Dreambound

Tree-doodle

2011-12-16T11:10:00.000-05:00

Heroic Yorsahj: Oozes (the wordy version)

2011-12-14T22:24:00.008-05:00

The strat that worked for us this evening:

~~Yellow~~, Blue,Purple,Green -- spread a bit, 4 yds. Easiest.

~~Purple~~, Yellow, Black, Red -- stand ON boss, two add spawns, Healing CDs

~~Green~~, Yellow, Black, Red -- stand ON boss, two add spawns, Healing CDs

~~Green~~, Blue, Purple, Black -- stack, adds (alternative: kill black and spread)

~~Yellow~~, Blue, Purple, Black -- stack, adds

~~Green~~, Blue, Black, Red-- stand ON boss, adds

Addon used for convenience:

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/yorsahjpriority

RED:

EVERYONE stand as close as possible on TOP of the boss. Not near him, ON HIM. The further away you are, the more damage you will take. When paired with Yellow/Black, be ready for healing armageddon. Healers and DPS with cooldowns, vocalize them and chain them to get through this. I would pop tranq, and once it was down, pally popped his. If we needed more, warrior popped rallying cry or feral popped tranq.

Adds will be beating on people, including healers or the DPS. If you have a DPSer continuously dieing, they may want to consider using a resist trinket such as Mirror of Broken Images (TB Trinket).

BLUE:
When you get your first blue, use mana cooldowns and slowly whittle the blue down to about 15%. Then, when the next oozes spawn, determine if:

a) your healers are low on mana
b) you have a blue in the next ooze spawn

If there is a blue in the next ooze spawn, WAIT on popping the current, low-health void until AFTER the new mana void has been created and is DONE draining mana--this will take a few seconds. Then, slowly whittle down the new mana void in time to renew your decision for the next set of oozes.

However, if you have a red coming and your healers don't need the mana yet, ignore the void. Trying to position yourself to be in range of a drifting void with red forcing everyone to stand on the boss will spell a wipe. If red is coming and you DO need mana, pop it ASAP and either hope you can get it down during the ooze-killing phase, or that your healers are in range to get the mana.

PURPLE:

If you've been prioritizing killing purple on normal, then this is going to be a "new mechanic" for your raid. Make sure all of your healers understand what this ooze does: it is ENTIRELY on them!

Use healing assignments and add the debuff "Deep Corruption" to your raid frames, making certain you can track the stacks. Do NOT stack up to 5 on any given person: stop at 4 stacks. Every heal you cast on a person (that you TARGET and CAST upon that person) will give them a stack. Additional HoT ticks, efflorescence, and similar will not add a stack count.

Refreshing lifebloom counts as one stack, whether refreshed by LB or regrowth. Keep lifebloom rolling on the tank if you can; if not assigned to the tank's party, then I've heard a suggestion to roll it on a pet instead for replenishment purposes
Personally, I avoided WG on this because I was worried it would add a stack to everyone, so I don't know how it is handled for certain, but I was quite able to heal my party without it.
A single rejuv on a dps is very powerful; a swiftmend on them after, especially when they are stacked on the tank, provides additional healing to everyone.
Swiftmend counts as its own stack; efflorescence does NOT cause a stack.

I think of Purple like it turns every raider into a water balloon. A water balloon filled with acid. Every heal I cast on them adds water to the balloon. Five fills, and it explodes in a shower of painful face-melting doom across the whole raid.

...blame my resto shaman alt, I've been casting too much riptide lately.

Good luck!

On Fangirls

2011-12-12T13:06:00.005-05:00

As a female gamer, I am accustomed to being the odd one. I don't expect others to all like the same things I like, or be excited about the same things I am, or agree that something is as awesome as I think it is. Most people who don't follow the mainstream or pop culture are used to this concept. When we stop by a Burger King while still dressed up and on the way home from a medieval reenactment event (think Ren-Faire garb), we expect a few weird looks. When we talk Warcraft with some non-MMO friends, we don't expect all the others to be interested in how we pwned Deathwing last night.

This is why I've been a bit amused and baffled at my mother in law, recently.

She's a grandmother. A teacher. An all around warm and good woman. Enjoys historical fiction. Greatly disliked that my husband and I lived together before we were married. Had a few wary things to say about Harry Potter due to the "witchcraft," years ago. Very conservative.

When she became a fangirl to a pop-culture band, I was surprised: I certainly hadn't expected this out of her.

Trust me, when I say fangirl, I mean fangirl. This is an obsession, and she is way out of the targeted market but she's had an opportunity to meet them and write to them and be active on their facebook group and show very vocal support for them. It's certainly not the first time that fans have existed outside of a targeted demographic, but I certainly hadn't expected this one.

I don't think it's a bad thing. She's happy, she has something to be excited about and look forward to when getting home, and it's honestly helping fight depression. With economy as it is and socialization flowing more and more to an online setting (and she lives in a rural area), she has embraced a very positive way to have an interest.

Her choice isn't my personal cup of tea, but I am happy for her.

The problem?

She has not yet learned that it's okay for others to not be excited and infatuated about the same thing. That it's okay and quite normal for not everyone else to be waiting with bated breath for a movie release, or think that the movie is the best thing that has happened to the world.

All those years of her sons being excited over a new comic book or video game release, that perhaps she didn't want to hear about endlessly? The connection doesn't seem to have clicked. Whether it is us, as her family, or the strangers that she was approaching across the town to promote a release and beg they all come and see and agree with her and become huge fans themselves. She was crushed when some came, saw the movie, and said they didn't really think it was that great. As fandom does, some did agree, of course. But others didn't. And it is confusing her.

It's interesting.

I don't intend to post the actual topic she is fangirling, as that is irrelevant. It could be ponies or singing vegetables or a rap group and it wouldn't make a difference. I'd still have to be explaining to her over facebook how to take a screenshot on her computer and upload it :D

I support her being a fangirl for the joy that it is bringing to her life, even if I myself am not a fan. I just hope that she will make the connection that it's okay that we're not all as excited on the topic as she is, and that she'll learn the methods that the rest of us do when talking about our obsession with disinterested people: generally keeping in short and to the point, and understanding that they don't HAVE to like what we like, or understand WTF l334 5p34k is.

I do, however, find it infinitely amusing that my mother-in-law is an obsessive fangirl.

It's suddenly a whole lot easier to shop for her for Christmas ;)

(as a random note, I heard someone's grandparent was told that WTF stood for "Welcome to Facebook." I'm sorry, but that's just cruel and going to result in a LOT of confusion!)

Warning: H-Morchok bug

2011-12-06T23:02:00.002-05:00

If you kill Korchom, Morchok does not immediately die. He still requires some killing.

And if you wipe...

You are counted as getting Morchok without getting loot or an achievement or valor points or anything. The instance leaves an empty Korchom corpse and just saves you to a Morchok kill.

....

Ticket time.

Flowchart: Yorsahj LFR

2011-12-06T16:14:00.012-05:00

The LFR version of Yor'sahj the Unsleeping.

Ooze priority on it is the favored P > Y > Black, though some raids may opt for Y > P > Black if they think their healers will behave with a Blue/Purple combination :)

Seemed like the most important one to get up, and quickly. >_>

Yorsahj Ooze Priorities

2011-12-06T10:44:00.008-05:00

When my guild ran through Dragonsoul last week, our warlock--known to us as Bob even though it's neither his name nor his character's name (mostly because we didn't feel like calling him Damorons, and it stuck even after he changed his character name)--had spent a lot of time on the PTR and had put together a quick guide for us on each boss. He then, essentially, lead the raid as we went through, as the one with experience on it.

Out of all the bosses, the one that truly baffled me even after having downed it was Yorsajh. Oozes, oozes everywhere, all colorful and complicated! AHHHH!

When I went and ran three LFR raids following our normal raid, I tried to get a better grasp of what those oozes do and their priorities, but it was still a bit of a foreign concept to me that I was struggling to comprehend. So, when we started talking heroic modes and that we'd be seeing FOUR at once (3 simultaneous buffs), and I was already feeling a flowchart was needed, I sat down in google docs and made one.

This involved a ton of research and comparison of comments and suggestions. Here are some places I studied:

Icy Veins' guide
Sumanhi's slightly different version of Icy Veins' guide (had more details on alternative combinations and strats to deal with them)
Wowhead, mostly via the comments due to limited strat details on main page
Wowpedia

(I saw Beru posted something too, using one of the priorities, but didn't get a chance to read that in detail because I was doing resto shammy research at the time. Will edit this with hers as well. As a side tangent, my shaman alt went resto for the first time ever yesterday, and... well, it's a work in progress :) )

So. Multiple suggestions on ooze priorities. Icy Veins even appears to have altered their original to reflect a different priority. And, it seems, no hint of what combinations to expect on heroic mode.

....

That said, here are the results of my search:

LFR
There are two different recommendations on ooze priorities here.

Y > P > Black
This priority avoids the combination of blue/yellow, instead resulting in a blue/purple. What this means is that the dps kills the void while there is little raid damage going out, and healers shouldn't need to be healing much. However, the healers need to understand not to spam fast heals on the tank during this phase; a single, slow-cast healer should be adequate.
P > Y > Black
This priority is for when you just don't want to risk the healers exploding everyone. In the case of Blue/Yellow, things will get nasty and your tanks need to swap quickly as their debuffs will build fast from the yellow buff, and healers will be OoM or low mana. Risk is loosing a tank.

Normal
Normal mode makes green pretty scary. You will want to get rid of it. Again, there are two different suggested priority systems here.

G > Y > P
This avoids a blue/yellow and a blue/green scenario, replacing both with a blue/purple scenario where, although the healers need to not be casting 5 heals on any one player, there is little damage going out. The healers need to understand not to spam fast heals on the tank during this phase; a single, slow-cast healer should be adequate.
P > G > Y
This completely removes purple (shadow) from the equation, but will have higher healing requirements due to the blue/yellow and blue/green situations.

Heroic
Where in normal and LFR it appears that there are only six possible combinations that will spawn together, I haven't found a list of possible combinations for heroic mode's spawns to be able to analyze the priority system. A tentatively suggested system is P > G > Y > Black > Red. Any further information on this would be very much appreciated :)

EDIT: Heroic version

Flowchart graphics are in the works, that include strategy to be used.

How kind of the Darkmoon Faire!

2011-12-04T20:41:00.002-05:00

They provided us a litter-box!

Druid Chorus: "Lip Sync" Video

2011-12-02T11:05:00.006-05:00

We didn't start the fire.

I greatly enjoyed this video for some reason. I think it's a cute idea :)

I found myself mouthing along at the chorus with the druid trio. So you can sing along too, lyrics:

Druid Chorus:
We didn't start the fire
It was always burnin'
Since the world's been turnin'
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Transmog: My Chosen Fashioncraft

2011-12-01T08:41:00.005-05:00

I'm really enjoying the transmogrification feature of 4.3. While the "showing off" factor of sporting heroic t12 made me smirk when puggers dropped their jaws at their healer's gear, I didn't really like the look of it, and most of your time is spent in a mashup of mixed-color gear anyway while you work through bosses.

Now, I can at least match my gear to look like I am not a kindergartner who has insisted on dressing all by herself (the kind that wants to wear rain galoshes and a football helmet)... or completely forego the tier model and avoid looking like I'm decaying (t13 mushrooms). Instead... I am dressing as sailor moon with bird wings!

There have been elements of previous tier gear that I really liked, and revisiting their appearance, even in a mashup of tiers and expansions, is fun!

Hat: Conqueror's Nightsong Headpiece (Ulduar)
Shoulders: Passive Resistor Spaulders (BWD heroic)
Chest: Obsidian Arborweave Raiment (Firelands normal)
Gloves: Obsidian Arborweave Handwraps (Firelands normal)
Belt: Firescar Sash (Firelands vendor)
Legs: Kilt of Immortal Nature (Black Temple)
Staff: Staff of the Plague Beast (WotLK Naxx) - I like the bit of Celtic design to it

Haven't decided yet what I will do when I pick up the spellpower dagger and offhand, but I like this look :) My alts, alas, don't have near as much gear to pick and choose between.

Dragonsoul First Night

2011-11-30T12:27:00.003-05:00

(Our moonkin and holy pally weren't there, so no stick figures for them)

Dragonsoul. First night in the instance, and six bosses knocked over in four hours, including time for a lot of swapping and boss explanations. The most difficult of the fights we did was Blackhorn (aka Gunship2.0) due to the cleaves and charges combined with the big bombs we had to cluster in, but once we decided to mark the healers with icons to keep other people away from them in the final phase and to have tanks stay out of the Twilight Onslaught (the big swirly) while the rest of the raid soaked it, it became more manageable. Ultraxion was only a problem for figuring out timing of the tanks clicking their phase shifts, and making sure everyone's action bars supported the new button and clicked it on time.

We actually forgot to take screenshots for killpics for any of the bosses, because they didn't feel like bosses and we just kept rolling like we were speed-clearing Firelands.

...

So, they requested a stick-figure killpic.

I enjoyed the refreshment of seeing new content, however, and am looking forward to testing out the hardmodes and seeing if they will provide the challenge we're seeking.

Anyway, we got H-Rag to a heart-wrenching 3% on Monday night before the patch, and there are reportedly some stealth nerfs that remove the lava geyser from P4, so I'm suspecting we'll finish DS normal tonight and head back to clear H-Rag. I'm upset about the nerf to H-Rag (or is it a bug?), particularly as we'll be going in with DS gear upgrades to further cushion the fight.

I am hoping to kick myself into gear about getting more stick-figure guides done. The more you bug me about it, the more likely I will remember to make the time to draw them!

Shh...

2011-11-06T19:48:00.002-05:00

Care of Ketheres, the undead deathknight I am always trying to keep from revisiting death (again). He'd be the sleepy one.

Too funny not to spread.

On Current 10s Difficulty

2011-03-30T08:42:00.003-04:00

Rahana at Blueberry Totem inspired this next post. So, it's half a reply to Rahana, and half my own rambling on the general topic.

10 man raiding: then and now.

Watching the shift in opinions regarding the difficulty of ten-man content is rather amusing for a former 10-strict guild to watch. As one of the few (and I mean literally, 3) guilds in the world to have gotten a 10-strict kill on HLK in WotLK, the end boss of the expansion, Vortex has watched with some smug delight as other guilds flocked to the 10-man format out of an assumption that it would be easier, only to find it far more difficult than they had expected and watching as 25-man guilds progressed more quickly.

Could 10s have been easier in this expansion? Possibly, depending on the tuning of the bosses.

The vast majority of raiders (and I'm talking those that probably never read this blog or followed ten-strict guilds) had it stuck in their heads that 10s were easy, and had no concept of the relative difficulty. In WotLK they had higher iLevel gear, and that mana and stamina and through-put matter. They had larger raiding rosters to pull from, cherry-picking their compositions for the harder fights. They had less room to spread out, but AoE heals weren't 40 yards in range so even 10's had to cluster up and stick together to a decent extent. The easier aspect came on the management front as there were fewer people to herd in 10s, though recruitment was a PitA.

Now, there are still fewer cats to herd in Cata 10s, but normalization of difficulty levels has ironically been in favor of 25s. I have to wonder if it's intentional, in an effort to keep 25mans viable. This doesn't really bother me: 10-strict was a very difficult format, and I am proud to say my guild is stubborn enough to tackle anything Blizz throws at us, though we may not necessarily be the first to down the content. So the concept that 25s are easier difficulty doesn't really phase me except out of some irony, in the form of "told you so" to those who doubted the difficulty of tens.

The difficulty currently lays as such:

Composition. In spite of buff and class homogenization, there is a definite disparity in what is "needed" for a raid to excel through the current content, favoring certain mixes of classes and a LOT of interrupts. Going to Cho'Gall without a hunter? Good luck. One of your interrupters out for the evening? Scramble for Nefarian. No warrior? Add-tanking in multiple fights will be entertaining, if hell. Two resto druids out of 3 healers? ....lol, your hots won't tick up fast enough to counter a lot of raid-heal mechanics and your cooldowns don't come up fast enough, have fun wiping. No resistance aura? HAHAHAA. On a related note, I feel bad for rogues. They are the only class my guild has looked at and said "we just really don't need one."
Loot Drops. Most 10m guilds I have talked with or read about have complained about never seeing certain drops. For Vortex, it is the trash-drop wand and the leather caster bracers. Out of two pieces and 10 players, there is less chance of it being something useful than with 25s. Guilds will shard the same drops off a boss week after week, the two drops always seeming to land on the same pieces. If something useful drops, there's a chance the person that needs it either isn't present that day or got rotated out due to compositional issues: something for the guild to plan around, certainly, but I have seen it happen often enough to remember. I will complain less about having only seen the feral bracers/boots/staff once or twice, as it means our mainspec feral has gotten them, but looking at blues in my offspec set is getting tiresome. Granted, I find it amusing that some of my feral upgrades have been straight jumps from blues to heroic-mode epics. It would be nice if the 'randomness' of the drops was twisted to rotate through the item table a bit more reliably, ensuring a more even spread of gear: some randomness is fine, but a bit more variety is also appreciated. Loot matters in progression. The drops can easily determine the rankings: an upgrade for a raider is worth more to the next boss kill than a shard.
Recruitment. There are more guilds, plainly speaking. It makes looking for a guild harder, as there are more to sift through. It makes advertising for your own guild harder, as you have to shine out from the swarm. There are a lot of excellent guilds, but there are also many that a recruit may find is crumbling as soon as they join. The guild/raid leader may have expected things to be easier than they are, and are struggling to make things work. Raiders may be disillusioned by progression or loot drops, or even the lack of community as a 10-man guild is smaller than the large communities they knew in WotLK or further back. The 10m guild loosing one player--and it is bound to happen--can leave you short on raid nights, and often you may loose multiple at the same time for various reasons. A death spiral if you can't fill those spots.
Hybrid requirements. This is the ultimate reason why we've not considered a rogue, as melee is generally being given the middle finger by boss mechanics: any melee we do get are all hybrids that will swap either to tank or heal on a given fight (cat/bear, unholy/blood, and ret/holy are our melee dps, excluding our two main tanks. Oh, and this crazy girl who is resto/bear and sometimes moonlights as a cat). With a smaller team, flexibility is very important, and that makes hybrids quite necessary. A healer/healer spec is less flexible than a healer/dps dualspec. On top of being able to spec for it, there is also the issue of knowing how to play it: someone who is used to healing is not going to have the UI and reflexes for reliable interrupts, in most cases (I am a prime example of that on H-Halfus when they had me tanking the fight as offspec!). Where a larger guild can support players who stick to one single role, a 10m requires most of its players to fluctuate between roles as hybrids, and this shows in recruitment.

Am I happy with raiding as it currently stands? Well, I am having fun with it, and I am certainly still playing. I love my guild, and I love playing my class. There are certain fights that I wish they will retune or reconsider the mechanics of (H-Chim as a resto druid) but hey, there are changes coming down the pipe for my class that will make it more bareable. Relative difficulty of content against 25s doesn't factor into my enjoyment of my own format; I wouldn't've been playing 10-strict through the entirity of WotLK if that were the case.

Watch us Wipe...

2011-03-27T19:43:00.004-04:00

As a reminder, my guild's warlock runs a video stream of our raids! We are currently working on H-Maloriak and are hoping to kill him for the first time this evening. The stream has a chat bar that I periodically join in on :)

Aside, we are recruiting specifically a holy/ret pally or a resto/dps shammy to join our roster.

Raid times:
7:30-11:30 EST, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Oh hai?

2011-03-17T10:02:00.004-04:00

It happens to all of us at some points: our focus shifts away to other things, our time gets consumed with other activities, and things we used to do regularly fall by the wayside. Awkwardly, that has happened to me with all things WoW. I am still raiding and have no intention to stop, but my time outside has been eaten up by external activities. Nothing bad, nothing huge and life-altering, but simply is.

Just to reassure, I have no intention of stopping blogging. For those that don't already, I suggest using an rss-feed reader like Google Reader to keep up with updates :)

General Rambly Life Update:

My regret, though, is that it has put a halt to any amount of art I used to do. Once upon a time, I would make real paintings and colored-pencil sketches. I even did medieval scrollwork, though I used acrylics (I like Celtic knotwork, and silver paint is fun). As I got into photoshop, I started doing full digital paintings, though I never got anywhere near the level of the "super digital artists" like Meerkat or Sarah Ellerton, both of whom I admire for their skill and dedication--both of them inspired me at times.

Of course, you all know me for the stick figures I have posted on this blog: the rough and easy quick doodles that serve to illustrate important aspects of boss fights. That's most of what my art has amounted to in recent years, though I have spent time with larger art projects, like creating removable "stained glass" windows ~5' x 5' tall out of tissue paper and plastic dropcloth.

Seriously.

I idly wish I could get back into digital painting, maybe one day be able to match the skill of those who inspire me, but that's a time commitment I just don't have the time for. For now, I need to take one step at a time and at least provide some stick figs for all of you :)

WoW Stuff:

I'm enjoying raiding on my druid, still. While the daily quests have gotten dull and repetitive--irritating, really, for a mainspec healer, spending time raiding with my guild is what keeps me interested in the game. I will admit, though, to a certain hatred of heroic Chimaeron.

- Heroic Chim rant -

Chim is one of those gear-and-skill-check fights on heroic. Communication and very strict job assignments are required. For a tank, it's all about communication and cooldown timing. For a dps, it's a snooze-fest except to dps as hard as possible and group up periodically, aside a single dps-tank who has to fill an out-of-the-box taunting role and sometimes deal with popping survival cooldowns.

For a healer... it is an intense fight that requires complete focus and quick reaction times. But you can't rely on your usual reaction of "fill the bar, they're low health" or you'll go OoM: the healers have to train themselves to AVOID that reaction and rely purely on low-health debuffs. It's all in decision and assignments and making sure each healer does their job and can trust that the others will do their job, while at the same time keeping an eye out on boss timers and making that snap decision of "massacre inc, there are two with low-health, I need to help them now" and have pre-arranged with the other healer as to which person you will heal (by party and by top-to-bottom vs bottom-to-top).

Entire nights of this will leave a healer's brain the consistency of porridge. I'm not talking about that thick glop, either: I mean the kind where you accidentally poured in too much water and it's beginning to more resemble stew or even soup. It reached a point where running into the room, I would see Chimaeron snoozing there with his little green z's and my mind would fill with loathing, loathing for the pixels before me. Pyrecraw didn't help, pre-stack-nerf when we all had to rotate LoS to drop the flame buffet stacks, and that was just trash. I preferred playing with Nefarian and wiping to tailwhip+electrocute combos to dealing with H-Chim.

Now, my guild did kill H-Chim last night. I wasn't there, but my guildies got it. I haven't heard what loot dropped, but I am hoping and hoping it was a pair of uber-bracers for my fellow resto druid Herc (the guild's new healer recruit, who slipped in in spite of our hope to get a shammy or pally simply because he is so awesome). We have never seen a pair of epic leather bracers drop off of Chim so we've both still been rocking blues all this time.

- Bear, rawr? -

On a feral side, they have had me tank H-Halfus for a few kills. Me, in my mostly-blues tank kit. I had to completely remap some of my bear keys to allow for a quicker interrupt reactivity, and I had to huge-ify (yes, I claim that's a legitimate word) my quartz target cast bars to be able to make sure I didn't miss the casts that I needed to interrupt. I am currently running around specced as a healer primary, bear secondary, which as you can imagine makes dailies 'interesting.' It was a change of pace that I enjoyed, though. I have yet to tank a 5-man in the expansion, yet I have helped tank 10-man heroic raid bosses. Ha. Go me. I even managed to keep aggro off of our insane DPS. Scawwy bear-kae, rawr!

Yay, Puppy!

FLUFFY! She is about 75lbs (or more) and still likes to climb in laps. She spends lunchtime laid out across the couch, mostly in my husband's lap and sticking her paws and nose in my lap while we eat; being able to go home for an hour lunchbreak is a wonderful thing. She and I like going for walks around the local college campus, where she has been getting better about not trying to yank my arm off or digging through the landscaping to find all of the food the students like to leave laying around.

The leash-training and behavior training have been a weekly challenge as she is true to her breed: stubborn and independant, but with lots of positive reinforcement and treats, she is coming along well. I have taken to training her on a few sledding commands for left/right (haw/gee), though I am using an archery-range command of "hold" to get her to stop and freeze given that I want her responding to that command when she hears it around that range.

She enjoys campus more than our local neighborhood, as she gets to see lots of people, and many college students love seeing a friendly fluffy dog they can cuddle with.

I'm just waiting for the moment I try to give a raid direction in vent and say "gee" or "haw." It is bound to happen. -_-;

So, that's a quick update for those of you who have been worrying. I have been plotting for more stick-figure guides, just need to get around to doing them.

Remix

2011-02-14T23:58:00.003-05:00

A sappy Valentine's Day song to my guildies: those current, those past, and those gone beyond the game, whether by choice or because they have moved on from this world.

VANILLA TWILIGHT... a raider's remix.

