Tree Burglar

I Blame Koris

2010-04-19T13:56:00.001-05:00

Who's Koris you ask? Well, let me explain a little.

In this lovely screenshot (don't judge my UI back then) we have Koris trying to drag Ignis back to our afk group at the top of his ramp. As you can probably tell, he's not going to make it much further. This is an example of a Koris of the facepulling, aggro stealing, tanking with a level 13 green shield variety. He's the pocket-tank I talk about from time to time, even though his main spec is facesmashing.

By now, you're probably asking yourself "So what did Koris do THIS time?" Do not fear good readers, I shall explain.

In all honesty, it's not entirely Koris's fault. I logged on at midnight to just clean up some auction stuff, and 3 friends suckered me into joining them for a few heroics. They're all collecting badges and gear for Koris's Herald of the Titans run, and I still needed several achievements for my Glory of the Hero, so it was a good plan.

After a few runs, and a few achievements later, they were stopping because Koris had set up a 10 Ulduar hardmode group to go collect them some more gear for Herald. I offered to take my little druid, since she could use the gear and achievements, and was soon in raid. I casually mentioned that if we just so happened to get to Mim and Yogg, I'd like to bring in my big druid since those were the only two HMs I needed for my Rusted, but didn't think much of it. It was already 1 am, and I didn't think we'd mow through the other bosses fast enough for people to want to do Firefighter and Yogg+1 that late.

Boy... that'll teach me not to underestimate the sleep deprivation of raiders again. After slaughtering XT, someone pips up with the suggestion to go kill Algalon. Now, I realize he's old news to quite a few, but I've never even seen the boss before. Quickly switch to big druid, and listen to instructions while not panicking about what my framerate is going to do during this fight. So of course we one-shot him and very nearly get the no-deaths achievement.

Swapped back to little druid, and we skipped our way through the next bosses. It was my first time being in Freya's room with an herbalist, and let me just say, holy hell. That's a lot of flowers. By this point, it's closing in on 4am, and I'm expecting us to just do normal for the final 3 bosses. But nooooo, mister raidleading Koris announces that we're gonna do Firefighter, so I switch druid's again.

Firefighter, with credit for Champion of Ulduar. /flex

I've blogged before about my special problems with Yogg. Fortunately, tonight, the clouds decided to behave. No DC's, no stupid people, no surprises. 9 minutes later, he was dead and 5 months after we first started on it, I finally had my Glory of the Ulduar Raider done.

But like I said, it's all Koris's fault. Without him, last night I would have just logged on, done auctions, and gone to sleep at a reasonable hour. Instead, my little druid is well on her way to Champion of Ulduar, over halfway done with her rusted proto, and picked up several pieces of gear. As for my big druid, only missing 3 for my red proto, 2 bosses for Champion of Uld, and is now . Oh right, this too.

<3 Koris

Refer A Friend: Meh

2010-04-14T01:02:00.001-05:00

Well, so far, the most important thing I've learned with Refer a Friend is that warriors really aren't for me. We're level 17 and I'm just about ready to delete the character entirely. Questing sucks, instances are worse, and I'm just really not enjoying it.

/sigh

I'm thinking I'm going to leave the warrior at 30 and work on something else, but everyone keeps saying it gets better... eventually. Gimme a timeframe here people =P

I'm having more fun getting myself and the brother killed though... Lava, zeppelins, water, cute fuzzy monsters that rip you to shreds.

Also, do your class quests when they become available. Even if it looks stupid and like something you can do later on, you'll get experience for it on level and won't get to level 16 and realize that you don't even have a blasted taunt.

Not that I speak from experience or anything.

Where's Khi?

2010-04-12T00:49:00.001-05:00

*waves*

I'm still alive, I promise.

Those of you that follow me on twitter might know that I've been playing very little lately. I actually let my account expire for about a month, which was a nice break, but I'm back now =) I have a new job, with random hours, which means money but pretty limited and sporadic playing hours. I'm hoping to have a new computer within the next few weeks or so (depending on some RL expenses coming up) but even then, I don't think I'll be able to get back to raiding due to work for now.

In the meantime, I'm going to spend the vast majority of my time working on alts. I have quite a few as of now, and since my brother just started up a new account today, going to be getting quite a few more through Refer a Friend. And the rocket. Who doesn't want a rocket?

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've probably heard something about the Cataclysm class changes that were announced this past week. I'm pretty disappointed by what they've said about trees so far, but hoping it'll change. You probably won't see any blog posts from me about the changes until beta at the earliest, but check out some of the blogs over there on my feeder if you want some thoughts -->

I'm probably not going to be blogging much in the coming weeks, but I'll try to not have a long silence again like this was. No promises though, RL is kinda a mess right now.

All that said, got a few questions for ya =)

Any tips on RaF? He has a level 80 paladin on the same server, so he's probably gonna dualbox and just run us through things, but I've been told that may slow us down significantly.
Seen any good gaming computers lately? Hoping to find something on the cheaper side, but don't want to have to replace for a good while.
If my posts for a while are nothing but rambling about whatever alt I'm working on at the time, what kind of information might you find useful or interesting?

Gifts from the Elders

2010-03-07T20:55:00.001-06:00

Just under two weeks ago I posted a challenge... Bloggers from around the World of Warcraft could write up posts from the perspective of an Elder passing on wisdom to someone that is new to an area of your expertise.

Let me just say, wow! I've been shocked at the response this little idea has gotten and how much it's grown. Writers from all around Blog Azeroth, and even a few I think we picked up through the WoW.com link have posted their tips and advice. 17 people in all wrote up and submitted guides of all sizes and types. I'd like to thank each and every one of them. Every one of these is great (and I've bookmarked more than a few myself!)

Without any further rambling, here's the list of every blogger that participated. Now, it's your turn! Go read, comment, and add the RSS feeds if you like =)

Elder Psynister left us nuggets of wisdom in the form of various gifts.

Elder Tarinae wrote up a few things that all players should know, from gems to abbreviations.

Elder Cheesekings posted some tips for baby hunters, mages, and trees.

Elder Ardol had some advice for any class that you're going to level.

Elder Jen went a slightly different direction and wrote about making gold while leveling.

Elder Lissanna finished up her moonkin guide for someone that just finished leveling.

Elder Vrethir made a list of things to do to keep your healer happy.

Elder Poneria captured some beautiful scenery from Azeroth to remind us to relax sometimes.

Elder Aoirselvar created a guide for all baby hunters to teach us how to kite.

Elder Edainne wrote a post with general tips for leveling anything and everything.

Elder Zahia made a step by step list for setting up Grid for healers.

Elder Ophelie has a funny little guide with tips ~~not~~ to do in random instance groups.

Elder Jaedia posted some information for someone getting ready to choose professions.

Elder Cynwise had some great tips for any of us that are planning to PvP anytime soon.

Elder Derek wrote a post with little things for a leveling mage to do (or not do!) to make their life easier.

Elder Gazimoff put together a list of various types of mages that a new roleplayer might be interested in.

Elder Lilith took a step further back and wrote up some things someone brand new to the World of Warcraft might wish to know.

Make sure to leave these bloggers some love =) Comments will make them smile, and cyber-cookies are amazing.

And finally, another idea: Noble Garden is the next in-game event and starts in about a month. If someone else in the Blog Azeroth group has an idea, as both of these recent holiday events have been an amazing success and lots of fun, that might be a good time for yet another blogging event.

(And please, if I messed up a link, misspelled your name, or worse, forgot you, let me know!)

RP: The Library

2010-03-03T22:54:00.000-06:00

As a good chunk of you know, I've been spending some time dabbling in the RP community on Feathermoon with Arrens and Anna and such. I've been having fun, and might have gotten inspired a bit ^.^ I don't know how often it will be, but at least some of the posts going up on this blog will be RP related in the coming weeks and months. For those that aren't interested in reading such things, feel free to ignore any post that begins with "RP", but I hope you at least check it out =)

I make no promises: This isn't something I've done before, and there's no telling how it'll turn out. If you're looking for high quality stuff I'd suggest looking elsewhere =)

That said, on with the show!

There is a small shop in Stormwind, just off the canals inside the Dwarven District. The sign outside the door reads "Gnomish Mapmaking Group". Though the paint is bright and fresh, the wood itself looks old and a bit worn, and the letters have started to lose their sharp edges. The gossiping shop girls of the town might tell you a story full of action and romance, about how the owner valiantly fought legions of undead to find her one true love and bring him home safely again. The real story is in ways more boring and tragic, but that is not part of our tale at this time. Instead, tonight I'll tell you a story that begins in this very shop, and though the owner is mentioned, it's one of her boarders that shall catch our attention.

Khisha grabbed the needle with her teeth, careful to keep the tip pointing away from her. She reached down to grab the final strap of the saddle and pulled it through the loop. There. Let me just get this sewn and I'll finally be done. The Draenei grabbed the needle again with her left hand and began her careful stitches across the leather.

"Oy! Khisha, your blasted pet is getting into my herbs again!"

The hunter sighed, frowning down at her almost complete creation before draping it over the bar in front of her. She trotted down the stairs, and found an angry gnome waiting at the bottom.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think he could get in the door, or I would have just tied him instead." Khisha shrugged as they walked down the hall together. "I know he has no interest in eating your plants, Dex, but I'm still not sure why he keeps trying to get into their bags."

Delorixie glared into the room as they came to a stop. There were small sacks nailed all across one wall, maps in various stages of completion across from it, and directly across from the door was a long desk with papers strewn across the top, and shelves crammed with colored bottles underneath. The entire room smelled of old books and herbs. In the middle of it all was a long, brown crocolisk that was seemingly trying to shake a canvas bag apart with his teeth.

"I don't care why he's messing with my stuff, I just want him to quit. Keep him upstairs if ya have to." As the taller of the pair knelt down by the animal, the gnome continued under her breath. "Of course, you could always just keep him in the stable like normal hunters do." From the glare that was shot her way, Dex may not have been as quiet as she had thought.

"You know I can't right now. One call from the exarch and fifteen minutes later I'm across the continent." Khisha smiled sadly at her companion before turning back to the reptile. "Now Darwin, you know you're not allowed to be in here. Come on boy, let's get you back outside and I'll find you some lunch."

A few minutes later, the crocolisk was happily devouring a sheep flank as his master looked on. The tall Draenei was considering designs for her next saddle when the quiet was interrupted by clanging from her pocket. Khisha pulled out a round metal object, slightly larger than the palm of her hand, and pressed one of the gems embedded in the side. The sound ceased, and the projection of a male eredar appeared above the device.

"Greetings Khisha." Though the hologram wouldn't have even reached her knee, the voice came through loud and deep. "We managed to get a disk to the final member of the team this morning, and all of the others are ready."

The hunter gave a small sigh. "Understood, sir. Is the port location still the same?"

"Yes. Your group should arrive in a fairly secluded area of the monastery, but be on your guards always. The disk will activate in fifteen minutes, so make sure you are not leaving anything behind again." The young female blushed. Surely they'd eventually let her forget that incident with the bow. It wasn't like she had ever done it before or since. "I don't need to remind you to be careful. We're sending you into the middle of a Scarlet Crusade stronghold."

"Yes sir."

"Good hunting, Khisha, and walk in the Light."

The hologram went dark, and the hunter turned and started inside at a brisk walk. "Come, Darwin. We don't have much time." She glanced back to make sure the beast was following. "Dex! Where are you?"

A voice called back from the front of the shop. "I'm up here."

Khisha stepped into the 'business area' of the store and found the gnome perched precariously on a stool, trying to reach a high shelf.

"By the Light Dex, you're gonna fall again. What are you trying to grab?"

"There's a small map of the Lakeridge area. Should be edged in red, just a few inches long." The Draenei reached up, and quickly handed a scroll to her friend. "Thanks girly. What was it ya needed?" Khisha held up the metal disk, and the gnome's smile dropped. "Oh. That time, eh?"

"Yeah. I was hoping to have a few more days, but what can I do." The hunter shrugged. "At least it should be a short one."

"Be careful. I'll let Katyi know, just in case you need her when you get back." Dex leaned forward, and pulled the taller female into a brief hug. "Don't go gettin' yourself killed, ya hear?"

"Yes, mother," Khisha said with a laugh. As she started up the stairs to grab her bags, she called over her shoulder. "Thanks again for helping me get packed. We'll see you in a few days!"

Khisha glanced over her shoulder. Darwin was sniffing the air, and his tail was twitching, but he didn't seem alarmed. The hunter had found a small room off of the main hallway that seemed to be where books involving dragons were sorted. The rest of the team had moved on farther into the monastery's library, but her assignment was to dig through these tomes. As she didn't see or hear anyone down either hall, the Draenei turned back to the leather bound book in her hand.

"Black... green... Grim Batol." She sighed and shut the book, dropping it into a pile by her foot. "By the light, I just want details on the Bronze Flight or Netherstorm. None of this other elekk dung." She stepped back up to the shelf and started looking again. Khisha was brushing a bit of dust off one inscription when she heard Darwin let out a low growl. She spun around, dropping into a crouch even as she reached for her bow.

"Well well well. It seems we found ourselves a little lost alien." There were two men in crusade uniforms standing just beyond the doorway. The one that had spoken was swinging an axe by his knee, looking almost lazy. His companion was bouncing a mote of fire between fingertips as he smirked.

Khisha swallowed heavily. She reached back and grabbed three arrows out of her quiver while mentally plotting the fight. It was two against two, but she knew they'd have a much easier time getting backup. Not to mention, the small space inside the room would make things more difficult on her with the bow. Darwin was crouched at her feet and hadn't stopped growling since the crusader first spoke. If she could just get out into the hallway...

In less time than it took to draw a breath, the bulky crusader's axe was swinging towards Darwin and the other launched a jet of flame at Khisha. She threw herself to the side, and felt the heat from the explosion behind her as the magic impacted with the old, dusty books. The hunter raised herself up on one knee and launched an arrow at the mage. The head pierced his shoulder, causing the incoming fire to shoot above her head. Khisha had a second to breathe before a wall of flame caught her across the back.

Fire.

Pain.

Falling.

Hearing a scream, she weakly rolled onto her stomach, and looked back. From where she had landed, it looked like the entire room and all of it's contents had exploded. Darwin had his teeth sunk into the thigh of the mage, and the warrior was sagged against the wall, blood pulsing from a wound in his side. Her back was screaming in agony, and she had broken at least her right arm in the fall. Khisha reached down and pulled her disk out of her front pocket and turned it to the right jewel. Red gem... Warning. She turned it once more, thumb hovering over the transportation crystal.

"Darwin!" she rasped out, holding the disk out towards the crocolisk. After one more shake, he dropped the mage, and limped toward Khisha. Her pet was only a few feet away when the warrior let out a yell. With what seemed his last burst of energy, the crusader launched his axe at the Draenei. The world seemed to slow as Khisha attempted to roll away, but the weapon was moving too quickly and she too injured. Suddenly, her view was blocked by a large mass covered in scales. She heard a wet 'thunk', and felt more than saw as Darwin landed across her back. She screamed even as she pressed the jewel on the disk and the pair was yanked through space and magic.

TBC

A Small Introduction

2010-02-26T08:50:00.000-06:00

Even more changes have been made to the blog in the past few days, and even though some minor color changes will probably happen, it's pretty set for the most part.

