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!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

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..

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

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!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

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.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

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.

—

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/.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

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!

VN:F [1.9.2_1090]
please wait...
Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)



Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

It’s another pre-expansion slowdown. Interest in Northrend is waning. Personally, I find it quite difficult to blog when there isn’t much happening in-game, since that is where I draw my inspiration from. For the time being, there’s not much to write about in terms of news, changes, or advice – since we’re approaching the end of another expansion. It’s also hard to write guides and explanations when you know that in a short time, things will change. So I find myself grasping for blog posts that aren’t purely “here’s what I’m doing right now.”

But I’m really looking forward to Cataclysm. Possibly more than expansions past. I think this one has a lot of potential because of the shift in my play style recently – while I’m still serious about raiding and want to progress, I’m no longer “hardcore” and I don’t want it to be my life’s goal to “win”. I’m content these days playing with good friends. And, more and more, I’m enjoying alts and offspecs, levelling and exploring.




I think that Cataclysm will be the expansion that sees me levelling and playing a range of different classes.

Anyway, here are my pre-Cataclysm plans, if anyone is interested – in no particular order.


Take pictures

I intend to hoof it around all of my favourite places in Azeroth and make sure I get some nice snaps. I want to be able to look back and compare. I’ve already done Orgrimmar – and the alpha leaks showed massive changes there. It made me glad that I’d taken the time to remember Orgrimmar myself. Of course, I could just look up other people’s shots, but it wouldn’t feel the same.


Stockpile for my alts

I thought about stockpiling to sell for $$$, but meh. I’ve always made plenty of cash and I’ve never had to scrape. I don’t really feel the need to have 100k+ gold sitting about. However – I do intend to put away the materials necessary for first aid and any professions that my newbies might need, such as alchemy etc. I don’t want to have to mess around waiting for someone to put 5 Mageroyal up on the AH.

Oh, and of course, grab them plenty of bags, and get some appropriate BOA gear organised.


Do MC and AQ20

I still don’t have these finished on Keeva.


Finish as many other achievements as I can

This is pretty low priority. I can never “win” on achievement points since I don’t ever PvP/arena. I do enjoy doing achievements.. but it’s not something I care very much about these days. I’d like to get some of the old raiding ones finished, but I doubt it will happen – so I’m content to do what I can, but let the rest go for now. I did get my Ironbound Drake yesterday, though!


Level my three high level alts

There was a time that I said I would never play anything but resto druid in a group or a raid. But since I’ve stepped in as guild boomkin, I’ve loved it. Not enough to do it full-time, but I do really enjoy it. And that opened up my mind to playing other DPS characters too. I guess I was scared – I’ve been a healer so long that I was worried I would be terrible. Truth is I do pretty good – so I bet I could play another DPS character without too much trouble.

With Cataclysm raids being one raid per lockout, I suspect many people will be alting it up on weekends, with alt runs, pugs, and GKP. I never really had the chance, since my 80 alts are druids, and after a week of raiding on on resto druid, I’m not particularly keen to do it on the weekend. But I could totally see myself being a mage or priest (or whatever) in some weekend GKP runs. I enjoyed the couple of GKP runs I went on, so I’m definitely looking forward to this.

My three high (60+) alts are hunter, mage, priest.

The priest was going to be Disc, but healing on her just didn’t feel right. I like shadow a lot, though – so maybe that’s the way to go.

Thawm, my mage, is basically a JC/enchanter mule. But y’know, I miss playing mage. The only problem is that he’s a male BE, and he just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. I’ve decided that when we’re able to race change to goblin, he will become a female goblin mage. I suspect he/she will be my main alt in Cataclysm – I’m really having a blast.

Earka is my hunter, and I love her too, although I’m not particularly confident with her yet. I love orcs – I desperately wish there were orc druids, I would be there like a shot.

Earka’s pet is Trotters, a black pig from Durotar. I don’t like fancy pets; it’s the RP in me. Earka is salt of the earth, and her pets are plain but loyal. And whatnot. Of course, I’ll grab a wolf (a prairie wolf from around Thunderbluff – nothing fancy) for raiding. But Trotters is her loyal pet.

Trotters has been UPGRADED! He is now EPIC TROTTERS. It makes me giggle. But I really love it – it’s the same model pig, but the pigs in Razorfen have an armored look. So as Earka has progressed through the world, so has Trotters become bigger and better.




