Just specced Morpheus to Resto as I already have a dps character in Morphea and sometimes the guild needs a healer. I mainly went boomkin for the pvp, but since that’s not a lot of fun anymore these days, I thought Resto Spec would be better. If we ever get a dual spec, I’ll get my Boomkin back !
There is an excellent gear guide for Resto druids at wow-insider !
Yola had crafted a Mechano-Hog yesterday ! It’s definately the most fun mount in game ;). And when I jumped into the seat, with my big tauren ass, I literally was laughing out loud for about 10 minutes ! You have to actually see it drive around Dalaran for the full effect, but the image below somewhat captures the spirit.
Weird enough, I missed this blog and podcast by a beastmaster named Big Red Kitty. Interesting and amusing stuff on the blog.
Found it through the latest episode of the wowinsider podcast, that disucces the upcoming hunter (especially BM spec) nerf.
After a mere 2 1/2 weeks after launch Morpheus, the balance druid, got 80 in Icecrown. That sure is a lot faster than 60-70 when BC came out. Think back then I burnt out in Mountain’s edge, only to return six months later to complete the quest for lvl 70.
Questing sure got a lot better in WOTLK as you have read from various other sources. Every now and then you get a quest that uses the new vehicle game mechanic and you get to control a giant or a flying machine. Or shoot arrows from a flying machine ;).
I am now a few days at 80 and I feel a little lost. I do a few dailies, might do an instance with the guild and that’s about it. Already quested so much the past weeks, that I don’t really feel like doing that. The pvp doesn’t seem to be going a lot, a few matches of Strand of the Ancients is fun, but not for a whole evening. I might try Arena again once the next season starts, but I am not really looking forward to this. Most pvp gear will require some sort of ranking though, which I find a bit silly, but I might try it. Last time it got a bit frustrating every time we got over 1500.
Morphea my hunter is almost 72, and the questing is still fun, but the surprise element is a little gone now. I haven’t done any quests in zul’drak, so I’ll make sure to hit that zone with her. I changed her spec from Master Marksman to Beastmaster, which made leveling a lot easier. As mm your pet can hardly hold aggro and you spend a lot of time meleeing. Which isn’t the best thing to do. The cat turned out to be the best pet for this. My scorp will be at rest for a while.
Wrath of the Lich King sure didn’t disappoint. When it was first announced, I was a bit sceptical as it didn’t seem to bring much new and the first screenshots looked a bit bland. But now that I have been playing it since it came out, I must say Blizzard really outdone themselves.
The graphics are crisp, the wildlife on the tundras is alive and the quests are fun and very well setup. Just about each place has a main questline that gives a nice reward and the story is usually enjoyable.
I could go on but images say more than words ! Besides I need to get back in the game…
When I checked out wow-insider today I was almost shocked ;). The site underwent a very nice redesign. The old one was getting a bit outdated, this one is much more modern, I especially like the text being centered now !
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/11/06/the-new-wow-insider-and-the-launch-of-wrath-of-the-lich-king/
One series of posts over there I really like is ‘ask a beta tester’. I didn’t apply to the beta, so I wouldn’t be spoiled but I have picked up a lot of nice info from this series.
The dust has settled down on patch 3.02 and the addon upgrade madness. I basically had to redo everything because most of the addons I was using were causing problems and I figured this was the safest thing to do. The first few days I relied on the default interface and that makes you appreciate all the wonderful plugins people have made even more :).
Unfortunately the WoWace updater has ceased to exist. This would have made life a lot easier, but this reset of addons also made me clean out a lot of stuff. There is also the new Curse Updater but I wouldn’t recommend it. The first time I started it, it started updating addons rights away and retrieving old totally out of date versions of some addons. I had to deinstall the thing and go through my addons dir by hand and delete the crap Curse client had installed :(.