If you're reading at the site and not through a reader, you'll notice a shiny new header with 4 mysterious characters up there. Who are they? What are they wearing?

Listen well little grasshopper, and I will tell you.

Starting on the left, the female druid is Khilana. She was my main from the time I started playing WoW till the end of BC, tree all the way. In the image, she's wearing the Tier 5 set (SSC/TK stuff), with a pretty staff out of Hyjal. She never had the entire T5 set, and would never have gotten the staff, but they're pretty. And purpley. <3

Beside her is Khite, my dps Death Knight. She's pictured in the Tier 10 tank set, just because I like the look of the red better than the blue dps set. She may never get the entire T10 set, but she'll end up with several pieces eventually. And yes, the weapon is Shadowmourne. No way in hell she'll ever get it, but it's nice and shiny, right?

Moving over to the other side of the tree, you'll see my main tree Khiow. He actually looks exactly like he does in that picture, with one exception. He's currently got the green version of that staff, but the red went better with the rest of the image ^.^

And last but not least, there's little Dex on the end. Even though she's no longer the cute little pink pigtailed gnome that she once was (see below), Dex still holds a special place in my heart and she has almost as many raiding stories from BC as Khilana. She's not 80 yet, but I sat down earlier this week and dug thorugh EJ, figured out how to spec as 3.3 frost, and her and Squirtle have been tearing it up. I mean, 14k crits are yum. In the header she's wearing the full Arcanist set, which she actually has a large chunk of. Our poor tank is never going to get Thunderfury =\

And now, I finish packing and run out the door for a fun little road trip. I'll be in touch on Twitter through my phone, but not likely to be able to get on a computer till we get back Sunday night. Keep shooting me links for the Elder event, I'll collect them when I get back Monday and add to my list =) You've still got over a week, so no rush.

Elder Blogging Event

2010-02-23T11:00:00.000-06:00

For the last in game holiday, The Physician's Log set up a fun little event for us bloggers. Taking a page from her book, I've got an idea for the current holiday, the Lunar Festival. I probably wouldn't have thought of this without her setting that up, so send her some cookies =)

One of the big parts of this holiday in-game has characters traveling the world to find various elders and pay them a little respect. In return, they pass on a few words that might be wisdom, and you continue on your way. Similarly, we bloggers have the opportunity on a regular basis to share a bit of advice, but it's often directed toward those that already have some experience in our area.

So for this Lunar Festival, I have a bit of a challenge for you: Write something directed not at those that have months or years of experience, but for those that are just getting started.

You're the Elder. Pretend you're smart for a few days =P

Who can join in?
Anyone that has a Warcraft blog =) And hey, maybe you'll even end up with a few more followers by the end of this shindig!

When is this happening?
Starting right now. You've got almost 2 weeks to write something up and get it published, but I do ask that you have sent me the link to your post by noon CST on March 7th. I'm going to try and have the big post of links to everyone that participated up by that evening.

What exactly do I do?
Post 10 tips for those level 10 mages that are just now trying to figure out what that strength wand does. Write a several page essay on how beginning tanks can kick butt in a dungeon. Pass on a few sentences of advice for someone that's just now getting started in the blogging community. Anything and everything can be covered! Length and content is up to you, just try to direct it at someone who's a newbie.

Okay, it's written. Now what?
Post it! =)
Somewhere in your post, please include a link back to either this post or the Blog Azeroth topic so that anyone else that's interested can find out more. Once your post is up, send me a link as a comment here or at the BA forum, or as a DM on Twitter.

Unlike The Physician's Log, I'm not talented enough to offer shiny prizes, but you will get your name and blog linked for others to find it =) Free publicity's always good, right?

Questions? Comments? Do I need to explain anything more?

Blog Lists and Stuff

2010-02-22T15:31:00.000-06:00

If you're reading at the site, and not through a reader, you might notice that my blog list over there ----> has changed today. I've gone through and cut some non-tree blogs and ones that haven't been updated in a long while, and was going to add several that I've discovered since doing the list.

And then halfway through I got a tad overwhelmed. So, instead, I imported my google reader tree list, and set it to display the 10 most recently updated. I may end up altering it some once I see how it works for a week or so, but we'll see.

I changed/updated a few more things over there on the sidebar, feedback is love =)

That's not god, that's your tank. And he's angry.

2010-02-19T19:35:00.002-06:00

That title has absolutely nothing to do with this post. But it's catchy. So it's staying.

If you've been following me on Twitter, or reading the blog, you might have noticed that the majority of my WoW time has been spent on alts lately, and not on raiding.

There's a reason for that unfortunately.

My computer is, and always has been, a complete and total pile of crap. Ever want to see what 25 man raids look like on 2 fps? Yeah, didn't think so.

Since the launch of Wrath, I've been able to overcompensate for my computer being so terrible by knowing my class and role backwards and forwards, spending hours reading and watching vids about the encounter, and doing what I can to overgear the fights.

As Resurgence treks further and further into 25 Icecrown however, it's been getting more and more apparent that my plan is no longer working. I remember looking at the healing reports from a Blood Queen attempt and being so disgusted and angry that I just had to walk away from my computer.

Ya know the times where you're just so freaking tired of something that you want to cry? Yeah, that's been these past several weeks. Tuesday I logged on before the raid and I thought 'I hope I end up waitlisted tonight'. When you're beginning to dread raiding, something's wrong.

I'm a good raider, and I personally think I'm a pretty damn good healer. But sometimes there's things that you just can't control.

So until I'm able to afford an upgraded computer, I've decided to step back from progression 25 man raiding. Unfortunately, with how our 10s are currently set up, that means I'm likely to not be included in the progression 10 raids as well. It sucks, I'm not happy, and I've tried everything else I can think of, but that's the way it is.

To clarify, I'm not leaving the game. I'm not going to quit blogging. I'm not stopping raiding. Things will just be different.

So, without raiding, it looks like I'm going to be spending a good bit of time on my alts, both on Stonemaul and the dabbling I've done on Feathermoon. I've also got a few achievements I'd like to finish up on Khiow, and hoping to finally get the Guardian of Cenarius on Khilana. I'm still going to kill Arthas before Cata, it'll just be a bit further down the road than I'd like. But yeah, this will be a few months of leveling.

=(

*kicks computer*

Gearing Your Sapling: Part 2

2010-02-18T23:40:00.003-06:00

Part two of my gear list. If you missed it, head back over to part 1 which covered Weapons through Chest.

The big differences between this and the first part is I'm no longer including a link for the boss that drops each item. That took up a pretty large chunk of time, and it didn't seem that it ended up being very helpful.

As a reminder, this is primarily to get a resto druid raid ready. If you're looking for a total start-from-scratch list, check out Angelya's post here. Her list has quite a few items that didn't make my top 5, so may be more helpful for some of you =)

Bracers

Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers - BoE crafted by Tailors

Moonshadow Armguards - BoE crafted by Leatherworkers

Ghostly Wristwraps - Trash drop in the heroic Frozen Halls instances (Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection)

Wristguards of Subterranean Moss - Drops from Ick (2nd boss of normal Pit of Saron)

Cuffs of the Shadow Ascendant - BoE purchased with 60 Emblems of Valor.

Cuffs of Winged Levitation - Drops from Cache of Eregos (Spawns after defeating 4th boss of heroic Oculus)

Hands

Runetotem's Handguards of Conquest - Purchased for 30 Emblems of Triumph at vendor at the Argent Tournament

Essence of Desire - Drops from Devourer of Souls (2nd boss of heroic Forge of Souls)

Suspiciously Soft Gloves - Drops from Marwyn (2nd boss of heroic Halls of Reflection)

Marwyn's Macabre Fingertips - Drops from Falric (1st boss of normal Halls of Reflection)

Gloves of Dismal Fortune - Drops from chest that spawns after defeating either 2nd boss in normal Trial of the Champion.

Belt

Braid of Salt and Fire - Drops from Ick (2nd boss of heroic Pit of Saron)

Strip of Remorse - Drops from The Captain's Chest (Spawns after defeating the gauntlet in heroic Halls of Reflection)

Binding of the Tranquil Glade - Drops from the Champion's Cache (Spawns after defeating 1st boss of normal Trial of the Champion)

The Confessor's Binding - Drops from Confessor's Cache (Spawns after defeating Paletress, possible 2nd boss, in normal Trial of the Champion)

Sash of Blood Removal - Drops from Gal'darah (4th boss in heroic Gundrak)

Legs

Runetotem's Leggings of Conquest - Purchased for 50 Emblems of Triumph at vendor at the Argent Tournament.

Leggings of the Snowy Bramble - Drops from the Champion's Cache (Spawns after defeating 1st boss of heroic Trial of the Champion)

Rimewoven Silks - Drops from Scourgelord Tyrannus (3rd boss of normal Pit of Saron)

Leggings of the Haggard Apprentice - Drops from chest that spawns after defeating either 2nd boss in normal Trial of the Champion.

Leggings of the Winged Serpent - Drops from The Prophet Tharon'ja (4th boss of heroic Drak'Tharon Keep)

Feet

Spellslinger's Slippers - BoE crafted by tailors

Prelate's Snowshoes - Drops from Scourgelord Tyrannus (3rd boss of heroic Pit of Saron)

Ice-Steeped Sandals - Drops from Forgemaster Garfrost (1st boss of normal Pit of Saron)

Sandals of Crimson Fury - Purchased at Wyrmrest Temple at Exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord.

Cleric's Linen Shoes - Drop from the commander (1st boss in heroic Nexus, faction specific)

Rings

Band of the Invoker - Purchased for 35 Emblems of Triumph from vendors in Dalaran or at the Argent Tournament

Heartmender Circle - Purchased for 35 Emblems of Triumph from vendors in Dalaran or at the Argent Tournament

Oath of Empress Zoe - Drops from The Captain's Chest (Spawns after defeating the gauntlet in heroic Halls of Reflection)

Band of Channeled Magic - Purchased for 25 Emblems of Valor from several vendors in Dalaran (Easiest place will be the emblem room in your faction's area)

Spiteful Signet - Drops from Devourer of Souls (2nd boss of normal Forge of Souls)

Band of Guile - Drops from Dark Runed Chest (Spawns after defeating Mal'Ganis in heroic Culling of Stratholme)

Annhylde's Ring - Drops from Ingvar the Plunderer (3rd boss in heroic Utgarde Keep)

Signet of Purity - Drops from Eadric's Cache (Spawns after defeating Eadric, possible 2nd boss, in normal Trial of the Champion)

Signet of Hopeful Light - Purchased at the Argent Vanguard at Exalted with the Argent Crusade.

Titanium Spellshock Ring - BoE crafted by Jewelcrafters

Ring of the Frenzied Wolvar - Drops from Gortok Palehoof (2nd boss in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle)

Trinkets

Ephemeral Snowflake - Drops from Marwyn (2nd boss of heroic Halls of Reflection)

Nevermelting Ice Crystal - Drops from Scourgelord Tyrannus (3rd boss of heroic Pit of Saron)

Je'Tze's Bell - BoE world drop

Darkmoon Card: Greatness - BoE quest reward from the Nobles Deck

Darkmoon Card: Illusion - BoE quest reward from the Prisms Deck

The Egg of Mortal Essence - Purchased for 40 Emblems of Heroism from several vendors in Dalaran (Easiest place will be the emblem room in your faction's area)

Spark of Life - Drops from Sjonnir The Ironshaper (Final boss in heroic Halls of Stone)

Talisman of Troll Divinity - Drops from The Prophet Tharon'ja (4th boss of heroic Drak'Tharon Keep)

Forge Ember - Drops from Sjonnir The Ironshaper (Final boss in heroic Halls of Stone)

Soul Preserver - Drops from Dark Runed Chest (Spawns after defeating Mal'Ganis in normal Culling of Stratholme)

And the Secret's Out...

2010-02-14T22:59:00.001-06:00

For this Valentines Day blogging event, I got to secretly admire Windsoar over at Jaded Alt. I've only been following her blog/twitter for a month or so, but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far. She's so amazing that she got not one, but TWO SAs!

If you ever want to talk to someone that knows a lot about various classes, check her out =)

She talks about various things on her blog, including raiding, alts, Addons/UI, and just general Warcraft things.

I've had a lot of fun stalking her, and even though I decided to skip the poetry, I enjoyed writing sneaky comments on her blog ^.~

I also hunted her down in game, and sent a little present... BTW, I hope you like the black dress, cause you were gonna be stuck with whatever came out of that first box no matter what =P

I probably had more fun than I should have with this event, and I really hope that similar things are done for other holidays. Thanks again to Dristanel for setting this up for us =)

And dearest Windsoar, I hope you've enjoyed my little adventure... Maybe next year we'll do this again ^.^

And to my stalker... I did mention that I'm going to kidnap you and keep you right? *Glances at trap*

Forget the Roses, I'll be Stalking Someone

2010-02-12T17:22:00.000-06:00

While the in game Valentines event has been going on for a bit, and in the real world, we've been overwhelmed with candy hearts for a month, the coolest Valentines event in the blogging world was started up by Dristanel over at The Physician's Log and supported by Blog Azeroth.

Basically, interested people could all go sign up by a certain deadline, and then yesterday she sent out assignments. Each of us has been assigned a blog to go stalk, and someone has been given our's. *gulps nervously*

At the end of a few days, they'll reveal themselves, and we'll have an amazing party and live happily ever after.

Okay, I might be making up that last bit >.>

But hey, this will be fun =) Keep an eye out on your fellow blogger's posts, might see some entertaining comments. And next year you can always sign up if you missed it this time around ^.~

Account Security

2010-02-08T02:58:00.001-06:00

A raider getting hacked is bad. Even without worrying about the guild bank, their own characters' gear, gold, and such are probably toast, at least till a GM can hopefully restore them.

But you're special, you haven't been hacked. No worries, right?

Bullshit. Doubt anyone that's been hacked ever thought they'd lose their account. No matter what your security is right now, there's probably something more you can do to keep your info safe.

So, you can go read over Blizz's Security Checklist. Some basic info about things you can do to keep your account/computer safe, as well as links for things you want more details on.

But, if for some reason or another, you still get your account stolen, you need to know what to do next.

First, try to get in touch with an officer. Text someone, hop in vent, log into a second account in game and whisper them. Let them know what's going on, and keep them updated throughout the process.

Then, start on the nice shiny blue guide Blizzard so lovingly made up for us because they're also so tired of this crap.

3 main places you may need to contact at Blizzard are:

Call Billing if any information has been changed on the account: 1 (800) 59-BLIZZARD. This includes password, e-mail, or info with an authenticator.
Open a ticket in game to a GM explaining what you know so far. If you can't get in game, get a friend to, just make sure that the name of one of your characters is in the ticket.
If you think that whoever is on your account is using it to do Bad Things, e-mail Account Admin with what info you have, so that they have that on file if any reports are sent in: wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com

Now that you've gotten the ball rolling, take some time to figure out exactly how this happened, and how to fix whatever caused it. Blizz's link on types of thefts may help. A post on the CS forum has much more detail, and it may be a bit overwhelming, but if you're having trouble finding the root of the problem I'd check it out.

There's a massive post on the CS forum with most of this info and some more, check it out for more questions.

Want to save yourself most of this trouble? Just get the authenticator already. That said, even with one, don't get careless. Your WoW account likely isn't the only sensitive info on your computer. Bye bye CC info?

