One thing we have learned from past expansions is the significance of preparation. This could mean stockpiling supplies or cleaning out the bank of crap.
Tradeskills
So Kir is a JCer, miner, fisher and chef. Now, if I didn't have mining, I would be stock piling epic gems like crazy. However, knowing that I will be stopping at every node I come across, finding gems won't be a problem. Same with cooking, since fishing and killing things for materials go hand in hand with making food. I can't bring myself to do the dailies so I will just level cooking and fishing together.
I suggest taking a look at your own person time and energy. Since information is still slow to come in for various tradeskills, it may be hard to map out a good leveling plan.
If you fish, save fishing hooks and water walking potions. Since I am not in beta, I don't know how annoying it will be to try reaching certain pools, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.
If you don't fish but still cook, it may be worth it to do the cooking dailies if you stopped. Things like Hearty Rhino and Mega Mammoth Meals look to be good until 450 skill but still need spices.
If you use ores, the prices aren't super low yet (at least on my server) so it may be worth it to mine several stacks if you are able. Otherwise, wait for the clearance sale at your local auction house as Cata gets closer.
Herbs are probably still at crazy prices, like they are for my server. Again, if you can get your own flowers, great. Otherwise, bribe a friend or watch the AH.
Books of Glyph Mastery seem to be a hot item as well. I wish I understood inscription better to give any insight.
Bank
Most people have a bank alt for dumping stuff in. Now is a great time to go through it and get rid of things have become obsolete recently to make room for the new stuff. Clear your main bank of outdated things (like any idols you were hanging on to because of their now defunct perks) and start moving some old tradeskill items to an alt.
It looks like the first new bag will be 22 slots, same as the current Glacial bag. Some folks have the cash and already have larger bags. Others have tailor friends or alts. With all this in mind, you may or may not want to wait on upgrading your bags.
A note on Scrolls
Since they changed scrolls to work as a battle elixir, it may not be a bad idea to stock pile those along side foods and potions. Always helpful when working those early dungeons and questing to have a little boost until the better stuff is available.
Changes!
As you may have noticed, I changed the banner. However, as you may have also noticed, I suck at formating and such. While I tweak with things a bit more on the blog, bear (ha) with me.
In the meantime, what are you doing to get ready for leveling?
Friday, October 29
Tuesday, October 19
What I have been doing since the patch
After tweaking Kir's spec and feeling a little more comfortable during raids, I loaded up my other characters. I kind of think of it as a trial for who I wanted to delete after cata because I need to make room for a goblin, duh!
I have been having a blast on my hunter. While I see a lot of whining from the hunter boards, I myself am enjoying the class.
Pets
The expanded stable and new feature to call several pets kicked my "Gotta catch 'em all" mentality. See, Kir has roughly 109 companion pets and so the idea of collecting pets that actually do something rocks.
I decided to keep Beast Mastery for the very reason to have more pets. And since pets bring a host of buffs to a party as well, I am having a wonderful time switching pets to suit the group make up! I don't know who Zee is, but this flowchart is very handy for a new hunter. (Thanks, Aspect of the Hare, for the link)
My favorite huntery moment so far happened last night. I pulled out the corehound for the boss and promptly used Ancient Hysteria. Forgetting we had a shaman in the group, the question arose "Who has the offbrand bloodlust?"
Me:"I am sorry if I stepped on your toes. I don't normally run with a shaman."
Comments of LOL and "Yea, right" followed. Then I linked the flaming pup's ability to shut them up. I know it probably pisses off Shaman just like giving Replenishment to other classes pissed off Shadow Priests, but as a leveling hunter I can't rely on prime buffs to be had.
As an aside, I was happy to see Arikara still arrives in a puff of smoke. I was afraid that Blizz would have removed it somehow.
Wishing I could tame flaming horses
So what have my friends been doing since the patch? Well, my brother, despite having the HHM on 5 characters, still can't find a toothpick to complete his mount achievement. Other friends hate him for having his mounts when they don't have even one.
I don't care about the mount (though it does call to that collector in me) but here is something pretty and almost equally as cool:
Making the cut
So far, the hunter will still be around after Cata. My shaman, however, will probably die. I would rather delete one of my alliance characters, but sometimes it is nice to have a spy over there to pick up vendor items to be transfered over (tee hee). There is still my blood elf mage I may ditch... we shall see.
Good luck to all of you trying to complete your Halloween achievements!
I have been having a blast on my hunter. While I see a lot of whining from the hunter boards, I myself am enjoying the class.
