Am I a raider yet?

Maybe a baby raider, maybe.

I started into ICC on my Warlock, Bellerona, a couple of weeks ago with the Harbingers of War – that is, my guild. My family on TB. My favourite bunch of people ever. I would leave Canada to be with these people, I am not kidding. They keep me sane when I would otherwise just… completely lose it.

So, they took me into Icecrown Citadel after plenty of waffling on my part and I haven’t regretted it one bit. I enjoy Destruction Warlock DPS – more than most other caster classes, I think (sorry mages) – and seeing those five-digit crits only makes it better (moonkin is close second). I’ve been working on her gear off and on between runs – though I haven’t been available for ICC for a few weeks – and I think I’m starting to catch up. Slowly but surely.

I have also had a taste of raid healing on my Druid, Varkev, thanks to a VoA 10 run and a Naxx 10 Patchwerk run. The Naxx 10 was a trade pug that surprise the absolute hell out of me since it was made up mostly of people from some of TB’s raid guilds (including Bloodrite, Order of the BlackLotus, Winterfell-with-the-funky-letters and Guardian) … so I felt a sense of “Oh holy shit I’m among people that know what they’re doing”. Since it was Naxxramas, people knew what they were doing and a lot of folks were overgeared, there were no issues – everyone was polite and it was fun. Varkev’s gear is a mix of epics from the 200-232 levels, and I’m desperately seeking more spellpower and haste.

Thank you, Harbies, for giving me the guts to get in there and do somethin’. I love you guys, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that Harbie Raids continue to be awesome and fun (like passing my connection issue from Monday night on to some folks from TBDF, maybe, SSSH).

Bell will start saving her frosties for T10, while Varkev - once he gets his T9 for resto – will work on his tank set. I’ll also slowly work on Matojo because, damn it, I want him to Shield Slam some baddies sometime soon.

In UI news, I changed over to Tapestry UI and I think I like Grid. It’s taking some getting used to, but I’m not wanting to beat the hell out of it yet.

No, I am not going back to using Clique. Yet. Grrrr.

A Taste, Just a Taste!

Last night, my friend Roshanar the Original Tauren Pally (on his Blood Elf paladin, mind) put out the call for bodies for the raid weekly, Razorscale.

Twenty-five man Razorscale.

It would be with Bad Moon Rising’s GROWL raid group, which includes Tchann and some other Harbingers and random people from the Roleplay community. I reluctantly offered my undergeared self in Mage form, warning that I wasn’t geared for 25-mans. “That’s okay!” I was told, as everyone else was overgeared anyway. So, I hopped to Kombeya and headed out.

It was my first time gunning for a Demolisher, and it was nice to have more to do than just shoot boxes, towers and giants. I kinda liked the whole hooking fuel thing, and Flame Leviathan dropped very quickly. I love watching motorcycles zoom about, too. Then, we gathered together to face Razorscale. Some in-character dialogue was exchanged, I actually remembered to use Focus Magic on somebody (another mage), and I blizzarded dwarves and pewpewed the dragon like I was supposed to (and I didn’t die in fire!).

In the end, I got a new hat. Kombeya has two blues left before she’s clad entirely in purples!

Really, the whole thing was easier than I thought it would be. BMR’s raid leader was very clear, everybody was really nice (and there was no drama from the one crazy person in raid) and overall it was a pleasant experience, even if I was a bit shy about taking any loot. xD

If I can get into the occasional raid for shiggles, awesome. It’s still not going to be my focus, but poking at this content every so often with people that are patient and in it for the fun, not progression, has been great. Unfortunately there’s the issue of scheduling.

This also leads me to consider my gearing options. Right now, my 80s are Matojo (Warrior), Bellerona (Warlock), Kombeya (Mage), Kinuka (Hunter), Dybo (Rogue), Gahiji (Death Knight) and Grindal (Priest). I most enjoy DPSing as a Warlock and Death Knight (though watching mage crits is about as thrilling as warlock crits), and then I have the Warrior for tanking and Priest for healing (eventually I’ll have a Druid and Shaman).

For PuGs, my poor priest needs more regen and stronger bubbles. Matojo just needs to keep generating insane rage and more threat. The other two? DAMAGE DAMAGE DAMAGE.

I think I’m on the road to  going back to gearing my toons again.

Adventures in Lowbie PvP, or: How Matojo Lost Her Effing Mind

Last night, Reislyn’s transfer from Zul’jin to Thorium Brotherhood went through. While she was still on ZJ she had become a bit of a low-level PvP alt, and was running around AB and WSG healing her brains out – this worked out well. It was fun, because people in lowbie battlegrounds don’t tend to waste all of their time and energy bashing one another’s strategies, and because I… actually had a chance. I didn’t insta-splat. Shield, heal, psychic scream, no worrying about resilience and that, just being tricky.

