Rogue Legendary Notes Part 1

Husband started the journey. Fangs of the Father is the rogue legendary weapon, which gives you the blades Golad, Twilight of Aspects and Tiriosh, Nightmare of Ages It will take him (aka us) some time to finish it. Here are some links and notes we found helpful.

• Blizzard with video of animation LINK
• Wowhead Item LINK
• Wowhead Guide LINK

• Flying to Wyrmrest Tower in Dragonblight will not get you the quest. I repeat the NPC will not have a quest for you in Northrend.
• The quest starts with Lord Afrasastrasz in the raid. Make sure you are in the Dragon Soul raid instance to get the quest. 
• You cannot pickpocket Hagara, the 4th boss, for the quest while doing LFG.
• You can pickpocket Hagara after killing the second third boss in your own raid.
• The ring will charge while you are LOGGED OFF. It is not 12 hours ingame.
• While stealthing through Ravenholdt Manor make use of Sap.
• Shadowstep is helpful when trying to get through the Manor.
• Assassinate Creed quest can be a pain. Make sure you interrupt Blackhowl's Will. If you don't it sucks up all your energy. 
• Get something to tell you when he is casting Blackhowl's Will. Power Auras would be really good. But I am sure there are other options. You can even make the target cast bar really big. ... Or you can do as Husband did... get the Hydra WoW Addon who stands over your shoulder to /YELL KICK 'EM!!!!

Patch 4.3 - CHANGES WARLOCK EVERYTHING

Our Shadow Bolt got a new graphic. NO NOES!!! WHAT EVER ARE WE GOING TO DO!!!

/dramatically shakes fist at Blizzard. (Realizes no one thinks she is funny.)

This is a really good sign. This tells me that the balance is good with the 3 different specs. Beyond that the developers are able to spend more time on getting MoP out to us next year.

One raid came out and three new heroics are now available. It will be fun to see what the encounters designers are going to give us. This is the last major patch before an expansion. So take small bites of the new content.

IMPORTANT!!
With the new gear released they converted the points. If your Valor points + Justice Points was more then 4000 you may have lost some. BUT then make sure you go spend some points before doing any dungeons.

I don't feel like regurgitating the sparce patch notes for warlocks here today. I will give you some links if you are intching for more info. If it is really important for me to do that in to future you are going to have to let me know.

Fulguralis LINK
The Warlock's Den Patch 4.3 post LINK
Wowwiki Patch 4.3 notes LINK
Blizzard's Notes LINK

More about Sleeping

The Spawn slept in a small bassinet next to me for the first 4.5 months. During that time I could reach over as soon as she fussed.

After that I moved her into her own room, right next to ours. I was more of a mess then she was.

Everything woke me up.

Things that never woke me up did.

The first few nights I had the baby monitor on. And I think when The Spawn would sneeze it would wake me.

I learned that first week to turn OFF the baby monitor. Never used it since. Mostly because we have a small place.

The Spawn was a sleep talker. She also would fuss sometimes and go back to sleep. I didn't need to hear either.

You can hear the difference in your child's cry. There is a definite difference to “I'm tired and up, but don't want to be” cry versus the “I don't want to be by myself” cry. The first I learned to ignore so she would go back to sleep, the second I would go get her.

Have you heard of night time diapers? These are specially made diapers with extra padding for longer sleep periods. Someone gave us a bag.

They are expensive!

Side note... Diapers are really expensive but I found Baby Cheapskate early on and has bee a money saver.

I started using one size up diapers and got the same results.

That also made me watch prices for the bigger diapers. I could snag them in bulk if a good deal happened.

The bigger diapers definitely helped for a longer nights sleep as she got older.

Commited to Sleep

Greetings to you! I am amazed that you have stuck with me in my time of … blog AFK. I do wish I was able to update you more then I did. The Spawn is very funny. It would have been great to document at least some of the struggles and funnies this last year. I have a moment so I am going to reflect on one thing I learned.

“Sleep when the baby sleeps.”

You hear this all the time. You must commit to the idea. COMMIT TO IT.

Baby sleeps you sleep.

No dishes. No kitchen cleaning. No bottles. No laundry. No vacuuming. No phone calls. No Warcraft. No anything.

You slap your head on the pillow and rest.

No email. No bills. No thank you cards. No blog writing.

Turn off your brain anyway you know how and sleep. The baby may only sleep for one hour and if you can stare at the ceiling for that time at least your body will rest. But maybe if you do it enough you can train your body to sleep.

Now some will say that is just not realistic. Things have to get done. Who is going to do it??

Need to let it go. Sleep.

I know it is hard. You will read everywhere people telling you the same thing. But you have to be committed to the idea and realize your rest is more important than those dishes sitting in the sink.

Sleep for your own sanity.

When you are doing the safety procedures on an airplane they tell you. “First put on your own oxygen mask, then help children or anyone else.” This is a safety procedure. Your sleep should be considered in the same way.

