This Sexymap preset is now one of the pre-installed presets in the latest version of SexyMap. The tutorial will remain to show you how to create a preset from scratch. Enjoy!

One of the most interesting addons to hit the scene in the last while doesn’t do anything to help you become more efficient by measuring your performance, organizing your inventory, or visualizing your raid’s health. All it does is make your minimap look different. Well, not just different, but f!#@ing sexy. So much so that they named it SexyMap. Now, I realize that WoW Insider highlighted SexyMap a short time ago, but after you install it, you might notice that there’s really not much there for Druids. Several generic skins, several great skins for Mages, Warlocks, Paladins, even a Rogue skin, but nothing for the citizens of Moonglade. *weep* [ed. latest edition includes this preset, so this has been remedied!]

Luckily, SexyMap was built with customization in mind. Every one of the default skins is recreatable — in-game — with the configuration window. I’m going to take you step-by-step through creating my Druid preset, Emerald Portal.

First, you’ll want to actually download SexyMap from Curse or your favorite addon site. Also, if you want to experiment a little more, download TexBrowser, which allows you to see all the different textures you can use with SexyMap.

Once installed and in game, right-click on the mini-map to open the options for SexyMap. There’s a lot of options, but I’ll only go over a few of them that are necessary for you to achieve the same preset described here. By default, the zone text is displayed and we’ll want to remove that from marring our SexyMap, unless, of course, we hover our mouse over it. In the options, click on Zone Button from the left menu and click on On hover from the options for Show zone text… That’s really the only thing we need to change before we begin work on the minimap design.

Now for the fun part. Click on Borders from the left menu of the SexyMap options. You’ll probably see the options for default SexyMap. Click Clear & Start Over. Don’t worry. That default preset is called Blue Rune Circles and you can go back to it later if you really want.

SexyMap allows you to create a lot of different shapes of maps. We are going to stick with a circle, but there’s an option to have a circle with a faded edge. This will help give our design an integrated look. Where it says Minimap shape, select Faded Circle (Large) from the dropdown.

Every piece that goes into a SexyMap preset is called a “border”. This can be rather misleading as many of the parts aren’t really borders, but that’s what SexyMap calls them, so that’s what we’re going to call them. You can create a new border layer by entering a name in the Create new border textbox and clicking the Okay button that appears or pressing Enter. Let’s start by creating one called Background Leaves. Type that in the textbox and click Okay. It’s important to note that it doesn’t matter at all what you name these layers. They don’t even have to be unique. They are only to help you organize your layers.

Now, I’m going to go step-by-step and explain all the options and setup for the first border layer of this preset. This may seem rather involved and I’m going to present and explain a lot of material that isn’t completely necessary if you aren’t interested in tweaking the preset. But even if you decide to skip to the bottom and start setting up the layers on your own, you may find the following information a useful reference if you need it.

The border layer Background Leaves should now be listed in the bottom under Borders in the bottom. Click on the Background Leaves border in the list to the left and you’ll see its Entry Options in the right window. Here are all the options for an individual border layer. This is also where you can delete a layer if you no longer want it by clicking the Delete button. But we aren’t going to do that, so scroll down.

Next is the Texture Path options. If you have installed TexBrowser, you can click on the Open TexBrowser button to open TexBrowser in another window. TexBrowser isn’t that complex. You basically can browse through all the textures in the game and it will tell you the path you must use to that texture. While you can use any texture, some are completely unsuitable. I’d suggest sticking to the Particles, Spells, Textures, and XTextures. For now, just type Spells\TreantLeaves.blp in the Texture path textbox and click the Okay button that appears at the end of the textbox. This entry is not case-sensitive. You can type all lowercase, uppercase or mixed case, but it must match one of the textures in the game.

Scrolling down, Texture options is the next section. Click on the white square next to Texture tint. This brings up the Color Picker which should be familar from the Blizzard options. For this border layer, leave the color white and slide the opacity slider to about 50%. Click Okay to close the window.

