are creating a third tier of glyphs that are moderate glyphs, which sound incredible.  Second, and the one I'm more excited about, is that you only have to buy a glyph once.  After you buy it, you only have to change it out.  This makes glyphs what they should be, situational and able to change on the fly.  As a bear tank, I would love the ability to change out the Growl glyph and the Maul glyph at will without having to buy multiple glyphs.

4) Level 80 Heirloom Gear Stops at 80 - I had a feeling they would do this, but I'm okay with it.  It would be rough to change out my T10 bear gear for two pieces of heirloom gear.  But it will make my mage easy to level after I hit 85.  However, level 80 heirlooms will work for goblins and worgans, but not worgoblins.  (Dark Legacy Comic Joke)

5) Heroic Deadmines and Heroic Shadowfang Keep on Hold - Even so come quickly 4.1.  Please.  Pretty Please.

6) Caverns of Time Raid - As someone who has not gone back and did the Mount Hyjal raid, but has done all the other 5 mans in CoT, this excites me.  Every CoT instance has been incredible.  And I'm not even a lore nerd.

7) Garrosh Hellscream, New Warchief  - Old news since it was predicted a while ago.  Plus I'm alliance.  I do care, but not that much.

8) Raid Lockout Changes - This has been my favorite news of the past week.  You will be able to split 1 25 man raid into up to 3 separate 10 man raids.  That is incredible, especially if you think about the summer slump that a lot of guilds are going through right now.  You get a 25 man together on Tuesday, but you only have 20 on Thursday.  No problem.  Just split the raid.  While we kind of knew about this, the other news is the incredible news.  If you have downed up to a certain boss in a raid lockout, you will be able to join a raid that has killed the same boss but not beyond that boss.  In other words, let's say that you split the 25 man and all three groups kill one additional boss.  However, you only have enough to have one 10 man on Monday.  Since all three groups killed the one additional boss, you would be able to pull any of the 30 into the 10 man to raid.  The only thing they said is that you cannot combine 10 mans into a 25 man, which does make sense.

9) Cross Account Achievement - This will help out drastically.  As many people ask for links to achievements that you have done stuff, like VoA, this will help out so that you can show you have done it, even if it was on a different character.  And while I think the mounts, pets, and titles should remain player specific, you can at least shown that you have done it.

10) Patch 3.3.5 Tomorrow - Thank God.  I love ICC, but I am definitely ready for a change of scenery.  Even if we down him on the first day and go back to ICC, it will be something different.  However, the news has pointed to Ruby Sanctum not being available tomorrow, but maybe the week after.  This also means having to say goodbye to AVR, which is fine, because I stopped using it a couple weeks ago to get ready for this moment.  It is a crutch.  A very technically advanced and awesome crutch, but a crutch none the less.  This will also be the introduction of RealID.  I know some people are concerned about privacy, which could be an issue.  However, I'm gonna have to take Blizzard's word on this one and trust they know what they are doing.  Also, I believe we will see the buff increase to 25% this week for ICC, which should help our HM progression, considering how close we are on 25 man HM Blood Queen.  

So this is just a sampling of the WoW news from this past week.  There are other stories about what the news raids will be, but I will just wait for Cataclysm to talk about those.

Also, I'm glad to announce that I'm going to be working with www.WoWCentric.com, which is going to be a collection of WoW comics, bloggers, podcast, etc.  It is a very ambitious project and I'm glad to be working on it with a bunch of other bloggers.

Finally, I'm going to try to get some guest posters for next week since I'm going to be going on vacation to see if they would be willing to write some stuff, including some members of my own guild hopefully.  I will hope to have some news for everybody during this week.

Cataclysm Druid Changes - My Possible Moonkin Build

MMO Champion has released the previews of the druid talents for Cataclysm.  Now, I am not a theorycrafter by any stretch, but I'm going to pretend I'm one today by taking a guess as to what the end game moonkin raiding spec will be.  I will try to do one tomorrow for feral tank druids and try to come up with options.  Here is what I'm looking at right now.