Yay trotters!

Kiiva will remain, but I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with her. Another druid is fairly redundant, particularly with the raid lockout changes. I can’t bear to delete, though!

Drucie WILL be deleted. But not in vain. When my troll druid reaches 85 and has full herb/mining skills, Drucie will be deleted and reborn as a Tauren paladin! I love her name and look, but don’t need four high level druids on the same faction/server. Think of it as a career change.

Keeva, of course, will always be resto – but this time around I will absolutely be building her a boomkin off-set!


Resto guide v2.0

I’ve already started work on version 2 of my guide! I’m VERY excited. I had a brainwave about a better way to set it all out, plus more information to include, more diagrams and images, etc. Basically, an even more user-friendly layout. Did I mention very excited? I can’t wait to get more information in beta/Cataclysm so that I can update it and release it again. *bounces*

I’ll be levelling two new druids in Cataclysm; a troll to be my new feral fun character, and a Worgen – I adore their animations so far. The troll will be levelled through questing exclusively (or almost exclusively), but the Worgen will be levelled partly through dungeons. This way I can update and flesh out my “levelling as resto in dungeons” part of the guide – in case much has changed.

I think this will be a bit of an ongoing thing – it’s hard to go back and look through the eyes of a fresh druid. But I really enjoy doing it. My guide is my new love, and I intend to make it the most comprehensive out there.


Spring cleaning

- guild bank
- personal bank (it’s so hard )
- personal guild bank
- unused alts – delete and make space
- blog: clean up, update sidebar a bit, review blogroll. Update the “about me” page


And of course

Enjoy the wait with my friends!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS TALENT SPOILERS.
I respect your right to not look – so don’t read if you don’t want to know!

Also, a standard and very obvious disclaimer: These are VERY preliminary, grabbed by mmo-champion. They could be inaccurate, full of errors, incomplete, etc. Or Blizzard could change them at a moment’s notice. I’m simply going to summarise what the changes appear to be right now. They are obviously subject to massive change, so don’t take any of these as final. Nor should you take too much notice of numbers, as Blizzard often uses placeholders.




Link to the new talent tree:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid#18v87ThC4QRLU,,11927

Here’s my summary of what’s gone, what’s new, and what’s been changed. There are some weird changes in there – remember, take them with a grain of salt for now. Also – some talents seem to have different first ranks to their subsequent ranks. I don’t really understand why – it could be an oversight, something to do with masteries, or just a mistake. I suspect it applies to all ranks, but is displaying incorrectly. If you can shed some light, please let me know. Edit: As Alamein commented, it’s quite possibly the old talent text sticking around in some (but not all) of the amended talents. It certainly seems that way. I’ll make that leap and edit it for now – but if something changes, I’ll fix it up.

First up, because it’s probably what most people were waiting for:
ToL is on a 5 minute cooldown, and lasts 45 seconds (part of Imp ToL reduces this cooldown by 30/60/90 seconds).


NEW talents



• Blessing of the Grove (2) – Increases healing done by Rejuvenation by 2/4%, the direct damage of your Moonfire by 3/6%, and the damage done by your Claw and Mangle by 2/4%.
• Perseverance (5) – Reduces all spell damage taken by 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Efflorescence (3) – Requires 3 points 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 10/2/30% of the amount healed by your Regrowth every 1 sec for 7 sec.
• Fury of Stormrage (3) – You have a 2/4/6% chance when you cast Nourish to cause your next Wrath spell to be instant cast and cost no mana, and when you Moonfire a target that is at or under 25% health you have a 0% (assume this should be 20%)/40/60% chance to cause your next Starfire to be instant cast. Lasts for 8 sec.

Perseverance looks PvPish, unless you might take it for encounters with lots of magic damage splashing around. I haven’t actually played with the tree to see how many floater points we have left over – but I’d probably at least take 2/5 points here instead of Subtlety.

I like Efflorescence – it may help fill the hole left by not being able to “spam” WG on melee. Could also be handy for fights where the raid stacks. Group hugs!

Fury of Stormrage is a DPS talent, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how many points we have leftover. I don’t mind doing a bit of DPS on trash or in small groups etc, so if there’s room.. sure, why not. Not in a pure healing build, though. But again – hard to know what’s going to be expected of us and our specs.


