The Feast of Winter Veil is coming up which would be a great time to hint-drop about wanting a Tree Shirt or two from a certain blog. *Nudge nudge* In preparation for the holiday season, I’ve added three great new designs:

1	2	3

1. Tree of Life Emblem
   The first is the orange symbol that features prominently on the chest of our Tree of Life form. Although I’ve featured it on brown shirts (mostly), you can switch the color of the shirt to whatever suits you best. The nice thing about this design is that it’s vector-based and should print as a crisp, understated option for the discerning tree.
2. Restoration Wreath (Autumn) by Diego SS. Dicaro
   The second design is a autumnal variation on Eggo’s earlier Shift Happens Restoration Wreath design. This design was requested by several readers, and Eggo actually sent it in a number of weeks ago. Sorry that it’s taken me so long to get it added!
3. “Shift Happens” Grid from Valenna
   Finally, Valenna created a design for the “Shift Happens” contest earlier this year. Since he’s pretty much my best friend, there was no question as to whether I would add it, but I really love it! It features 8 rounded squares with each of the Night Elf forms (including the still-awaited critter form). The design includes black, purple, orange, brown, and light blue and should work well on many different shirt colors.

Also note that many designs have long sleeved options. Colors for men are unfortunately typically limited to black or white, but women have several to choose from. To view all long-sleeved shirts:

1. Visit the Spreadshirt storefront.
2. Under the dropdown All Products, select Men or Women.
3. Under the dropdown All Articles, select Long sleeve shirts.

Looking for more information about delivery times? See Spreadshirt’s Shipping Page.

[Intravenous Healing Potion] Macro from Vreenash

Some of you may not be familiar with the [Intravenous Healing Potion]. This item was newly added with Wrath and is sold by Angelique Butler in the Dalaran First Aid shop at a starting price of 2g 70s. Essentially, it’s an infinite-use health and mana restore for 3 minutes (usable only outside of combat). This macro deploys the IV and gives instructions to those nearby on how to use it:

#showtooltip
/s =/\= Intravenous Drip has been deployed =/\=
/s –Stand still while clicking to regen Health/Mana–
/use Intravenous Healing Potion

According to Vreenash, he’s seen overwhelmingly positive response in battlegrounds, particularly Arathi Basin. Perhaps best of all, this item can be deployed and used by a Feral or Balance Druid while still in form, allowing you to help out with healing during downtime.

Note: These items do not stack. Always use a fresh needle.

Favorite Posts of Late

There have been an incredible number of useful and informative posts in the wake of Wrath. Here are a few of my favorite:

• The Bear T7 List: Part I | Part II from ThinkTank
  Kalon releases some great bear-oriented gear lists along with ratings.
• Feral Factions from Of Teeth and Claws
  Karthis submits an overview of the best Feral-oriented rewards from various factions to help you plan your reputation grinds.
• Pre-Naxx Feral Worksheet from Of Teeth and Claws
  A spreadsheet of Feral gear to help kitties and bears prepare for raiding Naxxramas.
• Pre-Naxx Moonkin Gear: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 from Gray Matter
  Gearing up for a little Pew Pew in Naxxramas? Graylo has you covered with this extensive guide of available and recommended upgrades.
• Resto Pre-Raid Gear from Elitist Jerks Forums
  Tuftears of Stormrage (US) summarizes pre-Naxxramas gear by slot and type in an easy to read format.
• WotLK Cooking 375-450 from Kaliope’s WoW Crafting Blog
  Kaliope walks you through reaching 450 cooking in Wrath. It’s more difficult than you might think!
• WotLK Wallpapers from Banana Shoulders
  Missing Northrend while away at work? Siha has created several gorgeous Wrath of the Lich King wallpapers at 1680 x 1050 size.
• Wrath: Overview of Daily Quests (Level 70-75) from Yashima Plays
  Yashima lists the available daily quests and from level 70 to 75, their location, associated faction, and reputation awarded.

