Hey there Build Shop fans! This week, I'm examining a heavy Restoration build for druids, with a few points from Feral thrown in (you know, for spice). This build comes to us courtesy of reader Arajal of Dunemaul, who had this to say about it: "Overall my build is mainly a healer spec with some utility thrown in. I like to DPS or tank instances sometimes, and my points in both trees help each role. Natural Perfection is pretty handy while tanking."

I disagree somewhat with the usefulness of Natural Perfection for tanking -- if you're a Druid tank with the proper amount of Defense, you shouldn't be getting crit at all. On the other hand, this isn't a full Feral build, and without Survival of the Fittest I'd imagine it'd be pretty tough to put together a leather set with enough Defense to get the job done, so it could be useful for reducing damage after you take the inevitable crit. I'd consider Natural Perfection more of a PvP / utility talent than anything else, but what do you think?

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Once again, Wowhead has come forward with a few nice new features. First up, we now have dynamic searching (pictured), possibly spurred on by the new competition: just start typing and your search results appear right below the search box, summoned by the power of JavaScript. This even works in the newly updated Firefox search plugin. It doesn't get much more convenient than that, although I am partial to my keyword searches.

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Well, the 2.4 PTR patch notes are up and and making waves across the WoW community. There's some great stuff in there, too. The Sunwell Isle is open and we're going to see more tier drops than ever before! All in all it seems like a great patch designed to help us get a look at more endgame raiding before the expansion drops.

But it isn't all lolipops and rainbows. Buried deep down in the depths of those notes is an innocent note, buried way at the bottom under the World Environment category and I'll repeat it to you now verbatim:

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One of the first things I checked out on the PTR was the new fishing daily quests. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I actually enjoy fishing in WoW and have been increasingly interested in this quest ever since it came to my attention via the official forums. Now that the 2.4 test realm has been up for a few days, I've been able to do three of the new, randomly rotating quests which start from Old Man Barlo just outside of Shattrath City.

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We've been reporting furiously on the details of the Sunwell Patch 2.4 since it the notes hit Friday and the PTR came up over the weekend. Overwhelmed yet? We were, too. So we've taken all of our coverage to date, over 35 posts so far and counting, and we put their links all in one place, our Patch 2.4 Sunwell info page.

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Spoiler alert: this video shows a successful kill of Kael'thas, the final boss of the new 5-man Magister's Terrace in patch 2.4.

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Last week we went over the importance of motion in PvP. Unlike in most PvE encounters, movement is vital to PvP. Kiting and taking advantage of line-of-sight is standard fare, so unrestricted movement is essential. Thankfully, in World of Warcraft, plate- and cloth-wearers alike move at relatively the same speed. It's difficult to imagine PvP at a plodding pace, which is why movement-impairing spells and abilities are key to PvP.

Every class has skills and talents that either enable unrestricted movement or hampers an opponent's ability to move. In PvP, learning to harness these abilities to the fullest can spell the difference between a mediocre PvP player from an excellent one. As a melee class, my favorite targets are those players who don't bother to move. Even melee classes engaging other melee classes benefit from constant movement, always trying to go behind the opponent to remove chances to parry or block as well as remove oneself from attack range. Let's go over the different classes and their movement enhancing or hampering abilities.

Druid
Inarguably, the best and greatest class for mobility is the Druid. Druids are the masters of movement and are the most difficult class to chase down. The best Druids are absolutely, perfectly beautiful to watch in combat, changing forms to break snare effects, cast spells, and attack. I've been struck in awe with the grace and ferocity of many excellent Druids who use their many forms to the fullest. The act of shapeshifting frees the Druid from Polymorph and movement impairing effects, making the Druid's only limitation being their mana to pay for their transformations. The Restoration talent Natural Shapeshifter helps in this regard, as well as the baseline Innervate. In PvP, however, it's interesting to note that Druids are mostly immune to mana drain effects, anyway, as their non-caster forms don't use it.

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Now that we are up and running again, how about some blues?
Quote from Blizzard staffSo, anyway, with 2.4 we're moving in a different direction, starting small, and working our way through the PTR with changes in-mind, but not a huge glut of changes we throw out at the start.

