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.

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).

Bringing SexyMap to Druids

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?

Crafted Armor

Assuming you’re choosing the skill for the reduced cost of items it produces, let’s compare the items each can create. Because you’re likely to graduate out of them fairly quickly, I’m going to ignore green items.

Leatherworking

Leatherworking can currently craft a total of 23 items with spell power.

The Iceborne Blues:  [Dark Iceborne Leggings] [Dark Iceborne Chestguard] 
These two items are itemized perfectly for the raiding Druid with plenty of Spirit and not points wasted on superfluous stats. Note that wearing these two pieces plus one other green from the [Iceborne Embrace] set will net you an additional 26 spell power. With the number of slots available (waist, feet, hands, shoulders, wrist, or helm), it will give you a lot of flexibility when it comes to upgrading your gear.

The Overcast Set: [Overcast Spaulders] [Overcast Leggings] [Overcast Headguard] [Overcast Handwraps] [Overcast Chestguard] [Overcast Bracers] [Overcast Boots] [Overcast Belt]
This all-blue set of items has a great balance of stats for the healing Druid with lots of Spirit and no wasted points spell crit, spell haste, or spell hit. The excess of Resilience, however, makes this clearly intended for use in PvP. Tailoring can produce a similar set called Frostsavage, but a conscientious  Druid knows to shy away from cloth in PvP.

SQUISH! [Bugsquashers]
These boots are easily on par with the two blue items from the Iceborne set mentioned above but are likely separated from them to avoid having three easily acquired blues that provide the set bonus (you have to sacrifice one slot to a green item).

The Earthgiving Set: [Earthgiving Legguards] [Earthgiving Boots]
These two items are currently the only two crafted leather epic items with spell power, appear to be itemized with the Tree in mind, and are certain to give you a leg up in heroics or Naxxramas. The recipes for both of these items must be purchased for 2 [Artic Fur] from Braeg Stoutbeard in Dalaran and each requires a [Frozen Orb] to make (the WotLK equivalent of a [Primal Nether]).

Non-Ideal Items: [Wildscale Breastplate] [Purehorn Spaulders] 
These two items aren’t itemized perfectly for the raiding Druid with itemization points on the breastplate wasted on spell crit and on haste rating on the shoulders. I’d guess these two items are intended more for our Balance brethren.

Tailoring

Tailoring can currently craft a total of 46 items with spell power. Note, however, that a number of these are geared more toward DPS casters and Holy Priests with spell crit, spell hit, and spell haste.

The Mystic Frostwoven Set: [Mystic Frostwoven Wristwraps] [Mystic Frostwoven Shoulders] [Mystic Frostwoven Robe]
This set is similar to the Leatherworking Iceborne set with three blue items instead of two (but both a 2-piece and 4-piece set bonus, the latter of which can be achieved by wearing one of the green items from the [Frostwoven Power] set). This set is heavy on the Spirit but has no Intellect. It also includes a lot of crit rating, which is not an especially useful stat to the Restoration Druid. Overall, this set seems poorly itemized and is likely to be avoided.

The Frostsavage Set
This is the Tailored equivalent to the Overcast Set from Leatherworking. It has no Spirit, a lot of critical strike rating and Resilience, and – as it’s made out of cloth – is best avoided by the PvPing Druid. PTUI!

Spiritual Blues: [Light Blessed Mittens] [Aurora Slippers] [Cloak of the Moon] [Frostmoon Pants]
These are easily craftable blues that have a nice balance of stats, including Intellect, Stamina, spell power and Spirit (or, in the case of the cloak, MP5). I’ve crafted a couple of these for myself so far, consuming Moonshroud cloth that I would otherwise be saving. I’ve already replaced one of the items with an item from a Heroic dungeon, though, so you might instead consider saving your cloth for the Moonshroud set further on.

The Moonshroud Set: [Moonshroud Robe] [Moonshroud Gloves]
These are the big cahuna items of Tailoring for healers, the equivalent of the [Primal Mooncloth] set in TBC. Like the Earthgiving pieces from Leatherworking, they are perfectly itemized for us. You will note, however, that there are only two pieces to the set and there is no set bonus like that of PMC. This will make these items less painful to replace.

The [Wispcloak]
While not perfectly itemized for a Restoration Druid (having MP5 instead of the more desirable Spirit), it is an epic item with good spell power and Intellect.

Non-Ideal items: [Silky Iceshard Boots] [Hat of Wintry Doom] [Deep Frozen Cord] [Cloak of Frozen Spirits] [Black Duskweave Wristwraps] [Black Duskweave Leggings] [Black Duskweave Robe] [Spellweave Robe] [Spellweave Gloves] [Ebonweave Robe] [Ebonweave Gloves] [Deathchill Cloak]
Given the allotment of stats on these items, they’re better for other casters than the Restoration Druid.

Monetary Benefits

By choosing a crafting skill, you’ve chosen to give up one of the potentially lucrative gathering skills. However, there are still a number of items that can be produced for profit (in addition to the BoE armor listed above).

