Como lo dice el titulo, hace un mes aproximadamente que empeze a jugar WoW. Y apenas soy un lvl 50, el pronostico dictaminaba que ya deberia de haber sido 60. Con toda la ayuda y equipo que tengo.

Sin embargo, gracias a mi novia, los amigos, la universidad, entre otros, no me he enviciado tanto. Para eso son las vacaciones, que si todo sale bien este viernes 4 de Diciembre sera mi ultimo dia de clases.

Bueno como antes lo habia mensionado, mi otro spec de mi Druida es Restoration. Con lo cual con solo decir healer LFG, y ya estoy en un dungeon. Hoy de nuevo fui a Zul’Farrak con Catzum, un chavo de mi Guild, y otros dos tipos de otra guild. Nos fue bien, nada mas el Catzum se me murio como 3 veces porque seguia quitandole el hate al tank. De ahi en mas healee como el FSM manda.

I’m feeling discomforted and uneasy because I’m second guessing myself again. Might not seem a big thing really but to me it is because I cannot stop thinking about it.

In the Shamanism course I’m taking we are told to use Tobacco as an offering to the Nature Spirits because it is sacred. Yes, of course it’s sacred but the focus of this course is quite Native American. While this is fine and I respect the Native American ways very much, it is not my cultural tradition which is Celtic. I feel very strongly about this, so I don’t feel right using Tobacco as an offering. I am drawn to using the Three Sacred Herbs of the Druids – Meadowsweet, Mint and Vervain.

Is this right or wrong? Should I be using Tobacco instead? If my instructor knew I was using something else I don’t think she’d be very happy. But I’ve also learnt that another name for Shamanism is ‘The Way of the Heart’, meaning it encourages one to follow ones inner self-expression and heart. My heart is telling me to use something else other than Tobacco but I’m struggling with myself to know what to do. I’m not confident in myself and my gut instinct and this is really bothering me.

Celtic Shamans of old would not have Tobacco, so they would have used sacred plants available to them. Culturally specific! To the Druids, although all plants were sacred to them, Meadowsweet, Mint and Vervain held a special place. I feel more comfortable following this but why do I feel as though I’m doing something wrong?

On a more mundane level I’m going in for my gall bladder operation next Monday and I have to be honest and say I’m feeling a little apprehensive about it. I suppose it’s the thought of going into hospital even for just one day and being anaesthetised. I’m very glad I’m finally having the op done though as I’ve waited so long for it.

Blessings
Deep~Glade

Almost certainly not. Almost certainly, he never actually existed. I say that since the edvidence for either of those notions is the same: none.

Yet that hasn’t stopped some Scots loon from going on about the notion that Jesus visited Britania at some point.

The loon in question talks about how it’s not out of the question that Jesus would’ve come to England, and I suppose it’s technically possible. But it’s highly unlikely. Most people even in Roman times, heck, even up until just a few decades ago, didn’t go more than a few miles from where they were born.

Favorite quote:

“He needed to go around to learn bits and pieces about ancient wisdom, and the druids in Britain went back hundreds if not thousands of years. He probably came here to meet the druids, to share his wisdom and gain theirs.”

Yes, because if there’s one thing that we know about the Romans, it’s that they just loved the druids. I seem to rememer Julius Caesar, in particular, was a great fan. Plus we all know how much Jews and Christians have loved learning wisdom from other religions.

This concept is not just bad history, it’s not even good theology.

Anoche despues de terminar las daylies del evento de thanksgiving, fui a un run al dungeon mencionado. Fui con mi compa Gsquall. Era la primera ves que iba a un dungeon abierto. Me agrado mucho el hecho de poder usar mi montura en un dungeon XD.

Acabamos en media hora el run, y no paso a mayores. Como siempre cuando voy con el, el mata y yo looteo. Y saque equipo bueno para mis 2 aspectos de Dsvacalala.

Esta noche queria ir de nuevo pero se me olvido que ayer tenia que haber pagado. Y hoy tengo la cuenta congelada XD. Lo que mas me pesa es perder los 12k de exp aproximada, que me dan por las daylies del evento de accion de gracias. Y que los ganas nada mas por cocinar. Pero bueno sin llorar.

Mas noche pagare o hare que alguien lo pague por mi (@coldalchemy te estoy viendo).

Para estas noches sin juegos, agradezco al FSM o MEV en español, que tengo mucho Anime en pendiente.

The Tier 10 set bonuses will come with the newest patch 3.3.

All set bonuses are listed below, classes arranged in alphabetical order.

Death Knight

• Death Knight T10 Tank 2P Bonus – Increases the damage done by your Death and Decay ability by 20%.
• Death Knight T10 Tank 4P Bonus – When you activate Blood Tap, you gain 12% damage reduction from all attacks for 10 sec.
• Death Knight T10 Melee 2P Bonus – Your Obliterate, Scourge Strike, and Death Strike abilities deal 10% increased damage.
• Death Knight T10 Melee 4P Bonus – Whenever all your runes are on cooldown, you gain 3% increased damage done with weapons, spells, and abilities for the next 15 sec.

Druid

• Druid T10 Restoration 2P Bonus – The healing granted by your Wild Growth spell reduces 0% less over time.
• Druid T10 Restoration 4P Bonus – Each time your Rejuvenation spell heals a target, it has a 2% chance to jump to a new target at full duration.
• Druid T10 Balance 2P Bonus – When you gain Clearcasting from your Omen of Clarity talent, you deal 10% additional Nature and Arcane damage for 6 sec.
• Druid T10 Balance 4P Bonus – Reduces the cooldown on your Eclipse talent by 6000.
• Druid T10 Feral 2P Bonus – Your Swipe (Bear) and Lacerate abilities deal 20% additional damage and the cost of your Rip ability is reduced by 10 energy.
• Druid T10 Feral 4P Bonus – Your Enrage ability no longer decreases your armor and instead decreases all damage taken by 12%, and the periodic damage done by your Rake ability can now be a critical strike.

Hunter

• Hunter T10 2P Bonus – Your Auto Shots have a 5% chance to cause you and your pet to deal 15% additional damage for until cancelled.
• Hunter T10 4P Bonus – Your Shot abilities deal 4% increased damage to targets afflicted with Viper Sting, Serpent Sting, or Wyvern Sting.

Mage

• Mage T10 2P Bonus – Your Mirror Image ability also causes you to deal 15% additional damage for 10 sec.
• Mage T10 4P Bonus – Your Hot Streak, Missile Barrage, and Brain Freeze talents also grant you 12% haste for 3 sec when the effect of the talent is consumed.

Paladin

• Paladin T10 Holy 2P Bonus – The cooldown on your Divine Favor talent is reduced by 60 sec.
• Paladin T10 Holy 4P Bonus – Your Holy Shock spell causes the next Holy Light you cast within 10 sec to have 0.3 sec reduced cast time.
• Paladin T10 Protection 2P Bonus – Your Hammer of the Righteous ability deals 20% increased damage.
• Paladin T10 Protection 4P Bonus – When you activate Divine Plea, you gain 12% dodge for 10 sec.
• Paladin T10 Retribution 2P Bonus – Your Seals and Judgements deal 10% additional damage.
• Paladin T10 Retribution 4P Bonus – Your melee attacks have a 4% chance to reset the cooldown on your Divine Storm ability.

