Reader question time!

“I’m a shameful clicker but I can see the benefit in key bindings. I want to know from someone who is well versed how to go about key binding … how to change my mindset. I currently use WSAD for directional control, mouse for camera control and click those buttons furiously. My most common used spells with are bound to keys 1,2 and 3, but I’m mostly a clicker.

Can you give me some advice on how to swap to binding more of my abilities? How should I control my character?”



The transition from clicker to keybinder

There are two basic options; you could either go “cold turkey”, bind all of your frequently used abilities, and learn them all at the same time; or, you could bind a few at a time, get to know them, then bind a few more.

I found it quite easy to do them all at the same time, because I chose bindings that made sense to me (more about this later). But if you feel it’s a bit too much to learn all at once, just bind a few, get used to them, and then bind another, and another, etc, as you become more comfortable.

As druids, some of our keybinds will overlap with our different forms. Some abilities will be the same in every form, and some will be unique, but share a keybind. Depending on how you set yourself up, this can mean a LOT of keybinds. Because of this, I recommend that you create a table to record your binding choices, so that you don’t lose track of what the bindings are for each form. I’ll explain this more later, too.


Click casting vs keybinds

If you’re used to clicking, you may prefer to use click casting, which means you simply hover over the target’s frame and click a button on your mouse. The more mouse buttons you have, the more heals and spells you can bind (you can also use alt/shift/ctrl modifiers). Some frame mods such as Healbot and Vuhdo have this feature built-in; if you are using Grid or other frame mods, you will have to install a standalone mod like Clique.

Alternatively, you can use keybinds, which is where you have to target the person you want to heal (either by clicking on them or hovering over them if you are using mouseover macros), and then striking a key on your keyboard.

These options are completely personal preference, and neither is better than the other – you just need to find the one that suits you best. You can also use a combination, if you prefer.

(Personally, I find that using my mouse exclusively causes fatigue in my right hand, and makes me stumble on my clicks. I find striking keys to be more precise for me, and less tiring on my hands.)


How to actually bind your abilities to keys

If you choose to use keyboard keys, you can set these up through the in-game key bindings menu. However, it’s a huge list, and can be a pain. You’re much better off using a bar mod to place your abilities into, or even easier, download the mod “Bindpad“. This mod allows you to simply drag your abilities, macros, equipment or items (like potions, food, etc) into a page of empty binding slots, then you simply left click on the ability you want to bind, hit the key or combination of keys that you have chosen for it, and you’re done. Bound!

Here’s an example of what it looks like:




Most of the good bar mods will also let you bind the slots on your bars, rather than single abilities. This means that when you shift to other forms, your 1-2-3-4-5 (etc) buttons will now be used for your cat abilities, bear abilities, and so on. Some bar mods are also compatible with dual specs.


Druid forms and dual specs

Some abilities will be the same in every form – for example, I want 2 to be barkskin, because I can use it in every form. Or you might want to keep Tranquility available for every spec – just in case you have to pop out of Moonkin form to save the day. So some abilities will be the same regardless of your forms. But you might like to have your 3 button do something different depending on your form. For me, it’s LB, LB, Mangle, Mangle (caster, tree, cat, bear). 4 is Rejuv, Rejuv, Rake, Maul.

Alternatively, you can build macros that will choose an action dependent on your form. For example, “if I’m in tree form, use rejuv; if I’m in cat form, use rake; if I’m in bear form, use maul”. Or, “If I”m stealthed, use Ravage; if I’m not stealthed, use Shred”. This saves on bar space and key bindings; you don’t need to have 3 different key binds for your different stances; you can just have one button and one binding, and the macro will check whether you’re a cat or a tree before performing the action.

Not only does this save space, it will save you going mental trying to remember 3 or 4 times the number of key bindings!

Here’s a list of handy macros: Useful macros for druids

For the abilities constant through your forms (eg Barkskin), just bind the ability directly, in bind pad. For abilities that share a bind with feral form abilities, you can either put them on a bar and bind the SLOT, or put them into a conditional macro and then bind that macro in bindpad. Whichever suits you best.



