Karazhan Healing Cheat-Sheet

I realize now that I have not talked very much about Karazhan, which is quite surprising. Prior to my inception to Sunder, I had spent many, many months farming Kara over and over, almost exclusively. In doing so, I learned quite a lot about the different bosses and how to navigate them on a Restoration spec’d druid. This was requested by Kakalaki.

Attumen the Huntsman
Attumen is a very straightforward fight. A well-geared Restoration druid (or any healer, really) can solo heal him, but it’s not recommended if you’re uncomfortable with the fight. The basic idea is to keep HoTs ticking on the tank(s) (depending on your guild’s strategy). As soon as Attumen and Midnight combine, hug the horse’s butt. If you are too removed from Attumen, he will charge you, and sometimes one-shot you. To make things easier, it’s recommended to mark someone with a raid symbol and require everyone to stand on them.

Moroes
As a Restoration druid, this fight for you is very, very straightforward. Keep HoTs on the tanks, throw some heals on anyone else who needs it. If your group runs out of ways to eliminate the garrote, stack Lifeblooms on those affected. You don’t have to watch them too carefully; usually one Lifebloom is fine, and you can even let it bloom. It’s more important to keep your tanks up and those in charge of CCing the adds. Abolish Blinds when they come up (a mod like Decursive makes it very easy to see when this happens).

Maiden
Maiden is also very straightforward. You cannot dispel the Holy Fires, so you are purely healing. Watch your melee and keep them alive through the consecration, but more importantly keep your tank up. Watch for the Repentance and make sure your HoTs are fresh before it goes off. Staying in the consecrate will give you a silence debuff; however, if you can time it well, it’s helpful to jump into it right before a Repentance so the consecrate ticks knock you out of a stun. Be careful of doing it too early, or an ill-timed Holy Fire can kill you. Another option is having your tank aware of where you are standing and having him draw Maiden over to you for a consecrate tick.

Opera
Romulo and Julianne
This fight can be summed up simply as: heal the tanks. Throw a HoT on those hit by Julianne. Keep Abolish up on the Romulo tank.

Big Bad Wolf
Make sure you are prepared to Swiftmend or NS+HT the little Red Riding Hood. If you become Little Red Riding Hood, be aware of your surroundings and where to run. Pop Barkskin and pray for healing or a BoP. Otherwise, heal the tank.

Wizard of Oz
Like the Moroes fight, you cannot do much but heal and stay out of the way. If you have a Paladin, have him Judge Wisdom on the tin man once all the others are dead, and chase after him, giving him a little whack with your tree fists. Avoid the cyclones with the crone, and you’re home free.

Curator
Heal the tank on Curator, and throw some HoTs on the dps snagging the flares. Keep an eye out for who takes hurtfuls, and give them some Resto love. At 20% he will Enrage; watch his health and prepare to put all your HoTs on the main tank. During his Evocations, no one should be taking damage. If no one is in desperate need of healing, take advantage of a Dreamless Sleep Potion or simply your 5SR to regen some mana.

Illhoof
Your guild should give out raiding assignments. If you have three healers, the assignments generally go Tank, Raid or Warlock. Keep your assignment up with as many different HoTs as you need. If you can spare it, throw some HoTs up on those not your assignment, as they are always a help. Heal the person in Demon Chains, and if you start to be sacrificed, pop your Barkskin and pray your DPS is on the ball.

Shade of Aran
Resto Druids are very, very sneaky for this boss fight. Every other healer cannot stand close to Shade because of his counterspell ability he likes to spam. However, due to the instant-cast nature of Druid healing, you can stand basically on top of him, spam heals and never worry a bit about Blizzard. If you need to do anything with a cast time, simply back up, get it off, and go back in. When he pulls everyone to the middle, shifting forms will dispel the debuff. If you have the mana for it, while you’re at the wall, throw a Moonfire onto him.

