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Shifting Perspectives: So, is Nurturing Instinct worth taking now?
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives is typically written by someone who is not Allie Robert. This week, she has Prowled onto John Patricelli's turf, Pounced him, and run off shouting, "Ha ha! I have your column and there's nothing you can do about it for the next un-talented 3 seconds!"John's previously covered a number of the changes you can expect to see in the upcoming patch 2.4, but more recently we're heard of changes to the feral talent Nurturing Instinct. Currently the talent increases healing spells by up to 50% of your Strength. It's not such a bad bonus, but you'd be a rare feral indeed if you found a lot of leather gear with +Strength on it outside of the tier or arena sets. The vast majority of ferals continue to use specialized pieces like the Heavy Clefthoof set for bear tanking and mostly rogue gear for cat dps. Either way, the talent was of considerably less use than it might have been if more pieces like the Shadowprowler's Chestguard existed ingame (although the addition of badge gear has made it possible, albeit time-consuming, to get leather with "Druid stats"). Moreover, with the change to the Heart of the Wild talent in patch 2.3 (altering the full talent from a 20% increase to your Strength in cat form to a 10% increase to your AP in cat form), Strength became less important than ever. Take a tour through Emmerald's feral gear guide (updated to include 2.3 badge gear and - I hope - soon to be updated to include 2.4 badge gear) and you'll find that most of the best cat pieces are rogue leather with a ton of Agility.Blizzard must have recognized that it didn't make much sense to keep Nurturing Instinct the way it was, so the talent has now been changed to increase your healing spells by 50%/100% of your Agility, and healing done to you by 10/20% of your AP in cat form. There still seems to be some confusion over how this change will play out, but the official PTR patch notes still say it's 10/20% of your AP in cat. While this will obviously depend a lot on how much attack power you're packing, this could be a considerable buff to your healing taken in cat form (approaching and, with AP increases, probably exceeding the average additional healing by a warlock's Fel Armor). Fully talented, this could mean an extra +400 healing done to you assuming you're at the druid boards' minimum standards of 2,000 AP and 30% crit in cat form for entry to Karazhan.Still, Nurturing Instinct is problematic. Not because it's bad, exactly, but because it's one of those troublesome talents rife among hybrid talent trees that force you to ask what you really want to be playing that character for.
New cooking recipes for 2.4!
Ever since 2.3 went live, it's been a bit of a struggle to make the leap from the 260 cooking range to the 300 cooking range, as both my poor Paladin and Shaman can well attest. With recipes such as Tender Wolf Steak and Monster Omelet, once the mainstays of any aspiring chef's training, going green and gray much earlier than before (That is, gray at 275 rather than 300), It's been a bit of trouble getting the needed skill to start cooking up the buzzard and ravager meat that makes the mainstay of the early post-300 cooking grind. Luckily, the developers heard the cries of horror from all the cooks who thought they might have to grind up fishing to get the materials they needed to skill up, and promised us new recipes. And today, European CM Vaneras let us know the details. New cooks will need to head to Felwood and Western Plaguelands and start killing themselves a few bears. New meat drops from the bears will allow you to make either spell damage or attack power food, not only removing fishing as a requirement for skilling to 300 cooking, but also giving players in the level 45-60 range a nice stat boost while grinding, questing, or leveling. The recipes themselves will be purchasable from Bale of the Horde or Malygen of the Alliance, both in their respective outposts in Felwood. So put down your fishing pole and pick up your frying pan again, cooks. Salvation is on the way!
Perils of changing pets in World of Warcraft
As a hunter (well for my main character, in the few days before crunch time, my pet is a big part of the arsenal available to me. I'm quite happy, most of the time, with my bear. Extra armour and extra hit points a nice tank maketh, and if the damage is a little lower per second, that's cancelled out by some durability on those times when I make a mistake and send the poor beast in to a stickier situation than expected (like when I get hit by a load of big critters who all respawn on my head in the middle of an over-level fight).But I was tempted by the thought of big scorpid venom after being hit by one, so I swapped pets, briefly. Ouch is the only description I can think of. The venom is great in PvP I'm sure, but not so useful vs. critters, especially critters with poison themselves. The absence of growl and the ability to attract and hold aggro meant I was suddenly in the midst of fighting all the time. The fact that, even after the scorpid levelled I couldn't teach it growl (or similar) was the final nail in the poor scorpion's coffin. For PvE play I want that tank bank and doing what tanks do best - holding aggro. If I, as I do, sometimes tip over the edge and pull them off him by mistake, so be it - for most things I'm fighting at around my level, it's half dead or more before it disengages. There is still time for a stun and an arcane shot for a bit more damage before contact. It leaves the daggers I use as a nice back up to kill the almost-dead critter as it arrives.The moral of this tale - for both Hunters and Warlocks I guess - think about your pets/summons and what you use them for. Piling out extra damage is nice, but do you want a tank more? If you're hunting in a group, does that change? (How much would the group tank like a pet that slows the attacks on him from ancillary targets, I wonder?) Pets are an important part of your arsenal - one I use all the time and I'm sure most hunters and warlocks do too. Thinking about how to use them is surely smart?
