Sad story

My gnome warrior Dizzie is happily lvling up nowadays. She is fury specced and its one of the cutest things I have ever seen, watching her charge away to a mob and start hitting the tall ugly thing with her glowing [Phantom Blade] (made for her especially by my adorable <3 husband) and some off-hand axe.

As she hit 44 she went to Tanaris to start questing there. Picked up the wastewander water quests and the ones that lead you into Pirate Cove. You would have thought she'd be 45 within some hours with all these easy questing and the rested bonus.

Well, think again. Tanaris seemed to be filled with sad no-life coward hordes and Dizzie spent more time running from the gy than actually getting any xp.

I never attack horde players when I see them, no matter what level or what they are doing. I just leave them be.

All (and I mean all, every single one I saw) of the horde players I encountered in Tanaris that day attacked Dizzie sooner or later. If they were of about equal level they snuck off when they saw her and waited until she was already in combat before they went for her, if they were some ?? lvl helping out some lower lvls they just attacked her on sight.


An all too frequent sight in the Tanaris desert :-(

(I know I am on a pvp server and should get used to it - I started playing here because the kids were playing here and by the time I found out that there were servers that didn't allow ganking I had too many characters and too many new friends on this server to really like the idea of changing servers. I think many people are like me in this aspect.)

Dizzie has crap gear. She sucks at pvp. She generally just ambles merrily along, picking up quests and doing them cheerfully, not bothering anyone. However, this constant running from the gy was beginning to get on my nerves and I decided to get some revenge.

I logged Tessy, my rogue, flew her off to Tanaris and parked her in the Pirate Cove. She also has crap gear, she also sucks at pvp but she is a lvl 70 subtlety specced rogue, she doesn't have to be good to kill lvl 50 wankers.

And kill them she did.

Some idiot lvl 51 priest, who did see Dizzie but skulked away and didn't start dotting her until she was fighting some freeboter. Shadowstepping rogue = dead priest. He got oneshotted twice and then he got the message and disappeared.

A group of three, some lvl 65 pally helping a 43 or so warrior and mage. Killed them all once and then one-shotted the warrior and mage some times, sapping the pally when he was trying to ress them.

A moonkin druid, same lvl as Dizzie and hadn't been trying to kill her at all so I was beginning to think it might actually be a human playing and not some sad loser al-quaida hangaround. But guess what, ofc he started spamming moonfire on her when she was fighting two mobs at the same time. This particular druid I followed all the way to Steamwheedle Port and made sure he didn't get to turn in any quests. Had to run from the NPC's a few times though, but hey, so what?

And then I asked myself...did this make me any happier? The sad losers were still sad losers, they were not gonna start acting like decent human beings no matter how many times I killed them. Dizzie was still dead and not getting any xp.

No, it was definitely not making me any happier.

It is said that revenge is a dish best served cold and I think I see the meaning of that proverb now. Revenge while being pissed off is not a good thing, it only makes you feel even more saddened and disgusted.

I just don't get it. Yes, its "only" a game and yes, its "allowed" to kill characters in the game, but do you always go around doing everything just because its "allowed"? CS is a game where the only objective is to kill the enemy players, WoW is not. You don't lose anything by letting enemy players live (ofc they may be sad gankers as well and come back and try to kill you, but that is not likely if you are of a higher level).

Ok, you might wanna do it for the honor (if ofc you even get honor, guess its more than probable that some of the morons don't realise that you don't get any honor when you kill players that are grey for you). So you get what, 5 honor?, for killing me. If you want honor go play one of the bg's, more honor there than you could possibly get by killing random world encounters.

Or maybe you want to show off how good you are at killing opponents? Well, if you think that its showing off killing someone several lvls below you or someone who is already engaged in a fight, you need your head examined. Maybe the results would show that you have a brain or at least some cognitive capabilities, but I really doubt that.

