Thank You

To Warriors:
Thank you for standing in front of me and letting things hit you.
Thank you for shouldering the massive repair bills that come with your job.
Thank you for preventing my death.
Thank you for being ready to offtank in the click of a macro.
Thank you for Execute spam.
Thank you for MS.
Thank you for wanting to be my partner in arenas.
Thank you for appreciating my heals.
Thank you for appreciating when I tank so you can dps.
Thank you for spec'ing prot when you don't want to so that we can get the raid off the ground.
Thank you for being living CC.
Thank you for not giving up even when people won't take you to instances because you "should be a tank."
Thank you for explaining silly things to a druid who doesn't know any better.

To Shamans:
Thank you for every single totem.
Thank you for Brain Heals.
Thank you for Ankh and saving us from having to run back when the trash could respawn any second.
Thank you for Heroism and a shorter GCD.
Thank you for your Heroic-saving Earth Elemental.
Thank you for Earth Shield.
Thank you for putting up with having to reorder your totems everytime you're in a new raid or placed in a new group.
Thank you for watching your dps so you do not pull aggro.

To Druids:
Thank you for boosting my HoTs with yours.
Thank you for giving the melee more crit, and allowing them to heal when they crit.
Thank you for Faerie Fire on the mobs so the melee can ignore more armor.
Thank you for covering all the bases with your group buff.
Thank you for the extra threat from Thorns.
Thank you for tanking when you are called to and dpsing when necessary, even if you don't want to.
Thank you for carrying around six sets of gear.
Thank you for your spell crit aura.
Thank you for Insect Swarm and the reduced chance for the mob to hit the tank.
Thank you for not giving up and proving that Moonkins are viable.
Thank you for being mobile healers.
Thank you for Rebirth.
Thank you for Innervate.

To Rogues:
Thank you for your outstanding dps.
Thank you for checking who is next on the threat list before you vanish.
Thank you for equipping different poisons for different encounters.
Thank you for well-timed kicks.
Thank you for stunlocking casters.
Thank you for Sap.
Thank you for Blind.
Thank you for unlocking everything.
Thank you for understanding that the feral druids and fury warriors need your gear too.
Thank you for slighting your own dps to improve others'.
Thank you for being ready to stealth ahead to mark mobs.

To Paladins:
Thank you for killing yourself to save another and to keep us from wiping.
Thank you for not needing any CC.
Thank you for BoP.
Thank you for not BoPing the tank.
Thank you for Flash Heal.
Thank you for never giving up on Retribution.
Thank you for Flash of Light spam.
Thank you for Holy Shock.
Thank you for Lay on Hands.
Thank you for putting up with having to change the Blessing on hybrid specs eight times over.
Thank you for being quick to sort out who casts what Blessing.
Thank you for Blessing of Salvation on the dps.
Thank you for knowing which aura to use in which encounter.
Thank you for being ready to off-heal when called upon.

To Warlocks:
Thank you for drain-tanking.
Thank you for Imp buffs.
Thank you for sending your demon out to attack and then recalling it multiple times so that I can hear all its funny sayings.
Thank you for Healthstones.
Thank you for Soulstones.
Thank you for telling me when you are Life Tapping.
Thank you for summoning people who get lost or left behind.
Thank you for Soul Shattering when you have too much threat.
Thank you for controlled fearing.
Thank you for Seduce.
Thank you for changing your curses based on encounter and group composition.

To Mages:
Thank you for catering every raid.
Thank you for Intellect buff.
Thank you for AoE.
Thank you for Portals at the end of every raid.
Thank you for Portal games at the end of every raid.
Thank you for tanking in Gruul's.
Thank you for letting the Moonkins roll on your gear.
Thank you for Sheeping.
Thank you for re-Sheeping when someone hits it on accident.
Thank you for saving yourself with Ice Block.
Thank you for Spell-Stealing that nasty buff the mob had.

To Hunters:
Thank you for controlling your pet.
Thank you for rezzing your pet before raid buffs are handing out.
Thank you for Chain-Trapping.
Thank you for MQoSRDPS.
Thank you for Expose Weakness.
Thank you for spending so much money on ammo.
Thank you for fun pet names.
Thank you for Aspect of the Pack.
Thank you for knowing when to shut AotP off.
Thank you for kiting mobs.
Thank you for your Boomstick.
Thank you for Misdirecting the appropriate target.
Thank you for Feign Death and Jumper Cables.

To Priests:
Thank you for Fortitude buffs.
Thank you for Shadow Resist.
Thank you for Spirit and Healing buffs.
Thank you for letting me roll on your cloth.
Thank you for healing even after you're dead.
Thank you for being a mana battery.
Thank you for politely inquiring if you can have an Innervate.
Thank you for understanding if I cannot give it to you.
Thank you for Mind Control.
Thank you for Fear Ward.
Thank you for Shackle.
Thank you for Pain Suppression.
Thank you for Shield.

Who do you want to say "Thank you" to?

Spoke Too Soon!

So, what I said in a previous post about not being able to break 1700 +healing?

Bwahaha. BWAHAHAHAHA.

+1701, baby, with the addition of the Vindicator's Pendant of Salvation neck and just getting up the nerve to dump 220g+ on gemming it plus regemming my greens until just. over. the. mark.

Mmmm...delicious, delicious 1701 +heals.

Excuse me, I'm now going to go collapse for a few hours. Apparantly zomgjustafewmorearenagames is not a substitution for a full night's rest. 40 arena games done so far, though, and more to go today.

