Posts with tag ArchDruid

WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader!

We recently spoke to Nexus-Prince Haramad, leader of the ethereal Consortium, and he shed light on several key issues, including goblin rearrangement, investment opportunities, bad business practices, proprietary bandage technology, and static cling. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Archdruid Fandral Staghelm of the Cenarion Circle.

Our first reader question:

Dear Fandral Staghelm,

Over the years, I have many times assisted your morrowgrain research. I have found many weird plants in my quest for that elusive herb. I have been awarded many (useless but, I am sure, heartfelt) scrolls and pieces of food by your research team. My question is: Where is all this effort ending up? What end does all this morrowgrain research lead to?

Sincerely,
Bowjób-Lightbringer EU

Staghelm responds:

Look, pal, when I send you on an errand, you say "how high." You don't ask "what exactly do you need all of this eldritch herb for." I need it, you need to get it for me. You know the saying? Yours is not to question why, etc?

Oh, wonderful. See her, over there? My handler is signaling me. I guess that means "answer the poorly-named hunter's (yes, I know you're a hunter) question, you magnificent king among kaldorei." I guess it's just as well, I got a dozen emails about what I was doing with morrowgrain.

Fine. The big reveal. What am I doing with morrowgrain?

Ghostcrawler has appeared in two different threads talking about healing today, and the gist of it is that he's happy. He's happy with healing and the way it works in Ulduar: there's a good variety between boss fights and phases, there are intense moments and pauses in the action, and he says they've got things to a point where they like them. Later, he says that while in Naxx, you don't really have to warn the healer too much (you can basically tell them to heal the MT and leave it at that), Ulduar requires healers to get into the rhythm -- sometimes go all out, and sometimes hold back. He does say that too much mana is still an issue for them, and if anything gets nerfed in that department, Replenishment will. But he doesn't expect too many nerfs for a while.

That doesn't mean, of course, that the big healing update is out the window -- GC still hints that there are more changes in store for healing, and we'd bet coppers to gold that there are both mechanic changes and possibly even a hero class due for healers soon. But for now, healing is where they want it in the current content, and it sounds like most players agree.

Now, there's just PvP...

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.

Last time on The Queue, I answered a question about potential hero classes. Zoidberg asked about Archdruids, but there wasn't a whole lot to say. It's a rumor, and a rumor without much weight behind it, just an interview comment taken out of context as the WoW community (yes, even WoW Insider sometimes) likes to do. Since answering that question, I've been thinking about it a little myself.

Do I, personally, think Archdruids will be the next hero class? Nah, I don't think so. Just the name is the big issue for me. Archdruid suggest Druid+ or Druid 2.0 and that's just not cool. You can differentiate them from Druids as much as you want, Archdruid still suggests that it's a better Druid. That's pretty awful. Even if the new hero class (if there is a new hero class) has all of the features we'd expect from an Archdruid, it'll probably be called something else. Maybe a Keeper or something like that.

Apparently I missed a Doctor Who reference in one of the questions I answered yesterday. Maybe? Heck if I know. If you're looking for our resident Doctor Who nerd, direct your references to Elizabeth Harper. They go way over my head.

Zoidberg asked...

A while ago, we heard some rumors about a new hero class called archdruid. (Or something like that.) What do we know about these guys? Is this a possibility for the 4.0 hero class?

I wrote a Breakfast Topic recently concerning the somewhat ambivalent effect that Death Knights were having on the usual tanking shortage, but wasn't too surprised to see a lot of people (perhaps most) write in to note that the healer shortage on their realms was even worse. Leveling as a healer -- even with all the changes to spellpower and shared gear -- is an unattractive proposition for most, and a lot of people who healed at 70 want the chance to do something different. Past a certain point you'd give anything to be doing something that doesn't involve staring at a series of dropping health bars, and that doesn't lend itself to a large and willing population of healers cheerfully offering their services for 5-man use in LFG.

