Ah well, there's always next year.

As the title says, me thinks NaNo and NaBlo have slipped my grasp this year. Blarg.

BUT THAT'S OK.

I'm finding that my posting was going to crap, so time to do a little revamp. I'm way behind in updating some of my links, so many new bloggers I want to link to (<3Ratshag) as well as some people who've moved (*grumble* twice now... *grumble*)

I've got a hankerin' to do post about Gruuls. We've gotten the Lair down pat now, to the point where we're killing him sooner and soon. Much fun. And don't make me use the dreaded... word. I dislike it, because it makes me feel like it's become a chore, er something.

Zul'Aman has been a really fun experience. I went in there with a big head thinking, hell, we could probably get to Zul'jin the first night... and then had a pleasent azzkicking from one side of the bear boss to another. He whooped us good. But that's fine. So far, we've gotten Bear, Eagle and Lynx down and still having issues with the Dragonhawk, but we got really close this past Sunday.

With the holiday this past week (and I hope everyone had a great Turkey day, I know I did ^.^) we didn't get any 25 mans done, but we filled it with Kara pugs and ZA learning pains. All is good.

Well, except for one thing. Maybe a few, but here's the thing I'm going to talk about.

My survivability right now blows.

Totally, completely blows.

Hard.


I'm dying a lot in ZA. My HP are low. Unbuffed, I was at 6.7K. Other clothies were kicking my butt, even the Shadow PeW PeW priesty. WTF. So, after some gear comparisons, I've decided that while my PMC set has served me well, it's time to start bidding on Tier gear. I've been avoiding it for so long because others could use it more than I could. But I'm starting to see that while the PMC/Whitemend set is fan-fucking-tastic for Kara, it's lack of base stats (and TOTAL lack of stamina on the PMC) is killing me, literally.

Going to hop over to Kirk's to see what he has to say about it (unless he responds here, in which case <3) but other wise, last night I got my tier 4 shoulders. I got a belt with some stamina (Cord of Sanctification)...

Wait.

Time to get in your laugh at teh Squeaker. So I log in to DE some things for a guildie. Not a problem for me really, I'm always willing to help and I had done it before for them. Well, you see, they sent me a bunch of Runecloth belts and some Netherweave boots to DE. Not a problem, right? It's funny (not) but did you know that the icon for the Runecloth belt and the Cord of Sanctification ARE THE SAME DAMN THING?!

Yea. I looked up, saw I had a VOID CRYSTAL... and panic ensued.
I just DE'd my purple belt from HEROIC DURNHOLD. SHOOT ME NOW. >.<

But I was lucky to get an awesome GameMaster to help me out. He restored it. Destroyed the Void on the spot to show him that I really, truly, just wanted my belt back. Disaster averted. Lesson learned. I will pay closer attention to what I'm DEing...

Anywho, tangent aside, I was able to raise my HP a few 100. Still not pleased, but I guess I'll live. The biggest upgrade in stamina would be my Chest, but that means killing Maggy. He's scheduled for tomorrow night. I'm excited and a bit worried. One of our most awesome of guildies had her subscription run out, and she's spot out of luck on getting it back for a least a month or two, and she was one of our warlocks. So we're low ballin' Maggy again. We will have Teh Awesome that is TJ, so hilarity will ensure, I'm sure.

By the way, I don't think I mentioned it, but DPSing in Gruul's was SO MUCH FUN.

PLEASE DON'T NERF MEH! I'm having fun pwning face with holy justice! :P

Oh, and another thing. Thanks Ego for answering my question on Roleplaying. I feels all special that I got a post from the Ego. /cheer

Ok, time to refresh blog face...

OK, you're right it's later..

What have I been doing?

Other than rockin' out with my Giddglet and her new Rolfcopter?




700 spell damage.

In my healing gear.

They're going to freakin' nerf it. I know it.

But I'm enjoying every bloomin' minute while I can!