I think that those who go around killing other players in have the same mentality as those who don't help people with prams or wheelchairs get on the bus, they are the same kind as those who can't be bothered to hold the door open for you but rather let it slam shut in your face - hey! it would have taken me a few secs to wait and hold the door open, cba with that!

It just saddens and disgusts me that a game I like to play so much seems to be overflowing with such rude a***holes.

It's a good thing I have met so many nice and friendly people too, otherwise I'd have no hopes left for humanity...

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How not to start a career in healing

My shadow priest Jools has been slacking a little lately, not been getting around much. On a whim, I decided to go holy!

Jools has actually been shadow only for a short time, from about half of 67 to 70. Before that she was heavily into the discipline tree - luuuv that reflective shield! When doing the very rare boost for some low lvl friend I used to put on the shield and then just run through the mobs - they killed themselves getting their own damage reflected back at them ;P

Also the mana regen in a heavy disc spec was pretty amazing, hardly ever needed to sit down for a drink (this was very nifty since Jools been a little of my grind-bot, grinding rep for those sweet enchanting and jewelcrafting recipes, timbermaws anyone?)

Had a very brief stunt rearranging my talent points in the mid-60's, getting that angel talent for the spirit buff, which buffed the mana regen even more. It was about this time that I agreed to come heal in Auchenai for some pug.

I told them I was disc and not very used to healing and it was ok with them. Maybe not the most efficient group, a few of them got killed some times in the pulls in the first room, and then I got killed too. Woosh, the angel shape hovers above the rest of the valiant fighters and I watch them die.

When running back, one of them kindly asked me "You do know that you can heal in angel form, don't you?" Eeh right, had totally forgotten about that *blush*.

Anyways, we kept going but after I while it was painfully obvious that I was way too unexperienced for taking on healing in a pretty chaotic group. Changing healing targets, getting the right heals off, it was just too much for me to keep up so I told them I was sorry but they were probably better off with another healer. They agreed.

(On a side note, maybe I wasn't that bad because one of the party members have asked me to come heal some more times, but I have respectfully declined. Or maybe he was just desperate :-)

So now I respecced to full holy with a small dabble in discipline. Holy Nova (this spell I have actually had in shadow spec too - hihihi when aoeing those ballroom packs in Kara), the Lightwell and the Circle of Light - instant (instant!) spell that heal the target and his party members for about 450. Not that mana heavy either, and it scales with bonus healing.

Equipped my healing gear and blushed. Blushed for 2 reasons - why does some gear look like its designed for table dancing or other dubious activities? The dev's at Blizz definitely need to go out and get some fresh air occasionally. 2nd reason - about 1100 healing bonus, half of my gear greens of the prophet or of the physician. (Actually have a pair of sweet epic healing gloves, the [Gloves of Saintly Blessings] that my guildies forced upon me on an earlier Kara run when all of the present healers had better.)


Jools in her K-mart healing gear. Note the fishnet sleeves, the daring deep v-cut top, the pants that somehow lack the parts between the knees and the hips and the huge turqoise musceteer boots.

So the raid time came and we all went off to Karazhan to start decimating the number of its denizens. Three healers, me, a resto shaman and one of our shadow priests healing as well.

The rest of the nights raid were pretty well geared, having been there many times and I suddenly understood why some of our healers are complaining when I am tanking with my pretty bear - I had nothing to do! The damn tanks hardly got damaged!

(On a related side note, some of our healers are known to go pull more mobs when this happens just to avoid falling to sleep due to inactivity. I was thinking about doing this but decided against it, I'll pull when I am in bear gear but not when I am in my fragile glass outfit ;P)

Wohoo, 100 hp's lost, let me give you a renew!

Someone in the melee getting damaged - ooo let me try my instant group heal!

Hmm maybe I should throw the tank a frisbee, just on the off chance he gets damaged.

Prayer of healing, now this is a nice one, maybe I should use it pre-emptively just in case some unforeseen aoe damage happens!

