Guide to Heirloom Purchases

Today we’re going to look at which heirlooms you should purchase for your leveling alts. A couple of weeks ago I covered Enchanting Your Heirlooms, so I’ll refer you back to that post if you have already purchased heirlooms and would like to look into the various ways that you can enhance their performance via enchants and item enhancements.

Equipment Lists
I’m going to make a list of heirlooms for each class individually, and I will mention certain items that would work better for certain specs as well. I will tell you right now though, that while I have leveled most classes to a significant leveling milestone, I have not played every class and every spec. So if you see me suggest an item for your class because I know you’re looking for Spell Power, but you feel it would be better for you to go with another because it has Spirit as well as Spell Power, then go with your gut as you may very well know that particular class better than I do.

What I am going to have is a list of weapons, chests, and shoulders for you to use in each of your different specs, and a (hopefully) short explanation of why. In some cases there may be multiple suggestions made for a particular slot, particularly when it comes to weapons. The reason for this will generally be because there are multiple builds that people use for that class, or because certain equipment options aren’t available until a higher level. A good example of this is the Enhancement Shaman who benefits more from a large two-hand weapon until level 40 when they can dual wield one-handers, or the Warrior who may dual wield one-handers until level 60 and then dual wield two-handers from there on.

Under each class header you’ll find the list of gear that I suggest and prefer. There will also be a Substitutions list which are items that I consider to be reasonable replacements for the items I suggest in case you already have some of those and would rather not purchase others, or in case you have more of one currency than another and can’t afford all of the recommended pieces.

 

Druid Leveling 30-60: Restoration and Balance

Last time we talked about Druid leveling 1-30: Resto and Balance, and today we’re going to take the next 30 levels in stride and get our little Boomchick’a'trees into Outlands. Level 30 is a big turning point for Druids, particularly Balance who have been waiting for another good spell to use for quite some time. Level 40 is similarly key for Balance Druids as Moonkin Form finally becomes available and at long last we get an AoE. Restoration doesn’t get to enjoy the butt-tentacly goodness of Tree of Life form until level 50, but they do get a few more tools added to their healing belt at levels 30 and 40.

Important Spells
The following are spells that we gain in the 30-60 level bracket that I feel have a strong impact on our playstyle either in this level bracket or throughout the Druid’s career. Numbers for healing and damage are taken from their highest spell rank within the level bracket in question (30-60), but do not reflect changes from talent points.

General (All Specs)

Track Humanoids: [Requires Cat Form] Shows the location of all nearby humanoids on the minimap. Only one type of thing can be tracked at a time.
Innervate: [Instant, 3 min cooldown] Causes the target to regenerate mana equal to 225% of the casting Druid’s base mana pool over 10 seconds.
Barkskin: The druid’s skin becomes as tough as bark. All damage taken is reduced by 20%. While protected, damaging attacks will not cause spellcasting delays. This spell is usable while stunned, frozen, incapacitated, feared or asleep. Usable in all forms. Lasts 12 seconds.
Gift of the Wild: Gives the Gift of the Wild to all party and raid members, increasing armor by 240, all attributes by 10 and all resistances by 15 for 1 hour.

You may be wondering why in the world I’m talking about a Feral ability to start with, so let me get that out for you right now. Track Humanoids is a very useful spell when you take advantage of it. It requires you to be in Cat form, but it puts icons on your mini-map of all humanoids in the area. While it’s especially great in PvP, it also has solid use while questing if you’re looking for specific humanoid mobs or a specific named mob. It’s important to note that the icon will be dull or grayed out a bit if the target is not on the same physical level as you. So if the icon isn’t bright then the mob (or player) in question may be inside a building or underground in a mine or similar structure.

Innervate is the answer to all (most) of your mana problems at long last. It restores 225% of your base mana pool (how much mana you have with no gear on), to the target over 10 seconds. When I first got this spell and was healing all the time I used this on the DPS people I ran with in LFG. As I switched to Boomkin and as I got higher in level I came to use it in both specs. As a boomkin you’ll be using this from the day you get it to the day you retire the character. As a tree, you’ll use it pretty often from your high-40s to your mid-70s, and then its usage will slacken again as you get in groups that are better geared and you get better gear yourself.

Barkskin is your panic button as a Tree, and your “die now, suckas!” button as a Boomkin. If you’re healing and you start taking hits then this is how you save yourself and your spellcasts so that you can keep people alive while you wait for someone to taunt him off of you (unlike the freaking paladin who let four casters send frostbolts and shadowbolts at my face repeatedly). As a Boomkin it still holds the same use, but it can also be put to an offensive use because it removes the pushback you suffer while casting. That includes pushback of your channeled spells, so your Hurricane AoE will get its full effect.

Druid Forms
Moonkin Form: Shapeshift into Moonkin Form. While in this form the armor contribution from items is increased by 370%, damage taken while stunned is reduced by 15%, and all party and raid members within 100 yards have their spell critical strike chance increased by 5%. Single target spell critical strikes in this form have a chance to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana. Moonkins can not cast healing or resurrection spells while shapeshifted. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.

Tree of Life Form: Reduces the mana cost of your healing over time spells by 20% and grants the ability to shapeshift into the Tree of Life. While in this form you increase healing received by 6% for all party and raid members within 100 yards, and you can only cast Restoration spells in addition to Innervate, Barkskin, Nature’s Grasp and Thorns spells. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.

Flight Form: Shapeshift into flight form, increasing movement speed by 150% and allowing you to fly. Cannot be used in combat. Can only use this form in Outland and Northrend. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.

The last of our combat forms (except Dire Bear Form which we get for free at level 40 and is an upgraded version of Bear Form), these are the two forms that you’ll spend most of your time in from here on out. That won’t be the case for Tree Druids once Cataclysm gets here, but for now that’s how it is.

Moonkin is your caster DPS form and what you’ll be in basically non-stop unless you’re traveling or find yourself in need of some emergency healing. The +5% Crit buff is great for being in groups or raids, and you have the added benefit of having some of your mana restored when you crit while in Moonkin Form as well, so it’s even better.

Tree of Life Form is your healing form and you definitely don’t want to break it if you don’t have to. WIth -20% mana cost on your primary heals and an extra 6% healing done you definitely don’t want to pass up those benefits if you don’t have to. The only time I find myself popping out of Tree Form is when I decide to add some DPS to the mix because everyone’s at full health and I’m at full mana and passing out from boredom, or when I’m doing PvP and need to use other spells that break the form such as Entangling Roots.

Flight Form is one of the best spells ever given to us. I always thought this spell was cool, but I didn’t realize just how amazing it really is until I got it for myself. Not only is it great for travel, it’s also unmatched for gathering professions and gathering quests as well. Of the three gathering professions, only Mining breaks you out of your flight forms, but the fact that it’s instant cast means you’re still a step ahead of any other class that’s out there farming mats with the possible exception of Paladins and Death Knights with their +20% movement spells and talents. And on top of that it’s just plain fun to use.

Restoration Spells
Resto doesn’t get any new spells by default of leveling in this range, but they do get some new spells through their talent tree. Because of that though, I’ll cover them in the talents section instead of general spells.

Balance Spells
Hurricane: [Instant, Channeled] Creates a violent storm in the target area causing 100 Nature damage to enemies every 1 second and reducing movement speed and increasing time between attacks of the enemies by 20%. Lasts 10 seconds and the Druid must channel to maintain the spell.

At long last, level 40 comes with our first AoE spell, and lucky for us it’s a good one. The good news is, it hits hard and fast and also slows everything it hits. The bad news is, you’ll be tearing through your mana pool like I will a plate full of bbq ribs, and in case you’ve never had the (dis)pleasure of seeing me eat ribs, let me tell you that’s fast. When you first get it, even with +Int enchants on your gear, you’ll be lucky to get three of these cast before you’re completely out of mana.