I can actually damage things in less than a minute! I dueled our Raid leader of awesome before we tried out ZA, AND WON! (Ok, yea, he's prot, but he's in plate, usually just giggled while I tickle him for three to six hundred dmg a spell).

They're going to nerf it, wait and see.

I haven't been able to play too much with the new fear ward mechanics, so that will have to wait. As for the Chastise spell... well, the stun on it is laughable. It never lasts. It's a 2 second stun, and you have to stand still to cast it. Pally's get Hammer of Justice, instant cast can be done on the run. Chastise so far hasn't stunned my opponent long enough for me to move out of melee. And the dmg it does it meh. I dunno, I might go into a battleground or arena to really test it out. I've got a bunch of badges, I can gets me some PvP gear that way.

Zul'Aman: Brutal. Freakin' Brutal. But I'm so glad to be doing something new with the gang. The trash leading up to Nalorakk was easy, the adds he throws at you can get a bit hairy, especially that last group with the guys mounted on bears. They do this scream that increases the dmg people take by 25%. The tanks had to separate a bit or else they'd get both screams (yea, it stacks) and then get munched.

Nalorakk hits like Nightbane. We'll need at least 3 healers for him, we went in with two. I'm looking forward to pwning his face on Sunday.

Maggy!

On Monday, AC did something so incredibly awesome, I was speechless (ok, for all of five seconds). We one shot Gruul's Lair. High King Maulgar (3 mins 59 seconds). Gruul (6 mins someodd seconds.) Dead, dead. So we mosie'd on over to Maggys. We were going to be going there any way on Wednesday, but we figured, hell, it's 930. Let's try it! So we did. The trash pulls took some getting used too. And we only had 3 warlocks with us. On our first try, we going 3 of the adds down, then had to call it a night. But not bad for our very first try ^.^

Wednesday rolls around, we got our tanks, got our heals... but again, short on locks. We've got 4 raiding locks and 1 couldn't make it, so we were going in at a pretty harsh handicap (at least according to all the strats out there.) But we were going to try it anyway (we be stubborn SoBs.)

83% was our best short. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out cube clickers. People would die early too, things like that. One thing it did make me think was whether or not I should try Circle of Healing. I'm the only raiding priest at the moment with Divine Spirit buff, and that's more of a benefit to the raid. We had two shammy's with us healing them. Need moar locks. T.T

But, we're planning on going back this Monday, after Gruuls (barring we have the time). Sunday is another shot at Zul'Aman, and I'm looking forward to that ^.^

That's it for now, more later, since I'm hoping (though it's probably not likely) to get some baby priesty love tonight. I want to check out the new quest hub in Dustwallow and she needs her elephant!

What is the Squeakie Listening too?

After looking at TJ's post about music... I must confess. My Pandora looks nothing like hers.

In fact, doesn't look much like Doom's either (he hasn't posted yet /huff)

Nor does it look much like Fio's. Though, we do have some similar tastes.

During Raid, I usually don't have any music playing, especially if it's brand new content. That's usually because I'm too busy concentrating on raid, and everything that's going on.

But after raid, what does teh Squeakie need to calm her jets or just relax with?

A few things:

Tool
Dead Can Dance
Bjork

Those figure high up on my list of stuff to listen to when I feel like just... chillin'. Though I do admit, I'm not too happy with some of the new Tool, and Perfect Circle, while nifty, does fit nicely, since it's a much calmer Tool.

Oh, wondering about that Gladiator pic? Lisa Gerard, one of the lead singers in Dead Can Dance, did a lot of the vocals for that movie's soundtrack. I didn't know about DCD until I met Fio, but OMG. Just.... awesome music.

Now, the Pandora thing. I used to use Launchcast for all my music wants, but the commercials were annoying (when I worked for Hell, I paid, so I had something to listen to as I lost brain cells) and it has been a bit of a chore to keep updated. My music tastes change a lot, or at least what I feel like listening to. That and I would run out of skips... which is just... foul. It's still a nice place to go and listen to all the funny stuff (my comedian channel is still rockin') and it was nice to see them get tons more music (obscure things like Type O Negative and Voltaire) but Pandora is rocking my socks.

