Trick a tree?

You who have found this blog by searching "Trick a tree", shame on you! You shouldn't attempt to trick trees. We are friendly creature sof nature who try to keep you alive.

Shame on me

Hodir has come to make me feel like a crap healer for several reasons:

1. One of our other healers said last week that when he did Hodir in another guild (I assume) the druid healers usually outhealed him by like 10%. I'm a druid healer and I don't.

2. The same healer stated that Hodir is "a healer fight" that needs a lot of spam healing of hots and instant casts. Who has the hots (and I also guess a lot of the instant casts)? Yup me, the druid.

3. When we wiped (several times) the same healer said we needed more healing and I really felt he virtually pointed at me, the druid with the hots and instant casts.

I'm not saying I shouldn't try to be better at healing on the move but I was of the clearly naive notion that the Hodir fight was not only about druid healing. I thought it was at least a tiny bit about everyone avoid falling ice blocks, moving constantly etc. And it's not like I usually stand around not healing out of sheer laziness as opposed to spam healing needed on Hodir.

Still the other healer's statements make me feel very, very heavily that the responsibility for keeping the raid alive on Hodir is on me and only me since I'm a druid with hots etc. And when we wipe, like we did several times this week, it feels like I'm personally to blame.

Ok, I realise I'm probably oversensitive on this.

Parental pressure comes in many forms

Yesterday I was in HoS with our GM and his son, both dps warriors.
The son: "I will so out dps you dad."
The father: "If you do, it's bedtime!"

Dude

I'm not one to advertise my gender ingame, still I can't help feeling awkward every time I get adressed as "dude". A dude for me is very much a guy and even if it doesn't matter one bit in terms of playing I find it a little annoying. I know there are more male than female players in World of Warcraft but what if I decided to assume every other player was female and started to call them "grrl" or something?

I think the main reason for me being annoyed is the fact that I can't think of a way telling people I'm not a dude without at the same time seem to stress I'm female. I just don't want to be adressed as a male, I don't want to say "Hey I'm a girl".

Night of the Dragons

Saturday night we started doing OS25 as we usually do in guild on Saturday. No drakes up so it was more or less a doing it in your sleep run. These days I think some people don't find OS worth doing anymore (especially without drakes up) but we always seem to have players who haven't done it. I like the place too, all fire and brown stone. I also like the drakes emotes. The way Tenebron says "I should not have held back..." (yesh, right) and Shadrons surprised "We...are superior! How could this... be... " (no, maybe you shouldn't think you are all that when 25 people are coming to get you?).

After OS ten of us went to see Onyxia. I have tried new Onyxia on 25 man with two different pugs and that didn't go too well. We also tried the 10 man version once before in guild and I don't know if we were overconfident or just not very good then because the general impression was that adds, fire and our quick death on our part. This time however it all went like clockwork on first try. Noone got hit by head, tail or breath or felt the urge to visit the whelp caves. Totally useless loot though from a druid perspective. Well, of course there was the head of Onyxia but I never win items like that.

One of the warriors in guild needed to do EoE for a quest and since we were on a roll with the dragons why not? It took three times to get Malygos down and then he bugged on the second try. It feels very weird when all of a sudden you get thrown off the drake in phase 3, fall for the time it takes to think "Oh...sh...",then land on a new drake only to realise a few second later that you are falling through space again , this time to certain death. My husband, Oto the hunter, almost never seems to get the drake interface showing in phase 3. This run it worked one time and of course that was the time the fight bugged so he didn't get to enjoy being able to do anything for very long.

What more raids with dragons? We went back to Wyrmrest Temple and did OS10. After that it would have been nice to end the night with daily hc being Nexus or Occulus but it was Old Kingdom.

Human, no thanks

I'm not much of an alt person but I have a lowly little warlock that I really do like. The reason she remains low level is because I don't like neither being human in game nor the human start area. I like my in game character to be something I'm not in everyday life. And of course you can argue that being a warlock is certainly not part of my everyday life (sadly I might feel some days days at work) but being human feels so ordinary. No pointy ears, no skyblue skin, no tail to make your mantle stand out in an odd angle, no pixiesh height, just plain boring human. Sigh.

And the environment. More plain humans in the Defias Brotherhood and the dusty beige feeling of Westfall. The only remotely exciting things in Westfall are the crazed harvest machienes with their stompy Frankenstein walk. I almost fall asleep over my keyboard.

Yesterday I found myself fishing in Stormwind rather than going out in the woods whacking some more of the Defias Brotherhood. That must be a sign that something is truly wrong as I have never got Astrantia to reach even 200 in fishing skill because I find in game fishing a bit like watching plants grow...wery slow and not very exciting.