Talents DELETED



• Improved Mark of the Wild
• Intensity
• Gift of Nature
• Living Spirit



Talents UNCHANGED



• Nature’s Focus
• Furor
• Subtlety
• Natural Shapeshifter
• Master Shapeshifter
• Omen of Clarity
• Tranquil Spirit
• Improved Rejuvenation (tooltip updated to include Swiftmend)
• Nature’s Swiftness
• Living Seed
• Empowered Rejuvenation (tooltip updated to include Swiftmend)
• Moonglow
• Nature’s Majesty
• Nature’s Grace



CHANGED Talents



• Naturalist – effect unchanged, but now required if you want to take Nature’s Swiftness (replaces Intensity in the tree).
• Improved Tranquility – threat reduction effects unchanged. Grants 25% damage reduction while casting Tranquility, rather than a cooldown reduction. I assume rank 2 is 50% damage reduction.
• Nature’s Bounty – Increases the crit chance of Regrowth by 10% on targets at or below 25% health, and you have a 20% chance when you critically heal with HT and Nourish to reduce Swiftmend’s cooldown by 0.5sec (**Rank 1 info only – don’t have 2-5 info yet). This talent is now required if you want Swiftmend.
• Swiftmend – effect unchanged, but mana cost 12%, down from 16%.
• Empowered Touch – Your HT heals for 5% more on targets at or below 25% health, and your Nourish sell has a 50% chance to refresh the duration of your Lifebloom on targets. (**Rank 1 info only – don’t have 2 info yet)
• Natural Perfection – no longer gives crit, just reduces damage.
• Revitalize – When your Regrowth or Lifebloom heal over time periodic critically hit, you instantly regenerate 1/2/3% of your base mana. Seems to imply that it will no longer return power to your allies, just mana to yourself.
• Tree of Life – Increases healing done by HoTs by 15%, increases armor by 200%, but reduces movement speed by 30%. In addition, some of your spells are temporarily enhanced while shapeshifted. Lasts 45 seconds. 5 minute cooldown.
• Improved Tree of Life – Reduces the cooldown of your ToL by 30/60/90 sec, and increases damage done while in ToL form by 5/10/15%.
• Wild Growth – 37% of base mana, up from 23%. Heals for 686 over 7 sec, down from 1442. 10 second cooldown, up from 6. So – weaker, more expensive, and slightly longer cooldown.
• Improved Barkskin – No longer has the ability to reduce the chance that Barkskin is dispelled.
• Gift of the Earthmother – 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. (**Rank 1 info only – don’t have 2-5 info yet)
• Genesis – now affects Swiftmend.
• Celestial Focus – no longer provides haste (just reduces pushback while casting Starfire, Hibernate and Hurricane).
• Nature’s Splendor – When you cast Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth or Lifebloom you have a 33/66/100% chance to increase its duration by 3sec. (Partial points in this would be awful for HoT rotations, so it’s probably an all-or-nothing talent)



My thoughts

Interesting stuff. Being “forced” to take Naturalist hints at what has been implied – HT will be a more popular spell. There’s also a few mini buffs to Lifebloom, hinting at it becoming more popular, perhaps. And of course some to Regrowth, plus the addition of Efflorescence – so I’m sure that will be used more, too. That’s good, I like Regrowth. I enjoy using a range of different spells – and I hope Blizzard does stick to what they’ve said about moving us away from blanketing (but still having HoTs as our strength).

I’m not disappointed by the WG cooldown change – 10 seconds is fine by me. Nor the cost – I don’t mind if it’s a bit more expensive. But I *am* disappointed that it’s now less than half the strength (if those numbers are correct).

I’m also disappointed that Revitalize no longer seems to give power back to party/raid members. I loved bringing a unique ability – particularly for the melee. But this is probably something else to discourage us away from Rejuv blanketing.

The cooldown on ToL doesn’t seem too bad, especially when it’s cut by 1.5 mins with Imp ToL. But where are the juicy details of the spell changes? WANT.

