Druids=Shamans When Sleep Deprived?

Duckies, I am terribly exhausted.

I have been fighting off nasty chest congestion for nearly a week. I missed none of my raids, missed no work, am dogsitting two pugs, helped plan and cater a bachelorette party, and I don’t even want to think about this weekend. I will have no time to myself-all I have is tonight and all I want to do is sleep.

I also find myself wanting to level my shaman again. She was the first character I seriously leveled, just after release. I had deleted her and last year I got her un-deleted. I transferred her to another server, then a few months ago transferred her back. She’s stuck in her 40’s still. The 40-60 stretch is the one I simply hate. I always prefer to solo for leveling. When I say prefer, what I mean really mean is there is no guildie at level 40 so I prefer to solo than to pug.

Time, I think, to brush up on shamallamas.

P.S. Allright. This wasn’t particularly cheerful, so clicky clicky on the most accurate comic about WoW on Feathermoon Horde (maybe all servers, I dunno. All I know is FM). It made me warm inside.

Have You Thanked Your Leader Today?

Karazhan last night was so easy I was thinking about asking if we can skip Moroes (Edit: The wiser and more alliancey Alyviel has informed me that Moroes is unskippable. This totally proves my upcoming points. Read on!) I love shards for the guild bank and all, but I would like to devote that time to a new boss. Then I realized something. It’s really horribly selfish of me to suggest skipping a boss if I don’t know that everyone has what they need from him. And I don’t know that. That’s what raid leaders are for.

Leading a raid is more work than I can even think about:

Getting together 25 people is hard enough. If there are no shows, you have to find replacements. Then there’s group composition, gear level, and raid member competence to consider which bosses you can do, and strategies to learn and explain. There’s the loot system and keeping track of it. You have to keep it all this information in your head to be recalled at any minute should it be needed, even if you delegate responsibilities. People expect your word to be final so you have to stay informed. If you’re really lucky you’re main tanking too. If you’re super lucky and you’re the guild leader, you’ll also have to resolve (usually) petty spats between members, the guild bank, officers etc. I don’t want that job. So…

Take a minute today and thank your leaders. Your guild leaders, your raid leaders, your class leaders. They work hard for everybody, and least of all themselves. They deal with guildie aggro, job aggro, spouse aggro, and loot aggro. They do it with patience, understanding, and grace. Thank you.

To PuG, or Not to PuG?

Okay my duckies, getting to the point today. Sunday TK got canceled.

Five of our best members either had to work, had connection issues, had previous plans, etc. In the end, we only needed to find three people. We tried for a half an hour going through friends list, guildies, etc. We did not PuG them. Here is the standard logic for PuG/Not PuG for this raid.

To PuG:

Scenario A: We do the raid. Things are harder but we get it done, yay purples.

Scenario B: The PuGs are total idiots/under-geared/under-experienced. It’s a 4 hour wipe-fest in which I call someone a “f*cktard” so loud that people hear it on Tarz’s vent*. Everyone is upset because we don’t down Void and attendance next week is even worse.

Not to PuG:

Scenario A: We don’t massively fail due to performance issues. Our raid progression doesn’t go backwards. Everyone is disappointed because we didn’t go, but attendance isn’t diminished due to QQ.

Scenario B: See Scenario A.

I know it was only three people. The missing shaman and the warrior are two of our very best dpsers. So, we did not PuG. Tarz was possibly more disappointed than anyone else.

We’re taking 25 mans to two days, TK Sundays and SSC Mondays. Due to attendance issues yesterday, we’re going to try TK again tonight. My feeling on this is that we are going to be short again tonight.

What does your raid do? How many members do you have missing before you call a raid off?

*Tarz and I sit next to each other so vent will pick up what the other is saying. I was duly chided in vent and in raid, by people who expect better from me. It was really funny though. It really broke the post-dpser-face-pulls-trash tension well.

Alchemy, Alcheyou…

Well my Friday duckies, it looks like I have a goal for this weekend! Farm crap tons of herbs!

I needed to find out what flasks/elixirs our guildies use for raiding so I can gather the mats and build up stocks for raids to help out guildies and resident alchemists. I have only discovered two flasks so far, Flask of Blinding Light and Flask of Mighty Restoration. Time to look up some resources!

WoW Wiki on Flasks - The individual flask pages tell me what I need to make them and sometimes even who will want them!

Lootables Herbalism Guide - One of my favorite guides, gleaned from wowwiki. Yes, I’m just that lazy. But I admitted it!

The Noob School Herbalism Guide - Also mooched from da wiki. Slightly different maps routes from Lootables, but not so different that I’m suspicious.