It is a 63/0/13 talent build right now.  Here is my rundown of the talents:

Balance Talents

Starlight Wrath (5/5) - Reduces the cast time of Wrath and Starfire.  I think this will be a necessary talent since casting those more quickly will allow us to build lunar or solar power.

Genesis (5/5) - Increases DoT damage by 5%, which is pretty substantial for our Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Faerie Fire.

Nature's Majesty (2/2) - Increases the critical strike damage by 4% for Starfire, Wrath, and Starfall, which will be incredibly good and important to hit whatever the new Lunar Crit Cap will be.

Improved Moonfire (2/2) - Increases the direct damage of Moonfire by 10%.  Again, more damage for one of our bigger DoT spells.  Plus, the DoT is determined by the upfront damage of the Moonfire.

Nature's Grace (3/3) - Essentially, Wrath and Starfire crits increase spell casting speed.  Very helpful, especially if you are at the Lunar Crit Cap and every spell cast is a crit.

Solar Beam (1/1) - Our first new talent ability.  However, I think this is more of a PvP talent versus a PvE talent,  but, you will need this to get one of the talents further down the tree.

Nature's Reach (2/2) - Increases our max range, which is essential for PvE fights to stay at max range.

Nature's Splendor (1/1) - Increases our main DoTs length.

Brambles (3/3) - Main thing is it increases your treants damage dealt.  Stunning probably won't do much in a PvE enviroment but that ability is there.

Starsurge (1/1) - This is my current favorite description for a talent.  "It fuses the power of the sun and moon."  Yes, it does.  We are badass like that.  This is a direct damage spell which I'm thinking will become part of our rotation.  The "knocking down" sounds again like a more PvP part of the ability, but it will have some function in PvE as a ranged stun maybe.

Vengeance (5/5) - Increases the critical strike damage bonus by 100% for our most used spells.  In other words, big crits.

Dreamstate (3/3) - Now, normally, I would say not to take any mana saving abilities in a tree since 25 mans tend to not have issues with mana.  However, I would take this talent because of the ability it leads to further down the tree, which will be necessary.

Gale Winds (2/2)  - This is where some of the variable points start.  If you are mana starved in a raid, you could move these points to Moonglow.  However, this just increases your AoE damage done with hurricane.  Since Typhoon is not a major source of damage, increasing it a little might help, but not much.

Lunar Guidance (3/3) - This is why you took Solar Beam and Starsurge to begin with.  While increasing the range of the Solar Beam may not be much use in PvE, having the 15 additional lunar or solar power while casting Starsurge is huge.  This will help us hit our Eclipses quicker as well.

Balance of Power (2/2) - This is our conversion from spirit to hit that we needed in order to use resto gear as our main gear.  100% of our spirit will be converted into hit.

Moonkin Form (1/1) - Duh, this is our crit chicken, our boomkin, our form.  Take it.

Improved Moonkin Form (3/3) - Increase all party members haste by 5%.  Pretty handy since our DoTs will be determined by our haste and crit rating.

Euphoria (2/2) - This is how we will change from Lunar Eclipse to Solar Eclipse really quickly. Starfire crits will equal 8 solar power and Wrath  crits will equal 4 lunar energy.  This makes sense since our Wrath cast are traditionally quicker than our Starfire cast.  Also, when we hit an eclipse, we get 12% of our mana back.  That is huge.

Owlkin Frenzy (3/3) - Damage increased by 10% when damage is done to you.  Not to shabby.

Wrath of Cenarius (3/3) - Increases Moonfire's DoT damage by 8% and can stack while we are moving.  This will help us not to lose as much DPS as when we are on the move since we can refresh it and allow it to stack up to 3 times.

Improved Eclipse (3/3) - Another tool to help us get to Eclipses faster by increasing the amount of Lunar and Solar energy we gain by 30%.  Plus, if we are damaged with a critical hit, we gain Lunar or Solar Energy.