The heals hug round to kiss you
'Less I go LoS and miss you
Pour me a heavy dose of guild raiding
'Cause I'll pug 'round safe and soundly
But I'll miss your spells around me
I'd send a postcard to you, dears
'Cause I wish you were here

I'll watch the boss turn to goo
But it's not the same without you
Because it takes ten to go raid perfectly
The silence isn't so bad
'Til I look at my cursor and feel sad
'Cause the spaces between my grid frames
Are right where you fit perfectly

I'll find repose in new ways
Though I haven't raided in two days
'Cause cold nostalgia
Chills me to the bone
But drenched in a pixel twilight
I'll sit in Orgrimmar all night
Waist-deep in thought because
When I think of you I don't feel so alone
I don't feel so alone
I don't feel so alone

As many times as I blink
I'll think of you tonight
I'll think of you tonight

When violet eyes get brighter
And heavy wings grow lighter
I'll get to raid and feel alive again
And I'll forget the world that I knew
But I swear I won't forget you
Oh, if my voice could reach
Back through the past
I'd whisper in your ear
Oh guildies, I wish you were here

/end sappy song :)

LFM

2011-02-06T13:01:00.006-05:00

Because I know I have a wide variety of readers, I wanted to toss this out there:

My guild is recruiting.
(Edit: we filled :) ty for the interest, and please feel free to drop us an application if you think you'd be a good fit for us anyway. We're always on the lookout for exceptional apps!)

I feel bad having to say that, because that means my guild even has open slots. Whenever one of our raiders has to leave or quite the game or drop to casual, it makes me sad. Vortex is a pretty tight-knit guild, so loosing any of our raiders is both a personal loss and a hit to our relatively tiny raid roster.

It happens, though, and we must move on, and make room to forge new memories with new raiders.

1 healer, preferably a shaman or a paladin. (EDIT: filled... with another durid!)
1 Unholy DK with a blood tank offspec. (EDIT: filled)
1 ranged DPS. (EDIT: filled)

I've rambled on about my guild before, so long-time readers probably already know quite a bit about the wacky craziness that is Vortex, but I'll post a few links to specific posts if you want to get a better feel for what the guild is like: A 10-Strict Guild, Wall Feasts, Raiding at the End of an Expansion, Mages vs Warlocks, and Orcish Stick Figures.

If you think you can survive and even thrive in our insanity, we are currently accepting applications for the above positions. Guild Website is here :)

Various Updates

2011-02-06T10:36:00.006-05:00

So, I've gone through and did some updates to a couple mod posts:

I added a few to the power auras post and updated some of the screenshots. My raiding auras for specific boss abilities include a few I found useful in current Cataclysm raids, like Parasitic Infection. Following in Beru's footsteps, I also made a Chef's Hat aura because, well, raiding with a chef's hat on is bad. >_>

Archeology:

In other news, I got Tyrande's Plushie, and I looooove it. It was the 123 total NE artifact I created... that's a lot of surveying, but oh so worth it.

I haven't surveyed since then.

Efflorescence:

In terms of spec stuff, I have been following my combat log parses for a month or so now, and determined that efflorescence really makes me cry. The amount of healing it does, especially in a 10-man where we still have to spread out fairly often, is too weak compared to other talents I could spend points in.

So I dumped it back to 1/3 points and stuck the other two points in Genesis. Mmmm Genesis.

PuGs:

This was in regards to the last boss of Stonecore wiping out 3 people at once with a rock.

Some PuGs have made me whimper, others have made me laugh until my sides were splitting. It is comments like that that get me to join the dungeon finder each day when my guildies aren't always available.

Of course, there are still interesting things I start to notice after running an instance for the ten zillionth time.

Like this.

My husband pointed this one out to me during a half-pug daily heroic. It has resulted in me spending a lot of time staring at the instances now rather than at the party's health bars, in search of more interesting faces in the walls and floor... no one has died from it. Yet. :D

Surprises from the Sky

2011-01-30T12:48:00.005-05:00

I have a bad habit of procrastinating more and more, the longer I am away from something. I keep telling myself "I need to take the time to write a post" and "there's nothing really keeping me from writing another post" and yet... days kept slipping by. I even had ideas, I just didn't seem to be able to get up the willpower to drop my other distractions and actually sign into blogger to share them.

Bad Kae.

Well, this morning I got the proverbial kick-start, in the form of an unguilded death knight dropping down on my head in the far corner of the world.

"Kae! :D "

I was out in Silithus at the time, having just finished collecting a survey node out in those horrible ruins full of poor, tormented druid NPCs, during my seemingly never-ending quest to make Tyrande's doll. I tilt my head slightly at the new arrival, mousing over her (female character), guessing that she must be one of my guildies' alts. Especially when she announces she has gifts for me. I have guildies drop me basilisk livers and potions at unexpected times. And an unguilded alt may just be passing me herbs or something to dump in the guild bank. All reasonable guesses, right?

I was wrong in my guess. He was Sakaki of Azgalor, author of Tree Sproutling, come along with some shiny gifts just because he felt like saying hi to me.

Stalker. *heart*

This was probably the best possible incentive to get me to sign into blogger and make a post. Thank you, Sakaki, for the minipet, for the dress, and for the motivation, even if it was unintentional! Was great to meet you :D

Healing Chimaeron: Part 2

2011-01-12T10:52:00.004-05:00

So after a lot of really good discussion on this topic and another kill of Chimaeron, I felt it a good idea to follow up on Monday's post with more consideration of healing this particular boss fight.

What I find most fascinating is the different ways druids have found to handle the situation:

a) Lifebloom on tanks per normal, and spot-healing with regrowth/nourish and rejuv+swiftmend for the Low Health debuff.
b) Lifebloom on tanks per normal, and spot-healing with HT.
c) Rolling 3-4 lifeblooms in a group with a nourish rotation.

Each method has its merits, though I find I prefer method C for its lighter mana cost.

2 Holy Priests + Druid?
I have now done the fight with a priest/pally/druid team and with a 2priest/1druid team. I found the paladins best for tank healing of the three classes: with two priests, we decided to see if I (druid) could focus on the tanks while rolling a 3rd LB on myself, but there were unfortunate occasions when a double-strike came too soon after a massacre and I couldn't get the tank's health high enough. My suggestion for mitigating that comes down to that tank's communication: if they know it's coming soon and don't think they'll survive, calling out for cooldowns (NS+HT, or other healers' help) could aid in preventing the necessity of a battle res. It's hard to call, though. We had this tank-gib happen twice out of 7 attempts; one of those times was on our successful kill attempt, where a battle-res brought the tank back up in time to get back in there and continue. So, it is manageable, but unpleasant compared to a more dedicated tank healer. The priest in the tank-party was helping where she could, but she also needed to prioritize clearing the low-health warnings from those not covered by the lifeblooms.

Alternatively, the druid could focus purely on tank healing, and the priest in that party will cover the rest. Tossing out the third stack of lifebloom gives the druid more time to cast bigger heals on the MT without needing to restart their refresh cycle of nourish casts. Might try that out next week, if we have the same healer composition!

2 Druids + Priest?
Jen of Stories of WoW asked me (and anyone else willing to ponder on it) for suggestions on how to heal this fight with two druids + priest. I haven't raided with a second resto druid yet this expansion, as our moonkin is now dual-specced as a tank, but I think having one of those two druids using the lifebloom healing rotation (3-4 lifeblooms rolling) and the other focused purely on tank healing could make this work. The priest would probably need to cover PoH on both groups during the fued/massacre to help the druids out, though.

I would probably set it up like this:

Druid 1: LB both tanks (2 targets), alternating with other tank-specific heals. Purely a tank-healer.
Druid 2: LB on both resto druids and their 5th party member (3 targets), using the 3-stack healing rotation I posted earlier this week. Use the 4th block of the cycle to throw regrowth/4th LB/swiftmend to tanks: swiftmend should be easy if the first druid is keeping up rejuv/regrowth on the tanks.
Priest handling the other party on their own, and aiding the tank party as necessary during fued.

Thoughts? Discuss :)

Healing Chimaeron

2011-01-10T09:04:00.014-05:00

Most of the bosses I've faced so far have been dealt with in a similar fashion for me:

Keep lifebloom on a tank.
Pop ToL if I want to roll lifebloom on two tanks. Refresh it with nourish or, if necessary, HT. I'm pretty comfortable with rolling two lifeblooms, though sometimes fumble them from range or spell pushback.
Rejuv and swiftmend on raid damage
....trying to place the green puddles appropriately for maximum healing effect. Nourish, lifeblooms, and NS+HT if necessary and the tank doesn't need it more. Pop ToL if I need to spam lifebloom across the entire raid.
OoC procs for regrowth or HT.
As the most expensive heals, why not make them free?
Tranquility!
...if the raid is spiraling the drain, and WG if it's less dire.

Generally speaking, it's worked, if a bit underwhelming on the mana management when I need to raid heal. THIS DID NOT WORK FOR CHIMAERON.

Chimaeron took my healing methods and said, "Okay, let's see how much I can screw with you. RAID HEALING, GO!"

I panicked. An entire raid constantly near death is a healer's nightmare to begin with, but the concept of just keeping everyone afloat above 10k health is a manageable one after you spend some time seeing everyone constantly drop to 1 hp and not die, due to Finkle's Mixture. You adapt; you say, "okay, as long as I keep you above 10k hp, you'll all live." I added a little Grid debuff warning for the Low Health debuff.

But I still was panicked.

This was not the standard healer panic of seeing lots of low health bars... no, this was the panic of facing a fight I didn't think I could, in current druid mechanics, handle. The raid damage was too high, and my HoTs weren't ticking fast enough to top people past 10k before the next health-dropping ability splatted them to the stone floor. And in my attempts to make it work, I was going OoM by 90% boss health.

I was upset. I was frustrated. And then my raid leader chucked me in a vent channel with the other healers and said "make it work."

Silence. My frustration boiling over, I waited for the others to speak first. Was this boss even possible for us right now? I wasn't sure. I didn't know if the others could handle the raid healing, and I knew that I alone couldn't handle the tanks.

You know what?

We made it work.

Props to Togopan (holy priest) and Draukadin (holy pally): I was the third wheel in that fight.

We grouped all of the ranged DPS in one party with the holy priest, who was chain-spamming Prayer of Healing in all its party-only glory (edit: yes, it can be cast on other parties, but we had him focus on only one party). He set up a lightwell in melee range. We put the other two healers (me, holy pally) with the melee (one cat) and the tanks in the other group: two healers dedicated to this group. And while Draukadin used Beacon and Protector of the Innocent and Flash of Light and Holy Radiance and all those wonderful paladin spells, and while the two tanks taunted the boss back and forth during the double-strike to keep from being sliced in half by Chimaeron's claws, I built a healing rotation and stuck to it.

A healing rotation.

Healing Rotation: Backstory

To truly appreciate my situation, you have to understand something about healing rotations. I was once told, back in Wrath, that I was a horrible player because I didn't use a healing rotation. This was coming from a sub-50 alt whose main was a caster DPS class, of course: a player whose entire world is focused on damaging a mob, not healing someone. Not triage. The concept of not using a casting rotation was a foreign, evil, wrong, bad, ludicrous idea to him. Of course, him saying I was bad because I didn't use a healing rotation to triage my raids became a huge running joke in my guild. Me with my Bane of the Fallen King title, world-2nd 10-strict guild to get it, was bad because I don't use healing rotations.

Healing rotations don't work, generally speaking. Healing is a more fluid creature, reactive to the health pools, aggro, gear, and decisions of the raiders around you as the combat situation shifts, new creatures coming in, walls of fire charring people, aggro being stolen or swapped, debuffs being gained, and so on. Healing is a triage situation: who is taking the most damage, and is more important to the overall survival of the raid? What spell is best for the situation: how fast are they dieing, is the mana use worth the cost or is it sustainable, will it leave me unable to save someone more important later? Rotations were not for such dynamic situations. Rotations were for healers who weren't capable of quick thinking, healers who couldn't do their jobs.

So, healing rotations were a joke. Something we laughed at.

The irony of the situation struck me hard last night, as I started testing how many lifeblooms I could roll and what I could fit into the refresh cycle during a break in the raid.

The Rotation

With party 1 covered by the priest, the paladin self-sufficient with his own heals and the tanks half-covered by the paladin as well, that left me 2 people I absolutely had to keep up, and then whatever else I could throw at the tanks. Okay, I know I can roll 2 lifeblooms: why not a third, if that's all I'm doing?

Shortly after the pull, I popped Tree of Life and got my lifeblooms rolling: four to start, with a focus on keeping three main ones up. If the fourth dropped, I didn't sweat it. I told the paladin which of the tanks I was keeping a constant lifebloom on, and that's all that really mattered. Lifeblooms on me, tank1, and melee cat. These are the three I would try to keep up come hell or high water. While ToL was still active, I popped lifeblooms on tank2 and anyone else I could reach, and started my nourish rotation. I went straight down the last three players of my grid frames because our alphabetical arrangement made it pretty easy.

Nourish self.
Nourish tank1.
Nourish melee cat.
Cast something shorter than nourish/HT: regrowth, or instant casts. WG, or lifebloom on tank 2, or regrowth on a tank, or on someone who had lingered with Low Health for too long. I could, if I was tight in my GCDs, cast two insta-casts (rejuv + swiftmend, or two LBs) before needing to refresh the cycle, but this was risky.
Rinse, repeat.

With this, I could have kept 4 full stacks of lifebloom rolling by using LB on tank 2 and nourishes on the other three, and at times I did have this going. But I appreciated the flexibility of the fourth block of my rotation to sometimes cast regrowth during an OoC proc, or use WG, or swiftmend, and letting the 4th lifebloom bloom itself on tank2 was often beneficial.

On the plus side, I had absolutely no mana issues: nourish and lifebloom are our cheapest heals. It was only when I fumbled the stacks and lost one (or all) and I had to use the more expensive heals instead until ToL came off of cooldown and I could restart my lifebloom stacks that I then had any sort of mana problems. In future attempts, I will be looking to cast my innervate on the poor OoM holy pally instead.

Beyond my Heals

Due to the cast-heavy and time-strict nature of balancing 3-4 lifebloom stacks, it was beneficial that I was chosen to be the stack target for Fued. They stuck a big orange circle on my head and I stood near melee with the lightwell and it wasn't until about 20% boss health that I moved even an inch from that spot. Everyone would periodically move over and hang out and give me hugs while spamming their own survival/healing cooldowns (feral's tranquility, moonkin's tranquility, etc etc) and I kept chugging along with my healing rotation. They'd flee as the bot came back online and massacre was cast and poisons would start flinging around, and I was still standing there, trucking along through my rotation.

And then at 22% or so: I pop ToL again. I spam lifeblooms across the whole raid afresh, and tranquility, and get everyone as high as I possibly can because come the 20% mark, there's no more healing.

I look up. I see the boss before me, the Mortality debuff bright near my minimap, and I gulp. "Well, here goes," I say to myself, and start DPSing. I smile to myself that I have no DPS rotation. I spam wrath, and try to keep moonfire and insect swarm on the boss, while everyone in ventrilo is going wild with trying to survive as long as they can and DPS, and when it's finally my turn, I'm bearform and using frenzied regen and barkskin in vain hope of surviving more than a couple seconds, strafing away to keep my furry tail from his claws, even as I'm tugged across the room by a priest's lifegrip and Chimaeron swipes out and double-strikes my face.

An interesting fight. One that challenged me, as a healer, in brand new ways. While I would hate having a "healing rotation" as strict as that become the norm, it was a challenge that I enjoyed, simply for its deviance from the norm. I know better, now, my limits on how many lifeblooms I can roll at my current haste level.

See you next week, Chimaeron. I won't be panicking this time.

Two Weeks of Crazy

2011-01-04T15:39:00.006-05:00

Incoming long ramble. It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm giving fair warning :)

I have greatly enjoyed my resto druid in Cataclysm. She has her strengths and weaknesses, as I have found, and they've led me to feeling rather happy with her as she provides a challenge for me. The weaknesses, of course, provide some entertaining lessons of their own.

CC, lol.
Healers have very low if any +hit. Avoid promising any CC to the party if you value your health bar. If you absolutely MUST use CC (because of running with a group of, oh, 3 warriors and a deathknight) then get your hots rolling on the tank before attempting to root/hibernate/cyclone/whatever! Or the tank will keel over dead because you were too busy running around screaming with your CC target chomping on your tail.

So, avoid being assigned CC as a healer. Of course, you can still use CC if you have the mana and time to spare... I find a quick cyclone can tie up a wildly swinging melee mob and give the tank's health bar a breather while DPS focus-fire down another mob.

Ultimately, though, my most-used CC has been Nature's Grasp. I have it bound to a mouse button in a lovely little barkskin+grasp macro that pops me 3 chances to root an offending melee mob that is trying to nom my furry hide. Yes, tanks should be rescueing their healer, or even a friendly helpful DPS with their own CC, but sometimes they're busy or distracted or dead or have things on cooldown because you know what? Heroics are hard. Or, sometimes, they're just blind idiots. Regardless, it's a CC I've found I want very quick access to.

AoE Healing?
...is no longer our forte. Wild Growth has a monstrous cooldown, and Tranquility's is even longer. Swiftmend has a cooldown for its use and subsequent green puddle of aoe healing, but the puddle itself is insufficient for healing more than a sliver of health at current gear levels.

...and ToL
Treeform has become my "OMG RAID HEALS NAO" cooldown as I then spread lifebloom across the raid like a rampant infestation of kudzu. If I need to pop treeform to begin rolling lifebloom on two tanks, I try to time it to coincide with an early point of a boss fight where I can make use of that extra lifebloom love I can share with the raid. Like with the Ascendant Council when Fluvi-whasisface starts novaing and for some reason beyond my comprehension we don't interrupt it immediately. I should probably go look up why we don't immediately interrupt the first cast, but I've been busy so I'll just type out here a note to myself to go look at it later. ;)

I do enjoy that we can roll lifebloom on multiple targets after ToL ends, by refreshing one or another with HT/Nourish. What I do not like is when my nourish cast, in an attempt to refresh it on said tank, is interrupted or fails due to the tank running out of range, or due to some giant monster leaping through the air and landing on my head, only to send me flying across the room as though I were a gnome to be punted. I think that this particular circumstance is a racial punishment brought down by the evil gnome overlords in vengeance against tauren kind.

Mana.
Mana mana. Doo doo, de doo doo. Yes, mana is an issue, and as Scythe so adequately described it to me, healer mana has become the raid's built-in enrage timer. If the tank pulls while I'm drinking back at the last trash pack, I usually let them die. If I go completely OOM, I have been known to run around bandaging players.

If anyone is taking unnecessary damage, I think it's okay to let them die or yell at them to pop cooldowns, healthstones, potions, bandages, etc. Or to, I dunno, GET OUT OF THE FIRE. Or maybe move when a debuff says you should move or you'll die horribly: is red light, green light really that difficult of a game?? Or when there's a flayer sitting there clawing wildly at the air and people think he's gonna give them a nice facial rather than attempt to julienne their bodies into dinner. Even tanks can move out of that, you know.

Pug Tank Egos.
....ugh. Okay, here's the scenario: guild group of DPS + healer, all with Bane of the Fallen King titles, gets a pug tank. My guildies know to CC when given a mark or directions, but this particular tank seems to think he can take everything. Mind, we're all in varying levels of blues as is the tank, and this is Heroic Grim Batol with massive packs of easily CCable targets, and have the CC available to use. So he runs in, nearly dies on the first few pulls, bitches about "Don't be Bad" when he looses aggro on things because he's got terrible threat (ahem, when healer gets aggro on things), and I sit down to drink after a pull. I say, "mana." He crosses the bridge and pulls one of the hardest roaming trash packs in the first hallway while I'm drinking down the hall at half mana.

You can imagine where this leads. I scurry across with my half mana and quickly try to save him with my limited healing cooldowns and getting hots rolling on him, while he's not using a single one of his tank cooldowns, and then, predictably, he dies from massive amounts of raw damage. He sighs and the group wipes and we start running back, DPSers beginning to suggest maybe we should CC something? His response: "Heal more. Stop being bad."

Me: "O_o ...you're joking, right?"
Him: "Not really."

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I growl, literally, and initiate a vote-kick on the tank.

Unfortunately, the vote-kick tool may have somehow bugged, as it didn't give my fellow guidlies a chance to vote before it "failed" and went away. We're all in vent together at the time, and I simply said, "I am not putting up with this tank," and I left the party. I suggested they leave, too. We could find another tank. In fact, one of our guild tanks offered then to fill in for us.

Meanwhile, back in the party (I am hearing this over vent), the dpsers told the tank he shouldn't be pissing off his healers. His response, as I hear, was that "You guys can leave too, I don't care. I'm not the one with the 40-minute queue." Obviously, he missed the fact that they were queuing WITH the healer, who had a maybe 3-minute queue. Oblivious ego tank is oblivious. The DPS then vote-kick the offending tank from the party; this time it is able to actually be voted upon, and the tank is swiftly removed from the instance with a massive, ethereal boot.

Initiate re-invite of the seething Kaelynn and a helpful guild tank, we warp back into the instance, and clear the entire place without any problems. Of course, we all blacklisted the first tank to our ignore lists.

Who would've thought I had an inner paladin? RIGHTEOUS FURY!

Holidays with a Puppy
Travel/guests explosion. This was the first long-distance overnight trip with River, who at almost 6 months old, is a 60-lb puppy who can't sit still for long in the car. She tried sleeping in my lap during a 3-hour drive and that didn't work; she had to settle for just resting her head in my lap while I sang along to Glee soundtracks.

Both sides of my family have dogs of their own: dogs that don't quite know how to wrestle and play with other dogs. These dogs are people-only dogs that tolerate the presence of other canines as long as they leave each other alone.

River is not like that.

River is a puppy who thinks that every dog she meets will want to play with her, unless they're just old and grumpy. Ironically, the one dog we found she got along best with is a tiny little dachsund/chihuahua mix who is 14 years old and nearly blind: she just growled at our massive puppy and River backed off.

The others, sadly, mistook River's attempts at play as attacks. The youngest had been attacked by another dog before, so she freaked out every time River made a play-lunge at her, though to her credit she did TRY to play with River. She even play-bowed and brought toys over to my puppy. It was torture to River that every time she tried to play back, the other dog would then freak and snarl and turn it into a real fight. The other dogs just had no interest in playing chase or tug-of-war or wrestling, and would straight-out snarl and try to fight, misinterpreting River's overtures of play.

It was a learning experience for me, and for River. All of the dogs River has met prior to the family's are dogs that know how to play with other dogs. They wrestle and bite at each other in play, and chase and tumble and run into each other. Whether bigger than her or tiny, none have ever gotten hurt. It is play. But some dogs just haven't been socialized to be able to play with other dogs. I am glad I have been able to socialize River with other dogs, that she knows how to play with them: but I am going to have to teach her that not all dogs are willing to play with her.

Aside, she did get photos with Santa.

Shortly after the whole hectic holiday travel (in driving snow and ice, no less) I had to take River to get fixed. This means: cone of shame.

Contrary to most dogs, however, River seems oblivious to the cone of shame. Like, completely oblivious, to the point that she's nearly taken peoples' faces off while romping past them. It is merely a diversion that makes loud noises when she catches it on walls, doors, cabinet handles, corners, bowls, toys, sticks, bushes, the floor, the crate, people, etc. Something that makes chewing on her bone more of an interesting challenge. Something that, in itself, is a challenge to chew on. And, occasionally, an annoyance that she can't lick at her healing stitches.

Yes, I will get pictures up. I promise.

Now, the healing wound also requires that we try to keep her calm and docile, and not go up and down stairs, and be restrained by a leash while doing her business to keep her from tearing around the yard. Leash-walking a half-grown malamute who's been cooped up in "recovery" is an feat in itself, nevermind when it's done on a steep slope covered in snow and ice. It also doesn't prevent her from going absolutely bonkers when she's back inside, much to the amusement of the three guests we had over New Year's weekend (hi, Jae and Lundrac!)

New Years'
Lego Harry Potter, Rock Band, geeky movies like Dorkness Rising and Avatar, karate training (perks to having a 3rd degree blackbelt visit for a few days), and a giggly Kae after the others found she didn't mind the taste of rum + coke, provided it was properly diluted (I usually despise the taste of alcohol). All while wrangling a boisterous puppy with a massive cone around her collar who wasn't technically allowed to run and jump and romp and zip circles around the TV room, but did anyway.

I am still recovering from the past few weeks. I would like a day to just hibernate. But, alas, the "work" monster returned so I'll have to wait until Friday for that :)

On Learning

2010-12-14T10:03:00.009-05:00

Learning styles vary between people. While I think many can learn from multiple methods and there is cross-over, it's good to understand the three primary learning styles (visual, auditory, tactile) and realize which you prefer and learn best with, as well as understand that not everyone else will learn from the same methods that you prefer. Myself, for example, I categorize as primarily visual, secondarily tactile. Others prefer auditory learning and discussion, and still others may find they have no problems learning by any of these.

Why is this important for gaming? Encounter strategies, learning your class, learning how to play: how information is presented to you will impact how well you understand the material, which in turn impacts performance. If you know you won't learn as well with one method, seek out material that is presented in a way that is easier for you to understand.

As a side benefit, understanding these learning methods impacts other areas of your life, including schooling and career. I'm a firm believer in "never stop learning," and even when a friend tries to explain something or you're trying to troubleshoot a piece of tech/equipment, knowing your own preferred learning methods can help you to overcome a frustration you may have in not understanding it.

Visual:
You need to see it to understand it. Someone telling you verbally what to do--like those raid leaders who just ramble on in voice chat before a pull--don't help you. For some, even reading it in text isn't enough. You need visuals. Visual details also tend to stand out for you.

Diagrams, charts, videos with written instruction and visual pointers
Highlight, font changes, visual IMPACT
Illustrations, pictures, comic strats!
Symbols, icons

I am primarily a visual learner, myself. That's why I make comic strats and illustrate my points where I can: I want to see it, I want to show it. I need screenshots and stick figures. I need an idea of what something looks like in order for me to fully comprehend it. Space, distance, layout, positioning... all are important to me.

Auditory:
You prefer to hear it spoken to you. The words, vocalized, make everything make sense. Lectures and speeches can keep your interest (assuming the topic itself isn't boring), and verbal discussions are no problem for you. Reading something out loud often helps with comprehension. Conversations about the topic help cement things in your mind, and you are good at picking up sound effects.

