Holy crap, aka the ding of all dings

Yes, it happened Friday night. K dinged 70. It is definitely a weird feeling to have been pushing towards something for so long and now to have achieved it.

However, I know this is just the beginning since it is an entirely new game again at 70. Gearing up, gaining rep, running end game intances... In a way it can be sort of frustrating, as the game seems to never end. I guess unless you are one of the very few who achieve world and server firsts, this game is really more about the journey than the destination!

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Patch 2.3 - fishing and cooking

We just got patch 2.2, which by the way has seriously screwed up my sound. It sounds like I have a box of rice krispies in my laptop... constant snap, crackle, and popping.

Anyways, word is that with patch 2.3, those who fish will be able to track fishing nodes, like herbalists and miners do. They're also adding some new fish as well. However, most of us avid fishermen/women already know where all the good pools are.

So I'm much more interested in seeing the addition of cooking daily quests! Hmmm, I wonder what that will be like? Bring me 10 golden fish sticks or roasted clefthoof? The quests will probably have to reward me with new recipies or something cool because I'm not going to just easily hand over food that I can use, share with guildies, or sell for a pretty penny.

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Home sweet home

I have been busy moving homes in real life so my time on WOW lately has been limited.

But speaking of homes, where do you consider home? Do you always log out in one city or another? For me, its Ironforge. A number of my guildies also log in and out from IF. I think its really convenient how the AH and bank are right across the way from each other. I'm always running back and forth and the proximity saves me some time. Because you know it is true what those goblins say, "Time is money, friend!"

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My new chest piece

Here's K in her new chest piece. Kinda scandalous, if you ask me. I knew it reminded me of a movie though... Will Ferrell's outfit in Blades of Glory! lol

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Healing status and gear... lvl 69

All stats unbuffed, no potions, no food, no scrolls, no nothing!
Level: 69
Health: 6331
Mana: 6687
Intellect: 314
Spirit: 275
+Healing: 781
+MP5: 200

Weapon: [Azure Lightblade]

Off-hand: [Unearthed Orb]

Idol: [Harold's Rejuvenating Broach]

Head: [Mistyreed Hood of the Physician]

Neck: [Ogre Slayer's Pendant]

Shoulders: [Pauldrons of Arcane Rage]

Back: [Cloak of Healing Rays]

Chest: [Watcher's Tunic]

Wrists: [Goldenvine Wraps]

Hands: [Murkblood Gloves of Healing]

Waist: [Boneshredder Belt of the Hierophant]

Legs: [Haramad's Leggings of the Third Coin]

Feet: [Swamprunner's Boots]

Ring: [Holy Healing Band]

Ring: [Heirloom Signet of Convalescence]

Trinket: [Osu'gun Relic]

Trinket: [Glowing Crystal Insignia]

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Screenshot updates

I mentioned the other day that I fished up a Mr. Pinchy. The first wish he granted me was a Benevolent Mr. Pinchy, a level 68 combat pet. Jess and I took him around a bit to quest but he died after like 10 min. He was a little smothering though... look how he's all up on me!

Second wish granted me a Magical Crawdad pet like I had hoped for! I felt a little silly being so excited to get him... but just look at him! Who wouldn't be excited to have a new little crustacean friend? Maybe I should name him Sebastian. What movie is that from? :)

Finally, Jess hit a very big milestone last night. Yes, she hit 70. My, my, our little tank is all grown up! (sniff, sniff).

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Being a female gamer

Now that I'm blogging about WOW, I find myself playing a lot more. I need good blog material! :) With this increase in play time and the time spent on the blog, I've been telling more real life family and friends about this "little" hobby of mine.

I've never hid the fact that I am a female to my guildies I play the most with, though I never explicitly advertised the fact from the beginning because I don't think it matters. However, especially in the beginning when playing with random strangers, a part of me would rather not let them know I was female. Why? Hmmm... well as a female brand new to the game, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know if they would think I couldn't play well or needed help... or maybe so as to not further the stereotype that all women play healers. But another part of me wouldn't mind having them know that us female gamers are playing this game, and playing it damn well, thank you very much. Overall though, I really haven't encountered any negative or unwanted attention by people who knew I was a female or towards my female character. I'm curious how things will change with the introduction of the voice chat feature when it will be obvious whether you are male or female.

