Trick or tree

Poor thing

2010-06-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

This poor, neglected blog. What to say. Real life takes a lot of time and almost nothing is left to keep up my WoW life. Too bad.

Right now the guild events I try to participate in every week are ICC25 on Thursdays and ICC10 on Sundays. One could call our Icecrown Citadel advances slow as in a pace a snail wouldn't have problems to keep up with but we do move forward and most often do six bosses every week on 10 man. But six bosses is about what we have time for in one run and since we haven't yet exended our 10 man raids now I begin to feel we are stuck in an endless loop beginning with Marrowgar and ending with either Festegut or Rotface.

Speaking about Festegut and Rotface, what's with mad scientists and their preferences for family members built of spare parts of some sort? We have Mirmion in Ulduar with his X2 Deconstructor and in Icecrown Professor Putricide has assembled the twins (did he build one first of random body parts and then cloned it since they look exactly the same?). I can understand both the professor's and Mirmion's difficulties in finding a partner to start a family with but to think about thier parental instincts being so strong they literally build their families themselves (mad scientists and single parents!). It's quite endearing in a way (and Festegut and Rotface even have thir own pets).

We don't talk about me being senile and don't go half naked

2010-02-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

I definitely have to post more. This morning when I was about to log in I had completey forgot my blogger login for this blog!

But this post is not about me being senile (let's forget about that very quickly...hmmm) but about gems and enchants. I have to say I really don't understand players who don't put gems and enchants on their current gear because they think what they are wearing is just transit to something better. What kind of logic is that? If you feel your gear is not top of the line even more reason to gem or enchant to boost it a bit. I'm not a gear fascist in the way that I think everyone in a group should be geared to the teeth but I do find it a bit sloppy to go into a place like ICC with empty gem slots. Maybe you can't have the best items in game but you can certainly do the best you can with the stuff you do have. You don't even have to go for the top gems or enchants if you find it too expensive. Blue gems (as in rare not necessarily in colour) can do nicely and sometimes the extra gold required for some 10 more of a stat on a weapon that the top enchant might not be worth it but then go for second best. Don't be afraid to sparkle. Shinies are good for you!

Random update

2010-02-02T00:29:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry for the not very frequent posting. Since we had the flu in November the whole family has taken turns coughing and having colds. I also have a new assignment at work that need my attention so less WoW at the moment. '

But: we have finally progressed beyond Lady Deathwisper in ICC (don't ask why we have had such difficulties with her because I really can't explain) which meant I have got to do the gunship battle. Oh, what fun it was! I loved jumping between the ships. And Muradin Bronzebeard sounding like a true sailor.

I also couldn't help but laugh at our bear tank. In bear form it doesn't look as if the rocket jet pack is attached to your back, it looks as if it's sticking out from your butt! I don't know if bear farts but if he did he would probably gone out in orbit around Azeroth...

Pug ToC10 pissing contest

2010-01-15T01:22:00.000-08:00

We raid two nights a week now in guild which is quite enough really but yesterday I felt a bit bored after having done the compulsory daily random hc so I put myself in queue for ToC10. (By the way, with the pimped new lfg-system (sorry, dungeon finder system) how come the looking for raid interface got stashed away in what is the WoW equivalent to the basement with a sign on the door "Tigers, do not enter"? )

Quite soon a group formed, we entered the now very familiar room that is the boring setting for the raid and I had barely crossed the threshold when I realised this was not going to be a raid as much as it was going to be a pissing contest. Recount was spammed contantly, people bragged about their achievements, how easy the game is nowdays ("Pre nerf C'thun, that was the times") and people would probably had tossed their gear to measure the size of privat parts if it hadn't affected their dps unfavourably.

The run left me wondering: are there players who join groups with the sole purpose to get the chance to tell other people how awsome they are? And could maybe Blizzard include a box you could tick in the looking for group system so that those players can come together whithout having to endure people like me who just keep quiet and heal and don't show them the admiration and worship the deserve.

Leeroy Astrantia

2010-01-11T04:01:00.000-08:00

Last night in ToC25 i completely lost my mind. We had just wiped on the Twin Valkyrs for the second time. I was standing to the left with people with supposing to have white buffs and I thought maybe I should change colours to black so we could better control the black orbs on that side. Raid leader said ok and I head for the black essence. But the wrong one. The one just next to Eydis Darkbane...She was not pleased I tell you. I just heard the raid leader gasp "Oh no!" before I went splat.

Since everything happened so quickly and I think everyone else was busy with sorting out their own colours I was the only one to get aggro and then the whole encounter reset and the twins disappeared.

So no wipe. But one ashamed tree.

Forgive me my stupid look, it's in the name of the stats

2010-01-09T04:25:00.000-08:00

Has Astrantia turned engineer and this is her home made effort of a weapon, pieced together perhaps from some scattered about parts from Flame Leviathan with a light bulb attached on it for more glamour? Oh, it's the Argent Resolve (which I guess is some spare parts from Flame Leviathan with a light bulb attached on it for more glamour, digested by Anub'arak). Now I just need a Shriveled Heart to go with it and I will look very stupid (cog wheel in one hand and something looking like a maracas in the other) but hopefully my healing will be so awsome people will not notice my appearence....hmm.

Hall of Reflections x 2

2010-01-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

Last night I got annoyed at myself for not having done Hall of Reflections so I boldly pugged it on hc to get a chance to complete the "Wrath of the Lich King" quest. When we were done (with my very limited experience of the place I think HoR might be a place were a good tank makes all the difference in the first part with the spirits attacking and the paladin tank we had in the group was very good) I looked at my quest and it was completed and without thinking I left the instance and only afterwards I realised I should have turned it in to Jaina Proudmore when we had escaped the Lich King. I went back to the instance, sneaked past a lonely respawn in the corridor up to the Lich King's throne room and run the escape path again (minus the Lich King and the ghouls) but Jaina was already gone.

