Embarrassments and raids and such

So, I officially have been shunned...how embarrassing. Seriously, you can get a toon to 80 and not have the gear to get into Heroics? *sigh* Apparently, it IS in fact possible because I did it on my Shaman!

WHAT?

Yep, Eto and another, newly dinged 80, wanted to run a couple heroics after the weekly raid tonight and since he was a druid (healer) asked if I would dps. Since I royally suck at DPS on my priest, figured why not get a little gear for the shaman, since I never play her. Log on, join group and..."umm, it says I can't queue for heroics cause Kaly's gear is suckzo."

Nice....

*sigh* Never had that happen before.

On a brighter note. We did 2 shot Maly...
After a slightly frustrating start to the night. Planned to take our 8 into Naxx to get the key for someone and normal raid time is at 6PM server. Well, this dummy put 5PM for tonight's raid so Eto and I were 30 minutes late to our own raid. At this point 1 of our DPS was already in doing Maly and come to find out the hunter was locked from earlier in the week and had "forgot".

How do you forget you did a raid you had already accepted on the calendar on Tuesday? Grrrr.

Anyway, a few pugs and some great leading from 2 of our guildies and we have Maly under out belt. Pretty fun fight actually.

And did I mention, I healed this fight? Yeah, no tanking for me, Prayer of Healing, ftw! Apparently it's a one tank fight and we needed a healer so guess who got suckered into taking their Alt instead of their main? Yep, so Kalyanna go the achievement for killing Maly. All for the good of the guild!

Oh, and I almost forgot..the exciting news of my weekend?

Tada...

Yep, she's now a gnome and I love her!! Think it will be a long, long, LONG time before I ever consider making her a Horde!

Anyway, hope everyone had a great weekend and see you soon!

The Many Adventures of 3 Crazy Taurens

So, my kiddo is starting to dabble a bit in the complex world of WoW. I'm starting to learn just how complex that world is through the eyes of a 9 year old.

We ended up handing over Eto's RaF account so he could play around in the game. Now that seems simple enough but we're talking about a kid that has no gaming experience beyond Mario and Link.

So he dabbles around a bit, rolls a warlock which he has a very hard time keeping alive, let alone understanding. Then he decides he wants to play with Eto and I. So the adventure begins. I roll a Tauren Druid because he has picked a Tauren Druid after we explain to him that he can shape-shift into bears and cats and such.

No big deal, there isn't many classes I haven't played and the idea of a boom-chicken sounds like something I'd like to try.

Eto rolls a warrior. There is no class he hasn't played. And of those the warrior class is his least favorite to level. Why, you may ask, then is he rolling another warrior. Something about Prot PvP? Anyway, he begins grinding out his starting levels (he rolled an Orc but deleted him to reroll a Tauren becuase Orc's are too short?!?) and then runs to meet us in Mulgore.

Zack and I have flown through our starting levels because our accounts are linked via RaF. We soon come to realize this is going to be an issue because Eto, even with BoA gear, levels much slower then we do.

Anyway, we pick up the quests and head off to kill some cougars and plainstriders and other such nasties. Things go pretty well, as we attempt to keep Zack on track. Teaching him to use the map and understand the quest. He tends to get lost pretty easily. After we spend 10 minutes trying to explain to him how to equip a bag and sell his trash items we're moving on to the next quest. It's time to go kill some gnolls for a guy in Bloodhoof Village.

Off we go, three new adventurers prepared to take on the world one gnoll at a time...

We pull, we attack, there are a spells and sword flying! I notice the health of both Eto and Zack beginning to drop so being the wonderful little druid cow that I am, I begin tossing out some heals.

"Woah, Mom! why am I green and glowy!?!" I hear this cry from across the room and giggle to myself as I explain to Zack that we, as druids, have the ability to heal people with our magic.

We manage those pulls and I drink something to fill up my mana while Eto runs off and grabs another mob. Little did he know that by doing so he's pulled the heart of the camp, every gnoll previously gathered around the fire begins beating on him as I frantically start healing him.

"Oh crap. MOOOOM! Matt's gonna die, Matt's gonna die, throw the green stuff on him. Don't die Matt I'm gonna help you!!!!!" and off the little druid runs to "help" save the warrior while in the process aggroing more mobs along the way.

"See the skull Zack, kill the one with the skull" Eto has thrown a raid marker on his target and Zack fumbles to try to target it as I'm now having to cast heals on both him and Eto. I get heal aggro from the mobs previously beating on Zack and my little tiny mana pool is depleted.

*SPLAT* goes the first druid.

"Mom, more green stuff on Matt, hurry, hurry!*

*SPLAT* goes the little warrior.

"Ohh, I'm gonna kill you gnolls for that" Zack begins beating on the gnolls with his level 1 staff but somehow manages to figure out which one is the healing spell and cast it on himself.

"NOOOOOOO Zack! Don't beat on them RUNNN!" Eto and I are both calling to him in unison.

"OK, OK...ohhh, Mom there are wolves where do I go, where do I go?" Zack makes a run with a trail of gnolls in hot pursuit and soon a wolf or two as well.

