[ Unveiling Druids ] :: Feral Druid Talents

This is one of the guides I've been working on for a while, and have finally (more or less) finished it. I'd go into more detail, but the laptop is on its last breath, and is going to need charging before it will work for me again, so I will hold back from being too long and elaborate, and present to you the Feral Talent Guide.

[ Tier 1 ]
Ferocity ****
Ranks: 5
Reduces the cost of your Maul, Swipe, Claw, Rake, and Mangle abilities by 1 Rage or Energy per rank.
A very nice talent for whatever you decide to do in this tree. Who wouldn’t want a cheaper attack so that they could use the rage for more attacks?

Feral Aggresion **
Ranks: 5
Increases the Attack Power reduction of your Demoralizing Roar by 8% per rank and increases the damage of your Ferocious Bite attack by 3% per rank. [ Up to 40% / 18% ]
I rather like this, and I use Ferocious Bite enough that I like putting just one point in here for an extra kick, but most would spend their points in Ferocity.

[Tier 2 -- require 5 points in Feral]
Feral Instinct *****
Ranks: 3
Increases the threat caused in Bear and Dire Bear forms by 5% per rank and reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while prowling. [15%]
Any feral druid with any ambition at all to play will take this talent. The threat increase makes this talent impossible to skip – unless one gets very, very lucky, they are more than likely going to be asked to tank due to the viability of the feral build. Extra threat is a no-brainer. Get it. (The stealth bonus is pretty much that. A bonus).

Brutal Impact **
Ranks: 2
Increases the stun duration of your Bash and Pounce abilities by 0.5 seconds per rank.
I’ve found this talent, while helpful, not necessary in a solid build. Sure, and extra second is enough for an extra shred after your ravage, and enough time to cast healing touch (which is a rather inefficient spell for the mana cost), or an extra HoT, but really necessary? No. I find myself skipping it.

Thick Hide *****
Ranks: 3
Increases your Armor rating from items by 3% per rank (4% for rank 1). [4/7/10]
Again, rather like Feral Instinct. For bear tanks, since we lack the parry and block that warriors and paladins have, we rely on our high health and armor. What better talent is there than this one to help us reach the 75% armor cap? One would have to be a fool to skip it.

[Tier 3 -- require 10 points in Feral]
Feral Swiftness *****
Ranks: 2
Increases your movement speed by 15% per rank while outdoors in Cat form and increases your chance to dodge while in cat, bear, and dire bear form by 2% per rank. [30/4]
A talent I wouldn’t skip for anything. The extra movement speed makes leveling easier (for those of us who have had travel form/mounts for a long time, think about the alts that don’t have speed increases what-so-ever, and running anywhere would take forever, not to mention painful). This talent helps us keep our sanity from levels 20-30… Not to mention that the extra dodge attached to this talent is something that you don’t want to pass up. We bears like dodge. All tanks do, really.

Feral Charge *****
Instant Cast, 5 Rage, 15 second cooldown, 8-25 yard range
Causes you to charge an enemy, immobilizing and interrupting any spell being cast for 4 seconds.
If you’ve ever tanked, or watched others tank, you will know that running up to a mob to try to get the most aggro before anyone is slow. A big, lumbering bear butt (and I’m not talking about BBB here) plodding its way up to the mob. Why suffer that, when for one talent point, you can charge them? Feral charge is a druid’s only interrupt as well, which makes it a favorite for both PvP and PvE (builds have been tailored around getting Feral Charge. Don’t skip it).

Sharpened Claws *****
Ranks: 3
[Prerequisite for Primal Fury]
Increases your critical strike chance while in Bear or Cat form by 2% per rank. [2/4/6]
Critical strike = you hit for more = more rage/threat (bear), quicker build of combo points (as you cannot skip Primal Fury, the must have talent that this ability builds up) (cat). Skipping it would be ridiculous.

[Tier 4 -- require 15 points in Feral]
Shredding Attacks ****
Ranks: 2
Reduces the Energy cost of your Shred ability by 9 per rank and the rage cost of Lacerate by 1 per rank. [18/2]
Shred should be the bread-and-butter attack of all feral druids (in a group/raid situation, especially, when one doesn’t have to use combo points in order to keep the mob facing away). Reducing its cost means you get to pull more of them off, meaning more damage. Lacerate is a threat building attack that adds a bleed onto the target (a skill gained at 66). It generates high threat. Less rage per cost means you can do it more, building more threat. I can see putting this talent off until the later levels, but I would still take it for the energy reduction on Shred.

