All about your UI

I think I just found a really cool webpage. Kind of a magazine for UIs:
nostockui.com.
Very cool idea.

:)

Thoughts of leaving

I wonder what I will do if certain people might quit the guild... yesterday night I kept thinking of "time for a new guild" - maybe it is time for our own guild?
Todeshauch is so far away from where it was when I first joined, so much is different.

*sigh*

I even started thinking about names... but I doubt it would be something that we really could pull off. Although I like the concept of a really small guild with skilled players, could be fun - as long as we wouldn't argue about loot or other stuff, like who is getting that raid spot and so on.

I really think Todeshauch has become unmanageable. So where do I go from here?
(and yes, I just thought about "Buffy") But it is a good question.

The Guild - full of win

Streamy Awards - A Night Full of Winners

The Guild totally rocked the Streamy Awards, if you don't know what "The Guild" is, go watch it here:
watchtheguild.com

But I think all of the nominated projects are worth having a look, and I just love Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog" which they did during the writer's strike.

I love my druid but...

... I so need dual spec. There is not much I can do at the moment but wait for Heroic Instance groups or raids... well, it's kind of a dead end.

So I'll be going online only for raiding night. I'll do something else for the other time. I'm simply bored again and exhausted because of other stuff, not the game. But it does not distract me like it used to.

*sigh*
I'll have a look at the other servers I have chars on, maybe it's time to clean up a bit. Going to delete chars - no not the ones on Dun Morogh, not yet.

Raid buffs and utility

For every class there is a cookie-cutter spec. If you like that you can use it and most of the time you will be okay with it.
Everyone can spec how they want to, they only need to spec for the role they desire in a group/raid. If, however you want to raid and have a static raidgroup, for progression, for instance, there are different specs for each role and you can free up points if the buff or utility is already filled out by a different class in your raid.

But now we aren't a progression guild, groups are mostly flung together from people "who are online at the time" - so you cannot leave out buffs/utility because you do not know what your group will have access to via other specs/classes.

And what's the point of all this: we had two Paladins in the raid last night and not one of them had Blessing of Kings. With chars in the raid who had bad blue gear and were more alts then mains, this is bad. There was no priest as well. So even worse.

This argument of "pala tanks don't need to skill BoK" is getting on my nerves. It's in the fucking Protection tree for a reason. Normally it goes like Holy Pala = skilled Blessing of Wisdom, Retribution Pala = skilled Blessing of Might and yes, Prot-Pala = BoK.

It has been a while since I played a protection Paladin, and they have changed a lot about the way Palas tank, but not taking BoK when I used to try to squeeze every bit of Stamina out of everything, these two Prot-Palas were making me angry. Not only that but they said that they had spent points in more important talents which would benefit the raid. So I had a look at their specs.

I LOL'ed.

And I LOL'ed some more about where they saw their raid utility:
Stoicism and Reckoning - good joke. I didn't know about Reckoning (because of the changes to white damage) but in my time Reckoning was something for soloplay, not for raids. More attacks against the boss --> more chance of the boss to parry (not such a good idea). And it isn't a better talent these days - as I found out by reading a very long discussion in the tankadin forum. Well, no cookie for our Pala-Tank.

And no points in Heart of the Crusader either, so much for doing something for the raid... okay, these points can be debated on. If you have an Elemental Shaman in the raid or a Retribution Pala or a Mutulate Rogue, you'll get the same buff.

It's as if there is no Mage or Druid in the raid and I wouldn't have skilled the talent for dispelling curses. Hello, Saphiron...
But as with everything, they think they know it all but really need to start thinking... and reading.

What's next?

So I'm on my way to 80 with my druid. And with the ongoing none-helpfullness in the guild I won't be getting any gear for her soonish, so what do I do next? My disdain (I really find no other word) for raiding is growing each day and with each post I read at the guild forum, so what's a girl to do when she has maxed the next char?

Yes, get on the next char to level - I don't know. Maybe my warrior. Or my Death Knight (one of the four). I really tend to either level my priest or my undead death knight (the one nobody knows).

Or go back to Dun Morogh and level another char there?
I admit, that is the least possible option.

In the Shadow of Ulduar

PTR is running for a while, guilds get out first reports of trying new bosses - and promptly my guild feels the need to panic.

And I don't know what goes wrong this time. We could go to Naxx 10/25 each day. We have enough players who have recently got to 80 and would need the upgrades and to dust off the old raiding spirit.

But nothing happens, as long as the hardcore freaks wanted to equip their own alts, there were Naxx raids each week. They stumbled on Kel because they were arrogant and did not realise their alts weren't THAT imba. They pissed of the healers and didn't try again.

They are leveling the next alts, because they are bored. They want to test Ulduar but nobody joins them on the PTR. Simply because you cannot do this with a handful of players, you need 10 good players and the right specs.

We are not a raiding guild, but many had hoped this wasn't true. Soon the hardcore freaks will go again and join true raiding guilds. As they eventually did in BC, they all came back for what exactly? To do this just as they did in BC, when we couldn't get a decent raid together for Tempest Keep or Black Temple? This is a strong kind of dejavu.

As always it is the kind of thing that gets me wound up. You post something like "we don't have enough range of classes and specs and people to raid Ulduar" and you get back "we can compensate, as Blizzard said Bring the player not the class" - which rings in my ears as "we don't need more players, we can do just fine with the people who have gear now".
That gets me to a point where I just think, ah nevermind (would make this post M(ature) rated at least), I cannot be polite about this and it makes me create new chars on Servers like Malorne or something. It's like these people transform me into a nomad. New server, new guild? New faction?

