Level 62

Still leveling, and with some big changes.
I recently had to take some time out of the game as warcraft was taking far too much of my Dad time with my new baby girl. My partner too (who plays warcraft), also has limited time now, due to her working patterns.
It was something close to 1 month out of the game. And on my return i began playing my druid striaght away.
Since then, i have removed all of my characters from our guild, except the druid. And given the current climate of classes in the guild and healers. Toreth (Yes, name change) will main spec resto! But will offspec tank for nights when raid sign ups are thin on tanks, or no shows.
The leveling guide is working out really well. The old style of leveling on your own is good for exploring the game, but if you want just to get to 80 because you have done it x2 already like me...you just want to get there. Then start the slog for raiding gear minimums

Alts - Filling the holes.

It took a long while to figure out (years even) that the Paladin Tank was the class for me to play for all time. Yes, i could try the druid tank, but running a guild, and raid leading etc limits that ability and flexibility in the long term...By getting there inbetween patches.

If i had a druid, i would need something opposing the specs of my paladin which is Tank - DPS.

My druid would be Resto - Boomkin? im just thinking out aloud with gear having Spell power on it anyway. And i wouldnt need two sets of gear to quest or what have you..Ahhh but wait, pvp...Mmmmusing the idea..

And i bought a leveling guild. I've played wow for 4 years now, im entitled!! Leave me be, i earned it. It's mainly for my paladin to get to 80 quickly, as i spent 7 months on my DK to find out i didnt like it as a tank.

So when i get my paladin on its feet, this lil ole druids going places, finally now that i have made up my mind.

Gambling with Abilities.

Uhhu, bookmark http://www.thebigbearbutt.com/. Everyone's going solo! I may have mentioned sometime ago, in a galaxy far far away, that my main character was a Paladin Tank. Much like being addicted or, in the habit or comfort zone for 3 years i am very reluctant to focus on my druid full time.
Of course, i tried out a Death Knight since the launch of WOTLK, and to my liking, i did enjoy the dps side of the class. However the versitility side, sucked the fun right out of the class. I guess i enjoy having more than one option than hack and slash sometimes. And having no ability to self heal was a pain, even if not a just a little, and aside from the complex high maintenance skill rotations and deseases, it was a chore to tank with. DW DPS...ace fun though, but thats where the line gets drawn..
But if i had of leveled my druid,..... what would have been the differences between a Paladin Tank, and a Druid Bear tank? aside from Plate and Sheild's i know my paladin better than i know that back of my own hand in its capabilities.

Heres a few Q's for the Bear's out there..
1. Itemising, did you find it difficult to get gear for 10 man entry?
2. Was it craftable starter gear or Heroic Dungeon Gear for Pre-Naxx?
3. And how well do you managed group tanking on comparison to other tanking classes?
4. And how do you feel the Teir System works for you with regards to raid drops from bosses within a raid?

80 Spec - WOTLK

http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/07/04/modern-bear-tanking-1-specs-and-rotations/

Been looking around some websites, and decided to hook up with this fella.

Level 48

ood grief, in all my days of leveling i have never leveled x2 in 3 hours. On top of the rested bonus, and also having the dps shoulders from the heroisim badges. And a little guidance from Carbonite and QuestUp Alliance.

At this rate, i could be level 60 by the weekend, but thats getting excitable, or is it?

I have been musing about Boomkin or Tree, im done with tanking. Been there & done that, but no doubt the urge will be there, no doubt. Already im into the swipe-swipe-swipe mode sometimes on group pulls of questing mobs. But cat is where its at. Well...hell, maybe even both with this new duel speccing, i'll have my cake, and eat it thanks Blizz.

I have to say i thought it was a great idea for the Alts gear Locked to Account shoulders idea. How many times have you thought, of if rolled a ?? instead, or what would this class be like to play....but couldnt be arsed leveling it.."Groann STV...Pfff"

I think i will need to read up on Boomkins, and see what the *work* is envolved in it, for example spell rotations, and gear. And i hope its not like a DK.

