Big bear logged in last night, was greeted by an instant whispered invite to run Underbog, a second whispered invite to run Old Hillsbrad (I like calling it that, despite the LFG tools’ insistance that it’s called Durnholde), and Jay in our cross-guild chat channel posting “Hey buddy! Whatcha up to?”

I want to run Underbog, I want to run Old Hillsbrad (for yet another shot at the tanking ring), and I have about 1 hour of playing time available. So I regretfully turn each whisper down, and say Hi right back to Jay.

The following conversation is a testament to the evil bastards I call friends.

Jay; “So, whatcha got planned?”

Big Bear; “I’ve only got about an hour. I’m planning on making my lowbie Priest alt a Tailor/Jewelcrafter, so I was gonna go trinket to Gadgetzan and fly to Barrens for some serious Mining runs. I should get enough ore and stones in an hour to keep my Priest busy for the first 20 or 30 Profession levels.”

Jay; “I ran Ring of Blood earlier, the hunter from your first blog post was there.”

Big Bear; “Oh lord. How did it go?”

Jay; “Not bad at all. We had (names a bunch of guild officers) and two extra 70s outside the party helping… went great. I got this (Battle Mages’ Baton)”

Big Bear; “Sounds great. Glad to hear it went well.”

Big Bear; “On the subject of the blog.. I am pretty surprised nobody commented on the Aerial PvP article. I am pretty excited about the idea.”

Jay; “Nah. I think everyone is too busy talking about the new water mounts they’re adding.”

Big Bear; “…… what?”

Jay; “What?”

Big Bear; “What water mounts?”

Jay; “The water mounts they said they are adding.”

Big Bear; “Jay, what are you talking about?”

Jay; “The water mounts. The ones they’re adding for the water and land based area they’re opening up in a couple patches.”

Big Bear; “….. Jay, what the hell are you talking about? I’m on WoW Insider and the community forums all day. No one’s said a word about water mounts.”

Jay; “Blizz announced they’re opening up a new area prior to the expansion, it’s gonna be in Azeroth, and there are gonna be 200% speed water mounts usable in a new PvP BG. You’re gonna have to do a mix of rep grinding and Badges of Justice to get the mounts just to enter the area.”

Big Bear; “….. you are so full of it… where did you see all this?”

Jay; “I don’t see how you coulda missed it, it was announced on the WoW pop up interface when you start the game. The page that loads first with Blizz news links? It was right there. Had a link to a chat with Tigole from some German convention.”

Big Bear; “….. I have the announcement pop up disabled. My WoW loads straight to game.”

Jay; “Oh… so you didn’t see it. LOL. Dude, no one is gonna worry about your Aerial PvP cause they have new water mount PvP to talk about.”

Big Bear; “…..”

Jay; “Oh and….. psych.”

Jay; “I’m just messing with ya. Not bad for off the top of my head, huh?”

Big Bear; “You complete and total bastard.”

Let’s talk feral specs at 70.

For druids, the basic feral path is pretty straitforward.

If you are going to be focusing on feral, then the goal is to spec enough points to get Mangle, and have the basics to be a solid tank and strong cat.

It’s more a topic for another post, but as far as gear goes, I maintain 2 full sets for feral, one that is focused on high base armor, agility, stamina and +defense, and the other focused on high burst DPS from strength, agility, AP and +crit. I highly recommend this. Don’t try to get both jobs done with one set, you’ll just be average to poor in both.

The basic foundation spec for feral is as follows;

Feral Combat (40 points)
5/5 Ferocity
3/3 Feral Instinct
3/3 Thick Hide
2/2 Feral Swiftness
1/1 Feral Charge
3/3 Sharpened Claws
3/3 Predatory Strikes
2/2 Primal Fury
1/1 Faerie Fire (Feral)
5/5 Heart of the Wild
3/3 Survival of the Fittest
1/1 Leader of the Pack
2/2 Improved Leader of the Pack
5/5 Predatory Instincts
1/1 Mangle

Restoration (11 points)
5/5 Furor
5/5 Naturalist
1/1 Omen of Clarity

Assuming you are level 70, this will leave you with 10 points to play with in small variations in spec, depending on how you spend most of your time playing.