Ghostcrawler says L2Play (with Druids) and “Dude”

There are plenty of druids topping healing meters.

I think where the problem comes from sometimes is that you need healers who are good at working with hots. When someone has a hot on them, you have to be able to guess if that hot will heal the dude and if it can do it fast enough. Inexperienced healers sometimes stomp on hots, wasting the druid (or priest) mana and making sure that the hot-healer appears to have not contributed much.

This has been a long-standing problem for Druid healers. Given the competitive nature of healing, training one’s guildmates to not overwrite your HoTs is pretty difficult. Does anyone have any tips?

Other Blogs to Visit

As I suspected, the release of Wrath has contributed to a whole new crop of great blogs to visit and subscribe to!

Warcraft Dryad by Marina Siu-Chong

• Cenarion Musings
  Restoration Druid Pixiedark ponders Cenarius.
• Chrille
  PvP, Feral, Taurens, and machinima. Could there possibly be a more interesting combination for a blog?
• A Druid in Time
  From reader Shopshopshop of Uldum (US) comes this great new blog on playing a casual Restoration Druid!
• Druid Heal
  Raaff the Tree shares his thoughts on Druid healing, starting with Talents!
• Eighty Percent Fur
  With a name that sounds strangely reminiscent of a Fergie song, Lushious blogs about all things Feral Druid.
• Moonfire
  Real life couple Gwyn and Cablin of Bronze Dragonflight (EU) play Restoration and Balance Druids respectively. One has to wonder about the “discussions” that occur when spell power gear drops!
• One Rogue’s Journey
  According to Zaltu of Scarlet Crusade (US), “Rogues do it anywhere in between ninety and two-hundred and seventy degrees.” Kind of makes you shift uncomfortably in your chair, doesn’t it?
• Rawrbitchrawr
  Stompalina of Staghelm (US) shares personal character stories alongside theory development on her Restoration-oriented blog.
• Shields Up
  Drugfreeyth of Teldrassil (EU) delivers an eclectic mix of “Restoration Shamans, black holes, backstabbing, and ponies.”
• Stealth Runs
  Furble writes an interesting blog that focuses on completing stealth runs through instances.
• Threat Monster
  From Zaydok of Stormscale (US) comes this great new blog about “threat build” warriors who tank with an aggressive style.

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

Vreenash’s Wipe Recovery Macro

This macro was submitted by Vreenash of Dragonblight (US) and can aid in the use of Rebirth as a method of wipe recovery (as opposed to wipe prevention) by notifying the lucky recipient of your combat rez that they should wait until it’s safe to accept the rez:

#showtooltip Rebirth
/stopmacro [nohelp,nodead]
/p =/\= %t has been given wipe protection =/\=
/script SendChatMessage("!!!DO NOT ACCEPT REZ YET!!! You have been give Battle Rez for party wipe recovery", "WHISPER", nil, UnitName("target"))
/cast Rebirth

It may be worth noting that there was a time that I was unable to use Rebirth on a group mate without the dialog poofing if everyone in the party died. Vreenash confirms, however, that she’s successfully employed this macro as a form of wipe recovery, so give it a try!

Tildir’s Cower Macro

Tildir of Moonglade (US) points out that, with Wrath’s change to Furor, a Restoration Druid with 1 point in the ability will instantly gain 20 Energy when shifting into Cat Form. Conveniently, 20 Energy is all that is required by the Cat Form ability, Cower:

This ability permanently reduces your threat by 3474 at Rank 6. The only downside is that it requires you to be within melee range of your target. Nonetheless, it could be useful if used when a mob rockets toward you, especially if the new and improved Shadowmeld is on cooldown.

#showtooltip Cower
/cancelform [stance:5]
/cast [nostance] Cat Form
/castsequence Cower, Tree of Life

The above macro will pull you out of Tree of Life and switch you into Cat Form if you’re in caster form the first time it’s pressed. The second press will activate Cower, and the third will switch back into Tree of Life.

