CURRENT FOR PATCH 3.3!

Here's a complete Gemming and Enchanting Guide for Druid Tanks in WoTLK World of Warcraft.

This guide includes two sets of gem/enchant suggestions: One for the beginner and another for "pro" raiders

BONUS: Complete Materials Lists + helpful suggestions to help you reduce your raid gear-enhancing costs!

EVERY TANKING DRUID RAIDER NEEDS THIS GUIDE!

Feral Druid Tank

If you want to find a fast, efficient, friendly raiding team, read on!

Raiders Who Don't Waste Time Gem and Enchant Their Gear

Sure, gems and Enchants aren't NEEDED in order to get into raiding.

Lots of people get wicked gear upgrades, but then continue to raid week after week without enhancing that wicked gear. And yes, they're still invited into raids.

But if THEY are so poorly Gemmed and Enchanted, I'll bet you can tell what the rest of the group looks like, too!

Some entry-level raiding guilds overlook an applicant's Gems and Enchants initially, but then discriminate when it comes time to build in-guild raid teams. The well-gemmed and enchanted tend to only want to play with others of the same ilk, potentially leaving YOU on the outside.

Use this guide to shine up your gear the best you can before a raid guild application, or to shine up the gear of your new alt raider!

Shine up your gear to Awesome Raiding Guild standards and notice how your in-game social circles begin to change as playing with well-gemmed and enchanted players becomes your new standard.

Topics In This Document

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The Raiding Druid's Tank Gemming and Enchanting Guide

WoWGrrl's mini-guides are based on many hours of research, and therefore are comprehensive and specific, but I still keep them very low-cost. Your purchase helps support the hosting costs of the WoWGrrl.com website and production of future guides on various World of Warcraft topics.

I appreciate the opportunity to help you reduce your research time and increase your play time, while you help me keep my blogging and guide-writing costs down through your contributions!

Feel free to leave a note to suggest a topic you'd like to see covered in a guide!

Related posts:

1. Kitty Druid Gem and Enchant Guide for World of Warcraft
2. Death Knight Tank Gem and Enchant Guide
3. WoW Rogue Gem and Enchant Guide

I've been going through my blog and cleaning things up over the past few weeks - after upgrading my version of Wordpress and getting a new design a couple of months ago (thanks to my brother, yay!), I've been working with the new technology tie-ins by turning what used to be Categories into Tags (which feed into Technorati where Categories did not), and refining my Category list quite a bit so it's not so full of junk.

In doing these hours of update, I'm going through every single one of the posts that I've done in the past and am editting the Categories and Tags, and re-saving the entries. So, I'm getting to see some stuff I'd forgotten about, and it makes me think...

Since I'm updating, I should probably go and update the Etiquette and Class Tips pages that are listed as navigational links - they need some serious update, as they haven't had "new" entries reflected in their listings for probably about a year.

What Entries Did You Most Enjoy?

I was wondering... are there any particular entries that you, the reader, think should strongly be considered for inclusion on these pages when I update them?

If any come to mind and you'd like to share your opinion, I'd sincerely appreciate it - leaving a note on the entry itself is probably the best way to communicate it.

The search function at the top of the first sidebar should help you find the exact entry, and don't forget to rate the entry 1-5 stars as well :)

Here are some I will probably link in there somewhere, from just before my foray into Raiding:

• Greasing The Social Wheels: An Introduction (a short series that needs to be expanded upon)

• How To Join A PUG
• How to "Lurk" on the LFG Channel

Related posts:

1. Tank/Healer Not Required: An Alternate Universe
2. Computer Security Online, Keep Your Computer Clean
3. I Wish That I Had Vanish

Now there's an LFG Tool that you have to list yourself in, in order to subscribe to the "LFG line". You could just "/join lfg" but you wouldn't be subscribed to the same one as the tool - you need to have yourself listed as looking for a group or looking for another member for your group, in order to subscribe to the Global channel.

Often, I don't really want to commit myself to doing anything in a group, but I want to hear what's going on in general - what dungeon parties are being formed, what classes are required, who's doing the call-outs, etc. Even more often, I'm not sure what toon of mine I want to hit a dungeon with - it often depends on what others on the realm are looking to do, especially in low population hours.