Around Azeroth: Dance!
Reader Emir sends us this shot whose location I am not entirely certain of... though if I were to guess I'd say it were the Aliance-side Arathi Basin battleground entrance. (Anyone out there have any suggestions for certain?) However, it's not the location that makes this shot worthwhile: it's the conversation going on within!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing a copy to aroundazeroth@wow.com, with as much or as little detail as you'd like to share with the world! %Gallery-1816%
New textures for Lore-master pets
The Book 11 content update for Lord of the Rings Online has been dubbed, among other things, the month of the Lore-master. Among the new spells, new pet (go Lynx!) and other goodies is a little surprise for our nature loving friends: new textures for their animal servants.Using new amulets crafted by Jeweller's, Lore-masters can now summon their animal companions in darker and lighter colors. Confirmed so far on Roheryn, the Preview server: Black Lynx: must be wearing Amulet of Supreme Black Lynx, Neck, BoE, +15 Agility, +29 Might, +15 Fate, Min Lvl 48. Crafted from 4 Misty Mountain Ingots and 2 Polished Beryls. Snow Lynx: similar to Black Lynx amulet Frost Raven: must be wearing Amulet of the Greater Frost Raven, BoE Neck, +7 Will, +4 Vitality, Min Level 23.
/silly: Dire Straits
Greetings, my brothers in arms! Once again it is time to delve into the land of my artistically rendered personal views on this walk of life we call World of Warcraft. A few hours of private investigations deep into my inner psyche brought forth this small one panel sight gag, aimed at those sultans of swing, the Feral Druid. Since this ended up being a mere one panel affair, I invested extra time into the quality of the art, so no one should feel that they wasted their money for nothing. Addendum: Check after the jump for a nifty bonus pic!
Tech-savvy iTeddy puts other bears to shame
If you thought your childhood favorite Teddy Ruxpin was hot stuff, it ain't got nothing on the MP3-playing iTeddy. Reportedly, the UK-based critter is all set to launch today, and will be available in the Argos catalog for a respectable £59.99 ($123). The bear itself comes with a built-in LCD, integrated speakers, 512MB of internal memory, a rechargeable battery, detachable media player, an SD expansion slot, and a USB cable to load 'er up. Call us crazy, but this thing has the makings of a Tickle Me Elmo written all over it, so we'd get those orders placed as soon as humanly possible if you know your youngster(s) will be begging. Click on for a few more shots.
More Zul'Aman previews
Here's two more previews from Zul'Aman floating around the Interwebs. Games Radar has a nice little preview up, including info on the bear mount (!), which (apparently-- it's not confirmed yet, although come on) drops from Narolakk, a bear boss that you actually have to chase across the city. GR says the instance will be "a spiritual successor to Zul'Gurub" (music to the ears of many players, including me), and that it'll be a little brighter and more wide open than the other late game instances, which should get yet another mark of approval from players.Frictionless Insight also has a preview, in which they say the four animal bosses will consist of Bear, Eagle, Lynx, and Dragon Hawk spirits. Strangely enough, we've already heard that there will also be a "god of evil" as well as a witch doctor and the end boss Zul'jin, which means there may be more than the six bosses that Blizzard first hinted at. Additionally, we've heard from quite a few sources now that the Zul'Aman trash will be very sociable (as in, there will be mobs that bring more if you're not careful), but Frictionless Insight says the dungeon itself will start with a boss, not trash, so even more good news for most raiders.All in all, Zul'Aman seems to be shaping up nicely. There's no telling when we'll see it on the PTRs, but I would be very surprised if Blizzard didn't let us play it (or at least see a preview of it) at Blizzcon. Storm the castle!Thanks, Aaron!