Typhoon (1/1) - Our good old Typhoon spell.  Of course, you should pick it up.

Force of Nature (1/1) - Also, our good old treants.  Pick these up as well.

Earth and Moon (3/3) - Since we cast Wrath and Starfire all the time, this equates to a 8% more damage increase on the mob and a 6% increase in our spell damage that we dish out.

Fungal Growth (2/2) - This was a tough call.  Most 25 man raids have hunters who can frost trap which is essentially the same as this.  This turns our treants and Wild Mushroom into basically hunter traps.  The difference is you get three traps with the treants and can lay Wild Mushroom down pretty regularly.  Again, if you are extremely mana starved, you could probably transfer these points to Moonglow.

Starfall (1/1) - Our face melting, world ending, 51 point talent.  Take it.  You'll love it.

Feral Talents

I don't see any feral talents worth taking as a moonkin.  Just skip this tree.

Restoration Talents

Blessing of the Grove (2/2) - Increases the direct damage of your Moonfire by 6%.  Remember, higher direct damage on Moonfire = higher DoT damage.

Furor (5/5) - Increases our intellect in moonkin form by 10%.  This will directly increase our spellpower due to the new mechanics of intellect.  Plus, we will get some more mana back from Dreamstate.

Natural Shapeshifter (3/3) - Reduces mana cost for shapeshifting and opens up the Master Shapeshifter talent, which is more important.

Omen of Clarity (1/1)  - Pretty much the same use as now.  Makes your next cast free.  You probably still will be able to proc this by casting Gift of the Wild.

Master Shapeshifter (2/2) - Increases spell damage by 4%.  More damage = higher DPS, which is always win.

So this is my idea of what the basic moonkin raiding spec will be.  What are you opinions on this spec?  Do you think some of the abilities will not be as needed?  Do you think that mana management will be more of an issue than before?  I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this.

Updated Eclipse Mechanic - My Thoughts on Stuff Unknown

I usually don't do a lot of pure speculation post, but I'm gonna try on this one.  We know that the Eclipse mechanic is changing in Cataclysm to a bar that tells whether you are closer to the lunar eclipse or the solar eclipse.  If you cast nature spells, it moves you closer to the lunar eclipse.  If you cast arcane spells, you move closer to the solar eclipse.  Here is how I'm thinking some of this maybe useful, if it does work like I think it will work.

1) Loading Lunar Eclipse before a boss - I do not know if the bar will reset after each fight, but if it does not, this could make for an interesting mechanic.  On trash, you would have more incentive to use Wrath versus ever using Starfire.  Also, Hurricane is our most used trash mechanic, which is also a nature spell.  I could see where you use nature spells to get yourself into the lunar eclipse state so that you can have full lunar eclipse right at the start of the boss fight.  In other words, you are talking about increasing our burst DPS greatly at the start of a fight.  This in turn may lead to the second thing, which is...

2) Moonkins More of a Threat in PvP - As if Starfall wasn't enough, if you can front load your Lunar Eclipse and can bust out with 25k + crits of Starfire right at the beginning of PvP, you are talking huge up front burst damage.   Of course, they will break this for arenas by resetting your bar at the beginning of arena fights.

3) Moving Less of a DPS Loss - Nothing hurts me more than getting in a fight like Festergut and just as my Lunar Eclipse procs, I have to move to a spore.  I know because that means that at best, I will be able to reapply my Insect Swarm and my Moonfire, but no huge Starfire crits.  With this new mechanic, it moves it away from a strict timer to something that can be used over time.

4) Nature's Torrent Will Be Used When The Bar is in the Middle - From what they have said of this spell, it sounds like it is going to push the bar, one way or the other.  This is the thing that I hope will give us more variety.  If we can't front load our Lunar Eclipse, I could see where after we apply Faerie Fire and DoTs, our next spell will be Nature's Torrent.  This will move the bar one way or the other and tell us which to start casting.

