Resto4Life » Blog

Phaelia’s Vestments of the Sprouting Seed

Phaelia — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:39:15 +0000

Thanks to everyone who has written in or commented about the recently datamined item, [Phaelia’s Vestments of the Sprouting Seed]! As if it weren’t enough of an honor to have been mentioned, Blizzard was thoughtful enough to include my as-yet-unborn “Sprouting Seed!” The stats are amazing, and even the crit isn’t necessarily a waste with the upcoming changes. And to top it all off, they’re beautiful, matching the colors of the Tree of Life (plus green)! I’m happy for all the players that will wear them proudly some day. Thank you, Blizzard!

Finally, because so many have asked about it, I am writing a non-Druid-related blog. (Resto4Life has been too much fun to give blogging up altogether.) Focused on my love of Marvel comics – and specifically my long-standing love for two specific characters – the supremely dorky Sugah & Spice blog is small, less frequently updated, and intended to be a much, much, much (much) lower level of responsibility than was Resto4Life. While I doubt the content will be of much interest to many readers, maybe there are a few other comic geeks out there who would be interested in reading something so niche.

This St. Patty’s Day, why not celebrate your arboreal nature with a Resto4Life Tree Shirt? Now through March 12, U.S. residents can save 17% on all orders $25 or more with code MARCH39 (Canadian residents can use code CADMARCH39).

Phaelia’s Vestments of the Sprouting Seed

Resto4Life Farewell Photo Album

Phaelia — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:09:36 +0000

Thanks to everyone who sent in one or more screenshots for the Farewell Celebration! Click on any below to enlarge (and scroll through the gallery).

In Game Party

And here were a couple of images from the in-game Farewell Celebration (complete with cake, dancing, and – of course – plenty of booze)!

The Winners

As announced, I randomed off a Belkin Nostromo N52 TE along with 2 Tree Shirts. As a surprise thank you gift to those who showed up, I randomed off an additional 3 Tree Shirts! Congratulations to the following winners:

Yragon of Medivh (US) – Nostromo
Timov of Proudmoore (US) – Tree Shirt
Eittynn of Eldre’Thalas (US) – Tree Shirt
Ermengol of Shadowsong (EU) – Tree Shirt
Macclean of Doomhammer (US) – Tree Shirt
Kayeri of Doomhammer (US) – Tree Shirt

Thanks to everyone who participated, either by sending in a picture or coming to the party!

Some Follow-Up

Phaelia — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:33:07 +0000

First of all, allow me to say how much I appreciate the outpouring of gratitude and support I’ve received since posting Resto4Life Closing Its Doors. It’s truly overwhelming, and I can’t be more thankful to everyone who’s spoken to me – directly, through comments, through e-mail, or through their own blogs – with nothing but kind words. Wow!

Secondly, I’ve realized that I could have been clearer in terms of how you can submit your screenshot for the “Farewell” competition. Here is some additional information:

You can submit your image(s) by e-mailing them to.
All entries must be submitted on or before March 12th to give me plenty of time to prepare the post.
TGA, JPG, or PNG are all acceptable formats.
You must be in some Druid form or in one of the class-specific armor sets so that I can verify your Druid identity.
I would appreciate also if you could let me know if you happen to live outside the U.S. or Canada so I know whether you are eligible to win the Nostromo N52te.
I’m going to do the give away in game on March 19th at 9 PM EST in the Shadowglen starting area in Teldrassil on my home server, Scarlet Crusade (US). Shadowglen is the starting town for Night Elf Druids.
You need not be present to be eligible to win, and you need not have submitted a picture to come hang out with all the baby Druids (Restoforwife, I’m looking at you).
Because of the tremendous number of shirts that have been ordered in the last few days, I’m also able to offer two shirts as “runner-up” prizes in the “roll off” competition! Thanks, everyone!
No, I’m not giving away naming rights to our baby. Nice try, though!

