P is for Priest…

…Penance, Power Word: Shield, PvP, and Pwnage.

So I’ve done two things in the past month that I thought I’d never do. I stopped drinking coffee (at least regularly…but black tea ftw), and I have a dedicated PvP toon.

Muriel was my holy priest that was my main alt back in TBC. I used her to heal in Karazhan and Zul’Aman when we were short heals. She also did many heroic runs. I enjoyed her thorougly and after I leveled Jess to 80 and had some extra time I brought Muriel to Northrend. But somewhere around level 73 she stalled out. I leveled holy for a level or two, and then shadow, but could never quite get into it. I still can’t get into shadow. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the new “silly string” version of the mindflay animation. I missed Muriel and envied other priests, but had no desire to level another healer as I am quite content playing a resto shaman as my healer alt right now. However I did find myself fascinated with the new discipline tree. I wanted very much to try it, but I didn’t want to get tied down healing PUGs, and again I had no desire for another 80 healer. The solution? Alterac Valley. There I could heal to my heart’s content but with more flexibility since I could enter or exit a BG whenever I wanted.

So I specced her disc and leveled from 74 to 80 largely from experienced gained in AV. While waiting in the queue I would quest in my smite spec. Like a few other odd priests out there, I have a strange fascination with smite. Healing in a BG is great fun. Before I was never much into PvP. I did some BG with Jess during TBC to get some shoulders, and a decent staff for my frost mage, but that was it. More recently I’ve taken Jess into BGs off and on and I enjoy doing PvP as an arms warrior, and Keredria even talked me into doing arena for the first time the other night (5v5…don’t ask). But lately I’ve been enjoying pissing off Hordies with my little clothy. A disc priest has quick heals, single target and AoE dispels, an AoE fear, and of course bubbles bubbles bubbles. I might even dare to say that I might have gotten a little good at PvP.  And it’s interesting to have an alt that is entirely dedicated to PvP. The nice thing about doing non-arena PvP is that I don’t feel that I need to invest quite as much in this toon. Of course I am spending her honor as it accumulates and I have two pieces of the satin Deadly set, but I’m not buying her epic gems, uber enchants, or purples. I haven’t even purchased cold weather flying for her. I only splurged for the dual spec so that she’d have something to do while waiting for another BG.

Oh and I did switch her off-spec back to shadow, just to give it a fair chance should she get a chance to do abysmal DPS in a 5-man guild run sometime. But it’ll just make me sad. WTB glyph so that mindflay looks cool again.

 

Real people.

Keredria’s recent post about Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov’s WoW addiction hobby reminded me of a couple of recent posts by Ta-Nehesi Coates, contributing editor of The Atlantic about things to do while you are gaming, or why he can’t bring himself to brag about not owning a television:

“…one reason I’m unlikely to lead a brigade against television is because some of my happiest hours are spent prancing around as  a red-headed elf. When you’re a WoW-geek, it becomes difficult to argue for stigmatization…”

I remember when I was sitting in a coffee shop near a university and overheard bits of a conversation from a couple of very “normal” looking 20-something college students, a man and a woman, who talked casually about classes, apartments, life, and raiding. I remember how this startled me and then being startled at the fact that it startled me. Why should I react that way when I play WoW? I mean, I actually think I am fairly “normal” myself.

Your first shock with your first MMO is that the characters you meet in the game are played by real people. Your next shock is when you learn the people you meet in real life play the game.

But I’m still sick!

Here’s what Keredria sent me last night.

Sigh. Ok well I have several posts that I’ve been wanting to do, but I’ve been busy in real life and I am still getting over the plague flu. But here’s an update at least.

Progression. We’ve done all of Ulduar except Yogg-Saron and of course Algalon. I’d say we’ve got it on farm even though we don’t actively farm it much now. The Keepers can still make things exciting sometimes, and we’ve done Mimiron and General Vezax only a couple of times, but it’s clear that now it isn’t a matter of if we down a boss, but just if it will take one or a few attempts. We would still like to go back and do some of the hard modes, but we’ve not yet found time to work that in to our raiding schedule. I really enjoyed our progression in Ulduar. We hadn’t farmed Naxxramas all that much before we started working on Ulduar, and we wiped many times, especially on The Keepers, but it was hard honest work and it felt good that we were able to master the encounters up through General Vezax before the welfare epics became available in Patch 3.2. Also Ulduar is just a wonderful raid instance and well worth seeing through anyway. I’ve been meaning to write a retrospective of Ulduar but I’ve just not gotten around to it.

We’ve cleared Trial of the Crusader on normal mode each week for the past four weeks so it’s on farm. Soon I think we’ll try the heroic mode. It feels a bit meh after Ulduar, but I’m sure the heroic mode will be a significant challenge.

Onyxia and Koralon are pure fun. I like that we can do these little mini raids when we have an extra hour or so.

Jess has done pretty well in terms of gear. I have enough Emblems of Triumph to buy at least a couple pieces of Tier 9, but I’m still running around with my Tier 8 since I have four pieces of it. I guess some might argue that the 4-piece Tier 8 bonus isn’t all that great, and I’ll probably try mixing in some of the Tier 9 for hard mode ToC. Anub’arak was kind enough to cough up a nice sword and board for me.

Also GuildOx ranks us as #3 on Drenden for strict 10-man progression, although I’ll admit that part of the reason for that is because some other 10-man raiding guilds disqualified themselves by doing some 25-man PUGs.

Alts. I’ve had a chance to heal most of Ulduar and ToC with my resto shaman, Makawee. She’s got a good set of Tier 8 and 8.5 and some other good drops. I do like raid healing with the resto shaman, and of course everyone appreciates totems and Heroism. I’ve also leveled a kitty druid to 80. She is purely for fun. I’ll try to write a post about her soon. I’ve messed around a little with my 74 priest and my 70 mage but haven’t really gotten back into them.

PvP. Yes, Jess is doing some battlegrounds PvP. The last time I did any serious PvP was back in TBC days when I needed tanking shoulders for Jess and a staff for my mage. I’m still not as into it as many others in the guild, but I enjoy a bit of PvP from time to time, and I do like playing an arms warrior although it’s embarrassing that my kitty druid can do more DPS with welfare epics from Trial of the Champions.

Ok. Moar posts soon. I promise.

The Raidleader.

So Keredria has been encouraging me to write about guild mastering and/or raid leadering (i.e., what it’s like to have her for a back-seat guild master and raid leader). “Just write” she said. Easier said than done. Words are hard for warriors. But perhaps a little anecdote might better explain my style. Here’s the story of how I recruited our healadin Nicolause a couple of months ago.

