… and I got one! Finally, a Horde horse mount that’s not Paladin-only, nor can you see its bones. This makes me a very happy druid.
Yeah, I’m a sucker for these Argent Crusade mounts. I’ve got all the gold-purchased ones, the Sunreaver Dragonhawk and now this. Now, I just need to get a matching pony for my squire.
Posted in WoW | Tags: argent crusade, mounts, pony
Eclipse:
Come Patch 3.3, you will no longer be able to chain back-to-back Eclipse procs so easily. A cooldown is being added so that one two Eclipses cannot be active within 15 seconds of each other, in addition to the 30-second cooldown each eclipse has independently. From MMO-Champion:
Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Eclipse: This effect will not activate again within 15 seconds of either type of Eclipse effect firing, in addition to the existing 30-second cooldown for each type of Eclipse.
Currently, if you have the addon WiseEclipse or use a /cancelaura macro, you can have almost guaranteed back-to-back Eclipses, proccing a Solar Eclipse with a Starfire still benefiting from the Lunar Eclipse buff.
To refresh your memory, the current tooltip of Eclipse is as such:
When you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 30%. When you critically hit with Wrath, you have a 60% chance of increasing your critical strike chance with Starfire by 30%. Each effect lasts 15 sec and each has a separate 30 sec cooldown. Both effects cannot occur simultaneously.
The 15-second added ‘cooldown’ runs in synch with the 15-second Eclipse buff. However, it persists even if you cancel your Eclipse buff (which is what a /cancelaura macro or WiseEclipse did). This means that this change is only a nerf if you used one of the two aforementioned methods in order to benefit from a buffed spell without actually having the buff. Yeah, for all those that were using WiseEclipse or /cancelaura, it’s a nerf. But only a very slight one.
2pc Tier 8:
Item – Druid T8 Balance 2P Bonus – Increases the bonus granted by Eclipse for Starfire and Wrath by 7%. (Down from 15%)
Yup, it’s a nerf. However, it’s a nerf that many Moonkins predicted would come. The 2pc Tier 8 bonus was really just too powerful for its own good. I personally held off getting 4pc Tier 9 because, (a) I didn’t have access to the ilevel 258 version and (b) the 2pc Tier 8 bonus was too strong to drop for anything less. However, come Patch 3.3, if you have access to the 4pc Tier 9 set, take it. It will be an upgrade over 2pc T8/2pc T9.
4pc Tier 10:
Item – Druid T10 Balance 4P Bonus – Your critical strikes from Starfire and Wrath cause the target languish for an additional 7% of your spell’s damage over 4 sec. (Up from 5%)
Yay, it’s a buff! It still remains to be seen how exactly this set bonus will work (as I commented on in this post). However this turns out to work, increasing the damage coefficient is always going to be nice.
If you log in to WoW today and get greeted with a flurry of “Congrats!” messages, don’t be baffled. It’s simply because you just earned your very own Feat of Strength simply by logging in – [WoW's 5th Anniversary].
Not only that, but you will also receive your very own Onyxian Whelpling minipet! Not only does it look extremely goofy (which I like), the emotes it does are pretty cool as well, especially the failed deep breath. This pet is account bound, so you can send it to any characters who you create after the 5th Anniversary event has finished.
Not only is it WoW’s 5th Anniversary, but it’s also the beginning of the new holiday event: Pilgrim’s Bounty. This is the first year that this event has been in place, and unlike the new Day of the Dead event, this one has a whole bunch of achievements! Don’t worry though, if you don’t already have your Violet Proto-Drake, this event isn’t required for the meta achievement, so you don’t have to do them if you don’t want to.
The bountiful tables for this event are found outside each major city for your faction. There are also questgivers in each major city (as well as Dalaran and Shattrath) that will lead you to the start of the event.
The achievements for this event are:
“FOOD FIGHT!”: Bounce food off a fellow feaster’s head at a Bountiful Table.
This is an easy one. Just go sit at any Bountiful table with someone already sitting at it, target them, then press 1 (the first icon on your modified action bar).
Pilgrim’s Paunch: Acquire the Spirit of Sharing from a complete Bountiful Table feast at every Horde/Alliance capital.
