Temptation (WoW)

Balance druid- complete with stardust and sparkles!

When I thought about class tweaking and changes in MoP I wasn't very excited, except for the hunter class. I was very happy with a lot of the changes and didn't really follow much about my other classes. I mean, I guess sometimes I just get tired of the changes so I don't really get as excited about them these days, most of the time it can be frustrating, new glyphs, new talents and so on. Though I had to admit I was more intrigued this time around, things were looking good.

Yesterday I finally got around to tackling my Druid, as far as talents go, I didn't plan on playing her but I wanted to see what new glyphs and talents were out there. I was really floored with how much changed with balance, for the good. I have been feral for quite awhile, I'm an 'old schooler dr00d' who didn't have those silly tree and boomkin forms back when I started a druid, while I have played as balance I hated the form. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is now a glyph that removes the form and uses an astral form instead. It so rocks. Sparkly, stardust covered balance druid? Yes, please! Huge plus cosmetically. Second was the glyph that lets you use healing spells while in the boomkin form, unlike the past where even if you switch out your heals were so insignificant it really was more of a waste of mana to try to toss many out. More of the same this time around?

Aquatic form 'glyphed', it would be adorable if not for the spikes where the eyes should be. Still pretty sweet looking, huge improvement!

I decided to give my druid a test run, bought a few items off the Auction House, speaking of, you can find some great gear to start off with an alternate set, good solid stats that seem to be better than the quest rewards, oddly enough. At first it was slow going, though I was still using some feral gear, with new rewards things got better. Additionally I did find you can find a vendor in Dawn's Blossom to replace most gear, for those wanting to try out another spec, very handy, wish I had seen this earlier.

I have to say this is the first time in years, since, I'd say, Burning Crusade, that I actually felt like my druid was flexible, the versatile druid class I loved so much in Vanilla WoW. I can throw out heals that keep me up, toss some out to others, still do damage, not drop out of my balance form either. This was the druid I loved from the start, it was fabulous. The rotation is much different than it was back in the day, but it is still pretty fun and it seems to be ramping up as I gain better gear. I absolutely love the class again, as DPS. I'd love to try out healing in the future but I'm not sure if I will, WoW has really hit me hard as a healer with so many changes to abilities and mana regen , but I still miss it, I've been a healer at heart for over a decade. Resto will definitely will be my off-spec for the future. Mana regen, while questing, is quite awesome, the mana pool caps out pet level but it regens quite fast and I've yet to actually run out, it is quite enjoyable for questing. I can heal through some real damage and lots of mobs, which is nice to feel like that again.

Druid 'cheetah' form 'glyphed'. Gorgeous!

So, now I've been backtracking and working the druid through all the quests I've done on the hunter, she's a smidgen away from 86. I'm thinking of just sticking with her all the way to 90 then working on the hunter. Which will most likely be the case. No rush, just having fun exploring and questing, I do feel a bit behind the curb but it's only five levels so it isn't a huge deal. I don't dare log in any more characters, I can't take anymore temptation to play another! All in all I am quite impressed with all the changes thus far, with talents and glyphs it has been really fun and exciting. I don't miss the huge bloated talent tree, some things I do think back on wistfully, but I think the talents make much more of an impact now, though they probably feel very far off while leveling an alt or a new character. To counter that, we do gain a lot of core abilities we had to spec for in the past, so I think things balance out in the end.

I'm still playing GW2, I haven't forgotten it, I've just been waiting a long time on this expansion and I can't seem to tear myself away from it. Dire is not playing MoP, he's working through GW2 with his warrior, giving me sidelong glances while we play our games, wondering when I'll log back in, all in all making me feel guilty, lol. I do want to log back in soon to play with him, he's left me in the dust on my alts so I may have to pick up the ranger to play with him. On the other hand my son is thinking about playing again, he just cannot decide if he wants to start a new class or pick up his main. I do hope he stats again, I'd love to have him playing again, we always have a lot of fun.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! Safe adventures and all that!