UI time!

Every few months I take a look at my UI and make changes or tweaks. It's usually not the most sexy or even sometimes efficient, but sometimes changing things all at once just makes things worse.

I wanted to show what I was using largely because I had a guildmate or two ask about it. The rest of you are along for the ride! This first part will show Clique and Power Auras.

I still make changes but here is a screenshot of my UI just sitting there (well, with one low mana indicator but I will get to that)



To break it down here is what I have:

Sexymap with a Resto4life configuration
Default buffs and debuffs (X-perl still wasn't working right as far as their buff/debuff configuration)
X-perl unit frames
Dominoes bars
Vuhdo party/raid frames
ForteXorcist cooldown bar (spell bar is off due to using Vuhdo instead)
PowerAuras using Krogarum's Tanking Auras bear export, TBJ, and my own healing set up
Skada meter
Clique
Other hidden things like Omen and DBM.

There could be ways to make this even cleaner or smoother but it works for me. What I enjoy is the amount of so called Real Estate space on the screen. Since Cata, with healing circles and bad things on the ground, actually seeing stuff matters! To clutter your screen with too much stuff will hurt you and your raid.

Clique

If you haven't tried it yet and using mostly click to target methods, I would say this is a lifesaver. It may take some getting used to with the mouse keybinds, but after a while they will part of your muscle memory. I previously used it with Grid, but Vuhdo has an option to use keybinds through their mod or just import your Clique bindings (which saves a lot of time setting everything back up).

There is an option to create modes for friendlies, enemies and both so you can easily switch from dps to healing and back. Before I went feral, my Clique was set up for boomkin and resto and because of that I kind of ran out of mouse options due to laziness (Starfall is still on their but I am not spec'd for it now). I will spare you the full list but here's a screenshot of most of it:



You don't have to go hog wild like I did if you are starting out. Even just binding your commonly used spells to a few buttons will help you see a difference in performance.

Power Auras


This one intimidated me the most. I didn't know how to begin so I started with tanking first since that's what I had the most trouble tracking.

I started with importing previously made codes by Krogarum at this link.

Not everything he had I was interested in so I chose the ones that mattered the most to me, namely Pulverize, Maul, Demo Roar, FF, Berserk and Lacerate. Barkskin was also important so I used Keeva's at TBJ. After that I tweaked with opacity and such to suit my needs.

For healing, I started mostly with the ones on TBJ but I found using symbols didn't translate well for me. I needed words, so I used the option called "Text Aura" and typed the words I wanted on the screen with the Moonstar font (but you can choose any font).

Edit: since this post I have discovered RestoDude's Auras and I found that I enjoy that set up of Omen of Clarity and Lifebloom reminders.


Innervate Export:

Version:4.9; anim1:6; g:0.6667; icon:inv_alchemy_elixir_02; beginSpin:true; r:0.3804; bufftype:9; alpha:1; aurastext:Innervate; duration:2; sound:23; threshold:80; textaura:true; spec2:false; aurastextfont:12; combat:true; size:1.06; y:174; finish:4

This gives me a pulsing "Innervate" on my screen when my mana reaches a certain threshold. Also, it has a sonar sound that isn't obtrusive but still gets my attention. All of this is helpful because I want to innervate early during a boss fight so it is back up in a timely manner. You can set the threshold to whatever works best for you.

Low Mana Export:

Version:4.9; b:0.9333; anim1:10; icon:inv_alchemy_elixir_02; r:0; begin:3; x:92; groupany:false; unitn:Only for raid/group.; bufftype:9; texture:9; alpha:0.5; aurastext:Low Mana; symetrie:2; isResting:0; sound:37; stacksOperator:=; threshold:30; textaura:true; aurastextfont:12; size:1.1; y:-24; finish:3

This gives me a warning early that my mana is getting low and I need to make some emergency choices. Additionally, I wasn't happy with the default message blizz gave us so this new message is bright and circles around my character in case I missed it the first time.

The result:



To use an string that someone has made, copy the code then open Power Auras (/powa). There should be an option to "Import" then Ctrl-V (paste) your new aura.

Honestly, it felt easier to make whatever auras I wanted after seeing how a pre-made was done. I think I spent an hour or two just playing around with it and seeing how it worked, giggling most of the time.

Later I will show Vuhdo and it's glory and a brief mention of FX.

UI time (Part 2)!

I previously mentioned what I use as far as Clique and Power Auras set up. Now we move on to the crux of my mods, Vuhdo.

Vuhdo

I was unhappy with Grid and it's extras not being updated timely and I missed the customization when I used the default frames. Thus, I looked into Vuhdo.

This video has a good introduction, even if some of it is possibly out of date.

There is a lot of nitty gritty that I tweaked and messed with.