Netherspite
Netherspite and I have a love-hate relationship. The Green Beam is excellent for healers, as it increases your healing output by a very large amount. However, as time goes by, it reduces your mana pool and, if your pool reaches zero, the beam continues to heal Netherspite. Most guilds assign a non-mana using dps for the Green Beam. If you have a Beam assignment, watch for the black circles opening up beneath you. Only move forward or backward. If you do not have a beam, still stick close to Netherspite, and remind your whole guild to do so as well. Everyone takes AoE damage, and if they are out of range of their healers, they die. When you run to the wall as Netherspite banishes, encourage everyone to bandage so you can conserve your mana.

Chess
Pick a piece. Use its abilities. Kill the enemy’s King. Win! (Our Chargers seem to always be the pieces which kill the King, go figure.)

Nightbane
Keep yourself at max range from the tank; this will help you avoid any and all AoE fears. Barkskin during rain of bones and try to keep HoTs ticking on as many people as you can. Move out of the Scorched Earth, and keep on your toes. Nightbane loves to decimate unwitting raids.

Prince
Prince can be a jerk in more ways than one. To eliminate most of your infernal problems, keep most of your ranged at the doorway and put the tank at max distance along the left wall. During Phase 1, feel free to throw HoTs on the melee and anyone else taking damage. Watch for Phase 2 at 60% and get every HoT on the main tank. Tell your melee to bandage if necessary, but your tank must be fully HoTted at all times. When Phase 3 arrives, you can relax a bit on your main tank. Barkskin when axes come for you, and make sure everyone who takes damage from them calls it out so you can throw them a heal or two.

Well, there you have it! A quick overview of all the bosses in Karazhan, except the animal bosses. But, ah, not many people do those, and I personally never have.

Good luck, and happy raiding!

Reliquary Down!

Reliquary of the Lost was downed by Sunder on Sunday night, and I was there for it. My first guild first in my new guild! Huzzah!

Loot:
[Grips of Damnation] (Hunter), [Naturewarden's Treads] (Elemental Shaman)

Here's a quick overview of the fight:

RoS is a very interesting fight. First phase is intense, since no one can heal. Druids can't dispell the soul drain, so if you can do it, put up Insect Swarm on the boss to help it miss people. Pop Barkskin when you're fixated, and only take a Fixate once unless you're a feral druid with enough HP to take it twice. All you can do is DPS, so keep it up until Desire.

When Desire is out, keep an eye on the dps. Be aware of who has high burst damage and get HoTs up on them before Deaden is active so they have a little leeway. Don't bother minding your mana, as it's constantly being decreased and the ghosts will fill it back up at the end anyway.

Anger has to be burned and fast. You will start taking too much damage too quickly the longer he is alive. On the flip side, your tanks will have to burn through their rage/mana to keep it from burning them, so your dps will be riding your tank's tail for the whole fight. I'd advise you to save your Nature Protection Potion for when Spite falls on you instead of popping it in the beginning; if you don't get Spite you'll want your Health Potion ready to go. Pop Barkskin when you think you need it, and Tranquility is one of the most amazing group heals for this boss. Make sure you use it, especially if you're in the main tank group. Your guild should have CoH priests and resto shamans assigned to the raid for this; your HoTs cannot keep up and cannot stack fast enough. Instead, make sure all your HoTs, and I mean all of them, are on the main tank. Throw a few on yourself and others, but keep HoTs ticking.

When we downed RoS, six people remained alive (and luckily two of them were paladins), including myself. The main tank died at roughly 3% of the boss; we burned them down. The holy paladin Sharlet got the killing blow on RoS.

This is a fun, fast-paced, technical fight.

Don't kick the Deadens, rogues.

Lamaa, and a Reality Check

Blizzard has enacted its mass ban, and the blogosphere is all abuzz with the news. What news, specifically? Lamaa has been banned, an upstanding member of AC, with no botting practices to his name. For the full story, please go to TJ's blog or follow the link here.

I am not against the mass-bans. And I understand there is almost unavoidable collateral damage, but that doesn't mean I can't be supportive of how much it positively sucks. I do not know Lamaa personally, but he's the friend of a friend, of many friends. I have read some things by him on TJ's blog, just little things, but they were funny and I enjoyed them. That this has happened is shameful. And Blizz's customer service track record ain't that good.