ToL’s “snare” is back – I’m concerned. If we use ToL as our “OCRAP” button for boosted healing, that could coincide with times during a fight where you (and the rest of the raid) are trying to get out of bad stuff. Imagine popping it on Sindy then being pulled in – you’d have to pop out again (wasting the cooldown) in order to run out to survive. Hello Archimonde. I’m not sure whether this is going to stick – I hope not. I don’t think a snare is a good trade off for buffed heals for 45 seconds. But we’ll have to wait and see the effects of ToL before we can make the call that being caught in or out of it will be good or bad.

Imp ToL also boosts damage while in ToL. Hmm. I can only assume that some of ToL’s weird spell effects will include damage spells (say, instant Wraths for a really random example). Otherwise – why on earth would you pop a healing cooldown and then waste it by standing there, nuking? That’s all I can think of – that it will also do weird and wonderful things to our DPS abilities to become a healing AND/OR dps cooldown. Maybe?


It’s hard to know how things will effect us – without knowing more on the mechanics, health pools, encounter damage etc. But it’s interesting to get a first taste of the changes.

I’ll report more details as they crop up (and I’ll comment more once I’ve digested the info a little better) – but once again, unless it’s posted by Blizzard as final, you should take all information as incomplete and NOT finalised.

I know that some bloggers are taking the high road and choosing not to report on any leaked/ unconfirmed information – personally I think that many people want the info, even if it’s full of alpha/beta holes, so I don’t mind filing for moral bankruptcy and putting it up (E&OE). Of course, it will always be behind BIG warnings, and no titles will include specific spoilers. I do respect people’s right to not know.

Regardless, it’s important to remember that all information is unconfirmed and not finalised unless stated otherwise.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

Beru over at Falling Leaves set us a Make a Memory Challenge. I’ve been planning to jump in and do something similar for a while – I want to make sure I can look back and remember the zones of Azeroth “as they were”.

As a baby druid of only Level 30 or so, I remember swimming all the way up the coast of Eastern Kingdoms, and (cough) wall hacking my way up onto the top of the plaguelands. It was pretty boring really, just flat placeholder ground texture, with chunky, cubic mountains. But it was kinda cool, considering that in a few months, the coastline wouldn’t exist, and in fact it would be part of a new piece of the continent.




Do you remember what the map looked like, before the Blood Elves appeared? It was all rounded off and stuff. No more – now we take for granted that the northern peak of the continent is Elf Country, as if it’s always been like that.

Of course, it’s not like we lost anything important – just placeholder dirt. But in Cataclysm – it will be different. We’ll be losing towns and coastlines, new ones will crop up – it’s hard to even know exactly what to expect (other than from what we’ve seen in trailers and pictures). Have you seen the new picture of the Blasted Lands? It’s back to swampland – a la pre-portal; it looks pretty. Now, not every zone is going to be so dramatically changed, but who knows.

So I want to document what they all look like, now. Many people are doing the same thing, of course; this is no new idea. But I suppose we all need to do it in our own way. I want to make sure I record the places in a certain way, the way I want to remember them – rather than relying on someone else’s gallery. Plus, the photographer in me needs to them to be *just so*… so I’ve tasked myself with travelling around the world and documenting each zone and landmark, to file away for later.

No doubt some zones will be changed for the better, and some zones I’ll be sad for. I just want to be able to look back and remember the places I leveled in, once upon a time. And let’s face it, eventually, when I stop playing, or when the World of Warcraft doesn’t exist anymore, I’ll have a great gallery to look over fondly.

I was also inspired by Wow.com/mmo-champion the other day, showing some panoramas of Azeroth. I decided that would be the perfect way to preserve some of the broad landscapes that I love so much. So I’ll be taking some “normal” screenshots, but for landscapes that I want to preserve in one big piece, I’ll do a panorama also. The panoramas aren’t perfect, nowhere near as good as the mmo ones, since they’re my first efforts – but they’re a lot of fun to make!

I only wish we could fly in Azeroth already, so that it would be so much easier to document the zones. Ah well.

So, to kick off – here are a couple of images of Orgimmar (I took many, but will only post a couple each time). Click to enlarge.


Valley of Strength: (1914×988)


Sunset on Orgrimmar (panorama – 2200×300)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees

24hours and counting on my migraine, so I can’t make any promises regarding coherency here. But I wanted to share my (initial) thoughts on Blizzard’s announcement that in Cataclysm they will be putting 25s and 10s on the same lockout, with the same loot.

