A Tale of Two Druids

Guide to Restoration Gear

2008-04-15T10:10:00.004-05:00

Well, it's been a long time. Actually, I kind of wonder how many people will read this.

As I mentioned in my last post several weeks ago, I haven't been playing my druids, and decided to start a new blog that better suited my new play style. However, I have been making little tweaks to some of the information already here, and thought it was time to address them.

With some encouragement from Amanna, I decided to finally finish the guide to Resto gear that I'd started so many months ago. My initial posts on weapons and accessories were VERY limited, so I went ahead and filled those out. I also added in the new gear made available in Patch 2.4.

In this guide, you won't find recommendations as to what I think is the best gear out there. What you will find are options; whether you're mostly a solo player or group up all the time, there are lots of different ways to get gear. This guide starts with the early quest rewards in Hellfire Peninsula, and goes all the way up through 10-man raids. My goal here was to make a list so that casual players and those getting ready to start raiding would be aware of what's out there for them.

The guide is broken up as follows:

Idols
Two-Handed Weapons
One-Handed Weapons with Off-Hands
Necklaces
Rings
Trinkets
Cloaks
Head and Shoulders
Chest, Wrist, and Hands
Waist, Legs, and Feet

All of the information I've gathered has come from these various sites:

Kaliban's Loot List
Lootables
WoWWiki
Wowhead

These are some great resources when you're looking for gear beyond what's listed here, such as PvP gear or damage caster gear to fill any possible holes you might have, or 25-man drops as you start progressing farther in the game.

Long Goodbyes

2008-03-03T09:06:00.006-06:00

The short version: this is my last post.

If you want to know why, the long version is below:

I apologize for the lack of posting recently. Things have been a bit strained lately in my guild, which has led to not playing my druids very much, which has led to a lack of interest in this blog. And, unfortunately, I think my time here is coming to an end.

My guild has been running through Kara for months now, and recently there has been a lot of friction between certain members and officers. Some people want to start taking raiding more seriously, others want to remain completely casual. We don't have the numbers for two completely separate groups, so we were going to try an "every other week" rotation. One week would be "progression week," where people had to show up on time, have all their consumables, take minimal AFK breaks (only short breaks after boss fights, unless of course it was an emergency), and group makeup would be a little bit more selective. The other week would be "casual week." The initial idea was to allow the newer-keyed and lesser-geared members a chance to get in and have their chance at seeing the bosses, without slowing down those who wanted to get down to business. Unfortunately it also turned into people being in battlegrounds when we were forming the raid, signing on RIGHT AT raid time expecting to join the group, and taking long AFK's in the middle of fighting trash or right when we're about to explain a boss fight.

The whole idea behind alternating weeks was to allow the groups to be run in two different ways, catering to more people in the guild so no one would be left out, while still allowing some cross-over between groups, especially in the case of tanks and healers. Unfortunately, a lot of people (myself included) got tired of the WAY too casual atmosphere of the casual weeks, and a lot of people thought the progression raid leader was being too demanding and trying to take over the guild. This has led to a lot of people not showing up for either raid, and we haven't been running Kara at all the past couple of weeks.

Things have really started falling apart. We lost quite a few casual people earlier, when we tried to start taking things more seriously and they felt they were being left out. More recently, it's swung in the other direction, and the serious raiders have started trickling out, frustrated by the complete lack of runs. Basically, the guild is dead, as far as raiding is concerned.

I really have no interest in looking for another raiding guild. If this guild ever got to that point, I was going to give 25-mans a try, but honestly I don't think they're for me. I like small groups better. Kara's a blast, but I still love running all the 5-mans as well. This guild, Kara has been all I've been doing with them for a while. It's like pulling teeth to get people together for a 5-man run. Kara runs have stopped completely. The only thing the guild does together is premades for battlegrounds, which I have no interest in. But even though I no longer feel this guild is the place for me, I'm not sure how well I'd do in trying to find a guild that was for me: one that was casual, ran lots of 5-mans, possibly did raids if they had the people and the interest, but that it wasn't necessary to be a part of the guild. And even if I could, I seriously doubt it would be the same without the friends I've been playing with since Nas was in her 20's.

Whenever anything major like this happens, my first thought is always, "This would be a good time to just quit the game altogether." I will be quitting eventually. My husband and I both agree that we don't want to still be playing this game when we have kids. But I hate the idea of some external force making me quit. There's still a lot of things I really enjoy about the game, and I don't want to give others the satisfaction of taking that away from me.

I do think, though, that I'll be taking a break from my druids for a while. I feel bitter that I leveled up Kali so that I could DPS when we needed DPS and heal when we needed a healer . . . and now I can't even get her keyed because no one wants to do anything. (I realize when 2.4 hits I won't need a key, but that is SO not the point.)

I was talking to one of the officers last night. I told her that I might be leaving soon, reason being that guild has a bit of an identity crisis right now. Basically it's just a group of solo players who share a chat channel, and that's not really a guild. She agreed that we've lost our focus, and that the officers should decide what they want the focus of the guild to be, and be okay with people leaving if it's not what they're looking for. The officers have been trying to make this guild everything to everyone for so long, and it's finally come to a point where it's not working anymore.

At any rate, I may go back to those characters in the future. If nothing else, I'm sure I'll level to 80 when Lich King comes out, and maybe try to find a guild that more matches my interests for end-game. But for now I'm going to distance myself from them.

Where do I go from here? Return to my alt-aholic roots, of course! I have a shadow priest that I've been working on, she just hit 24, but honestly I'm wondering if I just want to start over on another server. I'd love to create a ton of different alts and level them all up together, taking full advantage of rested bonus. I'm not sure if I want to make them all alliance (since I know all those quests so well, and I can focus solely on the different playstyles) or start over with Horde, something completely new to me.

I've got my anti-PuG paladin, of course. Also, my husband and I just started up two characters yesterday (he's a mage, I'm a warlock) to be played exclusively together. But I still want some alts I can mess around with on my own time.

Anyway, this long and rambling post is coming to an end, and with it, the end of this blog. I realize I could still write about druidish things without playing them, but I think I would just feel like a fake, if I did that. I'll probably start a new blog to discuss my alts, in a much more diary-like, less informative manner. I'll post a link as soon as I do that, in case anyone feels like reading about my adventures in the lower levels.

At any rate, thank you to those of you who have read this blog, commented, and helped to shape it into what it became, short-lived as it was.

===

I created my new blog: Alts Ahoy! A Tale of Two Druids will remain here as-is, but I'm sure the information will quickly become out of date after a couple patches, since I'll no longer be updating. All my new wacky adventures can be found at the new blog - Alts Ahoy!

Purple Poxers FTW!

2008-02-28T10:23:00.004-06:00

That's our team name in the grand Anti-PuG experiment. The Purple Poxers consist of me (pally tank), Daxe (priest healer), Waradwenne (warlock), Madja (druid, aka Ess), and Salindiar (mage, aka Mr. Ess).

Our first adventure would have been last week, but due to my internet complications, we started up last night instead. And we rocked. Granted, most stuff we were doing was soloable, or at least doable with a couple people of our level. We started the night at 10, gradually we all dinged 11, and we even get one or two 12's by the end of the night.

Highlights of the evening include taking down a level 20 when we were 3 lvl 10's and 2 lvl 11's ("do you remember . . . Thunderhead?") . . .

. . . Madja/Ess getting her bear form . . .

. . . and venturing into RFC for a few "practice pulls" before Daxe had to go. I don't have any screenshots in there, as I was trying frantically to hold aggro on multiple mobs with no aggro abilities. I'll be SO much happier when I get Righteous Fury and Righteous Defense. And, for the paladin-ignorant (I was one until recently, so don't feel bad) Righteous Fury = more threat all the time, Righteous Defense = taunt, so if someone pulls off me I can do something about it.

I get the taunt at 14, and the Righteous Fury buff at 16. Then at 18 I get Spiritual Attunement, which gives me mana as I get healed (yay for mana), and at 20 I finally get Consecrate, which will make tanking multiple mobs laughable. Until then . . . well, it'll be interesting, to say the least. Next week we do RFC for real, so we'll see how that goes.

Also, just as a fun tidbit, I made a /dance macro. The blood elf female dance is supposedly based off the Britney Spears "Toxic" video. I actually looked up the video on YouTube, but there really wasn't much dancing in it . . . maybe it's the dance she does in concert, I don't know. Britney Spears isn't exactly high on my list of important things I need to concern myself with.

Anyway, "poxic" is a word that gets thrown around a LOT in our anti-PuG guild (Pox Arcanum), and the combination of that and the fact that I'm a female blood elf always gets that stupid song stuck in my head. So I finally broke down and created the following macro:

/dance
/s Don't you know that I'm POXIC!

(Before you lose all respect for me, I did have to look up the lyrics to the song in order to turn them into something that works.)

To read up on more anti-PuG fun throughout the week, check out our communal blog: Pox Arcanum.

Tree at Last, Tree at Last!

2008-02-27T14:52:00.007-06:00

Well, Kalisera FINALLY dinged 70! Goodbye 2nd moonkin, hello dedicated Tree of Life healer!

Since I already have two level 70 characters to farm and do dailies with (which I do ALL the time, of course... *cough cough*) Kali is just here to heal. I have a few group quests left to do, and after that it'll just be 5-mans and Kara all the way. With this in mind, I decided to put ALL 61 talent points in the Resto tree. (0/0/61) My starting stats, completely unbuffed, are as follows:

5914 health
7565 mana
975 +healing
116 mp5 while casting

I also have 375 spirit, which means healing done to my group (which in a 5-man would be everyone) is increased by 93. Not too shabby for just turning 70.

Obviously, I had a bit of a jump start on my gear. I'm already in 5 epics: all three pieces of the Primal Mooncloth set, and the two LW pieces that Nas made ([Hood of Primal Life] and [Gloves of the Living Touch]). My other gear isn't too shabby, some pieces better than others. I also don't have any enchants yet (aside from a couple that a guildy did as he was leveling enchanting), and my gems are the lower quality ones. So . . . a bit of work yet before I'll really be ready for Kara, but by the time I finish getting attuned, I should be good to go.

Kali's Aldor/Sha'tar Progression

2008-02-27T08:31:00.012-06:00

This seemed a bit neurotic to include in my actual guide, but this is the plan that I laid out initially for Kalisera to reach Exalted with both the Aldor (for the high level shoulder enchant and epic spellthread recipe) and the Sha'tar (for the epic healing mace).

Keep in mind she's a night elf, so gets no advantage or disadvantage due to race. Also, though it doesn't specifically say, anything granting Aldor rep will give half as much Sha'tar rep until reaching 5999/6000 Friendly with the Sha'tar.

Do quest A'dal - grants 10 Sha'tar rep
Aldor: 0 / 3000 Neutral
Sha'tar rep: 10 / 3000 Neutral

Do quest City of Light - no reputation gain
Aldor: 0 / 3000 Neutral
Sha'tar: 10 / 3000 Neutral

Do quest Allegiance to the Aldor - grants 3500 Aldor rep
Aldor: 500 / 6000 Friendly
Sha'tar: 1760 / 3000 Neutral

Turn in 229 Marks of Kil'Jaeden - grants 25 Aldor rep per item
(remember to turn in the 9 single ones before reaching the end)
Aldor: 225 / 12000 Honored
Sha'tar: 1622 / 6000 Friendly

Do quest Ishanah - grants 10 Aldor rep
Aldor: 235 / 12000 Honored
Sha'tar: 1627 / 6000 Friendly

Do quest Restoring the Light - grants 250 Aldor rep
Aldor: 485 / 12000 Honored
Sha'tar: 1752 / 6000 Friendly

Do quest A Cure for Zahlia - grants 350 Aldor rep
Aldor: 835 / 12000 Honored
Sha'tar: 1927 / 6000 Friendly

Turn in 24 Fel Armaments - grants 350 Aldor rep per item
(this is to get triple duty out of these items, and also to speed up my reputation with the Sha'tar so I can do the quests in Terokkar, and I'm sure that I'll buy at least 3 shoulder enchants - which cost 8 each for the Exalted version - in the future)
Aldor: 9235 / 12000 Honored
Sha'tar: 5999 / 6000 Friendly

Do the following 6 quests in Terokkar - grant 1600 Sha'tar rep total
- For the Fallen (250 rep)
- - Terokkarantula (250 rep)
- - - Return to Sha'tari Base Camp (250 rep)
- The Dread Relic (250 rep)
- - Evil Draws Near (350 rep)
- Taken in the Night (250 rep)
Sha'tar: 1599 / 12000 Honored

Do the quest chain starting outside Auchenai Crypts - grants 1110 Sha'tar rep total
- I See Dead Draenei (10 rep)
- - Ezekiel (25 rep)
- - - What Book? I Don't See Any Book (250 rep)
- - - - The Master's Grand Design? (75 rep)
- - - - - Vision of the Dead (250 rep)
- - - - - - Levixus the Soul Caller (500 rep)
Sha'tar: 2709 / 12000 Honored

This is as far as I've been able to confirm with Kali, the rest is assumption based on the information from Wowhead being correct. However, it has been accurate thus far.

Do dungeon quest Everything Will Be Alright - grants 500 Sha'tar rep
Sha'tar: 3209 / 12000 Honored

Do additional Aldor quests - grants 7060 Aldor rep total
Netherstorm quest chain
- Assist Exarch Orelis (10 rep) *starts in Shattrath
- - Distraction at Manaforge B'naar (250 rep)
- - - Measuring Warp Energies (250 rep)
- - - Naaru Technology (75 rep)
- - - - B'naar Console Transcription (75 rep)
- - - - - Shutting Down Manaforge B'naar (250 rep)
- - - - - - Attack on Manaforge Coruu (250 rep)
- - - - - - Shutting Down Manaforge Coruu (250 rep)
- - - - - - - Shutting Down Manaforge Duro (250 rep)
- - - - - - - - Shutting Down Manaforge Ara (250 rep)
- - - - - - - Sunfury Briefings (250 rep)
- - - - - - - - Outside Assistance (25 rep)
- - - - - - - - - A Dark Pact (250 rep)
- - - - - - - - - - Aldor No More (150 rep)
- - - - - - - - - - - Socrethar's Shadow (350 rep)
- - - - - - - - - - - - Ishanah's Help (150 rep)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - Deathblow to the Legion (1000 rep)
Shadowmoon Valley quest chains
- Karabor Training Grounds (250 rep)
- - A Necessary Distraction (250 rep)
- - - Altruis (75 rep)
- - - - Against the Legion
- - - - Against the Illidari
- - - - Against All Odds
- - - - - Illidan's Pupil
- - - - - - The Book of Fel Names *requires Shadow Labyrinth
- - - - - - - Return to the Aldor (75 rep)
- - - - - - - - Varedis Must Be Stopped (1000 rep)
- The Ashtongue Tribe (250 rep)
- - Reclaiming Holy Grounds (250 rep)
- Tablets of Baa'ri (250 rep)
- - Oronu the Elder (250 rep)
- - - The Ashtongue Corruptors (250 rep)
- - - - The Warden's Cage (75 rep)
- - - - - (this chain continues, but no more Aldor rep is granted)
Aldor: 4295 / 21000 Revered

I've done all except Deathblow to the Legion, and the Shadow Labs quest and the two following it. I'm currently at 2200 / 21000, and the final 3 quests should bump me up to the projected 4295 / 21000.

Also, I'd mentioned in the reputation guide that quests alone won't get you to Revered with the Aldor/Scryer. Keep in mind that I turned in 8400 reputation worth of Fel Armaments back when I was level 64-65ish, so that I could continue with the Sha'tar.

Turn in 669 Marks of Sargeras - grants 25 Aldor rep per item
(this number will be less if I turn in more Fel Armaments along the way)
Aldor: 20 / 1000 Exalted

Do additional Sha'tar quests - grants 4660 Sha'tar rep total
Regular Shadowmoon Valley quests
- The Journal of Val'zareq: Portends of War (150 rep)
- - Battle of the Crimson Watch (500 rep)
End of quest line beginning in Netherstorm
- Special Delivery to Shattrath City (1000 rep)
- - How to Break Into the Arcatraz (1000 rep) *requires Mechanar and Botanica
- - - Harbinger of Doom (1000 rep) *requires Arcatraz
End of Aldor/Scryer quest line beginning with Tablets of Baa'ri (listed above)
- Akama's Promise (1000 rep)
Follow-up to Cipher of Damnation quest in Shadowmoon Valley
- The Tempest Key (10 rep)
- - (this leads to the Trials of the Naaru, part of old TK attunement)
Sha'tar: 7869 / 12000 Honored

Do lots of Tempest Keep runs
Sha'tar: ??? / 1000 Exalted

I realize that last step is rather vague, but you need to run Mechanar, Botanica, and/or Arcatraz enough times to earn at least 25,131 reputation with the Sha'tar, assuming that you do all of the quests available in Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm. Keep in mind that, in doing the quests from Netherstorm, you'll have to run each of the instances once to finish them, so this will cut down the number of additional runs by three. Also I'll be grabbing the daily dungeon quests whenever I see them for the additional reputation gained from those.

Fortunately, I really enjoy Mechanar and Botanica. So much, in fact, that I'm probably not going to bother with many of the Sha'tar quests. I'm doing the quest line to get the Arcatraz key, which includes 3000 rep (assuming I go into the Arcatraz to complete the last quest), but I'll probably avoid the ones in Shadowmoon Valley. They only add up to 1660, which is about one instance run. When I'm already going to be running them about 15 times, one more doesn't seem like much.

I'm sure it's obvious now (if it wasn't before) just how meticulous I can be about this sort of thing. I don't expect most people to go into this level of detail when building their reputation, but hopefully this list can help someone, if no other way than illustrating the points I was trying to make yesterday with a real example.

Scryer numbers will probably turn out to be somewhat different due to slightly different quests, but the same principles apply. If I decide to go Scryer with a future alt, I'll be sure to work out a list for Scryer/Sha'tar rep gains as well.

Aldor / Scryer / Sha'tar

2008-02-26T08:32:00.007-06:00

This post is going to seem a little cluttered, but I'm going to do the best I can to explain how to raise your faction with either the Aldor or Scryer (whichever you choose), as well as with the Sha'tar. There are a couple things you should know when you first get to Shattrath:

1) You need to choose whether to go with the Aldor or Scryer. You can change your mind later, but it's a pain and involves a lot more grinding, so try to make an educated choice.
2) While working on your early Aldor/Scryer reputation, you'll also be earning points with the Sha'tar.

That's pretty much it. Once you reach a certain point you can start thinking of these factions all as separate entities, but in the beginning it's important to think of all of them together, since what you do with one can affect the other. Here's all the links you'll need while building up your reputation with these factions:

WoWWiki - The Aldor
Wowhead - Aldor quests

WoWWiki - The Scryers
Wowhead - Scryer quests

WoWWiki - The Sha'tar
Wowhead - Sha'tar quests

Comparison of Aldor and Scryer Rewards
This last link should help you make your decision between Aldor and Scryer. Some of the gear options are quite nice, but depending on what you plan to do at level 70, they could be replaced. Take a look at the recipes that each faction offers, depending on your tradeskills, as well as the shoulder enchants that each offer. Also, some of the later Aldor and Scryer quests offer different rewards; check the Wowhead pages above to compare those.

Aldor/Scryer: Neutral and Friendly
Once you've made your decision, it's time to make it official. Once you reach level 60, you can go to Shattrath and get the quest A'dal from any of the Haggard War Veterans in the city. Then pick up City of Light from Kadghar, standing right next to A'dal, and take the tour of the city. Once you get your quest complete message and return to Kadghar, he offers you two quests: Allegiance to the Aldor and Allegiance to the Scryers. Be careful and make sure you pick the right quest. Upon completion you will gain a large chunk of experience, pushing you up to Friendly with your chosen faction and Hostile with the other.

One thing to mention is that Draenei and Blood Elves have either a distinct advantage or disadvantage, depending on what you want to do. You start out Friendly with your appropriate faction, which means that if you choose to go with them, you'll have less grinding to get up to Honored and into the next phase of reputation gains. However, if you want to go with the other faction (if your Draenei decides to be a Scryer, for example) the Allegiance quest only gets you to Neutral, which means you have more grinding to do.

Assuming that you are neither a Draenei nor a Blood Elf (nor a Human, for the bonus to reputation gain), at this point you will have 500/6000 Friendly reputation. Kadghar will offer you a quest to go talk to the leader of your faction, Ishanah or Voren'thal the Seer. However, if you've read my other guides you'll know what I'm about to say next: don't complete the quest! (Actually as this one only grants 10 reputation you could probably turn it in without consequence, but personally I feel better saving it.)

The quests we've done so far have been necessary to start turning in your reputation items, but all other quests we're going to save until we hit Honored. Another 5500 reputation means collecting 220 [Mark of Kil'Jaeden] or [Firewing Signet]. Aldor won't be able to do their repeatable quest until 62, and Scryers will have to wait until 64 (I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy). However, there's a bit of a trick to make these items go as far as possible.

Collect 229 of the items. Once you do your initial turn-in of 10, you can choose to turn in single items as well. Turn in 9 of the single items, then continue turning them in by 10's. What happens is that, just before your last turn-in, you'll be 25 reputation shy of Honored, and your last turn-in will bump you up to 225/12000, instead of hitting 0/12000 exactly if you'd only turned in 220. It's a small amount, maybe not worth it to some, but I find it's much less effort to farm up the low-level Marks than the high-level ones.

Aldor/Scryer: Honored and Beyond
Once you reach Honored, go ahead and turn in the quest that Kadghar gave you, and pick up any others around the city. For Aldor, there are two: Restoring the Light and A Cure for Zahlia. For Scryer, there is only one: Losing Gracefully. After completing these, you can have a few options.

For a while, your only way to gain reputation is to turn in [Fel Armament] or [Arcane Tome]. These grant reputation, as well as an item necessary to purchase the shoulder enchants, and you can do these at any time. You can actually turn these in before Honored as well, but since they're more valuable than the earlier turn-ins, it's best to save them, and get as far as you can on the cheaper items.

If you don't have the money to buy these items, or the patience to farm them, you'll have to wait until level 67. At this point you can start doing the Aldor/Scryer quests in Netherstorm. At level 68, the quests in Shadowmoon Valley open up, as well as the next repeatable turn-in for [Mark of Sargeras] or [Sunfury Signet]. Even if you do all the available quests, you'll need to grind or buy a large amount of reputation items to get all the way to Exalted, if that's your goal. Even if you only want Revered, the quests alone won't get you there, so be prepared to spend either a lot of time or a lot of money to get those items.

Sha'tar: Neutral and Friendly
The first steps in Sha'tar reputation are identical to Aldor/Scryer. This is because, until you hit Honored (actually, one point shy of Honored), anything you do that gains you Aldor/Scryer rep grants half as much Sha'tar rep. So, just go about doing your Aldor/Scryer stuff until you reach 5999/6000 Friendly with the Sha'tar.

This will either require waiting until you hit level 67 so you can continue doing quests for the Aldor/Scryers, or turning in the expensive Arcane Tomes and Fel Armaments so you can reach 5999/6000 at a lower level. There are Sha'tar quests in Terokkar Forest, so you'll have to decide if you'd rather spend the money to increase your reputation quickly, save those Sha'tar quests until you're much higher level, or just go ahead and do them, even though it will mean more instance runs later on. As always, the choice is yours. However, it's most efficient to get as much mileage out of the Aldor/Scryer reputation as you can. Since you're going to want the shoulder enchants later on, I'd recommend buying Fel Armaments or Arcane Tomes (if you can) and using those to get to Honored. The items are expensive, but this way you're getting a currency item, Aldor/Scryer reputation, and Sha'tar reputation all at once.

Sha'tar: Honored and Beyond
Once you hit 5999/6000 in Friendly, start doing the quests in Terokkar if you haven't already. There are several at the Sha'tari Base Camp in the southwestern Bone Wastes. There is also a quest string that starts outside of Auchenai Crypts that grants Sha'tar rep. Once these are done, you'll have to wait until you're 70 (or very close) to continue earning reputation with this faction.

There are some higher-level quests that grant Sha'tar reputation, check the Wowhead list for details. Some, if not all, are available before reaching level 70, though you may need help to complete them. Once you've exhausted those, your only choice is to run the Tempest Keep instances. As always, pick up the daily dungeon quests in Shattrath when you can for a bonus rep gain of 250 (for regular) or 350 (for heroic).

Overview
I've tried to outline the best possible way to go about earning reputation with these factions, but with all the details, it's probably harder to see the big picture. So, I give you the following synopsis:

For Aldor/Scryer, do the initial quest string to declare your allegiance. Turn in your lower level marks until Honored, then do the quests and the higher level turn-ins until you reach Revered or Exalted.

For Sha'tar, wait until you've passively reached 5999/6000 Friendly from increasing your Aldor/Scryer reputation. After that, do the quests and instance runs required until you reach Revered or Exalted.

Sounds so simple when I put it that way.

(Edit: If you want to see how I applied these ideas specifically while leveling Kali, take a look at my next post.)

Still Alive . . .

