I... Want... Control...!

When I started my WoW career, I was all into healing. After a while, I figured out that a good tank can do so much more to change the outcome of an encounter than a healer can. In fact, there is very little a healer can do to change the outcome of a fight, apart from healing like crazy. Sometimes, the healer saves the day. But I figured that more often than not, it wasn't the healer. It was the tank who managed to take control of the fight. The tank could prevent more damage to the group than the healer ever could heal.

Since then, I've played all four specs of tanks. My two non-tank classes, Zuna the priest and Kirba the shaman, has mostly been lying idle except for some short bursts of "I'm going to level up Engineering" or "I'm going to finish What A Long Strange Trip It's Been" (I have, by the way, finished it with 4 characters now).

Most recently, I had fun with my goblin warrior, whom I started after Cataclysm. I've played PVP a lot with her. Mostly as protection. I fell in love with how much control I can bring to a fight. I am really bad dps, barring a lucky reflected spell, but I could change the outcome of a fight with allies at my side, by enabling them to kill the enemy team unhindered.

When I was around 65 with my warrior, my wife decided to play with me again. She has a tauren druid, at that time lvl 63. We played together a lot, but I was always higher level than her. In addition, I had heirlooms and played BGs on my own. Sum it up, and I raced from her in XP. So she asked me to wait so she could catch up with me.

I froze my XP at level 74, when my wife had just entered Northrend. I still tried to play BGs, but since I had frozen XP I would only meet other players with frozen XP, in effect twinks. You know what I really didn't like about that? No, I didn't mind meeting much tougher opponents. I minded the extremely long BG queues. Several hours, sometimes.

So... rather than wait forever to get into BGs, I decided to play with my other characters. I went through all my tanking characters and played BGs, all of them in the 80-84 bracket except my pally who is 85. The thing I found out is that none of the other tanking specs have anywhere near the amount of control that a warrior has.

Blood Death Knights

A death knight tank has very good survivability. But control? I have a 60% snare, which I need to reapply using a rune every 8 sec. It was crippling to try to keep an enemy perma-snared, not least to my dps. Desecration in Unholy might solve some of this, but at the loss of extremely good PVP talents in the first two Frost tiers.

I was, however, able to bother healers by Death-gripping them out of range of their healing targets, strangulating them and mind freezing them, so I wasn't completely useless. But it certainly felt so. I respecced to Unholy and found that my control improved vastly, which actually improved my survivability in most fights. No need to mitigate damage that never happens because I can kite, eh? And my dots still tick (they do as Blood too, but waaaay much lower), my ghoul still damages, and my Death Coils hit like trucks range.

Feral druids

The interesting thing about feral is that you can't avoid picking up a lot of dps talents along with the necessary tanking talents. Not all of them, but enough that I really felt I could deal some damage. I've learned that a good feral druids know when to shift, and shifts fast. It takes practice. After some hours in BGs, I wasn't all that bad at it. Bear when focused or need bash, cat when I'm ignored, caster to cyclone/root and heal a wee bit, or just shift to the same form to remove snares.

Druids actually have a fair bit of control. It's very handy that the snare is attached to other abilities, meaning I'm snaring my target at almost all times. Nature's Grasp is very handy for bothering anything attacking me, and I can use Entangling Roots and Cyclone to give my enemies a headache. Feral Charge is awesome fun, though in most cases worse than the warrior charge/intercept. Bash is an on-demand stun, and Prowl -> Pounce was very handy against anyone attacking my allies when we were defending a flag. In addition, it's very handy to be able to run from most situations. Note that I played before 4.0.6, meaning I used instant Entangling Roots with the glyph, I could still break roots and not only snares by shifting and berserk made me immune to fear. Druids really needed that nerf, though.

However, despite doing fairly well, I never really felt that I was "in control" of the fight like I often did as a warrior. Truth to be told, most of the fights was more like "I hope we can kill them before they kill us", hammering my keys in desperation. And healers? Healers were gods. Outside of gettting the jump on them from prowl with berserk up, I never managed to kill one alone. It's nice that feral druids get a spell interrupt, but they kitty version costs 25 energy! Compare that to kick (rogue interrupt) who costs 15 energy. That is 2.5 secs worth of energy regeneration compared to 1.5 secs. It really takes a bit of planning to interrupt successfully.

I think I like being resto better in PVP. Tons of control attached, yes please. Someone said "If you are casting more heals than cyclones as a druid healer, you're doing it wrong".

Protection paladins

<rant>

I know I've said this before, but I have to say it again: I really don't like Hammer of Justice.

First, it has too long duraction, in fact sharing the first place as longest stun in the game with a 5-CP Kidney Shot. It worked out slightly better when there were lots of stun-reducing talents around.

Second, I feel it is "too common" in the sense that I encounter it very often, since it's shared by 3 different specs.

Third, it is a one-shot pony. With that I mean it's a long cooldown that many paladins practically rely on it to win. A lucky resist/miss or a class that can remove stuns like Mages (Blink) or Death Knights (Icebound Fortitude after 4.0.6) and very much of the paladin's control is gone. It would be better if it was a 4 sec stun on a 30 sec cooldown or something like that.

Fourth, it has no bloody requirement combined with a very generous 15 yard range glyphed. I believe every other stun in the game has requirements, and all but Kidney Shot lasts shorter.

</rant>

Okay, done ranting. Seriously, though: the only snare available to protection paladins is the glyphed Avenger's Shield. It's ... interesting, but it's dispellable and can't be easily reapplied. I've spent lots of time running after my target as a pally. Snares are very common, and as soon as Hand of Freedom is on cooldown, you're as kitable as they come.

