Throwing every toon in.

I joined my new guild about a month ago,  but didn’t bring  my alts over because they were comfy where they were .  One was my AH runner, and the  other my herbalist and Gm of my Alt bank, that I was semi leveling for her herbing, and now is close enough to 80 that I might as well get her those last 3 levels.

Joining a guild is like starting a realtionship – what you get out of it, often depends on how much work you put into it.   Do you give it your  all, or do  you hold something back?  Ive always held something back.  A secret Toon on the same server as an escape.  My ’secret’ toon is now on another faction and server, but who knows when the faction change comes it, she might be ideal to to bring her over, though I must say I am enjoying questing on the other side for a change.  So on the weekend I have brought my other toons that I do potter around with into the guild.   I guess this is my committment to staying. In contrast to the week before when I was logging in only to raid, and was escaping off server as often as possible my playing time this week was mostly in my guild, and I think my experience was enhanced because of it. Guild Pvping – running instances ect ect..

I think I said too much once on vent though, rather early in the morning in my attempt to stay awake for the Twisted Nether Blogcast, and I said that this guild was the end of the road for me, and I mean it.  I don’t mean that I will be leaving the guild, or the game, but its my last hop in raiding.   I don’t think 3 guilds in 10 months is excessive, but as my 3rd wrath guild  I am tired and just want to settle down.  So the toons I play on my server I brought in, and I am hoping I stay happy enough to stay ( even if they also have 3 raiding priests..  )

Early morning Twisted Nether

I got up at 5am on a Saturday morning to listen to the Twisted Nether Round table.

I had planned on going right through and stay awake until 5am and had made sure I had set my log in up before , but I lasted till 2.30am and I had to sleep some – but I set my alarm for just before 5am and crossed my fingers that I had calculated the time  conversion right so I stumbled out of bed and got to hear people live, and  read the chat room and type some  – so here are my thoughts as I listen to some of the things discussed.. 

 Extended lock outs – I don’t like because clearing to our progression content is not an issue, and we can do it one raid night.  But..    fielding the right people in a raid is easier for us on a Wednesday night ( our 1st night of raiding after reset due to time zone)  then the end of a raiding week on a Monday, so an extra day on a peak raiding night could be beneficial if we have had difficulty getting the optimised team for a progression attempt.

Faction changing – unless some of  my friends get off their pvp realm – I am staying Alliance.  I’m not sure I am particularily attached to alliance,  it is where my main played toons, and it would be good to give my Horde toon some fincial assistance but – when I rolled Alliance I made a promise to protect and defend my faction,  and its not just a roll playing

Questhelper inbuilt into game – Besides an extension to my theory that all useful mod ideas are being borrowed for implementation into game – I used it for my main from 70-80 because the guilded wanted us to level as quick as possible so we would be able to be somewhat quick on the new raiding content, and I do use it for my alts..  but I am glad that I kept my mains experience as vanilla as possible while leveling.  So having done at least the 0-70 the hard way – I really don’t want to do it again.  A built in quest helper should be less buggy then a mod and make it ‘easier’ to focus on leveling.

Noob players and giving advise.  I cry when I see some gear/gem choices, but I know how odd some of my gear has been at times in the process of waiting for a better thing. An old friend of mine started getting serious at making her Shadow Priest better in DPS – my learning curve came from months of information – not  just Shadowpriest.com, or blogs, or patch notes, or class forums  it was the jounrney and learning information as required.   How do you summerise to one player  advise when they might not be on the same level of class understanding. 

and I listened to about 7am.. but then my eyes started drooping and  the birds started singing so now I am off to bed..

Twas an awesome show.. and I hope I work out the time zoney things to catch the nex live cast..

Privileged to Raid.

My raiding career has not all been doom and gloom, but I find that is the negative moments which more emotion can be attached to, and on top of that progression wiping for me has been among the worst of my experiences. I am more likely to blog about the negative, because those are the times that I think.

“This is just a game – why am I putting myself through this – is the reward worth it in the end. What else would I rather be doing, What did I miss out on to be here?”