I felt very stupid but nothing in the quest said it had to be completed on heroic so I put myself in queue for the instance on normal and did the whole thing all over again but in easier mood. In the new group was a hunter who turned out to be a selfish idiot. Apparently he wanted a pair of boots from the first boss and when they dropped he promptly needed them and left. Which left the rest of us having to fight the rest of the spirits with only four people since the warlock that replaced him couldn't get inside the instance because we were in combat. Thanks a lot. Then I escaped the Lich King for the second time the same night but this time the group tagged along after him which made the whole escape thing feel more than a bit weird especially at the end when Jaina shouts about us having to prepare for our last fight and the boulders start to fall down to block the entrance and we had to run not to be trapped on the side with the Lich King. (If the entrance gets blocked and you still were on the inside would you be able to run though the boulders or would the Lich King turn and say "Oh there you are..."?)

I also realised how I could have missed to complete the quest the first time. The question mark above Jaina's head is obscured by her lengthy talking but this time I was staring at her until she was finished (as opposed to the first time when I ran up the stairs and portaled to quickly) and then was given my two emblems of Frost.

We are of course lucky that he doesn't seem to be in better shape but the Lich King is one slow pursuer that is for sure. Jaina is like "Hurry, hurry he is coming!" and you are tempted to reply "But I can hardly see him moving".

Whining makes the trick?

2010-01-04T05:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was complaining on how I'm out of favor vith the RNG deity and I think my whining was heard and to prove me wrong I did win not one but two items in yesterday night's ToTC25 raid: Ring of the Darkmender and Vestments of the Shattered Fellowship. Now I definately have to sacrifice a dice and a random number to show how grateful I am.

By the way, I don't know what it is with us and Anub'arak. We just can't get it right. In theory we know what to do and sometimes it goes really well for a while and every now and then we actually begin to think we might kill the bug this week but then something goes wrong and we all die.

Am I the only one in the WoW universe who has still not done Hall of Reflections? I have only been there once and then only got so far as to kill the first boss. I can't say I'm fond of instances that even slightly remind me of Black Morass (waves of mobs and if you fail you have to start all over again) so HoR will probably never be my favourite instance even though I imagine the running from the Lich King part should be interesting (maybe that is not the right word but fun seems even more wrong).

One more thing in this post that turn out to be rather random: why are there no Boots of Wintry Endurance for sale in the auction house anymore?

Bad luck

2010-01-02T06:53:00.000-08:00

I don't know how but I must have offended the RNG god/godess/gods big time because it seems absolutely impossible for me to get drops from raids or instances anymore. I don't think I have won anything in a raid for....well it must be over two months now. Oh wait, I'm lying, I actually did win what I thought was new bracers in ToC10 one time but afterwards it turned out I must have been blind (or overexcited that some spell power leather dropped at all) and they were no bracers at all but a pair of shoulders that I had no use for.

I start to think I should just accept the fact that I will never roll any number higher than 20 anymore or maybe I should build a small altar in front of the pc dedicated to the RNG diety and burn some incence and sacrifice a dice every time rolls are on in raid. That might work. Or my laptop will be set on fire.

Nothing new in daily random hc

2009-12-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

Emblem of this and emblem of that. Call me easily bored but I'm getting a bit tired of running heroics for new kind of badges. Of course you can go down the raid boss the quest person formerly known as the daily heroics guy wants dead weekly but as the quest implies it's only once a week. Then you can raid Icecrown Citadel but for us who still stuggle to get that big bug down in 25 man Trial of the Crusader I think Icecrown Citadel is more to think of in terms of wieving new scenery in between wipes rather than a chance to get emblems of frost. So that leaves the daily random heroic. Which you can almost do in your sleep but still: it's not that much fun. And isn't fun what the game is about? Something must be a little wrong when you log in and think of the daily random hc as you think of those boring work tasks you know you would feel better if you took care of right away but you still find excuses not to do for as long as possible. On the flip side this will probably make me a better cook and maybe even get me some quest achievements.

Favourite piece of loot

2009-12-25T11:40:00.001-08:00

I asked Tamarind over at Righteous Orbs if I could be part of his blog content gift exchange and the topic I got was ...
...I hereby address myself to your inner material girl, remembering how happy you were to nab Malfurion’s Leggings of Triumph – I’m sure it goes without saying that we’re putting aside anything silly like, y’know, *the numbers* but what’s been your favourite piece of in-game loot thus far, either because of the looks, the lore, the name, the story behind acquiring it, whatever.
It had taken me this long to get something down on this topic because at first I feared I have gear altzheimers because I coudn't for the life of me come up with an item that I remember has turned me into Gollum of Lord of the Rings and go "...my precioussssssss....". After even more thinking I realized this was a difficult topic for me because I tend to took more at stats than to looks, lore or name of my gear. Well, if I have to walk around with someone's cut out tounge in my off hand then of course I notice but then I tell myself that's how it is in this game and try not to think about it too much. If I have to say anything I do pay attention to more than stats it's the look of the gear. Now, since I'm a druid, my gear tend to go in the colours of green and brown and mostly seem to be designed to help me shadowmeld, but one item that I felt genuinely sad to part with was my level 70 Merciless Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders (this was back in the days when I did a lot more pvp than I do nowdays). They were made of bark and had small violet flowers that sprouted, bloomed and wilted every other second on them. You really didn't notice the flowers in game if you didn't look very close, in fact they were best watched on the log in screen. I liked the notion that someone at Blizzard had programmed those little flowers, even though they maybe wouldn't be noticed, just because they were such a nice touch.
Or wait...maybe the shoulders does not count as loot since they were pvp rewards and not a boss drop? Damn...oh well, I have to think about it some more then. But I can say I'm happy I don't play a char that can benefit from the Unidentifiable Organ that drops in Icecrown Citadel. I know that if I would always wonder just what organ I was carrying around in my off hand.

