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The strong bond between healer and tank
We often post about the bonds created with this game -- there are some terrific bonds between guildies, and Arena teams and battleground groups have some strong bonds as well. But Omen of Clarity and Resto4Life, two great Druid blogs, recently took a look at an even more intimate bond ingame: that between tanks and healers.Omen started it off -- after stepping into a tanking role, he noticed that a certain Paladin healer had really bonded with him in terms of keeping each other up and running, and it really made them both better players -- the tank was more willing to step up when aggro got lost, and the healer had more reason to keep up buffs and rely on the tank, even at his own expense. Resto, from the other side of the spells, agrees -- even out of raids, the healer there will send the tank potions and go out of their way to keep both together. And from my time raiding as a Resto Shaman, I was always thrilled when I got to be in the same group as the tank I was healing, and got to Earth Shield them and spend my trinkets just to keep them up.It's not the only major relationship in the game (there's also a nice relationship between the tank and the rest of the melee and DPS, as well as the buffers and the buffed in a raid group), but it is an interesting, minute one, and it's something pretty specific to these MMOs that we play. Playing together isn't just fun and games -- by building bonds with other players in other roles, we both become better at the roles we play.Update: Just in case, like Ratshag, our little hint on the picture wasn't enough for you, the two characters in the pic above are another fairly well-known tank and healer combo, Tree of Life and Pretty in Plate. You try to hide a subtle little easter egg in there for those of us who read all these WoW blogs, and Ratshag won't let you get away with it. Thanks for keeping us honest.
Using your focus target to cast faster
Focus is a powerful tool built into the default UI that I just don't use nearly as much as I should. With '/focus" (and a number of key bindings), you can set up a "focused" target that, with one keypress or macro, you can snap back to and cast whatever needs to be casst. Resto4Life has been putting together a great series on Focus and how to use it: They've hit on hibernating, healing with focus, and now using your focus' target to deal out debuffs.The situation is that you're in a raid and you're healing -- you have a little extra mana and you want to use it to throw debuffs on the main tank's target, but you don't want to miss a second of watching the main tank's bar. Using macros, you can actually cast spells on your focus' target (in this case, your focus would be the MT) without ever changing targets -- just set up a macro to cast the spell, put the button on your bar, and rather than ever having to switch targets, you can just run a macro. You can even use "modifier:shift" and "modifier:ctrl" to switch spells and/or targets. And with simple addons, you can watch your focus target even when you tab away.Focus is such a powerful tool that it's a little overwhelming to think of all the things that it can make easier in game. But whenever you're in a situation where you're always going back to a certain target (whether that be an MT or self or someone else in the group you're playing with) and can set it as focus, then you can often use macros or addons to make everything else easier after that.
Tips for the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza
I can't say that I've ever seriously tried to do the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza -- I've seen it happen a few times, and I love the idea, but I've never committed to fishing long enough to be competitive in it. But I'm reconsidering that after reading these extremely fun tips from Resto4Life. Some of them are Druid specific (I bet the Shaman waterwalking spell would come in handy when trying to cross over to islands and through streams), and some of them are just silly, but it's just the right kind of thing to get you in the mindset to do a little Sunday angling. The two sources Resto pulled from have more: Tree of Life has a few helpful tips, while The Game Dame goes in-depth in laying out exactly how to win the event.And it's a good thing we've got these, too -- as of patch 2.4, as the anglers among you have already heard, there'll be a few new fishing daily quests, and some brand new rewards (the fishing hat is now blue) from both the quests and the Extravaganza.I still don't know if I have the interest to sit there, rod in hand, waiting for a fish to bite, but there's no doubt that this is a fun little, often missed part of the game. Very nice to have something fun like this going on weekly on the servers.