My baby Daughter continues to allow her folks to game in the evening, sleeping from 7pm until 2-3am. So that doesnt hurt the evenings as much, and even at 3 in the morning, a quick 30 minute bottle and she is fast asleep again. 10 weeks old..phew..how fast they grow

Level 46

eleted my druid during the WOTLK craze, I needed to clear out my alts and prepare myself for playing a Death Knight. Who doesn’t have one?...seriously?
After a polite ticket to a GM last night I had my druid restored. Naked, my main character was logged on and transferred some money across..
While I was at it, I bought the Locked to Account shoulders from the Hero chap in Dalaran (Aweful graphics lag).
Our little familly also increase by the size of a 7 lb baby in March, where myself and Leni took some time out from the game for about 2-3 months while we all settled in again. Being a GM, the guild managed to putter along quite happily until we returned, and the thanks goes to the officers who supported the guild during that period. And the guild members for standing with us and working together. However, since our baby girl now sleeps from 7pm until a wakeup call around 3am, WoW is now again playable in the evening, much to the rejoice of the officers and guild. And at 2 months old, our baby girl has given us much joy, and sleepless nights.
With Artemíss (note x2 s's) since I renamed my hunter Artemis put a bit of spanner in the works. My Main character is called Nuadah, so I will have to rethink, me thinks.

What a different game WOTLK is ay? On my Death Knight I have been to just about all the raids, except Malygos, which I will see on Thursday. I raid lead on Thursdays, so all the other days will be focused on my druid. …as our guild has many DK's (Tanks or DPS) and after last week I felt there were heaps of Melee DS in our guild. More later. So far I have Carbonite and QuestUp Alliance working together to get me on the leveling up fast route..

Level 43

od i hate Badlands, oddly I thought I would be in Hinterlands but I had some quests to hand in and ended up picking up new ones in Badlands. Ahwell.
The bad news, I ran out of rested bonus, and I am parked next to a skeleton waiting for buzzards to respawn. I might just abandon the quests for this area, if I don’t get much fruit from it, but never the less I dinged 43.
There is a raid on for tonight, and im hoping they will be able to do it without me. Hoping! Not wishing! So I can carry on levelling Artemis instead of tanking with Nadiastorm. At some point very soon, patch/expansion I will move her out of the guild.
I was asked, again, to tank for something last night, but they respected my wishes to not be asked to. Which was good, because it was unprompted. I think the hardest part of switching your main character and being the GM/Raid Leader & Main tank is peoples habit of asking someone they know they could depend on to come and help them out. Only the role is reversed when im 30 or so level below them.
he great thing was I did get a lot of whispers asking if I needed a boost anywhere, which was nice, but I like to quest alone mostly, as I do quests in bursts and hand them all in on mass, sometimes one at a time.
I don’t think I will be able to play until Sunday evening now, party on Friday night, Dinner on Saturday night, and on Sunday ….i cant remember that far ahead, but if I can get online I hope to god I have some rested bonus….oh and did I say I got Mace trained? Yay!
I have been reading a lot of Unbearably HoT and Resto4Life for most of the upcoming info on WOTLK, a lot of the changes and tweaks to the druid class look like they are all very fluid still, and nothing is set in stone. Its good I guess because I haven't grabbed any habits of spell rotations or abilities, and by the time I do get there, I can adapt more to the finalised tweaks blizzard has made across the class.
It's interesting to read about the nerf for druid tanks, to keep them in check with the other 3 classes for tanking. Apparently in the beta they are OP at the moment excelling at tanking due to the high armour mitigation they have, so they are dropping it by 30%. Again, I don’t know how much of a dent that makes on Druids or the ability to tank, but the concern was mana sponge, a term I was familiar with druids pre TBC. (Talk of it, not actual experience of it) DPS catform wise, it looks very promising too, looks as though the balance of feral ability being on par if not equal to rogues and fury warriors, but I didn’t read too much into that, so im giving that subject a wide birth :)

Level 42

You know what, since Friday I have forgotten what level I am? How bad is that? /checks armoury Ahh 42!
This week I would like to see me over 45+ I don’t know whether I would be able to reach 50 by Sunday evening, but that’s situational to RL commitments. I don’t play on Sunday and Mondays (Normally) and Thursdays is the big 25 man raid night, if there is one on this week. Which will mean im tanking with Nadiastorm.
I managed to reach improved leader of the pack, and that has made a real difference in catform. Leveling through mobs for quests for example. The new custom skins have had a real nice effect on playing also, keeping my interest.
Im going through Duskwallow Marsh at the moment, and managed to whip through 80% of those quests fairly quickly to jump to level 42 from 40. I think now im heading over to Shimmering Flats after that. Been there before with my warrior leveling, and that was fairly easy to whip around too, so I don’t think it will take me much time at all to hit 48. Im glad im not in STV, I still have a bunch of quests left to finish there bu im hopeful I can get away with never going back, I think after shimmering flats its Hinterslands…I think. And that place is easy too. Done in 1 hour last time, maybe even 40 minutes.
Im still on the look out for a decent staff, or Mace. I think Mace is probably the best weapon I can use for stats while leveling, I will have to check Thottbot or something to see whats out there as a quest reward, im not keen on running an instance hoping for a drop as that seems counter productive to leveling before wotlk comes out. Can I reach 70 before 13 November? Who knows, but we'll see

Announced...

