All these shapes and they're still boring

I was surfing some other druid blogs and getting a feel on how they appreciate playing the druid. The past few years I have seen myself mostly in tree form healing my raiding pals. But with WoTLK, I've picked up a balance set (granted it needs to be improved) and DPS'ed some when we're healer heavy. As was the case Monday night when our resto shaman came back from his hiatus.

Playing a druid is quite a bit of fun in that you can fill various roles of healing (raid or tank), caster DPS, melee DPS, or even tank. Playing a resto druid was pretty fun for a time there before WoTLK came out. I mean you could spec such a way in PVP that allowed you to use the feral forms. Feral charge was awesome. Pounce and stunning an opposing player in arenas was a great way to add another interrupt to your arsenal. Plus it gave you the opportunity to break out of tree form and actually be the bear or cat for a change. But WoTLK rolled out and eliminated these possibilities from PVP. Resto play in PVE is pretty fun even though tree form is pretty bland and you can't see the cool design on your tier gear. The same could be said for Moonkins and the other forms. However, the last patch allowed ferals to change their feral form hair colors (something I have yet to do). Unfortunately, moonkin and tree forms got the shaft on this feature.

But out of all the forms (minus the swim form) I think the tree is the worst. It's pretty bland and you don't even see your weapon like you do in Moonkin form. And I'm not alone in this. Even Ghostcrawler earlier this year made a post about it titled Is tree form fun?

Since spending about 80% of the time in tree form, I'd have to say no. Tree form isn't fun. But I love the healing mechanics and theory behind druid healing. Of course I got nothing to add that would spice up the form. Some people have asked me, "Why doesn't Blizzard at least allow your leaves to change colors with the seasons?" I have even a better question, "Why not let us pick what type of tree we want to be?" Fir? Elm? Oak? Maple? Palm? Yeah a palm tree would be cool.

Tying up Loose Ends

I haven't posted in awhile. Mostly because my last post had hurt some people and I really didn't intend that. I was hoping to clear the air on a certain subject and it didn't help. Figures. But that's how things go for me. But I do have one last note on that subject, to those friends of mine that commented on the last post, you're still my friends. You guys were and are alot of fun. And I've had alot of fun running into you and from you during Wintergrasp. Now if I can only get some more Alliance noobs up to speed on AOS. /sigh

Our tiny band of raiders has progressed through 10-man Ulduar and 10-man ToC. Actually we've had them done for weeks and have continued to extend the Ulduar raid id to work on hardmodes. Our order has been hard mode XT, hard mode Iron Council, hard mode Thorim and last night marked the successful completion of hardmode Hodir. Sure hard modes have been old news for alot of people, but for us it's been a steady march of doing these. Our goal is to see the full completion of this place and that means doing Algalon. What I really admire is our persistence.

It's taken a couple nights of learning and attempting each hardmode, with the exception of Hodir. He only took a night (1/2 of one night and the first half the next). We probably could have done Hodir the first night, but yours truly was only one of 2 magic casters. The downside to me DPSing is my gear set and my skill. My gear isn't too shabby, but only 2-3 pieces are out of ToC and the rest is all Conquest items or Tier 8. Remember, I'm primarily a healer and that's where I have been focusing my gear. My skill rolls along that same line. Though I am aware of the spell rotation a moonkin should follow, I have "healer syndrome" and get easily distracted from the rotation when I see the health bars of my fellow raiders drop. Call it healer ADHD.

So the first few failures could be attributed to me. But the second night was different and we knocked off hardmode Hodir with about 10 seconds to spare. And behold, our warrior picked up The Boreal Guard, a shield he's been coveting for a long, long time. I'm happy to see drops like this because it makes it easier for me to heal him. So Sunday night we have a date with hardmode Freya. Wish us luck.

Other things I've been working on is increasing my gold amount through some auction house work, dailies, and finishing out the quests in Northrend. I really want to knock out these quests because 1) they pay pretty well at level 80, 2) I hate leaving things undone, and 3) I'd love to see that loremaster achievement.

