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Shifting Perspectives: Cataclysm talent changes
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting feral/restoration druids and those who group with them. This week, Allie hopes she is too unimportant and destitute to be worth suing. While finishing the bear, tree and cat gearing guides, I dickered over whether it'd be worth it to examine the Cataclysm talent changes. It's kind of dumb to devote a column to changes that, for all we know, Blizzard slid into the upcoming beta just to scare data miners, but I finally decided ... what the hell. I enjoyed watching Wrath's development during its beta and often wish I'd written more about the class changes as they evolved. Anyway, this is a snapshot of what we know in May 2010. There is the minor matter of the, uh, Cataclysm talent changes no longer being publicly available. As with all alpha leaks, there's the ever-present threat of Blizzard raining lawyers on your head like some Biblical plague, but then I thought -- what good is working for an evil corporation if I can't marshal our own soulless legal tyrants? And how much fun would it be to watch Blizzard legal battling Aol legal? Aol's lawyers hate life and themselves, and this is the stuff of great entertainment. Why not haul out the deck chair, pack a lunch and have the traditional American day out at the Ninth Circuit Court enjoying the Fisticuffs of the Damned?
Shifting Perspectives: How to provide professional feedback in Cataclysm
Every Friday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting balance druids and those who group with them. This week, we are looking at how to start up a conversation with random internet strangers. Also, I am in need of some screenshots of pro balance druids doing whatever it is that balance druids actually do. Please send them to tyler@wow.com; put something akin to "Balance screenshot" or "Moonkin screenshot" in the subject line, and don't forget to list the name you would like to have credited for the shot. Yesterday was a very good day. Why was yesterday a very good day? A very simple reason, really: Yesterday was my birthday. That's right, get excited. I'm so excited that I got all of you guys a gift. It's the best gift that my egotistical, driven self could think of: my wall! What is my wall and why should you care? Well, you probably shouldn't care, but I like my wall. It's where I collect all of my thoughts. I use the white board and the cork for storing the random things that pop into my head so I don't forget them. It's highly useful. If you don't have something like it, I'd seriously suggest getting one. Rambling about myself aside, I do want to talk about something that is very important in this week's column; I want to discuss a more "proper" method for giving feedback on Cataclysm. Really, this is probably something that could be said to all classes out there, considering that, you know, everything is going to be changing and Blizzard will want feedback on it. However, I don't like the other classes. Magi and warlocks just creep me out with their little personal war thing that they've got going on, plus I'm pissed at how all the hunters wanted to touch us in bad places. This information is also useful to all the feral and restoration druids out there who accidentally read Shifting Perspectives every Friday thinking that just maybe this week I'm going to be talking about them. I won't be (like, ever), but you can keep dreaming, 'cause I love you guys. Sure, I may call you ferlawl and restolol, but it's all about the love, guys.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a new cat druid at 80
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are proud to welcome a new generation of cats. Of the three druid specs I cover in the Tuesday column, I think it's arguably toughest to gear a cat. Bears are pretty straightforward; they want armor, agility and gobs of stamina. They're not particularly fussy about the array of DPS stats that otherwise infests melee leather, and because all three of their primary stats appear in spades on PvP gear, they've got another set of reasonable options as long as they're willing (and able) to dump some threat. Trees are even easier. If leather with spellpower drops, the rest of the party/raid groans, and you'll often get these items whether you wanted them or not. For a long time I've wondered if the continuing popularity of the tree has anything at all to do with how easy it is to build a functional healing set even when you're not trying. Cats, on the other hand, tend to face a lot more competition. They have neither the bear's indifference to DPS stats, nor the tree's benefit of playing a relatively uncommon armor/stat combination. As a cat approaching the end game, you'll probably find yourself rolling against a beggar's army of melee and hunters drooling over melee leather. Why? Two words: armor penetration. These days every Two-Hand-Harry and Shadow's-Edge-Sally has a raging lust for armor penetration, and we band of buggered restricted to melee leather are paying the price. Oh well. This article gave me an excuse to dig up a bunch of cat-related YouTube videos, and you can't stay mad for long.
Shifting Perspectives: Can Wrath remain a 1.5-second cast?