Instead of whining I should probably wait for Cataclysm and then roll a worgen warlock but in a way that feels silly too. I guess I just have to grind away so I can leave the brown fields of Westfall behind me.

Artwork contest at Druid Main

Icedragon is looking for druid pictures to use in an upcoming post. If you feel you have a druid artistic streak do enter the contest before 5 November.

Dark appeal

Trial of the Champion may not be my favourite instance as such (the cheering of the audience is nice but the jousting is not) but I do like the Black Knight in his undead form. This may sound a bit like the crazy persons who have crushes on serial killers, but I find him sort of...cute. Especially if you happen to wipe and when you come in again he stands there in the middle of the room, looking hunched and a bit lost with that ridicolously big sword. I just want to tell him everything will be allright and that he can go back to his coffin or whatever and rest in peace.

Shallow is thy name

I know, there are surely some poor nightelves in the WoW-equivalent of Africa who will never get any epic gear and who live out their days in tattered grays and I do admit I'm vain and the nelf version of a material girl but I was ridicuolosly happy when I won Malfurion's leggings of Triumph in VoA the other day. I suddenly realised that the reason I have felt a bit uninspired in my WoW life lately is (oh shallowness) the fact that I haven't had the chance to upgrade my gear for for what feels like a very long time. I have been raiding instead of doing the daily hc and while raiding is more fun, from a strictly material perspective doing the daily hc is probably more lucurative from a gear point of view now when you get emblems of triumph from it.

Still I guess it's good if I can channel my materialism in game. It's way cheaper than to buy that tempting designer dress in real life...and probably good for the environment as well.

Tabard thoughts

I think you should get a tabard with a ghost (or maybe a pumpkin) on it when you get the Hallowed achievement. Overall I think it would be nice if there was a tabard for each of the world events.

And why aren't tabards like mounts and pets nowdays, attached to a tab on your charactar?

Hello again Hodir

New week, new try on Hodir. This time we knew what to do in theory but it took some tries to make it work in action. The keyword in the Hodir fight reallt is movement. Move not to stack up damaging frost debuff, move not to be hit by falling objects, move to friendly fires/pillars of light, move onto snowdrifts, move, move, move. And try to remember to cram in some damage, healing or tanking at the same time. First try I died of being ice trapped and then immediately hit in the head by a falling ice block. Only afterwards did I remember that shapshifting would have freed me of the ice trap had I used in time (yes, yes, I see the "noob" comments come on this but then I have at least made the day for those of you who read here to confirm your own awsomeness compared to others).

After a few tries we managed to get things right and Hodir was defeted without anyone dying and even with all the friendly npcs alive in the end. Next boss up to try is Freya which, judging from movies at Tankspot.com, seems quite complicated. Having to fight against flora gone mad also always make me a bit uncomfortable, I don't really know why. Maybe it's the tree in me protesting about the thought of nature going evil?

My scattered thoughts on Hodir

This is more or less a transcript of what went through my head when we did Hodir for the first time yesterday:
Ok, have to keep moving all the time and ofc heal, thank god for instant heals, remember to move so I don't freeze to death...blue circle on the floor, get out! Another blue circle, get out! And yes don't forget to heal. A fire, always avoid fire....or no not this time...standing in the fire is good...or maybe not IN the fire, stand close to the fire. And don't forget to heal. Blue circle is still bad though. Very nice with a helping npc moonkin. Is fire out? Keep moving. And healing, don't forget to heal that is why you are here. Do that [name and class withheld] have to stand under every ice block that is falling? Oops, missed that one myself, have to keep moving. And watch the floor. And heal. Flash freeze coming up...where are the larger circles? There are circles everywhere, I hope this is the right one, jump into it or no wait until ice have fallen. Now! Still alive but not healing enough since some other people have died. How to move, watch out for falling objects and massively heal at the same time? And here comes frozen blows on tank...heal away heal away. And move etc....No it won't work damn and here is Hodir coming my way... hello there Mr Frosty....arrrghh I'm dead...

No, we didn't defeat him. But I think you have guessed that already.

Trick or Tree's holiday recommendations for Ignis the Furnace Master

So you are Ignis the Furnace Master standing there in your room week after week, waiting for people to come and try to kill you yet another time. You feel a bit tired and stressed out of it all and if you didn't know those spoilt players would go straight to your employer whining in their GM tickets about you being bugged, you would seriously considering enraging immediately at the start of every fight just to show them. You are tired of being treated like this. You are not a slave, you are an employee entitled to rights like...holiday. Yes, you are in serious need of a holiday. You will demand extended maintenence of the server next week so you have time to go somewhere, see some interesting new sights and maybe even have some fun and meet new people. But where to go? Luckily for you, you happen to stumble on ToT's Raid Boss Travel Agency specializing in holiday experiences taylor made for YOU!