But If you want the good – you need to take the bad as well, and all going well  I’m expecting a relatively stress free clearing of up to Yogg tonight  – with potentially a hard mode attempt as well.

WowGrrl answered rather well  why she  enjoys raiding in her post Why I raid  and basically summarises it to

To experience more of the World of Warcraft

To challenge myself and my playing skills

To participate in time-scheduled, high-quality play

and those reasons would rate high on my list as to why I  raid also.

I wanted to write a more positive post about raiding, because its easy to forget that it is a privilege to be able to raid regularly

Why?

I’m on a server with a high enough raider population

I’m a Class of which there is not an over abundance of

The server and population times are well suited to my region, and fit well into my leisure time.

Though I had a lot of learning to do in BC, in Wrath I feel that I am in the position of skill in my class to be competitive at high end raiding levels. ( I will never be the best though)

In the last 4 weeks raiding I have sat out for maybe a total of 2 hours of raiding time.

Wrath was released on the 13th of November, and I hit 80 on Dec 2nd 3 odd weeks after release, so I was able to follow the natural raid learning curves, and gear curves of the content starting with Naxx 10, Naxx 25 ect ect and was in the position to be in Ulduar the day after the patch. I expect to be still on that curve when the new content is released in 3.2 . I’m onto 7 months of solid and consistent raiding.

How many people are out there, that have the desire to raid, but are missing something, and would like the opportunity to die on Yogg? I’m not getting into a  Nerf and a Badge discussion –  making content more accessible to the casuals, but by the times those things are done, on old content, and old badges, I won’t care, because I’m following the curve, and not stuck on it. I won’t care if tier 8 is easier to get because I will be aiming for 9.

How many guilds are having issues fielding 10 mans ?- and thus can’t get the gear, and the players for 25 mans – missing out on access to better loot, better challanges – its easy to sit on a comfy pearch and whine about how terrible it is to die on so many times on a boss, as I have done, because regardless of management styles. I am there. Experiencing it, seeing the content as its released. 

Not everyone wants to raid, but I ask people I know where are they are up to in the game, and the answer I got last night was

” We tried naxx, but we couldn’t get everyone online at the same time, and then the GM quit and………… “ 

That sounds as much fun as wiping repeatedly.

How much of that lack of desire to raid that some people have is caused by the realistic unavailability of all the tools for them to be able to get a raid together?

Not only do I get to raid. I have available to me because of the circumstances the choice to raid regularly

So in contrast to my previous post – I have written this to remind myself mainly that It isn’t all bad, and that I should feel privileged to raid.

1 Lollypop stick

When I was in high school I had a Maths teacher that would use lollypop stick drawings on the board to indicate how many minutes we were going to be keep back for being naughty at recess or lunch.

1 lollypop stick – 2 lollypop stick  she would draw.

“Oscar! ” She would yell at a class mate ” Do you want another lollypop stick”

I was feeling rather like being back in high school getting lollypop sticks ( or strikes in the raids case)  when we were being punished for errors ( like spawning an ad  – or not having food buffs or flasks)   in our attempts in Yogg last night. 

In my current guild we do an hourly attendance marking system – as loot requirements are that you have 75% attendance cross all hours .  Losing attendance if you a repeat offender, or the threat of being subbed if your performace was that bad could be damaging to your stats.

We had to move early  one time in Phase 1 , and I almost spawned an ad.  But I didn’t, I had moved in time, and when my Strike for you was called, I said ” No ad was spawned”  – and It didn’t but Im not sure if I will still get punished – Apparently in 3.2 you will be able to see who spawns the ads.   I am pretty sure that for all our attempts I was 100% buffed and flasked, but it will be interesting to see the wreck of attendance stats for the raid last night when they get posted, and to be truthful even if I don’t get punished I will still feel sad that the efforts and rewards ( attendance) put in last night mean nothing – because you have lost it. What a waste of an evening.

