A Friend is a Friend No Matter How Far

I have two informing posts. Really. I just have to finish them. However, it's the last day for a lot of scholarships (and, even though I've done some of them, I'm not going to get to them all before I crash (which will be soon), I ought to be doing), and I'm just worn out. It's been a day of pain for me, but I do have a musing and a recount post to make, so here goes... And I will be revealing personal information (joy!). [ Recount is of Mr.T, which will come... er... tomorrow. ]

A BA Topic that I've actually been considering on doing even before I found the topic.

Online Friends vs. Real Life Friends (and maybe more than friends)

When I looked up 'friend', I got four answers. Two of them made sense in the term that I was looking for: one attached to another by affection or esteem, or a favored companion. By that definition, should one feel affection or esteem for someone, they're their friend.

But would the concept of friendship change should the circumstances of meeting and friendship be different? Back in the days when, in order to be friends with someone, you've met them face to face (as internet did not exist), there was little to question about friendship (unless the degree of it mattered): you just were friends. However, in the modern day and age, the question arises of whether those whom one have never seen could be considered a friend. Whether those whom one have never seen could be missed. Wondering whether it is right to ache for someone, to be bothered by something that bothered them, to be angered by something (or someone) that has upset them.

Yes, it is perfectly natural to develop feelings for someone, even over a long distance, even if you've never seen them before. Despite the arguments some may put up, those one may call their friend online may have been told more ("seen") about one's issues than many in real life. I, personally, would trust my life to the people I know online... which is more than I can say about a lot of the people I know in real life. Those online are people too, and, though grouping together, you've shared both joys and frustrations (think about loot and wipes) with them, which binds you closer together. The longer you know someone, the closer you feel to them. This applies to most situations (or it could be that the longer you know someone, the more you ate them, I suppose), and online ones are no different.

Or, at least, should be no different.

[ Lin being Personal: ON ]

Now, for me... well. Being still young and all, I am open to the concept of online relationships, and have tried it a few times. One main time that comes to mind was with this guy that lived an hour away. Due to circumstances on both ends, although we were "together" for eight months, we only managed to meet about ten times (although each time we were together for the average of eight hours). Two months or so after we drifted so far apart that I had decided to end it (not being able to hold a conversation for more than two minutes was absolutely ridiculous), he mentioned that he was going to drop by and return my stuff. I told him that I missed him (serves me right for letting myself sound vulnerable, but I did). His answer? "How can you miss someone who you've seen a few times?" (or something like that). Which hurt. A lot. Eight months of talking on the phone. Five of those every night. And... in short, it meant nothing to him.

Now, recently (and the event that spurred me to write this post), this other boy and I grew rather close, and talked a lot for a month and a half or so. Then things happened and I wasn't able to play WoW, and the times when I was on, he wasn't. So we drifted. And tonight (because I clearly haven't learned my lesson), I tossed him a call. I' ve felt terribly all day, so was ranting and grumbling more than normal. In one of my few moments of silence, I realized. I really, really missed the odd little things that we shared (such as long "arguments" of nuh-uh/uh-huh, which changed to yes/no, yeah/no, yah-huh/nuh-uhs and other ridiculous (but cutsy) things like that) and mentioned it. (I'm in idiot, clearly). And the response? Eerily close to the other guy's. "How can you miss someone you've never met?" And, again, I was hurt.

How, they ask? Well. Lets see. We've talked lots (communication, yay), "did" things together (personal interaction), spent time together in general, shared problems (and even cried on each other's "shoulder". If the loss of that is not a thing to be mourned, then what is? We clearly had enjoyed each other's company, otherwise we wouldn't have spent so much time together, but yet, it wasn't enough that it ought to be missed. Apparently.

I don't understand it, but I have come to accept it, in a sense... I suppose.

[ Lin being Personal: OFF ]

Just remember: "A person is a person no matter how small" - Horton Hears a Who! comes to mind. Except that it was more "A friend is a friend no matter how far" (thus the title).

Old School Style! [ DnD ]

Mooire of Ferocious Bite had a link to a quizzy, and, for those who don't know me, I love quizzies. In addition to that... well. This one is rather difficult to pass up: What D&D Character am I?

My results?

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Druid/Bard (2nd/1st Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-10

Constitution-11

Intelligence-13

Wisdom-13

Charisma-12


Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.