5) Degradation Over Time - I can't imagine that they will let us stay at one state for any longer than about a minute.  I can imagine that after a minute, the bar will return to the middle if no action has taken place.  We can still front load Lunar Eclipse if we are fast, but it won't be forever.  The longer before it returns to the middle, the better for us moonkins.

6) Eclipse at Level 10 - This is honestly the most exciting thing for me.  While I'm sure moonkin form will still be down the talent tree, if somebody puts points into Balance at level 10, they get Eclipse immediately.  It will be interesting to see how the mastery system will affect Eclipse.  My guess is that higher mastery will give higher crit chances on Eclipse or increase your haste.

So what are you thoughts on the new Eclipse mechanic?  I am very optimistic for what Cataclysm will bring to the moonkins in the game.  And, Blizzard, please don't take away our owl form.  Don't do to us what you did to the trees. 

Golf and WoW - Is It Possible?

Over this Memorial Day weekend, I actually got to go play two rounds of golf with my family, one on Friday and one on Saturday.  I am not an expert by any stretch.  In fact, I shot a 60......on the front 9.  If you know anything about golf, par for the entire course is 72 usually. 

However, I am very good at video game golf.  I have always loved the Hot Shots series as well as the Tiger Woods Golf Games.  So when I heard the news that the goblins are building a golf course in Azshara, it got me thinking on all the fun things that could be done with a World of Warcraft golf mini-game.  Think of all the possibilities.

1)  Gambling - Get a few friends together and place a bet of 100 gold per hole and make it like a skins game.  That would be an awesome way to have some legitimate gambling in WoW. 

2) Engineering - I could definitely see rocket powered golf balls that could drive the distance of a par 4.  Or a club that added extra power to your swing.  Or a parachute golf ball that will open at the height of the arc and travel down slowly.

3) Tournaments for Pets/Mounts - They could put on tournaments like the fishing tourney where the winner would get an incredible prize, like a pet or a mount. 

4) Ganking/World PvP - Wouldn't it be awesome if the golf course was a kind of world PvP where you had to gain control of the golf course and then you have 3 hours to play golf.  In addition, you would be open on the golf course.  Couldn't you see a rogue using a seven iron to fight off a ganker.  They could even make golf clubs as actual weapons.

5) Golf Cart Races - When I was younger, this is what would get me in trouble at the golf course.  My friends would race the golf carts around the course.  I could see the golf course having golf carts that come equipped with weapons, etc.

This is one of the best ideas I think that have come to the game in a while and if they implement World of Warcraft golf, it would be something fresh and new to do in the game.

Later this week, I'm going to be writing a blog on  how to get almost all your gear for mages and moonkins before you step foot into your first raid and I will be throwing up my recommended pre-raid, emblem only, gear.

Also, I mentioned this on my Twitter feed, but Redhawk's Gaze got a mention on Bind on Equip by Wemb.  I wanted to thank the show for talking about the blog.  I would highly recommend checking out that podcast.  It is one of the best podcast on the internet and one of the few podcast that I listen to about WoW. 

Dungeons and Cataclysm - Return to Awesomeness

This past weekend, I was running Stratholme on my mage solo to try and farm Runecloth for tailoring.  It was the first time I had run it on my mage, which even at level 80 was difficult.  While most other dungeons, I could arcane explosion my way through the instance, Stratholme was different.  It actually presented a challenge for my little under geared gnome mage.  I'm sure I could come back on my druid tank and wreck some stuff in there and clear very quickly, but it took some actual strategy on my mage.  It was also fun to see the differences between Culling of Stratholme and the actual Stratholme instance.  Thinking back to how it was once a vibrant city a lot like Stormwind and now it is a wreck.