Leveling as Balance
Questing Rotation: Starfire, Wrath, Moonfire, Insect Swarm, (Wrath spam or Entangling Roots)
LFG Trash Rotation: Insect Swarm*, Hurricane**, Typhoon, Wrath for clean-up
LFG Boss Rotation: Faerie Fire, Wrath, Insect Swarm, Moonfire, Wrath/Starfire spam

The questing rotation is pretty much all you’ll need until Northrend. In vanilla content I preferred to just burn things, so I would spam Wrath to finish off the mobs and not really let my DoTs do their full damage. It’s not like I was a Warlock, right? I also ran out of mana like nobody’s business. I didn’t really catch on until Outlands when I sat down and really looked at what my spells did. It was then that I found out the trick to conserving my mana, and that was to let my DoTs do their job, or to not cast them in the first place. Look at the damage that your spells do and look at the health of the mobs you’re facing. If you can kill everything with Starfire (or Wrath) > Moonfire > Insect Swarm > Entangling Roots, then do it. Knock them down a few notches with your nukes, then DoT them up and let them die while you go pull another mob.

As we sit right now, pre-Cataclysm, LFG dungeons are all about AoE on trash mobs. If there’s a caster or a heavy damaging melee mob in the mix then throw an Insect Swarm* on them at the beginning, if there’s not then don’t bother casting it unless you really want to. Cast Hurricane** once and then judge the health of the mobs. If there aren’t at least three mobs alive and with more than 25% health or so then don’t cast it again, otherwise give it a second cast. If the mobs are near death, but there are multiples, then Hurricane is going to be a waste of your mana, so instead use your Typhoon (if you have it) to take them out or clean up any remaining mobs with Wrath or your questing rotation if they have a lot of health.

For boss fights you want to maximize your own DPS and that of the group. Faerie Fire reduces the target’s armor so that your melee deal more damage to them, and with the Improved Faerie Fire talent you also make them easier for you to hit with your spells and easier for you to crit with your spells as well. The Wrath right after that is to establish your Earth and Moon debuff which increases the spell damage they take by 13%. So establish your debuffs on the boss, cast your DoT spells, and then lay into him with nukes. Casting FF/Wr/IS/Mf at the beginning should give your tank time to build enough threat that your double-Starfire will not steal agro from him (unless they both crit), but just in case it does you’ll want to either back off on your DPS or cut out your second Starfire for Wraths instead.

[Update: I forgot cooldowns!
Once you get high enough that you have Eclipse 3/3 you'll chance up your nukes and instead cast Wrath until you get a Lunar Eclipse proc, then cast Starfire until Solar Eclipse procs, recast your DoT's, and then go back to Wrath/Starfire to use your Eclipse procs.

You also don't want to forget to use your cooldowns, so once you have Force of Nature you want to cast it right before you start in on the Wrath spam. Starfall should come after the Force of Nature, but I would save that for boss fights instead of trash packs to avoid over pulling and accidental wipes.]

Leveling as Resto
Questing Rotation: Starfire, Moonfire, Entangling Roots, Starfire, Entangling Roots, Wrath, Wrath
LFG Healing Priority: Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Swiftmend, Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch

Questing as Resto still sucks, and in fact it sucks even more as we gain more levels. You shouldn’t have much trouble until your 50′s, but it gets worse as you go. You’re basically a Root & Nuke machine with Wrath Spam. When things get a little rough you may want to use Bear/Cat form to save yourself a little mana. I did a little bit of questing as Resto in Outlands just to try it out and the best thing I found was to actually start off the fights in Cat form and use all of my energy before switching back to caster form for R&N.

With Innervate at our disposal now I tend to be a bit more nuke-heavy in my R&N rotations after level 40. I prefer to use Starfire to break the roots instead of Wrath and only use Wrath to finish them off. As you get more spell power on your gear you’re going to break the roots with either Starfire or Wrath, so you might as well get a little extra damage from roots ticks while going for the big Starfire cast than Wrath, but it’s up to you.

If you quest as Resto then use whichever style works best for you. Personally, I just picked up a dual spec and switched between DPS and Heals as needed. If you don’t have 1,000g laying around to do that though, you’ll need to either deal with questing as a healer or leveling strictly through LFG and PvP Battlegrounds.

Resto Spec and Glyphs

Changes: First off I’m going to let you know we’ve got some changes to the spec here. The spec I used leveling up to 30 worked great for me. As I got higher in level though, some of those points we spent early on became wasted and talents that we didn’t buy with those points became needed. If you’ve followed this spec beyond level 15 then you can either respec now or wait until level 40. The problem talent is Naturalist, which reduces the cast time of Healing Touch. Once we get Nature’s Swiftness at level 30 that talent becomes mostly useless because the only time we’ll cast Healing Touch from here on is when we use Nature’s Swiftness to remove its cast time all together. Instead you should invest those points into Natural Shapeshifter. This should be the new link: Level 30 Resto

Gift of Nature 5/5: Increases the effect of all healing spells by 10%.
Improved Rejuvenation 3/3: Increases the effect of your Rejuvenation spell by 15%.
Nature’s Bounty 1/5: Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 5%.
Swiftmend 1/1: [Instant cast, 15 second cooldown] Consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect on a friendly target to instantly heal them an amount equal to 12 seconds of Rejuvenation or 18 seconds of Regrowth.
Living Spirit 3/3: Increases your total Spirit by 15%.
Nature’s Bounth +1 (2/5): Increases the critical effect chance of your Regrowth and Nourish spells by 10%.
Empowered Rejuvenation 5/5: The bonus healing effects of your healing over time spells is increased by 20%.
Tree of Life 1/1: Reduces the mana cost of your HoT spells by 20% and grants Tree form. While in Tree form you increase healing received by 8% for all party and raid members w/i 100 yards, and you can only cast Restoration spells in addition to Innervate, Barkskin, Nature’s Grasp and Thorns spells.
Improved Tree of Life 3/3: Increases your armor contribution from items while in Tree form by 200%, and increases your healing spell power by 15% of your spirit while in Tree form.
Revitalize 1/3: Your Rejuvenation and Wild Growth spells have a 5% chance to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana or 16 Runic Power per tick.
Gift of the Earthmother 5/5: Increases your total spell haste by 10% and reduces the base cooldown of your Lifebloom spell by 10%.
Wild Growth 1/1: [Instant cast, 6 second cooldown] Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for 686 over 7 seconds. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the WG reaches its full duration.

Resto Glyphs

Major

• Glyph of Regrowth: Increases the healing ofyour Regrowth spell by 20% if your regrowth effect is still active on the target.
• Glyph of Swiftmend: Your Swiftmend ability no longer consumes a Rejuv. or Regrowth effect from the target.
• Glyph of Innervate: Innervate now grants the caster 45% of their base mana pool over 10 seconds in addition to the normal effects of Innervate.

I made a slight change to the glyphs as well once I found out how Nature’s Grasp and Swiftmend work. I never cast Healing Touch without Nature’s Grasp to make it instant anymore, so the Glyph of Healing Touch has been removed. I also found that I rarely needed to Rebirth somebody in combat while leveling until I got to Northrend, and even then it’s no problem to bring them back with a regular battle res and then just heal them to full with a couple of casts, so that glyph is gone as well (though it will reappear in the level 80 build).

As such, go ahead and keep Regrowth for now as your level 15 glyph, use whatever you want as filler at level 30, and then at level 40 swap that one out for Swiftmend.

If you find yourself having mana problems, which I did once I started getting BRD for all of my randoms, you may want to drop Regrowth for Innervate instead for the extra mana. It’s not necessary, but it is useful if you find yourself in need of mana frequently and your group doesn’t like sitting still for you to drink.

