In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon’s Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.
At first, I was pretty pissed at blizzard. Now, I'm just mad at the rest of the raiding community.
For those of us who have been Jcers since the start of Burning Crusade, we have seen some small but nifty things come our way. Primatics were a joke in BC so when Wrath came out with the super stat-ed Prismatics (Limit Three) I was pretty happy with it. Then, a strange thing occured that I did not realize was happening. Folks would take Blacksmithing and Jcing together. Not only did you by pass the Meta and Socket bonus requirements, but you were able to plop the gems into Prismatic Sockets and still be full of win.
I suppose I can't blame those folks for wanting to min max as such. But, like those stupid drums for Black Temple and Sunwell, this combination, or at the very least taking up Jewelcrafting alone, seemed like a standard requirement for raiding.
I kept telling people in my guild that Jewelcrafting would suck their souls and to not take it up. So much money spent on one tradeskill. My total cash dumped is enormous, and then there are folks who helped me get a rare but essential pattern (and one player who helped me get each pattern from the Sunwell Island). Total cash spent is easily in the tens of thousands.
I took it up in the beginning to help my guildies. Why pay money in the AH when you can ask me and save some cash? Especially with raw gems purchasable by emblems, all you have to do is spend a few heroics worth of time and energy and BAM, new gem. Ok, maybe that part is a pain the ass, but I have always enjoyed being able to provide a service to the needy in my guild. And, I suppose always having the gem I needed was nice.
Then, despite my pleas and warnings, more and more guildies grabbed the tradeskill. Other guilds did the same. And blizzard responded with a nerf.
Now, a nerf is fine for me. I had been doing things wrong all along and did not use the Dragon's Eye gems to fill socket requirements. I used them just like an enchanter would for their rings or a leatherworker for their bracer enchants. They were an extra bonus for me that no one else had. What I hope is that they change them correctly to be solid colors.
I am sure they had to decide at some point to choose between changing all the JC only gems to the pure colors they represented (sparkling to blue, subtle to red, brillant to yellow) or remove them and force players to start over, with compensation. I personally would have liked to have made them the solid colors and fix sockets accordingly (which wouldn't have been terribly difficult).
Blacksmith/JCers are still edging out in the win column. BS sockets are still going to be prismatic, which means they can still keep those dragon's eye gems and use regular gems to fill their metas.
What I don't understand is the 77 current pages of "This tradeskill is worthless now." Really? Having an extra daily to work on the Horrible Kirin Tor rep must be worthless. Having a cut you want any time is worthless. Having an extra powered gem when you want is not worthless.
In addition, epic gems still haven't come out. Stormjewels are just a taste of whats to come and there is still a light at the end of the tunnel. There are many things that could be better with Jewelcrafting, but this nerf to the Min Maxers is not going to hurt me.
Hell, maybe enough will drop the GD thing so I can go back to selling my gems at a good price :)
Wednesday, May 27
Monday, May 25
Fear and Loathing
Fear: Deciding to let go of T7 in favor of other gear choices, and tweaking a talent spec in order to optimize other raiders.
I decided to drop t7 all together. OK, maybe I kept the shoulders because my spirit was a little too low for my taste, but otherwise I am sporting my new Ulduar upgrades. Much to my pleasure, I got Phaelia's Vestments of the Sprouting Seed last night, which when the blogsphere said Phaelia was getting a peice of gear named in her honor I knew I was going to have it. It's not optimally the best thing I should be wearing at this point, not to mention it was BoE and easily gone in the guild bank... but hell I took it for sentimental reasons.
Again, rawr says my choices lately blow, which reiterates my idea that these gear calculators are guides really. Sometimes, I have to just go with my gut on some things. Having nearly as many hps as our melee dps makes me feel good on those fights that having me taking extra damage (which in Ulduar seems like every fight). I will say that I spent a good several minutes going over my gear and regemming or tweaking until my stats were at a comfortable level. In order to keep my haste and spirit at those levels, I had to take a gem I never thought I'd use- 8 spirit, 8 haste. As much as it pains me to drop some int gems, I needed to make sure my global cooldown could keep up with my personal reaction time. In addition, we have discovered that between me and our other druid, I am better suited for raid healing and therefore need have speed to make sure all my targets have the hots flowing.
Currently, based on gear item levels, I am the third top druid on the server. The other two are sporting 3 peices of t8.5 and I can accept that their guild is a bit more progressed than I am. Competitive? Sure I am, but at the same time I also don't want to sacrifice too much of my own personal goals.
So what did I tweak? I took Revitalize over the weekend in order to test it on our next progression run. It was actually a friend of mine sending me a tell before my next DM Rep Run saying something along the lines of "Hey I could be getting 200 more dps if you specd this." OK, it wasn't quite like that, but he did challenge my perceptions on the talent. The good folks at Dreambound had a nice write up on the math taking Wild Growth into account. After doing some reading, talking with my friend (who also crunches numbers and in general trolls info sites) I decided to give this talent a shot. See, I had it before but thought it sucked hard, regardless of the amount of rejuv I was tossing. Lately, though, with my new full time role as raid healer I had to bite the bullet and say that perhaps there was some value to tweaking my talents. Add in my recent addition of the Wild Growth glyph, and I started seeing some possibilities. It still is pretty marginal as a mana regen talent. However, we run with more DKs and Hunters than any other class. Without rehashing the math already done before, I will say our Deathknights got a nice boost last night. Hodir, especially, was fun as I got lucky and was given our two top DKs as my heal targets. Maybe I should tell my friend to give me the 35 gold for the respec cost, since it pushed him to nearly 9k dps on Hodir with a 560 runic power gain. mmm...
Loathing: Um, the prospect of tackling Thorim and Mimiron in the comming weeks. Shudder.
Have a safe Memorial Day. My brother will be BBQing while I tell him how I obliterated one of his healers in VoA. (What's the point of being a big sister if I can't call bragging rights?)
I decided to drop t7 all together. OK, maybe I kept the shoulders because my spirit was a little too low for my taste, but otherwise I am sporting my new Ulduar upgrades. Much to my pleasure, I got Phaelia's Vestments of the Sprouting Seed last night, which when the blogsphere said Phaelia was getting a peice of gear named in her honor I knew I was going to have it. It's not optimally the best thing I should be wearing at this point, not to mention it was BoE and easily gone in the guild bank... but hell I took it for sentimental reasons.
Again, rawr says my choices lately blow, which reiterates my idea that these gear calculators are guides really. Sometimes, I have to just go with my gut on some things. Having nearly as many hps as our melee dps makes me feel good on those fights that having me taking extra damage (which in Ulduar seems like every fight). I will say that I spent a good several minutes going over my gear and regemming or tweaking until my stats were at a comfortable level. In order to keep my haste and spirit at those levels, I had to take a gem I never thought I'd use- 8 spirit, 8 haste. As much as it pains me to drop some int gems, I needed to make sure my global cooldown could keep up with my personal reaction time. In addition, we have discovered that between me and our other druid, I am better suited for raid healing and therefore need have speed to make sure all my targets have the hots flowing.
Currently, based on gear item levels, I am the third top druid on the server. The other two are sporting 3 peices of t8.5 and I can accept that their guild is a bit more progressed than I am. Competitive? Sure I am, but at the same time I also don't want to sacrifice too much of my own personal goals.
So what did I tweak? I took Revitalize over the weekend in order to test it on our next progression run. It was actually a friend of mine sending me a tell before my next DM Rep Run saying something along the lines of "Hey I could be getting 200 more dps if you specd this." OK, it wasn't quite like that, but he did challenge my perceptions on the talent. The good folks at Dreambound had a nice write up on the math taking Wild Growth into account. After doing some reading, talking with my friend (who also crunches numbers and in general trolls info sites) I decided to give this talent a shot. See, I had it before but thought it sucked hard, regardless of the amount of rejuv I was tossing. Lately, though, with my new full time role as raid healer I had to bite the bullet and say that perhaps there was some value to tweaking my talents. Add in my recent addition of the Wild Growth glyph, and I started seeing some possibilities. It still is pretty marginal as a mana regen talent. However, we run with more DKs and Hunters than any other class. Without rehashing the math already done before, I will say our Deathknights got a nice boost last night. Hodir, especially, was fun as I got lucky and was given our two top DKs as my heal targets. Maybe I should tell my friend to give me the 35 gold for the respec cost, since it pushed him to nearly 9k dps on Hodir with a 560 runic power gain. mmm...
Loathing: Um, the prospect of tackling Thorim and Mimiron in the comming weeks. Shudder.
Have a safe Memorial Day. My brother will be BBQing while I tell him how I obliterated one of his healers in VoA. (What's the point of being a big sister if I can't call bragging rights?)
Wednesday, May 20
Set bonuses, patches, nerfs
Sometimes having a set bonus on the gear can be a crutch. So much is dependant on having two or all four peices of a certain gear that once you finally get them you are loathed to break up the set.
The druid t7 bonus is a boost to Nourish. This has been amazing for things like MT healing or any other targets that need quick direct heals, but I also know there are druids out there that aren't using the full set anymore.
