Blizzard will be throttling the queries sent by Gearscore and similar mods, in an attempt to reduce lag (from the mountains of requests being sent simultaneously by all the GS users out there). Hooray! Lag is always an issue for me, as an Aussie, but anything that helps to reduce it is okay in my books.

Lissanna from Restokin has a good write-up of what it will mean – so I won’t go over it too. Here’s the part that explains the crux of it, for me:

Gear-score and other mods that are being throttled by this change will still work. They will potentially just take longer to load all the information that you want (or the mods may even be changed to be more picky about who they ping). That’s fine, since you didn’t instantly need to know the gearscore of all 1,000 people standing next to you in Dalaran when you go to get something out of the bank.


There’s really no need to be sending out the majority of those automatic requests – but they keep happening, and it adds to lag. So Blizzard is going to throttle the number of requests, and hopefully improve server lag (particularly in crowded places, like Dalaran).

You can find more info about the change at wowinterface and wowace.

Rather than go into why I like the change or what it will mean for all of us, I wanted to suggest that instead of using Gearscore, why don’t you try WTFismygearscore.com. Instead of running an addon that causes lag and adds to your addon memory total, this nifty little website will give you a super quick assessment of someone’s gearscore, plus you can mouseover the instances they’ve done and see exactly what experience they have.




As you can see in the examples above, Keeva has a GS of almost 6000 (I logged out in my resto gear, I swear it’s over 6000 in my boomkin gear, STOP JUDGING ME), which means that she would be allowed into a heroic dungeon, *cough*. You can see that she just needs heroic Putricide, Sindragosa, and LK on 25. You can compare with Kiiva who is under 5000 and only halfway through 25 normals. Disclaimer: GS ratings and boss kills don’t necessarily make a skilled player, and lack of the same doesn’t necessarily make a bad player, etc etc.

It’s probably not practical for you to swap to using the online version if you’re setting up a GKP run and need to assess 24 people in a short period of time – mouseovers will be better in that kind of situation. But if you’re only using Gearscore to check your own score periodically, or to check someone else out, just out of curiosity – you can ditch the mod and use the website, rather than bogging yourself down with unnecessary addons.

I just thought I would share – since I’ve only been aware of the website for a couple of weeks, and I think it’s a really handy thing. I don’t want to install Gearscore purely to check what my own score is (if I want to get into a PuG or something), but this simple website lets me check whenever I like.

And, if you’re so inclined, it will also show you server and region rankings, so you can check who is “winning” at Gearscore.

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Blizzard’s Real ID FAQ is a bit vague on this subject, so I tested it out with two lovely volunteers, to see whether a friend of a friend would be able to see my character info.

Basically, I wanted to see what they could see, so I knew exactly what information was visible about me.

The answer: People on your friends’ friends lists can only see your real name, they cannot see your character details, location, etc.



What you see when you look at a friend’s list of friends


Example: I’m friends with Mr K. I got him to add Mr J to his friends (but I am not friends with Mr J). The I right-clicked on Mr K in my list, and selected View Friends. It shows a list of real names only, not the associated character names or that person’s status – just that he exists.

It’s basically like Facebook. I can go check out my sister’s friends list, but all I can see is their names. Unless I recognise some of those names, it’s a pretty meaningless list. It’s the same here with Real ID – if Mr J doesn’t recognise my real name because he doesn’t know me, then my name in that list is meaningless. If he does know me, then he can say “oh, I know her, I’ll add her!”

Of course, I still think there should be a way that you can toggle real names on and off, or nominate a nickname or alias. Some people will enjoy the real name feature – handy for connecting with people that you know IRL, but I think overwhelmingly it would be more useful to operate under aliases (and it would make a lot of people feel more secure). I personally don’t mind, but I completely agree that it’s a bit unfair for the people who don’t want their real names and their avatars linked up.

Here’s hoping they add a toggle feature in the near future.

For now though – it’s pretty cool – nice work, Blizz!

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I’m excited about the Real ID system. I left behind a lot of friends on my US PvP server, because the timezone wouldn’t work for me, and I wanted to try Horde, too. Now I play Horde on an Oceanic server, but I miss my buddies back on Mannoroth.

With the new system, the people I’m already close to but can’t chat with in-game (due to cross-server and cross-faction boundaries) will seem as if they’re right there with me, on Cael.

My plan is to level a character or two on that server come Cataclysm – for fun, while I’m not busy on Keeva. I’m excited to think that maybe I’ll be playing on Cael and one of my Manno buddies will be all like, “Hey Keevz, log on, we need a healer!” and such. Very nifty. And I won’t have to guild all of my 50 billion lowbie alts just to have some company – I can roll on some obscure server to kill some time, but still have people to chat to in-game.

