How to level Northrend reputations without championing

As I mentioned in my last advice post, it is possible to get exalted with all of the Northrend factions without entering an instance. The easiest way to gain reputation with many of these factions is championing, wherein you where the tabard of the faction you are championing in a level-80 5-man instance and gain reputation with them as a result. However, this approach requires to you have good gear (the main purpose of raising your reputations) and be subjected to PUGs, which are really hit and miss. This guide is concerned with getting exalted with each of the Northrend reputations, including the ones that can be championed, without resorting to championing. Some are harder than others, but it is possible to get exalted with all of these factions without entering an instance, and that's what this post concerns.

Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition
These two are pretty easy. The Silver Covenant/Sunreavers dailies that you get from the Argent Tournament are one way to raise your rep. You can also do the dailies on your faction's floating ship in Icecrown, The Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer, respectively. That should be enough for you to get exalted in a timely manor.

Argent Crusade
This faction used to be much harder to reach exalted with without championing, but it's easier now. Before, the only repeatable way to get Argent Crusade rep was the daily Troll Patrol, but now the Argent Tournament quests also give Argent Crusade rep, making this grind much easier. If you are a Death Knight, however, then the Argent Tournament quests with give you rep with the Knights of the Ebon Blade, leaving Troll Patrol as your only option.

Frenzyheart Tribe/The Oracles
Nothing special here; just do the dailies.

Kirin Tor
Whoo-boy! This is not an easy faction to get exalted with without championing. Make sure you use wowhead to find all of their one-time quests so you can make this grind as short as possible. Once you have exhausted that option, you have only three left to you:
1. Fishing dailies (given by the Dalaran fishing trainer)
2. Cooking dailies (given by the Dalaran cooking trainers)
3. Jewelcrafting dailies (given by the Dalaran jewelcrafting trainer)
If you ever needed an excuse to level your cooking and fishing, here it is. You can also watch the auction house for a Sealed Vial of Poison, which can be turned in for 250 rep, but it is really expensive (at least on my server) and uncommon, so don't count on buying a lot of these for easy rep.

Knights of the Ebon Blade
Once you complete their Icecrown questlines, the Knights of the Ebon Blade will have two areas with dailies for them. Three dailies can be found in the Shadow Vault in northern Icecrown. Three more can be found on Death's Rise, a little ledge part-way down the cliff southwest of Jotunheim. Doing all of them will net you 1500 rep a day. If you are a Death Knight, then the Argent Tournament quests will also net you Ebon Blade rep, making this grind much faster.

The Kalu'ak
This little faction does have some nice goodies to reward those who get exalted with it. They have quests in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, and Dragonblight, and each area has a Kalu'ak daily quest, each of which gives you 500 rep. The daily quests are unlocked as you complete the questline in each area. You can use the turtle boats to shuttle between the three areas if you don't want to spend the money to fly there.

The Sons of Hodir
In order to even start gaining rep with these guys, you need to do a long quest chain starting with They Took Our Men! Once you finish the quest chain, you can do dailies to get rep with the Sons of Hodir, and you unlock more as your rep gets higher. Individual quests will unlock similar dailies, so make sure you do all of the one-time quests they offer. You can also look for Everfrost Chips in The Storm Peaks, which can be turned in for Sons of Hodir rep, as can Relics of Ulduar, which can be bought on the Auction House.

The Wyrmrest Accord
Aside from their one-time quests, these guys have three dailies you can do. Two are in Coldarra in Borean Tundra, and one is in Dragonblight. The two low-level ones are unlocked after quests, but the level-80 one can be started almost immediately. They are Drake Hunt, Defending Wyrmrest Temple, and Aces High!
Note: Aces High! starts with the quest Corastrasza, which is started in the Transitus Shield, the same area where you start Drake Hunt.

There you have it! Some factions are easier than others to gain rep with without championing, but only the Kirin Tor is really difficult. Good luck!

What I am doing in-game

Since I am at a loss for something miscellaneous to write about and I recently went through a sort of revelation when it comes to my way of thinking about the game, I decided to detail what I am currently doing in-game.

