Not yet a tree, but we're getting there!

So, Easter is upon us, and hanging out with the family and such things obviously leads to less posting. Good food, candies and sunny weather - it's all good :)

There has been some druid leveling action, though - level 46 has been reached, and it may be because of the "first character ever"-clumsiness I suffered from with my first druid, but a healthy amount of points in the resto tree seems to make leveling a whole lot smoother. OK, so I've invested a few gold in a fairly nice staff with a decent enchant - 70 extra spell power is a nice boost at this level, and I'm counting on it to last until she gets to Outland - but seriously, I was able to solo this rare elite I found in Swamp of Sorrows, by alternating rooting, nuking, and throwing HoTs on myself, even though he was one level higher than Rahamra at the time!

I'm sure my first druid would've gotten her feathery ass handed to her, had she encountered this mob at level 44.

OK, she does need a respec - I'd rather take the two points from Naturalist, and put them into Master Shapeshifter, but still, as she doesn't yet have her Tree-form, the latter wouldn't be of much use to her anyway. There's at least a tiny chance one might get to benefit from the cast time-reduction on Healing Touch while leveling. But yeah, I'd like to get those "mandatory" points, so I'm looking forward to the promised free respec in the upcoming patch. Every time I've taken a new character to Hellfire Peninsula, I've been shocked by how much harder the mobs seem to hit, and I doubt this time'll be any different, so being able to switch between leaves and feathers (almost) whenever will be yummy. It changes the rules by a huge amount - suddenly one might be able to find quite a few characters with an actual healing- or tanking spec even at lower levels!

The Basics.

After something of a hiatus from druiding, I'm getting back into it, and slowly I'm finding druid blogs to read. I've already put The Daily Druid and Resto4life on my list, and that's a good start, but now I'm adding a new one, simply because it has exactly what I'm looking for at the moment: Druid Main is starting a basic, straightforward tree 101-guide, to help people prepare for dual-speccing!

I love it! We get to know about the healing spells, and when to use them, talents, glyphs and all that - really basic stuff, knowledge many healers seem to take for granted.

I've been looking for guides like this one so many times, and not only for resto druids, but for mages, moonkins, priests and whatnot, but a lot of the time Google just gives me 15 different discussions on how to heal some rather complicated 25-man raid. "But how do you do it in a 5-man, then? Oh, that's easy, you just roll your face on the keyboard." Yeah, right.

OK, I might be exaggerating a tiny bit there, but still, a lot of people who run something like 2 heroics and 1 raid every night have been through it all a zillion times, and the whole "do x when y if z" is simply a reflex to them. To me, a guide like this makes all the difference - a bit like learning which pedal is which in a car when learning how to drive.

It's a Girl!

The druid action in my life, and in this blog, has been quite sparse lately, to say the least. My first character - my first main - was my druid. I'm writing it in past tense, since the status of "main character" has gradually drifted over to Ms. Bunnyhop, a certain huntress :) Am I retiring my moonkin? To some extent, yes. I could never delete her, and I'll keep logging on to her to do the Mysterious Egg-thingie, and maybe some seasonal stuff, but when it comes to actually playing her - she's on an official break.

Now, this doesn't mean I'm done with druids - oh no! You see, I have a new alt:

Meet Rahamra. So far, she's put points into the Balance tree, but I see Restoration in her future. The whole dual spec-thing in patch 3.1 is something I'm really looking forward to: Bunnyhop can rock both a BM-soloing spec, and a spec for, you know, playing with others, if and when my schedule allows it. My mage will be even more fun to level if I can switch between her regular frost-spec and something more spectacular, and it will finally be possible to be a tree or a moonkin whenever I want while leveling a druid!

I'm going to try and put most talent points into the resto tree, even before level 40 (and the upcoming patch), but let's face it: Resto isn't the most comfortable solo-questing spec. She'll probably be a moonkin on the side, but I'd really love to give healing another try.

The last time I "healed", I kind of got thrown into the (for me) deep end, when trying to be a raid healer in a semi-pugged Kara-group. I didn't know my heals, I didn't know my gear, I didn't know anything, really, and, most importantly - I hadn't really healed before. The group stuck together for a couple of months, but after it fell apart, I decided that if I'm ever going to try healing again, I'll have to start doing it while leveling.

And that's why I'm not just respeccing my level 80. Might seem a bit crazy, but provided I get Rahamra that far, I might be able to get some of that "LF healer Ramparts"-action I've heard so much about :D

Now, off to get a bit more Exodar-rep, and to see if those sassy draenei have any good druid gear for me :)