So when the Mantle of the Preserver dropped from 10 man Ulduar last night and I saw it had more spellpower/crit than my T7, I was torn. Do I break up my set or do I take the shoulders (I was the only one who wanted them). Sure enough, I decided to break the set. It sucked and that's when I thought "I'm going to have to break the set anyway for the t8, might as well start picking up what I think will work."
Rawr says I made the wrong choice, ratings busters says they are close, and I'm waiting for some test runs to see how it actually will play out.
I suppose this wouldn't be so difficult if my role was a bit more defined. I have now proven that I can raid heal and tank heal, which leads me to tough choices about my gear.
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Patch notes:
# Innervate: This ability has been redesigned to grant 450% of the casting Druid's base mana pool to the target over 20 seconds.
# Improved Moonkin Form: Now grants 10/20/30% of spirit as spell power.
For some reason I thought this went live already, but officially now it has. This is an important change to innervate, as I have already commented on, and maybe now I can drop the glyph to grab the Wild Growth Glyph.
Not sure how I feel about the boomkin change. I don't have a lot of spirit on my gear but maybe upper end, full time nukers will see some boost to their dps.
Ulduar was nerfed again on several different difficulty levels. I find it interesting that the World First XT hard mode kill happened after the nerfs went in... Oh silly Blizzard.
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With those many changes, our 10 man last night was the smoothest run to date, with us clearing to Hodir in two hours. After banging our heads against the 25 man version and with the nerfs, I swear 10 man seemed like a much more relaxed adventure. I look forward to more progression.
There are rumblings of just doing 10 man all the time and saying screw it to the 25 man version. I'd rather not, but I understand the temptation. It's like herding sheep sometimes to get all 25 people to do what is needed, the healing is stressful, and the dps have to carry other dps.
All we have to do is look back to our Kara days and remind ourselves why focusing on 10 man raids is teh suck. Heck, even the cluster that was two ZAs. The drama was insane and cycling in folks to make sure there wasn't an A team and B team mentality forced some to quit and others to just merely want to fall off a cliff. We have 15 or so core raiders, which would either leave folks on the sidelines, or vie for attention from the raid leaders. In addition, getting the healers situated is also a pain.
In addition, unless we do 10 man hard modes, the item levels and significance of the upgrades is marginal between 10 and 25 man versions. Sometimes the itemization is a little different, but I hear more and more folks saying they are waiting for large upgrades and not small ones, which 10 man doesn't provide for us at this point.
I've already spent points on a staff and ring, dropping me below the other healers when it comes time for the T8 to drop. Others are still sporting player made items and are hogging their points for a shot at a certain item (this I can get behind, as they got screwed on RNG in Naxx and are seeing Ulduar as a chance for a very important upgrade).
I have no problems spending my points. I know t8 will drop for me eventually, and I'd rather have steady increases to performance than rely on one large one. In addition, the Ulduar drops have more HP than naxx versions (at least the items that I picked up) which in turn means more survivability. Can't do jack when you are dead.
It is all a personal choice, and I can't begrudge folks on their decisions.
The druid t7 bonus is a boost to Nourish. This has been amazing for things like MT healing or any other targets that need quick direct heals, but I also know there are druids out there that aren't using the full set anymore.
So when the Mantle of the Preserver dropped from 10 man Ulduar last night and I saw it had more spellpower/crit than my T7, I was torn. Do I break up my set or do I take the shoulders (I was the only one who wanted them). Sure enough, I decided to break the set. It sucked and that's when I thought "I'm going to have to break the set anyway for the t8, might as well start picking up what I think will work."
Rawr says I made the wrong choice, ratings busters says they are close, and I'm waiting for some test runs to see how it actually will play out.
I suppose this wouldn't be so difficult if my role was a bit more defined. I have now proven that I can raid heal and tank heal, which leads me to tough choices about my gear.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Patch notes:
# Innervate: This ability has been redesigned to grant 450% of the casting Druid's base mana pool to the target over 20 seconds.
# Improved Moonkin Form: Now grants 10/20/30% of spirit as spell power.
For some reason I thought this went live already, but officially now it has. This is an important change to innervate, as I have already commented on, and maybe now I can drop the glyph to grab the Wild Growth Glyph.
Not sure how I feel about the boomkin change. I don't have a lot of spirit on my gear but maybe upper end, full time nukers will see some boost to their dps.
Ulduar was nerfed again on several different difficulty levels. I find it interesting that the World First XT hard mode kill happened after the nerfs went in... Oh silly Blizzard.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
With those many changes, our 10 man last night was the smoothest run to date, with us clearing to Hodir in two hours. After banging our heads against the 25 man version and with the nerfs, I swear 10 man seemed like a much more relaxed adventure. I look forward to more progression.
There are rumblings of just doing 10 man all the time and saying screw it to the 25 man version. I'd rather not, but I understand the temptation. It's like herding sheep sometimes to get all 25 people to do what is needed, the healing is stressful, and the dps have to carry other dps.
All we have to do is look back to our Kara days and remind ourselves why focusing on 10 man raids is teh suck. Heck, even the cluster that was two ZAs. The drama was insane and cycling in folks to make sure there wasn't an A team and B team mentality forced some to quit and others to just merely want to fall off a cliff. We have 15 or so core raiders, which would either leave folks on the sidelines, or vie for attention from the raid leaders. In addition, getting the healers situated is also a pain.
In addition, unless we do 10 man hard modes, the item levels and significance of the upgrades is marginal between 10 and 25 man versions. Sometimes the itemization is a little different, but I hear more and more folks saying they are waiting for large upgrades and not small ones, which 10 man doesn't provide for us at this point.
I've already spent points on a staff and ring, dropping me below the other healers when it comes time for the T8 to drop. Others are still sporting player made items and are hogging their points for a shot at a certain item (this I can get behind, as they got screwed on RNG in Naxx and are seeing Ulduar as a chance for a very important upgrade).
I have no problems spending my points. I know t8 will drop for me eventually, and I'd rather have steady increases to performance than rely on one large one. In addition, the Ulduar drops have more HP than naxx versions (at least the items that I picked up) which in turn means more survivability. Can't do jack when you are dead.
It is all a personal choice, and I can't begrudge folks on their decisions.
Sunday, May 17
Will the real Kir, please stand up
Ambrosine of I Like Bubbles mentioned being identified by the characters you play. After playing MMOs for so long I tend to echo the sentiments she makes about being known for the character you play the longest.
Never had I had so many alts as I do in WoW. Well, the other game I've played longer is EQ and to be honest, leveling a new character kinda sucked, even with items not being bound to a certain character (read: my Monk got a Fungi tunic and my Ranger had a full set of some uber something I don't remember anymore-- all before level 10).
Wow makes it so easy to just roll up a new character and get going, even with crappy newbie gear. My allotted character list is full, both with horde and alli characters.
Regardless of my characters, I'm still called Kir with the occasional naming of the character I happen to be on. Same goes for my guildmates. I still call Jerke, Sumnor, even though he hasn't played his mage since last summer.
This extends to Real Life aswell. I use game names and real life names interchangeably, and sometimes it's just more comfortable for me to use the game name instead. For others, they are more used to real life names, and often times you will hear a name or two on vent.
All of this makes this a blurring of realities in a way. Sure, EQ was highly immersive for me, but Warcraft has moved beyond and made the game uniquely special on its own.
I wrote a paper for Sociology that explains why being a gamer is part of being in a subculture. Parts of this is not exclusive to WoW however. Phrases like training, camping, agro, mobs, and the like have been part of gaming for more than a decade, and are ingrained into our language. I argue that this is not merely slang, but a separate language for us. One thing that truly makes me feel like we are part of a subculture is that our language is being adopted by the main stream. How often have you heard the word Epic to mean something truly awesome? I'm sure it can be argued differently, but as a gamer, I feel it has something to do with the millions and millions of players of MMOs of all generas influencing our pop culture.
I think I digressed a little.
For some, WoW is just a game and a social life killer. For the rest of us, it's a place to hang with friends both close and far. We get to know personalities (sometimes so well, we can spot imposters), quirks, failings and strengths. Sometimes, its like being with co-workers who you love or hate, and other times its like being in one big family (who you also love or hate)
Never had I had so many alts as I do in WoW. Well, the other game I've played longer is EQ and to be honest, leveling a new character kinda sucked, even with items not being bound to a certain character (read: my Monk got a Fungi tunic and my Ranger had a full set of some uber something I don't remember anymore-- all before level 10).
Wow makes it so easy to just roll up a new character and get going, even with crappy newbie gear. My allotted character list is full, both with horde and alli characters.
Regardless of my characters, I'm still called Kir with the occasional naming of the character I happen to be on. Same goes for my guildmates. I still call Jerke, Sumnor, even though he hasn't played his mage since last summer.
This extends to Real Life aswell. I use game names and real life names interchangeably, and sometimes it's just more comfortable for me to use the game name instead. For others, they are more used to real life names, and often times you will hear a name or two on vent.
All of this makes this a blurring of realities in a way. Sure, EQ was highly immersive for me, but Warcraft has moved beyond and made the game uniquely special on its own.
