One of the most versatile classes to play is the druid. They can be set up for tanking, healing, melee DPS, and ranged DPS. The best part; any spec is highly effective.

Given the balance and restoration trees, there are some incredible abilities that can lend support to each other. Keep reading on to learn how to manipulate these two talent lines to get a dps/healing effect that is incredible for PvP, raiding, and just running simple heroics.

Before I explain, here is the link. This is known as the Dreamstrate healing spec. The idea is to use the talent abilities Lunar Guidance and Dreamstate to replace ToL (tree of life.)

Dreamstate healers spec fully in intellect and +healing. They are not reliant on spirit because it really does nothing for them. The cycle of healing consists of lifebloom, rejuvenation, and regrowth on at all times while casting healing touch (HT) appropriately.

HT is extremely powerful (especially with empowered touch) so lower levels of this ability are required. Healing touch will not be spammed, but used appropriately when big heals are needed. Combining it with nature’s swiftness is vital for getting a 6k heal in half a second to save a tank. With 1800 bonus healing and empowered touch, a HT crits for 10k or more.

The only thing that hurts this spec is losing swiftmend and the threat that HT generates. However, the effect of HT easily replaces swiftmend. The bonus healing from ToL form is replaced with Lunar Guidance.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the dreamstate build:

Pros:

• Spell damage is now applied, also giving an extra ability (Insect Swarm)
• Moonglow reduces nearly all spells by 9% mana cost
• No shapeshift form. Healing touch can now be used and no speed reduction
• Dreamstate gives 10% mana regeneration every 5 seconds
• Nature’s Grace

Cons:

• No Swiftmend
• No Improved Regrowth
• No Empowered Rejuvenation
• Casting Healing Touch causes more threat

This is a different strategy to bring to the table, but is still very effective. It all depends on your style and equipment. The druid is very diverse and can be manipulated in several ways. In addition, the ability to off-DPS or solo daily quests without difficulty makes it much easier than being full restoration. There is plenty of DPS to carry around through this build, making the life of a healer more simplistic.

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We had such awesome feedback during our writing contest, I decided to give you guys the floor one more time. During our writing competition we had so many players submit entries with a very high level of expertise that it was quite startling. So now what I want you to do is help us explore a very overlooked aspect of the WoW playing experience.

We could go on for months and months about action bars, UI mods and macros without ever getting close to covering even a fraction of the things you can use in those areas. We will certainly do our best to give you some major players in the UI mods genre in the coming weeks, and our staff writers are hard at work paring down the options into useful articles.

But first, we’re going to take a closer look at how our readers actually interface with the game by finding out what hardware master players are using. I mean, what good is having all those extra bars and macros if they are difficult to access because you use a crummy stock mouse and gooped-up keyboard?

I personally use a programmable mouse that activates macros and other functions. When I play a hunter, my right clicks go through a complete shot cycle, so I have far greater control over the combat sequence. I am able to do everything a hunter is good at without ever really worrying about what should come next, my mouse takes care of most of it for me. That way I can spend more time (especially in raids) watching for those surprises and changes in the combat environment that require my special attention. But without my particular mouse, it would be virtually impossible to accomplish.

Our editor, Lawbringer swears by a particular game pad he uses. I gives him 36 extra keys to play with. He actually goes in a very different direction with his play style. While I never take my hand off the mouse, he rarely touches his. With a compact keyboard, a little clever hotkey assignment, and a bar mod, he has over 60 hotkeys at his fingertips without ever having to do anything like press [shift]+F1 or [Cntl]+5. He plays fast, fast, fast. Since virtually every skill is at his fingertips, the only thing he ever has to wait on is cooldowns!

If you have a setup that enhances your game play, now is your chance to tell us about it. Keyboard, mouse, peripherals, headsets, monitors – anything that you use to increase your ability to dominate!

Post your setup and why it helps you dominate as a reply to this thread. We’ll review the submissions and then do a series of articles about the very best products you guys actually use. It will be a huge help to the new and intermediate player looking to advance to serious raids and PVP action. Those of you who have already been through the process of selecting the very best equipment to use can give them a little great advice and we’ll help you by giving everyone links where they can find all the cool toys you recommend.

