Almost Evil

Rogue Legendary Notes Part 1

2011-12-02T11:58:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-29T12:01:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

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

2011-09-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-06-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-17T12:22:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-08T09:48:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-12T06:01:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Wrath Close: Husband - Rogue

2010-12-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

Husband raided more than I did. He not only did 25s but 10 mans.

To my shock he helped run a pretty successful raid 10 man group. They had fun and were much more relaxed then others. His biggest understanding was that raid leading has a lot to do with loot, not just the boss fights. If there is anything he is good with is following rules.

He worked on the Insane title. He is about half way there. I am sure he will continue that journey through this expansion.

Husband enjoys Combat. REALLY likes killing spree. With all the rogues in guild it was great that he could really keep up with the other rogues AND be in a "lesser" raid spec. This always goes back to... you will do better in raid if you are playing a spec you ENJOY!!

When we started doing ICC Hardmodes he went Assassination because he picked up the Lungbreaker. With none of the normally Assassin rogues in group... he got it. He respeced and liked it.

Now there was hours and hours of conversation of Hunger for Blood. Initially it was why he was Combat. (I'm a good wife, but not that good to listen and REMEMBER every change. I had to call him to find out what it was.) It had to do with dots dropping off. ... and every-time he said that... I would roll my eyes. *points to self, Affliction Warlock* But it is changed and much better now.

The one thing I am upset at is he is ONE achievement away for both the drakes from Ulduar and ICC. All that raiding and I feel that neither is finished. I cannot even bring it up in our house because I get all ranty. THIS topic makes me grumpy.

He is really happy with the raiding he has done. We got to see every boss go down. Even got to do all on hardmode. No they didn't all die in hardmode ... but he got to try them all.

I know he is going to be raiding a bit less in Cataclysm because of the baby. We should get some raiding in together. I think our reputation in guild will help a lot with this plan. Officers know we can do it. Both of us we hardmode players and learn our class to help our raids. That groundwork laid in Wrath will pay off in Cataclysm.

Again I didn't get his hours /played at 80 but this is what it is at 81.

Total time played: 226 days, 14 hours, 20 minutes, 25 seconds
Time played this level: 0 days, 2 hours, 44 minutes, 47 seconds

Raiding Gear:
Geistlord's Punishment Sack
Precious' Putrid Collar
Sanctified Shadowblade Pauldrons
Shadowvault Slayer's Cloak
Ikfirus' Sack of Wonder
Toskk's Maximized Wristguards
ldriana's Gloves of Secrecy
Astrylian's Sutured Cinch
Sanctified Shadowblade Legplates
Frostbitten Fur Boots
Runed Band of the Kirin Tor
Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance
Whispering Fanged Skull
Deathbringer's Will
Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings
Lungbreaker
Shrapnel Star

Wrath Close: Hydra - Warlock

2010-12-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

I remembered I didn't do a Wrath close out post. I gathered a list of gear and hours. I want to reflect just a minute on what it was like.

Husband and I made a move to a new guild over a year ago. So far so good. Both of us are glad for the move. We miss our friends in old guild. We have made some great new friends. The raid times work better for us. It is much more relaxing.

We have had multiple real life meet-ups. We even have one planned when we go to Las Vegas for Christmas!!

We raided through all the content. I was able to get the Rusted Proto Drake from Ulduar. It was the first specialty mount that I have from raid content. I am so glad it was this mount. Something about it seems very warlock.

I was, at points, one of the top three geared warlocks on the server... my server is so small. There were three guilds for 25 man raiding. Granted I think there were a few others trying to get 25s done. I single out the three because those were the ones doing hardmodes. This was the ONLY reason I was a geared warlock. I showed up, I did my job, and the raid planners tolerated my presence more than others.

I raided through my pregnancy. The Spawn arrived on a Tuesday just after raid time. It is months later and STILL her most active time up is during raid time.

I started podcasting with Fimlys over on Twisted Nether. I am still working on thinking of it as "our" podcast and not just Fimlys' podcast. It has been fantastic! I have enjoyed it. Only other problem is that I need to find blogging time. Podcast time happens because I have a partner.

Wrath of the Lich King was a great expansion and a great time.

I didn't do /played at the actual end. But here it is for me at level 82.
Total time played: 201 days, 19 hours, 39 minutes, 58 seconds
Time played this level: 0 days, 1 hour, 43 minutes, 1 secon
I'm a sad panda I don't know how long I stayed level 80.

Raiding Gear:
Sanctified Dark Coven Hood
Bone Sentinel's Amulet
Sanctified Dark Coven Shoulderpads
Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky
Meteor Chaser's Raiment
Ether-Soaked Bracers
Sanctified Dark Coven Gloves
Lingering Illness
Sanctified Dark Coven Leggings
Plague Scientist's Boots
Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Valanar's Other Signet Ring
Dislodged Foreign Object
Charred Twilight Scale
Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony
Shadow Silk Spindle
Corpse-Impaling Spike

Now onto Cataclysm!

It is All Down

2010-12-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

Today is the Peak. Cataclysm is LIVE!

We have been talking about the Cataclysm launch for over a year. Is it everything you were waiting for? Was it worth the over a year wait?

I don’t know yet. I still don’t have it.

(She wore way more clothes then this. She didn't like it, but she wore it.)

Husband, the Spawn, and I stopped over to the Launch Party in Fountain Valley. There was a big stage up front and food trucks in back. Standing around were a lot of excited people wearing black. It looked really well organized.

I cannot tell you if there was more people there then at the Wrath launch. But it seemed very subdued.

After about an hour we decided it was too cold for the Spawn to hang out till midnight. Most of the hour we were there, we shopped around Fry’s Electronics, but they closed at 10 pm. We didn’t have heating any more.

(Kat Hunter looked great.)

If I go to something like this again I will have to have a plan a list of questions to ask people. Everyone was huddled up. But I am sure were really nice. I was torn between worrying about the cold for the Spawn and actually talking to people.

I talked to a woman who was there at 4 pm! She definitely stacked Stamina.

The consensus seems on twitter was the digital download killed the Midnight Launch Parties. The only reason to go would be to get a Collector Edition. Husband and I have one on hold at Best Buy for him. Since I am at the store anyway, I am just getting the normal box.

It would have been cool to get a CE signed by the Blizzard people at the launch party … but really … it is cold. We decided the 2 hour plus wait in the cold was not in the signatures. Particularly with us having a two and a half month old with us.

I know it has been quiet here at Almost Evil. I talk to you all the time. Constantly saying “I should post that!” I have missed posting a lot of things. I miss you my readers. I don’t want you to think I have forgotten. There is hope I will get back writing soon.** You can always email me at HydRAWR at gmail dot com or on twitter at HydRAWR.

**soon as in Blizzard soon.

Rogue 19 Ranged Weapons Added

2010-11-24T06:11:00.000-08:00

Throat Piercers were the best ranged weapon for 19 twinks for a long time. Then we were given the bind on account items, Charmed Ancient Bone Bow and Upgraded Dwarven Hand Cannon. With the release of 4.0.3a new low level quests and items were added.

For rogues at 19 we have a few added ranged slot choices. The Horde only quest Shore Leave in Azshara you can get the Bedlam Gun.

Bedlam Gun
Ranged Gun
29 - 56 Damage Speed 2.80
+2 Agility
+2 Stamina
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 2 (1.86% @ L12).

Don’t fret! Ashenvale received some new quests. Both factions can do the quest Dread Head Redemption. This gets you the Bow of Ire.

Bow of Ire
Ranged Bow
38 - 73 Damage Speed 2.80
+2 Agility
+3 Stamina
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 1 (0.34% @ L19).

For full twink rogue gearing a great resource is ShadowPanther.net.

Please… PLEASE… PLEASE remember that you MUST turn off your experience before doing these quests.

Patch 4.0.3a NERFED BY 12%

2010-11-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

Last night I took all three of my 80s out of Dalaran. Moly is in Undercity. Inucusia is in Darnassus. After running Hydra from one city to another playing with elementals, I thought Ironforge was the best place for her to be during The Shattering.

To see what is going on you can check out the patch notes for 4.0.3a. Other then the complete change of the world around us… warlocks had a 12% nerf. It took 12% of my fun out of the game.

In my calculation the change of the world is a 10% fun increase. Doing the math this patch is 2% less fun then yesterday. /sign

BUT I can totally create a Gnome Priest. Which if you didn’t know is Hydra’s sister that I mentioned in a random RP post.

There are full notes elsewhere. But in-case you cannot see them here are the general and warlock changes.

The Shattering of Azeroth

In the frigid wastes of Northrend, the final battle against the merciless Lich King ended in victory for Azeroth's defenders. Upon returning home, veterans of the unforgiving conflict against the Scourge were showered with praise for their valiant sacrifices, while the honorable dead were mourned. Yet as hope flared anew in the wake of the Lich King's fall, Azeroth's native elemental spirits grew confused and erratic, setting off a series of deadly natural disasters. Horde and Alliance leaders scrambled for clues about the troubling state of the world, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

Without warning, the corrupted Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, erupted from the stone heart of Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental Plane. Jagged fissures were torn across the earth, and monstrous waves pummeled coastal regions. From Thousand Needles to the Blasted Lands, the surface of Azeroth was reforged through violent upheavals. Now, the Horde and the Alliance must defend their homes against Deathwing and his minions, burdened by the unsettling fact that the world as they know it has changed... forever.

Azeroth Shattered
Deathwing's return has had an immeasurable impact throughout the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will notice drastically altered terrain, thousands of new quests from levels 1-55, and updated level ranges for some zones to improve the questing flow.

New Race/Class Combinations
In the wake of a world on the brink of destruction, members of the Horde and Alliance have taken to new cultures and studies, mastering crafts previously foreign to them. Many existing playable races now have new class combinations. Check the official World of Warcraft: Cataclysm website for a breakdown of the new combinations.

General
• The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm cinematic trailer and login screen have been added to the game.
• Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by 20%, which increases leveling rate by 25%.

Classes: General
• Due to several talent revisions for select classes, druids, paladins, priests, and shaman have had their talent trees reset.
• The damage and healing done by players from levels 1-79 has been retuned, with the base points of almost all spells and abilities reduced. This was done to bring combat times at low levels to a more reasonable length. For most abilities that deal weapon damage, the weapon damage percent now rises per level until level 80, and starts at a lower percent.
• Healing Rain, Efflorescence, Holy Radiance, Holy Word: Sanctuary now have a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once.
• Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
• Effects which are broken from taking too much damage (Fear, Frost Nova, Entangling Roots, etc.) now break automatically from about half as much damage taken as before.

Warlock
• Bane of Agony damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Bane of Doom damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Corruption damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Death Coil damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Life damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Soul damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Immolate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Incinerate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Rain of Fire damage has been increased to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Searing Pain damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Seed of Corruption damage has been reduced to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Shadowbolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Soul Fire damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Demonology
o Hand of Gul'dan damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Destruction
o Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
o Conflagrate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
o Shadowburn damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Bug Fixes
o Drain Life: The Soulburn version of this was charging 17% of base mana instead of 12% like the normal version. This has been corrected.

Achievements
• The Gladiator reward mounts now award Master Riding.
• What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been now awards Master Riding.

Items
• Mysterious Egg now takes only 3 days to turn into a Cracked Egg and has a slightly greater chance of awarding the Reins of the Green Proto-Drake.
• PvP set bonuses now provide 70 of stats such as Agility, Intellect, and Strength (down from 100) at 2 pieces, and 180 of these stats (down from 300) at 4 pieces.

Professions
• Perfect Gem Cutting and Mixology have been removed as trainable skills and are instead passives profession abilities. When players reach the appropriate skill levels, they will start getting bonuses from Mixology (they must know the recipe to gain the benefit) and/or cutting perfect gems (depending on their profession, of course).

