Ferocious Bite

Sabbatical of Unknown Length

2008-05-28T12:56:00.002-05:00

I guess I've already started my sabbatical, however I should at least post something so you all aren't left wondering.

It's summer and I have a ton of things on my to do list before I resume classes again in the fall. I hate that my blogging is the thing that is being (and has been since December) sacrificed, but of all the things on my plate, this is the most 'optional' and does take up quite a bit of time.

I do still love writing and blogging, but each post (of stubstance) can take anywhere from 2-4 hours to research, write, edit, re-write, etc. Not to mention, the 2 hours a day I've spent reading other's blogs. That's a lot of time that, right now, I need to devote to house projects and other things. I will still keep up with reading blogs, although, quite possibly, at a reduced level. I know that each and everyone one of my fellow bloggers puts in a lot of time and effort to post for us that read them as well as staying active in the blogging community and I truely appreciate all that...especially knowing the time committment it takes.

I am still raiding and we have been making excellent progress in T6 content and I'm even tanking more than I was in T5 content. I still enjoy WoW and my guild (we've been expanding) and I do not have any plans to quit...which is why something has to be reduce (blogging).

I'm sure I'll be back at some point. I just don't have a time frame of when that will be. I appreciate you all taking the time to read my blog over the last year as well as those who have linked me in their blog rolls. I truely hate having to cut back in this area and will return when I can.

/hugs

This Week in Fishing

2008-05-13T11:54:00.002-05:00

I need to get around to posting more than the weekly fishing update! I have lots of posts swimming around in my head. I just need to find the time to get them written.

The quests for the week were:

Date	Day	Quest
5/6	Tuesday	Felblood Fillet
5/7	Wednesday	Shrimpin Aint' Easy
5/8	Thursday	Shrimpin Aint' Easy
5/9	Friday	The One That Got Away
5/10	Saturday	Felblood Fillet
5/11	Sunday	Crocolisks in the City
5/12	Monday	Bait Bandits

The quests for the week seemed to be fairly even. I was happy that Crocolisks in the City came up again this week. Hopefully it will be making, at least, a weekly appearance. I still have no baby croc pet though. Since Sunday was baby croc quest day I was really hoping for one as a Mother's Day prezzie.

The percentages for the quests this week and for 4/13 - 5/12 are:

Quest	% This Week	% 4/13-5/12
Bait Bandits	14%	21%
Crocolisks in the City	14%	14%
Felblood Fillet	29%	29%
Shrimpin' Ain't Easy	29%	14%
The One That Got Away	14%	21%

Last week I predicted that this would be a Shrimpin' week. It came up twice, however I was expecting it to come up at least three times. The overall percentage, from 4-13 to date, seems to be rounding out a bit. Had I been keeping track since 2.4 went live, Shrimpin would be higher and Crocs would be lower.

No interesting loot to speak of this week, just the assorted rusted lock and spyglass.

Boo...

2008-05-06T16:09:00.001-05:00

Well, that didn't work out how I wanted. I pulled up the previous 'This Week in Fishing' post to edit it rather than creating an entirely new one and all I ended up doing was changing the original post.

If anyone knows how to copy a published post (within Blogspot or Windows Live Writer) to change it into a new post without over writing the original post, please let me know!

This Week in Fishing

2008-05-06T16:03:00.000-05:00

I'm only a day late this time!

The quests for the week were:

Date	Day	Quest
4/29	Tuesday	Bait Bandits
4/30	Wednesday	Bait Bandits
5/1	Thursday	Bait Bandits
5/2	Friday	Felblood Fillet
5/3	Saturday	Bait Bandits
5/4	Sunday	Crocolisks in the City
5/5	Monday	The One That Got Away

It was obviously Bait Bandits week with that quest coming up four times. I was happy that Crocolisks in the City came up this week. After last week, I expected a month to go by before I saw it again. I still have no baby croc pet though. C'mon Chuck!

The percentages for the quests this week and for 4/13 - 5/5 are:

Quest	% This Week	% 4/13-5/5
Bait Bandits	57%	24%
Crocolisks in the City	14%	14%
Felblood Fillet	14%	29%
Shrimpin' Ain't Easy	0%	10%
The One That Got Away	14%	24%

I'm going to jump out on a limb here and predict that I'll be doing a lot of shrimpin' next week. /sigh. That one is my least fav quest.

As far as lewts goes, other than a few Shadow Pearls, I have yet to get any of the fishing items. Blizzard, you can make that up to me by letting me get Chuck!

Karathress Kill Vid

2008-04-22T11:10:00.001-05:00

Bogwraith has made another kill video for RA. This one shows us killing Fathom Lord Karathress. He filmed it at a higher resolution so it looks better than the other kill videos. Also, if you download them they look quite a bit better than streaming them.

SSC_4_RAvKarathress.wmv

You'll see me tanking the first add, then switching to kitty for the remainder of the fight. As we move to the third add, you can see me b-rez Gud on the left of the screen there.

This Week in Fishing

2008-04-21T12:26:00.001-05:00

After posting last Monday about how Old Man Barlo has only offered the Crocolisk in the City quest twice since 2.4 went live, I decided that I'd start keeping a list of what quests he offers each day for analysis...that'll show Blizzard!! Here are my results for the past week:

Date	Day	Quest
4/15	Tuesday	Felblood Fillet
4/16	Wednesday	Bait Bandits
4/17	Thursday	The One That Got Away
4/18	Friday	Shrimpin' Ain't Easy
4/19	Saturday	Felblood Fillet
4/20	Sunday	Felblood Fillet
4/21	Monday	Felblood Fillet

Felblood Fillet has come up 4 times (57%) and all the others once each (14%) with my desired quests, the baby croc one, not coming up at all (0%). Sadly, most weeks are like this, with one of the above four quests dominating while the Crocolisk in the City quests doesn't come up at all. I want Chuck, damnit!

Guild Kill Videos

2008-04-16T18:04:00.001-05:00

We recently had an influx of members from the guild Tribunal who all seem to be fitting in nicely with the guild. :) Similar goals, personalities, etc...you know, all those things that help make two groups of people click together nicely and become one group of people fairly quickly.

Anyway, one of our new members, Bogwraith, who is a pretty awesome Arcane/Ice Mage, has been making videos of our boss kills. So, I thought I'd share them with you all (with permission, of course!).

Magtheridon's Liar

In this video, you get to see me tanking. You also get to see Bog's pet turtle, Speedy, Aquenzi's pet frog, Morela's firefly, and Bithan's Dark Whelpling and I think I saw Peanut, Mini Wing, and a Worg pup! This is important commentary...you know you wanted to know. :)

RAvMagtheridon.wmv

Serpent Shrine Cavern

Hydross

In this video, we have Maul and Lung tanking Hydross and you see me every once in a while tanking the adds. I'm on the front right add. We assign them as front/back and left/right after ummm...well...a wee bit of an issue. I know you're waiting for my list of who has what pets out, but as Bog's camera was way far out and the resolution isn't real good, it was hard to see (we don't discuss how old I am). I did see Bog's trusty companion, Speedy and, I think, Mini Wing again, but that was all I could make out.