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


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


Secondary Class:
Bards often serve as negotiators, messengers, scouts, and spies. They love to accompany heroes (and villains) to witness heroic (or villainous) deeds firsthand, since a bard who can tell a story from personal experience earns renown among his fellows. A bard casts arcane spells without any advance preparation, much like a sorcerer. Bards also share some specialized skills with rogues, and their knowledge of item lore is nearly unmatched. A high Charisma score allows a bard to cast high-level spells.


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



Curious, but I'd have to agree in general.

Gold Farmers? Who us?

Nah. We just have a bit of time on our hands (but not nearly enough to actually go farm gold. Too busy raiding / instancing / blogging / whatever-the-heck-we-do.

Matticus and I had a... conversation... of sorts... all in Chinese, and I thought I'd share out of entertainment.
Matt / WorldofMatticus: ni hao
"ni hao ma?"
Matt / WorldofMatticus: woh hen hao... ni ne?
Pat / SpiritIsYourFriend: "STOP THAT"
Matt / WorldofMatticus: ^^
"hai hao."
Matt / WorldofMatticus: i guess we better switch off the tongue of the gold farmer
[ Little bit later ]
Matt / WorldofMatticus: "ni de blog hen piao lang"
[ Couldn't for the life of me, figure out "thank you" for some odd reason, so I left it out, buuuut... ] "ni de ye man piao lang. hen gan jing."

And that's it. [ Yes, my chat log is set like that, with the whole "Matt / WorldofMatticus", because I have a terrible memory. I did take out the timestamps out, just for the sake of keeping it neater. And my name from my own part of the log, figuring that it would be vaguely obvious. ] This is what happens when you put two Chinese-speaking people (even vaguely) together, and they're both in clearly odd moods. -grins- Oh, and I'm avoiding sleep, even though I have to get up early tomorrow and actually preen for pictures...

Oh, yeah, the translation! In sum, Matt said "hi", I asked him how he was, he said that he was "very good, and you", to which I replied "all right". And the second part went to the effect of "your blog is very pretty" on Matt's end, and on mine: "your blog is very pretty as well. Very clean [ feeling, that is ]". For thanks, my translator told me "gǎn xiè", which would have worked, but would be very formal. I suppose "xiè xiè" is what I really wanted, but the ping-yin looked off, so I left it alone. "Blog" isn't a Chinese word, last I checked, by the way, in case it isn't apparent.

But then, what do I know of ping-yin?

Hǎo shuì! [ Sleep well, literally, or, if you prefer, good night! ]


Edit: Note to self (and others, should they care): Matt is not a God, no matter how revered he may be by some... And he admits it too.

I am not god. I am just a 20 year old college student with ideas and the time and effort to develop them. Anyone can do anything if they're willing to work on it. Few seldom do. 90% of blogs die within a month of starting. I don't want to be a statistic. i dont want people to continue calling me godly. I'm afraid I might develop like... an ego.

[ Considering that Matt is starting to get the impression that the moon doesn't orbit the Earth -- it orbits his head, it's probably a good idea to stop inflating said head. -smirk- ] Meaning that the tiny bit of me that is awe-ing because he said I should do a guest post for him should shut up. [ You'd think that part would not exist anymore, especially after all the time us lot spend in BA, and that chat, but hey. Old thoughts die hard? ]

One Lagfest Galore, Comin' Right Up!

Ah-yup. In case you haven't popped on any other blog, nor checked the WoW homepage, nor tried to get in game, 2.4 is out. And... well, it's a lag-fest. I managed to pop on for a few minutes, and my latency bar was red. I run on green normally.

And Sunwell Chat, by the way, is reminiscent of the fabled "Barrens Chat" times about half of the server. All talking. And making idiot remarks.

All of the sudden, I'm not so much missing the fact that I have company over. After that taste, I don't think I want to witness the opening much more.

But, for all you lot who like chaos, and really want to be a part of the experience, go for it... and tell me how it goes while I sit back and watch.

[ Crap post, I know, but I had to have an announcing post of some sort, and the good ol' "What are you looking forward to most" topic has been covered by at least three of my fellow bloggers, and I'll find out from them.

And it's late. And I have stuff to do. ]

Mechanar Marathon

Over the past few days, I've been in and out of Mechanar, and have... tales... of my adventures to share.

