Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Tanking and rocket tree

This new LFG feature has been getting me a bunch of triumph badges, which I've been using to upgrade my tanking gear. My tanking gear is pretty darned decent now and I recently had the experience of tanking all of TOC! I know, I know... TOC like its that hard anymore. But when I first realized that with the raid composition of a large number of people's alts that I would have to tank, I was pretty scared. I was nervous about switching off on Gormok and then positioning the worms.

I get a little scared every time I have to tank something, just because I don't do it that often. But then I do it, and we have a run like we did where we just one shot everything and I'm like "Oh, this tanking stuff isn't that bad!" Though then again, I was in some very capable healing hands. I think a big difference for me when I'm tanking vs healing is just the spatial awareness/point of view. Its hard to see everything that's going on when there is a big boss all up in your face. We'll see how far I go with tanking.

So why is it again that the druid bear form is the only one that will hold with rockets on the Gunship battle? Why can't we have rocket tree? I mean, I know its graphically possible:

Is there some fear that rockets + tree bark = danger or something?

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Monday, December 28, 2009

K's pretentious blogging meme

I was inspired a bit by the year in review meme that went around and Tam's project where he provided bloggers with post topics. Thus, I have some questions around blogging that I would selfishly love for other bloggers to answer. I call it the pretentious blogging meme, because its about blogging. Seriously, what could be more pretentious than blogging about blogging?

So I am particularly curious about how other bloggers blog. Ya, call me a total dork. Thus, here are the questions that I want to know about and to get this started, my corresponding answers.

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?
2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?
3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing?
4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?
5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?
6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?
7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?
8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?
9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?
10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?

I've been blogging for over two years now (*boggle*), having started in September 2007. I started because I wanted to chronicle my adventures in game. This blog really started as a diary of sorts, hugely inspired by Phaelia of course.

2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?

I would say about 3-5 hours a week.

3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing? Do you write in your day to day job?

Well, I always did well in my english classes in school and always had an easy time writing papers, but beyond that I don't have any formal or professional writing experience. I did keep a personal journal for about 10 years though. Does that count? Writing in my RL job is minimal.

4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?

Like most bloggers I guess I look for inspiration for posts while I am playing the game. But I also do a lot of random brainstorming and daydreaming while I am driving to and from the current client I am working for. I am in the car from 2-2.5 hours per day and when I am not busy calling other drivers f'in idiots (which happens often), I find myself brainstorming possible blog topics. I also read a ton of random non-WOW blogs and find a lot of inspiration on topics or random stupid funny stuff on those blogs as well.

5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?

Um, no rules here. I like to think that this blog is about everything and nothing at the same time (deep, I know). Because I blog about everything from our guild's raiding updates, random funnies, pvp/arenas, blogging, asshats, professions, gaming, and finally the occasional post about actual druid stuffs or healing (shock!).

6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?

For a while now I've been on the schedule of posting 3 times a week. In general I do try to diversify those 3 posts so that they aren't all about the same topic. So I'll try to do a random funny post, the second from something within the game, and the third about gaming or blogging. Though this varies week to week. Im terms of writing, I do a lot of my actual writing at work (shhhhh).

7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?

I currently have 8 potential blog posts drafted in various stages, whether its a simple idea or written out a bit more. I actually draft a lot of my posts within gmail as draft emails. I will also draft posts sometimes within a word processing platform whether that is Word (work computer) or Pages (personal computer). I find this easier than within the blogspot platform itself. Of the 8 drafts I have right now, I am guessing that 3 will never get written or published. Sometimes an idea just never really develops, or I wait too long on actually writing the post that it either gets outdated or written elsewhere.

8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?

Hmmm, well Jess would have to continue the Left Claw stuffs, Tamarind would continue the random humor/ranting bit, and Beruthiel would continue the druidy/healy stuffs... though seriously she is a much more serius bzness tree than I am or ever could be.

9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?

Well, I'm surprised first of all that I'm still blogging, even though my blog has changed a whole lot from when I first started. I'm surprised that I've been mentioned or linked from wow.com three times over the life of this blog. Little old me! Finally, while I'm not very active in a lot of the blogging forums, I have been surprised by the sense of community within the WOW blogging world. As I commented on Beru's blog last week, I think of a lot of you fellow bloggers and frequent comments on my blog as my WOW friends... even though I've never played with you in game or anything.

10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

No real goals beyond perhaps trying to do some actually serious posts a bit more often. Other than that, just keep on keeping on!

Any fellow bloggers who would like to indulge me in answering any or all of the questions, please think of it as a late Christmas gift for me. If you do blog about this, please leave a comment on this post so that I can make sure that I see everyone's answers.

************
Edited with some answers:
Falling Leaves and Wings
A High Latency Life
Rejuvo
Clearcasting
The Bossy Pally (awesome blog name!)
Sideshow & Syrana
Shadow-war
More Bars Than You
The Tree Unleashed
The Pink Pigtail Inn

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Jumping on the bandwagon

As most bloggers have blogged about the new LFG system, I figure its my turn to jump on this bandwagon. The first night that this system went live, Jess and I went in as a tank and healer, taking one millisecond to find us a group. As we were running through it, Jess noted that this whole system felt like a one night stand, since blogging:

"You zone-in with four strangers. Sometimes there is a brief exchange of greetings but often nothing is said and you just go at it. You storm through the instance and before you know it you’ve downed the final boss. People stand around during an awkward moment, not quite knowing what to say except trivial things like “nice run” and “ty for group” before leaving as quickly as they joined. And then afterward just a few minutes later, with your head still spinning, you can hardly remember who you grouped with unless there was something memorable like the healer who never ran out of mana and seemed like she could go all night, or the hunter who always shot too early but was annoying smug about his performance. But you’ll forget them too as soon as you start yet another PUG.

Is this what casual sex is like?"

Hahaha. Now while bloggers have talked about coming across asshats and idiots in these pugs, it seems that it has become almost expected. What I mean is that folks seem to be more surprised when you end up in a good group, with no attitudes or ninjas.

You guys well know that I have never been shy about posting asshats I have come across in game, going so far as to publishing screenshots with toon names and guilds clearly called out. And yes, I have come across all sorts of players in this new LFG system. Now I'm not talking about folks pulling 700 dps in full purples, because they bother me a whole lot less than totally rude, jackass, asshats.

But you know what? It's weird because I have no inclination to SS these idiots and post about it here. It doesn't really upset me as much in this new system. Is it because its become so common or expected? Given the temporary nature of these groups, with generally no lasting consequences (since with the cross server feature its very unlikely you will run across these folks again), does this system just excuse asshattery? If someone has a bit of asshat in them, does this system just make it more likely that they will exhibit said asshattery?

On another note, I was in one pug where one person mentioned that their level 80 shammy was their first and only toon. I also noticed that this person was unguilded. I honestly felt kind of bad for them. Why?

Well, I think back to how Jess, Wut, Atania, and I met many of our guildies and our close non-guildie friends. Many of these relationships were built back in Burning Crusade when I was the only healer in our then tiny tiny guild. Because I wasn't able to run as many 5 mans as Jess, Wut, and Atania were, they were forced to pug a healer. This was how we ended up meeting folks like Rapunzel and Heidilux, through which we then met a ton of other folks.

