In My Boredom...

So purely out of boredom a few months ago I made a new alt on another server, an Undead (read 'really ugly') Priest.  Also out of unconquerable boredom, I decided last week to actually level this new, sad, no BoA havin, ugly, pathetically weak, brokeass, 'nother server alt.  It has been fun, I gotta say, despite being 'used to' having BoA gear and a ton of golds to fund my low-lvls through their journey.  Horde-side questing is interesting, as I've only played one Horde toon before and it were so long ago I can't hardly remember.  Plus, the new patch changed all the environments and a good bit of the quests, so it's all new.  Time to see if the old addage 'if I could go back, knowing what I know now' holds true, starting a new toon on a new server with nothing, at all.  So far, working out OK, made a fisherman and got some gathering professions, theres my income right there *which I didn't know about the first time around.  As it stands, I *should* have enough G for my flying mount by 60, which I didn't get on my first toon (my hunter) until I was already 80.  All in all, I reckon it's fun and semi-instructive.  At very least, it adds a touch of perspective, to all those who have become so elitist and intolerant of 'noobs' in the game I would say: go make a new toon on a new server and see what it's like to not have heaps of gold and BoA's, bags, mounts, guildies, or friends again.

The New Druid

I had a chance to heal on the druid for the first time since patch 4.0, and I gotta say, I'm beginning to warm up to it.  They changed the way alot of my spells work, and changed some of the stats on my gear, but, overall, it seems to work.  So here's a breakdown of the way I see our new stuff.

Regrowth - The new nourish, it casts fast (1.2sec), hits for around 10k, and puts a 6sec HoT (down from what? 12 maybe). This is the big reactionary healing spell.  Also a good base for your Swiftmend.

Rejuvenation - About the same as it was, nice small HoT, instant cast.  Druid's bread and butter. Other option for a base for Swiftmend

Swiftmend - Way more useful than before.  Has the same quality of pushing the remaining heals left on your HoT all at once, but with our new talent 'Efflorescence' it puts a puddle of green goodness under your swiftmend target at an 8y radius that heals anyone standing in it for 60% of the swiftmend amount over 7sec.  Crazy useful, say goodbye to infest, Mr. Arthas.

Lifebloom - About the same, except that now you can only apply it to one target.  Tank healing classic, raid healing... not so useful.  Stack to 3 and watch it blow up for 20k on your target.

Nourish - Slow cast, Small heal.  Shares a cast time with Healing Touch and HT has a way bigger heal.  The one thing that is has (which is arguably useless) is that it refreshes the lifebloom timer if you cast it on your lifebloom target.

Healing Touch - 2.7sec cast, 15-20k heal.  This is our new bigger picker upper, if a regrowth wont do, HT ftw.

Wild Growth - Same old spell, just as useful.  Keep it on cooldown, always, period.  One notable thing, seems the range is increased so, as opposed to before, you will always get it on all 6 possible targets. (20y I think, used to be you'd cast it on tanks and it wouldnt jump to melee, now it'll jump to ranged too)

Tree of Life - Gone are the days of tree healing.  Now you pop Tree as a cooldown,  healing increased, armor increased, buffs Regrowth, Lifebloom, roots and wrath for 30sec.

Thats about the big and small of it, it's a different style of healing is all, no more 'bind every key to nourish and faceroll keyboard = win', it requires new active thinking and abit of trial and error.



Unrelated:  Priest to 80 a few days now and gearing up nicely, shadow and disc ftw.