Minor

• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth: Your Rebirth spell no longer requires a reagent.
• Glyph of the Wild: Mana cost of your MotW and GotW spells reduced by 50%.
• Glyph of Aquatic Form: Increases your swim speed by 50% while in Aquatic Form.

I used to think Unburdened Rebirth just saved me bag space, but I had no idea that the reagent for Rebirth actually changes every time you get a new rank of the spell. I keep a full stack of reagents on hand when I don’t have a glyph to remove them, but having to constantly go to a vendor to buy the new type of reagent or downrank the spell to use an old one was ridiculous on so many levels it’s not even funny. Get this glyph of your Druids no matter which spec you’re running.

Though my love for Aquatic Form runs deep, I do need to point you to useful glyphs when I can so for the sake of being helpful I’m going to suggest the Wild over it for leveling purposes. You should be buffing people in dungeons and battlegrounds and you’re going to need to rebuff yourself every half hour as well, so it only makes sense that we cut the mana cost of that in half.

Balance Spec and Glyphs

Lunar Guidance 3/3: Increases your spell power by 12% of your total Intellect.
Improved Insect Swarm* 1/3: Increases your damage done by your Wrath spell to targets afflicted by your Insect Swarm by 1%, and increases the critical strike chance of your Starfire spell by 1% on targets afflicted by your Moonfire spell.
Moonfury 3/3: Increases the damage done by your Starfire, Moonfire and Wrath spells by 10%.
Dreamstate 2/3: Regenerate mana equal to 7% of your Intellect every 5 seconds, even while casting.
Moonkin Form: Shapeshift into Moonkin form, increasing armor from items by 370%, damage taken while stunned reduced by 15%, and party/raid members w/i 100 yards gain 5% critical strike chance. Your critical spell strikes have a chance to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana.
Improved Moonkin Form: Your Moonkin Aura also causes targets to gain 3% haste and you gain 30% of your Spirit as additional spell damage.
Improved Faerie Fire 1/3: Your FF spell also increases the chanace the target will be hit by spell attacks by 1%, and increases the critical strike chance of your damage spells by 1% on targets afflicted by FF.
Owlkin Frenzy 3/3: Attacks done to you while in Moonkin form have a 15% chance to cause you to go into a Frenzy, increases your damage by 10%, causing you to be immune to pushback while casting Balance spells and restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds. Lasts 10 seconds.
Wrath of Cenarius 2/5: Your Starfire spell gains an additional 8% and your Wrath gains an additional 4% of your bonus damage effects.
Typhoon 1/1: [Instant cast] Summon a violent Typhoon that does 400 Nature damage to enemies, knocking them back and dazing them for 6 seconds.
Force of Nature 1/1: [Instant cast, 3 minute cooldown] Summons 3 treants to attack enemy targets for 30 seconds.
Eclipse 3/3: When you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 40%. When you crit with Wrath, you have a 60% chance of increasing your critical strike chance with Starfire by 40%. Effect lasts 15 seconds and each has a separate 30 seconds cooldown. Both effects cannot occur simultaneously.
Earth and Moon 3/3: Your Wrath and Starfire spells hav a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect, which increases spell damage taken by 13% for 12 seconds. Also increases your spell damage by 6%.
Gale Winds 2/2: Increases damage done by your Hurricane and Typhoon spells by 30%, and increases the range of your Cyclone spell by 4 yards.
Starfall 1/1: [Instant cast, 90 seconds cooldown] You summon a flurry of stars from the sky on all targets within 30 yards, each dealing 145 to 167 Arcane damage. Also causes 26 Arcane damage to all other enemies within 5 yards of the enemy target. Maximum 20 stars. Lasts 10 seconds. Shapeshifting into an animal form or mounting cancels the effect. Any effect which causes you to lose control of your character will suppress the starfall effect.

That’s a pretty big list of talents, so I’m not going to go into detail about what they do or why we’re taking them because it should be fairly obvious from the descriptions I list after them. Basically we’re taking talents that increase the damage of our primary spells (Wrath, Starfire, Moonfire, Insect Swarm), we’re trying to either conserve or regenerate mana wherever we can, we’re increasing spell power based on other stats (Intellect or Spirit), and we’re gaining other spells that help to increase our DPS as well (Typhoon, Force of Nature, Starfall).

If you read through the talents you’ll also get the sense of what really drives a Moonkin’s playstyle, and that’s Crit. The more you crit, the more benefits you get from various talents and spells. You get mana back, you get increased damage on Wrath or increased crit chance on Starfall, and so on. Moonkins go by a lot of names, but this is why “Critchicken” is one of them.

Balance Glyphs

Major

• Glyph of Innervate: Innervate now grants the caster 45% of their base mana pool over 10 seconds in addition to the normal effects of Innervate.
• Glyph of Focus: Increases the damage done by Starfall by 10%, but decreases its radius by 50%.
• Glyph of Wrath: Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting your Wrath spell by 50%.

We’re taking a pretty big turn in the glyph world from where we were before, mainly because of the new spells that become available to us as we level. When you get to level 40 you want to replace one of your glyphs with Innervate. If you’re doing a lot of soloing then drop Insect Swarm for it. If you’re running dungeons or doing a lot of PvP, then drop Wrath for it instead. With this glyph using Innervate on yourself now restores 270% of your base mana pool to you and if you use it on someone else then you still get 45% of yours returned as well. While I have cast it on other people on occasion, most often I end up using it on myself, so the extra mana just keeps me going that much longer.

Once you hit level 60 and get the glorious Starfall spell it’s time to grab Focus which you’ll swap out for the Wrath/IS glyph that you’re still holding onto. Starfall is an amazing, face own spell of mass destruction. The problem is, it’s mass destruction is freaking massive, having a total reach of up to 35 yards (30 plus 5 yard splash). That’s a lot of damage to a lot of mobs, but the problem is the range on it. Using Starfall basically pulls every mob in your area to you. Using it in dungeons is like asking the mobs to come wipe your group. Focus cuts the radius in half which helps with the wiping, and it also increases its damage by 10%. You still have to watch out for those wipes, but at least now you’re as likely to get everyone killed when you use it.

Minor

• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth: Your Rebirth spell no longer requires a reagent.
• Glyph of Typhoon: Reduces the cost of your Typhoon spell by 8% and increases its radius by 10 yards, but it no longer knocks enemies back.
• Glyph of Aquatic Form: Increases your swim speed by 50% while in Aquatic Form.

While I’m still a big fan of the Aquatic Form glyph, I’m going to have to throw some other suggestions out there for those of you who aren’t. I still don’t cast Rebirth a lot as DPS, though I know I will do it more when I start raiding with him, but it’s still better to have this glyph on hand to remove the reagent. I didn’t realize until leveling the druid more that the reagent for Rebirth changes every time it gets a new rank. So not only do you have to have the reagent, you also have to keep buying new ones all the time when it levels. Save yourself the hassle and just get the glyph. Typhoon is a good glyph to pick up if you’re doing a lot of random dungeons. In PvP and solo questing I love the pushback effect so I don’t use the glyph myself, but it does get the tanks a little upset sometimes.

I personally level with Aquatic Form and Unburdened Rebirth, but Typhoon is a good choice over Aquatic Form if you don’t care for a little extra swim speed with how little it’s actually necessary to swim.

Gearing Your Druid

Resto: Spell Power > Haste > Spirit
Balance: Spell Power > Crit > Intellect > Spirit

Since we’re still leveling I’m going to keep Intellect pretty high on the list. Resto usually has no mana problems starting out, then can’t seem to get enough mana around level 40 and through most of Outlands, and then you get into Northrend and you’re flooded with mana again. If you have mana problems then stack more Int. If you don’t have mana problems then stack more Spell Power. Alternatively you can stack more Spell Power regardless of your mana issues and try to get your heals large enough that you don’t worry about mana because you need fewer heals anyway.