Am I worried about FoF lists (friends of my RealID friends) seeing my real name? Nah. It’s like Facebook. I can go look at all the people on my sister’s friends list, but they’re just random names to me. Unless I already know someone on that list (and therefore already know their real name), then they’re all meaningless. RealID FoF will be the same – if they see my real name on someone’s list, they’ll either know who I am already, or they won’t have a clue. It won’t give out my character names or email, so people will need to know me already to make the connection that I play Keeva.

And the people I know and chat with generally know my name anyway – many of them are on my IM lists, Facebook, or have had my email and name details for ages. Some even have address and phone details. They know my name, my face, my email, where I grew up, the fact that I like cheese and tomato sandwiches, and I can’t stand Jimmy Barnes’ music. I’m happy for those guys to be on my Real ID list. I can’t wait to add them, so that we can chat about random stuff while we play.

But, I do understand that many people don’t want to link their real name with their characters, and I don’t blame them for that. I do think Blizz should create a “toggle real name/nickname” feature – I can’t imagine it would be difficult. There should really be a choice to show your details, and also a choice to toggle FoF view off, if you don’t like the idea of your name (meaningless as it is) appearing on someone’s list.

I also question whether it’s a great idea to have people passing their login email back and forth. Obviously you should only do this with people that you trust, and once the email is entered into the system, it isn’t displayed to your friends at all, but wouldn’t it be better and more secure to invites work via character name, so that emails are never revealed at all?

Overall though, I’m very much looking forward to testing it out and chatting with my long-lost US buddies – as well as Aussie buddies that are on different Oceanic servers.

I won’t be friending many people, though, and I doubt I’ll friend many people that are in my guild (they can already reach me, and don’t really need to see my alts). I’ll mostly be using it to catch up with people from other servers, rather than keeping in constant contact with people on my own. I’ve also informed my boyfriend that we can be “Battlenet buddies” and chat endlessly while I play WoW and he plays Starcraft.


He didn’t seem very enthusiastic, which was odd..

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I’ll come right out and admit it – I am a 10man raider playing in a 25man guild. In Cataclysm there is a pretty good chance I will be a 10man raider within my guild – regardless of what our main raid nights are used for. If the guild continues to do 25s, I may participate, but I feel drawn to the 10man format, and feel that in Cataclysm there will be an abundance of 10man runs, so I will have plenty of opportunities to continue to slay dragons.

Graylo posted about equity in Cataclysm raiding, and the balance (or lack of balance) between 10s and 25s, going forward. He wants to know why 25s and 10s have to be equal, in terms of rewards, etc. He makes some great points, but I had to pull one of them out to respond to, because I disagree very strongly.

He basically states that anyone who says they prefer 10s but raids 25s for gear is not really telling the truth. I’ve seen other people make similar statements, and it kinda ties back into the idea that if you say you’re a 10 man raider but you do 25s on the side, you’re a bit of a cheater or a phony.

When I posted on this subject last April one of the common responses I got was “I enjoy 10mans more but I raid 25s for the better gear.” I find that statement to be nonsensical. Does this person truly prefer 10mans over 25mans? In my opinion they do not, and their actions prove it.

While this person may prefer the 10man size over the 25man size, their actions prove that they value the 25man gear more then they value the 10man size. So they are not being forced to participate in an activity that they don’t enjoy. If that was the case they would stop.


My rebuttal: It’s perfectly acceptable for someone to make that statement – that they prefer 10s but still do 25s for the gear. This is not nonsensical at all. What is nonsensical, or perhaps just extremely naïve, is the statement that if they don’t enjoy a particular raid, they would stop. History shows us that this is simply not how the game works (and this is what Blizzard is trying to fix).


Why I prefer 10s, but keep doing 25s

So why the heck do I do 25s, if I prefer 10s?

A few reasons. First and foremost, I love my guild, I love raiding with my guild, and they raid 25mans. They do 10s on the side, of course, but these are often late at night, or full, so 10man raiding is sporadic. I want to raid with them, so I raid 25s. I could leave and find a cozy little 10 man guild, but my buddies wouldn’t be in it, so I don’t want to.

Second, to kill dragons. Until a while ago, I was still very competitive and wanted to “win” on the realm progression ladder. Not so much, these days. And, once, I was hung up on the fact that 25man raiding was “real” raiding (unfortunately – this is not a jab at 10man raiders), and I didn’t want to settle for anything less than the pointy edge of the game. More and more, though, I wish I could just raid 10s for fun rather than 25s for progression.