Priest

• Priest T10 Healer 2P Bonus – After your Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit talents expire on your target, they grant your target 10% increased healing received for 10 sec.
• Priest T10 Healer 4P Bonus – Your Flash Heal spell has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown on your Circle of Healing and Penance Spells.
• Priest T10 Shadow 2P Bonus – The critical strike chance of your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells is increased by 5%.
• Priest T10 Shadow 4P Bonus – Reduces the channel duration and period of your Mind Flay spell by 51%.

Rogue

• Rogue T10 2P Bonus – Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.
• Rogue T10 4P Bonus – Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.

Shaman

• Shaman T10 Restoration 2P Bonus – Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast.
• Shaman T10 Restoration 4P Bonus – Your Chain Heal critical strikes cause the target to heal for 25% of the healed amount over until cancelled.
• Shaman T10 Elemental 2P Bonus – Your Lightning Bolt spell reduces the remaining cooldown on your Elemental Mastery talent by 1 sec.
• Shaman T10 Elemental 4P Bonus – The cooldown on your Lava Burst ability is reduced by 15 sec.
• Shaman T10 Enhancement 2P Bonus – When you activate your Shamanistic Rage ability you also deal 12% additional damage for 15 sec.
• Shaman T10 Enhancement 4P Bonus – Each time the beneficial effect of your Maelstrom Weapon talent reaches 5 charges, you have a 15% chance to gain 20% attack power for 10 sec.

Warlock

• Warlock T10 2P Bonus – The critical strike chance of your Shadowbolt, Incinerate, and Corruption spells is increased by 5%.
• Warlock T10 4P Bonus – Each time your Immolate and Unstable Affliction spells deal periodic damage, you have a 15% chance to gain 12% spell haste for 10 sec.

Warrior

• Warrior T10 Protection 2P Bonus – Your Shield Slam and Shockwave abilities deal 20% increased damage.
• Warrior T10 Protection 4P Bonus – Your Bloodrage ability no longer costs health to use, and now causes you to absorb damage equal to 20% of your maximum health. Lasts until cancelled.
• Warrior T10 Melee 2P Bonus – When your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities deal damage you have a 2% chance to gain 20% attack power for until cancelled.
• Warrior T10 Melee 4P Bonus – You have a 20% chance for your Blood Surge and Sudden Death talents to grant 2 charges of their effect instead of 1 and for the duration of the effect to be increased by 100%.

Wow, it’s been a long time since my last post!

Recently, I’ve been working on my Druid full-time.  I haven’t been playing much, but when I am, I’m BG’ing with her or trying to level her.  I’m amazed at how fast she’s leveling with the two heirloom XP pieces and Alterac Valley XP.  I got six levels in one day last week.

She’s 62 now and has her dual spec.  She’s feral (for when I do quest, which doesn’t happen often) and Resto (for BG healing).

It’s hard to see and I’m feeling too lazy to crop it and make it more visible, but if you look closely, you might be able to see my little flying Druid in the middle of the Dark Portal.

I kinda laughed when I realized how much I missed questing in Outland.  I have so many good memories that I made with my guild and my friends out there – I enjoyed the game so much during that time and just being back out there makes me happy.  I love Northrend, the music, the feel of the zone – but Outland holds a special place in my heart for all the great memories.

Hola soy Dsvacalala, el Main del wey que escribe este blog y si no entendieron el chiste del titulo es que nunca tuvieron un Druida. Les hablare un poco de mi.

Soy un Tauren o mejor conocido como un Shu’halo en mi idioma natal, el Taur-ahe. Naci y creci en la planicie de Mulgure junto a la ciudad de principal de los Tauren, Thunder Bluff. Desde que era un pequeño becerro nivel 1, senti el llamado de lo natural, aja. En realidad los Druidas somos fregones pero nos tardamos en llegar a ese nivel, con todo eso de que somos una clase hibrida y que podemos hacer los 4 papeles del WoW sin sudar XD. Empece a hacer mi entrenamiento druidistico con el Archidruida Hamuul Runetotem en la Cima de los Ancianos de Thunder Bluff.

En este entrenamiento hice circo maroma y teatro, para conseguir mis formas de batalla. Se me paso mencionar, nosotros los druidas somos cambia formas. Aquellos que se van por el arbol de talentos Feral, usan la forma de Oso o la forma de Gato. El que usa Balance usa la forma de Lechucido, y el que usa Restauracion se transforma en Arbol. Tambien poseemos formas de viaje, de tierra, agua y aire. Nos ahorramos dinero en las monturas XD.

Empece entrenando mi arbol de talentos Feral. Con lo cual fui un intento de dps fisico durante casi 40 niveles. Me pasee por casi todas las ciudades principales Hordas. En estos 40 niveles recibi gran ayuda de mi amigo Gsquall, un Hunter Troll nivel 80. El me ayudo y me llevo a dungeons en los cuales yo solo veia y recogia el loot, mientras el mataba enemigos. Ya a mi nivel 40 consegui mi doble especializacion con la cual decidi cambiarme de arbol de talento a Balance (DPS de rango) y el otro a Restauracion (Healer).

Tambien siguiendo su consejo y para evitar problemas con su Guild Dominus Omnia, que en lo personal se pusieron nenas, me uni a una guild de bajo lvl llamada Lex Rex Perplex. En la cual he hecho compañeros de batalla y he ido a varios dungeons. Y contrario a la voz popular me gusta ser Healer y gracias a eso voy casi todas las veces a los dungeons.

Por el momento estoy en nivel 47 y sigo subiendo. Espero que cuando sea 58 este DeathScythe se haya comprado la expansion Burning Crusade para irnos en friega a Outlands.

Eso es todo por ahora. Cuando suba mas de nivel seguire escribiendo sobre mi.

Que la Madre Tierra cuide sobre ustedes!!!

When you’re a stranger. -The Doors

So every time I am able to eek out a few minutes to write a post here, I look at the searches bringing traffic to my site. Spank me is inevitable, as I wrote a post about my wife’s warrior named spankmeplz. Today, I got a disturbing search.

Sylvester Stallone has an Amazing Ass

WTH?

I don’t even know what that means.

Ok, Druid is 73, and moving quickly. I have pretty much stopped BG, because I want gold from quests. Also questing in Outlands and Northrend has provided me plenty of herbs for my Inscription and alchemy professions.

That being said, I am having to purchase almost every Northrend herb that goes for less than 1 gold in order to keep up with the inscription business.

That being said, I am not making as much as I thought I would, but still enough.

I mainly heal with my Druid.

I tanked Regular UK and Regular AN last night. It was fun, but that shit requires crazy multi-tasking. Especially when I have a warrior who loves to spin in circles with his axe out.

