One HoT Rogue

Recipe...for a masterpiece?

2009-01-25T01:37:00.005Z

Take one very bored HoT Rogue, add 1 new Wacom drawing tablet, then mix with Gimp. Leave for 30 minutes and then see the results!

Well it's not quite a masterpiece :P But for a first attempt at drawing on a PC it's not too bad. I've always been more of a pencil and paper girl! (And a cookie for anyone who manages to guess which character it is :P)

A work in progress definitely. Once the weeks festivities of visiting relatives is over I'll finish it, then hopefully start on some more interesting pictures, depending on how competent I manage to get, maybe even some colour!

It's Sunday Night Lag! I mean Live!

2009-01-18T20:54:00.010Z

Aedos does her very best impression of Haris Pilton to bring you:

Lag from Northrend, it's Sunday Night!

Of course! A good night's raiding hampered by severe lag. Aedos still had fun though, especially dressing up like a socialite. Now to find her a tiny dog...

Anyway, picking up from the guild's earlier saves we started off in the Construct quarter, trash was no problem but boy those boss fights were fun! Insane amount of lag + Druid who hasn't healed for a while equals, baaaad healing. Throw in the fact that I was using Clique for the first time and it was actually hilarious in a soul destroying sort of way.

We gave up on Thaddius as the polarity changes proved too much when dealing with delays of 5 seconds. I'm pleased to say though that I actually managed to get the hang of it this time. I had a notebook in front of me with " + RIGHT - LEFT " emblazoned across a whole page and I must say it did the trick. The only slight problem I have with this fight is choosing whether or not to DPS. We were told by the raid leader to have a couple of healers doing DPS, so I did during the first try, funny thing though, if left to our own devices would we healers sacrifice our big numbers on the healing meters to help DPS? I did to start with, but when I found that others were continuing to heal, I thought "sod this" and did a bit of both.

So we went off to OS to try with 2 drakes, we almost had it but after a few wipes we decided just to finish off with 1 drake. After a very scary Auto run moment where my keyboard and mouse decided to go crazy and allow me to make a fool of myself running around like a headless boomkin toward the boss I felt like I was doing much better, must be the adrenaline pumping after a near pull experience. I blame whoever used this:

I couldn't resist his musk.

Again I was secretly pleased with myself, only 2 deaths due to flame walls or void zones, one of each if I remember correctly (better check the WWS and WoWmeters later before I get too cocky ^^)

The good news, I now feel like I'm back into the swing of things. I was doubting my return to WoW, I've been having fun without it, but now that I'm back I have to admit I've missed it (I've not missed the continual silence whenever I attempt conversation or even say "Hi" in guild chat, but that's a different story...) Raiding again has been fun, if a little stressful due to me being under prepared, but I'm really hoping to start levelling alts and doing heroics with my Rogue.

I also managed to get my paws on enough Emblems of Valor for a new cloak and also from Naxx some Boots of Septic Wounds...eeeewwww!

Another (long) Break

2009-01-18T14:07:00.002Z

Yes I've been missing again! Christmas and New Year was spent travelling between mine and the bear's parent's so I was left for no time to blog, nor any time to play WoW! But I'm back again (with a slightly new look) and hopefully shall be back to regular posting again soon.

Since I've been back I've healed a couple of raids, not very successfully I might add, either down to lack of practice or my less than adequate gear I hope. But I did survive long enough to help with the kill of Kel'Thuzad, and I got a lovely new mace for my troubles. I'll see how the raiding goes in the next few weeks and then it's time to do more alt levelling ^^

Guess What...

2008-12-03T12:53:00.004Z

I did it (finally!) Last Sunday I managed the Big Ding. And what have I been doing since then? Grinding leather, aaaargh!

Well Aedos and Brennus are in for some upheaval, (I added Brennus to my author list, in case he felt like doing a guest post on Druid tanking at some point, hehe) Well we are possibly moving to another flat this month, and over the Christmas period we will be travelling to Scotland and Romania respectively to visit our families. Confusing, more aaargh!

So basically there isn't going to be much WoW playing, I may spend some time doing a couple of heroics (got my very first 12k heal in heroic UK the other night, go me!) and also levelling Loukya the Rogue to 80, for herbs and such. Can't wait to get her in some new gear since she's been in TK/SSC gear forever! Mmm...viking looking stuff...

Aedos is in a Horny Helm of doom right now, working my way up to these lovelies: Earthgiving Legguards and Earthgiving Boots. As far as gear has gone I've only replaced a few items, I've finally levelled Leatherworking, definitely worth it for this: Fur Lining - Spell Power.

Now I'm off for some R&R, and some delicious foodz, no Orca Stew for me today! Some Real Life time sounds good right about now!

Aedos, Sweeper of Mines

2008-11-27T00:07:00.003Z

My favourite achievement so far?

Teehee!

I couldn't get out of the darn mine field for about 5 minutes! Worth it to hear the laughs in guild chat though ^^ Oh and Ding, 79!

How Aedos Got Her Bird Back

2008-11-25T09:58:00.011Z

Strictly speaking this should have been easy. However I neglected to take into account that Whoopi Goldberg is a much better motivational speaker than Radio One. Hence why after 4 hours I had only progressed half a level and couldn't get a Ting Ting's song out of my head. That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name. And now it's in yours too "Get out of that one fatty"

Back to the task in hand. I've been telling myself "It's not a race, It's not a race" However the cruel green eyed monster in me has been eyeing up the new shinies of our level 80 instance goers and has been nagging at me to get myself in gear and start playing more!

So yes, it should have been easy, do some quests, do some instances, you know the drill. But there has been the lure of Death Knights, the gathering of leather, the copy of "Little Big Planet" sitting on our games shelf.

I have been levelling up as full resto, it gets me into instances quicker, the damage isn't too bad, no 7k crits but I can cope with that. I was moonkin for a while but somehow that feathery soul felt like an imposter, a pretender to my healing throne. I didn't look upon it as myself, but merely a tool to get the job done slightly quicker. So it's back to caster form for Aedos. She's much happier this way and so am I.

So this is level 78...and what have I done? Well the first thing was I got my bird back! I had forgotten the simple joy of zooming around, picking up a quest item, then changing back to flight form and flying away from impending doom.

Some of the more interesting things. I met Bambina, with Flora and Thudder, his poor mother was killed and he has sworn to avenge her, I wonder how that will turn out...

