Nerf this Druid

A wine, with gentle hints of cat.

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:06:00 +0000

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I just bought this wine.

That's right. (PS -ya like the white board behind me to remind me to update mods and get buff reagents?)

Gentle hints of cat.

I haven't drank it yet, but I will soon!

I know this has nothing to do with WoW, but I figure most of my subsequent posts won't. Feel free to stick around anyway. =)

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RealID? More like LolID.

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:53:00 +0000

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This actually happened. No, really, it did.

Read this post, pass it along. It's too hilarious/scary not to.

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Nostalgia?

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:40:00 +0000

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I was just thinking today about how I actually started playing WoW.

Me [looking over Pete's shoulder]: So what are they all doing?
Pete: Well, they're just hanging around.
Me: But I mean... why? What are they doing?
Pete: Well, this is a city. It's called Ironforge. People are just chilling here.
Me: But why? Is this some kind of arena? What are they actually doing? Can you fight people?
Pete: No, it's a city, it's a safe haven. Unless some horde roll in and own the place, we're safe.
Me: So you can't kill anything?
Pete: Well, you can kill stuff if you go outside the city. There's bunches of things to kill. But you can't kill Alliance members.
Me: So who CAN you kill in the city.
Pete: ....no one.
Me: Huh.
Pete: Uh huh.
Me: How come you can run through people.
Pete: It's just how the game works.
Me: Huh.
Pete: Yup.
Me: But what are they all DOING here?? Why would anyone just stand around in a city. I mean - that guy, that guy right there. On that horse. Why is he going over there. What's he doing.
Pete: ....I don't know. Maybe he's going to go buy some mats, or sell something on the AH.
Me: What are mats? What's the AH?
Pete: Well--
[Pete randomly opens his bags for whatever reason]
Me: Holy crap, what ARE all those things?
Pete: Uh, well, there's lots of stuff.
Me: Do you actually know what they all DO?!?!
Pete: Yes.
Me: [impressed]
Pete [thinking]: Dear god, I just impressed a girl by opening my bags in World of Warcraft.
Me: But they're all DIFFERENT.
Pete: Right. Food, items, gear, mats, whatever.
Me: If I played this game, I would NEVER keep ANY of that stuff straight, ever.
Me: So can you go kill something for me?

[Later, Pete is in Nagrand]

Me: Oh, my god, there's water, falling from the sky!
Pete: Yeah, kind of neat, huh?
Me: OH! There's a lake!!!!
Pete: Mmm.
Me: Can you swim in the water?!?!
Pete: ...uh, yeah.
Me: DO IT DO IT DO IT
Pete: ......
[Pete swims through water]
Me: *squeeeeee*
Pete: You know, if you played a druid, you could swim in the water AND be a kitty at the same time.
Me: [already in the process of DLing the free trial of WoW]

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Mr. O: pwning manatees since right now.

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:42:00 +0000

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Tanking?!

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000

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So, like most pre-expansions, I'm finding myself spending far less time on Averna, and spending much more time leveling alts. Here's my spread:

Fiorea, 66 shaman. I've got her dual-specced for ele and heals. I've been focusing on her more than the other alts, just because I'm so close to getting her to Northrend.

Shimai, 40 disc priest. I'm really digging disc as heals. For all I know, low level healing is way easier as holy, but I don't care. I like to shield things.

Maitea, 35 tanky drood. Yup, that's right - I have two druids. And this one is a tank! =O

Leaps, 27 rogue. Leaps is a female gnome who levels with another female gnome rogue, Bounds (played by Pete). Yes: Leaps and Bounds. Also, they look *exactly* the same. It's terrifyingly awesome.

I've learned a lot by playing these different toons. Something that specifically comes to mind is the difference between healing and tanking, even in the same exact scenario.

Imagine this situation. You're in a random 5 man, leveling up on your alt. A pack is pulled in Scarlet Monastery. The mage next to you starts going wild with Blizzard, and the hunter unloads all of his specials on the one mob that the tank hasn't pulled aggro on yet. You look, and three out of five people have aggro. One of the Scarlet Protectors hits 20% health and runs away in fear, bringing back another pack. Pop quiz, hot shot! What do YOU DO!*

On Shimai (my priest): Yawn. Here, have a shield. Want a renew? Sure. *twiddle thumbs* Eh, I'ma curse some shit. Oh, now the warlock has aggro too? Teehee! Fun! Have another shield.

On Maitea (my tank): OHHH MYYYY GODDDD WHAT THE EFF ARE THEY DOING WHY ISNT MY TAUNT UP WHY IS ENRAGE ON CD WHY DID FAERIE FIRE MISS WHY DID THAT OTHER PACK PULL AHHHHH KHAAAAAAAN

On my healer, a dpser will pull aggro and it is no. big. deal. In fact, I expect it. I don't think the tank is a bad tank, or the dpser is a bad dpser (unless it is chronic throughout the run). As a healer, I'm ready for any type of pull - I have my oh-shit buttons ready, my mana at a reasonable level (usually), and a sharp eye on who has aggro when.

On my tank, if a dpser pulls aggro, it is a catastrophe. I am *certain* that the healer hates me, that the dps think I can't hold aggro worth shit, and that they think I am pulling either a) too fast, or b) too slowly. So I panic and click on the big red Threat Plates nameplate (the one that screams at you "I am big and red and you should taunt me because I'm wailing on someone else right now!") and mash taunt, or faerie fire, or panic because both are on CD, and inevitably accidently hit survival instincts which is the button right next to those two, which I am sure makes the other 4 people in my group snicker and think "noob, why's she popping that now?" and then frantically try to get enough rage to swipe my Scarlet Crusaders' guts out. Panic city. Whoever said tanking was a yawnfest is an ass. Luckily, I have posts by the Bear to guide me. =D

After all is said and done, however, I actually really enjoy tanking. I just need to put a lot more mental energy into it. I could do 10 instances in a row on any of my healers, and be watching TV at the same time, or eating dinner, or whatever. With my tank, I can really only do 2 or 3 before my brain starts to fry from the intensity of my concentration. Funny how that works.

So I've got my hands full with all this alt leveling. I considered saving one or two for Cataclysm, but honestly, I just know I'm going to want to level a Worgen. Yo dawg, I herd you liked aminals so I made you aminal toon that you can turn into an aminal so you can aminal while you aminal. BRILLIANT! Makes me want to roll a Worgen druid, but can I really have three?!

So the question is, what class should be Worgen be?