Round one: Regular Mechanar
Tuesday morning, right after the servers came up. Regular Mechanar was the instance daily of the day, so I was able to get in right away, and as a kitty even. The hunter in the group was in a battleground, and we decided to go in without him. We do all right four-manning it, getting to the top of the stairs leading down to the first boss's room, and he finally asks for a summon. All righty. We go out and summon him, come back and keep pulling, him with us. We get to the first boss, and he stands there, looking at the boss, then poses the question - "Whos tank?". We stop and stare at him. [ The group is composed of my mage, a prot pally, a DPS warrior, him, and a healer of some sort. ] Apparently he couldn't tell that the shiny tin-head with the shield rather than the two-hander was the tank that had been keeping the mobs from smushing his face... but we get the boss down well enough.

And then the servers went down. Stupid Blizzard.

Rounds Two and Three: Regular Mechanar yet again, and Heroic Mechanar as well.
I am just sitting around Netherstorm in Looking For Group: Mechanar, just waiting for something to happen. (Was probably mainly paying attention to BAChatroom, I think.) Someone random invites me, and I auto decline -- if I don't know where you want me to go with you to, I'm not going. Policy, really. Keeps things uncomplicated, and then (especially on characters such as Losse and Kanta), there won't be a collision of jobs. A few seconds later, he invites me again. And again I decline, and put up a note: Ask before invites. A couple of minutes later, I get a whisper from the same person: "Mechanar?" Smart cookie. He finally read my note.

We get the group gathered (consisting of an elemental shaman (an acquaintance of mine on his shaman -- said acquaintance has five seventies, I believe), my mage, the warrior leader, and an a duo that came together: a hunter and a holy paladin) and go in.

The first couple of pulls are fine... until we get to the stairs. That always seems to be a bad spot for some reason... We had skipped the group between the first gate-keeper and the stairs. Normally, everyone knows to hug the left.

Not the hunter. He gets and stands too close to that group. And we wipe. Gee, good going, genius. We get back and buff, then pull care of the three at the bottom of the stairs... and guess where he stands? Let us just say that we made a few friends from the group on the other side of said stairs. Oh. Did I mention that after the wipe from the first one (the second big oops of his we recovered from), he hearthed back to grab something (we later found out it was his "lucky rabbit's foot, which he thought he should grab after the wipe"). Yes, you read it right. Lucky rabbit's foot. So that was five minutes of wasted time...

First boss down all right, and, as the only enchantress, I greeded and sharded it. The hunter rolls, followed by his paladin friend, and, after a bit, our tank. I tell them that we'll wait to roll at the end, so it's fair -- usual loot rules and all, so it doesn't throw me off -- and I move up the stairs and wait for them to show up so we could keep pulling. I look at the mini-map and neither the hunter nor the paladin have moved. Reading the party chat, I find that he -really- wants the shard -now-, or he'll leave. I told him that I'm keeping the shard until the end, and that it wouldn't kill him to wait until then. His roll could count if he really wanted it to.

And he left.

So did the paladin friend.

And left the tank rather disgruntled with me, and the shaman and I exchanging looks. It was quite a childish reason to leave, really, but hey. As they really pushed the matter, what were we to say? -shrugs- We got another elemental shaman, and a shadow priest to replace them, with the shadow priest healing (he was all right with it, and our group was well geared enough that it didn't really matter) and finished without too much trouble.

Then we swapped out the second elemental shaman with a holy paladin, and let the shadow priest do his job as we tackled it on Heroic, which didn't turn out too badly either (other than the fact that it was getting to two in the morning and all of my buttons looked shinier than normal, and threat meant absolutely nothing to my mind). So a decent end to the whole business, I suppose.

Round Four: Heroic Mechanar.
Dying a lot makes me grouchy. Plain and simple. This time around, I was on my druid. I got an invitation to Heroic Mechanar as a kitty -- something fairly rare, so I jumped at it, even though I really had little desire to go.

Zoom forward to where we're standing in the foyer, buffing, and I get DC'd. Great. Just great. I get back on, and find that Losse is eating the floor. Er... tasty? Sometimes, but as I cast my eye around the instance and at the group... not so much. Not a mob is dead, and the whole group has every single buff that they had before I DC'd. "Erm... hey, guys? What happened?"

"You got too close."