Yes, the old school way of pugging was more painful. But it also meant a lot more, you know? Of course there were still asshats and idiots you ran across in the old system. But people actually conversed throughout the run. Adding folks to your friends list was common. These runs were a platform on which a friendship could be built.

I'm not saying that I don't like this new system, because it certainly is very easy and convenient. I just feel like brand new players are missing out on an outlet to make new friends. This is why I felt bad for this shammy, a person brand new to this game with their first 80. Once I learned this, I tried to converse in party chat a bit more with this person, to try to make this experience somewhat less cold than these runs usually are these days.

Anyways, those are just some jumbled thoughts I had around this LFG system. Hope everyone has a great holiday. As for me, please keep your fingers crossed that I can fly out of O'Hare tomorrow morning. I am hoping weather will not delay my trip back to Chapel Hill. If so, I will be in the American Airlines Admiral's Club tomorrow, sitting around herbing all day. :)

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Random funnies

Three random funnies to share today:

1. From Apokalips:

Haha. Our old friend Adamas used to emote carving "Adamas was here" into my trunk. What would your tree tattoo say?

2. I mentioned once before that prior to playing WOW, the last real game I played was Nintendo. Yes, friends Nintendo. I am pretty much brand new to this gaming and MMO thing. Anyways, so this drawing called "Mario's Closet" from GameOvr really really amused me:

Mario! So cute! And look at all his outfits!

3. Finally, this last pic has nothing to do with WOW, but it cracked me up.

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Monday, December 21, 2009

Icecrown update

I'm not exactly sure how many of y'all even care to hear about our adventures in Icecrown, but to satisfy Simplymod and my guildies, here is my latest Icecrown update.

The guild has been pwned lately by a very big and bad and scary boss, the dreaded holiday boss. Its been very difficult to put together full raids. But we were able to finally get some decent time this past raid week and put in a solid effort in Icecrown. There was a number of people switching in alts to fill needed roles, and we had to bring in some friends outside the guild. Some thoughts and pics.

Lord Marrowgar:

I didn't get a pic on Lady Deathwhisper. The one thing I remember thinking during Jess' raid lecture for this fight was: 'Geez, that is a serius bzness lecture. I'm glad I'm not dps'. A lot of times I'm glad all I have to do is heal and not have to worry about switching targets and blah blah blah. This would require *actually* listening and pay attention to Jess' raid lectures. The horror!

Actually in all seriousness, Jess will tell you that I probably speak up too much or give too much input on how things should be done, considering the healer's perspective. I'm always telling tanks where I would like bosses tanked... where dps should stand... or generally just how I think strats should be tweaked. Bossy tree is bossy. I think this might have been Qyburn's first experience with the dreaded K whispers where I requested some boss positioning. I told Qyburn that I only do this to tanks I like. :)

For the Gunship Battle, obligatory rocket bear pic:

On the gunship battle I was nervous about screwing up when I had to jump over to the other ship. I always failed at jumping off the platform on Thaddius. So um, the first time we did this, I flew over before we were supposed to... and before anyone else did. Oops. /sigh

Now on the second attempt, just before we got it down, Jess jumped over to the other ship. So when we got the credit for the win, Jess and Nkm were on the enemy ship. Haha oops. They had to jump overboard and sacrifice themselves to come back to loot. And oh yeah, loot. This was definitely a tanky weekend. Pretty much every single drop was not only plate, but a tanky drop. Damn Blizz! Ur doing it wrong! Healy drops first! :p

Finally, our Saurfang pic:

We took 6 dps and 2 heals for this fight and I stood near the middle where I had a great view of both sides of dps as they dealt with the beast adds. I loved seeing the dps trade aggro with each other, taunting and ccing the adds before getting them down. We had one unfortunate attempt where two of the three dps on the right side died. Poor Shat, an elemental shammy, was the only one left. I had to bite my lip so that I wouldn't crack up over vent, as the sight of a shammy running around all crazy like his ass was on fire was just hilarious to me. Run, shammy, run!

I think the Saurfang fight was my favorite of the Lower Spire. While it required some stressful healing at times, given we went with two healers, it was just a fun fight to see. I thought the part at the end where his dad comes to pick up his body was quite touching and a bit sad. I honestly felt kind of bad for him. Finally, I'm sure our hunter Kalthan never thought this would happen, but I have to publicly give our deeps props for dealing with the adds so beautifully.

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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Where K sets things straight again

Today I'd like to clear up some guild confusion that I think has been floating around. Let me do this via an illustration:

I would like to further point out that the arrows are uni-directional arrows, not bi-directional arrows. The sarcasm, the ridicule, the mockery is to flow only one way out from the tree. Got it?

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Wayward tanks

I mentioned on my post on Monday how the hilarious Tamarind at Righteous Orbs has given me a blog topic. He said:

"So Keredria, you know you have a certain ‘reputation’ as a healer, right? In a good way, I mean, for not taking any shit. "Heal like a tank", is something I carry with me into every PUG I attempt. So what I would like from you are your top tips for controlling a wayward tank, and reminding them who *really* wears the platemail in the relationship – as frivolous or as serious as you like".

Hmmm, so I have this reputation eh? Haha. I think I shall mix frivolous AND serious in the same post and you guys can guess which is which. Ok, ok I'll admit that there is probably much more frivolous than serious, but there is some serious here if you pull out your magnifying glass and look really really hard.

Now lets first look at why you may have a wayward tank, and where a tank might get the crazy idea that they are running the show and consider themselves the head or leader of the group. Well yeah, its true that the tank is the first person running into a boss or group of mobs. But does that really mean the tank is leading the group? Or could it be a bit like the miners sending canaries into a cave to test whether there was enough oxygen? Perhaps the true leader is the miner at the back of the pack who was smart enough to send the canary in?!?! :) Let's also look at another example:

Hahaha. (Actually in all seriousness I know I'm not some kid expert, having none myself, but people who actually put their kids on leashes like this... WTF?!?!) Anyways, I digress.

Now I do have to be honest in that I haven't had to heal a pugged random tank for something challenging in a long long time. Dealing with a wayward tank is definitely harder when its a stranger that you're running with. But whether you're dealing with a tank you've never run with, or a tank that you've run a million times with, at the end of the day, speak up. Let's look at a *hypothetical* example:

Let's say, por ejemplo (ooh Spanish!), that you just happen to be a kick ass resto druid who is running heroic Pit of Saron for the very very first time with oh, let's just say as a *hypothetical* example, a protection warrior tank, who just happens to *hypothetically* have a white ponytail. Now in this *hypothetical* story, let's say its been a long long time since this tank and healer had run a challenging 5 man instance. So if this tank were to *hypothetically* pull the next group of mobs when the healer is at about one third mana, how should the healer react?

a. Stay quiet and try to keep up with heals as best you can
b. Scream "WTF, you pull when I'm good and ready, got it?!?! Got it?!?!"
c. Let it be clearly known that you are perturbed with a sarcastic comment to the effect of "Ums hello... can I mana up between pulls?" And if it happens again, let the group wipe.

Well maybe different healers have different answers... and maybe the right answer depends on the situation or even the tank. But in general, I think the answer should be c. Speak up for what you need. Tell them you need to mana back up, or mention that you have adds on you (though I usually try to just run to the tank in these situations). And if after expressing what you need, the tank is still "wayward"? Well then you know what? You've done the best you can, you've told them what you need. If its still not working, cut your losses and move on. Its not any slight on your healing badge of honor.

