Ziral is back! (kind of)

I got some new impressions of Priest healing yesterday when I took my Priest to heal Azjol. She is 72 at the moment and the last thing I remember healing was our last visit to the Shrine and attempting Vashj.

So this was a long time ago. I think I have not healed with her in almost 10 months. So it was kind of a first for me, again. I think the tank thought I was a total noob, one time I had to cast the Spirit on him, or he would have been dead. But I think that was just because I was like "oh what does this button do again?" - no seriously, I had almost no clue what I was doing. I skilled her weeks ago, and have been in Shadow most of the time I level her. So I really have no clue what kind of procs I'll get and what they do. I just thought that Surge of Light was up a lot. :)

And of course being a cloth-wearer I'm totally squishy again, which reminded me why I had switched to Paladin and then Shaman in the first place.
Well, I enjoyed it immensely and at the end of the short instance I think I know how to play her again as a healer.

For now she is questing in Borean Tundra, having finished Fjord yesterday and I do have a lot of fun with her at the moment. No one being able to gank me is a plus as well. Playing on a PvE server feels like vacation sometimes...

Moms and gaming

For her birthday I got my mom a really cool thing: Belkin n52te - she wanted something to keybind things to and have easy access to a lot of buttons, so there you go.

She was a bit surprised I didn't get her Wrath of the Lich King for her birthday but I had totally forgotten about it. She has been mostly catching up with factions lately and has been grinding lowlevel quests for Ambassador and the Loremaster title. And she was really busy doing non-WoW related things that she always said I have a million other things to do, better not get Lich King yet.

And so it didn't make it on any of my birthday present lists...
I guess she will soon get the addon and go quest in Northrend.

Haven't been keeping up a lot with her character lately, I moved servers and haven't really taken care of her rogue (well, I never really did) - except give her my last Thorium bars for the Scholomance key quest.

She has a totally different playstyle and in the beginning I tried to get her to do what I thought this game was about (mostly playing in groups) - but she doesn't want to really play with other people - it just puts too much pressure on her. It took a long time for me to accept that this was just not for her. Still she is enjoying World of Warcraft immensely. She is a rogue for a reason. So she can stealth into places people normally only get to with raids - like she told me once that she had been to Stormwind and Ironforge and stuff like that.
And because she doesn't quest in groups and doesn't do instances, her means in this game are quite limited. She has no way of obtaining instance or raidloot, but at least in Northrend she will have access to nice Reputation rewards (with her love for quests she may be exalted with them all in no time) - I think that from her point of view things have really improved a lot.

If she buys Lich King, I might have to level my Paladin as well there (for Jewelcrafting) - and maybe my mage there as well (for Enchanting) - in that respect it is a real pain for her that I have changed servers. But I won't let her follow me, she would not be happy on a PvP server.

Sometimes it is better for me to remind myself that this game is not about loot, it can be about other things, too. And why would that be worth less than a Druid in t7.5 gear?

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.

Not in the mood

My druid on Todeskrallen is 73. And I just cannot bring myself to level her further. This is a bit of dejavu, the other druid (on Dun Morogh) had the same problem at the very same level.

Currently she is in Grizzly Hills, I didn't want to stay in Dragonblight. Still everything seems to be getting on my nerves. Motivation is low at the moment to level another char and I seem to only play my warrior or priest.

It just seems so pointless to level her at all, I could as well just transfer the lvl 80 druid over from Dun Morogh.
What the hell keeps me from doing that? I will certainly not log onto one of my older chars (may they rest in peace) but still I keep wondering if I won't ever need her again there. Even though I know I could never be happy on Dun Morogh again - why do I keep looking back there?

I do chat with someone there once in a while but that will end soon, I guess. We simply have nothing in common anymore. So as I fade away from my old Server - the game itself is getting boring again. A little bit anyway, I still have much to do. But for the fun stuff you'll again need raids and DKP. Healing has been frustrating again and even though dual spec is on the horizon, I doubt I will be getting it if you have to pay 1000 gold for it. I'd rather not heal at all and stay Enhancer. This way I won't need the dual spec in the first place. But on the other hand, there is the time I spent getting the healer items - would'nt it be a waste that way?

I dearly hope Blizz rethinks the price for Dual Spec. Shouldn't it be helping to get the gold-load off Healers/Tanks? Why make us pay another fine?

Grml.

Another Ding! bites the dust

My druid Moonseed on Dun Morogh dinged 80 last night. I leveled her mainly as a Moonkin and it was a ton of fun. Wrong server, still a lot of fun.
I will see how this turns out. Now I will rest a little and then (even if Gallifrey isn't back yet) will start to level my Shaman on Todeskrallen. I feel safer now that I know where I have to go to and what to look out for.

I have to still juggle both servers but I will manage. I have no real ambition to raid with my druid on Dun Morogh, I leave that for my Shaman (if at all). Well, and there is still the "other" Moonseed on Todeskrallen. Who knows what the future will bring for any of my characters. And with transfers being possible from PvE to PvP now, it might be possible to get my lvl 80 druid over to Todeskrallen.