I look back at my corpse (I was being rez'ed), and see that I am about four steps away from the back wall. In Mechanar, you go about fifteen or so before you come in range to be able to moonfire pull something. Hrm. Too close? How very curious...

Brushing this off, I go ahead and stay with them, hopping in cat. We had a hunter that was decked out in ZA gear, and, even though I know I'm good DPS, there was no way I could beat him, being so outgeared. So I settled for second... 10% of damage behind him... and left at the very end disgruntled with a bigger repair bill than I normally get in Karazhan (having died multiple times between that first death and the last boss, including the times when the paladin didn't seem to be interested in healing me, and I stayed at 3% for more than acceptable before I went up to pop heals on myself (and his heals came in after my hots slowly popped me up to 50%)).

The first boss, by the way, the melee group, apparently, because the whole time I ended up with the opposite polarity of the tank, and had to go to the back and moonfire/wrath him to death... in cat gear (most efficient, I assure you).

Oh. and one last thing. People either need to read Phae's Resurection Sickness To Resurrection Fitness post or just understand that the smartest rez'ing order does not go Warrior > Warlock > Hunter > Druid. Said paladin healer did not get a Paw from me until he asked for it, and even then I was very irked to give it to him -- if he really wanted a Mark of the Wild buff, he really, really ought to remember that I need mana for buffing. And I could help him heal everyone else to full... Save the buffer for last. Yeah, that's the way to go.

I Sound Like... WHAT?

The other day, I was on my mage, browsing LFG. I had tossed Mel into the Heroic Sethekk Halls queue, with the note that said "kitty. Really. Can summon Anzu". (Heroic Sethekk was the daily.) Before I finished checking who was in what queue and the like, I get a whisper: "Spell damage?" I look for them in the queue. A priest in the Heroic Sethekk group. Hrm... "Read the note."
He does and gets back to me: "Tank? Can you kitty tank it?"
Me [ o.O Er... ] : Not advisable. He leaves it at that.

A bit later, I'm still in queue and still loitering around Shattrath. He whispers me again: "your kitty good DPS?"
Me [ as what DPS would deny that they are good? ] : "Yes."
"what is her raid DPS? 600? 800?"
Me [ -boggle- ] : "Oh, geeze. I don't know, but unless your people are ZA geared, I bet I can give them a good run for their money."
"They are"

So I switch over, and we go in. No one is in ZA gear for one (the closest thing is our tank, which happened to be an arms/fury warrior, who might have actually been in a couple pieces of ZA gear -- I don't know anything about the loot table of ZA and beyond -- if it's shiny, and doesn't register a single bit in my brain from my Kara runs, I automatically assume it's ZA+ gear)... The group consisted of me, a shadow priest, the arms/fury tank, a holy paladin, and a hunter. We hop on Vent, and they make a note that my voice is too quiet, so they turn me up and tell me to try again. Results?

The shadow priest: "She's got the phone sex operator voice. Real breathy."
I raise an eyebrow at that, then repeated what they said in g-chat, getting laughs from my guildies. Then I addressed my sweetie and asked him: "I don't really sound like that, do I?"
Him [ cautiously ]: "Is there a right answer to that question?"
Me [ laughing ]: "The truth is nice. xD"
Him: "I don't think that you speak with lust in your voice, no."

Now... would that be considered good or bad? -winks-

Note: I ended up off tanking for one of the Ravenguard pulls (in kitty gear, because our tank went squash as our healer wasn't prepared), and I stood around and tossed a few moonfires and wraths for Anzu, and I still finished 8% in front of our hunter, and 12% in front of the priest that was so interested in my DPS output.

And I've come to the conclusion that I actually like the offspec tank, because not once did I pull aggro from him, which, for the average PuG-Prot-Warrior tank, I end up pulling aggro from at some point (Okay, I might have gotten aggro once when the mob was about to die, but I don't blame it -- Opened with a 2.7K crit Ravage, Shred x2 critted for 2.3K each, and the Ferocious Bite for 3.5K, relatively. Not a happy mob, let me tell you...)

Ka-Splat!

First thing: Thanks to Nightravyn of NE Hunter, L4Mobs, PST! for fixing up my header so it's not ginormous!

Second: Matt and Anna have convinced me that WordPress is better, (and I like the clean style of it as well), and, therefore, soon you will be able to find me over there. But for now, all of my updates will be here (in case you've found me on WordPress), so keep an eye out for the move!