2008-02-25T15:02:00.004-06:00

I apologize for the lack of posts lately. As I mentioned last time, I was without internet for a couple days. The cable company in my area recently switched (a merge or buyout or something), and when the change went live, there was some kind of hiccup between the new company and all the modems registered through the old company. My husband had to spend about 3 hours on the phone since everyone in the area was calling in with the same problem.

But anyway, ever since we got our connection back, I've been pushing Kali pretty hard, trying to get her up to 70. She's about 2/3 of the way through 69, with rested bonus the rest of the way, so it shouldn't be more than another day or two. I've been working on specific quests to up my reputation with specific factions, and I want to take one last pass through all the Shadowmoon and Netherstorm quest rewards to see what I still need to do solo before I make the switch to resto.

That also reminds me, I know my Reputation series hasn't been updated recently. I've been working on the Aldor/Scryer/Sha'tar installment for a while, it's just hard trying to figure out the most efficient path and -- more to the point -- the clearest way to describe it all, since those factions are intertwined. But I should clean that up and post it in the very near future . . . and after writing up that guide, the rest of the Outland factions should be a walk in the park.

Alright, flight path should be ended by now. More substantial posts coming soon, I promise.

I'm Alive!

2008-02-22T16:41:00.004-06:00

Well it may not have been noticeable to anyone else (at least, not anyone outside of Pox Arcanum), but I've been without internet the past couple days. It was driving me crazy to not have this link with the outside world. WoW aside, there were so many times when I wanted to pop on IMDB.com, or something as simple as looking up when Easter falls this year (since we don't have a 2008 calendar in the house) and I couldn't.

So anyway . . . even though most people didn't even know I was gone . . . I'm back now.

A Closer Look at Badge Upgrades

2008-02-19T14:34:00.008-06:00

Well, despite my initial reaction, it's looking like one and one for my two best upgrades right now: one of the older (well, added in 2.3) badge rewards, and one of the new awesome but expensive ones.

I've long been frustrated by the fact that I have very limited ways of upgrading my [Kurenai Kilt]. Now don't get me wrong, it's a pretty great piece. Awesome damage, and three sockets . . . but a bit lacking in base stats. 11 intellect. That's it.

To upgrade, I need to do one of three things:

1) Get into 25-mans (not likely any time soon).
2) Downgrade to cloth (and even then, it's rather slim pickings).
3) PvP (which everyone knows I hate).

There's a couple other comparable quest rewards that exchange some of that damage for better stats, but I've already done them, and probably picked a more resto-oriented reward, since I was mostly healing back then.

I'd basically decided to stick with the Kilt, and make up the lack of stats in other places. To solidify my desicion, I upgraded from the [Mystic Spellthread] to the [Runic Spellthread], which wasn't cheap.

However, for 100 badges, the next patch will offer me [Crystalwind Leggings], for a bit of an upgrade both in damage and crit, and a HUGE boost to my stamina, intellect, and spirit. Yes, 100 badges will take a while to earn, but I think it'll be worth it. I haven't done a "stat increase per badge" comparison or anything (which I do plan to do, yes I know I'm a geek), but this does seem to be one of my better choices, despite the expense.

First, though, I'm upgrading my shoulders from [Mantle of Three Terrors] to [Pauldrons of Tribal Fury]. While you can hover over the links to see the stats, I feel the need to outline it a little more clearly, just to show how far these 60 badges are going to go.

Mantle of Three Terrors
+ 29 stamina
+ 25 intellect
+ 29 damage/healing
+ 12 spell hit rating

Pauldrons of Tribal Fury
+ 21 stamina
+ 23 intellect
+ 39 damage/healing
+ 26 spell hit rating
(two sockets)

In those two sockets, I'll use [Runed Living Ruby] and [Potent Noble Topaz]. Along with the socket bonus, that brings us up to + 57 damage and an additional +4 spell crit rating. So it's a slight drop in stats, but an increase of 28 damage, 14 spell hit rating, and 4 spell crit rating.

But that's not all! If you order now, we'll throw in an additional 20 spell damage ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!

Sorry, got a little carried away there. But, that 14 spell hit rating increase really does translate to an additional 20 damage, because it allows me to re-enchant my gloves from Spell Strike to Major Spellpower.

So . . . 60 badges for +48 damage? Yes, please!

Leet Loot

2008-02-19T10:25:00.004-06:00

Well, the much-anticipated new badge rewards have finally been released. Here's the list at MMO-Champion.

Now, there has been a lot of debate going on about these rewards, if it's right to offer T6-equivalents to players who just run Heroics umpteen million times, if it makes the T5-level raids completely irrelevant, and what have you. Now, I don't have any experience with high end raiding, but I'm willing to bet it takes a lot more than gear to be successful, and the T4/T5 content offers more than just loot. It offers the chance to get to know your raid group, strategies that could be applied to later bosses, and working as a team.

I think these badge rewards, as well as removing the attunement for the T6 raids, are a way to allow more people to see that content before the Lich King comes out. But anyone who has only run Kara and decides they are ready for Black Temple is going to be hugely mistaken.

Those badge rewards aren't really meant for people running Kara. Those badge rewards are for people running SSC/TK and wanting to move on to BT/Hyjal/Sunwell without spending weeks and weeks to gear everyone up. To that end, badges are also going to start dropping from all raid bosses.

I think a better solution would have been to add a different kind of badge to the 25-man content ([Badge of Uberleetness]), and use those badges to purchase these rewards. That might help to alleviate the whole "jump from Kara to BT" issue that people are all worked up about. But it doesn't really matter. Those who want the awesome gear will get it, it will help those that it's meant to be helping, and is just icing on the cake for the rest of us.

Personally, I'm going to be doing a little bit of number crunching to judge the size of an upgrade compared to the number of badges it takes to get it, and the time it would take me to earn all those badges. I'll probably be finishing out the old badge rewards I want ([Pauldrons of Tribal Fury], [Mask of Primal Power], and [Fetish of the Primal Gods]) before moving onto the new ones. But if we start progressing from Kara into ZA or 25-mans, I may decide to give myself a little boost. I guess only time will tell.

The Anti-PUG

2008-02-15T16:45:00.006-06:00

Due to a lack of alts near my level in my guild (or at least ones who play at the same time as me), I realized I had a few options regarding instances with Kali.

Option 1) Don't do them.
After all, it's not like it's difficult to get the XP without them, especially after all the grinding I did in Ramparts to start my Outland adventures. I'm almost 67 and I haven't even set foot into Nagrand yet. But, I wanted to start getting back into the healing groove, and I really enjoy most of them, so I didn't like this idea.

Option 2) Get my 70 buddies to breeze me through.
It would definitely speed things up, but wouldn't do much in terms of the whole "healing groove" idea (since I don't have to work too hard to keep up a 70, at least not in the earlier instances). Besides, it feels too much like cheating, and I'd rather do things the right way. Which leaves us with . . .

Option 3) PUG.
As much as I hate PUG's, I realized that I kind of needed them. So far, I've run two. I did an Underbog run the other day, that went really well. Of course, the other four players were all from the same guild, plus they gave me their Vent info so I could communicate with them. Those kinds of PUG's, I can handle.

Today's run through Mana-Tombs, however, was a suck-fest. Not so much in terms of wiping. We only wiped once, on the final boss. No, just in terms of people. They refused to mark anything. CC wasn't a huge issue since our tank was a pally, but it would still be nice to have a kill order. By the end of a 3- or 4-pull, innevitably one of the mobs that the tank wasn't paying as much attention to would pull to the healer. Our healer was lvl 70 (I went as a Moonkin) and also a pally, so he never died because of it. But still.

They greeded all the boss drops. Maybe this is normal. In guild runs we always pass on everything first, then figure out who it goes to, /roll if necessary, whatever. But I saw they were greeding, so I mentioned that I could DE if no one needed it. No response. So I just greeded too. Figured if I got the thing, cool, shard for me. If someone else got it, no shard for them. Whatever.

There was a warlock in the group who got no buffs from me, because he was marked for PvP the entire time. The pallies buffed him, so they got PvP marked, and if the pallies got their buff out before I did, I simply waited until their mark wore off, then gave them a ghetto buff. There was one time I did get marked because I de-cursed someone who was marked. But even once I was, I still refused to buff that warlock, just out of principle. Was that a stupid and PUG-y thing to do? Probably. Had he asked why he wasn't getting my buffs, I would have told him, but he didn't, so I just kept it to myself.

The final thing that irritated me was that the tank instantly hearthed and left the group within seconds of taking down the last boss. In MT, there's an escort quest, one that I was hoping to do, as was the 69 hunter who was desperately hoping to make it to 70 in that run (he had about a bar left when we finished). No one else seemed to care, and I wasn't about to make a big deal out of it, so I think I'm just going to have to ask for some 70 guildies to run me through real quick, just for the sake of getting that last quest done.

So overall, things went fine, but only because we had a couple people who way outgeared the instance to make up for the lack of coordination. But I didn't like my group, and I would much rather struggle through an instance with people I can get along with than breeze through one with people I don't like.

Now the title for this post, "The Anti-PUG," comes from a little project I'm going to be a part of. And after running my PUG today, I can appreciate it that much more. A bunch of bloggers decided it might be fun to roll alts on a new server and level up exclusively as a group. I saw the idea floating out there, thought it sounded interesting, and kept an eye on it.

Before I volunteered for it, they had already decided on a Horde PvE server. This appealed to me; I wouldn't want to do anything on PvP server, and I've never been able to get past level 17 on a Horde character. I'd like to see that side of the game, but since everyone I know plays Alliance, it gets a bit lonely.

So, I decided to go for it. We're going to meet up next Wednesday, having gotten our characters to level 10 on our own, and then go from there. Quests, instances (all those low-level Horde instances I've never experienced), everything as a unified group. The Anti-PUG. I also volunteered to be the tank for my group, while I'm trying new things. So I made a pally, and I'm looking forward to giving that a try. I don't know how any of this is going to work out, but it should be interesting.

This is my new character: Harisan. (Spell it backwards . . . eh, eh, see what I did there?) The name sounded like she could be some soap opera vixen, and that's kinda what I see blood elves as, so it seemed fitting.

I'll update on all the anti-PUG goodness as it unfolds.

Healing Gear: Waist, Legs, and Feet

2008-02-14T11:20:00.010-06:00

Final installment of the leather and cloth healing gear.

Waist
Leather
[The Sleeper's Cord] - drop from Arcatraz
[Windhawk Belt] - crafted with Leatherworking (Bind on Pickup)
[Cord of Nature's Sustenance] - drop from Terestian Illhoof in Karazhan
[Life-step Belt] - drop from timed event in Zul'Aman

Cloth
[Cord of Reconstruction] - drop from Magisters' Terrace
[Cord of Belief] - drop from Heroic Slave Pens
[Primal Mooncloth Belt] - crafted with Tailoring (Bind on Pickup)
[Cord of Sanctification] - drop from Heroic Old Hillsbrad
[Cincture of Will] - drop from Terestian Illhoof in Karazhan
[Cord of Braided Troll Hair] - drop from timed event in Zul'Aman

Legs
Leather
[Kilt of the Night Strider] - drop from Blood Furnace
[Moonglade Pants] - drop from Black Morass
[Earthsoul Britches] - drop from Heroic Slave Pens
[Kodohide Legguards] - available at Honored with Keepers of Time
[Pants of Living Growth] - random BoE drop
[Pants of Splendid Recovery] - available for 75 Badges of Justice
[Grovewalkers's Leggings] - available for 100 Badges of Justice
[Earthsoul Leggings] - drop from Opera Event (any) in Karazhan

Cloth
[Lifegiver Britches] - drop from Ramparts
[Pants of the Naaru] - quest reward from Netherstorm
[Haramad's Leg Wraps] - quest reward from Mana-Tombs
[Hallowed Trousers] - drop from Sethekk Halls
[Pontiff's Pantaloons of Prophecy] - drop from Heroic Old Hillsbrad
[Kamaei's Cerulean Skirt] - random BoE drop
[Whitemend Pants] - crafted with Tailoring
[Achromic Trousers of the Naaru] - available for 75 Badges of Justice
[Adorned Supernal Legwraps] - available for 100 Badges of Justice
[Pontifex Kilt] - drop from Heroic Steamvault
[Pantaloons of Repentence] - drop from Netherspite in Karazhan

Feet
Leather
[Swift Cenarion Footwear] - quest reward from Zangarmarsh
[Boots of the Glade-Keeper] - drop from Mechanar
[Boots of Resuscitation] - drop from Magisters' Terrace
[Forestlord Striders] - drop from Chess Event in Karazhan

Cloth
[Cushy Cenarion Walkers] - quest reward from Zangarmarsh
[Slippers of Serenity] - drop from Auchenai Crypts
[Curate's Boots] - quest reward from Shattered Halls
[Light-Woven Slippers] - drop from Sethekk Halls
[Jeweled Boots of Sanctification] - drop from Shattered Halls
[Boots of the Pious] - drop from Heroic Mechanar
[Slippers of Dutiful Mending] - available for 75 Badges of Justice
[Boots of the Incorrupt] - drop from Shade of Aran in Karazhan
[Two-toed Sandals] - drop from Zul'jin in Zul'Aman

Once again, there are other options out there: high-level crafted items aren't included in this list, nor are PvP rewards or 25-man raid drops. See my post from a couple days ago for all the resources I used in collecting this list; they can help you find gear from these other sources. You can also look for offensive caster gear for a DPS-set of gear, or to fill holes you might have in your healing set.

Healing Gear: Chest, Wrists, and Hands

2008-02-13T13:24:00.007-06:00

Continuing the list of healing gear I started yesterday. The previous post lists the healing gear for head and shoulder slots, as well as random introductory comments which I won't bore you with a second time.

Chest
Leather
[Living Crystal Breastplate] - crafted with Leatherworking (Bind on Pickup)
[Lifewarden's Breastplate] - quest reward from Netherstorm
[Moonglade Robe] - drop from Mechanar
[Robes of Summer Flame] - drop from Magisters' Terrace
[Raiments of Nature's Breath] - drop from Heroic Ramparts
[Kodohide Robe] - available at Honored with Cenarion Expedition
[Windhawk Hauberk] - crafted with Leatherworking (Bind on Pickup)
[Stonebough Jerkin] - drop from Nightbane in Karazhan
[Shimmer-pelt Vest] - drop from Halazzi in Zul'Aman

Cloth
[Shroud of Spiritual Purity] - random BoE drop
[Watcher's Tunic] - quest reward from Nagrand
[Raiments of Divine Authority] - drop from Blood Furnace
[Hallowed Garments] - drop from Shadow Labyrinth
[Robe of Effervescent Light] - drop from Heroic Blood Furnace
[Primal Mooncloth Robe] - crafted with Tailoring (Bind on Pickup)
[Shroud of Nature's Harmony] - available for 100 Badges of Justice
[Masquerade Gown] - drop from Opera Event (Romulo & Julianne) in Karazhan
[Robes of Heavenly Purpose] - drop from Nalorakk in Zul'Aman

Wrists
Leather
[Lucid Dream Bracers] - drop from Heroic Mana Tombs
[Eversong Cuffs] - drop from Heroic Magisters' Terrace
[Windhawk Bracers] - crafted with Leatherworking (Bind on Pickup)
[Gargon's Bracers Peaceful Slumber] - available for 35 Badges of Justice

Cloth
[Goldenvine Wraps] - quest reward from Coilfang Reservoir
[Bracers of Divine Infusion] - drop from Magisters' Terrace
[Light Scribe Bands] - drop from Heroic Ramparts
[Bindings of the Timewalker] - available at Exalted with Keepers of Time
[Wristguards of Tranquil Thought] - available for 35 Badges of Justice
[Bands of the Benevolent] - drop from Heroic Sethekk Halls
[Bands of Indwelling] - drop from Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan

Hands
Leather
[Cryo-mitts] - quest reward from Mana-Tombs
[Gloves of Preservation] - quest reward from Shattered Halls
[Moonglade Handwraps] - drop from Shadow Labyrinth
[Natural Mender's Wraps] - drop from Heroic Auchenai Crypts
[Kodohide Gloves] - available at Honored with Lower City
[Gloves of the Living Touch] - crafted with Leatherworking
[Oakleaf-Spun Handguards] - available for 75 Badges of Justice
[Mitts of the Treemender] - drop from Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan
[Handguards of Malorne] - drop from Curator in Karazhan

Cloth
[Gloves of Piety] - random BoE drop
[Gloves of Penitence] - quest reward from Auchindoun
[Bloody Surgeon's Mitts] - drop from Blood Furnace
[Hallowed Handwraps] - drop from Shattered Halls
[Prismatic Mittens of Mending] - drop from Botanica
[Light-Blessed Bonds] - available for 60 Badges of Justice
[Gloves of Saintly Blessings] - drop from Attumen in Karazhan

Tomorrow I'll finish up with the gear for waist, legs, and feet.

Healing Gear: Head and Shoulders

2008-02-12T12:25:00.005-06:00

Well I've had this in the works for a while, so I took advantage of this morning's weekly maintainence and finished up my healing gear list for resto druids. This list covers the following eight slots: head, shoulders, chest, wrists, hands, waist, legs, and feet. All this gear comes from quest rewards, crafted items, badges, reputation, and drops from 5-mans, Karazhan, and Zul'Aman.

I'm listing both leather and cloth gear. You may have more competition with the cloth drops, but I think it's important to know what's out there. Plus, no one can tell you that you can't have a cloth quest reward or something crafted with tailoring.

A few sets that you'll see popping up throughout the list:

Windhawk Armor: This is the 3-piece BoP set for LW druids. It also includes some offensive caster stats, making it ideal for druids who often fill both roles.
Primal Mooncloth: This is the 3-piece BoP set for tailors. This is an excellent healing set, and easy to obtain, its only real weakness being the complete lack of stamina.
Moonglade Raiment: This is the druid dungeon set (some refer to it as Tier 3.5). Unfortunately, it includes strength and agility; good for versatility, but of no real use to a dedicated healer. Still, they aren't bad pieces, and you can use the sockets to customize them for the stats you want.
Hallowed Raiment: This is the cloth version of the Moonglade Raiment. Since it's meant for priests, the stats are much more focused than the Moonglade, providing higher healing, intellect, and spirit. However, if you plan to roll on a piece of this set, make your intentions clear at the beginning of the run, to avoid drama later.
Malorne Raiment: This is your Tier 4 set. Only two of the five pieces are listed here (the others drop from 25-mans) but they're definitely pieces you want to watch out for.
Kodohide Battlegear: In patch 2.4, rare-quality PvP sets were made available through reputation with the main factions in Outland. While these pieces really aren't meant for PvE, they are a possible substitute if you have some holes in your gear.

Additionally, there are lots of higher-end crafted items I don't list, because the recipes drop from 25-mans and thus are much more difficult for more casual or less progressed players to obtain. However, some of it is BoE, so it's possible to get if you have good connections, or lots of money to spend. Crafter's Tome is a great resource: here are the lists of items made through Leatherworking and Tailoring, if you want to look more into that. And, while I'm linking to other sites, all of the information I've gathered has come from these various resources:

Kaliban's Loot List
Lootables
WoWWiki
Wowhead

For some slots, your options may seem a bit lacking. If you aren't lucky with drops, you can check the Auction House for random greens to start, or opt for gear with both damage and healing. The above resources can help you find gear beyond what's listed here. Finally, don't forget about PvP. Though I personally don't enjoy it, there is lots of great gear to be had for those who do.

Since this list is so long, I'll break it up over several posts throughout the week. First, starting with the head and shoulder items:

Head
Leather
[Raven-Heart Headdress] - drop from Auchenai Crypts
[Moonglade Cowl] - drop from Botanica
[Crown of the Forest Lord] - drop from Heroic Underbog
[Kodohide Helm] - available at Honored with Sha'tar
[Exorcist's Dragonhide Helm] - available for 18 Spirit Shards (another PvP-geared piece, but you don't need to PvP to get it)
[Hood of Primal Life] - crafted with Leatherworking
[Wonderheal XT40 Shades] - crafted with Engineering (Bind on Pickup)
[Crown of Malorne] - drop from Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan
[Helm of Natural Regeneration] - drop from Jan'Alai in Zul'Aman

Cloth
[Watcher's Cowl] - available at Revered with Cenarion Expedition
[Collar of Command] - drop from Auchenai Crypts
[Hallowed Crown] - drop from Arcatraz
[Scintillating Headdress of Second Sight] - drop from Heroic Auchenai Crypts
[Whitemend Hood] - crafted with Tailoring
[Powerheal 4000 Lens] - crafted with Engineering (Bind on Pickup)
[Cowl of Naaru Blessings] - available for 50 Badges of Justice
[Headdress of the High Potentate] - drop from Chess Event in Karazhan
[Hood of the Third Eye] - drop from Hex Lord Malacrass in Zul'Aman

Shoulders
Leather
[Ravenwing Pauldrons] - drop from Old Hillsbrad
[Moonglade Shoulders] - drop from Steamvault
[Mantle of Autumn] - drop from Botanica
[Kodohide Spaulders] - available at Honored with Honor Hold/Thrallmar
[Gnarled Ironwood Pauldrons] - available for 60 Badges of Justice
[Forest Wind Shoulderpads] - drop from Curator in Karazhan

Cloth
[Pauldrons of Sufferance] - drop from Old Hillsbrad
[Hallowed Pauldrons] - drop from Shadow Labyrinth
[Vestia's Pauldrons of Inner Grace] - drop from Mechanar
[Primal Mooncloth Shoulders] - crafted with Tailoring (Bind on Pickup)
[Pauldrons of the Solace-Giver] - drop from Curator in Karazhan

That's all for now, I'll continue with the rest of this list later this week.

Waiting for 2.4

2008-02-11T15:53:00.000-06:00

I've never been one to rush right out to the PTRs to see all the uber-cool stuff coming in the next patch. I just hear about it through the grape vine and wait till it comes to me. However, I just thought I'd share a couple things that I'm most looking forward to:

1) The Isle of Quel'Danas, AKA, the Sunwell. I know I'll never see the 25-man, but I'm definitely excited for a new 5-man, as well as a bigger variety of daily quests.

2) Speaking of daily quests, hurrah for fishing! The cooking quest is one that I make sure I do every day, even if I don't do my other dailies, and I suspect the fishing one will be very similar.

3) Spirit-Based Mana Regeneration: This system has been adjusted so that as your intellect rises, you will regenerate more mana per point of spirit. This doesn't really affect Nas too much, but will be nice for when I make Kali resto, and a nice buff for all spirit-stacking classes. It should make intellect more worthwhile than it is now, to increase the size of your mana pool, knowing that your spirit-based regen will scale with it.

And one other patch note that I'm not looking forward to, but just found too amusing not to share:

Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up.

Okay, so anyone with a level 70 probably knows this, but if you start getting attacked by one of the birds in Skettis, you used to be able to fly straight up, and they wouldn't hit you, and would eventually just break combat. Apparently, this will no longer be the case.

But the thing I think is just hilarious is the wording. They didn't list it as a bug fix, saying, "Monstrous Kaliri will now chase players going straight up." No, it says they learned how to do it. They LEARNED!

So now what I'm picturing in my mind is that those crazy-smart birds all got together, figured out how us pesky bombers kept getting away from them, and then came up with a solution to get around it. I just thought that was too funny.

Finally!

2008-02-10T17:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I am finally done grinding up my Honor Hold rep. Friday night I dinged Honored while running Blood Furnace. (Well, I hit 5999/6000 Friendly and it wouldn't let me go any farther.) Since I was already level 63, I breezed through all the quests I'd been putting off and just kept going. Here's a triumphant picture of Kali after collecting some long-overdue quest rewards:

With that kilt, I actually look like a caster!

I'm completely done with Hellfire, have just a few quests left in Zangarmarsh (including those in Slave Pens and Underbog), and have cleared out a lot of the early quests in Terokkar Forest. Most importantly, I hit level 64 and got Lifebloom! How Resto druids survived pre-BC, I'll never know.

Lower City

2008-02-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

Upon reaching Terokkar forest, there four new factions to consider, all of which can be found in Shattrath City: The Aldor, The Scryers, The Sha'tar, and Lower City. Aldor and Scryer are two opposing factions, which you'll have to choose between, and Sha'tar reputation is closely tied with these two. This makes these reputation grinds a bit more complicated to map out, having to take into account multiple factors, so I'll start with Lower City.

WoWWiki - Lower City
Wowhead - Lower City quests

Lower City rep is fairly easy to explain, but a little harder to execute.

Neutral and Friendly
There are two ways to earn reputation that stop once you hit Honored, so -- as usual -- it's best to save all your quests until after you reach that point.

The first way is to collect [Arakkoa Feather]. This will get VERY boring VERY quickly. Without doing any quests or instance runs, you'll need to collect 1080 Arakkoa feathers to hit Honored. If money isn't an issue, you can buy these on the Auction House. A stack of 30 (one turn-in) usually went for somewhere between 30g-50g when I was buying them. Sometimes they went higher, but I refused to buy them for more than that, and occasionally I'd find some for less. If you start looking early and watch prices, this can be a slow but steady addition to your feather collection.

