The End of an Era

It sounds kind of odd to say "we beat the game" since I know it's an MMO and can't really be "beaten". But that's what it feels like.

Matt and I both walked away from ICC last night as Kingslayers. After a lot of ups and downs, we were finally able to watch Arthas fall. The total fight took 12 minutes and 18 seconds. But a lot of practice went into that battle.

Even with the OP boost and class changes, it still wasn't what I would consider a "faceroll". It seemed like we couldn't get the defiles placed right, the valks kept coming almost right on top the defiles, people were DC'ing and locking up. We had arguments and there were fingers pointed when we wiped. We suffered through the stupid bugs left behind with patch 4.0.1; people falling to their death from their flying ghost mounts when trying to accept a rez, zoning into an empty instance, disconnecting for no apparent reason, getting stuck because teleports would randomly stop working. It took more than a couple of wipes to get it right. But we were able to do it and with a 100% guild raid.

I can't begin to express the pride and accomplishment I felt when I watched him fall and heard the vent channel go silent as they all watched the video. Most of the guild had held off on watching it, avoided it in Dalaran, in the hope that they would see it for the first time when we were able to actually kill him.

As I walked away from ICC last night, it hit me that this truly was a bitter sweet ending. It means the end of an expansion for me and the (semi) retirement of a toon.

The List:
1. King Slayer - Kalyina - DONE
2. Exalted Zandlar Tribe - Kalyina
3. ZG Mounts - TIGER DONE
4. 20,000 gold stock pile - DONE
5. Explorer Title - Kalyina - DONE
6. Reins of the Winterspring Forstsaber - Kalyina - DONE

The last thing left for her to do is finish her Zandlar Tribe rep. She's almost there actually. Just a couple thousand points away from exalted. Then that's really it. Will I get that raptor to drop. I see that goal slipping further and further away as each day passes.

But ultimately, I did what I sat out to do. I didn't want to watch another expansion pass by without seeing the end of the content.

I started playing a little ways into the BC era. Most people were already hitting up the end game raids when I got my first toon to 70. I barely knew what a raid was, let alone dreamed of getting into one. Actually, I was pretty scared of raiding. I remember telling the people I met in the game that I didn't want to raid. It sounded too hard. But towards the end of BC when we were running Kara and ZA, I was sad to see Wrath coming because there was so much content I never got to see.

So it is with mixed emotions that Kalyina boasts her Kingslayer title. At least I know when she and Zili are sitting around, relaxing by a fire in the bars of Dalaran with all the other left behind or forgotten toons, she'll have big stories to tell about her amazing adventures.

So little time...so much WoW

It's been a few days since my last post and a few days since Blizzard announced the release date of Cataclysm.

In that amount of time, I've managed to complete my Winter sabre rep grind, pick up 2 Brewfest mounts and almost complete my Diplomat title.

I've also been thinking a lot about my little hunter. I've been reading some of the changes to hunters in Cata and think I may want to put the needed time in to level her to 80 before the release. She's currently at 72 so that's not a huge grind but it still takes time away from the other things I've wanted to do on my bucket list.

So lets take a look at where I stand now:
1. King Slayer - Kalyina Trying for it again tonight!
2. Exalted Zandlar Tribe - Kalyina
3. ZG Raptor/Tiger - Kalyina Tiger complete
4. Pre-BC Dungeon Master - Kalyina
5. 20,000 gold stock pile (I'm odd I know) Close enough
6. Explorer Title - Kalyina
7. Winter saber Grind - Kalyina Complete
8. Diplomat Title - Kalyina
9. Hunter to 80

I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get this stuff done, if I keep adding to it. *sigh*

On other news, I may have mentioned that Matt and I have put two of our alts into a separate guild from our mains. Kalyista (my shaman) and Minikyn (Matt's warrior tank) are now members of a Solo Act on Shadow Council.

I've never really been one to take my responsibilities in a guild lightly. To me, being a member of any type of group means I have responsibilities and obligations to those people. It's nothing different in WoW.

Solo Act is a small-ish guild trying to work their way through ICC before the end of Wrath rolls around. We went into this guild before we knew the actual release date for the expansion.

