Thursday (2 Aug) - Withdrawal Symptoms

Thursday (2 Aug) - Withdrawal Symptoms

Note: I am back home as of 4 Aug.

I've been on vacation with relatives in Virginia for more than two weeks now. It has been a lot of fun and it's been great getting to spend time with family. World of Warcraft has been largely absent . . . yet . . . the other day I found myself checking on the status of the new expansion, Mists of Pandaria. MoP's release date has been finalized and announced - 25 September, 2012. Blizzard has the digital versions available for pre-release download. I will be back home in California late Friday night on 3 Aug. I have decided to buy MoP. Duh, like I really thought I might not.

Even before I learned the release date, I had already caught myself browsing websites for information about MoP. Specifically, I wanted to know more about the new Monk class. Monks are an interesting class. There are a lot of similarities between the monk class and the druid class. For example, both classes have specs for healing, DPS, and tanking. From a spec perspective, the main difference is with the DPS spec. Druids have both melee and ranged DPS specs, while monks have only a melee DPS spec. There is no monk equivalent to a druid's Balance/moonkin spec.

As anyone would expect, I'm most interested in the monk healing spec, which is called Mistweaver. It has been described as being most like a priest's discipline spec, but that is a generality. Mistweaver is a completely new healing spec with it's own strengths and weaknesses. The strength of the mistweaver spec seems to be in group healing, which is very powerful. Monk healers use mana, but also have another source of power called "chi" that is required to cast certain spells. Another interesting aspect of monks is that even as a healer, DPSing is important. Doing damage increases chi, which increases healing, so a monk healer will be both DPSing and healing, which is kind of cool. I plan to level as a Mistweaver, but will also build up a Windwalker spec (melee DPS) to see how that works.

I haven't caught the bug to return to raiding. The new expansion pressure that I have always felt - ie, rushing to level up Wildshard and prepare for the new raids - is non-existent this time. Blizzard has decided to delay the release of the first raid, Mogu'Shan Palace, by one week to give players a chance to level from 85 to 90 without having to death march their way to level 90 in order to raid. That won't affect Wild, as I will not be leveling him immediately.The guild will have to do without Wild and JB as far as raiding goes. Wild's guild shut down their scheduled raiding last week. They just don't have enough interest at present. I think that will change once MoP is out, but right now it's very much dullsville, with a lot of guildies doing little other than leveling up alts.

I've decided to try out the expansion by leveling up a new character in the monk class. No, I'm not going to make a Pandaren Monk. The Pandaren race was a silly idea back when it was no more than talk, and it's even sillier now that there actually is one. I already have relatively high level toons for most of the horde races (and yes, the monk character will be horde): Tauren Wildshard, Troll JB, and Undead Philly. Happyface, once an Orc but long ago morphed into a Goblin, wants no further competition in either of those races. That leaves only the Blood Elf race. Mel is a level 63 blood elf, but she's a death knight that started her leveling at 55. Jocey is also a blood elf at level 27, but has agreed to step aside for a new brother or sister. Another reason I like leveling a blood elf is that their starting zone is the very best laid out of all the races in my opinion. It's also out of the way and not much visited, so early leveling should go very quickly.

I have been considering names. I want to get a name saved before the release so that I'm not flailing about for a name at the last minute. I'm going to list my ideas below, but feel free to make suggestions:

Here are some choices in no particular order of importance:

Perpetua - a woman Martyr of 200 AD known for visions that included both saving lives (healing) and battling enemies (DPS).

Morgaine or CJMorgaine - Morgaine is the main character in the novel "Gate of Ivrel", the first novel written by one of my favorite authors, CJ Cherryh. I could also use some combination of Ivrel, Morgraine, CJ, etc ...

Mararooney or Rooneymara, Lisbeth, Salander or other variation, perhaps CJLisbeth - What, don't know where these come from? Really?

Googoogiapan - Shaolin monks have a long history, and there is a Simpsons episode called Goo Goo Gia Pan where they visit a Shaolin temple.

Plumflowerfist - a style of martial arts called Meihuazhuang that has many variations and can be adapted to many styles. It focuses on dynamic motion, light rapid footwork, and large flowing motions.

Hmm, it's looking like Jocey and Mel will be getting another sister.

The new blood elf monk will have every advantage the Wild family can provide her. Happy will cough up plenty of gold. There will be heirloom gear to speed leveling. I'll ask Wild's guild to invite her to get the advantages of a max level 25 guild. Wild's youngest will not lack for anything. The ultimate goal is for the monk to be my first level 90 character.

The State of the Auction House - I intentionally did not bring my Authenticator, and have not opened WoW even once during the vacation. Happy is anxious to get back into action. When I left, prices on key mats were in freefall and buying was way down as everyone anticipates the need for the new mats coming out of the expansion. Happy is betting that there will be a huge influx of new characters being leveled as Pandarens and/or the monk class, and that all of them will need the older mats Happy sells to get their enchants done. Happy has already built up his stock to accommodate that, but he won't know where the prices have gone until he gets in there and checks.