Somehow Zack manages to get out of aggro range and to heal himself. So Eto and I release and run back to our bodies. We are in a safe place to rez, though there is a lot of gnolls just outside our aggro range. We rez and sit to eat and drink.

Before we manage to finish, in comes a charging cow..."shew, that was kinda scary, Matt don't do that again!" We both giggle a little. "NOW, I'm gonna kill that skull"

Off the little druid charges, as we run after him picking off the mobs he is aggroing along the way...giggling the entire time.... "Noooo! Zack, come back!"

Day one down...and I had to pull him away to get him off to bed...think we have a future wow player on our hands.

*Sigh* Lesson of the day? EXPLAIN AGGRO RADIUS!

Happy Friday everyone!!!!!!!! <3

Squee!

Had to share this one! Yay! Finally something exciting comes from that horrid heroic!

Go, Atl Team, Go

So, I've been spending a lot of time working on my alts recently.

It seems that my DK is at a stand still until we can rebuild enough to get us back into Ulduar and ToC10. She's got all of her emblem gear and there isn't much left to do with here since she isn't' the toon I choose to work on achievements with.

With that being said, I've found a long lost love in my little priest.

As most of you know, I switched Kalyanna from her pretty little Draenei with the pigtails to the somewhat cute tiny undead girl, still with the pigtails.

This was a tug at the heart strings to say the least. Mainly because she was my first serious toon, the first to see 70 and the focus of all of my attention in BC. She was the founder of my Alliance side guild and to me was everything that was Last Call.

Due to a huge phase of "Burnout" I had officially retired her when Wrath came out to focus on a DPS toon for a change. She slowly made her way to 80, simply to be able to max out her professions and spend her days in Dalaran. I rarely played her until recently.

When I transferred her she was in her Moonshroud gear, a couple of odd and end Shadow pieces she had gotten from Alt runs in Naxx and nothing more. I waited patiently, while Eto leveled his Druid with less the high hopes of actually being able to have fun with her again.

I was so certain that the trials and tribulations of BC raid healing had forever soured me to my priest. I just knew there was no way I was going to enjoy healing again. But I was willing to give it a try since it would greatly decrease our queue times if Loki was tanking and I was healing.

Low and behold, here we are 2 weeks after dinging the druid at 80 and I'm in LOVE with my priest again. She is 73/100 into getting her pug pet. She's in 4 piece T9 and the only heroic she hasn't been able to get through is HoR. She even healed Loki through VoA10.

Now, this is no major feat to most of you I'm sure. But for a little girl that I thought I'd never play again, this makes my heart sing. It's added new excitement to the game and I'm actually enjoying healing.

This isn't to say that if I made her my full time focus again, started raid healing exclusively, that I wouldn't hit that burnout stage again. But as an alt, running randoms, she's a lot of fun.

My original plan was to try out the Disc spec. However, I've remained Holy against the persuasion of every other priest out there. Why? Holy is what I know and it has changed very little since BC. I'm sure being Disc would have gotten me through HoR but I still enjoy Holy and that's what this toon is all about...just having fun!

Now curse Blizzard for throwing me head first into HoR on random! How dare they?!? :)

As for the lock that I dropped my priest for? She's still sitting around Dalaran in her T8 gear, Alliance side. I have pulled her out with the hopes of giving her Loremaster before the big change hits her as well.

I'm reluctant, more so with her, to transfer. She is my last high level Alliance toon. In my eyes making the switch to Horde with her is going to be forever saying good-bye to them. Forever letting go of the Alliance.

I've come to realize that I'm not doing myself any justice by abandoning her over there. I loved my lock just as much, if not more, then I loved my DK. Well, not exactly, I loved her minon. Her felguard to be exact. Zili is the whole of everything that is lock-dom to me. He's the reason I never made the switch, for high dps numbers, to destro like everyone suggested. There is just no way I can ever give up my Zili.

My dream for her was always to make her a gnome. As soon as Blizzard made the option available I was going to make her a gnome. Something about a cute tiny little warlock with her big massive Felguard guardian...that's just awesome. But I have since learned that my home is now Horde side and sadly, they do not accept gnomes. So instead, she'll turn herself into either a skinny, little, wispy blood elf or a cute undead. That is, unless Cataclysm hits before I finish Loremaster...then there is a possiblity she will wait to become a goblin!

But....only after I'm ready to say good-bye...

GM Rant

How many hits can on poor little raid group take? Apparently, a lot.

As of this morning, it appears we are now down a tank and healer as well as the dps spot(s) we've been trying to fill. Our OT (warrior) and party healer (druid) have run up against obstacles, in real life, that have caused them to need to let their wow time elapse.

Our once full raid group, has taken a couple pretty big hits over the last 2 weeks. But the lose of a tank and a healer, is the biggest one yet. It's hard enough to find dps.

Our line up looks something like this now:
MT - DeathKnight
OT - EMPTY
Heals - Shaman
Heals - Priest
Heals - EMPTY
DPS - Warrior
DPS - Warlcok
DPS - Mage*
DPS - Paladin*
DPS - EMPTY

I have marked the mage because just recently joined our group to see how they like it and we haven't ran anything to give them a feel yet.

The Paladin is marked simply because they are not in the guild and have other obligations to their current guild that prevents them from being able to attend all our events.