Balance always has mana problems, that’s just the way it is. Personally, I like to fix that by kicking the crap out of things fast enough that it doesn’t matter, or with so few spells that it’s not a problem. Rather than stacking Intellect so that we can cast 10 spells to finish off a mob, go ahead and stack Spell Power as much as you can so that your spells do enough damage that just a few casts can kill them. Your spells make themselves better when you Crit because of your talent points in things such as Eclipse, so crit has a solid place for us now as well. Haste is the key to having your Starfire not take forever to cast, and as one of your hardest hitting spells you’ll ever have that’s a big deal as well. When none of that is available, then it’s time to get some Intellect, and if you can’t find it then pick up Spirit which translates into mana regen as well as Spell Power when you’re in Moonkin form.

 

Dealing with “Superstars” in Low Level LFG

We’re going to talk about some “Superstars” today in relation to low level random dungeons. Random dungeons are referred to in several different ways, including but not limited to: LFG (looking for group), LFD (looking for dungeon), PUG (pick up group), Randoms.

We’re not going to talk about specific individuals as I have in my Real Men of Failure posts, instead we’re talking about types of people and how to deal with them. In order to talk about these “Superstars” we first need to define what a “Superstar” actually is.

Superstar: [soo-per-stahr] –noun
1. a person, as a performer or athlete, who enjoys wide recognition, is esteemed for exceptional talent, and is eagerly sought after for his or her services.

Oh, my bad. That’s the definition of a Superstar. What we’re looking for is the definition of a “Superstar”.

“Superstar”: [uh-noi-ing puhngk] –noun
1. a player, as any class or role, who enjoys wide recognition, who believes themselves to be esteemed for exceptional talent, and who eagerly seeks to show off his or her (lack of) skills.

Roleless “Superstars”
The problem we see most often in the low level LFG is when one or more “Superstars” just throw their roles out the window and go crazy on everything expecting to live through it all.

They’re the level 15 Paladins who have no taunts, no AoE threat generation, and basically only a single ability to use in addition to their auto-attack and yet they still pull large groups of mobs and then wonder why the whole party wipes. They’re the Mages who think that they can go ahead and pull all of the mobs because they have Frostbolt and Frost Nova that will give the tank plenty of time to establish agro before anything bad happens. They’re the Hunters that leave Growl active on their pets and don’t bother calling their pet back when it chases a single mob through five other groups.

The most common offenders in this area are Hunters and Warriors, generally in that order. Hunters are a very strong class in lower levels because they deal high amounts of damage in a fairly short amount of time and their pets provide them with most of the security that they would otherwise need. It’s actually quite rare to end up in a pre-30′s LFG group where the hunter doesn’t try pulling the mobs at least once. (Un)Fortunately, Hunters are one of the few classes that can actually pull off soloing instances at level in the 15-25 bracket if they have some decent gear and know how to manage their pets. Because of that it’s often hard to get them to stop doing that and start working as a team.

Warriors are similar to Hunters in that they can do a lot of damage and spread it around nicely. The more damage they deal and the more damage they take, the more Rage they generate which allows them to be more active and more aggressive. For some odd reason a lot of Warriors take that to mean that if they have eight mobs bashing their face in, then they’ll be unstoppable. What they don’t seem to realize is that the damage they’re taking while doing that is usually way more than they can take without a solid healer who has the mana and the patience to put up with it. If the warrior is the tank, then the healer usually will put up with it, but if he’s DPS…

Where Hunter’s are classified as “Superstars” generally for pulling whenever and whatever they want to, Warriors are generally classified as “Superstars” for stealing threat from the tank or for using high threat generating abilities when they’re filling a DPS role instead of the tanking role.

GogoGoon “Superstars”
Another type of “Superstar” is one that feels that you’re going too slow or not doing good enough in your role and decide to take over. They’re the ones that are in a big rush to get through the dungeon and often try to talk the group into skipping bosses that aren’t required just to speed it up.

I’ve never seen the take-over happen to a DPS, and only twice have I seen it happen to a healer, but it happens to tanks a lot. This type of “Superstar” doesn’t have to be the one that actually takes your role, they can also be one that asks or tries to force another player to take over the role in question. Because of that they can also be of any class.

Sometimes the take-over is somewhat essential, like when I had a level 15 Paladin as my tank who was wearing a grey cloth robe with 45 Armor on it, was wielding a two handed grey kobold mining shovel, and had points in both the Prot and Ret trees. At that level the Paladin has no threat abilities, no taunts, nothing. The only thing he could do was auto-attack and Judgement. If the tank was simply doing it wrong, like pulling with his taunt or not using certain abilities or something, that’s one thing. But at his level he literally has no tanking abilities at all.

Another type of GogoGoon is one who has a completely wrong spec and/or wrong gear for the role that they signed up for, but insist that anyone and everyone but themselves are to blame for any problems that arise.

The single-most blatant offender in this area is the Ret Paladin. A lot of people don’t like leveling up as Prot, and they aren’t about to try leveling as Holy, so they’ll go with a Ret spec instead. But when it’s time to queue for random dungeons they’ll select the Tank role as well, hoping to get a faster queue time. To be fair, I have seen some Ret Pallies successfully tank lower level dungeons up through Scarlet Monastery: Library, but nothing beyond that. But just because something is possible, does not mean that it’s the way it should be done.

The Paladins aren’t the only ones doing this, they’re just the most common. You’ll see plenty of healers who actually have a DPS spec instead of healing, but they’re generally just fine doing that up through the mid-40′s or so. The most common class that does this and then fails at it is the Paladin, followed by the Shaman. Druids and Priests can both do pretty well as healers in the wrong spec because of how their heals work and how their class heals.

Dealing With “Superstars”
When you’re having to deal with people doing stupid crap, you only have so many options. You can try to help, you can insult them, you can hope they leave the group, you can try to vote kick them, you can leave the group yourself, you can /ignore them, you can just let them keep doing it, you can let them die (repeatedly), and maybe a few other things as well.

The best thing you can do is teach them, but teaching and learning is a two-way process. If they’re willing to listen and take some advice then you’ve found one of the rare few. More often than not, from my experience at least, you’ll end up either getting ignored or having them take offense. You’ll also frequently run into people that tell you not to worry about it, ignore it and go on, and so on. The two people that get frustrated with “Superstars” the most are the tanks and healers, but even they can be the ones telling you not to worry about the bad ones.

If they leave the group on their own or you kick them then maybe your run goes a bit better but the problem itself isn’t solved. If you take the time to tell them why you’re going to kick them out of the group, in a constructive manner rather than insulting, then they might learn and try to fix the problem on their own. If the guy’s a punk then he’s going to keep doing what he’s doing and there’s nothing you can do about it. Some people just can’t take a hint, and some have very thin skin and don’t take well to advice.

There’s another side to these “Superstars” though, so we’re going to keep on going.

Super-Duper-Stars!!!
Another type of “Superstar” is the Super-Duper-Star (SDS from here on), which is a “Superstar” that you come to find out is actually a real Superstar. They’re the ones that you initially get really frustrated with because they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do, but after watching them for just a minute you’re actually somewhat impressed and may even think it’s pretty cool that they’re doing that.

Your first impression is to get frustrated because you immediately see them as Roleless and just can’t wait to kick them out of the group. As I mentioned above though, sometimes they actually pull it off. A level 18 Rogue soloing Ragefire Chasm? Not a problem. Level 20 Mage soloing Deadmines? Not a problem. Level (anything) Hunter soloing (anything he can queue for)? Not a problem. So when a low level tank and healer are trying to go through and get into their roles and get used to working through dungeons with a group they find nothing but complete chaos.

