Complete armor set dance

Every now and then I wonder whether I have too much random humor on this blog. Though I think this blog morphed from being informational to entertainment a long long time ago, so what the heck. I mean, as Jess pointed out to me, I had the gall to put bewbs up on this blog yesterday.

Random comic to share today from Questionable Content:

I think its kind of cute and funny, though the only thing that perturbs (notice! not irritate! though it is a synonym... hmmm...) me a bit is that the girl is clearly pictured as having acne. So hmmm, WOW playing gamer geek girls have acne? Though maybe she plays a tank and has acne from all that facerolling.

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Sigh

From The Luxury Spot here's a screenshot from their description and pic of a shirt:

Really?
"still plays video games even though he's 30?"
"whiny girlfriend"

Anyways, one of the comments was nice to see:

Rock on @lly, rock on.

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Why is there no BOE loot in ICC 10?

I'll try to be less ranty than I was yesterday, but I discovered something this weekend that I am confused and a bit irritated (yes, again... irritated) by.

Why is none of the loot from Icecrown 10 man bind on equip?

Let's take a look back at Ulduar. From Flame Leviathan to the General, every single boss with the exception of Freya dropped one piece of loot on 10 man that was BOE. In 25 man Ulduar, all bosses from FL to the General had a piece of BOE gear.

I'm sure 10 man raiding guilds remember these drops from back in Ulduar... stuff like Cable of the Metrognome from Mimiron or Nimble Climber's Belt from Auriaya or Armbands of the Construct. While it was annoying at times to see these drops when folks were looking for other drops, it was a nice way for our guild to sell these BOEs for the guild bank to finance repairs for our runs.

Now in ICC 10, there is not a single drop that is BOE. I wondered whether they had gotten rid of this feature for some reason and taken away BOE drops in 25 man ICC as well. Nope. There is one piece of BOE loot for every single boss in 25 man from Marrowgar to Dreamwalker. I then did some more research and learned that this was something they changed with TOC. Not a single BOE drop in TOC 10, but there is a BOE drop for every boss in TOC 25.

Ok so now 10 man guilds don't get the extra bit of cash from selling BOEs. Well luckily our guild bank isn't suffering for cash, but it'd be a nice bonus. Secondly, in 10 mans its more likely that you'd have a drop that someone couldn't use compared to a 25 man. Hello, 25>10 (maths FTW). It was also nice back in Ulduar when we would give some of these BOE drops to guildies who could use the upgrade but weren't there for the raid.

Why did they make this change after Ulduar? Bring back BOE drops in 10 mans!

Grrrr... I am irritated again! I shall try to temper the irritation by giggling at this pic of scrabble cats (click on pic to get closer look of the board):

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Not so lovely charms

Warning: Incoming tree rant

Yesterday I spent some time participating in the new Love is in the Air holiday event and found myself running around figuring it all out. So I learn that I need to get Lovely Charms to turn into a Charm Bracelet, to turn in for daily quests or for Love Tokens. Well besides taking part in this holiday, I also spent some time doing what I typically do on any other day, which included a number of battleground runs and the daily heroic.

Im sitting there in my first AB of the day and notice and hear all these little dings with people creating the charms. What? Oh, so you can also get them for getting the killing blows? Seriously? The first thought that came across my head and which I shared in gchat:

Bullshit.

Actually it was more like this:

TOTAL BULLSHIT.

Now don't even tell me that I could have hurricaned near a flag in this AB. Why? Why should I have to dps? I am there to heal. In fact, with my 1230 resilienced ass self (tree rawr), I healed in this AB more than anyone even did damage. In fact 100,000+ more. But I came out with nothing.

I then did the daily heroic with two guildies and was taunted by the fact that they were getting charms in there too. Sure sure, it was an easy Gundrak run and I definitely could have dpsed. But again. Why should I have to?

At this point, my guildies had heard plenty of it from me in guild chat. Guildies and friends were trying to be nice and understanding and telling me that I should go do the bombing quest in Icecrown (which wasn't available to me because I guess I haven't done the prequests), or grind Frenzyheart mobs in Sholazar Basin, or go kill mobs before Flame Leviatian in Ulduar. My response in guild chat? It's the principle!!! Sure, of course I can get them these other ways. But why should I have to?

Also, I think this screws healers even more at the lower levels. Yes, K has pretty decent gear now and it wasn't that bad to hurricane the mobs in Sholazar Basin. But for a lower level or less geared healer? With less armor, less spell power, less mana regen? Not so easy. Yeah, yeah other folks were saying I could switch specs. But hello, not everyone has a second dps spec. Mine is tanking, but for a long long time my second spec was an alternate healing spec.

Later we were able to pull a group together to go into Icecrown, and yep, guildies are getting charms from trash pulls. Poor Darcness didn't know what was going on and was asking what these charms were for. Poor Darc didn't know what he was getting himself into. It was actually pretty funny because everyone else was like:

Darc! Shhh! Don't get K started! Didn't you feel the white hot rage when you came in?

Sammy even made a charm bracelet for me from the charms he got and tried to trade it to me, which I shut down faster than, well... fast. Sweet as it was, I don't want your mercy charm bracelets. Again, its the principle.