Explaining it all would take a video, which I am not that savvy at, but I will point out some adjustments I made and show what it looks like. Note that a lot of functions have their own tooltips explaining what happens when you enable/disable them.



Here is the misc General configurations. Notice I check marked Clique to use those keybindings I had set up. I hid party and raid frames, well because that's what Vuhdo is for, and at the bottom there you can use their feature to announce resurrections.



This section can change the color of the panel to show the color of the debuff that is on the target. I wasn't quite happy with the default colors so above is what I have set up.




This is all my hots going. What I didn't realize after making that screenshot is you can enable the mod to show stacks of say... Lifebloom as well as the timer. Now, this looks like my frames have the case of the measles but I am quite used to it.



This is what the frame looks like with some hots, a raid icon, and showing incoming heals.



Example of a debuff during a Deadmines run.

FortExorcist

This mod originally was a warlock mod (which still works great for that and I use it for my lock alt) but it has increased it's functionality for all classes. One of our healers uses the default raidframes, so using the spell tracking feature that FX provides helps him keep tabs on those pally things (read: sparkly buttons).

For myself, I have Vuhdo for most things, but FX combined with Power Auras let's me track so much more. The cooldown bar tracks my trinkets, internal cooldowns like Nature's Grace, Swiftmend etc. It's quite handy and can be moved to anywhere on your screen.



Similarly, if you are only wanting a cooldown bar without having to turn off a bunch of extra features, try CoolLine. It's lightweight and has a similar look to FX (inspired by it actually).

You can find all these mods at your favorite addon site (Curse, WoWInterface, Ace, etc).

Was I crazy to drop Furor?

Some time ago, after the rumors of a reduced Rejuv cost was in the works, I was taking a look at my talents and decided that I really wanted to try Genesis. The problem was, how the heck was I going to be able to pull that off? I was irked at Efflo and thought the answer was to drop that to grab more points into Balance.

Then I came across Leiyan's blog which explored that very same idea in a way.

Since I wasn't quite ready to drop Efflo because I needed to see how it performed in 25s, I decided I wanted to have my cake and eat it too...

Thus, this is the spec I am playing around with. I dropped my two points of Furor, dropped GotEM to 1 point, kept Living Seed and Efflo and put two points into Genesis.

Now, I understand the argument for keeping Furor. A boost to that mana pool means lasting longer not only because you have more of a resource to build from, but it means your revitalize ticks for more. I am not saying it is a bad talent at all.

For myself, I went from 111k mana self buffed to 110k mana roughly. This seemed an acceptable tradeoff to get all my hots to work better.

What I didn't do is take Blessing of the Grove. Despite Rejuv being my most casted spell, I needed to keep points in Efflo for that all important parser testing. I will say that the parser did show an improvement on Rejuv (and other hots) I can't be entirely sure if it was the new Valor boots I got, usage of mastery, the talent change, or all of the above. Keeping an eye on it.

Another thing to note is what my roles are. One week I was tank healing with some raid thrown in, another week I was raid healing with some tank healing when those healers were busy (like running from oozes). This effects spell usage to a point, though to be honest Rejuv is up there regardless of whatever role I am in.


As a slightly off topic, I'd like more Priest, Shaman and Pally blogs! If you know of some really awesome ones I would love to know (Lifeingroup5 for example is a Shammy one I hadn't seen until last week).

Breaking bad habits

If there is one habit I need to stop doing is overhealing. Especially when it comes to rejuvenation.

I did this all the time in Wrath, just rejuv rejuv opps they have one already! Oh well, just keep at it.

But now, man, overhealing rejuv is just a waste and something I am slowing retraining myself to NOT do. And I admit, it's difficult.

Then I started to take a hard look at other things I could be doing differently.

What I could fix

Stop swiftmending the person who is out in the middle of nowhere unless you really need that instant heal (tanks not included). Lonely green circles makes kittens cry.

Stop refreashing rejuv mindlessly.

Watch for times when it's ok to let LB bloom. Stop switching LB targets before the bloom.

It's ok to use Tree form. It won't kill me or anyone else if used properly.

I don't need to chase the dps who ran so far away. Do remind them to stay in enough range to not kill the raid while avoiding bad things.

Mind over Spells

This leads to something I hear from healers which is "Get your mind retuned." Things like understanding when it's ok to panic that folks are at 50 percent and when it's ok to just ride the wave.

The synergy that Cata has instilled for healers causes much more critical thinking. This is where I start to feel bad for Shaman. Their spells seemed to be rather gimped as it is, but imagine going for a couple of years just doing chain heal? The argument could be made for the rest of the healers, but after looking at the various Shaman mechanics, I just feel pity for them. I would say they are the prime example of the huge shift the game has made.

So now that I have exposed my flaws for the world, I can get back into the business of holding my breath for Rejuv+WG spam again. Hopefully, I will have learned how to heal smarter by the time the patch comes.

