No, no, don’t laugh. It isnae funny. It’s a good helm, see? Better than some o’ the crap ye can pick up aboot the place. Whit dae ye mean it makes ma hied look like a watermelon!?

The raid had a laugh at me the other night when I announced I’d probably see Wrath of the Lich King before I got a new helm - a silly looking one which has become a running joke/mockery between myself and the raid lead (a paladin with the t5 helm).

I currently have the [Helm of the Claw]. Yes, I know, sad isn’t it? My secret shame - raiding BT / MH with a blue helm! I kept putting off buying the badge reward one ([Mask of the Deceiver]) in the hope I’d pick up something better. 5 months later… Bah!

I’m just not sure the Mask, at +12agi, +2hit, +15sta, -2AP is worth 50 badges. In saying that, the only other upgrade I can get, at the moment, comes from Archimonde or Illidan (since we don’t run SSC / TK any more) who we’re not going to be attempting for a while, so I may well have to suck it up and buy yet another ugleh helm.

Of course, if I hold off spending my badges I can grab [Tunic of the Dark Hour], which is a much bigger upgrade over my [Netherblade Chestpiece] and overall with +1agi, +15hit, +7sta, +28AP - including sockets - so it’s a tough choice… I might even have to see if I can throw Aurik in for Prince on a Kara run. Bah.

Still easier than bloody shaman gear…

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Upon learning to speak to the wind one must also, apparently, learn to wear the appropriate vestments. There is so much choice, though, and so little of it within my grasp. One must still work to attain that which will increase ones inherent spirituality - though I am still not sure why putting more layers on brings one closer to the elements…

Kara
Over the past few weeks the guild has started running up to two Kara runs - usually a mix of alts and mains for badges and gear. I’m often not often able to go on Wednesdays (or Mondays and Fridays) as I duly give up the computer so the other half can play Oblivion but the past two weeks things have ended up so that I have been available.

Last week the guild needed a healer for the second run or it was a no-go. ‘Sure’ said I, and dashed onto my shaman, respecced (I’d been elemental for Magtheridon, I think) and grabbed all the consumables I could think of. I posted about my phat lewts.
This week I wasn’t expecting to be on but the other half was late home. I figured I’d nip on, patch up and do my transumtes / glass / make pots and flasks for Thursdays raid. I logged on to Aurik. “You are invited to a group by G”. Eh? *DECLINE*.

I hate being ninja invited and never accept unless someone tells me what I’m getting myself into - even from guildies. A few whispers later and I hear that there’s a sort-of competition going on - two groups are getting together and each thinks they can run Kara faster than the other. I was feeling a bit headachey but I didn’t want to say no when there were such high stakes *ahem*. I jumped over to Avarix, joined a team and then proceeded to run around like an idiot, respeccing elemental, grabbing different food buffs and joining TeamSpeak whilst being disconnected from the game a few times (patch issues, I think).

We ran through Kara, finishing in about two and a half hours. Although we were slow in doing the bosses we managed to actually finish before the other team despite starting about 15-20 mins later! Ahaha. Ah well, was all fun and we even managed to 9-man Netherspite when one of our mages had to go offline. Not bad for an almost completely alt character team!

My dps was terrible but I’ll excuse myself this once, hehe. My totem bar, Yata, suddenly stopped working with the patch (no surprises) so I had to relog and configure totemtimers and was still tweaking it until after Moroes!

Totem Timers

As much as my GM and the shammie class-leader recommend totemtimers over Yata I just… don’t like it. I’d tried it before and was willing to give it another shot but I’ll be going back to yata as soon as it’s working (got it working using the pre-update files) - if for nothing else than auto-totemic recall on a right click. I also prefer its timers - which are a lot bigger and include totems other than the four you have in your bar - so I can see when my elemental and mana tide totems come off cooldown - I also like the quickly configuarable and lockable buttons!

Maybe I’m just missing something with totemtimers (or any other totems + timers addon) but… I really don’t see why it’s so much better? I would be happy to be edumacated!

Gear Mathifications

Managed to pick up a few shinies but two pieces of the healing loot I got were really druid pieces ([Forest Wind Shoulderpads] and [Mitts of the Treemender]) - which takes me to three bits of leather armour! It would be four, except that I also grabbed the [Belt of Gale Force] from Moroes!

I have a habit of grabbing any loot noone else wants if it might, possibly, be useful - I hate seeing stuff sharded when the guild bank is full of void crystals - but on second look my [Gauntlets of the Tranquil Waves] from Magister’s Terrace seem to be on par with the druid leather Mitts for me. The higher int and stamina on the mitts is tempting, though… Time to look more closely!

