WOW iPhone

I've mentioned before how I am not the most techy person. I have never been someone who has the latest and greatest gadget. This is why it is so shocking that I bought an iPhone the other day. Why? Well I needed a new phone (I believe my battery is about to die), plus I had wanted to get an iPod as well (yes, I am one of those few who never had one). Add to that the fact that I am already an AT&T customer, the service carrier for the iPhone, so the decision was sort of easy.

Now, you guys probably have seen elsewhere that your iPhone can be customized with WOW pics! Hmmm... options options. Well this one here looks nice, but do I really want the WOW logo emblazoned across my iPhone? Or do I want to keep my WOW under wraps a little more? I'm imaging pulling out my phone in a business/work related function and having my practice partner or some client seeing my phone....

This one is cute. I love the dreaming glory icon for the photos. Herbalism FTW! And the innervate pic for the weather. Yay druids! Is that heavy knothide leather for calendar? Hmmm... what other options do I have?

This one uses starfire for the weather... and our bear form icon. Oh and there's a scroll of strength or agility for settings!

Hmmm here's another option that has more icons. I sort of wish I could mix and match the icons I like. But that would require some sort of technical know how... of which I have little. What do y'all think?

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Blogging and WOW friendship thoughts

The last five days or so were interesting in terms of blogging. First, Ratshag emails Jess and I saying that there is a pic of us on some WOW Insider article but that strangely, the article itself didn't mention either of us or link to our blogs. I think Ratshag was a little more offended than either of us were, but I did think it was a bit odd. If there is a cardinal rule of blogging, I thought it was "Give credit where credit is due". Im not 100% certain that they really meant to give us the shaft since the picture did link to an old post of mine, but it wasn't 100% clear either. Anyways, Ratshag gave a big boo here and they ended up amending the article. Beware the power of Ratshag!

Then a day or so later, WOW Insider puts up another article about my post on real vs WOW locations. Thanks to everyone who commented and gave some other great similarities. Perhaps I need to do a part 2 to that post with the pictures of the new places. I do have to say again that a number of the places I posted just bear strong similarities, I'm not saying that they are identical reproductions. I was just theorizing (is that an actual word?), though I believe some of those are pretty damn close.

Anyways... hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. I spent it in a colder and rainier than usual San Diego with 3 girlfriends from college. It had been a while since the 4 of us spent 3 days straight together. Typically our friendships are probably like most other adult friendships when you live in different states, phone calls maybe once every couple of weeks to catch up, emails here and there.

But think how often we are on WOW. We probably typically talk to our friends in WOW almost every day, don't we? There are definitely things that Jess knows about me more quickly or in greater detail as they happen than my real life friends do. What's funny is that my real life best friend's name is Jessica as well. The real life Jess and WOW life Jess do know about each other and I will often say to one "Well the other Jess thought so too... or the other Jess said this..." when I am seeking advice. Jessika the tank doesn't blink an eye when I say this, Jessica the real life friend, still thinks its odd.

I also think that there is a part of the online aspect of the friendship that makes it easier to confide to each other. Its interesting, but there have been certain things that I have been more reluctant to share with my real life friends, girls who have known me for over 10 years, because well... they know me... and I may have been unsure of what they would think about me or the situation. But on the otherhand, your online friends know you, but they've never met you. So with certain things, you could feel more comfortable getting an opinion or feedback on an issue from a WOW friend because you are still sort of anonymous to them. This means they sort of know you on a different level than your real life friends... but your WOW friends don't completely know you because they've never met you. Ok now I'm confused, but you guys know what I mean, right?

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A little quiz

Do you all remember doing analogies on the SATs? Well a little quiz for y'all:

1. K:Pure Water ::
a. Wutan:Heroic Shattered Halls
b. Wutan:Heroic Slave Pens
c. Wutan:Heroic Shadow Labs
d. Wutan:Heroic Sethekk

2. K:Fel Lotus ::
a. Imdestiny:black
b. Imdestiny:orange
c. Imdestiny:purple
d. Imdestiny:red

Answers. 1.b. Its sorta become an ongoing joke for the guild... Wut is all about Heroic Slave Pens. He's got it down where you basically spent like an hour or so rushing through it. I did it with him the first time the other night and its such an easy 3 badges of justice, plus we got a lot of shards and Nio got a Primal Nether. Easiest way to pick up 3 badges? Heroic SP. Do it.