Nicolause: I believe in the Alliance. The Alliance has made my toon. I leveled my paladin in the Alliance fashion. I got him gear, but –- I geared him to always heal for others. He was in a PUG, not a guild run. He went to Ulduar, it was very late. I didn’t protest. They wanted to try some of the harder bosses – The Keepers. They made me main tank healer. And then they tried to kill Freya. She resisted! She pwned all of us, like noobs. When it was done my gear was broken. My ego was shattered. My toon could not weep because, well, I forgot the emote. But I wept. Why did I weep? He was the light of life –- leet paladin. And now he will never be leet.

I went to the forums, like a good player. I tried to find a better PUG. These people that I pugged with criticized my healing -– for three pages. Three pages! I looked like a fool. And those people that I pugged with, now they just lol at me. Then I said to myself, “for progression I must go to Jessika.”

Jessika: Why did you go to the forums? Why didn’t you come to me first?

Nicolause: What do you want of me? Tell me anything, but do what I beg you to do.

Jessika: And what is that?

Nicolause whispers to Jessika.

Jessika: That I cannot do.

Nicolause: I’ll give you anything you ask!

Jessika: We’ve known each other for two expansions, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel, for help. I can’t remember the last time you invited me to tank a heroic, even though my healer is on your arena team. But let’s be frank here. You never wanted my leadership, and you were afraid to be under my command.

Nicolause: I didn’t want to wipe on hard content.

Jessika: I understand. You found paradise in Northrend, you had two good professions, made a little gold. People ran dailies with you and there were Naxxramas PUGs. And you didn’t need someone like me. But now you come to me and you say “Jessika give me progression,” but you don’t ask with respect. You don’t even think to call me Raidleader. Instead you come to me and you ask me to carry you through content, for gold.

Nicloause: I ask you for progression.

Jessika: But it is not progression if someone carries you.

Nicolause: Then I can work, as you work. How much shall I pay you?

Jessika: Nicolause…Nicolause. What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? Had you come to me in friendship, then these bosses that pwned you would be down this very day. And that by chance if an honest raider such as yourself should want more progression, then it would be our progression, and then others would respect you.

Nicolause: Be my guildy…Raidleader?

Nicolause kisses Jessika’s hand.

Jessika: Good.

Nicolause has joined the guild.

Some day, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to respecc for me. But until that day, accept this as a gift on our raiding day.

Nicolause: Thank you.

Jessika: Ishnu-dal-dieb.

Ok well maybe I made some of that up.

Prayers for rain.

One thing that has disappointed me about Northrend is the weather. Why does it never rain? Certainly if it can snow it must sometimes rain in some of the warmer zones? I always thought the rain in Azeroth looked, sounded, and felt fantastic. Even Outland was a bit of a disappointment. It does rain in Zangarmarsh, but never in other zones where you might expect it to like Terokkar Forrest and Nagrand. Does this bother anyone else? Well, I’m a bit odd perhaps in that I always like the rain.

You shatter me
Your grip on me
A hold on me
So dull it kills
You stifle me
Infectious sense
Of hopelessness and
Prayers for rain
I suffocate
I breathe in dirt
And nowhere shines
But desolate
And drab the hours all spent
On killing time again
All waiting for
The rain

I always loved the way Simon held his bass so low in performances. How about…

“I think it’s dark and it looks like rain” you said
“And the wind is blowing like it’s the end of the world” you said
“And it’s so cold, it’s like the cold if you were dead”
And then you smiled for a second

Robert Smith must play WoW. He’s probably a shadow priest. Anyway sorries about the 80’s flashback. Take a guess at what tape I had in the car this morning.

Bad blogging.

Sigh. I need to find some material for my blog other than giving a certain healer a hard time (although as far as I am concerned, that’s a pretty good muse). Mmmmm…how about three things I like this week?

1. Ehiopia Yirgacheffee coffee. It’s got caffeine, and it tastes good!

2. Aveda shampoo. Expensive, but smells good!

3. The video clip of the Sound of Music (Do-Re-Mi) flash mob in the Antwerpen-Centraal railway station. Makes Jess feel good.

Hmmm…that’s kinda boring (for you anyway). Suggestions?

You know that dream where you are raiding naked?

/readycheck

Keredria is not ready.

Makawee: What’s up K?

Keredria points discretely at her waist.

To Keredria: I don’t understand.

Keredria points again discretely at her waist.

To Keredria: You need a new [Eternal Belt Buckle]?

From Keredria: No.

Keredria gestures with a circular motion near her stomach.

To Keredria: Food buff? Everyone has one from what I can tell.

From Keredria: No.

To Keredria: Oh your new Tier 8.5 robe. Yeah I noticed that. Very nice.

From Keredria: Sigh. No.

To Keredria: Then what?

Keredria gestures insistently with both hands around her lower torso.

To Keredria: Uh, you’re pregnant?

Keredria glares at Makawee.

From Keredria: No you dummy! Your water shield has slipped! It’s spinning around your knees!

To Keredria: OMG! F***ing cheap mail garters!

Heh. Well actually that conversation never happened, but my water shield was indeed spinning around my knees. Bugs are amusing sometimes.

I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

Well, actually she does, and a sharp one at that. Please hop over to Tree of Life and wish Keredria well on her second blog anniversary.

Of the infinite variety of fruits which spring from the bosom of the earth, the trees of the wood are the greatest in dignity.

– Susan Fenimore Cooper

If at first you don’t succeed at raiding…

…Keredria will tell you why.

Amirite?

Mana? Who needs mana.

I thought it might be fun to see if I can beat Keredria to a kill post. But I’m sure she’ll do it better anyway.

General Vezax went down for us after only a few attempts on a second night of working on him. Once everyone got the mechanics down this fight went really well. This was one of those rare times I respecced, picking up Improved Disciplines and the glyphs for Last Stand and Shield Wall to shorten my cooldowns for those abilities. It seemed to work great. I was always prepared for a Surge of Darkness and no kiting was necessary. Protection warriors ftw.

I had spent quite a bit of time thinking about our second attempt on General Vezax, so I got all “raid leadery” and starting giving very specific instructions for this fight — more so than usual. I even told Keredria what to do (although I’m not sure she listened). But whenever I get like this I think the raid gets more amused than anything, but again they like to humor me.

Druid duel.

Friday nights in Ulduar: Adults only.

How did things get this bad?

Exhibit A: Our warlock Buns is sporting her Jenkins title.

anonymous raider: You know, “Buns Jenkins” sounds like the name of a porn star.
Jess: But it wouldn’t be standard porn. It would be some sort of niche fetish porn.
anonymous raider: Maybe midget porn? Buns is a gnome after all.
Jess: So anybody want to play “hide the soulstone”?
Keredria: Jess!

Exhibit B: Someone puts down a Brazier of Dancing Flames while we buff up.

Chachi: I’d like to desecrate that fire!
Veloreynn: /emote cleans off Brazier of Dancing Flames.
Raid: ewww!