If you're going to be grinding them yourself, I hope you have a level 70 (your own or a friend) willing to help. If not . . . this is probably not the route for you to take. But for those who are farming, these will drop off any of the Arakkoa in Terokkar forest (except those in Skettis). I found that the closer a camp is to Shattrath (particularly the one directly south of it), the more popular it is for farming. Traveling farther from the city generally means less competition.

If you get tired of collecting feathers, you can also run Auchenai Crypts for Lower City reputation. However, the quests accociated with this dungeon -- a long pre-chain plus one inside -- all give Sha'tar rep, so be careful if that's a faction you're concerned with. You can also run the higher dungeons, if they're within your level range.

Honored and Beyond
Once you hit honored, you can no longer get reputation from feather turn-ins or running Crypts (unless it's on heroic). Now is the time to do all your quests (mostly in the Bone Wastes of Terokkar, but check Wowhead for a complete list), and start running Sethekk Halls and Shadow Labyrinth, as well as the Heroic versions of all three instances. And as always, watch for the daily dungeon quests for an extra reputation boost, especially if you're aiming for Exalted.

The missing instance from Auchindoun, Mana Tombs, is tied to the Consortium faction, which I'll discuss later.

There are a few profession-specific quests that give Lower City rep. If you are an alchemist, becoming an Elixir Master grants 250 reputation. If you are a tailor, all of the tailoring specialty quests grant 150 reputation. Luckily, you can do your tailoring quest at 60 to start taking advantage of your specialization, and it won't affect your feather turn-ins. On Kalisera, I started out at 150/3000 Neutral, and after turning in my 1080 feathers, I was 150/12000 Honored.

My next reputation post will focus on the other Shattrath factions: Aldor/Scryer and the Sha'tar.

BIP: Blogroll In Progress

2008-02-07T11:34:00.000-06:00

You may notice that my blogroll is temporarily missing from the sidebar. Since joining the Blog Azeroth community, I've been trying to catch up on all the WoW blogs that are out there . . . and there are a TON. I've even found several who have me linked in their Blogrolls and feel a bit guilty for not linking them back. However, I don't want to have a ton of links that are there purely out of obligation. So for now, they're all gone, while I re-introduce myself to the greater blogging world and determine which links would be most interesting and helpful to those who come here.

In its place, I'm featuring Phaelia's latest project, The World Tree. It contains a healthy listing of most (though probably not all) active druid blogs out there, and everyone from my previous blogroll is included, as well as many many others.

My Bags Runneth Over

2008-02-06T14:05:00.000-06:00

Back in the day, when I was a little baby druid running around the forests of Ashenvale, and my husband (then fiancé) was a big bad raider, he would make mention of how many bag-slots full of stuff he carried around with him on a regular basis. Since I only had my hearthstone and some potions that I considered necessities, it boggled my mind to see his bags filled to the brim, and I just couldn't believe that he really needed all that.

But of course, when I got up to 70, and especially once I started running Karazhan, I realized that I needed a ton of stuff too. The stuff I'd carried around for 5-mans while leveling just didn't cut it anymore. Wait, Wizard Oil, what's that? And what do you mean a stack of 10 Wild Quillvine isn't enough to have on hand? Oh, and I should carry my healing gear with me all the time, not just leave it to collect dust in the bank?

I try to have a very clear organization to my bags. That's getting harder and harder as I realize there are more and more things I need, but I think I've finally settled on something that works -- at least for now -- so I thought I'd share with the group.

Bag 1: Raid necessities (reagents & consumables)
Bag 2: 2 rows of pots, 6 slots of other random essentials
Bag 3: Additional gear (full healing set, a couple spare idols/trinkets, & my feral staff)
Bag 4: Random quest items, motes I'm farming, things to be sent to alts, etc (i.e. - temporary, but important)
Bag 5: completely empty, random loot to be vendored stays here
* all of these are 18-slots, except of course the unchangeable Bag 5

Bags 4 & 5 are doing fine the way they are. Bag 3 was starting to overflow, and I finally had to put certain idols & trinkets that I never use in the bank, as well as all my feral gear except the staff. However, now that I'm giving more thought to pure damage vs spell hit items, I'm sure it will start overflowing into bag 4 again.

Bags 1 & 2 are under control as well, but these took the most coordination to finally get to my liking. So, in addition to showing off my organizational success, I thought I'd take the opportunity to give a rundown of my essential raid items. Some of this may seem like overkill, but I'm a person who likes to be prepared.

Bag 1

You might argue that the Hearthstone isn't a "raid" essential and should be in Bag 2, but . . . it just fits there. Other contents are as follows:

One full stack Rebirth reagents, two full stacks GotW reagents, two full stacks of water, 1 stack of bandages, 1 stack each of three different well-fed foods ([Blackened Sporefish], [Poached Bluefish], [Golden Fish Sticks]), 2 stacks of [Superior Wizard Oil], 1 stack of [Superior Mana Oil], 1 stack of [Flask of Blinding Light], and 1 stack each of two battle elixirs ([Adept's Elixir], [Elixir of Healing Power]) and two guardian elixirs ([Elixir of Draenic Wisdom], [Elixir of Major Mageblood]).

This should be more than I EVER need in any given night of raiding . . . but that's the idea. I would much rather stay a week ahead of where I need to be, supply-wise, than run out of reagents and have to start ghetto-buffing everyone, or go with a well-fed buff or elixir that isn't quite right for that specific encounter. I like having options. The Blackened Sporefish, Superior Mana Oil, and Elixir of Major Mageblood I don't use as often (at least not while DPS), but I like having them for very mana-intensive fights. The Superior Mana Oil and Elixir of Major Mageblood I do use if I'm called on to heal, along with the Golden Fish Sticks and the Elixir of Healing Power. These I'm not as strict with myself on keeping full stacks (as you can see), because I don't go through them nearly as quickly. (That's also why I only carry one stack of Mana Oil, as opposed to two stacks of the Wizard Oil.)

For the damage food and elixirs, I like to keep them between 15-20 at the start of any given raid night. And I always keep two of the Wizard Oil so that I don't have to worry if I'm down to just 1 charge, I always have that extra stack in reserve. The flasks I usually let get down to 3 before I make more (or refill the stack with what I already have sitting in the bank).

The reagents and water, on the other hand, I always make sure to have topped off. Those aren't items that enhance my performance, add a little bit of damage or make my mana last a little longer. Those really are essentials; if I run out, it would be blatantly obvious, and would needlessly hold up the raid.

Bag 2

The top six slots are those "random essentials" I mentioned. Mount and riding crop are a given, but I do like to keep my fishing and cooking materials on hand as well.

No, those green glowing rocks aren't healthstones. It's a stack of [Charged Crystal Focus], created from the [Depleted Crystal Focus] that drop off mobs near Ogri'la. They aren't quite as powerful as Warlock healthstones, but they're on the same cooldown timer (which means separate from potions), and are very nice to have when you don't have a Warlock in the group. I like to keep a couple on me, just in case.

I keep 3 stacks of the [Super Mana Potion], as well as 2 stacks of [Unstable Mana Potion]. The lesser ones I use either very close to the end of a fight where I don't want to waste my good potions, or very close to the beginning of a fight, when I want to get that cooldown started, but a larger potion would overfill me.

Also, since I'm an alchemist, I've replaced the standard [Super Healing Potion] with [Mad Alchemist's Potion]. They give back more health, plus mana as well, so that if I'm in dire need of popping a health potion, I don't miss out on the mana I could probably use as well. Also, when I use them out soloing, they have a chance to give a random battle or guardian elixir buff. However, they won't overwrite existing elixirs or flasks, so I rarely see that effect in raids.

If you like the idea of the health/mana combo but aren't an alchemist, anyone can use [Super Rejuvenation Potion]. They do the same thing, but without the nifty "side effect."

The four open slots in the middle I may use for warlock healthstones or mage water, but most often I use it if I have 1 potion left in a stack. Rather than going in a bit short-handed, I'll stick that one potion up there, and replace the stack (so, rather than having 6 Mad Alchemist's Potions, I'll keep 11 till I use up that one extra).

This is, as I said, WAY more than I ever use in one night of raiding. But I still like my setup for a couple reasons. First, if I ever do, for some reason, forget to restock between raids, chances are I'll still be fine for the next night. Second, if there are some less responsible raiders (or someone who's normally prepared but just had a random space-out) lacking in materials, I can afford to give out a few. It's nice knowing that if a healer says in Vent, halfway through our run, "Oh man, I only have 2 mana potions left, anybody have any extras?" that I do have extras I probably won't be needing that night.

Maybe I take my preparedness to the extreme. But I'd much rather be at this extreme than at the other end.

A Call for Help

2008-02-05T14:40:00.000-06:00

As I spend more time questing with Kalisera, I've come to realize that I have a very serious condition, and I thought I would use my little public soapbox to draw more attention to it.

I'm speaking of One More Kill Syndrome.

While doing drop quests, it doesn't seem to matter how abysmal the drop rate is. When I'm down to just needing one more, I somehow manage to convince myself that every mob I kill will be the one to drop it. Last night, while adventuring in the eel-infested waters of Zangarmarsh, I finally saw the following:

So, despite having taken about 30 kills to get those first 7 filets, I actually believed that the last one would drop on my 31st kill. And when it didn't, my reaction was, "Hmm . . . well, I'll get it on the next one." One kill later, and it was, "Eh, it'll drop from the next one." "Just one more kill." "Okay, how could it not drop next time?"

About 5 dead eels later, I finally get it, and think to myself, "Ha, I knew it would drop from this guy."

It's not only drop quests, but when farming for motes, or reputation items, or anything else I need to grind for. I always kill things under the delusion that I'm just One More Kill away from my goal.

Does anyone else suffer from OMK?

Several Steps Closer

2008-02-03T20:31:00.000-06:00

We made a lot of progress in Karazhan this week. I have now seen (but not defeated) every single boss.

To start off the weekend, last night we killed Prince on our first attempt! I'm not sure any of us really expected that, but I'm not complaining. I got the [Nathrezim Mindblade] - don't I look fierce?! This thing WAY outdid my old [Bloodfire Greatstaff] on damage, and now coupled with my [Lamp of Peaceful Radiance] that I've been holding in the bank forever, I'm happy to say that my bonus damage is now up to 893 unbuffed.

Since last night was so successful and so quick, we wandered on over to Netherspite's room. This is probably the fight we're most unprepared for. Even after watching a really great tutorial, there's nothing like actually trying to execute the strategies. Honestly . . . it was kind of a mess. It took a while to get the hang of catching the beams and tanking him in the right spot. But at least now we have some hands-on experience, and we're working through the instance at such a pace that we can start attempting him on a regular basis.

After popping into Heroic Sethekk and Heroic Shattered Halls earlier today, we decided to give Nightbane a shot tonight. We were only nine for most of the night, and it wasn't an ideal group for the fight (I blame the Superbowl), but we still managed to get him down to 50% on one of our attempts, which is way closer than we ever got Netherspite. So it shouldn't be too long before we can add him to our kill list.

Also of note, I was able to spec back to Moonkin for last night's raid. I've been called on to heal Kara a couple of times before, but my experience healing on Thursday really made me realize that . . . I don't like it.

Now wait, before everyone starts hounding me, and telling me I've leveled another druid for nothing . . . I don't like healing Karazhan. I love healing 5-mans. I'm the only healer, I'm in control, I know what all my tricks are. It's a completely different situation when I'm the only one in that role. And honestly I might enjoy healing in a 25-man, where there's more healers, and everyone has a more specific part to play.

But when I'm one of only two healers in a 10-man group, I have to do more than just stack Lifeblooms on the tank. But it seemed like every time I tried to throw out a bigger heal, our priest beat me to it. There were actually several times that I wasted my Nature's Swiftness (which I have macro'd to Healing Touch), either because she healed them to full just before or just after mine, or I thought she was going to heal them, she didn't, and so they died a split second before I hit the macro, and with no living target, I instantly healed myself instead when I was already full, not to mention we're now down a person, and I have three minutes before I get my emergency button back.

I know that was a long and rambling sentence, but perhaps your frustration in trying to make sense of it will match my frustration in trying to heal. It was still a successful run, but I found myself very stressed. And when the night was over, rather than feeling a sense of pride that we made it through, I just felt glad it was done with.

So . . . lesson learned. I'm still excited to level Kali, and I'll still get her attuned, in case we need an extra healer from time to time. But mostly I'll just stick to 5-mans with her. I'm looking forward to the challenge of healing heroics, something I've not tried with Nas.

But as far as Karazhan goes, my Moonkin is my one true love, and I'm glad to be back in my own skin . . . or feathers, as the case may be.

Character Update

2008-02-01T15:49:00.000-06:00

I posted my pretty picture of Kali, all dolled up in her new Outland gear, but it doesn't really tell you much about where she's at (aside from, standing on top of the keep at Honor Hold).

First of all, as I said, I'm not doing quests yet. So, unfortunately, I'm not taking advantage of the best source of new Outland gear, looking instead for the long-range benefit of not having to run Shattered Halls umpteen-million times. I've gotten a couple decent drops from Ramparts ([Witching Band] x2, [Heartblood Prayer Beads]), made myself two pieces of the Wild Draenish armor set (the only two I can currently wear), and bought a bunch of random greens off the Auction House. Right now, Kali's stats are sitting at:

4557 health
5262 mana
153 +damage
12.33% crit chance (Moonkin)

I do have a couple pieces to swap in for healing, those stats are:

4077 health
5592 mana
291 +healing
95 mp5 while casting

Not great, but not a bad start. Now, for Nas's stats . . .

In healing gear:
6844 health
8135 mana
1240 +healing
103 mp5 while casting

In damage gear:
7514 health
8690 mana
814 +damage
21.37% crit chance (Moonkin)

In spell hit gear (i.e. - boss gear):
7664 health
8915 mana
774 +damage
20.10% crit chance (Moonkin)
152 hit rating (maxed)

So . . . obviously giving up a bit of damage and crit during boss fights, but hitting that spell hit cap is most important. Plus, my health and mana pools are a little bigger as well, which is never a bad thing.

The healing gear is slowly improving (though the mp5 still seems really low, especially when compared to my lvl 61 character), but I'm not really making an effort at it, I just happen to get things when no one else needs them. I'm certainly getting use out of it though. I've healed a few (non-heroic) 5-mans recently (no problem at all, even while Balance specced), and I actually respecced last night for Kara since we were short on healers. I could comment more on that, but I think I'll wait and see how this weekend goes, in case I have more healing adventures to add.

Skies Over Hellfire

2008-02-01T10:56:00.000-06:00

I usually don't include full screenshots, but I was trying to figure out a good backdrop to show off Kali now that she's starting to adventure in Outland, and I just love the art they did for the skies in the expansion.

Anyway, here she is. Just hit level 61. I still haven't started in on the Honor Hold quests, I need about 8 more Ramparts runs to reach Honored with them. I'm hoping to get in a couple this weekend. My husband (lvl 70 feral druid) and I can two-man it fairly easily, it's just slow. Hopefully we can find a couple suckers -- I mean, helpful guildies -- to speed things up a bit.

Changes

2008-01-31T10:39:00.000-06:00

I'm currently making some changes to the blog. First and most recognizably, I widened up the entire template. There was just too much unused space for my taste, so instead of 700 pixels, the width is now set at 900. That should still be plenty visible for most people, I think, and allows me to go with a little bit larger font size. (I'll go back and edit previous posts soon, so you can all stop squinting!)

Other things coming in the future include finally finishing the formatting of gear links to look like their in-game counterparts (yes, I still have a few old posts that have regular, boring links, sans the [ ] brackets and color).

I also plan to update and expand my Blogroll, as well as implement the "click to read more" links you find on so many blogs, since I do tend to get a little long-winded.

Just a look at some things on the horizon.

Early Raid Loot, Continued

2008-01-30T17:12:00.000-06:00

Last post, I listed all the drops to be looking for as a Balance druid as you make your way through the Tier 4 content: Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, and Magtheridon's Lair. The actual leather gear is a bit sparse, and you'll probably need to look to PvP, crafted items, and/or badge rewards to supplement your Tier 4 pieces.

However, these raids do have many nice drops that you'll be rolling against other caster classes for: trinkets, rings, necklaces, cloaks, weapons, and off-hand items. Now that you know where to get these items, I'm going to compare them a bit more closely. But first, it's important to note a few things.

1) Spell hit gear. Most gear falls into one of two categories: spell hit gear, and spell damage gear. Since hit gear is only really required for bosses (assuming you have 2/2 Balance of Power), a piece of hit gear should always be considered in its own category, and never replace a piece of damage gear, unless it's a direct upgrade to your other stats as well.

2) Critical strike rating. There's a post on the WoW Forums that goes into the relationship between spell damage and spell crit for Balance druids. I used this as the basis for my own calculations (which I may go into at another time) but as a general, simplified rule, I go with a 2:1 ratio. That is, 2 points of spell damage are about equal to 1 point of spell crit. This isn't exact, and crit becomes more valuable the more spell damage you have, but 2:1 is easy to remember and fairly accurate when you can't be bothered with exact calculations.

3) Basic stats. Often there's a tradeoff involved in deciding if an item is an upgrade or not. You'll need to make a decision between a higher health and mana pool, or higher damage output. In most situations, higher damage will serve you better, but you certainly don't want your other stats to suffer. So as you're comparing gear, take note of which stats in your current gear could use the most love.

Keeping those things in mind, we can start to look at some of the specific gear choices you'll come across in these early raids.

Weapons and Off-Hands
Assuming about an equal item level, a 2-handed weapon is going to be better for basic stats, but a 1-handed weapon and off-hand item will give you more damage. The two weapons available from Karazhan are the [Staff of Infinite Mysteries] and the [Nathrezim Mindblade]. With more damage, plus crit rating, the Mindblade already beats the staff in damage, and an off-hand will only give you more. However, you would be hard pressed to find an off-hand able to make up for the stamina and intellect from the staff. Given the higher stats and the hit rating, I would probably make the staff my weapon for boss fights. The lower mana pool but higher damage output of the Mindblade would be ideal for quick trash pulls. But which off-hand to use?

[Jewel of Infinite Possibilities] - from Netherspite
[Talisman of Nightbane] - from (who'd've guessed?) Nightbane
[Karaborian Talisman] - from Magtheridon

The hit rating on the Jewel would make it best suited for boss fights, rivaling the staff. You would lose some stats by using the Mindblade and Jewel (2 hit rating, 24 stamina, and 15 intellect) but gain a lot of damage output (41 spell damage and 23 spell crit rating). Depending on the fight and your current stats, either would be acceptable.

The two Talismans, however, are a little closer. Using the 2:1 rule, you'd get slightly more damage from the one from Nightbane. However, the difference is very slight, and you get better stats from Mag's off-hand, so I would consider that an upgrade to Nightbane's. Still, they're very similar, and choosing one over the other wouldn't make too much of a difference.

Cloaks
[Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran] - from Moroes
[Shadowvine Cloak of Infusion] - from Terestian Illhoof
[Ruby Drape of the Mysticant] - from Prince Malchezaar
[Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi] - from High King Maulgar

The Shadowvine Cloak is a longevity piece, mostly suited for healers, but could be useful for you as well in long boss fights. However, that puts it into direct competition with the Ruby Drape from Prince, your spell hit option. I would say the spell hit is more important, and even if you have enough spell hit elsewhere, you're probably better off with a spell damage cloak.

Looking at your pure damage options, the Brute Cloak is a fair upgrade over the Shadow-Cloak. There's a (very) slight tradeoff in stamina and intellect, but it increases your overall damage, since the 23 crit rating gained more than makes up for the 8 damage lost.

Necklaces
There are only two items here, and it's a very easy comparison. Moroes's [Brooch of Unquenchable Fury] is your spell hit piece for bosses, and also has higher stats. Prince's [Adornment of Stolen Souls] has higher damage output.

Rings
[Ring of Unrelenting Storms] - from Karazhan trash
[Spectral Band of Innervation] - from Attumen the Huntsman
[Ring of Recurrence] - from Chess Event
[Violet Signet of the Archmage] - available at Exalted with the Violet Eye
[Band of Crimson Fury] - rewards for Magtheridon's head

The Kara trash drop is Nature damage only, so I wear this for trash pulls (where I'm more likely to use Wrath) and also in the Curator fight, since he's immune to arcane.

The Band of Crimson Fury is a nice spell hit ring when you do get it. However, the entire raid will be wanting Magtheridon's head, so it may be a while before you can add this to your spell hit gear.

As for the other rings, there's a clear tradeoff between damage and stats. The Violet Signet of the Archmage is, I would say, the most well-balanced of the three. Luckily, you can wear two rings, so it's possible to mix and match depending on the needs of the situation.

Trinkets
Trinkets tend to be in a category all their own. They can serve very different functions, and can be much harder to compare. My general suggestion would be to get as many as you can, because you never know when one or another might come in handy. However, if you can't think of a circumstance where you would use it, you should probably pass to someone else whom it might suit better, and only take it if there's no one else interested.

[The Lightning Capacitor] - from Terestian Illhoof
Most trash pulls are over too quickly, in my opinion, to get much use out of this trinket, unless you're chain pulling. I'd suggest it more for a boss fight, but personally I use my Alchemist's Stone (for mana management) and Scryer's Bloodgem (for hit rating and an insta-bonus button), so I won't be rolling on the Capacitor any time soon. However, if I weren't an alchemist, I could see it possibly taking the place of that trinket. Obviously, the higher your critical strike chance, the more useful this would be for you.

[Pendant of the Violet Eye] - from Shade of Aran
As I mentioned in the previous article, you would get the most benefit from these stacks in a Wrath spamming situation. However, the mana regen indicates it's meant for longer boss fights, where most people use Starfire for its better mana efficiency. However, you could use this to offset Wrath's mana inefficiency, and spam it during those 20 seconds for an extra boost of damage. Or, use it when you have no choice but to spam Wrath, like during Curator's evocation.

[Eye of Magtheridon] - from Magtheridon
In addition to the flat bonus to your damage, this helps to offset any resists by boosting your damage, making up for that lost spellcast. Since resists are unavoidable, this is a trinket every caster should pick up if they can. Whether you equip it for any given fight will depend on the fight and the other trinkets you have, but it's a great option.

Again, keep in mind when looking for upgrades that you want to maintain a healthy balance of all the stats that are important to you. Even if something may not be an upgrade now, keep it in the back of your mind as you continue upgrading gear, in case you find those stats falling out of balance.

Early Raid Loot for Balance Druids

2008-01-28T19:24:00.000-06:00

As our guild is getting closer and closer to clearing Karazhan, there's talk of 25-mans on the horizon. I started looking at some of the loot that drops in the early 25-mans (Gruul's & Magtheridon's Lairs). While there is some nice stuff in there, I found myself a little surprised that it's not blowing Karazhan loot out of the water. I'm not quite sure why -- all three raids drop Tier 4 loot, so it makes sense that the rest of the drops are relatively on par as well -- but I figured that there would be a little more benefit to organizing a 25-man group as opposed to a 10-man.

Regardless, I decided that another loot list post was in order. (I will get back to my healing gear lists, I promise, I've just been a bit more focused on Nas lately . . . the downfall of a double-focused blog.) For this post, I'm simply going to list all the loot in Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, and Magtheridon's Lair that would be of use for a Balance druid. In my next post, I'll start comparing some of the various upgrades.

This list focuses mostly on spell damage gear (I will point out a few exceptions as they come). Depending on the rest of your group makeup and their loot needs, however, you may pick up some nice items for a Resto or Feral set as well.

I do include cloth drops, but will mark them as such. There's much debate about cloth for Moonkins, both internal ("should I wear it?") and external ("should we let you roll on it?"). So, these drops may not come your way quite as easily, if you even want them, but it's important to know they're there.

Karazhan
From your first step into the instance until you leave it for the last time, keep an eye out for the random drop, [Ring of Unrelenting Storms]. This, along with other various epics for other classes, can drop off any trash mob in Karazhan.

Beast Boss
These drops are hardly worth mentioning, but I'll do so briefly. The loot that drops depends which boss randomly spawns: you have a choice at epic bracers, belt, or boots. Unfortunately, there's only a 1 in 4 chance that the leather version will drop, and an even smaller chance that it will come with a useful enchant. Combined with the fact that they don't drop badges, there's really little point to waste time on these bosses. However, if your guild does kill them for rep, experience, or any other reason, you may get lucky sometime.

Attumen the Huntsman
[Bracers of the White Stag]
[Spectral Band of Innervation]
[Harbinger Bands] (cloth)
[Handwraps of Flowing Though] (cloth)

Moroes
[Brooch of Unquenchable Fury]
[Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran]
[Nethershard Girdle] (cloth)
*[Idol of the Avian Heart] - This is clearly a healing idol, but since druids are the only class that can use them, you should still grab this if there are no other druids in the group. Even if you don't heal often, you still never know if you may need it someday.