Third, to improve my character. Inexorable was a 10man guild through TOC, and I really enjoyed it. But wearing 10man gear felt unfinished; it’s like still having a Heroism badge item in your gear, or an ilvl 200 crafted epic; it might do the job OK, but you won’t be happy until you replace it with something that is better.

Now, some (many) people improve their gear so that they can show it off on the bank steps, or compare themselves with others, compete on the Gearscore ladders, on the wow logs rankings, or to see if they can get a new crit Eviscerate record. I don’t. I improve my gear because I enjoy working towards the next step – whatever that is. If my boots are a tier under what’s available, then I want to upgrade them. If I’ve been stuck with the same offhand since Naxx, I want to upgrade it – not so I can kick ass on the meters or put my spellpower over 9000 – but because it’s the next thing on my list to “fix”. I won’t be happy until I’m wearing BiS gear, not because I want to be uber, but because I enjoy that process of continuous improvement – it’s what keeps me playing.

Obviously, increased numbers come with upgrades, so without trying, I am improving my numbers, getting bigger crits, pulling higher figures on the meters. But I don’t strive for gear for those purposes.

For many people, this is difficult or even impossible to understand. I’m sure some will think I’m flat out lying when I say I don’t do it for the numbers.

They believe that 10man raiders go do 25man raids because they want bigger numbers, or to epeen in higher levels of gear. Some do. I do not.


Stopping short of the finish line

Wearing 10 man gear when there is better equipment available made me feel like I was stopping short of the mark. It made me anxious. Better gear was out there – I could theoretically keep improving my character – but not in the 10man raids. I didn’t NEED the gear in order to continue running our 10man raids; I wanted it because I am not satisfied with “BiS (out of what is available in 10mans)”.

For 10man strict raiders, that list IS their BiS list. They’re not settling for second best – that is their BiS shopping list. They have a finite list of items to work towards, from the same content they are running as normal.

But non-strict 10man raiders are kinda stuck in limbo.. they could write down a BiS-from-10s list, but those “real” BiS items are still out there, available through PuGs or GKP runs.


I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t be able to relate to this feeling, and would simply put it down to me wanting moar epix. But it’s not that. The idea of spending ages working on your character but still never quite being able to finish it off properly – well, to quote one of Graylo’s commenters, it just sucks.

As another commenter said – “When 25s have better gear, people feel obliged to raid 25s to get it, as “sticking to 10s” feels like an arbitrary stopping point.” I couldn’t have said it any better – arbitrary is exactly it. It feels like you’ve stopped short, stalled.


Nobody is forcing you to do something you dislike

Nobody is actually obliged to do raids that they don’t want to do. Gray’s argument is, “if you don’t like X, don’t do it” – ie, if you prefer 10s and don’t like 25s, stop doing 25s, silly. It’s logical. And it’s what many people want, too – we don’t want to grind instances because we feel obliged to.

But historically, that’s just not how it works. It would be nice if it did, but it doesn’t. At least not so far.

Look at TOC. Think about the thousands of people who ran four lockouts of TOC every week (more, if they did alt runs), loathing it, burning out on it, despising it. Wanting to punch Jaraxxus in his demonic happy place for never giving up the damn Solace. But they kept doing it, even when there was no challenge left, no more achievements, just a grind. Why? Why keep doing something that you hate so much? Gear, obviously.

At this point it probably sounds like I’m looping back and contradicting myself, agreeing with Graylo that gear is more important than my personal preference to run 10s. My point is basically that Gray (as I interpret it) is saying that my lust for epics keeps me going back to 25s, and if I truly disliked them, I would stop – but I don’t, because I want shinies (or numbers). This is an easy conclusion to make, because many people DO lust for epics and continue to run content solely for this reason.

But I can put my hand on my heart and say I prefer 10s but still want to do 25s because I’m not satisfied wearing second-place equipment. Not because I *need* better equipment to do my 10s, but because I will never be happy with gear that is simply adequate. My character can’t be “finished” if I settle for 10 man gear.

If a player chooses the 25man format for 13 extra itemization points then it is obvious that the raid size really isn’t that big of a deal.

If they still felt the need to do 25s for the improved gear then it is obvious that the raid size is really not that important to them.


The above statements tell me that Graylo doesn’t understand the mindset of many 10man raiders. Those 13 extra itemization points are not just about being uber, or doing more DPS, or looking cool. Those few points represent the final little step to finish off my character, to put the cherry on top of all my hard work. Not being able to reach that is incredibly frustrating, and in a game where personal progression plays a major part in most people’s gameplay, why wouldn’t it be? Why wouldn’t I feel short changed, settling for 10man gear when there’s 25man gear out there – regardless of whether I “need” it to play, or not? (again, stricters excepted!)