The thing about protection pallies, as far as I've discovered, is that they are very reliant on a proc: Grand Crusader which resets the cooldown on Avenger's Shield. It only procs on Hammer of the Righteous and Crusader Strike, both of which requires melee. So if you are being kited, you have nothing more to do than wait for the cooldown to refresh on it's own (15 sec), bubble or try a hammer of justice.

It is, however, possible to get to melee in the duration of Avenger's Shield. Then, if you are lucky with the procs, you can perma-silence an enemy target. In fact, up to three, if they are clumped up. It's very fun when it happens, but very annoying when you don't get any procs at all. Not to mention it must be annoying as freakin' hell to the enemy who can't do anything at all because of all the silences.

Even less than with feral druids, I really didn't feel in control of the fights as a protection pally. In fact, it felt like I was riding the back seat of some wild RNG race.

I can haz idea!

At this point, I had an idea. If I want control, why am I not playing a class with any amount of REAL control? So I picked up my mage, Rime, who had been my bank alt since I abondoned her at lvl 23 since ... classic. Four-five years ago.

I went into a BG and ... got trashed so bad it was not even remotely funny. I logged out in a true nerd-rage. I'm not proud to admit it.

After that, I tried to get into BGs with my warrior again. Still endless queues. Fun while it lasted, not so fun to wait. After a few days, I was ready for another attempt with my mage. However, rather than heading into BGs, I went into Ragefire Chasm and soloed the place. I practiced, learning how to make a shatter combo, got a feeling on how long I had to stay away to be out of melee reach, how long my freezes lasted etc. Not to mention mana management. I ran out of mana all the time.

Then I tried a BG again. Okay, this was way much better. I could kill a warrior or rogue (provided they didn't get the jump on me) without taking any damage at all. I could take on most enemies, except hunters. Hunters outranged and outdps'ed me, and they don't seem to have any kind of deadzone anymore. I just polymorphed them and ran away whenever I encountered on alone, provided I didn't die in the ~2 sec it took to cast polymorph.

Since then, I've been doing a lot of BGs. Yesterday my better half was away, so I dinged 59 after two winning AVs, and got Wrecking Ball in the last. I have found my love... ehem... a class I love ...for now. I know myself, and know that I won't sit at a class for too long. But for now, I am in control. MOHAHAHAHAHA!

Post-cataclysmic journal from an AV-loving warrior

My goblin warrior Shoosa recently entered Northrend. I've done AV all weekend, now revered with my very own Frostwolf Howler. Between AVs, I've skilled up cooking.

Complains from the Lunch Lady

Cooking is much tougher to level to 300 now that a lot of the cooking recipes are simply unavailable. In particular, it's no longer possible to skill up using only fish.

I don't get it, Blizz: You give us Pilgrim which is like free cooking skill, but you make it way much harder to level the old-fashioned way? Design philosphy, please?

Mohaha, eat spell reflect, palatards!

I hate pally stuns with a vengeance. Okay, it's probably balanced to stand stunned for 6 seconds at level 85 with a lot of health and resilience, but at anything lower than that, 6 seconds is waaay too long. Before, when spell ranks existed, it lasted shorter at lower levels, and you bought ranks as you gained levels which increased the stun duration.

However, as a prot-warrior, I have an answer to that. With the glyph, Spell reflection has a 5 sec duration and 6 sec cooldown. If I play my move smart, I make sure to silence or stun the paladin for the last vulnerable second, and I'm - almost - unstunnable. In addition, it's hilarious fun to see the pally eating his own stun.

The exception is a smart pally that will burn my spell reflection on some other spell, but that's not necessarily a bit problem. I don't mind loosing to smart paladins. I mind loosing to everyone else, and I'm sure that not every paladin player I've met so far have been smart.

Oh, and it's also fun (though much harder) to stun Frost Mages with their own deep freeze.

Tough, huh?

After I realized what I could do, every game I've just charged straight for our mine. I can charge/intercept and just run through all the mobs there, pulling more than 20 without any risk of dying and no usage of cooldowns.

How? Rend one, Thunderclap to spread it around (with the talent), spam spell reflect and throw a shockwave once I've collected some 10+, and Victory Rush shines up like a christmas tree all the time.

I also took down a rogue who 3 levels higher than me while having more than 5 mobs on me. In fact, they helped me a lot. They granted me a ton of rage through a talent, and broke Blind and Gouge on me instantly.

However, there are tougher around...

No matter how tough I like to think I am, Prot Pallies are tougher in one-on-one fights. Possibly Blood DKs too, haven't met too many of those. Enough pallies around, though. With Word of Glory every 9 sec, it's hard to keep up with their self-healing ... so far.

At least I'll get something in a few levels... Shattering Throw. Say bye bye, bubble-boy.

Perhaps surprisingly, Resto druids are also tougher in one-vs-one. I just can't bring them down. Only instant heals, which I can dispel one of every 6 seconds, and they can slowly take me down with Insect Swarm and Moonfire. Emphasis on slowly, I ran away after a 2 min fight with a druid, and I still had half my health left. She, however, had full health and almost full mana.

Looking forward to the next AV weekend

Which is some 2 months from now. I really enjoy AV, and it almost never comes up with random BG. And I'm not a fan of queing just for that and waiting around forever.

For some weird reason, though, Isle of Conquest comes up a ton during prime time with the random, though. How come only IoC and not AV? No idea.

I have one design issue with AV, though. It yields *way* more honor and rep to those that fight north, and very little to those that choose to stay south and defend and retake towers/GYs.

A very simple change would be to grant the same "honorable defender" buff in AV as you get in AB. Wouldn't solve anything, but it would make slightly more people defend south. Right now, I understand why so many choose to rush north; it's just way better rewards, both on a win and a loose. Even if it was a critical defense that granted the victory.