Fimlys and Bre, cohosts of the Twisted Nether Blogcast have very graciously invited me onto their upcoming show. I had to decline recording it live because a) I might get overly emotional and b) I’d definitely be over-nervous, but I am looking forward to recording on Friday (shows are typically released at some time the following week).

My contact form has apparently been borked since the last time I tried to “fix” it. If you sent me a message that way, please send me an e-mail instead. I’ve been unable to respond to Ako of Tortheldrin (US) or Imparatus of Azgalor (US) so far.

Finally, I realize that I wasn’t clear about the future of the site. As far as I can foresee, Resto4Life will remain online at least until the next expansion (the only thing that would change this would be if something went catastrophically wrong with it). I’m a web developer so having some web space available to me is always a good thing. As such, while I appreciate the several offers of hosting I’ve received, I’m happy to continue hosting it myself. Thank you, though.

Resto4Life Closing Its Doors

Phaelia — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:00:08 +0000

As of March 19, 2009, Resto4Life will be closing its doors*.

As you can (hopefully) imagine, this was no easy decision to make. In fact, it’s one I’ve been struggling with for the past three months which – not coincidentally – was about the time I found out the happy news that Mr. Phae and I are expecting our first child. I quickly came to realize that it will be too difficult for me to balance working full time, taking care of a new baby, blogging, and finding time to actually play the game I blog about.

I feel a tremendous amount of love and obligation toward Resto4Life, its readership, and all of the time I’ve given to both over the past two years. I take pride in the readership I’ve garnered and the reputation I have for helping others. All of which are positive emotions. At the same time, however, feelings of guilt, disinterest, stress, and unhappiness have lead me to conclude that it is time for me to move on to a new chapter of my life. Hopefully this will be a chapter where I can consider playing another MMO, drawing, or rereading a favorite book series without feeling a sense of guilt that I’d be stealing time away that could be devoted instead to improving Resto4Life. Perhaps I can finally take a laptop-less vacation or stop compulsively checking my Blackberry every 5 minutes for new site-related emails or comments. And maybe I can finally stop saying “I’m sorry, but I just don’t have time for another personal project.”

I want to give special thanks to everyone who’s helped make Resto4Life what it is or just helped made my stay within the blogosphere a happy one. Runycat of Unbearably HoT, Megan from Out of Mana, Karthis from Of Teeth and Claws, Bigbearbutt, Andrige, Graylo, Daniel from Bigredkitty, Leafshine, Matt and Sydera from WoM, Bell from 4 Haelz, my co-authors Currant and Korryna. A special thank you goes out to Mr. Phae for his dedication, mathematical analysis, and tolerance of my near obsession over the years. Thank you also to the many wonderful commenters who have frequented Resto4Life, among them Zackoria, Ermengol, Hokuto, Nilianil, Tone, Yggdrasil, Bigtoy, Crythia, Zaira, Kestrel, Kalaghan, Keeva, Aiuriun, Warscreamer, Dimitris, Beathooven, Kaera, Josh, Kuhbi, Ammeli, Draezele, Not An Issue, Wise Fox, Adarel, and Horns. Finally, thank you to all the readers out there, RSS or otherwise. Even if you’ve never commented before, thank you for choosing to read Resto4Life. I hope that it has enriched your enjoyment of the game in some way and wish you all the best in your future adventures in Azeroth, Outlands, Northrend, and beyond.

As a celebration of the community here at Resto4Life, I plan to make a final post in March, comprised of reader-submitted screenshots and artwork. Because over the past two years, I’ve tried to embrace and welcome all types of Druid players, you can feel free to submit a picture in whatever form (excluding Elf or Cow for verification purposes) that you prefer and needn’t limit yourself to Tree Form. Of those who choose to participate, I will randomly be awarding a Belkin Nostromo Speedpad N52TE, purchased from the funds I’ve acquired from shirt sales and advertising revenue. I hope that in this small way, I can say “thank you” to everyone who has made such a difference in my life. If you are interested in participating, please be sure to send me your submission by or before March 12, 2009. Due to shipping costs, you must live within the U.S. or Canada to be eligible to win the Nostromo, but I encourage International visitors to participate anyway.

