When you raid with a blogger

We had an interesting week of raiding last week. First, we decided that we'd do Flame Leviathan with one tower up. So we start the encounter, and we were ready for the light beams, but WTF Flowers? Fires? Yeah... in our quest to do FL+1 we accidentally started FL+4. Oops. It was kinda funny though. We came back and took down 3 more towers and successfully did FL+1. It was nice that just leaving one tower up on 10 man resulted in two badges of conquest!

So we took down Thorim this past week. Woot! Didn't end up getting Freya down, but I think we're very very close. I actually forgot to take a screenshot after Thorim. Oops again. Now we had left a bunch of easy early bosses that a group of us went back to clear. So we're going to do Ignis, and had a healer who had to leave. We brought in a dps and could have switched Jess or Chachi out and brought in their healers, but I knew that Jess and Chachi both had drops they wanted off of Ignis.

Since Ignis is relatively easy sauce now, I decided "Hey, lets challenge ourselves" and suggested that we do Ignis with just two healers, Breld, a pally healer, and myself. From the slight pause in Breld's voice, I'm guessing that he thought that I was crazy (he probably wasn't the only one). But my hope was that with 6 kick ass dps, we'd burn him down before too long. Plus since I knew that we could still heal if we got in the crotch pocket, I thought we might be ok. And hey, if it doesn't work out, then we'll just switch someone in.

So yeah, I had to work and try a little harder, but Ignis was one shot with just Breld and myself healing. My reaction as soon as he went down? BOOYAH! And it was a good plan since the gun dropped for our hunter Chachi off Ignis.

Now I'm not sure what the deal was this past Sunday night, but Sunday's raid ended up being incredibly incredibly naughty. Terms and phrases were mentioned and discussed that required the very innocent Jess and Kalthan to look up via google or wikipedia, after which I'm sure they had to clear the cache/history on their computers. Our little gnome Nkm was so traumatized that he emoted using little mittens to cover up his little ears. I don't know... there must have been something in the fish feast I put out because it was just out of control. Even I was blushing, which tells you how bad it was.

Sometimes I wonder how it is for my guildies and friends to raid with me, a blogger. Do they wonder what will get posted and what won't? Are they sometimes surprised by the way I see things and post them? Are there things I post that they wish I wouldn't? Let's take a look at a quick raid conversation from one night:

Suzzy: Now don't you go putting that up on your blog K!
K: Sorry Suz, I think you all well know that by raiding with me there is an unwritten and unsaid understanding that anything you say or do is rightful fodder for the blog.
Chachi: Yeah, I ended up figuring that out.

But seriously, I do think I'm pretty good with not putting anything up that they wouldn't want me to put up. However it is nice to have an avenue to put up stuff like this:

So Jess had some connection issues and ended up lagging for a while before Iron Council. Here is Jess simply running in place, so vigorously so that the snow got worn down!

Well what did we do while waiting? I think it was Vel that put bunny ears on Jess, while I ran over to get screenshots. Wut mentioned that this would be the WOW equivalent of someone passing out drunk and their friends drawing on their face. Hee hee.

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Come play with us!

Yes, my friends, the post here today is to share with you that our guild is looking for another raider or two to raid with us. We've been doing well so far with some awesome friends outside of guild, but I think it'd help to have another person or two in guild. So what are we looking for? Well on a most simple level, we'd love another healer or two dedicated to running with us. We'd also perhaps be open to another tank as well, but someone who is dual specced to tank or dps as the need arises would probably be best. Dps is not our first priority right now, but we do sometimes have an open dps slot, so perhaps if you are super awesome, we could talk.

Ok some basics behind the recruitment post so that the fit is right for both sides. First of all, we are a 10 man raiding guild. In terms of progression, we got Thorim down this past week and are very close to getting Freya down. So we'll be on Mimiron next, which sounds oh so very painful. Because we're scheduling only Ulduar raids right now, generally you'd be geared or close to geared for Ulduar.