I think I'll go play my Gnome DK on Malorne more. *sigh*

They will make us find random groups for Naxx. I'm in a guild for nothing... it's time to say goodbye again.

Boomkin 101s

Foofy is putting out some nice Basic "How to"s about the Moonkin. These are meant for raiding and PvE.
There are a number of things in there I didn't know. And keeping a link here for when Dual Spec comes out.

Moonkin Raiding Basics 101 (part1) [spec + stats]

Moonkin Raiding Basics 101 (part2) [gems + rotation]

Great guides.
:)

Prep Post for Moon

As with everything: Be prepared.

So here are links to articles I liked, just a quick linkage dump for later use.

Jiyambi's Guide to Tree Healing [has notes on spells and glyphs]

Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Restoration Druid at 80

EJ: Druid Gem Compilation
EJ: Resto pre-raid gear
EJ: Restoration Itemization [best in slot, stat discussion and numbers]

TBC.

Too soon for Moon

The header line is lame, I know. My blog, pffff. ;)

So I learned a bit of a lesson yesterday when I talked to Xenixa on TS. He is one of the priests in my guild (and he is Austrian as well - just to note that not all of them are assholes.) and he constantly re-specs to whatever is needed. We talked a bit about dual spec and how much he has paid already for respecs. It was a four figure sum with a two up front - sheesh.

You see, I made a mistake. And I really feel bad about it. I respeced to Enhancer way too early. I should have stayed healer until Gorond (or Moonseed) are ready to fill that spot. Gorond did not have as much time to gather up all the stuff that is currently on Moonseed's bank waiting for her to hit 80 - and he is not as confident in healing than I am right now. I wasn't either when Poka was 80, I waited until I had 5 or 6 pieces that all screamed at me "go heal again".

He has not seen any of the other instances as well, and just saying that it will be easy doesn't make him trust it more. He'll have to see it first. He doesn't yet know that the worst heroic boss is Loken in Halls of Lightning, and that all others are a piece of cake, or a minor nuisance at best.

The only thing you need is a good tank and two damage dealers who can make at least 1500 DPS, and you are set. Of course you also need them to know the instance. But with decent gear they should have been there a lot.

I think the more easy instances are Violet Hold, Utgarde Keep, Utgarde Pinnacle (if they know what they are doing) and Nexus.
Violet Hold of course depends on which bosses you get, if the damn Voidwalker is showing up and the DPS doesn't kill the adds nobody can heal through that (okay, if all of them are in t7.5 then it is a piece of cake).

What is lacking right now is support from the guild (sounds familiar, yes?). Nobody needs heroics anymore at the moment, which is really bad for people who have just turned 80. Well, you can always go to Naxxramas, but if the well-equipped part of the guild is off playing alts or on the PTR servers - then as always it takes much much more time.

Need to have a bit more patience, but I do feel my blood-pressure rising again when anybody asks why we don't have decent healers in the guild. Or no Resto Shamans at all...

Farewell Carbonite

Carbonite was a great addon, it was really cool for tracking quests and where you needed to go for certain mobs/drops. The one thing that won me over when I first used it was that it didn't use many resources and that there was this little extra map.

Well, two days ago it would say that my version had expired. And that I should download the new version from carboniteaddon.com. Well, first I checked via WoWMatrix if there was a new version, normally they would have told me if this was the case. But it said that my Carbonite was the current version.

So I went to their site as told - as I looked for the download I saw that they wanted to charge money for the full version. It was a true "wtf"-moment and as I began researching this error message I came to a long thread over at the Curse webpage.

It seemed that Carbonite Quest is the free version of Carbonite and that now there's a "bug" that gives out this message and locks it. I was kind of furious. I don't believe that this was coincedence, I think they left the code in to get more people to subscribe (yes, not to donate or pay a single amount) to their full version.

And exactly there I draw a line. I will never pay a SUBSCRIPTION for a mod. I can be swayed to donate an amount if the mod is good and I want to see it further developed- but a subscription?

It is interesting that with this "bug" they have successfully split the playerbase, and I think they are losing more users by the minute. I don't want to be nagged to pay for a mod every half an hour. I only need 2 minutes to de-install and get it over with. It's a thing I really miss when I'm questing but there are other mods out there and who knows? Maybe soon someone will rip off Carbonite.

But the thread on Curse is an interesting read. Good entertainment in the end. :)
Carbonite Quest @Curse Gaming

High time

I really have been enjoying healing with my Shaman so far. But with Gorond in the wings of being 80 I have really been thinking of switching back to Enhancer for good.

It's a pity that healing gear is so easy to obtain, it feels wrong to let it just rot on the bank. And I really cannot be a damage dealer forever. It is easier in a lot of aspects, but the competition is much harder. It's a game, this should be fun. And the next time, enhancer stops being fun, I'll simply leave her sitting in Dalaran than switching back.

I know, Enhance Shamans are the worst for DPS at the moment. But for heroics and farming I am good enough, and that's all I need for now.
So I will be researching a pre-raid gearing guide for Enhance Shamans soon, and I need to test quick weapon in off-hand and 2 quick weapons as well. So testing dummies in TB, beware - you'll get a workout soon.

For later: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVcbbhxxMxsVZcxtodbVbZh - yes, there's a new priest on Todeskrallen. But, pssst. Got a few pointers from the hard-core-levelling-monster (also known as Hippo) and will test my hard-core-levelling skills. Even though I only have about a third of his time.
My approach might not be real hard-core, except on week-ends when there is time.

Now I'm off to get more coffee, and to actually get some work done.