Thursday, March 27, 2008

What D&D Character Am I?

After reading about Sean's D&D character, I decided to take the test myself. Frankly, I'm surprised I made it through the test as it's extremely long and I have a short attention span. ;) However, I did complete it and was please with my results!

I Am A: True Neutral Human Druid (5th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-11

Dexterity-13

Constitution-11

Intelligence-16

Wisdom-16

Charisma-12


Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Magisters' Terrace: First Experience; Regular and Heroic

Last night, after our raid didn't made due to people stuck downloading the patch and fixing add ons, a group of us decided to hit up Magisters' Terrace!!

Our group consisted of:

Prot Paladin - Tank
Feral Druid (me!) - Kitty DPS
Rogue - Shadowstep (aka lawlstep)
Warlock - Destruction/Demo
Holy Priest - Uber healz galore!

Magisters' Terrace - Regular

Upon entering MTr, we were greeted with the golds and reds of the Blood Elf decor. However, rather than being the super bright and sunny look of Silvermoon City, it was toned down a bit to give it that dungeon feel. I actually preferred the toned down colors. What? You didn't come here to read my opinions of their decor? Gah! Fine! Then I won't mention that if you're using any type of camera expanding view, a lot of that lovely decor (trees, banners, curtains) gets in your way and becomes extremely annoying! You can just go in there and find that out on your own!! ;p

As far as the instance went, we found it extremely easy...in fact, we were in and finished in under an hour. Even though there were quite a few 5 mob pulls, I don't even think I got a single finishing move off on trash. Most often, it was dead by the time I had 3-4 combo points. Granted, we all are pretty well geared, mid to late T5 range (except for my Kitty gear), so if you're still gearing up T4, you may find it a little more difficult with the prolific use of magic and multi-pulls.

The bosses on regular mode were a walk in the park too. The first boss, Selin Fireheart, was similar to Warlord Kalithresh in Steamvaults wherein he siphons mana from the surrounding crystals. In fact, this boss was so easy that we were able to down him without our holy priest as he got stuck, along with my kitten, outside the door. I did pop out and cast Tranquility, but that was the only healing I did during that fight. The second boss, Vexallus, spawned 'sparks' like the Curator in Karazhan. The third boss, Priestess Delrissa and her court of 4 others, was similar to Karathress in SSC, Hex-Lord Malacress in ZA, and/or Moroes in Karazhan. Actually, she and her entourage seemed pretty much just like another trash pull. The forth boss, Kael'thas Sunstrider, was easy as well and he does the same gravity lapse thing he does in TK.

Magisters' Terrace - Heroic

After turning in our quest and gaining access to Heroic mode, we charge back in for another run. After a few pulls, Silveria spoke up and said what the rest of us had been thinking, "Did I put this on heroic mode?" We all confirmed that he did and continued on.

At the first boss, our healer made it in the doors, however, my kitten did not. He must have been napping, which was OK as this boss didn't seem any more difficult on Heroic mode as he did on regular mode. Granted, we had heals this time, but the speed with which we dispatched him only took marginally longer than it had on non-heroic.

We then made our way to the second boss all the while mocking the 'Heroic Difficulty' of the instance as we cleared the trash. I did notice that, on occasion, was able to get in a finishing move on the trash, but quite often, it was dead at 4 combo points. The second boss was a little harder on Heroic and would spawn 2 sparks instead of one. I think we did have a death on this encounter, but he was still easily killed.

On our way to the third boss we continued to mock the instance and even laughed at ourselves when we had a couple of wipes on trash, 'obviously' (read sarcasm in there) we weren't paying attention or something or perhaps we were getting a little tired.

At the third boss, we clear the first trash pulls on both sides. Along with Priestess Delrissa, we had the Furry Warrior, Naga Warrior, the Mage, and the Engineer. We did a LoS pull on them into the hallway area as we'd done in non-heroic and promptly died. We discussed the problems, tweaked our strategy and pulled again and immediately died again. That's ok...discuss, tweak, pull, die. Hmmm....discuss, tweak, pull die. OK. So. That's what we get for mocking the instance! At this point, we begin to take the instance seriously and decide to clear the entire room so we can add fears into our CC arsenal. We have our strategy all mapped out, we have our game faces on, we pull, and we die. We discussed, tweaked, pulled, and died a couple more times and at this point we're all pretty well broken.

Wait! We have a Warlock and live with the new patch he can summon directly into the instance! We decide to summon each other so that we could hearth and repair. This little tactic even works for the Warlock. He summoned himself before he hearthed, was able to repair, accept, and spawn back into the exact same location! Absolutely the best class change ever!

