I ran a few Warsong Gulch matches with some guildmates this weekend. During one match, the Horde group we fought decided the best way to win would be to turtle on top of their graveyard. What this means is that every time we’d kill a group of Horde, they’d respawn in about 15 seconds to harry us again, eventually forcing us to retreat and nurse our wounds. It got so shameless that at one point, they gathered around a romantic picnic basket, snuggling and nuzzling our flag in a most inappropriate and personally offensive manner.

After 45 minutes of unsuccessful and frustrating skirmishing in midfield, we decided to take all 10 players — including Mr. Phae carrying the Horde flag — and march over to them. I won’t tell you where that flag ended up, but it wasn’t pleasant for a certain Horde Warrior who seemed determined to turn me into so much orange-and-black-spotted goo (the two deaths I have listed were probably his kills). The overall frustration of playing against a turtle team made our eventual victory so much sweeter; our new 10-man offensive strategy took us to 3-1 caps.

The moral of the story? Please don’t turtle on top of the graveyard. Also, wear thick, flag-pole-proof pants.

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• Why Horde Always Wins at PvP
• The School of Hard Knocks: Learning to PvE by PvPing
• Rawr Bomb!!

MMO Champion recently posted lists of the “leaked” talents and abilities for several classes, including the Death Knight. I wanted to point out one ability in particular, from their Unholy school:

Degeneration Rank 3 1 Unholy 5 yd range Instant cast   Instantly attack the target, dealing 60% weapon damage and inflicting a disease dealing 182 over 21 sec. Any existing heal over time spells on the target become corrupted, dramatically increasing the damage done by the disease and removing the healing effect. Stacks up to 3 times.

This ability would seem to be targetted at Restoration Druids, converting our heals over time into a disease that causes damage over time instead. Because it can stack three times, it can consume an entire Lifebloom stack. While it isn’t clear whether the conversion of the final stack would cause it to bloom for its direct heal component, having Lifebloom running on a target at three stacks gives the DK the potential to get three stacks of this disease on your target, so I can see a general shift away from the use of multi-stack Lifebloom in PvP and an increased reliance on single stack (if it does bloom on conversion, it could end up as a wash) and our new direct heal, Nourish.

If you have any doubt that this ability wasn’t intended entirely as a counter to Restoration Druids, note that its original effect also included making your target “immune” to heals over time for 21 seconds. It looks like Death Knights might be intended to serve as the anti-Druid class since we are the only healing class without the ability to remove Disease. That’s bad news for us given the plethora of Death Knights likely to emerge after the release of Wrath.

On a happier note, you can check out their summary of the new Druid talents and abilities here.

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• Rumors of Death Knight Class Ability
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For a different spin on this issue, I invite you to take a look at Bellwether’s recent post A Rebuttal for Bear which is in response to BigBearButt’s My Thoughts on PvP in General (which this post was not specifically intended to rebut, though it should be obvious from the below that I do not agree).

I only spent one season (Season 2, the one with the attractive set of Arena and BG epics) doing Arena-based PvP, and then only at the ardent begging request of Mr. Phae. It all started with me spending a couple of nights in Alterac Valley, curious what all the hubbub was about. This was prior to the changes that re-introduced actual PvP into AV, and I was amazed at how fun it was to participate in “PvP” as a healer. (I later discovered that spamming heals on a few over-eager Warriors and Druids while the “raid” of BG participants beat frantically on Drek is not PvP.)

Surprised at my burgeoning interest in PvP, Mr. Phae convinced me that we should do some 2v2 Arenas together. He’d read that Warrior/Resto Druid was a strong combo and thought we’d be crazy not to take advantage of that fact while we could. Up until that point, I must confess that I was one of those players with an attitude of, “Moonfire?! Why would I cast Moonfire?! Don’t you know that I’m Restoration-specced?” In fact, I was quite irritated when Mr. Phae informed me that he would not let me in his group to level unless I put at least a few points into Balance at the start of Burning Crusade. (Shhhh – I did, but I didn’t really use them.)

Full Season 2 The gear of which I am most proud, despite none of it dropping in a 25-man

Stepping into the Arenas, I can remember being initially appalled at all of the horrible, horrible people who wanted to stab me, smash me, stun me, blow me up, set me on fire, or turn me into a farm animal (HAHA /shapeshift) … anything they could do to prevent me from doing “my job.” (Remember, at this point I saw “my job” as being solely to “make the bars go right.”) I quickly learned that I would have to do more than spam Lifebloom, Regrowth, Rejuvenation, and Swiftmend if I wanted to be able to cast those spells at all. Poisons were suddenly no longer something I could yawn at and outheal. Faerie Fire found a place on my action bar once again. I dipped further than I’ve ever dipped into the Feral tree so that I could pick up Rocket Bear I turned into a Cheetah, I humped pillars, I used Cat Form for more than jumping from high places. And oh the Cyclone, the beautiful Cyclone!

