Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, takes a brief look at the changes to Feral Bear armor in the upcoming Patch 3.0.

Welcome back, my furry, feathery and barky brothers and sisters!

Last week, I did a brief rundown of the many ways the Feral Druid mechanics are going to change in Patch 3.0 and Wrath of the Lich King.

This week, I'm going to touch briefly on the changes to tanking changes and bear armor in general, and how they may change the way we view our class.

Oh, and by the way... finding a picture of a slightly stoned-looking bear wasn't as easy as I expected. The lengths I'll go to for a joke!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Dude, where's my armor?

Filed under: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives, Wrath of the Lich King

Shifting Perspectives: Dude, where's my armor? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, takes a brief look at what we can expect as Bear tanks, right now, when Patch 3.0 goes live. And prepares for the onslaught of QQ.

The release of Wrath of the Lich King is still a long ways away, but Patch 3.0 could drop, technically, at any time.

With the announcement that today will see some hardware upgrades to the servers, it's unlikely it'll be now. But it might very well happen next Tuesday.

I've been holding off on any real discussion of the class changes that are coming, because things are liable to shift at any time.

Let's be honest, there are always some people that seem to have a tendency to panic at any change, and start calling anything new or anything unchanged a 'slap in the face', or 'the death of our tanking viability', or whatever. I would much prefer waiting until the situation stabilizes before opening the discussion up to rants.

But that's really not fair to all the Feral Druids that may not be following the Beta forums or PTR discussions closely, but have heard that with Patch 3.0 a lot will change for our class.

So I'm going to try to briefly hit the highlights of how our class will change, in terms of Feral Bear Tanking, since that is where the group dynamic is affected the most for Ferals.

Read on, my friends, read on!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: A brief taste of Bear Tanking in 3.0

Filed under: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives, Wrath of the Lich King

Shifting Perspectives: A brief taste of Bear Tanking in 3.0 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives is supposed to explore issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, does what no one seems to want, and discusses playing a druid in the game as it is still known, rather than the expansion that is still two months away. Although it is likely Wrath of the Lich King will worm it's way in somehow.

I'd like to take a minute to talk about a mechanic that has defined the Feral Druid tanking philosophy, even though you might not know it.

I'm talking here about Crushing Blows.

A Crushing Blow is an attack made only by NPCs that does 150% of normal attack damage.

A Crushing Blow can happen if the NPC you are fighting has a base weapon skill 15 or more points higher than your base defense skill. Base defense skill is the only thing that counts towards the chance of a Crushing Blow; Defense Rating and Expertise are of no help whatsoever.

At level 70, if you are fully trained up, your defense and weapon skills should be 350 each.

Raid Bosses are level 73. They have 365 weapon skill. That's 15 weapon skill points higher than your possible defense.

Do you see the connection, my friends? If you are main tanking a raid boss that is level 73, then you are susceptible to Crushing Blows

As you might expect, tanks wish to know how to avoid taking these suddenly massive chunks of damage, if at all possible.

You may have heard before that Paladins and Warriors can "push Crushing Blows off the table", but you might not know what that means, exactly.

What kind of table is it? A nice mahogany? Teak? Perhaps inlaid parquet? Are they pushed off the table vigorously, so that they clatter all over the floor?

You may also have heard that having your attacks Parried by a raid boss can cause BAD THINGS to happen, especially if you can suffer from Crushing Blows.

Well, let's talk about this whole thing a little more after the break, shall we?

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Dealing with Crushing Blows

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Bosses, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives, Wrath of the Lich King

Shifting Perspectives: Dealing with Crushing Blows originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, takes a trip down memory lane, and looks once more at the crazy hijinks Druids get up to.

In the months before Burning Crusade was released, when players knew that the raiding rules were about to change and a new game-changing patch was imminent that would cause everyone to re-examine their specs and gear choices, many guilds eased up on the raiding focus a bit.

As the focus on raiding changed for some guilds, and players suddenly had a bunch of extra time on their hands, folks that had been raiding relaxed and looked for new ways to have fun.

Being WoW players, the desire to try new and wacky things just for the heck of it flourished.

Dire Maul tribute runs, Baron Rivendare speed mount run competitions, naked gnome raids on Hogger, and many other antics were seen.

Of all the classes out there, though, In my opinion, players that roll Druid style just seem to look for more fun and crazy ways to goof around and try to take on stuff together.