Druid: Ixnay. I already have two.
Hunter: Quite possible. I already have an 80 hunter, but I had a total blast leveling her.
Warlock: I've tried leveling a warlock twice and it always got deleted.
Mage: Maaaybe. I have a level 50 fire mage that I kind of stopped leveling. She was fun, though.
Priest: Nope.
Warrior: Ew, no. Most boring class I played to level 20. Sorry, warriors.
DK: Nope. I want to experience "old" (new?!) world content.
Rogue: I'm satisfied with Leaps at the moment.

After listing them out like that, I'm thinking mage. Really, my mage is the only "fun" class that I've abandoned (oh, poor Airalee. I got stuck/bored in the Searing Gorge, which is the worst place for a fire mage to play). Unless I give up on my priest or something, I'm thinking I'll go mage. Maybe frost this time. Airalee was totally a fire chick. She had red hair and looked bad ass. It was only fitting to have her throw fire balls.

Are any of you guys making a worgen? Do you healers get stressed out when you tank? Any pointers you want to give me? (I can use any and all!)

(*at John P: I had to, I just had to. :P)

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Captain Octopus!

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:09:00 +0000

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Captain Octopus: making sure octopi get the ice cream they deserve, all the time, every time.

I really should come up with a better layout than just post-it notes and tape. Hm.

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Lich King down!

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:07:00 +0000

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Yup, that's right - our ten man achievement run finally did it! After weeks and weeks of figuring out how to coordinate the heals on infest, work out the timing on horrors, burn down raging spirits, move out of defile, heal through/mitigate Soul Reaper, snare Val'kyrs, avoid/take (depending) vile spirits, and rock out in the LK's Frostmourne, we FINALLY did it. 10 man, no buff, clean kill. Not only that, but it was the first attempt of the entire night. We totally rocked it. =)

Onto heroic mode!
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Having some non-raiding guild fun

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:42:00 +0000

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On our guild forum, we have a variety of different boards. Guild chatter for general posts, Class Discussions for all things class-related, New Member Applications for, well, new member applications. I'm sure your guild forum, if you have one, is similar.

We also have a board for Guild Events. We post raid rosters here, and any other events that are going on. For months, this is what this forum has looked like:

ICC25 [insert date here]

Over and over again. For months!

So I've been trying to come up with a fun guild event. Something that doesn't have to do with raiding. Raiding is great and all, but sometimes you just want to have something that is completely different, and that includes more members than just raiding mains.

Here are my ideas:

1. Guild PvP in Dire Maul or Gurubashi Arena. It's weird when you walk in there and everyone's nameplate turns red. Wtf, why is my raid leader mauling me in the face? GAAAH! ./tree cower

We've done this in two different ways, from what I remember. One way is to make a toon, level it to 10, and go at it. We've done 2v2 teams, and free-for-alls (hint: roll a druid and shadowmeld until everyone else is dead. Another hint: this usually doesn't work). The second way is to bring your level 80s and have it out that way.

Additional awesomeness: If the fight gets too long and the people on the sidelines get bored, everyone is entitled to help the match along by aoeing the area. This usually brings the fight to an quick and deadly end. ^^

2. A 25 man level one Hogger raid. My co-healer Pallymar brought this idea to the table, which I know is old, but it was the first time I had ever heard of it (!). I think this would be hiLARious. Between all classes we'd have about 10 spells/abilities total. I feel like he'd just one-shot everyone. The other problem is that level 1 characters can't form raids anymore (booooo). Which makes me wonder, could a level 80 form a raid and invite level 1s?

3. An obligatory naked gnome race. What is it usually, run from Ironforge to Stormwind, right? As naked and as fast as possible. Winner gets my undying respect.

Any other fun things you've done with your guild? I'm looking for ideas!

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Random!

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:25:00 +0000

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Because I'm at work and can't write an actual well thought out post, and because I still am itching to post *something,* I will leave you with a completely random comic I drew.

It has nothing to do with anything, and is made of taped together post-it notes.

Enjoy!

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Cataclysm: Druid Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:40:00 +0000

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So Blizzard finally released the druid preview for Cataclysm. I'm pretty underwhelmed, to say the least. Here is the original post.
Some key points:

All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks.

I like this. This sounds like the glyph of rapid rejuv (which is great; I use it constantly in ICC), except unlike the RR glyph, our hots won't be shortened in duration. With the RR glyph, rejuv does the same exact amount of healing as rejuv withOUT the RR glyph. It'll be great to have hasted ticks that last a full 18 seconds. I wonder what the exact formula will be for haste affecting hots? Oh god, the mathy part of my brain just spasmed.

Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.

Sigh. To be honest, when I was thinking about what new spell they would give us at level 85, I couldn't really come up with anything awesome. We have direct heals, heals over time, an AoE heal - what's left? But then I figured that even though *I* wasn't able to come up with anything, certainly the mastermind that is Blizzard would come up with *something.* I had faith, Blizz! ./weep. While I agree that we have a ton of spells to work with (and I also agree that they shouldn't just throw us another spell just because), I was still hoping for something new and shiny.

I also thought that they might change up Lifebloom or Regrowth. I don't know why, but I had this feeling that they would overhaul one of those spells. Guess not. Ah, well. Do I really want lifebloom to be overhauled? I'm not sure. But I was expecting something to change. Instead, what they're saying is, "keep doing everything you've been doing at level 80." Meh. Not impressed.

Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.

I'm with Keeva on this one - NOT A FAN! Are druids really pissed off at being in tree form all the time? Personally, I love it. It's who I am! Healing in caster form just isn't the same.

In fact, I'd say that one of huge reasons I'm a druid healer is because I get to shift into tree form! It's what really drew me to the class!

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We knew changing Tree of Life to a cooldown was going to be controversial. My apologies if being a tree was what really drew you to the class.

.....

Hmph. Moving on.

Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth.

This may be interesting. Will this be a big enough deal to make crit more yummy in Cataclysm? I think that this, combined with critting hots, may put crit on par with haste. Depends on how good the Efflorescence thing is. From what I can deduce, it sounds like either an extra hot that will tick, or a living seed type mechanic that will bloom with damage. Has anyone heard more info about this talent?

So what do you guys think? Do you wish we had another spell to work with?

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PAX East approacheth

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:02:00 +0000

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PAX East is this weekend! Eeeeee! Check out this sweet ass schedule. Things I'm most looking forward to: Johnathan Coulton and the Video Game Orchestra, "MMO gamer behavior 101," "Everything you always wanted to know about game journalism...", and "Girls and Games: The Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry." And that's just a couple examples.