Leatherworking

Leatherworking can craft a number of useful BoE armor kits, including the [Frosthide Leg Armor], [Icescale Leg Armor], and [Jormungar Leg Armor]. The [Heavy Borean Armor Kit] isn’t spectacular, but it’s nice for alts while they’re leveling.

Tailoring

As with TBC, Tailors can create spellthreads to enchant players’ legs, including [Azure Spellthread] and [Shining Spellthread]. In addition, Tailors can train the Northern Cloth Scavenging ability that gives them an additional chance to find extra cloth on humanoids (and Undead humanoids). This ability means Tailors will continue to acquire more cloth than non-Tailors, making it easier to level first aid or sell the unneeded excess.

Tailors can also make bags, though the introductory level [Frostweave Bag] is a popular choice for skillups and is therefore harder to sell at a profit (or break even point). The 24-slot [Glacial Bag] requires 4 pieces of Ebonweave and 4 pieces of Moonshroud, making it a valuable (but time-consuming) item to produce.

Additional Self-Only Benefits

Leatherworking and Tailoring both provide nice self-only enchants as well as items that can be used to “enchant” the equipment of other players. Let’s look at the healing-oriented options for each.

Leatherworking

Leatherworkers can apply several fur linings to their bracers (these are self-only enchants). Restoration Druids will prefer the [Fur Lining – Spell Power]. There are also versions for every resist type. It’s assumed that Blizzard will also be adding Drums like in TBC, but the recipes  haven’t been released, yet.

Tailoring

Tailors can embroider their cloaks with one of three caster-oriented embroideries. Restoration Druids will likely prefer the [Darkglow Embroidery]. They can also craft a self-only [Sanctified Spellthread] to apply to their pants, a significantly more potent version of the [Shining Spellthread] and cheaper self-only alternative to the BoE [Brilliant Spellthread].

Perhaps the most iconic self-only benefit of being a Master Seamstress is the [Magnificent Flying Carpet]. It can be crafted at 425 tailoring, and the materials are surprisingly affordable. There are more prestigious, specialization-specific versions of this mount including one sewn from Moonshroud.

Summary and Comparison

• Both Leatherworking and Tailoring have a good number of similar options for a healing Druid.
• Tailoring is a self-sufficient gathering tradeskill. Northern Cloth Scavenging will help you acquire the cloth you need to level your skill, especially if you run a lot of instances with humanoids. A leatherworker has to pick up Skinning on her main character or an alt or be willing to place herself at the mercy of the auction house. /cower
• Tailoring currently has slightly more self-only Druid-friendly benefits (one of the self-only benefits for Leatherworkers only benefits melee characters), though the addition of Drums should even the score.
• Leatherworking includes the Overcast PvP set, and the Improved Tree of Life talents make all leather armor more valuable than it would have been otherwise.
• Tailored items are typically more attractive (and more visible since Leatherworking doesn’t include an epic chestpiece), but this doesn’t matter to everyone and is only relevant outside of Tree of Life. Tailoring also comes with a sweet-looking magic carpet (beautiful Persian princess not included).

Honestly, the differences between the two professions aren’t that pronounced. I’d be inclined to recommend Leatherworking to a Restoration Druid that intends to PvP and Tailoring to a Restoration Druid who intends to have Balance as her off spec (sadly, there appear to be fewer few Balance-friendly rewards from Leatherworking). Of course, you could be a masochist like me and level both! /wildtreecackling

A Note on Leveling Your Tradeskill

To raise your skill to the level required to make a desired item, you’ll have to invest a considerable sum of money to craft items that aren’t necessarily useful to you (or an alt). In the realm of Tailoring and Leatherworking, the sooner you can raise your skill and place your excess merchandise up for sale, the better off you will be. As time passes, more players enter the market, flooding the auction house with the most easily crafted items, often selling them at a loss in order to sell them at all (I’ve found this to be the case of Imbued Frostweave Bags). At the same time, players are graduating out of this “tier” of items as they find replacements through Heroic drops, badge gear, and demand eventually trails off. This temporary increase in supply and ever decreasing demand can lead to a glut in the crafting market that will leave you “holding the bag” on raising your skill. In short, raise your skill as quickly as you can and try to craft items that are not only economical to produce but seem like they would sell. (Don’t produce 10 pairs of cloth bracers if there are already 8 of them on the auction house.)

Production vs. Gathering

In the comments below, reader Faradhim inquires:

Given that there are no longer large number of BoP items for either profession do you think there is a good reason to even pick up one of this crafting professions? Like you have observed leveling up tailoring/leather crafting is very expensive and seems like you will be able to buy just about every items you need on AH from other tailors/leather workers save spell threads and Fur lining. And there will be stiff competition from other crafters which means items is likely to sell at a deep discount.

This is such a good question that I wanted to append my response here. Since discovering that Blizzard wouldn’t be providing tradeskill-defining BoP epics, I’ve wrestled with this question myself. Am I not doing myself a disservice by choosing a production tradeskill over a gathering tradeskill? While it’s true that each gathering tradeskill provides some form of self-buff or self-benefit in addition to their obvious monetary potential, how do these benefits stack up against the ones provided by production tradeskills?

