So there’s something rather unusual about Keredria that I’ve been meaning to write about. (Well, there are several things unusual about Keredria but tank-healer confidentiality prohibits me from writing about most of them.) Of all the people I’ve met while playing WoW, disregarding a few people who are relatively new to the game, Keredria has the largest proportion of her time devoted to just one toon. Most people I know have at least a few alts, and many have alts that are 80 and quite a few have alts that can raid content at or near the same level as their main. Some people I know don’t have a well defined main but rather distribute their time quite evenly to several toons. I have four 80s, two of which I can raid with, and a handful of alts at various levels that I play for fun once in awhile. But Keredria is almost always Keredria, and except for a few goofy nights when she felt bearish, always resto. As of late she spends a reasonable amount of time on her inscriptionist alt (she says her “alt” is making monies), but she doesn’t play it, and she does have a 60ish priest although I have no idea how she managed to level it up so high. She’s had that toon for some time. All of my high-level toons at once time or another quested with her priest but eventually passed her up.

So anyway the point of this post was that I got to wondering how the one-toon experience might change one’s perspective on the game in comparison to having spent a significant amount of time on one or more alts. There are some obvious advantages to having alts. They give you some flexibility in terms of things like roles in parties and raids, PvE versus PvP, and professions. And as a raid leader I think I do get some additional insights into various classes and specs based on my experience with my alts. But I wonder sometimes if this has at all detracted from my experience and relationship with my main. My main is very special to me for a variety of reasons, and I feel like I’m really “into” my main, but I wonder if that because I usually have the option to play another toon, and often do, if I’ve missed out on something.

My resto shaman Makawee is ridiculously lucky. I enjoy healing and for a long time I’ve kept a healer alt geared-up as much as possible so that I could heal when we were short or to PUG a raid or two when I had the itch, but of course my main Jessika the protection warrior is who I usually take on raids. But the funny thing about Makawee is that she is very lucky when it comes to loot. I mean I don’t often take her into raids, and when I do I will pass on loot if someone else needs it since she is an alt, but serendipity follows Makawee like an extra water shield charge. Doing just a few late night Naxxramas PUGs she collected enough gear to quickly surpass Jessika in terms of her IMBA rating. And while Jessika could not for the longest time get any tier gear to drop for her in Ulduar, the week I bring in Makawee she gets three pieces! And remember that the token for the warrior tier gear is also the same token for the shaman tier gear. WTF? And then last night I brought her in to heal Anub’arak and the very very pretty Vigilant Ward drops and our healadin Nico already has it! And it looks fantastic with her Tier 8.x and Mariel’s Sorrow.

I think the fates want me to pay a resto shaman. I won’t listen of course. Jessika is my main and always will be, but OMG have you seen the new pics of the Tier 10 shaman set? Want!

…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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

/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.

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