I remember (vaguely) the first week after giving birth. Husband figured out a three hour rotation for us to get sleep. I wish I remember it all. He pretty much gave himself 6 hours of sleep. I would then sleep 2-3 hours he would wake me to feed the baby (breastfeeding) then I would go back to sleep for 2-3 hours. Then I would get up and he would go asleep for 3 hours. Next I would sleep for 2-3 hours. Rotate as needed.

I was so grateful for him those first 72 hours. He figured a schedule out and everyone got sleep in. Even after that we worked house stuff in too.

Make sleep a priority.

When I went to visit my parents. I handed over The Spawn and passed out on a spare bed. I mean really... I was not who they wanted to see. So why should I sit and socialize when sleep was way more important.

Celebrate what sleep you do get.

A nurse told me that a new born is classified as “Sleeping through the night” when they sleep 4-5 hours through. Hold that moment when it happens. At about two months The Spawn started doing that. I was thrilled! I cannot tell you how less tired that made me to know there was a chance I would get 8 hours of sleep eventually.

Commit to the idea and know that your health and the babies health will be better for your commitment.

… then there is showering.

I Had a Double O

Got your attention??!!

In September, I was asked by The Double O Podcast to come on a special episode as a guest.

Episode 8: Parental Guidance Strongly Suggested, the main topic was parenting and playing World of Warcraft. I thought the guest were really insightful. The questions were poignant. I think we got to discuss some really helpful things.

The questions are coming from Oestrus and Ophelie both without children. I think that is a plus. They asked their questions from the point of view of someone outside looking in. The incite the guests gave were nice. Hearing the things the other guests were going through also helped me. You know "It's not only me." idea.

I tried not to talk a lot but Hydra always gets her words in. If you listen there is a point where I can tell Oestrus is really struggling with all the negatives you hear about child raising. I put it in WoW terms.

Paraphrasing...

In Warcraft you earn titles from your achievements: Kingslayer, Loremaster, Arena Master, etc. In life you also earn titles from achievements: Friend, Daughter, Son, Brother, Sister, Graduate, Artist, etc.

When you have a child you get more titles: Mother, Father, Mom, mommy, care taker, poop wiper, drool catcher, etc. But that doesn't make your other life achievements go away, they are just not he newest ones. Like in WoW that changes with time and you have to make an effort to select them.

Peekaboo Tiger Invitations

The Spawn will be turning one in September. Invites to her first birthday party went out and were received. (This is not even close to a Warcraft post so you can stop reading if that was what you were looking for.)

I looked at a lot of different stores both online and around town for the perfect invite cards. My crafty streak kept telling me “You can make them.” But I still searched... and searched.

I ended up making them.

Why all this effort? She doesn't care … actually she does. If given the choice she would want me to hand them to her so she can pull, chew, and rip apart all the paper.

I am doing this because one of the invites will go into her baby book. Maybe ending this year. Maybe starting the next. Either way, just like her Baby Shower invites her Aunt made, this will be represented.

And I will have made them. Additionally, in the future I may not have the time to make them and I do now.
I used a stamp to make the bamboo forest. I used rubber stamp scraps to make the stamps for the triangle stripes, four all together. The head was a circle punch. Muzzle was using the same circle punch and then reinserting the circle. Little nose was a heart punch.

The ears were the hardest. If I left them pointy (triangles) they looked to much like kitty cat ears. If I used round ears they looked like bear ears. Taking the face circle I cut them in half. The halves were then cut into thirds. After much frustration (I almost changed the tiger I was making) I freehand cut the points. All the free hand cutting made them all a bit different, but HYDRA Made!

After having all the head pieces cut out I then added all the stamped stripes. I tried a few different colors on the orange. I picked red. I used a stamp for the four side stripes and the top middle stripe. Then I used a narrower triangle to do the first and third top stripe. I used a third wide triangle for the inside ears.

I then put all head pieces together once the ink was dried.

I used take out chopsticks to apply glue to attach the ears and nose. To attach the muzzle to the head I used double sided sticky foam. (I had the foam from scraps of stamp assembly.)

I used additional foam to attach the head to the front of the card.

The tiger is now peaking through the forest!

I really wanted on the front of the card to have a #1. This will be the only time she will be one and I wanted it right there in front. I planned on making a tag.

Husband wanted the tiger to have a tail. (I should have known better then to ask.)

A tail and a tag with words was way more then I wanted to put on the card. Then there was brilliance.

Husband came up with making the TAIL be the 1.

We drew a couple. Since I had to free hand cut the tail we took that in consideration of the final choice. Using the outside straight cut as a guide for the inside width of the tail. They don’t have to be perfect because they are HAND Made, plus an invitee will only get one so they will not know there are differences.

I attached the tail with double stick tape. I placed them about where I thought the end of the tiger would be.

I lastly tied a red metallic string to finish the look. Now I tied the them initially on a scratch piece of card stock so I didn't mess up the cards I was making. Then slipped them onto the finished cards.
Ta Da.

