There are a lot of negative things I could say about patch 4.0.1. I could talk about Warlocks losing the names of pets that they have had since long ago, names they grew attached to, before a bug took them away (but that's going to be fixed, anyways). I could talk about how atrocious I find the new tree of life model, but time and accepting that I'm probably done healing on my druid has turned my abhorrence into utter indifference. I've already talked about the loss of tree of life as a permanent form, so no point in belaboring that point. Of course, the fiasco of post-4.0.1 class balance is a topic rife with discussable points, but I can't be angry about any of these things. I can't be angry about them because of the changes this patch has made to my warrior alt.
You see, I rolled my little warrior (currently residing at level 25; he was level 22 when the patch hit) as a way to enjoy this game before Cataclysm comes out, but leveling him was a very trying process. Heroic strike, the ability we were supposed to use while fighting one-on-one, consumed so much rage that using Thunder Calp, an ability meant for AoE combat, was actually more rage efficient, even against one enemy. Of course, this meant the damage of a low level warrior was incredibly sub-par, for there weren't many other abilities I could use to increase my damage. I could use Rend, a damage over time ability; Overpower, which I could only use after one of my attacks was dodged, i.e. not all that frequently; and Victory rush, which I could only use once per battle, anyways. In short, at low levels, warriors lacked the abilities they needed to be viable in one-on-one combat.
With patch 4.0.1, however, that all changed. My warrior went from level 22 to 25 (granted, I was two bars away from 23 when 4.0.1. hit) probably as quickly as he went from 21 to 22 thanks to the new move set he has. What you might not know if you've only been following the level-cap changes in patch 4.0.1 is that this patch brought with it changes to how and when we learn abilities at low levels. We only need to learn an ability once, after which it scales as we level. Because of this, Blizzard spread out the rate at which we learn new abilities, so that we have more to learn at higher levels than we would if they had kept it the same. In the process, they reevaluated the order in which we learn abilities and shifted it a bit. This was also the patch where they changed the nature of our abilities. What this all adds up to is that, thanks to the new (new for my level, at least) and improved abilities this patch gave my lowly warrior, he is suddenly viable in combat and--dare I say... fun.
Yes, I said it... ok, I really implied it, but I'll say it now: leveling as a warrior was just not fun in the 1 to 22 range before this patch. Having abilities that weren't viable sitting unused on my bar while using abilities that weren't meant for the situation I was in because the abilities that were meant for the situation I was in were practically useless wasn't fun. Now, all of a sudden, leveling as a fury warrior actually feels like playing a berserker. We have a lot more rage now, thanks (I think) to the rage normalization, and we have abilities that we actually want to spend that rage on. Playing as a fury warrior in low levels is now a frenzy of trying to use the abilities available to you as quickly as possible, since you actually have the rage to do so, rather than an exercise in waiting for Thunder Clap to come off its cooldown and hoping you have enough rage to use it when it does.
So why am I gushing about the new playstyle of low-level fury warriors? Well, after playing as my warrior for an hour or two last night; after surviving a battle against seven enemies of my level, all attacking me at once, when four doing the same thing could have easily done me in before the patch; I had to ask myself: why did we put up with the absolutely terribad playstyle of low level warriors for so long? In fact, I'm sure warriors aren't the only class whose low-level play has been vastly improved by this patch, so I have to ask; why did we put up with bad low level playstyles for so long?
Well, part of the answer is that many people didn't. I know quite a few players who hate the leveling process, and the way some classes play at low levels played no small part in their hatred of that part of the game. Of course, alt-aholics like me really had no choice other than putting up with the bad low-level content, hoping it would be worth it with the higher level content. Part of it could be the idea that we are somehow earning our fun, that the bad low-level playstyle is the price we have to pay to get to the more fun playstyle. That idea is reinforced by the idea that any sort of bad experience we go through makes us able to better appreciate the good experiences we go through, a truism I have often heard in real life.
It could also have something to do with a little condition called learned helplessness. The idea of learned helplessness is that if we accept that we have no control over a situation, it causes us to accept the misery that situation brings upon us, even if a way out is presented. There wasn't a lot we could do to improve the playstyle of classes that were not at all fun to play while leveling, other than not leveling those classes, so those of us who wanted to level those classes just had to accept that the early levels were going to be unenjoyable. (And boy were they. Priests? Paladins? Warriors? Druids? I'm looking at you.) So we gritted our way through those early levels, because we had no other choice if we wanted to get to the part where the classes become fun to play (and I can tell you from personal experience that priests and druids got much more fun to play as you approach the later levels).
Could it really be that bad, though? Could us hopeless alt-aholics really be suffering from the same condition that keeps battered spouses and depressed people in their predicaments? As the blog post I linked to mentions, when someone suffering from learned helplessness does get out of their situation, they often have a hard time committing to anything afterward, and tend to continue believing in nihilism and futility, rather than having hope and being optimistic. When I first logged in to my warrior, I had my doubts about whether he would be any more fun to play, but I gave it a try anyways. As you can tell, I was blown away once I did, but the important thing was whether I hesitated at all. Well, I did find it a bit tedious to need to go to the trainer and learn new moves, and viewed rearranging my action bar with the same weary view. In fact, that fact that I started playing again after rearranging my abilities doesn't really do much to disprove the learned helplessness theory, because I still expected playing to not be all that enjoyable; the surprise came from the fact that I enjoyed play my warrior, not from the fact that I did, in fact, play him. Thus I was engaging in old behaviors with the same kind of futile outlook; all that changed was the result.
So perhaps we alt-aholics who braved our way through the early levels of the unfun classes did suffer from learned helplessness, but patch 4.0.1 is here now, here to liberate us from the previous doldrums of the early levels. Along with this forced liberation comes the force relocation (metaphorically speaking) to a much more fun game design; in other words, we are being flat-out prevented from going back to the situation that caused our learned helplessness in the first place. We have been forced into our escape, forced into a more hopeful situation, and though we might not have been cured of that helplessness, at least we have been saved in spite of it. What this means for the future of low-level playing and us alt-aholics, though, remains to be seen.
Showing posts with label abilities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abilities. Show all posts
Friday, October 15, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
It's so hard to say goodbye: Tree of Life
I thought I'd be over it by now. I thought the pain, the sadness, the grieving would have come to an end, but I just couldn't accept it, and I still haven't. When patch 4.0 hits, I really don't know whether I'll be able to enjoy all of the great new additions, because of one little hitch: Tree of Life. I know the point has long run its course. I know this discussion has been held before, and has probably been done to death in every conceivable venue where it can be discussed. I know that those who don't share the sadness of those who will miss this form will probably roll their eyes at this post. But I can't help it, because this blog is a receptacle for my feelings about WoW, and right now, my feelings are those of sadness at the loss of this form.
You might be wondering, if this blog is just a receptacle for my feelings about WoW, then why do I advertise it as a blog where I look at WoW from a philosophical perspective? I do that because most of my thoughts on this game tend to wax philosophical. But take a look at the subtitle of my blog: "The lengthy ramblings of a World of Warcraft player who happens to be into philosophy." I promise nothing about consistently writing about philosophy, but I try to do that as often as possible, because that's the draw I try to give this blog. But right now, I can't wax philosophical, because the grief I feel about tree form is just too great. I suppose I'm going through the depression stage of grief. I've been through the denial stage ("They would never make a change like that; that's just preposterous, and not at all like our class."), the anger stage ("Gah! Why! Argh!"), and the bargaining stage ("Can't they try to improve Nature's Swiftness? Then we'd have a good cooldown and wouldn't have to lose our form."), and now I'm in the depression stage. Perhaps I can move on to acceptance before patch 4.0 hits. Until then, allow me a bit of catharsis in today's post.