Every Friday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting balance druids and those who group with them. This week, we are looking at how to handle Wrath in a world that can't handle it. Also, a notice that I am in need of some screenshots of pro balance druids doing whatever it is that balance druids actually do. Please send them to tyler@wow.com; put something akin to "Balance screenshot" or "Moonkin screenshot" in the subject line, and don't forget to list the name you would like to have credited for the shot. A fair warning, if you do not like reading math or wild speculation, then this post is not for you. I will do my best to keep everything as simple and easy to read as possible, but no real promises. With that out of the way, it's time to get into the core of the matter. Right now, balance druids have a serious problem when it comes to Wrath and the GCD. Although the main culprit of the issue is Nature's Grace, which causes us to cap the one-second GCD at 400 haste, that isn't our only real issue. Haste effects have scaled a bit out of control in this expansion as a whole, and it seems that in Blizzard's attempts to make us utilize both of our main nukes, they have forgotten to take that into account. Just as an example, even without Nature's Grace, Heroism makes Wrath practically unusable by blasting through the GCD without a worry. Even back in Trial of the Crusader, when we were still trying to cap our haste as close to 400 as possible, it was an issue, so it isn't a wonder that Icecrown Citadel has been much worse. The gear scaling issue is one that Blizzard has said they are going to address in the coming expansion; however, will that really be enough for us? Even back in Naxxaramas it was more than possible to get well over 400 haste, which was before the gear scaling issue even took effect. I've already talked about how Blizzard has stated that Nature's Grace is going to have to be changed come Cataclysm, but is Nature's Grace really the core issue here, or it is Wrath's cast time itself? Ask any shadow priest and they'll tell you how troublesome it can be to work with a 1.5-second spell even without all of the complications that balance druids have. For a cooldown-based spell, it might be more acceptable; when dealing with a main nuke that's constantly being chain cast, it becomes a more complicated issue.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a new restoration druid at 80
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are proud to welcome a new generation of trees whatever we're going to be in Cataclysm. Before I do anything else, I want to draw some attention to a guide on restoration healing recently published by Tree Bark Jacket that is an incredibly impressive work. It's comprehensive and fun to read, and for anyone who's getting started with the spec, I highly recommend heading both there and to Lissanna's guide to restoration healing in patch 3.3. We're continuing our updated and expanded series on how to gear a new druid at 80, and this week we're going to tackle restoration druids. Frankly, a lot of the desirability for the listed pieces depends on your spec and current level of +haste (if you're wondering why that is, you'll find an explanation in our Restoration 101 post). If you are planning to raid on your resto druid, this is a bare-bones guide to what you need to look for: If you have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are below 735 haste, prioritize haste. Look for +haste pieces and gem Reckless Ametrines. If you have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are at or above 735 haste, you can either prioritize/gem spellpower or (much better) move points into more throughput talents in the restoration tree. If you don't have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are below 856 haste, prioritize haste. If you don't have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are at or above 856 haste, prioritize/gem spellpower. As you get new pieces, it may be necessary to gem or regem to stay around the haste cap.
Shifting Perspectives: Eclipse come Cataclysm
Every Friday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting balance druids and those who group with them. This week, we are peering into the destructive future and what it holds for one of the most controversial talents we have. Also, a notice that I am in need of some screenshots of pro balance druids doing whatever it is that balance druids actually do. Please send them to tyler@wow.com; put something akin to "Balance screenshot" or "Moonkin screenshot" in the subject line, and don't forget to list the name you would like to have credited for the shot. Stop right there. I know what many people are probably thinking at this point. Why bother talking about Eclipse? We know next to nothing about the change to Eclipse that we'll be seeing in Cataclysm other than the fact that it will now be our mastery bonus instead of being a talent. Why bother discussing something that is nothing more than utter speculation? The answer is quite simple: Eclipse is the single most important change for balance druids in the next expansion. Even if Eclipse weren't going to be our mastery, it is now and always, until the day that Blizzard decides to remove it, going to be the cornerstone of our rotation. It will be the one and only thing that determines how our rotation functions, how we play, how we scale and how viable we'll become. There are other important factors, such as Nature's Grace, but Eclipse is by and large the most important aspect of our spec. If Eclipse fails, we fail. To that end, I think we should talk about Eclipse; we should be speculating as much as possible about this change, and running it into the ground like the dead, overworked horse that it is. For those who are still out of the loop on this change, Eclipse is getting a major overhaul in Cataclysm. No longer will it be a talent within the balance tree; instead, it is going to our third mastery bonus that you acquire merely by speccing down into balance. Instead of the current proc mechanic, Eclipse will now add a new UI element to our screen, a sliding scale of sorts that displays a sun and a moon to represent nature and arcane, respectively. As it stands from the class preview, casting any nature or arcane spell (not just Starfire or Wrath) will impact this scale and cause it to shift in one direction or another. As you progress towards one end of the scale, the damage of one school of magic will be increased by a percentage. It's kind of like how Eclipse works now. You cast Starfire, an arcane ability, in order to buff Wrath, a nature ability. In that sense, under the new system, using nature spells will buff your arcane spells and vice versa. Here is the full extent of the blue posts on the matter. Bashiok Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance Druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance. source
