The big Patch

Well, 3.0.2 has hit us with full force.
I was mostly in capitals yesterday, standing around and trying to configure my UI. Not everything worked and I needed to find substitutes for several important addons.
As always it was necessary, but no fun.

First impression: the Barber Shop rocks and trying to get the next Achievement is the new thing to do in this game.
Have not looked at the new profession Inscription (Inschriftenkunde, in German) yet, but when my UI is under control - I definately will.

What else is there to do? Oh yes: learn to play all my characters again. They changed a lot of the mechanics of the game. And equipment, too. Tanks need to redo their gear, a lot of defense rating which was on it, has been replaced by strength. So nobody has the needed 490 defense rating to be crit immune. Go go Blizzard...

The whole Paladin-judging-mechanics changed as well. I'll try it out with my little Paladin on Todeskrallen, my chars on Dun Morogh (all except Moonseed) are retired. So I won't even log onto them to give them new talents. They stay as they are and I'll treat them more like things kept hidden in a closet.

Way of the Warrior

I have not tanked any Instance for some time (we are talking months). So slowly I've got the wish to let myself get beaten up again, preferably my Undead little tankgirl. ;)
So I transfered her sweet little bottom to Die Todeskrallen, she is 63 1/2 and if I won't buy the expansion this will be the last char I will be leveling to 70. Or leave her at the level she is on Nov. 13th.

So I have been reading up on warrior guides, a lot has changed since I last touched her. And I have some really nice warrior links that I want to keep, so I'll just post my collection here for easy reference.
There will be links to German websites as well.

Moonsilvers [FAQ] & [Guide] PvE Krieger [German] Good advise on which stats a Warrior in the different roles needs to pay attention to

Zorks Tank Guide [German] A guide Ryo posted on the HFC forum, I thought I better save it here... very good guide.

The Protection Warrior Guide THE ULTIMATE Protection Warrior guide.

Liste: Tankequip für Heroics und Kharazan [German] List of items to get a Tank ready for Heroics and Karazhan.

Life After 490 Defense More on stats and why a Def-Warrior needs them.

About weapon expertise:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Expertise
This stat reduces the chance a mob will parry or dodge your attack, so this is a stat worth thinking about as a tank as well. Good for DPS warriors because standing behind the mob, they will only need to worry about its dodge chance...

And then she imploded...

I've never thought of people in villain categories. But as of yesterday evening I found someone who could be discribed as my "Arch Nemesis".
He also plays a Shaman, as a healer mainly and thinks he is the king of Shamans, the only one who has had something like an epiphany on Shaman healing and gear. This extends also to other classes. He bickers about everything that he sees and dislikes, for whatever reason.

And he is in my face all the time when he is on his Shaman and his other characters. "Yeah I thought about getting that ring, but I think xyz is far better (insert link to BT/Hyjal/SSC loot here)."

As if I don't know that. But I cannot make bosses drop the things they do. Yesterday Maiden didn't drop the mace nor the totem. Yay me.
Well, he mostly kept to the other guys in the group yesterday when he was on his hunter. There were only random snide remarks in my direction and I thought he was really making an effort not to critisise me too much.
But before Prince, the other healer had to leave. So Mr. King-Shaman logged onto, yes, his Shaman and one of the first things he said (because there was still a DD missing) was that I could go and respecc to Enhance because he could easily heal the MT alone. WTF?
We were going to do Netherspite... and luckily for the group I did not respecc because Mr. Supershaman had a disconnect shortly after the pull.
I really had a hard time keeping people alive, but I think it was not bad that only one died. But I was becoming really pissed off with him, I knew I was going to blow up eventually. If he made just one more snide remark about anything.

I should have muted my microphone...
After we wiped on the Prince, and the boss came to me (I was the last one alive) he said something like: "Why did he come to you just now? what kind of aggro do you do? Did you even put points in the talent?"

I simply lost it. The asshole... first of all, get bent. And second of all, what the hell did you take that made your brain shrivel and say such utter bullshit?
And there were just too many things throughout the whole raid yesterday - I could not stop myself from asking why the hell he was in my face all the time. Then he wanted to whisper something to someone and instead whispered it to me, and I tried to reply that he had mistakenly whispered me only to get in red. 'xxx is ignoring you.'

So I said it on TeamSpeak, that he had whispered it to me. And couldn't refrain from saying that I will make it easy for him that he does not make this mistake again and put him on ignore as well.

I went to Shatt and off. And the first thing I will do, when I log on, is respecc to Enhancement and go farm gold for the expansion. I doubt I go back to healing before I hit 80.

If I do that and not stop playing altogether. Such people are the worst ever. And I won't spend my time listening to his bullshit ever again.
Period.

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...

WoW movie gems.

Sometimes I stumble upon some World of Warcraft videos that just need to be remembered. There are such gems out there, I wish I could be as creative and stylish -

The Demise
This video just blew me away. It is so beautiful, yet so sad.
I love how it is so different and is almost like a painted picture.
http://www.vimeo.com/1311788

Azeroth Walk
It is short, yet something totally different. Might be the only video done with stop motion out there.
http://www.vimeo.com/1345309

Ring Of Valor 2
http://www.vimeo.com/1207292
I'm not a big fan of PvP videos, but this truely stands out from all the rest. It has style and is funny as well.

Timeout

I'm taking a WoW break for at least a week. I feel burnt out again and tired, so it's that time again. Everytime shortly before the next expansion hits, World of Warcraft is getting on my nerves. There is a lot to do, but with most of it (raiding, gearing up, doing dailies for reputation) - you ask yourself "For what?". New expansion will hit in October / November I guess, and everything you are doing will be worth exactly ZERO.

So I will have a look at Mount Hyjal today, and then I'm off to think about what I want to do until the expansion comes out, or if I won't wait and quit the game altogether.

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...