Back in my livejournal days, at new year, I used to always write up a little post detailing the cooler things that happened in that year - as many people did.  I thought that, at the end of the Burning Crusade era, I’d also like to do a little post detailing the cool things I enjoyed throughout the game these past few years and what memories have stuck with me.

Unfortunately I have a terrible memory and I only started to record my wow experiences around 8 months ago or so and thus my memories will be biased towards those I have easy access to, as it were.  There are some things, though, which have stuck with me from way back then…

To the Sporeggar(EU) community, I thank you.  You showed me that an RP server could be lots of fun and not just all of the bad stuff you hear about Goldshire…  It was the first server I hit 70 on and where discovered my love for druids!  Particularly, I fondly remember Maun, Zaédin and Wicoth whom I spent a lot of time with and whom I did my very first forays into the raiding world.  Maun for teaching me ‘how 2 durid’, Zaédin for being fun to RP with and Wicoth for helping me get my epic flight form first time ’round as well as running instances with me at 3am in the morning!  I know they’ll never read this but if you are from that server and bump into any of them say hi from Mharai.

Whilst I’m thanking people I can only give my deepest thanks to Lightwalkers for taking me in, letting the nublet come along with them, teaching me how to not be a complete nublet and inviting me to become an admin.  I love Lightwalkers, the people in it and the atmosphere.  If you /dkplist me one more time, though, -50 dkp! /hug

I will always remember dying at least four times after a boss has been downed to DoT damage - the first time being in Auchenai Crypts after already being combat rezzed by another druid and being the last one standing.  I ran around in joy and then hit the floor.

Other memorable deaths include our first kill, I think, on Kaz’rogal.  He resisted another rogue’s distract, that rogue vanished but put me into combat and I was swiftly splattered and had to watch the whole fight from the other side of the camp.

I will never forget another first kill, my first ‘first kill’ in fact - A’lar on the first night I’d ever seen him.  I was terribly under-geared and under-skilled and didn’t dare run after the other rogues onto the platform as I didn’t think I could react in enough time to jump off (I didn’t 100%  understand exactly how his abilities worked back then).  I think I managed to cheekily sit right in the centre-middle of that screenshot. *grin*

I remember my first run in Slave Pens - it was Heroic back in the days when heroics were still a challenge for non-hardcore raiders (no easy pvp gear, no badge gear etc.).  I absolutely hated the place and that one run shaped how I felt towards Slave Pens for a looong time.  Even now I’m not a huge fan of it!  I hope to avoid the kind of terrible introduction to an instance which puts me off it for the future.  I think being more adventurous about instances will probably help in this regard - my first Burning Crusade instance was when I hit level 70.

I remember rolling a teensy, tiny shaman and a similarly pint-sized druid and only a few months later taking both through their first raids - motivation to level them coming from all sorts of places.

The Burning Crusade brought changes which meant I could get one thing which I’d hankered after for quite some time - a ’saber mount!

[The Helm of the Claw] or ‘that bloody hat!’ has been a headpiece which has plagued me throughout TBC - from my druid, to my rogue, to my second druid.  I will never, it seems, be completely rid of that hat until Northrend!

Shamans were a much-scrutinised and visible part of this expansion and I have some awesome memories concerning shamans doing insances in multiples and even one where we had a shaman tank!

When Quel’Danas was launched, myself and a few other guildies logged onto vent together and spent most of the afternoon running the instance over, wiping repeatedly on Delrissa and having a blast.

Some ‘quickfire’ memories.

• Tanking a whole bunch of things for the first time - something I never thought I’d get to do!
• Flight Form.  Instant Cast.  ‘Nuff Said.
• Kodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodo! *grin*
• Seeing Illidan for the first time…

I remember starting a blog and having this awesome commenter who was asking my opinion about her blog.  I loved that feeling of community and friendship which I got outside of the game but within the community.

