Leafshine: Lust for Flower

What I Like About Being A Druid

My good friend Siha of Banana Shoulders has come up with a good idea: a weekly topic shared against WoW Blogs. Even WoW Insider is playing (even if it didn't link any of the other participating blogs). This weeks topic: what do you like about your class? An embarrassment of riches here from druids:

1. Form Shifting
Forms make us the most versatile class in the game, bar none. From sprinting away in travel form to breezing through underwater quest in seal form, druids are just so varied to play.

Bored of grinding with ranged spells? Shift to cat or bear for a while and get up and personal. Or stealth through to the objective, grab it, and stealth out. Levelling can be easy or hard, depending on your spec - but it's never boring.

And let's not forget the high-level forms: Moonkin and Tree. Both very silly to look at - but quite unique in what they do.

2. Flight Form
This deserves to be broken out all on its own. The difference between druid flight form and the other forms of flight in the game is that it's instant cast. And that means that you can shift to flight when, say, falling. Or shift out of flight while flying and then shift back before you hit the ground (we call this druid roulette, and it's a lot of fun, if a bit expensive on the ol' repair bills). There's a joy in flinging yourself off a tall building, and leaving it a few heartbeats before soaring up, up and away that the other classes will never know.

Respec Refusnik

I have a confession: I don't like respeccing.

I think I have only paid to repec a couple of times over the entire length of my WoW playtime. It just doesn't sit comfortably with me. Guild mates happily respec their characters from second to second, to create the most viable minmaxed character they can, but I stay away from that "I'd like to unlearn my talents" dialogue option at all costs.

Why?

Well, I'm cheap, for one. I've been perpetually short of gold since I started killing spiders in the branches of Teldrassil and I've never been anywhere near wealthy since. I started the Burning Crusade in debt to a guildie for my Epic Mount, and I'm concentrating on getting my Epic Flight Form ASAP without taking a loan so I don't start Wrath of the Lich King the same way. So, I just don't have the cash to do it that often.

That's not the only reason, though. It just doesn't sit right with me. I play on an RP server for a reason, and the idea of a characters skill sets and abilities suddenly switching around because the raid needs a tank rather than a healer just doesn't sit right with me. I know my skill set, and I know it well. I know what works for me in PvP, solo PvE and grouping. I think, for me, that I'm happier working with one less-than-perfect spec, than constantly switching specs around just to meet the needs of the moment, and then having to relearn (or adjust) my play style.

So, how about you? Are you a respec addict, or a mono-spec loyalist?

Death of a Laser Chicken

One last post on that mysterious place know as RL:

Laser Chicken is no more.

Life trumps blogging (and gaming), as they say, but he'll be missed…

How to be OP in Real Life

Talking of Real Life, here's some great advice on how to play it well:

 

You want to be admired for what you did? Log off. Go outside. Start changing the lives of people around you. Feed the hungry. Cure the sick. Tend to the lonely, the outcasts, the misfits. Exchange a helping hand where it is needed. Unify the theory of relativity and the quantic space. Invent a cheap and clean source of energy. Become a recognized adventurer. Help end conflicts, whether it is in your neighborhood or abroad. Create artwork which questions and soothes the mind.

Read the whole thing on Altitis.

Letting Boltcracker Play the Auction House

It's been a quiet week around here, mainly because I haven't been getting out and about much. A few dailies has been about my limit all week. In fact, my short but avaricious chum, Mr Boltcracker, has been far busier then me, playing the AH for me to raise the last few gold so I can learn to be an Epic Flappy Bird. Which is very kind of him and all, but it means lots of hanging around mailboxes waiting to disenchant things, which is kinda dull.

Still, he's turned an 80g sub into over 2000g in less than a month's worth of 5 minute sessions here and there, so I can't complain too much. He's promised to write up his money-making secrets, just as soon as I get my Epic Flappy quest underway, so there's something for you all to look forward to.

And besides, I've been playing a lot of Real Life lately, as those of you who follow my Real Life Avatar's other blogs will know...