I know you guys like to brag, so let me have it. Show Gavin how your setup rocks the competition, and gives you the ability to truly Dominate!

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In patch 2.4.0, a lot of new daily quest content was added. These daily quests; when fully unlocked, yield around 200 gold and about 3150 Shattered Sun Offensive Rep. Yet if someone told you you could make more without going anywhere, would you do it? There are primal farming spots right inside the areas where you complete daily quests, and they have surprisingly better drop rates than the other areas!

Bash’ir Landing: Probably one of the most least liked quests is the mana cell quest. Phasing out of the current area into a wyrm-ridden area, while picking up these little tiny mana cells that aren’t really all that easy to see either, who would expect that the phase wyrms would be a great primal mana farming spot? I researched this spot to find out the exact drop rate. I ended killing up to 104 phase wyrms in an hour, and I got 51 motes of mana and various other vendor trash. That’s 5 primals in an hour. So what do you do the next time you finish this quest? Just stay phased and keep on farming!

Throne of Kil’Jaeden: The two daily quests here are really interesting in design but are so far apart from all the others that half the time they are just skipped due to laziness (even I skip them sometimes). Yet this spot has something that should not be overlooked either. The Incandescent Fel Sparks drop motes of fire more than any other mob in the game. Now farming these were tough, due to the people doing dailies, so I was only able to kill 64 of the Incandescent Fel Sparks in my allotted hour of time, but I got 33 motes of fire. Three primal fires in an hour is a good deal to me. So next time you see someone running to tag a Fel Spark, don’t say to yourself, “Eh, ill still get quest credit if I’m close enough.” Say, “I have to get that spark; it might have motes on it!”

Oshu’gun: I have not tested this one myself, so I am taking the word of my guild mates and friends when I that Oshu’gun yielded a lot of useful items aside from just doing the multiphase survey quest. Herbalists lose out on this, but skinners and miners excel with this tip. As you’re doing the multiphase survey, go out of your way to kill the mobs nearby. Not only will you complete the multiphase quest, but you’re getting the quest for gathering done as well. All the roaming Clefthoof can be skinned to yield the Nether Residue needed, and also Nagrand is well known for ore deposits being everywhere. Also taking a whack at the Voidspawn in the area isn’t such a bad idea either. They currently have the highest known drop rate for motes of shadow. So Oshu’gun leads multiple money gains from doing two daily quests in the area.

These are three locations where farming is overlooked. There are probably more. Next time you are doing dailies and need every ounce of money you can get…save time by just stopping by at one spot and farming. You will be shocked at how high some of the drop rates are for some guys. I myself have done all the dailies and have realized from doing nothing extra that I have 3 primals in my bags, which on the Auction House can easily add up to a hefty sum.

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(Now for our third place winner – Nameless Demon Hunter. He’s a rogue expert and did a really nice piece of machinima about the grind for the winterspring frostsaber mount. You will be able to read his work a couple of times each week from now on!)

Everyone is out there trying to find the best and most effective way to earn gold. There are epic mounts to be bought, materials for those l33t weapons to make, and even more just to spend it on leisure stuff from the AH (we have to tweak out those alts after all).

Well, I’m here to give you the straight forward answer on how to earn your cash the fastest way once you hit level 70: take your character to 70 and do two things;

1. Dailies
2. Quests that have not been completed

As for the Don’t dos:

1. DO NOT go around in SW begging all the other 70s for loose change!

This sounds so basic and ingenious, could it actually work? Not only does it work, it’s one of the fastest and most consistent ways. There are other gold making tips for working your way up to 70, because you will need it for earning your epic land mount. There are also people like Lawbringer who do nothing but work the ah. But this guide is for making serious gold doing dailies and quests so you can proceed toward buying your epic flyer as well as making life easy for your alts.

Since patch 2.4, blizzard upped the daily quest limit to 25. They did this because of all the new Sunwell Isle quests that came into play. Players can now earn an easy 100g in less then an hour.