The US Postal service did have issues with one and wanted more stamps. Which was convenient since I was seeing them the next day so I just handed them the invite.

Dear Mrs. Ratshag

aka @medievalnurse your husband, @Ratshag, messaged me over a year ago ... At the time I was naked ... actually my feet were naked.

I was debating buying these leopard printed flats. Totally cute. I was going to wear them to a party. But it was not like I NEEDED the shoes. They were just TOTALLY CUTE.

I let him talk me out of buying them...

I KNOW.

There was no reason that I let him other then timing. It is now a year latter and I am still THINKING of the shoes your husband helped convince me not to buy.

See these shoes...

My thought when I was in line to buy them...

“I better not talk to Ratters right now.”

I'm Beautiful

Typical conversation while meeting random people on the street.

[Random Person]: Ohhhh, How old is she?
[Hydra]: She is [insert appropriate age].
[RP]: She is so cute/beautiful.
[Hydra]: Thank you. Is she giving away free smiles?
[RP]: Yes she is! She looks just like you.
[Hydra] @ The Spawn: Wave bye-bye.
[Hydra] @ RP: Thank you. You have a great day.


This is an important interchange of information. Because did you notice something? The Warlock in me hears it EVERY time... Do you?

I was just called cute/beautiful by the RP.

You see it now? I will cut out all the unnecessary information for you.

RP: She is so cute/beautiful.
RP: She looks just like you.

When I was at my most exhausted this thought made me smile.

They Still Let Me

I have now been podcasting for over a year!

Fimlys still lets me record over on the Twisted Nether Blogcast. I realize I still say "Umm" way more then I intend too. BUT I say it a lot less then before. I hope people actually hear the difference.

Getting guests has been fun. It is a great fit for the time that I have. I can find 10 minutes occasionally to check out a blog. Also, if there is someone that you read, then let me know. I just stumble onto individuals now. I'm always looking!

Do email me. DOoo Eeet.

I have also learned that I don't have to agree with someone to still interview them... Or even know much about them. It is a discovery just as much for us as hosts as the listeners.

I wish the blogger's readers would send in more questions for them. I know it makes people feel good and it is such a small gesture for someone that may give you a momentary entertainment. To help encourage questions, I really try and be sure to put out a LIVE post for every guest the Thursday before the interview. This gives two days to see it and come up with questions.

The Spawn is finally getting a little more predictable. (Which is now in black and white so everything will change. /sigh) I am going to blog a little more, even if it is just about The Spawn. Keep an eye out for more posts (or not.)

Comic Conventions, Beach, and Wow

I’m on top of things, really, I am.

Yea, even I don’t believe that statement right now. If I was this would not be my first post in all of July! July would have passed us by and I would not even notice that I didn’t have an update.

The Spawn went to her first San Diego Comic Con this year. She completely enjoyed all the people. At the same time, she hated all the people. It was a bit overwhelming. The second day was much better for her. Here she is at the DC Comics booth checking out the DC comic app on the iPad.

She liked making the comic really small on the screen. Once it was tiny she tried to pick it up with her very strong pinching.

YES! That is an “Evil Baby” shirt The Spawn is wearing. You can pick it up here. If you don’t know about the Oblongs go find out. I met Angus Oblong at the Anaheim Comic Convention this year. You know this baby shirt was a MUST BUY NOW!!!

Not only have we been hitting comic conventions this month, but I think we went to a few different comic stores, in three different counties. (This is a new realization. … I don’t know how I feel about it yet.)

We also have been biking to get more active. The Spawn likes being in her trailer while riding. I got a hitch for Husband and my bike so we can switch off. We go out for a couple of hours. We try to do this before it gets too hot. I have a tendency to freak out about The Spawn’s hotness after a while.

The Spawn has also gone to the beach. She has eaten a lot of sand. I watch like watching her think. I am pretty sure I hear her say. “Maybe this stuff tastes different from the last stuff. Nope.” crawls a bit. “Maybe this stuff tastes different. Nope.” crawls a bit. “Maybe this stuff. Nope.” etc.

This makes for interesting diaper changes the next day.

On the WoW front…

The guild has split into two 10-mans. I’m not in either. I just cannot guarantee that I can be on when I am needed. A part of me is a little grumpy about this. But see above… for all the stuff I have been doing.

I am committed to at least start playing again, even if it is for only an hour. There was weeks there I was on Twisted Nether Blogcast more then I was playing the game. I’m working on changing that. And you can always hear me chat about WoW happenings there.

First thing was to do the quest chain to get my Panther Cub. I had no idea this was a quest item! I was upset I didn’t do it before Firelands came out. If you didn’t know it came out back in 4.1.

The next thing I am doing is finishing off questing in Twilight Highlands. I married off the dwarves but then stopped at helping the dragons. I was more interested in the political ties between the dwarves then the dragons. I am trudging through that, forcing myself to read the quest text. Well some of the time.

