Friday (5 Mar) - Sidetracked
Between the Mrs getting ready for another weekend trip, plus spending a good part of Friday hunting furniture bargains for some bedroom furniture, and painting two bathrooms, I zonked out around 10pm and never made it in game. I had every intention of playing, and even had Wild in game for a couple minutes a half hour earlier, but . . . Philly sends her apologies to DER and Sis for standing them up. I know you were both looking forward to some more wipes and repair bills while Philly figured out how to heal :P , but she'll make it up to you next week. As punishment, Philly will test the random dungeon thing before our next get together. Philly did get an upgrade for her helm, a sore spot with her, to the [Shimmersteel Helm], a level 72 blue helm. Still not much to crow about, but an improvement over the level 69 green thing she's been wearing. Philly is 16% of the way to level 77, which she is anxious to get to as she will then be able to use her flying mount in Northrend.
JB may have enough honor to purchase another pvp piece, as she happened to catch a WG battle just starting early yesterday. Haven't had a chance to figure out what's next on her buy list, though.
Well, I am off to the movies here pretty soon. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday (4 Mar) - Fading Hope for ICC10
Thursday (4 Mar) - Fading Hope for ICC10
The MM group could only muster six raiders for the second night of our ICC10 run. There was some frustration on the part of those from MM since there were more than a dozen of their guildies in game, but none were available to fill the remaining spots. The raid leader was not interested in filling in with strangers from LFG, and at 6:30pm called off the raid. With the raid leader himself uncertain about his availability now due to his changed work schedule, I'm afraid this group is all but dead. Wild's sad fortunes with ten man groups continues.
On a brighter note, Wild did get into a PUG 25 man VoA Thursday morning. This is the raid inside the pvp zone of Wintergrasp.
As usual the raid went after the boss with the best loot first, Toravon. For being the newest boss in VoA, Toravon is something of a pushover, and in the handful of attempts against him Wild had yet to see a single wipe on this boss. Well, until this run. We did wipe on our first try, which was an ominous sign, but luckily it seemed to be a wakeup call. We killed Toravon on our second attempt.
After the main boss goes down, VoA PUGs usually fall apart as many don't need or care about the other three. This time, however, the raid held together and we killed Koralon as well. Several raiders left after the second boss, but with around 20 raiders we took on Emalon, the toughest of the four bosses. We killed him, too. Riding that wave of success, about 14 of us stuck around and took on Emalon, and for the first time Wild got a full clear of all four VoA bosses when Emalon died. Wild didn't get any loot, but picked up some badges and had a pretty good time.
Philly has now entered that terrible levelling zone of 76-79. Experience gained in the Isle dropped precipitously now that she is level 76 and I do believe that random dungeon runs are in her future to speed up the levelling process. Philly probably needs one more run with DER and Sis in the Violet Hold to make sure her gear and spell rotation changes stand up to 5 man healing needs, but she's pretty confident that her mana issues have been greatly improved. Maybe we'll even see some cloth gear drops for Sis and Philly, since DER hogged all that plate gear that dropped last week. :P
The MM group could only muster six raiders for the second night of our ICC10 run. There was some frustration on the part of those from MM since there were more than a dozen of their guildies in game, but none were available to fill the remaining spots. The raid leader was not interested in filling in with strangers from LFG, and at 6:30pm called off the raid. With the raid leader himself uncertain about his availability now due to his changed work schedule, I'm afraid this group is all but dead. Wild's sad fortunes with ten man groups continues.
On a brighter note, Wild did get into a PUG 25 man VoA Thursday morning. This is the raid inside the pvp zone of Wintergrasp.
As usual the raid went after the boss with the best loot first, Toravon. For being the newest boss in VoA, Toravon is something of a pushover, and in the handful of attempts against him Wild had yet to see a single wipe on this boss. Well, until this run. We did wipe on our first try, which was an ominous sign, but luckily it seemed to be a wakeup call. We killed Toravon on our second attempt.
After the main boss goes down, VoA PUGs usually fall apart as many don't need or care about the other three. This time, however, the raid held together and we killed Koralon as well. Several raiders left after the second boss, but with around 20 raiders we took on Emalon, the toughest of the four bosses. We killed him, too. Riding that wave of success, about 14 of us stuck around and took on Emalon, and for the first time Wild got a full clear of all four VoA bosses when Emalon died. Wild didn't get any loot, but picked up some badges and had a pretty good time.
Philly has now entered that terrible levelling zone of 76-79. Experience gained in the Isle dropped precipitously now that she is level 76 and I do believe that random dungeon runs are in her future to speed up the levelling process. Philly probably needs one more run with DER and Sis in the Violet Hold to make sure her gear and spell rotation changes stand up to 5 man healing needs, but she's pretty confident that her mana issues have been greatly improved. Maybe we'll even see some cloth gear drops for Sis and Philly, since DER hogged all that plate gear that dropped last week. :P
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday (3 Mar) - Finally, Wild Gets a Heal-Check
Wednesday (3 Mar) - Finally, Wild Gets a Heal-Check
Wild didn't have to consider whether the guild 25 man run Wednesday night might need Wild. Wild had declined the invitation earlier in the week, but sometimes they still come up short on the second raid night. They had a full complement of confirmed raiders on this night, though, so Wild could focus on the MM group ICC10 run.
The raid calendar had many new MM guild names on it. Wild would learn later that the MM guild had combined two of their ten mans into one. Of the seven signed up (including Wild) there were five new faces. The raid leader, Sh, made it in game just after 6pm, but it was 6:35pm before we got a full ten and could start. The raid leader also made an announcement that left Wild with a sinking feeling. Our first raid leader had had to bow out of running the raid when his job situation changed. He has never come back. The new raid leader had his own job situation change this past week, and will likely no longer be able to raid on a regular basis. This is pretty bad news for Wild. As happened in Wild's guild, the MM guild is having trouble maintaining more than one ten man, and with the loss of Wild's two best contacts in the MM guild (the two raid leaders), and the MM guilds consolidation of ten mans, I no longer know where Wild stands. Even assuming Wild will still get invites to the MM group run, it seems those runs will still be somewhat iffy, at least until a new raid leader is identified. At least tonight's raid (Thursday) is still on, assuming we get enough folks.