Kind of a tease I suppose, everyone wants to see crazy changes and yell and pull hair, but we weren't happy with that approach. It's a more subdued approach, and it's sure to put focus on specific changes as they go in one or a few at a time. We'll see how it works out, hopefully it's for the best.

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What's your main right now?

My main character is a level 70 assassination rogue. I've tried just about every rogue build and assassination is just what I feel the most comfortable with. I also have a restoration shaman I really enjoy who is getting close to 70. (Real men level resto!) I also have a hunter in the mid-60's.

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

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Rogues probably remember well the day that their current stealth animations were altered over a year ago now. People complained that their character suddenly seemed wobbly or constipated while walking around in stealth, but Blizzard responded with promises of brand-new super-cool stealth animations for rogues of all races to help solve the issue. They said, and I quote, "Currently this issue is expected to be resolved in patch 2.1," (which obviously didn't happen) "but there is a chance that the new animations will not be ready by that time, which may result in the fix being delayed for a later patch."

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We almost can't believe it's true, but it is. If you're a fan of the WoW Insider Show (and our representative from WoW Radio, Turpster), you won't want to miss Massively's new weekly feature, TurpsterVision. Every Tuesday, the loveable rogue (who actually plays a Gnome Warrior in WoW) will premiere a brand new video segment, full of Turpstery goodness. Massively, if you didn't know, is a blog like WoW Insider, but for all MMOs (not just Warcraft), and each week Turpster will examine another wacky game in the quickly-growing world of online gaming. And it's probably a good guess that he'll also do whatever else he thinks of, too-- his is a kind of rampant talent that you just can't control.

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When I woke up this morning I was greeted to two things: a fist full of WoW news to report on, and my daily dose of MythBusters. Interestingly I found that our chummy Blizzard PTR forum poster Hortus has taken up dispelling some myths of his own. This myth is so epic that I think it would make for a good computer nerd edition of MythBusters.

The myth is this: every time the PTR goes up, my server slows down.

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There have been reports that the latency in Blizzard's World of Warcraft Reckoning and Cyclone cross-realm battleground servers is experiencing problems. Players waiting to get into Alterac Valley have given word that they've been waiting for over five minutes to get into a game.

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After Blizzard's release of the 2.4.0 PTR for World of Warcraft, the general cry on everyone's lips was: "That's it?" Many players on the WoW forums have been complaining that the list of changes released in the latest patch falls surprisingly short of the expected number everybody has been looking forward to over the past few months.

However, Blizzard Poster Nethaera had some good news for those disappointed players who were expecting more. She explained that the latest 2.4.0 patch notes were still subject to change either by adding, removing, or changing any of the items listed during the current testing phase.

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Certain World of Warcraft players have been asking if Resilience will be making it into the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. For those who aren't too familiar with this attribute, it reduces the chance of receiving critical strikes from an opponent. Needless to say this is a very important statistic when creating a PvP character.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, sometimes known as the Big Bear Butt Blogger, takes a look at what is making his Druid cat ears perk up in the upcoming Patch 2.4.

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Daily quests have come a long way from when they first appeared. They first seemed to be the perfect solution for those stuck at level 70 with nothing to do, the casuals who really didn't feel like moving on to the 10 and 25-man game, or just didn't have the time to. They were a great way to break up the monotony of making money by grinding mobs with lucrative drops or mining and herbing. They also let you progress slowly and steadily towards that magical 5000 gold mark and your own epic mount. Sure, they're still good for all that, but they've also gotten to be so much more.

So really, what's the deal with dailies now? Let's look at it after the break.

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Raid Rx is designed to encapsulate and cure the shock and horror that is 25-man raid healing. Ok, so it's mostly horror... Anyways, if you're a big fan of X-TREME Whack-A-Mole (or are being forced into it against your will) this is the column for you.

The last time we parted ways, you had been left with some casting lag reduction homework. This was the first step in pumping up your healing per second (HPS) with little in the way of capital cost. Today we're going to cover spell haste.

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15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – both the renowned and the relatively anonymous. Know an interesting player you'd like to see profiled? E-mail us at 15minutesoffame AT wowinsider DOT com.

