Druid Attributes

I’m not implying us Druids are stupid, but I’ve long wished for a simple explanation of the effect of various attribute increases on my abilities. With us Druids being able to perform in so many roles, it becomes a bit more complicated for us to evaluate whether we want that new piece of gear that just dropped.

I was cruising around over at WoWWiki and found a page called Druid Tactics. Pretty basic stuff, but I did find this little gem describing attribute increases in plain, straightforward language. You all probably knew this already, but for me this was a real find, so I’m sharing it. Enjoy.

Attributes

There is no set of attributes that is perfect for every situation. A druid can do most things and profit from all attributes. The best choice obviously is the one that enhances your play style.

• Each point of Strength is worth 2 points of attack power. 14 points of attack power result in 1 additional DPS.
• Each point of Agility increases armor by 2, dodge and critical hit by 0.05% (at level 60). Also increases Attack Power in cat form by +1 per point of Agility.
• Each point of Stamina is worth 10 health.
• Each point of Intellect gives 15 mana and increases your chance for a critical spell 0.0173% (every 57.5 int = +1% critical chance).
• Each point of Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration. 5 points of Spirit gives 1 mana per tick (2 seconds) in regeneration.

Oh, by the way - I finally decided on my new build. I’m logging in now to apply it and see how it works. I’ll post it today or tomorrow in case you’re interested.

Druid Talents How-to

Well, I finally logged on and re-built Amanna. I must say I didn’t miss the 2 or 3 days I didn’t play given all the furor in the forums, the rolling restarts, etc. etc. It was kind of nice to spend a few nights on other pursuits and log back in to a (relatively) sane environment.

That is, of course with the exception of add-ons. While some are available for 2.0 many of the others I’ve come to rely on haven’t been updated yet. And even if they are, most of the download websites are very slow at best.

The really fun part though was getting a free re-spec. I’d been looking at the Talent Calculator for a few weeks now trying to figure out what I wanted to do. My assumption was that I’d stay feral - I like the gameplay and it would be hard to part with the gear I’ve gotten hold of. I have to admit though, the Resto tree intriqued me. I thought Blizzard did a good job of putting some very useful talents in there. While I didn’t play around too much, it looked like you could get a pretty buff healer for end-game. Balanace didn’t really intrique me all that much, although I noticed one of our Druids in Moonkin form last night.

So the decision was to go Feral, then it’s just a matter of distributing points, right? No, then comes the task of “what can I live without and what do I have to have?” This wasn’t too bad, but I did have to make some hard tradeoffs. Especially since the BC calculators let you play with 61 talent points.

I ended up with this build. I knew I wanted Mangle to try it out (and I can tell you it is definitely worth it). Here’s the rest of my thinking:

• I knew I wanted Focus for those few rage points right when switching forms. Intensity seemed to be a natural follow-up, especially with the added bonus of +mana while casting. In the end I decided to postpone this until BC. With primarily being in raids and high level instances, rage generation hasn’t been too much of a problem.
• Omen of Clarity was high on my list and a hard one to drop. With one of the goals of a feral build is getting a lot of crits both in bear and cat forms, it seemed like Omen would get you a lot of free swipes. In the end, I had to spend too many points to get down to it, so it got postponed also. I’ve not used Omen of Clarity before, but this was probably my hardest tradeoff. I was really looking forward to using it.
• Shredding Attacks and Blood Frenzy were also postponed. I was trying to maximize the value of my points, so I avoided abilities that were either cat only. I did end up having to take 1 point in Blood Frenzy to get down to Mangle.
• I initially wanted Survival of the Fittest, but ended up happily bypassing it. A 3% increase in stats really didn’t seem all that worth it for 3 talent points, even with the crit reduction.

Those were the talents I had on my list that I didn’t take. Some of the others higher in the tree, just didn’t interest me. I don’t normally tank in my guild so I don’t need threat enhancements, and have never found myself needing extra speed in cat (at least not often enough to warrant a couple talent points).

So, that’s what I went. What did you guys go with and what was your reasoning?

Onyxia Attunement

One last step for my attunement. I just need the blood drop off Drakkisath in UBRS. In poking around on Thotbott during the process, I came across this wonderful condensed version for attunement. There are instructions for Horde and Alliance in there. Since Alliance rules, here is our walkthrough:

1) Dragonkin Menace (Elite) from Halrendis in Morgan’s Vigil, Burning Steppes.
2) Talk to Marshal Maxwell in Morgan’s Vigil.
3) Talk to Magistrate Solomon in Lakeshire.
4) Talk to Highlord Bolvar Fordragon in Stormwind.
5) Talk to Magistrate Solomon in Lakeshire.
6) Talk to Marshal Maxwell in Morgan’s Vigil.
7) Find Marshal Windsor in Blackrock Depths jail. Return to Maxwell.
9) Find a random “A Crumpled Up Note” drop from a random dwarf in Blackrock Depths.
10) Take said note to Marshal Windsor.
11) Retrieve Marshal Windsor’s Lost Information from General Angerforge and Golem Lord Argelmach (two pieces).
12) Escort Marshal Windsor out of Blackrock Depths jail.
13) Meet Marshal Windsor at gates of Stormwind.
14) Escort Marshal Windsor to Stormwind Keep to unveil who Lady Katrana Prestor really is. (Spoiler: Onyxia)
15) Stand way the hell back while Bolvar fights the elite dragons.
16) Travel to Winterspring to find Haleh. Find lots of elite blue dragons and run to the back of the cave, where you’ll see a rune on the floor. It’s hard to see, so you will die a few times.
17) Haleh tells you to go kill Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire. You will need 15 fairly skilled players for this quest, including yourself.
18) Once you have the “Blood of the Black Dragon Champion”, return to Haleh. Drakkisath drops only ONE of these per kill. Yes, one for the entire 15 man group. Not one per person, one per group.
19) Return to Haleh with the Blood and claim your
Drakefire Amulet.

A couple of notes to this overview from going through the process.

Most of the beginning steps can be soloed once your in the mid-50’s. Dragonkin Menance may give you some problems and is definitely easier with a partner. Once you get into Blackrock Depths, you will definitely need a party. Hopefully you’re in a guild and can get some friends to help you out. Steps 13-16 are definitely solo-able. For step 16 just switch to cat form and prowl through the cave. Elite 60 dragons all around so watch your step. They have extended patrol routes also, so make sure you keep an eye behind you. Drakk has been changed to drop multiple bloods per kill. Based on thotbott updates it looks like anywhere from 2 to 4 blood drops will fall per kill, so you can potentiall attune multiple people with one UBRS run.

Looking for the cave in Winterspring for Haleh? Check this out. Basically just head south out of Everlook and about an inch south on the map to the right of the road a cave will be revealed on your map. That’s the cave with the rune to Haleh. If you want to get creative, search thotbott for the quest. There are some instructions on how to avoid the cave altogether and go up the side of the mountain to Haleh. I found just prowling through the cave simple enough.

Haven’t made it into UBRS yet for my blood drop, but I hope to soon. I’d really like a shot at Onyxia before the expansion comes out.