I have been a Scourge, a big Blue Lady and an Iron Dwarf.

I have Toured the Fjord, been Bored in Borean and pretty much done every single quest in every area I've been to so far.

I helped Mr. Floppy make his way safely home.

I have been strangely addicted to this weapon...I wonder why....

I have fought a huge pair of legs on a Giants back.

And I have dressed up in some new blue items, and as such I am now looking slightly like a dominatrix.

And now I am half way to 79! Now where did I leave my social life?.....

Of Pets and Levelling

2008-11-16T13:48:00.006Z

Finally the day of Wrath has come!

After a fairly inauspicious start for us we have finally managed to log and begin our sojourn up to level 80.

It all began when Brennus bought us our copies...one normal, and one Collectors Edition. The day before release I decided to venture out of the house and found when I came home a note saying a parcel had been left for us at the post office. I made Brenn go and collect it with me during his lunch break and made him late, I trudged home in the rain with a huge box! Inside amongst all the packets of air was our lovely CE. The outside box really was very excessive for the box inside.

It had long been argued who would get Frosty and I'm pleased to say, I have the nicest boyfriend in the world, he let me have him! (I bribed him the day before with Little Big Planet for his PS3 ^^) Unfortunately the normal copy wasn't delivered on time and he had to wait an extra day to play. But finally we have both got online, coped with his bad lag and trawled up to 71 last night. Now I'm off to play some more, have a lot of catching up to do with most of my guildies. Decided to start off in Howling Fjord as I heard that there was a lot more Alliance Lore there, I'm enjoying the Tuskarr quests at the moment, and I'm determined to get that penguin pet eventually!

I'm currently levelling as full resto, eek, but as far as damage is concerned I haven't been doing too badly at all. I'm starting to invest more points into balance now, I already had points in Genesis and am now working towards a Nature's Splendor build. It's also handy having a feral to help! Here we are, the happy family in Howling Fjord. I feel it looks like a very cheesey greetings card.

Greetings from Northrend! From Brennus, Aedos and Frosty

Busy Little Druid

2008-11-05T09:46:00.006Z

Well it's been a couple of weeks again since my last post. I'm sure it's been a very busy time for all of us! Not helped by the fact my memory needing replaced on the PC and having a very uncomfortable time playing! It's been a time of getting reacquainted with new talents, new spell rotations in raids and soloing, a time for new titles (jealous of Brennus!) and new haircuts.

So far I haven't done any of the new Argent Dawn quests, I haven't downed the new boss in Kara, I haven't been off getting every achievement I can think of (Going Down? with Loukya was a complete accident!) I haven't even been raiding that much. I was trying to decide whether to level my shadow priest who is at 41 at the moment and very fun, or to do something which I had been needing to do for months. The Latter won, and I now proudly present:

Whoohoo! Just in time for the expansion when I wont be able to use it again for ages ^^
It was our last official guild raid last night and as well as getting a chance to spend the last of my DKP on a set of Tier 6 bracers I also didn't need to log 20 minutes early in order to fly very slowly to our destination! To me this is the best achievement I've gotten so far. After starting off in 2005 with my rogue, not doing any end game raiding up until last year, switching raiding mains from a rogue in epics to a Druid raiding end game content in blues and greens, it's been an interesting time!

Never in my WoW playing career did I think I would get to see Archimonde, Illidan and two Sunwell bosses down. So a great big thanks go to Soldiers of Azeroth, especially our Guild and Raid Leader Kay ^^ May the guild have many more fun times to come! Also I never thought I would have two mains who could zoom around at 280% speed!

Top 10 Screens 5-1

2008-10-14T09:16:00.008+01:00

Well it's been a little longer than anticipated in my posting the last of my favourite screens but here are the rest, and just before patchy fun, nice.

Number 5 - Guild Birthday - On Guild Birthday's it is tradition for the majority of us to go to Goldshire, get drunk, and have a dance. This was from our 2nd birthday back in May, with Loukya in a pretty dress. The guild have become true friends to me over these years and it makes me all fuzzy inside to still be with them all!

Number 4 - Party Like a Troll! - When Aedos had been 70 for a few months, Brennus and I decided to do some exploring of lesser known areas. He's been to present day Hyjal and a few other places, but I wanted to go meet those trolls that are always partying when the gryph flies through Darkshore! So after a lot of fall damage I final got to dance with them all.

Number 3 - Romance is Dead - Well I couldn't put pics up of my favourite screens without including one of my other half Brennus. We do have some nice romantic moments in our time playing together. During a visit to BT for example we even managed to die right beside each other, how sweet ^^

Number 2 - Cosmopaladin - This is a 2 step screen, the first picture is that of our Illustrious guild leader, during a ZA run in January she picked up a stylish new healing helm. After persuading her to show helm, I quickly formed an idea in my head and managed to take this sneaky pic:

Which was then turned into this:

Various members of our guild made it onto those headlines and it provided a lot of laughs on our forums ^^

Number 1 - Picturesque - Definitely one of my favourite pictures. Aedos while she was still young, basking in the sunset of Darkshore. I just loved how the lighting was in this pic and again it shows what a pretty game WoW can be when you stop for a minute just to look.

So there we go, some of my favourite moments captured, before the rush to get to 80, gathering more loot, spending more money, it's definitely been nice to stop and reflect on what I've done so far.

Top 10 Screenshots (10-6) Long Post!

2008-10-06T19:44:00.010+01:00

With Wotlk fast approaching, a lot of people are taking stock on what they have been doing up until now. Some are looking forward to the new expansion, new areas, new quests etc, while a lot are also worried about talent changes, the difference there is going to be with their "main class" I've been trying not to read to much about all the new changes and haven't looked at any screens from Wotlk yet, I can't wait to get into Northrend and see it all shiny and new and have fun levelling both my main toons to 80.

I decided it was time to step back from playing for a day to compile a list of my favourite screenshots. These are from both Pre-BC and afterwards. It's really just a way of looking back at fond memories of the game, before I get lost in the new expansion. They're not about shiny gear, inflating my ego, or anything like that, just fun times spent in WoW with friends. Unfortunately I lost a lot of my older ones, but have gone through them all again and selected a few. Here are numbers 10-5. I decided not to make a ridiculously long post, but possibly with my explanations of the screens it will get that way!