Thank you to both Vreenash and Tildir! I’m a huge fan of macros like the ones listed above!

#showtooltip
/equip [nomod,noworn:Fishing Pole] Seth's Graphite Fishing Pole
/cast [nomod:ctrl,worn:Fishing Pole] Fishing
/use [mod:ctrl,worn:Fishing Pole] Sharpened Fish Hook
/use [mod:ctrl,worn:Fishing Pole] 16

The above macro will:

• Equip [Seth's Graphite Fishing Pole] if it isn't already equipped
• Try to fish if you have your fishing pole equipped and you aren't pressing down CTRL
• Apply a [Sharpened Fish Hook] to your fishing pole if you have one equipped and hold down CTRL

I created this macro tonight and thought I would share. Does anyone else have a favorite fishing (or other tradeskill) macro? Edit: Gweedo does!

The basic idea behind this technique is to set up one or more macros that cast debuff spells on your current focus’s target. In my case, I created a macro that would ordinarily cast Insect Swarm on my focus’s target and Faerie Fire if I hold down CTRL. If a focus target cannot be found (as it cannot when I am soloing), the target defaults to my own target instead. My macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:ctrl, exists, target=focustarget, nodead] [modifier:ctrl] Faerie Fire;[exists, target=focustarget, nodead] [] Insect Swarm

When in a 5-man group, I set my focus to my group’s tank and am able to debuff his current target’s hit chance by 2% (decreasing damage taken and needing to be healed) while also decreasing its armor by 610. This means the mob dies quicker and does less damage on the way out. It’s also a great use of the time in between stacking up 3 x Lifebloom when it’s not necessary to get your stack rolling as quickly as possible. This technique is also a great compliment to mouseover-based healing since those who use mouseover aren’t generally as comfortable clicking to select targets, and it’s more convenient than having to set a separate assist key.

In addition to the macro described above, you will want to set up a focus target window so that you can monitor what your tank is actually targeting. (But be careful not to cast Insect Swarm on a target that’s crowd controlled or needs to be!) Most of the better unitframes addons such as Pitbull and Ag Unitframes include the ability to display these frames. For my UI, I set up a panel beneath the place where my Focus Target frame appears when I do have a focus set. That way I can tell at a glance whether I’ve remembered to focus my tank and if both of my debuffs are currently running on the target. You can see a preview of this setup at left, using Andrige’s lovely Heart of the Wild UI as a backdrop.

So far, I’ve employed this technique in both normal and Heroic Magister’s Terrace. I’ve been told that it seems to make fights easier (though admittedly it doesn’t get much easier than grouping with a Paladin tank on AOE pulls). If nothing else, I feel more proactive than simply pressing my heal buttons, and it’s nice to see my name actually show up on the damage meters, even if it’s only for the paltry amount from Insect Swarm. Just remember not to use Faerie Fire if your tank happens to be a Druid, as I know most like using the Feral version for extra threat.

I used to be so die-hard Resto4Life (haha) that I refused to even map my shapeshifting abilities. If I turned into a Bear, it was only to /dance. Fortunately however, PvP has opened my eyes to a whole host of advantages to our various forms, and I’m happy to say that I’m now never more than a thumb movement away from turning into a happy woodland — or underwater — creature. Here are a few of the tricks I’ve learned for each form:

Cat Form

• Prowl + Dash past groups of enemies the rest of your group or raid has to carefully avoid.
• Bravely leap from ledge to ledge on the ramps in Karazhan.
• Dash back to your raid after being the victim of an ability that signficantly displaces you (ex. waterfalls on Morogrim).
• Dash back to your raid (wait for a straightaway like that of Curator’s hall in Karazhan) after a wipe so you can blog — I mean, buff — after a wipe.

Bear Form

• Mob out of control and running to bash your skull in? Turn into a bear and Bash his skull in instead, giving your tank 3 seconds to mosey over and give you a hand. PvP-specced Druids often have the Brutal Impact skill, making this a 4-second stun instead of 3.
• Impending doom from a Gruul Shatter? Pop Barskin and turn into a Bear. You’ll get more hit points and take 20% less damage than you would otherwise.

