MMO Champion has a nice summary of the new information regarding the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. “Nice” but distinctly lacking in Druid-relevance. After poring over everything I could get my leafy hands on and finding essentially no reference to Druids, I decided I’d share with you my own brand of Druid-appropriate WotLK preview!

Druids to be Masters of Crowd Control

With the involvement of … one or more colors of Dragonflight, it only follows that portions of Northrend be swarming with Dragonkin. With the spell “Hibernate,” Boomkin will finally have the CC-based role they’ve been begging for. The spell will actually see an increase in utility as, when cast upon flying targets, it will cause the victim to crash to the ground and take falling damage in proportion to its body mass. Blizzard, however, will have the last laugh as Boomkin can’t cast Hibernate.

Balance and Feral Trees Scrapped

Video scenes seem to imply that Druids will gain access to two new forms: a Fire Tree and a Frost Tree! Correspondingly, our two non-Tree-based talent trees will be replaced with talent trees similar to those of the Mage class: Fire and Frost.

Dire Cat Form

In a bizarre amalgam of the Dire Bear and Cat Forms, Blizzard finally introduces the long-awaited Dire Cat Form for Druids. Shown at left howling at a full moon, we can only assume it will have Ghost Wolf-like speed and accordingly restore Feral Druids to their rightful Arena dominance (though due to susceptibility to Hunter’s Scare Beast, they’ll still spend the majority of Arena matches pillar humping like their Resto brethren).

Improved Mobility

Leafshine writes more about this in his article, New Wrath of the Lich King info - What about Druids?, but I’ve discovered evidence that his hopes might be true, including an image of what can only be the Druid’s new Aquatic Form, an orca! To make up for never giving us Teleport: Cenarion Refuge in the Burning Crusade expansion, we’ll be able to teleport to a strange, hollowed out tree city, making trips to the Auction House and back to Northrend less arduous!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this exclusive (totally fabricated) preview of what we Druids can expect to see in the expansion, and I’ll do my best to keep you posted on new information as it develops!

Related Posts

• Underwater Injustice
• Non-Combat Pets for Druids
• Dark Legacy Features Boomkin

In honor of June 1 as Arbor Day … in Cambodia (I missed this year’s U.S. observance), I am issuing a challenge to readers! It will test both skill and dedication! I want PICTURES of your TREE OF LIFE with the following:

• A [Cenarion Expedition Tabard], demonstrating your worthiness to be hugged by that hippiest of factions
• One or more of the following: [Enormous Barbed Gill Trout], [Red Winter Hat] or [Green Winter Hat], [Grayson’s Torch] or [Elune’s Lantern], [Farmer’s Broom] or [Pitchfork], [Crown of the Fire Festival]
• The 2-piece T4, T5, or T6 set bonus OR, alternatively, the chest, helm, and legs from Wildheart, Cenarion, Stormrage, or Dreamwalker sets! Show us your old-school pride!
• 2 stacks of [Heavy Netherweave Bandage] for handing out to those people who still use the annoying “Heal Me!” emote
• A stack of [Lesser Mana Potion] for giving to people who ask for your Innervate
• A pair of gloves enchanted with [Enchant Gloves - Fishing]
• The [Violet Signet of the Grand Restorer], demonstrating unwavering commitment to fixing whatever the heck is wrong in Karazhan
• A [Shiny Red Apple] with which to taunt hungry Ferals
• A [Swashbuckler Shirt] of any color; ‘ARRRRGG!! YE BE A PIRATE TREE!’
• The ability to build a [Basic Campfire] without setting yourself ablaze (actually including the bonfire in your picture is purely optional)
• 20 x [Maple Seed] to use when casting Rebirth out of combat or for planting baby versions of yourself

Submission Requirements

To participate in this challenge, you must send me a screenshot of your Druid meeting the above requirements. In honor of Arbor Day, pictures should be taken while in Tree of Life and should meet the following criteria:

• Nothing should obstruct the full and glorious view of your character you’ve (no inventory screens or character sheets; we just want to see your Tree).
• Include a description of your surroundings or really any sort of flavor text you like.
• Feel free to include your favorite non-combat pet in the picture, particularly if you feel it complements your roleplay backstory.
• Be creative with your backdrops, and feel free to combine entries with your friends. A forest of trees would be great!
• Note that if your Tree of Life is of the … purple variety, I will not include your character server name.