The night ended after 4 hours of raiding, Huntsman, Moroes, Maiden, Opera, Aran and the Chess Event all cleared without a wipe, 4 new shinies for Jools shadow outfit but none for her healing.

So why is this not a good way to start your healing career you ask? Well, how am I to learn how to handle aggro management, chaotic multiple pulls and such like when we raid like a well-oiled machine?

Hmm I guess I am never happy unless I have something to whine about ;P

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Alt-itis

I need a goal to play. I need something tangible to aim for and I need to see that I am getting there. Before TBC came out I hit 60 with my rogue and pretty much stopped playing with her. No more getting xp = no more fun. Went to the occasional pug raid but not much else, and started leveling my alts instead.

Nowadays, I think gearing up is pretty fun too, so I actually play with my 70's even though they are not getting any xp.

But the other day I didn't know what to do anymore, all out of ideas and shiny things to aim for.



My druid has pretty much the best tanking gear she's gonna get without having to start doing 25-man's. She needs the t4 gloves and helm from kara but everything else is really just sidegrades and really not worth the copious amount of effort to try to replace.

I can't decide how to do with my priest, holy, disc, shadow, a mix? She's got a lot of shadow gear and her healing gear is atrocious so I am saving up for the whitemend set for her, but other than that? Get some gladiator gear? Nah, not sure what to get and I don't feel like bg'ing a lot.

My warlock is kinda hibernating atm, mostly use her to fly around on her pretty nether ray and mine ore nodes to sell for gold.

So what to do?

Stop playing WoW and go for a break? Naaah how am I ever gonna pass all that time that I usually spend in Azeroth, I'd go mad with so much time on my hands ;P

I know - the universal solution! An alt!

And just to improve things, I pulled not one but two of my low lvls out of their beauty sleep - my little gnome warrior Dizzie and the obligatory draenei shaman started when everyone and their grandmother made an ally shaman the day after TBC came out.

So Dizzie went around an explored and is currently the distinguished lvl of 44. Larue, my baby shaman is now lvl 27 and going higher at breakneck speed.

Leveling is really so much faster than it used to be, and I think my two new little babies will hit Outland in a month or two, and then I have even more girls to gear up - what to do then? Hmm, a new alt maybe....

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Fun fighting

Went to Zul'Aman again last night with my oh so sweet and well-shaped beautifully furry bear Joaquime.

The reason I always express how fit and lovely sleek she is is because some of my guildies have gotten it into their head that she is fat! Sure, she is bigger than a gnome (but then again, who isn't bigger than a gnome? well, another gnome, I guess...) but she is the perfect size for a she-bear, cuddly without being obese, muscular without being arnold, soft and smoothly furred without the ragged bristles of a dwarf beard.

Anyways, it was a fast smooth run to the first boss, Nalorakk. We missed the sacrifice time though, but not with too many minutes so I see us making that deadline pretty easily soon. Boss fight went fine as well, downed him in the first try and he dropped [Robe's of Heavenly Purpose] for one of our healers (gratz! niiiice robe).


As we gathered up for our customary screen shot of posing at the boss's dead body I was muttering on ts about how tank intense this boss fight was - this is the first fight I have experienced that have actually required me to be 110% focused all the time!

Not that I slack a lot on other fights, I usually try to stay (mostly) focused even when I carry on a conversation with my family or watch the telly at the same time or do something else that I can do with just one eye on my screen ;P. But this fight? Not a chance! Talking from the immense statistical sample of two (2) successful fights, I can tell that my eyes are glued to the screen, my fingers are sweaty, my heart rate is going through the roof and I seriously doubt I would have reacted to any kind of noise or disturbance outside the rectangular TFT that is my whole world during these minutes.

Why is this fight such a sucker for concentration then?

Well, I think it's because if you make a single teeny weeny mistake like missing a taunt or taunting too soon or not being able to balance your threat between the dps's and the other tank's, you wipe the raid. There is no way to make up for even a slight mistake, if you slack off too much doing white damage only to reduce the risk of an unlucky crit making the boss switch target to you the dps is up there nosing on your threat and you risk not being able to hold aggro when you try to taunt the troll to you after he shapeshifts.

