Getting back in the groove

[MrRufus2nd]

Hi, im known as ceremen at one point. Played during molten wow on x1 wotlk and spent some years on warmane raiding and getting into shenanigans as wow involves. It has been some time, like 2 years maybe since. Soooo, what has changed or should probably be aware of you think for coming back? I mained hunt and druid abit, just wanna see what community thinks if any difference.

[Thorbjorn]

You oughta know that BGs and arenas are crossrealm across all WotLK realms.
Following things are opt-in:
There's a mercenary mode if you main Alliance which puts you on Horde team to get a faster BG pop.
Tmog is introduced on WotLK. -> http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=342913

[12Monkies]

Welcome back.
Besed of what Thorb has mentioned, just figured I would fill you in a little extra.

Since you've played on x1 before, Lordaeron is your friend now. It is x1 with harder PvE content in comparison to Icecrown x7 realm. Lordaeron does not have an item shop per say, just vanity items, whereas Icecrown has full item shop for coins via donation.

I am Lordaeron player, so will speak in relation to Lordaeron environment.
As in regards of Druid VS Hunter. Both have their own advantages.
- There is definitely more druids out there, but very few Bear tanks.
- Hunters are needed in practically every single raid, as they have their own responsibilities. Definitely some pressure here if you aim to become a harcore raider.
- Druids do bring quite a bit into the raid in all roles. Things like combat rez, innervate & typhoon can be vital to raid's success.

As per leveling, if you just like solo leveling, hunter is a champ by all metrics. If you, however, like to do RDFs while leveling, druids can tank/heal that practically guarantees instant RDF queues. I've leveled both classes 1-80 on Lordaeron multiple times. Leveling as feral cat is significantly easier than being a boomkin. Even without tanking talents, you can still tank just fine till level 70. At 70+, i would suggest to re-spec into Bear talents. Leveling as healer is harder, but allows you to farm RDFs instead of leveling. 40+ is a breeze given you get innervate. Glyph it up and GG.

When I play tank/healer, I farm RDFs from 20 to 68. IMHO with instant queues it is more efficient than questing. But be ready to do same dungeons over and over again. Northrend leveling, however, questing is faster. Just do daily RDF for x2 EoT.

In terms of 80 gearing up process, I do find Druids caster/healer the easiest to gear up, as stats for both, Leather & Cloth, mimic each other. Full heal cloth druid = full leather healer gear. Fresh 80's lack tanks & healers. To do runs such as ToC5/FoS/PoS normals does not take long, therefore people progress through those rather quickly, and therefore less tanks and healers.

Bottom line, levleing & gear bear tank is by far the fastest way to gear up. You can get full T9 set as bear in just about a week.