Don't be that Druid...

I was inspired by this post on WoW.com to write this how-to guide on how not to be that druid. These are things that some druids do that no druid should do. With that said, if you play a druid, don't be that druid who...
-Puts Thorns on anyone but the tank(s). If the tank loses aggro, those thorns mean more aggro for the poor DPS or healer who is hit, making the tank's job more difficult. No one else needs that extra threat. "But," you may say, "they'll only be hit a few times; what harm can a little extra damage do?" If they are being hit that infrequently (as they should be), that damage really won't make any difference. In short, only put Thorns on the tank.
-Who doesn't keep Thorns on the tank(s). This is especially true of you balance and resto druids, since you have spellpower, and thus your Thorns will cause quite a bit of damage, helping the tank keep threat. However, if you are a Cat feral druid and there are no other druids in the group, your Thorns will be better than nothing. Keep it up on the tank.
-Doesn't put Mark of the Wild on someone after they die and are resurrected. This one should be self-explanatory.
-Forgets reagents. Keep a stack of twenty of whatever you need to cast Gift of the Wild on you at all times, maybe even forty if you are a raider. At level 80, that's Wild Spineleaf. Also, always keep some seeds on you for Rebirth, unless you have Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth, a great glyph for any druid.
-Fights in caster form. Granted, feral druids can't really get away with this, and balance and resto druids don't get their respective forms until levels 40 and 50, respectively, but once you get your form, you'll rarely have a reason to leave it during combat. Between fights is fine, but not during them.
-Complains about any tank or healer shortage. Now, just because you can tank or heal doesn't mean you need to. That said, if you are tired of waiting for a group because you are a DPS, it is fully within your power to do something about it. As such, know that if you do complain, then you are complaining about an issue to which you can be part of the solution

Don't be that Bear who...
-Uses Swipe around enemies under crowd control. You need to remember that Swipe hits all enemies around you, and it has a range of eight yards, so it can hit enemies you can't hit with your normal attacks.
-Uses Lacerate on packs of trash when your group is AoE'ing everything down. Swipe is a better option, since it is better for short-term threat and damages everything around you, whereas Lacerate causes better long-term threat on a single target.
-Never uses Rebirth. It may be difficult for you to find an opportunity to use Rebirth as a tank, but those opportunities do exist. Don't think that Improved Leader of the Pack can replace your healer if he dies; bring him back to life. That said, if there is another druid in the raid who isn't tanking, let them use it first before you use yours.

Don't be that Cat who...
-Uses Mangle (Cat) when you have a Bear tank. Mangle (Bear) is a Bear's highest single-target threat ability, so they will be using it. Save your energy for more Shreds. The one exception to this rule is if you have an idol that is activated by Mangle, like the Idol of Mutilation.
-Uses nothing but Swipe (Cat) on pulls with two or three enemies. Ok, maybe spamming Swipe would be ok for three enemies, but not two (and certainly not one). Just focus on one, then the other.
-Always stays in Cat Form. I know that goes against the advice I gave before, but let's face it; you won't be using Innervate on yourself. Throw it on a healer in need of some mana. And if a healer or tank dies, Rebirth can save the run. Use both. If you are going through a 5-man and your healer dies, Barkskin and Tranquility, when used together, can save your group. Don't forget that you can also heal the tank if you need to do so.

Don't be that Moonkin who...
-Spams Moonfire. Seriously, just don't do it; it goes through mana like America and China go through oil.
-Never uses Remove Curse or Abolish Poison. You're healer could use the help, especially in The Frozen Halls.
-Uses Hurricane on pulls with one or two enemies. I've seen it happen, and it's a horrible waste of mana.

Don't be that Tree who...
-Stacks Lifebloom. Lifebloom is no longer mana-efficient when you stack it. If you want a HoT on your tank, start with Rejuvenation. If that isn't enough, use Regrowth. If you still need more constant healing, use a single Lifebloom, let it bloom so you can get your mana back, and use it again; that is a much more mana-efficient way of using it than keeping it stacked three times.
-Uses Wild Growth when you will only be healing one or two people. Using a single-target heal or two is much more mana-efficient.
-Uses Tranquility outside of 5-mans. Tranquility is a wonderful emergency ability in 5-mans, but it only heals your group, so it's next to useless is 10-mans and pretty much useless in 25-mans. It also needs to be channeled, so even in 5-mans, that limits its versatility. If your tank is taking more damage than Tranquility can heal, there is nothing you can do to heal him without canceling Tranquility and wasting all that mana.
-Uses Healing Touch at level 80. You have Nourish; it is better; use it. The only time you should use Healing Touch is in conjunction with Nature's Swiftness for a large emergency heal.

Is there anything else you have seen a druid do that you would like added to the list?

My review of World of Warcraft and Philosophy

I have finally finished World of Warcraft and Philosophy, and it was a great read. If you have read my "so far" review of it, some of this will be repetitive, but cest la vie.

World of Warcraft and Philosophy was a very enjoyable read. Each chapter examines a different issue in WoW, like ninja looting, the Winterspring funeral massacre, and the famous Onyxia wipe (NSFW), from various philosophical perspectives, including Nihilism and Deontology. Thus, not only will you learn more about WoW (I didn't know about the Gnome Tea Party until after reading the book), but you'll learn more about philosophy too, a fantastic subject. I feel it's important to mention that this book examines WoW from a philosophical perspective, not the other way around. What's great about the book is that it uses World of Warcraft to explain these concepts in terms that are easy to understand, so you are guaranteed to walk away a bit smarter. You may not always agree with what the authors of the chapters say, but they lay our their arguments well enough that you can formulate a logical rebuttal if you do disagree.

Still, the first section of the book is a bit of a chore, and that can turn off readers who might otherwise be interested in the book. The two good chapters include one that examines how ethics change when we enter WoW and one that looks at WoW as a response to Nihilism, i.e. life's meaninglessness. However, another chapter is simply a script of a skit in which a raid boss cries in front of a tax specialist because she is being taxed on her drops and can't afford to pay. Although it can be thought provoking, the chapter only glances over its topic and never actually says anything about it. Another chapter talks about the metaphysics of movement, but it often feels like it is over-examining every issue it looks at, and it is such an overview that it can never elaborate on what it is saying, eventually being reduced to recommendations of what to read if you are interested in the topic. The book gets its act together as it goes on, though, and gets much better.

If you are reading my blog, then you probably play WoW, so you may want to know if the book's chapters contain a tedious amount of detail and explanation about things that aren't obvious to non-players but that we would already know. Thankfully, the book seems to contain just the right amount: enough to explain the concepts discussed without explaining it so much as to bore players who are familiar with the game. The explanations of philosophy also contain a similar amount of exposition, enough to explain the concepts without boring those who already understand them. In this regard, the whole book is, for the most part, very well written.

The book is not without its flaws, though. One of its most obvious flaws in the aforementioned first section. The other large flaw is that the book just... ends. Though World of Warcraft and Philosophy contains a good introductory section, after the last chapter (about metaphysics and how it impacts WoW) ends, that's it. No conclusion, no last words; it simply goes right into the brief biographies of the various authors of the chapters of the book. It feels like a very empty way to end what is otherwise a great book. I suppose if you know that is how it will end, then it won't disappoint you as much as it disappointed me.

If you play WoW and enjoy philosophy, even a little bit, you should pick up this book. Even if you don't enjoy philosophy, maybe this is the book you need to really appreciate it. Either way, I highly recommend you give it a go. At the very least, it will make you sound more intelligent when you are conversing with your guildmates over vent after another wipe.

3.5/4 stars.

My issue with speed runners in random heroics

As anyone who has run a few random heroics recently knows, the new Dungeon Finder tool is a fantastic thing, but one issue that seems to have that comes up repeatedly is people who want to run the instance as fast as possible, to the point where the DPS (and occasionally the healers) pull enemies before the tank is ready to do so, just because they think the tank is going too slowly. When this happens to me, I usually let the DPS tank the mobs for a while, but I digress. Such occurrences are symptomatic of a larger problem I see appearing in the 5-man scene: the idea that 5-mans are only meant to be run for emblems. Forget the lore, forget the encounters, forget the money, the enchanting materials, the satisfaction of taking down an enemy you could not take on your own, the social element of the experience; it's all about getting through there as quickly as possible so that you can get your emblems and leave. I see this as a problem.

Let me begin by explaining how I view fun. My definition of fun is when you enjoy something for the process, not just the results. Let's look at something simple, like biking. Biking is exercise, so it's easy to enjoy biking for the benefits it gives you in that respect. However, if you don't enjoying riding a bike, you probably won't enjoy biking, in spite of the benefits it brings you. Biking is the process; the benefits are the results. In other words, biking is a means to an end, whereas the benefits are the end itself. Thus, in order to enjoy something, you need to enjoy the means to the end, not just the end itself. Otherwise, your fun activity becomes a chore--something you don't enjoy doing, but derive satisfaction from finishing.

