For The HERD! For the HORDE!

...my thoughts on Cataclysm

2010-07-25T19:17:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to organize my thoughts on the Cataclysm beta and the constant stream of data and information that is showing up on the blogs and websites that I follow. It all changes so quickly, that I guess I'll just put out what I am feeling right now.

My overall feeling is one of trying to avoid as much of the game play footage, new leveling experience and anything regarding the Goblin and Worgen starting areas. I am allowing myself to follow the class changes for the Shaman and have played with the talent calculator a little bit. The talent trees are changing so much, I'm not making any judgment yet, just watching.

I have also decided that I don't want to be in the beta and will donate my key if I get one. I was in the beta for Wrath and played around with the Death Knights, I have not played one since that time for more than a few levels to use as bank alts or to chat with a friend on another realm. I actually suck as a beta-tester, I'm not really good at filling out the bug reports or trying all the different combinations of things to thoroughly test the game and help make it better.

So, basically, I don't wanna be part of the beta and I don't wanna see too much of the new experience that Deathwing has brought about. I am working on putting a set of heirlooms together for a Tauren Paladin and I plan to level that through the new/modified zones.

...is this the new build?

2010-07-14T14:10:00.000-04:00

I played around with the latest Cataclysm beta talent calculator at MMO-Champion and this is what I've come up with a 31/8/2 Elemental build. . A lot of the crap is gone and I've hoping a lot of the goodness is in the passive bonuses.

I was a little disappointed with how easy it was to put together and how little customization could actually be done. Maybe the revamped glyphs will give us some of that, I hope so. Otherwise, most Elemental Shaman will still be running around with a cookie cutter spec of every other lightning slinger out there.

...the state of Warcraft and me

2010-07-12T18:06:00.000-04:00

...as I had mentioned before, I joined Bound and have been having a bunch of fun in game again. I am not part of the hardcore raiding team, The Ruthless, or the primary raiders, The Ascendants. Nope, I'm just a lowly Voyeur. But it's cool, I'm not sure I could keep up with those crews anyway - they are dedicated and very good players. I've just been running Heroics and filling in on occasion on non-progression nights in ICC. I have laid eyes on the Lich King and participated in the fight, although I have not been present for a kill - no title for me...yet.

I've been doing all of this on Okole, my Elemental Shaman. I've tried to play the Druid and even started a Warrior, but I just can't stay with either of them. Bumwaller is a maxed out Elixir specced Alchemist though, so I do some crafting with him.

I'm also doing a few more a-cheese-ments before they disappear in Cataclysm. Picked up The Keymaster and the Coin Master over the past week and got Exalted with a few more factions. I've been collecting Emblems of Triumph and Frost and building up my Tier10 Elemental and Tier9 Resto sets. Also nabbing Champion Seals to get a mount for my squire and get some heirlooms together for a possible new toon in Cataclysm. More on Cataclysm later, I've got a bunch of thoughts that I need to organize for that.

...Bound

2010-05-22T18:14:00.000-04:00

My application was approved and I'm now a member of the Bound guild on the Staghelm server. I have joined as voyeur rank, basically just a casual player, for now. I've been running random Heroics and getting my gear back up to speed and then maybe I'll try to jump into the 10-man raids. So far, I'm having a blast playing again and getting to know the new guild mates.

...I missed it

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

I've been goofing off with a little warrior for a week or two now, trying to gauge my interest in playing WoW again. It's been fun and I've been chatting with an old friend on his new server. He's been after me to transfer my main over and apply to the guild he has been playing with.

Well, a few days ago I logged on to the old server, cleaned out the guild bank, disbanded the guild and started the transfer process. No, I didn't ninja quit or anything like that. There were actually no active players in the guild and most had been inactive for at least 3 months. It was a little difficult to do, and I felt a little pang of nostalgia when I typed the /gdisband and confirmed it.

So, now I'm over on Staghelm and have put in my application for the new guild as a support player, not as a full time raider.

I got on tonight and logged in to their guild vent channel and listened while they did some VoA and then they decided to do Ulduar 10 hard modes. Greatjohn didn't go with them to Ulduar and asked if I wanted to do some random heroics. I felt a little apprehensive, as I've not played for quite a while, but I took the chance. I went as elemental, and ran Utgarde Pinnacle and Old Kingdom. Really good groups and I held my own I think.

I missed that - it was so much fun, no stress about healing and Greatjohn tanked with his paladin and we got some achievements to boot.

I think I'll stay around for a while and hopefully I get picked up by Bound and can do some runs with them.

I'm back...sort of

2010-04-15T22:02:00.000-04:00

I got this email from Blizzard offering me a week of free playtime, and at first I thought it was just a scam. I did a little bit of research and it turns out it is a real offer.

I had to go look for where I had put my authenticator and go through a password reset process, because I couldn't remember what my Battle.net password was. Amazing that I had forgotten a password I typed in almost every day for a couple of years. Copied the client of the external drive to the primary drive and downloaded the patches to get me up to date.

I finally got in and it was all very familiar, but at the same time it felt a little odd. I wandered around a little bit and logged in to the different characters to pick up the pets that were sitting in my mailboxes - a Corehound pup and a little penguin. Not exactly sure why I got them, but they were in every mailbox. I wasn't sure what to do next, a I realized why it had felt odd. None of my friends were there, I pulled up my friends list and there was no one online.

I realized I don't miss playing the game, I miss playing the game with my friends.

and that's that

2009-10-05T21:16:00.002-04:00

My paid playtime has expired, the time has come.

It's been fun, and it may be fun again at some time but, for now I am done playing World of Warcraft.

I don't really have anything else to say about it at this time, I'm not sad, not glad, just kinda apathetic about it.

New Druid legendary shirt

2009-10-05T19:18:00.003-04:00

So, today Jinx released the Druid Legendary T-Shirt. It looks pretty sweet and I may buy one, even though I have pretty much given up on the game for a bit.

They also releases a pair of 'six slot wallets', one fr the Horde and one for...that other faction. I don't think I would go so far as to have a WoW themed wallet, but I'm sure somebody would.

Brewfest!

2009-10-04T00:30:00.010-04:00

Jinx has a Brewfest T-Shirt on their site! Pretty nice logo and good idea behind it. Go pick one up if you are so inclined, their stuff is good quality.

You can use my referral too, if you want. It gets me some extra Jinx Gold. Hey, I'm not above a little self promotion.

break time

2009-09-26T23:33:00.003-04:00

I got the achievement What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been and got my Barney colored 310% flyer...and haven't logged in to thte game since.

So, maybe this is the way it will be. I went ahead and canceled the auto-billing feature on my account and it will expire on the 6th of October. Unless I really start to miss it, which hasn't happened yet, I will be taking a break. I may come back to play Cataclysm or if the Winter boredom sets in.

It's time for a break. That's really all I have to post.

at the crossroads

2009-09-20T13:46:00.002-04:00

...not the one in the Barrens.

I'm at a crossroads in the game. I just don't know what I want to do with my playtime. I have been playing a little undead priest to see what it's like to a) not be a Tauren b) play a clothie. I have not been playing on Vashj. I'm back in school and working 40+ hours a week at my real job, raising a family and trying to spend time with family and friends.

So, what that really means is I cannot dedicate myself to progression raiding or anything more than casual raiding really. I do enjoy running dungeons and heroic dungeons as well. The problem is Limited Warranty rarely has enough people on to do them without PUGging them and I really dislike PUGging unless I am really desperate. So, most days I just do a few dailies and run a few BGs or log on to the baby priest to have a little fun.

I have been talking with Greatjohn after he transferred to Bound on Staghelm and have explored the possibility of transferring over there to help be a support player for their progression raiding guild. Things like farming mats, running alts through dungeons and filling on raids that they are no longer doing on progression nights. I'm not sur ethis is what I want to do yet, but I have made some inquiries.

The other option is just quitting for a while and see if my interest gets renewed when Cataclysm comes around. I know I probably sound like a broken record and I have said much of this in the past, but it hasn't really gotten any better. Who the hell knows what I will do, I'm actually kinda confused and frustrated by my current play time.

thought on RP...

2009-09-07T17:19:00.002-04:00

I don't think I could actually get into full RP play - or be on an RP realm that enforced any of the 'rules', but I guess I do RP in my own way. What I mean by that is this, each of my toons has a little bit of backstory that I keep in my head. I know that it causes them to behave in certain ways, that are different based on which one I am playing.

I have not gone into the deep details of each one, just a basic idea of there individual personalities. I have no real idea who they are descended from, of whether they have brothers or sisters, none of that type of thing. I mostly play Taurens and I kinda view them as more identifying with the tribe than with a specific mother/father unit. I usually associate them with the Stonehoof tribe, mostly just because not a lot is written about them and there is nothing terribly special about my toons backgrounds.

Okole - a Shaman, is very much like the weather. He is specced for Resto and Elemental. As Resto he is a healing presence, but it doesn't come naturally. I feel kinda chaotic when I'm healing with him. As Elemental, he tends to attack anything that is necessary to accomplish the goals that are put before him and sometimes that extends to the surronding mobs as well. He loves achievement and titles.

Bumwaller - a Druid, is aware of the nature around him. Currently specced for Feral tanking, previously has been Resto and Balance both. He tends to only kill what is necessary, nothing else. Swoops in with flight form does what needs to be done and get back out. Doesn't look for a fight, but doens't back down if one comes along. Only has one title - Guardian of Cenarius, and that pretty much sums it up.

Gugalana - a Death Knight, is my newest toon and still kinda bitter about his position in life. He knows he is not really in alignment with nature and has done some horrible things, which he now regrets. However, he is still pretty angry and takes it out on pretty much everything he sees. NPCs, mobs, snakes, squirrels, you name it. He had lots of animosity to deal with and is not doing a great job of it.

That's the basics - not super fleshed out, but the attitudes I take when I play those toons. How about the rest of you?

More Blizzcon stuff

2009-08-22T13:26:00.003-04:00

By now I'm sure anyone who is reading this little blog has already seen all the major blog coverage of the new features and changes for World of Warcraft. I'm not going to even attempt to recap all of that, head to wow.com or mmo-champion to get all the juicy details.

What I have seen that I like:
- Shakeup in the 'old world' makes leveling interesting again
- Heroic Shadowfang Keep sounds like a blast
- Worgen as playable class, they have an interesting backstory and can be Druids
- Guild leveling sounds interesting
- Path of the Titans/Archeology sounds like an interesting mini-quest game
- Flying mounts in the 'old world'

Things I'm not so jazzed about:
- Goblins

Things I am still not sure about:
- Removing Attack Power, Spellpower, etc from gear and using 'base' stats
- Troll Druids
- Worgen and Goblin Death Knights

EDIT - Just heard that Troll and Worgen Druids get there own unique feral forms! I like that.