Winter whining

2009-12-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one who feel that for every new content patch the demands on having achievements and a high gear score increases? How long has patch 3.3 been out now, 2 weeks and I already feel stressed because I have only had time to run Forge of Souls and and Pit of Saron once and haven't completed Halls of Reflections. But it's December and Christmas is around the corner and there is work to be done, Christmas gifts to be bought, dinners to attend to and what not. No time for emblem farming or running new instances. In a way it's silly to feel any pressure since it's only a game after all but still there is one tiny part of me that feel that I'm not keeping up.

Another thing I haven't paid any attention to so far is the Feat of Winter Veil. To my surprise I won a red winter's hat the other day when I did the daily random heroic and to my even greater surprise two players in the group quit right after that since it turned out they were only interested in getting it and not in finishing the instance.

Patch 3.3 first impressions

2009-12-11T04:27:00.000-08:00

I was occupied with the non WoW aspects of my life in the beginning of the week so it was only yesterday I logged in to see what patch 3.3 has to offer and really, you miss the first day after patch and some people go "Oh, haven't you been to the new 5 man instances yet?". Well, no sorry I'm late...ehh.

I started the night by trying the new lfg system's random daily heroic and it didn't take a minute to get in a group and be teleported to the Nexus. It's probably to early to have an opinion but I do think I like the new cross realm lfg and the way Blizzard try to make it easier to pug groups. The Nexus run went fine and the only thing to mention is that on Omorok the Tree shaper one of the dps was offline before starting the boss and the other two died of ice spikes when the boss was around 70%, which left the dk tank and me to finish him off. It took quite a while and I coudn't even chip in a tiny bit of dps since my dps in tree form is zero. I felt like a healing cheerleader waveing my arms (branches) in the air supportivly every now and then as the tank slowly nudged Omorok to death.

One other thing I like with the new daily dungeon system is that you don't need to pick up items or body parts to present as proof of what you have done. Maybe you have better memory than I have but several times I have forgot to pick up whatever I needed to bring back to the quest guy in Dalaran.

As for the "Oh, haven't you done the new 5 man instances yet" I did my best to do them too yesterday but I only had time to do the two first ones, Forge of Souls and Pit of Saron, before bedtime. My first impression I must say, is gloomy. And of course it is, the Lich King is the Sauron of Northrend and evil does not like colour for some reason. So it's all different shades of black and the only presence of light is the glowing skulls floating around in the Forge of Souls. As for the bosses I think my favourite one this far is the four faced devourer of Souls.

Money definately can improve your reputation

2009-12-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

Last week I got tired of being revered with the sons of Hodir. The thought of grinding the dailies the final way to exalted made me want to cry or fall asleep over my keyborad. I resolutely made my way to the auction house and bought enough relics of Ulduar to bribe my way to exalted. It feels a tiny bit like cheating but what the hell. No more polishing and thrusting of spears or handling of other Hodir artefacts. It's definately worth it.

Trial of the Crusader 10

2009-12-03T02:03:00.000-08:00

Last week and this week we have cleared 10 man Trial of the Crusader. The guest appearence of the Lich King when he shatter the floor and you drop down to Anub'arak is a nice touch I think, even though when it happened the first time I was out in the kitchen getting a cup of tea and came back just in time to watch our GM drown since he was afk. I must admit I was a bit confused about what had happened. At first I thought I thought the whole Argent Tournament had been flooded.

When it comes to the fights, the one we have had most difficulties with is the faction champions. I think it's the pvp element in that fight that takes some time getting used to if you are a pve player. As with pvp the champions gang up on players and they behave somewhat unpredictably and last week it took us a great many tries to get into the right "don't think so much, just concentrate on the right target and burn it down really fast while at the same time making it as difficult as you can for the others to hit or heal"-mood.

I think this fight is easier for healers than for the dps and tanks. As healer you just heal whatever you can, dispel whatever you can dispel and try to run away when the champions chase you and I generally have the feeling that even if healing of course is part of the success, this is not a blame the healer fight if you don't make it.

As for the twin valkyrs, the strategy that is most succesful for us is that everyone except one tank, that tanks healer and one more player (preferably a healer) pick the same colour and dps concentrate only on one twin. The only time the raid switch colour is when the twins do vortex of the opposite colour. After the vortex everyone switch back to the original colour they had and continue to dps the one twin. This way the twins will heal 20% when they do twins pact but if dps is high enough this won't be a problem and you don't loose time and dps with people running to change colour and changing twin to dps. The three players that had a different colour than the rest of the raid from the beginning stick to their colour too just like the others and for the two that are not tank their task is also to pick up the orbs in their colour so they don't hit other players. Best is to have one player on each side of the room for orb catching.

On general Jaraxxus I know many groups say you should spread out in a circle around the boss. For us it has been way more easy to stand in a semi circle on one side of the boss. This way everyone will be in range for healers and I think it's also easier for the OT to pick up the adds that way. My only wish in the Jaraxxus fight is that people wouldn't run away when they get the incinerate flesh debuff. Maybe it's the skull on the head that dbm puts up that scare people but please stand still so I can heal you instead of having to chase you across the room.

Rare orcs and cooking softie

2009-11-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

An orc rogue. That must be one of the most rare creatures in game. And I understand. There is something that does not feel entirely right with the combination stealth and orc. I didn't manage to find one for the Pilgrim's Bounty achievement so in the end I had my husband create one who I met up with in the Barrens one day too late (today) and turned into a turkey. So now I'm a pilgrim.

I must say I love Pilgrim's Bounty for the opportunity to speed level cooking. Cooking, like fishing, I think is easier if you do along the way to level cap because when you need to go grind low level items to use for cooking you make up all sorts of excuses to put it off until some other time. But now I'm 357 in cooking and yesterday I even did a daily cooking quest. That daily had me going to Borean Tundra to get some rhino meat. Now I know it's stupid but I just couldn't kill the rhino matriarchs and their calfs. It just felt very wrong and the D.E.T.H.A presence in Borean Tundra that make you all red and bloody when killing animals didn't really help. In the end I settled for killing the male rhinos which is probably very politically incorrect, impying that rhino dads are not as important as rhino mums.

