New Year's Resolutions

It's New Year's Eve and I find myself thinking about my WoW goals for the upcoming year. Even though it's dangerous for me to post my intentions...you know, that rebelliousness thing of 'I'm not gonna do what I'm supposed to do'...I'm gonna post them anyway.


Gear Goals

1. Finish enchanting my new Bear gear items.
2. Get enchants on new gear within a couple of days of acquiring it. (I'm really bad at this.)
3. Finish upgrading my Kitty gear.
4. Assess my healing gear and begin upgrading those items. (Resto bloggers, please post a list of good healing gear from badges, heroics, and Kara for me!) :)

UI and Interface Goals

1. Clean up my UI.
2. Better organize my Bongo Bars.
3. Get the shift key on my Saitek game controller thing to work.
4. Get rid of add-ons that I'm not currently using.
5. Actually make and use macros.

Organization Goals

1. Clean out my bank.
2. No, I mean, really clean out my bank.
3. Get bigger packs.

Pet Goals

1. Get a Disgusting Oozeling.
2. Get a Hyacinth Macaw.
3. Get Peanut.
4. Get Peddlefeet.
5. Get a Rocket Chicken.

Content Goals

1. Finish all the instances in Heroic mode.
2. Finish Zul'aman.
3. Finish Tempest Keep.
4. Finish SSC.
5. Finish The Eye.
6. Finish all the end game raiding content before the expansion.
7. Finish my Netherstorm quests.

Blogging Goals

1. Make and remember to use labels for posts.
2. Put labels into old posts.
3. Update my blog role once a month.
4. Have at least two informative posts per week.
5. Get the item pop-up thing to work.
6. Get the 'Featured Posts' thing to work.

There ya have it! My goals for next year. I'm feeling overwhelmed already! ;p

Busy Time of Year

I just thought I'd let you know that we're approaching my busy time of year. I do accounting and all my clients are on a fiscal calendar year. So, January will be spent closing the books for all my clients as well as getting out 1099's, 1096's, Sales Tax reports, etc.

Bleh.

I will try to post as much as I can, but it most likely will not be very consistent or with lots of uber analysis...or even un-uber analysis, etc. I will probably just post 'story' type posts about what I'm up to as those are usually quick and easy to churn out and save the more informative and, therefore, more time consuming, stuff for February when things slow down.

I'd also like to thank you all for reading and commenting on my blog. I've really enjoyed blogging and look forward to being able to avidly blog again in a month or so. Please be patient and don't give up on me!

Christmas Pictures!

I had a good Christmas! I got lots of pets and toys, including the awsome dragon kite! So, I'm going to try to post pictures for you all to see.

I'll first post pictures of the pets Pk and Hags gave me which I told you about a few weeks ago.

Here is me with my Snowman that Hags gave me.

Here is the Firefly Pk gave me along with the Yeti that Great Father Winter gave me. Also, Zen gave me a Yeti he made with his own two virtual hands!

Than Balrokk gave me an Azure Whelpling that he farmed for all by himself!

And then of course, the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot from under the tree!

Then my wonderful hubby gave me the Paper Airplane Manual card from The Trading Card Game loot cards. Here are a couple of pictures of me throwing my airplane around. You can see it in the upper left corner.

And now, for my favorite gift of all and from my favorite hubby! The Dragon Kite which came from a loot card as well. This picture is the green kite.

Each time you bring it out, it has an equal chance to be green, blue, or red. Here is the blue version.

And now for the red version of the dragon kite.

The kite also gets struck by electricity...which travels down the string and electifies me...every now and then, but unfortunately, it shorted out my camera when I tried to take the picture of that. ;p

Merry Christmas!!!

I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holiday(s) of choice! Whatever you celebrate I hope you all enjoy the spirit of it as well as the joy from giving rather than just receiving. :)

I had fun this year giving out a plethora of pets to my guildies. I think I bought, wrapped, and mailed close to 200 various kittens, cats, moths, owls, parrots, bunnies, prairie dogs, and dragonhawks to my guildmates. I suppose it may seem a bit crazy to some, but it had to be done. :D

If you're on Detheroc server and want a pet, send me an in game mail and I'll be sure to get you one!

Merry Christmas!!!

The Lurker Below Swims with the Fishies

After killing Hydross Tuesday night, we went in Wednesday night to see how we would do against The Lurker Below. It took quite a few tries, but we did finally down him!

Mainly, we had to experiment with a strat that worked for us and with our group composition. It seems that no matter how many strats we read and try, we always end up finding a different way of doing things that works for us.

Now, since my last post about Hydross a couple of my guildies (Warriors, actually...you know how big their egos are. ;p ) have posted on our forums about how they are waiting anxiously for my post about Lurker and what I'm going to say about them. Sadly, the pressure of their expectations along with a 'Christmas To-DO' list as long as Santa's has stifled my creativity in writing amusing boss kill stories.

In fact, I wrote those first two paragraphs Thursday and have sat down a few times to 'finish' it, however it just hasn't happened. So, I'll post what they said and you all can fill in the blanks...

Maulmorr said:

Uh oh...I can't wait to read up on your post about our Lurker attempts "and Maulmorr, unprepared for the onslaught of Lurker questions, decided to experiment..."

Baklor said:

i got yer post covered Nae Baklor stood before the foul beast, sword in hand, and in an act of awesomness tore the soul out of Lurkers slimy scaled covered chest. In the background you could hear the quiet whimper of Gankszor saying " i never got a chance to stab him"

Nae = Mooire and Gankszor = hubby

Nae is my gaming name that has stuck with me since Asheron's Call.

My response to Baklor:

I like to be, at least, somewhat factual in my blog.

Maulmorr's response:

But that is factual! Protection warriors never lie!

Lung replied:

Maul is correct, we don't have the Intellect to lie.

Well, there you have it! You now may fill in the blanks however you wish. :P

Hydross Again!

Tuesday evening, we went in for another go at Hydross. We didn't down him as quickly as we did on Sunday, but getting him on the 8th attempt is still respectable.

One of our hiccups was the adds. This time, instead of having 5 tanks, we had 4. Since one of us is tanking the boss, that left 3 of us to pick up 4 adds. Shouldn't be a prob, right? Well, if you have me giving out directions, it is!

So, we're standing there looking at Hydross. We decide that I'll pick up two of the adds. Darma, our other Feral Druid, will pick up one and the Warrior who isn't tanking his Water or Poison form will get the 4th. I quickly announce that I'll take the two East adds. Darma says he'll take the SW add. And Maulmorr says that he and Baklor will take the NW add depending on who is not tanking at the time.

Awesome! We all know our job and we jump in and start the event!

It's time for the first transition where the tank drags Hydross in or out of the transition area to switch him from water to poison form or visa versa. When he switches forms, he spawns 4 adds. In anticipation of this, I move over to my East side so I'm right there where my two new best buddies will appear. I snag one and move over to get the other and...Darma has my add!! He has good threat, so I go pick up the one wandering through the ranged group. We down the adds with a bit of confusion and carry on with DPSing Hydross.

Then it's time for the second transition. I make sure I'm on my East side so I can quickly get my adds. They pop up and I jump on one and Darma is on it too!!! That's supposed to be my add!!!! Well, ok, I let him have it...again...and run off to get my other East add and the one making new friends with our Warlocks and drag them back to Hydross so they can see what fun Seeds of Corruption is.

Third transition, again, I'm on my East side, ready and waiting for my adds. They pop up and I grab one, then go to the other and Darma has him!!! That's MY add!!! Mine, mine, MINE!!!!

Mooire whines to her hubby, "Why is Darma always on my add?"

Hubby replies, "I don't know. I just stab stuff."

Hubby stabs stuff.

This continues for a while...both Darma being on my add and my whining to my hubby.

After we wipe and people point out that the adds not being contained quickly enough is a problem, we then go over our assigned adds. After much debate, pointing, verbal direction spouting, left and right and front and back usage it is determined that North is not the direction that Mooire faces.

O.O

It's not?

But, that little pointy thing on the map was pointing towards Hydross which is the direction I was facing, so shouldn't that be North?

Apparently not.

North is...

/points in some random direction that probably still isn't North.

that way!

So, after tossing verbal commands such as North, South, East, and West, we decide to use left, right, front, and back. Which is still risky as I'm left handed and tend to get those confused too.

/sigh

After double checking with my husband that what I think is right is indeed right and not left, we go in for another go. Things go more smoothly with the adds and we eventually down him.

