Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings you some choice tidbits of knowledge on level 70 consumables for the beary furry crowd.

We've talked about the gear you can get to build your tanking set up to Karazhan, but to actually tank in a raid, you need to bring along plenty of tasty consumables to buff you up to tip-top shape. And that's what we're going to cover today.

There are four basic types of consumables you can have active buffs from.

You can have active at one time;

• Flask or Elixir buffs (One Flask, or One Guardian and One Battle Elixir effect)
• Multiple scroll buffs (as long as the buffs do not overlap with player spell casting)
• One Weapon buff
• One food buff

Also, there are tons of potions and items that can be darn handy to use in the middle of a fight, especially when things are looking their bleakest, and with the changes to how Druids shift forms in Patch 2.3, there are some very simple macros that you can use to make your own 'oh no!' buttons. Use at your own risk!

What will help you in your fight is situational, but knowing what you have to choose from can make creating your own shopping list a lot easier.

Hopefully, this post will help you plan ahead!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Yummy treats for bears to eat

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings you news of one of the coolest Druid events to hit the World of Warcraft.

Despite the impression you may get from previous articles, being a Druid isn't all about raiding. Not hardly. The essence of the Druid is flexibility, the ability to think fast and adapt to changing situations quickly.

Today, I'm going to highlight the kind of imaginative, flexible thinking and sense of fun that I feel is at the heart of being a Druid.

On Saturday, April 26th, a group of Druids from the Penny Arcade Alliance gathered together into a murder of crows, and proceeded to terrorize the unsuspecting Horde of the Dark Iron server.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Druids just wanna have fun

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, comes late to the party with a mammoth of an article that hopes to cover bear tank gear choices from dinging at 70 up to and through running Karazhan with your guild.

Gearing up as a bear tank

As you approach level 70 as a feral druid, your playstyle to this point has most likely been as a Kitty, focusing on causing lots of damage, very swiftly. Kind of like a stripped down, no frills rogue. But with style.

As much as you enjoy being a kitty, however, you just know all your friends want you to tank. With Fury Warriors, Enhancement Shamans, Retribution Paladins and real Rogues floating around, there is no shortage of melee DPS in the game.

But a good tank! Well, that's another story.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your bear tank from 70 to Karazhan!

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, postpones the final part of the bear tanking strategy guide once again to focus on druid changes in today's patch 2.4.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Leveling guides still need to be written, tanking strategy article gets put off yet another week.

If anyone ever told me before I started this gig that I'd have too many breaking news stories to discuss to write big posts in a long series, I'd have laughed at 'em.

I guess the lesson here is that World of Warcraft is a continually growing game, and sometimes we have to act fast to stay on top of the changes.

As much as I'd like to hand you Episode III: Return of the Bear Strats, I bet with the patch hot and heavy, most of you are a lot more interested in knowing how we stand with the excellent druidy goodness.

Sigh. So long, bear strategy. Hopefully next week. Unless we get a hot annnouncement of new druid content coming in the next expansion, or shocking undocumented patch changes, or something.

One thing you can be sure of... there will be some folks that have every badge reward they want on patch day, and others will continue, like me, to scrimp and save.

Either way, look on the bright side. It'll be nice to have at least a week before people start complaining of being bored again.

Let's do a nice roundup of all the various changes and additions coming to the druid class, so everybody can plan what they want to do first. Just follow along past the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Patch 2.4 druid roundup

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Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: 2.4 Badge-A-Palooza, Druid style

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Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Bear Tanking Strategies Part 2

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, discusses the proposed changes to Lifebloom in patch 2.4 and the reaction of various members of the Druid community.

As we've mentioned in a previous post here at WoW Insider, one of the proposed changes currently on the Public Test Realm is to the bread and butter ability of healing Druids; Lifebloom.

To remind you of what we're talking about, the following note went up on the PTR patch notes;

Lifebloom: the healing coefficient has been reduced. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of a Mind Control.

Now, needless to say, that kind of vague description is enough to make the most toughened Tree blink and shed a leaf or two in sudden fear.

