The weird things I do

1. I'm afraid of my own shadow: It seems that with Cataclysm we got much more definition in the game in terms of shadows. I don't think that I remember seeing shadows as clearly in Wrath (though my memory is horrible, so who knows). A neat looking shadow of a dragon in Deepholm:

Anyways, to get back to the point... the shadows are so vivid to the extent that I get freaked out when I'm herbing or mining. I see a shadow and freak out because I think its someone else trying to ninja my herb or node. My heart races a bit faster as I curse the damn ninja, and I swoop down even faster... only to realize it's just my own shadow. And the saddest part is that it is bound to happen again. /sigh

2. Mining in multiples of 5: I have this weird thing that when I'm mining on Kimchee, I like to mine in multiples of 5. This is probably because Kimchee is a JC and will prospect the ore. But even though I never prospect all of the ore I have in my bag, I keep mining until that last stack in my bag is a multiple of 5. So if that last stack is like 17, I'll actually hope that the next ore I mine gives me 3 ore. And if its only 2... or if its 4... there will be a little 'damn' that leaves my mouth and I'll keep mining. I know... I have issues.

Kimchee usually mines in Twilight Highlands, and this makes it even more difficult because along with mining in multiples of 5 is the rule of never leaving when you see additional ore. So even if I finish with that last stack at a multiple of 5, if I see another little pretty yellow dot, I have to go mine that. Which then will ruin my multiple of 5 rule... so then I have to keep going. This is why when I start mining in Twilight Highlands, it takes a really really long time for me to leave.

3. No tolerance for anarchy in the guild bank: It's been a long standing joke that I am a guild bank nazi of sorts... in that it drives me insane when things are in the wrong tab. When I was traveling to Maryland for work a couple weeks ago, I would often not log in during the week while I was working. But when I would get back on Thursday, after checking my mailbox, the second thing I would do is check the guild bank.

Yes, I do check to see what is missing and whether Kimchee needs to resupply any gems. But I also check to see if people have kept it in order. And if I see fish in the gem tab or gems in the food tab, it drives me bananas. I love that the log says exactly who put the wrong item in the wrong tab because then I can admonish them for it. Though I think some guildies do this on purpose now just to see me get all worked up.

4. Saving for a rainy day that never comes: K always has a large stash of herbs in her bank. Its one large herb bag with probably about 5 stacks of each current herb. I was the same way in BC and Wrath. But the strange thing is that I never ever use those herbs. When I'm making flasks or elixirs, I use the herbs I have in the bag I carry around with me (which typically never goes below 4 stacks per herb). And when that stock gets a bit depleted, I go back out to herb. But I never use the stash in my bank.

I don't know, its like its there as some weird security stash... in the event that what, all the herbs would disappear for a while or something? I don't know... I guess it makes me feel safe that its there, in the event of some strange catastrophic herbing emergency. Hee hee.

The really weird thing about these WoW behaviors is that they are generally so unlike how I am in real life. I am so far from the type that these behaviors may imply. When I pick up mail, I throw it on the kitchen island until it piles up too large... and I tend to typically always have clothes strewn around on the floor at the foot of my bed. That's why it is so strange to me that I have these little ingame obsessive compulsive behaviors.

I'm also a horrible procrastinator in real life. Which is again so strange that I have huge inventories of stuff... "just in case". I also tend to make the cauldrons and the fish feasts for our raids after we finish the last raid of the week. Yes, I get those prepared 3-4 days before the first raid of the next raid week... which is just insane for the procrastinator in me.

Because in RL, I tend to follow this rule with most everything I do:

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Fail blogger is fail

Even with as long as I've been blogging, my blogging screwups never fail to amuse (if amuse means boggles the mind and slightly embarrasses) me.

So Rades put up a really funny post today about running into me in game. And being so excited with the cute post, I immediately commented. Yet I was already logged into gmail and thus Blogger on my main gmail account. Thus I posted the comment under the profile of a personal blog. Fail commenter is fail.

Similarly you know how when you comment on a blog, you can enable it so that all the followup comments get emailed to you so you don't have to keep checking the post?

When I do subscribe to a post's comments, I am generally glad that I did, until it becomes a post that gets a million comments. I'm sure I can go back and unsubscribe to that somehow, right? Though typically more often than not, I hastily comment on a post and forget to check the subscribe option. Is there a way to go back later and subscribe? Hmmm.

I was also thinking the other day about how I seem to remember seeing the "subscribe to comments" feature pretty easily on Wordpress and personal hosted blogs, but that I don't seem to remember seeing it as an option on blogger blogs. Then I went to my very own blog:

Sigh. Fail blogger is fail. And yes, it is really hard being me.