Now we do have a couple back up OTs and healers in the guild. However, by utilizing them, we would be removing them from other positions in the raid since they are alts of our raiders.

Example:
DPS Warrior = OT Prot
MT Death Knight = Holy Priest Heals
Shaman Healer = OT Druid

Regardless of what we do it's going to require us to either recruit a tank and a healer or 2 healers or 1 healer and another dps. Our warrior tank is willing to fill in as OT until we find another but does not want this to become his main raid spec. I'm very reluctant to switch from DK tanking to healing, simply because finding a MT is even harder then finding an OT.

So what is a girl to do? It's my responsibility to keep the raids going, to keep the guild on track, to keep people from becoming stagnant and wanting to quit. We all want to keep raiding, or better yet, raid consistently. That's my job as Guild Master. A job I feel like I am currently failing at.

The only thing left for me to do, that I haven't don yet, is spam trade with guild recruitment messages. Which I totally despise doing. It normally brings us the crazies, children, beggars and players otherwise scorned from other guilds for their behavior.

I have listed a message on the Shadow Council forums, listed posts on the wow_ladies forum over on LiveJournal...we have a website, we talk to, or encourage our members, to talk to people in their pug groups that are unguilded. However, this strategy doesn't work so well now that you are VERY unlikely to be grouped with someone from your own server during a pug.

We have a clear, defined definition of what we are and what we are looking for. We're a group of casual, fun, relaxed players looking for people to join our 10 man raid group. We're not worried about gear scores or experience levels, we're willing to help with that. Our only requirement is that the person be fun, relaxed and looking to have a good time while keeping the drama out of. Is that so hard to find?

Sheesh, there has to be something I'm missing...

Bitter Sweet

That's how I would describe my weekend.

It was a relaxing, fun, laid back, enjoyable weekend spent (after some much needed away from wow time) doing heroics and farming FoS and PoS on my priest with Eto's druid. It was laughing, joking, teasing and playing with no real stress or purpose other then to have a good time. Guild was chatty, a couple new members joined us, just all in all a good time.

The bitter part? Well, the drama that unfolded Friday night. Of all things, loot drama?!? Seriously? In our tiny little guild of members we all thought were playing for the same reasons and with the same goals in mind?

Yes, the minor loot drama unfolded.

So here is how the story went, in short. Our normal raid night, of course fell short because of the MIA dps that we are now working to replace. So instead of the much anticipated attempt at ToC10 we opted to do the new ICC5 on heroic. Mainly because there are still weapons in there that a couple of our people can use and I'm always trying to get that dang hilt to drop.

So off we go. It's a casual, relaxed environment. Everyone is joking and having a good time. Even though we wipe a few times (or a dozen times, hehe) while one of our newer healers is learning to heal me through H-PoS. We laugh it off and finally down Lord Tyransus. Low and behold, he drops the 2 handed axe that every warrior and their brother wants these days.

Now here is where the drama unfolds. We have in group, our dps warrior in his main spec and our prot warrior in his off spec dps. The axe is a huge upgrade for both of them. The dps warrior rolls need and the prot warrior asks if he can roll for his off spec. I'm shocked. Not so much that it's an upgrade but because he's wanting to roll against a main spec guild member who can and would be using the weapon on a daily basis.

Now,I had already passed, though I could have used it for my dps set and simply said in party. "Roll if you'd like but keep in mind that's a HUGE upgrade for his main spec" and to this he replies "yeah but it's a HUGE upgrade for my off spec >.>". Ummmmm? Did I hear right?

We all wait, and eventually the prot warrior (our OT in raids) passes on the axe, congratulates our dps warrior and logs off shortly there after. We all hope that no drama is going to unfold from this event, but I'm not feeling very hopeful.

Sure enough, a day later on our website forums, a thread appears from the prot warrior complaining about how he was asked to pass on a "HUGE upgrade for his DPS". His main argument, he runs most of his random instances as DPS because he doesn't like to tank for the pugs.

Now I understand not wanting to tank for pugs but was still shocked that we were having this discussion. When our group was formed, we had our loot rules posted. Everything is need before greed, main spec before off spec. So I have not understood the purpose behind the drama, especially when it won't be the last time we run H-PoS, I'm sure.

*sigh* So this may have cost us a tank...either in the form of a rage raid quit or because he will choose to go dps. Going dps is fine, I totally support whatever spec our members decide to play but raid drama, loot drama...blah!

I responded diplomatically. Explaining the mains before off spec idea. That doing this allows for the raid group to progress at an even level, etc. Still have no response nor have seen our OT in game since.

Now we wait...what a bitter-sweet weekend.

WoW vrs Life

This will probably be my most controversial post yet. Now remember, I'm not the type to fuel fires, slam anyone or otherwise stir up crap. But it's a topic that hits close to home for me and probably a lot of other gamers, regardless of the program you play. So keep this in mind before you read on, these are my views and they come from a fellow WoW "addict".

I use the term addict, though I don't use it lightly. I think for a large population of WoW players, we are all addicted in some way to the game we play.

Think about this. How many times have you done one of the following?

