Most of you are probably already aware (especially if you frequent WoW News sites), but there is some well-founded speculation regarding the announcement of Warcraft’s next expansion at Blizzcon on Friday. I don’t want to give anything away in case some would prefer not to know until something is officially announced, but for those who are interested, head over to MMO-Champion.com for details!

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One of the things that helps World of Warcraft retain its enormous playerbase is the multitude of personal goals which can be achieved with some degree of effort. Whether its maxxing a tradeskill or obtaining a rare, reputation-based flying mount, there’s almost always another carrot waiting to be worked toward. I achieved several personal goals this weekend, some of which I’ve been working towards since almost the release of the expansion!

After 30+ runs through Black Morass I finally reached Exalted reputation with Keepers of Time and was able to pick up the Timeless Shard:

Some players complain that the Timelapse Shard suffers from an identity crisis. The threat reduction is obviously intended for PvE use, but the Resilience and high Stamina would seem to points towards its usefulness in PvP. Luckily, it’s an epic item, giving it the stat points to make it useful in both. Wearing this trinket, I’m now at 175 Resilience when decked out in my PvP set. Hardly on par with Gronzy or Mookysolo, but I’m happy with it.

In addition to the long-coveted Timelapse Shard, I won the Nightstaff of the Everliving from Nightbane in Karazhan. While it won’t replace the Shard of the Virtuous I use in PvE or PvP, it will be a great Innervate weapon once I get it enchanted with Spirit. (And don’t worry, no one else was interested in bidding on the item.)

And finally after many weeks of scraping and saving, I was able to raise the 5,000 gold necessary to train Artisan Riding. I acquired the last 1,000 gold or so from the sale of a pair of Spellfire Pants which at least partially offset the ridiculous cost of having levelled Tailoring to 375. I’ve only just begun the quest series to acquire Swift Flight and am on the step where you have to travel to Evergrove. I hope to complete the questline over the next week or so.

I also respecced again last night. I must be less of a respec-aholic than many Druids, however, as the total cost to unlearn my talents was only 15 gold. My husband, Ebene, was encouraged by the fact that the most highly-ranked 2v2 team in the Reckoning Battlegroup is a Restoration Druid and an Arms/Fury Warrior and asked me to respec to a more PvP-oriented spec. I lost a lot of the Balance synergies that I was enjoying so much and decreased the effectiveness of my Healing Touch spell, but my HoTs are stronger, and I enjoy playing “Bear Rocket” across the Arena floor. Especially against Mages and Paladins. ZOOM! WHOOSH! ZOOM, ZOOM!

Even with all of these goals now complete, there are still several that I’m working towards:

• Completion of the Swift Flight quest
• Repaying the 900 gold debt I’ve incurred by borrowing money from my Warlock (so that she can get basic flight form)
• Acquiring the Forestlord Striders from Karazhan and the Essence of the Martyr trinket from Heroic badges
• Acquiring one or more pieces of General’s Kodohide armor from Battlegrounds (which can be grueling as an Alliance player)
• Raising my Leatherworking skill to 375 at some point before the next expansion is released

What about the rest of you? What personal character goals do you have at the moment? Maybe I could add to my list!

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As part of the quest to complete the Master’s Key, Khadgar sends you to seek the blessing of Medivh, without which your completed key is about as useful as a fishing weight. Of course, Medivh has been dead a long time, so you’ll have to travel through the Caverns of Time to speak to him. You find him in the Black Morass, concentrated on the task of opening the Dark Portal so that the orc armies can ravage Azeroth. Resist the urge to Moonfire him (if you’re a Night Elf) or to hug him (if you’re a Tauren) since approaching him will trigger the Black Morass event.

Before you begin:

• Prerequisites: You must have completed the quest associated with the Old Hillsbrad instance before you can enter Black Morass. You should have completed all the steps of Karazhan attunement up to retrieving the Second and Third key fragments from Steamvault and Arcatraz and should have the followup quest entitled The Master’s Touch in your quest log.
• Group Composition: Having the right group composition — especially while you’re learning the instance — can be tremendously helpful. The ideal group composition is a tank with solid AOE aggro, a healer, and 3 DPS classes, one of whom can act as goalie (a ranged DPS class like a Hunter or a Mage works best since they can easily switch their focus and have good AOE tools).
• Consumables: When learning any new content, it’s always a good idea to bring along a few potions for a boost. Healers should expect to bring along a couple of Super Mana Potions and a stack of water per attempt. Everyone should have a health potion for emergency use. Anything that gives relevant stat bonuses is a plus, too. For Druids, Golden Fish Sticks or Blackened Sporefish are helpful.
• Talk to Sa’at: Upon entering Black Morass, you will find a Blood Elf standing to the right side, offering you his assistance. Talk to him to get a Chrono-beacon:
  

  Chrono-beacon The Black Morass Binds when picked up Unique Use: Calls forth a guardian of time to assist you inside the Black Morass.