Alchemy
o Alchemy recipes now require Crystal Vials. Deathwing broke all the others because he's mean (or because he didn't want alchemists to carry 5 different vials around with them).

Engineering
o The Engineering Tinkering enchants will no longer provide their bonus stats, but the activated effects will stack with other enchants. In 4.0.1 the stats were there (but hidden) and are now removed.

Bug Fixes
• Certain area-of-effect abilities are no longer ignoring the area-of-effect damage cap.
• Mobs and NPCs should no longer appear to randomly gain or lose health during combat.
• Re-summoning pets in Battlegrounds should no longer count towards a player's total healing done.

Known Issues
• Some tooltips may not reflect the most recent changes to certain abilities.
• Worgen hunters are currently unable to learn Dual Wield.
• The achievement Explore Tol Barad will not be possible to complete upon release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Raid Warning Podcast & Guests on TNB

2010-11-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

The guys over on Raid Warning are visiting Fimlys and I on Twisted Nether Blogcast live tomorrow night. It should be a fun interview.

Also, they have asked me to be a part of their Lock and Awe: Warlock Roundtable. Go over there and ask a bunch of questions so we don't start killing every critter in reach. (bahaha *wipes tear* Not like we were not going to kill them anyway.)

Raiding Warlocks 4.0.1 Pre-Cataclysm

2010-10-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

With Cataclysm out in less then two months. There is better things for the community at large to be doing...

Like figuring out a list of changes 4.0.1 does to our gear, mounts, gems, glyphs, Mastery, and any number of things. ...

And if I was a better blogger I would create that list for you...

That is not going to happen just now.

But I will pass on somethings Faidwen has been posting in my Guilds forums to "help" out the locks. (I think it is a devious plan to keep warlocks in raid so he doesn't have to summon raiders or make Soul Wells.)

4.0 Pre-Cataclysm Raiding LINK to Elitist Jerks
Common 4.0.1 builds by popularity LINK
Guardians ONLY attack a target with a BANE spell, so make certain they are active before summoning. A snapshot of your stats are taken and used when summoning, so act accordingly. They also are effected by ALL buffs etc... Heroism :)
DoT clipping has been removed. You cannot clip a DoT any more!

Nerfs and Buffs will continue. So don't get to set on anything right now. Ride this out and focus your time on figuring out broader things then exact specs and gear, because you will have to re-figure it out in under two months.

Patch 4.0.1 Rock Our World

2010-10-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Cataclysm is starting. We were told last week that December 7th is the release date of the next expansion. Today was the release of the EXTREMELY large patch of 4.0.1.

What to expect to be broken:

Your internet will lag because you are downloading MB after MB of data.
Addons will not be recognizable.
The UI will completely change.
Guild UI has been updated.
Professions have been tweaked.
Your gear stats will look the same but be completely different.
Change in Riad lockout.

There are a WHOLE bunch more things. This is the start of “World of Warcraft 2.0.”

Oh… and did I mention that your Lock will have completely different playability with the new shard mechanic. It is so simply stated in the notes. I see some time on a Training Dummy in the spare minutes I get to play WoW in my future.

Warlocks
• There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
• Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Good luck to you. May the computer and internet gremlins /ignore you today.

We are all going to need it.

TNB Blizzcon Meetup Oct 22

2010-10-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

I will be at the TNB Blizzcon Meetup on Friday, Oct 22, 2010. The party is at Bubba Gump Shrimp starting at 9 PM in Anaheim.

Get details on the TNB Blizzcon Meetup on the site.

We will be giving away lots of prizes. Though I would think meeting me in the flesh was a great enough incentive to show up. If you are attending Blizzcon or are in the area come by and say hello to all the bloggers that will be there.

I look forward to seeing you drunk and singing!

Spawn Arrived Early

2010-10-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I have been /AFK for a few weeks now. If you listened to Twisted Nether Blogcast you would know why.

September 21, 2010 the Spawn decided to arrive. She is healthy and a really good baby.

Right now she likes to be up at raid times so we will see how much of that I will be able to do. Wednesday I was able to work on hardmode Putricide with her lying on my chest. But that only lasted for about an hour. It was one hour longer then I thought I would get in.

I am around. If you need to contact me leave a message here, by twitter @HydRAWR, or by email HydRAWR at gmail dot com.

ICC Bosses Rogue: Combat or Mutilate

2010-09-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

Husband (The Rogue) and I were having lunch this weekend and we started chatting about his gear and specs.

He has enjoyed Combat for most of the Wrath expansion. Granted Mutilate was the highest DPS spec. Except Mutilate weapons were the weapons that were being drooled over by other rogues. He could pick up the best Combat weapons with less difficulty.

Design your rogue around the weapons you can get.

Then something happened… and the other three rogues vanished. SO … not only did he have some of the best Combat weapons in the game… but in two weeks he had a matched set of Lungbreaker (Heroic). (Since then I taunt the last occasionally raiding rogue with the fact that we have sharded the dagger 4 times.)

The Rogue now has two DPS sets of gear from ICC 25 for Combat and Mutilate. I thought it was interesting on how he uses them on each of the ICC Bosses.

(Yes. I pulled out a notepad and scratched down notes during lunch with Husband. That is normal right?)

Things my Rogue wanted me to point out:
• Heroic vs. Regular doesn’t make a real difference. It is the boss fight mechanics that determine the decision.
• Learn to Strafe.
• Control your debuffs.
• Utilize your random buffs.
• Tricks, Cloak of Shadow, and Feint:
o Should be understood.
o If not, you are not using your rogue to the fullest.
o If not using them you should not be playing a rogue.

Icecrown Citadel
Lower Spire

Lord Marrowgar – Either spec – We make all but hunters stand in melee. Someone calls out “On HUNTER” and range is responsible for the Bone Spike. For Mutilate the spikes go down so fast the debuffs on the boss should not drop off.

Lady Deathwhisper – Combat – Add swapping.

Gunship Battle – Combat – Add swapping.

Deathbringer Saurfang – Mutilate – Kick butt. Sometimes (rarely) on one add on Heroic to assist but back on boss before debuff drops.

The Plagueworks

Festergut – Mutilate

Rotface – Mutilate

Professor Putricide – Combat

The Crimson Hall

Blood Prince Council (Valanar, Keleseth and Taldaram) – Combat

Blood-Queen Lana'thel – Mutilate

Frostwing Halls

Valithria Dreamwalker – Combat – Save Blade Flury and Killing Spree for Suppressors. On second Blazing Skeleton use Adrenallen Rush, because others typically use their cooldowns on the first one. Always kick Risen Archmage (Mages). (BTW. Warlocks should be using Curse of Tongue on Mages.)

Sindragosa – Depends on where you or the raid is having trouble. – It is harder on Mutilate. The Air Phase and Ice Blocks makes you have to restart your DPS build up. Use Combat if the trouble is in the last phase. Use the Combat ability Adrenalin Rush when Heroism/Bloodlust is up and on Ice Blocks, particularly if raid team is getting behind on Ice Blocks.

The Frozen Throne

The Lich King – Combat – Primarily for the burst DPS for the Val'kyrs in phase 2.

Zul’Gurub Vanishes in Cataclysm. Farm it!

2010-09-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

This will take the mounts and pet with it.

Zul'Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm. ~Valnoth

It was confirmed this week. Over 18 months ago I wrote a post on farming ZG for the mounts and mage book. The only change I would make is add a fourth goal...the pet

4. Razzashi Hatchling

Razzashi Hatchling

This pet sells for a lot of gold. But beyond that with the removal of the raid the mobs that drop this pet will vanish.

In the area of Bloodlord Mandokir are 3 packs of 6 Razzashi Raptors . Then just outside his area is a smattering of the raptors with trolls.

If you are there for the mounts I would highly recommend killing the raptors too. If you want to farm the pet *shiver* go to the raptors and kill them and reset the instance as many times as you want.

Me? I might just pay a fortune on the Auction House to pick myself up one. Or at least keep my eye out for one to resell after Cataclysm.

Your Healers Know

2010-08-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

They make decisions constantly on who lives and who dies. This is their role in a raid. And when tanks go down or when key utility players need to stay up, you maybe on your own.

Can you use your Healthstone when needed?
Can you reduce your overall damage intake?
Can you avoid unnecessary damage?
Can you pot if you need to?
Can you be self sufficient until the raid healers get stabilized?

As DPS you will quickly learn where you are on that list.

We all have bad nights. I am prone to bad moments. I die. But before I ever blame a healer I evaluate the last moments before my death.

Was a tank dead?
Was my designated raid healer dead?
Was the capability of that raid healer high enough to keep me up when the raid goes wrong?
Was I standing where I was not too?
Was I having a brain fart?

After EVERY death I recommend reading your combat log. And if necessary get an addon that records for you the last few actions before your death. (I have not used an addon in a while so I don’t have one to recommend.)

If you are a caster and see you got cleaved for 76K… yea… no healer could prevent that. It was a completely a YOU problem. What? Oh? You say the tank died? Was your Shatter on cooldown? I recommend sending it back to the Rogue who might be able to Evasion tank for 15 seconds. A quick moving Druid might Rebirth a tank in that time. Just because it didn’t work eight times you tried Shattering it doesn’t mean that ninth time it will. But how do you know until you try?

The encounter AOE killed you with a 9K tick and 2K overkill? Was your Healthstone used? Did you use a Health Pot? Did your designated raid healer die? Was your raid healer helping a priority target because their healer went down, like a tank healer? Were you out of range of your designated healer?

etc….

There are a lot of questions after each death. “I didn’t get a heal.” is not a reason to die if there were options and you didn’t use them.

“Can I survive.” is the ultimate game.

For me, this is my game. If we down a new boss and I am not alive at the end it is extremely bitter sweet for me. To take the bitterness out, I make sure I used all my resources so at least I tried to stay alive as long as possible. If that didn’t occur, I research the ability used to kill me. Making sure the likelihood of that same mistake is lowered.

Your healers KNOW if you are prone to death. When things are going wrong they also KNOW if they “waste” a heal on DPS they quickly mentally prioritize to those who will use the time to extra advantage.

Matticus had a post documenting the mentality of a healer when things start going wrong. There are a lot of things you can do to help your healers. Knowing this is what is going on in your healer's head, I ask how can I help.

I am not one of the last DPS standing because I am known for standing in fire, get hit by goo, am out of range, or DPSing random targets.

I KNOW my healers heal me. I also KNOW that if I am having a horrible night, dieing every fight, I get healer whispers “Is everything all right?” That is not normal for me and they are reevaluating my heal priority. They KNOW. They Know. They know.

I’m Female Hear HydRAWR

2010-08-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

I was listening to Kat and Esh’s interview on Episode 97 of Twisted Nether Blogcast. (Yea you can hear Hydra crash and burn on Episode 98. I am told it will get better. Im a warlock I can take the pain.) The two of them noted that they were going to have an episode on their podcast Gaming Worlds Collide about gender issues in gaming.

While trying to catch up with my current blogroll I noticed Larisa of The Pink Pigtail Inn wrote about this topic. She links to some other blogger and their view.

Some of the posts I see on this topic get all deep and “I can change the world” preachy. I couldn’t link you examples because those would be posts I would pass up.

I confess…

I, Hydra, use being female in Warcraft.

Shocking I know. But I see it this way, only the person themselves can effect how they feel. If a male player has an emotional response to something I say… that is their problem, not mine. I do make a point to tell the truth.

Some examples that I have used in raid…

“I am a girl and I can keep my skirts out of the goo, why are you face planted into it?”

“I am 8 months pregnant and I can dance the beams, why are the warriors eating dirt?”

“I am a pregnant female and I can move for Necrotic Plague, why are you sniffing ghoul feet?”

… I think you get the point.

I don’t think I am a better player then anyone because I am female. I do on occasion believe I am a better player then some because I have the results to show for the work. Nothing pisses me off more then dieing from something I could have prevented.

