New upgrades...

Well, I forgot to mention some new upgrades I was able to get. Let me start by saying Myself and my PvP arena partner got to 158something so I was able to get a couple S4 PvP upgrades.

Guardian's Dragonhide Bracers
Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards
Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Gloves

We are hoping to get over that 1600 hump maybe next week and I already have the points to get...

Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic which is why I have kept passing on the Nether Shadow Tunic that has dropped 3 times now in BT... that and I don't want to tick off any rogues... but that is another story.

We are just 30 points away AGAIN fom the 1600 I need... here is to hoping we get a couple easy teams instead of dual glaive rogues in all S4 starting a new team to get someone cheap epics.

I had also forgot to mention the gear I have gotten here recently in BT...

Treads of the Den Mother - With these I hit 34K armor partly raid buffed... is sweet.
Shadowmoon Destroyer's Drape - Best melee DPS cloak in game and the + Hit will come in handy for leveling in Wrath.
Idol of the White Stag - I don't see this as better than Everbloom Idol or Idol of Terror until late into Wrath and just for leveling. Once I hit 80 I am sure the Idol of the Ravenous Beast will be the tops for raiding... or Idol of Worship will be... will have to see I suppose how the theorycrafting numbers work out.

Ok... 1 more thing... I need to speak out...

People who think Druid tanking is over are nuts.

One big change to note, we can now use items IN FORMS.

Druid tanking just got a WHOLE lot more fun. We can now stagger potions, lock cookies, herbs, seeds, trinkets, Barkskin, Bezerk, Enrage (we take less DMG), and the Herbalism HoT (I am an herbalist) without the worry of getting caught OOF (out of form)

This is a big change to the current Mangle, Maul rotation bore. I like it, it will take more skill and attention from us as tanks.

A couple of interesting things to note from the PTR

1. I love that I can now use items in form. IMHO for leveling skip Furor... no seriously.
2. Lifeblood. A new spell for Herbalist, which I happen to be, 1200 HoT over 5 sec with 3 min CD... and castable in form.
3. Barkskin, cast in form as well.
4. NE get in cobat Shadowmeld... basically a rogue vanish... very sweet when you are leveling and pull a mob you thought was out of agro range.

Currently using flight form to fly high, shift out, and shift back in before dying does not count as falling without dying for the achievements.

I LOVE that I have learned my pets and mounts and actually have bag space.

Imp Leader of the Pack now returns mana and health.

That is all for now.

PTR is up and I am on

Look me up, I am Jacemoraptor on the US PTR server.

So far, I have QQed over the loss of armor on my T5, cut my hair to wild style, and took a look at the harbor in SW.

Things that are screwy...

When I right clicked my mount it became a spell... but it did not take the mount out of my bags... so I am scared to delete it... or would be if the patch was live.

I do not have the achievement for killing Vash even though I have and the vial is sitting in my bank.

In other news, I went on a pugged run last night to down Kael. That fight is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. What is hard is finding 25 people that don't constantly DC, AFK, or go full tard like my healer did standing still to get 1 shot in the first phase... MORE THAN ONCE. He also didn't heal me half the time which led to my death as well.

We made it to phase 4 twice and almost got him to phase 5.

I thank Classic for the invite and making the effort to get people in to experience the fight. I really want to down him and get my Hand of Adal title but time is quickly running out.

More on my PTR experience to come.

Latest Druid Blue post

We want druids to be able to MT Naxx and Ulduar.

Cool, OK.

I really don't think they're that far off, but if I'm wrong and bears collapse on Patchwerk, we'll change the numbers until they can stand up. We'll try to change the numbers in intelligent ways so that bears are tanking Arthas too and not standing in the back healing the warrior tank.

Wow... Cool, OK.

Likewise, if cat dps is always near the bottom of the dps damage meters, we'll fix that too.

Ok, this comment is a mixed bag. Near the bottom? I don't know about everyone else but when I am on my rotation timing I am usually top 5 on Boss DPS staying pretty competitive with other pure melee DPS classes. This is with T4, S4, and Badge gear and Rare gems only and through the first 4 bosses of both BT and Hyjal. Now granted this isn't comparing T6 geared level players where maybe the scale comes into play but still. What I find are Feral Druids that don't itemize correctly for Kitty DPS and also don't understand how to use proper rotations to maximize damage... I won't even get into Haste potion macro's and powershifting. What this might mean is a big buff to Feral DPS due to all the players that don't know how to DPS properly as a kitty. For those Ferals that constantly find themselves at the top of the damage meters it could mean crazy DPS and then the QQ'ers and the nerf hammer.

Supposedly Ferals are getting a pure DPS build that will have us putting out Rogue level DPS at the loss of Main Tanking or maybe even OTing mini bosses. I would assume we will still be able to OT trash even with a pure DPS build.

Again, I see more QQing and nerfing.

Personally, I would love to be able to get rid of Feral Attack Power as a stat. It feels a little kludgey and it makes itemization harder because you can't share with anyone else in the game. It's like having a libram for your main weapon. But it's not going to happen for Wrath, at least not initially.

Another mixed bag. Now we are going to be dual wielding kitties with swords or daggers and rolling against Rogues for even more loot that think they are more intitled because I can respec and tank or heal and they can't.

Thanks Blizzard.

Jerks.

Well, not much WoW playing lately...

Due to the Holiday and my SUV having issues I didn't play much WOW last week. I spent most of my time buying a new Van for the family. Our family SUV was getting along in years and miles while bleeding me dry in gas money. We ended up purchasing an 07 Honda Odyssey Touring with 22K miles. No new car depreciation and all the bells and whistles money can buy including Navigation and DVD for the kids. It drives very nice, not like a van at all. The Touring edition comes with a tighter suspension so it feels more like driving a sports car than a van which we like.

We bought the van on Thursday and took a trip to the beach on Friday with a stop at Disney on Monday and the Van did it's job flawlessly.

We opted for the extended bumper to bumper 7 year 100K warrantee since we see ourselves in this vehicle for a lifetime.

Hopefully in the near future with the content patch upcoming and the WotLK I will start getting back into theorycrafting and blog posting but for now it seems it is just Hyjal and BT up to the same bosses every week until people get out of the expansion funk.

I hope to get my Horde hunter to 70 by the expansion but I really don't blog about my noob hunter exploits.

Once Wrath hits I have some options...

A. Level a DK... ugh, 55-80 doesn't get me excited.
B. Level Jacemora to 80... I don't know how I can't stay true to my main.
C. Level Sophina to 80... Lock is so easymode compared to Druid I am actually considering this.
D. Level my fresh 70 Horde hunter to 80... Hunters seem to be all win in the expansion and with the most fun factor... not sure since I don't know many Horde players.

I just know as I get Jace to 80 everyone is going to expect me to MT. Having to run multiple 5 mans as a tank and leader wears on you fast but it does assure going on an instance run whenever you want...

I just don't know.