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50,000 Honor Kills... how did I get here?

Two words. Holy crap. 50,000 honor kills, that is a lot of killin'. Or healing to help support the killing in my case. So what have I learned in this journey to 50k? First, you're going to die a lot. You just have to accept it and be ok with it. Rez, dust yourself off and carry on. Second, there are no short cuts.

It's one kill at a time. And being Alliance, this has been painful. There are still so many who don't know how the battlegrounds work. Yes, I'm talking about you "thee who stays at stables with 12 others in AB"... and how can I forget about you, "thee who goes for flags when we are down 3-1 bases in Eye of the Storm". What else... what else... oh yeah all the f'in afkers and those who bitch about the heals when Horde are so good at immediately targeting and taking down heals.

Sometimes I've tried in a nice way to guide or direct people. Maybe though some folks just can't be taught.

Now when we're talking pvp, how can we forget the bitching and whining? Honestly I don't understand how people can type and bitch so much during pvp. Um, doesn't that prevent you from hmmm, doing what you're supposed to be doing? I did a lot of bgs and Tol Barads this past weekend in the final push to this achievement. Given I was doing so many, yes my fuse was short when faced with these folks.

I was in an AB with this particularly whiny priest who started bitching very early on and continued throughout, even when it was close and not clear which way the battle was going to go. I told them that they were welcome to leave the group, to which I was told that I was welcome to fuck myself. I said, typical response and noted that maybe if this person would bitch less and dps more, we'd be doing better. This shadow priest did 600,000 dmg where I was just under 3 million in healing.

I think overall its been 50/50 in terms of whether I ignore these guys or engage them and tell them to stfu. Sometimes its just easy to let it all go and say its not worth it, but then sometimes I get so irritated and mad at these guys and have to have my say. Is raging at nerd rage nerd rage as well? But oh God... the nerd rage! Nerf nerd rage in 4.1 please.

I do have to say though that there have been plenty of folks who are incredibly grateful for good heals from someone in full resilience gear who is also running around rooting and cycloning folks. There have been many many times where people have whispered me, cheered at me, hugged me, or typed in chat, thanking and praising my heals. That has always been nice and rewarding and I try to remember those moments the next time I'm in a painful bg.

So any particular class I hate the most in pvp?

Mmm not particularly. I wonder how many patches of pvp related nerfs/buffs these 50k honor kills relate to. Because I've been through all the phases of various OP-ness... rogues... ret pallys... dks... warriors... though right now the that class makes me cry in bgs are those darned pesky mages. Nerf mages!

My favorite bg of all time? Arathi Basin, hands down. Back in BC I probably would have said that AB was a tie with Alterac Valley. But my love for AV has diminished a bit (defend Balinda plz since Horde will defend Galv kkthxbai), while not changing for AB. If I just want to do some real pvp, I'll queue directly for AB.

I think the nature of pvp and what makes many people enjoy it, makes it less likely that you're going to have a lot of healers. So why do I do it? How did I start? Well I started back in the BC days when you needed to pvp to get certain gear to raid in. But now? Well, yes I've gotten addicted to the adrenaline rush, even with the associated swearing that comes with it. I also love the satisfaction of being able to last much longer than I should against 3 or 4 Horde.

But more than that, when I pvp on K, I feel like I can have a real measurable effect on the outcome of the bg. Especially if I'm in one of the smaller 10-15 man bgs... a good healer or two makes all the difference. It's perhaps that feeling of knowing that you could be the game changer that keeps me at it.

When I got the achievement, Chanticleer noted that I was now half way to 100k and thus getting the "of the Alliance" title. But my gosh... 100k is pretty freakin' crazy! While I doubt that I will make it to 100k, I'm not done pvping. I may step back just a bit since I've been recently grinding bgs and Tol Barad like crazy to get this achievement. I need to give my blood pressure a break. =) But I'll be back at it. As long as I am playing this game, pvp is an integral part of the game for me!

*P.S. I'd like to thank my guild for putting up with all the caps lock and profanity laced tree rage in guild chat during many of these 50k honor kills.

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Anatomy of a Left Claw raid

When I think about our guild raids, there are certain things that are just always going to happen. Kal mentioned the first two items the other week, so I thought I'd expound on those and add a couple of others.

1. Jess is going to break CC: Hee hee. It's funny because its true.

2. K is going to say wait!: Grrr! But yes, this is also funny because its true. I don't know... it's like I consider the raid ready check as a pre ready check to my verbal cue. There is bound to be at least one attempt when the tanks start running in and I yell out on vent, "Oh.... wait!!!!!!" because I forgot something. For the record though I don't think I did this last night, did I?