The Layer dropdown determines which strata the border layers sit on. The order goes from 1 to 5, with 1 being on the bottom. Like layers of a cake, if you place something on the 1. Background all of the other layers will sit on top of it. Er, except you usually don’t have a background layer of a cake so maybe that wasn’t the best analogy. These leaves will sit under the map, so select 1. Background for Layer.

Blend Mode determines how the border layer interacts with the rest of the map. Add Blend usually makes all the colored portions of the map multiplied lighter against all layers beneath it. Alpha Key and Blend seem pretty similar in that they simply let the border layer’s opacity show what’s beneath it without making it lighter like Add Blend. Disable and Mod Blend aren’t really used in this preset and I haven’t found a good use for them. The best way to understand how the Blend Mode works is to experiment with it and see how it causes the layers to interact.

For this preset, select Blend for the Blend Mode.

The next section controls the rotation of the border layer and its layout on the minimap. If you chose to click Disable Rotation, it disables all of the rotation options and enlarges the texture for some inexplicable reason. For that inexplicable reason, I don’t recommend using that option, but rather to leave the rotation at 0 if you don’t want to use rotation.

One cool option, which I’m not using here but I’ll cover for sake of completeness, is the ability to base the rotation on the orientation of the player. In the Match player rotation box you can choose Do not match player rotation, Normal rotation, or Reverse Rotation. Normal rotation causes the texture to rotate left (counter-clockwise) when your player turns left and clockwise when your player turns right. Reverse rotation rotates left when the players turns right and vise versa. The Do not match player rotation option allows you to base the rotation on the next options below and by default isn’t selected.

If you aren’t basing the rotation on player rotation, you can either set its rotation speed or you can simply rotate the texture a set fixed rotation. Rotation Speed determines the speed with which the texture spins on its center axis. Positive values spin clockwise, negative values spin counter-clockwise. You can set the speed with the slider, or by typing in the numeric value below the slider in the textbox and pressing enter. Static Rotation rotates the layer, but doesn’t set it spin in a continual motion.

For the Background Leaves layer, enter 231 for the rotation of the leaves, or whatever other rotation looks best to you.

Lastly, we have the scale of the layer and its horizontal and vertical placement. Use 1.58 for the scale of the layer and leave the Horizontal nudge and Vertical nudge both at 0.

The first border layer is complete. Your minimap should look similar to the image to the right.

Now is a good time to save your preset. Click on the Preset tab and give your preset a name such as Emerald Portal in the Save current settings as preset… textbox. By typing the same preset name later you can save your changes into the same preset or you can branch off different versions if you want. After you’ve saved your preset, you can select it from the list of presets.

Now that you understand how to create one border layer, you should be able to recreate the rest of the border layers described below. For my version of this preset, I’ve used twelve border layers. I’m not sure how well some computers might handle this. If you need, I recommend stripping down the Nature Rune layers, removing the Glare layer and even maybe the Map Inner Glow and Map Outer Glow layers. This should lower the layers down to four layers. The nice thing about SexyMap is that you can choose and experiment as much as you want to create something that looks sexy to you.

Related Posts

• Featured Addon: Spirit Guide
• Grid: Thinking within the Box(es)
• Hello. My name is Phaelia, and I’m an addon addict.

Kehnomar of Nordrassil (EU) wrote in with this great question:

Come WotLK, would Leatherworking or Tailoring be the better profession for healing, in your opinion? I’m currently a tailor because the Primal Mooncloth set was pretty nice for healing before getting some good raiding gear, but I’m considering changing to Leatherworking if it will be more useful in the expansion.

He actually sent me this question at the beginning of November. At the time, I wasn’t sure how to respond because I was under the belief that all of the items for Leatherworking/Tailoring hadn’t been released. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Blizzard has opted to change their policy on armor crafting so that these skills no longer produce skill-defining Bind-on-Pickup epic items like the Primal Mooncloth and Frozen Shadoweave sets of the Burning Crusade. Practically all of the armor that can be crafted with these skills is now Bind on Equip and can be bought and sold. What does this mean and, if there aren’t self-crafted sets any longer, what benefits do each tradeskill now provide to the healing Druid?