  You can use Chrono-beacons in times of crisis and can return to Sa’at to get another. This is useful should a group member die after using her beacon. She can get another from her on her way back to the instance.

• Clearing the Instance: Before triggering the event start, be sure that you clear all the wildlife (spiders, jaguars, and crocodiles) surrounding the four portal spawn points and the paths in between them. You may find yourself overwhelmed by portal trash, and having a random crocodile aggro during a boss fight can be disastrous. Clearing the area should take about 10-15 minutes, but should your group fail an attempt, you can talk to Sa’at to ask him to turn back the clock so you can try again. You can do this a limited number of times before Sa’at tells you that his powers only go so far, at which point you’ll need to reset the instance.

Before beginning the event, make sure that your party is fully buffed, ready to go, and mounted. When approached, Medivh will yell out something and portals will begin randomly spawning — one after another — at one of the four possible locations shown below:

Map Courtesy Amp WoW

From each of these portals, a Rift Lord (melee) or Rift Keeper (caster) dragonkin is spawned. Ending his or her life will close the portal he or she protects. While the portal is open, other dragonkin will come through, including Infinite Assassins, Infinite Chronomancers, Infinite Whelps, and more. Unless provoked, these dragonkin will ignore your group and make a beeline toward Medivh. When they reach him, they will begin attacking his shield. Once that shield reaches 0%, your group will fail the event. For this reason, it’s imperative that your tank approach each portal first so that she can position herself to attack the Rift Lord or Rift Keeper while standing in the path between the portal and Medivh (Rift Keepers are casters and can be more difficult to position properly). That way, any additional mobs that come through the portal get caught up in the tank’s AOE abilities. Those that do get past your tank should be picked up and dispatched by the group’s designated goalie. This positioning is outlined below:

Rift Lords: These are pretty simple Warrior-type mobs. They do Sunder Armor and Mortal Strike, though, so try not to allow the tank’s health to drop too low.

Rift Keepers: More difficult than their melee counterparts, Rift Keepers come in two varieties: Mage and Warlock. The Mage version casts Frostbolt on its primary target and will cast Polymorph and Pyroblast on other group members. It can be useful to watch who they target to anticipate a Pyroblast. The Warlock version casts AOE Shadowbolt, Fear, and a curse that increases vulnerability to magic damage. Because of the curse, a Resto Druid will want to stay out of Tree of Life for the Warlock variety.

After each of the portals, you should be able to determine whether you need to drink or not (you should always drink at 60% or less mana). You’re more likely to need to drink after a Rift Keeper since you were unable to use Tree of Life for mana conservation. Your party should continue to the next portal and engage so that they don’t fall behind. Drink as quickly as you can, switch to Travel Form or mount, and join them at the next portal. You will want to save your Innervate for the bosses.

There are eighteen portals, and every sixth portal, you will fight a boss. The first two bosses will be engaged in front of a portal while trash mobs continue spawning. The last boss heads directly for Medivh and should be engaged near him. Luckily, you don’t have to contend with additional trash spawns on the final boss.

Portal 6, Boss #1: Chrono Lord Deja

The first and easiest of the three bosses, Deja is basically a tank and spank. He has a minor nature-based AOE that’s easily healed. You should have no trouble keeping up with the trash while fighting him.

Portal 12, Boss #2: Temporus

Definitely the most difficult of the three bosses. Temporus stacks a 10% healing reduction debuff on your tank, similar to that of Fankriss the Unyielding in AQ40. It stacks up to a maximum of 7 applications, reducing the healing received to 30%. For this reason, a tank with a high dodge rating can be very helpful. There are different strategies for dealing with this debuff depending on your group composition. Don’t get any funny ideas about switching into Bear Form to try to pull aggro. He isn’t tauntable and you wouldn’t get far in the healing gear necessary for this instance. Another option is to have two group members use Chrono-beacons at the same time. Although all three bosses have the ability to instantly dismiss a of Keeper of Time, it’s an ability that’s on a cooldown. Using two of them can buy you enough time for the healing debuff to drop from your tank.

