Kitty form in MoP looks to get a graphical update of armor (Horde, Alliance) most likely going to be tied to some achievement, or object, or glyph… who knows.

I have not been very active in the beta, honestly I am waiting for the level cap in the beta to be 90 and then I plan on getting my druid which I copied to max level to see how the questing flow is.

I am very excited about all the features and changes coming in the expansion. It look like account wide achievements is about a done deal and account wide mounts and pets a possibility. The new pet battle system looks like a fun thing, actually in game farmville… I dunno, probably not so much. Maybe Blizzard is trying to fin ways for couples to play together (But honey, while I am raiding you can be tending the farm and battling squirrels!)

I am very much looking forward to the 5 man competitive dungeons, achievements, and rewards. Having something like this to work on with others in the guild with a smaller player group and less time commitment could be really fun and create some niche players for sure.

I hope we don’t have too long to wait for the expansion but I am guessing Nov/Dec time frame?

The main reason for my post is a look at the new glyphs. It looks like they are making a lot of the core talents we have had in the past and giving us the ability to keep them through glyphs. Personally I like as we will be able to change our play style much easier between encounters now. Let’s take a look…

• Glyph of Amberskin Protection – Reduces the chance you’ll be critically hit by 25% while Barkskin is active.
• Glyph of Cat Form – Increases healing done to you by 20% while in Cat Form.
• Glyph of Claw – Your Claw and Mangle (Cat) attacks reduce the movement speed of the target by 50% for 12 sec.
• Glyph of Fae Silence – Faerie Fire used in Bear Form also silences the target for 3 sec, but triggers a 15 sec cooldown.
• Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration – While Frenzied Regeneration is active healing effects on you are 40% more powerful, but causes your Frenzied Regeneration to cost 60 Rage initially and no longer convert rage into health.
• Glyph of Prowl – Reduces the movement penalty of Prowl by 100%.
• Glyph of Shred – While Berserk or Tiger’s Fury is active, Shred and Ravage have no positional requirement.
• Glyph of the Chameleon – Each time you shapeshift into Cat Form or Bear Form, your shapeshifted form will have a random hair color.
• Glyph of the Orca – Your Aquatic Form now appears as an Orca.
• Glyph of the Predator – Your Track Humanoids ability now also tracks beasts.
• Glyph of the Stag – Your Travel Form now appears as a Stag and can be used as a mount by party members.

So some pedestrian stuff replacing old talents, some fun stuff giving ferals a little something to play with how they look when shifted including a ridable form that will launch a 100 inappropriate jokes, the ability to track beast which I like, the awesome solo PvE stuff faster with not losing speed when stealthed, and a nonsense glyph which leads me to believe more bosses coming that I can’t shred… or lets hope it’s for PvP purposes.

As far as the next expac goes I am really liking everything Blizzard is bring to the table. Little pets battles, ranked 5 man dungeons with gear and mount rewards, more LFR goodness, a new race and class, lots of early raid content, and hopefully even account wide mounts, pets, and achievements which might have me playing my hunter more

We now move to 4/8 in Heroic DS 25. Next up is Zon’ozz. Hopefully he falls Thursday night and we put the first 5 bosses on Heroic farm…. get geared up for part two and the last 3 encounters.

FWIW Yor’sahj was supposedly easy cause at least 1 lock respecced into an AoE stun making sure the healers didn’t get gibbed by the adds from the black ooze.

No video on this, our fearless leader didn’t think we would get it so early in the night… now he will be fraping lots of Zon wipes

Feral tip on this fight… Reforge into Hit/Exp>Haste>Crit>Mastery. This will help maximize damage on the adds and oozes and will boost overall damage for the fight.

Runtime

7:52

View count

158

The DPS race on this one is so tight we have continually just missed it over and over from either simple mistakes and people dying and disconnects. Basically the only way we could get it down was just to have one death and a fast battle rez…. and don’t get me started about how I can’t use shred… seriously, WTF?

I can shred to my hearts content on Deathwing without a positional requirement but not on this fight. GG Blizzard, gimp ferals on the first DPS check in Heroics in DS, we love you too. Yes, I know rogues got shortchanged as well but they get a legendary so it’s a wash.