1. Passed up an RL invitation/obligation (i.e dinner date, party, family outing, trip to the movies, school event, a ball game, book club meeting, a once weekly night out with the guys/girls, hanging out with friends) for some game related reason (i.e raid night, needing to gain those last few bubbles to get that level, farming, running instances, etc)
2. Skipped work/school, for some game related reason (expansion release day, content patch day, just wanting to play)
3. Been late to an appointment/meeting/date because you had to finish the instance/raid that lasted longer then you had planned.
4. Sacrificed your sleep (ie stayed up all night or until the early hours of the morning) to play either because you lost track of time or because you knowingly did so without paying any mind to the following day being a school/work day (possibly leading to #2)
5. Lost track of time thus causing you to forget simple daily functions (ie, meals, laundry, household chores, trips to the grocery, etc)
6. Find that your time away from the game is still focused on the game? (ie, reading blogs, strategy, making plans, talking about the game?)

Now the question becomes how often do you do any or all of those things? Most people will begin to defend their actions here. I know I do. But I'm just as guilty of this things. It's called letting the game we love, run our life. And if I'm anywhere near close, I'd say you're reasoning's and defenses may include any one of the following:

1. I had a bad day/week, I use WoW to relax.
2. My family/spouse/partner/children/friends plays with me, so it's ok.
3. It's something I enjoy, just like anyone else's hobby. It's no different then the weekly night out with the guys or playing a sport.
4. The guild needed me, I can't abandon a raid/instance/guild run/etc.
5. Oh, I don't do that stuff very often.

Now, in part, most of those statements are true for a lot of people but now take a step back and look at yourself and your view on the game from an outside prospective. If you weren't the player, but the spouse/friend/child/parent of the player, how would you feel?

1. Do you do other things besides play? Do you spend time away from the game with your spouse, family, girlfriend/boyfriend, children, etc.
2. Is your family/spouse/partner/child/friend happy with the amount of time that you play the game together or on your own? Do you make time to do spend with them for other things?
3. It is just like any other hobby, I agree totally with this. But how much time is sunk into playing the game compared to other hobbies?
4. The guild does need you, you make a unspoken commitment when you queue for those instances, raids, etc. Are you planning for that? Making sure that the time you have isn't going to leech into other RL appointments, needs and responsibilities?
5. You don't do this stuff very often? If you can honestly say that and mean it, that's awesome!

Most of you know my history if you've been following my blog for any amount of time. Basically, Eto and I both play together. We met in the game 2 years ago, now are engaged and living together and are still playing the game. Together, we probably play about 30 hours or so a week. We're co-GM's to our guild, raid leaders and altaholics. We both work full time jobs. We are parents to my two boys 6 and 9 who live with us every other week, year around.

Now, do I say we play too much? No, not really. Do I say we fail on some of our other responsibilities? Am I one of the people that can say "Oh, I don't do that stuff very often", nope. Because I have been guilty of most of those things.

I'm a gamer yes and I'm the fiancee of a gamer. That's hard sometimes. Because even though we're both gamers, we both have feelings and sometimes those get hurt because we choose the game over each other. It's never on purpose, but it does happen. That's the reason I point these things out to you guys.

I think we have to make an extra effort to fit our real life commitments in with the game time we love so much. To keep a stable happy environment this is something we have to work on.

So I pose this challenge to you. Take a step back, look at the people and the life around you, are you balancing that out? Are the people around you happy? Are you happy? Look at those things long and hard because you don't have to loose them or your game, you just have to balance them together.

So how can you do that? There are a few simple things that you can do that will cause little to no impact on you:
1. Cut your game off an hour early every night, even 30 minutes early, and spend that time with your spouse or family or just get a little extra sleep.
2. Make a commitment to have a date with your family/spouse/friends/whoever, once every week. Even if that date is just time spent together at home, etc. Make time to do something with them at least once week.
3. Eat your meals together, away from the computer, tv, phone, etc.
4. Get out every once in a while. Like Blizzard says "Bring your friends to Azeroth but be sure to spend time outside Azeroth with them as well". Or something like that, the "tip" on the loading screen, even Blizzard knows how easy it is to loose yourself in their game.
5. Set aside time for your responsibilities. For Eto and I, it's early Saturday morning. The house work gets done, we start laundry, etc before we're allowed to play the game.

Just think about it and when in doubt ASK the people in your life, if they have complaints, then there is honestly probably reason for you to worry some. Don't stop what you enjoy but alter a little. Life only happens once, don't let it totally pass you by.

Flame away....

No really, feel free to comment good or bad, what do you guys think about your life vrs WoW?

Disappointment...

So, after hours of preparation, feeling like I was really ready for the ToC encounter and it was a no go. Had 2 dps no shows, one that had a commitment to raid with their guild last night and a sick healer. =(

So instead, we took 5 people and hit up the ICC5 instances on heroic, which was very much a learning experience for our newer healy priest. Though it was all guildies so we were patient.

We'll see if we can give ToC a go on Friday. Though I think we are going to have to try to recruit 1 or 2 DPS to fill in for missing/unreliable people. *sigh* I have mentioned I hate recruiting.

Anticipation...

So looks like tonight may be the big one for our little raid group. We're actually going to make our first steps in ToC10. We're behind the times but hey, we just started!