I guess it has some sort of thing with this Music Genome Project of theirs, but you basically add a band, and they'll play it, and then they'll start playing things similar to it. Not just in like "category" but by sound, instruments, vocals, length of song, pace, etc. It's really nifty. I'm still experimenting with it.

What do I listen too during instances, heroic or otherwise? Iffn' in a hyper mood...

Mindless Self Indulgence (thanks to Eska ;P)
J-Pop (varity of stuff)
They Might Be Giants
Jethro Tull
No Doubt
311
Voltaire (You HAVE to hear his Star Trek Spoofs... to die for)


... crude... just really, way to much stuff to list, but that's the jist.

My music choice is definitely out there... but there are few if any "new" bands I like. It takes a bit of time for me to hop onto the wagon (though admittedly, I like Panic at the Disco/The Killers and just LOVE Evanescence when I feel like being all emo).


(Tangent warning: This is just... really nifty. Bravo XD)

Right, where was I? Oh, music. But yea. Most of the time I'm WoWing... not much for music. Unless I'm doing to the level grind. Then I kinda need it to keep myself sane.

Oh and I do leave the ingame music on, cause, well, I like it. Though it's turned down so I can hear MY music when I want to XD

So there joo have it.

Boredom

Ok, so again, I tried getting back onto WoW topic and post my Opera healing thing, but again, the cosmos are preventing me from posting it. After I got home from work, I was working on it again...

Alas... haven't finished it.

This will get done eventually!


I think.

Now, for something WoWish, and not terribly post thick:

I'm bored. Bored with Kara. We've been running it for months now. All our core raiders have maybe one or two things they could get from the place, but would rather get the upgrade from Gruul's/new stuff we're doing. (and hey Zul Aman maybe this Tuesday? Who knows.)

I have a question for those of you WoW types who read and haven't gotten terribly bored with my OT posts: What did you do when your guild got bored with something? Or you got bored? I mean, I haven't run an instance in like a month because... I got sick of them. Karazhan is just... a chore now. Is this what being a raider is like?

Meh, emo posting.

BLARG!

(Yes, today, first day at my new job, stunk. Because we had to Hurry, even though we had no idea what we were rushing to do. Very inefficient use of time. /grumble)

Thoughts?

Word count: coming soon.

Update (and a Mini Rant)

Ok, so I've been a bad blogger. I've fallen down on my duties in bringing fun to read How Tos to the bored WoW masses.

I AM ASHAMED!

But, I hope to remedy this.

I still have (counts on fingers) 3 more How To Heal Karazhan's coming, with a fourth not ready to be made yet since AC has yet to go for Netherspite. Do you guys find them interesting? (Insecure about her writing? NEVA! -.-)

I also have updates that are forth coming about my baby priesty and how her leveling is going (btw, her current outfit... that's a toe... isn't it?!)

Among other things, I've guild stuff has been going loco. We're excited and thrilled that we've been able to field 2 groups. But one is far out pacing the other. And we're rethinking the way we do things. And I think morale is getting sunk. So, I have a question for all you guild people out there: Have you ever done something fun, silly, crazy, or just plain weird as a guild to get every one feeling good?

Some one mentioned to me once (Or I could have read this somewhere, it's very possible) that they were their guild's Morale
Officer. Very nifty. I think I'm kinda like that. But! What did you do to raise the morale! Send everyone a Mechanical Squirrel and demanded Nutz of Doom at Dawn?! Raiding Horde places doesn't sound as fun (or creative) as something bizzaro would. The 40 man gnome zurg on Hogger is old... bah. I'll think of something, but what have you done, or seen done, or heard done, for general mischief and mayhem?


Also, I must admit, I got sick, and tired, and just plain worn out with the priest forums on the O boards when I was perusing them for some +healing stat advice... WTH PEOPLE! ... Er, wait...