However, I felt kind of odd telling friends and family that I play. When I told some of my girlfriends, the response I got was "What? Huh? What is that?". I guess saying, "You know, a MMORPG, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game!" wasn't the best answer. Upon further explanation, their response was "You are such a geek!", which is an accurate label I wear quite proudly. They also weren't too surprised since while on the outside I am a girly girl, I have several other real life hobbies that are typically dominated by men. So people outside the game seem to think of female gamers as "geeks", though I would argue that people outside the gaming world think that male gamers are geeks as well. Probably female gamers are thought of as just a little geekier. Is this the perception people within the game have as well?

I'm curious whether this perception will change over time. Those of you who have been playing since the beginning, has it changed? Latest figures say about 16% of WOW players are female. Though I think I read somewhere that Blizzard is going to try to reach out to more female players. I bet the penetration rate amongst males is just about maxed out. If they really want to significantly grow their player base, the opportunity is with female players. My one suggestion for this would be to stop the "skankification" of gear when a female character wears it. You all know what I'm talking about. Maybe having more than one female developer (so I hear) amongst the 20+ developers would be a good start as well.

This topic has been discussed online a lot, even being the subject of a college term paper! On a more humorous end, a comic from Hammer of Grammer that most of you have probably already seen.

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Flight form + fishing =

[Mr. Pinchy]

I picked him up on one of the elevated lakes in Terokkar, Lake Jorune (above Stonebreaker Hold), from a pool of Highland Mixed School. I haven't made any of the three wishes yet, I hope one of them is the Magical Crawdad pet.

I've been fishing the elevated pools for a while. You can actually get up to Lake Ere'Noru without flying, there is a backway up there with an epic land mount. Fishing these elevated lakes requires a very high fishing skill. I'm currently maxed at 375, with a pole that gives +20 fishing, and I'm using Aquadynamic Fish Attractors, which gives +100 for 10 min (not 5 min as the lures say). So even at a fishing skill of 495, I still lose some fish. Plus Aquadynamic Fish Attractors aren't always available from vendors.

So I participated in the Stranglethorn Extravaganza for the first time on Sunday. I wanted to get the +35 fishing pole that the winner gets. Well, lets just say I didn't do so well. I think I spent too much time running around looking for the pools of Speckled Tastyfish and I also think I was too nice to the other competitors(I would guess there were about 20 competitors). If someone was fishing in a pool, I didn't go there. But others were not shy at all about coming to fish in a pool I was fishing in.

When the winner (level 70) was announced (you need 40 Tastyfish), I only had 21. Now I know how it works, and where to go, so I will definitely try again. No one fishes better than K! No one! :)

Want more info on all things fishing? El's Extreme Anglin' is a great place to go.

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Alchemy advice

So K hit 68 over the weekend, which was very exciting as a druid. When I swooped down on Jess for the first time in Nagrand, I think she thought I was one of those windrocs. I do think flight should come with some instructions! I couldn't figure out how to elevate, and I kept crashing.

Is anyone else an alchemist? Now that I'm 68 I have to choose a specialization. I can't decide if I want to be a master of transmutes or elixirs. Hmmm... any advice?

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Two sets of healing gear?

I have heard that some healers carry around two sets of healing gear. One that maximizes their mana for those longer fights and another that maximizes +healing for those shorter fights with bursts of high damage.

The thought of having to account for another set or half set of gear isn't too pleasant, but I can see its purpose. I'm just curious, anyone doing this?

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Current healing status and gear

I'm going to start updating every now and again what my current healing stats and gear looks like. I want to upgrade some of my pieces, I'd really rather not be wearing cloth if possible. But for now, I want to maximize my healing stats, not worrying about armor. Any advice from you uber healers would be greatly appreciated!

Also, I need a place to quickly go and see what my healing gear stats are. As Jess knows, I hate when I'm turning in a quest in solo gear and am not sure whether the healing quest reward is an upgrade or whether I should upgrade my solo gear. And often, I'm logged out in solo gear so checking the Armory doesn't help. Yes, I know there is some addon that can allow you to see what's in your bank, but I try to limit the number of addons I'm running.