Now we're not a hardcore raiding guild, but we're not completely casual either. As Jess likes to describe us, we are softcore... whatever that means. So if hardcore = porn and softcore = Playboy, then we are the Skinemax of raiding. Hahahaha sigh. Anyways, what I mean by this is that we care about progressing and seeing content, but we aren't going to be seeing 10 man server firsts.

But at the same time, we do care about doing well and our folks are very good players who know their class, their abilities, and generally how to play and kick ass. I would venture to say that a lot of our folks could very well join some of the top 25 man raiding guilds on the server and do very very well. We just choose to do it in a 10 man format. But I guess we might be described hardcore in that we do expect specs that make sense, proper glyphs, flasks, enchants etc etc and it would not be unheard of for one of us to look at someone and ask them to switch some talents or glyphs around if necessary.

We generally raid two or three nights a week, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 10 pm server (East coast time). We've raided some Sunday nights the last couple of weeks which I think a number of folks liked, so perhaps we may be doing that a bit more often as well. We don't have any strict attendance requirements, but because I am putting this recruitment post up, if you are interested in joining, we'd like for you to be able to raid with us somewhat regularly.

What else... what else. We are generally an adult guild (and by this I mean in age not maturity level. Ha!). Folks have kids and families and dogs and yes, even chickens. So its not uncommon for someone to have to go tuck a kid in or tend to a screaming kid or let a dog out or lock up chickens and take a quick brb. The other side of being an adult guild is that while there aren't F-bombs flying everywhere, the language can be salty at times (/bats eyes innocently) and lately there has been a good amount of very very naughty raid chat with last night being especially bad (or good depending on how you look at it). So that we do not have to feel guilty about corrupting youth, and just to generally align with who we are, it would probably be best if you were mid 20s or so and up.

There's more you ask? Yes! Of course there's more! You will read more and like it, ok? Now in terms of attitude, if you are a healer I would expect that you have a strong understanding of our awesomeness and be willing and able to come in and help me give the tanks some crap. And if you're a tank, I would expect that you have a strong understanding of our awesomeness and be willing and able to come in and take some crap. kk? Ok, ok in all seriousness, I am not too mean to the tanks. Really.

I think recruiting for a guild like ours can sometimes be harder because we fall between the hardcore and casual realm. We're looking for folks who are looking to have a good time with a fine group of folks, but I have to reiterate that we really need folks who can kick ass. But at the same time please don't be the obnoxious arrogant know it all. Damn we're picky!

I think sometimes by us not being a hardcore guild, people sometimes assume that not hardcore = casual. And I think some "casual" guilds can end up with folks who, (I hate to say this but I will because hai2u we all know that this is bitchy K here) don't really play all that well. They don't know their class, their abilities, have slow reaction times, and can't seem to follow basic raid instructions or have any sort of spatial awareness as to what is going on around them. Please don't be this person.

But know that if folks screw up or make mistakes, no one is going to be yelling at you. We all make mistakes and can cause wipes from times to time. We also genuinely have off nights sometimes... which are frustrating but a fact of life. To get to the point our raids are generally 10 folks who know their shit but genuinely like running with each other and are looking to enjoy what they are doing. But I don't want folks to think that our runs are going to be perfect and that there won't be struggles. And yes, we are still 9/14 in Ulduar... so again we're still progressing.

Anyways, here's to hoping there is a person or two out there who was able and willing to read this wall of text and thinks that they might fall in line with what we are looking for. If you've been reading this blog for a while, I think you can pick up on general guild and raiding culture from my posts (yes there is a lot of silliness). So if you think you fit what you are looking for, please email me: keredria (at) gmail dot com or Jess. Or you can talk to Jess or I in game if you are already on Drenden.

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Healers... the neck of a raid?

Ok a couple of updates. First of all, I haz a new dress, Phaelia's Vestments of the Sprouting Seed.