Exhibit C: During an Auriaya encounter, I was trying to get people to stack up on me while I was tanking her. I kept saying “please get on Jess!”.

anonymous raider: Jess, if I were any more on top of you we’d have to be married.
Jess: O.o

Blizzcon.

So Keredria wrote about our failed attempts in May and June to get tickets to Blizzcon. So here’s a little sour grapes: the top ten reasons why it’s best that we are not going to Blizzcon.

1. Veloreynn might stage a mass coup d’état and form a rival guild known as The Right Claw.
2. Drenden’s economy could collapse.
3. Assassination plots against us — the ugly side of guild drama.
4. Hotel coffee is too weak.
5. Disney has a 50-mile restraining order against us after we tried to do an “emblem run” through It’s a Small World. (It was the best AoE tanking evar.)
6. No costumes due to an acute duct tape allergy.
7. I’m not geared-up enough yet to tank Keredria’s stalkers.
8. The raid would fall apart without us stalling it periodically to argue silently via whispers about boss strategy.
9. We don’t want to steal the show from other bloggers.
10. Anaheim is too hot in August, and we are too cool for Blizzcon.

WTB sedatives for RL.

So last week our progression through Ulduar was a little slower than usual so we raided again Monday to do a couple of leftover bosses. Freya was one of them and took us a few attempts. I tend to get a little too excited during this encounter. The only problem we usually have with this encounter are the phases with the Snaplasher, Stormlasher, and Ancient Water Spirit adds. After a few attempts Keredria whispers me to let me know that I’m getting a little too excited on Vent and am sometimes mixing up the Snaplasher and Stormlasher when I call out for changes in targetting. Sigh. Words hard. Veloreynn commented that the funny (and maybe disturbing) thing was that despite the fact that I was getting them confused she still knew what I meant. Sigh again. Sometimes I think maybe I’m not necessary to lead the raid, but they are polite enough to humor me.

An odd thing about this Freya kill is that she didn’t spawn any exploding seed thingies. I’m not sure if that was a nerf or a bug. It would be a surprising thing to nerf since if a raid can get past the adds it’s a relatively simple fight.

Oh the guilt.

I love reincarnation when I am healing on my resto shaman. If I die at the fault of my own or, more likely, that of a tank, I can pop reincarnation, drink a mana pot, throw down a mana tide totem followed by a mana spring totem, refresh my mana shield, and I am good to go without having to beg some selfish druid for an innervate. But now I feel a bit guilty about it. Why? Well, my fellow shaman Stfushatner (heh) informed me that there is a price, not including the ankh:

Stfushatner: You know Jess, when you reincarnate, God kills a kitten.

Jess: Oh noes!

Please think of the kittehs.

Casting the WoW movie.

So we’ve heard that there will be a World of Warcraft movie, directed by Sam Raimi. No casting decisions have yet been announced. Of course Jessika will be in it, but who should play her? That’s easy: Aimee Mann. She’s perfect. Just look…add a pony tail, some facial tatoos, and some sexeh Ulduar plate, and it’s Jess! Ooooo…this could be a half-assed blog meme thingy! Is there anybody that could fully capture the essence of The Tree? Is there anyone with the Orcish virility of Ratshag?

Ulduar isn’t serious uldatime.

I didn’t get quite as much raiding in this week as I was out of town visiting family, but I did get a run in Saturday night, and we got Freya down for the first time. Woot! Anyways I have a couple of amusing screenshots. One is of me with Suzzy who came to heal instead of nuking that night since we were short a healer. We look quite similar. I think she must be a younger cousin or something. We’ve both been having back problems because of those silly dum dum pop maces that drop in Ulduar. I do like my Legacy of Thunder, although my Stoneguard is better for my posture.

The other screenshot is something most people will never see — Keredria dancing in human form. Oh she’ll dance in her animal and tree forms, but never human. She’s too classy for this. However my tanking was just so leet that night that she burst into dance before we started on Hodir. Heh. Actually she went AFK and someone popped some sort of item that makes everyone dance and I got a couple screenshots before she changed forms. Note my big ass mace.

WTB a tanking dummy.

By that I mean a target dummy for tanking, not tanking dumb people, or dumb tanks. Most DPS realize the utility of the target dummies for testing their rotation, but these are of limited utility for rage-based tanks (i.e., warriors and feral druids), because we generate nowhere near the rage we get when we are being beat on by a pack of trash mobs or a boss. I find that it’s better to engage one of the world elites that are roaming around Northrend, like those giants on the battlements around the Icecrown Citadel, or trash mobs in a lower level dungeon. But even then it’s not quite the same, because any mob that will hit hard enough to simulate the rage generation of a raid encounter is strong enough to kill me if I solo it. Ideally there would be a target dummy that hits as hard or nearly as hard as the mob it represents in terms of level, but doesn’t land a killing blow, but I don’t see that happening. I suppose maybe I’ll need to talk a healer into going with me, and then I can be their healing dummy.

Making Heroic Strike more heroic.

I wrote earlier about my issues with Heroic Strike. As we’ve progressed through Ulduar, threat has increasingly become an issue, particularly for encounters involving a lot of movement like Hodir. Now Cleave works very similarly to Heroic Strike, and I’ve found that I never have any difficulty remembering to use it, but I still find myself sometimes neglecting Heroic Strike. One reason why I think it’s easier (for me) to remember to use Cleave is that it provides a distinct graphical and auditory cue when it goes off. Heroic Strike is much more subtle. Now I can’t do much about changing the graphics (but see below), but I found that I could make Heroic Strike provide an auditory cue. First get yourself the Scrolling Combat Text (SCT) add-on. Modify it as you see fit, but add a custom event under SCT Custom Events. Here’s how it should look:

You can’t see the full path for the sound. It’s “Sound\Spells\CleaveTarget.wav” — the same sound as Cleave. If you want a different sound, pick one from a list of in-game sounds, or add your own. Note that I don’t have anything in the Display field. This is the text that would scroll across your screen when Heroic Strike goes off. This would provide you some graphical feedback for when Heroic Strike. If you use this option you may find it necessary to increase the scroll speed under SCT Animation, otherwise the sound will not go off for back-to-back Heroic Strikes until the text from the previous Heroic Strike is off the screen.

Where we play doesn’t feel so far away.

I play WoW at Keredria’s kitchen table. It’s convenient for tank-healer communication, and for when she wants to reach over and pat my head for being a good tank, or smack it for not trying hard enough.

Well, that’s not really true, but it feels like it sometimes.