I'd like to state one more assumption that I don't think anyone will disagree with: the purpose of emblems is getting gear. As I have said before in this blog, the only practical purpose of gear is allowing you to complete more difficult content, so it follows that that is the purpose of emblems as well: allowing you to see more content. Thus emblem are themselves a means to an end, so it is feasible that someone could enjoy their collection. However, it isn't that simple. Emblems are themselves an end as well, and random heroics are the means to that end. As such, in a transitive sort of way, random heroics are a means to the end of seeing more content. In other words, you are running content so that you can see more content.

What does this all mean? It means that I think that anyone who has ever uttered "I am only here for the emblems" in a random heroic needs to reexamine their priorities. Emblems are just an end that comes from the heroic run, and thus, if you only run heroics to gain emblems, then heroics are just a chore, not something that is actually fun. Now, I'm not saying that you need to find heroics fun. If you have run each of Wrath's heroics ad nauseam, no one can blame you for not enjoying them. All I am saying is, why are you doing something that you see as a chore, rather than something you see as fun? Sure, some of you may say that you need the gear so that you can go into raids, but what are raids other than suped-up 5-mans that require more people, time, and skill to take down? If you can't enjoy heroics, how much can you really enjoy raids?

Maybe I'm just prejudiced because I don't raid, but I say that if you don't enjoy heroics but feel the need to run them anyways, it's your responsibility to make them interesting. Just because you view them as a chore doesn't give you the right to force that view upon others, some of whom may actually enjoy heroics. Now, when I say "make it interesting," I don't mean pulling for the tank or trying to go so fast that your tank's health bar frequently dips bellow 10% on trash. That's just dumb. Instead, go for some achievements or help other people with theirs. Strike up a conversation during your run. Go overkill and pretend the run is more difficult than it actually is. Healers, you could overheal. Tanks, you could use your defensive cooldowns when you go from taking negligible damage to noticeable damage and pretend they are necessary. DPS, you could (gasp!) follow the strategies you used to use for the boss before you outgeared the dungeon. I assure you that all of these things will make a heroic run more interesting, for I have done them all myself.

Finally, to my readers: merry Christmas, happy belated Hanukkah, joyous early Kwanzaa, and happy belated Festivus.

Leveling a druid (what moves to use): Levels 61-80

And now we hit the home stretch of druid leveling. You should start investing points in restoration now. I'll advise you on which talents to pick up as we go along; for a healing tree, resto has some very good feral talents. Unlike before, the moves you get in the next 20 levels will change your strategy quite significantly, so they will warrant more discussion than previous moves.

Level 61
Start investing points in Furor. It's the best way for a leveling feral to start investing in the resto talents tree, and once you start using it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. Furor gives you ten rage when you shift into Bear Form and allows you to gain energy when you shift into Cat Form. It used to always give you 40 energy, but people abused that fact to get extra energy, so now it simply allows your energy regeneration to continue out of cat form and gives you that energy when you shift back in. At least, that's how I understand it. So, if you shift into Cat Form the first time after you log in, you'll have the maximum amount of energy that the talent lets you have. However, if you have zero when you shift out and then immediately shift back in, you'll only have about 10 or 15 energy. Regardless, it's useful since you'll be able to shift out to heal yourself and then jump right back into the fray when you shift back.

Level 62
You now get Maim, which is a great ability when used right. It's a finishing move that stuns your enemy for a certain amount of time. The more combo points you have, the longer the stun. Though it is useful to interrupt spell casting or stop enemies, it's best application is in using it as another chance to use Shred. After you stun your enemy, if you have enough time and energy, you can run behind them and use Shred for more damage. As such, when you get five combo points, this is what you should do, based on your enemy's health:
>75%: Use Rip
75-40%: Wait until you have at least forty energy, then use Maim, then Shred
<40%: Ferocious Bite

Level 64
You now get Lifebloom. This spell is a hollow shell of what it used to be, and when you have no spell power, it is your least mana efficient healing spell. Still, if you only need to heal the amount that Lifebloom will heal you for or less, there's no sense in using a spell that costs more mana when you won't be doing any more healing.

Level 66
You now get Lacerate, an ability that will make your Bear Form combat more interesting. It applies a damage over time effect to the target that can be stacked for more damage. It's not worth using when you are fighting large crowds in Bear Form, but when you are fighting one very powerful enemy, you should keep five applications of Lacerate on them at all times. Still, you need to use Mangle (Bear) whenever you can, so what you should do when fighting a very powerful foe is start with Mangle, then use Lacerate until you get to five stacks, using Mangle whenever it is off of its cooldown, and then use Swipe when Mangle is on its cooldown. Make sure you use Lacerate before it runs out so that you don't need to reapply it; I'd say do it within five seconds of when Lacerate will run out.

You should also start investing your talent points in Naturalist, which will increase all physical damage you do by 10% at max. It's a very powerful boost.

Level 70
You get Cyclone at this level. It makes the enemy immune to all attacks and unable to do anything for six seconds. I didn't use it much while leveling, so use it if you find situational applications of it. I suppose you could use it with the instant-cast aspect of Predatory Strikes to allow yourself six seconds of uninterrupted healing without needing to use Barkskin.

Level 71
You finally get an AoE ability for Cat Form at this level: Swipe (Cat). If you are fighting two enemies, using this will be faster than fighting each one individually if you have invested in King of the Jungle and you use Tiger's Fury once you run out of energy. If you start out at full energy, that should give you enough Swipes to kill one and seriously injure the other. If you need to kill three or more and want to do it more quickly than Swiping them in Bear Form will allow, then use Swipe (Cat) in conjunction with Berserk; you will not be disappointed. However, if you really want to get the most out of Berserk, then don't use it until you have no energy left and have already used Tiger's Fury.

You can also train Swift Flight Form at this level if you have Artisan Riding. It's like Flight Form but with the speed of an epic mount. If that idea doesn't make you excited, then you clearly need to try more things with Flight Form.

You should invest your talent point in Omen of Clarity at this level. It will occasionally make your next ability free to use, and it is quite useful for that reason. It affects Thorns, so while you are buffing yourself, you should use Mark of the Wild first, since Omen of Clarity doesn't affect Mark of the Wild, though it can be triggered by Mark of the Wild, and it does affect Thorns. You can also use Lifebloom when Omen of Clarity is active to get some free mana, but the mana you get back is less than the cost of any other ability that is affected by Omen of Clarity, so that is only worth doing if the last spell you plan on casting for the next few moments triggers Omen of Clarity.

Level 75
You get a new finishing move for Cat Form for raids now: Savage Roar. It buffs your damage for a certain amount of time, lasting longer when you have more combo points. As awesome as this ability is, it shines most when you can attack for the majority of its duration, so save it for raids or when you take down an elite enemy in groups (in which case you will probably be tanking, anyways.)

Level 80
You did it! And your reward is... a healing spell! Nourish is actually a great ability for healing as a druid. It's a fast heal that heals for more when your target has a HoT on them. Truth be told, it's only really worth using when your target has a HoT on them, or else it loses a lot of it punch. Without any spellpower, it is less mana efficient then Regrowth, as mana efficient as Healing Touch (if you already have a HoT on yourself), and more mana efficient than Rejuvenation and Lifebloom. If you need to heal yourself out of combat and thus need to think about what is most mana efficient, I suggest starting with Regrowth, then calculating how much health you still need to heal after the initial heal. Subtract 2,000 from that, and use Nourish or Healing Touch to make up the difference.

So there you go; you've reached level 80! What you do now is your own choice, but whatever you do, you are now doing it with the best class in the game, hands down. You may wish to read my post on how to avoid those "What do I do now?" moments.

My Warcraft Year in Review

This post over on Restokin alerted me to the existence of the Warcraft Year in Review Meme, and I thought I'd join the crowd and give my own answers to these questions.

1. What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Well, like Lissanna, I started my blog this year, but as for what I did in-game, this year was the first (and last) time I ran a 25-man raid. I was spontaneously invited by my guild, so I thought, why not? I'll try it. It was a pretty fun experience, but considering that I mostly tank now and that there isn't as much of a demand for tanks in 25-mans as there is in 10-mans, I think I'll be sticking to 10-mans when and if I do raid, which is a big if.

2. What was your favorite new place that you visited?
The new 5-mans in patch 3.3, The Frozen Halls. Granted, I have yet to actually complete the Halls of Reflection (goddamn that one is hard), but the Forge of Souls and Pit of Saron are incredibly fun. Why? The boss fights require movement. I was pretty disappointed by the encounters in Trial of the Champion because they were just damage and healing races. In fact, they were pretty much tank-and-spanks. I think I enjoy Eardic the Pure the most in ToC because you actually need to move in that fight. The FoS and PoS fights all involve movement, and if you move correctly, the fights are not all that difficult. Sure, they do require a pretty high level of gear, but then again, The Frozen halls is like the Ulduar of the 5-man world, in terms of skill and gear required. I think Krick and Ick might be my favorite fight in The Frozen Halls.

Still, you may say, other fights also require movement, so what makes The Frozen Halls special? I'll tell you: the movement is proactive, not reactive. There's no satisfaction in moving out of an area spell when a boss casts it out of nowhere; it's just a nuisance. However, when a boss is about to cast a spell, and you move to avoid it, or you just move because you know you need to, rather than because of something that just happened, you avoided that damage outright. Your skill just made the fight easier, and that makes it much more satisfying.

3. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
In terms of game content, I would like viable solo content. Sure, 5-mans have become so casual-geared that solo content is almost a non-issue at this point, but I was still very disappointed by Wrath's solo content. With the new Path of the Titans, my wish might be granted.

In terms of what I want for my character, I would really like to win the Battered Hilt so that I can get the Lightborn Spire, a serious upgrade to my current tank and DPS weapons. I have run both FoS and PoS quite a bit (fourteen times as of posting this), and have yet to see the hilt even drop once. Come on, Blizz; just seeing it drop would make me more optimistic.

Oh, and realm stability for Thrall would be nice.

4. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
There are too many to pick, but if I had to pick my biggest, I'd say it was either getting Lil' Game Hunter or the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. I'd say Lil' Game Hunter was a bigger achievement, but I'm prouder of my Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. Whenever I am in Pit of Saron, the Culling of Stratholme, or Utgarde Keep, I always take the opportunity to show it off.

5. What was your biggest failure?
Trying to force myself to raid. My play style and play schedule just don't allow me to put in the amount of time needed to raid, and yet I tried to fit that mold anyways. It seemed like the next logical thing to do, since I had bested the 5-mans, but I just didn't enjoy it. Thank god for the new 5-mans, which are like mini raids, and so the give a similar level of satisfaction when beaten.

6. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Dual specs and the dungeon finder. I got more excited over dual specs than I did over the dungeon finder, since there was a big healer shortage on my realm and I would finally be able to help that problem, but now I am more excited about the dungeon finder than the dual specs, since it has made me interested in the game again. I suppose I got pretty excited over buying the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, as well.

7. What do you wish you’d done less of?
The Argent Tournament dailies. Granted, the Argent Pony Bridle and the pets were somewhat worth it, but I punished myself for those things.

8. What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Aside from the obvious answer of wow.com, Restokin is certainly up there. The mix of druid info and occasional philosophy makes it an awesome blog.

9. Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.
I learned the importance of being prepared by reading up on what you are doing. When I started healing, rather than just getting the gear and going in blind, I read Lissanna's guide to resto healing, and it made me a much better healer. Reading the strats for the new Frozen Halls also made me much more able to tank them.

Which role is most consequential in a party?

This is something that I have been thinking about for quite some time, so I thought I'd write about it here. I'll tell you right now that my group experience is largely limited to five-mans, and its those experiences I'll be basing this dissertation on. For the record, I am, of course, referring to the roles of tank, DPS, and healer.

When I first thought about this issue, I looked at the consequences of one member of the party not pulling their weight. If a tank doesn't pull his weight, then the enemies go off to attack other members of the party, killing them. A fantastic healer could make up for this kind of fault, but only so much so. If the DPS don't pull their weight, the enemies won't die fast enough, which can be bad if they have an enrage timer, but otherwise it is only bad inasmuch as the healer might run out of mana trying to heal the tank. If the healer doesn't pull his weight, everyone dies, plain and simple. These are all very extreme cases, though, so these are not the end-all-be-all determinations.

Another thing one needs to consider is how much a good person filling each role can improve a run or save a run gone sour. When a group has a good tank, he can cause enough threat that the DPS can go all out and kill things faster, thus the run will be over more quickly. If the DPS get a little overzealous in their damage, the tank can use taunt liberally to make up for that fact to an extent. If the healer isn't so great, he can use his defensive cooldowns judiciously to make up for that fact as well. In short, a good tank can make a good run fantastic and can do some things to improve a bad run.

While good DPS is worth their weight in gold, I'd say they can't do much to make a run better if it goes sour. Sure, some can be emergency tanks or emergency healers, but if the tank and healer just aren't doing their job, there isn't much the DPS can do to make up for that fact. Granted, smart DPS can make a run much more smooth. Every time I see a DPS actually follow the kill order, not use an AoE attack on a pull with two or three enemies, watch his threat, and get out of the fire, I know the run is going to go much more quickly. So, in summary, good DPS can't do much to make a bad run good, but they can do a lot to make a good run great.

Which leaves us with the healer. If a run is already going well, the healer's job certainly becomes easier, but he can't do much to make the run better, with one exception. If a group vastly out-gears a dungeon, they can ignore the boss tactics and simply burn the boss down. However, doing this means the group will take a lot more damage, and who needs to heal that damage? This kind of thing requires active communication between group members, but I can say from personal experience that if you make that communication, your runs can be made faster. And if the group doesn't know what they are doing? Then the healer can pull out the big guns and heal them harder. Yes, there is a sort of ceiling on how much healing per a second a healer can put out, but you'd be amazed what a good healer can do when everything goes wrong. So, in short, a good healer can make a good run faster and a bad run salvageable.

So where does this leave us? A bad healer can screw over a run the most, the healer and tank tie for saving a run gone bad, and good tank can make a good run even better. It seems like the healer and tank are equally consequential then. I suppose it just matters where the party is in terms of average skill. The lower they get on the scale, the more consequential the healer becomes, whereas the higher they get on the scale, the more consequential the tank becomes. Seems about right to me.

Leveling a druid (what moves to use): Levels 41-60

Here is the next installment of my druid leveling guide, which will hopefully not become completely irrelevant when Cataclysm rolls out and everything we know about WoW changes forever. Here's the first installment, and here's the second one, dealing with level 1-20 and 21-40 respectively.

Level 41
You'll want to start investing in the talent Improved Leader of the Pack. The passive self-healing provided by this talent is extraordinarily useful and one of the best reasons to play a druid and level it feral. Between the healing you gain from this talent and the ability to heal yourself, you'll never need food again. The mana it provides is pretty useful as well.

Level 44
You now get Barkskin, which reduces the damage you take for twelve seconds and makes you immune to spell delay effects, meaning that if you are being attacked by enemies, you can use Barkskin to heal yourself easily. I suggest you save it for when are out fighting and you need to shift out to heal yourself, since you'll be able to do so without attacks against you slowing you down. When you do this, I recommend starting with Regrowth, because of its short cast time, then Healing Touch, for a more substantial heal. You can use Healing Touch again if you need more healing, but make sure to get all of your healing done before its duration runs out. In an instance, you can use Barkskin while tanking to take less damage when fighting enemies; it's short cooldown means you can use it frequently for that purpose.

Level 50
You get two abilities at this level. The less amazing one is Gift of the Wild, a full-party/raid version of Mark of the Wild that requires a reagent. I don't suggest you actually buy those reagents and use this ability unless you run a lot of instances, which will probably be at level 80. You can just use manual buffing until then.

The real exciting ability you get at this level is one you get through talents: Mangle. You should pick up this ability the minute you hit level 50; it will change your life. It causes a high amount of damage and makes the target take more damage from bleed effects, and considering that a lot of your damage comes from bleed effects, that is a big bonus. It also increases the damage of your Shred and Maul abilities, which makes it even better. Take Mangle (Cat) and use it to replace Claw on your action bars; you have no use for Claw anymore. Mangle (Bear) doesn't replace anything, but it is still one of your best abilities for Bear Form, and unless you are fighting more than four enemies, you should use it whenever it is off of its cooldown.

Since Mangle is so life changing, you might be wondering how you should incorporate it into your strategy when out solo-ing. Here you go:
Cat Form: Start in Prowl, use Pounce, Mangle (to maximize Pounce's damage), Shred (if you have enough time and energy to use it), Rake. From here, use Mangle until you have five combo points, then use Rip if your target is above 75% health, Ferocious Bite if otherwise. Use Rake if its duration runs out, unless your target is about to die. When your target reaches 20% health, use Ferocious Bite to use up your remaining combo points.
Bear Form: Use Mangle at every given opportunity, Swipe when Mangle is on its cooldown, and Maul when you have extra rage. Much simpler, yes? If you are fighting more than four enemies, stick with Swipe and Maul

Level 51
Although you can start by investing your talent points in Improved Mangle (which is pretty awesome), you should know about a little talent called King of the Jungle. When you max out this talent, Tiger's Fury will give you 60 energy when used. Whether you want to save energy with Improved Mangle or get more with King of the Jungle is up to you, but you should invest in King of the Jungle at some point while leveling. It makes Tiger's Fury an awesome ability to use when you need a bit of a boost of damage in Cat Form.

Level 60
You get two fantastic abilities at this level. One is the talent Berserk, which pretty much makes you awesome, no matter what form you use it in. While in Bear Form, Berserk removes Mangle's cooldown and allows it to hit up to three targets. While used in Cat Form, it reduces the cost of all of your abilities by 50%, but prevents you from using Tiger's Fury (so you don't use it with King of the Jungle to get some cheap extra energy). If you are fighting three powerful enemies, then using Berserk in Bear Form in conjunction with Mangle is quite useful. You can also use it in Cat Form when you need a sizable boost to your single-target damage.