Our first weekend in we were pulled into their ICC group. I think I've posted the results of my adventure into Shaman healing in ICC. Now my thoughts for this post aren't actually on the raid itself but more on my thoughts of the type of people this guild houses.

Last night we ran the weekly raid with them. Nothing major, it was a simple Noth run in Naxx. Pretty easy right. Well, yeah it was. But the attitude of the players during this run just kind of blew my mind.

The main tank for the guild (will call her KJ) is a DK. She's not a "bad" tank by any means but her ego is a little over the top for my tastes. So even though we had two tanks in the party KJ asked Mini to go dps. Ok, no big deal. About two pulls into the wing I realize I'm also solo healing the raid. Again, no big deal. But why? If we have the classes in the raid and the instance is well below all of us in gear level, why are we worried about needing that much dps? Is there a point we are trying to prove here?

KJ had the same type of attitude with ICC last weekend as well. She is God and no one else can touch her. I kept my opinons to myself and didn't mention that she was pretty dang squishy for a DK tank at that level of progression. Just rubbed me the wrong way...you know?

Then there is the Shadow Priest who zones in to Naxx with the question "wow, am I the highest gear score here?" Ok, lets stroke our own egos for awhile. Then he commences to posting the damn dps meter after every piece of trash. Dude, seriously? Like we really care what the dps meter says on a raid that we are way over geared for. I won't go into the fact that he was the highest gear score but still fell 5th on the dps meter.

It just really amazes me that people consider themselves awesome based on their guild score. Gear score does not judge talent. This is simply proven with the Shadow Priests that thought he was the almighty but failed to notice that even though his gear score was higher he couldn't back it up with the talent needed to produce the numbers of some of the other dps.

Needless to say, I'm not sure how long we'll last in this guild. Maybe it's just that being a member of a good guild has spoiled us and sheltered us from these types of idiots.

Now don't get me wrong, the GM for Solo Act is a pretty nice (though young if I had to guess) guy. And there are a couple of nice enough people in that guild. But after being an active part of Whispers and now and officer in our main guild. I've come to realize how important it is to enjoy and respect the people you play with.

ICC Updates and Newly Post News

Raiding News:

ICC last night went better than I expected, especially since 2 of our raid members had to drop as soon as we walked in the door. After bringing a couple of back ups we decided to give Putricide a try and if we couldn't down him, we'd just reset.

Well we downed him, on our first try this week. Granted most of the raid had tried him a few times before but we always decided to skip him since he was such a pain. But anyway, that was a guild first.

So, we're now locked to the raid for this week, may as well give Dreamwalker a try. Guess what? We one shot that fight too...another guild first! Oh yeah, we're on a roll! Let's move on.

The gauntlet went smoothly and we're in the courtyard for Syndragosa. First try 8/10 people get phase 1 and 2 down with no problems. We have her health down below 50% when we decide to wipe it, rez our 1 dead healer and 1 dps. The RL discusses phase 3 and we give it a go again, second time doesn't' go so well, we loose 3 or 4 people in her first yank because they got them selves turned around and didn't away from her fast enough. So, wipe it up and try a 3rd time. This time we make into phase 3 and she is at about 28% health when the entire raid gets encased in a tomb of ice. *sigh*

I think we could have made it past her on the next try but one of our healers (a last minute add because of the 2 lost raid members in the beginning) had to go to work.

We've extended the raid lock out again and I feel confident we'll get Syndragosa down next week. Then it's off to visit the Lich King!!

NEWS:

Looks like patch 4.4.0 is up on the back ground down loader. That means we'll all be seeing pre-Cataclysm changes in the next couple of weeks. From my experience, things usually go up on the down loader 2 - 3 weeks before they are released. Then the pre-expansion events are usually up 5 - 6 weeks before the release of the expansion. That all plays very well into MMO-Champs predictions of a November release.

I expect we'll be hearing something from Blizzard in the way of an announcement soon. Or at least I am keeping my fingers crossed. I could totally be wrong, I have been known to be a time or two in the past, so don't quote me on anything. It all my wishful thinking.