SSC_1_RAvHydross.wmv

The Lurker Below

Maulmorr is tanking...I think...he's so far away it's hard to tell. I didn't see that either Bog or the hunter next to him had little pets out. We'll have to have 'talks' with them. If you want to try to find me, you'll have to squint and look to the left side of the video...I'm the wee cat.

SSC_2_RAvLurker.wmv

Leotheras the Blind

In this video, you get to see Bog die towards the end. :( You'll also see me as the cat hopping around trying to stay out of the whirlwind so I don't suffer a similar fate as him. I was able to make out Aquenzi's frog and a few other pets but, again, the camera was too far out.

SSC_3_RAvLeo.wmv

Tempest Keep: The Eye

Void Reaver

In this video, you get to watch Bog run around and open his inventory bags a bazillion times. Bog, go download Tbags and Auto bar please. ;p It also grieves me to say that I saw no pets. How are we even downing these bosses without sufficient pet presence?

TK_2_RAvVoidreaver.wmv

High Astromancer Solarian

Maulmorr, Slashappy, and Lung are our tanks. I'm running around all cat like with my Phoenix Hatchling. Other pets I see are Speedy, Dark Whelpling, Clockwork Robot, Great Horned Owl, and, I think, a frog...better than the last video, but not nearly enough.

TK_3_RAvSolarian.wmv

Mount Hyjal

Rage Winterchill

Maulmorr is, once again, our tank for this video. If you pay attention, about half-way through you'll see me run across the screen from right to left and rez someone. The true stars of this video were Speedy, White Kitten, Mini Wing, Dark Whelpling, and about 4 or 5 Mojo's.

Hyjal_1_RAvRageWinterchill.wmv

In the future, I'll post videos as he makes them rather than bombarding you with so many at one time. Hopefully, by then, he'll have AutoBar and/or Tbags and, more importantly, a better resolution so I might take 'pet roll' more accurately. ;p

Those Baby Crocs are gonna get HUGE

2008-04-14T17:09:00.002-05:00

If Old Man Barlo doesn't send me to fish them up more often!

In the three weeks since patch 2.4 has gone live, our server has only offered the Crocolisks in the City quest twice!

Now, I don't know anything about Crocolisks life cycles or how long it takes for a baby croc to mature, but I can't help but feel that Old Man Barlo is playing some sort of evil experiment here. I realize that Orgrimmar doesn't have a plethera of children running and playing about, but Stormwind does! And, although I tend to dislike the Alliance as that's what Hordies are supposed to do, I'm certainly not into the painful death that the jaws and teeth of a mature crocolisk can do to children!

So, lets cry out to save the children! Yes! That's it! This is all about saving the children and has nothing to do with me wanting a new pet! Give us the Crocolisks in the City quest more often!

/salute Baklor

2008-04-11T18:14:00.002-05:00

Several months ago, our GM, Baklor, announced that his wife was pregnant with their second child. Along with this announcement, he informed us that, in 5 months, he would be stepping down as GM. Well, that 5 months ended a while ago. Although he is still playing when he can, he is no longer running the guild or actively raiding. This post is my Salute to him and to show appreciation for all that he has done for Rogue Angels and for me.

Meeting Baklor

My husband and I met Baklor in early 2000 in Asheron's Call. At one time, he was even my Vassal for a while, Asheron's Call (AC) is based on a Feudal system, and rather than referring to my Vassals as vassals or subjects, I called them my babies and took a 'motherly' role in taking care of them.

So, Baklor was one of my babies and he was always extremely independent, quiet, always ready to help others, and hardly ever asked for anything...in fact, I'd have to beg him to tell me if he needed gear or items. Really, the only thing Baklor ever asked for was help with corpse recoveries. In AC, when you died, you lost your highest valued items, which could include gear; 1 item per 10 levels...and you could level all the way up to 126! (It's higher now.) Typically, we'd carry around 'death items' which were items we didn't use that cost more than your important gear and weapons. However, if you died while trying to loot your corpse, you would start losing important pieces that would prevent you from successfully retrieving your stuff.

My husband was the Monarch (GM) of our AC guild and whenever our guildies needed help with corpse recoveries, we were the ones they called. Most often, about 95% of the time, when we were called for help with a corpse recovery, it was hardly needed at all. The person's corpse would be out of agro range or have one, maybe two, mobs within range and we had become to hate the 'corpse recovery' call. Except from Baklor...

Baklor had the amazing ability to die in the most challenging of places! Which is saying a lot because my husband and I were max level and had max gear and the game had become rather unchallenging for us. However, Baklor would manage to die in the most mob congested areas that it would boggle our minds of how he actually made it that far in before dying. We'd have to fight to get to his bodies, then fight to clear his bodies, then fight the respawns to keep it clear! And yes, I said bodies. Remember I said he was independent? Baklor would always try to recover his corpse...numerous times...and only call us in as a last resort. He never knew it, but my husband and I would be laughing at all the little Baklor bodies everywhere.

Baklor's Leading?!?!

When Rogue Angels decided to play WoW when it first came out, we actually played under a different guild tag, Uninspired, which I hated, and as Horde, which I hated as well (can you say UGLY?). I played WoW for about a year or so before quitting for several reasons; the two main ones were I hated playing on a PvP server and I hated my Druid. After about a year and a half break, I started playing again with a Night Elf Priest on a PvE server with my husband who had a Warlock and I was having fun again. However, as the expansion release drew nearer, my husband told me he wanted to play on his main (rogue) with the Rogue Angels guild again and he wanted me to come with him.

He assured me that it would be more fun than before; first off, when they switched servers they reformed under the tag Rogue Angels. Secondly, I could spec Feral and he and I could be all sneaky and avoid much of the PvP issues. And, thirdly, Baklor, one of my babies from AC, was the GM.

I have to admit, I had my reservations as I imagined him leading us into all kinds of trouble from which there would be no return just like he would run heedlessly into hordes of mobs in AC! However, I was soon proved wrong as, even though he was always eager to jump in over our heads, he was also an excellent leader in his organization, knowledge of classes, research into bosses and instances, and 'out of the box' thinking to make our raid composition work when most would say we were doomed.

The Tank Bond

When our guild began venturing into Karazhan, Baklor was our main tank and I was the off tank...well, actually, I was pretty much the only other tank in the guild. But, Baklor had confidence enough for the both of us and I tagged along beside/behind him learning the way of raid tanking. (I had never raided before!) Some would say that learning from Baklor should have doomed my tanking career, but he was an excellent and patient teacher.

