.

Four years of World of Warcraft and four summers. One thing you’ve learned from it is that players gaming habbits always change during summer. Some play more than usual and others play less. People playing less is a bad thing for raiding guilds when you are not able to hassle enough people together to fill a raid.

Why the lack of interest in playing then? I think right now there is a sort of general lack of interest towards the game for many players. You’ve grinded your reputations and badge items already, there’s not much or nothing to be gained gearwise by doing the content for the smaller groups (5 or 10 man) and I would believe most of even the more casual raiding guilds have cleared the content already. Or is it just so hot you’d rather go outside than sweat indoors.

Assuming you still want to play, what else can you do then?

Summer is a time of solo playing and there’s many options for that. Leveling alts is something you can really put an effort to during holidays – especially if your playtime is limited (thanks to a job for example). Knowing you got whole day/night free to do whatever you want without interruptions makes playing feel more relaxing. Rather than ok I got 2 hours to play and then I have to stop to prepare for a raid and raid from 21:00 to 00:30 and then go to bed.

Maybe you could even make a new alt. Some class you’re interested in but have never played it before? Go for it. Another thing is if you’ve always played only as Alliance or Horde, try playing the other faction for a bit. I was on Alliance side for almost 2 years until I made a Horde alt and it really had a fresh feeling to it to try the other faction when you don’t know all the quests etc by memory.

What about professions. If something isn’t up to cap maybe it’s a good time to start working on those. Even the secondary ones are all useful. First Aid is something every single raider should have. I know mana is not so much of an issue nowadays so your healers probably won’t have any trouble keeping you up but there are and will be situations when bandages really come handy. From the current content General Vezax is a grand example. Cooking and Fishing work hand in hand providing the food buffs. Not only to you but for everyone else in the raid too with very little additional effort. While there already might be few people in your group who always bring the Fish Feast but wouldn’t you too want to be the hero of the night and bring the fish. And come on.. if you cook it yourself it always tastes better.

Still got something to be gained by doing daily quests? Perfect opportunity for that. Whether it’s reputation, gold, items or achievements you want, daily quests can provide all that with very little time invested on it.

Speaking of achievements, there is plenty soloable ones if that is your thing.

Or just screw it (and do something else)

WoW is cool but maybe you want a break from it. Reading a book and watching movies or tv series are probably the most common. Do I even have to mention them?

I’ve come across people who have never really played anything else than WoW. Well at least you picked up a good one but come on… if you can enjoy one game then there has to be other ones you would like too. Gaming industry is huge and I can understand it might feel difficult for someone new to it to try and find something suitable for you but it is well worth the effort. Ask your friends or browse a website dedicated to gaming. My personal favorite is GameTrailers. Watching game reviews on video gives a very good impression of what the game is like. Just pick the platform you want the game to be on (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii…) and start browsing. Checking the ones with highest rating is a good start.

Since you’re reading this you must be interested in WoW more than just playing it. Ever thought about writing your own blog? If you enjoy having a conversation and sharing your thoughts about WoW then maybe you’d enjoy writing a blog about it too. It’s easy and does not cost you anything if you don’t want it to. Still hesitating? Shoo! Go on and do it. Once you’ve got started come and introduce yourself to other WoW bloggers at Blog Azeroth.

Aaand once again since you’re reading this you must be interested in reading about WoW. But what about listening? I’m talking about podcasts. Just download an episode and fire it up on your mp3 player. Simple. I often listen episodes while playing – can make a boring grind fly by. As examples I could mention Twisted Nether Blogcast, Epic Dolls and Rawrcast. ED is my personal favorite and although it is no longer updated ( /cry ) you can still download the old episodes.

Last but not least… well, actually for me it would be least, go outside? Just stay in shadows and watch out for insects.

Alright.. so what have YOU been doing?

Me? Well as far as WoW goes I’ve been playing my tauren hunter. Not much but I’ve got her to 43 so far. Finaly got finished with Stranglethorn Vale quests. Stupid place on a PvP server. On the plus side however, I did manage to get a lvl 80 human rogue into my freezing trap. Made me smile for a week. Other than that I’ve logged on druid to do fishing and cooking daily but that’s about it.

Outside WoW I’ve dusted up some old games. Diablo 2, Worms Armageddon, Disciples 2, Mass Effect, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2, Splinter Cell… I did buy Sims 3 too. Fun fun fun.

What comes to reading I got inspired by playing Baldur’s Gate and started reading R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf trilogy again. Also fun x 3.