Pets
The expanded stable and new feature to call several pets kicked my "Gotta catch 'em all" mentality. See, Kir has roughly 109 companion pets and so the idea of collecting pets that actually do something rocks.
I decided to keep Beast Mastery for the very reason to have more pets. And since pets bring a host of buffs to a party as well, I am having a wonderful time switching pets to suit the group make up! I don't know who Zee is, but this flowchart is very handy for a new hunter. (Thanks, Aspect of the Hare, for the link)
My favorite huntery moment so far happened last night. I pulled out the corehound for the boss and promptly used Ancient Hysteria. Forgetting we had a shaman in the group, the question arose "Who has the offbrand bloodlust?"
Me:"I am sorry if I stepped on your toes. I don't normally run with a shaman."
Comments of LOL and "Yea, right" followed. Then I linked the flaming pup's ability to shut them up. I know it probably pisses off Shaman just like giving Replenishment to other classes pissed off Shadow Priests, but as a leveling hunter I can't rely on prime buffs to be had.
As an aside, I was happy to see Arikara still arrives in a puff of smoke. I was afraid that Blizz would have removed it somehow.
Wishing I could tame flaming horses
So what have my friends been doing since the patch? Well, my brother, despite having the HHM on 5 characters, still can't find a toothpick to complete his mount achievement. Other friends hate him for having his mounts when they don't have even one.
I don't care about the mount (though it does call to that collector in me) but here is something pretty and almost equally as cool:
Making the cut
So far, the hunter will still be around after Cata. My shaman, however, will probably die. I would rather delete one of my alliance characters, but sometimes it is nice to have a spy over there to pick up vendor items to be transfered over (tee hee). There is still my blood elf mage I may ditch... we shall see.
Good luck to all of you trying to complete your Halloween achievements!
Friday, October 15
Relearning how to do it all again
Raided on the druid the past couple nights. The first night was, well, interesting. The second night I felt like I had a grove going. There was a bit of a learning curve but considering that the playstyle will change for Cata, I am not too worried.
Efflorescence
This is extremely potent, obviously, when the raid is stacked up. If you stack up ranged on say Sindi, for example, it is a boost. It does not seem to crit (/sad). With raids at it's current state, I find it the "Swiftmend to get a new heal" mechanic clunky. Of course, I still use it but doesn't mean I think it makes the most sense right now.
Wild Growth
While the cooldown has changed, it is subject to crits which I was happy to see.
Nourish and Healing Touch
I don't do heroic 25 mans, so Healing touch never got used except when macro'd to Nature's Swiftness. For the first time, though, I am seriously considering drop NS entirely.
Nourish does not seem viable with our current mana pools. I couldn't get my self using enough to refresh lifebloom because I was not a tank healer. Think this will be shelved until Cata.
Tree of Life
Still figuring out the best times to use this. What is funny is my muscle memory got the better of me on Sindi. Get gripped to Dragon, shapeshift to travel form, run run run jump.... into tree-oh-crap I didn't mean to do that! Took me a few tries to untrain myself.
I loathe clicky things, so to remember the best times to use the cooldown will take some getting use to. I will get there, once the rest of healing feels more natural.
Nature's Cure
The commonly heard words when this talent is brought up is "There are other classes who can do it, I am not needed."
Well, our team lost two priests and a pally. This is a serious blow to our dispelling power and I felt someone needed to help pick up the slack.
Mana
Night one was very rough for mana. I wasn't using revitalize enough and dropped too much spirit because I was testing out of combat regen, not in combat regen (don't be like me). I have since reverted a couple peices of gear back to their full spirit values and now sit over 1k spirit again.
Weapons
The healing effect on Trauma now seems less important to me than haste and other stats, so I pulled out my old LK 10 staff, Halion (Staff of blah blah blah). The loss of the off hand seemed minor compared to the gain in sockets, haste and crit. But what about the Int on the Spindle, you say? I am still experimenting and may switch back to the combo later.
Gear
I did not have the 4pc set, so I reforged spirit to crit. And I don't have full leather. I want to say that I'm not worried about the 5 percent loss. The truth is, I am lazy and don't wish to gem a new belt and hat.
If you haven't already, pick up the formerly Moonkin idol in place of your resto one. It has haste AND crit for the loss of spirit. And speaking of idols, I had almost 15 total sitting around. They got sold/deleted since their effects are removed. Holy bank space Batman!