If you're wondering why these emotions are coming out now, you can thank Allison Robert, a writer for WoW Insider, whose recent column about the upcoming changes to druids--which was organized in sections by our forms; i.e., it had a "the bear" section, a "the cat" section--included this heading:
The tree
A moment of silence, please.
And I bowed my head, for I am still sad to see this form go. I don't think my first post on the subject did a good enough job of explaining why I feel this way, but then again, I was probably still in denial back then. Maybe now, now that my kvetching can't do anything to change Blizzard's mind, now that everyone's probably over the subject, now that my self-deprecating introduction is probably getting on your nerves, maybe now I can express why I am sad to see our beloved form go.
For me, it has something to do with the fact that shifting is integral to the druid identity. I might be the only one who reads this deeply into it our class mechanics, but something about the very act of shifting itself is what makes the druid class so special. It may cut us off from many of our abilities, but that's what druids are all about; we sacrifice our utility for the sake of gaining new abilities or empowering abilities we already have. Our identity as the "jack of all trades, master of none" class was one we could only lose (in favor of a "jack of all trades, master of all" identity) because our shifting prevents us from being a master of all; we can only be a master of one thing at a time. That concept, the concept of sacrificing most of our arsenal so that we can fulfill any roll, has been integral to the druid class for ages, and our forms are the visual representation of that concept.
Now, I'm not going to resort to appeal to tradition to make my point, for it is one of the logical fallacies that I find most objectionable. Besides, tradition has nothing to do with my grief over the loss of Tree of Life. No, this is not a matter of tradition; it is a matter of mindset. Perhaps I'm more affected than most because I am a long-time feral druid, but the class design of our class has created a very distinct mindset that I will not assume is universal to all druids, but I'm sure is shared by at least a few. The fact that every one of our specs becomes more viable when we shift into its respective form means that when I shift into an animal form (or plant form, as the case may be), no matter what form it is, it's a way of psyching myself up. It's a way of saying, "I'm ready for battle." Caster form is for non-combat situations--repairing, crafting, transportation, running around Dalaran aimlessly, etc. By shifting into a form, I am saying, "It's time to get serious; it's time to fight."
I can't help but think that Blizzard wanted to encourage that mentality in every druid spec. After all, in ye oldie days of vanilla WoW, feral combat was the only spec with shapeshifting spells. Hurricane was the final talent for balance druids until patch 1.8, and restoration druids didn't get their form until Burning Crusade. But Blizzard intentionally added these forms to specs that once did not have them, leading me to believe that they wanted druids to have the mentality of a shifting class, that they wanted us to equate being in a form to being ready to fight. Granted, Tree of Life had a rocky introduction when it was first introduced as a form with enough drawbacks to make people need to seriously consider whether they would use it or not. That rocky introduction was probably what doomed it to its current fate, for Blizzard wanted us to use the tree, so they removed any and all significant drawbacks for Wrath of the Lich King. This, however, made the tree more of an incidental ability than anything, since all it did now was limit our arsenal to healing spells and some balance spells and give us an aura that increased healing received by raid members; it was something we used because it objectively helped us perform better, but something we weren't all that excited to use.
But Tree of Life form fed into that very druid mentality of "shapeshifting = ready for combat" so well that we probably didn't notice that we were excited to use it, that was, until we were told it was going away. Tree of Life, like every druid form, takes on a life of its own once it is donned by the druid. We druids don't have just one personality like some classes, you see; we have many, and those many personalities come from our forms. They have their own sitting animations, their own lying down animations, their own dances (the bast part by far), and though they may not look better as we get better gear (though I went over ways they could look better as our gear got better long, long ago), they are part of our identity. Again, I don't mean to argue this from the perspective of appeal to tradition; all I mean to say is, Blizzard has made shifting an inexorable part of the druid class, and for them to take away one of our forms now just because they didn't give it better bonuses and make it more useful is to take away part of our identity.
And I really can't help but wonder: why was Moonkin Form spared? I don't mean to say that our balance brothers and sisters should suffer the same horrible fate that resto druids have, but Moonkin Form is in an almost identical situation to the one Tree of Life was in. It locks balance druids out of using half of their spells (their healing spells), gimping their utility, and if it were made into a temporary ability that would increase their damage done, it will fill the current hole in the balance arsenal of a throughput-increasing cooldown. The only difference between Moonkin Form and Tree of Life now is that Moonkin Form has more and better bonuses. Honestly, if that's the only thing that spared Moonkin Form the fate of Tree of Life, then I can't help being angry at Blizzard for letting Tree of Life reach the point where it wasn't exciting enough to keep around as a permanent form. And for their oversight, we have to suffer the loss of our beloved Twist-dancing form.
In short, I see shifting as an integral part of being a druid, as part of the druid mentality, and for Blizzard to change that now just seems unnecessary and callous. Yes, there were complaints about how the form locked us out of our offensive spells, but those could have been addressed by changing the form itself, rather than scrapping it, which was basically throwing the baby out with the bath water. And to all the people who say they get tired of looking at the same form all the time (which, again, could be remedied), if that's how you feel, then you picked the wrong class... sorry.
Well, I'm glad I could work a bit of philosophy into my reasoning for why I'm sad to see Tree of Life go. I don't want this blog to become a cesspool of moaning and complaining, but I couldn't distract myself from this train of thought long enough to write about anything else. Hopefully now I'll be able to return to whatever usually distinguishes the posts on this blog as WoW Philosophized posts. Until then, thanks for bearing with me.
You might be wondering, if this blog is just a receptacle for my feelings about WoW, then why do I advertise it as a blog where I look at WoW from a philosophical perspective? I do that because most of my thoughts on this game tend to wax philosophical. But take a look at the subtitle of my blog: "The lengthy ramblings of a World of Warcraft player who happens to be into philosophy." I promise nothing about consistently writing about philosophy, but I try to do that as often as possible, because that's the draw I try to give this blog. But right now, I can't wax philosophical, because the grief I feel about tree form is just too great. I suppose I'm going through the depression stage of grief. I've been through the denial stage ("They would never make a change like that; that's just preposterous, and not at all like our class."), the anger stage ("Gah! Why! Argh!"), and the bargaining stage ("Can't they try to improve Nature's Swiftness? Then we'd have a good cooldown and wouldn't have to lose our form."), and now I'm in the depression stage. Perhaps I can move on to acceptance before patch 4.0 hits. Until then, allow me a bit of catharsis in today's post.
If you're wondering why these emotions are coming out now, you can thank Allison Robert, a writer for WoW Insider, whose recent column about the upcoming changes to druids--which was organized in sections by our forms; i.e., it had a "the bear" section, a "the cat" section--included this heading:
A moment of silence, please.
And I bowed my head, for I am still sad to see this form go. I don't think my first post on the subject did a good enough job of explaining why I feel this way, but then again, I was probably still in denial back then. Maybe now, now that my kvetching can't do anything to change Blizzard's mind, now that everyone's probably over the subject, now that my self-deprecating introduction is probably getting on your nerves, maybe now I can express why I am sad to see our beloved form go.