Continue reading ‘Mailbag: Leatherworking vs. Tailoring in WotLK’…

Related Posts

• Mailbag: WotLK Item List
• Pre-Raid Gear: Head, Shoulder, Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet
• Mailbag: Zul’Aman Healing Chests

Happy Turkey day, everyone! I’m especially thankful to all of the readers who contributed pictures of their Moonkin. The turnout was greater than I anticipated, especially given how generally healing-oriented Resto4Life is! Thank you! And now, without further ado, here are the 2008 Turkey Day submissions:

Adremma of Sentinels (US) sends in the first of many examples of the improved quest coding that allows Druids to complete most quests while retaining their shapeshifted form! Personally, when I complete this quest, I’m going to do so in Tree of Life so that it looks like a yeti carrying firewood! Then again, maybe that’s not such a good idea!
Aedos of Aggramar (EU) is seen here chilling out with her undead buddy, Frosty, after defeating a Frost Drake in Dragonblight. If Frosty seems a little heftier than normal, it’s because Aedos has been feeding him a diet of Papa Hummel’s Old Fashioned Pet Biscuits. The hope being that a vegetarian diet will prevent Frosty from instead developing a taste for Turkey!
Not wanting BRK to have all the pet-related fun, Bellwether of 4 Haelz has managed to acquire her own pet, this one a Ravager. She aspires to even greater heights, though, admitting that what she really wants is a rhino! Just imagine the ground tremors from a Moonkin and a rhino!
Copey of Dunemaul (US) fixes a non-traditional Turkey Day feast by serving himself alongside fresh seafood. Now who’s going to tell the butterball that he’s already golden brown?
Flash of Moonfire author Hana of Skywall (US) takes to the sky in Harry’s Bomber, no doubt on a mission to exact revenge on those who mocked her stubby wings in grade school!
Hibiscus of Terokkar (US), soon-to-be mother of two baby Boomkin	A mysterious contributor, John, sends this snapshot of his Boomkin traveling overland. Poor Mistsaber!	Marikel of Scarlet Crusade (US) learns the hard way that Moonkin can’t fly.
Enjoying her new-found firepower, Nurowyn of Kilrogg (US) struts her stuff out in the Grizzly Hills. The two native Imperial Eagles seem less than impressed by her lack of avian dignity.
Here my Warlock guildmate Miaja has lured me into a dangerous trap, intending to enjoy a delectable Turkey Day dinner at my expense! Who can really blame her, though? After all, in Moonkin Form, I’m bigger than Hansel and Gretel put together!
Despite the extreme cold of Northrend causing her feathers stick together, Riverwish looks poised to throw a Starfire (or maybe a snowball) at yet one more quest mob. Fortunately, she persevered through the wind and snow to level 80 and is now happily back in Tree of Life, snuggling by the fire in Dalaran inn (though hopefully not too close).
Set for 600 Degrees and Roast for 9 hours POOR TERANIN!	Teranin of Skywall (US) is a Master of the Drumsticks!	Charging into battle aboard an engineered tank, Teranin gives whole new meaning to the term “Panzerkin”!
Glyph of Thorns author Thorn sets out on a Paul Revere-esque ride across the frozen tundras of Northrend, likely yelling “THE PILGRIMS ARE COMING!” and fleeing certain demise.
A common theme this year appears to be a celebration of the ability to ride all manner of mounts — and, in some cases, quest mobs. Here Tauren Druid Roseline of Dreadmaul (US) is seen galloping across Dragonblight astride a Blood Elf Paladin’s mount of all things!
Wise Fox submits this picture of his cunning method of avoiding becoming a turkey dinner!	After this, Wise Fox will NEVER AGAIN lose his raid slot to a Mage!	From this gory shot of cannibalism, I think Muffinator thought this was a Halloween contest!

Related Posts

• Turkey Day! Send Me Your Boomkin!
• Durids R 4 … Haiku?
• Druids Must Have Bunny Form…

In a recent Tree-mail, Treehuggur of Suramar (US) asks:

Has anyone compiled a list of green and blue level 80 gear for Resto Druids to start raiding 10s and 25s?

