Ah likes mah swords and ye cannae part me from them - solid, reliable, big, pointy swords.  But it seems there’s others aboot here that likes usin’ other types o’ weaponry…

As much as I have always been a lover of big-ass swords on my rogue I am also a huge fan of unusual weaponry - your bog standard staves, swords and maces are all good and well but who can really say they wouldn’t enjoy beating some murlocs with a rolling pin?

I know there are a lot of funky and unusual offhands in the game (fish, torches, wrenches, dynamite and flowers) but what I’m really looking at here are the really odd things that they allow you to beat mobs about the head with - things you might not have thought were really epic-fantasy style weaponry candidates.

Do you know how awesome it is, in fact, to run lowbies through Shadow Fang Keep with a two-handed spade, beating Worgen up with a satisfying CLANG?!

Most of my joy from this came from levelling my first paladin, a much loved but now abandoned Belfadin on  Sporeggar (EU RP-PVP).  He’s only level 49 but it was whilst levelling him that I became acquainted with my favourite weapon to date - [Silver Spade].  This, and others like it, add a little bit of fun to the usual grind and appeal to my collectors nature.  I was very excited to find that, as of a recent patch, [The Shoveler] is no longer warrior only and I hope to pick it up for my new Paladin as he levels.

In DnD I always was amused by the farmers implements which could be used as weapons and so it is with WoW.  Picks, shovels, skinning knives to start and then the more silly ones such as rolling pins and bones.  I’ve had a quick look through wowhead and wowmodelviewer in search of such interesting items but I’m afraid that I may have missed a few.  Still, this list is a good primer, at least, if you’re looking to start collecting or using some unusual weaponry of your own…

• Spade Model
• Pick Model
• Bone Model
  
• Rolling Pin
• Steins
• Scythes
• Pitchforks
• Broken Wine Bottle
• Plank with Nail
• Fish
• Mutton

(Excuse the radio silence of the last few days - I was off enjoying myself in London!)

Ah cannae say ah find the sight o’ the knickers o’ some big blue demon aw that appealin’ but Jhai seems tae be somewhat pleased a’ this picture she took.  Somethin’ about action shots an’ dreams and… well, ah don’t really want tae know why that lass is so keen on gettin’ hersel’ hit like that.  Druids, eh?

SQUEE I got to tank Prince, I got to tank Prince!  *ahem*

I know the screenie this week isn’t too amazing to look at but it marks a big achievement for me.  There are bigger bosses, there are badder bosses, there are more complex bosses to tank and we got about the easiest infernal drops you could hope for last night… But I TANKED PRINCE.  One of the main reasons I got so irked with my first druid / guild was being asked to sit out and dps whilst a warrior tanked.  I am not hugely fond of kitty dps (though it is growing on me now…) but I love tanking.  I wish you could have a section in the new achievements window to list ‘personal achievements’ - this is one I’d add.

I also tanked Attumen (I’ve only been on midnight before), Moroes, Maiden, Illhoof (had only done Kil’rek before) and Nightbane - and my guildies had to listen to me squeeing about tanking them each time, hehe.

Through the hard times and the good.

I have to celebrate you baby…

- Fatboy Slim, Praise You

Wow, just wow.  Wow.  Did I say WOW yet?

WOW.

Welcome to your 100th post edition of /hug!

I can’t believe I’m at 100 posts and I can only offer immense thanks to those who drop by, read and comment once in a while!

I started this blog back on the 5th of February.  I had no real goals regarding writing about a particular aspect of wow but simply said: “This is a blog about me, WoW and what I like about it.” I wanted to share, I wanted to become a better writer and I wanted to play with making pretty pictures.  It took me a little while to get into my stride, to be able to write posts shorter than a small novella and to figure out how to make those shiny images sit correctly on the page, though.

Blogging about wow has increased my love of the game - I investigate things more now, I get linked to things concerning aspects of the game I never realised.  I’ve made some new friends via blogging and learned an awful lot.  I can’t thank the Blog Azeroth community enough - not only for bringing me to all of those bloggers, but also for giving me awesome post fodder.