Number 10 - WoW Art. An arty looking pic that I took of Loukya when she was doing a quest in BEM, I think I had some funny helm on at the time which made the special effect. I chose this pic because I loved the eeriness of it, and how the people at Blizz do try to make an effort sometimes to do something a little different.

Number 9 - Onyxia! This is the only Raid picture I have of the Pre-TBC raids. I just remember how thrilled I was to be there back in the old 40 man days. She was so scary!

Number 8 - Nommy Fish! Chosen purely for comic value, I just love the way Aedos looks like she's about to take a big bite of that yummy fish in Kara! Letting a kitty eat the masters dinner Moroes? How terribly clumsy of you!

Number 7 - Imp In A Ball How I love my Imp. I was lucky enough to get a loot card in one of my trading card packs and Loukya went and collected her Imp in a Ball. He's come out with quite a few hilarious things over the past 2 years, I simply chose this because I am a rogue, and yes I will sneak up behind you and kill you. I cropped it down a bit to make the writing stand out more.

Number 6 - Do the Dead Pally Dance! Oh Poor Lion, our "chocolate teapot" tank. How we all enjoy revelling in your disastrous, hilarious deaths. We enjoy them so much that it has become Guild tradition to dance merrily upon his corpse. Just a fun screenshot to remember the things that make being with your friends worthwhile!

So there are my first five favourites, the rest will come up tomorrow I think. I know this is an unbearably long post, but it definitely gave me a lot of fun looking through all my old stuff!

Is Happy

2008-10-04T23:41:00.003+01:00

An hour of boredom = Two Tiny Crimson Whelps for each of us!
Also more boredom equals one worthless post on Blog, oh well, it's keeping me entertained for a few minutes!

Dilemna....

2008-10-02T17:05:00.005+01:00

When two people live together, both avid WoW players and collectors of all things shiny, there is always the temptation to buy the collectors editions of expansions. Technically there really is no point in buying two collectors editions Wotlk. We don't need two artwork books, or two soundtracks, we both collect the trading cards, and since there are two new starter decks, we could share them so we've decided to just get one collectors edition. However the question is...who will get Frosty the Wyrm?!

He is just so darn cute!

Oh What a Night...

2008-09-29T09:13:00.007+01:00

Late September down in Mount Hyjal....

Soldiers of Azeroth defeated Archimonde for the first time, and I'm very glad to say I was a part of it :D

I was intending on posting about my recent adventures with my Rogue, but I just had to do this instead, Roguing can come later.

The night started off...badly for me. It seemed to be "Be Mean to the Tree" night, being bullied by a hunter and rogue determined to set my branches on fire *sniffle*

Thankfully some people still were nice to me

After a few wipes at around 30% and myself being silly

To Brennus: "This tear thing when you fall is really easy!"

*splat-dead druid * Oops....

We managed to get him down in 8 minutes, and my word he dies dramatically! I was excited about seeing the loot, but most excited about getting my last 3 badges for new shoulders! Grats again to all my guildies who got nice shiny new helms, especially the two 'Locks!

So since we had an hour and a half left we went for a little jaunt to Sunwell, I picked up my new shoulders on the way and as we cleared through some trash (with no wipes I might add) I got my little paws on some new gloves! *sniff* Goodbye to my only piece of Tier 6 ^^ All gemmed and enchanted they give a lovely 174 +healing, so I'm a very happy Druid all in all.

And since she has been feeling neglected, Loukya asked her Imp In A Ball if she would ever raid again...His response?

Yay!

Getting Back Into The Swing of Things

2008-09-28T09:54:00.004+01:00

Well here I am, back again, after an impromptu break for the past week and a half. Real Life's gotta come first over a game but I've missed it. With Wotlk just around the corner I've been re-assessing my goals and the best I can come up with is, learn as much as I can about the changes in my class the expansion will take me, and continue to have fun with the guild in raiding till then. I also seem to have a lot of blog reading to catch up on and I'm trying to make a start on that now! I started back raiding on Friday night with a Mount Hyjal trip and got to /cuddle up against my other half and his creepy new Kodo mount.

I also got a new chest which from the back makes me look slightly nekkid!

I still can't help but be ever so pleased when I continue to get new gear, even with the expansion so soon and I won't get to strut around in it much *sniff* And today, with my hard earned Badges ~I am eventually going to get those gnarly shoulders to replace my Kara ones (at last) With Aedos as my new main and levelling her first I should start off the expansion raiding on a much more even footing with the rest of the raiders, I can't wait till the day where I don't think think "My gear is so bad!" when dieing for the 10th time ^^ For now, blogs call and I must go catch up on the ones I have missed!

Good News, and Bad News

2008-09-17T10:03:00.002+01:00

Well again I haven't been playing much...Real Life things catching up with me again, and some major family trouble. I'll be going home to be with my family for at least a week, as we lost my aunt on sunday morning. So that's the bad news.

The good news is that my guild managed to down Illidan last night, which cheered me up slightly and took my mind off things! Hopefully I'll get back to have fun soon.

Home is where the Hearthstone is

2008-09-11T21:12:00.005+01:00

Settling into the new home is not fun if you're not buying pretty things to decorate the place! Though we've been trying to save money, there were a few things we just couldn't resist. And now I present a picture of Brennus and I, nice and happy in our new home...

Hee Hee! Brennus couldn't resist the action figure and both of us wanted a little mini tree ^^ Also we have another addition to our little collection...

Home Sweet Home! ^^

On coming home to WoW....

2008-09-10T11:10:00.006+01:00

Ok, so my first day back into the blogging community has been a rather confusing one. I'm just so darn tempted to write about anything and everything straight away!

I think I'll sum up my feelings of being back playing WoW after a nearly 3 month break.

Well at first I didn't have much to think about WoW, my last raid was in the middle of July to Zul'Aman where I got some new gear, but the joy was shortlived as I had to move shortly after and never got a chance to use any of it. I didn't get a chance to miss WoW because I was so busy packing all my worldly belongings and getting ready for the 350 mile drive to my new home.