Now I have some places that will tell me where to go, I suppose I should find out what it is we’re going to need. Anna kindly suggested that to start, I just take care of the healers and tanks. We have 7 healers and 3 tanks. In order just to provide mats for them it will take:

49 Dreaming Glory
21 Ancient Lichen
36 Mana thistle
10 Fel Lotus

I have never, not even once, found a Fel Lotus. I have 1 ancient lichen, and it’s the only one I have ever found. The rest of it should be relatively easy and take just a few hours. This is gonna be a fun weekend…

*As you all know, this post is a thinly veiled attempt to farm some good resources from wiser, kinder, more awesome people than me by providing what I have found, so…there you go. I’m just evil like that.

P.S. It’s Children’s Week! Anxi already has Whiskers the Rat. Peanut is my intended prize this year.

Knitting is Like WoW Because…

Duckies, I must confess. I had a very bad day yesterday. So bad, I puked on my own car (inside and out) from food poisoning. *sigh* But I had a really good time at the book signing.

The Harlot was so hilarious I was in tears. People fondled my toe-up sock, and I oogled their projects. I was surrounded with people who do far better, much prettier knitting than me. When I was driving to work, I had some way to tie this into WoW. I swear I’ll get there.

The Yarn Harlot (who I went to see) is very inspirational person. Not in the self-help book kind of way, in the “real person doing her damndest, isn’t she awesome” kind of way. Being there with all those people made me want to knit better, bigger things. (Here’s the WoW part, it’s coming up).

This is much of the feeling I would have PvPing with B Plus in the old(er) High Warlord/Grand Marshall days. I Was surrounded by people far more talented, passionate, and dedicated than myself. They made me strive to be a better healer, a better flag carrier, and a better player.

It was like the feeling of seeing brand new content with 39 other people. Some of them you don’t know, some of them you want to know, but you feel like you’re, in a certain sense, at home. You all want to down the boss. Once you down him, you want to do it faster and with no deaths. We strived.

We laughed, we cried, and we drank (this happens in knitting too). We made new friends and killed our enemies. If we didn’t win the battles, we tried our hardest and we kept coming back until we were sick of it and wanted to strangle each other. I miss those days (not the end of them…the golden ones).

I think what I’m trying to say is that in striving, even if we fail, we make ourselves better people. Surround yourself with more talented, more motivated people than yourself and you will become a better player.

<3

Anxi

Leotheras Kicked My @$$

After spending the entire day doing dailies with one of my favorite guildies, I had no time even to set up a macro for SSC last night. I managed to set up the macro Mynd suggested to me real quick-a-like during trash pulls. Hoo boy.

From 3% of the heals to 12% (12%!), and from 25% overheals to 3.4%! 3.4%! Obviously that was not all me, I have to give credit to all the other healers for trusting me. I really feel like a proper contributing member of the raid now. I snagged the Living Root of the Wildheart while I was there, too.

We didn’t do any worse than last time, two wipes on the boss then we down them. Except for Leotheras. I failed so spectacularly. I forget that tab targeting is messed up, so for the first 30 seconds I was blasting Leotheras. I also failed to pull wrath out to my bar, so I lost valuable time there. I got mind controlled and they killed me. Fail! I wasn’t the only one though, even Tarz (yeah he’s prot but 11k shouldn’t be that hard) got mind controlled.

We got two attempts done and I know what I did wrong and I can correct it. My new healing goal is to figure a way to heal the rest of the raid better. I think I want to bind a mouseover lifebloom for members.

I would also like to note that one of my kitties, Sophia, is sick. She has been sneezing for 24 hours now, poor baby.

P.S. Skipping Kara tomorrow for my other hobby, knitting. Going to see the Harlot.

Commitment

So you’re starting a new raid? I have to say, it’s little like starting a new relationship*. Everyone’s excited and has a lot of expectations. With that in mind, I offer some advice.

Go in Prepared

Everyone needs at least 5 healing pots. Those with blue bars take at least 10 mana pots. Elixirs/flasks will give you the edge your raid needs, so get some! Take 2-3x more buff mats than you need. Make sure you are fully repaired. If you have a raid right when you get home, make a habit of repairing before you log off.

Put in the Time

One should be (healthily) invested in how the raid does, however, not downing a boss should not ruin your night. Don’t bail on the raid the first time you don’t down a boss. Be prepared for a disappointment every now and then and don’t dwell on it. Sometimes it takes a few runs for everyone to trust each other and settle into a rhythm.

Why Won’t They Listen to Me?

Giving unsolicited healing advice? If you’re on your warlock, people might not listen. People don’t like advice from people they think aren’t qualified to give it (especially if it’s right). To work around that, find a healer/dps/whatever friend and have them make the suggestion to their peers. Don’t take it personally, people are just difficult sometimes.