Sure, I'm biased. But while there are plenty of hybrid classes in the game, it just seems that it's always the Druids that I hear about going off and trying crazy things together.

For example, look at the evidence of Druid fun and games, from before the Burning Crusade as seen in this video from back in November of 2006.

More recently, of course, we had the infamous Murder of Crows that swept Dark Iron, terrorizing the Horde server wide. As far as I know, the Penny Arcade Alliance of guilds remain unchallenged after that one.

Doesn't that look like a lot of fun?

Well, here we are at the same point in the life of the game, where a new game-changing patch is imminent, a huge expansion of goodness is coming soon, and some raiders are relaxing a bit in anticipation... and looking for different ways to have fun.

Continue on after the break for more neat all Druid hijinks!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Having fun with all Druid runs!

Filed under: Druid, Guilds, Raiding, Classes, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Having fun with all Druid runs! originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, continues to offer up some tips for new feral Druids that aspire to Karazhan greatness... or who at least want to have some idea of what they can expect.

Last week, we talked about preparing for Karazhan as a feral Druid.

Okay, enough of the preparation. It's time for some fun!

The first question often asked is, what will your main role in the raid be?

The typical answer; it varies, depending on your group.

Okay, enough of the safe answers, I'm going to actually make my own recommendations and give you my own opinions for playing a feral Druid in Karazhan.

As I haven't raided in content more difficult than Gruul and Magtheridon, I invite the more experienced Druids in the community to offer your own suggestions on this part in the comments. But as I am still weekly leading friends into Karazhan as a feral Druid (and a Shadow Priest), these are the things I have learned along the way.

So, what roles can you, the feral Druid, expect to play?

Over the course of one Karazhan run, you could expect to main tank, off-tank, melee DPS, AoE DPS and heal. Yes, all in the same run. Seriously.

So wipe that "I got a tank set, lols I is ready" thought out of your mind.

Continue on after the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Feral Druid advice for Karazhan Part 2

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Raiding, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Feral Druid advice for Karazhan Part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, tries to roll a bunch of feral druid advice together to help new druids get up to speed in Karazhan.

"Hi, I'm Windshadow, and I'm a Feral Druid."

This is a statement of pride, not of shame.

I am absolutely, now and forever, a feral Druid, unable to be restrained or 'tamed'... although I'm aware some folks suffer from a case of wishful thinking.

In the past, I've released a bunch of articles about gearing up for Karazhan.

Breaking them up by spec like I did, I'm afraid some folks might get the wrong idea about how we play our class.

The assumption may be that only one of those sets is important to you... if you are a feral Druid, you only need a bear tanking set, for example. Even some of those that play Druids may start to think, we have only one fixed role in a run.

That's not the impression I wanted to give.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: A Feral Druid's Advice on Karazhan Part 1

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Raiding, Classes, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: A Feral Druid's Advice on Karazhan Part 1 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, encourages you to check out a wonderful podcast that spent an entire recent episode talking about our fun filled class.

I wanted to take a moment to cast the spotlight on a wonderful World of Warcraft related podcast that recently devoted an entire episode, Episode 43 to be exact, to a fun-filled discussion of all things Druid, and even had Phaelia, writer of Resto4Life, on as a special guest!

Epic Dolls is the name of the podcast, as well as the name of the guild on Perenolde server Horde side which is home for many of the podcasts' hosts, cast and crew.

Epic Dolls bring a fresh perspective and a lot of positive energy to their podcast, and I find it a joy to listen to.

Read on after the break for more on the podcast, the Epic Dolls, and a brief Q and A with Leala Turkey, host of the show!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Epic Dolls and Phaelia on all things Druid

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Podcasting, Virtual selves, Guilds, Classes, Interviews, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Epic Dolls and Phaelia on all things Druid originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings the second part of our Moonkin gear guide with Nasirah, the Moonkin master, the driving force behind A Tale of Two Druids until her terminal altitis took over. Now, she writes Alts Ahoy, but she danced like a Moonkin once more to share her wisdom for this guide.

This week we complete our two part Moonkin gear guide for preparing for Karazhan.

In part one, we covered most of the basics about gear choices, and the reader comments that followed offered excellent additional advice. This week, since we are covering Belt slots through Weapons and Idols, there are just a few more notes to cover before we begin.