The healing coefficient has been reduced? Well, by how much? And how the heck is that gonna affect me in PvP? In raids? And above all else, how can we stop this from happening to us? Anybody? Please?

Well, today we're going to talk a little about what the Resto Druid community has discovered about this proposed change, and gather reactions from across the Druiding community.

Lots more after the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Druid community speaks out on proposed Lifebloom nerf

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives is typically written by someone who is not Allie Robert. This week, she has Prowled onto John Patricelli's turf, Pounced him, and run off shouting, "Ha ha! I have your column and there's nothing you can do about it for the next un-talented 3 seconds!"

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: So, is Nurturing Instinct worth taking now?

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, launches into part 1 of a 2 part discussion on Bear Tanking Strategies.

I'm going to go over a lot of information related to how Bear Tanking works over the next two articles, because I am often asked about how all of the various elements of Threat management fit together.

Much of this discussion will center around tanking after reaching level 70, but the foundation of this series will explore information valuable to bear tanks of all levels, including exactly how Threat works, various methods of pulling, and how to work with your group to keep the target's attentions on you, and not your squishy friends.

Part 1 will focus on the most basic fundamental issue of tanking; How Threat works in a group.

Let's go ahead and get started after the jump!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Bear Tanking Strategies Part 1

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, takes a look at what is making his Druid cat ears perk up in the upcoming Patch 2.4.

What a difference a weekend makes.

Patch 2.4 has hit the Public Test Realms, and folks are getting excited at the changes and additions in store.

Since an entire new area is being added, with it's own late-game raid, instance and faction rewards, you know we're going to have a lot to talk about between now and when it goes live.

For now, as information gets dragged kicking and screaming out of the patch, I thought it would be fun to take a look at what specific patch changes Druids need to pay attention to.

Let's explore Druid fun in the patch after the jump!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Anticipating the changes in Patch 2.4

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, offers guidance on three of the Feral Druids' key combat mechanics; Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill.

There are three combat mechanics that have a direct bearing on the Feral Druid in PvE at level 70, and each have a functional upper limit on how much you need, before adding more becomes a waste of points.

The three combat mechanics I'm talking about are Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill.

When discussing these combat mechanics, there are three numbers I want you to remember; 142, 91 and 415.

If you remember nothing else from the rest of this article, I hope that you carry these three numbers away with you.

142 is the total amount of Hit Rating needed to reduce your chance to miss against raid bosses to zero. Above 142, adding more Hit Rating does nothing for you whatsoever.

91 is the amount of Expertise Rating you would need to reduce the chance of an attack being Parried or Dodged by 5.75%. Currently, it is believed that level 73 raid bosses have a base 5.6% Dodge.

415 is the total amount of Defense skill you need to be immune from critical strikes by level 73 raid bosses, assuming you have 3 points spent in the talent Survival of the Fittest. And if you're tanking at level 70, you should have 3/3 in SotF.

Why are these three combat mechanics so important?

Well, for that we need to go behind the scenes and under the hood to find out a little more on how combat in World of Warcraft actually works.

Read on past the break for more!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Hit Rating, Expertise and Defense skill for PvE

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings up the terrifying (to him) topic of the Balance and Restoration Talent trees.

Hello again!

Last week, I talked about the Talent spec I recommend most for leveling Feral from 10 to 70.

I wanted to get that information out there, so that those of you that have already started Druids wouldn't have to wait each week for guidance on leveling in Feral, a mere 10 levels at a time.

Well, while I only really know the modern game from the Feral point of view, this column is really for all Druids to enjoy.

So this week I thought I'd expand our discussion of Talent trees with a look at the Balance spec, from the point of view of two real experts.

So brew up some Goldthorn Tea, settle back, and let's take a look at respeccing to Balance with a full-on Balance build from 58 on through to 70 with Nasirah from A Tale of Two Druids, followed up with leveling from 10 to 70 as a mix of Balance and Restoration with Phaelia of Resto4Life.

Ready? Then let's get started!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: A look at leveling Balance

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, continues the new Druid leveling guide with leveling Talent specs from 10 to 70.

Welcome back to tips on leveling your new Druid!

