YearInReview2011

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  • 2011 Year in review: A timeline

    by 
    Christopher Trout
    Christopher Trout
    01.01.2012

    In an industry that changes minute by minute, a year's worth of news is a lot to digest. We combed our archives in an attempt to drown out the noise and came up with a short list of the stories that made 2011. Consider this an abridged look back at the year that was. Head past the break to check it out.

  • Shifting Perspectives: 2011 for feral druids

    by 
    Chase Hasbrouck
    Chase Hasbrouck
    01.01.2012

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. Welcome to our feral cat edition, brought to you by Chase Hasbrouck, aka Alaron of The Fluid Druid blog. Let the face clawing begin! Just like last year, this December brings both new beginnings and endings. A new raid, with new toys, but the end of an expansion, with likely no significant changes to mechanics until the release of Mists of Pandaria. As we sit around the fire with mugs of cider, enjoying (or loathing) our new sweaters, let's take a moment to look back at the events of 2011. Those of you who have already set them on fire, feel free to follow along from outside. (Bad cat! Bad cat!) Patch 4.0 blues Let's face it: Life was not so hot in early Cataclysm for us ferals. It's long enough ago that it's hard to remember, but our AoE damage was just pathetic. Swipe hit so weakly that our best AoE strategies revolved around multiDoTing, which was quite difficult and even then wasn't very powerful. Heroic Maloriak really brought this out; feral was consistently the lowest DPS spec, a good 10% below the next spec and almost 50% below our fellow balance druids. While most of the balance issues are typically ironed out quickly, this one persisted for quite a while.Thankfully, our single-target damage was passable, but only just.