What I found even more irritating was not only that you can see that all these other folks are getting the charms, but that you hear it just in case you didn't see it. Ding! Ding! Ding! Charms! Charms! Charms! Screw you healers! No charms for you!

As my irritation was building, I went online to try to find some more information around this and came across this forum thread. I was very glad to see other healers expressing dismay. And I wasn't surprised to see the typical Stop the QQ, go do the quests... go farm these mobs... blah blah blah. Like Keeva, I was disappointed to see Blizz's response that its not a big deal because healers can get them other ways.

Ok, so I get that this game is set up in a way where the focus is on killing stuff. I get that. Kill the bad guys. But why is that? Why isn't there more of an appreciation for healing? Yeah, I know that Dreamwalker in ICC is a healer's fight. And yes, I am very much looking forward to seeing her. But why isn't there more of this in this game? Why can't there be more things in game where the objective, or the purpose is to heal things?

I'm talking beyond raid bosses now, though more raid bosses like Dreamwalker would be awesome. How about quests? Could some of the new quests when Cataclysm comes out incorporate something of a healing mindset? Remember that quest we had to do in Theramore to get some level of first aid? The one where we had to heal and bandage a bunch of soldiers? Could there be more quests like this? Either specific quests or dailies? Folks could either do them as healers, or on some sort of vehicle that Blizz loves so much. Come on Blizz, lets get creative here and think beyond the "kill this" mindset.

Isn't there that saying in game "Kill shit, don't die?" Where do folks think the don't die comes from? /sigh. I think I will create a new signature or tag:

Healers: Keeping your ass alive to tank or dps since, well... forever.

End tree rant.

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I'm not shucking oysters - help!

About a year ago I posted about my noobishness around technology, including the headsets that come with the iPhone. Remember this conversation I shared?

Conversation #1: K and techy sales guy (TSG) in Apple store:
K: So I also want to get a headset thing for my iPhone so I can take calls in the car while I'm driving.
TSG: Um, ok... so you already have an iPhone?
K: Yeah, I got it like 9 months ago.
TSG: So... you want a bluetooth headset?
K: No, I don't need bluetooth, just something I can hook into the iPhone is fine.
TSG:Well here's the headphones it came with.
K: No, I already have those... I just need to be able to talk into something.
TSG: Um... Ms... the headphone that they come with will allow you to talk while driving.
K: Huh?
TSG: Yeah, see this little white rectangle here? Just click it and you can talk into it.
K: What in the?!?! I've had the ability this entire time and didn't know it?
TSG: Um... yeah (/thinks this girl is a total dope). What did you think this little rectangle was for?
K: I don't know... decoration?

Well about a month ago I accidently dropped one of the headphones into a cup of coffee. And apparently as awesome as Apple is, and as much as they are taking over the world, their headphones do not work when one is dropped into a cup of coffee (yeah WTF). So why does this matter? Well, I have always used the headphone/mic thingie that I use with my iPhone as my communication device in WOW. Yep, no separate fancy headset or anything, just the iPhone thingie (technical tech speak FTW).

The set up worked just fine until the little coffee incident, which made one earbud thing not work, subsequently making me feel slightly off kilter. So I went to Apple and bought a new one. I figured that I would be able to just plug this new one in and go about my merry way.

Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case. My guildies are telling me that what they hear from me on a semi-regular, but not constant, basis is a sound akin to shucking oysters or cracking open pistachios. And contrary to guild belief, no I am not shucking oysters while raiding, so this sound has to be coming from these headphones somehow.

This causes comments akin to:

There she goes again, shuck shuck shuck!
Hey, K wants to weigh in (*click *click *click)
What the hell is that?

Which causes me to react with:

Oh for f'sake

For one day I had a small glimmer of hope where I thought I had identified the issue. I thought that perhaps the area where the mic is located (which is more than just decoration!) was brushing up against the zipper of my fleece zip up thingie I wear a lot at home. That perhaps that was the clicking noise everyone else was hearing. But alas, that was not the case because the sound continued when I was wearing something else.

Is anyone else using the iPhone headset on vent? Am I being a total noob for using this (I probably know the answer to this but am asking anyways)? Anyone have any idea what this oyster shucking noise could be? I have never used push to talk, and I really don't want to have to go to that because I like being able to yell out obscenities spontaneously. Its just odd because my last iPhone headset seemed to work just fine without this clicking sound. Anyone have any ideas? Help!

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Resto Druid Season 8 Wrathful Gear with No Rating!!!

OMG! Two posts in one day! So Season 8 opened yesterday, and like the good little pvp tree I am, I had to go check out what was available. I first went to Wintergrasp, and see that there is no new gear available with WG marks. Boo. (There is new WG gear available, see below for edits). Then I trot myself over to Stormwind to look at all of last season's Relentless gear now available with honor. While I'm doing this, I hop over to the other vendor to look at the new Wrathful non-set pieces that I figured would be available with rating requirements.

But what? Huh? I see that a number of items, the bracers... the cloak... the neck piece are available to buy with just simply honor. No arena rating required. Holy crap!!! I wasn't sure if it was a bug that they would eventually take back, but what the hell, in case they don't, I picked up all I could right then and there.