Hey! Maybe I work smarter and not harder because I am female. *grin*

Realm 24 hour Maintenance

2010-08-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

All realms have maintenance today. But a select special slice of them are down for 24 hours or more.

Since our raid team runs 11 PM to 2 AM central time. Our Ruby Sanctum 25 man run was on the server shut down timer. We were doing our second pull at 15 minutes to realm shut down. It was quite fun to see who could perform under pressure and those who… well took it in the face with a beam.

If you do not have anything to fill your WoW time tonight check out Twisted Nether Blogcast. Fimlys, Nibbles, and I will have an announcement.

Here are the realms listed by Blizzard for 24 hour down time.

Antonidas
Anub'arak
Blackwater Raiders
Bladefist
Borean Tundra
Cairne
Cenarion Circle
Cenarius
Darrowmere
Drak'Tharon
Drenden
Echo Isles
Farstriders
Fenris
Garrosh
Hydraxis
Hyjal
Korialstrasz
Lightbringer
Maiev
Misha
Mok'Nathal
Moon Guard
Nazgrel
Nordrassil
Quel'dorei
Ravenholdt
Rivendare
Shandris
Shu'halo
Sisters of Elune
The Forgotten Coast
Tortheldrin
Uther
Vashj
Winterhoof
Wyrmrest Accord

Bronze Door Bell

2010-08-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

This is another San Diego Comic Con post. I will get to WoW as soon as I can think of something funny or productive to tell you.

This year I sent Husband back to the convention without me. My sisters fiancée/boyfriend/significant other (he told her to go pick a ring and she has yet to do it *eyeroll*) went with him. Long time readers would know him and his brothers as NPCs in Valiance Keep. (You maybe curious to know that most of the brothers play Horde and have killed themselves in game.)

Being the wonderful husband that he is, Husband asked if I wanted anything. Well… to go!... but less that I wanted a …

Bronze door bell.

For over a decade I have been staring at the bronze door bells at Honeck Sculpture. They are handcrafted by an artisan. I have hovered over his stand for hours looking at everything. I highly recommend you check out his wears on his online site.

I have this idea in my head that I want gargoyles to protect my house. I grew up with Chinese guardian dogs. My strange fantasy and science fiction mind translated that tradition to gargoyles!

But being that I live in a typical suburban area and in a condo at that… I don’t foresee actually gargoyles happening anytime soon. Thou I am still holding out to making a pair of gargoyles to spray water out at trick-or-treaters for Halloween.

I figured that I could get away with a door bell plate.

Here is a picture of a few. Husband sent me the picture to make sure he was getting the correct one.

The cats have green yellow glass eyes. From the bottom to the top of the wings is almost 5 inches. They are not small by any means. They replace any standard door bell plate.

I had Husband buy the center one, the bat winged cat. I figured it was a good balance of everything that I enjoy without scaring my mother and small children on a daily basis.

I would also recommend his cloak clasps. They have real weight to them. If I was not using my cloak to hide in the shadows to jump out and scare children on Halloween I would spend the money on one. Someday I might, or make a different cloak to use one.

In this age of the internet there are so many great artisans out there to find. Find them and use them for great gifts. If you know any I should check out let me know, don’t be all greedy and keep them to yourself.

San Diego Guild Meet Up

2010-08-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

Before Preview Night for the Comic Con, Husband and I met up with a pair of raiders that live in the San Diego area. It is still EXTREMELY odd to meet people you have raided with for two to three years in person.

We first had to get over calling each other by our online names. You hear the voice and it is automatic. I AM HYDRA. Even in real life I don’t seem to have a problem answering to it.

We ate at Phil’s BBQ. Husband and I were watching Man vs. Food when it was spotlighted. We are always on the look out for excellent BBQ. Plus the prices looked reasonable. Which is always a big plus.

Shammie said they have the coldest beer in town. The three guys split a pitcher. … sadly I couldn’t partake.

We talked about guild personalities. How things were going for them in-game. Game mechanics. Helpful addons. Even how thing were going for them in RL. *gasp*

Husband and the Shammie (who should be a rogue) talked about rogue like stuffs. Shammie is only not a rogue because when he applied to the guild was when we had a party full of them in our 25. Mage and I basically tuned them out and when we couldn’t made fun of melee.

I would post a picture. But then that would mean I would have had to remember a camera AND remember to take a picture… neither happened.

Funny story about raiding with these guys…

Since April of this year we have been having a string of earthquakes throughout Mexico and Southern California. This is normal. Only the current string of events has actually been felt further away and consistently.

A few weeks later Husband’s raid team was running ICC.

While running through Plague Wing suddenly the two guys in San Diego announce in vent “Hold up there is an Earthquake.” (incase it got bigger.)

A few moments pass, Husband in Orange County feels the same shaking going on “Yep, I am feeling it now.”

A little more time goes by and the boomkin and bear in the LA area both let vent know “Ground is shaking.’

It was a very odd thing to have a natural pre-Cataclysmic earthquake be felt in real life. I wonder if Blizzard planned it that way. *grin*

Green Hornet's Car

2010-07-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

Showing off The Green Hornet car at Comic Con 2010.
The picture I took...

The picture Husband took...

Two different views of the same car because I cut off the back bumper...*cough*

San Diego Comic Con Recap

2010-07-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

We geeks of heart and soul have debating in our blood. We argue about everything from Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Red vs. Blue, game console vs. computer, etc. And most of the time we argue with people we like.

I saw this article about what happens when someone outside geek culture tries to … protest.

I had delusions of grandeur this Comic Con. I was planning to go around getting sound clips for podcast bumpers… yea that didn’t happen. Actually after preview night I didn’t spend any time on the floor. Being seven months pregnant made it impossible for me to spend a lot of time standing and walking around all day. I will say that ladies that can work on their feet till the baby pops out are goddesses.

Wednesday was fun. A friend of mine was working the Con. I realized he has a Press pass. I knew … but didn’t look into the personal use of his pass. I informed him I shall be stealing his pass in the future. At least to get into a panel or two. So let’s hope next year if The Guild has a panel and it is not when my friend works.

I finally found a good use for Twitter… to complain about the lines. It entertained me.

I tried to get into Hall 20 on Friday. I was there just after 10 am and still didn’t get into the hall at 12:30 pm. After all that I abandoned the line when Husband messaged me. He said he had a seat at the Batman panel for me. I abandoned my space with no regret.

I was talking to a pair of sisters in line and a mom and daughter about why the line was going so slow. Apparently there was a True Blood panel in the afternoon so no one was leaving. This is why the big halls fail.

Note to self: the big rooms are a waste of time.

For the last 20 years of Comic Con, Husband and I would make a plan for the day and then split up. We would occasionally meet up for a panel or two so I could hand him snacks… or more money.

But this year I was regulated to one of THOSE wives. The ones that sit at the end of a row at a food court table waiting and reading. It was a very odd experience for me. The one big benefit of sitting there for a while was all the people watching I was able to do.

Sitting there I was able to listen to a gal chat about her WoW guild drama. Apparently they made their first Shadowmourne and then that guildie transferred server the next week. I think they are justifiably pissed.

Husband and I picked up Droid phones a few months back. They worked great. We have done everything in the past like meeting times, meeting areas, walkie-talkies, and cell phones to keep in touch while separated. He was able to update me which isle he was in so I could join him if I was interested with a simple IM.

One of the last things we did before leaving was register for next year. We always do this, since it is the cheapest way to get tickets. Comic Con 2011 tickets at the 2010 convention were $105 each. *sigh* (mumbles about the old days when the convention was smaller and was even at the same time as a quilting convention.)

Chat Borked

2010-07-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

When you get your setup all comfortable things the interrupt it can completely mess you up. It has taken me countless years and raids to tweek my UI to how I like it. But then something goes wrong... and it throws everything for a loop.

First thing to happen is ourAV receiver died. The receiver (RIP) had my surround sound connected to my computer to the TV monitor. I played with games sounds and music going though it and only have vent in my headphones. If it didn’t happen at raid time … I think I would have cried.

It was a good piece of equipment, lasted us around 18 years. I don’t know where to start to even buy a new one. It took me six months to pick out my last digital camera.

The weekend after Husband connected direct sound into the TV. I want my surround sound back TYVM.

I have only been online on raid nights…

We were noticing that the raid composition from when we started ICC in December is completely different then it is now. We use to have a full party of hunters, a full party of Rogues, enough druids to make up a party of their own, and then the others.

Now we have a shammie for every group and sometimes extras, all the rogues but two have vanished, there is finally warriors in our raids, and we actually had four Mages in raid *shocked* the other week.

… we still cannot find a regular healy pally that doesn’t lag or disappear.

I am also having a lot of trouble with my chat window. Hydra’s chat was borked. Any link showing up (loot, quest, etc.) in any chant was not clickable. This made me manually have to click on boss loot to see what dropped. I also had to manually right click on people to whisper them.

Things I tried
1. Checked other character other then Hydra. They work.
2. Checking other characters off server. They work.
3. Clearing out my chat WTF. Nope.
4. Turning off my chat addon. Nope.
5. Turning off all my addons. Nope.
6. Clearing out my entire WTF. Nope.
7. Turning off all my addons and have empty WTF. Nope.

Still got nothing.

Husband then logged into Hydrargyrum from his system and it STILL didn’t work. Something was set up directly with Blizzard that made this not work.

After diligently sifting through the Blizzard Customer Service Forums I had hope that this fix would work.

So yea... aparently with RaidID when I was messing with chat window updates and updating my Chatter addon... I clicked on some useless menu item. Who would ever need to turn a window noninteractive. Sillyness.

San Diego Comic Con Bound

2010-07-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

Last week I have been distracted by family and friends in town. We have also started a bunch of baby classes. I get a whole slew of free classes and Husband and I are taking advantage of all we can get.

Husband has been going through his comics these last few months. They are right now all behind our tiny couch. They will be moved to where some bookcases are in our living room. Next step is to clear out the bookcases so they can be moved to where the comic boxes use to be. It is musical books in our house right now.

[Husband] Guess how many boxes I have?

[Me] *thinks without looking* 110?

[Husband] You counted!!

[Me] Do not underestimate the power of STARING at them for over 20 years.

While integrating three years of comics with his main collection he did cull out 20 short boxes to sell off. Most of which are things he has duplicates in a trade paper back or hardcover. It is a start and I am actually really happy with all he has done.

I did get on him for having three copies of random issues of the Marvel Star Wars. He has his original torn up kid read copies which he is not allowed to get rid of. But then there would be two or three other copies. *eye roll*

With all the issues we have I am amazed he only found three TPBs that seemed to have gone missing. I think they somehow got misplaced in one of our 14 bookcases… but with Comic Con this week … he is replacing them. Something random to look for which should be fun.

Our attendance has really changed.

We use to go all four days. Renting a room and attending late night events. Now? Not so much since they started preview night. Additionally, we are just a few Amtrak stops away from Downtown San Diego.

This year being in my seventh month of pregnancy there is no way I will be attending all days of the Comic Con this year. It is not much of a loss since we avoid Saturday like the plague. There is no way to get anything productive done on Saturday. So we have been skipping it for the last decade.

Sundays have been hit or miss for us since a lot of the distributors have not been putting there book at deep discount to clear them out before leaving. A decade ago we would be able to go around and pick up books for 50-90% off because they didn’t want to return home with them. Husband may still go with my someday (maybe) brother-in-law.

Wednesday we are picking up our tickets. Before we do that we are meeting up with a couple of guildies for lunch! I am excited. They are guys that raided with us prior to our current guild and then followed us. We are meeting up at Phil’s BBQ.

The Guild panel is on Saturday so I am going to completely miss it. But it looks like they will have the Season 3 DVD with them so I am sure I will get that signed.