Predatory Strikes **
[Prerequisite for Heart of the Wild]
Ranks: 3
Increases your attack power in Bear, Dire Bear, and Cat forms by 50% of your level per rank. [50/100/150]
Not the best talent ever. Actually, a rather terrible one, but we can’t complain about extra attack power. Why this talent is one that serious ferals won’t miss for the world is because of what it serves as the prerequisite of: Heart of the Wild, one of the best talents in the tree.

Primal Fury *****
Ranks: 2
Requires: 3 points in Sharpened Claws
Gives you a 50% chance per rank to gain an additional 5 Rage anytime you get a critical strike while in Bear form or Dire Bear form and critical strikes from Cat form abilities that add combo points have a 50% chance per rank to add an additional combo point. [ 100% ]
For bear tanks, damage is one of our best ways to get and keep aggro; crits are rather nice for that (especially as bear tanks like agility, and agility helps with crits). Getting rage for critting? Can't pass it up. This used to be two separate talents, but it now encompasses the cat aspect of it too: an extra combo point per crit. More combo points allow one to do their finishing moves earlier, getting more DPS off.

[Tier 5 -- require 20 points in Feral]
Savage Fury ****
Ranks: 2
Increases the damage caused by your Claw, Rake, and Mangle (Cat) abilities by [10/20]%.
For a damage build, you wouldn’t want to skip this. However, with so many good talents out there, you may have to make a sacrifice to skip it in order to improve at something else. I personally compromise and put one point in here.
[Edit: Oops! Outdated info here. Still the same comment, but at least I've got the right talent. Thanks to SuraBear for the note.]

Faerie Fire (Feral) *****
Ranks: 1
[Rank 1]Instant cast, 30 yard range, 6 second cooldown
Decrease the armor of the target by 175 for 40 seconds. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible.
FFF. A very nice spell. Not only is it the only ranged ability that our forms get, but it also reduces armor on our target, and adds a bit of aggro. Not to mention that it is free. Many bears uses it to pull, especially if one has a decently large aggro bar.

Nurturing Instinct **
Ranks: 2
Your healing spells are increased by an amount equal to 25% per rank of your Strength.
Decreased in amount, but increased in usefulness by making this an always-active passive talent, Nuturing Instinct will do well for hybrid feral/resto druids, especially those whose gear supports it. I don't think this is a particularly good talent for full feral builds, though -- you will rarely be popping up to heal. Most of the time, if one is healing under a feral build, they are doing full healing for a fight or two to help their healers on a hard pull.

[Tier 6 -- requires 25 points in Feral]
Heart of the Wild *****
Ranks: 5
Requires: 3 points in Predatory Strikes
Increases your Intellect by 4% per rank. In addition while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form your Stamina is increased by 4% per rank, and while in Cat Form your Strength is increased by 4% per rank. [20%]
Best ability in the tree for whatever flavor druid you are. Of course, the other flavors will most likely not get this talent because it is so far down, but they will envy you for having it. Why? Having one's intellect increased by 20% (for the highest rank) is pretty. For us ferals though, 20% more health, and 20% more strength for our bear and cat forms (respectively). More health for cushioning, more strength for DPS. Lovely. Just lovely.

Survival of the Fittest *****
Ranks: 3
Increases all attributes by 1% and reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 1% [3%/3%]
For bears, this is a must have talent. Even if you won't be tanking a lot, and are more of a cat-focused spec, I would still take it. It is because of this talent that one only needs to reach 415 defense (or some combination of defense and resilience -- BBB and Karthis both go into great detail about this) in order to become uncrittable. Besides. An extra 3% on all attributes is a nice touch as well.

[Tier 7 -- requires 30 points in Feral]
Leader of the Pack *****
Ranks: 1
[prerequisite for Improved Leader of the Pack]
[prerequisite for Mangle]
While in Cat, Bear, or Dire Bear form, the Leader of the Pack increases ranged and melee chance of all party members within 45 yards by 5%.
Extra 5% crit for the WHOLE party. More DPS all around. It makes you the best friend for your melee and hunters. No matter whether you are a feline or a bear, it's a very pretty, pretty talent.

Improved Leader of the Pack ****
Ranks: 2
Requires: 1 point in Leader of the Pack
Your Leader of the Pack ability also causes affected targets to have a 100% chance to heal themselves for 2% [4%] per rank of their total health when they critically hit with a melee or ranged attack. The healing effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.
I, personally, like this talent. For soloing, it means that we have to leave our forms a tiny bit less as we're getting a bit more extra healing as we're hitting things, and, in groups, it means that the healers might have to heal a little bit less. Very nice ability.