With warmest regards,
Phaelia

P.S. Although the Tree Shirts store will remain online as long as Resto4Life does, I probably won’t be advertising any further sales. As such, U.S. residents still interested in purchasing a Tree Shirt can save 17% with code MARCH29. Canadian residents can use code CADMARCH39. Note that this discount only applies on orders of $25 or more and will expire March 12th.

*The contents of Resto4Life will remain available for at least the forseeable future. However, I will no longer be posting or responding to comments or contact requests. I will also be largely withdrawing (even further) from the blogging community at large, including Blog Azeroth.

2008: A Retrospective

Phaelia — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:37:36 +0000

Taking a cue from Leafshine, I’d like to take this opportunity to take a look back at 2008 for Resto4Life.

Most Popular Shirt Designs

I love adding new designs to the shirt shop. Here were the top performers in 2008 (these results are obviously biased based on the time they were added):

Other Stats of Interest for 2008

There were 234 total posts.
Visitors made a total of 3706 comments.
I made a total of 650 comments.
Resto4Life.com received a total of 665,410 visits and 1,355,119 page views.
Visitors spent an average of 3 minutes on the site per visit.
There were 29 Community Spotlight posts or an average of 2.4 a month.
I received (and hopefully responded to) more than 450 e-mails, not including those related to Arbor Day or Turkey Day.

Thank You!

Thanks to everyone who visited and contributed and helped make 2008 an awesome year for Resto4Life! I am looking forward with excitement to 2009 and hope you are, too!

Where’s the Tree?*

Phaelia — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:19:28 +0000

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Phae and I have been in the process of moving into a rental house, spending the entirety of our nights discovering just how much stuff we’ve accumulated (and no longer need/want). It’s definitely been an lesson in consumerism! We only finished moving into our new place yesterday afternoon, and I’m happy to say there’s not a box to be found anywhere … well, except that one over there in the corner, but I’m going to get to that one … some day soon. And not Blizzard “soon” (hopefully)!

The size of our new rental is more than twice that of our old apartment, but my favorite thing about it is definitely the kitchen. Here I am cooking in it last night:

Would anyone like to take a guess at what I’m fixing?

Anyway, I thought I’d give you all a heads up on why things have been so … very … quiet … around here lately. I figured a month before the expansion was a pretty good time to move. Not that its impending release in any way affected our timetable, but it was pretty convenient! Hopefully, I’ll be back to posting again regularly now that my free time isn’t filled with filling (and unfilling) boxes!

* Title shamelessly stolen from Karthis from Of Teeth and Claws.

So You Think You Can Blog … You’re Right!

Phaelia — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:48:02 +0000

Thelyne of Eonar (US) writes in with the following great question:

My name is Thelyne and I’m a blooming Resto druid from Eonar. I’d like to know how you got this lovely blog started as I’d like to start my own! Thanks!

What an exciting question to be asked! I’m always happy to see new blogs being created, especially by other Druids like myself, and I’m flattered that Thelyne chose to ask me for some advice. Because I think a blog reader is 10x more likely to create their own blog than a non-reader, I thought I’d share step-by-step, the process of creating a blog to show you just how easy and rewarding it can be.

Step 1: Decide on a Focus

This is really important. As enthusiastic as you might be to start writing immediately, it’s helpful if you can first refine what you want your blog to accomplish. There are limitless options to the type of blog you can create. Here are just a few and examples of each:

Spec/Class Niche: Haelz, Unbearably HoT, Yet Another Warlock Nerf, Parry! Dodge! Spin!
Guild Leadership/Officership education: Lume the Mad, Chick GM
Role Niche: ThinkTank, Tank Hard!
Roleplay: Too Many Annas (though not exclusively), Blogatelle, Need More Rage
PvP (Mis)adventures: Out of Mana
One or More of the Above: Big Bear Butt, BigRedKitty

Step 1a: Familiarize Yourself with the Other Players in your Niche

Learn about the other bloggers who write about the same topics you do. Pick out things you like and don’t like to help you refine the plans for your own blog. Take note of their blog titles to avoid stepping on any toes with too similar a name. Familiarizing yourself with your fellow bloggers will also help later on when you’re trying to gain exposure.