In previous articles, we've talked about getting your UI and Addons set up the way you'd like, the basics of casting tactics and timing your abilities, and leveling up to 10.

We finished the last article by getting your bear form, unlocking your Talent trees and getting your very first Talent point.

In this section, we're going to explore Leveling Talent specs in more detail, and not just levels 11-20, but leveling all the way to 70.

So let's get started!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Leveling and Talent specs

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Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: When am I outside?

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, continues the new Druid leveling guide with levels 6 through 10.

So far in our series of Druid leveling tips, we started with preparing to play a Druid, and then covered the basic strategies of levels 1 through 5. Today we're going to talk a little about weapon skills, Entangling Roots and your first real Druid specific challenge; the level 10 Bear Form quest chain.

Go ahead and dive in after the break!

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: New Druid Leveling - 6 through 10

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, finally starts his series on leveling a new Druid, covering the strategies of your first 5 levels.

In this week's column, we're going to begin to have some fun with our brand new level 1 Druid!

Check out our Level 1 Tauren Druid off to the right... isn't he a handsome devil? And modest, too!

Your first five levels set the tone for how your Druid will feel.

It's all about casting spells for ranged combat.

You're going to want to spend as much time burning them down on the run as you can, and minimize the time you spend whacking them in the face with your stick.

In many ways, the lessons you can learn here about casting strategies will form the foundation of your play style, at least until you finally get that workhorse of Druid leveling at 20; the Cat form.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: New Druid Leveling - 1 through 5

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, starts his series on leveling a new Druid from 1st level all the way to 70th.

Before I begin my series on leveling your new Druid from 1st through 70th levels, I'm going to start with some of the things you can do to prepare.

Why not just leap right on into level 1? My reasoning is simple, just like me. When you have been watching Druids claw face as bears or cats, or as a new player you read about the description of the class and the shapechanging capabilities Druids enjoy, you might just expect to walk in and start doing the same yourself right from the start. The promise of the class is the fun of shifting from one form to another, depending on your playstyle.

Well, when you start your new Druid at level 1, you won't be clawing faces. Instead, you will be leveling as a caster... a ranged DPS caster for levels 1 - 10, and likely on towards 20. Just as Hunters don't get the ability to tame a pet until level 10, Druids do not get the chance to learn their first form until the Bear quest chain becomes available at level 10.

If, as you were sitting at the character creation screen, you were thinking you were going to be a kitty, all up in the face of the bad guys right from the start, it can be a bit of a let down. Especially if you don't care for playing a caster class in the first place.

Hopefully, however, by knowing how to set yourself up in advance with the in-game Options, useful User interfaces and Addons, you'll find yourself leveling up as a caster painlessly, and may even come to enjoy the versatility of some of the Druid's powerful casting abilities.

While the focus of this series of articles will be to help guide a brand new player into the fun of playing a Druid, hopefully there will also be some suggestions that an experienced player trying the Druid for the first time will find useful.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Your first steps as a Druid

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week brings John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, to begin looking at leveling the class from the ground up.

So, you've been thinking of rolling a Druid. You've seen Druids in your guild tanking Heroics or Prince Malchezaar with their Big Bear Butt, you've seen them flying overhead in Flight form, before dropping from the sky in the middle of a pack of mobs and clawing faces and chewing limbs as a Ferocious Cat, or maybe you've seen the incredibly smooth and powerful healing of your favorite Golden Tree. Or maybe the last thing you saw in PvP was a Feathered Owlbear bringing down the Wrath of the Starfire on your head, or holding you immobile and helpless with their Whirlwind.

Or maybe you just want to look like another hunter pet.

Whatever the reason, something about the Druid class interests you, and maybe you'd like to know a bit more before making the plunge.

Well my friends, with the changes to experience brought in Patch 2.3, leveling a new alt or creating a main character has never been more attractive.

This article is to get you acquainted with the Druid class and give you an idea of what playing one is like, both early on and in later levels. In later articles, we'll go over the specifics about what you can expect as you level.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: So you're thinking of playing a Druid

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Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: The forgotten feral form

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Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Flight form, not just for flying anymore

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