by Allison Robert

Tanking on a bear feels like it’s turning in the direction of protection warrior tanking, which is a good thing, but I’m not sure how close Blizzard is to being done with the tree. As such, don’t take this as anything other than a few observations specific to the current beta build, and a limited few at that. The dungeon finder’s broken at the moment, so groups aren’t as easy to get.

How good is Pulverize?

Pulverize, on the outside, is a pretty sweet deal. It provides instant threat, an indirect threat buff in the form of additional crit, additional Savage Defense uptime and — for now — more rage generation, although that’s likely to be changed (which means Primal Fury in its current form won’t survive). But it does have a problem, and that’s that it turns Lacerate into something within shouting distance of the current incarnation of Swipe. In other words, it’s a skill that you wind up spamming, not because you want to, but because you kind of have to. And Lacerate is a much clumsier tool than Swipe for that purpose.
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?by Tyler Caraway

I’d like to take you back into the downward spiral that is my life as a beta addict as we take a not so quick gander at how our lovable Moonfire and Insect Swarm are holding up their end of the bargain thus far in the next expansion.

Before that, let me say that I haven’t done any testing of the new instances as of yet, mostly because I’m scared to — very, very scared to — so everything I’ve been doing is limited to questing and work on target dummies. These are nice tools, but they aren’t quite the same as seeing how everything works out within a boss setting. Movement and other caveats to every boss encounter can heavily sway the importance of any single ability at the drop of a hat, so I am saddened that I haven’t been able to actually get in and try my hand at any real encounter.

Anyway, back on point of DoTs — let’s get right into it, shall we?

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by Allison Robert

This week, we’re continuing our series on Pulling 101 with a look at what happens during the dungeon itself. I was surprised to discover exactly how much of this advice concerns rage management, but shouldn’t have been; any discussion concerning how to pull as a rage tank invariably touches on how to get the most out of an eccentric resource system. A good chunk of this advice will become obsolete as of the Cataclysm content patch, but if you’re leveling and gearing a bear through the dungeon finder, there are still an awful lot of 5-mans between yourself and this fall.

Set the tone

You, as the tank, are the de facto group leader and have more power than anyone (barring the healer) to determine how the run goes. If you’re a nice person, you set a standard for the behavior you expect to see during the run. If you’re an asshole, players are often reluctant to drop because that means going back to a lengthy queue.

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by Tyler Caraway

Before we get started talking about all of the new changes, let me first mention a few things that are currently missing, bugged or simply not yet implemented. First and foremost, Eclipse in of itself does not currently work in beta. The bar works, you can shift the bar in every direction that you like, and the procs certainly work; however, the procs currently don’t actually do anything. There’s no bonus damage there at all, but this a bug from the mastery change when they switched over the talent trees. This actually brings up the next point: We still do not have any specialization effects as of yet, and frankly, I’m a bit at a loss as to what they might end up being. Previously, I assumed that they would merely be the old mastery effects, but looking at elemental shaman, I don’t think that will be the case.

It is safe to assume that one of our mastery effects is going to be Vengeance, to help difference ourselves from other druids. Another will likely be pushback resistances, and I’d venture to guess that the old Wrath of Cenarius benefit will also be baked in there. If there will be anything else, I cannot really say. Last but certainly not least, there are still a few things missing from the talent trees — the effects of Improved Moonkin Form still haven’t been found anywhere else that I’ve seen, anyway — so I still wouldn’t expect this to be the last pass on the druid talent trees. Things are still very likely to change from how they stand now, so don’t get too upset. With that out of the way, let’s get started.

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by Allison Robert

Knowing how and when to pull is arguably the foundation of a smooth dungeon run, and it’s certainly among the first skills that any tank needs to develop. While a not-insignificant portion of one’s ability to pull cleanly only arrives courtesy of experience with a wide variety of players, there are a few rules that approach universal status. Moreover, I expect them to be equally useful when I hit the new Cataclysm dungeons and have to figure out how to tank for a group safely in a new environment with new mobs.

The more I wrote on pulling, the more I realized that the subject can be divided into two very distinct categories: what happens before you pull, and what happens while you’re pulling. This week’s column addresses the former. Everything I am about to tell you in this column is something that you, as an experienced tank, will eventually do in the space of a second without even realizing you’re doing it.

Who’s in your group?

As soon as you zone in, run a quick mental tally on your fellow players. With what classes are you going to be dealing? Who is your healer? Is there anyone there with an advanced PvE or PvP title suggesting that the player has a lot of experience?