With recent changes to the game like BoA gear being introduced and old world content being made easier after various patches, it’s not really that hard for some people and some classes to do things that they generally shouldn’t be able to do, like tanking instances as pure DPS classes or even soloing them at level. Most of these are twinks, whether they be simple BoA twinks with just a few pieces of “twink gear” or actual PvP twinks that have best-in-slot items in every slot.

There are two classes that particularly stand out as being SDS: Druids and Warriors. Druids are the single most versatile class in the game and even when they have the wrong spec and maybe even only a single gear set, they can still pull off a decent job by simply switching their form. A Resto Druid can easily switch to a DPS role and they can do a fair job of Bear tanking in a pinch. If they have a second set of gear that they’re carrying around then they can pull it off to great effect.

The Warrior is in a similar situation where they can simply switch their stance and step in to fill the role of tank/dps. If they switch to tanking then hopefully they have a shield and a one-hander in their bags that they can switch to, but the lower your level the less important that is. If your shield blocks are only stopping 4 damage per hit then it’s really not all that important that you have one.

Just because someone is using one spec but filling the role of another doesn’t mean they’re going to suck at it; especially at low level.

Super-Impostors
Sometimes you’re going to stumble across Super-Impostors. These guys are the ones that look like they’re being complete idiots, they aren’t following advice and they aren’t following their role. They frustrate the heck out of you, they steal your threat, they pull mobs when you’re not ready, and you want to just reach through the screen and choke the player on the other side. And yet – nobody is dying.

When you find yourself in this situation you need to step back for a second and think about the situation. You need to ask yourself if there is a real problem here or if you’re just frustrated. Take a second to really look at what all is going on.

The Bear tank is fighting five mobs with a Mage giving him some AoE backup, the Arms Warrior is fighting three mobs on the other side of the room, and the Hunter and his pet are fighting two other mobs on the path leading up to the next area. Meanwhile the Druid healer is /dancing in the center of the room with 85% mana and everyone is above 95% health.

You’ve got two DPS players being tanks while your actual tank has his hands full. In a level 80 heroic that means somebody’s about to die or you’re about to wipe, but in a level 18 RFC run that means that you need to calm down and realize that the situation is well under control. If the tank is alive, the healer has mana, and everyone is holding their own then it doesn’t matter whether the tank has threat on every mob or not. My level 17 Warrior who can two-shot everything in this instance except for the boss doesn’t really need the tank’s help with three mobs. Give me 5 seconds and the problem will be resolved; Trust me.

For most of us in the blogging community, whether we’re the authors or the readers, we have high level toons that are running heroics or raids or who have at least been there before. And since we tend to spend more time in those settings and we have to follow our roles in order to succeed, we take that mindset with us when we get on our low level alts as well. Level 18 is not level 80.

If you see somebody that you think is doing something stupid, then take a minute to inspect them. Gear is the first indication of whether or not a low level character is controlled by a high level player. Are they wearing trash gear or are they wearing BoA’s? Are they wearing quest rewards or crafted gear? Can you tell whether or not they have professions and are using them? Are they using their racial abilities?

 

Druid Leveling: 1-30 (Resto and Balance)

When you ask people about leveling Druids the default response has almost always been “level Feral”, and for good reason. Feral is a very solid spec with very little downtime. The damage is high as the style of play is very Rogue like, and with your own healing spells as well as multiple methods of travel it’s one of the easiest and fastest leveling setups in the entire game.

As most people are aware, with the introduction of the random dungeons and being able to queue yourself up it has now become much more common, and perhaps the default, to level instead as Resto using the LFG/LFD tool exclusively for leveling from 15 all the way to 80. Druids are also one of the most mana efficient healers in the game while leveling and the way that their HoTs work it often seems as though nobody ever drops below 90% health which means most tanks love them (I know my DK and Paladin both did for sure). The key to leveling a Resto druid is knowing your abilities and knowing how to manage your mana. From there on the rest is cake.

But what about the red-feathered stepchild of druid leveling? Balance is a fairly “simple” spec to play, much like any other caster in the game. People don’t suggest leveling with it often though because it’s easy to feel that you have mana issues and that you’re constantly stopping to drink and replenish your mana. The key to leveling a Balance druid is to know when to hold back and when to push forward. There’s also another aspect of it that we’ll talk about in the Balance section.

My purpose with this post is to show you how to level as either a Balance or Restoration Druid up to level 30, discussing the specifics of both as well showing you how to embrace your hybrid nature when the time comes so that you make use of your entire skillset instead of a small part of it.

Character Creation and Preparation

Races
If you want to be a Druid then you’ve got only two options: Night Elf (Alliance) or Tauren (Horde). When the Cataclysm expansion arrives that will expand to Worgen (Alliance) and Troll (Horde) as well.

Of the two current choices Night Elves get “better” starting stats than Tauren do, but it really won’t matter in the long run. If you’ve had trouble leveling a Druid in the past, then I suggest you go with a NElf because you’ll have better caster stats for starting out.

Heirloom Items
If you have access to heirlooms then you have a few choices for which items you would like to give to them. Each item slot is listed in the order I would suggest them. For armor pieces the only difference (usually) between leather and cloth pieces is the amount of armor that is one them. You’ll get better armor for the leather piece, but you can use the cloth piece with more classes if you play multiple alts.

Chest: Preened Ironfeather Breastplate or Tattered Dreadmist Robe
Ring: Dread Pirate Ring
Shoulder: Preened Ironfeather Shoulders, Tattered Dreadmist Mantle, Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle, Lasting Feralheart Spaulders
Trinkets: Discerning Eye of the Beast, Swift Hand of Justice
Two-Handed Weapon: Dignified headmaster’s Charge, Grand Staff of Jordan
One-Handed Weapon: Devout Aurastone Hammer, The Blessed hammer of Grace

For the shoulders you can’t really go wrong with any of the four I have listed. The ESM is a bit more Balance oriented with a bonus to Crit chance where the LFS is more Resto with additional Spirit. The first two shoulders (PIS and TDM) are your top two regardless of spec.

Since mana is likely to be your main issue rather than hit points, I suggest a pair of Discerning Eyes over one of each trinket if you can afford them. The Haste from the Swift Hand can certainly help you, especially at higher levels, but since mana is key I suggest the Eyes.

As for weapons you should first decide whether you want to stick with a staff while you level or if you want to be open to using off-hand items that you find as you level. My personal preference is to go with a staff, but it’s your call. There are some good off-hand items in the game, I just prefer to go with a solid weapon I know I can make good use of at any time, regardless of what else may or may not drop for me.

Important Spells
Druids have a huge list of spells available to them because of how versatile they are. They’re the only “true” hybrid class in the game right now, meaning they’re the only ones who can fill every role that the game has to offer. Since you have so many skills available to you it’s important to know which ones matter the most.

Values are based on the highest rank up to level 30, completely unmodified by either talents or gear.

General (All Specs)
Mark of the Wild: Increases a friendly target’s armor by 150, all attributes by 6 and all resistances by 5 for 30 minutes.
Thorns: Thorns sprout from the friendly target causing 9 Nature damage to attackers when hit. Lasts 10 minutes.
Entangling Roots: Roots the target in place and causes 90 Nature damage over 18 seconds. Damage caused to the target can break the roots early.
Nature’s Grasp: While active, any time an enemy strikes the caster they have a 100% chance to become afflicted by Entangling Roots (rank 3). Three charges, lasts 45 seconds.
Teleport: Moonglade: Teleports the caster to the Moonglade.