Please Don’t Go On About Your Ex

No one wants to hear about how you did it, how fast it was, or how fun it was with your last raid. A good leader has considered all factors and has selected the strategy they feel will work. If you have a suggestion, please make it in private if it is the first attempt. This is not to say don’t speak up after a few failed tries, just give the current strategy a shot.

Don’t Be Jealous

Upgrades are given to those who need them most, especially tanks and healers. This doesn’t mean you’ll never get that purple, just that you might have to wait. Make sure your loots person knows you are interested, but don’t spam them. Remember, the expansion is coming up and we’ll will be leveling again soon so it’s fair to ask for leveling spec gear as long as no one else needs it first.

“Bad” Habits

Please turn your flag off. You can quickly do this by /pvp then taking a flight path. Some members have kids/parents in hearing distance, so check before dropping the f-bomb in vent/ts. Don’t be a bloody drunken fool during raids, people will notice and remember even if you don’t. Smokers, gently remind the leaders you need a break a little before you’ll need it. Considerate leaders will let you know when the next break is.

Don’t Go to Bed Angry

Remember that you’re playing a game. It’s your $15 a month and you shouldn’t let anyone ruin it. Remember why you got into this raid in the first place. Because it was fun, you’re with friends, you like new content, or you wanted new loot. If it’s really bad, find a friendly ear and commiserate. If you can, let things go and focus on a better run the next time.

When You Need a Break

If you’re getting overly upset or stressed, you need a break. So, give your leader adequate notice-a week please-and take a raid off. Chances are when you come back the next time you’ll be over it and have fun again. If this becomes chronic, however, it may be time for them to find a permanent replacement.

*CAUTION! This guide may not be applicable to interpersonal relationships. In case of spouse aggro, please discontinue WoW use immediately and seek your spouse’s attention. Similarities to any raid, current or disbanded, are purely coincidental. Opinions expressed should not be construed as useful advice, or in fact, anything useful at all. Drama llama sold separately. Mana batteries not included.

I’m sure I must a have missed some thing or another, so please add anything I missed in the comments!

Wowku

I usually only post mon/wed/fri, but I was inspired by Asleep at the WoW:

leaves quiver and fall

trunk sways, long branches raise, shake

and fall, each life blooms

P.S. Please excuse how crappy this blog looks. I haven’t slept real well in three days, and for some insane reason I decided it would be fun to mess with the layout at work. After I get home from my various engagements this evening, I’ll try and impose some order and/or a decent header.

Lifebloom, Lag, & Loots

Karazhan went well last night. We downed all our regular bosses and two decent attempts on Nightbane. I’m sure we’ll get him next week- our priest’s nephew was missing, making for major distraction and our tank hadn’t tanked the fight before. I continued my cycling lifebloom tactics. It worked better on two tanks but my lag is still holding me up.

I got three, count them, three upgrades as a result of this Karazhan! Ol’ Princey finally dropped Light’s Justice. I have been dying for this, as I had previously been using the The Essence Focuser. From this run I finally got enough badges for the Gown of Spiritual Wonder. And I got exalted with the Violet Eye, so I finally switched out the DPS trinket I accidentally grabbed in a moment of crazed rushing distracted insanity for the Violet Signet of the Grand Restorer.

My plus healing is now exactly 1459. Tarzull should be getting me the +81 healing enchant to LJ today, and I will finally break 1500, woots! That will put me in an excellent place gear wise for SSC on Sunday. I’m hoping that we will be able to try for a third boss when we go.

Stay tuned for my very first “advice column” on Friday, entitled “Commitment”.

In Which I Post a Macro

This week, I tried a new healing strategy in The Eye that I read about on 4 Haelz namely rolling lifeblooms by stacking one at a time on each tank in a cycle (this is for the trash, mind you). I usually stack on one tank, then move to the next.

For the life of me, I cannot keep lifeblooms rolling on my tanks this way. I was trying to click their names then lifebloom and I failed spectacularly. My lag just does not allow me to do this cycling thing, plus my apparent inability to click things. I need druidy macros!

This is from the EU Forums:

/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Lifebloom; Lifebloom

That one is nice and simple, it should chuck a lifebloom on whoever I’m moused over in my UI. I really think that’s the key to me getting that down.

As for Mr. Lootreaver himself, I tend to run round the circle using strafe throwing heals on everybody I can, bugger the rolling lifeblooms, it’s rejuv + swiftmend. I outhealed our priest on that fight. Overall I did 23% (*sob*) overheals but of the overheals done I only did 4%. I’d like to get back down closer to 15% if I can, so that’s my goal for next time.

P.S. Nice job, Red Dragon Whatevers. You blueflagged one of our healers outside The Eye and we wiped the floor with you. You had to stay dead until your flags dropped. Next time, check the guild tag and save yourself the embarrassment? kk thx bai ^.^.