Monday (8 Feb) - New DKP Rules for the Guild
Wild's guild is planning to reinstate DKP loot rules for the 25 man raids. For those who don't remember what DKP is, it is a generic term for any system that uses some kind of points system as the basis for awarding loot during a raid. Simple rolls with the highest roll winning leave who wins loot to chance. Guilds don't like this. The most common concern is having a raider who raids once a month wind up with loot that a raider who comes to every raid hasn't gotten. Nearly every dkp system is heavily weighted by raid attendance; the more often you show up, the more points you get to spend on gear. Instead of rolls, raiders bid dkp points to win loot.
The guild wants to try a new system that we haven't used before, primarily because it promises to reduce the amount of work that loot masters have to do to maintain a functioning dkp system. An addon called EPGPLootMaster promises to automate the entire process. However, there has already been some confusion about the addon. Initially, the guild put the word out that everyone had to load the "client" EPGP addon prior to the Tuesday raid (tonight). When Wild checked the addons for "EPGP" about five addons had that in their name. On the guild forums one of our new raiders posted a link to the addon he said was the right one. A day later the Guild Leader posted a link to a different addon. Raiders who don't bother to read the forums were also guessing which they should be using.
The system won't go "live" this week, but they do want to test it. Should be a lively test if not everyone has the right addon.
Personally I'm ambivalent about what loot distribution system we use. If EPGP had been in place for the Toravon fight last week there is no way Wild would have won a dkp bid for those T10 legs. But then again random rolls are, well, random, and bad luck with the dice can lead to long periods where you don't win anything. What dkp does, ultimately, is award the best, latest loot to the raiders with the highest attendance first; once they have what they want, the rest of us start to receive the items they already have or don't want.
After claiming that the hunter Mery was willing to help out in pvp if needed, Wild figured he'd better meet with her to make sure she was ready. Mery has been off on her own for a long time. And it showed. Her gear was sorta "eh" and she had not bothered to relearn her talents since I don't know how long ago. She'd been so excited to get some game time she did two Valentine's Week dailies before she even met with Wild. One of those dailies required collecting kills (how interesting is it that killing things is associated with a week of romance). No wonder she had so much trouble getting the kills with no talents in place. Mery got that all sorted out, and although her gear is still only average, at least Wild got her some modest enchants for most of it. Mery was close enough to level 36 that Wild gave her time to get there. Merry and her pet gorilla, Sassy, will be ready if needed.
Philly got some game time out on the Isle and raised her xp to 46% of the way to level 72.
The rest of the Wild clan were given the day off to play hooky as "the hand" was pretty sore on Monday after a weekend of dungeon crawling. The stitches come out today.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Weekend (7 Feb) - Murdering the Scarlet Crusade and More
Weekend (7 Feb) - Murdering the Scarlet Crusade and More
There was pvp on Friday night, but there was even more murderous activity in the halls and chambers and graveyard in the level 34-45 dungeon of the Scarlet Monastery. Level 80 death knight DER chaperoned high 20s level Lao and EZ through all four wings, some of them more than once. Wild joined in for an escort run with Ando so that Ando, too, could earn some experience and pick up some gear while DER took a break. A level 80 set loose in a dungeon for under level 50s is a truly destructive force. We lower level toons pretty much just tried to stay out of the way, and avoid dying when straggler mobs slipped past DER's death and decay. Mostly the escaping mobs were too petrified to bother us, and DER would come back to finish the job. Lao and EZ amused ourselves by attacking the strays because it was somehow funny watching all of our spell casting missing their mark against the much higher level foes and our weapon strikes finding nothing but thin air.
When it was all over around 1am, Ando had improved from level 29 to 30; Lao had upped her level from 29/30 to 32; and EZ had pushed forward all the way from 24 to 27.
On a much slower pace, Philly nonetheless ground her way from level 70 to level 71 earlier in the day. Philly also got in a few pvp rounds before the rest of the group arrived Friday night, participating in an Alterac Valley match and two Eye of the Storm battles. Philly needs to build up her pvp honor totals as she desperately needs to get a pvp gear set together. Philly played in disc spec and healed the matches, which seemed to work better than trying to DPS as shadow.
As the weekend progressed it seemed a sort of levelling fever had hit the Wild clan, stirring thoughts of glory from as far away as Outland to the quaint and empty edifice of Silvermoon City. And, unexpectedly, a baton got passed.
When EZ was born, we all knew she was born for pvp. Even so, she has always had something of an identity problem. After all, she was little sister to JB, both of them shaman. JB had grown up as a wilder child than Wild himself, with a large reckless streak, and a love for steel and face to face combat. Later, when JB decided to step out of her level 70 boots and push to level 80, she changed, becoming a more mature caster, delivering blinding spells instead of sharp steel. But at 80 some of that young recklessness returned as she was drawn into the world of pvp.
EZ's path was not intended to stray far from direct pvp. Her path would be different from JB's. Her life would be in the battlegrounds of Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and every other BG as she progressed through the ranks with partners Ando and Lao. But the temptation of speeding up that progress, and moving into higher and higher pvp brackets, proved too tempting to resist, and the threesome marched ever faster forward, hitting the countryside for questing and blazing through dungeons with their elder brethren. And EZ seemed to lose her way. She was no longer sure what she wanted to become.
EZ spent some time with JB, and it became clear to EZ that she needed to step back and re-assess her life. So, with Wild's blessing, EZ is going to take a slower path until she better understands herself. But she also knew that would leave Lao and Ando missing one pillar of their triune. That just wouldn't do.
JB took the issue to Wild, and Wild solicited the Wild family for volunteers. It was Jocelyne who stepped forward. Jocy is a blood elf paladin, level 14. Wild had always wished for a horde paladin, someone to balance the other paladin in the family, the wayward alliance Draenie, Mocharum. Jocy got off to a great start, advancing quickly in the lands of Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands. She became entranced with the beauty of the Woods, however, and after a time it became clear that she intended to stay. Wild had to let his aspirations for her go, and later set his hopes that another paladin might emerge when the upheavals of Cataclysm came upon us all.
But now Jocelyne has returned to the fold. She knew she was not much use to the triune as a level 14. She pleaded her case, and level 62 death knight Melasahnd decided to help. It took some time to arrange things so that two family members could be out and about at the same time (ie, bringing the second computer up to speed with patches and addons), but soon the two were hard at it. They made an odd pair; Jocy's airy beauty and nature side by side with the sober, serious Melasahnd. Mel was what Jocy needed, though, and the two of them plowed through dungeons like it was their life's work.