Level: 67 (all stats unbuffed, no potions, no food, no scrolls, no nothing!)
Health: 5582
Mana: 6867
Intellect: 341
Spirit: 267
+Healing: 579
+MP5: 195

Chest and waist can't be linked, they're not listed individually for some reason. They're part of the Slavehandler set (Slavehandler Jerkin of the Physician and Slavehandler Belt of the Prophet). Pics instead.

Weapon: [Healer's Staff of the Forest]

Head: [Melia's Lustrous Crown]

Neck: [Ethereal Healing Pendant]

Shoulders: [Pauldrons of Arcane Rage]

Back: [Cloak of Healing Rays]

Chest:

Wrists: [Goldenvine Wraps]

Hands: [Gloves of the Afterlife]

Waist:

Legs: [Greenblood Pantaloons]

Feet: [Swamprunner's Boots]

Ring: [Holy Healing Band]

Ring: [Heirloom Signet of Convalescence]

Trinket: [Oshu'gun Relic]

Trinket: [Glowing Crystal Insignia]

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Interesting and useful links

My blog is worth $2,258.16. How much is your blog worth?

I have no idea how they calculate this, but interesting nonetheless.

On a more useful note, I linked on the side bar to a forums post Oxylos did a while back on healing as a restoration druid. Incredibly useful and insightful post for us trees. I mentioned in my introduction post that I wouldn't be doing any complicated spirit vs intellect calculations (too much math for me). Plus Phaelia at Resto4life has already done these amazing posts! See her latest one on +MP5 vs +Healing here.

Just when I think I know something about healing, posts like these make me realize I have a loooong ways to go.

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Is it "grinded" or "ground"?

The other night I spent some time grinding rep with Sporeggar in Zangarmarsh. What is the past tense of grinding anyways? Grinded? Ground? Both sound wrong to me... Any grammar teachers here?

Anyways, the reason I want to get my rep with Sporeggar to revered is because of the Transmute Primal Earth to Water recipe they sell. Take something selling for 3g and transmute it into something selling for 18g? Yes, please!

You can gain rep in Sporeggar by a couple of repeatable quests or by running Underbog to turn in Sanguine Hibiscuses. Now some repeat quest options were not available to me since I was already honored. I chose to grind for 10 fertile spores (+750 rep, drops from spore bats and marsh walkers) and to alternatively kill bog lords that give +15 rep per kill. Killing bog lords as an herbalist is a good option since you can pick up some extra herbs from them. Also, it was a good place to grind as there were some others around who were not herbalists. I was able to sort of "ninja-loot" herbs off their kills. Yay. Oh and this is a good place to grind for motes of life too.

But those bog lords... do they not die the most funny, dramatic, slow-mo movie death ever? What drama llamas. :)

Finally, a funny noob story from back when I think I was in the high 50's. So I'm trying to turn in more netherweave and runecloth in Darnassus to get more rep. I realize though that I'm not getting any more rep! I ask in guild chat why this may be happening. They ask where my rep is now. I say "Its exalted 999/1000". To which I'm told, "Uh, K that's it... you can't get any more rep". Oops! I guess I wanted to be super duper extra exalted.

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When to buy? When to sell?

Is there a day that you think is the best day of the week to shop the Auction House? Similarly do you think there a best day of the week to sell?

On Drenden, it seems that I sell my stuff best on Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays. Is Monday night a big raid night? I would have thought that I'd sell best over the weekend, when maybe more people are able to play. But perhaps there is more competition due to more sellers on the weekends? Or do people play more over the week and spend time with family on weekends? I'm curious, what do you find on your server?

Also, anyone else having a hard time selling Outland green drops? I guess with the good quest rewards plus instance drops, people really don't need to buy gear pre level 70?

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Mmmm... food

In addition to being a prolific fisherwoman, I do a lot of cooking in WOW. Unlike real life, its nice that there is no prep work and no dishes to do afterwards!

