Mana, Rage and Energy – Part 1

NOT ENOUGH <insert crucial wipe-saving power here>!!!

While I was thinking about something to write for the blog, a question came to me. “Why did I start a Druid”. You see, I haven’t always been a Druid. When I was a lowly little noob I had a Paladin (this was waaayyy before the time when they where so ludicrously powerful. They were still invincible then but did really low damage). I also have a max-level Death Knight and had over 100 alts (I know the cap is 50 but I deleted a lot of them to make space for new ones). I started multiple Druids before, but stopped at around level 10 each time because I was so sick of killing things in over a minute (at least it felt that long). After a lot of thinking, I remembered what motivated me to push my way to 20.

I wanted to learn all the aspects of the game that I could with ONE class.

I’m a collector. I collect pets, mounts, achievements, special quest items, exalted reputations, inscription recipes, quest completed bars and more. But I only like doing it on one character. What has that got to do with wanting to play a Druid? Well, for me, learning everything I can about the game (on one character) is sort of like collecting. I’m “collecting” information. I like having things to remember. In 4 years time I’ll be able to remember old quests I completed years ago. Ok, I’ll stop my rambling now and get to the point of the post.

The “all aspects” part came from the fact that Druids have 3 different forms of power. Mana, Rage and Energy. A great thing about Druids is that you can potentially “master” all the different forms of power (except that things Death Knights have (I promise I have one at 80! Really)).

Here are a few points on the different powers.

Energy

• Since Energy goes away quickly and comes back quickly, people who enjoy fast-pace games will enjoy using it. Its has an “easy to pick-up, hard to master” style.
• A lot of Feral-Cat powers don’t require energy. They are on a CD but require nothing! It’s a free buff/damage ability/whatever else. An example would be Tigers Fury.

Mana

• I might have an odd view on this but I’ll say it anyway. Mana is great for burst damage due to the fact multiple spells can be cast quickly without running out of your power. I thought of this when reading yet another “Death Knight are OP QQ” thread on the official forums. Somebody was taking about how they “spam” Icy Touch. You can’t spam it, you can use it twice every 10 seconds. This is a big reason I don’t like DK’s. Not able to unload lots of spells at one time (I know people will argue with me).

Rage

• Quite a few people really enjoy the Rage mechanic. In raids, especially if you’re the Tank, it builds up extremely fast. When I tank it seems to never reach 0.

That is my basic explanation of our different powers. I admit, some things I might have wrong. The Druid class is so big it would take forever to learn everything. Hey! Another reason to play a Druid.

Why did I write all this? For a few reasons.

1. To further convince re-rollers or new players to make a Druid – I mean, come on! Every kind of power on 1 class! Whatever form of power you like most you get and if you change your mind later, you have that power too! (unless you’re a Death Knight, unfortunately we don’t have Runic-Power yet.)
2. Because…Umm… Well, I wanted to write something and thought this would be good. Why do I write a blog at all? Questions, questions…

Ok, thats part 1. Part 2 will discuss how to use the different powers effectively. If you don’t get what I mean by effectively, “Be careful when switching forms often as it uses up a lot of mana unless you have X talent” would be an example. NOTE: Part 2 MIGHT not be the next post. It will come but I’m not guaranteeing that it will be the next one.