My goal this year is to enjoy not having to push a stroller around yet. I will also have to keep Husband calm. He seems to keep mumbling about “This is a COMIC convention, not a MOVIE convention.” This is why I will not let him go on Saturdays. When we found out that Angelina Jolie was going to be there for the new Salt movie. All I can hope is that it will be on Saturday.

I am hoping that Fimlys will give me a list of people to get bumpers for Twisted Nether Blogcast. That will keep me entertained. There is nothing I love more then talking hired security guys in circles to get what I want. I am waiting for a chance to use being pregnant as leverage.

Don't Ask Next Time

2010-07-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

*Husband opens Hydra’s car trunk to put bags in.”
[Husband] Why are there surgical gloves in your trunk?
[Me] In case I decide to kill someone, I have them.
[Husband] They look used.
[Me] *wicked grin*
[Husband] …
[Husband] You know that is not really funny.
[Me] It is hysterical. ‘Cause you had to actually think if I was serious or not.

Another Blizzard RealID Post

2010-07-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

I have not commented about RealID here on my blog. I was of the opinion if you are worried about it… don’t use it. Someone who doesn’t know your real name and/or you have issues giving your email account to them should not be a RealID friend.

The only people who have my RealID are family and an EXTREMELY short list of friends off realm. The friends were only added because they were off realm. I hope this will make it easier for me to go off leveling on other realms.

If I knew this was coming down the line when I joined battle.net I would have made an email account only for Blizzards use. Oh well… not that big of deal.

While testing the system with Husband I was surprised at how much information RealID gives out. Not only that he was online but it provided full first name, full last name, realm logged into, character Logged into, character level, and zone. I know I like to disappear onto other realms or characters to not be bothered so this was a huge red flag. It confirmed my decision to limit the number of people who I made RealID.

As a blogger other peoples real names displayed is a concern. When I take screenshots for posts now … I have to watch for ACTUAL NAMES. These are not just any names but the people I love and adore in my real life. “Sister-in-law has gone offline” Annoying… but something I can live with because I love them enough to protect their real names and keep them out of my silly WoW blog.

This was my opinion as RealID implemented in-game... I would have liked to have more flexibility (like Nickname, friend access levels, hide characters from friend levels, etc) so it would actually be more useful. But nothing I couldn’t ignore if I wanted too.

Now to the Forum RealID issue…

MMO-Champion.com has link to the blue post and restates it. You can read what Blizzard is doing with the upcoming forums.

Here are my immediate concerns:

1. Minors

I think back to when there was hard core twinking in my battlegroup. Because we use vent I knew that some of the guys we ran with were 13-15 year old boys. The only place for them to rant or rave about a great game was on the Battlegroup forum.

Yes, some got out of hand. I will tell you that there is not one person I talk to today that doesn’t look back at those times and not remember how much fun posting on the forums and arguing with each other. … Ok… that maybe an exaggeration, but the times were still good.

Kids are mean. There have been lawsuits about High School students stalking, bullying, and just being nasty to each other on phones and on the internet. It happens. It is here. It is reality.

As officers we encouraged people to NOT post on the Battlegroup forum because we knew you cannot win with trolls. But they were teenage boys and had to learn for themselves.

The idea that those same minors would have their full first and last names out there are criminal.

These same boys are now applying to colleges and out there getting jobs. If they had a juvenile record it would be sealed and would start off fresh as an adult… like all aspects of the internet … forum post would be out there to stay.

Any comments about Blizzard not retroactively posting names are irrelevant. The point is minors will post under the proposed system because they did post.

As for turning forum post off for minors, what about the customer service? It is just not as easy a solution as switching off.

2. My Real Name

I am Hydra of Almost Evil. That is the alias I go by. Some people know my real name around the blogisphere. If there is a legitimate reason for someone to know my real name, it is not an issue. I just don’t post under it.

As everyone should once in a while, when I google my real name it get another woman in the LPGA, a few of my professional engineering projects, my qualifications when I was a state regulator, some marketing projects I was associated with, and a few organizational memberships.

No where in there would it tell you that I have a blog that has been running about an MMO for over three years.

Anyone with any intuition at all will connect seeing a name posted even on the Blizzard customer service forum to someone that plays Warcraft. As a professional, someone in their mid thirties and looking for regular work and projects I am not happy with my name available in that capacity.

I don’t want a potential employer to see I am having trouble downloading the latest patch, logging in, or having a graphical issue. And as the primary place that Blizzard wants us to communicate issues with them… I don’t see how displaying our real names will encourage that in the future.

3. Other Professionals

In this game over the years I have met professional engineers, teachers, military personnel, doctors, pharmacists, county prosecutors, defense attorneys, fire fighters, chefs, building managers, bank personnel, and so many more. In my guild alone I know more then half have advanced degrees. They are professionals in real life, people like Gnomeaggedon (I will miss you!)

Relevance to RealID on forum? Just don’t post?

The idea that only those who are trolls and flame other people post on the forums are narrow minded.

Well that is nice and all… but what about guild recruitment. Your guild leader will have to post to keep you raiding, bring in new blood, and filling those slots.

I think of my own guild and … it would be unfair for anyone to ask any of the officers to put themselves out there. This is a game and you never know how “playing a game” will affect your career.

We live in a world where we use labels to define those around us. Good or bad that is how it is.

For internal Blizzard use and even in-game use I can work with or without RealID. But to make it so minors and professionals names are readily associated with a game and have no choice in the matter is not a good choice by Blizzard.

Loremaster AKA Hydra is not doing it but happy to push others into it

2010-07-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

I know people in this time of pre-expansion summer are doing Loremaster. For this expansion we know that the world is changing and many want to experience to the fullest.

My friend Ratters has been running around questing and killing. He is completing Loremaster prior to Cataclysm using wowhead.com.

We were talking about how he was doing it. He is using wowhead.com to keep track of your progress. I really liked the idea of being able to access what quests you have left outside of the game. If you have a 15 min break at work, waiting for something or you are not at your wow computer it lets you plan ahead for the 45 minutes you may get to run tonight.

I also really liked the idea of being able to click though on wowhead.com site for the quest mobs to kill, availability of quest comments, and ease of sorting and searching quests using a browser.

If I actually was inclined to quest … I am sure I could flush out my thoughts on the use of wowhead.com for Loremaster.

Yes, I bugged Ratters for weeks to post something so I could link it to you. Hope it helps and maybe gives you an additional option.

Sluggles Epic Adventure

2010-07-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

Gnomes rule ... the rest of you look and smell funny.

I have a half a dozen warlock alts on different servers. This almost makes me what to go level one.

Lock Raid Utility in ICC

2010-07-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

I think they can go suck on … a Ring Pop.

I don’t want to hear it.

Nope.

Demonology … raid buffage… blah blah blah

…WHATever.

I am happy for you if you disagree with me… but I don’t care.

WE NOW HAVE A 25% RAID BUFF IN ICC. In a few weeks it will be 30% and finally 35%!!!

Any … I mean ANY… raid that says a lock MUST be a spec to benefit an ICC raid is just stupid. (You can tell them I said so too.) There is no way that the change to Demonology would be the only thing between the raid winning or not.

Personally I have spent years learning Destruction and Affliction specs. I have not only PvE in both specs, I know them as PvP specs too.

… but Demonology. Nope. I have never even learned the top tier abilities.

Hydra has NEVER learned the change to ugly Illidan purple shadow form. I have never even been tempted. Personally I think it is horrible looking and never have I been enticed to the talent tree for any reason.

I am not saying if you run as Demonology you are stupid. So quit your whining. That is a mental… personal issue. I am only talking about a “spec this way cause some nub that doesn’t know locks and is better off sitting on their thumb and bouncing” issue.

And… No… my raid leads would not be silly enough to demand I provided the Demo buffage. Mostly because I think they are smart enough to avoid the resulting verbal tirade. But I would not put it past them to poke fun of me now that I put this statement out there.

Lock utility is bringing the dps and surviving.

Don’t be Scared of Eclipse

2010-06-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Being that it is quiet on the WoW news front I have been thinking about talking about the books and comics I occasionally read. Husband has a great collection that I pilfer for something to read. I have my own short box of comics to read from them.

Currently I am in the middle of reading Planetary. I am reading the three hardcovers. I LOVED the first volume. The stories were inclusive and you follow the main character from adventure to adventure. Then I started reading the second volume… and stopped. I got twitchy when it revealed who the mysterious Fourth Man was and … well I had a moment of “Ugg. This is so contrived.”

Husband rolled his eyes at me. He made me promise to finish reading it... in a shorter time it took them to finish the series. The set of hardcovers are sitting on my night stand to be finished. The writer, Warren Ellis, did not fail in telling this story, but I need to get into the right mindset to reread parts and finish off the story. John Cassaday does these beautiful covers to each issue of the comic. Each of them is a study in a different style and a thrill to discover.

I will come back to this series when I finish it…

I, Hydra, admit to reading the first three books of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. BUT … okay… I have no excuse.

My sister-in-law had the first two books and let me borrow them to read. That was over a year ago.

When I broke from my casual reading of Planetary I picked up Eclipse from the library. Without all the advertising for the movie I would never have given this series another thought. I have never seen the movies. I also have no plans to see it in theater.

Admittedly the books are an easy read. If you read passed all the emo high school high jinks and get to the world the writer crates, it kept my interest. I would describe it as romance novel with vampires. Easy read for entertainment purposes for moments you don’t want in-depth thinking. This is exactly what you want in a decent romance novel.

None of the books went into my collection. Plus, not one cent went to supporting Vampires that sparkle. *cheer* For libraries.

Maybe I will go back and reread Pride and Prejudice. I also should finish reading the technical book on computer networking I am part way through. There is a fourth Twilight book right?

Video: WarLock [Tik Tok Machinima Parody]

2010-06-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

Patch 3.3.5 - With More Purr

2010-06-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

No change for classes. There is now a new dragon to kill. Also, included is an improved way to chat with those you want to chat with. (Chat = cat in french... the title was clever then I typed it, I'm not changing it now.)

Don't freak out that there was no 3.3.4. I am sure it was a place holder if anything horrid happened to fix prior patches.

Below is the full patch notes since it is small.

Assault on the Ruby Sanctum

For ages the red dragonflight and its noble matriarch, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, have dedicated themselves to preserving all life on Azeroth. Recently, the very heart of this virtuous dragonflight has come under threat.

An eerie silence has settled over the Ruby Sanctum, the red dragonflight's sacred lair within the Chamber of the Aspects. This troubling development has led to fears that the sanctum, home to Azeroth's largest clutch of red dragon eggs, has been breached by an unknown, sinister force. If these claims are true and immediate action is not taken, the benevolent red dragonflight might be crippled forever.

Real ID: A New Way to Connect With Your Friends on Battle.net

One of our goals for the new Battle.net is to create the framework for an online gaming experience that is even more accessible, more engaging, and more entertaining than the previous Battle.net. The newly released Real ID feature, available to World of Warcraft players as part of patch 3.3.5, is an integral part of this effort, providing you with advanced ways for forming and maintaining meaningful relationships with your friends on the service.

Real ID is a completely voluntary and optional level of identity that keeps players connected across all of Battle.net. When you and a friend mutually agree to become Real ID friends, you'll have access to a number of additional features that will enrich your social gaming experience in new and exciting ways. Go here for more details.

General

The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid dungeon featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, has been added! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight. Please note due to the way this patch is being applied in all regions, this dungeon will not immediately be available in North America. Stay tuned to our General Discussion forum for an official announcement on the opening of the Ruby Sanctum.
The functionality of the Vote Kick feature in the Dungeon Finder will now behave differently according to a player's history with the system. Players using the Dungeon Finder who rarely vote to kick players from a group, or rarely abandon groups before a dungeon is complete, will find that the Vote Kick option will have no cooldown. For players who frequently abandon groups or vote to kick other players, the Vote Kick option will be kept on a cooldown. This functionality will adjust itself as a player's behavior while using the Dungeon Finder changes.

