Playing With Druids

I’ve been playing my lowbie druids when I’m not messing with Ipolani’s Inscription (mostly discovering new glyphs). Both druids are following Psynister’s Druid leveling guide for 1-20 and I’m finding that it makes for a very effective – and quick – jaunt through the levels. I highly recommend that method over goin’ bear, and am also finding that Root-Wrath-Wrath-Root-etc. means I spend less time dead! Let me take this time to introduce you to my druids, baby and otherwise.

Ashkena

Alliance – Ashkena – Thorium Brotherhood

Ashkena Orcgutter is an ex-Darnassus Sentinel. At some point three years ago a small Horde military unit attacked the city in an alcohol-fueled show of bravado and stupidity; ‘Kena was attacked by a young female Troll rogue and sustained a nasty gash from right collarbone to her left side which ended just below her second rib. Her attacker fled with what was left of the unit and the then-Sentinel was rendered unfit for duty.

Upon being released from the infirmary several months ago, Ashkena decided to begin her training anew with a completely different line of work in mind – she chose to train as a Druid. Women had been included in the ranks for the past several years – a relatively new idea – and she saw no harm in trying to make herself useful, especially considering King Varian Wrynn’s declaration of war against the Horde and the rise of the Scourge in recent times. She has since embarked on a journey to train, better herself, her new skills and, of course, make her way home to Ashenvale – a place she hasn’t seen in a very, very long time.

‘Kena’s political views tend to waver toward Wrynn’s when it comes to the subject of the Horde: they’re dangerous, brutal monsters that should all be destroyed.

In this way, Ashkena is much like many of my Horde-side characters who view the Alliance as an enemy that should be squashed. Unlike them, however, ‘Kena believes the Horde to be the first and foremost threat to her people and faction – not the Scourge.

PvE-wise, Ashkena is going to level as Feral past 20 and will most likely dual spec Bear/Tree if she reaches 80. I rolled her as a druid mainly because I know that the class can fill multiple roles and do it very well, and I like being useful.

Horde – Delplas – Thorium Brotherhood

Delplas

Delplas was originally meant to be the tank to a male Blood Elf Mage that I had rolled, but that hasn’t actually turned out to be the case (yet). She is tall, broad-shouldered, a bit of a brick wall on hooves. She often underestimates her own strength and tends to be very apologetic about it when she does realize what’s happened.

This Druid’s full name is Delplas Ironhide and she, like most other Tauren, was born on the road, so to speak, and started her life as a warrior. She found the sword-and-shield life didn’t really suit her and took up her studies as a druid, instead; Del developed a great affinity for turning into a massive bear and mauling things to death. Occasionally, this big lady hires herself out to noble-types and diplomats as a bodyguard.

I took the “big dumb warrior”, injected some brains to go with the brawn and am sorta rolling with it in my head – I have yet to actually roleplay her. Delplas will be a pure Feral druid, leveling as a cat from 20 onward and dual speccing as a Bearcat.

Horde – Ipolani – Thorium Brotherhood

Ipolani, like many a Smokehoof, is a woman of infinite patience and curiosity. Her bad grasp of Orcish can often be mistaken for stupidity, however, she is an accomplished herbalist and scribe – her intelligence becomes apparent when she’s faced with problems of a plant-related or medical nature. She left her Tribe’s temporary home on the outskirts of Bloodhoof Village upon becoming an adult and has not looked back (considering some of the things she has done for the sake of curiosity, mostly of a naughty nature, her concern is warranted); she works directly with the Cenarion Expedition as a medic for the time being.

Some of you are already familiar with her and the crazy that is me wanting to turn her into a Panzerkin at 80. She’s leveling in spurts at the moment with a Death Knight named Shaliandra, a friend of mine whose main is a Protection Paladin.

Lani doesn't like this.

And those are my druids – for the time being. I may decide to make more because I am crazy like that.

New Header!

Look! A new header image!

I might make it blue to match the default colour of the layout (can’t change it ’til I pay the $15, ya know) but, eh. From left to right: Delplas, Ipolani and Ashkena in gear that they may never see, ha.

This? Is progress.

A Death Knight and a Resto Druid Walk Into Ramparts…

… And walk out with a shiny new polearm for the Death Knight, and a larger ego for the Druid.