So, it was Baklor and me holding back the forces of evil and protecting the rest of the raid! We functioned well together and had a trust in each other's knowledge and ability. We also had confidence in each other when things went awry and because of this assuredness in each other our raid overcame many potential wipes. People often joke around about how dumb tanks are and that they only have half a brain...well, if this is true, then it seemed that he and I shared the same brain. ;p Baklor will always be my favorite tanking partner and these beginning moments of exploring and first kills in Karazhan are, so far, my fondest memories of my second WoW experience.

Leadership Qualities

Leading anything is the hardest job. No matter how good of a leader you are there will always be people who think you suck. I know Baklor had to contend with a few people that thought he lacked in leadership qualities, however, they couldn't have been more wrong.

Baklor was an enthusiastic leader. He was always excited about new or harder content and pushing to get us to get there. If we needed recruiting or guild funds/items, etc., he was the first to jump out there and get it done. He did a fantastic job of leading by example as he never sat back to wait for others to do what needed to be done. Even though this type of leader can tend to try to 'do it all' himself, Baklor also possessed the skill of delegation which is a rare combination. He didn't hesitate to assign Class Officers, etc. and ensure that they were doing their duties.

Baklor was extremely patient. No matter what happened or how bad things got, he was alway calm, cool, and collected. Now, he would have times where he'd be very quiet on vent when things went badly and I'm sure he was probably cussing and banging on the keyboard. However, when he came back on vent, he exuded calmness and assuredness. He also had a very soothing, matter of fact voice and he could disagree with your or lay down the law in the nicest, yet firmest way I have ever heard! Not to mention he endured my endless tanking questions and would always have pets out because he knew I liked that. :D

Baklor was also a strong leader. Once he made a decision, he stuck by it...which can be extremely difficult when leading friends you know in real life and friends you've played games with for many years. He also had the rare ability to pull back and look at 'the bigger picture' in relation with the Guild's goals. Our guild's goals were to see end game content and he steadfastly moved and made decisions in that direction, even when it meant not capitulating to individuals desires. Some people may feel that this is harsh. However, it's just good management for growth. Once you get caught up in the cycle of trying to please each and every single person (everyone wants something different!), things quickly fall apart. Guilds (businesses, families, etc.) have to have a common goal and everyone has to work towards achieving it...Baklor never lost sight of this.

Zero Tolerance

My favorite leadership quality that Baklor had was his zero tolerance for drama! This impressed me so much I'm putting it under it's own heading!

All too often you hear about guild drama and the extremes with which it possesses...so much so that it can totally boggle the mind. We were lucky to have had a leader that did not put up with drama of any kind. Period.

He was extremely quick to deal with issues that had the potential for drama and to make unbiased decisions by choosing in favor of what was best for the guild as a whole rather than what was best for him or anyone else. Typically, reasonable people will see that a leader is making decisions based on the whole rather than on the individual and understand. However, those who are prone to drama do not...this is usually where they would reveal themselves and if they proceeded with the typical drama tactics to force 'their way', they were promptly /gkicked. There was no ifs/ands/or buts to it. No repeatedly trying to fix it/them. No repeatedly talking to them, etc....because we all know people who love drama will constantly create it and keep it going no matter what you do or say. It is their life blood.

One of the comments I've heard most from people that have joined our guild is how nice it is to be in a guild with no drama! What they don't realize is that it doesn't come naturally. You have to have leaders that can recognized drama and who aren't afraid to stop it or remove those people that are chronic 'dramatist' from the guild. (Yes, I am planning a future post on drama, how to recognize it, and how to eradicate it.)

Baklor was the best I have ever seen at this invaluable skill. Honestly, I learned a lot from him in regards to this and have employed zero tolerance for drama philosophy in dealing with my own family. I love Baklor for his example of how to put a stop to drama. The year or so proceeding my return to WoW was an extremely catastrophic one for my family. We had several heart-wrenching and traumatic events happen and I had extreme amounts of drama coming at me from all directions and from all my loved ones. So much stuff that if I told you all of it you'd think I was making 80% of it up. Baklor gave me the one place in the whole world that was free of that. For that, he will always be my favorite GM and a Hero to me when I needed one the most!

Looking Forward

Even though we're losing one of the best GMs ever, it's for a good reason. He is taking time off to spend it with his wife and kids and to help with the newest addition. I know we'll still see him online, however he won't be leading us all to doom....errrr...glory. ;) In his place, he elected Gankszor, my husband, to lead us and Souldrain as the Assistant GM. So, he's left us in good and capable hands.

Tax Season is OVER!

2008-04-11T16:24:00.004-05:00

For me, at least. Sadly, there are others that are still stuck with the heavy workload.

Even though I finish my various client's books by March 15, which is when corporate income taxes are due, I still had my own tax stuff to compile, nit pick, and take to my CPA to process. I am happy to say that we're getting money back!

With that heavy load off my back, I look forward to posting more frequently and having more quality posts as well. But, as we all know, quality is relative. So, we'll see. ;p

I do have 4 weeks left in classes for this semester, however I am not going to take classes this summer. I decided that I need to get some organizational measures in place so that next year, gathering my tax stuff, etc. will be more streamlined and expedient.

Annoyance Factor = 10

2008-04-03T16:12:00.002-05:00

In my efforts to assist the Shattered Sun Offensive, I've been doing my daily quota of dailies. One such quest, Gaining the Advantage, has been a source of annoyance for me...not so much the quest itself (frankly, the drop rate could be higher), but the act of herbing in Flight Form.

Now, I'll be honest here...I'm not an active herbalist. I farm when it's convenient...as in, I'm out killing something and...oh lookie! There is an herb at my paws! I guess I'll pick it. I rarely ever fly around 'farming herbs' as I just don't have the attention span for such activities.

However, with Gaining the Advantage and the drop rate of the residue being so low, by the time we're done with our SSO daily quests, I still need 2-4 residue. So, here I am, standing in Shat, with a quest half way to mostly done, and with 1 precious pack spot being taken up with residue. Now I feel compelled to do the dreaded 'farming run' which leads to the point of my frustration.

I understand the reasoning for removing our ability to pick herbs while flying and it's not that which irritates me. What irritates me is that our animation is ALWAYS flying. Since I always appear to be flying, 90% of the time when I try to 'pick' my herb, I get the 'You can not pick herbs while flying' message. Then, I spend another 30 seconds making several micro adjustments and picking attempts trying to get my position just right so I can pick the damn flower!!

Yes, I know I could just change forms. However, that is not the point. The point is, Blizzard gave us the ability to pick in that form if we are on ground, yet neglected to give us an animation change so we would know we were on ground! In fact, there have been numerous times where my birdie feet were under ground and the game still considered me 'flying'!!! It's extremely frustrating!

We went from not being able to pick herbs in Flight Form, to being able to pick them from 5 yards above the herb...and mobs, to having to be 'on ground' to pick yet with no way to know if you're 'on ground'. Honestly, I think this is the worst of the 3 options!

Ok.
/rant off

Spring Cleaning - Say Hello to April Fools!

2008-04-02T09:07:00.002-05:00

Yes, yesterday's post was a trick. I did not delete any of my pets. How could I? They are my babies!!!