User Interface

Chat Frame
Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose to move conversation types into separate windows. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
Using the Move to Whisper Window option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.
Friends List
A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster's Real ID information in each friend's list.
For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Has the Ice Stone Melted?

2010-06-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

Answer Link.

Night Shift of Farstriders Lich King Video

2010-06-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

Faidwen does a great job with videos. His music timing makes me laugh (like using Back to Life when we are mass resed at the end.)

I think that dancing gnome right after the title is me. (Thanks Faid!) I deduce this because I am
1) one of only 2 raiding gnomes,
2) the only female gnome, and
3) the only lock gnome.

If you take the time to watch, I am the gnome running around. I tend to drop a lot of green portals during the Lich King fight. During transition phases I am on the opposite side of the mob then Faid is filming. (He stands by the hunters and they tend to muck out the stables before raid.)

I am a little sad. I was hoping since this was a lock view of the fight he would get picked up by the Val’kyr in phase 2. This would have let me point out the lock portal in action. I think on this run I was the lock that got picked up.

You will notice him placing his portal down each time he changes position on the platform. This is a key element to not getting out of range. You will see me doing it too.

In the last phase there is a great shot of the two of us running to dps. You can clearly see after Faid got Defile the two of us running and casting. I think that was a great lock moment.

When we all yell at the kill you can just hear me say “Congrats everybody” and no I am not the only girl in raid.

I will not make comments on how he is an add-on whore and a clicker… which makes him a keyboard turner probably. But this does make me jealous that he can have that many add-ons running and record video without lagging.

For prosperity I will state that I was third highest dps on the kill. Yes, the 34-year-old six(6) month pregnant woman rocked the house.

... I just noticed in a second viewing to make sure I didn't miss anything I wanted to point out for you...our raid leader yelling at pull
/Y FOR THE GLORY OF THE HOLE.

Yeppers, we are a classy raid.

Check Out Flinthammer Hall

2010-06-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

Flinthammer Hall is an RP blog I enjoy immensely. Ringo has been telling us about his exploits on Azeroth for years. He is joined by his wife Beli and lots of other family and friends.

You can start their tale back before Ahn’Qiraj. Follow them through fighting the Burning Legion. Watch as they step onto Northrend soil and then take down the Lich King. Today, they can currently be found in Khaz Modan.

Reading their stories through the years is an adventure in itself. There has been poignant glimpse into the feelings of a father off to war. (I admit I cried while reading the letter and then reflecting back.) There are funny ones about one of his friends having a sex change and then back again. There are gorgeous images done by Beli like the one she did for the Holidays.

I would highly recommend listening to Ringo and Beli interviewed on Twisted Nether. For no other reason then hearing how they put together all those beautiful images on their site.

Beyond any of that ... Dwarf chicks are hot.

Hydra the Kingslayer

2010-06-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Would it surprise anyone if when I was in Fourth grade I was in a group called “The Ball Busters”? When I was finally caught beating the snot out of guys by the playground adults was made to write “I will not beat up on boys.” or some such nonsense 100 times. It is still one of my parents’ favorite stories about my childhood.

Apparently, it did not stick!
Night Shift killed 25-man Lich King!! (I think we were third on server.) We extended the Raid ID so we could start fresh Tuesday on The Lich King. The first pull we got to the last phase. It looked soooOOOooo very promising.

After that we had a few oopsie mistakes…
like a tank dropping off the edge in transition,
defile being dropped in melee,
healers not know what to do in the last phase, and
IDK, 'cause when I was picked up by a Val’kyr I fumbled my keybinding and hit Shadow Ward instead of my Demonic Circle key and fell to my untimely death.I don’t know how many people died by the end but we got to the last phase with only one down. Last phase we did the run away from the thingies that explode. Some didn’t like it. But for us it worked because it made everyone stay moving with the defile not being laid down on melee.

I stopped and watch the cut scene that I EARNED for the first time. It didn't make it any less awesome. Now I just want to know when do I get to go save Gnomeregan.

Queue Buster: Haiku Contest

2010-06-09T09:12:00.000-07:00

Head over to Twisted Nether Blogcast site for the details.

Yes, the Haiku was my idea.
Yes, the topic of Twisted Nether was my idea.
No, Fimlys named the contest.

My idea was "Buy your name on a Blizzcon ticket that someone LUCKIER and AWESOMER then you got." but apparently that was not ketchy enough.

Realm 24 Hour Downtime

2010-06-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday activities will be disrupted for a swath of realms today. Here is the link to the blue post.

For those that maybe getting this post in their feedreaders and are not be able to see the official WoW forums I listed the realms here. This is one list you may not want to be on today.

Aegwynn
Akama
Aman'Thul
Arathor
Azjol-Nerub
Barthilas
Blackrock
Bloodscalp
Bonechewer
Boulderfist
Bronzebeard
Caelestrasz
Chromaggus
Crushridge
Daggerspine
Darkspear
Dath'Remar
Draenor
Dragonblight
Dragonmaw
Draka
Drak'thul
Dreadmaul
Dunemaul
Eitrigg
Eldre'Thalas
Feathermoon
Firetree
Frostmane
Frostmourne
Frostwolf
Garithos
Gundrak
Gurubashi
Hakkar
Jubei'Thos
Khaz Modan
Khaz'goroth
Kil'jaeden
Kilrogg
Korgath
Kul Tiras
Malorne
Mug'thol
Muradin
Nagrand
Nathrezim
Ner'zhul
Perenolde
Proudmoore
Rexxar
Runetotem
Saurfang
Scarlet Crusade
Sen'jin
Shadow Council
Shadowsong
Silver Hand
Silvermoon
Skywall
Smolderthorn
Spirestone
Stonemaul
Stormscale
Suramar
Terenas
Thaurissan
Thorium Brotherhood
Tichondrius
Uldum
Vek'nilash
Windrunner

Stalk TNB

2010-06-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

You still have no ticket to Blizzcon?

Interested? I highly suggest you become a stalker over on Twisted Nether Blogcast this week.

TNB’s live recording is currently done on Tuesdays (tomorrow, if you have lost track). If you are there it will give you the most amount of time. You will also find out more details on their site after.

As my readers I am giving you this heads up.

Isn’t Blizzcon in October?

2010-06-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

If you scan the WoW blogs out there you would think it was now. There is enough mention of Blizzcon 2010 out there to make you think it was RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Let us recap. Blizzcon is on October 22-23. Tickets went on sale yesterday. There is another batch of tickets on Saturday.

Husband and I actually booked a room for the weekend. The thought was to be prepared. If we didn’t go we could always cancel. *sigh*

Reality check…

As of October 22 if all things go well we will have a three week old new born.

Yea… I will not be one of those peoples… Dragging their kids to COMPLETELY inappropriate places.

I will never forget when I saw a parent bring what looked like a 7 year old to see Lethal Weapon 4 which is rated R. Listening to that child scream in absolute terror as a character gets rebar pushed through their gut. Said rebar was then used to swing around person on a pole. THIS is where psychiatric couch time comes from peoples!!!!

I went to Blizzcon last year. Loved meeting up with all the people, playing the games the vendors set up, watching the presentations. It pains me to miss it. BUT I would have to get a ticket first….

I got tickets.

Not only did I get tickets … I didn’t even have a queue. Checked out of the site like I was there to buy a sparkling pony. (I don’t have a pony but Husband bought one for himself. Granted he asked if I wanted one… All I could think was “Hydra would KILL ME and take pleasure in it.”)

…But realistically we cannot go.

You can scream at me all you want.

Right after we got the tickets, Husband and I sat down to talk about that to do with them. Looked at what we found fun. I decided if we still just went to the after Blizzcon meet-ups I would be happy.

I checked twitter to see what was up and noticed a woeful twitter from @Fimlys that he didn’t succeed at getting one.

That did it.

Husband and I agreed that our tickets would go to getting Twisted Nether Blogcast to Blizzcon 2010.

Fimlys of @Fimlys of Asleep at the WoW of Twisted Nether Blogcast and of most recently Polygamerous.

Saresa of @Saresa of the warlock blog Destructive Reach. Mostly because I have a vivid recollection of her Aussie accent all slurry and giggly from the last Blizzcon. Maybe I can get her to bring me a little jar of Vegemite to try out.

TNB at Blizzcon 2010 made possible by Hydra of Almost Evils clicking finger.

This Day

2010-05-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

We think about those that have fought and are still fighting so that we can continue to think.

Comic: Daily Quest

2010-05-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

Daily Quest has been one of my favorite web comics for a while. Fyreuni posts a new comic on Fridays (most of the time). I love when she features her Grumpy Tree.

This last weeks comic “No Fear” made me laugh so much I HAD to share it with all of you. It boggles me at how talented she is. Look at the subtle change in facial features of her characters. This striped exemplifies what she seems to continue to perfect strip after strip.

She comments on her strips giving insight and further depth into what she was thinking while drawing the strip. After reading it I always find myself rereading the comic to observe if what she was trying to portray was what I got from it too. It gives the strip deeper meaning and is even more enjoyable in a second read.

Lich King’s Val’kyr

2010-05-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Learning the Lich King fight is some serious … well either you know what I mean or you will eventually find out.

Lich King is a place that having a few locks in raid is an asset. I have heard that Hunters can Disengage back onto the cliff and Mages can possibly Blink. Neither of those things are a guarantee like a lock portal.

In the second phase, Lich King summons Val’kyr to pick up random raid members and DUMP them off the side of the platform. Three Val’kyr are summoned in 25 man and one in 10 man. They can be stunned but become immune quickly and can only be slowed, not permanently stopped.

A Demonology warlock has Intercept with their minion. A Destruction warlock has Shadowfury and Conflagrate to stun targets. An Affliction warlock has none. BUT remember the Val’kyr become immune quickly to types of stuns (a mechanic like tank taunts), our stuns could be a hindrance.

Personally I feel we are better suited to killing them ASAP then to play games with stuns and slows that other classes can succeed better in. Remember one person does not make a raid.

YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE.

Before you start the Lich King fight get an idea how far you can be in this room from your portal to use it. This will help you in your confidence of using your portal in phase two. What does the 40 yards look like?

As soon as the second phase starts I lay my Demonic Portal near the edge of the inner platform. I want it to be a close to the edge as possible.

There should always be a line between Lich King, yourself (at ranged as you can be), and the portal. You don’t want to run off because of Defile and leave your DP on the other side of the platform. Readjust portal placement as needed.

When you are picked up, NO ONE SHOULD BE DPSING your Val’kyr.While learning this phase the RL may want you to call out if a lock is picked up. The raid should know that people standing out on the edge are out of luck. The only ones who should be out there are the locks.

Less distance the Val’kyr has to go to drop you off the edge the better.We want the Val’kyr to drop us ASAP.We will be able to return and help DPS the other Val’kyrs down.Key things to remember:
1) Place Demonic Portal at the start of Phase 2
2) DP should be near the edge
3) Keep DP in line with LK.
4) Don’t use your DP to get out of Defile since you need it for Val’kyr.
5) Move your portal if you have to change positions.

Anything else to remember for this phase of the Lich King fight?

Evil Check: Averted Guild Drama

2010-05-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

The guild did a 10 man raider shuffle. We had a three and a halfish 10 man teams going. With the transfer of a few players off server a few weeks ago things got rearranged.

Just because I am not involved doesn’t mean I will not make myself involved.

Husband is nice. Shocking as a rogue, but if you met him you will just know it. Any sarcasm he has is from spending 20 plus years in my presence. We don’t complete each other (I never understood that line and actually hate when people use it.) but we do balance each other.

Husband helps a Tree in guild co-raid-lead a 10-man group. For purposes of this blog I will call it Husband’s 10 man. He will correct me by saying he just helps… so we acknowledge that and are moving on.