So, what are you getting for this special (to me, anyway) post? This is a post about growth, about goals and personal achievements and the biggest ‘growth’ factor in WoW is our characters.  Whether we have one or five we have all made that journey from level one up.  Thus, I went searching through my archives and dug up some old-school screenshots of my characters when they started their journeys.

I hope a few others will do this too -  find the earliest possible screenshots of your now super-cool 70’s! Kind of like your mother embarassing you in front of your friends with your baby photos, mwuhahaha!  So, 100th post and Sunday Screenies all in one.  /score

Oh and I forgot in my last post (I pre-write them) to say a big HELLO to Leafy! He’s taken refuge from G-Drama to come visit Softi and I on Bloodhoof.  /hugs  I think Softi and I both scared our guildies with all the squeeing…

Ishnu-alah, stranger…

It’s been a long and circuitous route but my baby druid finally hit 70 three days ago. She’s also almost met my old druid’s stats 10 minutes after hitting 70 simply due to the [Strength of the Clefthoof] set, a couple of pieces of Merciless Gladiator gear and knowing which quests to target for tanking gear - such as that which gives [Umberhowl's Collar].

I got the mats together for a [Belt of Natural Power] and [Shadowprowler's Chestguard]and am working on my leatherworking level so I can craft [Boots of Natural Grace].  Oh and maybe I can buy a [Cloak of the Craft] and some [Swiftstrike Shoulders] if I suddenly find a gold tree.  The wonder of having a ’suger daddy’ main, eh?  And all of this whilst grinding my way into some nice SSO rep and golds for my epic flying form.

0 - Kara in 2 Days

So, I’ve gotten myself some decent gear together with minimal instancing.  The only gear I’ve gotten which was not crafted, quested or … honored? is my [Burnoose of Shifting Ages] (yes I know it’s a warrior cloak but it had more armor and defense than my current one) and [Dragonhide Gloves] (which require a couple of Durn/BM runs).  I’m not a huge fan of running with pugs and not a lot of people in the guild are running normal instances these days so I didn’t want to spend a lot of time looking for gear in them.  The only one I will be doing until I’m sick of it is Steamvaults for my [Earthwarden].

If you have enough gold / resources and a will to pvp whilst levelling then you can easily hit Kara-ready tanking stats soon after hitting 70.  I did the daily pvp quest every day from level 60 and usually one other game.  My dps was terrible but I took some healing kit and helped by adding a few heals here and there - this got me my shoulders.  I then spent one whole day pvp-ing to get enough to get my helm at level 69.  Even if you did this at 70 it’s still only one day.

Belt, neck, one ring and clefthoof set were crafted.  Wrist, idol and one trinket were quest and the other trinket, ring, and the gloves were bought / rep items.

So, really, it’s entirely possible to hit Kara right after hitting 70 but it does require some preparation.  Of course, I’d totally recommend doing plenty of tanking prior to hitting 70 so you’ve had experience as this is as important as just having decent gear.

Kara, really?

Yep! Though I’m not sure our raid lead agreed at first either. Oddly, this week one of the groups hadn’t finished Prince / Netherspite - they wanted to go again to finish it but didn’t have a full group.  Tanks are always short in our guild so I offered myself.  I rattled off my stats to our druid lead and he approved me to OT - he would MT Prince since his gear is, obviously, a lot better than mine.   So, off we go, get Prince down and… our druid lead had to leave.

I got to MT Netherspite two days after hitting 70.  /cheer. I know Netherspite can be tanked by a non-geared tank but I was tanking him between phases too so we could go all out on dps (low dps group).

Now, tanking one of the easier bosses in Kara (tanking wise) doesn’t mean, necessarily, you can tank all of Kara easily.  However, you could easily main tank the earlier bosses (for a guild newly starting Kara) and definately off-tank anything.  Druids are one of the easiest classes to do this with - like the tailoring casters you can hit Kara with gear which will last you a long time.  Hell, if I’d tried harder I could easily have even gotten a more druidy cape ([Thoriumweave Cloak]) and Earthwarden already.