We got off to a very strong start Wednesday night. We cleared through the trash with only one wipe. We did not have a rogue with us, so we couldn't detect and clear the traps that spawn really nasty mobs called Wards. Bad luck resulted in us tripping three traps on the same pull, which caused the wipe.
We had a picture perfect battle with the first boss, Marrowgar. Wild had a scary moment when I almost lost the off tank, which I had been assigned to heal, but I saved him and Marrowgar went down on our first attempt. Wild usually raid heals for this group, but we had a newish holy priest with us and Sh wanted Wild to tank heal instead, so the priest could raid heal.
The second boss, Deathwhisper, is an easier boss than Marrowgar from a healing perspective, but it's a tricky fight for the DPS, who have several targeting assignments that change depending on the situation. Ideally there is one DPS on Deathwhisper, caster DPS on the melee mobs, melee raiders on the caster mobs, and then everyone on the special mobs that spawn. There are several waves of mobs, and they all have to be killed before we can focus on killing Deathwhisper. Unfortunately, the DPS just couldn't get the job done. We tried five times, and each attempt took a LONG time because us healers kept everyone alive for forever, but we ended up wiping in the end every time. Part of the problem was the retribution paladin in the group, a new raider I didn't know. Paladins are known for their survivability, with bubble shields, heals, and lots of "save myself!" spells. This guy died at the drop of a hat. The poor raid healer was practically spamming heals on him and Wild as good as had him in my tank level HoT rotation, and he still died. Even if he ignored the tank he should have been supporting and single handedly went after other mobs, he still should have been able to survive it. I suspect, despite several explanations, that he was attacking the melee mobs when he should have been attacking the casters. That would have caused a damage reflection, and all that damage he thought he was doing to the mob would have reflected back and hit him instead. In short, he kept killing himself.
We will hopefully be back at Deahthwhisper Thursday night, and if we can get her down, we should also be able to beat the Gunship encounter which follows it.
Healing numbers on the night:
#1: Wild, 2690 hps, 37.3% of the healing
#2: Sh, 2579/30.6%
#3: priest, 2500/25.3%
It was odd that after Wild got a number of gear upgrades, I had little chance to test things out in a raid situation. Eventually Wild got into the OS Sartharion raid for the weekly, which gave me some data to work with, although that raid pretty much overpowered the instance. So Wednesday night's ICC10 run was really the first time since Wild got his two piece T10 set bonus and the new Nibelung staff that I've had a chance to see the results.
According to the wow-heroes website, which has a gear scoring (GS) system that is often used by PUG raid leaders to check if a raider is geared well enough to come to the raid, Wild improved from around 2600 to over 2800 GS. In theory Wild is geared well enough to be a healer for all raids, even the hard mode ones now. Of course, gear says nothing about ability, experience, and knowledge of fights, but for PUGs sometimes GS is all they have to go on. Wild may start finding himself in PUG ICC raids if I can't get a stable ten man home.
Wild didn't have to consider whether the guild 25 man run Wednesday night might need Wild. Wild had declined the invitation earlier in the week, but sometimes they still come up short on the second raid night. They had a full complement of confirmed raiders on this night, though, so Wild could focus on the MM group ICC10 run.
The raid calendar had many new MM guild names on it. Wild would learn later that the MM guild had combined two of their ten mans into one. Of the seven signed up (including Wild) there were five new faces. The raid leader, Sh, made it in game just after 6pm, but it was 6:35pm before we got a full ten and could start. The raid leader also made an announcement that left Wild with a sinking feeling. Our first raid leader had had to bow out of running the raid when his job situation changed. He has never come back. The new raid leader had his own job situation change this past week, and will likely no longer be able to raid on a regular basis. This is pretty bad news for Wild. As happened in Wild's guild, the MM guild is having trouble maintaining more than one ten man, and with the loss of Wild's two best contacts in the MM guild (the two raid leaders), and the MM guilds consolidation of ten mans, I no longer know where Wild stands. Even assuming Wild will still get invites to the MM group run, it seems those runs will still be somewhat iffy, at least until a new raid leader is identified. At least tonight's raid (Thursday) is still on, assuming we get enough folks.
We got off to a very strong start Wednesday night. We cleared through the trash with only one wipe. We did not have a rogue with us, so we couldn't detect and clear the traps that spawn really nasty mobs called Wards. Bad luck resulted in us tripping three traps on the same pull, which caused the wipe.
We had a picture perfect battle with the first boss, Marrowgar. Wild had a scary moment when I almost lost the off tank, which I had been assigned to heal, but I saved him and Marrowgar went down on our first attempt. Wild usually raid heals for this group, but we had a newish holy priest with us and Sh wanted Wild to tank heal instead, so the priest could raid heal.
The second boss, Deathwhisper, is an easier boss than Marrowgar from a healing perspective, but it's a tricky fight for the DPS, who have several targeting assignments that change depending on the situation. Ideally there is one DPS on Deathwhisper, caster DPS on the melee mobs, melee raiders on the caster mobs, and then everyone on the special mobs that spawn. There are several waves of mobs, and they all have to be killed before we can focus on killing Deathwhisper. Unfortunately, the DPS just couldn't get the job done. We tried five times, and each attempt took a LONG time because us healers kept everyone alive for forever, but we ended up wiping in the end every time. Part of the problem was the retribution paladin in the group, a new raider I didn't know. Paladins are known for their survivability, with bubble shields, heals, and lots of "save myself!" spells. This guy died at the drop of a hat. The poor raid healer was practically spamming heals on him and Wild as good as had him in my tank level HoT rotation, and he still died. Even if he ignored the tank he should have been supporting and single handedly went after other mobs, he still should have been able to survive it. I suspect, despite several explanations, that he was attacking the melee mobs when he should have been attacking the casters. That would have caused a damage reflection, and all that damage he thought he was doing to the mob would have reflected back and hit him instead. In short, he kept killing himself.