However, Its really the only way to punish raiders, as adults you can’t keep us in over recess as punishment or make us write out an essay – or lines. ” I must not die in fires”  You are limited in your means of punishing,  so I don’t necessarily think that taking attendance or subbing someone as punishment is unfair.  It comes down to how bad to you want to make the cut.  If you do stupid things then your chances of making that cut are reduced. I have failed in the past,  and I will probably fail again. I know when I ride the fail train, but thats my incentive to do better next time.  You can not invite me to a raid, and you can  punish me by loot illegibility.

The problem that a  consistant negative atmosphere of punishment creates though when directed at a raid, and not an individuals is mechanical raiding – going through the motions  feeling.  I realised  we aren’t going to Yogg to Kill him. We are going there to die.
The atmosphere, the attitudes, our feelings. We ( and I included) go down to that room to try.  Not succeed. We aren’t riled up, and confident, no one says “we are going to do it this attempt “- or “WOW! it was so close last time” No happy voices of encouragement. Its all strikes , and errors. We doggedly go through the motions of running back into the instance rebuffing and clicking that ready check.   When he dies it will be a feeling of relief rather then joy.

How is that fun?

 

 
 

.

Of being a Spork.

Its been interesting how my Guilds in Wrath have used their Shadow Priests
Guild 1 wanted me to heal 10 man – so they raided without a Shadow priest because the dps wasn’t as scalable to non hybrids so easier to sacrifice
Guild 2 wanted us to use our Divine Hymn on cool down to make the healing easier for the healers, and when duel specs come in we had to go healing offspec. As well as using our fear wards on cool down on a rogue on Cat lady.
and now in Guild 3 we are being used as the primary dispelers on Hodir and Yogg, as well as the Fusion punch dispel-er on Council

Shadow Priests were known in BC as an utility class – but they reduced our specialness by sharing around equivalents to our Vampiric Embrace, the heal by damage – and Vampiric Touch – the Mana return, but these things we could do while we dpsed.
They have made us into more of a tool by giving us the Hymns, and the Holy Nova, an Aoe healing/damage spell, – as well the fear ward and allowing us to stay in Shadow Form for dispelling disease, and what do you do with Tools – use them for everything they can do.

So we remain an utility class and never a real dps. I know mages, Shamans and pallys do also get called upon to spread some of that cure diseases, curses, poisons – love around – what ever ability they have regardless if they are dps or heals, but as a class we seem to be the most flexible tool. Each time we are used as a tool, we have to stop dps. A dot will fall off, our casting sequence gets stuffed up, and if required the shift back into Shadow form at great mana cost. Eg casting the Hymn costs over 3k mana if you are casting the spell and going back into Shadow form . This is  more of a concern because Mana seem to be getting more precious after 3.2 with the loss of 20% of replenishment.

My biggest complaint about being a dispel-er is I am not main spec’d for dispelling, and when I am dispelling something up to 50 times in a boss fight ( that’s disease and magic- and was one count when we got to Phase 3 on Yogg ) Its costing me a lot  of mana, in addition to dotting what I can ( or redotting) in between dispelling because the only time I get to dps without interruption is during a brain freeze. So I made up a off spec that is deeper into Disc to reduce the mana costs of dispelling without losing my dispersion. 3 points into Absolution and 2 into mental Agility. It has helped me manage my Mana more effectively. I am trying to use dispersion as much as possible in lulls because I had to lose my veiled shadows which reduced my cool down on my Fiend. The faster things are dispelled in my case, the less sanity they lose ( magic effect in fight) , or the less amount of time they spent stunned ( the disease affect in fight) ergo – the more use everyone else is to the raid for a greater period of time.

The Pattern seems to be is that while we are being used to our full utility – we are just not spec’d into places that will help us be a good tool as well as a Dpser.

How an Engineers Necklace should look.

This piece of Steam Punk Jewellery is From Alchemy Gothic  and is called a  

GMT Quantum Displacer Control

Baby Shammy update

We didn’t have the team for Yogg tonight,  so we cleaned up the non gatekeepers in Ulduar and called it an early night

I got to play my Shammy – I have the leveling bug with her for now.  I want to get to the next level,  see what new spells she can learn.