A slightly bitter rant
For a long time, I wondered why Blizzard thought all we did as druids was hit rejuv and twiddled our thumbs. I, myself, rejuved the raid, hit tanks with rejuv and lifebloom (regrowth if I had time) and used WG when cooldown was finished. Where did I have time to dink around? So I seethed and loathed all the druids who gave Blizz their seemingly ridiculous idea.
Then I had a talk with our other resto druid. He said something to the effect of What else were we supposed to do? Between the 4pc bonuses, trinkets and weapons, rejuv was the best way to soar on healing. Then I stopped being so mad at druids and started to get really pissed at the devs.
Now, I see that there was a little too much focus on our niche (raid healing) and not enough focus on us as a more complete healer.
Took me long enough to get to that realization. On a side note, our formerly one spell healer is happy and feels more engaged with the new changes. I hope the rest of you feel the same because it should mean more fun.
Efflorescence
This is extremely potent, obviously, when the raid is stacked up. If you stack up ranged on say Sindi, for example, it is a boost. It does not seem to crit (/sad). With raids at it's current state, I find it the "Swiftmend to get a new heal" mechanic clunky. Of course, I still use it but doesn't mean I think it makes the most sense right now.
Wild Growth
While the cooldown has changed, it is subject to crits which I was happy to see.
Nourish and Healing Touch
I don't do heroic 25 mans, so Healing touch never got used except when macro'd to Nature's Swiftness. For the first time, though, I am seriously considering drop NS entirely.
Nourish does not seem viable with our current mana pools. I couldn't get my self using enough to refresh lifebloom because I was not a tank healer. Think this will be shelved until Cata.
Tree of Life
Still figuring out the best times to use this. What is funny is my muscle memory got the better of me on Sindi. Get gripped to Dragon, shapeshift to travel form, run run run jump.... into tree-oh-crap I didn't mean to do that! Took me a few tries to untrain myself.
I loathe clicky things, so to remember the best times to use the cooldown will take some getting use to. I will get there, once the rest of healing feels more natural.
Nature's Cure
The commonly heard words when this talent is brought up is "There are other classes who can do it, I am not needed."
Well, our team lost two priests and a pally. This is a serious blow to our dispelling power and I felt someone needed to help pick up the slack.
Mana
Night one was very rough for mana. I wasn't using revitalize enough and dropped too much spirit because I was testing out of combat regen, not in combat regen (don't be like me). I have since reverted a couple peices of gear back to their full spirit values and now sit over 1k spirit again.
Weapons
The healing effect on Trauma now seems less important to me than haste and other stats, so I pulled out my old LK 10 staff, Halion (Staff of blah blah blah). The loss of the off hand seemed minor compared to the gain in sockets, haste and crit. But what about the Int on the Spindle, you say? I am still experimenting and may switch back to the combo later.
Gear
I did not have the 4pc set, so I reforged spirit to crit. And I don't have full leather. I want to say that I'm not worried about the 5 percent loss. The truth is, I am lazy and don't wish to gem a new belt and hat.
If you haven't already, pick up the formerly Moonkin idol in place of your resto one. It has haste AND crit for the loss of spirit. And speaking of idols, I had almost 15 total sitting around. They got sold/deleted since their effects are removed. Holy bank space Batman!
A slightly bitter rant
For a long time, I wondered why Blizzard thought all we did as druids was hit rejuv and twiddled our thumbs. I, myself, rejuved the raid, hit tanks with rejuv and lifebloom (regrowth if I had time) and used WG when cooldown was finished. Where did I have time to dink around? So I seethed and loathed all the druids who gave Blizz their seemingly ridiculous idea.
Then I had a talk with our other resto druid. He said something to the effect of What else were we supposed to do? Between the 4pc bonuses, trinkets and weapons, rejuv was the best way to soar on healing. Then I stopped being so mad at druids and started to get really pissed at the devs.
Now, I see that there was a little too much focus on our niche (raid healing) and not enough focus on us as a more complete healer.
Took me long enough to get to that realization. On a side note, our formerly one spell healer is happy and feels more engaged with the new changes. I hope the rest of you feel the same because it should mean more fun.
Wednesday, October 13
4 hours of sleep.
Let me first off say that I normally go to bed at 9:00 pm. Last night I went to bed at 2:00 am (ish). Largely this is due to our friend who came over for dinner with the knowledge that the patch wasn't going to be done until 5 o'clock anyway. Seeing no point of rushing to log in we decided: bitching about the patch over a lovely meal > bitching about the patch while dealing with the whole server at once.