For me, it has something to do with the fact that shifting is integral to the druid identity. I might be the only one who reads this deeply into it our class mechanics, but something about the very act of shifting itself is what makes the druid class so special. It may cut us off from many of our abilities, but that's what druids are all about; we sacrifice our utility for the sake of gaining new abilities or empowering abilities we already have. Our identity as the "jack of all trades, master of none" class was one we could only lose (in favor of a "jack of all trades, master of all" identity) because our shifting prevents us from being a master of all; we can only be a master of one thing at a time. That concept, the concept of sacrificing most of our arsenal so that we can fulfill any roll, has been integral to the druid class for ages, and our forms are the visual representation of that concept.
Now, I'm not going to resort to appeal to tradition to make my point, for it is one of the logical fallacies that I find most objectionable. Besides, tradition has nothing to do with my grief over the loss of Tree of Life. No, this is not a matter of tradition; it is a matter of mindset. Perhaps I'm more affected than most because I am a long-time feral druid, but the class design of our class has created a very distinct mindset that I will not assume is universal to all druids, but I'm sure is shared by at least a few. The fact that every one of our specs becomes more viable when we shift into its respective form means that when I shift into an animal form (or plant form, as the case may be), no matter what form it is, it's a way of psyching myself up. It's a way of saying, "I'm ready for battle." Caster form is for non-combat situations--repairing, crafting, transportation, running around Dalaran aimlessly, etc. By shifting into a form, I am saying, "It's time to get serious; it's time to fight."
I can't help but think that Blizzard wanted to encourage that mentality in every druid spec. After all, in ye oldie days of vanilla WoW, feral combat was the only spec with shapeshifting spells. Hurricane was the final talent for balance druids until patch 1.8, and restoration druids didn't get their form until Burning Crusade. But Blizzard intentionally added these forms to specs that once did not have them, leading me to believe that they wanted druids to have the mentality of a shifting class, that they wanted us to equate being in a form to being ready to fight. Granted, Tree of Life had a rocky introduction when it was first introduced as a form with enough drawbacks to make people need to seriously consider whether they would use it or not. That rocky introduction was probably what doomed it to its current fate, for Blizzard wanted us to use the tree, so they removed any and all significant drawbacks for Wrath of the Lich King. This, however, made the tree more of an incidental ability than anything, since all it did now was limit our arsenal to healing spells and some balance spells and give us an aura that increased healing received by raid members; it was something we used because it objectively helped us perform better, but something we weren't all that excited to use.
But Tree of Life form fed into that very druid mentality of "shapeshifting = ready for combat" so well that we probably didn't notice that we were excited to use it, that was, until we were told it was going away. Tree of Life, like every druid form, takes on a life of its own once it is donned by the druid. We druids don't have just one personality like some classes, you see; we have many, and those many personalities come from our forms. They have their own sitting animations, their own lying down animations, their own dances (the bast part by far), and though they may not look better as we get better gear (though I went over ways they could look better as our gear got better long, long ago), they are part of our identity. Again, I don't mean to argue this from the perspective of appeal to tradition; all I mean to say is, Blizzard has made shifting an inexorable part of the druid class, and for them to take away one of our forms now just because they didn't give it better bonuses and make it more useful is to take away part of our identity.
And I really can't help but wonder: why was Moonkin Form spared? I don't mean to say that our balance brothers and sisters should suffer the same horrible fate that resto druids have, but Moonkin Form is in an almost identical situation to the one Tree of Life was in. It locks balance druids out of using half of their spells (their healing spells), gimping their utility, and if it were made into a temporary ability that would increase their damage done, it will fill the current hole in the balance arsenal of a throughput-increasing cooldown. The only difference between Moonkin Form and Tree of Life now is that Moonkin Form has more and better bonuses. Honestly, if that's the only thing that spared Moonkin Form the fate of Tree of Life, then I can't help being angry at Blizzard for letting Tree of Life reach the point where it wasn't exciting enough to keep around as a permanent form. And for their oversight, we have to suffer the loss of our beloved Twist-dancing form.
In short, I see shifting as an integral part of being a druid, as part of the druid mentality, and for Blizzard to change that now just seems unnecessary and callous. Yes, there were complaints about how the form locked us out of our offensive spells, but those could have been addressed by changing the form itself, rather than scrapping it, which was basically throwing the baby out with the bath water. And to all the people who say they get tired of looking at the same form all the time (which, again, could be remedied), if that's how you feel, then you picked the wrong class... sorry.
Well, I'm glad I could work a bit of philosophy into my reasoning for why I'm sad to see Tree of Life go. I don't want this blog to become a cesspool of moaning and complaining, but I couldn't distract myself from this train of thought long enough to write about anything else. Hopefully now I'll be able to return to whatever usually distinguishes the posts on this blog as WoW Philosophized posts. Until then, thanks for bearing with me.
Friday, April 16, 2010
My take on the Tree of Life change
Well, the Druid class preview hit about a week ago, and I was quite giddy with anticipation. I don't think I'd been that excited since the Burning Crusade class preview (Wrath's was rather boring for a feral soloist. A healing spell and a raid finisher? Yawn.) That was until I read this little tidbit:
Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.
The druid community has been in quite an uproar since this was announced, with calls of "Save the trees!" appearing everywhere, even though about a year ago, it appeared the druid community was split 50/50 between people who liked Tree of Life and people who didn't. Still, such a radical change certainly deserves some scrutiny. For the record, in spite of what the announcement said, this is not an issue of mechanics. There is no reason that any of the bonuses we get in tree form can't be baked into the other resto talents. This is also not a matter of druids lacking an emergency healing ability (Nature's Swiftness is rather underwhelming), since we can always be given one, or they could improve Nature's Swiftness. No, at its heart, this issue is one thing and one thing only: cosmetic. Should healing druids be trees at all times, or should they be able to be in their caster form?
I already touched upon this issue a bit in my take on "The disappearance of the bear", so here are the bits from that post that are relevant to our current issue:
"WoW is a very visual game, but I am surprised that players actually have time to look at their characters during raids... I suppose I am biased in this issue, since any dedicated druid will have long given up on their forms being as cool as other people's armor. Like I said, though, time spent in combat leaves little time for admiring your character's shiny gear, and if you really want to see the gear, you can spend time out of combat in caster form... Armor is cool, but there is plenty of time for admiring it when you are going from place to place on a mount or waiting between a wipe and the next pull. These times are much more appropriate for thinking about how cool your armor is than during battle..."
With that said, I would also like to address the point brought up by Blizzard that "it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time." Any druid will tell you that anyone who rolled a druid hoping to admire their armor while in combat picked the wrong class to play. Druids are masters of shapeshifting, and our shifting allows us to visually make a statement about what we will be doing. We don't shapeshift to give ourselves a temporary boost; we shapeshift because that is what we druids do. To have one spec not fit that mold just for the sake of letting us look at our armor (which, as I already mentioned, is a point I don't give much credit to) seems to be an unnecessary break from that design. After all, Moonkin Form is similar to Tree of Life in terms of its necessity by game standards, yet it is staying as a permanent form. Why change Tree of Life?
Now, I know people reading this are probably thinking that I am just suffering from a case of reactionary "They changed it now it sucks" thinking, but that shouldn't surprise you. Since this issue is a completely visual one, it's one that cannot be decided easily by rational thinking and is better decided by emotion. I know Blizzard has said that Tree of Life has become more and more of a visual spell and made less of a difference in our play-style, but the same can be said of Moonkin form. I'd much rather Blizzard address the issues that Tree of Life has (constriction of our spell arsenal, lack-luster model) than scrap it and only make us use it every once in a while. I ask, why change tree form? Why change that which is so fundamental to the class without changing it universally across all of our specs? Why make restoration the exception? This change is simply without merit.