I wrote a paper for Sociology that explains why being a gamer is part of being in a subculture. Parts of this is not exclusive to WoW however. Phrases like training, camping, agro, mobs, and the like have been part of gaming for more than a decade, and are ingrained into our language. I argue that this is not merely slang, but a separate language for us. One thing that truly makes me feel like we are part of a subculture is that our language is being adopted by the main stream. How often have you heard the word Epic to mean something truly awesome? I'm sure it can be argued differently, but as a gamer, I feel it has something to do with the millions and millions of players of MMOs of all generas influencing our pop culture.
I think I digressed a little.
For some, WoW is just a game and a social life killer. For the rest of us, it's a place to hang with friends both close and far. We get to know personalities (sometimes so well, we can spot imposters), quirks, failings and strengths. Sometimes, its like being with co-workers who you love or hate, and other times its like being in one big family (who you also love or hate)
Thursday, May 14
Insomnia
Finally, we are feeling like we are making some progress in Ulduar. On 10 man, we killed Hodir which was awesome (I actually was in Moonkin form since we had extra healers) and for 25 man we tried Cat lady (Honestly, some of these names are hard for me to spell so they get nicknames).
Spent a ton of points on a new staff Rapture. Sure, a main hand and off hand are a better combo, but it had leaves and stuff... obviously a druid weapon. Sadly, all the haste I worked hard on got shot to hell, but I regemmed some haste gems.
We got our first pattern to drop- a blacksmithy one that went to our dps warrior. And my friend got two upgrades (a weapon which he can now stop bitching about, and a sigil)
All in all a good couple nights, with tonight on the way as well.
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I have decided to stop being so grumpy at folks. Some of it had to do with a manipulation of vent (cryptic I know, but that's all I have to say), and a small chat with one of our healers. Turns out the healer is using the old click to target then heal method, which is what I used to do before the beauty of mods. This explains the low healing per second. Also explains why this person is better for single target or low impact raid healing. And the massive use of WG before it got nerfed. Basically, I understand a lot more what this person is up against as far as reaction times. I'm not so grumpy anymore.
Ugh, I lied. One small rant. If you get invited to the raid, start heading to the zone. If you have to afk, try to afk INSIDE the zone so that way when you are back, you are more ready to go than if you were dinking around in Dalaran. When you do get back, and the raid has started, don't say over vent with an incredulous voice "You guys already started?!" Yes, we started. It's 5:01 and the raids start at 5:00. Sometimes the raid is late, but not because we are waiting on you.
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Off topic- I have a small case of insomnia. Actually, I got up this morning to deal with the cats and when I tried to go back to bed, had a small pain that nagged me to stay awake. Sucks more when we stayed up way too late and I have work today. Just when I'm trying to get more sleep lately, today it's about 6 hours.
Spent a ton of points on a new staff Rapture. Sure, a main hand and off hand are a better combo, but it had leaves and stuff... obviously a druid weapon. Sadly, all the haste I worked hard on got shot to hell, but I regemmed some haste gems.
We got our first pattern to drop- a blacksmithy one that went to our dps warrior. And my friend got two upgrades (a weapon which he can now stop bitching about, and a sigil)
All in all a good couple nights, with tonight on the way as well.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I have decided to stop being so grumpy at folks. Some of it had to do with a manipulation of vent (cryptic I know, but that's all I have to say), and a small chat with one of our healers. Turns out the healer is using the old click to target then heal method, which is what I used to do before the beauty of mods. This explains the low healing per second. Also explains why this person is better for single target or low impact raid healing. And the massive use of WG before it got nerfed. Basically, I understand a lot more what this person is up against as far as reaction times. I'm not so grumpy anymore.
Ugh, I lied. One small rant. If you get invited to the raid, start heading to the zone. If you have to afk, try to afk INSIDE the zone so that way when you are back, you are more ready to go than if you were dinking around in Dalaran. When you do get back, and the raid has started, don't say over vent with an incredulous voice "You guys already started?!" Yes, we started. It's 5:01 and the raids start at 5:00. Sometimes the raid is late, but not because we are waiting on you.
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Off topic- I have a small case of insomnia. Actually, I got up this morning to deal with the cats and when I tried to go back to bed, had a small pain that nagged me to stay awake. Sucks more when we stayed up way too late and I have work today. Just when I'm trying to get more sleep lately, today it's about 6 hours.
Monday, May 11
Monday, Monday
I wouldn't say I am a min/max-er in the strictest sense. I do see what is an upgrade and weigh it against my current gear- not just piece by piece but if it upsets the over all balance. This was much worse when I was a tank. Literally one new piece had me scrambling to regem everything I had.
I do check out Wowheroes and Be Imba and downloaded Rawr. Often it starts out innocently: I check out what I have, what I could be getting etc, but then move to checking out everyone else is wearing and what they could be wearing. I get a little obsessive.
Rawr is fun, and like everything else, I take it with a grain of salt. When it tells me to gem a certain way or use a certain item, I use my head and not blindly follow it. In addition, sometimes the upgrades are only a few points different which doesn't seem like an upgrade. Now, if it scaled to being a few hundred points different, then it has my attention.
I do wish I had the purified twilight opal pattern and spent a good hour running in a little circle killing mobs hoping it would drop. Lame? Yes, since it's a BoE world drop. The other motivation was to get 10k gold looted. Apparently, I am number 3 in the guild for achievement points and while I didn't care before, someone is looking to take my spot and I can't help but to get competitive. He will eventually out-do me; I am not interested in the drake obtained from the World Event achievements.
Ulduar (I think I spelling it right, for once) is still fun and a little frustrating. I got invited to a coolkids channel, which at times is entertaining and other times is a healing meter-fest. It's kinda funny actually, watching folks compare how they are doing fight by fight. Ranting, ahh ranting. I died early on a boss fight and typed out nasty curse words in all caps in the channel, then blamed it on the sourpuss :) What is nice to see is how those friends can keep in touch during the raid without bugging others. Is it a clique? Probably. I am usually very mindful of the Officer hat I have to wear, and generally will not say things that will compromise it. Except regarding certain folks, and even then I don't mention names. Like, what I am doing right now. Right now, there is a certain raider that has now gotten the reputation of another raider and its not flattering for either of them. What kind of reputation? Well, being as useful as a rock, maybe.
I love my guild mates, I love my guild mates, I love my guild mates. This was my mantra yesterday, healing VH on my priest. Seriously, I wanted to shoot them. (It didn't help that my connection went to shit again and I DCd or lagged a bunch of times. That is not a dungeon you want your healer to be craping out on you. Think we had to start it over 4 times.) One of members kept saying stuff like "You should put your DnD over here to start." or "When I play my deathknight, I tank it like this.." What? I have never seen him play a deathknight. And, even if he has one, where does he find the time to tank? Our tank actually has been tanking for the little 10 man Naxxs that are run, but this know-it-all? He has a tank but not a DK tank. Two totally different ways to play. All night I had to hear about what the tank needed to be doing, what the mage needed to be doing, what the elem shaman needed to be doing. Thank gods he doesn't have the balls to tell me what I should be doing. Towards the end of the run, I turned the volume down on my headset and all became much more enjoyable.
Regarding this know-it-all again, I heard a funny story of him tanking in AN with one of our pally casuals. He said to the casual "I eat the pound because I know Ongora will heal through it." What a freaking douche. /shakes head and sighs I really really hope I was never like that when I tanked. Every time a tank runs out of LoS or eats breath or does anything in anyway to make the healer's life more suck, I think back to my tank days and pray that I was never like that.
I have this odd reputation of being a great healer. What this really means is I'm a sucker and will heal these mor--- Sorry, poor souls through instances when others wont. Sure, I am good at what I do, and there are times where I am not so good. I always seem to kill our raiding MT in a 5 man, and I am not entirely sure why that happens.
I hope folks called their moms for Mother's Day or what ever you do during the holiday.
3 more weeks left in the term and gods, summer can not come soon enough.
I do check out Wowheroes and Be Imba and downloaded Rawr. Often it starts out innocently: I check out what I have, what I could be getting etc, but then move to checking out everyone else is wearing and what they could be wearing. I get a little obsessive.
Rawr is fun, and like everything else, I take it with a grain of salt. When it tells me to gem a certain way or use a certain item, I use my head and not blindly follow it. In addition, sometimes the upgrades are only a few points different which doesn't seem like an upgrade. Now, if it scaled to being a few hundred points different, then it has my attention.
I do wish I had the purified twilight opal pattern and spent a good hour running in a little circle killing mobs hoping it would drop. Lame? Yes, since it's a BoE world drop. The other motivation was to get 10k gold looted. Apparently, I am number 3 in the guild for achievement points and while I didn't care before, someone is looking to take my spot and I can't help but to get competitive. He will eventually out-do me; I am not interested in the drake obtained from the World Event achievements.