The two main food items I use in healing are Golden Fish Sticks which give +44 Healing and +20 Spirit and Blackened Sporefish which give +20 Stamina and +8 Mana/5 sec. I typically go for the fish sticks unless a situation requires that I have the extra stamina. Right now, I'll take all the +Healing I can get. You can find these food items on the AH in these cooked forms, or their raw forms (Golden Darter and Zangarian Sporefish) or you can fish yourself in Terokkar and Zangarmarsh.

Here's another good end game food buff, Spicy Crawdad. It gives you +30 Stamina and +20 Spirit. Doesn't it look like a piece of tuna sushi?

So there's a lot of meat and fish we're eating out in the Outlands, but our diets in WOW seem to lack fruits and vegetables! It would be sort of fun if the herbs that alchemists gather could also be used as food. Who's up for some felweed salad? Or steamed ancient lichen with a pinch of salt and lemon?

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Weekend update and you readers

The first half of the weekend was spent doing some mad questing. Jess and I knocked out a lot together and took some guildies through Underbog. I dinged 67, Jess 68, and Molk 70! It was funny in Underbog (which I have to say is an awesome instance for herbalists, even better if you're the only herbalist in the group because there are herbs everywhere!) because the first two drops were mail, which no one in our group could use. I hate when that happens! It was then that I realized that I needed to send up a prayer to the WOW gods of loot drops. It went a little something like this:

Dear merciful gods of WOW loot drop,

Please stop dropping all this mail. Unfortunately, no one in our group can use it. If you could consider our group composition and drop plate, leather, or healing gear, we would greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely, K

Now wouldn't you know after I sent up this prayer, the last two drops were plate upgrades for Jess! So if you're having bad lucks with drops, try sending up a similar prayer or an offering. :)

After we finished the last boss, I was trying to get a group picture. I felt like a mom at Disney trying to get all her kids to sit still and listen to her. "Ok Jess, to the right, Molk step up... no not that much, D to your left... D please turn around and stand up... ok smile!" But by the time we were all set, the boss disappeared! /sigh

Second half of the weekend, K was a little tired of questing and instancing. I definitely go through spurts. The quests in each zone in the Outlands seems to be never ending! Just when you think you're done, they have another quest to give you. At times I get pretty dedicated and bust out a lot at one time, then take a break for a while. What do I do when I'm on a break? There's K calmly fishing in a beautiful landscape.

Ok, a final note about this blog I started less than a week ago. I'm blown away by the number of readers and where you all are from across the US and all over the world. My conclusion is that WOW players are super smart and between all of us we should be able to solve difficult questions like world hunger! Seriously though, I feel a little pressure to say something insightful or helpful instead of just being silly. Hmmmm....

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Vanity pets

How many of you have vanity pets? I have a sprite darter hatching from a quest reward, but I'm not really attached to it and he or she stays in the bank.

On the other hand, my guidie Molk is quite close with his rat pet Whiskers. Wherever Molk goes, Whiskers isn't far behind... even when Molk is running on his mount. That's one fast rat, I tell you! Molk jokes that I like Whiskers better than I like him... which isn't true at all! Whiskers runs away when we get mobbed, but she is super cute.

So did you know there are 73 possible vanity pets in the game? Here is the complete list from Warcraft pets and the ten highest rated pets. The #1 rated pet is the firefly, which drops from Bogflare Needlers in Zangarmarsh. When I was questing and fishing in Zangarmarsh, I would kill a couple of Bogflare Needlers every once in a while... hoping one dropped. But I guess it needs more dedicated effort. People spend days grinding on these needlers for the elusive and very rare drop.

Here's my final question around vanity pets. So on the complete list, we see everything from Speedy the turtle, the Panda Cub, Peanut the elephant to Mr. Wiggles the pig. There are seven types of feline vanity pets. But where, I ask are the dogs?!?! Any other dog people here wondering the same thing? What, are the Blizzard developers just all cat people?

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Healing lessons learned... and still learning

So there have been a couple of lessons that I've had to learn as a healer, some of which I'm still learning.

Lesson #1: Don't run!
Ok, so you're healing in an instance and all of a sudden the mean scary monsters decide to come give you some love. What do your instincts say? Well my initial instincts were: Run! Like crazy! That would lead to some amusing scenes of K screaming, running wildly, hands flailing... the mobs following... and the poor group tank trying to grab the aggro back. This wild spectacle could also lead to me or the tank aggroing additional mobs. Bad news. So now I know I have to stand there and grin and bear it, by throwing up barkskin and my emergency come help me macro.