I want everyone to have a great Thanksgiving. get your pet. Have some fun with the family. Be thankful for the things that matter.

Enjoy some Turkey.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that all Americans, regardless of culture, ethnicity, religion and politics seem to rally behind. I decided to put this notion to a test.

A couple of years ago, I decided to run a small social experiment during the Thanksgiving season. At the time I was CEO of UPOC. I invited members from several diverse groups into a special “What are you thankful for…?” – mobile chat group. The idea was to have everyone give a “shout out” of thanks. The experimental part of this mobile chat group was the source of the member groups that were invited.

These groups included: Christian Fundamentalists, Atheists, Communists, Hassidic Jews, Muslims, Anarchists, Right to Lifers, Republicans, Druids, Democrats, Red Sox Fans, Yankee Fans, Reform Jews, Blacks, Asians, Gays, Lesbians, Hispanics, Satanists, Israeli and Palestinian, Young and Old.

Yes! I even invited Red Sox fans!

I tried to get the most diverse group of individuals I could possibly imagine that had open chat profiles. In the end I invited about 5000 people and got about 500 to join.

In the week leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, I was careful to hide the sources of the groups of the members.

Different Cultures, Religions, Ethnicity, Sexual Preferences, and Sports Affiliations. None of the differences were obvious, just the similarity of giving thanks.

Leading up to the holiday, the expressions of thanks were heart warming. Many gave thanks for Family, Friends and God. Some expressions of thanks were deeply personal including being thankful for a second chance with a loved one, being paroled from jail, having recovered from an illness, having the opportunity to see a loved one for the holiday, etc. The expressions of introspective appreciations knew no boundaries of culture. If you hid the chat handles from the messages you would have had a very difficult time identifying the group that a specific message had originated. It seems that people are really just people.

Everyone has their share of joy and “meshugas”

The second unexpected part of this experiment happened after the long Thanksgiving weekend. The expressions of thankfulness stopped and biases and bigotry emerged.

By the end of the week the word had gotten out to the participants who some of the other members of this group really were. That’s another side of social networking, its tough to keep secrets.

Right and Left Wingers began to spar, Fundamentalists started to try to save the Satanists, Hassidic Jews were condescending of Reform Jews- And the Red Sox and Yankees fans – it was just too ugly to repeat…

Stripped of their diverse background identifiers, people of vastly different cultures have very similar things to be thankful about.

Once the identity veil was lifted I was thankful that everyone in the group was in cyberspace and not really in the same physical room. I removed the group a week after Thanksgiving to avoid potential bloodshed.

Maybe there is something we all can learn from this social experiment in this season of Thanksgiving.

Last night my 10-man-only guild, the Fancy Hat Club, finally killed Anub’arak in Trial of the Grand Crusader and Algalon in Ulduar (grats on being months behind!).  It was precisely encounters like these for which I have been so careful to always keep my dear elemental shaman so close to the bleeding edge of her DPS capacity, spending thousands of gold on gear and many hours on theorycraft, playtesting, encounter strategy and staying “in practice” so that I can be the best asset I can be.

It’s therefore rather ironic that, when we got these kills, I was playing my feral druid.  As a tank.

Now for various reasons I’ve not been very keen on my dear old druid this expansion, but a couple of months back I did put some effort into getting him a bit geared up in case we needed the extra tank.  There were no spreadsheets or even napkins involved – though I did use Rawr for one or two tricky decisions, it was mostly just rule-of-thumb head maths and vague intuition.  I was familiar with the tanking strategies partly because I helped to devise them for our guild and partly because I’m usually the designated go-between for the RL (when it’s not me) and the tanks and healers.  I’d never tanked either boss before.  I’d only been to ToGC once on my druid, and Ulduar only up to Iron Council with a PUG.

How many tanks am I holding up

When we started 10-man raiding, we had two “main tanks” and two “off-tanks” – that is, two guys who just wanted to MT and were fully focused and geared to that, and two other guys who were playing DPS toons but didn’t mind being the second tank if either of the mains couldn’t make it.  Unfortunately over the summer one of our MTs had to call it quits, and we’ve since been relying on our one remaining off-spec tank to pick up the slack.  With University semesters starting back, workloads increasing and availability of raiders decreasing, we started using more folks’ offspecs and even some “alts” – such as most recently, my own.

Again with the irony.  When we started Ulduar, we had two main tanks but many of the most difficult encounters in the instance required only one (Heartbreaker, Freya+3, Hodir, Firefighter, Vezax/Animus, One Light); our 2nd MT was often relegated to DPSing.  When we started ToC, we had only one main tank but every fight in the instance required two.  Our poor DPS warrior found himself tanking every single boss of every single raid and feeling like he couldn’t roll on either tank loot (as he wasn’t the MT) or DPS loot (as he never seemed to DPS anymore).

Unnecessarily flamboyant headgear

Fancy Hats are a very casual guild, in the sense that we’re not focused on progression or amassing phat lewts – for us, raiding is about enjoying the WoW endgame.  We chose the 10-man format because it was more intimate and fun, and put much less pressure on the group (especially its leaders).  However, most of us also come from quite a hardcore 25-man raiding background and are elitist minmaxer types, so we’re able to accomplish quite a lot in our limited raiding time even though we don’t generally race after progression.  Though we just killed Algalon and Anub’arak, it was only our fourth night on Algalon (and each time we’d had a different group and an offspec OT) and we spent less than 80 attempts on Anub’arak, again with constantly varying raid configurations.

What I’m saying is, the rest of the group had absolutely put in the effort to have their best gear (even for offspecs) and skill and knowledge of the fights and whatnot.  The DPS were pumping out high numbers and controlling their targets and timings perfectly.  The healers were performing amazing feats of proactive and reactive healing, cooldown usage, and mana management.  On Anub, our MT was quickly grabbing and holding all his targets, placing them perfectly, and using cooldowns – such as locking them out of shadowstrikes – flawlessly.  On Algalon he helped keep me alive by taunting and intercepting and whatnot, while closing black holes and stuff.

It’s nice to be not needed

In my past raiding career, there were many times that I felt “if only I was DPSing, we would’ve had that”.  Sometimes in PUGs or semi-PUGs I’ve even thought, “it’d make a big difference if I switched to healing for this”.  But last night I didn’t have to contribute my heavily min-maxed DPS or my vastly-improved healing skills.  I just had to sit in front of the boss and soak up its attention while the rest of the raid got on with all the hard work which they had prepared for so thoroughly.

Now, I won’t indulge in false modesty by claiming that I did nothing.  I had after all geared up my druid as best I could given my limited time and energy.  I’d prepared special consumables and alternative gear options for each fight, and I co-ordinated with our healers and MT to reduce the gear disadvantage I had as much as possible through careful use of cooldowns, taunts and whatnot.