Back (sort of)

2009-11-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

I have been ill for almost a week now in what is most likely the swine flu. It was not a pleasant experience. I feel very much better now though even though I still have a cough that makes me think my lungs have grown a wish to see the outside world and is trying to jump out of my body.

I'm looking forward to do the quests etc associated with the Pilgrim's Bounty holiday. I especially feel happy about the opportunity to finally level my cooking since my cooking skill (ingame I hasten to add) is, well I wouldn't say non existent but you woudn't like me to cook your dinner either.

Motivation...hmmm....seem to have misplaced it

2009-11-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

You would think autumn would make me more inclined to play WoW. I mean, when the rain pours outside and it's barely any light even at midday, getting lost in one's favourite game should be more than appealing? But no. I find myself raiding a little, questing a little (to raise my reputation with the capital cities) and as usual avoiding the Argent Tournament and Hodir dailies by inventing ever new excuses not to do them but my heart is not really in it. I'm sort of auto piloting through the game right now. I'm not bored enough to give up playing compleatly but I'm not motivated enough to play as much as I use to. Is it pre Cataclysm fatigue setting in already? I hope not.

The other day I decided to get my reputation to exalted with Stormwind so I headed to Elwynn Forest and Westfall and quested away. I have to say that Westfall is so much more bearable at level 80 than it is when low level. Even the kill-15-of-this-and-20-of-that-and-then-25-of-something-else quests are ok when you can blast the mobs with moonkin hurricane. Mwoaaahhaaa to all of the Defias Brotherhood who have killed my lowly rogue alt millions of times...

Want!

2009-11-13T04:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's materialistic and yes, it you can argue if it's right to buy something to have ingame with real money but I do want a Lil' K.T!

What is there not to want with a mini Kel'Thuzad? The pandaren monk is very nice too but Lil' K.T. looks so...mean, with his glowing eyes and swirling chains he's just irresistable!

A more positive post

2009-11-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, I admit it: I have been grumpy in my blog the last few posts, complaining on Trial of the Crusader and fellow raiders. But no more!

The Twin Valkyrs are my new favourites. We only had time to try the fight once but it was a very good try. And such fun, running around switching colours and catching orbs (and healing of course). The twins fight is really one of those fights that sound more complicated when you try to explain what to do than it is when you actually doing it. It is also a fight where Deadly Boss Mods really is your best friend since it tells you when you need to switch colour.

Since we got to see the twins we obviously made it past the faction champions too this time and that felt great too. I was so busy running around, trying to stay away as much as possible but at the same time be in range to heal so I didn't have time to see how the fight was going so when it was over I didn't notice att first. My first thought was "But how can it be? We are all still alive?"

A post involving Lord Jaraxxus but no tactis

2009-11-04T00:08:00.000-08:00

One of the (increasingly many) things I find irritating about Trial of the Crusader is that if you wipe on Lord Jaraxxus, when you come back inside the instance for another try he is in chains (or maybe he is enslaved). Why is that? Because he is a demon who will uncontrollably charge and kill us all otherwise? To protect the tournament audience from demon wrath? I think it feels so stupid. If he could kill that little gnome who summoned him with just batting his eyelashes (sort of and admittedly the little gnome does seems too full of himself for his own good) how come it takes only the time for us to make our way from the graveyard to restrain him? My mental picture is a magic SWOT-team running in and wrestle him down on the floor, handcuffing him.

And then when we get inside again, it's like "Oh, they are back, let's let him loose again so they can kill him." Why not leave him like he is so we can be done with it faster?

Ulduar 25 with a mistake Leroy and a whining player stuck on repeat

2009-11-03T00:14:00.000-08:00

A busy life (deadlines, deadlines) has made me play less WoW the last week but yesterday we teamed up with another guild to do Ulduar 25. Our guild is not a small guild but since it's quite casual it's hard for us to get enough (reasonably geared) people together for 25 man runs.

I think raiding with another guild is a good idea. I think it will be more fun when we get used to each other though. In my opinion last night's run was a bit of a struggle. Partly this had to do with me having huge disconnection problems on Razorscale which made me feel like the lousiest healer in WoW but it had also to do with our guilds behaving diferent from each other. For example the players from the other guild were constantly speaking on Vent. They discussed this and that and before boss fights and even in between mobs it took forever to get going. It sounds boring when I'm writing it but in our guild we don't tend to chat that much all the time.

To be fair I think things dragging out in time partly had to do with the raid leader not raid leading very much. I think this was due to him not knowing tactics very well but in my opinion that actually might be okey if there are other people who can explain to the people who don't know what to do. But as a raid leader it is important to ensure that the raid stays focused an keep the pace up so you don't just stand around in 20 minutes before a fight waiting for everyone to voice their opinions about he best way of doing things or asking yet again who is the tank and who is going to heal whom.

At the end of the night I also got seriously annoyed with one person's attitude. We had (surprise) been standing around in the antechamber of Ulduar for quite some time discussing yeat again which mob in the group of four to sheep, banish etc and then changed to kill one of the tall guys (an overseer?) walking back and forth first. In all the talking one of our hunters thought he heard someone say to pull so he did. Noone was ready and we wiped.

I admit this was clumsy and as someone pointed out, you should only start when the raid leader (or possibly the main tank) tells you to but it was an honest mistake, due mostly to I think the late hour and maybe all the waiting made him hear only the things he wanted to hear and he apologized from the bottom of his heart for his mistake.