BUCKET LIST:

My bucket list doesn't seem so large anymore but it does have somethings on it that seem impossible.

1. King Slayer - Kalyina
2. Exalted Zandlar Tribe - Kalyina
3. ZG Raptor/Tiger - Kalyina
4. Pre-BC Dungeon Master - Kalyina
5. 20,000 gold stock pile (I'm odd I know)
6. Explorer Title - Kalyina
7. Reins of the Winterspring Frostsaber - Kalyina has been gathering her mounts, would love to add this one to her collection.

That's about it for me today. Hopefully, I'll be back tomorrow to talk about more interesting things.

Happy Hunting,
~Kaly

Could it really be?

I know, I know...I've been gone for AGES!

Well not really gone. As it turned out I have been playing wow. I've been dabbling around in various things here and there and ultimately I've ended up back on the Alliance side of the fence (more or less) for the last few months.

Turns out, I just wasn't happy Horde side and that was probably a huge reason I lost interest in the game. So you may (or may not) be wondering, where I am at now.

My time lately has been divided between my beloved lock, priest and my now RESTO! shammy. Yes, you heard me right that shammy that I so hated, is now resto and I love, love, love her.

The break down:
Kalyina - She's still demo. I can't bring myself to change this. And believe it or not, with our Alliance side guild, she's only 3 bosses away from her King Slayer title.

The entire guild took a raid break for about 6 weeks and we made our first run since then, last week. We decided to extend our raid lock out and tonight we have Dreamwalker, Sendragosa and the Lich King to pick up on. It's one of the only things I wanted before the release of Cata. I wanted my little gnome to have the King Slayer title. So we'll see how that goes.

Kalyanna and Kalyista - Both of them have transferred back to the Alliance side and have been happily gathering emblems here and there for their gear. I have yet to raid past ToC with either of them since I'm mainly focused on ICC with my lock. I would love to get some ICC love for my priest but with the pending release of Cata I doubt that will happen.

Now for the big topic of discussion. I'm assuming everyone has read the MMO-Champs prediction for the release of Cataclysm. For those of you that have not..they are guessing the first week of November!!

Now I'm not one to spread rumors and Blizzard hasn't announced this themselves but if anyone has been following them for long, you'd know they were spot on with the BC release. Not only BC but they have also been right about the patch release dates as well.

What does all this mean? Well, we could all be playing Cataclysm in a little less then 2 months! Even if they are off a little, well that's still pretty damn close!

So it's got me thinking about all the changes. I find these exciting and actually, a little bit sad.

Exciting for the new content and renewed excitement in the game. Excited to see all the new stuff that will come along with the changes they are making.

Sad, well for many reasons really. For the obvious, because of the things that will be going away. ZG for one. I have always loved that raid. As a matter of fact, my DK got exalted with the Zandlar Tribe last night. We've been running ZG on every reset and will continue to, in order to get our fill of a place that will soon be long gone and a chance at giving my tiny gnome a giant raptor mount as well.

Other reasons I'm sad? Well, for out of game reasons. Since my break from WoW I have been doing more of the crafty type things I love to do. I know this will decline for awhile. And then there is all the other things I want to do. Mainly, the Sims 3. I've had the game for awhile and it's sitting on my shelf calling my name.

The world doesn't give me enough to time to do all the things I want/love to do. I know I need to learn to balance it all. I also know that as the excitement of the expansion wears off that will become easier to do. However, it still makes me a little sad.

That bucket list I created awhile back...well we'll talk about that in my next post. I have lots of thought I need to put into that one. Lots of consideration for what's important in the next 6 weeks and what's just not.

Hope everyone is as excited as I am for the upcoming expansion and I hope you all have a wonderful Hump Day!

Improvements!

Thanks to the help of two lovely readers, I am seeing a slight improvement on the dps of my lock.

What did I do?

Nothing really major. They had mentioned that I should make sure my spec was PvE specific, research spell rotation, check my gear and practice on the dummies. So I did the research part and swapped a couple of pieces of gear for T9 since I earned some emblems.

