Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, encourages you to check out a wonderful podcast that spent an entire recent episode talking about our fun filled class.

I wanted to take a moment to cast the spotlight on a wonderful World of Warcraft related podcast that recently devoted an entire episode, Episode 43 to be exact, to a fun-filled discussion of all things Druid, and even had Phaelia, writer of Resto4Life, on as a special guest!

Epic Dolls is the name of the podcast, as well as the name of the guild on Perenolde server Horde side which is home for many of the podcasts' hosts, cast and crew.

Epic Dolls bring a fresh perspective and a lot of positive energy to their podcast, and I find it a joy to listen to.

Read on after the break for more on the podcast, the Epic Dolls, and a brief Q and A with Leala Turkey, host of the show!

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, brings the second part of our Moonkin gear guide with Nasirah, the Moonkin master, the driving force behind A Tale of Two Druids until her terminal altitis took over. Now, she writes Alts Ahoy, but she danced like a Moonkin once more to share her wisdom for this guide.

This week we complete our two part Moonkin gear guide for preparing for Karazhan.

In part one, we covered most of the basics about gear choices, and the reader comments that followed offered excellent additional advice. This week, since we are covering Belt slots through Weapons and Idols, there are just a few more notes to cover before we begin.

A few notes about weapons:

If your guild already has Kara on farm and you're just getting your character ready to join in, you may expect to get upgrades fairly quickly. The Staff of Inifinite Mysteries drops from Curator and the Nathrezim Mindblade drops from Prince, so some of the epic weapons listed here may not be worth the effort to attain. However, to the character whose entire guild is now getting ready to start Kara, or simply someone who has the time/gold to spare and wants the best gear they can get, the options are certainly there.

Also worth mentioning, is that while the majority of Season 2 PvP gear is worth looking at for any equipment slot you feel weak in, the weapons available from Season 2 really shine. Even the Season 1 weapons blew most pre-Kara options away, and now that Season 2 is available for honor, it's really no contest. But, if you don't enjoy PvP, these other avenues for gear are perfectly acceptable; these are the weapons that people were "meant" to be using when going into Kara for the first time.

And of course, when upgrading from a 1H/off-hand to a staff, be sure to hold onto those two items. You never know when you might get a really awesome 1H weapon or off-hand that will make the combo better than your staff.

And now, let's get on to the gear!

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, finally brings some death chicken love with Nasirah, the Moonkin master, the driving force behind A Tale of Two Druids until her terminal altitis took over. Now, she writes Alts Ahoy, but she donned the feathery mantle of Moonkin once more to share her wisdom for this guide.

According to Nasirah, knowing when you are ready for Kara is much easier for tanks and healers. Tanks have certain stats they need to strive for in order to not get killed. Healers have certain stats they need to strive for in order to not let their tanks die.

As a damage caster, however, you personally need a certain amount of stamina to survive splash damage, but the group as a whole needs to have the DPS to beat an encounter within a given time frame (either an enrage timer built into the encounter, or simply before the healers' mana runs dry).

This means that people just entering Karazhan for the first time will probably be on the low end of damage output, while veterans who just need a couple more drops or are running for badges will be on the high end. It's a team effort, and you should talk to your raid leader if you want to know how you're contributing.

But you still need to have some idea of what goal you should be aiming for to help you know when you're ready to 'bring the goods'.

Continue on for more on what to look for, what goals to set and a list of gear to hunt!

Then there is the Druid's resurrection spell, Rebirth. This spell is often known as "combat res" or "battle res," since it is the only targettable resurrection spell that can be cast during combat (Shamans can also self-res in or out of combat with Reincarnation). It's a great spell, but it has a 20-minute cooldown, meaning that if you're in a 5-man with a Druid healer and no other resurrecting player, and people die more often than one every 20 minutes (which happens frequently in heroics), they're not all going to be able to be ressed. This is not enough to keep me from wanting to run instances with only a Druid healing - I still love trees. But it is an obvious hole in a the Resto Druid's spell lineup.

Fortunately, it looks like this hole may be closed in Wrath of the Lich King. According to the newly-relocated Wrath alpha wiki, Druids will be receiving a regular, no-cooldown, out-of-combat resurrection spell, entitled Revive. It has a 10-second cast time, and seems to bring targets up with about the same amount of HP and MP as Priest Resurrection. No word on mana cost yet. All I can say is "it's about time." Sure, it does homogenize the healing classes a little bit more, but Druids really ought to be able to fully serve as sole healers, and that means both keeping people from dying and bringing them back up if they do fall.