We will hopefully be back at Deahthwhisper Thursday night, and if we can get her down, we should also be able to beat the Gunship encounter which follows it.
Healing numbers on the night:
#1: Wild, 2690 hps, 37.3% of the healing
#2: Sh, 2579/30.6%
#3: priest, 2500/25.3%
It was odd that after Wild got a number of gear upgrades, I had little chance to test things out in a raid situation. Eventually Wild got into the OS Sartharion raid for the weekly, which gave me some data to work with, although that raid pretty much overpowered the instance. So Wednesday night's ICC10 run was really the first time since Wild got his two piece T10 set bonus and the new Nibelung staff that I've had a chance to see the results.
According to the wow-heroes website, which has a gear scoring (GS) system that is often used by PUG raid leaders to check if a raider is geared well enough to come to the raid, Wild improved from around 2600 to over 2800 GS. In theory Wild is geared well enough to be a healer for all raids, even the hard mode ones now. Of course, gear says nothing about ability, experience, and knowledge of fights, but for PUGs sometimes GS is all they have to go on. Wild may start finding himself in PUG ICC raids if I can't get a stable ten man home.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tuesday (2 Mar) - Slogging Through Dragonblight
Tuesday (2 Mar) - Slogging Through Dragonblight
There was no Icecrown Citadel for Wild on Tuesday night. Wild was in game, on time, and at the Citadel, signed up and ready to go, but Wild was posted as a Standby and, counting noses, they already had the six healers they planned to invite. The horde held Wintergrasp, so there was a small chance that there might be an opening just for VoA, but that was not to be, either.
So the evening belonged to Philly. After getting all of her dailies done - the Isle, the JC daily, the fishing daily, the cooking daily - and getting her daily crafting done, AND getting in another Wintergrasp pvp battle with Sis (we lost), Philly was 80% of the way to level 76.
With Sis in game as well, she and Philly chatted while we quested. Sis is now level 78 and Philly probably isn't going to catch her before she makes level 80, but at least Philly hoped to close the gap. Philly began at Moa'ki Harbor in Dragonblight, starting a string of quests that would take her all over the zone, collecting flight paths as she travelled. From Moa'ki Harbor, she travelled to Agmar's Hammer, picking up a couple of quests there that led her to the Tauren's Icemist Village. There, she helped refugees being attacked by the bugs of Azjol Nerub. The poison and contamination there got her a ticket to Venomspite for cures, by way of Wyrmrest Temple, where she got to meet some dragons.
When the evening ended, Philly had acquired all of the flight paths in Dragonblight without the benefit of a flying mount - and she DINGED! to level 76.
Now the real grind starts. Getting from 76 to 79 seems to be the hardest period of levelling. These levels have the most xp to gain, and there is an anxiousness about the fact that level 80 is so close, but still so far away. Philly will have to dial it back for a couple of days, though. Wild is hoping that his own fortunes are positive, and that the MM group will be running an ICC10 raid Wednesday and Thursday. The raid is on the calendar and Wild is most definitely signed up.
Thanks for the feedback on the movies. It's interesting to hear how other folks felt about them. I'll be doing the Showcase again this coming Saturday, to see the other five Academy Award nominees - The Blind Side, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Up in the Air. I haven't seen any of them. I'm looking forward to three, I'll still probably enjoy a fourth, and might catch dinner for the other one. I'll leave which ones those are to ya'll to figure out.
Gratz to one of your many Deathbots for level 19, erik! If your allie plans to stay in the 10-19 bracket for a bit Chaitee will happily join you.
The Tuesday maintenance yesterday was a rolling restart instead of a lengthy down time, but at the same time there was a small download of new content. Perhaps we are getting the beginnings of patch 3.3.3 laid in. Then, during the evening, the lag even away from major cities was very noticeable, aggravating Philly in her questing. This morning (Wednesday) a number of servers (although not Silvermoon) had to undergo emergency server restarts. All of that is irritating enough. I would be furious if we were having the kind of trouble you're having, martin, with the EQ2 expansion. Expansions always have initial problems, but even the worst issues with WoW haven't involved having gear and progression lost because of it.
Speaking of problems, my second computer started acting funny a few days ago. When I started smelling something overheating, though, I figured I'd better crack it open and see what was going on. Fortunately, the problem was a dying power supply and not something more critical (or expensive). So I had to troop down to my favorite computer store, Frye's, and pick up a new one. While I was there I saw they had a great sale on video cards, and so I took the opportunity while I had the computer open to upgrade the video as well. I told the Mrs it was needed so that she could come back to WoW and play Chaitee. I don't think she believed me. :)
There was no Icecrown Citadel for Wild on Tuesday night. Wild was in game, on time, and at the Citadel, signed up and ready to go, but Wild was posted as a Standby and, counting noses, they already had the six healers they planned to invite. The horde held Wintergrasp, so there was a small chance that there might be an opening just for VoA, but that was not to be, either.
So the evening belonged to Philly. After getting all of her dailies done - the Isle, the JC daily, the fishing daily, the cooking daily - and getting her daily crafting done, AND getting in another Wintergrasp pvp battle with Sis (we lost), Philly was 80% of the way to level 76.
With Sis in game as well, she and Philly chatted while we quested. Sis is now level 78 and Philly probably isn't going to catch her before she makes level 80, but at least Philly hoped to close the gap. Philly began at Moa'ki Harbor in Dragonblight, starting a string of quests that would take her all over the zone, collecting flight paths as she travelled. From Moa'ki Harbor, she travelled to Agmar's Hammer, picking up a couple of quests there that led her to the Tauren's Icemist Village. There, she helped refugees being attacked by the bugs of Azjol Nerub. The poison and contamination there got her a ticket to Venomspite for cures, by way of Wyrmrest Temple, where she got to meet some dragons.
When the evening ended, Philly had acquired all of the flight paths in Dragonblight without the benefit of a flying mount - and she DINGED! to level 76.