Also, I get to meet a ton of guildies that I've never met before. Awesomeness is bound to ensue. Also, I'm probably going to meet up with Maerdred on Friday, which will be pretty awesome. =D

We have three guildies (hi Luth, Lumi, and Lampy!) who are staying at our place tonight through Sunday. As such, much cleaning has occurred! Seriously, look at how clean this apartment is:

No recently-laundered clothes that I'm too lazy to put away on the couch! No glasses or beer bottles hanging around on the table! And look at how shiny everything is! Other than the fact that our little tree is STILL not properly potted, and is still in a huge plastic container that used to hold cat litter, our apartment looks pretty spiffy.

We should have company over more often, simply to kick us into hypergear-cleaning mode. Our living room hasn't been this clean in AGES. ^^

On a completely different note, our 10 man achievement runs have been going pretty well. We've gotten to the Lich King and have had a few great attempts, and also a crapton of lousy ones, too. But I think we're going to get there. We got into P5 really cleanly once, and damn, it felt good. Sooo close to grabbing the Kingslayer title. Hopefully next week we'll rock it out.

On another completely different note, who's playing FFXIII? I was never into the FF games (like, at all - guildies will have epic hour long debates about which is better, 2, or 6, or 7, or whatever, and I'll be like, I LIKED TEH OCARINA OF TIEM, and they'll be like, whatever noob), but I've been watching Pete play and I really dig it. I've never enjoyed turn-based games, but when I watch FFXIII, I'm 100% distracted from its innate game mechanics by the HAIR. The characters' hair is just...... there are no words. /drool. Their video-game hair looks better in every possible way than my real life hair. Seriously. Wtf.

Time to get a few more things ready for this weekend. Hope to see some of you there!

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Shout out!

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:12:00 +0000

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So it’s a Thursday night, and I’m raiding with our 10 man achievement group, busting through Blood Princes, kicking ass and taking names, the usual, when suddenly I see THIS:

I know, you're all like, so what? What's so special about this situation? Other than the fact that you have no buffs, no mana, and Pallymar's about to die? (I think *I* just died. Whoops).

But wait, wait. Let's zoom in a bit here.

Like Rhysauce says: ":O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" - (even though I'm pretty sure he was freaking out about the trinket that dropped. =P)

This is when Pallymar actually bit the dust, I believe.

So here is a shout out to J.J. in Montgomery, Alabama, for being awesome and reading my blog.

How weird/awesome is it that:

1. This guy plays WoW,
2. Not only plays WoW, but reads WoW blogs,
3. Not only reads WoW blogs, but reads MY blog,
4. Happens to be at the same place at the same time as Vig,
5. (Who happens to be on the same server as me)
6. (AND in my guild!)
5. And this JJ guy not only happens to be at the same exact place, but happens to be talking about WoW,
6. Not only happens to be talking about WoW, but happens to mention my blog,
7. AND Vig is in hearing distance.
8. AND they're at a freaking chili cook off?! I love chili!! WTB!

NUTS.

Also, very flattering!

So, HAI JJ! Good to psuedo-meet you!!!

(On a completely separate note, have you guys looked at the new patch notes? They did NOTHING to druids. Is this a first? I thought for sure they'd fiddle with lifebloom again just to keep the status quo.)

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New blogs of note, plus stalkers revealed!

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:06:00 +0000

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Hey all - so I know I've been out of the loop for awhile (seems like all my posts start like that, eh?), but now that I'm getting back into it, there's a whole slew of new blogs out there that I need to start reading.

So let's have it. Do you have a new resto druid blog you've been poring over for the past few months? Or maybe you have a blog of your own that you'd like to bring some attention to. Either way, send me a comment (or email at nerfthisdruid at gmail.com), and I'll compile a small list here of some new blogs that we should read! I love finding new and interesting blogs to add to my reader/blogroll.

On a separate note: Revealing who my lucky stalkee is.... It's Windsoar from Jadedalt! =D

Who totally guessed who I was in like, 3 seconds. My clues?

"1. I’m barky.
2. I blog less often now than I did before.
3. A certain tree in Dalaran regards me with spite and distrust."

Maybe I made it a bit too easy. =P

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DPS is not for me.

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:55:00 +0000

Well after that crapstorm of a run, I think it's time for a drink.

A few weeks ago, after much thought and contemplation, I thought, hey! Druids can be boomchickens! NOWAI. Who knew? I thought durids were 4 haelz. ONLY 4 haelz. wut is this 4 fite and 4 laserchix thing??

Everyone knows that bark form is the best! I mean, my god, even APPLEBOUGH knows this, and Applebough really has some screws loose up there if you know what I'm sayin.

Anyway. Even though bark > all, I decided that I should check out how the other half lives. Er, other third. I started rolling on some 5 man ICC hit gear. I looked into what talents I should take for chicken spec. And finally, last night, I decided to try it out. It's easy right? Moonfire + wrathwrathwrath + sometimes starfire, loot, win.

....not so much.

Here are some complications of being a moonkin.

1. You need to keep Moonfire AND Insect Swarm on the mob at all times. This means keeping track of your dots. So I downloaded the addon DoTimer, because my HotCandy only keeps track of hots.

2. There's this thing called eclipse. So you wrathwrathwrath until you get a buff to starfire, and then you starfirestarfirestarfire until you get the buff for wrath.

It sounds simple.

It should be simple.

WTF. It is NOT simple. I cannot keep track of this AT ALL. AND I have Squawk and Awe, too. Which I configured to my liking! It would suddenly say "ECLIPSE!" on my screen and I'd determinedly start stabbing the 2 key with all my worth to get as many wraths in as possible. Because I was starfiring before, and ECLIPSE! means to switch to wrath right? Nope, turns out I switched to starfire too soon, and I was actually supposed to be wrathing, and THEN switching to starfire when it says OMGECLIPSE! I pretty much always had these mixed up. Bluhhhh. And then I realize that my moonfire and insect swarm fell off like, 20 seconds ago.

Complications of being a spell caster:

1. Shit dies, and then you have no target. Wtf. This does not happen on my hunter. When something dies, and I keep jabbing at buttons on my keyboard, it'll just auto switch me to a new target. Which sucks in a lot of cases - you gotta be careful with who you're shooting arrows at. For instance: Don't shoot arrows at the sheep. Don't shoot arrows at the boss that's behind the trash pull. Don't shoot arrows at your MCed guildmate. Etc. But in general, you don't have to click or tab over to mobs once one is dead.

