Oh-mi-goodness!

We've been recognized!

Bre and Fim (of Gun Lovin' Dwarf Chick and Asleep At the WoW, respectively) created their very own podcast (or, as Kestrel of Kestrel's Aerie noted, blogcast), and we're the first ever (for the Twisted Nether, at any rate) featured blog of the week.

Isn't that exciting?

I finally got to hear it (after almost a week!) and geeze, Fim, Bre, you've made me blush. "Inviting, makes you feel right at home..." Aww. I'm touched. (Guess this means that I really can't give excuses for not posting anymore, can I? Good thing I have two posts in the middle of editing...)

Oh. And Aurik's voice is amazing. -grin- (Fim, yours-- -giggle- Oop. Aurik's voice just came on. Anyway. Quite enjoyable as well.)

And for when there are many episodes to the point where one cannot find this particular one, the link is here.

That's it, folks. We're a star now!



(Okay, not really. Let me get many posts out first...)

How Not To Upset Your Mage

Just because the mage crowd-control may be the most reliable and least fickle of them all, it does not mean that the mages themselves are the least easy to upset. In fact, in some cases, insulting one's mage may just be the last thing one gets to do... (Until one gets one's body back, that is.) Now how does one avoid irking their mage? Well, without farther ado, here's a list of things one really ought not to do...

• -Never, ever tell them that they are sheeping too slowly. Unless the mob has already hit you, the mage is doing his/her job. Tell them that they're not doing it fast enough will more than likely make them consider letting you get hit by the sheep a few times before sheeping it. That is what we consider slow. Letting them run closer to us so they won't pull a pat waaaaay out there isn't slow -- it's being cautious. Or you pulled while they were drinking and they wanted to get as much mana as possible before they have to sheep and fight. If that's the case... wait for your mage.
  
• -You know that Ritual of Refreshment you helped them summon at the beginning of the instance? Yeah, the one that looked kinda like a summoning portal? Yes, yes. They don't do it for themselves. Or to waste a few seconds of your time. They do it so you can have food/drink whenever you want throughout that whole instance and not have to ask them to stop and make more for little ol' you. Make use of it. We would like to think we didn't spend 17s for you to ask us to make you some individually. You aren't that special.
  
• -Three: If you like the poke the pork, go ahead. They dare you. It's not their concern when the pork decides that it doesn't like it, becomes whatever big, bad, scary thing it once was before they made it into a cute little bit of pork, and kills you. They did warn you, after all, and you should know better.
  
• -Four: Look at three, but change pork into a baah. [ Kestrel says they're "mutton", which works as well. I personally like "baah"s. ]
  

These ought to be able to help you maintain a healthy relationship with your mage. Outside of an instance, however, different rules apply.

• -While asking a random mage for water, keep in mind that he/she is not obliged to stop and create water for you so you won't have to get it from a vendor. If the mage chooses to provide you with refreshments, always thank the mage. Tipping them is a good way to show your thanks, and lets them know that they did not just stop whatever they were doing to save you a few silver, or a run to town, for absolutely nothing.
• -The same applies to a portal, and even more so, for [Rune of Portals] doesn't grow on trees, but, rather, costs them 20s per, not to mention their time.
• -Note: If they're traveling to you, especially, so you can sit around and look at the Auction House/bank/mailbox/finish trading, pay them travel fees to let them know you appreciate their kindness, and, this way, when you are in a tight spot and need their services again, they are more inclined to stop and aid you.

Keeping mages happy will save you a lot of long runs and flights (Darnassus to Stormwind, anywhere, really, to Theramore, from Azeroth to Shattrath) and a bit of gold too, in the long run (for buying food/drink, while not terribly expensive, isn't all that fun to want to spend money on either).

And, once you've befriended them... the chances of them letting you pay them for their services will probably disappear, and they'll offer them for free!

It's a win-win situation all around.

Hooooooooooney, I'm hooooooooome!

I'm done! Free as a bird, and delighted with the knowledge that I will never have to set foot in that place again. (Except, I will anyway due to the fact that I need to go back and get something edited, or, at least, transfer everything I have on there onto a drive before they go and revert to deep freeze and lose everything that I've done in the past year.)

So, with my finishing up school, I suddenly had time for WoW...

And in the first order of business, was, of course, to run a heroic. Kitty, preferably, and I got my wish. Heroic Mr.T, here we come! Two mages, me kittying, a bear, and a paladin healer. Kinda iffy on the tank/healing roles, as most groups that didn't have a paladin (or, at least, a warrior tank) that can eat the fireballs normally doesn't bode well... nor does having a paladin healer, but I wanted to kitty, and kitty I was going to do. We do all right up to Delrissa...

Then we hit trouble.