You see, ever since Keredria got her new Mac she’s been having trouble with her vent. For reasons that she still hasn’t determined, her microphone randomly decides to pick up ambient noise even though she’s using push-to-talk. Often during a raid we can hear furious typing, something being set down on the table, sirens outside, cracking open another Pabst Blue Ribbon, or dancing in stiletto heels on the table in celebration of awesome heals (hot heels for HOT heals you know). Ok, maybe I made some of those up. Sometimes the sounds are a little ambiguous so I use my imagination. When this happens it makes Keredria very frustrated:

K: Can you still hear me?

Raid: Yes.

K: Damn it all to hell!

Heh. Actually the rest of us don’t mind. In fact we like it. Those little random sounds help bridge the distance and bring a raid that is spread across North America a little closer together. Also we can tell how many beers she’s had.

WoW wear & tear.

So last night my third headset died since I’ve started playing WoW (well, at least since I’ve started playing WoW with VOIP). This got me to thinking about the real life wear and tear of WoW (other than to our social/sexual/professional lives). For example, in addition to the clear need for me to buy headsets in bulk, on my laptop there is a crescent-shaped “stain” (for lack of a better word) where I rest the palm of my left hand while it hovers over the movement and frequently used number/function keys. If you look around your WoW-playing environment, what signs do you see that someone has spent WAY too many hours there and in Azeroth/Outland/Northrend?

My liner notes.

So when is WoW.com going to do a story on WoW song parodies? I’ll even save them the trouble of digging through the archives of Pretty in Plate. Here are the liner notes for Jessika’s greatest (and only) hits:

1. I Would Do Anything for Threat (But I Won’t Do That). This was my first and remains one of my favorites.
2. Can’t Crit This. It’s incomplete, a demo if you will, but I don’t think more is necessary. Ahhh…remember the days of the 490 def cap?
3. Tree of Life. How many trees have their own song? Tanks, if you want to get teh good heals, you gotta work for them.
4. The Newbie. I wrote much of this in my head while in the car after hearing The Freshman on the radio.
5. Let’s Do Lots of Dailies. Pet Shop Boys = win.
6. Badges for Nothing. My second Dire Straits parody. I want to do one for Romeo and Juliet (Romulo and Julianne) but it hasn’t quite come together yet. This one rocks.
7. Can You Read My Mind? This one is lacking for some reason. I wanted to write something kinda sappy and nostalgic, and at the time I really liked The Killers’ song, but it’s a bit meh.
8. Found Out About You. I really like the way this song came together. I was disappointed that I didn’t get a smart-ass comment from someone.
9. I’m in a Raid. Heh. Salty Jess. And yes, I’ve tried to do something with Jizz in my Pants — something about losing or gaining threat maybes.

Srsly, wtf?

One thing I do like about blogging is the feature where I can see what Google searches hit Pretty in Plate. Usually they aren’t very interesting, but today something caught my eye:

queen azshara topless

I’m speechless, but Jess is keeping her top on.

Matching staffs and Lemarchand’s box?

Here’s a couple of miscellaneous screen shots. First we have one of hunters, Chachi (his pet is named Joni), and his crit-chicken bedonkaboomkin wife, Indigogo. Awww…matching staffs!

The other is from a recent dinner with Moroes in Karazhan to get his secret recipe for mongoose. I’ve never noticed that cube hanging in the air before. What the hell is that?

Topping the meter!

I don’t know why people give me such a hard time when I heal our raids. I am topping the meter afterall.

Note to self: Having your graphics settings turned way down during the Razorscale encounter makes it a bit hard to see the fire on the ground. Thanks Paradise, and thanks Failboat.

The first rule of raiding.

Vel asked me the other day the secret to a good raid. Ok, she didn’t, but I have a good imagination. Mal taught me everything I know about leading a raid.

Jess: It ain’t all macros and meters little mage. You know what the first rule of raidin’ is? Well I suppose you do, since you already know what I’m about to say.

Vel: I do, but I like to hear you say it.

Jess: Love. You can know all the theorycrafting on the ‘net, but take a raid in an instance you don’t love, it’ll fall apart just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps it up when it ought to wipe, tells you it’s hurtin’ before it fails. Makes it a home.

Kosmic Keredria and a problem with a Gnomish transporter.

Here are some misc screenshots from a recent raid. First I present to you Kosmic Keredria. I think the headband really completes this new look for her.

The other screenshots are of our two Nelf rogues, Atania and Terrondris. We warned them to not use the transporter at the same time.

Lawl. WTF!?!?!?

Chealz FTW.

Here’s three healers on their way to the Assembly of Iron in Ulduar: Keredria (resto druid), Makawee (resto shaman), and Suzzy (holy/disc priest). Nkm the Molten Iron Construct killer is behind us (stop pinching our butts Nkm). Makawee is my alt. I think K and I were discussing how we were disappointed that our gear doesn’t match very well. Suzzy looks very good though. I was a little nervous to be working with two much more experienced healers that evening, but even K had to admit that my chain heals, or “chealz” as I’ve come to call them, much to the dismay of the guild (cue collective groan), can sometimes be quite helpful.

Has healing made me a better tank?

So today Keredria emails me to suggest that I do a post on how healing has (maybe) made me a better tank by seeing things from the “other side.” Of course it hadn’t occurred to her that maybe tanking has made me a better healer. Heh. Lately I’ve been doing a bit of raid healing on my resto shaman, Makawee. I’ve done a bit of Naxx as well as VoA and OS, and for the first time last night normal Ulduar. At first I couldn’t think of anything specific I do, or do differently, as a tank or healer that could be attributed to my experience in the other role. However I think that maybe  my healing experience has influenced my tanking attitude in terms of how I see my role in the raid. I see myself has having two general roles in the raid, in decreasing order of priority.

Make the job of the healers as easy as possible. This encompasses much of what we think tanks (should) do. We gear and spec ourselves appropriately, we hold aggro, we use our cooldowns when things get tight, we buff the raid (e.g., Commanding Shout) and debuff the boss (e.g., Demoralizing Shout, Thunder Clap). Our primary job is to help the healers by keeping ourselves and the raid from taking damage, and to survive the damage that we do take. It all seems obvious, but I think that some tanks get an attitude that they lead the attack and the raid supports them, when in fact it is the other way around. When it comes down to it, a tank is mostly crowd control with a few buffs and debuffs. However…

DPS. Yes, DPS. More so than before Wrath of the Lich King a tank can do a reasonable amount of DPS, and the relative amount of DPS is that much more in a 10-man raid. All raiders can remember wipes where there were just a few too many adds or the boss would have been dead had the raid put out just a little more damage. A tank should look at their abilities and think not just about holding aggro, but also about how they can maximize their DPS. A rotation is not just about generating threat, it’s about inflicting pain (which also leads to threat so that’s good!). But just as importantly a tank can often buff the raid and debuff the boss to increase the raid DPS.