For you, dear Ignis, we recommend our Blackrock Depts/Molten Core Tour. On our way down to the mighty halls of the dark iron dwarfs we stop briefly on the chain bridge to admire the beautiful, glowing sights of the lava lake below. At the entrance of Blackrock Depts we will be greeted by our on site guide Overmaster Peyron. First we will visit Lord Incendius who will show us both the Black anvil and the Black Forge. Lord Incendius will tell us the secrets of how to smelt dark iron and you will even get to smelt a dark iron bar yourself. If you feel like buying gift for you nearest and dearest at home you will be given time to browse Lord Incendius gift shop with a variety of dark iron items ranging from green to epic suitable for every taste.

After the forge we continue to the Grim Guzzler for lunch. This genuine tarvern is the the natural meeting place for the local inhabitants and you are almost guaranteed some interesting insights in everyday Blackrock life. Maybe you even will be offered to taste some Dire brew. When lunch is over we will go past the Imperial Seat and if we are lucky we might catch a glimpse of Emperor Dagran Thaurissan and his princess Moira Bronzebeard on our way to the entrance of Molten Core. Overmaster Peyron will guide us through the fiery core of Blackrock Mountain where we will be sure to encounter the famous and very popular two headed core hounds. This tour's grand final will be the appearence of no other than Elemental Lord Ragnaros himself and his eight sons of Flame. After their spectacular fire show you will be given a miniature glow in the dark Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros replica as a souvenir.

For your convinience this tour comes with warlock summoning both to and from Blackrock Mountain. No need for bumpy mammoth rides or changing gryphons on the way. If you book today you will also recieve 50% off on our whelp hatchling excursion in Blackwing Lair!

Being stubborn doesn't always pay off

I'm not a seasoned raider but I have one solid piece of advice when it comes to raiding I want to share and that is: if you wipe on a boss 4 times and there is no progress in sight (i.e. you are getting closer to the kill every time) move elsewhere or try again another day.

Note that I don't say that you should just try 4 times and then give up as a general rule. Sometimes it takes more than 4 tries to get everything right or you realise tactics was all wrong and start over again. But the keyword here is progress. When you wipe repeatedly, going through the same motions and the health bar of the boss seems stuck at the same percentage every time you all die, chances are you will continue wiping until one of two things happen: either you have to call it off three hours later after continued wiping, leaving everyone feeling exausted as well as disappointed (more likely on guild runs) or the group will start desintegrating with people blaming each other and leaving in a huff (more likely in pugs).

Sometimes all it takes is a short break, killing something else. Naxx is a good place since, if you haven't cleared the rest of the place already, you can always move to another wing for a change of scenery for a while and then go back to annoying Heigan, irritating Gluth or the four tiresome horsemen and you will probably kill them.

Yesterday I didn't follow my own advice in Ulduar. We tried hard mode on Flame Leviathan (and no I don't agree with Tamarind that it looks like a golf caddie, I always think of it as the mad snow plough. There is after all a lot of snow in Storm Peaks. Perhaps Flame Leviathan was set to work though it all and went insane by the sheer impossibility of it all) but that was too much for us to take on with fire, ice and all the crazy flowers running about so after two tries we destroyed two of the towers. Two towers up we usually manage perfectly fine but yesterday was one of those nights when things just didn't work. We died again and again and stubbornly refused to destroy the two remaining towers because we should be able to to it really. We wasted a lot of time on the evil snow plough and in the end we still destroyed the other two towers just to be done with it. By then it was quite late and I should have gone to bed but it felt so depressing to end the night like that so I said ok, let's have a go on XT before bed. We went to the scrap yard, killed the boss in no time and that was it. It went so fast I felt what the hell, let's do Kologarn too so we went over to him and yep, he went down, no problems at all.

If we hadn't been so stubborn on Flame Leviathan we would have had time to move further in Ulduar. As it was now at least we felt the night ended better than it begun but still I regret we spent so much time on Flame Leviathan with towers up just because we should be able to to it really.

Late night wiping with another dragon

I don't have time to play hardly anything right now. Real life is screaming for almost undivided attention which (as always) makes me slightly feeling guilty for not being available in guild for raids and instances (which in a way is just another way of being egocentric I guess, they are probably doing perfectly fine without me).