Then I promptly went online and the next thing I know, it's past midnight.
I didn't sleep in and figured I would take a nap later today. So, as I write this, I've had about 4 hours of sleep. You'd think it was expansion day or something!
Addon Pain
As with every major patch of this scale, your add ons will suck.
Of course, I totally forgot to fix a major one before doing some heroics and was not happy!
If you can't find the latest Grid you can download it here. It is Ace3 dependent which you can download here.
(Last night the other places like Curse and WoWinterface were not up to date. This probably has changed since this morning)
The new raid UI works very similarly to Grid and is found in the interface options. I sadly am so used to a third party raid window that the only way I would move away from Grid is to get Vuhdo.
I realized this morning that I miss Lifebloomer. I have dot timer but it's not the same as having things in one clean window. If someone knows of a replacement, I would love to know.
Had to update x-perl in order to get that eclipse bar to show on my screen.
WoWInterface posted a list of their updated add ons but there are still some issues.
Ahh remember Vanilla? I do and am amazed at how dependant on mods I have become. For perspective, I am reminded of Dark Legacy Comics. I'm a good healer!
Alts
Ciras enjoyed her new Barrier goodie but I haven't had the time or chance to really flesh out the new stuff like Archangel. Figure the time will eventually come but she is low on the priority list.
Helaina, my lock, however is semi raiding with some other alts from the guild and so I really worked on her late last night. I am disappointed with my Affliction numbers and begrudgingly went to Destro. On the test dummy, it pulled higher numbers for sure. Just when affliction looked like it was holding it's own, things go back down again for them. We shall see; I've been affliction for four years (even when it sucked, I refused to balk) and watching dots is like watching hots for me.
Could very well be gear since she is rather new to 80 and still has some blues (I know!)
Please be kind to your tanks (or Faceroll vs Finesse)
I know it will be hard to keep all those crits and new toys at bay, but if you want to keep tanks around for Cata, for the love of Elune please remember they will have a learning curve. Lum was struggling to keep his threat up and hold all the mobs like he used to in a five man. In his words regarding our up and coming raid tonight "Dps are going to die. Lots." I really don't want to have the dps feel like the healers are just going to save them when they pull agro. Even though we probably can and will, that is not the point and never has been. Wrath has made a lot of things one big faceroll and I would like to see a bit more finesse.
Hmm, getting tired. Maybe it's nap time now?
Then I promptly went online and the next thing I know, it's past midnight.
I didn't sleep in and figured I would take a nap later today. So, as I write this, I've had about 4 hours of sleep. You'd think it was expansion day or something!
Addon Pain
As with every major patch of this scale, your add ons will suck.
Of course, I totally forgot to fix a major one before doing some heroics and was not happy!
If you can't find the latest Grid you can download it here. It is Ace3 dependent which you can download here.
(Last night the other places like Curse and WoWinterface were not up to date. This probably has changed since this morning)
The new raid UI works very similarly to Grid and is found in the interface options. I sadly am so used to a third party raid window that the only way I would move away from Grid is to get Vuhdo.
I realized this morning that I miss Lifebloomer. I have dot timer but it's not the same as having things in one clean window. If someone knows of a replacement, I would love to know.
Had to update x-perl in order to get that eclipse bar to show on my screen.
WoWInterface posted a list of their updated add ons but there are still some issues.
Ahh remember Vanilla? I do and am amazed at how dependant on mods I have become. For perspective, I am reminded of Dark Legacy Comics. I'm a good healer!
Alts
Ciras enjoyed her new Barrier goodie but I haven't had the time or chance to really flesh out the new stuff like Archangel. Figure the time will eventually come but she is low on the priority list.
Helaina, my lock, however is semi raiding with some other alts from the guild and so I really worked on her late last night. I am disappointed with my Affliction numbers and begrudgingly went to Destro. On the test dummy, it pulled higher numbers for sure. Just when affliction looked like it was holding it's own, things go back down again for them. We shall see; I've been affliction for four years (even when it sucked, I refused to balk) and watching dots is like watching hots for me.
Could very well be gear since she is rather new to 80 and still has some blues (I know!)
Please be kind to your tanks (or Faceroll vs Finesse)
I know it will be hard to keep all those crits and new toys at bay, but if you want to keep tanks around for Cata, for the love of Elune please remember they will have a learning curve. Lum was struggling to keep his threat up and hold all the mobs like he used to in a five man. In his words regarding our up and coming raid tonight "Dps are going to die. Lots." I really don't want to have the dps feel like the healers are just going to save them when they pull agro. Even though we probably can and will, that is not the point and never has been. Wrath has made a lot of things one big faceroll and I would like to see a bit more finesse.