Shifting Perspectives: Awesome tanking gear and how to get it easily
Bears make some of the awesomest tanks around. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a druid tank as opposed to a warrior, or maybe even a paladin, and we can leave the discussion of which is best for another day. You are probably aware, though, that one of a druid's main advantages in tanking is the extremely high armor he or she can achieve in bear form. Shifting to bear form increases the armor of a druid by 400%, and there are a number of leather items out there which have a higher-than-average armor that can send our physical damage mitigation through the roof.Let's just assume that you're leveling up your feral druid, thinking about when you reach 70 and wondering what kind of gear you're going to need going into the high-end 5-person instances and raiding. The thing you might not know is, as you're leveling up towards 70, some of the best of these high-armor items are easily available through quests. These may be "just green" in some cases, but that armor rating makes them extremely valuable for a druid for a long time. They often outshine their bluer or purpler counterparts in their bearish tanking power. Continue reading for a short guide to these what these items are how to get them.
Around Azeroth: Mommy?
Darkcow of Gorgonnash sends in this rather sad screenshot. How can such decorations make our druid brethren feel? Darkcow provides an appropriately Larson-esque caption for the scene:Dead as a door... mat? No, that's not quite it. Mom? Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
An Outland gear guide for feral druids
Kaliban's Class Loot Lists (a.k.a. WoW Loot) does a pretty good job at providing overall views at gear for different classes, but I've never seen anything as detailed as this incredible list of Burning Crusade feral drood gear. They've got what looks like every piece for every gear slot, all organized according to its benefit to feral druids.And in addition to the Bear tanking gear list, whoever put this together (I heard about it from outintospace) has also provided a gear list for "Cat durids" (they're for fite)-- both for sustained DPS and burst DPS. This is a lot of work-- even if there was some kind of script involved in an API, this is a lot of information to put together and organize, and it could be the only gear guide you'll ever need as a feral druid in Outland.It's got all the way up to Tier 5, too, which makes this even more complete than Kaliban's List. Tier 6 isn't in there, but of course that's because we're just now hearing about what it will be. There you go, feral druids-- now you know exactly what gear you want and where it is. Get to tanking!Update: And to go along with the Hunter Wiki from a few days ago, someone has started a Druid Wiki as well. Thanks to commenter Metaphyzxx for the link!
Xbox.com no message mystery: Part deux
Indeed, we pride ourselves on being stealth investigative reporters, similar to Sam Fisher, but with a hint of Sherlock Holmes. So, when we cracked the Xbox.com no message mystery we were rightfully proud of ourselves, giving up the high-fives around Fanboy Towers. But we didn't uncover all of the truth, because the "Bear" gamertag eluded us and as a result ended up with a mediocre report. That is until now, where we recently discovered (via Major Nelson's podcast blogcast) that Bear is really Scott Henson! Ha Scotty, and you thought you could just keep on running didn't you? And so you know, Mr. Henson is the director of Microsoft's Game Technology Group and is actually one cool dude. Chalk another successful investigation for team Xbox 360 Fanboy ... because we're like mini Sherlock Fishers, remember?[Thanks, Iced_Eagle]
Project Grizzly inventor crafts real-world Halo suit for military use
While it's not likely that you'll encounter the Arbiter on any given day, the slightly off-kilter Project Grizzly inventor has gone out of his way (and possibly his mind) to create what resembles a real-life Halo suit, sporting protection from gunfire and ensuring you an award at Covenant gatherings. Troy Hurtubise created the suit, dubbed Trojan, in hopes of protecting Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and US soldiers in Iraq, and considering that it has withstood knives, bullets, light explosives, clubs, and even a round from an elephant gun, it sounds like quite the winner. Proclaimed to be the "first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armor," Trojan is crafted from high-impact plastic lined with ceramic bullet protection over ballistic foam, and features nearly endless compartments, morphine / salt containers, knife and gun holsters, emergency lights, a built-in recording device, pepper spray, ingestible transponder for those "last resort" scenarios, and there's even a fresh air system powered by solar panels within the helmet. Mr. Hurtubise claims the 18 kilograms (40 pounds) suit is comfortable enough to make road trips in (yes, he tried it), and if any major military would take him up on it, they could reportedly be produced for "around $2,000 apiece." Now that's a bargain, folks.[Thanks, Alec]
The iPod killers of summer '06
Companies are still trying to find that elusive iPod killer that they know must be out there. Competition is a good thing, so I thought I would link to MP3newswire's report of the contenders this summer. The article lists a dizzying array of MP3 players in every form factor you can think of. Some have more features than the iPod, and cost less.It is interesting to note that at the very end of the article is an ad for the iPod, which I think just about sums up these MP3 players' chances.