Lots of changes

2009-08-21T23:37:00.000-04:00

Reposting this from WoWHead -

MP5 = GONE! Replaced with spirit, which will now be mana regen only—and non healers will have ZERO need for it.
Spell Power = GONE! Replaced with Intellect, which now grants mana AND spell power.
Attack Power = GONE! Agility now gives 2 ap for rogues, hunters, shamans, and druids!
Defense = GONE! Tanks now receive ALL their anti-crit from talents!
Armor Penetration = GONE! Replaced with "Masteries" through the talent trees!
Block Value = GONE! Blocks will now be a REAL mitigation stat, preventing a % of incoming damage!
Soul Shards = GONE! Will be replaced with a functionality more like DK runes, where you can use a "Soul Burn" spell once per shard per battle—and Soul Burn will increase the effectiveness of your NEXT spell a la Amplify Curse. Fears might become Instant, Searing Pains might have free crits, Death Coils might have increased Horrify duration, etc.
Hunter Mana = GONE! Will be replaced with "Focus", which is similar to rogue energy, but regens faster when you use Steady Shot.
Hunter Ammo = GONE! Replaced with an item, not a consumable!

WOW!

I mean, damn, I like it being simplified - but good golly. That is a lot of changes.

Blizzcon Time

2009-08-21T14:12:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again - BLIZZCON! I am not going and I am not buying the live stream, I'm just going to be watching the popular websites and checking the tweets from various people I know who are there.

Will we get confirmation of all the Cataclysm rumors? Will we get an announcement of the new MMO they are working on? Playable versions of SC2 and Diablo3?

Soon we will know the answers to all these questions and more...stay tuned.

W T F ?

2009-08-14T19:32:00.003-04:00

So - I just say this post...http://www.wow.com/2009/08/14/new-race-class-combinations-datamined/

uhhh - new race/class combinations are speculated

Human Hunter
Orc Mage
Night Elf Mage
Blood Elf Warrior
Dwarf Shaman
Undead Hunter
Tauren Paladin
Tauren Priest
Gnome Priest
Troll Druid

I'm not yet sure if I like the idea, but my first inclination is that I do. I have never been a huge lore junkie, and this represents the evolving World of Warcraft. Why wouldn't some of those races learn to be new classes? Maybe we have learned from each other in the Horde and Alliance. Maybe we shared techniques and skills with the other classes and learned to adapt our race to thsoe new skills.

Most of what is listed - if true - actually can kinda make sense, except maybe the Tauren Paladin. I just don't see the Tauren buying into the power of The Light.

Now, I tend to play the Tauren and it is the inspiration for the name of the blog, and I am intrigued by the idea of a Tauren Shadowpriest as an option. I have never played a 'clothie' and maybe that could be an excuse to do it. The idea of leveling another toon does not inspire me, however.

Blizzcon is coming next week and I expect we will see this either confirmed or denied at that time. Hmmm.

this is kinda fun

2009-08-09T00:11:00.002-04:00

I'm really kind of enjoying this bear tanking phase I have been in. Tonight I was able to tank Heroic Violet Hold and Heroic Nexus. Not the most challenging of the heroic dungeons, I know. But they were my first two heroic tanking opportunities and I took them.

I really had a lot of fun, I avoided playing feral at all for a long time, but I'm having a blast with it right now. It is just the change of pace I needed to keep me interested in WoW right now.

First up, Violet Hold with 3 guildies. We never did get a 5th to run with us, so we just did it with 4. Pretty smooth run, we got the water boss and the the big eye of the beholder. Handled both with ease and moved on to Cyanigosa, everything was going great until...somehow I shifted out of bear form and couldn't seem to get back in. We wiped on the big dragon. So we regrouped and went again, I hate doing VH the second time. All the same effort and no reward for doing it. We took down Cyanigosa on the second try and I got Staff of Trickery.

So we were willing to keep going and we picked up a DK from another guild and ran through Heroic Nexus. We had a little problem with a fear wipe on the extra boss and wiped twice trying to do Chaos Theory. No loot for me, but it was the daily so I got a couple Emblems.

I had a blast - I'm liking tanking with my face.

Second Skin - MMO Documentary

2009-08-07T21:55:00.002-04:00

cool things in patch 3.2

2009-08-06T20:56:00.001-04:00

just some observations that I have of patch 3.2 in the limited time I have had to play

- Mongoose effect now shows up on Staff of Feral Furies, very cool combination
- I like being a gray bear/white cat, the new forms are great
- some of the gear in the new 5 man looks great, unfortunately I haven't been able to run it yet
- decreased mount time is very nice

That's it so far, hoping to get some play time in soon and check out the new instance and try my luck with the new gear.

The return of Bumwaller, with a new focus

2009-08-01T12:36:00.008-04:00

I recently began playing Bumwaller, my Druid again.

When I resumed playing him again we had a decent percentage of healers, so I decided to try something I have never really done before...feral spec. Specifically, a tanking spec. I spent some fairly significant gold on crafting some gear and buying some BoE pieces that I found on the Auction House.

I found a decent post on pre-raid gearing over at Three Druid Noob that helped me determine what pieces to shoot for.

I also consulted the Big Bear Butt Blogger for help with specs and rotations, still waiting on part 2 of that one.

I gemmed everything up with some +24 stamina gems, then went to the Argent Tournament to get enough Champion Seals to buy a Staff of Feral Furies, and threw a Moongoose enchant on it, pretty high on the tanking lists that I have found. I still need to get some better rings and enchant the gear a little more. And, of course, run some more instances to get some better gear.

With my renewed interest in my Druid, I decided to get the Guardian of Cenarius title mostly because I think it looks awesome over the head of a Druid and also because I really had been neglecting the title gathering on this Druid.

I had done quite a bit of running the Coilfang instances back in the day, so it only took a couple of heroic runs to get Exalted with the Cenarion Expedition. I started out with the intention of soloing Underbog in bear form, which seemed to work just fine for me. The mobs had a hard time hitting me though, so it was hard to generate rage unless I pulled a pack of 3 or 4. I started pulling and playing with getting my fingers used to the new keybindings and was having a lot of fun. Shortly after, Ariki showed up and we decided to try out his new Arms build and we ended up duoing it instead of soloing, we followed up with heroic Slave Pens and then the next night did Underbog and part of Steam Vaults until I hit Exalted. Easy as pie.

Now, the daunting part - I was only Friendly with the Cenarion Circle. I never did much questing out in Silithus, Outland was too much of a draw and I just went to Hellfire as soon as I could. A few days of pretty boring grinding on the Twilight mobs and turning in Encrypted Twilight Texts and I had ripped through the reputation and had my title. I am a happy bear!

I am feeling pretty good about my gear right now and getting more comfortable with bear rotations, I think I am ready to try some Northrend heroics, maybe Utgarde Keep or Nexus. I have successfully tanked regular Culling of Stratholme and the guys were comfortable with my threat generation and we did fine.

So - that wall of text pretty much catches you up with what I have been doing lately. I'm still on the grind and switched things up a little to keep it interesting.

I have been neglecting the blog

2009-07-26T20:00:00.002-04:00

I kinda suck - I have not been keeping up with the blogging on my toons, and I'm not terribly sure why. I have some ideas and some "excuses", but no solid reasons.

Keeping in the "in-game" vein, I just haven't been motivated to write about what is going on until now. The good thing about that is that I don't have a large group of dedicated readers, actually I'm not sure I have any. No matter, I mostly just write this blog for a few friends and to have an outlet for my thoughts.

There are a few things going on and I will write on them very soon, but mostly I have just been doing a boring grind of professions and dailies for the Argent Tournament to make some gold and keep have something to do.

I got another turtle!

2009-07-26T18:38:00.006-04:00

Once again I was fishing up some Dragonfin Angelfish and I got another Sea Turtle. This time I got it on Bumwaller, the RNG luck seems to be with me lately.

Still no luck on the Proto Drake from the Oracles though, all I seem to get from them is Aged Yolk.

I got a turtle!

2009-07-19T18:49:00.004-04:00

Yup - while fishing for some Dragonfin Angelfish, Okole managed to fish up the Sea Turtle. I love its idle animation, so funny.

are you freaking kidding me?

2009-06-29T19:05:00.002-04:00

Nethaera over on the WoW official forums just posted this doozy:

We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.

Just - holy - what the - are you joking?

I thought they said this would never happen...now I can turn my male Tauren druid into a female Night Elf druid? Seriously? I don't know how to even feel about this yet. Give me some time to reflex and I'll get back to ya.

strange

2009-06-17T21:39:00.001-04:00

Just when I had made the previous post, I logged in for the heck of it and there were a bunch of my old friends. Go figure. Maybe I will try some of the dailies while I caht with them...I'm such a wishy washy person sometimes.

getting bored again

2009-06-17T19:06:00.002-04:00

Maybe it's just the time of year - lots of stuff to do in the warmer months. Maybe it's the fact that a lot of my friends aren't really playing anymore. Either way, I'm bored with the game right now. I don't want to level, don't want to raid, don't want to do do the same dailies over and over.

The game is just not able to lure me in right now.

wow...

2009-06-11T09:04:00.002-04:00

I'm sure most everyone has seen this already, what a boost to alt leveling!

Regular land mounts trainable at level 20 (was 30) Cost: 4 gold
Epic land mounts trainable at level 40 (was 60) Cost: 50 gold
Regular flying mounts trainable at level 60 (was 70) Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply)
Regular flying mounts speed increased to a 150% gain (was 60%) Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply)

Mounts at 20? That will be great for getting around the Barrens and other large zones.

I am really looking forward to patch 3.2 now, working on my baby Shaman who just hit 40. Maybe this patch will let me fly in the early levels of Outland!

DING 80

2009-06-07T22:49:00.001-04:00

I finally got off my ass and finished leveling my Druid to 80. Yeah me.

I feel a little like a traitor

2009-05-31T14:04:00.002-04:00

Ya, I've still been playing - but I am playing on the side of the enemy. My playtime lately has been occupied by a Draenei Shaman on a PvE server. I'm leveling as enhancement this time and sitting at level 38, almost to dual wielding and wearing mail. I'm having fun learning the enhancement playstyle and going through the alliance quests, after leveling the Taurens for most of my WoW time, it's a welcome change.

I still miss the guys in Limited Warranty and hop over there every once in a while to do some dailies and chat with whoever is there, but I'm pretty much maxed out on what I can do unless I try to get into raiding again and I just can't invest that much time right now.

So...I'm still playing, but very casually and on the "other side".

Guess what....

2009-05-08T20:40:00.002-04:00

I didn't quit playing after all. Nope, I am still a Warcraft addict and I'm okay with admitting it.

As it turns out, I actually still do enjoy playing and I missed it for the few days that I let my account lapse. So, no matter what anyone says to make me feel bad about it, I am still going to do what ever the heck I want to do.

A lot of my real life friends have quit playing, but for me it's still a good escape from the day to day boredom that always seems to set in. There are only a few shows on TV that I enjoy watching, and after that TV seems like a waste of my time...or an equal waste that WoW provides. There is the draw of neighbors and outside work, and I will still be doing that, WoW has never really interferred with that part of my life anyway.