Too many chars, I know. But I kept having so much fun with my little fat owl, that I just could not resist.

So, all still open. But I've got my first level 80 char. Feels good.

And, folks, what a journey it has been!

On the finishing line...

Wrath of the Lich King will come out on November 13th. That has made me think what I will do with the time leading up to it, and beyond.
Mondsucht said that he is afraid about my WoW future, and he may be right in light of playing on Dun Morogh. Last week I was sure enough that Dun Morogh had me back, at least partly, but seeing that there is little that I can accomplish alone - I have no intention on staying.

I waited over two hours on Sunday for someone who did not show up. I have waited enough, I have asked people enough only to be told that they don't want random groups, that they didn't know it was serious that I wanted to do the bloody quest. I've had enough of going nowhere.

I went to Zul'Aman yesterday, we killed Janalai, the shield dropped and there was no question that it was mine. Even though there was a paladin present who should have rolled on it too. He'll deny that probably, but anyway. I felt good, I didn't mute my microphone which I have not done in months. It felt good, even though I was tired. And after that we went to BRD to do the "Save Brewfest!" eventboss - something I've been trying to get a group for with my druid on Dun Morogh for hours on Sunday.

Just like that.

And even though I'm not over the chars I leave behind (I may transfer one or two later) I may as well be over the people on Dun Morogh. Even if they are nice, or in one case seemed to be nice... there's an end to everything.

... count down to WOTLK commencing...

Annoyed

I haven't posted here in a long time, and much has happened since.
Pokayoke is of course 70 by now and has gone through being a healer, being enhancer and back to healer again.

Being Enhance Shaman was fun, was a few times in Karazhan, got some nice loot and got nice weapons and some good gear now. But now that I have grinded some of the reputation, have done dailies, went fishing - have maxed out the professions, now it is time to go back to healing.

In the meantime, Duh got his mage to 70, and has left the server again because, well, I have no clue what he wanted anyway- I think he has neither. So he went back to my old server and is raiding once more, and I'll stay with Pokayoke and get my healgear going. Only bad thing is, nobody needs a healer - during my vacation I only managed to run one lousy instance in 4 days and I was in the goddamn LFG channel the whole time.

So, for lack of a damage dealer I am currently leveling a Bloodelf hunter, he is going to be 30 the coming week-end and it is fun to actually level a hunter once more. So I will have a farmbot in no time.

Healing with a Shaman is also fun, so I'll keep the spec, even though it is difficult to get into non-heroic groups. If I can run Karazhan a few times more, I will be able to heal heroics, I hope that I won't disappoint. But Chain Heal is heaven, I tell you.

As long as my guild keeps supporting her, I'm going to be fine.
On my old server, some people have come back from playing AoC, but still nothing really pulls me back there. My old guild there is broken into different groups, there's no real sense of togetherness anymore. And I need that, I know that Duh for example doesn't care in which guild he is as long as he can do something that "gets him somewhere" and there are many people alike. But I need a sense that you can also count on people to help out others with no own agenda. But that is lacking there completely. So I'm fine with the guild I found with Pokayoke, even though we have ups and downs as well, but nothing is more depressing than when you are online or in a raid with your guild and nobody is talking...

Like in Karazhan on Sunday - which was the last run I organized- I'm done pleading with people to come and help out in Karazhan anymore. I know that raiding with the partner guild is much much more important than help gearing people of your own guild who can't go there.

Yes, that was meant sarcastic. I'm pretty much annoyed with them all, and need a break from seeing my old guild break into pieces...

To Kara, or not to Kara?

I have been thinking about what I want to do in this game until WotLK hits us in fall (maybe) - I want several things, all revolving around having enough heroic badges. Nothing to do with Zul'Aman or SSC or TK. Just Karazhan and I'm happy. So I've decided to give it a half-hearted shot. Only half-hearted because I know that people will always want to run Kara, just not in the right setup. There will be no healers and without healers it's going to be either that I will have to re-specc my Pala to healing again just to get the badges and watch others tank or go with my Priest.

I'm curious if I do get a bunch of players with whom you can actually farm badges. Not only equipp twinks. I think it will be almost impossible, but hey, maybe I will be pleasantly surprised?

And what about my Shaman? Will Epic-Badgeloot get the better of me and will she ever see Outland?

Hmm…

Sunwell, Poka and stuff that bugs me

Since I last posted here, Sergej dinged 70, Moonseed went from Feral to Tree to Feral again - and Brazer is back to being a tank. Sunwell and patch 2.4 has hit the realms and people are doing dailies like crazy. I try to limit my efforts to do the Nagrand and the attack-plan ones, they are fairly simple and when I'm in the mood and have Ryo with me I can be swayed to go to the island and do some more.

Ziral is friendly with Sunwell Offensive, Brazer will be Exalted some day I hope. The Jewelcrafting recipes are just too good to let them just go. But there are too many people doing the dailies right now to actually have fun.

