Argel template broken!

So I just noticed that for some reason my template got broken. I'm working on fixing it in some way, apologies in the mean time >_<

EDIT: Of course there was no way that I could find the old template back so ....well, new template. It'll have to do. 

Kick more noob!

Frustration on.

I just came out of a dungeon that I stepped into on my own as a tank, so I would not have to wait for a queue and hey they bag would be nice too.

But this group suuuuuucked. First healer DCed, second left in the middle of the fight, and the third healer left when we finally reached the last boss.

Granted, the dps was shite, and on top of that they blamed the healer for getting killed by the spirits, but I wanted my bag. But for one small moment I didn't think and figured that I would invite a guildie to help this group finish the instance.

All the Ninja Raiders

Kay, so first watch this:
 
Well, listen is more like it...the video is not much special. I love this one, very catchy song...QQ QQ QQ QQ...

Now watch the one below the cut, and imagine the dude in hunter gear...

Warning, this image will burn itself into your retina and every time you hear the song you will see....oh well...on your own risk!

Wrought

I was working on the most boring task evah at work so to keep myself happy I was playing youtube videos and wow machinima.

 Loved this one, figured I would share :)

Healing is

I haven't written much for a while now. Part of that is because I didn't feel much like writing and summer was here, but part is also because I felt that I just didn't have anything much to say.

Instead I just waited, cause there were promises out there that once the gear would improve, the mana situation would improve and well..healing would be more fun again.

It hasn't, and I've been trying to find out why that is..and I think I may have figured it out...

Innervate nerfed for feral and balance due to healer mana

"We cut back on the power of Innervates from Feral and Balance druids because we felt they were contributing to too much healer mana."

The above was quoted directly from Ghostcrawler himself as he explains why certain balancing changes are being made in the upcoming Firelands patch.

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street has ever attempted to heal 10man heroics...

Thank you, Oestrus!

I wanted to say thanks to Oestrus. He has checked my priest spec, glyphs, logs, etc. And while I haven't followed all of the pointers, his advice did make me take a long hard look at my spec and glyphs and take a second look at choices that I had made at some points.

Our raid finally got the Nef kill, after 130 or so wipes and it took a lot of adjusting and a lot of fiddling with things. I'm still hoping for upgrades, but hey...soon.

Anyways, thanks again Oestrus :)

Priest Frustration

So I just stepped out of my own raid purely out of frustration with my class. We had someone sitting and that person needed stuff from the next boss anyways so it wasn't the worst move, but when I feel like screaming at the fact that my class is so frustrating...

We were working on heroic Halfus and worked with 3 tanks, 3 healers. Now you need to know that we normally 2 heal just about everything, but for heroic Halfus that wasn't an option of course. So our druid moonkin/heals switched into her resto offspec....and outhealed me. And why? Because I am out of mana.

So I check my overhealing, I had the least overhealing of all 3 healers. I'm pretty damn sure I press the right buttons, I'm geared out for regen already because I generally have mana issues, but this...I just felt so powerless.

When I check logs I have less active time, less healing, and all because I cannot spare the mana to keep healing like other classes can seem to. I've gone over my spec, gone over my glyphs, my spell usage...and now I am lost on what to do better. On what to improve.

I am at a loss on where to squeeze my character for more mana, and while I could slide my stats somewhat towards throughput it won't help my healing much.

To be frank, it's not the first time that my priest frustrates me this badly. I've actually been at the point where I had announced that I would quit healing completely. Good thing I didn't cause then we would've had only one main spec healer in the raid...but blergh.

We've been at Nef for weeks now, and when I get into a mood like this it completely feels as if I'm the one holding back the raid from progressing. My raid is good about not taking damage when they can avoid it, and while I know I'm good, I'm lacking somewhere. I just wish I could put my finger it.

I must have missed something, somewhere, but I don't know where to look anymore.

Any and all help welcome btw...

Wazzup?

So, it's been a while again since I posted. I think it may have to do with the fact that I'm getting busier in real life again, and bored with the game. Yes, there, I said it. I'm a bit bored with the game.

I'm currently working on getting my pallie leveled, but it's already the 4th character that I run through the same content within 3 months time. I have started looking at other hobbies a bit as well, bit less gaming, but more creativity perhaps?