/glee

No Man's Land

So, I have been guildless for all of five days. I have, within those five days, received two ninja guildinvites (as in they were popped on me without warning), two invites into guilds of my friends, and one invite from a level 51. Now I know why I saw a level 70 running around with the tag Stop Ginviting Me.

That being said, I've still been curious as to what sort of "market" is available for when I jump back into the game (i.e. when I have a set schedule to my life so I know what I can commit to). And I've discovered something very awkward.

There is a huge, expansive "No Man's Land" of recruitment. It seems to me that most guilds want either: Someone to help them start Karazhan, start a second Karazhan group, or head into Gruul's.

Or: Someone with Vashj and Kael experience to help progression through Hyjal, BT and then Sunwell.

And those that are recruiting for about my level or a bit above don't want my class.

My experience to date has been full clears of Karazhan, full Gruul's, full Mag, Lurker and ZA up to Dragonhawk. I don't know the Hydross fight, or Leo or Tidewalker, and I've never even seen Lootreaver. I'm not exactly "green" but I'm not ready to stroll into BT and wave at Illybeans, either.

Guilds look for some basic things when they want applicants. Besides maturity, playtimes, class, etc, it generally boils down to: Skill, Knowledge and Gear.

I can feel mildly confident in my skill. Though I'm newer to 25's, I've demonstrated my ability to think on my feet (except for a screw-up here and there) and to keep my groups alive, as well as myself.

However, that's only one third of the issue, isn't it?

My gear isn't bad. I have a couple green gems I have not replaced yet, as to me it's hard to justify spending 50g a pop for +2 healing and +1 spirit. I'm not exalted with the aldor, so I'm missing my very nice shoulder enchant. This is something that is difficult to excuse when applying for a guild as a healer. I have two pieces of PvP gear; this is often frowned upon. However, it was either those or a blue cloak and a green belt of +healing *shudder*. All of it is enchanted, and is the best I have been able to get so far. But, I don't have full tier 4. I haven't managed to break 1700 +healing yet (I could if I got exalted with Aldor, so that isn't a good excuse). I am, basically, not at the gear level people want.

Next is knowledge. I don't have it when it goes past Lurker. I can't come into a raid and expect them to explain all the bosses for me. I do read the WoWwiki articles and the strats, but there's a difference in reading strategies and hearing them from people who have actually been there and experiencing them for yourself. I don't have the experience, and it's unlikely I will get it unless a major guild on my server has a crisis moment and needs a stand-in healer.

I continue to do raids with the other guild my old guild had teamed up with, so if they ever traverse past Lurker I can get some more experience. I have another friend who has been trying to get me to group with the guild he raids with, but lately he's been rather unlucky in that he whispers me when I'm already in the middle of something.

My options are there, they're just much, much slimmer than anticipated. It seems they are:

• Server transfer once I find a guild looking for someone my experience range.
  
• Go back down to a Kara guild, raid Kara endlessly for badges, and either hope they progress or wait until I have enough badges to purchase every single set of druid gear.
  
• Find a guild that likes me enough or needs me badly enough to power me through raids to get up to their level.
  

Of course, this all hinges on me getting a stable schedule over the summer, so who knows? This may not be anything to worry about at all, because I'll be too busy working.

I Did What Last Night?

Because nobody can explain an adventure as well as Team Ratshag, I'll have to let Palintera tell about what we did last night that her mother can't know about. She's so cute.

As it is, I'm still stiff and sore, so I'm just gonna sit back, relax, listen to a story, and watch her squirm in embarrassment.

Though she may have left that part out.

Decisions, Decisions...

While I already had my opinion on the matter, it's come to my attention that not everyone shares this opinion. I'm willing to forgive the fact that this is blasphemy and explore these other ideas.

The topic of the day: PUGs and Guildies.

Now, I'm no longer in a guild. So, I PUG or do things with old guildies who still love me. Twice, on two seperate days, right in a row, however, I was removed from a PUG by the group leader to make way for their guildy.

The first was a hopeful ZA clear that just needed a healer. They explained their guildmate had better gear and had wanted to go. I said cool, no big deal, guildies come first, and left the raid. I then went to ZG with some fun people and played with the raptor guy and Gahz'ranka. No mount or tome, but I did get this cool Primal Hakkari Tabard that I lack the rep to turn in.

The next day it was a heroic Slave Pens run (not the daily), which I was removed from not five seconds after joining, with a whispered apology about a mix-up and a guildy wanting to go. Once again, no big deal.

Now, how I see it is that, no matter my reaction, I was not getting to go in this group. Had I thrown a fit or freaked out, all I would have done was made myself look bad. And honestly, in both groups, I had not gone anywhere, bought anything or gone out of my way before I had been removed, so I had not been inconvenienced in the slightest. I didn't need Cenarion Rep; I'm Exalted. And running Raids with PUGs isn't the most fun, I know. So, not a problem in any sense.

I've also been in the position before of having to decide if we keep the PUG we just picked up or lose them in favor of a guildmate. It's a hard decision, especially when it comes to raids. It's even more difficult for the person who has to tell the PUG "sorry, we can't take you" and deal with the lashback. So, understanding that, my feathers weren't ruffled in the slightest.

Of course, this does not mean I advocate elitist mentalities or other such insulting behavior. I simply understand the problem that can arise from inviting a PUG over a guildmate. Heck, I've seen problems arise when one guildmate is invited over another!

I've always thought Guildies Come First.

I was a little surprised that when I mentioned it off-hand to my friend that he became a tad bit miffed. He said he would never ditch someone he had already invited, as it was the guildmate's fault for not speaking up sooner, or being not being online, or what have you. I can see this side of the argument, especially if you're trying to teach your raiders the consequences of not showing up when they sign up.

