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.

Early on the screenshots this week (it’s just hit 12.50am GMT) as I’m not sure if I’m going to be in much tommorrow.

Some pictures from when I started my new druid - anyone familiar with the Furbolg starter quest will recognise the wings part from that but I just happened to like the angle this came out at - especially given the picture was taken whilst jumping off of a tall cliff at speed.

The second picture of Jhai I just happened to like as it seems to personify ‘calm’. I come from near the sea, myself, so find this sort of landscape quite visually appealing.

The third picture is a bit of a cheat given the title - it’s actually one of the quest givers, Vorkhan the Elekk Herder, at the small base as you go onto Bloodmyst Isle but… have you ever noticed the skin on his eyepatch? I hadn’t and it certainly brought a smile to my face. *Ahem*.

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To see oursel’s as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion”

-Robert Burns

Yes, I’m poetry-ing at you! The above quote kind of sums up how I felt when I recently popped back over to my old druid for some quiet time and because I was missing the high-level druiding. I was shocked. Now, I know when I started wow that I was an utter newbie and did some things that it would embarrass me to even think of now but I hadn’t realised how much I’d changed even in the last half-year. I’m looking now at my druid through the eyes of a different ‘person’ and what a shock.

Mharai is ok-geared given that I stopped playing her just after starting Kara level stuff - with a full clefthoof set, stylish purple hat and some bits and pieces from various dungeons. I enjoyed tanking on her and had people invite me back frequently to groups who said I was a good tank but, looking on it, I wonder how much better I could have been.

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I was born into the knowledge that, unlike those before me, time would hold sway with me and my life would mimic those of the other creatures around me. It would be finite, short, perhaps even bloody. With this in mind I dedicate myself to the wilds, to the world, to life whilst I have it.

It’s the only class I’ve rolled which I can say I’ve been tempted to roll again. I love druiding, despite my current main being a rogue. This really shouldn’t come as a huge surprise if you’ve been read some of my other posts as I mention my old hordie druid, Mharai, quite a bit. I am a one server guy, however - I like to concentrate all of my effort on one place and this means that I don’t really have time for my old druid any more. I’ve been tempted, time and again, to roll a new druid but I’ve stopped myself for one reason or another.

One of the biggest issues, I guess, is that I’m not so fond of Night Elves as druids… I know that might seem really odd but I am rather fond of Tauren and some Night Elven druid are just completely stuck-up gits. They’re also far too pretty *grumble*.

Anyway. Softi decided to drop by Bloodhoof one night and start a baby-hunter. I had a paladin which I’d started but wasn’t getting into so I thought ‘buggrit - time to start another druid’. So I did - and I’m loving it all over again. Damnit. Altitis strikes again!

So, like a certain Mr. Shag, I’m also welcoming a new female, Night Elf druid into my blog ‘team’. As if the world needed more of those… *ahem* Say hello to Jhai.

On a happily related note, as vaguely mentioned above, I’ve been playing my druid with Softi and Leafy who’ve rolled alts on Bloodhoof EU. I have to admit I’ve been naughty, though, and done more levelling than I should have but… cat form was being dangled right in front of me! How could I not go for it?

Big bloody bear arses! Cannae see ‘roon them, over them or, mebbe happily, underneath them…

A few friends from the mysterious world of ‘Real Life’(tm) mentioned they were going to head to an instance when they got home and my little furry big, nosy ears perked up. ‘Want a tank?’ was my battlecry. ‘Of course!’ was their joyus reply. Sporeggar, since the beginning, had a tank shortage horde side. This was due to a couple of factors, mainly:

• Belfs. Sporeggar is a Burning Crusade server and so most of the horde side was made up of belfs as people rerolled on a new realm to test them out.
• A lot of people rerolled when they came to Spore - away from classes which had previously bored them such as their main tank prot warrior.
• A lot of people rerolled from the alliance and many weren’t keen on the look of the races on the horde side other than the belfs.

Ok, so the last two are speculation but somewhat based on what I heard from people in-game. Anyway, I had gotten so sick of tanking reqests (really!) that I’d spcced boomkin. It wasn’t me though, despite being a lot of fun, so I got myself back into a nice little feral number.

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