Shaliandra and Ipolani both dinged 67 in Hellfire Ramparts during an instance duoing experiment. There were no deaths, and this “trial by fire” sorta helped me better figure out what my buttons do and how to use ‘em.

I kept Rejuvenation up and when I had Lifebloom going I let it actually bloom for the mana return, which was especially juicy after using up a clearcast on the spell. The mobs that liked to Mortal Strike made sure I kept up with my Regrowths, Rejuvs and Lifeblooms. There were a few massive pulls that we both lived through, which was awesome and had me drooling over the crap I could pull off on that toon that I couldn’t on my priest.

Now I remember why so many people gave me compliments when I first started druid healing. Seriously, it was one of the most intense and awesome runs ever and the experience (both for leveling and in general) was great.

Next stop? I think we may have to try one of the Coilfang instances…

Tempting the Altoholic With Bear Butts

Do you see what I did there? Ha.

As I said on Troll Bouquet, BBB started up a guide to bear tanking.

I have a tank of every flavour, or have had one, except for a bear. I has no bear butts. This is a sad, sad realization to make – but what’s a girl to do?

I briefly toyed with playing a bear about two years ago and found it unwieldy. It was easy, though, and I adapted fairly quickly to swiping and mauling and growling and roaring, but at the time druid wasn’t really growing on me. It took rolling Ipolani and putting her on the Refer-a-Friend program with my paladin to actually get me into the class.

Right now I have a level 10 Night Elf Druid on Thorium Brotherhood Alliance. I also have space on Horde for another Tauren (something I don’t have many of, despite liking the race). If I actually want to get the most out of this alt, it just might have to be Horde.

Oh, Bears. Why must you tempt me.

So tell me, bloggers: What are your experiences with bear tanks? Have you been one? Do you have one? Do you know any?

The only active bear tank that I know and have regularly run anything with is awesome and probably colours my idea of what a bear should be.

Quiet Week on the Druid Side

This week, there isn’t much druiding because there has been a large-scale RP event going on alongside the Fire Festival that my friend and tank, Kar, has been running.

He is far braver than I, lemme tell you. I can hardly stand to run single-day non-guild stuff. I’m a crappy community representative.

Kar’s role in our duo is “tank”, a role that he’s very good at and seems to enjoy. I mean, once the tanking bug bites you it’s hard to get over and seriously poke at other things. It’s hard not being at the front of the pack.

My role, until I’m geared as a Panzerkin, is to bring the heals. I tree it up or laser my heart out, depending on what’s needed.

I, however, have been craving a challenge.

When one puts a tank and a healer together, they can do anything. They can wipe the floor with stuff that one or the other couldn’t tackle alone and that is awesome.

So, I want to see what Outland instances we can duo. I want to see just how crazyawesome we are … I should probably tell my tank about this sooner rather than later, yes?

Ipolani’s inscription is into the Northrend fodder; I’ll be feeding her some herbs from my priest and making tons of vellum for my warlock, who’s going to have to start leveling enchanting soon so I can stop running to my friends all the time. I shouldn’t feel guilty, but I do!

Tell me about your crazy instancing times.

Adventures in Healing: Druid Edition

In Troll Bouquet, I covered what it was like for me healing various sundry classes as a priest.

Druid healing is an entirely different beast for me. I lay on a nice cushion of HoTs, I have more “ohshit” buttons than what I’m used to (instant casts!) and I have a quirky form to giggle at. Yes, I giggle at my druid when she’s in tree form. It’s hilarious, the shuffling and the clueless peering.

The druid is the only healing class that has netted me major compliments from PuGs and had people ask to add me to their friends list. Priest, notsomuch, most of the compliments came from my friends and I rarely ever PuGed anything with him because, damn it, PuGs are scary and I have a decent pool of people to draw from at 80, anyway.

Situations that would have resulted in a wipe on my priest in the low 60s have instead been healed through without me breaking a sweat – or breaking into the booze. As I gear her for Panzerkin at 80 I’ll get a better idea of what healing is like in the late 70s but, for now, I’m pretty content in the fact that druids are awesome and I can’t believe I never managed to level one before.

But … where the crap are all the bears? I never get to heal those, and I’ve healed plenty of everything else with little trouble.

Thorium Brotherhood Bears, come out of hiding, please.

Dual Spec Tango: Feral Vs. Boomkin

Wee ‘Lani is at level 66 right now and partnered up with Shaliandra, a friend’s Death Knight – but that ain’t what this is about.