Still, in the end, pitching a fit won't change anything, and it is a difficult decision. People also apolgize much more profusely about it if you swear it's okay. Apparantly, being perfectly fine with being removed from a group invokes more guilt than if you had bit back.

A Toast to Young Dreamers

[17:47] Armond: a quest with a 10 minute timer
[17:48] Armond: and I have six more minutes of res sickness
[17:48] Armond: I CAN DO THIS

Discovered!

I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised. I'd shared my blog tentatively with a few people from my old guild, and they liked it. I hadn't counted on them caring enough to share it with others!

It's not that I'm not proud of my blog. I've put time and effort into it to make it look nice and for it to be helpful. Or, at the very least, entertaining. It just doesn't come up in conversation much.

Still. It caught me off guard last night when my friend Clabik told me jokingly over Vent that I should "blog about this." Now, we were just doing a little AB, and it was late for me, so there was not much to say past:

I TOTALLY CALLED IT.

We took back stables (you can see this ended well, if we have to take back stables), and I'm stealthed by the flag. A horde shows up by the stables graveyard, and my friends go "zomg hordes!" and take off running. I remind them, quite gently, that you fight on the flag, and if the horde do not have the courtesy to oblige, you ignore them. This apparantly did not register. I do not budge from the flag, and then I hear "oshi-" as soon as I see two red dots appear on my track humanoids coming around the back of the stables for the flag.

I CALLED IT.

And for Clabik: there. I blogged about it.

I'll see what I can do about Lare's request that the internet hears about his greatness at some point in which our schedules actually coincide, so that I'll have something to say other than "Lare is awesome. Let Lare tank for you. He needs the phat epix, for he was once an Arms Warrior, and a badass one at that. Lare is sexy."

There, Lare, I wrote about you, too.

And speaking of Arms warriors...

Any Arms warrior that can top the dps charts on Lurker against ranged dps that can go all out with no regards to threat is a god amongst players.

Nostalgia

I remember when I relied on little exclamation points in squares at the bottom of the screen to tell me how to play.
Now I surf the internet to read the latest theorycrafting news.

I remember when I was still getting used to the controls and fell off a tree and died because I had trouble turning.
Now I can kite rogues while taking jump-shots with moonfire.

I remember when I was never able to find the entrance to Stormwind no matter how many times I’d gone through it, so I would run up to the gryphon master, jump into the water, and swim to the ramp.
Now I only do that because it’s funny.

I remember when I waited until level 22 to get my aquatic form because I was afraid of the threshers and had trouble with the swimming controls.
Now I have actively hunted and killed all but two of the elite sharks in Azeroth. Still need to kill Maws.

I remember when I didn’t quite grasp the concept of how badly those spiders in that cave in Shadowglen wanted to kill me.
Now I can generally judge how close I can get to a mob of almost any level.

I remember when the Greenwarden in Wetlands looked HUGE.
Boglords have ruined him for me.

I remember when I did Maraudon for the first time. It took three nights before we figured it out. None of us knew about Rotgrip. He scared us to death because he was practically invisible in that funky water.
Now I check WoWwiki and WoWhead before I do instances to know what I’m up against.

I remember when the Den Mother was an exciting kill.
Now I’m rejoicing over a one-shot of Nightbane.

I remember having bad dreams involving red tags and contested zones.
Now I run my little alts through Horde territory with impunity, daring the enemy to start something.

I remember when I made 10 different kinds of potions and elixirs for each person in instance runs like SM and ST.
Now I only make a few, and they’re for raids or heroics only.

I remember my first step into a BG, how confusing and scary it was.
Now I’m working on completing a full PvP set. S3 pants next, hopefully.

I remember when grinding enough gold for a regular mount in three days was a feat of epic proportions.
Now I get that much gold from a few dailies.

I remember when I knew nothing about my character, when I made guesses and routinely screwed up and messed up.
Now I write a blog that offers advice to help others learn how to play the druid class.

I remember when I was completely fresh and new to the game.
Now, though I wouldn’t give up the experiences I’ve been through and the skill I have gained, sometimes I miss what I remember.

I remember my first VC run and how confused I was, and how epic Mr. Smite sounded.
I remember the first time I tried to get my bear form and how intimidating the bear spirit seemed.
I remember my vendetta against one certain level 13 moonkin in Darkshore which would not stop killing me.
I remember killing a warlock six or so levels higher than me after being ganked in STV.
I remember my first time in Gurubashi.
I remember my first trip through the Barrens to get to Thousand Needles and pick up ice cream.
I remember when a single gold coin was epic wealth.
I remember my first non-combat pet, a white kitten.
I remember buying all whites from a vendor because it was better armor.
I remember my first green came from VC.
I remember equipping anything leather and not caring about the stats, and then later hoarding anything with agility on it.
I remember not understanding why it was odd to the rest of WoW that my group had actually suggested for me to spec feral and dps as a cat during instances.

What do you remember?

I Missed It...

Okay, so granted the last post was important, but I can't believe I missed this.

That last post? It was my 69th post.

What did I do this morning when on a schoolwork break?

My lock got her succubus.

...

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO PERFECT.

I can't believe...augh. I...it just...so many wasted opportunities!

/cry

Breaking News

Bellwether is guildless.

The facts:

• There is no drama. It was simply a difference in goals. There was no interpersonal drama, there was no in-fighting or hurt feelings.
  
• If you think you know a hidden reason why I left, or are suspicious, you're wrong.
  