Example of what my bars might look like in different stances.
Barkskin is always “2″, but 3, 4 and 5 change according to my form.


To make it much easier on yourself, I really do recommend that you draw up that table of all the different binds for your forms, so you can remember which are constant and which will change if you shapeshift. This will also make it easier to decide whether you want to bind them directly, or have them share keybinds with other abilities.


Using “logical” bindings

When making new bindings, I try to choose keys that remind me of their associated spell. For example, Alt-W is wrath, Alt-S is Starfire, Alt-R is Entangling Roots. It’s simplistic – but it helps.

I also “pair up” abilities that are similar or complement each other. For example, 3 is Lifebloom, and Shift-3 is Wild Growth, because WG to me is similar to LB but on multiple targets. Rejuv is 4, and Swiftmend (which is used with Rejuv) is Shift-4. My two direct heals, Regrowth and Nourish, are 5 and Shift-5. Abolish Poison is G, and Remove Curse is Shift-G. As you can see, I keep “pairs” of spells together because I consider them to be similar.

I use similar abilities across various characters. For every class, “1″ is my emergency button. Nature’s Swiftness+Healing Touch, Ice Block, Feign Death, Desperate Prayer, etc. “2″ is my “protect me for a few seconds” key – Barkskin, Power Word: Shield, etc. I use the same bindings for my cat finishers and my hunter pet finishers.

G and Shift-G on my druid are poisons and curses, and show up on my raid frames as green and purple respectively. On my priest, I’ve configured Grid to show diseases as green and magic as purple, and I’ve bound Remove Disease and Dispel Magic to G and Shift-G, just like my druid. When I see a green or purple frame, I don’t even have to process whether it’s a disease or poison or curse or magic – my muscle memory says “green – hit G” and “purple – hit Shift-G”.

If you keep similar abilities on the same binds across all of your characters, it will help you to commit them to memory much faster and easier.


Other tips

Other than the logical bindings, keep your most frequently used abilities on keys that are the easiest to reach, and limit the modifiers.

I have small hands, so I try to limit myself to 3, 4, 5, plus all of the left-hand letters except Q and Z (my small hands makes stretching my pinky awkward and clumsy). This is personal preference – if you can comfortably use your pinky, then you open up a few more keys to use.

3, 4 and 5 are my frequent, basic heals – Lifebloom, Rejuv, and Regrowth. The modified versions (Shift-3, Shift-4, Shift-5) are WG, Swiftmend, and Nourish. All of these are easy for me to hit without stretching, and don’t cause me any fatigue. Don’t bind your most common spells to a key that makes you stretch or strain!

Less important or infrequently used abilities can be bound on the right-hand side of the keyboard to save space on the left. For example, Innervate is Shift-I, Hurricane is Alt-H. The cooldowns mean that I can’t use them frequently, so using right-side binds frees up space on the left. It will mean that you have to take your hand off the mouse momentarily though – if you’re not comfortable doing that, if it feels clumsy, then stick with the left side of the keyboard.

Keep your emergency buttons easy to reach. Nature’s Swiftness/Healing Touch, Barkskin, Swiftmend, Tranquility, health stones and potions, bandages. You don’t want to have some crazy binding for your health stone – it has to be easy to get to!

Your mouse wheel is great for changing forms. It’s super fast. I use:



• Down: cancel all forms

• Shift Down: travel
• Ctrl Down: Tree
• Alt Down: Bear
• Up: kitty
• Shift Up: flight form


I use Down to return to caster, but using the same scroll binding twice will also return you to caster form. For example, scroll up – kitty. Scroll up again – back to caster.


WASD (keyboard turning) vs mouse turning

Finally, a note on movement.

Using your mouse to turn, reposition, and move your character is faster and smoother than using your keyboard. Keyboard turning gives you that “shuffling” look as your character slowly turns to the direction you want to face. In situations where you have to run out of fire (etc), it can mean the difference between taking a tick or two of damage, or none at all.

Personally, I use a hybrid mix of keyboard and mouse turning, and so do many druids. The reason for this is because many of us use mouseover macros or click-casting (clicking on your target with your mouse button to heal them). This ties up the mouse for periods of time, meaning that you have to fall back on your W key to move forward. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to use your W key to move forward, but I definitely recommend that you get used to using your mouse to do quick turns if you need to run. Shuffling will slow you down. It only takes a moment to move your mouse out into the open, turn, and then go back to healing while you run with W.