I cannot believe that I am wearing the most famousest resto druid evah's dress! Phaelia was one of the earliest supporters of my blog nearly two years ago, so its quite exciting for me to be wearing her dress. It makes me want to be a better and smarter tree, or at least a nicer one. Will I be able to do complicated spirit and mana regen calculations on the fly wearing this dress? One can only hope...one can only hope.

Secondly, a funny shot after we got Hodir down. Breld's hip thrusts right behind Vel and I disturbs me a bit...

Finally we had one night of raiding where I was once again the raid leader (previous experience with raid leader-ing here). Let's see how the rest of the raid reacted to this:

Ah, I've taught them well, I've taught them well. No, but seriously I do think it just comes a bit more naturally for tanks to be leading raids. However here's my interpretation on tanks and healers in a raid, based on this Chinese proverb:

A tank may be the head of a raid, but the healer is the neck that turns the head.

Hee hee. :)

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Story time

Once upon a time, in Drenden, a land far far away, there lived a tree. Now this tree was a pretty happy tree, with a great group of guildmates and friends to talk with, joke around with, and go on great adventures to kill big scary monsters with.

Because this tree had such a good time with her guildmates and friends, the tree decided to chronicle her adventures on a blog. She put all sorts of stuff up on this blog, including guild happenings, stories, and adventures. A good number of this tree's guildmates and friends would often mention how they laughed at this post or that post. So the tree felt pretty good to hear that her guildmates and friends liked her chronicles, but wondered one thing:

I wonder why the majority of these guildmates and friends never comment on my blog?

Now a certain white pony-tailed warrior comments pretty often. But this tree wanted to see if she could get more of her guildmates and friends to comment on this brilliant blog. Should she tell them that they would get more healz if they comment? Hmmm... then the snarky and devious tree had a snarky and devious idea:

What if I put up a cute funny fairy tale of a story cleverly disguised as an attempt to see how many guildmates and friends she could get to be first time commenters on just this one post?

So that is just what the snarky and devious tree did. She put up a post, curious to see how many of her guildmates and friends who she knows reads the blog (hai2u guys), would comment. A lot of the tree's guildmates and friends then made their first ever comments on the tree's blog. And everyone lived happily ever after.

The End.

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Getting ready for arenas

The other day I talked about how I had gotten back into pvp lately. Well, to take it a bit further, I am looking at dabbling a little more seriously into arenas. We've dabbled a bit before in arenas, but it was definitely a half hearted dabble because gear wasn't all pvp gear and specs weren't pvp specs. I want to try it a bit more seriously this time. So how am I doing this? Let's take a look.

How K is getting ready for arena:

1. First and foremost, I am preparing myself right now for a lot of death and destruction and pain and eating of dirt. (Yay! Sounds so fun!) Arena play is a whole new animal and I know that there is quite a big learning curve.

2. Now how to spec as a resto druid in arena? Hmmm, well I started by researching specs of some other top rated resto druids. Looking at SK Gaming's ranking of top arena teams I see that a number of resto druids are going 24/0/47 taking up insect swarm in the balance tree. Hmmm insect swarm, huh? But I see others staying around 16/0/55. Gonna have to play around a bit.

3. I still need to run a number of battlegrounds to earn the honor to pick up a pvp cloak, both rings, and a trinket. So any of y'all on Emberstorm battlegroup, be on the look out for a nelf druid in a pretty dress with a scary mask.

4. In terms of glyphs, I'll probably pick up Glyph of Barkskin and keep Glyph of Swiftmend and Innervate.

5. Now in terms of partners, I've already talked to Wut about this and Im sure Atania and Vel would be interested as well. I think we could do some interesting 3v3 teams. In doing some of my research, I found a lot of 2v2 teams with a resto druid and a DK or warrior. Hmmm I don't think Jess is big into pvping or arena on that toon... but perhaps I could convince Paradise.