/hug

I had another post started for today but I decided to change it because yesterday an event happened which I wanted to write about - both in form and in concept.  We had a guild meeting.  Now, Lightwalkers has had guild meetings in the past as have many guilds but I’ve ever been part of one, never gotten to see what such an event would be like and I walked away today with the feeling that I had learned a very profound lesson.

We had decided to have the guild meeting to outline our plans for Wrath and to talk through how we, as a guild lead, wanted to steer the guild over the course of the next expansion.   We have some changes happening to dkp, signups and guild philosophy to discuss as well as to put into action the new ranks system we’d started.

I must admit - I did not expect such a large turn out.  The number of people at this event apparently trumped the number at the last.  We met up in Winterspring and had to change venues from the Hot Spring near Donova Snowden to one ‘across the road’ as there wasn’t enough space. I think we ended up with around 47 or 48 people - an old-school raid with a few to spare!

Putting it at the hot springs was a good idea too - whilst people waited they got naked (or as naked as WoW allows) and had fun splashing around, or fished, or generally joked around.

When the meeting ’started’ officially we all sat around Stalwart who was leading the proceedings.  There’s something so different about sitting ‘physically’ in front of someone which focuses people and really brings a sense of community.

The other big bonus is that we could sit and talk about issues which were bugging people in a less contentious situation.  We were all chilled and relaxed and the admin team could explain our reasoning a lot better over voice-chat than if we had just made forum posts and we could also answer individual worries and queries.

All-in-all I think the whole thing was a rather positive experience and I’d reccomend it to any guild who is perhaps having trouble getting people together or just feel that they want some activity to bring the guild together.

<3

Sephrenia’s post is something everyone should understand by now.  Really.  Nothing irks me more than an “omg heal me!” being shouted over teamspeak or party-chat by dps and especially when they’re not only asking for their own healing, but for someone else.

Shouting “heal the tank!!!!” when the healers are, most probably, doing the damndest to keep said tank alive is not only annoying, it can be counter productive, too.  For example, if a number of healers is assigned to each tank and someone shouts to ‘heal x!’ some healers, we shall say the ones less ’sure’ of themselves, will switch their healing target - causing another tank to die.  This can also when a dps character calls out for healing and too many healers actually listen to them.

Now, I know a lot of people would say ‘but just ignore them, do what your assignment is’ and I’d agree to some extent but also point out the fact that quite often, in Burning Crusade, there are fights which require you to redirect your efforts mid-encounter.  People are used to being reactive to damage and, especially raid healers, are equipped to switch targets quickly or cover said targets with ’splash healing’.  When someone calls out for healing not only may the tanks lose healing but those reactive healers may change their primary focus and end up wasting healing time as four large heals land at the same time on one dps char who stood in the fire too long.

When is it ok?

Some would say that its never ok to call for additional healing but I think there are circumstances where it is valid.  Some of our tanks have macros which call out when they have used their defensive capabilities - saying them in teamspeak is a little quicker “coming off shield wall in 5…4…” etc.  Not directly calling for healing, perhaps, but close enough in directing it.

However, in general, asking directly for healing is not really going to get your healers to heal you more.  Like Sephrenia says - it’s very tempting for a healer to let said players die on trash or somesuch so they stop messing around.  Not the most mature way of handling things, perhaps, but effective in calming your temper.

I don’t need reminding that you need healing - it’s something that I am acutely aware of. It’s all I watch on my screen - those little grid boxes of dwindling health. I never see much else.

I reiterate her point here - your job is to dps or tank, keep an eye on your own rotations, your own dps and your own threat.  Stop telling the healers to heal, it’s what we do and it’s all we’re concentrating on besides not stepping in the fire.  If you’re telling us to do our job I doubt you’re doing your own effectively…

Totems

The same thing goes for telling shamans which totems to put down.  You can mention to us why an encounter might favour another totem in a way we might not have considered as the spec we are but unless you are the raid leader - and sometime even if you are! - you should think about the fact that totems are part of the shaman class and, as such, we also usually understand how and when certain ones should be used.