Aquatic Form

Turning into a seal lets you travel through water faster than everyone else. This is great for getting back to the circular platform that surrounds The Lurker Below in SSC after a Whirl, Geyser, or ill-timed Spout. And does anyone else get really annoyed by the fact that a few random AIR bubbles knock us out of Aquatic Form on our way through the drainpipe to Coilfang Reservoir?

Tree of Life

Use Tree of Life form on Blackheart the Inciter (possibly any mob that charms; I’m not sure) and during the phases where he charms your whole group, you’ll wander around ineffectually slapping your groupmates with your branches.

Flight Form

• Die in an unsafe spot? Click the “Resurrect” button and hit your Flight Form button for a quick getaway!
• One of my favorite things to do in game is to leap off Aldor Terrace, drop halfway down, turn into a bird, glide into the bank, and shift out so that I’m thrown across the room and land beside the mailbox. Sometimes, I even /bow. Not exactly combat-focused, but tremendously entertaining.

All-Terrain Travel Form Macro

Rather than creating and using multiple buttons for your various forms, consider creating a macro that will use Travel Form, Flight Form, Aquatic Form, or your mount based upon your current conditions:

/cast [swimming] Aquatic Form; [flyable,nocombat,noswimming] Swift Flight Form; [noswimming,outdoors,combat] Travel Form;
/use [noswimming,outdoors,nocombat,noflyable] Reins of the Swift Frostsaber

So what special form-based tricks do you use?

• Both are limited target. While Hibernate can be used against Beasts and Dragonkin, Shackle Undead can be used against … well … Undead.
• Both have three ranks, cost 150 mana, and have a 1.5 second cast time.
• Both can be refreshed before their durations have elapsed.
• Both have a chance to break early that can be reduced by wearing items with spell hit.
• Both break on damage. Yes, even yours, Mr. Swipe-Happy-Druid-Tank!
• Neither can be cast at the same time as a heal spell.

Due to their similarities, I recommend going over there, reading his article, and mentally substituting the word “Hibernate” everywhere you see “Shackle” for a stellar set of tips on how to leverage this limited-use crowd control spell effectively. And so as not to be a complete slacker, I’ll throw in a tip of my own for using Hibernate in instances. You can use a focus target macro to easily associate your crowd control target with your Hibernate ability for the duration of the fight:

#showtooltip Hibernate
/clearfocus [button:2]
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus,exists,nodead] Hibernate
/stopmacro [target=focus,exists,nodead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,exists,nodead]
/focus [harm,exists,nodead]

Assuming you do not already have a focus target, this macro will store your current target as your focus target. From that point on, you can click or press the button to automatically cast Hibernate on that mob without switching targets. If your focus target dies and you click the button, your focus target will automatically be cleared (or reset to your new target if you have one selected). Alternatively, you can right click on the button to clear it manually. In a hectic fight, this macro can be a lifesaver since it’s not always easy to target your assigned Beast or Dragonkin while keeping everyone alive. It also makes refreshing your Hibernate before its duration elapses a lot easier.

This option, first pointed out to me by frequent reader and commentor, Someone of Some Server (Some Region), eliminates the need for me to use an additional targetting parameter in all of my healing and decursing macros. However, if for any reason that’s more your cup of tea, how to accomplish this using macro commands is demonstrated below.

/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=target,help][target=player] Lifebloom

You could also dress up a macro like this one with a Swiftmend to intuitively “pop” your Rejuvenation when you press down the CTRL key:

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

In PvE, this (the interface option or the macro modification) allows me to throw a heal on myself without losing my current DPS target. By DPSing using Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Thorns and using macros like these for Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Swiftmend, I never have to worry about spell pushback, which means I don’t have to worry with casting Entangling Roots unless my target is a particularly heavy hitter. In PvP, this will allow me to easily heal myself while running away from the Skillherald hurtling toward my delicate elven features.