Jocy climbed to level 15 feasting on the lowest level of dungeons, Ragefire Chasm, below the city of Ogrimmar. Mel wanted to see what Jocy was made of before attempting anything more challenging. Pleased with what she saw, Mel brought Jocy to Wailing Caverns, clearing the huge dungeon and coming home with both more experience and more goodies. Jocy wanted more. So, at level 16, Mel introduced Jocy to Razorfen Kraul. RFK was something of an unusual choice. It was full of high level 20s elite quilbore, a kind of pig people living among the roots and thorns of a vast underground warren. But it proved to be a rich killing ground, and the six leaders of the quilboar had riches of their own.
RFK was exciting and the pair cleared it thrice, raising Jocy to level 18. Jocy pressed for even greater challenges, her imagination stoked by their victories.
A short trot from RFK was Razorfen Downs. RFD is also a quilboar place, but where RFK was alive and warm with a thriving population, RFD was a cold, dank warren that had been taken over by the Scourge. Mel and Jocy had to fight their way through many villages of quilboar outside RFD before even getting close to the entrance. The quilboar were trying to take back their home from the undead, and didn't understand that Mel and Jocy could help them in that task (perhaps gutting RFK had left them the impression we weren't too friendly to either undead or quilboar). At last the two reached the entrance, only to be disappointed. Entry into RFD requires level 25. There would be no assault of RFD.
The two returned again to RFK, and did well, but Jocy's rested xp was gone and the experience was coming harder and longer even with the heirloom gear borrowed from Philly. With great respect and admiration, Jocy thanked Melasahnd for her help and bid her safe return to her home in Shattrath.
Jocelyne did not go home to Silvermoon City, though, as some might have thought. No, Jocy headed for the Crossroads in the Barrens, and loaded up on quests. It was time for Jocelyne to show what she could do on her own. The quests took her all over the Barrens, one of the largest zones on the continent, and Jocy learned to appreciate the open spaces almost as much as her lush homeland. Jocy had a goal in mind, too, that kept her going. Late Sunday night she finally achieved that goal, reaching level 20 and visiting the paladin trainer in Orgrimmar to buy her ground mount, a beautiful, armored warhorse. Jocelyne retired to her new home at the Inn in Orgrimmar. She washed and tended her sore feet, knowing she would not have to travel on foot ever again.
Jocelyne knows she still has a long way to go to take EZ's place, but she made a pledge to work hard and not disappoint Lao and Ando. The press to catch up with them will continue. In the interim, the triune may take a slight turn. Should Ando and Lao need a third, level 35 hunter Mery has agreed to dust off her gear to help out. The other option is for Jocy to coax the rich level 20s crowd to form a second triune from such luminaries and upcoming pvpers such as Andro and Jabita, or even the young warlock, Bot. One way or the other, the pvp will continue.
There was pvp on Friday night, but there was even more murderous activity in the halls and chambers and graveyard in the level 34-45 dungeon of the Scarlet Monastery. Level 80 death knight DER chaperoned high 20s level Lao and EZ through all four wings, some of them more than once. Wild joined in for an escort run with Ando so that Ando, too, could earn some experience and pick up some gear while DER took a break. A level 80 set loose in a dungeon for under level 50s is a truly destructive force. We lower level toons pretty much just tried to stay out of the way, and avoid dying when straggler mobs slipped past DER's death and decay. Mostly the escaping mobs were too petrified to bother us, and DER would come back to finish the job. Lao and EZ amused ourselves by attacking the strays because it was somehow funny watching all of our spell casting missing their mark against the much higher level foes and our weapon strikes finding nothing but thin air.
When it was all over around 1am, Ando had improved from level 29 to 30; Lao had upped her level from 29/30 to 32; and EZ had pushed forward all the way from 24 to 27.
On a much slower pace, Philly nonetheless ground her way from level 70 to level 71 earlier in the day. Philly also got in a few pvp rounds before the rest of the group arrived Friday night, participating in an Alterac Valley match and two Eye of the Storm battles. Philly needs to build up her pvp honor totals as she desperately needs to get a pvp gear set together. Philly played in disc spec and healed the matches, which seemed to work better than trying to DPS as shadow.
As the weekend progressed it seemed a sort of levelling fever had hit the Wild clan, stirring thoughts of glory from as far away as Outland to the quaint and empty edifice of Silvermoon City. And, unexpectedly, a baton got passed.
When EZ was born, we all knew she was born for pvp. Even so, she has always had something of an identity problem. After all, she was little sister to JB, both of them shaman. JB had grown up as a wilder child than Wild himself, with a large reckless streak, and a love for steel and face to face combat. Later, when JB decided to step out of her level 70 boots and push to level 80, she changed, becoming a more mature caster, delivering blinding spells instead of sharp steel. But at 80 some of that young recklessness returned as she was drawn into the world of pvp.
EZ's path was not intended to stray far from direct pvp. Her path would be different from JB's. Her life would be in the battlegrounds of Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and every other BG as she progressed through the ranks with partners Ando and Lao. But the temptation of speeding up that progress, and moving into higher and higher pvp brackets, proved too tempting to resist, and the threesome marched ever faster forward, hitting the countryside for questing and blazing through dungeons with their elder brethren. And EZ seemed to lose her way. She was no longer sure what she wanted to become.
EZ spent some time with JB, and it became clear to EZ that she needed to step back and re-assess her life. So, with Wild's blessing, EZ is going to take a slower path until she better understands herself. But she also knew that would leave Lao and Ando missing one pillar of their triune. That just wouldn't do.
JB took the issue to Wild, and Wild solicited the Wild family for volunteers. It was Jocelyne who stepped forward. Jocy is a blood elf paladin, level 14. Wild had always wished for a horde paladin, someone to balance the other paladin in the family, the wayward alliance Draenie, Mocharum. Jocy got off to a great start, advancing quickly in the lands of Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands. She became entranced with the beauty of the Woods, however, and after a time it became clear that she intended to stay. Wild had to let his aspirations for her go, and later set his hopes that another paladin might emerge when the upheavals of Cataclysm came upon us all.
But now Jocelyne has returned to the fold. She knew she was not much use to the triune as a level 14. She pleaded her case, and level 62 death knight Melasahnd decided to help. It took some time to arrange things so that two family members could be out and about at the same time (ie, bringing the second computer up to speed with patches and addons), but soon the two were hard at it. They made an odd pair; Jocy's airy beauty and nature side by side with the sober, serious Melasahnd. Mel was what Jocy needed, though, and the two of them plowed through dungeons like it was their life's work.
Jocy climbed to level 15 feasting on the lowest level of dungeons, Ragefire Chasm, below the city of Ogrimmar. Mel wanted to see what Jocy was made of before attempting anything more challenging. Pleased with what she saw, Mel brought Jocy to Wailing Caverns, clearing the huge dungeon and coming home with both more experience and more goodies. Jocy wanted more. So, at level 16, Mel introduced Jocy to Razorfen Kraul. RFK was something of an unusual choice. It was full of high level 20s elite quilbore, a kind of pig people living among the roots and thorns of a vast underground warren. But it proved to be a rich killing ground, and the six leaders of the quilboar had riches of their own.
