Drooooood Lewwwwwwt (aka Druid Halion Loot)

Focusing on kitteh and tree stuff, as those are my two specs =D
10-man gear

Changeling Gloves N and Changeling Gloves H
Resto Gloves =) Has both haste and crit. What’s not to love? Plus they let you save your Frosties for tier as they are a little better for resto druids than the frost badge option but remember, T10 gloves are still better in the long run.

Abduction’s Cover N and Abduction’s Cover H
Resto cloak is the same as the Greatcloak of the Turned Champion off Deathbringer Saurfang. Which, through some sort of idiotic reasoning by the ever so fickle Fates, it has been determined that it shall never drop for my druid, but always will been seen on runs with my priest. grr.

Gloaming Sark N and Gloaming Sark H
RAWR kitteh! Better than the 251 tier chest.

25-man gear

Sharpened Twilight Scale N and Sharpened Twilight Scale H
Kitteh trinket. Be prepared to arm wrestle the other misguided and obviously non-cat-respecting melee for this. Its one of the best kitteh trinkets in the game.

Signet of Twilight N and Signet of Twilight H
Kittehs wear rings and this is one you will want. Most people can’t see these beauties gracing our paws under all the gorgeous fur and the deadly sharp claws.

Umbrage Armbands N and Umbrage Armbands H
Never seen a Toskk’s Maximized Wristguards drop for your precious cat? Me either. This should help even the odds a bit for my suffering brethren in fur.

Phaseshifter’s Bracers N and Phaseshifter’s Bracers H
Dead sexy. All i gotta say. Trees everywhere bloomed and made fruit the day Blizzard decided to gift Azeroth with these pretties.

Fail Druid misses ICC Alt run

Very unhappy with my guild tonight. The “alt run” started recruiting 45 mins early and took in pugs over guildies =( At least 6 guildies logged in at the normal time just to be told, “…..” ya. silence. the person running it was an ex-officer, and i was less than impressed with the maturity of the response. sigh. Keeping my fingers crossed that something positive comes out of this greedy violation of the guild’s trust in getting a place in Risen raids.

Halion Loot and strategy items to note

Welcome to Kalecgos 2.0 with your very own colorful fire to stand in. Tankspot strategy guide (although i think the accent on the guy at Horde review is nicer 😉

Spells of note:

Fiery Combustion
Unlimited range
Instant

Engulfs an enemy target in flame, dealing 4000 Fire damage every 2 sec. Every time Fiery Combustion deals damage, it generates a Mark of Combustion charge on the target. When Combustion fades or is dispelled, it unleashes a patch of fire proportional in size to the number of charges present at the time. Either curse or magic removal may cleanse this affliction.

Soul Consumption
Unlimited range
Instant

Engulfs an enemy target in dark energy, dealing 4000 Shadow damage every 2 sec. Every time Soul Consumption deals damage, it generates a Mark of Consumption charge on the target. When Consumption fades or is dispelled, it unleashes a dark explosion proportional to the number of charges present at the time. Either curse or magic removal may cleanse this affliction.

Lewt Lewt Lewt, joyous lewt!!

why i am even bothering to look up the new Halion Heroic loot, i don’t know. With my guild at 11/12 in heroic ICC, and the fairest DKP loot distribution method I have ever experienced, I have more BIS stuff than a girl could wish for now. but nonetheless, i will post.

A nice cloak…

Cloak of Burning Dusk	compared to BIS	Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape
Cloak of Burning Dusk Heroic Binds when picked up Back 189 Armor +83 Stamina +83 Intellect Red Socket Requires Level 80 Item Level 284 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 65. Equip: Improves haste rating by 73. Equip: Increases spell power by 118. Sell Price: 7 93 15		Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape Heroic Binds when picked up Back 185 Armor +78 Stamina +78 Intellect Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +5 Spell Power Requires Level 80 Item Level 277 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 68 (1.48% @ L80). Equip: Improves haste rating by 60 (1.83% @ L80). Equip: Increases spell power by 110. Sell Price: 8 12 16

Some Bracers….

