This one runs long. If you get bored or are shocked and dismayed at any point, roll it on down to the bottom of the post where you get a TL;DR explanation.
So the time has come to announce it.
I did, of course, briefly dabble in a Balance-weighted healer build, before switching out due to mana inefficiency. In a spec-tacular blunder (I’m sorry, the puns are worth it) I managed to completely lose sight of the fact that I’d just swapped specs right before 2.4 and an insane boost to my mana efficiency via more MP5 and cheaper Regrowths. The point, however, is that the druid community has a nickname for this sort of build- we call it a ‘Restokin’.
We have names for our other builds too, of course. A build with at least 31 points in Balance, assuming the Moonkin Form talent is taken, is referred to as a ‘Boomkin’, or sometimes a ‘Doomkin’ or, if you really feel like having a feathery fist embedded in your teeth, an ‘oomkin’.
A druid with at least 41 points in Restoration (again, assuming Tree of Life is taken) is usually known simply as a tree druid.
A druid with a 31/30 or 30/31 Feral/Restoration split is known as a lunatic. Sorry, sorry, bad joke, but I can’t find a way that build can be viable. I’ve run it. It’s not so good for me. The opinions of Mooonfire are not those of Blizzard Entertainment and we do not necessarily in any way represent the pure mathematical truth of the matter. If you can make a 30/31 or 31/30 split work for you, by all means go ahead with my blessing. Druids are meant for exploring the mechanics of the game and for pulling crazy ideas out of nowhere.
But there’s one more spec that has acquired a nickname. It’s a monster whispered about in dark corners. Respectable druids don’t even think about them. Even the ‘edgier’ druids who might try speccing Restokin, the druidic equivalent of the guy with all the facial piercings, don’t dare use this spec. Even the guy with “DIAF Staghelm” tattooed on his forehead turned white and muttered about having an appointment to skin some furbolgs when this spec was brought up in conversation.
The reaction of the WoW community at large is to scream about what idiots these folks are. Of course, given that that’s the reaction the WoW Forums will give you if you say you like raspberry jam more than peach jelly, that’s nothing new.
But even other druids shy away from this spec. “I wouldn’t do that,” is the most common response (though this becomes the second-place finisher if you count “You’re joking, right?” as a formal response). Others are harsher. “No. Just no.” “It can’t be done.” “You off your meds?”
Druids comprise only about 10% of the game’s active players. Within that, a disproportionately large number are Arena Resto druids and presumably will fall out of favor once Arena Resto stops being the flavor of the month.
It falls to a very few players- perhaps less than a couple hundred in the ten million players of this game, perhaps as many as a couple thousand, to take this nightmare spec.
If you spec this way, you can expect a complete and utter lack of PUGs. You may have trouble even getting guild runs. And so it is with some trepidation that I write this post. Phaelia will probably call for my druid license to be revoked. Bell might just set me on fire. Leafy will call for me to be turned into steak. Wara won’t hurt me, but that’s presumably because he’s a fellow Murlock and not because he doesn’t have a sense of the proprieties.
This nightmare spec I have been so obliquely referring to is called a Panzerkin.
Assuming my server software has not rebelled at having to display that nightmare word, I’ll continue to explain. It uses a couple dynamics of the Druid class to turn us into a leather-wearing tank.
“Uh. Llanion? Druids have a tank build. You might have heard of it. It’s called the entire Feral talent tree.”
*busily checks this off his checklist of responses expected to be seen*
Yes, the Feral tree makes for amazing tanks and vicious close-quarters DPS. I should know, I levelled that way. And it’s true, they get a tasty stamina boost.
“Llan, they get an armor boost too!”
Yup. So do Moonkins. An identical one, in fact.
“Bears get a talent to reduce the likelihood of incoming crits!”
I currently am, due to a combination of resilience and defense, uncrittable by any mob below level 72. Oh, and I figure a couple more pieces of PVP gear will put me at completely uncrittable even by raid bosses. Did I mention that the PVP Wyrmhide pieces are heavily focused on intellect and stamina, both statistics critical to Moonkins? As it turns out, of the three specs, Moonkins have the easiest time using PVP gear in PVE.
Oh, and the Wyrmhide’s high on armor, which plays in well to the armor boost in deathchicken form.
“Buh… mana pool!”
About 7k at the moment, planning to drive that up.
“That won’t hold you through any lo-”
Innervate. Melee to regenerate mana when I have a decent threat lead. The Blue Dragon if I have any spirit left, which I doubt. Sporefish, Distilled Wisdom+Dreamstate and oh, yes, Rejuvenation and Mana potions. Plus, Shadow Priests.
“You expect a non-tank to hold threat against a Shadow Priest?”
I’m just going to laugh here. Have you ever run with a deep Balance druid? Balance druids scramble for the normally-pointless 26/2 Meta and slap down a subtle cloak. Quite a few of them also have 5/5 Subtlety and they’re always happy with Salvation. Even with all four of these, a string of ‘lucky’ crits can bring the mobs away from the tank and running towards the Balance druid faster than a level 19 night elf Warsong rogue runs for Crusader/Fiery duals.
“Um… how are you going to handle a two-pull?”
With crowd control, exactly like a warrior would.