Now the real grind starts. Getting from 76 to 79 seems to be the hardest period of levelling. These levels have the most xp to gain, and there is an anxiousness about the fact that level 80 is so close, but still so far away. Philly will have to dial it back for a couple of days, though. Wild is hoping that his own fortunes are positive, and that the MM group will be running an ICC10 raid Wednesday and Thursday. The raid is on the calendar and Wild is most definitely signed up.
Thanks for the feedback on the movies. It's interesting to hear how other folks felt about them. I'll be doing the Showcase again this coming Saturday, to see the other five Academy Award nominees - The Blind Side, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Up in the Air. I haven't seen any of them. I'm looking forward to three, I'll still probably enjoy a fourth, and might catch dinner for the other one. I'll leave which ones those are to ya'll to figure out.
Gratz to one of your many Deathbots for level 19, erik! If your allie plans to stay in the 10-19 bracket for a bit Chaitee will happily join you.
The Tuesday maintenance yesterday was a rolling restart instead of a lengthy down time, but at the same time there was a small download of new content. Perhaps we are getting the beginnings of patch 3.3.3 laid in. Then, during the evening, the lag even away from major cities was very noticeable, aggravating Philly in her questing. This morning (Wednesday) a number of servers (although not Silvermoon) had to undergo emergency server restarts. All of that is irritating enough. I would be furious if we were having the kind of trouble you're having, martin, with the EQ2 expansion. Expansions always have initial problems, but even the worst issues with WoW haven't involved having gear and progression lost because of it.
Speaking of problems, my second computer started acting funny a few days ago. When I started smelling something overheating, though, I figured I'd better crack it open and see what was going on. Fortunately, the problem was a dying power supply and not something more critical (or expensive). So I had to troop down to my favorite computer store, Frye's, and pick up a new one. While I was there I saw they had a great sale on video cards, and so I took the opportunity while I had the computer open to upgrade the video as well. I told the Mrs it was needed so that she could come back to WoW and play Chaitee. I don't think she believed me. :)
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Monday (1 Mar) - Ugh, It's Malygos
Monday (1 Mar) - Ugh, It's Malygos
Philly got her first Wintergrasp win Monday night, on her second ever visit. The Wintergrasp pvp zone is largely the domain of level 80 players, although players can be as low as level 77 and still be able to acquire and do the weekly quests there. At level 75, Philly couldn't pick up any quests, but she had learned last week that she had no problem getting into the raid. At level 75 Philly would be completely ineffective as a shadow priest trying to do damage, but as a healer with a very powerful shield, she was actually useful even at that level.
The horde held the fortress, so we were defending. Philly might have DER to thank for that, since he had been heading into WG while Philly was on earlier in the evening. We weren't able to stop the alliance from breaking into the fortress, but once inside we put up a stiff resistance. Twice we pushed the alliance out of the fortress, with Philly running around casting her Shield on everyone in range and spamming heals in between. The allies made a third thrust, and broke into the inner courtyard, but again they could not sustain it, and we held for the win. I was pretty surprised that Philly died only twice, since she was right in the middle of the action the entire time and should have made a very tempting target at her level.
Philly's main interest in WG are the Jewelcrafting recipes that can be bought with Marks/honor there, which she doesn't have to be level 80 to acquire, like the rest of the gear that WG sells. And she might as well start now, since they are letting her in. Philly collected a little honor - just over a 1,000, which is not that much. Most of the honor gains come from the quests. WG was really stingy with the xp, too, even at rested xp and with the 20% heirloom bonus, as she earned barely one percentage point, finishing the evening 53% of the way to level 76.
Philly had a break in the action last night as Wild was getting desperate to complete the weekly frost raid. A new weekly raid is set each Tuesday, and Wild had yet to find time to get it done. When an LFM (looking for more) popped up in trade chat for the weekly raid, Wild hurriedly hustled Philly off the stage so he could ask to join. Most players had already completed the quest throughout the last week, and this might be Wild's last chance to get it done. Missing that raid would cost Wild the equivalent of three days worth of dungeon runs.
Wild did not get a response to his first whisper to the DK that was organizing the raid. Wild sent him a second whisper, asking him to give me a yes or no. This time Wild got a whisper back, "tank, dps, heals?" I sent back "heals" and the invite was immediate. "We have a healer!" was the first thing I saw in raid chat when Wild accepted the invite.
The target of weekly was the dragon Sartherion in the Obsidium Sanctum (OS). There is some trash to clear, and some mini-bosses to bring down, and then the dragon. We wound up having three healers, all druids. OS is pre ToC and ICC patches, so what was once a pretty challenging raid was mostly a walk-thru. Only one raider died, and only because he was stupid. Wild did as much healing as the two other druids combined.
Wild was very happy to get his five frost emblems, because he is going to have a big problem with this week's raid, which is Malygos, which Wild does not like at all. Catching on with a guild raid is likely the only way Wild will do this one. Wild remembers the last time Malygos was the weekly. Had Wild not been asked by his good friend and guildie shaman to come with them on the raid, Wild would not have gotten it done. That guildie friend passed away on 19 Feb. Current and former guildies are still coming to the guild forums to express condolences and to share a little about their friendship with him. He is sorely missed.
Philly got her first Wintergrasp win Monday night, on her second ever visit. The Wintergrasp pvp zone is largely the domain of level 80 players, although players can be as low as level 77 and still be able to acquire and do the weekly quests there. At level 75, Philly couldn't pick up any quests, but she had learned last week that she had no problem getting into the raid. At level 75 Philly would be completely ineffective as a shadow priest trying to do damage, but as a healer with a very powerful shield, she was actually useful even at that level.
The horde held the fortress, so we were defending. Philly might have DER to thank for that, since he had been heading into WG while Philly was on earlier in the evening. We weren't able to stop the alliance from breaking into the fortress, but once inside we put up a stiff resistance. Twice we pushed the alliance out of the fortress, with Philly running around casting her Shield on everyone in range and spamming heals in between. The allies made a third thrust, and broke into the inner courtyard, but again they could not sustain it, and we held for the win. I was pretty surprised that Philly died only twice, since she was right in the middle of the action the entire time and should have made a very tempting target at her level.