Reading aloud
Discussions, conversations
Lectures, or podcasts, or videos with detailed verbal instructions
Songs!

For me, I tend to start zoning out and misunderstand when all I'm getting is verbal words (much to Scythe's dismay!). I also have trouble focusing on one voice over others: when multiple people are speaking at once, it can just become a wall of noise. You can pick out some of your visual learners based on their preference to type rather than speak aloud in ventrilo/team speak.

Tactile:
Learn by doing. Hands-on is a great way to learn from your own mistakes. Truly tactile learners need to participate. They can often see why something is the way it is only when they have it right in front of them: they need to play with it and experience it, manipulate it and see what happens.

Test Runs
Models: mock up a situation with your action figures or by positioning in-game, build it!
Labs, field trips
Experimentation

The problem is that you have to go and make those mistakes to learn anything, sometimes at the expense of others who already know not to make those mistakes, if it's a team environment like a raid. Games like the old BT Teron Gorefiend simulator game help these players immensely, as do periodic breaks to get up and stretch. Spending time at a test dummy will often help these players learn, as with soloing content and general practice at playing their class and using a particular ability. If worse comes to worse, drop them into large-scale pvp where it's sink or swim!

Raiding with them All
The take-home lesson for raid leaders/officers: your raiders won't always learn the same way that you do. Provide or direct your raiders towards different types of resources, and don't expect everyone to all understand just by watching the same video that magically made everything make sense for you. There are a lot of resources out there, and while it will take some research on your raiders' part, they can often find something right for them to understand whatever they're struggling with.

A note on Videos:
You might expect these to be an excellent resource for visual learners. They are, in terms of watching the playing field and seeing what the players do... but in terms of spoken instructions voiced over the video, they are better for auditory learners. A more visual learner may benefit more from a written strategy + a diagram than they will from an instructional video, while an audio learner will prefer a video with a recorded set of instructions. Some videos may have written instructions included, or arrows added to point out things: those are of benefit to visual learners.

So: beware labeling all videos as "good for visual" vs "good for auditory" learners. Each video is different.

The most difficult type to work with as a raider is the purely tactile, as they need actual raid time to understand a concept, at the expense of others' time. For them, patient preparation and review of mistakes is key. What did they learn from that wipe? Pre-emptive mockups of a room for positioning and use of flares can help these players understand, just as much as for the visual learners. Telling them to all physically get up and stretch during a mid-raid break can also have good results, rather than having them all just tab out to browse the web: physical activity is a great way for many to re-focus themselves, after a long session at the computer. If it's a class mechanic they need work on, practice practice practice!

Tips, Notes, and Miscellany on Resto and Mana

2010-12-13T15:46:00.006-05:00

So I hit 85 and started hitting up heroic modes. Here's a collection of things I've learned from healing the 5 mans:

Omen of Clarity is your Lifesaver

Use it for your expensive spells. It won't be consumed when you use nourish, though, so you don't need to cancel a nourish should it proc during a cast. Regrowth, Swiftmend, and HT will all consume OoC procs. Mana cost in order of expense: Regrowth (35%), HT (30%), Swiftmend (10%).

Roll that Lifebloom

Keep it going all the time; only drop it if you've got an extended period between pulls from explaining tactics or going afk. Especially if you get that Gale of Shadows trinket :) It not only provides replenishment for your party, but it also is our cheapest heal, which is ironic after the WotLK version. Other bloggers have pointed out that we can keep two stacks rolling using nourish or HT to refresh them even after our ToL has ended. If the tank is taking very light damage but dps/yourself are feeling kinda squishy (some circumstances of this HAVE happened for me) then pop your LB on them instead for a short time.

Innervate Early and Often

It's such a small mana return even in blues and greens that you don't want to wait until you're near-oom to use it. The longer you wait, the longer you're waiting on the cooldown when you're on your last dregs.

Leave the CC to the DPS

You will rarely be able to spare the mana and GCDs to keep CC rolling on a mob, and without much in the way of +hit on your gear, you have a high chance of your CC missing anyway. If you want to try to CC something during an initial pull, assuming your HoTs are running already on the tank, then it needs to be a CC that is not 100% necessary. If it misses, just ignore it and move back to your primary job healing. The time it takes to successfully get your CC on a mob is time that your tank may die.

Don't Cleanse Everything

Cleanses are expensive and can often be healed through. Some of them stack and these stacks are sometimes all purged at once with one dispel (ie: poisons in Vortex Pinnacle) or are cleansed one at a time... don't waste your mana and GCDs.

Don't Forget Tranquility

It is a super-powerful AoE heal that can and will save the party, assuming you have the mana to be able to cast it.

Take Care of your Gear

...and don't be like me and forget you can go buy iL346 blues from the points vendor when you hit 85. >_> Talk to your guild enchanters and feed them greens rather than vendoring them, so that they can provide you a few enchants that are also skill-ups for themselves. As for gems, while they are expensive at this point, you can, if necessary, socket cheap gems from earlier expansions just to net your socket bonuses until you can replace the gems with something better.

Work with your Tanks

Run aggro towards them. LoS casters you have healing aggro on. Let them know if you need to drink; thank them if they're paying attention to your mana pool. If you need them to be popping more cooldowns, tell them. If they're being terribad and they're leaving mobs punching on you or casting spells at you in spite of your efforts to get them off (like standing right next to them and saying "HEY TAUNT THIS"), say so, or ask for CC on them. If all else fails, blacklist a bad tank and avoid having to queue with them ever again.

Play Triage

If the DPS pulls aggro, it's not up to the healer to keep them alive. It's up to the tank and the dps to manage their threat. If you have the mana, then certainly save them, or buy them some time, but a healer's mana needs to go to keeping themselves and the tank alive. DPS can always CC aggro that is on them, anyway, and most have some form of threat dump. In addition, if they're being idiots who stand in cleaves (flayers in stonecore) or fire, let em die. They need to learn from their mistakes rather than be carried by kindness. As one of my res macros says: "I simply found it more mana-efficient to res you."

Teach and Share

In spite of my above sentiments on the stupidity of DPS, it's only fair to give people a chance. A little note like "the flayers cleave, don't stand in front of them" and "if you jump mid-cast during quake, you avoid the damage" (both Stonecore) can go a long way to helping your sanity, assuming they listen. If they don't listen, that's when I take the "let em die" approach. With quests, sharing the limited quest spawns also helps lower frustration: if you're waiting for a spawn, take the time to toss a party invite to the players around you. Saves time and angst by lowering that competition, and engenders a more positive feeling of comaraderie among your fellow players.

WATCH.

That rogue that just took damage: was that a cleave, incidental AoE, or did they just get knocked back into another pack of trash and your act of healing would draw them onto you? Keep your eyes peeled on the environment. I have had this happen during a boss fight (hello, Stonecore again), and I was able to with-hold my trigger-finger long enough to watch him vanish the aggro off (letting the trash reset) before I healed him, and that moment's wait on my part saved us from a messy wipe as I would otherwise have gained healing aggro.

Thank those PuGs you Enjoyed

It will make them want to continue their good behavior. Things like a warlock saying "If I have aggro it's because I'm saving the healer," or a tank saying "Are you good on mana?," have stood out in my mind as PuGgers that I would love to play with again. Conversely, complaining about loot that didn't drop will make everyone else roll their eyes and think you're just greedy.

Quick Link

2010-12-09T08:28:00.002-05:00

An online magazine made a post about the 7 most Catastrophic moments in WoW's history that was a fun little walk down memory lane. If you haven't been playing long, it's got videos, so it's a good history lesson on some of the big events--or rather, big problems--players have faced, in terms of bugs, lag, concerns, and "working as UNintended."

My favorite was the corrupted blood incident from Hakkar, which was somewhat replicated on a smaller extent from Vaelestrasz' bomb in BWL. KABOOM.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/12/world-of-warcraft-catastrophes/

WTF I want my Cattakissems!

2010-12-07T15:09:00.005-05:00

When I went to pick up my copy of the game, I did it over a lunch break. I was on a limited timetable, needed to still eat lunch and drive home and let River out to do her business, and I looked at the line in the pick-up section of the store and thought, "hey, it's short, this shouldn't take long."

I was wrong.

I stood there with my hubby, waiting. There were two lanes open and 2 people in front of us.

Lane one went through both of the customers ahead of us. Lane two was struggling with confusion over a request for a gift exchange, where in he'd already exchanged it for gift cards (the computer systems track these things, people) and was trying to get it exchanged again using the old receipt, ie trying to pull a fast one for free stuff. Thanks bud for lieing, getting caught, and closing up one lane of the customer support line for half an hour or more.

So, lane one. Slow-moving customer support desk. The 2nd guy is wrapping up his pickup of his own Cataclysm game, and I'm getting ready to walk up when some guy comes around the corner and, walking behind the desk, grabs a vacuum cleaner box and puts it on the counter. Coming back around to the customer side, he waits right next to the other customer, watches him wrap up his transaction, and then immediately speaks up to the young woman behind the counter. "Can I pick this up now?"

....

WTF I want my Cattakissems!!

You, sir, have just been thrown mental daggers at by a rather pissed off gamer on her lunch break who is channeling her inner rogue alt. Hope you like those iLevel 232 dagger hilts sticking out of your skull, you LINE CUTTER.

I set my jaw and glare at the back of his head as he goes through his pickup of his vacuum cleaner. Angry Kae WTF-tree powers activated. I stand there thinking, "If I were working here, I'd've told him to go to the back of the line. The staff are rewarding him for his rude behavior by letting him get it. What is the world coming to?"

He doesn't even hurry with the transaction. He takes his time.

Finally, he leaves, and I get to pick up my big ole collector's ed box next to the guy who's still arguing that he wants to exchange something he doesn't own anymore for more merchandise, and rush home and let River go potty and give her lunch and pick up a COFFEE NOM MOCHA and head back to work for the afternoon, my soundtrack tucked under my arm.

My spot in line got ninja'd, though, and it rankles me. Grr. Argh.

/moonfires the vacuum.

Things I wish I could speak up and bitch about in-person, but haven't the guts or the time to make a scene about. /sigh.

A New Expansion

2010-12-07T13:47:00.003-05:00

I went and picked up my collector's edition during my lunch break, and took the soundtrack with me to listen to over the afternoon. There are some truly beautiful tracks, and as I type, I am listening to Nightsong and absolutely falling in love with it.

Beautiful. It resonated with some part of me, and called back to my mind my first character, my night elf druid, Kae. That emotional tie I have to her as a character, my concept of her, my experiences with her from the early days tumbling off of Teldrassil's branches all the way to her first piece of T1 cenarian, when she ran around with leafy shoulders and deer antlers, up to her last raids facing off against the waves of undead in ancient Hyjal. Her home, Moonglade, and her heart, the Emerald Dream.

While that particular character is but an alt now, the flood of memories is still present and washing over me, very much a part of my experience and history in the lore-rich world of Azeroth. It is an appropriate time to look back over the past expansions and our experiences with the game, just as we look forward to the new Cataclysm. What will Cataclysm bring us, as players? What will it bring you?

I look forward to:

exploring the new zones and incorporating new abilities into my hybrid toolset.
the challenge of having mana problems while healing.
having to make triage decisions again in 5-man instances.
having to worry about aggro, and CC, and positioning again, as that difficulty makes for an enjoyable challenge.
experiencing the wonder of exploring new zones and new dungeons, and new raids with the friends I have made across the world.
my worgen alt, my love of wolves and wish for playable worgen finally realized.
playing again with friends who had left Azeroth behind, but are returning to see the expansion. Friends who had brought me to Azeroth in the first place, all those years ago, and helped baby Kae learn to love this game.

Whether you're already playing around in the expansion or patiently awaiting your copy and the freetime to play it, I wish you a fun and enjoyable expansion.

Puppy + Snow = Squee

2010-12-05T08:30:00.003-05:00

As a northern breed, she took to the snow as if it were... well, all the world was a snowcone.

She and I chased each other around the yard after dark, kicking up snow under the reflected orangy-pink glow of the clouds, slipping and sliding around the yard. I was giggling like a child, and she obviously had better traction than I did and would zip past me trying to be fast enough to not let me tag her. This game isn't fair when mommy's in heavy snow boots and trying to not slide down the hill... but so much more amusing :D

She is solidly larger now than all of her play pals... over 5 months old, she's still growing. She learned she's still not the biggest dog in the world when she met two Great Danes on Saturday. Followed by a Miniature Dachsund puppy. Then she wanted Santa to give her a belly rub.

:3

Literal Cataclysm Trailer

2010-12-02T08:40:00.001-05:00

...credits go to Sember for posting this to the guild forums :)

Trade Chat Awesomeness

2010-12-01T08:07:00.000-05:00

Usually, I ignore trade chat. I even have a whole separate chat window set up that filters out trade and general, to save my sanity from the deluge of filth that plagues its text.

But, sometimes, there is a conversation there that gives me hope.

And amusement.

Thank you, Turalyon trade chat. You made my day.

*sings*
Dance magic dance, magic dance...
Jump magic jump, magic jump...!

Sand Kitten Bafflement

2010-11-30T08:13:00.002-05:00

Kaeya refrained from stabbing the cat. She's a big ole softie inside, and stopped by to check in on it and give it a bowl of milk as she continually passed by on her mithril-farming route for Kotonni. But shhh... don't tell anyone.

Edit: what a horrible wildlife specialist I am! Sand cats are real desert creatures in Africa. Thanks for the comments! Mystery solved!

Druid Shifts and the Law of Conservation of Mass

2010-11-29T23:21:00.003-05:00

I walk into these things way too easily.
Also, Alyae has not seen MASSIVETREEOFDOOMSHIFT, yet ;)

RP: Alts and Ore and Angsty Rogues

2010-11-29T11:24:00.002-05:00

November 22nd
5:30 pm
Dalaran Streets

Kaeya leaned back against the sun-warmed stone, staring off over the worn walls of Dalaran to the distant, snow-capped mountains. The sun was dipping down through the clouds that shrouded the mountain range, and the rogue had a thoughtful expression on her youthful face as she studied the colors it painted the sky.

“Hello,” a polite voice came from beside her. She turned her green gaze, raising an eyebrow slightly to note the speaker: a young woman, blood elf like herself, with long, curled locks of red hair.

Kaeya tilted her head, wondering what she wanted. The last person who’d attempted to beg coin from her had ended up floating in the Undercity gutter, and Dalaran had a wonderful shark in its sewers here to dispose of corpses. “Lockbox?” she asked mildly, as that would be the only other plausible reason a complete stranger would be questioning her.

The girl smiled gently. “Oh, no. Kaelynn sent me… you’re Kaeya, right?”

Kaelynn. What was that druid up to? The rogue’s eyes narrowed as she studied the other elf: some mail gear, a crossbow slung over the shoulder, a faint smell of engine grease and… animal? A hunter. “Yes, I am Kaeya,” she replied carefully.

“Oh good,” the girl’s smile deepened. “She said you could help me with gathering ore… you see, I am trying to level my professions, engineering and jewelcrafting, and she said you were one of our farmers.”

The rogue grew still, staring hard at the hunter; only her hair moved, blond strands drifting in the faint breeze. “Our…?” She said after a long moment. Her gaze studied the hunter more carefully, eyes moving up and down, noting the battered boots and rusted gauntlets, and… that dagger. With lightening speed, her hand darted down and unsheathed the dagger from the hunter’s belt, flipping it deftly in her hand to study it. The hunter made a face and started to complain, but she held up her other hand to silence the girl while she looked over the blade. Heirloom quality. Agility enchant. Familiar grip. Nock in the blade, 2.3 inches up from the hilt, from…

Kaeya’s eyes narrowed to slits. Turning the blade in her hand to offer the handle back to the hunter, she sniffed. “A fellow alt. I see. So that’s why the cursor hasn’t been doing anything to remedy my weapon situation in recent weeks. Feh.” She looked back to the sunset, a dour mood now souring the view.

Looking over the blade herself with curiosity, the hunter now seemed skittish. “I’m… sorry? Um, well, I will be needing ore… starting with copper, actually. I had originally been an alchemist, but the shaman took over on that front…”

“The shaman, yes,” Kaeya said moodily. “At least she was able to farm for herself. Do you have epic flying?”

“Um, no—“

“Hmph. Suppose you’ll be plundering my hard-earned gold, too?”

There was a snarl to her right, and Kaeya just raised her eyebrows. Of course, a hunter, there would be a pet.

“Kisa!” the hunter chided her pet. A white leopard was just faintly visible, prowling up to Kaeya’s side with its lips curled up around its saber fangs.

Kaeya rolled her eyes: the prowling shadows were HER domain. “Down, kitty, it’s not like I haven’t dealt with feral druids more powerful than you. Hmph.”

“Kisa, come,” the hunter asked, pointing behind her. The cat hissed at Kaeya once more as it padded around her and obediently sat behind the girl, then began licking its paw nonchalantly. “I’m… sorry if I’ve given you the wrong impression… look, I don’t really care about the epic flying. I mean, I have two drakes idling in the bank, but for a hunter, that’s kind of expected, you know? Stables… pets…” she watched the rogue, noting her attempt at humor had failed. “I just need some ore is all, and I thought the alts were supposed to help each other.”

“Great. Well, I guess this means I may actually see some play time,” Kaeya remarked.

The hunter smiled genuinely, “See, there’s always a silver lining!”

“I was being sarcastic. Did you fall and hit your head during the opening character creation cinematic?”

The hunter blushed. “No…”

Kaeya gave her a sidelong glare, silent for a moment. Then she stood, straightening, and dug a whistle out of her pocket. “What’s your name? I have to mail the ore somewhere.”

“Oh! Um, Kotonni.”

“Is that Umkotonni or just Kotonni?” Kaeya said, rolling her eyes.

“Just… Kotonni.”

“Right. Ore. Copper all the way up. What a quest. You want it smelted to bars, or can I just lob chunks of ore at the nearest mailbox and listen to the mailman complain of rock dust and property damage?”

“Oh… half and half, I guess. I need to prospect some for gems.”

The rogue blew on the whistle, and after a moment, a large war-feathered raptor dropped down from its perch on the roof. It bent its head, sniffing predatorily at the hunter’s pet, and warbled to itself as Kaeya caught its reins. “Shinies!” Kaeya mocked, admittedly jealous as she swung up onto the raptor’s back. “Well, Kot, this will take a while. Don’t pressure me or you’ll be getting [Pocket Lint] in the mail.”

Kotonni grimaced. “Please don’t call me that…”

“What, Kot?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. Seeya, Kot.” With that, the rogue urged the raptor forth into the busy streets of Dalaran.

Little did she know that that evening, as she pitched her tent under the stars in the red sands of Durotar, that the world was about to change.

Linkage: Fun Times

2010-11-18T09:46:00.007-05:00

Between a lack of things to really occupy me in-game and a sudden pull into a co-op NaNo, I haven't had much to write about that is druidy, lately. No, my writing time has been thoroughly engrossed elsewhere, for the time being. For fun, though, I have compiled a list of links to all the wonderful things that have made me seriously LOL over the past couple weeks.

Enjoy.

And for just the awesomeness that is this mashup:

Wall Feast

2010-11-12T12:06:00.003-05:00

The real reason why we got HLK10-strict down:

Wall feasts. This is what happens when you get superstitious with raiding. You spend 30 seconds of buffing time trying to get a fish feast stuck in a wall, and everyone waits patiently without complaint, because IT IS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS.

Been a busy week. Scythe and I had been working on changing up the guild website and using different, integrated software for its front page, and it's finally up and running. We've had stick-figures in the margins on the forums previously, but now we get to have them on the front page, too. I like the personalization, it gives it more of the guild's character.

Anyway.

Puppy.

Has gotten big.

And likes playing in the bathtub.

XD

Keybinds on Movement Keys

2010-11-04T14:28:00.007-04:00

I had a warlock-induced epiphany this week.

W
ASD

4 keys I use to move around.
4 keys that could, potentially, be keybound.
4 keys I can bind using modifiers and tack on abilities I cast only when I am *not* moving.

If I'm moving around using WASD, I can't be using any spell with a cast-time, anyway. If I'm casting a spell that is cancelled by movement, I can't be moving anyway while I press the button to trigger it. So, cast-time spells can be bound to movement keys using modifiers to toggle them (ctrl, alt, shift).

Suddenly, my keyboard doesn't feel so cramped for space anymore.

Druid Spells that require you to stand still:

Wrath
Starfire
Hurricane (though you can target it while moving)
Cyclone
Entangling Roots
Soothe
Healing Touch
Nourish
Regrowth
Tranquility
Revive
Rebirth
Warstomp (racial)

Number of these that I did not previously have keybound: 7.

So how do you keybind your movement keys without loosing your movement? By having the actions be bound by the key + ctrl, alt, or shift. For the actual binding, I used Bindpad, though you could use an actionbar mod like Bartender and bind individual action buttons.

Ctrl W
Alt W
Shift W
Ctrl A
Alt A
Shift A
Ctrl S
Alt S
Shift S
Ctrl D
Alt D
Shift D

That's 12 additional keybind spots. If you use one of your modifiers as a push-to-talk button (ie ctrl for ventrilo) that's still 9 button combinations you can bind! Be careful with this, though. If you're running around while pressing modifier keys for other abilities (like shift to swiftmend) it can interrupt your directional movement. Personally, I use quite a few shift-modifier macros, so I'm keeping those as just movement so they don't trip me up while I'm using a shift-cast spell from another key, but alt is one I never use while I'm moving just because it's uncomfortable to hold down... that makes the alt-WASD binds perfect places for me to stick some cast-time spells. I've put Wrath, Soothe, Entangling Roots, and Starfire on them.

Note 1: I don't suggest putting HT on one of these as it's usually macroed to NS anyway, thus making it sometimes insta-cast :)

Note 2: If you unbound your strafe from q and e like I did, I do suggest keeping strafe left and strafe right bound somewhere in these keys, like as Shift A and Shift D, (Edit: or just as A and D) or even on mousebuttons. Strafe does come in handy from time to time.

Note 3: If you are a feral who uses ctrl/shift/alt macros for lots of abilities, like I do, and want to use them while moving, then I really *really* suggest making sure these movement-key binds are form-dependent. Otherwise you'll find yourself suddenly casting wrath in cow form when you should be tanking or clawing. /stopmacro [form:1/3] is your friend. So is [nostance].

Thank you, Naz :) Please don't incinerate me.

Surviving HLK: Beyond the Pixels

2010-11-03T08:55:00.006-04:00

While these tips are directly from my experience working for 3-4 months with my guild to down 10-strict HLK, these also apply to any long-term, multi-aspect team encounter that is pushing the envelope and comfort zone of your raid.

There is more to killing hardmode Lich King (HLK) than what the game presents to you. The fight's difficulty tests your cohesion and teamwork as a guild: your ability to adapt, learn together, and not fall apart as your guild pushes the envelope in what it can do. HLK is a fight with many moving parts, and every player present is important and could easily wipe the raid with their own small mistake.

We lost one raider specifically over the stress induced by the fight in the five months we were working on it; other guilds lost far more, sadly. It is the unfortunate circumstance of a high-stress boss fight, and the most difficult part of overcoming a pinnacle encounter like HLK.

Accountability
You must be able to own up to your own mistakes. If you and your fellow raiders are incapable or unwilling to recognize they made a mistake, your guild will not get very far on fights like this. I suggest this mentality:

You will, inevitably, make a mistake. Don't be ashamed of it: just learn from your mistake, and figure out ways to prevent it next time.
Admit to your mistake. It will keep others from grumbling behind your back or thinking that you don't know you messed up. Whether it's an apology, a curse, a simple admittance, a groan, or just a /facepalm, some recognition that you know you messed up will keep others off your back.
Even if someone else admits "blame," if you were a part of it or could have helped prevent it, speak up. Were you lax on casting a cooldown? Or a heal? Were the cooldowns not up, from casting them too soon? Were you out of range due to bad positioning? Did you zig when you should have zagged around that defile? Turn your back to the mob you were tanking? Misunderstand a vocal call? These things help prevent the mistake from happening again. Progress in teamwork development.
Someone else will also, inevitably, make a mistake. Don't corner them too often about it, if they know of the problem and are attempting to resolve it already. If it must be brought up in order to help them fix a repetitive mistake, avoid getting frustrated about it: defensiveness and frustration is stress your raid doesn't need. Focus on getting the problem resolved, and be sure to applaud when it's finally fixed.
Apologize when necessary. Recognize when it's needed, and make use of it to keep the group working as a cohesive unit. Your raid MUST be a team.

Flexibility
The strategy will change. Group makeups and individual player strengths will force your guild to approach the fight in, likely, different ways than others have, especially if few other strategy guides have been posted for the fight you are attempting.

Vortex's primary HLK discussion thread reached 11 forum pages. There were a few multi-page side discussions, as well, nevermind all of the vocal planning done in ventrilo or over whispers. Our tanks switched around, our healers switched around, our offspecs were tried and tested, melee were given an unfortunate shaft in favor of ranged dps, and we all had to smile and nod and try not to take things personally. I was shocked we ended up needing a resto druid: I was originally arguing that I should be sat out, feeling incapable of keeping the tanks alive by myself. We made it work, though.

Your strats will change, sometimes drastically. Be ready to try new things.
Trail and error. Don't just ram the brick wall hoping you'll eventually break through: there is more than one way to get to the other side, you just have to find the one that works best for your guild.
Keep up your spacial awareness. HLK has a lot of moving parts to it, so you will be shifting location from moment to moment and attempt to attempt.
Keep an open mind about others' ideas.

