Pocket Heals

Last Reminder -- I've Moved!

2011-03-04T18:35:00.001-06:00

I've moved to http://www.pocketheals.com , please update your bookmarks/subscriptions, etc! There is a subscription button at the very top right of the new blog.

I will send out one last notification in about a week or two.

-Chloe

Pocket Heals Moved! (reminder)

2011-02-26T17:10:00.000-06:00

Just another reminder post to update your links / subscriptions to http://pocketheals.com

I will be doing a post tonight about...something, I have a few ideas floating around that I am going to doodle with later tonight.

See you at the shiny new home!

I Have MOVED!

2011-02-20T15:09:00.001-06:00

Please update your links to show that Pocket Heals is now at http://pocketheals.com

Yep, I have my own little home now! Now I *really* need to update this week!

I also got a bit lazy, and didn't feel like redoing all my login information to show Natalie, so everything will be listed under Chloe. It also matches my main toon's name, also, so I will be able to do achievement updates without too much hassle.

All my posts were transferred over also!

:) Happy Sunday!

Healing Synergy

2011-02-18T19:29:00.000-06:00

Last night was an excellent night for raiding in my guild. If Blizzard wants to know how the normal, fulltime job WoW player progresses through raids, they can look at me. My GL even started the raid 30 minutes early so I could head to sleep sooner (plus, his wife is not fond of finishing so late either).

Wednesday night scenario: Sub-par DPS, People without enchants. 2 druids + 1 shaman healer.
Thursday night scenario: Amazing DPS, everyone enchanted. 1 druid, 1 shaman, 1 paladin healer.

Wednesday night was a mess. Tonight went well.[Security Measure Alpha] dropped, and despite my urging for our druid to take it, he forced me to roll and of course when that happens...I usually win, and did. So, I have some shiny new bling bling.

What made tonight different was everyone brought their A-game. Wednesday night, there were unenchanted people, and people who, despite how much I like them, were just not pulling their weight. This frustrated some people, but, I hoped that they were taking notes on the encounters.

When healing with two druids and me, I felt that we all ran out of mana faster. When we had the paladin + the druid + me, I felt like we had a balance of HoTs, direct healing power, and hybrid power.

Last night, when we went back in, we three-shot Omnitron and two-shot Magmaw. We went to work on Maloriak and made some decent dents in him.

The one question I am wondering, though, is...

Will shoulders and helms be available for justice points when the tiers swap?

I really want to be able to have pretty alts.

I Think I've Stabilized...

2011-02-16T19:36:00.001-06:00

The last time I posted, I had just accepted a new job offer with a pretty nice company in town. That company is owned by a much bigger international company, therefore my job is quite fun and exciting. I've met dozens of new people and my coworker (yes, 1) is absolutely tons of fun and friendly. We have a softball game Tuesday night so I need to go buy a new mitt. Throughout the week, though, I wanted to play WoW but came home so tired...it just wasn't happening. Plus, our GM was out of town on a business trip this week. I feel like the slacker officer but I've had to get used to this new "wake up at 6" and "go to bed at 11" schedule. It's a lot different from working 2 PM to midnight.

I'm so glad those days are DONE!

As of right now, I have someone I am dating, the same person I've been dating for a year or so that also lives a decent distance away. I have plans to visit in April or May. He's coming to visit in May for a few weeks. Until then, there's not much to do in my free time except workout, cook, try new recipes, play WoW, and work during the week. I live with two other guys (my friend + his little brother) but there's only so much time I want to spend watching NASCAR.

As a result, I think I now feel like I can play Wednesday and Thursday nights and get enough sleep without feeling like a truck hit me the next morning.

So, orders of business.

That Grid article really needs an update. I'll either redo it from scratch again or switch to VuhDoo.
My druid is 85. Priest is 82. She'll be 85 eventually. Paladin is slowly creeping up there. Official off server alts are mage, hunter, rogue, and horde priest.
Write something interesting that hasn't been written about that is helpful to the current Cataclysm healing community, instead of just me babbling about my life (there's only so much of that you want to read, I know. I'm a fairly good looking female who works in an office where all the young men are married and the old guys are too.)

As far as that...stay tuned. I'm going home this weekend so I may find time to update on my laptop or something.

Either way, I'm still alive...I just only play Wed. and Thurs. nights now + weekends. I'm just too time crunched for anything else. Food to buy, errands to run!

RL has been Exciting...

2011-01-29T11:24:00.001-06:00

And also kicking my butt.

I landed a new, full time, salaried job last week and started this past Tuesday. The day I was given the offer I called my old boss and told her I'd be leaving. She adknowledged it and I figured all was good. She said she wanted me to work the full two weeks and since it was on the weekends I figured fine, I'll do that.

Then she schedules me for a 2 PM to midnight shift. Umm, what? My new job is 8-5, I told you that. I get that fixed.

Then I go into work last night and in her infinite wisdom she scheduled me for 5-midnight on a Monday. What.

EDIT: Apparently she hired another Stephanie. My new boss is also a Steph. SO MANY STEPHIES. I need a better nickname than what they gave me, though.

I left her a note and will be calling her this morning because Sunday is my LAST DAY and the completion of my two weeks and I am under no obligation to stay longer. I was quite pissed last night but I was able to rant it out on the phone on the way to my car.

OH, and this weekend, tonight, I am working a 2-midnight shift, and then a 9 AM to 6 PM shift on Sunday.

So long story short, I LOVE my new job.

My nickname at work is 'Wow', since my boss and co-worker asked me about my hobbies. Well, once they found that out, I had a new nickname, lol. They are both awesome and my boss says she has no complaints at all for the first week. Score! My co-worker is wonderful and has been training/explaining everything very well. I will be making the department SoP binder as my training commences.

For now though, I need to go grocery shopping because my roommates are two hungry boys and tend to eat everything in sight if you don't lock it down!

A Lovely Sketch of the Pocket Healer

2011-01-20T12:51:00.000-06:00

Isn't she cute! I love my little draenei and I oh so wish I could draw hair as adorable as that. For the summer I have a mind to just chop my hair off short! Thank you so much Vidyala!

[Darkmoon Card: Tsunami] Acquired at the Last Minute

2011-01-08T03:41:00.000-06:00

After deciding to undertake the task of procuring a card, I soon realized that farming herbs on Mushee, squishing herbs on Llani, and then having a guildie make cards was going to be a time consuming process. I made about 7 cards before I decided to just splurge and purchase the cards with the 20K I had saved up.

The Ace, 8 and 5 came fairly easy -- I just bought them off the auction house for between 2500 and 3000. One was 3500. Yes, I paid a pretty penny to get this trinket finished before the faire expired. I farmed materials for four more cards, but did not make any waves. I went to sleep, woke up, and bought the 2, 4, and 6. The 5 was given to my by a wonderful friend, Alexicon, which only left the 3.

Now, the 3 must be the elusive card of the waves set, because I checked both horde and alliance AH to no avail. I farmed herbs for 2 more cards--nada. Not a single wave card the entire process. I'm getting frustrated. All I'm trying to do at this point is gear up my healer with some nice items so that I can be the best I can be in my 10-man raid.

Then, I see someone advertise that they are looking for a 2, 4, 6, and 8. I realize that this means they have a 3. I ask at first, and inquire if there is a chance I could offer them 5K for their three since it's the last card I need for my healing trinket. I'm promptly declined. I go sit in the corner and mumble to a few friends about my predicament, depressed that a polite offer didn't get the job done. I may not like the answer, but I don't push decisions. If that didn't work, there was nothing else I could do but watch my work go to waste for four weeks until the faire returned. I vent to a few friends with a few choice words but nothing can explain my frustration and disappointment at getting so close but failing.

Turns out I have two friends who know the person with the 3. One of them, who must have wittier ways than I, manages to convince the 3-owner to part ways with it for me (still amazed by this). A trade window pops up, and said friend has my precious 3. He wouldn't take the money I wanted to give for it, so I am now sneaking to an alt to get a treasured item of mine (my Haunted Momento) to toss at him when he isn't looking. Hee hee. I don't know how much he paid for it (if he did at all), and he'll never tell me. Either way, I'm very grateful to him for being a sweetheart, knowing almost 99% of the people on the server, and somehow being able to convince people to part with items. He is much wiser than moi.

In my excitement, I rush to Menethil, miss the boat, and while waiting for the next one, he whispers "What would you do if I said the faire was gone?" And I almost start crying. I check the calendar, and I begin to second guess the 11:59 PM time. Was it Friday at 11:59? No way. When I tell him I will probably cry and laugh and then cry some more, he says, "(it's not gone)" and I shake my head. Yes, I'm a very trusting person!

I make it to the fair, get my trinket, and proudly show it off. Now we both have healing trinkets! We spend a few minutes tossing leather balls around and I now feel like a huge load has been taken off my back.

As a thank you to the guy who parted with the three, and the put a " WTB 3 of Waves, =/ " in trade chat a few seconds later, I sent him a [Dizze's Whirling Robe] I had that was originally for my priesty. Yeah, it's prolly overkill, but hopefully he'll understand. My friend is getting a [Haunted Memento] shortly. I believe in fair trades..and if someone parts with something dear to them, I part with something dear to me.

Overall, I feel frustrated. I wish I could have at least chosen what deck I wanted my cards to be from when I made my cards, instead of having the process create mostly useless Stones and Winds. I did get a few Embers that are going to another friend/guildie who needs them. My next goal for Llani is to finish her Archaeology and try to get [Tyrande's Favorite Doll] while I save up Valor points for her [Core of Ripeness]. If I get the Core before I get the doll, well, then I'll move over to the Tol'vir ring, [Ring of the Boy Emperor].

But, on the other hand, I feel like one big accomplishment is out of the way, much like when I got my [Elementium Stormshield] made. So much work for one character...I don't think I will be putting a lot of major work into my priest anytime soon. My druid is even further down the list...and just leveling my paladin is a success.

Once we get a few bosses in Blackwing Descent under our belt, I think I'll start taking Nelena to heroics.

/tucks her [Darkmoon Card: Tsunami] in her pocket and falls fast asleep!

How to Heal: Heroic Blackrock Caverns

2011-01-07T02:33:00.000-06:00

Getting this instance down will reward you with a great healing mace off the first boss, so let's get crackin'!

My stats at the time of this dungeon, without totems, but with Earthliving Weapon:

Health: 104051
Mana: 84905
Spirit: 2425
Intellect: 4006
Haste: 1091 (+8.52%)
Crit: 1172 (+ 6.54%)
Mastery: 386 (+ 10.15 %)

Average ilvl: 347
Mostly 346 gear with a sprinkling of 359 (2 epics)

Blackrock Caverns is actually not as scary as it seems. All the boss fights are about managing mechanics, not so much DPS. Most of the trash pulls can be CC'd, either with sheep, hex, fear (please glyph it, warlocks!), or Bind Elemental, or Banish. The last two are very important after you kill Karsh Steelbender.

Boss 1: Rom'ogg Bonecrusher
Healing Loot:
Torturer's Mercy - Om nom nom Spirit, need I say more?
Manacles of Pain - Mail, Healing Bracers

First off, make sure you clear ALL THE ADDS to the left and to the right across the room. You will need plenty of space to run away from Skullcracker. Rom'ogg is just a big bully who likes to chain you down and not play fair. There are four things to worry about in this fight: quake, chains, adds, and skullcrusher. The quick and dirty, copy+paste version is:

1) DPS and Heals, try to move out of quake as much as you can, so you won't take the 13K damage spike.
2) DPS the chains!
3) It is easiest to AOE down the adds and not worry about killing them with the skullcracker.
4) Don't get hit by the skullcracker, or you WILL die.

Now, to elaborate on strategy! Quake is a boss ability that will put rumbling ground beneath you. You will most likely take TWO ticks of this no matter what, but if you move out fast enough, you can avoid the 13K damage spike and not have to heal your party up as much. ADDS will spawn from these quake positions--the tank needs to pick these up, and any hunter/rogue needs to misdirect/tricks these to the tank. The easiest thing is to kill these, but if you have a hunter, you can have them drop a trap right when the chains go out. If your DPS is low, don't worry about it, just kill the adds.

After you kill the chains, RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY or you will die to the Skullcracker and your party will hate you for being lame. Once that is done, rinse and repeat. Move out of quake, don't take the damage spike, control the adds, AOE the adds, DPS the chains, run away from Skullcracker. If anyone in your party is laggy, you may need to replace them for this fight.

Best time for Heroism/Time Warp: Anytime

Boss 2: Corla, Herald of Twilight
Healing Loot:
Armbands of Change -- DPS, but if you have nothing better...
That's all. Pitiful healing drops.

Corla is fairly straightforward. You have three adds, three beams, and Corla. You want your healer and ranged in the beams as much as possible. If you have 1 ranged, 1 healer, then have the healer take the left, the ranged take the right, and the melee in the middle. Tank Corla next to the middle. Quick and dirty:

1) Have someone stand in each beam. Let it stack on you to 80, then step out. When your debuff falls off, IMMEDIATELY get back in the beam.
2) Tank Corla near the middle beam so the melee member of your party can DPS her.
3) INTERRUPT Dark Command. This will fear a member of your party, and that is not good. Shammies, drop Tremor Totem. Priests Fear Ward when you can.

Corla periodically casts Dark Command, which is her fear. It has a 2 second cast and is interruptable. Each beam can be soloed, so be sure to stack up to 80, hop out, then hop back in after your debuff wears off. Don't let zealots evolve, or your tank will get trucked in the face and you will be whimpering in the corner, while firing off heals, forgetting to watch your debuff, and before you know it, your zealot will have evolved too and it's game over! So, watch your stacks.

Best Time for Heroism/Time Warp: Anytime.

Boss 3: Karsh Steelbender
Healing Loot:
Quicksilver Amulet -- Yummy spirit necklace!
Heat Wave Leggings -- Mail, Shaman Spirit

Karsh is also a straightforward fight. First, you pull his two adds separately, and burn the big flame elemental. There is the inner area, and then the grate, and then the outer area. Be sure to kill the troggs to the right and straight forward from the stairway so you have room to maneuver. When you engage Karsh, you want him to be on the opposite side of the fire curtain as you. Quick and dirty:

1) Tank engages Karsh when he is on the far side of the curtain. This ensures Karsh builds 1-2 stacks immediately and the DPS can begin working on him.
2) Do not add more stacks until the debuff has about 3 seconds left, but do not let it fall off either, or you will get adds before you want to.
3) At 5-6 stacks, let the debuff fall off. DO NOT be standing on the grate, or you will die.
4) Ranged/melee needs to make sure the adds die away from the boss/tank or the magma pools they spawn will reset his stacks.
5) After the adds are dead, drag Karsh through the curtain again.

There are several ways to do Karsh, but this is the least healing intensive version that we did tonight. The tank slowly stacks the debuffs up to 5 or 6 without letting them fall off. Then, when you reach six, you DO let them fall off, and the DPS picks up the adds and kills them, on the OUTSIDE of the grate. Do not be ON the grate or you will die/take massive damage. Do not kill them near Krash as they will spawn a pool of magma that restart his stacks. The key to this fight is maintaining control and a lot of the pressure is on your MT so go easy on him.

Best Time for Heroism/Time Warp: Right after you finish killing the first or second set of adds. Pop it as soon as the boss has been freshly debuffed by the fire.

Boss 4 (optional): Beauty
Healing Loot:
Kibble -- Spirit ring!
Beauty's Silken Ribbon -- DPS but if you have nothing better, go for it.

Beauty is optional, but if you are with guildies/have good CC, convince them to do her!

1) You need to CC as many adds as you can. To help your DPS, you can also CC two of them, and kill the third ASAP. Avoid Runty at all costs. If you kill him, Beauty bezerks and you all die.
2) Use Tremor Totem or fight her in the hallway. Be sure to kill all trash around her entrance.
3) She will periodically do a knockback--there is not much you can do about this. Have your tank fight her in the hallway and put his back to the wall.
4) She periodically spawns 4 points of lava around a person -- don't worry, again, nothing you can do.
5) Don't stand in puddles of golden magma spit.

Beauty is all about CC. Use hex, sheep, trap, hibernate, and warlock fear. Keep them CC'd! You can always burn one add in the beginning and have the other two focus on CC. That is what we did. We had 2 warlocks for CC (a guild group) so we didn't even need my hex. I didn't realize I could hex beasts until about five minutes ago. Way to go Nat...

Oh, and don't aggro Runty.

Best Time for Heroism/Time Warp: Anytime.

Boss 5: Ascendant Lord Obsidius
Healing Loot (he's loaded...):
Crepuscular Shield -- Yummy healing shield.
Kyrstel Mantle -- Cloth, healing
Willowy Crown -- Leather, DPS, but doubles as healing
Witching Hourglass -- DPS trinket, but if your trinkets stink...
Clutches of Dying Light -- Plate, healing gloves!

Obsidius is a pushover.

1) Assign 1 dps to kite the adds around. This dps should smack all the adds ASAP, and take off running, making sure the adds stay on him/her. To help your kiter, drop earthbind totem, freezing traps, etc, but do NOT hit the mobs.
2) The adds chase whomever hit them last. Do not let them aggro the tank or the tank will get a healing debuff - Crepuscular Veil, and your healer will be very angry.
3) Obsidius changes places with an add at 66% and 33%. Be ready to pick him up and have your kiter grab the new add.
4) Dispell the Twilight Corruption off your party, esp. your kiter.

Other than that, there is not much to say! We have used both a DK and a hunter on this fight, and both went well. I used Earthbind totem, which slowed the mobs, and my kiter just ran around in a circle, happy as a clam, while the DPS burned down the boss (he doesn't have that much HP at all). He hits like a pansy and the adds don't hit hard either. Be sure to dispell both the Twilight Corruption and the Thunderclap off your add kiter.

Best Time for Heroism/Time Warp: Anytime, once your tank and kiter are situated.

Overall, BRC is a great instance to learn some very important mechanics, mainly, don't get hit by boss abilities that one shot you, don't stand in pools of hurt, and learn how to watch your debuffs AND heal and DPS at the same time. Good luck and have fun!

My Time Sink Peeves With Cataclysm

2011-01-06T19:28:00.000-06:00

I have several peeves right now with the design of Cataclysm. Most of them are glaringly obvious timesinks that were put in just to purposefully slow down the player. Most people, I would guess, only allot about 3 hours to WoW playing a night, and that's being generous.

Issue #1: Fishing. Sharptooth and Murglesnout. Really? One cooks into a mage-food equivalent food. Okay, fine, 1 fairly useless fish is acceptable. But a trash fish that I catch 50% of the time when trying to catch my healing and caster fish? Seriously? AND you don't give the casters and healers a pool, but the tanks and melee do? AND, WHERE is my strength fish? Did you guys just forget to put one in? Sorry melee, you have to go farm crocolisk tails. I'm really sorry.

Remedy: Turn Murglesnouth into the strength fish, stat.

Issue #2: Heroics. I enjoy the difficulty, I really do. But even with perfect CC, perfect pulls, and perfect bosses, I still have to sit in a dungeon for at least 45 minutes (Vortex Pinnacle) or an hour and a half (Grim Batol). Most of the time, the dungeon isn't perfect. 45 minutes to an hour is about all the time I want to spend in a dungeon, especially when I'm not getting at least a CHANCE at a piece of epic gear at the end.

Remember BC heroics? Yeah, that's the kind of effort/reward balance I wish Cataclysm had. In Cata, it was overshot. I don't mind working hard, but at least make the last boss give a CHANCE at a special loot table. The effort/reward balance...I just don't see it right now. I would like to get something that looks nice...at least once a week or every 1.5 weeks. That's at least 16 or 24 weeks to make my character look nice again, or about 2/3 the length of a content patch. Right now, it feels like the developers want us to flounder along until the VERY end of the tier..when we may complete our set, but now it's just useless again because the next tier comes out a week later. You have little to no time to enjoy being "done" for a while.

Remedy: Either add an epic drop to the end of each heroic boss, or a small chest with a flask inside for our class. There doesn't need to be an item for every slot, but at least give us SOMEthing to look forward to. Even a small chest with a flask inside off the end boss in each heroic would be greatly appreciated.

Issue #3: Node Spawn Rates. Northrend had 9 potential zones for herbs, ores, and skinning. Cataclysm has 5. I don't know about your server, but mine is a medium population and we have terrible competition for nodes and farming areas during prime time. There is always at least 15-20 people per zone during the dead of day. Prices are astronomical, mainly because of the limited supply. In order to get anything done, you have to, yet again, devote weeks to farming if you cannot farm in large stretches. I don't understand why the developers think that people sit and play every day for more than three hours a day. Weekends, maybe. I feel like I have to choose between farming flasks for myself and my raid team or making myself gold. No matter what I do, it's either overfarmed or full of trash fish.

Remedy: Just up the spawn rate so the prices will go down. You know we need flasks for raiding content, so please stop being dicks and just up the spawn rates.

These three issues really, really annoy me and feel like a glaringly obvious "we want to force you to slow down, you need to go through content at OUR pace that WE dictate for you." My fishing for food for my raid is no longer efficient thanks to the worthless fish that drops 50% of the time. Farming herbs and holding a job? Haha. Farming during the evening barely nets you any herbs or ore on a normal population server. Gold doesn't buy much of anything anymore.