Poor Darma. All that time he was on the add he was assigned and I was the one confused! I just hope he was laughing at me and not cussing me. ;p

/hugs Darma

BBB's 'Judge my Cat Gear Challenge' and Pre-25 man Kitty Gear Choices

BBB has challenged us to post our cat gear and submit our selves to heckling...ummmm...I mean assessment. I'm sure he's hoping for some awesomely tricked out suits all properly assessorized and such. However, as I tank mostly, my poor little kitty outfit is horribly out of date.

Thankfully, as I'm almost done with my badge upgrades on my Bear suit, I'll be focusing on my Cat gear soon. In preperation, I have already looked through pre-25 man raid goodies and picked out items to focus on getting. As I post my current gear, I'll also post my 'to get' items.

Head

Current item - Cowl of Defiance from Netherspite in Kara.
'To Get' item - Grimgrin Faceguard from the last boss in Zul' Aman but, if I get the points for the Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm before the Grimgrin Faceguard drops, I will get it...but, must get the Merciless Gladiator's Maul first! (see notes under weapon below)

Neck

Current item - Mithril Chain of Heroism from the Chess event in Kara.
'To Get' item - No better pre-25 man raid item other than Haramod's Bargain from Consortium rep (exalted) and I prefer the Mithril Chain of Heroism as it has stamina.

Shoulders

Current item - Mantle of Malorne from High King Maulgar in Gruul's Lair.
'To Get' item - I'll be keeping the shoulders and hands of the Malorne set for the 2-set bonus. I'll discuss my reasoning for these two items after I'm done with my gear list. But, if I were to switch this item out, I would pick the Shoulderpads of Dancing Blades from the Lynx boss in Zul' Aman.

Back

Current item - Drape of the Dark Reavers from the Shade of Aran in Kara.
'To Get' item - No better pre-25 man raid item available.

Chest

Current item - Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic, Arena season 3.
'To Get' item - None. But, if you don't do Arenas, I recommend Vestments of Hibernation for 75 Badges of Justice.

Wrists

Current item - Bracers of Maliciousness from The Maiden of Virtue in Kara.
'To Get' item - Master Assassin Wristwraps for 35 Badges of Justice.

Hands

Current item - Guantlets of Malorne from the Curator in Kara.
'To Get' item - I'll be keeping the shoulders and hands of the Malorne set for the 2-set bonus. I'll discuss my reasoning for these two items after I'm done with my gear list. But, if I were to switch this item out, I would pick Trickster's Stickyfingers for 60 Badges of Justice.

Waist

Current item - Socrethar's Girdle (quest item)...I don't know why I still have this on when I have a Girdle of Treachery from the Chess even in Kara. I'll have to fix that today!
'To Get' item - Waistguard of the Great Beast for 60 Badges of Justice (I have one for my Bear suit, I'll have to check and see if it's better than the Girdle of Treachery with Bear gems...otherwise, I'll get another and gem that one for kitty.)

Legs

Current item - Clefthoof Hide Leggings from a quest.
'To Get' item - Shallow-grave Trousers for 75 Badges of Justice.

Feet

Current item - Edgewalker Longboots from Moroes in Kara.
'To Get' item - The Footwraps of Wild Enchroachment are a minor upgrade, but I'm not sure it's worth another 60 badges as it's very minor. I have them for my Bear set, but I believe the bear gems keep them from being better than the Edgewalker Longboots.

Ring 1

Current item - A'dal's Command
'To Get' item - Ring of the Overseer from Shartuul in Blades Edge.

Ring 2

Current item - Garona's Signet Ring
'To Get' item - Garona's and the Ring of the Overseer are the two best pre-25 man rings available.

Trinket 1

Current item - Hourglass of the Unraveller
'To Get' item - Bloodlust Brooch, 41 Badges of Justice

Trinket 2

Current item - Alchemist Stone (Why am I wearing this? LOLWUT?)
'To Get' item - Skyguard Silver Cross for exalted with the Sha'tari Skyguard.

Weapon

Current item - Terestian's Stranglestaff
'To Get' item - Merciless Gladiator's Maul season 2 Areana weapon.

Idol

Current item - Everbloom Idol for raids for the bargain price of 15 Badges of Justice and Idol of the Wild from a quest reward for everything else.
'To Get' item - I think those are the best, but I'd have to do some research.

Malorne 2-Piece Set Bonus

The Malorne 2-Piece set bonus is just too good to give up:

Your melee attacks in Bear form and Dire Bear form have a chance to generate 10 additional rage. Your melee attacks in Cat form have a chance to generate 20 additional energy.

Using Emmerald's 2.3 gear lists draft beta 2, the best Malorne items to keep are the Shoulders and Hands. This was determined by assessing the delta between the Malorne items and the best pre-25 man upgrade item available.

Item	Head	Shoulders	Chest	Hands	Legs
Upgrade Item*	240.04	156.84	240.80	157.54	219.55
Malorne Piece	198.17	148.28	189.92	119.52	157.99
Delta	41.87	8.56	50.88	38.02	61.56

*Upgrade item used is the one referenced in my list above.

As you can see, based on the Sustained DPS points that Emmerald's calculations assign, the shoulders and hands are the items closest to the upgrade items I have listed above. The head item isn't too far behind, so keeping this piece for kitty rather than the hands wouldn't make too much of a DPS difference. However, keeping the chest or legs is not viable as there are other items which will significantly boost your DPS in raids.

Hydross Down!

Last night was our first plunge into Serpent Shrine Cavern! All in all, it went well. It was not a planned raid though...every time we planned it we would not have enough people sign up or show. So, we decided that before our regular Gruul's run, we'd try Hydross and not tell anyone until we had the raid full. Sneaky, huh?

Well, it worked! We had our usual 28+ people wanting in for Gruuls...odd how they show up for runs that are on farm, but to go in and learn something new....nope! Where is their sense of adventure? Where is their sense of accomplishment? Yeah, yeah, yeah, repair bills. Pfffft. Go do a few dailies and you're all better. Ooops, sorry, had to rant a wee bit.

So, we go into SSC and clear the trash up to Hydross. We briefly go over strat and jump in to see how it goes and on our 5th attempt, we finally downed him. Honestly, to me it seemed like a fairly easy fight...granted, all I did was tank adds and then DPS Hydross once he was down, but, overall, it was fairly straight forward and easy.

I don't recall what he dropped. I was just happy that we'd finally gotten over our 25-man hump!

If you wanna see a pic, it's on our forum home page here. I'm the female cow in the middle!

Beware teh Hackrz

A few weeks ago, one of our healers had his account hacked. Thankfully, after about a week, Blizzard restored his character, items, enchants...everything except his non-combat pets...which I restored.

Last night, I checked our forums and one of our Shadow Priests reported that his account had been hacked. :'( He has contacted Blizzard and is awaiting his outcome. Hopefully it will be as good as our Healer's.

Then, when checking the boards this morning, another or our members reported that he just tried to log on and his password has been changed. O.O He's currently waiting for 'password retrival' and hopefully he caught things in time.

Along with his post one of our mage's posted that he had been hacked recently as well, but all they got was his Shaman which he didn't like or play anymore anyway.

So...4 people...in our guild...in less than a month. That's damn scarey.

A couple of people offered some tips, one of which was the guy who's Shaman was hacked:

I got hacked recently too. thank god it was just my shaman though. If it was my mage I'd have a heart attack. One thing you should do is download AVG 7.5 (free anti-virus), which was recommended by someone on the blizzard forums in regards to hacker trojans. The second I installed it, before I could even run a scan, it found the trojan instantly and got rid of it for me. I'm not sure if its the same one going around or not but the name of the trojan i got was called "PSW.OnlineGames.TYK" in my system32 folder.

Another of our members, who surfs the WoW official forums, was asked if he's seen anything reguard excessive hacking of late, here is his response:

sorta, i browse at work from time to time (they have paranoid anti-viral so i dont have issues). There are several sites people link to that take them to sites that mimic others, like ph0tobucket.cn and similar. The " .cn " doesnt always stick out, but avoid those sites. The anti-virus thing is a good idea to get as some items can be brought in through popups on image sites (like the .cn thing i mentioned).

Basically, anti-virus is always good, im using AVG atm. And check every single link you use as if you are sleeping with it.... if you dont know where its been, dont touch it.

All this makes me thankful that all I do on my gaming machine is game. When I surf, I use my older machine...actually, I use a very old laptop which terminal serves onto my old gaming machine. LOL I had told my husband that I wanted a new, but cheap, monitor so I could move my old machine downstairs which is where I surf, blog, research, do my accounting work, etc. and not have to terminal serve anymore...along with this idea, I had thought..."Oh, I could do basic farming, etc. on my day off without being secluded upstairs in our computer room." I don't think I'll do that now...