What I signed on for

I am the floater; the one who says "Sure thing" when a spot needs to be filled. The implications of this was felt right off the start before last night's raid.

Not the first night! sigh

A healer for Team Martin had lost power for several hours and we didn't expect to see her online in time. I mentally though I had prepared for myself to be filling her spot, then panicked. I had no food, no flasks, no mana pots. My bags were filled with tanky stuff. Twenty minutes before raid time, I am scrambling to get my crap together... and just before we zone in poor snowed-in healer logged in. Yay!

Tonight, we are out other healers for Team Charlie, which means more shuffling. At least this time I will have my consumables prepared, but now the task is to get caught up on what fight and strats the other team was working on. Thankfully, my finance was a tank for Charlie so I was able to at least understand what progress they had made.

All of this opens my eyes to the big picture. While we run these 10s in preparation for 25s, my job is to be aware and prepared for anything and possibly fit myself into a team that had worked on something for a night already without screwing up their flow.

As things move further down the road, we will be shuffling everyone around in order to keep things fair, which means at some point our fights will be reexplained to more people than just myself.

Balancing act

I have points to spend, but I am at a loss of how to spend them. My job as the tank is hopefully a short one because it means we can move to 25s. But, when we get to 25s I want to be on par with the rest of our healers. I currently am at a loss for how to walk this tight rope. I can just hear my raid leader saying to not stress about it, we are still early into raiding, but I am a planner. I need to have something scribbled out as a framework. I think it helps that the RL is also doing the bouncing thing like I am (dps to tank and back).

Words of wisdom?

For those who are also playing dual roles actively, I say "Wow, you are a crazy person". I also say, stay on your toes and be patient and flexible. Communicate to your officers about what they expect of you. If you are an officer, like I am, refer to crazy statement and hang on for the ride.

Things heard around the guild

Still working out my tank set while we made a trial run at some of the raid bosses this week. Looks like I will have my work cut out for me trying to keep a tank and healing set optimal! In the meantime, some stuff seemed so random from people lately, I had to write it down for blog fodder.

Magmaw

Luminas: I want him for a pet
Gel: I want him for a hat

Later...

Greybow: Does he get you preggers?

RL explains the worms and how they multiply

Greybow and Lum collectively: Yep, he does. (giant penis)

HoO

Lum gets a new set of leggings for his healing set.

Lum: Yay, new legs!
Me: Lt. Dan! You got new legs!!

In hindsight, the rum n coke plus late night heroics made this much more funny.


Anti's new sig

Karuken: Herbs do not fear.
Karuken: Herbs do not run.
Karuken: They accept what is life.
Antithesis: /sings
Antithesis: "What is life? Baby don't herb me. Don't herb me. No more."

We start our first round of real raids soon, so I hope to have something more substantial to write about. Been busy with other things (like gearing and reading the forums) so forgive the fluff posts :P

That's a lot of... and Critter Kill

That's a Lot of Bait and Critter Kill Squad are two achievements I constantly have up tracking. I get rather excited to see the numbers go up, even in small increments.

Man, fishing is soooooo boring!

While everyone enjoys killing level 1 things, all I hear in gchat is how much fishing sucks.

I don't know who to be frustrated with more: the players or the design. We need 10,000 fish caught (only in pools, mind you) in order to get our upgraded feast. It seems the mentality is something like "My best food is caught in open water/made of meat/etc", so why bother sitting there fishing?

We thrived on feasts in Wrath, and I get why the design team would want to expand the options on food buffs. I just wonder what will happen a little bit down the road we start asking folks to have their food buff and they beg for a feast. Meh, maybe that won't happen.

To compensate, I have been fishing the heck out of eels and guppies in order to kill two birds with one stone- get mats for the feast while moving the counter towards the achievement. But then I see that the bank is pitifully low on Lavascale and just shake my head at the whole thing.

I also understand that not everyone thinks like myself. I am working on Limnologist which does not help getting our feast. So... I catch maybe 100 pools fish before spending an hour trying for a bloated freaking whatever (not that I am bitter about my luck on drop rate or anything). I was trolling some blogs and noticed one guild made a contest out of getting their fishing done. I read that and admired their ability to get the team together.

On to Critters

Thankfully, this is less ranty. Despite the attempts to nerf the ways to get these critters killed faster, R.I.P. instant sheep, our guild found another one and we are meandering our way there. As of writing, we have less than a thousand to go.

However, the pet takes exalted with the guild to purchase. This makes no sense to me. I don't care that the pet is epic quality. It's a freaking pet. It's not game breaking or providing one guild with an advantage over another. It looks badass, don't get me wrong, but to put that kind of roadblock to it seems unnecessary. OK, this was ranty, too.

Oh, if you were wondering what our secret is... groups are best. And Eastern Plaugelands. That's all I will say because I don't want to jinx us when we are so close.