So healing has given me a greater appreciation for how hard it can be to keep a raid alive, and has motivated me to make the job of the healers easier. Now if I can just get K to spec feral sometime…

The Lost Pole of the Covenant.

OMG I haz screenshotz! Here’s me and the tree chillin in Wintergrasp. The other day I was surprised to get the Jeweled Fishing Pole from the Dalaran fishing daily quest. It’s a bit gaudy to say the least, but who says your fishing outfit can’t have a little bling? Veloreynn however thinks the shape of it is rather obscene.

I’m still a noob.

Keredria tagged me to discuss my past noobishness. As she notes, I am still a noob, but that is fodder for her blog, not mine. I was quite a noob. When I started playing I was very much into the escapism and increasingly the social aspect of the game. I soloed mostly, did very few instances, and had no idea what raiding was. Here are some examples of my noobishness from those wonderful days in Teldrassil, Darkshore, and Ashenvale.

• It took me until maybe level 7 or so to understand that doing quests was maybe a more efficient method to earn experience.
• I spent some time trying to figure out how I could get a pet to fight with me. I didn’t realize this was a hunter-only ability.
• The first time I encountered an item that would become soulbound when I equipped it, I stopped. I thought being “soulbound” sounded bad.
• I wanted a bow in the worst way when I was in the Night Elf starting zones. It seemed like a good thing to have. Other people had them and seemed to use them to great effect. Of course, I didn’t realize that a hunter can make much better use of a bow than a warrior. I saved up so that I could eventually buy one from a vendor in Darnassus. And even after I realized that a bow wasn’t going to do much for me, I used it for a long time to pull mobs to me rather than using Charge.
• I thought a quiver/bandolier was necessary for carrying ammunition to use with a bow/gun. I did not realize that non-hunters were better off just carrying a small stack in a bag. But I did think that the quiver looked cool.
• I didn’t start auctioning stuff until maybe my late 20s. I vendored everything I didn’t use.
• I once bought a potion that stated that it increased healing. I thought that maybe I could take it to make Keredria’s heals more effective on me.
• It was a long time before I realized that Berserker Rage could be used to counter a fear after the fear had taken effect. I thought one had to hit Berserker Rage before the fear.
• I applied wizard oil to my sword. I thought it would enchant my sword to cause magical as well as physical damage.
• I thought that the gold you paid when you unlearned your talents was per talent point you unlearned.

Whoa! Raid LF3M. Now who should I take? Keredria, and…T-Pain.

If you’ve not seen/heard it yet, check out I’m On a Boat first and then you can sing along. Warning: There are MANY naughty words.

Aww shit, get your addons ready it’s about to go down
Everybody in the place click the ready check
But watch your motherfucking threat
We’re running this, let’s go

I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Everybody look at me ’cause I’m running in a raid
I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Take a good hard look at the motherfucking raid

I’m in a raid motherfucker take a look at me
We’ll be farming Ulduar soon I can guarantee
Raiding five nights, ever since Burning Crusade
You can’t stop me motherfucker ’cause I’m in a raid

Take a screenshot
I’m in a raid, bitch
We be drinking elixirs
Cause we’re so rich
I got my five deeps
And my three epic heals
I’m tanking Algalon, you in Northrend
Straight tanking seals

I’m riding on a big drake, doing heals and shit
The drake is flying, Maly is starting to sweat
But this ain’t Outland, this is leet as it gets
I’m in a raid, motherfucker, don’t you ever forget

I’m in a raid and
Progressing fast and
I got skillz so slick
That I should be banned
I’m the queen of the world
In a raid like Leeroy
If you’re wearing blues
Then you’re not with me, boy

Get the fuck up, this raid is real

Fuck 5s, I’m in a raid, motherfucker
Fuck BGs, I kill elites, motherfucker
I’m in the raid with my guild, motherfucker
The raid is so skilled, motherfucker

Hey ma, if you could see me now
Grinning ear to ear because I’m pwning WoW
Gonna take this raid to Arthas somehow
Like Ghostcrawler said, bring the player not the class

Yeah, never thought I’d be in a raid
It’s the best game that I’ve played
Yeah, Protection
Look at me, oh

Never thought I’d see the day
When a big raid would be kk
Believe me when I say
I got an upgrade

I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Everybody look at me ’cause I’m running in a raid
I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Take a good hard look at the motherfucking raid

OMG! The bunnehs! They are making it!

A few guildies thought it would be amusing to turn everyone into rabbits using some sort of Noblegarden thingy while we were waiting for our raid to form up. Then they got out their pet rabbits that proceeded to, as Vel said, “make it.” I love it when she talks dirty on vent.

So anyway after the bunny orgy we got ourselves into Ulduar. Friday and Saturday were our second and third nights in Ulduar. I wrote earlier about our first night. Our first attempt on Flame Leviathan was, well, interesting. We accidentally started it on hard mode. But after downing the four towers to deactivate the hard mode it was fine and we went on to try Razorscale. We gave him a few attempts but didn’t make much progress so we moved on to XT-002 Deconstructor which we proceeded to one-shot. That was a little disappointing. We had time for a few attempts on Ignis the Furnace Master, and were getting the fight down, but we ran out of time and called it a night. Saturday we had to wait awhile to fill the raid so we went dancing in Naxx for a bit and then went to Ulduar to work on Razorscale. I think it took us ten attempts before we finally got her. It was exhausting but it felt good. It felt good to work hard on something and to see the hard work pay off. My tanking fingers are very sore. The drops were…I forget…DPS stuff mainly.

As usual I forgot to take screenshots, but I know Keredria got some so look for them on her blog soon.

No heals.

So Jess had to go four days and three nights without heals while somebody was on vacation. I figured I’d see if I could make her feel just a tad guilty. Also I’ll throw in a little tribute to my favorite TV show. I know she won’t get it, but maybe a few browncoats out there will.

“You know, it’s funny…we went to Naxxramas never looking to come back, but it’s Northrend I couldn’t survive. You carried me through that raid, and now I need you to carry me just a little bit further, if you can. Tell my folks I wanted to do right by them and that I’m at peace and all. When you can’t run anymore you crawl, and when you can’t do that, well, yeah you know the rest.”

You have aggro.

Here are three words that have no place anywhere in the game, whether it be a chat channel or online forums.*

Retarded. Any parent can understand how trying it is or could be to have a child that is disabled and cannot experience life in the same way as others. To use this term as an insult is truly sad. If you really want to comment on someone’s lack of leet skillz, then go with a more archaic term like “idiot,” but probably it would be best if you just shut the fuck up.

Fag. Some people are gay. Some people aren’t. So what? Honestly why is someone being gay a big deal? The only problem with being gay is the shits who think “fag” is an insult. If you can’t deal with two men or two women in love and/or having sex, then it’s your sexual hang-up, not theirs.