The other new ability you get is Flight From, which is better than a flying mount for several reasons. For one thing, learning it teaches you expert riding, or at least it did back in my day (can someone confirms that it still does?). You still need journeyman riding to learn it, but you should have that by now, anyways. Flight Form mimics a flying mount in several ways, but it is much better. Why? For one thing, it is an instant cast, so you can use it while moving, something no other class can do. It is also much cheaper than a mount. You can loot corpses, as well as skin corpses and collect herbs without leaving flight form, meaning if you are attacked in while doing those things, you can just fly up and leave combat. (An act colloquially knows as the "roflcopter") Finally, and I feel this is the most important part, YOU CAN USE IT WHILE FALLING! That means that you can jump off of a cliff and use it before you hit the ground, and you'll survive. This also means that if you are ever "dismounted", you can immediately "remount."

Here is a list of all of fun things you can do with Flight From, courtesy of WoWWiki.

• This form is instant cast, so it can be used to beat a strategic retreat if a fight is going badly. As soon as you are out of combat, it is possible to attempt an instant upwards escape.
• Skydiving! With practice and if you are high enough in the air when you start, you can dismount or unshift, cast an instant spell, and then shift back before hitting the ground and dying. In a case where you are being chased aerially, this allows you to heal and re-buff without making yourself vulnerable by landing. Be very careful of crashing when you do this!
• 'Gravity Chicken': two Druids fly up as high as possible, shift out, and the first to shift back loses. Extra points for talking non-Druids into playing.
• Flight Form can of course be used to avoid taking falling damage.
• Flight Form can be used to scout or bypass small obstacles quickly without the inconvenience of taking the time to mount up.
• This form can be used to quickly bypass content in a manner similar to that of stealth, but with differing limitations. It is also very useful for browsing for herbs, minerals, or rare-spawn mobs.
• In order to do a loop, enter the command /mountspecial. This only works while not moving. There are two actions, Pitch Up and Pitch Down, that can be key-mapped to permit gradual loops in motion.
• Moonbomb: In a heavily farmed area you can gain an advantage by scouting for mobs and Moonfiring immediately after reverting to caster form and before landing.
• RAWRbomb! Shift out of Flight Form while airborne, shift to Bear Form, and Feral Charge your target before you land. Practice until you can accurately land on top of your victims. Important note: You must have the resto skill Furor to get enough rage while falling to be able to Feral Charge; if not, you perform a RAWRsplat (unless you time Enrage perfectly).
• Sneaky Sneaky Sir: You can even shift out of Flight Form, pop into Cat Form, then Prowl all before hitting the ground. Perfect for surprise attacks! This also allows you to shift out from a higher altitude, with the Cat Form's inherent lowering of fall damage.
• You cannot be dismounted while in Flight Form or Swift Flight Form by a mob's Daze effect. This makes mobs like the Monstrous Kaliri in the Skettis area not nearly as annoying to Druids as they are to normal mount users.
• Flight Kite: In your Flying Form, at zero altitude, you are able to aggro ground beasties. You can instantly break combat by gaining altitude. And, since you move at the speed of a ground mount, you can easily kite by getting close, getting aggro, and fly away; when you've gotten it far enough, lift off and back they go. Let them hit you once in a while for the damage from Thorns to keep them interested.
• While the Flight Form doesn't run along the ground, it does seem to act as a ground mount at zero altitude. If you fly down and touch the ground, you bounce up to standard flying beastie height, and follow the terrain. This seems to allow movement-affecting effects to apply. It's also possible to fall off of things in Flight Form while doing this. You do take falling damage after sliding down steep slopes, unless you have a moment of free-fall, prompting your flight form to fly again.
• Water to Flight Form: rapidly and in this order - jump straight up from the surface of the water, move forward (or backward), then shift into Flight Form.
• Cliff escape: if you're caught in a tight spot near one of the endless Outland cliffs and don't have the time, health, or space to run far enough to drop combat, just jump off the cliff. You may have enough distance falling to break combat with the mob, and by spamming flight form you will stop yourself before you die. Note that this is far from guaranteed; vertical distance does not break combat like ground-level distance does.
• Farming/grinding quests: when doing quests where you have to pick up 10 items of some kind from the ground, you can fly over the item and loot it without changing out of Flight Form. If all mobs in the area only can do melee damage, you will be able to do this quest with no fighting in less than a minute.
• Entering the command /sit while hovering over a flat surface will cause you to perch upon it. Entering the command /sleep while hovering causes you to freeze in place.
• Escape Combat: Night Elf druids can use Shadowmeld to leave combat and then shift to Flight Form, allowing them to get out of the area. Flight Form of course breaks shadowmeld.
• If you are an herbalist, you can collect herbs without leaving Flight Form, allowing you to fly away if you are attacked and try again. This also applies to skinning mobs and looting corpses.
  

Citation: http://www.wowwiki.com/Flight_Form#Tips_and_tactics

Next week, we'll finish the leveling trek and go from 60 to 80. See you then!

Reviewing the new quest tracking feature

In all of the excitement over the new dungeon finder feature, a lot of people seem to have forgotten the other big feature added in patch 3.3: the new quest tracking feature. As a long-time user of QuestHelper, I was excited that they were finally including this feature in the game so that I could finally stop using that incredibly memory-heavy addon, but how does it compare? I took my shaman though some quests in Un'Goro Crater to find out. Keep in mind, the only mod I used to make my leveling easier was QuestHelper, so some of the features I mention and extol may be familiar to you already if you use other addons.

The new tracking feature, when activated, puts dots on your in-game map to represent where you need to go for each of your quests (with a few exceptions, which I'll go over later). If you click on one of those dots, it shows you all of the areas where you can do that quest. If there are multiple areas, the dot will be on the closest one to you. The new feature will also show you a question mark where there is a quest giver whom you can turn in a quest to. You can also click a little arrow on the top-right of the map to make it smaller, allowing you to move around and fight while still being able to see the tracking dots, a useful feature considering that Blizzard didn't copy QuestHelper's arrow that pointed you to your next objective.

Then again, I don't miss that arrow, since half the time, it never pointed me towards the quest I wanted to do. The quest tracking feature doesn't suffer that problem since it doesn't have an arrow; it simply shows you where to go for each quest and lets you decide the priority. Well, not each quest. If a quest must be turned in in an instance, the quest tracking feature will not point you to that instance, a feature that QuestHelper had. It will also not point out where to go for quests with general directions rather than specific locations to go to (e.g. the fishing dailies Blood is Thicker or Monsterbelly Appetite) or with a wide area where the quest can be done (like Monsterbelly Appetite or Un'goro Soil). Granted, QuestHelper wasn't very helpful with these kinds of quests and would rarely point you to the best spot to go for them, or it would tell you to do them first when you really should have done them while doing other quests (e.g. Un'goro Soil). Thus, with the exception of pointing out where to go for out-of-zone quests, the quest tracking system is satisfactorily extensive.

Some of my complaints about the new system are that you can't see the quest objectives unless you are looking at the map of the specific zone the quests are in. If you don't know where to go for a quest, you can't just look at the map of the continent and look for the dot there. Still, if you look at the quest in the quest log, you can click on the "Show Map" button, and it will automatically show you the map of the zone the quest is in. Still, the one thing I do really miss from QuestHelper is that the little dots that show you where the quest objectives are do no show up on the mini-map. I'm sure its only a matter of time before someone invents an addon that does that, but it's still a fairly big oversight on Blizzard's part.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this new feature, and though it may not be as game changing as the Dungeon Finder, it has made me as excited for leveling my alts as the Dungeon Finder has made me for doing heroics. My interest in the game had been waning quite a bit since patch 3.2, and these two features together have really brought my interest in the game back up. Well done, Blizzard. Well done.

I suppose that since this is a review, I should end it with a rating of some sort. Three and a half stars out of four.

Should enchanters be indignant about the new disenchant option in the loot window?

Whenever a post on WoW.com mentions the new looting system added with patch 3.3, the comment section invariably gets filled with enchanters complaining about the new option to disenchant loot automatically. For those of you not familiar with the new system, I'll explain it. If there is an enchanter in the party, then on the loot window, next to the greed option, is a disenchant option. If someone picks this option, they roll against other people who picked disenchant and greed, and if they win, the item is automatically disenchanted for them and they receive the resulting mats.

When this system was first announced, I for one, was excited. I had always found it to be an incredible pain to roll greed on items that dropped, hoping no one else would roll greed because they missed me telling them not to, disenchanting the items, having everyone else roll on the shards, and passing them out. It took too long and there was too much room for misunderstanding. After a while, I stopped telling people I was an enchanter and just rolled greed with everyone else, disenchanting an item if I won. With this new system, it is all automatic. It's painless, easy, and in my own personal opinion better.

Still, the naysayers still exist, and some arguments seem to come up consistently. For example...

This new system takes away our choice!
Think for just a minute; what was our choice before 3.3 came out? We could choose between two options.
1. Take all of the items, disenchant them, pass out the shards
2. Do nothing and only disenchant the items we get, so we are the only one who get shards
These days, this is our only choice: Let others roll on shards from all gear that drops. If you ask me, it combines the best of both of the previous choices. After all, we are just as likely to receive shards through this new system, and it allows others to receive shards as well, but it is just as painless as the second former option. I suppose from the sole perspective of the enchanter, the new system is just as good as the second former option, since he'll likely get the same number of shards regardless, but we need to think about other people as well. The fact is that other people need shards so that they can get enchantments, and this new system affords them an easy way of doing so without creating an inconvenience for us.