If any of you know anymore about what anti-viruses work or don't work or files to looke for, etc. Please comment!!!

Collector's Edition Pets are Obtainable Again!

For those of you who didn't get the original Collector's Edition of WoW or the Burning Crusade Collector's Edition, you will now be able to get these once again and all for the cost of $4500!!!

Oh, you'd also get an awesome Dell Laptop too. As well as a bunch of extras...one of which is a Golden Ticket FigurePrints and much, much more.

So, for those of you that have a new lap top, a figurine, and wish you'd gotten the original Collector's Edition for the cute little narcaleptic Panda...you can now do all that at one place!

Kudos to Warcraft Pets which is where I learned this from!

One Tanking Kara (the Front Half)

Last night, one of my favorite healers wanted to run Kara for badges, so I told him I'd help. Our guild had already run a couple of Kara's this week, so the group ended up being a hodge-podge of those that hadn't yet run it and alts. Our composition was:

1 Feral Druid
1 Resto Shaman
1 Rogue
2 Elemental Shamans
2 Hunters
1 Mage
1 Holy Priest
1 Shadow Priest

Interesting make up...1 tank, 2 healers, and an odd mixture of DPS. But, we made it from the beginning to Curator (skipping Nightbane) in under 2 hours with no wipes...so not too bad.

Since I was the only tank available, I had to 1 tank everything...except for 2 times when one of our Elemental Shamans brought in his Fury Warrior to off tank. So, this post is going to focus on tips for 1 tanking with the assumption that you already know how to run Kara with 2 tanks as well as general tanking and threat generating skills.

1 Tanking Attumen the Huntsman

One tanking Attumen really isn't any more trouble than double tanking him. You start off tanking his horse, Midnight, and once Attumen spawns, you pick him up. It's best if you set up a target macro as follows:

/tar attumen

Once you get aggro established with Midnight with a Mangle and 3 Lacerates, cease to use Mangle (you don't want it to be on cooldown when Attumen pops up) while continuing to Lacerate and Maul to keep threat. Attumen spawns when Midnight is at 95%, so once you get him to 97%, start spamming your target macro as you Lacerate and Maul Midnight. As soon Attumen spawn, hit your Mangle to get his attention then follow it up with 3 Lacerates. After that, switch back to Midnight and burn him down while using Swipe liberally to keep Attumen glued to you. Once Midnight is at 25%, he and Attumen will merge. At this point, you will need to re-establish aggro and tank and spank as usual.

1 Tanking Moroes

For Moroes, one of our Elemental Shamans logged and brought in his Fury Warrior to help off-tank. But, and no offense to him as a player, he just couldn't hold aggro, so the fight was closer to 1 tanking than 2 tanking.

Honestly, 1 tanking and 2 tanking Moroes is basically the same, except if the 2nd highest threat is a ranged DPS or Healer, you will need to Charge and drag him back to the 'tank spot' as soon as your Blind or Gouge wears off. Other than that, it's normal Moroes tankage.

1 Tanking Maiden of Virtue

Well, since the Maiden is always a 1 tank job there is nothing different here...move along people.

1 Tanking the Opera Event: Wizard of Oz

When we got to the Opera Event we discussed the various ones we hoped we'd get and hoped we wouldn't get...Big Bad Wolf is what we wanted, Romulo & Jullianne was our second choice, and the Wizard of Oz is what we did not want...guess what we got...

If you find yourself faced with the Wizard of Oz event and only 1 tank, just know that it is doable. In fact, we did it on the first try. Typically, I, as OT, would tank Rawr and pick up and hold Tito and our MT would tank the Tin Man. However, last night, I had to manage all three.

I first picked up Rawr and tanked him as I normally do. Once the Tin Man was up, our two Shamans Frostshock kited him around until Rawr was dead. After Rawr died, I picked up the Tin Man and Tito. Our Mage tanked the Stawman as usual. Once the Stawman and then Tin Man were dead, I dragged little Tito over to Dorothee and we began working on her. When we got Dorothee to about 40%, I noticed Tito was almost dead! And, before we had a chance to tell the raid to not DPS him he was lying on the floor, lifeless. Ooops. Oh well, we burned down Dorothee before we encurred her wrath...and who wouldn't be pissed off if their dog was killed before their very eyes? Then the Crone spawned and it was the typical tank and spank on her.

1 Tanking Curator

Curator was pretty easy as well. Basically, we picked the person with the 2nd highest hit points to be the 'off-tank' of sorts to take the Hateful Bolts. That person was one of our Hunters who had about 13k hit points. I think anyone with 12k or more hit points who can generate a resonable amount of threat can off tank Curator. The key here is that the other DPS need to watch their threat and stay below him. Now, since DPS should be focusing on the sparks and only DPSing the Curator after they are down, it shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

As far as the MTs role here...normal tank and spank as you'd typically do.

1 Tanking Trash

Most of the trash was not an issue. We had 2 priests for shakles on the trash before Attumen reducing the number I would need to tank. We had a Mage for AoE pulls, so I did the 'initial' pull on those with a Moonfire, followed by Barkskin and Hurricane so I'd take most of the damage. Any pulls with 2 elites such as; the 4-5 group pulls right before Attumen, the Philanthopist pulls, etc., I would Starfire and Moonfire target X (our 2nd target on the kill list), then Moonfire Skull (the 1st target on the kill list), switch to bear and proceed with Mangle, Lacerates and the liberal use of Swipe. If I was tanking 3 mobs, I'd Starfire and Moonfire the 3rd on the kill list, Moonfire the 2nd, switch to Bear form and proceed as above.

The only problem on trash were the Skeletal Ushers before the Philanthopist hallway. These mobs ice block the tank and typically an off tank is needed to take over when this happens. This is the other area where our Elemental Shaman logged on his Fury Warrior to off tank. However, we still had the problem with him not being able to maintain aggro, although letting him make the pull did help a little bit.

Conclusion

One tanking Kara is doable even with a Feral Druid. It makes it a bit more challenging and lets us use our full arsenal of tricks...which always makes things more fun. However, one tanking is not for those new to Kara. If you're still gearing up from Kara, Heroics, and Badges of Justice, then don't try this at home. ;p It's also is a must to have good healers as well. Honestly, I'd like the chance to one tank the later half as well just to see how much of a challenge it is and see if I can tank Nightbane and Prince which are the only bosses I have yet to tank myself.

Pet Karma

So...this weekend two of my guildies gave me pets!

Hags, who has been a member of Rogue Angels for forever and played Asheron's Call with us, gave me a Snowman Kit after finding one of an alt and asking if I had it yet. He's been working on Alchemist Rep and, knowing that I'm an Alchemist and love pets, knew that this was a surefire way to earn it!

Hags is now revered with Mooire.

Then, last night when I logged on and checked my mail, I saw that Pk (she's been with us since DAoC) had sent me an early Christmas prezzie wrapped with a festive red bow! Not being the kind of girl to wait to open prezzies unless physically forced, I opened it immediately and out flew a Captured Firefly!

Pk is now exalted with Mooire.

The Firefly is one of the few pets that I have actually farmed for...with no luck, of course. Now, I'm sure that my long time readers who have taken the time to read all my goofy pet blogs are stunned by this admission...but, then again, if you also consider that I'm a bit ADD sometimes, it makes perfect sense. I seem to only be able to farm stuff for about 30 minutes before I feel the need to poke my eyes out and scream. So, when it comes to pets that are dropped off of mobs, well, other than the Firefly Pk gave me last night, I have none.

Now, I'm sure that some of you are wondering why Hags is only revered whereas Pk made exalted...well, when Hags gave me the Snowman Kit, my guildies joked that he was now exalted with me and he pointed out that he was only revered as he'd have to get me a Firefly to become exalted. How can you argue with that?

For those that would like to earn Mooire rep, pets I currently do not have and want are listed below:

Azure Welpling
Disgusting Oozeling
Dragon Kite
Hyacinth Macaw
Rocket Chicken

So, it seems that my Karma from all the Alliance pets I've given to my guildies has come back. Even though I haven't been able to give pets as gifts in a long time as my step-son deleted my pet mill characters a few months ago. /cry. I'd been planning on making a silly post about it, but now that I've mentioned it, I guess it would be silly to do it now. It was going to be jokingly styled as a news article about a pet mill bust....oh, well.