Ulduar (I think I spelling it right, for once) is still fun and a little frustrating. I got invited to a coolkids channel, which at times is entertaining and other times is a healing meter-fest. It's kinda funny actually, watching folks compare how they are doing fight by fight. Ranting, ahh ranting. I died early on a boss fight and typed out nasty curse words in all caps in the channel, then blamed it on the sourpuss :) What is nice to see is how those friends can keep in touch during the raid without bugging others. Is it a clique? Probably. I am usually very mindful of the Officer hat I have to wear, and generally will not say things that will compromise it. Except regarding certain folks, and even then I don't mention names. Like, what I am doing right now. Right now, there is a certain raider that has now gotten the reputation of another raider and its not flattering for either of them. What kind of reputation? Well, being as useful as a rock, maybe.
I love my guild mates, I love my guild mates, I love my guild mates. This was my mantra yesterday, healing VH on my priest. Seriously, I wanted to shoot them. (It didn't help that my connection went to shit again and I DCd or lagged a bunch of times. That is not a dungeon you want your healer to be craping out on you. Think we had to start it over 4 times.) One of members kept saying stuff like "You should put your DnD over here to start." or "When I play my deathknight, I tank it like this.." What? I have never seen him play a deathknight. And, even if he has one, where does he find the time to tank? Our tank actually has been tanking for the little 10 man Naxxs that are run, but this know-it-all? He has a tank but not a DK tank. Two totally different ways to play. All night I had to hear about what the tank needed to be doing, what the mage needed to be doing, what the elem shaman needed to be doing. Thank gods he doesn't have the balls to tell me what I should be doing. Towards the end of the run, I turned the volume down on my headset and all became much more enjoyable.
Regarding this know-it-all again, I heard a funny story of him tanking in AN with one of our pally casuals. He said to the casual "I eat the pound because I know Ongora will heal through it." What a freaking douche. /shakes head and sighs I really really hope I was never like that when I tanked. Every time a tank runs out of LoS or eats breath or does anything in anyway to make the healer's life more suck, I think back to my tank days and pray that I was never like that.
I have this odd reputation of being a great healer. What this really means is I'm a sucker and will heal these mor--- Sorry, poor souls through instances when others wont. Sure, I am good at what I do, and there are times where I am not so good. I always seem to kill our raiding MT in a 5 man, and I am not entirely sure why that happens.
I hope folks called their moms for Mother's Day or what ever you do during the holiday.
3 more weeks left in the term and gods, summer can not come soon enough.
Tuesday, May 5
Need... more... rage
Ok, maybe not rage. I've been pretty frustrated the last couple days just fine on my own.
See, Ulduar has been exposing some wonderfully glaring errors in everyone's performance. Not even the healers or tanks are immune to the scrutiny the officers are placing folks under.
It's easy to see problems in DPS. Low hit rating, bad rotation, dieing to fire all show up when you look at the stat meters later that night. When we placed a 3k min dps requirement (so to speak, we aren't evil but we make very strong suggestions), some of our dpser's started to get the attitude of "Well, I can't change things, so I won't sign up for raids period."
This is hurting us, actually, because now instead of being able to cycle in one or two spots, folks aren't signing up for raids at all. Sigh. Bang Head. Little do they know that 2.5dps is being replaced by someone even more casual then they are because we need to fill spots.
Over on the other side of things, we have a unique problem: our tank and healer team is made up of mostly the officer core so when one of them has a bad day (week, month, one is loathe to tell them to step it up. Healers are prima donnas, tanks have fragile egos. I'm a prima donna with a fragile ego left over from my bear days, so imagine trying to tell me anything!
Seriously though, I have found that being respectful and more or less honest when the person is enough to get the ball rolling. Instead of saying "Hey, you sucked last night" doesn't help and yet, people do that all the time across many guilds.
I need to remind myself over and over why I left the guilds who treated me like crap or second rate. What I have learned is:
Get to know the person beyond the game. We have more than one player who is in a wheelchair for various reasons. I remember calling out a player for not moving during the flame wave in Sartharion. I grumbled, battlerez'd them and told them if they did it again I would not battle rez them, like, ever again. Later, someone else told me that the player uses a special device to play WoW and that movements are not as reactive as they would be with a keyboard/mouse set up. Man, did I feel like a chump and went back to the player and apologized for being an ass. This goes way beyond the dumbass dps need to get that last spell off and pray shit doesn't kill them. I didn't bring up my newfound knowledge, but I did, inwardly, have enormous respect for this player and what he has been able to do with his 16 bucks a month. Does he need to get out of fire? Yes, and he knows that and each raid gets better and better.
Of course, not everyone who plays has a physical disability but it is good to find out a little more about people you work with. Some have kids and have to stop the game in order to attend the little ones (I prefer duct tape, but maybe that's why I just have cats), others are naturally slow learners, others have low social skills which draws them to the game in the first place and don't think before they spew out what's in their heads, while others are insanely fantastic people who never say a word in vent or raid chat and won't tell you what's bothering them.
Everyone has a bad day or two, as a leader of anything it is important to take care of your people so they in turn can take care of you.
See, Ulduar has been exposing some wonderfully glaring errors in everyone's performance. Not even the healers or tanks are immune to the scrutiny the officers are placing folks under.
It's easy to see problems in DPS. Low hit rating, bad rotation, dieing to fire all show up when you look at the stat meters later that night. When we placed a 3k min dps requirement (so to speak, we aren't evil but we make very strong suggestions), some of our dpser's started to get the attitude of "Well, I can't change things, so I won't sign up for raids period."
This is hurting us, actually, because now instead of being able to cycle in one or two spots, folks aren't signing up for raids at all. Sigh. Bang Head. Little do they know that 2.5dps is being replaced by someone even more casual then they are because we need to fill spots.
Over on the other side of things, we have a unique problem: our tank and healer team is made up of mostly the officer core so when one of them has a bad day (week, month, one is loathe to tell them to step it up. Healers are prima donnas, tanks have fragile egos. I'm a prima donna with a fragile ego left over from my bear days, so imagine trying to tell me anything!
Seriously though, I have found that being respectful and more or less honest when the person is enough to get the ball rolling. Instead of saying "Hey, you sucked last night" doesn't help and yet, people do that all the time across many guilds.
I need to remind myself over and over why I left the guilds who treated me like crap or second rate. What I have learned is:
Get to know the person beyond the game. We have more than one player who is in a wheelchair for various reasons. I remember calling out a player for not moving during the flame wave in Sartharion. I grumbled, battlerez'd them and told them if they did it again I would not battle rez them, like, ever again. Later, someone else told me that the player uses a special device to play WoW and that movements are not as reactive as they would be with a keyboard/mouse set up. Man, did I feel like a chump and went back to the player and apologized for being an ass. This goes way beyond the dumbass dps need to get that last spell off and pray shit doesn't kill them. I didn't bring up my newfound knowledge, but I did, inwardly, have enormous respect for this player and what he has been able to do with his 16 bucks a month. Does he need to get out of fire? Yes, and he knows that and each raid gets better and better.
Of course, not everyone who plays has a physical disability but it is good to find out a little more about people you work with. Some have kids and have to stop the game in order to attend the little ones (I prefer duct tape, but maybe that's why I just have cats), others are naturally slow learners, others have low social skills which draws them to the game in the first place and don't think before they spew out what's in their heads, while others are insanely fantastic people who never say a word in vent or raid chat and won't tell you what's bothering them.
Everyone has a bad day or two, as a leader of anything it is important to take care of your people so they in turn can take care of you.
Friday, May 1
Changes, Tweaks and Fixes
Which is which? I guess it all depends on your perspective.
The changes to innervate are interesting and so far, I think they aren't horrible.
Innervate: now Causes the target to regenerate mana equal to 450% of the casting Druid's base mana pool over 20 sec secs
Druid base mana pool... 3496 which should be approx 786 mana per 1 second to the target.
Not bad, but not great either until you consider that it is a flat rate now and not a Spirit based rate. This is great news for the Pallys and Mages. However, even with the glyph, I am not at a stage where I can toss it around to whichever raider is begging for it at the moment.
Honestly, the shaman totem seems to out perform our ability and makes me think that for now it will be a self casting way of getting mana returns, like a priest's shadowfiend.
Tons of changes to Ulduar which have been a godsend. I am all for making things a challenge, but when I am busting my ass on the first couple boss on 10 man, something is not right.
Post changes, we have made it further in on the 10 mans and I look foward to tackling things in a real 25 man raid. I now worry that with the t8 within sight that I will be so used to my 4p t7 bonus, I wont want to give it up. Oh well, will see it goes once I actually start getting the upgrades.
Oh, and one last thing... Finally got my Fawn!! She is the cutest little thing and makes me smile. Up to 77 pets now and dread the day they add a 100 pet achievement.
The changes to innervate are interesting and so far, I think they aren't horrible.
Innervate: now Causes the target to regenerate mana equal to 450% of the casting Druid's base mana pool over 20 sec secs
Druid base mana pool... 3496 which should be approx 786 mana per 1 second to the target.
Not bad, but not great either until you consider that it is a flat rate now and not a Spirit based rate. This is great news for the Pallys and Mages. However, even with the glyph, I am not at a stage where I can toss it around to whichever raider is begging for it at the moment.
Honestly, the shaman totem seems to out perform our ability and makes me think that for now it will be a self casting way of getting mana returns, like a priest's shadowfiend.