• I am not looking for another guild at this time. I've had the same summer job since Junior year of High School, but this summer it no longer has any hours. This means I cannot responsibly commit to any schedule at all until I know what my employment situation this summer will be.
  
• This is a weird thing for me. I have never not had a guild on Bell. I have never not been an officer. I am a noob all over again.
  
• I hold no ill feelings towards anyone in my old guild, because there is nothing to hold against them. Like I said before, it wasn't a real problem, just a difference in goals and attitude, and I did what I had to do to find more joy in the game.
  
• School is eating my face right now, so I will probably not log in much on Bell except to fish a bit and work on my First Aid skill, maybe run an instance if I have the time.
• This has nothing to do with my previous post. This is something I've been deciding for a while. Like, a week or so.
  

Thank you everyone. For now, Bell is going it "solo." I'm still keeping in contact with a lot of my old guildmates, and I'm not quitting WoW. I'm definitely not quitting the blogging thing. I've just needed a change of pace.

/DND

I have never had to use that little tag before, and I prefer not to. But lately, it seems almost a necessity. When I have logged on recently (if I have the time to), there has been some sort of recent phenomenon plaguing WoW.

People refuse to listen and understand simple communication and directives.

If I say “No, I do not wish to heal normal Blood Furnace because it is getting late and I want to sleep soon,” this does not mean:

• Comment “wtf it’s not even 2 yet”
  
• Beg me several times until I give up and go.
  

You know what the above does? It makes a healer, who does not want to go not want to go even more. And if this said healer goes? You’re going to die. Because I will spend half the instance chatting on Trillian while your under-geared bear butt runs over proximity mines and you blow yourself to smithereens, or your frontloading mage spam pulls aggro and you get one-shot. Because I have suddenly lacked the will to care, and instead harbor a sadistic desire to watch you die.

At that point, I am beyond caring if you think I am a good healer or not. I am beyond caring if you complain or trash me. I am simply there to keep you alive mostly and then let you die for stupid mistakes. I will only rez you because I got a new addon and I want to test it out.

Let me reiterate in very clear, concise terms:

If someone, especially a healer or a tank, says they do not want to go somewhere, do not beg them or badger them. If they give in and go, they are much, much more likely to not cover for your stupid mistakes. They are more likely not to give a !@#$. They are more likely to want you to die and allow it to happen.

On another note, if someone offers to run you through an instance, follow their instructions. Seriously. If they tell you to wait somewhere, wait there. If they tell you to follow, follow. If they tell you not to touch things, do not touch things. This goes doubly if the person running you through is a healer. They may not have the dps to burn things down in a second like a rogue or a hunter would. They are there out of the kindness of their heart so you don’t have to wait in LFG; respect that and be courteous.

Anzu and Utilizing the Spirits; a Healing Guide

So, you've got yourself the epic flight form quest, and you're off to Heroic Sethekk. Or, in my case, a fellow druid has, and you have offered to heal. This is excellent; a druid is the most efficient healer for the Raven Lord fight due to certain peculiarities.

It is not a difficult fight by any means, and can easily be done in your first try as long as everyone is on top of their game.

Anzu has two phases.

In Phase One, he is, mostly, a tank-and-spank. I would suggest being out of tree form unless you have a mage or moonkin who is capable and willing to multi-task; there is a dangerous ability Anzu has called "Spell Bomb." Spell Bomb is a curse which causes the target it affects to be mana burned for a high amount of mana and health whenever the person who is affected by it casts a spell. The only safe spell to use while affected is Decursing spells. Since this ability is not available in tree form, it is better to conserve mana by staying out of tree rather than switching in and out.

Besides Spell Bomb, Anzu has several other abilities. One is called "Cyclone of Feathers," which should be interrupted whenever it is cast. It is much the same as a druid cyclone, and it affects random members of the group (besides the tank). This can be extremely detrimental.

Another spell is Paralyzing Screech. While this has a cast time of five seconds, it is not able to be interrupted. This will stun the entire group for six seconds, so it is imperative that you keep HoTs stacked on the tank before this happens. Your Lifebloom will, more likely than not, expire in this time, so be aware it will have to be restacked.

At 66% and 33% life, Anzu will Banish himself and summon a group of non-elite crows. It is imperative at this time that you keep any AoE dps up, though the whole group will likely be taking damage. Anzu will still cast Spell Bomb at this stage, so this is another thing to watch out for. An addon like Decursive is very helpful in quickly identifying and eliminating the debuffs.

But wait, that sounds like a normal boss fight, not much more intricate than others. You said there was something peculiar about it that made druid casters great healers for this boss. And that I did!

When Anzu is summoned, three friendly NPC's are summoned with him. They are three bird spirits: Hawk Spirit, Eagle Spirit, and Falcon Spirit. These Spirits are arranged in a triangle around Anzu, and it's imperative you're within range of all of them. Standing in the middle of the room becomes a Good Idea.

Why is it important, though? Well, the spirits at the time of summoning are "stone" and require druid HoTs to wake them. As long as a HoT is ticking on them they will be awake and provide certain buffs to the party, or debuffs to the enemy. These are as follows:

Hawk - Players receive 500 less damage from attacks
Eagle - All enemies in the room receive 300 periodic damage (300 damage per second)
Falcon - 25% increase to movement speed, melee haste and casting haste

The most important Spirit to keep up at all times is the arguably the Hawk. This will make your healing job easier, as you will have to split your focus between keeping HoTs on your Spirits, your party, and decursing.

