I was a very big cheerleader for Lord of the Rings Online when it first launched. Since Druid was not an option, I went with Minstrel, the default healer in the game who had some dps capacity. I like healing. I like spell damage. Sounded like a good plan. But something happened when I finishing out my quests in The Shire in my mid-teens. I lost my motivation to continue.

This is not unusual for me. I play many different games and many alts on each. When one game gets too grindy or repetitive, I focus on one of the others for a few months. However, I talked my crazy World of Warcraft buddy Claus into trying a hunter in LotRO and he never looked back. As the level difference between us grew, I became even more desponded in catching up with him.

Then last night, I got on the Test server and got insta-leveled to 30 to check out the new Lore-master changes in the latest patch. For those of you new to LotRO, a Lore-master is a pet class (creatures of the forest) with some spell dps (lightning and fire), some necromantic type emergency healing (they give up health to heal others), and some very good crowd control (roots, stuns, mezzes, etc.) Versatile, but overall kind of blah.

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Lots of news coming from the Blizzard developers about feral upgrades in Patch 2.3. First:

For items that grant attack power in Cat, Bear, Dire Bear, and Moonkin forms, in general we are planning to increase the amount of attack power they give. (source)

What else is there to say, but yay! This is great news for cat and bear druids. It’s not so earth shattering for Moonkins, but many of our Balance brethren enjoying adding melee damage to their spell damage and some like to tank (!!).

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Looking deeper into the components necessary to craft the new [Shadowprowler's Chestguard], I see that us non-raiding feral cat druids have a few obstacles ahead of us.

Obstacle #1 is to find a Leatherworker Revered with Violet Eye (Karazhan) faction to purchase the pattern and willing to part with the two [Primal Nether]s necessary.

Obstacle #2 is gathering the components. Here is the breakdown of what’s needed (all AH prices listed are my server):

• 10 [Heavy Knothide Leather] - gather the components to create this yourself if you’re a skinner or buy them off the AH at 1g each. 1g x 10 = 10g total.

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The crafted leather Primalstrike 3-piece armor set has been unbeatable for non-raiding feral cat druids. Elemental Leatherworkers can craft the BoP [Primalstrike Vest], [Primalstrike Belt] and [Primalstrike Bracers] for 3 Primal Nethers, 14 Primal Mights and 12 Heavy Knothide Leathers. Though there were individual upgrades, losing the +40ap bonus for equipping all three pieces wasn’t worth breaking up the set. Until now.

With Patch 2.2 comes the crafted [Shadowprowler's Chestguard]. An upgrade to the Karazhan drop [Chestguard of the Conniver] and equivalent to the T4 [Breastplate of Malorne]. Drop in some AGI gems if your AP is over 2600 and let the good times roll.

But what about the other two pieces in the set? With set bonus gone, there are many good upgrade options for both slots.

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World of Warcraft Patch 2.2 is going live tomorrow morning. Other than integrated Voice Chat and some new Chat Channel customization, there aren’t any significant content changes. However, there are a few very nice additions for druids.

First is a new craftable chest piece for cat druids, [Shadowprowler's Chestguard].

According to the commentors at WoWHead.com, for sustained DPS, this piece is equal to the Tier 4 Raid Feral Druid chest [Breastplate of Malorne] and a great upgrade to the Karazhan Nightbane drop [Chestguard of the Conniver]. It can be socketed for additional damage and/or shoring up the weak stamina stat.

If you’ve faced down Magtheridon for your T4 chest piece, don’t bother with this one. If you have your Karazhan chestpiece, the Shadowprowler’s Chestguard is a solid upgrade. And if you don’t raid at all, like me, this is a crazy good piece of feral cat goodness that has fallen out of Druid heaven.

To have it made, track down a leatherworker who is Revered with the Violet Eye (the Karazhan faction). The components are in this link: [Pattern: Shadowprowler's Chestguard].

More druid goodness in Patch 2.2 after the jump.

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