With the release of Wrath of the Lich King and the new level cap, many Trees have found themselves donning a suit of feathers and Moonfire-spamming their way to level 80. Coincidentally, the U.S. celebrates its annual Thanksgiving next Thursday, November 27 or — as many affectionately term it — "Turkey Day." In celebration of this holiday, I’d like to encourage visitors to send me screenshots of their feathered selves … or some variation of, be it in Northrend or elsewhere! The submission requirements are similar to those for this year’s earlier Arbor Day celebration:

Submission Requirements

To participate in this challenge, you must send me a screenshot of your Druid. Pictures should be taken while in Moonkin Form and should meet the following criteria:

• Nothing should obstruct the full and glorious view of your character you’ve (no inventory screens or character sheets; we just want to see your Boomkin).
• Include a description of your surroundings or really any sort of flavor text you like.
• Feel free to include your favorite non-combat pet in the picture, particularly if you feel it complements your roleplay backstory.
• Be creative with your backdrops, and feel free to combine entries with your friends.

I’ll be compiling all the appropriate entries into a gallery of images for the site and showcasing my favorites. Entries should be in TGA or JPG format and can be sent to me at . To give me time to cook Thanksgiving dinner and visit with family, entries must be submitted no later than Wednesday, November 26th (but the earlier the better)!

Related Posts

• The Arbor Day Challenge
• Lust for Flower and Dragontouched
• Resto4Life Farewell Photo Album

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

Contents

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

History of Changes

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

General Mechanics Changes

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

Spells, Talents and Abilities

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

Tradeskills

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

Player vs. Player

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

Miscellaneous

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

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

Related Posts

• Spell Power, +Healing, and Coefficients
• Guest Post: Balance vs. Restoration Gear
• Guest Post: Moonkin Mana Regeneration

While waiting for our Lich King installs to complete, Mr. Phae was nice enough to explain to our dog why she wouldn’t be getting much attention from us this week. He summarized the epic, arcing plotline of Arthas and Northrend as such:

There was some guy in a big sheet of ice. And he froze some other guy. And now we have to fight ‘im.

Sometimes I’m not really sure why we’re on a roleplay server.

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• Phaelia’s (Completely Made Up) WotLK Preview
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Posts I Loved

We’re So Heroic by Nicole Chartrand

Here are a selection of my favorite writings from other blogs:

• The Day the World (of Warcraft) Stood Still
  Posted just before the recent Presidential election here in the U.S., Rhoelyn provided a wonderful parody of the conflict between Azerothian “politicians,” Saurfang and Vargoth! Loves it!
• Despair
  Aendi provides an RP-based perspective on the recent zombie invasion. A must read for anyone who found nothing but aggravation in this world event.
• Moonkin Builds: Leveling to 80
  Don’t just take my word for it. If you’re looking to go Balance, Graylo has you covered with his recommendation of how to Laser Chicken on your way to 80!
• Rhinolicious Wyrmsteak
  Runycat shares her secret recipe for this very meaty Northrend delicacy that combines Rhino steak with Wyrm meat! Wash it down with some dangerous-sounding Kungaloosh!
• ThinkTank’s Bear and Cat FAQs
  Kalon has compiled two great FAQs for both Cats and Bears looking to enter Northrend in the coming weeks!

Druid Dance Revolution

Alice from Aman’thul (US) sent in a series of images from a recent Druid dance party in front of the Aldor bank in Shattrath. I especially like the obvious mixture of Tauren and Night Elf Druids. Like moths to a flame, so too are Druids drawn to /dance with one another, regardless of race or faction:

I wonder how many players instantly reroll Druids after bearing (lulz) witness to our delightful class cohesion. Thanks, Alice!

Comic by Eggo

This week, reader Eggo brings us a new comic about the upcoming nerf to Wild Growth, whereby they’re considering adding a 6-second cooldown. It’s enough to make me want to whip up some delicious Ghostcrawler Gumbo (+20 to “Class Balance”). Be sure to click on the panel preview at right to view the whole comic!