So, we're all repaired up, we have our serious game faces on, and we're ready to own this woman and her peeps! We discuss strategy again, get a plan of action, and jump in, and then die...rinse and repeat! Honestly, I don't know how many times we died on this boss. I will tell you that we did have to do the summon/hearth/repair/accept trick again and then still wiped another 2 times after that before we were finally successful.

How we managed to succeed was to have our Prot Pally tank Priestess Delrissa. Our Rogue sapped the Mage and threw blinds on her whenever possible. I tanked the Naga Warrior. Our Warlock banished the Engineer and feared the Fury Warrior. Once the Naga Warrior was down, I then picked up the Fury Warrior and tanked him. While I was tanking the warriors in turn, our rogue helped to DPS them and interrupted the Priestess' heals. However, while on the Fury Warrior, the Priestess and the rogue got too far away. So, I finished the Fury Warrior and he killed the Priestess. After that, we directed our energies to the Mage and then the Engineer.

I skipped over all the unsuccessful strategies we tried because we tried so many there was no way I'd remember what and when we used them. Just suffice it to say that we tried variations using all our CC abilities available including Cyclone and our Priests fear...we just mixed and matched until we found what worked above. The only thing I didn't try and I wish now that I had was Entangling Roots. I'm not sure if that area was considered 'outside' or not, but it was grassy and there was a hole in the roof. If anyone tries this, let me know if it works!

After the trials of the third boss, we went to the forth one expecting to struggle there as well. However, even though we wiped on the first attempt, we did down him fairly easily on the second try.

Magisters' Terrace - Summary

My main impressions from this instance is the abundance of multi mob pulls which averaged around 5 mobs. Along with the multiple targets to juggle most of them were spell casters requiring a lot of LoS pulls. Honestly, I was glad I was not tanking. Our Paladin, Silveria, tanked and even with his amazing AoE tanking abilities, it still looked like a pain in the arse.

If I were tanking this instance, being a Feral Druid, I could see using a lot of Hurricane pulls to generate initial threat on them all. I also might even consider a Flask of Chromatic Wonder to help mitigate some of the spell damage. However, I'd need to experiment to see how well that would work (it's only 35 resistance) and depending on the strength of the healer, it may or may not be needed.

All in all, it was a fun instance. However, I'm sure that was biased by the fact that we ran it with such good people...not just skill wise, but just plain good folks. One of the reason's I love my guild so much is that everyone in the guild are good people. Take our experience on the third boss, for example....we wiped over 20 times on that one boss and through all that no one yelled, got mad, complained about repair costs, got bossy, dictated, demanded, no egos or e-peens, etc. None of that happened. We viewed it as a challenge to be overcome and worked together to succeed.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

What are you most looking forward to in the patch?

As I've been taking care of stuff around the house today and getting excited about the new patch, I've found that the things I'm most excited about are...

Yep, you guessed it...the new pets! I can't wait to start my fishing dailies to get a baby crocolisk. I'm really hoping I get Chuck as I think he's the cutest with those sad, dark green eyes.

I'm also anxious to start farming the new 5 man to acquire my Phoenix Hatchling. To me, this pet will, by far, be the prettiest of them all and probably my fav...well, except for the Panda Bear, he will always be my fav!

So, what are you most excited about? The new instances? Zone? Class change? Badge gear? Tell me!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Rawr goes Pew Pew!

It's no longer strictly Feral now as it's branched into the Pew Pew build and classes!

Rawr has come out with a new version (12.1) which includes models for Moonkin, Warlocks, and Mages!! They are still working out some calulation tweeks, etc. but, it should still contain enough to play around with.

I am not prepared...

With just coming out of my busy season with work...I am so unprepared for Patch 2.4. However, Karthis over at Of Teeth and Claws is prepared and he's created a Cheat Sheet for us busy bears!

He covers not only the badge rewards on his cheat sheet, but also the drops from the new 5 and 25 man instances, and the Sunmote trade-ins as well!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

How do you throw away a trash can?

After reading BBB's breakfast topic on watches, I thought I'd toss this one out into the mix.

How do you throw away a trash can? I'm not talking about one of those decorative ones you have in the bathroom that match the kleenix box, soap dispenser, etc., nor am I talking about the small one under your desk. What I'm talking about are the mondo ones that range anywhere from 30 to 90+ gallons that you keep in the garage to hold the bagged trash from the smaller trash cans in the house until trash day.

A few years ago, I bought a really nice 96 gallon trash can, with wheels and a hinged lid, to contain our bagged trash. A couple of summers ago...a really hot, Texas summer...one of the bags leaked. It was probably after one of those 'OMG, I have to clean out the refridgerator!' moments and it leaked all kinds of icky old veggie slim into our huge trashcan. Then, after the trash people dumped it into the stinky trash truck, they closed the lid (why is it they only time they leave the lid open is when it's raining?) and there is sat, in 100+ degree weather, with all kinds of stinky grossness baking into the plastic...and worse yet...growing critters.