So where to start? If you are a fresh level 70 with only a land mount, start doing the dailies at the isle. The purpose of doing this is not only for the gold, but for the reputation. The SSO faction has some powerful rewards to offer, especially if you are a gem cutter. Aside from the awesome recipes, there are rare and epic items for everyone to use.

Spend an hour and do all the SSO (Shattered Sun Offense) dailies. For the most part, every server should have at least the armory opened by now; which means more quests to do and more gold and reputation to be earned. If you have a friend to help don’t hesitate, the repetitiveness can become quite boring and you will be doing this for the next 1-2 months. But of course, what is Warcraft with out some kind of a grind?

Now you have done all the SSO quests, what do you do next? If you have a regular flying mount, do the Outland daily quests. There are some in Shattrath city and then 2 in hellfire peninsula that you especially want to focus on.

The importance of these quests is that they offer a SSO package and you do not want to pass this up. The reason being, there is a chance that a badge of justice will drop. It is the only way to earn badges in the game besides running heroic and raids.

There are other sets of dailies you should concern yourself with. They are the Skettis, Netherwing, and Ogri’la dailies. You will need a flying mount to access all 3 sets, so do not bother with these until you have one.

The Skettis dailies will provide you with reputation for the Sha’tari Skygaurd, to buy the nether ray mount. The Netherwing quests are for the same cause, an epic Netherwing mount.

The Ogri’la dailies have a lot more to offer. You can hit 3 birds with one stone doing these quests. First, the faction rewards from Ogri’la are somewhat decent depending on your class/spec. Second, it is a very good way to earn quick gold. And third, you are grinding two factions at the price of one. That’s right; you are getting both Ogri’la and Sha’tari Skygaurd reputation.

The last way, notably the most important, is to do regular quests at 70. Once you max your level, quests will yield gold instead of experience. The amount of gold will range from12-26, an average of 16g per quest. Not to mention the item rewards you will vendor off.

The importance of doing regular quests, I can not stress enough, is the reputation you will be earning along side with all that gold. Doing all the basic quests in outland will get you between honored and revered with almost all factions. This is so important when you start reaching end game material, you will want to be exalted with all factions.

Just a re-cap:

• When you hit 70, do the daily quests along with reputation grinds. This is a constant 100-200g per day in a short period of time.
• Do regular quests, you can literally earn 1k gold in 3 hours from grinding regular quests and quest chains. This will also help you gain reputation with the major factions necessary for end game.
• Always sell good material that is dropped on the AH. Look up your item and do some research for the best profit (an obvious tip).

I followed these 3 simple steps and went from having 200g to 7,000g in less then two months. I purchased artisan riding along with a Cenarion War Hippogryph mount (costs 1600g and you never see anyone riding it). Now I have money to spare for all my alts and buy whatever I need.

The best part of it for me, I never had to farm mats/items and I spent barely any time at the AH. It is hard earned gold, but in a very quick and non irritating matter for me, especially since you are gaining other rewards in the process.

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In part one of this guide on focus targeting I explained the basics of how you can utilize focus targeting to direct your spells and abilities towards a second target, specially selected by you.

There are however some limitations in the default UI that prevent you from fully exploiting the potential of focus targeting; the main limitation being a complete lack of visual representation as to the status of your focus target. Unfortunately, you do not even get confirmation as to what your focus target is.

To rectify this matter we need to delve into the world of interface modification; and more specifically you require what is known as a unit frame mod. Personally I use X-Perl.

Interface addons can be found on any good interface site such as http://wow.curse.com and are simple to install.

To install, simply download the addon you want and extract it into the addons section of the interface folder in your World of Warcraft folder.

Once you have the addon installed you will find that when you log into the game, all status bars for yourself, your party and your targets have changed.

Before you start playing with your addons settings and getting things to make them look how you want; assign yourself a focus target as a test by using the macro you made in part 1 of this article.

What you should find is that you now get a full status bar for your focus target as well as one for your normal target, you will also find that no matter how much you try, you cannot make the focus target status bar disappear unless you move out of the targeting range of your focus target.