I’ve also spent quite a bit of time watching tv. Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis mostly. Started watching Eureka too, never watched it before but have to say I do enjoy it. Also 2nd season of Ghost Hunters International began few weeks back which is fun too.

Have fun people.

A little over a week ago the druid class questions and answers results were released, nothing surprising or new came up but talk about balance druid casting rotation and the possibility of adding new spells got me thinking. I’m sure everyone has some kind of idea what type of spells they would like to see introduced and after giving it some thought I came up with few ideas. Now, please note that the numbers I toss around are just examples – no math or theorycrafting involved on what would be the optimal value.

So, as a balance druid your rotation is about 4 spells: 2 direct damage ones (Starfire and Wrath) and 2 DoTs (Insect Swarm and Moonfire). What I would like to see is improve the DoT factor, which might be because my second favorite character after druid is (Affliction) Warlock. From the arsenal you get as an affliction warlock my favorite spell by far is Haunt. So, let’s twist that into a druid version and create a spell called…

Dryad’s Kiss
30 yd range
1.5 sec cast
8 sec cooldown
553 to 623 Nature damage to the target
and…

a) All damage done by your damage-over-time effects on the target increased by 20% for 12 sec.
b) Your damage-over-time effects on the target have a chance to be critical strikes for 12 sec.
c) a & b.

Both effects alone would have enough impact to make the spell have an important role in the rotation and with the 4 seconds between the cooldown and debuff duration you got some leeway to re-apply it when it is most convenient – and it does not interfere with Eclipse.

I like the idea of having a spell you cast every now and then for some extra twist and keeping your rotation more interesting. Force of Nature and Starfall don’t count because the cooldowns are several minutes long which is way too long to make it feel a part of your active rotation nor do they make a significant change on your overall DPS anyway.

Moving on to other spells… how to separate Wrath and Starfire from each other a little more. What if Starfire would have a similar effect on crit as the mage talent Ignite has. It doesn’t have to be a huge number, anything is a plus, and it would add to the effect the Dryad’s Kiss has.

Speaking of mages, I’ve read about having similar effect as Brain Freeze couple times now. But how to convert that into a druid version? I’m thinking Eclipse.

When Lunar Eclipse is active, casting Starfire has X % chance to make your next Wrath spell:

a) instant cast and 100% crit.
b) insant cast, 100% crit AND do additional X % of the spells damage over 4 sec.

Obviously same effect to Starfire when casting Wrath while Solar Eclipse is active. Idea of the proc is to make you differ from the straight forward rotation a little more. Brain Freeze works because no frost mage is casting fireball at all unless there’s some twist to it. Druid doesn’t have several caster DPS trees so our effect would have to be a little different. Nobody is casting Wrath while Lunar Eclipse is active unless there’s something to it, enough to not count as DPS loss.

As I said earlier in the post; very damage-over-time oriented ideas due to my personal preferences in the game. I don’t know if they’d be viable ideas but at least I would enjoy them. And you have to agree… Dryad’s Kiss would be the cutest name ever.

Idea for this post came from Blog Azeroth shared topic, suggested by Spinks. What does it mean to be Horde or Alliance. I’ve always mainly played on Alliance side, with only few Horde characters, so I’ll take a look from that view.

I see Alliance as proud and sophisticated, giving great value to intellectual pursuits. Due this I think many look down to the Horde as barbaric and inferior. Art and all around shinyness has bigger factor than functionality. Just look at the armor of some NPCs, city guards for example, they look like they’re made for parades, not battles. This goes with architecture aswell. Everything is nice and clean. In combat Alliance favors weaker but more role specific units. Main strength of the army comes from the various and highly adept spellcasters. In physical strength Alliance is no match for the Horde, maybe only the Dwarves giving some meatshield but I’d just bet eventually they’d get steamrolled just aswell.

Now, this is how it feels to me, in a lore / RP / whatever perspective. However it doesn’t mean I agree with it. I am a diplomat and peace loving to the heart. I think there has been enough hate and bloodshed with the two factions and we could live in peace and let the past be past. That is not going to happen anytime soon, not even a brief truce, unless we get invaded by Burning Legion again or something. The battle at Angrathar gave me some hopes but it didn’t take long to have it all down the toilet again.

And what about the faction leadership? Phah! Bunch of snobs (not all of them ofc) powdering their wigs and wondering what kind of lion’s head shield would match with the new bling bling sword. Varian Wrynn and Fandral Staghelm as worst of the lot. Take Varian for example, that rabid hateful hyena. I was embarrassed and ashamed of him during the battle for the Undercity and with the conversation that happened in Dalaran just after Brann Bronzebeard’s assault on Ulduar. If I had known what kind of ass Varian is I would have told that altar boy, Thomas, who offers the quest The Missing Diplomat, to.. well something nasty. And Fandral Staghelm? More like Fandral the Prideful Weathercock. “I have the vision that she lacks” and bla bla bla. The guy is so full of himself it just makes me sick. Gragh.