I had set the Pet Mill up on his account as he had not played in....oh....about a year. But, he decided to start playing again and when he logged on he saw all these goofy named characters and deleted them so he could transfer a Horde character to our sever (PvP server). /sigh. And I had 6 white kittens that I hadn't yet transfered to the Horde side too. But, while I was working hard with the girls making cookies yesterday, my husband got me another account specifically for another pet mill. :)

Hubby is now revered with Mooire.

He's probably wondering why he isn't exalted as he reads that...but, well, he would have needed to set the pet mill up to get that. ;p But, revered does earn him cookies. ;)

Cookie Fest 2007

Ok, so, we had the beginning of the month where my work tends to take up my blogging time then, once that was done, I realized that Cookie Fest 2007 was this weekend! So, instead of getting back to blogging, I had to clean the house and put up Christmas decorations.

Cookie Fest is a baking extravaganza that my husband's step-mom's family does each year. I guess that makes it my step-mother in-law's family. Anyway, all the girls (there were 6 of us) each pick a cookie recipe and then we all get together and help each other bake them. Once we're done, we divide them up between us and we all have a variety of cookies for the Holidays.

Cookie Fest (that is my name for the event...I don't think any of them has named it, but I felt it needed a name and I like Cookie Fest) began 6 years ago when Liesel, my step-grandmother in-law told her 2 daughters and 1 daughter in-law that they needed to learn how to make her family famous pecan cookies. This first cookie fest was held at her home. The next year, it was held at her daughter's home (my step-mother in-law) and I was invited to that one. After, that year, they decided that since my kitchen was the biggest, we should do it at my house. So, with the exception of one year (we had a flood) we've been holding it here ever since.

It's really a fun day as they are all really cool. I really like my step-mother in-laws side of the family and the women on that side are not like 'typical women' with all the gossip, manipulations, and competition crap. They're just good people who have fun and don't freak out over stuff....my kinda people.

So...back to the cookies! The cookie I picked this year was...

Pumpkin White Chocolate Drop Cookies

2 cups butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 can (16 oz) solid pack pumpkin
2 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
2 tbs pumpkin pie spice
1 tp baking powder
1/2 tp baking soda
1 bag (12 oz) white chocolate chips
1 container (16 oz) ready to spread cream cheese frosting
1/4 cup brown sugar

1. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin and eggs; beat until smooth. Add flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and baking soda; beat just until well blended. Stir in baking chips.

2. ** Optional ** Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper-lined baking sheets. Freeze about 1.5 hours or until firm. Transfer to resealable plastic storage bags and freeze for up to 2 months.

3. Preheat oven to 375 F. Place cookies about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 12-14 minutes or until set and bottoms are brown (16 if frozen). Cool 1 minute on baking sheet. Remove to wire rack to cool. 4. Combine frosting and brown sugar in a small bowl. Spread on barely warm cookies.

Makes about 6 dozen.

If you decide to make these cookies, I recommend using 2 containers of the frosting (be sure to double the brown sugar too!) as 1 didn't seem to be enough...but, then again, I like more than a little smear of frosting on them.

Other cookies made this weekend were (I don't have the recipes for these, just the names):

Liesel's Pecan Cookies
Macaroons
Toffee Sugar Cookies
Snickerdoodles
Chocolate Haystacks (some nasty Weight Watchers recipe one of them was raving about, ick)
Oatmeal Cookies (another Weight Watchers recipe but at least it didn't taste like cardboard coated in chocolate)

I'm It!

BBB tagged me...I could swear I was touching base...

5 things I've learned from gaming:

1. Pets make everything better - The non-combat variety win raids and build morale and, when given as gifts, help to brighten someone's day. The real life variety work well in every situation.

2. Helping others can be more rewarding than... - Canceling what you 'want to do' and doing something for someone else is oftentimes more fun and rewarding than what you had planned. Works in real life too.

3. You can really learn about someone in game - You can learn more about people by playing games with them than you can in hours of conversation.

4. Loyalty to your Guild pays off - I've been in Rogue Angels for almost 10 years and have made a lot of really good friends during that time. They're not just a Guild, they're my on-line extended family.

5. Saying 'No' and setting boundaries is OK - Sometimes you have to say 'No' when someone asks for help or you'll never log out and tend to family and real life concerns. Also, it's OK to set boundaries...such as, I don't do PUGs. Same thing applies to real life as well. If you can't say no and set healthy boundaries, people will take advantage of you.

/runs around frantically looking for people to tag...

/hi

Mooire greats you with a hearty hello.

I just wanted to let you all know I'm still here. It's just the dreaded beginning of the month and work has me otherwise occupied. That's the hazzards of being in the accounting profession, I suppose...if you can call accounting hazzardous. ;p Anyway, things should get back to normal in another day or two and I'll once again be able to post for your amusement. ;p Well, at least I hope you find some of what I write amusing.

Also, I'll respond to the various comments I've received then too. I have read them. I just haven't had time to ponder them and respond. So, for all you procrastinators out there...you still have time to comment! Do eet!! Now! Gogogogogogo!!! ;p

Class Officer Input

In my guild, Rogue Angels, I'm the Druid Class Officer. I have been for some time now, although not much has been required of me...or any of the other class officers for that matter...until now...

Our Guild recently expanded and raid time has become a nightmarish tell-hell for our Guild Leader and Raid Leaders while they are trying to form proper raid composition, send out invites, get to the raid location, think, etc. So, our GM has asked what he needed to ask a long time ago...that we Class Officers step up and take some of the responsibility. Our new duties are to:

1. Talk with each member of our class and get to know them.
2. Find out their raiding goals.
3. Evaluate their gear and experience level to ascertain where they fit in raids (i.e. Kara, ZA, 25 mans, etc.).
4. Advise on gear upgrades, talent specs, enchants, etc.
5. Coordinate who gets in what and which raid.

All that seems pretty easy, but I thought I'd ask you all...what would you want from your Class Officer? We're still a casual raiding guild; meaning we raid 3-4 times a week for 4 hours. However, we are needing to get a bit more serious about coordination and the gear/experience level of those we take as we venture into 25 man raids. So...just so I can make sure I'm not forgetting an important aspect of helping my fellow guildie Druids...gimme input!

Added to Blog Roll

After seeing Adventures in Azeroth's post today, I decided that updating my blog roll would be a more productive means of procrastination on the post I'm thinking about then just surfing. So, I've added quite a few new...or, at least, new to my site...Druid blogs. Sadly, a lot of them I've had on my Google Reader for some time...they just hadn't yet made it here. Be sure to check them all out!

Also, I didn't go through and cull the ones that have been inactive. I guess I'm hoping they will come back and post more.

Powershifting

Patch 2.3 brought us the ability to instantly switch forms or, for this article switch to the same form, thereby enabling us to Powershift!

Powershifting Explained

On the first tier of the Resto...yes, I said Resto...tree is a talent called Furor. With 5 points spent in this talent, you get a 100% chance of gaining 10 rage when shifting to Bear form and 40 energy when shifting to Cat form.

Powershifting is when a Druid takes advantage of the energy/rage gained by shifting out and back in to the same form.

First off, I know I mostly write about the tanking aspect of our Feral abilities, but powershifting is mainly used in our kitty form. However, if you're rage starved, powershifting works for Bear form as well, so we will discuss both.

Powershifting Tools

Before we get into the dynamics of powershifting for Cat and Bear, lets first cover some tools to help you optimize your powershifting.

Since shifting forms requires mana, it is a must that you have some sort of add on that shows you how much mana you have. Let me tell you, it's quite embarrassing to be in the heat of battle, being awesome with your powershift skills, and then oops, you go to powershift and don't have enough mana to go back into form...then you have to stand there...in all our Cow-ish (or Elf-sih) glory, beating on the mob with your staff, and praying that Omen of Clarity procs before anyone sees you out of form. I can tell you with all certainty that when that happens...Omen of Clarity does not proc. Ever.

A few addons to help you keep an eye on your mana are Druid Bars, Simple Druid Bar, or Metahud, which is what I use (although I've noticed the mana bar is a bit buggy sometimes). I'm sure there are many other addons that show our mana bar while in form that you can look for so, experiment with several until you find one that you like.

Along with having a visual of your available mana pool, knowing when your next energy 'tick' is up is beneficial as well. We generate 20 energy every 2 seconds (if you search energy on WoWwiki, they say 30 energy every 2 seconds...I wish!!!). Since we want to optimize our energy gained and spend as little mana as possible, knowing if you're at the beginning or end of that 2 second tick in imperative. Some addons for keeping an eye on that 'tick' are Energy Watch v2, Energy Watch Countdown, or Energy Ticker. I haven't yet found my preferred mod for this as I'm still experimenting.