No Sunday Screenies today (I’m sure you’re all crying at the loss) - I’ve not gotten any particularly good new screenies except ones I’ve taken for tommorrow’s post!

Whassis? Ah’v got tae report more often?  Bloody hell, as if it wisnae bad enough tae dae a this writin’ an’ secretarial work as it is, ah’v goat a job tae dae! *grumble*

I’m not usually too much of a bandwagon jumper-onner but too many blogs have been mentioning they’ll be doing NaBloPoMo this month (instead of or alongside NaNoWriMo) and, after a bit of thinking, I decided to give it a shot.  Feels odd that I’m announcing this on the second of the month but I did decide after I realised I’d already posted on the first.  Go me - late as usual!

Anyways, this should be an experience as I am not so prolific as some bloggers - I usually only do two to three posts in a week unless something exciting is happening and I’d like to see if I can ratchet it up a bit.  I’m also hoping it’ll help me get over some of the bad habits I have of leaving something too long before coming back to finish it or thinking “ah maybe tomorrow” when I’m a little tired.

This blog, in the first place, was supposed to help my writing and testing the boundaries of that is, in my mind, a good way to about it.  A few years back I made myself a new-years resolution to draw a quick picture at least once a day every day for a year.  I didn’t manage it, quite, though I did something like 312 pictures and it really did help me iron out some of the problems I was having with my art (not all of them sadly -  bah!).  Quantity can sometimes beget quality as it allows for

So, er, yes.  NaBloPoMo here I come!

I am going to have to figure out some way of posting whilst I’m away from the 14th to 16th however (no, not grinding, I’m going off on my holidays the day after Wrath comes out /sob).

All hell’s broken loose in Azeroth! The scourge, they’re everywhere again. Run, hide or fight, but don’t fall to them, whatever you do!

I have to admit, the first thing I did when I heard there was infected plague running around from Nibuca was…. run to Booty Bay and go get myself infected. Then spread the love to the Ironforge Auction House. There were of course a few people complaining about it, which was a shame, because all I wanted to do was spread the event…

Oh well, we had some fun before people had to go to bed.  I can imagine this would be a blast on RP severs.

Quick Tips:

• If you want to get infected and noone is about to eat your brains then head down to Booty Bay - there are boxes scattered all over with a green glow.  Click one and you’ll start craving fresh brains.
• If you have the debuff and don’t want to have it, talk to an Argent Healer - usually near Inns or in banks or talk to any classes who can cleanse disease - shammies, paladins or priests.
• The Argent Healers will cleanse you if you get too close, so if you wish to keep your debuff steer clear of them.
• If you are a mage, Ice Block seems to instantly make you a zombie if you’re infected.
• Guards will attack you when you turn, be careful to either be close to your target when you’re going to zombie up or to be away in a quiet corner if you want to get some unsuspecting passers-by.
• Most guards and NPCs (and even flight masters) can be infected but faction leaders, quest givers and the like seem to be ‘protected’.  Good thing as otherwise that might get annoying… Apparently I was wrong - a lot of them can be infected…
  
• Whilst a zombie, you can use the other faction’s portals in Shattrath.

Have fun with the event!

I’m sorry, I know I’m not nearly in the majority about this subject but, as such, I feel I have to shout louder than the lot of ye’ about it. *ahem*

I’m talking about the post 3.0.2 “omg the instances got hit by a nerf bat and we all hate it, wah!” stuff that’s been going around.  Something like here, and here. My take on it is more like what BBB(BBBBBBB) says here.

I’m a little saddened to see attitudes like this:

Considering how easy it went I’d be surprised if we didn’t kill Illidan pretty soon. Which of course is fun and nice in one way, but still I can’t help feeling slightly disappointed. Will we get any more epic raiding experience at all before the expansion? Maybe in Sunwell. That’s my hope. Because if Sunwell isn’t better, this patch was the end to raiding in TBC the way that we knew it. Now it’s not the real stuff. It’s badge and gear farming. That’s the sad truth.