Step 1b: Pick a Title

Don’t get "Trapped" by your title later on!

Hand-in-hand with your blog’s focus, you will want to choose a title that reflects that focus. Be careful here; if you choose a focus and title that’s super-specific, you may find yourself feeling restricted later on. When I created Resto4Life, for instance, I recognized that — unless I wanted to switch focus to playing a Restoration Shaman — I was pretty much committed to Phaelia. Common inspiration for class or spec-specific blog titles include talents and spells, forum-based pop culture references, and in-game places associated with that class or spec. Don’t name your blog after your character unless you’re relatively certain you won’t be switching mains or renaming them (or are considering a server transfer).

Step 2: Choose a Platform

Focus defined and prospective blog title in hand, you’ll want to pick out a space for your new home. There are several different options for a blogging platform, and I’ll discuss the most common here:

Blogspot.com
This is Google’s blogging platform. It’s extremely popular among new bloggers due to its ease of use and relative customizability. Many bloggers also already have a Google account, making creating a blog a relatively simple process. Theme selection is relatively limited, but you can customize available themes to your heart’s content. Image uploading can be cumbersome.
Wordpress.com
This is the company-hosted version of WordPress. Similarly easy to use. There are many different themes available, but once selected, your ability to make changes is extremely limited unless you wish to pay. Extremely limited customization.
Wordpress.org
This is a downloadable copy of the Wordpress blogging platform for use with your own web host. Requires a bit of technical know-how to set up as well as paid web space and a custom domain name. Extremely customizable and flexible with practically unlimited available themes, but much more difficult to use than the previous two options.

It is not uncommon for a blogger to initially create a blog through Blogspot or Wordpress.com only to move to a self-hosted option later on when he/she is more certain of her future commitment. Resto4Life actually started out at Blogspot.com before moving to a self-hosted option. (A detailed walkthrough of completing such a migration is available here.)

If you’re pretty certain that you’ll want to be self-hosted eventually but find yourself daunted at the idea of creating a database and completing a WordPress installation yourself, I recommend choosing a web host that includes an automatic install (and upgrades) of WordPress. Resto4Life is hosted with HostMonster.com, who is not only affordable but reliable and includes one-click installs for several packages, including WordPress. They’ll also throw in a free domain registration.

Step 2a: Register a Domain Address (Optional)

This step is optional for those choosing to host their blog through Blogspot.com or Wordpress.com, but at $10 or less per year, I recommend it. Having a custom domain name lends a feeling of permanency and can make you easier for readers to find and remember. Just be careful. If you are considering purchasing a domain name, do not search for that domain name unless you are ready to purchase it. There are unscrupulous types that monitor domain searches so they can buy them up and "squat" on them to resell them for higher prices and/or to advertise on them. Also be aware that there have been some cases where squatters will purchase domain names that match the titles of blogs on Blogger or Wordpress.com on the possibility that the author will later want to purchase a custom domain.

Help registering a custom domain name is available here.

Note: Many web hosts will include a complimentary domain registration when you choose them as your web host. Be sure to check to see if this feature is included with purchased web space before registering a domain separately.

Step 3: Write, Write, Write!

The best way to improve
your writing is through
practice… or so I’ve read.

So you have your blog named, hosted, and created. Before you go shouting to the rooftops about your admirable accomplishment, you’ll want to shore up your concept with a few posts. Remember what you’ve learned from others sharing your blogging niche and start sharing your own thoughts. If you get stuck for ideas, you can always choose or pull inspiration from one of the Blog Azeroth Shared Topics to help get the words flowing!

