Some months ago I moved Jools over from the pvp server Vashj to the pve server Aerie Peak.
The reason for this was that I really enjoyed playing her but she very rarely got any invites to runs or raids when she could attend because the healer spots were usually filled by badge-bloated officer healers.
I played a lot with some out-of guild friends, but they were doing the more hardcore raiding every night and I was feeling a little lonely.
So I moved her.
This was the first time I played seriously on a pve server, and I got a serious woot! Is this for real?? experience!
There were never any problem summoning raiders or replacement cause of summoning stone wars. It actually took me several Kara runs to realise that half the people outside at the stone were Horde!
While I still felt that initial adrenaline rush upon seeing a Horde when out questing, it petered out when I realised that they would not try to kill me, not now, not when I was attacking a quest mob, not ever.
Suddenly, whole areas of gameplay opened up again. I created a new alt and I will take her through Stranglethorn Vale again, a place that I really loved with that jungle theme and abundance of quests, but I have not been lvling there for years because the sheer amount of ganking I’ve experienced there.
My warrior dinged 70 just some weeks ago, and while it was pretty ok doing the last lvls in Outland since there was hardly any people around, Horde or Alliance, I dread the coming of the Wrath of the Lick King, when the new areas will be filled with people levelling, questing and - ganking.
Sure, I realise that you can accidentally flag yourself for pvp in various ways and get killed by a player of the opposite faction, but in almost all of my pv server encounters with Horde I won’t have to worry about that.
So, I was thinking of moving the rest of the flock over to Aerie Peak too. I have spent my entire time on Vashj detesting gankers and now I will get an awful lot of time to spend on playing instead of swearing, corpse running or moving to another area to quest.
The fact that sort of clinched it though, was that the guild I joined with Jools turned out to be a collection of real sweet and fun people! I didn’t have to worry that I wouldn’t find any new friends because I already had!
So I started sorting out my bags and told my Vashj friends about my plans. I will miss them but I feel this is the right way for me to go. It’s a bit expensive though, Blizzard charges 20 Euro per transfer, so I am looking at a total cost of 120 Euros, but I have no doubt at all it will be money well spent!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Bye Bye Vashj
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Srs raiding is the shit!
I stopped by Cenarion Post and picked up a brand new pretty feathered speed-bird for my srs raiding priest and then I flew off on said bird to the Coilfang reservoir and swam down the drainpipe to be ready and prepared, yes sir!, outside Serpentshrine Cavern at 2015 sharp yesterday.
I had a big picnic basket with me, 100 Sacred Candles with me, 20 charges of Superior Mana Oil, 5 Flasks of Mighty Restoration and more Golden Fish Sticks than even the most devout lover of fish'n chips could devour in a lifetime.
- Read up on tactics? Check.
- Repaired? Check.
- Bags full of mana pots? Check.
I Was Prepared.
Going to be raiding srsly two days a week now, Mondays and Wednesdays from 20.30 til whenever are now marked Do Not Disturb in my calendar, in the company of 24 more like-minded people in the Raid Core of Jools' otherwise casual Aerie Peak guild.
Yesterday was the kick-off for the Raid Core after the summer holidays, and we were going to Serpentshrine Cavern to kick the tender asses of the Lurker and Leotheras the Blind.
Was I nervous? Yes. Was I thrilled? Yes.
I had been on a Lurker kill before, after a wipeless Maggy kill followed by a successful High King Maulgar and Gruul kill, when we were all high on success and raid adrenaline and kept going to SSC and the lurking fish boss there, so I wasn't too worried about that fight.
I remembered some basic facts of SSC, like don't jump down the elevator, don't fall into the water, stay out of the green mist when the Bog giants die, and such, so the trash pulls went by pretty fast and I kept my tank alive without a fuss.
What is very important about the Lurker fight, btw? That's right, jump into the water when he takes a deep breath and stay there until he has finished spouting.
This was an ah, right-moment for me as he took his deep breath and aimed straight for me when he stared spouting. Result:
But I since wasn't the only one that kicked the bucket that fight we ressed, buffed up and fished that scaled monster out of his hidey-hole again.
