Community Spotlight

After wimping out last week, I have lots of neat things to share with you this week, including a Resto-oriented update to Rawr, a new Boomkin forum, and mobile-phone versions of the Armory!

Recommended Reading

• Starfire vs. Wrath by Graylo of Gray Matter
  Like Lincoln vs. Douglas, Sampson vs. Delilah, and Beatrix vs. Bill, so too do these two spells do battle. Graylo takes a detailed look at the dynamics affecting these two spells in live right now with a portion of analysis devoted to the changes coming in Wrath of the Lich King.
• Out of Dates by Megan of Out of Mana
  An interesting and entertaining take on the “life” cycle of a Warlock’s soul shards.
• Recruit a Friend (or Yourself) by Runycat of Unbearably HoT
  Runy reveals the best way to exploit make use of as intended the new Recruit-a-Friend program to powerlevel two brand-new level 70 characters for the low, low price of $243.89! Who said corporate America was dead? (No one, that’s who.)
• Viable DPS by Razorbax of Three Druid Noob
  Razorbax explores the additional utility afforded a raid when bringing along along a Feral Druid. (Two Innervates? SWEET!)
• The Time is Now by Bellwether of 4Haelz
  Many players may find themselves adrift as their raiding guilds crumble from the apathy garnered by WotLK’s impending release. In this 5-Part series, Bellwether shows you the way to find a new home.

Seiunchin by Liodain

PEW PEW! Goes the Chicken

Balance Druids will enjoy the Moonkin Repository, a new message forum community for Laser Chicanery. From the forum’s administrator:

This forum is a open repository for all things Moonkin. It’s purpose is to provide a centralized source of information, links, and focused discussion to assist and entertain Moonkin Druids.

Thanks to Graylo of Gray Matter for originally sharing it!

RAWR! Goes the Tree

The formerly Feral- and Balance-specific application, Rawr!, has been updated to include data and analysis for the Tree of Life spec! Reader and Rawr-enthusiast Adremma of Sentinels (US) asked me to pass on the following issues that exist with its Resto model so far:

• The various options (the tab, not Tools > Options…) require that particular attention be paid to them; this is particularly true of the rotation options, which are set up by default to assume a single tank.
• Many of the default gemmings may be inaccurate and are due to be tweaked. In the meantime, it may leave apparent item rankings somewhat incorrect. Fortunately, when using the optimizer, it can be told to pick from the gems of your choice.
• [The Resto developer] went to all the trouble of implementing things like the Bangle of Endless Blessings and Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon… and then didn’t actually manage to get them added to the default item list. Thankfully, they can be added manually (Tools > Edit Items… > the Add… button in the lower left; the item numbers for those two are 28370 and 19288 respectively), and any character imported from the Armory wearing one will also cause it to be added.

I admittedly haven’t taken the time to play much with it, yet, but if it follows the pattern of previous Rawr modules, it will be a wonderful resource for theorycraft. You can read more about it here or download it here.

New World Tree Additions

There are six new Druid-oriented blogs to share this week! Read one a day and on the seventh day you can come back here and rest. ^_^

• Bullshifter
  A Tauren Druid bullshifting about all things WoW. We don’t make these things up, people (well usually we do, but this byline was awesome enough on its own to serve as the site description).

Druid by Tryn

• Dazed and Confused
  From reader Rusco comes Dazed and Confused, a blog featuring an eclectic mix of Druid- guild- and generally game-related topics!
• The Druid Team
  TDT is the first blog of which I’m aware with an author from each of the three Druid talent specs: Feral, Balance, and Restoration. All three appear to be still leveling up, and so far posts have focused on their adventures (and misadventures) in doing so.
• Feral Tenacity
  Annderia of Arathor (US) brings us a brand new blog about a Feral Druid on a quest to acquire her own Nether Drake! How a cat is going to ride a dragon, though, I have no idea.
• Leader of the Pack
  Myze of Sisters of Elune (US) brings us the currently unique perspective as the guild leader of a guild focused solely on 10-man raiding.
• What Now, Kow?
  Miztickow of Azgalor (US) shares several great guides on much of TBC’s content, all written from a Moonkin’s point of view!

Also, a special “WELCOME BACK” message goes out to Karthis of the blog Of Teeth and Claws. So far, he’s said that he’s considering returning, but once the bug bites you on your big bear bottom, there’s no avoiding it. I’m sure he’ll be back and sharing more great Feral theorycraft soon!

Tree of Life Stores

Kalfurion, sometimes mentioned by Saresa of Destructive Reach wrote in to share the photograph at right he snapped at a local mall (click to enlarge). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to dig up any more information on the type of merchandise sold by this clothing store (there are a number of shops by that name, but none whose logo appeared to be a match), although the scarf on the left side looks pretty epic to me!

Armory-on-the-Go

Picture this: You pull up to a stoplight on your way home from work. Ten seconds later, you feel a “love tap” from another, less thoughtful motorist. Both of you hop out of your cars and the subject of World of Warcraft inevitably comes up (maybe they notice your Resto4Life license plate). Immediately you abandon your discussion of liability and insurance and start comparing gear. But what if you can’t remember the name of that item you picked up from Archimonde last week? That’s where WoWIArmory or MicroArmory come in to save the day!

• WoWIArmory is developed by SaladFork of Omen of Clarity and is an IPhone-specific version of the official armory site we’ve all come to know and love find faster alternatives to. It’s got the typically sexy Mac-style interface and is quite fast. Highly recommended to any lucky owners of an IPhone (like Mr. Phae /glare). WoWIArmory is still considered in beta so if you’d like more information, visit the WoWIArmory category over at OOC or contact SaladFork!
• For the rest of us non-IPhone users (we’re the ones who get rear-ended in a ‘99 Ford Escort), there’s MicroArmory.com, a sleek and simple character lookup perfectly suited to mobile phone users. According to the author, Greyhammer of Hydraxis (US), “You can view your character profiles, reputations, skills, talents, gear, stats, even PVP and Arena stats! It will keep track of your character searches so you can hit them later with one click.” As a bonus, it includes images of the items when available from WoWHead. So even if you’re still wearing Kara gear, you can show the person who hit your car how chic your gnome looks in his [Ruby Slippers].

Resto4Life Mousepads

You can now purchase your very own Resto4Life mousepad through the Tree-Shirts store, featuring the beautiful artworks of Andrige (the Tree of Life shown on the left side of the page) and Valenna (who created the site’s logo)! At just $12.90, these would make a fun desk addition. Available in lavender with flowers and a darker blue-violet with no flowers.

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