Step 3a: Refine Your Style

This includes the style of your blog as well as the style of your posts. While you might have great things to say and share, if they aren’t in an easily digestible format, it will be difficult to attract and keep readers. There are a million-and-a-half recommendations on this topic, but here are a few of the easiest to implement:

Avoid critting your readers with a wall of text. Break up huge paragraphs which can be difficult to digest. Use special formatting like bold, italics, and subheadings to make things more readable and organize your thoughts. A couple of examples of blogs that make good use of formatting include Yet Another Warlock Nerf and Parry! Dodge! Spin!
Include pictures. Try to be consistent with the images you choose, be they in-game screenshots, pictures from the Model Viewer, or stock photography. For some great examples blogs that leverage images to best effect, check out /hug and Too Many Annas!
Use a spell checker. It’s easy. It’s free. If you use Google Bar, it is that button labeled "Check" at the top of your browser. Firefox users will find spell-check is built in to their browser, as well.
Categorize or tag your posts to make it easy for readers to find more information on those topics. For help learning about the difference between tags and categories, click here.
Give your blog a unique personality. Try to make your blog’s aesthetics and writing style speak to its focus so that you’re not only easily identifiable but memorable, too. In the words of Runycat:

Choose a title that will make wayward porn searchers stumble upon your site.
I cannot tell you how many keyword hits I get for " bare ass"

Obviously, this is hyperbole (well, for most people anyway), but you get the idea. Find some way to make your blog stand out from the rest! Great examples of blogs with distinct personality that shines through in every post include Need More Rage, Big Bear Butt, and BigRedKitty.
Tip from Valenna: Work towards consistency in your posts, speech and tone. If you are in character 100% of the time and you switch out to talk about your real life, your readers are going to jolted. The same applies to the way you write. If you post even-keeled, balanced posts that look at all sides of an issue and then post a rant, your readers will be surprised. Let your readers know what to expect when returning to your blog, and they’ll keep coming back.

Behemothdan of More Pew Pew, Less QQ shares a great resource for helping to improve your blog’s overall aesthetics here.

Step 3b: Grow Your Blog

Grow your blog … but
hopefully not into a
rust-colored fern like this one.

Once you’re happy with the content and appearance of your blog, start getting your name out there! Here are a few different ways you can do this:

Offer to swap links with other blogs within your niche (and, of course, it’s helpful to add a link to the blog in question before asking if they’d be willing to link to you). Druid blogs can request to be added to the World Tree listing here at Resto4Life, a project designed to specifically help new and old blogs increase their exposure.
If you write on a topic that’s similar to one written by another author, try to incorporate what they’ve already written by providing a brief quote or a link back to their original post. Many blog authors monitor incoming links, and this can be a great way to get some free link love in return.
Join and participate in Blog Azeroth. Learn from others and share what you’ve experienced. Ask (and answer) questions. Meet other bloggers.

For non Wordpress.com bloggers, I recommend Statcounter or — for the more technically savvy — Google Analytics to help you monitor your blog’s growth (Wordpress.com includes built-in stats). Try not to get discouraged by slow growth, though. Building a blog takes both time and commitment.

Conclusion

I hope that I’ve been able to show you how easy it is to create your own web presence. I know that it can be daunting when faced with some of the more well-established blogs out there, but we all started somewhere. In fact, I’d like to share a small snippet of a chat conversation I had with Valenna back in March of 2007:

[11:26:07 AM] Phaelia: I would like to blog about being a Resto druid
[11:26:31 AM] Valenna: Make a new blog and call it Resto For Life?
[11:27:00 AM] Phaelia: good idea
[11:28:36 AM] Phaelia: I like that idea a lot.
[11:31:09 AM] Phaelia: resto4life.blogspot.com

Just remember: you’ll never get there without taking the first few steps!