But one person in the group just couldn't let go. First he said he didn't like wiping because of stupid mistakes like this (fair enough, who does?) but then he kept going on and on saying ovber and over again how stupid he thought it was pulling like that and that was not a mistake to be done in a 25 man raid and that he really hated when people pulled just because they thought it fun....and that was the point when I got really pissed off because the hunter pulling by mistake is my husband and knowing him, he would never, ever wipe a raid for fun. Also the complaining player kept saying he wasn't complaining just because he was mad or grumpy but he just thought it was so stupid and how could a person do a thing like that he wondered but seriously he wasn't mad if it was a mistake so be it but well he just didn't understand how someone could have been doing such a mistake really, it was so stupid....In fact he went on about in the same fashion on and off until the raid was called off and the last thing I heard when signing off vent he was telling everyone that he couldn't understand how anyone could make such a mistake (if that's what it was), he didn't want unecessary repair bills because because people were stupid and shouldn't you expect more of people in a 25 man raid group?

It's always a joy to raid with players who are perfect. Not to mention tolerant to us non perfect human beings.

Trick a tree?

2009-10-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-27T04:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-27T03:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-26T05:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-26T02:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T03:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T00:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-22T02:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-10-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-01T01:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Brewmaster

2009-09-29T06:11:00.000-07:00

After disturbing the peace in Dalaran with my dancing in brewfest regalia and joining the brew of the moth club I'm now Brewmaster Astrantia!

And while I'm very proud to be brewmaster, I also feel compelled to tell readers that it is purely a coincidence that that the first world event title I earn is the one that is all about drinking and doing crazy things when drunk. Really it is. It's true, I swear. I would never dance in silly clothing in a public place irl (oh wait, I did just that when I was a student)....well I would never....I wouldn't jump drunk (or sober) from the top of a temple. That I wouldn't do.

Hic...!

Oh...and btw...

2009-09-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

...I got the Drunken Stupor achievement tonight by throwing myself, smashing drunk, in cat form into the middle of Wyrmrest Temple in front of the surprised eyes of Lord Afrasastrasz.

I don't think he approved.

Tomorrow I will hopefully dance drunk in full brewfest regalia in Dalaran.

Note to all children playing WoW (and adults too come to think of it): do not try these things in everyday life!

Semi blind in Howling Fjord

2009-09-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Tamarind's post over at Righteous Orbs where he praises his new laptop made me think when I did a quest in Howling Fjord on my way to ding 80. The mission of the quest was to harpoon three different buildings on the other side of the water (I guess it was the other side of a fjord ) and set them on fire.

I tried several times to hit the buildings but failed because I couldn't really make out where the hell the buildings were located. Then a nice soul pointed out that I might need to adjust my video settings a bit. This was in the days when I had my stoneage laptop so I had every setting as low as possible as not to lag and I had really forgot there was other options than my see-as-far-as-my-outsteched-arm-goes settings. And when I did change the settings for distance, my god - it was like "Oh I'm not blind anymore! I can see! I can see!" The fog lifted and I could see the buildings I was too harpoon on the other side of the fjord. I could see a lot of other things too, like the not so very small Utgarde Keep. I set the buildings on fire in no time. So easy!

I really would have liked to keep my hawkeye sight but the downside of it made the game lag so I could hardly move around. So when having the choice between being half blind or semi-paralyzed I chose being very nearsighted again.

These days though I too have a new laptop and my WoW world is so bright I almost have to wear shades.

From here to eternity (and yes it's a mighty long way)

2009-09-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

I have been to Eye of Eterity four or five times now and Malygos is still flying in the sky laughing at us. The first two phases aren't that complicated from a healer perspective: in phase 1 just heal away (use only instant casts when vortex) and in phase 2 just heal away and run and stand inside the pink shields that pops up here and there on the platform. But phase 3 is where things go, well...not very good.

Sometimes I manage to put myself on follow to a person claiming to know how to move around Malygos but those times it seems everyone else is scattered about and out of reach to healing. Sometimes I fail att putting myself on follow and that is where the real problems start. This may sound very, very stupid but when I drop down on the dragon I seem to loose all sense of direction. There is just starry sky everywhere and I don't know what is up or down or back or forth. I know I can locate everyone else on the minimap but even if they are nicely grouped up (which they mostly are not by the way) I too often seem not to be in line with them vertically and I don't know if they are above or below me. Sometimes I feel I might be flying upside down for all I know, that is how lost I am.

The thing is I need some landmark to be able to navigate. I'm like that in real life too. I have absolutely no sense of "oh, this way must be north". When in new places I very likely take the wrong turn to where I'm going, making the way to my destination ridiculously longer than it has to be but when I have been somewhere once I remember the surroundings and find my way.

To me one one pixelated star in the sky looks exactly the same as any other and then I'm lost. And Malygos is laughing another week at our group who most likely resemble headless chickens when flapping around him.

What do you expect, just kill and loot?

2009-09-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

I don't get it when people complain about repair bills when raiding. I mean, raiding is volontary isn't it? If you are not prepared for some dying, don't go and you will save those 40 or 50 gold.

Very simple really.

(And if the perceptive reader note a certain irritation with people going "What-we-wiped-now-you-can-pay-my-repair-bill-since-I'm-so-great-it-can't-have-been-my-fault-in-any-way", yes you are perfectly right. )

WoW quiz for parents

2009-09-23T04:08:00.000-07:00

WoW is not a game just for teenagers. I know there are many parents roaming Azeroth. And since you have always wondered, now you can test: What kind of WoW race is your child?

1. You are on the beach with the family. What does your child do?

A) Goes "Mrrrggglll....gllllrrggll..", collect sea shells and takes a bite of a fish that has been stranded near you.

B) Starts digging for possible hidden treasures on the beach. Manage to sell beach sticks, stones and seaweed to other visitors as souvenirs.

C) Goes "Yey, this is the best place! And the sea is so BIG! Can I please take one of these beutiful sea shells with me home to show my friends?"

D) Kicks sand in the eyes of other children and says "The sea, what about it? It's only water. It ain't that big either."

2. You ask your child to tidy up his/her room. The response from your child is:

A) "Grrrgggglll...murrrgggglll". Your child runs around in his/her room a bit randomly,

moves things about, at times stopping to chew on an interesting toy.