So, what do I do? I "lurk" in the LFG Channel, and I'll show you how to as well.

What Is Lurking?

In short, to lurk is to prowl around, hoping to be undetected. Watching. Listening. But not actively participating in the activities at hand.

In this case, that means not listing yourself as available for a specific dungeon but still listing yourself in the LFG tool so you can keep up with what might be available for you to join if it interests you.

How To "Lurk" On The LFG Channel

Here's how you do it - you list yourself as available in a ZONE instead of a Dungeon or Quest, and if you choose a zone that is ill-frequented, it's quite unlikely anyone will ever do the proper search to find you there:

De-lurking To Join A Party

Sometimes I just subscribe to the LFG tool to hear what's going on but know that I don't have enough time to get into anything myself. Most times, however, I subscribe to the LFG tool and watch for something that one of my toons can do... and then when someone advertises on the LFG line for something I'm interested in, I whisper to them from whatever toon I'm on and offer to hop over to the other to join them. I've never been turned down, and find it's a reliable way to burn off rest bonus on my pre-Outland toons.

Related posts:

1. How To “Lurk” On The LFG Channel
2. How To Join A PUG
3. To The LFG Tool: Some Laments

Now there's an LFG Tool that you have to list yourself in, in order to subscribe to the "LFG line". You could just "/join lfg" but you wouldn't be subscribed to the same one as the tool - you need to have yourself listed as looking for a group or looking for another member for your group, in order to subscribe to the Global channel.

Often, I don't really want to commit myself to doing anything in a group, but I want to hear what's going on in general - what dungeon parties are being formed, what classes are required, who's doing the call-outs, etc. Even more often, I'm not sure what toon of mine I want to hit a dungeon with - it often depends on what others on the realm are looking to do, especially in low population hours.

So, what do I do? I "lurk" in the LFG Channel, and I'll show you how to as well.

What Is Lurking?

In short, to lurk is to prowl around, hoping to be undetected. Watching. Listening. But not actively participating in the activities at hand.

In this case, that means not listing yourself as available for a specific dungeon but still listing yourself in the LFG tool so you can keep up with what might be available for you to join if it interests you.

How To "Lurk" On The LFG Channel

Here's how you do it - you list yourself as available in a ZONE instead of a Dungeon or Quest, and if you choose a zone that is ill-frequented, it's quite unlikely anyone will ever do the proper search to find you there:

De-lurking To Join A Party

Sometimes I just subscribe to the LFG tool to hear what's going on but know that I don't have enough time to get into anything myself. Most times, however, I subscribe to the LFG tool and watch for something that one of my toons can do... and then when someone advertises on the LFG line for something I'm interested in, I whisper to them from whatever toon I'm on and offer to hop over to the other to join them. I've never been turned down, and find it's a reliable way to burn off rest bonus on my pre-Outland toons.

Related posts:

1. How To "Lurk" On The LFG Channel
2. How To Join A PUG
3. To The LFG Tool: Some Laments

Heroics in World of Warcraft

Heroics dungeons were introduced with Burning Crusade as a way to keep the general populace entertained for longer before having to commit to a "raiding guild experience" that went beyond a PUG in the Looking For Group tool.

Heroics only exist in the Burning Crusade dungeons (but will also exist in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion) and are dungeons whose difficulty are significantly higher than the regular version of the same dungeons. That is, all the dungeons from Hellfire Ramparts clear up to Steamvaults, Arcatraz and the many others players can traverse through on their trek to 70... have a Heroic mode that can be run once a player is 70 and adequately geared.

The Purposes Of Heroic Dungeons

Heroic Dungeons serve many purposes on the game.

If you're a casual player who has no aspiration to ever see the inside of a 10-man-raid during the same expansion it was released in, Heroics offer a challenging environment that requires the same level of commitment and scheduling as a regular 5-man PUG, and offers a continuation of gearing-up that doesn't require commitment to other players on a continuing basis.

If you're interested in getting into Raiding, Heroics is a training ground for the skills required to be a good raiding contributor to the 10 and 25-man raids. Plus, the gearing from Heroics Badge rewards and Heroics drops (including otherwise-expensive Gems) is on-par with what drops in the 10-man raid instances - thus, gearing up through Heroics makes a would-be raider even MORE viable on a raiding team.