Updaters
For now it seems doing things by hand is the best way to do it. If you have an account at wowinterface.com, you can add addons to your favourites and keep track on what has been updated since your last visit. Unfortunately not all addons are available at wowinterface so you have to download some at curse.com. Wowinterface has a java program that is being developed, but I dont know how well it works at the moment. Then there is wowmatrix, which I simply don’t trust. Most addon developers don’t seem to like it either, as it tries to make money off other people’s work (also this link is informative).
Another option is to get an account at worldofwar.net and add your addons as your favorites, you get an email when one of them is updated. I don’t recommend using their client though, it has a history of viruses and trojan horses.
There is some more discussion over at the wowace forums about updaters if you want to keep up with the latest developments.
Here is what I am using now, let me know in the comments if I overlooked something or am not using something that’s absolutely great :).
Actionbar :Dominos
The followup to Bongos and Bongos 2. Seems to work perfectly so far. Druid forms are supported, easy to setup etc. An alternative could be macaroon (the new trinity bars, or good ol’ bartender).
Map :Cartographer
There is also a new cartographer 3.0, but I found that very cumbersome to use, though it is technically nice, it’s not very handy.
Unit Frames :X-Perl
This is just a matter of taste, have been using x-perl for a long time, some people like pitbull, or maybe the simple perl. I like this one :).
Bags :Baggings or Ark Inventory
I am usually using Baggins, but it had a bug recently where you didn’t see the actual bank interface to exchange bags, so I had to fall back to ark inventory. Both excellent addons though that do the job.
MiniMap :Simple Minimap
Allows up move and configure the minimap. An alternative would be Squeenix.
Chat :Prat
This addon gives you extra chat configuration options, and makes chatwindows a lot more readable. You can use clearfont to change fonts as well btw.
Quests :QuestGuru and Lightheaded
Excellent combo ! You may also use QuestHelper, but I haven’t tried that one yet.
Infobar :FuBar – For lack of a better term. This adds an infobar at the top and to the bottom (though you can turn that one off). There is host of plugins for this, like moneyFu, Guildfu (very handy to see what your guildmates are up to), DurabilityFu etc. Just search on Curse and/or Wowinterface to see what you fancy.
That’s it ! Quite a list. This is not everything I am using but the main ones. There is ofcourse also atlas and atlas loot, auctioneer etc,but I thought the above list was a good place to start :).
Have fun customizing your UI ! It’s a whole game in itself !
The big one is up on us ;). The US is getting it on tuesday and we in Europe will be getting it the day after. All talents will be reset. I have been toying around with the talent calculator, but I am not sure yet what to do. Do I go all the way in one tree and fill up the rest 70-80 or do I leave some room ? I almost never respec, so it won’t cost too much to try a few things out.
Morphea will still be a Master Marksman, and ofcourse Morpheus will always be an Owl ;). But I going to side spec into retro this time. From what I read druids have some mana issue atm, hope that will be fixed, though I am kinda used to that having always played balance with Morph…
Some links:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/10/13/bigredkitty-3-0-2-hunter-talent-trees/
All Patch Info on wowinsider : http://www.wowinsider.com/category/patches/
While playing Warhammer, I was wondering why I just didn’t play Wow. Everything (especially the combat) is a lot smoother and more fun. I’ll post my thoughts on WAR some time later, am still playing it every now and then. But I activated my wow account again. Am planning on leveling my warlock, and just pvp a bit with morph and morphea. Also finally leveled Morphea’s engineering to 350 so she can build the ROFLcopter soon ! Only need to mine some more fell iron. Oh and pick up the charges from AH. I got 2 already, but haven’t seen any on lately :(.
And on sunday we did the Brewfest boss with a few guildies. The RAM mount dropped and guess who won the roll ? Thanks go to Naelna, Yola and Timp :). Oh and the pally who tanked (not a guildie) and who’s name I forgot.
Just had to link to this excellent drawing / comic on MyExtraLife.com. If you have ever listened to the Instance podcast you know what it’s about ;).