Talents that you have to choose from that will help feral in some way, in no particular order, include;

Natures’ Grasp/Improved Natures’ Grasp (5 points)
Brutal Impact (2 points)
Shredding Attacks (2 points)
Savage Fury (2 points)
Nurturing Instinct (2 points)
Primal Tenacity (3 points)
Natural Shapeshifter (3 points)
Intensity (3 points)

Well, that’s 10 points to play with, and 22 points in juicy options.

So what can you take to get the most bang for your point buck? It depends on how you intend to spend most of your time.

If your druid is your main, and you are more of a casual player than a raider, then it is likely that you will want to choose to put those extra points into Talents that will help you chew faces and keep yourself alive in a tight spot.

For a casual soloing DPS cat, you want to increase burst damage/DPS, and give yourself interrupts and better spot healing. You’re going to want the ability to shift from cat to caster for HoTs and back again in a flash.

In that case, the first thing I’d recommend is 2 points in Savage Fury to up your Mangle (Cat) DPS by 20%. Second, put two points into Brutal Impact to give yourself another second on your Bash and Pounce stuns. That extra time to shift into caster, pop off your heals uninterrupted and drink a mana potion before shifting back is very valuable.

The last 6 points are pretty controversial.

If you want to balance out your DPS by being a good tank in pinch, then put 3 points into Primal Tenacity and 3 points into Intensity. The only tanking Talent you’ll be missing is the Shredding Attacks Lacerate cost reduction, and in my opinion having more up front Rage to establish aggro is more valuable then the Lacerate reduction over a long fight. Your results may vary… but if you are noticing problems, then you are probably tanking enough to justify taking Shredding Attacks over something else.

If you honestly intend to solo DPS most of the time, and intend to tank only on a fill-in or occasional basis, then you might consider putting 3 points into Natural Shapeshifter to decrease your mana costs while flipping back and forth, and give you more to use in heals. If you do this, you really don’t have an obvious option. for the other 3. You could put all three into Primal Tenacity, or you could put 2 into Nurturing Instincts to improve your emergency heals and 1 in either Primal Tenacity or Natures’ Grasp. It’s really up to you, and depends on whether you occasionally run PvP or rely on shift healing in your playstyle.

Keep in mind that for raiding or tanking, Nurturing Instincts is a worthless Talent. But, if you are soloing, and in your DPS gear, you should be heavy into +Str. Since Nurturing Instincts gives you a +healing based on a small percentage of your strength, it could prove to be a viable option for you, and give you that little bit extra to help you out while soloing the tougher mobs.

My advice is to try and find a balance that works best for your playing style. If you can afford to, try different variations of your spec and see what feels most effective and comfortable.

Before we get into tanking, I want to point you to an outstanding thread over in the WoW Druid Forums.

Now, let’s talk tanking.

If you want to make sure that you are specced to be the best tank you can be, first and foremost, and you’ll take the hit in soloing efficiency, then the choices are much easier

You’ll want 2 points in Shredding Attacks for the Lacerate rage reduction, 3 points in Primal Tenacity for the Stun and Fear resist, and 3 points in Intensity for instant Rage generation first.

The other 2 points could go in either Savage Fury or Brutal Impact.

This can be a tough decision. The Savage Fury will help your damage output while soloing (remember, since the patch it does NOT improve Maul, Swipe or Mangle - Bear!), but the Brutal Impact will serve to reduce the total damage you take tanking by prolonging your stuns, as well as improve your stun duration in both cat and bear. If you are really looking to maximize tanking, then your choice should be Brutal Impact.

I hope that this can help you take a look at the way you like to play your druid, and balance your spec accordingly.

Any comments are welcome!

Edit - No one has mentioned this to me yet, but I see I overlooked one thing. If you are raiding, or running instances as catform DPS regularly, then you need to fit Shredding Attacks into your build. Shred is the raiding DPS cats’ bread and butter attack, and except for those times when you are reapplying Mangle to keep your debuff up on the target, you should be Shredding your furry little heart out. Sorry for the oversight.

Lot of talk about Wrath of the Lich King in forums and on WoW Insider, musings over what new content is going to be in the expansion.

I think it’s waaaay too early for that kind of thing.

But I want to leave speculation on upcoming content behind, and throw out there what I want to see happen, something that Blizzard already has proven they can implement in the existing game;

Aerial PvP.

Hear me out, now. Think about it.