Tons of changes to Ulduar which have been a godsend. I am all for making things a challenge, but when I am busting my ass on the first couple boss on 10 man, something is not right.
Post changes, we have made it further in on the 10 mans and I look foward to tackling things in a real 25 man raid. I now worry that with the t8 within sight that I will be so used to my 4p t7 bonus, I wont want to give it up. Oh well, will see it goes once I actually start getting the upgrades.
Oh, and one last thing... Finally got my Fawn!! She is the cutest little thing and makes me smile. Up to 77 pets now and dread the day they add a 100 pet achievement.
Monday, April 27
Campers are People, too!
So this Noblegarden stuff has some people on edge. I had a guildie say in gchat, all caps, something about egg campers. Then, two more people share his sentiments.
There is nothing wrong with camping, and I will tell you why.
First, this is not a real egg hunt. I don't mean to say that because it's all pixel based and that it's a game within a game. I say that because if this was anything close to real life, the eggs wouldn't come back after you picked it up. Nor would we be asked to find random items inside those eggs in order to complete some year long endeavor. In addition, we wouldn't be asked to eat over 100 chocolates only found inside the magically reappearing eggs.
In real life, kids run around to find eggs and eventually the game ends when the adults get bored, the eggs are all gone, or someone loses an eye.
For all those reasons above, I say yes to camping. I had no guilt in running in small little circles back and forth between to eggs, or even sitting between a couple spawns.
I am all for the Lore of things, but don't ask me to run around like a lunatic when the rules of the game don't even match up to anything realistic.
There is nothing wrong with camping, and I will tell you why.
First, this is not a real egg hunt. I don't mean to say that because it's all pixel based and that it's a game within a game. I say that because if this was anything close to real life, the eggs wouldn't come back after you picked it up. Nor would we be asked to find random items inside those eggs in order to complete some year long endeavor. In addition, we wouldn't be asked to eat over 100 chocolates only found inside the magically reappearing eggs.
In real life, kids run around to find eggs and eventually the game ends when the adults get bored, the eggs are all gone, or someone loses an eye.
For all those reasons above, I say yes to camping. I had no guilt in running in small little circles back and forth between to eggs, or even sitting between a couple spawns.
I am all for the Lore of things, but don't ask me to run around like a lunatic when the rules of the game don't even match up to anything realistic.
Another Weekend of Achievments
Despite being ill this weekend, I managed to get some achievements done.
First, after many many hours of fishing, I finally got my sea turtle. He's so cute! While I was fishing him up, I got a dark herring which counted towards the Salty title. Next, worked on some AT stuff to get not only Exalted Champ of Thunderbluff, but Silvermoon as well which finished out Ambassador of the Horde. In between all that, Noblegarden started on Sunday and I spent an ungodly amount of time hunting the same two eggs it seemed to get the title "Noble".
Like I said, I'm sick and it's my birthday today, so happy hunting everyone :) Will see you later this week.
Friday, April 24
Lifebloom and Mana
I will admit I discounted lifebloom during the PTR because of the heavy cost hit and all the cries of the sky falling made me overlook one key thing they did to Lifebloom.
It refunds mana upon bloom. This is significant since they reduced our OFSR regen. It accounted for 15 percent of my overall mana gain last night in our 10 man, and probably would have been more had I not figured it out halfway through the night.
I recently learned that Nourish is only affected by 1 stack of Lifebloom, so rolling it still doesn't work as well anymore, but keeping it going on a tank (or whomever your constant damage soaker is) and then tossing it around to say, folks who are going to be hit by a Gravity Bomb seems to work out nicely. And, if I let it drop on the tank for whatever reason (like when I need the burst heal) that's more mana gain, since the return is higher with more stacks.
It works out that if you throw on stack on a player, the difference in the cost ends up being cheaper than it was pre 3.1. That's with the 2p t7 bonus.
I haven't seen mana issues on 10 man too much. I think I used a couple pots and Innervated a couple times the whole night (both times were after a battle rez). Helped that I had the resto shaman in my group for the mana totem. 25 man, it's too hard to gauge yet though I imagine it will be a chore to keep the blue bar from going to zero the more we progress.
I am at a difficult spot now. I'd like to drop the mana restore meta gem in my helm in favor of the spell power/int one, but the gem also accounted for around 15 percent mana gain.
--------------------------------
With the new Nourish set up, I opted to add a little more haste in my gear and switched my trinkets. Before I was using the Spirit-World Glass and the Majestic Dragon Figuring, both of which added spirit boosts. These worked out well pre Uldar because of the high regen I had and the utility to toss (glyphed)Innervates to others while still getting a benefit.
After some mediocre testing in Dalaran with Embrace of the Spider (98 spellpower, chance to gain 505 haste) and The Egg of Mortal Essence (same stats) I can keep a constant flow of extra haste to boost Nourish. They also can proc at the same time (Hello 1356/41% haste)... Yum.
I may drop these later for the 100 spirit 48 reduction in spell cost trinket out of 10 man Uldar, but in the meantime, I am liking the set up I have.
It refunds mana upon bloom. This is significant since they reduced our OFSR regen. It accounted for 15 percent of my overall mana gain last night in our 10 man, and probably would have been more had I not figured it out halfway through the night.
I recently learned that Nourish is only affected by 1 stack of Lifebloom, so rolling it still doesn't work as well anymore, but keeping it going on a tank (or whomever your constant damage soaker is) and then tossing it around to say, folks who are going to be hit by a Gravity Bomb seems to work out nicely. And, if I let it drop on the tank for whatever reason (like when I need the burst heal) that's more mana gain, since the return is higher with more stacks.
It works out that if you throw on stack on a player, the difference in the cost ends up being cheaper than it was pre 3.1. That's with the 2p t7 bonus.
I haven't seen mana issues on 10 man too much. I think I used a couple pots and Innervated a couple times the whole night (both times were after a battle rez). Helped that I had the resto shaman in my group for the mana totem. 25 man, it's too hard to gauge yet though I imagine it will be a chore to keep the blue bar from going to zero the more we progress.
I am at a difficult spot now. I'd like to drop the mana restore meta gem in my helm in favor of the spell power/int one, but the gem also accounted for around 15 percent mana gain.
--------------------------------
With the new Nourish set up, I opted to add a little more haste in my gear and switched my trinkets. Before I was using the Spirit-World Glass and the Majestic Dragon Figuring, both of which added spirit boosts. These worked out well pre Uldar because of the high regen I had and the utility to toss (glyphed)Innervates to others while still getting a benefit.
After some mediocre testing in Dalaran with Embrace of the Spider (98 spellpower, chance to gain 505 haste) and The Egg of Mortal Essence (same stats) I can keep a constant flow of extra haste to boost Nourish. They also can proc at the same time (Hello 1356/41% haste)... Yum.
I may drop these later for the 100 spirit 48 reduction in spell cost trinket out of 10 man Uldar, but in the meantime, I am liking the set up I have.
Saturday, April 18
Nourish
Granted my experience in Uldar is very, very limited, but I have to say something about the new style of healing.
My old playstyle was Hots, more hots, regrowth (or rejuv as needed) folks in the raid. It worked well for me.
A couple things with this patch I already enjoy:
The new Living Seed. Before, if you crit, the seed would only amount to the actual healing done, no overheal. Typcially, it would amount to 3 percent of my healing, MAYBE 5 percent on fights like Sartharion or Malygos.
Now, it did 10 percent of my healing with myself being part of the Main Tank healing crew. This is a huge increase to healing. What was the change? The seed counts overhealing. Average seed healing was around 2.5k with a max of over 5k. More testing needs to be done, but I am already very happy with this development.
The changes to Nourish. Well, the spell itself didn't really change, but adding it to the crit talent which already benefited Regrowth is rather nice. I don't have the glyph yet, and perhaps I won't for a while. (It's glyphed, and its even better than good)
Again, MT Healing, I saw a 46 percent crit rate on Nourish which is substantial. It's not nearly as imbalanced as the 75 percent crit rate old Regrowth had, but I don't mind. My playstyle was already suited for this new change, I am just changing one direct spell for another.
I had to drop Nature's Grace for my resto build. They changed it to where Crits now provide a haste bonus for 3 seconds. That is just not a long enough time for me. I may pick it back up at a later date, but for now I placed those points into reduction in mana cost for Nourish.
Overall, even without the glyph, I am seeing a great improvement on my healing. Mana isn't an issue yet, but we are still learning the fights and it's hard to gauge mana consumption on wipes.
While I may have freaked out in the past about losing my OP regrowth, I am surprised at how easily I slipped into the Nourish direct healing style. A large part of that may be due to my lack of Lifebloom spamming prior, another part may be due to the fact that I already leaned toward building around Living Seed and Crits already.
My old playstyle was Hots, more hots, regrowth (or rejuv as needed) folks in the raid. It worked well for me.
A couple things with this patch I already enjoy:
The new Living Seed. Before, if you crit, the seed would only amount to the actual healing done, no overheal. Typcially, it would amount to 3 percent of my healing, MAYBE 5 percent on fights like Sartharion or Malygos.