Lesson #2: Love thyself
Sounds like I took this lesson out of some self help book. Basically it means not to forget how integral your health being up is to the group. There were times when I was starting out that I would be healing everyone else, and forgetting myself. I know, how selfless! But really, this does the group no good. Because a dead healer = a dead tank = group wipe.

Lesson #3: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"
(Bonus points for those who know where this quote comes from). What does this mean? Well, it means K loves her group members, but unfortunately has to love some more than others. This is a lesson she still sometimes forgets. Her #1 focus is the tank. As much as K would really love to keep everyone happy, she just can't. If things get really crazy, I am going to try like heck to keep my health (see lesson #2) and my tank's health up. So who comes in third? It may depend on who we're fighting, how close the boss is to going down, how much health everyone else has, or how much mana I have. Or it may just depend on how I'm feeling (hee hee, cue cackling laughter and sinister rubbing of hands).

Lesson #4: Look both ways before crossing the street
So your parents probably taught you this lesson as a kid. What does this mean in WOW? Well you have a goal as a healer, keep everyone's health up. This is the goal, i.e. crossing the street. But in going after this said goal, you have to know what's going on around you... there could be a car barreling down the street! I need to get better at lesson #4. A lot of times I am so focused on the green bars on the left side of my screen and would sometimes be totally oblivious to what was going on around me. For example the last dragon boss in Ramparts breathes down fire to the group. The first couple of times in that fight, I died quickly because I didn't even notice that I was standing in fire and burning up!

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When druid cat form and 300 collide...

Ok... I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the ridiculousness of this, but I just finally saw the movie 300 on DVD. Reminds me of this video. Is it a depiction of druids first pew pewing in cat form at level 20?

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The life of a healer

When I started playing K, running early instances as a healer was pretty tough. I found it really difficult not to feel bad when people in my group died. Like it was my fault. These early experiences of "L2 to heal nub!" in Deadmines kept me away from instances for a while. (Note, I wasn't running with my guild back then). I didn't really finish Stockades, Gnomeregan, or Blackfathom Depths.

I think the next instance I really ran and finished was Scarlet Monastery, with members from my guild. As I ran more instances in these mid-levels, I think I started to realize that wipes are not always the healer's fault! I started to recognize when others wouldn't let the tank get aggro, hitting mobs or bosses before the tank got a single hit. This meant that as soon as I'd heal, the mob would come after me. And I would go from a happy druid to a dead druid.

I still feel bad when I'm healing an instance and others die, but I now realize that its not always my fault! Dark legacy comics is a hilarious comic strip about WOW. Click here for a funny healer strip.

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Ding 66!

K dinged 66 last night! There she is awash in all her "crazy gold flash" glory while Jess looks on.

So Jess is our main tank. She likes to tank and spank while K heals with zeal (rhyming, FTW!). Jess has a special relationship with K... you know that tank-healer bond that comes after running many instances together.

Jess and D were actually telling me the other night that since we've been running together for so long, the two of them can predict how I'll heal and where I'll be in relation to them. So when I'm getting hit and need to spam my emergency help me macro which yells "K is getting beat on! Help her!", they pretty much know where I'll be to come save my squishy ass.

So at first I was kind of surprised (am I that predictable? maybe I should change some things up next time to make it interesting...), but I guess this is what makes groups who have run together for a while more successful. Not only do we trust each other and not get crazy angry over mistakes or a wipe or two (because as D says, you're not having fun unless you're dying), we understand each other's playing styles and can predict what the others will do.

I think this kind of experience can make up for non-traditional class makeups. We've run a lot of instances with a warrior, druid, and 3 rogues. Yup, no ranged dps. D calls us the strike force. They like to get all in there and get their hands dirty.

Here's a final shot of Jess and K, planning their next tank and heal combo as their kitty mounts swing their tails in tandem...

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Funny bugs

I'm always amused when I run across bugs in game. Like wolves or bears just jumping up and down on the side of some hill. Or the other night when Jessika started attacking something that was invisible and non-targetable to Molkster and I. It was pretty funny watching Jess go all crazy, whirling and fighting the all too dangerous foe of... air.