Analogylol

I have a lot of trouble playing alts that aren’t going to “go anywhere” in terms of end game. I can level an alchemy mule, I can level a herbalist/miner, because they will have a purpose. But I can’t level a character if I know I won’t play it at max level. I have to have a reason to continue to improve it, otherwise it’s just pointless busywork. I find myself dropping alts around 50-60 because I realise there’s no point in continuing to level them.

On the other hand, I consider my main, Keeva, to always be in a state of “not quite finished”, and I’m always keen to find the next piece of the puzzle to make her better. It’s what keeps me coming back – the next little goal on the list. And because I know she has a purpose, so far as end game is concerned, then I am happy to put in those hours to keep improving her.

Settling for 10man gear when I know there’s 25man gear out there – it’s like spending hours and hours on a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, but before you get started, you already know that there are 5 pieces missing because your cat took them behind the fridge.

You can see them there, slightly out of reach. You could get them back, I guess, but it would mean moving the fridge, which is something that isn’t terribly easy, and you don’t want to do it.

But if you don’t go do it somehow, you’ll have to settle for a mostly-finished jigsaw puzzle with someone’s left leg missing. Is that good enough?

Are you happy to settle for a jigsaw puzzle is “pretty much” finished? Does it worry you that those pieces are still stuck behind the fridge, or do you consider the puzzle “done”?


Cataclysm: No more stopping short (gear wise)

Blizzard has recognised that people want to do a particular type of raid, but still feel obliged to do the other, in many cases. Graylo’s idea of having two completely different paths of progession, 10 and 25, and making people choose, is nice, but Blizzard knows it won’t work:

We sort of tried that, Gray, and they all chose 25 (meanwhile telling us that they wanted to play 10 but felt stupid for doing so since they were missing out on gear).


Exactly – we can do 10s, enjoy them, feel like we’re progressing and doing well, but there’s always that nagging feeling that we’re missing out on gear that is sitting right there in front of us. We still love 10s, but we feel obliged to reach out and grab the 25 gear if we possibly can. That doesn’t mean we’re lying to ourselves about what we want, or cheating, or being dumb for raiding something that we don’t really want to do. It just means we want to keep moving forward. This isn’t nonsensical, it’s the nature of the game – to continue to improve ourselves.

But in Cataclysm, raid lockouts will mean that 10 man raiders won’t be left feeling like their finish line is 30 yards back from the “real” one. While I have concerns about making 10 and 25man lockouts exclusive, that’s a post for another day. Gear wise, the fact that shared lockouts will never make me choose between sticking with Tier XYZ gear or pushing myself into 25s to get Tier XYZ.5 gear – that makes me very happy. I don’t really care if 25man raiders get more badges than me – I can get the same over time – but having access to the same gear drops out of the raid format that I prefer – I’m quite thrilled about that.

I will never again have to decide between my preferred raid size or being able to “finish” Keeva – something that many 10man raiders have had to do in the past – it’s BiS gear OR your favourite raid size, not both (25man raiders on the other hand don’t ever have to make that choice, they get access to their BiS by default).

Now I’ll be able to do both – raid 10s with close friends, while never feeling like I’m “settling” for runner-up equipment.


You guys can crawl around with the dust bunnies behind the fridge, I’m doing 10s in Cataclysm!

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Warning: long rant. Also: talents aren’t final, etc – but I’m ranting anyway.

I’m not usually negative towards Blizzard. I think that on the whole they do a great job, and it’s rare that I get annoyed about anything they do. I enjoy their product, so it’s not in my nature to bash them. Yeah, I’m still disappointed about losing TOL as a form, but I know it’s inevitable so I’m not wasting too much energy getting angry about it. Getting mad doesn’t usually help – it’s not constructive, and screeching at Blizzard doesn’t make them want to listen to you.

However..

I have to award the Cataclysm dev team a big, fat, FAIL stamp for this one. Fail, fail, fail. What on earth are you thinking?

Snares sucked in TBC. Now you want to make it even worse (50%), AND make it so that if we do our druid thing and shift out, we’ll lose the buff? What happened to encouraging us to shapeshift MORE during fights?

It doesn’t transfer well to text, but right now if you could just imagine that I’m blowing a big, wet raspberry at the dev team. PHBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBT. That’s what I think of your crummy, cooldown-robbing snare.


“WotLK isn’t Cataclysm, duh.”

I know. TBC isn’t Cataclysm. WotLK isn’t Cataclysm.

We don’t know what the Cataclysm encounters are going to be like. But I believe we can extrapolate current and historical fights to predict that Cataclysm encounters will still require you to run away from bad stuff(tm) quite a bit. Plant-and-nuke fights are extremely rare, and I don’t think it’s a big stretch to assume that will continue to be the case.