The Eagle is most important in Phase 2, but Anzu has a smaller health pool than many heroic bosses, so it is still worth the druid HoT otherwise.

Falcon is useful in all cases, and, with the change of spell haste lowering the GCD, may be more beneficial for druids in the long run.

There are several accepted macros for making this much easier. They are:

/target Eagle Spirit
/cast Rejuvenation(Rank 1)
/targetlasttarget

/target Hawk Spirit
/cast Rejuvenation(Rank 1)
/targetlasttarget

/target Falcon Spirit
/cast Rejuvenation(Rank 1)
/targetlasttarget

OR

/target [button:1] Hawk Spirit
/target [button:3] Eagle Spirit
/target [button:2] Falcon Spirit
/cast Rejuvenation(Rank 1)
/targetlasttarget

The first allows for a set of three buttons you can click depending on which Spirit you wish to target, and then it will return to your last target so you have no downtime in healing your party. The second allows for one macro which changes targets based upon which mouse button is used to click it. Left mouse is 1, right mouse is 2, middle is 3.

Unfortunately, past the end of your epic mount quest, there is not much to look forward to in drops from Anzu for a resto druid. There is a socketable leather dps belt, and there is the rare and coveted mount, but otherwise it is merely for the sake of another badge and some drops for your party members. Which isn't a bad thing, no?

The Department of Awesome

[11:42] Jon: ok.. who decided it would be cool to equip phantom guests with goblin dragon guns?
[11:42] Nightravyn: o.O
[11:43] Bellwether: THE DEPARTMENT OF AWESOME
[11:43] Jon: no
[11:43] Jon: no
[11:43] Jon: the department of ninja buffs apaprently
[11:43] Bellwether: Like I said
[11:43] Bellwether: Awesome
[11:43] Bellwether: do not question the awesome
[11:44] Jon: hm
[11:44] Jon: i guess they had it last week too
[11:44] Bellwether: You're still questioning the awesome.
[11:48] Leafshine: Awesome violation. Awesome Agents dispatched. Stay where you are. Prepare for the Awesome.
[11:48] Bellwether: Damn straight, skippy.

Happiness!

Joy! Sparkles! Rainbows!

Laser Chicken is back!

I'm glad he's feeling better about everything and has a wonderful person to share life with.

Bring the Rain

In order to keep Bear from attacking my face with his Epic Staff of Japanese Pr0n like he threatened, I can no longer wait for screenshots from Button (who seems to have developed a computer virus sadface) to regale you with my latest tale of asshattery, and the sweet, delicious, in-your-face pwnage that followed.

So, doing Heroic Magister's with a feral druid tank, a warlock, a rogue and a PUG mage (I'm healing). The mage doesn't say much throughout it, other than that he's a disenchanter. We figure we'll do what we normally do and roll at the end. While we're doing this, he's disenchanting greens he picks up as he goes, as well as the other things. We can see him doing it.

We down everything (I got the healing trinket Vial of the Sunwell from the third boss /ecstatic) and we're at the end. I wanted the spell damage mace for moonkin set, but the mage rolled need (I assumed at the time accidentally) and won it. No big, accidents happen, and it was offspec anyway. Besides, I could use the shards; I need my staff enchanted for +81 healing.

Now here's the kicker. The little asshole says "bugged cant de" and begins to sit there while we express our disbelief. We saw him disenchant things earlier; he's a horrible liar. So we wait, and he goes afk. We mention his name in guild chat and we are treated to the knowledge that trade has been talking about the little ninja for a few days! No one in our group had any knowledge of it, so we were caught unaware. So we eventually leave the instance, all of us /ignoring the little peon and I introduced him to our blacklist.



For those of you who want to know, currently his name is Fuzy, he is a gnome mage, and he is in the guild Walmart Employees on the Dark Iron (US) server. He is a ninja; do not group with him. What a complete scrub.

Here's where it gets sweet, though.

You see, Dark Iron is a PvP server. Our guildmate and Warrior extraordinaire Button just so happens to know a couple people in Thrust, a high-end Horde guild. He contacts his friends and gets Fuzy and his whole guild (who we attempted to contact but were ignored) to the Kill-on-Sight list.

Not five minutes later, Button gives us this tasty tidbit over Vent: our little ninja friend had just been smeared into pasty gnome goo by several Thrust guildies, and they were now chilling out around his corpse, having a grand old time. If he somehow ever recovers those screenshots, I'll make a fun little tribute to my "friend."

So, to Hexnub and all his guildies, no matter how many times you shove my face into the dirt (or vice-versa; sorry about your little alt Hexnube nevermind!, but you and your cronies were killing Button...), I will always love you and think you're the best thing to happen to Horde since sliced bread and Ratshag.

Ninja My Own Boglords...?

Let me set the scene.

I'm farming away on some Boglords, trying to get myself some Primal Lives for my healing enchant on my staff. A warrior is AoE killing boglords left and right, which is awesome. I toss him a heal and help him bring them down. Surprise, he is not an Herbalist! I am. So, I herb the corpses and begin following him around. We stay ungrouped so he can loot and I can herb.

We get to talking, and it seems he's farming Primal Lives so that his guild can get Nature Resist gear. He normally only PvP's, but he wants to help his friends out. I think that's pretty nice of him, especially since he can't herb, so I sell him the ones I picked up at a discount. I'm going to be really busy this week and can't raid at the moment anyway, so I'm not hurting my guild by not being enchanted yet.