The one big downside to this is that my kitty gear is pretty lame, still.  I’ve been concentrating almost entirely on my tanking gear and have only picked up kitty upgrades as they’ve come along.  My run in Kara yesterday, though, grabbed me some [Skulker's Greaves] so I’m on my way to getting my kitty gear on par with my tanking gear.

Netherspite

The Netherspite fight has special meaning to me.  On Mharai, my first druid, I was invited to off-tank Kara 5 minutes after getting attuned.  I hadn’t expected to go, hadn’t read tactics, had no buffs except food buffs.  I had my druid mentor with me (one of the best druids I’ve ever met) and we stood and practiced beam jumping.  It was just so much damn fun, I was doing something which was more than just ‘tank and spank’ and was getting to be the ‘main tank’ during that time.

It’s always been one of my goals since those first few Kara runs to main tank Kara and, hopefully, it won’t be long until I can fulfill that wish.

OMG DMG!

One of the odd things about going from being DPS / Healer for so long is getting used to taking damage again.   On the first pull I had this moment of “OHSHIT so much dmg!”. Then, of course, I was heal spammed.  I wasn’t actually losing that much  health but I was tanking three mobs who were higher and hitting harder than anything I’ve tanked on Jhai up until now.  It feels nice to be the focus of heals by design rather than getting them because I’m a rogue who likes to attract a little bit of special attention from the trash mobs in Mount Hyjal.  *ahem*

Well, so far the Midsummer Fire Festival has been a great hit this year and everyones bin havin’ fun!  Wi’ all that’s been goin’ on it’s nice tae see adventurers oot enjoyin’ themself.  If ye huvnae been oot tae try any o’ the events yet make sure ye have a go!

Like I mentioned in my last post - replayability is one of the things I particularly like to examine.  There has been much hoo-haa on the wow blogo-sphere recently about what makes you come back, what makes you stay, what makes you addicted even and I guess replayability somewhat ties into that - if nothing ever changes then why come back?

I was very glad to see Blizz had not dropped the ball on this event like I felt they somewhat had on the Lunar Festival.  Events like the fire festival seem well attended - a good proportion of my guild has done the bonfire runs - unlike collecting for Noblegarden and the Lunar Festival (which were mostly skipped, especially by those who had participated before).

The Midsummer Fire Festival is another ’step up’ in events, in my opinion.  It has greater levels of interactivity and reward than any other in-game events to date.  What makes me think this?

Lunar Festival

• Quests
• Outfits
• Consumables
• Rep

Love is in the Air

• Quests
• Outfits
• Consumables
• Special Boss Drop ([Bouqet of Red Roses])

Noblegarden

• Outfits
• Consumables

Children’s Week

• Quests
• Non-Combat Pet

Midsummer Fire Festival

• Quests
• High Level Items
• Daily Quests
• Dungeon Boss
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• Buffs
• ‘Fun’ Items*

Harvest Festival

• Quests
• Consumables

Brewfest

• Quests
• Daily Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*

Hallow’s End

• Quests
• High Level Items
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*
• Repeatable (non-daily) Quests (Trick or Treating)

Winter Veil / New Years

• Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items*
• Repeatable (non-daily) Quests (Revelers)
• Special Boss Drop ([Red Winter Hat], [Green Winter Hat])
• Holiday Recipes

*(Things such as the Brazier, Pony Keg or Eyesight ‘Enhancing’ Goggles)

We can see from this list that, currently, the Midsummer Fire Festival outstrips most others by quite a lot.  Winter’s Veil comes close, though, as does Hallow’s End and Brewfest which have all been added to or updated in the last year or so.

Some, such as the upcoming Brewfest, will have the new ideas from previous events added - it will be gaining a dungeon boss, for example - with some new fun items and loot.  It is obvious to see that some events have far more planning but this is not a definitive marker of success - Children’s Week, for example, offers only a couple of quests and two non-combat pets per person but seems quite popular.

Now, it’s obvious that Blizzard can’t give us something akin to the Midsummer Fire Festival every month - it’d be too much work for them and us! You need some downtime, in my opinion, to enjoy the ‘up’ time more.  Having the small holidays give those who need a little vacation from the serious side of WoW time to relax and kick about doing something silly is nice - there’s nothing much lost if you don’t do them, though, so people don’t feel the need to drop everything and do the associated events.

