Meriones has been by all definitions is an alt that I play when I grow bored of playing Rasbora and Verdin. Prior to the expansion I invested just enough time to get him to 60 before growing bored and just showing up for raids. Druids were by default considered a healing class, however they were unable to reach the full potential that a Priest could reach, feral tanks were far and in between on Ceniron Circle. Balance was at best a trinket talent build, and not really considered a welcome addition to groups (though any caster would disagree for the extra at the time 3% crit, that is now 5%). I wanted groups so I took of restore making my third healer. With the last patch before the expansion I did get tree form, but that would change.

After leveling Verdin, Rasbora, and Pandion through the bulk of the Burning Crusade quests I had a good idea how I was going to gear and level Meriones. Another patch came along not long after the expansion that once again erased all of my talents. I took the jump and decided to go the route of Moonkin. Working off memory I went around various quest to switch out healing gear for dps gear.

Leveling means a large degree of solo play / questing. Soloing was not so bad on Rasbora as I had nice degree of dps gear. I will always pick up gear that casters do not want too augment my own solo gear. After all most healing gear does not have crit, and for sure does not have plus hit.  Though I do use alot of healing gear on Larus as there is alot of crit in pally heaing gear, and I would prefer plate to spell damage mail.  Not being a master of Melee damage I aim for spell damage on my healers.

It seems just during this year that there has been a massive increase in Balance Druids. By and large it seems most do not have any concept on how to gear. Often they will have a mix of what would be best for feral or restore druids. Proper idols are hard to find no matter what tree you choose to be druid wise. Hopefully someday Blizzard will fix this add on for classes that don’t have a range weapon. For balance I have a few recommendations on idols, that do not involve instance runs, except for what will ultimately should be in your raiding gear.

Idol of the Moon (level 60)
this is a bind on equip if you can buy it off Auction house I would recommend it.
http://thottbot.com/i23197

Idol of the Avenger (level 67)
This idol can be obtain by a quest in Shadow Moon and well worth the grind
Bring Down the Warbringer!
http://thottbot.com/q10745
http://thottbot.com/i31025

Idol of the Unseen Moon (level 70)
This can be obtained with 20 badges, and I consider it a rather cheap but will worth it investment.
http://thottbot.com/i33510

I also heal on Meriones so I do have few recommendations on restore idols, however they do involve grouping and instance runs.

Harold’s Rejuvenating Broach (level 64 but I have yet too see anyone do the quest chain that low)
It’s a rather long series of chain quests, most of which can be soloed till the last 4 elite, regardless I consider it worth the effort. Besides there is a lot gold, even if your not 70 from the quests and the vendor loot.
http://thottbot.com/i25643 http://thottbot.com/c18180

The Idol of the Emerald Green (level 68)
This is a drop of the first boss in Shadow Labyrinth
http://thottbot.com/i27886

There is not much else I recommend that is not in t5 level instances. I do have the idol from Kara, but I use The Idol of the Emerald Green instead as I do more heal over times (hots) then I do full heals. The badge idol does not seem near the value of the feral or balance idols. I always hear bears and moonkin sing praises of their badge idols, but I have yet too meet a restore druid that has a restore idol.

I was a bit slow on gearing Meriones as I made the mistake of trying to go all leather. On Pandion I make it a point to do all only mail, and hunters can pull it of as there are far more mail range dps gear, then there is caster dps leather gear. By doing this a sacrificed higher quality blue quality cloth gear in favor of lower quality caster leather gear. So when I did start running Karazhan I was carried for a few runs by better geared individuals. Not something I normally do, as I hate not carrying my own weight in a raid. The bulk of my current balance gear has been from badges. Belt, bracers, boots, chest piece, idol, and cloak. Gloves, pants, dagger, and an off hand are not entirely out of the picture.