To acquire the Spirit of Sharing buff, you need to eat each 5 portions of each of the 5 types of food at a Bountiful table. Once you do so, you will receive a the buff “The Spirit of Sharing”, which will increase the amount of reputation earned by 10%. (So if you’re planning to go do some rep grinds, pick this up first!) Get this buff at each major capital for your Faction to complete your achievement.
Pilgrim’s Progress: Complete each of the Pilgrim’s Bounty dailies.
This isn’t a hard achievement, but it is a time-consuming one. Each of the dailies will require you to make a stack (20) of each type of holiday food made from the recipes found in the [Bountiful Cookbook], purchasable from any Pilgrim’s Bounty vendor. The recipes in there require up to 280 cooking to learn. To pick up the dailies, you will need to visit each of the 4 major cities and pick up the dailies and required ingredients for each. In total, you will need the following mats:
Wild Turkeys are found from killing Wild Turkeys in Tirisfal Glades/Elwynn Forest. The Simple Flour and Mild spices are required to make the Spice Bread required for the Spice Bread Stuffing.
Terokkar Turkey Time: Defeat Talon King Ikiss while wearing a Pilgrim’s Hat and either a Pilgrim’s Dress, Robe, or Attire.
The hat and dress/robe/attire are rewards from the dailies given outside each major city. Talon King Ikiss is the final boss of Sethekk Halls, which is the instance found on the east side of Auchindon in Terokkar Forest. You can complete this achievement in normal or heroic mode, so it can be solo’d by many classes, or easily duo’d.
Turkey Lurkey: Blast those dirty, sneaking Rogues with your Turkey Shooter.
Yeah, finally those no-good Rogues get what they deserve – to be turned in to turkeys! The Turkey Shooters are a reward from the dailies given outside each major city. You’ll need to blast one rogue of each race they’re available to. An important thing to note that the Turkey Shooters are a one use item. This means that, once you use it it’s gone from your inventory. Also important to note, you do not get credit if you blast a rogue already turned in to a turkey. So pick your targets wisely!
Now We’re Cookin’: Cook up one of every Pilgrim’s Bounty dish.
An easy achievement that you’ll get as you’re doing Pilgrim’s Progress.
Pilgrim’s Peril: While wearing either a Pilgrim’s Dress, Robe, or Attire, take a seat at each enemy capital’s Bountiful Table.
These can be suicide missions, especially in the busy cities. Your best bet would be to equip stamina/resilience gear (as well as your dress/robe/attire) before running in and sitting down. If you can stealth (or for Mages, go invisible), make use of it. Otherwise, run in on your mount and sit down as quickly as you can. You don’t need to eat any food, or even live, as long as you sit down at a table. Do this for each of the opposite faction’s major cities.
Sharing is Caring: Pass one of every dish at a Bountiful Table.
To do this, go to a Bountiful Table, sit in a seat and press 1. Then move to the next seat over and press one again. Repeat until you’ve sat in each seat and passed some food around. Another easy achievement.
The Turkinator: Hunt enough Wild Turkeys quickly enough to gain Turkey Triumph.
Probably the hardest achievement for this event, especially if you’re a melee class. To do this, you’ll need to kill 40 Wild Turkeys, each one within 30 seconds of the last. The Wild Turkeys can be found in Elwynn Forest or Trisfal Glades. A suggestion, eat some [Tracker Snacks] before attempting this, so you can see on your minimap where the next Turkey to kill can be found (or just Track Beasts if you’re a Hunter). Be prepared to put in some time for this.
If you’re able to complete all of this you will earn the meta achievement [Pilgrim], as well as earning the title “<name> the Pilgrim” and a Plump Turkey Pet! This pet is actually pretty big, one of the largest in-game.
Good luck with your achievements, and I hope you enjoy the Pilgrim’s Bounty. As well, happy 5th anniversary, World of Warcraft!
Posted in Guide | Tags: Achievements, anniversary, feat of strength, holiday, minipets, onyxia, pilgrim, pilgrim's bounty, titles, turkey, whelp
It started with healers. Then moved to tanks. Finally, it moved on to us DPS’ers. I’m a bit late to jump on the bandwagon, but I’ve finally filled out the DPS survey, “Death Grip of DPS”, started by Hinenuitepo at Death Goddess.
What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?