B) "How much do you pay me if I clean my room right now?

C) "Yey, cleaning! I'll make all my things really shiny, just you wait and see!"

D) Slamming the door to his/her room shouting "Cleaning is stupid! "

3. How is your child doing in school?

A) The pre school teacher says your child is very enthusiastic but he/she needs to improve his/her speech a bit and also it is a problem that your child chews up all the pencils in sight.

B) Since you agreed to pay your child to get good grades school is going very well. The teacher says your child have a real talent for maths.

C) "Yey school! I get to see my friends every day and the teachers are nice too!"

D) "School is stupid. Noone need to teach me nothing. You want to tell me differently I'm gonna punch you in the face!"

4. When your child grows up he/she wants to

A) live on the beach in a tiny hut and study marine life.

B) become very rich.

C) become a jeweller. To get to work with shiny things every day: yey!

D) take revenge on everyone who wronged him/her when he/she was a child. Let them see who is the biggest one now!

Result:

Note that your child's WoW-race is not static and might be subject to change over the years.

Mostly anwer A

Your child is a murloc. Your child might be tiny, run around at random, speak a language that is mostly unintelligible and sometimes be annoying but you can't help to find her/him very cute and lovable anyway.

Mostly answer B
Your child is a goblin. With his/her knack for business your child will find business opportunities around every corner and the odds are that he/she will have made his/her first heap of gold before hitting 15. As a parent you might worry your child misses out on the more non materialistic aspects of life but don't worry: in this case money can buy happiness.

Mostly answer C

Your child is an oracle: full of joy for all the wondrous things life has to offer and always prepared to see the bright side of life. With his/her sunny personality your child is sure to make you feel like the best parent ever. Yey!

Mostly answer D

Your child is a wolvar. The outside might be cuddly but hides a fierce personality. Your child will never forget a wrongdoing but will also be very loyal to those he/she loves. Your child will always go her/his own way in life no matter what.

Rofl of the day

2009-09-21T11:56:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm a complete noob and you all know this site but if you don't, go to http://www.wowbash.com/ and have the laugh of the day.

And btw, you also have to read this post over at Righteous Orbs. It might be the funniest post of all times in a wow-blog.

Brewfest

2009-09-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

Time for drinking, eating sausages and bashing Coren Direbrew in Blackrock Depts!
I drank all the beers for the drinking achievement so fast that my screen blurred and then I tasted all the brewfest food for the food achievement. I felt a bit dizzy and sick afterwards.

No luck on the Coren Direbrew daily. I didn't get a single drop.

This year I will try to get the Pint-Sized pink Elekk and a membership in the Brew of the Month Club.

Moonkin in Naxx

2009-09-16T01:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Naxx25 run from Monday was continued and this time I joined. As dps! Yes, I got to be the raid's furry (feathery) friend of the night. So much fun and in a way very relaxing not to be the one to have to worry abouth the health of other people and instead just have to think "kill, kill, kill!".

Spider Wind and Plague quarter was down when we started and so was Patchwerk. The Grobbulus fight was less than perfect with people dropping off mutating injections randomly around the room instead of at the walls which made it really difficult not to stand in poison since poison was almost everywhere. Still Grobbulus was killed on first try.

Gluth on the other hand was a different matter. At first the dual specced dps that were supposed to tank the zombie adds didn't realise that they needed to switch into tank gear for the kiting. Then the healer that were assigned to heal the zombie kiters felt the overwhelming urge to go bear form instead of tree with the result that the kiters died of lack of healing. When some sense had been talked into the healer I dc'd in such a major way I had to reboot my pc to get back on and of course Gluth was killed while I was staring at my log in screen.

We had one and half try on Thaddius but I think everyone was getting tired and an accidental pull on Stalagg and Feugen made everyone feel that it was time to go to bed.

Beaten by beasts

2009-09-15T04:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a go at Trial of the Crusader 10 man normal. I had put the raid time to 21.00 and the other day our guild master scheduled Naxx25 at 22.00 which gave us a whole hour to take on the Northrend beast and the Twin Valkyrs. I'm not entirely sure if he was extreamly confident in our awsomeness and expected us just to go in and blast the bosses or if the thought we'd just totally fail and in that case one hour would be quite enough time for that, thank you very much.

As it was we didn't do too well but that was expected. Learning always take time. As it was, first time we tried one of the tanks died on Gromok the Impaler and I battle rezzed him, but then the other one died too and facing the two jormungars with only one tank is not the way to go. Second try one of the healers (not me) died after about 3 seconds because he got roasted in one of the fire spots. Gromok died but two healers on the jormungars was not enough. Third try my mind hit a lag spike and I totally forgot to move anywhere so I died of fire. Fourth try actually went well until one of the tanks dc'd just before Gromok died and we again only had one tank to face the jormungars. On the fifth try Gromok went down fine and everyone was alive but we didn't manage to get very far on the two worms. After that there was no time for more wiping since Naxx25 was on, which might have been just as well since I was dead tired.

I didn't join for Naxx (and as always I felt a tiny bit bad for skipping a raid) but instead did the daily hc (DTK and not HoS thankfully) with (a nice) PUG and then went to bed.

Koralon the Flame Watcher

2009-09-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

What to say about the new boss in VoA, Koralon the Flame Watcher?
Don't stand in fire and heal like crazy when he throws fire on raid. That's about it. But I repeat: don't stand in fire on the ground. To add that extra dimension of trickiness to that one the floor itself is sort of glowing in the middle (think HoS escort event room) so if you stand there the fire might a bit hard to see.

Don't be too slow on the dps because Koralon has a stackable buff that increases his damage by 5% every 20 seconds. If you take too long killing him the buff will have stacked so high that the tanks can't take the damage.

Oh, and one more thing: Koralon must be Ignis the furnace Master's twin brother. They look exactly the same down to the slag pot worn around the waist.

20 minutes I tell you!