Sadly, after making that post I felt horrible! I felt as though I'd betrayed each and every one of my little buddies. Yes, I know they are just pixels. But, in game, they are my pets...who follow me...everywhere...and bring me good luck...and help down bosses...and, and, and, I've become attached to the wee critters! And just even pretending that I had deleted them made me feel cruel and heartless! Not to mention it was a lie. O.O I hate lying! And not just out-right, bold-face lies, but even those little twists of the truth that people so often do to ever so slightly skew the truth while convincing themselves they are being 'honest' when in all reality they are not and only trying to make themselves look better when they've done something wrong.

So, needless to say, what I thought would be a fun April Fools joke did nothing but make me feel bad. LOL I know that's silly. It was just a joke. But, none-the-less, it went against the very essence of my soul! I believe, next year, I'll leave the jokes to others. ;)

Spring Cleaning - Say Hello to Pack Space!

2008-04-01T10:53:00.002-05:00

With all the new daily quests and the various quest items that continually fill up my packs, I decided to do a wee bit of spring cleaning. As a Feral Druid and the need to carry around a full set of Bear, Kitty, and Healing gear, pack space is a rarity. Add into the mix all the raid consumables, herbs when gathering, fishing gear, etcetera and you get zero pack space.

So, I decided to clean house! Since I can't sell my gear, herbs, and consumables, I finally came to the conclusion that my non-combat pets have got to go! After taking each of them on a little walk through Terrokar Forest I said my good-byes and deleted them all...and said Hello! to about 40 new pack spots! Now I'll be able to pick up every piece of grey gear and all the fangs and claws that people leave behind on mobs!! That full stack of fangs sells for about 30 copper! And, as Gene Simmons says, "Losing a copper is as bad as losing a million gold." Well, ok, maybe it was a penny instead of copper and dollars instead of gold, but you get the idea.

What D&D Character Am I?

2008-03-27T09:32:00.002-05:00

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)

Magisters' Terrace: First Experience; Regular and Heroic

2008-03-26T18:25:00.000-05:00

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.

What are you most looking forward to in the patch?

2008-03-25T12:53:00.004-05:00

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!

Rawr goes Pew Pew!

2008-03-24T10:14:00.002-05:00

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...

2008-03-24T09:13:00.002-05:00

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!

How do you throw away a trash can?

2008-03-19T09:55:00.002-05:00

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.

We have another!

2008-03-18T10:49:00.002-05:00

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

It Continues to Spread...

2008-03-17T18:10:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-17T09:52:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-03-17T08:52:00.003-05:00

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!

Guildie Blog!

2008-03-16T20:20:00.002-05:00

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. ;)

/cast [target=Mooire] Rebirth

2008-03-15T15:31:00.001-05:00

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!!!!

Rawr Goes Kitty!

2008-02-21T16:55:00.004-06:00

We're all familiar with Rawr, the program that lets you compare tanking gear based on mitigation and survival points, and how useful it is in determining your optimal gear, gem, and enchant composition. Well, they've just gone Kitty! In version 11b of Rawr, you now have the option of comparing DPS gear and how it effects your stats in Cat form.

The stats and calculations used for the Cat model within Rawr are based on Toskk's Feral DPS Gear Methodology. I won't summarize the info here as I haven't yet absorbed all the information and, frankly, I wonder if I ever will! However, it's linked and if you wanna know the math, you can go read it there.

Version 11b has been updated with 2.4 PTR data as of 2/15. So, we have the ability to explore the new gear items and plan our badge stockpiles!

Go check it out! I'm gonna go log in, change gear and download my current set up for analysis!

10 Reasons to Love Kitty

2008-02-20T09:40:00.002-06:00

As we've progressed into 25 man raiding, it seems that I'm stuck in the kitty role more often...oh, wait, we're loving kitty here, let me start over...

As we've progressed into 25 man raiding, it seems that my DPS abilities outweigh my tanking role in favor of the Prot Warrior because they can't DPS. Hmmm...I guess that's not exactly positive either.

** 25 Ferocious Bite Points for whoever can define the paradoxical nature of this picture.

As we've progressed into 25 man raiding, it seems that my DPS abilities outweigh my tanking role in favor of the Prot Warrior. Since Druids are a hybrid class, we're able to do several things well; such as tanking and threat generation as well as melee DPS, whereas Protection Warriors can only tank well. Therefore, on encounters where few tanks are needed, I'm relegated to DPS. So, instead of QQing about it, I'm trying to find reasons to love it.

Lower repair costs - Since I'm hiding behind the mob rather than getting beat on, I take less durability damage. However, my manicure expense will go up as all that shredding is hard on the nails. (Think my hubby will buy that?)
Less time spent writing - Since cat DPS is basically Mangle, Shred until you have 5 points, then Rip...rinse and repeat, I can write one 'form' post for boss encounters and then just find and replace the name of the boss. Recycling is good. We'll call them 'Green Posts'.
No watching 'the meters' - Since I'm a hybrid class and my priority goes to Bear gear, I'm not expected to be at the top of the DPS meters. I can now zone, eat my dinner, or type in various chat channels while raiding! No one questions a Druid's lack of DPS...if it was lacking, I'd be tanking like the Prot Warriors! And...if anyone does question it, I have a plethora of excuses; I was in my bear gear as I was tanking [insert mob here] before the boss, I had to pop out to cast Rebirth/Innervate/heals, etc.
ROFLCAT pictures - I can use the funny cat pictures in my blog posts. (see above)
Blog name is appropriate - My blog name would make more sense...cat ability for a bear blog? What was I thinking?
I get more heals than the other DPSers - Due to my Rebirth and Innervate, I'm a more valuable class in the raid than other DPS classes and therefore get more heals and/or healed first. This helps to make up any deficiencies resulting from #3.
Lag behind to 'herb' mobs - Since I'm not pulling, I can lag behind to herb mobs; such as the Underbog Collosus in SSC.
Fine feline fanny - I'll have a more actractive view as well as more of a view period...no more big bear butt filling up my screen, unless I'm reading the blog.
No worries about loose mobs - Unlike other DPS classes, loose mobs are not a concern. I can just switch to bear and continue on...then giggle when the warriors tries and is unable to take the mob back. l2dps, nub! ;p
No watching the threat meters - If I pull aggro, I can just switch to bear form, then giggle as stated under #9.

Disclaimer: This post is intended for humor only. It is not a guide by which to be followed nor is it followed by the author...well, except for the giggling part when a prot warrior tries to re-establish threat when I accidently (yes, accidently!) pull aggro.

View My Pet Collection!

2008-02-18T08:54:00.003-06:00

I was poking Warcraft Pets and discovered that if you set up a log in, you can keep track of your pet collection!