Additional Resources

The number of resources available to bloggers is practically endless. For World of Warcraft bloggers, the Blog Azeroth forum is a great repository of knowledge and friendly faces willing to help you with just about anything. Additional recommended resources include:

Lorelle @ WordPress
Don’t let the title discourage you if you happen to choose Blogger. Lorelle’s has tons of information for bloggers of all types.
WoWModelViewer.org
The model viewer is a fantastic program that will let you model and take pictures of your character, creatures, and items from within the game. This can be an invaluable resource for creating a consistent style.
Twisted Nether
A brand new "blogcast" each week featuring interviews with other bloggers. Can be a great way to learn more about the world of blogging!
News Sources
MMO Champion and WoWInsider are great resources for newly-released information. Just don’t fall into the trap of simply reposting news, though. Include your own commentary and personal take on the info.

Blue: Changes to Buffs and Debuffs

Phaelia — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:19:22 +0000

Edit 11:34 MST: I had to make several significant updates to this post as I missed some important changes in my hurry to meet my instance group. Please reread the following, and sorry for the confusion!

For Graylo’s Balance perspective on these changes, I encourage you to check out his recent post Raid Stacking in WotLK.

A significant change to the way buffs and debuffs will stack is being made, ostensibly to make raid composition more fluid and less subject to optimizing every slot. Developer Jimmythenumbers explains:

As Ghostcrawler has been posting recently, we’ve decided to make a change in the way we allow buffs and debuffs to stack exclusively in a raid. For the most part, what this change means is that many buffs and debuffs which were previously allowed to stack together no longer can, and that many buffs and debuffs which only a single talent specialization could bring can now be brought by multiple different specializations. The philosophy behind this change shows up in many of the changes we have made in Wrath of The Lich King, such as when we made almost all buffs raid-wide. We want players to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance. Raid composition will still matter to some extent, but without this change, it would have overwhelmed every other aspect of raid planning (as we added new capabilities to each of 30 different talent trees). You no longer need to rigidly control the melee/spellcaster balance of your raid, or make sure every group has all the critical buffing classes, etc. This change has many class balance implications. Before we are done, we will thoroughly test the performance of every class. Do not assume that the classes’ current performance relative to others in the beta is final. Some classes (and specializations) will need to be reduced in power and some increased. Many will complain the change has more impact on class X than class Y. We will address all those concerns via our internal testing and community feedback.

He goes on to detail that 30+ new buff/debuff categories are being created, within which only the most powerful of the effects will be affect raid members. Here’s a breakdown of the categories affecting Druids:

Armor Debuff (Minor): Faerie Fire (1260), Sting (Hunter pet) (1260), Curse of Recklessness (800)

Melee Critical Strike Chance Buff: Leader of the Pack, Rampage (5%)

Bleed Damage Increase Debuff: Mangle, Trauma (30%)

Spell Critical Strike Chance Buff: Elemental Oath, Moonkin Aura (5%)

Increased Spell Damage Taken Debuff: Ebon Plaguebringer (13%), Earth and Moon (13%), Curse of the Elements (10%)

Increased Spell Hit Chance Taken Debuff: Improved Faerie Fire, Misery (3%)

Percentage Haste Increase (All Types): Improved Moonkin Aura, Swift Retribution (3%)

Melee Attack Speed Slow Debuff: Infected Wounds (4% x 5 = 20%), Judgements of the Just (20%), Thunderclap, Icy Touch (15%)

Melee Hit Chance Reduction Debuff: Scorpid Sting (5%), Insect Swarm (2%)

Healing Debuff: Wound Poison (10% x 5 = 50%), Aimed Shot (50%), Mortal Strike (50%), Furious Attacks (25% x 2 = 50%)

Attack Power Debuff: Curse of Weakness (416), Demoralizing Shout (410), Demoralizing Roar (406)

Stat Add Buff: Mark of the Wild

Percentage Increase Healing Received Buff: Tree of Life (25% x Spirit), Improved Devotion Aura (3%)

In the above list, I’ve bolded the buffs or debuffs with the highest positive or negative effects and reordered them in terms of greatest benefit to least benefit. In the case that two entries are listed in bold, their effects are equal but only one will be active at any given time.

Other significant changes being made to talents and abilities include:

I will also list the changes to abilities which exhibit new behavior regardless of the exclusive categories. The changes usually mean the old behavior was removed and replaced by the new behavior. Numbers listed are for maximally-talented versions. Here is that changelist:

Improved Moonkin Aura: Grants 3% haste of all types.