I recently went through a phase where I was seriously considering why I was playing WoW. The only thing I ever did with any consistency was the fishing dailies. I found (and still find) the Argent Tournament dailies incredibly boring, and I have done the other dailies (at least the ones that give good money) to death, so I no longer enjoy them, either. I went over my general disapproval of Blizzard's dependence on dailies for Wrath solo content in this post, so read that if you want to know why I am so jaded toward daily quests. Anyways, because of my reluctance to do most dailies, especially the Argent Tournament ones, I have pretty much exhausted the Wrath solo content.

For some reason, the possibility of doing group content more rigorously never occurred to me, but when I thought about it, I realized that that was what I enjoyed most about WoW. Helping other people succeed, seeing new content, and experiencing new battles was what I enjoyed most about the game, and my comfort and aptitude with being a healer can certainly help me do that. As such, I am currently focused on getting better healing gear so that I can eventually move past Naxxramas and see Ulduar. There is really one thing about my healing set that I need to address more than the rest: my trinkets.

Currently, the two trinkets I am using in my healing set are both low-level green trinkets I got from some of my first quests: Futuresight Rune and Infused Coldstone Rune. They may be bad, but what I like about them is that they are both on-use trinkets, rather than random proc trinkets. This allows me to use them when I really need them. Still, I really need to replace them, and frequently running Trial of the Champion on normal mode has allowed me to obtain Tears of the Vanquished. It might not be an on-use trinket, but the fact that I don't need to worry about activating it probably makes it more useful. The other trinket I would like to get is the Winged Talisman from Heroic Halls of Lightning, but because of the lack of popularity of that instance, I'm not holding out hope of getting it any time soon.

The rest of the items that I want are all available through emblems, so I plan on running a lot of heorics, especially the daily heroics, since I will need 110 emblems of triumph to buy every piece of EoT gear I want. That's 55 daily heroic quest, and I have only done two since Blizzard added EoTs to them. Anyways, here's the gear I want, arranged by what emblems they take and how much I want them.

Emblems of Triumph:
Idol of Flaring Growth (25)
Band of the Invoker (35)
Talisman of Resurgence (50, this is my backup in case I can't get the Winged Talisman)

Emblems of Conquest:
Evoker's Charm (19)

Emblems of Valor:
Band of Channeled Magic (25)
Disguise of the Kumiho (25)

Once I have gotten all the items I want that I can buy with a certain emblem, I'll use any more I get to upgrade my armor, which is pretty good currently and doesn't warrant immediate replacement.

So, those are my plans for upgrading my gear. They originally included running normal Trial of the Champion a lot (the heroic version has nothing I can use aside from a marginal upgrade to my chest armor), but I have already gotten everything I want from that instance, so it's on to getting badges for me. The nice thing about doing the daily heroics is that I'll be able to see all the work Blizzard put into making those dungeons, which is, in my opinion, one of the best reasons to run instances. This was especially true when I ran Halls of Stone today, and I have to say, though we did rush through it (that DK tank was really impatient), I'm glad I got to see the work Blizzard's art department put into that dungeon.

What purpose should talents serve?

With the upcoming mastery effects, which talent tree you invest in is, more than ever, going to be the indicator of what role you are spec'ing for. Players will be forced to spec one way to perform a certain role, although this might not apply as much for the pure-DPS classes. This is not a break from the norm. For almost as long as WoW has existed, each talent tree was associated with a specific role, with the exception of feral combat and the earlier incarnations of discipline. (Tanking/DPS and DPS/healing, respectively) Each spec played differently, and even though you may have pined for protection to feel more like fury, or for restoration to feel more like elemental combat, there wasn't much you could do about it.

Death Knights changed all that. The three death knight specs are all viable as tank, DPS, and PvP specs, though some more so than others. The thing that set DK's apart was that, rather than use their talents to pick their role, they chose which presence they would use (similar to the warrior's stances), and the bonuses of each presence were what differentiated a tank from a DPS. This was a pretty big departure from the other classes, for while the death knight specs certainly had talents that hinted at the intended roles of each tree, each spec catered more to a specific play-style than a specific role. Blood is centered around grinding and self-healing, frost is centered around snares and defensive talents, and unholy is centered around diseases and your ghoul pet. Because each tree contains both offensive and defensive talents, it is not too rare to see frost DPS or blood tanks. In the end, the process picking which talents to take as a DK is all about play-style.