Backpedalling (”S”) is okay as long as it’s not used to get out of fire, etc – it’s too slow. I will often backpedal here and there to reposition, if my mouse hand is tied up; otherwise, I simply mouse-turn quickly.

Different people use different methods, but that is mine, and it serves me well.



As always – this is just an insight into how I do things, and what works and is comfortable for me. Explore for yourself, see what works. Click casting, binds, mouseovers – there’s a style for everyone, it’s just a case of finding what’s comfortable for you, and then training yourself to use it – either all in one hit, or gradually.

It’s not difficult – just write down what you want to do, bind a few spells, and start practicing until it’s second nature.

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Here’s the final list of 3.3 changes that are relevant to druids.


Latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html.

Implemented/current patch notes can be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/.




Restoration



• Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

• Rejuvenation: The base duration on all ranks of this spell is now 15 seconds.
• Tranquility: The cooldown on this spell has been reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10 minutes.
• Gift of the Earthmother: Redesigned. This talent now increases spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the base global cooldown of Lifebloom by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effects.
• Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation: This glyph allows for the druid’s haste to reduce the time between the periodic healing effects of Rejuvenation.
• Idol of Flaring Growth: Now has a detailed combat log tooltip.
• Nightsong Regalia Set: The bonus to Rejuvenation from this set will now work properly with the Idol of Rejuvenation equipped. In addition, the instant heal provided now has a correct combat log tooltip.
• Rejuvenation: Druids will no longer get a more powerful spell error message when attempting to overwrite a Rejuvenation they cast.


Balance



• Nature’s Grace: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it will not be activated from periodic spell critical strikes.

• Force of Nature: Health on the treants has been increased.
• Pet avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.
• Idol of Lunar Fury: Now has a detailed Combat log tooltip.
• Glyph of Hurricane: Now modifies the spell tooltip on Hurricane to indicate the spell also applies a movement slowing effect.
• Hurricane: When cast from Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form, this spell will now channel properly instead of stopping the channel as soon as the shapeshift is cancelled.


Feral



• Prowl: This ability no longer has multiple ranks and penalizes movement speed by 30%.

• Predatory Strikes: The Predatory Swiftness buff from this talent now has an 8-second duration.
• Idol of The Corruptor: Now has a detailed Combat log tooltip.
• Warmth of Forgiveness: Now grants mana properly to druids in Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
• Infected Wounds: This ability is no longer considered to be in the magical defense category; therefore spell hit no longer applies to its activation. Tooltip error corrected.
• Swipe (Bear): Tooltip corrected to display 8 yard range.

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You guys know that I don’t dip into the math side of things, so I won’t… but I wanted to discuss my actual thoughts on the 4pc Tier10 bonus, and why I think it’s pretty crappy.



Blanketing and T10 4pc value

Blanketing was big in Ulduar, to the point where it was labelled OP and perhaps triggered the upcoming “bug fix” of removing the last tick of R15 Rejuv, and most certainly the nerf to our Tier 8 set bonus. Too much Rejuv healing.


TOC has been almost entirely the opposite; the Twins fight makes our priest cry foul at me, but other than that, the healing is a lot more bursty and rarely requires Rejuv blanketing. This is particularly true of 10 man size raids, since we are forced to do more direct healing, and there are less people to take damage and require blanketing anyway. Perhaps there’s more Rejuving going on in 25s, but in 10s TOC, not much.


So at the moment, I’m not doing much blanketing.


The 4pc Tier10 bonus pretty much requires you to blanket the raid with Rejuvs to get the most benefit from procs. Obviously, being percentage based, the fewer Rejuvs you’re throwing around, the less benefit you’re going to get. So logically, it will be most useful on 25man blanketing fights. How odd that they would encourage us to go back to this, after nerfing us.