I think Big Bear Butt said it best: "I know that Ghostcrawler seems to feel that the Treeform mechanic doesn’t add anything to the game, it doesn’t bring anything special to the Restoration Druid’s table. It does. What it brings is Treeform itself. What he just doesn’t seem to grasp is that Treeform, for a Restoration Druid, is a goal in and of itself. Not something to be pity Glyphed, but an outwards symbol of a Druid Healer’s resolve." [source]
Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.
The druid community has been in quite an uproar since this was announced, with calls of "Save the trees!" appearing everywhere, even though about a year ago, it appeared the druid community was split 50/50 between people who liked Tree of Life and people who didn't. Still, such a radical change certainly deserves some scrutiny. For the record, in spite of what the announcement said, this is not an issue of mechanics. There is no reason that any of the bonuses we get in tree form can't be baked into the other resto talents. This is also not a matter of druids lacking an emergency healing ability (Nature's Swiftness is rather underwhelming), since we can always be given one, or they could improve Nature's Swiftness. No, at its heart, this issue is one thing and one thing only: cosmetic. Should healing druids be trees at all times, or should they be able to be in their caster form?
I already touched upon this issue a bit in my take on "The disappearance of the bear", so here are the bits from that post that are relevant to our current issue:
"WoW is a very visual game, but I am surprised that players actually have time to look at their characters during raids... I suppose I am biased in this issue, since any dedicated druid will have long given up on their forms being as cool as other people's armor. Like I said, though, time spent in combat leaves little time for admiring your character's shiny gear, and if you really want to see the gear, you can spend time out of combat in caster form... Armor is cool, but there is plenty of time for admiring it when you are going from place to place on a mount or waiting between a wipe and the next pull. These times are much more appropriate for thinking about how cool your armor is than during battle..."
With that said, I would also like to address the point brought up by Blizzard that "it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time." Any druid will tell you that anyone who rolled a druid hoping to admire their armor while in combat picked the wrong class to play. Druids are masters of shapeshifting, and our shifting allows us to visually make a statement about what we will be doing. We don't shapeshift to give ourselves a temporary boost; we shapeshift because that is what we druids do. To have one spec not fit that mold just for the sake of letting us look at our armor (which, as I already mentioned, is a point I don't give much credit to) seems to be an unnecessary break from that design. After all, Moonkin Form is similar to Tree of Life in terms of its necessity by game standards, yet it is staying as a permanent form. Why change Tree of Life?
Now, I know people reading this are probably thinking that I am just suffering from a case of reactionary "They changed it now it sucks" thinking, but that shouldn't surprise you. Since this issue is a completely visual one, it's one that cannot be decided easily by rational thinking and is better decided by emotion. I know Blizzard has said that Tree of Life has become more and more of a visual spell and made less of a difference in our play-style, but the same can be said of Moonkin form. I'd much rather Blizzard address the issues that Tree of Life has (constriction of our spell arsenal, lack-luster model) than scrap it and only make us use it every once in a while. I ask, why change tree form? Why change that which is so fundamental to the class without changing it universally across all of our specs? Why make restoration the exception? This change is simply without merit.
I think Big Bear Butt said it best: "I know that Ghostcrawler seems to feel that the Treeform mechanic doesn’t add anything to the game, it doesn’t bring anything special to the Restoration Druid’s table. It does. What it brings is Treeform itself. What he just doesn’t seem to grasp is that Treeform, for a Restoration Druid, is a goal in and of itself. Not something to be pity Glyphed, but an outwards symbol of a Druid Healer’s resolve." [source]
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Druid healing in heroics, part II
I have already covered the basics of healing in heroics with this flowchart, but a flowchart cannot give the whole picture (see what I did there?), so this post will be a companion guide to that flowchart. For the record, the strategies herein are for druids who are still using heroics to gear up; if you already out-gear heroics, then just follow Jen's strategy:
1. Rejuv the tank
2. (Optional) WG the group
3. Afk until the Rejuv runs out
4. Collect emblems
What follows is advice for people who don't have good enough gear to follow this strategy. This advice is also meant to help healers build the habits they will need when they enter the raid scene.
1. Get some sort of HUD mod that puts your health bar in plain view.
One of the main issues new healers face is forgetting to heal themselves; they get so focused on keeping everyone else's health bars topped off that they forget about their own. That's why I recommend you get a mod like IceHUD (that's the one I use) that puts your health bar in the middle of the screen so it is right in your face. Here's a picture of it in action:
It may seem like it would just be in the way, but trust me, this bar is a life-saver. Having my health Bar right there is the only way I can remember to heal myself. You may want to man it out and try to watch your own bar along with everyone else's, but though your intentions may be good, they won't be worth anything when your carcass is on the ground not healing your party. Trust me; get the mod, or one similar to it. I use it all the time, so it's not a bad addition to your usual mod lineup.
2. Healing Priority: Tank, you, DPS
In heroics these days, you aren't likely to encounter situations where you will need to prioritize healing, but these situation do arise. Your tank may get overzealous with his pull, or you may get Moragg in Violet Hold, or you may be plopped in a Frozen Halls instance. Either way, remember this: the tank must survive. When you need to decide between dropping a heal on the tank and anyone else, the tank's survival comes first. Your survival comes next, for, without your healing, the party will drop like flies. Now, this does not mean that your should not heal your DPS; without them, the boss won't die. However, most DPS these days are in such good gear that they don't need to be healed immediately; still, clothies will be clothies, so if you and the tank are all set for healing, make sure the DPS gets their share.
3. Use Barkskin if you are attacked.
Nothing too complicated about that. Barkskin reduces the damage you take and allows you to heal without your spells being delayed by damage, so if enemies decide to head your way, toughen up a bit with this spell. I also recommend using it before using Tranquility so as not to lose ticks of that spell.
4. Use Innervate when your mana reaches 10,000 less than its maximum.
Innervate restores 7866 mana at level 80, or about 8,000. Since it is your main way to get back mana, you want to have it available frequently, especially when you move into raids, where boss fights will be long enough to allow you to use Innervate two or three times. As such, you want to use it early, but how early? If you use it when you are lacking exactly 8,000 mana, you may regenerate mana in the time that Innervate is active, causing you reach maximum mana and waste your innervate. If you wait until you are lacking 10,000 mana, you probably won't regenerate enough mana to cause you to waste the mana you gain from Innervate. So, if you have 30,000 mana, use Innervate when you have 20,000.
5. Rebirth the tank if the fight is salvageable; rebirth a person capable of resurrection if it is not.
Let's say your tank has died on a boss fight, but that Death Knight DPS went into Frost Presence and took control. He can tank it for now, but you know he won't last long (of course, in a heroic, he will, but we are building habbits for raids, here). In this case, the fight is salvagable, so use Rebirth on the tank and heal him as quickly as you can so he can get back in the game and start tanking again. Now, suppose the tank has died and none of your DPS can off-tank. In this case, the boss will probably rush through and massacre your party before you can resurrect the tank and get his health back up, and if no DPS survive, the fight will take forever. As such, if any of your DPS can resurrect, it's better to use Rebirth on them once they have died. They can then wait for the fight to end, then accept your rebirth and resurrect everyone else. That way, people don't need to run through the heroic again. Note that, in most heroics these days, you are unlikely to encounter a situation where using Rebirth on a DPS is better than using it on the tank, but again, you are building habits for raids here. In fact, you probably won't ever use Rebirth in a heroic, but still, if you encounter a situation where you do need to use it, it's important to know how.
