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Shifting Perspectives: The Druid of 2008
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, our author is completely spaced out on cold medication, and is somewhat concerned that her raid performance has improved under the circumstances.The time has come (the Allie said)To talk of many things.Of Roots and Bash and Travel Form,And Strength (which scales with Kings).Why Tauren cat form sucks so hard,And whether trees have wings!And, yes, before anyone asks, I'm tripping on too much cough syrup and ibuprofen after receiving a belated viral Christmas gift from a relative. So I'll just put this out there right now; this column's probably on the weird side. I took a long look at all three Druid specs over 2008 and saw a few sad things, a few happy things, a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants, and now I'm channeling the famous Mary Tyler Moore episode "Chuckles Bites the Dust," and that has to stop because I do not believe Mary Tyler Moore ever played a Druid.If you're completely uninterested in reading an account of any spec that's not your own -- although that would make me weep into my little cup of generic label cough syrup -- here's a set of quick links to each: Balance Feral Resto
Shifting Perspectives: So. Um, do bears suck?
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we shelve the column we originally intended to run due to a rather pressing matter.OK, folks. I have a confession to make. This week's Shifting Perspectives was originally meant to be a full guide to gearing your Restoration Druid at 80, and I'm still going to post that, either this week or next. A lot of people have (correctly, I think) observed that this column has historically paid more attention to Feral than to Restoration or Balance, and it's my aim to balance (har!) that out a bit. Part of it is just that the people who play Druids on staff here at WoW Insider are usually feral, and part of it is that -- at least as of the last numbers we had on it -- most people playing Druids are also feral. I confess I would love to see the demographics on Druids post-Wrath, because I get the sense that Balance in particular has become markedly more popular.But the Resto post is going to have to wait a few days, not least because my eyes are swimming from so much Wowhead. We found out today that Swipe's threat is getting a significant buff, but over the course of reading the pertinent forum thread and some back-channel discussion here, I ran across a few things concerning bear tanking that really made me sit up after the hell of tanking last night's heroic Old Kingdom and go, "Wait. It's not just me?"Personally whenever I encounter serious problems in a dungeon I tend to chalk it up to the fact that I suck. I find this to be an efficient and typically accurate means of pinpointing the source of an issue. However, my fellow Druids, our problems may actually be more wide-ranging than that.
Shifting Perspectives: State of the class, part 1 - Balance
Every Tuesday, or possibly Thursday when the writer votes on Tuesday and spends Wednesday screaming and beating her laptop over formatting errors, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week Allison Robert steals John Patricelli's column once again, secure in the knowledge that she will never be forced to atone for her crime as long as she writes something nice about ferals and keeps a respectful distance from Dan O'Halloran's whip.I hate Tauren cat form.Good. I got that out of my system and can write something productive. Although, believe me, if I could get away with it, an entire Shifting Perspectives would be devoted to just how much I hate Tauren cat form. I mean, just look at it! Look at the angle on the horns! The cat can't bite anything! Christ, I just -- hi, Dan. Yes, I'm totally writing the column! Look at me go!This week, mindful as always of American election-year politicking, I'm going to borrow a page from presidential duties and write a little something I like to call "State of the Class." Druids have undergone a number of changes in the transition to Wrath of the Lich King, and will acquire even more as they level to 80. We are one of Blizzard's primary targets for both gear and role consolidation, which raises a few questions over how comfortably we're going to scale in relation to pure classes and what we can realistically expect on the march to a new level cap.The TL:DR version of this article -- I believe our future is generally bright, the Druid community continues to have a few concerns over certain aspects of the class, our focus in PvP seems to be changing the most, and I hate Tauren cat form. This is a three-part post, so let's get started with balance. However, if you want to jump ahead to feral, you'll find that here; and the third part, restoration, is here.
Skill Mastery: Berserk
Berserk, the new 51-point talent in the Druid's Feral tree is...what day is it? Thursday? They change it a lot. Anyway, the talent originally combined elements of The Beast Within with Last Stand, but they've disengaged the +health component and made it a separate talent entitled Survival Instinct. The talent that remains affects both Bear and Cat form and does the following: Mangle (Bear) will automatically hit up to 3 targets and is spammable (i.e. no cooldown) Cat form abilities cost 50% less energy Breaks Fear and makes you immune for the duration of Berserk Berserk lasts for 15 seconds and Tiger's Fury is unusable while it's active, at least in the talent's current form. But odds are pretty good you'll be too busy rolling your face across the keyboard and shouting, "Faster, pussycat! Kill! Kill!!" to notice this.
Bear armor woes in Wrath to be addressed
You may recall a while back that we covered the problem with bear tanks in Wrath of the Lich King. In short, the new shared gear itemization between Rogues and Feral Druids is leaving bear Druids incredibly starved for armor and stamina. Extra stamina and armor is wasted on rogues, but is mandatory for Bears. Bears, therefore, have suffered. Ghostcrawler has now let us know that the dev team has noticed the problem. The justification, of course, is as usual: They want less useless stuff to drop. Ideally, itemization should be tight enough that there is a high chance of people getting stuff they can use off a boss, even if that means 12 other people in the raid can use it as well.