The Heroics Inside Track

I've noticed in my own gearing-up and PUG Heroicking (and social wheel greasing) and reputation grinding that the better geared I have gotten, the more people whisper ME to get involved in things - even when I'm not in their guild, and, in fact, my guild is a "nobody" guild when it comes to Heroics and beyond.

I've now got Heroics-geared Tanks and Healers who ask ME to join their group to handle DPS and Crowd Control. Folks who rank decently on the WoWJutsu.com ranking site for our realm. And let me tell you... partial PUGs where you know the Tank and/or Healer are solid make Heroics SO MUCH MORE FUN!

Why Do People Skip Heroics?

I've noticed something very interesting now that I've moved into this "gearing/geared up for Heroics" phase of my World of Warcraft existence - while Heroics gear is on-par with Karazhan gear (I'm going to have to find some links to point to here, I'll come back and edit this later), there are those would-be raiders who seem to want to "skip over" Heroics and jump right from "Quest-and-Dungeon-Blues 67+" into Karazhan in order to get their gear upgrades there.

I realize that PUG Heroics are a crapshoot in terms of being able to make it past the first boss with the continuing waves of barely-geared players dipping their toes into the Heroics water, but isn't that why we build a Friends list?

Oh, and BTW, if you're in a guild with a bunch of Friends, this question is much clearer to me. I guess I'm asking mainly about the people who apply as complete strangers to join a raiding guild without having an inside reference asking them to join.

Thoughts welcome!

Woot! Game's up...

Related posts:

1. Struggling With Desires: Raiding vs Writing
2. Gearing Toon #2 For Heroics – Hunter
3. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons

For the purpose of this entry, I'd like to clarify context of what I'm talking about when I use the word PUG, because its simple explanation of "Pick Up Group" doesn't offer enough clarity in itself.

My Definition of a PUG

For context of this entry, a Pick Up Group is what I'm getting into when I enter myself into the LFG tool and enter into a dungeon group with three or four complete strangers who I've probably never partied with before.

In this case, I am not bringing any Friends or Guildmates along with me, and none of the players who end up in the dungeon party are on my Friends list (at the start) - we're all complete strangers coming together to accomplish a specific set of tasks in conquering dungeon content.

My PUGging Strategy - The Basics

I use Pick Up Groups to level my toons through Azeroth, spending each toon's rest bonus and then parking the toon to rest up in between while I work on the rest of my toons.

Occasionally I use my Azeroth toons and solo with them - to gather quests and do prerequisites for the next dungeon's list of quests... but that's about it. Once I have the quests in my book, I head back to an Inn and proceed to PUG my levels up through dungeon runs.

I also join in on Outland PUGs when the opportunity is right, and use these same strategies and tips to land those parties.

Here's what I do when I have time to hit a dungeon on one of my toons:

1. Log into one toon that can stay online for a bit - ie: 30 minutes at least, without hopping to another toon. Stay out of combat if at all possible, advancing skills like Fishing and doing Auction House work to entertain myself during this time.
2. List myself in the LFG tool, either specifiying what dungeons I want on this toon or by putting myself in a zone so I'm only 'lurking' in the LFG channel.
3. Pay attention to the LFG channel and if there's an opportunity to hit a different dungeon than I had originally planned, take it.

As a result, I don't end up controlling what toon or what dungeon I try to go into, but I regularly find myself having little troubles finding a group to join. It's when I want to advance a specific toon that Murphy's Law tends to take effect! In all of my playing I try to downgrade the amount of influence Murphy may have at any moment, and it is only thwarted by keeping an open mind.

Tips to Help These Strategies

If you're largely a solo player and have no Real Life friends in the game, the best way to get into dungeon groups reliably is to follow any of the following:

• Join a large levelling guild with many players around your range, and participate in guild chat and events
• Bring up a family of toons that are in different level ranges so you have more choice at any one time
• Play your main toon as a Healer or Tank in group situations
• Build a Friends list from previous PUGs so you have people you can call upon to fill spots

Note, there are times that there are no groups going for the dungeons I want, even on my healer toons, so keep that in mind as well. I find that weekends are great for Azeroth dungeons and mid-afternoon works well for Outland dungeons, but late night and evenings also work well - you'll need to experiment.