/soapbox

I am sick and tired of all the LOLERSkates who troll the Priest forums saying, "You guys suck for X, Y, Z and Theta reason, QQ and reroll Pally if you want to be a healer." Is it because the Pally boards are nothing but "Prot This" and "Ret That"? They couldn't bemoan something about healing on their forums so they decided to bring over their "We're the bestest healers in the game, you squishi noobs suck, blah blah blarg."

I don't normally let trolls get to me. But sometimes, its not the trolls. Reasonably intelligent people are even saying, "You want to be main healer? Reroll Pally."

You know what, I didn't roll a paladin. When I made a healer, I wanted to be as obvious as I possibly could. I rolled a priest. And guess what? I'm MAIN F-ING healing. I recognize that Paladins are superior single target healers. They have the talents, the gear and whatnot to get as much healing bang for their mana buck. Thats awesome. Druid Treehuggers have just as many nifty talents for their HoTs of Eluney Awesomeness. I think the only class that got a widdle bit of a healing shaft is Shamans (Practically no threat mitgation ftl - I know they have a totem, but still, not as cool as Fade), but they've got Chain Healing (which rocks my socks off cause it makes thunder noises /shiver). Each healing class has some uber strengths and weaknesses.
I do think priests, as you know, the OBVIOUS healing class, could use some better holy healing talents, but whatever. Improvise, Overcome, Adapt as my pappy always says.

And you know what, as cool as those other healing classes may be, I still love my priest. I made a squishy and she can patch you back together TOT sweet and be smart enough NOT to pull aggro doing it!

So, before I tell the entire paladin class to STFU and FoaD, I rolled one. I won't knock something until I try it, but be warned! I'm extremely prejudiced! /grumble

Oh, and the pally is a Hordie, so this ought to be interesting.

/end soapbox

So yea, that's what I've been up too. Its lots of things. Oh and for some random geekiness... I'm running a D&D session for the jr high kids at my place of work (library). /squee

Tune in later for How to Heal Karazhan: Opera - The Most Fun You'll Ever Have

The Few, the Proud, the Bloggers

So I added some more fun blogs to my "Interesting Places to Go".

It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to view a blog I had never seen before and see that I was linked on it ^.^

Priestly Endeavors is an awesome place to read about lots of things priesty. Lots of Shadow Priest stuff there too. I'll be definitely going over some of that stuff while I level Cai/Rakzha.

A View From Behind is Doom's blog and WOOT! Someone I can geek out with on the Awesomeness that is the Mutilate/Combat spec. /dance

Then there's The Positive Warrior , Brig's blog and always a fun read. I like to know what my meatshield is thinking... never tick off your meatshield, for you are squishi and feint at the thought of pokies coming your way.

And finally, there's TJ, who is just fun to read, as she likes to poke the Kitty. ^.^

That's it for today. This silly New England weather has deemed I need a summer cold, so now the screen's getting all fuzzy. T.T

Crossing the Lines

What's with the animosity of gamer's of one type of game towards gamers of another?

I went to a party on Saturday, to see some super keen fireworks. That Saturday is also the Vampire LARP day, and was being held at the house where the game usually is.

Well, there wasn't going to be much LARPing going on, but people brought their Magic the Gathering cards and many games ensued.

Fio and I enjoy a game of MtG every once in a while. Fio has the decks I won't play against, and I have my pretty merfolk deck in purple foil card holders. But anywho, during one of the games, some one over hears my convo with Fio about raid on Sunday, and another person at the table smiles and says something about Molten Core. Ahh, another WoW person. But before I can get a few questions/jabs/air out of my mouth, another person at the table says something towards the line of, "Ug, let's just keep this WoW Free, ok?"

The look of disgust on his face is plain as day.

This isn't just gamers vs WoW though. I know many table top players who have similar feelings vs LARPers too. So... what gives?

I don't understand it. But Fio and I are pretty well rounded in our geekiness.

Any thoughts?


PS: I tried posting this yesterday, but didn't finish before passing out. And my pc restarted... so no saved draft T.T