It goes to say

It goes to say that you may never know the truth of what was said about someone and what was perceived to have been said. When I came back to AOS, I enjoyed the raiding for the most part. There was a perception, mostly on my part, that while I was raiding with a group of friends, something wasn't quite right. I had a suspicion that there were people that had reservations about me. But regardless I continued to raid with them and have fun. Those were some fun 3 weeks. Then disaster happened.

I got a whisper from a former guildmate that was miffed that I had come back to AOS and didn't say a thing to him and that my raiding with the other group was truly hurtful. I apologized and this wasn't my intention when I came back. I just wanted to raid and raid with people who I assume like me. Long story short, he tells me a few things about the current group and what had been said about me that causes me to leave their raid and guild after a few days. I was hoping for no drama from anyone when I came back and unfortunately that wasn't to be.
I miss those guys and now that they're horde, I never get to talk to them. There's a certain warrior, orc rogue, and moonkin that I still refer to as friends on the opposite side of Dalaran. Now and then I log onto an alt on the horde side and type in a /who guildname (I'm not spelling it out, so don't ask) to see how and what they're doing. Ocassionally they kill me in Wintergrasp and I'm not sure that they were aware it was me. But still I miss them.

With that I have one thing left to say, "You can return, but it's never the same as when you left."

Dems be fangs and claws

I was pretty wiped out Friday night, so I didn't get around to respeccing Baconette and configuring her gear till Saturday. But I sat down with her inventory opened and looked to see what all I had for her. I have the T7.5 glove and pants token. Matter of of fact I have 3 pairs of the pants. One for healing, one for balance, and one for feral. It's unfortunate because Hordir drops nothing but the druid, death knight, mage, and rogue tokens. We have plenty of paladins, hunters, and priests all waiting on this frozen turd to drop something else. But I digress and move on.

So after 2500 gold on gemming, enchanting, crafting a monarch crab (dodge, baby, dodge), and a blue helm (which didn't cost alot in materials), I believe I'm ready. I should be fine running heroics with 30+K health and a very nice agility rating. I still have a couple of slots that need attention, namely a ring and a trinket.

My attention there is to further increase my stamina and dodge. So I think for the trinket, I can run the current Brewfest instance and cross my fingers hoping that Coren Direbrew drops the Brawler's Souvenir - increases dodge by 84 and it's use increases dodge by 335 for 20 secs or the Bubbling Brightbrew Charm +170 stamina and the use summons a barmaid to heal your party (the other stamina trinket summons a barmaid to smite your foes with mugs of ale, now that's substance abuse). The other trinkets I have looked at have been the Essence of Gossamer or The Black Heart). And either of those should be easy enough to farm, but with a party of 5 having 5 summons available for Direbrew, any one of those Brewfest trinkets should drop.

I am kind of lost on the ring. Being a jewelcrafter I can easily and for not alot of coin, craft a Titanium Frostguard Ring with +100 stamina and a red socket bonus of +6 stamina that would solve the immediate ring issue. But while it's high on stamina, there's no armor and according to Kalon on ThinkTank, this is one of the ONLY slots where I can add additional armor since the boys at Blizzard removed additional armor from leather armor. So with that being said my ideal rings would be Keystone Great-Ring (Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep) or Gatekeeper (Sapphiron). Both offer a good amount of armor, dodge, and a smidgen of stamina. The Gatekeeper is probably harder for me to get since the 50 active Alliance on AOS rarely PUG Naxx anymore. And if they do, I doubt they make to Sapphiron. So my best chance is the Keystone.

Now if can just figure out how to grind dailies with feral abilities.

Is it a Full Moon or just my Feral Spec?

So after many days of dragging my feet to spec feral and start tanking some heroics, I have decided that it'll happen this weekend. But I still had some questions about feral tanks. Like do I need Defense? What about armor rating? Can I get by in Heroics without adequate tanking rings? What about a spec or a rotation? I need feral glyphs? Now you can see why I have been hesitant on rolling into a WoTLK Heroic and saying, "Here I am! Tank me!"