You can view Mooire's pet collection here. I have pets on other characters, but chose to just keep up with only Mooire's as she's my main. I currently have 34 out of 76 pets that I can actually obtain. I have excluded the Murloc pets (not available on US servers), Lucky (Asian promo pet), Engineering BoP pets, the Alliance only quest pet, and the two collector's edition pets that Mooire doesn't have (had to pick 1 out of 3 options and the Panda won).

Out of the 42 remaining pets, I really only want 7 of them; Chuck, who will be in patch 2.4, Hyacinth Macaw, Peanut, Phoenix Hatchling (must have!!), Rocket Chicken, Smolderweb Hatchling, and Winter's Little Helper.

I really hope they put in the Pet Bag, because I need 2 of them!

Non-Writing Mood

2008-02-15T16:41:00.002-06:00

I guess I've kinda been in a non-writing mood and I'm not sure why. I have a list of things I want to write about and I even sit with the intent to write about them, but I then think, "Meh, I don't wanna write." Oddly, I'm writing right now...just not about anything interesting, informative, or important. ;p So, what's up with that?

I don't know if it's the spin down of work and I need to be in a vegetative state for a while. Or, perhaps, I'm reading far too many WoW blogs and then find I don't have much time left for my own blog. Or, maybe, after the holidays and then busy work time of the year and throw in taking a class this semester and you get messy house and piled up laundry and then I feel guilty blogging when I should be cleaning. Or, it could be my allergy struggles with our Texas winds changing directions ever two days...it's hard to think and focus when your sinuses are screaming. Or, more likely, all of the above!

Even with all that, I do miss writing even though my desire has temporarily waned. I also feel guilty that I haven't been writing as much and that my entries since December have not been as good as those prior (IMO). I'm sure the tide will change, though, and soon you all will be thinking, "Gah, won't Mooire shush already?!?!"

Gonna go fold clothes and, at least, get one of those nagging things off my list!

Happy New Petzors!

2008-02-14T08:53:00.002-06:00

After a couple of days of farming by Morela and Keirelle (I helped some too, but they were far more dedicated than I), all the girls in our guild have a new little friend...Peddlefeet. Even though he's a bit creepy looking...he grows on you and you just can't help but love him!

For all of you who are still trying to get this little fella, Keirelle discovered that the trainers have a higher chance of giving him than the guards...or, at least, that was the case with all the ones they got. Two came from the Skinning Trainer in Undercity and the others came from various trainers in Orgrimmar. So, if you still want this Goblin Cupid, talk to the more obscure NPCs with hearts rather than the dime a dozen guards.

For all their work and ceaseless dedication to continue farming until we all had our new pets, Morela and Keirelle will be getting 100 FB points each. :D This also fits nicely with my evil plan to get Souldrain to farm me a Disgusting Oozeling as he hates to lose and having two people (one of which is his lovely wife!) with more points than him should do it. ;p

BTW, Morela coined the phrase 'Happy New Petzor!' and I'm using it before she has time to get it copywrited!

Along with our new pet, we also ended up with a ton of the Silver Shafted Arrows which I have come to love as it allows us to give anyone we want a pet whether they want it or not! Best quote of the night...

Baklor says, "Why do I have a fairy floating around my ass?"

Well, actually, I think all the guys thought the best quote of the night was really...

Baklor says, "Panzerr will pull the thong off of Nae"

Thong is what we call the green triangle and Nae is me...my Asheron's Call name that still follows me...thankfully, cause I like it better than Mooire. Baklor was giving tanking instruction and, well, it just came out wrong. O.o

Has it really...

2008-02-11T10:59:00.000-06:00

Been almost a week since I last posted? O.O Where did the time go? Was I abducted by aliens?

Well...what has happened this last week?

New Bosses

We downed Hex-Lord Malacrass as well as Zul'jin in ZA. However, I wasn't present for the Zul'jin downing...so, does it really count? ;p

Gear

I finally got the last of my badge loot for my kitty set. I no longer 'need' to farm badges for gear! Yippy!! I do, however, have to sit down and take a look at all my kitty gear and find the best mix-and-match combination for DPS with using two of the T4 pieces I have for the 2 set bonus. Once I decide, I'll post it here.

Ferocious Bite Points

I'm sure that those of you who watch the FBP board have noticed that Souldrain has taken a commanding lead. After his unsuccessful attempts to extort points by kidnapping my Spell Checker, he finally got smart and bought them with an Emerald Whelpling. I'll have to put up more quotes for you all to earn points with and over take him because I still want a Disgusting Oozeling and Souldrain doesn't like to lose. ;)

Blog Stuff

I have a lot of stuff I want to do to 're-vamp' my blog, but it will have to wait a while. I also have several posts I've been either working on or not working on or somewhere in between that I need to finish up. It's just been busy. And my spell checker still doesn't work. /sigh

Real Life

Work is starting to settle down now. However, I still have more to do to close out the end of the year and do tax prep for a few more clients.

That's about it, nothing too terribly exciting...and now I have to run off to work. Have a good day everyone!

How do you 'Reader'?

2008-02-05T10:34:00.000-06:00

I think most of us use some sort of reader to alert us to updated blogs. I, personally, use Google Reader. I didn't research readers. One of the bloggers I read mentioned Google reader and being the lazy person I am, I just went out and got it without putting any effort into research.

Anyway, I use my reader as my 'morning paper'. After I wake up, I make myself some tea...most often Chai Tea, but I also mix it up with Green Tea, Earl Grey, Lucky Irish, Oolong, etc...then I sit down and read the various posts that have been made as I slowly wake up.

I'm not a morning person. So, having this quiet time to drink my tea and read posts helps me to wake up without all the grumpiness that we noctural beings can get when forced to live in a morning person's world.

Most often, though, I do save some posts to read later in the day after I've returned from work. These post are typically the ones that have math and theorycrafting in them. I'd like to read them in the morning...I really would...but, my brain just does not funtion that early, so I'll skip them and save them for later when I can actually understand what the author is writing.

So, do you have a routine of when you read?

I Kan Speel!!!

2008-02-03T13:50:00.000-06:00

Fur sum reesun my speel chekerz no werks.

I don't know why, but for the last couple of days, when I click on my spell check icon it does nothing. This makes me very sad as I am horrible at spelling! Anyone else having this problem? Anyone know how to fix it? I've even re-booted and it still doesn't work. :'(

Successful Rebirthing for All

2008-02-03T00:41:00.000-06:00

One of the most critical moments for a Druid of any spec is the moment we're asked to combat rez (Rebirth) someone...which can lead to one of the most frustrating and heart-wrenching moments for a Druid, when the newly rebirthed person dies soon after. It's enough to make a Druid cry big cow tears...even the Night Elf ones. Successful Rebirths are a synergistic process; both the rebirther and the rebirthee must work together to ensure the rez is quick and successful.

Typically, when a Rebirth is requested by the Raid Leader, it is because the person who died is integral to the success of the encounter; such as a healer, off-tank, or one of the top DPSers. It's important that the Rebirth happens quickly, efficiently, and successfully so that the deceased person and the Druid can both get back to their assigned tasks.