Bracers of Fiery Night	compared to BIS ( i am stuck with the icky icy spirit ones)	Death Surgeon’s Sleeves
Bracers of Fiery Night Heroic Binds when picked up Wrist Cloth 165 Armor +83 Stamina +83 Intellect Red Socket Durability 35 / 35 Requires Level 80 Item Level 284 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 65. Equip: Improves haste rating by 73. Equip: Increases spell power by 118. Sell Price: 5 67 6		Death Surgeon’s Sleeves Heroic Binds when picked up Wrist Cloth 162 Armor +78 Stamina +78 Intellect +68 Spirit Blue Socket Socket Bonus: +5 Spell Power Durability 35 / 35 Requires Level 80 Item Level 277 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 60 (1.31% @ L80). Equip: Increases spell power by 110. Sell Price: 5 51 49

a good ring….

Ring of Phased Regeneration	compared to BIS ring	Ring of Rapid Ascent
Ring of Phased Regeneration Heroic Binds when picked up Unique-Equipped Finger +83 Stamina +83 Intellect Red Socket Requires Level 80 Item Level 284 Equip: Improves haste rating by 65. Equip: Restores 36 mana per 5 sec. Equip: Increases spell power by 118. Sell Price: 7 56 23		Ring of Rapid Ascent Heroic Binds when picked up Unique-Equipped Finger +78 Stamina +78 Intellect Blue Socket Socket Bonus: +5 Spell Power Requires Level 80 Item Level 277 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 68 (1.48% @ L80). Equip: Improves haste rating by 60 (1.83% @ L80). Equip: Increases spell power by 110. Sell Price: 7 56 23

Trinket Palooza….

Glowing Twilight Scale	compared to current BIS trink	Althor’s Abacus
Glowing Twilight Scale Heroic Binds when picked up Unique Trinket Requires Level 80 Item Level 284 Equip: Increases spell power by 215. Use: For the next 15 sec, each time your direct healing spells heal a target you cause the target of your heal to heal themselves and friends within 10 yards for 402 each sec for 6 sec. Sell Price: 11 39 40		Althor’s Abacus Heroic Binds when picked up Unique Trinket Requires Level 80 Item Level 277 Equip: Increases spell power by 201. Equip: Each time your spells heal a target you have a chance to cause another nearby friendly target to be instantly healed for 6280 to 7298. Sell Price: 11 39 40

the leather stuff:

Phaseshifter’s Bracers	compared to BIS	Bracers of Eternal Dreaming
Phaseshifter’s Bracers Heroic Binds when picked up Wrist Leather 311 Armor +83 Stamina +83 Intellect Yellow Socket Durability 40 / 40 Requires Level 80 Item Level 284 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 73. Equip: Improves haste rating by 65. Equip: Increases spell power by 118. Sell Price: 6 63 49		Bracers of Eternal Dreaming Heroic Binds when picked up Wrist Leather 304 Armor +78 Stamina +78 Intellect +68 Spirit Blue Socket Socket Bonus: +5 Spell Power Durability 40 / 40 Requires Level 80 Item Level 277 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 60 (1.31% @ L80). Equip: Increases spell power by 110. Sell Price: 6 99 46

On a VERY interesting note:

Charred Twilight Scale
Heroic
Binds when picked up
Unique
Trinket
Requires Level 80
Item Level 284

Equip: Improves haste rating by 184.

Equip: Your damaging spells have a chance to grant 861 spell power for 15 sec.
Sell Price: 11 39 40

another facepalm moment – Healing heroics as a Fresh 80

A new article over on WoW.com recommends that fresh new level 80 priests jump straight into healing heroic dungeons after leveling.

“Don’t waste your time toiling in normal dungeons, trying to find one upgrade at a time while getting no badges.”

They urge you go to the Auction House and “Just buy one or two pieces and then trying queuing for a heroic dungeon. If you still get an error message telling you that your gear isn’t good enough, buy another piece and repeat the process until you can queue.”