And now, with those out of the way... Another mish-mashing post about absolutely nothing...

So I was flying along, minding my own business... Okay, more like running off to grab a bite to eat while pointing Losse in the direction of Blade's Edge Mountains (she was in Shattrath) and saying "go!". But still. Flying along, minding my own business.

I come back. First thing I see, while still a good ways away, is a screen that doesn't seem to be moving. Oh dear. That's not a good sign. A bit closer... and I see this.



Yup. That's right. For some reason (and it has happened before), crossing from Terokkar to Zangarmarsh brings me out of epic flight form, and I go splat.

On the occasions that it's happened before, I've actually been here to frantically spam the flight form button again. Most of the time, it says "You cannot do that" (or something to the effect) to start (about five to six clicks with the GCD), which is scary, for all the while I am free falling and seeing that the mushrooms are getting closer... and closer... before letting me hop back in (thank Elune I tend to fly at high altitudes!). It doesn't happen all the time, but maybe once every... ten or so times? All the same, it's terrifying and irritating. Anyone else experiencing this issue?

Out the Viewport

I mentioned a while back that I would post my UI... this was taken back in February (as one can tell by the "Adored" debuff, but my UI really hasn't changed since then, except for the fact that Omen is usually showing (don't ask me why it isn't on this screen. Maybe I hadn't gotten around to getting Omen then...).

The damage meter is Recount, the buffs on the side is CTMod, and... geeze, my bars are full. I've yet to find a bar mod I like, though, so I'm stuck with this one.

Speaking of bars, I'm starting to get the issue on my baby shaman of running out of bars for all of her totems (I manage for mage portals and hunter tracking, but totems are a bit out of hand). Anyone have a suggestion for totem management that might be mostly out of the way?

CCC: An Alt Bank

That's it. A-yup. Justin and I got together yesterday and decided to create a guild for banking. Took us a while to think of a name. Him being Justin, he suggested silly things like "Tickle" (which I rejected). We were going to settle with "Constantly Crowded Closet" -- the closet being the the bank, but it also had a second meaning behind it, but, unfortunately, it was too long. So, after a bit of thought, I suggested "Curiously Crowded Closet" -- the other meaning rather clear -- and he said yes. So there it is. The bank of CCC...

Already on its third tab. -winces- We each dumped 450g into this baby, and look! As proof of -just- how much Netherweave we have, we made an entire tab for it! (Geeze, that is a lot of Netherweave. And this is after me supplying enough to Vese about twenty-five stacks of it for his priest's tailoring. Both Justin and I are set for our tailors come next expansion, I should think. (Okay, for the first couple of points...)

Our organization is as such:
Tab One: Three rows of blues, two rows of Mithril Spurs (he made a lot to level his blacksmithing), a row and a half of roleplay stuff, a row and a half of potions and scrolls, and the rest (half of the whole tab) for rep. (And a few slots here and there left over).
Tab Two: Professions! Three for gems, three for Leatherworking, four for flowers, and three for Primals. (And a bit of space left over).
Tab Three: Well. You saw the initial stage of it above... After the screen shot, we removed about half of it to dump in Enchanting materials, so that's that tab.

Sad thing is? Even though I dumped in stuff from all three of my bank alts, all three of them -still- have a lot of gunk. His characters too...

But, I suppose, that is our fault for being complete pack rats and having played the game for a couple of years now...

Music, Stress, and Burn-Out

I know I am a music person; I have to have music if I am doing anything for too long (or a monotonous task)...

Recently, my Pandora has started to look like this (with the better worn buttons on top). The band is the title, mostly, but the ones that are based off of songs have the bands listed after them in brackets.
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Singin' in the Rain
Ironic [ Alanis Morissette ]
Moondance [ Van Morrison ]
Mark Knopfler
Hellogoodbye
Lovefool [ The Cardigans ]
Frank Sinatra
Almost Lover [ A Fine Frenzy ]
KT Tunstall

In summary, swing, smooth voices, male voices, stuff to dance to, love songs... my tastes are quite broad (yet very narrow, at the same time). Anyone with suggestions to good music, feel free to... well. Suggest! [ Yes, I am aware that good music is in the eye of the listener, but try me. I'm up for anything. Especially foreign music... -gets an idea and scurries off- ]

Music is my form of sanity -- when the tank is terrible, and the healer has let you die four times in the first eight pulls of the instance [ happened today in Heroic Ramparts. Great fun, let me assure you. We had to replace both in order to finish the instance ] -- and, without it, I wouldn't be able to play WoW.