I'm excited to say in H-VH, H-OK and H-HoS (maybe H-AN too can't remember) last night I saw my dps jump from it's normal 2800 - 3200, to 3800 - 4200. That's a 1000 dps jump.

I was top of the dps charts for 2 or the 3 or 4 runs. Not that it means a whole lot, I know. Could just mean the other dps were really low, etc. But I was excited none the less. I at least felt like I wasn't being carried any longer.

Now the Shaman, she's a different story, we'll see what happens with her this weekend. I haven't been on her to try the same with her.

How can this be?

Ok, I have officially come to the realization that I am epic fail when it comes to any DPS class. I know, I know, how can anyone not be good at DPS? Well, maybe it's because I refuse to conform? I want to play the specs that aren't "popular" or aren't really high dps specs? Who knows, but check these examples...

Subject One: Kalyina - Demonology Warlock
Now I know her biggest problem is that I refuse to go affliction or destro. Why? I like demonology. I know it doesn't push the big dps numbers but even duel speccing her for destro I wasn't able to push the numbers. And it's my Zili...it's my awesome felguard bodyguard! Who doesn't love him?

I can't really blame her problem on gear either. At the time she was geared pretty well actually. At least for her content level. At the time, in the appropriate tier gear, she was doing good to push 3K dps as Demo in a 10 man raid. Blah...

Demonology locks rely heavily on the raid make up to boost their DPS. I learned this early on. Paladin buffs are a must. Especially when you rely so heavily on your Felguard for his cleave damage. Getting Might on him is very important. Sadly, most paladin's don't understand this which means you have to ask for them to buff the felguard differently. Regardless, I've always believed if you can't pull the dps on your own, you shouldn't be relying on group make up to boost it.

Subject Two: Kalyista - Elemental Shaman
This one, maybe I can blame it on gear. She is able to get into heroics now, thanks to 2 pieces of LW gear that Eto made for her. I also threw on some leather BoE blue gloves and bracers I had on my bank toon and purchased the blue BoE cloth shoulders. She's now hit capped at least for heroics. I don't intend to raid with her so heroic hit cap is all I'm really worried about.

We ran 3 heroics last night, H-OK, H-VH and H-UK. Of those three the first was H-OK and my dps was pretty bad, I wasn't hit capped and was trying to figure out what I was doing. The last was H-VH and we had a Paladin and a lock pushing 5K - 7K dps. So over the course of the night my dps started at 1.5K and ended at about 2.2K - 2.3K.

Now that does give me a little hope that with decent gear, she has the potential to push some decent dps numbers. I've researched her, thanks to you guys who recommended sites. I've learned the rotation, glyphs, changed her build around some and hope that maybe I can figure out how to enjoy playing her.

Subject Three: Kalyanna - Shadow Spec
If I want to pass this toon up on the DPS break down I'm sure I could simply because I rarely have to go shadow and when I do, it's still her off spec. But this is probably the worst. I refuse to look at her DPS number. I don't run recount on her since 99% of the time she's healing. But I know there has to be more to shadow priests then just SW: Pain and spamming the purple beam of death thingy. *sigh*

I've also tried kitty dps, hunters, unholy DKs, just to name a few. Granted the hunter and kitty were not 80 toons and the unholy was in my tank gear. So I won't comment on those.

This isn't leaving me very optimistic about my up coming mage. Can I somehow manage to actually be good at DPS?

Seriously, I am a good tank and a good healer. Probably a better healer then a tank actually. DPS is suppose to be the "easier" role to play.

I have a couple other ideas on why I can't find a good dps class.
1. I jump around on my toons too much. Making myself ok at a lot of things and really good at nothing.
2. DPS requires consistency. Spell rotations, gear, stats, moving, adjusting, etc. I'm not so good at consistency.
3. I'm not willing to conform. I choose to play them differently so I pay the price with lower dps.

Who knows? But regardless, it's given me a new respec for the dps classes. I'm in the shoes of that person in the pug who's total damage falls below the tank. I'm that person in the pug who get lectured by everyone else about how I'm doing this and that incorrectly. I'm that person who often forgets to change to tremor totem or to put the soulstone on the healer.