A few notes about weapons:

If your guild already has Kara on farm and you're just getting your character ready to join in, you may expect to get upgrades fairly quickly. The Staff of Inifinite Mysteries drops from Curator and the Nathrezim Mindblade drops from Prince, so some of the epic weapons listed here may not be worth the effort to attain. However, to the character whose entire guild is now getting ready to start Kara, or simply someone who has the time/gold to spare and wants the best gear they can get, the options are certainly there.

Also worth mentioning, is that while the majority of Season 2 PvP gear is worth looking at for any equipment slot you feel weak in, the weapons available from Season 2 really shine. Even the Season 1 weapons blew most pre-Kara options away, and now that Season 2 is available for honor, it's really no contest. But, if you don't enjoy PvP, these other avenues for gear are perfectly acceptable; these are the weapons that people were "meant" to be using when going into Kara for the first time.

And of course, when upgrading from a 1H/off-hand to a staff, be sure to hold onto those two items. You never know when you might get a really awesome 1H weapon or off-hand that will make the combo better than your staff.

And now, let's get on to the gear!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Moonkin for Kara Part 2

Filed under: Druid, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Guides, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Moonkin for Kara Part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday,

According to Nasirah, knowing when you are ready for Kara is much easier for tanks and healers. Tanks have certain stats they need to strive for in order to not get killed. Healers have certain stats they need to strive for in order to not let their tanks die.

As a damage caster, however, you personally need a certain amount of stamina to survive splash damage, but the group as a whole needs to have the DPS to beat an encounter within a given time frame (either an enrage timer built into the encounter, or simply before the healers' mana runs dry).

This means that people just entering Karazhan for the first time will probably be on the low end of damage output, while veterans who just need a couple more drops or are running for badges will be on the high end. It's a team effort, and you should talk to your raid leader if you want to know how you're contributing.

But you still need to have some idea of what goal you should be aiming for to help you know when you're ready to 'bring the goods'.

Continue on for more on what to look for, what goals to set and a list of gear to hunt!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Preparing your Moonkin for Karazhan Part 1

Filed under: Druid, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Guides, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Preparing your Moonkin for Karazhan Part 1 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, presents the second part to the Resto Druid gear guide to help you prepare for Karazhan, with the haelp of the lovely and talented 4 Haelz.

Welcome to the second and final part of our guide to gearing up your Resto Druid in preparation for entering the fabled black gate of Karazhan.

Today we pick right back up where we left off last week, by jumping into gear lists, starting with Belts and carrying on through until we're done.

Whether you are a hopeful raider looking for ways to improve your gear, or a seasoned raider about to take a nostalgic trip through the past items you've now grown out of, I hope there will be something of use for you in the lists still to come.

So let's head on in and take a look!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Resto Druid for Kara Part 2

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Guides, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Resto Druid for Kara Part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, tries to bring some Resto Druid gear info with the haelp of 4 Haelz.

Andrew: "Right. Right. Gotcha." [pause] "I bet even covert operatives eat curly fries. They're really good."
Spike: "Not as good as those onion blossom things."
Andrew: "Ooh, I love those."
Spike: "Yeah, me, too."
Andrew: "It's an onion... and it's a flower. I don't understand how such a thing is possible."
Spike: "See, the genius of it is you soak it in ice water for an hour so it holds its shape. Then you deep-fry it root-side up for about 5 minutes."
Andrew: "Masterful."
Spike: "Yeah." [pause] "Tell anyone we had this conversation, I'll bite you."

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Now you know exactly what I'm thinking when someone says "Lifebloom" around me. So, you really sure you want me to write for the Resto set?

Plus, that'll teach Allie to quote Veronica Mars at me the other week. I'll see your modern day Nancy Drew and raise you a Spike. Dare to escalate?

This week, I present you with the first part of a list of gear that the aspiring Resto Druid should be looking for to prepare for Karazhan.

Since if left to my own devices I'd just get you into all kinds of trouble, I enlisted the services of Bellwether at 4 Haelz to bring together the research. 4 Haelz is a blog by an end-game raiding healy Druid kinda person. She's smart and funny and neat and stuff, so go check her out. Her blog, check her blog out.

Follow along after the break and we'll get into the specifics!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Gearing up your Resto Druid for Kara Part 1

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Guides, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Gearing up your Resto Druid for Kara Part 1 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings you a fun challenge for Restoration Druids specced for Tree of Life.