Anyway, my question to you guys is this. I've done a lot of research on the encounters in the raid and have made the following notes to help me with explaining fights, etc. So take a look and let me know if you see anything wrong or that can be done more easily. Now I doubt we'll make it all the way through but I wanted to be prepared!

Go team!

Beasts of Northrend
Phase 1
Main Tank: Gormok
Off Tank: Gormok
Ranged DPS: Adds when up, Gormok
Melee DPS: Gormok
Healers: Focus on tanks and mana conservation. There should be little raid splash damage as long as people stay out of the bad stuff on the ground.

Points of interest: Range MUST focus on the snowbolds when they spawn. The snowbold will target a player and attack their back, that player can’t single target them off. ALL RANGED stop and kill the snowbolds then back to the boss. Gormok will do a thunder stomp ability, stay at max range to avoid this. Tanks switch on 3 – 5 stacks of impale.

Phase 2
Main Tank: Acidmaw -
Off Tank: Dreadscale - Starts out mobil
Ranged DPS: Acidmaw till dead then -> Dreadscale
Melee DPS: Acidmaw till dead then -> Dreadscale
Healers: Watch the party for members with burning bile, otherwise focus on the tanks.

Points of interest: Spread out! Dreadscale will be the boss that starts off mobile, he will put a debuff on people called burning bile, that deals fire damage to you and everyone close to you. Acidmaw will put a debuff on people called “Paralytic Toxin” which will slow your movement and do nature damage. If you get paralytic toxin you can remove it by moving near someone who has burning bile on them. In the beginning of the fight, the only person who will have burning bile on them will be Dreadscales tank because he needs to tank them away from the party. So move to the tank if you get the toxin. The worms will randomly burrow under the ground and switch places, when this happens STOP dps so that the tanks can get agro back on their target. Acidmaw dies first, Dreadscale will enrage doing more damage to healers be prepared for the spike in damage to the off tank.

Phase 3
Main Tank: Icehowl
Off Tank: DPS and Emergency Backup
Ranged DPS: Nuke when boss is stunned
Melee DPS: Nuke when boss is stunned
Healers: Heal the tanks and watch the party, this can be a boring fight for healers.

Points of Interest: Icehowl has three abilities. 1st is an AOE whirlwind attack. 2nd is an Ice Cone that will deal heavy damage to everyone affected. Stay spread out to avoid this and healers must heal through it. 3rd he will throw us all back, randomly pick a target, turn towards them and howl, then charge the targer. MOVE!! He will charge the spot you were standing in so RUN to the right or left so he hits the wall. This will stun him and he will take increased damage. Burn cooldowns and whatever you have when he is stunned.

Lord Jaraxxus
Main Tank: Lord Jaraxxus
Off Tank: Adds
Ranged DPS: Adds then Lord Jaraxxus
Melee DPS: Adds then Lord Jaraxxus, 1 interrupt on Jaraxxus at all times
Healers: One on MT, one on raid, party healer focus on the person with Legion Flame/Incinerate Flesh

Points of Interest: Ok, first off, we need one interrupt that will stay on Lord Jaraxxus as ALL times. At all costs your job is to interrupt his firebomb. Everyone else, adds will spawn throughout the battle. Off tank, pick up these adds and ranged take them down, they are your top priority.

Abilities: He will do Incinerate flesh on a random target. If you get this buff please call out. Healers will need to heal this person up to 70,000 health within 15 seconds or they will blow up hurting every party member. 2nd he will attack someone with Legion Flames, if you have this debuff, move to the back wall till it goes away (or we can stand still and be healed through it to avoid flame trail)


Faction Champions
Main Tank: Keep one of the melee busy or assigned as interrupts on one of the healers. In DPS Gear.
Off Tank: Keep one of the melee busy or assigned as interrupts on one of the healers. In DPS Gear.
Ranged DPS: Nuke Healers first while throwing out CC at designated targets.
Melee DPS: Nuke Healers first.
Healers: Heal like mad and don’t get taken out

Points of Interest:
Resto Druid: Banish if possible, if not kill first. (use bloodlust here)
Shaman: Kill 1st or 2nd depending on if the druid is present, he will use heroism and buff his group with his totems.
Death Knight: Will do the most damage to your party? Should be the first damage dealing to go down?
Hunters: Will go after casters and cloth wears should die after DK or 3rd if no DK present.
Shadow Priest: Usually dies last
Paladin: CC if you can, otherwise one of the first healers to die

Use your crowd control, banish, fear, yank, frost trap, etc. Don’t be afraid to fear targets to get them off of you. Keep interrupts on the healers. Focus target. Make sure you are always killing the marked targets.

Twin Valkys
Main Tank: Lightbane
Off Tank: Darkbane
Ranged DPS: Kill opposite color twin of whatever buff they have
Melee DPS: Kill opposite color twin of whatever buff they have
Healers: One per tank and one on raid heal

Key Points:
Key abilities used once every 60 seconds at random:
Vortex: During vortex all DPS needs to switch to that twins color (ie, light or dark). Vortex does AoE damage to the entire party in the same class as their color (ie, Darkbane will deal dark AoE damage)
Twin Pack: All DPS switches to the portal color of the twin casting pack. DPS nukes down here shield and someone must interrupt her heal. Then DPS can switch back.