The market is going to be flooded with enchanting mats, lowering the prices!
Again, we need to think of more people than ourselves. Sure, we'll be making less money off of the enchanting mats we sell (personally, I keep all of my mats so that I can enchant new gear, but I am starting to have a lot of them laying around), but we need to think about the people getting those enchantments. They need the enchantments so that they can perform at their best, so in a way, enchanting helps raid progression. If enchantments are easier to get, then perhaps raid progression will be easier as well. Not a very convincing argument, I know, but these days, dailies are the best way to make money, anyways.

I shouldn't even bother leveling enchanting now!
This is a flat-out lie. I can tell you that there are still great benefits to enchanting, even if we can't personally disenchant drops (was that ever a benefit?).
1. There needs to be an enchanter in the party for the disenchant option to appear. This new system isn't replacing us; it's streamlining what we used to do.
2. We are still needed to perform those enchantments. It's not like people can apply enchantments themselves if they have the necessary mats.
3. You can still enchant your own gear. In a world where so much emphasis is placed on enchantments, I see this as the biggest benefit of enchanting. When a new piece of gear drops and we win it, we can put an enchantment on it there and then. We don't need to go through the hassle of buying the mats or running heroics and hoping to collect them through the new disenchant option, and we don't have to go through the hassle of finding an enchanter and tipping him afterward. I'm amazed at how easily enchanters forget that simple fact, for it is the one reason why I am still an enchanter.

In short, to my fellow enchanters, calm the heck down. This new system benefits everyone, even you.

Leveling a druid (what moves to use): Levels 21-40

You can find the first part of this guide here, which covers which moves to use from 1-20 and how your strategy changes over time. Now that you have cat form, feral combat will really start to shine, so lets continue.

Level 22
You get two abilities at this level, one of which is key for leveling. One is Soothe Animal, which allows you to get closer to a beast- or dragonkin-type enemy before they attack you. I've used it once or twice, but its largely useless since you can Prowl right past enemies. The other is Shred, a high damage ability for Cat Form that you can only use when you are behind an enemy. As such, your new strategy for battling your foes should be to start in prowl (unless their name is in yellow text, in which case you only need to move behind them), move behind your enemy without them seeing you, use Shred, and then proceed as you have before, using Claw until they are at 60-70%, then Rip, then Claw until they die. If an enemy tries to run away from you when it is at low health, use the opportunity to use Shred to finish them off.

Level 24
You get three key abilities at this level. One is Rake, an ability for Cat form that causes damage over time and adds a combo point. It's a pretty awesome ability, especially when paired with its glyph, which I highly recommend you pick up. With Rake, your new strategy should be to start in Prowl, then use Shred, Rake, then go back to your normal strategy. If Rip's duration runs out and your target has more than 50% health, use it again. The second ability you get is Tiger's Fury. It provides a flat damage boost for six seconds, and with only a thirty second cooldown, I'd recommend you use it frequently. It's use will become more specialized as you level up and get new talents, but for now, use it when you need a burst of damage. I recommend using it at the beginning of a battle so you can get the maximum effect from it. Your final new ability at this level is Remove Curse. Not much explanation needed here; you will be bothered by curses no more! Like remove poison, you can't use this in Cat or Bear Form.

Level 26
You get two abilities at this level. One is Abolish Poison, a flat upgrade to Remove Poison. You should replace Remove Poison with Abolish Poison on your action bars. It's use isn't that different, so it won't actually affect your strategy. The second ability is Dash, an ability that increases your speed in Cat Form. Use it when things get hairy and you need to make an escape.

You should also start investing in Predatory Strikes. Although that instant heal is mostly meant for PvP, it can still be useful while leveling when things get hairy. If you need to face a powerful enemy, you can use this to get an instant heal in while fighting him.

Level 28
You get two more abilities at this level, but neither are very useful while leveling, so I won't give them much explanation. Challenging Roar is an emergency ability for when you are tanking an instance, you have lost control of the mobs, and you need to get them to attack you again. Cower is honestly not that useful; the threat reduction it causes could be accomplished by simply stopping your attacks, which would also save you energy. It might be useful in lower-level instances when your tank isn't that great. If that is the case, then use it when an enemy is attacking you and you want to get it to attack the tank instead.

Level 30
For a ten-factor level, this one doesn't give you a lot of new stuff. One new spell is Tranquility, a large group-heal on a long cooldown. Because it's channeled, it's not too useful while you are solo-ing, but using it in an instance when you are a DPS and your healer has just died (or just needs some help) can save the group. Assuming you picked the right talents, you'll also get Feral Charge. The Bear Form version probably won't see much use outside of instances, but the Cat Form version will be quite useful for you. Once you get it, go out and try in on an enemy; the first few times are always fun. If you didn't get the glyph of rake, then you can use this to catch up with an enemy who runs away from you when it has low health. You can also use it if you want to immediately get behind an enemy, which can be useful when you are prowling and can't figure out how to get behind an enemy without them noticing you.

Level 32
In order to make up for the disappointing amount of new abilities from that last level, you get some awesome ones this level. One is Ferocious Bite, which uses combo points like Rip, but causes instant damage instead of damage over time. As such, your new strategy should be to rack up the combo points until your enemy is around 25% health or you get five points. Once either case happens, use Ferocious Bite, then start again. If you manage to get five combo points and your target still has 75% health, use Rip. That won't happen frequently, but if it does, you'll get more damage out of Rip.

Your second new ability is Ravage. This ability can only be used when prowling and behind an enemy, but causes more damage than Shred, so start using it in lieu of Shred to start battles. Here is a useful macro that allows you to use Ravage while prowling and Shred when not. I recommend you pick the red question mark as your icon so that it will show the icon of whatever ability you want to use.
#showtooltip [stealth] Ravage; [nostealth] Shred
/cast [stealth] Ravage
/cast [nostealth] Shred
Your final new ability is Track Humanoids, which really shines in PvP. If you are out on your own, you'd do better to have some sort of tracking ability for a gathering profession active instead. Otherwise, you can keep this active if you wish.

Level 36
You get two new abilities, one of which will change your life while you are leveling. The less exciting one is Frenzied Regeneration, a fairly useful ability when you are fighting in bear form (say, against multiple enemies or one elite) and you need some self-healing. Because it consumes rage when used, I suggest not using it until you have at least 80 rage and then only using auto-attacks while it is active so that you can generate more rage. You'll get the most benefit out of it that way. As you continue to level, you'll generate rage more quickly, so you'll be able to use some abilities while using this, but for now, you'll maximize its effect by not using anything else.

The other ability you get is Pounce, another ability that can only be used while prowling. It stuns the enemy for three seconds and causes damage over time, making it an almost completely superior ability to Ravage, which causes less damage over all. While your enemy is stunned, you can move behind them and use Shred for some extra damage. If you have Brutal Impact and Shredding Attacks, you can even use Shred twice. Here's a nice macro that I use to save space on my actions bars. It uses Pounce when prowling and Rake when not prowling. I recommend you pick the red question mark as your icon so that it will show the icon of whatever ability you want to use.
#showtooltip [stealth] Pounce; [nostealth] Rake
/cast [stealth] Pounce
/cast [nostealth] Rake

Because of your plethora of new moves, this should be your new strategy when facing one enemy in Cat Form: start in Prowl, use Pounce, then move behind them and use Shred until the stun wears off. Then use Rake, then use claw until you have five combo points or the enemy is around 25% health, at which point you should use Ferocious Bite. If you manage to somehow get five combo points and your enemy has 75% of his health or more, use Rip. If your enemy isn't dead yet, then use claw until you have five combo points or it is at 25% health, at which point you should use Ferocious Bite. If Rake's duration runs out and the enemy still has a fair amount of health, use it in lieu of Claw. Repeat until one of you dies, hopefully him. Don't forget about shifting out to heal yourself, especially if you have Predatory Strikes.

Level 40
This is a big level for druids. Not only do you get a slew of new moves, but you also get the talent Leader of the Pack. Long the signature talent of feral druids, this is an amazing ability, even when you aren't in a group, although that is where it shines the most. When you are on your own, though, think of it as another Sharpened Claws that you only needed to spend one talent point in, as opposed to three.

Now for your new abilities. The most significant one is Dire Bear Form, a direct upgrade to Bear Form. The only real difference is the Dire Bear Form provides a bigger boost to your armor, since Warriors and Paladins get access to plate armor at this level, giving them more armor as well. Another significant ability is Innervate. Which restores mana to your target. As a feral, it should fill your mana bar, so by using it, you'll never need to drink water again (if you ever did need to). Use Innervate on yourself when you are running low on mana, like if you were a bit overzealous in healing yourself and ran out of mana, and you need more to re-enter your forms. You can also use it while in a group to keep the healer's mana up if he/she begins to run out.