Patch 4.2: for the flames.

A lot of stuff going on. A few changes to locks. There are also changes to pets. This is good since there was a whole night I couldnt figure out why my pet was going around randomly. My tanks were pulling fast so it took me half of ICC to realize it was on aggressive stance. Full notes can be found here.

Look for balloons in Stormwind and Ogrimmar.  There are a new balloon pets for Alliance and Horde.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.2.0

• New Daily Quests: The Regrowth and Molten Front
  
  • In order to partake in the Regrowth and Molten Front daily quests, players must have at least completed Mount Hyjal up to and including the quest Aessina's Miracle. //I suggest finishing Hyjal I thought the stories were really great.
    
• New Quest Chain: Elemental Bonds
  
  • A New quest line is now available to level-85 Horde and Alliance characters.
• New Raid: The Firelands //Watch the trailer if you have not for Firelands. It is excellent.
  
• New Legendary Item: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest
  
  • The legendary item questline is only available to druids, mages, priests, shaman, and warlocks. //Are you getting it? I'm not in line. There are others with more attendance in guild raids that I would want to have it. But as my DPS officer is a lock, he will most likely be the first. Then I vote for the mage.
    
• New User Interface Feature: Dungeon Journal //I expect this to get a lot of critisisum. Nice that Blizzard is trying.
  
• Recruit-A-Friend now awards bonus experience and free level grants to level 80, up from level 60. //always nice to see content faster.
  

Classes: General

• Players are once again free to dance in combat (without causing graphic errors). //I didn't even notice until this was in the notes. I fail to dance.
  
• Buffs
  
  • All class abilities which place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate any threat. // I always thought that was the case, oh well.
    
• Crowd Control
  
  • Many crowd control abilities no longer cause creatures to attack players when they are cast. The creature will not attack the player when the crowd control wears off, and nearby creatures will not become hostile to the player either. However, if a visible player gets too close to the target creature, the creature will remember and attack the player when the crowd control effect wears off. The intent is to make it easier for dungeon groups to manage crowd control assignments and pulling packs of hostile NPCs. The abilities affected by this change are: Hibernate, Entangling Roots, Wyvern Sting (will still cause hostility when it begins to deal damage), Freezing Trap, Polymorph, Repentance, Shackle Undead, Blind, Hex, Bind Elemental, Banish, Seduction. //FEAR IS NOT ON THE LIST.
    
• Pets
  
  • The Aggressive pet stance has been removed and replaced with the Assist stance. This stance will cause the player's pet to attack the player's target. The pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds. //No more accedental pulls! Well at least from the pet running away.
    
  • The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.
    
• Spell Interrupts
  
  • When interrupted while casting a single-school spell such as Mind Flay or Frostbolt, players will now be able to cast dual-school spells such as Mind Spike (Frost and Shadow schools) or Frostfire Bolt (Frost and Fire schools). However, being interrupted while casting a dual-school spell will still interrupt all respective schools as intended. //If I PVPed more I would tottaly aim for the dual-school casts.
    

Warlocks

• Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54. //another long cast for lower levels. SB seemed long enough.
  
• Soul Harvest has a new spell effect. //I now know to watch for it.
  
• Glyphs
  
  • Glyph of Soul Swap now applies a 30-second cooldown to Soul Swap, up from 15 seconds. //boo boo hiss hiss
    
• Warlock Bug Fixes
  
  • It is no longer possible to leave combat while channeling Drain Soul. //I thought that was "working as intended".

Items

• If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll. //I would love to hear a nijia discover this one.
  
• Applicable tier 11 items now cost Justice Points. //maybe I will get some more pieces.
  
• Darkmoon Card: Hurricane damage done when triggered has been increased by 40%, however, it can no longer deal critical strikes and no longer receives any modifiers to its damage from the equipping player. //need to check my trinkets.
  
• The Keyring bag slot has been removed to make room in the user interface for new features. //Remember when how many keys you had was a brag?
  

Raiding Happens

The Spawn in May wearing her "Noctum"s Little Star" Shirt.

I have raided. Then I got sick for three plus weeks and no raiding happened for me.

I had a rhythm going there for a while. I actually got to raid one night a week, maybe even two!

The Spawn started sleeping long chunks at night starting at two months. The nurses all told me "sleeping through the night" is only four to five hours. When The Spawn started doing that, there was much rejoicing for me.

At four and a half months The Spawn started sleeping in her own room. This was a HUGE deal. She had no problem being in there. I was worrying about little things like "How do I know if she is still BREATHING!!" At this same time she started sleeping six to seven hours straight at night.

I then learned that she is a noisy sleeper. Crying or talking in her sleep and not really being awake. I can now sleep through those sounds now! I was afraid at every sound and would come wide awake. 

Since we were on a more stable schedule that was when I was able to start raiding a bit. This whole time Husband was able to raid more then I but less then he would like.

But I was able to raid!!