RFK was exciting and the pair cleared it thrice, raising Jocy to level 18. Jocy pressed for even greater challenges, her imagination stoked by their victories.
A short trot from RFK was Razorfen Downs. RFD is also a quilboar place, but where RFK was alive and warm with a thriving population, RFD was a cold, dank warren that had been taken over by the Scourge. Mel and Jocy had to fight their way through many villages of quilboar outside RFD before even getting close to the entrance. The quilboar were trying to take back their home from the undead, and didn't understand that Mel and Jocy could help them in that task (perhaps gutting RFK had left them the impression we weren't too friendly to either undead or quilboar). At last the two reached the entrance, only to be disappointed. Entry into RFD requires level 25. There would be no assault of RFD.
The two returned again to RFK, and did well, but Jocy's rested xp was gone and the experience was coming harder and longer even with the heirloom gear borrowed from Philly. With great respect and admiration, Jocy thanked Melasahnd for her help and bid her safe return to her home in Shattrath.
Jocelyne did not go home to Silvermoon City, though, as some might have thought. No, Jocy headed for the Crossroads in the Barrens, and loaded up on quests. It was time for Jocelyne to show what she could do on her own. The quests took her all over the Barrens, one of the largest zones on the continent, and Jocy learned to appreciate the open spaces almost as much as her lush homeland. Jocy had a goal in mind, too, that kept her going. Late Sunday night she finally achieved that goal, reaching level 20 and visiting the paladin trainer in Orgrimmar to buy her ground mount, a beautiful, armored warhorse. Jocelyne retired to her new home at the Inn in Orgrimmar. She washed and tended her sore feet, knowing she would not have to travel on foot ever again.
Jocelyne knows she still has a long way to go to take EZ's place, but she made a pledge to work hard and not disappoint Lao and Ando. The press to catch up with them will continue. In the interim, the triune may take a slight turn. Should Ando and Lao need a third, level 35 hunter Mery has agreed to dust off her gear to help out. The other option is for Jocy to coax the rich level 20s crowd to form a second triune from such luminaries and upcoming pvpers such as Andro and Jabita, or even the young warlock, Bot. One way or the other, the pvp will continue.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday (4 Feb) - Garbage In Garbage Out
Thursday (4 Feb) - Garbage In Garbage Out
Wild's guild isn't exactly overwhelmed with healers. While we have many who "could" heal, I count about 14 who I see actually healing in the 25 man raids. Of that number, only about 7 can be counted somewhat as regulars. The mandatory healer meeting hasn't been set up, yet, and so far only three of us have acknowledged the post on the guild website. About par for the course, unfortunately.
Still, Wild made an effort to research strats in preparation for the meeting.
Healing strategies are the worst documented strats in the game. I am convinced of that. For tanks and DPS raiders there is detailed information on positioning, spells and tactics, broken down in infinite detail. Healing? The best line I saw (and this was from one of the premier strategy sites, Elitistjerks) for the Deathbringer Saurfang fight - "there's really not a lot of damage to worry about here." That's a healing strat? On a fight with three different health draining abilities, including one that hits multiple players and does tank level damage to squishies, and mobs of adds? Oh, well, I guess we don't need much healing for that! The problem as I see it is that most strats come from hardcore raiders with super high level gear. For them, Saurfang might well be an easy fight with not much to worry about. On some of the ICC fights the strats strongly recommend that the number of healers be reduced to as low as 4, so that that they can have more DPSers and finish the fight sooner. That's a recipe for a boss that is on farm. But that doesn't help the rest of us.
Anyway, grumbling aside, I compiled what I could find, and for most of the ICC encounters it looked like we were doing pretty much what we were supposed to be doing. I have a few suggestions, but the first thing we should get an answer to is what is the problem? When healers get called out it's almost always because raiders are dying. So, who is dying first? And what is happening to them (besides not getting enough healing, obviously) that is getting them killed?
Part of our problem is that we haven't had a real healing leader in a long time. No one in our current crop of healers wants that responsibility, including Wild (I'd be bad at it and unsuited for it for a number of reasons anyway), so I'm hopeful that one of the new guildies might take up that mantle. I suspect that getting someone to step forward into that role will be a key part of the discussion. For my part I'm more than happy to help research and document healing strats, do post-ops on raid healing, etc, and even make healing assignments for raids when a strat has been decided on. It's coming up with those strats, having to adjust on the fly when things don't work, and manhandling us very independant souls into lockstep that I have no wish to volunteer for.
A case in point was the ICC10 run on Thursday night with the MM group. We had another terrible night of login problems and did not get started until nearly 7pm, and even then we had to bring two strangers off of the looking for group list. We had two of our regular healers: Wild and Sh, the shaman. A second shaman from MM also joined us to make up the third healer.
From a progression perspective there isn't much to tell. We wiped five times on the first boss, Marrowgar, and never really came close to killing him. There were a few non-healer problems, of course, but part of a healers function is to figure out how to heal through the mistakes of others (and our own mistakes, too). Wild was the raid healer, and the two shaman were both competent tank healers, yet our tanks kept dying. Even though Wild was raid healing, I spent probably 70% of my heals on the tanks, which I shouldn't have needed to do and put the raid more at risk as Wild could not pre-heal the raid as often with HoTs as I would have liked to. There may be better ways to heal the fight than the way we were doing it, but I didn't find any strats that differed much from what we were doing. Chalk it up to the two PUGs if we want, although they did a pretty decent job, or just a bad night, but if someone out there has figured out how to best heal the fight for all of us non-hardcore types, I haven't found it.
On a completely irrelevant sidebar, I also learned a new word from our mage, who self describes herself as the raid's resident "hoe." Given five straight wipes on a boss we have killed before, our raid leader could be excused for a few F bombs, not aimed at anyone in particular, but just expressing for us all our general level of frustration. The mage sweetly asked the raid leader not to use the word, as she was "droughting" and didn't want to be reminded of it. I had no idea what that meant, or even if it was a real word. I later looked it up, and found two definitions out of the Urban dictionary. The first definition is a method of sopping up the water from a bong so that you can use the particles that are left. That didn't connect with the use of the F bomb, so I turned to the second definition. "Droughting" also means "to go a long period of time without sex."
I may not know much about finding healing strategies, but when it comes to sexual references I'm all over it.
Wild's guild isn't exactly overwhelmed with healers. While we have many who "could" heal, I count about 14 who I see actually healing in the 25 man raids. Of that number, only about 7 can be counted somewhat as regulars. The mandatory healer meeting hasn't been set up, yet, and so far only three of us have acknowledged the post on the guild website. About par for the course, unfortunately.
Still, Wild made an effort to research strats in preparation for the meeting.