Now if you have been running a long long time with a specific tank, I would venture that most tanks themselves recognize that it is the healer who is wearing the platemail in the relationship, as Tam puts it. The tank-healer relationship has often been compared to a marriage, because there are so many similarities. So in a similar vein, even if you know and the tank knows that the platemail actually hangs in your closet, you don't always have to verbalize it or shout it from the rooftops. Sometimes, be quite generous and make the tank think that they wear the platemail. Let them enjoy it... let them savor it. But you and I know the truth.

I've previously mentioned on this blog the idea that if a tank is thought of as the head of a raid or instance or group or whatever, then the healer is the neck. The neck can make the head turn any which way it wants.

Rock on healers, rock on.

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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Apparently I'm shedding

Random funnies:

I think I need to keep my tree self better moisturized. Apparently I am shedding or something.

Hahaha. Fonzy/Chachi/Brboo/Poo tends to get a lot of crap from us in the guild, and I am no exception. He's a good sport about it though but I remember one raid where he stopped me in raid and opened trade to exchange Black Vitriol. Hmmm, maybe I was being extra vitriolic.

Now I know some people get crazed by the insanity that is trade chat and I know a number of guildies who keep it turned off. But every now and then I find a morsel of amusement:

People amuse me.

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Monday, December 14, 2009

K's 2009 Year in Review

I was tagged by River to do this meme on reviewing this past year. I've also asked Tam to infect me with a syphilis like blogging topic (long story, go read his post). He has asked me to blog about "top tips for controlling a wayward tank, and reminding them who *really* wears the platemail in the relationship". Ah a juicy, juicy topic my friend. Hopefully I'll get this posted later this week.

But for now, here's my year in review:

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I've become quite involved in arenas, on 2s, 3s, and 5s. It's been quite a learning experience. Our team makeups have fluctuated a bit, which is always takes a learning curve. I think we are definitely improving and I am getting pretty darned good I think at timing my cyclones. Yay cyclones.

But I think I have to accept the fact that a lot of these arena folks have been playing for numerous seasons... and that I have to level my expectations. I definitely swear a lot though during arenas, and our losses are usually closed out with me saying "F*********k" in a long, drawn out, sad, pathetic way. Who knew the F word has so many u's?

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

My favorite place bar none that I saw this past year is the area leading up to and the room inside with General Vezax. The stained glass, the streaming light... beautiful. Ulduar in general is very beautiful and artistically well done.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Two words. Gold cap. That is all. If things go as planned, I'm looking at Feburary/March-ish.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Hmmm, I guess I could say tanking, if you call that an achievement? Heh. No, but seriously, I have always been incredibly intimidated by tanking. I forced myself this past year to give it a go and have been pleasantly surprised. Sometimes I'll start to feel my face itch, and I know that its time to tank and give my face a bit of a workout. I then go through the following steps:

1. Wash face
2. Place face on middle of keyboard
3. Roll face to the right, then left
4. Rinse and repeat

Yay, tanking faceroll! I would like to say that tanking requires some skill but I know a number of tanks who read this blog, so the tanking faceroll is my story and I'm sticking to it.

I may actually be needing to update my tanking gear and skills more often now, as our guild seems to have found itself with the strange, never before seen phenomenon of having enough healers and not enough tanks. I actually even tanked Onyxia 10 recently, which was definitely a learning experience.

What was your biggest failure?

I would agree with Megs on this one that I never fail, and if I do, it was a tank's fault anyways. And if I'm tanking, uh, I blame... dps? Circle of blame is... circuitous? Though if I had to pick one, I would choose the fact that we never went back to Ulduar to finish off Yogg. I still hold out hope that we can go back, but I don't know if it'll happen.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Dual specs. I really love that I can either play around with two healy specs or pick up a tanking spec. But I'm going to be selfish here and say that I would really, really, really, really be excited if we got triple specs. As a druid who is raiding resto, doing arenas, and now tanking, I would love it. Please Blizz? Can I be selfish and ask for triple specs? Please? I'll pay for it!

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Hmmm, I don't know if I would say that I necessarily regret it, but I've sometimes thought that I should farm less (herbing, fishing) and run instances more for the badges that now drop like candy. (Seriously, how crazy is it that in a span of a week, Badges of Triumph are dropping from instance bosses?) But then again, I get tired of running 5 mans over and over... plus I like mindlessly farming while my focus is occupied elsewhere.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

Mmmm, I don't listen to podcasts, but I do have a ton of blogs in my reader. A favorite blog? Um, maybe I'll just take the easy route and go with Jess' blog for brownie points? However, when does a healer ever need brownie points from their tank? I mean seriously, come on! It's always the other way around, no?

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009?

The lesson that was just reinforced for me this year? There are real people behind those toons you see in game. This question and my answer reminds me of a topic that I had wanted to blog about in a separate post. Perhaps I'll flesh it out more, but will start it here. There's been a lot of posts within the blogosphere lately around guild drama. Here's my take on this.

Guild drama does not call into question your ability or authority or credibility or any thing ending with "-ity" of your capabilities as a guild leader or officer. Think about anything involving a group of people... be it your family, work, spouses/significant others, friends/social circle. Have you ever been involved in a group of people where some amount of drama has never surfaced?

So why would our guilds be any different? Guild drama for me just reinforces the fact that there are real people playing these pixelated toons, people with different personalities, backgrounds, mindsets, and points of view. Sure you want to limit the drama, but I think its normal and natural for guild drama to rear its ugly head from time to time. What distinguishes your ability as a guild leader or officer is not whether guild drama arises, its how you deal with it.

This was actually kinda neat to think through these questions about this past year. I won't tag anyone, but would invite any bloggers to do their own year in review.

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

3.3 thoughts so far

We haven't seen Icecrown yet because we don't raid until Thursdays. I'm looking forward to seeing the place with fresh, new eyes tonight. Now Tuesday night, a group of us did go into the new 5 man heroics.

I was very clear to everyone that I wanted to go in blind. When I see something for the first time, I am zealously overprotective about not wanting to hear too much from others about their experiences or how they did something. I want to just do it. If you try to say something, like Kalthan tried, you will be met with something equivalent of "shush please".

So off we went blind to heroic Forge of Souls and Pit of Saron. Forge of Souls was pretty easy, as was Pit of Saron. We did have some experiences on some bosses where since we were going in blind, we didn't know the whole don't heal this person or don't dps when you have this buff thing. But we did end up breezing through both heroics.

I will put my stake in the ground here though that I think going in blind to something puts the most pressure on the healer. There were some trash mobs in Pit of Saron, where I did 5000 hps. What in the? I was doing more healing on trash in this heroic 5 man that I do on most TOC10 fights apart from perhaps Twins.

Anyways, I was very impressed with both FoS and PoS, especially with the scale of the instance inside. I don't know if it was just because it was my first time seeing it, but it just felt big. In Pit of Saron we had a funny bit when we were freeing those slaves and because I was standing in the back, I wasn't seeing how the others were freeing them. Thus:

K: How are you guys freeing those slaves?
Jess or Wut or Heidikins: By clicking on this little ball thing.
Kalthan: Of course women can never see the ball and chain.

