Monday, January 28, 2008

Doom to the Doomwalker...almost...

Last night, as we all logged for our raid...only to discover that raiding was closed for the evening...so, we decided to give Doomwalker a try. After all, we already had 25 of us together, we only needed a few more people. So, we fly out to SMV while gathering up more guildies.

As we're hovering there watching Doomwalker walk back and forth and doing, what appears to be 'marking his territory' on two walls, we get the 'Server Shutdown in 15 minutes' message.

Well boogers...we only have 32 people so far and only 8 of them are healers and we don't know how long 'server shutdown' will take! Well, nothing says, "Be heedless and reckless" like a server shutdown in 15 minutes. So, we decide to charge in!

I was actually very surprised that things went so smoothly for so long. I look over and we've only lost 1 person so far and Doomwalker is at 53%. Nice! We keep going and Doomwalker's health is getting lower and lower, but we're also starting to lose a few people (some to those nasty Alliance rather than Doomwalker). Then, when he gets down to about 15%, I look over and about half the raid is dead. Oh my! At around 10%, our tanks start going down. After we were all down, Aquenzi, our Resto Druid, took over and tanked for quite some time, but eventually she met her doom as well. Then the rogues took over with a wee bit of evasion tanking...and finally, it was Shadowcub (Rogue) and Soontir (Holy Priest) left and Doomwalker was at 2%. They managed to get him down to 1% and then he hung there for what seemed like an eternity before Shadowcub died. Then it was Soontir. And then it wasn't.

But, wow! Getting Doomwalker down to 1% on our guilds very first try while undermanned and short on healers! Rogue Angels = Bradysauce!

We all run back and rez...we have 4 minutes until server shutdown so we decide to log and come back for another go when they come back up.

*quite some time later*

Servers are back up! We log in all excited! But, no Doomwalker! I guess he got distracted with something else...TV probably...and didn't log back in...

We waited around for him for a little bit, then impatience got the better of us and we ran off to do our regularly scheduled raiding activities. But, I do look forward to downing him. I was surprised at how easily things went with the numbers (or lack thereof) of our raid.

No Mojo No Moar

Apparently, Blizzard felt the need to hot fix the Mojo 'getaround' yesterday. Sad...so very sad...what about all those poor, starving, Mojoless children in third world countries? Don't they care?

At least a few of my guildies were able to snag one before it was fixed. I hope all of you who wanted one were able to do the same. :)

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Quicker and Easier Mojo!

Firstpanda left a comment on my Bear Snot post telling me about an alternative, and easier, way to acquire Mojo! Go to the little town outside of Zul' Aman and look for a troll named Prigmon. Blow Prigmon a kiss and you'll get your Mojo!

I just went in game with my baby priest (level 55...can I still call her a baby?) and trotted out there on my bird and found Prigmon. Even though kissing trolls is beneath a Blood Elf's standards, I did it anyway to ensure this avenue of obtaining Mojo still worked before letting you all know...the things I do for you...

Also, if you read the comments on Prigmon's WoWhead page linked above, someone states that they were reported for doing this 'hax'. I did not get reported when I did, nor did the World of Warcraft come crashing down upon my little head. Basically, I'm saying it seems safe, but do it at your own risk. ;p

Friday, January 25, 2008

Bear Snot

Ok, so, it's official. I'm sick. :( Apparently, I'm usually sick this time of year too...that's what my doctor said as she reviewed my records. Bleh.

I had looked for a picture of a bear with a big 'ole glob of snot hanging out his nose to post here...I kinda thought it would be funny and gross all mixed up together but, apparently, bears in the wild don't get sick. FB points for anyone who can find it though!

Anyway, gonna go lay down for a while and, hopefully, nap. Y'all (I'm southern, I can say that) will just have to wait for my Leo post. I'll try to get it written in the next several days.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Fathom-Lord Karathress Fathomed

Last night, we successfully downed Fathom-Lord Karathress on our 4th try! As per our guild usual, we did horribly the first three attempts, then somehow pulled it together for the 4th try and downed him. :)

And, sadly, I'm sick today, so being anymore creative that the title of this post...which really isn't creative at all...is beyond me. So, this post is just gonna be short and sweet.