Andrige's Tree of Life wallpaper (and others)
Just had to share this amazing "Tree of Life" wallpaper with you all, as seen on Resto4Life. It was commissioned by them, and done by Andrige, an artist who's created quite a few terrific WoW-related images. But man this is a great piece of work from start to finish, with a little Night Elf treeform backed up by the big Ancients in the background, all covered with that great purple Darnassian glow.Very cool stuff, and very apt to grace the desktop of any Resto druids out there (or the people who appreciate them -- raises hand). My only complaint is that it's all druid centric -- where are my epic Shaman wallpapers?
Are you an addon addict?
We've covered alt-aholics, recipe completists and non-combat pet collectors, but Phaelia of the Resto4Life Druid blog has a different kind of addiction: addons. Using WoWAce Updater she was forced to realize that excluding the ones that come with the game, she has a grand total of 115 addons installed. That's a lot of bells and whistles.She has taken it upon herself to cut down her addon list to what is really necessary. After all, load in and zoning times are important, too. After deleting some that were rendered obsolete by recent patches, some that weren't that great after all and some she couldn't remember what they even did, she got down to 79. Yikes.I recently got a new rig so I have very few addons going right now. But I do have to clean out my Interface folder on my old rig which I still play on. One addon for sure I couldn't live without though is Outfitter which automatically switch gear sets between Druid forms.Does your addon folder need spring cleaning? What addons can you simply not live without? Are you an addon addict or an addon newbie?
MP5 replaced by Spirit on Druid Arena S3 gear [Updated]
Resto4life is reporting on a fairly significant change to the Arena season 3 gear on the PTR with Patch 2.3. Evidently the previous mana regen stat MP5 is being tossed over for Spirit, and this has some players howling. Now, I know there is some debate as to the utility of Spirit for priests in a PvE setting, but as they mention in the article, there appears to be little use for it at all in Arena PvP, at least where Druids are concerned. The Restoration druids in particular are unhappy about this change, especially when taken in context with the recent change to the game that will allow everyone to see what magical buffs you have placed upon you. What this means is that just about every time a druid casts Innervate -- the spell that would benefit most from the change to Spirit -- there is a high probability it will be immediate dispelled. Now we have heard tell that Spirit as a stat will be changed somewhere down the line, that it will begin affecting spell damage as well as mana regen, so perhaps this is the first step toward that change. It's tough to know for certain.What we do know, however, is that the change makes the PvP gear more attractive for use in PvE, where Spirit does help with the longer battles. But I have to wonder, exactly why would the developers, who have professed that they want to create two separate gear sets for PvP and PvE, make the Season 3 Arena sets more PvE viable? It may be that they want more people to participate in Arena battles, or it could be for some unknown reason I'm not seeing. Help me out here. Do you think the change from MP5 to Spirit is a buff or a nerf?Update: Another patch just pushed through on the PTR, and this change to the Druid healing S3 set has been reverted. The gear will retain its MP5 stat bonus.
Shifting Perspectives: Druid blogs you should be reading
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 love gamer blogs. Well, I love gamer blogs that are either entertaining or informative. And I really love gamer blogs that are both. Today for Shifting Perspectives, I'm going to highlight some of the better Druid gaming blogs out there and show you why you should be reading each and every one of them.Resto4Life - Player Phaelia started this blog back in March to educate herself about playing a better healing Druid. Turns out, she's educating the rest of us as well. Her entries delve into the many facets of a Tree Druid's gameplay: Reevaluating Spirit, mp5 vs +Healing and Getting More Out of Innervate are just a few of the many treasures to be found on this blog. Updated frequently with a friendly and informative tone, Resto4Life is the Big Red Kitty for Restoration druids.Big Bear Butt Blogger - What Phaelia does for Tree Druids, BBB does for feral tanks: useful, informative and well written posts about how to best maximize your class. This blog is not only filled with great posts like the No Math Feral Spec, Consumables for Feral Druids and Feral Tank Starter Gear at 70, but also other topics that everyone can relate to such as the wonderfully articulate rants I Hate Damage Meters and There Is No Crying In Kara. I would recommend this blog to any WoW player, for there is a little something for everyone and it's all good.