Love is in the Air: SFK Boss and You

2010-02-07T03:43:00.005-06:00

Getting Started:

You probably want to form the group before you head to the instance, as most people already in the zone seem to have already used their summon. As with other such daily summons, the liars seem to come out of their hiding places, so if you want to guarantee that everyone actually has their summon, I'd recommend grouping with friends.

Even for a well geared group, having a second tanking type makes the encounter so much easier. A real tank would be best, but even a leather or mail wearing DPS could fake-tank one of the mobs and make the fight go smoothly, and save your healer a good bit of stress.

You don't have to do anything before going to the instance. Summon, zone in, the guy by the inner door offers the daily quest and the bag. Open the bag, and have all melee but your fake-tank use the purple potion (Perfume Neutralizer). Have your last member drink the green potion (Cologne Neutralizer.) Healer and ranged can drink either, they'll just have to move out of the other color puddles on the ground.

Elaborating more on this: The Perfume Neutralizer (purple) will make you not take most damage from the boss with the purple bubble and the purple puddles on the ground. The Cologne Neutralizer does the same for the green equivalents.

The Fight:
Once you turn in the quest, there's some chat from the head apothecary, and then the fight begins. Be careful not to turn in the quest until your group is all ready.

The purple mob, Apothecary Hummel (marked Skull in the picture), will become active first. His bubble will do significant damage to anyone within a few yards of him, unless they are using the purple potion. The tank needs to try and turn him so that his spray will not hit the ranged. Tank him where he stands, and DPS him down.

After Hummel is dead, your main group should then swap to the third baddy, Apothecary Fyre (marked triangle). After the quest is turned in, he'll run to where the triangle is very artistically drawn on the SS. It takes a few seconds, but once he activates, he'll be running haywire everywhere and generally pissing off your tank and melee, but kill him as best you can, while avoiding the pink and green puddles he leaves on the ground. He does some minor melee damage, but his main attacks are the puddles he throws. As long as your group can move out of the ones that are doing damage to them, he's fairly easy.

During this, the second mob, Apothecary Baxter (X in the SS), will become active. He'll have run over to the X on the picture, and should be 'tanked' where he stands by your green dps. Your fake-tank will want to keep Baxter facing away and at distance from the main group, as his aura and spray will do lots of damage to anyone that's not immune to it. Once the main group has killed Fyre, they can come over and help kill Baxter. The melee may want to swap to the green potion as they're running in.

Once they're all dead, head back over to loot the shinies. Good luck on the mount =)

Notes:
For a very well geared group, it is possible to power through the encounter without a second tank. It's hard on the tank and healer though, and you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a fake-tank. My dps geared, specced, and presenced DK took care of Baxter with no problem. It really depends on your gear level and the amount of melee/ranged dps you have as to if tanking them separately is vital or not. Use your best judgement =)

There are little adds that run around during the encounter, but their damage is unnoticeable.

You'll probably need to refresh your potion between each kill, but you may have to cancel the buff first in order to get the timer to restart. It's been acting odd, and hasn't been fixed as far as I'm aware.

I wouldn't suggest doing this with less than 3, as at least one healer, and dps are probably needed to kill the group before you healer starts going OOM. You could fake tank the entire thing, but a real tank makes your life easier. And you will need a healer. Because healer's are sexy.

Got questions? Ask! I'll do my best to reply =)

Low Level LFD

2010-01-28T23:03:00.001-06:00

It sometimes rocks. It's a different way to level. At times, it's almost instant queues, no matter what role.

But let's face it. People are still learning their classes for the most part, and it sucks.

You've all seen the melee hunter.

You may have heard of the warrior that rolls on +int gear.

But I have found something so special, so unique, I'd bet my hat it's something you've not come across before.

Yes, yes I am indeed speaking of the ranged rogue.

Daggers and swords are too lowly for this fine fellow. Instead, he turns to his weapons of choice: the white vendor throwing knives!

With these trusty blades in hand, he can relax back by the (non-melee thank you very much) hunter and the healer, and casually toss the (slighly less dangerous than baby rabbits) razors of death.

From this positioning, he's just in the right place to be out of immediate danger, has a lovely view of the fight, and can be just lazy enough to enjoy a beer, a cig, or other less mentionable out of game leisure activities.

Boss fight after boss fight, this creative dwarf looks combat in the eye and knows no fear. (He'll also never know the joy of being above the healer on the dps meters, but meh, what's that worth?)

A word of caution though... If you are indeed planning to go out and employ this clever instancing strategy, beware: for some reason, the other people in your party often become increasingly hostile, and often resort to drastic measures to prevent you from showing off your epic throwing skills. I heard a rumor that once such a rogue even got kicked from the group =(

*toddles off to queue again*

Don't let the sarcasm bite you on the way out!

Gearing Your Sapling: Part 1

2010-01-26T12:50:00.004-06:00

Whether you're a fresh 80 that's looking to gather gear to work towards being able to heal raids, or a druid that's been 80 for a year but has decided to make a resto offspec, or somewhere in between, one of the most common questions is how to get the easiest good gear possible. Hopefully this will help a bit =)

This list does not include any raid, EoF, or Primordial Saronite crafted gear. It's not the end all list, just a guide of things to try for to get a set going. Horde items are listed, Alliance can go look up their equivalent if needed. (Please let me know if you find any wrong/broken links)

Order is Best > Worst. I'm only listing 5 items for most slots, so there may be alternatives, I'm just listing those that I think are best.

Part 1: Weapons - Chest
Look for part 2 here.

2H Weapon
*While the top two are good choices, the best combination pre-raid is going to be 1H/OH*

Blood Boil Lancet - Drops from Devourer of Souls (2nd boss of normal Forge of Souls)

Unspeakable Secret - Drops from Forgemaster Garfrost (1st boss of normal Pit of Saron)

Staff of Draconic Combat - Drops from Cache of Eregos (Spawns after defeating 4th boss of heroic Oculus)

Staff of Wayward Principles - Drops from Skadi the Ruthless (3rd boss in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle)

Staff of Sinister Claws - Drops from Herald Volazj (4th boss of heroic AN: Old Kingdom)

1H Weapon
Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings - Okay okay, I'm kidding... We can wish though right?

Hammer of Purified Flame - Reward from the quest chain starting with the Battered Hilt (Random drop from any of the ICC heroics, can also be picked up on AH for a nasty amount of gold)

Surgeon's Needle - Drops from Forgemaster Garfrost (1st boss of heroic Pit of Saron)

Spectral Kris - Drops from the Black Knight (3rd boss of heroic Trial of the Champion)

Bone Golem Scapula - Drops from The Captain's Chest (Spawns after defeating the gauntlet in normal Halls of Reflection)

Mariel's Sorrow - Drops from Eadric's Cache (Spawns after defeating Eadric, possible 2nd boss, in heroic Trial of the Champion)

War Mace of Unrequited Love - Drops from Keristrasza (5th boss in heroic Nexus)

Off-Hand
Shriveled Heart - Drops from The Captain's Chest (Spawns after defeating the gauntlet in heroic Halls of Reflection)

Handbook of Obscure Remedies - Purchased for 25 Emblems of Heroism from several vendors in Dalaran (Easiest place will be the emblem room in your faction's area)

Faces of Doom - BoE Inscription crafted, check your local scribe or AH

Temple Crystal Fragment - Drops from Novos the Summoner (2nd boss of heroic Drak'Tharon Keep)

Prison Manifest - BoE drop from the Violet Hold heroic. These are normally very cheap on the AH, likely better off purchasing instead of attempting to farm.

Idol
*Get it. First EoT purchase. Love it.*
Idol of Flaring Growth - Purchased for 25 Emblems of Triumph at vendor in Dalaran or at the Argent Tournament.

Head
*Out of the T9 pieces, the helm is the best one to skip, and purchase the EoT non-set instead*

Mask of Abundant Growth - Purchased for 75 Emblems of Triumph at vendor in Dalaran or at the Argent Tournament.

Runetotem's Headpiece of Conquest - Purchased for 50 Emblems of Triumph at vendor at the Argent Tournament.

Tattered Glacial-Woven Hood - Drops from The Captain's Chest (Spawns after defeating the gauntlet in normal Halls of Reflection)

Fallen Sentry's Hood - Drops from Falric (1st boss of normal Halls of Reflection)

Gaze of the Somber Keeper - Drops from Confessor's Cache (Spawns after defeating Paletress, possible 2nd boss, in normal Trial of the Champion)

Neck
Love's Prisoner - Drops from Bronjahm (1st boss of heroic Forge of Souls)

Arcane Loops of Anger - Drops from Devourer of Souls (2nd boss of heroic Forge of Souls)

Evoker's Charm - Purchased for 19 Emblems of Conquest from several vendors in Dalaran (Easiest place will be the emblem room in your faction's area)

Symbol of Redemption - Drops from the Black Knight (3rd boss of heroic Trial of the Champion)

Dragon Prow Amulet - BoE drop from the Utgarde Keep heroic. These are normally very cheap on the AH, likely better off purchasing instead of attempting to farm.

Shoulder
*Tier 9 is the way to go. Get it asap*

Runetotem's Spaulders of Conquest - Purchased for 30 Emblems of Triumph at vendor at the Argent Tournament.

Frayed Abomination Stitching Shoulders - Drops from Marwyn (2nd boss of normal Halls of Reflection)

Grim Lasher Shoulderguards - Drops from The Captain's Chest (Spawns after defeating the gauntlet in normal Halls of Reflection)

Mantle of Tattered Feathers - Random drop from the Frozen Halls instances (Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection) WoWHead claims normal and heroic, iLvl suggests normal only.

Dark Runic Mantle - BoE drop from the Halls of Stone heroic. These are normally very cheap on the AH, likely better off purchasing instead of attempting to farm.

Cape

Cloak of the Fallen Cardinal - Drops from Scourgelord Tyrannus (3rd boss of normal Pit of Saron)

Disguise of the Kumiho - Purchased for 25 Emblems of Valor from several vendors in Dalaran (Easiest place will be the emblem room in your faction's area)

Wispcloak - BoE crafted by tailors

Reanimator's Cloak - BoE drop from the Drak'Tharon heroic. These are normally very cheap on the AH, likely better off purchasing instead of attempting to farm.

Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape - Drops from Cache of Eregos (Spawns after defeating 4th boss of heroic Oculus)

Chest
*Again, get your T9 as soon as you are able.*

Runetotem's Robe of Conquest - Purchased for 50 Emblems of Triumph at vendor at the Argent Tournament.

Merlin's Robe - BoE crafted by tailors.

Chestguard of Broken Branches - Drops from The Captain's Chest (Spawns after defeating the gauntlet in heroic Halls of Reflection)

Mord'rethar Robes - Drops from Devourer of Souls (2nd boss of heroic Forge of Souls)

Robes of the Cheating Heart - Drops from Bronjahm (1st boss of normal Forge of Souls)

Armory Character Feed for Twitter

2010-01-25T07:37:00.001-06:00

With all of the shiny changes to the armory, one of the best things Blizzard added was a customizable RSS feed for your characters' recent activity. With the right settings, this can be a cool thing to add to your Twitter (or other sites if you wish), but with the wrong settings it can be a bit of a mess.

To start setting up your character's RSS feed, go to the armory and log into your BNet account, and then find the character that you'd like to start with.

Now, down on the right hand side of the page you'll see a box of Recent Activity, with the RSS icon in the top right corner. Click that icon, and we're moving on.

First, you need to select which items you'd like to update your feed with. For something that's posting to Twitter, instead of just sitting non-intrusively on a blog for example, there are things you may want to uncheck.

Exploration: I'm sorry, but most of us really don't care that you've explored Borean Tundra on the 6th character. And to be honest, you probably don't really care either, except for the big milestones, such as exploring Northrend.
Quests: This is kinda an iffy one. Unlike Exploration, it's not likely to be very spammy, but at the same time, it is kinda... Boring. Think about it, keep or discard as you want.
Professions: On a leveling character, this would get old really fast. On an 80, you're much less likely to see updates, and do you really care that you just caught your 1000th fish?
World Events: They sit there looking innocent for most of the year, and then one week SPAAAAAM. Again, up to you. If you want the only thing your followers see to be updates about the holiday for it's entire duration, keep it. If you want to update them about other things as well, scrap it.
Dungeons and Raids/Player vs. Player: If you're a raider, keep D&R and consider dropping PvP. If you're a PvP'er, keep PvP and consider dropping D&R. If you do both, keep both and live with the fact that some of your successes will not be posted.
Achievement Criteria: Please please please for the love of all that is good and chocolaty please uncheck this. Updates about the fact that you've successfully killed a rat are just sad, and can get annoying.
Boss Kills: Again, a situational one. As someone who regularly runs 5mans, I'd rather not spam ya'll with "Khiow has killed King Ymiron... again." That said, someone who only raids on their character may want to keep this, and update their followers on their progress in ICC.

Last on point #1 is the Loot settings. I suggest keeping this, but making some adjustments. We probably don't need to see every time that you win an epic in a heroic and there's no enchanter to zap it. At the same time, if you just won a totally amazing badass cloak out of ICC 25, share it! Pick a minimum item level that you think works for what you're doing, and it will only update about items that level or higher. I've got mine set to 245 atm I believe, 232 was getting me updates out of the heroic Frozen Halls, which I didn't want.

Moving on, #2. Here, you can add up to 4 different characters (for a total of 5) and have them be updated in the same feed with the same settings. To add a character, just type CharacterName@Realm and click the plus sign to the right. It'll add that one, and open the box for you to add another.

And last but not least, once you have the feed configured how you'd like it, click the copy to clipboard down at the bottom. It should automatically add the link for the RSS feed to your clipboard, and you can paste it in where you like.

Once you have your link, head over to your automatic feed updater. Most of us seem to use TwitterFeed, and as that's the only one I've messed with, that's the only directions I'll be giving. Use something else? You're screwed <3

Log into your account (Or create one if you like) and click the Create New Feed button. It should be towards the upper right of the screen.

On the first page, name the feed and paste in the link. Go ahead and test the feed with the button at the end of the line. If it says you're good, then click the "Advanced Settings" link at the bottom of the page. You can fiddle with lots of things here, but the only one we're going to worry about is the Update Frequency. For a typical armory feed, checking for updates every 30 minutes and posting 2 updates at a time seems to work best. If you find yourself wanting longer between updates, or more/less posted at a time, feel free to adjust. A word of warning though, I strongly suggest not going over 3 updates at a time. It gets spammy very very fast, and followers don't like that and become not-followers =\

Once you're done with that, click Continue to Step 2.

Here, select the Twitter link, and follow the steps to authenticate your account. If you've used this for Twitter before, you should be able to find your Twitter account in the drop down list. If not, go ahead and click the shiny blue "Authenticate Twitter" button, and obey their every command. Including the one to mail caffeine to me. After that, click the Create Service link at the bottom, and you're all set.

More questions? Check out Blizzard's FAQ about this service.

Play around with this. There are plenty of settings, and lots of ways to customize. You may find that you don't want to have the feed updating to Twitter after all. And no pressure: You can always go back and make a new feed, and change anything you don't like.

Have fun =)

OMFG There's a Chick in Vent!

2010-01-24T20:57:00.000-06:00

-.-

While most things related to being a female and playing online games have been covered in blog posts over and over, the one I've found to be the most annoying and frequent seems to be a little underwritten.