The gear you will want to collect for a balance druid is going to be a mix of Intel, stamina, spell power, spell crit, plus hit, and mana regen. I’ve always been a fan of spell crit on my casting dps regardless of class. If you speced Nature’s Grace, crit means reduced casting time on your spells (as well as heals) Depending how you spec spirit can be a good thing. Agility, strength, defense, healing, resilience (unless you are a pvp moonkin), and attack power are not ideal moonkin gear. Though strangely your melee attacks while in moonkin can possible generate mana, the mana return is based on your attack power. Which has always had me thinking about having a feral druid staff to switch to when I am running low on mana.

Keeping a restore and feral set are not bad ideas. Even though balance has become a more group friendly asppect, it does not hurt to keep your options open. The next expansion will make moonkin more feasible since they are going to entangling roots to work indoors, this will make Moonkin a great form of CC. Not to mention blizzard is also supposed to remove the cool down on Hurricane. So Druid will be closer on aoe with Mages and Warlocks.

This is my possible spec for the next expansion.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/druid/talents2.html?tal=500322012503113521323531022100000000000000000000000000023002301200000000000000000

I did not get my wish to be dps for this fight, so all that healer gear I have been collecting paid off, plus balance / restore spec was not too bad of a healing spec. Rathite had come with me the rest of the group was a pug. The tank even though geared with a lot of epics from Karazhan had serious issues of holding aggro. Which to my dismay lead to us not being able to doing the last boss Talon King Ikiss. We also had a balance druid that was a big pain and rather nasty about slip ups. Granted the tank was not that great, but I don’t think anyone should be nasty about it. Overall I had over 100 consumables for this, but since it was a pug I was not comfortable sharing with anyone but Rathite. I do wish I would have just waited for friends, as most were busy with their own raids. I will try to reshoot the video of the fight, unfortunately the program I was using crashed, so I lost the entire event.

But the group composite was

Warrior – Tank
Rogue (Rathite)
Shadow Priest
Balance Druid later replaced with another Shadow Priest
Myself Balance / Rerstore Druid as healer 

Vanquish the Raven God
Location: Heroic Sethekk Halls
Quest Rewards 500 rep 11 g 40 s – Idol of the Raven Goddess  – Swift Flight Form 280% speed

First of all just incase you think you lost your moonstone, check your keyring, I had wondered where it was and was checking to make sure I had my heroic key for Sethekk Halls and found that it was there.

You defiantly need some one the can debuff curses, I am not sure how important the statues are, but if your not in a well geared group you may want a druid healer to keep rejuv’s on the statues for the extra help they give.  I did try to keep rejuv on as many as possible in this rather nasty amount of healing and debuffing.   I know there is a recommendation of 2 healers, but I did it as the only healer.

My big word of advice here is to make sure all casters know not to cast when they get hit with spell bomb (a curse) it must be de-buffed immediately and you need someone that can remove it. Its absolutely important the infected member not cast until they have been debuffed as this is a rather nasty mana burn effect taking both health and mana.

Anzu will disappear at 60% and 30% and spawn several non elite crows. You will need to take those out before Anzu comes back.

His Paralyzing screech, which causes 6 seconds of silence can not be out ranged. I recommend heal over time spells on the tank when you see this being casted.  I do beleive though that I resisted it a few times, perhaps I will see next time for sure.

His least worse attack is Cyclone of feathers which can be dispelled which is basically cyclone which lasts for 6 seconds.

Statue buffs from druid’s rejuvenation or other heal over time spells (recommend level one spells for mana conservation):

Eagle does 300 aoe damage
Hawk does 10% increase in spell, melee, haste movement speed
Falcon reduces damage from Anzu

So with the chain done here is what you got from the entire chain:

Swift Flight Form 280% speed (the main goal)

Charm of Swift Flight (trinket) – Increases flight form speed by 10%

Idol of the Raven Goddess – Increases healing granted by Tree of Life aura by 20, adds 9 crit strike rating to Moonkins and Leader of the Pack aura’s (0.4072% at 70)

112 gold 70 silver

2310 reputation with Cenarion Expedition

Plus one more quest:

Eternal Vigilance
Quest Rewards 0 rep 0 gold Essence-Infused-Moonstone
Location: Zangar Marsh – Cenarion Refuge (80, 65)

From this you will get Essence-Infused-Moonstone which will go on your key chain to summon Anzu as many times as you want. I wish the Onyxia necklace, the staff from Maradon, and the epic mount lock stuff would go on my key chain.