Professions that really help your alts

I've got 6 characters at 80, 5 of them at the same server.

Since we're less than a week away from Cata, I've started planning which characters I want to play and in which order. I couldn't help but notice that I'm very influenced by my choice of professions for said characters.

First and foremost, I ought to consider which class mechanics I'd rather want to work with for a while. However, after playing all healers and almost all tanks (save warrior which is reserved for my goblin), I've just realized two things. One: the grass will always be greener on the other side, no matter what fence I'm on. Second: Barring broken class mechanics, I can work with almost any class, and I consider them pretty balanced too.

With that in mind, I've started thinking about which professions I'd prefer to have maxed out first. There are several things to keep in mind here. The first is that (practically) every profession offers useful stuff for that character itself. So while some of them look really neat and cool, I try to disregard that information when evaluating professions. Instead, I'm looking at what each profession can provide for my other characters.

Alchemy

I've decided that I will be leveling my paladin first. It sounds strange for me to say that, but I really enjoy paladins now with the new 4.0 mechanic, and since I've paid for a race change, I no longer have as much trouble with the theme. In fact, I think Sunwalker is a cool theme. I have Alchemy / Herbalism on my paladin, which is a very nice thing to level first. After all, everyone can benefit from elixirs and flasks.

In addition, alchemy also bring some other gems, namely with Transmutation. Since transmutation has a 1 day cooldown, the faster I can get it the more items I can get from it. Add to that that my paladin Koiane (formerly Tirvin) is a transmutation master, meaning I can gain more than what I started with using transmutation.

There's also the Potion of Treasure Finding, which all my alts can benfit from.

I'm not going to hide the fact that I'm really excited about the ability to transform myself into a dragon. For that particular reason, I've decided not to spend time getting a nice-looking flying mount for my pally. However, ... personal benefit only, and it's only a cosmetical upgrade unless I'm going to carry friends around.

Inscription

My other full hybrid, Ayeba (druid), has inscription / herbalism. It is a very useful profession, but just not as useful anymore after 350. As far as I can see, there are no new glyphs. There are an almost-as-good-as-Fortitude-runescroll, a book that gives you a random buff on a 4 hour cooldown, the ability to create darkmoon decks and relics and off-hands. Only my priest will benefit from off-hand items apart from the druid herself. I've got several characters who can benefit from relics, though. However, it will grant no benefit if the other characters are decently equipped, then the items crafted will be stricly worse.

The interesting part for me is that I can level inscription with herbs from Koiane without actually leveling Ayeba. However, I will probably level my druid anyway, as it's a neat class in itself.

Enchanting

My death knight is enchanter / miner. Enchanting will be very useful for all classes at top level. Less useful while leveling, though.

Mining is also handy, because it can provide me with raw materials for...

Jewelcrafting

Jewelcrafting is still a top profession. Gems will always be usefulf or all classes, mostly at top level. Unfortunately, I've got JC on my shaman, which I'm not planning to level anytime soon. Right now you can call me tank-a-lot, and shamans don't qualify. However, if I spend time on my death knight, I can level the jewelcrafting without actually leveling my shaman.

Engineering

My priest is an engineer. I've had an awful lot of fun with it in the past, but unless I've missed something, it's still a very 'egoistical' profession that offers little for alts/other classes. Okay, there are a few new cool group benefits, but they require the user to be an engineer himself or herself, meaning I can't send it to alts.

I must admit I'm really tempted to play my priest just for Leap of Faith. However, no tanking here either (in fact, less so than with shamans), and other classes also get cool new stuff.

Blacksmithing

I don't have a blacksmith... yet. However, give me a few weeks and I'll probably have a goblin warrior one. (If you've been reading my journals, I decided to make my goblin a blacksmith instead of an alchemist because I now have an alchemist, namely my paladin). However, I'll need months to get it to top level, if I'm going to spend any time at all with my current 80s.

Blacksmithing is a semi-useful skill. It has the potential to be useful for my plate-wielding alts, but requires that the blacksmither becomes 85 before the other plate-wielders. Since that's not going to happen, blacksmithing will only offer stuff for personal benefits. Correct me if I'm wrong here. The only item I know of is the "enchant" that grants an extra gem slot in a belt item.

Leatherworking, Tailoring, Skinning

Got none of either, so not applicable. My wife has a skinner / leatherworker, but she's not playing WoW now and possibly never will again. Both leatherworkers and tailors, however, suffer from the same problem as blacksmithing and to a certain degree inscription 350-425: They grant only benefits to lower-level alts. With the exception of the leg-specific enchant.

Bottom line

Alchemy, Enchanting and Jewelcrafting are, in my opinion, the top three professions for helping your other characters. All three continue to help other classes even when they're all at 85.

The other professions can help lower-level alts, but grant very little once you're all at 85.

Herbalism: Lifeblood changed

The ability that comes with Herbalism, Lifeblood, is changed. Previously, it healed the character for a decent amount of health. Now, it grants haste (240 for 450 herbalism, less if you have less skill) and a minor amount of health.

It now triggers a shared 20-sec cooldown on all on-use trinkets that grant haste, attack power, spell power and you name it.

That means herbalism is now a good pick for profession for all characters.

Haste grants

• Faster spellcasting = more dps and more hps
• Less time between auto-attacks = more dps and more procs (f. ex. Maelstrom Weapon
• More rage gained (warrior, bears)
• Faster energy regeneration (rogues, kitties)
• Faster rune regeneration (death knights)
• Faster focus regeneration (hunters)
• Shorter Crusader Strike cooldown for Retribution pallies (provided they have Sanctity of Battle)

Tanks are probably the role that benefit the least from haste. However, faster auto-attacks and more resources (rage and runes) are always handy, and translates into more threat. Unfortunately, it does nothing to improve Protection paladin resources (mana and holy power), but it still grants faster auto-attacks (and more Seal of Truth and Reckoning procs)

A simple pally macro for herbalism:

#showtooltip
/cast Avenging Wrath
/cast Lifeblood

Are bears still a bleak copy of Protection Warriors?