That got me thinking: is it possible for the other classes to play that way as well? What if other classes simply used their talent trees as a way of adjusting their play-style while using something like presences to decide which role they would play? It would certainly require a general overhaul of the talent system, something I doubt Blizzard is ready to do, but the possibility is still there. Some classes already have the abilities they need to make such a thing possible. Druids have their shapeshifting forms and warriors have their stances. The other classes also have abilities that could be expanded upon to serve the same purpose. Priests have Shadowform, and I imagine adding some sort of Holyform couldn't be too difficult. Paladins have Righteous Fury, which could evolve to give more tanking bonuses, and Blizzard could add a healing and a DPS equivalent; perhaps Righteous Wisdom and Righteous Vengeance. Shamans are a bit tougher to figure out. They currently have no self-buffs that give them a bonus to their DPS or healing. Perhaps their weapon buffs could be expanded to fill the purpose. Windfury would be the melee DPS one, with Flametounge, Frostbrand, and Earthliving being the spell DPS, PvP, and healing, respectively.

You may notice I did not include Hunters, Mages, Rogues, or Warlocks in my ruminations. What you need to keep in mind is that the purpose of the talent overhaul that I am considering is that it would make a player's role (tank, DPS, healing) independent of their talents. Since the four aforementioned classes can only DPS, such an overhaul would only have a minor effect on them.

So, suppose we were able to tie each of the multiple-role classes's roles to a self-buff. What purpose would the talent trees serve, then? Again, I look to the DK talents as my model. Because the DK talents are based around the kind of play-style that accompanies their implied role, the other talent trees and class abilities could be changes in a similar way. Here are my ideas for the druid talent trees.

Druids would be able to learn all of their forms, including Moonkin and Tree of Life Form, from a trainer. Because Balance has long been considered the PvP tree, it would contain a lot of PvP talents, including the ones in other trees, like Infected Wounds. Because PvP is all about controlling your opponent, that would be what this tree is concerned with. As such, a Balance tank would perhaps focus more on kiting his target than simply standing still, while still causing a lot of threat from far away. Feral combat is currently associated with all of the druid's melee combat, and as such, ferals currently end up take more damage than the other specs. Thus, this tree would become more of an all-around defensive tree. It could thus get talents like Improved Barkskin. Resto is currently associate with healing, but this could be expanded to include any sort of survival, making it more applicable to tanking and PvP. Whereas a feral tank would be focused on taking less damage, a resto tank would be focused on healing his own damage to assist the healer.

I know I usually save posts containing ideas for Monday, but I just wanted to include that example and the examples in the third paragraph to show that a change like this feasible, even if it isn't probable. Still, is a change like this even necessary? Now that we know what kind of changes we are talking about, I can start answering that question.

The main issue that determines whether such a talent overhaul is called for is whether the changes is would bring are necessary. There are two changes that I can see happening as a result of this overhaul:
1. Tanks and healers would be able to do moderate DPS without switching specs. Inversely, your DPS could switch to being a tank or a healer in an emergency or when the first requires it.
2. Picking which talent tree you choose to invest in would be less about what role you wish to perform and more about which nuances of the class your play-style emphasizes.

Let's consider the first one. I know there are raid fights where it helps to have multiple tanks sometimes, while other times you only need one. The same can be said of healers, in that some phases of a fight require more than others. On the surface, a change that lets you change your raid line-up on the fly seems like a good thing. However, you need to consider the pure DPS'ers: the hunters, mages, rogues, and warlocks. These guys are all DPS, no matter what their spec, so they are already experiencing the reality that I am talking about. Thing is, they can't become a tank or a healer in an emergency, so any change to make the hybrid classes more valuable than the pure DPS classes could see their representation in raids drop. Blizzard could prevent this by giving them better raid utility than the hybrid DPS'ers. As I found in my post on what classes bring what buffs and debuffs to raids, the pure DPS classes, especially mages and rogues, are pretty limited in terms of what buffs they can bring. In the olden days, this was offset by the fact that they brought the highest DPS to raids, but now that every class is on more or less equal footing when it comes to DPS, that excuse no longer cuts it. If Blizzard were to give the pure DPS classes more raid buffs, they could motivate raid leaders to bring pure DPS'ers without needing nerfing the buffs that hybrid DPS'ers already bring to raids. Still such a change probably isn't necessary, since you can only have so many players acting as tanks and healers before you loose DPS, so the roles of the pure-DPS classes weren't really in jeopardy. Thus, the first effect of this talent overhaul would be a positive one. Necessary? Well, it would certainly help.