DO: Touch orbs that are the same effect as your portal color. This will stack a buff on you and when you reach 100 of this buff, it will give you a damage increase. Tank you mob near a portal of the opposite color, this will allow the dps to switch quickly.
DON’T: Touch orbs of a different color.

Twins share a health pool. Any damage done to one contributes to the death of both twins.

Anubarak
Main Tank: Anubarak
Off Tank: Adds
Ranged DPS: One assigned to ice clouds making sure that we have enough patch’s of ice but on boss when fine the rest on Anubarak unless little adds need AoE.
Melee DPS: Adds, big ones, little ones, medium sized ones, whatever, these DPS go on adds and then boss when they have spare time.
Healers: Only two needed, one on tanks and one on raid, in P3 make sure you don’t heal everyone up to full all the time as Anub will regain some health from this

Key Points:
Phase One: Ranged will need to shoot down the orbs hovering over the head of the boss. Orbs will leave a frost patch on the ground, there should be a frost patch down at all times. Tank, pick up the big adds and drag them onto the frost patch, this will prevent the adds from burrowing into the ground. Kill adds as quickly as possible, this will prevent the debuff from stacking up too high and increasing the party damage.

Phase Two: Anubarak will burrow under the ground, the entire party wants to huddle up on top of a frost patch. This will prevent Anubarak from impaling a player. This is importat because the falling damage can me instant death for that person. The impale will cause the frost patch to go away, move to another frost patch ASAP, if one is not available ranged shoot down an orb. Burn the adds as quick as possible, AoE the Swarm Scarabs. Once all adds are down, Anubarak will resurface and we return to phase one.

Phase Three: 30% health, Anubarak will no longer surface. At this point we need to kill any remaining adds ASAP, then bloodlust will be cast. All cooldowns and procs need to be used and nuke the boss as quickly as possible. The boss will use Leeching Swarm Releases swarm of insects that leech 10% of targets’ current health each second (minimum 250 health) and heals Anub’Arak. The target of attack will feed 10% of his/her health back to the boss every 10 seconds. Healers, keep these targets up but do NOT fill their health back to full as the more health they have the more they are feeding to the boss.

Days Gone By

I got hit in the face with a wave of "I miss those Alliance" this morning.

I don't have a clue why or what triggered it but it was an overwhelming wave of...sadness? Seriously, you can be sad over something so simple as a video game?

Looks like it. You know when you spend 2 years playing one faction. You know, and love, the toons, the zones, the lore, the stories. It's a something that somehow becomes a part of you.

I don't know that I will ever get over these random spurts of regret. There were still things I wanted to do Alliance side. Play a gnome, level my druid, get the loremaster title on my lock...the list is never ending.

There are still things I want to do on my Horde toons.

I don't think it will ever fully go away.

Lets Talk Tanking

I ran an instance last night...get this...as DPS...*gasp*. That's right, I put aside my tanking boots and ran a lower instance (UK to be exact) on my DPS shaman. Now, it's been a long long time since I put on my dps but honestly, I had a great time.

Now, no this doesn't mean that I'm giving up tanking but the point of this blog actually isn't about my DPS or tanking.

You see, the new LFG system paired Eto and I with a new level 72 warrior. How do I know he was new you ask? Because his tank weapon was a level 70 WHITE trash sword. His gear, also is not the topic of my post. It's more his attitude.

For once, I saw a newbie tank, with a great attitude trying to tank. At the end of the instance, he willingly admitted it was his first time tanking. Though I wasn't' surprised, simply because of the gear he was in (mostly level 70 BOE greens). Though he was knowledgeable and patient. If it had not been for the druid healer and myself back up healing when he went OOM, I'm sure this instance wouldn't have gone as smoothly.

Now, why am I bragging on this guy? Simple, he had the guts to actually play a tank. I'm sure people are gawking at me now. But it's true. The number of players willing to tank these days is pretty low. That shows with the 30 - 45 minute queue times for DPS trying to get into random dungeons. I think Eto and I waited about 30 minutes before getting this group last night and about 30 on Sunday when we got into Nexus.

Why do people not want to tank? That's also a simple, long list, of answers.

Let me see if I can break this down for those who haven't tried tanking themselves. As I do, I'm sure a lot of people will get a reality check and find themselves thinking.."oh, yeah I do this" or "Oh, I saw this happen the other day".

1. DPS and Healers have very little patience when it comes to a new tank.
2. They won't tolerate well a tank that mismarks/does not mark targets.
3. They are looking for speed runs. Constantly hearing, "go go go" even annoys the seasoned tanks. Seriously, shut up!, we'll go when our abilities are off cool down and when that person in the back that is responsible for keeping our butts alive has enough mana to do so!
4. Will bitch about a tank with low health (less than 30K). You know this is just H-UK right, now trying to tank Ulduar.
5. People don't understand that tanks don't magically get gear dropped in their laps as soon as they hit 80. They have to gear up and unless they do that as dps and off roll on tank gear, they have to run with lower stats for awhile.
6. Aggro isn't instant. DPS that start their rotation with an AoE attack 1.5 seconds after the pull will cause aggro issues and then what happens? They will blame the new tank. It isn't the tanks fault that they have to BUILD up aggro.