The majority of my guild works and has about enough time for one heroic a night, with a little bit of farming (perhaps 1 hour). All in all, say, 2.5 or 3 hours tops. In the end, it feels like Blizzard is attempting to drag their content out because they don't have enough manpower to produce it at the previous rates.

How do I Justify my Hobby?

2011-01-02T19:33:00.000-06:00

I like playing WoW for the following reasons:

It's cheap. You know how much dinner and a movie costs for 2 people? About $40. And that's for...4 hours of entertainment, tops.

It's fun. There are things to DO in game. Quests, farming, flying around...

Socializing! Friends from all around the country. Families who play WoW.

So why do people who sit and watch television for three hours every night before bed feel the need to rain on my parade? What is so perfect and wonderful about your hobbies that mine is not as good as yours? Is it because all of mine is digital? Intangible?

I have intellectual hobbies and I have relaxing hobbies. Writing, gardening, cooking, and reading are my intellectual hobbies, and WoW is my relaxing hobby. Bubble baths. Hot showers. Jogging, walking, hiking, visiting state parks (when I have money) and working out.

When I get home from work every day, all I want to do is shower and do what the F#$@ *I* want to do.

I'm single. I have many friends. I visit these friends.

I'll probably be UNFORTUNATELY having to move to Houston to get a better job and stay with my *UGH* aunt.

This aunt is superficial, too concerned with what other people thing about her, too worried about what people might say, too materialistic, a pessimist, a worry wart, a social butterfly, a drama queen, someone who blows things out of proportion, and will probably hold her tv watching, movie watching, money blowing (on dinners/alcohol) as a "better" hobby than mine.

I like to work out in the morning. She likes to work out in the evening. I get my shit done early. If she forces me to go waste my time in the evening, time that *I* earned by working some shit office job, I will be thoroughly pissed.

On top of that, the internet in Houston is cable and B-L-O-Ws.

I like my WoW hobby. When I get home from work, I get to do what *I* want to do, because I earned it all day. Sure, I'll clean, but for the most part I'm a SMART person who washes dishes immediately after dinner. Wednesday and Thursday evenings, I will be in my room, doing what I earned the time to do.

And if anyone gives me any shit for it, I will immediately move back to to my old town. Or home.

On top of that, she basically insinuated that if I don't get back into University this summer (I will) to finish my last class (1 class left for my degree, and it's not required) that I'm going to be a loser working in an office, and that I'll have to be a "secretary" as if that's a terrible job. It's a great job, to be honest. To all the secretaries out there, keep on keepin' on.

I'm pretty infuriated with my aunt right now, and I know if I move to Houston, I'll be stuck with some superficial obsessed crazy fifty year old who wants to micromanage every aspect of MY life. I'm 25. All I want is a place to sleep for 6 months where I can go to work, come home, and do MY shit until my university says yes. Then I'll be in my old town.

I just have to make it until May. I hope I last that long.

And if they say no, well, fuck 'em, I'll just move to Michigan.

So, what do I say to my aunt IF I have to go to the shittastic, nasty, smoggy, people-crowded, ARMPIT of TEXAS called Houston?

How to Heal: Heroic Vortex Pinnacle

2010-12-26T02:03:00.000-06:00

At the time of writing this guide, my stats are (without totems, self buffed)

Health: 99361
Mana: 72275
Spirit: 2191
Intellect: 3275
Haste: 860 (+6.72%)
Crit: 693 (10.71)
Mastery: 595 11.32 %

Average ilvl: 340
Mostly 333 gear with a sprinkling of 346.

Who wouldn't mind wiping in a place as beautiful and stunning as this?

Vortex Pinnacle is an easy heroic in the sense that no mechanics in this dungeon will kill you or your party members instantly. Isn't that nice! This dungeon can be thought of as a training ground or learning area for your party to master mechanics that will be thrown at you in future dungeons. On top of that, it's absolutely GORGEOUS and you won't mind making this your favorite heroic.

The first time I did this dungeon was Friday afternoon with some guildies. We managed to two-hour our way through the place and I won't mention how many times I swore on vent at the second boss. Let's just say there are probably some sailors blushing. The second time we went through, it ended up being our heroic random (oh, we were so happy!) and we breezed through it and only wiped twice on the second boss. We had some polite DPS who stuck with us and were rewarded with an easy clear through the rest of the dungeon.

The first trash pull needs to be CC'd as much as possible. Having a shaman here helps a lot. Having a hunter helps also.

Some elementals will explode and knock you off the edge! You won't die -- you will be teleported back to the front of the entrance, BUT, you need to avoid this as your party may die while you're gone. Luckily we had a pretty tough boomkin who was able to take a few hits on trash until Convel got back to us.
Thank you, Papertiger!

After the second punt off the edge.

For the little arcane wormies, have everyone run to the middle, drop your AOE heal ASAP, and tell your dps to unleash hell as fast as possible. Even with a surprise pull of the arcane stars/worms, nobody went past half health. I am not sure why so many people are troubled by this pull. I did not think the incoming damage was enough to send me into panic mode at all. With a single AOE floor heal, I has some control of the damage and could proceed to heal my party up. The faster the worms die, the less damage you deal with.

Cloud Princes cannot be CC'd. There is one pull where you will encounter two of them. You will need to HoT up your tank and heal him/her pretty hard until at least one prince is down, then you can relax a bit. Use all the tools in your arsenal to avoid any big smack surprises (they can hit for 48-50K on your tank).

On kitty 5 mob pulls, you will need to use all the CC you can. Adepts can heal, so they need to be CC'd the longest or killed first. Be sure to interrupt their healing!

There are some kitty pulls where they will be inside of a lightning pyramid. LoS pull these down the ramp and have your party CC as soon as the mobs exit the triangle.

The Tempest Lurkers will feign death and not bother you as soon as you look at them.

When running across the bridge with the Howling Gale orbs, be sure to damage them with ranged attacks so you can get by without them tossing you off the edge.

Young storm drakes need to be LoS pulled so they will not be in their green healing rune. You and your party are able to stand in this rune and be healed so show your healer some love and go stand in it!

Boss 1: Grand Vizier Ertan
Healing Loot:
Biting Wind -- DPS but Healing if you have nothing better.
Fallen Snow Shoulderguards -- DPS but Healing if you have nothing better.

This boss is a wind elemental who has an addiction to cyclones. When you engage her, a set of cyclones will spawn on the outside of the ring. Be VERY careful when you run in to meet her because if you touch a cyclone, you will get slowed terribly bad (I would say around 80%). Stay on the inside until you see the raid warning that she is retracting her cyclone shield. At this moment, you can do one of two things (right now).

1) Stay inside. This is the easiest option. You want to zoom your camera out ALL the way so that you are able to see the circle in the middle. You want to stand in the VERY middle of this circle. This ensures that when the cyclones move in, they will not touch you (barely). You will not get the haste debuff. Your ranged DPS should stand on top of you. DROP AN AOE HEAL when the cyclones come in, and then proceed to heal through the lightning damage. Sounds easy, right? It is. It's so easy, the developers might find some way to nerf it.

2) Run out. Use your skills and don't get hit by a tornado while you are running out. You will be able to then heal your party up and prepare to run back in without getting hit by a tornado. It appears that the damage from staying in and running out is the same. The only difference is that if you are hit by a tornado, your healing spells are slowed SO much that you will barely be able to heal. DON'T get hit by tornadoes! If you are lucky, you will be able to recover if your group has brought healing pots, bandages, etc. One smack from a tornado kills you indirectly by killing your healing.

This fight teaches you how to avoid tornadoes. They are only moving in one direction so it is an easy learning session.

Boss 2: Altairus
Healing Loot:
Amulet of Tender Breath -- Neck
Mantle of Bestilled Winds -- Leather

This boss is a storm dragon who also has an addiction to cyclones. Imagine that. He is similar to normal mode, except that as soon as you engage the boss, mini whirlwinds will spawn all over the area. Your first priority? AVOID THE TORNADOES!

Altairus will then change the direction of the wind. You will get a raid warning for this. The easiest way to deal with this mechanic is to first avoid the tornadoes.

Identify which way the wind is blowing. Move yourself very carefully so that you can 1) FACE the dragon. You want your face to be looking at the dragon, with the wind blowing at your back. You may get caught in a terrible position -- don't panic. Avoid the tornadoes, throw your instant HoTs, use your racials, and move yourself into the correct position. In the 5-6 seconds it takes to do this, nobody should die, unless they get hit by more than 1 tornado.

You can think about this similar to if the dragon were VERY STINKY. You wouldn't want the wind blowing the smell from the dragon into your face, would you? Nope. You also wouldn't want the wind blowing the smell from the dragon onto the back of your head where it can still hit your face. You want to always have your face looking at the dragon with the wind on your back. Imagine yourself rotating around the dragon, keeping him in front of you (even if your face is buried in his wings). The wind will always be hitting your back, and your face will always be "facing" the dragon.

It only takes a few tries to get used to this mechanic, as you will quickly begin to process "Okay, I'm standing here, I need to move to THERE to be able to face the dragon with the wind at my back."

The third thing that you should be conscious of but not spend too much time worrying about is the breath. Altairus will do a RANDOM breath on a party member that you cannot really avoid due to the tornadoes and the wind. However, if you keep a decent distance from other party members, you will only have 1-2 people hit at a time instead of 2-3. This will greatly help with healing.

Also, with the haste buff, you can spam your cheap, small heal over and over to heal up your party members without spending your mana. For shaman, this is Healing Wave. Keep in mind I said cheap heal, not fast heal. Do. not. spam. Healing Surge. Only use HS if you have a party member about to die and you need a heal NOW, as soon as you get the haste buff. Use it 1-2 times, then go back to your Greater Healing Waves to get people out of the danger zone. Then, go to Healing Wave to top people back up.

The only damage in this fight is from:
1) Tornadoes (avoidable)
2) Breath (may be avoidable but master the tornadoes/wind first)

DPS, it is your responsibility on this fight to not get hit by tornadoes. This will eat your healer's mana. You will get bounced in the air, possibly land in another tornado, and die. Your life will suck. Don't get hit.

Tanks, you just need to move according to the guide above since the breath is random.

Boss 3: Asaad < Caliph of Zephyrs >
Healing Loot:
Captured Lightning -- Relic
Leggings of Iridescent Clouds -- Cloth
Lunar Halo -- Plate
Ring of Frozen Rain -- Ring

This boss is your reward for beating the dragon, because it possibly has taken you a few tries to get him down. If you have, congratulations! You are prepared for the rest of the 5 man heroics. On this fight, as a healer, you only have to worry about 2 things:

1) Dispell the root debuff off the rest of the party. The party can also avoid this debuff by /focus on the boss, and jump when he starts to cast static cling. The server should still register you as "off the ground" when he finishes. There's an acheivement for this. If someone fails to jump, dispell them. Nobody should be taking very much damage.

2) When he draws the lightning triangle on the ground, GET IN IT! If you don't, you will die.

There is no way to avoid the chain lightning right after exiting your safe triangle. Don't worry about it, just heal it. Nobody should be taking damage from anything else. Dispell static cling, and you're golden.

Collect your loots, and CONGRATULATIONS, you have beaten Vortex Pinnacle and learned a few of the mechanics used in the other heroic dungeons.

However, this place is so pretty, I am sure you will be back for more great loot.

Ultra graphical settings never looked so good.

Who wants to live here with me?

7 Things to do for Yourself and Your Guild Before The First Raid

2010-12-21T23:53:00.000-06:00

Exactly what the title says! Let's discuss a few things that you can do to help yourself and your guild out before that first raid. You may be 85, sick of regular or heroic dungeons, and wondering "what could I do to take a break, but still help out my guild?" Several things. If you want to keep doing dungeons, then 1 and 2 should help you out. But, this guide will be a general guide for all roles and the fishing and cooking professions.

HEALING related items will have two asterisks ** next to their name.

1) Get your shoulder enchants.
Your first reputation should be Therazane. The easiest way to do this is do all the Deepholme quests, complete the EPIC finale, and then start your dailies with Therazane. When you finish Deepholme you should be at least Honored. Do yourself a favor and don't skip Deepholme -- not only is the zone very well designed and beautiful but the epic finish to the zone has made it on par or better than Wrathgate (since you actually get to participate in the finale.)

The Therazane rep vendor is D'lom @ Therazane's Throne in Deepholme.

The four shoulder enchants for HONORED reputation are:
Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone ** (Intellect)
Lesser Inscription of Jagged Stone (Strength)
Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal (Agility)
Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz (Tank)

The four shoulder enchants for EXALTED reputation are:
Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone ** (Intellect)
Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone (Strength)
Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal (Agility)
Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz (Tank)

Side Perk -- 346 REVERED rings @ level 85:
Diamant's Ring of Temperance ** (Intellect)
Felsen's Ring of Resolve (Strength / Dodge)
Gorsik's Band of Shattering (Strength / Crit)
Terrath's Signet of Balance (Agility)

2) Get your helm enchants.
You should be getting nice rewards from questing/instances. After you finish with Therazane reputation, move to your respective faction that gives a helm enchant that you need. These are available at REVERED. See the next paragraph for locations for the vendors.

Arcanum of Hyjal (Intellect) **
Arcanum of the Earthen Ring (Stamina/Dodge)
Arcanum of the Ramkahen (Agility/Haste)
Arcanum of the Wildhammer / Dragonmaw (Strength/Mastery)

The 5 reputation vendors and a link to their rewards are below:

Therazane - D'lom @ Therazane's Throne in Deepholme.
Guardians of Hyjal - Provisioner Whitecloud - Nordrassil Inn in Hyjal
Wildhammer Clan (A) / Dragonmaw Clan (H) - Craw MacGraw @ Thundermar or Grot Deathblow @ Bloodgulch in the Twilight Highlands
Earthen Ring - Provisioner Arok @ Silver Tide Hollow in Shimmering Deeps, Vashj'ir
Ramkahen - Blacksmith Abasi @ Ramkahen in Uldum

3) Find the appropriate buff food for your class and farm it. Either identify your guild chef or level your cooking to 525.
Recipes for the Alliance are sold by Bario Matalli in Stormwind.
Recipes for the Horde are sold by Shazdar in Orgrimmar.

The NPCs standing next to these two vendors also give daily quests (they are VERY easy) to not only gain Chef's Tokens but also level your cooking. Picking 6 pumpkins out of a pumpkin patch with no mobs in sight is probably the easiest thing you'll do throughout the expansion. Do these daily quests! At the very least, you can buy crates of meat and mail them to your guildies. The quests only require level 1 cooking.

+60 Buff Food (The OK Stuff) (450-500 skill)

450 SKILL
+60 Spirit - Whitecrest Gumbo
+60 Haste - Broiled Mountain Trout
+60 Critical Strike - Lightly Fried Lurker
+60 Hit - Seasoned Crab
+60 Mastery - Salted Eye
+60 Expertise - Lavascale Filet
+60 Dodge - Lurker Lunch

475 SKILL
+60 Intellect - Pickled Guppy
+60 Agility - Tender Baked Turtle
+60 Strength - Hearty Seafood Soup

+90 Buff Food (The Best Stuff) (500-525 skill)

500+ SKILL
+90 Agility - Skewered Eel
+90 Spirit - Delicious Sagefish Tail
+90 Intellect - Severed Sagefish Head
+90 Dodge - Mushroom Sauce Mudfish
+90 Mastery - Lavascale Minestrone
+90 Hit - Grilled Dragon
+90 Expertise - Crocolisk Au Gratin
+90 Parry - Blackbelly Sushi
+90 Strength - Beer-Basted Crocolisk
+90 Haste - Basilisk Liverdog
+90 Crit - Baked Rockfish

OTHER

Conjured Mana Cake Equivalents:
If you are fishing for Deepsea Sagefish, you will end up with a lot of
Food - Fish Fry
Water - Starfire Espresso , South Island Iced Tea

4) Help your guild out by farming the materials for the Broiled Dragon Feast.
If your guild does not yet have the achievement for Set the Oven to "Cataclysmic" then you may help out by farming any meat listed above. Imagine the faces of your guildies when you tell them there are Broiled Dragon Feasts in the bank for heroics or the first raid!

One Feast Takes:
Dragon Flank x 6 (kill Cataclysm dragons, loot meat)
Delicate Wing x 4 (kill Cataclysm birds, loot meat)

***Sneaky Workaround (as of 12/21/10): Buy Tropical Sunfruit and Fresh Water from Innkeeper Francis in Highbank or Lizzy "Lemons" in Dragonmaw Port. Brew 5000 iced teas. If you feel rich, brew another 5,000 to get the second achievement. There's no telling when this will get hotfixed like the Starfire Espresso so do it quickly.

5) Fish in fishing pools to help catch 10,000 fish for your guild to get the Seafood Magnifique Feast.
By fishing 10,000 fish from pools to get That's a Lot of Bait, you open up access to the +90 stat fish feast. It's going to take a lot of fishing so everyone will appreciate you for fishing! Also, these fish will be worth $$ on the AH, along with the fish used in the cooking recipes mentioned above for buff food. Pick your favorite fish and farm away. However, your guild will benefit greatly if you drop a stack or two in the bank.

Seafood Feast Takes:
Highland Guppy x 4 (found in pools, so you can get materials while working on the achievement)
Fathom Eel x 4 (found in pools, so you can get materials while working on the achievement)
Lavascale Catfish x 4 (fished in lava)

6) Farm herbs for any of the following elixirs, potions, and flasks for you or your guild.
All of the herbs listed below are priceless. With the holidays, there is plenty of time to get some farming in and stock up for January when people return to school and jobs. If you can spare the time, consider farming herbs for your guild and having a guild alchemist brew up some pots for the raiders. This will help you out when everyone goes back to a normal schedule.

Herbs used in Cataclysm brewing (links are to node locations):
Whiptail
Twilight Jasmine
Cinderbloom
Stormvine
Azshara's Veil
Heartblossom

ELIXIRS
Guardian
Prismatic Elixir
Elixir of Deep Earth

Battle
Ghost Elixir ** (Spirit)
Elixir of Impossible Accuracy (Hit)
Elixir of Mighty Speed (Haste)
Elixir of the Cobra (Critical Strike)
Elixir of the Master (Mastery)
Elixir of the Naga (Expertise)

POTIONS
Stat Increases
Volcanic Potion (Increased Spellpower) **
Earthen Potion (Increased Armor)
Golemblood Potion (Increased Strength)
Potion of the Tol'vir (Increased Agility)

Fun
Potion of Illusion
Potion of Treasure Finding
These potions are EXCELLENT! You are able to loot Tiny Treasure Chests occasionally which contain gold, cloth, and volatiles in any combination.

Mana / Health
Mythical Healing Potion
Mythical Mana Potion **
Mighty Rejuvenation Potion **
Mysterious Potion
Potion of Concentration **

Utility
Potion of Deepholm

FLASKS
Flasks no longer require a special herb such as Frost Lotus to use, BUT, they require double the herbs of the BC and Wrath flasks.

Flask of Flowing Water (Spirit) **
Flask of the Draconic Mind (Intellect) **
Flask of the Winds (Agility)
Flask of Titanic Strength (Strength)
Flask of Steelskin (Stamina)
Flask of Enhancement (Alchemists only)

7) Read boss strategies!
http://www.tankspot.com has some great guides on the first few bosses. Watch movies, read strategies, and see if any friends in other guilds will let you listen to their raids. Learn the fights and be prepared for the curve (it's going to be tough). The best thing you can do for your guild and friends is bring your A-game! There are plenty of videos on Youtube for the heroic dungeons if you are having a bit of trouble.

http://www.tankspot.com/forumdisplay.php?206-Project-Marmot-TankSpot-Raid-Movie-Guides

The above link will take you straight to the raid videos on tankspot.com

There you have it! Some suggestions of things to do; a general pre-raid farming list; a quick "what do I farm and where because my raid is in two days" list. Whatever you want to call it, I hope it helps you all!

Guide to the PvE Restoration Shaman in Cataclysm

2010-12-01T11:57:00.012-06:00

Last Update: 1/13/2011 -- Changed a few Talents Around. The major changes in the upcoming patch are for Mana Tide Totem (now a set percentage of the shaman's mana) and Tremor Totem (now a 6 second duration with a 1 minute timer.

The goal of this guide is to break down the basics of the restoration shaman for casual raiders to understand. My goal is to explain as clearly as possible what each spell does and why we use it, what talents we take (and what they do), what totems to drop (and when), which glyphs I recommend, and which gems will be viable options throughout Cataclysm. This guide made be altered as times goes on, but it should only change to reflect when we move from gemming spirit into extra intellect (power) and haste (speed).

Here is my resto shaman's profile : Llani

Table of Contents:

Stats
Healing Spells
Talents
Totems
Glyphs
Gems
Healing Process in 5 Mans / Heroics

STATS

The primary stats for a restoration shaman include intellect, spirit, haste, and crit. The two most important of these are intellect and spirit.

Intellect (INT) is what boosts our mana pool, gives us spellpower, and boosts our crit rating. It will be found on every piece of gear we equip. This is our bread and butter.

Spirit (SPI) is what boosts the regeneration rate of our mana pool. This allows us to heal longer, especially with early tier levels. When you are first starting to convert from blue gear to epic gear, you may need to socket +40 Spirit to your gear even through the first tier. When we get to tier 12, I will revisit this and see how our regeneration is.