A comment was made in my last post by an old Alliance friend. He pointed to me a great Feral Tank site (unfortunately Honorshammer is now a Blood Elf Paladin and I may have to kill him, if I can, the next time I see him in Wintergrasp). But anyway, back to the feral site. Kalon maintains this really good site called ThinkTank and he had this real handy little article, (http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/2008/10/druid-faq-for-302wrath.html) that brought me up to speed on feral tanking. Probably the most interesting things I noticed that ferals don't need defense ratings (as long as you pick up SoTF in your spec) and that Blizzard felt that druids didn't need additional armor ratings on their leather gear. I guess that move was made to prevent heavily armored rogues. I'm not sure, but that's a guess. Kalon provides a great collection of information here and it motivated me to take the next step on tanking.

So stay posted and I'll keep you updated on my progress or lack of. Now off to find a forgiving and patient PUG.

On tanking and such

Before I talk about the title, I need to address my blogging absence and guild change. When I came back to AOS, I started raiding with some friends who had broke off from my former guild. I had alot of fun raiding with them, but then talk got serious about changing factions. I didn't know what to think. Sure I could change to horde and become a tauren druid and all. But then I had alot more friends on the server outside the raiding group and I knew that I wouldn't be able to pull the trigger and change. So I figured it was better to take my leave earlier than later. I talked to my former GM and being the forgiving type of person that he is (and as is the guild), they took me back for the 3rd time (or was it the 4th?). I can't remember, but I do know this. Raiding is fun again and while we don't set any records getting to be the server's first, or second, or third, or whatever guild it is to down Big Bad Smelly Boss, we have alot of fun. So there you have it and as Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that."

Now onto tanking. With the advent of faction changes and the historically low number of tanks on the Alliance side of the house on Altar of Storms, I've made a decision to start gearing Baconette to tank. While I have shifted into Bear or cat form for anything other than trying to survive in PVP, I'm sure I have a huge hurdle to overcome here. I've picked up some stellar gear and I've made a few notable Leather Working pieces. Aside from gemming my gear and getting a ring, trinkets, and a feral idol I'm pretty much ready. I have to just do some research on determining a good spec, threat rotation and glyphs. Other than that, I'm ready to go.

Probably the biggest question I have left is, how do I juggle the talent question? Do I continue to maintain a Balance set for off speccing in raids? Or do I go feral and make that my new off spec? I can get more utilization out of being feral (tanking Heroics and such) and if there's a need for more DPS in a raid, I can fork it out. But this handicaps the raid in range DPS. Now granted my range DPS isn't all that phenomenal, but I have been able to hold my own and help out on bosses such as Mimiron. HOWEVER, with the progress of our hunters and now an elemental shaman, the need for me to pew pew has started to dimish. I think I already know my answer and I would like to try out my hand with the feral tree. I just hope my fingers are nimble enough.

Grabbing Ash or Pine

In baseball this title has two meanings. Grabbing Ash means you got a bat in your hand and your going to play (or at least bat). Grabbing pine usually refers to grabbing the Pine of the bench. This is what happened when Manny Ramirez for the Dodgers was suspened for 50 games. The Dodgers were fortunate that they had Juan Pierrie on the bench and he came out ready to play

The same could be said for the game or WOW. I'm currently the Juan Pierre of our raid team and I'm grabbing Ash. Every time a raid has been scheduled, I've been signing up. I knew this coming in that I may raid on an alternate basis. But for how long and until when I don't know. The raid I'm tagging along with normally carries a priest and resto shaman. The priest is similar to that of Manny Ramirez and is alot better than yours truly. He's been out with some real life items and things he has to take care of. It's his spot that I am subbing in for. I'm sure he's due to come back any day now which means I'll have to trade the Ash for some Pine. Until then, I'll continue to sign up, whisper the raid leader as to my status and be ready to go every raid.

Fortunately, our guild runs 2-10 man raids and there might be opportunities to fill in for them. I just have to make a conscience effort that if I do that early in the week, then I can't help the other raid team with runs later in the week.