Whilst I read blogs and listen to podcasts that talk about upcoming changes, I don’t go out of my way to test things. I have not set foot on the PTR, and I like it that way. Oftentimes a change will be reported as a nerf, and then not have as big an impact on the game as expected when it goes live. Things change so much on the PTR that I’d rather focus on playing the real game, and cope with the changes when they happen.

There’s a nice write-up on the Rolling HoTs blog with some testing that Sylly has done by changing her rotation before the patch hit. This gives me hope that my healing style will not need to change too dramatically, and will remain a primarily pro-active style. I’m at work today, so I hope that the servers will be back up and operational by the time I get home. I won’t be raiding tonight. I’ll be sorting out my main and dual specs, and making sure all my UI mods work.

For any other druids out there, like me, who don’t feel prepared for the 3.1 patch, I’d like to recommend the excellent Restokin list of resources for all druids in 3.1 – I’m going to be finding that very useful I think

One of the chaps in the group also plays a healer as his main. We’ve done some runs with him playing his dps Paladin so that I could heal, but he really enjoys healing and would like to play his healer more. So I said I’d have a go at playing dps instead, and for me that meant Moonkin!

With the help of another guildie I installed the Talented UI mod to make it easier to switch my specs around (I still plan to raid Resto), selected new Glyphs, dug a few pieces of gear with +hit on them out of the bank, and headed over to Moonglade to have a little chat with my trainer. Some gold changed hands, and I was suddenly a level 80 n00b!

My first impressions were that it wasn’t so bad. I still need to learn a bit more about spell rotations, and I needed to be a bit more aware of the strats than when I play healer. Healer is easy – I just need to know where to stand and who to heal. DPS is a bit more complicated as I need to know where to stand and who needs to die first. I don’t have a great memory for strats, so I’m sure I did loads of things wrong, but we got through Heroic HoL and a CoT timed run. I was pleased to be out-dpsing the tank, according to Recount, but I think I need to tweak my gear and my technique if I want to produce more dps.

I warned my friends that they might not want me to play Moonkin too much, as I might love it and decide not to heal on raids any more. I didn’t enjoy it *that* much, but it’s certainly something I’d do again in order to be able to group with friends. Providing they’ll put up with me, of course!

Following the “Merrymaker” disappointment, I’m trying not to get too obsessed with completing all the World Event achievements, but I do feel that the Lunar festival is a very druid-oriented festival, and I think it’s appropriate that I, as a druid, bear the Elder title. I also think it plays to our strengths, with a lot of the achievements being made a lot easier by our ability to sneak. I hate PvP, but will quite happily sneak in and out of the Horde capital cities when the need arises

By the time I’d finished, it was almost bedtime, so I thought I’d head down into the Dalaran sewers and waste one lure trying to fish for the rat pet down there. I’ve been levelling my fishing in the sewers – I find it helps to have another goal, as well as trying to the pet. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve spent down there, but I’ve managed to get my fishing up to 440 so far, so it’s been quite a while. Anyway, with only 48s left on my lure I was amazed to see the thing I’ve been chasing for so long – yes, my very own giant rat pet.

I went to bed a happy druid last night

In a nutshell, it’s because I have no sense of direction, both in RL and especially in game. In game, even if I’ve been somewhere loads of times before, I still have problems finding the place.

I blame EverQuest. In EQ I was a druid, and druids were a class that could teleport. So I never needed to learn my way to places, I just needed to know where the nearest teleport was. And as I usually group with my husband, who has an excellent sense of direction, I generally just follow him.

And when I’m on my own, I constantly check the in-game map to make sure I’m headed in the right direction. Which doesn’t always save me.

A week or so ago I agreed to run through Shattered Halls with some guildies. I know Shattered Halls is one of the Hellfire instances, but rather embarassingly I managed to zone into both Blood Furnace and Ramparts before finding the correct entrance to SH! I don’t know which was worse – that I got lost like that, or that my guildies were not surprised!