Healing strategies are the worst documented strats in the game. I am convinced of that. For tanks and DPS raiders there is detailed information on positioning, spells and tactics, broken down in infinite detail. Healing? The best line I saw (and this was from one of the premier strategy sites, Elitistjerks) for the Deathbringer Saurfang fight - "there's really not a lot of damage to worry about here." That's a healing strat? On a fight with three different health draining abilities, including one that hits multiple players and does tank level damage to squishies, and mobs of adds? Oh, well, I guess we don't need much healing for that! The problem as I see it is that most strats come from hardcore raiders with super high level gear. For them, Saurfang might well be an easy fight with not much to worry about. On some of the ICC fights the strats strongly recommend that the number of healers be reduced to as low as 4, so that that they can have more DPSers and finish the fight sooner. That's a recipe for a boss that is on farm. But that doesn't help the rest of us.
Anyway, grumbling aside, I compiled what I could find, and for most of the ICC encounters it looked like we were doing pretty much what we were supposed to be doing. I have a few suggestions, but the first thing we should get an answer to is what is the problem? When healers get called out it's almost always because raiders are dying. So, who is dying first? And what is happening to them (besides not getting enough healing, obviously) that is getting them killed?
Part of our problem is that we haven't had a real healing leader in a long time. No one in our current crop of healers wants that responsibility, including Wild (I'd be bad at it and unsuited for it for a number of reasons anyway), so I'm hopeful that one of the new guildies might take up that mantle. I suspect that getting someone to step forward into that role will be a key part of the discussion. For my part I'm more than happy to help research and document healing strats, do post-ops on raid healing, etc, and even make healing assignments for raids when a strat has been decided on. It's coming up with those strats, having to adjust on the fly when things don't work, and manhandling us very independant souls into lockstep that I have no wish to volunteer for.
A case in point was the ICC10 run on Thursday night with the MM group. We had another terrible night of login problems and did not get started until nearly 7pm, and even then we had to bring two strangers off of the looking for group list. We had two of our regular healers: Wild and Sh, the shaman. A second shaman from MM also joined us to make up the third healer.
From a progression perspective there isn't much to tell. We wiped five times on the first boss, Marrowgar, and never really came close to killing him. There were a few non-healer problems, of course, but part of a healers function is to figure out how to heal through the mistakes of others (and our own mistakes, too). Wild was the raid healer, and the two shaman were both competent tank healers, yet our tanks kept dying. Even though Wild was raid healing, I spent probably 70% of my heals on the tanks, which I shouldn't have needed to do and put the raid more at risk as Wild could not pre-heal the raid as often with HoTs as I would have liked to. There may be better ways to heal the fight than the way we were doing it, but I didn't find any strats that differed much from what we were doing. Chalk it up to the two PUGs if we want, although they did a pretty decent job, or just a bad night, but if someone out there has figured out how to best heal the fight for all of us non-hardcore types, I haven't found it.
On a completely irrelevant sidebar, I also learned a new word from our mage, who self describes herself as the raid's resident "hoe." Given five straight wipes on a boss we have killed before, our raid leader could be excused for a few F bombs, not aimed at anyone in particular, but just expressing for us all our general level of frustration. The mage sweetly asked the raid leader not to use the word, as she was "droughting" and didn't want to be reminded of it. I had no idea what that meant, or even if it was a real word. I later looked it up, and found two definitions out of the Urban dictionary. The first definition is a method of sopping up the water from a bong so that you can use the particles that are left. That didn't connect with the use of the F bomb, so I turned to the second definition. "Droughting" also means "to go a long period of time without sex."
I may not know much about finding healing strategies, but when it comes to sexual references I'm all over it.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday (3 Feb) - Two Cancelled Raids, But . . .
Wednesday (3 Feb) - Two Cancelled Raids, But . . .
On Wednesday afternoon I tried to log in to Wild's account and discovered that the account had been frozen. I'd been on my other account with Happy and Philly with no problems, so this came as a big surprise. After sorting through the online account management process, I made sure that both accounts were set up for subscription and payment through Battlenet, but that didn't clear the frozen account. I tried the 800 number, but that was a complete waste of 45 minutes of my time and I never talked to a human person (or for that matter a troll, or tauren, or orc, etc, either).
Eventually an email arrived from Blizzard which told me what I already knew, with the additional tidbit that if an account payment fails for any reason, all information about the account is wiped as a hacker protection. And so, despite forcing us all into Battlenet because it would make account management easier, I had to go back into the online account management and re-enter all that information for that specific account.
Everything is fine now. Nobody has kidnapped any of my toons, and they are all still equipped as I would expect. I still don't know why there was a problem to begin with.
With that settled, I took some time (out of my very busy real life, you know) to do some additional research on the ICC bosses so that I was up to speed on the healing meeting that should be coming up, hopefully soon.
But, I'm going to put that aside for now since it's getting close to raid time.
The first thing I learned when Wild logged in was that the raid leader for the MM raid would not be able to make it. He contacted Wild and said he had some family issues and that the shaman healer in our raid would be raid leader. No problem. He asked about my hand, and I gave him the whole story, and told him I was about 90% ok, but couldn't be sure if the hand would hold up over a three hour raid.
In the meantime, Wild's guild was getting ready for the ICC25 raid. Both the MM group and the guild raid are having login problems. As 6pm passes and starts heading for 630pm I'm starting to get antsy. The shaman leading the MM raid logged in, and then out, in and then out, obviously having trouble. The guild raid decided to detour over to Wintergrasp and take on the brand new boss in VoA, Toravon. The guild was also struggling to fill, but they were closer to being ready to go than the MM group. So when the guild raid leader asked in guild chat if anyone else wanted in on the VoA run, he got some yes's from the guild, and also a yes from Wild, who whispered him directly to give him an update on my hand. Wild even flew to Wintergrasp so that I'd be right there if needed.
The MM group shaman finally got in game, and Wild explained his situation to him. "Well," he replied, "I'm not sure I can get a raid together, but if we can I definitely want you to come, gimpy hand or not." That made Wild feel good. I never got an answer back from the guild raid leader one way or the other, and they headed into VoA short of a full 25.
More time passed and the shaman leading the MM group finally had to admit that the login issues and lag had kept raiders away and that he was calling the raid. We joked that we'd tell our missing raid leader that we had cleared ICC and that he needn't come on Thursday, and then the shaman could lead the raid. Wild headed back to Dalaran (or "lag"-aran as it was being called). Wild hopped on his ice mammoth, which Wild likened to his security blanket. The monster sized mount, with his large sized tauren rider, won't fit through most doors, but Wild likes to just sit on his furry friend and watch the world go by out in the open passageways of the city.