But even funnier last week was when we were doing a guild run in Ramparts. We were in one of those corridors when Atania got thrown back by one of the mobs. Ok, it happens. But she got thrown back behind these two barrels and couldn't get out! (What are those barrels doing there anyways). Look at Jess laughing hysterically. Unlike Jess, K was trying to make sure Atania was ok. Well, yeah after a suppressed giggle she was...

Atania tried jumping, mounting, all to no avail. We weren't sure what to do until Atania came up with a good idea. The rest of us would stand back while our rogue Molk would go aggro the mob, bring them back to Atania, and then vanish. Yes, leaving Atania as helpless as a sacrificial lamb. K had to close her eyes... it was too sad to watch. But it did the trick and Atania was able to run back and join us!

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Crazy fishing

My guildmates will laugh that my second post on this new blog is about fishing. Maybe because I enjoy fishing and cooking in real life, I've leveled up these two secondary professions from the first day I played WOW, especially fishing. I find it relaxing and a change of pace from the violent killing to sit back with a cup of coffee and do some ingame fishing. And once you have the fish, leveling up cooking is a breeze. At one point my guildies had to do an intervention to get me to level again. The fishing was so lucrative, I couldn't stop!

Now I won't say leveling up fishing isn't time consuming. It is. And it may be too boring for some. But for those of you willing to put in the effort, the rewards are worth it. In Azeroth, Oily Blackmouth, Firefin Snapper, and Stonescale Eel sell well. And there are always pools on the western coast of Wetlands and Feralas where you can fish up various boxes of cloth, leather, and green items.

I made a decent amount of money from fishing in Azeroth. But fishing and cooking in the Outlands is where I've made an incredible amount of gold (much much more than from my two primary professions, herbalism and alchemy). Now I won't tell you exactly what sells well or what time of day and where to fish for it because :

• #1: With a little effort you can find it easily online
• #2: K still makes a lot of her money this way and doesn't want to easily give away all of her secrets!

Anyways, I love how cute some of the Outland fish are. For example:

Finally, speaking of fishing, have any of you been attacked by those crazy Mudfin frenzy out in Zangarmarsh? Sometimes they even leap out of the air to attack you. Maybe in real life it would look like this? I'm not sure what language he's speaking, maybe Portugese. But this video cracks me up.

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Introduction

So... another blog about World of Warcraft, huh? I don't intend for this blog to really give any insights that haven't already been given elsewhere, I mean 9 million people (so they say) play this game! Am I going to come up with anything ground shattering? No... I also probably won't be doing complicated calculations on spirit vs +5 mana or some intense strategy discussions. Instead I thought it'd be fun to have a place to start tracking my adventures in game, post funny screen shots, and basically just share my point of view. I sort of wish I had done this earlier, as a journal of sorts back when I was level 10, or 30, or 50.

My main is Keredria, a level 65 nightelf restoration druid I started back in February. I've leveled sort of slowly, spending a lot of time fooling around, playing the AH, and leveling up professions (and yes, that includes fishing and cooking). I am a healer at heart and while I have a handful of other low level alts which are all healers (priest, shammy, pally), its hard for me to focus on more than one character. I guess I have the opposite of alt-itis. What is that, main-itis?

K (as she is called, not to be confused with lowercase k which many people use to say ok... yes, it has caused confusion) has been in a very small mature guild for a while now. The Left Claw is currently made up of mainly mid level 50s to high 60s. We're a tight knit, casual bunch, who do a good job of entertaining each other. Because really, after a while, "kill X of Y", "find so-and-so", "bring me 10 Zs" can get old. It sounds so cliche, but I really do think WOW is about the people you meet and relationships you develop! (Was that too cheesy there?)

As K nears end game I would really like her to be able to see some of the current end game stuff. But I don't think I will ever be able to be hard core and dedicate 3-4 nights a week. So I guess that would make me a casual raider. But just because I intend casual, it doesn't mean I won't be serious or dedicated to the game, learn new instances, come prepared, or work on getting better gear and becoming a better player.

Can we do it? Let's see!

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