It was also fun having a lot of bosses in a 5 man.  This goes to what we have heard about the Halls of Origination in Cataclysm.  It is a seven boss 5 man dungeon.  Originally, I was not very wild about that idea of having that big of a 5 man.  However, going back and running Zul'farak and Stratholme while farming cloth made me realize that those dungeons are just awesome.  Are the bosses hard?  No, not really.  It is mostly tank and spank fights.  However, I don't think people run 5 mans for the incredible strategy behind the boss fights.  That is what raiding is for.  Yes, there are some creative ones, like the guy who tosses boulders in Pit of Saron or Eadric the Pure in Trial of the Champion where you have to turn around.  However, having a fight where you just have to hold off hordes of trolls with some prisoners only to have the prisoners turn on you after all is said and done is kind of awesome.

Even in Burning Crusade, you had to think about every single pull.  Remember Magister's Terrace.  If you do what you do now in 5 mans in Magister's Terrace, you were dead.  By the end of Stratholme, I was thinking about every arcane blast I was shooting and not using arcane explosion at all.  Especially during the gauntlet.  I remember the times I have run the Zangarmarsh 5 mans on my druid and pulled when a patrol was coming.  That usually meant a wipe in that instance.

Please don't think I'm degrading current 5 mans.  There are a lot of fun stuff in the current 5 mans.  I appreciate the lack of trash in the current 5 mans.  I appreciate that the bosses have a little more complexity than in past 5 mans.  Overall, it seems the bosses became a little more complicated and trash became a little less complicated.

In Cataclysm, I hope they keep the bosses about where they are now and make the trash a little harder.  While I like AOEing trash, I would like to get back to some of that strategy that was involved in 5 mans where you had to think about kill order, CCing, etc.

What are some of the things you are hoping for 5 mans from Cataclysm?  Do you think they should get back to some of the complication from the original and BC?  Do you think they should keep the Wrath model of 5 mans?   

Cataclysm Badge and Point Changes Preview

In a day full of Cataclysm news, we get more delicious Cataclysm goodness from the blue posters at Blizzard.

We're continuing to refine the badge/emblem and PvP point systems in Cataclysm and we'd like to share some of those changes with you today. Please enjoy!

Our primary goal when approaching badges in Cataclysm is to address a lot of the confusion that comes with these currency systems. To that end we're changing badges to a more straightforward point system, similar to the ones we've used for a while for Arenas and Battlegrounds. There will be a total of four types of points you can earn in Cataclysm (two for PvE and two for PvP), and these will remain the same even as we introduce new content.

Here's the breakdown:

PvE

• Hero Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)
• Valor Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most like the current Emblem of Frost)

PvP

• Honor Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most PvP activities.
• Conquest Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, and a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from winning Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas. (currently called Arena Points)

When a new tier of raiding gear is released or a new PvP season begins, your higher tier of points will be converted into the lower tier. For instance, if a new tier of raid gear is released, your Valor points will be converted to Hero points, and similarly if a new PvP season begins your Conquest points will be converted to Honor points. Of course that means with these new releases you'll always begin without any of the higher tier of points, and thus be unable to stockpile them.

As noted for Conquest points, the Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will be sharing this same point type. Because of that, it will in fact be possible to get the best PvP items without setting foot in Arena; however, more powerful armor and weapons will of course require more Conquest points, so players who win their matches more often will still gear up faster. We're removing personal rating requirements on almost all items; they're definitely removed for weapons. We might offer a few items to the absolute best players based on personal rating, largely as cosmetic or 'bragging rights' type items. And you'll have the option of purchasing the previous season’s gear with the more readily available Honor points.

have a way to convert Honor points (PvP) into Hero points (PvE), and vice versa, at a loss. The conversions will be possible, but it won't be a 1:1 rate, and you'll have fewer points after the conversion process. We won't allow the higher tiers to be exchanged for each other, however

We do plan to .