By the way, Nalorakk is a big fat bear if ever I saw one....

This got me thinking - which kind of fights is fun? And my replies here are from a purely tanking perspective, it would be a very long post idd if I should start elaborating on which fights my other girls find fun - those I can list in another post.

The Nalorakk fight is fun but very demanding. (Well, maybe after I have been there, done that many more times I will be a little more relaxed about it).

Many of the boss fights in Kara is actually pretty boring to tank, like the Maiden or the Curator. You just stand there in front of the boss, lacerating, mauling, mangling, shouting and faerie firing, waiting for the dps to get their act together and wear the ugly mofo down. On some rare occasions a triggerhappy mage or hunter starts showing off too soon, getting aggro, making me wake up and pay attention to what I am doing and rush to get that aggro back to me. Sometimes the aggro thief dies, sometimes this causes a wipe (and a lot of exasperated words from our raid leader, who actually is a big softie at heart I think, despite his attempts to be fearsome (yes, I am talking about you ;P)), most of the times I get the mob's attention back and can go back to watching the Simpsons or South Park or whatever again.

On another tangent: why do hardly anyone who has accidentally gotten aggro run to the tank? I want the aggro, you don't, but still you run around like a headless chicken screaming for help. My taunt is on a 10 sec cd, my charge is on a 15 sec cd so it might take some seconds for me to get that thing beating on you to start beating on me instead, and if you run away, you might be dead by then. So run TO me, not FROM me when you get unwelcome attentions.

So the difference between the Nalorakk fight and the Maiden or the Curator is that Nalorakk actually requires you to pay attention when you tank.

The Moroes fight is pretty fun, especially if you are tanking one of his compadres as well, giving you something to do when Moroes vanishes.

The Opera fights are fun. The Big Bad Wolf that requires you to have fast reflexes and start running when you turn into the sweeet little Red Riding Hood, no sleeping on the job there. The Wizard of Oz that requires you to pick up the nasty little yapper when he spawns, and/or make sure you hit the feared Roar enough to make him go for you when the fear wears off. The least fun of them all, Romulo and Juliet that requires raid coordination enough to make the doomed lovers die at the same time, but hardly any tank skills at all.

Trash pulls can be fun, multiple pulls that require you to tank more than one mob and go pick up any cc'd mobs that have gotten loose. Or one of those party pulls in Moroes room that often is accompanied by a uh-oh, we got a waiter as well! Pick up the waiter fast, roar and swipe the non-elites at the same time and save the day!

Any fight that you can start with Feral Charge is off to a good start - the Charge is by far the funniest ability in WoW. Every time Joa or my gnome warrior charges off ultra fast, zigzagging past obstacles to get to the mob, I laugh out loud - it just looks so silly :-)

Ah well, I could go on and on about fights and tanking, but I see a pattern here. Fights that require you to do something, fights that needs more than just a sliver of your attention, surprising things, accidental pulls, cc'd mobs getting loose, seems to be the fun fights and the pure tank and spank fights seem to be the boooring ZZZzzzzZZZZ ones (well, that wasn't so surprising, now, was it?)

So after we killed Nalorakk yesterday we went exploring a little, killed off lynxes, beast tamers and crocolisks and tried the lynx boss Hazzizi (who hit me for more than 16 k! 16 k! That is like my whole life!) I must say that ZA seems to have a lot of fun fights potential (or maybe its just because its new ;P)

Something to think about: The Amani Hex Sticks that drops are used on the hexed frogs jumping around in the instance, to de-hex them, turning them back to whatever form they were before the frog-form. These de-hexed people wander off to the first room where you enter the instance and hang out there. I wonder if something will happen when you have de-hexed enuff people? Maybe they will throw a party or something?

And with this interesting tidbit of musing I will leave you for know, gotta go visit my friends in Azeroth.

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