Too much stress. Even with music, it is always good to get up and walk around after an instance, or just play a different toon to get away from all of the stress and anxiety connected with that one character. Or write a blog post. If you are feeling burnt out, perhaps try a new spec for a completely new spin on the character? (Although, if you are a roleplayer, that might be slightly more challenging. Anna, of Too Many Annas, finds herself in that position of trying to make ends meet for Annalira, and talks through her reasoning.) It's the same character you love, except that playing him (or her) is now a challenge, and you may have to change your playstyle to play them to the best of your ability.

If you aren't one to start dancing to the music (even if you must do it by yourself) [ this is my preferred method ], without another toon you would enjoy as much [ I can't say much here, with four characters that I love and enjoy ] and respec'cing [ what I do with Losse more often than healthy ] is completely out of the question, perhaps you should check out Surabear's Rage Dump suggestions (yes, for your rage, not for that of a warrior or bears!).

[ Unveiling Druids ] Overview

Every once in a while, I get inspired to get off of my lazy bum and actually make an informing post. This was meant to be an all-encompassing post, but I found myself running too short of time for the moment, and felt compelled to leave it as thus for now.

Today's (which will take a couple of days, knowing me) will be about my first character, the Druid.

For those of you long time players of WoW, you know the gist of what Druids do. For those who are just starting, and go "ooooh, it's a pretty cat/bear/owl-thingy/tree!" at the forms one might see in a major city, this might be a bit more helpful.

A druid is, as many have labeled them, the "jack of all trades, master of none". From those close to me, who have moved onto other games, they see it differently. For them, although they have never played a druid, they see us as a class that can do things better than their original classes -- that being a rogue (cat), warrior (bear), caster-of-some-sort-closer-to-a-mage-than-a-warlock (boomkin), and a healer-of-some-other-sort (tree). That is untrue as well.

As our base selves, we cannot do anything vaguely close to our mother classes. Gear is important for a druid. Without the right set of gear, and a good, solid build, a druid is a mediocre imitation of the other classes they can be. We are valued not because of our buff (which used to be one of the best in the game, but now is unstackable with many other buffs), and not just because of our utility. We are wanted due to our flexibility.

While a good druid knows better than to restrict themselves to just one role -- in my case, as a feral druid, I always have three sets of gear on me (taking up two and a half eighteen slot bags, effectively): one for cat, one for bear, and one for healing, some still do, limiting their abilities. With the help of ItemRack, I am able to switch into different roles through a series of clicks. While some druids only carry one (or two) sets with them, limiting their use to a group or raid, I find that the best druids know when to, despite their assigned DPS role, aid the tank or the healers when they deem necessary/are asked to.

The two aspects I will be exploring most will be that of the feral and restoration. I have never played a moonkin, and, therefore, cannot say much about the balance tree; however, perhaps someone else would be interested in covering it?

Lrn2Play

Ah, the wonderful-ness of PuGs! Yesterday's daily heroic was Shadow Labs, which isn't one of my favorite places even as a normal instance. A group was looking for a tank, and I said I'd go...

And ended up regretting the moment I saw their group makeup. A holy paladin (that was fine), a warlock, an elemental shaman, and a hunter... meaning that there would be one real CC (I tend to discount warlocks as CC, because it takes away from their DPS, and it's a bit sketchy of a CC, I've found) for the second boss' room. But... maybe. Just maybe, we could work it out.

We go in, and the first few pulls are all right (except, that I notice, that my health was going down and my health wasn't going up too much faster, so I pop into my full tank gear, with 1K more health and 7K (or so) more armor). We get to the pull with the warlock and his group of imps. I LoS pull like a good tank, and swipe and mangle away... and die. The rest of the group survives, and I get resurrected. I venture, at that point, the question of how much +healing our healer has. "1700" (and some change), he answered. Okay... we shouldn't have this issue. I sigh, but keep going.

Room of the first boss. All casters. Our hunter is beast master, and, apparently, has no idea how to trap. I get aggro on two out of my three mobs (the mobs I plan on off tanking), and run behind the wall... yet, somehow, my main target doesn't come to me. We could deal with that. Really. So I get better aggro on the other two with two hits, and then charge off to get skull, which was being attacked.