I announced to my guild today that i was changing my class for good. And aiming for a tanking druid. I also have a big cheer for being relisted on Resto4Life YAY!
I was pondering through the professions, and i think i said earlier in my blog about going herbalisim and alchemy. Im not too sure whether i want to do that considering how organised my guild is at keeping the guild bank stocked with potions and flasks all the time. I took a dibble at leatherworking on google.com on some of the wotlk spoilers, but i dont have enough information to make an informed descision whether or not leatherworking would be a worth while profession to take in this expansion. Considering most professions crafted armour is outdated by raiding, but there is only a few items that are craftable they stay with you as you raid, like the engineering goggles for example. So hmmmm!! What to do?
Herbalism seems easy enough to do, and its one of the gathering professions I don’t mind doing at all. Skinning, well that’s a new one for me, and whether I remember to skin something after I have killed it is another matter all together. But I could get used to it. Thing is though, how many skinners and herbalist are on my server? Who knows..maybe inscriber might be a good thing..food for thought.

Level 39 - Slip me some skin...

Awww, I was bouncing to get home from work last night after reading some much needed catchup on Resto4Life, and caught a link to a druid skin mod'
So without delay I set about installing it as soon as I got home, while multi tasking cooking some stir fried rice as a quick meal.
It was quite a simple process, rename the files you want, and slip them into the data file. Im a little worried that I violates the game rules of blizzard, but I always was a bit of a rebel in nature and too right…the bear skin needs updating!
The file was called Druids of Azeroth - New Shapeshift Skins 08-09-08.rar, I will be adding some pics along the way as I level.
Which by the way I managed to Ding 39 over in Arathi Highlands. Still using Quest Helper, just to get pointed in the right direction after accepting each quest as I go. I find it helpful, but im sure there are less memory intensive addons out there somewhere.
Bumped into a mage in STV doing the legends quest lines, who's main was a 70 Feral tank druid, I asked a few questions and got some good answers about stats and gear, which was nice, then later had a chat with a fellow guildie playing his Alt Paladin asking me for some advice on this and that about paladin tanking. So I asked a few about Boomkin druids too. Nice little chats in exchanging knowledge last night, it was nice for a change :)
I have started with Stamina Agility items, and managed to get a half decent staff to go with it, catform is good, and I don’t seem to be struggling yet, but I will keep my eyes open on the AH for the Monkey leather items meantime.

Meanwhile the news of both the patch and WOTLK looms ever closer. And i have asked the guild to declare their classes for raiding at level 80. Im holding back my answer until later in the weekend to see what is being filled out, but thanks to Chick GM blog (Definately a good read) i was able to approach the guild with a few questions picked out of the blog. So credit there, where its due.

Time Out

Well, i have taken time out to raid on my Paladin, but now i seem to have burned myself out constantly raiding this week and last week im coming back to my druid for a bit of peace.

WOTLK got our guild in a bit of a stir, some new folk that where raiding types took the oporitunity to leave for more progressing guild a step higher than our own. But all came good in the end everyone got what they wanted, and theres only 6 weeks left to go. Some people got all shitty about it, which wasn’t nessesary at all. And rather than engaging in a flame war, I see it as a game I login and play for 2-3 hours per night to enjoy, not argue on differences of opinion endlessly. /sigh
ANYWAY!! Wotlk. Well, I logged onto the PTR, I looked i saw and I awed. Very nice patch incoming. For paladins, yay, some love, but I feel its all a bit too late for me, 2 years + of playing a paladin stuggling to be a viable tank since before TBC, and finally it arrives 12 months later. However 4 other classes are able to do the same thing, as Blizz is now blanket sweeping classes under 1 group of main tank viable classes, including the new death knight. Am I bored of paladin? Yes…im afriad to say I am now, and need to play something else before I really start looking at games like Tetris for some R&R.
Druid the answer?
I don’t see why not, I loved my druid while I leveled and PVP'ed and at level 38 atm. I also like the asthetics of a night elf and the leather animation textures. Colorful, rich tribal and detailed. My RL partner (Leni Gnome Mage) is also playing a Druid with aims to go resto. Would I play Tank, DPS or Resto? I don’t know. Still undecided, and its 50/50 Tank and Resto atm.