We downed him. Yippy! We had awesome heals. Go healers! Silveria saved us in the end by picking up Karathress after Baklor died. /hugs Silveria.

Baklor (warrior) and Shadowcub (rogue) got the legs and Ledde got the Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker.

Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow as I have a post on Leo I wanna do.

Monday, January 21, 2008

5 v...6?

Yesterday was our Arena day and instead of doing 3v3's as per usual, we did 5v5's. Now, before I get too far in the story here, let me just say that I'm horrible at PvP. In fact, saying I'm horrible at PvP is an extreme understatement. So, do not, under any circumstances, consider me an authority on PvP tactics, strategy, know-how, etc.


So, anyway, we're doing our 5v5, which is my favorite team because it's named 'NonCombat Pets', and we're keeping up our solid losing steak...at least we're consistent, right? And, as we're buffing before the door opens, one of my team mates notices that the other team as 6 players. Odd. Maybe it's counting a Hunter or Warlock pet. Then, the doors open and we run up on the ramp and I do a quick scan and...hmmm....looks like 6 players there. Needless to say, we were quickly dispensed with.


At the end of the battle, I'm checking out the Arena stat window and, yes, indeed, it shows 6 players on the other team! Interestingly, one of the players is from a different server than the others. And, the window doesn't even show me...maybe it only has room for 10 players so I got bumped. Although, if you count, it shows them with 5 kills even though only 4 from our team show in the window.





So, is this a hax somehow? If so, It's one I hadn't heard about...not that I'm up to date on Arena haxes. I'd also like to add that we did battle the 'Hit Men' another two or three times after this occurance and those other times were without the 'additional' player from Agamaggan. So, I'm guessing it was just a fluke of some sort.

Also, since I didn't get on the end results panel, I didn't get 'credit' for the loss. So, my rating is 10 points higher than everyone elses. All in all, a very odd Arena match.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Bears Don't Lose Points

No, I'm not talking about Ferocious Bite points...although we don't lose those either. I'm talking about Kitty Combo points!

Last night on our Kara run...so that I can earn yet more badges for Kitty gear upgrades...we were fighting Nightbane. Since we'd had a problem with the Restless Skeleton's poking at our healers with their boney little fingers, I decided to go into Bear form to help round them up.

I discovered that if I switched from Cat to Bear form before hitting any of the skeletons, I would retain my combo points on Nightbane! Now, this may be old news for a lot of you, but it's not to me and I was very excited as the first time this happened, I had 5 combo points on Nightbane that I thought I was going to lose when he flew off.

I had thought that once I attacked another mob, my combo points would 'reset'. However, apparently, that only applies if you attack another mob while still in Cat form. If you switch to Bear form to attack a secondary target(s), you still retain your combo points on the initial target when you go back to Cat. Awesome!

Yes, I know...how could I not know this after playing a Druid for so long...

Friday, January 18, 2008

Pet Biscuit Trading Card

Upper Deck Entertainment just announced their new Trading Card Game Loot Cards. The most common card will be Papa Hummel's Olf-Fashioned Pet Biscuit. This loot card will redeem a stack of pet biscuits that you can feed to your non-combat pet which will make them grow in size. The size is variable and, on average, will end up being about the size of a hunter pet.

Now, honestly, I'm a little on the fence with this loot card. When it comes to vanity pets, smaller is better (IMO). My favorite pets are the little ones. I love my Tiny Spore Bat as well as my White Kitten. I couldn't imagine making my little baby Bananas as big as every Huntard's pet.

However...having a montrous Chicken or Cockroach might be enough to make me want this card. Actually, I don't have either a chicken or a cockroach pet. They just aren't cute. But, having one that's HUGE does have it's appeal.

Hmmm....an oversized Eggbert?

Thursday, January 17, 2008

PMS QQ

I would like to thank you all for enduring my PMS QQ day Monday.

Yes, I know a lot of you are thinking, "WTF?! PMS QQ? TMI!!!!"

Too bad, that's what it was. ;p And, I had to use it here cause when I said it last night, Ledde said, "PMS QQ = best line ever". And, as Ledde is my favorite Innervatee (for those that read here regularly, this was a point question the other day and no one got it....yet...gogogogo!!!) I decided it needed to be done.

