Tag Archives: druid

To Tree or Not to Tree?

I’ve gotten a couple comments asking who “won” the contest. I tallied up the votes and yes, the druid won. (To be fair, the reasons given for “hunter” tended to be much more passionate and convincing! But I decided to go purely on numbers.)

So I’ve been playing the druid and having a surprising amount of fun. I’m making good headway on the Wrathgate storyline (thanks to dual specs, I am able to quest more often than I could before), and I even got to experience being a Moonkin and not a Tree in a Violet Hold.

wow_boomkinop

…by the way, they’re OP. *cough* >.>

Boomkinning is interesting; playstyle-wise it feels like a somewhat less hectic version of Survival Huntering, in that you are waiting for a proc (in this case, Eclipse) which then changes up your rotation. (Said proc likes to happen on the last spell you cast before the mob dies, by the way.) I gotta say though, you’ll never be able to take the hunter out of the girl, as was evident to me anytime my treants died and I went into a panic and reached for my Revive Pet button. Overall it was a very interesting experience to do something I’ve done so many times on my hunter– DPS a familiar instance– as… well… a non-hunter.

Okay, clearing-things-up time. I think a lot of people are worried that either a.) I am not interested in my hunter anymore, or b.) I will be writing less huntery things here now. Neither of those could be farther from the truth. You should all know by now that I’d never be able to leave huntering, and on top of that, I’ve had several great huntery post ideas hatch in the incubator that is my head recently and I’m really looking forward to doing some of these posts. I’m mostly just waiting for next week because I’m OCD and like to start things on Monday.

I also think that there is a misconception going around that I am making a conscious effort to fill the shoes of BRK and as such I am actively trying to change the direction of the blog. The truth is, I’m not. As in, I’m not either actively trying to be or not-be the new BM hunter hotspot. Aspect of the Hare has always been an amalgamation of information, education, personal stories, and an attempt to document the WoW experience from the standpoint of someone who is okay at the game but not great and would rather set 80s dance music over thrash metal to her WoW movies. Because there are a lot more of us out there than people realize. That’s what I’ve always been, and that is, well, what I still am. If that makes me the new BRK, then hey, that’s great! And if not, then well, I wasn’t trying to be the new BRK anyway! =P

The only effect that other bloggers quitting blogs has had on my own blogging is that I am determined more than ever to not become a victim of the disease where blogging usurps playing. Blogging about WoW, especially once you have an audience, is hard work. You play for yourself but you have that “Would my audience find this interesting? Would this make a good post idea?” in the back of your head. I don’t think it’s bad to have that in the back of your head, especially if you enjoy blogging (which I do); it becomes bad when that jumps over to the front of your head, if that makes sense. I’m not gonna let that happen. I was never really one of those people that tried to become THE-BESTEST-BLOGGER-EVER anyway, beyond the basics.

All that said, believe me, it does flatter me greatly when I receive positive comparisons to BRK or other blogging “greats”. The comments I get from people saying I helped make them a better player, or I brighten up their day, or they love my writing style– all of these combined with my general enjoyment of blogging are what keep me going. So, thanks, and I hope to provide lots of fun and hunteryness for many months to come. ^_^

/off soapbox

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em

tamarynflightform1

And it came to pass that Pike was no longer allowed to cry about druids flying all over the place and grabbing herbs while she had to keep dismounting and remounting. Because now, she can finally join in the fun. Bwahaha.

Yes, my druid is now level 68. It officially makes her “Northrend level”, which is sort of intimidating, because Tawyn and Lunapike were both 70 when they headed in. And all dressed up in level 70 blues/purples. Oh, and they were both hunters, aka Solo Class Extraordinaire. Now I maintain that leveling a resto druid is easier than a lot of people say (HoTs + Bear Form anyone?) but it is slower and despite the heals, there are fewer tricks in your bag for getting out of sticky situations. Fortunately, seeing as according to my achievements I did a grand total of 25 non-instance-related quests in Outlands (an average of 2.5 quests per level… yes, that is really all I did), it means that in Northrend I might be able to get away with doing basically what I did in Outlands: instances, instances, instances, aaaaaand instances, and maybe a random Kara run if I get lucky (OHMAHGAH I WOULD LOVE THAT, you guys don’t even know). But yeah, especially since I have some friends and guildies who have characters sitting around at level 70 or thereabouts and would love some heals… instances are in the cards, I think!

So yeah, that post wasn’t hunter related. Sowwy. =( I have some Hunter Kindergarten stuff in the works. No, really!

Betcha Didn't Think I'd Get This Far

So this past weekend I hit a milestone as I successfully managed to get a third character to level 50.

Wanna see a picture?

Oh snap! Hide your children! Shelter your weak, your young and your old! Houston, we have a problem! Pike has a level 50 character and it’s not a hunter!

What this unholy union of hunter and druid will bring in the future, I can’t say. But you’ve at least got to tip your hat to a class that can almost manage to keep my attention to the extent that hunters do. (Keyword: almost).

As for the inevitable “Why are you leveling resto you wacko” questions that I can already forsee in my crystal ball, I have four answers for you:
1.) I am doing a lot of instance/group stuff
2.) I never die
3.) Come on… you get to be a tree. Clearly the most fun of all druid forms. I run around Stormwind in Tree Form instead of Travel Form.
4.) Honestly, when I am solo’ing… tossing on some feral gear, piling on the massive resto HoTs, and going into cat/bear as needed is surprisingly effective. Not quite as fast as moonkin, maybe. And certainly not as fast as a hunter. But who cares about “fast” so long as things are working well and you’re having fun?

Well, that is my obligatory non-hunter post of the year. Hope you non-hunters that visit my site (are you out there?) were entertained! In closing, I would like to dedicate this post to BRK and BBB, both of whom are bloggers that I <3 muchly, and who have this frightening tendency to conspire together to bring Massive Quantities of Sustained Ranged Fo'Shizzle to the Druidic and Hunterrific masses. We will return you to your regularly scheduled hunter broadcast program tomorrow. Until then, happy hunting and tree-hugging.