Maiden of Virtue
[Bands of Nefarious Deeds] (cloth)
[Boots of Foretelling] (cloth)

Opera Event
[Trial-Fire Trousers] (cloth - all events)
[Wicked Witch's Hat] (cloth - Oz event only)
[Ruby Slipers] (cloth - Oz event only)

Curator
[Staff of Infinite Mysteries]
[Gloves of the Fallen Defender] - Tier 4 token
(used to purchase [Gloves of Malorne])

Terestian Illhoof
[The Lightning Capacitor]
[Malefic Girdle] (cloth)
*[Shadowvine Cloak of Infusion] - With no damage or healing stats, this could be useful to any caster to help with longevity.
*[Terestian's Stranglestaff] - Again, not specific to Balance druids, but definitely tailored to druids. Though any physical staff-weilding class could benefit from the base stats, you can probably take this without much fuss if there are no other druids in the group. Swap it on in case you need to melee to regen mana, or against the mana wyrms in the library that are immune to all magic damage. Just remember to switch back to your caster weapon when you're done.

Shade of Aran
[Mantle of the Mind Flayer] (cloth)
[Boots of the Infernal Coven] (cloth)
*[Pendant of the Violet Eye] - Another mana regen item, situationally useful. Would get the most benefit from a Wrath spamming cycle to get the most casts for the most stacks to the buff, as well as making up for Wrath's lower mana efficiency.

Netherspite
[Jewel of Infinite Possibilities]
[Uni-Mind Headdress] (cloth)

Chess Event
[Ring of Recurrence]

Prince Malchezaar
[Adornment of Stolen Souls]
[Ruby Drape of the Mysticant]
[Nathrezim Mindblade]
[Helm of the Fallen Defender] - Tier 4 token
(used to purchase [Antlers of Malorne])

Nightbane
[Talisman of Nightbane]
[Robe of the Elder Scribes] (cloth)

Gruul's Lair
High King Maulgar
[Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi]
[Belt of Divine Inspiration] (cloth)
[Pauldrons of the Fallen Defender] - Tier 4 token
(used to purchase [Pauldrons of Malorne])

Gruul the Dragonkiller
[Collar of Cho'gall] (cloth)
[Leggings of the Fallen Defender] - Tier 4 token
(used to purchase [Britches of Malorne])

Magtheridon's Lair
Magtheridon
[Eye of Magtheridon]
[Karaborian Talisman]
[Soul-Eater's Handwraps] (cloth)
[Chestguard of the Fallen Defender] - Tier 4 token
(used to purchase [Chestpiece of Malorne])
[Magtheridon's Head] - quest item
(used to obtain [Band of Crimson Fury])

As you can see, there is very little specifically tailored to you, as a Moonkin druid. Most items that you can unquestionably roll on are weapons, cloaks, and other items universal to all casters, and the Tier 4 tokens, shared between three classes. Aside from your Tier 4 pieces, the bracers from Attumen the Huntsman are the only leather spell damage drop. You'll need to either fight for your right to cloth, or look to other sources for the rest of your gear.

However, these raids are a great source of weapons, cloaks, and accessories, to the point where you may be wondering which items are really upgrades of others. Next post, I'll look at these rewards more in-depth.

Another One Bites the Dust

2008-01-27T21:31:00.000-06:00

Well tonight in Karazhan, we went back and destroyed Maiden (we'd skipped her earlier this week to move progression along) and then headed up to take on Illhoof. We'd never attempted him before, and managed to kill him on only our second try!

The thing that really made the difference in the second try was a targeting macro for the Demon Chains. For those who are unfamiliar with the fight, every so often he sacrifices someone in the raid, placing them in chains. For as long as the chains are active, the person sacrificed takes damage (1500 per second) and Illhoof is healed (3000 per second). The raid needs to focus-fire the chains and take them out as quickly as possible. There's just so much else going on in the room (Illhoof, his minion Kil'rek, and multiple non-elite imps that continuously spawn throughout the entire fight) that it's hard to physically click on the chains to target them, and tabbing would take forever. We just weren't getting on the chains fast enough.

Second time around, everyone created a macro. Mine looked a little something like this:

/target Demon
/cast Wrath

I usually use hotkeys, but I left my mouse cursor hovering over this button on my hotbar so that the instant someone was sacrificed, I could hit it, instantly change targets, and start spamming wrath until the chains were down.

I have a similar macro for the Astral Flares in the Curator fight (/target Astral; /cast Starfire). In the beginning we needed every advantage we could get in order to not get behind on flares. Once people started using the macro, it seemed to really make a difference. Now that we've geared up a bit, we usually have several seconds to spare between taking down one flare and the next one appearing, but it's still a nice convenience to have.

All in all, an awesome week in Kara.

Ding Dong, the Prince is Dead!

2008-01-27T11:08:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update to say that my guild finally downed Prince Malchezaar last night.

Now, we're in no way close to clearing Kara. We've not attempted Illhoof or Netherspite, none of us can summon Nightbane (that I'm aware of), and we don't quite have Shade on farm yet. Still, a nice victory.

This progression will likely lead to such future posts as "what upgrades am I looking for?" and "my bare minimum raiding supplies" (2 and a half bags full, and that's only going to grow). But for now I just wanted to share the news.

Subtlety: It's Not Just For Rogues

2008-01-25T21:57:00.000-06:00

I suppose with all the discussion lately regarding talent specs, it's only natural that I start questioning my own.

Several months ago, I didn't see a need to max out Subtlety. I put a couple points into the talent as a buffer (2 points, 8% reduced threat), but mostly I just watched the threat meter, and didn't see a problem with my threat at all. However, as my gear has improved, my DPS has gone up, and now suddenly I'm noticing it more and more. I definitely find myself having to hold back whenever I'm without a pally's Blessing of Salvation. Even with the buff, I can start to get close if I get a few lucky crits (or unlucky ones, as the case may be). I finally did get my cloak enchanted with subtlety recently, and 2% reduced threat is obviously better than nothing, but it still doesn't make a huge difference.

So . . . I think it's time for me fill in those last three points. Unfortunately, that means giving up points in the Balance tree, and most likely will have to come from Celestial Focus. I really love having this talent, but it's the only one I see as an option. It's a luxury, one that isn't included in most suggested raiding builds. It's only situationally useful. And any other points I took would sacrifice either my DPS or my longevity.

I'll probably wait a few days before I make the switch, just to make sure it's what I want, but . . . it will most likely happen soon, and I'm sure it will be for the best. I'm still reluctant, but I see little choice.

Sporeggar

2008-01-25T13:00:00.000-06:00

As you venture westard in Zangarmarsh, you'll eventually encounter some strange-looking mushroom men. As with the Kurenai and Mag'har, you start out unfriendly with the Sporeggar, but raising your reputation to Friendly is simple. Beyond that, you'll have to decide for yourself if it's worth it to aim higher.

WoWWiki - Sporeggar
Wowhead - Sporeggar quests

There aren't any gear rewards that are still useful at 70, and most will probably be replaced within a few levels, so you may decide it's not worth the grind. Alchemists, however, will at least want to get to Revered for the transmute recipe. Also, at exalted you can get a non-combat pet (if you're interested in that sort of thing).

Unfriendly and Neutral
Just through general questing in Zangarmarsh, you'll find yourself killing bog lords, first in the Dead Mire in the northeast, then later at Quagg Ridge in the southwest. The kills themselves will grant Sporeggar reputation, so you may find yourself close to Neutral without even trying.

As you're killing bog lords, however, hang on to any [Bog Lord Tendril] that you find. These are the turn-in item that's easiest to aquire, and will take you all the way to Friendly. Even without rep from killing (if you get the items from the Auction House or a guildmate or alt) it only takes 48 of these items to get to Friendly. With the killing involved, it will obviously take less.

You can also collect [Mature Spore Sac] from the Spawning Glen as an alternative. Both of these items are turned in to Fahssn, an NPC who wanders near the Spawning Glen, south of the actual town of Sporeggar. At Neutral, you can go into town and get another turn-in quest for [Glowcap] (these are found EVERYWHERE in western Zangarmarsh). With these three options, you'll easily get to Friendly reputation with the Sporeggar in no time.

Friendly and Beyond
At this point, pick up the quests to go into the Underbog: Bring Me A Shrubbery!, Stalk the Stalker, and Oh, It's On! The Shrubbery quest becomes repeatable, so grab as many [Sanguine Hibiscus] as you can, and continue to do so if you make multiple trips into the Underbog.

There is also a repeatable turn in for [Fertile Spores] (this actually opens up at Neutral, but the other turn-ins are easier to get), and a repeatable quest to kill Bloodscale naga. These repeatable quests are the main ways to increase your reputation to Exalted, since you get 750 reputation for each turn-in. This translates to 31.25 rep per kill of the naga, far more efficient than killing bog lords (which only grant 15 rep each). The average reputation rate for the Fertile Spores will vary based on drop rate, but you can also get these from guildies or buy them on the Auction House, if your time is more valuable than the gold it costs.

The bog lords will continue giving reputation until Revered, so that is still an option. Also, the mobs in Fungor Cavern give reputation all the way through Exalted, but the amount of reputation you get depends on the amount of help recieved from the Sporelings that also inhabit the cave.

Exalted
If you do reach Exalted, there is one final quest to obtain most of the rewards for this level. If you want the tabard, Alchemy recipe, or your pet, you can purchase that directly from the Quartermaster. However, if you want the [Hewing Axe of the Marsh], [Sporeling Claw], or [Sporeggar Smasher], you must complete the quest Fhwoor Smash!

This is a group escort quest. If you are at a low enough level where these rewards are still of use to you, you'll definitely want to bring friends along. I've personally never done the quest, but from what I've read, it's not one that can be soloed except possibly at 70 (when the rewards aren't useful anymore anyway).

Overall, Sporeggar seems to be a fairly pointless reputation to grind compared to the others, since it has no long-term benefits for anyone other than alchemists (or those who want a tabard or pet just for fun). If you do want any of the gear rewards, I would stock up on as many turn-in items as you can ahead of time, so that you can level up and get your rewards as early as possible, to get the most use out of them.

Catching Up on Comments

2008-01-24T14:11:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, getting back to the discussion on Balance builds...

Regarding Brambles and Intensity for leveling (cdin's comment). Brambles isn't a great talent, but when you are soloing, you should always have Thorns on yourself, and use Entangling Roots as much as possible whenever you have more than one mob. I see it as increasing damage that's being done anyway, that becomes increasingly useful the more mobs you're fighting. However, putting 3 points into Vengeance instead would certainly be a viable alternative.

As for Intensity, no, it's not necessary while leveling, but it helps reduce downtime. If you don't plan to get any other talents in Resto and don't feel like going down that far, you might choose to get more damage-dealing talents in Balance instead. Not a bad choice. You'll just be stopping to drink more often.

Nalik had 3 questions regarding my spec: Celestial Focus, Treants, and Natural Shapeshifter.

Celestial Focus I like for soloing (dailies, grinding, etc), and since I still do a fair amount of that on Nasirah, I haven't been able to give it up. As far as raiding, yes the Starfire stun is pretty useless, but the 70% to avoid interruption to Wrath is nice in fights where everyone is at risk of taking damage.

I can see use for the treants. I really couldn't comment on battlegrounds, but using them early in a boss fight for extra damage that doesn't put threat on anyone is a really nice thing, and they can be helpful for soloing. However, when I did have them, I found myself frustrated that they'd kill one mob, have 20 seconds left on their timer, and just stand around, even if I started attacking a second one. Or they'd automatically go after another mob when I didn't want them to. Without a real way to control them, I'd be afraid to use them anywhere in an instance except for boss fights, so I opted to use that one talent point on myself instead.

As far as Natural Shapeshifter, I find that popping out of Moonkin once or twice in a fight to throw out some quick heals or do a battle rez doesn't affect my mana too much. If I know I'm going to have to keep shifting back and forth, I just stay in caster form the whole time and forfeit the extra crit chance and armor. Especially after getting my Alchemist's Stone, I rarely have mana issues, and that's also taking into account that I almost always give my Innervate to a healer rather than myself. Sure, Natural Shapeshifter would help, but I like knowing I have a 3-second Healing Touch when I need it.

All of these talents are of course subject to change depending on where Nasirah goes in the future. There's always going to be some personal preference involved, and what works for me now may not work later in Kara or in harder raids.

Also, in response to a comment on my last post by Pesce: Now, not many people like PvP, but even if you dont, do it anyway.

Personally, I have never understood this philosophy. I know that PvP has a lot of great gear, and that for most people, it's the only way to get gear on par with the highest raiding gear. I wish I did enjoy it. But I don't, and I'm not going to waste time that I pay for doing something that I hate every minute of.

If Nas never gets gear any better than what she finds in Kara and gets from heroic badges, that's fine with me. That may mean that she never gets to see higher content. It may mean that she never does quite as much damage or has quite as much survivability as my guildmates who do PvP. But I don't care. It's a game, and it should be enjoyable. No one should ever be made to feel that they HAVE to PvP in order to be acceptable in PvE.

If you enjoy PvP, more power to you. Go out there, have fun, kick butt, and get awesome gear. (Or go out there, have fun, get your butt kicked, and still get awesome gear, just more slowly.) But if you're not having fun, it's not worth your time, in my opinion.

Moonkin Tanking as Crowd Control

2008-01-21T19:16:00.001-06:00

It's a well-known fact that druid crowd control in instances leaves something to be desired. Sure, there are places for it -- Hibernating the birds in Sethekk Halls, using Roots on the sentries in Escape from Durnholde, Cyclone as a possible temporary fix if something starts going after a healer -- but they are few and far between. Even in those instances, I usually have to remind my groupmates that I have these abilities, even if they're guildies I've grouped with many times before. Our crowd control just isn't used often enough for people to remember.

Now our feral cousins, the kitty druids, have the same issue. But if crowd control is lacking, they can pop into bear form and decently off-tank. They can do it better if they have a secondary set of gear, but most feral talents give some benefit to both cat and bear form, so they have the option. Moonkin, believe it or not, can fill the same roll.

I'm not going to go so far as to suggest main-tanking with your Moonkin (though if that idea intrigues you, there's an interesting post about it on the WoW-Europe forum). But assuming you have a good healer and decent gear, there's no reason you can't take on the first kill target.

"Just burn down skull as fast as possible" is a common solution when your group's crowd control abilities fall one mob short, but it can be a bit more organized if one person tries to grab that mob's attention, rather than letting them run amok. We're not the only ones who could take this spot. Warlocks can drain tank, rogues can stunlock and evasion tank, mages can frost kite. Your biggest advantage is the armor bonus from moonkin form. Moonkin off-tanking can be quite effective in non-heroic 5-mans, and I've even done it on a couple pulls in Heroics (but with a very good healer).

If you do find yourself in this situation, first thing is to get prepared. Use any consumables you have that increase your stamina, and get appropriate buffs from party members. Make sure to remove Blessing of Salvation if you have it on. And though you want high DPS to take the mob down as fast as possible, ask the other DPS to wait a second or two before they start their attacks, just to make sure the mob is really angry at you first. After all, you're not a true tank, you have no special abilities to gain threat. All you have is your damage.

Make sure you are at the maximum casting range from the mob you're assigned. As soon as you see the tank start to pull, start your Starfire cast, followed by a Moonfire. They should hit almost one on top of the other, for a nice jump on threat. If you have Celestial Focus, your Starfire might even stun them, buying you more time. Also, if you have anyone in the group who is capable of stunning, see if they can't intercept the mob with a stun as an additional buffer.

Once you've "claimed" your mob, start Wrath spamming away. Insect Swarm could give you a bit of mitigation, but it's not much threat, so I wouldn't waste the Global Cooldown. You WILL, however, want to cast Barkskin on yourself before the mob gets to you (most likely either after the moonfire or after the first wrath). I personally have Barkskin macroed to a damage trinket, so my Wraths are now hitting for more and building even more threat. Between your Wrath spamming (which is your highest DPS spell) and the rest of the party doing their job, the mob should go down quickly. Breathe a sigh of relief: you're still alive! Then get back to work, DPS'ing down the rest of the targets. After all, if you're called on to tank, chances are it's not an easy pull.

Beneficial Balance Builds

2008-01-19T10:12:00.000-06:00

Everyone's favorite bear has been posting over at WoW Insider on the weekly druid column, Shifting Perspectives. Last week, he covered talent choices for leveling from the perspective of a feral druid.

Feral, I think, really is the most efficient way to level. As much as I love my Moonkin, it's hard to pass up the almost zero downtime that comes with the feral style of playing. Pop into cat form, kill kill kill, pop back to caster form to heal back up (hey look, a nice full mana bar!), back to cat form. Repeat until the end of time. No eating. No drinking. It's awesome.

This continues to be the case once you enter Outland, but if you're going to make the jump to Balance, this is the time to do it. You'll be replacing all your gear anyway within the first couple levels, and it can be easier to step into a healing role if needed when you're already geared and specced as a caster (though keeping a true healing set on hand for those situations makes it much easier).

The following is a Balance spec for level 58*, suitable for someone just entering Outland. You get general damage output, a few utility talents, including 3 talents specifically to help with the mana issues you'll soon be facing.

Balance (37)
5/5 Starlight Wrath
3/3 Control of Nature
2/2 Focused Starlight
2/2 Improved Moonfire
3/3 Brambles
1/1 Insect Swarm
2/2 Nature's Reach
3/3 Celestial Focus
3/3 Lunar Guidance
1/1 Nature's Grace
3/3 Moonglow
5/5 Moonfury
3/3 Dreamstate
1/1 Moonkin Form

Restoration (12)
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Naturalist (or Nature's Focus)
2/3 Intensity

(Click here if you're more of a visual person.)

*EDIT: Of course you can start questing in Hellfire at 58, which is why I started the build here. However, especially with the recent changes to Azeroth leveling, I know more and more players not bringing their alts to Outland until they hit 60 and get that epic mount, and then they just breeze through all the initial quests much more easily.

Cdin brings up the point that, if you do want to jump right in at 58, you'll be lower level than everything around you, making Balance of Power a talent you'll want from the beginning. I'd suggest this as a possible modification to the build listed above. This will obviously affect how you spend your points for the next 12 levels, but let your own preferences guide you. There are always choices to be made.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog entry.

Personally I prefer Control of Nature to Nature's Grasp and improvements, but they serve very similar functions.

I passed up Vengeance because, at first, your gear probably won't have much spell crit rating, so those 5 points are better spent in Moonfury, for a consistant damage increase.

Second tier in the Resto tree you could really go with Naturalist or Nature's Focus. I prefer the first, but it's really just a way to get down to Intensity. And now that you're using your mana to fight and to heal yourself, you're going to want Intensity.

At level 59, I'd put that last point in Intensity, making it 3/3. After that, you have some choices for the rest of your journey to 70. Basically it comes down to the following question: how viable do you want to be for healing? If you have a great guild that will help you run instances as you level, or you don't care about running instances, just keep putting talents in the Balance tree to increase your DPS. However, if you're going to be LFG quite a bit, it can be much easier to find a spot as a healer than as a dime-a-dozen DPS (and one with very limited CC at that).

To Heal . . .
While you can certainly heal with an off-spec, having points invested in Restoration will help you do that job more efficiently. A druid specializes in healing over time. Regrowth, Rejuvenation, and (when you get it at 64) Lifebloom are your friends. However, there are times where Healing Touch is necessary as well, so make sure you have Naturalist to reduce that cast time. Other talents that will be of use to you are:

5/5 Subtlety - Pulling threat is generally considered a bad thing, whether you're DPS or healer. If you're DPS, you get to stop what you're doing so the tank can get the mob back off you. If you're the healer, you don't really have that option, so reducing your threat output is that much more important.

3/3 Improved Rejuvenation - Since this is a spell you'll use a lot, getting more healing for your mana is always a good choice.

1/1 Nature's Swiftness - It's good to macro this with Healing Touch . . . just in case. It has a 3-minute cooldown, so use it wisely, but it can literally mean the difference between life and death in some cases.

For the last two points, I would suggest 2/5 in Gift of Nature, giving all your healing a little extra power; however, Nature's Focus, Tranquil Spirit, and Improved Tranquility are other options. Or you can go back over to the Balance tree and put them there, but these Resto talents will give you a little bit of an edge if you're called upon to heal.

. . . or Not To Heal?
If healing really isn't your thing, there are plenty of places in the Balance tree you can add points to just keep pumping out the damage. I would suggest:

5/5 Wrath of Cenarius - Again, I'm choosing to go with a constant increase to your damage output, rather than improving your criticals. Once you level up a bit and start getting more crit gear, then jump back up to . . .

5/5 Vengeance - Spell criticals usually hit for 1.5x regular damage; maxing out this talent increases that to 2x regular damage. Now your crits give you the damage of two spells for the price of one. You could choose to get this sooner, but it really shines when you're critting more often.

Only one point left, what do we do?!?! If still you plan to do a lot of soloing at 70, this build should serve you well, and you can really put that last point wherever you want it. 1/1 in Force of Nature or 1/2 in Balance of Power are two of the better choices.

But, if you plan to do mostly group content (5-mans or raiding), it's time to respec. Some of the talents that served you well while leveling lose their magic in a group setting.

Brambles - Lose it. You should always cast Thorns on the tank to help him build threat, but it's not a primary source of damage, and you'll almost never use Entangling Roots (there's very few places you actually can), so these points are better spent elsewhere.

Celestial Focus - This one is debatable. The stun chance on Starfire isn't necessary (and on many mobs you'll get an "Immune" message that makes you wonder for a sec how he can be immune to arcane damage if you cast Moonfire without a problem). The chance to avoid interruption to Wrath can be nice in fights where everyone's taking damage, but you may decide the points are better spent elsewhere.

Force of Nature - This can be a fun little talent while leveling. However, if you had it before, now is the time to say goodbye to your tree friends. Extra damage is nice (extra damage that doesn't put threat on you is even nicer) but with no pet bar these guys can be unpredictable at times, and I personally don't trust them in instances. Again, can be useful, but the point is better spent elsewhere.

You're probably noticing a trend. The thing is, there are so many great talents in the Balance tree that you just can't get them all. So, it's almost never a case of, "this talent sucks," but more of, "it'd be nice, but other things are more important."

So what is more important?

Balance of Power - Maxing out this talent means you have the minimum 1% chance to be resisted by level 70 or 71 mobs. You'll have a 2% chance to be resisted by level 72 mobs. And while you'll still be resisted by raid bosses more frequently, it reduces the amount of spell hit you need on your gear. (See this recent post for more info on spell hit.)

Improved Faerie Fire - This talent, unfortunately, does nothing for you. You don't have a ranged attack weapon, and you almost never use melee attacks. However, it means that the melee and hunters in your group will be more likely to see their attacks hit, and less of your tank's crucial abilities will miss. This talent can give more casual groups (including PUGs) a better chance to succeed, and can give high-end raiding groups an extra edge. But it's your decision if you want to spend 3 points on a talent that doesn't directly benefit you.

Subtlety - Yes, our old friend back in the Restoration tree. If you have a threat meter, it can be frustrating to see yourself climbing and having to hold back on damage so you don't pull threat. If you don't have a threat meter, it can be even more frustrating to see yourself die. It depends on the kinds of groups you'll be running with, but it can be a safety precaution for casuals and PUGs where everyone may not have a threat meter, and it can help raiders do their max damage without holding back.

Not enough points for everything, unfortunately, which means that once again, you have choices to make. Most of it depends on what you're going to do with your druid. As an example, my main is currently running Kara on a weekly basis with a fairly consistant group, and getting into regular 5-mans and heroics when she can. This is the spec that I currently use, and I'm quite happy with it.

Do you do more soloing, or more group events? Do you just DPS, or are you often a backup healer? Do you run pugs all the time or do you have a group of players you know and trust? Do you PvP? (If that's the case, I can't help you, but WoWWiki can.)

These are all questions that you should ask yourself when choosing a level 70 talent build. Plan it out, try it out, and you can always respec if you decide you'd like to move some points around.

EDIT: It seems that great minds think alike. Check out Phaelia's article on Resto4Life, Leveling Restoration/Balance. Takes you all the way through 10-70, without a single point spent in the feral tree!

Colored Links!!!

2008-01-17T13:37:00.000-06:00

I'd inserted the code to get Wowhead tooltips when hovering over an item link a while ago, but I couldn't quite figure out how to get the link to be colored the way that I wanted. Actually it wasn't the coloring that was the issue, but I also wanted it non-underlined, and bold so it would stand out more and be more readable against the background. Somehow in trying to enter all these commands I was screwing up the syntax so that nothing was actually happening anymore.

Well, I finally figured it out, so I will slowly be updating all my previous posts with proper looking gear links. Hurrah!

Kurenai / Mag'har

2008-01-17T10:12:00.001-06:00

This installment of "How to Raise Your Reputation with Faction X" will be a bit simpler than the others. The Kurenai and Mag'har factions are based in Nagrand, but I figured I would mention them earlier because the Alliance will start questing for the Kurenai in late-Zangarmarsh, and the Horde meet the Mag'har as early as Hellfire Peninsula. Kurenai is interesting because you start out Unfriendly with them, and have to complete the initial quests from a few key NPC's in their starting camp to reach Neutral and be able to interact with the rest of the Faction. The Horde (according to WoWWiki) must complete the quest "A Spirit Guide" in order to reach Neutral and talk to the Mag'har in Hellfire Peninsula. (If any Horde players out there can verify this or any other specifics, I'd appreciate the input.)