Creativity
Along with flexibility, I firmly believe that all raiders need to have input on your guild's strategy development. One single person coming up with all of the ideas will make your progress move more slowly. Every raider should be responsible for looking at the strategy and finding ways to adapt it to your group's skills and makeup, both for the part that they themselves play as well as the parts they could potentially aid with, or have class knowledge of. That many more eyes with different perspectives of the fight provides that much more insight into how things work.

Think out of the box. Know your class' spells in and out, know your abilities, and find ways to make them work to the raid's advantage: this includes tank-saving cooldowns, stuns, knock-backs, and other CC.
Speak up if you have an idea.
Don't take it personally when your idea is found to be flawed, or if your idea just doesn't seem to work with the guild's composition. Focus on what's important for the raid to succeed, and not just your own personal bubble.
Don't read against the grain.
Judge your strategies not by how far you got with them, but how effective they were at solving the problem they were supposed to remedy. Can it be improved upon? Was it the fault of the wipe? Can it be incorporated into other ideas? Don't throw out a strategy or idea unless you really find a better method.
Mock up a quick sketch in MSPaint or a similar program if you need to show a diagram. "Picture is worth a thousand words," etc. Don't spend hours on it, though: spend less time explaining your idea and more time finding holes in it before you waste time wiping to it. For example, one from Halion is here. Our LK ones ended up not being used for the final strat ;)

Dedication
If you refuse to believe the fight is possible for your guild, then your heart will not be in it, and you will make more mistakes and not even bother trying to fix them. You and the rest of your raid team need to be dedicated to overcoming a difficult boss in order to make it happen.

Don't panic.
Take breaks as a group periodically through the raid night for a breather, to keep your mind sharp and remove distractions like the need to bio or just stretch. Just don't waste others' time with unannounced AFKs or very extended ones, of course.
Remember that there is always something you and your raid can improve upon for the next attempt.
If you have a rough night, leave it at that: a rough night. Come to the next raid ready to rip the boss apart. That extra out-of-raid time is spent resting and reviewing what can be fixed.
Encourage each other. Even if it's jokes of ritualistic head-shaving and application of warpaint prior to attending the raid. At least, I think he was joking about that........
Find ways to make each other laugh: wall feasts, mini pets, fear ward on the tree to keep her from fleeing in terror. This is supposed to be fun. As long as these jokes do not get in the way of the raid itself (throw them when waiting for the RP to finish) or actual discussion of strategy adjustments, they're great for loosening you up.
Believe in your fellow raiders' ability to improve. Stay positive.

Respect
Ultimately, maintaining respect for each other in the face of mistakes and months of wipes will keep your raid going. Avoid belittling each other, and avoid reading against the grain as much as possible. More bluntly, just stick to the mechanics facts and try not to sound like an ass to others. If you're at each others' throats, your guild is more likely to fall apart or quit raiding than it is to overcome the boss. Don't let the Lich King win... and don't let Yogg's whispers come true.

...your friends will abandon you...

About Vortex: The Structure of a 10-man Guild

2010-11-02T12:58:00.005-04:00

Along the vein of guild management, there've been a few questions about how Vortex is run. As many players look to create 10-man guilds in Cataclysm, knowing what worked and what didn't for a 10-man guild is pretty useful information, so I'd like to share what we've done.

As a caveat, the format used for Vortex isn't for everyone: it's just what we have found to work for us. To better understand what it's like to be a 10-man guild, I will point back to my April post about what 10-strict is like, and how the raiding changes in Cataclysm will impact 10 man guilds.

History:

Vortex formed shortly before WotLK's release by a group of gaming buddies who'd raided with each other before. Most of the founding raiders had had their hand at raid leading and, in many cases, officership and guild leadership before, stretching back into 40 man raids and across other games. Our decision for 10-strict was based dominantly on the smaller number of raiders we would have to manage, as we were rather burnt out from leading larger guilds.

We compiled what we liked and didn't like about our past guilds and looked to guilds we respected to see what we could take away from them for our own charter. Very little of our guild policy has altered since its inception two years ago, and we've steadily kept raiding from Naxx to Ulduar to ToC to ICC, until we ran out of content with our kill of hardmode Lich King, a rare kill for a purely ten-man guild. Our raiders are now preparing for Cataclysm, eager to see Vortex enter a new expansion.

Structure:

The guild leader and two officers form a system of checks and balances with each other. We three have equal footing and yell and scream at each other when necessary. If we're torn on an issue, we use a majority two-on-one vote to deal with major decisions, including whether one of us was out of line on something (and to get after each other). These three leaders handle the bulk of running the guild, and together discuss any major changes to guild policies or personnel conflicts that need mediation. They also keep a finger on the pulse of the guild, both current and looking to the near future as raiders may have conflicts of interest that may require eventual recruitment and roster changes. And, so far, we've survived each other for 2 years :)

Officer duties include website/ventrilo administration, scheduling, raid leading, PR (news, forums, videos, blogs... *cough*), recruitment organization, bank maintenance, conflict mitigation (including both head-knocking and more delicate intervention), strategy research and discussion prompts, log hosting and review, policy review, attendance tracking, and more that I can't think of right now.

Once major policy topics have been discussed by the officers, they are tossed out to the rest of the guild (if necessary) for further discussion and ideas. We prefer having a transparent leadership and make efforts to hear out everyone's perspective on something, and explain our decisions and reasoning.

Vortex Code of Conduct:

We'd seen enough drama eat away at other guilds and our own sanity; drama drove our leadership to all quit the game at the end of BC before we formed Vortex. The very first thing we wrote up, beyond our raid roster outline, was a code of conduct we would expect every member of the guild to adhere themselves to while wearing our tag. It has resulted in a very good public image for our guild, though we have had to part ways with a few former members due to their odd wish to troll trade chat.

The gist of our code of conduct is such:

If you have our tag, you are representing our guild. Please act as a representative when in pugs, public chat, forums, etc. This means no trolling trade chat or general ass-hattery that would reflect back on the rest of the guild.
You are required to attend raids with the best possible enchants, gems, potions, and food that you can. This is expected of offspec, as well; alts and casuals get some leniency when they fill in, but we do push towards proper gear maintenance.
You are expected to help other guild members in farming mats for resist gear and contribute to the guild bank when possible. With a small guild, everyone needs to pitch in. In return, we are able to offer guild repairs on progression fights, as well as stockpile consumables and materials for the whole guild to use (including alts and casuals).
You are expected to treat guild members with respect. Even those that you do not particularly like. I hate that Scythe guy ;) On a real note, though, this is an important part of surviving a small guild community. We have had guild members who did not get along (or have simply butted heads over something) and it is so easy to read against the grain in text. Maintaining civility is a huge help in solving conflicts.
You are required to adhere to the guilds "no drama" policy. See below.

No-Drama Policy:

Few people will argue that drama kills guilds, so we have instituted a no-drama policy. Anyone found to be causing drama that creates rifts within the guild or damages our reputation will be warned and potentially removed from the guild at the discretion of the officers. This does not mean you cannot disagree with each other nor does everyone need to get along all the time. What this means is that you must be conscious of your actions and be responsible for them. This does not mean you cannot discuss heated topics on the forums but there are right ways to go about things. We are adults. Please try to resolve problems with the person you are having a problem with. If that fails or is too uncomfortable, speak to an officer; if that fails then perhaps it would be time to take it to the forums. Think with your brain, not with your anger.

This is our take-a-chill-pill policy. Also, we consider our under-18's to be adults: it's a matter of maturity, not age :) This policy has given us a good outline for handling conflicts in the guild.

Raid Roster

Now we're getting into the more functional aspects of 10man raiding. Vortex has run with a 13-14 person roster, fluctuating based on class needs and current raiders' available attendance, as well as the presence of exceptional applicants we just couldn't turn away.

2 main tanks. 2 offspec tanks.
3-4 main healers. 2+ offspec healers.
8 DPS, with a gamut of offspecs.

We have required all of our raiders, even pure DPS classes, to keep up an offspec for the purposes of composition flexibility. In cases of hybrids, we highly prefer that each spec fill a different role, rather than dps/dps or healer/healer, though some fights have required exceptions (particularly in the case of holy vs disc).

For the most part, each of our raiders fills a main, unique spec, with some overlap of dualspecs. This gives our raids a necessary flexibility to adapt to fights, and we have certainly made use of it: as recent examples, our first Sindragosa kill had the usually-resto druid as an offtank in cat spec, and our holy priest was shadow for our HLK kill. Whenever we received an application for a class/spec we already had, it took some intense discussion to determine if we could feasibly accept the player in their chosen class/role. Of course, our roster space also meant we did not have every class present: rogues in particular are something we've run without, as well as enhancement shaman and DPS warriors, in spite of past attempts to recruit them.

Rotations are used to allow everyone a chance to play. Rotation applies to everyone, though our two tanks are rotated relatively infrequently. Rotation is based on fight need (best group composition to get a new kill), gear/achievement need, showing up on time, and, when on a farm run and all else is equal, just rotating between wings/bosses to give everyone a chance to play.

Recruitment

In such a small guild, recruitment is weighed in on by all of the raiders. All of our raiders will read through applications and put their 2 cents in (or more) in a private guild forum, and based on the discussion and general yay/nay will an applicant be able to continue on to interviews and possible test runs. We have some very well-read guild members who will write essays on an applicant; we also have a very blunt interrogation squad who will question gear choices and talents and guild history. We take our recruitment very seriously, because once you're in, you're in, and we're relying on you to then uphold our guild tag and coordinate with the rest of us in our raids.

You can check out our application here. It is long, and we expect good answers from our applicants. It covers everything from gear maintenance, spec, interface care, personality, where you're coming from, goals, hopes, dreams, and general fit into the guild's community. As a note: we do not recruit for "the bench," nor do we accept applications for casual ranks. All of our casuals are of the "friends and family" variety and follow no formal recruitment process; they are simply reliant upon officer approval.

During all parts of the process, every raider has an opportunity to speak their opinion. Final votes on applications are done among all the raiders; they don't always choose to exercise that right, but they have it if they wish to use it. All applications are archived in a hidden underground bunker so no one has to see the trauma their application went through before being accepted. ;)

Attendance

We choose to raid 3 nights per week, with a 66% attendance requirement (2 out of 3 raids). Most of our raiders are available all 3 nights, though we all enjoy or need a break every now and again, and some have class or work; we also allow exceptions for short vacations.

We expect all raiders to show up to every raid, unless they inform us otherwise. This is contrary to "sign up sheets" used by other guilds, where you don't have to show up unless you say you'll be there, which often caused problems when the "slackers" didn't want to go on a progression wipe-night or they finished getting all the gear they wanted. Instead, our raiders post if they CAN'T make it, as it's assumed they will be present otherwise. This has its obvious difficulties if a member looses power or internet, but that's no different than the sign-up method, and many of our raiders have exchanged phone numbers to combat this.

Those who dip below this attendance requirement for an extended period of time are called into question. We have had to ask others to either step it up, or step back from being a raider.

Loot Council

We officially use a loot council as our loot system. We have NEVER used it, though: there has never been a time when we've had to put together a tribunal of some sort to decide which raider should get a piece of loot. This is due to a couple things:

Small raid size. There are fewer people to compete with for drops.
Lack of greed. "It will drop again." In general, our raiders view loot as a means to an end, rather than the goal: they wouldn't've chosen 10-strict in WotLK otherwise, where the best loot they can get is iLevel 264 (compared to the 277 in 25mans).

Usually a quick discussion will settle things, if not a random /roll. "It's a huge upgrade for me," or "Eh, it's a sidegrade," or "Eh, I don't really care" are the most common phrases we toss around during loot time, along with "She's pulling trash, let's go," "Oops, I moonfired the trash," and "OMG I'm just going to shove this in your bag!" (aka "BLATANT ML POWER ABUSE!") or "If you want it, get it from [the disenchanter]" from the master looter.

The majority of our loot disagreements take the form of "You take it." "No, you take it." "It's better for you, you should have it." "Nah, it's not that big an upgrade, you can have it."

Rankings

Rankings are not something we actively strive to achieve. We are proud of our accomplishments, but getting there first is not our driving goal. Just getting there, downing the content and overcoming the challenge it presents us (without beating our heads against the wall blindly): that is our goal.

For most of the expansion, we bounced around world ranks 30-15, but caught up in the last year of the expansion as other guilds began to fall apart and give up on HLK and his understudies, H-Sindy and H-Put. We won our spot more through persistence and strategical flexibility than speed. We also chose to play to the ideal of 10-strict: we disallowed all members from raiding any 25 mans once they joined us, even if they already had the achievements from their previous guilds. This did mean that our members' alts were often forced into side guilds for pugging, but it kept us on the strict charts.

We never expected to end up in the top 2 in the world for progression. I think it would be folly for us to think we can hold onto it in Cataclysm without making some severe changes to our raiding schedule, however: we just don't raid often enough. We have our pride and we push ourselves to be our best, but we aren't insane :)

Cataclysm

This is the first expansion change we'll be riding as Vortex, but I'm not overly concerned about it. We've been discussing what each member is interested in doing, as some have been considering character swaps, and laying on the expectation that everyone put effort into leveling and playing together as a guild until we are raiding again at 85. It is, however, the first time many of us have run out of content in an expansion, so we've been trying to find things to do to keep us occupied without stretching our sanity.

I look forward to seeing the 10-man raiding scene adapt to the changes Cataclysm is bringing. To everyone that is working now to build their own 10-man guild, I wish you luck, and I hope that our policies, experiences, and ideas may be of benefit to you as you build your own guild.

River the Squirrel?

2010-10-31T20:37:00.005-04:00

"Look, Mom! I'm the Headless Horsedog! I don't need to actually WEAR a costume, right?"

"Wait, you're dressing up too? Well... I guess I can wear something, if you are..."

I tagged along trick-or-treating with my friends and their kids as Little Red Riding Hood (I carried dog treats in a basket, heh). The wolf dressed up as a squirrel. I so wish I'd been able to put together a grandmother type costume for her to wear instead, but I didn't think about it until last minute. -_-;

MD the HEALER!

2010-10-30T18:59:00.004-04:00

The most baffling thing happened to me during a random dungeon run. The hunter was misdirecting to me. Me: the resto druid running around in cow form casting pretty green lights and efflorescence and moonfires.

Once? Must be an accident. I roll my eyes at the pug and continue on with a little laugh.

Twice? ...that's no accident. Eyebrow raised and growing irritated, I had to say something.

Yes. I had 6k more health than the prot pally, therefore the resto druid healer (who was not, incidentally, running around in melee at the time) must be the real tank and should be misdirected. This was followed by the resto druid casting /facepalm.

Lesson: the highest hp does not mean tank. Look before you misdirect, please ;)

LunarSphere alpha release for Patch 4.0

2010-10-29T15:03:00.005-04:00

Since the patch, I have been missing my Lunarsphere. No res macros, no auto-reagent purchase, and certainly a lack of my wonderful button menus... makes for a sad Kae :( So large a mod is a difficult one to overhaul and update, so I've been patiently haunting the developer's forums and waiting for the eventual update to become available.

There is, now, an alpha version! As an alpha, there are still a few bugs and errors, but having most parts working is better than nothing, imo!

For further details and a download of the alpha, clicky here :)

*As a small reminder, if you have a bunch of custom graphics (like I do) in your LS Imports folder, make sure you don't delete them when you upgrade your files.*

Comic: Spell Rebellion

2010-10-27T16:04:00.006-04:00

As I commented yesterday,
"Regrowth came out of nowhere and beat Nourish upside the head with one of our fallen tree limbs, and dumped the unconscious Nourish in the Undercity gutter. Nourish has not recovered from the traumatic experience, yet."

Meanwhile, Rejuv, Wild Growth, Swiftmend, and Lifebloom are out partying with the new girl, Efflorescence, and Tranquility is crying on Beranabus' shoulder.

Regrowth, Nourish, HT: a Short Analysis

2010-10-26T07:57:00.005-04:00

Patch: 4.0

So I was playing with my heals last night.

You get one single 20% flat boost for having a HoT on your target
(trust me, I tried it with 1 vs 4). With HoTs,
Nourish crit for 9k.

Regrowth does this by itself on a shorter cast time.
Regrowth crit for 9k.

Healing Touch, same cast time, non-crit for 13-16k.
HT crit for 20-22k.

Regrowth (1.2s): 1223 mana/5k heal = 0.2446 mana/HP (not inc. HoT)
vs
HT (2.0s): 1398 mana/15k heal = 0.0932 mana/HP
vs
Nourish (2.0s): 349 mana/5k heal (if you have a HoT up) = 0.0698 mana/HP
(+ a renew on lifebloom timer)

There ya go.

Yes, Nourish is Cheap.
If you need a big heal to save someone's life, go with Healing Touch. It's far better HPS.
If you need a tiny heal and have nothing better to do than roll your lifebloom, toss a Nourish.
Lifebloom costs less mana than Nourish (244 mana). Use lifebloom to a roll a stack if you don't need the Nourish heal. If the Nourish is all overheal, you just wasted your time and mana.
If you are running OoM and your target needs regrowth-size heals, but you have time to cast them, use Nourish; however, let lifebloom do the bulk of the work and avoid overheal on your Nourish as much as possible. If you have to, cancel a Nourish cast in favor of a lifebloom before it triggers, if it'd be overheal.
Otherwise, ignore Nourish.
If you get bored, try using Moonfire, IS, and Wrath instead ;)

/sigh. They f*cked up my go-to heal. -_-

Comic: Earth, Wind, and Fire 10m

2010-10-25T10:15:00.007-04:00

Took us a few attempts to work out how long Alyae could last solo-tanking an enraged Koralon. Panicking resto druid!

Yes, the maces look like shovels.
*I* thought it was funny. :3

How Not to Plagiarize

2010-10-22T14:58:00.004-04:00

This post is in solidarity for my tree-buddy Keeva.

Plagiarism is defined as "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work."

Example:

I wrote this all by myself. It is entirely my own work. Though, to cover my ass, I might claim there is some tiny chance someone somewhere in the world might have written this before me, verbatim. Just like monkeys with a type writer pummeling out Shakespeare.

Great excuses to use if you are caught stealing

1. It was meant to be private but I made it public by accident.

2. It was meant as placeholder text, it was a draft, I was going to change it (I don’t know why it said “I wrote this guide”).

3. Who’s to say what’s original on the internet, anyway? We all use the same words, it’s inevitable that we will accidentally use the same ones sometimes.

4. We came up with exactly the same idea, with exactly the same wording. Weird huh???

5. Someone else did something bad so why am I in trouble for this?

6. English isn’t my first language, I copied because I am not good at writing things from scratch.

7. Someone sent this to me, I didn’t know it was someone else’s work!

8. I was going to give credit, you just didn’t give me a chance!

That is plagiarism. I copy-pasted it from Keeva's site and then claimed I wrote it myself.
That is also what is known as a LIE.

Now, if I wanted to use her content in an honest manner without having to re-write the concepts in my own words, I would do it like this:

The following is from Keeva at TBJ:

Great excuses to use if you are caught stealing

1. It was meant to be private but I made it public by accident.

2. It was meant as placeholder text, it was a draft, I was going to change it (I don’t know why it said “I wrote this guide”).

3. Who’s to say what’s original on the internet, anyway? We all use the same words, it’s inevitable that we will accidentally use the same ones sometimes.

4. We came up with exactly the same idea, with exactly the same wording. Weird huh???

5. Someone else did something bad so why am I in trouble for this?

6. English isn’t my first language, I copied because I am not good at writing things from scratch.

7. Someone sent this to me, I didn’t know it was someone else’s work!

8. I was going to give credit, you just didn’t give me a chance!

That was copying another's work, but not claiming it as your own. It even helpfully linked the source to give proper credit. That is okay.

See the difference?

I'm sure most of you do. Because most people reading this blog aren't thieving idiots with no concept of what "your own words" means. If you want to claim something is your own work, then it better be your own work. People are more likely to respect you if you just say "hey, I got this content from this source," than to discover you're a liar and a thief. Sources. Cite them. Link them. Don't claim it your own if it's not.

/end rant.

Hey look, a puppy.

Couch Melt

2010-10-21T13:28:00.004-04:00

"You weren't planning to sit here, were you?"

or maybe,

"Give me another 2 months, and I can cover the third cushion, too."

Efflorescence: Know your Green Goo

2010-10-20T09:37:00.010-04:00

By most reports and my own experience, projected textures is currently bugging to not actually show in spite of being enabled and graphics on ultra. I heard a little horror story about Hodir in a Ulduar run.

EDIT:
Fanthisa pointed out a fix for this, that worked for me and many of my guildies: interface->display->DISABLE the option to "emphasize my spell effects."

Regardless, you can still see the spell effects drifting lazily up from the floor in all their raid-eating glory. Except, now, some of those effects are not the notorious "bad," or even the fellow-raider consecrate or death and decay of neutrality. Some of them are good. Like the massive shiny domes of holy light, or the twinkling sanctuary of angelic aurora light.

Or the more easily mistaken green puddle of efflorescence.

Good green puddle:

Leaves flying up in the air like a reverse autumn fall. This is symbolic of resto druids loosing their tree form, as their leaves drift upwards into the digital ether.
Hazy green aura. The fact that it looks like many other poisonous, acidic, nuclear, or otherwise deadly hazy green auras is mere coincidence. Green is life. Green is nature. It's retribution for my complaints that our old tree form had wilted yellow leaves.

Bad green puddle:

Anything else.

Got it? It's not that difficult, is it? No, of course not.

...

Yeah, let's go with some pictures.

Pretty straight forward on this one. Big green puddle, vs hazy green leafy light. If you mistake the moving green oozling that's slurping around trying to eat someone to be an efflorescence puddle, you have some serious awareness issues that I can't help with.

This next one is more tricky.

....yep.

Vinn diagram of hazy green.

If they add leaves to a bad green effect in a later instance, we're screwed. Let's hope we don't face off against the green dragonflight anytime soon. For now, if you see leaves falling up into the sky in your green puddle, you can assume it's safe.

Unless it's layered on top of a bad green.

....

Hrm.

Good luck!

River: 4 months

2010-10-19T14:18:00.003-04:00

...and 40 lbs. My little baby is still my "little" baby, but she's gotten quite a bit bigger!

She likes to eat out of measuring cups. I'm not sure how much longer her nose will fit.

She likes playing with my friends' dogs. She will shortly outmass them all. Her paws are at least three times bigger than this other dog's. Maybe 4 times bigger.

She doesn't quite fit under the dishwasher anymore when I'm doing dishes. But she still tries.

But... she's still as cute and fluffy and cuddly as ever!

...and her collar finally fits.

...as your pathetic reset point betrays you!

2010-10-18T07:51:00.004-04:00

Once upon a time, rather than having to engage Sindragosa upon the death of her lesser winged comrades, we would reset her by pulling her through the gates into the gauntlet room, thereby giving us the opportunity to pull her at our own choosing and without prior combat engagement with another dragon.

Yeah. That's not happening anymore. I narrowly escaped doom by making it up the elevator shaft, and the guy beside me was no so lucky as she teleported him to her before she decided to despawn.

HLK 10 Video: Priest/Pally

2010-10-17T15:19:00.004-04:00

Our other set of guild filmers have completed the second half of their HLK kill video, complete with story-driven prologue and credits. For reference and posterity, I'll include Part 1 again. If your computer can handle it, I suggest HD :)

The videos swap between the views of a shadow priest (Kuchki, white health bar and TidyPlates) and a prot pally (Alyae, green health bar and ThreatPlates).

PART 1
HD link

PART 2
HD link

Because Vidyala and Zelmaru are Awesome...

2010-10-16T08:33:00.004-04:00

So, I've had a mild running joke in my years of play about using post-it notes to block out peoples' health bars in raids. I had noticed the addon GridStatusIgnored, but the "success of the raid/party outweighs my personal opinions of pugger assholes" has kept me from seriously considering downloading it. Maybe if I were still in a larger, more casual raiding guild I might consider it.

In a bit of wonderful satire, Vidyala of pugging pally has spoofed a guide about the (mythical) addon, GridStatusStupidity. You must go read it.

(Edit: Is a guest post by Zelmaru, but Vidyala is still awesome :) )

Spell Use Changes: Resto

2010-10-13T09:22:00.010-04:00

While we haven't learned any new spells, many of our healing abilities have changed significantly. I'm not exactly pleased with what has happened to my quick-fire Nourish, but as Regrowth has sped up, I'm not going on a rampage about it ;)

Rejuvenation:
It has a talented insta-tick when you cast it, akin to the tier 8 bonus. No major changes in use.

Swiftmend:
Talented, now applies a puddle of green goo under the target. It's like a light well they don't have to click. What this means is that, when WG is on cooldown but Swiftmend is up, you need to target your Swiftmend kinda like you do a Wild Growth, hoping to bomb a group of people with it. There is still the consideration of targeting the person who needs the direct heal the most, of course, so don't just treat it like a weak Wild Growth!

Wild Growth:
Longer cooldown. When you're in tree form, you can hit up to 8 targets with it (glyphed).

Lifebloom:
One target only, gone are the days of rolling it on two (or more) tanks regularly. When you're in tree form, though, you get that back: remember that, in case your ToL needs to be used to save multiple tank deaths. You can pop ToL and stack LB on two (or more) tanks. Lifebloom in ToL has a different spell ID, so these lifeblooms will continue to run even if your ToL buff wears off. Additionally, casting a lifebloom will proc replenishment on up to 10 raid members.

Regrowth:
Quicker cast, but the HoT is now one of our shortest, on par with Wild Growth in duration. When you're in tree form, it is insta-cast. It costs more mana than it did before, though! It is one of our most expensive heals. IMPORTANT: by cast time, it is replacing the original use of nourish as our quick casted heal. If you're having problems with hitting nourish instead by habit, I suggest swapping Nourish and Regrowth on your bars.