2.c. Well Dest is a shadow priest, so of course the answer would be c. This means she will only shackle targets that are marked with a purple diamond. Hee hee. She is not willing to shackle orange circles, yellow stars, or silver moons, so don't even ask her. Actually, are marks kinda universal or is it guild by guild or person by person dependent? For us I think moons are saps... stars are sheeps... and blue squares are traps.

Anyways, I am off for a long girls vacation weekend in San Diego! Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

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WOW vs Real Life locales

One of my interests (besides WOW of course) is international travel. A long time ago when I first set foot in Allerian Stronghold, I remember thinking that the clock tower reminded me a little of the clock tower in Prague, one of my favorite cities in the world. I absolutely fell in love with Praha when I visited back in 2003. That got me thinking what other places in WOW could have a strong resemblance to a real place? I found two interesting pieces of information in my research.

First, there was a WOW insider article about this a while back where someone talked about the similarity between Northshire Abbey and this Church at Auvers, France.

Secondly, I found some actual information about some inspiration around Darnassus. The main gate of Darnassus was inspired by Namdaemun, a historic gate in Seoul.

The many buildings within Darnassus were inspired by Yakushi-ji, a famous Buddhist temple in Japan.

So that got me thinking about possible other similarities... what do you think? Can you think of any others? My original inspiration: Allerian Stronghold and Old Town Hall Tower & Astronomical Clock in Prague.

Magister's Terrace and Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.

Zul'Farrak and Machu Picchu.

Stormwind and Cinderella's Castle (hee hee)

Throne of the Elements and Stonehenge (duh).

Durnholde and the ruins of Chateau de Peyrepeteuse in France.

The cathedral at Scarlet Monastery and Lichfield Cathedral in England.

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Random race/character thoughts

This past week was my first week for work up in the Boston area... Worcester to be precise. The other day a local asked me "Where did you park your car"? in a very thick Boston accent. For those of you unaware of the Boston accent... imagine that question sounding like "Where d'ya paaak your caaaa"? They don't seem to like the letter R so much.

Accents can so easily define where you are from. In our little game of ours we have races of characters who live in very different parts of the WOW world. It'd be cool if the night elves in Darnassus had a different accent than those in Cenarion Circle or in Evergrove or in Feathermoon Stronghold... just like how English in NYC sounds different from English spoken in the South... or the Spanish spoken in Spain is different from Spanish spoken in Mexico.

Now how much do we really know about the race of character we have chosen? I did a bit of research on my chosen race, the night elves. Let me just say, there is a reason my main is a night elf... here's why (info quoted from wowwiki).

*'The kaldorei are practical but superstitious, and often a paradox': I am very practical, but my friends and guildies will hear me say "Its a sign"! all the time. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't know it yet.

*'They are a people possessed with a deep spiritual passion and a desire to find solace': I am definitely not the most social person, and with people I don't know I can be very shy or aloof. Plus there are certain things I really don't mind doing alone.

*'The night elves are honorable to a fault, and they are a just and sometimes compassionate people': I love the 'sometimes compassionate' part. I can be real sweet and compassionate, but I can also be a total bitch.

*'They cultivate a relatively low-tech society. It should be noted that their lifestyle is not "anti-technology," but rather one where technology is not the goal.': Oh this is so me. My cell phone until August of 2006 was the old school Motorola Startec... I still don't have an iPOD... and I still need help creating macros.

*'The Sisters of Elune are the oldest Night Elf religious and magical order. The Sisters are the major active night elf political faction, and fulfill the roles of magistrates, officials, and the like for the night elf government': I love that the night elves are run by women.

Finally, interesting fact about nightelves: 'Night elf society was sharply divided by gender, with the vast majority of men being druids and most women serving as warriors, priestesses, or a combination thereof. There were a few deviations, obviously- males with no aptitude for druidism trained in the arts of war, and females with exceptional druidic gifts were trained, but these gender roles more or less defined the culture of the kaldorei for ten thousand years. In the years since Archimonde's death, this gender division appears to have eased somewhat, and more women have taken up the mantle of the druids, just as men have begun to choose the path of war or dedicate themselves to Elune.'

Interesting that female nightelf druids are supposedly less common in the lore of the game!

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Tree of life products

If you are looking for more ways to proudly display your "tree of life-ness" in RL, check out the stuff on this link. I love some of the pendants and wow... look at that crazy $238 handbag!