Badum-ching! So we also stepped foot in heroic Halls of Reflection. It was kinda funny when we just charged in the middle with no clue what was going to happen. I will say that I am pleased that they made this final instance somewhat difficult. And while I know it will get easier as folks get geared up, I'm glad it isn't super easy. It shouldn't be. I mean its Arthas for pete's sake.

We did end up getting bugged down the hall part and haven't gone back yet, but hope to finish it soon. I will say that during the hall encounter, I was literally shrieking over vent as the Lich King's shadowy outline got closer and closer to us. I think Blizz did an amazing job of creating a sense of scale and drama to these 5 mans. It almost felt like a raid, you know?

While we were doing these 3 heroics, all three of the possible epic trash drops dropped. I'm not sure if we were just lucky, or if they are common drops, but we saw Unsharpened Ice Razor, Seven-Fingered Claws, and I picked up Ghostly Wristwraps.

Final point about 3.3, I think a lot of folks missed the fact that two new vanity pets are for sale now as well. A number of guildies did not know about it. Breanni in Dal now sells Calico Cat and Albino Snake. Go get yours now!

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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Japanese spam, HALP ME!

I have never put word verification for comments on this blog. Sure, I've gotten spam from time to time, but never enough that it got too much for me to deal with on an individual basis. However, for the last 3 weeks or so I have been dealing with Japanese spam on this single post every single day. I figured it would die down after a while, but no. It's getting very very annoying.

This is what they look like:

I am a bit confused by the spam because yes, it is in Japanese. Um hello? I doubt any of my readers would be able to read this spam? Plus, there are no links to anything in the comment themselves, and the commenter's name is not a link itself. Argh!!! Can I do anything about it apart from word verification? Any other bloggers dealt with this spam?

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Resto Druid Drops in Heroic Frozen Halls

With patch 3.3, we get three new 5 man dungeons, collectively called the Frozen Halls. The Frozen Halls includes 3 dungeons that you have to complete in order: The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and Halls of Reflection. Now I just recently learned that the last boss in the Halls of Reflection is the Lich King himself (I don't keep up with detailed patch notes much in advance). I knew that the last boss in the Icecrown raid would be the Lich King, but I had no idea that he'd also be hanging out in the 5 man! I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this.

Anyways, when Wotlk came out, I ran through the 5 mans for the first time with no clue whatsoever what the bosses would do. It was definitely kind of fun that way, and I'll probably do that this time as well. The normal version of these 5 mans drop level 219 gear while the heroics drop level 232 gear.

For those of us who pretty much run 10 mans exclusively, there are some upgrades to be had by running these heroic dungeons. I know there are phat lewts in the Icecrown raid. But I just don't know how hard or easy these Icecrown bosses will be for us. So I figure I will plan on upgrading via heroics where I can.

Again I'm only listing drops from the heroic versions. I also left off the cloth healing pieces because yes, I know we can wear them, but in actuality I really never do. I will leave the tissue armor for my priesty friends.

Forge of Souls
Bronjahm:
* Love's Prisoner
Devourer of Souls:
* Essence of Desire (hmmm sounds kinda naughty)
* Arcane Loops of Anger (Jess would probably say I should have this)

Pit of Saron
Forgemaster Garfrost:
* Surgeon's Needle
Krick and Ick:
* NADA
Scourgelord Tyrannus:
* NADA because I think Nevermelting Ice Crystal is more for dps unless for some reason you need the spellpower

Halls of Reflection
Falric:
* NADA
Marwyn:
* Ephemeral Snowflake
The Lich King (holy crap!):
* Shriveled Heart
* Chestguard of Broken Branches (awwww)
* Oath of Empress Zoe

Trash Drops from any of the 3 dungeons
* Ghostly Wristwraps

I really need a new offhand, so I would love Shriveled Heart. I really wish there was a cloak as well because my cloak sucks with a capital S.

For those of you who are not quite as awesome as us resto druids and want to see other drops (noes! all the lewts are for us trees!) from these dungeons, scroll down on these wowwiki sites for Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and Halls of Reflection

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Monday, December 7, 2009

Are you ready for the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby?

Long time readers of this blog know that I have always been a big fisherwoman in game, long before it became trendy, with everyone doing it. I used to get a lot of crap and disbelief from guildies for how much I fished, but it was a huge money maker for me from level 20-40 or so.

You'll also see that any screenshots of me show K with the Salty title, a title that I never ever change. I don't know, I just very much identify with it. It references my fishing, as well as my choice of language at times.

Anyways, because of this I'm looking forward to the new fishing tournament coming out in patch 3.3, the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby. For detailed info on this new tourney, as always check out the bible of all things WOW fishing, Els Anglin

The basics:

1. Starts on Saturdays at 2 pm server
2. Fish from any pool from Northrend for a Blacktip Shark
3. Stone and turn it in to the cute Walrus guy who will be next to the Dalaran fountain.

Here's why this is big. To get the Salty title now, you have to win either the original Stranglethorn Fishing Tourney or this new one. So this will definitely increase the number of folks who will be running around with the Salty title. I don't know... I guess I can share.

Will I try the tourney? Well, the rewards for winning are Dread Pirate Ring and Boots of the Bay. I don't know. I may just try for it and see if I can be the first person to get it, but not actually turn it in since I know a lot of others want the Salty title.

Now for strategy. The key is going to be finding an area with a dense concentration of pools but with low competition. I am thinking that the coast of Borean Tundra in the Frozen Sea as well as Sholazar Basin is going to be packed. I don't know if I would go there. Instead I may choose the Northern lakes in Howling Fjord, the Blue Sky Logging grounds in Grizzly Hills, or Lake Kum'uya in Borean Tundra.

Will you be participating in this new derby?

To close this fishing related post, a super cute pic of three of us in the guild:

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Thursday, December 3, 2009

Save the Murlocs!!!

The shot of the little orphaned baby murloc tugged at my heart a bit. More information on what you can do to save the murlocs here.

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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A philosophy lesson

Here is a philosophy from this blog: Karma is a bitch.

Ok, let me dial back and explain. So I'm going about my druidy day, which has lately involved a lot of herbing in good old Sholazar Basin. I often mindlessly herb while I'm chatting with others, watching tv, or talking on the phone. So I'm minding my own business, when all of a sudden, I get ninjaed by a hunter on a herb that I had landed to herb. Ok, ok, I continue on my way, only to get ninjaed again by the same hunter on the next node. WTF?

Now I'm mad. First of all, a hunter seriously? A hunter wants to challenge my herbing? Geez, at least give me a challenge with another druid or a pally with their 'fly fast thingie'. So what do I do? Well I actually say out loud "Ok, it's on now" and start flying in the direction I saw the hunter go, knowing very well that I could out herb him.

So I then spent a good amount of time flying faster to the next node (yay for not having to waste time summoning a mount!) and herbing all the nodes before the hunter even got there. When I saw the hunter deciding to switch directions, I started following him that way as well. I know... I'm evil. Repeat it with me friends, "Karma is a bitch".

After a while, it was clear that I had exerted my herbing dominance (rawr) and my bags were spilling out the wazoo with herbs and Eternal lifes. But as I shared in guild chat, I just couldn't get myself to leave the zone. I found myself staying just so that I could prevent this hunter from getting more herbs. I mean I knew that there was nothing to keep this guy from staying on all night after I logged, but still. It was the principle. I guess that would be called vindictive or spiteful herbing? As Jess commented, "Hmmm, the payback is strong in this one."