I accidentally posted this early, so you get your advice early this week.
1. Rejuv the tank
2. (Optional) WG the group
3. Afk until the Rejuv runs out
4. Collect emblems
What follows is advice for people who don't have good enough gear to follow this strategy. This advice is also meant to help healers build the habits they will need when they enter the raid scene.
1. Get some sort of HUD mod that puts your health bar in plain view.
One of the main issues new healers face is forgetting to heal themselves; they get so focused on keeping everyone else's health bars topped off that they forget about their own. That's why I recommend you get a mod like IceHUD (that's the one I use) that puts your health bar in the middle of the screen so it is right in your face. Here's a picture of it in action:
It may seem like it would just be in the way, but trust me, this bar is a life-saver. Having my health Bar right there is the only way I can remember to heal myself. You may want to man it out and try to watch your own bar along with everyone else's, but though your intentions may be good, they won't be worth anything when your carcass is on the ground not healing your party. Trust me; get the mod, or one similar to it. I use it all the time, so it's not a bad addition to your usual mod lineup.
2. Healing Priority: Tank, you, DPS
In heroics these days, you aren't likely to encounter situations where you will need to prioritize healing, but these situation do arise. Your tank may get overzealous with his pull, or you may get Moragg in Violet Hold, or you may be plopped in a Frozen Halls instance. Either way, remember this: the tank must survive. When you need to decide between dropping a heal on the tank and anyone else, the tank's survival comes first. Your survival comes next, for, without your healing, the party will drop like flies. Now, this does not mean that your should not heal your DPS; without them, the boss won't die. However, most DPS these days are in such good gear that they don't need to be healed immediately; still, clothies will be clothies, so if you and the tank are all set for healing, make sure the DPS gets their share.
3. Use Barkskin if you are attacked.
Nothing too complicated about that. Barkskin reduces the damage you take and allows you to heal without your spells being delayed by damage, so if enemies decide to head your way, toughen up a bit with this spell. I also recommend using it before using Tranquility so as not to lose ticks of that spell.
4. Use Innervate when your mana reaches 10,000 less than its maximum.
Innervate restores 7866 mana at level 80, or about 8,000. Since it is your main way to get back mana, you want to have it available frequently, especially when you move into raids, where boss fights will be long enough to allow you to use Innervate two or three times. As such, you want to use it early, but how early? If you use it when you are lacking exactly 8,000 mana, you may regenerate mana in the time that Innervate is active, causing you reach maximum mana and waste your innervate. If you wait until you are lacking 10,000 mana, you probably won't regenerate enough mana to cause you to waste the mana you gain from Innervate. So, if you have 30,000 mana, use Innervate when you have 20,000.
5. Rebirth the tank if the fight is salvageable; rebirth a person capable of resurrection if it is not.
Let's say your tank has died on a boss fight, but that Death Knight DPS went into Frost Presence and took control. He can tank it for now, but you know he won't last long (of course, in a heroic, he will, but we are building habbits for raids, here). In this case, the fight is salvagable, so use Rebirth on the tank and heal him as quickly as you can so he can get back in the game and start tanking again. Now, suppose the tank has died and none of your DPS can off-tank. In this case, the boss will probably rush through and massacre your party before you can resurrect the tank and get his health back up, and if no DPS survive, the fight will take forever. As such, if any of your DPS can resurrect, it's better to use Rebirth on them once they have died. They can then wait for the fight to end, then accept your rebirth and resurrect everyone else. That way, people don't need to run through the heroic again. Note that, in most heroics these days, you are unlikely to encounter a situation where using Rebirth on a DPS is better than using it on the tank, but again, you are building habits for raids here. In fact, you probably won't ever use Rebirth in a heroic, but still, if you encounter a situation where you do need to use it, it's important to know how.
I accidentally posted this early, so you get your advice early this week.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Druid healing in heroics in flowchart form
I have resigned myself to doing heroics so I can get a cloak for when I level from 80 to 85, and in order to save my sanity, I have decided to run them as a healer. I find healing to be a much more relaxing job than tanking, and with all of the gear everyone has, healing in heroics has become quite simple--so simple, in fact, that it can be reduced to a flow chart, which is exactly what I have done here. For the sake of ease of use, I have highlighted the starting point of the chart in a red box.
Click for the full size.
When spells are put in pairs or triplets, use them in order from let to right. For the sake of space, I used icons rather than spell names. Here's a visual guide in case the spells aren't familiar to you.
= Healing Touch
= Lifebloom
= Nature's Swiftness
= Nourish
= Rejuvenation
= Regrowth
= Revive
= Swiftmend
= Tranquility
= Wild Growth
Note that this post is only meant to visually cover what spells to use for restoring health. For a more complete guide to druid healing, I highly recommend Lissanna's healing guide. I was going to write more on the other points of druid healing, but I am too busy to do so this week; expect more info on druid healing in heroics next week.
Click for the full size.
When spells are put in pairs or triplets, use them in order from let to right. For the sake of space, I used icons rather than spell names. Here's a visual guide in case the spells aren't familiar to you.
= Healing Touch= Lifebloom= Nature's Swiftness= Nourish= Rejuvenation= Regrowth= Revive= Swiftmend= Tranquility= Wild GrowthNote that this post is only meant to visually cover what spells to use for restoring health. For a more complete guide to druid healing, I highly recommend Lissanna's healing guide. I was going to write more on the other points of druid healing, but I am too busy to do so this week; expect more info on druid healing in heroics next week.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tips on leveling a priest
A while ago, I went over some general things I have learned by leveling a shadow priest. That priest is now level 47, and though I still have a ways to go before hitting the level cap, there are some things I have learned by leveling him that I would like to share with anyone out there considering leveling a priest.
1. Be prepared to be bored.
Priests are definitely near the top of the list of most boring classes to play at early levels, along with paladins and druids. You'll spend a lot of time spamming Smite, since that will be your only worthwhile offensive spell until level 10, when you get Mind Blast. Shadow Word: Pain? Only worth using if your enemy will be alive for a while, which, at low levels, they won't be. Things get much better at level 20, when you get Holy Fire, Holy Nova, Devouring Plague, and if you spec'ed shadow, Mind Flay. Yep, your offensive arsenal more than doubles in size when you reach level 20.
2. Take advantage of Mind Flay's speed debuff.
I like to start every battle with either Mind Blast or Holy Fire. Obviously, once you get Shadow Form, Holy Fire isn't an option, but before then, it's usually more mana-efficient and causes more damage. Anyways, start your battles at maximum range, then use whichever ability you plan on starting out with. Immediately when your cast finishes, use Mind Flay. That will slow your enemy and damage them, and if you used Holy Fire, it gives some time for the DoT to do its work. I can usually use Mind Flay twice before the enemy reaches me if I start at maximum range. Doing this also applies five stacks of Shadow Weaving if you have three points in that, allowing you to start the battle out strong. Also, if your enemy runs away from you, use Mind Flay to finish them off and slow them down at the same time, reducing the risk of them bring back more of their buddies. In fact, I often find that when I use Mind Flay to slow down a runner, he tends to run in the opposite direction when I use it, meaning back to me and away from his friends, but he is still technically fleeing, so he won't attack me.