Now, it did 10 percent of my healing with myself being part of the Main Tank healing crew. This is a huge increase to healing. What was the change? The seed counts overhealing. Average seed healing was around 2.5k with a max of over 5k. More testing needs to be done, but I am already very happy with this development.
The changes to Nourish. Well, the spell itself didn't really change, but adding it to the crit talent which already benefited Regrowth is rather nice. I don't have the glyph yet, and perhaps I won't for a while. (It's glyphed, and its even better than good)
Again, MT Healing, I saw a 46 percent crit rate on Nourish which is substantial. It's not nearly as imbalanced as the 75 percent crit rate old Regrowth had, but I don't mind. My playstyle was already suited for this new change, I am just changing one direct spell for another.
I had to drop Nature's Grace for my resto build. They changed it to where Crits now provide a haste bonus for 3 seconds. That is just not a long enough time for me. I may pick it back up at a later date, but for now I placed those points into reduction in mana cost for Nourish.
Overall, even without the glyph, I am seeing a great improvement on my healing. Mana isn't an issue yet, but we are still learning the fights and it's hard to gauge mana consumption on wipes.
While I may have freaked out in the past about losing my OP regrowth, I am surprised at how easily I slipped into the Nourish direct healing style. A large part of that may be due to my lack of Lifebloom spamming prior, another part may be due to the fact that I already leaned toward building around Living Seed and Crits already.
Friday, April 17
So, ya...
my connection sucks. But only at 6pm server time, which lasts for about an hour. We are trying to do Uldar but my boyfriend and I can't seem to stay online for a length of time.
At one point, last night, I said in officer chat "If there were replacements, I'd say kick us. This connection crap is pissing me off." But, we are a little irreplaceable. He plays a tank and I play a healer, and all available players for those roles were already in the raid. At this point, I feel like shit because we already dumped some dps who couldn't stay online, yet the raid has to put up with us. Never mind the typical lag crap from everyone being in the same zone, our issues compounded the problem.
Which got me thinking, why is it always at 6pm? It makes me want to go door to door and ask all my neighbors if they play WoW. Then, if they do, I want to calmly tell them to get offline because I am more important than they are. Somehow, I don't think that would fly.
Needless to say, I got grumpy. And, I have an exam which I'm stressing over. And, silly me, I'm trying to quit smoking. Add all of those up and you get me over vent all snippy.
GL: "Have we gone over healing assignments?"
Me: "Are you in the healing channel?"
GL: "No." (He's a healer)
(pause)
Me: "Well, I can't ya bro." (Read: I want to smack you cuz I'm freaking out over moronic things so just do me a favor and join the Fing channel)
So, moral of the story, it's never a good idea to point out a flaw in your guild leader in front of the whole raid.
At one point, last night, I said in officer chat "If there were replacements, I'd say kick us. This connection crap is pissing me off." But, we are a little irreplaceable. He plays a tank and I play a healer, and all available players for those roles were already in the raid. At this point, I feel like shit because we already dumped some dps who couldn't stay online, yet the raid has to put up with us. Never mind the typical lag crap from everyone being in the same zone, our issues compounded the problem.
Which got me thinking, why is it always at 6pm? It makes me want to go door to door and ask all my neighbors if they play WoW. Then, if they do, I want to calmly tell them to get offline because I am more important than they are. Somehow, I don't think that would fly.
Needless to say, I got grumpy. And, I have an exam which I'm stressing over. And, silly me, I'm trying to quit smoking. Add all of those up and you get me over vent all snippy.
GL: "Have we gone over healing assignments?"
Me: "Are you in the healing channel?"
GL: "No." (He's a healer)
(pause)
Me: "Well, I can't ya bro." (Read: I want to smack you cuz I'm freaking out over moronic things so just do me a favor and join the Fing channel)
So, moral of the story, it's never a good idea to point out a flaw in your guild leader in front of the whole raid.
Tuesday, April 14
Patch Day!!
I am so screwed... Real life says "Hey, you are two chapters behind on homework and you have an exam on Friday! You better not be on WoW when you get off work!"
Um, maybe I will be. How about I just fish instead for my new mount? I can calculate correlations while fishing, right?
OK, I can't play and do homework at the same time. However, there are no raids scheduled and I can try to bang out a couple hours worth of homework before logging in.
--------
So, since it's patch day and there's nothing else going on until it's finished...
I recently visited a guildie who had come in from out of town to visit. During the course of conversations, she told me that I have a sickness. I don't feel ill. In fact, I feel pretty good albeit stressed.
I am 69/75 pets toward my little fawn. I will say, in my defense, that I don't have the most pets in the guild. That title goes to our lone Shadow Priest. But, the new tournament will be sucking up my time. Not only will it allow me to finally finish out my City Reps (So close, but so far away), I have a chance to gain 6 more pets.
So yes, that's my sickness. Little non combat pets :)
---------------
A small public service message:
When applying to a guild, make sure to read all the directions and answer the questions fully. Things like not linking an armory shows you are a moron.
Also avoid this:
We raid wed/thurs 5-8:30, and Sunday 4-8:30 server time. We ask that members be available for 2 raids per week, can you meet this?
I was told that you raid on Friday and Saturday if those are the days yes i can make raid times
We haven't raided on a Friday since, oh before we raided 25 man content last Feburary. Even if you went to our old recruitment posts from a million years ago, it will say we raid Wed, Thurs, and Sundays. Wtf?
When apping to a guild, make sure to check that you didn't just copy and paste from the previous guild you appd. In fact, don't app to more than one guild at a time. Some guilds just don't like that. Spray and Pray is not your friend.
If you ignored this advice, please make sure all your information is the same. Saying you are 13 to one guild and 16 to another guild is just not kosher.
And, finally, when I send you a tell to follow up on your app, don't reply with "I did app 2 u guys, right?" True story.
Um, maybe I will be. How about I just fish instead for my new mount? I can calculate correlations while fishing, right?
OK, I can't play and do homework at the same time. However, there are no raids scheduled and I can try to bang out a couple hours worth of homework before logging in.
--------
So, since it's patch day and there's nothing else going on until it's finished...
I recently visited a guildie who had come in from out of town to visit. During the course of conversations, she told me that I have a sickness. I don't feel ill. In fact, I feel pretty good albeit stressed.
I am 69/75 pets toward my little fawn. I will say, in my defense, that I don't have the most pets in the guild. That title goes to our lone Shadow Priest. But, the new tournament will be sucking up my time. Not only will it allow me to finally finish out my City Reps (So close, but so far away), I have a chance to gain 6 more pets.
So yes, that's my sickness. Little non combat pets :)
---------------
A small public service message:
When applying to a guild, make sure to read all the directions and answer the questions fully. Things like not linking an armory shows you are a moron.
Also avoid this:
We raid wed/thurs 5-8:30, and Sunday 4-8:30 server time. We ask that members be available for 2 raids per week, can you meet this?
I was told that you raid on Friday and Saturday if those are the days yes i can make raid times
We haven't raided on a Friday since, oh before we raided 25 man content last Feburary. Even if you went to our old recruitment posts from a million years ago, it will say we raid Wed, Thurs, and Sundays. Wtf?
When apping to a guild, make sure to check that you didn't just copy and paste from the previous guild you appd. In fact, don't app to more than one guild at a time. Some guilds just don't like that. Spray and Pray is not your friend.
If you ignored this advice, please make sure all your information is the same. Saying you are 13 to one guild and 16 to another guild is just not kosher.
And, finally, when I send you a tell to follow up on your app, don't reply with "I did app 2 u guys, right?" True story.
Friday, April 10
BLARG!
Blarg I say! Ok, I'm without having coffee first, but get some writing in before the weekend hit me. I have some other writing to do for class, and this will just distract me :)
Another Naxx cleared, and finally the Torch dropped. I'm just happy to see it again. No, I didn't get it because my EPGP was too low, but that's ok. One of our priests got it, and it was well deserved.
Naxx was both rough and smooth. We brought good folks both nights. First night, things were moving at such a good pace and we even made a good attempt at Heroic: And They Would All Go Down Together. Thursday, though, was unusually difficult. Same crew, but lag and DCs plagued us. Thaddius with DCers just means pain, over and over. Even I had my turn at blowing folks up!
So, with that behind us, we are off to get some 10 man achievements done, like The Dedicated Few before Uldar comes out.
Oh, and the uber Moonkin idol didn't drop, but a guildie passed along this info:
We don't want piling up a bunch of emblems now to give a big advantage when a patch launches where someone buys a set of gear from the beginning.
Currently the only items I noticed added to the emblem of valor quartermaster are the relic items that were in Naxx. Examples: Sigil of Awareness, Idol of Awakening, Libram of Resurgence, Totem of Hex, etc. While it is technically "old" gear, the emblems of valor that drop in Ulduar10 will give you access to items that are of the appropriate level to help progress in that dungeon.
The emblems of conquest that drop from Ulduar25 have a new quartermaster and a new set of items that go with it that include necks, belts, gloves, and leg slot items.
I say anything can change because until the patch is live nothing is for sure, but at this point in time the only things we plan to add to the Emblem of Valor Quartermaster are the relic items out of Naxxramas.