• Herbalism
  Lifeblood (Rank 6): This ability does not scale with spell power and for a class that uses HoTs, its effect is pretty negligible.
  [Fire Seed]: Makes you vulnerable to magic, but increases your spell power by 200 for 10 sec. Assuming you could chain the use of these, the benefit works out to be 33.3 spell power.
• Leatherworking
  [Fur Lining – Spell Power] replaces [Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower] (or the much more affordable [Enchant Bracers - Greater Spellpower]) and [Enchant Bracers - Major Spirit]. It’s 44 more spell power than the greater enchant and 37 more spell power than the superior one, not to mention considerably more affordable.
  Assuming that drums recipes are eventually added for Wrath, we can likely expect the WotLK equivalent of [Drums of Restoration] to be 30 MP5 or greater.
• Mining
  Toughness: All your hard work spent mining has made you exceptionally tough, increasing your maximum health by 500. Obviously, more health is always welcome even if it’s generally more useful for Feral tanks.
• Skinning
  Master of Anatomy (Rank 6): Skinning all those dead animals has broadened your anatomical knowledge, increasing your critical strike rating by 25. As a Resto Druid, I /spit on 25 crit rating. PTUI!
• Tailoring
  [Darkglow Embroidery] replaces [Enchant Cloak - Wisdom]. With a 35% proc rate and 75 second internal cooldown, the embroidery works out to be 0.79 PPM or 20 MP5. Honestly, the enchant seems better to me, not to mention substantially easier to acquire. I think adjustment to the embroidery is needed to clearly make it superior to what could be acquired otherwise.
  While significantly cheaper, the [Sanctified Spellthread] is equivalent to the [Brilliant Spellthread] available to non-Tailors.

To me, none of the gathering profession benefits seem to match up with the strength of the production tradeskill benefits (which, in my mind, is as it should be). Therefore, the most ideal situation is to keep two production tradeskills on your main character and keep an alt for gathering to supplement them. For instance, my Warlock is a Skinner and Herbalist helping Phaelia raise her Leatherworking skill and keep her stocked with potions. This has the additional benefit of doubling your return from any reputation gains that afford you new recipes.

Kaliope actually recently addressed this issue on her post To Keep or Not to Keep, THAT is the question. She seems to present the opposite point of view, so it’s definitely worth a read.

Thank you to Kehnomar for the wonderful question and for all of the information he later sent to me that assisted with writing this article!

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).

Mailbag: Leatherworking vs. Tailoring in WotLK

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!

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).

Turkey Day 2008!

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.

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).

Mailbag: WotLK Item List

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.

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).

WotLK Restoration FAQ

For those of you unfamiliar with the Nostromo SpeedPad, it’s a computer peripheral that rests under your left hand and mimics the key commands of the keyboard. The keys themselves are laid out as follows:

• 14 keys in 3 rows (the last of which only has 4 keys)
• A rectangular thumb button
• A circular thumb button
• A clickable scroll wheel
• An analog directional pad

The 14 base keys are where you map your primary abilities. The four fingers of your left hand rest on the middle row of keys (6-9), and there’s a home row marker on key 8 so that you can quickly find your hand position without having to look at the pad. The Nostromo SpeedPad works by mimicking key presses from your keyboard. So your first step is to configure your gamepad so that each of its keys corresponds to a key on your keyboard.

What You Will Need:

• Bartender4 (via Curse.com)
• Belkin Nostromo N52 TE (via Amazon.com)
• Paper and pencil

Quick Links

• Configuring the Nostromo N52te
• Laying out Action Bars with Bartender4
• Key Binding with Bartender4
• Pagination with Bartender4
• Planning Your Macros
• Sample Role-Based Layouts
• Key Binding Character and Camera Movement
• Key Binding Shapeshifts
• Macro Help: Mouseover Healing
• Macro Help: Heal Self
• Macro Help: Form-Specific Abilities

Configuring the Nostromo N52te

Install the drivers and software that came with the Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad. If prompted to restart your computer, be sure to do so. Now we’ll want to map the keys on your Nostromo to keys on your keyboard. I have my keys mapped in the following way:

You can, of course, map your keys however you want, but avoid using keys that are bound to common interface functions you’ve grown accustomed to using (such as C for the Character screen). I’ve bound my thumb key to ALT since that’s the “alternate” key I like to use in my macros (since it has the fewest number of characters) and my red thumb button to "jump" for interrupting spells or just hopping around to annoy people. Note that in my configuration, I use F1-F4 for shapeshifting, but I’ve never used the keys to target group members as is the default configuration.

Laying out Action Bars with Bartender4

By default, Bartender starts with several bars enabled and displayed in the center of your screen. We’ll want to start by hiding all but two of these. To do this:

1. Open the Bartender4 configuration by typing /bt.
2. Click on Bar 3 in the lefthand pane.
3. Uncheck the Enabled checkbox to hide this bar.
4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for bars 4-10 if necessary.