Kurenai
WoWWiki - Kurenai
Wowhead - Kurenai quests

Mag'har
WoWWiki - Mag'har
Wowhead - Mag'har quests

Again, do your research on rewards and see how far you plan to go. But this time, feel free to do all the quests you want. Anything that gives rep with Kurenai gives rep from Neutral all the way up to Exalted, so there's no need to watch your step or worry about "wasting" rep too early, as with the other factions you've run into so far. Aside from questing, there are a variety of mobs in Nagrand that give 10 rep per kill: any ogre, and the mobs at Kil'sorrow Fortress and Sunspring Post (though at Sunspring Post there are some mobs that are significantly easier to kill that are only worth 2 rep each).

There is also a repeatable quest to turn in [Obsidian Warbeads], which drop from the ogres around Nagrand. However, before turning in all your beads to the Kurenai or Mag'har, also look into the Consortium rewards. These warbeads are also used as a repeatable turn-in for Consortium, so you may want to save them, and just rely on kills to raise your Kurenai/Mag'har reputation. On the other hand, there are quests and drops for Consortium rep in Netherstorm as well, while Kurenai/Mag'har stops in Nagrand, so you may want to finish with your respective faction while you're there, and worry about Consortium later. It's up to you, and will probably come down to which faction you want to get higher reputation with.

One final note regarding the Warbeads: they are BIND ON PICKUP! This means you can't farm them with another character or buy them on the Auction House. More importantly, though, it means to be careful when grouping up with other players. The beads are not rolled on, they simply go to whichever person's turn it is on that particular corpse. When grouping with friends or guildies, things could become a bit more negotiable if they know you really need to get to Exalted (or, if you only care about Honored and you have a group-mate who wants Exalted, conceding your beads to them by leaving them on the corpse would be a good gesture). Just make sure everyone knows what's going on ahead of time, and watch out for leaving loot on Free-For-All; an absent-minded Auto-Looter could end up with all the beads even if they have no use for them.

Spell Hit Rating

2008-01-16T09:52:00.000-06:00

With my recent upgrade, and looking ahead to new upgrades, I've started thinking quite a bit about spell hit. I mentioned this briefly in my last post, and thought it would be a good idea to say a bit about it.

Spell hit increases the chance that your spells will hit (crazy concept). The hit cap is 99%, so there will always be a 1% chance for any spell to be resisted. This isn't the case for melee; they can get all the way up to a 100% chance to hit. Kinda sucks for us casters, but I think it helps account for the fact that spells go straight through without being affected by armor. I may be completely wrong with that reasoning, but that's how I tend to think of it.

Initially, when I started becoming more serious about learning to play and gear my Moonkin well (basically, when Warcraft became less of a game and more of a hobby), I only did enough research to learn that, as a balance druid, I needed 152 spell hit rating to reach the 99% hit cap against boss-level mobs. I started collecting hit gear whenever I could, wouldn't take an upgrade if it lowered my spell hit, put in almost all spell hit gems (or hit and damage), got my gloves enchanted with spell hit . . . basically everything I could do. And it did make a huge difference. While I used to miss on bosses all the time, by the time I got up to 130 spell hit rating, I rarely ever saw that dreaded "Resist" message.

On Sunday, I got my [Moon-walkers], and with them came that 152 number I'd been striving for for so long. Of course, at this point the game is even more of a hobby, and especially since starting this blog I want to know more of what I'm talking about and not just be all, "Pew pew! Moonkin RAWK!"

So, here are some things that I've found out about spell hit, even further solidifying my decision to start looking for non-hit gear.

First and foremost, you have a base chance of 96% to hit a same-level mob. This is before gear or talents. This number goes up or down depending on the level difference, slowly at first, then more rapidly. For the first couple levels, the percentage changes by one. If you're one level lower, you have a 95% chance to hit the mob. Two levels, 94% chance. (If you're higher than them it also goes by 1% per level until you reach a three level difference and hit the 99% cap.)

However, once you are three levels lower than the mob, suddenly that number jumps down from 94% to 83%. It keeps going from there, but this is significant because bosses are considered to be three levels higher than you. (See "Boss" on WoWWiki for more info.) So to increase your resistance up to 99%, you need to make up a 16% difference in spell hit. The balance talent Balance of Power gives you 4% of this if you put in both talent points, which takes the number down to 12% and equates to 152 hit rating (12.6 = 1% at level 70).

That last paragraph was the small bit of information I found out all those months ago and have been working toward ever since. I didn't realize, however, just how far my 4% talent increase goes.

For a level 70 mob, I have 96% + 4% = 100% chance to hit (except it stops at 99%).

For a level 71 mob, I have 95% + 4% = 99% chance to hit (still at the cap).

For a level 72 mob, I have 94% + 4% = 98% chance to hit. This is slightly lower than the cap, so I could just be satisfied with my 98% chance, or if I really wanted to reach the hit cap I would only need 13 hit rating to do so.

So, for the most part, all of that spell hit on my gear is being wasted. Granted, trash mobs go down quick enough that taking away some spell hit and adding some damage and crit isn't going to make THAT much of a difference. And, given that I already have a full bag of gear I always carry with me (a full resto set, a couple extra idols and trinkets, and of course my token feral staff), and almost two bags full of consumables, reagents, and other essentials, I have to ask myself if it's really worth it to start accumulating ANOTHER set of gear to have on me at all times.

Right now, I would say no. But the farther we start progressing into Kara, and when/if we make the transition to 25-mans or Zul'Aman, I think it will. I was discussing with my husband how I use my boss spell rotation (primarily Starfire) on trash pulls rather than a higher DPS rotation (primarily Wrath) because it throws me off whenever I get a Nature's Grace proc and hit my next Wrath before the global cooldown is up (since the Nature's Grace proc makes the spell cast in only 1 sec, and GCD is 1.5 sec). I said that the trash goes down so fast it doesn't really matter if I'm not doing max DPS, boss fights are where I need to maximize efficiency. He pointed out though that if everyone increased their DPS by just a hair, it would start to make a difference and we could start moving through trash a lot faster. So, I have started using Wrath more, and trying to just time my hits with the GCD rather than watching the cast bar. Putting on more spell damage and getting rid of some of that useless (against these mobs) spell hit rating would be another step in the right direction.

The article on WoWWiki has a lot of great tables that help visualize a lot of these concepts, particularly one that shows how much hit rating you need against each level mob (70-73) assuming various classes and talents. There's also a blue forum post confirming the percentages and calculations on the WoWWiki page.

Edit: Funnily enough, Karthis also happened to touch on hit rating in his blog today. Any feral druids out there . . . well, you're probably already reading his blog anyway, as it would do you far more good than this one. But for anyone who wants to get a melee (specifically a tank) perspective on hit rating, give it a read.

Weekend in Review

2008-01-14T12:02:00.001-06:00

I know I've mentioned that our guild seemed to be going through a dry spell the last couple of weeks. Well... it looks like that's over, if this weekend is any indicator. We had enough people on all weekend that I ran a Heroic Sethekk on Saturday (got my husband his epic flight form), a Heroic Mech on Sunday, and a successful Kara run both nights. We took out Attumen, Moroes, and Maiden on Saturday, in about 2.5 hours, and did Opera (Romulo & Julianne) and Curator on Sunday in 1.5 hours. A few deaths, no wipes. And Curator we had almost all melee for our DPS, and only 2 healers (I was not one of them, I specced back to Balance about a week ago, in case I hadn't mentioned that), so I was afraid the chain lightning from the flares would be our doom, but it went off without a hitch. I didn't have to shift out of Moonkin form once to help throw out heals.

Not only did I have a lot of fun this weekend, but I got enough badges to finally get my [Moon-walkers], replacing my last green item. I now have more epics than blues, and a few of those blues are my trinkets and idol, which I'm not looking to replace anyway.

I'm going to need to start regemming soon, since I've reached the hit cap for spell hit rating against boss-level mobs, and most of the upgrades I have my eye on have more spell hit on them as well. Also, this is probably something I should have been doing all along, but I think I need to make my hit-capped set different than my regular DPS set, because I think having so much invested in that hit rating is hurting my other stats. Currently, with Mark of the Wild up, my stats are as follows:

7754 HP
9050 MP
+765 spell damage
21.57% crit chance (with Moonkin aura)
152 hit rating

Not bad, but not as good as some of my fellow raiders. And if we're going to be pushing farther into Kara, I just feel like I need to crank it up a notch. I'd like to have at least +800 spell damage unbuffed (or at least self-buffed with MotW), and 25% crit chance in Moonkin. I think my stamina and intellect are in a pretty good place, but I don't want to start sacrificing those stats for damage. So . . . I have a bit of research to do.

I've been so focused on Kali lately, excited about a new character and making healing my main focus with her, but I think it's time to give my Moonkin a bit more love.

Casters Can Melee Too!

2008-01-11T23:18:00.000-06:00

I actually decided to write this post from a fairly round-about series of events (or blogs, as it were). Phaelia started it all with her post on mana management over at Resto4Life. After that, Graylo decided to cover the same topic from a Moonkin's point of view on his blog, Gray Matter. In his article, he mentions our often neglected ability to generate mana by whacking away with your stick (or whatever weapon you're wielding at the time).

I admit, this isn't an ability that I use much. When I do, it's usually when I'm out soloing, not in instances or raids. As Graylo mentions, there are many bosses where melee is a liability, and one of the main reasons I went with Balance over Feral is that I'd much rather stand back and blast away at things from a safe distance.

However, every once in a while my feathery beast starts whacking away blindly, and if I really need more hitting power I might even go into kitty form to fight. It's not a common occurance, but it does happen from time to time -- some things just do not respond well to magic (or, from their point of view, they respond VERY well to magic). And having a weapon to swap in at those moments can be very helpful. Even if you don't want to build a full feral set, or you have one collecting dust in the bank, it's a really good idea to get a feral staff and keep it in your bag at all times. They have a lot of attack power when you're in your forms, and can make quite a bit of difference when you do find yourself hitting mobs with something other than arcane and nature magic.

There are lots of quests while leveling through Outland where you might pick one of these up. Often you'd have to give up a nice Balance or Resto reward, but depending on what that reward is and how soon it could be replaced, it might be worth it. And there's even a few times where this staff is the only reward you can even use. Here's the list of "druid attack power" quest rewards:

[Agamaggan's Quill] - reward from The Path of Anguish (for alliance) or Felspark Ravine (for horde) in Hellfire Peninsula. The other option for casters is [The Staff of Twin Worlds].

[Staff of the Wild] - reward from Now That We're Friends in Zangarmarsh. The other option for casters is the [Hammer of the Sporelings].

[Staff of the Four Golden Coins] - reward from The Twin Clefts of Nagrand (for alliance) or An Audacious Advance (for horde) in Nagrand. Here's your first guilt-free feral staff, since the other two rewards are a shield and a piece of plate armor.

[Wild Wood Staff] - reward from From the Ashes in Blade's Edge Mountains. Again, the other rewards are a bow and a shield, so you're not sacrificing anything except the 8 gold you'd get if you vendored it.

[Staff of Beasts] - reward from the Ring of Blood quests in Nagrand. These rewards offer a little something for everyone, so whether you're Balance or Resto you might find yourself reaching for something else. However, since many players come back and do these quests at 70 for the easy gold, you may already have better. If you do this while you're still leveling, go on and grab your appropriate weapon since it might be the best you see for a while, especially if you don't group much. But if you're 70 and already have better, or you run a lot of instances and think you might get better soon, consider the Staff of Beasts.

[Wildcaller] - reward from Varedis Must Be Stopped in Shadowmoon Valley. There's a very nice healing dagger as well. So, depending on your spec and current gear, it's a toss-up between these two.

[Fleshling Simulation Staff] - reward from Nexus-King Salhadaar in Netherstorm. This time there's a DPS staff and a healing staff to choose from as well. These are nice rewards, and if you don't raid or PvP, they might be the best you get for quite some time. Don't make the decision lightly, but keep the feral staff in mind as an option.

If you're level 70 and have already done all these quests, there are other options. [Braxxis' Staff of Slumber] and the [Staff of Natural Fury] are two BoE's that you might see on the Auction House, although the first is more of a defensive weapon, and the second is geared more towards feral PvP. So, they're probably not worth the money as a stand-by weapon. Also worth mentioning, if you do PvP, that's another way to get a good feral weapon, if you don't mind spending the points/honor/tokens on an off-spec item.

There are several drops in 5-man dungeons, and the nice thing about these is that, unless there's an actual feral druid in the group, you shouldn't have to roll the other DPS for it.

[Dreamer's Dragonstaff] - from Botanica
[Greatstaff of the Leviathan] - from Heroic Underbog
[Draenic Wildstaff] - from Heroic Auchenai Crypts
[Feral Staff of Lashing] - from Heroic Botanica

There are more out there, but these are some of the more accessible options. Even if you aren't feral specced, you should really try to pick one up if you can. These are made for druids, and as a druid, you really owe it to yourself to keep one on hand. You never know when it might be useful.

Cenarion Expedition

2008-01-11T14:14:00.000-06:00

Cenarion Expedition is the second main faction you'll encounter in Outland. As with all factions, it's best to read up a little on what benefits you can get by raising your reputation with them. Luckily, it's one of the easiest to grind the initial two ranks up to Honored, and I would almost suggest doing this anyway even if you don't think you'll need Revered or Exalted with them, just because it is so painless (especially if you're an herbalist . . . but more on that later). That way you have the extra reputation in case you change your mind later, and the extra discounts are never a bad thing.

WoWWiki - Cenarion Expedition
Wowhead - Cenarion Expedition quests

As with Honor Hold, there are certain ways of raising your reputation before you start questing with them. If you want to raise reputation the most efficiently, follow this plan.

Neutral and Friendly
Turn in [Unidentified Plant Parts]. That's it. No quests, no grinding on mobs, not even instance runs. Gather up or buy 360 unidentified plant parts and turn them in, as soon as you hit 60 if possible. The reason is that every time you turn in unidentified plant parts, you have a small chance to "discover" a new [Uncatalogued Species], which you can turn in later for more reputation. The more plant parts you turn in, the better your chances of getting the uncatalogued species.

The reason you should run over to Zangarmarsh and turn these in at 60 (when the quest becomes available) is that there are a few Cenarion quests in Hellfire Peninsula, and you don't want to accidentally get that rep too early. So, if you have the money, try to gather these on the auction house. Or, if you have a higher level character, farm these up even before you get to Outland, just so you're ready.

These drop off various mobs all throughout Zangarmarsh, but if you are an herbalist you have a distinct advantage. First of all, you have a chance to get plant parts when you pick herbs in Zangarmarsh. But also, you have three good grinding areas to choose from: the Dead Mire in the northeast, or either Quagg Ridge or the Spawning Glen in the southwest. Kill the bog lords, and then "skin" them with your herbalism. That way, you're collecting plant parts from the kills themselves and from the skinning. You can also get real herbs while skinning them. (Of course there's also grey vendor trash that's pretty common as well.) This is the most efficient way I've found of grinding plant parts.

If you have to grind them with your leveling character, make sure you steer clear of any mobs that give Cenarion reputation (consult the list on WoWWiki, but mostly the naga and their slaves). Yes, the more rep you get through kills, the less plant parts you need to collect, but that's also less chance of getting uncatalogued species.

If your goal is Revered, you can be a little more lax about it. Still save all your quests, but you should still hit Revered easily even if you don't do any species turn-ins later. It's also worth mentioning that you may do all 36 turn-ins and still not get any species, so even if you're aiming for Exalted, it's up to you how strict you want to be with yourself. If you have the means, I would strongly suggest doing the full turn-ins with no other rep gains during Neutral and Friendly. However, if this is the first character you're leveling through Outland, that might be more difficult. So, ultimately, it's up to you.

Honored . . .
As soon as you hit honored, turn in any uncatalogued species you might have gotten. You'll get 500 reputation for each one. These won't give reputation once you're revered, so make sure you do this first thing.

. . . and Beyond
With species turn-ins out of the way, you're free to start doing quests. Go back to Hellfire and do the few that are there. Zangarmarsh is your first big quest hub for this faction, and there are a few in Terokkar Forest as well. Once you get to Blade's Edge, go up to Evergrove as most quests here give Cenarion reputation. Finally, there is a short chain of three quests available in Netherstorm. If you don't start them until honored, all of these quests should make you ding Revered.

Slave Pens and Underbog will no longer give rep through kills, but there is a quest that goes into both of these instances, so they're still worth doing, especially if you want to reach Exalted. If you save the quest until you're 70, you can run them on Heroic so that you also get rep by killing. Steamvaults (heroic or regular) gives reputation as well. You can also collect [Coilfang Armaments] for a repeatable turn-in quest, after getting your [Orders from Lady Vashj] (which should drop at some point during your first run).

Don't forget to try and find a group for the daily dungeon quests whenever they apply, as they'll give an additional 250 (for regular Steamvaults) or 350 (for any heroic) reputation upon turn-in, in addition to the rep earned in the instance.

And, since this is a druid blog and a druid faction, I'll point out that they do have an epic reward for each spec at Exalted: [Earthwarden] is meant for feral druids, though it's definitely geared more toward bear tanks than cat DPS. [Ashyen's Gift] is a nice spell damage ring, well-suited for Moonkin, or any other caster DPS for that matter. [Windcaller's Orb] is a healing off-hand useful to resto druids and other healers.

Ding!

2008-01-10T09:52:00.001-06:00

Well, Kali finally hit that much anticipated level 58 yesterday! It amuses me somewhat that 58 has now become a milestone level. 20, 30, 40, and 50, while they don't necessarily open up any new and exciting content, mark some pretty nice talent options (some nicer than others, depending on your class and tree). And 60 is still nice because you get your fast epic mount. But 58 is equally important, ever since the Burning Crusade expansion, because it opens up Outland.

Now I, like a lot of players I know, have had my hearthstone set to Shattrath ever since about level 25 when I had my friendly neighborhood warlock summon me out there. So it's not exactly like I didn't have access to Outland. The quests are available to me now, but since I'm going to be grinding Honor Hold rep through Honored before I start any of them, that doesn't much matter to me. If I'd wanted, I could have come out and stealthed along while my husband blasted orcs, and started working on that reputation a few levels ago. But, I decided to take advantage of the bonus XP from questing for as long as I could, or at least as long as I could stand it. As it is, Kali is 59 right now, and I just couldn't take any more of the Plaguelands.

But the transition to Outland means another turning point, at least for me: respeccing from Feral to Balance.

I never played Balance back in Azeroth, but I can't imagine that it's easy to find good gear. Feral gear is much more abundant, and I can kill things quickly as a kitty, so feral seemed a good choice for getting through that first stage.

In Outland, however, I know finding gear for my Moonkin won't be an issue. Also, I'd like her to start healing instances when she can (I didn't step foot in one old-world instance the entire time I was leveling) so she also has some points in Resto. And in addition to the gear overlapping more, the trees compliment each other as well. Lunar Guidance, Moonglow, and Dreamstate are all great Balance talents for a healing druid.

So... here's Kali's current spec. I'll be putting more points in Resto as I level, then respeccing to a full Resto build once she hits 70 (or very soon after, if there's any last-minute things I want to do while I'm still an offensive caster).

Healing Gear: Cloaks

2008-01-09T13:13:00.005-06:00

I've already listed various idols, weapons, off-hands, necklaces, rings, and trinkets that can be used for healing. Aside from idols, these are all universally available to any healer, although their preferred stats may be different. Cloaks are the last of this universal gear. After this, itemization is a bit more clear. Any leather gear you find with healing stats is meant for a druid. Shamans and paladins could certainly wear them if they wanted, but these are the pieces that are meant for you, as a resto druid (or druid building a resto set of gear).

Just as shamans and paladins can choose to downgrade their armor by wearing leather healing gear, you also have the option to wear cloth. There are arguments for and against this. Some feel that the stats are the most important thing and the armor difference shouldn't be considered. Others say that druids should take advantage of their ability to wear leather, especially since they have very limited ways of dropping aggro if something does start beating on them (cat-cower or certain trinkets).

For this post, however, we're just concerned with cloaks.

The Path to 70
There aren't many options while leveling through Outland. If you find yourself searching the Auction House, look for enchants that are of the physician, prophet, or hierophant, depending on what's available and what your stat needs are. But, here are some other Bind-on-Pickup options along the way.

[Lost Anchorite's Cloak] - Horde-only quest reward from Hellfire Peninsula
[Arakkoa Sage's Shawl] - quest reward from Terokkar Forest
[Cloak of Healing Rays] - drop from Underbog
[Cloak of Revival] - drop from Mana Tombs

Quest Rewards
Unfortunately some of these rewards are for dungeon quests, so they aren't soloable. However, the advantage over drops is that these are guaranteed with one pass through the instance (as long as you complete the quest objectives).

[Mantle of Vivification] or [Vicar's Cloak] - quest reward from Shattered Halls
[Sha'tari Anchorite's Cloak] - quest reward from How to Break Into the Arcatraz
[Diviner's Cloak] - quest reward from Netherstorm

Auction House
Obviously you can find many more options than these, but here are a couple in particular to look for if you've got gold to spend.

[White Remedy Cape] - crafted with Tailoring
[Lifegiving Cloak] - random BoE epic

Reputation Rewards
Only Ogri'la offers a healing cloak as a reputation reward, the [Apexis Cloak]. If you make your money through dailies, you'll probably get this fairly quickly without much extra effort. The only catch is that you need to get a group together to help you get the apexis crystal it costs.

5-man Drops
[Cloak of Whispering Shells] - drop from Steamvault
[Avian Cloak of Feathers] - drop from Sethekk Halls
[Cloak of Scintillating Auras] - drop from Arcatraz
[Cloak of Swift Mending] - drop from Magisters' Terrace
[Cloak of the Everliving] - drop from Heroic Ramparts
[Light-Touched Stole of Altruism] - drop from Heroic Auchenai Crypts

Badges of Justice
[Bishop's Cloak] - available for 25 badges
[Kharmaa's Shroud of Hope] - available for 60 badges
[Cloak of Swift Reprieve] - available for 60 badges

Karazhan Drops
[Red Riding Hood's Cloak] - drop from the Big Bad Wolf opera event
[Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted] - drop from Prince Malchezzar

Zul'Aman Drops
[Cloak of Ancient Rituals] - drop from Hex Lord Malacrass

I'm going to stop here, assuming that if you're into 25-mans (or even the 10-mans) chances are you've done your own homework concerning gear and don't need me to list for you what's out there. I also haven't touched on any PvP rewards, but if that's something that interests you, it can be a great way for solo and small-group players to get gear that's on par with raid drops.

Obviously some of these choices will be better than others, but there's not always a clear-cut option. It depends what the rest of your gear has and is lacking. It depends on your play style and where you get most of your gear. Whether you need more basic stats or more additional healing, if you'd rather sacrifice a little healing for more mana regeneration, if it's worth it to save badges or whether you'd rather wait for a drop . . . these are all decisions that individual players need to make.

And while we're talking about choices, Bovisrex commented that I left off a good endurance cloak, overlooked because it didn't have any bonus healing to it. This inspired me to dig a little deeper. Here's a few options for those who don't necessarily need more healing as much as they need other stats.

Non-Healing Healer Cloaks
[Cloak of the Ancient Spirits] or [Ceremonial Cover] - available at Exalted with Kurenai/Mag'har
[Manaweave Cloak] - crafted with tailoring
*[Shadowvine Cloak of Infusion] - drop from Terestian Illhoof in Kara (*Bovisrex's pick)

Goals Revisited

2008-01-08T12:08:00.000-06:00

With the craziness and inconsistancy of the holidays, it's been a while since I looked at the goals I set for myself several weeks ago.

I've been slacking on dailies again. My hunter is finally in Ogri'la, but I haven't done much there with her or with Nas in at least a week, probably more. It's a simple once-a-day thing that I just have to force myself to do. I'm not low on gold right now, which is probably why I'm not compelled to do it, but I should still be giving myself that steady income for when I do need something.

On the plus side, Nas finally got her [Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess]. I'm not worried about the boots so much because I'm only 20 badges away from the epic ones I want, so my new goal is to get those badges as fast as possible. This may mean (heaven forbid) pugs . . . though I refuse to pug while I'm resto because everyone always blames the healer when things go wrong. Not to mention that, in this case, it probably WOULD be my fault since I'm not sure she's geared enough to main-heal a heroic. It'd be much nicer if Kara runs picked up again and then I could have those badges in just a couple weeks. But we'll see about that.

Kali is level 55, so Outland is not far away. My main focus with my hunter right now is farming reputation items, but I'm sure I'll have to start buying off the auction house since Kali is getting so close. Even more reason to get those dailies done on a regular basis.

One other thing I do want to do on my hunter is getting my new tanking pet (Pinchy) leveled to 70 and max loyalty, so I can put all his training points into HP and Armor. I would really love to be able to farm the elite trees that wander around Skettis, because they're great for Herbalism. Lots of high-level herbs, and motes of life, and I just couldn't keep my ravager alive long enough to take them down. I'm hoping this new pet will make the task doable.

It always seems like I have more going on for my hunter than I do my "real" characters. She gets stuck with all the boring stuff, so Nas and Kali get to have all the fun!