The other effect of this change would be that choosing talents would be more about play-style than utility. Every class's spec would thus play differently, yes still be able to fulfill the same roles, allowing there to in effect be thirty classes in the game. I know that's a bit of hyperbole, but I can tell you that playing a blood death knight is quite different from playing an unholy one, despite the fact that the two can both be DPS'ers. The same can be said of discipline and holy priests; both are healers, but both play and feel quite different. The same can be said of the four pure-DPS classes and how their specs play. They fulfill the same role in raids and they do them (arguably) equally well. In the end, it's all about player choice. That's really what a change like this would be about; letting players who play a Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, or Warrior choose how they wish to approach their role. I see no downsides to this.

So, should Blizzard do it? Should Blizzard redo the Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, and Warrior talent trees to make them more like the Death Knight trees? As much as I hate to say it, probably not. Think about it: it took Blizzard twelve patches, an expansion pack, four more patches, and another expansion pack to get class balance right. They have said that they weren't very concerned with perfect class balance in vanilla WoW, but still, that means it took them two expansion packs to get it right. Could you imagine if they were to start over? I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait until after Cataclysm and what ever is next (Emerald Dream?) for class balance to be good again.

Still, even if Blizzard were to somehow get it right the first time, a system like this would make class balance even more difficult than it is now. Imagine if a holy paladin could be a DPS'er, a tank, or a healer. That's three times as many sub-classes (which are basically what the talent trees are) to balance against the rest. I won't do the math to see how many more sub-classes that would mean, but trying to balance that many specs for that many roles would be a pain in the neck for Blizzard, especially considering how much people already complain about class balance. As much as I would love to see a change like this, I don't see it happening.

So, going back to the original question, though it would be awesome if talents let you augment the nuances of your class, I think it is better for Blizzard to stay with the current systems. I know it's not good form for a writer to argue against an idea that he himself came up with, so I apologize for that. Here, have some cute to make up for it. Here's some more for good measure.

How to gear up a druid at level 80 without ever entering an instance

One of the things that many guides for gearing up a druid assume is that you are willing to run heroics to get gear. Nothing against 5-mans, but I'm not ready to depend on a chance drop for gearing up. That's why I give you this guide. It gives you ways to gear up your druid without ever needing to run an instance. In other words, you can do do it all alone (with the exception of crafted items). I'll also give you multiple options for a specific slot when your best choice is either expensive or takes a long time to get.

Disclaimer: Some of these items are difficult to get if you don't enter an instance, as it will be more difficult for you to get the associated reputation. It is possible, though, to get exalted with the associated factions without running an instance, and that's the point. If you need help on getting exalted with those hard-to-level factions, check out my guide on said topic here.

Weapon(s):
Balance: Titansteel Guardian or Titansteel Spellblade* (Blacksmithing), Flameheart Spell Scalpel (Kirin Tor, revered), Gavel of the Brewing Storm (Wyrmrest Accord, revered)
Feral (tank): Silvery Sylvan Stave/Staff of Feral Furies (Argent Tournament), Whale-Stick Harpoon (Kalu'ak, revered)
Feral (DPS): Silvery Sylvan Stave/Staff of Feral Furies (Argent Tournament), Titansteel Destroyer (Blacksmithing), Argent Skeletal Crusher (Argent Crusade, revered)
Resto: Dagger of Lunar Purity/Scalpel of the Royal Apothecary (Argent Tournament), Titansteel Guardian (Blacksmithing), Gavel of the Brewing Storm (Wyrmrest Accord, revered)

Off-hand:
Balance: Faces of Doom (Inscription), Prison Manifesto (BoE)
Resto: Faces of Doom (Inscription), Prison Manifesto (BoE)