They’re not all bad though. In a way Jaina Proudmoore is my hero. She is a strong independent woman who values all life. During the invasion of Burning Legion, Medivh talked Alliance and Horde to unite but I think it was Jaina who ultimately kept it all together. Not only that but also after defeating the Legion, there was a time of peace between the humans of Theramore led by Jaina, and the neighboring Orgrimmar by Thrall. If there ever would be improvement between the relationship of the two factions it would be up to Jaina and Thrall to see it trough.

What’s great in being a druid is that you get to be a part of an organization that doesn’t have all that hate and mistrust between members of opposing factions. This is of course the Cenarion Circle. Both Tauren and Night Elves serve side by side protecting nature and restoring the damage done to it. Then there is also the Argent Dawn but they’re not so open in it as Cenarion Circle is.

All that said, what does it ultimately mean for me to be part of the Alliance. Well you certainly won’t see me yelling “For the Alliance!” or anything. “For Azeroth” maybe. Or “For the trees” as some dryads have been known to do. When looking at Alliance vs Horde I think it’s the races that determine which sides banner I choose to carry. On Alliance I can identify with the Night Elves and the Draenei but on Horde only the Tauren feel close enough to me. Heh, also one particular Wowhead comic comes to my mind. And with all the rant I just did on this post one might think I hate the Alliance. No, that’s not the case. I don’t hate it I just.. I just facepalm a lot.

Vanity what?

What the term vanity usually brings to mind for people is the small non-combat pets but there’s actually a little more to it. Any item you might want to hold on to not because of its attributes but rather for the sentimental value, looks or just maybe because it has a special name. Or how I like to put it: anything that makes you happy just by looking at it.

Most common items people hold on to is probably the small pets and special mounts. For the fact that they’re easy to storage (nowadays anyway) and with just a click of a button you can easily spice up your character for a little more uniqueness.

Once you get to items that actually take bank space people become more selective on what they save. However even the most practicality first people probably hold on to something even when the item is obsolete on its combat value. I would guess weapons are the most common for this. When you finaly got your hands on that awesome Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers, Benediction, Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood or especially any of the legendary weapons, I seriously doubt you’d want to let that item go after all the work you did for it.

Another thing I would add to the mix, although not actually classified as items, is the titles. If you deliberately go for a specific title so you can make your character more unique how’s that different from working hard to get a set of permanent bunny ears.

Why do we collect these items then

For me the the most driving factor is probably to collect sort of ‘trophies’ to commemorate parts of my adventures over the years of playing the game. Like saving all the tier sets I’ve ever obtained. I want to have something tangible (other than an achievement) left from all the hard work I’ve put to a specific instance.

Then there’s the items with special looks or text. Collecting items purely for their looks is probably more rare than any other. I fall into this category of collecting also and for me it’s robes. All kinds of pretty robes. I think there’s like 20 something in my bank and all just because they’re so pretty. Maybe that’s kinda girly thing to collect just for the sake of being pretty but.. oh well. On the other hand I can imagine for RP people having all kinds of different clothing (props?) is very important.

And what about the ‘text items’? Well I can say Pet Rock and Tear Stained Handkerchief always gets me. And seeing Awbee’s Scale should make everyone sad.

With the exception of Heavy Leather Ball, toys are rather new add to the mix. Wheter it’s goofing around by letting a dozen Paper Zeppelins chase you while waiting for a raid start or pissing everyone off with that Toy Train Set, these items are good for killing time. And everyone love’s the Archmage Vargoth’s Staff.

Problems

The biggest issue for collector is the cruel fact that the items take space from your bank or bag slots. You got the gear for your main spec, then maybe another for dual spec, you might also do PvP from time to time so that requires yet another set and if you’re a raider you probably got some kind of resistance gear also. Then there’s all the trinkets, jewelry and other items you might want to hold on to for the remaining part of the current expansion just in case you need the particular attributes they offer. And that was just the gear part.

For more bank space my advice is to make a bank guild and store all non-bop items there, freeing your characters bank for items that cannot be moved. Ask your friends to help with getting the signs for guild charter or go to a lowbie area and say on general chat that you pay 5g for everyone who signs – I know from experience you get flooded with whispers when people get a chance to get money with minimal effort.