I was able to talk about something other then baby for three hours with other adults. I cannot explain how much those few hours meant to my sanity.

This might be why I have put off going to traditional baby meetup things. I have a "To Do" for just that, mostly because The Spawn is really social and needs the play time. I'm told that I would benefit too. Unless they are other "old" lady gamer moms with infants also I don't see us having a lot in common. I am to tired to be fake for people.

Then a few weeks ago I got sick. Like really sick. It has been over a decade since I have felt that exhausted from a cold. I don't know how those super moms do it, I'm just working on being a mom.

That ended my consistent two-ish month raiding schedule.

I'm better. Now I would like to get back to it.

I have yet to see the two troll dungeons from Patch 4.1. Heck, I have not even see all of the original dungeons. One of these nights I hope to convince a guild tank and healer to do not so random dungeons. I would like to see each at least once really soon.

Raid wise I am 10/13 normal. I think that is right. The guild just points me in a direction and I kill it.

One good thing is that I am really good at remembering mechanics of a fight even if I have not done it in a long while. This has come in really handy. Plus I have some great raiders I can whisper too, so I can clarify what needs to be done.

Because of my reduced attendance, I have designated myself as Curse of Elements lock. This frees up the two other locks to maximize their dps.

Hydra and warlockery is always on my mind. Miss you guys!

The Sleepless

If you noticed I had a guild change a few months back.

My Wrath 25 guild was suppose to be doing Cataclysm 25s. Then in a strange turn of events (disagreements and laziness) the guild ended up for a moment of 4 count them 1, 2, 3, 4 different 10 mans.

As I have said in the past … I am not really interested in solely doing 10 mans. But I didn't press the point since … well... there was the whole giving birth to a human being. Then taking care of said human being, aka The Spawn.

Husband started raiding with one of the 10 mans. I would jump in if there was a spot and they would drag me along.

This was a good group of officers and members I enjoyed playing with. Because of things happening in the guild the 10 man decided to split from the guild.

I could, maybe or maybe not, have done something to not have a split. It would have at least not been so … sudden for some people. If there is anything I can do it is talk.

When Husbands 10 man left the guild we left with them.

...well.

Husband had a talk with the Officers. I had a talk with the Officers. I would feel sorry for them having to do it twice. It was a chance to talk, not a chance to make a decision. I had already made mine, but needed clarification.

Goals
Loot Rules
Officers
Raid times
Understanding that I still have The Spawn.

Husband and I are now in a guild, that pretty much was the same as before. We were now just in a guild Level 1. (Guild Leveling is PAINFUL for an already 85 group before patch 4.1.)

Then something happened that was funny.

Three weeks or so the old guild officers that were left decided to leave server. LEAVE SERVER. Yea. Bye. Good Luck. Truly I will miss you.

But instead of leaving the old guild to someone, this level 20 plus guild, the GL gave it to his alt. And made another rank for another officer for "Guild Leader". It was really odd.

What happened?

The other raiders left guild to join us.

I am now back in a 25 man raiding guild.

Sleepless, Sleep is overrated.

Patch 4.1: Guild Trolls

Two new dungeons were added. Both drop epic gear. The last few weeks I have been telling everyone to sell their Maelstrom Crystals if they have any laying around.

The crystals were selling for just under 2K on my server the last few weeks. In a week I would not be surprised to see them under 500 gold. My officers were not happy with me in raid telling everyone that this week. ... but really. If you need 3 crystals for an enchant and only have 1... you should have sold it. Then use that gold after this patch hits to get them all back. 

Now that I have some gear and crystals are dropping in prices I will be redoing all my gear augments. I will have to re-gem and re-enchant to their optimum.  I was getting so many pieces that I didn't have time to optimize each time. This will give me a chance too.

Sorry if you didn't hear about the crystals. You could have heard me on Twisted Nether telling everyone a few weeks ago. You should listen to us more.

Below is the Warlock section of the patch notes. Some fun stuff for Affliction and of course all locks get battle res now. The full Patch 4.1 notes can be found here.

Warlocks


* Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%).  //Nerf to our team members, but not us. We are not a friendly bunch anyway.

* Rain of Fire damage has been increased by 25%.  //*blink*

* Seed of Corruption damage has been increased by 20%.  //*blink blink*

* Soulstone can now be used in combat to resurrect a targeted dead player.  //I am not ok with warlocks or DKs having battle res. As a raider I am extremely happy with this.

* Talent Specializations


  o Affliction   //The new hotness. Suck on my Dots.


    + Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.

    + Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.

    + Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been doubled, but this damage can no longer be critical.


  o Demonology
    + Mana Feed now restores more mana (four times as much) when the warlock is using a Felguard or Felhunter.


* Pets


  o Doomguard's damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.  //Don't forget to update your keys. I have both bound but will need to change their priority location.

  o Lash of Pain (Succubus) damage now scales with level, reducing the damage done at lower levels such that it will deal 50% damage at level 20, and 100% damage at level 80 and above.

  o Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled, and is now available at level 30, down from 42.

  o Whiplash (Succubus) now knocks targets away from the center of the targeted location, instead of away from the Succubus.  //Yea, nothing like the minion wiping mobs CLOSER to you.