This kind of stuff makes me scared. I mean, if you got a guild who is willing to mentor you or whatever, with a little patience and understanding, and some help, it would certainly work out. But new level 80 healers that, due to the nature of leveling gear, struggle for mana and are still learning how to heal and work the buttons need a bit more prepping than this if they are gonna roll in the unforgiving world of the Dungeon Finder tool.

It was one of Blizzard’s stated goals, back in the days they were leaking design news about Wrath, to have people run regular dungeons a little (not a lot, I realize this, but certainly a little) before they could jump straight into heroics. Most of us leveled in guilds and had friends who carried us a bit on our first heroic or two when we hit 80. In fact, I remember my fresh drood Alt failing to heal Utguard Pinnacle on a boss, and needing the DPS shammie to lend a hand. I can only imagine what kind of unhappy trauma would happen to a fresh 80 priest using the cross-realm Dungeon Finder if they hopped in there looking to heal a heroic right off the get go.

For the most part, my experience has shown me that a fresh 80 priest will have a MUCH easier time and learn the ropes faster (with less trauma) if they simply pug a 25man raid like VOA or one of the lower tier dungeon runs. More often than not, people in a lower tier 25man raid are there for badges or the weekly raid quest and dont mind a new healer that is trying to gear up. We’ve all been there with a new alt, and most people understand how it is at that level. Plus, in a 25-man, there are enough other healers to provide a cushion for the new 80 to fall back on when things get tight.

Telling fresh to level 80 healers to jump into heroics with their leveling greens/blues and only enough items to squeeze past the gear level verification mechanics in the Dungeon Finder Tool is irresponsible and thoughtless. The four other people in that heroic depending on that  poor new level-80 healbot aren’t going to appreciate it either.

WoW.com… you CAN do better than this. =(

edit… actually, they HAVE done better than this. An earlier article on WoW.com reads: Heroics as a fresh 80: Don’t be that guy. Anyone have any ideas why their policy changed?

The rise of the Great 25man Social Guilds

This post was inspired by: Still Going to Run 25s? | World of Matticus.

Blue Poster Nethaera released the a groundbreaking statement today on the forums about the future of raiding in Azeroth. Read the full thread here. A lot was said about the future structure of raiding, but the points that interested me the most are:

• Heroic modes will all be toggled on and off per boss like we do now in ICC.
• Ten and 25 man raids will share the same lockout period.
• The same loot will drop of ten man bosses as drop off 25man bosses.
• Amount (not ilevel) of gear dropped is scaled up for 25mans to compensate for more people in the raid.

While I get that this is supposed to not affect the viability of 25man raiding, I don’t really see how we can avoid human nature. Like water choosing the easiest path downhill, I can see how this news will endanger the future of 25man raiding. The news is good for the clique raiders, and the small groups of exclusive buddies and even for the lucky few who made friends on their server before the new Dungeon Finder Tool shredded the traditional way you met other gamers in your community. They will all now have their 10mans and don’t need a larger group to get their kills and their loot. But what I foresee for the rest of us that try to cling to the old way is endless 25man pugs which eventually dwindle into the ten-man snatch-and-grabs much like we see in VOA 10’s today.

Furthermore, I don’t know about you… But I work much harder as a healer in tens than I ever have had to do in 25’s. Unless you over gear the instance, I find many of these fights are tough for a disc priest. Combine it with “hard modes” where you have another single-target  healer like a pally and you are looking at a quick trip to the respec lady in IF if you want to keep your raid spot. Furthermore, the pace is more hectic and less enjoyable. With less room for error, and less opportunities to have a mana break or take your eyes off the screen for a nano-second if there is an emergency or whatever, I foresee a faster burnout pace than I did with the 25man raids.