But I still did much less than everyone else – not much more than turning up, really – and that makes me strangely happy.  In the “Why I DPS” post I explained how crucial the DPS role was, and how it was a realisation of precisely that pivotal importance which led me to fill that role in a raid.  To see the other guys you raid with perform their roles so well that you aren’t needed in those same roles is just brilliant.  To see them fill their roles well enough that they make up for your own lack of gear/experience/whatever is extremely gratifying.

With that in place, all we needed to get our first kills was a second tank – and I was able to fill that role, the one that was needed.  I’m not hugely fond of WotLK feral tanking, and my shaman is by far my favourite character.  But it was more fun to fill the actual gap than to try and shoehorn myself into a role in which I frankly wasn’t necessary while the raid failed due to lack of a tank.

That almost makes up for the fact that I finally got those achievements on my all but abandoned alt while my shaman, who’s put in all that time and effort, still lacks them!

Este evento ocurre la misma semana que ocurre Thanksgiving en USA. Este evento empeso el domingo pasado, en el cual las mayores ciudades de Azeroth, Alianza y Horda por igual, estubieron llenas de gente cocinando los platillos del evento y haciendo guerras de comida en las mesas con los festines.
Yo ahi estuve cocinando y lanzando comida tambien. Y fue de gran ayuda a mi habilidad de cocina, ya que en menos de una hora la incremente de nivel 40 a 300 con mis 2 personajes, mi Druida (Dsvacalala) y mi Warlock (Dsnoin). Usando solamente las recetas del evento.

Los premios de las misiones estan graciosos. Son disfraces de peregrinos y canones de plumas que transforman en pavos a la gente. Yo ya tengo todo el conjunto de peregrino.

El unico ingrediente dificil de conceguir fue el pavo. Debido a que eramos varios cazandolos y siendo que solo salen en una ciudad Horda. Me tarde en conceguir los 25 que se requerian para las misiones. Los demas ingredientes te los vende un NPC en las ciudades principales (Thunder Bluff, Under City y Ogrimmar) a bajo costo.

Pero bueno, en este segundo dia del evento con las 4 misiones diarias obtuve 12k de experiencia. Y solo por cocinar.

Y para finalizar un recordatorio. Si comes de las mesas los 5 platillos, 5 veces cada uno, obtienes un bono de 10% mas de Reputacion con cada faccion por una hora!

Oggi vi proponiamo il Balance Druid deck basato sull’eroe Eriun Moonglow. Tale deck è generalmente considerato un ally control, grazie alle abilità che impediscono di far tornare ready gli alleati avversari o ne impediscono ogni azione, affiancato dalle abilità che creano e potenziano ally token, da cui l’appellativo token deck.

Eroe
Eriun Moonglow

Il flip dell’eroe Balance Druid Eriun Moonglow consente, al costo di x risorse, di rimescolare nel proprio deck  x carte abilità balance e di infliggere x danni ad un alleato bersaglio avversario. Un flip molto utile visto e considerato che tutte le abilità presenti in questo deck sono abilità balance.

Alleati (8)
3x Mikael the Blunt
3x Adam Eternum
2x Weldon Barov

Per quanto riguarda gli alleati, Mikael the Blunt in combinazione con la location Eye of the Storm è un ottimo ally control in quanto infligge 2 danni ad ogni eroe o alleato che ritorna ready; Adam Eternum con il suo 5/3 al solo costo di 3 risorse, è uno tra i più potenti alleati di controllo dell’Alleanza capace di sottrarsi sia a tutti gli attacchi avversari che agli effetti che richiedono un targhet ally; infine Weldon Barov è indubbiamente una delle carte più potenti fino ad ora uscite per l’Alleanza, capace di proteggere il proprio eroe con 3 ally token 1/1 e protector, creati alla fine di ogni proprio turno; considerando che questo deck si basa anche sugli ally token Weldon Barov ha un ruolo più che fondamentale.

Abilità (30)
4x Cyclone
3x Hibernate
4x Typhoon
4x Nature’s Reach
4x Force of  Nature
3x Gift of the Wild
4x The Natural Order
4x Barkskin

Le abilità presenti in questo deck si possono suddividere in tre tipologie: la prima comprende le abilità che impediscono all’eroe o agli alleati di attaccare o difendere, come Cyclone e Typhoon, o di rimuovere il singolo alleato dalla zona degli alleati e spostarlo come risorsa nella zona delle risorse, come Hibernate; la seconda tipologia si riferisce a quelle abilità che creano ally token, come  Nature’s Reach e Force of  Nature, o che potenziano gli stessi ally token, come Nature’s Reach e Gift of the Wild; infine la terza categoria  comprende abilità generiche di controllo come The Natural Order, che distrugge un abilità o un equipaggiamento bersaglio, e Barskin, che impedisce alle proprie carte alleato, abilità ed equipaggiamento di essere interrotte.

Equipaggiamento (8)
3x Wastewalker Leggings
3x Wastewalker Helm
2x Battle Mages Baton

Per quanto riguarda gli equipaggiamenti, in questo deck sono stati presi in considerazioni 2 dei 4 equipaggiamenti Wastewalker che danno vita ad una combinazione ally remove molto interessate: con Wastewalker Leggings quando un eroe o un alleato avversario diviene esausto il proprio eroe infligge 1 danno, e con Wastewalker Helm quando il proprio eroe infligge un danno ad un alleato, esso viene distrutto; infine  Battle Mages Baton è un ottimo arma di controllo: pagando x si distrugge un alleato, un’abilità o un equipaggiamento con costo x.

Location e Missioni (14)
4x Eye of the Storm
2x In Defense of Halaa
2x Corki’s Ransom
4x Forces of Jaedenar
2x The Defias Brotherhood

Come già scritto nel precedente Warlock Destruction: Mazar, per quanto riguarda la location, Eye of the Storm, viene utilizzata in combinazione con Mikael the Blunt, ma consente anche di utilizzare il potere di Adam Eternum, e per questo motivo è stata inserita  anche la risorsa In Defense of Halaa che aumenta i counter presenti su una carta; Corki’s Ransom è un ottimo draw aggiuntivo da utilizzare ogni turno, mentre Forces of Jaedenar e The Defias Brotherhood assicurano un buon riciclo di carte soprattutto in casi di emergenza.

Side Deck
1x Adam Eternum
1x Weldon Barov
3x Reforestation
3x Stangling Roots
2x Hammer of the Naaru

Nelle side deck, oltre ad una copia aggiuntive di Adam Eternum e Weldon Barov, sono state inserite tre copie di Reforestation che, oltre a distruggere un equipaggiamento bersaglio, mette in gioco 3 ally token 1/1; tre copie di Stangling Roots che ,oltre e spossare un alleato bersaglio ed impedire di farlo tornare ready nel prossimo turno, infligge 2 danni ogni turno all’alleato a cui è attaccata; e 2 copie di Hammer of the Naaru che oltre, a spossare l’eroe e tutti gli alleati avversari, infligge danni imprevenibili.