On Friday my abstinence from WoW in general and a masochistic streak of oh-I-realise-I-haven't been-part-of-a-wipe-in-almost-a-week made me join a late night try of 25 man Onyxia. I wasn't in the group from start but learned that they had spent the better part of the night in that rather confined space that is Onyxia's lair. I really would like to say that my joining made all the difference between wiping and success but then my nose would be become so long Pinoccio's would appear quite normal.

First we wiped because people got hit by Onyxia's tail. Then we wiped because someone got thrown into the eggs that hatched a myriad of whelps that quickly killed the heroic off tank who tried to take them all on. Then I think we wiped because everyone were just generally to scattered about. And the last time I don't even remember the cause for the wipe, but wipe we did.

In theory we had a tactic where everyone would stick more or less together throughout the fight but I think for most part from the moment phase 2 was on when Onyxia took to the air ,everyone just forgot about it and ran away in different directions. Trying to raid heal when 25 people run around at random, drifting in and out of range, is quite a challenge. It made me wish I had a sheep dog to round them all up. As it was I tried my best running back and forth to cover most part of the cave looking for people in need of healing while at the same time glancing up to the cieling when Onyxia did her deep breath.

I just have to ask: am I the only one who find Onyxia a bit odd looking? I think her head looks funny, especially when you first get to see her before you start the fight. Her head is so small and her horns looks a bit like something that would belong to a cow. Or maybe a tauren.

With child

I have become a WoW parent! My little Teldrassil sproutling is sooo cute and we go so well together don't we? Of course right after I aquired my little one I took her (I've decided it's a she) on sightseeing to Darnassus so she could get to know her roots. Parenting is serious business!

Proud parent!

A random late night post

I think I suffered a post-Malygos depression after having finally downed him on Friday. I logged in for a brief time on Saturday and did VoA25 but felt uninspired indeed (it didn't help that I lost the roll on the druid gloves on Koralon). So on Sunday and Monday I had a WoW break and watched some tv and went to bed before midnight. It felt quite good actually but tonight I was on again. I joined the guild run for the last part of Naxx10, military quater and the two final bosses. I have grown to like the four horsemen fight. I ususally get to be in the back together with a hunter and the pet is on my side when we run back and forth. Tonight I was in for a bit of surprise though when one of the front horsemen broke loose from the tank in the beginning and came heading my way. Two horsemen and a void zone forming under my feet meant fast and certain death.

After Naxx was finished I did the daily which was (surprisingly) not HoS but Trial of the Champion. The Argent Tournament has still not made me a full fledged knight ( I think they might have given up on me ever being very good at jousting to be honest) but the night elves of Darnassus cheered anyway which always make me feel sort of proud and happy in a shallow and vain way. And it's quite undeserved at that: they cheer when I get inside and then they have to endure my jousting right after that. I'm surprised they don't throw a rotten tomato on me really.

Wohooo!!!

We did it! Yesterday was the night we finally downed Malygos. Yey us!

It was very, very close. Malygos was on the brink of enrage when he died and only two in the group were still alive in the end. But we killed him! Afterwards I was so happy it bordered to the ridiculous, the sort of joy that comes from having tried something a million times and finally having succeded. So sweet.

Since we seemed to be on a roll with the drakes five of us went on to do heroic Occulus. It was a long time since I did that instance and then only on normal. I hardly remembered how to handle my emerald drake so it took three tries to kill the final boss but after that I am, lo and behold, Astrantia of the Frozen Wastes. Fancy that. Not too bad for my little night elf tree.

Chicken Malygos

Yep, like true masochists we went back yesterday to get our poor behinds kicked again in Eye of Eternity. On a positive note I can say: we are getting better. Better at stacking on top of each other when the floor goes into pieces and we are getting on the drakes and that makes it very much easier to get some bearings on where to go for me at least.

The downside still is that we don't actually kill the damn dragon.

But I do feel Malygos is getting scared we might succed in downing him because last night he retorted to cheating! On our fourth try when everyone in group had agreed to

• let the healers heal
• keep the dot up on boss all the time
• use shield when getting stared down by the boss (Malygos is focusing his eyes on you!)
• move away from group when affected by static charge
• stick together

we went through phase 1 and 2 fine, stacked up nicely for phase 3, the floor cracked, we mounted on drakes but before the fight even started...the drakes disappeared and we promptly fell to our death.

Arrrgghh!

I tell you Malygos, you can claim to be bugged but I know you are afraid of us. Admit it, you cheating bastard! And you can't trick us forever. We will hunt you down and squish you like a big...moth or something.