Sunday, February 15, 2009

Get Off Your Arse, You Big Horned Druid!

When I first quit WoW, I took Gorthaal (my druid character who I have had since Day One) and retired him to a nice green hill in the tauren starter area. It was a moment of pleasant reflection.

Cut to the present day and Sunraven (my rogue character) has hit the plateau that all characters must come to eventually. All of her equipment is top-tier 'pre-raid' stuff. All of her skills are levelled to raid quality. She is a raid character now and really, there isn't much to do with her except batter Naxxramas and Obsidian Sanctum. Now thats cool because I have started getting some raiding under my belt with her and it is fun.

So I considered whether to start an alt. No. I just couldn't do it, not again. I tried a warlock but it didn't work. I'm not overly interested in a death knight. The answer was simple. Reactivate and transfer one of my old characters. The choice was between Gorthaal and Kylea (a mage). I chose Gorthaal. I value £15 of Duty & Honour profits far less than I do the month or so it would take to level a new character so it makes a lot of sense. The deed was done this morning, including an enforced name change to the more familiar 'Gorthe'. He lives!

Barely

I made the decision not to go Resto (because I've had that pain already) and not to go Feral (because I have been there, done that, too). That left Boomkin. Supercool. Not the joke-spec it used to be at all. HOWEVER, my casting gear was positively NEOLITHIC. Like Molten Core and Zul Gurub stuff. Even after some conspicuous consumption at the Auction House, things weren't looking that much better. And then I remembered that I could wear cloth and a new-look Gorthe appeared. He's still patchy all over the place but he can rattle off a fair bit of damage and take down three mobs at the same time, which is what I wanted. And there are lots of shiny new buttons to press as well. Lots of them!

In fact thats something that I have enjoyed so far. All of the versatility of the druid class is beginning to come back to me and he's like a little Energiser bunny when he gets going. Healing, damage, Innervate, running, swimming - its all there. Sort of a perpetual motion levelling machine. With shit equipment. Very shit equipment. But no worries, I'll soon have that sorted.

Will Gorthe be my main? No way - there are simply too many excellent druids in the guild to ever consider that. However, as a ranged dps option, he will be there - and as my casual character, he will get slowly progressed until he can hold his own.

Its cool to see the Old Man of WoW out for a run again. Well, a waddle at least!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trxgGFVk0SM

hehe, wb Gorthe!

/wave

Hey, maybe Gorthe & my Hunter can hook up for some leveling?

Vodkashok said...

Well, its been an experience so far. It takes quite a lot of getting used to, going from a 19k health Rogue who can just pop out of an overly dangerous situation to a *weep* 7k health druid who cannot. I've been caught out a couple of times which has been vexxing. I also need to remember that I am only level 70 and to stop thinking about static dps numbers and such! Lots to relearn but lots coming back to me very quickly.

Oh and reports from the front. Without any feral equipment or spec, feral forms are pretty crappy. Who knew?! *grin*

Anonymous said...

Oh, by the way, try entangling roots now.

Really, trust me on this, try entangling rots.

NO, I'm not kidding, trust me. Try out entangling roots..

Yes, yes, I know it was a joke spell before.... trust me on this....

;-)

D.

Vodkashok said...

Every time.

Roots, Insect Swarm, Moonfire, Wrath until Eclipse procs, 4k Starfire ftw.

Rinse, repeat. Unleash the Trees if things get fruit. Hell, even Nature's Grasp is useful now!

And Cyclone, which I had never used, is awesome for a 'You stand there, I'll kill you in a minute' spell.

I'm drawn between Starfall and Typhoon at 71 from talents. Research needed.