When I moved her, I had purchased the ring and … cloak, I think, from the WSG vendor and after transfer I purchased the boots from the AB vendor. The items are cheap blues (ranging from 100 honour to 800 honour for level 28) and so, so juicy, stats-wise.

Hell, I even re-specced her to nab some PvP talents.

Back to last night. I hopped into the queue after purchasing my goodies and was sorta dreading winding up in WSG, but I did. And I… had… fun.

I had fun in WSG.

I had fun in WSG.

I decided to just stick to crowds to keep my squishy ass safe. Operation Annoy The Alliance was deployed and I ran around healing fellow Horde, dotting Alliance, shielding myself and just overall being irritating by not dying. At least, until the Alliance decided that I had to die.

I shouted IC taunts, I feared, I dotted, I healed, I shielded and all in all I had a fucking great time. Yeah, we lost both 30-minute battles, but we fought so damn hard it was just amazing.

*steeples her fingers*

In yer BGs, eatin' yer noobs.

Tuhina: On Warlockery vs. Embracing the Arcane

[ Tuhina is a Blood Elf Warlock on Thorium Brotherhood US-RP. She used to be a mage - in fact, it's what her parents wanted for her - but that didn't quite work out. She's the girlfriend to a Darkspear troll that's MIA (for real-life reasons) and she is a short girl with a very itchy spellcasting-finger. ]

It is kind of rare that I get the opportunity to write anymore, and it is even rarer still that I am allowed to go on and on at length about a subject so near and dear to my heart.

And my boot.

You see, I am a Warlock. In public, I refer to myself as a Fel-Mage because, to be frank, that is what I do – I draw my power from the Nether just as mages draw theirs from the Arcane and I set things on fire, including the demons that I have bent to my will.

I used to be a mage, though. I conjured ice and fire and little balls of Arcane. I was powerful, but not powerful enough – the term ‘glass cannon’ applies rather well.

Hmmm, I think I realized just how much power was at my fingertips when I summoned my first demon and was able to overcome it. After that, it was simply a chase for more power, to be able to summon something stronger, to challenge myself and see just what I could handle. I never felt that rush as a mage. There is the constant danger associated with being something that the world despises, something that your people only keep under their roofs because, for the time being, you are useful and you are feared. It is… a wonderful feeling.

Someone as small and insignificant as I am can summon a massive creature that could kill me in one blow, but it doesn’t, because the strength of my will keeps it bound to me.

Someone as small and insignificant as I am can cast curse after curse upon my foes and laugh as they lash out at me, because their pain heals my wounds.

I am Tuhina Dawngarde. I am a Warlock.

I look the possibility of a gruesome, horrible death in the eye every day – but I? I am not afraid.

Babes in Dwarfland

My first ever Alliance character to make it past level 20 is edging up to level 40, and has been into a few more PuGs than my 80s – in fact, I kind of want to get the pug pet for her.

I swapped Ailsey from Protection to Retribution, deciding to favour the quick and messy approach to leveling over “AoE everything to death, slowly, but profit anyway” because I don’t want to spend years leveling this poor girl. I kind of want her to see level 80.

Of the three PuG dungeon runs that I dragged her into, two of them were in Scarlet Monastery. SM Cathedral and SM Armory, both with warrior tanks, wound up being AoE-fests that were cleared relatively quickly. Uldaman was also cleared pretty quickly (though the meleeing, mob-pulling mage made me facedesk repeatedly, but the druid tank booted him, yay!). I love SM because:

1. It’s easy.
2. The loot is awesome for casters and metal-wearers.
3. It’s fast.
4. The XP is plentiful.
5. SO. MUCH. CLOTH.

Ailsey will probably finish up level 39 in dungeons in her quest for a pug. Now… I wonder how some of my other toons will fare in LFG?

Keep an eye on this site for my Shaman’s Adventures in Healing in… one more level.

Attention Snorts: I WIN

We has winrar.

In order to tame Snorts, the pig belonging to the stable master in Frosthold in Storm Peaks, I had to lay a Freezing Arrow on top of him from the ledge above and to the left of him (or is it right? The one near the back) and immediately start the tame. Success fully depended on my health pool and if I could survive the beating.

He first was spawned outside Frosthold, so I had to die a few times to kill him so he’d respawn (this consisted of dropping an explosive trap and meleeing him, though it’s mostly the AoE that does it).