Idol:
Balance: Idol of Arcane Terror (Grizzly Hills PvP)
Feral (tank): Idol of Perspicacious Attacks (Grizzly Hills PvP), Idol of the Plainstalker (Borean Tundra quests)
Feral (DPS): Idol of the Plainstalker (Borean Tundra quests)
Resto: Idol of Pure Thoughts (Grizzly Hills PvP)

Head:
Balance: Helm of the Majestic Stag (Kirin Tor, honored)
Feral (tank): Helm of the Avenging Protector (Scholazar Basin quests)
Feral (DPS): Helm of the Avenging Protector (Scholazar Basin quests)
Resto: Helm of the Majestic Stag (Kirin Tor, honored)

Neck:
Balance: Chain of Latent Energies (BoE), Titanium Spellshock Necklace (Jewelcrafting), Choker of Spiral Focus/Necklace of Stolen Skulls (Argent Tournament)
Feral (tank): Titanium Earthguard Chain (Jewelcrafting)
Feral (DPS): Titanium Impact Choker (Jewelcrafting), Choker of Feral Furies (Argent Tournament)
Resto: Titanium Spellshock Necklace (Jewelcrafting), Necklace of Valiant Blood/Pendent of Emerald Crusader (Argent Tournament), Dragon Prow Amulet (BoE)

Shoulders:
Balance: Dark Runic Mantle (BoE), Purehorn Spaulders (Leatherworking)
Feral (tank): Trollwoven Spaulders (Leatherworking)
Feral (DPS): Spaulders of Egotism (BoE), Trollwoven Spaulders (Leatherworking), Spaulders of Frozen Knives (Sons of Hodir, honored)
Resto: Runecaster's Mantle (BoE)

Back:
Balance: Deathchill Cloak (Tailoring), Dark Soldier Cape (Knights of the Ebon Blade, honored)
Feral (tank): Durable Nerubhide Cloak (Leatherworking), Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions (Wyrmrest Accord, honored)
Feral (DPS): Ice Striker's Cloak (Leatherworking), Cloak of Holy Extermination (Argent Crusade, honored)
Resto: Whispcloak (Tailoring), Reanimator's Cloak (BoE), Shroud of Dedicated Research (Kirin Tor, honored)

Chest:
Balance: Ebonweave Robe (Tailoring), Robes of Crackling Flame (Kirin Tor, exalted), Black Duskweave Robe (Tailoring)
Feral (tank): Exotic Leather Tunic (Utgarde Pinnacle quests)
Feral (DPS): Darkheart Chestguard (Knights of the Ebon Blade, exalted)
Resto: Moonshroud Robe (Tailoring) Robes of Crackling Flame (Kirin Tor, exalted), Ymirjar Physician's Robe (BoE)

Wrist:
Balance: Wraps of the Astral Traveler (BoE), Wound-Binder's Wristguards (Knights of the Ebon Blade, revered)
Feral (tank): Drake-Champion's Bracers (BoE)
Feral (DPS): Dragonfriend Bracers (Wyrmrest Accord, exalted) Drake-Champion's Bracers (BoE)
Resto: Bands of the Great Tree (BoE), Wound-Binder's Wristguards (Knights of the Ebon Blade, revered)

Hands:
Balance: Ebonweave Gloves (Tailoring), Awakened Handguards (BoE)
Feral (tank): Seafoam Gauntlets (Leatherworking)
Feral (DPS): Seafoam Gauntlets (Leatherworking)
Resto: Moonshroud Gloves (Tailoring), Sterile Flesh-Handling Gloves (Ebon Blade, revered) Awakened Handguards (BoE)

Waist:
Balance: Ghostflicker Waistband (Kirin Tor, exalted), Wrap of the Everliving Tree/Wasteguard of Equine Fury (Argent Tournament)
Feral (tank): Trollwoven Girdle (Leatherworking)
Feral (DPS): Trollwoven Girdle (Leatherworking)
Resto: Sash of Jordan (BoE), Belt of Dark Mending (Knights of the Ebon Blade, exalted)

Legs:
Balance: Windripper Leggings (Leatherworking), Giant Friend Kilt (Sons of Hodir, revered)
Feral (tank): Chain Gang Legguards (BoE)
Feral (DPS): Chain Gang Legguards (BoE)
Resto: Earthgiving Legguards (Leatherworking), Giant Friend Kilt (Sons of Hodir, revered)