To explain the reasoning for the weekly cap on points for the higher tiers, this is to provide flexibility in how players choose to earn the points without feeling like they have to do all of the content as often as it is available. If your Valor income from raiding is sufficient, you may not feel the need to run Dungeon Finder every night, or perhaps even at all. Likewise, a PvP player could choose to participate in a lot of Rated Battlegrounds but no Arenas, or focus on both, and still be able to earn the points they want.

We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are going to be questions. We're eagerly awaiting any that we may have left unanswered. To the comments!

Here are just a few of my random thoughts on this, specifically how this relates to the raid progression news we heard yesterday.

1)  This will be a step up from the current system of having to have a new badge for every level.  It seems like it will be a much easier transition now when new Tiers come out.  It also gives a reason to spend valor points instead of hording them since they get down converted in the next tier up.  Use it for your tier gear, then your offspec tier gear, then get everything you can from the mats for new items, etc.

2) This makes the 10/25 man raid change more understandable.  If you just got one extra emblem for downing a boss on 25 mans, it would not make it worth it to run 25 mans.  However, since each boss will drop valor points, they can at least make the number much higher, which is awesome.  This could also play a bigger role when it comes to pricing items that can be bought with hero/valor points.

3)  Blizzard may be making a push to bring back pre-raid Tier gear (think back to original WoW).  Currently, you can buy one tier back in gear with Triumph badges.  At level 85, what would you be able to purchase with hero points?  I think we can say safely that you will be able to buy level 85 gems and some PvP gear with hero points.  However, I could also see Blizzard introducing a pre-raid Tier of gear that you get by running random heroics, etc.  The other reason I'm thinking this is they have put a cap on what you can get.  If it was just going to be random gear, why not let there be no maximum and people just earn all they can.

4)  Blizzard has been trying to find a way to get PvPers to experience PvE content and vice versa.  I think it is safe to say that there will be a Wintergrasp-esque zone in Cataclysm.  However, now there is a second reason to PvP.  If we can convert honor points to hero points, even at a loss, we would have more of a reason to PvP.  I also would not expect conquest points to convert to valor points, it will convert to hero points at a potentially higher rate.   

5) Goodbye requirements on Arena weapons.  Now, as a moonkin, I could care less about arena weapons unless I add them to my PvP set.  However, for feral druids, some of the best tanking weapons in the game are Arena weapons with their incredibly high stamina.  Either one of two things have to happen, they have to adjust stats on PvP weapons to prevent tanks from picking them up as BiS weapons or they have to adjust stats on PvE drops to be more in line with some of the high end PvP weapons.

6) Hello Rated Battlegrounds.  This may be one of the first post where they discuss rated battlegrounds.  I'm terrible at arenas, however, rated battlegrounds would be awesome.  Especially considering our battlegroup has a group (Hello QQ Premades, if you read this) that run battlegrounds, like AV, for maximum honor.  Now, they can run rated battlegrounds for maximum conquest points.

7) This gives more credence to what I said about one tier token for heroic raids in each tier.  If all raids are going to drop valor points, this means there has to be some way to upgrade tier gear to heroic tier.  This means that heroic tier gear has to have a specific tier token.  My current guess is that you may be able to buy pre-tier raiding set with hero points, tier gear with valor points, and then heroic tier gear with tokens.  When the next tier opens up, you will able to buy one tier back with hero points and current tier with valor points and heroic current tier with tokens.

8) What is going to be the price of items in hero points and valor points?  If you are going by PvP gear, we can guess that gear is going to be costing thousands of hero/valor points if they try to draw a correlation between the two.  Of course, they may just come out with something new entirely.

9) Cataclysm is closer than we think.  They are starting to release loads of information about the expansion.  My prediction right now is either late August or early September.

So what are  you thoughts on the badge and point changes.  Overall, I'm very optimistic about this one and I do not see a whole bunch of negatives coming from it.