Primal Tenacity ****
Ranks: 3
Increases your chance to resist Stun and Fear mechanics by 5% per rank. [15%]
Most druids take this talent, along with Predatory instincts. While they don't stack, when looked at individually, it's a nice talent, even if one doesn't PvP. In PvE situations, there are still times when mobs will decide to fear your group (and you), and the chance to resist and keep building aggro on the mob while everyone else is running around, spamming their buttons and wondering why they aren't doing any damage before realizing that they're feared. One can't always trust on having a shaman with Tremor Totem all the time!

[Tier 8 -- requires 35 points in Feral]
Predatory Instincts ****
Ranks: 5
Increases your critical strike damage with melee attacks in forms by 3% and your chance to avoid area effect attacks by 3%
Oooh, more crit strike! Yes! Good, good, good. Chance to avoid AoE effects? Fun stuff. Higher chance to avoid it means that your healer will have to heal you less, and can concentrate on healing on the others (and, in effect, saving mana). It's nice for them, and nice for you, and it decreases the chance of you dying a bit for the times when the healer can't reach you fast enough.

[Tier 9 -- requires 40 points in Feral]
Mangle *****
Requires: 1 point in Leader of the Pack
Mangle the target, inflicting damage and causing the target to take additional damage from bleed effects and Shred for 10 seconds. This ability can be used in Cat Form or Dire Bear Form.
While mangle is only one talent, it comes with two abilities. There is a cat version and a bear version. For the cat version, mangle should be replacing Claw. It has a base cost of 45 Energy and gives 1 combo point. It does slightly less than double Claw's damage under normal conditions, not to mention the fact that it will cause the target to take additional damage from bleed effects (meaning that rogues will love you, and you will do more DPS as well). Mangle (Bear) is an instant-use attack with a base cost of 20 rage. Its damage is about 20% higher than Maul, but it doesn't use your swing. Should be the ability one should be hitting every time it is up due to the high aggro generation that comes from it, along with the DPS it provides. A core ability, and one that really ought not to be passed up if one is serious about being a feral druid.

There. A general coverage of all of the feral talents in the eyes of Lin. Others may consider each talent different, but this is how I prioritize them when asked for advice by the guildies, and in creating my own build. Lin's word does not mean that's just how it is and how it should be, and other ferals may disagree. It's just her words. [ And my disclaimer for anyone who may wish to complain/disagree. ]

Oof.

I may not look like this, but it's how I feel. Minus the obvious adorable-ness of the cat.

School is catching up to me finally, and it's absolutely killing me. I'm currently in the middle of trying to balance my social life (which suddenly exists. I have no idea where it came from) and my school stuff (which is HUGE and looming, rather like this:). And the upcoming social affair of the school year, for which I had to go out and buy a dress.

A dress. A $180 dress. My paycheck of two weeks... well, that is, before discount. Not to count the shoes and handbag that I will probably end up buying. The occasion? Prom. 'At's right. Prom. Lin is on the younger scale of the blogging community, for those who don't know. So a $128 dress that she probably shouldn't have bought, but looked pretty good in. And four hours of shopping, which she loathes. And then homework, which her computer ate most of her research project. And also a play (See How They Run -- Phillip King, a British farce that was utterly amazing). And work. That was all she did this weekend. And Lin is done with writing in third person.

Very little time to play, much less think/catch up on blogging/catch up on reading blogs (although I did notice that Anna had a feature on our fellow Feathermooninites). I still have two features that are sitting in the drafts box that need finishing that have been there forever, I have a slight whine to write about, want to do a quick highlight on the Day of Silence, which occurred this past Friday (April 25th), stuff I need to actually load pictures for for when the badge vendor opened what seems like ages ago, not to mention all of the stuff I need to do in game, but yet...

Well. I'm lucky to find a few moments now to relay how dead I am. I look at the amount of posts I've made this month in comparison to the previous months, and I shrink in despair. And here I go again, being called to be a camera man. I'll try another update, and one actually concerning... well. Anything important/useful, sometime soon!

[ Role-Playing II ] :: Names

Umm I know exactly what my character will be like, such as the personality and stuff I just can't come up with a good name, thats what I need help with.

--[Ben]

The name is one of the most important parts to a character (you heard it from me. Others may say differently). For me, the name of a person gives me a place to start for their personality; if I should have a personality already, I try to find a name that would complete the character.

And He Shall Be Called...