Anyway, I talked to our GM and he saw my blog and he QQed too and is using me more in tanking stuff. As I said in my previous post, it was more an issue of him having me DPS because I can do more damage than a Prot Warrior. Plus, when we absorbed a bunch of people from a guild that split, we got a really good and well geared Prot Warrior so, he was making sure he was utilizing him as well.

But, he's now rotating through tanks so we all get to have some fun...even if Maulmorr was all QQ after two pulls and no tank duties. ;p Suck it up, Maul! It was two months for me. ;p~~~

And, for those that wonder why I pick on Baklor and Maulmorr so much...well, that's how tanks show they love each other. ;p

Anyway, that's it for the Identity Crisis drama.

In other news...I'm still busy with closing the year and submitting 1099 forms for my various clients, etc. That is one of the reasons I haven't been posting as much and have not made any WoW useful posts this month. Again, bear with me and I'll be back to posting better quality posts. (pun intended)

I also started back at school this semester. I was one of those teenagers that thought they knew everything and couldn't wait to get 'out in the world and make my own way'. So, I didn't do the college thing when I should have.

I did get my first two years out of the way several years ago through LeTourneau University's Adult Education Program. Which, if you're an adult working a full time job is an awesome program...however, it's not for the procrastinator. All the classes are condensed and you have a lot of homework. Anyway, life happened and I got side tracked, but I'm going again...although not at LeTourneau this time. LeTourneau offers a BBA degree but not one that specializes in Accounting, which is what I want. Plus, as LeTourneau is a private college...it's just way too expensive.

Anyway, I'm rambling...the point is, I'm back in school (just 1 class this semester tho) so that might take a wee bit of time away from blogging...but, not as much as taking care of year end closings for my clients...which will be done in another couple of weeks.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Identity Crisis

I know Druids are Hybrids and that our value comes from our versitility. It's extremely beneficial to a raid to have someone who can deal good DPS, off-tank, off-heal, combat rez, and Innervate healers all in the package of one raider. And, I like getting to do different things.

However, my favorite is tanking. Up until about a month or so ago, I was THE off-tank on all raids. It was Baklor (our GM) and me, side by side, protecting the raid from all the meanies! And we had that awesome MT/OT bond thing going.

But, lately, I've been stuck in the DPS role. I guess I'm different from most people. It seems everyone wants to DPS and no one wants to tank...or, God forbid, heal. (can't blame them on the heal part) But, I like tanking. It's way more fun and engaging than DPSing. You have to pay attention to more stuff, watch out for the healers, and control the pace of the instance, etc.

So...what happened? Did I piss off our GM? :'( Did I let my kitty gear get too good? Do we have too many Prot Warriors? Do I suck at tanking and just not know it? Maybe a little of all the above?

Honestly, I think we do have a good complement of Prot Warriors and when it comes down to the decision of who can do better at DPS....me or a Prot Warrior...it's me and there I am in kitty form. I understand the reasoning...but that doesn't mean I have to like it. ;p

Sooo...what to do, what to do...

Do I continue with my whine campaign with the GM? Do I throw in some guilt trips? Should I threaten him? Bribe him with a non-combat pet? Change my primary role from tanking to dps and roll on Rogue gear? Roll on Boomkin loot and respec?

What do you all think? Any ideas for 'Project Get Mooire Back to Tanking'?

Void Reaver Reaved

After our success in SSC last week, we decided to head back to Tempest Keep and see if we could reave the Void Reaver. We'd attempted him back in September, but were not successful. However, last night was a different story.

Clearing trash went very smoothly...even when an extra set of dragonhawks was pulled as we were finishing the first set and soon enough we were staring at the Void Reaver. All in all, we had a couple of wipes and a few restarts before we finally downed him.

Other than being better geared than we were in September, we did have our melee wear a bit of arcane resist gear/flasks (100-150 resist) so they could stay in and do damage as well as having their own personal chain healer to take care of them. We also had one of our members call out the names of those who got orbs and had the tanks all stay on one side so the VR wasn't spinning about.

The loot we plundered was Pauldrons of the Vanquished Champion that went to Swiftlight, Pauldrons of the Vanquished Defender to Slashappy, and Void Reaver Greaves that went to Hellvama.