* Glyphs

  o Glyph of Soul Swap now increases the cooldown of Soul Swap by 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds.


* Warlock Bug Fixes

  o Imps summoned by Bane of Doom now benefit from the warlock's stats.

  o Soul Link will no longer be removed by mounting when in a Rated Battleground.

  o Damage dealt by Unstable Affliction when it is dispelled now properly benefits from Shadow Mastery.

Crocolisk Attacks!

The approaching crocolisk is almost as big as The Spawn. The Spawn is being attacked by a crocolisk. Oh no!!

She waved her fingers and the crocolisk didn't have a chance.

The End.

Patch 4.1.11 Preview

Since my 10 man raid group currently runs with two witches, Faidwen and Hydra, these new changes are really going to put a hamper on our Mage's DPS, Kronin. But no one tell him. Full notes can be found here.If Blizzard said it, it must be true.

Also Hydra's selling of gold and quitting WoW that was announced on Twitter yesterday to happen today has been greatly exaggerated. =P

Below is the warlock changes, but you should really scan the entirety of the notes. 

Warlocks

* Female warlocks are now correctly called witches.

* Warlocks and witches now take additional damage when fighting in direct sunlight.

* Demons now have a new resource system called Happiness. Torturing, mistreating or speaking harshly to a demon pet will reduce its happiness. The Succubus is an exception to this rule.

* Whenever 2 or more warlocks or witches appear in a raid together, the damage dealt by any mages in the raid decreases by 5%. This effect stacks up to 5 times.

* In addition to their current talent trees, warlocks and witches can now spend points in any mage talent tree as well.

* To make the Demonology tree feel more 'demony' warlocks and witches not specced into this tree will be unable to summon demon companions.

Warlock 100% Hit

Finally, the Cataclysm Edition for Level 85.

You have zero DPS when you are dead. Staring at the floor of the dungeon admiring how much detail Blizzard put into the room. You are trying to avoid that one percent wipe. Since you are a fantastic DPSer you know how to stay alive. A Shadow Bolt leaves your fingers, but your screen shows…

Miss

Well that is not good. You have to HIT the boss to DPS the boss.

For warlocks (all casters, I guess that includes mages... but whatever) it is really easy… we have to pay attention to the hit rating on our gear.

WoWpedia.com tells us that no matter what level our chance to hit and miss is the following.

Boss level	Chance to Hit	Chance to Miss
+2 (5-man)	94%	6%
+3 (10/25-man)	83%	17%

Today you can reach 100% hit. If you reach the hit cap it is possible for your spells to never miss. (Prior to 3.0 you would hit cap at 99%.) Warlocks did have talents to increase your hit percent (Suppression and Cataclysm), but as of 4.0.1 there are no more talents hit increase.

You will need to stack hit rating to reduce your miss chance further in your gear and augments.

Each percentage of hit requires 102.446 hit rating at level 85. To hit cap you will need to round up so that you have 100% hit or more.

Chance to Miss	Hit Rating	Hit Cap Rating
1%	102.45	103
2%	204.89	205
3%	307.34	308
4%	409.78	410
5%	512.23	513
6%	614.68	615
7%	717.12	718
8%	819.57	820
9%	922.01	923
10%	1024.46	1025
11%	1126.91	1127
12%	1229.35	1230
13%	1331.80	1332
14%	1434.24	1435
15%	1536.69	1537
16%	1639.14	1640
17%	1741.58	1742

So what is your hit rating goal at level 85? It depends. *grin*

Goal – 5 mans
We need enough hit to overcome a 6% miss rate. From the above table that is a 615 hit cap rating.

Goal – 10/25 mans
We need enough hit to overcome a 17% miss rate. From the above table that is a 1742 hit cap rating.

Boss level	Chance to Miss	Hit Cap Rating
+2 (5-man)	6%	615
+3 (10/25-man)	17%	1742

Keep in mind what your personal situation is when you play. Pick the number that is right for your game time. Anyone who tells you that 17% is the ONLY hit cap is W.R.O.N.G. and now you know why.

Also NOT having a 100% hit rate is not bad. We survived all of BC at level 70 being at 99%. Lots and lots of bosses died in that time. Don't sweat about it. If you do, you will start stinking up the place. I have enough trouble with all the undead locks around here. They need to keep their mucus to themselves is all I am saying.

Yes I'm Here

Don't you hear me talking to you? I talk to you all the time... just I don't think anyone can hear me since I don't ever get a chance to write it down.