Since this column has been dominated by news of the Ferlol kind lately, I thought this week would be a good time to bring some true leafy fun into the mix.

I am still working avidly on a gearing for Karazhan list for Restoration Druids, with research and insight provided by Bellwether of 4 Haelz, with full expectations of having it ready for you to enjoy next week.

In the meantime, here is a wonderful opportunity for Treelovers to show their Bark is stronger than our Bite.

Phaelia, the mind and heart behind Resto4Life, decided that Arbor Day was the perfect time for Resto Druids to let their imaginations bloom.

To that end, she has issued an Arbor Day Challenge to all of you Trees out there.

More about the challenge, and the fun you can have, after the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Share your delight in Tree of Life!

Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Classes, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Share your delight in Tree of Life! originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 28 May 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To quote the Ten Ton Hammer interview with Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton;

Chilton: We're kind of designing the Paladin tank to be the best AE tank, and we're designing the Warrior to be the best sheer mitigation tank, and we're designing the Death Knight to be the anti-spellcaster tank.

From that statement, at least, you can see that the subject of a feral druid's place in the end-game main tanking plan doesn't even get a mention. You might think that, as far as the designers are concerned, a feral druids' future tanking viability is merely an afterthought.

But that doesn't mean that in the new expansion, all of the new Talents will only be buffing up the Balance and Resto trees.

Oh, no. Not hardly.

No, I have seen what is currently active for the new Talent trees up to level 80, and I can assure you, we may not be in the forefront of the developers' minds when it comes to 'cutting edge' tanking, but we have NOT been forgotten.

Follow along after the break to find out more!

Continue reading Druid tanking is up in the air for Wrath

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Classes, Talents, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King

Druid tanking is up in the air for Wrath originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 21 May 2008 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, okay, it's wasn't really all that crazy, but John Patricelli, Dan Whitcomb, Matthew Rossi and the Turpster did have a good time talking about early Paladin leveling, Patch 2.4.2, the 'epicness' of ten manning Arthas in the upcoming expansion, changes to scare beast and growl, and even speculated (in a horrified way) on the possible repercussions of having mounts with passengers.

We discussed the recent break-up of Death and Taxes, and we even speculated wildly on Legacy weapons, and how they may get implemented in the expansion.

I thought it was a fun show, even if Turpster did point out the dark side of every exciting new feature we talked about.

At the end of the show, Turpster sent out a call for suggestions on how he should celebrate his Shadow Priests' expected dinging of 70, so send in your thoughts and suggestions on that or anything else on your mind by emailing us at theshow@wow.com. And don't forget that while you can listen to the show either in WoW Radio's archives or on iTunes, you can also hear us live every Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm EST/8:30pm GMT.

Don't miss it!

Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, WoW Insider Business, Virtual selves, WoW Insider Show

WoW Insider Show Episode 38: Lunatic Edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 20 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mike Scramm is on vacation, and he has left the show in the hands of John Patricelli (the Big Bear Butt) this one time. Since one chance is likely all I'm getting for this, we're pulling out all the stops by having the Turpster, Matt Rossi, AND Dan Whitcomb on hand to talk about all things hot in the news of WoW Insider from the last week.

We'll of course be talking about Patch 2.4.2, the 'epicness' of ten manning Arthas in the upcoming expansion, changes to scare beast and growl, and the possibility of Wrath mounts with passengers.

We may also be able to fit in some time to talk about the recent break up of the guild Death and Taxes.

And as is the tradition on the WoW Insider Show, we'll have reader mail, which you can send to us at theshow@wow.com, and we'll be chatting in IRC as well at irc.mmoirc.com in the #wowradio channel.

It promises to be an experience, so make sure you don't miss it.

Tune in tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, at 3:30pm EST over on WoW Radio. See you there.

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, Virtual selves, Blizzard, WoW Insider Show

WoW Insider Show Episode 38: Lunatic edition live tomorrow originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 16 May 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings you some choice tidbits of knowledge on level 70 consumables for the beary furry crowd.

We've talked about the gear you can get to build your tanking set up to Karazhan, but to actually tank in a raid, you need to bring along plenty of tasty consumables to buff you up to tip-top shape. And that's what we're going to cover today.

There are four basic types of consumables you can have active buffs from.