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Monday, November 30, 2009

Blog personalities

I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard of the MBTI. I've taken the full test three times, and each time I've come out as an INTJ. Reading INTJ profiles makes me realize that I am so an INTJ. Why am I sharing this today? Well I came across this site called the Typealyzer where you can type in the address of a blog. What happens next is quoted from the site:

"This text analysis gives a snapshot of the persona by looking at the communication style of the text in the moment it was written. Looking on the results over a period of time will, however, tell you something about how a blogger “normally” prefer to communicate, but it might still be a blog that more reflects a role than how the blogger feels inside."

Hmmm... interesting, eh? I'm not sure exactly how it works, but here is what got me. I typed in my blog address, and I got back ESFP.

ESFP - The Performers

"The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions."

Anyone else notice that ESFP is the opposite of INTJ in every sense? Isn't that funny? Am I communicating in a style very opposite to my personality... or er something like that? Well this got me curious as to what personalities other blogs I read come back as.

Fellow ESFPs - Megs and Jong at Forbearance, River at A High Latency Life, Averna at Nerf This Druid, Pugnacious Priest. Wouldn't you know, our blogs are all performers!

Jess at Pretty in Plate, Bell at 4Haelz, Beru at Falling Leaves and Wings are:

ESTP - The Doers

"The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time."

Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket, Tam and Chastity at Righteous Orbs, and Gevlon at Greedy Goblin are:

ISTP - The Mechanics

"The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters."

Leafy at Leafshine and Lissanna at Restokin are:

ESTJ - The Guardians

"The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they have made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things.

The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

Miss Medicina, Mikata at Resto-Melee, and Amber at I Like Bubbles are:

ISFP - The Artists

"The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living."

Niniel at Swiftmend is:

ENTP - The Visionaries

"The charming and trend savvy type. They are especially attuned to the big picture and anticipate trends. They often have sophisticated language skills and come across as witty and social. At the end of the day, however, they are pragmatic decision makers and have a good analytical ability.

They enjoy work that lets them use their cleverness, great communication skills and knack for new exciting ventures. They have to look out not to become quitters, since they easily get bored when the creative exciting start-up phase is over."

Firewood at Tree Haelz, Larisa and Elnia at Pink Pigtail Inn are:

INTP - The Thinkers

"The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about."

Graylo at Gray Matter and Jacemora at Druid of the Moon are:

ISTJ - The Duty Fulfillers

"The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever.

The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to work in their own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do it."

Anyone else surprised by their blog communication type? More info on how this works here.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A note for my PVP gear

If you guys haven't noticed by now, I'm a bit of an internet and blog junkie. My Google reader is a bit insane. Anyways, today I share with you a pic I came across from passiveaggressivenotes.com which is a hilarious site where you can laugh at how crazy people are.

I love the XOXO touch at the end.

In terms of an arena update, we haven't been able to arena regularly for the last two weeks. Plus, last night I was hoping to get some matches in, but Drenden was down all night! So we won't end up getting any arena points this week. Damn you Seattle server data center place (techy technical words ftw)! Damn you!

I think what we've found is that we do best in 3v3s when we run with two healers, myself and a disc priest. Its fun for whatever dps we take as the third person because they don't have to coordinate with another deeps and can do whatever the heck they want to do.

We're also trying to run more 5v5s, which we run with 3 healers, myself and TWO disc priests. The set up allows us to stay standing a decent amount, even against 1800 rated 5v5 teams. The last time we ran this 5v5 set up, we did pretty darned well going 9-5 or something like that!

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Monday, November 23, 2009

Points of view in a raid

Check out this pic below depicting how people with different points of view may look at a water glass.

How would these different points of view translate to a raid? Perhaps a raid that is struggling or wiping on a specific encounter?

Optimist: We are clearly making progress! We're getting better!
Pessimist: OMG how can we be so terribad? We suck.
Realist: This raid group cannot complete this encounter at this point in time.
Idealist: One day soon we will work together in perfect harmony and take down this boss.
Capitalist: I'm just here for the loot.
Communist: We are all equally to blame for this fail.
Conspiracist: Blizz made this boss harder because they are trying to extend the period of time we have to wait for Icecrown.
Sexist: We can't do hard mode X with these terrible girls in raid.
Nihilist: We shouldn't get so upset over computer pixels.
Opportunist: This sucks, but at least this is good blog post material.

I think part of what complicates raiding is that you are bringing together 10 or 25 different people with distinctly different ways of looking at things. I think even in any normal guild, these different points of view can cause a bit of drama or angst. Perhaps if guild/raid leaders can recognize this, and think about what point of view their specific raiders may hold, it may help them better understand any sort of drama that may come up.

Anyways, bloggers... opportunists? Us? Nowai! ;)

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Friday, November 20, 2009

Let this be a lesson to all the ninjas

Some amusing quotes from the news story: "Would-be Seattle ninja impaled on fence"

"Seattle police say a man who thought he was ninja was impaled on a metal fence when he tried to leap over it. An officer who was looking for an assault victim nearby Monday night heard the man screaming for help".

"... officers thought the man might have been involved in the reported assault, but he insisted he was just a ninja trying to clear a 4 to 5 foot-tall fence.

"... the man was overconfident in his abilities, and that alcohol likely played a role".

"His name was not released".

The lesson here? Don't ninja. Its dangerous.

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

When did this blog turn into trade chat?

I tend to find Chuck Norris trade chat generally annoying, yet sometimes funny. In the spirit of the latter, I share with you:

Blizz should have some pants options in game be jeans. Action jeans.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Respect the turkey

The thanksgiving related holiday event, Pilgrim's Bounty starts this Sunday, November 22nd and runs until the 28th. On a totally unrelated note, WTF with our society deciding to give Thanksgiving the short stick and start decorating and getting ready for Christmas earlier and earlier each year? I mean come on... I think this year I started seeing Christmas stuff up on November 1. What happened to waiting until the day after Thanksgiving? I say, respect the turkey. Give it its due. Moving on.

Anyways, I'll definitely be looking to complete the Pilgrim achievement because of the little turkey pet you get. There are nine achievements you have to complete for the Pilgrim holiday achievement. One of the achievements, Pilgrim's Progress requires you to complete 5 dailies. Given that this holiday event lasts 7 days, make sure you get this one done early.

Two others caught my eye. First, Terokkar Turkey Time which requires us to "Defeat Talon King Ikiss while wearing a Pilgrim's Hat and either a Pilgrim's Dress, Robe, or Attire". Ooh, maybe I can use this opportunity to try to get the druid Anzu mount again! K needs that mount! I must complete my druidness!

Second, is the achievement called Turkey Lurkey, and requires you to "Blast those dirty, sneaking Rogues with your Turkey Shooter". You have to "blast" a rogue of each class race.

Hahaha! Poor rogues (sorries to Ata and T-baby).

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Monday, November 16, 2009

Druidy Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to my druidy quiz. I meant to do this post over the weekend, so as to lessen Averna's suspense a bit. Sorries!

So the two that I thought were obvious ones were Anub with the leeching swarm, and Onyxia because I took the SS inside her lair. Oops. :)

Fight #1 with 4063 hps: Anub

I think Averna got it right on with pointing out a lot of lifebloom usage during Phase 3.

