moonkin-raiding

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  • Shifting Perspectives: Comparing T12 boomkin gear against T11

    by 
    Tyler Caraway
    Tyler Caraway
    08.19.2011

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. Last week, I allowed the unthinkable to happen: I allowed myself to be out-DPSed by an elemental shaman. It was a terrible day, one from which I don't think I shall ever recover. It happened the day that I had finally gotten my new, shiny four-piece bonus. I was eager to try it out, estatic that I finally got myself out of that god-awful dress. Then something just fell through. This week was more of a redemption, but I will still never forget losing out that one time. If anything good did come of it, at least you could say that it got me thinking. Upgrading from tier 11 to tier 12 should be a pretty big deal. The set has more and better itemization, the set bonuses are pretty spectacular -- so what could possibly be the issue? This week, we'll be talking about how tier 12 is great but not the bundle of roses that you might think it is. Depending on the encounter in question, which tier is actually better can change on you. Given that, should you ever go back to your old tier 11?

  • Shifting Perspectives: What to do once you've hit level 85 as a balance druid

    by 
    Tyler Caraway
    Tyler Caraway
    08.12.2011

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. There are times when it can be slightly awkward writing for two different class columns. While all of us strive to bring the best information for whatever it is that we write about, there are loads of tidbits that really do span across the entire game, stuff that people really do need to know. I find myself in this predicament at the moment. This past Monday, I did a piece for warlocks regarding this very same topic. Writing the same thing for balance druids as I do warlocks? Lazy? A cop-out? Nah -- well, maybe ... but probably not. Much of the information in that article holds true for balance druids as well, although there are itemization differences I'll be covering here; further, it's about readership. It is good information; it's stuff that everyone should know, and I want to make sure that everyone does get it. Just because I write about warlocks doesn't mean all of those who read Shifting Perspectives will also read Blood Pact. This week, I'm stealing one of my own pages and bringing you what to do once you hit level 85. Enjoy, perhaps even for the second time!

  • Shifting Perspectives: Murmurs' moonkin Twitter feed!

    by 
    Tyler Caraway
    Tyler Caraway
    08.05.2011

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. I haz a Twitters! Like most everyone else these days, I too am a part of the social revolution that is sweeping the globe. Originally I was against the idea, but I've been a part of this network for some time now and I figured that it was finally the time to put that fact to work. This week, I'll be pulling questions from some of my followers on Twitter. @xvkarbear Should I be waiting to pop starfall until I have a lunar eclipse? Use mushrooms during solar eclipse?

  • Shifting Perspectives: Letting go of DOT-based AOE

    by 
    Tyler Caraway
    Tyler Caraway
    07.29.2011

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com. Firelands comes and goes, boss strategies are created and refined -- and with each passing encounter, players come up with different ways in which they can push the mold. What may be true for one raiding tier can quickly become the wrong way of doing things in the next, without any changes or direction from Blizzard. While we can sometimes point to spell scaling as the root cause of these alterations, often it is the changes within the design of the encounters that actually force players to adapt in ways that go against conventional wisdom. In the past raiding tier, using DOTs as our AOE has been the one and only method to perform. Our more traditional AOE was mocked due to the constraints that were placed upon it. That has not changed in the least; what has changed, however, in AOE in general. Throughout the first raiding tier and even into Firelands, Blizzard has made changes to the mobs that we AOE and the strength of other classes' AOE abilities, all of which impacts the way we perform. This week, we take a look at the new face of balance AOE.

  • Shifting Perspectives: How to raid as a balance druid

    by 
    Tyler Caraway
    Tyler Caraway
    07.15.2011

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. If there is one thing that avid readers may know about me, it is that I have a huge tendency to push players to become less single-minded. In any game that I play (particularly MMOs), I despise the one-sided nature that most players fall into. The mind set that "I am a DPSer, I am here to DPS, all I do is DPS" is highly pervasive within the gaming community -- and frankly, I want to break that concept so hard that it hurts. No matter what class or spec it is that you may play, you always bring more to the table than your prescribed role. DPSers especially have far more utility than they realize. It's time that players wake up to this, and that is exactly what I intend to facilitate in this week's article. Playing balance is exceptionally fun. You bring fantastic damage to any raid group, but you also bring so much more than that. Want to be a better raider -- no, want to be a better player in general? Then read on!

  • Shifting Perspectives: Raiding early Blackwing Descent as a balance druid

    by 
    Tyler Caraway
    Tyler Caraway
    01.21.2011

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Triple moonkin! All across the sky! It can only mean one thing, that's right kiddies: It's raiding time. Strap on your big boy pants -- things are about to get serious. Seriously. OMG, OMG, OMG it's here! Yay, I actually did something that I said I would do. This is such a drastic change for me that I think I'll write a whole article on how important this momumentous event is, instead of actually writing about boss tactics and annoying things like that. No? Not feeling it? I suppose I can go ahead with the normal plan, although I think the other idea was much better. Raiding thus far has been rather hit-or-miss, in my opinion. Perhaps I'm jaded, but many of the encounters feel a tad ... simplistic, or at least far easier than they should be. Certain encounters, and especially the end encounters of all three raids this tier, are tough and fun, but the in-betweens seem a little weak at times -- but again, that's just me. For example, I spent more time wiping on the first boss of Grim Batol when it showed up as my first heroic ever than I did on Magmaw. Maybe that's just us; I don't know. Whether or not you agree, raiding is about being prepared. We've covered gearing yourself up for raids to death, so let's get on with the second part of those preparations.