Philly's main interest in WG are the Jewelcrafting recipes that can be bought with Marks/honor there, which she doesn't have to be level 80 to acquire, like the rest of the gear that WG sells. And she might as well start now, since they are letting her in. Philly collected a little honor - just over a 1,000, which is not that much. Most of the honor gains come from the quests. WG was really stingy with the xp, too, even at rested xp and with the 20% heirloom bonus, as she earned barely one percentage point, finishing the evening 53% of the way to level 76.
Philly had a break in the action last night as Wild was getting desperate to complete the weekly frost raid. A new weekly raid is set each Tuesday, and Wild had yet to find time to get it done. When an LFM (looking for more) popped up in trade chat for the weekly raid, Wild hurriedly hustled Philly off the stage so he could ask to join. Most players had already completed the quest throughout the last week, and this might be Wild's last chance to get it done. Missing that raid would cost Wild the equivalent of three days worth of dungeon runs.
Wild did not get a response to his first whisper to the DK that was organizing the raid. Wild sent him a second whisper, asking him to give me a yes or no. This time Wild got a whisper back, "tank, dps, heals?" I sent back "heals" and the invite was immediate. "We have a healer!" was the first thing I saw in raid chat when Wild accepted the invite.
The target of weekly was the dragon Sartherion in the Obsidium Sanctum (OS). There is some trash to clear, and some mini-bosses to bring down, and then the dragon. We wound up having three healers, all druids. OS is pre ToC and ICC patches, so what was once a pretty challenging raid was mostly a walk-thru. Only one raider died, and only because he was stupid. Wild did as much healing as the two other druids combined.
Wild was very happy to get his five frost emblems, because he is going to have a big problem with this week's raid, which is Malygos, which Wild does not like at all. Catching on with a guild raid is likely the only way Wild will do this one. Wild remembers the last time Malygos was the weekly. Had Wild not been asked by his good friend and guildie shaman to come with them on the raid, Wild would not have gotten it done. That guildie friend passed away on 19 Feb. Current and former guildies are still coming to the guild forums to express condolences and to share a little about their friendship with him. He is sorely missed.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Weekend (28 Feb) - The Rest of the Weekend
Weekend (28 Feb) - The Rest of the Weekend
Philly wasn't just fooling around in VH, although those runs did gain her about 20% xp, which is why she wants to do random dungeons. Philly also got in her dailies. The gear improvements to her disc spec had a side benefit in that it also improved her shadowform gear. Three of the gear upgrades (ring, necklace, and trinket) Philly crafted herself with Jewelcrafting. Burning through the Isle of Quel'danas dailies was even easier and quicker, and she finished her weekend at 39% of the way to level 76.
Saturday was a lost day for the Wild Family, though. I was at the movies. All day. And all evening. A local theatre was offering a special ticket event called Showcase. On two consecutive Saturdays, five of the ten Academy Award nominees for best picture were being shown for $5 each (and free all you can eat popcorn).
Apparently they do this every year, but this was the first time I had tried it. The longest stretch of movie watching I had done to date was on opening day of the third Lord of the Rings movie, The Return of the King. On that day my brothers and I sat down early that day and watched the extended DVD versions of the first two movies, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and then went to the theatre to see the third. That was a pretty much all day affair, but it was far short of what I did this past Saturday.
The theatre complex was very crowded, not because of the Showcase, but because it was a saturday - and it was raining. It rained all day and into the evening, and everyone in Southern California decided it was a good day to be at the movies. The group of us that was here for the Showcase got our own theatre, though. It was a good crowd, but there were plenty of open seats and everyone found a good spot. Since we were a group, there was a lot of getting to know folks before and in between movies, and I got to make some new friends. The Mrs was still out of town, in case you were wondering.
The first movie started at 10:30am, the 3D version of "Avatar". I'd already seen Avatar twice, so this was my third time, and I have to admit I enjoyed it just as much. I even noticed a couple of things that had somehow escaped me the first two times. One was obvious once you noticed it - all of the animals in Avatar have six legs. The other is just a little more subtle. The Navi people in the film look like very tall humans for the most part. Yes, they are blue skinned, and yes they have those eyes. And that tail. But did you also know that they only have three fingers? A thumb and three fingers. And did you also know that the "avatars" (the navi body that is controlled by a human) has a human hand - thumb and four fingers.
The second movie was "Up." This is an animated movie about a flying house driven by balloons to a magical land of the main character's youth. I'd never seen it and it was hilarious and touching. A must see.
The third movie was "A Serious Man," one of those strange Coen Brothers movies. Some of their movies I like, others I don't. This one bored me to the point of dozing in my seat. A day in the life of an uninteresting, ordinary man who got a lifetime worth of bad luck all at once.
The fourth movie was "Precious." I have to admit I went to dinner and didn't watch this one. It is very much an "artsy" movie and for those who like that kind of movie - well, you can have it.
The fifth an final movie of the evening was "District 9." I have mixed feelings about this one. It is touted in political circles as a statement about apartheid (the movie takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa) and other periods of inhumanity against groups of people, which turned me off a little. The movie is sort of like "Independance Day" comes to South Africa by way of "Alien Nation" (if you've seen those movies). An alien ship parks itself over the city of Johannesburg and just sits there. Eventually the ship is pried open by force, and a million plus aliens are found inside dying of malnourishment and who knows what else. Scroll forward to District 9, the brutally miserable slum inside the city where the aliens are forced to live, and which is controlled more by voodoo practicing gangs of humans than by the government troops that contain them. Life for the "Prawns" as they are referred to (for obvious reasons once you've seen them), is abject poverty and virtual slavery. Killing a prawn is hardly even considered a crime. Yet I could not sympathize with them. They are completely un-likable and even worse, the stupidest aliens I've ever seen depicted, despite the central plotline which revolved around the alien's awesome weaponry. Which the aliens never bothered to take advantage of. The movie has it's moments, but in the end, when I got no explanation of why the aliens came here, what had happened to them, etc, and a complete lack of providing any sense of who these aliens were (culture, etc) I was disappointed.