You make an instanced arena. Put some floaty things in it that serve no purpose. I don’t know about you, but I think Nagrand has plenty of those to spare.

Now, of course you need your pre-requisites… your flight skill level determines which Aerial Arena you are qualified to enter.

Hey, let’s really have fun and let there be 2v2 and 3v3 teams.

Ah, but how to do battle? How to score wins?

In the current system, you have two choices. You can choose to disable spell casting while mounted, or you can choose to allow casting but it automatically dismounts you.

I agree with that, and I see no reason to change that. We need an option that only changes gameplay while actively in the Aerial Arena.

What Blizzard has done with Shartuuls’ Transporter Event and Teron Gorefiend, I Am is prove that they can temporarily give you a new caster/pet bar that adds abilities and spells to your character.

These are spells that you can use during a specific event, and when the event is over they are removed.

In this case, I could see the beginning of the Arena match starting with both teams on tall, slender pillars on opposing sides. The bottom of the Arena could be lava, green goop, whatever. The point is that when the match begins, each player activates their chosen mount. Once on their mount, a new caster/pet style bar pops up that would have your attack options.

The purpose of the match would be to unseat your opponent. The team that still has a player airborne wins the match.

I would LIKE to see the Horde and Alliance each have different attacks. Heaven would be each race having a special attack animation. Thrown dynamite for dwarves, woven nets for elves, thrown spears for trolls, whatever.

At it’s core I think there should be a long range slowing/hamstring style attack, and at melee range a dismounting blow.

I could see the caster bar having nothing fancier than a Net attack for long range hamstring, and a Lance attack for melee range dismounting.

I don’t think I’ll get any argument that those damn Monstrous Kaliri prove that Blizzard can make aerial based attacks that hamstring and dismount aerial riders.

So with already proven and existing methods, Blizzard has all the tools necessary to give us Aerial PvP.

The only thing that would have to be refined would be targeting an opponent in 3d space with a net attack… assuming they added a hamstring style move for PvP tactics… frankly, I would be delighted just to get a lance for melee ranged unseating and go head to head with another dragon rider!

God, my imagination is running wild… I can see people suddenly farming their Sha’tari Skyguard rep to get the epic mount with the smallest graphics footprint in the game to better scan the skies to see their prey… leatherworkers going into overdrive selling Riding Crops… heck, make the quest reward for defeating Captain Skyshatter a faster speed boost than the Riding Crop, or give it a dismount stun resist, and watch that quest get taken very seriously indeed!

C’mon, anyone else out there feel the same? We have these awesome dragons we love, and bombing them again in Blades Edge Plateau is fun, but I want to bring the war to the skies!

The forums, they are always alive with drama.

The drama I dislike the most is the whole ‘casual vs hardcore raider’ thing that constantly gets stirred up.

I especially dislike the way arguments flare up over just what is the definition of a casual gamer. Or a hardcore raider.

Is it by hours played? What content your guild has completed? Honor rank in PvP? BOP gear?

Drives me crazy. One person makes an argument assuming that the terms refer to hours played… and gets rebutted by someone making assumptions based on comparative skill levels.

Apples and oranges, people.

I consider myself a casual gamer. I proudly display that right up there at the top of the page. And for the most part I do think of it as a time commitment label.

Sometimes, if talking about hardcore raiders with my friends and I am feeling cranky, I will even make snide comments about lives, and the having thereof.

But what it really boils down to for me is that WoW is only one activity in the list of things that I participate in.

In order of importance to me:

Family
Work
Recreation

I have been blessed with a wonderful family. I have a moderately demanding job that takes me out of the house for 4 days a week, 10 hours each day. And I have several different recreational interests, such as writing, watching movies, and reading. WoW is solidly in the recreational category.

I actually find myself playing quite consistently in the evenings and weekends, so long as no family activities are going on. Family activities includes watching Hell’s Kitchen

I have played enough hours now that I attained exalted with my Scryer, Kurenai, Sha’tari Skyguard, Ogri’la and Netherwing factions. Just for the pretty mounts and rep items

But no matter how much time I may spend in the game, my first priority is to my family. I know I am not the only one, in fact I imagine I am in the majority of the working WoW player on this point. I have one friend that doesn’t even log in until all of his children and his wife are tucked snugly into bed… and he takes his playtime from his sleep time so as not to lose a minute of time spent with his family.