Rape. I realize that rape is a gaming expression, but I’ve also seen less figurative uses of the term in WoW, and I’m sure many have seen “Sapped girls can’t say no.” Rape is a terrible crime. I have never been raped, and I do not know anyone who has (or if I do they’ve not told me), but it still greatly disturbs me that someone can make a joke out of it. Rape isn’t fucking funny, ever.

*To be clear, I am not calling for a ban on these words or suggesting that they cannot be used in a way that is not offensive. My issue is how they are used. This is upsetting to me.

Ulduar: The ponytail approves.

Watch for Jess in her next movie: Catapult Keredria from the Demolisher.

So The Left Claw made it’s first foray into Ulduar on Friday. We got the Flame Leviathan down with maybe three attempts. We had a good time with this encounter. I was driving a chopper and having a great time with it. Jess looks great on a chopper with her ponytail flapping in the wind. Ok, well maybe they don’t have that animation, but in my mind it was. Jess got herself some Flamewatch Armguards which are a nice little upgrade. We tried to get to Ignis the Furnace Master but wiped a few times on trash before we got a bad case of the sleepies and called it a night. We were not disappointed though. Most were pleased that the trash in Ulduar are actually a bit of a challenge.

Guild culture.

So for reasons that have nothing to do with WoW I recently found myself flipping through the book “Individualism and Collectivism” by Harry Triandis, a social psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He discusses research regarding two general dimensions that have been used to explain many cross-cultural differences in behavior. Very roughly speaking (I am not a social psychologist) these are individualism (focus is on the self) versus collectivism (focus is on the group), and vertical (inequality) versus horizontal (equality). Crossing these two dimensions yields four “archetypes” for lack of a better word. Some researchers have used these attributes to describe not just individuals and cultures but organizations as well. This got me thinking about how one might characterize World of Warcraft guilds.

• Vertical Individualism. Focus on the autonomous self, while seeing others as potentially different in status. This pattern is most common in the United States and France. A vertical individualist guild has members that are concerned largely with themselves rather than the guild as a whole, and there is a clear hierarchy of status (ranks) within the guild. It seems to me that a vertical individualist guild would not typically be a healthy or stable guild unless members near the top of the hierarchy could consistently motivate members to work together by identifying aligned goals (i.e., loot).
• Vertical Collectivism. The self is viewed as part of a group, but there are differences in status among the members of the group. Countries that demonstrate vertical collectivism include Greece and India. Guild members are focused more on the welfare of the guild over themselves, but the guild has a strict hierarchy. I think some larger hardcore raiding guilds could be characterized as vertical collectivist. Members of the guild want the guild to succeed, but a status hierarchy is necessary for organization.
• Horizontal Individualism. An autonomous self with equality in status among others. This pattern is found in Australia and Sweden. This might characterize some PvP and twink guilds rather than raiding guilds where individualism would not conflict with the objectives of the members and there is little nead of a hierarchy within the guild.
• Horizontal Collectivism. The self is viewed as part of a group where members of the group having equal status. This pattern is found in Israeli kibbutzim and some monastic orders. This would characterize some small raiding guilds of people who have a common goal and, except for maybe a crazy raid leader, equality of status. I would suggest that my guild is a horizontal collectivist guild.

Who am I?

Big patches always turn our virtual worlds upside down. Add-ons break or behave in very mysterious ways, abilities and talents are changed, and there are subtle undocumented and confusing differences in graphics and sounds. But for me the new dual-spec feature is, well, it’s just a bit unsettling. With the click of a button I go from a protection warrior to an arms warrior in 10 seconds. What was once a relatively expensive and time-consuming change of identity is now something that can be done quickly and casually with the click of a button or two.  I suppose it wouldn’t feel so odd if my off-spec was another tanking spec, which is something I may do in the future if that is needed for Ulduar. Dual-speccing is a feature that I welcome and I will use it and enjoy it, but it will take some getting used to. Is it just me?

The real problem with current WotLK raiding.

Haiku? I can’t even count!

Two memes in one day! Ratshag tagged me on this one, and Keredria wrote one for me. I’ll return the favor.

Epic gear, leet skillz
Trying hard to stay alive
She says try harder

Honest scrap.

Sigh. I sorta hate these things, but you can’t say “no” to Keredria. Anyways here are the rules:

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

Ok so some bloggers to tag. I won’t try to pick people who haven’t already been tagged. First a couple of podcasters: Alachia (please try her “meta” podcasts), and Renata of World of Warcast (the podcast I listen to while doing the dishes). She’s already been tagged, but I’ll tag Megan of Out of Mana anyway. Although I very rarely PvP, I admire people who are good at it. I’ll tag Dezdemone of Will Tank for Healz! and Anglachel of The Meatshield Diaries in an attempt to get them to post more, and Khol Drake of A Stab in the Dark just because he comments often on my blog. Oh and how about Auzura of Chick GM because, as she says, “playing like a girl rocks.”

Ten boring factoids about Jess:

1. I try to be a lacto-ovo pescetarian. So no “land meat” but if it lives in the sea and doesn’t have a blow hole, I will try to eat it.
2. I don’t know any languages other than English, and am rather ashamed about that. I have a great admiration for multilingual people.
3. Dancing makes me feel extremely self conscious. I’ve “fast danced” three times in my entire life, although I have repressed those memories. There isn’t enough alcohol in the world to make me do it again.
4. I have never been to a funeral. A few weeks ago I took an 18 year old cat to the veterinary hospital and had to have her put down. I’m still dealing with that.
5. The color of my eyes is ambiguous. They can be blue, green, or grey depending on what I am wearing.
6. I have one more degree than Keredria — four degrees from two different universities. The latter two are from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She’s secretly jealous.
7. I have a book contract with a major publisher. Writing has been slow.
8. I often prefer to think or talk about things rather than do them. I don’t call this procrastination. Rather I say I am more theoretical and less applied.
9. I am not very artistic in any way. I greatly admire people who are. However I’ve done a bit of fine art black and white photography in the past. My favorite cameras are a Rollei SL66 and a Mamiya 220.
10. I am significantly taller than Keredria. I have far fewer shoes.

Edit: Ooops. I originally had 11. No wonder we always have too many people signed-up for raids. I can’t count! I took one out. Yes, I know the rules are “at least 10,” but for some reason 11 seems pretentious to me.

Tuesday morning nerdsauce.

Jessika was heard to say the following when she first stepped off the boat at Howling Fjord.

Et Eärello Northrendenna utúlien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn’ Ambar-metta.

Or at least until the next expansion comes out.

Dammit! Wrong slash.