You can have active at one time;

• Flask or Elixir buffs (One Flask, or One Guardian and One Battle Elixir effect)
• Multiple scroll buffs (as long as the buffs do not overlap with player spell casting)
• One Weapon buff
• One food buff

Also, there are tons of potions and items that can be darn handy to use in the middle of a fight, especially when things are looking their bleakest, and with the changes to how Druids shift forms in Patch 2.3, there are some very simple macros that you can use to make your own 'oh no!' buttons. Use at your own risk!

What will help you in your fight is situational, but knowing what you have to choose from can make creating your own shopping list a lot easier.

Hopefully, this post will help you plan ahead!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Yummy treats for bears to eat

Filed under: (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Yummy treats for bears to eat originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 14 May 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings you news of one of the coolest Druid events to hit the World of Warcraft.

Despite the impression you may get from previous articles, being a Druid isn't all about raiding. Not hardly. The essence of the Druid is flexibility, the ability to think fast and adapt to changing situations quickly.

Today, I'm going to highlight the kind of imaginative, flexible thinking and sense of fun that I feel is at the heart of being a Druid.

On Saturday, April 26th, a group of Druids from the Penny Arcade Alliance gathered together into a murder of crows, and proceeded to terrorize the unsuspecting Horde of the Dark Iron server.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Druids just wanna have fun

Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Druid, PvP, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Druids just wanna have fun originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday,

Gearing up as a bear tank

As you approach level 70 as a feral druid, your playstyle to this point has most likely been as a Kitty, focusing on causing lots of damage, very swiftly. Kind of like a stripped down, no frills rogue. But with style.

As much as you enjoy being a kitty, however, you just know all your friends want you to tank. With Fury Warriors, Enhancement Shamans, Retribution Paladins and real Rogues floating around, there is no shortage of melee DPS in the game.

But a good tank! Well, that's another story.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your bear tank from 70 to Karazhan!

Filed under: Druid, Items, Raiding, Guides, Classes, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your bear tank from 70 to Karazhan! originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Pleasing Pet Perspectives

You've seen them before. Wherever Hello Kitty goes, you can be sure not too far away is her pet, Charmmy, carrying the silver key that will open her jewelry box.

In Hello Kitty Online, I bet you can already tell that one of the classes I am most excited about is the new Best Pet Friend class.

This class will allow you to choose to play a character whose play style closely resembles that of a traditional Rogue from games such as World of Warcraft, but when grouped in a party, you will provide powerful buffs that will benefit everyone, making those tough monster battles go that much smoother.

Follow along after the jump to talk more about the advantages to both soloing and party play with your new Best Pet Friend!

Continue reading Pleasing Pet Perspectives: A look at the fun Best Pet Friend class!

Pleasing Pet Perspectives: A look at the fun Best Pet Friend class! originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday,

Yeah, yeah, I know. Leveling guides still need to be written, tanking strategy article gets put off yet another week.

If anyone ever told me before I started this gig that I'd have too many breaking news stories to discuss to write big posts in a long series, I'd have laughed at 'em.

I guess the lesson here is that World of Warcraft is a continually growing game, and sometimes we have to act fast to stay on top of the changes.

As much as I'd like to hand you Episode III: Return of the Bear Strats, I bet with the patch hot and heavy, most of you are a lot more interested in knowing how we stand with the excellent druidy goodness.

Sigh. So long, bear strategy. Hopefully next week. Unless we get a hot annnouncement of new druid content coming in the next expansion, or shocking undocumented patch changes, or something.

One thing you can be sure of... there will be some folks that have every badge reward they want on patch day, and others will continue, like me, to scrimp and save.

Either way, look on the bright side. It'll be nice to have at least a week before people start complaining of being bored again.

Let's do a nice roundup of all the various changes and additions coming to the druid class, so everybody can plan what they want to do first. Just follow along past the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Patch 2.4 druid roundup

Filed under: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Patch 2.4 druid roundup originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, continues his discussion of the finer points of bear tanking.

Previously, I talked about exactly how threat mechanics work in groups. Now, you might think I was going to use that knowledge to inform our decisions on being a bear tank.

Instead, I'm going to talk about gearing up.

I'd like to start by saying, up front, that this article is unlikely to contain stunning new information that will change your bear tanking world. For those players that are firmly bear tanking their way through Gruul's Lair and beyond, you are most likely to read this, chuckle, and move on. You are already living the dream, kicking butt and taking purples. Hopefully, you will share some of your insight with the rest of us.