We're entering a new era... World of Warcraft version 4.0.

When I started playing WoW in classic, bears were really a bleak copy of protection warriors. Fast forward to Cataclysm. How do they feel today?

Identical abilities

The first comparison isn't even fair. Growl and Taunt are the identically same abilities, but they're also identical to Hand of Reckoning and Dark Command.

Moving on, Demoralizing Roar and Demoralizing Shout are identical. So are Challenging Roar and Challenging Shout. Interestingly enough, druids can glyph their version for 30 sec less cooldown, but I haven't been able to find a similar glyph for warriors. However, they pick up a talent (Drums of War) which reduces the rage cost of both shouts to 0 rage. Most handy.

Maul and Heroic Strike are basically the same. However, glyphed Maul will hit an additional target (albeit for 50%), which is starting to remind very much of Cleave. Then again, glyphed Cleave hits two additional target.

Similar abilities

Survival Instincts reduces damage by 60%, while Shield Wall reduces damage by 40%... however the latter can be glyphed to reduce damage by 60% as well, increasing its cooldown. However, with the talent Shield Mastery, the cooldown, even glyphed, drops below that of Survival Instincts.

Bash and Concussive Blow are pretty similar. The main difference is that Concussive Shot has a shorter cooldown and deals damage as well. Still, pretty similar.

Skull bash and Shield Bash are also similar, though Shield Bash has two seconds longer cooldown (provided the bear picks up Brutal Impact, which every bear with a bit of self-respect should). Shield Bash is affected by a lot of talents, though, among others reducing the rage cost to 0 and granting it a 100% chance to silence and daze the target.

Frenzied Regeneration now increases health by 30%, just like Last Stand. It also converts rage to health, similar to Enraged Regenration. The glyphed version increases healing taken instead.

Abilities which have the same purpose

Now we're arrived at abilities which aren't necessarily very similar, but works for the same purpose.

First, the primary skill for each spec. Mangle and Shield Slam both share a 6 second cooldown and are high-threat single-target moves. Mangle also applies a bleed debuff, while Shield Slam removes a magic buff. Both abilities have talents which gives a proc that reset their cooldown and cause them to cost no rage. For druids, it procs of Lacerate ticks, while warriors proc them off Devestate and Revenge.

Thunder Clap and Swipe are both AoE-threat abilities which share a 6 sec cooldown. In addition, Thunder Clap reduces attack speed of the opponents. Druids have this ability attached to Mangle and Maul with the talent Infected Wounds. In addition, Infected Wounds slow the target.

Druids also get a second AoE-threat ability on a 6 sec cooldown at level 81, Thrash, which applies a bleed effect to all targets. Warriors can talent Thunder Clap to spread the bleed from a Rend to all targets.

Then there's gap closers. Feral Charge and Charge both share a 15 sec cooldown unglyphed, 14 sec glyphed. The druid version immobilizes the opponent, the warrior version stuns. However, protection warriors also have Intercept and soon Heroic Leap.

Druids get Omen of Clarity for free, allowing a rage free ability now and then. Warriors can spec into Battle Trance, which does pretty much the same, but has a higher proc chance from a smaller selection of abilities... namely Shield Slam only.

Stuff which are not so similar

Faerie Fire and Devastate (or Sunder Armor for low-level warriors) both reduce armor by 4% and stack up to 3. However, they are not very identical in the way they are handled in the rotation. Faerie Fire has a long reach, a 6 sec cooldown, and with an almost mandatory bear talent (Feral Aggression) applies 3 stacks each cast. Thus, a druid doesn't spend time stacking up FF.

However, druids stack Lacerate 3 times. They throw down Pulverize to consume the stack and get a self-buff, unlike warriors who just keep Sunder Armor up throughout the battle.

Warriors do have a bleed, Rend, but it isn't vitally important the way Lacerate is.

Barkskin and Shield Block have some resemblance in usage as both reduce incoming damage slightly on a fairly short cooldown. Talented, Shield Block only has 30 sec CD, while Barkskin remains at 1 min. In addition, with Heavy Repercussions Shield Block becomes an offensive utility as well, doubling the damage of Shield Slam while it is up.

The passive mechanic to block incoming attacks for a warrior has somewhat the same purpose as Savage Defense, namely reduce incoming damage somewhat. Both are also focus of the mastery for each class.

Unique abilities to each class

Enrage was originally a copy of the warrior ability Bloodrage. However, it is now gone, leaving druids with an original ability.

In addition to some abilities mentioned above, druids also get Berserk, Stampeding Roar and Omen of Clarity. It might be mentioned that druids also get Rebirth, one of the very few ways to bring someone back to life mid-combat. Useful also for a tank, in a fight with phases where they can shift out between the different phases without risking to get squashed.

Warriors get a heapload of original stuff they can use while tanking. Which isn't too strange, since they can't shift out of their rage-form, like druids can. Listing them quickly: Intervene, Slam (not sure this is of any use while tanking), Vigilance, Shockwave, Disarm, Revenge, Spell Reflection, Heroic Throw, Victory Rush, Inner Rage, Berserker Rage and Intimidating Shout.

The two classes also bring different buffs and debuffs which benefit their party/raid. Well, almost. Both bring the armor reduction debuff. In addition, druids bring Leader of the Pack, the Mangle bleed increase and Mark of the Wild. Warriors bring Battle Shout, Commanding Shout and Vigilance. It feels like I've forgotten something here.

Conclusion?