Nourish:
Longer cast. This may take some getting used to, if you are like me and used it fairly regularly as a quick top-off heal. It's not really worth the cast time if there aren't many HoTs on the target, so remember to go to regrowth first! However, if talented, you can use nourish to refresh Lifebloom on the tank: at 18% less mana to cast than lifebloom, this makes it far more efficient for rolling a lifebloom stack and not going OoM. Just remember that you need to begin casting it around 3/3.5 seconds (haste/lag/talents all impact it) to make sure it casts before the lifebloom falls off.

Healing Touch:
Still super-long (3 seconds), and 38% base mana makes it our most expensive heal (note: tooltip incorrect on wowhead as of posting). NS+HT, macro it, use it as an emergency. Yes, I have talented NS still: I like my emergency buttons, I am not a blanket raid healer. ;)

Tree of Life:
Tree form is what will take the most getting used to. Think of it as an emergency button that lets you:

RAID EMERGENCY: Rapid-fire regrowth over the raid, rather than rejuv, in addition to giving you two more targets on Wild Growth. If mobs are overwhelming, your entangling roots is also now insta-cast as a tree, so use that CC!
TANK EMERGENCY: Quickly pop regrowth back on the tank(s) and then stack lifebloom on multiple targets.
BOREDOM EMERGENCY: rawr, I hassa Wrath spam! It synchronizes well with Fury of Stormrage's mana-reduction to wrath and free starfire procs.

Oh gods. Look at this. /facepalm. Well, we will be getting a remodel to it, but it's... decidedly "meh."

Kae's hubby: So...happy or not happy with the new tree of life models?
Kae: "Meh." They have more color than the old form, but only by race. They're still grumpy old tree men.
Kae's hubby: Well...I think they are less grumpy and more ummm...ambivalent?

Have any more tips/tricks on spell use, for our changed spells?

Kae's 4.0 Druid Macros

2010-10-13T08:27:00.008-04:00

In an update from my PTR post, I have found that not only have they fixed the OP kitty death pounce of ravagey doom, but also fixed lifebloom for macro useage. Both good things.

MACROS

The following macros are 4.0 updates to the macros I currently use. Healing didn't change much, in terms of spells, so most of these are feral. It is likely I'll be tweaking these macros as I grow accustomed to the new abilities and grow away from my old bind habits. It is also likely that you may find a different arrangement of abilities to be useful: feel free to hack these macros apart and replace things with your own preference. That's what macros are for :)

- NOTE 1: if you are not a primary-spec resto and secondary-spec feral, you will want to look at all instances of [spec:1] and [spec:2] in these macros to replace them with your appropriate spec.

- NOTE 2: I use an old-model G15 keyboard, which offers me at least 4 "easily reachable" extra keybind keys for pinky reach. You might be a little more pressed for keybind space if you don't have or use one of these, and have to rely more on mouse-click actions.

- NOTE 3: Bindpad has a working version here on WoWInterface.

Generic Macro Templates

Cut and paste in your abilities where you'd like. If in doubt, click them out of your spellbook to get the correct name.

Mouseover Heal or Cleanse:

/cast [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Spellname

Mouseover or Focus Harm:
(attack your mouseover, or otherwise your focus target, such as with CC)

/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead] [harm] [@focus,harm,nodead] [@focustarget,harm] [] Spellname

Mouseover or Focus Harm Toggle:
(hold shift to attack or assist your focus target, such as with CC, otherwise mouseover)

/cast [mod:shift,@focus,harm,nodead][mod:shift,@focustarget,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead] [harm] [] Spellname

Focus-assist or Target Harm:
(set a main tank as assist, for example)

/cast [@focustarget,harm,nodead] [harm] [] Spellname

Mouseover Help or Target Harm:

/cast [harm] DPSspell; [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Healspell

Modifier-toggled casts:

/cast [mod:shift] Spell1; [mod:alt] Spell2; Spell3

Modifier-toggled Helpful Mouseovers:

/cast [mod:shift,@mouseover,help][mod:shift,help][mod:shift,@player] Spell1; [mod:alt][mod:alt,help][mod:alt,@player] Spell2; [@mouseover,help][help][@player] Spell3

Custom Macros

My Skull Bash Key (G12):
Skull bash is our new feral-form spell interrupt. While the following can be done by placing the abilities on your respective stance bars (besides the mouseover portion of Wild Growth), I prefer to just macro it in Bindpad.

#showtooltip
/cast [form:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form); [form:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form)
/stopmacro [spec:2] [form:1/3]
/cast [@mouseover,nodead,exists] [@player] Wild Growth

Cat: Skull Bash
Bear: Skull Bash
Caster [spec:1]: Wild Growth (mouseover)

My Stuns Key (G18):
This key used to be my remove curse macro; my cleanse has been consolidated and thus freed up this button. As above, the following can be done by placing the abilities on your respective stance bars (besides the targeting portion of Cyclone), I prefer to just macro it in Bindpad. You could throw warstomp in there, but I prefer having access to that straight from feral forms.

#showtooltip
/cast [form:3] Maim; [form:1] Bash; [harm][@focus,harm][] Cyclone

Cat: Maim
Bear: Bash
Caster: Cyclone on enemy target, else on enemy focus target, else normal.

Mushroom Toggle:
Casting mushrooms (up to 3 at a time) and detonating them requires different casts. While we won't learn this spell until level 85, it is good to plan ahead and map out where you'd like to put this ability in your binds/bars, and consolidating the two into one toggled macro is a great way to save space.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Detonate Mushroom; Wild Mushroom

Shift: Detonate Mushrooms (boom them)
Normal: Wild Mushroom (place them)

STAMPEDE (~):
While we won't learn Stampeding Roar until level 83, I wanted to save a spot for it. While yet again the following can be done by placing the abilities on your respective stance bars, I prefer to just macro it in Bindpad. /shrug

#showtooltip
/cast [form:3] Stampeding Roar(Cat Form); [form:1]Stampeding Roar(Bear Form); Hurricane

Cat: Stampeding Roar
Bear: Stampeding Roar
Caster: Hurricane. Because. THUNDER AND LIGHTENING, VERY VERY FRIGHTENING!

My feral AOE Key (q):
Swipe gets spammed a lot, as a cat. Swipe has a cooldown as a bear, but it used to get spammed a lot. We'll be getting Thrash, another bear AoE, at 81, so we have to plan for that. I like binding tons of stuff to my q and e keys :)

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift,form:1] Thrash; [mod:alt,form:1] Mangle(Bear Form); [@mouseover,harm,nodead,form:1][form:1] Swipe(Bear Form); [stealth] Pounce; [mod:shift] Rake; [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Swipe(Cat Form)
/startattack [nostealth]

Cat:
- Swipe
- +shift: Rake
- +stealth: Pounce
- If you'd like to add [mod:alt]Mangle(Cat Form); then you'll need to kill the #showtooltip and some blank spaces to make room.
Bear:
- Swipe,
- +shift: Thrash
- +alt: Mangle

My feral "E" Key:
Pulverize is an important new bear tool you need to include in your rotation. It is a "CP-user" of lacerate stacks, so binding it to your lacerate key makes sense to me. As for cat form, I haven't changed any of my old binds, but will probably replace Maim with something else down the road, once I get used to my new stuns macro.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift,form:3] Ferocious Bite; [form:3,mod:alt]Rip; [form:3] Maim
/stopmacro [form:3]
/cast [nomod:alt] !Maul
/cast [mod:shift] Pulverize; Lacerate

Cat:
- Maim (because it's where I'm used to it. If you're using a combined stuns key elsewhere, you may consider replacing this with something else).
- +shift: Ferocious Bite
- +alt: Rip (you might consider making this the default by removing the red text, if you don't want Maim here)
Bear:
- Lacerate and Maul,
- +shift: Pulverize and Maul,
- +alt: hold alt to not use Maul

My T Key:
An update to my "t" key. It's got a bunch of random but useful stuff in it, including my ToL shift. As a note, if you are feral, you might want to consider a cast-sequence instead for catform which is in the next macro down, as you can now use unstealthed Ravage after using feral charge.

#showtooltip
/cast [form:1,btn:2][form:1,mod]Enrage
/cast [form:1,btn:1][mod,form:1]Frenzied Regeneration
/stopmacro [form:1]
/cast [mod,form:3]Savage Roar;[form:3]Feral Charge(Cat Form);[mod,spec:1] !Tree of Life; [@mouseover,help][@player]Nourish

Bear:
- Frenzied Regeneration
- Right click: Enrage
- +Shift: both Enrage and Frenzied Regen, together
Cat:
- Feral Charge
- +shift: Savage Roar
Caster:
- Nourish
- +shift: [spec:1] ToL

My Catform Charge+Ravage Key (t):
The improved feral charge talent makes your next ravage usable while not stealthed, for a short period of time after charging in cat form. Note that if your ravage misses or is a failed attempt due to positioning, it still consumes the buff.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod] Savage Roar
/castsequence reset=8 Feral Charge(Cat Form), Ravage

Feral Charge and then Ravage (two presses);
+shift: Savage Roar

OT: Sintel

2010-10-10T17:28:00.004-04:00

Sintel is a short film produced using open source 3D software (Blender). Short, sweet, and sad, it was released at the end of September and made its way to my feedreader, where it impressed me greatly. Some of the animation could use more work (the blood pooling on the rooftop, for example) and I really wanted MORE to what felt like a predictable story in a world I wanted to explore in more depth, but I still loved it.

The dragon design reminds me of the wyrms in WoW, mixed with demons. Gargoyle-wyrm-demons. :)

Highlight: Postcards from Azeroth

2010-10-07T13:30:00.004-04:00

Every few days as I'm checking my RSS feed reader, a simple postcard will pop in. A screenshot from a city, or quest, or NPC, or some event in World of Warcraft; a relic of the past, a memory that makes me smile. Sometimes, a place I have never seen. Things I may have walked past and met with a blind eye, things I may have never taken the time to admire, things I may have taken for granted and then forgotten.

Many of them things that may not be there, come Cataclysm.

These are pictures that tell the story of us all: the quests we have run, and in turn, the times we spent there and the people we saw it with. That first victory over Ragnaros, or Illidan. That leveling buddy, or the girl who was working on Loremaster with me. That applicant who whispered me for information while I was questing around the downed balloon in the marsh, who later became a fellow healer and blogger. That time I stealthed all the way into Orgrimmar, and saw their sights for the first time, then died to a few dozen spitting enemies. The time my guild posed around that skull for a victory screenshot. The time I spent playing against the Warlords team in Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch, getting bored and trading HKs and caps; then waiting around the Arathi Highlands or Ashenvale for the next queue. Getting my first bug mount, and the joke about it matching my elf's blue hair, and that other druid who was color blind or something saying he wanted a blue one to match his (green) hair. That crazy feral druid I met at level 15 and died to Westfall's Defias with, 5 years ago, and you still keep in touch. That dance party I had with my first raiding guild in that empty inn in the Dwarven District. That ship at the docks that I've never really fully explored. That quest chain that tugged at my heart-strings as I watched an NPC die, myself unable to help.

Postcards from Azeroth. Rioriel does an amazing job of capturing the world we play in, and reminding us of all that the game has to offer.

4.0 and Imp Feral Charge (aka Stampede)

2010-10-05T09:03:00.003-04:00

A new "bug" I found while playing around on the PTR while I was sick yesterday:

Talented Stampede may not be "working as intended." Sometimes it won't allow ravage to be used; others, you can cast 6-8 unstealthed ravages for free and rack up the CP. The text of the talent states,

Stampede 2/2:
Increases your melee haste by 30% after you use Feral Charge (Bear) for 8 sec, and your next Ravage will temporarily not require stealth for 8 sec after you use Feral Charge (Cat), and cost 100% less energy.

"Next" Ravage would usually mean only one free ravage within the next 8 seconds, rather than all ravages within the next 8 seconds, so I'm going to guess it is currently bugged. I think it's also a safe bet that the handful of times that it refused to let me cast ANY unstealthed ravages after a feral charge was also a bug, and I'd estimate that happened about 25% of the time while I was testing it in Orgrimmar.

Regardless, I did come up with a handy castsequence macro that let me ravage away to my heart's content (when the game let me).

#showtooltip
/cast [mod] Savage Roar
/castsequence reset=8 Feral Charge(Cat Form), Ravage, Ravage, Ravage, Ravage, Ravage, Ravage, Ravage

Binding it to my T key, I was able to just spam the key to charge and immediately begin my Ravagey chomping. Holding shift in the middle of the spam would use up the quickly-earned CP in a quick Savage Roar buff, and I could easily return to my ravagery without much in the way of keystroke changes. Amusingly, I also have T bound to one of my mouse's buttons (15 button mouse) giving me freedom of motion at the same time.

Scawy kitty. And to think that, glyphed, feral charge only has a 28 second cooldown, and the ravages cost no energy. This is why I suspect a possible bug... it seems a little OP :)

4.0 and Macros

2010-10-03T17:30:00.011-04:00

I took some time this weekend to dive into the PTR, looking specifically at what changes I would have to make to my setup. Beyond a respec and many broken mods, the most notable thing I needed to update was my macros.

Possible Bugs:

Lifebloom refuses to be cast via macro, insisting it isn't ready yet.
Insect Swarm is not being learned properly from the trainer. Trainer insists I've already learned it, and the spellbook insists I need to speak to the trainer.
ADDITION: talented imp-feral-charge may not be "working as intended." Sometimes it won't allow ravage to be used; others, you can cast 6-8 unstealthed ravages for free and rack up the CP.

Ability Changes

Dire Bear Form becomes Bear Form
Maul has a cooldown, but does not trigger the GCD still. Will require some error-cleanses to keep from spamming "that ability isn't ready yet," or else creating a new macro for it.
Abolish Poison and Remove Curse become combined as Remove Corruption; frees up one keybind slot as well.
Remove Gift of the Wild. The original Mark of the Wild becomes a full party/raid-wide buff.
Mangle becomes Mangle(Cat Form) and Mangle(Bear Form). It is still feral-only; non-ferals will still use Claw in cat form.
Feral Charge becomes Feral Charge(Bear Form) and Feral Charge(Cat Form). It is still a feral talent.
Swipe becomes Swipe(Cat Form) and Swipe(Bear From)
Put Soothe back on your bar; is not "Soothe Animal," just Soothe, and is now used to dispel enrages. It can only be used in caster form, so priority on casts should go to restos (and maybe moonkin, didn't test if it deshifts them) first before cats and certainly least by your bear tanks.
Put Insect Swarm on your bar (though the ptr wouldn't let me learn it from the trainer)
Put Skull Bash(Cat Form) and Skull Bash(Bear Form) on your bar, most likely as a macro.
Put Pulverize on your bar (feral only)
Ravage does not always require [stealth], if talented as a feral.

Personal Keybind Changes

The addition of several new and important abilities into the feral rotations has me combing across my keybinds to figure out how best to map them. Skull Bash, Bash, and Maim all share similar use so could probably be macroed together into a CC button, along with Feral Charge if you can reach the modifier keys easily from the keybind. Something along the lines of:

/cast [mod:shift,form:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form); [mod:alt,form:1]Bash; [mod:shift,form:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form); [mod:alt,form:3] Maim; [form:1] Feral Charge(Bear Form); [form:3] Feral Charge(Cat Form); [mod:shift] Entangling Roots; [mod:alt] Hibernate; Cyclone

...but I'm not sure I can comfortably use such a macro, personally, as it'd require me to drastically alter my current keybinds.

I'm rather happy that my main spec has rather limited changes! I am just hoping that the lifebloom-in-a-macro bug is fixed by the time the patch is released ;)

Kae's Cata Resto-Talents Ponderings, Sept 2010

2010-09-28T10:06:00.007-04:00

As usual, I am tentative about posting Cataclysm stuff when it's not official beyond beta testing and not as close to release as I'd like, but with the months ticking down and the resto talent tree still looking unpolished, I did want to dig in and voice my concerns with it.

First, to make a point, let's add up the total talent points in all of the trees:

Balance: 41
Feral: 44
Resto: 45

45 talent points. Feral's 44 include talents that are specific to only bear or cat: specializations allow them to easily skip some that are inapplicable to their role, while resto has a very limited number of inapplicable talents (and that only out of pvp vs pve). The resto tree is a bit heavy on useful talents, making the talent specification process very difficult; nevermind attempting to still pick up some useful healing talents in the balance tree.

Talent Commentary

Moonglow, Genesis and NG (balance):
I'd like to see Nature's Grace and Moonglow (or Genesis) swapped in places in the talent tree. I don't think such a swap would impact moonkin badly, and it would save restos some wasted talent points off of a haste talent that is supposed to proc off of a DPS ability. I am mostly bothered by the need to spend so many points in DPS talents to reach the healing talents in the second teir of the balance tree, especially as we are unlikely to then be able to reach both healing talents and are forced to choose between half of moonglow or half of genesis (or to forgo healing talents in the resto tree to get 5 points to split between them).

Furor:
If mana is truly the problem the beta-testers are complaining of, I can see some restos looking to the 15% mana pool increase as a possible way to alleviate mana problems. While I don't think it needs to be moved, I did want to point it out, as it still is a talent of interest in the whole "how do I spec?" question.

The First Row of Resto:
9 talent points all useful to a resto druid. This is a heavy hand of points to have to spend. Naturalist is dependant on how often we are casting our longer heals. Blessing of the Grove could potentially be skipped if you can put those points instead into Genesis (which is a more powerful boost), but that requires you to forego Moonglow.

Genesis vs Blessing of the Grove:
BotG (2/2): 4% healing to rejuv. Genesis (2/3): 4% to all HoTs and swiftmend. Keep this in mind when building your own specs, as there are opportunities to replace BotG with Genesis, assuming you need to put points in Naturalist.

Fury of the Stormrage:
If we're having mana problems and need to actually be spending our GCDs on healing, will we have the time to throw around DPS spells? Wrath has a 2.5 second base cast time. Considering it is opening up a mana talent (Malfurion's Gift) for OoC procs off of LB ticks (rather than just spellcasts) I worry at the points being shoved into a flavor talent.

Swift Rejuvenation:
As a deep-tree talent, you can easily yank a point or two based on your haste. The talent allows you to have a capped GCD for Rejuvenation, without any haste on your gear. While it sounds like they don't want us capping to the 1second GCD from haste alone, this talent is one that is more flexible based on gear. In addition, some players may not even make good use of this talent without being impeccably aware of their changing GCD timer: a fluctuation from 1.3 seconds (for example) to 1.0 seconds depending on what spell you cast in the heat of a busy combat is tiny and easily missed. We all have an internal timer that we develop for our keystrokes around successful spellcasts, anyway, and it can be difficult to alter it for rejuvenation alone. So, when looking at this talent, you need to be honest with yourself about how useful it is at your gear level with 2 points, or if you would be better served with 1 point or 0 (compared to other talent options).

DPS talents: Take your Pick
Overall, it appears that we can't really get away with a pure healing build. We are currently forced to pick up a pure DPS talent somewhere. These are a couple options I created while toying around:

Moonfire and IS: the insta-cast DoT spells: these are quick to cast, but cost you precious mana. NG and Genesis both build on these DoTs, as does Blessing of the Grove. With NG, each DoT will proc you 15% spell haste which will apply to your healing spells, which not only impacts your GCD (should you notice the proc and slightly faster timer) but also your nourish, HT, and regrowth casts. You could replace Genesis with moonglow to help reduce mana cost, as this particular build appears to be much more of a mana hog than the one below.
Wrath and Starfire: with Fury of the Stormrage, wrath will have a cast time, but no mana. This also opens up Malfurion's Gift, making the build reliant upon lifebloom to be efficient: this is a build for tank healers, certainly (or some very glorious mana returns when you go ToL and blanket the raid in lifebloom). You can replace NG with Starlight Wrath to reduce your wrath to a 2-second base cast time, though the points spent in the resto tree will limit how many you can feasibly put into the balance tree. I left Swift Rejuv off due to the lifeblooming build this spec lends itself towards.

Point Adjustments: the Solution?
Ultimately, the resto tree is heavy on talents, and I think it would be best served by reducing the number of points it takes to max out some of the talents from 3 to 2, such as Nature's Bounty, Revitalize, and/or Living Seed and Efflorescence. This would free up more talent points to put into the more questionable talents like Naturalist, or into the balance tree's yummy healing 2nd-tier talents (for example, this build or this one, assuming that revitalize and nature's bounty were reduced to 2/2 rather than 3/3). Even 2 points freed up would be adored; 3 points would be quite useful as it would then reopen options like full Naturalist or Genesis+Moonglow, together with Swift Rejuv. This would also prevent the need to ignore or complain about DPS talents, as Blizzard seems to be pushing us towards picking up some DPS versatility.

Otherwise, swapping NG and it's DPS-triggered haste proc with either moonglow or genesis would probably make many druids happy.

A Mashup of Commentary

2010-09-27T08:45:00.007-04:00

A bunch of topics that I don't really feel like making separate posts for.

CATACLYSM

CATA TALENTS: the talent tree for resto is still confusing me, with its tendency towards dps talents. The feral tree is nicely straight-forward and I can put a build together without issue, but the resto tree is not nearly so cut-and-dry in terms of talents. I think much of this stems from not knowing exactly what to expect with mana management and spell use, as well as time available for DPS (regardless of free wraths).

CATA GUILD RECRUITENT: I've noticed a lot of people apping specifically to join a guild for the expansion, rather than for current raiding. I have a bit of advice: if you're going to play as a different character for Cataclysm (or are willing to level and play a different character as a main), make sure you SAY that in your application so that the guild can plan around that class and role, rather than your current main. Linking to your current main is only useful in terms of showing off the care you give to your gear, spec, and reputation-grinding.

LIFE

SAWMILL: I went to a sawmill late last week. Live, operational, industrial sawmill. I watched as trees were methodically turned to lumber. The resto druid in me was screaming... but I couldn't hear her over the earplugs necessary to protect my ears from the screech of metal on wood. I did have a philosophic moment as I watched a tree be quickly decimated into boards, scrap, and sawdust that this was much like what Blizzard was doing with current resto druids: cutting it down, slicing it apart, making it something that looks visually nothing like the treeform it once was.

BIRTHDAYS: It was my birthday over the weekend... went to dinner on Saturday with Kitarha to one of those hibachi grill places. The grill table we sat at had not one but two other birthdays, and we heard at least 4 other birthday song-and-cakes go out (not all birthdays buy this special treatment, either). In addition, I shared my own birthday cake on Friday night with 2 other birthdays. It makes me empathize a bit with twins and kids who have their birthdays over the winter holidays. It steals the specialness of your birthday. You're just another one littering the weekend, unremarkable, overdone, "lol what was in the water 9 months ago."

PUPPY: River had her first dog-to-dog socialization over the weekend, and did well. She also met a bunch of "the college kids" whose common exclamation over her was "FLUFFY!" I left the camera at home because I didn't want to risk it getting lost or damaged in the rush of dogs (and wanted my full attention on her rather than taking photos), but I'll try to remember to bring it to her next playdate.

MOVIES

OLD MOVIES: Last Dragon and Gymkata are more bearable than Zardoz. One word: mankini.

NEW MOVIES: Legend of the Guardians was cute and decently done. As a "kid's movie," it couldn't really delve too deeply on topics it skirted around... an adult/teen version would actually do well. As an adaptation from the books, it did well in cutting out a lot of the slow parts that I thought unnecessary, but it took some liberties and shortcuts I was upset with given how short the film itself was. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:
1. It took two completely different, rival factions and merged them into one conglomeration (St. Aggies and the Pure Ones were mashed together). While it worked, more or less, it was a surprise and forced several of the plot changes.
2. It made Kludd out to be nicer than he was supposed to be. He PUSHED SOREN (and later, Eglantine) out of the tree AS A SACRIFICE to the Pure Ones... he didn't fall with him and it wasn't an accident. Kludd was never kidnapped. He also tried to kill Mrs. Plithiver when she refused to stay silent about him pushing his siblings out of the nest. He also WAS Metalbeak. Kludd was evil from the start.
3. Otulissa was underdeveloped, as was the training at Ga'Hoole which was completely understated; they could easily have added that time to what was a short movie.
4. What happened to the entire Collier chaw? That whole firestorm thing was something Ezylryb trained Soren and Otulissa to do, among others: they collected coals for the Blacksmiths.
5. Ummmmmmm wtf was up with the magnetism? It's just MAGNETISM. It's not visible. It attracts metal and messes with the owls' navigation and makes them woozy/disoriented. It's. Not. Visible. In addition, the vampire bats were just around to drain the St. Aggies owls to make them weak and unwilling to try to fly: they were not warriors with their own metal weapons (they also just ignored the whole plot point about metal and magnetism when it came to the movie-bats' weapons).
6. If I'm remembering right, Soren's parents "vanished" (aka killed). IIRC, it was hinted that they were killed by Kludd himself. They certainly did not magically show up at the Ga'Hoole tree after months of their childrens' disappearance and say "oh we were so worried about you!"
7. I was disappointed that they didn't include Madame Plonk; I was looking forward to hearing their adaptation of the Taps song she sings at the Ga'Hoole tree, with the harp the nestmaid snakes play. It was, possibly, the part I was looking forward to the most. I think it was also what was supposed to help cure Eglantine's moonblinking.
8. WTH did they do to Twilight? In the books, he was harsh, he was strong, he was violent, and he certainly did not have a lute. He was a warrior who happened to sing war songs in combat out of ego and as a tactic to confuse and inflame his enemies. At least, that was always my impression of him: a world-hardened young owl, not a showy (and bad) bard.
9. ....echidna? Hello, puffin-replacing movie plot device that makes me /facepalm. The crow mob got nuetered from the true danger it was supposed to be, and they certainly didn't know any nuerotic echidna-sages.