And....best quote of the night....

I didn't think he'd get so mad with me casting so many chain heals right there on his foot.

15 points to whoever can name that Shaman! I'll give you non-guildies a hint...I've mentioned him in a recent post as my favorite Innervatee.

After killing the Void Reaver, we took a bit of a break then began work on Al'ar. First off, I have to say that he is the prettiest boss ever. I really think Blizzard did an awesome job on him. Anyway, it was my job to tank adds. Thankfully, I got to tank something. Lately, it seems I'm always in kitty form. So, it's my job to tank the adds, which wasn't too difficult. We were able to make it through phase 1 pretty consistently, but kept falling apart in phase 2. We continued to work on him until repops, but then decided to call it a night.

Well, gonna have to keep this one short. I need to get a move on today. bleh. I'd much prefer to stay home, box up the Christmas decorations that are still out, and do another blog post or two that's much more interesting than what I've had time to write lately. Ah well, you all will just have to bear with me for the time being. (pun intended)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Leotheras Didn't See It Coming...

But, he sure did feel it!

Last night, we went back to SSC to test our mettle against Leotheras the Blind. As per our guild usual on first boss encounters, we're total buffoons for the first 70% of the tries and then get progressivly better in the last 30% of tries. I guess it just takes us a while to get in the groove when learning a new event...you know...have to go through all those typical (and not so typical) mistakes to see what works. But, after 3.5 hours, we finally knocked him into the dark unknown! Not that he can see the difference. ;p

Since we had 3 prot tanks in the raid, I was kitty for the fight. And I have to say, it's a rather frustrating fight for melee. With the whirlwind phase and having to hold off damage until a warrior or, for demon phase, warlock has aggro, I felt like I spent more time running away and to Leo than shredding him. /bleh

As I said, we worked on him pretty much all evening...with one trash reclear. But, even though it seemed to take us longer to get it figured out with Leo than it did for Hydross and Lurker, I still think it's good that we were able to kill him on our first evening of working on him.

The goodies he dropped were; Gloves of the Vanquished Champion which went to Ledde, my favorite Innervatee, Gloves of the Vanquished Defender went to Maulmorr, Baklor got both the Girdle of the Invulnerable and Plans: Boots of the Protector. Grats all!!!!

Ok...tried to 'type' Braille using spaces and asteriks, but blogger sporked it all up. So, rather than making you look at a little starry group of asteriks and 'guess' what I tried to type in Braille, I'll have you guess what these two lines are from for your points. 10, as per usual.

The Miller and his merry olde Wife,
shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the
knife.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Wildfury Bear!

It's been a busy day today. But, I at least wanted to share with you all that I got the Wildfury Greatstaff last night! If finally dropped...well, I say finally even though I hadn't really expected it to drop so soon. I figured it would take around 10+ runs in SSC and we've been in there about 4 times now...and not even very far in as we're just now starting work on Leotheras the Blind. In fact, it dropped off of the trash between the Lurker and Leo.

So, after the requisit teasing and need requests by our Guild Leader and (non-Druid) others in our raid, I was finnally allowed to have it. :D The only other Druid in our run was Aquenzi, our resto Druid, so I was first to get it. :)

Our loot rules for 'hybrid' characters is that you get first choice (dkp providing) on the gear of your primary role. Since I primarily tank, I get to roll or use my dkp on tank gear. If gear for Kitty or healing drops...I can get that only if one in that primary role (i.e. rogue, kitty feral, resto druid, healer) doesn't want it. And, to take the sting out of not getting to role/bid for those items with those in that primary role, if it is available to us, it only costs us half the dkp.

So, I was excited to get it. I thought I was going to be lugging my Earthwarden around for all of eternity....and, I was even more excited to realize that since my chest item is the Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic and when getting my defense up to the 415 cap I had forgotten to calculate the 26 resilience in...so, even though my new staff has less defense than the Earthwarden, I'm still uncritable!

And now....for another point opportunity....

In what MMO would /lifestone be used to get newbies to kill themselves? Not that I ever did such a thing....

10 points if you can name that game! Unless you're Lung...Lung only gets 5 points for this one. ;p

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Points, points, points...