I was thinking about opening Dungeon Finder and seeing how the hand would feel moonkin-ing our way through a 5 man heroic, when a raid invite from the guild popped up. At the same time Wild got a two word whisper from the guild raid leader, "for voa." Wild accepted the invite, and noted that half the raid was dead and making their way back from the graveyard. Well, an invite after the raid has already started is still better than no invite at all. Perhaps the raid leader didn't invite Wild earlier cause he didn't want Wild stressing his hand injury. Maybe he thought he had enough healers, but then the normally moonkin raid leader was decked out in tree form and healing. Whatever, I was in, and I was seriously ready for some action.
Since I came into the middle of the raid, Wild had to catch up to what was happening on the fly. Toravon's room has a number of white, sparkly spheres on the ground about the size of the base of a snowman. Torazon stands in the center. As the raid moved in to start the fight, it was obvious folks were staying separated, so Wild found an open spot between two spheres. Wild was tank HoTing and raid healing. Everything seemed pretty manageable at first. A really pretty sphere formed on the floor behind Wild and then broke free, sending out white tendrils which engulfed Wild and nearly killed me. Wild escaped, but other new spheres formed and attacked the raid. There were quickly too many to handle and the raid wiped.
There was a lot of discussion about how to handle the adds (the spheres). Apparently the spheres attack and then move on to another target, so healing through the hits without trying to run away sounded like the better approach. That allowed the DPS to converge and kill them quickly. On the next attempt Wild held his ground, and was hit three times by different spheres. Wild had to use emergency heals each time, but the spheres did move off and Wild stayed alive. In a relatively short time Toravon fell. Very cool.
That was going to be the end of the raid. The ICC run was called off because the raid leaders did not like the makeup of the raid for the boss they were on (Saurfang) and so didn't want to bang their heads against a tough boss they weren't optimally set up for. Before everyone left, though, we did agree to go ahead and tackle who, until Tuesday, was the newest boss in VoA, Koralon. We got off to a bad start on our first attempt and wiped, then came back and easily killed him.
Wild was pretty pleased with his performance in the raid. I was able to use my right hand well enough, and although it might be a little sore tomorrow I don't think I stressed anything too much. Wild was third out of 6 healers, doing 3319 hps to the raid leader's 3912. Our new transfer pally healer wowed us with 4776 hps. Nobody else broke over 3k.
Wild returned to Dalaran and climbed up on my ice mammoth. A few folks in the guild still on decided to get a ten man together to do the weekly frost raid. This week it was Ignis, in Ulduar. Wild raised his hand, his good one. Yep, I want to go!
To make a long story longer, we had two tanks who had never tanked Ignis before, and it's a kiting strategy that takes some practice. The management of the adds is also somewhat complicated, requiring an off tank, an off tank healer, and a ranged DPS. We had only two healers, so we had to split duties with tank and off tank healing, as well as raid and Crotch" healing (when Ignis grabs a raider and drops him into the pouch at his crotch). Wild had earlier in the day decided to make some fish feasts, which is a food buff that can be shared with the whole raid. I don't usually do that, and I don't know why Wild made them this time, but Wild was the only person who had any so they came in handy.
We "practiced" five times and then killed Ignis on our sixth attempt. That was a little more action that I had anticipated for the evening, but it certainly proved that I had no problems with using the wounded hand.
As for loot? I'll work backwards from the end. Wild didn't get any loot from Ulduar - I think all of it got sharded. In VoA, Koralon dropped a pvp pair of leather caster gloves. We had three druids in the raid. One already had them, so that left Wild and a moonkin. Wild didn't need them for either healing or moonkin, but the moonkin didn't want them either. Wild ended up taking them, so now I guess Wild can say now that he has pvp gear - well, one piece anyway.
Torovan, the new boss in VoA, dropped [Santified Lasherweave Legplates]. These are leather healing pants specifically for druids. Wild rolled a 25, which turned out to second best as the moonkin druid rolled a 31. However, since the pants were healing spec pants, not moonkin spec, Wild won the gear.
The Sanctified Lasherweave gear are the high end Tier 10 sets. They are a massive upgrade. Wild now has his third piece of ilevel 264 gear, and his first T10. Wow, what a nice surprise on a night when it didn't look like Wild would be raiding at all.
On Wednesday afternoon I tried to log in to Wild's account and discovered that the account had been frozen. I'd been on my other account with Happy and Philly with no problems, so this came as a big surprise. After sorting through the online account management process, I made sure that both accounts were set up for subscription and payment through Battlenet, but that didn't clear the frozen account. I tried the 800 number, but that was a complete waste of 45 minutes of my time and I never talked to a human person (or for that matter a troll, or tauren, or orc, etc, either).
Eventually an email arrived from Blizzard which told me what I already knew, with the additional tidbit that if an account payment fails for any reason, all information about the account is wiped as a hacker protection. And so, despite forcing us all into Battlenet because it would make account management easier, I had to go back into the online account management and re-enter all that information for that specific account.
Everything is fine now. Nobody has kidnapped any of my toons, and they are all still equipped as I would expect. I still don't know why there was a problem to begin with.
With that settled, I took some time (out of my very busy real life, you know) to do some additional research on the ICC bosses so that I was up to speed on the healing meeting that should be coming up, hopefully soon.
But, I'm going to put that aside for now since it's getting close to raid time.
The first thing I learned when Wild logged in was that the raid leader for the MM raid would not be able to make it. He contacted Wild and said he had some family issues and that the shaman healer in our raid would be raid leader. No problem. He asked about my hand, and I gave him the whole story, and told him I was about 90% ok, but couldn't be sure if the hand would hold up over a three hour raid.
In the meantime, Wild's guild was getting ready for the ICC25 raid. Both the MM group and the guild raid are having login problems. As 6pm passes and starts heading for 630pm I'm starting to get antsy. The shaman leading the MM raid logged in, and then out, in and then out, obviously having trouble. The guild raid decided to detour over to Wintergrasp and take on the brand new boss in VoA, Toravon. The guild was also struggling to fill, but they were closer to being ready to go than the MM group. So when the guild raid leader asked in guild chat if anyone else wanted in on the VoA run, he got some yes's from the guild, and also a yes from Wild, who whispered him directly to give him an update on my hand. Wild even flew to Wintergrasp so that I'd be right there if needed.
The MM group shaman finally got in game, and Wild explained his situation to him. "Well," he replied, "I'm not sure I can get a raid together, but if we can I definitely want you to come, gimpy hand or not." That made Wild feel good. I never got an answer back from the guild raid leader one way or the other, and they headed into VoA short of a full 25.
More time passed and the shaman leading the MM group finally had to admit that the login issues and lag had kept raiders away and that he was calling the raid. We joked that we'd tell our missing raid leader that we had cleared ICC and that he needn't come on Thursday, and then the shaman could lead the raid. Wild headed back to Dalaran (or "lag"-aran as it was being called). Wild hopped on his ice mammoth, which Wild likened to his security blanket. The monster sized mount, with his large sized tauren rider, won't fit through most doors, but Wild likes to just sit on his furry friend and watch the world go by out in the open passageways of the city.
