Adventures in Feral-land

Yeah... I made the jump into the Feral tree about fifteen minutes after I made my last post.

Feral is a very interesting talent tree for the sole reason that you essentially gain two trees in one. You gain improvements in Bear/Dire Bear form as well as improvements in Cat form.

For the uninformed, Bear/Dire Bear form is essentially a tank form. Users gain enhanced armor and stamina, as well as added attack power. Cat form allows for Druids to basically become rogues--users gain additional attack power (based on your Agility) and the ability to stealth.

In my short time of playing Dusk as a Feral Druid, I have learned a great deal about tanking. I don't think I have learned enough, but I am getting to a point where I am understanding a lot about all the intracacies of the way aggro works and how to use it.

Dusk's armor, HP, and such at the moment are as follows (with Mark of the Wild at +340 armor, +14 to all stats, +25 to all resistances):

Duskflower (Dire Bear Form):
HP: 12069
Strength: 262 (+ to attack power @ 504)
Agility: 222 (+ to Crit @ 9.84%, + to armor @ 444)
Stamina: 806 (+ to HP @ 7880)

Damage: 365-423 (157.7 dps)
Attack Power: 1356 (+96.9 dps)
Hit Rating: 29
Critical Chance: 20.84%

Armor: 18714 (reduces damage taken by 63.93%)
Defense: 412 (+ to chance to dodge by 2.48%)
Dodge: 22.87%
Resillience: 38

Intellect and Spirit do fuck all for a Feral Druid, so they're not listed; the same goes for Parry and Block--can't do either one. This very reason is why I suspect Blizzard threw on so much resillience to armor from the Arena Vendor, for example, and why defense is not such a big emphasis. But I could also be talking out of my ass on this.

Dusk is very comperable to a warrior or paladin tank with her current gear. It can only go up from here.

For contrast, here are Dusk's kitty stats, again, with MotW on (note: I have very little gear for Cat form, so I usually just use my tanking gear... oddly enough, it works alright):

Duskflower (Cat Form):
HP: 8152
Strength: 266 (+ to attack power @ 512)
Agility: 303 (+ to attack power @ 303 [+140], + to Crit @ 13.08%, + to armor @ 606)
Stamina: 433 (+ to HP @ 4150)

Damage: 178-202 (189.9 dps)
Attack Power: 1789 (+127.8 dps)
Hit Rating: 55
Critical Chance: 24.08%

Armor: 3792 (reduces damage taken by 26.43%)
Defense: 376 (+ to chance to dodge by 2.48%)
Dodge: 28.11%
Resillience: 34

Considerably better roguish stats, but definitely lacking compared to a 70 rogue. I just don't have the gear for it right now, but I'm gathering it. For example, I just got the quest reward Stealther's Helm of Second Sight, which has three lovely sockets waiting to be filled.

Anyway, I have more adventures in Karazhan to post about, but I haven't the time right now. Suffice to say it involves a lot of pwning and we were on the receiving end last Saturday...

Respec-o-rama!

Okay, so now I'm considering a feral spec. Preferably this one. I think I'm going to do it because my armor for Dire Bear form is at 15,800 and I'm interested to see how much higher it can go! Also because it's hilarious to try and solo stuff like Stratholme with it.

I found the talent in the Balance tree that I lost when I respeced to Restoration--Lunar Guidance, which at 3/3 ranks increases spell damage and healing by 25% of your total intellect. If I ever go back to Boomkin-ing, I'm going to have to do some awesome 34/0/27 shit, so I can still heal ftw.

I think something I realized about the Restoration tree is that it's kind of counter-productive. There are a lot of talents that go toward making Healing Touch better (as well as Tranquility). But! In Tree of Life form, you can't use Healing Touch (or Tranquility).

So, let's say you decide to give up Tree of Life form--you can cheese it a little bit by going with the 23/0/38 spec and still get a shitload of healing done with HoTs. You still have the fun healing spells like Nature's Touch and Swiftmend (lovelovelove). Plus, at the very least, Healing Touch and Tranquility will be accessible anytime.

Hell, I might do *that*, actually.

I am so indecisive!

More on the respec.

First: Duskflower's new spec is here.

So, resto. The strange thing (well, until I realized why) was that after the respec, Dusk's +healing actually went down. It took me a bit to realize that there are several talents in the balance tree that increase stuff like that (Edit: Lunar Guidance is the only one I could find, but it's top rank is +25% of your int to damage and healing, so there you go...). So... oh well. Her +healing is around +875 now. I've gotten a bit more *good* healing gear for her since the respec, like these shiny Boots of the Glade-Keeper.

Swiftmend has to be one of the coolest healing spells ever. For those not informed, Swiftmend consumes one Rejuvination or one Regrowth on the target to heal all the HoT at once. Example: if a target has Rejuv. cast on them, they get all 12 seconds of HoT all at once, there by consuming said Rejuv. It's really fucking cool.

Tree of Life form is kind of dorky, honestly (though it's kind of hilarious to see a tree running after a party). I love the bonus--healing for the party is increased by 25%--but it's somewhat of a pain to be walking at 80% speed. I can live with only being able to cast heal over time spells (HoTs), as I'm used to only being able to cast balance spells in Moonkin form. But, I think it would make sense if there was some sort of armor bonus (like there is with Moonkin form), seeing as you become a tree. You know, made of wood. Maybe drop your fire resistance down or something to compensate.

I have found that there's a really nice combination of spells using Nature's Swiftness (causes next Nature spell cast to be instant, three minute cool down) and Swiftmend that can emulate a nuke heal while in Tree of Life form. Nature's Swiftness --> Regrowth --> Swiftmend = big, quick heal.

All-in-all, I'm enjoying playing a dedicated healer now. I still have balance gear (which really needs some upgrading) in addition to feral gear (which isn't too bad--15k armor in Dire Bear form!), so I can play the other roles as needed. But it's nice to not have to worry too much about it.

Respec.

I just respecced Maldiriel, my level 42 Blood Elf Paladin. No big changes--he started off protection, and is still protection, but the first time I specced prot, I did it messily. Now it's a tighter build. See it here.

After he finishes off the prot tree, I'll probably spec the remaining points in retribution. But maybe not. I don't know. It's not like he's leveling real fast anyway--the boyfriend and I only really play our palis together, so one will not get ahead (they're probably within a bubble or two of xp from each other). I've got a while to think about it.

Meanwhile, I've taken to playing a Draenei Warrior on a different server. My boyfriend also has an almost identical character and we're doing the level together thing with them. I do somewhat miss playing Alliance. Levels 10-30 are a piece of piss on that side. Not so much for Horde. Though if you make it through to 30 on Hordeside, you're pretty much golden for the rest of the grind to 70.

Let it just be said--warriors are hella fun for a while, but sometimes the button mashing gets to be annoying (says the person who loves playing rogues). I guess it's almost too repettive--charge, heroic strike, maybe a rend, heroic strike, rinse, repeat. And I know a lot of that is due to the low level of the character (12, I think). But I think that is the reason I end up never having a warrior higher than 19 or 20. I get bored. I am hoping that the Draenei keeps my interest though. Racial healing ability ftw.