What are the odds of the damned slimy boss taking that deep breath of his and immediately start spouting at the very same person (=me!) that just happens to be slightly slow jumping off the island.
Very high, it seems...
Wasn't that bad though, I had a rather good view of the fireworks from my position safely away from the action ;P
After we got our revenged and looted phat epix from the dead pile of stinking scales and fishbone, we headed onwards!
And who is to say that the guild spirit is not one for all and all for one? When one of the tanks got knocked into the water and the trash mob followed him there, he was first joined by a healer and a dps to help beat him down. After the rest of us had taken the mobs still on the platform down we all followed suit, like a flock of lemmings we threw ourselves down into the water!
Leo was a bit of a badass though, and sadly he lived to see another day while we got seriously pwned by him.
Possible reasons why we didn't kill him:
- seasoned raiders were a bit rusty and new ones were a bit unused to the chaotic havoc-wreaking and dazzling, screaming fireworks (it is very different from the 10-man raids)
- general bad luck
- and of course the general scape-goat: LAG! (although sadly I can't blame my mistakes yesterday on that because it was totally lag-free)
- hmm can't really think of any other reason...:)
But his respite won't last long, tomorrow we will take him down!!
I got an unexpected surprise as well in there, one of my friends from my old pvp server popped in on a newly created lvl 2 alt just to say hello!!
What I Learned From Yesterday's Raiding
from my own and my fellow raiders experiences and (mis-)fortunes.
1. Warlocks are handy. They will summon you back up to the platforms if you are a noob and fall into the water and an even bigger noob and can't find your way up.
2. If you die on the elevator down and your dead body goes up and down on it, don't accept a friendly ress unless the platform is at the bottom.
3. If you don't kill off your Inner Demon fast enough and end up being mind-controlled, and the raid wipes before they can kill you off, you end up being mind-controlled for the entire 10 minutes, after which you just die.
4. Don't pull more than one trash pack at a time.
5. If you rely on BigWigs or some similar boss mod to help you time your actions, do remember to enable it for the particualr raid instance you are in.
Hmm think that's all for now, folks, will undoubtedly have more words of wisdom to share after tomorrow.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Gem from bgchat
You know, too often bg chat is full of morons spewing filth around, accusing everyone but themselves to be clueless noobs and that this bg will be lost due to that.
Well, once in a while you just happen to see a conversation that, due to some hilarious timing of events, just makes you laugh. I happened upon such a conversation today as I was doing some last honor grinds for my Runed Ornate Ruby, and I even had the presence of mind to screenshot it.
Enjoy!
The hilariousness of someone complaining that people were not coming down to join him at Frostwolf Keep while at the same time failing to defend a tower at said Keep was certainly not lost on me or many others in this bg ;P
(And no, he was not the only one down there by far, so he didn't lose the tower due to overwhelming Horde forces.)
Monday, July 21, 2008
Making the most of your mana
The flip side of the mana coin is the saving of it. Using less mana for a give spell also makes you sweet blueness last longer, and this is why we choose certain talents.
The Discipline Tree holds some nice talents that help tremendously with saving mana.
In the second tier you’ll find Inner Focus, which gives you a free spell cast once every three minutes. There is a trick to this talent, and that is to actually remember to use it. I have worked it into a macro to help save the toll on my excellent but very short memory (I'll get to the macro section later).
The second tier also houses Absolution, which reduces the mana cost of you dispel magic and cure/abolish disease spells. 3 points to max out this and get a total mana cost reduction of 15 %. Worth it? No, I don’t think so, the raid encounters that need heavy dispelling ain’t that many (the Maiden and Nightbane in Karazhan are those that come to mind requiring a lot of dispelling, maybe Jan’alai in Zul’Aman too).
In the 3d tier you’ll find Mental Agility, which reduces the mana cost of all your instant spells by 10 % if maxed out with 5 points. The spells affected by this talent is quite a bunch actually, Renew, Prayer of Mending, Circle of Healing (if you have that one, 41 pt talent in the Holy tree), Dispel magic, Abolish Disease, Cure Disease, Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Word: Death. Don’t know about your healing spell preferences, but the first three ones are pretty much my staple healing spells, coupled with Greater Heal for tank healing, so you don’t see me leaving home without this one.