“All your crowd control’s used up and you have to tank two mobs-”
All right. We’ll designate them MT and OT, main target and off-target. We’ll even assume I’m slack enough to have a half-second of dead air between spellcasts. Time zero is when the first spell hits and the mobs start running.
0: Starfire hits OT
.5: Moonfire hits MT
2.5: Wrath hits MT
3: Moonfire hits OT
Then it’s just a juggle- Wrathspamming the main target while keeping Insect Swarm and Moonfire on the off-target to keep it off the healers.
“The off-target breaks away and”
Gets Moonfired.
“He’s still running towards the healers so-”
I cyclone him and we finish up on the MT.
“And… then… he… uh…”
Hates me even more when I time a Starfire to hit him coming away from his Cyclone.
“Your health pool is too low for this!”
That’s actually true, at the moment. However, PVP gear is heavy on stamina and I intend to enchant for yet more of the same. I’m hoping to top out to 9k at least, 10k if I’m lucky.
“So you’re mentioning this because…”
I thought it might interest some folks. Also, if you look on my sidebar below ‘/grabby hands’, I have ‘/kaboom’. ‘/kaboom’ tracks my goals (and exploits!) as a Panzerkin. There will eventually be movies, naturally.
Now, it’s off to grind for more gear!
April 4th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I’ve been toying around with the idea of a Panzerkin for a bit now after watching a few Youtube videos of them tanking Kara/Gruul bosses. I like the idea of doing something different that most people normally shun (I raided Hyjal last night as a Felguard Warlock for instance) and opening their eyes to it once they see for themselves that it actually works. Great post and I hope to see more of how your project unfolds.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
This resto (for the moment) would love trying to heal a Panzerkin. As a feral, I would love kittying for one. It’s not something often seen, but I adore the concept (perhaps, because, it means that when I return to my usual feral spec, I don’t have to tank, but that’s beside the point).
Good luck with that! I’m sure you’ll have a blast! (Provided that you can convince others that you can tank as a Panzerkin, and getting them to trust you doing so.)
April 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
@Veresitha: Thanks for your comment! It’s good to know not EVERYONE thinks I’m psycho. Not trying to raid with this….
…
…yet.
@Lin: Fortunately, one of my guildmates is about as cracked as I am. He’s going to (resto druid) heal my Panzerkin build and I, in return, am going to be healing his Shaman tank.
On the other hand, he’s only trying to tank, say, Ramparts, since he knows his armor total isn’t high enough for much else, despite being crit-immune.
I, on the other hand… this is going to be interesting. Mwah ha ha.
April 5th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Howdy. You, sir, have my respect. I myself am aiming for a panzerkin set of gear, so that I can try it out sometime. My major issue is that I dislike PvP, so I’ll have issues getting the gear needed. However, you sound like you’ve already got a nice chunk of the gear you need. I’ll be interested to read about your exploits as time goes on.
April 6th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Llan, how have things been going man? I was bored sitting at my comp and I decided to check up on some old sites and here I am. I am thinking about returning to WoW just have not completely talked myself into it yet.
Anyway, hate to interrupt, just popped in to say hey. Send me an e-mail some time man, later tree man.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
omgosh… noooooooo my tree is gone!!!! what will everyone do for bad jokes now? MUHAHAHA I FOUND YOUR BLOG!
April 12th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Oh. Hi Pud.
I’ll just. Um. Go and. Uh.
SHE’S GOING TO COOK ME WITH HOT SAUCE! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
April 15th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I’ve been slowly cranking up the gear for my Panzerkin and currently top out at 12k health, 12k mana, 16k armor, - Raid buffed, and carry a 363 Resil. Put me against a boss and it’s hell on feathers. I usually do not MT raid bosses because there are so many other things a Balance needs to worry about, but I always hold 2nd place on the threat and if the tank should fall, I pick-up the slack. This worked flawlessly several times on Prince. As long as the Healers are ready for it, they keep me up and we finish the job. When I pug a spot with other guilds, they freak (my guild is used to it now). I not only hold lead spots on their damage meters, but I battle rez, use tranquility when healers are falling behind, release the trees, cyclone loose hunter mobs, and generally save many many wipes. Why Moonkins get no luv is beyond me.
I also do not usually need on any item drops. Why? becasue PVP gear is the Best a Moonkin can get - period. (excluding BT) I ran a raid with another guild who had their “ace” Boomkin all decked-out in PVE gear, and they kept telling me that I cannot do as much damage in my PVP gear. This other boomer even had the nerve to challenge me in a duel. Ok - I kicked his ass, didn’t have to heal myself like he did while I was cycloned, and I didn’t even use my trees like he did. Fight over, bow down.
Then Gruuls. 25 people from a very large guild, and one boomkin pug (me). Gruul down in one shot, MT battle rezzed mid fight, tranquility used to save idiots who didn’t get out of the falling rocks, and the lovely trees. Damage meter posted. Your friendly boomkin #3 - no clue moonkin in PVE gear #12. Lesson taught to the noobs.
Abviously S3 arena gear is the best. Get it. I currently have 2 S3 items, 2 S2 (including the staff), and the rest S1/Vindicators. I plan to be all S3 before LK. Then it will all become usless and time to get new..:)
August 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
hello, new player running through druid blogs learning about being a druid =)
I can’t help but point out that running panzerkin involves, uh, looking like a moonkin. On the other hand it sounds crazy cool and i’d love to run with one personally.