Dropping leaves for claws?

I have been playing WoW since... well I think since Feb or March after release (there's something on the web that tells me, but I can't find it right now). Anyway, in that time, I have done many roles and gone through many incarnations of the druid: cat dps not better than a 41 rogue, bears first foray into tanking MC, restos as the bastard children of healing, etc.

Healing in Wrath made me a goddess. Healing in Cata, while I have not lost my divinity, was a welcome challenge.

Why the hell would I want to switch to tanking? Frankly, I miss it. All through Wrath, I kept my scraps of a feral set in my bank. Once a month or so, I would put it on, then shake my head because I didn't know the first thing about the new feral mechanics. Wistfully, I would plop it all back in the bank.

I still don't miss carrying so many sets of gear. But I do miss the challenge of being up in front, taking the shots. Bears might need a little love in Cata, but I think they (Blizz) will get it right soon. Or in a year... hell, look at Death Knights and how long it took to figure them out.

Guildies worry that the stress of being a tank will break me again. I've gotten a little older, I don't swear in vent so much, and healing has certainly given me a zen approach to when crap happens.

Now, having said all of that, I wish to say that I don't dislike healing. As I said before, I have played all the roles at one point or another and seen virtually all the changes. I don't think Restos are broken or unplayable. I admit, I rock heroics like a queen and was getting apprehensive about the transition to raiding but that nervousness was not the catalyst for the desire to switch.

Our guild lacks a 4th tank (while not needed in 25s, kinda important for running two 10s). It is supposed to be my brother, a DK, but real life is keeping him from raiding. And, our guild prides itself on diversity. We like a good mix of every class and spec and play to the strengths of those classes and players.

Enter the bear. We haven't had a bear since BC and this is my chance before our first real raid to step up and fill in.

Despite my desires and intentions, the jury is still out on what kind of raiding we will actually be able to hit in the coming weeks.

As for the blog, other bloggers have changed their specs or quit their blog entirely so I will keep writing about what interests me or what I observe, with an ample dash of unsolicited opinion.

Where the cool kids should hang out

When Orgrimmar got changed, I found this little spot where all the Tauren were. It was nice because I could feel at home with the totems and "May the winds guide you" talk.

After being parked in that section through this early bit of the expansion I noticed a few things:

1. It's close to the portals. Sure, we can all fly with our super sonic speed, but I don't have to dodge anything to get to them.

2. It has everything. Bank, AH, Blackmith, cooking fire, and mailbox are all within a few steps of each other.

3. It's open so I don't have to leave my mount/shapeshift if I don't want to.

Because of those reasons, when guildies say they are at the Bank/Orc bank/etc, I always add something like "Oh, not my bank... the ghetto bank."

The downside is that people on their GD freaking proto-drakes need to stop being arseholes and get off their mounts. I don't just mean in my little home away from home, but all of Org, while we are at it. Seriously, this morning someone went afk in front of the cooking vendor on their drake. Ok, side rant done.

My partner in crime and heroics has started calling it the death camp. It breaks my heart every time. He doesn't like to see all the cows rounded up in one spot ready for the slaughter house.

So, to my fellow Moo-ers... get away from the ghetto area and hang out with wisdom and easy access of the Tauren section of town. Just watch out for Orcs wielding heavy axes and meat grinders.

Why I think the paper doll is a tease

Remember the days when we didn't have gear score or that little paper doll telling us what our average iLevel was? Remember pouring over guides and loot lists to see what numbers we should be hitting, like Spell power and Crit/Haste? Far too often, I see people fall into the trap of "Well, my ilevel says I can get into a heroic, so it must be true." I did the same thing and started to wonder if there was a flaw in the system.

Is there a flaw?

Yes and no.

Yes, because people are by passing requirements by just having gear in their bags that are higher level. Then, it's no wonder there are cries of heroics being too hard or that it's punishment for healers.

No, because the system is just crunching numbers. It is not designed to tell you if your spec is appropriate or that you are wearing enough gear to be viable. It's just a number. An average number, at that. It is not supposed to replace human thought and comprehension.

So, my recommendation is this: treat the score as it is- an average of all the crap in your inventory. Then, remove it from your focus.

If you are having a difficult time adjusting to the dungeons, heroic or normal does not matter, take some time to really look at the quality of gear that you have. Is your gear 333 or higher blues or are you plugging along at 312 greens? Are you wearing stuff with hit on it as a resto? Have to checked to see what reputation rewards are out there for you? Heck, even quest rewards can be substantially better than a drop.

Perhaps we need to go back to some basics. Work on those 85 dungeons, grab the 333 gear, rep grind some. If you have access to them, find some gems and enchants (which, depending on your guild and cash flow, may be difficult to do. I'm still using a Wrath meta gem because JC sucks to level).