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K update

You may be thinking, 'Damn K... what is up with three posts in a row on a Saturday night'? Well, I've given you our Kara update, my healing gear update, and here's the K update. I think I've mentioned before that I travel for work. The last couple of months, I have been unassigned to a specific project and working from home. Well now I have been put back on a project and will be spending Monday-Thursday for the next three months in good ole Worcester, MA. It'll be fun because my best friend lives pretty close in Manchester, CT and I am actually flying out tomorrow to hang out with her. So as this is the first full week of the project, I expect craziness... translating to minimal WOW playing time which translates to minimal WOW blogging. Have a good week everyone!

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Healing gear update 5.11.08 and MP5 vs Spirit

I have had a number of drops in Kara lately, even though Maiden is still being a pain and keeping her two drops from me: [Mitts of the Treemender] or [Shard of the Virtuous]. I think at this point I need to change my strategy. I should stop bashing her and calling her a bee-yotch and start singing her praises. Maybe then she'll drop what I want. So Maiden, I loves you! You are sooo beautiful! And no, that high slit skirt doesn't make you look skanky! It shows you are a woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to show it!

Anyways. So when these Kara drops dropped, there were a couple of times when I wasn't sure if I should switch those in for some pvp items I had because the pvp items had good MP5. But this is when every good resto druid goes to the queen resto druid, Phaelia. You'll see her mana regeneration canculator here. Assuming I am always casting (within the 5 second rule), in a 10 minute fight, 1 innervate, cast frequency of 1.5 sec, and with intensity, my intellect and spirit stats tranlate 1 MP5 to approximately 2.3 Spirit. Damn. This made my decisions easier. Now I am holding onto my pvp gear and bringing it to Kara for certain fights where I may need the extra stam. I do really like how I look in my pvp gear now! The healing pvp gear is pretty good. If you don't hate pvp too much, its a great way to go into Kara with really good stats.

So here are the six pvp pieces I am holding onto, or for my soloing/daily questing gear:
Head: [Gladiator's Kodohide Helm]
Shoulders: [Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders]
Hands: [Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves]
Waist: [Vindicator's Kodohide Belt]
Feet: [Vindicator's Kodohide Boots]
Neck: [Vindicator's Pendant of Salvation]

Now in terms of what I am wearing now, I did get exalted with SSO and have the necklace and trinket from them. I am finally glad to see my spirit so high. Oh and I did get a trinket from Opera... though from what I read online, its not that great for resto druids. Our HOTs won't trigger the proc. I may need to bring back my lower city prayerbook.

All stats unbuffed, no potions, no food, no scrolls, no nothing!
Level: 70
Health: 7044
Mana: 8314
Intellect: 415
Spirit: 425
+Healing: 1574
+MP5: 461/179

Weapon: [The Ancient Scepter of Sue-Min]

Off-hand: [Netherwing Spiritualist's Charm]

Idol: [Idol of the Emerald Queen]

Head: [Hood of Primal Life]

Neck: [Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration]

Shoulders: [Forest Wind Shoulderpads]

Back: [Lifegiving Cloak]

Chest: [Gladiator's Kodohide Tunic]

Wrists: [Vindicator's Kodohide Bracers]

Hands: [Gloves of the Living Touch]

Waist: [Cord of Nature's Sustenance]

Legs: [Earthsoul Leggings]

Feet: [Forestlord Striders]

Ring: [Violet Signet]

Ring: [Keeper's Ring of Piety]

Trinket: [Redeemer's Alchemist Stone]

Trinket: [Ribbon of Sacrifice]

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Kara update... running with two trees

I would say that last week was our first serious week back at raiding Kara. We were held up by Shade last week once again. This past week we did Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, and Opera the first night. It was our first look at Romulus and Juliet, which was cool. Then the second night, we did Curator, Shade, Chess, and Illhoof. It was funny because Shade was so much easier with Buns, our warlock (who has never been with us to Shade before). Buns definitely showed those elementals who was boss. After we got him down, Buns says 'Oh, that wasn't so bad'! We're like, uh... that's because you were with us?

We did Chess for the first time last week, so this was our second week at it. Last week I had no idea what was going on, so it was a little more fun this week when I knew what to do.

Next we went to Illhoof and the first try, I think we had too much dps on his minion, instead of Illhoof or the imps. After we figured this out, we got Illhoof down on our second attempt.

It was then pretty late, but we thought we'd go take a peek at Prince. We did one shot at him, which didn't go too well. But at least now we kinda know what the fight looks like. I sort of can't believe we are at Prince already. It kinda makes me sad in a way... we are towards the end of Kara! Oh but here's a funny shot of us. I can't remember now where we were going, but we were all bunched up in this corner to break line of sight, and then to AOE stuff. Of course there were jokes that someone wasn't using deodorant... or that someone's butt was pinched!