I also made sure Wutsie came over to pick up his Ret Pally pieces. I am really looking forward to seeing how we do this upcoming arena season given that we are starting with a bit more experience and gear than we did last season. Our biggest issue was around finding the time. Wut and I did a good amount of 2v2 last season, but I'd love to be able to do some more 3v3 and 5v5 this season.

Now back to the phat lewts. Would the bug be fixed and the pieces taken back? I didn't know. But then today I find this forum post from Bornakk where he confirms that the Wrathful bracers, trinket, cloak, neck, and ring are available with no rating required. This is huge! Level 264 season 8 pieces with no rating! Equivalent relentless pieces were only available last season with rating requirements of 1450-1750+ and now they're just available with honor? Heck ya!

Below is the list of these Wrathful goodies for us resto druids. And don't forget we should be filling out the rest of our gear with all the Season 7 Relentless gear that is available with honor. (Note, I think some of the Relentless gear still requires arena points). As Jess noted last night, scary PvP K with her foul mouth (I'm very bad when I'm PvPing) is back. Time to farm honor kids, time to farm honor.

Wrathful Gladiator's Armwraps of Salvation
Wrathful Gladiator's Pendant of Deliverance
Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Deliverance
Wrathful Gladiator's Band of Dominance
Medallion of the Alliance

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EDIT: Thanks to Ashley, there is new gear available with WG marks. 25 marks each for a neck or cloak, 40 marks for shoulders. I missed the vendor because its the smaller guy next to the big mammoth. For us druids, the cloak would be Titan-Forged Cloak of Ascendancy and the neck piece would be Titan-Forged Pendant of Ascendancy

I picked up Titan-Forged Spaulders of Salvation last night.

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K gets all academic and scholarly

I think I've come across various articles here and there that analyze or research various aspects of WOW on a much more scholarly/academic basis. But I'm not quite sure I realized just how big this is. First, did you know there are journals just devoted to this? For example:

"Games and Culture publishes innovative theoretical and empirical research about games and culture within the context of interactive media. The journal serves as a premiere outlet for groundbreaking and germinal work in the field of game studies. The journal's scope includes the sociocultural, political, and economic dimensions of gaming from a wide variety of perspectives, including textual analysis, political economy, cultural studies, ethnography, critical race studies, gender studies, media studies, public policy, international relations, and communication studies."

Holy crap that was a lot of big words. Brain... tired now. Germinal? Is that some variation of the word germane? No, but seriously, take a look at the articles in their most recent January 2010 issue.

I somehow came across the personal site of Dmitri Williams, who does a lot of research specifically within MMOs. Checking out his list of published articles, there are articles on pretty much every topic you could think of including social dynamics of guilds, the impact of voice communication, sex/gender roles, role playing, and economics.

As an biology major in undergrad who also spent a couple years working in labs doing scientific research, I had to read a ton of academic articles. I might have been a bit more interested if they were gaming related!

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You know we're not normal, right?

I've had a number of resto druids whisper me in game lately. Perhaps I ran across their screen and mesmerized them with mah shiny staff (akin's to Tam's hat). Folks have asked about my perspective on stuff including spec choices, haste and gear upgrades with frost badges. Yes, I did pick up Circle of Ossus over the leather piece. With the haste and spirit... yummers! I also argued that if we need the extra armor from the leather piece, then the tanks are doing it wrong and we should yell at them. Ha.

In all of these conversations, as these druids want to delve a bit more into various topics such as specific haste numbers and spec questions, I end up referencing my fellow bloggers. Here's a sample of the conversations:

K: "What? Haste? You don't read any resto druid blogs? Huh? You have to go see Restoration Druid's post on haste numbers".

K: "Huh? You don't use Grid? Seriously? (this really really pains my woodsy little heart). You have to go see Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket for how to set up Grid to track hots. Go there now! Now I say! What are you still doing here?!?!"

K: "Hmmm... you want my perspective on the T10 4 piece set bonus? Yeah, I don't know if it will do much for us 10 man raiders. Well you must go see Beruthiel at Falling Leaves and Wings. Beru is serius bzness. Did you know she has Val'anyer?!?!"

K: "What? You want to know what druidy drops are in ICC? Go see Firewood at Tree Haelz for a huge list".

K: "So you want advice on how to heal certain ICC bosses? Well this is what I do... (blah blah blah) but all of the above bloggers have great guides, as do Kae at Dreambound and Virile at Rejuvo".

What have we learned here? A number of things. First, I am an awesome marketing tool for my fellow tree bloggers who actually do the more serious and helpful posts with guides and tips. Hee hee. No but seriously, I probably end up scaring most of these folks because I just start rattling off all these blogs they should be reading. I'm sure these folks are like, "Ok.... uh thanks (/step back from the crazy tree)"

However, I think I often forget that most WOW players are not reading tons of blogs. Its not that they're not good players, but just not how they choose to play. Perhaps it seems like too much work for them? I think those of us here who do regularly read tons of blogs and various sites can easily forget that we really aren't the norm for WOW players. We're the crazy seal in the pic above. :)

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