Cognitive psychologists have documented a phenomenon known as interference in which a memory interferes with another memory. This problem is exacerbated when the stimuli are similar. So what does this have to do with WoW? Well I use a markup language called LaTeX, which has nothing to do with latex (that’s a different post altogether). Special commands in LaTeX start with a “\” so, for example, one might write \emph{italics} to put a word in italics, or \int_a^b f(x) dx to write an equation. But in WoW special commands begin with a “/” so, for example, we type /g if we want to type something to be broadcast on the guild channel or maybe /cast [target=Keredria] Sarcasm (Rank 7) in a macro. So some of the time my LaTeX doesn’t compile and my WoW commands and macros don’t work because I can’t seem to remember to use the correct slash, although at least I don’t get them confused with this one.

I am a conduit for the ancient forces of nature (again).

There was a time, not too long ago, when I thought I had lost all interest in playing a shaman. But you voted, and you were right. Makawee (that’s “mah-KAH-wee” not “make-a-wee”) the Draenei elemental shaman dinged 80 Sunday evening. I’m going to continue to focus on elemental, although I may try some raid healing as resto if we are short, and maybe even dabble a bit in enhancement if I pick up some nice gear for it along the way.

There are several things about shaman that I find very appealing. I enjoy the four-spell rotation of the elemental shaman (fire shock, lava burst, chain lightning, and lightning bolt), and it’s an impressive display of firepower. Alachia has a nice podcast about Shamanamins. She says that when one thinks of a shaman one thinks of a spiritual leader that uses subtle invocations of the elements, spirits, and nature. But a chain lightning proccing lightning overload is certainly not subtle. Ka-boom! And I like the utility. I like that I can be an effective off/emergency healer (chain heal ftw). And I like my totems. I like the micromanagement, and I like that my buffs are very obvious. Hey! You see that lava lamp sitting on the ground over there? That’s my buff to you! Feel the love! Feel it! Excuse me…ka-pow!

And sometimes I like a little change of personality online. I mean, there’s Jessika, and then there’s Makawee.

Iz not wurkin hard enuf.

The sixth screenshot. I see dead bosses!

Keredria tagged me to show the sixth screenshot from my screenshot directory. Currently my sixth screenshot happens to be from a recent fight with Loatheb. I was off-tanking him which is fairly routine. I was just keeping my buffs and debuffs up and hanging around waiting to tank him should the MT go down. During the fight I decided to swivel my camera view around and take a few screenshots. This one I had planned to use for a post on Keredria’s birthday but didn’t. You can see here doing her hallelujah healy thing next to Veloreynn and the triplets. I apologize for the messy GUI. I really need to clean it up.

Found out about you.

Here’s one based on a Gin Blossoms song. I so amuse myself sometimes.

Before the patch in case you don’t recall
I was tank and you were healz we pwned it all
Is there a way that I could die
That’s bad enough to make you /cry
All the tells you sent to me were lies
The months roll past the invite you declined
Did you heal me only by design?
Buffs and HOTs you cast on me
Seemed to come so easily
The heals I thought I’d won you’d give for free

Whispers from the off-tank
I heard about nights out in the BG
I found out about you

Rumors follow everywhere you raid
Like when you /gquit post burning crusade
You’re geared-up now and there’s no doubt
In all the guilds where you hang out
They know your spec and they know what you’re about

Whispers from the off-tank
I heard about nights out in the BG
I found out about you

A tank is all I think I could be
I get the healz too often on the LFG
You know it’s what I always feared
I /who your name and /inspect your gear
Your death knight’s over I watch you go offline

Whispers from the off-tank
I heard about nights out in the BG
I found out about you

Happy birthday Keredria.

Today is Keredria’s birthday. Two years ago, and only a few days after Jessika, Keredria was born. So I’ve been at a loss for what to post (as usual). Something funny? Something sentimental? A bit of both? As she noted things have been a little sad lately, so humor is out. Verse ftw. The following is from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers. I’m a huge Tolkien fan and am always very moved when I read certain parts. This is one of them. The attitude of the Entwife in the second and fourth stanzas seems very much like Keredria. Linger where your land is fair K.

Ent:
When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!

Entwife:
When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade;
When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid;
When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air,
I’ll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair.

Ent:
When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!

Entwife:
When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown;
When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town;
When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West,
I’ll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

Ent:
When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain
I’ll look for thee, and call to thee; I’ll come to thee again!

Entwife:
When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past;
I’ll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again:
Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

Both:
Together we will take the road that leads into the West,
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

OMG /played

Two years ago today I started playing WoW and Jessika was born. I told Keredria last night that I was having trouble thinking of something to post today. I asked if she wanted to be a guest blogger — she could even make fun of me, on my own blog! She laughed. I told her I was serious. She suggested that I write a post about how awesome she is. I think she beat me to it.

So here I am. There is no way I would have even imagined two years ago that I’d be where I am now: Tank (I didn’t even know what tank was.), guild master (I figured I’d just solo as I’m not very social.), level 70/80 (I didn’t think I’d go beyond playing the trial version for a few days.), raid leader (What’s a raid?), and blogger (And like do what? Write song parodies? Pfft.)

So will I be playing this game a year from now? I was talking to my friend Vel last night and she asked that question of herself. I told her she sure as hell better be.

I need to put Pandora on something besides the 80’s.

An 80's 5-man.

Fail.

Verb.

1. To be wanting to; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert.
2. To miss of attaining; to lose.
3. To run heroic Obsidium Sanctum, have the Tier 7 warrior gloves drop, and pass on the roll forgetting (until reminded too late by your smarter healer) that heroic raids drop better Tier gear than normal raids.

I should be working (harder).

Just four words…

…Red Sword of Courage! Ka-ching! Dropped on only my second run through heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.

/gleeclap

Updates: As I mentioned in the comments, our other protection warrior Bigal picked it up the next day. Congrats! And then the next night I tanked heroic UP a third time and picked up another Red Sword of Courage. Now I can bring two swords with different enchants. Crazy.

Ph***ed-up Loot Phriday

Northrend helms with horns. The worst must be the mail helms like this one. WTF? And what is up with the reservoir tip on that thing? One look at one of those on your partner’s protection warrior would be enough to switch your hinges.

Couldn’t Heroic Strike look more, well, heroic?

Here is the generic description of Heroic Strike:

A strong attack that increases melee damage by X and causes a high amount of threat. (Ranks 10 and up cause Y additional damage against dazed targets.)

Essentially it allows you to buff your next auto-attack to cause more damage and more threat. Heroic strike is used by protection warriors to increase their threat. It’s sometimes called a “rage dump” because it costs rage but causes the next auto-attack to not generate any rage. Thus it is something that is used when there is a surplus of rage and another more efficient ability in terms of threat per rage is not available. Fury warriors also use Heroic Strike to enhance their auto-attacks when Bloodthirst and Whirlwind are on cooldown, ideally only if they will still have enough rage to use those abilities when they come off cooldown. Heroic Strike is rarely useful for Arms warriors because of the unpredictability of their rotation.