Officers worked with Raid Leaders to rearrange groups. Balance classes and styles.

The toughest part in all of it was tanks. In a 25 man raid guild there are two primary tanks and then a short list of off tanks.

Two of the officers trying to “help groups out” were coming in to Husband’s group and tanking. This worked out great … except for one thing. They have their own 10 mans on their mains. In our raiding schedule they only had one night a week available to them. This left the other eight raiders with no tanks the other two nights.

Somewhere in here I started talking to officers.

Here is where I had to decide my involvement. My evil check was this...
1) I had a moment of KNOWing I could watch things blow up.
2) I could start some things so when people start getting heated they have actually have thought about it a bit.

With the second option... there is the benefit of maybe having my opinions in their head.

I was concerned about WTF is going on about the tanks. Husband’s group was told they were getting one of the 25 man main tanks into their group. But after three weeks … it had not happened.

Then … not only were the two main tanks in the guild leader's 10 man raid but also the two geared off tanks (as dps).

We see the problem with this correct?

BEFORE anyone flipped a lid… though it didn’t prevent some steam... I had already continued conversations with most all of the officers. Admittedly I didn’t talk to the guild leader. I respect the GL to much to think he had devious plans. I wanted to understand if this was a conscious decision by all officers or just a tanking spiral of potential guild drama.

I enjoy a good bit of drama… but not near me. I will not tolerate it. I also know the officers are not a fan either.

Most of my conversations went like this (not exactly but close enough)…
[Hydra] Hey. So who are the tanks in guild?
[Officer] That would be Uberpally and The Bear. There are some more…
[Hydra] You could include the Lolret going tank and the DK. They both have great off sets and know what they are doing.
[Officer] Yea. Them too. That is not a lot of tanks is it?
[Hydra] Nope.
[Officer] We need to work on that.
[Hydra] Agreed. Just out of curiosity whose 10 man are they running in? ‘Cause some of the ten mans are looking for tanks.
[Officer] ummm… they are all in the …same …group.

It was about this time that Husband and co-RL were starting to realize the current state and health of their 10 man.

Extended conversations happened. I was not privy to them all. Which I don’t need to be to know what was going on. I was focusing on Husband’s sudden grumpyness and cussing. (He apologized to co-RL for later *eye roll*).

These things take time to address. No one involved had intentions of making anyone angry or lie to them. It was just a situation.

In a night or two some conversations between officers and Husband and his co-RL happened.

I stuck myself into vent. Put myself in-game. I than stuck a “/AFK” comment in my vent comment …And listened in.

No one was deluding themselves that I was ACTUALLY /AFK. It became quite evident when I started whispering them.

Whispering Husband about points he told me that he was NOT telling the Officers. Whispering Officers that the offer of help they gave and Husband and the co-RL pushed off as no big deal was ACTUALLY a big deal to them but were to NICE to say so. Everyone pretended I was not there… which made me laugh.

Ultimately everything was worked out.

This is the thing I love about my current guild. They are adults. They act like they are adults. Adults can be wrong, but with communication and understanding it can be fixed. People can have fits, but it is how they react after them that makes them mature or not.

At no point would I feel I could call this guild drama. This was a growing pain that had to be addressed. Sometimes to do that it takes time and communication. Without either of those this could have been HUGE.

While /AFK listening in … I did have something reinforced by an officer to Husband and co-RL.

“You guys are lucky to have Hydra as an advocate. I would want her on my side too.”

Which got me a whispered “I love you.” from my husband.

Where’re the Tanks?

2010-05-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

I think the lack of tanks in my guild it affecting my brain. I clicked on a protection warrior in the armory and said to myself "That's hot".

I think if he was a gnome I would have actually yelled.

I am not a happy lock unless I can trust the tanks holding the HUMONGO FACE EATING BOSS.

You don’t want me to scrutinize you as a tank. Not that I have to tell you this… but I can be blunt. The intention is not to hurt feelings … I am told it does happen. I state an obvious issue that many are to nice to say. Feelings don’t have anything to do with a tank not using their cooldowns, moving out of things, or pointing the boss away from raid when needed.

As a raider, I leveled a warrior until she had the fundamentals of tanking. I did this years ago to understand how to be a better dps. I also have a bear. I read up on “How to Tank guides.” I need to understand the basic fundamentals of tanking so that I COULD be critical. Plus it has helped out my tanks.

If I can look this stuff up as a Lock and understand it on an Alt, I expect someone who says “I can tank” to actually tank. But can you actually tank? I can throttle my dps, but can you actually tank?

I can go on longer, but I forgot if there was a point. *grin*

Gamer Girl, Maybe?

2010-05-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

When considering baby proofing, I didn’t know I had to worry about things like this!
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/5/10/frostmourning/

Saturday, we had a cousin do an almost hour long ultrasound. My mother and mom-in-law were there too. This was both their Mother’s Day gift. Husband’s cousin has been doing them for decades and proclaimed “If it is not a girl I would be extremely surprised.”

Pretty much we didn’t see “extra” parts. During that hour she (which I will now use until otherwise told) was extremely active. Sucking her thumb and moving her jaw. Keeping her ankles crossed to be annoying.

Husband is left handed and I am right handed. There was already talk about that topic. I told the room. “It doesn’t matter. She will use both because she couldn’t be anything but a gamer.” *grin*

My Priest playing sister-in-law is extremely excited. After I told her, she went searching for baby gamer girl clothes.

I am taking it one moment at a time. I have been lucky so far except for some queasiness. This is why I have not been raiding as much.

Some nights long expose to all the flashing AOE lights, how fast I play, and all the camera movement crits me right between the eyes with a headache. When we pull in ICC the Lower Spire, The Plagueworks, and Crimson Hall all in two and a bit hours …it is actually really bad on me.

I cannot even watch Husband play. When he uses Tricks of the Trade on mobs and his rogue pops all over the place it gives me an instant headache.

When I can I have traded my raid spot on that first night. I really hope they understand it is not because I don’t want to raid. Some days are better then others and well .. if I see that there are a whole bunch of people waiting a turn to get in… they might as well come in on farm content.

Progression fights for me are much better. After a wipe there is a pause. It is long enough for my eyes and head to rest. Plus, with everyone arguing over strategies … it gives me plenty of time ... plenty of time to pick on people.

New Super Mario Brothers Review

2010-05-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Polygamerous the gaming podcast is looking for you! Mike, aka Fimlys of Twisted Nether Blogcast, and his cohorts are looking for game reviews. In a rare attempt for me to be “helpful” I recorded and sent in a one minute review a few months back. Help them out and send your own!

Here is what I had to say...

Last Christmas I gave to my mother the Wii game NEW Super Mario Brothers.

Through the day we sat and played through some of the levels.

The game has the same 2D game play as Mario 3.

Minor changes we immediately noticed were the use of whirly hats instead of raccoon tails. I was kind of sad about the loss of tail.
They do utilize a shaking movement to use the hats with the Wii remotes that I thought was very clever.

There are New types of mini games. A lot of new levels but with highly familiar game play.

It has the same exciting sounds when you complete levels or a challenge.

While more then one person can play… you can be a help or a hinder to each other.

You cannot run through each other but bounce off … which can be helpful to reach things.
BUT … you can also push your partners into lava… repeatedly.

A con for many people would be that it IS exactly like Super Mario 3…
Down to level 1.1 being exactly the same with updated graphics.

But if you are looking for a game that has classic play with updates … I highly recommend New Super Mario Brothers.

May 1st Free Comic Book Day

2010-04-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day! You can find more information on the website. There is a store locator and if you live outside the United States there is an International Store Locator.

I will be visiting Matt’s Store... Officially known as Comics Toons 'n' Toys in Tustin, California. He always has good selection of back issues. A few years back he expanded his store to the space next to his original store. The new area is entirely filled with manga and trade paper backs. He even added a room in the back for card tournaments which is extremely nice.

In the San Diego area our friend Jamie will be hosting a big event at his store Southern California Comics. He has a great selection of Golden Age and will be displaying copies of Action Comics #1!! How often do you get a chance to check out the first appearance of the Man of Steel?

If you don’t get a chance to go to a store then READ something on PAPER. Remember your local library lets you borrow books free every day.

Spontaneous Achievement

2010-04-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

I wrote this about a year ago, somewhere before you could turn off experience for twinks and just after Wrath was released. . I found it while going though my blog stuff. I don’t think I ever post it for you. … Why? I have no idea. Sadly my friend has transferred but I still have the memory.

I was thinking of my favorite achievement I have ever earned.

I have Horde friends in the Emberstorm battlegroup. On Aurum I always had the habit of checking the teams. I look to see if there are potential premades or a disproportion of one class. This lets me prep my own strategies.

On Hydra not so much…

After 3.0 came out I was doing some level 70 Alterac Valley. I would wait until it was the PvP daily and complete it for the extra honor.

I left the Alliance cave and charged to Tower Point. I just passed Belinda’s building and before me Horde and Alliance decided to engage. I was quickly dragged off my mount.

Amazingly in this little skirmish the Alliance had the upper hand. I would like to say it was because I was there… so I will. I start dotting, then I targeted a Blood Elf Pally (yummy pally flavor).

It is him!

I started chattering on vent how cool it was that my friend was in AV with me. He runs twinks on another server and our mains were having a face off in AV.

As any good friend... I kill him. Selecting his corpse I type /hug because he is my friend and I just killed him.

Make Love, Not Warcraft

I admit that I started excitingly ramble on vent (they didn’t care). I checked the BG roster and sure enough it was him.

A little bit later he returned the favor with a /hug and got the same achievement on me!!

Complete surprise and a lot of fun.

Happy Up Here

2010-04-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite WoW Music Machinimas. It was created by Baron Soosdon. He has some other great movies so go check them out.

First it stars Gnomes. Which we all know is the best and sexiest race in the game. His portrayal of female gnomes is fantastic. It takes creativity and guts to clearly portray gnomes to all their glory.

Plus there is nothing like a good party.

Skelly Dragon FINALLY Died

2010-04-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

We have been beating our heads against Sindragosa for MONTHS on 25s. We started bashing our heads on her before we were getting the ICC percentage buffs. It took us all the way to 15% percent yesterday to finally kill her.

First, it was healing. Next, it was tanking. Then, it was dps. Then, it was movement. Then, it was healers again. Then, with loss of a tank it was tanking again. Then, it was movement again. After that, it was not the right people showing up. Finally, She died.

I thought it would be interesting to show you my kill shot verses Husband’s kill shot.

Here I am. I am itty bitty on my screen on this fight. I like to scroll out so I can see the entirety of the room to LOS (line of sight) the frost bombs on the air phase. I do not have to swing my camera angle so much. Allowing me to concentrate on my debuffs more.
Ignore the fact that Husband died. He got Ice Tombed and then killed by it, something about running out of health in there. Healers got all frantic at the end and HOTs on those with Ice Tomb were starting to get sketchy. It is kinda cool to see that Haunt in Husbands screen and seeing in mine that my Addon, Scrolling Combat Text, was telling me I got a self heal of 4303 from Sindragosa.

Off to kill Arthas!

Please, please, pretty please with epics and frost lotus on top, will we please not take three more months for us to kill The Lich King.

Blue Ribbon

2010-04-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

I have been totally behind in keeping you updated. If you noticed there were a lot of silences the last few months. That does not mean I don’t have things to TELL you. I think of things all the time… just don’t get a chance to write it to you. I have no plans on making that better.

