DROOD!!!

My altitis extends to specs, when it comes to my druid.

Ceraan was the character I had the hardest time getting into, that didn't end up getting deleted after a while. Being a druid at first was a little frustrating for my tastes. It's not so much that I died or anything. It's just that the first 30 levels were more tedius than any other character I've ever leveled. I can't even explain how. She languished at under-30 for a year and a half. I think I kept her mostly because she was pretty, and I really liked the character I named her for. I was in love with the idea of playing a druid, but the reality blew chunks.

When I hit 30, all of the sudden I had travel form. I could suddenly go faster, without having to wait to cast it! I could be running along and BAM! All the sudden I'm a cheetah! OMFG! What could be cooler than that? And, a whole ten levels before I'd get to ride! I'd loved the hell out of my shaman's ghost wolf ability, so druid travel form was like that only ten times better for me.

From 30 to 60 went by in a handful of weeks. I relied on rested exp to get me by, but other than waiting for my bar to fill with blue again I was blazing through levels. I spent more time on my druid than any other character. I'd stuck to feral below 30 for the extra speed to my regular kitty form, but at 30 I decided to switch to what I knew my strength was and do caster dps. So, balance it was!

Around that time, I also got a random whisper asking me to heal SM. I explained that I wasn't resto, since only masochists level as resto. (Remind me to tell you about my shaman some time...) They said it was okay, the tank was a bit high for the instance. So, away we went, with me in my scraped together caster gear. And, surprisingly, it wasn't a complete disaster. It also helped solidify my fondness for the class.

So, from about 30 to 60 I leveled as balance, and I LOVED being a boomkin. My SO, Raven, hates the boomkin dance with a passion, so I'd dance with him at every chance just to freak him out. I don't think I was very good at it, but I had fun.

Then came Outlands.

I got out there and decided to go resto for practice. I had an elemental shaman and a shadow priest at 70 at the time, and I wanted to have a healer at max level without having to switch either of them. It was great in theory! I knew another awesome druid who had done the same thing, when I was leveling my shaman. I'd been impressed by that druid's skills, and a bit intimidated by him, so I turned to him for advice.

"If you're going to level resto, go out and moonfire, hit yourself with rejuv., and then go bear and kill it."

...

I stuck with that for about three levels. What can I say? I'm stubborn.

Sometimes, I think I'm a masochist as well.

I was spending so much time in bear form, I figured I might as well go back to feral for leveling! I hated questing as resto, and I just couldn't stand waiting in LFG for a tank all the time. One under-leveled and failed trip through Mana Tombs later and I was switching my spec to feral. I headed back out to Zangar to sweep through quests I hadn't done, and I fell in love with mangle.

Mangle.

Say it with me.

Mangle.

It was OMGly. I was a happy kitty! I was even a happy bear! Feral rocked my world, and I couldn't imagine wanting to change, ever.

I hit 70 with all four kitty paws on the ground and running.

"Hey, Shavvy, wanna hop on your druid and tank for us? We're doing heroic UB. Got the key?"

oshit

I'd done a few regular instances as a kitty, and I wanted practice tanking. I had decent blue gear, at least. So, I pointed out that I didn't have practice tanking, and since these were my T5&6 geared guildies I warned them that they'd have to be VERY careful with their threat.

We wiped our way through, including a few runs out for repairs, but we beat that damned instance. I don't know how they found the patience for it. I was about ready to cry a few times. But, we got it done, and I learned a LOT. I improved by leaps and bounds, and stepped down to tank or dps some regular instances for the Kara key. Within a week of hitting 70, I was OTing Kara.

I actually didn't do too bad, and I continued to learn.

Mostly though? I learned that I didn't like being a bear tank. @_@ I didn't MIND it, but it intimidated me. I was all that was standing between nine of my best friends and certain doom. If my armor wasn't up to it, there wasn't a healer in the world who could keep me up. And if they died? It would be ALL MY FAULT!

meep

I switched to boomkin. And then went tree. And then back to boomkin. I couldn't decide! And then I saw that after the new talent trees came back pre-Wrath, my boomkin in blues was out-dpsing my spriest in T5 epics. UGH!

When Wrath came out, I went back to feral for the OMGly mangle until I hit 75. But, I went back to my plan of druid healing at 80, and for questing I switched from feral to balance for the last few levels, so I'd be picking spellpower items for quest rewards. Boomkins are FUN at later levels! I hit Naxx as a boomkin at first, and then I stayed true to my plan and went resto (without warning my raid leader first even though we had two dedicated healers. I may or may not have been trying to force him into taking my DK who was SUPPOSED to be my main.)

Tree druids really are a lot of fun, even if they're almost as stressy as bears. Healing and tanking are high responsibility jobs! But, they're also really rewarding, when you know you've done it right.

Of course, being the healer sucks, when you've screwed up and everyone starts bitching about repair bills.

But, I digress...

In the background of all this, there is one thing that makes druids AMAZING!

Flight form.

It's so FUN to walk out of Naxx as a tree, step off that ledge, and switch forms half way down! Remember how I mentioned that travel form made druids playable for me at 30? Flight form/epic flight form made druids AWESOME for me! Not having to dismount to pick flowers gives me warm fuzzies. Being able to fly away when a mob paths too close while I'm picking said flowers makes me giggle.

I love my druid, in all her forms, in all her specs, in all her glory. Stressy or not, playing a druid is amazing, if you can get past the drudgery of the first few levels.