Because each action bar within Bartender4 is limited to only 12 keys, we’ll have to use two bars to simulate the key layout of our Nostromo.* We’ll set up the first bar as 5 columns by 2 rows and place a second bar below it that’s 1 column by 3 rows so that it looks like this:

* Note: There are multiple configurations that can work, but this layout is one that will give you the most flexibility when it comes to activating automatic paging based on shapeshifts.

To configure bars 1 and 2 to resemble the layout shown above:

1. Open the Bartender4 configuration by typing /bt.
2. Uncheck the Lock checkbox at the top of the dialog box.
3. Click on Bar 1 in the lefthand pane.
4. Set the Buttons slider to 10.
5. Set the Rows slider to 2.
6. Click and drag Bar 1 into position, leaving enough room to position a second bar beneath it.
7. Click on Bar 2 in the lefthand pane.
8. Set the Buttons slider to 5.
9. Set the Rows slider to 1.
10. Click and drag Bar 2 into position beneath Bar 1.
11. Check the Lock checkbox at the top of the dialog box.
12. Optional: Check the Button Grid option for Bar 1 and Bar 2 so that you can easily see which buttons are unfilled.
13. Close the Bartender4 configuration by clicking on the Close button.

Key Binding with Bartender4

Now that our action bars resemble the key layout above, we can bind the keys of our Nostromo to their corresponding action bar buttons within Bartender4. To do so:

1. Type in /kb. This will put you into Key Binding Mode.
2. Mouseover each key on your action bars and press the key on your Nostromo you want to associate with it. For the sake of symmetry, I like to bind the fifth button on Bar 2 to a key on the side of my mouse. I generally map this key to emergency ability such as Barkskin.
3. Exit Key Binding Mode by clicking the OK button.

Pagination with Bartender4

Druids have many abilities that are form-specific, making stance-specific pagination (automatic bar swapping when you shapeshift) especially helpful. I recommend paginating your action bars as follows:

1. Open the Bartender4 configuration by typing /bt.
2. Click on Bar 1 in the lefhand pane.
3. Click on the State Configuration tab in the righthand pane.
4. Ensure the Enabled checkbox is checked.
5. Under Bear Form, set the paging dropdown to Page 3.
6. Under Cat Form and Cat Form Prowl, set the paging dropdown to Page 5.
7. Under Tree of Life and Moonkin Form, set the paging dropdown to Don’t Page.
8. Click on Bar 2 in the lefthand pane.
9. Click on the State Configuration tab in the righthand pane.
10. Ensure the Enabled checkbox is checked.
11. Under Bear Form, set the paging dropdown to Page 4.
12. Under Cat Form and Cat Form Prowl, set the paging dropdown to Page 6.
13. Under Tree of Life and Moonkin Form, set the paging dropdown to Don’t Page.
14. Close the Bartender4 configuration by clicking on the Close button.

Planning Your Macros

Since your default action bars will be those available to you when in caster form, you’ll want to map all those abilities you want to have easily accessible to buttons 1-14. Note that how you lay them out will probably depend upon the spec you play primarily. A Restoration Druid will probably reserve her home row of keys (6-10) for healing spells while a Moonkin will probably use those keys for her Balance spells. Because we’re limited to only 14 keys for the spells and abilities that are available from caster form, we’ll want to create macros that “pair” abilities based on the use of an alternate key such as Shift, Ctrl, or Alt (whichever key you’ve bound to the thumb key under Configuring the Nostromo SpeedPad). To do this in an intuitive way, I like to categorize my spells and abilities based on what function they perform and what they require:

I will often create a macro that combines two skills within the same category, with the less frequently used (or sometimes the one that feels more powerful) version set up as the alternate ability of the more commonly used one. Such a macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt] Ability2; Ability1

The above macro will activate Ability1 by default and Ability2 when pressed and the alt key is held down. The #showtooltip line will automatically display the appropriate tooltip for the ability that will be activated (and icon if you chose the icon when creating the macro). Example pairings that I like to use include:

Obviously, many of the above pairings are spec-dependent since a Restoration Druid won’t have access to Starfall, Typhoon, or Insect Swarm (in which case, she might instead pair Moonfire with Faerie Fire), and a Balance Druid won’t have access to Wild Growth, Swiftmend, or Nature’s Swiftness. Ferals tend to have fewer abilities available to them within a given form, so it isn’t as important to pair them up like this. However, by doing so, a Feral frees herself to keybind abilities that will shift her out of form when necessary. It can be helpful while soloing to have heals readily accessible, especially when you have “heal self by default” enabled. (Note, however, that a Bear might not want to risk accidentally popping out while tanking.) These are just to give you some ideas of how you might choose to set up paired abilities.