In genere il deck Balance Druid Eriun Moonglow è un ottimo deck di controllo supportato da due combinazioni molto fastidiose: a) Mikael the Blunt e Eye of the Storm, e b) Wastewalker Leggings e Wastewalker Helm, ottime contro i deck rush. Le abilità che impediscono al singolo eroe o alletato avversario di attaccare o difendere, hanno il solo scopo di bloccare il gioco avversario, mentre Adam Eternum e gli ally token chiudono sicuramente i giochi. Punti deboli di questo deck sono l’assoluta vulnerabilità nei contronti dell’hand control e la fragilità nei confronti dei control deck del mage: Varanis Bitterstar e Vor’na the Wretched.

]]> http://healsanddots.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/restoration-druid-tree-form-at-50/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:50:48 +0000 deimonia http://healsanddots.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/restoration-druid-tree-form-at-50/

I’m a tree lover, in real life and that carries over into World of Warcraft too. I’ve always loved the Druids tree form. I think their animations is adorable. Their dance always brings a smile to my face, and they look so cute when they are sleeping.

Imagine my Restoration Druids disappointment when she discovered she had to be 50 before acquiring that coveted form? She was thinking she would get it at forty, just like the Moonkin form.

Well look who’s a tree now, baby? A few days ago my Druid dinged 50 in Battlegrounds and proudly ‘treed’ around Orgrimmar in her new form. Since hitting 40 my Druid has mainly played as Restoration.

I leveled 40 – 50 mainly through Battlegrounds
Levels 40-50 were mainly leveled in Battlegrounds. Currently on the Cyclone Battle server, Horde wins a lot of Arathi Basin matches. If your faction wins, you receive a lot more experience from the battlegrounds so it pays to win. I haven’t been in any pre-mades in this bracket but I’ve found that Horde has been successful even against obvious pre-mades and the reason was we worked together.

One of the important parts of winning the Battlegrounds is communication. Listening to direction giving by those who know how to play the battlegrounds, having great defense, and not giving up. Since I’m fairly knowledgeable about the Battlegrounds I play I was one of the people giving instructions on what needed to be done in /bg chat. While others on the team were ‘raging’ I encouraged my teammates, suggested strategies and many of the times we won.

Kindness goes a long way, and I carry that over into the virtual world too. I personally believe people are more inclined to listen to you if you don’t insult them. With one of my guilds one of the guild leaders is the asshole type. It’s no surprise that his brand of ‘encouragement’ doesn’t go far with many within the guild. Insulting is the name of his game. Sadly he gets away with it and is not pulled up by other guild leaders.

Don’t let the druid trainer in Stormwind lure you closer. It’s a trap. He’s got quicksand. You *will* die

Hehe, found this screenie when I was cleaning up my pictures. It’s from back when I was level 30-something, but I’ve held on to it, just because I find silly things like this amusing

Well only just… I’ve got some results from my attempt to divide up the feral druid population into cats and bears. We started from the fact that there is no “form” tag in the armoury XML – no direct way to count the thing we want to count. The only way to get an insight into this is to find a proxy for each of the forms – something that is in the data which can be used to separate the sheep from the goats, if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor.

Talents seem to be the obvious choice, so long as there is one talent that bears will take and cats not and another talent that is vice versa. Glyphs are the other possibility. Whatever we choose just has to be i) something that players are highly likely to take  and ii) something that is orthogonal; something that definitely points in one direction for bears and another for cats.

But the basic problem is that there are a lot of um… how to put this politely… there are a lot of left-of-centre specs out there. Talents and glyphs are both less orthogonal than I was hoping for – many specs look a bit bearish and a bit cattish at the same time. And there is a big group that takes none of the talents or glyphs that we want to use.

That’s why I decided not to make the queries very complex – adding more talents or glyphs into the selection criteria  just increases the number of toons that fall into the grey area. Also I’ve counted specs and not toons since the original question was related to the number of druids specced for tanking.

Thanks to the commenters who made suggestions on possible talents and glyphs that might fit these criteria. I’ve run two queries against the data.

The first query counts feral druids who have Natural Reaction versus those who have Predatory Instincts. A druid with some points in Natural Reaction and none at all in Predatory Instincts might be a bear; t’other way round for cats. Those with points in neither are marked as “unknown”; those with some points in both are the “could be either” group.

The second query counts druids who have a Glyph of Maul versus those who have either a Glyph of Shred and/or a Glyph of Rip. Equipping Maul but not Shred or Rip indicates bear; Shred or Rip but no Maul indicates cat. Again we have groups with a mix of these glyphs, and, unfortunately, a huge group with none of them.

Anyway this is what we’ve got:

(Patch 3.2.2 data; sample size 16327 level 80 feral druids with 28970 specs).

Talent-based spec count:

• Bear: 30%
• Cat : 33%
• Could be either: 5%
• Unknown: 31%

Glyph-based spec count:

• Bear: 18%
• Cat: 9%
• Could be either: 15%
• Unknown: 58%

Frankly I’m still not sure how valid these numbers are, but I hope they provide a bit of insight. The talent-based count may at least provide a low-water-mark indication of the number of bearish specs in there.

This blog explores druidry from a non-literal deity perspective. If you are looking for specific information I recommend you also check out my wiki page and the other resource links on the sidebar.

About Me:
I live in British Columbia Canada and am very fortunate to experience the full seasonal changes of nature. I have explored many spiritual paths including Wicca and Neopaganism. Although I have studied a number of courses, organizations, books, and resources I tend to follow my own form rather than having adopted a pre-existing form of druidy.

How can a druid be an atheist?
One of the greatest characteristics of druidy in modern society is honoring diversity. There are druids who are atheists, monothesits, polytheists, pantheists and many others. Nature forms an important part of the reverence of druids above and beyond their personal belief in deity. It is my belief that gods/goddesses are powerful symbols that were constructed by human beings. That does not mean that relating to deities does not work, psychological constructs and archetypes can be powerful motivators! Simply put the atheist perspective that I bring to the site is one that believes that there are no literal deities but acknowledges the existence of deities as creations of mankind.

How can you be a druid if we are not sure what druids believed/did?
The basis of druidy is in nature. As our views and knowledge of nature have changed with science and culture so must change the way that we relate to it. For psychological constructs and archetypes or rituals to have any meaning they need to be relevant. It is not my belief that druidy must be exactly reconstructed from ancient practices but rather based on principles that are relevant for modern society.

Aren’t you a druidess not a druid?
The word “druidess” is an 18th century invention and has no basis in history. Men and women were both referenced as druids. There is no reason that we need separate gendered terms especially in a modern society that believes in equality.

What is a bard? What is an ovate? What is a druid?
Many druidry organizations use these terms to denote what path of study the student is on. Each of these paths has a purpose and none are inherently superior to the others. Simply put bards are often about awakening creativity and expression, ovates about intuition and the inner person, and druids about wisdom and teaching.

It started with healers. Then moved to tanks. Finally, it moved on to us DPS’ers. I’m a bit late to jump on the bandwagon, but I’ve finally filled out the DPS survey, “Death Grip of DPS”, started by Hinenuitepo at Death Goddess.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?
Boize, Druid, Balance

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Usually it’s been 10- and 25-man raids. However, because I’m not able to raid as much anymore, it’s been more PvP-oriented.