The two subspecs (bears and protection warriors) still shares a good amount of mechanics. However, they also have enough difference that it doesn't feel like you're playing the same class. Then again, if you do have one of them and want to try a different tanking style, it might be a better idea to try Death Knight or Paladin first, to get a feel of something entirely different.

Keybindings and Macros Galore

I'm not exactly the first person to ever write a post about key bindings. Rather than focusing on exact key bindings, I'll share some of my thoughts regarding how I make up the system.

Muscle Memory

When playing a game such as World of Warcraft, you develop something called "Muscle memory". I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I believe it is something like this: When you decided to activate a certain ability in WoW, your brain does not consciously connect which ability is on which key binding. You have developed a muscle memory that allows your brain to just decide which ability to use, and then the fingers do the rest. Perhaps the connection is in the nerves of your hand, or your spine?

If you lack the muscle memory for a given class, you need extra time to connect the ability to the key binding you want to use. In some cases, you even need to look for the key on the display.

High level PVP players can often play several classes at top level. However, even they have the problem that they can't maintain a muscle memory for too many classes at the same time. Their reaction time is superb, but their response time suffers from the extra time they need to figure out the key binding.

A semi-counter for this is to have key bindings which are similar for all characters. It does not automatically make you better at the game, but I believe it personally helps me learn the key bindings faster... or re-learn them into my muscle memory whenever I switch class (again!).

Everything available

Even if you only play a single class, you can perform better if you need less movement of the hand to do what you want to. If your rotation requires you to often hit 1 and G, for example, you will probably be a bit faster if you change it to two keys next to each other, after some time learning the new keys.

Re-learning time for key binding

Before every expansion, during the beta, I look up all abilities for classes that either have gone through big modifications, or have gotten some new abilities added as part of the main rotation (at least buttons that need to be hit regularly), or just new classes I intend to level, like a warrior this time. Then I sit down with pen, paper, and a list of all abilities of a given class. After about two hours (usually split into several half-hour sessions) I've set up the key bindings as I want them in the next expansion.

However, that often means I've changed a lot of abilities around. It can be a real pain to learn a new set of key bindings. It takes a lot of time for your muscle memory to forget the old key bindings and replace them with the new, leading to a lot of circumstances where I end up hitting the wrong button at a critical moment. However, levelling is the best time to make such a change, as you usually play a lot of solo and only yourself suffer from the mess-ups.

It also takes a certain mindset to successfully do it. If you constantly irritate yourself over the messed-up keybindings, you're probably better off with the old. You need to think of the learning as a useful process and not just an irritating one, or the irritation will prevent you from learning effectively.

WASD or ESDF?

I have remapped the movement keys for all first-person shooter games and WoW from WASD (that is, forward with W, strafe left with A, etc) to ESDG (forward with E, left with S, etc). It took some time to learn, but I don't regret it.

The main advantage as I see it is that you have a lot more keys close to your fingers. From the usual position WASD, the following keys are easily reachable (not including the movement keys): |, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, q, e, r, (t), f, (g), <, z, x, c, v. Total of 15 keys easily reachable, 17 if you include t and g. From ESDF, you can reasily reach all of the following keys: (|), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, q, w, r, t, (y), a, g, (h), <, z, x, c, v, b. Total of 18 keys easily reachable, and 21 if you include the fairly easy to reach ones. That means another 3-4 abilities easily within reach. For a game like WoW where each class has some 40+ keys (including stuff common for all, such as follow), that can be extremely valuable. The second, minor benefit is that it is slightly easier to find the position on the keyboard if you keep in mind that your right-movement finger is on F, which always has a slight bump or some other ways of tactile detection on all keyboards. I hope that made sense.

Multiple usage of a key with shift and ctrl

You can map multiple abilities to the same key. For example, Q can have one ability, Ctrl-Q can have another, Shift-Q can have a third. I recommend not using Alt-Q or any other alt-modification key-binding, as alt is terribly place for ease of reach during a hectic battle. In addition, should you happen to hit alt-tab, you've just accidently tabbed out of WoW (in Windows, that is).

With that said, I sometimes use Alt-Q (or something similar) for macroing abilities that need to be cast are to be cast on my focus target.

Macros, macros, macros

Macros 101

There are two ways to get multiple key-bindings on the same key. One is to bind three different "slots" to for example Q, ctrl-Q and shift-Q, and then drop each ability into one slot.

The other is to macro them, and put the macro into the slot Q. Bring up the macro interface by typing /macro in the chat area. Create a new macro. Call it whatever you want, and use the question mark (?) as icon.

The following macro is an example, using three mage abilities, but you can replace them with whatever you want.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Frostbolt; [mod:ctrl] Frostfire Bolt; Fireball

Now drop the icon into a slot, and close the macro interface. The icon should be for Fireball when you don't press anything on the keyboard. If you now hold [ctrl], the icon should change to Frostfire Bolt. Finally, if you hold [shift], the icon should change to Frostbolt.

Now you can either hold [shift] and click the icon with your mouse to cast frostbolt, or you can hold [shift] and push the key bind for the slot you've dropped the ability into, for example Q. WARNING: If you have bound another slot to Shift-Q (or whichever key you're using), hitting [shift]-Q will activate that slot, not the one you've assigned to Q. Same with ctrl-Q. You need to unbind any slots you have with ctrl- and shift-keys for these types of macros to work.

Short explanation of the macro: The first line (#showtooltip) will tell the icon to change depending on which ability is triggered in the macro. Without it, the icon will be static. The macro will still work, but not the icon. It only works if you've chosen the question mark (?) as an icon for the macro.

The next line of the macro says something like this: If Shift is pressed ([mod:shift]), use Frostbolt. If shift is not pressed, but ctrl is pressed ([mod:ctrl]), use Frostfire Bolt. If neither ctrl nor shift is pressed, use Fireball.

