Bending to my curiosity, I fired up a ten day free trial of The Burning Crusade that is offered to “former or current” players of World of Warcraft. I took the opportunity to start up a Blood Elf Paladin and a Draenei Shaman so I could look around and take a bunch of screenshots. Totally unpredictable, I know.
Mournful lack of originality aside, I realized that I could also play my old friend Padgi for a few more days. So, I fired up another random dungeon and found myself in Blackrock Depths. The players I wound up with were decent, and things went smooth enough, despite the occasional death. Once the Warrior tank got his Force of Magma (I should have rolled Need on it, but didn’t… Ironaya‘s stick is still good enough for me.) from Bael’Gar, he and his Hunter buddy dropped the group. The Mage and Shaman healer soon flitted off as well, leaving me alone in the depths of a hot and Dwarf-infested place.
So naturally, I wandered around and took some pictures. One must make the most of situations, hm?
While watching the Dwarf patrols, I wished I had four other Druids with me. We could sneak around as kitties, picking and choosing our fights with surgical precision, looking to bust some allies (er, Hordies?) out of the deepest, darkest prison. There’s just something deeply appealing to me about a party of Druids, supremely flexible, going all A-Team on a dungeon. (Pretend for a moment that you could split up and accomplish cool things for the group without being attached at the hip.) I’ve played through enough “old world” dungeons to start feeling like they are all pretty much the same. Pull group, let the tank secure aggro, shred some backs, lick wounds, loot, lather, rinse, repeat.
I’m probably doing it wrong, but it really does just seem like the same thing over and over again, just with different window dressing and loot. It’s fun enough to play through these dungeons at least once, but still… I wish I could play with an elite team of Druids, handling problems their own way, rather than doing the Same Old tank/healer/dps dance. I know, I know, the game isn’t designed for that… but sitting in a corner as a quiet, deadly ninja kitty… I had a glimpse of what I wanted to play, and it was glorious.
Pity I can’t have it… but alas, that’s life.
Yes, yes, I’m sure I could find a Druid guild somewhere, but that’s just part of the equation. The “split up and orchestrate a devious plan of attack” bit is what really appealed to me as I lurked around in the ‘Depths. Yeah, we could come back as level 80 monsters and totally outclass the hapless Dwarfs, but where’s the fun in that?
I read a few times about all-druid runs in Karazhan back in the days of TBC and I always was a bit envious about it.
Currently I’m nourishing a dream about an all-gnomish party in Cataclysm, which will become possible with the incoming priest gnomes. It won’t be as interesting as a druid party of course, since it will contain the traditional tank-healing-dps roles. But there’s still something in the idea that makes me smile. And of course the boss should be mega-huge. Think Ragnaros/Gruul. Classic fairy tale theme: several smallish guys can work together and accomplish more than you could have imagined against the Big guy.
I’m imagining a mix of Lilliputians, Munchkins and Smurfs… with some good old Doc Brown thrown in. Could be a lot of fun.
I love the idea of an all druid party, and an all gnome party as well!
If only they would give us gnome druids, because I’d so be down with that.
Any mention of BRD makes me weep with happy nostalgia. Actually my eyes are tearing ever so slightly. That’s one of the fun parts of a stealth class, being able to look around and see what no one else can see, because they’re too busy getting their shins bashed.
I really enjoy stealthing around with my kitty. It was about the only way to get to Gnomeragan when I soloed it a while back. There’s just something fun in meandering around in “enemy” territory or dungeons, taking in the sights without needing to kill everything.
It makes me wish there were stealth spying missions that would grant XP and loot as an alternate progression path… but maybe that’s another article.
Oh, and Gnome Druids? Can you imagine the animal forms? Talk about “care bears”… and maybe they would get a dog form (a new meaning for “pug”?) instead of a cat form, so they can be proper ankle biters?
I can see it now, Gnome Druid healing form would be a Bonsai Tree. Sand da floor! Sand da floor!
But a Gnome kitty-cat wouldn’t need stealth, they’re so tiny and insignificant, nobody really notices them anyway. Meow!
[...] I want there to be a reason to play a class beyond finding the best way to kill stuff or tank stuff or heal stuff. If I’m stuck in a class (or subclass thanks to the new WoW talent tree locks), I want it to be something other than just combat, to offer unique gameplay options. [...]