I will be playing my mains, and I have started an Alliance toon as well, until I am ready to quit on my own terms.

The Good and the Bad

2009-04-10T18:29:00.002-04:00

First - the Good. I got my flight form back on Bumwaller, makes herbing soo much easier.

Now - the Bad. Well, kinda Bad. A number of Limited Warranty members have moved along to more progression minded guilds. They did so with my blessing and on good terms. As I stated in the guild forums:

Unfortunatley, I think this might be when the warranty runs out for a number of players. Chances are good that my playtime is going to be dropping significantly over the next few months and I don't want you guys to be held back. In a few weeks I will be turning 40 years old, spring is coming and I have other commitments that are more important to me than the game right now. I appreciate the fact that you are discussing this on the guild forums and I have really enjoyed playing with you guys. It was a good run and we had a great guild full of awesome professional players. I encourage you to leave alts here and stay in touch with those who do not move on.

I really do wish them all the luck in the world, they are skilled players who take time to learn fights and get geared and ready to go. The guild they are moving to, ONSLAUGHT, has a lot of great people as well and I think it's going to be a good fit for them. I did some raids with them recently as an additional healer and it was a well run raid.

I guess I knew this was a possibility when I named the guild Limited Warranty, it was for me and my friends to have a place to chat and hang out in game. Now, many of the founding members of the guild are contemplating quitting the game.

As for me...the autobilling is turned off, April 29 is the expiration date. The problem now is, what do I do with my time after my projects are over? Any suggestions?

State of the Toons update

2009-04-04T18:11:00.003-04:00

To help with my burnout and the massive time sink this game has become, I have tried to casually level my old main -Bumwaller, the Resto Druid, who is now specced as a Moonkin.

So far it has been pretty easy going and I have him up to 75 and I'm about halfway to 76. I can't wait to get the ability to fly again - I miss Flight Form herbalism. Being able to swoop in and pick what I need and get the hell out, without fighting anything if I don't want to, is awesome.

Okole - the Resto Shammy has been filling in as a raid healer in Naxx 25 and OS 25. I have gotten some nice gear upgrades and had fun running with ONSLAUGHT. They are a great bunch of guys and run the raids professionally. My problem is that I'm not sure I am cut out to be a raider, or at least a progression raider. Time will tell on this one - if I miss raiding, thne I will know.

Namenivob - the Hunter, just doing some randon DE work, no leveling at all.

Badhoof - the DK, just can't seem to get the hang of playing a DK. I may delete him and be done with it.

So that's it. I'm feeling kinda burned out still, but I like the game and I'm trying to find the balance that keeps me playing, but not feeling burned out. Can I find the balance?

Still undecided

2009-03-15T20:30:00.002-04:00

I still don't know exactly what to do as far as my account goes. Over the past week I PUGged OS and Naxx 25 and had a lot of fun, even though the Naxx group couldn't get past Patchwerk and was kinda disorganized. The chaos was kinda nice and it passed the time well.

I have a feeling that I will continue the account but limit the playtime to times when everyone else is watching TV or projects are finished. I have a number of projects planned for the outside of the house and yard, so that should keep me busy for a while.

My future game direction is probably achievements, 5 man guild runs and PUGging raids when I am needed and have the time to commit. Right now I am leaning that way - but that is still subject to change.

What to do?

2009-03-01T14:27:00.001-05:00

I recently found out that one of guildies is quitting in a few days and another quit a few days ago. I don't mean "quit the guild", I mean "quit playing WoW". This has lead me to ponder my Warcrafting future.

I like hanging out with the guys and chatting it up, the guild is having issues fielding 10 toons for Naxx raiding, and with 2 quitting that is not going to get better anytime soon. I have not had a lot of luck with recruiting and I don't want to give up the guild I have. As far as progression goes, we have hit a wall as a guild. Sure, we can all PuG the raids and still get some gear, but that is not a guild event. I am not really sure if I enjoy playing the game anymore or if I just enjoy the people. So I am making a step, still reversible, that will somehow alter my future in this game.

My current subscription is paid through April 29, and I have canceled the recurring billing renewal on the account. So, in effect, my account is currently canceled.

Not what I had hoped for

2009-02-28T16:39:00.002-05:00

We did a guild run of Heroic Nexus - easy mode right? Not so much, we wiped on the Mage chick 3 times...3 freaking times. I hadn't wiped on her since we did it the first time. And then she didn't even drop the bracers that I keep running that place to get. I was just not on my game, and neither was the tank. We seemed to be fighting our instincts and thinking too much about what to do next. That is not the way I usually play, I am much more instinctive.

The good news, though, is our newest 80 Mage got a couple upgrades while we were in there, so it's not all bad.

Patch 3.1 PTR Notes

2009-02-24T09:33:00.002-05:00

Moving one step closer, the PTR notes are up for 3.1

This is the patch that will bring us dual specs and make me a very happy Resto Shaman, with an Elemental leaning. Most of my gear should translate pretty well between both specs and I have been consulting lootrank.com to put together a shopping list of DPS-centric gear as I go along.

It looks like the cost for getting your dual spec will be 1,000G, which is about what I had figured. Not a trivial amount, but most 80s won't have a problem handing it over to gain a second spec. I'm wondering if we might be able to add slots later, like we do with our bank? I would envision that cost going up incrementally to obtain each additional slot.

Matthew Rossi at wowinsider.com wrote a great article on the propsed changes, which you can find here.

It looks like Shamans are getting some love, no major nerfs to the way I play. I am not a huge raider, so the Bloodlust change (5 min CD, 10 min Debuff) is not critical to me. Usually we only use it at the final few percentage of the boss fights to speed it up a bit. That may change and will affect hardcore raiders and 25 man progression guilds a lot more that it does for me.

All in all, I like what I am seeing for this patch so far.

My thoughts on recent raiding

2009-02-20T14:20:00.002-05:00

A post I made to my guild website:

So...yeah...

After reflecting on the runs we had over the past week, I have come to the conclusion that we probably need to do some more work in heroics to farm gear and badges for gear.

If you would like to PUG the raids, you have my support. But, I'm not sure that we are totally ready to be raiding as a guild quite yet. A couple of weeks of heroics should make a HUGE difference for all of us.

Recruiting is also something that will need to be focused on and I have made a macro that I will be using when I'm around the major cities. I will post it if you want to see it and use it as a template. We have 8 solid players, and 3 or 4 that are possibles based on their schedules, so we really only need to recruit a few more. Another healer, or a respec from the guild, and DPS with CC are our main needs at this point.

What do you think?

I got positive feedback on this post and we have tried a few more heroics. I am always struggling with where a casual guild stops and a progression guild starts. And where do I wanna be, anyway? With a small guild am I being unrealistic with my expectations?

I really like the crew I am playing with and I want everyone to be happy with the content we are doing, and still maintain the balance we have had. I guess it comes down to the fact that I like the people better than the content.

I love my guildies

2009-02-13T00:04:00.001-05:00

Our regular OT and I decided to run some Heroic Violet Hold to break up our boredom....bad idea. We got one of those PUGs. You know the one, where the guy barely breaking 1K DPS is harassing the tank and healer and telling us we aren't doing the instance right. He went so far to say that I should go back and do it on regular to learn the fights.

Now, I'm not "pro" or "elite" of any of that, but I am a solid healer. I don't like being called out like that by a Unholy DK only doing 1100DPS. I know he should be doing better, our DKs pump out high mid 2000s regularly.

That wasn't the point of the post, really. The point is this - I love running with my guild, there is no venom or belittling each other. I don't understand why people do it, but I'm glad my crew doesn't.

So for those Limited Warranty guys who might read this - Thank you for being so professional and awesome.

Over the fence we went

2009-02-11T18:02:00.002-05:00

We made it over the fence!

Only 9 showed up for the Naxx run, but that is a significant portion of our small guild. Almost everyone was on time-ish, repaired, ready to go.

There was some confusion on where to start, so we tried the first spider boss - I forget the name. We took 3 shots at him with the 9 we had, only Mishandala and me healing. We only got him to around 50% and decided to move into the plague quarter.

Noth the Plaguebringer went down easily for us and Kariki and Mishandala were able to grab some nice upgrades. The night ended shortly after that, as 2 of our team had to study for midterms - eduation comes first.

Overall I was pleased with our performance and we downed a boss. I know some of you laugh and say Naxx is EZMode, but we are pretty casual and didn't raid a lot in BC either. I am proud of the crew that went and we will be downing more bosses in the near future.

Here goes nothing...

2009-02-10T18:03:00.002-05:00

I have scheduled a guild run of Naxxramas for tonight. A lot of people have been asking about doing it and I am throwing my hat over the fence*.

I sent an invite using the in-game calendar, and the guild website, to all the level 80s in the guild. I'm hoping that everyone can show up, ready to go and we can get some raiding going. I will be very disappointed if it does not happen. I really think we have a great group of players and we can be successful - if everyone is dedicated. That might be where there is an issue.

Getting this organized has not gone as smoothly as I would like. I have gotten very few responses on raid night and time preferences. We are set for tanks and healers, but the DPS is where we are lacking. I hate to resort to PUGging it, but we may have to.

I have so many thought swirling in my head right now, and some of them will make it to this blog later tonight. Stay tuned.

* "Throwing my hat over the fence" - based on a story I heard once, don't remember where. A guy was trying to decide whether to climb over the fence (for some reason or another) and was having a hard time deciding what to do. So, on impulse he tossed his hat over the fence. Now he is left with two choices - go get it or forget about the hat. It's an expression of forcing yourself into a decision.

I'm an Elder

2009-01-31T23:53:00.002-05:00

Another of the "holiday" achievements has been accomplished successfully. This one wasn't terribly hard, but it was time consuming to track down all 75 of the elders. I like the "Elder" title, I think it fits my character pretty well and I will probably be wearing it most of the time.

It was pretty easy to get into the Alliance cities to visit the elders and I only died on the way out of Stormwind when I accidentally ran into the auction house. So it goes.

The dungeons were easy enough and it allowed us to get some additional heroic runs in, to get some extra rep.

Next up is the "Love is in the Air" event, looks like there might be a few tricky steps in there and a lot more PvP to get the next title.

We can be heroes

2009-01-10T11:32:00.002-05:00

So, Limited Warranty has begun doing our heroic runs recently and so far have plowed through Nexus, Utgarde Keep and Culling of Stratholme, and have made it part way through Violet Hold.

