Choosing a main for TWW

At the start of every expansion, I review which specs I am going to play. I usually prefer focusing my efforts on only one character.

Druid

I love the class fantasy of all the druid specs. I've even grown to love the space chicken. If I choose to play a druid it will require less time to become up to date, since resto and balance are the two specs I know the most in the game.

Druids are very versatile. They can do everything. Heal if the dps queues are too long. Or tank difficult mobs when soloing. They are also exceptional at questing with stuff like insta flight form, stealth and great movement. And if I get tired of my spec, there are three others to choose from.

But druids have not gotten good reviews from the content creators this time around. They have a really bad class tree that is very limiting. And they have gotten the most boring and least impactful hero talents.

Balance: In it's current state, balance has a very slow ramp up time. It sometimes feel slow when leveling and if stuff dies fast in dungeons. Several balance players have moved away from the spec for now since they think it is very unfun to play right now. The spec is also very easy and have little depth. That's good when learning new dungeons and bosses and stuff, but tend to be a bit boring in the long run.

Feral: I do love the class fantasy and to play feral, but I am not good at playing melee. I don't like that Tiger's fury don't reset on kills anymore. It made the spec very good where stuff dies fast.

Guardian: I love to be able to spec into a tank if I find a diffucult mob when I'm doing open world content. Other than that, I will probably not play it much.

Resto: This might be my favourite spec. There has been some good changes lately. I love playing with trees. And I love that you can spec into wrath generating mana. But I do think that I would do better with a healer that is more reactive and requires less planning and knowledge of damage patterns. I like healing raids and m+ with friends, but I don't like pugging as resto druid since I'm bad at dealing with surprises.

Warlock

The warlock is still close to mye heart. Even though I haven't mained it for a very long time. If I am only going as dps, it is a valid choice in TWW. I also think that if I am going warlock, I must be willing to play all the specs, since there are often only one warlock spec that is good at a given time.

Affliction: The spec has been bad to play since BFA. But somehow, I want to play it anyway. There has been both bad and good changes lately. The good part is that they have tried to remove some of the abilities, giving it less buttons to press. The bad part is that they removed sow the seeds and soulflame. These two spells are the only way of dealing damage on short lived mobs.

Demonology: I do like the class fantasy of the spec. And currently I think this is the warlock spec I enjoy the most right now. I love that they have gotten the dog from Legion too. But I don't know the spec too well.

Destruction: This is the spec I have played the least. But if I go all warlock, I intend to try to master this one too.

Evoker

Another spec I love the class fantasy of. I even love the much hated lizardy look of it. I mained it in the first part of dragonflight, and it would probably not take too much to get into it again.

Preservation: I really enjoyed playing this spec. It felt super powerful and fun. It was also fun dealing damage in dungeons with it. The one thing that makes me worried about maining it is the range limitation. Most of the time it is totally fine. But on some bosses and in some groups where people are too spread, it is a nightmare.

Devastation: My main problem with this spec was that it was too squishy. But I know their survivability was a bit buffed after I stopped playing, so it might be better now. I especially remember the few times I raided as devastation. When there were a lot of incoming damage, both evokers in the group just died. I also don't like how the mastery works. It is often at the end of a fight that you need the power. But other than that, I think I could enjoy playing it.

Augmentation: I have bearly played the spec a little bit in Pandaria. It was kind of fun. But I don't know enough about it to have a strong opinion. Other that it looks to be easy to join groups.

Shaman

I have never mained shaman, but I have played it a bit here and there. I like the class a lot, but it sometimes reminds me of a certain shaman that I don't like.

Restoration shaman: I do enjoy healing on shaman. Even though I haven't played it too much, I think it's easier to save the day with a resto shaman than a resto druid. I think it would be a good pick if I'm going to heal pugs.

Elemental: I kind of enjoy elemental. But haven't played it too much.

Enhancement: I would probably not play this spec at all. Unless I got tired of the two other ones.

Conclusion:

I think I would enjoy playing all these four classes. But in the end, I always pick druid.

The War Within Goals and Predictions

This post got hella complicated the last few expansions, so here's a long bullet point list.

Main Goal

• Get Curve in all raids on the same character.

• Avoid having others rely on me tanking progress keys.