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a new bear at 80
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are proud to welcome a new generation of bears. I've been getting an extraordinary number of requests to update our older posts on how to spec and gear a fresh bear, cat and tree at 80. At this point in Wrath, the information should stay fairly accurate through the end of the expansion, and I agree that this would be a great time to do it. For the next few weeks, we'll examine how to get a new feral or restoration druid into fighting shape. When we first started out, I split gear into categories like best drop, best reputation piece, best quest piece, etc., and I don't think it's necessary to do that anymore. It's so much easier to get high-quality gear by running dungeons or hunting around for some crafted drops or PvP pieces. In particular, it needs to be said that a lot of really good bear pieces can be had from PvP. If you've got a pile of Stone Keeper's Shards lying around (and many players do at this point), buy Wintergrasp Commendations with them when your faction has Wintergrasp, convert them to honor on your druid, and voila -- you've got currency for some ridiculously good pieces.
Shifting Perspectives: Balance UIs and mods
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we explore the dangerous waters of modding your UI. Ready the lifeboats, people! World of Warcraft is not entirely unique in the amount of customization it allows players to make to just about everything under the sun, but I have to say that it is a large selling point for the game. Addons have been made for just about everything in the game at this point. You can get one for tracking, using the AH, leveling, managing non-combat pets, randomizing mounts, strange RP lines and pretty much anything else you can think of. My personal favorites are the complete re-skins that crop up from time to time. I have no idea why people want WoW to look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure, but, apparently there are people that do. Just like the iPhone, there's a mod for that. Beyond the pretty things, there are a multitude of mods that make the game that much easier to master, from things like boss ability announcements to telling you precisely which ability should come next in your rotation. Like I think most people did, I went absolutely crazy when I first discovered the ability to customize my game; at least, I try to console my ego by thinking that. I grabbed anything and everything that I thought might be even remotely useful at the time. Heck, I didn't even really know what half of the things I downloaded really did. I just knew that I was told lots of people were using them, meaning they had to be good. Getting your screen bogged down with "useless" information and addons is a pretty easy trap to fall into. Information in this game in a good thing, but too much of it can ruin your ability to play worse than just going with the standard UI. Not that I have anything against the standard UI, but there are so many ways that it can be made better. Not to mention the clutter. Your UI is your workspace. Like any workspace, you want it to be as neat and organized as possible. I'm probably the last person who should be telling people this, since I seem to thrive in chaos and am one of the most disorganized people in the world, but that doesn't make it any less true. What to do? How to tell the good mods from the bad? There aren't any cut-and-dry answers to these questions; everyone will be more accustomed to different tools, but there are still some guidelines and basic addons that every raider should try and get.
Shifting Perspectives: Class homogenization and the cat
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we poke the issue of class homogenization and wait to see if it pokes back. Before the class announcements hit, I had drafted an article on what I would have loved to see Blizzard do for bears, cats and trees in Cataclysm. You've already seen the expanded bear portion, which was published a few days before the druid announcement was made (no one's ever accused me of great timing), but the cat and tree bits have been (as we say) overtaken by events. We've already looked at the feral information released, so I don't think it's necessary to recap that. However, I'd like to take a closer look at the cat this week, in much the same way that we turned a critical eye to the Tree of Life's impending disappearance. As much as I generally counsel against reading my own work without access to a prescription stimulant or at least hard liquor, you may find the first portion of the Tree article helpful in giving some background on Cataclysm's class goals. As a TL:DR on our previous feral analysis, seen through the lens of the tree article's conclusion on Blizzard's design intentions: Cat damage is in a good place, druids are happy that it's not a "faceroll" spec, and I think Blizzard is happy with that as well. PvE-wise, I don't think we have a lot to worry about. Many of the changes I saw have more interesting implications for PvP. This is the third expansion in a row where cats are getting more versions of rogue skills, in implicit recognition (I would argue) of the spec's uninspiring arena performance relative to its parent class. Which leaves us with this week's question: When a spec is literally designed as a copy of a pure class, is a certain amount of class homogenization a good thing? Beware, readers -- arm-waving ahead!