My rules for tanking are easy enough. Please wait until I get at least a mangle on small mobs, a mangle and a lacerate on a medium sized mob, and a mangle and two lacerates on a boss before you go, or I can't promise good enough aggro to keep it off of you. If you do manage to get aggro from the mobs I am tanking, I'll take pity on you twice and pull it off. Third time, you're out of luck and can tank it yourself. Good luck. (This rule, does not count if you decide to attack something that I am not main attacking (such as attacking star (the third kill in my killing order) when one should be on skull, and x is still up as well)).)

I watched the hunter... who didn't trap the trap, but killed it as the rest of the group were getting the main targets down. Twice this happened, and he mentioned that I should pull back father so he could LoS the target. I blink at him, and told him that he could LoS the mob that he is supposed to be trapping himself (not to mention that he could just run up and lay a trap at said mob's feet). The warlock wishes to seduce, so I let him... except that seduce keeps being dispelled, so he was fearing. Fine. Except... that both the square (trap) and diamond (warlock CC of some sort), kept dying before skull. Hrm... We got the three Felguard patrollers down without too many issues (except for him being attacked as I was pulling him back)...

I try again, now on the fourth pillar of the room. The hunter is standing ring next to the middle pillar on the first set of three pillars, so, theoretically, he could trap. Right? Wrong. He put the trap down and shot away. Didn't LoS. The diamond still went down first, and the square not that much longer after, and I was still tanking my skull and x. I raise the problem, and we do one more pull... and somehow wipe.

There was no way we could do the rest of the instance, much less the second boss' room, and I fake DC in pure frustration, and go off to play my mage...

Lesson learned: Best to do Heroic instances with guildies. It's okay if you'll die -- at least you'll have fun in the group.

And you can be sure that the person is competent (usually, anyway).

How Badly Can We Lose?

A long-time friend of mine on WoW and I decided to get together and see just how low we can make our rating (she is aiming for one. I am just going along with it). So every week, we go and do arena...

In our roleplay gear (meaning, almost nothing).

Now, if you can just see two lovely Night Elves, both feral druids, stealthing around, hiding from the opposite team, frustrating them to no end because they can't find us, and then, when they do, we run around, heal ourselves, and try not to die (with very little effort involved)... and the opponent team gets to watch the dead Night Elf wearing a pretty dress on the ground while they try to find the other one.

It provides us with great amusement, if nothing else.

Our games normally last seven to ten minutes... most of those spent hiding.

Should you meet us (Wit's End) in 2v2... prepare for a try of patience!

Don't Mess With Your Neighborhood Tree

For we tend to like revenge, and have plenty of ways to make your life a bit more miserable.

-Storytime-

It was around three in the afternoon...

I was doing the kill demons daily in BEM... And I, being resto, can't quite kill them quickly. So I started killing one, and HE came over, got aggro on it, pulled it to his portal, where it died. (and it was my loot). So I told him that he was an ass. And his response was something to the effect of "it was mine first you slut" I told him that he should have hit it first.
"I did."
"You should have hit it faster then, because both Blizzard and I was under the impression that it was my target."
"shut your slut mouth"
(After I told him that he is clearly intelligent by his choice of repeating "slut", or something to the effect.)
"i dont try to act smart...i am... and you wast other peoples time .. by goin too slow"
Again, no one could -ever- question his intelligence when he wrote like that. -nods-

So I returned the favor. A few pulls later (when I returned to him), he had two on him; one he was attacking and the other that found him and was attacking him. So I moonfire the one he hasn't touched yet, and cycloned the one he is fighting. And proceeded to slowly kill the one that I moonfired by his portal (while dragging it away) and continuing to cyclone his. xD He pulled the one I moonfired off of me, and I finally let him almost kill the cyclone... but then went bear, growled, and ran... and the cyclone followed me and didn't die close enough to his portal for him to get credit.

Payback is ever so sweet... Have to admit that it was quite tempting to keep pestering him, but then it would be harassment, unfortunately. Ah, well. I enjoyed myself.

Restoration Thoughts

So... why did you switch to Resto again? And what are your thoughts on the new 2.4 Mana regen changes? Do you think you'll be kicking even more butt healing in heroics?