Lastly, 10man raiding doesn’t have the social epic feel that the old 40mans do. Nor do they have the cool large-group of buddies feel that the 25mans do. With less reason than ever to get along with various personalities for the good of the group (and the gear drops, lets face it), its going to be the death knell for a lot of us. I know I will be less inclined to stick around in a 25man guild if there are jerks in raid and Ventrillo clowns like we put up with in 25’s. There have been plenty of times I thought about shopping for a 10man that gets the job done in half the time, but was stopped for the reason that the gear and content isn’t as cool as the 25man level stuff. And you know what? I bet each and every Raid Leader, Guild Officer, and many of us regular old raiders, etc., have had the same thought a time or two ourselves.

On the other hand, I can see how casual and social guilds will be MORE viable at 25man level. 10mans are simply harder as a result of less class diversity when you are pushing progression. There is always someone in every 25man guild that is there because we like them more than their skills. You know who I am talking about. The lovable but not as savvy players that are tucked away in the corners of our guilds. Hanging with us, BGing with us, and being awesome in guild chat, and filling in the raid spots when attendance is low. I foresee there being more room in 25man raids for this kind of player than in 10man progression guilds. Maybe Cataclysm will see the rise of the great social 25man guilds.

Waiting to see how this will pan out.

giggle/rant/sob of the day

Reading this post about healing the Lich King fight and I come across the humorous line,

“if for some reason you still run with a group of window lickers that still don’t understand the benefits and abilities of a discipline priest, this fight alone should change their mind.”

I cant help but laugh. I mean, I cry a little too, but I am laughing. My guildies certainly don’t think they are window lickers (in fact some of them kinda have a high opinion of themselves), but there are still far too many of the influential people in this guild that honestly think they are carrying the guild disc priest. You know.. the one who is always so low low low on direct healing numbers.

It’s not like I am a bad. I do my part, I research the fights before we get to a new boss and I don’t make any more mistakes than anyone else. Plus I am a priest, I survive some crazy stuff due to my CD’s and burst healing. But because the default healing chart that comes with Recount is only for direct heals, and mitigation is a new concept to most WoW players, there are some who look at that chart or any deviation in my performance as proof I am not pulling my weight. Human psychology dictates that once a person is convinced that another is a bad at something, even if this person isn’t any better or worse than any other, the person in question must work ten times harder to disprove the erroneous opinion. Any mistake or error on their part is normally magnified ten times worse as proof of their earlier (and in this case wrong) opinion.

On the two non-disc friendly fights I keep my head above water. On BQ I float in the upper middle of the chart and on dreamwalker I just focus on tank healing, PI the Pally, and feel grateful I am not sent out of the room in shame. But in the rest of the fights my output varies from leading with as much as 44% of the overall healing to being head to head, toe to toe with the two other top healers in the guild.

But it doesn’t make for a fun evening when you are being doubted and constantly under fire. From being called out  in vent by an officer about my low healing output in Dreamwalker, to having one guild member recently flip out and Gquit during a raid after telling me that the only reason I am in this guild is that people feel sorry for me, it’s a nightly struggle to just keep my sanity over what I know I am contributing. The worst time I have of it is in my ten man group where every week I have to gently but firmly point out that whatever heroic encounter we are learning at the moment would not be better done with me as a Holy Priest. Usually posting the Heal+absorb meter quiets the demands for me to stop being a Disc Scrubb, but the ensuing comments from showing just how much further ahead my output is on the meter switches to resentful statements like “gee wish I only had to spam one button to top meters” (a resto drood said that last week) and “you can tell a healer is good based on their direct heals”,  and my personal all-time favorite, “your legendary mace is healing for you, so absorbs don’t count on the meters”. You really cant win if people don’t want to change.

All this would come to naught if it weren’t for two really awesome officers in my guild. Without these two people having my back, I probably wouldn’t have made it past the first month with this guild. They lobby constantly to educate others on how a Disc Priest heals, and always show support for me when the other officers question my abilities and direct heal numbers. And to be quite honest, not everyone feels this way. Most guildies understand that a disc priest’s most beneficial utilities to a raid wont show up on a direct heal meter, and the others trust the healing lead who advocates on my behalf.