We’ll still have to run away from badness. If that happens just after we’ve popped our TOL, we’ll either be forced to shift out and lose our buff OR stay in TOL and be a weak link in the raiding chain, selfishly waddling through fire so that we don’t drop our cooldown. Which one do you think the raid leader will want us to do?

Yeah, it doesn’t matter how many times people say “wait and see what the fights are like”, I can’t help feeling pretty bitter about that prospect, I’m afraid.


Seeing into the future

Blizzard have said they want us to choose when to use the cooldown, rather than just popping it every time it is available. So, using it at the start of the fight, like a healing Bloodlust, is probably not what they intend. So imagine you have to wait a minute or two minutes or until enrage before using it – choosing wisely the best time for maximum benefit. That’s fine, but it probably means that unless it’s a marathon fight, you’re only going to get to use the cooldown once per fight.

And if you’re unlucky enough to be forced to move, if you shift out, you lose your buff for that fight. Gone.

Now, on fights where you can predict those movement phases, perhaps it won’t be so bad. But remember that you’ll need to be able to see 45 seconds into the future to know you’re “safe” to stand an heal. Cancelling earlier to run away from fire, shift out of poly or snares etc – you’ll shave off the end (or most of) your TOL buff and it will be gone. 45 seconds is an awfully long time to be lucky enough to not have to move.

So how much of the buff are we going to use, realistically? I doubt many fights will allow us the 45 seconds. So are they designing it around us having the buffs for 45 seconds? Or are they assuming that we’ll usually only get an average of Xseconds?

Call me a sad sack, but I can think of a bunch of sucky things that could happen during the cooldown. Mobility is our strength; think for a second what will happen if we pop our glorious cooldown and then the tank moves or gets knocked out of range. We have to waddle at 50% speed to try to get back into range – all the while, NOT healing him. Normally, we could do our druid thing – shift to cat form, Dash to get range, pop out and save the day. We’ll still be able to do that, of course – but in the process, we get to kiss our TOL cooldown goodbye. So once again – do you shift to cat to get in range, or do you waddle forward to try to salvage your cooldown – possibly losing your healing target in the process?

Obviously that is a minor and hopefully rare problem – but it shows another reason why such a restriction would cripple us in emergencies – which is exactly what the cooldown is for.


“We want you to shift more.”

OK, so one of the reasons that static TOL was ditched was because you didn’t like that we started fights in TOL and didn’t shift throughout. You wanted us to “shift more” (despite the fact that ferals and balance druids don’t ever shift if they can help it, but okay..) because that’s what druids are about – shifting. But this new design will have us shifting a grand total of once, MAYBE twice if it’s a long fight – but, once we’re in TOL, instead of being encouraged to shift into our other forms for survivability and utility, we feel pressured to stay in (and possibly risk our safety and the raid’s safety) so that we don’t lose our buff.

And it’s not like another class betting lust and having to lose part of the buff while they run – at least when they stop running, they’ll have the tail end of their buff. When we stop running, we can’t get ours back.

So you want us to make decisions (good) – for the TOL to be something we use very deliberately (good) – but RNG can strip us of that carefully managed buff?

Don’t even get me started on Malleable Goo type abilities – with Australian lag, it can be hard enough to avoid as it is – imagine with a 50% slow. “Sorry, I was in Tree form.” Here’s hoping there are no “think quick”, RNG boss abilities like this – although something tells me that’s a pretty big ask.




Recap: before, we had no real reason to use our shifts during most fights. Blizzard stepped in to encourage us to shift more – because that’s what druids do. Cool. So, in Cataclysm, this means we’ll shift once (maybe twice) per fight – but once you’ve done that, you’ll do everything you can to AVOID shifting (or you pay a price).

What is this, I don’t even..

Gimme your hand again, I want to re-stamp it.

(FAIL FAIL FAIL.)


Make it an aura.

Please change it to an aura, Blizzard. The same way you changed Dash so that if we popped into humanoid form, we’d still have Dash if we popped back into Cat form (during the buff).

Change TOL to be a 45s aura that only buffs us while in TOL form. If we have to drop to cat form to sprint, or bear form to take a hit, or travel form to drop a snare – let us do it – but then when we go back into TOL form 10 seconds later, we can catch the end of our TOL buff, so that it’s not completely wasted.