I use Skyhoof’s shaman healing gear thread as a base list but it’s all calculated at t5 level which puts less emphasis on int and a bit more on haste - both represented unequally on these peices of gear. Using the t4 stat weights she gives irecalculated their values:

Mitts:
+25 Stamina - 5
+22 Intellect - 22
+14 Spirit - ignored (as is socket bonus)
+64 Healing - 64
= 91

Gauntlets:
+12 Stamina - 2.4
+10 Intellect - 10
+1 mp5 (socket bonus) - 3.4
+55 Healing - 55
+24 Haste - 16.32
= 87.12

As I suspected, for my level the mitts come out as higher base but there’s not much in it. However! Each still has two gem slots.

1. (+2 x Living Ruby - 36)
2. (+2 x Royal Nightseye - 27.6)
3. (+1 x Royal Nighseye and 1x Luminous Topaz - 26.8)

Mitts with 1. = 127, 2. = 118.6, 3. = 117.8
Gauntlets with 1. = 123.12, 2. = 114.72, 3. 110.52 (would lose the socket bonus)

The reason I’m calculating the last set of gems? I have myself an [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] which needs to be activated and it requires two yellow gems (I have another in my bracers). The value of an ISD is around 63 (at conservative estimates of it’s worth being 15mp5) So - adding the 63 to both mitts and gauntlets assuming taking the Nightseye and Topaz combination they come out as, rounded down:

Mitts: 180
Gauntlets: 173

The Magister’s Terrace loot is really nice but the stats on them are preferable for higher level content. My main gripe at the moment is lack of mp5 / mana so I think I’ll be enchanting then wearing those leather mitts and banking the gauntlets until I have higher mana regen and a bigger mana pool. Druid-shaman hybrid ftw! *ahem*

Rogue gear is so much simpler…

I was also lucky enough, though, to grab my t4 helm (hence the new meta-gem)! My alt now officially has better headgear than my main… /cry as well as some nice off-spec gear - [The Lightning Capacitor] (passed to me by a very kind warlock whose main is a shaman and insisted that I take it as he could get far better - Thank you A!) - and something for enhance-spec… though I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. I’m so enthusiastic about enhancement… *cough*.

Badge Loot Decisions

The actual point of this post, when I started it, was to look at the fact that I now have lots of badges - more than I ever expected to get on Avarix - and to figure out what I could get with them. Last week I had figured that would be my last Kara for a while and was leaning towards picking up an [Essence of the Martyr] but now I have 73 badges. That puts me an awful lot closer to some really nice, shiny stuff.

But, once again, I’m torn… I could do the badge-giving dailies for the next few days and hope for some badges, get 75 and grab myself some [Natural Life Leggings] or wait and get the [Wave of Life Chestguard] / [Runed Scales of Antiquity]. If Avarix were my main it would be a no-brainer - wait for the big ‘uns - but I cannot be guaranteed badges on my shammie. The last two weeks have been fun but I might not be in Kara for a while now. The other thing which bugs me is that a new chest would be a bigger upgrade, too, but there isn’t a 75 badge chest /cry.

I could, of course, also go for the boots, gloves or belt badge upgrades but I don’t really need those at the moment. I think I’ll maybe try a bit harder to grab myself one more Kara run if possible and then a heroic or so - that chest piece would be the biggest upgrade to my current gear and, unless they added more badge gear, would not be upgraded before WotLK.

Once again a post has spiraled out of control into something way bigger than it was meant to be, whoops.

Well, whit de ye know, ah got myself somethin’ other than a sword… Gotta say it looks pretty funky but ah’v no clue how to use it…

I’m afraid you’re going to have to suffer through another gear post - there’s something a bit more substantial in the works but, unfortunately, it’s slurping up all my blog-creativity! So, yet another shinies post. At least there’ll be pretty pictures, right?

So, tonight was Mount Hyjal and, for about the millionth time, a [Claw of Molten Fury] dropped. I think everyone and their Granny has one by now in our raid group - even the resto shammies have ‘em for offspec etc. so I picked it up for base dkp!

It’s a little better than my main-hand sword [Talon of Azshara] but I’m not sure if it’ll actually be worth taking over a sword - I’ll need to grab a respec and try Fist / Sword (which is apparently second highest dps anyway) -it might be a nice change. Of course… I’ll have to get my ‘unarmed’ fighting skill up from 246.. ouch.

I’ve been a huge swords fan since my early levels but this fist gets major bonus points for being as big as I am…

Avarix, my Shammy chain-healbot got his first full Kara run this week too - I’d previously only been up to Opera on him and so jumped at the chance when the guild mentioned they were short a healer for a second Kara group! I was in mostly blues with a few rep purples and buyables but I think I managed ok - though a little more mp5 wouldn’t hurt!

I walked out with [Pantaloons of Repentance], [Forestlord Striders], and [Cord of Nature's Sustenance] for main spec and [Rapascallion Boots], [Dragonheart Flameshield], and [Scaled Breastplate of Carnage] for offspec.