Fight #2 with 2468 hps: Faction Champions

I think other than Onyxia, the Champions might have been guessable because of the lowest hps because I was cycloning and rooting a bit as well.

Fight #3 with 2356 hps: Onyxia

Hmmm, other than Anub, this was the fight with the second highest use of Lifebloom. Huh. Interesting.

Fight #4 with 2939 hps: Beasts

Fight #5 with 2724 hps: Jarraxus

I had the highest use of Regrowth on Jarraxus. Hmmm. Well I do know that I usually throw a Regrowth on someone when they get Legion Flame but yeah, I totally thought I used Nourish more here.

Fight #6 with 4993 hps: Twins

I think this was easy given the highest hps and the most use of Rejuv and Wild Growth.

And the winner is... (drum roll please) Gargen! And yes Gargen, I totally thought I used Swiftmend more than I actually do. The prize? As Averna suggested, a gold star and I shall award you the title 'Tree of the day'.

Now considering this was 10 man regular TOC, I think some of my healing may be affected by the fact that this is pretty easy for us. But what kinda heals did I throw out for Heroic Beasts? I did 4120 hps with these spells:

1. Rejuv = 29.2%
2. Nourish = 20.4%
3. Lifebloom =18.3%
4. Regrowth = 17.3%
5. Wild Growth = 10.4%
6. Swiftmend = 4.4%

A bit different than Fight #4 above. Hmmm so when its a bit more difficult, it looks like I use Nourish more. Huh. Interesting.

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Druidy quiz!

So you think you can druid, eh? Well, do you think you can match up my recount stats with their respective bosses?

Last night we did a quick run through regular 10 man TOC and Onyxia. There was a slight hiccup where I had somehow put on my entire PVP set (vs just the trinket) for the Faction Champions and then forgot to put back on my PVE gear for the Twins fight. Oops. I realized this about a minute into the Twins fight, to which I ask over vent: "Do you want the bad news now or later Jess?" I had to confess soon after when I ran out of mana and Jess died.

Anyways, the night was 2 healed by myself and our healing pally extraordinaire, Nico. I will also provide hps numbers to help a bit, but two of these recount stats should be an easy give away.

The bosses:
Beasts
Jarraxus
Faction Champions
Twins
Anub
Onyxia

Fight #1 with 4063 hps:

Fight #2 with 2468 hps:

Fight #3 with 2356 hps:

Fight #4 with 2939 hps:

Fight #5 with 2724 hps:

Fight #6 with 4993 hps:

Any guesses on which recount stats represent which bosses?

The summary here? First, I love Rejuv. Obviously. I am not rocking the T9 4 piece Rejuv bonus yet. I can't even imagine what my numbers will look like then. Second, I also love and use Regrowth and Lifebloom probably a ton more than any of you guys which I've mentioned before on this blog. Third, I do not use Wild Growth and Nourish as much as you guys probably do. I'm definitely trying to use them more, but I don't know... maybe I'm just an old school tree. I would probably also use Wild Growth more if we were running 25 mans.

But I think the big take away here is that there are a ton of different ways to heal as a resto druid. I've healed with other druids who use Nourish and Wild Growth as their top two spells with very similar healing outputs as myself. I think this versatility is a part of what I love about our class!

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Oh how I love thee, Statcounter

Ok, I hate to stir the pot anymore, but I couldn't help myself.

/sigh

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Going for the gold cap

Guildies or friends in game will sometimes mention how I don't really have any alts. This is true. But you know what? I have a confession of sorts, one that some guildies know about but that which I've never talked about on this blog. I have an inscriptionist alt that is going for the gold cap. Yes, my friends, I have and continue to be part of the crazy glyph world.

I leveled a DK alt specifically for this purpose a while back, before dual specs went live. I chose a DK so she could level quickly to 65 to max out in inscription. Initially, K just farmed all the herbs for this alt to mill, but serious inscriptionists today know its more worth your while to buy the herbs cheap off the AH when available rather than farming them (time is money friends). An amusing side note from inscription is that it has definitely broadened my knowledge of other classes abilities. When someone talks about some skill or talent, while before I wouldn't have even recognized it, now I'm like "Oh, yeah! I sell that glyph all the time!"

While I don't have any other level 80 alts, I would definitely consider this whole money making business a form of alt-ing, though for inscription you don't have to spend a lot of time to make gold. Anyways, I'm not hard core into it all the time. I could definitely be spending more time on selling my glyphs plus making money via alchemy, which yes, isn't as good as inscription, but is decent. My intensity in the gold making business does have peaks and valleys. But I do get into the competitive factor of the whole inscription market, as competitors come in and out of the market.

So why am I doing this? I don't know... I guess its a pretty crazy goal for someone to reach in game. But I do want to achieve my goal of the 214,748g gold cap amount. I've thought before about what I should do with all the gold once I reach the cap. Come up with some crazy schemes or bribes for my guildies? Give some out randomly and see what folks will do for WOW gold? Hmmm the possibilities...

Anyone else a crazy inscriptionist? Are you going for the gold cap?

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Back to the grind

I'm back in Chicago after a super fun time with friends in Chapel Hill. Given that I flew back this morning and woke up at 4:30 am EST, I am super sleepy. I'm feeling a bit like this baby:

Oh... so sleepy.... Anyways, one of my girlfriends was telling me that I should get around to writing this novel/screenplay idea that has been floating around in my head for a while. While I recognize that I've never really written anything long on this blog, I have realized that I do enjoy writing, even if its a tiny bit for a couple days a week.

I was able to log on for a bit yesterday. All I did was stand in IF and chat with some folks a bit. It confirmed for me yet again that I continue to play this game because of the people I play with and the connections/friendships I've made, not necessarily because of the game itself.

Hopefully I will be back to some more WOW related blogging soon! For now, I am doing all I can to prevent my face from smashing down onto my keyboard. Oh, facerolling! Look, I'm a tank!

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Homecoming and Druidy books?

I am heading home to Chapel Hill, NC today, which also happens to be where I went to college (Go Heels!). I am meeting up with my three best friends for an extended weekend. The four of us lived together our senior year and this will be our first time that all four of us are back in Chapel Hill for Homecoming.

Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back of former residents and alumni of a university, college, or high school. Do they have something like homecoming in other countries? I'm not sure.

Anyways, where would K's home be in WOW? Moonglade? Darnassus? I would probably say her home is Darnassus, but honestly I am never there anymore. Why? Well I think Darnassus' bank and AH are just too far from each other. I prefer IF where I can run back and forth between the two quickly and easily.

I think Jess still spends a decent amount of time in Darnassus and often notes how empty Darnassus is. So what would be a good way to get folks back there? My suggestion? Create an achievement and subsequent pet reward like this achievement.

We all know how crazy WOW players are about vanity pets. So what if they came up with a bunch of druid related books that folks have to search Darnassus for, with a reward of some druidy pet? Well, we already have the Teldrassil Sproutling pet... how about a bebeh moonkin pet?

I'm sure they could come up with some amusing "trash" books with druid themes/subjects just like the magey books they have in Dalaran. Have you ever read these books? They're actually pretty funny.

To Do Today includes:

So You Think You Can Cast:
Frequently Asked Questions from First-time Mages:

Q: I'm having trouble casting any spells at all. What can I do?

A: You may be suffering from dehydration. If you're having trouble casting a spell that you know you know, try drinking a glass of water! Proper hydration is critical to effective spellcasting.