Mark of the Wild (MotW) is your signature buff spell. Have it up at all times and spread it around any groups or battle grounds that you happen to get yourself into. Thorns is another buff you should probably have up on yourself when you’re soloing, and on your tank when you’re in a group (or everyone in a BG). Entangling Roots (ER) is the key to the “Root & Nuke” play style and is your primary source of Crowd Control; just remember that you can only have it cast on one target at a time. Nature’s Grasp is sort of like a Shaman’s Lightning Shield ability, except that instead of dealing damage for each charge it casts Entangling Roots on them. Nature’s Grasp can root 3 individual targets at the same time in addition to a target that you’ve actually cast ER on.

Teleport: Moonglade is how you teleport yourself back to Moonglade for training and most of your class quests. If you’re a Night Elf then lucky for you the flight path from Moonglade back to Darnassus is about a minute long. If you’re a Tauren, then I hope you have something to do during the 12 minutes it’s going to take you to fly from the top of the flipping continent all the way down to Thunder Bluff.

Druid Forms
Bear Form: Shapeshift into bear form, increasing melee attack power by 30, armor contribution from cloth and leather by 180%, and stamina by 25%. Also protects the caster from Polymorph effects. Shapeshifting frees the caster from polymorph and movement impairing effects.
Aquatic Form: Shapeshift into aquatic form, increasing swim speed by 50% and allowing the druid to breathe underwater. Also prevents Polymorph effects.
Travel Form: Shapeshift into travel form, increasing movement speed by 40%. Also protects the caster from Polymorph effects. Shapeshifting frees the caster from polymorph and movement impairing effects.
Cat Form: Shapeshift into cat form, increasing melee attack power by 40 plus Agility. Also protects the caster from Polymorph effects and allows the use of various cat abilities. Shapeshifting frees the caster from polymorph and movement impairing effects.

Bear Form is what you would tank in if you were the tank. But you’re not the tank, you’re a healer or a deeps. Use this if you’re out of mana, below level 20, and something’s kicking your butt. Use it, and then run away with it. Aquatic Form is how you get around in water and how you never worry about drowning again. Travel Form is your mini-mount, allowing you to move 40% faster on land without having to use a mount. Cat Form is your melee DPS form which you’ll use if you’re out of mana, at least level 20, and want to kill things while you’re out of mana.

Restoration Spells
Healing Touch: Heals a friendly target for 490 to 594.
Rejuvenation: [Instant Cast] Heals the target for 305 over 15 seconds.
Regrowth: Heals a friendly target for 318 to 360 and another 343 over 21 seconds.
Revive: Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with 150 health and 260 mana. Cannot be used when in combat.
Cure Poison: Cures 1 poison effect on the target.
Rebirth: Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with 750 health and 1200 mana. Can be used in combat.
Remove Curse: Dispels 1 Curse from a friendly target.
Abolish Poison: Attempts to cure 1 poison effect on the target, and 1 more poison effect ever 3 seconds for 12 seconds.
Tranquility: Heals all nearby group members for 351 every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. Druid must channel to maintain the spell.

Healing Touch is your “big” heal with a fairly big cast time to go with it. Rejuvenation is one of your two primary heals with Regrowth being the other. Both of these are heal-over-time (HoTs) spells and what you’ll be using most often. Revive is your typical resurrection spell similar to what all the other healing classes have, while Rebirth is the game’s only “combat rez”, allowing you to bring someone back while still in combat. Cure Poison is just that, but you’ll mostly likely end up using Abolish Poison for that purpose in the end anyway. Remove Curse is another no brainer. Finally you have one of the largest heals in the game, Tranquility which restores massive amounts of health over time to all nearby party members.

Balance Spells
Wrath: Causes 130 to 148 Nature damage to the target.
Moonfire: Burns the enemy for 61 to 73 Arcane damage and then an additional 124 Arcane damage over 12 seconds.
Starfire: Causes 189 to 231 Arcane damage to the target.

Outside of talent tree spells this is your toolbox as a Boomchicken. Wrath is your primary nuke, Moonfire is your primary DoT (until Insect Swarm), and Starfire is your super nuke used for pulling mobs when solo or for opening a boss fight in a group as your tank closes in.

Leveling as Balance
Root & Nuke Pre-20: Wrath, Entangling Roots, Moonfire, Wrath x2, Entangling Roots, Wrath spam
Root & Nuke Post-20: Starfire, Moonfire, Entangling Roots, Insect Swarm, Starfire, Wrath spam
Level 20+ Rotation: Starfire, Insect Swarm, MoonFire, Wrath spam

Root & Nuke is your safest method of leveling because you’re constantly using crowd control in addition to your DPS to make sure your target doesn’t get close to you. Sadly, you don’t have any AoE spells until you reach level 40 so you are pretty well stuck in a single target role until then unless you want to juggle DoTs and roots on multiple mobs which can get pretty hectic and very draining on your mana.

When using the R&N method you need to remember that damage will break the effect of your roots early. Because of that you want get as much uptime on your roots as you can, without wasting time, before going back to nukes. What I mean by that is that once your ER spell has been cast, or your NG charge has gone off to root the mob in place, cast one or both of your DoT spells on the target and then back away to put distance between you before you start spamming Wrath. The first thing this does is it gives time for the roots’ DoT effect to deal some damage, and second it gives you more safety by keeping you out of harm.

If you don’t want to R&N then your next best option is to just lay right into them. In cases like that start off with Starfire if you have it or Wrath if you don’t, then get at least one of your DoTs up (both if the target has a lot of health), and then spam Wrath after Wrath until the target is dead.

The key to conserving mana as a Balance Druid is letting your DoTs do their job. You’re only wasting mana if you cast Wrath on a mob with 30 hp left when you know your DoTs have over 100 damage left to deal. Be aware of how much damage your DoTs do and make use of them.

Leveling as Resto
Questing Rotation: Wrath, Entangling Roots, Moonfire, Wrath, Wrath, Entangling Roots, Wrath, Wrath
Healing “Rotation”: Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Healing Touch (if necessary)

If you’re leveling as a Resto Druid, meaning that your talent points are spent in the Restoration Tree more than any other, then you’re going to find questing to be a bit harder than if you took one of the other specs. You’re basically a Balance Druid without talent points to increase your efficiency.

Your best bet for leveling as Resto is to get to level 15 using the Balance play style of Root & Nuke that I just talked about to keep mobs away from you while you burn them down with Wrath spam and the occasional Moonfire. Once you get to level 15 forget the whole R&N business and queue yourself up for some dungeon runs (random or specific, doesn’t really matter). Be sure to select the Healer’s role in the LFD tool, and I wouldn’t bother signing up for extra slots unless you’re actually looking to fill them. Your best bet as an off-spec role is going to be DPS. Please don’t queue as a tank if you’re not used to tanking or do not plan on being a tank, or else I may be forced to shoot you.

As far as healing goes you want to keep an eye on the damage that people are taking. If their health is barely moving, but you know they’re getting hit (because it’s the tank, right?…Right?) then you can start off with a Rejuv since it’s instant cast and only heals over time. Regrowth has an initial heal effect in addition to its HoT, so it’s better when you see that there’s actually a gap in their current health versus their total health. If they’re taking a lot of damage then Regrowth, Rejuv, and then Healing Touch to get them back near full health. When incoming damage is low, stick to your HoTs and don’t bother wasting time with HT unless you really need to. If damage is moderate, then make sure both of your HoTs stay up on the target and feel free to pad it with an extra Regrowth if needed. If damage is high then get at least one HoT rolling and then Healing Touch for the big heal.

Your healing rotation isn’t so much a rotation as a priority list, but it also changes based on your glyphs. You can get glyphs that make Rejuv heal more when the target is lower on health, one that makes Regrowth heal more if Rejuv is already on the target, or one that cuts the cast time of HT by 1.5 seconds (huge) though it also cuts the heal in half as well. For now you only have the three heals to keep track of so learn them well and consider your glyphs based on your needs. More details on glyphs down below.