Paininabox of Runetotem (US) has released a spreadsheet that includes many items from Wrath, though it doesn’t include source or stat-based filtering. As such, here are some healing-oriented gear lists with descriptors. And I shall henceforth be known as "Phaelia I-Filter-WoWHead-So-You-Don’t-Have-To" or simply "Phaelia IFWSYDHT":

Items with Spell Power

• Quested: Blues | Purples 
• Reputation: Blues | Purples 
• Crafted: Blues | Purples
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25
• The Obsidian Sanctum 10 | 25
• The Eye of Eternity (size indeterminate)

Leather Armor with Spell Power

• Quested: Blues
• Reputation: Blues | Purples
• Crafted: Blues | Purples
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25
• The Obsidian Sanctum: 10 | 25

Spell Power and Spirit

• Quested: Blues
• Reputation: Blues
• Crafted: Purples | Blues
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25 
• The Obsidian Sanctum: 10 | 25
• The Eye of Eternity (size indeterminate)

Spell Power and Spell Haste

• Quested:  Greens | Blues | Purples
• Reputation: Blues | Purples
• Crafted: Blues | Purples
• 5-Man Instances (non-Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet
• Drak’Tharon Keep | Gundrak
• The Nexus: The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Pinnacle
• 5-Man Instances (Heroic):
• Azjol-Nerub: Ahn’kahet | Azjol-Nerub
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• Drak’Tharon Keep
• The Nexus: The Nexus | The Oculus
• The Violet Hold
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning | Halls of Stone
• Utgarde Keep: Utgarde Keep | Utgarde Pinnacle
• PvE Tokens: Emblem of Heroism | Emblem of Valor
• Raids:
• Naxxramas: 10 | 25
• The Obsidian Sanctum: 25

PvP: Spell Power and Resilience

• Battlegrounds: Blues | Purples
• Arenas: Leather Armor | Weapons
• Crafted: Leather Armor

While there is considerable overlap between the most desirable stats for a Restoration Druid and a Balance Druid, I invite you to read Graylo’s guest post: Balance vs. Restoration Gear.

Related Posts

• Pre-Raid Gear: Head, Shoulder, Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet
• Pre-Raid Gear: Back, Waist, Wrist, Neck, and Fingers
• Mailbag: Leatherworking vs. Tailoring in WotLK

To steal a page from Kalon's excellent FAQs for Bear and Cat, I've written a Tree FAQ. This FAQ should hopefully bring Restoration Druids up to date with all the changes to healing in Wrath without requiring them to read dozens of posts with multiple iterations of talents and abilities that may or may not be obsolete. I know there are things that I have left out or forgotten, though, so I'd really appreciate if readers could contribute their own questions — and answers, too, if you have them — in the comments. I'll sort through them all, do my best to provide answers, and add them (assuming they're appropriate, of course).

Contents

• History of Changes
• Mechanics Changes
• Spells, Talents, and Abilities
• Tradeskills
• Player vs. Player
• Miscellaneous

History of Changes

• 11/15/2008: Added “What is the best way to raise my faction with D.E.H.T.A. (Druids for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)?” under Miscellaneous.
• 11/15/2008: Added “Which of the two starter zones has the better healing-oriented quest rewards?” under Miscellaneous. Question from Flawlless.
• 11/15/2008: Added note about Cat Form + Drink + Prowl under PvP. Credit to Willowbear.