On fights without blanketing


On 10 man fights without a blanketing requirement, the 4pc is going to be near worthless. Why would I need a Rejuv thrown on someone – if they need a Rejuv, they probably already have one already. So the bonus will either give me:


- a Rejuv on someone who doesn’t need it, or
- a Rejuv refresh on someone who already has my Rejuv on them


On fights with blanketing


As a 10 man raider, I can keep Rejuv up on the entire raid with a few seconds to spare (say, to refresh Regrowth on a tank, or throw a spot heal). If I am blanketing, what use is another Rejuv going out? I suppose it’s a free refresh.. but the problem with that is that if I am already cycling through every person to Rejuv them, a refreshed Rejuv in the middle of the raid is going to throw my rotation out.


I will then either keep going with my cycle and overwrite the free Rejuv (to keep everyone nicely in my rotation), or I will skip that person (since they already have Rejuv) for a cycle and come back to them later. The possibility then is that their freebie Rejuv drops off while I’m coming back around to them – so they miss a tick or so until I reapply. See where I’m going with this?


So, I either overwrite the free Rejuv and waste it, or I skip that person and they possibly end up with no Rejuv for a few seconds because the free one is out of sync and dropped off.


TLDR: It will mess with my SYSTEM.



Summary


4pc bonuses are meant to be relatively impressive due to the fact that you need to collect and coordinate 4 pieces of gear.


This bonus is weak at best. Without even going into the math of what it *could* contribute to your HPS and whatnot – I see it messing with my rotation at the best of times, and hardly showing up at the worst. The value drops considerably, in my mind, for 10 man raiders, who will either be covering all 10 people with ease and have little use for an extra Rejuv, or won’t need extra Rejuvs because they have things covered anyway.


Why would we strive to collect a 4pc set if it’s going to be mediocre at best, and at worst (particularly for 10 man raiders) almost useless?


Perhaps Icecrown will be full of heavy aura damage fights, and we’ll go back to blanketing. Even so, this bonus will contribute little for me. It will either throw Rejuvs when they’re not needed, or refresh them when I would prefer that they didn’t. A resounding “meh” on this set bonus.



Post script: On the possibility of “jump” actually meaning “jump”


I’m still 99% certain that Blizzard couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to create a 4pc bonus that is not just seen as perhaps a little lacking, but something that the majority of people would actually avoid picking up at all costs.


Surely.


I have to admit though, while we (as players/bloggers) all know it is the most stupid idea ever conceived.. I have to concede that maybe, just maybe, Blizzard haven’t spotted the problem. Maybe.


It’s so blatantly obvious though – surely they realise how bad it would be for our Rejuvs to randomly drop from our intended target and pop up on someone else? Particularly if you are keeping a Rejuv on your tank, for example – it would be horrible if your Rejuv randomly moved to someone else, just as you were about to Swiftmend the tank. Or to be keeping Rejuvs on the melee, and for one of those melee to suddenly drop their Rejuv, in favour of it landing on someone’s pet cat.


That’d be really, really bad.


Yes, the wording says “jump”. If we take it literally, it would jump. Off.


But they MUST realise that would be awful. You’d have to be utterly BLIND not to realise how terrible it would be.


So surely they don’t intend it to work that way. It must be yet another ambiguous tooltip.


Surely.



I don’t think I’m being overly optimistic, just reasonable. LOGICAL. Which is why I posted to say, “Everyone calm down, it can’t POSSIBLY mean what you guys are reading it as!” To me, it was a simple case of misunderstanding the tooltip and overreacting.

But – and I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me here – it’s Blizzard, and they have been known to make some kind dumb changes… hmm.



Hat plated and at the ready, just in case..



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I need to update the upcoming and past changes pages of the site soon – but for now, here are the previews for the Druid Tier 10 set bonuses:



• Druid T10 Restoration 2P Bonus – The healing granted by your Wild Growth spell reduces 0% less over time.

• Druid T10 Restoration 4P Bonus – Each time your Rejuvenation spell heals a target, it has a 2% chance to jump to a new target at full duration.
  


• Druid T10 Balance 2P Bonus – When you gain Clearcasting from your Omen of Clarity talent, you deal 10% additional Nature and Arcane damage for 6 sec.