Some Alternatives and Extra Tips

1. Build A Solid Friends List.

   This is especially important if you wish to play only one toon and not bother with a family of characters.

   You may occasionally get lucky and fall into a group of someone else's friends and have a good run, but unless you take the time to build your own online relationships you'll always have problems finding dungeon parties because good players begin to 'clique' with you on the outside.

   REMEMBER: It's not wise to behave like other people are computerized NPCs who are available to do what you want, when you want it, without you having put in effort to build a friendship first. (it doesn't matter how busy your life is - impatient people wind up on Ignore lists, not Friends lists)

2. When In A Party, Stand Out

   A big key to finding a solid guild or group of friends to tackle game content with is being adequately prepared yourself, and being noticed by those who appreciate players who come prepared.

   Don't be fooled into thinking that good players don't notice when you put in a small amount of effort to be prepared for a PUG - they may cover for you by providing water or arrows or a summon after you need repairs two wipes in, but it won't earn you a good place on their Friends list.

   Check out these entries regarding the topic of Social Wheel Greasing - Introduction, First Aid, Preparation For Dungeons, and Sharing Your Skills.

3. Keep an open mind.

   Sure, it'd be nice to hit a specific dungeon but if nobody else is calling for someone to fill your role in a party, it might be better to do something on a different toon this time.

In Closing - Can One Ever Escape PUGs?

In closing, I'd like to add the following:

If you're hoping to one day be able to avoid the chaos of PUGs completely, only running with friends and guildmates and others you already know, keep the following in mind:

• Good guilds are looking for good TEAM players - personality and skill combined. They might even find YOU in PUGs!
• PUGs can help you find new friends, as well as give you a training ground for improving your player skills and general team skills.
• Sometimes, in order to learn new content it's best to run with strangers and bring back the information to friends
• Unless you've got Real Life friends to team with, the good players in your guild may perceive you as a "tag-along" instead of a real contributor.

So in short - no, I think for the most part, PUGs will never completely go away. While Guild Runs may take over some of the PUG needs, a player should always be prepared to take part in PUGs to acheive reputation, gearing, attunement and general skill building goals set out by the player or their guild environment.

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
2. How To "Lurk" On The LFG Channel
3. How To “Lurk” On The LFG Channel

About First Aid

On World of Warcraft, First Aid is one of the three "secondary" professions that can be learned by all players of all classes, no matter their other professions. Fishing and Cooking are the other in this category which can be learned by all.

First Aid allows a player to turn cloth into bandages - progressively more powerful bandages as the player's First Aid level advances. Bandages can be used as one of the many ways to restore health more quickly than natural healing allows, but the special benefit of bandaging is that it can be used for in-combat healing as long as the bandager and bandagee are not being hit (a hit will stop the channelling of bandaged healing).

Why First Aid Is A "Wheel Greaser"

In a party situation, it's not always fair to depend solely on the healer to restore your health from battles. And, as a healer, sometimes it's nice to save your mana and still get a quick heal.

While you may be fortunate and end up with group after group where the healer has plenty of mana to heal the fight and is able to recover mana for the next battle without huge long delays for the group, it's what you do to "pull out the last stops" on or just after a really hard fight that helps define you as an A-Team player versus an Average Player.

And if you're a Warlock who likes to Life Tap to restore mana, you're losing an INSANE number of karma points with the A-Team members if you're not bandaging yourself up after Life Tapping between battles, at least until the healer says they'll gladly take over helping you out there.

How To Use First Aid As A Wheel Greaser

The main thing you're doing by using First Aid is saving the Healer (even if the Healer is you) mana and as a result, allowing the group to progress more quickly, reducing the number of "mana up" breaks the healer will need. Sometimes, however, you're backing out of a tough battle to bandage for a moment to save your life (so you can contribute more DPS to the fight afterwards) when the healer has been forced to focus solely on keeping the tank up.