Location, location, location...

All too often I'm asked to rez someone and I end up running all over the room just looking for them. Sadly, I seemed to have missed the real life talent 'Improved Directionality' as I always run in the opposite direction from where they are located. This is bad as it means I'm not adding to DPS or available to tank or heal during the time I'm running around like a chicken with no head. This problem has only gotten worse as we've progressed into 25 man content as the 'boss rooms' are larger and have more line of site issues than the ones in 5 mans, Karazhan, or Zul' Aman.

The first step to a successful Rebirth, then, is letting the Druid know where you lie dead. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to rez someone during The Lurker Below encounter and when I ask them where they are, the response is "Way in the back."

Ok...way in the back where? There is about 360 degrees of 'way in the back' and if I run 'way in the back' in one direction and you're 'way in the back' in the other direction then it's even further for me to run 'way in the back' in the opposite direction to get to you 'way in the back.' /sigh and end rant.

This can easily be solved by pinging the map. It's so simple. You just hover your mouse over your location on the map and click! No, seriously.

Ping. The. Map.

So, when the raid leader says, "Rez So-and-so." So-and-so should respond with, "Pinging location" along with a simple ping. This will ensure that the Druid heads straight for you and does not waste time running around trying to find you. It also gives more time for the Druid to position themselves out of AoE areas so the newly rebirthed person has less of a chance to die. This brings us to the second ping...errr...thing on location. As the Druid is casting their rez, they should...

Ping the map.

This will give the person who is being rebirthed an opportunity to maneuver their camera to get a visual on where they will spawn once they accept and, more importantly, what is going on in that area.

Along with pinging, when possible, the Druid should find as safe a location as possible to rez them into. If the Druid is off-tanking and performing the rez between hateful stricks, this isn't an option. If the Druid is the main healer on the main tank, they are limited to how far they can go to find a safe spot as they still have to keep their HoTs on the tank. But, when possible, try to find an area away from the boss or mobs and out of range of AoE or damage effects.

Assessing Before Accepting

Accepting your Rebirth is the most critical part. Even though Rebirth rezzes a person with more health and mana than any of the other resurrection spells, it's still a nominal amount. On the highest ranked Rebirth, it's only 3200 health and 3200 mana. If you accept and spawn into a Cave-In in Gruul's Lair, you will die. If you accept right as Lurker's Spout is happening, you will die. If you accept right before a sacrifice is due on Illhoof, you run the risk of a fast death if you are chosen. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

Too often, the rebirthee is anxious to get back in and DPS, heal, or whatever and they quickly click that accept button with no idea of where or what or when they will spawn. Before you accept your rez, assess the situation in the area where the Druid was standing when they cast their spell.

Sadly, I still hear, "Don't accept, you're in [insert damage effect here]." When the danger is on the person's corpse and the area I have rezzed them to is safe. Just in case you have forgotten...

When a person is rezzed, they pop up at the rezzer's location.

Which is why it's important for the Druid to ping their location while they are casting the rez...it's a 2 second cast...you have time for a quick ping.

So, before hitting that accept button:

Check out the area where the Druid is standing to see if any damage effects are in play.
Check out the area to see if any mobs who might cleave you, etc. are nearby.
Check out Boss Mob timers for any upcoming events that would kill you with low health.

If the area is clear and no events you should avoid are about to happen then accept, otherwise, wait until it is safe.

The Newly Rebirthed

As soon as you've accepted your Rebirth is when you are the most vulnerable. You spawn with 3200 health and mana, no buffs, and in a completely different location. However, if you have assessed the area prior to accepting, you've overcome one of the hurdles to survival.

Ideally, the Druid who rezzed you should, at least, toss a few HoTs your way as well as a baby MotW. However, the other healing classes should be aware of who is being rezzed and who is rezzing them. If the rezzer is a Resto Druid on 'raid healing' duty, then they should be able to restore the newly rebirthed member to full health. However, if the rezzor was a Feral Druid squeezing the task in between hateful strikes, then a quick heal from one of the healers is necessary. Also, buffing classes should be ready to toss some baby buffs on the newly rebirthed.

If, by chance, you don’t get enough heals, bandage. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to ensure you are in the best possible shape before entering back into combat.

Tag-Team Rebirthing

If more than one Druid is in the raid and multiple people have died, including one of the Druids, then they will do what I call ‘tag-team’ rezzing. The remaining Druid will rez the deceased Druid and then the newly rebirthed Druid will rez another member.

This ‘tag-team’ rezzing works very well. However, the initial Druid as well as the other healers will need to help bring both the newly rebirthed people up to full health. Rebirth consumes 68% of the Druid’s base mana. Since the rebirth Druid spawns with only 3200 mana, it’s likely, especially if they are feral, that they will not have enough mana to HoT and baby buff themselves and the person they rez. In fact, I can say definitely that it can not be done!

We did a ‘tag-team’ rez in the Lurker encounter the other day and I slapped a Rejuv on myself and the person I rezzed as well as baby MotWs and did not have enough mana to go back into form. Oops. Thank Elune for Omen of Clarity!

Multiple Druids

If there is more than one Druid in the raid and a rez is requested, one of the Druids should speak up and say, "Mooire is rezzing So-and-so!" This helps to ensure that two Druids aren't running around looking for the person and trying to rez them. The goal of a combat rez it to get people back into combat. If multiple Druids are attempting the same rez, then that's at least 5 seconds that 3 or more people are out of combat. A simple announcement can alliviate that.

In Summary

Both the rebirther and the rebirthee should ping the map with their locations.
The Rebirthee should assess the situation of the raid and spawn location prior to accepting.
After accepting, it's a raid team effort to get the person back into raid viability. However, the rebirthee should bandage if they aren't healed.
Tag-team rezzes need extra healing help.
Druid should announce if they are taking the rez task when more than one Druid is in the raid.

If all these steps are followed, then you and the person you're rezzing should survive the process of Rebirth enabling you to rejoin the raid and contribute to it's success.

Doomwalker meets his Doom

2008-02-01T16:19:00.000-06:00

After we left SSC Wednesday, we headed out to SMV to have another go at Doomwalker. This time, we were prepared and unrushed as the servers were not about to be shut down.

Baklor was back online and he served as our main tank. We also had pulled in several more people to add to those that were in the raid from SSC. So, we had 31 people, plus two Alliance Paladin's named Broon (Prot) and Korvecdal (Holy) from Dark Origin guild who saw us preparing and were nice enough to lend us a hand. (I'm pretty sure the second one was named Korvecdal. I only saw her at the start and it's sort of a difficult name to remember. So, if I got it wrong, my apologies!)

Honestly, I was surprised at how easy this boss was. We were undermanned and had very little trouble downing him. Oddly, the loot he dropped was the Talon of the Tempest X 2.

Anyway, it's nap time so I'm gonna keep this short. That it. Another job well done by the Rogue Angels! And, thanks again to Broon and Korvecdal!!! You two rock!!