My main's a Druid and I PuG a lot, so I have the luxury of being able to observe which spec is the most wanted for 5-mans (at least on my realm). As soon as dual specs become available, I'm going to have a PvE tanking and PvE healing spec set up and ready to go -- and after that, I'm going to keep a little notebook and tally how many times I get asked by a group to heal, and how many times I'm asked to tank ("But what if someone wants you to DPS?" you ask. What is this "dee pee ess" you speak of, strange one?). With an increasing number of Death Knights reaching 80, I'm willing to bet that the demand for healers is going to be even greater than it is right now, and that increasing pressure is going to be exerted on hybrid tanks (i.e. Druids and Paladins) to maintain a healing spec and gear in order to ensure that groups get off the ground faster than they do right now. I could be wrong, but I'd also be lying if that wasn't the dominant trend back on Wrath's beta with respec costs at 1c and a ton of Death Knights at 80.

In an interview at Computer and Videogames, Tigole mostly discusses some things we've already heard about, such as the Lake Wintergrasp PvP zone and the process to unlock the Death Knight class, but also reveals a few very tasty little morsels of new information as well.

First, he tells us a little bit more about Blizzard's philosophy behind Inscription, the new trade skill slated to be released with the expansion. While it appears that only one inscription will be allowed to be on a spell at one time, their goal is not to create one or two all-powerful inscriptions that will be used above all others, but to give players a variety of valid choices as to how to modify their spells. The example he gives is that of Frost Nova. One player might choose an inscription that gave their nova a longer range, while another might choose one that would lengthen the duration of the root associated with it.

And what's this? More hero classes?

If you've been following along with the podcast, you've heard of the Fandral Staghelm killshot thread over on WoW Radio-- it's a place where those who hate Fandral Staghelm, Archdruid of Darnassus and generally obnoxious jerk, can get their kicks seeing the guy dead on the ground. Originally, the thread was supposed to be a compendium for killshots, but Rembrant on the Moon Guard server has taken it to a whole new level-- he's created a Flash-based kill simulator of the Archdruid. Don't have a whole raid of Horde to go into Darnassus and take him down in game? Just click the "Die Staghelm!!" button, and you get a surprisingly satisfying animation of Staghelm's demise.

I love it (and wish I had seen it sooner-- looks like it was posted last week sometime). All day today I've been randomly killing Staghelm, and it has a relaxing effect. Bad day at work? Kill Staghelm. Fight with your girlfriend? Kill Staghelm! Couldn't get your raid to kill Staghelm? Kill Staghelm anyway!

I only hope the site survives the masses of people who will jump onto it to kill Staghelm. Because there certainly are a lot of them.

Update: Yup, looks like we burned it. Sorry, Rembrant, everybody hates Staghelm. Here's the new link to the simulator he gave us in the comments. Hope that holds up.

I've talked to Alliance players, read WoW comics, surfed the forums, and seen raids on Darnassus, and one thing is clear: Pretty much everyone hates Fandral Staghelm. He's rude, snotty, argumentative and dismissive. In other words, perfect for a Know Your Lore feature! I'm sick of the generic faction leaders that have no flaws whatsoever, like the saintly Uther or the noble Thrall. It's like all the Warcraft politicians are Lincolns -- we need an occasional Nixon in there to spice things up.

So here's the guy you love to hate, the guy that Alliance encourages Horde to kill, the guy that greets you by making fun of his co-leader -- Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm!

Who: Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm.

What: Night elf druid.

History: Fandral Staghelm is 9,000 years old, which oddly enough makes him one of the younger night elf lore figures. He was born after the War of the Ancients, so he's significantly younger than Malfurion, Illidan and Tyrande, and didn't have to witness the terrors of the first Burning Legion invasion. Nevertheless, when Malfurion called for a new generation of night elves to learn the ways of the druids, Staghelm answered and rose to become one of Malfurion's top students. But he was more impetuous and easy to anger than the night elf leader, and they often quarreled. Luckily, Malfurion chose not to solve this disagreement in the manner to which he was accustomed. ("Hey! Let's blow up the world again!") The druids slept through the millenia, guarding the Emerald Dream and occasionally waking to help the night elves and possibly spend time with their angry, angry wives.