Cast Out Your Corrupt Thoughts!

2008-01-07T12:17:00.000-06:00

We finally got back into Kara last night and went for the Maiden of Virtue.

Let me just start by explaining that we are not a highly progressed raiding guild. Aside from one trip into Zul'Aman that was pretty much just for fun, we've never done anything other than Kara. We usually raid Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, taking down one or two bosses a night depending on group makeup. We take down Curator on a weekly basis and -- before the holidays -- were starting to get Shade of Aran into our regular rotation as well. We've unsuccessfully attempted the Prince a couple times, but haven't even attempted any of the other later, optional bosses.

Given all this, I'm still surprised that the week AFTER the holidays is when we experience our slowest slump in quite some time. The week before and the week of Christmas, we still managed to get to at least Opera, and Curator one, if not both, of those weeks (I can't quite remember now). This week, we did Attumen on Tuesday, then had not enough show up for raid again until last night. And even so, we went in with only 9. Mildly amusing, but slightly disappointing and frustrating as well. I'm hoping things get better in the next couple weeks.

Getting back to Kara, we knew we didn't have the group makeup for Moroes: lacking in shackles and bubbles, but most importantly only having one tank. So we decided to fight our way up to Maiden and do our best.

The trash fights were ridiculously simple to heal, though it helped that we only had one tank, and were crowd controling all other mobs. Lifebloom, rejuvenation, and renew were more than enough to keep our tank topped off, and the only time it ever got tricky was when crowd control broke, and on those couple AoE group pulls before reaching Maiden's hallway.

We only had one attempt on the boss herself and it didn't go well. It was an accidental pull from one of the DPS, but our tank picked it up right away, so I'm not sure that actually contributed at all to our wipe. We had an early death (due, I think, to Holy Fire) so were down to eight. Then I got Holy Fire and wasn't cleansed quickly enough, so there went one of the two healers, and people kept dropping from there.

Main problem was that, we usually have two main healers on this fight, plus one or two others either off-healing or at least capable of cleansing Holy Fire (non-healer pallies usually fill this roll, since maiden only requires one tank and isn't great for other melee). In this case we had two main healers (me and a priest) and only two dispellers (a ret-pally off-healing and the same priest). So, the priest had a lot to keep track of, and with my going down as early as I did, there was no way she'd be able to keep up.

We also had a rogue in the group, and we usually try to stay away from melee on this fight because of Maiden's AoE. As I said earlier though, we only had 9 on, so we didn't have the luxury of picking the best group makeup for the job like we normally do. However, I think that if we'd had another pally or priest as our 10th (a third dispeller, more than additional healing), the fight would have been as trivial as it usually is. I could keep my HoT's alternating on the main tank and the melee DPS, helping keep the rogue up more easily than a priest or pally, who's also concentrating on dispelling. He also has his healthstones, potions, and knows to run out of the AoE to bandage if necessary. After all, keeping the tank up is always priority number one.

But overall, I think a druid would make a very good healer for this fight, and I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to live for more of it. Our soulstoned person died in a bad place, and Moroes's trash had respawned by the time we got back up, so we opted to just call it a night. But . . . I'm still resto for the time being, and will continue to share my experiences healing for Kara for as long as I'm able to do so.

(And for anyone not familiar with the Maiden of Virtue fight and feeling a little lost, you can read more about it here if you like.)

Honor Hold / Thrallmar

2008-01-04T10:44:00.000-06:00

Before you even step through the Dark Portal, take a good hard look at these faction rewards. Is there anything that looks good? Now you need to ask yourself . . . how good? Are there quest rewards in Shadowmoon or Netherstorm that are comparable? The reason this is so important is that Honor Hold (and, for the horde, Thrallmar) is one of the most annoying factions to level, and if you want anything higher than Honored, you're going to want to do some grinding before you even accept that first quest back in Blasted Lands, just before stepping through the portal.

Honor Hold
WoWWiki - Honor Hold
Wowhead - Honor Hold quests

Thrallmar
WoWWiki - Thrallmar
Wowhead - Thrallmar quests

Once you've decided how far you want to go, you'll know how much of the initial grinding to worry about. As I mentioned, if you only want Friendly or Honored, go ahead and start doing quests right away -- they'll get you there. If you want Revered or Exalted, you'll have to start from the beginning.

Neutral
Grind on the Shattered Hand orcs outside Hellfire Citadel. There's a complete list on WoWWiki (the Honor Hold version) of the ones that give rep, and while there's no such list on the Thrallmar page, there is a brief mention that they do give reputation for Thrallmar as well. (However, I've never played a horde character that high, so I can't confirm this from my own experience.)

You can use any of the other options for gaining reputation at this point as well, but this is the only one that will stop when you reach friendly, so I suggest taking advantage for as long as you can. If solo grinding just isn't your thing, daily PvP and instance runs will help break the monotony. But beware the quests! Grinding can be done at any time, but once the rep from quests are gone, they're gone for good.

Friendly
At this point, you can no longer solo grind on the orcs, and you have to go into Ramparts and Blood Furnace to start earning your reputation. This could either be a lot of fun or a lot of frustration. If you don't have a couple level 70's willing to run you through or other leveling friends, do your best to find pick-up groups. If you're only aiming for Revered, this stage isn't AS crucial, but more of the lower instance runs now means less of the harder runs later.

The other issue is that of dungeon quests. I'm not 100% sure how much of the inital quest chain (if any) you need to do before picking up the quest Weaken the Ramparts. Some have reported that there's only a rep requirement of friendly and you don't need to do any quests. I've not tested this, but you can always try to pick it up.

There's another quest, Dark Tidings, that starts from a drop from the final boss in Ramparts. These two quests lead to two more in Blood Furnace, Heart of Rage and The Blood is Life. I would suggest only turning in the Ramparts quests and getting the Blood Furnace ones if you are trying to get Revered with Honor Hold, as it will save a little bit of time. Otherwise, if you want to save ALL your quest rep for after Honored, you'll have to run these instances one last time to do the quests, after you no longer get rep from killing the mobs. Or, you can try saving the quests until you can run Heroic Ramparts and Heroic Blood Furnace, and get the rep then.

Honored and Beyond
At this point, things are easy, because everything gives the same rep, so there's no benefit to "saving" certain things. Do any and all quests that give Honor Hold rep (you can find a complete list at the Wowhead link above). These should get you most of the way to Revered, if you don't start them until you hit Honored. Just watch out because there are some quests in Hellfire that give Cenarion Expedition rep. I don't want to get into Cenarion stuff now, but if you're concerned about them and you aren't sure, double-check Wowhead.

Once you're done in Hellfire, you're pretty much done earning reputation with these guys until you get closer to 70 and can start running Shattered Halls. This, as well as all three Heroic versions will continue giving reputation through Exalted, and if this is your goal, you'll be seeing a LOT of these instances. The dungeon daily quests are also a good way to boost your reputation gains, as you'll get 250 rep for the non-heroic Shattered Halls quest, and 350 rep for any of the Heroic quests, on top of the reputation earned in the instance itself.

I've been writing this from an Alliance standpoint since it's what I know, but all of the same principles hold true for the Horde as well. Grinding to Honored before starting any quests will save you a lot of runs later on. If you like instance runs and have a dedicated group that you know will run them with you at 70, you may not worry so much about following these rules (though for you, this will be the case with almost any faction).

The other way to gain reputation which I mentioned briefly is the daily PvP quest, Hellfire Fortifications. If you want to reach Exalted, I'd recommend trying to do this quest every day, as it will help bridge the gap from level 63-68 or so, when there's really no other way to gain reputation with this faction.

Also, don't forget to get your Shattered Halls key, through a 4-step quest chain that nets 875 reputation with either Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Plus, you get to kill one of the Fel Reavers that tormented you back when you were questing in Hellfire! Here's the string for Alliance or Horde.

Hopefully this is of some help. Most of the basic principles (mainly holding off on quests) will hold true for all factions, though with most of them it's much easier to solo through the first part, either by grinding or buying turn-in items. But I'll get to that next time, when I cover Cenarion Expedition.

Reputation Overview

2008-01-03T22:15:00.000-06:00

The entire time I've been leveling Kalisera, I've had her reputation goals in mind. I've done a lot of research on each Outland faction, what they have to offer, and what I have to do to increase my standing with them. Especially if you want to reach exalted with any given faction, it's good to have a plan ahead of time to make the grind as efficient as possible. And since I've done so much looking into it already, I hope to help provide that information here.

Since it would be impossible for me to give all the necessary information at once, here's a couple good resources:

WoWWiki has a page on every faction, including their rewards available, and a quick "at-a-glance" table of what you can do for rep during each stage of the process. This is my primary resource when looking to gain rep with a faction.

Wowhead is another good place to resource, especially for looking up quests. In my experience, its information is very reliable, organized, and easy to read.

(These sites are equally useful for all the old Azeroth factions, for anyone who still wants to earn their reputation with the Timbermaw Furbolg or Argent Dawn.)

For each faction overview I write, I'll link to the relevant pages on both of these sites. Also, rather than just copying and pasting the information already given, I'll be giving my own input on good grinding spots, quests to watch out for, and other random things I've learned from leveling two previous characters through Outland.

Healing Kara

2008-01-02T15:02:00.000-06:00

Well, I respecced Nas last night for Kara. Our healers seem to have been disappearing lately, one by one. I'm going to assume that it's just the holidays, and eventually they'll all come trickling back as silently as they left. But yes, it finally got to the point where I felt the need to go and respec.

I actually wasn't even planning on running with the Kara group last night, since I'd gotten home later than I'd planned and wasn't feeling great. But at about 6:55 I saw on my husband's screen that they still only had 9 in the raid group, so I figured I'd pop on. We've done Attumen with 9 several times, but a 10th never hurts, and plus it's a badge.

Well, we had only one of our regular healers, plus a fellow balance druid who had respecced resto just before the run. We got through the trash with minor difficulties, but we were going slower than normal, and ended up wiping our first attempt with not enough time to try again before respawns. The other druid had been having lag issues and a couple disconnects this entire time, and finally it looked like she wasn't coming back, so I took the opportunity to teleport out to Moonglade and respec.

So we started over again. The other druid had returned by this time, so I threw my damage gear back on for the trash, but sure enough about 10 minutes in she disconnected again, so I was promoted to healer.

It was a VERY crazy boss fight; we started with only 9, and after several deaths and a couple battle rezzes (my husband's new feral druid was one of our tanks, so we had two) ended up with 7 standing at the end. Everyone was kinda burnt out, plus we were already down one, and I'd told them from the start that I probably wouldn't feel like staying on long, so we didn't move on to Moroes. However, I'll be very interested to continue resto-specced for a while, if our numbers allow for it. I know last night wasn't the best circumstances for my first attempt at healing Kara, and I'd like to take another crack at it.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T22:27:00.000-06:00

First of all, happy 2008 to everyone out there!

Secondly, I wanted to link a good article I read recently about handling adds in the Black Morass. The article, by Laser Chicken, can be found here. As I mentioned in my comment to the article, we usually have two people on adds: one focuses on the single adds that come out, while one DPS's the boss but takes the whelps when they do come out (that last one is usually my job). But using all the tactics that Laser Chicken outlines, I'd be interested to try taking all the trash mobs as they spawn sometime.

Now I'd meant to link this article soon after reading it, but with all the craziness of the past week I simply didn't get around to it. However, now I can add a thank you to Laser Chicken for adding me to his blogroll.

More WoW-ish blog entries of my own coming soon, I promise.

Name Removed to Protect the Stupid

2007-12-28T12:01:00.000-06:00

After getting back from my Christmas festivities, I was thinking that it had been a while since I posted, and wondering what I could write about, when suddenly a subject came to me out of nowhere. Actually, it came to me out of the Hinterlands, where I was working on leveling Kalisera.

First, as soon as I signed on, I got a tell from someone asking what spec I was, and if I could tank Sunken Temple for them. I was only 47 at the time, which I think is a bit small for Sunken Temple, on top of which I only have DPS gear, on top of which I have no experience tanking. So, as politely as I could, I said that I really wouldn't be comfortable attempting it, and wished them luck in finding a tank for their group.

A short while later I got another tell from a different person asking what level my main was. My first thought was that it was someone from the same group, trying to see if I could walk them through. I responded that I had two level 70's (yes, my hunter finally hit 70 the other day). And the rest of the conversation just blew me away and I had to take a screen shot.

I suppose instead of stating the obvious that I had never expressed any interest in trading accounts, I should have asked this person a more direct question. Something along the lines of, "What do you mean, 'still'? What gave you the impression I would trade accounts?" In fact, after my initial disbelief at the situation, I almost took the person off ignore in order to rant at them for a little while, but decided it wasn't worth it. But, for the sake of a little therapy, here is my letter to Mr. Anonymous:

First of all, I play my own characters. I level them up from the beginning, I make all of their talent choices, profession choices, gear choices, everything. I take pride in my characters. Whether I had several realms full of level 70s or a bunch of 20's and 30's, those characters are still mine. I've worked to get them to what they are, and I'm not going to give them up just because someone is too lazy to level their own.

Second of all, even if you found anyone who wasn't opposed to trading accounts in general, you have nothing to offer them. It may take a little time to level a character to 50, but a 17, a 15 and a 6? I could level three characters to that in a day. The 50 may be appealing to someone who doesn't want to level through Azeroth again, but I doubt they would be willing to trade characters they have spent days and days playing just for that.

Third of all, I realize that you probably haven't understood a word of this. After all, it's written with correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. I understand that it's often preferred to type things quickly, and ignoring certain rules is common practice in a game like this, especially among friends. But if I was hoping to persuade someone to do something I wanted, I would try to make a better impression.

Seriously . . . what were you thinking?

I already have all my public chat channels turned off for this very reason, but I guess there's no way to stop all the idiots out there from bothering me.

One Week Review

2007-12-21T14:37:00.000-06:00

Last week I listed some goals that I had for all three characters. The biggest were the tasks that I set for my farm alt. While she isn't yet 70 and can't start on her daily quests, the other goals were more about helping other characters.

1) Collect 94 pieces of Heavy Clefthoof Leather to make my husband his druid tanking gear.
This one is done! And it actually didn't take as long as I'd feared either. (As a side note, he just hit 70 last night . . . maybe it was the promise that his gear was ready that pushed him to finish.)

2) Collect enough Mageweave to get Kali through that phase of Tailoring and First Aid.
Done as well. Actually I've maxed out her First Aid, and she's now into the Runecloth phase of tailoring. Thankfully, because Runecloth is much easier to farm than Mageweave.

3) Maintain my stocks of Azeroth herbs.
This is more of a continuing effort. I try to keep a full stack of each item on my bank alt, for whatever I might need, but since I'm constantly keeping up Kali's supply of potions and elixirs, I'm constantly having to replenish the herbs I use.

4) Begin farming Kali's Outland reputation items.
Another work in progress. In order to do all her turn-ins immediately so she can start on quests without "wasting" reputation points, I need to collect the following:
~ 360 Unidentified Plant Parts (currently have 144)
~ 1080 Arakkoa Feathers (currently have 44)
~ 24 Fel Armaments (currently have 3)
~ 229 Marks of Kil'Jaeden (currently have 36)
~ 669+ Marks of Sargeras (currently have 24)

A LOT of work left to do, obviously, but also lots of time to do it in. Since I've done so much looking into factions and the best way to earn reputation, I plan to make a post about that at some point, and I'll explain exactly where those numbers came from (especially the Aldor/Sha'tar ones - the others are fairly static). For those curious, WoWWiki and Wowhead are the two main resources I use when looking up this sort of thing.

At any rate, those are the items I'm looking to get, along with the cloth to keep Kali's tailoring skill up, and the herbs to make her potions and elixirs. Busy busy hunter . . .

(I swear this is still a druid blog, really.)

Something's Fishy . . .

2007-12-19T11:47:00.000-06:00

I can't remember which patch it was, but sometime in the past couple months, they made some changes to the way things are organized for those of us with production tradeskills. For example, armor kits and battle drums used to be lumped together in a Leatherworking category called "Consumables"; now they're separated into "Item Enhancement" and "Other." They also renamed the old "Trade Goods" category (all the various types of leather and cured hides) to "Leather," which is confusing since the leather gear I can make is also "Leather," so there's actually two categories with the same name.

But despite the occasional confusion, the categories still make sense. What I don't understand is the way that my cooking recipes are divided. There was one big category called "Food & Drink." Recently, though, I've gotten two new recipes that fall into other categories. [Hot Apple Cider] apparently is a "Consumable" while [Broiled Bloodfin] is considered a "Meat." To which I say . . .

HUH?!?!

First of all, everything I can make through cooking is a consumable. Why on earth is that the name of another category, and what makes Hot Apple Cider a consumable rather than a drink? And Broiled Bloodfin, as any hunter pet who prefers meat to fish will tell you, is most definitely a fish.

I'm all for adding categories to make our lives easier when looking for a specific recipe. The search feature certainly helps, but if they're going to have categories, at least let the categories make sense. Maybe a separate one for drinks (since there are very few drinks that we can make), and then split up the meat vs. the fish. Not only would that be helpful for hunters to know which food falls into which category (clam recipes are considered fish, for example, even though they aren't obtained through fishing), but it would be fairly easy to see which recipes are for those who have also leveled fishing, and those who rely on mob drops to find food. That, to me, would make sense. This current method? Not so much.

Healing Gear: Trinkets

2007-12-18T23:20:00.032-06:00

Trinkets, trinkets, trinkets . . . where do I even begin?!?! There are so many different trinkets out there, some with very unique functions, so it's hard to know how to break them down when trying to list them. Not to mention, some people have differing opinions on the best trinkets to use. Some people like those with "use" functions, while others prefer ones that proc on their own. Some like to stack on the healing, while others leave that to the rest of their gear, taking advantage of more unique trinket functions. Plus there are trinkets that aren't that great all the time, but could have some very situational use. (Of course, you need to know what those situations are ahead of time, since you can't swap them while in combat.)

Overall, my advice is this: collect as many as you can. Be a trinket packrat, because you never know when one or another will come in handy.

Comparing trinkets and determining which ones are better than others is beyond the scope of this guide. This is simply a list, so you can see what's out there. I'll try to stick to the format of my other guides, listing the items in terms of where they come from, so people can easily see which are available to them, and which ones might be beyond their current level of progression. I'll also comment a bit more on each individual item than I have in other gear lists.

The Path to 70
This can be tricky, because your main priority while leveling is probably either a caster or feral set of gear. I've noted what rewards you'd be giving up, but most of these are very nice for early instance healing.

[Hypnotist's Watch] - quest reward from Hellfire Peninsula
This is one of the first trinkets you'll get in Outland, and is a "pseudo-Fade" for when you pull aggro (or think you're getting close). You'll soon get other trinkets that will be better for most situations, but this can be nice for early instance runs.
Other reward: [Charm of Alacrity]

[Vengeance of the Illidari] - quest reward from Hellfire Peninsula
This is the first of the popular "bonus healing button" trinkets that gives you a short boost to your healing on use. Though the equip bonus is not a primary stat for us, it also makes it a good offensive DPS trinket. However, if you're a multi-role druid, you have a choice to make, as the other rewards from this quest are very nice for cat or bear form.
Other rewards: [Bladefist's Breadth] or [Regal Protectorate]

[Auslese's Light Channeler] - drop from Blood Furnace
This is the first trinket that gives a flat bonus to healing as its passive effect. For this, it can be a nice boost to your early healing set. However, the on-use feature is not going to make a big difference. If you do take this trinket, I'd recommend macro'ing it to your most expensive heal, so you automatically get the benefit if it's available.

The rest of the trinkets in this section are various versions of the "bonus healing button" trinket, with differing values and passive equip effects. Some are more beneficial than others, but they are all easily accessible quest rewards.

[Glowing Crystal Insignia] or [Ancient Crystal Talisman] - quest reward from Zangarmarsh
This is primarily a damage trinket, so the healing bonuses aren't very high. However, it's nice having a flat healing bonus as well as an on-use healing bonus on the same trinket, and this can be a nice fill-in until you get some higher level trinkets.
Other rewards: [Telaar Courier's Cloak]/[Serpent Spirit's Drape] or [Marsh Bracers]

[Terokkar Tablet of Vim] - quest reward from Terokkar Forest
The hit rating won't do anything for you while healing, but the on-use bonus is higher than the previous trinket. However, there are even higher bonuses on the way, so I would suggest taking whichever reward benefits you while soloing.
Other reward: [Terokkar Tablet of Precision]

[Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic] - quest reward from Terokkar Forest
Unlike hit rating, a couple of your heal spells actually can benefit from crit, though it's not one of our primary stats. Again, this is mostly a jumping point to the next level of trinket, so if you solo as a cat, you may want the melee version of this trinket.
Other reward: [Ancient Draenei War Talisman]

[Oshu'gun Relic] - quest reward from Nagrand
A direct upgrade to the Zangarmarsh quest reward, this provides a flat healing bonus, as well as the on-use bonus. This will last you until you start getting drops in the higher instances, or earn some reputation rewards.
Other rewards: [Ethereal Sash] . . . and a gun you can't use

[Heavenly Inspiration] - quest reward from Netherstorm
In addition to a periodic healing boost, this provides some nice mana regen. There are more creative mana conservation trinkets later on, but this is a nice one to start.
Other rewards: [Leggings of Concentrated Power] or [Gold-Trimmed Cuffs] . . . and some plate shoulders

Reputation Rewards
Some of these are more suited for you than others. However, unlike drops, no one can argue that you can't have a faction reward. Plus, it's nice to have something to work toward while you're waiting to get lucky in the instances.

[Lower City Prayerbook] - available at Revered with Lower City
This is the most popular reputation reward for healers. They are not unique, so you can equip two of them, and have +140 healing all the time, just from two trinket slots. Unfortunately, you can't use the mana conservation tool twice as often, but 15 seconds out of every minute is nothing to scoff at.

[Scryer's Bloodgem] - available at Revered with Scryers
This is much more popular among DPS casters, to help reach the spell hit cap. However, it does have a very nice temporary healing boost, so if you're Scryer, feel free to pick one up when you hit Revered.

[Xi'ri's Gift] - available at Revered with Sha'tar
Unfortunately the crit rating doesn't do much for you, making this trinket better suited for DPS casters or holy paladins. However, it has the same bonus effect as the Bloodgem, making this a slight upgrade, and available to Aldor and Scryer players alike.

[Timelapse Shard] - available at Exalted with Keepers of Time
This is an upgrade over the early Hellfire "Fade" trinket, both in terms of effectiveness, as well as adding in some survivability stats.

5-man Drops
[Jewel of Charismatic Mystique] - drop from Shadow Labyrinth
This trinket doesn't have the stats of the Timelapse Shard, and has a longer cooldown, but it actually dumps more threat (according to Wowhead). Like the other two "Fade" trinkets, you have to ask yourself if it's worth it to take away a healing trinket just in case you pull threat. In some situations, it might be. At any rate, carrying at least one of these around wouldn't be a terrible idea.

[Bangle of Endless Blessings] - drop from Botanica
This is a very nice trinket for mana-intensive fights, arguably one of the best you can get. Setting up a macro to link this to your Innervate is a good idea (unless you regularly share your Innervates). Or if you have quick reflexes and a good eye, you might try hitting this trinket when you see the passive feature proc, getting the most out of those 15 seconds.

[Scarab of the Infinite Cycle] - drop from Black Morass
This gives the same passive healing bonus as the Lower City Prayerbook, though I'm not sure how much good the spell haste proc would do. Unlike a trinket I'll mention later, ALL of our healing spells (direct and HoTs) can proc this effect. And now that spell haste affects the global cooldown as well as casting time, it has more benefit to druids. However, I don't know the details on how much it would benefit, especially in a span of only 6 seconds. Spell haste controversy aside, this is still a nice trinket for the flat bonus, especially if you aren't Revered with Lower City yet.

[Warp-Scarab Brooch] - drop from Heroic Mana-Tombs
If you liked your Heavenly Inspiration, this is a direct upgrade. It might not have quite the same appeal at this point, since you probably have access to other mana conservation trinkets, but the temporary bonus heal is one of the highest you can get so far.

[Vial of the Sunwell] - drop from Heroic Magisters' Terrace
This is new in the latest patch, and a great trinket for all healers. It provides a mp5 boost, as well as a new burst heal. Fully charged after 20 casts, you can then release it for an instant 2000 heal on your target. This gives us an additional "insta-heal" along with Nature's Swiftness and Swiftmend. You could even macro this to a typical Nature's Swiftness/Healing Touch combo, making the emergency button even more powerful. However, that would blow both long cooldowns at the same time, leaving you with only Swiftmend until it came back up.

Though written from a paladin's point of view, you can find some additional tips on using the Vial over at Banana Shoulders.

Badges of Justice
[Essence of the Martyr] - available for 41 badges
Aside from requiring a rather bizzare number of badges to collect, this is a very straightforward bonus healing trinket. So straightforward, in fact, that even I can't come up with more to say about it!