Hmm, getting tired. Maybe it's nap time now?
Tuesday, October 12
Guild Changes
Guild camaraderie
Some people care about achievements more than other people. Ever since Blizz implemented this arguably epeen waggling system, it has been a love/hate situation with our guild.
I admit some fascinate me more than most, like Insane in the Membrane. We have at least a couple folks with it and I am astounded at the level of dedication needed to complete it. I gave up on goblins long ago, I sure as hell am not leveling the other factions. Still sitting at 39/40... I figure with Cata, I will find new factions to work on.
There is a theory floating around that with the new guild perks guilds will want to come together more to get things done. I can certainly see potential for hardcores who complete progression and are left with craptastic down time. Even more so benefits for casual guilds who don't feel the need to keep up with the top 10s but still like to get together on nights and feel rewarded for getting something accomplished.
This is where I finally feel like there is some return for completing an achievement. It goes beyond a new tabard or title and becomes something that everyone in the guild can take part in.
Feels somewhat like what an old guild on the server did for raiding points. Even if you didn't get to go to raids often, if you contributed mats for potions, bandages, engineering supplies, etc you got points when went towards your dkp.
Speaking of cleaning up achivements
Why, yes, it took us forever to finish this off. We have always been a few steps behind Blizzard when it came to content. While we were closing out Ulduar, TOC came out and most folks lost interest in older content. It wasn't that we lacked skill or time, but we tend to have a butterfly/squirrel mentality for new things. I am sure we aren't the first or last guild to have this problem. Of course, when Lum was trying to congratulate the guild on completing Yogg, I could clearly be heard on vent saying "About ****ing time!" This was met with much vocal agreement. Damn his mic.
New UI
I look forward to the new guild UI. In particular the professions tab. To be able to see who has what profession and what recipes we have in the guild is extremely attractive. This would have been useful during Wrath as folks were gaining recipes in dungeons and trying to get their BiS items made but obviously a boon when the expansion arrives.
Not sure what to make of the LFGuild tool. I haven't seen screenshots of it yet, but I hope it works out well. The trade spam is getting old.
Now that my non patch day themed post is finished, it's time to pour over the survival guides for my characters. I have too many alts!
Happy patch day :)
Some people care about achievements more than other people. Ever since Blizz implemented this arguably epeen waggling system, it has been a love/hate situation with our guild.
I admit some fascinate me more than most, like Insane in the Membrane. We have at least a couple folks with it and I am astounded at the level of dedication needed to complete it. I gave up on goblins long ago, I sure as hell am not leveling the other factions. Still sitting at 39/40... I figure with Cata, I will find new factions to work on.
There is a theory floating around that with the new guild perks guilds will want to come together more to get things done. I can certainly see potential for hardcores who complete progression and are left with craptastic down time. Even more so benefits for casual guilds who don't feel the need to keep up with the top 10s but still like to get together on nights and feel rewarded for getting something accomplished.
This is where I finally feel like there is some return for completing an achievement. It goes beyond a new tabard or title and becomes something that everyone in the guild can take part in.
Feels somewhat like what an old guild on the server did for raiding points. Even if you didn't get to go to raids often, if you contributed mats for potions, bandages, engineering supplies, etc you got points when went towards your dkp.
Speaking of cleaning up achivements
Why, yes, it took us forever to finish this off. We have always been a few steps behind Blizzard when it came to content. While we were closing out Ulduar, TOC came out and most folks lost interest in older content. It wasn't that we lacked skill or time, but we tend to have a butterfly/squirrel mentality for new things. I am sure we aren't the first or last guild to have this problem. Of course, when Lum was trying to congratulate the guild on completing Yogg, I could clearly be heard on vent saying "About ****ing time!" This was met with much vocal agreement. Damn his mic.
New UI
I look forward to the new guild UI. In particular the professions tab. To be able to see who has what profession and what recipes we have in the guild is extremely attractive. This would have been useful during Wrath as folks were gaining recipes in dungeons and trying to get their BiS items made but obviously a boon when the expansion arrives.
Not sure what to make of the LFGuild tool. I haven't seen screenshots of it yet, but I hope it works out well. The trade spam is getting old.
Now that my non patch day themed post is finished, it's time to pour over the survival guides for my characters. I have too many alts!
Happy patch day :)
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