You also get some interesting passive abilities at this level. One is Feline Grace, which reduces all damage you take from high falls while in Cat Form. It's a pretty significant reduction, and with it, short falls that would damage most other classes won't damage you. You still can't survive really high falls with this ability, but regardless, from now on, enter cat form before jumping off of ledges. You also get Savage Defense, an ability that turns crit rating into a tank stat. Whenever you get a critical strike in Bear Form, with Savage Defense, you will get a shield that absorbs damage from the next attack that strikes you. It's a boost to your Bear Form defenses that comes from a stat that also increases your damage; what more could you ask for?

Your final new ability is Hurricane, a channeled area-of-effect spell, but if you are leveling feral (as I have suggested), you won't find much use for it. If you are facing multiple enemies, you should be in Bear Form anyways, in which case Swipe should be your attack of choice.

That's it for this week. If you get this far, keep plugging away; the druid class is about to get a whole lot more fun.

The cutest thing you will ever see

I'd try to explain why I am posting this, but explaining cute things just makes them less so. I play a druid, so this blog is occasionally about druids, which means it is occasionally about cats, hence the video. Just watch it; consider it your daily squee. Some of you may have seen it, but if even one of you hasn't seen it before, then I'll consider this post worth my time.

Is WoW "just a game"?

This is a question I have considered in the past, but this edition of WoW.com's The Queue, entitled, "It's Just a Game," particularly the comments that followed, got me really thinking about the issue. Something you often hear said derisively about WoW, as well as many other "games," both of the virtual and real type, is "it's only a game." Whenever anyone does anything to show that they take the game seriously and see victory as a worthy goal, expect someone nearby to tell them they take the activity (whatever it is) too seriously, and that if it is something they do in their spare time, they should take it lightly. I have several problems with this idea, the idea that WoW is "only a game." (What I say in the following post could really be applied to many activities that people snidely refer to as "only a game," but let's keep the focus on WoW for now.)

When someone says that WoW is "only a game," there are a few implications they are making. These implications stem from a few "facts," which may or may not be accurate, that people know about the game, which lead to the following assumptions:
1. WoW is done to relax, and thus it should be low-stress and (depending on who you ask) easy.
2. WoW is completely virtual; the rewards for playing (gear, money, mounts, achievements, etc.) are not real, and thus not worth getting worked up over.
3. Because WoW leads to no tangible rewards, it is not worthy of being taken seriously as a hobby.
4. Because of all the above factors, WoW is not worth spending a large amount of time on.

From the beginning, these assumptions fall apart. Not everyone plays WoW to relax; I do, which I why I often don't run content until I vastly out-gear it, but many people play WoW for the challenge--the challenge of learning new encounters, of fighting other players, of understanding the nuances of your class, of working towards a long-term goal and finally achieving it. WoW is a hobby, but that doesn't mean it should always be relaxing. After all, the true definition of a hobby is something done in one's spare time for pleasure, and what greater pleasure is there than the satisfaction of overcoming a difficult challenge? So no, just because WoW is a hobby, that doesn't mean that it should be low-stress or easy. Well, maybe low-stress, but difficult is completely fine. After all, we have enough stress in our lives as it is.

Still, we can't deny that WoW is completely virtual. That armor your character has is just an item number that the game associates with your character. Does that mean that armor (and loot in general) isn't worth getting worked up over? Is gear drama completely baseless? As I have said in the past, loot serves two functions: it serves as a gatekeeper to new content, preventing you from walking into Trial of the Grand Crusader the moment you hit 80, and it acts as a representation of your achievements in the game. For these two reasons, gear is worth getting worked up over, to an extent. Because gear is necessary to progress through the game's content, an unfair loot system or ninja looting is a malicious act because it prevents people from enjoying all that the game has to offer.

But what about mounts? I'd wager that rare mount drops have caused more drama than all other loot drops (except maybe the Dragonspine Trophy), but mounts are purely cosmetic. Not having a certain cool-looking mount doesn't prevent the player from enjoying the game, so is ninja'ing mounts worth getting worked up over? Let's be honest; as cool as rare-drop mounts looks, when you look at them critically, they are just a sign of really good luck. Sure, that person needed to be able to beat the encounter in the first place, but really, it all comes down to luck. To get one of those mounts, you need to be lucky enough for the mount to drop in the first place, and you need to be lucky enough to win a roll against the other raiders. Even if someone wins the roll, did they do anything more than the other raiders to "earn" that mount? Not really. In the end, the mounts' only benefit is that they look cool, so I would say someone getting worked up over loot drama caused by a mount dropping is one time when the phrase "It's only a game" can be justifiably used.

The next thing we need to consider is, can we derive satisfaction from WoW? In the end, everything we do in WoW can be reduced to some signals sent by our computer in the form of zeros and ones that causes a server to send signals back in the forms of zeros and ones, which our computer interprets as images. Does that make our achievements in game (in both sense of the word) any less real? I don't think so. The fact is that achievement is defined by satisfaction, and if you get satisfaction out of something, then it doesn't matter whether another person considers it real or not. Because WoW provides satisfaction, as well as a challenge (as we have gone over), I think that is enough to make it worthy of as much respect as other hobbies.

Because the first three implications mentioned are all bogus, the fourth one doesn't have a leg to stand on, but where does that lead us? I seem to have deviated a bit from my original question, so now I return to it; is WoW "just a game"? When we look at what people usually mean when they say that phrase, we can see that they are wrong, (unless they are saying it to someone who is freaking out over a mount drop), and that in the context they are referring to, WoW is not just a game. Put simply, if someone says that WoW is "just a game," they are probably wrong.

Still, even if the phrase itself is usually wrong, is WoW, in the end, just a game? My Macbook's Dashboard dictionary defines a game as "a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck." WoW certainly fits this definition, and yet it is so much more than that. It is a social medium, a way for people to play together, satisfying both the urge to be with other people and the desire for an entertaining distraction. It is a cooperative exercise, wherein people work together to accomplish a common goal. WoW is more than a game; it is an experience, one that is worth taking seriously. Not too seriously, though, for that's when you get loot drama and fun-suckers who prevent people from enjoying the game. If you can't enjoy WoW, why play it? It is, of course, possible to take something that you enjoy seriously without going overboard, which is why I say that WoW is something that can be taken seriously, just not too seriously. So, in the end, WoW is not just a game, but it is still a game.

Leveling a druid (what moves to use): Levels 1-20

There are plenty of leveling guides that tell you where to go at what level, so this guide won't be concerned with that. This guide will only focus on strategies to use while you are out solo-ing as a druid, what moves to use when, etc. For starters, let me give you my first piece of advice. While you are leveling, spec feral. If you enjoy balance more than feral, then by all means, level balance, but this guide will be concerned solely with feral leveling, for feral druids are some of the most efficient solo-ers in the game, much more so than their mana-dependent balance counterparts.

Level 1
But they certainly don't start out that way. You're only offensive tools when starting out are Wrath and your weapon. While fighting an enemy, use Wrath until you run out of mana, then use your weapon until you get enough mana back to use Wrath again. When you first get Mark of the Wild, keep it active at all times.

Level 4
You get Moonfire at this level, but when you first get it, it is less mana efficient than Wrath. Sure, you'll kill things faster if you use it, but you will also run out of mana more quickly. It's your choice. I'd advise you to keep using Wrath exclusively. You also get Rejuvination, which is more mana efficient than Healing Touch, so use that if you need to heal yourself for less than Healing Touch heals for and don't need the heals immediately. (Though at this low level, that shouldn't be an issue. Your spirit-based mana regeneration can probably keep your health topped off.)

Level 6
Now you get Thorns, which you should also keep active on yourself at all times. It might not cause much damage, but any damage means that the enemy dies faster.

Level 8
Now you get Entangling Roots. Using it will keep the enemy in place for twelve seconds, unless it breaks, which it will at some point. As long as you aren't using Moonfire (it's still horribly mana inefficient), it won't break too frequently. Make sure you do use Roots, too, because in caster form, druids are really squishy.

Level 10
Make sure you do the quest for Bear Form (which starts from a druid trainer) as soon as you can so you can start using it in combat. Until then, just use the same tactics you've been using before. You will gain access to Nature's Grasp at level 10, a nifty ability that afflicts someone who strikes you with Entangling Roots. Use it when you need to make a break for it to halt the enemy in his tracks. It is also especially useful if you are leveling on a PvP server and you get attacked out of nowhere. Also keep in mind that it is usable in Bear Form and all of your future forms.

Combat in Bear Form isn't that exciting, but remember, you are basically starting a new class at level 10. Simply attack your enemy until you have enough rage to use Maul and use Demoralizing Roar if you want to mix things up a bit. (It's not horribly useful, but it's more interesting than just spamming Maul.) You won't need to put Growl on your keybindings unless you are in a group.

It is by using bear form that you will become familiar with one of the druid class's greatest strengths; fighting in our feral forms allows us to regenerate mana while we fight, which was can use to heal ourselves. As such, when you are fighting in bear form, if you get low on health, shift out to heal yourself. Just make sure you have enough mana to switch back. As one last miscellaneous note, if an enemy puts a snare effect on you (an effect that slows your movement speed) moving in or out of bear form will remove the snare. This does not apply to being dazed when an enemy strikes you from behind.

