Can you read my mind?

I’ve had The Killers’ Read My Mind in the queue for a parody for some time. The theme of the song (or at least my interpretation of it) goes reasonably well with a bit of nostalgia I’ve been feeling for our Karazhan runs — even the difficult times. The parody is for my guildies who’ve always been very good at reading my mind, and thus keeping me from losing it. I’m not totally satisfied with how this one came out. It’s too pretentious, but then so is the original song.

In the middle of Shattrath
Just trying to make up my mind
You say you want to progress and
You say we’re falling behind

Can you read my mind?
Can you read my mind?

I never really gave up on
Upgrading from this Tier 3 gear
I’ve read the wiki page
I’ve got a little rage
We’re going to turn this raid around

Can you read my mind?
Can you read my mind?

A clusmy wipe, a stressful run
Let’s buff again, it’s all in fun?
A subtle \hug that no one reads
A couple pots and a nightmare seed

Oh well I don’t mind if you don’t mind
Because we don’t shine if we don’t grind
Before you stone, can you read my mind?

It’s frustrating how the raid goes down
On Shade everytime
But we ride up to the front of the instance
Because we’re here to unwind

Can you read my mind?
Can you read my mind?

The ghostly ball, the Menagerie
The Maiden’s hall, the Library
The dinner guests, the wreath of fire
The game of chess, then up the spire

Oh well I don’t mind if you don’t mind
Because we don’t shine if we don’t grind
Before you stone can you tell me what you find
When you read my mind

Running up the ramps until we fall
That is a really low wall
Woman unlock the gate, we’re good to go
I won’t move in that fire again

She said I don’t mind if you don’t mind
‘Cause we don’t shine if we don’t grind

Put your buff on me
Put your buff on me
Put your buff on me

The stars are blazing like earthstone diamonds
Cut out of the sun
When you read my mind

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

Who ordered the ass platter with a side of noobsauce?

Several of us have dinged 80 in the past week or two so we’ve been getting our collective butts into heroics for some good ol’ tanking, spanking, and back-seat tanking healing. Heroic Utgarde Keep and The Nexus were very doable. Ahn’kahet was ok except for the last two bosses. We couldn’t get the adds down in time on Jedoga Shadowseeker to avoid her getting the damage buff, and we couldn’t get the tree down during Herald Volazj’s insanity phase. So we went next door to try Azjol-Nerub and we couldn’t even get past the adds on the first boss, but in our defense we were a bit sleepy at that point. Last night we tried Gundrak and could not down the first boss, although we got close. We couldn’t deal with the snakes. Unfortunately I suggested that maybe we needed better DPS for that encounter, and now I have to find a really good Christmas present for our mage Veloreynn to make up for such blasphemy. So after a good 50g repair bill there we tried Halls of Lightning which was fine until we got to Loken. We made several attempts on him before giving up. I blame myself for that one. I was tired and wasn’t able to position him effectively after we ran to avoid his lightning nova. The strategies I’ve read suggest a back-and-forth movement with him, but is it viable to maybe move in increments out into the next room and then in a circle? It seems like that would be more reliable than trying to flip him around each time.

Well, I’m not complaining (too much). It’s a nice challenge.

Giants, airplanes, and bears..oh my!

\documentclass[11pt]{blogpost}

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\begin{rant}

I’m sorry, but I really don’t enjoy the “vehicles” of WotLK. I know many people do, and there are only so many types of quests that Blizzard can develop within the constraints of the game, but the vehicle stuff just isn’t my cup of pungent seal whey. I enjoy my toons and doing things through my toons. But once my toon hops on a vehicle the game changes. It isn’t about my toon anymore. It’s just me. It’s not the same game. I suppose some folks enjoy the diversion, but I don’t. Also, I suck at vehicle quests. Maybe everyone does the first few times, but I’m not terrible motivated to get better at them. Not yet anyway.

\end{rant}

\end{document}

Old and busted: Outland stockings and thongs. New hotness: Northrend turtlenecks.

I picked up Wing Commander’s Breastplate last night in The Oculus for my DPS set. Take a look at it via the “View in 3D” option. Jess looks great in it, and it keeps her warm.

While I am on the topic of Northrend fashion, I do have one gripe: tabards. Tabards usually look ok on a toon that wears leggings, and if your leggings are a bit on the skanky side it may be a necessity. But in my opinion tabards look horrible on clothies with robes. There are some great looking robes that are ruined by a tacky tabard. This is unfortunately because now wearing a faction’s tabard in an instance will earn reputation with that faction. Maybe blizzard should implement a feature where we can opt to not show the tabard we are wearing as we can with helms and cloaks.

Tinkering with DPS.

Before the recent patch I had no interest trying DPS with Jess. I leveled up to my mid 60s as a very very bad fury warrior. But at some point I decided that I wanted to get in touch with some other facets of my inner warrior. My intention is still to focus on protection/tanking, but I have come to enjoy DPS as a diversion, and it also works out well for us since we are a small guild and (amazingly) often have too many tanks and healers but not enough DPS for impromptu 5-mans.

I like arms. I really do. Running around with a big two-hander (axe) strapped to my back is very sexy. The combat is exciting. There’s lot to do (charge, rend, slam, mortal strike, and overpower all on a regular basis, not to mention some of the more specialized abilities) and several frequent procs (deep wounds, taste for blood, and sudden death). For this reason arms doesn’t feel very different from protection. Arms is nice for solo work, but I also find it fun in an instance. Sweeping strikes and bladestorm are great for trash (if you have a good tank), and it’s fun to try to get the perfect rotation on a boss. I prefer to stay in Battle Stance, stance-dancing only to pop recklessness.

I’m still working on fury. Of course Titan’s grip is very sexy, although the anally-retentive part of me wishes my axes matched. I have to admit that I probably haven’t given fury enough time, but I find it a bit dull. From what I understand it’s basically auto-attacks with bloodthirst and whirlwind when they are available, the occasional slam when bloodsurge procs, and heroic strike if there is enough rage. I read recently that some folks use slam as part of their regular rotation now that with Titan’s grip the weapons a fury warrior wields are usually very slow. I’ll have to give that a try. But I suppose the (apparent) simplicity of the fury rotation is maybe also its advantage. It is more reliable and less prone to human error than arms, so it can often provide higher sustained damage.

The one thing I don’t like about both arms and fury is that, compared to protection, I am much more fragile. My DPS as a protection warrior is somewhat lower, but my surviviability is amazing, and in the long run it may be just as efficient for solo work as arms or fury since I rarely need to eat, bandage, or run back to my corpse.