Things I learned:

The resto build I am using is much better for healing heroics but not as good for the questing and dailies, still manageable, it just takes longer.
UK and Nexus are actually not too bad on heroic, we went through both with very few wipes. We adapted to the fights very quickly and got some loot upgrades.
The Violet Hold VoidWalker boss SUCKS! We were not able to get past him and gave up. We need to research that one a bit more. We did down the boss with the spheres successfully.
Meathook kinda sucks, he is by far the hardest boss we fought in Culling of Stratholme. His Constricting Chains attack always seemed to hit me, the healer, and kill me first. We finally got a good strategy on him after multiple wipes and I think we should be okay next time we try it.
Prince Arthas in Culling of Stratholme would be booted from any PuG I was running. He doesn't follow kill orders, runs ahead of the party, aggros damn near everything, and is a whiny little bitch when he pulls the whole room and goes down. Seriously though, his AI kinda torgues me and those gauntlet pulls can get dicey when he aggroes the group past the one you are working on.
Last, but certainly not least - I love my guild and the people in it. We work pretty good together and, even in frustration, work to get a solution and get our strategy worked out. Great job guys!

A good night for the guild

2008-12-30T03:33:00.003-05:00

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.

Rise of the Druid

2008-12-28T13:36:00.002-05:00

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.

DING 80!

2008-12-13T11:28:00.003-05:00

Finally...

2008-12-11T19:22:00.002-05:00

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.

Going Ape!

2008-12-10T07:57:00.003-05:00

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.

Macros and Me - part 1

2008-12-07T14:22:00.003-05:00

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.

That was EPIC!

2008-12-06T19:11:00.002-05:00

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.

I believe I can fly!

2008-12-02T18:13:00.002-05:00

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.

Catching Up

2008-11-24T11:05:00.006-05:00

Well, it's been a week or so since the Wrath install and I have no posted anything about what I've been doing, so it's time to catch up.

Okole - Level 74. The Shaman has been my main so far in Wrath and is now at level 74 and making good steady progress. I'm not beating any speed records in leveling, but that is the way I play. I've done all of Howling Fjord, a beautiful place to level. I'm about half way the way through Borean Tundra, focusing on the Coldarra quests.

I have run Utgarde Keep a number of times and The Nexus only once. Both instances were pretty fun, not too much trash and the boss fights had some challenges, but not insanely difficult. I still have not upgraded a lot of gear, a few sidegrades here and there but nothing major. Some of the crew I usually run with have started to replace gear and I hope to soon - I really like the look of the Northrend armor.

I have been healing most of the runs, I have come up with a hybrid build that still allows me to do decent solo damage to quest and be viable in the instances - currently 40/0/25, working to 41/0/30 - this seems to be working okay for me and I will tweak as necessary. I really hope they deliver on the dual spec idea so I can go a little deeper in Resto for heroics and raids at 80.

Bumwaller - Level 70. Parked in Warsong Hold gathering rest. I should get him going so I can get Alchemy/Herb up and make some potions and elixirs for the guild.

Namenivob - Level 60. Parked in Shattrath. Just not having a lot of fun playing him right now.

Badhoof - Level 55 Death Knight. Parked in Ebon Hold gathering rest. Ya, I made one. I haven't done anything with it, but I might if I get bored.

The day has come!

2008-11-13T00:27:00.002-05:00

So, it's just pat midnight and I am installing the Lich King expansion. There were quite a number of people standing around in the rain at our local GameStop, but we were all in good spirits and talking the talk that always happens when a bunch of WoW addicts get together. It's always interesting to see the different people that show up for these releases. Kids, adults, geeks, nerds, profesionals, you name it.

The GameStop had pizza and soda that they were giving away to all the people waiting in line and had a few drawings for gift cards, which was pretty cool.

YAY! Install is done...see ya in Northrend.

Servers are borked

2008-11-11T19:49:00.002-05:00

The servers have not come back up yet from the scheduled Tuesday maintenance. It's 7:50 pm EST and they have been down since about 8:00 am. Apparently there is some problem with the mail. I hope this all gets resolved soon - tomorrow is a big day!

As someone who works in IT in my real life and has a responsibility for communications servers, I definitely do not envy them. It's bad enough when you miss an expected maintenance period and have 400 users - I can't imagine having 11 million wanting to know when the server will be up.

Good Luck guys!

Just killing time...and Onyxia

2008-11-10T18:43:00.003-05:00

What else is there to do as we wait out the last few days until Wrath? Narandia and I headed off to Blackrock Depths to get the Shadowforge key, BRD Achievement, and Molten Core attunement. We duoed they whole place and got the achievement and attunement for Narandia - I already had them.

Then we got a couple of guildies together and killed the Broodmother of the Black Dragonflight to gain the achievement. The Onyxia fight was fun, but I kinda wish I could have seen when it was still a big deal. As it is now, I turned in the head to Overlord Runthak about 10 seconds after another group turned in theirs. Still, it was fun and a first for me and most of the others.

That was kinda fun

2008-11-08T12:14:00.003-05:00

So yesterday we decided to take a break from farming rep and doing low level achievements to run some level appropriate instances.

We ran Shattered Halls with a gorillidan (where did that word come from?) as the main tank. Claz brought his trusty Marv to do the aggro job and it went pretty well actually. There were a few wipes, but overall it was pretty darn smooth and Claz and Marv did an absolutley great job.

Then we decided to do Magisters Terrace. That place is tough for me for some reason. We did not use Marv for that one - instead Greatjohn was bear tanking the place. We had a lot of wipes while figuring out the pulls and fights and which mob to sheep/mind contol/etc and trying some different stategies. We made it through, dropped Kael'thas Jr. and I even got...a Phoenix Hatchling.

I was disappointed with the number of wipes and my number of deaths, but it wasn't horrible healing coming from an Elemental Shaman - I have to occasionaly remind myself that I'm not Resto. I really hope they come along with the dual-spec idea.

I'm having an identity crisis

2008-10-28T09:57:00.002-04:00

When I started playing the game, during my trial period, I had a rogue and only got to level 20 or so on whatever realm I got assigned to. Then the people who introduced me to Warcraft told me what realm they played on and I rolled a hunter there. That was my "main" for quite a while until we needed an additional healer in the guild and I decided to try a druid. I fell in love with the playstyle of the balance tree and my "main" became the druid and I leveled him to 70. At some point I got bored and rolled a shaman to level as an alt. I leveled him to 70 as well. So, now I find myself logging into the shaman far more often that the druid. With the shaman, I can still heal when we go into dungeons and I can DPS when needed. I seem to be enjoying playing the shaman more, but I still like the druid.

The question then arises...who is my "main"? I'm starting to feel that it has become Okole, the shaman. Not by choice, but in practice, it just kind of happened. I am feeling a bit of guilt over this, like I'm having an affair. Have any of you ever felt this way?

The plague

2008-10-27T18:10:00.003-04:00

When you see a floating necropolis from the Lower Rise at Thunder Bluff, there must be something big going on. Sure enough, it looks like world events are starting in preparation of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. There are plagued ghouls and zombies all over the major cities and wandering the landscape of Azeroth. There are also Necrotic Shards, that are spawning at various locations and spawning undead that need to be dispatched and are dropping Necrotic Runes that can be used as currency to buy various items from the Argent Dawn Quartermaster. I picked up a Tabard of the Argent Dawn and nabbed a Feat of Strength achievement and added another tabard to my collection, it looks good too.

It appears that the initial plague is over, a cure has been found by the Royal Apocathery Society and the zombies attack has been stopped. I have my doubts that this is over though. 16 days until we can get to Northrend!

Achievements make you do strange things...

2008-10-25T14:25:00.004-04:00

They sure do. That is the picture of Ariki, Mishandala and Okole fishing in Ironforge. We didn't really set out to fish in Ironforge, we strated by clearing Gnomeregan for that achievement and the get the Workshop Key, and just kinda decided...why not?

We only had one poor hunter try to challenge us and we dispatched him easily. After our adventure fishing with the dwarves, we decided to take the tram to Stormwind. Mish got on okay, I missed the tram and met a nice hunter and his core hound who promptly killed me...Ariki ran down the tram tunnel all the way to Stormwind. I rezzed in Elwynn forest - crap. So I took the 25% penalty and spirit rezzed and headed to Stormwind. We got our Fishing Diplomat acievements and they logged out.

I, however, ran into another guildie and we decided to run through Deadmines to kill Van Cleef and get that acievement. I did this with a level 29 set of Bloody Brass Knuckles from an earlier SM run. I kinda like the achievements, it gives us something to do and tends to be a social gathering time.

Horseman and Zombies...oh my!

2008-10-23T09:35:00.002-04:00

Alright, finally got most of the addons working and starting having some fun with the guildies. We have been plowing through the Headless Horseman and working on the Hallow's End achievement. I am just needing the Sinister Squashling and I will have everything I need for the "the Hallowed" title. I have seen it drop, but haven't managed to win the roll yet...yet.

And now it seems the long rumored world event has begun, the zombie invasion. Some players are going out of their way to become infected and turn to zombies so they can run around and infect others, this seems to be fun for them. Well, I enjoy healing and when I see someone afflicted with a disease - I need to cure them! This has gotten me some very rude comments and suggestions on fornicating with myself. But, we all have fun in our own ways. LOL

Almost back to normal...almost

2008-10-17T10:18:00.003-04:00

After a few days of updating addons and getting my UI layout just he way I want it, I'm back to actually playing the game. There are aspects of it that make it seem like a whole new game and that is the way I have been trying to approach it.

There is so much complaining out there on changes that have been made are are still to be made. So far I haven't seen anything that drastically affecting how I play the game. Having said that, I'm not a min-max hardcore raider that would even notice a losss of 5% DPS on a DoT or whatever. I have specced my Shaman into Elemental again and I'm having a blast killing things very quickly. My Druid is back to mostly Resto with some points in Balance to help out with the damage. My builds are probably not the MOST effective they can be, but they match my style.

Which brings me to another point - why do people give others such grief over they way they spend their points. Certainly there are some choices that are questionable, but the player MUST have had a reason for selecting the build that they did. If it doesn't work, they can change it. I have a lot of respect for the people that build a spec that works for them and not just for the T6 wearing raider that saw the build on Elistist Jerks.

Addon Hell

2008-10-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

As was to be expected...many of my addons are not working. SO, I am spending some time digging around looking for the updated versions. WoWMatrix is helping, but some are just outright new versions, so the updating process does not help all that much. Bartender3 is now Bartender4, for example.

I am impressed by what I have seen visually so far - I'll report in later on game play, hopefully.

Gah!

2008-10-14T18:50:00.002-04:00

The servers are still down - it's almost 7:00pm Eastern Time and I want to get in there and see what is new...but I can't.

Oh, I know I'm not the only one and I am feeling for everyone who cannot get in yet, and for the Blizzard employees who are trying to get the servers up and answering all the calls form the really impatient ones who I am sure are calling already. I'm doing my best to stay calm, updating addons, reading forums, that sort of thing. But I sure hope they come up soon.

Progress!

2008-10-13T09:27:00.002-04:00

I've got epic flight, exalted rep with Aldor and SSO, 1000 Gold and primary professions maxed out on both toons that will be heading into Northrend. All that is left of the goals is fishing with the Shaman (316) currently.