But with Boomkin, you target something, and say: Ok. What now. Ah, yes. Moonfire. Ok: Moonfire, go! Good. Ok now..... insect swarm. Awesome, lets get all those dots going. Ok, insects are ready... and fired... ok, excellent. Now... wrath! Alright, let's wrath it up. And hitting 22222222222222...... error? Wtf? What do you mean - oh - I have no target? How do I have - wait. Okokok the target is dead, bah, pick a new one - oh god, which one do I pick?

And this is when I just close my eyes, moonfire everything, and spray wrath at anything that moves.

Not really.

But kind of.

I spent more time in my 5 man searching for a target than I did actually DPSing.

I know that my dislike of this situationa has a lot to do with the difference between healing and dpsing. In general, I know that when I'm healing a 5 man, I have complete command over the situation at hand. If someone dies, it's because 1. I was blatantly not paying attention, went afk, alt tabbed, etc. 2. Something happened that was not supposed to happen: dpser pulls aggro, tanks pulls two extra packs, someone DCs, someone stands in the fire, etc. Rarely - VERY rarely, will someone die because I'm not skilled enough to heal them. I'm not saying it's never happened, but it's pretty rare (I'm talking about 5 mans here). I'm just very used to healing, you know? It's what I DO.

With DPS, it's a different story. I fumble around, everything is new and confusing, and I'm desperately trying to figure out what my next move will be (sounds like an awkward high school date, no?).

Although I do like DPSing my hunter, to a large degree (still like healing better).

Maybe I'm just not used to moonkin spec yet - but joaeifjfsrofvnsojdn, no thanks - I'll go back to healing, please!

Have you healers ever tried out DPSing? What did you make of it?

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Super secret stalking time

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:52:00 +0000

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I love it when I get sucked back into blogging via memes. =D This time, it's a "Secret Admirer" blog-stalking event, especially for the Valentine's world event going on right now.

To be honest, I haven't done any of the achievements or quests for this event in wow. I've been playing quite a bit recently, but I just haven't gotten pulled into the hype of it all. I'm certainly not well on my way for the meta achievement - I've completed two world events out of the 8 or 9? that you need for the meta - so I don't feel hard-pressed to farm lovely charms or spray perfume on everyone. Although I will admit, seeing all the red and pink hearts all around does make me smile.

But back to business. I'm getting in on this a bit late; I think it was supposed to start on Friday? Bah. Anyway, here is the lowdown on what's going on.

I did get an email Dristanel letting me know who I'm supposed to be admiring..... but my name isn't on her list of blogs that are participating. So maybe I don't have an admirer? =O

This strikes fear into my heart. Remember when you were in elementary school and it was Valentine's Day, and you would bring in your load of little silly Valetine's that you bought at CVS with your mom or whatever, and you'd write one to everyone in the class. And you'd get a decent amount of Valentine's from other people, too. But then there were always those kids who didn't get very many, and that kind of sucked. So, so, what if I'm that kid?!

I SUPPOSE I'll survive.

I remember once in third grade trying to write up a second Valentine for someone who didn't get many, and I specifically remember trying to change up my handwriting so that they wouldn't know it was a second one from me, and they'd think it was from someone different. I don't remember if I actually gave it to him or not, or what I wrote, but really, who was I kidding? I mean there are 20 people in the class - who would he THINK it was from? Did I just make up a random name? "Happy Valentine's Day! From.... uh. Patty Mayonnaise. kbye."

Anyway. I have no idea if I have an admirer, but if I do, sorry for getting on the boat so late! Regardless, I have my OWN assigned blog to admire.... mwuahaha!

./sneaky stalking time

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PAX East 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:20:00 +0000

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Who's going?

I'm pretty psyched about it because it's RIGHT in Boston. I could walk to Hynes Convention Center in about 30, 40 minutes or so. It's very, very close. Although I suppose 40 minutes isn't actually "close," but then again, I walk 45 minutes to work and 45 minutes back each day, so to me it's a jaunt in the park. My point is: I don't have to take a car/train/bus/plane/boat(IMONABOAT)/gryphon there. Which means I don't have to spend money on said travel arrangements. Which means I'm TOTALLY GOING TO MY FIRST NERDY GAMING CONVENTION EVER!!! ./squeeee!

For more information about PAX East, go here.

The basics:

1. It's March 26-28th, Friday - Sunday.

2. It's in Boston.

3. There will most likely be some kind of early version of Cataclysm to check out.

4. 3 day passes are 55 bucks or so.

5. No, you cannot stay with me, because even though I would love to have a giant resto druid party chez Valis and Averna - I could make you guys Maple Leaf Cocktails, or Fig Leaf Drinks (get it? LEAF? bahahah), or Averna's Barky Arms Margaritas - but alas, our apartment is very small, and we're already lending much floor/couch/spare bed/basement space to guildmates (just kidding about the basement, Lumi. There are rats and it's gross and I swear our housemates have stored carefully wrapped dead bodies down there. I wouldn't make you stay down there. Also, there are spiders, and I'm talking about the big ones that you find in the basement of Karazhan. I can hear them plotting my demise every time I go down to do laundry).

And so. Anyone? Let me know in the comments!

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A Resto Druid's "Guide:" Marrowgar

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:07:00 +0000

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Instead of a guide, I'm going to write up the things that I like and don't like about Marrowgar. Because there are many other guides out there. Also, click on "guides." Best guide in that bunch of links. =D

Things I like:

1. There is just enough tank damage to make me stay on my toes. I like that I have to prehot the tank because if I don't, he might take 2-3 big hits and go splat before I can get off my Regrowth.

2. The way he says "BOOOOONNNNNEE STOOOOOOOORRRRMMMMMMM"

3. Ever notice that the idle animation for Marrowgar is the same animation as a murloc? The way he looks to one side, and then looks to the other? Yeah, same movement. It's awesome. I believe Clari was the first one to notice this, or maybe it was Aeman. I forget. But check it out next time when you're approaching his room and he's chillin right there.