Shifting Perspectives: Moonkin, a history
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are dusting off those moldy tomes we have stuffed away in our forgotten bookcases. Mold can be deadly, you know! Plus, you know, we might actually read those someday. To start randomly off topic, is anyone else a fan of the show Greek? I was for the first few seasons, but, like most things, I eventually lost interest in the story arcs and characters. As much as I do love some shows, I am exactly like a cat with string and shiny objects. Anyway, if you did ever watch the show Greek, then I'm sure you remember the character Cappie. My college life was quite similar to his. Not at all really. I wasn't in a fraternity, I didn't binge drink every single night and I didn't have horribly complex, awkward and pissy relationship strings. We did have one thing in common, sorta. Cappie was notorious for his line of "I was an X major once" after any insightful comment he actually made. Though I didn't change majors at the drop of a hat, only switched once actually, I did coin a similar phrase during my time. "I dated an X major once" was something I was often heard saying when I made any reference to something outside of my own field; and let's face it, the depths of literary content don't often come up in normal conversation. A brief repose into my past may seeming meaningless, but I swear I have a point to this story. You see, I dated a history major once, so I picked up a few things about the subject. Perhaps that's a lie, given that I don't actually recall any deep form of discourse occurring between us. What I do know is the history of balance druids, though. That's a subject I'm well versed in. As history majors are often noted for saying, at least I've been told they are noted for saying it since I don't recall my history major ever making the comment, "We must understand our past in order to create a better future." Normally I'd call rubbish, but there is a note of wisdom there. It is important to know something past. Even though knowing and the application of knowledge are two entirely different points, I did date a philosophy major after all so I should know, the one thing that history can give us is perspective. With little fanfare, I would like to present to you a CliffsNotes version of the history of balance druids.
Shifting Perspectives: The forest and the trees
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we ponder the end of an era, and Allie kicks herself for not recognizing something she should have. When the news hit on Tree of Life form going bye-bye, I didn't know what to think. To be perfectly clear, chopping the tree down is something that Blizzard's been kicking around for the better part of a year, if not more. We ran a Shifting Perspectives on it in May 2009 in the hope of drawing more attention to a forum thread where Ghostcrawler asked druid players if they thought the Tree was fun. To anyone who's new to the class and thought the developers pulled a fast one, that's not the case; they were open about the possibility that this would happen. When the discussion ended and nothing seemed to come of it, I (foolishly) assumed they had decided to leave well enough alone. The tree wasn't really adding anything to the druid's restoration spec, but it was a harmless addition to a class that considered shapeshifting its raison d'être. Then the class announcement hit. Like I said, I didn't know what to think. I sat back, thought about it, read the announcement thread again, thought more, reread the May 2009 thread, read through all of April 2010 class announcements again, noticed a fairly obvious trend, and finally realized something: What Blizzard is doing with Cataclysm has almost nothing to do with what players have trained themselves to expect after Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. Pavlov's bell is ringing, but it ain't dinnertime.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Resto druid analysis
Yeah, I realize the irony of using this particular picture in any article concerning the recently-announced changes for the restoration druid in Cataclysm. Before we do anything else, I will state right now that I've moved the portion of this article discussing the Tree of Life change to tomorrow's Shifting Perspectives, because the topic deserves a feature of its own. Eerily enough, it's coming just around a year after we devoted another Shifting to that very subject. It would be fair to say that the only truly new thing we're likely to see is a talent named Efflour Eflorr Effloress something that starts with E. Suffice it to say that this didn't go down well with a lot of druids, but perhaps more interesting was what Blizzard didn't say or glossed over. One of the commenters on Elitist Jerks observed with a touch of pique that the resto druid announcements could be summarized as, "No new spells, but your old spells will work differently," without any real information on that last bit. And, well, there's a grain of truth to that.