Now you may have noticed from the pics I've shared so far, that there are two trees! Yes, another resto druid Tobein has been running with us. Its been cool because I kinda know how he will heal and how long his heals will take to cast. It's sorta like healing with my twin! Plus its nice that we have two trees to give the tree of life healing buff to both groups. I am a bit concerned whether two resto druids can heal Jess through Prince, given how hard he hits. I'm thinking maybe we could put Jess and Wut in a group with both Tobe and myself next time... so that our group gets double the tree of life healing buff... 25% of my spirit and 25% of Tobe's spirit. Two trees though... total win.

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Oh my

So when Jess isn't busy getting all mad over something (I swear... she's got such a short fuse that Jess) and being all dodge-y and parry-y and block-y (technical tank terms), she spends time rewriting songs in WOW speak. Jess has a song about me today, go check it out. I suggest you open the link she has to Youtube in another window and sing along with Jess' lyrics.

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Why a restoration druid?

My tank Jess (yes, she's mine, all mine) did a post a couple weeks ago on why she chose to play a protection warrior. Well here's a little back ground on how K came to be K.

I am a bit of a planner. I like to know exactly what I am getting into so that I don't regret it later. So before I started this game, I read the little manual the game came with and checked out the WOW website to read up on all the characters options and decide what I wanted. I think I chose a druid for a couple of reasons. I knew I wanted to heal, but I liked that a resto druid would allow me to level up with relative ease. I love that in full healing gear, I can switch in and out of bear form and still take on 4 mobs while doing my dailies. I also liked that if I had to, I could switch specs at end game and have three other options (if I had to switch... I'd probably go boomkin).

Thinking about it today though, I really love the different druid forms. It may be because it is somewhat similar to my real life personality as well. Sometimes I can be tough and all growly like a bear (often in the mornings... pre-coffee). Other times I can be a bit catty and all rawr like a kitty. But most of the time, I am most like a tree... not the loudest or flashiest person in the room, but peacefully, dependably, and quietly standing in the back and getting things done. Now just like a tree, I'm not all stoic and responsible all the time... sometimes I can let loose and break it down, just like the crazy and funny tree dance. But I will say that I am probably not as paranoid as a tree. Have you guys seen how every few seconds, we'll look back over our right and left shoulder? What are we scared of? That someone will come jump us?

So there's why I am a druid, so why do I heal? Well my real life job is in healthcare, could that play a part? I wonder if it also has to do with how I described I am like a tree... I don't necessarily like to be the center of attention, but I like knowing that I am an integral part of the group, even if its less than obvious. There is also a part of me who takes pressure and stress pretty well. I sort of like how important the healer is in a group, and while sometimes there is a lot of pressure or responsibility, I kind of do well in those situations and like to try to step up to the plate. But I think there is also a part of me that likes having the "power" of the heals. Sometimes I like to bring Jess' health down precariously low just to show her whos boss (just kidding... well uh... not really)!

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That birdie sure flies fast!

I plunked down the 5,000g for the quest chain for swift flight form back in January. Yes, January. I don't think we were quite ready for a heroic Set run until March or so... and by then we were running Kara. So I never bugged my guildies to run it with me. Well as Sethekk was the heroic daily yesterday, we finally went.

We had two wipes before we got Anzu down on the third try. I must say as the sole healer, it was a little tough to keep everyone up. Our softie mages Vel and Aksana - Jess' mage alt were getting quite a bit of damage by the birds Anzu summons, plus I was healing Wut, plus trying to keep HoTs on the three statues. The first time, I barely kept the statues up. I think the second time I was trying too much to keep the statues up. I know they help, but they won't do you much good if someone in your group dies. So the last time, I finally got the balance just right. If you are doing this boss, there are many sites online to help you, such as here. Make sure you create the macros to heal the bird statues.

After I turned in the quest, I was flying around in Zanga a bit... it was very very odd and sort of made me a bit queasy to fly around so fast. I swooped down to pick an herb, and totally flew past it and crashed into the water. Oops! It will definitely take some getting used to.

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A little something for the ladies

So I mentioned yesterday how our guild has more gals than guys. This means guild chat sometimes goes into fawning over who the hottest guy was in Lord of the Rings. Add to that I saw this list today of the hottest male characters in gaming. It gives honorable mention to Kael'thas Sunstrider. He may be mean and tough but Kael'thas... hot? Please.

Oh and for you guys, here is the accompanying list of the hottest female characters in gaming. No ladies from WOW. WOW is the first game I've played, so I don't know who any of these other characters are. But I wonder why there is no one from WOW. I'm sure Nio will protest that Maiden was kept from this list.