The quest chain was rather long compared to the warlock and paladin mounts, but no were near as resource intensive. Just needed the 5000 gold, 10 dreaming glory, and 10 ancient lichen. While working on this I was also working to get the last of my rep for Honor Hold and Lower City. Honor Hold so I would have any healing upgrades. I also got the priest robe and shoulders burning crusades dungeon set which was nice upgrade from my previous set from Shadow Labyrinth, but ultimately had to do one more quest and have a friend assist in killing one mob in Shadow Labyrinth for my heroic Key and for a trinket to upgrade my healing. Plus gloves and bracer healing enchants. Over all increase of 307 to my healing gear. Though I am hoping my role is not healing but DPS. But here is the progress of my epic flight form so far.

:

Morthis Whisperwing
Quest Rewards 10 Rep / 75 silver
Location: Zangar Marsh – Cenarion Refuge (80. 65)

But as I previously stated I got the starter quest in Darnassus from Mathrengyl Bearwalker (the morrow grain guy), which sends you to Cenarion Refuge in Zangar Marsh. You will find him standing on the moon well. At this point I recommend having 10 dreaming glory and 10 Ancient Lichen. Funny thing is I had the Dreaming glory the other day but was trying to mass produce potions in hopes of getting relentless assault flask. Needless to say once again I am in Moraga’s
debt for giving me herbs.

The Ward of Wakening
Quest Rewards 250 rep /11 gold 99 silver
Location: Zangar Marsh – Cenarion Refuge (80. 65)

For this quest you will need 10 dreaming glory and 10 ancient lichen. You will find the Bogblossom on top of the big mushrooms in the area.

A word of caution, you may want to prepare to go to flight mode, as some times you will see the following emote:

If you see this you will go flying.

Waking the Sleeper
Quest Rewards 10 rep / 75 silver
Location: Moonglade (71,67)

It seems like Blizzard wants to use all of your abilities, which is where you will use teleport to moon glade spell, unless you would like to take a longer way to get there. Where you will find Clintar Dreamwalker straight ahead of the cave opening

No Mere Dream
Quest Rewards 250 rep / 11 gold 99 silver
Location: Moonglade (71,67)

From here you will start a escort quest to get three items. Its not to hard and you can actually heal the spirit of Clintar Dreamwalker. Unlike most escorts he actually gives you some break time to recover health / mana. This is a very easy quest

Return to Morthis Wisperwing
Quest Rewards 10 rep 1 gold 19 silver
Location: Zangar Marsh – Cenarion Refuge (80. 65)

To the Evergrove
Quest Rewards 10 rep 1 gold 19 silver
Location: Blades Edge Mountains – Evergrove (61, 38)

Here you will meet with Arthorn Windsong

Book of the Raven
Quest Rewards 250 rep 11 g 99 s
Location: Blades Edge Mountains – Evergrove (61, 38)

If you have done Ogri’la quests you will be familiar with Vortex Pinnacle. For once I got to kill a Aether Ray in Moonkin form, funny thing is I did not get one crit. But it seems the eye drops off ever kill. I found a lot of ghostly priests while trying to find Sai’kkal the Elder. When you talk to them they tell you where to find him. I found him east of Ogri’la. Keep in mind that the buff to see the dead there is actually a rather nasty debuff that causes damage over time, so you might want to occasionally heal yourself.

Eyes in the Sky
Quest Rewards 10 rep 75 silver
Location: Nagrand – Twilight Ridge (20,35)

Here you will meet with Watcher Elaira

To Catch a Sparrowhawk
Quest Rewards 150 rep
Location: Nagrand – Twilight Ridge (20,35)

This is a fairly easy quest all you have to do is stun or corner one of the Sparrowhawks and its easy to catch them. A pretty simple quest for 150 rep

The Raven Stones
Quest Rewards 250 rep 11g 99 s
Location: Terokkar Forest – South Eastern Skettis

This quest seemed a bit buggy to me because some times I could not get the sparrowhawk, and after that I get 2. But this is rather easy as all you have to do if follow the sparrowhawk to fragment that it digs up. There is a lot of space to move around to if the sparrowhawk does not find a fragment.