Feet:
Balance: Windripper Boots (Leatherworking), Sandles of Crimson Fury (Wyrmrest Accord, exalted)
Feral (tank): Boots of the Neverending Path (Argent Crusade, exalted), Treds of Nimble Evasion/Treads of the Earnest Squire (Argent Tournament)
Feral (DPS): Boots of the Neverending Path (Argent Crusade, exalted), Treds of Nimble Evasion/Treads of the Earnest Squire (Argent Tournament)
Resto: Earthgiving Boots (Leatherworking), Sandles of Crimson Fury (Wyrmrest Accord, exalted)

Rings:
Balance: Titanium Spellshock Ring (Jewelcrafting), Signet of Hopeful Light (Argent Crusade, exalted), Ring of Northern Tears (Jewelcrafting)
Feral (tank): Titanium Earthguard Ring (Jewelcrafting), Ring of Earthen Might (Jewelcrafting)
Feral (DPS): Titanium Impact Band (Jewelcrafting), Stained-Glass Shard Ring (BoE), Ring of Scarlet Shadows (Jewelcrafting)
Resto: Signet of Hopeful Light (Argent Crusade, exalted), Titanium Spellshock Ring (Jewelcrafting)

Trinkets:
Balance:** Cannoneer's Fuselighter (Icecrown Quests), Jouster's Fury (Argent Tournament)
Feral (tank): (If you have any trinkets from BC, use those. Otherwise...) Medallion of Heroism (Dragonblight quests), Crusader's Locket (Icecrown Quests)
Feral (DPS)**: Fezzik's Pocketwatch (Icecrown Quests), Jouster's Fury (Argent Tournament)
Resto:** Cannoneer's Moral (Icecrown Quests)

*If you can get hit-capped with your other gear, take the Guardian; otherwise, take the Spellblade.
**Check this list for green-quality trinkets you may have missed while leveling up. Use it if you don't have enough trinkets to fill your two slots.

New mastery skills I would like to see in Cataclysm

For those of you who don't know, we will not be getting new talents with the next expansion pack. Instead, each tier will gain three "mastery skills," which will be passive buffs given once you have put enough points in a tree. Since my musings on new talents are now irrelevant, I figured I would muse on what we druids could get for mastery skills, since Blizzard has yet to reveal what we will get. I have worded each bonus the same way Blizzard has worded the ones for the other classes.

Balance:
+Spell Crit Damage 100%
This would replace the Vengeance talent. Although you may think this is too powerful of a bonus to put as the first mastery skill, Blizzard did put it in tier 4. Also, it isn't as useful at lower levels as it is at higher levels, since it takes fewer spells to kill an enemy when you are at low levels, so big crits aren't as important.

+Spell Hit 5%
This would replace the spell hit bonus of Balance of Power, a necessary talent considering that balance druids share much more gear with Resto druids than they used to. Since spellcasters only need 5% hit rating to be hit capped in PvP, this would eliminate the need for +hit on Balance PvP gear, allowing Boomkins and trees to share the same kind of gear. Although they would probably need different set bonuses on the 5-piece sets, it would mean they could share boots, belts, and gloves.

+Spell Damage 10%
This would replace Moonfury, and all Balance druids will benefit from it, be they leveling, raiding, or PVPing. I don't really need to explain this, do I? You know you want it.

I didn't included mana regeneration while casting because Blizzard has said they plan to make spirit a healer stat, so DPS won't need to worry about it. Although Boomkins will probably need to role healing armor, they'll probably be able to turn the spirit into something more useful with reforging.

Feral:
+Melee Crit Chance 5%
This would replace Sharpened Claws. I considered turning Ferocity into a mastery skill, but it dropped the idea for many reasons.
-Mastery skills are supposed to be boring but necessary, and although ferocity comes close to fitting that category, the fact that is directly lets you use your abilities more frequently means it makes your fights more interesting. Thus, it only fits the second criterion.
-I couldn't find a suitable replacement for its spot. I considered Furor, but its effect does not fit the above criteria, and moving Furor our of the resto tree would prevent ferals and boomkin from having a good talent to start investing in the resto tree.
-To be a true mastery skill, Furor would need to apply to all of our abilities. Could you imagine all of our abilities getting -5 energy/rage cost? That would be huge, especially for tanks. I'd call it OP.