I have played a warrior up to 49, and tbh its the same as a paladin style of play. Hit, eat, hit some more, hit. Bandage. Druid i have a choice of pew pew, sneaky sneaky claw claw, or big bear hug of spam rejuv on someone i am grouped with. /flex

Ch-Ch-Changes

After campaigning long and hard on Karzhan, something have changed.
I repecced my main character to retribution, from spending 2+ years of tanking (yes even before TBC) and the change is a difficult, and exciting change which has given my gaming a new lease of life.

Apologies, this blog will hold here, and continue HERE

Level 37

..was a breeze.
I gave the feral tree a chance to redeem itself to me for the 30's and while it did do the business very very well, my rejuvination and rage/energy switch was all messed up and weak, ok, i didnt take the 5 points in Furor. Should have, but didnt, my bad. But i'll be putting them back in sometime.
I think for the first time i died a few times waiting for Rejuv, and rage to pump itself away..it didnt, hence dead.
Bought some gear off the AH, and this time i didnt have to depend on my Main Character to fund it this time. Which as nice. Most gear is AP, Agility & Stamina.
Weapon wise at this level i am pretty stuffed, staffs in the AH are hopeless trash, and daggers and offhands are somewhere between average and below level. So im pretty stuck there, unless i get a lucky drop from something or a quest reward.

DPS wise, i am impressed. Esp' with the talent tree making a big difference, to crit, and combo points. And pounce looks to be a neat little trick, and looks like the prowl option is now starting to get interesting.

Level 33

DefiantI dinged 33 yesterday, after a short spell of questing. And decided i will stick to my resto spec all the way through to 70. Reasons, i want to start as i mean to go, i did try the feral tree and struggled with staying alive sometimes, however the benefits of the resto tree (since respeccing) have saved my butt a few times already, especially the talent where you get free energy / rage when shifting into a form. And since this is a true journal of leveling to 70, doing it in resto build makes it more ...interesting. Oh and i took swift mend as my 33 talent.

I just started in shimmering flats above Gadgetzan. It wont be long until level 35, i remember doing this place a few times and its fairly easy. And then probably a bit of STV later.

With 50g, level 40 and a mount isnt going to be too much hard work. Although i am addicted to travel form.

My gear is pretty ok for now, but its all mostly Stamina anf Agility, i like questing in cat form, and switching to Bear if it looks like im in trouble. Trouble is, i need a nice looking hat...that egg cup thing is shamefull.

I led Tuatha through Kara again last night, and we brought along a resto druid (Clamora), nice guy. And the lifeblooms where in abundance like a sea of banana's for a monkey to bathe in. A real difference in healing, and i never..really had to stop the raid for a mana break through curator and the trash up to the Chess event. I had to remember about the group buff though, and had to place him into the tank group for the bonus, something i didnt know about, another thing learned though.

Im a Bear, a Panther, a Lepard, a Sea Lion, an Elf (and a Bird) and eventually a tree

I remember being in bear form, for Lakeshire. Elf, for Ashenvale. Sea lion while running away from the horde in Arathi Basin. Travel form, for going from A to B. And Catform for leveling.
Again, i was raid leading as my paladin. Not enough healers to come again, and still, in protection spec, pimped to the nines in epic and blue healing gear, i found myself thinking of the druid, tree form. Our resident, and very capable druid Kiddman, was main tank.

As a GM and Raid Leader, i can see the strengths of each class, spec, and player. It is a shame that the bleed effect of the catform is wasted (in most parts) in Karazhan, to show there true DPS. Tanking wise, the druid is victim to the rage vs aggro problem for the first 5 seconds of the initial fight. Tanking alongside a Paladin tank, the Pala has to allow the aggro to build on the druid, and allow the rage to generate to share the aggro between them both, and this can be quite tricky to keep balanced. While the DPS and Healing group jump about re-positioning as the boss spins between them. My guild is used to me tanking and throwing huge aggro down within 5 seconds of the fight, and i see the showbolts and fireballs whoosh over my head. Same can be said for warriors, however, once the fight gets going, all is well for both druid and warrior. Its like i said, that first 5-10 seconds of holding back for the dps..
As a raid leader i crave for a Resto druid to present itself to our raid. I do feel cheated playing my tank as a healer, currently i am 2nd Tank to my friend Micke (warrior) in gear, a great guy. But i doubt a resto druid will benefit from our guild, until we are at the point of 25 man content, and we need more members for that, and it wold be better to play my druid instead of my tank, to sub for a missing healer.. Im still reminded of that Tauren Arms warrior in AB with the resto druid....
(flash heal - flash heal - Holy light, yawn)

I should mention my guild's name, Tuatha De Danann

It's taken 2 years, for a group of friends to come together into one guild with an ambition to play freely, safely, socially, and be more loyal to each other and i with a passion. Its a guild about people/players, not classes progress and epics. This guild is more than skin deep.