Cataclysm Raid Progression Preview - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

I was thinking about writing something else this afternoon, but with this breaking news, I thought it was better to offer my opinion.  Here is a copy of what Blizzard said this morning:

We're continuing to refine the raid progression paths in Cataclysm, and we'd like to share some of those changes with you today. Please enjoy!

The first of the refinements being made is that we're combining all raid sizes and difficulties into a single lockout. Unlike today, 10- and 25-player modes of a single raid will share the same lockout. You can defeat each raid boss once per week per character. In other words, if you wanted to do both a 10- and 25-person raid in a single week, you’d need to do so on two different characters. Normal versus Heroic mode will be chosen on a per-boss basis in Cataclysm raids, the same way it works in Icecrown Citadel. Obviously the raid lockout change doesn't apply in pure Icecrown terms though, as this change goes hand-in-hand with a few other changes to raid progression in Cataclysm.

We're designing and balancing raids so that the difficulty between 10- and 25-player versions of each difficulty will be as close as possible to each other as we can achieve. That closeness in difficulty also means that we'll have bosses dropping the same items in 10- and 25-player raids of each difficulty. They'll have the same name and same stats; they are in fact the exact same items. Choosing Heroic mode will drop a scaled-up version of those items. Our hope is that players will be able to associate bosses with their loot tables and even associate specific artwork with specific item names to a far greater extent than today.

Dungeon Difficulty and Rewards
10- and 25-player (normal difficulty) -- Very similar to one another in difficulty; drop the exact same items as each other.
10- and 25-player (Heroic difficulty) -- Very similar to one another in difficulty; drop more powerful versions of the normal-difficulty items.

We of course recognize the logistical realities of organizing larger groups of people, so while the loot quality will not change, 25-player versions will drop a higher quantity of loot per player (items, but also badges, and even gold), making it a more efficient route if you're able to gather the people. The raid designers are designing encounters with these changes in mind, and the class designers are making class changes to help make 10-person groups easier to build. Running 25-player raids will be a bit more lucrative, as should be expected, but if for a week or two you need to do 10s because half the guild is away on vacation, you can do that and not suffer a dramatic loss to your ability to get the items you want.

We recognize that very long raids can be a barrier for some players, but we also want to provide enough encounters for the experience to feel epic. For the first few raid tiers, our plan is to provide multiple smaller raids. Instead of one raid with eleven bosses, you might have a five-boss raid as well as a six-boss raid. All of these bosses would drop the same item level gear, but the dungeons themselves being different environments will provide some variety in location and visual style, as well as separate raid lockouts. Think of how you could raid Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep separately, but you might still want to hit both every week.

We do like how gating bosses over time allows the community to focus on individual encounters instead of just racing to the end boss, so we’re likely to keep that design moving forward. We don't plan to impose attempt limitations again though, except maybe in cases of rare optional bosses (like Algalon). Heroic mode may not be open from day one, but will become available after defeating normal mode perhaps as little as once or twice.

In terms of tuning, we want groups to be able to jump into the first raids pretty quickly, but we also don’t want them to overshadow the Heroic 5-player dungeons and more powerful quest rewards. We’ll be designing the first few raid zones assuming that players have accumulated some blue gear from dungeons, crafted equipment, or quest rewards. In general, we want you and your guild members to participate in and enjoy the level up experience.

We design our raids to be accessible to a broad spectrum of players, so we want groups to be able to make the decision about whether to attempt the normal or Heroic versions of raids pretty quickly. The goal with all of these changes is to make it as much of a choice or effect of circumstance whether you raid as a group of 10 or as a group of 25 as possible. Whether you're a big guild or a small guild the choice won't be dependent on what items drop, but instead on what you enjoy the most.

We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are going to be questions. We're eagerly awaiting any that we may have left unanswered. To the comments! 

So many things to go through in just this little post.  I decided to break them into three categories to express my joy, concern, and WTF.

THE GOOD

1) Goodbye Summer Lull - So what if people are on vacation for a week, you can still raid at least one ten man and progress and get loot.  Blizzard will be my lord and savior if they make it so you can form two ten mans from the one 25 man lockout to continue.  I don't think that will happen, but it would be awesome.