Most of those I play with have no issue with gold.Husband has some funny ideas about Warlocks.I always thought kilts were shorter. If you don’t know the reference here is a WoW adaptation. I like to point out with my “less” gear I can out dps the other lock at times because I can get bored in raid and he is funny.It is not so easy to solo a boss that calls adds and likes to ice tomb somebody. But I wanted the black roses!!
This has to be the funniest thing ever in raid chat. The guild is called Night Shift for a reason. I call this bit “Gear Porn”.I love arena ties. Watching that mage crit me was only as sweet as all my dots going off at once.A month later it is still not a dress.Sometimes you need to ask an accuser to clarify. I get away with a lot of things but there is so much to choose from he needs to be specific.
I like this boss view of Hydra’s shadow bolt. So you should like it too, ‘cause I said too.A friend closed account got hacked into a few months ago. Of course they took everything. I forgot his DK was in my horde guild with guild bank access. So here is "everything":
Arcane Crystal x4
Gold Ore x10
Heavy Stone x60
Mithril Ore x60
Silver Ore x16
Star Ruby x2
Truesilver Ore x4

… but left the linen cloth and solid stone. They didn’t think it was worth anything either.

She moved to NC

2010-04-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

A long time girlfriend of mine moved. Jenn went from Southern California to North Carolina. Before she left I insisted she blog about what was going on. She is doing it!!

Divine Finds in Western NC

Jenn, husband, and her baby girl are exploring the fresh food and beautiful land around them. She has got some of the essentials started like coffee, chocolate, and soap. If you know someplace she MUST check out please let her know. She has even put a wish list on her sidebar looking for help in some areas.

Go say “Hi” and as Husband tells me all the time “Be nice!”

Your Exit Strategy

2010-04-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine left the game. He had transferred servers last year. I was able to play with him occasionally on my hunter. Unfortunately I have not been on my hunter all that much the last month or so.

I was told how he left the game. He gave away all his gold. Which since he was someone I talked to about gold making, I am sure it was 60-80 thousand gold. He deleted every single one of his toons, all of his 80s and all alts. Then created level 1s of his main toons, thinking then they could not restore his original 80s.

Random note before I continue…
I have told you I cry at Hallmark commercials, random things, and at happy kitty stories… but I am not normally emotional… I have "moments". With that said… I am pregnant. I should spawn at the end of September. This totally messes with my attendance to Blizzcon 2010, and has increased my tendency to have "moments".

Husband and I were at the Costco food court and talking about Warcraft and stuff. I asked him what his WoW Exit Strategy would be. He had no idea what I was talking about.

I started telling him mine.

[Hydra] I would put on Hydra’s full fishing gear.
*Hydra’s eyes start to collect water*
[Hydra] I would go to a lake… Maybe by some hills, like in Grizzly Hills.
*Hydra fails at holding back tears*
[Husband] Are you okay? *with initial concern*
*Hydra starts blubbering and laughing. Trying to stop. But there IS NO STOPPING THE CRYING OVER LONELY HYDRA ON THE BANK OF A FINE FISHING STREAM ON A SUNNY BANK WITH BIRDS IN THE TREES AND A COOL BREEZE THROUGH HER HAIR!!!*
[Hydra] I don’t know which minion would be at her side. *tries to use laughter to stop the blubbering looking like an insane person*
[Husband] Umm. Okay. So you want to head to Best Buy now?
[Hydra] I cannot stop crying!! Make it stop. Who brought up this stupid topic anyway?

*cough*

No one should worry that I am leaving WoW anytime soon.

I am such a believer of people should figure out how to make their own gold, I don’t know if I would give any of mine away. I may give my gold to my guilds. I cannot imagine giving it away to individuals.

We never got to Husbands ideas on this topic. But I have watched him place his characters in a bed at an inn. Every time he logs out it is like they are calling it a night. I am sure he may have some idea for his main toons.

What are yours if you leave Warcraft for a time? Delete everyone? A favorite spot? Make someone rich?

Beta is Not Here Yet

2010-04-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I have not posted anything about all the “fabulous” news about the upcoming changes in Cataclysm. Nibbles over at Mystic Chicanery put together her thoughts on the proposed lock changes, PLUS she linked to a bunch of other locks and their views.

Cataclysm is changing both my raiding classes (Lock and Hunter) so much that it is a waste of my time to study it all until an actual beta comes out.

There I said it. Right now… I don’t care.

If I get a chance to run around in the beta I will worry about it then. If I don’t get into the beta I will worry about it when the beta build gets close to launch. Truthfully all the bitching or rejoicing will not matter if I don’t have a realistic way to communicate them to the developers. I have no plans on wasting your time or mine.

What I am doing for Cata is helping friends get there gold together. I am yelling at my Mom-in-law to sell EVERYTHING. Heck, yelling at myself to clear out everything. I am going through my emblems to sell things at their optimal price now. They will be worthless in a few months.

I love our lock community so much. Some of the smartest players I have ever met were locks. For lock related blue posts and news check out The Warlocks Den forum.

RL Guild Meet Up

2010-04-12T15:54:00.001-07:00

Our guild leader was heading our way for Disneyland and a visit with the family. A meet-up was planned for all of those in the LA basin.

It is an odd thing to meet people you talk to multiple times a week. I had no idea how many of us lived in the area. A total of 12 showed up to the bar.

It probably would have been advantageous if I viewed the forum thread with people’s pictures in it to SEE what people looked like in person.Husband and I got to the bar and I had to prevent myself from yelling strange things. …
/y Hydra’s in the house.
/y Nox die in the fire yet?!
/y Pull! Wait. Hez is in Dalaran.
/y Night Shift mean anything to anyone that can hear my voice?

My husband was happy that I refrained.

I stood in the middle of the bar, closed my eyes and listened. Weird I know. But it worked. To about 10 o’clock from where I was standing I heard familiar laughter and then a tentative holler of “Hydrar?”

I brought everyone cookies. A good warlock should bring cookies. *grin* I’m not kidding. I made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate-pecan-craisin-oatmeal cookies.

The everything cookies were not suppose to have chocolate in them… but I was listening to an episode of Twisted Nether while baking and… I got carried away. An after thought, if I was really making what I thought lock cookies were, then I should have used green raisins. I like the dried cranberries better so we will survive.

The cookies went into green bags with a tag. The tag said “Cookies! Click and don’t wiggle please.” which is what Hydra emotes when she needs help summoning cookies for the raid. All the cookie bags went into a yellow bag.
Husband rolled his eyes at me in this whole process. I made the straight chocolate chip cookies to appease him. He is not into my everything cookies.

At one point in my planning I had a vision of making a Soulwell box. Where there would be three places people would have to push to activate the pop up top. INSANE. It would not have been that hard to make. A blueprint, a trip or two to Home Depot and some time would have done it. Meh. The bag worked just fine.

Then the night of laughter started.

I’m told I sound in person exactly like I sound in vent. They all are exactly in person like they are on vent.
The smiles all around the table were a treat.

Watching one of my priests talk about healing and how excited he was about making the health bars go up was … warm. You cannot help smiling when someone talks about something they really enjoy doing. He even got more smiley when he talked about his new born. I loved seeing it.

Three out of our four raiding rogues were there. Apparently there was deep discussion of the mutilate spec and rotation. The Pally tank just sat in the middle trying to keep the alcohol pointed in the right direction for the rogues to keep chattering.

One of our priests was beaming when he told us about his bear son getting accepted into a PHD program.
The Hunter and the Tree got to actually meet outside officer chat. The shammie had stories I will not soon forget. A new Moonkin just joined the guild, I thought it was extremely brave of her to meet up with a group of people she has not had a chance to raid with yet.

I did have this moment of déjà vu. It was a moment late that night. We were sitting at the table under the tree with the night sky looking down at us while we talked and laughed. It startled me how familiar that moment seemed.

What a strange thing this MMOPG is we have all found.

I was happy to report back to all the guildies that the guys all had nice asses. (Just because I am married and my husband is sitting next to me does not mean I cannot state the important things. *grin*) I did refrain from going into more detail since the guys seemed to take up the topic from there.Apparently I was being talked about too. Just to you all know Hydra in person is a lot taller then the gnome she plays.

Rusted Proto-Drake is Sexy

2010-04-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

We have been doing a never ending Ulduar extend raid ID run. We extended it for 6 weeks.

If the weekly raid quest was Ulduar, we went in and completed it in 25 man. It made it easier to have that option.

We have been going to Ulduar for two hours on Saturdays before people have their ICC 10 mans to go to. Unfortunately it would take one of those hours to get the group together. But once we did we were able to get one or two of the achievements done in that second hour.

We killed The Iron Council.
Then I got myself one shot. Talk about over kill…We went off and fast killed Hodir.One of the things funny about our raids was the proportion of druids that were in the raid.
One of the hardest fights still is Mimiron. Once we got the healing down we got Firefighter too.The last for me was Vezax. I had Yogg before I even had the Flame Leviathan achievement.In my mail was a letter from Brann Bronzebeard.Learning my new mount made it my 25th!

Warlock Sanctified Tier 10 looks good on the Rusted Proto-Drake. A background of the defeated Ulduar was the best setting I could think of to show you my new ride.

Thanks so much to all those that helped. I feel greedy having, not one, but TWO 310% mounts.

I QUIT!!

2010-04-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

I do really HATE you. Hate you on all the levels of hating. You are vile and a bane on the very existence of all things in Azeroth.

*Bitch slaps you*

K. Bye. =)

100,000 Gold Goal Reached

2010-03-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

I dawdled in making the last few thousand gold to reach my personal goal of 100,000 gold by Cataclysm. I was not in a hurry because Blizzard has not even announced a release date for the expansion. Heck. There is not even a beta out yet.

Being completely lazy I just did things I knew I would make gold off of eventually and didn’t speculate so much.

I made the last few thousand off of the Tailoring Spell Power leg kits, Savory Deviate Delight, and Spices from cooking daily tokens. All materials were found on the Auction House. I only did the cooking daily if it was Cheese for Glowergold, or if I was adventurous because it gives two tokens Mustard Dogs!

I am not really a gold cap kinda gal. But really what more can a girl do next?

Night Shift Recruiting Raiders

2010-03-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

[A] Night Shift - 9:00 PST to 12:00 PST T W F

Night Shift is a raiding guild on the small RP server Farstriders. There are very few raiding guilds on this server, and in truth the pool of good raiders is very limited as well. As such, the raiding guilds are on good terms with each others and members frequently work with each other on mains and alts.

Night Shift is unique in that we are the only guild on server achieving progression that raids at 11 p.m. server (9 p.m. pacific time).

We are currently 10/12 in ICC 25 and 12/12 in ICC 10. We raid 25 man content on Tues, Wed, Fri, and Sunday. The other three days are used for ICC 10 main and alt teams.

We are having some changes in guild membership since day-light savings has occurred. Also, changes in jobs and the approach of summer are changing some raiders schedules. We are looking for tanks, dps, and healers. It's a great time to join us :)

You can find more information about us at http://www.wownightshift.com

NS is a very open and friendly guild. In-guild competition is at a minimum. We are looking for people who want to be part of a team.

Farstriders is a VERY unique place. It is very much like a small town. All raiders know each other, so it takes time to fit in and become known. But, once you are, you're a part of a bigger team than just your guild.

Look forward to meeting you.

Nox

As always before going to any new guild ask a lot of questions. First, make a toon on Farstriders. Then, do a who search for Nox by typing "/who Nox" You will most likely find one of his toons with "Nox" in the name in the Night Shift guild.

Patch 3.3.3 No more Spirit for Locks

2010-03-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

At one point every time I would put on Spirit gear, I would sing to myself a very evil rendition of "We got Spirit Yes we do!" Trust me. Think Wednesday Atoms at camp when they made her smile.

NO MORE SPIRIT LOCKS.

I'm slowly going through my gear.

I still need to go through the patch notes for 3.3.3. Until then here are the lock changes at other places.

The Warlock's Den Patch 3.3.3

Killing 'ems Slowly 3.3.3 Patchy Day

In Game Stuffs

2010-03-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been one of those raiders that log into game on raid night and then logging out.

ICC has been giving me a headache.

…ugg

That is not quite correct.

Mini Rant

I have a mental issue with a raider or two.