One of my favorite changes to my spec is the addition of Insect Swarm, the 11-point Balance talent:

While Insect Swarm is one of the highest DPM (damage per mana) spells in the game, it has the added benefit of preventing 2% of incoming damage on your tank. That's 2% less damage you have to heal and it scales in a way that nothing else (available to Druids) does. The more damage your tank takes, the more damage that's mitigated, completely independent of your +Healing or +Damage totals.

While the benefits of Insect Swarm are fairly obvious, the hardest thing about using it was figuring out how to integrate it into my healing strategy. After all, healing is different than dpsing, and mixing the two can be cumbersome. Which is why I developed the following macro:

#showtooltip Insect Swarm /cast [target=mouseover,exists,harm][target=target,exists,harm][target=targettarget,exists,harm] Insect Swarm

This macro first attempts to cast Insect Swarm on your mouseover target, assuming it exists and that it's aggressive toward you (harm). If it cannot find a mouseover target, it will attempt to cast upon your normal target with the same stipulations. By combining this macro with the techniques described in my earlier article on Healing via Focus Target, you can set your main tank to your focus target, then mouseover Insect Swarm his current target. You still have the liberty to Insect Swarm other mobs, but be careful that you don't DoT something that will later need to be crowd controlled. For this reason, it's often a good idea to make sure that your tank's target is missing a bit of life before you cast Insect Swarm on it, both so you're sure it's not a target he's only targetting to generate a little bit of aggro and so that he has time to build some threat before you DoT it.

Here is a revised version of the above-mentioned macro to also include Faerie Fire and Moonfire. It will cast these spells in the order Insect Swarm, Faerie Fire, Moonfire and will reset its sequence after 7 seconds:

#showtooltip Insect Swarm /castsequence [target=mouseover,exists,harm][target=target,exists,harm][target=targettarget,exists,harm] reset=7 Insect Swarm, Faerie Fire, Moonfire

• Previous Stats via MMO Champion
• Updated Stats via MMO Champion

Mookysolo of Ner’zhul, well-known Druid Arena PvP mogul strongly objects to this change as a substantial nerf to the PvP viability of Druids. Here’s a snippet of what he says:

The irony of it all is that these changes could not have come at a worse time. With the recent change allowing enemies to see your buff/debuffs AT ALL TIMES, this means the chances Innervate will be dispelled is very high. Currently in high rated Arena (specifically 2v2/3v3), my Innervate will be dispelled the moment I’m in LoS of a Priest/Shaman; now this is just with the use of mods like Focus Frame, Cenemycastbar, etc. After the buff change, every single Priest/Shaman will remove my Innervate without thinking twice even if I take the time to go out of LoS, Innervate, and buff myself with “filler” buffs like Lifebloom, R1 Rejuv, R1 MotW, and R1 Thorns, players will make it a top priority to spam purge on me until my Innervate is removed. This also means they will not need to Purge until they cannot Purge anymore buffs, this means they Purge, check if I still have Innervate, repeat.

Edit: Huzzah! Recent reports from the Public Test Realm indicate that this change has been reversed!

In other Patch 2.3 news, Cromlis of Cenarius is reporting a signficant change to spellcasting for Druids while in forms:

If you try to cast a spell while you are in a form, then you will automatically shift out and cast that spell.

For example, if you are in bear form, and you press regrowth (via spellbook or a button on an action bar), then you will automatically shift to caster form and start casting regrowth. This works for moonkin, and any form really. As long as it is a caster ability that you cannot use in your current form, you will automatically shift out and cast it.

This signifies an end to the need for using the “/cancelform [stance:1,2,etc.]” command at the beginning of all heal spell macros since the game will now automatically shift you to caster form if you current form denies you the ability you’re attempting to use. And for those who aren’t necessarily comfortable with this change, note that it can be disabled by entering the following console command:

/console autoUnshift 0

Thanks to Kai for this helpful tip!