A date with Archimonde

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!

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?

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

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!

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:

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...

"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

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

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...

For a life full of Mana Mana!

Hehe, Love this Video!

The Shadow Priest

What Is a Girl to do?

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

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

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

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!