Mastery (M) - is a new stat with Cataclysm. At level 80, each talent tree for each class gets a 'Mastery' buff, and ours is Deep Healing. I do not know how Mastery will balance out in our stats, but I would believe that it will be similar to haste and crit -- you want to make sure you have a good amount, but don't overdo it. I would think we would want to max this 'stat' out to 2.5%, but we will see.

Haste (H) increases our casting speed and allows us to fire off more heals in a shorter period of time.

Crit (C) increases the chance that we land a critical strike (or in our case, a critical heal) which allows the spell to heal for extra healing.

We do not use Strength or Agility as Restoration Shaman.

HEALING SPELLS

The shaman learns one specialized spell (Earth Shield) and two passive effects (Purification and Meditation) when specializing into the Restoration tree. At level 80, the Mastery for this tree is Deep Healing.

DIRECT HEALING SPELLS

Riptide - Heals a friendly target for 2363 and another 3725 over 15 sec. Your next Chain Heal cast on that primary target within 15 sec will consume the healing over time effect and increase the amount of the Chain Heal by 25%.

This spell should be used decently often, but don't cast it if nobody is taking damage. Do not use this as a pre-HoT, or you will run out of mana! Riptide is an instant cast heal that leaves a ticking heal over time (HoT) on the target. If you cast Chain Heal on this target, it will consume the riptide and boost the power of the Chain Heal. Also, due to our Tidal Waves talent, we gain a haste boost for our next 2 spells whenever we use Riptide (or Chain Heal). This talent also boosts the critical strike chance of Healing Surge.

Chain Heal - Heals the friendly target for 2967 to 3389, then jumps to heal the most injured nearby targets. If cast on a party or raid member, the heal will only jump to other members. Each jump reduces the effectiveness of the heal by 30%. Heals 4 total targets.

This spell is our multi-target heal. It jumps from the target to up to 4 other targets (without the Glyph of Chain Heal) or up to 5 (with the glyph). It you are healing a melee group, this is the heal to use, along with Healing Rain. But, only use Healing Rain IF you know you will hit at least 3-4 group members. Preferably 4 (assuming you are standing in it. you had BETTER stand in your own AOE heal)

Healing Surge - Heals a friendly target for 5605 to 6403.

Our fast heal. This is the equivalent to Flash of Light or Flash Heal. It will drain your mana quickly, though, so be careful. After you cast Riptide, this spell will have a boosted critical strike chance.

Healing Wave - Heals a friendly target for 2803 to 3201.

Our normal, mid-range heal. You will likely find yourself casting Healing Wave because it is a low cost heal. It does not heal as much as Healing Surge or Greater Healing Wave, but, when you cast Riptide or Chain Heal, it will be very fast.

Greater Healing Wave - Heals a friendly target for 7473 to 8537.

If you have the time to cast a longer heal and know when your target is going to take damage, then GHW is what you need. Be careful using this spell, though, because it has a 30% base mana cost. You need to cast Unleash Elements as much as possible before casting GHW, to offset the cost. This means that without any gear on, the base mana for a shaman at level 80 is 4396. At level 85, it is 23430. If you are like me and prefer someone else to do the number crunching and theorycrafting, then just nod your head and keep reading.

Cleanse Spirit - Removes one Curse effect from a friendly target.
This is our curse-removing and magic-removing (talented) spell. Bind this to an easily accessible key and/or use Clique + Grid or Healbot to use it.

ADDITIONAL SPELLS

Unleash Elements - Focuses the elemental force imbued in the Shaman's weaponry, with the concentrated effects depending on the enchantment unleashed.
Level 81. This spell has a 15 second cooldown and triggers Unleash Life.

Unleash Life - Unleashes the Earthliving enchantment upon the Shaman's weapon, healing a friendly target for 1916 to 2074 and increasing the effect of the Shaman's next direct heal by 20%.

Healing Rain - Calls forth healing rains to blanket the area targeted by the Shaman, restoring 690 to 820 health to allies in the area every 2 sec for 10 sec. Healing effectiveness diminishes for each player beyond 6 within the area.
Level 83. This spell is our AOE Heal, much like the Druid's Tranquility.

Spiritwalker's Grace - Calls upon spiritual guidance, permitting movement while casting non-instant Shaman spells. This spell may be cast while casting other spells. Lasts 10 sec.
Level 85. This allows us to cast spells while moving.

ELEMENTAL SHIELDS

Earth Shield (ES) - This shield is to be put on your main tank or the target you think you will be healing the most. The reason for this is that nature's Blessing, one of our talents, will increase the effectiveness of your direct heals on Earth Shielded targets by 15% (when you have 3/3 talent points, which you should).

Water Shield (WS) - This should be cast on YOU. Not only does it return a set amount of mana every 5 seconds, it also pops one of the globes every few seconds, restoring mana to you. Only one globe can pop every few seconds. This is good when you are occasionally taking damage in fights (aoe effects, auras, melee, ranged, or spell attacks).

If you are not taking damage, then the globes can be triggered a different way. Our talent Improved Water Shield will pop one of our globes 100% of the time if we crit with Healing Wave or Riptide, 60% of the time if we crit with Healing Surge, and 30% of the time if we crit with Chain Heal. Haste plays a big role in this at higher levels of gear, where you will have enough regen to sustain yourself without having to gem extra spirit. You will be able to gem intellect (spellpower) and haste (speed) and by critting often, you will be able to sustain sufficient regeneration levels. In summary, when gearing for heroics, try to grab as much spirit and intellect as possible. After we begin raiding, and have been practicing our healing rotations enough to be comfortable with our mana regeneration, then we can continue building up our haste and intellect.

WEAPON BUFF

Earthliving Weapon - This is one of our five weapon buffs, and boosts our healing by quite a bit. It also includes a proc that adds extra healing (Earthliving). The talent Elemental Weapons in the Enhancement tree is recommended as it boosts this weapon buff. At the end of the Restoration tree, the talent Blessing of the Eternals will help our Earthliving proc guaranteed (80% +20% from weapon buff) if the target is below 35% health (when they'd really need that extra HoT).

TALENTS

Here is a picture of my recommended talent tree for starting Cataclysm:

All the talents in the Restoration tree that I took are listed below. I did not take 3 talents and they are listed at the end. The talents in the Enhancement and Elemental tree that I took are included at the end of the Restoration talents, because you have to get to the end of your primary tree before you can move over to a secondary tree. There is a line break in between each tier of spells (or rows, if you are looking at your talent trees). Talents in BOLD are very important talents that affect which spells you cast.

RESTORATION TREE

Spark of Life - 3/3 - Increases your healing done by 6% and your healing received by 15%.
Tidal Focus - 3/3 - Reduces the mana cost of your healing spells by 6%.

Improved Water Shield - 2/2 - You have a 100% chance to instantly gain mana as if you consumed a Water Shield Orb when you gain a critical effect from your Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, or Riptide spells, a 60% chance when you gain a critical effect from your Healing Surge spell, and a 30% chance when you gain a critical effect from your Chain Heal spell.
Focused Insight - 3/3 - After casting any Shock spell, your next heal's mana cost is reduced by 75% of the cost of the Shock spell, and its healing effectiveness is increased by 30%.
Totemic Focus - Reduces the mana cost of your totems by 15% and increases their duration by 20%. This could be swapped out with Tidal Focus, but, you cast far more spells than you drop your totems (in raids). At the beginning of Cataclysm, this talent could be very useful when chaining 5 man dungeons with your guildmates. For the beginning of Cataclysm, you can take this talent for help in 5 mans and entry raids.

Ancestral Healing - 2/2 - Reduces your target's physical damage taken by 10% for 15 sec after receiving a critical effect from one of your healing spells.
Nature's Swiftness - 1/1 - When activated, your next Nature spell with a base casting time less than 10 sec. becomes an instant cast spell.
Nature's Blessing - 3/3 - Increases the effectiveness of your direct heals on Earth Shielded targets by 15%.

Soothing Rains - 2/2 - Increases the amount healed by your Healing Stream Totem by 50%, and your Healing Rain spell by 30%.
Improved Cleanse Spirit - 1/1 - Empowers your Cleanse Spirit spell to also remove a magic effect from a friendly target.
Cleansing Waters - 2/2 - Reduces the cost of Cleanse Spirit by 40%, and when your Cleanse Spirit successfully removes a harmful effect, you also heal the target for 2634 to 2970.

Ancestral Awakening - 3/3 - When you critically heal with a single-target direct heal, you summon an Ancestral spirit to aid you, instantly healing the lowest percentage health friendly party or raid target within 40 yards for 30% of the amount healed.
Mana Tide Totem - 1/1 - Summons a Mana Tide Totem with 10% of the caster's health at the feet of the caster for 12 sec. Party members within 40 yards of the totem have their Spirit increased by 350%.

Tidal Waves - 3/3 - When you cast Chain Heal or Riptide, you gain the Tidal Waves effect, which reduces the cast time of your Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave spells by 30% and increases the critical effect chance of your Healing Surge spell by 30%. 2 charges.
Blessing of the Eternals - 2/2 - Grants an additional 80% chance to trigger your Earthliving heal over time effect when you heal an ally who is below 35% of total health.

Riptide - 1/1 - Heals a friendly target for 2363 and another 3725 over 15 sec. Your next Chain Heal cast on that primary target within 15 sec will consume the healing over time effect and increase the amount of the Chain Heal by 25%.

ENHANCEMENT TREE

Improved Shields - 3/3 - Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 15%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Water Shield orbs by 15%, and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by 15%.
Elemental Weapons - 2/2 - Increases the passive bonuses granted by your Flametongue Weapon and Earthliving Weapon abilities by 40%, the damage of your extra attacks from Windfury Weapon by 40%, and the effectiveness of the ongoing benefits of your Unleash Elements ability by 50%.

ELEMENTAL TREE

Acuity - 2/3 - Increases your critical strike chance with all spells and attacks by 3%.

POSSIBLY SKIP THESE TALENTS

Ancestral Resolve - Reduces damage taken while casting spells by 5%. PvP talent.

Telluric Currents - Your attunement to natural energies causes your Lightning Bolt spell to restore mana equal to 40% of damage dealt.

Nature's Guardian - Whenever a damaging attack brings you below 30% health, your maximum health is increased by 5% for 10 sec and your threat level towards the attacker is reduced. 30 second cooldown. You should not be taking damage--your tank should.

TOTEMS

Shaman have three separate 'totem bars' that we can load up and use to drop 4 totems at once. Now, we can't have ALL our totems loaded up in these bars so you need to keep certain ones such as Tremor Totem near your totem bars but not in them. It's a situational totem.

Normally, in a 10 man raid, these are the totems I recommend:

Water - Healing Stream Totem - This totem is a pulsing HoT every two seconds and scales with your spellpower.

Air - Wrath of Air Totem - The totem provides 5% spell haste to all party and raid members within 40 yards.

Earth - Strength of Earth Totem - The totem increases the Strength and Agility of all party and raid members within 40 yards by 549.

Fire - Flametongue Totem - The totem increases the spell power of all party and raid members within 40 yards by 6%.

You will use these 4 totems the most. If you have a paladin in your party, he/she will provide you with your mana regeneration that you would normally get from Mana Spring Totem. If you do not have a paladin present, then you should drop Mana Spring Totem.

The only time you should be replacing Healing Stream is when you want to drop your Mana Tide Totem -- this is like an innervate on a stick.

If you have two shaman in your group, chances are they are either elemental or enhancement. An Enhancement shaman will drop Windfury Totem in place of Wrath of Air, and will cover the Strength of Earth for you. That leaves you free to drop Stoneskin Totem, which allows your paladin to use a different aura such as (Concentration).

An elemental shaman will cover Totemic Wrath by dropping their Searing Totem. You do NOT need to drop your Flametongue Totem when an elemental shaman is present. You can also drop a Searing Totem.

If you have a warrior in your group, then Battle Shout can cover your Strength of Earth Totem. Drop Stoneskin instead and have your paladin use a different aura.

You can use 4.0.1 Buff Map at the end of the comments to see what buffs other classes share.

GLYPHS

I will only be listing the relevant glyphs for a Restoration shaman. Elemental and Enhancement glyphs will not be discussed. The glyphs with a * beside them are the ones I recommend.

PRIME GLYPHS

*Glyph of Earth Shield - Increases the amount healed by your Earth Shield by 20%.

*Glyph of Riptide - Increases the duration of Riptide by 40%.

*Glyph of Earthliving Weapon - Increase the effectiveness of your Earthliving weapon's periodic healing by 20%.

Glyph of Water Shield - Increases the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield spell by 50%.

After experiencing both water shield and earthliving weapon glyphs, I must say that my mana regeneration has stabilized after my guild members learned most of the heroic 5 man fights. I no longer feel the need for Glyph of Water Shield, and instead recommend the Earthliving Weapon Glyph for a boost in your OOMPH power.

MAJOR GLYPHS

*Glyph of Chain Heal - Increases healing done by your Chain Heal spell to targets beyond the first by 15%, but decreases the amount received by the initial target by 10%.

*Glyph of Healing Stream Totem - Your Healing Stream Totem also increases the Fire, Frost, and Nature resistance of party and raid members within 30 yards by 150. (SITUATIONAL)

*Glyph of Healing Wave - Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the healing effect when you heal someone else.

Glyph of Totemic Recall - Causes your Totemic Recall ability to return an additional 50% of the mana cost of any recalled totems.

I selected these glyphs because normally you will be casting Chain Heal for the multi-target heal, not the initial heal. Riptide also boosts your Chain Heal to make up for this. The HST glyph is important for two reasons. First, if you do not have enough players in your 10 man raid to cover a resistance buff you may need, then this totem comes in handy along with providing the healing boost (you don't have to sacrifice your healing totem for elemental resistance). Second, if you have a paladin in your raid, you will not be using your mana totem. You will be using your healing totem. If you have no paladin, use your mana spring totem. The Healing Wave Glyph is a MUST have because we use healing wave quite a bit now.

MINOR GLYPHS

*Glyph of Renewed Life - Your reincarnation spell no longer requires a reagent.

*Glyph of Water Breathing - Your Water Breathing spell no longer requires a reagent.

*Glyph of Water Walking - Your Water Walking spell no longer requires a reagent.

Glyph of the Arctic Wolf - Alters the appearance of your Ghost Wolf transformation, causing it to resemble an arctic wolf.

As far as minor glyphs go, it all depends on if you want to carry a stack of ankhs and have a plain wolf form or look like a pretty white wolf and have to give up a bag space. I won't judge.

GEMS

Beginning of Cataclysm / 5 man heroics -- I am going with +20 INT / +20 SPI for a majority of my sockets until I feel safe healing in heroics. Who knows how long that will take! The following gems are a selection of what you can choose from.

OPTIONS

Blue/Red sockets: Purified Demonseye +20 INT / +20 SPI

Red/Yellow sockets: Reckless Ember Topaz +20 INT / +20 H or Artful Ember Topaz +20 INT / +20 M

Other Red/Yellow socket option (but not really recommended at this point): Potent Ember Topaz +20 INT / +20 Crit

You want to treat mastery much like hit, as in, get enough but don't get excessive for Deep Healing. We should get enough crit from gear to not have to gem it, as usual. Most of our gear will automatically include intellect and stamina and then either haste, crit or mastery. You will want to get your haste to at least 916, which will allow all three of our HoTs (Earthliving Weapon, Riptide, and Healing Rain) to gain one extra tick. For more elaboration on this topic, see Vixsin's post @ Life in Group 5.

Think of mastery as free spellpower. It doesn't really show itself until your targets are lower, but then again, there will be plenty of times in heroics when your targets ARE low, at least for now. Collect and save as much gear as possible! There is nothing wrong with being a packrat.

Some gear will be intellect, stamina, and then haste and crit. For now, do haste > crit. I have a feeling that Mastery will be just as yummy as haste, especially when people will be getting hit hard. Remember, our mastery is based on our target's health, so it works better when people are actually taking some damage.

HEALING PROCESS IN 5 MANS and HEROICS

Before the pull

1) Eat your buff food and drink elixirs/flasks. You can choose spirit, intellect, or if you are unusually rich, drop a dragon feast for your group. I recommend making friends with an alchemist and drinking a flask, just in case your party wipes.

2) Examine your group make up.
Do you have a paladin? Ask him to use might and ret aura, and drop your stoneskin totem and healing totem. Do you have an elemental shaman? Both of you need to drop searing totem.
Do you have a warrior? Ask him to battle shout (he should be) and swap out your strength of earth totem for a stoneskin totem.
If you have both a warrior and a paladin, then use earthbind totem and healing stream totem!

2) Put Earth Shield on the tank. Target him and type /focus. You can also bind this into a macro so that you only have to target the tank and push your macro. This will always keep your tank's portrait on your screen so that you do not have to retarget him, regardless if you use mouseover macros or not.

3) Put Water Shield on yourself. Download an addon, either classtimers or power auras, and set yourself up an aura that tells you when your water shield has fallen off. You can also do this for Earth Shield on your focused target.

4) Are you in an instance where you can bind elementals? If so, then go ahead and ask the tank to wait for you to cast your bind before he makes the pull. This should be treated like any other trap, sheep, or shackle.

Pulling Trash and Bosses

1) Drop your totems so that everyone in your group will benefit. If this means running in with the tank, then so be it. Just watch out and don't get cleaved. Dropping your totems in the doorway of the boss will not help if your party will be fighting very far away.

2) If your tank is taking a little bit of damage, put Riptide on him/her. This should sustain him for a few seconds. If the pull was botched and he has more mobs than is pleasant, then hit your Unleash Elements and hit him with a Greater Healing Wave. If that doesn't get him out of the danger zone, then slap a Healing Surge on him. After that, you should be able to either Healing Wave him back up until your Unleash Elements is off cooldown.

If the pull went great, then just use a Riptide to get your haste boost, and wait until he takes enough damage to merit using Unleash Elements + Greater Healing Wave. As far as I know, you can also spam Healing Wave until the cows come home because the mana cost is not enough to drain us of mana. However, it is not very powerful, which is why you should mostly use it to top people off.

You can also use Flame Shock (or any other shock) on the boss, if you have it talented, to reduce the mana cost of your next healing spell. On some bosses, I have plenty of time to use the Telluric Currents talent, but on others, I must be watching to interrupt/be preoccupied. I believe learning heroics will take time. Do NOT get frustrated if you end up wiping once or twice. Look at what happened and decide what you can do to avoid repeating the wipe.

3) Use Nature's Swiftness if anyone is in danger of dying, but, give priority to the tank if two people are near death. Nature's Swiftness is very precious now. Use it carefully!

4) Drop a Healing Rain if you know the pull has a lot of AoE damage. Specifically, I can think of the mobs in Throne of the Tides that levitate your party; the magic caster pulls in Grim Batol, and any other pulls where you might be hexed/sheeped/incapacitated and cannot heal your party for a few seconds. You can also use chain heal if your group is able to safely group together without chaining any diseases/magic debuffs.

5) ON BOSSES, be sure to drop your Mana Tide Totem when you are around 65% mana. This will help it possibly be off cooldown before the fight is over if you need another boost. Use your mana potion when you reach 65% again. Take advantage of any priest Hymn of Hopes or Druid Innervates. ASK NICELY. Do not expect or demand it -- yes, it is nice when the other members of your group watch your mana, but still, be polite. They may need a gentle reminder to pop their mana return for you when you are low. In raids, you should work out a CD rotation with your other healers/dpsers.

6) Don't forget to use your Heroism/Bloodlust! Mages also get Time Warp now.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE EMPTY! If you reach zero mana and then frantically try to recover, you may wipe. Be proactive; watch your mana pool. It is very important!

Llani the Kingslayer

2010-11-26T01:22:00.002-06:00

I managed to convince a friend of mine to find 8 more people to finish up his 10 man ICC run. We tried getting Been Waiting a Long Time for This a few times but kept messing up during phase 2 and 3. After about 8 attempts we went ahead and just flat out killed him. When we reached 10%, it was right when a bunch of vile spirits were about to land. After we died en mass, I was open-mouthed thinking we had wiped due to exploding spirits. Upon recognizing that we had WON, I shrieked and cheered and giggled like, well, a girl. He didn't drop my mace, but, he did drop a nice [Tel'thas, Dagger of the Blood King] for me. OH yeah.

Fishing with one of my best friends, Timo.

I am sad that I missed last week's kill with <Vythis> but studying comes first. One of the healers that was present in last week's run was a healer I am very proud of; he went from knowing next to nothing about druid healing to rocking the socks off good ole' Arthas. On our server, GDKP (gold DKP) runs are very common, and earlier in the year I took him to a few to get him some starting gear. From that he progressed into researching his class, learning his stats and gems, to rocking the healing meters with me. I am happy he was there to help the guild get it's first batch of Kingslayers. In the end, he stepped into a main healing role and was there to rock the healing on his own, like a pro!

Hanging out with my peeps.

I am proud (and relieved) to have another quality healer to play with on a weekly basis (along with our other druid healer). One of our priest healers recently returned from a long absence, so I think our healing for Cataclysm is set. We will probably roll druid/priest/shaman, as long as our priest sticks around. Eventually I will have three healing toons I can swap in, but I know shaman the best. My shaman is also DPS (I think it should be required for healers). I spent a majority of attempts on the LK tonight as elemental. I even hit 10K DPS a few times! Most of the time I hovered around 8 or 9, which I think is pretty good for not having played elemental in a LONG time.