I don’t mind losing part of my buff in order to run (just as any healer would have to stop healing in order to run away). Giving up part of my cooldown for survivability is the same as anyone in the raid – like popping Bloodlust and then having to run from Swarming Shadows. It’s annoying, but you don’t waste the entire thing. Please make it so that the TOL cooldown is like Dash, so that if we shift out and back again (during the 45 seconds), we can get the buff back for the remaining time. In this way, we lose part of our buff, but we don’t forfeit it. I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.

I can deal with my form being put on a cooldown. Honestly, I don’t mind the snare itself. I can handle that – even a horrible 50% – I’ll deal with it. I don’t mind being forced to choose when a buff will be a help or a hinderance, because we’re about to hit the phase of the fight where there are defiles or fire walls. That’s fine. I quite like having to decide when to use each of my forms – as we all should!

I get that you want TOL to be situational, so that we don’t just pop it every the cooldown is up. And that’s good, because I really don’t want another “On Use” trinket ability that I have to weave into my rotation to maximise my HPS. I want there to be an element of decisionmaking there. I agree that it should have some kind of drawback or risk attached, so that it’s not just being used on every cooldown, like a static healing buff. Making the cooldown shorter will make it into more of a “pop whenever it’s up” deal, meh. I’d rather stick with the heavy decisionmaking process, but not forfeit my buff if I do what I’m designed to do – shift!


In conclusion

With all due respect, devs – the statement, “if you waste it, you waste it” is a great big steaming pile of you-know-what.



Figure 1: A visual aid!
(I love WoW Model Viewer.)



TLDR: Let’s hope the “it may not stick” comment comes true. A 50% snare is hideous; a 50% snare that forces us to drop our deep resto cooldown to survive commonplace RNG is just plain terrible.

Premature screeching? Overreaction? Maybe. No doubt people will say “wait for more details” or “we don’t know what the fights will be like.” That’s fair. I still think it’s harsh, though. But I’m not saying “scrap it” – just reconsider the fact that it makes us forfeit our buff if we do what we’re built to do – shift in and out. Please!

Sincerely (no, really)
Keeva


PS: “The other consideration is that we plan on getting a new model that looks more like an ancient and less like a treant, so moving slower might fit.” – this is a direct quote from GC). Refer Figure 1 – since when does size govern movement speed? My multi-passenger mammoth mount prances like a ballerina when I jump, and I’m fairly certain that gnomes don’t run at 500% speed by default. I don’t think the WoW universe subscribes to the usual laws of physics, aerodynamics and whatnot.

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Yesterday, I rolled another new druid, on another fresh server.

Partly it’s because I love starting with absolutely nothing – no BOAs, no bags, no cash, no professions.. and building from the ground up. I discovered that the first few points of fishing can be a goldmine; fish up some tattered cloth and you can vendor them for 1s each (for a penniless newbie, that’s crazy money). I’m weird, I love being broke and working my way up. I sold a stack of copper bars for 7g, (scratch that, just checked my bank alt – I sold my first Arcanite Rod recipe for 35g – chaCHING! Love that easy Moonglade money..) and I’m on my way – gradually buying bigger bags, getting my training. It’s a mini game in itself, for me.

But of course I also did it because I just get such a kick out of levelling druids. Not just playing them, but levelling them.

I know a lot of people can’t stand the levelling process, and wish they could “skip ahead” to max level. Not me – levelling is one of the most fun processes, I think. I get bored at max level; Keeva is starting to gather dust. She only gets time out of her box when it’s time for raids, otherwise I really have little drive to play her. But, a fresh druid? Om nom nom delicious levelling!

10-20, of course, is still a hideous drag; it takes a whole mana bar to kill mobs around your level, which means drinking every pull. OR you can utilise your new bear form; but Maul has a five-year swing timer.. drives me a bit batty. I guess it’s good if you’re feeling peckish and decide to go make a sandwich in the middle of killing your target. Blizzard have hinted that they were considering swapping Cat and Bear around, so that we receive our cat form earlier. This would be great – although you only start with one ability, at least it doesn’t have the swing timer of bear. Of course, if bear was at 20, that would mean no LFD tanking for 15-19 druids – so I guess we’ll see.

Whenever I mention a new druid, people ask me “how many is that, now?” and I tell them the truth – I’ve lost count. They laugh. I’m not being funny, I just don’t count anymore. Anytime I feel like doing something new, I usually pick up a druid. You’d think I would get sick of it over time.. but something just keeps bringing me back to the class, and to levelling more.

I have other classes, of course. I quite like mage – and I’ve been dual-boxing gnome mages a fair bit. They make me smile! Although the dual-boxing just makes me think how funny it would be to 5-box boomkins and have them all starfalling at the same time.. mmm, annoying! Back on topic though – I like my mage, I don’t mind shadow priest, rogue seems fun.. but at the end of a frustrating day, I get the most joy out of picking up a baby druid and levelling some more.