More Cataclysm change details for druids
Fear not, my fellow druids; your feral analysis post is going live later tonight, and resto sometime tomorrow. Daniel Whitcomb and I have been talking about the incoming changes to the spec, and particularly the decision to change the tree of life from a constant form into a cooldown. I honestly didn't know how to feel about it at first. But before we get to that, Ghostcrawler stayed up hellaciously late last night to answer questions from druid players about the Cataclysm changes currently planned, and we've collected all of them here for you.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Feral druid analysis
Last night, Blizzard made the druid class announcement for planned changes in Cataclysm. For all those of you who were around for the Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King betas, you'll already know that what we think is going to happen to the class and what actually winds up happening are not necessarily the same thing. For the moment, however, it's a safe bet that we'll see most of these changes around for the Cataclysm beta when it goes live and then tweaked further as testing continues. As an aside, if any Blizzard employees reading this take issue with my analysis, I welcome any questions, comments or criticism enclosed in the post-script to a beta invitation, which I will totally read. Resto druids, fear not; your analysis article will go live soon too! I split the articles up for better organization, especially because so much discussion broke out after the announcement concerning Tree of Life form.
Shifting Perspectives: Balance post-starpocalypse
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. Today we step into the muddled love life of Murmurs and discover that he's returned with one of his exes. Starfall is back in style once again, and everyone wants to be on the winning team. If you thought that this post was going to be about the new, totally rad druid changes, then you will be completely disappointed. Such trivialities are so far beneath my station that I wouldn't even waste my time with such refuse. I kid. I'm giddy as a schoolgirl on candy laced with illegal substances right now. I am serious about this article not being about the druid changes, though. Instead, it's going to be all about the new love in my life. The apple of my eye, the yin of my yang, the Hooch of my Turner. If you're thinking about Lady GaGa right now, then stop. The court order was very specific that I'm not allowed within 50 miles of her any more. Instead I've moved on, or rather back, to my old flame Starfall. By now I am sure that there are plenty of people that have grown tired of me ranting on about my love for Starfall. To those people, I say this: Get over it! Okay, okay, seriously though, pending any new drastic shifts in the space-time continuum, this will be my last post about Starfall. I'm going to get all of my expressions of love for it out of my system in one go. Without further ado, let my mushy, gross, open-mouth tongue-kissing of Starfall begin.
Shifting Perspectives: The bear's wish list
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. Today we gnaw on Alex until he's convinced that we tank, and then restrain ourselves from penning a letter with the salutation, "Dear Santa..." Today, druids, I crave your indulgence for wading into a potentially volatile topic, but I think the time has come to address an issue that's divided the druid community into two embattled camps: Can beast mastery raid? I kid. I don't know who beast mastery is, and whether he raids or not is a matter between himself and his God. So, rather than pestering some poor bastard over his existential crisis in ICC, I figured our time might be better spent with some observations on how the druid class has fared in Wrath of the Lich King, and more particularly on the things that haven't worked out so well for us. Before Cataclysm's beta starts, I figure it'll be cool to air a class wishlist and get some feedback. UPDATE: And Blizzard has pre-empted me on this. To be frank, there's something a bit fool's-errandish about the whole enterprise, because we have no idea what kind of content awaits us in Cataclysm, and today's problems may not even exist there. It's an old saw that generals like to prepare their armies to fight yesterday's war, and I'd be lying if I said there weren't an element of that here. I guess it might be more accurate to describe this article as "Things I wish I'd written two years ago" -- when Wrath's beta was on the horizon -- but one of the irritating things about hindsight is that things actually need to be behind you.
