The Great Readjustment

I'm playing WoW again.

I hope you didn't forget me

I struggled with deciding to reup my subscription or not for a few days. I planned on getting Legion from the beginning, that plan didn't change, but I had been piecing together a long term plan.

First, I would prepurchase Legion, which I still have to do and am planning on asking for it for my birthday. Secondly, I would, as money allowed, transfer a few of my characters over to Chromaggus.

Why the transfer? First, some backstory to catch you up:

Pucking the Fug Up

While I've been pretty content to show up to some friend's guild raids and do casual stuff while I decide where I am in life and whether it's even a good idea to find a new serious guild right now, my elitist itch came back for awhile when I realized I would be locked out of [Ahead of the Curve: Blackhand's Cruicible] if I didn't down him before 6.2, which is currently in PTR and could come out any second now.

or like in a few months

I had some decent luck with doing pugs before, back when my guild was busy not doing any content, so I didn't think much of it until I realized that this was the final boss of the tier that I had done twice in LFR and never had any legitimate practice with.

I read up on the fight and I was relatively familiar with it, so I figured if I could just sneak into a pug that wasn't already asking for the achievement, I could just stay off the radar by not dying and just doing the dps thing I do until one of the groups I joined was good enough that we downed the boss.

Unfortunately for me, there is a niche mechanic that balance druids are known for being very good at, so I kept getting volunteered by other people who had no idea that I was unfamiliar with the fight. If I said I didn't know the fight or tried to talk them out of it, I'd probably be removed immediately anyway, so I opted to just try my best.

can't we just ask them nicely to stop throwing things

My best wasn't very good. For the first time in my life, I was removed from a pug for under performing.

These Boots Are Made For Timewalking

Timewalking is a new feature coming in 6.2. This official Blizzard preview summarizes it pretty quickly, but if you haven't read about it and need an even quicker summary: you can queue up for some randomly selected old dungeons, where you will be scaled down to reasonable power, but you can still get rewards relevant to current content.

baby I'm coming home!

Oh, but only if the current weekend event is a timewalking event.

The PUG Stigma

Up until around the middle of Cataclysm, I was always in really good guilds. I had only been in two ever, but they were full of good people who played well. The prospect of a guild group was always better than considering the idea of bringing random strangers. Picking up a pug seemed like a worse option than not even going to the dungeon.

you probably boosted that character

Then, my second ever raiding guild declared that they were no longer raiding and I took a break from the game. The third "guild" I had ever been in came into the picture soon after I returned, and it was the first time that I found myself in a place where a guild group was not guaranteed to be good. The crazy thing was, those players - players I found myself actively avoiding grouping with in favor of pugs - still considered pugs to be poison.

vile creature

For-Everbloom

Everbloom is one of the new dungeons in Warlords of Draenor. It's an outpost where the Kirin Tor attempted to make a magical link between Azeroth and Draenor, which failed horribly because it was right in the middle of a sacred botani land. Because of that, it became overrun with plant monsters and vines that mind controlled the Kirin Tor and also a lot of other creatures, which we now kill for loot.

I think Everbloom is a pretty cool dungeon in concept. It tricks you because it's very pretty, while under the surface it's actually full of horrifying plant monsters that subjugate unwilling animals and people. The thing is, Everbloom is one dungeon where I never seem to get a group who knows anything about it. Think of this guide as a public service announcement...

UPDATE: With 6.1, the shortcuts in Everbloom have been patched to be unusable. I'm leaving the details on how these shortcuts were utilized in the post for posterity to retain the history of the instance for future generations to enjoy.

Rep Grinds - Better With Friends!

I'm kind of into farming reptuations

With Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard wanted to move away from the reputation grinds gated behind dailies. You were only able to raise your reputation with a faction a certain amount per day, as there wasn't anything else you could do. No repeated turn ins, no farmable mobs, just dailies. A few reputations were farmed with mobs of course, like Black Prince rep and Emperor Shaohao (which wasn't added until later). They added a few other things, like championing a faction to give you bonus rep when doing a random dungeon, but for the most part you could only do a little bit a day.

A Healer's Best Friend

As I've mentioned before, I play a balance druid - and have for quite awhile. From the release of the dungeon finder tool until a bit before patch 6.0.2, I used my offspec to tank and get instant queues, but I decided to switch things up this time around, so my dedicated Warlords offspec is restoration.

It's more convenient - I can use all the same gear and consumables - but I also have to remember what mana is and get used to remembering to carry water. On that note, though, there is an amazing item that I just can't get over how good it is.