3. Use this macro.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay
This macro allows you to cast Mind Flay, but only if you are not channeling it already. Thus you can spam it and start using Mind Flay again immediately after you finish casting it, which is useful for the above-mentioned method, without clipping it and losing out on damage.
4. Don't use your DoTs unless your target will take a while to kill and the DoTs will run their full duration.
Your damage-over-time spells are some of your most mana-intensive spells. They aren't worth using unless you are using them to their full potential, meaning you won't get the most out of them unless your enemy takes a long time to die. Now, granted, I have been known to drop Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on an enemy that attacks me while I am attacking someone else so that they don't have as much health once I get to them, but aside from doing that and when facing elite enemies or targets a few levels above you, DoTs aren't worth using. When facing a target a few levels above you, it's generally better to use one of your DoTs, rather than both, otherwise you'll burn right through your mana. Use whichever one is more mana-efficient. Once you get Improved Devouring Plague, that will generally be Devouring Plague, but until then, it's usually which ever one you last bought an upgrade for.
5. Keep Inner Fire up at all times.
With Inner Fire active, you'll have a similar armor-count to what a leather user has, which definitely makes it amazing. Trouble is, you lose one charge everyone time you are hit, so after 20 hits, you're right back down to your crappy cloth armor-count. This means you'll need to refresh it at the end of every two or three battles, or even in the middle of battle if you are facing multiple enemies or an elite (yes, you can solo-kill elites on a shadow priest if you know what you are doing; I solo-ed Big Game Hunter while it was still yellow in my quest log). Like a shaman's shields, it's easy to forget to reapply it in the middle of battle, but be sure you do so.
6. Take advantage of Spirit Tap to buff yourself while regenerating mana.
Speaking of buffs.... Spirit Tap is an amazing talent that doubles your spirit after you kill something and allows most of your spirit-based mana regeneration to take place, even if you are casting. That means you should use it as an opportunity to reapply the multitude of buffs you'll need to keep active on yourself so that you don't gimp yourself out of mana by buffing yourself when it will activate the five second rule.
7. Get Glyph of Shadow.
Spirit Tap alone is a good reason to stack spirit on a Shadow Priest, but this glyph makes it an even more lucrative stat. I don't know why, but this glyph was particularly hard to find on my realm's Auction House. If the same is true on your realm, then as you start approaching level 40, you should look on the auction house to see if someone put it up. Anyways, this glyph gives you a spellpower boost based on your spirit when you crit with Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Sear, or the instant damage of Improved Devouring Plague, and considering that you'll probably use the first two pretty frequently, you are bound to learn personally just how sweat this glyph is, especially when that Mind Blast you start the battle with critically hits.
Since this post probably qualifies, I will be submitting it as part of Tree Burglar's Elder Blogging Event. You can read about it here on his blog or here on Blog Azeroth.
1. Be prepared to be bored.
Priests are definitely near the top of the list of most boring classes to play at early levels, along with paladins and druids. You'll spend a lot of time spamming Smite, since that will be your only worthwhile offensive spell until level 10, when you get Mind Blast. Shadow Word: Pain? Only worth using if your enemy will be alive for a while, which, at low levels, they won't be. Things get much better at level 20, when you get Holy Fire, Holy Nova, Devouring Plague, and if you spec'ed shadow, Mind Flay. Yep, your offensive arsenal more than doubles in size when you reach level 20.
2. Take advantage of Mind Flay's speed debuff.
I like to start every battle with either Mind Blast or Holy Fire. Obviously, once you get Shadow Form, Holy Fire isn't an option, but before then, it's usually more mana-efficient and causes more damage. Anyways, start your battles at maximum range, then use whichever ability you plan on starting out with. Immediately when your cast finishes, use Mind Flay. That will slow your enemy and damage them, and if you used Holy Fire, it gives some time for the DoT to do its work. I can usually use Mind Flay twice before the enemy reaches me if I start at maximum range. Doing this also applies five stacks of Shadow Weaving if you have three points in that, allowing you to start the battle out strong. Also, if your enemy runs away from you, use Mind Flay to finish them off and slow them down at the same time, reducing the risk of them bring back more of their buddies. In fact, I often find that when I use Mind Flay to slow down a runner, he tends to run in the opposite direction when I use it, meaning back to me and away from his friends, but he is still technically fleeing, so he won't attack me.
3. Use this macro.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay
This macro allows you to cast Mind Flay, but only if you are not channeling it already. Thus you can spam it and start using Mind Flay again immediately after you finish casting it, which is useful for the above-mentioned method, without clipping it and losing out on damage.
4. Don't use your DoTs unless your target will take a while to kill and the DoTs will run their full duration.
Your damage-over-time spells are some of your most mana-intensive spells. They aren't worth using unless you are using them to their full potential, meaning you won't get the most out of them unless your enemy takes a long time to die. Now, granted, I have been known to drop Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on an enemy that attacks me while I am attacking someone else so that they don't have as much health once I get to them, but aside from doing that and when facing elite enemies or targets a few levels above you, DoTs aren't worth using. When facing a target a few levels above you, it's generally better to use one of your DoTs, rather than both, otherwise you'll burn right through your mana. Use whichever one is more mana-efficient. Once you get Improved Devouring Plague, that will generally be Devouring Plague, but until then, it's usually which ever one you last bought an upgrade for.
5. Keep Inner Fire up at all times.
With Inner Fire active, you'll have a similar armor-count to what a leather user has, which definitely makes it amazing. Trouble is, you lose one charge everyone time you are hit, so after 20 hits, you're right back down to your crappy cloth armor-count. This means you'll need to refresh it at the end of every two or three battles, or even in the middle of battle if you are facing multiple enemies or an elite (yes, you can solo-kill elites on a shadow priest if you know what you are doing; I solo-ed Big Game Hunter while it was still yellow in my quest log). Like a shaman's shields, it's easy to forget to reapply it in the middle of battle, but be sure you do so.
6. Take advantage of Spirit Tap to buff yourself while regenerating mana.
Speaking of buffs.... Spirit Tap is an amazing talent that doubles your spirit after you kill something and allows most of your spirit-based mana regeneration to take place, even if you are casting. That means you should use it as an opportunity to reapply the multitude of buffs you'll need to keep active on yourself so that you don't gimp yourself out of mana by buffing yourself when it will activate the five second rule.
7. Get Glyph of Shadow.
Spirit Tap alone is a good reason to stack spirit on a Shadow Priest, but this glyph makes it an even more lucrative stat. I don't know why, but this glyph was particularly hard to find on my realm's Auction House. If the same is true on your realm, then as you start approaching level 40, you should look on the auction house to see if someone put it up. Anyways, this glyph gives you a spellpower boost based on your spirit when you crit with Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Sear, or the instant damage of Improved Devouring Plague, and considering that you'll probably use the first two pretty frequently, you are bound to learn personally just how sweat this glyph is, especially when that Mind Blast you start the battle with critically hits.
Since this post probably qualifies, I will be submitting it as part of Tree Burglar's Elder Blogging Event. You can read about it here on his blog or here on Blog Azeroth.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tips on leveling a shaman
As I mentioned in my Discovery Channel tribute, I have a shaman alt that I have been leveling since early in the Burning Crusade era. Because of my less-than-consistent dedication to him, he is still languishing in early Burning Crusade content; he's just the character I go back to when I need a break from end-game, so I play him pretty infrequently. Still, in leveling him, I have learned quite a bit about leveling a shaman that I thought I would share here for anyone else who is doing the same.