Okay, I think that's everything for now :)

Currently Listening To: Linkin Park - The Catalyst

Still Truckin': Raiding at the End of the Expansion

2010-09-22T10:08:00.003-04:00

Blizzard: Hey look! Shiny Cataclysm! Expansion!

Vortex: ...but we're still working on Lich King. And technically Halion.

Blizzard: oh, that's nice. Most of the 25s who care have already done it. Don't you want to read about how we're gutting your classes and rearranging the pieces into newer, shinier, better bionic versions of your former selves?

Vortex: Yeah, I suppose... but it doesn't really affect us right now. We have an end-boss to kill. You know only one guild in the world has completed the fight in 10-man gear, given the trinkets and weapons that provide better itemization in 25s no matter the item level, nevermind legendaries and a broader raiding roster? You've... certainly thrown us a challenge.

Blizzard: Yeah, we're fixing that balance thing for the expansion with shared loot tables. Most people have stopped caring about WotLK raids. Look! Shiny expansion!

Vortex: Mmn hm. Well, we can't very well let the expansion come out without us toppling this, first. Or at least trying our hardest. We know it's possible because Typhoon Struggle is awesome and managed to make it happen.

Blizzard: Hey, if you're still banging your heads against a brick wall and enjoying it, we're cool with that.

Vortex: ........Thanks, Blizzard. Alright guys. Let's do this.

Accomplishment as a Guild

We then proceeded to eek our way slowly through each phase. We studied strats. We studied parses. We studied videos of our own attempts. We nitpicked at every mistake... thankfully not to the point of falling apart, where it had collapsed so many other guilds. We hung in there. We all got better. We learned from our mistakes. We found innovative new ways to work together and make use of our spells and raiding roster and off specs. We tweaked our specs and gear specifically for the fight. We rejoiced over our accomplishments as we progressed through the Lich King's health bar. When we had a rough night, we chalked it up to what it was: a rough night, and we knew we could do better, and we went back in there and tried again the next raid night. We supported each other in our varying ways.

We didn't give up, and we adapted.

A friend of mine has a motto: Adapt, Improvise, Overcome. Any achievement you truly earn is rooted in these three words. We stuck through it, adapting, improvising, and finally overcoming the challenge as the expansion is in its twilight. It is the most amazing rush to finally climb over that hurdle you have been sharing digital blood, sweat, and tears to overcome with your small, tight-knit team of friends:

The one who you've been raiding and playing alongside for, like, 7 years, though you've never met her in person.
The one who you respect enough to call "sir."
The one who jokingly blames you for everything, and you take it with a grin.
The one who you just want to hug every time you see her.
The one who always seems to be able to make you laugh.
The one who is like a little brother: he may make you roll your eyes a lot, but when it comes down to it, you're glad he's a part of the family.
The one who you helped teach to heal, and are proud to call one of the best healers you now know.
The one who always surprises you with something completely off the wall... and makes it work.
The one who makes you feel like there's something important missing when they're not in the raid.
The one who always seems so calm and laid back, even when you're on the 40th wipe of the night.
The one who you know will always have a kind word for you, even when you feel you've completely failed.
The one who you barely know, but still extend that warm feeling of friendship because they have joined your ranks.

If we didn't have that camaraderie and stubbornness to succeed even in the face of a changing game, we would not have made it this far.

Why Others Stop Raiding

Ignoring the reasons why some just quit WoW (which are more varied), these are the reasons I have seen for why some guilds stop raiding in the months leading up to a new expansion:

Some stop raiding because they have already completed what's avilable. Maybe they had better luck, or better gear, or better raid makeups or attendance or skill or RNG, or had more raid nights each week to devote to clearing the instance, or more badges and gear available to speed up the gearing of raiders. Whatever the reason, if they've already done all of the content available and gotten their buddies their achievements too, there's less reason to keep raiding on those characters.

Some stop out of despair. They just don't think it's possible for them, so they give up.

Some stop because the expansion will make all of their work obsolete. What does it matter that they can get better gear from the instance when they're going to replace it all in Cataclysm, before they have any need to "compete" for top DPS/gear/whatever again? These people place higher emphasis on their gear and stats than they do on experiencing the game.

Some don't want to put in the effort. Why bother when you can come back at 85 and steamroll the place? Or, they are players who never really put in much effort to begin with, and don't want to be challenged with something "too hard" in their play.

Some are just forced to stop because they can't fill raids, because their guildies fall into the above types and PuGs (usually) lack the cohesion necessary (largely due to being unable to screen each player in depth as you would in guild recruitment). These players want to see the content, they're willing to put in the time and effort for it, but they just can't get others to go with them and put forth the same effort. I've been this one in all of my previous raiding guilds: I always asked, "Why are you giving up? Why did you stop caring? We can DO this! If you actually TRIED we could see this content completed!" ...and this is why WotLK is the first expansion in which I can contentedly sit back and say "Yes. I did complete the content. And it felt great."

Why Vortex wanted to see it Done

We don't care about getting superior loot: if we did, we wouldn't be 10-strict.
We don't care about the looming expansion: it is just a deadline before we have to relearn our classes.
We don't care that it will soon become defunct: we want to see the content.
We don't care that we can come back at 85 and pick daisies while we kill him: we want to earn it.

We want the accomplishment. We want to know that we have risen to the highest bar available to us as 10-strict raiders. We did it our own way, just us, fighting together to overcome and achieve that which challenges us to each perform our best. The guild, together, all shared a thirst for achievement over the content. We wouldn't be raiding otherwise... even as Cataclysm looms, casting a shadow over the Wrath instances. As one person commented of us, "Playing the game for what it is today & not for what it will be in the coming months."

I love my guild.

....bring it, Halion.

HLK, Vortex's videos

2010-09-21T08:34:00.009-04:00

The following videos were taken of our first kill of hardmode Lich King, September 19, 2010 as a ten-strict guild. Most of our strat can be found here.

Warlock PoV
Driven by: Harsesis, specced as Demo

This video is split into two parts, and can also be watched in 720p HD (I recommend fullscreen... I just left it at 360 for those with slower connections). His grid frames show incoming heals; the top left-most player is our offtank, and bottom left-most our maintank. Note the moonkin (Beranabus of RNGesus) casts tranquility around 4:10 because our disc priest was grabbed by the first Valkyr; our tank healer tree (me) was also grabbed by a valk once, but luckily the healer grabs were not back to back!

-- Part 1 --

-- Part 2 --

The MT dies around 3:10, and the OT picks it up after the locks mess their pants and soulshatter. The tank was soulstoned, which is how he resses himself while the others are in Soul Harvest phase and then battle-resses the ele shaman around 3:36. The tree stands in a bad place around 4:15 and nearly eats it ;) This is why we must stay away from our soakers! We are all alive when he reaches the 10% mark.

...gg moonfire spam from the giggling resto druid.

Shadow Priest, Prot Pally PoV
Driven by: Kuchki, specced as Shadow, and (to be added) Alyae, specced as Prot

This is the "short," raw version. They plan to expand the video with dual views between the two players and an intro sequence.

OT: Your Puppy Fix

2010-09-21T01:09:00.003-04:00

Apparently some of you cannot get by a week without a puppy fix. :)

River discovered the hose this weekend. After playing joyously in the water stream, she promptly found a dirt pile to roll in.

Go figure. :) It took more hosing and much toweling to finally have a clean puppy again.

World 2nd, US 1st...

2010-09-19T21:35:00.011-04:00

10-strict Bane of the Fallen King!

Kae: "I was singing along to Owl City's Fireflies as he went down... interspersed with SHIT and UH OH."

I am fairly sure we got it recorded from a couple different view points :) Will be linking them up as soon as they're hosted!

YAAAAAY

((Edit note for Beru: had nourish, swiftmend, RR glyphs))
((Edit 2: if you're one of those that likes staring at meter parses, have at: WoL, WMO))
((Edit 3:

Raid makeup:

MT: Feral Druid
OT: Prot Pally
Heals: Disc Priest, Resto Druid
Ranged DPS: Marks Hunter, Shadow Priest, Boomkin, Ele Shaman, Destro Lock, Demo Lock
Melee DPS: ....... ?

(Does me punching the Lich King in the back a few times count as melee?)

What is the iconic girl gamer?

2010-09-15T10:12:00.014-04:00

Let's take a moment to look at some female heroes.

Belle. Beautiful bookworm wishing to get out from under society's expectations of her, loyal and brave in the face of gloom and danger, self-sacrificing for the sake of her family, and empathetic to the plights of monsters though ultimately weak and human, herself.
Mulan. Beautiful klutz wishing to get out from under society's expectations of her, loyal and brave in the face of gloom and danger, self-sacrificing for the sake of her family (and friends), picking up martial activities, and with a failed attempt at mascarading as a man before she was "true to herself." Saves her country.
Lara Croft. Strong, beautiful tomb raider, confident, deadly, and powerful. Barbie mixed with Indiana Jones, and given a darker pallet to add to a mysterious and dangerous glamor. Saves the world and hunts for shinies.
Buffy Summers. Strong, beautiful vampire slayer, deadly and powerful. A teen Barbie who kicks ass and bridges the cheerleader-geek gap. She is supported by lots of other likeable female characters (a favorite being Willow), and saves the world. Repeatedly.

These 4 are the best female role models I got from story media (movies, TV, games) while I was growing up in the 90's, and the most memorable. They all broke the stereotype of the female side-kick or love interest: they were the main character, and they broke from what their society viewed as traditional female roles while retaining their feminism. They all told me that I didn't have to be the tomboy I was in the 80's who would rather watch teenage mutant ninja turtles and play army men, super mario, and sonic the hedgehog than my-little-ponies: I could just be me, I could be a girl who wasn't a high-heel-wearing princess whose only conflict was who to invite to the dinner party and how to attract a boy with my poofy hair (as was the 80's view on beauty).

"Create your own character" games that allowed me to play as a female reinforced this: Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Dungeons & Dragons. In creating my own strong female character, I helped define who I wanted to become, and that it was okay to be a girl without being "girly."

It's Okay to Game

This is, in my opinion, what being a girl gamer is about: breaking conformity and embracing your true self. That it's okay to fight for what you beleive in. That it's okay to be the hero. That you can be strong and beautiful without being a helpless damsel in distress. You can save the world without being a sidekick. If you want to do it in hiking boots or stilleto heels is up to you: just be yourself. That guys will still be interested in you even though you can speak your mind, and sometimes speak it through a Sniper scope in Unreal Tournament or a huge sword as you cleave through pixel-dragons.

On Beauty

Now, there is one other thing that these heroine images all share: beauty. This is a conformity that they retain, that of the idealized, perfect, super-model imagery. I don't think that it's just because the marketers want to appeal to male audiences as well: is it really any different than the Barbie dolls and Cinderella beauty stereotype? "You must look like this and go get married!" That stuff *IS* marketed directly for girls, rather than to both genders.

Many male role-model images are the same way: you must be handsome, fit, strong, and go save the world to get the girl. You must be exceptionally smart, confident, and/or have a great sense of humor: all things desired by potential mates.

Why? The Disney theme: "to find the one you love and get married and live happily ever after." After saving the world or overcoming a curse or bewitchment, in the case of some. Love is the ultimate goal of most, which biologically makes sense, as it benefits survival of the species, especially a species that requires such a time commitment to raising its offspring. The fact that appearance plays a part in selection is not incidental, and that's an aspect that overcomes society's gender-specific strictures on behavior and place. So, while stories of heroes and heroines can be breaking a society's traditions of a gender role, general beauty or handsomeness is one thing that is rarely degraded in its heroes and heroines.

Exceptions are stories like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Phantom of the Opera, where beauty is found in other ways, but can ultimately be viewed as tragedies rather than stories about role model heroes.

The unfortunate aspect of these beauty-based ideals is that relatively few girls can attain them without a) destroying their health or b) photoshop. Programs like Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty are designed to lessen the impact of the media and advertisements on girls' self-image, and many of the beauty images found in role models are less extreme than those found in model magazines and photoshopped ads.

While physical beauty seems to be important in role models, absolute physical perfection it is not the ultimatum for success or being a role model. Taking care of oneself and others, and having the self-sufficiency and confidence to protect those you love overshadows simple looks; beauty itself goes beyond the physical and into the realm of how these role models act and feel about themselves.

Regardless, some amount of physical beauty stems from physical fitness. While gaming in itself is not a very cardiovascular activity, we appreciate the fitness of those capable of pulling off the feats we accomplish in-game. Though some may not be able to do a roundhouse kick or run for miles without breaking a sweat, they wouldn't play it if they didn't, somehow, wish that they could.

(FYI, I am envious of parkour runners)

The Avatar

So many of our avatars are aesthetically pleasing. Some few may choose to be the wrinkle-faced gnome or decrepit undead or snaggle-toothed, snarling orc, but generally speaking, most females would rather have an avatar that looks nice. It is either a reflection of what they want to be, what they are comfortable being, or a mask to hide beneath.

The avatar itself is also, in most cases, physically fit. How else would they have the stamina to run from hither and yon, fighting dragons or aliens or enemy soldiers without so much as getting a blister?

These things lend themselves to girls recreating themselves in their avatars to match their role models, in physical ways they may feel they can't otherwise attain. Like the clutz who can't do a cartwheel is on her avatar doing loops in the air, or wall-jumping to reach a special power-up. While character and animated role models aid in providing that super-human image a gamer can mimic, seeing living-flesh role models who can do these things and still enjoy the gaming as a hobby serves as an inspiration to get up and try: try to become more fit, have more confidence in themselves, and generally become more healthy.

Of course, this in turn often results in sayings such as "do not try this at home." :) Those words are usually directed at the boys, but it's a good danger warning to females, too.

The Iconic Girl Gamer, for GIRLS

There are, I think, two kinds of girl gamer: the expressive, and the practical. The expressive is more flashy in dress and makeup, while the practical is more subdued, but both are likely to bear some form of peraphanalia/imagery from a favorite game or subject (fangirlism) rather than simple and meaningless patterns, flowers, or solids.

If I were to create some sort of pro-gamer-girl icon, it would be something to this effect:

Good-looking, fit, aesthetically pleasing
Confident
Self-sufficient
Nurturing, empathic: feminine ideals that are contrary to the competitive nature of most games, but are not impossible to reconcile as many games are also team-based.
Practical or comfortable clothing with subtle imagery suggesting a game or geekery (to cover most bases, digital imagery ala "digital angel" would probably work best)
Maintains feminimity in form, shape, and pose

... without being overly sexual. Once she gets suggestive, she becomes marketed for men, or rather for fantasies. I don't think it's much different for guys, either, though: if a male's image is sexually suggestive, he's being marketed for private fantasies and not as a role model. Once you cross a certain threshold of sexual suggestiveness, leaving what is appropriate in public, they leave the realm of role model.

While role models inherently portray sexual appeal, it is idealized and publicly permissible. The threshold must be maintained in order for the heroine to remain her place as a role model rather than as a marketing slut.

So, that is my long-winded ramble on being a girl gamer and the role models that support it. It started as a reply to Keredria's post on the Geek and Gamer Girls parody video, and ended up consuming my morning. Whoot.

Healing ICC10: HLK as a Resto Druid

2010-09-13T08:24:00.021-04:00

Edit: This guide was written for patch 3.3. Alas, we can no longer roll lifebloom on two tanks anymore, as of 4.0. I suggest keeping it on the shambler tank, as their health tends to spike more with the enraged adds. Go ToL to roll it on both tanks towards the end, as LK's plague-induced-stacks start eating the MT. Similarly, lifebloom is now very cheap to cast and no longer grants mana back when it blooms, so those tips are also now outdated.

With repeated attempts into the sub-20% range, I'm ready to expound upon healing Heroic Lich King (10-strict). This fight very nearly requires that you have a disc priest in your raid: they will very likely be your co-healer. My own guild, Vortex, has chosen a resto druid as the second healer to aid in the final phase's AoE healing and movement requirements, but we are fairly confident that any other healer could handle that spot.

EDIT: well, we killed him, US-first and world-second kill for strict-ten's. I added a few notes to the final phase; this is the strat that worked for us!

Phase 1:
"WTF I'm tank healing?"

With the disc priest put to bubble-shielding the Infest, your primary job as the second healer will be keeping the two tanks alive. For the sake of limiting the movement of the DPS, don't stand with them: stand either in between the ranged and the tanks, or on the other side of the tanks from the ranged dps group. This prevents others from having to move away from your shadow traps. Also, always make sure you are within running distance of the adds so that you can drop off your disease on them. FYI, it is safe to stand in front of the Lich King: he has no cleaves or cone attacks.

Below is a general diagram of how we handle Phase 1. Light blue is the platform, light gray is the inner circle, blue dot is the useless ice blocked dude, and the dark gray is the outer, cracked ring of the platform. Purple circles are example shadow traps that we've moved away from :)

Rejuv, lifebloom, and regrowth: try to keep all three running on both tanks as much as possible. Use nourish around them, and cast it proactively rather than reactively. You should (hopefully) have between 1/4 and 1/2 mana left at the end of this phase, if DPS is strong. For the sake of mana, I recommend letting the lifebloom stack bloom off of one tank or the other (only one at a time) whenever possible, but here are a few conditions:

do NOT bloom when both tanks are low health, as you can't immediately restack them; get one tank up to higher health before letting the other bloom.
do NOT let both bloom at the same time or you'll be scrambling for GCDs to restack both.
do NOT let the add-tank's bloom when s/he has an enraged shambler, or has two shamblers and there is no Tranq shot in the raid. Keep it rolling and bolster her with nourish.

Use swiftmend to pop a tank up while you are moving. Save NS for real emergencies, but don't be shy about using it and thus waste precious seconds in indecision that could kill a tank. The tanks will drop low from time to time. They will need to use their own cooldowns to help you out, ESPECIALLY if you have no tranq shot in the raid (no tranq shot is doable, but painful). Don't worry much about healing anyone EXCEPT the two tanks; you can pop wild growth on the main tank (MT) to spread wild growth out to melee, but the domain of raid healing should be left to the disc priest. Only help with raid healing if they request it and the tanks are both topped off. Otherwise, your raid heals will result in a healing gap on the tanks that the disc priest may feel the need to help with, which in turn results in a bubble gap that will spiral down to a wipe to Infest... or a dead tank.

Don't hit a shadow trap, and don't run in front of the shamblers. Be very aware of where EVERYTHING is around you: this can be difficult when you're glued to the tanks' health bars, but it is very necessary.

If you have ghoul aggro, don't let it stick on you long. Call out for a tank to taunt them off of you, or run them to a tank, if necessary: ghouls have a nasty habit of dazing you while you're trying to escape an incoming shadow trap.

Transition:
"Hope the RNG gods put enough diseases on the shamblers."

As LK nears 73%, get yourself towards the outer rim of the room without letting HoTs drop. Make note of how many adds are up, and definitely make sure the add tank maintains full HoTs. As the Lich King reaches 70%, he will transition as normal, and you can let HoTs momentarily lapse off of the MT until he begins picking up spirits. Mind that you don't cross in front of the shamblers while moving forward.

Make sure the group splits roughly half and half on the shelf, sort of like so:

We have the shambler tank cross over to the far right of this diagram, while the MT picks up spirits and tanks them in the center of the dps' cluster.

Keep full HoTs running on the OT until the shamblers are dead of diseases; the little ghouls won't hurt much and only require a rejuv or so to heal through. As the MT picks up and begins tanking the spawned spirits in the middle of the group, begin reHoTing him and keep the HoTs going, though allow your lifebloom to bloom off for mana. Use an innervate in this phase if you need it, otherwise use it early during the next phase.

Phase 2:
"Let's do the Defile Dance!"

As the group is running in to meet the Lich King again, get full HoTs rolling on the MT if they've dropped at all and be ready for some big hits, as the Lich King's buff stacks from Phase 1 may not yet have dropped off. Keep some HoTs rolling on the OT, as well, until the spirit she is tanking from the transition is dead: the MT will be taking far more damage, however.

Ironically, this is probably the easiest phase for me. While the disc priest is back to raid-bubbling around Infest, I go back to tank healing... but we only use one tank, so I don't have to maintain two lifeblooms again. In normal mode, we choose to swap tanks for soul reaper, but for heroic, we've moved to a single-tank strategy, using cooldowns for every reaper to shield the tank. This allows me to keep HoTs rolling on the MT at all times, and allows our OT (prot pally) to focus on just maintaining soul-reaper cooldowns and stunning the valkyr. The OT should periodically be taunting to ensure she maintains secondary threat on the Lich King in case the MT dies.

You will need to watch ALL timers. They are all important to you.

Infest: if the timer is ticking down and someone is missing a shield (due to bubbling fail, disc priest taken by valk, or the target loosing their shield to standing in a defile), the disc priest needs to CALL OUT who is missing the shield if they will need help clearing the infest. In cases where 2-3 people in a party missing a shield, things like the moonkin or a feral druid using tranquility is a great split-second rescue; otherwise, the MT-healer can usually save those couple people. A ret or prot pally can be asked to use lay-on-hands to counter a disastrous infest, as well.
Defile: the group needs to move out of the center circle to drop these. About 3-5 seconds before it goes off, run yourself up towards the throne side of the platform so that, if you're targeted, it'll drop the defile harmlessly out of the path of everyone. Just don't run far if a valkyr is about to spawn. We have most of our raiders drop their defiles up in this region, while a few of our dps scatter to the sides. The key is making sure the defiles are not in the center of the platform (it's hardest when it's on tanks) and that all raiders scatter from each other in the seconds before defile is dropped. Having a largely ranged-dps raid aids in this.
Valkyr: be close to the center. It's the same as normal mode, which you should, by now, be able to handle :) My only note here is that you try to refresh lifebloom to full on the MT before the valk swoops down in case you're the one grabbed, so that the tank has more time with HoTs while you're in the valk's clutches. If you are the one grabbed, make sure to call it out, so that your co-healer knows they need to cover your job and so that others know they may need to blow extra cooldowns/potions.
Soul Reaper: the raid needs to maintain a cooldown rotation on the MT, assuming you are not tank-swapping. As the reaper begins to tick off, spam nourish so that it will quickly offset the health drop, before the tank takes another hit. If you are tank-swapping, monitor it so that you can catch both the drop in health from the first tank, and the incoming hits on the second.

After ten zillion attempts, you begin to know the defile timers by heart. First Valk: wait for it to swoop down, then position yourself on the far side of the ice block for defile. After defile, move back in. 2nd Valk coincides with the 2nd defile: either may come first, though usually the defile comes right after the valk; move quickly, then regroup. 3rd valk, then move for defile, then regroup. 4th tends to coincide again. Etc.

For a general idea of the movement, refer to these diagrams:

Note that people are avoiding putting a defile puddle at their back, as compared to the dead center of the room. This is because if they were picked up, the valkyr would take them over that puddle, which would inhibit melee assistance as well as possibly drop them into the puddle when they are freed. Using a pair of example defiles, you can see by the red-tint where you don't want to stand when a valk is about to spawn (unless you're a warlock with a teleporter at your back).

As with normal-mode, make sure the group doesn't transition past 42% without grouping at the edge of the platform together. Don't let the group move to the edge until after a valk spawn, and mind defiles: push him to 40% only when there is no risk of either a) people getting caught in the middle during the transition or b) people getting valk'd while too close to the edge for a rescue.

Transition:
"Hai, I can haz mana?"

I generally heal everyone during this phase. Similar to the first transition, sans the adds, though I recommend having both tanks picking up spirits to split the damage they're taking; keep them both lightly HoTed, but you can give your lifebloom button a bit of a breather in favor of rejuv and wild growth, with nourishes to quickly boost someone who the Pain and Suffering debuff is stacking high on, or tanks.

Innervate again if you need it: the next phase will be intensive.

Phase 3:
"Ghost-bombs! FLEE!"

The group can just step onto the platform and work immediately on killing the leftover transition spirits. In the meantime, we had the MT and healers work their way towards the center platform to pre-position themselves; this worked because we had such mobile healers. This first bit doesn't last long: just get HoTs rolling on anyone who needs it, as the whole raid will shortly be Soul-Harvested. Also, make sure no one stands in front of the adds' silence-cones.

With the whole raid getting sucked into sword-land, group up immediately in the center, then follow a pre-determined "leader" (likely a tank or melee appropriately marked) around the room. Heal everyone. Rejuv-blanket, wild growth on cooldown, swiftmend as emergency. Use every GCD. This is going to be hard when you've also got to be following someone through the shifting maze of falling bombs. I really suggest having that leader be vocal in vent about movements, ie "going a bit towards the center" or "moving a bit further, watch the bombs behind us" or "hold up here, don't go too far," being the vocal shepherd while you're distracted by keeping everyone alive.

A few notes:

The sword-phase is the best time for a bear tank to provide an innervate to healers.
Anyone who takes an ankh, battle res, or soulstone after the group is sucked into the sword will have that time peacefully unmolested on the platform, where they can heal themselves, rebuff, and poke the Lich King. I don't suggest having people suicide needlessly for this... but it is a good use of people who get pancaked by spirit explosions.
About 5 seconds before the sword phase ends, get HoTs restacked on the MT.

Defile will be cast immediately after you exit out, so begin spreading to the sides as soon as you zone back onto the platform. Focus on keeping the MT alive, and yell at the tanks if they split too far from each other; monitor the soul reaper timers closely. The OT should periodically be taunting to ensure she maintains secondary threat on the Lich King in case the MT dies. Stay generally out of the center of the platform, and run circuits of the outer edge. Slowing traps will go in the center, and the tank will run through the middle from time to time to set them off.

