Night Elf Druids (Lv 1-10)

Every now and again i will be blogging about my new adventures with my girlfriend. Expect updates on a weekly or biweekly basis, if we continue playing.

Me and my girlfriend started playing new alts just this past weekend.  We made two nightelf druids and began questing in Teldrasil.  Going through the quests a second time for me are a lot more fun than before.  firstly, i have a partner to party with. but secondly, there's things added to the game that makes questing more immersed and streamlined than before. 

The quests are a little more streamline--the quest givers are closer together and the objectives arent so far apart.  when doing the filling the moonwell quests, i noticed a little bit of story being told by the apparitions that appear at each moonwell.  this is quite a nice touch and gets people into the whole story of how teldrasil was made.  inside the druid's den, we had sentinels join us, leading the way around the big place.  one quest seems to be missing down there, but because there's just so many furbolgs down there and the den is almost like a maze, its a great idea that the quest was gone.   but a sentinel sidekick that shows us the way to go?  omg awesome!

The second thing i really liked about leveling a druid again is the change to wrath spam.  no longer do i have to deal with it for 20 levels.  actually, what i did previously was, if i can recall correctly, starfire, moonfire, wrathspam!! if they were tough, and most mobs back in the days were, i'd hit bearform when they reach melee and end the fight as a bear.  it was pretty easy, but long.  now it's just easy, but if you're not careful with add control, a couple of adds and you can go down quick.  My girlfriend found that out the hard way with the harpies in teldrasil.  pulling one to us would have been a better option than to root it where it was, aggroing another 3 in the process.  well, lesson learned.  So getting cat form at level 8 really helped to show what druids are all about.  we start off with wrath spams and moonfires, which is from the balance tree. then we get rejuvenation and nourish, quite awesome healing spells already at level 8-ish.  finally, we get cat form with several new attacks.  we get two levels to play before deciding on whether or not to go balance or feral.  restoration may be an option to level, even when playing solo, but who wants to willingly submit themselves to torture?

Overall, the druid leveling design has changed since i played in TBC, and it worked out well.  same thing goes for shamans, when i leveled my first orc shaman, i couldnt be enhancement until well into my 20s.  but my second shaman, a goblin, i got dual wield and imbues pretty early on, making me feel like an enhancement shaman when i actually picked the enhancement spec.  good job bliz!  back to my druid, picking feral gets me mangle at level 10.  this spell is my bread and butter at later levels, but should have been given to me at level 10 a very long time ago.  it's the backbone of our attacks and the very reason why our attacks do so much damage.  it leaves a debuff on the target so our bleeds can hit for more.  this ability should be learned initially and not left to level 60-something to get.  i am glad for this change.  my very next talent went straight to running faster as a cat.  with the added dodge (but who am i kidding, i really got it for the run speed), it really felt like a cat druid and not some sluggish, handicapped feral trying to claw things.  i had abilities and i liked it!  as a note, cats, dogs, even roaches really do run faster than things with two legs.  so having the run speed boost really makes being a cat.... a cat.

Now i know why i like my rogue so much.  we're all ninjas!  cats are ninjas too!  i really did like playing as a cat druid and never really connected it to my rogue, or other melee classes until now.  so with that said, i know i will be leveling as feral.  being feral also gives me a better stealth than the balance druid who just needs to go into catform and stealth in order to bypass some mobs.  but even still, the M.O., or modus operandi, for me and my girlfriend will be, especially if we dont have to kill x number of peons before we kill a named boss, will me to sneak past EVERYTHING, and kill the boss.  sneak out, turn in quest, level!

Now we're level 10 and just about to leave the starting zone.  hopefully we'll get acquainted with darnassus again figure out the map in no time.  this time, we'll be able to chill with the worgens as well.  hopefully they dont bite or else i'll have to go catform on them. but i hear they're a serious bunch and quite industrious in their old homeland.  after that, im really keen on helping my fellow nightelves out in darkshore and ashenvale.  hopefully, we can knock back the horde offensive there. 

as far as leveling goes, i really do want to keep things as close to night elf centric as possible.  i really want to level through the night elf story only (since i know leveling speed is a joke) to get the most out of the story.  If anyone knows the best path to take, please let me know.  i know for sure that darkshore and ashenvale will probably be our next zones.  but after that, i am not sure.  possibly stonetalon mtns and feralas?  i dont want to go help any gnomes or dwarves or humans, not unless i have to.  i dont hate them or anything, and there's nothing wrong with helping them, as they are alliance. but im more into helping the nightelf race solve their own problems first.  thanks!