Summary from WoW.com:

* 10- and 25- man raids in Cataclysm will share the same lockout
* Normal versus Heroic mode will be chosen on a per-boss basis in Cataclysm raids, the same way it works in Icecrown Citadel
* 10- and 25- man bosses will be close in difficulty
* 10- and 25- man bosses will drop the exact same items
* 25-man bosses will drop a higher quantity of loot, but not quality
* Content will continue to be gated
* First Cataclysm raids will be tuned for players in dungeons blues and crafted items



10 man raiders have always been the red-headed step-child

First of all, it’s not a big surprise. Giving all healers dispels, the creation of Magelust, consolidating buffs – it all points to “take the player, not the class” and making it easier to fill a 10man group – without missing out on key buffs and abilities. 10 man raiders have been crying out for a long time that it’s unfair that they work hard for their boss kills – often with inferior loot – and despite Blizzards previous claims that 10 mans were a viable “branch” of raiding, they still fell short and were not as difficult, and didn’t give similar rewards.

On the other side of the street, you have 25man raiders rightly claiming that 25man raids are harder to coordinate – it’s harder to wrangle 25 bums into seats, for a start. Harder to keep recruitment running, harder to deal with attrition, etc. There’s usually more drama in 25mans, more cliques, more pressure on officers to “run” things (when we were a 10 man guild, nobody had to run anything – the guild practically ran itself).

So part of me believes that 25man raiders deserve more because it is undeniably harder to run a 25man raid team and 25man raiding guild.

But the other part of me believes that if Blizzard really does want 10man raiding to be parallel to 25man raiding in terms of skill (etc) then something has to give. Giving 10 man raiders inferior loot always made them feel like it wasn’t “real” raiding. I remember the Valanyr debates – why can’t 10 man raiders get one, too? Obviously because 25man raiders would go run 10s for multiple maces – just as they would run multiple instances for extra loot if it was made equal to the 25man gear – and obviously that is unfair. And 25man raiders would often claim positions on the 10 man progression ladder, wearing their 25man loot (that won’t be a problem anymore, since we’ll all be wearing the same stuff – 25man raiders won’t have a head start on 10 man fights through superior gear).

So what’s the choice? Either continue as we are now, with 10man raids being (unfortunately) inherently inferior, or change it so that they truly are in parallel with 25s.

Evidently Blizzard really does what the 10 man raiders to have their raids without feeling like it’s a consolation prize, when they should really be doing “real” raids with the “real” raiders.


They want more people to see more content

Anyone remember 10man Stratholme? I loved that place with 10 people. It was a great size. But they changed the 10 man dungeons because it was too difficult to form a group from Trade. Making it 5 man made it much easier for groups to form, which meant more groups seeing the content.

This is the same. Bringing 10s in line with 25s means more people getting a chance to do it. Not restricting it to the people who have and run large guilds. Allowing small groups of friends to raid. I remember back in Kara, playing with my friends – I loved that place. But I always felt like I was lagging behind the “real” raiders because I wasn’t in 25man raids.

10s are more fun, with less hassle, a closer group, and less chance of you having to drag half a dozen slackers around for free loot. I loved it when we were a 10 man guild.

So, honestly, I like it. Throw your stones, I don’t care. And I’m a 25man raider!


Less pressure to cram it all in

These days, I never get to do 10s. I still haven’t killed LK on 10, despite him being killed by our guild weeks and weeks ago. Why? Because we have one group that raids at midnight on (I can’t do that), and another group that is already set in stone and I only ever get invited if the other druid is away. It’s not fun being on the bench permanently. The only chance I get is if there is a third part-alts run, perhaps on a weekend. And I feel obliged to go because I want those achievements, I want to say that I’ve done it. And because I do need some of the gear for my other spec. And then someone is away, and we can’t finish it off tonight. Or tomorrow. There goes another week that I don’t get to finish the instance.

I’m left feeling ripped off that I can’t get a group for 10s, while other people can. And why? Because it’s there. Because the achievements beckon. Because there’s a bit of gear, I guess. And more badges. I feel obliged to do it.. and I feel really annoyed and upset when I miss out on a week.

If that option/obligation is taken away – well, I’ll be honest – YEEHAW.