With roughly a week and a half to go until Cataclysm is live, I am still thinking about which class I want to play. When I consider my druid and priest, it comes down to one fact: I think I would miss my shaman way too much to shelve her as my main. I started out as a shaman in this game, and when I finally was able to play her again, I was ecstatic.

http://evion.deviantart.com/

Shaman is the class I can relate to the most. Shaman is outdoorsy, elemental, in tune with the earth, cool, classy, yet still fun. Shaman is lighthearted, not as tree-huggy as the druid, yet not as religious and prim as the priest. She's not as backwoods as the nature lover but not as worldly as the holy healer. She's a spiritual leader that communes with the earth, wind, water, and flames--the elements that make up the world. She has half her faith in the Earthmother and the other half in Elune; she believes the light exists in spiritual fragments that are ever present in every being on Azeroth. She believes you have to understand the foundation to understand the world.

Funny, that's how I feel.

I don't relate entirely with the green swirly druid. I don't relate entirely with the golden sparkling priest.

I definitely relate to the shaman.

Looks like I found my answer.

We got this.

Returning to the "Casual Player" Mentality

2010-11-23T16:01:00.001-06:00

First, a story. Yesterday, I got off work around 4 PM and drove to the house where I stay with a friend, packed up my belongings and jumped back in the truck to drive home to the farm. As I was heading out of town, a truck passed me. Normally I wouldn't have given the person a second glance BUT, this truck had a horde sticker on the back. One of those red, upside-down-horseshoe-esque stickers. I was so surprised at this person's real life identification with a video game that I waved and laughed. I really need a pretty blue alliance sticker for my truck. Nobody would believe I play anyway.

Since I have a job now (money is amazing, let me tell you that) I don't play WoW even close to as much as I used to. They say money can't buy happiness but, it definitely can make things easier, more comfortable, and fun while you pursue it! I usually only get to play Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, and that's only if I don't come home and fall straight asleep. I try to go to bed early Monday and Wednesday since I spend Tue/Thurs at school all day. That narrows down the playtime to maybe 2-3 hours on Tuesday and Thursday nights when I come home. Again, that is, if I don't just go straight to the shower and then bed. I love sleep.

This new limited playtime has actually caused some different reactions to the game for me that I haven't seen in a while:

1) I don't know everything I'm doing anymore, and I get to learn new things every week.
Remember when you didn't know what would await you when you sat down to play? I do! I logged in last night and a friend summoned me to battle the baddie dragon ONYXIA! Oh my gosh! Go kill a huge dragon? SURE! I joined the group and oh man, that was probably my favorite Onyxia kill of all time. It was unplanned, fun, and I sure as heck beat the crap out of that dragon. I wasn't there for loot. I was there simply to have a good time. Granted that was after two beers but hey, I was happy for the spontaneity of the whole experience. Patch notes? No time to read them. I rely on word of mouth now, and my guildies update me every week. I see something different and ask about it -- someone tells me what happened.

2) I appreciate the little things.
I miss fishing again. I am the only fisherwoman on my server and provide our Dragonfin Angelfish every week unless I forget (and then the server goes without). I love putting on Christmas music, zoning out, and fishing under the stars in Dragonblight. Sure it's only one aspect of the game, but, I love it so much! Some people despise fishing, but I like to relax when I play.

3) I like playing my alts.
Riding through Stranglethorn Vale on my trusty Charger when danger lurks around every corner? Yes please! I feel like I'm lost in the middle of the wilderness, and have to rely on my own skills and defenses to stay alive. A young, unseasoned warrior battling her way to the highest ranks of her peers. Once again, leveling is about the journey instead of just a means to an end. The experiences gained along the way are what matter the most, not just reaching the top. On top of that, the materials (herbs, ore, cloth) gained from exploring are also very valuable now.

Where do I go from here? I have not picked a main yet, but since Best Buy is still taking Collector's Edition orders, I think I may just go ahead and order one. I am in no rush to play omgatmidnightrightwhenthegameisreleasedeeeeeeeee! I would rather wait, get my copy in the mail, enjoy the leveling process, and take my time. I have class on Dec. 7th anyway. I have work the upcoming weekend. I don't feel like ruining my experience just to get to the level cap faster. What's an extra week or two? My laptop will probably still be broken. My desktop is still a boss though, and performs perfectly with everything on Ultra.

I still have to choose between Druid, Priest, or Shaman. I like my druid and shaman the most, but still love my priest. And since everyone and their sister is going Druid, I may stick with Shaman or Priest. Who knows. In the end I may just go Druid anyway. I have still not equipped my Jaina's Locket, but having the item in my bags is really the only thing I wanted anyway. I bought it for the flavor text, not the use. Should I play the class I adore and accept that there will be a million other night elf druids, or should I play a class I like and be in demand 99% of the limited time I get to play?

Should I just go blood elf priest and quit the alliance? Hehe. Just kidding. I'm still working on my baby blood elf though. She's 15 now.

I guess I still have a lot to think about. Hopefully some of you can relate to the three changes I noticed after taking any sort of break or having your playtime sliced down to only a few hours a week.

"We've Not Enough People...We're Going to ToC" "Wait...What? I Didn't Sign up for That..."

2010-11-18T15:17:00.002-06:00

I mixed a few topics around in my head this week, but none really struck me as "this is what I want to write about." I still intend to do a post detailing my new healing UI setup (although it's pretty straightforward), but for now, I decided to elaborate a little bit on what Zelmaru said over at our favorite home of ruling amphibians, Murloc Parliament:

"When you sign up for a raid, do you sign up for the activity itself, and if the activity changes, your sign up is void? Or do you sign up for a time slot, and the guild has you for that time slot, regardless of what you end up doing during that time?

If you sign up for an activity, how much of a change in plans is so much of a change that you are no longer expected to attend under the original sign up?

Does it matter whether some people still need something from the new activity? Does it matter what they need (i.e. a mount versus an achievement?)

If changes of plans were common, would you think twice before signing up for activities?"

A change of plans happens quite often in <Vytis>. Being a smaller guild, if we are missing a few key people due to family/school/RL, we are not always able to raid. By divying up our casual raiders on Tuesday and serious raiders on Wednesday, we were able to alleviate the first problem of having too many people on one night. This has worked great for quite a while and still does, except the midterm/holiday/expansion blast trio has just landed.

Now, we don't have enough poeple for Tuesdays or Wednesdays (and I'm at fault for missing some Wednesdays). The usual plan of attack is knock out the weekly, and then see what we can do. Tuesday night is flexible. Wednesday night was dedicated to ICC Lich King attempts. Unfortunately it seems that we have too much time in between the attempt nights due to the RL boss.

"When you sign up for a raid, do you sign up for the activity itself, and if the activity changes, your sign up is void? Or do you sign up for a time slot, and the guild has you for that time slot, regardless of what you end up doing during that time?"

So, I believe that when you sign up for the raid, you should know a few things about what's going on:

1) Is this a casual or serious raider night?
2) What is the planned instance?
3) Is there a backup instance?
4) Am I required to show up to this raid?
5) Do I want to show up to this raid?
6) Does this raid have a possibility of filling up?

After you answer these questions, then you can decide whether to be confirmed or tentative. Depending on your RL activities, you may be a person who has to seriously weigh whether or not showing up every single night to not only your progression raids but also the casual nights is a healthy balance. It may be that you want to help the other raid nights but due to school or work, cannot spare more than 1 evening a week. I've moved into this category. If I'm around on a Tuesday night, I'm more than likely doing things for me that other people get to do all weekend. Tue-Thurs is my weekend, but two of those days are taken up by class (until December). If you are extremely fond of your guildmates, then signing up for a general 'raid night' may not bother you, but, if you have limited time to play, then...

"If you sign up for an activity, how much of a change in plans is so much of a change that you are no longer expected to attend under the original sign up?"

...a change of plans that takes you to a lower tier may not be something you want to do for the evening. If you have a goal to see the Lich King dead, then that is what you sign up for. If you've got something to do, but this one evening is the only night your team can get together, then yes, it is worth it to you personally to sign up and expect to raid TLK. If the plans change, then it no longer becomes something that requires "this specific time slot" to be completed. For example, if you sign up for TLK, and the RL decides the make up won't cut it, and says head to Ulduar, then yes, it is fine to politely ask to be replaced. Many instances can be accomplished on off nights since they are no longer that difficult (compared to the current tier).

If the changes are more drastic, such as going to old world content, then by all means bow out if you don't feel like doing that. Those are fun things that again, can be done at other times.

"Does it matter whether some people still need something from the new activity? Does it matter what they need (i.e. a mount versus an achievement?)"

It depends. If a player or two is polite in their request that we run ____ with them, then I am very happy to help as long as I don't have something planned IRL. If it requires a certain group makeup that we don't have, then it's not going to happen. Most of the time, several people need the mount or the achievement no matter where we go, so as long as nobody demands that we take them anywhere, I am happy to accompany them as long as I'm not setting myself up to be exhausted in my classes or at work the next day. Also, I think special things like mounts should be available to all who attend, not neccisarily one individual.

One scenario we had was when we were first delving into ICC--getting people to work on Rotface and Festergut was like pulling teeth. People would moan and groan and say "let's do ToC" even though only 1-2 people needed gear from there. 7/10 people in the raid were already ICC geared, or no longer needed things from ToC 10. Having to constantly return to previous content to gear up people who only attended once or twice a month became very irritating, despite our wishes to help other guildies. As a result, we settled on the Tuesday casual raider, Wednesday serious raider split and allow raiders with extra time to help the Tuesday group. Your raid's plans and goals should be clearly laid out on your guild website, forums, or in guild information (in game).

"If changes of plans were common, would you think twice before signing up for activities?"

I already do. I think through my list above and decide if I can help out that night's group without stressing myself too much. I actually enjoy raiding anything with my teams, so the "EEEEW ULDUAR" doesn't really happen to me. I love Ulduar; I think the architecture is gorgeous and the gear is beautiful and well designed. I still want to grab some Druid shoulders. In the end, I usually mark myself as tentative and send in a message to a guildie via text to confirm if I will be there or not. At this point in the game, however, a good number of us are just too tired, busy, or worn out from Wrath to be serious raiders. We are trying, though!

Thank you Zelmaru for a thoughtful topic!

Wednesday Link Love

2010-11-18T14:22:00.001-06:00

Since my next post is still in the works (it's on my UI, which I *think* I have finished to a point where I am content with it) I decided to give a little link love today on some helpful, and interesting topics.

Curious about where to go when December 7th hits? Beruthiel has a detailed little post explaining where the new zones are, what level ranges the new dungeons have, and even included a snazzy map!

How about Rated Battlegrounds? I'm pretty terrible at pvp, but Jason is not!

Brush up on your paper interview skills so your guild applications shine! (Learn more at Rank4HealingTouch.)

Food for Thought: What happens when your raid changes plans? Zelmaru asks some very thoughtful questions on that issue we have all dealt with yet don't always talk about.

Psynister tears "hand me down" or Heirloom gear apart into all the different categories (what you should dress your toon in, what you should enchant it with, and even how to color coordinate it! He definitely covers it all.

Read and enjoy!

5 Tips For Beating the Pre-Expansion Blues

2010-10-31T20:21:00.000-05:00

I know I'm not the only one. We've spent too much time playing, too much time trying to get all the achievements on every toon we feel is important to us. With a holiday rolling to a close tonight (Hallow's End) many of us are tired of seeing pumpkins, candy, and daily quests as much as we are in real life. One can't help but groan when thinking about logging on to do...anything.

I finally managed to get the courage to sit down and peek back at the game after about a week. With getting a new job, a physics exam coming up, and having my exciting Halloween plans crushed (my friend's vehicle broke down), I didn't feel like doing the same repetitive things over and over (Headless Horseman). I figured with one horse on one toon, that was enough. All three of my toons have their squashlings and helms. My little pally is level 43 now, so she's been making progress.

So, to ward off the slightly depressing slump from "Warcraft Overload" I ignored Blizzcon, bowed out of my weekly raids, gave 1K gold to a friend and put 5K in my guild bank. I still have plenty. I let two up and coming healers in our guild take the spotlight over in the raider raid. I went to bed at 8 PM with knowledge that the raid was doing well and that they weren't desperately dependent on me. I'm a great healer, but being one of the best in your small guild comes with a cost: you are always in demand. It can get tiring knowing that if you need a Wednesday night off, you might be gimping the run for the night.

I did consider this week that maybe raiding isn't my thing anymore, maybe I am just in the mood to be a casual player who doesn't raid. Raiding does take a good three hours once a week, which is three hours I could be sleeping or doing something else. But, over the weekend I found I had a LOT of time where I would sit down and say "What can I do? I did all my cleaning, but I don't really want to play WoW..." But, here I am, Sunday evening, finally having been tickled by the WoW feather. Playing feels fun. Poking the candy buckets feels fun. Chatting with my guildies and cross country friends feels FUN.

Tip # 1 to Beat the Pre-Expansion Blues: Log Off.
Take a few days, a week, or even more to just not play. Pretend WoW doesn't exist. What would you occupy your time with? Would you watch TV? Read? Go jogging? Would you go to the shooting range, go shopping, go out with friends, go out to dinner, or maybe even cook a big dinner? WoW is a tricky hobby. It can seem like you only spend "a little bit of time" on it, but to get things accomplished, sometimes you spend five hours a night on the weekends. Would you spend five hours in the garage doing woodworking or painting?

I, personally, went jogging, organized my baskets of stuff, and did a little job hunting for after my current (new and shiny) job ends. I spent an hour or two sitting around with iced tea brainstorming all the fun fantastic ways I am going to blow my spare money. I settled on a new Blackberry Bold 9650 at the end of November and 4 new cutesy polo shirts from American Eagle IF I get the job at Home Depot. Oh, and two new pairs of jeans. I'm also buying a new pair of Nike Running shoes and a pair of tan sandals from Abercrombie and Fitch. Those are about the essentials that I will need going into my new job after mid-December. This one should be my last non-professional job before I graduate with my B.A. in Geology/Minor in English.

I also made three pitchers of iced tea and drank every one (with the help of my parents). I wrote two more letters to my brother and intend to write a third one tonight (he's in boot camp).

Tip # 2 to Beat the Pre-Expansion Blues: Clean Out Your Bank Toon.
If you're a packrat like me, then cleaning out your bank will give you a break from the usual routine of logging on, raiding, farming, etc. Sit down and decide what items are important to you and what you really don't need. I'm betting there's a lot of stuff you could get rid of to generate some goldflow and to give yourself a clean slate to work with.

I've recently finished cleaning out my bank. I only kept some essentials (eternal air, water, fire, etc) and some elementals. I also kept a few things like a Sulfuron Ingot, some ore, leather, herbs, and cloth. The money I made was pretty nice (about 1-2K gold).

Tip # 3 to Beat the Pre-Expansion Blues: Redo Your UI.
However, this one sometimes is only a temporary fix. It should be used in conjunction with Tip # 1. Visually rearranging your UI is similar to rearranging your living room or bedroom--it reinvigorates your view and stimulates your brain into thinking it is somewhere new. You can also switch up your mounts, add some non-combat companion pets to the sidebar, and maybe make some macros for your special abilities. I am about to slam dunk, no holds barred, wipe mine bare ass naked clean.

Tip # 4 to Beat the Pre-Expansion Blues: Roll a New Character For Fun.
This character is supposed to distract you from your tricked out, epic geared, amazing 80s. Roll on a new server where you have no contacts, no friends, no bags, no money, and it's just you against the world. Your goal is to defocus, immerse yourself in your character, and try to imagine what they would think, embarking out on their own into the world. You could also tie this in with a story-based blog, where you recount your characters beginnings, past history, and their journey into the world of Azeroth. I'm doing this. Nope, I'm not telling you where I'm going. That's the beauty of it.

Tip # 5 to Beat the Pre-Expansion Blues: Disable Real ID.
I did. I did it because I didn't want even my family or closest friends bugging me when I wanted absolute peace and quiet. I moved over to MSN Messenger where everything seems to be working out nicely. I missed being anonymous. I have kept some of my closest friends I've made through WoW but for the most part, I am happily back to being known as my character. Real ID is nice, but it doesn't allow for an 'invisible' mode. Sometimes I don't want anyone to know I'm on a different server farting around on an alt that was once unknown to everyone but me. I think this notion of "being available, ALL the time" on Real ID, no matter where we are in the game (or in Starcraft) has led to a lot of people becoming burned out from the social aspect of WoW. Unfortunately, that's a big part of the game and without it, the game becomes a bit boring (unless that is your cup of tea). But, an overload of social activity is no good either.

Therefore, to pull yourself out of the Pre-Expansion Blues Slump, go ahead and try a combination of any of the tips I suggested above. My recommendation would be to first do # 1, then when you come back from your short vacation from WoW, try to focus on what you missed the most and do any of tips # 2-5.

I hope these will help you all remember what you love about the game!

Spotlight: Zinn's Thoughts on Priest Tier 11 (Amongst Other Things)

2010-10-28T13:25:00.000-05:00

Go here, and read Zinn's (Jinxed Thoughts) post on all the previous tier sets, the next tier 11, and his thoughts on the other Tier 11 sets. I cracked up several times...mostly when he wrote...(parts where I rofled in my chair are bigger):

"Tier 6, Vestments of Absolution/Absolution Regalia, was a step back from the pronounced design of tier 5. Instead we got a tier that made us look like Blackbrother Monks from the middle ages. Nothing wrong with that, one doesn't always want to run around looking like the Christmas Tree of Heaven (tier 5)."

But...I like looking like a Christmas Tree!

"Tier 10 continues the dark design from tier 9 and looks more magey or lockey than priesty really. Also I find the inverted pot we're supposed to wear on our heads looks completely ridiculous and I'd probably refuse to use it even if it was half-decent. Or hide it for sure."

I agree. I do not like the hat, which reminds me of a Jester's hat, just not as ridiculous.

"It is clear we're designed around the fact that alot of endgame Cataclysm takes place under water. Did they have to make us look like aquariums though? The head looks like some bad copy of some underwater suit and the shoulders... well where should I begin. Who ever thought running around with bird-baths on your shoulders would be a good idea should be sentenced to play the game eternally dazed."

Bwuahahaha. Yep, they do look like bird-baths! I do think priests get some great particle effects on our gear, and the way the chestpiece is high cut in the front really looks nice and creative. I would like to see different skins that are designed that way.

Overall, to reply to Zinn, I think the tier looks unusual yet pleasant. I like it because of the high cut chest in front, and the shoulders do actually look nice with the particle effects. It is a tiny bit over the top as I don't really understand why we couldn't have had some...watery wings or something, but, hey, at least we aren't paladins (go go Pink Rocky Ranger!) Sorry Zinn, I have to disagree; I think the paladin set looks horridly bland and like something from Candyland.

Also, I got a new job (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday) which I start on Nov. 5th. I will not be updating these days nor doing much since I work 6 PM to midnight (ugh) but hey, money is money! It's only until May also, then I will be in my last class and then graduated in August.

Warcraft Overload: Too Much of Patch 4.0.1, Raiding, Farming, Alting, and Beta Information...

2010-10-19T12:40:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Are you? I went to bed at 10 PM last night and before that had spent the evening cooking with my mother. I definitely welcomed the break from herb farming. With three different characters PLUS Hallow' End to do...well, my head is starting to hurt just thinking about it, and I'm an hour and a half--70 miles away from my computer. I think I brought Ibuprofen with me.

First, the patch had so many different changes, so many new spells, that trying to tackle them on three toons (plus my slowly leveling paladin alt--she's now 42) has been a big challenge. My UI is STILL busted, although at the moment I believe it IS working, it's just that Blizzard and their stupid disconnect bugs won't STOP. Every time I switch characters--about my third swap my loading bar just gets stuck and boy is it [bleep]ing annoying. Wow. I have cursed like a sailor about ten times so far and flipped my computer the bird double that many times. Most of the time it's directed at Blizzard. Why is it not possible to release a product that at least doesn't D/C you every damn HOUR? Occasionally when I zone into a BG, instance, or switch zones, it will do the "load the bar to full" and then crash. I don't even get d/c'd, it's just a flat out 'let me toss myself off a cliff so you have to reopen me'. I figured a week would be long enough to fix the broken crap, but, no, Blizzcon and their self indulgent weekend-of-overpriced-walking-around-a-convention-floor-to-stand-in-hour-long-lines-just-to-say-I-did is more important. Well how about this. HIRE some more techhie developers to come back and clean up the bugs that seem small but are in reality crashing the entire game repeatedly. Quit sucking up money like a damn SUV gas hog and invest some of it back in your game and company through your employees. If you don't fix things, eventually the game will start to go the way of the dodo. Yes, it really will if you let it go on long enough.