Earth and Moon: Increases spell damage taken from all schools by 13% on the target.

Improved Faerie Fire: No longer benefits melee and ranged hit chance, only spell hit.

Tree of Life: No longer grants healing based on spirit, grants 3% increased healing received to raid.

Tree of Life aura will no longer stack with Improved Devotion Aura. This is especially significant with the simultaneously-announced change whereby Tree of Life grants 3% healing in the same way that Improved Devotion Aura does. If it’s true that the above changes are for maximally-talented versions of each ability, there will be no raid-wide benefit to having a Tree of Life if a Paladin with 18 or more points in Protection is present.

If, on the other hand, the 3% is solely for Tree of Life and does not include the 15% bonus from Improved Tree of Life, a Druid with 44 or more points in Restoration can have an aura at 3.45% strength. This is a very important distinction, and one that I hope is clarified soon. And while I would certainly prefer that our spec-defining form trump the 18-point Paladin talent, it’s kind of sad to think that taking a point in IToL will invalidate a Paladin’s 3-point investment in IDA, making the talent almost superfluous (although it will still afford an additional 600 armor).

It looks like Shaman’s Elemental Oath is being reduced from 6% to 5%, making it equal to the +crit benefits of Moonkin Aura (at its previous value of 6% it would have trumped Moonkin aura). The change to Earth and Moon is great, an increase from 6% stacked to 13%, presumably with a single application. Unfortunately, Insect Swarm’s chance to hit debuff will no longer be useful in raids where at least one Hunter is present; Scorpid Sting will overwrite it. Obviously, though, its DPM makes it more than worth having for any raiding Balance-specced Druid.

A further implication of this change is that only one aura from any given class will be active at a given time. In other words, the Restoration Druid with the highest Spirit will be the only one whose aura is effective when not trumped by Improved Devotion Aura. Whether or not this would end up being the case, was previously the subject of much debate that can now be put to rest.

While I feel the goal of this change is an admirable one (making all classes more equally desirable), I believe that it will actually have the opposite effect. If several classes can provide the same buff (or debuff), raid leaders won’t have to worry as much about raid composition. But worrying about raid composition to optimize the stacking of buffs and debuffs has previously created opportunities for many classes and specs that might have otherwise been passed over. If everyone has roughly the same utility, then you will only want the classes/specs that excel at their primary role (DPS, healing, tanking). If Balance and Feral can’t match the DPS of their parent classes, Mages and Rogues, and yet no longer provide any unique utility, what will be the point in bringing them along?

Mailbag Haiku

Phaelia — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:32:07 +0000

Anonymous reader submits:

i have 3 questions. which is better a resto or balance?
Which is more fun?
and what are the abilities of each like what is a balance druid and what is a resto druid.

To answer this contact request, I’ve written a haiku (because everything is better when expressed in haiku):

I’m Resto 4 Life!
Which do you think I prefer?
WoWWiki could help.

Thanks, anonymous reader dude!

My 15 Minutes of Fame

Phaelia — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:30:54 +0000

I was recently honored to have been interviewed by Lisa Poisso of WoWInsider for the 15 Minutes of Fame column. In it, I answer questions about why I believe certain people gravitate toward the healing role, what I predict for the future of Druids in Wrath of the Lich King, and my motivation for creating Resto4Life. Here’s a snippet from the article:

Who’s the healing flavor of the month right now? Why? Do you think that will change in Wrath?
Though I don’t have any personal experience in Sunwell, my understanding is that there’s a lot of raid-wide "splash" damage going around. In this type of environment, smart targeting and AoE heals like Chain Heal and Circle of Healing really shine. With the addition of the 51-point Restoration talent Flourish and Paladins’ raid heal Beacon of Light, it’s pretty safe to say that we haven’t seen the end of this encounter dynamic.

You can read the whole interview (with pictures) over at WoWInsider. Thanks, Lisa!