Here are some simple habits you can execute between battles that will be noticed by the A-Team:

• Bandage yourself to full health after a battle has completed whenever possible
• Hunters, use bandages as extra healing on top of your Mend Pet ability
• Warlocks, use bandages to restore health after Life Tapping
• Anyone - bandage someone who needs it between battles

During battles, it's not often all that useful to use a bandage, because being hit cancels the streaming heal of the bandaging process and bandaging can only be done once every 60 seconds. However, if you are not being hit and are a DPS character that can back out of a battle for 10 seconds to apply a bandage, the extra time you give yourself to "live to DPS another day" could end up helping the team more than if you had stayed, fought, and died.

What's the quickest way to level up First Aid?

Now that you see one of the important reasons to level up First Aid, how do you get it to a reasonable level, quickly?

Personally, I like farming dungeons for my First Aid materials, but that's because I have a max-level toon. Two runs of Ragefire Chasm, Two of Dead Mines and then about 6 wings of Scarlet Monestary and I'm at 225 First Aid and ready to do the quest in Hammerfall to up the max to 300.

If you're starting a new toon, however, consider leveling up First Aid more naturally - take the Linen Cloth you find from humanoids from level 6 to the low teens and turn them into bandages, and as you advance your level, the cloth types will advance, too.

If you're around level 40, consider farming RFC (or the Alliance equiv) for your Linen Cloth, or taking out humanoids in that 6-12 level range in zones you used to play in. Wool Cloth can be found on the Razormanes in The Barrens but is also present in Dead Mines and Wailing Caverns in piles.

And of course, if the prices are good because there's a lot listed, buy some from the Auction House!

And yes, Wool Cloth is ALWAYS that expensive (more than Linen Cloth or Silk Cloth, at times more than Mageweave Cloth)... but that's another topic for another day!

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
2. Greasing the Social Wheels, An Introduction
3. How To Join A PUG

That is, are there enough players with proper skills, proper equipment and proper talent specializations (in that order) to handle the duties of Tank and Healer adequately in a group with three DPS players.

On Zul'jin, there are regularly times where it's obvious some groups are having problems finding Healers and Tanks (could it be that some DPS folk have earned bad reputations?) and I've seen 6 DPS and 0 Tanks and Healers listed for Zul'Farrak in LFG as well as been in parties that disbanded after trying fruitlessly for a tank or healer, so I know our realm isn't immune to this problem.

The topic itself deserves a family of entries dedicated to it (I wrote about a wee part of it back here, in the section labelled 'What no LFG tool will ever fix'), and there are number of people who have already written mounds on the topic - one day I'll link some of the ones I have found and my thoughts about the whole thing, but that's not today.

Today, all I wish to do is show a wee bit of screenshot that I took in the past few days - I felt by looking at the LFG line output that I was living in an Alternate Universe where there were more Tanks and Healers than DPS toons about, because it seemed to me that there was actual competition for DPS classes to join dungeon parties.

Weird.

Related posts:

1. How To Join A PUG
2. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
3. Azeroth In The 50s – Rogue and Priest

There are now some 9 MILLION registered players according to Blizzard, and it's THE most popular online role playing game going.

With that many PEOPLE playing the game, it's important as a member of the WoW community on your realm to think about how you can do things to "win friends and influence people", as having friends in-game can be a huge benefit to you in ways you cannot comprehend nor predict when you first begin playing.

What is "Social Wheel Greasing"?

At some point in life we all learn that certain mechanical objects work better when they're well-oiled than when they haven't been oiled in a while. Not only that, but the guy who brings oil is appreciated by anyone who has experienced the pain of a poorly-oiled machine.

This applies to WoW as well: The player who has taken the time to prepare adequately for a group encounter is able to do their part in being part of that well-oiled machine, and isn't the one to cause the group to "seize up" and experience complications.

Why Worry About Greasing The Wheels?

It's completely possible to get your WoW toons from creation to max level without ever relying on another person (outside of those using the Auction House) to help you. If you're fine with being 100% solo, then don't worry about this stuff unless it directly helps you. Or, if you have Real Life friends playing, this may not apply.

However, most of us enjoy the opportunity to join our friends for questing groups, or join in on 5-person or larger parties that are going into progressively more difficult dungeons located throughout the game, and most of us are going to rely on building friendships with virtual strangers in order to join this experience.