Wild and his Ice Mammoth
I was thinking about opening Dungeon Finder and seeing how the hand would feel moonkin-ing our way through a 5 man heroic, when a raid invite from the guild popped up. At the same time Wild got a two word whisper from the guild raid leader, "for voa." Wild accepted the invite, and noted that half the raid was dead and making their way back from the graveyard. Well, an invite after the raid has already started is still better than no invite at all. Perhaps the raid leader didn't invite Wild earlier cause he didn't want Wild stressing his hand injury. Maybe he thought he had enough healers, but then the normally moonkin raid leader was decked out in tree form and healing. Whatever, I was in, and I was seriously ready for some action.
Wild's Game Face
Since I came into the middle of the raid, Wild had to catch up to what was happening on the fly. Toravon's room has a number of white, sparkly spheres on the ground about the size of the base of a snowman. Torazon stands in the center. As the raid moved in to start the fight, it was obvious folks were staying separated, so Wild found an open spot between two spheres. Wild was tank HoTing and raid healing. Everything seemed pretty manageable at first. A really pretty sphere formed on the floor behind Wild and then broke free, sending out white tendrils which engulfed Wild and nearly killed me. Wild escaped, but other new spheres formed and attacked the raid. There were quickly too many to handle and the raid wiped.
There was a lot of discussion about how to handle the adds (the spheres). Apparently the spheres attack and then move on to another target, so healing through the hits without trying to run away sounded like the better approach. That allowed the DPS to converge and kill them quickly. On the next attempt Wild held his ground, and was hit three times by different spheres. Wild had to use emergency heals each time, but the spheres did move off and Wild stayed alive. In a relatively short time Toravon fell. Very cool.
That was going to be the end of the raid. The ICC run was called off because the raid leaders did not like the makeup of the raid for the boss they were on (Saurfang) and so didn't want to bang their heads against a tough boss they weren't optimally set up for. Before everyone left, though, we did agree to go ahead and tackle who, until Tuesday, was the newest boss in VoA, Koralon. We got off to a bad start on our first attempt and wiped, then came back and easily killed him.
Wild was pretty pleased with his performance in the raid. I was able to use my right hand well enough, and although it might be a little sore tomorrow I don't think I stressed anything too much. Wild was third out of 6 healers, doing 3319 hps to the raid leader's 3912. Our new transfer pally healer wowed us with 4776 hps. Nobody else broke over 3k.
Wild returned to Dalaran and climbed up on my ice mammoth. A few folks in the guild still on decided to get a ten man together to do the weekly frost raid. This week it was Ignis, in Ulduar. Wild raised his hand, his good one. Yep, I want to go!
To make a long story longer, we had two tanks who had never tanked Ignis before, and it's a kiting strategy that takes some practice. The management of the adds is also somewhat complicated, requiring an off tank, an off tank healer, and a ranged DPS. We had only two healers, so we had to split duties with tank and off tank healing, as well as raid and Crotch" healing (when Ignis grabs a raider and drops him into the pouch at his crotch). Wild had earlier in the day decided to make some fish feasts, which is a food buff that can be shared with the whole raid. I don't usually do that, and I don't know why Wild made them this time, but Wild was the only person who had any so they came in handy.
We "practiced" five times and then killed Ignis on our sixth attempt. That was a little more action that I had anticipated for the evening, but it certainly proved that I had no problems with using the wounded hand.
As for loot? I'll work backwards from the end. Wild didn't get any loot from Ulduar - I think all of it got sharded. In VoA, Koralon dropped a pvp pair of leather caster gloves. We had three druids in the raid. One already had them, so that left Wild and a moonkin. Wild didn't need them for either healing or moonkin, but the moonkin didn't want them either. Wild ended up taking them, so now I guess Wild can say now that he has pvp gear - well, one piece anyway.
Torovan, the new boss in VoA, dropped [Santified Lasherweave Legplates]. These are leather healing pants specifically for druids. Wild rolled a 25, which turned out to second best as the moonkin druid rolled a 31. However, since the pants were healing spec pants, not moonkin spec, Wild won the gear.
The Sanctified Lasherweave gear are the high end Tier 10 sets. They are a massive upgrade. Wild now has his third piece of ilevel 264 gear, and his first T10. Wow, what a nice surprise on a night when it didn't look like Wild would be raiding at all.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Tuesday (2 Feb) - Philly Finally Tests Her Wounded Hand
Tuesday (2 Feb) - Philly Finally Tests Her Wounded Hand
Wild was in game Tuesday night just in case the guild needed him for the ICC25 raid. Wild whispered the raid leader, letting him know that I was only at 75% but was available if he was short healers. Many guildies were having login issues as well, so Wild might get an invite just because I was already present.
The first round of invites went out at 6:03pm, but Wild wasn't on it. I know every healer, even the new ones from the transfer players, and I could tell they were having trouble getting enough. At first the only druid in the raid was a moonkin main. Two more druids showed up about ten minutes later, though. They did get a full complement of healers by 6:25pm, so Wild wasn't needed. Had I been at full strength and accepted the sign up instead of saying I was tentative, I'm sure Wild would have gotten an invite.
I didn't hear how the raid went. The lag in Dalaran got so bad Wild tried to port out and got disconnected. After trying to get back in game for twenty minutes I gave up. Wednesday morning, though, there was a post on the guild forums setting up a meeting of all healers. The post read "raid healing is suffering" and asked for everyone to come with some ideas. That doesn't sound like the raid went very well.
I went to the doctor on Tuesday to have my hand checked and everything is going well. I am able to use the keyboard better, but after awhile the stitches start to bother me. I will get rid of those on 9 Feb. I also tested how well I can use the hand in game situations by giving Philly a chance to do some levelling in the Isle of Kel'danas. I could do everything I needed to, but again the stitches are a bit of a pain. For tonight's ten man raid with the MM group I will let them decide whether they want me to come along. I think I can manage healing, but ICC requires 100% effort, so I would be fine if they wanted to bring someone else. Wild will see how that goes.
Philly was happy to get some game time, improving to 76% of the way to level 71.
Wild was in game Tuesday night just in case the guild needed him for the ICC25 raid. Wild whispered the raid leader, letting him know that I was only at 75% but was available if he was short healers. Many guildies were having login issues as well, so Wild might get an invite just because I was already present.
The first round of invites went out at 6:03pm, but Wild wasn't on it. I know every healer, even the new ones from the transfer players, and I could tell they were having trouble getting enough. At first the only druid in the raid was a moonkin main. Two more druids showed up about ten minutes later, though. They did get a full complement of healers by 6:25pm, so Wild wasn't needed. Had I been at full strength and accepted the sign up instead of saying I was tentative, I'm sure Wild would have gotten an invite.