• Druid T10 Balance 4P Bonus – Reduces the cooldown on your Eclipse talent by 6000.
  


• Druid T10 Feral 2P Bonus – Your Swipe (Bear) and Lacerate abilities deal 20% additional damage and the cost of your Rip ability is reduced by 10 energy.

• Druid T10 Feral 4P Bonus – Your Enrage ability no longer decreases your armor and instead decreases all damage taken by 12%, and the periodic damage done by your Rake ability can now be a critical strike.


Remember though that these are preliminary bonuses and may change before 3.3 is released.



Zarhym has also provided a sneak peek of the armor sets in Icecrown. Enjoy.

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Faction changes are now live!

If you’ve ever dreamt of being part of the Horde (and we know you have, I mean.. c’mon..) – now’s your chance.

Posted by Nethaera on 3 Sep 09   [Source]


But even more interesting (and I totally called it):




The current faction change costs US$30. I’m not sure whether the race change will be the same cost.


Full FAQ are available through the official site, but read on for some of the questions that I was particularly curious about, and have now been answered: Read the rest of this entry »

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MMO-Champion has done what they do best and served up some datamined info about the next expansion.


None of the information below has been officialy announced by Blizzard, this is only a compilation of information gathered from reliable sources. Just keep in mind that it takes a LOT to make me post something on the front page and I’m definitely not speculating here.


Here’s the exciting part, if it’s true:

The expansion doesn’t have any new class. Instead, Blizzard will offer more race and classes combinations to players, some of them have been datamined on the 3.2.2 Test Realms.

* Human Hunter
* Orc Mage
* Night Elf Mage
* Dwarf Mage
* Blood Elf Warrior
* Dwarf Shaman
* Undead Hunter
* Tauren Paladin
* Tauren Priest
* Gnome Priest
* Troll Druid



Troll druids? Or Blizzard trolling us?

I don’t think I would swap to a troll, I like my Tauren, but it would be great for us to get a couple more races as druids.




Then again, if this was our Dire form, I think I would be tempted..


I think I’ll be taking this with a grain of salt – MMO say they have reliable sources, but here’s the part that made me a little doubtful:



Flying in Azeroth
Part of the redesign of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor is the introduction of flying to the two continents, allowing access to many new areas and quicker travelling across the large continents.


I could be wrong, but I find this very hard to believe. Blizzard have always said this would be a mammoth effort, with a lot of recoding to do, and they didn’t want to put that much effort into revamping old content (they prefer to spend time and money on new and exciting content). Edit: If the follow-up info that MMO posted is true (about a lot of 80-85 stuff happening in the old world), then it would make sense to allow flying, I suppose..

So.. I’m not sure. As Matticus said recently, these news sites don’t post “news” flippantly, they have reputations (and therefore, revenue) to preserve. But Blizzard have always been adamant that flying in Azeroth would be time and effort better spent on developing new content.

As usual, I’m taking the stance of, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Besides, we all know that Undead cannot play hunters.

Some new druid races would be really great (without mangling the lore, if possible). If the above is true, I can only assume they haven’t “found” the second Alliance druid race yet – otherwise it might be a bit unfair. Although I love my Tauren and doubt I would reroll (other than for fun – hey, a 6th druid might be good for a laugh), it would be nice to have a choice.





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Patch 3.2 is upon us.

Never again will we glance upon the twisted visage of a Tauren “cat”.

No longer will our bears’ jaws sag and droop like so much saggy, droopy stuff.

Our feral forms are finally being replaced with shiny new models, after years of complaints (mostly about rampant, chronic lockjaw). It’s not just a reskin, either – this is a full revamp. We’re getting more polys.

I have to say, I’m slightly sad. Don’t get me wrong – I’m very excited for the new forms, I think they look great; but I can’t help feeling a little sad about losing the look that we have had for such a long time. Definitely want them gone – but still sad to see them go!

So, I decided to give our old forms a bit of a send off. I shipped all of my Caelestrasz druids (yes, all four of them!) to the Barrens for a bit of a photo opportunity. All of my Cael girls in the one spot, together, to say goodbye to the forms we have lived in and loved (or perhaps endured, loathed, switched to first person mode..) for the past few years.