6. Installing what looks like the must have addon for arenas, Gladius.

7. Buying bars of soap to wash out my mouth after all the swearing that I know I will be doing (see #1).

Anyone else with arena experience have any advice in general or specific to doing arenas as a resto druid?

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Frying weenies

We all well know that this little game we play is chock full of weenies and asshats. Its a part of the game, well and of life. But while most of you sane and normal folk just ignore said weenies and move on with your gaming lives, I for some reason feel a need to engage said weenies.

But let's pull back and bit and start from the beginning. So I have a super secret alt that I use as a money maker since she is a maxed inscriptionist. She's not in the guild because I just log on to her to do my money makin', plus sometimes its just nice to be a lone unguilded toon.

Those of you who have unguilded toons must know what's coming next. Yes, these poor toons are bombarded with constant requests to sign guild charters, which is really really annoying. Let's take a look at what my SSA (super secret alt) was faced with one night:

Asshat throws up guild charter in SSA's face
SSA closes guild charter
Asshat throws up guild charter in SSA's face
SSA closes guild charter
Asshat: Come on, just sign it. You can leave after.
SSA: Sorry, I'm not going to do it.
Asshat: Come on, just sign it.
SSA: Nope, find some one else. I don't respond very well to strangers throwing stuff up in my face. Perhaps if you would actually take the polite route and ask people, you would get a better response.
Asshat: KK LOL. WHATEVER LOSER DUDE.
SSA: Actually I'm a gal, not a dude.
Asshat: KK WHATEVER E GAL. UR A NOBODY AND I DON'T CARE.
SSA: Your incredibly rude behavior is obviously why you are forced to ask complete strangers to sign your charter. Best of luck, asshat.

Jess always asks me why I even engage asshats. I'm not sure why I feel the need to try to reform or educate these weenies. Am I trying to make the WOW world better, one asshat at a time? Heh. But honestly, when I'm presented with rudeness or asshattery, I just can't let it go. In game and in real life, I'm gonna speak my mind.

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Getting back into PVP

I tend to go through a lot of phases in WOW. As Jess mentioned at times I am an herbing/farming machine while other times I am all about the PVP. My BG of choice has always been AV. Why? Well I love it because I can choose to do either run with the lead pack or stay back, stealth around in kitty form, and try to take back bunkers and work on defense. We have so many great options as a druid in AV.

Now I stopped doing AV for a good while earlier this year when every single AV I entered was horribly lopsided with 40 horde to 20 or so alliance. But this past weekend I saw that it was an AV weekend, and thought I'd check it out again. A couple of things.

We are back in the days of AV being alliance again (at least on Drenden)! Yay, I really like these days. :) Secondly, I definitely do not think that I am great by any means, but I do really enjoy giving the horde some trouble. Whether that is healing other players or taking on horde one on one or two on one or three on one! What I often find is that when I'm doing BGs I make up these conversations in my head.

Let's look at some of these conversations. Now when I am healing others in BGs I never do it in tree form. I know we have the armor bonus and we don't have a movement reduction now, but please I think shifting into tree form is just asking to get yourself killed.

K: Ooh look, there's 3 or 4 alliance folks taking on 6 or 7 horde! Let's heal them! Bring it horde! Let's see if you can out dps my healz!

(Then I imagine what the horde players might be saying)

Hordie: WTF? Why is this ally not going down? They keep getting healed!
K: Muahahaha

Now one or two on one, I am not going to kill you by any means (Hello I am healer?), but I will most likely get away. Three or four on one, yes I'll probably die, but I still enjoy seeing how long I can last. It's often quite longer than you'd think and I take some pride in being pesky.

Hordie: Ooh look! A fresh little piece of ally druid meat! Let's kill them!
K: Aaah, young hordie, its not going to be as easy as it may look!
Barkskin
Instant heal
Root or cyclone
Shift into travel form
Throw horde a wave or a kiss
Run away

I love it. I really do. So now I'm sitting at a resilience of 530 and still need to get a PVP cloak, rings, and trinkets. Let's take a look at what my PVP gear looks like shall we?