Powershift Cat!

Shifting out and back into Cat form gives you 40 energy. This is not instant, though, as I've found there is a bit of delay, about 1 second, from when you powershift to when that precious 40 energy shows up on your bar. Since we normally gain 20 energy every 2 seconds; powershifting gives us twice as much energy in half the time. Basically, it's a 30 energy gain if you're at the beginning of your energy tick and a 20 energy gain if you're at the end.

This extra energy can boost your DPS. I'll quote from Elitist Jerks Feral Druid Mega Thread:

Over the course of two minutes or so, you should easily get around 125 energy (5 shifts worth, minus a few per shift for "imperfect" shifts) if you pay attention. 125/42 = ~3 extra shreds (126). 3 shreds at around 1500 damage each = 4500 extra damage without crits, or ~10000 damage with (40-80 DPS or so), plus 3-6 combo points (probably another 20-30 dps on it's own). Total DPS gain of around 70-80 or so, which is pretty nice.

An increase of 70-80 damage per second over a 2 minute period is very nice! Granted, do to mana, you won't be able to powershift every time you're at zero energy on long boss fights, but you will still be able to boost your DPS output considerably.

For me, if I'm at the beginning of an energy tick, I don't mind powershifting if I have 10 or less energy. However, if I'm at the end of the tick, it doesn't seem worthwhile unless I'm at or dang close to zero.

The macro for powershifting in cat form is very simple:

/cancelform
/cast cat form
/y Powershift Cat!

The last line is optional and only adds a bit of silliness to, what I consider, a serious DPS increasing maneuver. It's fun to use in PvE, however I would advise against it while PvPing unless you just feel it necessary to taunt the enemy and see if they can 'catch' you in that split second of vulnerability.

Powershift Bear!

You should rarely need to use powershifting in Bear form. The times that I have found it to be beneficial are when I'm rage starved, rooted, or needing a healing potion/healthstone.

When your in a situation where your not generating enough rage, powershifting can give that little boost to help keep aggro. This typically happens if you have over 30% dodge and you're running a non-heroic instance...heck, I've even had trouble generating rage in heroic instances. In these situations, powershifting can help get you a tiny bit of rage. It's not a cure all, but it sure helps when that third mob runs off to munch on your healer...powershift and charge it.

Yes, while tanking you are more vulnerable during a powershift than when you're shredding a mob from behind in cat form and there is more risk to doing this maneuver while tanking. However, if you're rage starved, it's because you're not getting hit enough and you're over geared for what you're doing. So, it's not going to hurt you much...if at all...to powershift.

There are also times when you get rooted and the mob runs off to either used ranged abilities on you or to munch on someone else. Powershifting is the fastest way to get out of your root and back onto the baddie.

Then, there are those times when you are challenged and you see your health getting lower and your healer is either dead, out of mana, or just unable to keep up. In these situations, powershifting with the addition of using a healing potion or health stone is called for. However, if you have a lot of rage, be sure to use Frenzied Regeneration before you powershift as you will lose that large pool of rage when shifting. Karthis over at Of Teeth and Claws wrote about using potions and stones in his Pots & Stones article. Please see his article for more information on using pots and stones as well as the macros for such. As for the basic powershifting macro...

/cancelform
/cast dire bear form
/y Powershift Bear!

Again, the last line is purely optional. ;)

Powershift...Oops!

A word of warning...do not powershift while in the midst of a global cooldown. If you do, you will come out of your current form and be left standing in either your Cow or Elf form. Not good and very frustrating when you're trying to optimize your play. Along with checking my mana, energy tick or rage status, I also glance down at my abilties to see where my GCD is before powershifting. Make this a habit!

Powershifting Consideration

If you're raiding and might be called upon to heal, Innervate, combat rez, etc. then be careful with how much you use your powershifting skills. Yes, it's fun to do...and I know sometimes it's easy to get caught up in damage meters and how you rate...but damage is not why Druids are brought to raids. If your raid leader wants pure melee DPS, they will bring a Rogue, not you. We are brought to raids because of our versatility. In one person, the raid gets a tank/off tank, an off healer, DPS, a combat rez, and an Innervate. If you spend all your mana powershifting so you can rank high on the damage meters, then you won't have the mana to combat rez the healer when you've got the boss down to 10%. So, use powershifting wisely.

He saves lives, I just know it!!

Several days ago I posted that I had finally fished up Mr. Pinchy and that my first two 'uses' both gave me Mr. Pinchy's Gift which contained 5 Super Healing Potions and 4 Super Mana Potions each.

But, lets go back in time a bit...say 9 months or so back...I had recently hit level 70 and now that the leveling race was over, I had time for new obsessions. Since we had also begun working...or should I say struggling...in Kara, I decided to work on raising my fishing skill to get buff food and, hopefully, obtain the elusive Magical Crawdad Pet. Around the same time, our main hunter was fishing as well and we were sorta racing to get our fishing skill capped. I say sorta because he started to race and then gave up. ;p Anyway, since I only cook in real life, I would mail him all my fish so he could cook them up for me and the guild. One day, after receiving a net full of stinky fish in the mail, he sent me a tell. Our conversation went a little bit like this...

Yagi whispers: Good grief, that's a lot of fish...you must be capped by now!
Mooire whispers: Well, I have to get Mr. Pinchy! We won't beat the Shade without him!!

Let me interrupt the conversation a bit to say that at this point we had hit a wall with the Shade. We could clear to him, but we'd wipe over and over on him.

Mooire whispers: I'm doing this for our raid success!!!
Yagi whispers: He saves lives, I just know it!!!!
Mooire whispers: Of course he does...he IS magical after all!!!

Now, I know Yagi was being a bit sarcastic with his statement there, but I love it nonetheless.

So, Tuesday was my third and final usage of Mr. Pinchy. As soon as I logged in, I clicked on him and what did I get?

You receive Magical Crawdad Box.

Yippy!!!! :D

Thankfully, we were able to get past the Shade a long time ago without the need for a Magical Crawdad in attendance, but as we're embarking into 25 man raids now, I think I got him just in time, because...

He saves lives, I just know it!

Blame it on Chain Factor

Earlier this week I posted that I had a light work week and would have some articles for you all to read. My intentions were good, but then I found Chain Factor. It's an interesting little game to pass the time and let me tell ya...it can pass the time. O.O I think my obsession with it is waining though, so you all can have me back now. ;p

Thanksgiving News

Well, we made it through the Thanksgiving weekend. Although we only had one dinner to do, it was at our house so we had all the prerequisite shopping, cleaning, and cooking to attend to. So, what I had hopped would be a WoW filled long weekend didn't really turn out as such.

Thursday...I'm not too sure what happened to Thursday...I know we napped a lot. We did find a bit of time in the evening to play our baby Warlock and Pally combo. We're in our early to mid 30's and opted to quest in STV rather than the new 2.3 location that I can't even recall the name of...our hope was that everyone would be there and STV wouldn't be the gank zone we all know and hate. Actually, it wasn't too bad. We did get ganked a little bit...don't those level 60-70 players have anything better to do than go to a level 30-40 zone and kill babies? Sheesh, get a life...go farm or earn rep or do dailies...if you must PvP, then stir up shit in higher level zones where you can pick on someone your own size!!!

I also got an afternoon of fishing in on Friday and finally caught Mr. Pinchy!!! I immediately used him and was bestowed with Mr. Pinchy's Gift which contained 5 Super Healing Potions and 4 Super Mana Potions. Boo! Then, on Sunday, the cooldown was up and upon use, I got Mr. Pinchy's Gift...again...with the exact same number of potions. Double Boo!! I still have one more use on Tuesday...keep your fingers crossed that he'll give me the Magical Crawdad Box on that use.

Saturday was our Thanksgiving dinner, so no play time. But we did get to play most of Sunday. We did our Arenas in the morning and finished 1337...even though it's not a good score, it does spell leet!! Then, after lunch, we did a full clear of Kara in under 4 hours and netted 22 badges! Yippy!! I now have enough to get Slikk's Cloak of Placation. I also finally got Drape of the Dark Reavers for my kitty set...which sorely needs some upgrades. After our dinner break, we had our Gruul's run which went well and then off to do our Herioc Daily which was Arcatraz. We opted to skip the first boss, so the run ended up getting us 3 badges and then another 2 for the quest turn in. Overall, a 27 badge day....not too bad. Hopefully soon I'll be able to upgrade some kitty items as well.

