It is
said that beauty is skin deep. No where is
that more
apparent than in MMO games like WoW where one of the many goals is to
deck your
avatar out in the top gear sets. Unfortunately as a druid that spends
most of
our time in a shapeshifted form we fail to benefit
from the aesthetic
portion
of the game, reliant solely on the skins given to us by the developers.

Currently the only difference available to a druid is based on their
faction.
Night Elves and Tauren have different skins for shapeshifted form but
no
further customization is available.
Druids have been vocal in their desire to change their appearance in
these
forms and after many years of pleading the dev's have stepped up and
answered
our cries!

In an upcoming patch Blizzard will implement customizable druid skins
that you
can modify with a visit to the barber shop. When I first learned of the
barber
shop and its pay model all I could think about was the "bright red
hair" that UO implemented years ago to farm cash out of the game. I am
now
glad that they are using this feature in a creative and practical
manner.

The official link can be found  href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/druid-forms.html"
target="_blank">here. 

It is
still unknown whether or not there will be
any updates to the
talent spec
forms of the boomkins or treants in the future but as a resto druid I
certainly
hope so.

           
       
           
       
      style="font-weight: bold;">Tauren Bear Form
href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss1.jpg"> style="border: 2px solid ; width: 500px; height: 286px;"
alt="Tauren Bear Form"
src="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss1.jpg" />

           
       
           
       
 
  Night Elf Bear Form
href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss2.jpg"> style="border: 2px solid ; width: 500px; height: 286px;"
alt="Night Elf Bear Form"
src="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss2.jpg" />

           
       
           
       
      style="font-weight: bold;"> Tauren Cat Form
href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss3.jpg"> style="border: 2px solid ; width: 500px; height: 286px;"
alt="Tauren Cat Form"
src="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss3.jpg" />

           
       
           
       
 
Night Elf Cat Form
href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss4.jpg"> style="border: 2px solid ; width: 500px; height: 286px;" alt=""
src="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss4.jpg" />

style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Several members of the community over the years have made excellent
suggestions
to blizzard regarding new skins and looks. One person however went
above and
beyond and designed his own skins. While it does not appear that
Blizzard has
as of yet taken any of his designs and incorporated them, I wanted to
spotlight
these for you

alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/69244" />
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
first is an idea for an alternate form for
melee DPS, allowing the druid to remain in a standing position and
improving
our ability to position and interact with the hit box. I think this is
an amazing
idea.

alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/69245" />
Next up is the travel form.

alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/69246" />
An interpretation of the standard melee form. I am in favor of removing
the horns from Tauren as well.

alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/69247" />
Dire Bear form.

alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/69248" />
An updated look to the Boomkin

style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
hope
you enjoyed these new takes on skins from
a fellow member of the druid community. I appreciate the time and
effort that
went into them. While I doubt there will ever be any official word
about the
influence these had on the dev’s, I am sure it added to the
impact of the
communities feeling about this change.

Overall I am excited to finally feel comfortable "in my own skin". I
am a big fan of customization and any steps  style="">Blizzard
takes toward that goal are certainly positive ones in my book.

Until next week, stay safe and have fun in Azeroth!