Blogs Both Great and Small

• Adventures of Desdarii
  Desdarii of Blackwater Raiders (US) mixes RP with out of character posts on this beautiful blog about her Draenei Mage!
• Casual WoW
  Byaghro is an “extremely competitive casual gamer” who happens to play a Restoration Druid on Hellscream (US).
• The Delicious Druid
  OM NOM NOM Druids! Cusper plays a delectable Restoration Druid on the Muradin realm (US).
• Furry Bear Ass
  I don’t name them; I just share them! FBA is written by Ylee and Steaky, a Feral/Resto pair from Terrokar (US).
• Healer Envy
  Ayeba of Earthen Ring (EU) is one of those Restoration Druids that dabbles shamelessly with a Priest, Shaman, and Paladin. Hopefully, it’s only to better learn their weaknesses!
• Holy Discipline
  Thoughts from Anea, a Holy/Discipline Priest of the Exodar realm (US).
• Kaliope’s WoW Crafting Blog
  Kaliope writes about all things tradeskill-related on this unique blog about the Crafts of World of Warcraft.
• A Moonkin and His Blog
  Macbook of Stormscale (US) (clearly not a roleplay server) managed to snag Moonkin.info for his home on the web. Look for lots of PvPing chicanery here!
• Screen Shots by Jezi
  See Azeroth as you may or may not have seen it before with this unique photoblog from Jezibel of Kilrogg (US)!
• Tree’s Blog
  Charlotta of Scarlet Crusade (US) like to fish naked in Orgrimmar, and she has the screenshots to prove it!
• Trials and Tribulations of Tree Form
  With the byline “it ain’t easy being green,” Emanee speaks to the difficulties of playing a Restoration Druid!
• World of Snarkcraft
  Joveta and Seri are two cynical Priests from Scarlet Crusade (US). Their blog is filled with information and tips for players of all types, not just Priests!

The Herbalist’s Bulwark: A Macro

Here’s a handy macro from Vreenash of Dragonblight (US) that incorporates three protective abilities in one, two of which are herbalist-specific:

#showtooltip Lifeblood
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast Barkskin
/use Fel Blossom
/cast Lifeblood
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()

A Peek into My Inbox

This is a look into my personal inbox, which I’ve integrated with my Resto4Life account. You can see that I make liberal use of colored labels to try to stay organized (this often does not work, but at least my inbox looks cheerful). Allow me to explain the various labels and what they’re for:

• Purple – Contact Inquiries
  These are e-mails sent either through the contact form on the site or to my e-mail directly. I try to get to these within seven days of receiving them, but sometimes they slip through or require more time to respond to (I’m looking at you, Silvergulch). I archive all contact inquiries once I’ve responded to them.
• Gold – Mailbag Possibilities
  These are contact inquiries that I flag as potential fodder for a new post. These typically have responses that I think could be valuable to more than the original sender. These get converted to contact inquiries and archived once I’ve used them.
• Orange – Community Spotlight
  This includes links to new sites, new utilities, artwork, and more. New sites to highlight also go into my Google bookmarks under the “Blogroll Possibilities” label. I archive all community spotlight e-mails once they’ve been posted.
• Green – Comment
  These are comments on a recent post. GMail generally does a good job of stacking comments from the same post together so that my inbox isn’t filled with them, but sometimes I have to prune duplicates. Once I’ve responded to all of the comments on a given thread, I delete these e-mails. You can see from the above that I’m way, way behind right now.
• Light Blue – Tree Shirts
  This is anything to do with the Tree Shirts store.
• Gray-Blue – Advertising
  This is anything to do with advertising on Resto4Life. You may have noticed that I’ve recently added some ads to R4L. I’m not entirely certain what I’m doing, yet, but we’ll see how it goes!
• Dark Blue – General Resto4Life
  This is stuff that relates to Resto4Life that doesn’t fit under any of the above categories.

I try to keep up with my email such that I don’t have more than 50 items in my inbox at any given time. Lately, however, I’m onto page 2 of my Gmail, so apologies to anyone who’s still awaiting a response. I admit that I was feeling overwhelmed until I came across this perspective-inspiring post from Lorelle, professional blogger and apparently all that running a large blog entails. I envy the fact that she makes a living completely from her multitude of blogs, but I admit that I don’t envy the overhead that comes with it!

Every now and again, I have to stop and take a look at the many “projects” I’ve accepted responsibility for (and I don’t mean the ones at work, which lately suffer more than they probably should) and pick one or more to politely withdraw from. This is why you may have noticed that my name no longer appears as the Druid moderator at Plus Heal, why my activity on the Blog Azeroth forum community has been intermittent, or why I don’t participate much on social sites like Twitter or the new gamer-equivalent, Raptr. It’s also why I’ve shied away from creating a Druid-based forum community, despite several visitor requests and an already-purchased domain.

Who am I kidding? Resonant post from Lorelle or no, I’m still feeling overwhelmed!

Related Posts

• Community Spotlight
• Blog On, Azeroth … Blog On
• Community Spotlight

So while other bloggers are coordinating awesome pre-release parties – some immediately prior to the few Blizzard-sponsored launches – Mr. Phae apparently reserved our two copies at the local 7-11.

/facepalm

Doesn’t he know that it’s too cold in Northrend for a Slurpee?

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