druid-gear-guides
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Shifting Perspectives: Ruby Sanctum loot for druids
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting feral/restoration druids and those who group with them. Today, we check the loot tables, smack a dragon around until he barfs up epics and all-powerful thingamabobs -- and it's another Tuesday night in Sunnydale. I'm still in a World Cup kind of mood, hence the above video. Oh, Iker. Never change! Yes, I know about the Cataclysm druid forms. I haven't written anything about them yet because: I wasn't really keen on the new tauren druid forms I saw around this time last year, then wound up loving them once I saw them in motion. I don't want to make the same mistake with the Cataclysm druid forms, which is all the more likely because ... The Day-Glo coloration of the troll forms sent me into fits of despair over the implausibility of their stealthing past anything that wasn't a Palm Beach divorcée in a Lilly Pulitzer dress (to borrow a phrase from P.J. O'Rourke). Bah. Anyway, Ruby Sanctum ilevels are pretty straightforward -- the 10-man coughs up ilevel 258 gear (the same you'd get from ToGC-25), the 25-man coughs up 271 (between ICC-25 and ICC-25 heroic quality), and their heroic versions offer 271 and 284 respectively. In other words, you'll find some quality stuff here. Beyond the cut are the pieces that feral and restoration druids might want.
Shifting Perspectives: Faction gear for Druids, part I
Every Tuesday/Wednesday/some day that ends in -y, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we take a look at faction rewards available to Druids in "Wrath of the Lich King" and wonder if that Mysterious Egg of ours -- the only faction reward we could truly be said to care about -- is ever going to hatch.Like most of you, I'm still running a lot of dungeons and getting acquainted with the array of drops available on both normal and heroic mode, and I'm not anywhere near as familiar with the Northrend 5-man drops as I am with Outland's after tanking them all eleventy-billion times. For the moment, my ability to compare all of the reputation gear available from Wrath factions with potential dungeon drops is fairly small and mostly confined to feral equipment, so I apologize. What I can say is that I've noticed a fairly clear trend favoring Balance if you're planning on getting a lot of your gear at 80 from faction reputations (although if you go that route there's a sizable pitfall in the form of a serious lack of +hit on most pieces). Feral is a little more hit-or-miss. Restoration seems to have the hardest time getting its best pre-raid or heroic pieces from rep grinds, and I'm not going to lie; get used to most of your best pieces being cloth.With what are essentially four different specs to cover for all the new factions available in Wrath, this got a bit long. So this week we'll discuss the rep grinds that become accessible a little earlier in the trek to 80 -- namely, the Tuskarr, the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor, and Oracles/Frenzyheart. Next week we'll cover the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade, and Sons of Hodir, as you're not likely to see these guys as early as you'll see the others. Indeed, before a quest line that phases the lady into existence, you won't see the Knights of the Ebon Blade quartermaster at all.EDIT: Now that the faction guides are finished, here's a set of quick links in case you're looking for information on one faction in particular: Kalu'ak and Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard Guide Wyrmrest Accord and the Kirin Tor Guide The Frenzyhearts and the Oracles Guide The Argent Crusade Guide The Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir Guide
Shifting Perspectives: Online Druid resources
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran. I promised that I'd cover pre-Karazhan Restoration gear in this week's column, but I've since discovered that WoW Wiki has already done it! Their list includes all Burning Crusade gear, so just look at the pre-raid items. These lists come in two flavors at WoW Wiki: leather only and cloth only, depending on your style. And while you're there, check out the different Restoration builds are available to healing druids on their Druid Build page. There's also an excellent sticky post on the US Druid Forums Gearing up For BC Endgame Healing.This leads me to the topic of today's column: online resources for Druids. Today, I'm going to highlight gear guides, build guides, play guides, and wikis that provides useful information for the Warcraft Druid.