So much has happened since we last talked. BRAINDUMP ON.
I hit 85.
A few more zones were completed.
I got to run my first Heroic.
My second Heroic was Deadmines. So much fun.
Blizzcon was anounced. Planning has started. (Send me ideas!)
Katy Perry's Fireworks song keeps making me cry.
Raiding for me has not started.
Husband is raiding 3 nights. I'm a little bitter. 
The Spawn is well. We make funny faces at each other.
Three weeks ago we started making "Buh" sounds. Those are fun.
We are working on raspberries now.  
The dragon daily in Deapholm made me lag so much that I when it was just a quest for me some nice passerby killed her for me.
The decision for a new computer was made.
The Intel Sandy Bridge recall fiasco happened.
Shadowpanther.com article convinced me to go SSD.
With the chip recall I had a SSD and Video Card. Nothing else.
Presidents' Day saw the i7 950 go down by a $100. CPU, Motherboard, and memory was bought.
Rest bought with gift cards at Amazon.com, like power supply and Windows 7.
Computer FINALLY put together.
Woot! 60fps... way better then the 4fps I was getting before.
Now to find time to mess with UI. ... and maybe raid.
LUI from wowinterface.com was recommended by someone on Twitter. 

Podcast going well.
Talking over Fimlys is hard but he keeps telling me too. So I am working on interjecting. Way harder then it shounds.
Have met a lot of great people over the internet.
I'm now doing some of the guest scheduling. My first month was almost all Warlock blogs. I stopped myself. Nothing wrong with that... just trying to diversify.
The Spawn drinking game makes me feel better when she decides to speak up.

BRAINDUMP OFF.

Patch 4.0.6 - My Red Gems

Not that anyone would come to my blog for the patch notes. As I have always said they are for me and I am sharing the ones that I care about with you. You never know your normal source maybe blocked for you. Blizzards actual full patch notes are extensive.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.6
Warlocks
    *     Curse of Exhaustion now reduces movement speed by 30%, down from 50%. Its range has been increased to 40 yards, up from 30.
    *     Demon Armor and Fel Armor no longer cost mana and last until canceled. //My Power Auras will finally stop yelling at me in the middle of boss fights.
    *     Devour (Felhunter) cooldown has been increased to 20 seconds, up from 8. Devour is no longer able to be auto-cast. //I have been intending to macro this for sometime again. It is a must do now.
    *     Drain Mana has been removed from the game.
    *     Fear now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.  //Nice an actual PVP buff.
    *     Fel Armor has been redesigned. It now surrounds the caster with fel energy, increasing spell power and causing the warlock to be healed for 3% of any single-target spell damage he or she deals.  //I'm going to have to get a feel for this change to make a good or bad decision.
    *     Seduction (Succubus) now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.  //Looks like 8 seconds is the new PVP CC hotness.
    *     Talent Specializations
          o         Affliction
                    +             Soul Swap can no longer be dispelled (the aura given to the warlock between swapping).
                    +             Unstable Affliction's silence effect has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 5.
          o         Demonology
                +             Demonic Aegis now increases the healing effect of Fel Armor by 50/100%.
                +             Demonic Rebirth now highlights summoning spells when active.
                +             Demon Soul: Imp redesigned. It now increases the critical strike chance of all non instant cast Destruction spells by 30%, rather than increasing critical strike damage. Duration reduced to 20 seconds.
                +             Felstorm (Felguard) damage has been reduced by 20%.
                +             Immolation Aura damage has been reduced by roughly 30%.
                +             Inferno no longer increases the radius of Hellfire, but instead increases the duration of Immolate by 6 seconds in addition to its existing effect.
                +             Master Demonologist (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 33%.
          o         Destruction
                +             Burning Embers damage has been reduced by 15%.
                +             Fiery Apocalypse (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 8%.
                +             Improved Soul Fire now increases Fire and Shadow damage done by 4/8%, rather than 7/15% spell haste. In addition, this talent has been moved to tier-3 Destruction, switching places with Aftermath.
                +             Shadow and Flame can now proc from Incinerate in addition to Shadow Bolt.  //More auto procing is always a good thing.
    *     Warlock Bug Fixes
          o         Rank 2 of Backdraft should no longer have charges consumed when casting Immolate.
          o         The spell animation for Demon Circle: Summon no longer persists through death.
          o         Demon Leap should no longer cause players to pass through the environment at the entrance/exit of Orgrimmar.
          o         Drain Life cast when under the effects of Soulburn no longer has higher damage than the normal version of Drain Life.
          o         Empowered Imp can no longer proc if the warlock does not have the talent.  //ROFL
          o         Hellfire will not proc the Muradin's Spyglass buff without hitting an enemy target.  //A little late?
          o         Warlocks with the Jinx talent who have an active Curse of the Elements on a target should no longer be interrupted while eating or drinking.
          o         Nether Protection should now proc properly from all associated abilities.
          o         Rain of Fire now remains at the same location it was cast at while on a moving transport.
          o         Ritual of Summoning should no longer yield graphical issues with the created portal.
          o         Casting Soulburn during the global cooldown of a Soulburn ability, and while under the effects of another self-buff, was sometimes causing Soulburn abilities to be non-functional. This has been corrected.  //I SAW THIS!! I just thought it was me and my laggy computer. Nice to know.
          o         The UI fly-out for a warlocks' summoning spells now updates in real time based on the warlock's available mana.
          o         The tooltip for the armor value in the Character pane should now be showing the correct amount of armor granted to pets.
          o         Glyph Fixes
                +             Glyph of Voidwalker's tooltip has been updated to the new pet scaling system.