With that info in mind, I think I will be spending more emblems toward supplementing my off set.
Another Naxx cleared, and finally the Torch dropped. I'm just happy to see it again. No, I didn't get it because my EPGP was too low, but that's ok. One of our priests got it, and it was well deserved.
Naxx was both rough and smooth. We brought good folks both nights. First night, things were moving at such a good pace and we even made a good attempt at Heroic: And They Would All Go Down Together. Thursday, though, was unusually difficult. Same crew, but lag and DCs plagued us. Thaddius with DCers just means pain, over and over. Even I had my turn at blowing folks up!
So, with that behind us, we are off to get some 10 man achievements done, like The Dedicated Few before Uldar comes out.
Oh, and the uber Moonkin idol didn't drop, but a guildie passed along this info:
We don't want piling up a bunch of emblems now to give a big advantage when a patch launches where someone buys a set of gear from the beginning.
Currently the only items I noticed added to the emblem of valor quartermaster are the relic items that were in Naxx. Examples: Sigil of Awareness, Idol of Awakening, Libram of Resurgence, Totem of Hex, etc. While it is technically "old" gear, the emblems of valor that drop in Ulduar10 will give you access to items that are of the appropriate level to help progress in that dungeon.
The emblems of conquest that drop from Ulduar25 have a new quartermaster and a new set of items that go with it that include necks, belts, gloves, and leg slot items.
I say anything can change because until the patch is live nothing is for sure, but at this point in time the only things we plan to add to the Emblem of Valor Quartermaster are the relic items out of Naxxramas.
With that info in mind, I think I will be spending more emblems toward supplementing my off set.
Tuesday, April 7
I just want new shinies.
I have been waiting to see what kind of idols they will be adding for Uldar, and I must say I've been disappointed so far.
Like a good little druid, I got the Idol of Lush Moss with my badges early into raiding, but it just sits in my bags more often than not. Currently, I use Idol of Reawakening instead. I remember the joy I had for one week with this idol before they changed my 2p t7 bonus.
So, without being able to raid on the PTR all my info is limited to Wowhead/MMO Champ and all I could come up with is this:
Idol of the Corruptor
Binds when picked up
Unique
Relic Idol
Requires Level 80
Equip: Your Mangle ability has a chance to grant 153 agility for 12 sec.
and
Idol of the Crying Wind
Binds when picked up
Unique
Relic Idol
Requires Level 80
Equip: Increases the spell power of your Starfire spell by 165.
Both of these look rather tasty, and both drop in 25 man Uldar. Sad panda.
I am really hoping that folks just haven't found any of the idols for Restos. I love my idol, but it would be nice to see what else they have implemented. I almost feel like a DK right now, who also have crap for options on their Sigils.
It's funny, in a sad way, because I logged in my boyfriend's account to make gbank flasks and discovered he has 7 (!!) Librams in his bags... and he has a use for all of them at some point. WTF.
---------------------------------------------
Slightly different topic...
Last week we made our raids Non EPGP and invited alts. The next time someone says we should do loot based on rolls I will personally smack them and call them Nancy. Keeping track of that much loot for all those people sucked balls and I don't want to do it again for a long, long, LONG time.
I had a blast bringing in my Disc priest, though. Naxx lately has been a snoozefest unless we go short on healers or something. I have been itching to bring my priest and I must say, while no one quite appreciates the bubbles I got satisfaction out watching them fly. Then, the server puked on Thursday and Northrend was down for a long ass time. Needless to say we had a wipe and we were stuck, leaving us to finish up Naxx a little slower than usual.
I was really afraid that because I was bringing in an alt the Torch was going to drop. Considering that we have only seen it once and that was like two or three months ago made me really concerned that it was due to drop... when my Main wasn't there.
Sure, there will be other weapons in Uldar and the one I am using doesn't suck (I have like 4 weapons in my bags, I just use the Fist Weapon for looks to be honest).
Luckily for me it didn't drop. I am sure our healers that brought their mains instead of alts are sad since it would have been free, but pfft to them.
This week I hope two things drop: the Moonkin idol for my off set, and the freaking Torch. Will let you know how that turns out.
Like a good little druid, I got the Idol of Lush Moss with my badges early into raiding, but it just sits in my bags more often than not. Currently, I use Idol of Reawakening instead. I remember the joy I had for one week with this idol before they changed my 2p t7 bonus.
So, without being able to raid on the PTR all my info is limited to Wowhead/MMO Champ and all I could come up with is this:
Idol of the Corruptor
Binds when picked up
Unique
Relic Idol
Requires Level 80
Equip: Your Mangle ability has a chance to grant 153 agility for 12 sec.
and
Idol of the Crying Wind
Binds when picked up
Unique
Relic Idol
Requires Level 80
Equip: Increases the spell power of your Starfire spell by 165.
Both of these look rather tasty, and both drop in 25 man Uldar. Sad panda.
I am really hoping that folks just haven't found any of the idols for Restos. I love my idol, but it would be nice to see what else they have implemented. I almost feel like a DK right now, who also have crap for options on their Sigils.
It's funny, in a sad way, because I logged in my boyfriend's account to make gbank flasks and discovered he has 7 (!!) Librams in his bags... and he has a use for all of them at some point. WTF.
---------------------------------------------
Slightly different topic...
Last week we made our raids Non EPGP and invited alts. The next time someone says we should do loot based on rolls I will personally smack them and call them Nancy. Keeping track of that much loot for all those people sucked balls and I don't want to do it again for a long, long, LONG time.
I had a blast bringing in my Disc priest, though. Naxx lately has been a snoozefest unless we go short on healers or something. I have been itching to bring my priest and I must say, while no one quite appreciates the bubbles I got satisfaction out watching them fly. Then, the server puked on Thursday and Northrend was down for a long ass time. Needless to say we had a wipe and we were stuck, leaving us to finish up Naxx a little slower than usual.
I was really afraid that because I was bringing in an alt the Torch was going to drop. Considering that we have only seen it once and that was like two or three months ago made me really concerned that it was due to drop... when my Main wasn't there.
Sure, there will be other weapons in Uldar and the one I am using doesn't suck (I have like 4 weapons in my bags, I just use the Fist Weapon for looks to be honest).
Luckily for me it didn't drop. I am sure our healers that brought their mains instead of alts are sad since it would have been free, but pfft to them.
This week I hope two things drop: the Moonkin idol for my off set, and the freaking Torch. Will let you know how that turns out.
Sunday, April 5
HEALZ
Listen, Blizzard. There is not a lack of healers in the game. There is a lack of intelligence instead.
I have a Disc Priest alt. Besides the occasional "Wow, you have two healers?" or "Is Disc Fun?" and "So what are the differences between a druid and a priest?" I get tells like this...
"Healz?"
"Healing Nax?"
"Heals"
Seriously, WTF? When did the thoughtful and complete sentence
"Hello. My group is short a healer for and I was wondering if you would be available or spec'd to heal for us?"
get changed to grunts?
Yes, I am talking to you, scrub product of our educational system! Would you walk up to someone and say "Kick?" if you needed someone on your flag football team? NOOO!
So I am done, sick of it. I don't respond well to these tells.
Scrub: "Heals?"
Me: "Sorry, my raid is full on healers. Thanks for asking though."
Also, check where I am before you ask Mr. Dumbass. This feature /who is not new and is freakin simple. /who Kirstimah or /who Ciras will tell you where the hell I am before you ask me to go to some stupid pug of yours that probably will fail anyway.
I don't pretend to be a genius, but I have played a lot of MMO's for over a decade, and there are certain things you do to get folks to do what you want. Being a dipshit won't get you a healer.
I have a Disc Priest alt. Besides the occasional "Wow, you have two healers?" or "Is Disc Fun?" and "So what are the differences between a druid and a priest?" I get tells like this...
"Healz?"
"Healing Nax?"
"Heals"
Seriously, WTF? When did the thoughtful and complete sentence
"Hello. My group is short a healer for
get changed to grunts?
Yes, I am talking to you, scrub product of our educational system! Would you walk up to someone and say "Kick?" if you needed someone on your flag football team? NOOO!
So I am done, sick of it. I don't respond well to these tells.
Scrub: "Heals?"
Me: "Sorry, my raid is full on healers. Thanks for asking though."
Also, check where I am before you ask Mr. Dumbass. This feature /who is not new and is freakin simple. /who Kirstimah or /who Ciras will tell you where the hell I am before you ask me to go to some stupid pug of yours that probably will fail anyway.
I don't pretend to be a genius, but I have played a lot of MMO's for over a decade, and there are certain things you do to get folks to do what you want. Being a dipshit won't get you a healer.
Closing WoW
I need to close WoW more often after I am done for the night. Recently my cat walked over my keyboard, apparently, because I found this the next morning:
He's so clever. While I was going through my screenshots of a recent guild event, I noticed the above picture. Not only was my cat trying to hack my account, he took a screenshot of process!
Yes, I am sure it's bad for my monitor to leave things up over night and to not allow the screen saver to run. But some nights, I am just so tired I just leave it.