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?
As much as I hate the RNG of Eclipse, it’s an ability that I love. Seeing those huge Starfire crit numbers popping up repeatedly just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?
I never use Typhoon. Even when I PvP, I keep my PvE Balance spec (I do arena PvP in my secondary Resto spec). For this spec, I don’t have any points in it, as it’s not really worth it for PvE. I know it’s a pretty damn good spell for PvP, but I’m still reluctant to make the full switch from PvE to PvP specs, I’m still a raider at heart!

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?
I view a Moonkin’s biggest strength as being able to pump out good DPS while still being very versatile. Need buffs? Gift of the Wild / Moonkin Aura. Someone dies? Get them up again mid-battle with Rebirth. A key healer running low on mana? Innervate. The list goes on.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?
The RNG-dependance. Moonkins have the potential to pump out DPS, but if you get very unlucky, you can go for a long time without proccing Eclipse, which significantly increase our DPS. Additionally, current (and future) tier bonuses seem to focus on Eclipse or other RNG aspects, making this RNG-dependance even more prevalent.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?
Moonkins are pretty good at several things. We can pump out the DPS on a single-target boss, be able to easily range-assist with adds, and also have good AoE capabilty with Starfall and Hurricane. Generally, I DPS whatever I’m told to. But I do enjoy single-target DPS.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?
I’d have to say Shaman here, mainly for their Wrath of Air totems which aid me in reaching the haste soft cap, letting me chain 1-second Wraths.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?
Damn Mages and Warlocks always seem to beat me out on the metres, so I list them here out of jealousy.

What is your worst habit as a dps?
Over-DPS’ing in lower-level content. Especially now that I’m pugging more, I often tend to go all out on DPS, even if the tank isn’t greatly geared. Yeah, I’m bad like that.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?
The DPSer who was doing lower DPS then they were capable of whispering “brez me plz” when they die to standing in a fire. Yeah, no.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?
Yes, I feel that Moonkin are in a pretty good place at the moment. Blizzard did a great job of making us viable at endgame in Wrath of the Lich King.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a damage dealer?
Recount and World of Logs, comparing my DPS on that night to previous encounters, and seeing where I’m comparing with the rest of the group in general.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
That we can just pop out of Moonkin form and heal like a regular healer. Yes, we have healing spells, Yes, we still use spellpower. But our heals will be much, much less effective, and will cause us to burn through our mana like there’s no tomorrow.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?
Itemisation. There’s a decent amount of info you need to know about Moonkin in order to maximise your DPS, such as: Hit cap, Haste soft cap, balance between haste and crit, etc. Choosing the right items to aim for can be very difficult, even for more experienced Moonkin.

What dps class do you feel you understand least?
Shadow Priests. I just don’t get them..

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?
I use the Moonkin addon Squawk and Awe to manage my DoTs, as well as seeing the time left on Eclipse.

What stat to stack, and why?
Generally, I try to stack spellpower and crit rating. A Moonkin relies a lot on Crit (especially for Eclipse), and spellpower is an increase to each and every one of your spells, which is always nice.

That’s it! I didn’t get tagged (as far as I can tell), but I will be tagging… You! If you’re a DPS’ing blogger reading this and haven’t filled it out yet, go write now.

Yesterday, my little Druid dinged 40! You want to know something? She’s already started healing Battlegrounds. My Druid was eager to heal her comrades in Battlegrounds so she immediately signed up for Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch.

PvP Healing as a Restoration Druid is different from healing as a PvP Discipline/Holy Priest. I’m slapping HOTs on people more in anticipation of incoming damage. I’ve always loved HOTs, Renew was something I enjoyed using with Holiterra and now with my Restoration Druid I have a few more HOTs to choose from.

Druid healing isn’t new to me. I’ve healed on my other Druids before, however my Druids healed using the Feral spec so their heals weren’t as powerful as a Restoration Druid.

Restoration Druid not as Squishy in Battlegrounds

My Druid has a lot more ways to get out of danger when comparing with my Priest. My little PvP Restoration Druid regularly uses Entangling Roots to lock people in place, The Tauren Racial Thunderstomp is used. I really like Thunderstomp, it’s an AOE stunlike ability and my lowbie Druid uses it often. Additionally Travel form is used to make a fast getaway from the droves of Alliance players that are trying to kill my Restoration Druid. If a getaway isn’t possible my sweet Tauren turns nasty and shifts into Dire Bear form.

My Druid leveled from 40 – 43 through Battlegrounds

My Lowbie Druid knocked out three levels through Battlegrounds. Although it’s true Blizzard doesn’t award you as much experience as you would receive from questing it’s a nice change in pace and I’m enjoying it immensely.

As I’ve mentioned before I’m an altoholic so really wanted a change of pace when it came to leveling another toon. At the lower levels there does seem to be a lot more people becoming active in Battlegrounds, and I imagine a major incentive is the experience gained from entering them. Additionally Twinks, for the most part, are in a separate battleground so you most likely won’t be seeing them in normal Battlegrounds.

Earlier today, I came up with a Restoration PvP spec and had a chance to test it out in Battlegrounds. At the moment, I’m enjoying it a lot. I’ll post my druids PvP Resto spec, and perhaps I’ll write about some of the strategies I’m using as a leveling PvP Restoration Druid in a later post. I’m looking forward to having two PvP healers at end-game. However, for now, I’m enjoying my Druid’s journey.

Yesterday two of our holiday missions were fulfilled. Cerri got to cuddle a Koala (so did I – OMG how cuddly are they!), and I met my first Kangeroo. We went to the Gorge wildlife reserve. A wonderful place where people are able to get up close to some of Australia’s native wildlife.

We arrived just in time for the Koala cuddling. We had seen the wild Koala at the Ashram and I had just fallen in love with these amazing animals. To get the opportunity to hold one was something I couldn’t resist. But it was Cerri’s mission so she went first. The handler passed her over and you could see in Cerri’s eyes how much she was moved by the experience. In the words of a great man, “they are so placid, and self contained” – a piece of prose that could have been written for the Koala. I had my turn and I was equally touched. It was like holding a living teddy bear. She just rested in my arms and munched on Eucalyptus leaves, looking right into my eyes. I didn’t want to hand her back, but the children wanted their turn!

We walked on and entered the Kangeroo enclosure. There was an albino Roo lying on the path and I thought it would get up and hop away, but it didn’t. It just lay there, so I gave it a tickle! Then more hopped up to us! I fed them some nuts right from my hand! It was about then the Mike called me over. I followed him down the hill and there, lying in the sun was Old Man Roo – a really wizened old animal whose eyes reminded me of Mr Magoo. I sat with him. The smell, the touch of his fur, the energy of the beast just made me shiver. Roos are so lovely to look at, but there is a power within them that reminds me so much of our native Deer at home. For one of the Deer People of Britain I felt it had found a Kindred Spirit here in Australia. Again, I could have just stayed with him all day.