Boize, Druid, Balance
What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Usually it’s been 10- and 25-man raids. However, because I’m not able to raid as much anymore, it’s been more PvP-oriented.
What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?
As much as I hate the RNG of Eclipse, it’s an ability that I love. Seeing those huge Starfire crit numbers popping up repeatedly just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?
I never use Typhoon. Even when I PvP, I keep my PvE Balance spec (I do arena PvP in my secondary Resto spec). For this spec, I don’t have any points in it, as it’s not really worth it for PvE. I know it’s a pretty damn good spell for PvP, but I’m still reluctant to make the full switch from PvE to PvP specs, I’m still a raider at heart!
What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?
I view a Moonkin’s biggest strength as being able to pump out good DPS while still being very versatile. Need buffs? Gift of the Wild / Moonkin Aura. Someone dies? Get them up again mid-battle with Rebirth. A key healer running low on mana? Innervate. The list goes on.
What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?
The RNG-dependance. Moonkins have the potential to pump out DPS, but if you get very unlucky, you can go for a long time without proccing Eclipse, which significantly increase our DPS. Additionally, current (and future) tier bonuses seem to focus on Eclipse or other RNG aspects, making this RNG-dependance even more prevalent.
In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?
Moonkins are pretty good at several things. We can pump out the DPS on a single-target boss, be able to easily range-assist with adds, and also have good AoE capabilty with Starfall and Hurricane. Generally, I DPS whatever I’m told to. 
But I do enjoy single-target DPS.
What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?
I’d have to say Shaman here, mainly for their Wrath of Air totems which aid me in reaching the haste soft cap, letting me chain 1-second Wraths.
What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?
Damn Mages and Warlocks always seem to beat me out on the metres, so I list them here out of jealousy.
What is your worst habit as a dps?
Over-DPS’ing in lower-level content. Especially now that I’m pugging more, I often tend to go all out on DPS, even if the tank isn’t greatly geared. Yeah, I’m bad like that.
What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?
The DPSer who was doing lower DPS then they were capable of whispering “brez me plz” when they die to standing in a fire. Yeah, no.
Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?
Yes, I feel that Moonkin are in a pretty good place at the moment. Blizzard did a great job of making us viable at endgame in Wrath of the Lich King.
What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a damage dealer?
Recount and World of Logs, comparing my DPS on that night to previous encounters, and seeing where I’m comparing with the rest of the group in general.
What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
That we can just pop out of Moonkin form and heal like a regular healer. Yes, we have healing spells, Yes, we still use spellpower. But our heals will be much, much less effective, and will cause us to burn through our mana like there’s no tomorrow.
What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?
Itemisation. There’s a decent amount of info you need to know about Moonkin in order to maximise your DPS, such as: Hit cap, Haste soft cap, balance between haste and crit, etc. Choosing the right items to aim for can be very difficult, even for more experienced Moonkin.
What dps class do you feel you understand least?
Shadow Priests. I just don’t get them..
What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?
I use the Moonkin addon Squawk and Awe to manage my DoTs, as well as seeing the time left on Eclipse.
What stat to stack, and why?
Generally, I try to stack spellpower and crit rating. A Moonkin relies a lot on Crit (especially for Eclipse), and spellpower is an increase to each and every one of your spells, which is always nice.
That’s it! I didn’t get tagged (as far as I can tell), but I will be tagging… You! If you’re a DPS’ing blogger reading this and haven’t filled it out yet, go write now.
Like anyone, I try to keep as much of a healthy balance as I can between WoW and real life. Sometimes I get too absorbed in the game and slip out of this balance, other times I get involved with events out of game and unable to put in the time I would like to. Now is one of these times.
I have started working.
Now this may not seem terrible, I mean, lots of people play WoW and work too! Unfortunately my work is scheduled at strange hours: 6am – 2:30pm. This means that I usually get to bed fairly early so I can wake up early too. Thus, I am no longer able to raid with my guilds in regular 25-man runs.
This leaves me in a bit of a dilemma. For a while now, I’ve considered myself a raider. Even in slumps where I have had trouble motivating myself to play WoW for anything else apart from raiding, I still enjoyed logging on to take part in a challenge with 24 other Guildmates for a couple of hours. Now that’s no longer possible.