Well, anyway, we're doing this for fifteen minutes, maybe twenty, when he pulls another AoE mob group. No big, I help him burn them down. After they're all down, a paladin runs into the center of the corpses and /says to me, "You better not herb my corpses, Bell." Now, I used proper sentence structure and grammar, but you get the gist. I checked; He's not in the warrior's guild, and the warrior said nothing to me about bringing a friend. Since he's been cordial and polite and friendly this entire time, as have I, I assume he would have told me if he'd brought in a friend to herb. So, I ignore him and start herbing.

The paladin sends me a tell, then. Apparantly, if I take "his" bog lord corpses again, I'll be reported. I explain to him that the warrior and I have been working together to do this, so there is nothing to report. I am told to "shut my mouth." I ignore him, and go on my merry way continuing what I have been doing and hear nothing else from the paladin.

I never received any GM notice or warning, so I can only assume the guy was blowing hot air. Still, I can't believe someone had the audacity to assume I wasn't working with the warrior and was just stealing corpses when I had helped him kill the mobs and had been healing and buffing him.

Say hello to the world, asshat.

LF Language Help

Hi everyone! This is Bell, once more asking for your help.

You see, a little while ago, we got a very nice, very helpful and skilled Holy Paladin. He's been doing great with us so far except for one little problem.

...He only speaks a little English. He mostly speaks Spanish. Now, I took German in high school and remember little of it, and now I'm stumbling through Japanese, and I cannot with my school load begin working through the mechanics of a new language. We have a few members who can speak broken Spanish, and one who can speak very good Spanish but is not on that often, and I don't want to keep bugging him. Right now we've been able to communicate brokenly through Babel Fish and some English, but it can cause problems in more complicated boss fights, even if we just want to tell him not to run through the beams in Netherspite.

So, what I am asking is, does anyone know any sites with boss fight strats in Spanish? Or would someone be interested in making one? Or even just working with me to help me come up with some simple boss strats for Kara, ZA, and so on? I know it's a lot of work and I'll find some way to make it worth your while.

Thank you, everyone. I just want to make our pally feel included and keep him from feeling bad about doing something wrong because he doesn't understand.

What I Am NOT Spending My Badges On

Unless someone can give me a good reason to, of course. But everyone's talking about what they will buy, and it seems like no one is talking about what they won't.

What I am talking about is this: [Gavel of Naaru Blessings]

Now, it seems like a really nice mace. The 464 healing really pops out at you and makes you go "Wow! That'll put me up to (insert large number here) healing!" Sometimes it's easy to be blinded by raw +healing numbers. They're often the first thing people ask for when they ask for a healer: what is your +healing?

However, the second thing people ask for is what your mp5 while casting is.

This mace has intellect on it, the only arguable contribution to your mp5 while casting. It has only 7 more intellect than [Light's Justice], and contains none of the +20 spirit of the weapon. It has 8 more intellect than [Shard of the Virtuous] and none of the mp5.

What the Gavel does have, however, is stamina. It has loads of stamina. Therefore, the question becomes this: what do you need more, mp5 or health?

At this point in my WoW career, I focus more on longevity than raw healing power. My HoTs get overwritten sometimes, and I do well enough as a buffer to spike damage. I am not trying to get off the big heals, just keep my HoTs ticking. Therefore, I need a constant supply of mana. I will never be outside the five-second rule, and I cannot get mana back from crits or heals on myself. I do not want to depend on group makeup to make myself viable for a long boss fight.

Right now, I am using a [Rod of the Blazing Light]. I see no reason to spend 150 badges on an item that will decrease my mp5 simply so I may boost my +healing and stamina. I'd prefer to save up for something else, thank you.

Thrall is a Noob

When you can outrace someone's mount in travel form, they are a noob.

When someone is a shaman but only equips leather, and leather whites or grays at that, they are a noob.

When someone does not wait between pulls for the healer's mana, they are a noob.

When someone face-pulls every group, they are a noob.

Thrall.

You are a noob.

L2PLAY.

Taking One For the Team

I know a lot of my fellow bloggers and blog-readers and web-surfers and WoW-players avoid the official WoW forums like the plague. And truly, it is a terrifying place. There are keyloggers and trolls and jerks, oh my. But in between all of that, if you can stand to look for it, are gems of threads, whether they go into theorycrafting or are just plain fun. And since I regularly chill in the druid forums out of some vague hope (or just simply masochism), I thought I would share my findings with all of you, so you don't have to wade through the muck to get there.

Let me warn you, though, do not click on any links unless you are ABSOLUTELY SURE it is a safe link. The keyloggers are getting craftier, and I don't want anyone's account hacked. These links I'm posting here sometimes contain randomly placed keyloggers, but Blizz generally grabs them in a few hours. Just, please, be careful.

Best Topping For Waffles
I'll start off with a silly, not-really-druid-related post about waffles. Druids on the forums developed the waffle post to try and dissuade trolls, but this one is just for waffles and what tastes good on them. Apparantly, blackberry sauce or mage tears.

Most Stupid Things Said to a Druid
Another fun thread, this is full of hilarious anecdotes involving stupidity, oversights and just plain ignorance of the druid class. Read if you want to feel smart about yourself, or if you want to feel like you're not alone in the mistakes you've made.

My Boomkin :) 1221 spell dmg unbuffed :)
Despite the title, this is not an epeen thread. It is full of helpful suggestions for improving moonkin gear, as well as some inight into crit and hit. Some of the language is a bit rough, as is found often in the forums, but the ideas behind the words are worth looking into.

To Be a Tree: Evolution of Healing
This is a long thread full of tips and tricks of the trade, theorycrafting, explanations, and overall advice on how to heal as a restoration druid.