But for the player just starting out, eager to prepare themselves to be the best bear tank they can be, I hope that this article will be of some help.

So you want to be a bear tank. Great! Bear tanks are lots of fun, and speccing feral gives you the wonderful ability to not only be able to tank at the drop of a /invite, but also let's you solo effectively with a simple change of gear.

To be a bear tank, you need to realize that your role requires you to focus on two main responsibilities;

• Threat generation
• Staying alive

Threat generation is exactly that; you must put out enough threat to keep your enemies focused on you, while the rest of your party kills them.

Staying alive blends into two different philosophies;

Survivability is your ability to still be alive after taking a big old whack from the boss, or suffering spiky irregular damage the healer was unprepared for.

Mitigation is your ability to avoid or reduce taking that damage altogether.

Today, we are going to focus on the second of those two responsibilities, staying alive, and how to plan your gear choices effectively.

More after the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Bear Tanking Strategies Part 2

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, How-tos, Classes, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Bear Tanking Strategies Part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, discusses the proposed changes to Lifebloom in patch 2.4 and the reaction of various members of the Druid community.

As we've mentioned in a previous post here at WoW Insider, one of the proposed changes currently on the Public Test Realm is to the bread and butter ability of healing Druids; Lifebloom.

To remind you of what we're talking about, the following note went up on the PTR patch notes;

Lifebloom: the healing coefficient has been reduced. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of a Mind Control.

Now, needless to say, that kind of vague description is enough to make the most toughened Tree blink and shed a leaf or two in sudden fear.

The healing coefficient has been reduced? Well, by how much? And how the heck is that gonna affect me in PvP? In raids? And above all else, how can we stop this from happening to us? Anybody? Please?

Well, today we're going to talk a little about what the Resto Druid community has discovered about this proposed change, and gather reactions from across the Druiding community.

Lots more after the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Druid community speaks out on proposed Lifebloom nerf

Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Features, Raiding, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Druid community speaks out on proposed Lifebloom nerf originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday,

I'm going to go over a lot of information related to how Bear Tanking works over the next two articles, because I am often asked about how all of the various elements of Threat management fit together.

Much of this discussion will center around tanking after reaching level 70, but the foundation of this series will explore information valuable to bear tanks of all levels, including exactly how Threat works, various methods of pulling, and how to work with your group to keep the target's attentions on you, and not your squishy friends.

Part 1 will focus on the most basic fundamental issue of tanking; How Threat works in a group.

Let's go ahead and get started after the jump!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Bear Tanking Strategies Part 1

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Instances, Raiding, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Bear Tanking Strategies Part 1 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, takes a look at what is making his Druid cat ears perk up in the upcoming Patch 2.4.

What a difference a weekend makes.

Patch 2.4 has hit the Public Test Realms, and folks are getting excited at the changes and additions in store.

Since an entire new area is being added, with it's own late-game raid, instance and faction rewards, you know we're going to have a lot to talk about between now and when it goes live.

For now, as information gets dragged kicking and screaming out of the patch, I thought it would be fun to take a look at what specific patch changes Druids need to pay attention to.

Let's explore Druid fun in the patch after the jump!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Anticipating the changes in Patch 2.4

Filed under: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives, Rumors

Shifting Perspectives: Anticipating the changes in Patch 2.4 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What's your main right now?

Windshadow, a Feral-specced Druid on Kael'thas (US)

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

Most of my characters are Alliance, although I have played both sides. Oh, and for the record... I personally see a ton of great folks, fun and mature, in both factions. And I also see the Trade channel full of idiots on both sides. If one side is 'more mature' than the other, I've never noticed. They feel like they share the same balance to me.

Favorite thing to do in Azeroth?

I love to log into guild chat, pump some background music into my headphones, pop into Flight Form, and go farm Herbs and Gas Clouds at Mach 280 while chatting with my guildies.

What's the best instance in the game?

I haven't played them all yet, since there are 'guild favorites' I keep going back into. But I'd have to say I enjoy the mix of pulls in Heroic Underbog as a tank the best.

What's the number one thing Blizzard could do better?

I'd have to say communication on a personal level to reported customer account issues. When an issue is reported that, for an example, is as devastating as a hacked account, I think Blizzard needs to drastically improve the response time and amount of communication they provide to the victim.

Favorite mount?

Druids' epic Flight Form. Without exception.