Restoration has always been my off spec. I love to heal nearly as much as I like mangling faces. However, my issue has always been that healing is a far bigger role and, with it, carries bigger responsibilities than tanking. For me, I know I can tank. Heck, I know that I tank well. But with healing, I've always had a bit more of a "gack, I can't do it, I doubt my talent" thing, which was why I generally try to stick to feral (that, and feral makes farming quite a bit easier).

Ever since I've hit max level (both at sixty and, now, seventy), I've vacillated between restoration and feral, depending on the guild/raid/group's needs, but generally preferring to kitty over anything, then tanking, then resto (due to that little disorder). But here I am again, restoration, and slowly building up confidence in myself (although people dying on my watch still causes me to shrink, even if there was nothing I could do about it).

As for 2.4 mana changes... as a tree healer, one really shouldn't be starved for mana, and, therefore, I don't think it would be too drastic for us... and the rest of the changes, I won't whine about.

• Lifebloom: The bonus coefficient on the final bloom effect has been reduced by 20%. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of Mind Control.
• Regrowth: The mana cost of this spell has been reduced by approximately 20%.

We hardly (well, shouldn't, anyway), let our Lifeblooms bloom, so it is perfectly fine for me (and I get most of my overheal from the bloom anyway, for when I am inattentive and accidentally let it bloom). (Congratulations for all of us restos (and ferals who supported restos) who petitioned against Blizzard and made them see that their initial nerf was absolutely ridiculous.) As for Regrowth, I'm quite happy. While I'm one to use Regrowth, it's not as often used as it could be, and the mana reduction will certainly give us more of an opportunity to use it.

[[ Took me long enough to get around to finishing this post. I am terrible at this... ]]

Couple of Notes

It's been a while. Again. I know. Life's been busy, and I've been trying to sort out stuff in my relationships as well... But that's irrelevant.

In WoW:

Now that I've gone resto (as of last night, actually), one of the best pieces of news in feral history (okay, in a while)... On the PTR:

Swipe: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.

This will be absolutely amazing for feral druids, and give those of us (-coughs-me-coughs-) a fantastic reason to use swipe more! This also applies to Multi-Shot (hunters), Avenger's Shield (paladins), Chain Lightning (shamans), Felguard Cleave (warlocks), and Cleave (warriors). Which means, as BBB has pointed out, no more mages (again, such as myself) hating the group because SOMEONE broke their sheep on accident! Okay. It'll probably still happen as there are still idiots out there, but... Less so! Oh, happy days for the druid AND the mage!

And the best thing that has come to the land of WoW music for a while has to go to BBB for his adaptation of a Johnny Cash song... (Click the link to his site to hear!)

Right. Enough with the Big Bear Butt. Really. Just because I am missing my own (although the tree is very pretty!) doesn't mean I have to haunt BBB's blog!

A-yup. That's right. I am a tree now, and am slowly starting to realize that I can heal heroics. (Something I should have known ages ago, as my gear hasn't improved too much since I last was resto, but ah well). Here are my stats as a resto druid:
Stamina: 411
Intellect: 494
Spirit: 526
+Healing: 1302
Mana Regen: 341

With Mark of the Wild and my [Nightstaff of the Everliving] (the enchant is 30 intellect) on. With my [Gavel of Pure Light] (and +81 healing) and [Windcaller's Orb], it would be:
Stamina: 390
Intellect: 458
Spirit: 477
+Healing: 1398
Mana Regen: 321

So really, the Nightstaff is better, and would be even better had I enchanted it with healing, but lack of materials for that, and now, lack of actually being able to farm well as a resto druid... well. It probably won't get done. Besides. I worked hard for those two exalted items...

Sunwell Loot And An Update

Utada of Spicytuna has made an excellent post on the loot from Sunwell... far better than me simply drooling over it. Go take a look!

In other news, Lin has quit work. Tossed down her hat and left, for she didn't need the stress and just couldn't deal with it. That, and, as a food store, Einsteins is supposed to be kept rather clean, and it has been going downhill. Her particular store is losing customers, and the people who work there who remember the old bosses aren't happy and have been slowly leaving. She didn't get along with the managers well, and was tired of ending up in tears or close to tears at the end of every work day, and left. She's slowly feeling better, and has some to report about WoW, and a bit of useful information as well, but that will have to wait, for she's not quite feeling up to actually posting yet.