So - in the words of guildmate Claz/Greatjohn/Narandia - "I sooo can't wait for the new patch".

I have been doing some BG to get honor points and maybe pick up the Merciless shoulders for my Shaman, they look nice and that is the reason I'm getting them. Minor increase in stats, but the looks are what is drawing me in. What can I say, vanity is a curse.

new laptop is running WoW like a champ

2008-10-09T16:11:00.005-04:00

I ordered a new laptop recently and it arrived yesterday and I got it all loaded up and copied my Warcraft folder over and spent some time tweaking it out. The resolution is much higher, so I had to redo my carefully crafted layout to get everything where I wanted it. This is an obsession with me...I have some OCD tendencies and I have an addon - Align - that makes a nice grid on the screen that helps me get everything lined up just the way I like it.

So after spending a bit of time on that, I decide to embark on the dailies. I usually avoided the Isle because the amount of players and movement made my frame rate drop to 4 or 5 - I never really got a framerate better than 15 while playing ANYWHERE. So, off to the bombing and a solid 60 fps and 1 pass and all objectives complete. Nice.

I removed the Vertical Sync option and the framerate shot up to over 200! The downside of that is the fans went into overdrive and they do get a little loud. 60 is great, so I turned the vertical sync back on and I'm a happy camper at a solid 60 fps.

All of this is at 1440x900 with all the options turned up to max and man was I missing alot of detail before. Little things - but really cool llittle thnings. I have so much detail on now that I occasionally get lost because things no longer look the same as they did and I miss "my" landmarks.

I am very happy that I got this before the patch and expansion - now bring on Northrend!

Progress on goals

2008-10-07T13:38:00.002-04:00

1. Max out professions - only cooking (374) and fishing (302) left on Okole
2. Get to Exalted with Shattered Sun and Aldor - Okole only needs to get SSO, cranking the dailies out every day.
3. 500G per character - should still be set on this.
4. Get all gear enchanted/gemmed - Hopefully, after the patch these will all still make sense, but may need to change a bit.
5. Bank some quests for quick XP when the expansion is released - going for Gold instead
6. Epic Flight - putting the money together for Okole - 600G to go and I'll be content to spend the 5K.
7. Brewfest mounts and bosses - got both caster trinkets for both toons, no mounts though.
8. Hallow's End events and bosses - still awaiting this one.

The end is near...

2008-10-01T13:41:00.002-04:00

Blizzard has made an announcement that is leading many people to believe that the new content patch will be released on October 14th. What they actually said was that Arena Season 4 will end with patch 3.0.2 and then later stated that Season 4 will end on October 14. So the quick deduction is that patch 3.0.2 = October 14.

So be it. Slightly less than 2 weeks and we get some new stuff and changes to old stuff. A just a few days after that they are likely going to be sending all of us to Scarlet Monastery to fight some Headless Horseman.

Yeah - Scarlet Monastery is in Tirisfal Glades and just west of the Plaguelands. Not a bad place for the scourge to begin a second assault against the fine folks of Azeroth is it? So could this be the beginnings of a world event scenario? Probably not directly, but they could easily plant seeds during the event that will lead to something in the time between the end of Hallow's end and the 13th of November that will make us want to go kick some Lich King ass.

Instance day for the alts

2008-09-27T22:58:00.003-04:00

I went ahead and respecced my Shaman to Resto and joined Greatjohn (Bear Tank) and Magnu (Ice Mage) - the alts of Claz and Ariki, I've mentioned them before - and Mishandala (Moonkin) and Kariki (Rogue) on their 70s for the daily instance, Arcatraz.

Now, my resto gear wasn't all the great and I was specced Elemental. So, I spent an hour or so grabbing some gear, enchanting it as much as I could, getting some elixirs and potions and visiting the trainer to get myself ready to go. Arcatraz gave us some issues and we wiped a bunch of times while I learned the Shaman style of healing and some of the others honed their characters. We pushed through, clearing out the instance with the exception of Zereketh the Unbound. We just couldn't seek to get that one down, not really sure why.

We jumped over to Botanica to down the first boss, Commander Sarannis, for a quest objective that some had. We were still feeling okay about ourselves and decided that Mechanar looked like a good place to go next. So, after a quick break, in we went to get the key from Pathaleon. And after some issues we did just that. Again, we just couldn't get Nethermance Sepethrea to die and give up her loot.

It was a lot of fun to be running instances with my guildmates and friends again. It wasn't super smooth, but many of us were learning new class playstyles and upgrading our gear for future runs. The rustiness was evident in the early part of the day and got better as we went along. I got a number of good drops that are upgrades for both my Elemental and Restoration sets. So, I am back to healing again - I actually do enjoy it.

We had one of "those" PuGs

2008-09-26T13:26:00.003-04:00

Yeah - you know the one. It was for the Brewfest Boss, Coren Direbrew, and the hope of some trinkets and kodo, (kodos, kodoes - what is the plural of kodo?).

A little background on our setup is in order. I took my Druid. Even though I was currently specced as feral for tanking, I put on my healing set which still gave me 1675 healing or so. I have healed this fight with this spec and gear a number of times already so I knew it would be fine. Ariki and Claz decided to take their alts along to get them some goodies and I though everything would be okay with that - it should have been.

Ariki is our main tank Prot warrior - he brought his 70 Ice Mage. This mage is decent, a few instance runs along the way, not geared to the teeth but passable.

Claz is our main Hunter - he brough his feral tank Druid. This toon has been a 70 for only a few days and he's still gearing it up, but has the Clefthoof set, Staff of Slumber and some other pieces and I thought I could heal him okay.

We PuGged in a fire mage and a rogue of some flavor. The mage said he had done the fight before but the rogue had not. No big deal, the rest of us had done it and I felt good about it. Let's get some loot!

No so fast. We start the event - I don't remember who - and the Bear goes in and starts to grab aggro. Before he can establish a solid threat lead the rogue unloads and pulls aggro from our bear and is promptly dead. Crap. The fire mage decides to start hitting the non elite spawns and they came after him and...dead. These guys went down quick. Okay - just the Limited Warranty guys left, and I tried to keep Greatjohn going but we were behind the 8-ball and wiped.

We try again. Almost a carbon copy of the first time with the same results.

So we decide to swap in Ariki and Claz and I do a little inspecting while we wait for them to get the mains. The fire mage is wering mostly Merciless gear that has no gems in the sockets...really? I asked him why and he said he didn't have any to put in there. Wow. I mentioned this in guild chat and got the response of "eBay?". I laughed.

Meanwhile the rogue is berating me and asking why I'm not in Tree of Life. So I explain that I'm feral specced for tanking and wearing my healing gear. Suddenly I become the reason for the wipes - "Our healer is DPS spec, no wonder we are wiping". What should I expect from a rogue name Eviscarape? So next attempt I clear Recount to have a good picture of what is happening. One again the rogue is down within a minute and we do wipe, but It's a much better attempt. I post the Recount showing DPS and the rogue drops group.

We brought in a raiding geared 'lock and kicked his Coren's ass on all following attempts. Of course, the trinkets that dropped were useless to the people there or they already had them - no mounts. I did get the Dark Brewmaiden though to go with my Direbrew Hops and Smoking Pipe from the previous attempts.

I rellay would like the guys to get their alts in to get some goodies, but it wasn't to be on that night.

Things to do before Wrath

2008-09-19T13:32:00.002-04:00

Lately it seems that everyone is posting something along these lines and I think I'll follow their lead. There are a few things I'd still like to do before Wrath, some are to help me out in the new content, some are achievements and some are just for fun. So these are the things I want to do with my Northrend bound cows. Namenivob will be staying behind for now.

1. Max out professions - Bumwaller is maxed, Okole needs a little bit of work in leatherworking, cooking and fishing.
2. Get to Exalted with Shattered Sun and Aldor - Done on Bum, Okole is working on it.
3. 500G per character - got that easily covered right now.
4. Get all gear enchanted/gemmed - This is all set for my primary specs, but I want to get the off spec sets finished up and ready for early instance runs.
5. Bank some quests for quick XP when the expansion is released - still debating on this, but it could be a nice jump toward 71.
6. Epic Flight - Bum has is, Okole doesn't. It won't be available for use in Northrend until 77, but I'm thinking I want to spend the money now while I have it and not have to worry about it later.
7. Brewfest mounts and bosses - might as well get the trinkets and mounts that are available during the holiday season. Also, acheivements to obtain.
8. Hallow's End events and bosses - more loot and possible acheivements.

That's all I can think of right now - but there is probably more.

WoW - just wow!

2008-09-15T09:35:00.003-04:00

A number of usually reliable sources are reporting (with huge graphical ads on the front page) that the release date for Lich King will be November 13, 2008. WoWHead and Thottbot both are showing the ad as the basis for their homepages. EDIT - This has been confirmed by Blizzard at their site.

I am shocked at the announcement, not because of the date which we all seemed to think would be around that time, but because I expected this announcement at Blizzcon. So now what is the big thing at Blizzcon? An announcement about something new maybe?

I guess now will be the time for me to grind out some rep and collect recipes and finish leveling up my tradeskills. I don't see the point in trying to collect gear that will probably be replaced by questing, and I don't raid much so I don't worry about the tier tokens.

We should also get a big content patch in before Wrath, so probably early to mid October, that will revamp our talent trees and refund all talent points. That will take so trial and error to get a spec that I want to go into Wrath with on two different toons. We have discussed maybe doing some Shadow Labs or Magisters Terrace runs with new specs to see how things are looking and where we might need to make changes. That should give us someting to do to fill our idle hours.

I'm still torn over whether to try to get the epic flyer for the Shaman or wait until I can use it in Northrend. We'll see how much I want to fly fast as I do dailies over the next 2 months.

I got a beta key!

2008-09-12T07:59:00.001-04:00

Yes - you read that right. I got an invite to the Lich King beta in my email this morning and I'm on my way to downloading the client and all the patches. I'll report back when I actually get it installed. Now if only that new laptop would get here...

playing as Feral

2008-09-08T18:07:00.002-04:00

I did some grinding on Elemental Plateau to try to get my kitty DPS rotations in line. It was pretty interesting to see the big DPS crits and my gear isn't even all that great. The only downfall is that elementals are immune to bleed effects, so Mangle was not nearly as effective as it could have been.

I also tanked Vanndar in a recent Alterac Valley match, that was a lot of fun. Kinda hard to keep him focused on me though with all the other DPS going crazy around me. I also tanked two of the NPCs a the aid station while they were burned down by the DPS. We won the battleground and it was exciting, definately a different than when I heal the group.

I just downloaded Rawr and I'm going to try that out and see what it does for me. I've heard a lot of people saying good things about. If I can make it work and it seems pretty decent, I'll try to write a bit about it in the future.

OPERATION: Feral Respec

2008-09-06T02:37:00.002-04:00

Still very much a work in progress, but I'm going to try my hand at tanking 5-man content.