Hee hee! I quite love how pretty the dress is and how it all matches. And yes, while at first I was disturbed by the helm, I kind of like it now. I think it sends a strong message of "Don't f'in mess with me".

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Overheard at the Claw

Crazy day work wise (booooo), so just some quick guild run funnies I wanted to share:

1. So am I the only one who doesn't have a max level alt?

Chachi: What, you don't have a level 80 alt?
K: No, I don't. My alt time is spent giving Jess a hard time and making money. We all know the Jess bit is a full time job in and of itself.

2. I think its been well established here that I am not afraid to talk back to the tanks or raid leaders during a raid, or lets just be serious... at any time. But I will actually talk back to Jess on behalf of others as well.

Jess: Move out of the (insert red rune or green puddle or whatever here) Indi!
K: She's not in it! Will you just tank or whatever the heck you're doing?
A minute later
K: Aack, Jess this mob is coming straight for me...
Jess: Got it, will you just heal or something?

3. Reminiscing about 80s music during raids is always fun.

Jess: Ok I'm going in, priests can I get a shield and a prayer?
Suzzy: Huh, what?
Jess: You know, prayer of mending and power word: shield.
Wut: Isn't that some Duran Duran song or something?
Jess: Or was it Bon Jovi?

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A little scary, a lot yummy

Coming out to theaters in the US this September, is the movie Gamer. The description of the movie from its site:

"GAMER is a high-concept action thriller set in a near future when gaming and entertainment have evolved into a terrifying new hybrid. Humans control other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online games: people play people...for keeps. Mind-control technology is widespread, and at the heart of the controversial games is its creator, reclusive billionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). His latest brainchild, the first-person shooter game "Slayers," allows millions to act out their most savage fantasies online in front of a global audience, using real prisoners as avatars with whom they fight to the death.

Kable (300's Gerard Butler) is the superstar and cult hero of the ultraviolent "Slayers." Kable is controlled by Simon, a young gamer with rock star status who continues to defy all odds by guiding Kable to victory each week. Taken from his family, imprisoned and forced to fight against his will, the modern day gladiator must survive long enough to escape the game to free his family, regain his identity and to save mankind from Castle's ruthless technology."

My thoughts? Avatars being real people that you control to the death? Hello ethics? Um... scary! But Gerard Butler? (Warning, incoming gratuitous Gerry Butler pic)

I would watch anything with him in it. So yes, there's the yummy. :)

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Traveler's mammoths + dirty minds =

Now Vel and I have both had our Reins of the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth for a long time now. It's super convenient to be able to repair anywhere, anytime. But I do think that there should be a warning attached to the purchase that reads:

Why? Well lets consider how Wut asks either one of us to put up our mount:

I'm going to need to see a right asscheek here.

Wut now often just shortens the request to:

I need a right cheek

Let's also look at some recent raid chat:

Need I say any more?

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Checking back in with the next K

Its been a while since I gave you guys a glimpse into how the training of my Teldrassil Sproutling into the next great healing machine was going. Have I had any more success? Lets take a look.

Because any healer first needs a tank to heal, I decided to introduce the little one to my tank. Little one, this is what we call a tank:

So what we do with these tanks is send them green swirls of healing goodness. Like this:

Ok little one, now you try:

Hmmm. Well maybe I am starting you out too fast. You're a little bebeh tree... maybe Jess is too big a tank for you to start with. Should we start you out with a tank closer to your own size? How about Vel's little bear? Its a perfect little feral bear ass for you to heal!

Seriously my sproutling? Seriously? Its time for a serious chat.

We are trees little one. We are masters of teh leet healz. That is our calling. That is our fate. Come on, all you have to do is wave your arms in the air! Wave them like you just don't care! Like this!

Sigh. You're still falling asleep on me? Hmmm training up this sproutling is going to be a serious challenge. I wonder if Strand Crawlers can heal?