That said, I think it’s disheartening that my two friends have to work so hard for tolerance of such a necessary raid healing class at a time in the expansion when everyone should know what the other classes can do, and show team support even if they don’t. But there you have it. People are people and they will always fuss and fidget about everything under the sun.

She cant be serious?

Every time a new Spiritual Guidance article comes out, I rush over to WoW.com full of hope that there is something interesting and informative being published. But lately, that joy is tarnished into wondering if the author has gotten the facts right on yet another rehash of the same old priest mash. Unfortunately, it’s not showing any signs of changing for the better. =(

This time the latest how-to article for Priests is aimed at mediocre min-maxxing as the most practical ways to spec in late Xpac content like ICC. To be fair, Dawn always posts a disclaimer that some people may see things differently than she does or remember things in a different way. But one teeny line saying “YMMV” doesn’t give a proper journalistic neutral tone to a gigantic post about the way she states the priest class works. I am not sure if its her absolute statements about “how things are” or her over-confidence and then missed marks on theory-crafting, but I rarely see eye to eye with the way she presents the priest class.

Call me cranky, but I think after so many months of this she’d start learning how to not make so many absolute statements and start accepting that this game and the class is more complex than most people have time to sift through. Her job is to explain things and give us insight – not dumb it down and get it wrong. Most topics presented in the Spiritual Guidance column seem like unusual interpretations of threads long ago discussed on Plusheal.com or strange histories that don’t jive with the way most of us old timers remember things. I am not sure how she can get things wrong when most of what she is writing about has already been blogged to death on most other Healing sites.

Some of the best content she has published is clear in her great sense of humor. She is wonderful about making jokes and creating cool names for the Disc Healer. That, in and of itself is why I keep coming back. I really really *want* to like her. Unfortunately, some of the worst is bragging about her gear score, links to her personal blog, and “follow me” links for her twitter.

I’d like to see something new, not another regurgitation of the same old same old grabbed hastily from various websites that the community already reads. Fact checking, and making sure what you post is mathematically accurate and plausible is a nice step too. I also wish I had more strength of limb and life and had the energy to cheerfully and politely give a counter point to what I see as the worst interpretations she presents as facts. But I can’t. I only have so much time, so much energy and so much patience. My health comes first.

Its getting annoying Dawn. Please start making sense.

* Added on 4/20/2010 while researching more about Dawn, in an effort to understand her better, I came across this post between her and zusterke this morning. this shows the girl has her stuff together. Now.. the question remains, how do we get her to show she knows what she knows in her column.

The tradition of oral story telling

Some say that if a tale didn’t reach you via the written novel, that it doesn’t rank with the greatest stories of all time. But I say, it doesn’t matter if you learn of a story in a Tolkien novel, or related to you by a great story-teller like Michael Wordsmyth, or experienced in a MMO. If a story touches your heart and stays in your mind, and changes your very soul, that my friends, is the mark of a damn good story.

The story of Pamela Redpath of Darrowshire is one such tale. Offhand, I can only think of about a dozen stories, yes, most are in books, that move me to tears and send chills down my spine every time I experience them. This is one of them.

I am of the opinion, that in the coming years, this story will become one of those stories that people refer to when they talk about things that moved them in a special way. I encourage everyone to hear this tale at least once.

.ttfn

I thought I could fly, So why did i….?

Haha, learning the new controls for a game is a mixture of embarrassing snafu’s and frustration. No idea why the makers of LoTRO decided that holding both mouse keys down will lock you into running… but they did. Perhaps its one of those cruel developer jokes to embarrass WoW/EQ players. IDK. its funny though. Subsequently, after five years of instinctively running in MMO’s with both buttons down, I find myself flying off ledges and cliffs a lot.

Maybe its Ardwiel’s lute playing and singing.. who knows. All i know is my avatar is getting a complex about her musical ability. Everything dies an agonizing death the second she starts to strum… Maybe she is trying to end it all?

. ttfn