/sniff

My point is that — had I not had the courage to step foot in an Arena —  I wouldn’t be half the Druid I am today. I learned timing and counters and a lot of positive protective measures that have served me well in PvE: instantly shapeshifting when polymorphed, pre-emptive casting of HoTs, using Abolish Poison before the poison lands, using Barkskin, utilizing line of sight, bunkering down in Bear Form and using Bash to give my tank some time to help me. At the same time, I’ve learned to leverage my class debuffs, too, the ones that aren’t available in Tree of Life like Insect Swarm, Faerie Fire, and Cyclone (the latter sometimes to the chagrin of my tanks). And when it comes time for Wrath of the Lich King, I look forward to being quick on the draw when it comes to casting Entangling Roots, an instinct that will likely serve me well since a mob rooted once it’s reached the group is still very much a threat.

For this reason, I’d like to encourage all Restoration Druids to try their hand at Arenas. I recommend this specifically for Restos for two reasons:

1. Your general spec performs very well in Arenas, even though you’ll likely have to shuffle some points into Balance and Feral.
2. Diehard Feral and Balance Druids are more likely to be familiar with the Druid’s healing spells than a healing Druid is likely to be familiar with a Druid’s Balance and Feral skills, so you stand to gain more than the other two who cannot generally augment their playstyle as much as you can (no healing in Bear Form or Moonkin).

For those interested in giving PvP a shot, I’d recommend the following sites:

• PvP Source
  A great source of news for all things related to Arenas and PvP, including information on tournaments (which was always not very interesting to me, but I guess it’s cool for people into heavy competition). They also have a nice selection of videos as well as a searchable strategy database that lets you specify your team composition and the composition of the other team to find tips on beating them (hint: press Cyclone).
• Arena Junkies
  Arena Junkies is most well known for their forums which are like the Elitist Jerks of PvP (for those unfamiliar with Elitist Jerks, this is a good thing). Posting on their forums is restricted to only those players who have a team rated 2000 (with the notable exception of the “Ask a Gladiator” forum) which ensures that what you can read there is sure to come from serious players with a lot of experience. AJ has a really active community of players and there is a ton of information to be gleaned from them.
• Out of Mana
  Having trouble getting into the Cycl-own spirit? Read Out of Mana! While not specifically dedicated to PvPing as a Restoration Druid, Megan has the right attitude and the mindset of someone who really enjoys PvP. She recently wrote a pair of great articles on Confidence and Humility (part 1, part 2) in which she details how not to be the schmuck that costs his team a Battlegrounds victory because he refuses to do what is needed. All in all, it’s a fantastic blog that’s only made better by her slick MS Paint skills. (Hand-drawn “LOL” FTW!)

As I said earlier, I only PvPed a single season. I eventually had to give up Arenas due to stress and anger management issues. I bruised my hand pretty badly and threw a LOT of hairbrushes into the kitchen before learning that my keyboard pad was a good thing to smack into the wall instead. ^_^ I am not a competitive person by nature and am easily frustrated. I also hate feeling like I’m being “picked on” which, as a Restoration Druid, is pretty much your entire role in Arenas. Nonetheless, I’m very glad for the experiences I did have as there were some fantastic victories (no glorious defeats, though, losing … FTL) and doubt I would started Resto4Life if not for the feeling of empowerment I got from participating.

Related Posts

• PTR Report: 4-Piece Set Bonus Changes
• Arena 2 Class Set
• Druid Changes May Indicate Possibility of Indoor Arenas

Resto Druids rejoice! Today’s patch notes for Patch 2.4.2 do not include the proposed change to Natural Perfection which would have singled it out as the only critical-strike mitigating talent to have diminishing returns as Resilience increases. A big thank you to reader Joshua for pointing this out this morning!

In another surprise, Feral Druids will be relieved to know that, while Scare Beast has had its range extended to 30 yards, it will retain its 1.5 second cast time. Thanks to reader Jaegor for pointing this out below!

» See all patch notes for Patch 2.4.2 (via MMO Champion)
» Read Flyv’s humorous impressions of Patch 2.4.2 and Druids

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From the Patch Notes for 2.4.2, a “Bug Fix” will be applied to the Restoration PvP talent, Natural Perfection:

Druid Talent (Restoration) – Natural Perfection will no longer proc by normal melee attacks.

What this may mean is that the 3-point talent will no longer proc from those melee attacks that would have otherwise been critical hits if not for the Druid’s Resilience rating. Interestingly, no such change is being made to the similar Priest talents, Blessed Resilience or Focused Will. Obviously, what’s good for one should be good for the other, and if they really are nerfing this ability (and it is a nerf, regardless of being classified as a bug fix), the same should apply to both classes.

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