The Eagle’s Essence
Quest Rewards 150 rep 11gold 99 silver
Location: Terokkar Forest – Strongbeaker hold (46,45)

I have to say this quest was a pain, and as for my feral / tanking gear, I have none. I had friend (Clouds as Wind) try to heal me through the fight but still wiped. Dying here is a bad thing , as there is no way to get their in spirit form, which means resurrection sickness. Ended up calling on Eris. I have been told that I was not able have others help me dps this boss, but that does not appear to be the case as I am positive Eris smacked him around.

The Falcon’s Essence
Quest Rewards 150 rep 11 gold 99 silver
Location: Terokkar Forest – Lake Ere’Noru (60,60)

This fight my friend Pres healed me (and not happy about it since he is a feral druid), the fight was rather easy with heals and in Moonkin form. The fight suggests cat form, but you really need to change into atleast a bear or Moonkin to avoid this polymorph you into a frog and blast you.

The Hawk’s Essence
Quest Rewards 150 rep – 11gold 99 silver – Charm of Swift Flight [Trinket] –
Increases flight form speed by 10%
Location: Terokkar Forest – Sorrow Wing Point (45, 93)

This was a super easy fight even though Pres followed me to keep me healed.  This boss was rather next to powerless against a balance druid. Nothing like a 12k crit. I tend to wonder what a full fledge balance druid would have done. I am told by my feral friends this was not an easy fight for them, considering they did not have balance gear. But this fight is purely casting, and no melee.

Return to Cenarion Refuge
Quest Rewards 10 rep 75 silver
Location: Zangar Marsh – Cenarion Refuge (80, 65)

Chasing the Moonstone
Quest Rewards 150 rep 11 gold 99 silver
Location: Azshara Southfury River (14, 47)

Annoying is the first thing that came to mind with this quest. When you pick  up the moonstone a female goblin stuns you and jumps down in the river and swims.  You should follow her asap, some recommend going to cat for and jump in to the river then going straight to aquatic form and head south. You will get hit with ice traps and see little roaming bombs in the water. If you get hit by ice trap shift out of aquatic form and change back to aquatic form. Try to avoid the bombs they will knock you out of the water and out of aquatic form. But there are some speed bonuses which is boots with resurrection aura from pallys and priests under it. This will help you quickly catch up with her. I caught up with her near Ogrimmar, not sure if its any further than that as I caught up to her prior to her reaching that far. I was pretty certain I would have to repeat this several times in order to complete but I got it the first try even though she seemed like she had gotten far away. But right after I caught up she gave up, and you talk to her to get the moonstone.

So tomorrow I will work on trying to get a group tomorrow. Hopefully I can get friends and not a pug

For Months now I have been saying that I would like to do the epic flying form quest. At long last I have gotten the 5000 gold and even went far enough to get a epic flying mount to speed the process along. I plan to cover every step  of the way. For tonight I am just going to cover the first part. It took a while waiting auctions to sell to see if I would have the gold to train 300 riding and have enough gold for weekend raids. So far I have been lucky and made up enough gold to get a epic mount from skyguard (just to save atleast 20 gold).    Right now my biggest problem is getting the last 400 rep for Lower City so I  can do the last part. I am hoping that my gear is up to the task and that I don’t have to heal. It should not be too hard to finding a group as it seems  there is a great intreast in the possible epic flying mount ( a raven I beleive) that drops off the boss that I will summon.  I won’t roll on it unless no one wants, though I would like to have it on Rasbora.   But a free bank slot and instant cast to flight is rather nice.  It seems that the quest starts out at the druid trainer in on the second floor of the Cenarion Enclave in Darnassus, where you will speak to Morthis Whisperwing (the morrow grain guy). I imagine for Tauren the quest starts In Elder Rise in Thunder Bluff with a druid trainer there. Which leads you to Cenarion Refuge.

I plan to do more of the Quest Chain tomorrow.