Viability of a Druid Tank on Illidan?
This thread explores the question of whether or not a druid with a full set of avoidance gear can tank Illidan or whether it's Warrior or nothing. There's some rough language and a bit of yelling, but it gives a unique perspective of the Illidan fight and stretches the boundaries of what is and is not possible.

To all Druids: Thank you.
This is a very old and oft-bumped thread, written by a shaman. If you read nothing else on the forums, you should read the original post in this thread, especially if you're having a bad day. Torkhal, thank you, too.

That's all for now. I hope I found you some fun reading, and please, only feed the trolls waffles.

Why Prince is ALMOST Not Worth It

In WoW, there are generally different types of fights for PvE and PvP. You go into one expecting something different for each one. PvP is much more luck-oriented, as no matter how much you think you have a winning strategy for that one type of class, someone’s going to pull something unorthodox, or you’ll fumble your keys, or someone else will come out of nowhere with a stun proc, or someone’s trinket turns you into a chicken, and you have to adapt your gameplan. PvP is half luck and half skill, because no matter your skill, you’re still going up against free-thinking individuals who don’t always play by the rules. The best-laid plans and all that.

In PvE, you learn the encounter, you get it down, and then you go to work. There’s a little variability, such as in the location and patting of spawned mobs or length of time the boss waits past their cooldown to use that one ability, but past a few d/c’s or people hitting their buttons in the wrong order or a little bit of judgement error, there’s not much luck to it. Sure, it can just so happen that as you’re trying to get away from Onyxia’s tail the tank can shift slightly and put it in your face, but otherwise you’re mostly golden. You learn it, you get it down, and you work those bosses like a machine. You learn to follow the Blizzard and not move in Flame Wreath.

However, PvE sometimes throws wildcards at you, and if you do not adjust rapidly, you’ll find yourself trying to figure out why you’re taking a dirt-nap sometimes. Even then, you learn that Apoko is a healer and a dpser, so in the Heroic MrT five man arena fight you have to do something about him and the priestess. Still, there are some fights that just spit on your raid coordination and laugh at your pitiful attempts to be organized. This is why, as per the title, Prince is almost not worth it.

Prior to 2.4, there used to be some “safe spots” which would suffer minimal interference from infernals. One could land behind your dps, or between the casters and dps, and people could still die, but as long as you remained in these areas, you were generally safe. It was slightly gimmicky but there was still challenge to it, and I still had to work hard to keep people healed through enrage and then axes.

Now, post 2.4, all safe spots have been officially removed. Prince has become a complete luck fight. Placement of infernals determines everything. If your tank is in a bad spot, your enfeebled dps or casters are going to eat a faceful of stone and spend the rest of the fight calling out ill-framed direction commands, calling for a brez, or AFKing to get something to drink. You can adapt, but there will be times where your tank has to run through infernals to get anywhere, or your healers have to, or your dps, and that’s when enfeeble will hit to wipe you out. Or you’re adjusting well, until your only escape path is blocked off and you’re sitting there wondering how in the world you’re supposed to dps when none of your melee can get near and your spellcasters are dead.

What is frustrating about Prince is he can stop a well-oiled machine in its tracks. No matter how often you have done Kara, no matter what your guild progression, if you get bad infernal placement, you are boned. Quick dps to get less infernals seems to be the only option, but a lot of lower-end Kara guilds don’t have that option. He also drops the all-important T4 Helm, and, for priest and druid healers, Light’s Justice. He’s not exactly skippable, since his loot isn’t really all that replaceable for at least a little while or 150 badges. My guild skips Netherspite if people aren’t getting the beams down or if he seems particularly buggy (like last time, he banished for twice as long and would randomly shoot nether breaths if you were at max distance, and not if you were next to him), but we cannot justify giving up on Prince until we wipe to the point where people do not want to pay anything more in repair bills. And it varies, night to night. Some nights, we get him first or second try. Other nights, his infernal placement is merciless and we find ourselves taking a dirt nap before we get him down to second phase, or even at the very end of third phase.

Our guild will continue to do Prince because, as I said, the loot is good, we want our T4, and I’m tired of missing out on Light’s Justice. However, he will also continue to be the bane of our Kara runs, who disrupts a well-oiled, working machine into chaos and oblivion.

No matter how we adjust, there always seems to be an infernal in my face. /endQQ

What Makes an Officer?

I know lately I've been asking a lot of questions on my blog, so I hope you'll forgive me for asking for your input yet again. This time, on another matter of relative importance: officers.

I used to be the Druid CO of No I In Alliance, which converted to Roll For Blame under new management. I stopped being "Druid CO" and was suddenly just an "officer." Then there was a lot of switching around, and a lot of the old officers are no longer officers, and there are new officers, and now new people up for the position of officers. It is...awkward, to say the least, to have once had an outlined purpose and now not to. It makes it confusing, to me, just what officers are being promoted to do.

Right now we have seven officers, not including the guild leader. Two more people are up for consideration as officers, simply because they asked if they could be officers. We have two relatively new officers who were appointed, but they did not ask. They were simply brought forward on the guild leader's decision that he wanted them as officers. This is fine; I think the two of them are great people and will be great officers. However, I don't think I know what being an officer entails anymore.

Both of the people asking to be officer just recently came back to the game, though they've been good friends to many people in the guild for a long time. One doesn't have a level 70, though I don't think that's required to be an officer. One has offered to make a guild website and help organize raids (though as far as I know all our officers have been doing a great job organizing raids, so I want to hear what she thinks we're lacking and how to improve). What I don't understand is why people feel they need the officer position to help out.