4. These are NICE.

5. If you stick close to the melee, you don't get hit by the blue flames! Which brings me to:

Things I don't like:

1. The blue flames that he shoots out? They make my frame rate drop to about 4-5 fps. And I'm already raiding with a latency of around 300 at all times (sometimes it drops down to around 250, woohoo!), so this just makes things feel... awful. I try moving my camera around to figure out which way Marrow is facing and my camera is like Move. (pause. pause. pause.) Move. (pause. wait.) Move. And then I'm on the floor right next to the tank and it pops up: "You have died. DUE TO A GIGANTIC CLEAVE, GG TREE"

2. When he does his Bone Storm whirlwind thing, and DBM yells at you to run away? There's really no point. I run in one direction, he whirlwinds in a similar direction. I get hit. There's nothing I can do. I understand that if the raid stays grouped up in a bunch and doesn't move, he'll just wail on everyone, but whenever Bone Storm happens I just feel like I'm running around like a headless chicken. BUKAWW! It's not really that big of a deal, but I just don't like it.

3. When you kill Marrowgar, after rejoicing over his dead body and drooling over epic loot, the very next thing you get to look forward to is Lady Deathwhisper's voice acting. Ugh. I know that WoW has a lot of bad voice acting (although that guy in Forge of Souls is pretty awesome, and XT was pretty great too), but this is just another level of bad.

Five goods to three bads! Not too shabby, Marrowgar, not too shabby. And it's not really your fault that Lady DW's voice is so annoying, and that I have to listen to her as we loot you. ./pat

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A Resto Druid's Guide: Deathbringer Saurfang

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:40:00 +0000

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HAHAHA! A new guide!! I'm somewhat embarrased that my Ulduar guide is still on the sidebar (er... and it's not even finished. Damn you Vezax!)

There are a bajillion guides out there, but I'm feeling sassy and classy, so here's another one! Also note that I thought Saurfang was a dragon until this little horde orc came running out.

Presenting: SAURFANG, the bringer of DEATH.

I love this fight so so much. It's the first fight in a long time where my heart actually starts racing and adrenaline gets rolling at the end. There's so much healing you have to pour out on the tanks and the Marked ones, it's just.... holy crap nuts.

The set up: You want tanks to swap back and forth, because of Rune of Blood. If this debuff is on the tank, it not only means that he's taking tons of damage, but he's ALSO healing Saurfang. Bad! Hence, swapping tanks.

Positioning: You want people to spread the hell out. Saurfang will throw out a Blood Nova on a random target. This chains to people around the target (12 yards). Use the /range function to make sure you're preferably in range of no one, or if possible, in range of only one other person (it's a small platform for 25s).

The platform is a horseshoe shape, so I would recommend having healers spread out on the outside edge, with ranged slightly further in (still in a horseshoe shape), with melee and tanks on the inside.

VERY IMPORTANT: If the fight lasts longer than it should, or if Saurfang gains Blood Power too quickly, Marks will start to get out on different players, and if there are more than, say, 3, it can be hard to keep track.

Therefore, I highly highly recommend adding these two debuffs onto your Grid, or Healbot, or Power Auras, or whatever you use:

Mark of the Fallen Champion
Boiling Blood

(and keep in mind that at least on Grid, capitalization is necessary).

The mechanics of these debuffs:

1. Boiling Blood: This is just a random debuff that does tick damage. It's not too terrifying. Just put a couple hots on the target and all will be fine. Typically a few people will get it at once, every 30 seconds or so.

2. Mark of the Fallen Champion: Saurfang will only cast this debuff on someone IF he gains a full bar of Blood Power. Once he casts it, the one person will have the debuff until the fight is over. Note that is someone dies with this debuff, and you brez them, they'll STILL have the debuff. Therefore, you don't want to rez them! If you rez them, they'll rez at low health (unless you have the glyph), and immediately die, hence, healing Saurfang by 5%. Bad news bears.

Let me reiterate: keeping people who have the Mark alive is VERY important, because every time someone who has the Mark dies, Saurfang gains 5% of his health.

But now you're asking, "But Averna, you say he only casts the Mark on someone if he has 100% Blood Power! Let's just keep him from gaining Blood Power!"

Indeed, good friends, indeed. Let's look at the various ways Saurfang gains Blood Power:

1. Each tick of Boiling Blood will cause him to gain BP. This can't be dispelled, but priests' PW: Shield can keep him from gaining BP.

2. Remember Blood Nova? The reasons we're staying 12 yards apart? That's because for each person to whom the Blood Nova debuff splashes, he gains BP.

3. Blood beasts!!* Every 45 seconds or so, Saurfang will summon a few blood beasts. Every time these beasts hit someone, Fangboy gains blood power. Therefore, they must be kited! Hunters' Frost Traps (or is it freezing? I forget. The one with the big patch of white), shammies Earthbind Totem, and roots and such will really help to slow these down. We've had hunters and shammies both kite them on different raids, and both times it worked great.
*check out in the comments to see exactly how our guild deals with the blood beasts - our raid leader posted a more in-depth strat!

4. Each melee attack that Saurfang does will increase his BP. Honestly, every time I type BP I think it's his blood pressure that's skyrocketing, not his blood power. Anyway, each melee attack will increase his blood power, and unless your tank has 100% avoidance against raid bosses, you can't prevent it. And get this - for each person that has the Mark on them, he gains n +1 blood power. So the more people have the Mark, the more BP he gains. Soon enough, ~~his heart is gonna explode~~ the raid will wipe, due to him gaining blood power so quickly. Saurfang also gets really pissed at 30% and increases his melee attack speed by 30%. Which means more melee hits, which means more BP gained, which means more Marks cast, and it also means more damage will go out on those who are already marked (the damage they take is correlated to his melee hits).

SO. As a healer, what do you do?

First of all, keep in mind that the first half of this fight is easy peasy. You heal the appropriate tank, heal people who get Blood Boil (the tick damage) or Blood Nova (straight damage), and stay away from any Blood Beasts that come your way.

Once the marks start being put on people, it gets interesting.

You'll basically need a dedicated healer for each person who get the mark. The last time I did this with my guild, we didn't parse that out as definitively, and instead just had three healers on tanks and three healers on the marked ones. Once 4+ people were marked, it became ridiculous - everyone was taking SO much damage towards the end, and we just didn't have enough heals to go around. We got him to 2% and then we just couldn't hold out anymore - one of the marked ones (sorry, Theine) died. He healed, shit hit the fan, we wiped. Boo.

So what I think might be a good idea is to assign a dedicated to healer to each marked one. Healer 1 takes the first marked one, healer 2 takes the second one who's marked, etc. Still throw a hot or two on the tank, but focus on your marked target (unless you're assigned to tank healing exclusively). Alternatively, your raid may have the first and/or second marked one(s) die, which does heal Saurfang, but also cuts down on the number of marked ones (so long as your dps can burn through the extra 5/10%), making the fight considerably less heal intensive.