I have a new respect. Learning to DPS is just as stressful as learning to tank or learning to heal...

Happy Tuesday!

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!

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...

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.

Hitting the wall....again

Looks like I'm running into the wall again. Well, the level of content wall. I've gotten another toon to 80, she's appropriately geared as high as I can take her without getting into a raiding group.

My DK's Be Imba! gear score has risen significantly. It's currently at 505.27 with her optimal content level showing in Ulduar25, Ulduar10 Hardmodes and Colisum10. Currently, the only way I would see any of this content is in a PUG. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I need to know the fights from a tank prospective before I throw myself in front of those bosses with the intention of trying to tank them. That's a heavy weight to carry on her little shoulders.

So, the question becomes...what do I do now? I can't seem to find the desire to do the grind and run needed for the achievements and such that I did on my lock. It just doesn't seem as much fun the second time around.

Our Alliance side guild is trying to get the members motivated to start raiding again. Long story short, if you haven't read my back posts, they were pushing progression hard and heavy through the summer. This meant that some people (Eto and I) weren't invited to do anything above Naxx level. They had the intentions of kicking ass to get to Yogg every week and grinding on him endlessly trying to down him.

Well this soon turned people off and the raiding became less and less until now they have only gotten a raid together twice since September. Now they are re-evaluating their situation and may realize that the push, push, push attitude they had earlier isn't what people wanted. So, it's possible Eto (on his mage) and I (on my lock) could get the chance to start doing Ulduar a couple times a week.

They are proposing shorter raid nights since every one's schedules are so hectic. Look like people are in favor of doing 2 or 3 a week for about 2 - 3 hours at a time instead of 3 - 4 nights a week at 4+ hours a run.

We've been talking about trying to split our time between the Alliance toons, who I miss so very much and the Horde toons, who Eto is so fondly attached to. This may be the key to allow us to do that. So far we've talked about committing a couple nights a week to the Alliance side, to raid on our 80s, to level our druid, etc and then a dedicating a couple nights a week Horde side to running our DK and Shaman for emblems and then leveling our Hunter/Shaman combo as well.

I hate to think we need an actual "schedule" but it's beginning to look like we may need one if we go with this idea.

Race Changes!

3 posts in one day? I need to shut up already.

But! Race changes are apparently up and ready to be used. I can finally make my human lock a cute little gnome.

I've wanted Kalyina to be a gnome since about the time she hit level 20. I know I should have just rerolled at that point but it was the week before Wrath launched and I didn't want to waste any time. I wanted to get caught up as quickly as possible so that I could play the new content with my guildies and the Boyfriend.

So now, Blizzard has finally answered my pleas. I can make her a gnome!

Well, whenever I'm no longer broke. *sigh*

Yes...proof I really am a girl

So, I'm going to get slapped for this one I bet and "zomg, girl!" I am.

Why are Horde toons so ugly? Seriously. I have been thinking about transfer (faction transfering) one of my Alliance toons Horde side so I have some variety but...yuck!


Make my cute Draenei Priest with her adorable pig tails a Horde? Ewwwww
Make my pretty Nightelf druid, with the awesome hair a cow? Ahhhhhh
Make my Draenei Shama a....cow?...troll?....orc? *hide*
My warlock...what? Another Bloodelf.

*sigh*

Lock MIA and Pic Updates!

Got to thinking last night/this morning. I am really missing my lock. Now that I've been playing on Brozebeard, on my DK, I've realized the things I enjoyed on her that I miss. Specifically, I find myself a little "jealous" of what Matt's already established toons have on this server that I don't...but my lock has them. Mainly...cooking, fishing, gathering professions, mounts, vanity pets...all the things I worked so hard to get for her and my little DK has...well, nothing really. She has her DK class mount, no flying mount, 2 little vanity pets and 2 decent professions. But she can tank..which I love.

I find myself a little sad when I think about my lock just sitting there in Dalaran, not being played. Don't get me wrong I love my DK. Even though I know I complain about the guild and not really having any friends on Brozebeard, I still like my toon. Kalyina was my signature toon. I wanted her to have the titles and the achievements...she's my main. Or well..is she really? Since the only thing I do with her anymore is log on to do the cooking and fishing daily? You know to add to my 1088 Northern Spices just sitting in my bank and the chance to maybe get that turtle mount while fishing, that I won't really get to use.