I also cobbled together a Survival Spec that ripped a PvP spec apart for the purposes of increasing my health pool and making my traps last longer.

My main spec right now is Beast Mastery, a “leveling” sort of build that favours pet strength. Kinuka Goal #2, now that she has the pig she wants? … Bloodsail Admiral, baby.

Observations From Beating Up Coren

My toons aren’t very heavily geared.

A bunch of my guildies are running Ulduar every so often, so I’m one of the least geared of them all. I don’t bother buying gear because I can’t make up my mind on who I want to run shit with, so I tend to just hope that stuff drops when I hit heroics and kinda piecemeal my gear that way. It’s sorta working. I don’t run Ulduar with them – though I do occasionally have the chance – because they run at a time when I can’t. I can’t stay up past 1:00am EST.

So, considering the 1100 DPS 77 rogue, 1800 DPS 78 arcane mage (1200 or so as Frost, he needs a respec for the hit talent, don’t ask), 1900 if-I’m-smart BM hunter and 1900 DPS shadow priest, imagine my surprise to see my tank geared, dps specced DK pulling 2.2k on Coren.

What.

Gahiji, who’s unfortunately logged off in RP gear (shirts are for losers, by the way), should not be able to hit 2.2k DPS in his tanking gear! It doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s his sword, but he’s been using the Gargoyle rune, so I don’t know. Two other people got similar numbers out of me.

Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, Death Strike, bash Heart Strike like it’s going out of style and just bring Dancing Rune Weapon and Hysteria up whenever I can.

One thing I love about DPSing as a Blood Death Knight is that, at least on the Coren fight, I can take care of any damage that I take from AoE effects. I know this won’t fly in anything above a heroic, but it’s kinda awesome to see anyway and I really wonder what sort of hell I can raise with a proper DPS set.

I am tempted.

… Mmmyeees.

Let’s forget the fact that I completely failed to switch gears from DPS to Tank when the tank got barreled and Coren went straight for mah Jeria. NOBODY EATS MAH PRIESTIE.

… Except Coren, apparently. ;_;

Unrelated, but Zul’Tale/Gahiji now has his own Brewmaiden. He is smitten.

Healer’s Lament, Tank Rising

I love healing. In fact, I love it so much that sometimes I get a little irrational about it.

I am a little too protective of my role as healer; sometimes I get slightly hurt when another healer is suggested and not me or I’m asked to shoot things with my hunter. This is, of course, really insanely dumb and I need to get over it – but how?

Part of me is kinda excited about tanking: I have Gahiji, my baby Death Knight, who is slowly approaching the point of not being a baby anymore. He’s two levels away from 80, from gearing for Heroics, from being in demand among a set of guilds that doesn’t have very many tanks (the Harbingers of War have three, at most, with only one being available very often while The Refuge has one full-time available-pretty-damn-often tank), and he’s kinda sexy for a dead guy. The biggest problem with him is that he is a little on the emo side, as many dead people are.

But … he’s a beast. A beast.

There you go, self, something to be excited about. Tank moar, dammit.

Yeah. I think I can be okay with hearing, “Hey Mat, do you wanna hop on ‘Hiji and tank?”

I just have to find a DPS toon that I, you know, enjoy, and for some reason hunter ain’t it. I prefer soloing on my hunter. I can do crazy, crazy stuff.

I’m getting pretty happy over the thought of having my Warlock blast through Northrend, though…

On a different note! My mage, Kombe, has 1% of a level to go ’til 77. I AM SO NOT READY FOR THIS WHAT THE CRAP HOW DID YOU LEVEL SO FAST. I replaced his Frost spec with a Frostfire Bolt spec to see how that goes, I’m having a hard time figuring it out on a solo level.

“FFB – AUGH IT’S HEADED RIGHT FOR ME – Scorch, Living Bomb, FFB FFB FF – oh dead okay. Heeeeee it asploded.”

Between Warlock (71), Mage (76) and Rogue (75) I really should be able to find a DPS class that makes me happy! It’s just… picking one.

Crowd Control – Whassat? Can I Eat It?

A conversation last night prompted me to really think back on my WotLK dungeon career as a tank, dps and healer.

As a healer, Crowd Control was only used when I was fresh to healing, running with friends and we weren’t quite sure if I could handle the large pulls that Wrath seems to enjoy.

As a tank, I only used CC when I was, again, learning, or with a healer that was new or requested it. I completely turned it down on my warrior because I wanted a trial by fire in Nexus and found that the only times I actually lost aggro were when somebody was pushing their DPS despite me saying, “Hey guys, I need a few seconds’ head start, okay?” We blew through content between my crazy aggro generation and the lack of CC requirements.