1. Spec Enhancement
Of course, this piece of advice comes with the universal leveling-spec-advice caveat: you should level as whatever spec you like the most. No matter what you want to do with your alt, you'll likely do it better as a spec you like than as an "efficient" spec. Are you leveling for fun? Well, it's a no brainer there. Trying to get your alt to 8o quickly? You'll want to play it more if you enjoy your spec, so you'll likely get your alt to 80 faster with a spec you enjoy than with the "best" leveling spec. With that said, Enhancement is both a good leveling spec and a fun spec to play. The mix of melee and casting (especially with the inclusion of Maelstrom Weapon late in the talent tree) makes the enhancement shaman one of the only specs (probably the only, in fact) that feels like a true hybrid class. Enhancement also has good mana efficiency, especially as you level, to the point where by the time you reach 50, you'll rarely need to buy water again.
2. Weapon choices
If you level as Enhancement, the type of weapon you use will be an important decision to make. Of course, once you hit level 40 (or 41 if you took Stormstrike first), you should take the talent Dual Wield and equip the two slowest one-handed weapons you can find for your level. There's no reason to do anything else. Before then, you'll need to decide whether to use a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon and a shield. If you use a two-handed weapon, battles will be over faster, since you'll be taking more damage (without the shield) and causing more damage to your foes. You'll also need to get two replacement weapons once you hit level 40 (or 41). If you use a one-handed weapon and a shield, you battles will be more drawn out, giving you more time to react and making the battles less hectic. You'll also only need to get one new weapon when you get Dual Wield. Ultimately, my advice is this: if you want to rush your shaman to the level cap, use a two-hander; if you want to play him to relax, use a one-hander and a shield. Either way, it all evens out at 40: you get to wear mail, so that will make up for the loss of the shield, and dual wielding will likely increase your damage either way.
As an extra note, if you use a shield, then defense rating becomes surprisingly useful between levels 30 and 40, assuming you took Spirit Weapons. The combination of being able to parry and block means you'll be able to take advantage of all of the aspects of defense rating, so if you see a ring with it that is an upgrade for you, think about taking it.
3. Totems are mana-intensive.
Although totems can bring many benefits to your shaman in battle, they cost a lot of mana to drop. Until you get Shamanistic Rage at 50 (assuming you spec'ed enhance) you have no quick way of getting that mana back, so totems are only worth using if you'll be able to benefit from them for a while. As such, you should only drop them in a spot close to a few enemies that you are going to kill. If you are running around for a quest, never staying in one place for more than one kill, dropping totems is not a good idea; you'll burn through mana faster than classic-era balance druid. If you want to get the most out of your totems, try using Lightning Bolt to pull an enemy from afar, then run toward your totems and fight him by them. Use shocks to keep him interested in you if you have to. With all that said, if you are going to fight more than one enemy in one spot, at least drop Mana Spring Totem. The others are only worth using if you are going to be killing at least four or five enemies by the spot where you drop them, but Mana Spring Totem, when used at every opportunity, really adds up. Try to use it right before battle so that you gimp your spirit-based mana regen as little as possible.
4. Use your elemental shields intelligently
At level 8, you get a spell called Lightning Shield that causes extra damage to enemies that attack you. At level 20, you get Water Shield, which restores mana when you are attacked and also constantly restores mana. There are a few important points to remember when using these spells in order to use them well.
-Use Lightning Shield if you are finishing battles with less health than mana (percentage-wise). Use Water Shield if you are finishing battles with less mana than health.
-If you are using Water Shield, make sure you always have at least one orb left so you can benefit from the passive mana regeneration as well as the orb effect. Because Lightning Shield is on an internal cooldown, you don't need to activate it immediately after it runs out, but don't delay too long or you'll miss out on that free extra damage.
-In the heat of battle, it's easy to forget to refresh your shields when they run out. Make it a habit to refresh whatever shield you are using whenever you aren't casting anything else and won't case anything else in the next second and a half.
-If you are just riding somewhere and have no intention of fighting anything, don't leave up Lightning Shield. Water Shield is fine, but Lightning Shield will cause threat to enemies that attack you, making them chase your farther than they usually would.
1. Spec Enhancement
Of course, this piece of advice comes with the universal leveling-spec-advice caveat: you should level as whatever spec you like the most. No matter what you want to do with your alt, you'll likely do it better as a spec you like than as an "efficient" spec. Are you leveling for fun? Well, it's a no brainer there. Trying to get your alt to 8o quickly? You'll want to play it more if you enjoy your spec, so you'll likely get your alt to 80 faster with a spec you enjoy than with the "best" leveling spec. With that said, Enhancement is both a good leveling spec and a fun spec to play. The mix of melee and casting (especially with the inclusion of Maelstrom Weapon late in the talent tree) makes the enhancement shaman one of the only specs (probably the only, in fact) that feels like a true hybrid class. Enhancement also has good mana efficiency, especially as you level, to the point where by the time you reach 50, you'll rarely need to buy water again.
2. Weapon choices
If you level as Enhancement, the type of weapon you use will be an important decision to make. Of course, once you hit level 40 (or 41 if you took Stormstrike first), you should take the talent Dual Wield and equip the two slowest one-handed weapons you can find for your level. There's no reason to do anything else. Before then, you'll need to decide whether to use a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon and a shield. If you use a two-handed weapon, battles will be over faster, since you'll be taking more damage (without the shield) and causing more damage to your foes. You'll also need to get two replacement weapons once you hit level 40 (or 41). If you use a one-handed weapon and a shield, you battles will be more drawn out, giving you more time to react and making the battles less hectic. You'll also only need to get one new weapon when you get Dual Wield. Ultimately, my advice is this: if you want to rush your shaman to the level cap, use a two-hander; if you want to play him to relax, use a one-hander and a shield. Either way, it all evens out at 40: you get to wear mail, so that will make up for the loss of the shield, and dual wielding will likely increase your damage either way.
As an extra note, if you use a shield, then defense rating becomes surprisingly useful between levels 30 and 40, assuming you took Spirit Weapons. The combination of being able to parry and block means you'll be able to take advantage of all of the aspects of defense rating, so if you see a ring with it that is an upgrade for you, think about taking it.
3. Totems are mana-intensive.
Although totems can bring many benefits to your shaman in battle, they cost a lot of mana to drop. Until you get Shamanistic Rage at 50 (assuming you spec'ed enhance) you have no quick way of getting that mana back, so totems are only worth using if you'll be able to benefit from them for a while. As such, you should only drop them in a spot close to a few enemies that you are going to kill. If you are running around for a quest, never staying in one place for more than one kill, dropping totems is not a good idea; you'll burn through mana faster than classic-era balance druid. If you want to get the most out of your totems, try using Lightning Bolt to pull an enemy from afar, then run toward your totems and fight him by them. Use shocks to keep him interested in you if you have to. With all that said, if you are going to fight more than one enemy in one spot, at least drop Mana Spring Totem. The others are only worth using if you are going to be killing at least four or five enemies by the spot where you drop them, but Mana Spring Totem, when used at every opportunity, really adds up. Try to use it right before battle so that you gimp your spirit-based mana regen as little as possible.
4. Use your elemental shields intelligently
At level 8, you get a spell called Lightning Shield that causes extra damage to enemies that attack you. At level 20, you get Water Shield, which restores mana when you are attacked and also constantly restores mana. There are a few important points to remember when using these spells in order to use them well.