If you're a girl raider, you probably have experienced something similar. You're in a raid, getting ready to (or in the process of) kicking ass. For some reason or another though, you find it necessary to speak up in vent. If you're in a good guild run, not a big deal normally. In a PuG... Oh dear =(

A recent example perhaps. Was doing ToC 25 on the little druid this past week with a PuG I joined at Twins. We downed them and moved onto Anub. As we were charging in, tank starting to throw things at the boss, I realized no one had mentioned ice. Here, I was faced with two choices:

Assume the raid all knows what they're doing, and a ranged dps or three is already planning to take care of that little problem.
Assume that this is in fact a Stonemaul PuG, and that we're all going to die horrible deaths screaming in agony.

Pretty obvious choice eh? So little old me speaks up in vent. "Who's knocking down the ice?" A few seconds of silence, then: "Are you a white chick?" "Um, maybe?" "Oh good. I've been trying to find one on WoW all day."

First of all, come on. We're in a raid fight, and I'm asking an important question. Secondly, WTF? If you were going for hitting sexist and racist in one sentence, you might have made it there. And I had to ask my question again -.-

And for the record, we did die horrible deaths screaming in agony. Ever seen a tree scream? I't's not pretty.

To be fair, the blame isn't always on the 12 year old boys that freak out in vent when they hear a voice that's higher than theirs. The girl that spends the entire raid flirting with various people in vent? Yeah, you've probably encountered her too.

In yet another 25 ToC pug, this one a few months back, there was such a ~~woman~~ girl. From the moment she logged into vent, she was giggling at every 'amusing' comment one of the boys made, and dropping flirtatious lines left and right. It was obviously annoying some, but enough of the group found her entertaining, and so she kept on.

For the unaware, this type of girl is often bad. And not good bad, I mean bad like dying to fire on Gormok. And then poison on the worms. AND trample on Icehowl. (And yes, she did get 2 battlerezzes. Did you know it was possible for someone to bat their eyelashes verbally? I'm pretty sure that's what happened.)

At this point, I was so ashamed of my gender that I was considering a sex change. Not really. But there was no way in hell I was going to talk in vent after everyone being subjected to this stunning example of the fairer sex. I mean, it would take alot. Such as no one doing interrupts on JarJar. >.>

If there's one good thing about being a woman in voice chat, it's that everyone shuts up when you start talking.

So got JarJar interrupts handled, and I retreat back to my little silent hidey spot. Except when people were calling out different and just plain wrong orders on Faction Champs. So again little Khi steps up and starts doing what I do best: Ordering people around. FC died, and I managed to stay silent for the rest of the run.

After the raid, one of the pugs sent me a tell remarking on the fact that I was such a different example of a female raider than the one that had taken up most of the attention that night. But what he didn't seem to get is that the majority of the women that play WoW are normal players. Anyone that tries to say that girls are worse/better at this game is pretty full of it. Or trying to start something.

That said, the girl players that seem to get the most attention are those like our little pug damsel of my distress. Making a bad name for all us kick ass ladies =(

TL;DR
The boys and the girls need to grow up a bit sometimes.

Mini-rambling-not-quite-rant-done.

And yes Koris, that is the girl you're thinking of. Good news she seems to have disappeared since them =)

Smallish Update

2010-01-23T10:26:00.001-06:00

Due to epic failure on the part of ATT, after getting back from the holidays, I had one day of fun before the internet died for 2.5 weeks. I'll skip the rage here, but maaaan that sucked >.< Sadly, that, combined with sporadic raid attendance during the hols means that I've been bumped from raider to waitlist-er. So, with ICC being conquered by other adventurers, had a bit of time on my hands =\ The good news is I've gotten quite a bit done since getting back online Tuesday.

With Khiow, other than Emblems of Frost, there's not a whole lot of progress I can do without a raid. I'll be crafting him the ICC boots early next week, and I think I'll have enough badges for the T10 helm on Tuesday. Other than one random heroic a day though, he's not seeing much action. *sadface*

Khite still had a bit of gear to get from Triumph badges, but looks like I'm done with that now. There are still 2 pieces outa Halls of Reflection she could use, but other than that, she's in the same situation as Khiow. Need more raids =\

And that brings us to the main reason for this post... Little druid Khilana *grin* And yes, she is my second 80 druid. On the same server. And yup, she's a tree too. Her offspec is kitty while Khiow's is boomkin, so a little different. I got her from 77 to 80 this week, and I've been getting her gear and sneaking into raids since then. She killed the Twins, and almost Anub (fucking 3% wipe with a pug) in ToC 25, and has been very very rapidly getting gear. I think I'll have my 4 piece T9 later today.

I know Blizzard wanted to make it easier for us to gear up new players or alts, but I think they made it a bit too easy. Khilana's been 80 for 2 days, and she's almost ready for ToC10/Uld25. And that's with only 1 crafted/BoE item. Don't misunderstand me... For me right now, this is fun. It rocks. I've got epics coming out my ass. But it's not really a challenge. When I hit 70 back in BC, it was weeks later that I got my first epic. And I had to work for that. But now? It's like they're candy.

I dunno. I like many of the changes that Blizz has made over the years, but I'm getting to the point where I want more of a challenge with some things. The hardest thing about most raids is fighting my computer =\ When they first made the changes with Emblems of Conquest dropping everywhere, I liked the idea in general, but thought they should have only bumped it one rank. IE, Valors drop everywhere, but EoC were still restricted to Uld 25, and EoT only coming from ToC. And now, with Triumphs everywhere, I'm going back to that idea. Conquest badges now would be a good stepping stone, but require people to still spend some time, effort, and blood to get ready for progression raiding.

*shrug* Just my opinions. What do ya'll think? If you've hit 80 since 3.3, how have you liked the gearing process? If you've had new players join your raiding team, do you think the lack of difficulty has been a good thing or a bad thing? Cake or pie?

...
Dammit.
Now I want cake.

'Twas a Few Weeks Before Christmas...

2009-12-06T16:06:00.001-06:00

'Twas a few weeks before Christmas, and all through Northrend,

The players were waiting for 3.3 to begin.

Arthas was waiting, high in his cold castle,

Preparing things to cause adventurers hassle.

His lieutenants were waiting, his guards were ready,

Against the Ashen Verdict they'd be holding steady.

Tirion and Darion were marshaling their troops

When a small voice high in the citadel called "Oops!"

"My lord and master, I hate to remind you,

But you still need to write a villainous speech to

Strike fear into the hearts of those who attack

And send them running with our swords at their back."

Arthas frowned in thought, and with inspiration stood

"How about 'None may challenge the Brotherhood?"

Blood-Queen Lana'thel sighed and shook her head.

"I'm afraid, dear Lich King, that one's already been said."

"Now for you, insects! Boldly you sought the power..."

Arthas shook his head and thought for an hour.

"You face not Arthas alone, but the legions I command?"

Sindragosa stepped up. "Perhaps you don't understand.

"Sir, your speech must be original and unique to you.

Not something in the past lesser villains have used."

The Lich King glared and stomped from his room.

"Just wait, I'll think of something full of evil and doom!"

As Arthas chugged egg nog, feeling sad for himself,

Professor Putricide stepped up to the shelf.

"Have you thought, perhaps, instead of darkness and evil,

Making your speech about something more seasonal?"

The Lich King thought and thought, and gave a great sigh,

And there might have been a tear that escaped from his eye.

"I love Winter Veil, with all the colorsh and ice,

And presents and songs and shnowballs are nice.

"But I'm the evil they try to shweep under the rug.

And bad guysh don't get cookies and a kiss and a hug."

Putricide shouted back as he left with a grin,

"If you want that to change, you know how to begin."

Arthas made up his mind, and got really busy,

Making presents and costumes and a sled in a tizzy.

He called up his men, and said "Here'sh the plan!

We're going to shpread winter cheer throughout the land."

"Sho put on the hats, you can pick one of red or of green,

And get ready to have the best Winter Veil you've sheen.

With frostwyrms in front, and a flying shleigh behind,

We'll give a try to being cheerful and kind."

Though scared and uneasy, his Scourge forces agreed.

And they loaded the sled with things they might need.

The gifts were included, some chocolate in cups,

A few blankets tossed in for the kittens and pups.

"The children of Azeroth will get presentsh in bulk,

And in the name of all evil, Marwyn, enough with the shulk.

We're doing this my way, even if you aren't happy.

Now get in the damn sleigh and better make it shnappy."

With more egg nog in reach, and reins in his hand,

A fairly drunk Arthas flew over the land.

Leaning over the edge and shouting, he shared

"For thish year's Winter'sh Veil, you are not prepared!"

3.3 Items: Tasty Tree Trinkets

2009-11-24T17:55:00.002-06:00

*Warning: Wall of text incoming. Be prepared*

I'm only including trinkets that I think are truly GOOD for resto druids. There are some that are decent, and perhaps even good with odd gear or spec combinations, but my list is based on what the majority of raiding trees will be looking for. My personal preference is normally towards reliable trinkets, where the effect is not based on a chance proc or on use. I don't always get my wish, but you may find this list biased that way just a little =)

The Pretties

Ephemeral Snowflake
Let me mop up a little drool here...
First, the haste use effect is very nice. I've been hoping for a reliable haste trinket, but an on use is not a bad choice here. What makes this trinket truly amazing is the mana restore, which procs off of EACH TICK of our heals, including overheals. According to a WoWHead commenter,

for example: means wildgrowth with glyph gives 6 targets a hot which ticks every second for seven seconds:
wildgrowth = 643 mana
trinket returns: 7 * 6 * 11 mana = 462 mana

A 6 target healing spell that costs less than 200 mana? *fwibble* Unless I get to the gear point where mana is insignificant and my haste is higher than I'd like, I'd consider this one of the BiS trinkets. And one of the best things about it, this trinket drops from one of the 5 man heroic instance. Anyone should be able to obtain this, so good luck with the drop =)

Nevermelting Ice Crystal
This one I'm a little iffy on still. It's easy to obtain, dropping from one of the 5 man heroics, and has a decent amount of spell power. While the on use effect is going to be pretty underpowered in most situations, with 4pc T9, it becomes vastly more appealing. For a tree with the 4 set bonus that's not having mana issues, this could be a very nice trinket, but I think I'll be leaving it taking up bagspace myself. I honestly expect to see the CD on the use lowered a bit, or perhaps the effect itself buffed slightly, but even then it's not quite as appealing in most situations or gear levels.

Althor's Abacus
Depending on how this proc works, this is either going to end up being a BiS trinket for many, or a very situational trinket. IF this can proc from WG, IF it is a smart heal and will try to land on someone that actually needs the health, or IF the internal CD is reasonable, this could be great. Unfortunately, there seem to be too many unknowns still. At worst, this will be something I'd pick up to use on heavy raid damage fights. At best, I'll be fighting most of our healers to try and pick it up. This looks to drop from 25 man Gunship battle, so it will be available with the first stage of the content release, but hopefully we'll see some testing results soon.

Show of Faith
Or any of it's previous incarnations (Je'Tze's Bell, Sif's Remembrance). This has been a popular trinket model for all of Wrath, but lately I've been seeing more and more trees replacing it with different choices. That said, it is still a good trinket if you're lucky enough to find one available. The Show is from 25 Yogg +1 or +0, Sif's is off of 10 Thorim HM, and the Bell can be picked up off your local auction house for a few Kg on most servers. This provides approximately 65-80 Mp5, so keep that in mind when comparing against your other options.

Solace of the Fallen
In comparison, the normal version of this trinket provides a reliable 128 Mp5. The heroic version is even more amazing, but not everyone is lucky enough to have that available *Innocent whistle* If needed, the normal and heroic versions of this trinket do stack, but most of us won't need that much Mp5. It is a very very shiny trinket, and most 25 raiding guilds are killing Jaraxxus on a pretty regular basis, so not the most difficult to obtain.

Spark of Hope
Even though spirit is no longer the chocolate that it was for us trees, it is still one of our most powerful stats. The Spark grants about 20 spellpower and 250 mp5 for us, and while it's not one of the best trinkets out there, it is a decent choice for a 10 raiding resto, or a tree that's having some serious mana issues.

Gnome... It's what's for dinner.

The Unmentionables

Now, time for a little fun. These next two are trinkets that are currently not quite nice enough to make my list, but I'd not be shocked to see changed.

Purified Lunar Dust
Currently, compared to even the normal version of the Solace, this is a pretty disappointing trinket. If it ends up having a 45 second CD, even with the 19 iLvl difference this is going to give lower Mp5 and only 3 more spell power. I expect to either see this buffed pretty significantly, or the internal CD made very short. That said, it is obtainable through Emblems of Frost, which will make it a decent choice for some raiders.

Sliver of Pure Ice
Currently, the Mp5 from this trinket will typically match what you'd be getting from the Show of Faith, and that's only if the player is activating the use effect on cooldown each time. Even if it does end up getting buffed to be competitive, I'm not particularly fond of the mana pot type use, but it could end up being a decent option for 10 man raiders. As of this writing, it seems that it's drop location is still unknown, so it may end up that this trinket isn't even available for a good while after the first stage of Icecrown Citadel opens.

TL; DR
"Khi, just quit jabbering and tell me what trinkets to pick!"
Well, it's always going to depend on your gear, spec, the encounter, and you're role. That said, basic ideas...

10m Raiders
Ephemeral Snowflake
Sif's Remembrance
Nevermelting Ice Crystal

25m Raiders
Ephemeral Snowflake
Solace of the Fallen
Althor's Abacus

5 Years Later...

2009-11-23T08:39:00.000-06:00

Well, it's the 5th Anniversary of the World of Warcraft. Some of us have been around since the beginning, some of us have been here just a few short months.

The game itself has changed, grown, and evolved into something that at times barely resembles the original game that so many started to play. One of the main draws to WoW has always been it's dungeon and raid system. A baby character can begin their journey into instances before they even hit level 10, and characters at max level can spend hours upon hours combating the powerful evils that plague Azeroth.

Levels 1 - 30

The early stages of Vanilla WoW have always been more about learning your character's class and abilities, and about the world itself. My favorite instance early on would probably be Deadmines. The instance is easy enough that characters can complete it on level, but it still encourages players to make cautious pulls at times, and work together as a team in order to overcome the encounters. For any Alliance character that's taken the time, the quest chains that end in Deadmines reveal some fascinating lore that continues to be relevant to the game for a long long time.

Levels 31-60

This was honestly a difficult choice... I really love some of the instances and raids in here, but there are several true stand outs. Scarlet Monastery is an amazing place for a character to level, and the different wings allows a group to choose where they next adventure. Maraudon is still the most beautiful instance in the game, and the length of it truly makes a group feel they have accomplished something great when finally killing Princess.

However, even with all of that, Blackrock Depths is the most epic 5 man instance in the game. Even now, it is the longest 5 man in the entire game, and has more bosses than most raids. You are here, in the empire of the Dark Iron dwarves, trudging your way to their leader to attempt to end some of the corruption. It's a long, hard, frustrating instance, but with a group that's willing to work for it and stick around, probably still my favorite instance in the entire game.

