Advice for A WoW Prodigal

[Patlin]

Some of the folks in my D&D group are into World of Warcraft, which I stopped playing about 3 years ago. They are now trying to convince me to play. My main character in WoW was a level 60 Tauren Druid, and at the time level 60 was the level cap. If (when?) I give in and go back to playing WoW, I'd like to be able to start of competently.

Any info on changes I should be aware of would be helpfull. For example, is Feral Faerie Fire still in? I see it isn't in the official site's Talent Calculator.

In terms of play style, I picked Druid because I like shapeshifting. (For that matter, once PHB2 comes out, an elf druid is in my future for tabletop play!) My concentration is definitely going to be feral, for me that's the whole point -- even though for my first 50 levels, the feral spec sucked. (Then they changed the talent trees, which was nice.) I hate large raids, want to play with my friends, and like to solo. I think my warmest memory of WoW was prowling alone through an arctic tundra in Cat form hunting big nasty beasts. That, and I thought warsong gulch was cool, but it was so time consuming that it is ultimately why I quit -- my team relying on me to show up seemed more important than sleeping, and I was becoming a zombie IRL.

I'd rather be more efficient in groups than in solo, as I can suck up the hit in solo play but don't want to let my group down. I'm leaning heavilly toward bear rather than cat in terms of where to sink my talent points.

I'm aware that glyphs are new, but I'm vague on how they work. Mangle sounds like an important new ability, but I'm unclear on how important... I'm tempted to take Omen of Clarity (which I remember and liked) and leave Mangle to level 61. I'm sure there are more important questions I don't even know to ask, too.

So... any advice for a prodigal WoW player considering return?

 

[Vocenoctum]

Okay, two expansions.
1) Burning Crusade=demons, another plane, also introduced blood elves (horde) and draenei (alliance). level cap 70
2) Wrath of the lich king=undead/scourge in a gothic icey land. lots of norse, lots of titan-mythos. introduced death knights if you already have a 55th level. Raised cap to 80.

The Inscription stuff is basically a bunch of glyphs, you get up to 3 major and 3 minor at level 80, at level 60 you may get 2/2 or something, not sure.

Assuming you want to stick to Druid, here's your major glyphs:
Druid Glyphs - Items - World of Warcraft

Major glyphs are generally power-changes that add to range, or such.

Minor glyphs:
Druid Glyphs - Items - World of Warcraft

Minor glyphs are simple changes, like a mage's polymorph becoming a penguin rather than a sheep.


For current power list and talent list:
Wrath of the Lich King - Druid - Balance Skills


I just got my druid up to 51, boomkin/ balance. It really is fun for cat form sneaking and travel form running. Having a caster that wears "plate" while dressed in leather is also good, and heals never hurt.

 

[Vocenoctum]

For leveling, you'll head right into Outlands, where all your gear will swiftly be upgraded. You'll see more death knights than anything (since they clear their start zone at 58), but leveling 1-70 is a lot easier now than it was before, so I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

For leveling, you'll head right into Outlands, where all your gear will swiftly be upgraded. You'll see more death knights than anything (since they clear their start zone at 58), but leveling 1-70 is a lot easier now than it was before, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Honestly, going Balance is probably a good idea. You can heal the groups of Death Knights that'll be swarming Outland, and the hybrid classes' DPS specs have gotten VASTLY better, so soloing you can spam Moonfire and do lotsa damage.

Also, the caster gear has been unified (more or less), so the healy stuff that drops you can use as caster DPS just fine.

Brad

 

[RigaMortus2]

There are a lot of changes since you last played. You are better off checking the Blizzard sites and forums for any WoW advice.

Just to answer one question, Feral Faerie Fire is now a spell, not a talent anymore (was it ever? before my time...)

Feral rocks IMO. I prefer Cat in feral form, lots of damage, but you can actually main tank now as a Bear if that is the role you want to fulfill. I haven't tried Boomin myself as I am not too fond of playing mana users (yet one more resources I have to worry about, more downtime, blah).

I'm actually playing a blood-spec DK now and I literrally have 0 downtime. I can hop from mob to mob w/o resting at all. I usually end the fight at full HPs, can take on 4 or 5 mobs at once, and can solo most 5-man group quests mostly have to kill high level elites). Since your Druid is level 60, might want to pick up the latest expansion and make a DK just to try them out...

 

[Steel_Wind]

Hi there.

The changes to WoW introduced in BC and now WotLK are many and extensive. Many aspects of the game and underlying mechanics have simply changed past the point of recognition. Trying to explain it in words is fairly pointless: you need to experience them for yourself.

If you are going to get back into the game, I would recommend picking up the WoW Battlechest instead of the Burning Crusade expansion. On top of that, you will need the WotlK expansion as well of course.

The cost difference is minimal between the Battlechest and BC expansion cost, and is made up for by the free month that comes with the Battlechest version. It also has the two Brady's Game guides in the box, which is nice. Most of all, it makes installing far easier as the Battlechest version is on DVD, not CD. The original game and the original BC expansion ship on CD only as stand alone products (WotlK is on DVD).

Just install em all - ignore account authorization and cancel patching after main game install. Then move to BC, cancel patching/authorization after install and move to installing WotLK. Patch only after an install of WotLK. That will save you many hours of patching that would otherwise be a waste of your time.