And, through the magic that is Photoshop, I can share the moment with you all.









From left to right:
Keeva, my beloved Tauren; Drucie, my baby feral; Caoimhe, the Elf who started this whole crazy thing; and Kiiva, the newcomer.



Farewell, you fugly forms (except you, purplecat). In a strange way, I’ll miss you.

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Just as a quick follow-up to the feral form picture spam, here’s a quote fresh from Blizzard:



Based on the current looks of tauren, I believe there are a total of 19 different skin choices for male tauren, and 11 skin choices for tauren females. Many similar tones will share the same bear and cat forms though. We’re looking to release a break down of the tauren skin tones and night elf hair colors, as they correspond with the different cat and bear form color options, shortly after the new night elf cat form art is released.

So don’t worry guys, you won’t have to jump on the PTR to fiddle with the barber shop to pull together a list of the different colour combos. Blizzard should be providing one soon.




Edit: here they are (created by MMO Champion, based on a text list released by Blizzard):











Thanks Beru – I’m in Australia so updates always happen while I’m asleep



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The Night Elf cat model has been released, to mixed reviews:





Personally, I think they look great – I especially love the noses on the new cats (both Tauren and Elf).

Meanwhile, a friend is spamming me in IMs about how much he hates them because they look like My Little Pony cats. I’m giggling.

I love the white kitty, and I already loved the white elf bear. So Kiiva will be “safe”, she won’t have to change her identity to get the feral forms that I like. Unlike Keeva. While I do understand the “logic” that we should have similar colouring in all of our forms (because it “makes sense”), I still hope they don’t force us to have to change our character’s appearance to get feral forms that we find appealing.

Broken record mode on: Keeva has been Keeva for 2 years. Some people might see it as no big deal to head to the barber shop and ask politely for an entirely different skin colour – but I don’t want to do that. I want to keep Keeva’s identity. But the feral forms that correspond to her white skin tone are the ones I particularly dislike. A lot.

Here’s hoping they rethink it. Allowing us to choose would not hurt anyone – if you want a white bear and a matching white cat to go with your white hair, you could choose that – but if I hate the white bear and just want to be brown, with a black cat, then I could choose that too.

I’m getting tired of the “but it makes SENSE, durrr!” argument – does it make sense that a hairdresser could change my skin?

Having 3 forms that match in some way is good, I definitely agree. But being forced to have two forms that you hate, OR change the fundamental appearance of your character (which I and many other people have become attached to and consider part of that character’s identity) …. that’s pretty disappointing.

You’ve done an AWESOME job so far – but let us choose, Blizzard!



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Yes, I’m adding to the catformblogspam.




(click for bigger version)



The new Tauren cat forms look amazing. Brilliant job, Blizzard. No more hideous wyvern things to wince at. Now I feel very torn between my Horde druids and my Alliance druids – good thing I have choice of two Alliance and two Horde to choose from!

Not only do they look better in terms of general aesthetics, but don’t they look so.. Tauren? The broad noses (with nose rings) really make them tie in well with our Tauren forms. And I love the eyes – they look so intelligent, as if someone is in there. Much, much better than the original painted-on eyes.

I think I like the bottom left colouring the best. I couldn’t think what it reminded me of though – until I realised…




Form of…….. A YAK!



… with claws, and perhaps a little more compact.

The only problem is that if they are still going to be linked to humanoid characteristics, then once again the feral form that corresponds with Keeva’s colouring (completely white) is the one that I think looks ugliest. I dislike both the white bear and white cat.

Enough that I would like to change colours, but being the silly person that I am, I’m too attached to Keeva’s identity. Most people would say it’s no big deal, just go to the barber shop or wear your helm or be grateful for what we got – but I am attached to all of my druids, and I can’t just change her identity like that. I hate the idea of playing Keeva as a white Tauren, she can’t just become a brown Tauren in the barber shop because I want to pimp-my-forms.



Nevertheless, I’m extremely impressed and can’t wait for the NE kitties.

This also adds a lot of excitement – if this is the fantastic kind of remodelling that cats got – what is in store for our other forms down the track?



Heh… yaks.



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