Dungeons & Raids
    *     Level-85 players can now choose any normal dungeon via the Dungeon Finder. Choosing Random Dungeon will still not add Blackrock Caverns or Throne of the Tides into the rotation. 
    *     Level-85 dungeon bosses in Lost City of the Tol'vir, Grim Batol, and Halls of Origination now drop 30 Justice Points each when killed.
    *     The daily Random Dungeon reward on normal difficulty has been increased to 140 Justice Points, up from 70.
   *     Players no longer need to discover Cataclysm dungeon entrances in order to access them via the Dungeon Finder.  //This is good since I still have not discovered Grim Batol.
    *     Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes
          o         Error messages for characters unable to enter a Heroic raid dungeon should be more clear.
          o         Players level 83 and higher should be able to correctly queue for holiday dungeon bosses.
          o         Players above level 80 can no longer queue for Wrath of the Lich King Heroic dungeons.
          o         Level 68-79 Wrath of the Lich King dungeons again award reputation.
          o         If a spell is cast which provides items for players (i.e. Soulwell), members of the party or raid should still be able to access the items after the caster leaves the dungeon.
          o         The minimum level requirements for many level 1-60 dungeons were too high and have been appropriately adjusted.

Guilds
    *     The guild reward Armadillo Pup now requires revered faction instead of exalted.
    *     All guild banners now reward bonus reputation in addition to honor and experience.
    *     Guild bank vouchers that players unlock as guild rewards now correctly state that they can only be used by Guild Leaders.
    *     Once a guild hits level 23, the daily cap on experience gained is removed.
    *     Additional animations have been added to the Armadillo Pet guild reward.
    *     The guild faction requirement on the Guild Herald has been lowered to Revered reputation.
    *     We have redefined the definition of a Guild Group for 5-player dungeons.
          o         If 3 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 50% of the normal rate.
          o         If 4 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 100% of the normal rate.
          o         If 5 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 125% of the normal rate.
          o         Also note that Heroic dungeons offer a 1.5x multiplier on all guild experience earned.

Jewelcrafting
       *         Meta gems with the Chaotic and Relentless prefixes now have a requirement of 3 red gems. //Finally

All done because The Spawn will not let me read and edit any more patch notes!!

Hydra Done in Hyjal

I completed all the quests in Mount Hyjal. I get along really well with the druids.

Something about Hydra the Almost Evil Warlock helping out all the earth loving Druids always appealed to me.

I enjoyed the balance of quests. There seemed to be a great balance of “gimmick quests” and the normal types. The two that stood out were The Bears Up There

… and Mental Training. (Yes, I fail it the first time because I didn't notice the change in my action bar. A quick check on wowhead comments made it clear why.)

With the Spawn and everything else I only get 30 min occasionally to play.

With that in mind, the number of quests given out at each quest hub to complete was perfect. I could always end with a few completed at the quest hub. If I had to log out there was not a HUGE list of quests in the quest log not complete. It was actually a new set. On those occasions I didn’t return to the game for four days I knew exactly where I was to start up again.

I enjoyed the progression of the story. There was enough use of phasing that it made me really feel like I was making a difference.

Unfortunately my computer is badly in need of an upgrade that I could tell when things were phased because my lag would spike so much it was distracting.

In the end joining up with Cenarius, Hamuul, and Malfurion was extremely exciting. I felt like I was participating. The start of the fight felt epic enough that I even put on a food buff!

Working with them to take on Ragnaros was an epic ending to the zone.

I look forward to the next zones!

Shammie's Cheat

I pulled out my always there PvP soapbox the other day on Twisted Nether Podcast. Individuals have to put as much effort into PvP to be good at it as those who PvE… maybe even more.

And sometimes … I am smacked in the forehead on why this is true.

(Yes, Faid I was not in game at the time I am spying on you from the Rogue’s computer.)

It is Ms. Hydra

With the last two expansions Blizzard has increasingly immersed the players into their game. There is no better example then in the quest text. Instead of just using “Hello, Hero!” they use your character gender, class, and even race to modify the story. I’m quite sure there are even little things they are doing that I don’t even detect.

But nothing … NOTHING… annoys me more then when quest text messes with my immersion into the game and throws me out of it because of how it is worded.

Sometimes I even forget that I am on an RP server. But Hydra has a story that is all her own. Granted it is not that complicated or anything fancy. She does get around but let me be clear….

It is Ms. Hydra.

... and yes I had no problem shoving those wee animals into my Gnome sized pockets. They are a little squished but still eatable.