What I don't get, and what seems to be a popular trend as the blogosphere grows and encompasses more people and more of the WoW community, is people trying to tell writers what they can and cannot do on their own personal blogs.

No one is forcing you to read this. No one is forcing you to "waste" your time on it. No one is forcing you to write comments, especially unhelpful and completely unconstructive or even accusatory comments on those blog posts you find offensive. Now, I'm not talking about people who disagree with posts. Oh, heck no, I love these people. You have no idea how much I enjoy an intelligent discussion with people who disagree with me. No insults, just a presentation of different sides of the argument. It's wonderful. As much as "hey, great post!" comments make me feel all warm inside, they're harder to respond to with anything other than a "thanks, and thanks for stopping by!" So, really, disagree with me all you want.

Understand what a blog is. It is a personal public journal. What people choose to do with their blog is their business. And yes, they put it on a public forum with public access and allow you to place your comments on it. But being a presumptuous asshole and telling a blogger what they are and are not allowed to do on their blog is like walking into someone's house and telling them how to decorate it. Unless they paid for your advice, all you are is a jerk, just like, unless you paid for an interior decorator or solicited an opinion, the person telling you how to set up your house is plain rude.

Let's get something straight really quick: we are not writing for you. We may be on a level writing for the collective you, but losing one reader because they got all huffy about something is just losing a bit of skin. Maybe it stings a bit, maybe it doesn't. But we slap a band-aid on it and we get back on the bike, and either we get a cool scar to tell a story about or it disappears forever into the back of our minds and we decide we don't care.

Oh, and if you have to do it anonymously, you're also spineless. I at least have a modicum of respect for someone who is willing to claim their shit and not hide on the internet, of all places. If you're too scared to use even a 'net handle, I can't believe you even have the nerve to think some of this stuff in public in case a telepath catches you.

Perhaps it's too much to hope this kind of thing will get through to people, because the people who this is directed at the most are rather presumptuous, AKA so full of themselves they can probably taste their lower intestine.

EDIT: I do want everyone to know this is not directed at one or even a few people in particular. It's a culmination of bad days, WoW forums, and rude people. This is directed at the troll community as a whole.

The Impossible is Possible! Random Updates

People are always very worried about Bear Form's constant mouth open problem. Well, worry no more, and rest assured in the fact that it is possible for it to be closed. No kidding. Seriously. See the above screenshot.

Unfortunately, this seems to be only true when you are swimming as a bear. Go figure, you don't want to swallow the entire ocean.

Also, my latency continues to be evil. No lie. Check it out!



But! I just downloaded PerformanceFu, so hopefully my issues will be alleviated a bit.

I have recently also got an influx of fun mail in my mailbox. I've received thank yous from people, interesting offers from Ratshag (he doesn't like begging, but apparantly his tentacle-faced self needs to be pimped), and also a gray pick-axe with a note saying "for my nose." My friends are weird.

I finally got to see Archimonde go down. So awesome, that last ten percent where you're immune to everything, and you can just dps the heck out of him. Also, jokes about Finger of Death, and "being Fingered for over 100k damage" will never, ever get old. Ever.

♥ to you all, I'll have something more substantial up for you a bit later!

I am NOT a Potted Plant

I’m calling shenanigans. Tree Form has to be a colossal joke upon the entire druid class. I’m not kidding.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Tree of Life Form. It’s spectacular with its aura and the reduction in mana-cost to healing. The tree dance is great (let’s do the twist, kids), and the animations we have are hilarious. I love to “sleep” by sticking my little root feets into the ground and hang my head.

But the fun stops there. And, oddly enough, it is stopped by what is perhaps the weirdest and most arbitrary mechanic built into the Tree of Life form:

The 20% speed reduction.

Now, I know there are issues with how Remove Curse isn’t available in Tree Form, but even that doesn’t get my goat as much as this ridiculous mechanic. It actually forces druids to not use the form best suited for their job in upper raid boss encounters. When mobility is an issue, you leave your wooden hide behind and muck it up in caster form.

Well, you say, this is easy enough to do and not that detrimental. Why do we care?