Of course, this does not factor in what actually happens while in the group (usual stuff like teamwork and strat basics), or even you personally are capable of. But I can tell you that my first heroic in the minimum required gear still left me feeling like I had no right to be there. I was in greens and low blues, with a few pieces to get just above the random mark. I told myself that I wasn't going back to a heroic until I made some changes.

Your experiences may differ but I firmly believe that the number does not tell the whole story and that it is up to the player to fill in the blanks.

Fun and some tears in the new instances

Learning how to do these new instances with leveling gear is certainly a trial and an eye opener.

I mean, I knew things were going to be different in Cata and I am doing my best to adjust. First realization that something needed to change was in Vortex Pinnacle. I am going to reiterate some things Kae mentions that I learned the hard way.

Malfurion's Gift

This has been a lifesaver on mana. Roll Lifebloom on the tank and use the Clearcasts to bring up the dps. I am not doing heroics yet, but so far this strategy is working well for normals.

Moonglow

This may be difficult to spec for, forcing you to sacrifice resto talents to go this deep into balance. If you can manage it, great. However, if you follow EJ's post like I did, you may have to give up good 5 man talents like NS and Blessing of the Grove. It's one of those "your mileage may vary" situations, I think. I miss NS for saving tanks and may readjust my spec again when I am ready for heroics.

Less mobility

I am not the running around healer like I used to be. I use Nourish A LOT more on the tank now and while I am learning these fights, it can be rough to prioritize my healing. More than once, I have had to sacrifice a dps in order to save the tank (almost always due to overagro). In addition, I started to get a zen mentality for trash while I was adjusting to the mana changes. If folks were above 50 percent, I wasn't going to fret. All of this is with the mind set that Heroics are going to be different altogether, but whatever I can do to keep me sane while I learn everything all over again is what I have to do.

Being humbled

Couple of my friends pugged Vortex and had a level 81 priest healer. She rocked it and had hardly any trouble at all, on the heels (oh my, no pun intended) of my miserable showing of the same zone earlier that day. I felt dejected and at the same time scrambled to figure out what I was doing wrong. Halls of Origination also made me feel like a crap healer until we utilized proper CC. All in all, Wrath made me feel like a goddess among healers and Cata has knocked me off my pillar. It is a team effort now, so don't be afraid to ask for CC or the tank to adjust how he/she pulls.

Of course, I am harder on myself than others are to me. More than once I heard myself described as an awesome healer. I love you, too, guildies.

Gear choices and measurement

GuildOx has updated gear. I used the Resto Template and adjusted the weights on Haste, Int and Spirit along with other stats. Make use of the armory feature so you can see where your gear stacks up with the items suggested.

Wowheroes and BeImba are still being updated for Cata.

Gearscore always was and will be a spawn of evil. I hope you aren't using it.

Around Azeroth by pictures

Here's a wall of pictures to go with my previous walls of text!

These guys really do look like candy.



I felt sorry for these little guys. Sure, at times they have wanted to eat my face off but look at them! So sad.





From the files of "What did they feed these things?" Oh... right. Noobs







Lastly, Blizzard makes us use disguises quite a bit. From boxes to unconvincing masks, this is one of the better ones.


Psst, that's really Kir on the left!

Had a good time exploring while working on Loremaster. As we gear up for Tuesday, I wish you all Happy Hunting!

Some thoughts while working on Loremaster

Decided to work on Loremaster before Tuesday hits and I must say, I hope these lower level quests are indicative of how the rest of the expansion will be.

Phasing

Blizzard has taken the phase mechanic and ran with it, with fairly good results. For example, while questing in Stonard, I would pick up the quest from the quest giver, only to run around and find the place suddenly under attack. This was a slick move and was almost seamless.

Notice, I say almost. Phasing isn't a perfect system. Just ask one of my guildies who was unable to complete a quest during a phased portion. But there is ample use of it that I can see being of great use to transition the characters through phases of the quest lines.

Epic Battles

In almost all the zones, there is a culmination of the quests which lead to an epic-style battle of some kind. Be it a huge elemental or some dastardly villian, as I player, I feel like there is a sense of done-ness with these fights. As a level appropriate player, you may not actually wait to see how these stories are fleshed out, but there are often blue quality rewards attached to these fights which gives a little incentive to stay for the fight.

What I also enjoyed about these fights is the fact that the zones often have beginning, middles, and endings. This speaks to the RPG-er in me and keeps me invested in the world of the game. As with anything, the novelty of this can easily wear off by the end of the expansion, but I look forward to what kind of fights they present us as we head towards 85.

Cutscenes

Most people would agree that the Wrathgate cut scene is one of their favorite things about WOTLK. Blizzard recognized that and sprinkled a little of it in many of the revamped zones. Luckily, instead of the high drama, several minutes long scenes, they are really short but help move the quest story along.