I miss the wipe nights already.

and

It was rather ridiculous, really. The difficulty is gone, and with it some of the enjoyment. We still have some new content to poke at, Sunwell, which I expect we’ll see soon, and I expect some challenge there, but to have Illidan in his previous form stolen from us is somewhat disappointing.

from Larísa and Namthe - two bloggers whom I respect greatly.  It’s not only them but one or two guildmates who have mentioned a similar “Oh, it’s terrible, I hate doing this” sort of attitude.

This whole scenario reminds me a lot of the whole 2.4 situation.

Yes, it is easier, much easier.  Ridiculously easy for people who are geared for it and who were on the verge of completing the content.  I know, in my heart, that Lightwalkers would have gotten down a pre-nerf Council this week and might have had a few shots at Illidan.

However - those few guilds still raiding will understand when I say that it’s been hard to keep people coming back to those raids.  We were struggling to fill that 25 man group every week and might not have even been able to go to Black Temple two out of three nights for lack of a tank or healer.

Personally, I got to do something I wanted to do since I started raiding - stand at Illidan’s feet.  I have now seen all of Black Temple, I’m happy even if it is ‘post-nerf’.  We’re going to visit Illidan tomorrow night (we had no FR tanks so we didn’t try him more than for giggles on Sunday night) and we might take his nerfed rear down.  We’ll get to see Black Temple to completion.

Raiding is for fun.  There’s no fun in no challenge all the time but this is not meant to be challenging content any more.  This is also not how new content will be.  This is the time to go, kill some bosses, get some nice levelling gear and complete those achievements.  This is a time to run through a raid instance without the trials, tribulations and stress usually associated with them. Instead of crying about lost chances please think of looking to these next few weeks as a time for fun, rest and relaxation before the new ‘raiding season’ starts again in a month or so.  It’s also a very nice way for dps and tanks to try out their new specs and make tweaks without sacrificing their raid viability to do so.

As stated by BBB:

Suddenly, it was as though we had finally been given that feeling that Tier 6 raiders have long known… the joys of fighting something you know very, very well… with the power to hand it a serious beating… but without making it a 3 man snoozefest.

I can’t agree with him enough - whilst I won’t be patting myself on the back if kill Illidan tommorrow night I will still enjoy it!

It’s jumpin’, there’s a buzz in the air, people are feelin’ stirrin’s deep doon and its like some sort o’ adrenaline rush goin’ aroon.  Old friends are poppin’ up, people are goin’ back to their roots… Everyone’s heard that there’s somethin’ brewin’ up north and they’re sortin’ their afairs.  It’s excitin’ but ah’m no half feelin’ that ah could be doin’ wi’ a quiet corner and a wee pint an’ a hauf.

Pets, mounts, achievements, inscriptions, new pets, new talent trees, new spells, new addons, new layouts, new everything!

On top of that, every five minutes someone asks “what’s a lexicon of power” followed shortly by “and where do  I find that?”.  Inscriptions are making stupid amounts of gold on my server (especially the few minors available) and people are asking a million questions about the who, where what and why of them. Oh and people complaining about the spam caused by people getting achievements.  Especially when you take 10 people to do the Leeeerroooyyy! one and everyone’s achievement hits the guild at once…

Things have been utterly crazy.  I know it’s all a little ‘old news’ now but, personally, I’m only just coming off of the new-content high!

And then they decided to hit us with Hallows End, too.  Evil buggers! More on that in another post.  On that note - expect a little pick-up in posting from now on.  Despite a rash of unfortunate circumstances and busyness combined with a little bit of writers ‘doubt’ I am slowly working myself back into the writing saddle (and dear god how many metaphors did I murder there?).

Coherency, right.  Well, this post is a quick roundup of the smaller things which won’t get a post of their own in the coming few days or so.

Patch went pretty nicely for us Europeans - most of our realms were only an hour late coming up and, although we’ve had a few outages, and a little experience of the mount and pet bug (where they ‘disappeared’) things have been otherwise relatively less failurefull than the usual major patch.