Macros 102

A macro is always evaluated in order, meaning the first trigger to happen will be used. I'll give an example. Say you want to add something to the macro. If a friend is targetted, you want to cast Arcane Intellect instead. You can add that to a macro by typing "[help] Arcane Intellect". The [help] means that it only triggers if you have a target you can help. The opposite is [harm].

Consider the following macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Frostbolt; [mod:ctrl] Frostfire Bolt; Fireball; [help] Arcane Intellect

This macro will work exactly like the one above. It will never allow you to cast Arcane Intellect. Why? The [help] condition comes after Fireball, which does not have any conditions at all. You effectively say "Always cast fireball if nothing else is triggered before that".

The next version of the macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Frostbolt; [mod:ctrl] Frostfire Bolt; [help] Arcane Intellect; Fireball

This time, it will evaluate the condition "can I help the target" before it attempts to cast fireball if nothing else fails, but after it checks if ctrl and/or shift are pressed. That means: If you press ctrl or shift, even if you have a friendly target selected, it will attempt to cast frostbolt or frostfire bolt, hopefully producing an error message. (If not, go buckwild blasting your friends to death!)

The last version of the macro looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [help] Arcane Intellect; [mod:shift] Frostbolt; [mod:ctrl] Frostfire Bolt; Fireball

This target will check if the target is friendly first, before testing if you've pressed shift and/or control.

Note that there is (usually) no right or wrong concerning these macros. They are only correct or not in the sense that they do what you what them to do. Either of the last two might fulfill your needs if you want to create a macro for all four spells.

Macros 1042

Now we arrive at some slightly advanced macros. This one is specifically aimed at healers. I'll present the way I use now. I'll start by presenting a macro, from my druid arsenal.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift, @player] [mod:ctrl, @focus] [@mouseover, help] [help] Regrowth; Wrath

Now, this is what it'll do.

1. If shift is pressed, cast Regrowth on myself
2. Else, if ctrl is pressed, cast Regrowth on my focus target. I could easily add that it should only cast on my macro target if it exists and is alive, but I want it to fail it isn't.
3. Else, if I have my mouse over a target that can be helped (either on a unit frame, raid frame, Grid or on the actual character), cast Regrowth on that target
4. Else, if I am targetting something friendly, cast Regrowth on it.
5. Else, cast Wrath.

Using a macro like this, I don't need an addon like Clique. I just move my mouse to the target in the raid I want to heal and hit the button I've assigned to this macro, R in my case.

When healing in raids, I focus the main tank and target off-tank (and I have sticky targeting enabled in the interface options). When healing the main-tank, I hit Ctrl-R. When healing the off-tank, I hit R. When healing any other target, I move my mouse to the target on my grid addon (but it also works on the core raid frames) and hit R. If I need to heal myself, I hit Shift-R.

The reason I choose to focus the main tank rather than targeting it, is that there's a risk my mouse happen to be over any friendly target when I'm casting R and trying to heal the off-tank. If that happens, the heal will go on the mouseovered target instead. With practice, it rarely happens at all, but if it does, I don't want to get the main tank killed over such a mistake.

Macros 10-gazilliion

There is also a lot of other fun stuff you can do with macros, but I'm really derailing from my intended topic here. Check out a macro-guide if you're interested.

Principles for key bindings

O----kay. That was a lengthy introduction to what I was really writing about. Key bindings.

Here are my own rules.

Never change key bindings across specs

Any core ability which all specs have should always be on the same key. That also applies for talents which all specs take, such as Inner Focus for priests (well, up to Cataclysm, then only Disc priests will have it).

Healer, heal thyself

For any key that contains a targeted heal, which means 90% of them, macro it to heal myself with Shift pressed. It doesn't apply to non-targeted heals such as Holy Nova.

Main rotation on QWRT

The most commonly used abilities for any spec should be on W, R, which are the easiest reachable of any keys, possible not including A and space. The next should be on Q and T. After that I'll use 3 first, then 2 and 4.

For casters, I try to place cast-time spells on QWR and possibly T, and instant spells on 1-6. For healers, I always macro together all heals with harmful spells, depending on the target, like I've listed in the macro section above.

Abilities that need to be refreshed or are exclusive on A

For my shaman I have Water Shield on A and lighting shield on ctrl-A (no idea why I chose ctrl-A over shift-A). For my priest, I'll have Inner Fire and Inner Will on A, easy to switch. For my warrior, I'll have Commanding Shout and Battle Shout there. For my DK, I have Horn of Winter on A, actually macroed so that it will attempt to raise my pet if it's not already up in Unholy spec and then cast Horn of Winter.

If a class/spec have no such abilities, I just bind it to some ability that seem handy.

Emergency ability on H

Slightly tinted towards PVP. This includes Psychic Scream for a priest, Barkskin / Nature's Grasp for a druid, Stoneclaw Totem (glyphed) for a shaman, Divine Shield / Divine Protection for a paladin, Icebound Fortitude for a DK and Shield Wall (in defensive stance, else Retaliation/Recklessness) for a warrior.

Reactive abilities at G

Abilities that need to be cast to prevent something from affecting myself from an enemy (usually in PVP). Grounding totem for a shaman, Spell Reflect for a warrior, Anti-Magic Shell for a DK, Dispersion for a shadow priest, recast form for a druid (breaking snares and polymorph).

Spell interrupts at 4

Shield Bash / Pummel for a warrior, Wind Shear for a shaman, Skull Bash (in cata) for druid, Rebuke (in cata) for retribution pally, Avenger's Shield (since it silences) for a protection pally, Silence for shadow priest, Mind Freeze for a DK.