Because Temporus is so difficult, you won’t want to divide your focus between him and the trash spawns. It’s a good idea to pull him off to the side of the portal, allowing the trash to move to and beat upon Medivh’s portal for the duration of this fight. You can always send someone to drop a Chrono-beacon on the portal to help clean up the mess if you notice Medivh’s shield dropping below 40%.

Portal 18, Boss #3: Aeonus

Pretty easy, especially after Temporus. He has a minor frontal AOE, so the tank will want to position him so that he faces away from the rest of the group. He also periodically casts Time Stop, an ability that freezes everyone (except for him, of course) for 4 seconds. Stay in Tree of Life and stack up your heals over time and you should have no trouble. Feel free to use any Chrono-beacons you have left to help burn him down.

Completing Black Morass is arguably the most difficult step in the quest to complete Karazhan attunement. Its fast pace and unforgiving group composition requirements can quickly overwhelm a group. Once you master the strategies, however, it becomes a quick and fun way to gain reputation with Keepers of Time (with the Timelapse Shard as an Exalted reward).

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Perhaps the single most annoying thing about Druid tanking is our gargantuan ass. As an elf, it’s perky and tight and I can see around it and all is well. But the instant I drop into Bear form, it’s all ass all the time…and it’s hairy.

The worst part is when you get backed into a corner or have to fight in confined spaces where you can’t scroll out to give yourself the same real estate of view any other character might take for granted. For this reason and this reason over all others, I nearly dropped my Druid tank for a Warrior. There are, to be certain, other reasons to select a Warrior over a Druid when picking a class to tank with, but this is one of the biggest. Still, if you can get past the fuzzy rump in your face Bear tanking is incredibly satisfying.

Why would you pick a Druid tank over a Warrior tank if what you really like doing is tanking? After all, Warriors get plate armor, shields, ranged weapons, a single form to manage, a fear break, no expectation of healing or buffing, a vast array of tanking tools, the mechanics for parry and block, and the comfort of a community that regards them as indispensible in the role of a tank, a guaranteed spot, if you will.

So why?

Bears bring a few unique tools to the table such as immunity to polymorph effects, a charge indifferent to stance, massive armor totals, pre-combat buffs, and frequently larger health pools. Doesn’t look like much does it? In truth it isn’t, but it’s the balancing act that Druid tanks endure for the versatility of roles they enjoy in contrast to the Warrior’s versatility within a role.

Rather than focusing on what Druid tanks don’t get, we’re going to look at making the most of what they do.

First and most noticeable are the massive armor totals Druids enjoy. A comparable Druid and Warrior will see an average of a 10k AC difference in the Bear’s favor. As an example, in gear that largely outclasses mine, my GM runs around 9k less armor than I do at the time of this writing. On the surface, this difference is huge, but the way the armor formula works, this is about a 10% difference in damage reduction.

So the big question that arises from this is: why? Why do Bears have such massive armor totals? There are several possibilities, but one stands out more than the others.

While Critical Hits (200% damage) are eliminated through Defense, Talents and Resilience, Crushing Blows (150% damage) are mitigated by Warriors and Paladins via their shields. Bears eat them. Bears do not have access to shields, and hence have no access to block. In theory this was mitigated in the past both through higher armor totals and higher health totals. In practice, Bear and Warrior health totals are getting more and more in-line leaving just our incredible armor to compensate while we take the Crushing Blows a Warrior can potentially push off the hit table.

So again: why pick a Druid over a Warrior?

Well, mechanically this isn’t a question I can answer. Most Druid tanking advantages are designed explicitly to make up for fundamental class and gear differences. Certainly stylistic differences can make a case, but I pointed out at the beginning what I think of my Big Bear Ass ™. Warriors are, on the whole, better designed for the role.

Well, hopefully I can work to provide an answer to this while also providing meaningful commentary on Druid tanks, the culture that surrounds us, and game mechanics. Every Druid tank will encounter bias no Warrior must deal with, unrealistic expectations, lack of in-game support for the role, and bizarre resentment from the most unlikely quarters.

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