3. Kal is going to have an opinion: More specifically a strong opinion on something and call it a total screwjob. He's so cute when he gets worked up on something. Let me just say two words. Hunter focus.

4. Nikolai is going to allude to Nkm in a sexually inappropriate way: Nikolai needs to come back to raiding with us soon because there are just so many times when there is the perfect opportunity for a sexually tinged comment in raid and without him, there is just this big empty void.

5. There will be mention of green wands: And associated crying. Poor casters. I am a bit afraid of what is going to happen when that epic wand drops. It's going to be an all out brawl!

6. Bracers of the Dark Pool will drop: We've had like 5 or 6 Bracers of the Dark Pool drop off trash. It's gotten to be sort of funny. I think one night we even had them drop twice.

7. Jess will ask Buns to SS resurrect someone after a death: Even though Buns can't do that until the next patch. Er...

8. K will complain about having no mana: And Lorosia will rub it in. Do the rest of you guys have pallys who taunt you, just absolutely TAUNT you about their mana? I do. /points at Lorosia. Grrr...

9. Darc and Eregon will talk shop: Not only do Darc and Eregon work together IRL, but this is a boss - employee relationship! I find it amusing and quite intriguing that they raid together. If we're up late one night, there will be talk like "You better not call in sick tomorrow!" that makes me giggle. I think Darc should include Eregon's tanking performance in his annual review.

10. Chanti will cycle through his sayings: I love that Chanti has a rotation of sayings that he cycles through when he pulls. They include "Oh look, I haz a frisbee!", "Leeroy Jenkins!", "Bad things are going to happen, don't let them happen to you!" What else does he say? Hmmm they've slipped my mind...

11. We have to deal with a defective Earth Shield: If Jess' shammy Makawee is healing, we have to put up with a less than optimal earth shield. It's the funniest thing but Maka's earth shield spins around your ankles, not your waist. I've tried shimmying my hips in a hula-hoop fashion to see if I could move it up, but to no avail. I guess this earth shield could protect us against ankle biting gnome bosses?

12. We will screw up the Cauldron: We learned the cauldron a couple of weeks ago and honest to goodness, there's bound to be confusion when it goes down. It'll stay up too long and we have to go through the "Who didn't take a flask?", "Oh, I took one before", "Oops, I didn't mean to take one", "Ok take an extra one and keep it for later" each time. EACH TIME.

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An actual druid healing post - OMFG

The title of this post says it all. I think I saw this blog categorized somewhere under "general", which is very true. So yeah! An actual druid healing post! /fall over in disbelief.

Anyways, I need some advice. This may have been discussed somewhere previously and maybe I just missed it. But what are your thoughts on Furor vs Moonglow?

For all of you resto druids much much smarter than me, how are you prioritizing between these two talents? Going completely one over the other? Picking some combination of the two?

Halp me with my mana. kkthxbai

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Screwy RNG and math as a religion

I understand that the whole concept of RNG is uh, the randomness. But sometimes it seems not so random. Often it seems that it is purposefully screwing with you.

Our holy pally, Lorosia, has the worst luck with RNG. The worst. We can't get any healing plate to drop in our raids for him. Its insane. And the one, the one time so far that Lorosia misses a raid night? Healing plate drops. He's the only one who has yet to get a drop from our raids, from a boss or trash. Screw you, RNG, screw you. I have to keep thinking though that his time is going to come and he'll get several drops in a row.

So also I've become a bit addicted lately to inspecting our World of Logs data. But I saw something that just doesn't make sense to me... the numbers just don't add up:

Specifically I'm looking at the numbers around how much mana I am "supposedly" gaining back through revitalize and replenishment, because my goodness, I am always struggling with mana. I look at some fights and see how much mana I've gained vs how much mana Lorosia has gained. And while the numbers are closer than I expected, Lorosia is hardly ever OOM. Hmmm. I call bollocks on how my mana gained numbers are adding up. :)

Hopefully the new weapon upgrade I got as a drop off trash, Chelley's Staff of Dark Mending, will help a little bit more!

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Charlie Sheen... demonology lock?

Isn't it just crazy how much press Charlie Sheen and his crazy antics are getting? I mean its like top news on the morning news shows... with stories on CNN and 20/20. Insanity. I mean isn't there more important news out there?

Anyways, because its hard to not hear or read stuff about the guy, I came across two interesting quotes from him. In referring to Warner Bros. and CBS:

"They're trying to destroy my family, so I take great umbrage with that. And defeat is not an option. They picked a fight with a warlock."