Sample Role-Based Layouts

Caster Form

Caster (Basic) Caster (Alternate)

Row Column Base Ability + ALT   1 1 Innervate Self Innervate Target   1 2 Entangling Roots Nature’s Grasp   1 3 Cyclone Hibernate   1 4 Remove Curse Abolish Poison   1 5 Shapeshift: Tree of Life /cancelform   2 1 Lifebloom Activate Trinket   2 2 Rejuvenation Swiftmend   2 3 Regrowth Nourish *   2 4 Wild Growth Tranquility   2 5 Healing Touch NS + Healing Touch   3 1 Moonfire Faerie Fire   3 2 Wrath Starfire   3 3 Hurricane     3 4 Mark of the Wild Gift of the Wild   3 5 Barkskin Shadowmeld

Cat Form

This layout assumes level 75+ for Savage Roar and Maim (but was created on my level 62 Feral Druid, hence the icons):

Cat (Basic) Cat (Alternate)

Row Column Base Ability + ALT   1 1 Prowl     1 2 Tiger’s Fury     1 3 Cower Nature’s Grasp   1 4 Feral Charge – Cat Dash   1 5 Shapeshift: Dire Bear Form /cancelform   2 1 Ravage   2 2 Rake     2 3 Mangle – Cat     2 4 Shred     2 5 Rip     3 1 Feral Faerie Fire     3 2 Savage Roar     3 3 Maim (nostealth)*, Pounce (stealth)   3 4 Regrowth Self Rejuvenation Self   3 5 Barkskin Survival Instincts

Bear Form

I tried to match abilities between Cat Form and Dire Bear Form to make the learning curve between the two a little less steep. For example, the Bear Form stun, Bash, is mapped to the same key as Pounce/Maim for Cat Form, and Barkskin/Survival Instinct remains the same. This layout assumes level 51+ for Berserk (but was created on my level 62 Feral Druid, hence the icons):

Bear (Basic) Bear (Alternate)

Row Column Base Ability + ALT   1 1 Growl Challenging Roar   1 2 Enrage     1 3 Frenzied Regeneration Nature’s Grasp   1 4 Feral Charge – Bear     1 5 Shapeshift: Cat Form /cancelform   2 1 Maul     2 2 Swipe     2 3 Mangle – Bear     2 4 Berserk     2 5 —     3 1 Feral Faerie Fire     3 2 Demoralizing Roar     3 3 Bash     3 4 Regrowth Self Rejuvenation Self   3 5 Barkskin Survival Instincts

And to help you plan your own custom layout(s), I’ve created a printable template in Acrobat Reader.

Key Binding Character and Camera Movement

Movement — including strafing — is important in many PvE encounters and especially in PvP content. To facilitate this, I keybind my Nostromo like this:

• Analog Down: down arrow key, back up
• Analog Right: F2, strafe right
• Analog Left: F3, strafe left
• Analog Up: up arrow key, move forward
• Round Thumb button: spacebar, jump

Then I use the in-game key bindings (Escape> Key Bindings > Movement Keys) menu to bind F2 and F3 to strafing.

Note: you may find the analog directional pad to have a non-intuitive orientation (where the up/forward key feels like it should instead be right/strafe right). If this is the case, feel free to shift your directional bindings clockwise one position.

To maneuver the camera, I hold down the right mouse button, and to turn without strafing, I hold down the right and left mouse buttons and move the mouse left or right.

Key Binding Shapeshifts

Even pairing up abilities as described above, you may find yourself short on space when it comes to being able to map your different forms. Over time, I’ve settled on using the scroll wheel for shapeshifting. I use "scroll down" for Dire Bear Form and "scroll up" for Cat Form. I then reserve key 5 for my spec-specific form — either Tree of Life or Moonkin Form. This macro won’t shift you out of the specified form unless you hold down ALT:

#showtooltip Tree of Life
/cast [nomod,nostance:5] Tree of Life
/cancelform [mod:alt]

Because my bars are set up to switch to another page when I’m in a Feral form, I use key 5 to switch between the two forms. In other words, if I shapeshift into Dire Bear Form, key 5 is set up to let me switch into Cat Form and will shift me back into Bear if I’m in Cat Form. The Bear to Cat version of this macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,stance:1] Cat Form;
/cancelform [mod:alt]

And the Cat to Bear version of this macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,stance:3] Dire Bear Form;
/cancelform [mod:alt]

Macro Help: Mouseover Healing

Mouseover techniques are worth mentioning here because of their potential when paired with a gamepad like the Nostromo SpeedPad. By setting all of your heals (and decurses) up as mouseover macros, you can heal raidmates and groupmates by simply sliding your mouse over their unitframe and pressing the corresponding key on your gamepad, all without ever having to click to target. This is a particularly great technique when paired with the Grid addon and is often used in lieu of a mouse-based healing addon like Clique. I personally prefer this technique to Clique-based healing as the number of our heals increase. This also gives you increased visual feedback on what heal you’ve selected rather than requiring you to memorize which of the 5+ buttons on your mouse perform which function. A simple mouseover healing macro looks like this:

/cast [target=mouseover] Rejuvenation

And when we pair it with an alternate ability, it will look like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt, target=mouseover] Swiftmend; [target=mouseover] Rejuvenation