I’ll be compiling all the appropriate entries into a gallery of images for the site and showcasing a few of my favorites. Entries should be in TGA or JPG format and can be sent to me at resto4life@.com. Entries must be submitted no later than Friday, May 30th.

Advertising the Arbor Day Challenge

For other blog authors interested in encouraging participation in this contest, Valenna has created the following *.PNG banners (feel free to create your own):

I hope that many authors from the Restoration branch of the World Tree will opt to play along themselves!

Taking TGA Screenshots in World of Warcraft

If you prefer to take your screenshots in TGA format, use Notepad or another plain text editor to open the config.wtf file found in your WTF directory. Find and change the lines that look like this:

SET screenshotFormat “JPG”
SET screenshotQuality “3″

So that they look like this:

SET screenshotFormat “TGA”
SET screenshotQuality “10″

Save the file and close it. Note that you’ll need to restart WoW for your changes to be effective.

Related Posts

• Lust for Flower and Dragontouched
• 5 Things Learned … Sorta
• OMGBBQPWND! or ‘Aegis Hestia Meets’

As I’ve mentioned before, perhaps the most compelling and addictive feature of World of Warcraft are its multiple paths of character progression. From gear (PvE and PvP) to mounts to Reputation grinds to non-combat pet collections, Blizzard seems keen to provide players with ample opportunities to feel like they’re making progress. But unlike many of their competitors, they have yet to add what is perhaps the most significant, non-combat progression path: player housing.

I admit that I am a long-time player of the Sims and Sims 2 games. I find building and decorating homes in that game to be incredibly rewarding. (Mr. Phae at one time lamented the time I spent in the Sims until I pointed out that I could otherwise be spending our real money on such things!) And while the aims of a game like the Sims might seem vastly different from the aims of an MMORPG like World of Warcraft, I see no reason not to incorporate the home-building aspect of what is the best-selling game franchise in history.

There are other games that have included player housing, including EverQuest II, City of Heroes, and Final Fantasy XI. Even in the single-player RPG Oblivion, a popular in-game activity is building up a personal stronghold. I believe that any implementation of player housing by Blizzard would be vastly superior to anything that’s come before it, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t necessarily borrow ideas from previous incarnations. And because it’s something I’ve given a lot of thought to over the years, I would like to share a few of my own ideas for this feature!

• Upgradeable Housing Level
  Each city would have an instanced housing district with appropriate architecture. To build or purchase a home would require not only a considerable sum of gold but a certain reputation level. Each city could have several levels of house size and elaborateness at ever-increasing cost. Low-level characters could opt to “rent” an apartment which would lack many of the capabilities of a full-scale home (such as outdoor areas) but would provide a place for storage.
• Upkeep
  Players would need to pay a certain amount per month in upkeep costs or risk being locked out of their homes. To regain entry, they would need to pay the back rent (though no more than a month’s worth to avoid players taking a break from the game from being discouraged).
• Adjustable Permissions Set
  Characters could be granted access to visit and/or make changes and additions to a player home. (I am personally thrilled at the idea of sending Mr. Phae out for a new tablecloth.) Perhaps players could even make impermanent copies of their house keys to give to visitors that would expire after a certain amount of time.
• Craftable Furnishings
  The potential for tradeskilling to furnish one’s house are practically endless. To facilitate this, the Woodsmanship (gathering) and Carpentry (production) tradeskills could be added. The carpenter would also rely upon smithed nails and fasteners along with tailored upholstery fabrics and fillers. More elaborate fabrics could be created with the help of dyes and chemical treatments produced by alchemists. Jewelcrafters could create home furnishings such as mirrors, stained glass windows, and doorknobs.
• Droppable Furnishings
  A popular inclusion in EverQuest’s player housing was the ability to collect and display important trophies and artifacts within one’s home. Imagine being able to display the Hand of Uldaman’s Ironaya after defeating her. Similar epic encounters could also yield suitable trophies for display.