We kept non-tanks out of the center line of the room (north to south) aside from dropping traps, because they used this line to kite the Lich King back and forth each add spawn. We aimed to keep it free of defiles, and the soaker (be it the OT or a dispersioned shadow priest) would hop in to absorb a chunk of explosions; all other players needed to steer clear of it. If you, as a healer, get out of range of one of the tanks, let your other healer and the tanks know over vent so that they can cover appropriately while you get back in range.

You can take one ghost hit at a time (two if you have a priest bubble plus barkskin). Use your barkskin to help shield against impact. Spread out a bit from the rest of the group, and constantly be on the move so that you can pop rejuvs around the raid while keeping the MT standing. Don't stand right next to the tank in case a defile drops. A range mod set to 10 can help you with keeping clear of others who are taking an explosion near you.

Once the leftover transition adds are down, the raid will focus on dpsing the Lich King and killing the flying spirits. Just focus on staying alive and keeping the whole raid up, especially the MT around the Soul Reapers. Have your raid make use of all available CC and survival mechanisms to handle the spirits: moonkin typhoons, dispersion, frost traps, etc.

...good luck :)

Nazantia: "So that was Kae's fault?"

12.4%...

2010-09-08T21:53:00.002-04:00

Heroic LK!

ARGH! So close, I can taste it!

OT: A Cat's Training Methods

2010-09-08T09:24:00.002-04:00

True story. Sans sound effects. I had to help her up the last steps afterwards, because she didn't want to be hissed at in the face again. I swear the cat laughed. "Myah, myah!"

Speaking of sounds, I found this very odd "Martha Stewart Collection" (lol) dog toy bat thingy. It has multiple squeakers wrapped up in one ball, so they squeak in synch, with this demented and ghostly wailing, keening, crying sound. The moment I squeaked it in the store, my husband and I locked eyes and grinned: it was too weird to NOT get. And River loves it, even though her jaws aren't strong enough yet to get it to squeak for herself.

If you see one at the store, yourself, give it a slow squeak and you'll see what I mean.

On a related note, sorry about the high-pitched puppy barks in the background of vent last night, btw, guildies >_> She was generally well-behaved through the raid, only getting into trouble once when she discovered the toilet paper roll in the bathroom, and I had to spend Sindragosa with a raccoon-squeaky trapped under my leg in the chair so she could pull and growl at it while I raided.

Rawr, squeaky. Rawr.

Watching for Tank Cooldowns

2010-09-07T14:36:00.011-04:00

Patch 3.3

But you're a resto druid. Why?

While watching your own cooldowns and boss timers can be hectic enough on its own, there are times where sharing cooldowns with someone else is necessary to manage a regular, heavy-damage spike. As a resto druid, though, I have no tank-saving cooldowns: I am limited to a NS+HT macro for an instant big heal, which may or may not crit. All I have are "OSHIT" buttons; they have no special abilities beyond healing.

Alas, H-LK has shoved the idea of monitoring other peoples' cooldowns down my throat. In order to handle the massive damage without requiring tank swaps and relying purely on 10-strict gear, we've moved to a wild and crazy cooldown rotation that dominates our ventrilo chatter during attempts. Since they have determined that I am a beast at the final phase's AoE healing requirements, I have been drug into the hell that is soul reaper without a tank swap (because swapping tanks in itself often resulted in one or the other dieing, and my mana running dry from the dual-tank lifeblooming required). Also, if we don't have a tranq that night, then we get to play cooldown-dances during P1 for the shamblers, too! FUN TIMES!

While they don't use any of my abilities as a "tank-saving" cooldown, I *do* need to be aware of when there isn't one available, or that our expected cooldown is currently floating away in a valkyr's grip; if that is the case, I know I need to be prepared to dump some heavy, direct heals in to try to save them, and time a cast to heal just after the reaper but before any other damage hits the injured tank (which would easily kill them). Or... I have to prep for a hasty tank swap (which means stacking HoTs on the other tank) and possibly a battle res around infest and defile timers.

So, to the meat of my post: I want to collect and learn what the different cooldowns are, and memorize their icons so that I can quickly process that information without interrupting myself in the chaos that is hardmode Lich King. So, this post was born.

The Mod

I have used the mod RaidCooldowns as a way to monitor innervates and battle reses, ankhs, and soulstones for a good long while, now. It's useful in that it is based off of the combat log events, so that it does not require another person to have the mod installed in order for you to track their cooldowns. It's got its problems, like not realizing that Beranabus' tranquility is talented and set-bonused to have no cooldown, but that's just because it doesn't actively synch with other people (if they have a different cooldown than the base) unless they have the mod/CTRA/oRA2.

The interface is fairly self-explanatory. You can limit what shows up, and style and position the bars to your preference. Notice the icons: these are the most important part, because these are much easier to glance over and process than trying to read a long ability name tacked onto the bar in addition to the character name it's reading for. For the purposes of decluttering, I think it's best to learn the icon, and ditch the ability name from the bar.

There are other mods you could use, like oRA3, but this is the one I have experience with. I'm also quite certain that you can set up Power Auras to alert you whenever your target or focus has a tank-saving cooldown active, if your tanks are less vocal.

The Cooldowns

"Tank Savers"

A tank-saving cooldown is an ability that can be used to protect a tank from incoming damage or otherwise avert a tank's death from an incoming attack. These are often talented special abilities and can take the form of reducing the damage coming in, or increasing the tank's ability to resist or soak the damage without dieing. Some of these are personal, while others can or must be used on targets other than the caster.

Others

Some non-tanks have a personal cooldown akin to a tank-saving cooldown, like Evasion or Dispersion. It's not a tank-saving cooldown because they aren't tanks :)
Anything that is purely reactive or just a healing-ability is not a tank-saving cooldown, as it does not mitigate the damage about to be taken. They are useful, certainly, but they do nothing to shield the tank above what their current health and defensive stats can handle. These abilities include things like Nature's Swiftness and +healing received buffs.

Priests
"Tank Savers"

Guardian Spirit: anti-death. Provides a 40% +heal buff as well as negating one death.

Pain Suppression: damage-reduction shield. 40%; also includes a small threat reduction.

Others

Dispersion: personal damage reduction. 90% (shadow)

Paladins
"Tank Savers"

Divine Shield: personal immunity, but reduces damage you deal.

Divine Protection: personal damage reduction shield. 50%.

Ardent Defender: personal damage reduction + anti-death. (prot)

Hand of Protection: shareable physical immunity, but target is unable to attack.

Hand of Sacrifice (single) and Divine Sacrifice (party-wide): shareable damage transfer to the paladin. 30% of each hit is transferred.

Others

Lay on Hands: shareable extremely large heal based on the paladin's own health pool
Divine Intervention: shareable complete-immunity and removal from combat. Wipe protection.

Shaman
"Tank Savers"

none.

Others

Nature's Swiftness: removes cast time from a spell, ie. heal (resto)
Reincarnation: personal self-resurrection, sometimes referred to as "ankh up"

Warriors
"Tank Savers"

Shield Wall: personal damage-reduction shield. 60%.

Shield Block: personal block increase (physical damage). 100%.

Last Stand: personal health increase. 30%.

Stoicism via Bloodrage: SPECIAL. Usually causes a drop in health, but with 4-pc T10, it will provide a personal damage-absorption shield. (thanks, Koch, for pointing this one out!)

Others

Intervene: warrior takes a hit intended for the target; can also provide damage reduction via talents (prot, 30%).
Enraged Regeneration: personal heal.

Deathknights
"Tank Savers"

Bone Shield: personal damage reduction. 20%

Unbreakable Armor: personal armor buff. 25%

Icebound Fortitude: personal damage reduction. 40%+

Vampiric Blood: personal health increase (15%) and +heal buff.

Anti-Magic Shell: personal spell damage reduction (75%, unholy 100%)

Anti-Magic Zone: shareable, stationary spell damage reduction (75%). (unholy)

??? via Bloodtap: SPECIAL. With 4-pc T10, it will provide a personal damage-reduction shield (12%)

Druids
"Tank Savers"

Barkskin: personal damage-reduction shield. 20% (feral).

Survival Instincts: personal health-boost (feral). 30% (45% glyphed).

Enraged Defense via Enrage: SPECIAL. Enrage typically decreases armor, but with 4-pc T10, it will provide a personal damage-reduction shield. (thanks, Kaethir, for pointing out the proc buff!)

Others

Frenzied Regeneration: personal bear HoT, glyphed for +20% heal-received buff.
Nature's Swiftness: removes cast time from a spell, ie. a heal (resto)
Rebirth: battle res.
Tranquility (party): a channeled heal that is a powerful party-only rescue.

Pure DPS Personals
Other classes have personal "oh shit" buttons that you may wish to be able to recognize:

Evasion: Rogue dodge boost, sometimes enables them to tank physical damage
Cloak of Shadows: Rogue spell immunity, very short duration
Vanish: Rogue aggro-drop
Ice Block: Mage complete immunity, short duration
Invisibility: Mage aggro dump
Feign Death: Hunter aggro-drop, may be resisted
Soulshatter: Warlock aggro-drop

Note that including these in your raid cooldowns tracking may create clutter that you do not need to know, making it difficult to pick out the important timers at a half-glance. RaidCooldowns will allow you to deselect cooldowns like these, so that you do not have to track them. This may help you immensely if you are, like me, still learning what the important icons look like.

The Cooldowns, Re-Organized:

Tank Personal Cooldowns

Others' shareable Tank-Saving Cooldowns

Other shareable "OSHIT" Buttons

What I'd LIKE to have:

Yeah, yeah, I'm picky and possibly dreaming.

A light-up "action bar" style row of abilities, showing what IS available for those in my raid to use, greyed out with a spiral-cooldown OmniCC type timer to show when they will next be ready. This would be limited by class and spec and if they're even alive. If it could also light red to say "hey, out of range or unable to cast cuz the guy's been stunned or is falling down a hole into an abyss of doom," that'd be great. ...I suppose that's what voice chat is for, but hey, I'm a visual person!
OR at least a way to reskin the RaidCooldowns bars to DamiaUI skin... it doesn't block as much screen :) I've dug through the mod files but haven't been able to figure out yet what to copy, as the DBM skin template is a separate xml file and I'm a mod-script noob being distracted by a fluffy puppy. >_>

Off-topic: A Raven Red Riding Hood

2010-09-03T14:10:00.004-04:00

I've been working on a post regarding raid cooldowns, but as it's still in development, I decided in the meantime to share a short story I wrote. I hate to write ill of a wolf, but as personified, some people are good, and some are cruel.

Enjoy :)

The nest near which she perched was rimmed in black down and moss, but that was barely visible around the seven pudgy chicks crowded within the branches. "Gran! Gran!" they chirped. "Story, Gran! Story?"

The old raven chuckled at the hatchlings' eagerness, and addressed the father who knelt at the nest's edge. "A thirst for knowledge and wisdom, I am hearing? This brood may do you proud."

The male raven, far younger than she, inclined his long, curved beak in respect. "Your lore teaches what could otherwise lead to death, if one waited but on experience," he intoned.

The old raven chuckled again, preening her sleek feathers before settling back into a story. "You know of wolves, hatchlings?"

"Yes, Gran, yes!" they chirped, all but climbing over one another. The largest fluttered wildly and pecked another on the head, fighting for the right to be the one to recite. The others leaned away, allowing the boisterous one to speak for them. "Wolves are ground-runners, large and fast/They bring down prey, rip them open for repast/A raven must remember: the wolves eat first; birds last."

The old raven clapped her wings, the long feathers striking together in a swift motion without even leaving her perch on the branch. "An excellent verse to remember, Youngling. A wolf and its pack can be a sure ticket to a meal, but always beware that those teeth that open your lunch could just as easily be turned to your own skin."

Here she paused, letting her gaze slide over the landscape of the valley, and then she began. "There was once a wolf who sought a raven's help. 'Here, Raven, look what I have found,' he called out. And sure enough, he had found a bracelet of beads, human-made, and even washed them of the blood in the stream so that they sparkled in the sun."

"He killed a human for the beads," one of the chicks half-whispered, and another bat a wing at the first and rolled his eyes at what was, to him, a dumb remark stating the obvious. The old raven merely nodded slightly in confirmation and continued with her story.

"The raven swept down to a lower branch to inspect the wolf's find, and did indeed covet the prize. Knowing that rare was the wolf who would keep such things, the raven did ask, 'What a fine thing! And what could this humble Raven do if, perchance, the Mighty Wolf wish to trade?'

"The wolf let the bracelet dangle from his teeth as he spoke, 'Your aid, Lady Raven, for I seek to find a Trespasser! Your sharp eyes and strong wings could surely find the Mongrel Filth who have stolen into my pack's lands.' The raven cocked her head in curiosity, and did say, 'Specifics may aid in your Quest, Lord Wolf, for my avian eyes may not see Royalty from Whelps, among the canid kind.'

"The wolf trotted slowly closer to the branch, bringing the bauble closer to the raven's perch; it shone in the sun like a string of stars. 'Strange wolves to this land, Winged One, who entered from Far South. Last my pack tracked them to the Rolling Hills, and there lost them, after the troublemakers did injure my Dear Son.' The raven did flutter her wings at this news, for she had not heard of it yet; 'Your pup, injured?' she asked, and the wolf nodded gravely. But the raven was wise, and knew the year to be growing late, and so said 'Surely your pup could stand its own ground, being full grown by now?'

"The wolf was caught in its attempt to sway judgment, and its triangle ears did flatten back briefly, but after a pause, the wolf stepped again closer with the bracelet, 'A fight most unfair, given the Trespass upon our land and the Poaching of our prey,' he now said. 'They must be driven away, and quickly; surely you know of where they have gone, with your eyes so keen in the Sky?'

"The raven looked again at the bauble, weighing options, for it had indeed seen these strange wolves in the valley before. Who could not have noticed? Loud calls bringing together a band of strangers, fights amongst the resident pack and these new arrivals, and all the prey creatures growing skittish with the territorial howls ringing in the woods? But the wolf was growing impatient as the raven mulled this over, and he said 'I do not offer just any trinket for your aid, Wise Raven; come and look more closely. For within these jewels lies the fire tamed by humans, itself! I had to douse them in the river just to cool them. Come closer, you must see!'

"The raven was startled by so strange a thing, that the raven fluttered down from the branch and did go closer to the wolf, who held the human beads within his teeth. 'Ah ha!' cried the wolf, and he leapt with great speed upon the raven!"

The old raven paused here dramatically, flaring her wings out in emphasis, the expansive tips brushing through the leaves of a nearby branch. The chicks squawked and chittered, and their father chuckled.

"The raven was pinned beneath the wolf's heavy feet, the very bauble she sought now pressing into the feathers of her breast, along with the wolf's sharp teeth. Teeth that were used to rip through hide and crush through bone! And from around his deadly grip, the wolf now snarled..." and the story teller lowered her voice into the ominous, gutteral tones of a wolf, " 'Tell me where the mangy filth is, bird, or I'll be feeding your heart to my alpha!' "

It looked like one of the chicks fainted. It was an act, of course; after bit of rustling, her head popped back up amongst nervous giggles.

"Now the raven knew the wolf would track down the strangers with her help or not, and whether the bracelet was ever traded became a moot point next to preserving her own life. So the raven squawked angrily, 'I would of course tell you, Cruel Wolf, who talks so Sweetly when I am in the tree! I can divulge the location of one now, in fact, last as I had seen the Creature wander; if you but let me up now, I can share it, and then seek out others in trade for your Prize.' The wolf's hot breath stunk over the raven's feathers as he considered, and at last he growled, 'Tell me the location of the One, first, and then I shall let you go to find the others.'

"The raven knew a wolf could track by scent, and so told him the honest truth, 'One did go to the shallow den by the Ancient Hickory, the one gnarled and dieing at its crown, where the Great Horned Owl does sleep. You may find your Stranger there. The others are more dispersed, but I can find them quickly, should my Wing be uninjured,' the raven said darkly. The wolf relented and relinquished his grasp, letting the raven beat rapidly back up into the tree; the bracelet remained in his jaws, locked around his sharp back teeth. 'Seek out the others, then,' the wolf now ordered, 'Return here regularly to report. When they have all been found and killed, you can have your human trash,' and the wolf now bounded away.

"The raven preened, smoothing out feathers in the fading sunlight, noting quite happily that the wolf had not taken the whole pack to take down what he thought to be one weak and alone Stranger-Wolf cornered in a shallow cave. As the sun began to spin towards the horizon, the raven took wing and flew to that cave, alighting on the safe branches of the Ancient Hickory to see what had come of the Cruel Wolf.

"In the fading light of dusk, the wolf's carcass lay, split open by claws longer than flight feathers. Just within his gaping jaw still sat the bracelet, dull now with the wolf's blood. The raven checked to be sure no one else was in sight. She then flitted down quickly, snatching up both bracelet and meat, savoring greatly her meal for all the trouble this wolf had given."

The old raven swept back in a grand bow, her story winding towards its end. "Had that Wolf not so threatened the Raven, it may have lived its full life; but also, had the Raven not thought so quickly, it may have been dead, itself, that day." The old raven paused here, watching the faces of the chicks as they mulled over the story thus far.

After a moment, one chick asked the question the old storyteller was waiting for, "Did the Stranger-Wolf kill the Cruel One, Gran?"

The storyteller gave a sharp, gleeful laugh. "Oh no," she said, "That is the best part: for the Cruel Wolf had threatened her life and harmed her pride, the Raven chose to tell a half-truth. Indeed, the Stranger had denned there one night recently, but just that morning, the Raven had seen a great Grizzly napping at that cave, three Bumbling Cubs rolling about her. A lone wolf is no match for a bear, let alone one so fierce as a mother protecting her cubs."

The chicks sighed appreciatively at the Raven's honest trick. The old raven preened her feathers again, the iridescence still shining bright blues and purples in spite of her age.

"The bracelet," another asked, "Did it really contain Human Fire and Stars?"

The old storyteller chuckled and winked, "Perhaps it did, perhaps not. If it were truly of fire, though, how could a raven keep it without her nest burning to cinders?"

The chicks pondered. "A secret stream nest!" one finally suggested. "With a waterfall!"

The chick's father chuckled at his daughter's creativity. "That would be a sight to see."

"Remember my story well, Younglings," the old Raven now said, returning her gaze to the valley, "and I bid you good day."

"Gran, Gran! Another story?"

The old raven chuckled, "Perhaps another time," she said, and she spread her great wings and swept out from the tree, catching a warm air current to lift up under her wings, letting her soar over the valley.

On Limited Spots

2010-09-01T08:14:00.005-04:00

So, let's step back and talk generic for a moment. Say you're organizing something without getting paid to do it. It takes a lot of time and effort, and involves a good number of helpers (officers, staff, whatever) who are also unpaid in order to get your "program" off the ground.

Due to space, you can only accept a certain number of participants.

Now, say your "program" has become insanely popular. You're successful, you're doing something people love, and you suddenly have a "wait list" of people all wanting into those limited spots. This is pretty ideal, as far as the program's success is concerned.

But... those participants who are left out start to whine. They don't want to be on the wait list. For whatever reason, you can't fit them in, and darn it if they aren't going to try every trick in the book to figure out how to get in.

A few things I have seen:

Begging. (This runs the gamut from polite "please?" to full out drama-queens that say you're ruining the life of them/their family/their friends)
Offering bribes.
Harassing the volunteers working for you (begging or generally being a nuisance).
Threatening to tell others not to attend your event or threatening to get others to leave.
Insulting the organizer's "business skills" for not providing enough space for them.
Threatening to get the organizer fired "and you'll be jobless and homeless and never work in this field again!" (....these people don't realize that it's volunteer)
Threatening to set up an even better version that will steal people away from yours (have fun organizing it and getting all the volunteers you need, dude!)... and then, when you appear unphased by that "threat," they then ask for all of your notes and contacts on how you developed your program/event, as well as for your help in doing it (wait, wut?).

This happens with shows. This happens with conventions. This happens with banquets. This happens with camps. This happens with MMO raids; it happens for raiding slots on the roster itself. You know what? If your program has a first-come, first-serve policy, if you showed up late to registration or your raid, tough luck, try to get in next time. Or if it has requirements and a ranking system preferential to the best applicants/participants (including hardcore guilds and competitions), oh well: try harder to improve before you come around again. The world doesn't revolve around a single person: it's a group effort, and others want that spot just like you do.

The most outrageous (and hilarious) that I have seen is one from outside of the game, where a mother threatened to drop her child off at an event that had no further registration space and said "there won't be anything you can do about it!".... to which the organizer calmly quoted her the phone number for Child Protective Services, as 'they are usually involved in cases of child abandonment.'

Yep.

In the case of a recurring event, rotation can be set up (such as we often see in WoW raids): those on the previous event's wait-list may get priority on sign-ups for the next event. This, of course, can only work to a point: the person still needs to actually sign up and submit all appropriate paperwork (medical documents, bio forms, payment, etc). Showing up unannounced to the limited event because you think you're entitled to a spot just means you'll get embarrassment; the best you can do is to just be available on a wait list and ready to hop in if a spot opens up. Going around saying you're going to an event when you haven't even been invited/listed/registered is also a sure way to get embarrassed.

I will say this, though:
Being polite, helpful, and understanding will get you much further than being a PitA.

So, limited spots: acknowledge them. Apply for those spots following the rules set out by the leadership. If you missed out, don't be a pain about it... especially if it's being run by volunteers who aren't getting paid to put up with BS.

Disclaimer: no, this wasn't sparked by anything from my current raiding situation :) breath easy, my guildies!

Raiding with a Puppy

2010-08-30T10:07:00.001-04:00

Young puppies require a lot of attention. At 8 weeks old, they may not even be potty trained. Trying to raid while you have a puppy rolling around your computer room is... interesting, to say the least; and when you're working on something like Hardmode Lich King, you need your full concentration in the game.

So, what's a new puppy owner to do?

At least one hour (preferably 2) before the raid, take her outside and play. Play hard. If she'll chase a ball, use that; if not, take a long stick and run around the yard with her chasing it. Or have her chase you. Just get her running!
Make sure she potties. "Afk my puppy peed on the floor" isn't a fun call to make mid-raid!
Lavish her with attention before the raid. Do this even if you have a family member who will look after her during the raid, because bonding time with your pup is important.
Save 15 minutes of time before you log in as "wind-down" time. Set up her usual nap area (my puppy insists on having a fan going... northern breeds, go figure!) and pet her/brush her. Let her calm down.
If you can't keep her in the computer room with you (wires, carpet, etc) I suggest a crate. Otherwise, you'll be distracted by needing to stop her from chewing on everything (wires, carpet, papers, trash can, cats, door frames, bookcases, table legs, your feet) or be ever-paranoid about her leaving a puddle on your floor.
Attend your raid. Ignore the cries/whines for attention; a couple of hours alone in a crate is not going to hurt her. Just don't abandon her all evening, particularly if you've been gone all day, too!
During any 10/15 minute break, take her outside quickly if you know she has a weak bladder. Give her some food and let her settle back down; a chew toy or frozen carrot will also occupy her as you return to your raid.
Return to her after your raid for a longer walk and playtime. She will have missed you.
Train her to control your character.......... I wish. :)

If you have any additional tips or just stories to share, I'd love to hear them :)

Woof.

2010-08-27T13:33:00.002-04:00

River finds her bark.... wait, what?
IS THAT MY BARKSKIN?!

Semi-OT: Requiring a Data Plan?

2010-08-26T08:34:00.007-04:00

I read a news article yesterday that said,

Quote:

“As instructors, it might behoove us to take a look at whether we want to require a hardcover textbook or a data plan [for phones],” he said. “It’s not going to work on every subject, and it’s not going to work in every department, but we need to look at it.”

This set my mind churning.

First, a bit on my perspective:

I work at a major university. I am a gamer, as well, who happens to dislike using cell phones because they are noisy, distracting, and demand your immediate attention. They are also very audio-centric, which doesn't mix well with my heavy preference for writing and visuals: I want to type and read, not listen. I will confess that, out of my phone-hating bias, that I didn't bother TRYING to learn how to send a text message on my phone until I was sitting bored in a car in a parking lot 5 months ago, and only did so because I knew it would be text-based.

I am an odd mix, certainly: a (relatively) young phone-hating gamer who works in distance learning at a university. I can respect that phones have their ingrained place in the American society, however, given the way that they interconnect people in places where a computer's internet access isn't assured. When it comes to learning, connectivity is key.

Requiring a data plan??

Why would a college instructor do this, specifically, for their class?

They themselves are heavy phone users
The school is in an area with good cell phone signal
The curriculum doesn't require a lot of software programs that a phone would be unable to run
There is no guaranteed wireless connection around campus/dorms/where-ever the class may be spread, as may be the case with a school spread through a town

What is a data plan but an internet connection for your phone? Am I perhaps spoiled by living in an area where students are all given great wireless access for their laptops, with a centralized campus and a wireless signal expanding even to the bus system?

To be honest, if I were ever confronted by an instructor who told me I have to get a data plan for my phone in order to retreive online class materials, I would balk. For one thing, I would have to get a new phone that would allow me to type better. And a larger screen that could reasonably read the websites without converting it all into ugly chunks of plain text with horrible formatting. And a better scrolling option. And I'd have to remember to charge it and take it with me every where. And I'd wonder why my teacher is so interested in being able to send me emails or class announcements while I'm out on Friday night with friends.

At that point, I would say, "A laptop would serve me better. Why is a laptop with internet access not enough? Why should I get a phone data plan instead?"