Back to the live action, there was still a chance to do some pvp over the weekend, and with Ando's help hunter Mery dinged to level 39. You've also heard that the DER family is harboring an alliance toon now, one of his many Deathbot toons. Behind Wild's back, the Wild Family black sheep alliance, Chaitee, decided to join Bot for some pvp on the alliance side of the fence.
Chaitee is a hunter. Her pet is the equivalent of an ostrich named Stretch. Chaitee is level 13, and, back in her playing days, belonged to the Mrs. She's been retired for a very long time and wasn't that well geared, but she had plenty of arrows and got a nice gear boost by heisting the heirloom gear from Philly. Pvping as an alliance toon was a first. Chaitee happily cheered at every new sight, even her first trip (of many) to the graveyard. Our fortunes on the night were not with us. We lost two games on the horde side before we switched to alliance, and then lost both games we played on the alliance side. Chaitee was pretty menacing despite the losses, finishing 2nd and 1st in dealing total damage in the two matches and getting a lot of killing blows. Chaitee even dinged to level 14.
The Wild family isn't exactly keen on having an allie around, but they are not above trying to convince the Mrs to take Chaitee out for a whirl now and again. Maybe. We'll see.
Philly wasn't just fooling around in VH, although those runs did gain her about 20% xp, which is why she wants to do random dungeons. Philly also got in her dailies. The gear improvements to her disc spec had a side benefit in that it also improved her shadowform gear. Three of the gear upgrades (ring, necklace, and trinket) Philly crafted herself with Jewelcrafting. Burning through the Isle of Quel'danas dailies was even easier and quicker, and she finished her weekend at 39% of the way to level 76.
Saturday was a lost day for the Wild Family, though. I was at the movies. All day. And all evening. A local theatre was offering a special ticket event called Showcase. On two consecutive Saturdays, five of the ten Academy Award nominees for best picture were being shown for $5 each (and free all you can eat popcorn).
Apparently they do this every year, but this was the first time I had tried it. The longest stretch of movie watching I had done to date was on opening day of the third Lord of the Rings movie, The Return of the King. On that day my brothers and I sat down early that day and watched the extended DVD versions of the first two movies, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and then went to the theatre to see the third. That was a pretty much all day affair, but it was far short of what I did this past Saturday.
The theatre complex was very crowded, not because of the Showcase, but because it was a saturday - and it was raining. It rained all day and into the evening, and everyone in Southern California decided it was a good day to be at the movies. The group of us that was here for the Showcase got our own theatre, though. It was a good crowd, but there were plenty of open seats and everyone found a good spot. Since we were a group, there was a lot of getting to know folks before and in between movies, and I got to make some new friends. The Mrs was still out of town, in case you were wondering.
The first movie started at 10:30am, the 3D version of "Avatar". I'd already seen Avatar twice, so this was my third time, and I have to admit I enjoyed it just as much. I even noticed a couple of things that had somehow escaped me the first two times. One was obvious once you noticed it - all of the animals in Avatar have six legs. The other is just a little more subtle. The Navi people in the film look like very tall humans for the most part. Yes, they are blue skinned, and yes they have those eyes. And that tail. But did you also know that they only have three fingers? A thumb and three fingers. And did you also know that the "avatars" (the navi body that is controlled by a human) has a human hand - thumb and four fingers.
The second movie was "Up." This is an animated movie about a flying house driven by balloons to a magical land of the main character's youth. I'd never seen it and it was hilarious and touching. A must see.
The third movie was "A Serious Man," one of those strange Coen Brothers movies. Some of their movies I like, others I don't. This one bored me to the point of dozing in my seat. A day in the life of an uninteresting, ordinary man who got a lifetime worth of bad luck all at once.
The fourth movie was "Precious." I have to admit I went to dinner and didn't watch this one. It is very much an "artsy" movie and for those who like that kind of movie - well, you can have it.
The fifth an final movie of the evening was "District 9." I have mixed feelings about this one. It is touted in political circles as a statement about apartheid (the movie takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa) and other periods of inhumanity against groups of people, which turned me off a little. The movie is sort of like "Independance Day" comes to South Africa by way of "Alien Nation" (if you've seen those movies). An alien ship parks itself over the city of Johannesburg and just sits there. Eventually the ship is pried open by force, and a million plus aliens are found inside dying of malnourishment and who knows what else. Scroll forward to District 9, the brutally miserable slum inside the city where the aliens are forced to live, and which is controlled more by voodoo practicing gangs of humans than by the government troops that contain them. Life for the "Prawns" as they are referred to (for obvious reasons once you've seen them), is abject poverty and virtual slavery. Killing a prawn is hardly even considered a crime. Yet I could not sympathize with them. They are completely un-likable and even worse, the stupidest aliens I've ever seen depicted, despite the central plotline which revolved around the alien's awesome weaponry. Which the aliens never bothered to take advantage of. The movie has it's moments, but in the end, when I got no explanation of why the aliens came here, what had happened to them, etc, and a complete lack of providing any sense of who these aliens were (culture, etc) I was disappointed.
Back to the live action, there was still a chance to do some pvp over the weekend, and with Ando's help hunter Mery dinged to level 39. You've also heard that the DER family is harboring an alliance toon now, one of his many Deathbot toons. Behind Wild's back, the Wild Family black sheep alliance, Chaitee, decided to join Bot for some pvp on the alliance side of the fence.
Chaitee is a hunter. Her pet is the equivalent of an ostrich named Stretch. Chaitee is level 13, and, back in her playing days, belonged to the Mrs. She's been retired for a very long time and wasn't that well geared, but she had plenty of arrows and got a nice gear boost by heisting the heirloom gear from Philly. Pvping as an alliance toon was a first. Chaitee happily cheered at every new sight, even her first trip (of many) to the graveyard. Our fortunes on the night were not with us. We lost two games on the horde side before we switched to alliance, and then lost both games we played on the alliance side. Chaitee was pretty menacing despite the losses, finishing 2nd and 1st in dealing total damage in the two matches and getting a lot of killing blows. Chaitee even dinged to level 14.