Me, I do not make commitments to any WoW activity that may take longer than 30 minutes at one time, unless planned well in advance. And in advance means at least a week or so. I have to be able to pop offline at a moments notice, at any time, to change a diaper, give a bath, make dinner, take out trash, clean a spill, check out changes to the website my wife is designing, read a book to my son, whatever. Sometimes this can change, and lately I have had extra time here and there to run quick PUGs with my wifes’ approval, but it can change back at any moment.

Picture an overgrown bear of a man asking his wife, “Please dear, the guild wants me to main tank Kara on team two… can I have just a couple hours? I promise I’ll make dinner tomorrow!”

I really do think that the key difference between a casual gamer and a hardcore gamer, to me, is the amount of time a person can consistently dedicate to playing the game without distractions.

I don’t think that skill, age, maturity, gear or content completed should be part of the discussion.

The most common assumption I see made by the self-professed hardcore player is that hardcore = good player, and casual = bad.

It is self serving to say that I disagree, after all I’m one of those casuals.

But damnit I do.

The main basis I have for making that statement is based on my own personal observations in game.

Lately I have been pursuing the tanking ring that drops from Lieutenant Drake in Old Hillsbrad, Caverns of Time normal mode. I’ve done the instance many times, and each time the ring has dropped I’ve lost the roll to a warrior. No worries, it’ll be my turn eventually. (I could grumble ad nauseum about warriors rolling on a bear tanking ring when there are other rings that are better for warriors, but hey, not everyone studies boss loot lists or has Atlas Enhanced Loot addon installed.)

The simple fact is that, in straight groups of level 70 PUGs, with me either tanking or DPS in catform, I have had great runs and I have had absolutely mediocre runs, and it ain’t the casual players that have been stinking it up.

The best runs I have had have been with players that call themselves casual in party chat, who ask for a little time or explanation on the boss fights ahead of time. They sometimes announce that they are tackling the instance for the first time, and ask for us to be patient if they go a little slow, as they are trying hard to make no mistakes. From what I have seen, the majority of the casual players I have PUGged with over the last month have shared one thing in common - they have an appreciation for how valuable their own limited playing time is, they want to get it right the first time, and they show a concern for how well they are performing their own class role, and are worried over possibly making a mistake that will wipe the group and waste the other players’ time in the game. In short, they show respect towards the other players time and effort, and try to stay focused and do well.

In comparison, the runs I have been in that included members of high end raiding guilds on our server, well geared out from Kara and even SSC, have been painful and full of wipes. The players seem to be running the instance for D/E drops or out of boredom. They don’t communicate with anyone except each other, unless demanding buffs. They spend their time alternately pulling early, and doing everything they can to rush/sprint the run. When they do chat, it is only when other members of their raiding circle are in the same PUG, excluding the rest of the party as they discuss guild events, PvP duels, and other errata with a complete disregard for what is actually going on. If something goes wrong, invariably the instant comments made are about noobs, a lack of healing from Priests, a lack of proper crowd control, nasty remarks about ‘huntards’, or scathing comments on how ‘the instance isn’t that hard’.

This ain’t science. This is a blog so that I can share my opinions and get responses on how other people may feel.

I bet that there are many people that could put forward arguments that good hardcore raiders would never do a PUG, they would only do runs with guildies, or some other reason why the ones I have played with are not representative of hardcore players as a whole.

I’m not going to worry about whether I am giving hardcore raiders a fair shake, cause every bad thing said about the ‘noobness’ of casual players can be defended the same way. This is based 100% on my own play experiences on my server.

The fact is, I have found that the people that I ahve played with that have admitted to having limited time to play show a great deal more consideration and respect towards other players than ‘hardcore’ players do.

Perhaps people that have large blocks of time free to commit to playing WoW, and do so, take their own hours of available playtime for granted, and tend to transfer that same feeling into a lack of respect for the time and efforts of others. I find that possibility to be much more likely than some closed-minded and sweeping belief that all college age, single or unemployed players are immature.

Whatever the reason, I do know that I am grateful for WoW having a friends list to add to when I do meet a great player.

And an ignore list for the rest.

P.S. I think it says something that I wish my ignore list was capable of being larger, and not my friends list. Whether it says something about me or other players, I’ll refuse to speculate, to preserve my fragile ego