I moved in with Brennus, my Feral Druid boyfriend, a big step for both of us, and for the first month in our new home we didn't have net and while he was feeling withdrawal symptoms I was actually quite enjoying the break. However after a few weeks of doing nothing, not working, no net, no blogs! *cries* I got more and more bored! For a while I had thought of not going back to WoW altogether, but when I decided to log on and check my mail etc one night I was treated to many of my guildies welcoming me back, all happy to see me, and it was that which melted my heart and made me decide to come back again (I love you guys!) ^^

Here is the setup for myself and Brennus playing WoW, I get the comfy PC desk (with the pink seat, excuse my girliness) And there is Brennus, raiding Black Temple on the floor, poor Bear. Note the wine glasses, we play better after a drink! Oh, and if Pike sees this picture, note the Linux book on the shelves :P

Be prepared for a mushy moment here!

So here we are in our new home, and while getting ready for our life together enjoying playing WoW together too! Sometimes people can bug me and it's been known for me to take little leafy huffs with some guildies, I really couldn't enjoy this game without them. Yesterday I did some levelling with my priest and a fellow guildy, I compared it to going out with a really good real life friend you haven't seen for ages, so nice to see them again and good to enjoy time together!

So for making me feel welcome after my break (I actually feel missed!) for the progress being made and for more good times to come, I salute you Soldiers of Azeroth!

*big branch hugs*

Wrath of The Lich King - Shared Topic

2008-09-10T10:15:00.004+01:00

As I posted the survey I finished for our own Guild I realised Dechion of Be Nameless over on Blog Azeroth had suggested a topic of what we'll be doing on the first few days or so after Wrath of The Lich King hits us. To see how it compares with how it actually goes and what we actually did, I thought it sounded really interesting. I very basically answered a couple of questions on my survey, but I think I'll definitely go into this topic more later, once the raiding is done tonight perhaps!

I'm back!

2008-09-10T09:49:00.006+01:00

Well after a long break during moving and not having net, I'm finally back! For a while I enjoyed my break from WoW, but after seeing my guildies progress in Black Temple and of course, their new shiny loot, I was desperate to get back! So here I am, a new home, a new town, no friends as of yet, so I have plenty time to get back into playing!

Tonight there is an adhoc GEM raid for Serpentshrine or The Eye with some guildies, so I've signed myself up to get me used to raiding again on something slightly easier than BT ^^ As I've gotten back onto our Guild forums too I had the chance to do a survey about the new expansion one of our officers has prepared for us. I've decided to post my answers here too, just for posterity's sake, and in case anyone is interested! I give full credit to our Warlock Officer for the questions, but the boring answers are all my own!

After this I need to go out and do some more exploring, but when I come back I'm going to be checking all the blogs I've missed so much when I've been without net, definitely excited about being back again, and discovering what everyone has been up to!

(I've left out some Guild Specific Questions)

SoA Pre Wrath Survey:

General Info.

Character Name(s): Aedos/Loukya.

Will you be getting the Wrath of the Lich King expansion upon or shortly after release?Definitely, will try and get it as soon as possible

What will be you be doing before before Wrath is released?

Raiding with Aedos, trying to make some money with Loukya and possibly levelling my priest some more and generally having fun with you guys!

Leveling.

What will you be doing in Wrath?

Will probably change Aedos to a dreamstate so I can do some solo levelling but also continue to heal any 5-mans, hopefully Brennus can be my killbot and help me.

What class do you think will be your main at L80?

Druid

How long do you think it will take for you to reach L80?

Possibly a month

Raiding (If interested)

What role will you want to fill in raids, dps, tank or heal?

Healing, I really love healing now!

Would you prefer to see the main raid progression focusing on 25 man or 10 man raids?

Either

Other

Bring on more fun times Soldiers!

Hibernation!

2008-07-17T21:44:00.002+01:00

I haven't been playing/posting much over the last 2 weeks as I'm packing up and getting ready to move! I'll continue with some new posts once all the craziness has settled down and I get some more play time as well, as for now I'm off to seek the emerald dream!

Fits Like a Glove!

2008-07-06T15:56:00.005+01:00

My new Tier 6 gloves that is ^^ During our raid on Friday in Mount Hyjal I was lucky enough to have sufficient DKP to spend half of it on my shiny new Thunderheart Gloves!

This is me being very very happy even though I'm now very very poor and will hope for no new Resto Druid gear to drop tonight in BT.

I spent a few hundred gold to put "The Right" purple gem in them this time

When I gemmed my Tier 5 legs I was so excited by them I quickly threw in a Royal Shadowsong Amethyst instead of a Purified Shadowsong Amethyst. More Spirit ftw. But I managed to find one cheap on the AH so here are my lovely new gloves:

Although I'm not too impressed by the set bonus.

Now if I take off my Robes of Summer Flame I actually look like a Real Druid! (Apart from the roguelike shoulders and chest ^^)

I'm getting there slowly ^^ Can't wait to see what difference there is in my healing tonight!

Aedos goes Rawrglrlglrlglrl

2008-07-03T19:45:00.004+01:00

Well she doesn't really, but the hand of fate controlling her does today!

Has there ever been one of those days when everything just seems to get to you? Today is this day for me. I can't find the focus to do anything useful in RL, and in WoW I'm even worse because I keep getting annoyed at people. There was originally going to be a post here about "Alts and the Ego" But having calmed down slightly from the annoyance which generated this rant idea, I've decided not to, I may think out a more rational less ranty post about this when I have a clearer head. There have also been things on our forums to annoy me, I responded to someone in a quite a bitchy manner which isn't like me at all, but I was really riled today by certain assumptions of a couple of male members of our guild, which seems to be that us female players are here to be drooled over. But again, that is another story for another day.

The good news for today:

I finally got the gosh darn PVP trinket, right in time for Mount Hyjal tomorrow night. As our GM said tonight "Hopefully no more splattered tree" With 198 honor left I'm not sure if Aedos will be embarking on a fully fledged PVP career but with PVP being "not as bad as I first thought" I definitely wont write the idea off completely. Now I'm off to work on my WoW charm bracelet!

A date with Archimonde

2008-06-29T23:46:00.006+01:00

Yes after Aedos' 2 hours of PVP, she got dressed in her Sunday best, put on her prettiest trinkets and brushed her lovely purple hair in anticipation of Tea and Cookies courtesy of Mr. Archimonde. Well not quite...but it makes a nice image I think.

Anyway, so tonight was another night of wipes in the name of learning the fight. I think I have it pretty much well documented in my head, it is merely putting it into practice that makes it so hard!