I’m not sure entirely what it is. Familiarity? Comfort? The fact that all my keybinds and Power Auras are already set up? I can do this practically in my sleep. I love to do lowbie dungeons as a druid – because I know the ins and outs of druid healing, I never have to worry if I’m doing the right thing, or if I’m being a bad healer.

I think mostly I chose druid and stuck with it because it suits my short attention span. I love to heal, obviously, but with the same class I can also go out and rip things apart, or shoot them with lasers, or tank. I love using all of my forms while questing – life never seems dull when you have a druid. Well, past 20 it never seems dull.

At end game, I love healing as a druid because it feels like there is pressure on us to multi-task. Keep HoTs up on the tank/s and keep an eye on them, do your normal job through the raid, and keep an eye out for emergencies too. Perhaps it’s maternal instinct or something – but I love that feeling that it’s my job to look after everyone. Of course, I love fights where I have specific assignments, too – because once I get into the swing of it, I can often stretch myself to include other people.

I just love the class, and no matter how many times I pick something else up for a while, I always come back to my druids. When I say “I’ll always be a druid” I know that I mean it. I might play other classes for fun on the side, but I really couldn’t imagine having anything but a druid as my main.


I know most of you out there aren’t serial druid levellers like me – but what keeps you coming back to your druid, instead of swapping to another class?

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A preview of our talents is up at MMO – no more speculating on leaks and rumours! Blizzard has sent select fansites this preview information. As always, this information is not final, but should give us a good insight into our talents for Cataclysm.

For the full post, click here.

I won’t repost the whole thing, but here are some Resto-relevant highlights/changes:


Tree of Life (1 point) – Requires 5 points in Empowered Rejuvenation – Shapeshift into the tree of Life, increasing healing done by 15% and increasing your armor by 240%, but reducing your movement speed by 50%. In addition, some of your spells are temporarly enhanced while shapeshifted. Lasts 45 seconds. 5-minute cooldown. Enhanced spells: Lifebloom, Wild Growth, Regrowth, Entangling Roots, Thorns, Wrath

Improved Tree of Life (3 points) – Requires 1 point in Tree of Life – Reduces the cooldown of your Tree of Life by 30/60/90 seconds, and increases your damage done while in Tree of Life by 5/10/15%.

—

Nature’s Bounty [NYI] (5 points) – Requires 3 points in Improved Rejuvenation – Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth spell by 10% on targets at or below 25% health, and you have a 20% chance when you critically heal with Healing Touch and Nourish to reduce the remaining cooldown of your Swiftmend spell by 0.5 seconds. Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 10/15/20/25%.

Swiftmend (1 point) – Requires 1 point in Nature’s Bounty [NYI] – Consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect on a friendly target to instantly heal the target for 5306. Keeva’s note: mostly unchanged, except that now it heals for a set amount rather than Xseconds. Will be affected by talents that boost Swiftmend by X%.

Empowered Touch [NYI] (2 points) – Your Healing Touch heals for 5% more on targets at or below 25% health, and your Nourish spell has a 50% chance to refresh the duration of your Lifebloom on targets. Your Healing Touch spell gains an additional 32%, and your Nourish spell gains an additional 16% of your bonus healing effects. Keeva’s note: handy for tank healing – saving GCDs not having to refresh LBs. Although it may take some getting used to if your LB is refreshing itself (but only 50% of the time).

Efflorescence [NYI] (3 points) – Requires 1 point in Living Seed – When you critically heal with your Regrowth spell you also sprout a bed of healing flora underneath the target, healing all nearby friendly targets within 15 yards who stand on them for 10/20/30% of the amount healed by your Regrowth every 1 seconds for 7 seconds. Increases your total spirit by 10/15/20/25%.

Revitalize (3 points) – When your Regrowth or Lifebloom heal-over-time periodic damage critically hits, you instantly regenerate 1/2/3% of your total mana. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

Gift of the Earthmother [NYI] (5 points) – Increases the healing done by your Tranquility on targets at or below 25% health by 4%, increases the healing done by the bloom effect of your Lifebloom by 2%, and your Rejuvenation spell also instantly heals for 3% of the total periodic effect. Increases your total spell haste by 4/6/8/10% and reduces the base cooldown of your Lifebloom spell by 4/6/8/10%.

Wild Growth (1 point) – Requires 1 point in Tree of Life – Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for 2905 over 6.99 seconds. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Wild Growth reaches its full duration.