Now that I've finished ranting about that (I'm afraid to raid, for what if I get d/c'd in the middle of a boss?) let's go back to the spells. I've tried to focus on just my shaman and druid at the moment, because Llani the resto shaman is a healer for our Wednesday night raid team. We missed it last week because our fearless leader forgot to download the patch ahead of time and his wife is also one of our team's DPSers. Tonight (Tuesday the 19th) will probably be a casual run of something. I intend to take Mushee the resto druid so I can get more used to healing on her. I am really leaning toward my druid for Cataclysm still, but, it all depends on who wants to play what. Druids don't have an instant heal like Shaman have with Riptide. Priests have a similar heal in Circle of Healing, but it is instant only and not a HoT. Riptide gives just enough of a buffer on a target that I can follow it up with a fairly quick heal, then maybe move to a longer one or a Chain Heal. For druids...I feel like I'm still putting Rejuv on almost everyone who is going to take damage fairly shortly (or is), using Efflorescence (the big green puddle) and picking a tank to Lifebloom. I am using Regrowth as my new Nourish and so far it has been working out alright. Nourish is MUCH cheaper, but slower to cast. If you have a better grasp at predicting damage on your team, then Nourish is a great way to go. But, you may have a few not-so-fast people in your raid that you may need to heal up very quickly.

Farming for herbs so far has been pretty good in the mornings on my days off, and pretty pitiful in the evenings when there is nobody around. I ended up selling my herb stacks for 25g each and that is totally fine with me. I can make money much faster this way and I always have a good 4-5 hour block of time per day to farm. On Tue/Thurs I wake up at 5 AM, stay in town all day and am home by 7 PM. I stay up late Tuesdays and Thursdays because (for now) I have no job (I applied at a farm supply store on Friday...cross your fingers!) and working outside on the farm only takes a few hours per day. Maybe I will even start selling my gold to companies, who knows. Maybe I will just become a full time vegetable farmer (wheeeee squash and pumpkins!)

Myrani the draenei protection paladin has reached level 42. I blew through 32-36 in one sitting, then went to 40, then 42. 1-2 levels an evening seems to be OK. That's about an hour and a half or so. I have paused for now while a friend of mine catches up and then I think I will be able to barrel through instances with a reliable pocket healer (it's weird being in the OTHER role...but I think it is a good learning experience for me). Protection pally has been LOADS of fun and I can't imagine being any other class as a tank. I plan to have her OS be holy, and her MS be protection. She will be strictly for running heroics with the guild, and tanking things for the guild. I think she will stick more to the casual raiding team because I am first and foremost a healer, tanking is "fun" but it doesn't appeal to me as a fulltime gig. Overall, BOOM Avenger's Shield, BOOM Holy Wrath, BOOM Hammer of the Righteous! Did I miss any mobs? Didn't think so!

As far as the Beta goes, I'm tired of reading about it. At this point the only things I am interested in are the raids and the professions (so I know the fate of Dreamcloth). I fully intend to take my sweet-ass time leveling to 85 on either Llani or Mushee first, then Nelena, then Myrani, then my BE priest on my other server (with a friend) and at the same time on the other Mushee, my Draenei Mage. That will probably occupy me for the first year of the expansion. By then our guild should be rank 25, if not sooner, and the first thing I intend to do when we get the patch is fish up 10,000 fish. With my fishing expertise, I can easily do about 500 a day at the least, 1000 a day at the most. That will give us a nice boost when it comes to raiding. I don't mind being a little behind the gear curve as I do my research and know where to craft/get the best blues and epics for a starting raid set. Plus, getting that fishing recipe will REALLY help us out. Who knows, Mushee might even get a turtle out of it if I do all the fishing in pools in Northrend. So far the raids sound quite exciting and involved, and that pleases me. I like exciting (but not in a bang my head on the desk kind of way) raids that offer a challenge in the way of execution. RNG based encounters do nothing but make me into a very mad and angry and frustrated pocket healer that snaps at people over vent :( So please, Blizzard, no RNG based encounters. Execution-based all the way.

That's where I stand at the moment...tonight I think I will just go straight to bed after doing my 3 Hallow's End randoms and daily "smash the pumpkin" quest. I need a toothpick on Llani and Mushee and a pumpkin hat on Llani. Myrani got the first set of toothpicks. Pfft. Tomorrow I will try to get a little more organized.

BA Shared Topic: Voice Chat

2010-10-18T13:59:00.031-05:00

This week, Azryu over at The Arcanery asks, "What if voice chat worked in cross realm dungeons?"

Hmm. My reply is going to be a bit short, since the question is small! However, it brings up a good thought. I am glad it doesn't work.

The thought of interacting with four other COMPLETE strangers, possibly having to mute in game sounds because of them (if muting sounds even affects that aspect) is just too much of a pain to do every single random 5 man dungeon.
Plus, my guess is there would be some annoying players, younger players (who are either immature in what they say or immature and don't need to hear things older players may say) or speech-challenged players, two groups of which could be taken advantage of. That sweet little girl does NOT need a headset to communicate with random strangers on the internet. She really doesn't.
Accountability. People may be rude as all hell over voice chat and not have a care in the world because they aren't on your server. At least if a random pug on your server gets in vent, for a raid, you might have an inkling of who at least a quarter of the people are. If the RL is rude, people will drop.
I'm already chatting with my guild on vent. Why do I need to stop for a random 5 man?

The only advantage to having voice chat in 5 man cross-realm dungeons is that new strategies in Cataclysm can be more easily explained. There would be no typing or slow explanation of what to do. People could explain reasons why they are going afk "My puppy just peed on the floor" or "BRB jeep in living room" without having to waste time typing it out or inciting use of the vote-kick button for not typing anything. Plus, perhaps, it MIGHT bring the group together a bit, but, you might end up with one of the people in number 2 and either have someone making fun of them or them making fun of someone else. Maybe you.

So all in all, no voice chat in cross realm dungeons, mainly for reason number 3.

Other Thoughts:

Aliera @ The Violet Scribe
Blacksen @ Blacksen's End
Azryu @ The Arcanery

BA Shared Topic Idea: Secrets

2010-10-16T14:34:00.179-05:00

First, I forgot to make good on my word to Beth @ Sorority Girl Plays WoW in which I would post the Razorback logo at the beginning of all my blog posts either last week or this week. /embarassed. I am doing this because her University of Arkansas most definitely whooped my Aggies' butts a few weeks ago. (Texas A&M) But, for now, here is a ferocious little Razorback (UoA), and if you click the link below it, you will go to her WoW blog where she talks about her experience as a fresh WoW player starting out at level 1. She recently dinged 70 Friday night. (Congrats Beth!) Her stories are fresh and interesting, amusing, hilarious, sweet, and nostalgic depending on which post you read! My suggestion is to start from the beginning and follow her playing experience as she leveled up to where she is now. At one point we were all level 1 and didn't have a single clue what to expect outside of our starting zone. If you ever wish you could go back to those days, then read through her blog. You'll enjoy every post! Her sweetie Nick occasionally writes a few posts, but for the most part he acts as her guide and advisor throughout Azeroth. And since I need a non-Texas college team to root for...aside from my Tigers down in the bayou (Geaux Tigers!), I think I will add the butt-kickin' hogs to my collection of teams!


Isn't he adorable? Visit Beth @ Sorority Girl Plays WoW!

On to the Shared Topic for this week! Let's just say I've had a really tough time trying to think of something to write about that most people have never seen!

Syl @ Raging Monkeys aks: "What wow secrets have you discovered on your long journey through the World of Warcraft? What unexpected, surprising or delightfully 'pointless' things have you chanced upon that add something special to the game for you?"

Since this post got pretty long, I made it into two parts. LOTS of pictures after the break.

For my "secrets" in World of Warcraft, I went with a few vendor items from NPCs that most people might not ever think twice about visiting. These fruit vendors, wine connoisseurs, and pastry chefs all have delicious items to purchase that you can share with your friends at any level, or just keep to yourself. First up, my friends, is the lovely tree in Dalaran named Applebough.

What a very handsome tree!

Applebough sells this item called "Fresh Apple Juice." Yeah. From an apple tree.

Yummy!

And a bowl to share.

Second, we have the lovely wine connoisseur Christi Stockton who resides in the "One More Glass" wine and cheese shop near the northern part of Dalaran. She sells wine bottles and barrels that you can set out for your friends to partake in.

A fellow wine-o.

Bring this to your next raid and be the life of the party!

Bottle in the foreground, cask in the background.

Good looks AND sells cheese? Sign me up.

Also in the "One More Glass" shop is a member of the Trias family, Lucian, who specializes in my favorite food of all time. CHEESE! He sells two different cheesewheels and a loaf of baked bread.

Om nom nom nom. Regular cheese wheel is on the left, bread in the middle, Aged cheese wheel on the right.

Finally, we have the lovely Amiee who sells my second favorite foods of all time: cakes, brownies, cupcakes, and pies. There need not be a pie vs. cake debate, when you can buy and eat BOTH! Mmm!

Oh yes. All of them please. 2 or 3 of each. Mmm cupcakes...milk....pie....doughnuts...

Celebration cake on the left, pie in the middle, lovely cake on the right.

Yes please.

YES please. CUPCAKES! Notice the face on the gingerbread man with BOTH his arms is a SMILE...and the face on the man on the floor....is an unhappy face. He is also missing an arm, so that may have something to do with it...

Alright my friends. I am now hungry and it's 6 PM -- time for some dinner, butternut squash with brown sugar and butter, and some more Kushaw pumpkin soup. I might finish off my bacon wrapped stuffed Cubanelle peppers from earlier today too. 'Till next weeks topic!

Creating Custom Graphics For Power Auras

2010-10-15T17:10:00.002-05:00

Part I: Creating Custom Graphics For Power Auras

The Paint.NET Interface.

Part II: Creating Spell Alerts in Power Auras will be coming this weekend.

Ever wanted to make pretty, easily-recognizable spell alerts for your Power Auras, instead of those far-out runes and glowing symbols? Chances are you might even forget once in a while what the rune to the right of your target of target means on your 3rd alt. Here's an easy strategy to create some pretty graphics and place them into your Power Aura folder.

Before we start, you'll want a graphical editing program. I don't have Photoshop so I use Paint.NET. It's extremely good and is great for doing things like cropping pictures and making Power Aura buttons!

I was turned on to this program by Caith who is the author of the Caith UI. She also has done all the graphical work for her UI and the previous version to her current one utilized the basic gray Blizzard texture. She incorporated this color almost everywhere, and used it to create this lovely little image to the left that she shared with the everyone in a tutorial somewhere (that I have been trying to Google and cannot find). But, don't use that one because it's a GIF and low quality. I posted it only for demonstration. Go to Caith's UI and download her UI. The button is found under "CaithUI\Interface\AddOns\ButtonFacade_Caith\Textures\border.TGA" This is the blank button that she suggests you use to make your own little spell icons as you can see in her UI screenshot here: http://s.wowinterface.com/preview/pvw40887.jpg She has her own version of a spell alert tutorial that I cannot find at the moment (so you can see two different methods) so I went ahead and wrote this one from scratch with fresh pictures.


	Click here to see the fullsize screenshot.

Okay, now that we have a photo editing program and the basic border button from Caith, let's start making some spell alerts! Being the fast fingered shaman I am, I am sometimes too busy healing to know that my Water Shield has fallen off. Let's fix that.

First, let's make the button we want to use.
1) Open Paint.NET (PN)/Photoshop (PS). Open the border.TGA file. For this tutorial, I will be using Paint.NET. I do not have a copy of PS to work through the steps but the tools are essentially the same.
2) Open http://www.wowhead.com and search for Water Shield.
3) Press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. It should say "Pt Sc" or "Prnt Scrn" or something of the like. If you are on a Mac (using Mac OS X), you can use one of the following options from this short tutorial.

To capture the entire desktop, press Command-Shift-3. The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.
To copy the entire desktop, press Command-Control-Shift-3. The screen shot will be placed on your clipboard for you to paste into another program.
To capture a portion of the desktop, press Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (The file is saved as PDF in Mac OS 10.3 and earlier.)

4) Go to PN or PS and open a new, blank canvas. Paste your copied screen into this canvas or open your image using the program.


		Chances are you'll get this picture. Click on "Expand Canvas".

The selection tool in Paint.NET

5 ) We are only interested in the pretty blue Water Shield spell icon in the top left area of the screenshot. Move your mouse over to the 'Tools' column and click on the first icon in the left column. This icon/tool will let you select an area to crop. You can begin by narrowing down the area around the spell. That will make it easier on your eyes, somehow, I promise.

The selection tool in action in Paint.NET.

6) Now that we can focus on our spell icon, let's take our selection tool again and select the spell icon, as I have done in the picture to the left. It's okay if you select a LOT; in fact, try to get the whole spell. We'll be pasting it BEHIND the border so any extra won't show. If you crop it too small, though, it will show a blank space and will look funny. After you have it selected, go to Edit >> Copy. This will save what you have selected with your Rectangle Tool and nothing else.

Edit >> Copy

Layers >> Add New Layer

7) If you don't already have your border.TGA icon open, then you should open it. Go to Layers >> Add New Layer in the program as shown above and then move the new Layer (named Layer 1 or Layer 2) up or down so that it is UNDER the Background layer as shown in the picture below. You can see that I have the layer I want to move selected, along with clicking on the blue arrow that is available to be clicked on (yes, that sounds awkward but I can't think of another way to say it.)

Llani says click the blue arrow.

Almost there...

8) Finally, push Control + V and/or go to Edit >> Paste, and you will see the second to last step of your beautiful new icon. Push the Escape (ESC) key and the selection box will vanish.

Beautiful.

9) Save your icon in two places. For the first place, make a folder on your desktop and label it PowerAuraMaster. These will be your master copies of your spell icons in case you accidentally overwrite your Power Auras like I did and erase all your beautiful icons. For the second place, you will need to save the icon in \Interface\AddOns\PowerAuras\Custom\watershield.TGA It is VERY IMPORTANT that you keep the .TGA file name as this is what Power Auras looks for.

Now, for part II. We need to set up Power Auras to recognize when my Water Shield has fallen off and I need to recast it. This can work for any buff that you would like to track.

Part II: Creating Spell Alerts in Power Auras will be coming this weekend. This post will be edited to lead to it. If you know how to set up auras, though, you can use this post to create the graphics.

Stuff my Guild Says Part 1

2010-10-14T22:02:00.001-05:00

I'm Llani, Mushee, Nelena.

And yes, "expertise" does sound like "extra tease"!

Possibly my favorite.

Three dudes IRL playing three female draenei. Hmm.

Poor Finn got drunk and gquit on accident. And Xal wants in on my hunky firemen. :(

Spartian's a hottie.

I <3 <Vytis>!

Jaina's Locket

2010-10-13T01:38:00.000-05:00

I has.

My Wrath life is complete.

TY to Luxxe for selling it to me, it was worth every penny (30K). I wanted this item so terribly badly because of the story of what could have been between Arthas Menethil and Jaina Proudmoore. Their story makes me cry every time although there was a point in time when they were happy together, so that's how I choose to remember them. Jaina's locket is a precious item that few people will ever have in the game. It symbolizes how much Jaina and Arthas should have been together but due to destiny, could not be. Someday, they will be together again.

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: Tell me how, Uther? How do I destroy my prince? My...

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: What's this!

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: He... he kept it? All this time, he kept it!

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: I knew!

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: I sensed a part of him still alive! Trapped... struggling... Oh, Arthas!

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: Perhaps - perhaps he might someday remember what he once was.

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: By the Light, may he at last find rest, free from the icy grip of that terrible blade.

If Jaina and Arthas had been able to stay together, and rule Lordaeron...they would have easily surpassed Tyrande and Malfurion in prominence. They will forever be my favorite couple in Warcraft, but since their story is done for now, I will root for Tyrande and 'Furion while keeping my little locket close to heart as a reminder. Who to carry it on is a different story *sigh* I have my druid, my shaman, my priest...

RIP Arthas.


Jaina and Arthas, drawn by the lovely Mannakae.

From Uther to Mimblis

Mimblis Evermorne was a fellow paladin of Uther Lightbringer. This letter was sent in the year 24.

Mimblis, Greetings, my friend. I hope the Light finds you well.

The young Arthas fills me with hope. He recently became a full paladin, and is nearly all I could hope for in a Knight of the Silver Hand. He is strong and powerful, with a devotion to his people that borders on zealousness. He’s a fine paladin and will make a fine king when our beloved Terenas leaves us. Arthas has some growing to do, so I hope King Terenas will remain here for some time.

The only thing that bothers me about Arthas is that he has a disturbing quality in him. Sometimes, in training, I have seen him go a little far while sparring. He is so dedicating to winning the match that he forgets that it is only for training. He lacks control; I suppose it's a sense of ruthlessness that lies under his honorable exterior. I have full confidence that he will use this dedication to battle for his people, and I look forward to testing him. Once he really wets his sword, I can begin to teach him control. I don’t want to rein his power just yet, until I can see what he’s capable of.

Arthas loves his people very much. We recently visited some of the poorer villages outside of Lordaeron, giving healing to those in need. I wanted to test his healing powers, as well as see how he interacted with his people beyond the wealthy nobles in the city. He was full of pity for these people, weeping for a woman who had lost her leg in a wolf attack. After healing her pain, he set out on horseback, searching for the wolf. He slew three, bringing the pelts back to the woman to serve as her blankets. I was touched, but again, a little alarmed at his singlemindedness. She was grateful, and as we were there to serve the wounded and sick, our work was completed.

His relationship with Jaina Proudmoore is one I must watch. Lordaeron has never had a mage as a queen, but if she and Arthas wed, that’s what we will be faced with. Perhaps it will be a good union of magic and politics, or at least bring the mages and paladins closer together. I will watch them carefully. A good thing about Jaina is that she will soften his hard edges. While she attacks her obstacles with a firm and unyielding mind, she is more diplomatic and cerebral in her approach, while Arthas may simply hammer on something until it disintegrates. They will make a strong union: He is the naked steel of a sword, and she is a fist in a velvet glove. I have confidence that they will receive public support, and I will lend them my support as well. I watch Arthas training on the field, and feel he can take on anything. He attacks with a single-mindedness that I know he will apply toward anything in life, be it physical confrontations or political. King Terenas has a good son. I have total confidence in Arthas. Yes, he has more to learn, but don’t we all? He’ll overcome his weaknesses and become a wise king, in time.

Looking forward to our trip to Stratholme,

— Uther

"Hey, send me a message next time you see me online"

Almost...

2010-10-12T20:34:00.000-05:00

And then a 100 MB patch...FML. That's another 20-30 minutes on my shittastic connection.

Oh well. It only lasts until mid December, and then I will be living in College Station.

/twiddles thumbs

/goes to shower

Bigger is Not Always Better: My Experiences With 10 v. 25 Raiding

2010-10-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

I've been a 40, I've been a 25, I've been a 10.In this post, I will share with you my thoughts on both and why I favor the one I do.

Raiding History From Vanilla to Wrath
In Vanilla WoW, I did the 40 man raid. I thought it was epic. I was one of four shaman and one of the shaman was actually enhancement. He frequently made it into the top 10 DPS and I rooted for him all the way. I was skeptical of shadowpriests, like most people, although for as much as I disliked them I ended up BEING one in Burning Crusade (oh the irony). I swapped to a mage for the second half of Vanilla, and made my priest during Vanilla. I started mage in BC and finished as priest in the second half. I started priest in Wrath and finished as a shaman. I had a brief passionate alt fling with my druid but am waiting until Cataclysm actually is imminent (think: arriving in a few days) before I cement my decision to make her my main toon.

During BC I very much enjoyed Karazhan; I felt it was a much more personal encounter. You wouldn't take 25 people and go raze someone's tower...but 10 people? Sure why not. It felt a lot more realistic. For the bigger, Gruul, Magtheridon-style raids, you would definitely want 25 people. I felt safer with 25. 25 felt like a nice, rounded number. I did 4/5 bosses in Hyjal Summit, but ended up transferring off to play with friends on my current server after the first boss in Black Temple.

25 players still does feel like a good 'large raid' amount of players. Unfortunately, my internet can't handle that. It's less than a 1 MB connection. I can play WoW perfectly fine with no lag. My computer is also fine. I can raid 25s, but only during the day, or very late at night (post 9 PM). No thanks. School and stuff to do on the farm during the day. I wasn't sure I'd ever end up solely in 10 mans but with the changes in Cataclysm, I am happy to do just that. I am sure millions of people have crappy connections like mine, and can't do a thing about it.

In Wrath I spent the first half in 25 mans with a progression-focused guild that went with hard mode progression for Ulduar, ToC, and ICC. We did OS3D, and I did have fun when we killed it (I used my guardian spirit for 1 of the cooldowns...I think I was CD number 2 or 3). It was a lot of work but worthwhile. When my computer crapped out in the spring, I quit raiding, and came back for the tail end of ToC. In January for ICC, my internet was now at the farm, and it couldn't take prime time 25 mans.

25 v. 10 Personalities...

25s

I did enjoy the hard mode raiding. I liked always being on my toes for the entire fight. But, what I didn't enjoy were the inability of people to communicate outside of their cliques without causing other people to feel awkward. Perhaps it was just the type of people in the guild. Our GM and some officers felt like they were above the rest of us for various reasons, some due to RL, some due to their amount of time they spent on the game (think unemployed (by their words), no effort to find a job whatsoever (after a few months, take whatever you can get), complete days spent on WoW). It just wasn't enjoyable. Several people left over the course of a year and I have come to wonder why I didn't either. I guess because I felt if I wasn't raiding 25s, I wasn't really 'raiding'. Long story short, the leadership was distanced from half the guild that didn't 'fit' their personality or have a similar RL situation.