Oddly, this is a slow work week for me...hopefully, I'll be able to do a few better, more informative posts. But, first, I will need to plan out my next few item aquisitions. Tomorrow, I should have close to 4k arena points and I need to decide which 2 pieces I want to buy. I'm pretty set on getting the Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic for my Bear set, although I want to run a few numbers before finally committing myself to that purchase. The Vestments of Hibernation rank higher on the calculations I did last month, but, as I'm close to the armor cap as well as having a healthy dodge rating, the Stamina and Hit rating on the Vengeful chest piece seem more beneficial. My plan, if viable, is the use to gems that are good for both Bear and Kitty and use that chest piece for both forms, then buy a second Vengeful item for Kitty use...keeping only 2 T4 pieces for Kitty form, but still using 4 T4 pieces for Bear for that 1400 armor bonus...but again, must run numbers first....

** Edited to change time frame of Kara...my hubby told me it was just under 4 hours, not 3.

Got Mojo?

Last night, in Zul' Aman, I finally got Mojo!!! Actually, I got him twice while using up the 10 Hex Sticks I got so we would have Amani Charms for our Lynx boss attempt.

I didn't keep track of how many Hex Sticks it took overall to get the little toad, but I'm going to estimate around 30. Also, it was interesting that all the sticks I used on the side of the pond facing the entrance never netted a frog. However, when I used the 10 from last night, I was on the other side of the pond...over the bridge, of sorts. I got him on the sixth and eighth stick...so, I don't know if that side of the pond is luckier or not, but if you've been trying and haven't yet gotten him, go over the water!

It also might have to do with the fact that I've used the most sticks on that instance run. Perhaps you have to 'free' X many people before you get the frog pet. Or, perhaps it's random and I'm trying to apply too much method to the madness. ;p

Also, everywhere I have read states that the frog comes from a vendor that you 'free'. This is incorrect. When you use the Hex Stick on the frog, it turns into a larger, blue frog that hops to you and jumps into your pack. It's all automatic; no looting charm boxes or talking to vendors and hoping you see him in the window.

Good luck on getting your Mojo!

Dire Bear Form versus Nalorakk

Are you ready to Ruuuummmmmmbbbbllllleeeeeee??????

The first boss encounter in Zul'aman is generally considered to be Nalorakk. He's the Amani Bear lord and has two different aspects; his normal form and his bear form.

His normal form does a mangle which causes 100% additional damage from bleeds, a surge (similar to Attumen), and a brutal swipe which causes 14k damage split by up to 2 targets. This makes it imperative that both tanks remain in front to split the damage.

His Bear form does a Lacerating Slash which causes a bleed of 1735 every 2 seconds, a Rend Flesh which bleeds 2335 every 1 second, and a Deafening Roar which deals 1200-1400 damage and silences everyone for 2 seconds.

Since the normal form applies a mangle and the bear form does bleed damage, it is required that two people tank this boss and each one take a different form. So, I guess, really, I should title this Dire Bear Form and Warrior versus Nalorakk...but, well, that's too long and ruins the Bear on Bear action that the title implies...unless it's two Druids tanking and then that would be a Bear threesome... o.O

Anyway, either aspect is tankable by a Druid. However, if you don't have a huge health base (17k+ buffed) or you have a weak healer or two in the group and no Resto Druid for HoTs then you're better off tanking the normal aspect.

I've had the pleasure of tanking Nalorakk three times for our guild. The first time, I was responsible for tanking his Bear aspect while our guild leader tanked the normal aspect. Other than my untimely disconnect on the first try, it went well and we downed him on the second attempt. (I wrote about that in a previous post.)

However, on our second venture to Zul' Aman, with the same two tanks, we had difficulties. We kept wiping around the 60 or 40% point during a silence. Our previous run, we had a Druid, Pally, and Shaman healing. All three were well geared and good at their jobs. However, on our second venture, we had 2 pallies and 1 shaman...again, good and well geared (the new pally was probably a bit undergeared tho)...I think the key was having a resto Druid and those awesome HoTs to keep me alive during their silence while those mega bleeds ticked away. After several wipes, our tank had to go so he brought in one of the tanks from the guild we recently absorbed. The new tank suggested we switch aspects and it went very smooth after that...it also helped that the new tank had a tonne of health and could take a beating.

Our third time, I tanked the normal aspect again (what happened to all our resto Druids? We had 3) and after a few wipes we eventually downed him. However, on these various attempts, I did learn a few things to make sure the fight went as smoothly as possible.

Tanking Nalorakk is, for the most part, tank and spank. You also want to make sure both of the tanks are in front, especially when he's in his normal form so the Brutal Swipe is divided between them...all other melee DPS should be behind him.

However, the key to this fight is taunting. When Nalorakk changes forms, the other tank needs to taunt him to take over. It's very helpful to have a mod that alerts you when the change is about to happen. The mod I have gives me a 5 second warning. When I see the warning pop up, I stop using any abilities and begin mentally counting down so I can time my taunt with the change. The main reason I stop using abilities is I don't want to be in the midst of a global cooldown from an attack when I need to taunt. That one second delay can be disastrous. Also, that five seconds of no special attacks will allow your rage to accumulate which will enable you to immediately build as much threat as possible after you've taunted as you want to make sure you keep aggro. After you taunt, the alternate tank will still be very close to your threat level. As both tanks as switching back and forth and staying within a couple percent of each other on threat, it's also a good idea that when the other tank taunts and takes aggro, you stop attacking to let him have a chance to leap ahead on threat.

After I start my 5 second count down, I hit my taunt right as he's changing forms. It's important to watch for those funny exclamation signs as there is that odd chance that Nalorakk will resist your taunt. In the three runs (several fights each run), this has happened to me twice. (Clearly, I need more +hit!) The first time proved disastrous as he stayed on our Warrior and he got both the bleeds along with the Mangle. He didn't last long. However, the second time this happened, I was ready...I had my little mouse hovered over my Challenging Roar and clicked that when I didn't see my taunt land. This is our 'back up' on this fight. Always be ready to use this ability if you see that your basic taunt, Growl, is resisted. As soon as you have Nalorakk's undivided attention, lay in with Mangles, Lacerates, and Mauls...also, don't forget about Faerie Fire and Demoralizing Roar.

Again, with the exception of taunting your aspect as soon as possible, the fight is tank and spank. When the other tank is tanking his aspect, you can pop out of form to Innervate. If you've been tanking his normal aspect and need to pop out while he's in bear form to Innervate a healer, beware of the Deafening Roar which will Silence you. If you were tanking the Bear form and pop out to Innervate during his normal aspect, first wait until your bleeds have ticked off and try to time it after a Brutal Swipe. You shouldn't need to combat rez in this fight because if anyone bites the dust it will be one of the tanks. If your other tank does meet his demise, just run down to the stairs and the event will reset and you can avoid a wipe.

Barkskin in Animal Form?

I thought I had read somewhere...can't remember where...that Barkskin was going to be castable in Bear and Cat form. I tested this last night and was popped out of form. So, clearly, either I dreamed it or it's not in yet.

Did anyone else hear about this or know anything or should I just accept that, perhaps, I was hallucinating?

New stuff

Well, I did manage to log in during the day today and pick my 30 glowcaps to get my Tiny Spore Bat. ZOMG!!! He is sooo tiny and absolutely adorable!!!!! If you haven't considered this pet, I suggest you do. Honestly, if I had not already been revered, I probably would not have considered him, but after seeing him, he is a definate must have even if you have to grind rep.

I also purchased my new Idol of Terror today. I have yet to use it as I was kitty in Kara tonight. But, I now have 11 more badges to save for more goodies!

Second Night of 2.3

After my hubby updated my video drivers, I went in game to piddle around and see if I had any more blue screen crashes as I had the night before. My plan was to spend this test period picking Glowcaps for my Tiny Spore Bat pet. However, one of my favorite healers asked me to help with the BEM 'intro' quests...the ones that get you to Neutral so you can begin the daily quests.

After warning them that I'm testing video drivers and that I can't guarantee my stability, they assured me they didn't care, "You tanked just fine last night after you crashed." Well, ok!

So, again, I didn't get to collect my glowcaps to get my new pet but I did earn healer rep. ;) (Am I exalted yet?) After helping them, it was dinner time and then logging back in for our second night of Zul' Aman.