I’ll tell you why.

Look at your Shadow Priest. See that nice, pretty Shadowform? Would you ask the priest to leave Shadowform to DPS? No? What about a Moonkin? Bear tanks? No? So they never, even when mobility is involved, have to leave the forms which maximize their abilities? But, say, if we resto druids have to move a lot on, perhaps, Archimonde, it’s best the Tree is, well, not a tree.

Well, we ask them to switch out if we need an emergency off-healer, you say. And I would reply, of course you do. Because that was not the role that form was designed for. If I’m in a fight where I cannot heal, I am out of tree form and putting up Insect Swarm and Moonfire. But if I’m in a fight where I expect to heal, I expect to be in the form best suited for my intended role.

Being able to “get away” is highly important in many later raid fights. Being in tree form, rather than being an asset to your raid through auras and mana longevity, makes you a detriment to your raid. If you can’t run out of Doomfires, if you take a second longer in the Volcanoes, you are a problem. Most likely, you are also dead.

I am often placed in the main tank group so that my aura can affect as many tanks as possible, increasing the healing output of all healers assigned to them. On half of the fights TK and up, however, I’m a fixture without utility in that group, waiting for trash so my aura can go back up. I cannot keep up with the pain train through gauntlets like the one in ZA or the one before Reliquary of Souls in my Tree Form, and those are perhaps where mana efficiency and a steady stream of good healing on the tanks is needed the most. Half of the Kael encounter I am out of form, I am out of form for Archimonde, Supremus, Void Reaver, even Netherspite, for crying out loud, all because of some silly, weird, completely arbitrary 20% speed decrease.

Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to how this ridiculous mechanic is necessary. I cannot think of a single reason to keep this mechanic in the tree. Perhaps it is to keep Restoration druids from increasing their healing output in arenas. However, Tree of Life aura is increased by a quarter of your Spirit. Arena gear has no spirit, so healing will be increased only marginally. There is also still the danger of being banished while in form and being out of a fight for much too long. Add in the base mana cost of tree form and it is highly ineffective in arenas.

So, I’ll ask again:

How is the speed reduction anything other than arbitrary?

Aw...

The fun ended...

The thank-you post capped out at 51 pages, 984 replies. I wish I'd gotten the last word, but it's great so many people liked the thread. There were some assholes here and there, but hey, it wouldn't be the WoW forums without them, amirite? ;) And still, even trying to be jerks, they did a very nice thing; they bumped the thread up for more people to see it.

I know a lot of people requested for it to be stickied, but in the end, it's not really something that should be, in my humble opinion. Well, it shouldn't need to be stickied. People should just thank each other all the time, even for little things.

Well, I'll leave it up to you guys, you faithful or unfaithful, new or old readers. What should happen now?

Should I repost the thank you thread? It seems a little like spam, but it made so many people happy as well.

Should I let it die? It seems almost a shame to let it die, after so long.

Should I make a new, different thank you thread? It would be nice, but almost contrived if I have to search for something to be thankful for.

Should I section off all the little bits of it, and put them in each class's forums? I think some people did that already.

Well? Any ideas, or requests? Such a simple thing has grown to mean a lot to me, and apparantly to a lot of other people. It seems a shame it must all end now because of a comment cap.

roflpwnt

Okay, so this is over 2 years old.

All in all, though...made me laugh. Double-post!

Wow, You're A Big One

The Death of the Selfish Innervate

The changes to how mana regeneration works since 2.4 have been amazing. Fully raid-buffed, I rarely have a half-empty mana bar. My mana pots ferment past their expiration date, and I find I’m just carting around Blackened Sporefish in case I need some stam or I run out of Golden Fish Sticks. It also has me crying for a +healing flask that works outside of Gruul’s for progression nights, instead of this Flask of Mighty Restoration.

But what does this mean? Lately it’s meant I have only once, maybe twice, used my innervate on myself. I have instead found it more useful to throw on recently Rebirthed priests. The plain and simple fact has been…I don’t seem to need it anymore. Unless we’re flying through Kara to farm badges and sitting down to drink would make us lose the race (Sunder groups try to get the shortest time possible), I don’t seem to need it. Even on tough streams like Hyjal, I always have 15-30 seconds to drink up that fourth or half of a mana bar I’m missing. And I was only down half a bar because I was missed with the Blessing of Wisdom spot buff.