The Wild family isn't exactly keen on having an allie around, but they are not above trying to convince the Mrs to take Chaitee out for a whirl now and again. Maybe. We'll see.
Weekend (28 Feb) - A Friendly Visit to the Violet Hold
Weekend (28 Feb) - A Friendly Visit to the Violet Hold
On Friday night Sis and DER agreed to three man the Violet Hold with Philly. Philly had worked hard earlier in the day and had DINGED! to level 75. Philly was going to be the healer, testing out her disc spec gear and to get some practice in healing a group in a dungeon. Violet Hold is an interesting dungeon. It is conveniently located right inside the city limits of Dalaran, and the whole encounter takes place in one room with two floor levels. In normal mode there are 12 waves of mobs, and three bosses. There are only a few seconds between each encounter, so there is very little time to buff, drink to regen mana, etc. In other words, it was a good test for Philly, who hoped to be able to heal random dungeons to help her level faster and perhaps pick up some dungeon gear. VH is rated for levels 75-77.
DER, a death knight, was tanking, and although he was not fully outfitted in tanking gear or tanking spec, he was a level 80 and should have no trouble tanking the mobs and bosses of VH. Sis was a level 77 warlock, and would be our DPSer. Yes, normally a group would have five players, but for the sake of practice we figured we could manage with three.
Sis was running a little bit late, so DER and Philly decided to start on the trash mob waves without her. DER was in mostly DPS gear, I believe, and was able to both tank and kill the trash mobs, which popped out of various portals around the room in groups of 1-3. Philly, however, ran into problems almost immediately. Despite having a healthy amount of mana for her level (around 14k), Philly burned through it at a staggering rate, and her mana regen barely moved the mana bar. Philly found herself having to take quick drinks in between even the trash mob waves to gain back a little mana, and even so with each new wave her mana dropped even further. The two of us died when we tackled the first boss, because Philly went out of mana and couldn't heal DER.
At the same time Philly was trying to practice her spell rotations, as well as test out her other spells. She was as awkward as a newborn colt. Healing as a disc priest is nothing like healing as a druid, but ingrained druid practices kept slipping in and messing things up.
Sis arrived in time for all three of us to take a second shot at VH. This is an all or nothing fight, so that we had start over from the beginning when we wiped. Philly worked on her spells, but again had immediate mana trouble. Philly had to partly abandon one of the fundamental tactics of a disc priest, which was to maintain a Shield on the tank at all times. The mana cost was just too high to sustain that. But that meant casting more healing spells, which also drained mana. We got farther into the waves, but wiped again.
Philly was learning her spells and getting better at casting them. She was learning to stretch out her mana as far as it would go. On our third attempt we not only killed the first boss, we killed all three bosses, clearing the instance. Pretty nice for a three person group.
That didn't mean Philly was happy, though. Something was very wrong with the way Philly was geared or specced, or how she handled her spells, or maybe all three of the above. She simply should not be running out of mana this fast.
Philly was very grateful for the practice, but now she had to study the results and figure out where she needs to go from here. She was not ready to heal in the random dungeons.
We moved on to get in some pvp, but I'll cover that in a later report.
Philly decided to post on the wowhead priest forums to see if she could get some guidance on what parts of her game needed improvement. And over the course of the weekend she got a very good assessment and some excellent advice.
First, everyone agreed that Philly had a gear problem, and it came from a misunderstanding on my part. The stats spirit (spi) and mana per 5 (mp5) are the primary stats that increase the rate at which mana regenerates itself. Both of these stats are low on the priority list of stats that disc priests should have. Some guides I'd read went so far as to state that disc priests should never bother with +spi at all.
That advice is true to an extent, but mostly it relates to players who have already reached level 80. At lower levels, like Phillie at level 75, adequate mana regen does require some spi and mp5. Philly had been avoiding +spi and going after spell power, crit, and +int primarily. In the forum post, Philly was advised that while her choice of stats were sound, she couldn't ignore +spi and mp5 completely. Philly needed to add +spi/mp5 to improve a very poor mana regen rate.
As Philly replied in the forum post, gear can be fixed, and she embarked on a plan to make those improvements. But it can't just be a gear problem. It wasn't.
The tips Philly got were numerous. The best one was to not forget about shadowfiend. This is a priest pet, kind of like the druid's trees, that are used primarily as a long cooldown attack. However, the shadowfiend is also a source of mana regen. It's on a 5 minute cooldown, and is sort of a priest's version of a druid's Innervate spell. Definitely a spell Philly wants to remember to use on boss fights.
The most complicated tip described how it was better in the long run to keep casting shield on the tank versus using healing spells like renew and flash heal in it's place. I had a hard time seeing how that would reduce mana usage until I was walked through it.
When a Shield is cast on a player, a debuff called Weakened Soul automatically procs. Technically, what it does is stop the priest from casting another shield on the same target until weakened soul wears off. Without such a debuff shields could be constantly refreshed and no mob could ever do any damage to the shielded target.
That didn't seem to have any bearing on mana, though, until it was further explained that another talent called Renewed Hope was also involved. When weakened soul is active, renewed hope increases healing crit for the player who has weakened soul, AND reduces incoming damage to everyone in the group! In other words, Keeping weakened soul active (by continuing to cast a Shield each time weakened soul expires) reduces the amount of healing that has to be done, saving mana.
Philly opted not to take a another tip to change one of her glyphs. The spell Penance is a channeled spell that not only heals the target, it can proc other buffs like rapture, grace, and inspiration, all of which aid healing and/or regen mana. This is one of the hardest concepts to get my head around - all these buffs that proc when certain other spells are used. Keeping track of what procs what and what procs are active is going to be the toughest thing to learn, but it's critical to a disc priest.
Anyway, one suggestion was to drop the penance glyph (which reduces the cast time of penance, so it can be used more often) and replace it with the flash heal glyph, which reduces flash heal mana cost by 10%. Philly wants to test things out with the penance glyph using what she's learned first, before determining if she still needs more mana help by using the flash heal glyph.