Oh, except the ding every two minutes as everyone completes an achievement.

Haircut Stuff

Matt challenged people to post their changed ‘do’s’ so here are the three I changed (I can’t bear to change Aurik - there’s no hairstyle which I think looks better on him).

Avarix

Went for a very similar look here but I wanted a floofier ponytail as I was sick of the current one I had ’sticking’ to my back.

Jhai

Jhai’s let her hair out and grown it out a bit.  Was getting a bit tired of her ’schoolgirl’ look - something I hadn’t anticipated when I made her (the look, not the geting tired of, ahem)

Dryn

At first I was going to leave Dryn as-is but I decided, screw it, he needed a change and, to be honest, I’m glad I did. Of course, 7gold+ seems a bit steep for getting someone to tie your hair back!

Achievements Stuff

Whilst I will write an extended post on my thoughts on later, I was quite pleased to have achieved one particular goal not long after the patch:

• Ambassador of the Alliance

Of course, I’m equally saddened that I didn’t quite get:

• Shop Smart, Shop Pet Smart

48 pets… and probably hours of grinding red whelps in the vain hope one would drop for me.  Of course, I was delighted to have grabbed a Firefly (something I’ve wanted for ages).  I’m hoping to grab myself a [Sinister Squashling] and a [Magical Crawdad Box] (another pet I utterly adore) to make up the last two.  Of course the latter requires several other achievements to come first, such as Master Fishing!

Hunter Stuff

Talking of pets, Dryn spent a whole lot of time hanging around the Barrens after the patch. I had been checking over my usual pet-lover-haunt to pick which of the nice, shiny new pets I wanted.  I picked out a nice Netherskate and went off to tame it.  When I was browsing, though, a familiar face cropped up.  Takk.

Now, Takk and my hunters (yes, multiple, I keep starting them and abandoning them around level 20-30…) have a long history.  My first ever WoW char, even before Aurik, was a Moo Hunter called Ouranosin.  He made it to his 21st level before I rerolled to play with my other half on the alliance side.  I had seen the raptors the game had and thought ‘hey those are funky, I wants one!’ and saw that Takk, a lovely, black skinned raptor, would make a perfect companion to my pure white bull Tauren.   It took me a looong time - Takk was a rare, hit hard and fast and I was, to put it bluntly, a noob.  The kind of noob hunter who is up there alongside their pet hitting with their weapons! /sigh

The next few hunters also aimed for Takk but all ended up getting something else (Ghost Cat, Tallstrider, Wolf) as they bypassed the level to get Takk.  Dryn has had a Tallstrider (Aoi) and then a Carrion Bird (Horizon) as his main pets as well as, briefly, his ZG tiger (Monsoon).  Sadly I had to let Monsoon go but I just wasn’t feeling close to him as a pet - cats aren’t really my thing.   I took him to STV and let him go before continuing on to Ratchet.

Cue spawn point camping, ala BRK. 3 days later and Dryn got himself a new companion and I’m glad I did.

The auto-level was the factor that spurred me to go after him now - I couldn’t have levelled him enough before with how little I play my hunter- but level 65 is a fine level of pet for a marks hunter who pretty much only grinds and I now have a companion who I’m truly happy with - and in a small homage to the kitty I’d had to let go I’ve named my new raptor Typhoon.

I also have to say that since the patch I’ve been enjoying my hunter immensely… He’d always been my ‘gather bot’ character whom I didn’t bother to gear beyond lucky drops (*coughspear*cough)  and I hadn’t really ‘enjoyed’ the hunter class so much but now I’m really feeling the love - I have a tonne of new toys and, I must say, misdirect, readiness, misdirect, is just insanely nice when you have a slightly lesser equipped tank and some t6 dps!

Look ma, I’ma big hunter now! *ahem* ( big thanks to those in BA chat who helped me spec him on patch day!).