We knew when we sat down a few weeks ago to interview Noor the pacifist that the whole concept of a WoW character who didn't kill anything would start the flames rolling. The idea definitely lit some bonfires around the interwebz: incredulous readers Dugg it, StumbledUpon it ... it even showed up on Fark. But the real heat was in the reader comments, as readers at WoW Insider and across the 'net flamed, lambasted, reasoned, cajoled, ranted and otherwise worried the topic to bits like a pack of ravenous worgs.

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Warlocks who have always been a bit frustrated when they go into Shadow Labyrinth and see all those huge, delicious demons who refuse to be enslaved will get a kick out of this: It seems that a warlock on the PTR managed to enslave one of the biggest, baddest demons we've yet seen in the World of Warcraft: Brutallus, the pit lord boss in the Sunwell Plateau. Not only that, he then managed to get him out of the instance and set him loose on the docks, where he proceeded to smash up all the level 1 sightseers and the level 70 Adventurers alike and generally make a huge mess of things.

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In January 2006, a group of friends, including Dopefish and Malu05, decided to create a community machinima project, Nogg-aholic Collaboration, or NAC, to showcase World of Warcraft in ways that they felt had not been done before. Named after the time period in which it was filmed, February 2006, My Burning Valentine was intended to highlight what NAC was all about, as well as its guidelines. However, the more that they explored the depths of their creativity, the less that they wanted to show off this film!

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Everyone's favorite candle has some news for us about the PTR. She reveals that the development team is changing the way they test by adding content progressively to this patch, and changing the patch notes to match. As the testing goes on, they may add or remove test notes or various functions they wish to test.

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Matthan of Burning Blade brought up an issue with drinking to recover mana on the public test realm. He found that he was not receiving the normal benefit from imbibing. Hortus indicated that this phenomenon is not a bug but a change in the mechanics that ramps up mana regeneration over time. Players are used to a steady increase in mana with every tick. This change was not included in the patch 2.4 notes.

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The name of the game in raiding is learning what makes a boss tick and using it against them. Since the beginning of PvE there have been people kind enough to figure out the fights and let the rest of us know what to do. You can find strat guides all over the interwebs, including sites like Bosskillers and WoWWiki, plus more.

And while those are great resources that we've used time and time again to defeat our foes, the wall after wall of text has been hard to digest for some of our TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read) members. What if there was an easier and more entertaining way?

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Player Bloodelfer of the Anachronos server made it on to the European Public Test Realm this weekend. After making the perilous swim across the ocean, he was happy to have made it alive to Sunwell Isle. But what he couldn't understand was the constant cries of "I'm standing on top of the city!" Soon he discovered the truth behind the outrageous claim: a miniature city next to the docks and flightmaster in the new Patch 2.4 lands.

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Zom over on the forums asks: what's your favorite WoW holiday? And the response is extra special because it's by Kisirani, who, you may know, is actually Blizzard's World Event Designer-- him showing up in your thread about holidays is kind of like God showing up on a thread about your favorite mountain range.

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If you're itching to get some action in World of Warcraft's PTR, then better hold your horses for now since Blizzard has announced that they will be disallowing the character copy feature for the meantime.

Nalie from the Bronzebeard realm posted in the forums that she wanted to know more about updates on this matter. In fact, she asked when it will be lifted.

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If you want to make the gaming experience better in World of Warcraft, you can actually help by reporting the bugs you guys encounter while playing the MMORPG. With respect to bugs on the game's graphics, Blizzard blue poster Tigerclaw listed down the guidelines that can be utilized when reporting on these bugs.

When reporting, these are the things that could help make it easier for the company. The more details that are included, the better. So without further ado, here are the things you will need:

• Which OS environment (Windows XP, Windows Vista, MacOS X (10.x.x) )
• What hardware you are running on (machine model, especially GPU model)
  (also any details about what revision of GPU drivers you have installed)
• Conditions under which it happens
• If it persists after manually disabling "M2UseShaders" in config.wtf
  SET M2UseShaders "0"
• If it persists after manually disabling "pixelshaders" in config.wtf
  SET pixelshaders "0"
• If running on Windows, if you are running the game in DirectX or OpenGL mode.

Now, if these are included, it's going to save a lot of time for the company when addressing the concerns. If they have more free time, it means they can address more and more reports.

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