Polymorphic Rules and Regulations includes such tips as:

Rule# 3: Polymorphic debaucheries are to be disposed of in a timely and DISCREET manner - The Public need not bear witness to the horrendous abominations wrought from a botched polymorph. Accidents happen, and the Kirin'Tor understands this. However public viewing of creatures like the Were-Whale, Mur-Elf, Amphibious Worgen, Flying Ooze, Grypho-Hippo-Wyvern, Qiraji Bunny, and the infamous "Blue-Checkered Cube" give us all a bad reputation.

A Memorandum on Proper Portal Usage includes such guidlines as:

Rule #3: Never force or trick anyone to go through a portal. Not only is this a great way to lose repeat customers, it's also incredibly dangerous (See Rule #2).

Rule #6: Standard Portal dimensions are 3 yards, 1 foot, and 3/4 inches tall, 2 yards, 8 feet, 9 and 15/16 inches wide. Double-wide portal creation requires Special Issue License G-16, and is commonly issued to mages with a clean portal record of 8 years or more. Speak with your local Portal Trainer about qualifying for this license.

Hahaha. There are a bunch more, see all the possible trash books here. Could they do something simliar in Exodar? I don't think anyone is there anymore either.

***********

Post edited for Daniel (taken on campus after we won it all this past April):

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

After the worms

I really had no idea what I was starting when I posted on Monday. At times I think about and draft a post for a really long time, whereas other times I just see something and instinctively post about it immediately. This post on Monday was of the latter variety. It's crazy that the comments on the post got to such a drama level that it was compared to the WOW Forums. It amuses and at the same time sorta saddens me and that that post is now my post with the most comments.

The last two nights have been funny within the guild when I've logged on. I think Vel's first words to me were something like "Uh, post any controversial posts lately K"? And Jess and Vel have amused themselves by creating guild messages of the day related to all of this. I told Rappie to kick out Nkm (sorries Nkm!), since I may need a ride in the Indipoose.

In a funny way though, I think some fellow guildies, ingame friends, and bloggers were more pissed about some of the comments than I was. Some of you got real heated! :) I will say though that I was surprised by how personal appearances and sexual references were brought up.

Beruthiel posted a great post on her blog with tips on how to dissent, tips which I probably should have read before posting some of my responding comments. Maybe it wasn't very mature of me to have used the phrase "sausage party" in one of my comments? Hmmm... though Beru's always been way more mature than me anyways.

At the end of the day, I do agree that such guilds have a right to exist and recruit however they want. But I stand by my original opinion that such policies are based on bullshit notions of women not being able to play at the top levels and that the drama created by the behavior of inappropriate and less than mature men when amongst women lies in a problem with such men, not the women.

Bell made a great point (damn us trees are smart) that "neither side is really going to be convinced of anything. The debate has been going on too long, and it's not really even a debate; you have to have the possibility of change for a real debate to occur. It's just people firmly entrenched on "their side" trying to convince someone they're wrong". I don't regret my post and starting this discussion, but do we just agree to disagree? Or is that just too simple a way out? I'm not sure.

A lot of you left very thoughtful comments and I wanted to thank you for them. I don't think I responded to them as thoroughly as I could have because I was too occupied responding to the other comments. But I definitely read, thought about, and appreciated all of them.

Now back to your regularly scheduled silliness and randomness and druidness and whatever else this blog is about!

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Monday, November 2, 2009

A good WTF and a bad WTF

I think that since I've started playing WOW, my use of the phrase WTF has increased (perhaps even exponentially Jess). Today, a good WTF and a bad WTF.

Good WTF: You guys are impressive

I think that I've mentioned before that once you start blogging, comments become like crack, dangerously addictive. Well, I will admit here that another piece of blogging that I quite enjoy checking up on from time to time is my site statistics. Specifically, I am intrigued by those of you who choose to check out this blog. And do you know what I find? I find that you guys work at the world's top universities, banks, technology companies, consulting firms, and government agencies.

Its very very impressive, though I mean come on, of course you folks are smart if you choose to read this blog (hahahaha). I've had Blizzard addresses pop up as visitors, which is always interesting. I've also had more scary addresses pop up, including the FBI and IRS. I swear! I'm current on my taxes and I am totally innocent!

But seriously, when the media or general public talks about gamers being these depressed and overweight losers playing in their parents basements, I kind of want to show them how widespread we are in society, at some very very impressive institutions. We are taking over the world! Muahahaha.

Bad WTF: Chromosome beat down

That first subject was sort of a good WTF, this is a more WTF WTF. Let me just show you a screenshot from the recruiting info of one of the top guilds in the world:

Ok first you notice the guild name, then you see the first requirement, "Have a Y chromosome (seriously, no chicks allowed)". Seriously? Guilds still purposely exclude female players? Why? Is it really around pure skill or are they so scared about girls creating drama? Girls oohing and aahing over the pretty kitten or the dress? The boys getting distracted by the female on vent? Or are they really scared that we will actually outplay them?

I really really just don't get it. I am not a serious 25 man raider, but its still a slap in the face to see something like this. I wish my second X chromosome could kick these guys' Y chromosomes asses.

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

A prayer for Nkm

Dear God of WOW drops,

Its been a long time since I last wrote you. I hope you are doing well... doing whatever godly things Gods do.

The Left Claw has been doing well. I think loot drop issues have gotten better, though if you would be so generous and kind to allow a weapon to drop for our pally healer Nico, we would be all so grateful. Even the dagger mace from 5 man TOC would be awesome! Nico is the best pally healer I've ever seen, and really deserves a new weapon. Seriously, how many times can a pally run TOC without seeing that dagger mace drop? You must have a funny sense of humor, oh great one. Try to be less funny.

Secondly, I'd like to introduce you to Nkm:

He is our cute little gnome mage. When he's not busy doing magey things, he can be found drinking brewery beer (I think lagers?), while chewing gum, all while hanging out in Rapunzel's papoose. My good friend Rapunzel and I are quite enamored with Nkm, and if anyone tries to punt him, we will kick their freakin' ass. No joke. Anyways, Nkm is a huge huge huge pet and mount collector. He went through the entire Hallow's End event last year in hopes of picking up the Headless Horsemen mount. Unfortunately, you chose to disappoint.

Nkm is back this year, trying yet again, but still to no avail. Oh, dear merciful God of WOW drops, the holiday is coming to a close. There's not much time left. Could you please please please let the mount drop for Nkm? He's really a good little gnome mage. I especially love Nkm because not only is he cute, but he is a mage that manages his threat and aggro. /virtual headpat for Nkm

Please consider helping us out. Are you looking for something in return maybe? Prayers? Exaltations of your power and glory? Sacrifices? Maybe we could sacrifice a hunter for this cause. Please please please don't make him wait another year.

As always, with great humility and praise of your wisdom and power and greatness and mercy and magnificence and blah blah blah,
K

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Social networking meets WOW?

Are you on Facebook? Did you know there is a WOW Facebook page? I finally joined Facebook about a year ago after multiple friends cajoled me to join. I was on there somewhat regularly for the first six months maybe? But I've since kind of fallen off from it and am hardly on there anymore. I don't know, it was nice at first, but then I kinda started to wonder whether I needed to know what these people I went to high school with (who I wasn't really good friends with, and don't really care to keep up with, but I couldn't be a bitch enough to reject their friendship request) are doing every hour of the day.