There are times however, when you do want to de-select your focus target; and doing so is simple. Go into your macro window as shown in part 1 and create a new macro with the following text.

/clearfocus

what this new macro will allow you to do is de-select your focus target.

So what has adding a status bar for your focus target actually achieved?

> You now get visual confirmation as to what your focus target is.
> You can now see a cast bar for your focus target which is invaluable for well timed spell interrupts.
> You can see what buffs and debuffs are on your focus target along with duration left which lets you know when crowd control spells and the like need renewing.
> You can keep an eye on your focus targets health and mana status.

Once you have finished setting up your unit frames how you like, there is one final thing that can be done to improve the functionality of your focus targeting, and that involves utilizing a bar mod such as Trinity bars.

What a bar mod allows you to do is have many more buttons available on screen compared to the standard UI as well as drag them around to where you want them.

Some addons such as Trinity bars also give you the option of setting the target of any button you create; this allows you to setup a bank of buttons that will only ever have your focus target as their target.

The beauty of this is that you will no longer have to write macros out for every spell you want to use, instead, you can just drag them straight into the right slot.

Furthermore, since the spell slot has your focus target as its target, it will also take the focus target as the point of reference for showing a blanked out icon if an ability is out of range, combined with the information from your unit frame addon, you have a vast horde of information as to the status of your focus target.

As an extra bonus, buttons that are set to only target your focus target will not show on screen until you actually have a focus target, dramatically reducing screen clutter for a nice clean UI.

And that is all there is to know about focus targeting. Have fun dominating two targets at once!

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(This article was written by our second-place winner in the writing contest. A young man who plays under the toon name Lithanial. He’s got tons of great information, especially about druids. Lithanial is the fellow who tanked Grull in moonkin form, a style he calls the Panzerkin. He’s creative and a great writer, you’re going to love his info.)

Have you ever wished you could keep your eye on two targets at once with no hassle whatsoever? The good news is that you can! The bad news however, is that to be able to do so can be rather complex if you don’t know how to set it up.

Within the basic functions of WoW is a feature called focus targeting which allows you to assign yourself a second target separate from your normal one; this second target will be locked and unable to change until you specifically tell it to.

On its own this feature would not be too useful. But with the use of a few simple macros you can set up custom spell buttons that will affect your focus target, rather than your normal target; this is where focus targeting starts to shine.

So why would you go through the effort of setting up focus targeting for yourself? Here is a short list of what can be achieved with a little careful configuration :-

> Be able to heal a friend without having to target them.
> Be able to quickly crowd control an opponent without switching targets.
> Be able to keep an eye on enemy healers in PvP for well timed spell interrupts.
> Be able to attack two mobs in melee with little effort for much better multi-mob aggro generation.
> And many more uses besides.

Hopefully that will have grabbed your attention, so how do you go about configuring focus targeting? The first thing you need to do is create a macro button to assign your current target as your focus target.

Log into the game and then go into the options menu. There is a button labeled macros on the main menu, press that to open up your macro window. From here create a new macro; select whichever icon you desire and name it “Focus.”

In the bottom window of the macro frame you can add the macro program, in this case it is just a simple case of typing in:

/focus

that’s it, nothing more, nothing less. And it should look something like this.

Now drag your new button from the macro window in to a free slot on your UI, when you press your new button it will assign your current target as your focus target.

The next step is to create a spell macro that will cast your ability at your focus target rather than your current target. Again, go into the macro window and create a new macro with a name and icon of your choice.

When adding the macro program this time type:

/cast [target=focus] spellname

now this can be tricky depending on the spell as the spell rank data needs to be entered as well, luckily there is an easy way to get it right. When entering the spell name, rather than typing it in, shift-click on the icon within your spell book that you wish to cast.

By shift-clicking the icon, its spell name and its rank is automatically placed into your macro for you, assuming both windows are open.

Now drag this new icon into a usable interface position and get ready to try it out. First off target anything, then press your first macro to assign it as your focus; next, target something else and then press your second macro.

The spell should now cast at your focus target despite you having something completely different as your main target!