The main aim: Survive

Survive through the Air Bursts, Doomfire, Fears and Curses that he throws at you. It's not a DPS race, nor anything overly complicated, just...difficult.

There really is no use being in Tree form for this fight with all the movement needed and decursing going on so it was caster form all night, and kitty for the falls!

Stay with group (in tonight's case I was with the hunters) run away from Doomfire, check!

Hit Tears of the Goddess at exactly the right time as I fall from Airburst to survive, check again.
I actually find this part of the fight quite fun, and as much as I hate to admit it, I actually get the stomach churning feeling that i'm actually falling myself when I'm falling. Another thing worth noting is that Kitty form is also very helpful if you happen to use the Tears too early and are in danger of dieing.

Heal tank and group, decurse group, check.

The fears are what I need that *lovely* PVP trinket for, which after two hours tonight I am only 2k honour away from, apart from a possible Magtheridon GEM run tomorrow night the PVP trinket is what I'm logging on for next!

Basically, we all know what we're doing now, it's just the matter of us practicing till it's perfect as the old saying goes. Tonight our best attempt was 67%, we managed to get it slightly down from our last attempt which is always a good thing.

One important thing I did learn:

If you are about to wipe...die in the Doomfire! It really reduces the cost of repair bills :P The one good thing about this fight!

My repair bill, post Fire Death.

And glancing back through my old screenshots I found some of Brennus (the other bear druid half) when he managed to get into Hyjal in the present day.

Archimonde's skeleton above Brenn's kitty's butt, proof that he can and WILL be killed eventually ^^

PVP Speed!

2008-06-29T16:53:00.003+01:00

Another day, another raid in Mount Hyjal without the ever elusive PVP trinket. *Theatrical Sigh* I know in an earlier post, I had lots of wonderful ideas about goals to achieve. and the grand total of goal's achieved so far is 0!

So...in the 2 and a half hours I have before the Mount Hyjal Raid, I'm going to do lots (hopefully) of AV runs, and see just how much honour I can get! I don't think I'll be able to get the Trinket today, but with any luck I should have it for my next Hyjal raid next week.

Here I go...

Wish me luck!

To haste or not to haste?

2008-06-25T20:44:00.005+01:00

That is indeed the question. Now that I'm getting into the position where I am comfortable with Aedos + healing and my own technical abilities to heal, I've started asking myself whether I should start focusing on gathering haste gear. Soldiers of Azeroth are now progressing nicely through Black Temple, and have killed every boss in Hyjal except Archimonde. With the amount of tanks we usually have in the trash in these instances, I'm sure an extra lifebloom stack would help immensely.

With the amount I'm raiding at the moment I'm gathering up a fair bit of DKP, and not spending it as all who know me would testify, my luck with drops is horrendous! I'm now trying to decide whether to actively seek out spell haste items in various places. I'm fairly comfortable with my mana pool even though my mp5 at the moment isn't as high as other resto druids, it's very rare I actually have to Innervate or take pots, so to lose some mp5 on items wouldn't be that much of a big deal to me.

The two other main questions I ask myself are this: Would the raid team benefit from my lowered global cooldown, my ability to stack more lifeblooms and also to pop a swiftmend if the situation arose? Now I think the answer to this is a resounding yes.

The next question is do I have the time and resources to actively seek out +haste pieces, to acquire enough of them to get my haste rating to at least 180 to be of any use, then enchant etc? Well I am a leatherworker, not a very good one, I've never seemed to be able to grind enough to get past the 350 mark. I chose Leatherworking for Aedos when she was levelling as Feral, and though I knew there wasn't much in the way of healing gear I could make when I did respecc, I kept leatherworking as my profession anyway. So the guild bank currently has three of these recipes: Shoulderpads of Renewed Life sitting gathering dust, and if I was at 375 LW, for a mere 10 dkp these would be a steal! The big problems, no I'm not 375, and no there are no spare Hearts of Darkness in the guild bank to use. So a big sad face here =( However in the raids I'm doing there are a few items that may drop, so I can wait for these or spend some more badges

One nice haste badge item:

Cloak of Swift Reprieve for 60 Heroic Badges

An item I already have that provides haste is my Kharma's Ring of Fate from normal MgT. However this really wouldn't add up to much for now, so it would take some time for me to be fully haste geared up! Now next week will be Aedos' first Zul'Aman run as it had been taken off our raiding roster when I began raiding with her, and now our resident Paladin tank Woody has started some GEM runs up. I know of a few haste items that drop there, cant remember the names but I might edit them in if i do! I just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope my luck with drops improves.

So I think I've decided that I will try to gather as much +haste items as I can, also trying to level Leatherworking at a steady state so that maybe some day I can get that pattern, hopefully this will all be before Wotlk and before we all start replacing our epics with Northrend greens!

Fun with Clay

2008-06-24T09:15:00.005+01:00

After being ill in bed for the last few days (I actually was raiding BT in my bed on sunday!) I've finally managed to gather strength enough to get up again, and I've started doing some polymer clay modelling! After seeing some amazing stuff on Etsy I started practicing on small things, like this pair of Mario Toadstool Earrings (Lots of mushrooms on Etsy!)

But I've decided my first project is going to be a World of Warcraft charm bracelet ^^

After studying illustration at uni I haven't really been doing much in the way of "art" lately, but now this is my chance. I need to think of some charms that would represent things I love in WoW. I think today, since I still don't feel that great, I'll work on some sketches of charms I'd like to try and make, Leaves, a a little dagger, a hearthstone etc! I'm not going to try and make them commercially or anything, just a little fun thing for myself to work on anytime I get bored, and to post about when I'm not doing anything interesting in WoW.

The Party Never Stops!

2008-06-21T23:48:00.008+01:00

It's been a while since my last update, I really haven't had as much time as I would have liked over the past week. I posted last Sunday about some goals, some large, some small, that I want to achieve over the next few months and although they haven't been completed I'm getting ever so slightly closer!

First off, with the new Midsummer festival, Brennus has been out collecting blossoms to swap for items. The first being this funky...dancey thing...(Can't find a link for it) which turns you into a hawt dancing draenei! He's managed to get a fair bit of gold by hitting the braziers in various towns, including the horde capitals! Loukya decided to try this, but after getting ganked in Orgrimmar she went in a huff and gave up.

In a "Where's Waldo?" style here she is in Orgrimmar!