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I don’t have much to comment on yet, I said most of it in my previous comments on the same leaked abilities. Still no word on the “enhancements” that TOL grants each of our abilities (although we’ve seen some leaked). And I really don’t like that 50% snare – ten bucks says that gets axed somewhere along the way. Because what I really want is to pop my “I need to do more healing because it’s crunch time” cooldown and then get stuck in fire that I am slow-mo running out of. Snares suck.


Edit: for more analysis of the changes and what I think of them, refer to my earlier post (on the alpha leaks): http://treebarkjacket.com/2010/05/06/cataclysm-preliminary-talent-changes-unconfirmed/.

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That’s possibly a dumb question for most of my audience, since most of you are already druids. But! Maybe you’re not a druid, or maybe you are but you have a friend who wants to be a druid in the expansion?

So if you’re an existing druid planning on going Worgen or Troll, or if you have a friend who wants to jump in, here’s a bit of a primer.


Resto, Balance, or Feral?

It’s probably a good idea to decide which path you’re going to take, at the very least until Level 40 when you can grab Dual Talent Specialization. This will depend a lot on your play style and what you enjoy doing while you level:



• If you want to do it solo, and fast, then feral’s the way to go. Balance is also good for soloing, but feral has the least downtime because it is not hindered so much by mana and drinking (not to mention all the stupid mobs out there who interrupt, drain mana, or cause spell pushback). Feral downtime is minimal.
• If you want to solo but also have the ability to heal some dungeons, go balance. You’ll still have good soloing ability, and moderate healing (balance is absolutely fine for healing dungeons as you level). And best of all, you won’t have to worry about changing gear.
• If you want a healing crash course through dungeons on the way to 85, then it’s perfectly viable to go resto from level 1. I suspect that when Cataclysm is released, many people will be levelling existing mains, so that might make it hard to find lowbie dungeons – but remember also that there will be a lot of players who want to level a Worgen or Goblin, PLUS the people who always wanted to play a human hunter, gnome priest, blood elf warrior, night elf mage (and so on). So I think there will be plenty of dungeons to be had.
  
Resto is the poorest spec for soloing, but it’s not awful; however, if you’re going to be doing a fair bit of questing in between dungeons, you might want to consider a balance spec from 1-40, then “learn” resto with your dual spec at 40 onwards.


BOA gear

First of all, when choosing your BOA gear, consider whether you might later like to pass it onto another character. For example, I tend to pick cloth items for my caster druids, because I know that if I choose to create a clothie later, I can recycle my BOA items. I do the same for my melee characters – shaman/hunter/feral druid all have to share each other’s hand-me-downs (so if you see any of my characters without a chest or shoulder item equipped, it’s probably in the mail or on another character). Obviously if you’re swimming in tokens, this won’t be an issue, but it’s something to keep in mind.




Also, I’ll list the resilience items – but remember that you get resilience at the cost of other stats (eg spirit), so only take these items if you can’t afford the PvE equivalent. They still give you 10% experience, so it’s worth grabbing – just prioritise the PvE ones if you can afford them.

By the way – did you know that you can mail your BOA items to your characters on the opposite faction? My gnome rogue is currently using my feral chestpiece. I believe Blizzard have also said they would like to be able to let people mail them across servers, which would be awesome if you rerolled somewhere!

Anyway – here are the items to consider:

For Resto:


For Balance:


For Feral:



Guides to help you

Now, our healing may change a bit in Cataclysm once we are given our new talent trees and abilities; but I don’t think that lowbie healing will change very much. Healing Touch will still be our dungeon heal (with HoTs, of course), and I don’t think there will be sweeping changes to how we heal at low levels.

With that in mind, WotLK levelling guides should still be a good reference in Cataclysm, so here are some guides to bookmark for later.



• Tree Bark Jacket – Levelling as Resto – my resto druid guide (currently being revamped to add even more information – watch this space).
• Restokin – Druid Levelling Guide – Lissanna sets out your levelling options, specs, and strategies – including dual spec options.
• Rolling HoTs: Med School – Healing resto at levels 1-80 – a level-by-level explanation of what you should grab, how our spells work, and how you should heal.


Do you have any tips for brand new Cataclysm druids? Or do you know of another guide to levelling druids? I’d love to include them in the next version of my guide!

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Sorry for the few days of downtime – my host assigned my server a new IP, and things didn’t convert as automagically as they (and I) had hoped.

Lately I’ve been enjoying a bit of a lull in the blogosphere, putting my feet up and going with it while the going’s good.. but I tell you what.. when someone takes your blog away for four days, it doesn’t matter if you have nothing to say – you get desperate to have the chance!

But, as I said on Twitter – it could have been worse. It could have been 4 days of downtime at the start of the beta. Or worse – release!


I missed you, blog! *hugs*

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