The 4th tier has Mental Strength, which if maxed with 5 pts gives 10 % more mana, which is pretty good. I have around 10 k mana raid buffed, so this would mean another 1000 mana, or 2,5 renews or 1,5Gheals. However, going this deep into the Disc Tree requires sacrificing a lot of the goodness from the Holy Tree, and if you do wanna do this dive into Disc, the sweet talents of Divine Spirit and the Improved Variety is just beside it.
2 tiers further down you’ll find Pain Suppression, which for 16 % of your base mana will give you a 20 % mana cost reduction for all spells for 15 seconds every 3 minutes. Getting this means that you have spent at least 31 talent points in the Discipline Tree, and that’s simply not viable for a raid healing priest unless in very specialized encounters of which I can’t think of any right now.
Same goes for Enlightenment – good talent but way too deep in the Disc tree to be a possibility for a healing priest.
So, Discipline Tree talent summary from a mana-saving healing perspective:
Inner Focus – get it.
Absolution - skip.
Mental agility – get it unless your healing style relies heavily on cast spells like Greater Heal, Flash Heal or Prayer of Healing (maybe not all 5 points if you have something else you really really want).
Mental Strength – skip.
Pain Suppression- skip.
Enlightenment – skip.
Holy Tree
In the Holy Tree you have to dive down to the 4th tier before you find a talent that reduces mana costs, and the use of Improved Healing is a somewhat debatable one. 3 points for 15 % less mana cost for a single spell (come on, how many times do you use Lesser Heal or Heal?). But these point means that your Greater Heal will cost 701 mana instead of 825, and it is one of your mostly used spells, so I’d go for it.
Healing Prayers in the 5th tier – 2 points for 20 % less mana for Prayer of Mending - frisbee bouncing back and forth ftw! Pass it forward and keep it up! - and Prayer of Healing, a spell not used quite as often but still often enough that the mana reduction with this talent is pretty tangible.
The 7th tier holds Holy Concentration. 6 % for 3 talent points may not sound much but it feels like it procs a lot and it actually often helps you regenerate mana as well – the WoW-gods don’t realise that you have cast a spell because you are not using any mana and thus they let your sweet bubbly 100% mana regen kick in while you secretly laugh at them and drop the mana-free Gheal on someone who really needed it.
And that’s about it – no more mana saving talents available in the Holy Tree.
So, Holy Tree talent summary from a mana-saving healing perspective:
Improved Healing – get it.
Healing Prayers – get it.
Holy Concentration – get it.
Shadow Tree
The shadow tree has nothing a healing priest want. Period. The Spirit tap may sound alluring but it does not kick in unless you are the one that kills the target, and how many killing blows have you managed to get off on raid trash or mobs?
So, Shadow Tree talent summary from a mana-saving healing perspective:
Void, null, not applicable. Get back to the holy tree if you wanna heal.
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Stay tuned for the next part: How to use macros and addons to help you keep that blue bar bubbling up.
Mana regenerating
Have you ever started out to explain something really simple and, as you were at it, humhummed to yourself thinking I’d better explain that too since its kinda related, and might throw in a few words on this since it has bearing on the subject, and while I am at it why not cover this adjacent area as well, ending up with something huge and bloated and not at all what you had intended from the start?
No? Well I have, many times, and I’ll give you a great example of it here. I set out to make a small post with a few tips on how to make your mana last a whole 5-10 minute bossfight, but what I ended up with was this several post long article.
(Disclaimer: The following are my opinions and gut feelings for a holy priest that’s currently venturing into 25-mans like Serpentshrine Caverns and the Eye.)
Regenerating mana
1. Your blue bar is full.
2. You cast a spell.
3. Your blue bar is not quite as full as it was before.
4. Rinse and repeat.
You keep this up and eventually there will be no blue left at all and you will be that horrible shameful thing - out of mana!
Luckily, some of your blue mana will trickle back and fill up the bar again, and you want this to happen as fast as possible so you can keep up your spellcasting, right?