We got the naga warrior, the rogue, the hunter, and the shaman. Even with two mages, it wasn't pretty. People died. Really, really quickly. Whatever wasn't kept sheeped was being a pain in the rear, and the hunter had fun shooting and stunning the lot of us. Two deaths, and I'm at a 13g repair (having gotten half of them from the second boss), and I offer to bring my mage to help, as it seemed that we weren't going to get the boss down.

I switch over, and we try again, the group being so enthusiastic that we could do it now with three mages.

Aaaaaand... well.

Lets just say that roughly four months of not playing my mage (I spent a lot of time on my druid healing everything, and slowly getting back into feral-ness as well) meant that I forgot a timer that I really, really shouldn't have.

My sheep... which happened to be the rogue.

Now, I won't say that it was that act of forgetfulness that brought the group to another wipe. No.

What did rather do the trick, on top of my sheep running around and killing us, was the fact that the tank never told us the kill order of the sheeps, and I automatically went for star (my normal killing order). I don't know what he was going for, but not something else... and. Well. It left us with two of the mobs up, which, apparently was too much, and we wiped.

Oops? I'm sorry?

They didn't take that too well and that's when half of the group called it quits. The healer and I remained, and we rebuilt the group with two mages and a warlock (I hopped back onto Losse). Got the third boss down no problem this time (and she dropped [Vial of the Sunwell], which the healer already had (although, when I'm going to use it, I don't know. In the really, really challenging stuff? I'm geared enough that nothing is challenging enough that I foresee myself using it, but... well. Good to have, and more stuff to lug around, which is always fun).

Pull before Kael was cake... but Kael himself...

Well, the paladin couldn't keep up with me, as I couldn't eat or do anything really for the fireballs, and, therefore, without enough healing, died... Two times of it and the paladin has to go to Kara... and everyone else leaves with him, for one of the mages and the warlock were his guildies.

And, at that time, I was done. Enough dying, and didn't have the energy to actually find people to do Kael, and, therefore, left myself.

Two voids, three badges, and a shiny new trinket... and around 20g repair altogether (which, for me, is decently high. I don't normally let repairs get past 12g... makes me thankful that I don't have really shiny gear from pretty raid places higher than Kara).

My first experience in WoW in two/three weeks, and I'm already getting sucked into the endless cycle of dailies, instances, repairs, rinse and repeat. (And, occassionally, leveling my baby shaman.)

Is it worth it? Probably not.

Do I have something else I could do with my time? Not really.

Is it addicting? For sure.

Almost There!

Last. Bloody. Week.

Then I get my life back.

It's a race of time verses my ability to work this week... which means I'm screwed. Time always wins. (I might win if I had the concentration and devotion of a nun, but I don't. I'm lucky that I can sit down and... well. Pay attention to WoW (which, for me, really means keeping up a roleplay during an instance, and probably another tell as well, and doing good DPS (though a bit worse than if I wasn't trying to multitask), and getting confused).

But a quick summary.

Losse went to TK two weeks again, and, I have to admit, I like it. It's a gorgeous instance, and, as a healer, I got to see... well. Less of the instance I would have if I was on my mage (health bars take up a good third of my screen, and I stare at them. A lot), but still, very pretty. I decided that A'lar sucks for healing -- could never keep my tank in range, so I ran around like a nutter trying to get in range (okay, shifted around due to being in tree -coughs-), and ended up dying due to accidentally running through a flame patch while trying to find my tank. Oops. One shotted him.

And the second boss... well. I can say happily that I didn't blow up the raid despite it being my first time. (Someone else did. xD). Two shotted him then.

Void... Reaver, was it? (I dunno. Didn't actually pay attention, and school blocks all WoW sites). Two shotted him. I think we had more people at his feet the second time, which is why it worked better. -shrug- I had a easier time reaching people at his feet than outside of the circle behind him, that is for sure. I got both the trash healy leather gloves, and my tier shoulders (which, despite being resto, I put it for my feral tanking set, which didn't have a pair of shoulders for). I also got to see Mag, and was able to give him one shot before I had to go (the raid went back for him too, and I wouldn't be surprised if we got him).

Oh. And I spec'ced back to feral finally (wanted to mess around with having new pretty shoulders... that sprout flowers). It's weird to be tanking (and, to a small degree, DPSing) after a few months of healing. A lot of me is still in a healing mode, and it is especially noticeable as I go do dailies, and start with a spell... then have my "Oh, Crap. I knew there was a reason my spells aren't hitting as much..." moments... I'm getting used to it again, slowly, but would be faster if I actually had more time to play.

Must admit that my most recent run of a heroic (Mech) turned out really rather well. One wipe, and that was on the gauntlet, and it took an hour and fifteen minutes. I was on my mage, and pulled aggro once (on the demons), and had an extra death over everyone, but it wasn't too bad.

Oooh, I've got a story that centers around Mark Knopfler tickets, but that's for another post... back to being busy and... well. Being me.

No WoW for me until after this week. Finals, and need to finish up my classes...