My little pink pigtailed gnome lock Kimchee just raised an eyebrow. Cutely, of course. You think he's affliction, destro, or demonology? Demonology I thinks. Apparently he likes us trees though:

"I think we should do my book, incidentally entitled the best title of all time - 'Apocalypse ME: The Jaws of Life.' I'm going to sell this thing through Amazon and through Kindle. That way we save a bunch of trees. Because they give us our oxygen, face it, and we love trees. We must keep as many around as we can. Must maybe even marry a tree! Marry a tree because the other types of marriage for me didn't work, so I'm just going to marry a tree."

And in response to that quote, K just facepalmed.

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Traveling and the right number

This is my third week of traveling for a project in Columbia, Maryland. It's been exhausting getting used to a travel schedule again, and being on the road from Monday to Thursday. But as I previously predicted, I find myself blogging more though I am definitely playing less.

The other tough part of traveling has been that I fly back late on Thursday nights, which is one of our two regular raid nights. Because of that we've had to reschedule for the last two weeks, which I feel really bad about. Thus when I was told last week to book travel to come back out here next week as well, I told them ok, but that I would have to get on the early 5:30 pm flight out of BWI because I "had a thing". "A thing" being a raid. Hee hee.

Traveling makes the weekends go by really fast. I spent most of Saturday dealing with my internet provider because my latency has been horrible the last 10 days or so. And let's just say doing Omnitron with red latency, lagging about 3 times for about 8 seconds each is not fun. I was so nervous that I would be the one targeted by an ooze just when I was lagging.

Fortunately my connection did get fixed, which Comcast blamed to inappropriate splitters being used at my junction box. Um hello... you guys put in that splitter when I moved in! Anyways, I had to then test whether my connection issues were really solved. And how did I do that? Running Isle of Conquest and running to docks. I used to always always lag or DC there with all the aoe. I'd pop a tranquility, and it was over for me. So it was amazing actually being able to heal successfully at docks!

In other weekend news my team, the Carolina men's basketball team, beat Duke to clinch the ACC regular season title. So sweet, so f'in sweet. Now here is an interesting note about this team. Since last summer, the team has lost 4 members. Three guys left the team by having their daddies tell Coach Williams they were leaving (way to stand up as an adult for your decisions boys). One guy was kicked off after several drug violations.

Anyways, the reason I mention this is because I think our basketball team last year had too many players. While individually we had some excellent players, we were trying to give too many guys play time and the constant shuffling around of different makeups was not good. The team had no chemistry. Fast forward to this year, and while we are probably a leaner basketball team than Carolina often fields, the chemistry is amazing. Our new point guard knows where his team members are going to be even before they do.

The corollary here to raiding? Well, Jess and I have talked about how raiding does feel like we are on a sports team. And I think our guild has finally found the perfect number for our team. I'm so excited that after 3 months of recruiting, we are at a really good place right now. And yes, I know that you're always recruiting and I'm sure more people will be out as spring and summer rolls around, but for now we are not actively recruiting! Hooray!

Right now we have 11 raiders within the guild, with a friend or two outside the guild to fill in from time to time. And within the 11 guildies, there are 3 toons who can tank and 4 toons who can heal, which is the perfect number for us. To this point, we luckily haven't had to sit anyone for a raid yet. I think as we continue to raid together, this new crew will continue to build team chemistry, and hopefully we'll soon all be able to read each other or know where someone is going to be.

I'm curious though, for those of you in 10 man raiding guilds, how many raiders is the right number for you?

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Fortunes... WoW style

You know those fortune cards that inscriptionists can make, which you can use to make Fortune Cookie but give you a chance to get Fortune Card that you can sell for 5000g? I used to make and eat a lot of fortune cookies before our guild learned our seafood feast because the process of fishing for the pool-less deepsea sagefish was so painful.

Anyways, it was always fun to see what fortune you would get when you ate your fortune cookie. So now I pretty much eat them during random heroics. I got a really sweet one the other day: Fortune Card. Awww. Jess said I should save it. I've gotten others I find quite amusing or thought provoking, such as Fortune Card or Fortune Card.

Our pally tank Chanticleer mentioned one night that we should use the standard practice of adding "in bed" to the end of the fortunes we get. And sure enough, it made some of the fortunes so hilarious!

Fortune Card... in bed. Ok....
Fortune Card... in bed. Oh really?
Fortune Card... in bed. Mmmm...
Fortune Card... in bed. Um...
Fortune Card... in bed. Yikes. Seriously yikes.
Fortune Card... in bed. Hmmm...
Fortune Card... in bed. What?
Fortune Card... in bed. Mmmm...
Fortune Card... in bed. Resto druids baby, resto druids!
Fortune Card... in bed. Oh?
Fortune Card... in bed. Whoa!

Amuse yourself with the full listing for fortune cards on the wowhead.

*Note: You probably need to hover over the links on this post itself to have the wowhead link info pop up. I don't think this works in Reader.

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