Balance...I don't have much. But what is there to do on Shadow Council? The guild I'm in there isn't really doing much. They don't want to teach Ulduar fights to new raiders. Not that we can raid there anyway since Matt works most nights now and doesn't get home till almost 8, which is raid start time. I don't need to do heroics. I could log on while he's at work and just farm. But for what purpose? To make money for the expansion? But I want to play a goblin..and that's horde so I need to be making gold on Brozebeard...thus I roll another toon. My hunter, who is occupying my time on that server while Matt's at work. With the hopes of making some gold. But...she's not my lock.

Just bitching I guess. =(

So on to more productive things...the list:

1. Kill Onyxia and do the 60 head quest - CHECK!











12. Level my DK to 80 - IN PROGRESS: Past outlands and well into Northrend!!



15. Level a horde toon from 1 - 80 - IN PROGRESS: Meet Shakya!


New and Interesting things:Kaly and Eto had a baby?!?!?!
AAAAHHHHHHHH - Nah it's just an orphan matron in Northrend...how cute!!
(and what a relief, Bloodelf/Tauren baby..scary!)




Kaly got to meet Thralls grandmother....Squeeeeee!!

A new journey

______________________________________________________________________ Shakyra approached the orc standing in the middle of the small settlement with slight hesitation. Of course she had seen orcs before, just not so up close and personal. Her tiny village consisted of only a few dozen trolls. Each of whom she knew by name and had since she was a child.

She had never been allowed to leave the village. Had never had any need to until now. She thought back fondly of her home, of her mother and sisters she had left behind only a few days prior. The journey hadn't been a hard one so far. A couple days walk, that was all. Nothing any well trained troll couldn't handle. Though she would never admit to anyone else, her feet and legs were beginning to ache. Fatigue was starting to set in and she was getting hungry.

Shakyra, or Shay as has she was use to being called, took a moment to survey her surroundings. She made note of the small cave located directly behind the Orc. Wondering for a moment if there was a place to rest inside. There was a few other trolls and many orcs scattered around the encampment. Each seemed to be oblivious to her presence and for that she was slightly thankful. She had never been one to draw attention to herself.

She watched the orc standing in front of her for a moment. His presence alone proved him to be a massive force. His armor was slightly worn in places. Shay wondered what the orc had seen in his travels to cause the lines of age around his face to be so prominent. She guess him to be a few years older then her own 19 years. But for an Orc that still didn't justify the marks of ages that drew attention to the emptiness of his eyes. She assumed that like most orcs, his skin was once a vibrant shade of green, but now was fading to an aged shade closer to yellow. None the less, this was not her business and of that she had business of her own to attend to.

Approaching the Orc more confidently this time, Shay walked forward, bringing herself to her full height and made eye contact for the first time with the man she was sent to see.

"Sir, my name be Shakyra Nakuta. I be here to pledge my services to da Horde. I be sent to represent da village of Siruttia." ______________________________________________________________________

So, I don't claim to be an RP'er, or to that thought even a story teller. But I found myself playing this scene in my head last night after I rolled my little baby troll hunter. Maybe I'll continue on with this story in my journal posts about her, maybe not. Who knows. But anyway. Shay is still only a level 5. But those 5 levels did go by extremely fast, as they normally do in the first 10 levels of any toon. I rolled her with the intention of learning the Horde side lore and working towards the Lore Master title. Will I stick to it? *shrug* Maybe. I figured I could do something with my free time while Matt's working. I wanted to take screen shots of her journey and make a journal about the entire rise to 80. I still think it sounds like fun, so maybe it'll happen.

For a strict Alliance girl gone Horde, I'm having a lot of fun on the "dark" side. I feel like such a rebel..hehe. I have found a new fascination with Thrall...yeah, such a dork. I have a ton of screen shots from my DK's adventures in outlands and plan to continue those through Northrend. Visions of an awesome WoW scrapbook dancing in my head.