My  troll Shammy,  by name of  Pretty  ( I was going for Ironic )  that is on Nagrand  is doing well in the gold department,   she is 22 and her contributions have netted her around 100 gold so far, just from Low level herbs,  Ore, and Wool  and greens and that’s just from normal questing.   I have also spent some gold making her a little more comfortable. 

- She now has Ghost Wolf and I am loving running round from level 20  – made my water totem quest a lesser pain.  I am finding playing the Shammie almost like the Melee version of the Shadow Priest  – I sometimes am not sure If I should be hitting the target or spell casting at it though.  I am packing Stam, Agility and Strength, and as long as my combo for an Ele Shammie doesn’t make my playing slow. ( try leveling holy Priest as holy.  That was a challange sometimes)   I am enjoying the multi tasking ability of the Shammy – and its self sufficiency.I am pulling with a spell, using a shock, keeping a shield up at all times and then smacking the target.  If it runs away I shock it again.   I am over the Barrens though.

I am looking forward to some Shammy Totem changes that are supposed to be coming

She is on a strange server, no friends, no guild no sugar mama to send her hundreds of gold, or leveling gear  like she would have if I had rolled her on my main server through the Neutral AH and the help of a friend.

Shes a Nigel..  but she has found comfort in green bottles ( kidding )  and its been fun so far.  I have been keeping an ear out for social type guilds that are recruiting,  I am looking for a guild that was much like my 1st Guild on Dath – friendly no pressure but no kids demanding that they get runs.  I am not interested in runs I am leveling as quick as possible, and I will worry about my gear if I get to 80   

I am tired of wearing dresses.

There is no end game gear for Shadow Priests that is not a robe.

I wear pants underneath of course,  but my chest is never a tunic so I can never show off my Sexy tall legs , its always a robe. So I always look like a Black shapeless blob.   

Fail Train goes Toot Toot….

I suck.

3rd Wednesday Raiding with new guild – 3rd time dead on Mimiron
1st week was due to a rocket. ( You need to have your projected textures box ticked. It really helps…) was battle rezzed and was fine.
2nd Week and 3rd – no rocket deaths but dead in Phase 4 either because I happen to be standing in front of him as the barrage starts – and I run into a mine as I am trying to escape the barrage.

It was my only stupid mistake last night- and it happened after raid official finish time – and I was tired but still its a repeat of a stupid error. Even though several other people failed in various bits. I hope they don’t think I belong on the Fail boat. ( /train) I did really well for the rest of the night. Top dispels on Hodir – and still competitive DPS, even though sometimes I feel like I am playing a hit the Gopher on the head with  the bat game with Decursive because of the all the box clicking.

I don’t understand why I am failing on that phase. Its not like I have to avoid frozen blows or a void zone, I can do the rockets – and it was towards the end of the fight. Maybe I was rejoicing in my head that we had managed to clear up to Mim in one night, and I hadn’t done anything stupid – and my concentration slipped. Yeah I hope that’s it. Hoping 4th time next week will be the charm.

I was top Dpser on Cat lady because silly people weren’t watching for where the defender died, and were in the middle of a void zone, so half the dpswas dead, and we battled with her enrage timer, and I killed the mages on the metres. I kicked butt on a couple of other fights – while still doing my job. I don’t mind being used as a tool ( Gopher Hitter)  - but I also rejoice when I am allowed to be awesome every now and then.

Besides my one Shameful mistake I now think I have a handle on what they do for each boss that is different – and why they do it, so I am feeling alot more comfortable. My wipe counter on Yoggis climbing though with our attempts, but we are making it to Phase 3 now, and I stand with my face to the wall permanently box clicking off the magic and diseases in what I survive in that phase. I am in discussion with the DPS lead about changing my spec for that fight to make dispeling / abolishing disease in Phase 2 a lot more mana friendly. ( more Gopher head hitting)

Epic Sales!

I’m noticing this trend in mainstream media more and more.

It annoys me a little.

I know the word has been around since Aristotle  , but the word itself seems to be heading the way of the rarity of Epics in WOW.  – Totally too freely used and available.  Come on! Epic DVD’s  ( and no its not referring to the types of dvds being sold, but to the sale. 

The sale is Epic.  Lame.