More often than not you're going to find more of this in a 25 man raiding guild. When servers may only have 4-5 quality focused progression raiding guilds, your choices begin to be severely limited if 1 or 2 of those guilds have distanced or immature leadership for whatever reason. The GM of the guild rarely conversed in a casual manner (or much at all), whereas the previous GM had been friendly, open-minded, and talked with everyone who struck up a conversation.

I have heard stories of fun, friendly, positive 25 man guilds like the one blog post I can't find right now that talked about a hilarious run in ICC 25 that was full of fun wipes but at the end of the night, the recruits still wanted to join. My thoughts are that it was the atmosphere, and the way the guild reacted to the wipes (cheerfully and proactively) that caused them to join the guild. There is nothing close to that type of guild (much less one that raids on weekends) on my server.

10s
So, I stick to 10s because for the most part, I can play with the positive people without choking my internet connection. I am happy that I found the guild I did when I returned from this year's (short) break. I was immediately welcomed (not just for my heroism) into the ten man guild where raiding was fun. A mistake made did not mean that you were berated and called a screw up, we now just laughed it off, figured out how to avoid the mistake or help the player, and killed the boss. We progressed. Right now we've had some off weeks while we get through school, work, etc, but we fully intend to knock off The Lich King before Cataclysm. We are also a little behind since we didn't start ICC until about May or June, and some weeks we just didn't have the people for our one night of raiding. When we did, we averaged about one new kill a week. When we went to our new core raiding Wednesday, casual Tuesday schedule, we rammed our way all the way up to TLK. If only we could have made the switch back in June.

In a 10 man environment, everyone can be more relaxed. You can schedule your raids more easily, quickly, faster, and if you need to move the raid to a different night, you can. People get to know the other 9 raiders around them, and learn their healing, DPS, and tanking styles. You know how squishy your tank is. You know the reaction time of your other healers, and you know which DPS can maneuver more easily to kite adds. There are very few cliques, and even if there are, they won't last long in a small guild, unless you have large guilds with several 10 man teams. Then you may have some issues but, scheduling fun events like AQ40 and MC/BWL runs on off nights can be a fun way to bring everyone together. Guild raffles (I'm going to hold one in a few weeks I think to generate some gold for the guild for Cataclysm) are another fun way to have everyone together.

Size Issues in Cataclysm
As I think about how bigger guilds will be able to progress in their guild ranks faster, I have come to the conclusion of: so what. The ranks and the perks that come with them are not "must have" things that will disadvantage big guilds over small ones. The only thing that it will affect is the min-maxers, the super hardcore who need to have every boost and perk to ensure their performance is elite. Okay, that's nice. Go for it! For the most part, the rank rewards carry cute, "Stormwind-bound" cloaks that give you extra "hearthstones," heirloom gear, convenient flask cauldrons (sort of like Scrolls of Fortitude), or pets.

A smaller guild may progress through the ranks a little more slowly, but in the end, I suspect most guilds will be at rank 25 or close to it by next summer at the latest. This allows guilds to settle into the expansion and enjoy it. Everyone will eventually be at the same rank. If you kill 10,000 critters before me, well gosh golly gee, congratulations. In the end, the rank rewards are not essential to raiding--although they are perks, they are not required. The removal of the "top 20 contributors" attribute isn't really that big of a deal to me.

Choose the Size that Fits Your Wishes
If you want a 25 man guild, you will need to look extra carefully to find one that you will fit into. If the raiding core is comprised of mostly volatile, hormone raging teenagers, then you're going to need a thick skin. You probably won't be able to have the relaxed conversations you would in a different guild. People will always be jumping on your every word. They may leave/join often, and the guild may be unstable.

If you can find a positive environment of mostly mid to late twenty, older professions with respect for each other, then you won't need to be wary that someone might twist your words. You can relax. Guilds of this caliber AND size are few and far between because most of the time, everyone balances their playtime with real life events and to find that many mature people in one spot is an amazing feat to me. Hang onto guilds like this.

Finding a positive environment to play in is much easier in a smaller guild and smaller raiding environment. The stress to perform for 24 other people is not there -- you are instead playing with 9 other people. You can still be serious, focus on hard modes, and attain great gear, but your stress level will almost always be lower. Synchronizing 10 people is much easier. The work required for synchronizing 25 people just won't be worth it in Cataclysm--the only thing you can note is that you managed to...synchronize 25 people instead of 10. You managed to get a little extra loot in the process.

The Future of our Guild
Some things I would like to see in the future for our guild include:

More quality people! I know this is a little off seeing as I favor my smaller guild. But, I envision the ideal size for a guild to be around 30 to 50 people. Any more and you're going to need more officers, more vent spaces, etc. Right now we are around 15 to 20 active players, where 10 of those are casual and 10 are our core team for Wednesdays. If we could expand to a Wed, Thursday, and Friday night (maybe late night) team, with "fun runs" on the weekend, with separate people in all three runs (or close to it) I think that would:

Give everyone more people to quest and converse with. This helps our casual players who do not raid have more fellow friendly guildmates to hang out with all throughout the different times of the day.
Allow a more flexible schedule for those who cannot make the daytime raids.

More in game events. Raffles, Maybe guild drinking parties where we all meet in game somewhere and drink, or are on vent together drinking and socializing while we're also in game somewhere (hey, it can be smoothies, punch, or soda, it doesn't have to be ale). Most of us live spread out from California to New York, Florida to Washington. We most likely may never see each other in the real world. The next best thing is saving a $100 bill by going out on the weekends and just stay in and hang out that way. Don't get me wrong, I love going out to dinner (IRL) but saving a little money now and then works too.

Hallow's End Costume Contest 2010 @ Kirina's Closet

2010-10-06T17:21:00.000-05:00

If you didn't know, Kirina is hosting her annual costume contest for the month of October! Go dig in your closets and pull out your most creative outfit! Be sure to follow these rules, which can also be found on her site at the link above:

"It is also important that you enter a correct, and current, e-mail address with your costume submission – as the codes for the prizes will be e-mailed to the winners after the contest is over.

Rules and Guidelines:

The costume contest is between October 1st – October 31st (ends at 11:59 p.m.). Winners will be announced within a week after ending.

In-game costumes only, please. Any real-life costumes, even WoW related, will be immediately disqualified (and snickered at ^_^).

*All costumes will be judged based on originality and creativity*; costumes actually worn on a character (not through a model viewer) will be preferred.

No duplicate entries! Enter as many different costumes as you can come up with, but not the same. Duplicate entries (like, if you weren’t sure your costume got through or not) will be deleted; however, intentionally spammed entries will be disqualified.

Even if you submit more than one costume, you are only eligible for one prize.

Abuse of the contest up-loader with pornographic material will be immediately reported…so, don’t do it! ^_^"

If you think you can work your Warcraft fashion sense and create a cool costume, then click on the link above!

If you need a little inspiration, the 2009 contest results are here (but be sure to make a unique outfit!)

I'll be working this weekend on a cute costume...depending on what I decide to be I may need to go raid some old school dungeons! I will be sure to post my costume here the day after the contest is over!

BA Shared Topic Idea: What's in a Name?

2010-10-05T13:42:00.001-05:00

What takes the longest to choose, is the first thing people see, and is the one thing they always remember about you and your character?

Your name.

How did you decide upon the name for your character(s)? Did you delve into Norse, Greek, or Roman mythology? Did you choose a name from one of your family members? Did you mash the "Random" name generator button in vain until you stumbled upon something you liked? Is your name a play on aspects of your class, using spells or other traits? Did you play around with syllables, vowels, and consonants until you found something that you loved?

How long did it take you to come up with your name? Do all of your characters share the same 'theme' or naming convention? Have you ever run into someone who had a similar name? How did you feel? Does your character have a partner with "the other half" to your name (such as "Salt" and "Pepper"). Do any of your characters have a "themed" guild that goes along with your name? Do you have a nickname that your guild, friends, or significant other has given your character?

Has your character name become your online persona, or maybe the other way around?

Do you have any tips for naming your characters in WoW, or any other game? Resources, name generators, mythology websites, sources of inspiration, etc.

If you are an avid roleplayer, how was your name decided upon by family/friends? Did your character choose the name later in life or were they given it at birth? There are whole stories behind naming/birthday celebrations that I am sure are floating around out there.

So much can be said about names. What does yours say?

This week's topic sprouted from somewhere within my thoughtful mind, although I'm not quite sure when I thought of it. I think I had been reading several roleplay blogs and thinking about jumping into RP myself. I still have yet to do that; I've been dragging my feet a little bit.

So far it looks like people will enjoy thinking about and sharing their naming processes with the world this week. I will update a list at the end of the post of all the people who participate in this week's topic. I think this will be a good post for roleplayers too who would like to have their character reminisce about their name and where it came from/how it fits in with the rest of their friends and family.

To start with, I will give you a list of all my current character names and we will go from there!

Mains
Llani, my draenei shaman (80)
Mushee, my night elf druid (80)
Nelena, my night elf priest (80)

Alts
Myrani, my draenei paladin (34)
Natalie, my blood elf priest (5)
Sahteen, my night elf hunter (34)
Mushee, my draenei mage (72)

It looks like I've been favoring the letter/sounds of Ls, Ms, Ns, and Es! Hmm. I never actually noticed that.

When I Need a New Name...
The naming process for me can take DAYS. First, I don't really follow any set theme with my names. I find one that sounds good, has an easy pronunciation, and sounds feminine. I have all female toons and just don't feel like playing a male toon. Depending on what mood I am in, I start writing down the first ideas that come to mind. Sometimes I want a non-traditional name (usually a combination of words) like Shadowfury, Cashmere, or Blubell. Other times I will go with traditional names you would see in the world like Karly, Jadsia, or Annabell. And finally, if I want something mythological or a foreign language or culture I will search for anything Celtic, German, Roman, or the like.

Llani

Llani came about because I had been watching Smallville a little too much. I wanted Lana to start with, but, it was naturally taken. Lani was also taken, so I stuck another L on the front and it just "looked" nice and balanced. That's another thing--my names have to look good. If they look awkward, chances are someone else is going to find it awkward also. Nickname: Llanibunny

Mushee

Mushee was a druid, first and foremost. When I was naming my druid, I wanted something that said "I'm cute, cuddly, and furry, HUG ME". I had intended for her to be a bear tank, and despite the wary feeling one might associate with a tank named "Mushee," I leveled her up as a tank anyway. These days she is a tree with a cute name, but, still...I associate all druids as fluffy, furry, fuzzy, cuddly fluffballs of fuzziness that I can just squeeeeze and use for pillows. Yep. Nickname: Mush, Mushball

Nelena

Nelena came about when I wanted a name that started with an N, but that sounded sophisticated and chic. And so, Nelena came about when I was moving my priest back home to her current server. Her beta server name is Nalena, because the former was taken. Sometimes I call her "Nuh-lay-nuh" and other days I call her "Nuh-lee-nuh". Most of the time she is just... Nickname: Nel.

Myrani

My paladin alt came about oddly as a form of Llani. I chopped off the front of her name and started adding on other names that I thought would fit well. Eventually I came up with Myrani, "Muh-raw-nee" or "Meer-raw-nee", however way you want to say it. So many times my names just come from other names that I squish together until I find one that flows off your tongue and is either relatively easy to say or easy to learn after some correcting. Nickname: Myra

Natalie

Miss Natalie came from me desiring a normal, everyday name. Thus, I managed to snag Natalie. Nickname: Nat

Sahteen

This name is actually another shaman on my server, but I thought it was such a pretty play on Sateen that I saved it on my other server for my hunter, who is currently 34. I love fabric names, and a previous name of mine was Cashmira. Chenille and Taffetta would be some other favorites.

Other names I have used in the past include:

Bretta, Zesti, Oregano, Shadowfrenzy, Sparkles, Chirabell, Litebrite, Cherished, Grace, Ziv, and Faith.

The names I like the most come from these categories, if you want some inspiration:

Girlie names, like Natalie, Bretta, Nellie, Anna.
Anything with Dream, Sky, Wind, Leaf, in the name.
Native American names.
Religious/Faith/Clean based names like Grace, Peace, Hope, Poise, Adored, Elegance
Herbs. Oregano, Chamomile, Mint, Tarragon, Rosemary
Sweets/Sugar. Cupcake, Teacup, Sugar, Muffins, Sugarwings

Mmm. I made these Monday night for my Physics class. German chocolate + Coconut Pecan icing. Cooking can be a good source for character names, if you like herbs, certain foods or food types, or need a pool of names to choose from for a group of friends. People always get a chuckle when they see Bleucheese from the guild <Salad Dressings>. If you need something more formal/serious, I suggest sticking with the herb families...especially if you are a druid.

The list goes on. My advice is to Google the type of name you would like, be it something from one of the above categories, a Native American name, a mythological name, a Chinese name from history past, a cutesy/cuddly name, pet names, three letter names, etc. Google is your friend, use it often!

My favorite name generator is located at http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/.

I believe my names reflect the fact that I appreciate a balanced, easy to pronounce yet still creative name. I do not think any of my names are overly unique as many of them are just variations of names that I stumbled upon throughout the last five years and liked. In the future, some friends and I would like to create a guild named <Foods> and name all our alt characters after a food. I was going to do Blucheese, although I have a thing with "misspelled" names. I am okay with them, much moreso than with those terrible foreign symbols, but I still like to spell things correctly.

My latest alt for the expansion will be Teacup, the gnome priest. =) I am also thinking about Shadowpuff. Imagine a cute little priest coming at you to dot you up into oblivion and then giggle with glee as you flop over! Ahhh the possibilities.

In the end, your name is what you want it to be, so spend the extra time to choose something you love! You're stuck with it until you fork over the 10 dollars to change it! (And in this economy, who really wants to spend $10 on THAT!)

Other Thoughts So Far About Names!
Dragonray @ Azerothian Life
RestoDude @ RestoDude
VioletScribe @ The Violet Scribe
ecclesiasticaldiscipline @ Ecclesiastical Discipline
Syrco @ Syrco-Owl

More to come, I will add them every few days as they are posted.

Selling Common Quality Patterns

2010-10-02T00:29:00.000-05:00

First, if the "What I'm Reading" tab looks any smaller on the side, it's because I accidentally deleted my widget. I'm currently readding all my favorite reads out of my GoogleReader. Sigh...anyway, to the article!

Effortless Gold
So, I have taken up this odd practice of selling white (common) quality patterns on the Auction House (AH). As to not encroach onto a friend's cooking pattern territory on the Neutral Auction House (NAH), I am only doing this on my other server with my mage. So far, it has been a success. For my priest here on my home server, I have been selling tailoring patterns. There really are quite a few lazy/don't have a clue people out there in Warcraft. I suppose some of it can be chalked up to being new and not knowing where things are BUT I believe most of it is laziness.

White quality patterns are typically bought off vendors around the world. Some patterns only show up once an hour or once every few hours, and the patterns can be sold in unlimited supply or 1 per spawn period (aka, once someone buys that 1 pattern, it won't show up again for 1 hour). Since all you have to do is fly to the vendor and purchase the pattern, you would think more people would do this. Nope. There are some really lazy people.

So, let's make some money off them!

Setting up Your Toons
So far my little experiment has made me about 150g a day on my tailoring patterns, and about 150g a day from cooking patterns. That's 300g for sometimes 1 hour's worth of work, but, usually it is just logging in, collecting money, and reposting patterns from my stash. We'll say about 300g for 15 minutes worth of work to hop to my four bank characters.

One character sits in Booty Bay. She's 24, she won't move. She sells on the alliance side of the neutral AH.
Another toon sits in Darnassus, posting on the Alliance AH. She's level 1ish.
And the third toon sits on the Horde AH, also level 1ish.
The fourth toon sits in Booty Bay on the horde side. She posts on the horde side of the neutral AH.

The neutral AH's are located in Booty Bay, Gadgetzan, and Winterspring.

So, with this setup, I can send stuff from my big toons (mage and rogue) on the alliance and horde sides of my server and have my lowbies post it. I fly around the world on my high level toons (a lot easier on the teleporting mage) and collect common-quality (and some green quality faction specific) patterns to sell.

I'm starting to enjoy this a little bit more than farming herbs! Herb farming to me is relaxing, but, this is sort of like gathering...I'm just gathering a different type of item. You can stockpile 2 or 3 of each recipe and sell them according to their availability:

Is this recipe purchasable by only alliance or horde players? If yes, I need to sell this on the netural AH, or even better, have a friend help move it over to the opposite faction AH.
Is this recipe a reward from a faction-specific (alliance only or horde only) quest? If yes, I need to price the item even higher (think 500g or more) on either the netural or opposite faction's AH.

Where to Find the Goodies

Where can you find these patterns? You can use the addon Ackis Recipe List to not only discover the locations of recipes that you are missing, you can see all the recipes for that profession (I suggest sticking with tailoring and cooking) that are possible to obtain. A list of faction-specific patterns is available here on WoWWiki. As you can see, things like [Bright Yellow Shirt] are available only on the alliance side. I frequently sell this pattern on the Alliance AH for 50g. I am going to try and sell it on the neutral AH for 100g, the same price I sell all my cooking patterns.
Little Inconveniences
Granted, you will not always have someone who can come help you transfer items over. Plus you also run the risk of someone ninjaing your items when they are passing hands from one side to the other. Things may take longer to sell on the neutral AH, BUT, if someone wants what you have, they will come looking at the neutral AH. Yes, you will take a profit hit (30%) by posting on the neutral AH but it is not an end all deal if you have to.

Also, if you are like me and have like 5 character slots full already per server, then you will need to decide what you want to specialize in:

Collecting white quality patterns/recipes from around Azeroth on your faction, and selling only to your faction's AH.
Collecting white quality patterns/recipes from around Azeroth on your faction, and selling to the netural AH.
Collecting white quality patterns/recipes from around Azeroth on your faction, and selling to both the netural AH and your factions AH.
Collecting white quality patterns/recipes from around Azeroth on your faction, and selling to both factions AND the neutral AH.

Option 1 is the least time consuming, and option 4 is the most time consuming. I recommend option 3, which gathers all your recipes and posts them on the netural AH and your faction AH. This way you only need your normal bank toon that hangs around the faction AH, and either a bank toon to hang out near a neutral AH or your main toon to post the recipes there.

The idea here is to not clog up your bags with too many patterns (I keep 3 maximum on my toons, 4 if it sells well) and only check these toons once a day. These patterns may not sell for two days, and you will find yourself reposting often. But, so far, every single day I have logged in, as long as I price my tailoring patterns at 50g or below (35, 25, 15) I will sell at least one, more than likely 2 or 3. The further you have to travel from the cities to get the patterns, the better they sell. People are lazy, remember this! As far as cooking recipes go, some days I sell three recipes (at 85g final profit each) per day. Sometimes I sell zero. These recipes do not have to sell overnight; have patience. If you get a recipe from a quest, these should be priced around 500g. They may take two weeks to sell, but you will find a buyer eventually that does not want to level a level 30 just to get a recipe.

I hope these ideas help you make some gold!

Oh, and while waiting for the zeppelin earlier, I saw these cute faces on the woodwork:

O HAI.

I'm sure it's part of the texture of the wood but I laughed all the same!

BA Shared Topic Idea: Effects of Choices in World of Warcraft

2010-09-30T17:09:00.000-05:00

Since this week's topic post was a long one (mine is up for next week, going to have to paraphrase it also), I copped it a bit and only included the actual question below from Runzwithfire:

Over the past 10-12 years, games have been advancing and being accepted more and more as a legitimate artform and story telling device, in the same way a movie or a book is. This has mostly been led by RPGs, although through the years we've seen other games start to take on the idea of moral dilemas and interactive storytelling - look at Heavy Rain as an example. In fact, one of the few genres where it has kind of been lacking (or taken longer to catch up) has been in the MMORPG genre.

So I started thinking, could an MMORPG start incorporating some of the feature we take for granted in singleplayer RPGs? Rather than the "get quest, kill x number of things, hand in quest" formula, could we start seeing multiple ways to complete a quest? Could there be moral choices to be made, with an outcome that will affect both you as a player (emotional involvement) and your character (rewards/penalties).

Old School "Choose Your Next Move" Stories
Very challenging topic (which may be why there are only two replies so far, but challenges are GOOD). I have been thinking about this all week in between studying for my electricity exam (physics second semester, oh boy...) and decided that what this question reminds me the most of is those stories where you would read the passage, and then choose your next "move". It would have part of the story, and then at the bottom "If you wish to follow John to the boat and go fishing, turn to page 5...if you want to run away screaming, turn to page 6..." Part of the fun was that you couldn't "go back" on your choice. You had to finish the story to the end. If you made a certain "bad" choice, you either got killed and had to start over or you suffered dire consequences.

But I want both quest rewards, not just one...
As far as applying this to WoW...well, we already see it to some extent in quest rewards. Have you ever wanted both rewards that a quest offered, but were only able to choose one? Once you do, you cannot go back and get the other one. You can't reverse your choice. You are forever stuck with that item. Sometimes, we see quests like the Kharazan ring, or the Ashen Verdict ring, where you can pay money to have your ring "reforged" for you. This is much more understandable than going back to Farmer Saldean and saying, "by the way, I don't like these [Harvester's Pants]. Any chance you could hook me up with the [Harvester's Robe] instead? I don't think he'd be too happy.