Feel free to experiment with creating new macros for whichever spells you would find most useful and in part 2 I shall show you how you can expand upon the focus targeting feature with some custom UI mods to take full advantage of it.

6 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

So you’ve got your cooking up to level 225, and you’re level 35 or higher. Now it’s time for your cooking quest. You cannot do the cooking quest until you are level 35 and your cooking is maxed out at 225. After that, grab a boat and a bird and get yourself out to Gadgetzan in Tanaris. Go in the Inn and Talk to Dirge Quikcleave, the butcher. He’s going to ask you to bring him a few things so that he can make you a Clamette Surprise. This quest is super easy to complete, you can just bring everything you need to turn in to Dirge.

The easiest way to collect everything is just buy it all in advance from the AH. Since the items for this quest are not unique quest items, you’re not forced to go and get them yourself. There are almost always a few of these available on the ah, since many people know that someone will buy them for their cooking quest, or use them in cooking.

That being said, you may find the prices not to your liking. If that is the case, you can go and get the stuff yourself. Here’s what Dirge wants from you:

• 12 Giant Egg
• 10 Zesty Clam Meat
• 20 Alterac Swiss

The Swiss cheese is a snap; it’s sold by 35 different vendors, so it’s not exactly rare. The other two things can be farmed in Tanaris, but the drop rates are pretty pathetic for the Clam Meat. For the Giant Eggs you can kill the Rocs around any of the big Bones sticking out of the ground.

In our screenshot just west of Gadgetzan in Tanaris, you can see the Rocs circling the bone pile, as well as two other spots where you can see even more bones on the horizon. Birds always congregate around piles of bones, so those other two piles are also swarming with Rocs.

The Zesty Clam Meat is found in Giant Clams which will drop from the turtles anywhere along the coastline.

Now this is where we set ourselves apart here at Dominate Your Server. Everyone on Thottbot will tell you to go to the Hinterlands to get the eggs and clams – they are WRONG! It turns out that the very best drop rates for the Giant Eggs is from the Rocs in Tanaris. So you can go right outside of town to find them – as well as a few extras to sell at the ah.

For the Giant Clams, the best drops are in the bay west of Theramore Island in Dustwallow Marsh. Almost everything there drops Giant Clams. If you have trouble getting what you need in Tanaris, you can just fly back to Theramore or Brackenwall Village and run over to the water. Our screenshot shows the map of the area.

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Once you get all your mats, all you have to do is turn them in to Dirge and you’re set with artisan cooking up to level 300. At 300 you can buy the Master Cookbook either in the ah or from various vendors in Outlands. Good luck, and remember – even if all you’re doing is cooking; Dominate!

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(This is the first post by our contest winner Marco, to be known henceforth as Raknathal! I think you’ll see why Raknathal was our winner. Enjoy, you can look forward to posts by Raknathal about four times each week. Happy Reading!)

Before patch 2.4.0, the arcane tome was the jewel of the Scryers. Now, it’s only a dusty old book sitting on the shelves of the Auction House. Patch 2.4.0, unleashed the Isle of Quel’Danas along with Kael’thas’ private army, the Dawnblade, creating a massive surplus of Arcane Tomes to be had. Also, to fight Kael’thas, Shattrath City has dispatched the Shattered Sun Offensive, which rewards players who are also exalted with the Aldor or the Scryers. An unforeseen opportunity arises out of these events.

What exactly happened to the Arcane Tomes and Fel Armaments? The new private army of Kael’thas, the Dawnblade, drops Arcane tomes like any other Blood Elf mob in the world, but also at greater rates. Due to the increased chance of getting an Arcane Tome and the increased activity in the Isle of Quel’Danas (Daily Quests Galore), a massive surplus of Arcane tomes has been pouring in. Due to decreased activity in other areas, Fel Armaments have become scarce, but the demand has stayed the same. Prices for Fel armaments have shot upwards, and Arcane Tomes have plummeted as a result.