I've skipped most of the feral rewards as I leveled, so gearing up is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I made the Heavy Clefthoof set with my Shaman, so that cover chest, legs and feet. I picked up the Merciless Gladiator Spaulders and Gladiator gloves - only to discover the different sets don't combine the way s1, s2, s3 and s4 do (so I lost the 35 resilience bonus). I will be hitting the battlegrounds to upgrade those gloves to get the bonus. Got a Braxis Staffof Slumber, which is pretty nice. Dug out some old trinkets that have feral friendly stats.

I paid my gold, assigned talent points, equipped everything and saw the highest armor number I have ever had. It was over 15K - holy carp! and that is with no gems and no enchants, and still wearing a load of resto gear. Wow. I will work on this some more tomorrow and then...time to take it on the chin and see if I can actually lead a group through a dungeon.

Green with envy

2008-09-04T17:51:00.003-04:00

I have to admit it, I am jealous. One of my co-workers received a Lich King beta key invite this morning in the latest round of invites.

The good news is that I will be able to see the beta very soon. He is still in the process of downloading all the required patches. I'll try to give an impression of what I am able to glimpse over his shoulder.

Lucky bastard....

damn - I suck

2008-08-31T14:02:00.004-04:00

I always hear about how Resto Druids are OP in Arenas. Well, not this Resto - I suck, I really do. Now granted, I don't spend a lot of time PvPing and I don't really like the Arenas as much as I like the Battlegrounds. I don't spend hours min-maxing my spec and gear and I only have some Season 2 and BG reward pieces. Maybe my senses are dulled and I just don't react fast enough. I really don't know but I'm not very good at it.

The good part is that, for the most part, my team doesn't seem to care all that much. It does get frustrating when we lose 7 or 8 out of 10 every week, but we don't yell at each other about it. We get the gear we can buy and we keep trying. And it makes our wins that much more exciting.

That's positive thinking at work right there!

Now what?

2008-08-30T19:40:00.002-04:00

I did it, I got Okole to level 70. This is my second 70 and it went a lot faster than the first time around. I'm guessing partly because I knew what the quests held and because I had another toon to raise money with to get the things I needed. Oh yeah - and I followed a leveling guide. I have noticed a lot of people using Quest Helper lately, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

I'm wondering what to do now. I am scoring the wikis and various gear sites to find out where the upgrades to my Elemental set are and where to get some decent Resto pieces for when I am needed to heal. I'm also looking very closely at putting together a Feral tanking set for Bumwaller and learning how to tank. Then I, the real me, should be able to fill any spot the guild needs with those 2 characters. 2 Healer, 1 Tank, 1 DPS and numerous hybrid build to choose from.

But, the first thing I'm gonna do is go get a flying mount, off to Shaowmoon Valley.

A final push for the Shaman

2008-08-29T16:27:00.003-04:00

Okay - so I've been pounding away with my Shaman to make sure I can get him to 70 before the Lich King shows up and forces me to level some more. I have been using Jame's Leveling Guides to help my optimize my play time and I am now only 50% of a level away from dinging the big Seven-Oh.

I am really digging the Elemental spec. I played my Druid as Moonkin when he was DPS so I guess that is defines my play style. Nuke 'em at range and melee/instant cast when they get close. It is pretty easy for me to switch to healing when needed to patch myself up or for group quests. I am going to try to keep the Shaman as DPS, but I am collecting some healing pieces in case I need to main heal.

Trying to gather all the mats I can to level my leatherworking and get the Netherstrike and Netherfury sets for the move into Northrend and maybe to make a Clefthoof set for the Druid to try some tanking - just for fun and to let our tanks run instances with their alts.

WoW - Big news!

2008-08-26T08:48:00.002-04:00

So - it looks like Wrath of the Lich King might be closer than we think. I say might because with Blizzard it's hard to tell what they are up to as far as fixed dates. But we got this post in the official Warcraft forums from Eyonix:

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King approaching, we wanted to provide you with some important information. In preparation for the expansion, we will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks. Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade's release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes and additions.

We have outlined some of the larger features scheduled to release with the patch below:

New class spells and talents
Stormwind Harbor
Barbershops in capital cities
Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
Guild calendar
Hunter pet skill revamp
New profession: Inscription

As mentioned above, this is not a comprehensive list, just some of the major highlights. We’ll post the full patch notes as soon as they’re available. Regarding Inscription, please note that all Burning Crusade players will be able to select Inscription as one of their two professions and level up to a skill level of 375 with it. Upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King, players who purchase and install the expansion will be able to continue leveling in Inscription and the other professions beyond 375.

That is pretty freaking cool - but what can we learn from that? Let's look at what's going on in the coming weeks.

Sept 8-13 - Harvest Festival
Sept 18 - Warhammer online release
Sept 20-Oct 4 - Brewfest
Oct 10-11 - Blizzcon
Oct 18-Nov1 - Hallow's End

In the past the Harvest festival and Brewfest content were in the same download patch. That could be a very convenient place to put the download for the new stuff. This could be a really slick marketing move by Blizzard to keep wandering eyes from looking at Warhammer too much. I will admit I was thinking of trying the beta, but now...not so sure. This also gives those players who are getting a little bored something to do in the way of "fluff" content. Two special events with associated trinkets and goodies and some of the new content to experiment with.

That takes us to Blizzcon which is just foaming at the mouth for a major announcement. A release date maybe? Or an upcoming world event that has been speculated upon? If it's the world event leading to Lich King, Hallow's End could be a good time to unleash the Scourge on Azeroth. Or at least the content could but stuck into the Hallow's End patch, ready and waiting for the big event.

It is an exciting time and it looks like the boredom may be coming to an end. The Lich King is approaching!

must...post...

2008-08-22T17:58:00.003-04:00

gah - nothing interesting to post about.

I am trying to finish leveling my Shaman to 70.

I haven't logged into my resto Druid in over 2 weeks, but probably should to do a couple dailies.

Having a little bit of fun with my noob Warrior, but am not leveling terribly quickly and I'm falling behind in the "leveling contest". The contest is essentially me getting my ass kicked by the guild's co-leader who levels faster than anyone I personally know.

And that is about it - I haven't been keeping up with all the beta news, but I think I'll try to wade through my RSS reader and see if there is anything that jumps out at me.

I'm so bored, I'm thinking of PUGging some instances just to do something different. Maybe a respec?

Our guild is dead quiet - I hope people come back to playing now that Summer is ending and the expansion is on the horizon.

But maybe that is the problem, too much information about the expansion. People are just not wanting to do much of anything as far as instance runs or even Kara raiding. Maybe they don't want to work on gear that is just going to get replaced, but damn I'm starting to feel a bit rusty at the skills I will need to run things in the future. I like some of the new talents and skills that I am seeing and I want to try them out, but that time is not here yet. Hopefully this will all get better in a couple months when I can hang out in Northrend. I sure hope so, because this kinda sucks right now.

Some Shaman changes in Wrath

2008-08-09T09:54:00.002-04:00

I'm not a terribly experienced Shaman, but here is my take on the new changes that are in the latest Beta build.

Eye of the Storm (Rank 3) Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst and Hex spells. Finally a pushback defense for Lightning Bolt, this should make a lot of people very happy. It's the one thing that I notice most when switching from my Druid to the Shaman.

There are also really awesome glyphs - Here are the ones that really caught my eye, but there are more out there.

Glyph - Healing Wave 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the healing effect when you heal someone else. A nice side effect heal for PvP or group questing. Maybe not as useful in instances, but still pretty cool.

Glyph - Chain Lightning 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Chain Lightning strikes 1 additional target. An extra target hit is a good thing, sometimes it's a very good thing

Glyph - Chain Heal 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Chain Heal heals 1 additional target. Even better, this one will be awesome for raiding Restos.

Glyph - Water Shield 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Water Shield has 3 additional charges. As an Elemental I have this up all the time, more charges means less refreshing.

I am really intrigued by the glyphs that we have seen so far. I don't know if it's enough to make me pick it up as a profession, but it looks pretty darn cool.

Olympics time

2008-08-07T23:52:00.003-04:00

Now this is pretty cool, an in-game Olympic themed tabard and pet. According to reports:

To get the new tabard, you only have to play one battleground. Winning or losing doesn't matter, if you stay for the duration of the battle you will be mailed a Competitor's Tabard.

To get the new pet, you must defeat your rivals in any of the Battlegrounds. With every victory, there is a chance that a Gold Medallion will be mailed to you.

I'm thinking I will be going after these on all my characters that are able to enter a battleground. Looks like the Gold Medallion can be used to summon a Chinese dragon pet. Definitely worth a shot at getting a free pet, and chances are this will be a pretty limited release, or at least only every 2 years at Olympics time - and the pet will be different if they do it again.

ready...set...go!

2008-08-07T18:19:00.002-04:00

To have a little bit of fun I am putting together a leveling contest over at Limited Warranty. I hope to keep people interested and retain some guild continuity while maybe filling some gaps that we currently have in the guild. I have encouraged people to pick classes that they normally do not play so hopefully we'll end up with some options for healers and tanks in the end.

It's gonna be a race from 20 to 60 with rewards at every 10 level increment. At that point maybe the person will want to keep going to 70 and we will have them as an option in Wrath.

Out recruiting efforts seem to be going nowhere, which is depressing. Ultimately I want 12-15 players that have a mix of toons that can fill multiple roles. That should allow us to do instances and 10-man raiding and keep the small unit dynamic going. Maybe I am hoping for too much, but that is my vision.

Spell power and "hybridness*"

2008-08-03T14:20:00.006-04:00

*Hybridness - (adjective) - source: Alex Ziebart, apparently this a measure of the quality of being a hybrid.

The post I linked to discusses the use of spell power as a gear stat in the Lich King beta. Basically the Spellpower stat combines and replaces the separate Spell Damage and Healing statistics that we currently have. This is of great interest to me since the two classes I play the most are Druid and Shaman, 2 0f the 3 hybrid classes in the game. It appears that the coefficients of the spells have been changed so that the damage or healing output stays approximately the same as they were with the 2 sets of stats, and possibly even a little higher although the increase may be based on changes to talents and not on the coefficients. Unfortunately, I do not have a beta key so I just have to rely on the information of others.

What this all really means is that a number of players and classes can increase their "hybridness*" without having multiple sets of gear to do so. I currently have a spell damage set and a healing set for my toons and the need for those may go away. I say may because I'm not sure it really will as far as raiding gear goes, but it will certainly make questing and grinding easier without changing gear. My concern is other stats on the gear and enchants that you apply to the pieces. The enchants may be changed to reflect this as well, but I'm thinking of Golden and Runic Spellthread as I write this. You might even find yourself with two of the same piece of equipment and just enchant them differently based on the intended use.

This will probably increase the competition for drops in raids between the specs, but it also might decrease the amount of gear that gets sharded in a run. My other hope is that it increases the amount of gear that is available for my toons - Leather and Mail with Spellpower. The bad part is that we all might start looking like carbon copies of each other, unless there is so much gear with similar stats that it allows us to customize our looks.