Keep in mind that YOUR job becomes considerably easier if the rest of the raid does THEIR job: i.e, switching tanks when needed, kiting the Blood Beasts perfectly, staying 12 yards range from each other, etc. If you all prevent him from gaining blood power, he'll cast less marks, which will make your attempt less fail!

[Sidenote: if any hordies out there wanna know what the alliance version is like, here it is (taken from Wowwiki, because I don't take the time to transcribe dialogue from WoW):

Deathbringer Saurfang yells: For every Horde soldier that you killed, for every Alliance dog that fell, the Lich King's armies grew. Even now the Valkyr work to raise your fallen... As Scourge. Things are about to get much worse. Come, taste the power that the Lich King has bestowed upon me!

Muradin Bronzebeard yells: A lone orc, against the might of the Alliance? Charge!

Deathbringer Saurfang yells: Hahahaha! Dwarves.

LOLFACE, DWARVES.]

Phat lewtz 4 droodz:

10 man:
[Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff]
[Leggings of Unrelenting Blood]
[Soulcleave Pendant]

25 man:
[Greatcloak of the Turned Champion]

Note that this is loot from the regular mode versions, not the heroic mode.

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So tell me if I've got this right

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:44:00 +0000

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ICECROWN.

So, if I want to get as many frost and triumph badges as humanly possible in the smallest amount of time, I should:

1. Run the random 5 man dungeon every day. After praying to the Please Not Occulus God, it'll plunk us down at the start of a 5 man, and once we finish it, bam! Frost badges.

2. A 10 or 25 man version (don't matta which) of the weekly raid quest. That gives.... 5 badges of frost? AND 5 badges of triumph?AND 33 gold?

3. 10 man and 25 man weekly runs of Icecrown. 8 frost badges each, I think? At least for now, before they unlock any other bosses?

4. Ummm.... I think that's it. Right? They eliminated the whole "daily quest" which gave you current tier badges. I think.

ALSO. I thought Rejuv was brought down from a 15 second duration to a 12 second duration. But now I'm hearing that all ranks are 15 seconds? Confirm/deny?

And the new glyph of rejuv ticks faster based on your haste, but the duration is decreased as well. So, probably decent in 5 mans, maybe good in 10s, but not so much in 25s?

AND Gift of the Earthmother just got unwrapped and it's totally like when you expect a sweet new gaming system that you've been bugging your mom about for 4 months, but instead, this Earthmother chick jumps out in, I don't know, a pink bunny suit, and she's all like, "Haha, suckers! You're gonna need some HASTE!" And you're like "MOM I JUST WANTED AN N64 WHAAAAA"

Well, actually, that analogy kind of sucks, but basically we're going to need like 700+ haste to feel like we're on the ball with GCDs and such, right?

See, I was hanging around in my apartment the other day and then Pete was like, "So, Icecrown tonight" and I looked up from doing crosswords or watching the Food Network or decorating our lame little Christmas tree or whatever it was I was doing, and I'm like "Huh?" and he's like "Mmm, the patch hit today" and I'm like "wait, WHAT?!" It's too soon! Oh god! I still have a cloak and a neck from Naxx! Wtf! I should have been running heroics and raiding and stockpiling herbs and reading EJ and catching up on blogs! and Pete's like "Yeah, we're raiding Icecrown tonight" and I'm all like "alright, that's it, I'm getting on this shit."

So clue me in readers, are there any errors in my synopsis? Anything else I should know about? Any other big changes I don't know about? Do tell!

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Making gold, noob-style

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:02:00 +0000

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I've never been one to try to actually make a decent amount of gold. I think the highest I've ever gotten is around 6,000g, which I was pretty proud of. I know people who have tens of thousands of gold, and I'm always like, how?

So I decided to try to actually gather up some wealth. An fun experiment, yay!

First, I went through my bags and my bank to see what I could easily pawn off. Clefthoof meat, shoveltusk steak, worg haunches? Sold! Runecloth? Sold! Frozen orbs? Sold! Extra flasks of the frostwyrm that I’ll probably kick myself for selling later cause I know I’ll need them at some point? Sure, why not, I’m poor! Sold! It reminded me of the time I bought a Wii + Twilight Princess right as it came out for like 400 bucks, played non-stop and beat the game, and then was like "uhh.... wii sports anyone?" and then eventually sold the whole thing to my friend because I was poor. Ah, the good old days. It's ok, Xbox kicks the Wii's ass anyday, and ~~I've~~ Pete's got one of those now.

Anyway, after pulling in a solid few hundred gold off of that, I moved on to …. farming herbs.

Sometimes I hate farming herbs. Sometimes I’ll see an herb right there. Right there! And I refuse to go over and pick it. Why? Because I’m stubborn, dammit. Damn you, herb, for trying to make me go out of my way while I’m on my way to the Argent Tournament! I’ll show YOU! Guess who’s not picking you now, biotch! The problem is, this is just total fail, because it would take me like, what, 14 seconds total to drop out of flight form, fall a bit to get closer to the ground, shift back into bird, scratchscratchscratch the ground to herb, and then be on my merry way. 14 seconds! Probably more like 10 or 12, because I’m a druid, and druids are OP and herb in flight form, lol.

However, sometimes farming herbs is very relaxing (similar to how massacring many herds of Shoveltusk in the Grizzly Hills is relaxing. Barkskin+Hurricane, ho! I could do that for hours on end and never tire of it. Once I farmed Shoveltusks for so long that I amassed about 70+g just in grays. Those Worn Hooves really add up, lemme tell ya. The only sad part is that I’m not a skinner). I just shift in flight form, head on over to Sholozar or the Storm Peaks, zone out, and herb my face off. Then I sell them all to my much richer co-healer/guildmate at a fair price. What he does with them, I don’t know. But it’s quick and easy money. He gets a good deal, I get the assurance that I'm not going to be undercut on the AH.

Other money making options (keep in mind I have absolutely no experience doing this. Just throwing that out there, before Gevlon starts calling me a moron or something):

1. Play the AH exclusively. My boyfriend Pete does nothing but buy low and sell high. There’s absolutely zero effort involved. No farming, no professions, no nothing. Just snag the stuff that people are silly enough to put up cheap. Arctic furs for 30g each? Sure, it’s 10x the amount it goes for at the vendor, but if you take a better look, you’d see they’re selling for 130g+ (that is, until 3.3 hits). Buy low, resell high.

