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Shifting Perspectives: Online Druid resources



Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran.


I promised that I'd cover pre-Karazhan Restoration gear in this week's column, but I've since discovered that WoW Wiki has already done it! Their list includes all Burning Crusade gear, so just look at the pre-raid items. These lists come in two flavors at WoW Wiki: leather only and cloth only, depending on your style.

And while you're there, check out the different Restoration builds are available to healing druids on their Druid Build page. There's also an excellent sticky post on the US Druid Forums Gearing up For BC Endgame Healing.

This leads me to the topic of today's column: online resources for Druids. Today, I'm going to highlight gear guides, build guides, play guides, and wikis that provides useful information for the Warcraft Druid.

Let's continue with one of my favorite sites: WoW Wiki. I usually just go there for strats and quest chain overviews, but they also have multiple sections devoted to different aspects of Druid play:
  • Druid Lore - This page covers not only history and back ground, but also major play styles, shapeshifting forms and weapon usage.
  • Druid Class Quests - Includes walkthroughs of the L10 Bear Form quest, L14 Cure Poison quest, L16 Aquatic Form quest, the L50 Bloodpetal quest and the L70 Swift Flight Form quest.
  • Druid Trainers - You probably know where you nearest trainer is, but did you know there are Druid trainers in the Dranei and Blood Elf starting cities as well as in Felwood?
  • Druid Builds - I mentioned this at the top of the article, but I wanted to point out here that it covers many popular as well as specialized builds utilizing all the talent trees.
  • Druid Tactics - This page has a very extensive list of tips and tricks for Druids many situations: how to maximize each form, feral combat and the end game, solo and grouping tactics, healing as a tree, PvP tactics and more.
  • Druid Armor Sets - Mmm, coordinated armor sets. This page covers every one devoted to the druid class: dungeon sets, tier sets, faction sets, PvP sets and crafted sets. There's also a page for Set Comparison and for TBC sets using older armor textures.
  • Tips For Playing With A Druid - A must read for everyone you play with. Link it liberally in your guild forums.
  • How To PvP With A Druid - This page goes class by class giving you tips on how to deal with each one in a PvP setting.
Next up is the Druid Wiki site. It was created when the sticky posts on the European WoW Druid Forums were going to be de-stickied. Much of the information was transfered to the Wiki site and it has blossomed ever since.
  • Articles - The Druid Facts article is one of my favorite (you can shapeshift while silenced?! Moonkin form can be Mind Controlled!?). There are also write ups on Balance DPS, Armor vs Dodge and the neverending Strength vs. Agility debate.
  • Guides - The guide section is one of the places this wiki really shines. Solid advice for all major specs on talents, leveling and being a better Druid.
  • Gear - Gear guides are very popular and the Druid Wiki has boatload of them.
  • Druid Game Mechanics - Ever wondered how much AP strength adds or the math behind threat generation? This page has all that and more: scaling mechanics, combat ratings, stealth explained, etc.
  • Macros & Addons - The druid macro guide here is extensive and well done.
The Official WoW Druid forums have many excellent stickied and non-stickied guides. Here are some of the highlights:
And, of course, no Druid online resource list is complete without mentioning Emmerald's rating list of every feral item in the game. I've used this one extensively to determine my next upgrade.

That's it for this week. In two weeks I'll be back to survey the many informative and entertaining Druid blogs out there. You'll be surprised at the quality of what's out there.

If I've missed any outstanding resources, post them below.

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