  One way to facilitate this would be to allow each character a single “large item” inventory slot. The player could then carry with them one large piece of pilfered loot, such as a chair or small table from Karazhan. Essentially, any item flagged as “furniture” of reasonable size could be moved to your house, provided you have the room to store it.

• Tradeskill Machines
  Although many tradeskills do not require the proximity of a tradeskill machine, many craftsmen would enjoy including either cosmetic or working tradeskill machines within their homes (ex. loom or spinning wheel for Tailors). These items could provide a small (+5) skill bonus to their relevant tradeskill or contribute to reducing the cooldowns on some recipes (ex. Primal Mooncloth).
• Reputation-Based Recipes
  Each race has its own style of architecture and furnishings. Therefore, some recipes and patterns could be reputation-based. To learn how to create an elegant, curving bed, you might need to raise your reputation with a tradeskill guild in Darnassus. No doubt, any elaborate stonework would require trafficking with a Masonry guild in Ironforge.
• Mannequins and Display Cases
  Imagine if instead of having to dispose of old, class-specific armor sets (Wildheart, Cenarion, Stormrage) for the sake of bank space, you could assemble these pieces onto a mannequin for display within your home. You could then have a gallery of previous armor sets you’ve collected over the years. Completionists might even feel compelled to finish their sets after they’re well beyond the appropriate content, ensuring that this old content isn’t completely obsolete. Similarly, weapons could be displayed on the wall or in a special weapon-case.
• Room Types
  Some possible room types include:
  • Indoor Tradeskilling Areas: Sewing Room, Alchemy Laboratory, Kitchen, Jeweler’s Station
  • Outdoor Tradeskilling Areas: Forge, Tannery
  • Garden: Herbalists could plant small, functional gardens that could be seeded with seeds acquired while herbing. These seeds would occasionally result in a harvestable plant of the same type as the plant from which they were gathered. (I think there is something similar in FFXI.)
  • Fishable Pond: Similar to the garden, these ponds could be seeded with fresh fish caught from other areas of the world. Occasionally, these ponds would yield a pool that could be fished for that type of fish. Only one type of fish pool could be active at a time.
  • Bedroom: For earning rest or cyber XP.
  • Stables: Provide a happy home and display place for the mounts you have outgrown. Could also replace or supplement the limited stable slots allowed to Hunters.
  • Vault: Personal, upgradeable storage outside the standard bank. Also useful for Scrooge McDuckin’ through enormous piles of gold.
  • Library: When a player encounters a book in game (such as those on the floor of Scarlet Monastery), allow her to take a copy to be stored for later reading. Who really has time to read all of those books during a 5-man instance run?
• Bind Point
  A player could set his hearthstone by interacting with the mantle of his hearth.
• Mailbox
  Same as the standard mailbox but with the additional option to request that items from your bank be mailed to you for a small fee.
• Pets
  Just as in EverQuest 2, players could allow 1-2 non-combat pets to roam their house.
• Collections
  Various collections of items could be added to the game. Each item in the set would indicate which set it belongs to and might not necessarily provide any in-game benefit. Examples of these collections could be rare flowers or catchable insects. Once complete, a collection could be displayed. This would encourage exploration, particularly of older content.
• Seasonal Decorations
  Purchasable, craftable, and questable seasonal decorations. These could include the items used to decorate major cities during the Holidays.

I know that many players find the idea of player housing to be silly, but it’s an aspect that would greatly increase the enjoyment of a large percentage of the player base. If nothing else, the additional character storage would provide everyone a tangible benefit to having a home. And really, who wouldn’t want an Onyxia-hide throw pillow?

P.S. Check this out!

Related Posts

• Purchaseable Talent Specs
• Why Horde Always Wins at PvP
• Forum Watch: Class Feedback for WotLK Solicited

Cake from the Post-Battleground Alliance Pity Party

Reader Nilianil of Silver Hand (US) recently posted a hilarious parody of the song from the end credits of Portal. For those of you living under a rock (or just raiding 24-7), you can listen to the original via YouTube: Still Alive by GLaD0S

This was a letdown.
I’m making a note here:
HUGE FAILURE.
It’s hard to overstate
My disappointment.
PvP Warriors.
We Mortal Strike you because we can.
For the good of all of us,
Except the ones who aren’t friends.
But there’s just one cunning class I simply can’t beat.
You just keep on running it’s almost like you cheat.
And the 2v2 gets done,
And I realize there’s a ton
Of these druids who just
Never die.