Significant improvement for storaging vanity items came when small pets and mounts got integrated into a menu system rather than each being a separate item. In future I would like to see similar change on tabards.

Standing out

What we ultimately try to achieve with vanity items is making our characters unique and stand out from the masses. Nobody wants to be a clone. As a druid I find it rather annoying that when I’m ‘working’ and shapeshifted I look just like everyone else. Leaving only title (Matron) and small pet (usually Mini Diablo) to separate me from the rest. Changes to feral druid forms were just amazing and here’s hoping balance and resto druids get similar changes in the future.

Here is a longish post about my career as balance druid from beta to present. Especially the early levels were rather interesting and maybe some veterans recognise themeselves on similar past.

For a little more insight on how things used to be I dug up some old talent trees, beta 8 and 2.0.3. Instead of listing all talents here and making really long post even longer I made a separate (rough) page for them, just click this link to view them.

First of all I love elves – did not play much else in Warcraft 3 – so it had to be something what they can be. Warrior, hunter, rogue, priest, druid. Ending up with druid was probably because I already had a fixation to that type of stuff from my real life. I’ve done a fair share of studying and reading about nature-based religions and witchcraft. There’s something in the mysticism and magick I find very intriguing. So, druid it is.

Back in the beta when I started playing I can honestly say I did not have much clue about what I was doing, how game mechanics work etc. Pretty much I always just went with what felt nice and just cope with that. That’s how I ended up picking balance tree – it felt the most appealing to me. I liked the offensive spellcasting and that was the only tree that boosts them. I suppose at that point it was not so important how practical my spec was as long as I enjoyed playing – and I did.

I’ve always thought playing a druid is very easy, it is a versatile class with options to just about anything. You can attack from range, heal when needed and you’re not bad in close combat either. Of course later you have to pick one part where you really excel but at early leveling phase the gap between all three is very small.

The way I played obviously prefered the range. Open with Starfire, followed by Moonfire, Entangling Roots and another Starfire – Wrath when SF was not available (pre lvl 20). And then the funny part; finish the last few health points by smacking the mob with melee weapon. Well hey there used to be confusing talent called Weapon Balance that increased your melee weapon damage by 10% – not that I remember did I actually spec into it. Using melee for the last few health points saved mana which was probably the main factor, same as you’d wand the last bit. Also using cat form for stealthing past mobs was something I did a lot.

What comes to gear I had no clue, absolutely none. If I could get intellect I’d go for it but beyond that nothing. Heh, most driving factor for choosing gear was pretty much how it looked. So I ended up using gear that was very old for my level but man I looked good!

My first instance ever was Blackfathom Deeps during the beta. This is when I found the aspect of the game I would come to love above all else; team playing. It’s a whole new level of gameplay when you have to fill different roles with other people to achieve a goal what you could not do by yourself. That felt absolutely epic. And look at those shiny rewards. Blue items?! Woah. Getting the Rod of the Sleepwalker was truly something.

Speaking of filling different roles in group. I did not even think I should join specificaly as damage dealer. Rather just do what was needed – if I was only person capable of healing then I just healed. Nobody even ever asked am I specced for it. Not that it would matter at early stage but still. I might have tossed the occasional Starfire or Moonfire but other than that I pretty much sticked to healing.

As time passed, beta turned into retail and levels went up it came time for bigger instances. Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire. Challenge went up as did group size. UBRS with 15 people was a whole new level of gameplay for me. Eventually they turned the group sizes down a little, Stratholme into 5 instead of 10 and Blackrock Spire into 10 instead of 15. At first that felt somewhat annoying because I enjoyed the gaming on larger scale so much but it also turned the difficulty up so in the end I think it was for the best.

I had been in a small guild since level 20ish and by the time I was at late 50s we merged with a bigger guild. Bigger number of members meant a shot at raiding and more of that epic feeling. 40 person groups? Jeez. At that time it was of course the legendary Molten Core.

I was still going with balance spec but healing in raids, and only buying healer loot. Just as before I had no problem with this. Mostly I was just grateful I was allowed to keep my spec and experience the wonders of raiding.

Getting into raiding wasn’t all for the best though. Until now there was no judging people based on how they were specced but after I got to raiding there was always few people who would take every chance to pick on it. Of course it didn’t feel nice but ultimately I just didn’t care – I was having a blast with raiding so I am not going to let few people drive me off. Not that it justifies such behaviour but obviously the balance tree was utter crap at that time. But also life was simpler. For a druid the spec did not ultimately determine how you could play – it was the gear. Even the resto druids in our guild had couple among them who were specced high enough to feral tree to get the Heart of the Wild. Mostly you just lost the Innervate if you did not go mainly resto, nothing else.