Level 12
You'll now get Enrage, which you can use to give yourself 30 rage every minute. Maul uses a lot of rage, both because of its fairly high rage cost and the fact that when you use Maul, you don't generate rage. Thus, you should use Enrage whenever you can so that you can use Maul more. You also get Regrowth, which at this level, is more mana efficient than Healing Touch until you get to level 14. It has a shorter cast time than Healing Touch, so you can use it when enemies are attacking you and you need to leave Bear Form to heal yourself, since it will heal you faster than Healing Touch and continue to heal you after you have cast it. Finally, you get Revive at this level, which you can use to resurrect dead players. If you are reading this, then you may not know that for the longest time, we druids did not have a resurrection spell we could use repeatedly out of combat. All we had was Rebirth, and it was on a thirty minute cooldown. And we were happy!... ok, that's a lie; we have waited for an ability like Revive with bated breath, and when Wrath of the Lich King finally came out, we jumped for joy upon seeing that we were getting this ability.

Level 14
Now you get Bash. This allows you to stun your target, making them unable to do anything for two seconds. It also interrupts their spell casting for three seconds, meaning that even if your target is immune to being stunned, you can still use it to interrupt their spell casting. Still, you'll probably find more use for it in stopping enemies from running away. Also at this level, you can get Cure Poison. You can't use Cure Poison in Bear Form, so you may wish to just soak up the damage caused by poisons if you don't want to spend the time to shift out, but when you do shift out to heal yourself, you'll appreciate having this ability.

Level 16
You finally get another ability for Bear Form: Swipe. I'm not sure how much damage swipe causes at low levels, but if you have maxed out Ferocity (as you should have), it may be more rage efficient than Maul, even when used against one target. It's certainly more fun to use. You also get two new forms that allow you to move faster: Aquatic Form for the water, and Travel Form for land. Both are very useful, even after you get your first mount. After all, mounts don't increase your movement speed in water, and Travel Form can be used in combat to make a quick get-away, whereas mounts can't.

Level 18
You get Faerie Fire at this level, as well as its Feral version. The feral version can be used as a way to pull enemies to you, so you'll want to use it as such. It also causes a minimal amount of damage in Bear Form, so until you get Cat Form, use it when it is off of its cooldown and you don't have the rage to use anything else. You also get hibernate, which can be situationally useful if you pulled more enemies than you intended to and one of them is a beast or dragonkin. If you see a human enemy walking around with a beast companion (not an uncommon sight), you can use Hibernate on the beast, keeping him from fighting you so you can focus on the human enemy.

Level 20
This is a significant level for druids (as it is for many classes). First of all, you get Cat Form. As awesome as Cat Form is, don't get too excited, for you are basically starting a new class again. Still, it's only going to get better from here. Cat Form can kill things faster than Bear Form, but it is more squishy than Bear Form, so if you are fighting multiple enemies, you should probably switch to Bear Form (you can handle two in Cat Form, but any more than that and you should make the switch). Bear Form is also a good idea if you are facing a powerful enemy (like an elite) that will take a long time to kill, since Bear Form's damage reduction will win out against Cat Form's damage.

You start out with three abilities for Cat Form: Claw, Rip, and Prowl. Claw causes instant damage and puts combo points on your enemy, while Rip causes damage over time and requires combo points. For now, you're strategy should go something like this: make sure you have full energy, use Claw two or three times, then use Rip if your enemy is at 60% health or above. If your target has lower health at that point, then Rip won't be active long enough to be worth it, so if that is the case, just keep using Claw. As for Prowl, right now, it's only use is to sneak past enemies. Thus is it still very useful for getting to a quest item or something like that without needing to fight all of the enemies along the way. When you use Prowl, you become almost invisible. Enemies will see you if you get too close to them. If they stop and look at you without attacking, it means you are almost close enough for them to see you, but not quite. An enemy can't see you if you are behind him and are Prowling.

You get two more abilities at this level: Starfire and Rebirth. If you are leveling feral, then you won't find much use for Starfire. You won't find much use for Rebirth if you are on your own, but it shines when you are in a group, for it is the only resurrection spell in the game that can be used in combat. It makes up for that with its long cooldown, but if your healer or tank dies, you can use it to bring them back and save the run. For that reason, make sure to pick up the reagents for it (and replace them at every rank) and keep it on your action bar. Depending on how you spent your talents, you may also have Survival Instincts. This isn't a terribly useful ability when you are solo-ing, so you may not want to pick it up unless you will be doing a lot of PvP or tanking a lot of instances.

I should also mention how to fight in Bear Form, since it will be your form of choice when facing multiple enemies or elites. If you are fighting a crowd, all I can say is to spam Swipe. If you have Primal Fury, this will probably result in a lot of extra rage, and with that extra rage, you should use Maul. A good rule of thumb is that if you have more than 30 rage, it is safe to use Maul. When you are fighting one powerful enemy, use Maul as your main damage ability, and be sure to switch out of Bear Form to heal yourself before you reach 35% health. Remember that exiting Bear Form will cause you to loose all of your rage, so try to use it all before you switch out. When you do switch out to heal yourself, I recommend starting with Regrowth (for its fast cat time), then using healing touch once or twice to top off your health. If you have the mana for it, you can also use Rejuvenation before entering Bear Form again.

That's all for this week. Depending on how much time I have, I may go right to level 80 with the next installment. Otherwise, I'll probably stop around level 40 and go from there the week after. Until then, happy leveling and happy druid-ing.

Thanksgiving and historical pessimism: Is it worth it?

I will warn you right now that this post has nothing to do with WoW. I don't intent to put up many posts like this, but this issue has arisen recently as it does every year. When wow.com put up a post talking about Pilgrim's Bounty (I don't remember which one it is), the comments section was ablaze with people eager to bring up the darker side of the history of Thanksgiving, about how the Pilgrims massacred the Native Americans and stole their land in exchange for cheap trinkets due to a misunderstanding between the two groups about the concept of land ownership. I'm sure you've heard it all before from your pessimistic friends and your high school history teachers who like to pretend that they are the only ones willing to tell you the darker side of history, so I won't go into it in detail. The question I pose to you today: are those people who insist on looking at the darker side of Thanksgiving right or wrong?

Let's forget that for a moment and think about the purpose of this holiday. Some people will tell you that the purpose of Thanksgiving is to remember when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans came together in partnership and cooperation, but really, the true purpose of Thanksgiving is to remember the things we are thankful for. That, as well as to stuff ourselves with food and visit with friends and relatives. All of these activities contribute towards one goal; enjoyment. In the end, that is the true purpose of any holiday: enjoying ourselves, giving ourselves a break from the doldrums of day-to-day life.

In this respect, historical Thanksgiving pessimism (HTP, from now on) is quite misguided in that it distracts us from the true purpose of the holiday; enjoying ourselves. After all, the past is the past; no amount of white guilt or moping about history will change what was done to the Native Americans or the fact that those atrocities were necessary for us to get where we are today as a country. From a purely practical standpoint, HTP doesn't benefit anyone.

That said, there's a danger in forgetting about our history. As anyone who studies history will tell you, the one thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history (paraphrased from Hegel). In other words, throughout history, man has repeated the same mistakes he has made before, and much of history is us just repeating mistakes we have made in the past and suffering the consequences from it. With that in mind, HTP does serve the function of forcing us to keep in mind our past mistakes such that we may not repeat them. Even if its purpose is negative, its intent is not.

So, what's the verdict? Even though HTP does prevent us from enjoying the holidays as much as we could, it stems from the necessity of remembering the mistakes of our past so that we do not repeat them in the future. So, the next time someone brings up HTP in conversation, you are completely justified in calling them a pessimist and a party-pooper, but their intentions are still good, even if they don't realize it.

No philosophy post this Friday

I apologize to all of my faithful readers (all three of you ;-) I kid, I kid), but there will not be a Friday philosophy post this week. I've been spending a lot of time with my family, as well as doing other things that take up a lot of my time, so I can't bring you one this week. Next week's miscellany post, however, will be philosophical in nature, so I hope that will make it up to you.

Some miscellaneous advice for Pilgrim's Bounty

Pilgrim's Bounty is in full swing now, and since I'm probably not the only one still going for my Plump Turkey, I thought I'd share some advice I've come up with during the event.

-Finish the questline that involves you turning in five of each food to various people outside of the capital cities. It ends with you getting a turkey caller, which you can use every two minutes to summon a turkey which you can kill for a wild turkey. Do this every two minutes while you are out doing other things and you won't need to compete with the people going for The Turkinator when you farm turkeys for Can't Get Enough Turkey, making everyone happier.

-I don't know about your server, but on mine, there are fewer people going for The Turkenator in Trisfall Glades than there are in Elwynn Forest, so try doing a route going around the lake there.

-If you are level 80, you can probably solo Talon King Ikiss for Terokkar Turkey Time as long as you run behind the pillars when he used Arcane Explosion (if you can heal yourself, even this step may not be necessary).