Replayability

In terms of replayability, though, the updated events are gaining strongly.  Children’s Week’s popularity is, in my mind, high because there is a TBC-level quest which incorporates and enhances the general TBC level things.  That and people love new non-combat pets. *ahem*

The Midsummer Fire Festival took the success that was Brewfest and added what they had also learned from the Hallow’s End event.  Combining all of their ideas from both events has made for one rather huge festival which is extensive and even a little daunting at times.  It gives new ‘phat lewt’ for those who care about it, has a fun new boss encounter, gets you jaunting around the world and maybe enjoying a little world pvp while you’re at it.  You can grab an item to enjoy with your friends and an outfit which will look spiffy in those first-kill screenshots or when you’re idling at the bank / AH.

They’re not, however, just adding replayability to the festival itself, though, and this is where I start to get gleeful.  Like the Headless Horseman event they’re pushing people back into instances that are otherwise quiet - Slave Pens is an Outlands instance but I know I hadn’t been in it for a few months at least on my rogue as I need nothing from it and no guildies have asked about running it either.  The event is deemed quite hard at the moment but I wonder if they’ll keep it next year as it’ll, then, be a fun way to boost a few alts through an event and get them some nice gear before they hit Northrend.

With the Brewfest event they’ll be adding a boss in BRD, if I remember rightly.  Now, I go visit BRD every once in a while just for some fun - stealthing about and getting enchanting patterns and the like - but I bet a lot of people haven’t been there for quite some time or even at all!

Group Items

I mentioned fun items above and I want to look a little more closely at these and why I like the idea of them.  A few of these items I deem as ‘group’ items.  That is, they are more fun if used in a social situation - namely the pony keg and the brazier of dancing flames.  Adding items which encourage interaction is a way of getting people excited over holidays - some people who were never bothered about getting themselves something will go out of their way to get an item which allows for fun in a social situation - for example, people buying braziers because it’d make a fun item for raid downtime.

Adding new group quests which do not take as long to do as, say, a whole instance or daily dungeon / heroic is also a nice touch.  Some groups are finding it hard to complete them, though, which Siha at Banana Shoulders touches on here.  This is something I really think they should look at - I feel the event is supposed to be challenging (requires tactics knowledge) but shouldn’t be overwhelming (i.e. need really good gear / particular class specs).

So, What Now?

Now, I’m not going to sit here and cry about wanting all events to have the same masses of items / quests / etc. that the newly re-done ones have - I appreciate the effort which has gone into those which have been updated and the continual renewal of older events to make them more fun to re-do year by year, alt by alt.  However, there are some small suggestions I’d make for the events which have not been re-done - with an eye to the fact that these will likely be staying as small events (though it would be nice to get a boost around April/May when there’s little else happening and the weather can be quite miserable!)

• New Items - This one is simple.  Add eggs in Outlands for Noblegarden, for example, with different things in them - a new elegant type of dress and a new pant-suit for Love is in the Air which doesn’t look like pyjamas for example.  Perhaps patterns for them? Matching hat / shoes / belt?  I’m not much into making outfits for my characters but I know some people who are.  The Lunar Festival dresses / suits are some of my favourite for bank alts - perhaps new colours or cloaks to match?  Adding more random drops to current bosses (like the hats and roses) would also be fun.
• New Quests - I really do love the ‘honouring’ quests from the Harvest and Lunar festivals but it would be nice if they refreshed these - perhaps incorporating themes from the expansion - Honoring the  Shattered Sun memorial, for instance.
• Adding Outlands (and eventually Northrend) - A lot of the events happen only in the ‘Old World’  - it would be nice to see it spread through Outlands.  Where people go, so do their customs!  This has been done, a little, but it would be nice to see it continue so that, when Northrend is out and we’re bored of all the cool colours, we can come back and get some warmth in Outlands.