General Mechanics Changes

• WAAAAAAAHHHH!! What happened to my beautiful 2000 +Healing?!
  Blizzard combined +Healing and +Spell Damage and Healing into one stat called Spell Power. +Spell Damage and Healing converted over at a 1:1 ratio, but your +Healing was multiplied by 0.532 or roughly cut in half. The coefficients of healing spells were increased accordingly so that there should be no net loss in throughput.
  Spell Power, +Healing, and Coefficients
• If spell power affects both damage spells and healing spells, how do DPSers know to pass on my gear?
  While I can't make others pass on "your" gear, there are certain stats that are more appropriate for you, the most clear-cut of which is Spirit. Avoid anything with hit rating since there are no rolls "to hit" with healing spells. Spell crit, while still somewhat beneficial, is really just gravy for a Resto. Haste is nice, especially for builds that use a lot of direct healing, less so for builds that focus primarily on HoTs.
  Balance vs. Restoration Gear
• Were any other stats merged?
  Yes, spell hit and melee hit are now simply "hit rating." Spell and melee crit have also been merged, as well as haste.
• Am I crazy, or did the cost of my Lifebloom go up when I leveled to 71?
  Blizzard changed the mechanics of all spells so that their mana cost is measured as a percentage of base mana. This change was made to prevent downranking, a process whereby the caster used a lower level spell, often a direct heal like Healing Touch, in an effort to conserve mana.
• Why did they want to eliminate downranking?
  Essentially, developers were struggling to balance content while having to take into account the effects of downranking since the resulting mana expense was too difficult too variable.
  Wrath Recap: Downranking No Longer Possible
• What happened to my Tree aura?
  In an effort to standardize the buffs and debuffs provided by the various classes, Blizzard changed Tree of Life aura to provide a flat 6% bonus to healing done. This aura is now applied raid-wide, which means you no longer have to be assigned to the “tank group.”
• Does that mean my aura stacks?
  No. One tree is sufficient to provide the maximum +Healing aura benefit. Paladins with Improved Devotion Aura (a 3-point talent requiring an 18 point investment in the Protection tree) can also provide a 6% healing bonus, and the two do not stack with one another. This change was made with the intention to decrease the emphasis on bringing specific classes to a raid.
  Blue: Changes to Buffs and Debuffs
• So with the changes to mana regeneration, how many mana potions should I expect to carry around? 20? 40? 60?
  Blizzard introduced a Potion Sickness debuff that's applied on an encounter basis that prevents consumption of more than one health or mana potion per boss attempt. Therefore, you should plan a number of mana potions equal to the number of boss attempts you think your raid will make.
  Beta Patch Changes (Build 8681)

Spells, Talents and Abilities

• Is that my Lifebloom or did someone just use a [Heavy Mageweave Bandage]?
  Sadly, that's your Lifebloom. Lifebloom had its mana cost increased and its effective healing decreased. For more about this change, see Commentary on the Great Lifebloom Nerf (of Build 8962). Essentially, the HPS of Lifebloom took a considerable hit, but, by increasing its duration to 10 seconds via Nature's Splendor and the [Glyph of Lifebloom], its HPM is mostly unchanged.
  Koraa: We hope to tone down Lifebloom in WotLK
• What happened to my roots? I feel so much faster!
  Blizzard removed the movement penalty of Tree of Life. This should make many encounters requiring movement much easier for Restoration Druids.
• I just decursed someone in Tree of Life without being shifted out! Whoa.
  They also lifted the restriction on spells that can be cast, allowing the use of Healing Touch and Remove Curse without having to shift to caster form. Heals over time, however, are the only spells that receive a mana cost reduction. This includes Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Wild Growth, and Tranquility. It excludes Healing Touch, Nourish, Rebirth, Innervate, Abolish Poison, and Remove Curse.
• Do Druids finally get an out of combat resurrection spell or can I look forward to being rejected for 5-mans again?
  We do! Blizzard finally understood that not being able to resurrect our groupmates was an unnecessary handicap that really had no effect on game balance.
  Ghostcrawler Defends Druids’ Out of Combat Rez
• HAHAHAHA!!! WE CAN HAZ REZ!! Is there any point at all to those other healers now?
  Not at all. They should all respec for DPS and leave all the +Healing gear for us. Oh … wait.
• Hey, where’s that new Flourish skill I’ve heard so much about? I can't wait to cast it and yell, “TADA!”
  Flourish was the original name for our 51-point AoE HoT talent. It has since been renamed to Wild Growth and been nerfed considerably from its original inception.
• What?! That’s so lame!
  It is lame, but it was admittedly pretty overpowered in its original form. It was nerfed into the ground at the time it was renamed but has since been buffed back up to a more respectable amount.
  Wild Growth … Grows a Pair
• What other awesome Restoration talents can I look forward to?
  Well, in summary there’s Gift of the Earthmother, a 5-point talent that shaves a total of 0.3 seconds off the global cooldown when you cast Rejuvenation, Lifebloom or Wild Growth. This amount assumes 0 spell haste; the returns actually diminish based on how much spell haste you have. Replenish is a 3-point talent that has a 15% chance to restore a marginal amount of mana, rage, runic power, or energy for each tick of Rejuvenation. Finally, Living Seed applies a buff to the recipient of one of your critical heals. This “seed” will pop the next time the target takes damage for 30% of effective healing from the original heal that planted it. This means that if your critical heal only does 100 points of effective healing, the seed will have a healing value of 30 HP. In general, I consider the talents at the bottom of the Restoration tree to be underwhelming and overpriced.
• With all these new changes, should I plan on sinking 61 points into Restoration?
  The Balance tree also got a significant revamp, making many of the introductory talents an attractive option for healing Druids. New talents such as Genesis and Nature’s Splendor are both good options, and Balance staples Nature’s Grace and Moonglow have seen increased accessibility by being moved down a few tiers.
  Balance Tree … Uprooted and Transplanted
• Indoor roots? Really? What are we, houseplants?
  It’s true! Entangling Roots can now be cast indoors, finally giving Balance Druids the viable form of crowd control they’ve been asking for. Just remember that it’s only useful on melee mobs rooted outside of melee range or spellcasting mobs out of line of sight. And if that means we're houseplants, I totally call gardenia.
  Indoor Roots and Mark(ed) Improvements