I also bind stuns and secondary silences on ctrl-4, such as Hammer of Justice (pally), Bash (feral druid) and Strangulate (DK).

Stances on ZXCVB

In the case of druids and warriors.

Taunts at 6

Taunt, Growl, Hand of Reckoning and Dark Command. On Shift-6: Challenging Shout, Challenging Roar, Righteous Defense and Death Grip (since it also taunts). Actually, I've macroed so that hovering the mouse on a friend as a pally will cast Righteous defense without shift as well.

Focus target on <

I'm not sure I'm too happy with this keybinding, but it has been there for so long... A macro that will focus the target if no focus exists, select the focus if a focus exists, and clear the focus if the target is dead. If ctrl is pressed, force re-focus even if the old focus still exists and is alive.

I don't have the macro here, but it was slightly complicated, so I dare not attempt to reproduce it here without testing it first. If you really want it, let me know in the comment, and I'll dig it up.

Talented abilities

I macro in a way that lets the same key be used for different abilities depending on which spec I'm currently in. For example: I'll use the same button for Shield Slam / Mortal Strike / Bloodthirst for my warrior, depending on what spec I'm in.

Unfortunately, not all specs have the same number of talented moves, so I'll just make do on the odd abilities that remain.

Multi-binding on the same key

For any ability that can not be cast on a friendly target, I macro another ability on the shift-version of the same key. I always try to stuff cooldown-abilities on the non-modifier version of these macros, so that I can see the cooldown on the icon without hitting shift. For example, for cataclysm I'll have macroed Judgement / Exorcism to the same button. Judgement has a cooldown, Exorcism has none.

In the cases where I have several cooldown-abilities I need to bind to the same button, I'll use the least most likely without shift or ctrl pressed.

Abilities across stances

I try to group ablities on the same button that are exclusive to a given stance (warrior or druid) and that makes sense together. For example: I've macroed Thunder Clap and Whirlwind to the same button. Thunder Clap can only be used in Battle or Defensive Stance. Whirlwind can only be used in Berserker stance. Both are AoE abilities, and thus have a logical connection.

Heals sorted by casttime

All healers in Cataclysm will have one cheap heal (Heal, Nourish, Healing Wave, Holy Light), one big heal (Greater Heal, Healing Touch, Greater Healing Wave, Divine Light) and one fast heal (Flash Heal, Regrowth, Healing Surge, Flash of Light). I place the big heals on Q, the cheap heals on W and the fast heals on R.

I use T for an instant heal, slightly depending on class. For disc priests, I use Penance (well, sort of instant. At least the first tick hits instantly). For holy priests I'll use Holy Word: Chastice there in Cataclysm, since it morphs into a healing spell in a chakra state. (Haven't been holy for the entire Wrath...)

For druids, I've used Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch there up until recently, but will most likely change it to Swiftmend. For shamans, recently Nature's Switness + Grater Healing Wave, but in cataclysm Unleash Elements, common for all specs. For paladins, I've placed the new Word of Glory there for cataclysm, common to all specs.

Damage spells sorted by casttime, too

I group damage spells on the same principle as the cast-time spells, placing the highest cast-time (and usually highest dps) on Q, and then advancing through W and R. With some exceptions where I can't find fitting abilties. Paladins, for example, have only one cast-time damage spell, Exorcism.

Be flexible

Even with the best logic in the world, I often find that there's something not fully working during levelling. When I do, I spend some time to try to come up with a better solution, often switching several key bindings around.

Soon, the point of no return...

4.0 (actually 4.0.1) is on the test realm. That translates to it hitting live servers soon. I'm really looking forward to it, although there's a few things I'll miss.

I'm not a fan of whining and complaining about changes. I believe that Blizzard does what they think is best for the game, even if that includes nerfing the class I currently play. When I stop believing that, I'll probably stop playing the game. However, so far it has worked out fine. Thus, I consider all change "good" in the broad sense that they'll over time make the game better and better.

I'd just like to list what I look forward to. I think it'll be fun looking back at it in a half year's time.

I look forward to practically every overhauled talent tree. It's just exciting to see the new possibilities and combinations, and test out various new or overhauled talents. Some specific highlights.

Before we start, I just got to say I really love that Mortal Strike and the similar abilities no longer halve healing, but reduce it by 25%. It'll be balanced in the end, but I think I like the balance that I can heal a bit more consistently no matter what enemy I'm facing.

Death-tards

First and foremost, the dedicated Blood tanking tree for DKs. I'm going to test something like this for tanking. I'll also test a modified version, for example this, for PVP as blood.

The other two DK trees look... fair enough. Good thing they're overhauled, but no super-changes I'm all wired up about.

Tree-huggers

Generally, I'm looking forward to the overhauled Thorns. I hope it'll be castable on yourself while tanking.

Bothersome Bear Boredom

The first two steps towards more entertaining tanking for bears: Pulverize and Skull Bash. Thrash is obtained at 81. Going to a bear-tanking spec like this for tanking.

Coming out of the closet... or bark

Druid healing without tree form, yay! Unlike a lot of other druids, I'm super-excited about it. This is how I PVP as a resto druid already. The resto tree is so full of awesome that I'm having a very hard time figuring out what to spec. Most likely a case of repeated respecs. I'll probably try a PVP-oriented build first, and see how well it works for PVE as well.

Just let me see if I got this correctly: Fury of Stormrage reduces the mana cost of Wrath by 100% at all times? So I can chain-gun wraths like there's no tomorrow, if noone is in need of healing? Oh, I'm so excited that I just can't hide it!

Ability to remove magic, fantastic!

The new spell costs will take some time getting my head bent around. The speedy healer, Regrowth, and the big healer, Healing Touch, costs almost the exact amount of mana. Meanwhile, Nourish, which heals for about the same as Regrowth, costs only a fifth as much mana. Hm. Interesting.