Outland

With the release of Blizzard's first expansion for the World of Warcraft, in addition to new races, a new profession, and 10 more levels for a character to gain, an entire new world and it's dungeon's was made available. The Tempest Keep instances were all fun, but challenging in their own ways. Magister's Terrace and Sunwell, even after they were nerfed, were designed well to challenge those that tried to take them on. Kara is still an amazing instance, with a great storyline and variety of encounters. Nearly all raids of the Burning Crusade expansion are epic in their proportions, and by introducing the 25 and 10 player raiding, Blizzard made it so that more than just a tiny portion of the playerbase was able to step foot inside.

All of that said, the Caverns of Time instances, with the method they introduced of letting players witness and participate in historical events, were some of the best dungeons we've seen in the game so far. The 5 mans were interesting, challenging, but still fun for anyone that was prepared to tackle their evils. The Battle for Mount Hyjal was just amazing, and so different than anything most players had encountered before. And, love it or hate it, the attunement process did limit those able to venture inside to the select elite that were able to defeat the very worst of the tier beforehand, making them believe that they had fully earned their right to take on the evils of the past.

Northrend and Beyond

Now, it's your turn! What is your favorite instance or raid of the current expansion? What are some things you'd be excited to see introduced in Cataclysm? What makes a dungeon amazing, or terrible, in your opinion?

All images here were borrowed from WoWWiki =)

Why Yogg is Still Hard When I Outgear him by a Ton

2009-11-18T00:44:00.001-06:00

So, for anyone who's not done Yogg before, he has several phases that are all decently complicated, and that's without hardmode.

However, even though I've killed him several times over, I find phase 1 to be very very very hard sometimes.

Main goal in phase 1, don't hit the clouds. There are evil green clouds that float their way sinisterly around the room. When you touch one, it spawns an add that attempts to slaughter your raid. One probably won't be successful. If two clouds are bumped, most raids are gonna be making a corpse run.

Now, for a player that's done the fight several times, avoiding the clouds becomes fairly simple. Unless you've got a special computer.

This is where a screenshot would be great, but I'll do my best...

The clouds lie.

The clouds that show up on my screen are not in the same places that they really are. So I'll be running through empty space and causing adds to spawn, all while seeing other people running through 3-4 clouds and nothing happening.

Makes for a great attempt. >.<

Luckily, if I realize it at the beginning of the fight (IE, when I see the tank running through 3 clouds on his way to Sara) I can just hide by the door and do nothing for all of phase 1.

And really, I need to find better things to do when I've sat myself for a raid >.>

WoW Bloggers & Twitters by Server

2009-11-07T19:54:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking for quite a while that we need an address book of sorts for all of us WoW players that also enjoy reading or writing about the game online. Some of us blog, some of us Twitter, some of us do both =)
So, I've set something up, and we'll see how well it ends up working.

Google Docs Spreadsheet

Shiny, no? The basic info I'd like to have in here, at least for the time being, is a player's primary version of the game, server, character, e-mail address, blog address, and twitter name. I realize that not everyone will want that info made public, so just submit whatever you're comfortable with.

Now, this listing is only as good as the people contributing to it, so please contribute and pass it around!

If you have any questions, or wish to be included, you can comment here, @KhiTree (or DM) on twitter, or e-mail me at Khi.Tree@Gmail.

LF Guild: Let's App!

2009-11-06T22:34:00.000-06:00

Before we get going, if you haven't, check out my first post about joining a guild here. That covers some details of what exactly may be looked at on your character, and so some things you can do BEFORE applying to improve your chances.

First, make sure that you've read the guild's rules. Spend some time poking around their website for any other information that's available. In addition to being very very important information, these may also give you a heads up if the guild is right for you. Speak with an officer or other long term guild member if you have any questions.

Make sure that you are geared appropriately for the content that they are working on. If you're a fresh 80, don't app to a guild that's progressing through 25ToGC. You're going to do nothing but embarrass yourself and frustrate the members of that raiding team. *Occasionally, you'll come across a guild that is so desperate to find a certain class or spec that they're willing to take the time to gear them up. If you're lucky enough to find such a need, be prepared to work your butt off and earn your place. However, NEVER assume this is the case unless it's explicitly stated.*

Now, to the fun part =D

Copy the application questions and paste them into a word processor of your choice. It helps to answer them all here, and then once you're finished, submit it through whatever process you were asked to. If it's a fill in the blank webform, just paste your answers in. If you were asked to e-mail the finished app to an officer, paste the entire thing (questions and answers).

Treat your guild application like a job application. Remember, you're trying to show them that you would be a valuable member for their raiding team.

Fill out each and every question completely. If there's a question that you are unable to answer, at least explain why. Remember, more detail is better than less.

8) We require full personal buffs for progression raids. What consumables (flasks, potions, stat foods) do you use in raids?
Yes

This, is a bad answer. Good answer to the same question?

8) We require full personal buffs for progression raids. What consumables (flasks, potions, stat foods) do you use in raids?
I use Flask of the Frost Wyrm, warlock firestone, Fel Armor, Fish Feast (if one isn't provided then Firecracker Salmon)

Make it a priority to log out in your raiding gear and spec. If you apply to a high end raiding guild as a mage, and constantly log out in your PvP gear, they're eventually going to tire of trying to catch you at the right time and just move on to the next applicant.

Be honest! Most questions on your app have ways of being verified, and lies can get very very nasty when the truth comes out.

One very common question is about guild histories. Here, you want to be honest, but not gossipy. If you left your previous guild because you and the GM got into a screaming fight in vent, a good way to word your reasoning for leaving might be "Unresolvable difference of opinion with leadership." If you're specifically asked for more info, then provide it, but keep things polite. A general guideline, try to keep it something that would not destroy your relationships with any former guild mates if they were to see it. Showing that you can treat everyone with respect, even those you don't get along with, can be a good plus for any applicant.

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you probably have come across some of my posts about the very ugly implosion of Narrschkeit. Even though there were hard feelings on both side after I finally left, I did my very best in my app to not talk shit about them.

With Khiow, only former guild was Narrschkeit. It essentially came down to the fact that my goals for the raiding group and guild at a whole were very different from most of the other officers and a large chunk of the raiders.

Another common question is in regards to references/guild members that can vouch for you. Read such a question very very carefully. If it is simply asking if there is anyone that has run with you before, feel free to list anyone that you remember. However, most forms will ask for someone that can provide a reference. Just like a job application, they're looking for someone that can tell them honest, but good things about you. Always always always ask before putting a player's name down.

For example, Resurgence recently had an app where the player put down several names in his 'Vouch For Me' question, and at least 2 of those commented on the thread stating that the only times they had ever run with the app they were absolutely terrible and had an awful attitude. Didn't do much for his odds methinks =\

Now, you've answered all the questions, spellchecked the entire form, proofread it for any stupid typos. You're almost ready to send in your totally awesome application of doom.

WAIT!

Are you in a guild right now? Unless it's just a bank guild, there's something you should consider. It's always going to depend on the specific situation, but if you want to do your best not to burn your bridges, I believe it's a very good idea to speak with your guild leader or another officer before submitting an application elsewhere. Do your best to speak with a very reasonable and level headed player when at all possible. Let them know basically why you no longer wish to be in your current guild, tell them that you have been looking and you're planning to apply to a different guild, and explain that you are letting them know so that they have some info on what's happening and can start making any preparations they need to.

For example, if you're the main tank of your 25m guild, that raiding team needs as much advanced notice as possible to start shuffling players and gear in order to have someone ready to fill that vital role once you are no longer there.

Now, your turn! What are some things you've run into as an applicant or as a guild member that can help/hurt in the application process?

25 Heroic Beasts

2009-11-06T00:22:00.000-06:00

FINALLY, after weeks of working on them and wiping over and over and changing strats and people and blech... They're dead.

JarJar didn't go down tonight, but we made a large bit of progress on him. We'll see about next week ^.~

3.3 Bucket List

2009-11-06T00:13:00.000-06:00

(Because Cataclysm is still too long off)

1. Take a breather. Raiding is pretty hectic right now, and with the vast majority of it being in ToC, also very redundant. Current schedule looks like

Tuesday - 9pm to 12 pm - Khiow - 25 VoA if we own it, 25 Ony, and 25 ToC (heroic if we have the right group)
Wednesday - 9 to 12 - Khiow - 25 ToGC (possibly normal if we didn't do Tuesday), or 25 Ulduar HM (if we don't have the group for heroic)
Thursday - 9 to 12 - Khiow - Cleanup: 25 ToGC or/then 25 Ulduar typically
Thursday - 12:30 to 2:30 - Khite or Khiow - 10 ToC
Friday - 12:30 to 3:30 - Khite - 10 Ulduar typically through Hodir
Saturday - 12:30 to 3 - Khite - 10 Ulduar through General
Sunday - 7 to 9 - Khite or Khiow (whichever didn't go Thurs) - 10 ToC
Sunday - 10 - 12:30 - Khite - 25 ToC
Sunday - 12:30 to 2 - Khite - 10 Ulduar Yoggy Yogg Yogg

Unless we missed a night in Ulduar and are heading in for Yogg, I've deliberately made sure that I have nothing scheduled for Mondays. So far, working alright. However, even with that, I'm running (or trying to run) ToC 4-5 times a week. Ready for Icecrown like you would not believe -.-

2. Sell off any BoE epics and blues. Why? Even though ToC5 helped to lower the values of most BoEs, Icecrown5 is going to absolutely destroy the market. Do you really expect someone to pay 900g for a 213 epic when they can go farm an instance for 219 items? So far, doing pretty well. I've cleaned out my stock of Tankards o' Terror in the past week or so, and made a decent profit outa the deal.

3. Finish out my Red Proto Drake reqs on Khiow. Missing 15 achievements, but 5 of those are Occ. If I can bribe/blackmail a few friends into helping, could have that done in a few days at most.

4. Finish Northrend Loremaster. Just need Borean, but bleh.

5. Get my Crusader title. Just need to do like a week of dailies to have it, but blech.

6. Clear 25ToGC!

7. Hit 80 on at least Khilana. I'd like to have Dex up there as well, but with raiding on 2 characters, I'm not sure how possible that will be.

Raidy, Yoggy, Bloggy

2009-10-20T23:10:00.002-05:00

We've been working on 25ToGC for a few weeks after clearing the normal mode, and Northrend Beasts will die soon. I think. As I write this, I'm currently on the wait list and listening to attempts in Vent. Was sat since my internet today + the server lag we've had the last few days = fail, but it's alright. I can be a sexy tree out here by the vendors.

In other progress though, our late night 10 Ulduar group has been regularly making it to Yogg even though it's largely an alt group. This week, we had a fresh night to work on it and teach all us newbies the fight.

Oh look, he's dead!

I think that only one piece of loot even went for an offspec, but that's okay... The fight was fun once I knew what I was doing =D

Been working on Hallow's End, but Khiow is still short a squashling, Khilana short a toothpick, and Khite needs to do the grindy stuff and find a squashling.

Finally, some news about the future of this blog. Currently, the druid, resto in particular, area of the blogosphere (Yes, I think I made that word up. Bite me) has an amazing set of writers and a large selection of blogs. The negative side to that is a large majority of the posts I get ideas for have been done several times over. For example, the day after some 3.3 patch notes were released and the T10 models posted, half the druid blogs on my blog roll had similar posts about them. They were all a bit different, and unique to their writers, but still the same topic. Leadership however, the other area I have been blogging about, is something I'm getting almost no inspiration about as I'm no longer in a leadership position =)

So, with all of that, this blog, as you've seen recently, is going to be much more a blog about my personal adventures in game. I still will have some druid, raiding, or general leadership posts from time to time, but not as often.

And now, the secret! All of that said, I believe I have found an area of the WoW blogging community that has been touched on very little and that I feel I know a good bit about. I'm attempting to get it fully set up and some basic posts up before I start referring people that way, but keep an eye out =)

Update and teh Alcohol

2009-10-04T14:17:00.003-05:00

Biggest news is I finally left my guild... I really like many of the people in , and that's one of the reasons I left quite a few alts including my 80 DK in guild. I spent about a week really researching other raiding guilds on our server, and several caught my eye.

Last Sunday a friend in asked me to come heal their 10m Ulduar alt run. Apparently they've been low on trees, and I made a pretty good impression, as the GM contacted my friend a few days later and asked him to convince me to apply. Made me a very very happy tree, especially as that was my first choice guild. Of course, the pressure's really on now, especially as I don't have a single piece of gear above Ulduar 10, and they're working on Uld 25 HM and ToGC 25.

In other news...

Khiow finished up the Brewfest achievement earlier today. I piddled around and skipped several days worth of dailies, but made it fine. Now if only I could actually win a mount >.>

Khite hit 80, farming some heroics, but as a raid slot for her in the near future is very unlikely, that's not a priority right now.

Khilana, my former main, was faction changed and transferred over to Stonemaul earlier this weekend. Going to be leveling her mainly solo, so that will likely be my 3rd 80.

Delorixie, now the gnomeless mage, also was FC and transferred, and planning to level her alongside my father's Death Knight. He's 68, and pretty proud of it, as that's the highest he's ever gotten a character ^.^

Thanks to some friends that were in need of AD rep, Khisha finally got past the hell that is mid 50s, and has been making her way through Outland. I've got a leveling buddy there as well, but friend's tree and I are making pretty quick progress.

Spent a good amount of gold on various characters this week, so attempting to make that back. Considering dropping mining on Dex and picking up inscription, but I think I'll wait till Khilana get's her alchemy maxed.

Tips for Tanks

2009-09-23T22:09:00.005-05:00

I'm still here! Sorry for the lack of posts these few weeks, but RL and in-game responsibilities have hit in full force, and blogging was one area that got it's time significantly cut down. (And seriously, Cure Disease should take care of the flu. Just sayin')

Also, I need your help! As a follow up to my post about guild app checking, I would like to do a real review of an 80 resto druid. Looking for someone that's possibly new to 80, new to the raiding scene, or perhaps took a break and is just now trying to really get their character geared up and ready to kick some ass. If you'd be interested in being a lab rat, please let me know either through a comment or e-mail, and we'll discuss some details =)

And now, on with the show!

Er, post.

Right.

/stealth

Some tips for my tanks: <3 your local tree

1. If I'm above ~50% mana, keep going. Chain pulling trash is great, just let me drink before a boss. However, still keep an eye on the dps's mana. If the mage, lock, and oomkin are all drinking, then you need to give them a moment.

2. Watch your cooldown usage. I have as much armor as that shammy in mail over there, plus some nifty cooldowns I can use if a mob or two is whacking on me, so go ahead and save the mage that's fixing to die. I'll be okay until you can get over here =)

3. Please please please watch my LoS. If you run up the stairs, around the corner, and duck down that hallway, you're going to be without heals until I can get my roots up there. That's probably one of the most identifiable traits about an experienced tank, but you know they probably learned it the hard way.

4. Don't try to run things that you are not even close to being geared for. Even if I have the gear or skill to heal you through it, it's going to be more stress and effor than I signed up for. Know your limitations, and spend 2 hours getting gear in lesser heroics instead of killing 4 other people in H HoS.

5. Do not demand thorns every 9.5 minutes. I will do my best to keep it up, especially before boss fights, but your tanking should not depend on a buff that I may provide.

6. Read up about your class. Know what stats you need, what you don't, and what stats should make you salivate. The warrior that rolls on the spellpower plate just because it has more armor on it is going to get a /farewell from me as I hearth.