So, we enter into ZA again and venture up to Akil'zon, the eagle boss. We had several unsuccessful attempts before deciding to give Jan'alai, the dragonhawk boss, a try. We got about half way through the trash to him before we 'hit our wall'. Wow, the trash is challenging! After a few wipes there, we decided to go back to Akil'zon.

Actually, I think taking the mini distraction to Jan'alai was a good idea as our new attempts at Akil'zon were better and more focused. Even though we were doing better, our healers were running out of mana. We had two well geared healers for the raid, however our third was a 'fill-in alt' healer and just wasn't geared well enough for ZA. However, this is where it got good for me...

Someone suggested that, perhaps, I off-heal to help out. O.O Eeep! But, then my husband pointed out that I was 3rd on the damage meters so, they decided against that. Then, I mentioned that when I Innervated Ledde in the middle of the fight, my cooldown had 2 mins remaining when we wiped. I then suggest that I Innervate our undergeared healer on the first electrical storm, then toward the end of the fight the cooldown will be up and I could Innervate Ledde then. Then, someone else suggested that on the 2nd or 3rd electrical storm, I also pop out and cast Tranquility to help out. Good idea!! Why didn't I, the Druid, think of that? So, along with my 2 new additional tasks, we Soulstoned the undergeared healer so he'd have an insta-rez and made sure Ledde's ank and my combat rez was up and charged in for another try.

The first two attempts with the new plan didn't work out so well. Although, it was more of a timing issue with moving to the right spot during the storm. However, the third attempt was like a well oiled machine. I popped out on the first storm and Innervated our healer. Then on the second storm, I cast Tranquility. All the while, doing my kitty DPS and running to the callapse point during the storm and giving Ledde a countdown of my Innervate cooldown so he could budget his mana. When we had Akil'zon down to 3%, our Warlock died and I was frantically asking my husband if I should rez him...but, he said no, the boss is almost dead, you need to be DPSing. So, I stayed in kitty form even though I felt bad for not rezzing Souldrain and soon enough Akil'zon was dead!!

"Ledde, 30 seconds on Innervate!"

Yep, we finished him off before my innervate cooldown was up!

All in all, it was a fun fight. I really enjoy it when I have more than 'just tanking' or 'just dpsing' to do. Popping out of form to perform an additional role adds variety and danger to the fight not to mention just plain being more useful to the raid and adding that additional value that makes hybrid classes shine.

After we were done with Akil'zon, we called it a night. However, as I had promised to help another of our healers with a Blade's Edge quest, we still had a late night of playing. But, we earned more healer rep! Why don't I have a reputation bar for that faction on my rep page? ;p

First Night of 2.3

After my hubby updated all my add-ons (thanks sweetie!), I logged in and was immediately invited to one of our Zul' Aman groups. I ran to the bank and withdrew my 114 badges, which I'd been saving up, and trotted off to G'eras to purchase my Band of the Swift Paw, which replaces my tattered Umberhowl's Collar, and Waistguard of the Great Beast to replace my Girdle of Treachery. Yippy! I'm good to go...wait, I need gems now!

I quickly run back to the bank and deposit my remaining badges and then run to the mailbox to log so I can log in my AH character. As soon as I log...Blue Screen. Crap. I patiently...ok, not so patiently, wait for the memory dump and then for my machine to reboot...thankfully, my gaming machine doesn't have a bunch of stuff to load so it reboots quickly. I log back in, mail myself some gems and then log Moo back on.

Already, they're chomping at the bit to get going...but...tiny spore bat pet...must get! /sigh I worked sooo hard...ok, not so hard...for exhausted and I want him! But, alas, my new pet will have to wait. Instead, I make sure I'm repaired and have 60 Wild Quillvine on me (better to be overstocked than run out) and accept my summons.

I run into the instance and await Yagi's entrance to the game. Yagi is our guild's jewelcrafter...we have others...but, I like Yagi and he carves all my gems...he also cooks all the fish and crawdad's I fish up as well. Anyway, I end up standing there, gems in pack, tapping my foot...WTF is Yagi?!?! Poor Yagi is stuck in download hell and by the time we're ready to go, he's still in the download screen. I quickly check my new, gemless, items and, according to my DruidTips add-on, they are better than my old items even without the gems so I put them on anyway.

As we're waiting, I see a fella and run up to talk to him (can you say ADD?) and he says some stuff in return...which I didn't even read...and then he runs to a gong and starts banging on it. Immediately, Ledde starts asking me, "What did you do?" "Ummm....nothin'." /feigns innocence Then, the next thing I know...the other guys (more ADD) are banging on the gong as well. Then I hear Swiftlight say, "Come bang on this gong! Nothing will happen, we need at least 5 to do it!" "Ok!!"

/bang
/bang
/bang

Ooops...the gates open. Baklor, our guild leader says, "You better not be doing anything I'm gonna miss." as he's out at the summoning stone with the other half of the raid. Then, two mobs run out...pfft...two mobs, we got this...I run up and nab them...then, a wave of mobs come pouring out...then another wave...then death and laughter.

So, after that little boo boo, we shape up, wait for the rest of the raid, and clear our way to the first boss, Nalorakk. We begin our first try at him, which was going smoothly until I blue screened. Rut roh. Baklor takes over tanking both aspects (he was tanking the troll aspect and I was tanking the bear aspect), but after a while, he's just taking too much damage from all the debuffs and dies. However, I was still in game...doing white damage... and still have quite a bit of threat and continued to tank for some time...unfortunately, not long enough for them to down him.

As soon as I get back in, we start the fight again and quickly succeed. Yippy! Our first Zul' Aman boss! He drops a Pally helm which Swiftlight got as well as one badge for each of us. Also, in the course of clearing trash, we got a couple of the Amani Hex Sticks which everyone let me and Aquenzi loot first so we could, hopefully, get a pet frog. Aquenzi and I rush down to the pond as soon as Nalorakk is dead and wave our sticks at a couple of frogs and they leave us some little charms in stead of Mojo. :( Later as the night proceed with much whining and pleeding from both Aquenzi and I, they all agreed to let she and I loot all the Amani Hex Sticks. Unfortunately, neither of us got the little toad.

We then head over to Akil'Zon and begin clearing the patrol and other trash. We're quickly spotted by the runner who runs up the ramp and alerts everything and then the gauntlet begins. The first time, we stayed at the bottom and slowly began working our way up trying to kill everything, but it becomes to overwhelming and we die. Then, on our next attempt, we try moving up the ramp quickly picking up the elite mobs as we go, but, again, it becomes too overwhelming. We then decide to take the methodical approach and kill the two elites, then the two adds from behind then the next two elites, then adds from behind and so on while ignoring the birds...again, too overwhelming. Then we decided to mount up, ride to that first guy on the stairs (tempest dood? I can't remember his name, but for the sake of this post he is now called tempest dood) and take him out and then deal with the other trash. That didn't work either. We try the methodical approach one more time. Then, we decide to just mount up, run past everything...even the boss...and die on the landing to the right of Akil'Zon and see if we can rez up. We all made it up and promptly died. Then Ledde anked to see if he could rez us...he can! Oh, wait, he's in combat...oh, out of combat...no, in combat...wait, out of combat! He gets us all rezzed up, we buff, then tip toe past the boss and make our way down to kill the tempest dood...he's not there. So, we start clearing the pairs of elites then make our way back up to kill Akil'Zon. We have several attempts at him. Our best one got him down to 52%, but then it got late and we had to call it a night.

If anyone has a strat on the gauntlet ramp, please let me know! Running up worked, but it bugged the event and might be deemed an exploit and I'd rather do it the 'legal' way.

All in all, it was a fun night. I really enjoyed getting to run and learn something new. I also absolutely LOVE insta shift!!! One second Bear and poof, instantly kitty!

Hopefully, after work, I'll be able to find some time to collect my glowcaps and buy my tiny spore bat. I also need to decide what gems I want for my new gear. I had some I had planned on, but since the wrists are the best ones in the game, I decided to get the best gem possible rather than the good one I had intended, which is just one step below, but might as well get the best now and save that gem for something else that is more of an 'interim' piece.

Emmerald Gear Lists Draft

Emmerald has released a draft of his gear lists on this post on his forums. They are heavily Disclaimered (is that a word?) as he does not feel they are in their final stage. Also, the links to the webpages we all know and love will not be updated until Emmerald has put his seal of approval on his new lists. He did post a downloadable zip file that contains html documents we can view in our browsers of the current version of his work.