Start with her/his background: where is she/he from? For example, one of my characters is half Russian, half Welsh. So his name shows that: Mischa Gareth Kaparov -- Russian first and last name due to his father being the Russsian, and a Welsh middle name in honor of his mother.

You know her/his personality; try to make it match the name. For Mischa, he's a quiet, intellectual sort. For someone else, such as Marlene Chaas, she's a rather bright and cheery type, rather round of face. Smart and girly, yet unique. For Jay White, he's tall, handsome, and comes from a prestigious family. Is a good businessman. Lynnea Chisholme -- tall, thin, blond, intellectual, businesslike. Depending on your view on a name, each name, by itself, speaks of a personality.

For choices in general, I would try name sites such as:
behindthename.com
babynames.com
thinkbabynames.com

My favorite still has to be behindthename.com. Keep in mind that every character requires a lot of thought; you're her/his "parent", and you want to give her/him a name you think that will be befitting of who they are.

Note: In roleplaying, one is often putting one's character in a world created by someone else. If this is the case, make sure that the names are acceptable for that world and that society (say, if you are playing an elf from Lord of the Rings, generally, it would be good to get an elven dictionary and combine a few elvish words together (preferably with meaning) rather than calling the elf "Bob". Please don't, by the way. Those who respect the work in which they're playing in will loathe you and refuse to roleplay with you.).

Names Without a Face

The opposite applies to you. Try to imagine what type of person you think would be befitting of that name. Will he/she be quiet or shy? Really brainy, somewhat brainy, or not-so-much brainy? If tossed in your average high-school, what "label" would be placed upon them? Geek, Nerd, Jock, Theatre/Band, Cheer/Poms, Emo, Druggies... the like. Physical descriptions as well. Tall or short? Long hair or short hair? How would they stand? If those don't work, consider what type of character would you, as their creator, be comfortable writing with? I will cover personality in closer detail in the upcoming posts...

Happy choosing!

[ Roleplaying ] :: The Basics

Not WoW related... not really. Okay. Maybe. It more concerns those on roleplaying servers such as Feathermoon than anyone else. And just roleplaying in general. If that doesn't daunt you in the least bit, read on!

Roleplaying is a form of story-telling, where everyone has their characters, and the characters interact with each other in order to create a story.

Wikipedia defines it as:

...participants adopt and act out the role of characters, or parts, that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. Roleplaying, also known as RP to some, is like being in an improvisational drama or free-form theater, in which the participants are the actors who are playing parts, and the audience.

There are several different types of roleplaying -- the familiar (or maybe not-so-familiar) pen-and-paper (and dice!) game being one, and free-form roleplaying being another (along with others, of course!).

The old pen-and-paper roleplaying is usually connected to the idea of rolling a dice to determine every move, using miniatures, and consulting a handbook of sorts. Original D&D at it's best.

The type that I've participated in for many years now is free-form roleplaying. In free-form roleplaying, I decide what my character does or does not do, and to what degree. It is... well, free. There are general rules that apply, but other than that, we are free to do whatever we want.

General Rules of FFRP:

• -No God-Moding (GM). GMs exist in stricter "enviroment", but not in FFRP. This means that one can say that their character threw a punch at another character, but one can't say that they knocked the other character out. It is up to the other character's player to decide whether the shot missed, or hit, and, if hit, to what degree it hit. If one wanted to suggest that their punch is "hard enough to knock someone out/off their feet", they can, and let the other player decide if it happened or not. GMin'g is bad, and doing so will more than likely get you kicked out of the game (thread, board, ect...).
• -Use something to separate OoC from IC. IC [ In Character ] can also be ‘BiC’ for if you were talking OoC [ Out of Character ] before a post, BiC [ Back In Character ] works a bit better … not that people will nag you about that. xD However, some people prefer using brackets, parentheses, and the like, and that is fine too.
• -Most of us will ask you to be creative. Use big words that one would not normally see or hear in conversation! Roleplaying improves writing skills. Do no use illiterate [Definition: In the roleplaying world, the word 'illiterate' means that although you can read and write, you are far behind on your... English skills. The following sums up an illiterate: You do not use capitals, correct (or relatively, at any rate) grammar, and have no idea what punctuation is. You use chatspeak or leet and non-existent, improper English abbreviations. You are uncreative, and asking for at least a three sentence post seems unreasonable] anything while roleplaying; it tends to annoy the crap out of some people.
• -Mary Sue/Gary Stu -- no one has a perfect character that is better than everyone else due to one thing or another, is chum-chum with an existing character from a story/changes the story/becomes more important than they (for fanfictions and roleplays based off of an existing story).
• -And others. Rules differ from board to board, but those are the general ones that normally apply to most boards.
  