I didn't hear how the raid went. The lag in Dalaran got so bad Wild tried to port out and got disconnected. After trying to get back in game for twenty minutes I gave up. Wednesday morning, though, there was a post on the guild forums setting up a meeting of all healers. The post read "raid healing is suffering" and asked for everyone to come with some ideas. That doesn't sound like the raid went very well.
I went to the doctor on Tuesday to have my hand checked and everything is going well. I am able to use the keyboard better, but after awhile the stitches start to bother me. I will get rid of those on 9 Feb. I also tested how well I can use the hand in game situations by giving Philly a chance to do some levelling in the Isle of Kel'danas. I could do everything I needed to, but again the stitches are a bit of a pain. For tonight's ten man raid with the MM group I will let them decide whether they want me to come along. I think I can manage healing, but ICC requires 100% effort, so I would be fine if they wanted to bring someone else. Wild will see how that goes.
Philly was happy to get some game time, improving to 76% of the way to level 71.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday (1 Feb) - PvP News
Monday (1 Feb) - PvP News
Patch 3.3.2 was installed Tuesday morning as expected. In addition to the big news on new bosses already reported, there were a few smaller tweaks and changes. Moonkin druids got a nerf fixed with an enhancement to their Earth and Moon ability, and elemental shaman also got a buff that improves their damage as well - Wild and JB like those changes.
The new Season 8 (S8) Arena season is open and the new gear sets are available. According to the trade channel the pvp gear available for honor points only is the S6 (Furious) gear, which is the ilevel 232 gear. I couldn't get an answer on additions to Wintergrasp gear, but the wowhead lists haven't changed and I don't think we got anything new. The legs are still the only i232 gear from WG.
There was also a pretty significant change in the world of pvp arena, battlegrounds, and Wintergrasp. Two changes were made. The first is that a damage mitigation stat called resilience was buffed to reduce damage by 10% more than before, in general making players with resilience gear harder to kill. Then, in an attempt to balance things out, all healing in these pvp areas was reduced by 10%. This includes healing spells, potions, healthstones, etc.
The overall result is intended to make combat last longer and "fix" perceived problems that (1) it is too easy to zerg kill players with a focused attack, and (2) it's too hard to kill some healers (tree druids and holy paladins in particular). Since the changes don't affect spell shields, it's hard to see how this makes a holy paladin any easier to kill than before, but I'm not an expert at pvp so I can't really weigh in much on that.
The very personal question is how these changes could affect pvp in the Wild family.
The most critical impact is that resilience becomes an absolutely essential stat for pvp. Wild and family have been able to pvp without a lot of resilience gear up to now. Resilience was good, but one could still get by without it. Now, I don't think that is possible. Except for maybe the lowest level BG brackets, resilience gear is going to be a must have unless one wants to spend all their time at the graveyard.
How does this affect pvp for the Wild family?
EZ is probably not that affected yet in the 20s bracket. I'm not sure what kind of resilience gear is even available to players at that level. She will be affected somewhat in that her heals will hit for less and she'll get less healing per cast from her healing partner Ando. EZ dies fairly fast as it is. She'll die faster now.
JB may be the least affected, as she has around 300 resilience from pvp gear already. For a level 80, though, that's far less than real pvpers have and the changes will put her at greater risk.
Wild's pvp days may be numbered. I don't have the time or interest in gearing Wild for pvp as I have enough trouble just gearing him for both resto and moonkin specs. Building a resilience set as well is just not in the cards.
Philly probably has been hit the worst. She has next to no resilience gear, and would need a lot of time to collect it, but her focus really should be on levelling. Even in disc spec where she has her best shield Philly will be a much easier kill in pvp, and in shadow spec she'll be ripped to shreds. I may just pve level her until she can get the tailored resilience gear that Wild can craft, using that to help gain additional gear.
In general, I'm finding it hard to get all these toons enough in game time. With Wild now back on a 3+ night per week raiding sked, and with the extra time required for the daily and weekly badge dungeon runs, I've not been able to do much with any of the others. I had hoped to get Philly to the Isle of Kel'danas daily for some quick experience at the very least, but even that time has been hard to find. I had hoped that pvp play for experience could take the place of pve levelling in some large part for EZ in particular, but she is levelling far slower than her compatriots.
Just not sure at the moment how to balance things out. Even though I'm "retired" I still have a real life. I know, real life is way over-rated. :P
Patch 3.3.2 was installed Tuesday morning as expected. In addition to the big news on new bosses already reported, there were a few smaller tweaks and changes. Moonkin druids got a nerf fixed with an enhancement to their Earth and Moon ability, and elemental shaman also got a buff that improves their damage as well - Wild and JB like those changes.
The new Season 8 (S8) Arena season is open and the new gear sets are available. According to the trade channel the pvp gear available for honor points only is the S6 (Furious) gear, which is the ilevel 232 gear. I couldn't get an answer on additions to Wintergrasp gear, but the wowhead lists haven't changed and I don't think we got anything new. The legs are still the only i232 gear from WG.
There was also a pretty significant change in the world of pvp arena, battlegrounds, and Wintergrasp. Two changes were made. The first is that a damage mitigation stat called resilience was buffed to reduce damage by 10% more than before, in general making players with resilience gear harder to kill. Then, in an attempt to balance things out, all healing in these pvp areas was reduced by 10%. This includes healing spells, potions, healthstones, etc.
The overall result is intended to make combat last longer and "fix" perceived problems that (1) it is too easy to zerg kill players with a focused attack, and (2) it's too hard to kill some healers (tree druids and holy paladins in particular). Since the changes don't affect spell shields, it's hard to see how this makes a holy paladin any easier to kill than before, but I'm not an expert at pvp so I can't really weigh in much on that.
The very personal question is how these changes could affect pvp in the Wild family.
The most critical impact is that resilience becomes an absolutely essential stat for pvp. Wild and family have been able to pvp without a lot of resilience gear up to now. Resilience was good, but one could still get by without it. Now, I don't think that is possible. Except for maybe the lowest level BG brackets, resilience gear is going to be a must have unless one wants to spend all their time at the graveyard.
How does this affect pvp for the Wild family?
EZ is probably not that affected yet in the 20s bracket. I'm not sure what kind of resilience gear is even available to players at that level. She will be affected somewhat in that her heals will hit for less and she'll get less healing per cast from her healing partner Ando. EZ dies fairly fast as it is. She'll die faster now.
JB may be the least affected, as she has around 300 resilience from pvp gear already. For a level 80, though, that's far less than real pvpers have and the changes will put her at greater risk.
Wild's pvp days may be numbered. I don't have the time or interest in gearing Wild for pvp as I have enough trouble just gearing him for both resto and moonkin specs. Building a resilience set as well is just not in the cards.