2009-09-11T01:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, for all of those who don't know (and I do understand that not everyone knows everything about druids): Cooldown on druid battle rez is 20 minutes!

This means that however awsome player you are I cannot resurrect you during battle for quite awhile if another player has been resurrected recently. You can spam me all you want both in raid chat and in whispers but it will not happen. Sorry. But. It. Is. Beyond. My. Control.

And while I'm at it: why is it dps players that most frequently insist on being battle rezzed and then get miffed if they don't?

Nil skills as a knight

2009-09-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight I sat on my borrowed Argent Tournament nightsaber contemplating my complete lack of skill in jousting. I'm clearly not knight material I thought. For the nth time one of the cities champion had told me I had to practice a bit more if I was to defeat him or her and you didn't have to be Einstein to hear that was just a gallant way to say I sucked.

Then came another player and she rapidly jousted three consceutive champions into submission in like one minute flat. Not very encouraging at first. But I watched how she did it (green with envy behind my keyboard) and then I tried again with a new, improved (and copied) tactic. And lo and behold I managed to defeat three champions in a row! Now I only need...eh ...22 more valiant's seals. Piece of cake really...

HoS today...again

2009-09-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

Halls of Stone has been the daily hc every other day on our server lately. I'm sure my dislike for the escort quest in there increases the probability for it to be the daily with at least 50 percent. Or it's like a player in the guild said:
"All other Northrend instance bosses have bribed the guy in Dalaran not to be chosen for the daily hc, but poor Sjonnir the Ironshaper is locked into his room and can't get out and so his instance becomes the daily hc almost every day."

Yes, I could believe that too. I never really have trusted that daily hc quest guy...

Cry to Blizzard: The trees need some love too!

2009-09-07T04:38:00.000-07:00

As of patch 3.2 cat and bear druid can style their appearence by changing hair colour. But us trees have no other option than too look as usual. Which is, if you are to be frank, quite ugly.

Tree of life is actually quite a misgiving description. We look more like we have had a hard night out (or more possibly several hard night out in a row and suffering heavy of sleep deprivation), with a gnarled look and withering leaves. Where is the greenery and life in tree of life form I wonder?

Isn't it time that all resto druid spam Blizzard with requests for more variation, fun and glamour for the trees? I won't go as far as to suggest that we should be able to change with the season (although it would be sort of nice to heal as a christmas tree in the holiday season) but even a tree want to look good. Please, please Blizzard?

Many wipes and one kill

2009-09-07T03:28:00.000-07:00

One of our strengths when raiding I think is the patience guild members show when things doesn't go smoothly or according to plan. Last night we were in Ulduar and wiped repeatedly on Ignis. Although we are improving slowly we haven't really got the hang of how to manage the golem adds who tend to run off and kill the healers before they can be shattered. After several tries we gave up on Ignis (or rather told ourselves that he might weaken a bit if we left him to stew for another week) and moved on to Kologarn which we usually down quite easily. Not tonight though. I think it took us five tries to kill him and on at least three of the tries Kologarn was under 20% when things went bad and we died.

This much wiping in one night can really put a strain on a raid party. People can get irritated and start blaming each other, complain about repair costs or just quit group. But that didn't happen. Instead we managed to focus on that we at least lasted longer on Ignis than last time we tried him and that being close to down Kologarn on the failed tries meant that we would probably make it next time.

I think this attitude is a very valuable thing. I think one of the fun things with the game is to experience new places and new bosses and to do things that is a challenge. Then you can't give up too easily and you shouldn't be afraid of failure every now and again. Most boss fight is very much about learning what to do without having to think too much about it (run in the right direction, move to the right place, heal people extra at certain times, avoid fire/ice/flying objects) and that takes practice even if you are well geared. And if you look at it that way then wiping isn't just wasted time, it's learning that takes you closer to the kill.

Purple is the new blue

2009-09-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

With patch 3.2 and getting emblems of conquest from heroics epics are truly the new blue, item wise. Before patch it was difficult to gear up via heroics because so many players didn't need any loot from there and didn't find it worth the effort to go there but now almost everyone want to do at least the daily heroic and many want to run any heroic to get emblems. I think it's a good change since now there really is no good excuse not to be at leat reasonably geared when you start raiding. I know there are people complaining it's too easy to get epics nowdays but I think the Blizzard tactic of trying to make as many players as possible to get to experience all end game content at least to some degree is quite the way to go. After all, I guess Blizzard has put a lot of effort in developing the game, then it would be a bit of a waste if only a selected few hard core raiders would be geared enough to see end game content. I mean don't we all want to face the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel one day and be able to have a chance to survive, even if only in 10 player normal mode?

First steps in Ulduar

2009-05-15T00:05:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we took our first steps in Ulduar. Since noone in the group had been there before the spirit was one of trial and error, trying to learn how to best manouvre the different veichles in the first part. Soon we headed down to the area with the storm beacons and the towers of frost, nature, flames and storm. It was great fun bashing away and firing at the towers and the mobs. At first we didn't realise that the green cicular spots were repair stations. After we discovered their funtion it was easier to manage.

When it came to Flame Leviathan we had two really good tries at him (we actually had five tries at him but two was started accidantally and on one try one of the chopper drivers got disconnected). When I have read strategies for the fight it says that Flame Leviathan should target one of the slavaged engines at the time but to us it seemed more like it targeted anyone at random. Maybe we were positioned wrong so the demolishers were too close to the boss?

All in all the night was great fun and I'm sure we will down that mechanical next time we see it!

Continued Naxx run

2009-05-12T03:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we continued our Naxx10 run from Wednesday. First we went for a renewed attempt on Grobbulus but we were too uncoordinated so it didn't go too well. To keep the spirit up I thought it better to head back to plague quarter and do some of the bosses we know we can handle before trying Grobbulus again.

Noth the Plaguebringer is a boss that we now expect to down at first attempt. Yesterday we had two members in group that had never been to Naxx before but even so we had no problems with Noth. He dropped Dark shroud of the scourge for the third week in a row. Why not drop Noth's curse for a change I wonder.