The mana regeneration rate comes in two flavours – a sweet bubbly champagne for when you are not casting (= out of combat, fiddling your thumbs while watching your party take damage, or whatever excuse you have for standing around not doing anything useful), and one not quite so bubbly for when you are casting (=in combat).
You want a) as much of the bubbly one as possible and b) to make the not-so-bubbly as bubbly as possible. Makes sense, right?
Now the WoW-gods are a little slow (lagging, maybe?), they don’t understand that you are not casting unless it’s been 5 seconds or more since you finished casting a spell, so once you start fighting you will have to rely mostly on your not-so-bubbly mana regeneration to keep the blueness trickling back.
If you want to know how much time the WoW-gods think you spend casting in every fight check out the Fubar plugin RegenFu. For me, a holy priest, it somewhere between 75-90% of the time, and for a more in-depth explanation of what the so-called 5 second rule is please check out WoWwiki.
So, how do I get that mana juice flowing?
Mana regeneration is made up of two parts: a spirit/intellect-based one and a “restores X mana per second”-one.
According to the same WoWwiki, the formula for the spi/int mana regeneration for a lvl 70 priest is
MP5 = 5 * (0,001 + sqrt(Int) * Spi * 0,009327)
and without talents this will only happen when the WoW-gods are really really sure that you are not casting a spell, i e out of combat or at least 5 seconds after you finished casting.
However, with the priest talent Meditation from the 3d tier in the Discipline tree you can get 30% of the spi/int-regen to continue when you are casting. Take this talent. It’s a must for any priest, holy, disc or shadow, so I'll say it again: Take this talent.
Some of the gear you will encounter has an on-equip use that goes “Restores [a number] mana per 5 seconds.” This is a flat mana regeneration that’s always the same, no matter if you are casting or not, and is usually referred to as mana regeneration from items. There are also gems and enchants with this stat.
So, to summarise:
Really sweet bubbly mana regen = only when not casting = int/spi-based regen + mana regen from items.
Not quite so sweet and bubbly mana regen but hopefully not too flat = when casting = 30% of the int/spi-based regen + 100% of the mana regen from items.
Aha, you might think here, let’s stack up on the mana regen from items since it keeps ticking 24/7! Well, yes, it will, but there are more advantages to going for Spirit and Intellect instead.
Ok, short brief:
Spirit gives mana regen and also health regen and increases healing bonus when talented with Spiritual Guidance.
Intellect gives mana regen and also increases your crit chance with spells and it gives you a larger mana pool to start with.
So, when it comes too stats, Spirit is your dearest friend, Intellect comes pretty close and the cousin from the country Mana-regen-from-items is tolerated but not invited unless the other two are out of town.
Stay tuned for the next part: Saving Ryan’s Privates, eh, no that was not it...ah I have it:
Stay tuned for the next part - The flip side of the mana coin: saving it!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
So where are all the new posts?
The recent lack of new posts on this blog does not mean that I am out of things to get annoyed at, thrilled at, happy with, indecisive about or just discovered.
It simply means that it’s summer, I am out doing things and when I do get in front of the computer I tend to play a lot and not blog about my playing so much.
I do have some articles I work on, including
- How do I configure my healbot addon or should I scrap it?
- Jools’ new gear upgrades and what should I go for next?
- Why it is actually fun to pvp in bg’s and things I have learned from doing them.
- Epic tales of raiding (with screenshots!), including the hilarious drunken raid to Silvermoon city and the belf bashing.
- Mana management.
- How to get to know your new guildies.
- Resto shaman gear list for when Larue dings 70.
These articles all sit in my unpublished blog post list, awaiting their final touches, but to not leave you all hanging without anything to read and laugh at while I get my thumbs out of where they should not be and get down to writing again, let me share this hilarious web comic I just discovered:
The DM of the rings.
It’s a few years old and many of you probably have seen it already, but I just found it (yeye, can't be first with everything!) and it is friggin’ awesome! Brings me back to the good old days of all-night D&D-ing with dices and papers and too much fast food and snacks.