Ok, so I’m not terribly imaginitive but even simple small additions like this would, in my eyes, add to replayability.  I want more ways to play, more fun things to collect, more ways to interact with friends old and new.  I’ve actually met quite a few people this week due to running around doing the Fire Festival quests through either explaining to them how to do certain aspects or, in one instance, being helped through a capital city to get my flame (A big thanks to the warlock who ran ahead of me to aggro the guards in Thunder Bluff to and from the flame! Hehehe). This is the sort of stuff that I love looking at and one of the reasons I enjoy playing WoW - they’re not just throwing up superficial festivity items around the place but they go quite some way to integrate it into the world and make it appeal across all levels.

Busy, busy, busy! Ah’v been doin’ everythin’ this week an’ ah’d like tae tell ye all aboot it.  Helps me relax, ken?  After a long week o’ smitin’ all sorts ah jist feel like sittin’ back and chewin’ the fat wi’ u lot.

I feel sorry for my poor wee blog - it’s been half abandoned these last few weeks due to everything seeming to hit at once busyness wise.  So, this post may be a bit rambley and all over the place but I was to stick it down for posterity.

Rogue

I has a new hat.  It is an improvement on my old hat.  I r happy rog.  Of course, it clips my hair so I’ve turned helm off again and I’ll continue to look… exactly the same.  /sigh  I also need to drag myself into AV or something this coming week, too, as Blizz felt it was a great idea to make pve off-hand swords none-too-easy to come by in TBC.

Shaman

I have spent so much gold on my shaman this week and I need to spend more.  Having s4 coincide with your new pve gear is not nice.  Many, many primal lifes have been farmed and I’m still not maxed on what I’ll need.

I managed to grab [Light's Justice] last week - it’s nice to have something other than the s1 mace to look at - even though I did love its glowyness.

Avarix has also rounded out his gear with [Runed Scales of Antiquity] thanks to a few guildies helping me farm 2 badges after tonight’s Kara run! Now I need more primal lives and gems… Ah well, happy is me that my shammy is wearing a dress again! *Ahem*

Druid

Mushrooooom.  That is what my druids level has done since I last mentioned her (apparently much to Softi’s despair).  She’s now done what my other druid did about a year ago:

It’s such a difference to when I brought my hunter through the Portal - I had to make myself log in and dragged my way through the quests.  Now, on my druid, I’m eager to go and even enjoyed grinding Hellboars so I could quickly boost my leatherworking skill.

Learning from the past I had collected any unidentified plant parts I’d come across on my hunter and saved them.  When I dinged 60 on my druid I promptly rode to the Cenarion Expedition Outpost and handed in 360 to achieve honored status.  /cheer That grabbed me quite a number of leatherworking patterns (the all important [Strength of the Clefthoof] ones) and a nice chunk of reputation towards the coveted Exalted.

A guidlie kindly ran me through Ramparts (though I’d been asking for a same-level group to practice tanking with, hehe) and I got just about every leather / melee dps piece which can drop except the staff.  Go me.  Ever had a char which seemed incredibly lucky drops-wise? Like my other druid, Jhai seems to have a gift for getting what she wants.  I’ve probably jinxed it now, oh well.

Unfortunately, this morning my PC’s HDD gave out on me (it’s been throwing errors for weeks and I’ve got a new one to replace it… I’m just short a cable!) so I won’t be tanking until that’s sorted - I can play my shaman on my laptop but both the rogue and druid need the PC as I use mouse-button keybinds which don’t work on the laptop without disabling the trackpad…  This wouldn’t be a problem for me as I never use the damn thing but the other half uses the laptop more and prefers the trackpad.

I started using mouse button keybinds when I got a new mouse after Christmas - I staved my finger and it hurt to flex it sideways too much so I bound one of my oft-used abilites (Slice and Dice) to the mouse, leaving Sinister Strike for my other hand.  This means less flexing and so less strain on my already slightly weird fingers.  For my druid shifting to bear is on the mouse - this works for levelling as it’s a very fast way to shift into bear but I may change it as it’s not something I should be using that extensively in instances - I think I might put mangle on that mouse button, or lacerate when I get it.  I’ll need to figure that out once my new HDD is installed.