So, what can you do to help out those up and coming tanks, prevent them from saying "screw this" and going dps instead? Here are a few ideas.

1. BE PATIENT!! This goes a long way. Remember they are learning, you were there at one time.
2. Don't push your luck with them. Give them some space and allow them time. This means don't' pull for them, don't push them to speed up and don't keep screaming "go go go". If you don't have time for this then run with your guildies, friends or people you know. You shouldn't be queuing up for a random dungeon expecting to be done in 15 minutes.
3. Offer helpful advice, in a kind indirect way. No one wants to be told they are doing something wrong. But if you offer advice indirectly, people are going to see you as helpful more then bossy. IE - Should we kill that drake first, I remember he hits pretty hard and does AoE damage. This sounds a lot better then "Hey, kill that drake first, don't' you know that?"
4. Watch your aggro. Don't start your rotation with an AoE attack 1.5 seconds after they pull. If they aren't marking targets, kindly ask them to or tab between targets whenever you get close to the aggro level of the tank.
5. If you pull aggro, for Elune's sake DON'T RUN AWAY! Use your aggro dump abilities and if you don't have any, stop attacking and stand still or at least move towards the tank. If you keep attacking, even if they taunt you run the risk of bypassing aggro level of the taunt.
6. Learn to assist! It's a simple macro, all dps can use to help them attack only the mob that the tank is targeting.

Set focus to the tank when you enter the instance then create this macro:
#showtooltip Attack
/target [target=focustarget, harm, nodead]
/startattack

Casters change the macro to:
/target [target=focustarget, harm, nodead]

It's that simple. You can easily help the tank and not look like the jerk.

Now, tanks...there is a couple things you can do as well.

1. Be honest. Let people know you're still learning or let them know if you don't know the instance. Hopefully, there will be someone in the group willing to help you with marking targets and boss advice. If not, at least you warned them and they know from the beginning.
2. If someone pulls aggro, taunt off them once. If they continue to pull aggro without care to what you're doing, LET THEM DIE. They will learn their lesson the hard way.
3. Wait for your healers and casters to get mana. No matter how much you have that jerk screaming "go go go", take your time, you're the tank.
4. Let people know your kill order from the beginning. That way they know to kill in the order you target and have less of a chance to pull aggro.
5. Ask them not to pull the mobs for you and warn them if they continue to do it you won't taunt off of them. If they throw a fit, scream or yell, you have the right to vote kick or leave the group. You are the tank and the time it takes you to get into another random instance is a lot less then the time it will take the group to find another tank.
6. Don't play God. Just because you're the tank doesn't give you the right to be a jerk either.

Hopefully, people will take some of this to heart. Tanking is not easy, it's got a high burn out rate and a lot of people just don't like to do it. Help those new tanks when you can, you may need them tomorrow!

Happy hunting and /hug to all the other tanks out there.

A Year Full of Memories...

This post spawns from a WoW_ladies post I was reading earlier.

Our Intrepid Heroes

[1:] Who/what are your mains?
Kalyara, my 80 Death Knight, frost tank would be classified as my "main" as I write this. The beginning of the year, I would have said my 80 human warlock. This saddens me a little since she is Alliance side and I am now Horde.

[2:] Which alts were your favorite this year?
Kalyara started off as an alt so I would say she was pretty popular since she is now my main. As for this currently moment, my 80 priest coming out of retirement and my 72 Elemental Shaman are my favs.

[3:] How many characters did you get to 60? 70? 80?
2 - My DK and my priest. My lovely warlock hit 80 before Jan 2009.

[4:] What character are you most proud of and why?
Kalyara, simply because anyone that knows me, knows I rarely see things through before getting bored and moving on. To have an 80 tank, sitting where she is now is a major accomplishment for me. I have a tank that is geared to play all the way through ICC10, that's something amazing.

Earlier in the year I would have said my lock because I was working so hard on her achievements. But that has since stopped.


Around Azeroth

[5:] What was your biggest/most memorable achievement(s) this year? What was the most painful?

My biggest achievement...hmmmm. As silly as it sounds, I'd have to say it was learning to be a "good tank". When I say good, I mean the kind that people rarely complain about. I take pride in proving people wrong when they classify all DKS as "dumb knights".

My most painful...the breakup of Last Call. This is still a touchy subject for me.

[6:] What has been the most fun raid/pve fight so far in WotLK?

Heh. Not easy for me to choose just one. I love Heigan, I know I'm crazy but he's probably my all time favorite fight in the game. Followed very closely by Hodir, Thaddius and Ony.

[7:] What was your favorite quest/questchain?
Wrathgate...what else do I need to say?

[8:] A lot of powerful lore has been introduced in this expansion. Any favorite bits?
The battle for Undercity and Wrathgate. I love the lore here.

[9:] The rise of the Lich King has changed Azeroth and its people so much. Who's your favorite NPC(s) in this expansion?
Lady Sylvanas, hands down. Being a Ali only girl, I knew nothing about her before joining the Horde. But she's a very awesome, very strong female figure in the game and I love her!