2. Work at a profession and sell your wares. You know, farm herbs, skin stuff, cut gems, make flasks, write glyphs, blacksmith/leatherwork/tailor something, etc. Undercut everyone on the AH, profit.

3. The Anti-AH: Dailies, leftover Icecrown quests, killing stuff and looting cash, etc. Slightly more time consuming, but also profitable.

How do you guys make your gold? I'm trying to get at least a few thousand more to get epic flying for my hunter...

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OMG a MEME

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:55:00 +0000

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Well, she doesn't want it to be called a meme, so we'll call it a lovefest between healers. I like that. Hotness. HAHA get it? HoTness? Ahem. Miss Medicina started a, uh, lovefest that asks healers different questions about their class. Dreaming over at A Touch of Arcane tagged me, and so here I go.

So here’s how it works.

Post this questionnaire, with your answers, on your blog. Pick the healing class you know most about (or is the focus of your blog) for the questionnaire, and then send it over to another healing blogger you know and love who heals with a DIFFERENT class. Include a link to the blogger who sent you the questionnaire, as well as a link to the blogger to whom you are sending it.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?

Averna, druid, main spec: resto badass, offspec: barky armed melee

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

At the moment, Av has been chilling in Dalaran, twiddling her thumbs, shooting angry glares over at my hunter, Carmina, who has been getting all the attention (she's so close to 80!). But when I DO log over to Averna, I'm mostly rocking out the 25s and 10s. Also, farming. Sorry, Av.

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? Oh my god, Wild Growth wins by a long shot. BOOM the melee takes damage and you're all like "WOOUUUSH" (you know that awesome sound WG makes? yeah) and then all the green numbers just start tumbling onto your screen and you're like helllll yeah. And then all the melee love you.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? I never, ever use Tranquility. For a number of reasons. 1. If you use it, you're only healing your own group. It's rare that you're group is the only one to take massive damage, so most likely you're only healing a couple people who really need it, and the rest in overheal. 2. It's a channeled spell for about 7 seconds, depending on your haste. This means that you're wasting about 6-7 precious global cooldowns that could be spent on healing other people who actually need it at the moment. It's a poorly designed spell. I don't know how to improve on it though - making it a "smart" heal would be too similar to Wild Growth, and having it extend to the entire raid would be far too OP. Maybe they should make it weaker, but unchanneled. It's the channeling that really drives me away from using it - it's just too much wasted time and not enough benefit.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? I personally think that our hots are what make us great as a class. We're your support system! You got the hit that beat the block, us trees can get that bass overload! We're like the wind beneath your wings! You can stand under our umbrella of heals! (.....ella ella, eh eh eh) What. What! Too much? Ok, I'll stop.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? The damage we do in tree form is fairly sub-par. Barky arms in melee should do MUCH more damage. Just look at this wind up for a back hand! BuhBAM! WHACK!

This barky backhand should be doing at LEAST 3k DPS.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? I'm a fan of raid healing. I DO think that, contrary to what some thing, trees can tank heal quite effectively, however, I'm all about healing the raid. I love prejuving people, I love timing the CD of my WG perfectly to hit just the right group and just the right time, I love spam nourishing 3 or 4 people in a row to get them back up to full health - I love everything about it.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? I'm gonna get cheesy here for a second, ok? Be warned. I have no preference for class, but bring me ANY combination of our guild's healing team, and I'm happy. Pallymar, Eitri, Fuyuko, Aule, Clari, Taletha, Drya, Junia, Chandy, and even some of the hybrids who typically dps: Chain, Starflare, and Azoule - and even some who just recently switched their mains to healers, like Aerlyth and Drammy - any and all of these healers I would love to heal with. Our guild's healing team is AMAZING. We work so well together. It's a rare and beautiful thing. ./tear

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? Shamans named Vicars. I bet when Vicars comes back to raiding, he'll heal Icecrown in Naxx gear and STILL kick my ass by facerolling chain heal. And then he'll send me a personal message on the forums telling me about how he kicked my ass. Damn you, Vicars! ./shakefist =P

What is your worst habit as a healer? Trusting my healing team. I DO trust them - I trust them implicitly, in fact. I've never met a set of more talented players, ever. But when we're on a hard mode, and I'm watching the tank's health plummet, it's so hard for me to divert my attention back to my own assignment and pray that they bring the tank back up. 99 times out of 100, they will, and it'll be without my assistance. It's my own issues that make me want to jump in and help - and I need to work on that. On hard modes, there's just not enough mana/GCDs to go around to heal more than your assigned role.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? When someone states the absolute obvious. "Healers, you have to make sure you heal the tanks during [insert mechanic here], ok?" Oh, my god, wait. Really? WAIT. Heal the TANKS? Omg, I was just sitting here trying to heal the non-combat pets the whole time! It's so weird, they don't show up on my grid! And they keep standing in the fire but they still live, even though they're level 1! My heals MUST BE SO AWESOME.

Thankfully, this type of inanity happens rarely in guild, and almost always in pugs. Which I rarely do. Yay!

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? I think so, yes. Some say we're OP, but I think we're juuuust perfect. =D

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? I rely on the basic output of Recount far too much. It's a habit I really have to break. However, if something seems to be going wrong during a fight, I usually look on WoW Meters Online afterwards - we put all of our recount stats on there after raid nights.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? People from the opposite faction see a tree and think, aw man, there's no way I can kill them. The thing is, you CAN kill us! You just to drain our mana first, and then drain it again because we probably innervated, and then chase us down cause we probably cheetah-formed, and then get the roots off yourself, and then drain our mana AGAIN, and then, well, at that point, you're probably dead from moonfire spam. So actually, I take it back - you CAN'T kill us.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? For this question, I asked our resident warlock-changed-to-resto-druid guildmate, Taev. We have a totally sweet flashchat server on our forums that we use during the day to ~~procrastinate during work~~ keep in touch during non work hours. >.> I logged on and asked him this very question.

taev: Hardest thing for me is the vast difference between solo healing and 25 man healing
taev: You can't practice raid healing by doing anything but raid healing
Averna: so like, knowing who to heal and when and what spells and all that?
taev: right
taev: in 1-2 healer settings, I was largely responsible for a certain set of people, and I knew that if I didn't heal them, they wouldn't get healed
taev: so it's simple
taev: in a 25 man, you're competing/cooperating with 4-5 other healers of different types
taev: so learning which spells work well in the face of direct healers like pallies and priests, as well as chain heals... That's been tough.
taev: Another thing I'm having to learn is to predict damage
taev: Since the direct heal healers are all far more hasted than I am, I can't compete on that. I have to be hotting up those who are *going* to take damage, not as much the ones that already have.