I did have some fun throwing my flames around and juggling torches for the new daily quests on Loukya and Nyx my nooby 23 shaman.

Second, after spending 150 badges on her Gavel of Naaru blessings, Aedos finally managed to save up 41 more for her first epic healing trinket, the Essence of the Martyr, getting her + healing up to 1753 unbuffed. Now I know most people will be like "Huh? Healing BT and MH with only that crappy +healing?" But since we have effectively stopped doing Serpentshrine and Tempest Keep, our Guild Leader had decided she didn't need me in incredibly amazing gear, just enough to get my Lifebloom ticking decently and to be useful, and to pick up as much new gear as I can to improve that way. So after one raid with my new trink I managed to break my effective heal record to over 2 million! Which I'm very happy about!

Next, after some very long Alterac Valley's and one very annoying and extremely boring Arathi Basin I have managed to get my honour to this:

Half of what I need for my PVP trinket, but I'm getting closer! Hopefully I should have it by the end of next week at the latest.

And lastly, a real life note! I have cleared my room of all unnecessary clothes, books and general clutter and once I start packing the rest of my needed things away in boxes I shall be ready to move away in exactly 6 weeks. I can't wait! I'm sure I wont mind putting my other goals on hold while I get ready to make a massive new step in my life, moving out of my family home and starting a new with my boyfriend. As long as we don't fight over internet connections I'm sure we'll be just fine.

A Note For Brennus:

2008-06-21T17:51:00.002+01:00

Dont you wish your girlfriend had a t-shirt like this?

Yes the queen of Resto Druids Phaelia has some amazing new t-shirts for sale, which I reeeaaaallly want!

So any real life friends of mine (and boyfriend ^^) who ever feel like buying me a present...there is a small hint :D

Ahh...

2008-06-16T16:07:00.005+01:00

"Smug mode. Well, I can't hang around here saving your necks all day. I think I'll go make a start on that ironing"

After seeing the WoW Web Stats from last night I have to say I'm suitably impressed with myself! A few times I have looked at the WWS and been upset with myself as I've been quite low. But I always overlooked the fact that as of yet, I don't have any healing trinkets, I also have a few pieces of low level gear and not as much + heal as everyone else. I also just looked at the first page of WWS and thought "Great, I suck!"

But after listening to my boyfriend, and reading an interesting post at 4 Haelz all about healing meters I decided to take all the advice Bellwether gives into account when I look at the meters.

I looked through all the attempts individually, and as it turns out, I did do really well! take for example the kill of Akama where I was second! Also out of the, ahem, 10 attempts we had on Teron I was in the top three during 6 out of 10 tries.

Now I'm definitely not trying to be big headed, I'm not desperate to top the healing meters or be like "Ha! I are better than you!" I'm just so pleased that I'm managing to perform well in amongst better geared healers, I have honed my healing techniques and now they really seem to make a difference during raids! In the end, all I really want is to be helpful in the guild progressing and make myself an effective and useful healer. It seems I'm on the right track for now ^^

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

2008-06-16T11:12:00.013+01:00

A Druid in Tree form being chopped through the middle and in the throws of death? Well yes that just about sums up last nights raid!

Last night Soldiers of Azeroth descended upon the Black Temple, our objective was to defeat Shade of Akama, Teron Gorefiend and possibly more. But some bad luck was thrown our way and although we got Akama down (with only plate loot I might add *sigh*) We continued to spend the rest of the night wiping on Gorefiend.

I have to admit, last night my mind was elsewhere, during the very long trash clear from Akama up to Gorefiend I did in fact use one hand for healing the raid, the other for tapping my DS as I gathered fruit in Animal Crossing *blush* Even with my giant buttons and timers on UI I let a few of my Lifebloom stacks fall off, but that's what happens when you don't pay attention! The trash clear was no problem, lots of nice gems dropping , and eventually we got to Gorefiend.

As any BT raider will know the biggest problem of this fight is the Shadow of Death Debuff which any member of the raid can get. The fight is a simple DPS race with the awful Shadow of Death, which when you die, turns you into a ghost, responsible for killing "Constructs" who, when they get into the raid can cause scary damage. There's also an Incinerate which if it isn't dispelled quickly enough can easily one-shot someone who isn't at full health. When I first tried Teron Gorefiend on the very first time we killed him we had wiped a few times, but by the time of our last try a lot of people had got the hang of killing their ghosts before they got into the raid and we managed to get him down in a last minute special. I also died at the very last moment!

However I never got the debuff and so had never had a proper go of killing the Constructs. I've tried the flash game and was awful at it, I've watched video's on how to defeat them but there's nothing like practice to get you truly prepared. The flash game scares me since I'm so bad at it I figure there's no way I could kill the constructs in the real raid. Brennus assures me the real version is much easier, but I'm not convinced.

Again last night, I never got an attempt at them. This was both a good and a bad thing. A good thing because I didn't have to face being embarrassed and saying "Honest, i killed my constructs!"

I had already planned that if I DID get the Debuff and got my constructs into the raid my response was going to be this :

"Ok, I'm the only person all night who is admitting - Yes those were my constructs in the raid, I didn't manage to kill them all, I knew I would be rubbish"

But sadly I never got a chance ^^

I'm a bit of a shy person, even in guild where I've known most of these guys since I started playing. I admit I'm scared of being the one to wipe a raid!

Eventually, after many wipes, we called it a night since we had respawns and no one up by gorefiend to res or summon the rest of us.

I've already mentioned why I'm glad I didn't get the Shadow debuff, but the bad thing is that I still haven't had a chance for real to manage to kill these guys. There's only so many times I can whisper Brennus saying "Argh! What do I do when I get them again?" before he gets annoyed at me. I'm going to try the flash game some more until I manage to get them all down.

Flash Game is here for any person that wants to try it ^^ This is going to be in between me preparing to move in 6 weeks time, and also Loukya and Aedos both doing dailies. I'm really determined again to get my Swift Flight Form. I finshed last night with some dailies on Loukya but after sitting for 5 hours I couldn't do too much. I'm praying for another Epic World Drop to sell that helped Loukya get hers!

Things I've never noticed before

2008-06-15T19:22:00.005+01:00

Well yeah, exactly what it says in the title! Before the raid tonight I thought I'd do a few quick quests on my ickle gnomie Louksie, when I found that I didn't have any quests in my log, and this is the thing I've never seen before:

The Quest Log minus quests!