If we want to get really fancy (and we do), we can build a macro like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt,target=mouseover,exists,help][mod:alt,target=target,help][mod:alt,target=player] Swiftmend; [target=mouseover,exists,help][target=target,help][target=player] Rejuvenation

The above macro will do the following:

1. If ALT is not pressed and the target under your mouse is one you can help, it will cast Rejuvenation on her.
2. If ALT is not pressed and the target under your mouse is one you cannot help but your current target is one you can, it will cast Rejuvenation on your current target.
3. If ALT is not pressed and both the target under your mouse and your current target are ones you cannot help, it will cast Rejuvenation on you. (This is particularly helpful for healing on the run via insta-cast HoTs in PvP!)
4. If ALT is pressed and the target under your mouse is one you can help, it will cast Swiftmend on her.
5. If ALT is pressed and the target under your mouse is one you cannot help but your current target is one you can, it will cast Swiftmend on your current target.
6. If ALT is pressed and both the target under your mouse and your current target are ones you cannot help, it will cast Swiftmend on you.

It’s a long macro, so it helps to cut-and-paste into notepad, make modifications for applicable spells, then paste it into the macro creation window. You can do something similar for other paired heals like Wild Growth and Tranquility or for Remove Curse and Abolish Poison.

Note: While you could opt to use the interface option for “Heal Self by Default”, this option won’t attempt to heal you should you have someone harmful targeted. The above parameters are necessary to achieve the PvP-friendly behavior described above.

Macro Help: Heal Self

A Feral or Balance Druid might find these macros useful, whether for soloing or PvPing. They’ll shift you out and cast the heal spell on yourself:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=player] Rejuvenation

Macro Help: Form-Specific Abilities

Because Druids have so many form-specific abilities, it’s easy to run out of character-specific macro slots. Save on macro space by building one macro that performs an action based on your current form then map that macro to the same position in either form! For example:

#showtooltip
/cast [stance:3] Feral Charge – Cat
/cast [stance:1] Feral Charge – Bear

You might be wondering why you would want to make such a simple macro when you could just as easily drag the two different abilities to your paginated action bar, but you can add alternate abilities onto this macro like so:

#showtooltip
/cast [stance:3,mod:alt] Dash; [stance:3] Feral Charge – Cat
/cast [stance:1] Feral Charge – Bear

I like to call the above macro my "Go!" macro. For your reference, the Druid forms/stances are:

1. Bear / Dire Bear
2. Aquatic Form
3. Cat
4. Cheetah
5. Tree of Life/Moonkin

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).

The Belkin Nostromo N52 TE

The night after patch 3.0.2 dropped my guild was running Black Temple and the [Naaru-Blessed Life Rod] dropped off of the Reliquary of Souls, and my GM, who plays a Warlock, said “looks like a Warlock item to me.”

Before you start writing angry comments about how my GM is an idiot, rest assured that he was joking. Though his comment does highlight one of the issues we are going to have after Wrath of the Lich King is released. With the merger of Healing and Spell Damage into a single stat, Moonkin and Trees are going to be seeking some of the same gear. However, this does not mean that every piece of leather gear with Spell Power is ideally suited for a Tree or a Moonkin. While any item with Spell Power maybe good for both builds, it is my opinion that most items with Spell Power will lend themselves more to one spec than the other.

In this article, I will take a look at each of the relevant stats to see how they lean. Then I will look at a couple of examples to answer the question: Is it Resto gear or Moonkin gear?

Spell Power

I only mention it to get it out of the way. This is the primary stat for both builds and provides no insight into who benefits from this item most. Plus, when considering items of a similar level the amount of Spell Power will be fairly close on both items.

Hit Rating

Unless something has changed in WotLK, a heal is not going to be miss or be resisted by its target. Therefore Resto Druids have no use for Hit Rating. This is the most obvious indicator of how an item leans. If it has Hit then it’s Moonkin gear.

Note from Phae: If it’s “hit” then it’s sh— … er … that is to say, it’s not something you want to GET.

Crit Rating

Crit is a little more ambiguous. It is not the most important stat for either build, but definitely has its purpose in both builds. In TBC, Crit Rating was good for Moonkin, but horrible for Trees since few Druid heals could crit. That has changed somewhat in WotLK. Regrowth will play a much bigger role in Druid healing, Healing Touch can now be cast in Tree of Life, and the new spell Nourish can crit. All of this points to a bigger role for Crit Rating in a Resto Druid’s life.

However, it is my opinion that Crit Rating favors Moonkin more. Over 80% Moonkin DPS comes from spells that can crit. Critical hits not only increases Moonkin damage but also increases our average casting speed for Starfire and returns mana. A majority of druid healing will still come from HoTs, and critical heals have an increased risk of wasted heals due to overhealing.

Note from Phae: Yes, spell crit is better for Restoration Druids than it once was, but try not to go overboard. HoTs still can't crit, and the 50% additional crit from Improved Regrowth actually makes spell crit less desirable to Restoration Druids, not more. To understand why, imagine you have 0 crit chance and pick up gear that gives you 10% crit chance. Your net improvement would be 1.1/1.0 or 10%. Now imagine you have 50% crit chance and pick up gear that gives you an additional 10% crit chance. Your net improvement is 1.6/1.5 or 6%, a substantially lower improvement. For the sake of clarity, this assumes you get exactly double the benefit from a crit, which is actually close due to Living Seed but not exact.