As DPS, I’ve sort of turned rusty on trapping and only found myself using it during a bad pull in a pugged Utgarde Pinnacle run. That frost arrow saved our asses (so did a silencing shot + misdirection pull) and was one of only a tiny, tiny number of similar incidents that I can remember.

I don’t think CC is entirely unnecessary. I think it’s a great tool for reducing the strain on healers and tanks alike, especially for things that a group has never been into. It can be helpful for PvP, saving your own ass and those of others.

For the most part, though? Get outta my way, I’ll take everything on … ’cause that’s how I like it.

(At least ’til the Big Kids’ content, anyway.)

The Disc/Holy vs. Disc/Shadow Dual Spec Self-Debate

I’m thinking of switching Masamba‘s off-spec to Holy, from Shadow, and am writing this to help me figure out whether or not to do it. I don’t expect this to be used as a guide. I could very well be crazy, even, and do welcome tips and input because Holy is not my forté.

In this post I will:

• Outline my goals and reasoning re: Goin’ Holy
• Pick apart the cookie cutter spec to help myself figure out what’s useful for my situation and what isn’t
• Talk myself in circles for several hundred words

My philosophy is this: Theorycrafting is great, but it’s only useful if it can be explained in plain English.

I do not “get” the math applied to WoW classes. My brain shuts off and I’m left staring dumbly at the computer screen – however, I do understand, “This stat works because it gives x mp5 over y stat, which only gives y mp5, and that is why it’s beneficial.” I don’t jive with the formulas but I am totally groovy with the final observations, the “why”.

I also “get” if a player’s experiences clash with the cookie-cutter specs – that’s why we rip those apart and investigate. Sometimes you have to make changes in order to better work with your own healing style, your raid composition, that sort of thing. I also like to try figuring out some things myself, using sources like EJ as guides along with the blogs that I read.

This is the cookie-cutter spec.

Why Go Holy?

I want to be able to raid heal effectively without turning my Druid, only level 66, into a full-time healer. Discipline will always be my main spec and my favourite, but I want to try something different and see how I like it and just how effective it is for me. My Shaman isn’t going to be 80 for a while yet – he’s only level 18 – so it’s time to try this.

But You Said…

I know, I know, I know. I’d also like to add that, since Masamba is no longer a whiny little bitch, Shadow doesn’t quite fit for him – that magic made him Pretty Damn Awful.

What’s The Difference in Gearing?

Holy wants spellpower, int/spirit, crit (which stops being effective past 30%) and haste (up to 12%-14% for Ulduar with all the right buffs, but I’d aim a l’il higher); Disc puts it like: int, spellpower, crit(again with the ‘up to 30%’)/haste (up to 6% for Ulduar, but I’d be aiming higher), spirit. MP5 is meh. I’ve been gearing for more Divine Aegis procs, which means more mitigation, which means less damage for me to heal, which means I’m doing my job. Either way, I’m going to want to boost my haste (ArmoryLite says I’m at 5%, ow) and mana pool/int.

The Talents

My raiding alliance hits Naxx (10) and OS/VoA – I’ve been in on the OS/VoA runs but have always missed the Naxx trips because of time differences or real life interference.

Runs usually include at least one Disc priest, a druid and/or the occasional Shaman. We do not have any healing paladins. Our tanks, the majority of the time, are paladins or death knights. The main death knight tank is very squishy and would benefit from a Disc priest healer, but hasn’t actually tanked in any runs that I’ve healed (\o/); the other DK tank is fine and I like to watch his floppy ears. The very rare warrior tank is pretty solid. Most of the DPS is melee.

We are guaranteed at least two blessings, Improved Fortitude, Divine Spirit and Mark of the Wild. I love my Blessing of Kings and occasionally have to be told to stop making out with it.

Due to there being at least one Disc priest already in raid, I don’t want to take Body & Soul because it will mess with the other priests’ spells. The likelihood of me being hit in OS is low so Healing Focus isn’t needed – I move out of the shit that kills me. In fact, I’m pretty decent at dodging fire. I might need it for Naxx, I’m not entirely sure because I haven’t set foot in there yet. If the run tonight actually happens, I’ll have to let that decide for me, but there aren’t a hell of a lot of places where it appears that I could put those points.

What Does This Mean, You Twit?

The TL;DR is that I am probably going to missing a lot of crap in my current set of gear if I want to try a Holy raid healing off-spec, but it is definitely something I ought to try for the sake of flexibility. Aside from a couple of shifted points, I really can’t make many changes to the cookie cutter spec until I actually give it a test run and figure it all out.