Ding 67!

2008-08-03T14:03:00.002-04:00

Okole managed to ding 67 while questing in Terrokar Forest, much earlier than I did with Bumwaller. I'm not sure if it's because I've done these quests before or what, but the leveling has seemed pretty easy from 65 on. I got a little discouraged between 60 and 65, maybe because of the the accelerated leveling from 20 to 60 ending and the XP requirements going up, but that seems to have passed now.

My gear is still not great, I really haven't run any dungeons for upgrades lately due to our lack of tanks and the guild shrinkage. I've got some ideas on how to improve this that I'm mulling over in my head and I just haven't put them into action yet. I need to dwell on them for a few more days to make sure it really is what I want to do and then I'll give it a shot.

Doing a little Shammy healing

2008-08-02T15:27:00.004-04:00

I have been working on putting together some pieces for Okole's healing set. These have been mostly quest rewards or drops that I get while questing. I've been doing some spot healing in the battlegrounds and while running groups quests, but haven't tried an instance yet. I'd like to get a bit more gear before I try that - unless it's with guildies that will cut me a little slack if things don't go well.

I do miss the HoT of the Druid style of healing, the Shaman heals are bigger but seem a bit more wasteful if you are trying to keep a tank topped off. Maybe it's just me and I'm not used to it yet, but it seems I have more options at my disposal with the Druid style of healing. I'm not giving up on it yet and will continue to do the Ele-Resto build for a while. I'm trying to keep my eyes and opinion open and watch the upcoming changes in Wrath for both of the specs.

Glyphs for Druids

2008-07-29T08:50:00.003-04:00

Most people have heard by now that we will be able to add glyphs to a character to make some changes to abilities we already have. Here are the glyphs that have been discovered so far that affect the Druids. Looks like a lot of really nice stuff and a number of changes that will be beneficial to a each of the specs.

Druid

Glyph of Natural Force (Class: Druid) - Empowers a Greater Glyph to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting your Wrath spells by 50%.
Glyph of Moonfire (Class: Druid) - Empowers a Lesser Glyph to reduce the rage cost of your Demoralizing Roar by 20.
Glyph of Thorns (Class: Druid) - Empowers a Minor Glyph to reduce the mana cost of your Thorns spells by %s1%.
Glyph of Wild Endurance (Class: Druid) - Empowers a Minor Glyph to increase the duration of your Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild spells by 30 min.
Glyph of the White Bear - Changes the appearance of your bear and dire bear forms to that of a polar bear.- This one will be very popular.
Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration - While Frenzied Regeration is active, healing effects on you are 20% more powerful.
Glyph of Growl - Increases the chance for your Growl ability to work successfully by 8%.
Glyph of Mangle - Increases the duration of Mangle by 6 sec.
Glyph of Swipe - Your Swipe ability now hits 1 additional target.
Glyph of Shred - Increases the damage dealt by Shred to stunned and incapacitated targets by 20%.
Glyph of Rip - Increases the duration of your Rip ability by 3 sec.
Glyph of Rake - Your Rake ability prevents targets from fleeing.
Glyph of Swiftmend - Your Swiftmend ability no longer consumes a Rejuvenation or Regrowth effect from the target.
Glyph of Innervate - Your innervate ability now has an additional 20% strength mana regeneration effect on you in addition to the effect on your primary target.
Glyph of Rebirth - Increases the amount of health on a character brought back to life via Rebirth by 100%.
Glyph of Regrowth - Increases the amount of your initial Regrowth heal by 50% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target.
Glyph of Rejuvenation- While your rejuvenation targets are below 50% health you will heal them for an additional 50% health.
Glyph of Healing Touch - Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 sec., the mana cost by -25% and the amount healed by -50%.
Glyph of Lifebloom - Increases the duration of Lifebloom by 1 sec.- This one I like alot too
Glyph of Starfire - Your Starfall ability increases the duration of your Moonfire effect on the target by 3 sec.
Glyph of Insect Swarm - Increases the damage of your Insect Swarm ability by 30% but it no longer affects your victim's chance to hit.
Glyph of Hurricane - Your Hurricane ability now also slows the movement speed of its victims by -20%.
Glyph of Starfall- Increases the duration of Starfall by 2 sec.
Glyph of Wrath - Increases the chance you'll resist spell interruption when casting your Wrath spell by 50%.
Glyph of Moonfire - Increases the periodic damage of your Moonfire ability by 75% but initial damage is decreased by -90%.
Glyph of Entangling Roots - Increases the damage your Entangling Roots victims can take before the Entangling Roots automatically breaks by 20%.

#$%&*! gankers

2008-07-27T13:18:00.002-04:00

Maybe I'm just cranky today...more that usual, but I am so pissed at these freaking Alliance gankers lately. Now, I'm sure some Horde do it too and those that do are on my poop list too.

This is the scenario - I am questing/grinding/farming/whatever, and my health is dropping. Then I see my Combat Text pop up with Kidney Shot or Pounce and sure enough there is a Druid or Rogue attacking me from behind. Lately it seems that this happens when I am engaged with more than 1 mob to begin with. This is what makes the difference between world PvP and ganking. PvP has some measure of an honorable fight - ganking does not.

I rolled on a PvP server, which at the time I really didn't know what that meant, because some friends that recruited me to the game were already there. I have no problems with true world PvP, seeing an Alliance and facing off against him even if there is an element of surprise. It is not the reason I play the game and I prefer PvE objectives over PvP, but it's a PvP server and that is the way it it. What I dislike is the ganking - which is not PvP.

Ganking is PvEvP. Yep, Player vs. Environment vs. Player. Yeah, I just made that up. If it means so much to you to get the HK by attacking and killing me with the help of 2 other mobs, I feel kinda bad for you as a person. What do you brag about to your friends? "I killed this guy that was 2 levels higher than me while he was at half health and fighting two other mobs." Wow, you're awesome. At least wait until I kill the mobs I'm engaged with with and then pounce or kidney shot...or does that make it too fair for you?

Beta changes for Druids and Shaman

2008-07-25T10:41:00.005-04:00

Some class changes are coming in beta - we should expect to see a lot more of this as this is the purpose of a beta testing phase. Spells, talents and abilities will continue to be changed and tweaked. Her are the ones that are affecting the classes I have been playing. (source - MMO-Champion)

Druid
Balance

Moonkin Form mana cost has been changed from 22% base mana to 538 mana.
Typhoon mana cost has been increased from 475 to 645 and the range changed from 20 to 24 Yards.
Force of Nature mana cost has been changed from 12% base mana to 284 mana. Cooldown has been reduced from 3 to 2 minutes.
Starfall mana cost has been increased from 655 to 866. Range increased from 30 to 36 yards. Damage seems to be changed as well but it looks like the version displayed in the talent calculator isn't the first rank of the spell.

Feral

Faerie Fire range has been increased from 30 to 36 yards.
Primal Tenacity now increases your chance to resist Stun and Fear mechanics by 5/10/15% (Old version : Reduces the duration of Fear effects by 5/10/15% and reduces all damage taken while stunned by 5/10/15%)
Improved Mangle now reduces the cooldown of your Mangle (Bear) ability by 7% (instead of 0.5 sec) and reduces the energy cost of your Mangle (Cat) ability by 2.

Restoration

Tree of Life mana cost reduced from 28% base mana to 978 mana.
Flourish mana cost decreased from 585 to 450. Amount of healing decreased (Rank 1 now heals 672 HP instead of 1610).

Shaman
Elemental

Convection (Tier 1) is now a 3 points talent, reducing the mana cost of Shock, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Thunder and Lava Burst spells by 4%/8%/12% (Old version : 5 points and 2/4/6/8/10%)
Concussion doesn't affect Lava Burst and Thunderstorm anymore.
Storm Reach now also increases the radius of your Thunderstorm spell by 10% along with the range improvement on Lightning Bolt / Chain Lightning.
Elemental precision increases your chance to hit with Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 2/4/6% and reduces the threat caused by these spells by 4/7/10% (Old version : 1/2/3% hit and 10/20/30% threat)
Astral Shift now has a 33/66/100% chance to shift into the Astral Plane reducing all damage taken by 30% (Old version : 100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 10%/20%/30%)
Thunderstorm range increased from 10 to 12 yards, damage increased from 595-679 to 640-729, knockback stays 20 yards.

Enhancement

Improved shields now increases the amount of Mana Shield orbs by 10% instead of 5%, improvements to Lightning Shield and Earth Shield stay the same.
Shamanistic Rage now gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 15% of your attack power. (Old version : mana regeneration equal to 30% of your attack power)
Maelstrom Weapon now reduces the casting time of any spell by 4/8/12/16/20% when you critically hit with a melee weapon. (Old version : was only affecting Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst)
Feral Spirit now lasts 45 seconds instead of 30 seconds.

Restoration

Nature's Guardian cooldown has been changed from 8 to 5 seconds.
Spirit Link now also breaks if a shared damage would reduce a target's health below 20%.

Having some fun...

2008-07-23T19:23:00.002-04:00

Lately it seems that the Guild had kinda stalled out and people really weren't doing too much together. I have been leveling the Shaman and doing some dailies to keep the gold supply up and that seemed to be what most of the others were doing too. Leveling alts or trying to get their mains up to 70. Mostly we seemed to be playing the game in 'single player mode'.

I'm not sure if it is the news of the Wrath beta or just the winding down of Summer - seems weird to say that - or just that some of them needed a break. Whatever it was seems to be lifting a little bit and we have tried to get some instance runs in to shake off the rust and boost our faction rep to get additional recipes or rewards.

After out latest run through Shattered Halls, I was reminded how much fun I have running instances with my friends. I just so happens that of the 5 of us in the run, I work with 3 of them and the 4th is the wife of one of those. It makes the run a lot of fun. I know that even if one of us screws up or causes a wipe there will only be good-natured kidding and no real drama. Our main tank Warrior, Rogue and Druid healer(me) were all level 70 Kara geared. We had our returning prodigal Boomkin, who should have been in Kara gear but sharded it all when he 'quit playing', and a 67 Shadow Priest who tried to keep their DPS up as best they could. Ya, we wiped a few times and had some problems with the final boss - but I had a blast and it was well worth the repair cost to run with my friends.

I wish we could find another group of players who are also real life friends that we could recruit or join up with and get 2 groups going that can combine for 10 man raids in Wrath. That is my greatest hope, a small tight knit guild that I can do 10 man raids with. I am sure that the draw of a 350 person mega-guild is a good fit for some people, but I just am not that guy. I guess I will have to try to start recruiting now to try to accomplish that goal by the release of WotLK, which I estimate to be between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

FO'SHIZZLE or FOSHIZZLE?