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And they called her sparkly moonhead

First, two shots of guild first kills of Iron Council and Auriaya.

Auriaya was surprisingly one shot, though we did have a couple of wipes on Iron Council. Somehow here Atania, Terrondris, and I all died on top of each other.

Now I did get an interesting helm drop off of Auriraya, Cover of the Keepers. I realize that its maybe better for a moonkin, but it was better than what I had and we had no moonkins with us so I picked it up. Let's look at how this helm look on K, shall we?

Yes, it is a moon. A sparkly moon. On my forehead. I joked that if the lights go out in Ulduar I can light the way with my moonlight helm. You can't really tell in this shot, but it really is sparkly. So much so that I got confused when running around Dal doing one of the cooking dailies. I'd think "Oooh, sparklies! There is the wine jug/wine glass/hunk of cheese/mustard thingie!" But then I'd quickly realize "Oh wait, never mind. That's just my sparkly moonhead."

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Gaming as a profession?

The other day I get home and waiting for me in the mail is my favorite magazine, Marie Claire. Yes, a girl has to keep up with the latest fashion and beauty trends when not busy throwing out hots! I definitely think Marie Claire is not like most fashion magazines because they always have interesting articles and tidbits.

Anyways so I'm flipping through it, and in the July issue, there is a little tidbit article on none other than female gamers. The article talks about the increasing number of women not only in gaming, but women who are gaming professionally. It highlights the Frag Dolls, a professional team of 7 women who play on the Major League Gaming circuit (seriously? who knew there was such a thing?). When I go to check out the Frag Dolls site, it looks like 3 of their 7 play WOW.

I should keep this in mind if I get tired of consulting and want to try an alternate career path. :) It just blew my mind though that an article on female professional gamers would be in my fashion magazine!

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Healing is about caring?

Aurik at /hug put up a comment on my post yesterday that I wanted to highlight, saying "healing is about caring". I just love love love that comment and said that it made me want to be a better healer, or at least a nicer one.

That got me thinking this: Do you think that us healers are expected to be "nicer" because of our role as healers compared to tanks or dps? Because we are all about giving life and all things good and tender and green and leafy? Is it more noticed if a healer is less than nice than a tank or dps?

Anyways, let's look at a guild conversation from the other night shall we?

Wutan: Don't let me die, ok K?
K: Ah Wut, don't worry. You've got my leet healz.
Wutan: True. I got me some bitchin' heals!
Slight pause
Wutan: Acutally I got bitchy heals!
K: Sigh... I was actually going to say it, you just beat me to it.

Now where did I get this reputation from? Well perhaps because I am usually the first to say or do something that most likely everyone is thinking already... even if its something you possibly shouldn't say or do. Let's examine where I might have gotten this tag a little further with a hypothetical.

Let's just say, hypothetically you know, that there is a resto druid. And let's say this said resto druid continually (five times a week maybe) gets asked to heal 10 and 25 man raids X, Y, Z by someone. Now let's assume, hypothetically still of course, that this said resto druid does not know this person at all and has never actually raided with this person. This person only knows the resto druid through other friends, friends who they don't even know that well.

Now let's continue hypothetically that this resto druid started by coming up with excuses like they weren't going to be online much longer, or were going to go on guild runs, or that they were already saved to those raids. But let's say that this person keeps asking said druid without picking up a clue from weeks and weeks of excuses. To the point where this resto druid is forced to straight up ignore requests and vents her annoyance in guild chat with perhaps an expletive or two. Hypothetically... of course.

So what would you do? I'm wondering if I have to pull up those standard lines that I've used before in real life. What should I say? How about:

- You are a (insert tank type) tank. I'm really only looking for a tank healer relationship with a (insert another tank type) tank.
- I'm sorry but I'm already healing another tank.
- Its not you, its me. I'm just not ready for another tank healer relationship.