Other news...Kaly and Ythane attempted ZG again, for the 10 millionth time, last night. Still no raptor mount drop. We're still trying to get another baby raptor pet for Matt's mage. By the way..have I mentioned I LOVE my baby raptor pet?!?! My obsession for the raptors may secretly be the whole reason for rolling a troll...shhhhh!

Hmm, I really should go back and start marking off things from my "To do before Cataclysm hits" list. I even forget what's on that list...

*mental note* - Update list

Ok, so that's in for my nightly wow news, back to the real world! Happy Hunting all!

Uselss?

Talk about feeling useless.

Ran my first Ulduar 10 raid with the guild last night. It was..horrible. I don't think I can find a word strong enough to express how bad it really was. I spent the entire 3 hours, so totally confused, upset and lost. It's probably the only time I've played the game and felt like I honestly..did not belong there. Felt like more of a hindrance then anything else. Felt like I was being carried. Which I probably was. I spent a large amount of the raid dead. I wasn't ready for that, I'm not sure I will ever be ready for that. Just when I thought I had found a niche that I was kinda good at...that group proves me so totally wrong. I wish I could blame it on something simple, such as my gear...but I can't, my gear isn't bad. I could blame it on my spec...demonology locks aren't known to push out high dps numbers but they are sure as hell known to push higher then the 2000 average dps I was doing. Seriously, a lock geared as well as I am and I can't pull anything more then that. But oh, it's ok...I'm offering a raid buff...yeah right. I'm suppose to be....even that wasn't popping like it was suppose to. My normal 90ish percent up time on demon pact...it probably wasn't even up 40% of the time last night.

I can't say I enjoyed any part of that raid. Well maybe, I understand and enjoy the Flame Leviathan fight. But, hell, who wouldn't? Your DPS doesn't matter there, your damage comes from a vehicle you control, not your own build. Ride around on a bike and drop oil slicks on the ground. How freaking hard is that? Any idiot can manage that.

Ignis - Dead
Dragon - Dead
XT - Dead
Rock guy - Dead
Robot guy - Dead (twice) within the first 20 seconds of the fight.
Cat Lady - I lived through that one
Used - 2 battle rez

Tell me I was doing anything but taking up space....*sigh*

Ulduar!

We got our first invite to Ulduar!! No...seriously, we did!! And on 25 man no less! Though neither of us came out with any good loot, it was a lot of fun and we did learn a few of the fights. Though I have determined that driving around on a motorcycle trying to spray oil in front of a monster size demolition machine is not nearly as easy as a raid leader makes it sound! We were able to down Flame Leviathan on our second try and the next 3 bosses were a piece of cake. If my computer going on the fritz and lagging out due to the overload of graphics is considered "a piece of cake".

The latest patch as apparently done something to my DPS numbers for my demonology spec. Though I can't exactly determine what has happened, I have watched my already low (compared to locks of any other guild) drop. Trying to determine what has caused this unfortunate turn of events has been a headache. Thankfully, I have a baby that love technicalities and has been trying to figure that out for me. =) I'm trying a new build tonight in our guild Naxx10 run at his request. So we'll see if that will help any.

Life in the new guild is going pretty well. Though i have determined, that much the same as any other guild, LC included, this guild also has it's "cliques". That saddens me to a degree but I guess it's the same in game as in life, people have their favorites.

Updates

The baby druid is well into level 69, hitting Northrend but been on a short vacation recently. However, her sister Kaly has been melting face and taking names in Naxx. Second run last Monday night, full clear in about 3 1/2 hours and I ended up 3rd or 4th on the DPS meter, depending on who's meter you looked at. Matt was able to attend this time and we had a blast. I'm loving the guild we joined. Fallen has proven to be a success, at least with me.

Kaly's been busy on her pet hunting collection as well. Added a few new pets and got the achievement for them, 50 pets later and she has her own pet skunk that loves the black kitty.

Warlock Advice

So, I don't think we have anyone currently interested in demo locks, other then me, but I'll post what I know in case.