I've been playing this game since 2005, rolled countless alts, and yet had never seen the funky spider web and pattern on an empty quest log!

Eep, must run now, Black Temple awaits! Will post later and report on my encounter with the scary ghostie things during Teron Gorefiend!

I should level my Shadowpriest...

2008-06-14T23:18:00.004+01:00

For a life full of Mana Mana!

Hehe, Love this Video!

The Shadow Priest

What Is a Girl to do?

2008-06-14T22:27:00.009+01:00

When she feels like she can't really focus on anything.

Well real life has thrown a nice surprise recently, my boyfriend and I are both moving soon. I got this info on Friday, and have been joyous ever since! Also I decided to do some more work so I'd have more money to take with me. So this has left me ignoring WoW for the past few days, and also, now that I have time to play again, I really can't decide what to do!

Now tomorrow Aedos is raiding, (Black Temple) but I think I would rather have spent my evening doing something more constructive. I have several goals at the moment which I'm hoping to start ticking off soon! These are a few of them, in no particular order:

1. Get Aedos Swift Flight Form!

Ok Aedos has been 70 for around 4 months now, and in that time I really haven't done anything with her except raid. And with raiding and gearing up comes the expense of gems, primal's etc. She has hardly done any dailies or quests since as resto, it's quite painful! So she really hasn't accumulated masses of wealth. Loukya has her Swift Gryphon, which really comes in handy for her as a herbalist, gathering herbs is a much easier affair when I can zoom round the outlands at 280% speed. She enjoys laughing at Aedos' expense over this, as she's a bit grumpy at her for stealing her raid places.

I didn't really feel the need for Aedos to have swift form when I started raiding with her, but now I feel so slow and inferior compared to everyone else! I'm fed up having to log ten minutes earlier than everyone else to make it to the raid entrance on time. And it is quite infuriating switching from Loukya and her speediness to Aedos and her slowness.

So I guess the thing I should do here is to start doing dailies every day (Which I dont do at the moment, I'm lucky if i get one set of SSO dailies done in a week!) And I shall do them with both Loukya and Aedos! I also will start using Loukya's alchemy more, making pots elixirs etc to sell on the AH could prove quite profitable, this is something else I will try to do every day...eek! I'm going to start this on Monday and I'll record my progress as I go along. As of today...4000 gold to go!

2. Aedos needs her PVP Trinket!

Most of these little goals are Aedos based. This one is to improve her Raiding.

When I started raiding Mount Hyjal I was told that to start off with I'd be fine, but eventually I'd need to get Medallion Of The Alliance for Rage Winterchill and eventually Archimonde. So far I haven't got it *blush* I've been feared around and killed too many times now without it and now as the guild is starting to get better at Archimonde now really is the time to get this darn trinket.

Now I really have an aversion to PVP, maybe it's just because I haven't done any. Brennus and I did a quick AV one night, it wasn't too bad I guess, I don't like being killed, I didn't really know what to do, but I got some honor! But the time has come for me to be brave and venture out into the world of PVP myself, I can't have Brennus holding my hand the whole time. Again, I'm going to try and do a bit of Battlegrounds every few days, and try and slowly get my honour up hopefully before I die too much in raids!

3. Start Loukya on some PVP and generally improve her gear.

Now even though I've said I have an aversion to PVP I'm going to persevere and force myself to enjoy it. Loukya is going to start doing some PVP to hopefully improve her gear, so she doesn't feel as insignificant anymore! I guess I could do a few heroics as well, but it's really finding the time to do all these things which is the hard part! Also a nice little respec to subtlety or something might be a nice change for me This isn't really one of the most important goals I want to finish, but it would be nice to get rid of the last couple of pesky blues I have. Also so I can run past my fellow rogues in the Guild and feel like I'm on par with them again gear and DPS wise ^^

4. Improve Aedos' UI

When raiding with Loukya my UI was as plain as it comes. The bog standard Blizzard affair with a damage meter and slightly more funky moving avatar pics thrown in. I was advised by a few fellow healers in my guild to use a few addons with Aedos, such as Grid and a HoTtimer, both of which I have installed. I started playing about with bartender too, moving my one bar into three and pushing my macro's all over the place. The only problem with my current UI is this. It's far too cluttered, I only have a small space on screen where nothing is happening. One problem I have is that I can't see well without my glasses on. Playing WoW without them is doable but I have to have all my buttons and Grid pretty big to see them well enough. I have contact lenses, but they get dry and irritating after a while and I usually have to take them out during raids. But the other annoyance is my big Stereo Headphones, the only ones which don't hurt my ears, push my glasses into the sides of my head and hurt! Therefore I usually play kinda blind. So I need my stuff kinda big, but I also want to see more of my screen.

So in the middle of the week I'm going to reduce all my buttons and Macro's to just essentials, get Grid and my HoT timers as small as I can, and also get used to using it like this before the next raid!

Ok this is definitely a big enough post. I really need to sleep but had to get all this out quickly before I forgot! There are other things I need to achieve soon, but for now these few will do! I'll maybe post about the others when I have a spare hour. Anyway, sleep calls, I shall report on how I get along with all these things later.

A Little Bit About Aedos

2008-06-11T09:38:00.000+01:00

Some general info about my druid, why I play her and why I love her. While this blog is really just for myself as I don't expect any people to be reading it, I still feel like giving my intro posts!

As I've already mentioned in my last post, while levelling my rogue I met lots of great people, the most important of which was Brennus my cuddly feral druid boyfriend.

I had already created a Druid out of interest but hadn't got her past level 10, after I met Brennus though I was inspired to level her. We first met in Dun Modr where I was struggling with Loukya to kill some Elite Dwarves. Politely asking for assistance on /guild I was answered by Brennus who was in the area and came to help. Now this isn't much about my druid yet but it's relevant honest!

So yeah, I was enthralled by watching him dash around in cat form grabbing lots of dwarves then changing into bear as he killed the whole mob one by one. "Wow!" I thought to myself, "I want to be a kitty and a bear!" So the levelling with Aedos began after that, very slowly! I specced Feral and began fitting in some play time around Loukya. After Loukya got to 60 Aedos became less and less played. I did the occasional quest with her when Lou wasn't raiding and the like but my poor little druid became pretty much ignored again. When Lou dinged 60 Aedos was still level 20!