Shifting Perspectives: DoTs, a different direction
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. Once again we are delving into the world of balance druid DoTs and how they fit within our rotation. How can they be improved? Can Insect Swarm and Moonfire ever really be made interesting and fun? The novelty of the newly buffed Starfall still has not worn off yet for me. Call me very easy to please, but nothing is more exciting to me than getting Omen of Doom, along with Frostforge Sage, then popping Starfall. Not that I particularly wait for this to happen, but that's usually how every pull starts for me; call it luck. Seeing upwards of 8,000 crits from an ability that I'm used to ignoring is thrilling beyond words that I could write. On the other hand, watching my DoTs tick for less than what my level 40 warlock is capable of hitting is more than slightly distressing. It's no surprise to the balance community that our DoTs have, once again, become a much more insignificant portion of our rotation. Though still worth casting within the rotation, it saddens me when my tier 10 four-piece bonus actually provides more damage than Moonfire or Insect Swarm over the course of a fight. Really, there's a part of me that just can't wrap my head around the concept. It's gotten so bad, now that I'm no longer running Glyph of Insect Swarm, that I don't want to look at my damage reports any more.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a fresh balance druid
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. So that picture has nothing to do with gearing nor balance druids, but it's a priest, on a stack of rocket clusters, and it amuses me. I tried to do it too, but Moonkin are too fat and I brokesded it. Also, there's some shocking revelations in this weeks episode! Stay tuned! I admit it; I'm a bit of an elitist. There, I've said it, please stop hating me now. I talk a lot about balancing this game, the deeper aspects of theorycrafting that drive it, and how to best optimize every aspect of your druid, yet I ignore a much larger portion of the community. I have a tendency to throw out terms and concepts that isn't entirely relevant to a significant portion of WoW players. For example, the discussion of when to limit Moonfire and Insect Swarm from your rotation is a very good one, but it only applies to those druids that are already fairly far along in Icecrown Citadel. While a resource to that portion of the community, it is largely useless to those whom only play mostly on the side, or PuG 10's and 25's when they can get the time. This week, I am going to change that stance. This week, instead of an article that isn't as useful to the more casual faction of players, I'm rallying against the more involved raiders. Fighting the man, raging against the machine, and all that jazz. If you're a raider deep in ICC, then I'll give you permission to stop reading now, because none of this is going to change how you play or raid. If you're not one of those balance druids, or merely have a balance druid alt whom you're a bit wary of playing, then I implore you to keep reading as I hope this can prove to be a solid resource for you. So, you've finally reached the goal that you've been working towards for so long, hitting level 80, or maybe you've been level 80 for a little while now and are just a tad unsure about where to go at this point. Don't worry, reaching level 80 in WoW, especially for the first time, can be a rather daunting experience. The game hasn't ended for you, no, it's just beginning. Level 80 is where everything changes, and you've got to be ready: Torchwood. Okay, maybe not, but I still think we should lock up all the Draenei like Weevels.
Shifting Perspectives: Revenge of the Karapalooza
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we invade the menagerie, shut down the demon factory, defang the beaten dog, carefully avoid Netherspite, play some chess, and face not only Malchezaar but the legions he commands. Greetings, druids. This week we'll finish our look at stomping Kara from Curator through Prince. If you're looking for our first installment (covering Attumen through Nightbane), you'll find that here. Curator For most people, the Curator was the source of the first tier piece they ever got in Burning Crusade as he drops the tier 4 glove token. Note that the Defender tokens in tier 4 and 5 went to warriors, druids, and priests, which forced BC's more popular tanking and healing classes (in addition to the new legion of shadow priests that every raid wanted) to gear at each others' expense. It wasn't until tier 6 that Blizzard went for more sensible class combinations, splitting most tanking/healing classes to different tokens.
Shifting Perspectives: Moonkin mailbag
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. After a week of being under the weather, we're back with to explore the depths of Murmurs' mailbox and to find out just how much junk he really has in his trunk. It's another week. Another week and I still don't have my 'OP' version of Starfall to play around with. Do you have any idea how upset this makes me? I mean, honestly, all I really want to do right now is slap on my PvE gear and run screaming through the Horde turtle in AV and watch as Starfall obliterates everything in my path. Is that asking too much? Since I don't have legions of dead Horde bodies to entertain me at the moment, I thought it would be a fantastic time to go in and check my e-mail for a change. That was a mistake. Apparently, it is not a good idea to rely solely on filters for people that you know in order to view your mail. I mean, sure, I get all the important stuff, but after my week of doing nothing but laying in bed all day long, I came back to see that I had officially broken g-mails load limit. Okay, not really, but I did have well over 2,000 unread messages. That's a lot, like, a lot a lot. Unfortunately, that's far too many for me to ever catch up on if I plan on ever eating, sleeping, working, or bathing again - and, let me tell you, I love to do those things. In an effort to not quit my day job - or get fired from it due to not being awake and smelling like I crawled out of a sewer - instead of attempting to reply to each e-mail individually, I'll address many of the most comment topics in one stroke of the key. Alright, so, there will probably be many key strokes involved in this plan, but there will be a lot less than if I did it the other way around.