Some people are upset about “missing out” – ie if you choose to do 25s, you’ll “miss out” on 10s. You’re not missing out on something that doesn’t exist anymore (a second lockout). We never had parallel 10 and 25 raids in TBC. There were 10man raids, and there were 25s. We didn’t have the same instance for both sizes. I think at first, it seemed like a good idea to be able to choose; it seemed like it would give people the choice to be a 10 or a 25man raider. But all that really happened is that 10 man raiders felt ripped off, and 25man raiders felt obliged to do double or quadruple the raiding each week.

I am not a fan of double (or quadruple) raid lockouts. I feel obliged to run them – as many serious raiders do – to maximise my character. And that’s not even bringing alts into the picture. Two or four runs of the same instance per week – per character – is not fun. I can’t say I’ll be sad to see the back of that.


The near death of 25s?

I don’t buy the argument that 10man loot is poorer because the fights are easier. If Blizzard can balance 40 man raids to be difficult for 40 people, and 25man raids to be difficult for 25 people, then they can balance 10 man raids for 10 people. Especially with the changes to buffs etc.

However, I do know that it is harder to pull together a 25man guild, and to keep a 25man guild running, keep recruitment up, keep the bench healthy, etc. But I still don’t think that should mean free ponies.

I do agree that extra gold and badges won’t be enough to encourage people to do 25mans. 10man raids are easier to put together, more fun to run, with less drama, less noise on vent (I ran last night with a migraine and vent made me want to curl up in the dark and die). I think that this change will be the death of many 25man raids – because there just won’t be enough incentive to bother with all that hassle, when you can do the same encounters, for the same loot, but with a smaller and tighter-knit group.

Heck, it’s hard enough now with 25man heroic loot to get people to turn up – why would anyone turn up to a 25man raid with more noise, more people to organise, more hassle… when you can go to 10s and get the same stuff, just fewer pieces (which won’t matter much, since the raid will be half the size – more items is only to make sure the raids are outfitted at roughly the same pace – it doesn’t mean everyone will gear up super fast in 25s)?

I’m not sure how they can make it more attractive to 25man raiders, without simply going around in circles to make 10s feel downtrodden again. If you give the 25man raiders anything more than the same loot but higher quantities – say, a mount or a title – it’s just like it was before, with the 10man raiders clearly being second-class, and making them feel obliged to do 25man raids for the better rewards.


Why bother?

I loved 40 mans. I miss 40 mans. But there’s no denying that they were a royal pain in the butt to put together. Not to mention incredibly frustrating when you had 38 people online and had to cancel because you were just short of being able to run MC. As much as it made me sad to say goodbye to 40 man raids.. I knew it was mostly for the best. And as much as I do enjoy 25man raids, they also come with their share of pain. And, frankly, these days I am beginning to feel that the pain outweighs the supposed glory of being able to claim victory over a 25man sized raid encounter rather than a 10man sized one. I think I’m over it.

If the 10man raids really are equal in difficulty, then I would love to do them. At this stage in my WoW career, I am far more interested in killing dragons with friends than being #1 on the 25man charts. Sure I love being a peacock at times, standing around in heroic 25man gear and getting comments – but having fun with my friends is so much more important than showing off my pixels. All I ever wanted was to know that my (our) skill was competitive – and you can’t do that in the current 10mans – they are seen by many people as the ezmode/casual option.

I just want to be at the pinnacle of raiding – whatever that is. If the 10man fights require the same skill (and aren’t seen as the “ezmode version”), then I will quite happily give up competing on the 25man ladder – because it won’t matter anymore. Whether or not they are equal remains to be seen, though.

I believe that they only reason people will do 25s is to be able to say they’ve done it, on the realm progression list, and, presumably, if there are 25man achievements separate to 10 man achievements (god I hope not – or I’ll STILL feel obliged to do both raids, over time).

I’m certainly not going to make assumptions or decisions for my guild, so far ahead of time. But with the trouble we go through week to week trying to fill a 25man raid – I seriously doubt that a chalk mark on the wall and some check marks on an achievement list will be enough to keep a 25man team running strong in Cataclysm.


And if I said that thought upset me, I’d be a big, fat liar.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cataclysm talent update, armor specialisation
• Blizz dev chat on Twitter – druid question roundup
• Cataclysm: the brand spankin’ new 31pt talent trees