-Use Lightning Shield if you are finishing battles with less health than mana (percentage-wise). Use Water Shield if you are finishing battles with less mana than health.
-If you are using Water Shield, make sure you always have at least one orb left so you can benefit from the passive mana regeneration as well as the orb effect. Because Lightning Shield is on an internal cooldown, you don't need to activate it immediately after it runs out, but don't delay too long or you'll miss out on that free extra damage.
-In the heat of battle, it's easy to forget to refresh your shields when they run out. Make it a habit to refresh whatever shield you are using whenever you aren't casting anything else and won't case anything else in the next second and a half.
-If you are just riding somewhere and have no intention of fighting anything, don't leave up Lightning Shield. Water Shield is fine, but Lightning Shield will cause threat to enemies that attack you, making them chase your farther than they usually would.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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.
Next week, we'll finish the leveling trek and go from 60 to 80. See you then!
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.
Next week, we'll finish the leveling trek and go from 60 to 80. See you then!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
How to tank as a druid, Part 3
And now for the meat of druid tanking: how to do it. As you should know, the purpose of tanking as a druid is keeping enemies attacking you, and thus the main focus of this post is generating as much threat as possible. Make sure to read part 1 so you aren't lost when I mention which abilities to use, since I won't put links to each ability when I mention them. With that said, let's talk about tanking tactics. I'll split this into two sections: trash and bosses.
Trash
1 enemy
Since swipe causes more instant damage than lacerate, it's perfectly acceptable to simply use mangle every time it is off of its cooldown and use swipe when it isn't, using maul when you have extra rage (more than 50), but this method won't cause optimal threat. It's good to use lacerate on single-enemy trash pulls (unless the enemy isn't particularly powerful and will thus die too quickly to make lacerate's bleed effect worth it), but the only way you can cause more threat using lacerate than you can using swipe is if you let lacerate tick. Thus you need to be able to use a rotation where you only use lacerate every three seconds, thus allowing it to tick once before you apply it again. Assuming you have improved mangle, here is a rotation you can use until you get to five stacks: mangle, lacerate, swipe, mangle, swipe, lacerate, etc. This allows for six or three seconds between each application of lacerate, allowing it to tick and making it useful. If the enemy isn't dead by the time you get five lacerates on him, just use mangle when it is off of its cooldown, swipe when it isn't, maul when you have extra rage, and lacerate when it is within five seconds of running out.
2-4 enemies
If the enemies are going to die fast (as the likely will) then swipe with mangle should be enough assuming you have a kill order and use mangle on the one you are killing first. Glyphed maul helps quite a bit with these pulls. Just make sure that you are always targeting the enemy that is highest on the kill order so that you cause the most threat to them. Use mangle when it is off of its cooldown, swipe when it isn't, and maul when you have extra rage. If your pull is limited to two or three enemies, try using berserk with mangle. It will make your job a good deal easier.
5 enemies or more
Swipe. That's it. Maul when you have extra rage, but aside from that, swipe.
Bosses
1 boss
You will want to use mangle whenever it is off of its cooldown while keeping a full stack of lacerate on the boss. I usually use mangle, lacerate, lacerate, mangle, lacerate, lacerate, mangle, lacerate, lacerate again if one missed. After that, I use the following thought process for deciding which ability to use:
After you use each ability, start at the beginning again, and use maul when you have extra rage (above 50). Congratulations! You're tanking a boss!
2 bosses
There are some fights where you will need to tank two bosses by yourself. It's a good idea to start these fights with Berserk and mangle, which will give you some nice starter threat. After that, I recommend switching between the two bosses (the tab key works for this) and using mangle when it is off of its cooldown, lacerate when it isn't, and maul when you have extra rage (glyph of maul helps greatly for two bosses). Thus you will do the following:
Mangle boss one
Lacerate boss two
Lacerate boss one
Mangle boss two
Lacerate boss one
Lacerate boss two
etc.
This has the added benefit of allowing lacerate to tick, causing even more threat. It takes a bit of practice, but it works wonders when done well. If you can't pull that off, then just spam swipe while using mangle on the first boss that needs to go down. It won't cause as much threat, but it's better to cause some threat than no threat.
I don't think any boss fights require you to keep aggro on more than two bosses for an extended period of time, but if they did, I would use the same strategy as I use for medium-sized trash pulls. If you need to keep aggro on a boss and his adds, use swipe when mangle isn't off its cooldown and mangle when it is.
So there you go. Now go get geared up and do the druid class proud!
Trash
1 enemy
Since swipe causes more instant damage than lacerate, it's perfectly acceptable to simply use mangle every time it is off of its cooldown and use swipe when it isn't, using maul when you have extra rage (more than 50), but this method won't cause optimal threat. It's good to use lacerate on single-enemy trash pulls (unless the enemy isn't particularly powerful and will thus die too quickly to make lacerate's bleed effect worth it), but the only way you can cause more threat using lacerate than you can using swipe is if you let lacerate tick. Thus you need to be able to use a rotation where you only use lacerate every three seconds, thus allowing it to tick once before you apply it again. Assuming you have improved mangle, here is a rotation you can use until you get to five stacks: mangle, lacerate, swipe, mangle, swipe, lacerate, etc. This allows for six or three seconds between each application of lacerate, allowing it to tick and making it useful. If the enemy isn't dead by the time you get five lacerates on him, just use mangle when it is off of its cooldown, swipe when it isn't, maul when you have extra rage, and lacerate when it is within five seconds of running out.
2-4 enemies
If the enemies are going to die fast (as the likely will) then swipe with mangle should be enough assuming you have a kill order and use mangle on the one you are killing first. Glyphed maul helps quite a bit with these pulls. Just make sure that you are always targeting the enemy that is highest on the kill order so that you cause the most threat to them. Use mangle when it is off of its cooldown, swipe when it isn't, and maul when you have extra rage. If your pull is limited to two or three enemies, try using berserk with mangle. It will make your job a good deal easier.
5 enemies or more
Swipe. That's it. Maul when you have extra rage, but aside from that, swipe.
Bosses
1 boss
You will want to use mangle whenever it is off of its cooldown while keeping a full stack of lacerate on the boss. I usually use mangle, lacerate, lacerate, mangle, lacerate, lacerate, mangle, lacerate, lacerate again if one missed. After that, I use the following thought process for deciding which ability to use:
After you use each ability, start at the beginning again, and use maul when you have extra rage (above 50). Congratulations! You're tanking a boss!
2 bosses
There are some fights where you will need to tank two bosses by yourself. It's a good idea to start these fights with Berserk and mangle, which will give you some nice starter threat. After that, I recommend switching between the two bosses (the tab key works for this) and using mangle when it is off of its cooldown, lacerate when it isn't, and maul when you have extra rage (glyph of maul helps greatly for two bosses). Thus you will do the following:
Mangle boss one
Lacerate boss two
Lacerate boss one
Mangle boss two
Lacerate boss one
Lacerate boss two
etc.
This has the added benefit of allowing lacerate to tick, causing even more threat. It takes a bit of practice, but it works wonders when done well. If you can't pull that off, then just spam swipe while using mangle on the first boss that needs to go down. It won't cause as much threat, but it's better to cause some threat than no threat.
I don't think any boss fights require you to keep aggro on more than two bosses for an extended period of time, but if they did, I would use the same strategy as I use for medium-sized trash pulls. If you need to keep aggro on a boss and his adds, use swipe when mangle isn't off its cooldown and mangle when it is.
So there you go. Now go get geared up and do the druid class proud!
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