Hahahaha sigh. No but seriously, I'm annoyed that this person has forced me to go to that bitchy place (really Wut, I am!). Do I just have to come right out and say, "Look I'm sorry but I have no interest in healing any of your raids, please stop asking me?" Seriously, am I just down right mean? Sigh... perhaps.

Anyways, this post started out one place and circled around to who knows where. But I am going to come back to where this post started. I will definitely try to repeat the mantra "healing is about caring" when I'm feeling less than nice. Thanks Aurik!

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A certain healing je ne sais quoi?

I’ve been thinking a bit over the last couple of weeks around what makes for a good healer. So being the serious healer I am (please no snickering guildies), I decided to do some empirical research. I wasn't really sure what empirical exactly meant, but it sounded good and serious research is often described as empirical. But what I did was ask some guildies and friends about what they thought made for a good healer.

The answers ranged from the humorous to the serious. Atania, as a rogue, classified a good healer as someone who knows that she exists. She said that if she dies, its her fault and heals are just a bonus for rogues. Ah, I've taught her well that Ata! Our hunter Chachi, classified a good healer as anyone who can keep his pet Joni alive. I try Chachi Hockey Pockey, I really do. But sometimes that pesky cat just won't cooperate!

Anyways, on a more serious note, here are 7 qualities that were mentioned. The first five are probably very obvious and familiar to all, but the last two gave me some things to think about:

1. Know your shit:
Wutan, our pally tank, talked about knowledge of the fight, your group and the other healers. Now knowledge of the fight is obvious. But consider what other classes make up your group. What kind of tank are you healing? What kind of dps? What kind of healers? Your healing strategy may be different when you heal with a priest instead of a pally.

2. Talk back
Wut mentioned letting the raid know what you need as a healer, what is working for you. Whether that is line of sight or aggro issues, or if you think you should be healing someone else. As much as Jess I'm sure wishes at times that I would "communicate" less, its important.

3. Anticipate and adapt:
Venezia, a warrior tank thought a good healer anticipates damage, not only to the tank, but to the raid. Jess talked about anticipation a bit as well, in terms of anticipating the positioning/location of not only the tanks, but the other healers and dps. Vel also talked about a healer being able to adapt, whether it is to a certain boss, a specific group composition, or when things go wrong.

4. Don't stand in the green stuff:
Jess mentioned situational awareness, which I think is more than not standing in the fire/green puddle/red rune, though that is the most obvious part. What is going on around you? What is the tank doing? Where are they? What is the dps doing? Where are they? I think without us even realizing it we are processing all of this information in case the shit hits the fan.

5. Triage baby, triage:
All healers know about prioritizing your heals. Keep the tank up, then yourself, then others. But I think what makes for a really good healer is the ability to process what is going on and prioritize immediately. Usually this has to be almost instinctual. You have no time to think about it.

6. Bring it
Jess thought that part of what makes a good healer comes down to confidence. A good healer welcomes a challenge and is confident in his/her abilities. Perhaps this confidence allows them to stay calm throughout the craziness? They know their abilities and the encounters and are going to do their darndest to keep folks up. When Jess tells me a certain encounter is a "healing fight", my response is: "Bring it".

7. Je ne sais quoi
My friend Rapalicious said that she thinks that you are either a great healer or you're not. It's something you've got. Hmmm interesting. Can someone become a good or better healer, but are certain folks just never going to be great healers? Could someone think about making sure they think about the first five points above, but just not have the reflexes to become great? The instinct?

Is there a certain healing je ne sais quoi where you either got it or you don't?

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Oh the drama!

Ok a number of things I want to comment about that I shall somehow all smush into one post.

First of all, Blizzcon tickets went on sale again on Saturday. I tried to get tickets again, but once again got pwned. Oh well. In a way though, I think I was looking forward more to the idea of finally meeting and hanging out with some of these crazy people I've played with for 2+ years instead of Blizzcon the event itself. I can't deny that Blizzcon still would have been cool, but if Blizz doesn't want us there, well screw you Blizz! You know what we are going to do? We are going to have Clawcon! We're in the beginning stages of planning this guild meetup. Has anyone else put together or attended a guild meetup?