Facebook has been nice to get back in touch with old friends you've lost contact with, but after the initial couple of emails, its not like I'm talking to them all the time again. Its not like the friendship has been re-invigorated. The friends in my daily life are friends I choose to have in my life, and I don't think Facebook has had much effect on it. Damn, I sound like an anti-social bee-yotch.

How about Twitter? Did you know Blizz has a twitter site here? I know that a lot of fellow bloggers are on Twitters these days, but I have just never gotten into it. I don't follow anyone on Twitter and I have no plans whatsoever to start it myself.

Are you on Linkedin? I joined Linkedin in business school. Did you know you can see Blizz employees and what kind of jobs Blizz has on Linkedin here? Kinda interesting to see the range of jobs they have.

So why am I talking about this today? Well I came across this article that says that the power of social networking could create an MMO to challenge our little game here. The article itself gives no real specifics, and I do not believe its claim that a MMO within Facebook could challenge WOW.

But I think the article brings up some interesting points. How can WOW keep itself at the forefront of the MMO world? How can they keep the massive multi-player piece of their game fresh and relevant? Is there any part of social networking that could be integrated into the game itself?

I know a lot of WOW players tweet about what they are doing in game. But how about if this was somehow integrated into your friends list? I don't know... could you somehow see the status of folks on your friends list? Here is a couple of what mine would say from the past week:

Hahahaha.

Hmmm how about the reconnecting piece... would you want to connect back with folks from the first guild you ever joined? That random person you pugged with back when you were Level 20? I personally would probably say no, but then again I am an anti-social beeyotch remember? Ok, ok I jest. I'm really not. Sorta. ;)

Or how about our guilds? Guilds seem like the perfect place to look at incorporating social networking ideas. Oh yeah, they're doing those guild achievements in the next expansion... is there any component of social networking there? What else could they do for guilds? Could guilds somehow share pictures aka first kill screenshots? Could they expand the guild message of the day feature somehow?

I'm sure those of you who are heavier Facebook and Twitter users than I am have much better insights than I. So what aspects of the whole social networking craze could you see incorporated within the game?

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Did I miss something?

I'm going about my afternoon habit of "lets take a break from work and check out my google reader with a great cup of coffee" when I come across this post by Too Many Annas about honesty in blogging. She mentions this blogger from a while ago who got caught in some drama. Well, Anna is much too classy to name names, but heck, we all know that I'm not.

Remember this whole incident from back in May? Well, reading Anna's post, made me wonder, "Yeah, what the heck ever happened to Ferarro of Paladin Schmaladin?

So out of curiosity, I pop on over to this blog that caused such a frenzy this summer. And here is what I find:

A post saying the blog is looking for writers. Some quotes from the post:

* "With my employment to Blizzard being upgraded soon, I might be looking for someone to help take over a little, too."

* "In fact, during the whole WoW.com/Jago debacle, Paladin Schmaladin made over $5,300 in that one month alone. Not the best way to make a profit, but it was what it was."

Then another update regarding the status of this writer search, Ferarro apologizes "to the ninety-three apps I had to cut off."

Um, has it been accepted again somehow that this person (persons? singular? plural?) does in fact work for Blizzard? Did everyone just forget the debacle from earlier this year? So much so that people are clamoring to be writers on this blog? I don't know if I am more amused/confused by what continues to be claimed on the blog, or the fact that the blog's readers seem to be accepting it.

Huh? I'm confused. I want to take what I read at face value. But I'll be honest, it's a little hard to on this blog. Do you think this person really works for Blizzard? Did I totally miss something? Was there some E! True Hollywood Story on this somewhere that I missed?

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Arena Update

It's been a bit since I've updated our arena progress.

1. 65 matches in a row:

What's interesting about our arena experiences is that our team changes. I had been running a lot of 3v3 with Wutsie and T-baby (do not let these cute names fool you, we are deadly!). So that is a ret pally and then alternatively with a rogue or elemental shammy as our third. One day the three of us crazily ran 65 3v3 matches in a row. It was madness. Flat out.

On one of our matches it had gone down to Wut and I against 2 of the opposing team members. It was going on for a while, when wtf? The rogue on their side that we had killed came back up somehow! Again I ask WTF?!?! Did he get rezzed? Ooooh, Shat was hot when we then lost that match. I had no clue you could rez in arena matches. Or was it just a bug or cheat of some sort?

2. Priest on other side = bad. Priest on your side = good.

But I also ran a number of 3v3s with Shat (the elemental shammy) and Heidilux (who needs a cute nickname... I'm still thinking) who is a disc priest. It was a totally different experience running these 3s with two healers. I think Shat liked that he didn't have to coordinate focus firing and could just do whatever the heck he wanted to do while Heid and I worked on healing (duh) and CCing. With a second healer I could really work on rooting and cycloning more.

Let me just say that when Wut, T, and I would come up against priests, I hate them! Damn those priests with their mana burns and fears! But when a priest is on our side... damn I love those mana burns and fears! Perspective is everything, eh?

What was so interesting about this makeup was that our matches were long. Damn long. Even when we were up against teams rated much higher than us, we made them work for it. We had a couple matches that were in the 12 minute range. This team makeup is definitely not a flashy burst team, we are all about survivability baby! As Shat said (and yes, he provides a number of funny quotes), "This team puts on the Marvin Gaye and takes it slow". I just bet that a number of our opponents who eventually lost to us were cursing us. I would have been annoyed.

3. "Don't worry guys, my bracers got this"

Something perhaps a bit different that I am playing with currently is equipping The Black Heart as my second trinket. What are other resto druids using as their second trinket after their removing movement impairment trinket? At 867 resilience, should I still be stacking resilience?

Secondly, I haz relentless gear! I am wearing Relentless Gladiator's Armwraps of Salvation and Relentless Gladiator's Belt of Salvation which is pretty exciting for a noob arena person like me. When Shat got his relentless bracers, he informed Wut and I that we could just hang back cuz his bracers got this. :)

4. Arena names

One thing that I do always take note of is the teams that we come across. It seems that a number of arena teams somehow get past the Blizz rule of inoffensive names. However a number of teams seriously crack me up. (So you guys know you can go to WOW armory and get summary and detailed info on your arena matches, right?)

Checking out our WOW armory information reminds me of some amusing team names we came up against: Teldrassil Sproutlings (which broke my heart a little to beat them), Everyone Run Taco is OOM, Double Bubble Trouble, plz not in the face, and Keyboard Turn is Good.

5. Do arenas make you mean?

Well I definitely am not shy about admitting that I curse a whole lot more in arenas than I do while raiding. My commentary while losing is in the lines of "F'in ay" and "For F sake". But do you think folks get angrier or meaner in arenas as opposed to raiding because you are going up against real people?

I know that a lot of arena matches include taunting and emoting between teams. Now I typically won't do any of this except for maybe when there are three of us taking down one final person on the other team who runs around basically prolonging an inevitable death. In these situations, I may throw in a /sigh here and there. But I do not do any mean taunting ... unless I am provoked. Let's examine:

Keredria laughs at Princess
Keredria laughs at Princess
Keredria laughs at Princess
Wut: K! You're mean!
Shat: Aw K, cold.
Keredria: What? She laughed at me when they beat us the last match. Payback's a bitch ain't it?

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