However, with talents, Regrowth is an almost guaranteed crit for 150% healing (an additional 60% + 4% from talents), and then provides both a Living Seed for an additional 30% of the critted amount, meaning about 45% of the normal amount, and a bed of pretty flowers under your feet for another 30% of the critted amount, or 45% of the normal amount. So assuming it crits, which it will do often, it can potentially heal for 240% on the main target plus a heal over time, and 45% of everyone else who happen to be standing in it. Given at least three targets in the zone, its approaching the efficiency of Nourish.

Finally, I'm all excited about the new Tree of Life, now on a cooldown. All the enhanced spells... so much fun.

Sailor Moon... kin!

I'm not going to test it straight away, but I am looking forward to the balance changes as well. Ranged knockdown and spell interrupt, great! I'm just not as excited as the other trees.

Huntards

I've never had a hunter before, but I'll probably make a Worgen one. Both to test out the starting area and story, and the class itself. It's rather low priority, though.

Water-vendors

I have a low-level mage, which I'm intending to pick up just to test the various new mage specs. Pretty low priority as well, though.

Loladins

So many great changes here. I'll definitely test them out, to see if paladins may actually suit me now. It'd be great to have a single character that can both tank and heal, and so far I've found paladins lacking due to general boredom.

The new resource system, holy power, looks really neat. Now, finally paladins will have to make some choices about how to use their resources as opposed to earlier (where holy paladins spammed a single spell, tanks just used a rotation, and retribution paladins just mashed whatever button came off cooldown first). Not just what to spend it on, but whether to spend it at one, two or three charges of holy power.

Tanking without a rotation, oh, how I look forward to that. Dps with a more depth than just cooldown-mashing, great. AoE healing and more choices while healing. Without even testing it, I am 100% sure that this is a great step in the right direction for paladins.

Interestingly enough, paladins can now (finally?) chain-cast a dps spell, Exorcism.

Preists

(That was intentionally misspelled, by the way)

Lots of neat stuff here. However, priests where already a pretty well-rounded class, so I look at the changes are more of rounding off an already great class, with a few exceptions.

The ability to heal by damaging enemies looks interesting, particularly when combined with a stacking buff and an mana restoring and healing increasing effect. I really wonder how it'll work out. At least healing in 5-mans needn't be boring when you're overgearing the place.

The priestly version of Anti-magic Zone looks neat, not least because it reduces all damage and not just spells. Pretty much superior to AMZ, in fact.

Blizzard is trying to make Holy priests viable for PVP now. Or, more viable, this is probably their third attempt or something. Chastise is back. I never got a chance to test it while it was a racial spell.

Chakra looks like it could be real fun, particularly with Chastise morphing to other spells while chackra'ed. By the way, I can't stop thinking of Naruto each time I hear the word Chakra.

The shadow tree looks polished and neat, but apart from the Shadow Orbs doesn't strike me as anything really new. However, it worked well before, it'll probably work slightly better now.

Rouge

(This, too, was intentionally misspelled)

I've got three RL friends who play rogues, so I keep an eye on the changes here so I can discuss it with them. However, I don't have a rogue, I've never had a rogue, and I'm not even remotely planning on getting one myself.

It does, however, look to me that rogues will be completely and utterly overpowered until the health pools increase. Bypass 50% armor for 10 sec after an opener? Probably a bit broken in combination with the health pools and dps of level 80 characters.

Ehm... lightning-huggers?

Sadly, I don't know any pun on shammies.

I think the changes here will be great. However, I'm not sure how I feel about the class. I do have a 80 which I've had a lot of fun with, and I will probably level her at some point, not least since Jewelcrafting is a great profession for all my characters.

However... I'm not sure I want to spend too much time as a shammy anymore. With that said, if the changes are good enough, I might. In particular, Elemental and Enhancement never agreed too well with me. Resto was good. I'm certainly going to test out the new talents and stuff.

Interestingly enough, I look forward to buffs getting lowered. Shamans had, in my opinion, too many buffs, and they're balanced around having all those buffs. Now that the buffs aren't quite so powerful, they'll need to be balanced around that, which means that they'll be more powerful when buffs are present... translate that to most PVP action.

For Resto, I'm in particular excited about the ability to remove magic, restore mana by casting lightning bolt, improving healing by shocking and 15% improved speed at all times.

I'm wondering if they have or will change Mana Tide Totem. I did read that they intended to change it, but can't see it anywhere. In PVP it's way less effective than every other mana-restoration ability for healers.

I'm still not sure I'll be a great fan of Elemental. I'm not sure how well Earthquake will work. Time will tell how well it'll work.

healthstone-vendors

I've got my level 34 alliance lock which I stopped levelling about two weeks ago. Will test out stuff with her. Honestly, the changes look really great, particularly after annoying myself to death with the old soul shard mechanic... lack of bag space, anyone?

As a low level lock, I'm also excited about getting the specialization spells now instead of having to wait until level 60.

Meat shields

I do have a warrior, retired a loooong time ago at level 34. ... how come I abondon several classes at that level?

However, come Cata, and I intend to make a goblin warrior. Since I don't have too much experience, I can't really tell what changes are good and what's not. But it looks quite interesting.

... and that's not all, folks

I'm also looking forward to the non-class specific changes. Too many to list here, but the spell alerts look particularly good.

Until 4.0, I've decided to get Crusader on my DK, to get the "bank access anywhere on a cooldown" thing. Lacking 5 days of dailies. You may also call me sir-fish-a-lot. So far, some 1200 fish and no turtle.

There's one thing I'll miss, though... the ability to tank as an Unholy DK... but oh well, can't have it all.