What makes it work is that it's dynamic. You aren't just looking at the same pixels, but for a moment taken to a different level of the game.

Humor

Blizzard has a reputation to maintain for it's ability to not take itself too seriously. However, this expansion has a lot of dark undertones and following after Shakespear, Blizz made sure to add characters which offer a lighter side of things. Dwarven congo lines, bragging NPCs, a ghost who asks about Mankrik's wife and a Don Quixote-type are some examples. Some are pretty cool, some are cheesy as heck, but it is well needed when there is so much war and chaos going around.

Bombing runs

When they added bombing runs in BC, it was kind of cool, but often required more than one run though to complete. This time around, they made sure that you are in the air as long as it takes and offer a quick (usually painless) way of getting back to the start. It also seems like the cooldown for whatever explosive/plague/destruction of choice has lowered a bit, making it a quick and dirty method of blowing stuff up. Well needed and I enjoy those quests a lot more. Of course, I am also usually the only one doing them at the time, and my opinion may sour in a couple days.

Some bad news

You didn't think that beloved NPCs wouldn't go unscathed did you? Some grew darker. Some didn't make it through the shattering (which, I recommend visiting a certain grave in U Crator). There is a lot of sorrow, pain and tragedy in Azeroth these days.

The other bad news is there are a lot of changes to how rep is acquired. Some quests and zones which normally gave a certain rep have been replaced, leaving folks who are trying to catch up suddenly lost. If you are one of those who are trying to bring up some rep in the lower zones may have to do some research and digging.

I have lots of screenshots, but will publish them in a separate post. In the meantime...

See you around Azeroth!

Things to do after the Shattering

Now that the world has changed, there is certainly a fair number of things to work on before "Cattakissem", like getting pets, finishing up titles, etc.

Companion Pets

Warcraftpets.com has the latest on the pets they added with this patch, including one they squeeked in called Tiny Flamefly. Perks N Peeves has recent information on this pet. I will add that once I was done in the Thorium Bros area, I had to head to Flame Crest to pick up the rest of the chain. I didn't get a breadcrumb to go there, so it could easily be missed.

Somehow, this was a convincing disguise for the Blackrock folks.

Fans of Plants verses Zombies may already be prepared to get their Sunflower pet. Guildies who had never played the game before had a bit more of a learning curve for these quests, much to some frustration. Still, kinda neat and a chance to get "Zombies on your Lawn" song stuck in your head.

Fiona in Eastern Plaguelands has a few quests to offer as a set up to get her Lucky Charm buff from the Caravan. Your mileage may vary, as they say, but expect to take a bit of time to get Mr. Grubbs. Interesting sidenote: Slime covered bags from the grubs dropped a new plant: Dragon's Teeth. Well, really it's an old plant called Wintersbite. Not sure why the name change.

Finally, in Darkshore (which looks killer now!) there is a Forsaken in a cave which sells Withers. He shrinks then grows when near water. How cool is that?

Not just Stayin' Alive, but also causing havoc in Darkshore.

Fishing and Cooking

The dailies for these are open and so are the Cata cooking recipes bought with the daily rewards. What I didn't know before was that each daily also rewards skill ups on their corresponding profession. Very handy later.

Debated on working on Limnologist and Oceanographer. It's a lot of fish to catch, which could be be used toward the guild progress in Cata. However, I didn't want to be bogged down by having to back track to Northrend and Outlands. In addition, as a friend pointed out, I would kick myself for not getting Winter Squid now. Would be too easy to skip it until it is too late. Check out El's page for more information on where to catch your fish (link is on the right hand side of the page).

Quests and Loremaster

It is so much easier to see progress now. But oh my, I didn't realize how depressing it would be to see so many zones drop to zero. To start over seems like a drag but I was just too far away from completely finishing it before the patch.

Some of the quests are a bit of a pain to do at max level, like letting a level 6 hit you to poison you for example.

Other things

Don't forget to do take a Joy Ride in Azshera (it's recommended to go North to South) for an easy achievement.

You can't fly in Azeroth, but you can in Dalaran, now.

The new Trollish Cat forms look rather neat! I would seriously consider a race change if I wasn't broke.

The new tabards don't seem to be working properly, but you can get the new Goblin tabard in Org at the Darkspear area. Just look for Frizzo Villamar. (Sorry Alliance, not caught up on my info for you guys. It's exhausting enough to figure out the Horde!)

What are you working on as we head toward the 7th?

Maybe the roof won't fall on my head

With the Portals being removed today, I figured it was a good time to evacuate my characters out of Dalaran. I thought about taking Kir to Thunderbluff, but the stupid invasion was going on so I teleported to Moonglade.



I need to visit this place more often. Looks like even the tranquil houses by the lake are gearing up for bad juju.





This is more like it. Serene and pretty. It's a good place for a druid to contemplate the good times.