I’d just gotten myself back in all mail and once again I’m catapulted into leather and cloth for healing! I don’t mind, of course, all of the healing items were decent upgrades for me but I seem to be looking a lot more priestly / druidy since Wednesday, hehe. Very… purple, too!

As for the offspec gear? I was absoloutely tickled to get the Dragonheart Flameshield - it looks awesome!

One day I might actually get enough pieces of gear to try enhancement. *cough*

Last, but by no means least, my little ferlol, Jhai has been geting herself some gear courtesy of a guildie giving a few alts a run or three through Deadmines! I snagged myself a few peices of the Defias set and was amused to pick up both [Rhahk'Zor's Hammer] and then [Smite's Mighty Hammer] in two consecutive runs. I love two handed maces on my druid - much more funky than staves, in my opinion!

I came out of those runs with a decent tanking set - 1.7k hp at level 23! Shame noone wants to run old-world instances these days… I’ll need to see if I can grab a whole group of low-level guildies and blast through some of them for fun and old-times-sake shenanigans.

Ok, this post seems to have gone on a bit longer than intended for just a gear-splat. I think I’m just rebelling, temporarily, against writing more in the post’o'dhoom to come. Bah.

Ah wish ah could say ah ripped them oot o’ Azgalor’s cold, dead, hands but, y’see, it was more a case o’ gettin’ a wee token o’ appreciation fae one o’ them ‘I’m-not-a-dragon-honest’ type ‘elves’ fer doin’ the deed wi’ mah friends.

It’s been a while since I did a ‘look what shinies I got’ post so you’re going to have to suffer through one. Or, you know, press ‘mark as read’ and go on to the next blog. *ahem*

Anyway, I’m somewhat late in posting this but I am now the proud owner of my first piece of Tier 6 - [Slayer's Handguards]! If you’d told me a year ago I’d ever be getting my hands on these I’d have laughed at you but here I am, in Mount Hyjal, having a blast and getting some nice gear besides. As seems to be my curse luck(?) I was able to get them only because I’d been called in for backup when one of the other rogues was unable to make it.

Of course… now I have to go hit some spreadsheets (bleargh) to see what will now be the best gear combination for me.

Ah well… I have cool gloves! /glee (And they match my boots…)

This is, personally speakin’, the first time ah’v bin’ asked tae take a wee wean oot tae see the sites and teach them aboot what the Alliance stands fer. Ach it brought a tear tae mah eye, so it did, tae see yon we lassie so brave and wantin’ tae grow up ‘just like me’.

One of my favourite times of the year in WoW - pet Children’s Week! I logged into the BA chatroom yesterday evening and was informed it had started - I had thought it would be another month until the event, so I was pleasantly surprised (learn to read calenders, Aurik-nub!). I giggled gleefully - “I’m on backup for the raid tonight, time to get all of my new alliance characters a pet or two!”. Of course, sod’s law kicked in and five minutes later “Ehm Aurik, we’re short a rogue, get ready for incoming summon”. Bugger. Ah well, it was a good night anyway (more about that later!).

Last year I managed to get myself Whiskers and Peanut for Mharai, and Mr. Wiggles for my young Orc rogue. This year I have a few characters who need petified up - though I might spread getting them over a few days so as not to out-holiday-quest myself.

I’ll also need to update my list!

Well, them elfs has been tryin’ tae keep me away fae their big kitties fer a while now but they realised that I’d do just aboot anythin’ to get my hands on one and finally decided to gie me one o’ the ones that woulda been too small fer a long-legged over-tall elf anyway!

Ding Exalted - Darnassus!

It’s been a long time coming, for me. I mentioned somewhere before that I was getting close to exalted but not-quite-there. Well, now I got off my rear end and got around to mailing all the runecloth from my various alts over to Aurik and handing them in.

Dryn, my up-and-coming hunter, had made me a tidy stash of runecloth and I only had to buy 13 pieces to complete my rep grind! For the first time ever I sold a mount (pvp-kitty) and then went to buy myself the [Reins of the Swift Mistsaber]. Why all that bother for such a tiny change? No idea, but it makes me happy.

As a dwarf I do rather love my little bits o’ shiny stuff - but bein’ an adventurer, too, I adhere tae the rule that it doesn’t have tae actually shine to be pure gold. *wink*

Another unashamed ‘lookit the shinies I got!’ post. I’ve been quite lucky lately and I think I’ve bored my guild to tears so anyone watching on here can listen to me now, too. I’ve also finished another of my self-set goals, too.

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Bloody hell it isn’t half busy at the upper-end o’ Azeroth. Seems everyone is keen on getting in on the action and helpin’ out wi’ the new offensive.

So, like just about everyone else on the wow-blogosphere, I have been participating in the shiny-newness that is patch 2.4. I know, I know, everyone’s already spoken about it and probably more eloquently than I’m about to but this is my little spot where I get to squee about the stuff I liked / disliked.

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