Haste Rating

Haste rating has the biggest question mark. When I talked to Phae about this stat she said she was slightly inclined to defer to Moonkin on this stat, but I think it is much more even.

Haste can be a significant DPS increase for Moonkin but it comes at a cost. It doesn’t increase mana efficiency at all so if you don’t have the mana pool for it, it won’t help your DPS much. From a Restoration perspective, haste does not decrease the duration of your HoTs, but it does have several benefits that can make a Resto Druid more effective. A shorter global cooldown means you can roll Lifebloom on more targets, or allow you to get more direct heals off in between refreshes. It also will help you to get off an emergency heal if both Nature’s Swiftness and Swiftmend are down.

In my opinion Haste doesn’t lend itself to one spec over the other. So, there is no help here.

Note from Phae: The value of haste depends almost entirely upon your style of healing. A healing style that relies primarily upon insta-cast HoTs – Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Wild Growth – will little benefit from haste; its global cooldown reduction is overpriced. On the other hand, an unglyphed Healing Touch or heavy Regrowth build would benefit from stacking spell haste. Still, it’s rare for a Restoration Druid to so vigorously eschew her HoTs to focus instead on direct heals.

Spirit

In the Burning Crusade, Spirit clearly lent itself to Restoration build,s and it is still a good stat for Trees in WotLK due to talents like Intensity, Living Spirit, and Improved Tree of Life. Moonkin on the other hand had very little use for Spirit. It was good for mana regeneration because most Moonkin picked up Intensity, but it did little for our DPS. That is changing with the addition of Improved Moonkin Form, which increases Spell Damage by 15% of your total Spirit.
Despite this change, I still believe that Spirit lends itself more to Restoration then Balance. The Resto Tree has more talents that benefit from Spirit, and I think healers in general benefit more from mana regen then DPSers do. Restos can easily blow through their mana really quickly trying to keep someone up and prevent a wipe. A Moonkin’s mana usage is much more consistent and can be managed in other ways. Plus, the extra DPS a Moonkin will get from Spirit is fairly small.

Note from Phae: I’m the one with Spirit; I don’t wanna hear it! Living Spirit means a Restoration Druid gets 1.15 Spirit for every 1 Spirit that a Moonkin would get. If said Moonkin doesn’t even have Intensity, I’d punch it in the beak for trying to take an item with a ton of Spirit.

Intellect

Obviously both builds need some amount of Intellect, but an item with an extraordinary large amount of Intellect probably lends itself more to a Moonkin. The Balance tree has two talents, Lunar Guidance and Dreamstate, that buff the druid based upon his level of Intellect. Restos can’t get these buffs without putting over 20 points in the Balance Tree.

Note from Phae: I believe that the new mana regeneration effect, Replenishment, makes Intellect desirable for all casters since the amount of mana restored is based on your total mana. As a result, I would be less inclined to consider this a stat that favors solely Moonkin, though I agree that Lunar Guidance and Dreamstate does seem to give the slight advantage to Balance Druids.

MP5

To be honest this isn’t a great stat for either build. It is a very expensive relative to the other stats listed above. Plus, it has only a situational impact on performance. If you don’t have mana issues currently, then more MP5 isn’t going change anything.

That being said, I believe that MP5 lends itself more to Restoration builds. As I said before I believe that mana regen is a little more important for healers then it is for DPS.

Note from Phae: Ewwwww … MP5! This stat continues to be overpriced for those casters with an Intensity-esque ability (ex. Meditation, Arcane Meditation). I’d look the other way on an item who sinks a large portion of its item budget into MP5.

Examples

To illustrate these points lets look at two pairs of boots that drop in Naxx25:

I think both boots would be good for either a Restoration or Balance Druid, but I think I know which one Restos would prefer. Despite having 38 Crit rating, I believe the [Boots of Septic Wounds] are more of a Resto item. They have a large amount of Spirit and the gem socket allow for more potent heals and greater longevity. On the other hand, the [Boots of the Escaped Captive] favor a Moonkin build in my opinion. The sheer quantity of Haste means that they will provide more DPS at the expense of less valuable base stats.

For another example look at these two chest pieces, also drops from Naxx25:

In my opinion, the [Vest of Vitality] is clearly a Moonkin item. The large quantity of Crit and complete lack of Spirit say this item is for all out DPS. The [Tunic of Prejudice] is a much more balanced item that has lots of Spirit that I think Restos will find more attractive.

Leather vs Cloth

I want to make a quick comment on the Leather vs. Cloth debate. Moonkin are used to having to fight with Mages, Warlocks, and Priests for cloth gear because there was very little leather caster DPS gear in the Burning Crusade. My guess is that in Wrath of the Lich King we are going to see clothies push back and say they should get priority over Druids.