[10:] Which in-game holiday was the most fun this year?
Mid-Summer Fire Festival, Eto and I did this one together. It holds the best memories.


Friends and Enemies

[11:] Did you change guilds this year? If so why?
I did, twice. When Last Call finally closed its doors back in April, Eto and I joined Whispers of the Fallen on our Alliance toons. We loved the guild, loved the people but were never really happy. Soon we moved over to the Horde side and joined a guild with some old friends Eto knew when he first started playing 3 years ago. Still we were never satisfied. So we moved our Horde toons to Shadow Council and formed Faded Delusions. We've finally found our home and some great friends with it.

[12:] What was your guild's biggest/proudest accomplishment this year?
Too many guilds this year to determine the answer to this...

[13:] Did you make a lot of new friends? Any mortal enemies?
I have made some awesome new friends. All the new members of Faded Delusions have fast become family to me.

[14:] Any fun or memorable PVP encounters?
Ahhh, I hate PvP! =)


Looking Ahead

[15:] What changes are you most excited for in Cataclysm?
Wow, I don't think I have enough time to list the answers to this. The guild changes, GOBLINS!, flying in Azeroth...just to name a few.

[16:] Which new race/class combos are you going to roll? Got any names yet?
Tinkabell (my current Horde bank) is name holding for my adorable Goblin Mage! The one class I have left to play and I'm saving it for my Goblin. Would love to roll a Worgen but that will be a ways down the road I'm sure.

[17:] Where do you see your character in the next few months?
Wherever they are I'll be happy. Hopefully, Kalyara will see the inside of ICC and the growth of Faded Delusions.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope it finds you happy, healthy and surrounded by friends and family.

Here's to another great year and the hope for a Cataclysm!

Positive Progression

We have officially made progress. Saturday night our guild/raid group attended our first scheduled Ulduar weekly run.

XT was the weekly raid quest again, which was the original reason we headed into Ulduar this week. Night one we got down FL, XT, Razorscale and Kologran (with 9 people present). The second night, we downed Auriaya and moved on to Ony and then OS10.

Our line up went as follows:
Kalyara - DK Tank
Kiwalski - Warrior Tank
Etolani - Resto Shaman
Savilla - Disc Priest
Raggy - Resto Druid
Merkit - Destro Warlock
Archslayer - Fury Warrior
Shayloah - Hunter
Zar - Shadow Priest
Guest - Hunter (who afked out eventually)

Now the amazing part, Arch and Sav have only been 80s for about a week. As most people know, they were a RaF couple that rerolled new toons on our sever to help out the guild. Zar was also a new 80, who was mainly in green quest/drop gear.

We had one wipe on FL, getting people to understand their position and the fight. XT went super smooth, as usual and we finished off Razorscale with only one wipe. That is totally awesome.

Now Kolo was a little more of a challenge. Most people had never seen this fight before. It took 2 wipes for us to get this guy down and we did it with only 9 people since our guest hunter had DC'd by this point.

On the second night we brought in Kirt, our hopefully, normal ret pally. With her help, we were able to down cat lady in one try. Since, I was a fail tank and didn't bring any frost resist gear to attempt Hodir, we voted to move on to Ony and then OS10.

Ony took us 4 attempts. Mainly, because again most people had never made it past phase 2. I was super excited since I finally got to do the Ony head quest! Yay!!

All I can say, is...excited!! Can't wait to do it all again.

We will officially start our normally weekly raiding on the 13th, with a Wed, Friday, Sunday raid schedule. Our focus "progression" raid will be Ulduar for now on Friday and Sunday. Wednesday is going to be a shorter raid night where we will dabble a little in ToC10, Ony, older content, etc.

I'm not sure our group is fully ready for ToC yet, but I think we could down a boss or two.

Now, my thoughts on the group as a whole. We seem to work pretty well together. Arch and Sav bring with them a pretty extensive raid background from their Alliance side toons. This proved to be a great asset in Ulduar. They have an amazing knack for working well together. I've learned pretty quickly that as MT, I can't see anything! Seems my face is constantly planted in the leg, crotch or face of whatever boss we're fighting. So having them in the back ground calling out moves, alerts and giving advice was so awesome.

We have one DPS that I seem to have personality conflicts with. Not because I think he's a bad guy but mainly because he's elitist attitude is a little trying at times. He's a good player, thought newer to the game. He does decent dps, but by no means do I think he's as perfect as he thinks he is. Given a little more time and work, hopefully he can learn to be an even better group player. But that does involve knowing your own class inside and out.

I'm extremely amazed at how far our hunter has come. When we first started playing with her she knew very little about her class and was in a lot of spell power gear. As of last night she is now in full T9 and has gear with good hunter stats on it. To see her pull 3K DPS did my heart good. I know she has the potential to do so much more, but this is a great start compared to the 900 - 1K she was doing before.

The new shadow priest is our next group project. Since he just hit 80 and was mainly healing as holy, getting him some DPS gear will put us in even a better place to start Ulduar on the 13th.

All in all, great group, we had a blast and that's all that matters. Cause if you're not having fun, then it's not worth the effort!

Happy New Year!!