I used to staunchly stand by the idea that “This is my innervate. There are many like it, but this one is mine.” A druid without his or her innervate was a dangerous combination, and we could only part with it under extreme circumstances or if we completely out-geared the instance/raid. Now with my mana pots past their expiration date, I’m finding myself questioning this logic.

Last night, we did 4/5 Hyjal and Naj’entus and Supremus in BT. I used my innervate three times.

• Priest died and was battle rezed. I innervated her.
  
• Priest needed mana to quick rebuff Shadow Resist between pulls. Innervate!
  
• Kaz’rogal fight. This is the one occasion last night where it was vital to use my own innervate on myself. I never blew up the raid, though people were detonating around me.

Other raids I have never used innervate on myself. Now that innervate shoots my mana bar to full, it seems wasteful to use when I’m only down to half. Barring mana-draining bosses, I’ve never had an issue with my mana since 2.4 in a full-buffed raid group. Innervate, far from being completely necessary to a druid, has now, it seems, become an integral part of their utility for the raid as a whole, or at least it’s mana-users who are unlucky enough, or squishy enough, to bite the dust.

Is Where Ratshag has Fashion Sense

[13:31] Bellwether: I need a shirt to wear
[13:31] Bellwether: Go. Find.
[13:31] Ratshag: okay
[13:31] Ratshag: how about this one?
[13:32] Bellwether: i dunno
[13:32] Ratshag: mmmmm
[13:32] Bellwether: i have to wear it to my mom's
[13:32] Ratshag: oh
[13:32] Ratshag: something a little nicer then
[13:32] Bellwether: /nod
[13:34] Bellwether: Hmm
[13:34] Ratshag: maybe this one? is pretty
[13:34] Bellwether: O_O THAT'S NOT A SHIRT
[13:34] Ratshag: oh
[13:34] Ratshag: oops
[13:34] Ratshag: sorry
[13:35] Ratshag: how bout this one? brings out color of yer eyes
[13:35] Bellwether: Ah. Yes, I like this one.
[13:35] Bellwether: Thank you :)
[13:36] Ratshag: you very welcome

What are you all standing around here for? Go be with your mom! Or at least call her!

Sheesh.

LF Gnome Warrior for 2's, Will Wait Two Months

One of my good friends will be disappearing for two months or so. And I'm going to miss him.

A lot.

I first met him while in my very first guild. He played a hunter, and he joined my Zul'Farrak PUG. He had a boar. I've forgotten the boar's name, but I remember liking it, and feeding it. I remember him being exceptionally good at what he did, and our first good PUG member. We loved him. This was also pre-BC, and he never questioned our pally tank or me being feral dps. I friended him, and we bumped into each other from time to time. I once found him doing the turtle escort in Tanaris.

Later, my guild fell apart. He was the leader of his own guild, so a ragtag bunch of us merged into it. We were welcomed, and slowly we worked ourselves in and became a part of the group. Many people left; I stayed and so did a couple others. At that time, he was playing a holy paladin. Then he became one of the best tanking paladins I've ever had the privilege of running with. Eventually, though, he found he didn't like his pally much, and his girlfriend didn't like her warlock. Together they levelled a warrior and a priest, respectively. I remember taking them to RFK and eating the face of an UD who tried to gank them.

Some things came up, and he decided his best course of action was to join the Navy. This brought unwelcome news to me. He would be leaving. His coming back was tenuous. And I didn't know when he was leaving or for how long. During that time of uncertainty, I'll be honest. I was upset and stressed. I'm sure others were even moreso; his girlfriend is a wonderful, amazing, smart person, and I feel for her to be seperated from him for so long.