On Heigan the Unclean it was clear our dancing lessons have paid off. We killed him at first try and seven of us stayed alive during whole fight.

The it was time for going through the maggot/eye stalk room. This week the succesful tactic was to move slowly one bit at the time and aoe down the maggots and kill the stalks when they popped up. I don't know why one week running through works like a charm but other weeks it seems impossible to do it.

Two weeks we have made unsuccesful attempts att Loetheb. Our problem has been us being too slow in dps so eventually we have died due to the frequent dooms he casts that we can't heal through. On the healing side I also think we could have optimized the healing to make the most of the 3 seconds window that you can heal. This time we were better at using the buff from the fungal spores and so we managed to kill the fungus giant. Personally I felt I timed my healings better this week too.

We headed back to Grobbulus where we started the evening and this time things went better. I think trying a few times on a boss and if it doesn't work have a break and go try another one in between and then come back actually can be agood thing to do.

We did one attempt on Gluth but we weren't even close to killing him. Our failure was partly my fault since when the main tank died I managed to resurrect the wrong player. Rogues are very useful but good tanks they are not.

Well, 8 bosses down this week. That is not too bad I think.

Found him

2009-05-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

I found Thorim. He was not at Temple of Storms as I thought but south of Terrace of the Makers at (56,51). I handed in Loken's lackeys and The Earthen Oath quests, watched Thorim fail to fight Loken and now I my quest is to go to Halls of Lightning and get Loken's tounge for King Jokkum.

Laidback night (at least at first)

2009-05-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was level 60 raid night to Zul Gurub. I didn't go. To be honest feel a bit raided out since this week I lead both Naxx run and the OS and VoA runs . Even though I begin to feel more secure in my role being raid leader still requires more attention and work than just tagging along somewhere knowing decently well who to heal and how.

I have now completed 100 quests in Storm Peaks and earned the achievement The Summit of Storm Peaks. I would have got it the other day if I could just find Thorim! Two times I have gone to his place in Temple of Storms where I think I got the quest (I have had them in my quest log a long time) but he wasn't to be found sitting on his throne as I expected him to. Where is he?

Later in the evening I went to The Occulus. It is one of the instances I hadn't tried on heroic and sadly we didn't have time to complete it before some of us needed to go to bed.

For raiders with short memory

2009-05-08T02:05:00.000-07:00

To those players (more than a few) who can't remember if they have done a raid this week: don't you know that you can check your in game calendar to see when an instance lockout expires? So check next Wednesday to get to know what raids you have done. Not too hard is it?

Not very much done

2009-05-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday playing became quite sporadic since our baby didn't sleep very well. I think she is getting another tooth, although why that makes babies get a fever I can't really explain.

I managed to get the weekly OS25 done at least. The Mantle of the Eternal Sentinel dropped but with a roll of 24 I obviously didn't win it. Obsidian Sanctum very often causes me to have lag problems at Sartharion. That definately make the fire waves more of a challenge.

Running with the maggots

2009-05-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

You can found aguide for every boss encounter but sometimes you would like to have some tips on the places inbetween bosses too. Like going through the maggot/eye stalk room leding up to Loatheb in Naxxramas.

For us, the by far most successful way has been to hug the wall at the same side as the entrance, let the tanks run first with rest of group close behind and not fight anything until we're on the other side. It's important that the tanks run first so they get most of the aggro and that others stick together behind.

If you have a warlock in group and access to some invisibility potions, the warlock and two other players can run unnoticed to the other side and summon the rest of the party.

It is also worth noting that it is possible to stealth through the room.

Yesterday's Naxx raid

2009-05-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

I think our guild's progress in Naxx10 is coming along quite nicely. You can say we were late starters to get level 80 raiding going but we're not a raiding guild so I think it's fine. Yesterday we cleared Archanid quarter and instead of going on to Plague quarter as we have done the two previous weeks we went to Patchwerk. The plan was to have a go at him and then move back to familiar territory and Noth the Plagubringer. To our joy Patchwerk went down on first try. Almost before I had time to say "Gj all" half of the raid had crissed crossed between the green oozes to go further into Construct quarter. And why not? Mutating injections from Grobbulus might be a welcome change from dancing with Heigan the Unclean. As it was we got Grobbulus down to about 20% two times and then we had to quit for the night. Next time though I'm sure we will kill him.

I know...

2009-05-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

...this blog has the most boring design but I don't have the time to change it now.

Ulduar run Wednesday 13 May

2009-05-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

Next Wednesday we will try Ulduar for the first time. It will be more of a go-see-how-it-is run than anything else. When reading about the bosses most boss encounters seem to require quite a bit of coordination and think it might take some time to get that right, so we shouldn't be disappointed if we don't succed at our first run. That said I still think we should aim for getting at least Flame Leviathan down.

Below are a list of guides for the first bosses of Ulduar. It seems there are few guides written specifically for the normal versions so I assume that 10 man and 25 man encounters are pretty similar from a strategic point of view:

Flame Leviatan guide at ZugGaming
Flame Leviathan guide att World of Matticus
Matticus guides are from a healer perspective but also gives detailed descriptions of the encounters as a whole.
Flame Leviathan at Bosskilers.com
On this site there are also links to movies showing the Flame Leviathan fight.

Razorscale guide at World of Matticus
Razorscale guide at ZugGaming
Razorscale guide at Bosskillers.com

Ignis the Furnace Master guide at ZugGaming
Ignis the Furnace Master guide at Bosskillers.com
Ignis the Furnace Master guide at World of Matticus
This guide shows in detail a way to position the raid for the fight. Maybe not what we will try first but worth to have in mind.

Why Emalon, why?

2009-05-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago was the first time I participated in downing Emalon the Stone Watcher in normal VoA. What did he drop? Two (2) rogue items.

And of course there was not a single rogue in group.