Start right, End right...

After spending sunday's doing the regular "standing at the guild vault making pots for the raid" day (Which is quite therapeutic really, with all that bubbling noise and the rare world discovery excitement) with my girlfriends Mage character. *Shock account sharing* And a lovely comment from Phae about the leatherworking, it looks like, in my heart of hearts, Alchemy and Herbalisim will be the main professions to hit on.
To many times i have lead a raid group to hear "I've used all my mana pots, all 30 of them!" ...ok, so we where training on the Curator at the time... but that thought scares me a little, ...coming from a priest, not that that is a bad thing, but an omen of things to come for a druid? and both paladins standing there with full mana bars and looking like they just logged on. Trust me, they pump out some awsome healing, as does the priest, but at the end of the boss fight, the paladin looks effortless. (And it is, i've done it)

Karazhan is where our guild is at the moment, working up and around Shade of Aran. I recently got involved in the AV bonus weekend (With my paladin), and saw how easy it was to gain honor, and lets face it did you think i tanked AV? no, i healed through it with +1400 healing in my tanking spec..healers are in shortage in BG's, which is a shame because it really does test your reflexes.
One thing i saw which was the bain of any fight was fighting someone who had a druid healer backing them up, loaded with HoT and swift mends etc i watch one Tauren Arms warrior tear through 6 alliance players (Hunters, Clothies, rogues, warriors and paladins), i ended up swapping my gear to PVE tanking, and oddly enough a druid from nowhere started to heal me.

I absolutely love the druid, i had an officer meeting last night, and was tempted to login afterwards and hunt some quests down, but alas, too late.

So, for starter gear at 70, its PVP.
Professions, Alchemy for Pots & Therapy on Sundays.

Professions

I am seriously thinking about leatherworking, buying gear from the AH is painful, and the pots that i make from Herbalism isnt worth it all that much, plus the herbing is a real distraction from leveling.
I have considered the options, and decided on my next leveling spree to dump both Alchemy and Herbalism for now and concentrate on Leatherworking and Skinning, at least i can do that without straying off the leveling.
I have considered that when i get to level 70 taking on Jewel crafting, and along with my Alt hunter which i use to gather matts with might be the way to go, however, thoughts might change nearer the time. And i will have to see what consumables i would use alot of.
One definate goal for me with Artemís will be to get PVP gear and Kara attuned, i think the Jara attunment will be after...getting the PVP gear though for sure. This is a long haul journey, not a short blast to 70.

Something i was considering was re-rolling my character to look a little like the pictured in this post. May aswell make a character right to start with, and carry on the journey in contentment.

To Begin - Level 31

For the last 2 years i have been playing a paladin. And since begining to near end of this paladin life i have always wanted to play a Druid for many reasons. Main of which is the versitle class that it is. But alas, things within the game, guild politics, and generally guilds, kept me playing my paladin non-stop. But there is now an opportunity for me to level my druid. Currently at level 31, and with the aid of Kopps Guide
I have had a short run of leveling my druid froom level 10 to 31 in a short time, done some battle ground (Which i loved doing) and that has opened up a whole new world of warcraft for me.I have tried all the other classes, but they all seemed to miss something i was looking for. Something imaginative, something flexable, and a jack of all trades. And the druid definately fits that bill. I have some leveling time set aside for next week so i will get on with it when i can.

Current Talent Tree

I respecced to Resto for a test to see how i got on in BG, i was impressed. HoT was very good to watch on other people trying to kill horde, and oddly enough there is never enough healers on the Alliance side to do BG on my Servers Battlegroup Reckoning, however in AV thats different.

Goals?

I would very much like to level to 70, and gain gear by pvp. PVE would be a pain, and very labouring. And resto would be my final build i would think....

Currently

Following Kopps guide i am around in Astranaar, then Alterac questing. And just went to IF to pick up some other quests from the Explorers League, im not sure where to head out to next and will need to look it up. I picked up some new Cat skills, im sure they will be much better when i get back to my original spec.