Oh, and also, Corselle was in Flashchat too and wanted to be quoted as saying: "DROOOOOOOODS."

There you have it, folks. Straight from the horse's mouth. *neigh!*

Haste or Crit and why? Haste, haste and more haste. Also, crit! So basically, a balance of haste and crit, with an emphasis on haste. I remember healing with another resto druid once who was in comparable gear and had comparable ability - yet was totally kicking my ass. It was because they had more haste than me, and their GCDs were at one second flat, whereas mine were not. The 1 second GCD is a HUGE boon for healing. You get so many more heals out that way. Right now I'm working on getting gear that has more haste on it (although at this point, I'll take anything. Seems that whenever I raid (which isn't too often these days) NOTHING drops for me, boo.)

What healing class do you feel you understand least? Hm. After going through my 101 healing series (see side bar), I feel like I learned quite a bit about the different classes. I'd have to say shammies still confuse me sometimes, and I also find that keeping all of the auras and hands and blessings of the paladin class straight is kind of tricky.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? Grid. Gridstatushots. Decursive. Clique. Hotcandy. All awesome add-ons. I would not be as good a healer if I didn't use these add-ons.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? I stack primarily for spell power. Spirit is not as good as it used to be, so right now, I'm hoping to get gear with spell power, int, and haste on it.

AND NOW! I'm going to go ahead and tag the lovely Fuyuko from the Unconventional Priest! Take it away, Fuyu!

It should be MOAR dots, not MORE.

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:15:00 +0000

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The neat thing about raiding again on a whim one night after not raiding really at all?

You get a TON of achievements in a very small amount of time. :D

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Check out what I got!

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:48:00 +0000

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FINALLY!

[Idol of Flaring Growth]

BAM!

It's almost embarrassing that I've been running around in game without one of these. This is a million and one times better than the [Idol of Awakening] or [Idol of Flourishing Life]. I might still equip my Awakening Idol for a few fights where mana could be a concern, but all in all, Flaring Growth is the way to go. I typically have rejuv up on at least 3 people at any given time, and on fights where I prejuv everyone ever (like Hodir) (oh god, I'm still referencing Ulduar bosses rather than Coliseum bosses *weep*), rejuv is just ticking everywhere. It's nuts. I'm so pumped about this idol. =P

On a completely separate and off-topic note:

I'm running in a 5k on October 25th that's a fundraiser for ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease - read more about it here). I'm trying to raise money for it. If any of you have an extra 5 or 10, or 20 bucks on you (I know times are tough, believe me, so please, don't feel obligated), then please, visit my website and donate whatever you've got.

Do it for all of those affected by ALS.

Do it to make my day.

Do it for good karma.

Or just do it for the lulz.

Either way, check out the website here.

To everyone who donates, thanks in advance. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. <3

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How do you jump back in?

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:56:00 +0000

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OMG HAI. Remember me? I’m Av! Good to see ya again.

Yeah, I've taken a huge long break from WoW.

What have I been doing in the meantime? Well, lots of real life stuff! In the past couple months, I have:

1. Moved in with my boyfriend
2. Started a new job
3. Started running again and caring about my health
4. Learned how to cook and bake
5. Totally and completely distanced myself from all things WoW.

My question is, how the hell do you jump back into it?

I have no idea what gear is good, what strats are best, what new changes have been made to the game play, I haven't tried Onyxia yet, I haven't even done 5 man Coliseum - I don't know how badges of triumph work, I didn't even know that the Brewfest was happening, and when it ends (has it already ended?), or what quests to do, my gear is pretty crappy compared to most of my raiding guildmates at this point, I haven't done any transmutes for the alchemy quests, my gold stash is in the hole, and I don't even know what my guildies are up to - there are even new resto druids that we've recruited that I haven't spent ANY time with.

And I call myself a WoW blogger and class leader?

Buh.

There's just so much that it almost seems easier to stay where I am and not try to get back into the swing of things.... but of course I don't want to do that! It just seems easier to log on tinker around with my hunter or shaman and not get back into raiding on Av. =/

Any advice?

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Coliseum Champions: LOL.

noreply@blogger.com (Averna) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:45:00 +0000

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Last night was my very first night raiding in Coliseum.

Let me tell you, it was really odd. Most other people had been there, so instead of me giving pointers to others, they were all giving pointers to me. I had read the strat, but it all seemed pretty complicated, so pointers were definitely appreciated.

The first encounter, the Northrend Beasts, was pretty fun. I actually found myself out of mana. I had to use a potion! o.O I quickly learned that I need to use my Innervate even sooner than I had initially thought, to make sure it's up a couple more times in any given fight.

Eventually we found ourselves face to face with the Champions. This encounter is such a hoot. There's just so much going on. It's so weird to have a PvP mindset here, too. The warrior shifted his attention to me at one point, and our raid leader, Tal, was like "Av, kite the warrior through the frost trap. No - no, the other way, the frost trap."

I'm sitting there, thinking "Ok, I can do this!! Wait. What's kiting. Oh, right. Ok - so - cheetah form will be good for this! Ok, go cheetah form. Wait. I can't go cheetah form, we're inside. Oh, that's a load of crap. But I can go cat and dash! Ok, great, cat form.... and then.... ok, now dashing.... ok, now where's that frost trap. Um. I'll just.... run him through this big white patch! Oh - wait, that's a BAD white patch. I'm slowed now. Oh, wtf. Oh! I'll use Nature's Grasp! Oh. He's immune. Oh, wtf." Meanwhile, Tal is probably facepalming his face off, while the warrior is whirlwinding me, while I frantically LB myself (which, in turn, shifts me out of cat-dash, sigh) and finally he shifts his attention elsewhere. Hahahaha. Oh, my god. So much fun.

I felt super useful despite the kiting tragedy, because I hibernated the hunter's pet, and I cycloned something at one point. Oh, and I rooted something, too! =D

It's just seriously awesome to be doing something other than throwing rejuv at everything. Hehe.

Overall, it was a blast. Our three hour raid was over before I knew it. This was awesome, because before I took my little break from wow/raiding, there would be raids where I'd look at the clock and think "Ugh, 2 more hours of raiding.... sigh." That's when I knew that maybe I needed a little break. =P

Can't wait to get back into it and raid again on Wednesday!

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