7. Don't ever try to tank an instance blind. If it's your first time in somewhere, go ahead and read up about the boss encounters ahead of time. For a raid, there are various websites that you can find strats on, as well as videos. Tankspot.com is a popular one lately, but check to see what strategy your guild often follows.

8. Watch what you say. While that's something I think every person that is wanting to interact with others on a social level anywhere should keep in mind, it still applies in a party in WoW. Sexist, racist, nationalist, class-ist... Any derogatory comment you make can and often will offend someone. In addition to keeping in mind Blizz's policies for chat, you should also think about just basic common manners. I'm not saying you can't tell someone to L2Play, but try to keep it decent. Play nice kiddies.

9. You will make mistakes. There will be times that the group wipes, sometimes in cases that you couldn't have prevented. If it was something that you did or contributed to, own up, and explain what you'll try the next time to get better. If it wasn't, ask the group what they believe may have gone wrong, and if there's anything that you can do to make their jobs easier next time.

10. Know when to call it. You will run into situations where your group simply cannot defeat an encounter. Sometimes it's the group's skill, gear, or makeup, others it's random bad luck that keeps happening. As the tank, you will almost always be the leader of the group, and so it will normally fall to you to know when it is time to end the deaths and either call the run for the night, or move on to something else. There's no hard number, but keep an eye on your group's moral. A tired and pissed healer will typically continue to get worse until everyone is ready to pull their hair out (or worse!)

11. Have fun! If choosing between slightly undergeared and new tank that was making jokes throughout a heroic, and the ToC25 guild MT that was complaining the entire way about the group and their life and their kids, the one that was actually enjoying playing a game and sharing that with me is going to get put on my friends list, and I'd be happy to run again with them. Like I said, as the tank, even if you are not the actual leader of a party, you are almost always the one actually in charge. Your decisions and attitude will set the tone for the entire group for the run, so keep everyone else in mind =)

< Raiding Guild > LFM! Have tabard.

2009-09-03T02:47:00.005-05:00

Or, how Faction Changes are going to affect you.

So, you log on today, and notice that several of your raiders seem to have vanished into the night. Your efforts at tracking them down prove fruitless, and eventually you give up after crying yourself to sleep at night for a week.

You, in the back. Stop with the snickering.

/cough

As I was saying, one day, you are happily frolicking through the Argent Tournament, ready to do roll some faces in jousting, when all of a sudden you come across a name that looks vaguely familiar. Scratch that, VERY familiar. Why does this gnome seem to be so similar to that orc that disappeared a few days back?

Oh, right... He must have Faction Changed. Punt him. Now.

For most guilds, you'll likely only see a small number of losses due to this new service. Hopefully, you and your guild's admin will have seen the signs prior, and won't be too surprised that the mage that had been applying to various guilds on your side of the server has taken to searching the greener pastures on the other side of the faction line.

Depending on your guild, especially the loyalty of your members, the Faction Change (FC from here on) may bring no negatives at all. This doesn't mean that it's a good time to ignore the service however.

Your potential recruits just doubled.

You're a Horde side guild, but the Alliance on your server are more populated, though less progressed. Guess what just became one of the hottest places to raid in '09.

You're a Ally guild, and while Horde is farther progressed, the raiding guilds on their side seem to have no open slots right now. A potential home just opened up for them, a lot closer than a server transfer.

So, as an officer or GM, what do you do about it? How do you take advantage of this sudden new opportunity?

Make a post on your realm's forums. Some guilds have already taken this step in their past recruiting attempts, but at least update your advertisement to reflect your guild currently.
Make a post on both the official Horde and Alliance guild recruitment forums as well as Plus Heal. Be sure you indicate what faction that your guild is, but that applications are welcome from those looking at a FC.
If your guild is one that uses General/Trade/Guild Recruitment channels in game to advertise, don't forget to make an alt of the other faction and use those macros there too.

Unfortunately, there are also (as always) some negatives to recruiting FC players. In most cases, there isn't a way to do a trial run prior to them changing. Someone paying $30 to change factions (with a 60 day cooldown) in order to join your raiding guild is not going to be happy if they suddenly get denied right after arriving.

As such, I recommend that you be extremely cautious when looking over a potential FC app, and make sure that you spend some extra time talking with them as well. Ask them to make an alt on your side and have them spend an hour or two talking with you and various guild members. Drag them into Vent and allow some of your officers to get a better idea of their personality.

Take a few extra steps to get a better idea if this person is someone you'd like to have joining your raid team, or not.

Now, your turn! As a GM or officer, how do you think the Faction Changes are going to affect your guild? What steps are you taking about it?

Raiders, is a Faction Change something you're considering? Why, or why not?

LF Guild: How To, and How Not To

2009-09-01T14:29:00.014-05:00

The main parts of this are something I wrote up for our officers so they had some info on things I checked when receiving an application for our guild. However, for the sake of my blog audience (as small as that might be currently ^.^), I went back and added info for players that are on the other side of the process and applying to a new guild.

As the semi-official 'recruiting officer' for Narrischkeit, I get to see the applications before anyone else, and I'm often the first to respond once I've posted the app in our forum. As such, I've tried to make things easier for me, and created a list of sites that I go through that do most of the work for me =)

These tips are directed towards those applying for semi-casual -> hardcore raiding guilds. If you're applying to a social guild, or just joining a group of friends that you know, then some of this information will not apply to you.

Before filling out any application, read all info about the guild that you can find. Above all, make sure that you have read their policies, raiding schedule, and the steps for application. For example, don't post your application on their Recruiting forum when the directions state to PM it to an officer.

First and largest stop: http://www.wowarmory.com/

Profile tab: Do they have their professions leveled? Do they look class appropriate? (IE, BS on mage may send up flags)

If there is something odd going on with your professions, perhaps with your choices or levels, make sure and include an explanation in your application. One of our current initiates has never leveled a profession past 70 for example, and for that alone (and what it says about him as a player) I will not be recommending him to become a raider. Professions are some of the best ways to improve your character, not to mention bank account. An 80 without professions, or with low professions (Yes, even you Death Knights) is a sign of laziness, which is NOT something I want in a raider that is being considered to contribute to our progression.

Talents and Glyphs: (Check everything for second spec if applicable) Do they have all their talent points spent? Do they look like reasonable raiding talents? Do they have a full glyph page? Do the glyphs look spec appropriate?

Please please please please log out in your PvE spec, glyphs, and gear. I have had to postpone so many reviews because the player didn't take 3 seconds to swap gear. Remember, you are trying to get the guild to approve of you, and just about anything will leave an impression, for better or worse.
As with professions, make sure that you can rationalize any odd talent points or glyphs. For example, a tree spending a two points differently doesn't typically worry me, but if they dropped points into feral instead of balance, I would want a extremely good reasoning behind it.

Reputation: This can tell you a lot about the history of the character. High Classic rep, they raided in vanilla. High Horde (or Alliance) Forces rep, they've PvP'd alot. High Burning Crusade rep, they played a lot and possibly raided in BC. High LK rep, they've done some grinds at 80. The only rep I look for specifically is Sons of Hodir. Unless they are a scribe, this is the only way to get the BiS enchants for their shoulders. An 80 that has not even begun this rep sends up major red flags to me.

A few key reputations for a resto raider are going to be Sons of Hodir to honored (and hopefully exalted) for the shoulder enchants, and Wyrmrest Accord to revered for helm enchant. However, check your other factions as well. If you're 300 points away from Argent Crusade exalted, and sitting there with a blue ring, I'd expect you to finish that rep out and purchase the upgrade. Do your homework, and work for the reputations that can benefit you.

Achievements:

General: Do they have Epic? How close are they? How long ago did they reach 80?
Not much you can do here other than standard gear upgrades. That said, don't forget that your rings and trinkets can be swapped around so that you get credit for both slots if you don't have 2 i213 items.

PvP: Here, just basically glance at their HKs. If it's very high, it's likely that at least some of their attention will be taken away from raiding.
I'm not saying don't PvP... However, this can be a early warning for us to keep an eye on the time that the recruit spends in arenas or battlegrounds, and make sure that their raiding performance is not getting short handed.

Dungeon's and Raids: How close are they/do they have Champion of the Frozen Wastes? How many emblems have they collected? Next, check their progress on Glory of the Hero, Raider, and Ulduar raider. See what they have and have not accomplished, and in what size group.
This can both be an indication of experience and skill level. Someone sitting there with Heartbreaker is going to give me a heads up that they (almost always) know their stuff and are nicely geared.

Professions: Are they going to be able to feed themselves? Did they take the time to level FA or fishing?
If you have an alt that has high level secondary professions, make sure to note that in the application. This will never be a make or break point, but it can show a player that's going to put forth that little bit of extra effort to improve their character. Of course, they could just be an achievement junkie, and it tells me nothing ^.~

Moving on, we have http://www.pugchecker.com/
Pull up their character, and this will tell you not only what instances they have done, but how many times they have cleared it on each level. For Naxx and Ulduar, it will give you the numbers for each boss. Also tells you the average iLevel for their gear.

Next up, is http://www.warcraftrealms.com/charhistory.php
This site will try to tell you approximately when the character was created, about when they hit 60, 70, 80, etc, and most importantly, their guild history.

If you see that they've bounced around between 9 different guilds since they hit 80, then you know that they are likely to do the same with us. Commitment issues and all that.

If you are one of those that has moved 9 times since you hit 80, be prepared to provide detailed reasons for each and every move. If the application does not ask for guild history, I wouldn't typically include it there, but you might leave a note stating that you are willing to provide info on guild history if requested.

After that, zip over to http://be.imba.hu/
This will tell you many things, such as how far off the hit/defense/etc cap they are, gear that has missing enchants or gems, or incorrect ones, where their gear upgrades would likely come from, and where they should do well.

Before applying anywhere, take the time to look at your character in detail on this site. If it does warn you about missing, wrong, etc items or enchants, you'll likely want to spend some time on your gear before submitting an application. For example, if you see a message like this: low level items, upgradable enchants, misenchanted items, unenchanted items, empty sockets then you will likely not be accepted into a hardcore raiding guild.

Finally, take a glance at http://wow-heroes.com/
This will also tell you what instances the character should be focused on, but more importantly, it will tell you where their current gear came from, what gems they have in what pieces, what enchants they have on gear (and if it should be improved). This, in my opinion, is the easiest place to look through their gear piece by piece to see if it is good for their spec. A mace specced rogue using swords is bad, a holy priest wearing hit gear is bad, and so on.

And as with everything else, take with a grain of salt. That mage might have leveled BS for min/maxing purposes, to take the time to ask them about any major issues you come across =)

And as an applicant, be prepared to explain anything and everything... Knowledge is power!
*sagenod*

Disrespectfully, Krappy

2009-08-27T23:46:00.005-05:00

Not my standard thing, but I'd set a goal of getting a post out tonight, and writing just wasn't happening... Let me know what you think please, as I haven't done anything like this since high school ^.~

The sizing on here just wouldn't work like I wanted it to, but you can click on the pic and see it massive size. *shrug* I'll spend more time on the next if I decide to do another like this.

Tuesday Tip

2009-08-25T23:55:00.006-05:00

We've all been there... You, or someone else, sends one of your characters a massive amount of mail, and it's going to take hours (okay, maybe not quite) for you to pull it all out of the mailbox. Pages and pages of full mailings, 12 items deep in each... So many clicks!

Want to know a secret? There's a shortcut.

Shift-left click on the box that appears in your basic mail window. When mousing over the box, it tells you how many items are attached to that one mailing. But by shift clicking on the mail, it will automatically pull every item out of that batch (as long as you have bag space) and drop it in your inventory.

This was actually something I didn't know for several years, and only started using it recently when my brother made a comment about me doing mail the long way. =)

Even with only a single item in the mail, this shortcut saves you a click... With a full mail of 12 items, it saves quite a bit more.

And We're Off!

2009-08-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

Khi's heading to spend some time with real trees on vacation... Colorado and Arizona here I come =)

See you the other side of 2 weeks, unless I find wireless and time somewhere.

3.2 Incoming! Part 3: Fun Stuffs!

2009-08-03T17:19:00.004-05:00

And now we head back to the tournament. For those that have reached their Crusader title (Exalted Champion of the Horde/Alliance), a new vendor will become available. Dame Evniki Kapsalis has many new and exciting items that just to happen to cost a branch and a root in Champion's Seals.

Perhaps the most interesting item she offers is the Argent Pony Bridle. This allows your little squire to be very helpful once every 4 hours... He can open your bank, a vendor, or your mailbox. MMOChampion currently reports that he can also provide access to the AH, but that is not currently what the PTR shows. Would be great if that is available as well though =)

Don't forget a new boss is being added to the Vault of Archavon! PTR testing says he's pretty difficult... Same as Emalon, don't expect to beat him with a pug too soon after launch.

The achievements for several new holidays should be released with this patch, though we will likely not find out much more about the events until closer in time. Looks like the first of these would be encountered on International Talk Like A Pirate Day, Sept 19.

Keep an eye out for Northrend Children's Week... After all, who doesn't want a pet Oracle or Frenzyheart? You'll want to locate Orphan Matron Aria in Dalaran and see what you can do to help out.

Oh, wait. You need more pets? Hmm. In that case, you might want to start hunting down varioud raptors around the world, especially those rare elites. Current gnome reports have found several baby raptors can be looted and learned from those.

Currently, there's some confusion about the new heirloom items. MMO Champion reports that they can be purchased with Champion's Seals OR Badges of Heroism, but other sources say only Champion's Seals. As badges are much easier to obtain, I'm really hoping they are available through both.

3.2 Incoming! Part 2: Loot

2009-08-03T15:26:00.013-05:00

In this post, I will ONLY be covering loot that may be of interest to a raiding resto or balance druid. Please let me know if you find any broken links, errors, or whatnot.

As these are not live items, I will be linking them to their MMO Champion page for the time being. This post will likely be updated to WoWHead links once the patch is live. (Anyone perhaps know how to get it to instead show up in the WoWHead popup screen?)

Some item models & names will be different for Horde and Alliance, but the stats and bosses should be the same. Horde versions will be my links.

Cloth items will be included. Loot will be basically sorted, but don't ignore the other spec's list as you may find something of interest there. Anything that well itemized for both specs will be under Resto.

Trial of the Champion

This is the new 5 man instance located in the Argent Coliseum at the Argent Tournament in Icecrown. Even though it is a 5 man, this instance drops all epics.