Is it so great a thing to have the "officer" tag that you feel you must petition for it before working on a guild website? Or putting forth ideas on how the raid setup could be better? Why is it so coveted? I don't understand, but maybe it's because I've never not been an officer. Since I came into WoW, my first guild was with friends, and they made me an officer, and then when we merged with No I In Alliance I was made officer again, to help ease the transition and because the guild leader thought I had good character and I knew my class. In Roll For Blame I kept my leadership position because I was active and helpful and people looked up to me, and also partly because, I feel, the new guild leader felt challenged by the fact that some people wanted me to be the new guild leader, though I've never done anything to try and stage a coup, and have supported him as best I could.

I suppose it boils down to this:

1. We have seven officers.
   
2. These officers don't have outlined responsibilities so we, as officers, pick up duties as we see fit.
   
3. I think nine officers is too much.
   
4. I don't understand why people need to be officers to help out the guild in a way they think is needed.
   

I probably need some perspective, and I hope you all can provide it, because I'm in desperate need. I don't understand, and lately I feel like the minority in the guild leadership position when I speak. However, they're also not explaining themselves beyond "I like her" or "I think she'll make a good officer" when I want to know why and what for.

Some Quick Changes and a Progress Update

Just to alert you to some new things on the blog:

I've added more little blog-link squares to the right, and their mouse-over titles should be working properly. There are new druid and other WoW blogs, but sadly no new guild member blogs. Apparantly, there's only a few of us in my guild cool enough to do this sort of thing...

I now have an e-mail just for my blog. Of course, this means it's very, very empty, but it's nice to have. It should be right under that picture of Bellwether looking overconfident and mis-matched. It is 4haelz AT gmail DOT com. Very original, and yes, that's spelled correctly. I'm a little concerned people will get it wrong, so remember to channel your inner n00b when spelling it out!

Otherwise, it's all the same old, same old.

Well, my guild's done pretty well! We've downed the Bear boss in ZA and gotten the Eagle to 16% after a few tries, so I'm confident we'll get him soon enough. I ran with another guild and have done Lurker, Maulgarr and Gruul all successfully (though no loot for Bell!) and several attempts on Magtheridon, though no down on him yet. Soon though! I hope!

And that's it for today's post. I'm gonna be out all weekend, both literally and figuratively, at Twal's house, sleeping.

How Do You Do the Thing You Do?

Man, I don't get it. No matter how hard I try, I can't get an alt to even 40. Either I start to lose interest in them, or I can't remember where to go next, or somehow I skip a quest and then everything is killing me, or something.

My one friend suggested a levelling guide. Now, I'm kind of iffy about them. It seems more like cheating than WoWhead or Thottbot. Not to mention, these things cost money. Now, I have to scrape money together to pay for my WoW subscription; I can't really afford to pay $30+ on the side just to level another character to 70.

Maybe it's the fact that my first character is restoration and it takes three times as long to get anything done on her, and that I can't afford epic flight form for her yet, so gathering mats takes an eternity, and my slow computer can't handle the huge influx of people on the island, and that my epic purple armor costs so frickin' much to repair...

Some people just seem to have the knack for it. I have a friend who has a hunter and a priest at 70, with a warrior almost there. She's never used a levelling guide, and she did most of it on her own. She's also been playing about half as long as I have. It seems like talent is almost required to get this done!

Maybe I just don't have the levelling gene. With my highest level alt at 38 and remaining there (she's kind of twinked, and I find I don't enjoy her playstyle) I feel like I'm never gonna see the raid past the little green health bars.

Then again, perhaps this summer I'll have more time...but I'll also want to spend that time doing things like working or seeing my at-home friends. Gah! What is a resto druid to do? Maybe the comments will have helpful hints on how to get a character up to 70 while keeping my druid out of the poor house. Hint hint nudge nudge readers.

April Fool's!

Now, I know it's the day after, but I did pull a little trick on my guild yesterday. I just got the transcription on the event in screenshots from a fellow officer (in on the trick, as all of them were), but they're a little small. Therefore, under each picture I'll give a little recap of what happened!



Here's where it all begins. A confederate starts out saying some negative things about me in guild chat, and I get "all huffy" because I'm online. It's nice to see lots of people defend you, no? Which made it harder to be a b*tch in the end, but it also helps make the prank more believable. Grats to my confederate on his Nightmare Vine being sold.



Now, someone not in the know jumps into the fray trying to get us to act like adults. Normally, I wouldn't even bring this into guild chat, but in order for this to work I have to. So we basically ignore her and you see in my last line an inkling of what's about to happen next.



Most of the guild at this point is in stunned silence. Almost everyone in chat is a confederate of mine, except for the girl flipping her lid. She sent me a tell, too, but I asked her to wait "just a sec" and then I'd talk to her about it. Oh yeah. I ninja'd the guild bank too.



Here my confederates badmouth me behind my back. Awesome!



Onoes, our resident 10-year-old logged in. Hope she has her profanity filters on >.<



Plans to drown their sorrows are made while I ask to get reinvited back into the guild. Otherwise, my confederates have been having fun escalating things with each other.



And I'm back! Much rejoicing is had, and everyone goes "omg, nowai, i totally knew it!" And everything is hunky-dory again, and we all love each other, and I go back to doing my homework.

Happy April Fool's, everyone.

I AM FESTIVE

I am. But you're not going to know what I did until it's over. So, for anyone thinking I'm not as creative as everyone else, I tell you...

That may be true!

But you won't know until later.

Happy April Fool's!