Tradeskills

• What’s this Inscription thing all about?
  Inscription is a new production tradeskill used to create Glyphs, which are essentially items that can be used to temporarily modify (as long as you have them “equipped”) various skills and abilities. They come in two flavos: Major, which provide significant improvements to core abilities, and Minor which provide lesser improvements or aesthetic changes to abilities.
   Inscription for Druids
• So I TOTALLY dropped my very lucrative Jewelcrafting tradeskill to pick up Leatherworking for Drums ‘cause my guild leader said I had to. I am such a team player.
  Actually, Blizzard introduced a new debuff called Tinnitus that is caused every time someone in your group uses a set of drums. This prevents you from using another set of drums until the cooldown of the person who caused the debuff has expired. This change was made to prevent drum rotations because so many guilds (like yours) were requiring guild members to pick up. On the bright side, you can still make [Heavy Leather Ball]s with your new skill!

Player vs. Player

• Should I still expect to cast 5 second Wraths when being attacked by a Rogue or Cat?
  Taking damage while casting a spell will now delay your casting by a maximum of 1.0 seconds, generally in 0.5 second increments for each of the first two hits. This makes it much easier to deal with fast-hitting Rogues and Cats.
  Spell Pushback Changes
• Will tried-and-true tactics of “pillar kiting” be effective in Wrath?
  While these techniques can still be employed in three TBC Arenas (Blade’s Edge, Ruins of Lordaeron, and Nagrand Arena), two newly introduced Arenas (Dalaran Sewers and Orgrimmar Arena) will introduce obstacles and fluctuating terrain that will make the use of line of sight more complex and potentially dangerous.
  Teh Pee Vee Pees! from Blizzcon Summary
• So if I can’t pillar kite, what are my options?
  Improved Tree of Life is a 3-point talent at the bottom of the Restoration tree that affords an additional 100% armor from gear when you’re in Tree of Life. Unfortunately, Tree of Life loses access to Cyclone and Entangling Roots, two spells that can greatly reduce the need for additional armor. It also leaves you susceptible to a Warlock’s Banish. Honestly, until we see how the addition of Death Knights and their anti-HoT mechanics play out, we probably won’t have a good idea of the best way to play a Restoration Druid in Arenas.
  Death Knight Degeneration to Convert HoTs to DoTs
• Why does my Shadowmeld have a 3-minute cooldown?
  Shadowmeld was fundamentally changed so that it can be used in combat and essentially functions as a temporary aggro wipe. If you happen to be alone and enter combat with one or more mobs, using Shadowmeld causes the mobs to lose their interest in you, leashing back to their original spawn point or path. Unfortunately, this puts a real damper on the tactic of sitting to drink and using Shadowmeld. However, the same thing can be accomplished using Cat Form, sitting to drink (now available in forms), and using Prowl (credit to Willowbear).
  Night Elf is to Ninja as Tauren is to Giant, Stompy Cheeseburger
• What’s all this crap on my PvP gear? Spuh...Spee...Spirit?
  The PvP sets in Wrath have been itemized with Spirit/Intellect-based mana regeneration in mind. Gone are the gobs and gobs of MP5 you found on Restoration and Balance PvP sets in Wrath. Your Innervate will thank you. As long as you hide behind a pillar to protect it from being dispelled, of course. Unlike the Arena gear in TBC post 2.4, the presence of Spirit on PvP gear in Wrath has the side effect of it a viable choice for PvE. This is even more true if your guild typically falls behind on the PvE curve.
  Wrath Build 8820: PvP Itemization