[Battlemaster's Perseverance] - available for 75 badges, or through PvP
The on-use feature has limited usefulness in PvE. However, it is available with badges, and the flat healing bonus is higher than anything else you can get at this level of game play, which in my opinion makes it worth mentioning. Also, like the Lower City Prayerbook, this trinket is not unique.

10-man Drops
[Ribbon of Sacrifice] - drop from Opera Event (any) in Karazhan
This is the trinket I made reference to earlier; your heal-over-time spells will NOT trigger this effect. However, it does have a decent flat healing bonus, and if you do cast a Regrowth or Healing Touch, there's always the chance it will proc. Druids probably get the least use out of this trinket, but if no other healers want it, you'd might as well grab it.

[Pendant of the Violet Eye] - drop from Shade of Aran in Karazhan
It's debatable if this is better for healers or DPS casters. Increasing your mana pool by 600 instantly is a good thing. But some argue that DPS are more likely to be continually casting, getting the most use out of the trinket. Druids, however, use mostly instant spells, so it's not at all uncommon to be throwing out a heal of some sort on every global cooldown, getting the maximum benefit from the on-use feature. It may not be the best mana regeneration item out there, but still worth picking up if you get the chance.

[Tome of Diabolic Remedy] - drop from Hex Lord Malacrass in Zul'Aman
This is a super-charged version of the Heavenly Inspiration and Warp-Scarab Brooch, providing a very nice bonus to healing 17% of the time, as well as basic mana conservation. As with the others, it's not a game-changing trinket, but a nice pairing of the two benefits.

Crafted BoP Items
There are two professions that have a bonus when it comes to healing trinkets. If you're either a Jewelcrafter or an Alchemist, I'm sure you know about your options, but for others who may be considering picking up one of these professions, here's what you'd be gaining:

Jewelcrafting
[Figurine - Living Ruby Serpent] - recipe available at Revered with Keepers of Time
This is probably the least popular of the two, since the bonus healing isn't as great as many other trinkets out there. However, if your base stats are lacking, this is a very nice boost to your health and mana pools.

[Figurine - Talasite Owl] - recipe available at Revered with Sha'tar
In addition to the static mp5, this can be used as a mini-Innervate in long fights.

[Figurine - Crimson Serpent] - recipe available at Revered with Shattered Sun Offensive
[Figurine - Seaspray Albatross] - recipe available at Revered with Shattered Sun Offensive
These are epic versions of the two listed above. Owl to Albatross is a gain of 4mp5, and a two-minute reduction to the cooldown. The Serpent upgrade is +16 to stamina, +10 to intellect, and a three-minute reduction to the cooldown. Unfortunately, the jewels required drop in the Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau, so they would be very expensive to get (unless you have good connections). You'd have to decide if the upgrade is worth the cost.

Alchemy
[Alchemist's Stone] - recipe available at Revered with Sha'tar
This trinket gives an overall buff to your stats, but more importantly, you get more out of the potions you use. Being able to get more than 3000 mana back with a single mana potion is a very nice thing, especially in longer fights.

[Redeemer's Alchemist Stone] - recipe available at Exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive
Patch 2.4 introduced the ability to make more specialized Alchemist Stones. The healing version provides a HUGE amount of base healing, more than any other trinket currently available in the game from what I can see, beating out Illidan's [Memento of Tyrande] by 1.

Finally . . . we've reached the end. All of the Burning Crusade healing trinkets, without going into 25-mans. If you want to see how some of these (and others) stack up against each other, see Phaelia's great article: Arrrghhh!!! Trinkets!!! (Oh, do I echo that sentiment . . .) She looks at some of the top ones listed here, as well as a couple old-world trinkets, and some early 25-man drops as well.

Healing Gear: Rings

2007-12-18T23:10:00.009-06:00

The Path to 70
Most of these rings are possible to get solo, with lots of options available while leveling.

[Signet of Aeranas] - quest reward from Hellfire Peninsula
[Lucky Circle of the Fool] - quest reward from Terokkar Forest
[Heirloom Signet of Convalescence] - quest reward from Terokkar Forest
[Raven's Wood Exorciser's Band] - quest reward from Blade's Edge Mountains
[Azure Moonstone Ring] - crafted with Jewelcrafting
[Band of Sorrow] - random BoE drop
[Band of Renewal] - drop from Hellfire Ramparts
[Holy Healing Band] - quest reward from Blood Furnace
[Brilliant Pearl Band] - crafted with Jewelcrafting

Quest Rewards
These higher-end quests will require you to find a group (though the first one is reputedly soloable by some classes) but the rewards are well worth it.

[Celestial Jewel Ring] - quest reward from Netherstorm
[Spiritualist's Mark of the Sha'tar] - quest reward from Shadowmoon Valley
[Keeper's Ring of Piety] - quest reward from Black Morass
[Gift of the Talonpriests] - not strictly a quest reward, drop from Terokk, summoned through a quest string in Skettis

Auction House
[Blazing Eternium Band] - crafted with Jewelcrafting
*[Ring of Flowing Light] - drop from Doom Lord Kazzak (BoE in patch 2.4)

(*Despite the very nice healing bonus, the spell crit makes this unarguably geared toward paladins, with no additional benefit to druids. So, while techincally attainable, this is probably not worth the money. You would also risk a beating by any Holy Paladins who inspected your gear.)

Reputation Rewards
[Ring of Convalescence] or [Ancestral Band] - available at Revered with Honor Hold/Thrallmar
[Band of Elemental Spirits] or [Band of Ancestral Spirits] - available at Revered with Kurenai/Mag'har
[Violet Signet] - available at Friendly with Violet Eye, with upgrades at Honored, Revered, and finally Exalted

5-man Drops
[Cosmic Lifeband] - drop from Mechanar
[Ring of Spiritual Precision] - drop from Black Morass
[Signet of Repose] - drop from Heroic Blood Furnace
[Ring of Fabled Hope] - drop from Heroic Underbog
[Kharmaa's Ring of Fate] - drop from Magisters' Terrace
[Band of the Crystalline Void] - drop from Heroic Mana-Tombs

Badges of Justice
[Band of Halos] - available for 25 badges
[Anveena's Touch] - available for 60 badges

10-man Drops
[Mender's Heart-Ring] - drop from Terestian Illhoof in Karazhan
[Jade Ring of the Everliving] - drop from Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan
[Signet of the Quiet Forest] - drop from timed event in Zul'Aman

You may notice that, no matter which level of gameplay suits you, there are lots of ring options. For drops, try to consider the other healers you may be rolling against, and what stats suit each class better (I pointed out the most obvious one already). Also, keep in mind that you have two ring slots, which gives you more opportunity to mix and match, possibly taking advantage of some of the longevity pieces, or just push that bonus healing as high as it will go.

Healing Gear: Necklaces

2007-12-18T23:00:00.007-06:00

The Path to 70
There are several options to start your healing set (or continue it from Azeroth) as you level. Mostly solo quest rewards, though there are a couple that may require help.

[Preserver's Medallion] - quest reward from Zangarmarsh
[Ethereal Healing Pendant] - quest reward from Terokkar Forest
[Wheeler Family Heirloom] - quest reward from Netherstorm
[Amulet of Sanctification] - random BoE drop
[Heartblood Prayer Beads] - drop from Hellfire Ramparts
[Ogre Slayer's Pendant] - quest reward from Nagrand
[Earthen Mark of Health] - quest reward from Nagrand
[Natasha's Guardian Cord] - quest reward from Blade's Edge Mountains

Quest Rewards
These are higher-level quests, and while some are certainly attainable before 70, they're still viable for pre-raid gear.

[Karja's Medallion] - Aldor-only quest reward from Netherstorm
[Sethekk Oracle's Focus] - quest reward from Sethekk Halls
[A'dal's Recovery Necklace] - quest reward from Arcatraz
[Gezzarak's Fang] - not strictly a quest reward, drop from Gezzarak the Huntress, summoned through a quest string in Skettis

Auction House
These can be costly, and arguably not worth it. However, if you have connections, these can be a nice way to get gear.

[Living Ruby Pendant] - crafted with Jewelcrafting
[Embrace of the Dawn] - crafted with Jewelcrafting
[Archaic Charm of Presence] - drop from Doomwalker (BoE in patch 2.4)

Reputation Rewards
[Medallion of the Lightbearer] - available at Exalted with Aldor
[Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration] - available at Exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive

5-man Drops
[Diamond Prism of Recurrence] - drop from Old Hillsbrad Foothills
[Choker of Fluid Thought] - drop from Arcatraz
[Swampstone Necklace] - drop from Heroic Underbog
[Necklace of Resplendent Hope] - drop from Heroic Old Hillsbrad Foothills

Badges of Justice
[Necklace of Eternal Hope] - available for 25 badges

10-man Drops
[Shining Chain of the Afterworld] - drop from Netherspite in Karazhan
[Emberspur Talisman] - drop from Nightbane in Karazhan
[Brooch of Nature's Mercy] - drop from Akil'zon in Zul'Aman

Keep in mind that for your neck slot, you will be competing against all the other healing classes. However, there are lots of guaranteed options out there that are perfectly fine until you get the right drop.

Healing Gear: Necklaces, Rings, and Trinkets

2007-12-18T11:36:00.002-06:00

Much later than I'd intended, but I finally updated these old guides. You can find the complete lists for these gear slots in the following posts.

Necklaces
Rings
Trinkets

Oh, the trinkets . . . I may be scarred for life after putting all that together.

At any rate, not only are they much more complete, but I've included all of the changes from patch 2.4. Hopefully, this guide will remain viable for druid healers until Wrath of the Lich King is released.

New Talents for Class Improvement

2007-12-16T08:07:00.000-06:00

Now before anyone starts getting all excited, these are not talents that are reported, speculated, in progress, or anything like that. This is purely my own thoughts on a particular issue.

One problem druids continually face is that we can't compete with the other "pure" classes when it comes to certain abilities. Moonkin compete mostly with mages and other ranged DPS classes for spots in groups, and our lack of CC is often a reason that we aren't included. Similarly, Resto druids lack a regular resurrection spell. While this isn't as much of an issue in raids, it can get them left out of runs in 5-mans.

My suggestion . . . put two talents, one deep in each tree, so that you have to be truly invested in that spec in order to gain the benefit. I understand the fact that, since druids are so versatile, that it may seem overpowered to give them access to the abilities of some other classes. A priest that can polymorph? A mage that can rez? No, it doesn't make much sense. But if you are wholely invested in one tree, you should gain some additional benefit that puts you on par with your mirrored classes.

The balance talent: either a new kind of CC, or simply make roots useable indoors. Another kind of fun possibility (though maybe a little too complex) would be a spell that turns a target into a beast so that we can then use hibernate on them. Like I said . . . probably easier to just make roots useable indoors.

The resto talent: sacrifice the short cooldown on Rebirth (bump it up to an hour, for example) in exchange for an out-of-combat (non-reagent) resurrection spell. This would also help Balance and Ferals be included in the group, for the shorter-cooldown Rebirth.

As for where to put these talents? I'd suggest what is currently the second-to-last tier. As it is right now, you can't get more than one 31-point talent. With the expansion, however, (assuming we get 10 more talent points to spend in our new levels) the 36-point talents will be the mutually exclusive ones.

And I know I couldn't think of anything for ferals . . . but just go ahead and give them our Improved Faerie Fire. It's okay, I don't mind, they can have it. For us it's a group-only talent; they'd actually be able to get use out of it while soloing as well, and plan their gear to accord for the extra hit chance (like our Balance of Power).

Goals

2007-12-14T18:20:00.000-06:00

I've been taking a break from the game this week. It definitely helped to get caught up on things in real life, but I want to be able to get right back to business when I start playing again after this weekend. In a game like Warcraft, there's always so much to do that it's easy to get sidetracked. And since there's no end, I sometimes start to feel that I'm really not getting anywhere, no matter how much time I spend playing. So, I figured this would be a good time to assess my in-game goals so that I'll know when I've accomplished them. It should also help me balance my time between all three characters that I play right now, knowing what I have to do on each of them.

Lalena (hunter farm alt):
~ reach lvl 70
~ do Ogri'la prereqs and begin dailies
~ collect 94 pieces of Heavy Clefthoof Leather to make my husband his druid tanking gear
~ collect enough Mageweave to get Kali through that phase of Tailoring and First Aid
~ maintain my stocks of Azeroth herbs
~ begin farming Kali's Outland reputation items

Nasirah:
~ do daily quests every day (except weekends)
~ try to get last two 5-man drops I want, [Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess] and [Moonstrider Boots]
~ run Kara as often as possible

Kalisera:
~ get to Outland

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I really need to force myself to level my hunter to 70. I need a second character doing dailies, and access to those high-end herbs. There's also a lot of boring grinding I need to do, but at least some of the Outland things I can accomplish as I work my way up to 70. The Azeroth herbs . . . well, it's not fun, but Kali goes through quite a bit. And the mageweave collecting I could (and may) do with Nas, but since this character is supposed to be my farming alt, well then I should probably be using her to farm.

I've started slacking on dailies with Nas, so I would really like to get back into the habit of that. I'm giving myself weekends off though, because it's just too much competition and too much aggravation. I have almost all the gear I want for her at this point, there's just those couple drops I'd still like to get. As for Kara . . . I have a feeling our runs may not be quite as regular from now until the holidays die down, so I just want to make sure I'm a part of as many as I can. Gotta get those badges.

I'm just going to keep up on Kali's rested bonus until I get my hunter's stuff taken care of. But once she gets to Outland, we're going to have a whole new set of goals for her. There's a lot of reputation stuff I want, so I'm going to have to be very careful what quests I do when, and get those turn-ins done as soon as humanly possible (or night-elf-ly possible?)

A Few Loose Ends

2007-12-14T13:38:00.001-06:00

Just a few things I've been meaning to address . . .

New Content
I finally added a little something to my sidebar. To the left you'll see a reading list of other druid blogs I've found out there. Eventually I may add other links to various WoW resources or blogs by players of other classes. For now, though, I figured I'd keep things simple.

Healing Gear List
I will continue my gear list at some point, but it can start to get really involved and overwhelming so I think I may try to pace it out as Kalisera approaches Outland. I doubt anyone is on pins and needles wondering what my top picks are for any specific slot. I will, however, throw out a couple of the places I visit when making these decisions.

Kaliban's Loot List is a great place to start. Gives a sample gear build for every class and spec, with various options that are crafted, quest rewards, or drop from 5-mans. This is usually my first stop when looking for gear.

Lootables is where I go when I want to look into things myself a little more. Search for whatever you want, with almost every search modifier you could think of. The list it generates includes links to Thottbot, Allakhazam, or Wowhead to get more detailed information when you find a piece you like. You can also save up to four different items on a clipboard at the side of the screen for easy comparisons.

Why Two Druids?
Lastly, something I've been meaning to address for a while. My husband (an evil little gnome warlock and aspiring druid tank) pointed out to me that with all the time spent leveling this second druid, I could make enough gold on Nasirah to spec back and forth as often as I wanted. I wouldn't have to start over on rep, or gear, and it would be a lot simpler. After all, one of my main strengths as a druid is the versatility. If I wanted to have two separate characters for these roles, why not just have a mage and a priest?

Well first of all, I don't want to play a mage, and I don't want to play a priest. Maybe some day I'll try out these classes and stick with them for more than 10-15 levels. But not today.

I love the druid. While I've never been drawn to the feral tree except for leveling (and that's mostly 'cause, in Azeroth, it's a lot harder to find good balance gear), the Moonkin and Resto builds both really appeal to me. I like being able to blast away at things but still be able to take a beating. And I like keeping my heals constantly rolling on a target, easily able to throw extra heals out on the other group members, not worrying so much about if the tank is going to take a really unlucky crit before I can finish my longer heal.

As for leveling up another character rather than respeccing . . . well, that comes down a little more to personal preference. I want to be able to fill either roll at the drop of a hat, not think . . . well I just respecced a couple hours ago, do I really want to switch back already? Not to mention the fact that I actually enjoy the idea of starting another character from scratch. I kinda wish that I could skip all of Azeroth and start out in Hellfire Peninsula, but I love being able to take the things I've learned from leveling my other characters and doing it better this time around. Holding off on certain quests until I get my rep to a certain point with a faction. Making sure to grab a certain quest reward at 64 since it's the best thing I'm going to see till I get into Tempest Keep (and if you think I'm kidding, check out the foot gear options listed in the healing druid build in that loot list).

I'm not saying that I'll never heal with Nas. In fact we've been having a lack of healers lately for our Kara runs, and I've reminded the officers that I'm capable of it. I have plenty of experience healing 5-mans, and my healing gear has slowly creeped its way up past +1000 healing (thanks to a few Kara drops no one else could use). But in the end, I have no problem starting fresh.

Healing Gear: One-Handed Weapons with Off-Hands

2007-12-12T23:20:00.000-06:00

The Path to 70
The following weapons come from various places you may see while leveling. While there are lots of great one-handed weapons available early on, there aren't as many choices for off-hands. However, random greens you find on the Auction House ("of the Prophet," etc.) can fill that off-hand role until you get better.

Weapons
[Earthcaller's Mace] - Horde only quest reward from Hellfire Peninsula
[Vibro Dagger] or [Thunderlord Scalpel] - quest reward from Blade's Edge Mountains
[Preserver's Cudgel] - available at Honored with Cenarion Expedition
[Sporeggar Smasher] - available (through a group quest) at Exalted with Sporeggar
[Coilfang Hammer of Renewal] - drop from Slave Pens
[Azure Lightblade] - group quest reward from Nagrand
[Mogor's Anointing Club] - group quest reward from Nagrand (also rewards a very nice feral staff, so choose wisely)

Off-hands
[Unearthed Orb] - quest reward in Terokkar Forest
[Book of Many Blessings] - quest reward in Terokkar Forest (nice option if you have mana issues)

Quest Rewards
In addition to those found while leveling, there are a couple higher-level quest rewards available. The [Ceremonial Kris] comes from a long Shadowmoon chain, including a trip into Shadow Labyrinth. [Netherwing Spiritualist's Charm] is a quest reward at the end of the Netherwing faction introductory chain. This is attainable even without spending the 5000g for you epic flying skill.

Auction House
If your time is more valuable than your gold, you may look for the following items being put up for sale.

Weapons
[The Essence Focuser] - random BoE drop
[The Ancient Scepter of Sue-Min] - random BoE epic
[Hand of Eternity] - crafted with Blacksmithing

Reputation Rewards
Weapons
[K'iru's Presage] - available at Revered with Shattered Sun Offensive
[Gavel of Pure Light] - available at Exalted with Sha'tar

Off-hands
[Windcaller's Orb] - available at Exalted with Cenarion Expedition

5-man Drops
Weapons
[Northshire Battlemace] - drop from Old Hillsbrad Foothills
[Lightsworn Hammer] - drop from Shattered Halls
[Hammer of the Penitent] - drop from Mechanar
[Runed Dagger of Solace] - drop from Botanica
[Will of the Fallen Exarch] - drop from Heroic Auchenai Crypts
[Dathrohan's Ceremonial Hammer] - drop from Heroic Old Hillsbrad Foothills
[Battle-mace of the High Priestess] - drop from Magisters' Terrace
[Shockwave Truncheon] - drop from Heroic Shadow Labyrinth

Off-hands
[Lamp of Peaceful Repose] - drop from Arcatraz
[Swamplight Lantern] - drop from Heroic Slave Pens
[Lordaeron Medical Guide] - drop from Heroic Old Hillsbrad
[Faol's Signet of Cleansing] - drop from Heroic Hellfire Ramparts

Badges of Justice
Weapons
[Gavel of Naaru Blessings] - available for 150 badges

Off-hands
[Tears of Heaven] - available for 25 badges
[Voodoo Shaker] - available for 35 badges

10-man Drops
Weapons
[Shard of the Virtuous] - drop from Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan
[Light's Justice] - drop from Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan
[Dark Blessing] - drop from Zul'jin in Zul'Aman

Off-hands
[Signet of Unshakable Faith] - drop from Moroes in Karazhan
[Aran's Soothing Sapphire] - drop from Shade of Aran in Karazhan

Any combination of these items should give you a good boost to your healing. However, if you find your health and mana pools are lower than you need, you might consider picking up a staff instead.

Healing Gear: Two-Handed Weapons

2007-12-12T23:10:00.000-06:00

The Path to 70
There are a couple of quest rewards attainable before reaching 70, as well as one drop from a lower-level instance.

[Healer's Staff of the Forest] - quest reward from Terokkar Forest
[Runed Silver Staff] - quest reward from Netherstorm
[Ironstaff of Regeneration] - drop from Auchenai Crypts

Quest Rewards
At 70, there are several quest chains, usually involving groups, that reward some very nice rare-quality staves.

[Staff of the Redeemer] - quest reward from Shadowmoon Valley
[Staff of the Ashtongue Deathsworn] - quest reward from Shadowmoon Valley
[Ameer's Judgement] - quest reward from Netherstorm
[Severin's Cane] - quest reward from Skettis

Auction House
In addition to random "of Healing," "of the Prophet," and other such drops, there are a couple of specific items you can look for, if you have (and are willing to spend) the gold for them.

[Staff of Divine Infusion] - random BoE drop
[Exodar Life-Staff] - drop from Doom Lord Kazzak (BoE in patch 2.4)

Reputation Rewards
The only healing staff available through reputation is the [Seer's Cane], available at Revered with the Scryers. While there are other weapons out there, this can be the deciding factor in choosing Aldor/Scryer, particularly for players who may not group often.

5-man drops
[Serpentcrest Life-Staff] - drop from Steamvault
[Epoch-Mender] - drop from Black Morass
[Rod of the Blazing Light] - drop from Heroic Magisters' Terrace

10-man drops
[Nightstaff of the Everliving] - drop from Nightbane in Karazhan
[Staff of Dark Mending] - drop from timed event in Zul'Aman

All of these staves have nice boosts to stamina and intellect, as well as some powerful healing bonuses. However, if you aren't as concerned with base-stats, you'll usually get more healing power from a one-hand/off-hand combination.

Healing Gear: Idols

2007-12-12T23:00:00.000-06:00

Idols are probably the simplest gear slot to examine, simply because there aren't many choices. Since Lifebloom is usually our main spell, [Idol of the Emerald Queen] is considered the standard. You can find it on the first boss in Shadow Labyrinth. However, there are other options out there, benefiting our other healing spells as well.

Overall Benefit
[Idol of the Raven Goddess] - quest reward for the Epic Flight Form string

Rejuvenation
[Harold's Rejuvenating Broach] - quest reward in Nagrand
[Idol of Budding Life] - available for 20 Badges of Justice

Renew
[Idol of the Crescent Goddess] - drop from Hydross the Unstable in Serpentshrine Cavern

Healing Touch
[Idol of the Avian Heart] - drop from Moroes in Karazhan

The Renew idol isn't available until you enter 25-mans, and you have to spend 5000g before you can get the Raven Goddess. Regarding the two choices for Rejuvenation, I would rather give it more healing power than reduce the mana cost, especially since that first idol is so easy to attain, and there are many other things to spend Badges on.

Having all these options is nice for those who can get them. However, once you have your Lifebloom idol, you shouldn't need to go out of your way to get the others.

Healing Gear: Idols, Weapons, and Off Hands

2007-12-12T13:58:00.003-06:00

Much later than I'd intended, but I finally updated these old guides. You can find the complete lists for these gear slots in the following posts.

Idols
Two-Handed Weapons
One-Handed Weapons with Off-Hands

Not only are they much more complete, but I've included all of the changes from patch 2.4. Hopefully, this guide will remain viable for druid healers until Wrath of the Lich King is released.

Epic Heals

2007-12-11T13:34:00.000-06:00

Nasirah just picked up her second epic LW recipe off the auction house. A while ago she learned how to make [Gloves of the Healing Touch], and now she can make the [Hood of Primal Life]. This is probably all she's going to get that would be of use for my healing gear, since most other recipes either create BoP items, or the recipes themselves are BoP, and usually drop in the 25-man raids. Still, it is nice to know that with these two recipes, plus the tailoring set, Kali will have 5 epics before even stepping foot into Karazhan. I think it's funny that on Nas, I would have killed for the full 5-piece Moonglade Raiment, and on Kali, the pants are the only slot not already accounted for.

In addition, I was directed to a nifty little site today that is very similar to the official WoW Armory, but it also comes with a "sandbox" section that allows you to play with different possibilities. Here's the sandbox that I created for Kalisera.

I only put in those 5 pieces, as well as a necklace, ring, staff, and idol that I can get through solo questing. Without relying on a single other person (except gathering the 2 nethers on Nas to make those epics, but I can get those with the badges I earn in Kara, if nothing else), these will be my stats at 70. I did also include the [Keeper's Ring of Piety] which is a quest reward for completing Black Morass, but since I will HAVE to do Black Morass to get into Kara, I can still count this in my guaranteed pre-Kara gear.

I put in the gems and enchants that I knew I would be able to get, and with only those items, Kali will have 795 healing and 112 mp5 while casting. And I'm sure that I will have other group quest items and instance drops for the other, empty slots, but even if I just fill them with random auction house greens, it's still a great feeling knowing that my stats can only go up from there.