Ok...gonna mix things up a bit with the points! Rather than just quoting movies, music, or TV shows, I've decided that I will also do quotes from other bloggers! This should help give those that don't google the quote a chance to get points. :) Also, it's a good excuse for me to link other blogs more often! Not that I need an excuse, but it sure makes it fun. ;p

Here is your next point opportunity:

Enough with the rambling. I am starving! Now, get your dusty
shell into that ocean and bring momma some grub.

This is from a blogger and the only hints I'll give you is it's not a druid blog and the post was made today...and it's not necessary in the text body of the post. 10 points! Gogogogogo!!!

I'll also award various point quantities for those that post totally brilliant questions like Finwe did or just good comments that I happen to like. :) Yes, I know that's a bit vague...but, it's my blog and my points and I'll award them however I want. ;)

All in 1 Powershift Macro!

Finwe left the following question in a comment on my Powershifting post:

Sorry about posting on an old article, but I'm looking for a macro to
handle all of my powershifting needs. I know it'll look something like

[stance x] cast bear form
[stance y] cast cat form

Does someone have one of these correctly formatted?


All I have to say is...brilliant idea! All this time, I've had two bar slots taken up with my Bear form powershift macro and my Cat form powershift macro. Why had it not occurred to me to write or find a macro that does it all in one? We all know that bar slots are a commodity for Druids...as I am sure it is for any hybrid class. We have soooo many useful things and they all have to be out and freely accessible because you never know when you might need them!

After a bit of research and testing, I have found a macro I like and it even works! What this macro does is, if you're indoors and not in a form, it puts you in Dire Bear form. If you're outside and not in a form, it puts you into Travel Form. However, if you're already in Dire Bear form, it will powershift you back into Dire Bear form whether you're inside or outside...same with Cat form as well as Travel Form...well, only if your outside for that one.

I wish I could take credit for writing it, but I can't. I found it on this WoW Forums thread. However for those of you who detest clicking on anything extra I'll cut and paste it here...

/castsequence [stance:4] reset=1 Travel Form, z
/cast [nostance, outdoors] Travel Form
/castsequence [stance:1] reset=1 Dire Bear Form, z
/cast [nostance] Dire Bear Form
/castsequence [stance:3] reset=1 Cat Form, z
/cast [nostance] Cat Form

I have no idea what the z's are for, but I left them in and it works perfectly. If you can figure out why they are there and what they do, 15 Ferocious Bite points for you!

And, for Finwe, for suggesting the possibility of an all in one macro and setting me on this quest, you get 20 Ferocious Bite points!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Points! You know you want them...

You've seen them given on Big Red Kitty...You've even seen them on Big Bear Butt's blog...and now you have them here! That's right, points! You now have the chance to earn valuable Ferocious Bite points!!! What does it get you? What do you earn? Well, I've taken the point system to an all new level by posting your ratings right over there --->

You can now bask in the glory of your name and your point status showing for all to see!!

10 points for the following...

Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It's a
terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it.

What's that from?

Mag Lost His Head!

Last night, my hubby and I logged in for our guild's SSC raid. However, since we had enough Warlocks on, we decided to give Mag a shot. As a guild, we hadn't yet attempted Mag...some of the people that merged into us had done him though...but, for most of the people, it was a new encounter.

So, we get in there and we're all a bit worried as we only have 6 healers. Typically, it's recommended that you have 8-10 healers for Mag. However, our healers are totally awesome at their jobs, so we decided to give it a go anyway...despite their complaining. ;p

Our first attempt didn't go so well. We got 3 of the channelors down and then people started dropping like flies. We decide that, perhaps, we need at least one more healer...which means we need to bump someone from the raid to bring in that extra healer...never a fun thing to do...but, Khanzo, the guy we switched out was very gracious and mature about it...kudos to him! I should send him a special pet. :) We did award him full DKP for the night too.

Anyway, second attempt went down pretty much like the first one, but that's ok, we're learning!

We all go back in for another go and as we're buffing and eating, we suddenly have aggro and the gate slams shut! WTF? Even though half the raid is on the other side of the gate, I jump on my tank target and do the best I can at grabbing the others...yes, I know it's a wipe, but even when things seem hopeless I give it my best shot anyway. (I'm calling this attempt 2.3...it happened, but since only a third of us were in the gates it doesn't count as a full try.)