He has been my arena partner for months now, guiding me through the process without making me feel stupid. I don't have the heart to find another one, honestly. He's always been helpful and supportive of me, in game and out. He's strong, charismatic, intelligent and hilarious. We talk on the phone, share each other's problems, give advice, help each other out, share stories, make fun of each other, and enjoy each other's company. He's a superb player, a hell of a leader, and an amazing person. He's proof that people in-game can affect you, change you, and be important to you.

The next two months or so are going to be a bitch. Logging on and not seeing him, being unable to call him to chat...will be painful. I know it's only two months. But that's most of my summer. That's a long time.

I'm going to miss you, Button. Come back soon, okay?

Frustrated

This is not cool.

My first run with Sunder? Virtually no lag through Bloodboil and Archimonde.

Wednesday? I couldn't stop d/c'ing. They had to replace me, and I missed out on the guild first of Archimonde.

Last night in TK? 3 fps.

THREE. At best. And I d/c'd twice.

This screwed me over on Kael and killed me within the first five seconds of VR. This is not cool.

Wednesday I believe was the fault of the internet at my mom's, seeing as how I had issues even logging into WoW or a web browser. Last night's debacle? I have no clue why that happened. Perhaps it was just TK wreaking havoc on my computer. Maybe just bad luck on my end.

I already had to buy extra RAM for my laptop to run WoW. I can't afford a new computer, nor can I justify buying one to my parents. Though I'm almost 20, since they're paying for college their approval still holds some (a lot of) sway in my decisions. Especially money wise.

So what can I do?

I'm going to trim down my addons some more. I'm going to go through my computer, clean it up, delete unnecessary things, defrag, run my antiviruses and spyware detectors, do whatever it takes to get this thing liking me again.

I want to raid. Three frames per second? Is not going to cut it. I am on trial. The people in the guild like me so far, and I want to keep it this way. Disconnects during raids, them having to replace me, perpetual lag on bosses that require motion and situational awareness? It does not impress. It does not say "competent healer." It makes me seem unreliable at best.

All I can say is thank god Thaladred took mercy on my poor lagging soul. Kael did not, but, well...can't win them all.

/gasp /breathe

Okay, so.

Y'all know I'm guildless right?

Well, I did apply to one guild. This guild is called Sunder, and is a higher progression guild, working on BT and Hyjal.

I killed Bloodboil with them just about four hours ago. I got focused on twice, and I died twice. I was the only one in the raid who did...I was mortified. You see, I was invited to the run after applying so they could scope me out, see if I was worth their time.

I wanted to be worth their time.

No one said anything about my Bloodboil deaths. I assume this is because they saw me pop barkskin each time, stack all my HoTs, and do everything I could to stay alive, but to no avail.

Still. Archimonde? Terrifying. He is a very, very complicated fight. Not in how many different things he does, but because if one person dies, it's hard to recover. It can also cause chain deaths, and then you need to run into the fire and kill yourself so that everyone can run back in.

Ways to impress others in Mount Hyjal, on Archimonde:
1) Do not be the first to die.
2) Carefully manage your trinket cooldowns.
3) Maintain a level head, even after three hours of wiping.
4) If you die because you messed up, learn from it.
5) Check for your tears.
6) Carry more raid consumables than the guilded healers.
7) Share your consumables with the guilded healers.
8) Check for your tears.
9) If you die to something that was honestly, completely and unavoidably not your fault, explain the situation if you are asked. Apologize even though it wasn't your fault.

I never was the first to die. I got yelled at once, and only once, because I was feared far, far away from everyone else, and was afflicted with a curse. My trinket was also on cooldown. And I lived. As soon as fear was off, I popped a health pot, a decurse, and then a piece of lock candy, threw up my heals on myself, and ran back in. I didn't complain, I didn't get upset they yelled at me.

We never downed Archimonde. It was a progression run, and people learned a lot. We were doing consistently better, and were far ahead of the enrage time. He was down to about 45% in 4 minutes; that's great.

After the run, I thanked them all for the raid invite, and left the raid. Not more than fifteen seconds later, a box popped up over my head. I had been invited into Sunder.

I accepted. I'm on two weeks trial period. If they like me by the end of it, then I'll become a real raider and start earning DKP. For now, I just gotta stick it out before I can get phat loots.