Anyway, basically as a feral to maximize DPS for this fight you switch Berserk glyph for mangle glyph to boost mangle damage. I have tried both reforging to haste, hit, expertise (Ultraxion doesn’t parry so just enough expertise to avoid dodges) and also to mastery, crit, hit… and so on and so forth, very little change… about none really.

So basically do your best to minimize time out of the Twilight but without cutting it so close you die. Try to max your bleed uptimes which shouldn’t be too tough either. Basically with very little Heroic gear I consistently put out about 35K DPS.

This week we finally start working on Yor’sahj the Unsleeping Heroic. Should be fun.

Runtime

8:24

View count

167

Was a ton of fun getting this down. Overall a pretty enjoyable fight.

We are now 2/8 in 25 man Heroic DS and will definitely get to 3/8 or 4/8 this week.

We are still looking for a couple of DPS, Healers, and a Tank/DPS…. probably looking for 3-5 more players to make sure we can keep progression rolling and avoid a night where 1-2 missing raiders pushes us back… again…

Anyone interested in joining a strong, fun 25 man raiding guild APPLY

Fortunately (or unfortunately) there has not really been anything worth posting about. Currently I am 1/8 in DS Heroics with my/our success limited by difficulty getting 25 people consistently on to raid.

Currently the guild I am raiding with, Requiem is the only 25 man Horde guild on Drenden, and I believe only 1 of 2 25 man raiding guilds on Drenden when you include Alliance.

We are looking for good-exceptional raiders, all classes but could really use some good healers. Wanting folks that enjoy playing multiple specs, heals and dps preferred. We have a solid tanking core so really no opportunity there.

We raid 10pm-1am EST Tue/Thur and 9pm-1am EST Sun. If anyone is interested please check out the WEBSITE and submit an application.

The guild is full of mature players, really good people, and we have a lot of fun.

Although I have yet to do an LFR I am looking forward to taking my Alt Hunter through at some point.

A lot of people sound happy about the new found ability to down and see endgame content they previously didn’t have the time or ability to see.
A few people sound upset about making what is supposed to be a very Powerful Dragon easy to defeat essentially killing the soul and RP portion of the game.

Personally I like the job Blizzard has done here.

My guild was able to go in and kill the boss on normal in the first week. It was surprising but I know a lot of other guilds that couldn’t do it so yes it was easier than I expected but not super easy. We had seen a lot of the content in the PTR and that is what contributed to such a fast and early clear. Now we look forward to spending time clearing everything on heroic and working on the achievements for our mounts. (We killed the first boss on Heroic Tue night).

What is nice is you now have 3 levels of difficulty to please 3 different cross sections of players.

LFR – Super Easy mode for the less skilled or players without the time to commit to full time raiding.
Normal – Medium mode for those with the time and decent skill. This rewards achievements so other people in the game will know the type of player you are skill and time wise.
Heroic – Very difficult mode. This takes a large time commitment and a lot of skill. These rewards and achievements also let others in the game know your level of involvement playing.

All in all, raiding now offers something for everyone. It honestly does not bother me that the LFR offers a faceroll option to see more content in the game. It also might be a gateway for players that would never even get to participate in a raid interested in trying it on some of the harder levels. I don’t know if people wanting to move on to harder versions would have the skill needed but at the very least they would have some understanding of the fight mechanics so they could at least give it a shot if the opportunity presented itself.

Anyway, there is a pretty long thread going over at the forums about the whole thing HERE

Feel free to chime in with your opinion, I think it is good for Blizzard to get feedback of how this is effecting their player base, or at least the cross-section of it that goes and posts on the forums.

As easy as that makes this final raid of an expansion sound our guild is pretty darn good, however I will say the normal content in this raid is easier than I would have expected. I am going to assume Heroic is going to be extremely tough.

It seems to me more than ever that Heroics are the new normals, normals are the new easy, and LFR is just a loot pinata or as another guildy put it, a fancy target dummy. I have yet to do a LFR but it sounds like they are pretty successful so I hope to get my Alt Hunter in one soon.

Right now I am working on my Alt Hunters transmorg set. She is a blood elf so I can have some fun there. It is not much fun doing a Transmorg on a druid cow… but I can fire kitty so whatever.

The new Darkmoon Faire is… well… disappointing. Maybe I am missing something but it seems to me that was a complete waste of dev time. Sorry Dev’s, sometimes you lay an egg and well I call it as I see it. The local is neat as well it’s design but the games and the whole concept seems lame to me.