We shake off our stupid wipe and rez everyone and go in for our 3rd try (3.3 if you wanna be technical about it.). We do pretty well at this one...until the last channelor...for some reason, two of the Infernals didn't get crowd controlled and all the melee (except for me and Maulmorr, who was tanking the last channelor) died. But!! It was progress and we were doing better. :)

We run in, start buffing and....WTF?!?! Suddenly, we have aggro....again! I immediately pop into bear and pick up my add and any others I can lay my paws on, but we didn't last long as about half the raid was outside the gates. /sigh. At least this time, people saw that a succubus was the one that started the fight. You just can't trust women with whipes to not start something...anyway, one of our Warlocks was sacrificing his pet to gain the shadow damage boost. Unfortunately, the pet seemed to go into combat when this was done. Oopsie. We will call this attempt 3.8. Again, it happened but not all of us were in so it doesn't totally count. ;p

Well, after the GM gave the orders that all pets are to be sacrificed at the front of the entrance rather than the buff area, we ran in for our 4th attempt. This time, I'm careful to drink and buff on the 'outside' side of the gate. Just in case we have another boo-boo, I'm not gonna die for it. Thankfully, we had no misshapes and went in for our 4th (4.8) go at Mag.

As is typical for our guild...we get off to shaky starts and then...like a Christmakha miracle...we're amazing and smooth as silk! We executed the most coordinated streamlined event you wouldn't even know we were the same people in the prior 3.8 tries. We did lose one person in this attempt and our resto Druid rezed them, so when Mag died, we were all up and healthy!

*** 10 Ferocious Bite points for whoever can tell me what show Christmakha miracle comes from! ***

We got Cloak of the Pit Stalker, which no one wanted. We also got Eye of Magtheridon which Minder, our Shadow Priest took. The Chestguard of the Fallen Champion went to Niwi and Chestguard of the Fallen Hero when to Yagi! And lastly...

Baklor got the head! No, not that! Magtheridon's Head.

I don't know how most guilds distribute head loot...but, we've decided that we will distribute them by raid attendance and, secondly, by rank rather than DKP costs. Our GM wants these to be special and reward those who put in the effort to sign up and attend raids and to those who help run the guild and do more than just log on and play. I know this is going against the grain of a casual raiding guild, but I'm ok with that and not just because I'm an officer with 100% raid attendance...I'd feel the same way if I was an average guild member. So, since he's had 100% raid attendance and is the Guild Leader, he got it first and I'm ok with that. I know a lot of you may not like this system and I'm ok with that too. ;p

After killing Mag, we continued with our previously scheduled program and went to SSC. Since it was 10:30 by the time we all got there and ready, we only killed Hydross before calling it a night.

I'd like to sum up by saying that I'm really proud of my guild. We've broken out of our 10-25 man transition issues and all the new encounters we've faced have been successful within 3-8 tries...even counting stupid mistakes. ;) We have a lot of really good people that are not just fun to play with but also play well as well as play well together...which is the most important part.

I <3 my guildies!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Baby Comes Back!!!!

Soontir, my long lost and beloved child has returned to the World of Warcraft!

Soontir is the oldest (as in time duration rather than age) of mine and my hubby's gaming friends. We met him in Asheron's Call in 1999. He's one of those people that openly welcomes anyone...obviously...as, after meeting us, he always invited us into his fellowships, which is what AC called groups. He's always fun and entertaining to play with and, back then, died constantly. He still dies a lot today and routinely tops the death charts!

After a month of him playing with us, he pledged his alligence to me as AC was based on a fuedal system. However, soon after this, whenever he'd get low on health, he'd run around like a loon yelling, "Mommy!" until I healed him. After him doing that a few times, I began calling him 'Baby!' and that's how the long standing tradition began. :) A little goofy and, maybe, a lot odd, but it is tradition now. ;p

And, just like any typical baby, he's got the attention span of a gnat and tends to quit games only to return later. So, this blog post is to herald his 5th or maybe even 6th return to WoW.

Welcome back, Baby! Our most uberest Holy Priest evah!!!