I was nervous and scared and anxious the whole run. I had read into Archimonde extensively; Bloodboil not as much. The guild I ran with was nice and put me in a stationary group. I never had to run to the back or do something other than heal the main tank.

They worked with me, waited for me to jump off the cliff about twenty times, and positioned a rezzer at the bottom for the one time I killed myself. I never died to fall damage on Archimonde; possibly due to cat form. I never even took more than 100 fall damage. I avoided fires and when I couldn't, I healed myself through it. I healed the other resto druid through hers, too, and the hunter by me. I topped off who I could and healed the tank when I could.

Despite being intimidated and terrified beyond all reason, I performed well enough to receive a guild invite.

/collapse

Oh Goodness...

My shopping list:

1x earthstorm diamond
1x skyfire diamond
2x fel lotus
5x primal might
6x primal life
2x nether vortexes

Get Exalted with SSO

Also on the list:
Get Exalted with Aldor
Epic Flight Form

...

*cry*

For Sharvan

I hope you enjoyed what you saw, Sharvan.

/moo

HOLY CRAP

Okay, so I have pictures of the Running of Da Bulls to post, but I have very little time at the moment. Rest assured, they'll be up soon.

However...

The Thank You post, over on the WoW forums?

It's still going.

It's on 27 pages.

A CM EXTENDED THE CAP.

Has this ever happened before?

If you can't tell by my many short sentences...

I'm in awe of the community at large for such an overwhelmingly positive response.

Thank your friends and PUGs today. It doesn't hurt you and can do them a world of good.

Some Things I've Learned:

Some people are so moved by a simple list of thank you's, they'll create small alts on your server just to say hi and share their appreciation. These same people may wait an hour or so for you to log on.

Many people look at a good thing, and their only thought is "how can I make this bad?"

If you respond to those people positively and without malice, they often don't stick around.

My feel-good thread has gotten hundreds of responses, one copy-cat, and one satire. Even though I encouraged the copy-cat thread, it died. So did the satire. I suppose people just like me. Or I post too often in it.

Some people look at a list of thanks, and can't think that someone is sincere. This boggles their mind. The list is real, guys. I like you.

Adding more thanks to the shamans when people complain about how many there are would make it seem insincere. I can't do that, no matter how much I want to. People already question my sincereity; it would fall flat, wouldn't it, if I started pandering to every person who thought there wasn't enough on the list.

Some people want to one-up others so bad, they'll count how many thanks their class got.

Within the thread, I've been called unnecessarily happy. Or something, I only skimmed the troll post. It also mentioned punching me in the throat. I received a few insults, a few "threats," a few haters.

I received hundreds of thank you's in kind.

I'll call it a win.

EDIT: Also, a lot of people think I'm a boy.

Check it Out

Thank you's on WoWinsider!

I'd like to ask everyone that, no matter what trolls may pop up or bad people may suspect, to only respond to these threads (the one on my blog, the one on my forums, and the one on WoWinsider) in a positive manner.

It confuses the trolls.

And it spreads the love.

What could be better than that?

Get a Little Woody

[13:16] Bellwether: I was thinking about Lifebloom.
[13:16] Bellwether: This is really bad.
[13:17] Nightravyn: ohhhhhh?
[13:17] Bellwether: Lifebloom is like sex. You have to keep a steady rhythm and keep it going, because if you bloom too early, everyone is disappointed in your performance. And it gets harder to work up the momentum again.
[13:17] Nightravyn: ::giggling::
[13:18] Siha: And the bloom is fundamentally the same whether you've been going for a moment or forever?
[13:18] Bellwether: yep
[13:19] Siha: :D
[13:19] Siha: This demands a blog post.
[13:19] Leafshine: And, frankly, as I get older I need longer between boss fights.
[13:23] Leafshine: But, on the other hand, now I'm not so young and excitable, I'm less likely to suffer premature Blooms.
[13:23] Matticus: you people and your sexual innuendos

[13:18] Button: but don't worry Bell, even if you bloom early I doubt they'd be disappointed ;)
[13:18] Button: you've got the mp5 to try again