+Stamina (Bear) or Attack Power (Cat) 10%
This would partially replace Heart of the Wild. I didn't include the intellect buff because I don't see it as completely necessary, although I do think it should be rolled into another talent, since some ferals, especially solo-ers and PvP'ers would certainly still want the increased mana pool. Perhaps Primal Tenacity? The increased mana pool benefits PvP feral druids the most, so it would make sense to put that bonus in a PvP talent.

+Melee Damage 10%
This would replace the melee portion of Naturalist, a talent all ferals need to take but usually end up taking after investing fully in the feral tree. This would probably turn Naturalist into a filler talent, unless Blizzard made it reduce the cast time of other spells, which I think would actually make it pretty cool. Anyways, become of its position in the resto tree, many ferals end up taking this at their level 65-69 talent, so I see it as the perfect final mastery talent for us.

Restoration:
+Spirit 15%
This would replace Living Spirit. Since spirit is on all trees' gear now, this would be useful to everyone, though more-so to raiding trees than PvE trees. Still, it's definitely a "necessary but boring talent," so I think it fits the bill.

+Mana Regen while Casting 50%
This would replace Intensity and put mana regen firmly in the ownership of trees. Why? Well, if this bonus is the second one, then balance druids couldn't get it by just investing a few points in resto (see my note at the end of the balance section). Like I said above, every tree has spirit now, which means that PvP trees need to get their mana from it as well.

+Healing 10%
This would replace Gift of Nature. Again, who wouldn't want this?

Should raiders be angry about the Emblem of Conquest change?

Disclaimer: Everything I say in this post in my own opinion, and though I make sweeping generalizations about raiders in this post, I am not making an assault on your own character with this post. In other words, don't take what I say personally.

The last major patch brought a pretty big change to the game: emblems of conquest now drop from heroic instances. Many raiders who got these emblems the hard way through Ulduar were not happy about this change, as they saw it as trivializing the gear they had worked so hard to obtain. Were they justified? It's a difficult question, but it begs an even bigger one, in my opinion: what is the purpose of gear? After all, the purpose that gear serves is fundamental to how valuable it is.

The way I see it, the only practical application of gear is to make encounters easier and thus allow the player to see more of the game. However, if that were the gear's only purpose, then the Uduar raiders wouldn't feel as indignant about non-raiders sharing their gear. They may feel that Blizzard's making good gear easier to get makes the encounters easier and thus trivialized their achievements, but as Windwalkêrs's recent downing of Yogg-Saron in only blues shows, gear only plays a small role in raid success, and thus making good gear available to more players does little to make the encounters themselves easier. Thus, this could not be the reason that raiders are so indignant about the emblem change.

So, what's the purpose of the gear? Since skill is really more important than gear in determining a player's usefulness to a raid than gear, the only reason left is one that's pretty obvious: the gear is the best way for raiders to show off that they raid and that they raid successfully. Achievements do serve the same function, but they are inferior to gear as a way to show off successful raiding. It's easier for a player to admire his gear than his achievements, and gear is much easier to show off to other players than achievements.

Of course, the idea that gear can be used to show off raiding achievements begs the question of why raiders should want to brag about their conquests at all. This is an easy one to answer; anything that a person puts a lot of work into, that person is going to feel proud of, and pride generally leads to a person wanting to some how show off what they have achieved. Still, many a wise man will tell you that genuine pride results in humility, and only hubristic pride leads to bragging. In fact, those who brag often do so because they have doubt in themselves and need to reaffirm their baseless self-esteem. Whether this theory applies to WoW, I'm not qualified to say, but my suspicion is that it does.

Bringing that all together, are the raiders who want to keep raid gear to themselves selfish? No, they're probably just insecure about their achievements and fear that their gear (which symbolizes their success in raids) becoming more common will somehow trivialize what they have accomplished. Will it? Not really, because gear has nothing to do with what you have achieved. It may symbolize it to you, but that's your own thinking, not that of the player-base as a whole.