-When searching for rogues for Turkey Lurkey, try going into Dalaran and moving your mouse quickly back and forth over a crowd of people, scanning them. Look at the tool-tip that comes up and you should be able to find your rogues. If all else fails, try going to the starting areas of whatever race you are missing, since there is no level requirement for the achievement.

World of Warcraft and Philosophy so far

As you may know, I am currently reading World of Warcraft and Philosophy, and though I have not finished it yet (I'm a bit over half-way through), I thought I'd give my impressions of the book thus far. Once I finish, I will write a proper review.

Thus far, World of Warcraft and Philosophy has been a very enjoyable read. Although it starts out a bit disjointed in the first section, it gets its act together as it goes on and gets better. Each chapter examines a different issue in WoW, like ninja looting to the Winterspring funeral massacre, from various philosophical perspectives, including Nihilism and Deontology. Thus, not only will you learn more about WoW (I didn't know about the Gnome Tea Party until after reading the book), but you'll learn more about philosophy too, a fantastic subject. You may not always agree with what the authors of the chapters say, but they lay our their arguments well enough that you can formulate a logical rebuttal if you do disagree.

If you are reading my blog, then you probably play WoW, so you may want to know if the book's chapters contain a lot of detail and explanation about things that aren't obvious to non-players but that we would already know. Thankfully, the book seems to contain just the right amount: enough to explain the concepts discussed without explaining it so much as to bore players who are familiar with the game. The explanations of philosophy also contain a similar amount of exposition, enough to explain the concepts without boring those who already understand them. In this regard, the whole book is, for the most part, very well written.

That's all for now. I won't give this book a rating yet, but I will say that if you enjoy WoW and philosophy, even a little bit, you should pick up this book. Even if you don't enjoy philosophy, maybe this is the book you need to really appreciate it. Either way, I highly recommend you give it a go.

Are our actions in WoW meaningless?

As those of you who found my blog through wow.com know, I am currently reading World of Warcraft and Philosophy. Though the book as a whole is very interesting, there is one point in it that has stuck with me ever since I read it: we give our lives meaning based on how we change the world, and because the world of WoW is almost impossible to change in any meaningful way by player action, everything we do in WoW is meaningless.

I think the most poignant example of this point is the Argent Tournament daily quest You've Really Done It This Time, Kul. For those of you who do not have access to this daily, it involves killing members of the Cult of the Damned for keys to unlock the cages holding Kul the Reckless and four other crusaders whom he has taken with him to fight the Cult of the Damned. Unlike the other Silver Covenant Argent Tournament dailies, this one is not on a rotation with any others, meaning you do it every day. Every day, you go free Kul from his cage, and sometimes he says, "Thank the Light. I'll never do anything this foolish again." And then, the next day, he is back in that cage, and you need to rescue him again.

Many dailies are the same way. No matter how many times you do Taking Battle To The Enemy, the number of cultists in Icecrown is never reduced. No matter how many times you do The Ghostfish, Marcia will never discover the secret of that Phantom Ghostfish, as evidenced by the fact that she will likely send you out to do the daily again. No matter how many times you do Vile Like Fire!, those buildings will never actually burn down. Dailies pretty much involve players doing things over and over again with no perceivable impact on the game. Not one. The Argent Colosseum was built in spite of the fact that I'm pretty sure no one did the dailies that involved collecting materials for their construction. The obvious exception is how the Sunwell Plateau dailies unlocked the next round of dailies as people completed them, but this is the only exception I can think of.

Think, also, about quests that send you out to kill an enemy that is threaten the town. I am sure many players will be familiar with the quest Wanted: "Hogger", in which you set of to kill a gnoll who... well, the quest never exactly makes it clear why he is a threat to Stormwind, but he must be. He is an elite, after all. Anyways, you get together with your friends, you kill this guy, and you go to get your reward. And yet, if you go back to that area, who do you find? Hogger! Yep, he has respawned, and your efforts to do Stormwind a favor have yielded nothing. Look at the first quest human receive when they start out: Kobold Camp Cleanup. You go kill those kobolds as Marshal McBride requested, and yet they are still there when you return for the next quest. I could go on and on, but any quest you do will have no real effect on the world around you, save the Wrathgate questline in Northrend and the series of quests in the Death Knight starting zone. (Both of which, you may notice, are often considered the best questlines in the game. Coincidence? I think not.)

Instances are almost identical in this regard. Suppose you and four of your friends go through Deadmines. After much trial and tribulation, you kill Vancleef. It was hard work, but you now have the satisfaction of removing that threat to Stormwind. Or do you? The next day, you see some people talking about how they are looking for more adventurers to help them go into the Deadmines and take down Vancleef. But I already killed him, you may say to yourself. Curious as to what they mean, you decide to follow them into the instance. The reappearance of the henchmen you killed before him gives you the impression that something is amiss, and lo and behold, there he is. The man himself, standing as if you have never killed him. Substitute any boss in any raid and it is the same case.

In short, almost nothing we do in WoW actually impacts the world itself, and thus, it is meaningless. We do get gear and experience for what we do, but that only affects our characters, not the world around us. Keep in mind that meaningless doesn't mean pointless. Our actions in World of Warcraft are fun and enjoyable, and for that reason, they have a point. I am only arguing that within the world of WoW itself, they are meaningless.

Is that a bad thing, though? If it weren't for all of the mechanics discussed above, WoW could not exist as a game. Dailies need to be repeatable by their nature. Enemies killed for quests need to respawn so that other people can kill them and complete the quest. Instances need to reset for the same reason. If instances were one-time things only, then it would be more and more difficult to find groups for them as the years went on. How many alliance players do you know that haven't run Deadmines? In other words, our actions in WoW need to be mostly meaningless, or else WoW couldn't exist as a game.

But is WoW doomed to meaninglessness? I think not. There are certainly things Blizzard can do to make our actions feel like they are having some effect on the world. Having more questlines like Wrathgate would be a start. Then we would feel like our efforts are actually changing Azeroth in some way. As for dailies, perhaps the number of enemies we need to kill or the number of objects we need to collect could go down as we do the daily. Imagine, for example, you go into the Argent Tournament area, and you pick up Taking the Battle to the Enemy. After you do it for five days, you notice that the number of cultists you need to kill has gone down to fourteen. After five more days, it goes down to thirteen, etc. Heartened by this fact, you keep doing the daily until, after twenty five days, you only need to kill ten. When you reach this point, the quest text itself changes. When you first started, the quest text read like this:

The coliseum is perched in the most dangerous part of the world, adventurer. The territory we've taken from the Scourge has been paid for in blood and misery, yet the enemy continues to strike back with a seemingly limitless army. To make matters worse, this undead army is supported and assisted by mortal sympathizers, the Cult of the Damned.

Go forth into Icecrown and slay any cultists you encounter.

Instead, it now reads like this:

When we first came here, adventurer, we were under constant threat from the Scourge and its mortal sympathizers. Thanks to your efforts, however, we have managed to reduce the threat they pose. Our work is still not done, though; go forth into Icecrown and keep killing those cultists.

Once again, you are further motivated to keep doing the daily. After fifty days, you now only need to kill five cultists to complete the daily (it wouldn't go any lower than that). Now the quest text has changed again.

We can't thank you enough, adventurer. Thanks to your tireless efforts, the Cult of the Damned is hardly a threat to us anymore. Still, we cannot rest, for if we stop our efforts now, they will only regain strength. You know what to do.

So you keep doing this daily, but you soon grow bored with it. You stop doing it each day, and upon going back to do it after thirteen days, you are horrified to discover that the number has gone back up to seven. After all, if you aren't keeping those cultists in line, who will?

To make this more general, I think it would give our actions some meaning if dailies rewarded you for doing them by becoming easier as you do so. However, to keep things fair, they would become more difficult if you neglected them. They would never go over their original amounts, though, which would never be made unreasonably high to account for the fact that it would eventually be reduced.

What about raids? Can anything be done with raids to make them feel meaningful? I doubt it, unless you are ok with running a raid only once. Perhaps a boss could say things like, "This time, I will not fall!" before you fight him, but there is no way to give raiding meaning without changing it in some fundamental way. If you make the bosses easier after they are defeated (this makes sense, since being defeated would, in fact, make them weaker if they needed to use all of their resources to come back to life), then players would complain about not being able to face the "real" boss more than once. It's a shame Blizzard nixed the old model of unlocking new dungeons by completing old ones, since that would give your character's actions in raids some sort of meaning. Perhaps they could make the final bosses in each raid drop an item that starts a quest to become attuned to the next dungeon, and it would be lootable by everyone. I would consider that a happy medium between the old system of attunement and the new system of accessibility.

Before ending this post, I want to bring up again that just because our actions are meaningless within the world of WoW doesn't mean that they are meaningless in our own lives. They bring up happiness, they allow us to socialize with people while playing a fantastic MMO, they provide a diversion from life's drudgery, and they allow the creation of a greater community of WoW players. Any time spent playing WoW is only meaningless from your character's perspective; it is not meaningless from your own.