Fire Festival

My favourite writing bone to gnaw on when it comes to WoW is replayability - this means you’ll be straddled with a post about my Fire Festival shenanigans soon concerning that and other fun aspects.  *ahem*  Suffice to say, at the moment, that I’m enjoying myself.

Ok, so ah pulled a bit o’ a fast one last night but, hell, I’m a rogue, whit dae ye expect?

I was sitting last night, playing my druid, and looking at her underwhelming leatherworking level.  You see, I’ve decided to make her a tribal leatherworker.  Yes, tribal.  She is still going to be feral but, to be honest, the elemental crafted items really aren’t worth crafting for a druid or at all - there are easy to get upgrades from quests and instances which are better.  So, I figured I’d get her tribal leatherworking so that if I ever decide to spec doomkin for fun in pvp I’d have a decent starter set.  I know you don’t need to pick a specialisation to continue levelling leatherworking but I like to do things in the right ‘order’.

Anyways, as anyone who’s levelled tribal leatheworking knows it is the most painful leatherworking profession quest.  Or, rather, it has a set of pre-quests which are just painful to do.  They start here and end up costing the following, ingredients wise:

• 8 Wildvine
• 112 Turtle Scale
• 192 Thick Leather

Not so bad, you think?  Well, let me beg to differ. See those scales? Y’can’t buy them for love nor money! Noone grinds them unless they’re doing this quest, it seems, and noone wants to grind more once they’ve done it! You’ve gotta go out and skin the buggers.  Now, the turtles in the Hinterlands drop around 90% - some drop none but some drop two.  However, being turtles it takes rather a long time to kill them if you’re of a level with them (which I was last night).  I spent about 45-55 minutes last night and got around 20-30 scales.  Bah.

Now, I think half the problem here is that I’ve done these quests twice before - on Aurik for fun as I wanted the recipes and leatherworking was new and on Mharai because I went tribal leatherworking on her for the same reason as I am on Jhai.  Now, doing it a third time, I was utterly bored. Not only that but it’s incredibly expensive to level it this way in terms of mats cost (something I wish they’d address…).

However, an idea struck me - when I had been doing alchemy on Avarix and having trouble getting BM runs for my specialisation I was tempted to spec transmute mastery (which I could solo-quest) and then change specialisations as it meant you didn’t have to do the other quest.   I was sure you could do the same for leatherworking but was not sure tribal would be available this way because the quests needed to get the tribal specialisation are pre-requisites, not just a direct quest.   I could find no info on it except one post on thotbott which did not confirm either way but suggested what I had been thinking.

The easiest, by far, to do is elemental (for me, anyway as I had the stuff in the bank).  I figured, hell, at level 49 it’s only going to cost me 25 gold to try the ‘respec’ so why not?

Quick hop to Searing Gorge, picked up Elemental Leatherworking and dropped it again for 25g (this reportedly increases to a max of 100g at level 70), flew to Tanaris and, with some trepidation clicked on “Soothsaying for Dummies”.  BINGO!  One Tribal respec done without the arduous task of completing the wild leather quests.  Hopefully they won’t patch this - it’s a pain to level leatherworking multiple times and go through that whole, irritating quest line over and over.

Of course, if you’re sensible you won’t level leatherworking in the first place.  *ahem*

It’s rainin’ cats and.. cats. Hehe. See what ah did there? … don’t look at me like that… No even a wee laugh? Bah.

Ugh, I’m always soooo late about posting stuff. Ergh, oh well. So, I was reading Bre’s post on the competition and noticed a name left by Fikkle. Monsoon. Monsoon… Totally fell in love with the name and, handily, Bre decided to go for something else so I just damn well pickpocketed it right from her comments! So, Dryn’s new kitty-cat is now named Monsoon. Thanks to everyone else who suggested names!

And she’s level 63! What a pretty kitty - look at those eyes (and yay for transporter Malfunctions). Also, I’ve found a very fun place to level her - I need Fel Armaments / Marks and I can fight the mobs for them without my kitty having to get squished! It’s a nice spot in SMV at Legion Hold and normally a good grinding area because of the fast respawns and 8 out of the 12 mobs (around the three pillars) can be killed by a hunter from the ramparts around them - more if you have the range boost talent. Just remember to take lots of bandages!