How to most effectively arange your abilities on your action bars

I should tell you right now that this is a guide for people who are just going to use the 1-10, -, and = buttons as key-bindings, with the rest being placed on extra bars. If you want a guide on using the letters on your keyboard to use your abilities, look elsewhere.

Like many of my advice posts, the topic covered in this post will be a no-brainer to experienced players, but new ones will find it informative, I hope. I often notice that when people try WoW on my computer, they often put their abilities on the action bar in the order they get them in. While this is alright, it is hardly an effective way of doing things. Thus I decided to write up some guidelines on effective placement of abilities.

For starters, you will probably want to have more than twelve abilities available to you at any given time, and you won't want to keep them on a separate toolbar, which will force you to cycle through them. Instead, add some more via the options menu.
Game Menu (escape key) -> Interface -> Action Bars
This moves those extra action bars onto the screen so that you can use them without needing to cycle through them. You will want to put abilities here that you don't use frequently, meaning situational abilities and emergency abilities with long cooldowns, as well as any abilities that are mostly used out of combat. I put these abilities in order form left to right based on how frequently I use them, although I keep the emergency abilities that could save my life close to the left, even if I rarely use them, so that I can have easy access to them.

However, you will want to put the abilities you use frequently on the action bar itself. If you use the WASD keys to move, you can only reasonably expect to be able hit the number keys 1 through 6 with your left hand.* Anything beyond that, you will probably need to click to use. As such, put your six most important abilities here. These include the abilities you use most frequently, as well as any emergency abilities that you need to keep within a keystroke. As a tank, I keep Growl and Feral charge - bear on keys 1 and 2, respectively, so that I can press them at any time when I need to. Note that this only really applies to tanks and healers; if you are a DPS'er or are solo-ing, you probably won't have any emergency abilities that you will need to use with any level of frequency. As a rule of thumb, any abilities with cooldowns longer than thirty seconds, you will probably want to put on the additional action bars. Putting it on the main bar is just a waste of space.

Once you have your emergency keys bound (if you do bind them), you should order your remaining abilities with a combination of priority and frequency of use. As a tank, I usually use Lacerate the most, followed by Mangle (bear), Swipe, and Maul. However, after growl and feral charge, I arrange those abilities on my main action bar like so: Mangle, Lacerate, Maul, and Swipe. I put mangle first because it is my highest threat ability, so I try to use it every time it is off of its cooldown. I then put Lacerate because I use it so frequently. Maul comes next because I need to be able to spam it when I use it, so it's needs to be within my reach, but I don't spam it so frequently that it warrants being before the other two abilities. Swipe comes last because I don't use it too frequently and when I do need to spam it, I can usually see the situation coming and can prepare myself by getting ready to click it. Although I used physical necessities as my priorities on my bear form bar, you can also prioritize your abilities by damage or mana efficiency. For example, on my druid, I have my healing abilities organized so that the most mana efficient ones are furthest on the left.

To give another example, on my Shaman, with whom I mostly solo, I place Stormstrike first, then Lava Lash, then Earth Shock, then Flame Shock. I place stormstike first because it is my highest damage ability and I want to use it whenever it is off of its cooldown. Lava Lash, however, is my lowest damage ability, but I put it second because I frequently use it twice in a fight, sometimes three times. Earth shock and flame shock are both high on my priority list, since they both cause more damage than Lava Lash but less than Storm Strike, but I rarely use either more than once in a battle, so I put them after the other two. I usually start a battle by pulling an enemy with Flame Shock, and I usually use Earth Shock in battle, so I put Earth Shock in an easier-to-reach position than Flame Shock. The rest of my abilities on my action bar are all situational, so I put them after my main abilities.

One last note: It's helpful to keep similar abilities together on your action bars. On my shaman, all of my shocks are together, and ditto for my lightning and healing spells. On my druid's cat form bar, all of my abilities that give combo points are together, as are all of my abilities that use them. On my paladin, I keep all of my buffs and all of my seals grouped together. You get the idea. If you are really familiar with your class's abilities, then you may wish to disregard this advice; it's your choice.

*Some people change their movement keys to be ESDF, which opens up more of the keyboard for your use. You can do this if you wish, but remember to remap the R and F functions.