I’m not even angry.
I’m being so sincere right now.
Even through you broke my snare
And bashed me.
And danced around pillars,
And threw all your HoTs, onto, yourself.
As they ticked it hurt because
I simply could not kill you.
Now these PTR notes give some peace to my mind,
And we’re out of 2.3 they’re patching on time.
Though we had to get burned,
Think of all the things Blizz learned
‘Bout the druids who just
Never die.

Go ahead and root me.
I wish that Arena was inside.
Maybe I’ll find someone that can free me.
Maybe the Pallies.
That was a joke, HA HA, CYCLONE.
Anyway their tears are great;
They’re so delicious and moist.
Look at me still typing when there’s Arena to do.
When I check the ratings I get sad I’m not you.
I’ve some matches to be run,
There is screaming to be done
At the Druids who just
Never die.

And believe me they’ll just never die.
They’re always drinking so they’ll never die.
They’re pillar humping and they’ll never die.
With their Lifebloom they’ll just never die.
And when you’re Cycloned they’ll just never die.
Never die.
Never die.

Related Posts

• Druids (Not) to Pick Locks in Cat Form
• Druid Speed Boosts
• Dark Legacy Features Boomkin

After further consideration as a consequence of some coefficient testing, I am revising my original opinion on this comparison, originally published in February, 2008.

Leighbra of Sentinels (US) wrote in with this question:

At the moment, I have 494 Spirit unbuffed. I’m at about 675 fully raid buffed. I don’t have any idea how I ended up with so much Spirit and have been looking at what I can do with my enchants to play with that number, but I’m cheap and don’t like to re-enchant things… I have the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] equipped, and of course Lifebloom is my most commonly cast spell. So, from my Tree of Life aura, in raids, that means about 135ish additional +Healing for the people in my group.

I’m trying to figure out if it would be more beneficial to the guild/raid (not just my healing numbers) for me to be in a group with our tanks and to equip that often discarded [Idol of the Raven Goddess], especially after it gets buffed, than me having the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] equipped. Especially on Gruul, when after 8 growths we tell our DPS to heal themselves, and have all 8/9 healers focus on our two tanks.

Most people consider the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] to be one of the best healing idols available. This misperception is likely based on a misunderstanding of how its tooltip reads:

While the above tooltip seems to imply that we will get 88 +Healing from this idol, we can employ the technique outlined in Method: Coefficient Testing to determine its actual +Healing value. To start with, I parsed the values for the total +Healing to the HoT portion of Lifebloom under varying conditions:

• No Idol, Tree of Life: 1624
• Emerald Queen, Tree of Life: 1670
• Raven Goddess, Tree of Life: 1654
• Naked (0 +Healing): 316

To find the amount of +Healing actually afforded by each, we can use the following formula:

From the above formula, we can determine that the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] affords 67 +Healing and the [Idol of the Raven Goddess] affords 44 +Healing. Taken at face value, you might think the Emerald Queen superior, but remember that the Raven Goddess affects not only all your spells (Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Swiftmend) but all the spells of healers healing members within your group. With the exception of fights where you will roll Lifebloom stacks on 3-4 tanks you’re not grouped with, the [Idol of the Raven Goddess] is the superior choice. Outside of such a unique circumstance, you’re choosing between 24 +Healing to your Lifebloom vs. 44 +Healing to all of your other spells and the spells of other healers in your raid. Of course, if given the option and assuming you make frequent use of the spell Regrowth, the [Idol of the Crescent Goddess] is the one I would recommend as it affords nearly a 10% mana cost reduction to Regrowth.

Related Posts

• Mailbag: Idol of the Raven Goddess
• 2.4 Mana Regen: Regrowth as the New Raid Heal?
• Mailbag: “Tree Tactics 101″ from Bigtoy of Cho’gall