Wow, this week feels like it’s been hellishly busy…. and it’s only Wednesday! I feel like I’ve abandoned my poor little blog (despite posting a long post only a few days ago) and feel like I could use some writing therapy. I can’t even bring myself to do a little starter blurb or images this time so it’s just text-spam I’m afraid. I’ll try and make it pretty text-spam though.

So, what have I been up to?

Raiding, instancing, boosting, buying.

First of all, though, you’re going to get some recruitment spam!

Recruitment

Lightwalkers on Bloodhoof (EU) are actively looking for the following:

• 1-2 Resto Druids
• 1-2 Mages
• 1 Warlock, possibly 2
• 1 Holy pally, possibly 2

We would consider a good application from:

• 1 Elemental Shaman
• 1 Boomkin Druid

To quote the guild recruitment post:

“We’re looking for people that enjoy both raiding as well as the social aspect of the game in a stable, mature guild community, who are interested in reliably attending 3 progress raids every week, know and like their class, can handle constructive criticism when it’s needed, and come to the raids with the neccessary preparation (buffs, tactics, etc)”

You can find the website and more information at lightwalkers.net. We’ve lost a few raiders due to summer attrition and general game-apathy so we’re looking to bolster our ranks with some eager new members!

Raiding

This week my schedule looks like this: Mon: SSC, Tues: ZA, Wed: Kara, Thurs: MH, Fri: who knows. ._.! I’ll be exhausted. I usually only raid 2/3 nights so this, plus the fact I jumped in as backup last Sunday means I’ve been raiding a bit above my normal limit. Ah well!

Instancing / Boosting

Well despite my diatribe about boosting I’ve been doing and taking a lot of it this week. Myself and A (previously mentioned!) have been boosting each others alts - sometimes with the pleasant company of Softii - Softthistle’s new ferlol druid. Almost every night we’ve been hitting ZF / SM / RFD and my little druids gear is quite spiffy considering her level!

Buying

I couldn’t sleep last Sunday night so I was reading up on gear for my new baby-druid. I’d been looking to buy a few things ahead of time as no doubt when I wanted something later it’d be pricey or non-existant on the AH. I was trawling through Wowhead and found this little pretty: [Warden Staff]. OMNOMNOMNOM. So, feeling a little tired and icky I did myself some retail-therapy and hit the AH. I was in luck - 200g buyout. *yoink* Mine! It’s a pretty staff and I’ve stuck +35 agi on it (cheaper and easier to get than the pre-tbc one for me…) so my little druid is looking very twinked out. Add to that some very nice boost drops and craftables and my little tank is sitting pretty with a hefty chunk of def / armor / stamina.

Now I just need to find some groups. *ahem*

Grinding

Have you ever heard anyone complaining about not having enough grinding time? Well, that’s what I’m doing now! Because of all the extra raiding etc. I’ve ended up low on consumables, crafting mats etc. I also haven’t had time to touch my hunter and kitty or level my druid outside of boosts. Today, though, I spent a long time fishing and shooting at some bog giants to replenish my stocks and get the primals I still needed for my shadow res cloak.

And on a totally different note..

I’ve been made a guild admin in Lightwalkers. I’m happy but somewhat terrified - new responsibilities and a lot of learning in my future but I love the guild dearly and I hope I can make them proud of me!

The earth has granted my wishes and bestowed upon me a plethora of items which enable me to bring life back to my cohorts. However, it also seems to be bestowing on me an awful lot of things with which to pound the Burning Legion into the ground. The elements work in mysterious ways…

I don’t like to put too many ’srs bsnss’ posts right next to each other so you’re getting gear spam whilst I finish writing up my next long post *ahem*.

First of all the typical problem with hybrids had occurred for me on Avarix. Not only had I kept a pile of stuff ‘just in case’ for my main spec but also for both off-specs! I had been running around with three empty bag slots to my name and nothing I could dump for fear of abandoning something which ‘might be useful later’. So, time for a major clearout! I ended up dissing about a bag (20slot) and a half full of gear - yay for lots of LPS’s / essences / dust.