And don't miss the author's comments below the comic! They are soooo true and makes you laugh even more!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Alliance suck at pvp!
Was doing some Arathi Basin runs, me and a few friends were playing for fun and for honor and for marks.
As we enter the bg and wait around Trollbane’s Hall for it to start, this druid yells out “If we can’t win, make sure we lose quickly!” Eh, say again?
Never mind, the bg begins and we race out to cap the nodes. We get two, the hordes get three and then four.
The yelling druid starts spamming bgchat – ok, let them win, lose quickly so we get our mark.
Eh, excuse me? Wouldn’t it be more useful to retake some nodes and win?
I suggest that if he wants to lose, why not get a group of likeminded people (you know there are more of this kind, we have all encountered them in the bg’s, the let-them-win-crowd) and go fight their bg’s sitting down unarmed. They would get their one mark in just a few minutes then.
This suggestion is not received favourably by Mr I-Want-To-Lose.
Me and my friends assault the farm, fight there for a few minutes, we die and run back but the hordes die too and we manage to claim the farm as ours.
I am not a good pvp’er, I usually refer to myself as bait, cannon fodder, an otherwise useless distraction or something similar that indicates that my prime contribution to bg’ing is keeping the enemy occupied and not killing anyone else. That I am not good at it does not mean I won’t try to kill the enemy (and I do kill them! A lot of them!) and also not that I don’t find it fun in some way – I would never grind bg marks if I was bored to death by it, and with some friends it is actually mostly fun. (In small doses, mind you, not day-long bg grinds!)
Anyway, our claim provokes new outbursts from the same Mr I-am-only-here-for-marks – Wtf are you doing? Don’t retake the nodes!! It will only take longer to lose!!
We move on to the lumber mill and we manage to take that node as well. We now have three nodes and a good chance at winning if we keep them, but then the horde claims the farm back and the stables after that.
Actually, we are having quite fun pissing of the Loser Druid and keep advancing, retaking node after node only to lose it as we leave it undefended behind us.
Meanwhile, the I-Can’t-Be-Arsed-To-Actually-Fight Druid is dancing around in the fields, far away from any skirmishes and very far away from being any kind of useful contribution to the bg, whining in bgchat about how alliance always suck at pvp. I guess he is talking about himself.
(A quick peek at this player in the Armory later shows him dressed in full pvp honor epics, presumably gotten from losing a helluva lot of bg’s.)
And of course we lose the game. And we get our 1 Arathi Basin mark of Honor
I just don’t understand these people – how can you roll an Alliance char and go bg’ing with him/her, expecting to win without actually having to make an effort and then spend half the time whining that Alliance suck in bg’s? Well of course they do – News Flash! – it’s because there are people like you in it!
Go roll a Horde char then- cause everyone knows that all Horde always use voice chat comms and are really coordinated and prepared and, oh I almost forgot, they do not suck at pvp! It’s some magic ability that comes from playing Horde – master pvp’er!
Well, lately I have actually won most of my bg games, both on Vashj and Aerie Peak, so I guess the Alliance does not always suck. And maybe, just maybe, the people who think that Alliance do suck and keep screaming this in bgchat, and keep telling everyone to lose quickly, maybe they are the ones that suck, and not the rest of us that actually keep fighting. Ever stopped to think about that, have you? Didn’t think so.
Friday, June 27, 2008
So who needs a warlock anyways?
Was running through Karazhan in a somewhat melee-heavy group the other day, four warriors and one rogue, with a shaman, shadow priest and hunter keeping at range while me and a tree was healing.
The run went fast and smooth and without a wipe (well, we did sacrifice our shaman once in a while to keep the raid gods happy, but other than that we mostly stayed alive).
We rolled through the place and were about to call it a night after Aran when one of the warriors asked if we could try killing Illhoof as well.
And who were we to say no to such a request?
Down to Illhoof's chamber we went, starting off with an accidental pull of the roaming imps at his doorway, but we killed them off without a hassle and charged into his room.
