12/30/08

A good night for the guild

Last night we did a little more instancing than usual - 3 in one night. We did the daily Culling of Stratholme, Gundrak and Drak'tharon Keep. Gundrak was just because we had never done it and Drak'Tharon because a number of us still had quest to complete there even though we have run it before. I think we had a total of 1 death across all the runs, and only a couple drops didn't end up sharded.

I healed CoS and did let our DK leader die when he pulled a little more aggro than he wanted. I didn't LET him die, I just couldn't stop it. We had a newer member of the guild tanking it for us and he did great, just a little more damage than I'm used to healing, but every tank is different.

For the second and third runs I got to DPS! Mishandala, who normally runs as a Moonkin is trying out a new Restokin build and wanted to try it out. So he healed and I got to unleash some Elemental Fury. He did great on the heals and I was able to crank out about 1200 DPS. So now I'll have to see how he feels about the runs and what he wants to do in the future as we get close to being able to field a raid team. But that isn't the cool part...

The cool part was that almost everyone in our little guild was running an instance together. We had 10 players on, which is on the high side for us - especially lately. 5 were running the higher instances and 3 more were in Nexus with a pugged healer and DPS and another came in to relieve a DPS who had to leave after Gundrak. The only poor soul who wasn't running an instance was Outs - he's only level 50 but he has potential and I know he'll be a great addition when he gets leveled up.

We may be a small - some would say tiny - guild, but we are solid and I will run anything with this group of players. I am really happy with the guild right now.

12/28/08

Rise of the Druid

The time has come for me to begin the grind a second time. I have begun leveling Bumwaller, the druid, in Northrend. The good part is that all the quests seem familiar and I kinda know where things are and what I'm supposed to do, the bad part is...all the quests seem familiar and I kinda know where things are and what I'm supposed to do. In the past I had a significant period of time in between leveling characters and it didn't fel like deja vu. It does this time, but I'm trying to push through it - it just doesn't feel...fun?

I'm using a Restokin build to level the old boy, currently a 40/0/21 moving to a 40/0/31 at 80. I know a lot of people like to level using a feral build, but I never really got into that play style. I prefer the caster style and the ability to heal myself and others. I am having trouble remembering to shift into Moonkin to optimize my damage, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it again.

12/13/08

DING 80!

12/11/08

Finally...

the race restrictions on mounts is being removed! This is great news for herd of Tauren. I really like the raptors and really hate Warsong Gulch. It will also make it much easier to get the mount collecting achievements.

I will definitely be buying the extra mounts and rigging up a macro that randomly pick one for me ride. I can hardly wait. Really - this is cool.

In other news - for $15 you can change everything about your toon except the race and class. I guess that is a good thing for people who really don't like some aspect of their character.

12/10/08

Going Ape!

I was running CoT: Culling of Stratholme the other night and got this Super Simian Sphere - ya, that's right, a Super Monkey Ball!

I can't wait to try this thing out, it requires level 80 and I'm still only 79. Also, in winning the roll on that thing I achieved Greedy!, rolling a 100 on a greed roll. I rolled a second 100 greed on a drop from Chrono-Lord Epoch. I was just lucky that night I guess.

12/7/08

Macros and Me - part 1

I have been revisiting all my macros lately. I use a number of them to help out when I am playing, mostly to make sure I use my trinkets and to do mouseover healing while in party and raids. That was the first macro I used, cribbed from Resto4Life. I love it and have tried to get any healers I know to use it. Basically it heals the friendly character that you have you mouse on, either in play or frames, if no one is moused over it heals your targeted friendly player, and if no one is targeted - it heals you. After some modifications, to turn off error text and sound an use my trinkets, it look like this:

#showtooltip
#show Healing Wave
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use 13
/use 14
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=target,help][target=player] Healing Wave

I have this macro, modified for the appropriate spells, on all of my toons that can heal. It makes healing so much easy than having to click on the person you want to heal. I usually keep the tank targeted and mouseover whoever needs a heal and hit the button - no clicking, use the hotkey. My curing spells are done the same way - I don't even use decursive.

For the most part I have done my offensive spells the same way - but they have been one spell per macro. Now I'm beginning to look into using /castsequence to fire off my offensive abilities in a predefined sequence to be even more efficient than doing it manually.

Stay tuned for part 2 - if I can make it work.

12/6/08

That was EPIC!

I finally got around to doing the Wrathgate event and seeing the cinematic in game. I had seen it previously as a spoiler, but it was even better in context. I actually kinda teared up a bit when I had to return the armor of the fallen Saurfang the Younger to his father. That sucked. I can only imagine how RPers are digging these storylines. The battle for Undercity was pretty cool too, but there was only me and one other player so it kinda lost the scale of a large assault, but it was cool anyway.

I dinged 79 shortly after that and now I'm in the homestretch to 80. We have run a couple other dungeons and I really liked the ending of Drak'Tharon Keep. It is awesome to keep encountering the Lich King as you move through the world - building to a showdown. The story telling in the expansion is really good and keeps me involved in what is going on and I feel part of it.

12/2/08

I believe I can fly!

I recently dinged 77 and spent my cash for the Cold Weather Flying. It feels good to fly again, of course the first thing I did was head to the Icecrown Citadel. I flew around the horseshoe approaching from the north. Holy Carp! - I got goosebumps flying up to The Conflagration. It is that damn epic. The look is a little bit of a ripoff of the Lord of the Rings movies, but it is still freaking cool. It really feels like we are in for something huge as the patches come in and add more and more content until we get to face Arthas himself.

I'm not one to geek out on the lore normally, but I am really enjoying the story and progression of the quests. The Old Gods, the Titans, all the dragons in their "human" forms - I'm digging all of it.