Environment Phasing and Reputation Greetings
Right now there aren't too many irreversible, major choices in the game that can affect your character, but I'll give a few of the examples that DO exist. First, we have environmental phasing. Once you do the quests, you've phased yourself into the next "time period" and things have changed. People have died, moved, and new NPCs are around with new quests. The terrain may have changed (although I don't know if we have terrain phasing in the game yet. I think just NPCs, quests, and some environmental factors. You can't undo these changes once they happen. You also cannot undo places you have discovered/explored.

We also have reputations. Once you are exalted with the Kirin Tor, they greet you in Dalaran and say how nice it is to see you, and what an honor it is to have you back in Dalaran. These things help immerse you in the world and also make you feel appreciated and that your hard work was worth it. Also, we have "choose one and not the other" faction pairs like The Oracles/Frenzyheart and The Aldor/Scryer. You may not be exalted with both at one time, but you can be neutral with both. Once you choose a side, the other side begins to hate you. You cannot interact with the other side (they become hostile to you and attack you if you get too close/are in an area controlled by them). You can change these choices, although it is by far easier to change from Frenzyheart to Oracles and vice versa than it is to change from Aldor to Scryer.

More Storytelling via Choices
I'd like to see a little more...adaptation when it comes to your choices in WoW. By adaptation, I mean I want the game to recognize the choice I made and change a few things in the environment around me, whether it is the lines that NPCs say, the emotes they do, perhaps even future quests that I am offered. I know some people would possibly complain about this but if it were implemented on a large scale from 1 to max level, then you could potentially have many different paths to choose from after you've finished one character. Already you hear about people discovering new areas or new quests on their alts. What if this step were taken even further? You are given choices when replying to NPCs. If you choose the rude reply, the NPCs begin to no longer say things to you when you pass by. Their option texts are shorter and more curt. They begin to treat you as you treat them. Perhaps you have a flexible reputation bar (on a 1-10 or 1-100 scale). As you reply with friendlier lines, they move your bar back to 10 and you gain access to certain foods/perks. But then, who would be rude in the first place? Perhaps for RP reasons. You could always RP that your character is disliked in Stormwind, and cannot step foot in the city without rude remarks said toward them, but what if it were really true? (Granted, I'm not sure who would actually WANT that to happen...)

Reputation/Profession Combinations
What if you are a max level cook, and exalted with Stormwind? Perhaps there are some special Stormwind Braised Pork Chops that you can cook that turn you into a 'Citizen of Stormwind' or another cosmetic appearance. This could extend to all the cities, other factions, etc. You could have access to a certain kind of cheese from Trias' Cheese (for RP fun)...

"Here, my dear, try some of THIS cheese...it is a very rare cheese only bestowed to the best chefs who are held in high regard in Stormwind..."

Oh the possibilities are endless. Or a tailoring pattern for a special dress.

There could also be clubs, societies, where you could turn in a certain number of an item (herbs, leather, beer, wine, etc.) and gain access to a certain tailoring pattern or cooking recipe after say, 50 turn ins. Yes that's a high number, but if it were a pretty blue beret with a flower, you'd better believe that people would work toward it. This is also another idea for RP...working toward your standing within the Stormwind Master Tailor Society...or the Old Town Cooking Club...for the recipe for those yummy and delicious Minature Strawberry Shortcakes...

What ideas do you have for more intricate and or personalized touches in WoW? What choices could there be that could lead to personalization of the game on so many levels?

BA Shared Topic Idea: Design Your Class

2010-09-24T16:55:00.000-05:00

Primetime Casual suggested for this weeks topic:

It's quite simple. We'll do it LEGO style. Take each available talent tree (either WotLK or Cata, if you're in the Beta). Shake. Pick three.

To elaborate: Out of all the talent trees available, if you could freely choose three to create your own, 'custom' class, which ones would you choose? This is something that a few small budget roguelikes or diablo clones do, and it's fun to ponder if this would work in WoW as well.
Your starting class gives you the skills to work with. You may take for granted that all talents that enhance a class skill also automatically give you that skill. You must have at least one talent tree of your chosen starting class.

The Medic

This one is a challenge for me! Hmm. I selected priest as my base class, because anyone who takes up this class in the lore would have a primary faith in the light, with an affinity for nature based solely on growing up in a rural area of Azeroth. My three talent trees would be holy-priest (for AOE heals), restoration-druid (for some powerful dots) and restoration-shaman (for some powerful single target instant heals). I would create a "super healer" class that has no options for being a hybrid. This class would have defensive spells such as Entangling Roots, Shackle Undead, Entangling Totems, etc, but very, very weak offensive capabilities. They would primarily be healers and cleansers.

Holy Priest Tree

Circle of Healing (AoE), Spirit of Redemption, Lightwell. These spells provide AoE heals, a life saving guardian angel, and a freestanding healing well. The priest class also provides shields, a bouncing heal (Prayer of Mending) and one powerful HoT (Renew).

Restoration Druid Tree

Wild Growth (more AoE, but from a different school of magic), Tree of Life (boosted healing), and Swiftmend. With additional AoE and a boosted healing form, this healer is now REALLY getting into the role. Swiftmend provides a quick heal as long as a HoT is on the target.

Restoration Shaman Tree

Riptide, Nature's Swiftness, Earth Shield, and Mana Tide Totem. The healing shaman tree comes loaded with goodies that would make this combination healer easily the most powerful class in Azeroth. Riptide is a fast single target heal that boosts haste for two spell cooldowns after; Nature's Swiftness makes your next spell instant cast; Earth Shield provides an instant heal every few seconds when your target is hit; Mana Tide Totem returns mana to you and your party with the touch of a button.

Lore-wise, this healer would follow the light but be respectful of nature. They would likely be found in a small, rural setting with smaller churches/cathedrals, similar to many people who live on farms in the countryside today. The nature-based talent trees would be necessary to survive enemies not found near the cities that have nature-based attacks, traits, and abilities. The light would be their spiritual following and the affinity for nature would be rooted in growing up in their current environment (countryside, rurual).

And since this is Pocket Heals, did you really expect anything different!?

What if You Had to Choose One Character for Cataclysm?

2010-09-22T23:51:00.001-05:00

OH the HORROR.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd be @#$#ed. Over the years, mostly recently, I have come to really enjoy my night elf priest and my night elf druid alongside my draenei shaman. I've grown accustomed to the naturey-goodness of my druid's HoTs, the earthy power of my shaman, and the graceful heals of light from my priest. Of those three, the priest is of course the oldest. The one I explored raiding on for the first time (in 2005) was the shaman (a different toon, but same class of course). The totems are what keeps me coming back every time.

So, which toon to pick? In all honesty, I am not sure, but I should probably figure it out soon. In the end, I will likely keep my shaman as my main with my priest as my main alt. I like my druid but it's not really a love. Druid is the fun, but not serious relationship. When I have loads of extra time I will probably raid on her too, but I highly doubt that's going to happen in the next millenia.

My favorite aspect of the shaman, again, is the totems. Instead of getting just another boring "buff" like Prayer of Water Spirit or Mark of Thunder, we can provide multiple buffs at the same time. These can be further strengthened by talents to bring them up to par with what other classes provide (talented).

My priest is my squeaky clean, golden elf of grace who can of course do no wrong. Since she's been around for so long, she's got a solid collection of T1 and T2 gear, a Benediction, some T4, T5, and T6, plus her T7, 8, 9, and 10 sets...and the list goes on. I picked her back up mid-March after breaking to play Mushee...and she has since surpassed the gear of both the other two characters. Hmm.

I'm going to digress here a little bit. This is part of my issue, though, that I am trying to conquer--I adore all three of my toons and want to play on them equally. I feel that I have to have great gear on at least 2/3 toons, which has sucked up so much time in the game that I could be spending doing fun things like...fishing in old places...like Azshara, or doing fun achievements...running heroics with completely random people...baking more Delicious Chocolate Cakes for guildies...or questing even....just general fun stuff that I used to do, but never find time for anymore.

And this is another question to ponder today, when you think about which character you would choose. Are we all too obsessed about raiding?

There was a time, way back in 2005 and 2006, when, if you had a full set of blues from Scholomance, Stratholme, Dire Maul, Sunken Temple, and BRD, you were a great player. You had a solid set of gear that could take you places. If you had gear from Molten Core, or eventually Blackwing Lair, you were an IDOL! Oh man, you had people gawking at you from a mile away. Even at the end of Vanilla, if you had a set of Molten Core gear, you were still seen as an accomplished raider. Even with all this gear, there was still time to do all the other fun things in the game like fish, explore new hidden cubbies and caves, or just run around with friends.

These days, if we aren't raiding on one toon, we're thinking about raiding on the next, or what we need to do for our third 80, or fourth 80, or heck, even 8th 80...where can we get gear, "ugh, I need to farm badges," "not tonight, I'm raiding..."

Part of this, I believe, is due to the xp cut that Blizzard implemented a few years ago. The XP required to get to 1-60 was shortened for BC, then 1-70 for Wrath. In Cataclysm, they will cut the XP for 1-80. It's extremely easy to get alts up to high level, which means lots of people have done it (aka me). Then we get presented with the easy gear ladder in Wrath, which, of course, will change come Cataclysm.

Perhaps doing 5 mans and sporting level 80 blue gear will become at least honorable again, instead of "you loser, why do you still have blues on when you can get freebie epics from ______". I hope so. Then, alts can finally be played as alts, and feel accomplished even in a full set of 80 blue gear.

So, now that I've derailed my own post, I will summarize. I bring up the "picking only one toon" because I want to semi-force myself to wean myself down off WoW. I may not be playing it much next year when I land a decent job that befits a college graduate with a cool piece of paper--my RL epic gear, right? So, I feel that by picking ONE toon to do ALL my core team raiding on, and ONE alt to play on an offnight, that I will be forced to better prioritize my time spent on the game. It is a game, after all, and while I may have lots of leisure time now while I finish school, soon I will only have perhaps 1 hour a night, with 3 hours on a raid night to play. While I'm still single, I figure I have at least 2 hours on offnights after laundry, cooking, and cleaning is done (grin). I might as well at least TRY to get on that kind of schedule now.

I chose 1 main and 1 alt because playing only one toon, for me, would get monotonous. I need the second toon to break it up a bit. Naturally I will keep all my lowbie dps for goofing off on, but my main and alt always have a dps spec. All other toons, if leveled to 85, will only do 5 mans. I know two friends who have just their mains, and no alts, due to their demanding work schedules. If only I could limit myself in such a way! /sigh

For now, for sanity's sake, my shaman will remain my main core raiding team toon and main achievement collector until I decide otherwise, with Nelena as my main alt and secondary achievement collector. Mushee...well, she's my fuzzy druid and she's just for fun. I haven't raided on her in two weeks and I doubt I will in the future, except for a quick weekly here and there before Cataclysm.

But, I LOVE druid T11, so I will do a tiny bit of raiding on her. I guess it will depend on how the Cataclysm raiding model looks.

Outside of my three toons, I think the biggest candidates for alt leveling in the future are my 71 mage, 34 hunter, and 30 paladin. I think I will probably race change my paladin to BE, so I can cover the BE fix. As far as gnome priest...I don't know whether I will race change Nelena or roll a new one. It's a tough decision.

Alrighty, enough rambling for now. Would you guys have an easier time picking one toon or are you like me--attached to all three of your toons?

BA Shared Topic Idea: What Was Your Favorite ___ in WotLK?

2010-09-18T10:11:00.002-05:00

Relevart from Relevart's Druid Reliquary writes:

I noticed the backlog for shared topics was getting a little low. With talking about what is left to do in WotLK a few weeks ago, I figured we could take a look back and reflect upon what we liked most about WotLK. I left this wide open to interpretation. You can choose a quest, dungeon, raid, profession change, achievement, mount, PvP fight, arena, battleground, loot, particular boss, or anything else that I might have missed. Just choose one thing and really flesh it out and sell it to your readers. Explain why this was the best _____ for you and if you haven't done ______ well you're really missing out.

Well, there was no way I would could come up with just one thing so I decided to be like Jason at WoWPhiles and do my top 5 favorite items/memories of WotLK. I did not quest as much as I wanted to this expansion, mainly because I ended up in a 25 man progression guild that focused heavily on getting to 80 as soon as possible. Not wanting to be left out, I booked my way to the cap and unfortunately missed out on a lot of quests. I may go quest on Nelena in the upcoming months. In Cataclsym I am not going to do this strategy; instead, I am going to take it one quest at a time, group with friends, heal lots of dungeons, and have a great time at my own pace.

Candle staff!

5. My number five spot is going to an item: the Charmed Cierge from Naxxramas 10. I have this staff on my shaman and am desperate to get it on my priest. I may organize some Naxx runs in the future for perhaps an Undying or just Achievements. It is a unique staff in that it has floating candles with little skulls on them (but I tend to ignore the skulls and just focus on the cute candles). It was my favorite thing from the Naxxramas period of WotLK.

The drake team.

4. Number four goes to a boss kill memory/achievement: Mimiron/Firefighter. I was soooo happy when we killed him because I knew he was going to be the hardest part of the fight for us. We did it in January of 2010, so while we were wearing mostly 245 gear (hehe, faceroll anyone?) we still found that fight a challenge due to the mechanics. After we got it down though, I knew the rest of the instance would be smooth sailing. Yogg still took us about 5-6 tries but on our "last try of the night" we got it. We rode our Reins of the Rusted Proto Drake around Northrend for an entire year.

3. Number three goes to getting my Sea Turtle from fishing in a pool in Grizzly Hills for Glacial Salmon one afternoon. I clicked on my bobber and OMG! I has turtle! I was so happy, I learned it, and no longer flew between pools. I would ride it around instead. It's so much fun to use in AB and WG, and just generally riding around Dalaran in style. I loves it (it's on my priest)!

Yes. 3000 HP on Darnavan. Scared the heck out of the 10 people in the raid, aka, our core raiding team.

2. My number two ____ in WotLK was the introduction of 10 man and 25 man versions of raids. My time as a 25 man raider is done. I like the thrill of big raids but I dislike the separation people can have from each other. I would much rather be in my smaller guild and do 10 man heroics with 9 other people, (most of whom are in my phonebook) than be in a larger guild where there are cliques. If I had never left the 25 man guild, I wouldn't know the fun, awesome people in my 10 man guild. They're very fun and amazing people and have so many stories to tell. I have met friends of their friends whom I have seen the last two years on this server and never knew existed. I hope to someday, maybe next year, when I'm graduated and no longer a college student on a budget, to be able to visit some of the ones who live only a state or two away from me. I also have some friends who are in Texas! So many people to visit. In the picture above, you can see our "OMFG don't let DARNAVAN DIE OMG OMG OMG". Apparently he got caught in the melee group and we almost killed him. ALMOST. We killed Lady D, completed the quest, and there ya go! One of the most epic 10 man moments in <Vytis> all year long.

1. And finally, my number one ____ in WotLK is my movie, WotLK: Memories. You can view it below, or click the link to watch it big and in HD. I had a lot of fun working on it from July to today, and didn't get a few of the bosses in ICC in there, but, I do have footage at the end from the frozen throne. Getting there is good, but I still want to kill him next week! We'll see how long it takes us to learn how to remove diseases properly and run to the edge when we're supposed to. I'm looking forward to it!

This is my first frapsed WoW movie so don't tear it apart too badly :P I am not sure where the option for HD is because I worked on it in Windows Live Movie Maker (ugh, yes, I wanted an alternative but I'm too cheap) and I saved the movie as an HD movie. If you make the movie bigger to 1080px it gives the option for HD. I will have to play around with it some more but here it is, part 1! No guarantees when part 2 will be here.

PH Explains: RSS Feeds, Google Reader, and Wowhead Tooltips

2010-09-17T15:55:00.002-05:00

So, last night I decided I had found too many wonderful blogs, things, columns, etc to read and wanted to try this "RSS" (Really Simple Syndication) thing out. I discovered Google Reader by clicking around like a blind bat and had it import the blogs I "follow" in the Dashboard of Blogger. That was a start! I then proceeded to add every blog from my list on the side of the page and also any new ones I found while reading last night.

Morynne from Marks-365 made a post today with pointers about taking care of your subscription collection and managing your time wisely so you don't get completely lost in your reader. When I read her post, it makes me think of my new Reader like a new library--you want to keep it maintained from the start if you are new to RSS like me! If you have a quality reading selection already, then utilize some of the other tips in her post to prune and organize your collection.

I am sad to say that RSS has been around for a WHILE and I feel so deprived for not realizing the full potential of it sooner. Whenever you see a "Subscribe to RSS Entries" or "Posts (Atom)" or "RSS Entries" it means that you can "subscribe" to anything posted by that blog in the future (and it seems to pull in a few extra posts too). RSS was around for a while, and then The Atom Syndication Format came along as a "fresh and updated" version.

From: Wikipedia

To get started, you can go to Google.com/reader -- of course you need a Google account (or a Gmail) to make it work. Once you have your account made, you can go around to all your favorite blogs (and check your favorite websites too) for that little orange icon above. You can usually click right on the link next to the icon or on the icon itself.

Once you've amassed a few blogs that you enjoy reading, this is what your Google Reader should begin to look like:

Google Reader in Action.

Yes, I took my email address out so you guys don't send me creepy pictures of yourselves. I like you nice and anonymous just the way you are (with a few exceptions)! But anyway as you can see, the blogs are on the left, the entries are on the middle and right. If you click the little blue link on the bottom left that says "Manage Subscriptions", then, wallah! You can add/remove ones you don't like or aren't updated anymore, or put them in a separate folder. You can add folders for topics, different games, different subjects--the list goes on and on.

"Manage Subscriptions" Page.

And so, once you have all this information at your disposal, you'll want some help in managing it. Remember, as I mentioned earlier, Morynne from Marks-365 mentions a few ways to help you do just that.

But, what if you want to see Wowhead Tooltips in the posts you read? I never knew this was possible, but theanorak from Mysterious Buttons figured it out. If you are using Mozilla or Chrome, he has instructions for you. I don't want to copy them to here because inevitably I WILL leave something out and then everything will be broken! Right now I can't get any of the Userscripts.org links to open, if you can't get it to open either, don't worry. The site is probably down and it's not an urgent thing. If anyone has an update on the status of that site, though, that would be great!

This should be enough information to get you started. If you have any questions, send them in, and I'll do my best to bumble along with you through Google Reader!

Happy reading!

Making Gold with Fishing

2010-09-15T17:25:00.003-05:00

But Llani, fishing is so boring and monotonous and takes soooo long to level, how can you possibly make gold from it? Well, those qualities actually help you to make gold with fishing. It really doesn't take as much time as you think if you head off with a plan. If you have fifteen minutes to spare, then head off to one of the locations in this article and grab yourself a stack of fish to cook! You will catch at least 2 fish per minute, even if you are a slow clicker. That one stack, cooked, should net you 100g if you fish Dragonfin, or 60g if you fish Glacial Salmon or Imperial Manta Ray. Those are just a few options! Some fish take a little more time to catch than others, but if you don't fool around when getting to your fishing hole, you can make some quick money.

First, let's go over fishing basics.

All itemlinks will come from Wowhead. There is a wealth of information there just waiting to be gathered and used, all you need to do is go search/play around with it! I will do my best to pull the information off the database and explain as much as I can.

You'll need a [Fishing Pole] for starters. There are several that you can use but this one is the most basic fishing pole.

While you are purchasing your fishing pole from any fishing supplies vendor in any major city or area, you can also pick up some lures. You may need to start with [Shiny Bauble] until your skill is high enough to use the other lures.

Equip your fishing pole, after you train fishing! Then, right click on your lure in your bag, and apply it to your fishing pole. Then, find some water. Go to your spellbook, find the fishing icon under the general tab, and drag it to your action bar. When you want to fish, equip the pole and push that button. Hover your mouse over the bobber in the water and when it bounces, right click on it. Then you will be able to get your fish!

From 1-375 you may not catch anything that great. You can fish in any city until 300, and then move to Zangarmarsh if you'd like until 375. Then, go to Northrend! Be sure to take lots of +100 fishing lures with you. This is where the REALLY good fish are.

From level 15+ you can fish Deviate Fish in the Barrens at the pools near The Crossroads. If you are Alliance, be careful! You need to avoid hitting guards or flagged horde. These sell well raw or sell well to chefs to make Savory Deviate Delights. You can usually get away with posting these for at least 1g each, but usually around 15-20g for a stack of raw ones.

If your character is between level 1-59, you can fish Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper in several locations. There are Sparse pools and Abundant pools. Both fish are used in Alchemy to make Blackmouth Oil and Fire Oil. The prices vary greatly on these.

If you are between 60 and 67, you can fish the Highland Mixed Pools in the lakes above Terokkar Forest. These have a rare chance to drop Mr. Pinchy, and also give Furious Crawdad, which can be cooked by chefs leveling to 375 cooking. Mr. Pinchy gives you three wishes (as the tooltip says) and has a chance to give you Magical Crawdad Box, a companion pet! Or, you can continue fishing the Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper.

If you are level 68+, head to Northrend and start fishing anything mentioned after the jump.