We saw Wombats, Eagles, Flying Foxes, all sorts of wonderful animals from this beautiful Singing Land, but my heart lies with the Kangeroo, and the Koala.

In the evening we had got tickets to see Pearl Jam at the Adelaide Oval. Who’d have thought it! Come halfway around the world and see and advert for a Pearl Jam concert on the tv two days before the gig and manage to get tickets – not something that would happen at home! We had to go for it!

It was a glorious Summer’s evening as the sun went down over the stadium stands. It’s weird to watch the sun move anti clockwise across the sky! Pearl Jam were amazing. I saw them on the Binaural tour but they were even better last night. Vedder is a genius songwriter and a Rock God. As the floodlights went up at the end of the gig the band just kept on playing. An amazing end to a magical day.

The Friday night before the Druids Dreaming was our hosts’ Louise and Mike’s handfasting at the Ashram. A beautiful ceremony facilitated by Amethyst of the Oak and Mistletoe group. Everyone looked gorgious and colourful and, as with many Handfastings, this was some peoples’ first experience of Pagan ritual. I know that most people walk away from a Handfasting with a completely different and far more positive view of what Paganism is about which is a really good thing.

The evening continued with food and drink in the warm Summer evening heat.

Nearly a year ago a man named Micheal contacted me through MySpace and asked if I would come to Australia to play at a music festival he was putting together. Of course I agreed but didn’t in truth think it would actually happen. But last Saturday we arrived at the Ashton Memorial Hall for the Druids Dreaming event near Adelaide.

With two venue changes in the week leading up to the concert it was always going to effect ticket sales. But with real grit and determination Mike and Louise, the festival organisors, stuck to their guns, dug deep, and stayed focused. They are real troopers.

Louise picked us up from the Ashram at about 1.30pm and took us to the hall. There were people milling about outside and a good few stalls had already set up.

The first act on stage was Vivian Ogma Wyverne, the OBOD member we had already met at the Ashram. Me and Cerri had woken up to her singing in the morning so knew what to expect. She sat with her acoustic guitar and sang what was, to my ears, the songs of the land. Her voice reminded me of the great Joan Baez and everyone thoroughly enjoyed her set. As I sat listening to Vivian I was introduced to the next performer – a lovely chap called Jamie McPherson. We sat and chatted for a while before he took to the stage. Jamie sung some great songs and I hope he concentrates on his own songwriting more than the covers. He has a great talent. I found one of his songs particularly emotional to listen to. Very good stuff indeed.

There was a break for food whilst the celebrity psychic, Lizzy Rose prepared the space for her group’s ritual. The lights dimmed and she sang whilst playing the biggest crystal singing bowl I’d ever seen. A group of hooded figures entered and they opened the gates of the four directions and then did the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Drums started and Lizzy was joined by dancers as some of the audience also joined in. I left at this point to begin warming up my voice. When I got to the entrance to the hall it had been invaded by hordes of ants! They’d also got into the toilets where I was going to warm up! It was a pretty brief warmup – a mistake I would pay for later!

Next to take the stage were a kick ass rock band called Burn Collect. A group of young lads who really gave their all and were thoroughly entertaining. I was really impressed by the quality of their musicianship. The guitarist was brilliant, as were the bass player and drummer. If you like your Metal Heavy do find them on MySpace and have a listen.

Next to take the stage was the wonderful Wendy Rule. A performer I had heard but had never seen live. Wendy played her guitar and sang and her entire performance oozed sensuality. During her set she mentioned that she was a Scorpio and I can’t say that I was surprised to find that out. I’d love to play on stage with Wendy one day. I think our voices would work well together. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to talk to her more as she left halfway through my set to get back to her hotel. Hopefully our paths will meet again someway along the road.

The time had come for me to play. I’d gone down with a cold the day after Witchfest International and whenever I get a cold there is a risk that it’ll go on my chest and I’ll come down with a Grim old asthma attack. Sadly that was the case with this cold. That, combined with the poor warmup, meant that I felt I was a bit croaky. I know I notice it more than anyone else but I wish I had been 100% fit! I did a completely acoustic set and it was again amazing to see that people knew my songs – this time halfway across the world! There was even a couple there who had seen me play at the Chalice Well during a holiday in England! Amazing.

For a number of reasons the timings for the evening had slipped and although I was due to play at 9.15 I began my set over an hour late. Two songs from the end of my set I invited Louise and Mike into the hall and dedicated ‘Obsession’ to them – to thank them for bringing me here and putting on such an enjoyable day. I ended the set with The Winter King and thus the ear worm was planted.

The end of a great day of music and magic! There is a saying ‘from small acorns mighty Oaks will grow’ and I think this really applies to this festival. I know it’ll happen again in 2010 and wish everyone involved every success!

“D” from LFM: Need Healer Plz is continuing on with the non-meme memes, this time focusing on my personal favorite role in WoW – DPS! There was no tagging involved at all, but I’m a HUGE sucker for Q&A and I get to answer from 3 different perspectives! Huzzah!

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?
Sammich, Druid, Moonkin. Abigore, Warlock, Demonology (Meta/Ruin). Schoolgirl, Priest, Shadow.

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Everything but PVP.

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?
Sammich – Eclipse. I love the fact that Eclipse forces you to pay attention and not get lost in the “rotation” portion of DPS. Plus 7 or 8 20k Starfire crits in a row looks GREAT on the meters ^_^. Abigore – Decimation. I loved Soul Fire back in Vanilla-WoW and it’s nice to get to use it again. Big crits are big. Schoolgirl – Mind Sear. I don’t think I really need to explain why this spell is the cat’s pajamas.. the bee’s knees.. the.. you get my point. It kills a lot of shit with a lot of pain.

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?
Sammich – As a Moonkin, I use all of my DPS spells whenever the situation arises but I’d have to say Force of Nature (Treants) only because the cooldown is longer then Starfall. Abigore – Searing Pain, Shadowflame. Searing Pain wins by a large margin and isn’t even on my bar. Shadowflame is fun for farming but I never use it in raids. Schoolgirl – Any Holy DPS spell, Shadow Word: Death. I suppose the Holy spells don’t really count, so SW:D wins. I use it solo’ing, but raiding I never use it at all. The damage is garbage, it scales poorly, it annoys healers.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?
Sammich – Significant amounts of sustained burst DPS. I crit hard and often. Being a Druid also allows me to toss Innervates on healers that don’t know how to manage their mana and battle rez the Mage’s who forget they have Ice Block. Abigore – Sustainability if that’s a word. A Warlock that can manage Life Tap properly will never run out of mana and never get their health too low to throw healers in to a panic, but Warlocks sure are a huge pain in the ass to heal aren’t they? Every pull.. Life Tap. How did Laeyla ever deal with me doing that for so long?! Schoolgirl – AoE and Replenish. Granted, other classes have Replenish, but Mind Sear is hands down the best AoE spell in the game. Shadowform’s damage reduction sure comes in handy as well.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?
Sammich – gear. A lot of the best itemized gear is cloth and there are a lot of Moonkin who can’t even roll on it because of guild loot rules, etc., which is stupid IMO. Better is better. Abigore – Destruction is still too dominant to make Demonology or Affliction competitive. Schoolgirl – Single target DPS. Anyone who has raided as a Shadow Priest will tell you that they’re getting destroyed by DPS’ers in half the gear on single targets. I think it’s mainly because haste and crit scale so poorly with Shadow Priests and there is really no burst to help with burn phases/Bloodlust (or Heroism).