Itemization and the plight of the bear tank in Wrath of the Lich King
One of the biggest concepts coming with Wrath of the Lich King is gear consolidation. Stat are being folded into each other and classes are being changed even on very basic levels so that fewer gear types can work for more classes and specs. Feral Druids have seen this happen as well, with talents such as Survival of the Fittest and Heart of the Wild tweaked so that they can get more benefits from Rogue gear. Unfortunately, this hasn't worked out that well for bear tanks.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your bear tank from 70 to Karazhan!
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, comes late to the party with a mammoth of an article that hopes to cover bear tank gear choices from dinging at 70 up to and through running Karazhan with your guild. Gearing up as a bear tank As you approach level 70 as a feral druid, your playstyle to this point has most likely been as a Kitty, focusing on causing lots of damage, very swiftly. Kind of like a stripped down, no frills rogue. But with style. As much as you enjoy being a kitty, however, you just know all your friends want you to tank. With Fury Warriors, Enhancement Shamans, Retribution Paladins and real Rogues floating around, there is no shortage of melee DPS in the game. But a good tank! Well, that's another story.
Shifting Perspectives: Bear Tanking Strategies Part 1
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, launches into part 1 of a 2 part discussion on Bear Tanking Strategies. I'm going to go over a lot of information related to how Bear Tanking works over the next two articles, because I am often asked about how all of the various elements of Threat management fit together. Much of this discussion will center around tanking after reaching level 70, but the foundation of this series will explore information valuable to bear tanks of all levels, including exactly how Threat works, various methods of pulling, and how to work with your group to keep the target's attentions on you, and not your squishy friends. Part 1 will focus on the most basic fundamental issue of tanking; How Threat works in a group. Let's go ahead and get started after the jump!
Shifting Perspectives: Drops for Druids in Zul'Aman
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran. Patch 2.3 has hit the PTR and the new itemization has some very interesting items for druids of every spec. The new equipment is coming from three sources: the new 10-man raid zone, Zul'Aman, the Arena Season 3 vendor and the new Badges of Justice rewards. Today I'm going to focus on the Zul'Aman drops. Here's a list by boss:Nalorakk the Bear Avatar(Cat) Bladeangel's Money Belt (Leather Waist) 227 AC, +25agi, +27sta, Blue Socket, +4atk socket bonus, +21 crit, +58 atk, 77 armor negation. A solid upgrade to the Girdle of Treachery from Karazhan, but not quite as good if you can get a Belt of Deep Shadow crafted. Arguably, one of the top 3 or 4 belts in the game. Be ready to /roll against rogues for this belt for your Cat Druid.
Shifting Perspectives: The same old animal posterior
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by Dan O'Halloran and David Bowers.Some people say that Blizzard is lazy. Players tend to start voicing this sort of opinion when it seems like Blizzard hasn't done something they think should have been done a long time earlier, such as adding new dungeons they won't visit, or new features they won't use. Sometimes there's just one particular thing that grates and grates on the players' nerves so much that they simply cannot understand why Blizzard hasn't done anything about it yet.Even I have been guilty of this sort of thinking now and then. But ultimately, it becomes apparent that, whatever the status of Blizzard's list of flaws -- laziness is not one of them. Indeed, we simply do not realize the massive extent of work that is required to achieve some things, especially the things we don't personally desire, and therefore fail to give credit for hard work done where we don't realize such credit is due.The topic at hand today is a prime example of such a problem, a druid pet peeve which has gone on for a long long time. Exhibit A, above, is the Tauren Cat Form, or rather, what some of us might wish the Tauren Cat Form looked like -- a player's own suggestion submitted in Blizzard's own art contest of 2007. The Tauren Cat Form that Horde druids have been seeing since 2004 is pictured to the left here in Exhibit B [Update: Tauren cat form has been slightly updated in patch 2.3]. Whether or not Exhibit A is the perfect replacement for Exhibit B can be left up to the good judgment of the reader, but for the purposes of this article, it is sufficient for us if we all agree that something must eventually be done about the feral druid's monotonous appearance problem. That's to say -- we tire of staring at the Same Old Animal Posterior (or SOAP).
Shifting Perspectives: How to group with a druid part 1
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran.No one likes to be told how to play their class. We've each learned through trial and error what works and what doesn't. Yes, there is room for improvement, but, I swear, if one more person screams "HEAL PLZ" then I'm gonna make a macro that spams "TAUNT PLZ", "DPS PLZ" and "CONTROL YOUR AGGRO PLZ". And I shall refrain from uttering "Does your daddy know you're on his account?" No, really. I will. Ok, after tonight. I promise.My point is, when you group with a warrior, you know what to expect. Same with a rogue, mage or priest. They all have clearly defined roles. But druids, oh my, you never know what you're going to get. Will you get the guy who refuses to shift out of cat form to spot heal when the priest is OOM and the tank is going down for the count? Will you get the overcaffeinated shifter who can't decide if he is dps'ing, off-tanking, patch healing or nuking? Or what about the b00mk!n that insists he can tank Illidan because he has high armor rating even though he lacks significant dodge, resilience or snap aggro?I'm not saying these play styles are wrong or bad. There are many situations where these tactics are valid. I'm saying that groups need to know what kind of druid they are grouping with so they can all have an enjoyable and profitable pick up group. And to help you do that, I'm going to cover the major play styles of different kinds of druids and what you should and should not expect them to do for you. I'm going to start with the feral spec.