I used to do a lot of written RP and I admit it, I miss it. So I went over to the community that I used to post a lot at and started poking for a wherewolf game. If you have no idea what a wherewolf game is, go here. And hey, maybe you might like the idea and sign up for one too.

In other news, my guild forums seem to explode with Rift posts lately, maybe I should have a closer look at it. The word on the street is that it is much like WoW Vanilla though and I'm not sure if I'm up for that. I mean I may be bored with Cata, but to go back to Vanilla...hrm.

Anyways, I will be updating the site with some easter stuff soonish, valentine was fun, but it will be back next year. And with that...laters!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This morning there was a gorgeous bouquet of red flowers on my table, and underneath it stood a little package. Inside it I found a new pandora bead. This one:

It's my second charm where part of the money paid for them goes to a good cause. This one is for the fund of Asthma, and the previous one Thror got me went to the association that trains guide dogs for blind people.

So yes, my valentine's day started well. How about yours?

Everybody is Responsible

Heroics are getting easier and last week I've already had two dps in the group who were doing stupid stuff. Standing in just about everything, or absent-mindedly breaking CC. When asked I got the replies that they were not paying attention, or watching television.

And you know what?

THOSE PEOPLE ARE SELFISH IDIOTS!


If everybody does their job the heroic is fun for everyone in there. Stuff is CCed in our group, not because I cannot heal through it, but because it makes everything go a lot smoother. I don't have to drink as often, and I don't have to stress out over healing. The healer, the tank, the dps all have a much more relaxed time if everybody carries their weight and simply does their job. 


If one person starts slacking off, the healer has to pull more tricks and has to drink more often. The tank has to be a lot more vigilant on where threat lies, and the dps themselves risk to get a close-up of the floor. 


And you know what?


If you end up in my group and you start screwing up because you're not paying attention, or because you're watching television, or doing other stuff you should not be doing....expect to be kicked. I generally bring a guild tank and a guild dps so we're with three of us, and you will get kicked. 


Don't be that idiot and you'll probably have the smoothest run you've had all week, with chain pulls, at least 1 dps above 16K and a healer and tank who have now been working together for almost 4 years. 

Goodbye Righteous Orbs

I've been horribly behind in my reader (even though I don't even read that many blogs anymore), but when I finally caught up yesterday I read that Tam and Chas from Righteous Orbs have decided to stop blogging.

I read it yesterday, and yesterday it made me sad. I read it again with more attention today, and it still makes me sad. I think Righteous Orbs was a gem amongst the wow blogs. And not even because what was written there was always stuff I agreed with, but simply because I really, really enjoyed reading it. I've followed this blog since it Tam was still standing in the back with his sissy robes, and I will miss it, but I understand and respect the decision. Good luck Tam and Chas!

In the words of Bilbo Baggins (or close at least) "And they lived happily ever after... to the end of their days."

Honeymoon? Oy, shouldn't I at least get some time to think?!

I was browsing through the blogs that I follow, and Larissa wrote a post about how she felt that the blogging community is experiencing a wave of people burning down the Cataclysm expansion. I read the entire article, and I think I caught it right after posting since there were no comments yet.

I did start writing a comment and then realized it had become so long that it would fit better in a post of my own. So here goes.

My thoughts on Cata so far.

I have levelled a nightelf mage to 62. So yes, I have gone through the new levelling process, of course not entirely since there are several zones that I didn't do, but I think it gave a good idea about the current style.

I thought it was a lot of fun, the flow felt nice, but it was definitely a solo experience. No groups needed, no dungeons needed. And even if you do dungeons...well who needs a tank. Or a healer for that matter, just blast your way through them, or at least most of them.

I have levelled two characters to 85, and am working on my hunter who has just dinged 83. On my main, priest, I did all the 80-85 quests that I could find even.

Again, a lot of fun, great story lines, but very much a solo experience. Some quests do eventually lead to dungeons, but there is no absolute need to do them and you can level easily without them. I did not at all get the boardwalk feeling as much as some have described, I mainly enjoyed how I was actually fully pulled into the story for a change.

My negative is that I would indeed like to see some group quests, and would actually love the difficulty tuned up a tiny bit for some special quests. Mind you, in general I thought it felt well tuned.