I still believe that armor type doesn't matter for the most part. The stats on the gear are what cause you to do more DPS or be a more effective healer. Therefore, I say rolling on cloth items that are clearly better then the other options available should be okay. That being said, be mindful of the clothies' needs. Don't roll on a cloth item when there is a leather item that is equally accessible. For example, a Moonkin should probably pass on [Slippers of the Seacaller] if a clothie wants it, because the [Naturewarden's Treads] are available just a few bosses later.

Final Note

None of this means that Restos shouldn’t roll on the [Vest of Vitality], or that Moonkin shouldn’t use the Boots [Boots of Septic Wounds]. All of these items could be upgrades for either spec. These are just guidelines to help you navigate your gear choices.

My suggestion is that you talk to the other caster druids in your guild and see what gear they are looking for and how big of an upgrade it is. This type of planning with your shape shifting brethren can prevent arguments and feelings of animosity. It can also save you DKP and help you get the item that best suits your needs when it drops.

I want to say thanks to Phae for giving me this opportunity and supporting my blog. The Druid community would be at a loss without you. Note from Phae: <3 Thanks, Gray!

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).

Guest Post: Balance vs. Restoration Gear

Tree-Shirts Deadline Extended

On an unrelated note, because I’ve been asked by a couple of participants and because I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment, I’m extending the Tree-Shirts Contest deadline until Sunday, September 28th. I’ll display the submissions on the 29th or 30th! Thanks for your understanding, all!

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).

Runy and Phae Get Their Nethers in a Twist

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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:

1. 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!
2. 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!
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

6. 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.

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).

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

Converting +Healing to Spell Power

Balance Druids should see a direct translation of their spell damage into spell power at a 1:1 ratio. (This doesn’t account for the loss of spell power due to the reduction being made to Lunar Guidance, however.) Restoration Druids – or anyone wearing their healing kit – can expect to see their +Healing converted to Spell Power in the following manner:

Spell Power = +Healing * 0.532

In other words, players can expect to see a 46.8% reduction in their +Healing when converting to Spell Power. Note that this change will not affect your effective healing as spell coefficients are being adjusted to account for this reduction (more on this below). 0.532 was derived by comparing the ten staves with the highest +Healing values available in TBC:

At the same time, you can expect to see your Bonus Spell Damage (in the form of spell power) increased by approximately 60%. This increase in fire power – or Arcane/Nature power, as the case may be – should make leveling in your Resto-kit a lot more viable than it would have been otherwise.

Adjusting Coefficients

While it was Blizzard’s intention to streamline spellcaster gear by having DPS and Healer casters use the same items, it wasn’t their intention to nerf the effectiveness of our spells. Therefore, the +Healing coefficients for Healing spells pre-WotLK will be increased to compensate for the reduction of +Healing. In order to keep the effective amount healed for a given spell the same, we’d expect the original coefficients to be multiplied by 1/0.532 or 1.88. To verify this, I returned to Outlands on the Beta server (no small feat for someone bound in Borean Tundra) and did some coefficient testing for the HoT portion of Rejuvenation and Regrowth. In both cases, using the same gear and same level of +Healing, each spell ticked for the same amount on beta and live (there was a very small difference in a few HoT ticks, but that is no doubt due to rounding issues).

Note: At some point, I hope to publish some revised spell power coefficients for Wrath, but haven’t had the time to perform data collection, yet.

Talent Implications

In Wrath of the Lich King, the Spell Power afforded by Lunar Guidance will be reduced from 25% to 12%. This is a reduction of 52% which is, not coincidentally, about the same percent reduction being applied to +Healing. I believe this talent was reduced in effectiveness to avoid making it too desirable to Healers (as it otherwise would have afforded more than twice the benefit that it did in TBC). This had the unfortunate side effect of harming Balance Druids in the process, however. I suspect that the relocation of both Nature’s Grace and Moonglow to much higher in the Balance tree was similarly meant to discourage Restoration Druid’s from dipping so deeply into Balance. Blizzard probably didn’t want to repeat the perceived mistake of making a hybrid build like the Dreamstate healer even close to as viable as a deeply Restoration-specced Druid.

At first glance, it might appear that the effectiveness of Empowered Touch is being doubled from its previous value of 20% to its post-Wrath value of 40%:

However, the wording of the bonus afforded by Empowered Touch is significant. Note that its description reads, “gains an additional X% of your bonus healing effects.” This means that the bonus is applied additively (X + 0.2). This is in comparison to the bonus from Empowered Rejuvenation whose description reads, “The bonus healing effects of your healing over time spells is increased by 20%.” From its description, we can tell that Empowered Rejuvenation’s bonus is applied multiplicatively (X * 1.2) and will, therefore, automatically scale with the conversion to spell power. With the change to spell power cutting +Healing almost in half, the HT spell power coefficient had to be increased to compensate. The increase to 0.4 is actually a slight buff over the value of 0.38 that would have been necessary for Empowered Touch to maintain its effectiveness.

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).

Spell Power, +Healing, and Coefficients