Heroic Strike was terribly confusing for me when I was a young warrior because it was hard to see it doing anything. It doesn’t make a sound, the animation of a Heroic Strike is subtle (at least for female Night Elves) and it isn’t an instant attack or a channeled ability like, for example, Execute or Slam, respectively. It simply buffs your next auto-attack which could happen anywhere between immediately after you queue it up to 3+ seconds later, depending on the speed of your weapon(s). Now nearly two years later and at 80 I have a good understanding and appreciation for Heroic Strike, especially when I tank, but I still wish there was more feedback from its use. Cleave, which is like Heroic Strike but hits two nearby enemies simultaneously, does have a clear and recognizable animation. I can see very clearly when I have cleaved and thus when I can decide if I want to queue up another. I wish that there was a more clear animation, maybe similar to but distinct from that of Cleave, so that I can see when a Heroic Strike has landed (also, it would just look cool…many of our attacks are too visually subtle as it is).

I tried programming my Scrolling Combat Text addon to say “Heroic Strike!” but it just isn’t the same. Maybe I need some sort of macro to at least show others that I’m doing something, well, heroic:

/say I’m trying harder Keredria!
/cast Heroic Strike

Major undocumented change for protection warriors in 3.0.8.

Vigilance now makes a sound and has an associated graphic for the target. Woot! (Actually, it did bother me before that nobody could see I cared enough about someone to put it on them.)

An alt poll.

Before WotLK I spent quite a bit of time on some alts. I wasn’t interested in going DPS with Jess and our progression was a bit slow so I had lots of time to play them. But now my time and patience for leveling an alt is a bit limited. One reason is that I’ve been trying arms and fury specs with Jess for fun so in a way while Jess the protection warrior is my main, Jess the DPS warrior is my alt. Another reason is that the grind from 70 to 80 was just too recent and so I’m not very excited about doing many of these quests again. Also we are progressing through the content much faster so I have less time to play an alt and by the time I do level her up to 80 she’ll be farther behind. However I am still interested in having at least one 80 alt. Which should I choose and why?

I didn’t blink my eyes for six minutes.

That was the comment of our combat rogue Atania after we finally managed to down Heigan the Unclean for the first time.

Friday and Saturday were The Left Claw’s first venture into into Naxxramas. Friday night we started on the Arachnid Quarter. We managed to get Anub’Rekhan and Grand Widow Faerlina down with only a couple attempts each. Maexxna proved to be a bit more difficult. Once we got our positioning down so that healers and ranged were in range of the boss, tank, and cocooned victims, we were losing tanks to the frenzy phase. It was a bit more than just two healers could handle, even with our shadowpriest doing backup healing at that point.

Saturday night we returned with a third healer and downed Maexxna with one attempt and then we began working on the Plague Quarter. We were very amused with ourselves that we could not down the Stoneskin Gargoyles until we were finally able to time burst damage when they approached 30% health. Our first attempt on Noth the Plaguebringer took 16 minutes. We downed him on the second attempt in a little less time. Finally we came to Heigan the Unclean. I’d been looking forward to this fight. It’s more fun to explain than Shade of Aran. It took maybe five attempts before everyone learned to dance well enough. If I may brag a little, I had the dance down quite well, but then I had watched a few videos of the encounter beforehand so I had maybe a better idea of what to do. I adore this fight.  We didn’t have time for Loatheb but I am confident we’ll see him (her? how can you tell?) soon.

The drops were mostly caster stuff. I did pick up the Wraith Spear off Maexxna which should work reasonably well when I spec arms. I realize it’s itemized optimally for a hunter, but we didn’t have any hunters with us.

I forgot to take screenshots. I’m sure Keredria will have some up soon.

Back to raiding.

Truth is, I thought it mattered. I thought that raiding mattered. But does it? Bollocks! Not compared to how raiders matter.

Last night was The Left Claw’s first Wrath of the Lich King raid. We attempted Obsidian Sanctum. We were not able to defeat Sartharion but we got very very close. I think it went well despite the fact that we were not familiar with the encounter and had only two healers. It was interesting to return to raiding. There were some of the familiar elements of raiding: the excitement, the tension, the strategy discussions, the whispered criticism suggestions, but it was also noticably more casual than our first forays into Karazhan.

Soon we’ll be making our first venture into Naxxramas. I suspect that will go well. I’ll try to report on that raid and remember to take a few pics.

On a successful tank-healer relationship.

Since it went public, many folks have asked me about the secrets of a successful tank-healer relationship. Well, ok, nobody asked but I know you want to know. A healthy tank-healer relationship is not unlike a healthy marriage. The foundation of your relationship is chemistry and history, but there are other important elements. For one it is useful if you know each other well in real life so that there is a distinction not only between your game identity and your real life identity, but also in the relationships between those identities and those of your partner. Even if you’ve never met in real life, at least there is some connection outside the game. Little things like remembering and honoring birthdays and anniversaries go a long way. And if you are able you might even write a little poem or song for each other. It also helps to not always be serious — joke around and be playful. The tank-healer relationship defines who you are as a tank or a healer, and you support one another because of your complementary roles, but just as importantly that support is unconditional:

[W:To] [Keredria]: i sent you a bunch more spice. you don’t need to cook it all up for me. it’s just there for you to use as you want
[W:From] [Keredria]: kk i will parcel it out to you on my discretion…
[W:To] [Keredria]: lol
[W:From] [Keredria]: based on performance

Sleepy Jess.

Why is Jess sleepy? Well that big heavy Wyrmclaw Battleaxe might have something to do with it. The Left Claw is a small guild with three tanks, so we take turns tanking and DPS. It’s been an interesting challenge for me to improve my gear and performance to become, at best, adequate. And I get some encouragement like “well, you’re almost doing as much DPS as the tank” and “maybe you should try harder.” Of course a certain resto druid is fortunate I didn’t take screenshots of recount summaries when she specced boomkin for a recent heroic Utgarde Keep run. I think she was too busy dancing. Boomkin got back.

My preference lately has been for arms. I like the randomness of it. It does take a bit of practice to do good DPS with arms because of the intricate timings and rage management. (If you are interested in PvE arms in WotLK I highly recommend you read this.) Fury is just terribly boring for me, and I get frustrated listening to all the misses from the autoattacks. But I plan to give fury another try once they make the change to Bloodsurge, and maybe pick up a pair of new swords for it. I want to enjoy fury, but I’m just not there yet.

The other reason why Jess is tired is that she’s been spending quite a bit of time trying to organize her bank. Because of the different hit caps for arms and fury, and because I’m still not sure about the best combination of hit, crit, attack power, and armor penetration, I’ve been keeping quite a collection of gear in the bank.