Alamo is back!

For those who don't know who Alamo is he is a legend. Seriously.

Everything you need to know about Alamo


After some wonderfully funny posts, he dissapeared for a while. This morning, I found him again, just in time for Cattokissem!

ALAMO teech a CATTOKISSEM!

They even maek a new form just for this!!

ALAMO teech abowt the CATTOKISSEM!

HEY GUSY! So ALAMO is just hiburninatin and hafin sum dreem where him is all in sum green thing with floaty bits and elf and stuffs and then him is WAKE UP and heer they got a doragn gonna eat all the world! THIS is sum FANSY STUFF!

A Thing is all carzy now, so maybe alamo gonna rite a thing before hims brekfust, for babee durids and for peeple to understand what a DUIRD DO! So now, while hims all awake and stuffs, ALAMO gonna teech U about this whole stuff!

1) See, Kanye, him dont like a Bush, and Blizzard, they is dont liek a tree! So DURID aint got no more to be a tree. Alamo like a tree, but not when make a leef all over the carpet.

2) They make a new thing, with CAT and KISS! But mostly CAT dont kiss, just jump on a thing and KILL IT ALL DEAD!

4) But Crazed MOON DURID, is ok to make a kiss right on the ECLIPS!

5) But dont only kiss a cat, because u know: CAT IS 4 FITE!

6) So DURID gonna be so storng heer, maybe everbuddy gonna be a durid thees day!

7) We got a bare. Him is not nise bare because him is gonna eat a fase! Bares mostly like the taste of fase!

6) OK now a Bare, him like sum HEVY METAL! BARE GOTTA THRASH. Just liek a thing wares short and high top sneeker and shake long hare reeeely fast! But also, ware sum plug in an ear wen you make this THRASH, becawse it make a thing bleed!

7) Also, all bare make peeple go fast when him RORE!! This is good, because a bare is deseptively fast. A Fast BARE, this is danjerus BARE! Bare don't even allow in OLIMPIC, becawse wonse upon a time, a bare run a rase in OLIMPIC. Maybe he dosen't win, but everduddy win after, becawse a BARE EAT ALL OTHER RASE MEN! Don't rase a hungry bare, is what sumbuddy shuld tell peeple.

8) MOON DURID, O yes wow man! Moon Durid hang out with 70's rock band and now make a MUSH ROOM from a SECRET PLASE! Mushrooms make a thing ECPLOAD! Espeshully a brain, if u listen to a moon durid backwards, u hear some CARZY THING!

9) Everbuddy liek a LOLCAT, make a funny say with a cute picshure! But now, picshure is not so cute, becawse a DURID now haf a TROLLCAT! Troll is make a talk all liek YAH MON. Maybe when trollcat and moondurid make a party together, is nobuddy remember not nothin next day!

10) WOLF MAN can also make a durid. WOLF MAN DURID, O man Alamo dosen't even haf to wear hims hot topic tee shirt no more! Now got all WOLF and CAT and BARE and MUCHROOM and SEEL and stuff all in same plase!

11) MAYBE I MAEK TOO MANY NUMBER!

Again, Alamo, you are my hero.

10 things I've learned while pet hunting.

1) If you don't have a T.V. or are too paranoid to let your eyes leave the screen for very long, play some music (Pandora in the background worked for me). This pet hunting gig is very tedious.

2) Remember that certain raptors are only available through nests. Don't be a goober and get excited to see the Ravasaur Matriarch when you need to be looking at the ground instead.

3) Watch for wrist or hand pain. Set the looting to auto so you don't have to Shift-Click for hours.

4) Set the stopwatch timer to keep track. Hours one and two mean you still have hope. Hour three is when the paranoia sets in. /who to see who else is around. You start wishing for a Jeeves. During the hours of four and five is when mental fatigue sets in. You start to back track to make sure you actually looted. You've given up on actually seeing anything close to a pet and just kill to kill.

5) The elemental invasion sucks. More than once I told my screen "I will save you, little whelp!" *MOONFIRE* Recall that paranoia sets in. I started to wonder if elementals took my spawn.

6) Having friends to pass the time helps but don't bitch to them. Remember that this is a self-imposed torture.

7) Setting out a pet that similar to the one you are looking for won't convince your new pet to join you. More often than not, they aren't friends in the wild.

8) Remind yourself that this is a sickness. You can't help yourself. (This holds back the self loathing)

9) If your friends also collect pets, don't tell them what you are doing. Case in point: Friend in gchat says "I owe you an inappropriate misdirect for reminding me that I don't have [xyz pet] on [his main]." Opps! But grats on Dark Whelping!

10) And the last thing I have learned while pet hunting... They are so cute and I must have more!

It's Orange and shiny!

This is Relg, the owner of the guild's first legendary! We have missed every legendary due to complications (merging guilds, owner of shards leaving the server, etc) and so it feels good to finally see one completed.