Now, the younger brother of a friend of mine asked me for help in his writing. He aspires to be a writer someday, but doesn't know where to start when it comes to original characters and original plots (for many, their writing careers start in the fan-fiction world -- this guy was no different). As I was answering his question, I realized that others might be pondering the same... We shall call him [Ben]. [Ben], his questions, and his quest to create a character and a story, will star in all posts of this ilk. What does [Ben] have to do with FFRP? Each of the initial steps he has to follow applies to FFRP; for many of us, roleplaying is our warm-up to writing.

We'll be covering roleplaying in depth in the upcoming weeks...

GMs Wear Uniforms!

I happened to be near a GM at the opening, and just -had- to see what they wore.

Apparently, they get to wear uniforms as well... but pretty uniforms!

Here are pictures of said GM and his gear:

The GM...


His awesome hood...


And pretty shoulders...


And a dress I'd love to have...


Of course, gloves to match...


And 'ze pants...


And shoes, of course!

Overall, a very nice outfit... and not too shabby for uniforms either!

Personal Space Issues!

"We will be moving you far far far far away to Major Faction City if you are touching the light." -- GMs.

Well. Lets just say that crowded is an understatement for how terrible it is near the vendor. I took pictures, but those will have to show up later; my home computer is spazzing out from the amount of people here. Can't even sneeze without getting lag. (Heck, can't stand here without things in slow motion.)

So, with all of that said and done, lets see what is on my Shopping List.

2.4 Shopping List

Bear:
[Ring of the Stalwart Protector] - Going to replace my [Ring of Unyielding Force], I believe. Has the same amount of armor as [Violet Signet of the Great Protector]... I'll make up the defense with enchants and play with gear swaps. More armor and adds dodge. I want it.
[Embrace of Everlasting Prowess] - One of the first things on my shopping list. With this chestpiece, I will have gotten rid of my last piece of Heavy Clefthoof, which will make me very happy. Finally.
[Tameless Breeches] - Belongs somewhere decently down the line. [Forestwalker Kilt] is good enough to last me for a while... as a druid, with such a big shopping list, it really ought to!
[Handwraps of the Aggressor] -- And my second on the bear list of gear to get... Will finally be rid of my [Verdant Gloves], which I have had forever. -cheer-

Cat:
[Staff of the Forest Lord] - What druid could resist? Well. What druid that isn't into hard-core raiding could?
[Angelista's Revenge] - Lots better than mine... yummy agility and stamina!
[Belt of the Silent Path] - A bit better than [Dunewind Sash] (okay, more than a bit, but really not enough to make me want to go and buy this... at least at this point in time. Later, possibly... although, LK might have come out by then, with how many badges I need to collect to get my full wish-list.).

Tree:
[Anveena's Touch] - +66 healing on a ring, plus MP5 (okay, not that great for druids, but it's still mana return), plus the stamina bonus...
[Shroud of Nature's Harmony] - I want. It is quite a bit better than [Robes of Summer Flame]. -drools over the +healing and spirit- I think I have a new first-buy, especially as I"m currently resto, not feral... except... it's not a dress. Darn. Still. Too good of an upgrade for me to whine about. How unfortunate. At least it's not bright green and kind of matches.... [ EDIT: Change of mind. [Gown of Spiritual Wonder], while dark green, is still a dress and the stats don't change much from the leather version. Getting this instead. ]
[Gavel of Naaru Blessings] - No MP5, but twice as much healing, not to mention the stamina and intellect increase makes it far superior to my [Gravel of Pure Light], which I've had for freaking forever. I'll take it!

Mage:
[Fused Nethergon Band] - Mmm. I have sucky spell hit for the mage; this ring will help quite a lot!
[Tormented Demonsoul Robes] - For that much crit, I'm going to break my Frozen Shadoweave Set. I would hate doing that, but the crit is just unpassable.
[Corrupted Soulcloth Pantaloons] / [Legwraps of Sweltering Flame] - Hrm. Tough decision! Hit or Crit... Currently I'm wearing [SpellStrike Pants]... I need both, really...
[Boots of Incantations] - Hrm. For the hit, to exchange out the [Frozen Shadoweave Boots] that I am breaking the set for? Yeah, I think so. Sounds good.
[Scryer's Blade of Focus] - Mel's health is ridiculously low. For that much stamina, I'd take the loss of crit... (current being [Blade of the Archmage]].