Normal mode:
Resto:
Gaze of the Somber Keeper
Binding of the Tranquil Glade
Handwraps of Surrendered Hope
Leggings of the Haggard Apprentice
Mantle of Inconsolable Fear
The Confessor's Binding
Signet of Purity
Tears of the Vanquished

Balance:
Mantle of Gnarled Overgrowth
Belt of the Churning Blaze
Bindings of the Wicked
Brilliant Hailstone Amulet
Abyssal Rune

Heroic mode:
Resto:
Spectral Kris
Mariel's Sorrow
Gloves of Dismal Fortune
Leggings of the Snowy Bramble
Embrace of Madness
Symbol of Redemption

Balance:
Barkhide Treads
Boots of the Crackling Flame
Kurisu's Indecision
Sinner's Confession
Gaze of the Unknown

Trial of the Crusader

10 Man Normal:
Resto:
Sunreaver Disciple's Blade
Mace of the Earthborn Chieftain
Illumination
Perdition
Helm of the High Mesa
Pauldrons of the Glacial Wilds
Belt of the Bloodhoof Emissary
Legwraps of the Demonic Messenger

Belt of the Eternal
Pendant of Binding Elements
Binding Stone

Balance:
Lightbane Focus
Sunreaver Magus' Sandals
Looming Shadow Wraps
Felspark Bracers

Firestorm Band
Darkbane Amulet
Fetish of Volatile Power

10 Man Heroic:
*This currently has a very small amount of loot listed. Expect updates as more loot is found on the table. These items are simply buffed versions of the normal loot.*
Resto:
Sunreaver Disciple's Blade
Pauldrons of the Glacial Wilds
Legwraps of the Demonic Messenger
Binding Stone

Balance:
Sunreaver Magus' Sandals
Icehowl Binding
Fetish of Volatile Power

25 Man Normal:
Resto:
Suffering's End
Mystifying Charm
Robes of the Shattered Fellowship
Boots of the Harsh Winter
Belt of Pale Thorns
Leggings of the Awakening
Bindings of the Autumn Willow
Flowing Robes of Ascent
Sandals of the Mourning Widow
Handwraps of the Lifeless Touch
Belt of the Tenebrous Mist
Bindings of the Ashen Saint
Maiden's Adoration
Drape of the Refreshing Winds
Circle of the Darkmender
Lurid Manifestation
Cry of the Val'kyr
Solace of the Fallen

Balance:
Talisman of Heedless Sins
Skyweaver Vestments
Boots of the Icy Floe
Breeches of the Deepening Void
Belt of Biting Cold
Dark Essence Bindings
Shroud of Displacement
Reign of the Dead

25 Man Heroic:
*Same as 10mH - Missing items, buffed from normal*
Resto:
Robes of the Shattered Fellowship
Sandals of the Mourning Widow

Balance:
Shroud of Displacement

Emblems of Triumph

Resto:
Mask of Abundant Growth
Epaulets of the Fateful Accord
Hood of Clouded Sight
Mantle of Revered Mortality
Heartmender Circle
Band of the Invoker
Talisman of Resurgence
Idol of Flaring Growth

Balance:
Hood of Smoldering Aftermath
Pauldrons of Catastrophic Emanation
Shard of the Crystal Heart
Idol of Lunar Fury

3.2 Incoming! Part 1: The Notes

2009-08-03T14:03:00.006-05:00

Blue Post
For those plebians that don't read French, the last paragraph translates to something like

Updates are sorted based on their release date, you have to find all the updates up to patch 3.1.3 ... and 3.2 after next wednesday.

I read French >.> I swear. Not my fault that translation's identical to MMO Champion's post.

Current 3.2 PTR Patch Notes I'm sure you all love me for not pasting that all in here... But I'm not going over everything, so I'd recommend reading through that when you have the time.

Now, down to the fun parts. Druid info! (This is assuming that you've been following a bit on the latest changes. If not, I'd suggest checking out the 3.2 portal on MMO Champion. I will not be going over Coliseum specifics other than loot of interest.)

The Argent Tournament Expands

All new Argent Crusader daily quests and rewards have been added for players with the Crusader title. Rewards include a new Argent Crusader banner and tabard (which can port players to the tournament grounds), a mounted squire (can periodically run bank, mail or vendor errands for the player), a paladin-exclusive Argent Crusader Charger mount, and new heirloom items.
All new Silver Covenant and Sunreaver daily quests and rewards have been added for players exalted with these factions. Rewards include tabards, new ground and flying mounts, and a new pet.

This means, get to daily-ing! Just looking at those rewards makes me a very happy tree. A pet that can also be a bank for me? <3

New Dungeon Loot Feature

Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.

So, no more having to ticket a GM for a missloot! While this isn't something that we run into every day, it will be nice to no longer have to be quite so paranoid about looting items.

New druid art for Cat Form and Bear Form has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one's cat and bear forms.

Tigerfeet @Secret Agent Cat made some great charts for figuring out the form exacts. NElf and Tauren. I'm probably going to end up changing my hair several times before I find one I'm totally happy with, but it'll be fun ^.^

Dungeons and Raids
Dungeon and Raid ID Extensions
In order to allow for parties and raids to progress through instances at their own pace, players can now extend an instance ID on an individual basis.
Existing or recently expired IDs can be extended via the Social tab under Raid by clicking on Raid Info.
The ID of any instance to which a player is saved can be extended. Doing so will extend the instance lock period by the same amount of time as the original lock (i.e. extending an Ulduar instance ID will add 7 days, a Heroic: Halls of Lightning instance ID will add 24 hours, and a Zul'Gurub instance ID will add 3 days to the instance lock time).
An ID can be extended more than once.
An extension can be reversed on an individual basis provided the player does not do anything in the instance during the extended instance lock period that would save that player to the instance.
Emblem System Changes
Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Conquest.
The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.
25-player raids will no longer be referred to as Heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and Heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders' Coliseum.
The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
Drakes used by players in these instances will now scale in health and damage according to the rider's average item level.
Ulduar
Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players and should no longer sometimes appear to be in the wrong place for certain players.
An Immortal Guardian targeted for Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter will now become a 'Marked Immortal Guardian' while targeted.
Crusher Tentacles in the Yogg-Saron encounter spawn a little slower in 25-player mode allowing a bit more time for players to clear out the Illusion room.
Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter now targets a maximum of three Immortal Guardians in 25-player mode.
Yogg-Saron's health has been reduced by 20% in the final stage of his 25-player mode.
Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

Read it, love it. There are very few of these changes that I don't think are a good thing, and even with the worries about what the emblem changes will do to raiding, I think it's a good decision in the long run.

Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.
Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.
Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.
Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.

Yep, this means that we will see a bit more Mp5, but our tanks are going to be seeing some pretty significant changes. I would imagine that bears are going to be a bit harder to heal, but we'll see how bad the damage is once things have gone live.

Mounts

The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.

Anyone with an alt will likely love these changes. Anyone with standard flying will also be happy, as their speed is getting more than doubled. And I want to know how Blizz defines a 'healty distance above the ground.' Hmm...

Druids
Enrage: This Bear Form ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The armor penalty is unchanged.
Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.
Flight Form and Swift Flight Form: Now benefit from a paladin's Crusader Aura.
Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.
Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.
Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
Swift Flight Form: Druids who have acquired a mount able to go 310% flight speed will now also go that speed while in this form.
Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.
Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.
Talents
Balance
Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30-second cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
Feral Combat
King of the Jungle: This talent now reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 20/40/60%.
Primal Tenacity: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
Restoration
Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.

Not much to say here either. The notes pretty well sum it up =)

User Interface
The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information. The list of all quests a player has will show in one pane, while the quest details of any highlighted quest will display in the next.
Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.
Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.
Casting bars under the target frame, focus frame, and nameplates will now display as shielded if the cast cannot be interrupted.
Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.
Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.
Item Level: A new option has been added under Display in the Interface Options to show the item level on item tooltips.
Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.
New Feature Icons: Options recently added to any of the options menus will now display a yellow exclamation point next to them to indicate that they are new features.
Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.

Some great things in here, some that are a little redundant with standard addons. But it's progress in the right direction either way.

World Environment
Wolvar and Gorloc orphans have arrived in Dalaran and need your help! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District (completing the quests being offered for this event will not count toward any Children's Week achievements). Players have a limited amount of time to care for these orphans before they take their leave. They will then return again for the regularly-scheduled Children's Week next year.
Portal areas in all major cities now offer a portal to the Blasted Lands near the Dark Portal.
Once crossing through the Dark Portal, players can access a flight path directly from the Stair of Destiny to Shattrath.
A new zeppelin docking ramp has been added to Thunder Bluff allowing Horde players easier transport to and from Orgrimmar.
The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and has decided to install a large number of new mailboxes in Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.
Mathiel in Darnassus has finally earned himself enough money from your repair bills that he was able to buy himself an anvil.

And now to the fun parts... New pet? Check. Easier travel to Shatt? Check. No more TB > Org run? Check. More mailboxes? Heck yes! Anvil FINALLY in Darnassus? Lol.

Tome of Cold Weather Flight: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68.

Wahoo! Again, more for alts though...

Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: This item's stats and level have been increased to match the power level of healer weapons coming from the Coliseum 25-person normal difficulty instance. In addition, each time Val'anyr is equipped, Blessing of Ancient Kings will be placed on a 45-second cooldown before it can occur.

Very nice. For those lucky few that have the legendary already, this will be a nice change to keep the weapon in line with current item levels. And who doesn't want a more awesome shiny?

Druids should no longer be removed from a form after using any engineered bombs.

Very nice. My baby druid will actually get to use some of her stockpile now.

Now that we're done with the patch notes, time for the fun things... Loot list next!

Alt-itis

2009-08-01T00:03:00.004-05:00

I have a confession... I'm a bit of an alt-oholic. I like filling up my character lists with random classes and then abandoning them about 20. However, I've been pretty good lately about keeping them active (BoA gear helps a lot!) These are all my little Stonemaul pretties...

Sparkhi - Level 10 Mage. She was my first alt after swapping servers, but has become a auction toon. Last glance, I believe she had 13k in sold auctions in her stats. Not bad for a BE...
Khisha - Level 41 Lock. Her favorite pet is the VW Krappy. His name is actually Kragphog, but run with him for a while, and you'll see why he earned the name. I got bored with her about 35ish, but got into a bit of PvP (read:ganking) and started having fun again. She'll likely make it to Outlands pretty shortly after 3.2
Khite - Level 71 DK. Fun character that I'm enjoying tanking with, and the 450 JC doesn't hurt. Got a bit tired of her as I leveled her and the proff in about a week, so she's been gathering dust at the JC daily in Dalaran. With Cold Weather heirloom, she'll get back in action soon though.
Khios - Level 26 Priest. Started on her when we were having issues completing 25 Naxx because of a lack of priests, but just can't really get into the class at this level. She may be one that gets abandoned, but we'll see.
Sneakhi - Level 20 Rogue. Yet another that may not see the level cap... I find it strange that I love playing as a cat, but rogue just doesn't catch my fancy. Dunno what it is. However, as she does have her very own title, she may yet make it a ways.
Khibel - Level 14 Shaman. This one will slowly make her way to 80. I've had several shaman in the past that I've leveled to 40-50ish, so not too interesting or new at this point, but a class I enjoy all the same.
Khitteh - Level 20 Druid. Yep, that's right, another. She'll be dualspecced ferals as soon as she hits 40, and as much fun as I'm having right now, she may get leveled very quickly. The engineering goggles are just a plus. We'll see =)

And So for Something Strangely Similar...

2009-07-31T22:04:00.004-05:00

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast to bring you yet more guild leadership posts. Because you all care, right?

I've got 2 other druid/raidy posts that are done except for editing, but after reading back over them, I realized that my stress and attitude of the past few weeks is showing through, and I'm not satisfied with they way they are currently. So instead, I'm going to go back to my favorite topic lately.

My goal with this is not to drag out my guild's dirty laundry. Narrischkeit has a great group of people, many of them my close friends, and I don't believe that anyone deliberately went out of their way to cause issues for us.

However, I am hoping that by discussing what I believe to be our mistakes as of late, other guilds can take the warning and hopefully prevent a fallout such as we're currently experiencing.

Looking back now, I think I can identify the point where bad things began to happen.

We were in the middle of a 10m Malygos attempt, when a shaman made a comment about our guild leader (Fah) needing more health to reach the recommended # for the encounter. While the comment could have been worded a bit better, it was clear to most that he was intending it to be as a word of advice for Fah, and a heads up for we healers. Instead, Fah took it to be an insult directed at him, exchanged a few nasty comments, and kicked the shaman from the raid. Our raid leader invited the shaman back, Fah kicked him again, and then removed the shaman from the guild. The raid leader, who had been RL for us throughout LK raiding, gquit on the spot.

Lessons to learn:
1.Communication. If any of the main three involved had taken the time to really try and discuss this, I believe that the incident would have been resolved without anyone leaving the raid or the guild.

2.Authority. Too many cooks spoil the pot. I am a fan of only a select few people having raid assist. As a lock, I don't think that Fah needed or should have had assist at that time. Having too many people with authority over a raid leads to confusion and conflicting orders.

3.Organization. All guilds need a set of policies. If we had anything in place regarding raid control or guild removal, even if the incident had continued in the same way it did, I feel that the guild members' impressions would have been less that a fit had been thrown, and more that a decision had been rationally reached.

As we were suddenly without a raid leader, the GM (Fah) stepped up to fill those shoes. Raids were still going well, though we began to have some issues with scheduling, as he would typically only place raids on the calendar the day of, giving some not enough time to make plans to be there and resulting in attendance trouble.

I started helping out by organizing the raids for him, and then being a raid assistant. At the time, I hoped that I could help out for a short period while the officers got their stuff together and found a permanent person as a RL. Instead, I soon found myself as a new officer, and unfortunately still one of the few that was contributing in a major way to the guild.

I shortly became the main RL. Along with the typical problems someone would find in that job, I also began having trouble with various guild members, especially officers, trying to control certain parts (or all) of my raids. Instead of speaking with them, I simply assumed that was part of how this guild ran their raids, and that I needed to just deal with it.

Lessons:
1.Organization. Things going a bit lopsided after having a RL leave is one thing, but the officers and GM that were already in place should have stepped up and made whatever changes were needed to keep things happy and happening. A 25 man raiding structure should never fall to pieces because of the loss or absence of a single person.

2.Responsibility. I've always strongly felt that all raiders, especially officers, should have to answer for their responsibilities. Many of ours were not (and still aren't) being an officer in more than name. I believe part of that is due to them having no need for quite a while, but also in part due to the fact that most of them are close real life friends to the GM. As such, I feel that he doesn't like to assert his authority over most of the officers unless absolutely needed.

3.Communication. We should have communicated with the officers as soon as things started getting rough in raids. I should have spoken up about the trouble I was having with people in my runs. Instead, bad feelings and confusion started to spread throughout our raiders.

Summer hit, and with it, we started loosing raiders. We went from a 25 man raiding guild to a 10 man raiding guild in the space of a few short weeks. Due to some real world issues, I had to mostly leave the game for about a month. Things got worse, but a few officers and raiders got together and set up a good 10m group, and we've been smashing our way through Ulduar. Unfortunately, as most raiders want 25m runs, we've continued to lose members.

An officer meeting was called, and some things were ironed out, including various policies and roles for certain officers. Unfortunately, many of those have not been enforced, and a majority of our officer core does not seem to take their responsibilities seriously.

Things began coming to a boiling point when two of our officers decided to apply to one of the top raiding guilds on our server. They spoke with our main raid leader and myself beforehand, and were planning to speak with the GM as soon as he was available that evening. Unfortunately, a guild member that was close to both the officers and the GM called Fah to inform him of their application. He logged into Vent during the raid that evening, and started in on one of those that was likely leaving. The next morning, 5 of our core raiders, including 3 officers, had quit the guild.

Lessons:
1.Communication. The officers should have talked to Fah before applying, and let him know that it was likely that they would be no longer in guild soon. Fah should have controlled his temper and discussed it with them in a reasonable way.

2.Responsibility. We have a couple of officers that are working their asses off to keep this guild alive, but many more that do nothing. As we currently have 11 of officer rank or higher, that is a very large chunk of our admin group that is not currently putting forth the time or effort needed to save our guild.