A typical night goes like this:
Raid for three hours
Sit in Vent's officer channel for an hour or so
Leave the desk and find something else to do before I sleep.
I am getting better though! Now I minimize WoW to check the guild boards, watch something on Hulu, whatever, but I need to learn to shut off the freaking game!
Good thing I have an Authenticator. My cat wouldn't be able to figure that out.
He's so clever. While I was going through my screenshots of a recent guild event, I noticed the above picture. Not only was my cat trying to hack my account, he took a screenshot of process!
Yes, I am sure it's bad for my monitor to leave things up over night and to not allow the screen saver to run. But some nights, I am just so tired I just leave it.
A typical night goes like this:
Raid for three hours
Sit in Vent's officer channel for an hour or so
Leave the desk and find something else to do before I sleep.
I am getting better though! Now I minimize WoW to check the guild boards, watch something on Hulu, whatever, but I need to learn to shut off the freaking game!
Good thing I have an Authenticator. My cat wouldn't be able to figure that out.
Friday, April 3
Sigh, cooking and fishing
Each time new content is put out or my guild hits the next step in progression means I put in more time at the cooking fire.
While I was out farming for more Glacial Salmon, I checked MMO Champion for any new recipes on the way.
Seems Blizzard has heard the complaints of raiders regarding mage/vendor food not filling their bars in one sitting by adding a new cooked food, Black Jelly. Costing 3 Borean Man O' War, it will Restore 18000 health and 15000 mana over 30 sec. That's a huge boost to the speed of raiding, especially after a wipe.
Now, 3 Jelly Fish may not seem like much. Don't get me wrong here, I am thankful that Northern Spices are not needed to make these, but fishing these is not nearly as fast as other fish. The pools share a spawn with Manta Rays, which slows things down a bit. On top of shared pools, there is also the occasional box or crystalized water thrown in, and before you know it fishing these drags on and on. At least, it feels like it to me.
I hope it will be worth it. I have no noticed if they had added a new rank of mage food, but I wouldn't put it past Blizz to add something last minute after I have fished up 200 of the wiggly suckers.
While I was out farming for more Glacial Salmon, I checked MMO Champion for any new recipes on the way.
Seems Blizzard has heard the complaints of raiders regarding mage/vendor food not filling their bars in one sitting by adding a new cooked food, Black Jelly. Costing 3 Borean Man O' War, it will Restore 18000 health and 15000 mana over 30 sec. That's a huge boost to the speed of raiding, especially after a wipe.
Now, 3 Jelly Fish may not seem like much. Don't get me wrong here, I am thankful that Northern Spices are not needed to make these, but fishing these is not nearly as fast as other fish. The pools share a spawn with Manta Rays, which slows things down a bit. On top of shared pools, there is also the occasional box or crystalized water thrown in, and before you know it fishing these drags on and on. At least, it feels like it to me.
I hope it will be worth it. I have no noticed if they had added a new rank of mage food, but I wouldn't put it past Blizz to add something last minute after I have fished up 200 of the wiggly suckers.
Thursday, April 2
Blogs, Patches and Jokes
Several weeks ago, my favorite blog Resto4life closed its doors. This blog has been the most successful and informative blog for druids. The owner recently discovered she was pregnant so she had to make the tough choice and stopped her blog. In response, Blizzard has given her an item with her name. Phaelia's Vestments of the Sprouting Seed will be something I am going after, if anything for vanity.
Many other blogs have stepped up to fill her shoes and I plan to keep commenting on the things I read.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest patch can not come soon enough. I finally got my offset enchanted last night, so my hit rating and haste are up to par despite my 10 man gear. I don't plan to actually raid with my off set, though. I mean, I am one of two resto druids with many other folks able to dps. "Kir, we have too many hots, can you switch to Boomkin for this?" Not likely. Knowing things will change is the hardest part for me right now. I am so used to doing dailies at a crawling pace, now I do them thinking "If only I could switch to boomkin I'd be done by now." Kudos to those folks who regularly switch specs when they want or need to for I am too cheap (or stubborn) to keep that up.
I haven't spent a great deal of epgp on upgrading my offset like others have. Granted, some folks want to make their offset a tank set, so I totally don't blame them. In fact, I can't blame anyone for spending their points for their offsets. It's not that I'm hoarding my points it's just that I see my offset for dungeons and dailies instead; I don't see it going further.
-----------------
Some time ago, I broke down and got 4 pieces of t7 for the set bonus to Nourish. Several blogs and players have confirmed that after 3.1 a glyph, bonused Nourish will be our best single target heal. Coupled with the nerf to lifebloom (more on that later), it seems for a while we will be moving away from proactive healing to reactive healing. Nourish in its current state still lags behind a Glyphed Regrowth as far as output is concerned so I haven't used four piece yet.
So, I am probably going to drop my Regrowth glyph for the Nourish one. Some druids are recommending Glyph of Rejuv once you get your 4 piece t8 but I have to wait and see on that one. I have never liked the Rejuv glyph and having a set bonus probably won't change that. Besides, I love my Innervate glyph to much.
Lifebloom... I explored that a bit on my guild's druid forum. After 3.0 I stopped using Lifebloom as a multi-tank hot which the more I read about this lifebloom change makes me feel like I was in the minority. Sure, I roll Lifebloom but its entirely situational (Patchwerk for example). The other reason I don't rely on Lifebloom like I did in Burning Crusade is to maintain healing assignments. Our guild has an insane amount of healers and folks like to know they can hold their own on the targets they are supposed to heal. Finally, regrowth is much more efficient for me to toss than Lifebloom. Overall, this change won't affect me a great deal when it's all said and done. I feel bad for those druids who relied on lifebloom heavily. I've talked with someone who has a druid alt and they don't want to give up their playstyle.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, jokes... For April Fool's Day, I went to the American WoW website to check in my annual April Fool's Joke but it was not there! I didn't realize how I've come to look forward to it each year. Of course, nothing in my mind will top the first one (believe that was Ogres as a playable race). Yes, they have become predictable and silly (tin foil hat, anyone?) but they were fun and creative.
Trolling the forums led me to the Euro site which featured *drum roll* Pimp Yo' Mount! Yay! It was silly, kinda lame, but it made me smile anyway.
Off to do dailies and try to squelch the feeling that I could be going faster...
Many other blogs have stepped up to fill her shoes and I plan to keep commenting on the things I read.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest patch can not come soon enough. I finally got my offset enchanted last night, so my hit rating and haste are up to par despite my 10 man gear. I don't plan to actually raid with my off set, though. I mean, I am one of two resto druids with many other folks able to dps. "Kir, we have too many hots, can you switch to Boomkin for this?" Not likely. Knowing things will change is the hardest part for me right now. I am so used to doing dailies at a crawling pace, now I do them thinking "If only I could switch to boomkin I'd be done by now." Kudos to those folks who regularly switch specs when they want or need to for I am too cheap (or stubborn) to keep that up.
I haven't spent a great deal of epgp on upgrading my offset like others have. Granted, some folks want to make their offset a tank set, so I totally don't blame them. In fact, I can't blame anyone for spending their points for their offsets. It's not that I'm hoarding my points it's just that I see my offset for dungeons and dailies instead; I don't see it going further.
-----------------
Some time ago, I broke down and got 4 pieces of t7 for the set bonus to Nourish. Several blogs and players have confirmed that after 3.1 a glyph, bonused Nourish will be our best single target heal. Coupled with the nerf to lifebloom (more on that later), it seems for a while we will be moving away from proactive healing to reactive healing. Nourish in its current state still lags behind a Glyphed Regrowth as far as output is concerned so I haven't used four piece yet.
So, I am probably going to drop my Regrowth glyph for the Nourish one. Some druids are recommending Glyph of Rejuv once you get your 4 piece t8 but I have to wait and see on that one. I have never liked the Rejuv glyph and having a set bonus probably won't change that. Besides, I love my Innervate glyph to much.
Lifebloom... I explored that a bit on my guild's druid forum. After 3.0 I stopped using Lifebloom as a multi-tank hot which the more I read about this lifebloom change makes me feel like I was in the minority. Sure, I roll Lifebloom but its entirely situational (Patchwerk for example). The other reason I don't rely on Lifebloom like I did in Burning Crusade is to maintain healing assignments. Our guild has an insane amount of healers and folks like to know they can hold their own on the targets they are supposed to heal. Finally, regrowth is much more efficient for me to toss than Lifebloom. Overall, this change won't affect me a great deal when it's all said and done. I feel bad for those druids who relied on lifebloom heavily. I've talked with someone who has a druid alt and they don't want to give up their playstyle.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, jokes... For April Fool's Day, I went to the American WoW website to check in my annual April Fool's Joke but it was not there! I didn't realize how I've come to look forward to it each year. Of course, nothing in my mind will top the first one (believe that was Ogres as a playable race). Yes, they have become predictable and silly (tin foil hat, anyone?) but they were fun and creative.
Trolling the forums led me to the Euro site which featured *drum roll* Pimp Yo' Mount! Yay! It was silly, kinda lame, but it made me smile anyway.
Off to do dailies and try to squelch the feeling that I could be going faster...
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