Tidewalker meets Tide Breaker!

2008-02-01T11:51:00.000-06:00

We've been solidly working through SSC and, after clearing Hydross, Lurker, Leo, and Karathress on Tuesday, we went in Wednesday to get acquainted with Tidewalker. Since we only had 6 healers, our plan was to acclimate ourselves to the fight and see how far we could go.

Thankfully, Karthis from Of Teeth and Claws had written a nice tanking strat which I read and posted on our guild forums. We followed this method of tanking and tank position (we did try one other but we all decided this one was better) for our attempts. I also followed his advise on trinket usage based on when and how many healers were sent to their watery graves.

However, having only 6 healers made it a challenge and we consistently died around the 35-45% range. As the night wore on and we continued to work on him, it finally came down to our last attempt before trash respawns and, due to our amazing healers, we make it past 35% and all the way to Tidewalker dead!!!

I'd like to thank Soontir, Ledde, Swiftlight, Pk, Aquenzi, and Hinek (who's really Maulmorr one of our MTs) for the fantastic job they did healing me and everyone else. They are the ones that earned this kill. :)

The only downside to the encounter was that Baklor, our GM (best GM evah!) and #1 MT, was not there. :( He had a family commitment and didn't get on in time.

After we took pictures and distributed loot (I don't remember what we got and I'm too lazy to go look it up) we decided to go take a look at Lady Vashj. As we stood their gazing at her Medusa like hair and her multiple arms reminiscent of Nataraja we decided to run up, and smack on her a bit. After a few people take off their armor, I charge in and start pawing at her. We successfully made it through phase 1 and into phase 2. We actually stay alive in phase 2 long enough to get an idea of how...well, chaotic it will be before we all succumbed to her minions.

After we ran back...we headed out to SMV for a bit of Doomwalker fun...story to come later!

Doom to the Doomwalker...almost...

2008-01-28T09:49:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-28T09:47:00.000-06:00

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. :)

Quicker and Easier Mojo!

2008-01-27T09:56:00.000-06:00

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

Bear Snot

2008-01-25T14:50:00.000-06:00

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.

Fathom-Lord Karathress Fathomed

2008-01-24T10:17:00.000-06:00

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.

5 v...6?

2008-01-21T23:01:00.000-06:00

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.

Bears Don't Lose Points

2008-01-19T10:13:00.000-06:00

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...

Pet Biscuit Trading Card

2008-01-18T17:52:00.000-06:00

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?

PMS QQ

2008-01-17T09:35:00.001-06:00

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.

Identity Crisis

2008-01-14T15:18:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-14T09:23:00.000-06:00

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)

Leotheras Didn't See It Coming...

2008-01-10T09:05:00.000-06:00

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.

Wildfury Bear!

2008-01-09T17:44:00.000-06:00

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

Points, points, points...

2008-01-08T16:57:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-01-08T16:15:00.000-06:00

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!

Points! You know you want them...

2008-01-07T21:17:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-01-07T17:17:00.000-06:00

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!

Baby Comes Back!!!!

2008-01-06T10:22:00.000-06:00

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!!!

New Year's Resolutions

2007-12-31T13:43:00.001-06:00

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

Finish enchanting my new Bear gear items.
Get enchants on new gear within a couple of days of acquiring it. (I'm really bad at this.)
Finish upgrading my Kitty gear.
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

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

Organization Goals

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

Pet Goals

Content Goals

Finish all the instances in Heroic mode.
Finish Zul'aman.
Finish Tempest Keep.
Finish SSC.
Finish The Eye.
Finish all the end game raiding content before the expansion.
Finish my Netherstorm quests.

Blogging Goals

Make and remember to use labels for posts.
Put labels into old posts.
Update my blog role once a month.
Have at least two informative posts per week.
Get the item pop-up thing to work.
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

2007-12-28T15:03:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-27T19:50:00.000-06:00

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!!!

2007-12-25T15:10:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-23T10:54:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-20T09:41:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-18T09:50:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-17T16:18:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-12T10:07:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-11T16:19:00.000-06:00

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)

2007-12-11T12:04:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-10T11:06:00.001-06:00

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!

2007-12-04T18:02:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-04T16:39:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-30T11:15:00.000-06:00

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:

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

2007-11-30T11:01:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-29T10:08:00.000-06:00

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!!

2007-11-29T09:20:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-29T09:16:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-26T09:42:00.000-06:00

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?

2007-11-21T09:55:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-20T10:25:00.000-06:00

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?

2007-11-16T09:48:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-15T23:36:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-15T11:42:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-14T09:35:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-13T13:01:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-13T11:03:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-13T10:26:00.000-06:00

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..."

2007-11-12T09:22:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-08T11:23:00.001-06:00

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.

Heroic Marathon Weekend!

2007-11-07T11:03:00.000-06:00

With the announcment of 2.3 going live on November 13th, my husband and I are planning a Heroic Marathon Weekend. We've been working on Heroics for the last couple of weeks to earn badges to buy all our goodies...but, as I've only got 85 in the bank, I have many, many more to get...to bad G'eras doesn't take credit cards...

The client I had scheduled for tomorrow canceled so I will spend the day cooking soup, lasagna, and mini frittatas to get us through the long hours of Heroic fun. Hopefully between all that, I'll have time to map out my tank gear goals and set a plan of what items and in what order I'll be getting.

I've also got a couple posts in the works that I should be able to complete tomorrow as well.

So, what will you all be doing this weekend in preperation for 2.3?

** edited to change chili to lasagna

Short Bus to Underbog

2007-11-06T16:21:00.001-06:00

So, last night we throw together a Heroic Underbog run...well, really, it was supposed to be Heroic Slave Pens and then Heroic Underbog, but our healer and I talked the guys into doing Underbog first so we could get Hibiscus for rep and, ultimately, a pet. Anyway, we head on out to Coilfang Reservoir in eager anticipation of ending the night with 8 badges and a pocket full of Hibiscus. That was before we realized we'd taken the short bus there.

You know those nights...you're running a familiar instance...you have 5 good, strong players...they all know their class and roles well...they all have good gear...except for, perhaps, grabbing the padded T4 helm instead of the real T4 helm.

We were all touched by stoopid last night...I'll even be honest and say the padding was probably thickest in my helmet as I know I made 3-4 dumb mistakes. Whatever it was, it was contagious because we all had it. Here is a list of some of our retardedness:

Ranged DPS standing in the Bog Giant patrol path while we are working on a group of mobs.
Tank (I guess that would be me!) building threat on target #2 instead of target #1 and not even noticing.
Our other pet enthusiest trying to ninja pick some Hibiscus and...oops, aggro!
Hunter Misdirecting onto his own pet...bye bye Nibbler!
Mistiming pulls and getting the patrol with the group. (Those firefly bugs are hard to judge on speed!)
Rogue getting caught by lag and, therefore, a patrol while sneaking in for a sap.
Probably a couple other various items due to general stoopidness.