Until now I did not really have items with spell damage since all leather with some exceptions had only healing on them. The AQ patch brought some amazing items I could bid on without having to feel kinda dirty about it. Leggings of Immersion from the first boss in AQ40, Gloves of Ebru from the bug family and the Southwind’s Grasp from AQ20. I also ended up with Genesis Shoulderpads and Genesis Boots. Before this the only item with spell dmg I had was Staff of Dominance.

This was truly a time of wonders. And even more followed when (after I nagged about it) guild leadership decided to drop the class restrictions on old instance loot. This meant Robe of Volatile Power, Ring of Spell Power and Zandalarian Hero Charm for me. Caching! Spice that up with Libram of Focus and Zandalar Signet of Mojo and you’re rocking.

Suddenly I had a spell damage gear and this inspired me to get back to the thing where I could play my spec: PvP. And I did that a lot. Hours and hours.. and I don’t think I was that bad at it. Back then there was no cross-server battlegrounds so you really got to know your opponents and remember the nasty ones. Makes me wonder did anyone learn to recognise me. I sure as hell gulped every time I saw a specific warrior, shaman or mage. Eventually I was a regular sight on some premade groups and those guys accepted me for what I was without any further comments. Thank you for that, truly.

I don’t remember it but I probably fainted when I saw the talent changes and spec specific tier sets. At that time I still did not know was it good enough to valid me a raid spot as DPS but it surely looked promising and I was determined to do my damnest to try.

Comparing from where I came, leveling in TBC was a joke. I don’t mean it would have been boring or anything.. just easy – my druid pretty much annihilated everything on her way. Well, this again looked promising but what about playing in instances then. Pretty much the same really, well I would not use such an extreme term as ‘annihilate’ here but new talents and gear proved the DPS was high enough.

It wasn’t all red wine and prawns (or would you prefer milk and honey?) though. This is the time when I first noticed a decrease in quality of pugs and started to avoid them at all costs (nowadays I don’t pug at all). Also I noticed some of the fellow balance druids weren’t that connected either. Of course there is bad players no matter the class and spec but this was the first time I actually paid attention to it. Expansion also spawned a whole army of new balance druids. Some of them I knew had been resto or feral before – grr! In the original game it felt like the balance druids were somewhat of a secret society. It honestly felt I knew each one on the server and they were so few you did not even need all fingers to count them. And now a sudden boom in numbers.. I felt like a sellout. Heh.. it’s just so funny, a while ago majority could not care less and radicals spit over their shoulder three times when you walked past. I am not saying you have to walk trough broken glass as rite of passage to becoming a ‘real’ balance druid or anything. I just found it funny how people changed. That was not very well expressed wasn’t it? Meh… Look, a flying kodo!

New expansion did not bring anything game breakingly exciting. New talents were a buff yes and the casting rotation got more interesting with Eclipse. Inscription and glyphs made it possible to refine the aspect of the game you had your focus on – PvE vs PvP.

Speaking of buffs. During WotlK so far… first they buffed Insect Swarm. And now in the upcoming patch 3.2 Eclipse will get a significant buff. I hear other classes complaining about nerfs all the time but what about us, balance druids. I don’t even remember when there ever would have been a nerf. Well during TBC the Moonfire idol did get a nerf but that wasn’t because of us, but rather because of resto druids abusing it on arenas, and it also got changed back later. Glyph of Starfire used to increase Moonfire duration indefinetly but I think that was a bug. Other than those two ‘nerfish’ things I can’t think of anything. While it’s nice you’re not getting nerfs I can’t help to think are we just constantly below others so much. That can’t be good either. Would be funny to see Blizz overdo a buff to us and then tone it down. Ideally of course I would want balance DPS to be on target but I suppose that’s impossible no matter what class you’re talking about.

Expansion is still fairly young but I haven’t enjoyed it as much as I did enjoy previous one. I suppose everything turns old at some point. But one thing I can say for sure: playing over the years and getting to this point has really been an adventure of a lifetime. Things you’ve done and shared with other people is just undescribable. There has been bad times too but still I would not change anything.. not really. Even some pointless drama enriches the experience. Hopefully this journey will continue few more years.

Last but not least I would like to thank three different types of players who really made the game so wonderful for me.

* old guild leadership who did not enforce specs.
* my PvP buddies who were the first to truly accept me.
* all my friends over the years who supported me – you know who you are.

Well that came out kinda long. Did someone actually read it? If so, /hugs for you.