This means it’s time for me to rediscover the other aspects of WoW that I may have been overlooking while I’ve been focused on raiding. For example, I’ve started leveling my Rogue, Spex, again who was sitting at level 60 for a long time. Also, I’ve started to PvP a bit more with Boize, and am currently trying to find a partner to do some 2v2 arena with. I found that PvP is something that I quite enjoy, and it’s something I can do on a flexible time schedule as well.
Another thing that I could work towards are gearing up my Death Knight, Yogg, who is level 80 but very poorly geared. It’d be nice to have a character that I can bring to alt runs and actually do decent DPS (or be geared enough to tank), or even sub in if something specific is needed in a main guild run. Additionally, I could start working towards some more non-raided achievements to push up my achievment points a bit further.
Oh, or I could just sit around all day and laugh at looking like this:
So, I’m pretty much out of my element at the moment. Have you experienced this before? What are some suggestions you have for me to do to have fun in WoW, without raiding?
Sorry for the lack of posts recently, there was an event in real life which left me out of comission for a while. However, I’m now back and renewed with posting vigour!
A couple of the up-coming topics you can look forward to reading about:
First off, here’s a screenshot of the new pet that will come as a reward from using the new Random Dungeon LFG system in 3.3. I don’t usually refer to things as cute, especially in-game, but this pet is indeed very cute.
The specifics of what exactly you have to do to obtain this pet is not known yet, but you can bet your ass that I’ll be doing whatever needs to be done in order to obtain this little pug (even if I have to slog through many bad PuGs to get the good one).
Secondly, remember the Pandaren Monk and Lil K.T. minipets whose models were added in to the game with the 3.2.2 patch? It has now been revealed as to how you can obtain them!
… By buying them for $10 US at the Blizzard Store.
It seems that Blizzard are looking more and more in the direction of micro-transactions for WoW. Already there is a number of various things you can pay for in-game, on top of your basic subscription payment. These things are:
And now added on to this,
Personally, I don’t particularly like the direction Blizzard are taking with increasing the amount micro-transactions. I understand it, but I don’t like it.
However, there are some good things that can be said for this micro-transaction. People who don’t have the time to grind reputation or farm for a rare drop will be able to obtain this pet. Instead, you can just drop a quick amount of money and instantly receive an account-bound pet. That being said, as much as I like the look of these minipets, especially the Pandaren Monk, I’m not willing to pay $10 US for one pet. But there are definitely other people out there who would (as shown by the number of people who bought the Blizzcon Live Stream just for Grunty).
Blizzard are donating 50% of Pandaren Monk profts to Make-a-Wish though, so props to them for that.
Make a Difference: Pandaren Monk Charity Pet
Enter the Pandaren Monk, a martial-arts expert who’s here to help celebrate the upcoming fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft. He may be cute, but he’s proof that even the softest of critters can overcome the hardest of circumstances. For every Pandaren Monk that finds its way to a player’s side between now and the end of the year (December 31, 2009 at 11:59 PDT), we’ll donate 50 percent of the $10 purchasing price to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in an effort to brew up a little hope, strength, and joy in a child’s life.
What will this mean for WoW in the future? Will Blizzard continue to keep implementing new micro-transactions? Maybe purchasable mounts or tabards.
I can only hope that these purchasable features stay purely cosmetic..
Hallow’s End is, well, about to end (or has already for those on Oceanic servers).
However, for those with a craving for more holiday events, have no fear, Day of the Dead is here! Despite its name, Day of the Dead actually takes place over two days (the 1st and 2nd of November).
Day of the Dead vendor, Chapman, is found in any major city’s graveyard (usually found just outside the city). From him you can purchase:
The mask and bouquet can be seen below (Festive Black Pant Suit not available for purchase):
The Candy Skulls seem pretty useless unless you’re level 10 or under. Similarly, the Spirit Candle seems like a Basic Campfire that you can’t cook on. However, one cool thing is that if you use the Orange Marigolds (either a single one or the bouquet) the graveyard will become filled with dancing ghosts.
And don’t worry, if you’re not a fan of having a holiday without any achievements, you can get 10 achievement points for dancing with Catrina, found in any of the aforementioned graveyards, and earning your achievement [Dead Man's Party]
Dancing with her will also give you a Day of the Dead costume (matching either Chapman or Catrina) which will last for 12 hours. Yes Alliance, you can finally be that Undead you always wanted to be. Unfortunately for us Druids, shapeshifting will clear this costume (just like every other one).