Again, when TBC came out and I levelled Lou to 70 Aedos was still by the wayside. While Brennus and I went to various dungeons and raids I began to get a bit bored of Loukya. Her gear was getting much better, my DPS was fine but still I started getting weary of only logging on to do dungeons, I began to miss Azeroth and levelling. Aedos began her trek up to 70, and it was quite a power level. I was still feral at this point, and every moment I could play I played with her, with the occasional boost through an instance with Brennus *blush*

But again, I was getting bored. Sneak up on enemies, start attacking, build up combo points, use a finishing move, it was just like levelling a rogue but slower! I had also noticed the lack of healers in our guild for instances and raids, so I formulated a plan. To level to 70 as a boomkin, I needed to do something different feral so I didn't become bored, and then at 70 I would respec Restoration and provide an alt if healers were needed!

This was at about level 50 or so and after the respec to boomkin the levelling came much quicker, not only that but I also began to love playing her, such a nice change from just melee. I loved my treant minions, I loved the damage I did, but I also loved that I could shapeshift into kitty and dash away if I got into trouble. In short, I loved being a druid!

Once I hit 70 I immediately respecced Resto and began healing instances, I had gathered healing gear from quests and such, also I had my Moonkin +damage and healing gear, and although I didn't have any healing experience people trusted me enough to let me heal! After starting Kara runs I noticed something else, I enjoyed healing more than I did DPS. People started complimenting my healing, I read up loads of posts on Phaelia's Resto4Life Blog and learning from there I actually started to become quite good, dare I say it. It's quite something going through WoW on two characters, in various guises then discovering something you truly love and have a talent for. I guess some people would say that tree healing doesn't require much in the way of healing talent but I think it does. Knowing in a multiple tank situation who is most deserving of your lifeblooms, anticipating who is about to get the most incoming damage and topping them up appropriately. These are things that I'm now really beginning to master after only a few months of healing through raids.

Our Guild has a policy of one raiding character per account, so Loukya has been demoted and now Aedos is my main raider, but I have to say I don't regret it one bit! There's no greater satisfaction to me than getting a boss down and still having the whole raid alive with my help! I'm "slightly" undergeared for the content we are raiding now and I know this well. It was decided by our Guild Leader that I should be geared up by running through the same raids as the core of our guild is doing now. We've passed Kara, Gruul, Maggy, even to an extent SSC and TK (We cleared the whole of SSC in one night on Sunday, happy days!) and I'm now getting my gear through going to MH and BT, even though my luck with drops is abysmal and nothing terribly useful has dropped for me yet! I'm still doing the occasional Kara for badges and some fun, raiding around 3 nights a week.

I'm by no means a hardcore player and would only class myself as "casual but dedicated" And now with my little spot on the web I'm going to detail my experiences as a newbie Resto druid, Raiding content she really isn't ready for, the new things I'm going to get up to with my Rogue as she embarks on some PVP, and generally the fun I have in game!

A Bit About Loukya

2008-06-09T20:55:00.000+01:00

Young Blogs have to start somewhere, so to start with I'll speak a bit about my two main characters to give a kind of introduction to them both and myself. I'll introduce Aedos when I have more time but this is the story of Loukya my first main WoW Character.

Back in 2005 I was an avid Guild Wars player. I enjoyed the looks of the game, and the various classes I played. I didn't like the fact though that it was ridiculously hard to get groups together in towns for quests and also that I was always travelling on my own.

So a friend of mine gave me his copy of WoW and a free-trial key to give it a try and from then I was addicted! I first rolled an undead warlock but found the server I had rolled on was very quiet, and I was feeling lonely again! So again the real life friend came to my rescue and told me to come play as Alliance on Aggramar.

I couldn't decide on a class, I had played as a mage and a healer on GW but I felt like doing something a little bit different. I'm quite a shy person and was convinced I was going to spend my entire time playing alone (The real life friend is a Guild Leader of the 2nd most advanced guild on the server, he wasn't much use in helping me level, apart from the 20 gold I was given to start off with!) I decided to pick a class where I could sneak around, dealing damage and generally avoid trouble if I didn't feel like fighting. Thus Loukya the Rogue was born.

There she is, looking so young and grumpy ^^

I did spend my first few months levelling slowly, and again, I didn't really speak to many people or have a clue what I was doing. I had vague recollections that I knew Agility and Stamina were important for gear, and I chose to level Herbalism and Alchemy as professions. When I was levelling I used to regret choosing those as other rogues seemed to have much better gear than I from Leatherworking. But now with a Raiding Druid I'm glad I choose to level it! I can never have enough pots! Anyway...

At about level 15 or so at the end of December I was invited into the guild Soldiers of Azeroth, where I am still a proud member today. I met some great people there, not least, my fiance Brennus, who plays a feral druid ^^ He was already level 60 when we first met so he became my guide through the game. We've had lots of good times together, he helped me level, helped me learn more about the game in general, and took me on crazy suicide trips, jumping off the edges of the world, and trying to get into old Ironforge!

So I levelled, I did dungeons and slowly manage to master my class and eventually dinged 60 10 months after I started playing, then after the TBC I went quick to 70. People often ask me now why I am dagger specced and the answer is purely this: I hate PVP, I only raid for my gear, and not one decent sword has ever dropped for me in any instance, or raid only daggers. So it's not through choice that my DPS is not as it could be as a sword spec, I did level with swords I just don't have any luck with drops, as my guild mates will attest to!

So there is some basic info about her, she's currently resting at the moment as my druid is my new raider but she will be having more adventures again soon!

The Obligatory First Post

2008-06-09T20:12:00.000+01:00

Well here is the first post again!

This is technically my second blog, since the first one didn't look so good and had a rather random focus I decided to start anew, cataloguing the achievements of my WoW characters, my various thoughts of the game and a place to post many of my screenshots!

It's mostly going to be my writings as I raid and generally have fun with my Resto Druid, she's only been 70 for about 6 months and was drafted into our guild's healing roster. My old main was a Rogue and though I love her to bits and enjoyed raiding with her I find healing much more fun these days, so I'll be writing a bit about both and any alts that I decide to level.

I was inspired by lots of amazing WoW blogs I found when I started researching healing techniques and guides, and since then I decided to start my own.

There won't be much theory crafting since I'm not very good at that kinda stuff but hopefully I'll begin learning much more about all my classes once I start writing more!