Edit: I remembered that I have [The Essence Focuser] sitting in the bank, which would bump Kalisera's healing up to 900. However, since this mace has no stats on it, combined with the fact that the Primal Mooncloth set has no stamina, my HP is a sorry 4807 unbuffed. I'll either need to rethink this as a possible weapon, or make up the stamina in the several slots I'm (for now) leaving empty.

On the Bench

2007-12-08T17:12:00.000-06:00

Since Nasirah is an alchemist and leatherworker, I decided to level up a farm alt with herbalism and skinning. I chose a hunter, since I know that they can kill a lot of things quickly, with little downtime, and little effort. I'm not saying that hunters are easy to play, or at least easy to play well. The couple instances that I've taken her into, I've been absolutely frantic trying to keep mobs trapped, while making sure my pet's doing what it's supposed to (or, more importantly, not doing anything it's not supposed to), and still DPS'ing our main target. But for my main purposes, I needed a gathering alt, and having one who is really good at farming in general seemed like a good idea.

I leveled her through Azeroth as fast as I could so that I could start getting the herbs and leather from Outland that I needed. She hit about level 65, and then I stopped playing her. It was right around then that I'd made the decision to start my second druid, and my hunter has been on the bench ever since.

Part of that is that she can get to most, if not all, of the herbs and skins that I use on a regular basis, so I didn't see a huge reason to keep pushing on her. Mostly, though, it's just that I don't get the same enjoyment out of playing a hunter as I do playing my druids.

However, I'm now realizing that I really do need to get her to 70. I need her to have regular access to high-level herbs like Netherbloom and Mana Thistle, not to mention having another character doing dailies will be great for my income. And I've hit a good stopping point for Kalisera, I think, so I'm going to try to let her sit and build up some rested bonus while I finish leveling that hunter.

Kali is now 43 and just finished up Stranglethorn Vale. Here's a picture of her all decked out in her Nightscape leather gear. I never thought I'd like her look in feral gear, but this is actually pretty cool with all that green accenting in the leather.

Well, here's hoping that I have what it takes to let her sit there untouched for a while, and looking forward to leveling her that much more quickly when I finally come back to her.

Potions, Elixirs, and Flasks - Oh My!

2007-12-04T11:56:00.000-06:00

Every new alt I create, the question that always comes up pretty quickly is, what professions do I give her? Whichever I choose, they have the benefit of getting help from my higher characters, whether it's going out and farming mats, or just the money to buy them from the Auction House. But it got me thinking . . . what about for a first character?

Now, I'm not going to kid myself into thinking that many people actually read this silly little blog, much less people who are new to Warcraft. Nevertheless, I felt the need to give my opinion on something. When starting your first character (either playing the game for the first time ever or just starting over on a new server), I see only two choices when it comes to professions: be a full-time gatherer, or pick herbalism/alchemy.

For most new players, money is probably going to be an issue. The best way to help that is to just pick up two gathering professions and make all the money you can off them. Skinnning is a no-brainer since you're going to be killing things anyway, and in my experience it seems that mining is more profitable than herbalism, at least early on. However, if you really want to be able to make things for yourself, and feel you absolutely must get some kind of production skill, herbalism/alchemy is your best choice.

I'm not going to cover each one in detail, but most other professions don't really pay off until end-game. One of the biggest problems while leveling is that it can be hard to stay ahead of yourself -- that is, the stuff you can currently make with the resources you currently have are probably not better than what you're getting from drops and quest rewards. It's only when you start getting the nicer recipes in later levels that you really start benefiting from these professions.

Alchemy doesn't have that problem as much as the other professions do. Yes, you may not have access to the best herbs to make the best elixirs and potions for your level. But in this case, something is always better than nothing. If the crafted gear you can make is worse than what you're already wearing, there's no point to making it. And even if it is better, you make one and then what? You need to make 10 more in order to level up, and most early crafted items don't sell well on the Auction House because so many people can make them.

Elixirs and potions can always be of some use, even if they aren't the best quality. So that Elixir of Fortitude only increases your health by 120? Well that's still 120 health you didn't have before. So the health and mana potions you can make aren't the highest that you can use? They're still better than nothing, and you won't be dependent on the Auction House or drops. And you can make them and use them again and again, for this character or any future alts.

Once you get up to Outland, you may discover that one of the other professions is a great way to get some BoP gear for yourself, whether it's a 3-piece cloth set for your mage or that awesome epic gun for your hunter. But for a first character, I wouldn't want to pick up a profession that isn't going to benefit me until I'm level 70. I might not even make it that far. It's better, in my opinion, to get something that's going to help me along the way.

Woah, We're Halfway There...

2007-12-03T12:15:00.001-06:00

Kali is now level 35. Technically, numerically, she's halfway to 70, but I'd be kidding myself if I really thought that were true. My /played time is about 1 day and 20 hours right now. I think it'll take slightly longer to get the rest of the way.

A while back I'd mentioned that I thought the Moonglade armor set would be a good look for her. Thanks to the AtlasLoot addon and the dressing room, I was able to see for myself. Pretty nice, I think. Of course now that I've decided to level tailoring, I probably won't ever wear that full set, and the primal mooncloth set doesn't look nearly as nice with all her green, but hey . . . it's all about the healing power, right?

Speaking of gear, Nas recently picked up the recipe for [Gloves of the Living Touch], so that'll be another nice purple that Kali has right from the start.

But, getting back to reality, here's what Kali looks like now. Ahh, my cloak's going to catch on fire!

The leveling has been going pretty smoothly so far, though I've really just started getting into where they made the major changes. I'm using Jame's Alliance Leveling Guide, which I did for the hunter I recently leveled as well. Already, just within these first 5 levels, I'm seeing that there's going to be WAY less grinding this time around. The guide is currently being revamped to incorporate all those changes, but unfortunately I didn't feel like letting Kali just sit there till they were done, so I'm just going through the original version and I'll do things differently as necessary as I go along.

Alliance vs. Horde

2007-11-30T10:27:00.000-06:00

I was thinking today, wondering why most people are drawn to one faction or another. I do know people who have characters on both sides, and their only complaint is what a pain it is to use the neutral auction house to send stuff back and forth. But it seems like a good chunk of people I play with on the Alliance side have never had, and have no interest in having, a Horde character.

Back in the days when I would start a character, level it to 12, start another character, level it to 10, start another character . . . (you get the idea) I was an equal opportunity alt-aholic. In fact really the only reason I ended up choosing Alliance over Horde was that, when I wanted to try out a druid, I didn't want to be a big ugly Tauren. That and I had learned by this time that the Barrens suck. So I went night elf instead, and ended up loving my druid so much that I never turned back. Of course I tried out both of the new races when Burning Crusade came out, just like everyone else. I really wanted to level a blood elf pally 'cause I figured their quests would have some cool lore behind them as far as how they corrupted the light to become Blood Knights, but eventually I dropped her, just like every other horde character I'd started, and went back to Nas.

Now personally, I don't enjoy PvP at all. I don't like pugs, and battlegrounds are just one huge pug. I still think I might be able to handle arena, but I wouldn't want to join a team and drag down their rating (since I never learned to play against opponents who can think for themselves). But I suppose for people who like PvP, they might be drawn more to the Horde side since Horde generally do better in battlegrounds. At least they used to. From my friends who do PvP, Alliance has seemed to have gotten their act together a bit with the introduction of those battleground daily quests.

I guess I don't have any real conclusion to draw from all this rambling. I just think it's interesting. I know on PvP servers you have to choose one side or another, but it seems like many people still do choose one side for their characters. Either that or they all have secret horde characters that I don't know about, which I suppose is always a possibility.

Goodbye

2007-11-29T08:34:00.000-06:00

One of my good friends quit the game yesterday. Not a friend from real life who I play with. This was someone who I met very early on in my Warcraft days. When I joined my first guild around lvl 20-ish, he was one of the officers, and we've been playing together since then. It's going to be very strange getting used to the game without him.

I still find it incredible how close you can feel to someone without ever having met them, just talking to them on a daily basis through a game. I suppose that's one of the reasons a lot of people choose to play an MMO rather than a console video game. You may be a nerd, but at least you're a social nerd.

/shrug

Anyway, I'm not sure I have much else to say on the subject. Maybe I will later, when the shock wears off a bit. For now, I just felt it deserved mentioning.

Talent Discussion, Conclusion (46/0/15)

2007-11-27T12:13:00.000-06:00

After going over all my talents, I'd still say I'm pretty happy with what I have. Just a couple points for consideration:

Natural Shapeshifter is one talent that would have more use now than when I first put the spec together, but not enough to bother respec'ing. I have enough mana conservation talents elsewhere that my occasional in-fight switching isn't going to really hurt.

Subtlety would be nice to max out, especially when I'm without the pally buff that reduces my threat. But, as long as I keep an eye on the threat meter, I can hold off on DPS if I feel I'm going to pull aggro. It doesn't happen often, and stopping my damage output isn't an ideal solution, but at least I have the ability to do so. Healers can't really do that (without other healers to pick up the slack) so it'll definitely be something for Kali when she gets up there, but more just a helpful buffer for Nas.

If I hit a point where I'm absolutely never running low on mana, I may reallocate some of those mana regen points over to Subtlety. If I find myself having to do a bit more off-healing, Improved Rejuvenation in the Resto tree is one I'd definitely consider. And if hell freezes over and I actually start PvP'ing, I'm sure there are other changes I'd want to make. For right now, though, I think I'm good where I am.

Talent Discussion, Part Two (46/0/15)

2007-11-27T11:31:00.001-06:00

I covered my Resto talents in my last post, now moving on to Balance.

A lot of these talents can be covered with the umbrella statement: anything that increases damage or crit chance, I want. Some of the other talents get a little harder to define, but overall I just want to be able to pump out the DPS. Focused Starlight, Improved Moonfire, Vengeance, Moonfury, and Wrath of Cenarius all fall into this category.

Also helping the DPS are such talents as Starlight Wrath (reduced cast time of Starfire and Wrath), Insect Swarm (another DoT to throw into the rotation, as well as a handy debuff), and Balance of Power (increased chance to hit, which means fewer resists and wasted spell casts). Nature's Grace is also a must, mostly because it leads to another must-have talent, but the reduced casting time after a crit helps boost the DPS a little itself.

The actual Moonkin Form talent . . . I admit that there have been times when I considered putting that point elsewhere. But I don't for a couple reasons. For raiding, the spell crit chance aura helps my DPS, as well as the DPS of any other casters in my group. And for solo, the additional armor is really helpful. Yes, I can usually blast things before they get to me or within just a couple hits, but it helps to not worry about rooting (or for situations when I can't root) and just let them beat on me for a few seconds as I finish them off. Another talent that goes along with this is Celestial Focus. The chance for Starfire to stun a target is nice for extra uninterrupted casting time, but really I got the talent for the 70% chance to avoid interruption to Wrath. Again, helpful for finishing something off while it's beating on me, and also good for raid/instance encounters when taking hits is inevitable (like the astral flares in the Curator fight).

There's a few talents left that don't really help DPS, but are still really handy:

Control of Nature - Roots and Cyclone are now uninterruptable. Very nice, since if I'm using Cyclone chances are I need to get it off NOW. Also because of the Roots factor, it allows me to bypass Nature's Grasp and the improvement talent without any regret; rather than activate something that sets roots off when I'm hit, I can just apply roots directly in only 1.5 sec.

Nature's Reach - Increased range to Balance spells. Not a necessity, in most cases, but definitely a nice benefit. I can pull mobs from further distance and have more time to nuke them down, and in raids/instances it helps me keep more distance from some nasty AoE effects. This and the previous talent I also use just to get deeper into the tree.

Moonglow and Dreamstate both help with mana conservation. As with Intensity in the Resto tree, I may rethink these as my gear improves.

A quick mention to the other talents I chose to pass up:

Brambles - Increased damage to Thorns and Roots. I don't use Roots often. Increased damage to Thorns would be nice to help tanks maintain aggro, but it would still be negligible and not worth the three points, in my opinion.

Improved Faerie Fire - Increases the chance the target will be hit by melee and ranged attacks. Like the buff to thorns, it would be nice, but not worth the points, especially when most of our DPS are usually casters anyway.

Force of Nature - Ah, those funny little trees that many Balance druids can summon to their aid. I had this talent for a while, and there are some benefits. The added DPS for a short while is nice, and especially nice that the aggro for that damage goes to themselves and not to a real raid member. But they sometimes acted glitchy, and I didn't like that I couldn't directly control them, so in the end I decided that point would be better spent on myself.

I have a few concluding comments, but I'll separate those into a new post since this is already so long.

Talent Discussion, Part One (46/0/15)

2007-11-27T09:39:00.000-06:00

WoW is down for extended maintenance. Thus, I am bored. And thus, I am going to ramble on even though I know that no one is listening.

I figured it'd be good to go over my talent spec. As always, I don't have any groundbreaking ideas that others haven't already thought of, this is just what I've landed on as my best option right now. Also, I've been playing with this spec for a while, ever since I started going into Kara, and haven't really looked at it since, so it's probably worth it just to go over it again for myself, and see if there's any tweaking that needs to be done. It's working out really well for me, but you never know when you might catch a couple points in a talent you thought you'd use all the time but don't, or see something you didn't think you needed but now wish you had.

First off, here's the link: Nas 46.0.15

First thing I'll mention is that I knew I wanted AT LEAST 13 points in the resto tree so I could get down to Intensity. More mana regen is a great thing for long boss fights, and it's even better since patch 2.3 when they increased the 3rd rank from 15% to 30%. I may rethink those points as I upgrade my gear, but for right now they are invaluable.

Getting down to the third tier was pretty simple. First tier, my options are Improved Mark of the Wild and Furor. Let's see . . . I buff people for raids all the time, and I rarely ever use bear or cat form. Hmm, tough choice there.

Second tier I went with Naturalist, reducing my cast time for Healing Touch. I considered Nature's Focus, which makes you avoid interruption while casting HT, Regrowth, and Tranquility, but I figured it was better to get HT off faster. I really only ever cast it when I'm out soloing, between fights, so I don't need to worry about getting interrupted. (I suppose I really don't need to worry about getting it off faster either, but it saves me half a second of game play, and I had to go with one or the other.)

I didn't really care about Natural Shapeshifter at the time, since I pretty much just get into Moonkin and get back to full mana before the fight starts. Recently, though, I've been popping back to caster form to throw out a few HoT's, and then go back to Moonkin mid-fight, especially in the few Heroics I've done. So . . . I may want to think about taking 3 points from somewhere for that.

I also have 2 points in Subtlety, but those were sort of the leftovers from the Balance Tree. I sometimes wish I could max it out to 20% threat reduction (like when I'm without a pally and don't get Blessing of Salvation) but 8% is better than nothing, and the Balance talents I have are more important right now. At least, they were when I put the build together. Let's see if I change my mind by the end of all this.

Well, that's the Resto side of my spec. Four measly talent choices and already this is turning into a novel, so I think I'll break this off here, and continue later with my Balance choices.

Gobble Gobble

2007-11-26T10:31:00.000-06:00

Well, Thanksgiving weekend kinda got in the way of WoW . . . silly real life events. I haven't touched Kali, but Nas actually got quite a bit accomplished. Saturday night we got back and had a GREAT Kara run for our guild. Opera (Wizard of Oz) and Curator both went down first try with no deaths. We worked our way to the chess event and beat that. This is about how far our guild is getting right now in a typical week. Well, since we had a great group, we decided to go for Prince, just to see. I was pretty confident that we would wipe, but since we haven't even been to any bosses after Curator, it would be fun just to see.

Well, we fought our way to the Prince. First "attempt" half of the guild got locked out when the door closed on an unlucky aggro. It was actually pretty funny, with half of us crying, "We can't get in!" and the other half crying, "We can't get out!" After the door reopened and we all rezzed we made our way in and started the fight for real. We made it through phase one easily, but as soon as phase two hit, the healers just weren't ready for the change in damage. Our tank went down real fast, and the rest of us followed in rapid succession. We were reluctant to use the soulstone out there since we don't know exactly where he aggros from, and by this time all the trash in the library had respawned, so we didn't give it another go. But it was fun just to get there.

Sunday, rather than heading back into Kara, we'd decided last week that we wanted to take a peek into Zul'Aman, and take a shot at the first boss. So of all the people on, our guild leader put together a group of who he thought were the best equipped to handle it, and I'm actually pretty proud to have been included. We only had two tanks and three healers, so those were pretty much a given, but there was about 10-12 DPS wanting to go, and obviously only 5 could.

Once the group had been decided, we made our way up there. I'd been trying to read up on ZA this past week, knowing I might be heading in there, and found actually a really great walkthrough that another guild put together. Very detailed info on every pull, plus the boss himself. The Pillage Guide to Zul'Aman for those interested. We made it through the first sets of trash with no problem at all, but when we got to the fifth pull (2 Amani'shi Warbringers - the ones on their mounts that dismount at 25%) we just couldn't do it. We had no problem bringing down the first one, but by the time we did, the second one had killed our other tank and was running rampant through the group. We tried about 3 or 4 times with slightly different tactics (I actually changed into full healing gear for our last try), but by the end we realized it wasn't anything we were doing, it's just that we aren't geared up enough for this instance. We brought in our best people and it didn't happen -- no big deal. It was fun to at least give it a shot, and gives us something to work toward for the future.

Another exciting bit of news is that, between all the badges I got on Saturday, plus running the heroic Botanica daily quest on Sunday, I finally got enough primal nether to complete my Windhawk set. The kind of disappointing part is that, if I hadn't had to buy my nethers with badges, I'd be halfway to the [Moon-walkers], replacing my last green item. But, as I don't get into heroics very often, I knew that badges from Kara would be my fastest way to get 2 upgrades, one of which also replaced a green.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Tons of fun, and two gear upgrades I've been waiting a long time for. (Oh, and Thanksgiving with the family was alright too.)

Professions

2007-11-19T11:47:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure what professions I should give Kalisera. Nas is an alchemist & leatherworker, and I have a farm alt mid-60s that's an herbalist & skinner. That leaves many professions that I could choose from. The nice thing about guilds is that I already know people of pretty much any profession. The frustrating thing is that I'd feel a bit silly starting a new profession when there are 5 other people who have it maxed out.

Jewelcrafting & enchanting are both things that continue to be useful as you upgrade gear, and professions I'd consider for Kali, but there's little point in leveling another one when I already have guildmates who have most recipes. The two things that would be helpful to her that others couldn't help her with would be either LW (yes again) or Tailoring, for the BoP sets. Since I don't PvP at all, I had no epics and felt kind of undergeared on Nas when we started doing Kara (hence why I picked up LW, for the BoP set . . . which incidentally she still only has one piece of, but now that Kara bosses are dropping badges, I'm turning those in for primal nether and should have the other two very soon).

Both the Windhawk set and the Primal Mooncloth set would be very good. (Just to clarify, I have no qualms wearing cloth, since I know from experience on Nas that it's far easier to get +healing cloth than +healing leather. The lower armor doesn't matter much since I shouldn't be getting hit for the most part, and the unavoidable ones tend to be magic attacks that ignore armor anyway.) It would be annoying to level LW on yet another character simply for three BoP pieces, but let's ignore that for the moment. Here's comparing the two, based on stats from Wowhead (which has updated since the 2.3 changes to healing gear).

Windhawk Armor
Armor: 743
Stamina: 67
Intellect: 65
Spirit: 56
Healing: 186
Damage: 110
Crit rating: 47
3-piece bonus: Restores 8 mana per 5 sec.

Primal Mooncloth
Armor: 444
Intellect: 48
Spirit: 46
Healing: 294
Damage: 99
Mana regen: 25 mp5
3-piece bonus: Allow 5% of mana regen to continue while casting.

Now, Windhawk has Primal Mooncloth beat on armor, stamina, intellect, & spirit. Windhawk also has more damage and spell crit, since it's partly aimed at balance druids as well. Primal Mooncloth wins on healing and mana regen. These two things combined probably make up for the lower mana pool & lower spirit.

Based on these factors alone, I'd say that either set could be good, depending on what the rest of my gear is. Most discussions I've seen comparing the two argue in favor of Primal Mooncloth, with the one argument to wear the leather set instead is that druids should want higher armor since they have no way to drop aggro (aside from Cat Form - Cower). Honestly I never had a problem drawing threat when I was healing 5-mans, so I'm not too concerned about that, and I think that if a good chunk of my gear is leather, a few hundred points aren't going to do more than buy a couple extra seconds anyway. I think Windhawk is better for Balance/Resto hybrids, probably, or a mostly resto druid who still does a lot of soloing or PvP and wants the extra damage & crit.

I'm leaning in favor of tailoring for a few reasons. Firstly, Primal Mooncloth seems to be better than, or at the VERY least equivalent to, the Windhawk set for pure resto druids. With that in mind, I'd much rather level a new profession than one I've already done, and have tons of duplicate recipes simply for the sake of three pieces, which could eventually get replaced anyway with a few lucky drops. Not to mention, Primal Mooncloth requires no primal nether to make (MAJOR yay!) so I could craft and wear it right away.

The next choice would be, what do I do for profession #2? I could pick up enchanting (another stand-alone) or just go with a gathering skill (mining being the only one I don't have yet). Enchanting would mostly be for the sake of being able to DE, since as I said, other people already have most of the high end enchants. Mining would just be a nice way to make money along the way. There's also inscription to keep in the back of my mind, but that's a while off yet. . . .

She's Got the Look

2007-11-16T23:29:00.000-06:00

Well, I spent a while leveling Kali today, and she's now up to 16. Here's a new screenshot of Kalisera in all her mismatched glory.

For the first several levels I upgraded all her gear except the chest piece, leaving her in the default robe that all druids start with. (The picture in my previous post, for example, was taken at level 10.) It just starts to ruin the image, I think, when you start seeing your character in all this completely random gear. I wish that, as a leatherworker, I could create stuff a bit more customizable. Make everything all be the same color, at least.

One of my favorite things about creating new characters is deciding how they'll look. With Nas, for example, I planned to make her feral, and I imagined a feral druid as having certain qualities. It's hard to see in those small pictures I posted last time, but her face markings, for example, are the ones where there's just three lines arcing down through each eye. In my mind, they seemed to represent claw marks. If I'd known she'd end up being a Moonkin, I'm not sure what I might have done differently.

Since I knew from the start that Kali is going to do Tree of Life end-game, I had a very "tree-like" look in mind for her. I played with different hair styles that were a bit more free, but in the end I liked the way the braid looked. I chose one of the lighter skin tones that had almost a greenish look to it, and the face option that gave her lips a green-grey color. Green hair, obviously. And for the markings on her face I went with the ones that basically look like leaves surrounding her eyes.

With so much green, she looked almost sickly when I did all this in the warrior outfit, but then when I changed the class to druid and she appeared in that robe, it just kind of all tied together. Obviously I knew that she wouldn't be wearing that for long, and I have no idea what kind of gear she'll have at 70 (though if she at least starts out in the Moonglade dungeon set, that would certainly go well with her look), but I don't like creating a look at random. I'm not a role-player, but I still like for there to be some purpose behind what my characters look like.

Introduction

2007-11-14T16:27:00.001-06:00

After reading lots of WoW blogs out there, I decided to start one of my own. Inspired by Keredria's Tree of Life, I realized not all WoW blogs have to be full of strategies, spell rotations, and gear lists. I might throw some of that stuff in from time to time, but mostly I just thought it would be fun. Also, the timing seemed right to start something like this, given my recent decision. But more on that later. First, meet Nasirah.

When I first started playing WoW, most of my characters never made it out of their starting zone. But when I tried out the druid class, I loved it. The shapeshifting, the versatility, and the ability to heal all seemed to fit together. Before I knew it I was level 30, which in my old days seemed about as distant as 60. Eventually I hit that benchmark too, and -- since BC had come out by then -- leveled through Outland to 70. I kept creating alts and playing with different classes along the way, but none of them ever stuck.

Fairly early on I had joined a very friendly and casual guild, and made a lot of great friends. When a core group of us hit Outland and started running the new instances, I was the only healer among us. I'd been feral all through leveling, but I quickly got the hang of healing and really enjoyed it. When I hit 70, I decided to go resto, and I respecced to a tree of life build that I LOVED . . . except when it came to soloing. Since Nas was my only real character, it was nearly impossible to farm with any efficiency. So, I switched to balance.

I've been running Kara for several weeks now as a Moonkin druid. It's a lot of fun, and I like being a caster who's not so squishy. But, I still miss healing. Now I know that with a good hybrid spec and the right gear, a druid can fill either role well. But there are so many talents in both trees that I don't want to give up, so . . . this is where the second druid in this tale comes along: Kalisera.

As fun as endgame is, I really enjoy questing and leveling, so the idea of leveling another druid from scratch wasn't as crazy to me as it might be to some. I wasn't sure if I'd have the motivation to get her all the way to 70, but with the changes to old Azeroth leveling in patch 2.3, I decided to go ahead and do it. I'll be able to play each one the way that I want to -- Nas for DPS and Kali for healing -- and not sacrifice just for the sake of being able to do both.

So, this will be my place to reflect on Kali's progress (and, I can bet, how AMAZING it will be to breeze through some of those levels), as well as Nas's continuing adventures in Outland.