Finally, if you make/buy some Bread of the Dead then go to the graveyard of your home city (or the Shatt/Dal GY) and use the Marigold(s), then talk to the Cheerful Spirit found next to their portrait, get and complete the quest “The Grateful Dead”, you will be rewarded with a Macabre Marionette, “a sombrero-wearing, maraca-wielding skeleton companion pet“. One important thing to know about it – “This pet can only be used during the Day of the Dead event; it cannot be learned and kept like other companion pets.” (Taken from the official Day of the Dead page.)
Overall, Day of the Dead is a fairly boring event. For me it’s just an excuse to bank some more holiday items and to get 10 more achievement points. I’m also very disappointed that the Macabre Marionette is only available for two short days during the event, I’d have loved it if it was a permanent minipet!
Posted in Guide | Tags: Achievements, Catrina, Day of the Dead, holiday, Macabre Marionette, minipets
Ghostcrawler posted a thread on the official forums today titled “Hybrid Tax”.
I would highly recommend reading the whole article yourself, however here’s GC’s TLDR summary:
Hybrid = can respec to fulfill a different role (damage, tanking, or healing).
Hybrid != can fill multiple roles at the same time.
Hybrid != has awesome, amazing buffs or utility.
Hybrid != pure. Beyond that, there are no shades of gray among hybrids.
He also makes a couple of interesting statements that contradict the general ideas in relation to Hybrids:
There are no different categories of hybridness:
In Blizzard’s grand scheme of things, they consider a Death Knight or Warrior to be as much of a hybrid as a Paladin or Druid. As long as you can fulfill more than one role (from the three roles: tanking, DPS or healing), you’re considered a hybrid. Hybrids that can fulfill more than two roles are not intentionally penalised any further than hybrids who can only fulfill two.
The only pure classes are: Hunter, Mage, Warlock, Rogue.
Pure classes should do slightly more damage than hybrids:
Ghostcrawler states that, ideally, they would want pure classes to do higher DPS than hybrids (though not by too significant a margin), or else they believe that pure classes would eventually “die out”. However, an important factor of this is that this will only be truly prevalent if all things are equal. In WoW, this is very, very rarely the case. Gear levels between individual players vary greatly, and often fights will favour a type of class rather than another.
This means that, unless your whole raid is equipped in BiS gear fighting Patchwerk you won’t be able to see a definitive difference. Even then it probably wouldn’t be a fair test, as the fight would be very short due to the gear level, which could skew the results. Other factors such as latency, player reaction time and RNG also factor in to this, meaning that it’s very hard to actually measure the difference.
There is no such thing as the “5% rule”:
There is not a “5% rule” that says pures should be 5% higher than hybrids in every circumstance.
There is no set rule or percentage which defines how much more pure classes should do over hybrid classes in terms of DPS.
What does this mean for Moonkin?
It means that Blizzard do believe that we can be competitive in terms of DPS (or at least aim for this to be so). We are “penalised” compared with the pure DPS classes, but by no means does this mean that we cannot out DPS them if you do all you can to maximise your DPS output. If anything, it means that you should have more competitive drive to do more DPS in order to overcome these pure classes.
Once again, there is not a set value or percent for the amount of damage a pure DPSer should do in relation to a hybrid DPSer. It’s a general aim that the pure class should do slightly more, but this may not always be prevalent.
A new release after the latest maintenance – you can now pay a fee to change your race! That is, if you’re on a US server. Race changes have yet to be released on European servers.
Edit: Race changes are now live on European servers too!
So what does this mean for Druids?
Well, nothing. Yet.
Troll Druids (for Horde) and Worgen Druids (for Alliance) will only become available with the Cataclysm expansion, and we’re still yet to know if you’ll be able to transfer races to the new combinations as soon as they arrive.
But if a Druid is not your main (/gasp!) or you have an alt that you wish to change the race of, here’s the main points:
Your mounts and reputations will be affected, click here to view how they will translate.
A full FAQ can be found here.
Posted in WoW | Tags: Cataclysm, druids, mounts, race change, reputation, worgen