Thankfully, we all knew we were 'not with it' that evening and laughed about it. Oddly, though, as each thing happened and we'd acknowledge our own stupidness and resolve to 'put our game face on' it seemed to just keep happening. One of those 'off' nights, I suppose...

Needless to say, we only did Underbog last night. We did make it all the way through...probably because all of us are too stuborn to give up. So, we ended the night with 4 badges instead of 8 and our healer got around 20 or so Hibiscus. I let her have all mine as she's further from Exalted than I am...plus, she got the brunt of all the 'bad' stuff...I swear there is code in the game that says, "When things go wrong, kill the healer first!"

So, if you head out to Coilfang Reservoir be careful to stay far away from the short bus route and double check your helm before you go!

Gear List Updated...finally...

2007-11-03T21:55:00.000-05:00

I finally added the requested items to the 2.3 Bear Gear Assessment list. Added items are as follows:

Vindicator's Dragonhide items; wrists, waist, and feet.
Vindicator's Leather items; wrists, waist, and feet.
Veteran's Dragonhide items; wrists, waist, and feet.
Veteran's Leather items; wrists, waist, and feet.
Belt of Natural Power
Boots of Natural Grace

Please see the original post linked above to see their score.

Update!

2007-11-02T17:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted the last few days. Work has been a bit hectic with month end stuff and my clients seem to think I should get stuff done in a timely manner. Don't they know I have blogs to post...or is it posts to blog? Anyway, I guess I don't get paid to blog...so, until that happens, the end/beginning of the month will be a bit sparse... and we won't even get into what will happen when year end gets here. /cry

I do have a list of 10 or so things I want to write about...I'd give you a preview of what they are, but the last time I did that I didn't write about any of those things because that rebellious 'I don't wanna do what I have to do' streak kicked in and, even though I didn't have to write about them, I felt like since I said them I had to and then, therefor, didn't want to. So, for your sake, no preview. ;p

I will say that I do intend to update the 2.3 gear list this weekend to add in the PvP items and the other items you all have asked about. I apologize for it taking so long, but after working with spreadsheets for my clients, spreadsheets for gear haven't sounded all that fun...well, really, it does...but sitting at the computer hasn't. ;p

As far as WoW goes, I've been running as many heroics as I can squeeze in...unfortunately, it's been mostly in kitty form. Our guild leader has brought his Warrior out of retirement as he wants to go back to tanking for Zul' Aman and since he's one of my favorite people to run instances with and my very favorite tank, I gladly make the sacrifice to give up tanking to have him in the group. :)

I did main tank Kara this week. In fact, the first half I was sorta the only tank. We did have a Warrior, but he wasn't prot. Which, honestly, wasn't a big deal except for Moroes...and even the problem there was sorta our fault as we didn't explain thoroughly to him what was intended (we thought he had used the technique we'd been using lately). The last several months we've had a shortage of Priests in our Kara runs so we've gotten in the habit of having the tank and off-tank keep aggro on Moroes and two of the adds. Not a big deal, really. Basically, I'd moonfire one of the adds while the other tank either Moonfired or, if a Warrior, shot his gun or whatever he uses to start the pull, then we switch to Moroes and use Swipe or whatever the Warrior's multi-mob attack move is to keep the two mobs on us. Typically, it works like a dream, but Tuesday, it didn't. Everytime I got blinded, he ran off and bashed on one of our squishies. Thankfully, I always had plenty of rage to Charge him once my blind was up and move him back into place. It wasn't too horrible as we did down him on the first try even though we only had 4 people left alive...it certainly made for a much more fun event! Is it bad that the times I enjoy most are when things go terribly wrong and we somehow pull through?

We did have to get our Guild Leader to tank Nightbane and Prince though. A Warrior's stance dance to avoid the fear is too invaluable with Nightbane and, until the Horde gets a fear ward, I won't be able to tank him. We did try me three times on Prince, but at around 40% he'd hit me with several successive crushing blows and I never seemed to be able to time my trinkets properly...maybe if I wasn't on anti-histamines I could have, but oh well. ;p

My Sporeggar rep is coming along nicely. I'm at around 48% to exhausted...errr...exalted without really working at it. I did check the Auction House for Hibiscus, but at 1g a piece, I didn't bother buying any.

So, there is my wee update...sorry if I sounded tired, but, well, I am. ;p And, normally I'd put all those nice little links for abilties and such and probably would have even looked up the Warrior abilities I referenced and other things, but, well, I'm tired so you'll just have to live without all that right now. ;p

Quick Sporeggar Rep

2007-10-30T10:50:00.001-05:00

With the future addition of the Tiny Spore Bat, I've been working on my Sporeggar Rep. Previously, I had mentioned that doing the repeatable Now that we're (still) friends... quest was one of the best, easiest, and quickest ways to gain rep. It still is, however the very best, easiest, and quickest way is to do the Bring me a(nother) Shrubbery! quest.

This weekend and last night, we had some folks wanting to run Heroic Underbog. Since I need badges...lots and lots of badges as well as remembering the Sanguine Hibiscus earns Sporeggar rep, we jumped at the chance to go.

Now, when I originally did the Bring me a Shrubbery! quest, I don't recall the plants being all that plentiful. Perhaps it's because we had several people doing the quest when I went and we all were picking them...or, perhaps it's because after I got my 5, I stopped looking...suffice it to say, I didn't recall this quest as being a lucrative way of earning rep.

I would like to revise that now. I was able to get 20-30 Sanguine Hibiscus on each run. Not only are they available for anyone to pick (sort of like an herb), but they also drop off of the mobs...and, in addition, if you have herbalism, you can 'pick' the bog monsters once they have been looted and, on occasion, get one from them. Not to mention, as Druids, we can even stealth through regular Underbog and pick the plants that aren't too close to mobs.

At 750 rep for 5 plants, that's 3,000-4,500 rep per run! Not to mention the 4 badges if you do the instance in Heroic mode.

If you're going to want that wee spore bat as your companion and look alike pet to your mount, running Underbog is definitely the way to go!

Lootzors!

2007-10-30T09:05:00.001-05:00

While checking out Emmerald's forums, I noticed one of his posters (Gratch82) had linked I site I'd never seen before...Lootzor. I played around with it a bit and found it pretty interesting. Basically, you rank the stats on a scale of 1-10 based on it's importance to you (i.e. you want to increase stam and have defense maxed; enter stam 10 defense 1.)

I did not notice any of the 2.3 items pulling in to the list but, it's still very useful.

2.3 Bear Gear Assessment Post

2007-10-28T17:21:00.000-05:00

For some reason, my post on 2.3 Bear Gear Assessment is not showing up on the Google Reader feed (possibly others, I only tested Google). I don't know if it's because we used Windows Live Writer to get the tables in the post, or if it's because it's too long, or the table confuses it, or what. So, I thought I'd do this post to bring it to your attention and direct you to the real post. If anyone has an idea as to why it's not showing up on feeds, please let me know.