The first one who got sacrificed to the Demonic Chains was yours truly and I went down faster than a snowball in hell! Poof, angel form billowing up! Luckily, our imba tree was on top of things and threw me a combat ress after my angel form expired and we went back to doing business as usual.
The warriors were thunderclapping like crazy to keep the imps on them and when the odd one got away and started trying to get intimate with me I did what every girl is supposed to do in situations like that, I screamed.
And that was basically it. Illhoof and his pet imp was down after 3 minutes and 54 seconds with the whole raid still standing.
So, who needs a warlock? ;P
Type rest of the post here
Midsummer!
Have you been doing the Midsummer's quests?
I am thinking especially of the quests where you desecrate the Horde Midsummer flame or honor the Alliance one (or vice versa ofc :-)
There is a Midsummer's Fire outside all the alliance or horde settlements in both Azeroth and Outland, and there is a fire inside every capital as well.
Honoring a fire will give you 5 gold 99 silver and 5 Burning Blossoms, while desecrating pays better, 11 gold 99 silver and 10 Blossoms.
If you manage to get to the opposing faction's capital and desecrate their flame (stealth or a large raid group is highly recommended here unless you want to corpse run a lot), you create an item like Flame of Orgrimmar, that gives you a quest that rewards you with 25 Blossoms and your choice of midsummer food.
The Horde fires are handily marked with a yellow ! and even on a pvp server the midsummer celebrants won't attack you when you put out their fire. Be careful though, because if you get too close to any guards slouching about they will attack!
There are about 10 horde Midsummer Fires on each continent, and 7 in Outlands, and the same amount of Alliance Fires (not counting the capital city ones since they can be a little tricky to get into for the opposing faction), and by desecrating/honoring these you will net a sweet 485 gold and 405 Blossoms, more than enough to pay for one of the wisps or dancing fiery draeneis (350 Blossoms each)!
But hurry, Midsummer's Festival will be over on July 5th!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Looks or stats?
This here is Jools in her current healing gear, wearing the Gladiator's Mooncloth Robe and Mantle, complete with Teardrop Living Rubies in all sockets, a +15 spirit enchant on the chest and a Greater Inscription of the Oracle on the shoulders.
Its ok gear, but I do not like the look of it. It looks like some crummy old khaki desert uniform from two centuries ago with blingblings and epaulets and stuff, and it does definitely not set of Jools' blue braid and bluish complexion ;P
So I am working on getting her something new to wear, and with my usual luck in drop rolls I 'd better aim for something thats not totally dependent on having the gods of fate smile upon me.
The Robes of Heavenly Purpose that drops from Nalorakk in Zul'Aman looks cool, but I do not know when I'll get there. I have never even once seen the Masquerade Gown drop in Karazhan, and the Gown of Spiritual Wonder is shit ugly (and I'd rather spend my badges on the Gavel of Naaru Blessings anyways).
So what else is there?
As you all probably know, Season 2 Arena gear will be available for honor points when Season 4 goes live, and the Merciless Gladiator's Mooncloth Robe really looks hot.
Worn with the Pauldrons of the Solace-giver that the big ugly Curator dropped for her on her last Karazhan run its a really stunning outfit.
If the prices for the S2 gear follow the S1 ones, the Merciless robe will be available for 30 Arathi Basin marks and about 14 500 honor points.
If gemmed and enchanted like before, this new pretty outfit will net her about +15 mana/5 (in combat), but she will lose about 9 healing (since the shoulders dont have any gem slots) and a whooping 34 stamina.
Well, I like mp5, and Jools is less than a dozen badges shy of the Gavel of Naaru Blessings, which would help alleviate that stamina loss, so I guess I can justify choosing looking-good over somewhat better stats.
However, the belt she is wearing is the Nethershard Girdle, and the Guardian's Mooncloth Belt will also be for sale for AB marks, 40 to be precise, and 17 850 honor points.
Replacing the Nethershard with the Guardian belt will give her back the lost 34 stamina, and also increase her healing with about 47, while she loses 2 mp5.
So what I'm reluctantly beginning to realise is, that I'd better start doing those AB matches real fast, cause I am going to need 60 AB marks and 32 250 honor points til tomorrow!