Update to Rawr Beta 8 Post

After playing with Rawr Beta 8 and attempting to add new items, I've found it's quite buggy. If you enter in an ID that Rawr can not find in the Armory database, it asks if you'd like to add it yourself. This is a wonderful addition! However, it's buggy as hell. After keying in all the pertinent data and saving it...for some reason, all it saves is the item name and ID number...and it saves it under the 'Head' slot...even if you told it wrists...and all the stats that you enter in disappear...gone. I did discover that if I go in and edit the item and change/add one thing at a time it will save the new info, but that's quite tedious...and, as entering in new items is tedious in and of its self, it becomes tedium squared.

So, if having to enter in each value one at a time wasn't a pain...after I finally got Band of the Swift Paw entered in properly, it's rating was lower than Umberhowl's Collar...and yes, I had a gem equiped. But, even without a gem, it's armor, stamina, and agility are all higher.

/sigh

Guess I'll wait till the patch is done and import everything and hope it works better that way.

Rawr Beta 8

So, it's patch day! And, already I've attempted to download new items from the amory with Rawr. Unfortunately, it has yet to find any new items (it's about 10:30 central time). However, with the new Beta 8 version of Rawr you can now manually enter brand new items!

So for those of you who don't have the patience to wait for the patch to finish, then download the new items all at once...those who must have their new gear choices now, Now, NOW. The new Beta version of Rawr will give you that with just a wee bit of time and effort!

Sings, "I'm too sexy for my pants...too sexy for my pants..."

Recently, we brought in some people from another guild and we had more than enough wanting to run Gruuls last night, which is a nice change from having to beg people to sign up and come. Also, the new people we got are experienced as well as a nice bunch of folks. Yippy!

So, we all head off to Gruul's Lair. We kill the trash and begin working on High King. We down him with only 1 reset. The healer assigned to heal me and our other Druid tank didn't know where I was tanking Kiggler and before he could find me I died...even with a Frenzied Regeneration. It wasn't his fault though. We all thought he knew were I was going to be so no one told him.

We then cleared the trash to Gruuls and with much discussion and instruction, finally proceeded on our attack. Unfortunately, I didn't get to off tank as I usually do...which was a little scary as I had to DPS and I've never had to DPS and worry about where to run and where to hide and safe rocks and all that stuff. Oh noez! But, my hubby, who plays a rogue, took me under his wing and talked me though it very nicely and calmly...which really helps when I'm already nervous...and I was pleased that I stayed alive for most of the time.

It did take us four tries to down Gruul...along with one trash re-clear because one of our raiders went afk after a wipe and was gone for 15 minutes...WTF?


Mini-Rant:
If you need to go AFK in a raid, be sure to announce it before you go. I understand emergencies come up (he never said if it was an emergency or not), but at least say something...anything. Also, if possible, RUN BACK before going AFK. Especially when you die in Gruul's room as we can't rez you from there and we can't even buff because you're not up. At least if you run back and then go AFK, we can buff and regen mana and all that stuff while we wait. Also, if it's going to be a prolonged AFK, say something and ask if you need to excuse yourself from the raid so we're not standing around wondering where you are and what happened.
/end rant

So, on our forth try, we finally down him. He dropped the Eye of Gruul, Gronn-Stitched Girdle, Leggings of the Fallen Defender, and Leggings of the Fallen Champion. Normally, our guild leader distributes the T4 items first. However, tonight, he begins with the Eye of Gruul and the Gronn-Stitched Girdle. I think he was hoping I'd bid for the Girdle and then he'd have a chance at the T4 legs. I may ride the short bus, but I wasn't born yesterday. ;p Finally, we got to the legs and I put in my bid. Since I had the most DPK amassed, I got them! Yippy!!

Getting the legs put me in the 4 piece set bonus category. My armor is now over 31k. :) Now I'm going to have to assess my gear purchases with the new patch again to account for my new pants. I'll be doing that tomorrow though as I have to work today...which I am now running late for!!

/runs off to work

Lewt Cardz

Yes, I felt the need to be leet with my title.  But, loot cards are fun and when I used just plain ole Loot Cards as the title it looked way too boring...so, I spiced it up a bit. 

Honestly, all I really know about the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game is that it has loot cards!  Little cards with little codes that you go to the site and turn into an extremely long code that you then have to type into a window to Landro Longshot in Booty Bay.  Do they not know that Booty Bay is the PvP capital of Azeroth?  Or perhaps it's their private little joke...yes, put loot cards in but make them type in a code that's 30 characters long to a vender in the highest PvP gank zone in the game!  Well, all I have to say to them is cut and paste for teh win!!!111one1.

Oops, got a little distracted with my rant there...so, where was I...yes, the WoW TCG has loot cards!  I'm sure all those other cards have uses too, but I only care about the loot ones as those are the only cards usable in the MMO we all love and play.

Hero's of Azeroth

The first set of loot cards came out with the Hero's of Azeroth set.  This set included the Saltwater Snapjaw card which gives the in game turtle mount (normal running speed), the Thunderhead Hippogryph card which gives the Hippogryph Hatchling pet, and the Landro Longshot card which gives the Tabard of Flame.  These cards are still available in booster sets or purchased individually through eBay...which is how I got my Hippogryph Hatchling a long time ago.  For fun, I checked the current ebay prices.

Card Name	Card Loot	ebay Price (US)
Saltwater Snapjaw	Turtle Mount	70-200
Thunderhead Hippogryph	Hippogryph Hatchling	20-50
Landro Longshot	Tabard of Flame	3-30

 

As with any auction price, you can watch ebay to get the best price possible.  These prices were just the average of what I saw as low bid price and high buyout price respectively.  I'm glad to see that the Hippogryph prices have come down quite a bit since I purchased mine.  At that time, the range was $40 with buyouts of $80 and I counted myself lucky that I got it for around $35 after watching and waiting for a week or so.

Through the Dark Portal

The second set of loot cards came out in the Through the Dark Portal set and includes Rest and Relaxation which gives an in game picnic basket, King Mukla card which gives the in game pet, Bananas, and Fortune Telling which gives the Imp in a Ball who can tell your fortune!

Card Name	Card Loot	ebay Prince (US)
Rest and Relaxation	Picnic Basket	1-40
King Mukla	Bananas	10-75
Fortune Telling	Imp in a Ball	50-80

 

The only item in this set I have is the in game pet Bananas and he is one of my favorite pets.  His price has gone down some as well.  I think I paid around $40 for him several months ago.  The only other item I would like in this set is the Imp in a Ball and it's nice to see that the prices have dropped on him as well.  Last I looked (when shopping for Bananas) he was running $80-125.

Fires of Outland

The third set of loot cards are in the Fires of Outland set.  This is the first set that does not have an in game pet.  What were they thinking?  Instead of a cute little pet, they gave us Goblin Gumbo card which gives you a Goblin Gumbo Kettle, Gone Fishin' card which gives you an in game fishing chair, and the Spectral Tiger card which gives a really cool in game mount.

Card Name	Card Loot	ebay Price (US)
Goblin Gumbo	Goblin Gumbo Kettle	1-30
Gone Fishin'	Fishing Chair	10-65
Spectral Tiger	Spectral Tiger Mount	200-600

 

March of the Legion

Lastly, we have the March of the Legion set which is coming out mid November and, in my opinion, has the best set of loot cards available.  This set includes the Paper Airplane card which gives you a manual that makes two different kinds of airplanes; a small zeppelin or a small flying machine that you can throw at other players.  Also in this set is the Robotic Homing Chicken card which gives an in game pet...but not just any ordinary in game pet...a chicken!  With Rockets!  Who sometimes explodes!  Along with the airplanes and chicken with rockets, we also get a dragon kite from the Kiting card!

On a lark, I checked ebay, even though the cards are not yet out, and was stunned to see that you can 'pre-order' them.  Here is what you can expect to pay...

Card Name	Card Loot	ebay Pre-Order Price (US)
Paper Airplane	Paper Airplane Manual	30
Robotic Homing Chicken	Rocket Chicken pet	50-100
Kiting	Dragon Kite	100-150

 

Honestly, this is the first set where I would like to have all three cards.  In fact, they'd make great stocking stuffers for Christmas!

/pokes her husband.

Actually, that's a good thought for all of you who play with your significant other or who have children who play.  Any of the loot cards would make great prezzies.  :)

ebay and Non-Loot Card Warning

If you shop for the loot cards on ebay or elsewhere, be sure to read the descriptions carefully.  Along with the loot cards that have the scratch off codes there are also exact versions of the loot cards without the scratch off code.  Make sure the one you bid on has the undamaged scratch off code.  Also, be sure to check on the seller to make sure he is reputable before bidding.