Bonus Goals

• Have one million gold at the end of the expansion.

• Have all "played with" spots on RIO review have a higher % [edit in numbers here when they become available] than in Dragonflight.

• Level Esmë-versions of Mage, Hunter, Paladin, Warlock and Druid to 80.

• Less keys done overall than in Dragonflight.

• Get KSM all seasons on the same character.

Predictions

• Esmënet will be the actual expansion main (ie best gear, m+ and raid progress overall).

• Esmë will do more m+ than Wutteät.

• The tuning of all PVE content will be massive disaster on launch, and only slightly less bad at the start of all the new raid tiers. More like Shadowlands than DF.

• Gearing will go back to being a mess, with shady returns on profession gear and scuffed dungeon rewards, they started even before the expansion launched (see below).

• Tank/healer population in m+ will sink again, after repeated changes that makes no sense and doesn't align with their stated design goals and doubling down on making the roles annoying to play in dungeon content.

• I will like the zones and general raid design, but dislike the m+ pools and gearing.

• I will still be in Epiphany, but will have raided more with Exiles.

• Delves will get old as fast as Torghast and Visions.

Questions for future me

• What did you do to up the "played with" % for the RIO reivew?

• What did you do to rein in tanking progress keys?

• What made you finally learn all three mage specs in one expansion, or why didn't you?

Going into the expansion

• Week 1/2: Chill leveling 2-3 characters, do normal dungeons and professions.

• Week 3: Attend normal raids, spam HC dungeon queues and m0 week 3. Pick focus character.

• Week 4 onwards: Do raid and 1-8 m+ on focus character and keep up with profession knowledge for alchemy.

Pandaria and end of Dragonflight

I think it's time for me to blog here again. I had a big break from WoW. I played the first season of Dragonflight, and then was done. Came back a little while ago, and became a solo player. In the beginning I got invites from friends, but I just wanted to chill and enjoy the emerald dream in peace. So I sat my visibility to away, and did exactly that. I didn't have the energy to do anything serious or be part of a group that relied on me.

Trollblomst in Emerald Dream clothes

So I was druidin' around in the Emerald Dream collecting transmogs, mounts and druid forms. It's been really nice. This patch was made for druids! Lots of new stuff to collect. And the best of all, the ability to customize your moonkin form! I've been balance and some feral in outdoor content. And mostly healing (cause the queue is shorter) LFR for transmogs.

Fishing in the raid on LFR for an aquatic form

A nice time to be a moonkin

Then they released Pandaria Remix. A whole new way of experiencing the Pandaria expansion. I have played very little in Pandaria, and think I started my biggest wow break at the start of it. So it is really nice for me now to be able to go through a modified version of the content to experience the story.

Zekhara in Pandaria

I was not sure what character I should use. My first thought was creating a druid. But then I thought that I have played druid a lot, and I do have lots of druid transmogs. I have a good deal cloth transmogs too. But I am lacking in mail transmogs. So I created an evoker, and forgot that evokers don't use most of the transmogs.

I didn't regret it. It was super fun playing evoker again. I also used some of the time to play around with augmentation, since I haven't really tested it out. I like it more than I thought I would. Even when soloing, it has a lot of useful stuff like more survivability compared to devastation.

After leveling her, I created another druid, Grønnkål, and she became my Pandaria Remix main. I also wanted to try out some classes that I don't play a lot. But we became so overpowered in Pandaria that I didn't manage to learn the specs properly.

Grønnkål looking buffer than Garrosh

That's why I started playing Dragonflight again. I leveled up my shaman (Azralin) and tested it out. I really like resto shaman. Since I don't know all the dungeons that well, it feels good to play a reactive healer insead of a resto druid.

Azralin taking a selfie with her new dragon transmog

I haven't played my druid much in Dragonflight, so I wanted to give that a try too. It was even more fun. I love the new treants, and that it is a bit easier to dps as resto. Somehow I always end up playing druid.

The cutscenes are often fun to watch in different forms

Then my summer vacation started, and I had the time and energy to play with people again. It was super nice to play with friends again. I first joined some keys with Ulio and the guild. Then I did a lot of keys with Dom. Might even be able to get KSM this season.

Playing with Ulio and some from the guild

Playing with Dom.