Geeze. With this kind of list, I'm going to be spending every second up to LK farming for badges. I hate being a druid sometimes... and looking at the amount of STUFF I want for Losse from a badge vendor is one of those times. And I have absolutely no idea what to get first... x_x'

Last notes:

"Smith Hauthaa is having some serious personal space issues at the moment. Please let her have some room. I know you all want to check out the new stuff. But you can back away and do that."

And the Senior Game Master Keynalla has popped in as well: "This is Senior Game Master Keynalla. Everyone within 5 yards of Smith Hauthaa needs to relocate immediately. Failure to comply will result in transportation to another location. Repeated attempts to clutter the NPC may result in further measures to ensure that it does not happen again."

Tune in next time for pictures of the opening, of what a GM wears, and... well... skeletons.

Bears: Four Things That We Wish To Share

1. Bears + Caster Form = MOAR AGGRO

Depending on the group and/or the tank, some tanks may find it more beneficial to pull in caster form. A starfire on one, a moonfire on another, and go bear to mangle the third mob, for instance, will help multi-tanking (see below). It is hardly a mark of poor tanking, but rather helps the bear get greater initial aggro (especially useful if the DPS in the group tend to be either aggro-magnets due to no fault of their own, but a lucky series of crits, or if the DPS in the group tend to be DamageMeter competitors).

Redirect: Hurricane Pulls [ Will be in a subsequent article]

I won't touch too heavily on this, for I wish to cover it in another post, but if we tell you we're hurricane pulling, get ready to start a healing rotation early; Hurricane pulls make it easier to keep aggro on more than three mobs, and, while we may be hit once or twice, most of us are smart enough to go bear before the real damage is done. Trust us; it works, and the healer will be happier.

2. Multi-Tanking

It takes time to build up solid aggro on three mobs. We can do it, yes, but if you expect to be able to unload the moment we pull (which you shouldn't do in any occasion), good luck getting sympathy from your your tank. If you start to unload the moment they reach us... well. dI'm sorry, but a swipe isn't going to be enough for you to do so. Count to five slowly, let us get solid aggro on all three, and then go. It'll make sure that you aren't eating the nice tasty floor while everyone else is happily DPSing, healing, or tanking.

3. CC is Valued

Unlike with a paladin tank, we tend to like CC. The less we have to tank, the quicker the DPS can dig in. While bears handle multi-tanking fairly well (certainly better than warriors, and we have an easier time), and can take the damage fairly well as well, we love CC. Some of us (not all) don't mind pulling with a Hibernate or a Cyclone to give us a one-up. If you are a DPS class without a CC, we're a bit less likely to chose you. Sorry, folks.

4. Healing

Yes, healing. Depending on the bear, some of us are more than happy to pop up and help top everyone off after a fight in order for our healers to get their mana back faster so the whole group could proceed without too much delay. While this may save a minute or two, those minutes can stack up and make a run just a bit faster, especially after a wipe. If we offer, indulge us. We don't need mana usually, we'll be okay.

[ Inspired by Part Time Druid's Resto Druid: 5 Things You Should Know post. ]

Official Title: Ground Taster in Gruul's Lair

Yes, I do think that's my official title. We're on our fifth wipe of High King Maulgar, and I've died within twenty-three seconds of the fight. Every time. We're getting better, but I'm still dying first, and just watching everyone else fight.

It's entertaining... I suppose. I don't think my gear appreciates it, and I'm starting to get rather sleepy (six hours of sleep + lots of time eating the dirt in Gruul's Lair = sleepiness).

But. For Guildwatch's first attempt at Gruul's, and the first time our leader has commanded a twenty-five man, I do believe we're doing all right. Our issues?

First couple of times, our main tank dropped like a rock. Death Coil, he says, got him, so we're trying to compensate for that with adding HoTs to his healing cycle. Then our mage tank gets eaten (so I get placed on him on top of me choosing to help heal our main tank)...

Seven? Eight deaths now, and we're picking up on healing a lot better. I even had time to do a rotation between our main tank, our mage tank, our druid tank, and a warrior tank...

Aaaaaaand he's down! Finally. Druid shoulders dropped, and I got outrolled by a warrior. -sighs- Ah well! Sol got his shoulders though (two of that type dropped -- the ones for hunters, mages, and warlocks), so it's all good...

-yawns- Not too much of an update, but I do have two informational pieces upcoming when I'm not being eaten alive by real life... Sorry, folks!