You can either sell your fish raw, or sell it cooked. You will want to either buy [Northern Spices] or do the cooking daily to get them yourself. They can be a little pricey and you may find them 1-2g per spice. If you want to cook your fish, you MUST use the spice and cook it into the "higher end" version. This is what people who do the raids like Icecrown Citadel will purchase. The other fish in Northrend can also be cooked to various foods (+spirit, +mp5, etc) but for casters and healers, the best stats right now (as far as I know) are spellpower and haste. For melee it is agility and strength.

You can choose to sell them in stacks of 5, 10, or 20.

First, let's discuss [Fish Feasts]. These are platters that a chef can "place" on the ground for a party or raid to eat. They give a very nice buff as you can see in the tooltip. They are composed of [Northern Spice] x 1, [Nettlefish] x 2, [Glacial Salmon] x 2, and [Musselback Sculpin] x 2. They require 450 cooking to cook and to place. Make friends with a chef if you are not one yourself!

>> Fish feasts sell for between 7 and 9 gold each. Any less and it is more profitable to sell the fish raw.

SAVE your [Pygmy Suckerfish]! These are used to make [Pygmy Oil] which is used in [Potion of Speed], [Potion of Wild Magic], [Guru's Elixir], and [Flask of Pure Mojo], all which can be used by everyone. If you don't have access to an Alchemist friend, then just sell the fish by themselves.

In Dragonblight, we have [Dragonfin Angelfish]. These can be cooked into [Blackened Dragonfin] and [Dragonfin Filet].

>> These sell 5 cooked for 25 or 30g. I've found that on raid nights I can garner up to 30g, but on offnights I may need to reduce to 25g. Use the 48 hour option, post everything on Monday night. Forget about it until Wednesday when it expires (but hopefully everything sells). The best place for these is the little pond south of Star's Rest. Grab a few water walking potions from your favorite alchemist or auction house, and head on over! You can knock out all 3 or 4 pools easily in 15 minutes. That's a quick 100g, if you are also a chef, or about 50g if you sell it raw.

Also in Dragonblight, but along the coast EVERYWHERE in Northrend, are [Imperial Manta Ray]. These cook into [Imperial Manta Steak]. Yummy!

>> These sell a little less than the previous two fish, so try for about 5 for 15g. If they sell well, bump the price up to 5 for 20g. The advantage to this is that they are plentiful in Northrend, whereas Dragonfin are found only in two spots -- the river and the pond in Dragonblight.

In Grizzly Hills, we have [Glacial Salmon], which is not only used in feasts but also in [Firecracker Salmon]

>> These sell 5 cooked for 25 or 30g also. You can sell these in stacks of 20 for 100g if you want to add in a small discount for your customers buying in bulk.

In Crystalsong Forest, we have Glassfin Minnows, which alchemists can squish into Ethereal Oil. I haven't tried selling these yet but I would try and sell them for at least 3g each, otherwise it isn't worth your time! But, if you want them just for fun, they are very enjoyable!

Great Feasts take Deepsea Monsterbelly and Rockfin Grouper (and Chunk of Mammoth). People enjoy playing with these feasts as it makes you BIGGER! Your stats are less than a fish feast (or spice food) but the fun part is being a giant while riding around on your mammoth, naturally!

On the other hand, Small Feasts do the opposite! They take Nettlefish and Glacial Salmon, plus Rhino Meat.

Here is a list of all the cooking recipes from the vendor in the inn in Northrend (horde/alliance are the same recipes but different locations):

Alliance Vendor
Horde Vendor

Best places to find each fish:

Note: You can find only Glacial Salmon, Nettlefish, and Musselback Sculpin by fishing in Wintergrasp; however, this will pvp flag you so be very careful! You can always fly under the bridge and hide on the ledge while you fish (you can probably go about an hour without being detected, or at most until the next battle). However, you do not get any other fish so it is verrrrry convenient!

Glacial Salmon >> Grizzly Hills

Dragonfin Angelfish >> Dragonblight

Moonglow Cuttlefish >> The Great Sea (off the coast, in the icebergs of Dragonblight)

Fangtooth Herring >> Howling Fjord

Nettlefish >> Sholazar Basin

Musselback Sculpin >> Borean Tundra

Borean Man O' War >> Borean Tundra

Imperial Manta Ray >> Dragonblight (off the coast, along the beach)

No Schools (Pools) but still cookable (fish in open water, not pools):

Barrelhead Goby >> Sholazar Basin

Bonescale Snapper >> Howling Fjord

Rockfin Grouper >> Borean Tundra

Deep Sea Monsterbelly >> Dragonblight (off the coast)

Happy fishing!

Good Read for today: Jar at Rank 4 Healing Touch talks about "that guild..." that everyone seems to have at least one of on their server. The one that trash talks all day, every day, in trade, in general, in ICC general (I've left this channel on most of my toons) and harbors no manners or respect for any of their actions. What are the causes behind this? The only thing he and I can think of is summed up at the end of the post.

Tuesday Tidbits: 3 good reads.

2010-09-14T14:23:00.001-05:00

Here's a few good reads that will get your brain moving about various topics in the WoW world! I'm updating from school today (don't worry, my class was from 8-11 AM, I have the entire rest of the day to alternate studying/notes with browsing), and figured I would pick out some good reads for anyone passing by today.

Zinn at Jinxed Thoughts is leveling a lowbie blacksmith up through the roughest, toughest, most $$$ taxing, "my pocketbook is BURNING" part of the profession. Along with thoughts on how the dry spell started, there is also a great idea on how to fix the lack of mats in this area.

Zal has a great post hitting lots of high points on how "not to be seen" when out questing, pvping, or farming on a PvP server. Stealth not required. Quite a few funny and practical ones in there.

GloomLion is a new read for me, but says he has returned from the Twisting Nether to reintroduce you to a smooth post on how to find the right guild. Need a spoon to stir your thoughts? Hop over and read the post.

In addition, here is a blue post tidbit I picked up from MMO-Champion:

AQ20 has been converted to a 10 player raid.

Oh boy.

I'm excited! Eeeeee! I loved AQ and all the Egyptian-themed fun it held. I do, however, need to go farm my staff off Ossirian for my staff collection before it is turned into a level 85 weapon.

But wait. Is it going to "10 player level 85" or "10 player level 60?"

Hmm. I guess I'll have to dig deeper later, but probably the latter. I guess all my excitement was a little short-lived.

But for now... what if it were going to 85?

As far as the "reusing content" goes...I don't mind. It's been so long that redoing one raid from the old world per expansion isn't a terrible thing. I, for one, enjoy the old world content like many other people out there. I don't mind them taking and reusing one raid. Taking more than one is starting to look a little lazy and lame, as I am sure there are who knows how many people out there with raid ideas they have already submitted to Blizzard.

Or, if Blizzard hasn't done a "raid instance design contest" for a fancy schmancy new video card, I'm sure they will in the future. But, I'm betting they have plenty of content to keep them occupied for years to come.

On the other hand, I am sure people might feel slighted and declare that all their hard work from the past is being trampled upon. Perhaps, perhaps not. The player base has become smarter, more skilled, and more familiar with how the game mechanics work. Those are a few big things to consider when judging whether or not a reused instance will be hard or not. Even if we were all dumped back into the past with our old gear and old bosses, I am sure a majority of people who label themselves as "raiders" would quickly adapt to the fights.

It all depends on if the developers want to make AQ20 an entry level raid or reintroduce it sometime during Cataclysm. I guess we we will have to see. Maybe they are just converting it for the sake of consistency--right now it is only a 20 man instance and that makes things difficult when deciding what portion of that should be guildies (for achievements/guild experience).

Spotlight: Kirina's Closet

2010-09-13T13:59:00.000-05:00

The past few days I've been toying with making a few posts about the many outfits I carry around on my three main toons. I have concluded that I am really a RPer in disguise, stuck on a plain old PvP server. My other toons are on a Normal server. The other day, I decided that to add some spice back into my WoW life I would make a toon on a RP server. I chose Feathermoon! So far, all I have is a level 2 gnome mage because 1) I really want a gnome priest and 2) I really want a priest in general but don't want to be a dwarf or human. Hmm. I think I will probably actually go with Night Elf, since most of her adventures will be exploring old world content for pretty things.

Which leads me to the blog that I stumbled upon today, Kirina's Closet!

I'm a sucker for cute outfits in WoW, and Kirina has hit everything perfectly! She's got dozens of oufits ready to put together, you just need to gather the clothing/items. For example, she's got a really cute Hallow's End outfit that you find on her site:

I spent a few minutes peeking around her blog, and can't wait to go in depth later this evening and pick out some cute ones to try. I may even make a few posts of my own on the cute outfits hiding in my banks!

Cheers to you Kirina for having one of the neatest blogs out there!

Guild Reputation Rewards (So Far)

2010-09-10T16:45:00.000-05:00

While I write up this post, here is a picture of the new lion guild reward mount. This mount comes from achieving the "Dungeon Diplomat" achievement which requires the following reputations to be at exalted. Many of these can be done before Cataclysm, it seems.

Better get to crackin'!

Also, here are all the guild reputation rewards (so far). You can check Wowhead (the cataclysm version) to see the corresponding guild achievements. For example, the Reins of the Golden King, aka, "the lion mount" requires the "Dungeon Diplomat" Achievement.

Be forewarned, lots of pictures to load.

Next post will be the current guild achievements that we can start working on right now.

BA Shared Topic Idea: Mementos

2010-09-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

Shared Topic Idea: Mementos - What mementos have you kept and why?

This topic is asking: What items or mementos have you kept (in your toon's pack or bank) and why? Whether it be keepsakes, quest rewards, special items, random drops, whatever! - why did you decide to hang on to it? What's its significance to you?

Talk about as few or as many as you like, though probably best to limit it somewhat so you have room to explain why rather than simply listing every item in your bank.

Suggested by Feral Tree of FeralTree!

This is TOTALLY my kind of topic! Well, let's start with Llani and work our way down.

Llani has [Nolkai's Band] and [Nolkai's Lantern] in her pack at all times because they are such sweet mementos. They are found in [Nolkai's Box] which is the reward from the quest Nolkai's Words. The questline begins with the [Weathered Treasure Map] Nolkai was a night elf druid who lived on Bloodmyst Isle in the Draenei lands. His journal functions as the main guide for the quest, with the text:

"The enemy is nearly upon us. We've gathered up all the survivors and retreated to the temple to the east. It's the last ground we truly hold on the island, and there is a sense among the survivors that we will make our last stand here. I've taken care to bury my last few possessions on the grounds of the temple, with the hope that someone will find them and know what happened here."

Nolkai left his ring in the box with the hope that perhaps it would make it back to his significant other someday. Perhaps that elf was with him, who knows. I thought the ring was a sweet item to include in a box and I most definitely keep it always, along with the lantern.

On Mushee, I have four things that I keep just for fun. In reality, most of Mushee's bags could be completely emptied and I wouldn't miss a thing. It's because she's my youngest toon and doesn't really have anything that I would be devastated if I lost it.

This tabard was actually purchased with UDE points from the trading card game way back in the day. It means a lot to me because the points came from a giant card box given to me by a former flame for Valentine's day. We sat and opened all the cards together hoping for a spectral tiger, but, alas, no luck. So, I have kept the cards and intend to put them in a collector's binder similar to a baseball card binder. I love my tabard and will always keep it!

This staff is from Molten Core, off of Golemagg. He's a big molten rock type dude but I always thought this staff was unique and pretty. Because most people don't go to Molten Core anymore, you almost never see anyone wearing it for fun.

Pretty, isn't it!

My racecar is an old Christmas gift from 2008 from Blizzard. It summons a little car that you can use to chase other people's cars around and blow them up! Very fun gift.

On Nelena, I have a few things that mean a lot to me.

Of course. Nelena is a priest, why wouldn't her Benediction mean a lot to me! I managed to get this beautiful staff in BC, as I didn't have Nelena to 60 in Vanilla. She was around 50 when I picked her back up and BC was about to hit. Still, it is a beautiful staff and something not many new priests have.

The first and only other Will of Arlokk I have seen drop was taken from my original shaman by another shaman. I felt it should have gone to the druid but the shaman was being greedy. Then, he proceeded to take the first and only other Finkle's Lava Dredger I have seen drop too! One of my transmuters, Siffe, has a Finkle's that I play with a lot, and recently Nelena scored the awesome snake staff from Zul'Gurub too. Since ZG is being removed in Cataclysm, I am so happy I went to get it now.

I saved my ribbon to remind me of all the work I did on my two characters -- Nelena and Mushee the mage. It also reminds me that sometimes healers have the toughest job ever -- we are always healing, watching the raid, and making sure people stay alive.

Who wouldn't keep their Ruby Slippers? I kept these simply because they're amazing! The flavor text always makes me smile, and they are fun to play around in.

Another item that I kept simply because of the name. I always try to be a spark of hope with playing with other people that there really are nice people in World of Warcraft. Not everyone is a meanie!

Other items that I will never ever get rid of include:

Myrani's Ruby Shades. Heck yes! I love these and never thought that they would have been removed from the game. I will never sell them because I like having rare things! They also look amazing!

That concludes my post for this week on my favorite mementos and items. I am a packrat when it comes to gear but if I had to get rid of everything except a few items, the ones listed here are the ones I would keep.

Customizing GRID from Scratch with Clique and Plug-Ins

2010-08-26T13:54:00.001-05:00

For my first big, informative post, I am going to uninstall my Grid (I made a copy, don't worry) and customize everything back the way it was from scratch so I can document every move I make. This way you can use the step-by-step process to make your Grid look enjoyable also.

First, your Grid should look like the picture to the left when you first install it. I've removed the pesky tab that was sticking out by "Alt + Clicking" on the tab. Hmm. Looks pretty tiny, impractical, and ugly, doesn't it. Let's fix that by first beefing up the scaling.

Step 1) Increase Scaling

1) Move your Grid window to the left side of your screen, but not too close to the edge. This way you can see what you are doing when you make changes in the configuration menu.

2) Type "/grid config". (This will always bring up your main configuration window.)

3) Click on "Layout". Do not click the plus sign next to "Layout" because those will bring up different settings. Keep layout highlighted. Scroll down the page and where it says "Scale", slide that bar to about 1.5, or to a size that you feel comfortable with. You can always come back to this option and adjust the size throughout the tutorial.

Step 2) Making the Boxes Look like "Health Bars"
1) Now, we can click on the small square plus sign next to "Frame". This will expand our menu selection and another tab called "Advanced" will pop up.

2) Select "Advanced", but make sure you are selecting the one under the "Frame" tree and not the one further down. Make sure you have "Advanced" highlighted.

3) Move the "Frame Height" and "Frame Width" sliders until you are comfortable with the width and height of your bars. They should begin to take on a more friendly shape!

4)Important: Click the drop down menu where it says "Orientation of Frame" and select Horizontal. This will make our bars fill from left to right, exactly how a normal health bar fills.

Step 3) Rearranging the Box Order

1) When inviting people to our party, we want our boxes to be created from left to right. This way, Group 1 is the top row of boxes, Group 2 is the next row, Group 3 is the third row, and so on and so forth.

2) Click on the word "Layout" and check the box that says "Horizontal Groups". Yes! Now we have Group 1 as the top row.

Step 4) Removing the Border (optional)
1) If you do not like the thick gray border around your Grid, don't fret. It can be made invisible. These steps will show you how to keep a little bit of space around your Grid so that you can have something to "grab" onto with your mouse when you need to move it.

2) While under "Layout", click the colored box (default is white) next to "Border". Drag the slider on the right hand side down to zero. This makes your border invisible.

3) If you haven't changed any other settings, you will still have some gray space around your boxes. This can also made to be invisible, but you can still click on it. I try to leave mine with a little bit of tinting so that I know where my edge is at. We'll play with this in Step 4.

Right now our Grid should look somewhat like this:

If someone appears to be "faded out" it means they are out of your range. For the moment, let's focus on the box with "Llan" in the middle. I am also going to scale my Grid down a little bit. Please see Step 1 if you have forgotten where to change this setting.

Are you getting the hang of it? If you are, good! If not, don't worry! Either way, let's keep playing with some more settings to make our Grid look even better and easier to use.

Step 4) Adjusting the Spacing and Padding
1) First, Spacing is the amount of gray area AROUND your entire Grid. Padding is the amount of gray area around your individual boxes. Big difference!

2) Click on "Layout" and scroll down the page. There are two sliders, one for padding and one for spacing.

3) I like a small amount of spacing around my Grid, so I try to keep my slider closer to the left.

I also like my boxes fairly close together so that I can move my mouse just a little bit faster. This means I keep my padding slider fairly close to the left also. Play around with these until you come up with an amount of spacing that you like. You can always come back and change it some more. As you can see in the above picture, my other party member is off in the wild somewhere, dying. The lighter part of the box is the health he has lost. The number in the center is the amount he has lost. In a raid, if you are trying to find someone, this can get frustrating if you can't see names.

Step 5) Removing the Health Deficit Option
1) For practicality, we don't need to see in numbers how much health a person has lost when we can look at the size of their health bar and judge if they are at 75%, 50%, 25%, or, well, dead.

2) Expand the box next to "Frame". Click on "Center Text" from the left menu. Scroll down the long list of boxes to the right until you find "Health Deficit". Uncheck this box. Now only important things will pop up such as "Dead"
"Offline" or the name of the player. You can also uncheck "Feign Death" because you want to still be able to see the health of a feigned hunter.

3) Incoming heals will still show up, so if you frequently forget where your tanks are, you may want to remove this also. A quick glance before the fight will show you. Also, Grid comes built in with a red box that shows up whenever someone has aggro.

Step 6) Adjusting the Central Names
1) Those names just won't do. We're going to make them longer and show all the letters (or mostly all) the letters in someone's name.

2) Click on "Frame" and have it highlighted. Find "Center Text Length" and drag the bar all the way to the right. Now everyone's name will show up in the center of the box and won't be abbreviated.

3) Go back to the left menu and click on "Advanced". Make sure this is the "Advanced" under the "Frame" tree and not the one under the "Layout" tree. Scroll down on the right side until you find the options to change the font size and face.

Here's an example of what we have so far in Alterac Valley. It's really big right now but that is so all the features we are changing show up clearly. We'll scale it back down at the end of the tutorial.

This screenshot was taken while almost everyone was within 40 yards (or healing range) of me. You can see a green square and a green number on one of the boxes. This box means that the target is receiving healing and the approximate amount is displayed as green text in the center of their box.

At this point, you have everything you need for basic function in a raid. What I am going to do is introduce you first to mouseover macros and Clique, and then to GridStatusHots and GridIndicatorCornerIcons, which will show you which characters (boxes) have your HoTs on them, and which characters have certain spells/debuffs placed on them. One example of this is Incinerate Flesh from Lord Jaraxxus in the Trial of the Crusader. A simple box pops up in one corner to show you which person has the debuff. In a 25 man raid, when people are taking damage and you can't see names, this is of utmost importance!

Go ahead and scale down your Grid to a size you are comfortable with, and if you need to adjust the boxes, use the aforementioned steps until you have it looking the way you want.

Cleansing and Decursing Debuffs with Clique

Next, let's download and install Clique. Clique allows you to hover over anyone's box in your Grid and either push a key or click a side mouse button to Remove Curse, Remove Poison, Purify, Cleanse, Remove Disease, or Dispel Magic. If I missed anything, you can do it. For now, let's keep it simple and just use Clique for your cleansing spells.

When you install clique, you're going to have an extra tab on your spellbook that looks like the one on the left. It's at the very bottom. For the next steps, you MUST be out of combat. No exceptions. If you are in combat, Clique will not respond or work.

Step 1) Binding a Spell

1) Let's bind the spell "Remove Curse". If you are a priest, let's use "Dispel Magic". If you are a druid, you can use "Remove Poison". If you are any other class with a spell removing ability, then go ahead and use that spell.

2) Open the Clique Tab. This will activate Clique in the way that anything you click on in your spellbook, it is going to record it. You need to be VERY careful what you click on!

3) I chose to bind my Remove Curse to my middle mouse key. What you do is click on your chosen spell WITH the key or mouse button that you want to use when casting that spell. Therefore, when I need to remove a curse from someone on my Grid, I hover over their box and click my middle mouse button. You can also be targeting this person but it is NOT required! All you have to do is be hovering over their box. Totally easy! You can do this with any other cleansing spell you want. My Purge spell is bound to one of my side keys. In this case, it helps to have a gaming mouse (with 1-2 extra side mouse buttons).

In the above picture you can see that I have bound Remove Curse to my middle mouse button. Success! When you are done binding your keys, you MUST CLICK THE "X" AND CLOSE CLIQUE! Otherwise it will stay open and you may accidentally start binding stuff you do not want.

Healing with Mouseover Macros

Now that we've got a working Grid and Clique, let's move over to some simple mouseover macros for healing. This version is courtesy of Tott, who was kind enough to drop a note on a shortened version.

/cast [@mouseover,help][help][@player] Lifebloom

This macro means “If I have a mouseover target, cast Lifebloom on them.
If I don't have a mouseover target but I have a normal target, cast Lifebloom on them.
If I don't have a mouseover target or normal target, cast Lifebloom on me.”

According to Matticus at World of Matticus, "If you want the Blizzard standard spell icon to display instead of using a new one of your choice, write your macro as shown below and choose the red question mark as your icon. The #showtooltip command will update that question mark to the default icon for that spell." This is a convenient way to avoid searching through your icon book for the exact spell icon.