Epic Stuff

No, not the wearing kind, the skill kind!  I’d been dithering for a while about getting Avarix an epic mount.  My shammy is my main now but he’s still fluttering about on a slow flyer.  He has no gathering skills, though, and rarely ‘goes anywhere’ as he’s done questing etc.  However, the last few days have shown how annoying it is to be stuck back on a slow flyer for questing and so, when I went to pick up the trick-or-treat candy in Shadowmoon Valley I couldn’t resist and spent the windfall I’d made from inscription to pick Avarix up a shiny new mount.

All I can say is wheee~~

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something I meant to add here but I’m too eager to begin a few other posts I have in mind to work on this one too long *ahem*.

European servers have gone down now and we now begin our long, arduous wait until the realms are back up.  Given the worries some of the guys over the sea are having I think I’ve resigned myself to not seeing our realms up until late evening tomorrow but when they do… well…

Apprehension

I’m a little scared, to be honest.  Change is always a little worrying - so much to learn, so much to do!  This patch brings with it new specs and talents, a new profession (along with a new set of considerations in the form of glyphs).  I will have to respec 4 level 70’s and hope I get it right, and I will have to glyph them all up appropriately.

I will have to re-do all my addons and find replacements for the ones which aren’t working.  I will have to deal with rethinking how I heal and how I conserve my mana.  I’m going to have to relearn to tank, too, on the druid  and to dps effectively on my rogue.  I will need to learn how to work my hunter too, but I’ve never been much good at that anyway *ahem*.

Then there’s learning inscription and stocking the gbank with enough for everyone!

Elation

On the other hand, I’m excited.  So many new changes, so many things to explore and wonder of all wonders replayability concerning old content with the brand spanking new achievements systems.  There’s nothing more fun than running around doing ‘old school’ stuff with yer friends in game.  Like spamming /chicken together for 20 minutes…

Spending time with friends doing these old achievements is something I’m majorly looking forward to - putting achievements into the game four weeks before Wrath was a genius move - it gives people something to do, other than twiddle their thumbs, until the expansion itself hits the shelves.

My characters can have their first haircut since they were conceived and my bags will no longer be stuffed with pets and mounts.

Raids will be made more interesting from tomorrow, too, with new synergies coming in to play and the ‘nerf’ to HP most of the raid bosses will be getting!

Mixed Feelin’s

I really can’t wait to see the effect some things will have in play.  Although I have been on beta there’s a whole different side to this sort of thing when you’re actually playing it, on live, with all of your guildies in a raid - even if just a fun one.  I’m not looking forward to the million questions in general and trade (though most of my chars have trade channel turned off) but I am looking forward to being able to sort out some shiny new glyphs for my guildmates! Mixed feelin’s.  Perhaps tommorrow will bring more solid ones (like hate as I wrestle with my addons)…

Achivement Completed: “Create a spam post due to boredom whilst the servers are down!”

*ahem*

The tank dies, he’s the only one dead and there are two other tanks alive and so the call is made “Keep Nuking!” each other tank tries in vain to keep the attention of the mob but eventually, in their weaker dps gear, they fall.  The Reliquary moves through the raid, third phase dot ticking over and slowly wipes people out one by one.

5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1% almost the whole raid is dead, the boss heading towards me, - lightning bolt, lightning bolt… shitshitshit he’sgonnahitme EARTH SHOCK.  The boss drops at my feet, dead.  The only ones still standing?  Myself and the other resto shaman, Plix, who was also nuking with all he had.  Plix, I salute thee!

Normally we’d have wiped it faster but… the first two phases were textbook and we’d had such a stunning night with the other bosses (first time we’ve done 6/9 in one night).  Both of us resto shamans had decided to use our ankhs around the middle of phase 3 because of how well the try was going - we had the dot reset on us and is probably the only reason we survived until the end.  Still…

We are imba.

Mwuhaha.

No screenie this week, only a quick doodle - my hunter gather-bot Dryn is feeling a little overworked at the moment…