Favorite piece of loot?

Earthwarden, the epic mace for feral tanking Druids, available from the Cenarion Expedition at Exalted reputation.

What accomplishment in-game are you most proud of?

Taking down Talon King Ikiss in Heroic Sethekk Halls for my Druid Flight Form quest. It eventually took bringing in a a second Druid to provide the heals and keep the banished birds buffed, but we did it. And it felt like winning a major war, not just downing a single heroic level boss.

If you could add one touch of personal flair to your main, what would it be?

I'd love to be able to choose different models or options to enhance the look of my Druid in cat or bear form. Things such as being able to display armor pieces in Dire Bear form, or choose different colors or models in cat or bear, or even something as simple as being able to follow a long quest chain to learn different models of cat or bear would be wonderful. As much as I love my Druid, I'd love it even more if I had the power to choose to change into a Polar Bear instead of the standard, or a tan plains cat instead of the standard Night Elf purple.

And I think this should apply to other classes' abilities as well. Why should both male and female Warlocks get the same female model Succubi? Why not have female Warlock characters get the option of having a little beefcake instead? I'm just sayin'.

Filed under: About the Bloggers

About the Bloggers: John Patricelli originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, offers guidance on three of the Feral Druids' key combat mechanics; Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill.

There are three combat mechanics that have a direct bearing on the Feral Druid in PvE at level 70, and each have a functional upper limit on how much you need, before adding more becomes a waste of points.

The three combat mechanics I'm talking about are Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill.

When discussing these combat mechanics, there are three numbers I want you to remember; 142, 91 and 415.

If you remember nothing else from the rest of this article, I hope that you carry these three numbers away with you.

142 is the total amount of Hit Rating needed to reduce your chance to miss against raid bosses to zero. Above 142, adding more Hit Rating does nothing for you whatsoever.

91 is the amount of Expertise Rating you would need to reduce the chance of an attack being Parried or Dodged by 5.75%. Currently, it is believed that level 73 raid bosses have a base 5.6% Dodge.

415 is the total amount of Defense skill you need to be immune from critical strikes by level 73 raid bosses, assuming you have 3 points spent in the talent Survival of the Fittest. And if you're tanking at level 70, you should have 3/3 in SotF.

Why are these three combat mechanics so important?

Well, for that we need to go behind the scenes and under the hood to find out a little more on how combat in World of Warcraft actually works.

Read on past the break for more!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill for PvE

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Raiding, Guides, Classes, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill for PvE originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings up the terrifying (to him) topic of the Balance and Restoration Talent trees.

Hello again!

Last week, I talked about the Talent spec I recommend most for leveling Feral from 10 to 70.

I wanted to get that information out there, so that those of you that have already started Druids wouldn't have to wait each week for guidance on leveling in Feral, a mere 10 levels at a time.

Well, while I only really know the modern game from the Feral point of view, this column is really for all Druids to enjoy.

So this week I thought I'd expand our discussion of Talent trees with a look at the Balance spec, from the point of view of two real experts.

So brew up some Goldthorn Tea, settle back, and let's take a look at respeccing to Balance with a full-on Balance build from 58 on through to 70 with Nasirah from A Tale of Two Druids, followed up with leveling from 10 to 70 as a mix of Balance and Restoration with Phaelia of Resto4Life.

Ready? Then let's get started!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: A look at leveling Balance

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Leveling, Guides, Classes, Talents, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: A look at leveling Balance originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, continues the new Druid leveling guide with leveling Tale

Welcome back to tips on leveling your new Druid!

In previous articles, we've talked about getting your UI and Addons set up the way you'd like, the basics of casting tactics and timing your abilities, and leveling up to 10.

We finished the last article by getting your bear form, unlocking your Talent trees and getting your very first Talent point.

In this section, we're going to explore Leveling Talent specs in more detail, and not just levels 11-20, but leveling all the way to 70.

So let's get started!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Leveling and Talent specs

Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, How-tos, Features, Leveling, Guides, Classes, Talents, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Leveling and Talent specs originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, continues the new Druid leveling guide with levels 6 through 10.

So far in our series of Druid leveling tips, we started with preparing to play a Druid, and then covered the basic strategies of levels 1 through 5. Today we're going to talk a little about weapon skills, Entangling Roots and your first real Druid specific challenge; the level 10 Bear Form quest chain.

