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?

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 :)

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.