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?
It’ll be the same answer for all 3. Every boss is different, so whatever gets the job done.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?
I LOVED playing my Shadow Priest until they changed Shadow Form and nerfed the dog shit out of our DPS. It felt like it needed skill to be successful and didn’t have a “rotation”. Right now though, hands down, Moonkin. It’s a whole lot of fun, requires reacting to buffs and managing cooldowns a bit more and I love prodiving so many raid buffs.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?
Anything melee, Mages, Hunters. I’ve never been a big fan of melee even though I raided as an Enhancement Shaman in TBC for about 4 months. Mages just seem to be too similar to Destruction as a Warlock which I also find to be a little boring. Hunters seem like fun, I just can’t get in to them to save my life. The only spec appealing to me is Beast Mastery which I don’t think is a good raiding spec anymore.

What is your worst habit as a dps?
Sometimes I get sidetracked while leading raids and forget to refresh DoTs or I notice I’ve just been spamming Wrath for god knows how long while yelling at someone to stop standing in fires or to DPS the burrowers. Tunnel vision FTL. Same thing for my Lock and Priest.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?
DPS who fail, have bad specs, poor gem choices, zero attention to rotations and do 1/3 of the DPS as the #1 slot.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?
Sammich – I don’t know about balanced but I put out as much or more as the other specs. It’s really the player behind the toon unless they’re a Shadow Priest. That sentence hurt to type but it’s true. Abigore – If by balanced you mean “only has one viable raid spec” than sure, yeah, why not.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps?
I use Recount on all of my toons and sometimes we use WWS in our guild, but I try not to look on my Priest. It’s depressing.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
Sammich – That Moonkin are still “Oomkin” but there has been a lot of changes to Moonkin mana regen and I have zero problems with mana. Abigore – That Meta/Ruin isn’t a good raiding build. I’ve beaten Destruction Locks on the meters before. Like I said before, it’s the player not always the gear. Schoolgirl – That Shadow Priests are still good DPS. They’re usually the same people that die to Whirlwinds, Fires, attack dragon bosses from the ass, etc.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?
Moonkin – How to gear. Warlock – To not let the naysayers get to you when you show up to a raid and you aren’t Destruction. Shadow Priests – Why their DPS is low.

What dps class do you feel you understand least?
Rogues, for sure. I don’t have a Rogue above 47 and never cared to try one.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?
I use ForteXorcist for all of my toons to track DoTs, debuffs, prcs, etc. On Sammich, I use Squawk-and-Awe to track Eclipse procs and cooldowns as well as WiseEclipse to squeeze out more DPS. I also use Decursive to help with poisons and curse removal. On Abigore, I just use Forte and Power Auras to track Decimation phases and to make sure the Life Tap glyph buff is up. On Schoolgirl I only use Forte and Decursive to help with cleansing.

One stat above others, or balanced stat allocation, and why?
Hit rating is #1 for all 3 of my DPS followed by Spellpower. I try to balance haste/crit on my Moonkin, haste on my Warlock and crit on my Priest. I need to balance haste and crit on Sammich because I need to crit for Eclipse to proc but I want to cast Starfires as fast as possible. Demonology is a heavy haste spec because you get so many crit talents in the build itself. Casting Shadowbolt/Soul Fire faster is much better than relying on crits. I focus on crit for my Priest because of Shadowform’s mechanic to let DoTs crit. Haste only benefits Mind Blast, Mind Sear and Mind Flay right now but it’s very minimal.

About a year ago I was contacted by an Australian Pagan folk band called Spiral Dance who wanted to cover my song Spirit of Albion. I was very touched that they’d even asked and of course said yes and asked if they’d send me a copy if they ever recorded it. A year later I’m near Adelaide in Mclaren Vale at a venue called the Singing Gallery, a converted church, playing at a concert organised by the band.

We arrived at 5pm ready for a soundcheck and the band were there setting up. I love playing in churches – the acoustics are always amazing. The owners had done a really great job converting it into a music venue. The place was set out with reserved tables where people were going to bring along their picnics and bottles of wine (the venue charged a ‘corkage fee’ but you could bring all your own booze and food).

Spiral Dance are a great band. They remind me of early Steeleye Span. During the

soundcheck they played some of their version of Spirit of Albion so I could hear it. The idea was that I join them onstage during their set when they played it.

People started to arrive around 7.30 and the place was packed and buzzing by 8 when I was due to take the stage. I’ve noticed at each of the gigs I’ve played here that, before anything else happens, there is an aknowledgement that this concert is taking place on the land of the original tribal peoples of Australia – a small but heartfelt ancestral honouring. Adrienne then took the stage to introduce me. I was a little bit nervous to be honest, but I needn’t have been. We were all together from the opening chord of Song of Awen. The band’s sound engineer was great and there was a fabulous sound front stage. I noticed a few people videoing the gig so I hope they’ll end up on

YouTube sometime (there are a few there already!). The balance of the sound on stage was perfect and I could also hear the audience singing along over the sound of my guitar and voice. I played for an hour, mostly songs from my first four albums (it’s getting harder and harder to play for an hour and still fit in all of the songs I want to play!) but ended the set with Wild Mountain Thyme from Tales from the Crow Man which even here everyone seemed to know. The standing ovation at the end of the concert was wonderful – another wonderful evening with lovely people!

After a short break Spiral Dance took the stage. They are a great live band with a lot of energy – they are like an Aussie The Dolmen but more folky. They did a great version of Span’s classic Bedlam Boys and two of the

band even burst through the doors backstage and did some Morris Dancing! Great stuff. Adrienne then told the story of how she’d first heard Spirit of Albion whilst at a Pagan festival in the USA. She asked the people who had been playing it who wrote the song and then found me through the Internet, posting me that first email. It was amazing to join them on stage to play the song (this is one of the vids on YouTube). They have added a very different rhythm to it and then have a ‘diddly’ folk burst halfway through. I loved singing with them.

At the end of their set I was invited up onstage again to singing The Burning Times with them. It’s not a song I usually like but they’d done some very spiritual work on the arrangement and the audience did a spiral dance and ended in a beautiful oval of people. Man it’s so good to be a part if this global Pagan community!

After Spiral Dance’s set I was invited to play a few more tunes. So as they’d already been dancing I thought I’d keep that vibe going with Lughnasadh, Lughnasadh Dance and Hal an Tow. Much hugging and chat followed until gradually people began to wend their way back home. Me? Well, I was buzzing and to be honest everytime I think of that concert I still am!