As for your toon, it isn't going to be possible for you to spec Feral right now after having been away for so long. Feral is a tank and tanks lead the party and are expected to be very familiar with both the game and instance...and you simply aren't in a position to do that right now. You would become very frustrated and embarassed if you tried to put your character in that position after so long an absence.

You'd be best speccing on your reintroduction to the game as a balanced druid for solo play, and a Resto Druid for grouping up. Your specific knowledge of a given instance as a healer is not terribly important. You just party/raid heal like mad and keep the Hots up. I don't mean to dis healing - my main is a Holy Paladin and is one of my guild's main healers. Healing is extremely important in WoW.

The point is: while healing is important, it does not depend on instance specific knowledge to do well. Playing a healing spec will allow you to ease back into the game and become acclimatized to all the changes and get confident and confortable again. If you want to switch back over to feral after you have done so - that's totally doable. The solo quest lines and quest rewards in BC and WotlK will allow you to gear up your toon in Greens and Blues to an acceptable level to do level 80 dungeons, no matter your choice of spec.

In terms of getting up to speed on all of the class changes, I would recommend reading up on your class at Elitist Jerks, probably the best class optimzation/strat site for WoW.

Address for druid subforum on Elitist Jerks is here:

Druids - Elitist Jerks

Good luck. BC and WotlK are hella fun. The solo questing design in WotlK is particularly well done and very enjoyable. Even should you not choose to raid and do dungeons very much upon your return to WoW, the solo game will gave you many months of enjoyment.

Also note: as a level 60, you can choose to roll a level 55 Death Knight at any time on your server. "All the cool kids are doing it." Solo quest line for Death Knights is special and includes a lot of atypical voice overs during the quests that, for WoW, make that class a treat to play.

 

[Vocenoctum]

If you are going to get back into the game, I would recommend picking up the WoW Battlechest instead of the Burning Crusade expansion. On top of that, you will need the WotlK expansion as well of course.

The cost difference is minimal between the Battlechest and BC expansion cost, and is made up for by the free month that comes with the Battlechest version. It also has the two Brady's Game guides in the box, which is nice. Most of all, it makes installing far easier as the Battlechest version is on DVD, not CD. The original game and the original BC expansion ship on CD only as stand alone products (WotlK is on DVD).

I'm reasonably sure the "free month" is the standard new account free month and doesn't apply to his account.

In addition, without having seen the guides, I'd wager both are outdated and useless, compared to updated online guides such as Wowhead.com and wowwiki.com.

I'd probably say just download BC unless you find it cheap somewhere.

Just install em all - ignore account authorization and cancel patching after main game install. Then move to BC, cancel patching/authorization after install and move to installing WotLK. Patch only after an install of WotLK. That will save you many hours of patching that would otherwise be a waste of your time.

Actually, most of the patchs apply forward also. As long as you didn't delete it, the patch just before Wrath was actually for Wrath. Installing all at the end is fine of course, but if he reactivates his account without buying the addons, he'll still get the current patch.

As for your toon, it isn't going to be possible for you to spec Feral right now after having been away for so long. Feral is a tank and tanks lead the party and are expected to be very familiar with both the game and instance...

Bears are tanks, and cats are damage, Ferals are BOTH. I prefer Balance simply because I already had a prot-warrior and rogue, but there are plenty of advantages to being spec'd Feral also.

In terms of getting up to speed on all of the class changes, I would recommend reading up on your class at Elitist Jerks, probably the best class optimzation/strat site for WoW.

These sites are great for when you meet the endgame/ levelcap, but most of the leveling stuff is outdated.

As long as you stick with an idea, leveling shouldn't be a big issue.

Also note: as a level 60, you can choose to roll a level 55 Death Knight at any time on your server. "All the cool kids are doing it." Solo quest line for Death Knights is special and includes a lot of atypical voice overs during the quests that, for WoW, make that class a treat to play.

At the least you should do the DK intro quests, they're fun and flavorful. DK's themselves are decent, melee oriented with some nice abilities. I haven't gotten mine far simply due to me already having classes I like better that fill the role.

 

[Dire Bare]

I would recommend also purchasing a Blizzard Authenticator for $6.50 at the Blizzard Store. This is a little keyfob electronic device that basically generates a second random password and increases your account security.

I just had my account hijacked by spammers, and apparently I'm part of a wider problem as when you log into the game now (I've recovered my account) you get a warning about account security.

Bastards are getting tricksier every day, all to sell you imaginary gold . . . .

 

[Blastin]

I'm probably gonna regret asking this but....
"The leveling is faster now"...
I haven't played since just before Burning Crusade....did they change the leveling math? One of the reasons I quit was because the game became such a GRIND after level 52 or so unless you did raids. I never had the 3+ hour time window to do raids.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I'm probably gonna regret asking this but....
"The leveling is faster now"...
I haven't played since just before Burning Crusade....did they change the leveling math? One of the reasons I quit was because the game became such a GRIND after level 52 or so unless you did raids. I never had the 3+ hour time window to do raids.

I don't know exactly when they changed the 1-60 rate, but yeah, it's much faster now. They just changed 61-70 just before Wrath, decreasing xp needed by like 70% (so, it takes a third of the old xp, but I'm not sure of the real rate, it is a big difference though).

I just got my druid from 35 to 51 in a few days time. (Now sitting her out until I get more rested xp and leveling my warrior instead. Level 74-76 is a few days.)