And to be honest, we would have stopped doing ICC a while ago if I had not been for this legendary. Hopefully, this didn't put too much pressure on the poor DK but it was something that needed to get done. (Note that I embarrassingly called it a sword. Obviously, it isn't but I am a dumb healer so forgive me)

Regardless, congratulations Relg! I must say, having a legendary makes your metrosexual Blood elf a little sexier :P Oh, and we will hunt you down if you leave. Some of us have known you for at least 10 years and know where to find you!

But wait... there's more!

Because this was our last night to do Icecrown on a regular basis, we also gave out prizes for those who participated in tonight's raid. The contest was this: What was the total vendor price for every item that dropped during the raid?

I don't quite recall the exact number but the winner had to come closest without going over.

Third place won a bear cub.
Second place won an Orb of Deception.
The winner won *drum roll*




This is a prize we have given out before but doesn't lessen the coolness factor.

Once again, I feel like we are just a little bit more awesome than some other guilds. We don't always get strats tight or maybe bring along some folks who aren't hardcore, but we do enjoy the company we keep. All this sentimentality just in time for the world to end!


Well done team and thanks for sticking it out.

What does Epic look like?

Given that a large portion of the player base didn't actually start the game until WOTLK and even some started half way through, it's not surprising that there should be a small bit of skeptism when you hear reports of things being difficult again in Cata.

There are many comments of praise when we read that heroics will actually be heroics and progression will run like this:

Below is the basic progression map. Obviously your mileage may vary, i.e. If you're Paragon or Premonition you will be able to skip some of the below and/or mix and match at your discretion.

*Normal Dungeons/Crafting/Questing to get full set of 85 blues (non-heroic) to do Heroic dungeons.
*Heroic dungeons to get full set of 85 Heroic blues to do Normal mode raids.
*Normal raids to get full set of 85 epics (non-heroic) to do Heroic mode raids.
*Heroic Raids to get full set of 85 Heroic epics, which will presumably help a bit on Sinestra and the next tier (when released with patch 4.1.0)

*Badge vendors to help fill in gaps at all tier levels.

*No real gating to speak of for ship.

*Sinestra opens after Cho'gall is defeated on HEROIC mode. No timers or attempt limits, but she will pound you relentlessly. She has better than Heroic epic level gear (half a tier better).

Heroic blues? Players these days are inclined toward purples because, well, purple was blue as we end this expansion. Vendor gear isn't even blue and very easy to get. My lock had T9 before even setting foot in ToC.

Then you hear of people on test wiping (oh my!) on heroic 5 mans until they figured out the strat. And some actually liked the abuse.

And think back to the transition from BC to Wrath and the travesty that was Naxx. One long, winged trek that upper end guilds destroyed and was left to twiddle their thumbs.

The arguement is not casual verses hardcores now. I see it as veterans verses cadets. Especially for those of us who have played in vanilla (I rolled a priest because I heard druids couldn't heal end game), things being challeging and with a learning curve actually harkened back to a different era of MMO's. Everquest was still a juggernaut with it's insane camping and farming, mass key quests, and progression locks. Gamers these days were barely in Junior High when I started my first MMO (Ultima Online, in case you were wondering), and those of us who grew up and got lives certainly don't have the time or energy for a game with so many time sinks.

But we don't have to go back that far for a sense of challenge and awe. Burning Crusade, for all the boring asthetics and uninspiring bosses (more on that later), had some meat to it. I would even argue that Ulduar gave us that, too. I still shudder when I think of Heroic Mimiron! Then it seemed the crew jumped ship to work on Cataclysm and things kinda went downhill.

I for one am hoping that things stay somewhat difficult. But I don't envy the devs in their job to keep things difficult but still acessible.



One of my favorite things about Northrend was the fact that the villian was everywhere. The first dungeon for most of us was UK and BAM, Arthas is giving out orders and displaying his power. He's telporting here and there and reminding us, goading us if you will, that we are in his domain.

Even side NPCs like the various dragonflight including Chromie, the only gnome I like, made regular appearances.

Burning Crusade was very "meh" for danger. Every boss was locked away somewhere and I never got a sense of urgency like I did for Wrath. Mag was step in the right direction but would have been better if, say, Lady Vashj used a hologram to speak to a Naga chief in Zangarmarsh. I am sure there were better examples, but if there are, they didn't last long enough to instill any sort of emotion.

For those who don't care about lore, I am sure it's all meaningless. Some of us still like that immersion (again, another era) and feeling like we are part of a storyline speaks to an emotion commitment to a game.

I was worried that without such an iconic foe such as the Lich King, would I get the feeling of a real villain in Cata? One movie and an achievement won't make me a believer yet, but I do have high hopes that Deathwing and his army will make me feel inspired!

Checklist

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?