Embracing the Hybrid
Your true strength as a Druid is your versatility in being the only complete and true hybrid class in the game, capable of filling any of the four roles (tank, heals, ranged dps, melee dps) at any given time. If you’re out questing and some extra mobs were pulled so that you’re now out of mana and facing one more mob with full health you could either attack it with your melee weapon, you could run away, or you could drop into either Bear (level 10) or Cat (level 20) form and maul its face off.

The final example there is what embracing your hybrid nature is all about. The best way to do that is to keep a weapon on you that has DPS-related stats on it that you can switch to when you run out of mana and then shift into a melee form and fight with your paws/claws.

The best weapons for you in this case are ones that have +Agility and/or +Strength stats on them, or ones that have proc abilities such as “Chance on hit: Deals 40 Fire damage to the target.” so that you can deal additional damage with the weapon even though your stats and gear help your spell casting instead of your melee abilities. If you don’t have access to weapons like that it’s not really that big of a deal, just use whatever you have instead. Your damage in Bear and Cat form is not based on your weapon, so even a weapon that does 0-1 damage will hit just as hard in those forms as any other.

There are two weapon enchants that are especially useful for doing this, though they aren’t necessarily cheap. The first one is Enchant Weapon – Fiery Weapon which generally costs 25-40g on most servers. It has a chance to deal 40 Fire damage when you attack, procs very frequently, and the damage can crit for 60 or 80 Fire damage as well. When you’re in Bear or Cat form the weapon damage does nothing for you, only stats and proc abilities count for you, so you can put this on any weapon you can equip and get the benefit of the enchant.

The other enchant is Enchant Weapon – Crusader which will cost anywhere from 125-250g, but has a proc ability that gives you +100 Strength for 15 seconds and heals you for 75-125 health, and this proc is also capable of being a critical heal for up to 250 health. This option is more expensive than Fiery, but the heal proc gives you a method of healing that does not require mana, and 100 Strength = 100 Attack Power which means you’re going to hit like a truck for those 15 seconds.

If you don’t have easy access to either the enchants or the mats for the enchants, then I suggest you either get Fiery weapon or ignore enchants all together and just use whatever weapon you already have. The enchants are not in any way critical, they just help when/if the time comes. Since my main character is almost always an Enchanter I keep at least one of every non-polearm weapon in an alt’s bank that has the Fiery enchant on it and can be used low level characters, so I always have something on hand for low level toons.

Resto Spec and Glyphs

Improved Mark of the Wild 2/2: Increases the effects of your Mark/Gift of the Wild spells by 40%, and increases all of your total attributes by 2%.
Nature’s Focus 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Healing Touch, Wrath, Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Nourish, Regrowth and Tranquility by 70%.
Subtlety 3/3: Reduces the threat generated by your restoration spells by 30% and reduces the chance your helpful spells, Moonfire, and Insect Swarm will be dispelled by 30%.
Naturalist 2/5: Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch spell by 0.2 seconds and increases the damage you deal with physical attacks in all forms by 4%.
Omen of Clarity 1/1: Each of the Druid’s damage, healing spells and auto attacks has a chance of causing the caster to enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the Mana, Rage or Energy cost of your next damage, healing spell or offensive ability by 100%.
Intensity 3/3: Allows 50% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting and causes your Enrage ability to instantly generate 10 rage.
Naturalist +1 (3/5): Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch spell by 0.3 seconds and increases the damage you deal with physical attacks in all forms by 6%.
Tranquil Spirit 5/5: Reduces the mana cost of your healing Touch, Nourish and Tranquility spells by 10%.
Nature’s Swiftness 1/1: [Instant cast, 3 minute cooldown] When activated, your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 seconds becomes an instant cast spell.

Resto Glyphs

Major

• Glyph of Regrowth: Increases the healing ofyour Regrowth spell by 20% if your regrowth effect is still active on the target.
• Glyph of Rebirth: Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health.
• Glyph of Healing Touch: Decreases the cast time of your Healing Touch by 1.5 seconds, the mana cost by 25%, and the amount healed by 50%.
• Glyph of Rejuvenation: While your Rejuvenation targets are below 50% health, you will heal them for an additional 50% health.

I list these in order that I prefer them while leveling. Regrowth is my go-to heal in most cases while leveling as Healing Touch is usually too big of a heal with too big of a cast time, and this glyph makes up for any difference there might be. Rebirth is useful, especially with so many tanks these days not actually using tanking specs. That usually leads to either the tank himself dying or a lack of threat generation which leads to other people dying instead.

Healing Touch is a decent spell, and this glyph significantly cuts down the cast time and cuts the mana cost by a fair amount as well. I’m not a huge fan of having the healing cut in half though. I don’t often find myself in enough of a bind that I need a super-fast heal for a somewhat mediocre amount. Rejuvenation is one I’ve messed with several times and just never grew to like.

Minor

• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth: Your Rebirth spell no longer requires a reagent.
• Glyph of Aquatic Form: Increases your swim speed by 50% while in Aquatic Form.

I’m a big fan of not having to waste bag space with stupid reagents, and the Druid is the freaking king of stupid reagents as not only do they have several spells that need them, but they also need new reagents for each individual rank of the spells too. For that reason, I like to have Unburdened Rebirth as my first minor glyph for Resto. I’m also a huge fan of being able to move quickly, so Aquatic Form is always in my list of Druid glyphs somewhere.

Playing as Resto
Resto is not the most entertaining spec for me. It is the most enjoyable spec for me, but it’s also quite boring at times. If you’re running through a random dungeon and your tank is in heirloom gear and taking almost no damage at all than you’re literally going to slap a HoT or two on him and then do nothing for the rest of the fight from a healing perspective. Because of this I’ll often drop into a mediocre DPS role sometimes that happens by using Moonfire on fleeing mobs who are low on health, and sometimes it by dropping into Bear form and offering some horribly low AoE damage with Swipe spam, or after 20 it may be kitty claws just because. If you want to save mana then use your Feral forms, otherwise either use Balance spells or just stay out of combat like a good little healer.

At the same time, during low levels in particular, you’ll also find groups where everyone ignores their designated roles and just go crazy killing things. In terms of end game play this is absolutely stupid, but for low level it’s pretty well the norm these days. That doesn’t make it alright or acceptable, it’s just the way things often turn out (looking at you in particular, Hunters). In times like those you’ll often find that you’re healing everyone in your group, including yourself. Inevitably someone will pull something but nobody will bother tanking it so your heals make you the target. Remember your Roots when things like this happen.

Balance Spec and Glyphs

Starlight Wrath 5/5: Reduces the cast time of your Wrath and Starfire spells by 0.5 seconds.
Moonglow 3/3: Reduces the Mana cost of your Moonfire, Starfire, Starfall, Wrath, healing Touch, Nourish, Regrowth, and Rejuvenation spells by 9%.
Nature’s Majesty 2/2: Increases the critical strike chance of your Wrath, Starfire, Starfall, Nourish, and Healing Touch spells by 4%.
Nature’s Reach 2/2: Increases the range of your Balance spells and Faerie Fire (Feral) ability by 20%, and reduces the threat generated by your Balance spells by 30%.
Nature’s Grace 3/3: All non-periodic spell criticals have a 100% chance to grace you with a blessing of nature, increases your spell casting speed by 20% for 3 seconds.
Celestial Focus 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Starfire, Hibernate and Hurricane by 70% and increases your total spell haste by 3%.
Vengeance 2/5: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Starfire, Starfall, Moonfire, and Wrath spells by 40%.
Insect Swarm 1/1: [Instant cast] The enemy target is swarmed by insects, decreasing their chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks by 3% and causing Nature damage over 12 seconds.