Now when I was talking about Blizzcon and all, Jess and I had a conversation a while back about it and my posts about it:

Jess: So with you talking about going to Blizzcon and all publicly, do you worry whether or not you'll get stalkers?
K: Um, no not really. If I do though, you're my tank... you'll be there to grab the stalker aggro from me.
Jess: Uh, that's not the kind of aggro I grab.
K: Oh, no?
Jess: No, I don't even know what to do with that kind of aggro.

So what I've learned from this is that apparently my tank is selective with aggro. Hmmm.

Now speaking of stalkers (cue segway), I wanted to talk about this whole debacle of Ferraro at Paladin Schmaladin. I never read "her" blog and only heard about "her" with that whole Val'anyr debate "she" had with Averna at Nerf this Druid a while back. I was out of town for a couple of days when the debate first started up, so unfortunately I didn't read it until days later.

However, my impression of "her" through the comments on Averna's blog and on wow.com from the Val'anyr debate was pretty negative. I found "her" to be incredibly elitist and arrogant and did not like her attitude of "I sorta work for Blizzard so I am obviously right" (which has also since been deemed a lie). It seemed like "she" (I keep putting quotes around these pronouns because who the heck knows now, right?) was attacking Averna instead of having a healthy debate, which pissed me off. You attack one tree, you're going to get an entire forest coming after ya, ok bee-yotch? Ok ok, I'll settle down now.

So now it seems that Ferraro has over the years, yes years, stolen pictures and content from Sarah Townsend, a blogger who has nothing to do with WOW. Jagoex seemingly first put the puzzle pieces together, which prompted some ridiculous concoction of a story/response from Ferraro about the blog having been handed off to 7 authors over the years. Wow.com then posted some more information about looking at the IP addresses of Ferraro's comments and how they think its been one person all this time.

I mean wow, just wow. I was never a reader of her blog so I don't feel duped or offended or anything. But I just marvel at the idea that someone would take someone else's pictures (the latest is that they seemingly took private photos only available from Sarah's private Facebook profile) and pass them off as their own, then create some ridiculous story when caught in their web of lies. I mean who does this? It just boggles my mind. But when you get right down to it, its just downright sad. Someone needed to create a false identity for their blog to what, to get some sort of validation from the WOW world? They needed the attention not just from writing what I hear was a good paladin resource in and of itself, but needed attention of the "OMG you are hawt" variety?

I don't really care who you really are in your real life, but if you are going to bring in real life aspects, its just odd to me that someone would lie about it. Anyone who has half a brain and is not completely shallow and idiotic doesn't need validation on simply their physical appearance. And those who don't have half a brain and are completely shallow and idiotic already get validation of their physical appearance in their everyday life.

Now do I think that this whole debacle has affected the credibility of WOW bloggers? Uh, not really because I think that there are always going to be nut jobs in any community or group of people. But this has gotten me thinking about myself and this blog. I have talked about a lot of things from my personal life here, including my job, where I grew up, and even my dating status. I've also never made it a secret that I am female. Why? Well this blog is part WOW blog, but in a small part I think of it sorta as a personal blog as well. This blog has never really been a serius bzness resto druid blog, like Phaelia's was and like Bellwether's or Averna's or Sylly's or Beruthiel's or Keeva's and others are now. So it seems natural for me to throw in little personal tidbits when they are in my mind at the time.

So then why no personal pic on the home page or in the about section? Well, I've thought about it. I don't think it really matters, but I do think its nice to put a face to the name as I've seen on a number of other blogs. Will I do it? I don't know. Maybe not until I can get Jess trained to grab stalker aggro. Hahahaha sigh.

Geez, this is the longest post I've done in a while. I need a nap now.

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