Anti-Phone

Some may argue that it'd not be a big leap to require a data plan, "Everyone already has a phone, and most already have a data plan." I'd have to argue against this. I was forced to get a cellphone by my then-fiancee during college because of safety reasons: I was doing field work and he wanted me to be able to call out if there was an emergency. As someone who enjoys backpacking, I couldn't argue with his reasoning. Within the first year, though, I lost it down a hole in a huge field while doing soil sampling. I still go camping and expect my cell phone to be a durable, rugged, preferably water-proof lifeline to emergency services. A blackberry is unlikely to survive me very long. (EDIT: Rhii tells me Blackberries aren't the delicate flowers I make them out to be. :) I stand corrected.)

Aside anti-phone wierdos like me, there are those who can't afford one, or can't afford the data plan. Locking an international student into a phone plan for the sake of making sure they can check email on the sidewalk just makes me squirm. Buying textbooks for a class is painful enough, but at least a $80-$160 book (and that's on the high end) for one class is cheaper than a $60/month data plan for dealing with heavy email attachments and web use. A class that doesn't need a textbook would otherwise be a financial breathing point, saving the student money, but instead it would be filled with an even more expensive data plan.

This is in addition to the basic computer requirement held by any major university, because a phone's not going to be able to run the necessary software to create presentations, spreadsheets, or term papers. There are also special software packages like AutoCAD, ArcGIS, and Photoshop and design studios. Some classes/programs even require Tablets.

Why not a laptop? Laptops come in all sizes and power, and can have internet access of their own. Computers are required for most American college students, anyway. You can get a cheapo word-processing, internet-browsing laptop for the same price or less as that little iPhone, and it'll still weigh less than most text books. You can get a decent laptop and use it for internet access, while it can also run programs you want/need (like if I want to play WoW while sitting in a cafeteria), both in the classroom and for recreation.

I don't like it.

I'm not saying that there aren't some people who like data plans for their phone; there are certainly some out there who find it more convenient to have a pocket-sized web browser. Being able to price-check or look up reviews while standing in the store is always a bonus.

REQUIRING a student to get a data plan for a phone (when some may not even have a phone) for a class, however, is a little extreme, given the current cost compared to already having a computer requirement.

So, I guess I'm just left baffled. As time goes on, phones and laptops are becoming more similar, and the lines between them are blurring. Requiring a student to have both with internet access for the sake of a single class just seems like asking too much, financially. I just can't understand the reasoning of requiring, specifically, a phone data plan for a class that will span all of 3 months, when a student may instead prefer to keep their internet access mobile via a laptop.

So I'm throwing this out there. I know we, as gamers, tend to rely much more heavily on having a good, strong computer: do you have a data plan on your phone, too? Is it used enough to be worth the money you spend? If you were a cash-strapped college student who had to buy a laptop for a whole degree program and were then asked by a single class to also get a phone data plan, would you complain, or think it unfair to those students without data plans already?

Or, perhaps, is the quoted person assuming that the student won't have a computer? Have I been spoiled in my perspective by the computer requirements at my own and other major universities? (EDIT: the quoted person's university has computer requirements, as well!).

I think that rather than requiring a data plan, the class should simply require reliable internet access.

Trying to talk WoW...

2010-08-25T14:04:00.004-04:00

So...

...um...

Just because a leaf is defying gravity, doesn't mean it's hacking.
The wind is a perfectly ordinary class mechanic for it.

...

um...

Beta efflorescence graphics: no, this puddle isn't going to melt your feet. EMBRACE THE GREEN OOZE!

...hrmm...

...Lich King? I like bubbles. I hate defile when it eats bubbles. Defile can DIAF while I bounce around the room in my pretty shiny bubble. With fear ward. F U, DEFILE.

F U N D A!..........

...ahem...

*looks around*

*crickets*

....

Oh, who am I kidding. My attention is elsewhere, atm!

If for some bizarre reason you are offended by adorable puppies, I suggest avoiding my blog for a while. Just sayin'.

The cuteness compels me.

RE: River: An Old Bit of Art

2010-08-24T09:06:00.005-04:00

Might not fit in the blog frame, but still worth posting.

This is an old bit of artwork I did back when I had the time and inclination to try "painting" with a mouse (translation: when I wasn't lazy and/or busy). I felt it was appropriate to repost :) This is my original druid, Kae, with her worg pup... I have wanted a puppy for yeeeeeeearrrrrrsss!

Offtopic: SQUEE

2010-08-23T10:06:00.006-04:00

My puppy! She came home this weekend and has spent the past day charming her mommy and daddy. Little River is 7 weeks old and a complete ball of fluff.

Things she likes:

Mommy's socks
Fans
Cat Toys
Belly Rubs
Cool floors
Stepping in her water bowl
Attention
Chasing her tail
Sleeping on her back...

The whole litter is adorable, but I'm biased: River's the best.

In spite of many looking identical.

...

/squee

Sketch: Kaeya

2010-08-18T15:45:00.002-04:00

Her head's too big. Oh well.

Hands are hard. : /

Guest Post: Halion's Cutters

2010-08-17T14:07:00.006-04:00

My guild leader (and our shadow-phase dragon tank) had a brainstorm for a post she wanted to make, so I offered up some rant space for her :) So, here I have a guest post by Alyae:

Dear Blizzard: You are making good raiders feel fail for no reason!

Why Blizzard why? Why did you make a fight like Heroic Halion, and a shadow realm full of instant death?

My case for why this mechanic sucks - Alyae: GM of Vortex of Turalyon

I’ve been doing some thinking, and I think I know the reason. It’s been really puzzling to me why I see my fellow raiders get cut up by the beam of death. These are people that have very good situational awareness, on pretty much every fight. They know how to get out of fires.... But for some reason Heroic Halion is probably harder conceptually for us then even Heroic Lich King.

Why? Because, the Halion fight expects you to do several things at once:

Find a purple blob of death.
Figure out your location corresponding to the purple glob of death.
Locate the purple glob of death immediately to the left
No blob there, check the right.
Put the two blobs you have now found together, one left one right.
Now draw out that picture in your mind, figure out the angles, how they cross in the middle to form two identical shapes, mirrored, the angles, vectors, square root of an isosce....whatever.
Position yourself in a space the size of a credit card on your screen, all mentally.
Now, move there before the cutters chop you in two.

Basically what they are asking you to do is avoid a fire you can’t see by playing a game of connect the dots with geometry... in your mind!

Clever trick isn’t it? It’s basically the equivalent of an old archaic IQ test question in a raid instance.

Ah... those old proven-to-be-bunk IQ tests. Reminisce about the time when you had to look at a multiple choice question, we’re asked to peel back a three dimensional shape into a flat representation and then try to pick the correct one... the memories....Sigh...

...So what am I getting at?

Most good raiders have good situational awareness. They know how to react quickly to threats can taunt or heal with good reaction, they generally make good decisions on the battlefield, and they can push out good numbers while doing it. These are people who see a fire and run away from it.

You see bad, you run from bad, you determine safety, you continue. Every human is good at those mechanics from birth.

The Heroic Halion cutters on the other hand, require critical thinking, the ability to create shapes in your mind, and adapting to that shape as it moves on the playing field. It also requires you to understand that shape in relation to the same shape to the left and right of you. (Avoid the head and the tail)

Some people just are not good at that kind of thinking. Not just that, but it might even be a bit sexist. Women have a harder time then men do on tasks like this. Like it or not. My brain is different from a man’s brain. Thank god. (Sorry guys!)

But putting that Woman/Man brain difference aside.... anyone who has problems with this type of mental equation will have trouble on the cutters no matter HOW good you are at the game.
I tank in the shadow realm because I’m pretty good at laser dodging, but I know when I get cut in half, it’s because I could not see the other orb behind the dragon and screwed up my mental picture. I’m convinced if I was an ace at that part of those old lame IQ tests I’d never be cut by a cutter... EVER.

You can make the argument that putting people in a clump and having people follow each other is a good way to compensate for this. I’m sorry, but if you react to other people, you might be several steps behind the group according to the server and get cut in half by the death rays before you even knew what happened. Add that to the fact that the cutters of death will kill you a few steps away from the visual of the graphic, and you have a recipe for...

Death by Grape Flavoured Light Sabre! News at 11!

I still don’t know why they just throw us a bone, and let us be immune to the death rays at least for a second after they activate. Let us run from something we see, not imagine. You feel me here?

Dear Blizzard:
You are making good raiders feel fail for no reason. As a GM and an officer, that makes me sad.

To the raiders of Vortex:
All of you rock! (Even if you are a kitty druid that feral charges into a cutter.) <3

Kae's comments:

Personally, I'm okay with playing with the cutter beams, and I *am* a girl. Maybe it's more a "geometry vs algebra brains" thing, which isn't gender-dependant. The guild has taken to marking me and following me as their safe point in P2, actually... they seem to think I'm good at this whole beams thing. I do mess up from time to time, though, when I get the timing off and expect the beams to activate a few seconds earlier or later than they do (hmmm I've noticed this especially at phase transitions into P3...).

But... I'm not the tank. Out of those triangles in heroic-mode, I don't have to dance around in the center and hope I'm not cut by the *converging* beams as they blast through the room like a pizza-cutter from the great beyond. The closer you are into the middle (where we tank the dragon), the more likely you'll hit a beam. Hanging around in the space between the center and the wall tends to provide plenty of space for a raid of DPS and healers to hang out, gives more room for error, and still provides a running space for people with debuffs to run out to the wall.

Poor tank, though. If you move too far away from the center, the dragon follows you, then spins a bit and tailwhips your fellow raiders, where they all lay stunned and then all get cut in half by a beam. And then the tank gets yelled at. >_>

Additional problems I've noticed with the beams generally include:

His huge effing wings blocking view
Lag
Other people freaking out when they see a Treant run into a beam and thinking it's me taking a suicidal dive
...or other people blindly following the treant through the beams rather than the tree. ;)

At some point, our guild'll have some combination of laglessness, luck, and a general lack of "omg we've been doing this all night zzzzzz" and manage to get Halion hardmode down... not that the cutters are our only problem (ahem, keeping the fire-side alive in P3 and not dropping gigantic pools of fire on the fleeing shadow phase players...). But, for now, we're honestly seeing hardmode LK as easier and more doable!

The Alt

2010-08-16T15:50:00.007-04:00

"So, how's ICC been treating you?"

Kaelynn looked up at the question, lifting her head from her own thoughts to look over at the little blood elf leaning against the wall nearby. "Icecrown? Oh... it goes. We've seen phase 3 of LK-Heroic. The rest we kinda breeze through these days."

The blood elf smirked to herself, unsheathing a dagger and using it to manicure her own nails. "Not much in the way of good drops? I see your feral kit is a bit... unpolished."

The druid sighed heavily. "Shards, mostly. That's just how loot works, though... in these small raids, drops are usually what isn't needed, while what could be used is never seen."

"Heh," the rogue smiled to herself, "I know what you mean. Every raid, no new daggers. These are serviceable, of course," and she inspected the little blade non-chalantly, "...but they're not even a raid drop. Better than a paper-cutter, at least, I guess."

"It's more the trinkets, really," Kaelynn said, leaning back into her chair and gazing up at the candleabra lighting the dim tavern. "Weapons seem to drop like water. I have a 264 staff or polearm for 4 different specs, but kitty it up with a i200 trinket."

Kaeya, the rogue, narrowed her eyes at the druid. "'Water'? Huh. You are still killing Lich King, right?"

The druid knew that tone in the rogue's voice. Warily, she regarded the rogue out of the corner of her eye. "Yes... we swap it to normal each week."

"....what dropped last night?" the blood elf asked politely, her interest seemingly upon her nails again.

"Shards." The druid said simply, not wishing to upset her rogue companion. A silence fell, and she cleared her throat uncomfortably. "But you know--"

There was a dagger at her throat. "What.... dropped?" the rogue whispered irritably.

The druid scowled. "Now, I *was* going to be nice, but since you've asked..." and she dug into her pocket and pulled out a long pair of deep purple gems. "SHARDS. Shard 1 may be of some interest to you."

The rogue picked up the first gem, sensing the link beneath it. "You didn't!"

"You put a dagger to my throat again and I'll shard them all."

Kaeya glared at the druid, but slid her dagger back into its sheath. "You could've stepped out for me."

"It was Kaalla's turn."

"Kaalla? The paladin? SHE got to go in?" the rogue asked incredulously.

"Yes," the druid said simply. "Have you not also seen Alkes and Immortalus' titles?"

"Wait, THEY have killed the Lich King?!"

"Yes."

The rogue stabbed a dagger into the wall, her blond hair falling into her red face. She was silent a moment. "I'm the oldest alt in the guild. I don't suppose you have suggested I get a chance?"

The druid leaned back with a serene look on her face, and let the question linger between them for a moment. "I did. You are on the list--" and she held up a hand as the rogue looked at her quickly, "But if you threaten me like that again, I will shard every dagger I can master-loot into my bags. And mail them to you. Gift-wrapped."

"Can't gift-wrap stackable items," the rogue hissed under her breath, turning her back.

"I'd find a way."

~~Kae's note: I think my rogue's upset that I haven't played her in a while. Haha.

Oh, and many <3's to Kaalla, Immort, and Alkes ;) Kaeya's just jealous.~~

WTF Tranquility

2010-08-12T09:14:00.004-04:00

Beranabus... you are one strange chicken.

Bus is a moonkin with a resto offspec in my guild. While he is typically running around chaining rejuv/wild growth across the raid when we have him tree it up in our raids (progression or farm iCC10), he does have a fondness for Tranquility, so much so that he went and farmed up a full 8/8 Cenarion Set (tier 1) and...

...somehow...

...seriously, I'm baffled...

...heals his heroic runs with only Tranquility. He posted a video where he is healing Heroic HoR with only Tranquility. With a mostly pug group (and pug tank with some blues). Successfully. This is the guy that I have to remind to use swiftmend/nourish/lifebloom.

....

....

Bus, you pull off some crazy stuff. /salute.

RS10: Halion, Flowchart

2010-08-11T15:57:00.004-04:00

So, weeks ago I started trying to come up with a full stick-figure strat for Halion without it becoming a full 5-page epic like the Lich King did. Then I decided it'd be best to just make it a heroic strat.

But we haven't successfully killed Halion on heroic mode, yet. And what's a heroic guide without excellent tips from someone that's actually seen the dragon DEAD?

So, as a hold-over until I'm able to finish a more formal stick-figure strat (or even a full-out text strat, but I know most of you would rather see stick figures screaming at each other), I have a simplified flow chart.

A simple-strat flow chart with stick figures.

Enjoy. :)

(I'm also posting this a day early, cuz it's finished and I know you all missed your dose of bad artwork while I was gone!)

The problem with "Kae"

2010-08-11T10:40:00.002-04:00

No, this isn't a problem with me personally. Or my character. This is about my name.

I love my name. I think it looks pretty, and it's short and easy to say (though admittedly I did take much humor when the greeks I used to play with pronounced it as "Kai")... but there is a glaring problem with the name.

"K" is used a lot. A lot a lot. It's an affirmative sound tossed all over voice chat, both as "okay" and as the shortened "k." You can imagine the difficulties this can cause for a Kae.

"Okay." "What?"
"K?" "....wait, what?"
"Mmkay." "Sorry, I missed that, did you need me to do something?"
(chorus of affirmative "k"'s resounds through the channel) "WHAT?!"

I have been Kae for 5 years now, and I still do double-takes at some vent conversations. You know how you start to tune out and focus on what you're doing when you know a conversation is not about you, but then you hear your name and snap back to the conversation to figure out what's going on? Oh yes. Kae does that a lot. I have had to train myself to figure out quickly if it was my name or not, which is no easy task for someone like me who is a heavily tactile/visual learner!

Take-away lesson from this is, I suppose, that you should be careful when choosing your name to make sure the sound of it isn't used heavily in conversations, especially if it is short.

And by posting this, I know some of my guildies will probably start messing with my head in ventrilo on purpose for the next few weeks. I will pre-emptively state this to those that are already grinning to themselves about it: "I HATECHU!"

Back!

2010-08-10T17:54:00.003-04:00

Camp was good. Except for the mage that summoned a fire elemental in my tent.

...wait, what?

Using long-exposure photography while playing with a glowstick in your tent results in some strange photos ;)

Gimme some time to get back into the swing of things and wade through a backup of work, emails, and RSS feeds... I have a few posts bouncing around in my head to write up!

AFKae

2010-07-29T08:53:00.004-04:00

Tonight will be a mad [Dash] of packing. I'm leaving tomorrow to go help lead a camp, teaching girls to admire [Nature's Splendor] :) Time to get in touch with my [Nurturing Instinct] while avoiding the [Insect Swarm] (with their [Ferocious Bite]s) and hoping the [Gale Winds] don't blow my tent away (which would most definitely have a negative impact on my [Tranquility]). I shall call upon my [Primal Tenacity] to survive the long hours, but may need to rely on coffee (which I rarely EVER use) to [Revitalize] and [Innervate] myself, else there may be some [Primal Fury] shown.

When I get back, I expect to [Hibernate] for a day or two.

Okay, done linking. WHAT? It was fun :D
I posted a pic of where I was going to my guildies, and Bus used MSPaint to draw me into the scene:

<3 Bus!
There's a running joke in the guild about my wilty tree leaves... I'm jealous of the treants.

BBL :) Maybe once camp is over I'll finally find time to finish my belated Halion strats!

What is Skill?

2010-07-26T10:16:00.013-04:00

"Skill" is a term we throw around a lot in gaming. So what exactly is it? From the dictionary:

the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance
dexterity or coordination especially in the execution of learned physical tasks
a learned power of doing something competently; a developed aptitude or ability

Skill is not given to us by the game. Skill is learned and grown from experience; it is a willingness to learn, an ability to learn, and applying it directly to our play. It's your adaptability and your mental "processing power." Greater skill at one task will lead to quicker learning of a similar task, and this is why skill is so important in progression raiding (any raid where you aren't overgearing the content) and PvP.

Things we gain skill in include use of our own computer (your keyboard and mouse, your direct link into controlling the game), ability/spell selection, reaction speed, and awareness of what things are or might be "bad" (be it a boss ability, environmental effect, or even a game mechanic like pulling aggro or going out of healing range). The speed and accuracy of these things are what make a skilled player... and they are born out of the ability to learn, mental quickness, and experience.

Skill is NOT:

Gear
Sims
Research
Meters
Mods
Macros
Hardware

All of the above are TOOLS. Tools are very separate from skill. They are used to better your character and can impact your performance, but they do not in themselves make for a skilled player. Unskilled players, if given these tools, won't become skilled players just because of the tools: they will become skilled players through experience and an innate ability to learn and react quickly.

I have known players who have failed to improve after being given all the "right" tools. On the flip side, I have known skilled players who didn't use many of these tools at all (we just about all use some mods!). Skill and tools help each other to make a better player, but they are not the same thing.

How do they relate?

In my rough opinion,

Skill + Tools = Player Performance

Skill, or the ability to learn from experience while adapting it to a new situation, is very important. Various tools(when used correctly) add to your situational awareness and aid in processing information, such as perusing logs or comparing gear or knowing what stats you should focus on to what caps; the stats on the gear itself will aid in your overall output and survivability.

A player with a lot of appropriately-used tools can make up for some failing of skill; likewise, a player with a lot of skill can make up for some failing of tools. A player who makes great use of tools while being highly skilled makes for an exceptional player. Though it's not always fair to count on one's luck with gear drops in the game as a measure of their ability as a player, you cannot deny that a person with a legendary weapon should have an edge over someone with a weapon from a heroic 5-man.

Not all tools are accurate or appropriate, either. In a simple example, we could say "Wow, that guy has a i-level 9,000 shirt! He must be AWESOME!" while the shirt is all +spellpower and he's a warrior. While that is unlikely to ever happen, there are some more realistic examples: like sims that don't take into account your own raid composition, or BiS lists that aren't made for a WotLK 10-strict itemization, or suggested rotations that assume you'll have full raid buffs, or that someone else will take care of a debuff that you would otherwise need to apply (mangle/trauma, IFF/misery, totem juggling, etc). Or situations where you could spike the meters through the roof by AoEing on a pack of adds while some other mob should be CC'd or interrupted or single-target-bursted down before it wipes the raid: because you topped meters, you think you did everything right.

This relationship is why we often see people mistakenly equating various tools to skill: they ultimately both impact a player's overall performance. For example (allow me to beat a dead horse for a paragraph), Gearscore is often used as a limit on invites to pug raids because it's a measurable component of the overall performance you would expect from that player. It does not measure actual player skill in the slightest, of course, but some players do like to imagine that it does. What Gearscore does allow is for a raid leader to ensure at least one crutch (being gear with a lot of raw stats) to lean on towards success in an otherwise unknown mash-up raid. Even if I don't like seeing people use Gearscore, I can't deny that gear does contribute in some amount to a raid's success: gear is specifically why we see WotLK 25-man guilds clearing through the lower-iLevel (and less itemized) 10-mans with relative ease. However, gear is just a tool (one that can be misused), and a player not having gear does not mean they can't make up for it with skill... just as a geared player may not necessarily be skilled.

Short of the long: if the guy with the legendary is dead in a fire cuz the internet dragon ate him for the fiftieth time, he's worthless against the raider in blues who is alive because he learned at level 12 that "fire=bad."

How would we measure Skill?

If we could provide a "skillscore," how would we do it? I imagine, for purposes of awareness, it would involve the statistics tracking: number of times you've died to cleave as a DPS/healer, or died in fire, or got hit by a death beam. It would need to be more particular, though: how many times you did these things when the raid was still mostly alive, as I know I use these insta-death mechanics to facilitate a quick wipe when we're resetting a boss for another try! Or whether the tank was still alive, as top-threat dps or healer is sure to die next after a tank goes down. You could measure reaction times by monitoring combat logs, especially in the case of healers or interrupts, or tanks swapping taunts or using protective cooldowns. It's possible with algorithms, but that's only a rough sketch that doesn't cover every possible thing that could happen in a raid, and whether it's that player's fault.

Some other aspects of skill are much harder to quantify: what about those times a tank decides to run LoS from healers? Or carries a cleave or whirlwind right over their squishy fellow raiders? Or how about spell selection--how do you measure that, when it needs to be adaptable from boss-to-boss, situation-to-situation, PvE to PvP, raid comp and spec and talents and lag all contributing to your choice? What about those times a player's just "off" that night, due to mood or lack of sleep or dehydration or family distractions, or a major need for a bio break in the middle of a 15-minute-long encounter, reducing their attentiveness?

How exactly do you measure the full extent of someone's ability to perform their job, without being able to measure their skill? All we can do is to play with a person and see how quickly they learn in a new situation: their adaptability, learning speed, and reaction times. It's not a quantitative measurement, but there is a definite qualitative bar you can place any given person on and say "yeah, she's pretty good," or "wow, that guy sucks," or even "HOLY CARPS we need to recruit that person NOW."

An Example

I spent some time, long ago, trying to help another player who was having a lot of trouble. They were very nice and willing to learn. I sent them all of my mods and macros. I helped them set them up over vent. I walked them through how I chose spells, how I wove my spells when healing, etc. Their gear was on par for the content, and was on par for the others they were healing with. They had a good computer and didn't have a high latency. They didn't die very often to "bad stuff;" they seemed situationally aware.

But they just didn't improve.

I worked with them for a long time. I still feel bad to this day that I never saw any increased performance out of them. All I could do was shrug and say "keep trying." As much as I liked them, I knew the only other possibility was that it had to be an issue of player skill. It was something difficult to pinpoint and quantify, but the result was clear: a poor healer.

TL:DR

Skill + Tools = Player Performance

Don't say gear = skill. Don't say mods or sims or spreadsheets = skill. Those are tools to help you in your growth and ability as a player. Skill, on the other hand, is your adaptability, your experience, your willingness to learn, and your mental reaction time all rolled up into one incredibly-difficult-to-quantify ball of "skill."

You can have a skilled player who doesn't make use of many tools, like spreadsheets or having great gear... just as you can have an unskilled player walking around with a Legendary and quoting EJ (and then dieing in a fire). When recruiting or even looking at a random person standing next to you at the inn, keep that in mind before judging their "skill."

Offtopic: Directoring

2010-07-21T12:58:00.004-04:00

So, as some of you know, I spend quite a bit of my free time that isn't consumed by WoW with volunteering for Girl Scout camps. The biggest of these is a week-long resident camp that I'm now deputy-director of, and is starting in about a week and a half.

Needless to say, it is ze crunch time.

Some of the things that I have spent my spare time on lately:

Creating a detailed class plan for the wildlife science class activity
Organizing a guest speaker (with real animals)
Chasing down other volunteers that need to touch base and turn in paper work
Researching suggestions for those activities that haven't bothered to come up with a plan yet (/facepalm)
Testing out possible last-minute activities (I made a tiny hand-molded clay dragon this weekend)
Working on props and necessary signage
Creating cool little gifts for the 20 girls that I am the unit director for
Touching base with my own unit staff to assign them to different groups of campers
Figuring out how to fit my assigned programs' material purchases into the very limited budget
Creating a "camp tour" and rules guide for the staff to walk their groups through on the first day to make sure everything is covered
Reminding campers about space limitations and "YOU MAY NOT BRING" items on their packing lists
Proof-reading emails being sent back and forth between director and volunteers and parents
Watching the weather forecast and trying to pick a good night to take a small group of them for a night under the stars
Keeping the head director from completely loosing her head and exploding before camp even starts
Consuming fudge and cookies at an alarming rate.

When you're in charge, things are always popping up: problems, research, etc. Any good guild officer can relate to this :)

Kae's Pre-Raid (a picture book)

2010-07-20T08:33:00.000-04:00