TL;DR

Keep communication lines open and friendly between all members of the guild. Much drama can be solved or prevented by taking the time to politely talk to someone.

No matter the size of your guild, like every other organization out there, some basic policies and procedures need to be set down and enforced. It'll be unnecessary 80% of the time, but for the remaining 10%, it may save your bacon.

Authority should be respected, but not feared. The admin in your guild have the job of keeping things together and moving, and guild members should keep that in mind. However, keep in mind who is the head honcho in each situation, and listen to them above all.

Take responsibility for your role in a guild. Whether you're a normal raider, an officer, or a GM, you have a job to do, and you should do it to the best of your ability.

And finally, act as soon as you start seeing problems. Putting a problem behind your back just lets it grow quicker, and with less warning. Speak with your officers, GM, or other guild admin as soon as you start seeing trouble. Even if it turns out to be nothing, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Things are still going downhill, though some of us are still fighting tooth and nail to save Narrischkeit. We'll see what happens =)

Back Again =)

2009-07-22T23:50:00.002-05:00

After reaching the point where I was spending more time in game than out, and my time out was often occupied by me thinking or reading or plotting about WoW, I decided to take some time largely away from the game. I didn't blog, I didn't read blogs, I avoided the forums, and mostly only logged into alts for over a month. It was great =) I got de-stressed from all the guild mess that's going on, and spent some much needed time catching up with various people (and getting a sunburn!)

However, I'm slowly going back to playing again, and I've missed it for sure. Done some Ulduar 10 runs, organized an officer meeting, and started doing Tourney dailies again. I'm trying to keep my time in game limited, while still attempting to keep our guild alive and raids going. People really don't know what they're talking about when they say that being an officer is fun :P

However, I do have some info/discussion posts that I've got about halfway done, and will likely have at least one out later this week, as long as this final college app gets done soon.

New NElf Bear Forms

2009-05-27T17:02:00.002-05:00

http://www.wow.com/2009/05/27/night-elf-druid-bear-forms-revealed/

Sadly, I like these alot better than those that we Tauren get... Wtb less horns?

Drive by Blogging...

2009-05-27T15:15:00.002-05:00

1. 25 Mans are not happening for us now. We don't have the raiders or the officer core needed to do so right now.

2. GM and officers are 'officially burnt out'. Sucks, but I understand, it just makes it even more of a struggle for we remaining officers and all of the raiders to progress.

3. Found myself rather suddenly needing a new job, and in the process of moving. What time I have to play is on wireless, so focusing on leveling alts, daily quests, and attempting to hold a guild together. Fun times.

4. Also, ZOMG FORMS! I love the look, and I'm very excited to try them out. However, I don't like that I have to change my entire character's appearance in order to have a different form. What if I like bear form A, cat form D, but humanoid color B? Am I just screwed?

/sprints off to finish packing my closet

Progression

2009-05-06T10:54:00.002-05:00

For as long as I can remember, progression means bigger numbers. You didn't do TK until you had cleared Kara.

However, with LK, that seems it may have changed some... We've been progressing through Naxx 25, and doing very well, but attendance has pretty well halted raids for about a month now. So instead of clearing 2-3 wings in Heroic Naxx, we go and kill 10m Razorscale.

Officers are stressed, raiders that show up are getting disappointing, and those that don't show are annoyed because we are starting Ulduar without them.

But I'm thinking... Why does progression have to be through 25s? We don't have the numbers right now willing to put forth the time and effort, and if we can get a 10 together to go learn Ulduar, why not?

Just some food for thought, mostly my own.

Perhaps time to poke the GL though...

Drood Choppa! & Attack of teh Real Lifes!

2009-05-04T00:30:00.004-05:00

Flame Lev dead several times over, pretty easy but fun fight. Razorscale whipped our tail, Ignis just wouldn't quite die, and we didn't even think about XT.

Dual spec is win. Ulduar 10/almost 25 geared resto, Maly 25 geared boomkin, and I even get to pick which I want sometimes 0.0 Now if I could just quit pulling agro from the tank...

Argent tournament is totally cool, but I haven't been keeping up with it.... Going to find someone that's dumb enough to trade a tree for a stupid bird.

Real post coming sometime tomorrow after I've had more than 5 hours of sleep a night...

Also, reasons for the slow update if anyone is curious >.<

Work fun - Check - Mandatory overtime, stressful 'reorganization', differences of opinion with management... Not to forget actually working.

Family fun - Check - Nearly needed to take a week off to head to Dallas. Brother has poison ivy bad enough that hospitalization was considered. Sister spent most of Tuesday in the ER for possible appendicitis, thankfully 'only' a severe bladder infection. Mom has the flu, and for some reason they decided to test her for swine flu. Great grandmother broke her hip a little over a week ago, just to round out the excitement.

WoW fun - Check - Now an officer... *gulp* People aren't showing for raids, people are putting grays in the guild bank, some of the officers permissions are messed up and they cannot put things on the calendar. Argh.

Guild Leadership

2009-04-11T04:50:00.003-05:00

We've recently begun running 25's, and are seeing the growing pains I think =(

Needing to actually design a loot system, restructure guild ranks and leadership, blah blah blah.

This is actually not a situation I've been in previously, as I've raided either with 10 mans, or with 25s that were already well established. And surprisingly, it seems I may be getting pushed in the way of leadership, maybe even healing lead.

*gulp*

So I've spent my week leveling alts while browsing info on other healing classes, hoping to actually have some of the knowledge that I'll be needing.

With 3.1 just around the corner though, I have the feeling that a lot of these new cool changes are going to need to be re-done.

Bleh.

Home with the family for a few days, maybe things will look less overwhelming on the other side.

Maly.... >.<

2009-03-29T05:23:00.001-05:00

One of these days, I'm going to actually kill him. Kill him dead.

>.>

We had some very good attempts, but due to several factors, including having to adjust to no DK, 2 healers with connection troubles (which is one of the causes of that lovely pic) just couldn't quite make it.

Oh well, we'll try again =)

Hum de dum...

2009-03-25T08:30:00.003-05:00

Rather boring week. Nothing of interest to say really. Spent 1k leveling my Death Knight's JC, but it's finally 315ish, so easier now. I really wish they would go back and increase the number of old world veins >.>

Oh yeah... Fail at Archavon? I didn't even know it could happen 0.0

Poor Sid... he died like 3 feet from the door.

Screenshots

2009-03-17T07:49:00.015-05:00

3 of my favorite screenshots, since servers are down and I have nothing better to do =)

Work's been a pain this week, so no actually informative stuffs atm, but hopefully this will be fun.

And no laughing at my UI! >.>

'Twas the night before 3.0, and all through Azeroth, not a creature was stirring, not even... Oh, wait. Wrong season >.< The Last Gruul kill before all of the big changes. Yes, I'm dead. No, I'm not the only one. That's 15 seconds left before shutdown. Tank is nearly dead. Gruul's at 1%.

We got our loot in the mail a week later ^.^

Some people got bored... and kited half of SMV to Shat. Most of them got taken down very (very) quickly, but there was one little hitch in the genocide...

One quest out in SMV has you kill Varedis. He has the fun little ability of going completely immune at 50%, until you use the quest item.

Completely immune to the point where A'dal is not able to pwn his face }=D

Anyone who was a BC herbalist likely knew the agony... Kazzak and his blasted Nightmare Vine that's RIGHT THERE!!!

So, with a bit of planning, and a rogue sacrifice, we ninja'd it.

He still got both of us, but not until I had gotten that stupid herb. We were both giggling in vent the entire time, and rather proud of our little accomplishment ^.^

Farming as a Tree (Perhaps Part 1?)

2009-03-11T21:47:00.006-05:00

For those of us that like to heal things to death, having all we need for raids and such can get to be very tiresome. Unless you have a sugar daddy, or an alt to farm with, you likely know the pain of having to farm what you need for tomorrow night's raid. I went ahead and put together a list of various farming spots and types that might come in useful for other's. While some of this is going to apply to all healers, several of the spots I mentioned are more geared towards druid farming, but take what you will =)

If you have any suggestions, questions, or if anyone knows how to make WoWHead links do that cool popup thing, please drop me a note ^.^

Potions - Unbound Dryad in Crystalsong Forest

Like:
Just north (or south for Ally) are the Crystalsong camps. You can sell, repair, take the flight path.
They drop small amounts of trash. I've gotten Frostweave, Potions, a surprising amount of greens, the standard food/drink, but very little vendor junk. The vendor trash I have gotten is largely the typical Fur Clothing Scraps, which are easy to deal with.
The drop rate on the potions is very good for pretty easy mobs.
This is close to both Dalaran and Naxx... With epic flying, I can be at either in about 2 minutes, so nice for those 15 minutes while the RL is desperately trying to find a mage.
They're level 78ish, and hit like it. Easy to kill, and no strange debuffs or attacks to worry about.
No one else farms these. Guildy was surprised that there actually were mobs in Crystalsong.

Don't like:
No mailbox at the camps.
This is not an AoE farming area, and there are often large gaps between each Dryad. As a druid, this is not as big of an issue as for a class that has to spend time mounting, but it can get tiresome.
Until you learn the spawn areas, you're likely to spend some time locating each Dryad.

Notes:
Watch out for the elites. They're elite. Nuff said. (Though they do drop lifes, if you're feeling masochistic.)

Elixirs/Flasks - Find an elixir specced friend and buy the herbs. Sadly, there's no fun mob that happens to drop Flask of the Frost Wyrm on every other kill.

Food - Shoveltusk Flanks for Tender Shoveltusk Steak - In Howling Fjord, just NW of New Agamaganamanaramagan (spelling much?) are packs of shoveltusk. The most time efficient way I found to farm these was to pull the aggressive ones solo (or duo) and then use Barkskin/Hurricane in the middle of one of the packs. Rinse and repeat, Barkskin's ready to go again for each AoE.

Repair monies - Siren's Tear - Yes, you read correctly. This little baby is a resto druid's dream. To start, you will need to do two quests: Learning to Communicate and Winterfin Commerce to unlock the vendor (Ahlurglgr) that you can exchange 100 Winterfin Clams for 1 Siren's Tear. After that, start farming away. The clams in the evil murloc camp (Western side of the bank) are very easy to farm, but I found myself getting a bit ahead of the respawn timer as I got quicker at identifying spots. If that happens, just drop into the water, hit seal form, and farm a few from the shelves in there.

Unlike everyone else that has to run, kill, loot, mount, run, kill, etc etc, we can just swoop in, ninja the clam, and fly off into the sunset. They sell for about 200g depending on your server, and I can farm one in about 15 minutes.

Dailies - Sientina over on World of Matticus made a post about dailies for healers that don't involve killing. I personally get tired of doing the same quests over and over, but until dual spec, this is an excellent list for those of us who like to see health bars go up instead of down ^.^

3.1 Crit/Haste Gear

2009-03-10T09:27:00.005-05:00

With all of the lovely changes in 3.1, it seems we're going to be moving quite a bit away from the current resto itemization wishes. I'm still attempting to get on the PTR myself (What do you mean I don't have any characters on Stonemaul %@$&!) but has anyone started looking at builds/specs/gear that is much more biased towards crit and haste? AI, actually using Nourish *twitch*

I'll likely go back and edit this with my thoughts once I've managed to run some tests myself, but from the numbers and reports I've seen so far, kinda worried that my rotation's going to start looking more like a holy pally 0.o

-----

Edit =)

Going to skip all the number fun... Every single blog out there seems to have that info listed somewhere.

After testing it out for a while, I think I'm going to be okay with this change. For the most part, my raid healing is going to stay the same, with single targets getting Rejuve or LB when it's predictable damage, and WG for group heals. Unfortunately, my mana regen currently fails, so my attempts at just keeping a 3 stack up on a MT have put me at going OOM more quickly than I liked. With all of the other regen changes, for any lower-end geared tree, I don't think that is going to be the best method for longer fights. While I personally think micromanaging is going to be the best way to go with these current changes, I don't think that is going to be a feasable playstyle for newer trees.

At this point, I'd recommend the standard keeping rejuve and regrowth up, but using Nourish more. That means that yes indeed crit and haste gear will be your friend. At the same time, start practicing in less-dangerous conditions how to judge your mana regen with lifebloom, the timing, and of course the actual bloom. By the time you're healing Ulduar 25, hopefully you'll have a good grasp of how to best manage LB in your rotation with your partucular gear and spec.

Just don't try and learn that while healing me in 3 drake OS >.>

More about me =)

2009-03-10T06:27:00.000-05:00

I created my first druid (Khilana) sometime in April of 2005, just a few months after WoW's release. I decided that it would be fun to heal Deadmines one day, spent all my talent points (that I had been saving since level 10 *twitch*) and went for it. I stayed resto all through leveling, though I did abandon her for a while around level 35 and went and played a hunter for a bit.

Sloooooowly made my way up, BC was released, sloooooowly made my way to 70.

As a note, even if you want to level as a healer, go dreamstate. You can heal and dps. Full resto sucks. Seriously.

Got invited to a guild run of Kara about a week an a half after making it to 70, and hellooo raiding.

In BC, I raided through part of T6. I've seen most of Hyjal and BT, though I've never actually stepped into Sunwell. After a while, I got tired of healing and having 0 dps and hence no money, so I respecced feral for a while.

*insert cute witty comment about the passing of time somewhere in here* ^.~

About 3 months before 3.0 I moved to a new town and met some new people, who just so happen to be complete and total WoW geeks such as me. After a long long long time, they managed to convince me that Horde wasn't all that bad, and it was okay to play a Tauren, since I wouldn't actually have to look at myself since I had forms =)

So I made Khiow... and totally abandoned him about level 20. As a note, all of my toons have been female. They're more fun, armor looks better, and no one looks at you strangely when you /giggle. But have you ever seen a female Tauren?!?!? -.-

Unfortunately, due to my work schedule, the guild and friends that I had been playing with for years were now on a totally different schedule =( After a few weeks of logging in and seeing an offline guild and friends, I slumped back to Khiow.

A few Netherweave bags and 10g later, I decided that my new buddies weren't so bad ^.^

Khiow was leveled feral to 45, then lazer chicken to 80. 2 days after reaching 80, I got forced into a 25 Sarth/Vault run. (Thanks Ryan!) Some sexy shoulders dropped and the gear grind began all over again.

About a week back, we were working our way through 10 Naxx, and just couldn't quite 2 heal it past the Four Horsemen. So I respecced...

I'd been collecting offset gear from various instances and raids, and actually had all my Balance badge gear already purchased. Luckily, my boomkin gear is good enough to fill in those extra slots until I get an upgrade.

I've been a tree for long enough that even with the gimp gear, I've been able to heal just about anything I've attempted since then, including my first 1 drake Sarth earlier today.

Yay for junk dropping =(

My goal for this blog is partially just to have a place for people to see if they randomly click my name somewhere, but also, as a help place for new trees. I'd like to think that after all this time, I at least have a little clue ^.^

Maybe >.>

Ahmagawd blog?

2009-03-10T06:20:00.001-05:00

Title says it all =)

Got busy browsing other peoples blogs and thought Hmm, I could have a cool nifty little blog too.

Win.

And I was originally going to pick Tree Burger, but that was taken... QQ

Aaaanyways, this will largly be a druid blog. Because druids just kick ass, yes?

And I have no clue what I'm doing with this blog >.< Took 10 minutes to change the font color.