We all know I <3 my Zili, but why do I love him? Because he does insane things for me...no, not "those" kinds of things...better yet, I should say he does insane things for my dps.

The power behind a demo lock, is your Felguard. Without him, you are nothing but a bad spin off of a mage. With that being said, one of the most important things for a demo lock, is your build. We'll take a look at the changes coming outi n patch 3.1.

This is the build I'm going to try with Kaly: http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=IZbGchkAzi0sxuAoE0hV

You'll notice a couple of obvious changes from the orginal talent tree and the new one. First off, there is no longer a talent to reduce your hit cap. What does that mean? Easy, you'll now need the full 17% to be hit capped at level 80. This is no easy feat to accomplish, but with the right gear and a little work it can be done.

Secondly, you'll notice that the talents lower in the demo tree have had their points reduced. This means we need less points in the demo tree and that gives up more to add to the destro tree. I'm very excited about this change. It will now allow me to easily get all the things I want from demo, plus all the great talents to boost my Shadow Bolt.

You may notice, I did not put the points into "Master Summoner". Why? Well, from what I've learned, Zili doesn't die a lot, and I'm not often needing to switch or summon minons while in combat. So, in my opinon, I've decided that I can summon between fights, eat to refill my mana and thus the points would be better spent in "Improved Healthstone". This way the entire, party/raid, will benifit from my healthstones restoring 20% more health. I may learn that this doesn't work, but it'll be trial and error.

Demonic Tatics/Improved Demonic Tatics - This is the heart and soul of why you're a demo lock. Max this out. The wonderous things that this will do for you and your Felguard is well worth it. It works like a domino effect. You get a boost to your crit chance every time your Felguard crits and vise versa.

Mana Feed - I went without this for awhile and was shocked when I finally talented into it, on how much more damage Zili did. Every time I life tap to gain mana, Zili gains 100% of the mana I get. Thus, this allows him to use his "Cleave" ability more often, in turn boosting our "Demonic Tatics" bond as well. Yay, for mana feed!

Soul Link - I personally do NOT use this talent, but I point into it, to allow me to get to the talents associated to it. I found out quickly that allowing Zili to absorb part of my damage...made for a dead Zili, very fast. But it's up to you, try it and see what you think.

Master Conuror - Wow, this is an amazing change. Talent into, no matter what. Gaining a 300% boost your benifits from your firestone is HUGE. Currently, without the patch, I get a 30% increase and this is nice, can't wait to see what 300% does!

Now that we've talked about the key talents...lets talk about...dum, dum, dum...

"METAMORPHOSIS"
So, not only do you get to control a cool demon, you get to BE a cool demon. And when I say cool...you look cool! Just image, a big black/purple winged demon with amazing powers! *Bow before me, tremble in fear!"...ok, sorry about that. Now to the key points of when and how to actually use it. I use this for one of two reasons.

1. My "Oh Shit" button...600% armor boost for those sticky times when you manage to pull aggro off the tank and find yourself staring face to face with a giant baddy!

2. To strike fear into the heart of every instance/raid boss...20% increase in your damage for 30 seconds. Make those raid bosses shudder in your wake.

Ok, so all silliness aside. This is a great ability, not to mention fun. If you're going to go Demo...not skip this talent.

Spell rotation..hmm...find what works for you. My spell rotation..Demonic Empowerment, Curse of Agony, Corruption, then spam Shadowbolt and watch the crits fly. The only change I make to this is replacing my Curse of Agony with Curse of Doom on boss fights. Don't forget to use your trinkets everytime the cooldown is up. It helps to make a macro once you know your spell rotation, then all you have to do is click that button to use those trinkets and cast your DoTs.

Now, in summary. Remember these key points:
1. Demonic Empowerment - Talent it and USE it every time the cooldown is up. 20% attack speed to your Felguard shouldn't be wasted.
2. Fel Armor - Talent into Demonic Aegis and never let your buff go down!!
3. Metamorphosis - Be the scary demon!
4. Hit, hit, hit...get your raid hit cap, you're not talenting into these damage buffs to see "MISS, MISS, MISS"

Well, that's my advice for all you little locklings!! Have fun and happy hunting!