Shifting Perspectives: Epic Dolls and Phaelia on all things Druid

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, encourages you to check out a wonderful podcast that spent an entire recent episode talking about our fun filled class.

I wanted to take a moment to cast the spotlight on a wonderful World of Warcraft related podcast that recently devoted an entire episode, Episode 43 to be exact, to a fun-filled discussion of all things Druid, and even had Phaelia, writer of Resto4Life, on as a special guest!

Epic Dolls is the name of the podcast, as well as the name of the guild on Perenolde server Horde side which is home for many of the podcasts' hosts, cast and crew.

Epic Dolls bring a fresh perspective and a lot of positive energy to their podcast, and I find it a joy to listen to.

Read on after the break for more on the podcast, the Epic Dolls, and a brief Q and A with Leala Turkey, host of the show!

Episode 43 of the Epic Dolls podcast was entirely devoted to talking about the Druid class in depth, and the topics covered ranged from the basics of all three Talent Trees and continued on to delve into more intricate fare such as the playability of all specs in PvE and PvP.

Epic Dolls is hosted by Leala Turkey, a long time gamer who's been playing MMO's since back in the days of Ultima Online. She's been with WoW since the summer of '05 and has 3 max level characters, a Rogue, Warlock and Paladin. Her main focus in the game is leveling, socializing and a bit of PvP thrown in for good measure. She is also the Guild Leader of the Epic Dolls guild.

The co-host for the show is Rae, who currently has 5 max level characters including a Druid, Rogue, Mage, Warlock and her main, a holy Priest. She has extensive experience in raiding and is in one of the top guilds on her server. She was also the guild leader of a pre-BC raiding guild.

Episode 43 has, as a special guest, Phaelia of Resto4Life, who is on the show for the entire discussion, and brings a great deal of specific insight into the Druid class and was great fun to listen to.

Many of the questions asked of Phaelia were conceived by the blog writer of the Epic Dolls site, Briara. Briara has been with the Dolls since Nov. '07 as a writer for the blog, and has written a number of great articles and guides on the site for Druids. I encourage you to go check them out.

Q & A with Leala Turkey!

I thought it would be fun to ask a few questions in specific about how the all-Druid discussion came about. Leala was kind enough to agree.

[B^3] My first question for you is, who came up with the idea of doing an episode devoted to the subject of Druids?

[Leala] A while back on the show, we did a series about guilds and really enjoyed doing a special type of episode that wasn't just the latest news, etc.

So we started tossing around ideas and thought a good start would be doing a series of class-specific podcasts.

Our goal is to highlight a specific class and cover all the basics from top to bottom and hopefully have some meaningful discussion thrown in for good measure.

The format we chose to use is a question and answer outline. We have an open list of questions that anyone can see at our website and we go through them one by one and touch on the important points about that aspect of the class. We even encourage our listeners to write us with their input about the questions so we can gather lots of opinions and insight for the podcast.

By chance, our first class show ended up being about one of the most complicated classes, the Druid.

[B^3] Who came up with the wonderful idea of having Phaelia as a guest on your show?

[Leala] Well, we knew that if we were going to have a good discussion, we needed to have a guest on the show that could help us guide the info and fill in the gaps we may not know about personally.

Not everyone can know everything, right?

So, as we started thinking of guests who really know their stuff, Phaelia came to mind.

We had previously mentioned her site on the show, talking about her mana regen calculator. She also came highly recommended to us from Breana of the Gun Loving Dwarf Chick blog and the Twisted Nether podcast. So we contacted Phae and she very kindly agreed to join us.

[B^3] Briara has written some wonderful guides for the Druid class on the blog portion of your website. I know you said Briara had supplied some of the questions you asked Phae, but why was Briara herself not able to be on the show?

[Leala] Well, the answer is kind of a boring one. Technical limitations are the main thing.

It can get a little unwieldy having more than 3 people recording so we are opting to keep it as simple as possible by just adding one audio guest. Then we can take the text input from others to fill in any gaps in the discussion. Briara did a great job and her contribution was much appreciated! This is our first try at the format but we think it turned out well.

[B^3] Can you tell us a little bit about your guild, Epic Dolls, on the Perenolde server, Horde side? What kind of shenanigans do you get up to over there?

[Leala] The Epic Dolls guild is the in-game extension of the podcast. We have a great group of guildies that are both RL friends as well as listeners of the show that have rolled up characters to join us. We are primarily a social and leveling guild and we have lots of fun parties and events. We've done things like fishing parties, newbie races and we even had a prom this Spring. We actually, very recently have gotten enough level 70s in our guild to start peeking into Kara so thats a fun new adventure for us.

[B^3] If you had to name one thing, what was your favorite part of Episode 43?

[Leala] My favorite part of the podcast is very selfish. Getting to talk and totally geek out about my favorite game each week with Rae and have people be entertained by us.

It still amazes me that I am able to share my hobby in this way and that people enjoy it because I have a total blast making it for them.

My favorite part of the Druid show was being able to get to know Phae and learn about what it's like to play a Druid from her.

[B^3] And finally... what'cha got against playing a Druid, Leala? Afraid of the dark power of the Moonkin dance?

[Leala] Well, I guess I just prefer to be my Troll-ish or Blood Elf-ish self rather than an animal. Even after everything I've learned by talking to Phae and Rae about Druids, it still seems too complicated for me. I'll stick to keeping things simple and stabbing with my Rogue. =)

That's it for the Q&A folks, and a huge thank you to Leala for taking the time to chat with me.

I hope you all rush on over to visit the Epic Dolls website and listen to the podcast. I found it to be a lot of fun, very informative, and even thought provoking, as I said on my own blog at the time.

The show itself can be downloaded in Quicktime format or listened to via a widget on their front page, or it can also be downloaded through iTunes. Go on, go check it out!

Take care, and I'll see you all again next week!

Looking for more Druid goodness? Every week Shifting Perspectives provides you with advice, strats and humor for Druids of all specs. Read our complete guide to gearing your Bear Tank for Karazhan, leveling tips for Moonkin and our two part Bear tanking guide.