Miscellaneous

• Eek! I have to do damage to level, don't I? Is that what these non-tree buttons are for?
  While you might be fortunate enough to have one or more sla— friends to help you level up to 80 in Wrath, why not empower yourself with a few points in Balance? There are several talents that provide synergy for both healing and DPSing, including Nature's Majesty, Moonglow, Nature's Grace, Nature's Splendor, and Lunar Guidance.
  Moonfire Spamming Your Way to 80 in Wrath
• I'm not 70, yet, and I won't have time to get Honored with Lower City to be able to run Heroic Sethekk Halls! Does this mean I'm out in the cold for Swift Flight Form?
  Not anymore. As of Patch 3.0, Druids will be able to train Swift Flight Form at level 71— of course, you still have to have trained Artisan Riding for 5,000 gold before you can! For those looking forward to the quest, it will still be available.
• I heard that Druids are getting "polar bear form" in the expansion!
  While not specifically a Resto question, Trees like to look cute, too. The original idea was to provide Minor Glyphs to change the appearance of Druid forms. However, there was much public outcry to the effect that Druids shouldn't have to sacrifice a potentially useful Glyph slot to get the character customization that everyone else gets, so they're looking into alternate solutions. Blizzard has indicated that they plan to have this customization available with the first major content patch following Wrath's release.
• Which of the two starter zones has the better healing-oriented quest rewards?
  While Howling Fjord is definitely the prettier of the two zones, Borean Tundra trounces it with regard to healing-oriented rewards. Here’s a breakdown:
  • Borean Tundra has 8 Blue, 55 Green quest rewards with spell power. Of those, 1 Blue and 12 Green items also have Spirit. 8 of the total rewards are leather, and 2 of those leather rewards have Spirit.
  • Howling Fjord has 35 Green quest rewards with spell power. Of those, 10 Green items also have Spirit. 6 of the total rewards are leather, and only 1 of those leather rewards have Spirit.
• What is the best way to raise my faction with D.E.H.T.A. (Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals)?
  Unfortunately, D.E.H.T.A. isn’t actually a faction so much as a quest hub in Borean Tundra. The quests they give are essentially disruptions to Hemet Nesingwary’s efforts to exploit the fauna of Northrend. Caution should be taken not to aggro the wildlife when traveling through Borean Tundra because killing animals such as the Wooly Mammoth will result in a debuff that makes D.E.H.T.A. members temporarily aggressive towards you. Time to map that Soothe Animal ability!

  As a side note, completing the D.E.H.T.A. quests is worth around 4,000 reputation with the TBC faction, Cenarion Expedition, making the acquisition of the "Guardian of Cenarius" title (available at Exalted with both Cenarion Circle and Cenarion Expedition) that much easier.

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