2008-07-21T14:53:00.004-04:00

We have been called to action in the ongoing "situation" between BRKWWA, (a Hunter), and BBBB, (an honorable Druid). We cannot let this aggression stand unchecked and we are compelled to add the voice of the Herd to the conflict, so without further ado -

FO'SHIZZLE or FOSHIZZLE, whichever it may be.

Let's hope BRK soon sees the error of his ways and recants his previous statement advocating the enslavement of Ferals as hunter pets and who knows what he had planned for us trees.

Okole goes 'mental...Elemental

2008-07-21T13:56:00.003-04:00

I have always had a hard time playing my characters as melee DPS, but I tried by going Enhancement with Okole until I hit level 64. So, when I visited the trainer to get my new skills - I decided it was time to respec and try out the Elemental tree for a while. Hybrid casters seem a much more natural fit for my playstyle, and although I do like to smack things with a heavy club, it is easier to kill them if they have already been softened up with a few lightning bolts.

My first impression is that it's a lot like playing my Druid as Moonkin, which I always liked. I have to pay attention to cooldowns on my shocks more now than I did on the Drood, but so far I am liking it. I do need to learn where I put all the new skills on my toolbars though, that is the worst part of a respec for me. I am still in the process of converting my gear over from the Strength and Attack Power focus to Intelligence and Spell Damage. I did manage to acquire some gear along the way from drops and quest rewards that I held onto for just this situation.

I have not gotten into any instances with this spec yet, but I am going to try to run Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace soon to see how it works out in a dungeon setting. I will be augmenting Elemental with Restoration to provide some healing in a pinch.

The thing I miss most so far is...Improved Ghost Wolf, no more instant cast escape ability. I just can't see a way to justify spending the points in the Enhancement tree to pick it up.

Wrath Beta news

2008-07-18T03:32:00.000-04:00

That's right folks...looks like the Wrath Beta is very near. Rumor has it that some European players are already getting beta invites. Hmm - this is very interesting news. Check out MMO-Champion's info and also some info from WoWInsider.

Looks some patch notes are included with these and I like what I am seeing for the classes I play the most - Druid and Shaman. Take a look and see what the beta might have in store for you.

So...what have you done?

2008-07-17T18:17:00.003-04:00

This just in from Blizzard -

World of Warcraft’s achievements system will launch with more than 500 individual achievements covering every aspect of gameplay, including world exploration, PvE, PvP, professions, and character development; from the purely whimsical to the truly epic, there will be something for everyone. Some achievements come with in-game rewards such as tabards, vanity pets, and titles. All of these rewards are purely cosmetic and just for fun, but you’ll certainly stand out when you proudly display them.

And don’t fret about running out of achievements anytime soon. The list is easily expandable, so you can expect additional achievements with each new World of Warcraft content update.

Some of the different types of achievements available are:

Player-vs.-Player: This includes arena, battlegrounds, and world player-vs.-player objectives. A few examples:
- Hot Streak: Win 10 ranked arena matches in a row.
- Alterac Valley All-Star: Capture graveyards, towers, and kill the enemy leader all in one game.
- City Defender: Kill 50 enemy players in your faction’s capital cities.
Dungeons and Raids: Every end boss of every raid and dungeon in the game grants its own achievement. Future achievements in this category may include ones for completing a run without any player deaths, with fewer than the maximum number of players, or within a certain time limit.
Professions: Advancing to each tier of mastery in a profession earns you an achievement, and there are specific achievements for secondary skills (with major professions to follow).
Quests: Quest-based achievements include completing a certain number of quests and completing specific quest lines. This category contains zone-specific subcategories.
Events: Seasonal events such as the Midsummer Festival, the Lunar Festival, and Hallows’ End have specific achievements of their own.
World Exploration: You’ll earn achievements by exploring each zone in the game -- and get meta-achievements when you fully explore a continent.
Reputations: This set of achievements includes attaining exalted reputation with each faction in the game.
General: These achievements tend toward the whimsical, including getting a shave and haircut (a new feature of Wrath of the Lich King), obtaining a certain number of tabards and vanity pets, falling from a great height, and more.

This looks like it could be a lot of fun and give players something else to shoot for. It is something that can keep casuals playing and developing their own from of progression. I like the idea of tracking bosses that you have personally downed. A lot of players say things like - "I'm in the top guild on the server" or "We downed Illidan" but you can never really prove it. Now your participation in the raid or boss kill will actually be able to be tracked.

I expect these achievements to be questioned and requested when applying to a progression focused guild. No matter what, this adds an interesting mini-game aspect to our endless grinding and questing as we level up to 80.

Blizzard Authenticator

2008-07-12T21:54:00.002-04:00

Yep, got it Friday and set it up Friday night. The setup process took about 2 minutes...that's it. You go to the Blizzard website, login to Account Management, click the link for the Blizzard Authenticator, enter the number on the back of your particular authenticator and you're done.

Now when you login with username and password, a second screen pops up, you push the button on the authenticator and enter the 6 digit code that is shown on the authenticator screen and you are in. It adds 10-15 seconds to the login process.

This seems like a success and the only downside so far is that the Blizzard store keeps selling out of the fobs.

What amazes me about the whole thing is that this game may be deploying the most secure access to a public resource that has ever been done at this scale. Now the companies providing secure for "real" assets need to start asking how they can match up with a video game's protection of "virtual" assests. I would certainly opt-in to something like this if it was offered by my bank for secure online account access...so why don't they offer it?

Lich King beta opt-in

2008-07-03T18:47:00.003-04:00

Head on over to Wrath of the Lich King Beta Opt-In program and let them know if you are interested in being a beta-tester. They are saying that the beta testers will be a random selection from all those who opt-in. I signed up on the account management page and when I ordered my Authenticator there was also an option to opt-in for beta testing. I am hopeful that we will see the game on shelves by Christmas break.

State of the Herd address for July

2008-07-03T18:29:00.003-04:00

I ordered one of the Blizzard Authenticators this week, before they sold out, and am anxiously awaiting delivery. Obviously I am not the only one who is looking for a little more account security and I am in no way surprised by the quick sell out of this product.

On to the toons -

Bumwaller - finished the attunement process for Onyxia's Lair and Blackwing Lair. Just something we were doing to pass the time and give us something to do other than PUGging and battlegrounds. Also been doing a few dailies and picking herbs for the potions and elixirs for the leveling alts and mana pots always sell pretty good at auction.

Okole - almost level 62, should hit that this weekend if I have the time. I have been leveling in the "old world" so far, hoping that the more levels I get there will mean more time questing at 70 in Outlands., and that means more gold for a flyer. I am liking the enhancement spec, lot of burst damage and being able to heal myself on the fly is great to keep the fight going. I don't die very often and usually there is enough time in between deaths that my reincarnation is available when it happens.

Namenivob - doing the AH thing, making a few bags for friends and profit.

Noteable Info from WWI

2008-06-28T19:07:00.003-04:00

Some of the information coming out of the World Wide Invitational in Paris (as reported by WoWInsider and MMO-Champion) -

There is a lot of information being posted at the sites listed above, they have people at the Invitational that are getting the information to the masses. I'm not going to list all of it, just make comment on the stuff that I see as most interesting to me. Visit those sites to get all the info for your self.

There is a plan to give player access to two talent specs to switch between them without having to respec all the time. More details in the future.
Raiding armor sets and PvP rewards sets will look different and won't share the same model anymore in Wrath of the Lich King

The first one here - great news if this comes to pass. Being able to switch between two specs, if you don't have to visit the trainer to do it, is wonderful. Then you could have a grinding spec and a raid spec, or a PvE spec and PvP spec, or tanking spec and DPS spec. Man, that would be really nice. Coupled with the proposed spell power change, you could easily switch from DPS spec to a healing spec without changing gear - holy crap. Could you imaging Druids going from Tree of Life to Boomkin in the span of a few seconds...it makes me giddy just thinking of it.

Second - a cosmetic thing to be sure, but I like it. Now you'll easily be able to see whether a player is focusing their time and energy in PvP or raiding. At the present time you have to inspect someone to see if that gear as Tier 6 or Season 3 reward.

Shaman Info from WWI

2008-06-28T19:02:00.001-04:00

Some of the information coming out of the World Wide Invitational in Paris (as reported by WoWInsider and MMO-Champion) -

Totems are being "condensed" into a smaller amount of totems, for exemple Strength of Earth and Grace of Air totems will be merged into the same totem
A new weapon enchantment will be available "Earthliving Weapon". It will increase the healing power of the Shaman.
Flametongue will give spell damage bonus to the Shaman.
Totems are being moved to physical school, you can't counterspell anymore.
Totems will also affect raid members, not just the local party.
Shamans are getting "Hex", a polymorph-like spell on a medium cooldown allowing them to turn an enemy into a frog. The enemy cannot cast or attack but is still in control of his character.
Windfury won't be a weapon enchant anymore and will be changed to a buff. You will be able to use it in bear form or with poison.

If I understand this correctly, more people are going to be asking us Shaman to buff them - this will be more requested than Mark of the Wild for the melee DPS folks. It also means that we can add another temporary enchant to our weapon and still keep Windfury up. Wow. That could be awesome, can you imagine having Frostbrand on your main-hand, Flametongue on the off-hand and Windfury going as well (potentially affecting both)?

Hex will be fun to use - and give us a little bit of CC utility, only last 8-10 seconds, but better than nothing and can help when you need to stop a healer or caster for a bit to let your DPS get ahead on a mob or boss.

Druid Info from WWI

2008-06-28T19:01:00.001-04:00

Some of the information coming out of the World Wide Invitational in Paris (as reported by WoWInsider and MMO-Champion) -

Entangling roots will be useable indoor.
Nourish will be a new healing spell, healing for more hit points for each HoT effect on the target.
There isn't any plan to change cyclone
There will be a new model for the Druid's Dire Bear form and the Dire Cat form will be introduced.

Not a huge amount of detail and changes here. But the ones that are here are pretty cool.

First - Indoor roots - this is awesome. Not as good as some CC abilities, casters and reanged DPS can still do their thing while rooted, but does some damage and when talented can be a bit more than trivial. Along withe the rumored Alpha change to make it tick every second, this could be very helpful, especially against melee class and physical DPS.

Second - Dire Bear model change, that's pretty cool. But, the one all the Feral folks will be loving is Dire Cat form. Not many details on it yet, as with most of these announcements.

How much is your account security worth?

2008-06-26T18:32:00.002-04:00

Is it worth $6.50 to make your account almost uncrackable? Are you ready to stop worrying about a keylogger getting your account information?

Well - check this out, the Blizzard Authenticator, "an optional tool that offers World of Warcraft players an additional layer of security to help prevent unauthorized account access. The Authenticator itself is a physical “token” device that fits easily on a keyring."

That's right two-factor authentication is coming to World of Warcraft and that is great news for anyone concerned with account security. As a technology geek, I am impressed that they have taken the security of the game so seriously.

Now let's hope these come in multiple designs, or at least a separate one for Alliance and one For the Horde!