Philly hasn't had a chance to test out her tips yet, but she did make some good progress on improving her gear, with more focus on +spi and mp5. The mana regen rate during combat is now much higher, and Philly is looking forward to putting all this to the test some time this week.
On Friday night Sis and DER agreed to three man the Violet Hold with Philly. Philly had worked hard earlier in the day and had DINGED! to level 75. Philly was going to be the healer, testing out her disc spec gear and to get some practice in healing a group in a dungeon. Violet Hold is an interesting dungeon. It is conveniently located right inside the city limits of Dalaran, and the whole encounter takes place in one room with two floor levels. In normal mode there are 12 waves of mobs, and three bosses. There are only a few seconds between each encounter, so there is very little time to buff, drink to regen mana, etc. In other words, it was a good test for Philly, who hoped to be able to heal random dungeons to help her level faster and perhaps pick up some dungeon gear. VH is rated for levels 75-77.
DER, a death knight, was tanking, and although he was not fully outfitted in tanking gear or tanking spec, he was a level 80 and should have no trouble tanking the mobs and bosses of VH. Sis was a level 77 warlock, and would be our DPSer. Yes, normally a group would have five players, but for the sake of practice we figured we could manage with three.
Sis was running a little bit late, so DER and Philly decided to start on the trash mob waves without her. DER was in mostly DPS gear, I believe, and was able to both tank and kill the trash mobs, which popped out of various portals around the room in groups of 1-3. Philly, however, ran into problems almost immediately. Despite having a healthy amount of mana for her level (around 14k), Philly burned through it at a staggering rate, and her mana regen barely moved the mana bar. Philly found herself having to take quick drinks in between even the trash mob waves to gain back a little mana, and even so with each new wave her mana dropped even further. The two of us died when we tackled the first boss, because Philly went out of mana and couldn't heal DER.
At the same time Philly was trying to practice her spell rotations, as well as test out her other spells. She was as awkward as a newborn colt. Healing as a disc priest is nothing like healing as a druid, but ingrained druid practices kept slipping in and messing things up.
Sis arrived in time for all three of us to take a second shot at VH. This is an all or nothing fight, so that we had start over from the beginning when we wiped. Philly worked on her spells, but again had immediate mana trouble. Philly had to partly abandon one of the fundamental tactics of a disc priest, which was to maintain a Shield on the tank at all times. The mana cost was just too high to sustain that. But that meant casting more healing spells, which also drained mana. We got farther into the waves, but wiped again.
Philly was learning her spells and getting better at casting them. She was learning to stretch out her mana as far as it would go. On our third attempt we not only killed the first boss, we killed all three bosses, clearing the instance. Pretty nice for a three person group.
That didn't mean Philly was happy, though. Something was very wrong with the way Philly was geared or specced, or how she handled her spells, or maybe all three of the above. She simply should not be running out of mana this fast.
Philly was very grateful for the practice, but now she had to study the results and figure out where she needs to go from here. She was not ready to heal in the random dungeons.
We moved on to get in some pvp, but I'll cover that in a later report.
Philly decided to post on the wowhead priest forums to see if she could get some guidance on what parts of her game needed improvement. And over the course of the weekend she got a very good assessment and some excellent advice.
First, everyone agreed that Philly had a gear problem, and it came from a misunderstanding on my part. The stats spirit (spi) and mana per 5 (mp5) are the primary stats that increase the rate at which mana regenerates itself. Both of these stats are low on the priority list of stats that disc priests should have. Some guides I'd read went so far as to state that disc priests should never bother with +spi at all.
That advice is true to an extent, but mostly it relates to players who have already reached level 80. At lower levels, like Phillie at level 75, adequate mana regen does require some spi and mp5. Philly had been avoiding +spi and going after spell power, crit, and +int primarily. In the forum post, Philly was advised that while her choice of stats were sound, she couldn't ignore +spi and mp5 completely. Philly needed to add +spi/mp5 to improve a very poor mana regen rate.
As Philly replied in the forum post, gear can be fixed, and she embarked on a plan to make those improvements. But it can't just be a gear problem. It wasn't.
The tips Philly got were numerous. The best one was to not forget about shadowfiend. This is a priest pet, kind of like the druid's trees, that are used primarily as a long cooldown attack. However, the shadowfiend is also a source of mana regen. It's on a 5 minute cooldown, and is sort of a priest's version of a druid's Innervate spell. Definitely a spell Philly wants to remember to use on boss fights.
The most complicated tip described how it was better in the long run to keep casting shield on the tank versus using healing spells like renew and flash heal in it's place. I had a hard time seeing how that would reduce mana usage until I was walked through it.
When a Shield is cast on a player, a debuff called Weakened Soul automatically procs. Technically, what it does is stop the priest from casting another shield on the same target until weakened soul wears off. Without such a debuff shields could be constantly refreshed and no mob could ever do any damage to the shielded target.
That didn't seem to have any bearing on mana, though, until it was further explained that another talent called Renewed Hope was also involved. When weakened soul is active, renewed hope increases healing crit for the player who has weakened soul, AND reduces incoming damage to everyone in the group! In other words, Keeping weakened soul active (by continuing to cast a Shield each time weakened soul expires) reduces the amount of healing that has to be done, saving mana.
Philly opted not to take a another tip to change one of her glyphs. The spell Penance is a channeled spell that not only heals the target, it can proc other buffs like rapture, grace, and inspiration, all of which aid healing and/or regen mana. This is one of the hardest concepts to get my head around - all these buffs that proc when certain other spells are used. Keeping track of what procs what and what procs are active is going to be the toughest thing to learn, but it's critical to a disc priest.
Anyway, one suggestion was to drop the penance glyph (which reduces the cast time of penance, so it can be used more often) and replace it with the flash heal glyph, which reduces flash heal mana cost by 10%. Philly wants to test things out with the penance glyph using what she's learned first, before determining if she still needs more mana help by using the flash heal glyph.
Philly hasn't had a chance to test out her tips yet, but she did make some good progress on improving her gear, with more focus on +spi and mp5. The mana regen rate during combat is now much higher, and Philly is looking forward to putting all this to the test some time this week.
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