On my main I have run every Cata dungeon on heroic mode, and have probably run all of them at least five times. I like them. I keep wishing for scaling difficulty, because my gear is already making them much easier. B

My negative here is that I absolutely hated having to spend 2-3 hours in a dungeon. No, I don't spend that time there anymore now, but it's quite taxing to do so, and I did not experience that as a lot of fun especially.

And oh...I am still affraid of pugs, but if you go in a guild group things are a lot of fun.

We have also started raiding again. We have killed 4 bosses and I am LOVING it! I do find the healing quite frustrating at times, but once I got my head around the whole thing of the healer not being the saviour anymore, but just doing their job, it did get better.

The one thing I feel I cannot really comment on is PVP. I tried a BG once to see if I could learn more about healing, and discovered that it simply sucks as a healer since you get chopped down faster than you can get a heal off almost >_<

The changes to my class? I still hate mana management. I wish they would come up with a way to make healing more challenging without mana management. I just really don't like that I either have to chose not to heal, or well...I cannot heal at all. Which is still what I think that mana management basically comes down to.

I am very much looking forward to trying out Disc once the next patch goes live, and seeing if my favourite spec is a valid raiding spec again, since currently holy just crushes disc in raids. And while I have come to like my circle of shiny healing numbers, I still muscle memory towards my penance button.

Overall? I think that the raiding is brilliant, but solo content is lacking sorely at 85. My priest has nothing left to do but dailies (I hate dailies) and the daily obligatory random heroic for valor points. Sure, I can go fishing for guild achievement or farming herbs for raid flasks. Not really too exciting.

So...I level alts. I do hope that more will come soon though, since I am on my third alt and lets face it...80 to 85 just doesn't take that long!

Must frustrating thing in the game at the moment: Archaeology having upgrades pre-raid. Should never have been put in like this, I see various guildies digging themselves to boredom and annoyance for hours on end because there are no other ways to get upgrades for them except for raiding.

Most amusing thing in the game right now: The economy. I have been seeing glyphs go from 100G one day to 10S the next. Tradeskill gear goes for gigantic amounts, and I am just in awe how much gold there is amongst players. What does worry me a little is that gold sellers have become increasingly active since stuff is hard to get, so they probably get more business again. (more gold sellers = more hackers = more disappointed people)

End verdict? So far I still like Wrath better than I do Cata, but my 10man did really, really well in that expansion..so maybe I'm a bit biased ;)

Quick Guide to Halfus Wyrmbreaker

We've been raiding a few weeks again already, and I have to say. It's not going too bad! My 10man has so far killed Halfus, Valiona and Theralion, Magmaw, and Omnotron....and we have made a couple of decent attempts at Ascendant Council; which I am confident we will kill upcoming weekend.

So I figured that I would share some tactics.

However, since there is quite some guides out there already I figured I would take a different approach. This will be more of a reminder guide, and a quick overview. Not so much a full-blown step by step fight guide.

Halfus Wyrmbreaker 10man

Composition: 2 tanks, 3 healers, 5 dps (yes, I know some say it can be done with 2 healers, but you shouldn't need 6 dps so why risk it?)

Halfus has 5 dragon type pets, and the proto behemoth. He will chose 3 each week to assist him, and the behemoth is always active.

Drakes in order of importance to free and kill:

Storm Rider – Shadownova on Halfus. Releasing the Storm Rider reduces the cast time of Shadow Nova and makes it possible to interrupt it.

Whelps – Killing the whelps significantly reduces Halfus’ damage and increases his damage taken.

Nether Scion – Halfus gains 100% attack speed when this drake is active. Releasing the Nether Scion will reduce Halfus’ attack speed, hit chance, and damage by 25%.

Time Warden – When released it roots player periodically, including the fireballs from Halfus’ protodrake. Causes fireballs to move much more slowly.

Slate Dragon – When Slate is active Halfus will put a mortal strike debuff on your tank reducing healing taken by 5% each time he hits a target. This ability stacks. When Slate is released it stuns Halfus periodically for 12 seconds.

Unless you have the top 3 to deal with you can free the most important two from this list and then ignore the third while you kill Halfus. If you do have Storm Rider, Whelps and Nether you will have to free all three.

At 30% he will start doing a pulse that will stun the entire raid. Each pullse will come ticks of 3. Make sure to interrupt shadownova still if Storm Rider was one of your dragons.