Go ahead and dive in after the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: New Druid Leveling - 6 through 10

Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Leveling, Guides, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: New Druid Leveling - 6 through 10 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday,

In this week's column, we're going to begin to have some fun with our brand new level 1 Druid!

Check out our Level 1 Tauren Druid off to the right... isn't he a handsome devil? And modest, too!

Your first five levels set the tone for how your Druid will feel.

It's all about casting spells for ranged combat.

You're going to want to spend as much time burning them down on the run as you can, and minimize the time you spend whacking them in the face with your stick.

In many ways, the lessons you can learn here about casting strategies will form the foundation of your play style, at least until you finally get that workhorse of Druid leveling at 20; the Cat form.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: New Druid Leveling - 1 through 5

Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Leveling, Guides, Classes, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: New Druid Leveling - 1 through 5 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 25 Dec 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, starts his series on leveling a new Druid from 1st level all the way to 70th.

Before I begin my series on leveling your new Druid from 1st through 70th levels, I'm going to start with some of the things you can do to prepare.

Why not just leap right on into level 1? My reasoning is simple, just like me. When you have been watching Druids claw face as bears or cats, or as a new player you read about the description of the class and the shapechanging capabilities Druids enjoy, you might just expect to walk in and start doing the same yourself right from the start. The promise of the class is the fun of shifting from one form to another, depending on your playstyle.

Well, when you start your new Druid at level 1, you won't be clawing faces. Instead, you will be leveling as a caster... a ranged DPS caster for levels 1 - 10, and likely on towards 20. Just as Hunters don't get the ability to tame a pet until level 10, Druids do not get the chance to learn their first form until the Bear quest chain becomes available at level 10.

If, as you were sitting at the character creation screen, you were thinking you were going to be a kitty, all up in the face of the bad guys right from the start, it can be a bit of a let down. Especially if you don't care for playing a caster class in the first place.

Hopefully, however, by knowing how to set yourself up in advance with the in-game Options, useful User interfaces and Addons, you'll find yourself leveling up as a caster painlessly, and may even come to enjoy the versatility of some of the Druid's powerful casting abilities.

While the focus of this series of articles will be to help guide a brand new player into the fun of playing a Druid, hopefully there will also be some suggestions that an experienced player trying the Druid for the first time will find useful.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Your first steps as a Druid

Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Herbalism, Mining, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Leveling, Guides, Classes, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: Your first steps as a Druid originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In addition to the already mentioned list of prizes, The Bronze Kettle revealed that Blizzard and FigurePrints have donated a custom FigurePrints action figure of your in-game World of Warcraft character to add to the raffle as the Grand Prize.

These figures have, to date, only been available either with the purchase of a Dell XPS M1730 laptop valued at around $4500, or by winning a place in the random drawing that FigurePrints will be holding on December 21st. This could be your chance to win one of these extremely exclusive figures, a full week before they go on sale to those lucky enough to win a place in the first official drawing.

You can read more about FigurePrints and their custom World of Warcraft action figures of your in-game character in this WoW Insider interview with Ed Fries, the founder of FigurePrints.

Filed under: Events, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, News items, Fan art

FigurePrints donates custom figure to The Bronze Kettles' Child's Play charity raffle originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week brings John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, to begin looking at leveling the class from the ground up.

So, you've been thinking of rolling a Druid. You've seen Druids in your guild tanking Heroics or Prince Malchezaar with their Big Bear Butt, you've seen them flying overhead in Flight form, before dropping from the sky in the middle of a pack of mobs and clawing faces and chewing limbs as a Ferocious Cat, or maybe you've seen the incredibly smooth and powerful healing of your favorite Golden Tree. Or maybe the last thing you saw in PvP was a Feathered Owlbear bringing down the Wrath of the Starfire on your head, or holding you immobile and helpless with their Whirlwind.

Or maybe you just want to look like another hunter pet.

Whatever the reason, something about the Druid class interests you, and maybe you'd like to know a bit more before making the plunge.

Well my friends, with the changes to experience brought in Patch 2.3, leveling a new alt or creating a main character has never been more attractive.

This article is to get you acquainted with the Druid class and give you an idea of what playing one is like, both early on and in later levels. In later articles, we'll go over the specifics about what you can expect as you level.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: So you're thinking of playing a Druid

Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Leveling, Classes, Alts, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: So you're thinking of playing a Druid originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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