It's Sunday Night Lag! I mean Live!

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!

Oh What a Night...

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

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!

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 ^^

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!