After conducting some research on four realms, Medivh (Normal), Warsong (PVP), Thorium Brotherhood (RP), and Emerald Dream (RPPVP) I found conclusive information on the prices of Arcane Tomes and Fel Armaments. First, a fact from all the servers, Arcane Tomes had numerous pages of the item on sale. Fel Armaments had two or less.

On the Normal server that I researched, the average price for Alliance and Horde for an Arcane Tome was 15 gold 33 silver whereas for Fel Armaments, the average price was 24 gold 85 silver. The difference is 9 gold 52 silver.

On the PVP server, the average price for an Arcane Tome was 11 gold 37 silver and 17 gold 14 silver for a Fel Armament. That is a 5 gold 77 silver difference.

As for the RP server – I don’t know if it’s just this realm, but the numbers are extreme. The average price for an Arcane Tome was 14 gold 85 silver and for Fel Armaments it was 41 gold 27 silver! That’s a 26 gold 42 silver difference!

On the RPPVP realm, the average price for an Arcane Tome was 16 gold 16 silver and 23 gold 37 silver for Fel Armaments. The overall average price for Alliance is 11 gold 31 silver for Arcane Tomes and 23 gold 59 silver for Fel Armaments. And For the Horde (no pun intended) 17 gold 55 silver for Arcane Tomes, and 29 gold 78 silver for Fel Armaments.

So, what’s the point? Farm Fel Armaments; you can undercut the price and still make a lot of gold off the ridiculous prices. Fel Armaments is where the money is at, also it’s just good to have them because now if you want them, you can’t go to the Auction House and get a good deal like you normally would.

Where? As they say in the famous Youtube movie, Ni Hao, “Go farm some in Shadowmoon Valley.”

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The writing contest is over, the judging is complete, and we have a winner! We received more than 45 entries for the competition and the quality of the entries was terrific. But only one can win first place. This young man really stood out and made choosing a winner much easier than we expected it to be.

Congratulations to Marco Piccirillo, the hands-down champion. Marco receives the $500 First prize and a staff writing position here at DYS. Marco followed the contest directions to the letter, and wrote several articles that were everything we look for at DYS. The information was fresh and he had some great new tips. His style was easy to read and his grammar was unimpeachable.

Once you begin to read some posts from Marco, we’ll sure you’ll agree with us that he will be a very welcome part of the information we give here at DYS, and we fully expect him to have his own groupies!

Second place and $250 dollars goes to Gareth Morris. Young Mr. Morris hails from England and he really knows his stuff. Gareth already has some WoW fame for his guides and in-game play with druids; many of which have been stickied on the European forums. He actually tanked Grull in Moonkin form, a class play style he calls a Panzerkin. We watched the video he made of the kill, it’s one of the most out-of-the-box impressive things we’ve ever seen. Check it out for yourself here: http://videos.curse.com/details/816/

Third Prize of $100 ends up in the very capable hands of Jacob Towles. Jacob’s expertise is in the rogue class, and his rogue information is outstanding. He’s also done a little video work of his own in the form of an impressive piece of machinima you can view here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyydJbzcWvA Those of you familiar with the frostsaber mount grind will appreciate it immensely.

It took some lengthy discussion and we had to get wickedly picky to choose between these guys. In fact, the work of the Mr. Towles and Mr. Morris is so good we have also asked them to be regular contributors to DYS as well. You are going to love their unique view of the WoW universe as well as their uber information on Druids and Rogues.

Next, we don’t want to leave out some other contributors who did some really excellent work. Special thanks to Cameron Jones, Scott Smith, Mj Nix, Kaeshan Nallanathar, David Norton, Nick T, and Dave D. All of these authors provided us with difficult decisions when it came time to sort out a top 3.

Now is the time for all you DYS nuts out there to start begging to see the work of our winner. All we’re waiting for is his acceptance speech! And we really do appreciate the response we got from every one of our readers for the contest. Some of you were wondering how good the entries would be based on the example of the posts to the contest thread. All we can say is that it blew away our expectations.

So again, Congratulations to Marco for writing his way to the grand prize. Three cheers for Jacob and Gareth for the silver and bronze medals. These guys really know how to dominate!

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