I wonder how many gals even read my blog... but we play a game with hot, curvaceous female characters in sometimes skimpy clothing while I really think that the male characters just look funny (ahem Kael'thas). But seriously, none of the male characters do it for me. Here's my list of the actors who I would love to heal as my main tank (sorry Jess). Why don't any of the male characters in WOW look like these guys?

Clive Owen

Joaquin Phoenix

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Daniel Craig

Viggo Mortensen

Gerard Butler

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What I know

I have a bunch of random things I wanted to share... so I thought I'd just list them all in one post as things I know.

1. Being in a female dominated guild rocks:
Ok some of our guys probably have a little issue with the word dominated. However I find it amusing that in a game that is male dominated, our guild and our Kara runs have had more gals than guys. Us ladies like to say that this is the reason for our early success in Kara. Heh heh.

2. What you say can be misinterpreted:
So yes, we have more gals than guys. However both sexes are apt to jokingly take things you say and turn them into a lets just say adult interpretation. This seems to increase the later it gets. The other night I was trying to just take Wut's name out of the raid group into a window on my screen. But I couldn't bring it out. I was yelling on vent "Ugh I can't get Wut's thing out!!!" You can imagine the adult interpretation and jokes that followed.

3. Getting your vent server hacked is annoying... but funny:
There we were, clearing trash to Chess when all of a sudden we had a couple of intruders on our vent server that Wut got for us. They came on, grumbled a couple of things, then proceeded to blare some loud rap music. I think Jess and a couple others were quite annoyed, whereas Adamas got all pumped up, and I couldn't stop laughing. At first I thought someone said these were Wut's friends, which wasn't the case. I was joking that Wut must secretly be a gangster rapper in real life. So anyone else had their vent server hacked? Why do they do this? Just to be annoying? They can't get anything from it can they?

4. Let me introduce you to karma:
You know that Intercepting the mana cells daily up in blades edge? Well I think we have all experienced rude people from both factions who will come and loot the little pink box while you are fighting the mana worm. I used to get quite annoyed by this. Not any more. As soon as this happens, I go into flight form and basically camp this person and follow them around. I wait until they engage a mana worm, then swoop down and loot the pink box they were going for. Then I fly off, laughing and saying to myself "Payback's a bitch aint it?" Wow, what a vindictive healer I am. But people please, karma exists... in real life and in WOW. I guess this is just my little way of introducing karma to these folks. Is it just a coincidence that karma starts with the letter K? I think not.

5. Alchemists should be taking advantage of transmutes without a cooldown:
Did you all know that [Recipe:Transmute Arcanite] has no cooldown? For some quick gold this past weekend, I bought Arcane Crystals for about 9-10g each, Thorium bars for about 1g each, then sold the Arcanite Bars for 25g each. In 2 minutes I was able to make a profit equivalent to doing 6 dailies. Cha-ching.

6. You just can't keep a good cow down:
I participated in BRK and Ratshag's Running of the Bulls on Saturday with a Tauren druid I created named Kiridririe (hee hee). I love this kinda stuff, it cracks me up. Despite horrible lag, it was a fun time. The run was from Mulgore to Hammerfall. I tried to practice the survival skills I learned from watching the Discovery Channel. Basically stay in the middle of the pack so that scary bears and spiders can pick off those running on either side of you.

After Hammerfall, the group decided to storm IF. Now this was even more hilarious to me. A huge mass of cows mooing and dying from the gates of IF to the tram! The IF guards and a number of ally characters obviously one-shotted us over and over again. However we all came back and basically corpse ran ourselves to the tram. Like I said, you can try, but what I know is that you just can't keep a good cow down. A big memorial Moo to Sharvan to whom the race was dedicated!

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I has issues

I've mentioned before that sometimes I have crazy dreams about this crazy little game of ours. Well the last two nights Jess and I have been grinding out SSO rep by doing all the dailies together. I am 6,000 away from being exalted with the nice SSO people. With all the dailies... this has to be the easiest rep grind to exalted ever! I am looking forward to getting [Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration] and the recipe to make [Redeemer's Alchemist Stone] by the end of this weekend.

So I must have had rep grind on the brain or something. Because my dream last night... well I dreamt that I was on some big bar/pub crawl. I had a huge list of places I was supposed to go to get a drink or a shot or something... and after downing the drink at each place, what I got was rep in WOW. What's even crazier about this silly dream is that I hardly ever drink!

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