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by Tyler Caraway

I’d like to quickly go over the more recent raiding addition Ruby Sanctum. Although I’ve seen mixed reviews of the instance from others, I at least think the instance is a nice little dash of refreshing. It doesn’t hold the same sense of urgency, the same notion that you’re going to be stuck in here for hours upon hours, days upon days (even though many guilds, particularly those working on hard mode, will be) that I get from going into ICC. RS is a nice little cooldown raid; it’s light, fun and refreshing like a cool glass of lemonade. To start us off, we’ll take a quick look at the shiny loots, since that’s what everyone really wants, and then we’ll look into a brief little guide on how to slay the giant purple/pink dragon at the end.

10-man drops

Changling Gloves There are a rather decent pair of gloves that you can pick up which, surprisingly, don’t have hit or spirit on them. It’s like a July Christmas wish or something. Sadly for balance druids, the Tier 10 gloves that do have hit on them are generally going to be a part of your BiS list, but that’s the funny thing about BiS lists, you really don’t have to pay much attention to that note. The reality is, if these are an upgrade for you and you can get hit from another slot of equitable ilevel, then chances are you’ll want these gloves. Particularly for 10-man loot, a lot of stuff on it has hit these days, so it may be rather difficult to find yourself a full set of gear that doesn’t put you skyrocketing over the hit cap if you are in a 10-man exclusive guild, which makes these gloves perfect.

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by Allison Robert

Ruby Sanctum ilevels are pretty straightforward — the 10-man coughs up ilevel 258 gear (the same you’d get from ToGC-25), the 25-man coughs up 271 (between ICC-25 and ICC-25 heroic quality), and their heroic versions offer 271 and 284 respectively. In other words, you’ll find some quality stuff here. Beyond the cut are the pieces that feral and restoration druids might want.

10-man gear

Changeling Gloves A decent glove option and somewhat interesting in that it packs both haste and crit. Make no mistake — that and the lack of spirit make it a lot more suited to our boomkin brethren, but it’s a fine piece if you’re still saving badges toward the tier gloves. They’re slightly better for restoration druids than the frost badge option, Gloves of the Great Horned Owl, but not as good as the ilevel 251 tier gloves (which is really what you ultimately want, as you should be planning on buying the badge chest).

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by Tyler Caraway

Don’t be a failkin, seriously

I’m sure that there are many of you that might remember this article posted at the beginning of last month. It’s a brilliant piece of work, if I do say so myself, and has a lot of great information that if you haven’t read yet, you really, really should. I haven’t seen far too many offenders of any one of the major points of that post, but there are a few that I would like to highlight once more.

• You can remove curses and poisons; do it.
• Don’t Typhoon mobs away from the tank and AoE.
• Watch yourself when using Starfall.
• Heal when you can.

Those are four points that I simply cannot stress enough. While running through Blood Furnace, I cannot even begin to count the number of times that I’ve seen a balance druid get hit with Curse of Tongues and just sit there casting through it. Pardon the harsh tone, but why in the world would you do that? You can dispel it, it’s lowering your DPS significantly, plus it’s annoying as all get out — so just get rid of the stupid thing. Even more true is when it gets placed on a healer; it scares me beyond belief when a healer is forced to endure longer cast times such as that.

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by Tyler Caraway

Feral druids might be better at soloing certain content than balance druids are, but we are certainly far from helpless in the endeavor. Balance druids, too, can solo some of the more perilous quests, farm old content that was once classified as difficult, and get our hands on virtually any prize that we wish. To that end, I would like to present to you this guide to soloing various content throughout World of Warcraft in hope that one day all shall see that balance really is better than feral — because, let’s face it, in the choice between a slack-jawed, untamed beast and a highly intelligent, silly-looking, destructive force of nature, I think it is rather clear which one is the better option.

Basics of world soloing

Before we get into the flashy, fancy stuff, let’s take a quick detour to talk about the fundamentals of soloing the various encounters that you find while out in the game world. Usually, these are things like group quests that pit you against a powerful elite monster that’s usually a bit difficult to handle on your own. More often than not (well, depending on where you are, at least), it can be quite difficult to get real groups or even just anybody for the purpose of downing these fiends. Instead of giving up or wandering around seeking out someone to help you (note that asking for help is awesome even if you don’t really need it, as someone else might need your help; just don’t sit there doing nothing but spamming general until you find someone), it is always best to go out and attempt the quest on your own. When doing this, there are a few basic rules to keep in mind.

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