Believe it or not, I bought ‘Lani’s dual spec around level 62 or 63 because, damn it, I wanted to try Kitty spec without having to worry about hitting the trainer every time I wanted to change up. I quite happily gathered a feral gear set, stuck my resto set into my bags somewhere, and hopped back and forth as needed.

Kitty was, and is, a fun spec; it puts out a ton of damage even in the 60s and forces my Death Knight buddy to be on his toes (well, hooves?) because we both kill things pretty damn fast.

However, the thing that irritated me was having to keep two entirely different sets of gear on my toon at the same time. Outfitter gave me problems, and before the lovely little equipment manager I was constantly swapping into the wrong pieces of gear. “I’m not eighty yet!” I said to myself, “I don’t need this bullshit!”

So I decided to hop into Boomkin as my secondary spec a little early.

Although we now have to stop to drink, it’s proven to be a damned good investment – and my bags are thanking me, too.

Status Update: Rootin’ On

(( Alas, this was an April post that – due to my WordPress noobishness – didn’t actually get removed from its Draft state until now. My apologies! ))

Since the last post, Ipolani has hit 62 and is sporting a nice set of tree bark. Her partner-in-crime, Adelrich, is 61 and Protection specced; they aren’t working together anymore (mostly because I don’t really want to dual box quite as often as I was).

There are pros and cons to leveling as a Restoration Druid – most of those really rotate around instancing.

At the time of writing this blog post, the vast majority of individuals running around Outland on the Thorium Brotherhood server are Death Knights. The class tends to have a pretty bad reputation due to the fact that it starts at level 55 and, as a result, attracts people that have rushed into their 50s simply to play this class.

Pros:
- I heal. Everybody loves healers, and that’s the most difficult (and in-demand) role for parties already covered!
- Survivability: I don’t die (unless I do something really dumb)
- I look slightly less silly as a tree than as a giant Owlbeast.

Cons:
- PuGs. Do I really need to expand on this?
- Slow leveling (I don’t really notice this, since I don’t die).
- No pelvic thrusting. Aw.

All in all, I’ve run into several individuals that I’ve added to my friends list (who have since WAY outleveled me), and several more that are complete idiots – however, for me, this is turning out to be an interesting ride.

I still can’t wait ’til I can start pimpin’ my feathery arse for this tankin’ business.

Coming up!

- Speccing for Panzer
- The Gear Train
- Makin’ Shiny: Gems, Enchants and Consumables for the Panzerkin

The Dreaded P-Word

Panzerkin.

It’s a word that has evoked plenty of confusion, mostly, and occasional contempt in my explorations of the concept. It’s certainly not a new idea, having roots in the Burning Crusade expansion, but it’s not exactly an optimal way to build a druid.

Some people would argue that it’s damned silly.

Despite the should-nots, would-nots, are-you-bloody-dafts and other assorted commentary, I want to be a Panzerkin.

What is a Panzerkin?

A Panzerkin is a Moonkin that is specced and geared for tanking. It is, in essence, a tanking moonkin. We have the threat generation, we have the armour, all we need is some extra stamina and defensive capability (as well as a patient healer that wants to try something new and a party that’s willing to play along) and we can tank.

Bull-shit.

No, really, we can. Although Wrath nerfed our armour and changed things around, there’s still evidence from BC of Moonkin tanking, say, Gruul or Prince – probably not very convincing these days, whatwith Naxxramas being about, but still rather interesting.

Why try?

I have been playing World of Warcraft for three years and the Panzerkin is the most interesting idea I have ever heard. It’s something I’ve wanted to try for ages and now is as good a time as any. I’m involved with a great RP community, have several supportive (and interested) friends and my guilds rock (in my biased opinion). It’s something that’s been repeatedly put down (despite there being people out there that can and do do this) … and I like a challenge.

This is where it gets funky.

Iron is level 43 at the time of this post and leveling with my level 43 Paladin. The paladin will be switching to holy sometime this week so that Iron has a healbot and can happily Starfire, Moonfire and Hurricane packs of pirates without having to worry about much other than staying alive.

This blog will be where I post my progress from this point, through the rest of Azeroth and into Outland and Northrend – including the level 80 gear grind (oh Gods help).

This is going to be interesting.