So, in short, only worry about it if you're interested in doing more dungeon-based group content or if you've got a dream to "maybe, someday, perhaps, join a raiding guild" with any of your characters.

How Does Wheel Greasing Help?

Truth: Relationships online aren't like ones you develop with people you're in the same room with. Physical presence offers a lot of influence and is less easy to ignore than when "you" are just words written on my screen.

As a result, players who have an interest in joining this fun and dynamic portion of the Warcraft universe (dungeon parties, guild questing groups, anything non-solo) benefit from learning how to "stand out" from the Average Player, while also learning to recognize other players who strive to be Above Average.

Average Players tend to get left behind when the "A Team" wants to go out and do a group-based venture because the A-Team consists of players who "go the extra mile" to make sure they're in tip-top condition for contributing to the dungeon or raid team.

Are There Costs To Wheel Greasing?

Becoming a well-rounded Warcraft character does cost money, just like becoming a well-rounded Human Being does.

Some of the money comes in the form of skills learned, some in the form of materials purchased, and all require some of your time and purposeful attention.

Are There Downsides To Wheel Greasing?

Sure. Some players feel entitled to take advantage of any help offered them and the Wheel Greaser will be burned on occasion as a result - giving way more than they ever get back. It's up to the Wheel Greaser to also step back emotionally and learn effective strategies for recognizing "users" before you allow yourself to get resentful.

When Does Wheel Greasing Pay Off?

The techniques one would use for the wheel-greasing actually benefit yourself as a player, so the technical pay-off does come right away.

However, the social pay-off is slower to accumulate and requires patience of its pursuers. I have noticed that below level 20, very few people stand out in dungeon parties as those who have gone the extra mile, even if they have begun the process. During the 20-30 trek the A-Team players tend to congregate more often within parties, but many level at different paces. (if you're looking for a good levelling guild, join the guild of someone you've enjoyed running a dungeon or two with at this range as a great start)

By level 62, in low-level Outland dungeons, players who have not taken the time to round out their characters for Wheel Greasing begin to stand out like a sore thumb in the parties I take part in. By the level 70 pre-heriocs dungeons, Wheel Greasing techniques can help you make a great showing - even if you're a bit undergeared - when you luck into a party with an obvious A-Team.

So, What Do I Do To "Grease The Wheels"?

Stay tuned, I have more entries coming in, now that I have this introduction that I can point back to :)

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
2. Greasing the Social Wheels: First Aid Training
3. How To Join A PUG

The Old Way (before Patch 2.1 or so)

Initially, whoever opened the chest would get all of the contents, and the regular rolling mechanisms present in groups for corpse loots didn't apply.

This meant social structures had to be set up amongst players - agreements that when a chest was found in a group situation, everyone in the party would /roll and the winner of that roll would get the chest and its contents.

Of course, that also meant problems - a player could easily circumvent the social expectations and there really was very little recourse except to vow never to party with that player again if it looked as if it were intentional and not an honest low-level-player's mistake (that we all made or watched someone else make while in our first groups).

In some of the Outland dungeons, like Ramparts (the first one you'd do in Outland), a chest would spawn at the end of the instance after the boss was killed, and since the chest usually contained two blues, the screaming was intense about "ninjas" and how to deal with them. So, Blizzard made a change.

The New Way (current day)

Nowadays, chests obey the looting rules of your party, and therefore a standard party setup makes it so that contents of chests that are Green+ in quality pop up a standard rolling window like a regular corpse loot would.

But, there's still a question - potions, ores, bags and the likes are White in quality and therefore do not trigger the roll, and therefore whoever opened the chest DOES get those materials where others miss out.

So, has the social agreement changed at all?

What Agreement Do You Prefer?

I'd love to get feedback on this topic from everyone out there - and if you can, please let me know what level of characters you have as well, so I can keep that in mind.

Do you suggest people /roll when a chest is discovered in a dungeon?

If others suggest a roll-off on a chest in a dungeon, what is your response?

Any other comments?

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
2. Unwritten Rules to Party Loot Sharing
3. How To Join A PUG