Balance Glyphs

Major

• Glyph of Wrath: Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting your Wrath spell by 50%.
• Glyph of Insect Swarm: Increases the damage of your Insect Swarm ability by 30%, but it no longer affects your victim’s chance to hit.
• Glyph of Moonfire: Increases the periodic damage of your Moonfire ability by 75%, but initial damage is decreased by 90%.
• Glyph of Starfire: Your Starfire ability increases the duration of your Moonfire effect on the target by 3 seconds, up to a maximum of 9 additional seconds.
• Glyph of Entangling Roots: Increases the damage your Entangling Roots victims can take before ER automatically breaks by 20%.

Nothing sucks for a caster more than pushback (except for Silence, of course) so I like to nip that straight away with Wrath since Wrath is our primary nuke. At level 30 we get Insect Swarm and as I mentioned up above one of the keys to our DPS as Balance is maximizing our DoT effects. We’re not worried so much about getting hit as we are killing things, and 30% is a pretty big boost to our damage.

If you’re a huge fan of using the Root & Nuke method then you might want to consider Entangling Roots for one of your glyphs. I’ve never been a fan of this type of glyph myself, even for a Frost Mage with my obsessive AoE grinding; it just doesn’t appeal to me. However, it will help if your a R&N fiend. Moonfire and Starfire work really well also, especially if you pair the two of them up. I don’t take these two myself because I like to take advantage of the burst damage from Moonfire as a finisher and as an instant cast mini-nuke. However, 75% is big boost to DoT damage and using Starfire to increase its uptime can add up a lot over time. The problem is, not a lot of mobs are going to last long enough through a Moonfire/Starfire barrage for the extra time to count for anything.

Minor

• Glyph of Aquatic Form: Increases your swim speed by 50% while in Aquatic Form.
• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth: Your Rebirth spell no longer requires a reagent.

We have the same situation here as we did above in the Resto section. The only difference is that I don’t find myself casting Rebirth quite so often when I’m playing DPS as I usually focus instead on killing whatever’s around us. So I start off with Aquatic Form when playing balance and then add Unburdened Rebirth when the next slot opens up at 50.

Playing as Balance
Balance is an evolving spec. When you first start out you’re mostly a Wrath-spamming nuker. As you go along you add Moonfire into the mix for some DoT damage, then you bring in Starfire for heavy nuking, and then Insect Swarm for more DoT damage. The key to playing it successfully is knowing your spells’ potential, most important in that area are your DoT spells.

If a mob has 150 HP left and you know that your DoTs can do that much, then you don’t need bother with a Wrath. Similarly, if you know your DoTs aren’t going to be enough to bring them down then you know you need another spell; Wrath or maybe just another Moonfire. Also remember that Entangling Roots has a DoT effect to it as well. It’s not a big one, but it’s there. It’s not a bad idea to Moonfire > Roots > Swarm, and then just walk away and let the mob die while you start killing his buddy. Just don’t forget to loot them all when it’s over if you go with that route.

Gearing Your Druid
During this stretch of levels your gear selection is going to be a bit different than it will as you get higher in level. Since both of the specs we’re talking about here are caster specs then some general rules apply regardless of level, such as Spell Power being important. As you’re leveling though, you need to find a good balance between Spell Power and Intellect to reduce your downtime.

Intellect >= Spell Power > Spirit

As Resto you’ll want to put a slightly higher priority on Intellect while not ignoring Spell Power. You need your spells to restore a solid amount of health, but you also need to be able to heal through an entire fight. If you’re running out of mana a lot then you could probably use more Int to fuel more heals, but by the same token if your heals are stronger because of your SP then you wouldn’t have to cast as many of them so your mana would be fine. It’s a bit of a balancing act between the two, so just use your best judgement.

Resto wants more mana so that they can heal for longer periods of time. Boomkins want more SP so that they can kill faster. What you’ll find in actually playing though, is that Resto tends to stay high on their mana because their HoTs make them cast fewer heals overall, and Boomkins run out of mana all the time so even though they save time in combat they more than make up for it in drinking.

Personally I say you rank Intellect higher on the priority list, but pick up Spell Power whenever you can. If you have a choice between an item with +10 Int and one with +6 Int, +4 SP then grab the second one. However, if I had a choice between one with +10 Int and one with +10 SP, them I’m most likely going to go for the Int item if I’m Resto and the SP item if I’m Balance.

Enchants
The enchants that you want to look at for this level should be ones that can increase either your Intellect or your Spell Power. If you don’t have heirloom items then either skip enchanting while you level or go with cheap enchants.

Enchanting on the Cheap
Enchant 2H Weapon – Lesser Intellect: Permanently enchant a two-handed melee weapon to increase Intellect by 3.
Enchant Chest – Greater Mana: Permanently enchant a piece of chest armor to give +50 mana.
Enchant Bracer – Greater Intellect: Permanently enchant bracers to increase Intellect by 7.
Enchant 2H Weapon – Major Intellect: Permanently enchant a two-handed melee weapon to increase Intellect by 9.
Enchant Chest – Major Mana: Permanently enchant a piece of chest armor to increase mana by 100.

There aren’t any “cheap” options for permanent Spell Power enchants, but one option that you have open to you if you aren’t using an Heirloom weapon is Wizard Oil. Minor Wizard Oil requires you to be at least level 5 but gives +8 SP for 1 hour, and Lesser Wizard Oil requires level 30 but gives +16 SP for 1 hour.

Heirloom Enchants
Enchant Weapon – Spellpower: Permanently enchant a melee weapon to increase spell power by 30.
Enchant Weapon – Healing Power: Permanently enchant a melee weapon to increase spell power by 29.
Enchant Weapon – Mighty Intellect: Permanently enchant a melee weapon to increase Intellect by 22.
Enchant Chest – Major Mana: Permanently enchant a piece of chest armor to increase mana by 100.

While you could put a +4 Stats enchant on your chest, I’m going to suggest +100 mana instead, regardless of spec. If you would rather get the stats enchant, then by all means go right ahead and do it. As for the weapon enchant, you now have the option of Spell Power or Intellect. I’m currently running with the +22 Int enchant on my weapon which is an extra 330 Mana. I used to have the +30 SP enchant on it which worked just fine, but I find the extra mana to be especially useful in lower levels so I’m sticking with +Int for mine. Again, the choice is yours.

 

Old Post Revisited: Druid Forms in Patch 3.2

My most frequently hit article on this blog is one I published back in July of 2009, with a whopping 189 words in it. It was a quick little blurb about Druid Form Color Charts, and to this day it gets more hits in a day than almost every other post combined for the month.

The pictures I had linked in that post are no longer available and I made a newb blogger mistake in linking them directly from the host site. I’ve found some replacements now though, so you can check back and see the actual charts that so very many people are looking for. I’ve updated the old article, and here it is again:

We have some further detail on which hair/skin colors will result in which forms for the druids in the upcoming patch. With the possible exception of the change to shaman totems, this is really the 3.2 change that I am most looking forward to. This change is completely full of win on an epic scale.

The source of this information is EpicWins.com. You can check the link there for information on where to find your nearest barbers to getting the job done.

Also, here are some links to the image charts you can use to determine which changes you need to make for the form that best suits your taste. Clicking the image will direct you back to EpicWins’s website.

[EDIT: Alright, EpicWins.com took down their pictures and deleted the post that they were in as well as everything else Warcraft related. As such, I've looked for some other pictures to use here instead. These I'm borrowing from MMO-Champion instead. The small images here I host in my photo-bucket account, but clicking them will link you to MMO Champ instead.]

Tauren




Night Elf