I will wait some more and in the meantime try to bring my Shaman Pokayoke to Outland on the other server. She dinged 55 yesterday, so only 3 more levels to go... I've been trying to stay off Dun Morogh, it's nothing more than grief to feel as if I'm left behind again, and the best part was last night I was logging on and Duh was actually in an Arena. I had been trying to get him there for months, but he said it was just something that he didn't like trying. It felt odd, to fall for the same bullshit again -- so I disbanded our unused 2v2 team and left to go play my Shaman again.

Ryo asked me not to let him chase me off the server and just ignore him altogether, but then I come to thinking on how things do change between people and how things always repeat themselves. I've been there with another mage before who droped me just as easily. As long as you are of some use to them, they tolerate you (I can't put it differently, it's not personal, it's just that one is useful at the time) and if they find new people who are much more useful to them (or are online earlier than you are) you are just watching them do all the stuff you planned on doing, from the sidelines.

That is a bit bitter. So I will stick to do things in this game with people I know, who actually call me to ask if I wanna come play with them, not chasing people around and asking them to do things they don't care about with people they don't care about. Time is just too precious, and yes, this is only a game. But time consuming nonetheless, so you should spend that time with people who actually have fun doing stuff with you, not pretending to have fun just so they can get more badges...

On another note, Ryo and I have started the "FRF" (Fun Raid Friday) - we were in Zul'Gurub and last Friday it was AQ20, next up is Molten Core this Friday, so I'm looking forward to seeing some old instances again.

Need a break from the new stuff and from people who do things only if it gets them somewhere (whereever that is really) and concentrate on things I want to do. And if that is not playing, I'll do just that and if that is having fun in ancient instances, then I'll do just that.

Voidreaver collapsing, Solarian is da bomb!

So, despite moving house and being very very tired I helped out with Tempest Keep last night and saw Voidreaver kiss the floor for the first time in our second try. That was very cool, even though I completely messed up my mana and stood in exploding balls of lightning at least twice. I was there with my Paladin and I'm still not used to healing with him as I'm used to with my Priest (means forgetting to use manapots and timing all the things he can do).

But then T5 shoulders dropped (twice): Pauldrons of the Vanquished Champion and another Paladin and I were the only ones needing them, so Brazer now has to decide to go for heal or tank gear.

They do look gay anyway, but the heal shoulders don't have MP5 and the tank shoulders do not have block rating...
So I will keep T4 for tanking, I think and maybe get more spellcrit to make up for the missing MP5 on the healing shoulders. I was there as a healer and I think it is only fair to take the healing gear then.

But I'm not sure.

Valentine's and Lunar Festival

Last night when Duh and Moonseed got down and dirty in Undercity exchanging many tokens of love, I thought it was high-time to go and get Brazer to all the Elders around the old world. Maybe it is enough reputation to get him a wolf.

Healers all around?

I've been really thinking about respeccing Moonseed to heal just for the heck of it. I would have 3 healers then, but isn't that overkill?

I'm just itching to try out healing as a druid, as I've never really healed with her at all. Hmmm, I don't think this is a good idea.

I should just stick to her being a tank and get good at it. Just because I'm a horrible bear-tank right now doesn't mean it is okay for me to turn her into a "doing-the-twist-branch-wearing-weakling". Nothing against trees but there are enough healers around right now. Get your bacon together, Moon, we are going to get the shit kicked out of us!

/mini rant end

New Main, new world.

"The decision's mine and mine alone. And... it's made." - John Sheridan, Messages from Earth

I left my old server Dun Morogh behind and have been playing my Shaman on Die Todeskrallen. I've only been back for two or three nights for PvP on my lvl 69 Druid there, to get all the tokens for the Season 1 gear for her. Now I would only need the honor, but I think I will leave that for now. First I would have to get her to 70, which is only half a level away... but leaving DM is a good thing and I won't be back so much. Maybe only for the people I will miss a bit...

Now onto my little Shaman who will hit 40 shortly, I hope. Even though it is a PvP server and I'm currently struggling through Badlands and some members of the Alliance seem to be hunting me down more than the mobs there - it has been fun so far. PvP on my druid has made me stop being afraid of areas like Stranglethorn, or Hillsbrad. Alliance are only getting on my nerves if for instance a lvl 70 hunter (t5 equipped) decides to gank me at 4am. These things happen and you know, players who need to have accents in their names because the name "Morphine" was taken already... well. But I'm not bitter, no way... ;)

Playing a Shaman is something new to me, too. Totems, totems, totems and *bäm* Frostshock and *bäm* Windfury! I can recommend the addon Numen to any Shaman out there, my action bars would be littered by totem spells without it.
Pokayoke is my new main now, and as a main has joined a guild as well. "Numquam Retro" is a nice bunch of players who know each other and a mix of totally new ones.
I've been keeping a low profile and trying to avoid doing the webpage. Right now I have other things on my mind. Well, I'll let them do their own thing. Maybe I could make a header. Well... no no no. No time. No ideas at all.

How long do you think I'll need to get to 70?