Kara

A while ago I posted about not really being able to do Kara’s frequently and this making gear a hard decision. Well, it’s no longer so much of a problem! The main issue I had is that I share a pc with my other half - we both have our own laptops but the PC is all that can run Oblivion as well as WoW on max graphics settings. Our newest laptop is pretty decent, though, it just has to have most of the graphics minimised. So, two weeks ago, a Kara group starts up and then another. Two groups can be made if they can find another healer. I warned ‘em I only had the laptop in case of a bit of laggyness but I’m happy to say it went pretty smoothly! So, Kara for me whilst the other half Oblivions! Bwuhahaha.

Phat Kara lewts the past few weeks for me in the last few weeks have been -

Restoration
[Jade Ring of the Everliving], [Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted], [Heart-Flame Leggings], [Cyclone Headdress], and [Cyclone Gloves].

Elemental

[Nathrezim Mindblade], [Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran], and [Boots of the Infernal Coven].

Plus some enhancement stuff. You can tell I’m really enthusiastic about enhancement, can’t you? Maybe once I have a full gear set I can grind some pvp axes and have a go but, for the moment, I love resto way too much!

I’ve also picked up a [Vindicator's Pendant of Salvation] and got enough badges to purchase the [Wave of Life Chestguard] I had my eyes on!

The problem with fast gear-progression? I’ve spent ages on grinding enchanting mats! D’oh! After sending my hunter-auto-grind-bot and his new kitty out to get some primal life, I enchanted everything I could with healing / mp5. I swapped my trinkets around and ended up with:

• 1996 healing
• 157 mp5
• 10.5k mana

  

Not bad - though I wants more mp5!

Healing / Kara Whining Rambling

Last night’s Kara started out with just two healers - first time I’d tried it that way as alt runs often take three. I was getting really worried - people were going down far more often than usual and at one pont the tank got insta-gibbed. “Sorry, guys, wasn’t really paying attention, was on the phone” was not what I wanted to hear from the second healer… I am not well geared or confidant enough yet to even think about Solo-healing Kara and our tank is not over-geared and a Paladin to boot. One of our other shamans (GL) respecced resto and the rest of the night’s healing was a bit of a yawn fest. Bah.

It didn’t help that one dps warrior who had refused to tank (which meant not being able to do two groups that evening) kept pulling before our pally tank or healers had finished drinking. Now, that wasn’t a huge problem for me with my regen slowly getting higher but our pally tank was having a hell of a time generating enough aggro to pull them off said dps warrior and keep them whilst we were spamming heals on the idiot who’d pulled them without a shield. Suffice to say we decided it was better for all if we didn’t heal him next time he did it *ahem*.

It’s odd running with a group you’re not used to - we’re usually a one-shot, blast through, imba group even with mostly alts. Ah well.

Regen

Speaking of regen… I had two sort-of proud moments concerning my mana. Only sort-of because both of them came out of things I’d buggered up. On Prince I died to an infernal landing on my head. I was kinda tired and it was my fault - didn’t move nearly fast enough. However! Self res, pot, water shield, mana spring. Half my mana back and the regen did the rest - I didn’t run oom until he was down. That had happened one week previously and I’d come back and barely been able to scrape my mana back off the floor.

Something had struck me as odd, though. Why was the mana I got back from my pot so low? I have an alchemist stone so using a put is often overkill mana-wise for me unless I’m down to 20-30%. Simple. For some unknown reason I’d managed to switch my trinkets around and was wearing my prayerbook instead of my alchemist stone. So, I’d done the whole evening with no stone - and my regen had still been fine! That was kind of a happy moment for me there. I’m not even past the ‘magic’ 200mp5 yet and had salv buffed instead of wisdom due to some weird bug going on with misdirects / aggro.

Realisations

I’ve come to the odd realisation that my ‘baby’ shammy isn’t a baby any more. He’s all grown up… In fact he’s so grown up he’s been given tier 5 approval and signed for an SSC run next week (for the s-res quest line). Scary. I really hope I can be worthy of a spot - I’ve been reading tactical guides for SSC for shammy healers by Anna as well as refreshing the SSC fights in my mind.