So, I get home and walk to the curb to drag the trash can back to the garage. I had bought the huge trash can with wheels specifically so I could easily take the trash out after a period when the guys of the house kept 'forgetting' to take it out. As I approached the trash can I could smell that things were not good and in my female ignorance, I opened the lid!!! To say I freaked, ran in the house screaming, dipped my hands in boiling water, and burned my clothes would be an understatement!

After thoroughly washing my hands...three times...in scalding water, I called my husband and told him what was going on and that I was going to go buy a new trash can and didn't want that other, disgusting one, any where near our house...not even in the garage. To which he responded with a question...

"How do you throw away a trash can?"

Do you set it out at the curb with the trash? If it's empty, will they take it? It's not like you can bag it as they don't make 100+ gallon bags. How, exactly, do you get rid of it?

We eventually decided to leave the trash can at the curb, with the lid open, for a few days for the critters to either turn to flies or roast in the hot sun. Then, we had one of the boys hose it down outside and wash it. However, I still, to this day, will not touch that trash can.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

We have another!

Taldon, another one of my guildes has started a blog as well. Please poke your head in there and say hello. :)

Also, since I now have 4 guildies blogging, I removed the Ferocious Bite point board and replaced it with Rogue Angels blog links. My deepest apologies to those to had points (they are recorded in case I have to recreate it) and loved seeing them displayed, but as my guildies had begun resorting to pet bribery in exchange for points, it became totally unfair for you all. Plus, as I'm extremely loyal to my guild, I decided that advertising their blogs was more important. :D

Monday, March 17, 2008

It Continues to Spread...

Lung, another of our Guild's Protection warriors has gotten the blogging bug! Go pop over to Prot Deeps and say hello!!

Rogue Angels Progression

Since it's been a while since I posted, I thought I'd start back with letting you know about our boss kill progression...in other words, bragging.  ;p

Our guild is still progressing along.  Between Dec. 16, 2007 and Feb 24, 2008, the following bosses have fallen to RA: Hydross, Lurker, Mag, Leo, Jan'alai, Void Reaver, Karathress, Doomwalker, Tidewalker, Hex Lord Malacrass, Zul-jin, Al'ar, and Solarian. Thirteen bosses in a little over two months is amazing...and we even had a week and a half break for the holidays too.

We have all but Al'ar and Solarian on farm status now.  We've downed them each a few times but not without a few wipes.  Those two are a little behind the curve as our Tempest Keep night tends to be scheduled on a night that is difficult for quite a few of our regular raiders to attend.  Unfortunately, quite often, the raid that night doesn't make or we end up bringing in borderline geared or unseasoned raiders which makes for an iffy night.

We've started work on Vashj and have gotten half way through Phase 2.  However, with at least 1 or 2 deaths in phase one, we still have quite a bit of work to go. 

Hopefully, once I get my new computer and Spring Break is over with and our raid attendance gets back to normal, we can get Al'ar and Solarian on farm and start seriously working on Vashj and Kael.

It's an Epidemic!

We have yet another guildie to join the Blogosphere! Please welcome Maulmorr at his blog called Angry Meatshield. He's one of our top warriors in the guild with an extensive knowledge base of fights, gear, technique, etc. I can't wait for him to start sharing all that with us!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Guildie Blog!

I just discovered that one of my guildies, Souldrain, started a blog. He doesn't have anything other than 'New Blog' posted yet, but please stop by, leave a comment, and encourage him to post! I'm sure all of you will love his prolific use of the comma. ;)

Saturday, March 15, 2008

/cast [target=Mooire] Rebirth

Although I wasn't really dead, I have been experiencing much work agro.  However, since corporate taxes are due by March 15th and my last client was completed on Thursday, I'm happy to say, "I'm done!"  Well, except for my own, personal taxes.  But, other than putting together my mileage log, that should be quite easy.

I'm sorry that as work increase I had to drop the ball here.  I did miss blogging and had quite a few things come up that I could have blogged about; I just didn't have the time.  And now, I'm terribly behind on all the 2.4 stuff, totally missed the ball on the Lifebloom protest, haven't been active on Blog Azeroth, etc!

The only things I have managed to keep up with these last few weeks is work, raiding, and napping!  Well, raiding until last week when my computer decided to start blue screening every 10 minutes.  My husband ordered me a new one, though, so I should be up and raiding again in a few days.

Well, this was just a wee post to let you all know I'm still here.  I do, however, need to sit and drink...eat a mana biscuit or two...before I'm ready to be back here in full force again.

 

Mini buffs please!!!!