As a side note for those kitties that have not done the last fight in Dragon Soul, everything can be shred from the front. Don’t know why it was so easy to do this for this fight but not for some of the previous but whatever… probably needed time to work on the faire

A lot of gamers I know are going to be playing SWTOR. Not sure if I am going to have time for that while raiding Heroic DS and farming my hunters last fer transmorg items but I will prob get into it before the MoP expansion.

A note on Transmorg, it can be fun and addicting. Download the WOW Model Viewer and start making sets. It is interesting to see how easy and hard making a nice matching set can be. The one I am working on now had only one option in the pant slot from a quest back in Northrend. Lucky for me I had not done it before. I recommend starting with a favorite weapon or weapons and moving on to a set that compliments it/them.

Lets take a look at the new talents available, and let me start by saying it’s weird to have a bunch of talents to choose from that don’t necessarily give any kind of advantage to my main role as a damage dealer. Here is a LINK to the full descriptions of every talent.

The first choice is between Feline Swiftness, Displace Beast, and Tireless Pursuit. I think the constant 20% increase to speed while in cat form is a no brainer here, the others look more useful for PvP. Granted there might be particular PvE boss encounters that might favor one of the others but in general I think FS is the way to go.

The next level we choose between Nature’s Swiftness, Renewal, and Cenarion Ward. Let me say that I like the last option the best as it gives us the ability of an instant cast HoT while in Cat form. This screams raid utility to me and from a kitty that prides himself on helping the raid beyond just dealing damage I like the difference this could make in a PvE encounter.

Next we choose between Faerie Swarm, Mass Entaglement, and Typhoon. I think here Typhoon will be what I choose, an in Cat form knockback… SWEET! Faerie Swarm is replacing FF and depending on raid comp might be needed instead but I raid 25 man I am going to wager the debuff can be applied by someone else. The ME talent might be useful in certain encounters but is not castable in Cat form so I kinda don’t like it.

The next level we have Wild Charge, Incarnation, and Force of Nature. From a shear DPS vantage point I kinda like Force of Nature if the trees do high damage. It’s castable in Cat form and easy DPS. The other 2 talents sound similar with one having a charge component and the other one not. Wild Charge seems pretty dumb actually, It puts me behind the boss and lets me ravage without a positioning requirement… ah… yeah, ok. Incarnation looks the best, which allows ravages from behind without the need of being in stealth. It looks like with this talent we would open with berserking and ravaging our butts off with the 50% increase to crit with ravage at boss health above 80%…. interesting.

The next level is my first disappointment. 2 of the 3 choices are basically for bear as using them puts us into bear form automatically. So we choose from Demo Roar, Bear Hug, and Ursol’s Vortex. I am so picking UV here, not that as a kitty we have much choice. It’s an AoE grip usable in Cat form. That is just sick OP if you think about it. In PvE we get to suck mobs to us and swipe… I freaking love it. It makes us an adds magnet (or lets us pick a spot for the magnet) for 15 seconds. Honestly this is probably an awesome raid utility on fights with a pesky add phase.

Our last selection at level 90 is a complete disappointment. Heart of the Wild, Master Shapeshifter, Distanglement. HotW is most likely the given as it takes Hit to 100% and gives us an INT boost from agility which will improve our utility heals. The other 2 look very PvP centric.

The last cool thing to note, and I don’t know how the heck they are going to actually get this to work in game is Symbiosis. Basically we get to target another player and grab an ability belonging to that targets class within the limits of our specialization. This has buggy written all over it imho. Our target gets one of our abilities, also based on our spec. It sounds pretty cool as we get the special for an hour and it lasts through death so basically we will be doing this before a fight starts but I might see where a mid fight application might prove useful. If we get to use this attack in kitty form I say cool, Kitty Pyro? Kitty Chain Lightning? Ok, probably not since we would have to be in boom spec for that I would guess. So Kitty FoK / Swipe AoE craziness? Lots of possibilities here and I am sure some leet guild will figure out some way to exploit this running a party of half druids to down some heroic boss.

All in all, I guess these changes have the ability to drastically change the way we play our kitty. The question is do we use this stuff? Does it matter in terms of DPS? Will it make playing more fun? My guess is at first playing might be more entertaining but in the end if my damage sucks I won’t be happy.