Philly probably has been hit the worst. She has next to no resilience gear, and would need a lot of time to collect it, but her focus really should be on levelling. Even in disc spec where she has her best shield Philly will be a much easier kill in pvp, and in shadow spec she'll be ripped to shreds. I may just pve level her until she can get the tailored resilience gear that Wild can craft, using that to help gain additional gear.
In general, I'm finding it hard to get all these toons enough in game time. With Wild now back on a 3+ night per week raiding sked, and with the extra time required for the daily and weekly badge dungeon runs, I've not been able to do much with any of the others. I had hoped to get Philly to the Isle of Kel'danas daily for some quick experience at the very least, but even that time has been hard to find. I had hoped that pvp play for experience could take the place of pve levelling in some large part for EZ in particular, but she is levelling far slower than her compatriots.
Just not sure at the moment how to balance things out. Even though I'm "retired" I still have a real life. I know, real life is way over-rated. :P
Monday, February 1, 2010
Weekend (31 Jan) - The STV Fishing Tournament
Weekend (31 Jan) - The STV Fishing Tournament
Well, a still gimpy Wild wasn't able to do much this weekend. Wild's one accomplishment was earning Exalted rep with the Kalu'ak poeple and getting his new Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole. Wild thought he might give the weekly fishing extravaganza in Stranglethorn Vale a chance. Wild didn't much care if he won the contest, since his new pole was bigger and better and sexier than the prize pole, but there are rare fish that can be caught as well. Of course, fishing is just about the only thing I'm capable of doing right now. Well, not the only thing . . .
Wild tested his fishing ability in Grizzly Hills earlier Sunday morning and that went fine with one exception. An allie warrior thought it great fun to aggro mobs on me and try to steal my fishing pools, something I would expect during the tournament, but not while simply fishing for glacial salmon on a Sunday morning. Gimped as I was there wasn't much I could do, so we traded insults via emotes until he got bored. Wild still caught plenty of fish, and I guess that was pretty good preparation for the tournament.
The tournament starts at 2pm. Wild arrived at the Horde fort of Grom'gol about 2:10pm and immediately started working up the coast. The fishing pools are all tastyfish pools during the tournament. It takes forty catches to win, but you must also get your catch to Booty Bay at the Southern tip of Stranglethorn Vale, turn in the fish, and be the first to select a prize in order to win.
It took Wild 23 minutes to catch forty tastyfish, but by that time the main prize had already been won. Wild continued to fish, since I was after the three rare fish that also award a prize. One of the rare fish awards fishing boots and another awards special fishing line that can be permanently attached to the fishing pole. The third fish awards a lucky fishing hat, but that would not be so lucky as Wild already has a better fishing hat. Like I said, the fish are very rare so I doubted I'd catch one. I fished for about an hour total, until I started turning numb with boredom. I fished out a total of 109 tastyfish as well as innumerable other types of ordinary fish. And to my surprise, I fished up a rare one, called Keefer's Angelfish. I was ecstatic - until I discovered that this one awards the fishing hat. Sigh. Wild will likely keep trying if he gets a chance on Sunday afternoons.
On another note, it's been let slip that the next patch, 3.3.2, will be released this coming Tuesday. I'm expecting another lagfest evening. The new Arena 8 season will kick off, along with new honor rewards. In addition, a new wing in Icecrown Citadel will be opened, and a new Boss will arrive in the Vault of Archovan. Wintergrasp will be really popular again as players try to win it so they can tackle the new VoA boss.
I'm sure there will be lots of other smaller things in the patch, but Tuesday night will be a rough night for logging in. I probably will not be healed up enough to raid, but I'll hang around to see how things go. The guild is advertising for more healers, too, and I've seen both a shaman and priest put in applications.
The worst part of this injury, though, from a WoW perspective, is that I will miss the weekly frost raid and have already missed three of the dailies, a loss of 11 frost emblems and even more triumph emblems which puts Wild farther behind in getting gear upgrades.
Well, a still gimpy Wild wasn't able to do much this weekend. Wild's one accomplishment was earning Exalted rep with the Kalu'ak poeple and getting his new Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole. Wild thought he might give the weekly fishing extravaganza in Stranglethorn Vale a chance. Wild didn't much care if he won the contest, since his new pole was bigger and better and sexier than the prize pole, but there are rare fish that can be caught as well. Of course, fishing is just about the only thing I'm capable of doing right now. Well, not the only thing . . .
Wild tested his fishing ability in Grizzly Hills earlier Sunday morning and that went fine with one exception. An allie warrior thought it great fun to aggro mobs on me and try to steal my fishing pools, something I would expect during the tournament, but not while simply fishing for glacial salmon on a Sunday morning. Gimped as I was there wasn't much I could do, so we traded insults via emotes until he got bored. Wild still caught plenty of fish, and I guess that was pretty good preparation for the tournament.
The tournament starts at 2pm. Wild arrived at the Horde fort of Grom'gol about 2:10pm and immediately started working up the coast. The fishing pools are all tastyfish pools during the tournament. It takes forty catches to win, but you must also get your catch to Booty Bay at the Southern tip of Stranglethorn Vale, turn in the fish, and be the first to select a prize in order to win.
It took Wild 23 minutes to catch forty tastyfish, but by that time the main prize had already been won. Wild continued to fish, since I was after the three rare fish that also award a prize. One of the rare fish awards fishing boots and another awards special fishing line that can be permanently attached to the fishing pole. The third fish awards a lucky fishing hat, but that would not be so lucky as Wild already has a better fishing hat. Like I said, the fish are very rare so I doubted I'd catch one. I fished for about an hour total, until I started turning numb with boredom. I fished out a total of 109 tastyfish as well as innumerable other types of ordinary fish. And to my surprise, I fished up a rare one, called Keefer's Angelfish. I was ecstatic - until I discovered that this one awards the fishing hat. Sigh. Wild will likely keep trying if he gets a chance on Sunday afternoons.
On another note, it's been let slip that the next patch, 3.3.2, will be released this coming Tuesday. I'm expecting another lagfest evening. The new Arena 8 season will kick off, along with new honor rewards. In addition, a new wing in Icecrown Citadel will be opened, and a new Boss will arrive in the Vault of Archovan. Wintergrasp will be really popular again as players try to win it so they can tackle the new VoA boss.
I'm sure there will be lots of other smaller things in the patch, but Tuesday night will be a rough night for logging in. I probably will not be healed up enough to raid, but I'll hang around to see how things go. The guild is advertising for more healers, too, and I've seen both a shaman and priest put in applications.
The worst part of this injury, though, from a WoW perspective, is that I will miss the weekly frost raid and have already missed three of the dailies, a loss of 11 frost emblems and even more triumph emblems which puts Wild farther behind in getting gear upgrades.
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