2)  Goodbye Waiting for People to Hit 85 - When the first group of ten raiders get to level 85, you are good to start progression raiding.  And when you get enough to get up to 25 man, the 10 man people won't be rolling on your loot because it is the same and they may have already got it.  Yes, Blizzard says there is more incentive to run 25 mans, but it doesn't mean you can't gear up while waiting for the rest of your guild.

3) Hello One Level of Tier Tokens - I think Blizzard hit the sweet spot with buying initial tier gear with badges.  However, instead of having the current confusing system of getting either the heroic 10 man or 25 man tokens and then moving up to heroic 25 man tokens, there will be one tier of tokens and it will be heroic.

4) Hello Multiple Raids in a Single Tier - That is the one great thing I do remember about Burning Crusade.  Yes, there were not a lot of bosses in the raids, but there were more raids.  And more raids equals more fun and unique challenges.   

5) Goodbye Gear Score - This is partially Blizzard's answer to idiots who say that Gear Score is important.   Now, you can only have 10/25 man gear or 10/25 man heroic gear.  

THE BAD

Just a note of clarity:  I personally feel all these changes are awesome.  There are a lot of great things in this.  I'm playing the devil's advocate for this.

1) Cannot Gear Up As Quickly - With only one raid lockout, you can only get X amount of badges per week.  This means it will take longer to get your initial tier gear in each subsequent tier thus making it harder and longer to get the best gear.

2)  Incentive for the Hardcore - With the exact same loot on 10 and 25 man raids, what is the incentive?  People in a PUG can get the same gear as I can in my hardcore raiding guild.  How is this fair?  Yes, we get more gear and more gold, but that is not enough incentive for the 25 man raiding guilds.

3) Eliminates the "Super" Group - What if I'm in a guild of 25 people where most don't have a clue what they are doing, but I have a group of 10 players who are really good and I would like to progress with them.  Should I have to drag the rest of these losers around to run 25 mans and still not get to run and progress in 10 mans?

4) Heroic 10 Man With Equal Loot as Heroic 25 Man - I feel like I should hold over the fact that I can run heroic 25 man runs and thus I'm better than you but you may have somebody who is getting dragged along in heroic 10 mans who have the same gear.  How will they know the difference and know I'm better?

  

5) Gear Score is Gone - How can I judge a player if they just run 10 mans and have the same gear as I do.  It is not fair.

THE (Potentially) UGLY

1) Heroic Gearing Before Raids - While I'm okay with this idea, I hope they do not move back to a BC mentality with this.  While I was playing a feral druid at level 70, I remember having to grind Cenarion Expedition rep to get the exalted staff which was best pre-raid staff for feral druids.  Please don't make me do that again.  I think running a few heroics to get the highest blue gear and some epics is fine, but don't make me grind rep to just get in raids.

2)  Heroic vs Normal Raids - Reading the post, I think they are going to try to do what they did with ICC and make it where you cannot attempt heroic mode until  you beat Lich King.  While I understand the thinking behind that, I would much rather go back to an Ulduar style heroic mode in two respects.  One, you should be able to try it at any time.  Wouldn't it be nice if you have been grinding Marrowgar for weeks on end and you had some way to make it heroic before you beat Lich King?  That would be awesome.  They can even have tiered things.  For example, you currently cannot fight Lich King on Heroic unless you beat Putricide, Blood Queen, Saurfang, and Sindgrigosa on heroic in that raid ID.  Second, they need to bring back the old way of activating hard modes.  While flipping a menu option is awesome, I would much rather push a big red button or have something in the environment that you could do to turn it on.  At one time, I thought that the menu option was fine, but after going back to do hard modes in Ulduar, it made me realize how much fun that was.

So these are my overall opinions.  I would love to hear from everybody on their thoughts on this.