My intolerance for people who state things that have already been said as a new discovery for them that they have not been doing the entire time … is extremely low. Their new discovery contributed to us wiping for 7 pulls. Amazingly it was addressed by someone prior to the first pull. Listening is a skill.

I know it is not that bad. Something in their tone of voice and inflection of what they say is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

I think the thing that triggered me in dislike and completely ignoring one of them was hypocrisy.

I make mistakes. You make mistakes. We make mistakes ‘cause we are human. I make efforts to say when I don’t know something and will own up to my mistakes when I recognize them.

Sometime people think when I ask a lot of questions it is cause I don’t agree with them. Not the case most of the time. For me to know how to not to repeat the mistake I need to sometimes ask a couple of dozen questions.

One guy comes off as he knows everything and then doesn’t own up to when he F-ks up. Nothing looses any respect I have for a person than that.

And…Don’t get me started about loot whoring.

*goes get a drink*

Raid 25 man

We have been messing with Sindragosa in 25s. We have a great first night with her this week. In the time of our 5 good pulls we are consistently getting to the last phase. The raid has the positioning of the flight phase down.

This is a fantastic thing to see.

In the last phase, people are getting over whelmed with balancing their debuffs and when to scrub them.

We will have it down soon. Then it will be off to kill the Lich King.

Raid 10 man

I have shuffled my feet enough I have gotten out of ALL OF THEM.

It is good for me to be a filler. I help in a couple of 10 mans if they need a person to fill in. Really I just cannot commit to running ICC forever. I know my limits. As it is I am not known for being “nice”. I don’t need to expose people to that all the time. It is good for my health and … theirs.

Wait.

Actually I am in a dedicated 10 man. Ulduar!!

For two hours on Saturdays we knock out 1-3 of the hard modes in Ulduar. Sometimes it takes an hour just to get the group filled. But we still get something done.

I still need Firefighter and I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning for my Rusted Proto-Drake.

With another group I completed the One Light in the Darkness for Yogg. I got really good at strafing in a backward circle for that fight.

I really hope we get it done before the achievement disappears. At least we are trying for it, which has been a load of fun.

Heroics

I have pretty much stopped doing the daily Heroics. I still don’t have my perky pug pet. I should really check to see how much farther I have to go with it. I’m sure it is not far.

Maybe I will get that knocked out. I just might finally get the Blue Drake.

The Liberation of Gnomeregan

2010-03-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

Finally we WILL take it back. Our home. Our place.

Thinking back to those dark days of what is now called the Third War is difficult. It was a time for me when I was still training in the arts of the warlock. It had only been a year since the Warlock visited the mage trainer to find me fumbling with the arcane.

Yes. Yes. It must come to a shock to you. Father and Mother first sent me to mage training. Father is a merchant and Mother is one of the finest tailors in all of Azeroth. What would they know about the finer points of magic? They put me on my destined path, which I thank them for to this day.

When the troubles started Father and Mother with my little sister were on a buying expedition. Initially they gathered fine linens and silks for Mother’s work, then quickly to food, clothes, and supplying those that survived.

With everything moving so quickly we lost contact.

We. I still think of us as “we” after all this time.

I should have stayed at his side. I should not have listened to him. I should have gone in his stead. I should have been taken by the Troggs instead of him. I should have … died in his place.

I struggle with the memory of Baryll, my brave brother.

With my minor magic Baryll had me help with the engineering of weapons. I helped keep the furnaces going. I moved resources. I carried messages.

Baryll helped build machines and weapons to protect the gnomes attacking the Troggs. He was smart and innovative and in a few years may have been able to work with the High Tinker himself.

As the builder of this new armor I should have known he would be the first to try them out in the field.

I did everything I could do.

… At least I keep telling myself that.

Many years have gone past.

I have finished my training. I have learned the finer points of warlockery. I have been known to shepherd new locks into the shadows. I still refine the arts of killing as he did. But today I need nothing but the power I hold.

My brother is at rest. But my memory of him will not be until I can complete the task he set forth for himself.

Gnomeregan will be free.

Now is the time.

New Lock Stuffs

2010-03-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

A lot of new lock changes are being whispered about in the far corners of taverns and back alleyways.

Go check out the front page news of The Warlock's Den for upcoming patch 3.3.3 items and a few relevant blue posts.

Blizzard is starting to flesh out the Cataclysm changes for casters. Plus they are starting to release more information about Soul Shards. (It is not much but ... they are thinking about it.)

Hit Calculator

2010-03-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

Wow heroes has a simple little hit calculator. You can find it here.

We should all know how to calculate warlock hit rating.This confirms it and gives a quick check of raid buffs you should look out for to increase your hit rating.

My Rogue is constantly jabbering on about hit rating. As a melee class they have a hit cap for their specials and then for their white damage. When designing your gear you have to decide early what your goals are for hit.

It is very easy to use. I looked at the information on warlocks, hunters, and rogues so the data should be good for all classes. If your perception of hit is different from the tool check if you can back calculate what they are doing. Sometimes you can find things you are missing that way.

Turn of DPS

2010-02-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

Husband and I came to this guild so that we could stay on server. One of the key points to staying on server was regular raiding. We are two DPS. That had its challenges.

When we joined they were recruiting a rogue or two. They had 4 raiding warlocks… my time was not likely.

The Rogue was into raids. Husband was suddenly the third Rogue. And the only Combat Rogue. Once they got the three way tricks of the trade going they were fine.

Husband can run raids seven days a week. Me? Not so much.

Suddenly all the locks but one vanished. (You cannot prove that I did anything to them. *cough*)

I am now the second warlock.

I think I would go insane if I regularly raided seven days a week.

We run 25s four days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The number of days does change depending on sign ups. Only two are progression nights.

That would be fine. My issue right now is… 10 mans.

Husband has been in an established 10 man. There was some trouble with tanks but they are working that out.

I was doing 10 mans on Moly for a while. Raids were going to be back to back. My Horde raid would end and then I would have to run to my Alliance raid.

It seemed really hard to justify taking a spot when I would have to leave at raid time with no expectations. Plus my horde guild seems to have some great people signing up for raids.

Plus I need to find time to eat.

Here I am now months into raiding with my guild. I do not have an established 10 man raid group. I have mostly messed around in alt runs or filled in a night or two. I have been asked by my Husband's group to attach myself to them. I have now been asked by the guild leader to join his.

When the first 10 man asked me I made a deal. Sure I would join only if OS3D is done. “No Problem” I was told.

The guild leader asked me one week to come in for Sindragosa. My answer? “Sure if we do OS3D first.” He would have to ask of course.

Truthfully, I was using up all my opportunities to come into a raid that had all but two bossed down. It was not so much the loot I minded losing but that was a lot of Emblems of Frost. We were able to 9-man OS3D since the 10th didn’t log in until 25 minutes after start of raid time.

I don’t think I could commit to a 10 man from start to finish on the three non-25s nights. I like PVP, fishing, playing Horde, doing random crap, and even being off game. *gasp*

Right now I have choices. It is good to be wanted DPS. At the same time … I am watching the TV, sewing, and Sudoku.

This DPS can be bought for an OS3D run.

I think that makes me a DPS whore? Yes, Hydra, you are a DPS whore, wear it proudly. I can be bought!

... still. I do need to find a blanace between raiding and other things in my life. I don't know what to do about the 10 man raiding.

DPS is replaceable.

2010-02-24T06:01:00.000-08:00

I have gotten a lot of grumpy remarks for saying this….

DPS is replaceable.

I have learned to live by this. To use this. To embrace the good and bad of this statement.

The bad: Getting swapped out and replaced.

The good: You really can say “No” and know they will go find someone else.

I don’t recall a raid that did not happen because I was the only one who said “No, I don’t want to go.”

I Cried

2010-02-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

… you want to fight about it??!!

Everyone starts off new.

I was not use to being new. That first month in guild was tough.

Everyone is now whispering into the raid. I am now in this quickly filling up raid of 24, 25, 26, …, 31, 32 raiders.

I watch the raid leaders move unfamiliar names (to me) into groups 1-5. They get to go in and play when I sit in group 8… NOT going.

I indicated I am willing but … I am literally benched.

But I know I still have to be in vent… so I know the strategies if/when I am brought in.*grumble*

Truthfully I had a few “moments”. That went like this…

*Hydra staring at the screen*

/Y Don’t THEY *points angrily at the screen* know who I am! Don’t THEY know what I can do! I get to call out stuff. DON’T THEY KNOW MIMIRON IS MY BITCH. MALYGOS IS MY LEFT SHOE. Of course they don’t! Bitches.

[Husband] I hear yelling. Are you ok?

[Hydra] Yes I am fine. I’m making popcorn, want some?

This is just the normal time waiting in the wings. Waiting for a chance to prove I can move out of the fire. Waiting for a chance to dps to the point of breaking my gear.

It took some time for me to get use to the swapping people in and out for some boss fight. Changes were mostly based on if you needed gear from the encounter. Not necessarily about classes.

I took the time to ask more questions.

I observed how people interacted with each other.

I made notes on who or what I didn’t like.

At the same time looked at the reason it was that way. I ended up scribbling out or answered the things that concerned me.

I finally get into a TOC25. I have run the TOC10 a dozen times before with no problem. I died in an Icehowl crash.
…
…
I was so pissed I cried. Is that not NUTS! I, Hydra, cried cause I DIED on a boss that I have done a gazillion times.

I laid down to sleep after raid and had to get up again. I was so pissed that I couldn’t stop crying like a BOY. I cried like a little boy who just scrapped their knee. It was not even doing something cool like trying a wheelie.

I let myself down.

I quickly got over it.

Still… I did cry.

I am quite sure it was a bruised ego. Truthfully I didn’t realize I even had an ego. Being new will test what ego you do have. You will be tested at every turn. Not only with what you do in raid, but what you say in guild chat, in raid, even in vent. You will be scrutinized by everyone in raid. Not only by the people who are suppose to be but EVERYONE.

Going through the door is the first step. Just like in a job, you now have to back up what you put on your guild application.

If you actually get all emotional for the first time EVER about the game don’t let anyone in guild know *looks at the calendar* until three or four months after the event… if at all.

Moly the Undying

2010-02-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

Head back to December 30, 2009. Moly was sitting in a raid for some Ulduar hardmodes. Unfortunately we only had seven in raid and we were not looking to PUG the other spots.

Tanks
Morbid the Grumpy, if there is a not so bright spot on a sunny day he would be in it. Even with that if you can get him to smile, you know it was at someone’s expense.

Uba the OP, as a Pally tank should not be able to /AFK tank and go grab a drink. Once known around Almost Evil as “THE Mage”, he is the best mage I have ever run with.

Healers
Arch of the Broken Hand, priest that has a tendency to want to shadow. Who will be going into surgery for tendons in his hand in a few weeks.

Alo the New, Resto druid with a sweet voice and no idea what she got herself into by joining us.

DPS
Rybo the Guild Drunk, he can warlockery better drunk. Get him going in vent and you cannot get him to stop.

iLock the Sweet, he is my partner in crime in making fun of Rybo. He also doesn’t get to raid much so it is always a treat when we can.

Moly the Hunter, she is a noob hunter who only knows fights from the warlock perspective.

Standing in Dalaran making stacks of Ink of the Sea, a call out for Naxxramas Undying was made.

Can we seven man Undying?
Why not!!

It will be better then farming more heroics and heck of a lot better then standing around Dalaran.

Here is the list of achievements Moly received on one run of Naxx.

Sapphiron's Demise (10 player)
The Hundred Club (10 player)
Kel'Thuzad's Defeat (10 player)
Subtraction (10 player)
The Construct Quarter (10 player)
The Safety Dance (10 player)
The Plague Quarter (10 player)
Arachnophobia (10 player)
The Arachnid Quarter (10 player)
The Military Quarter (10 player)
The Dedicated Few (10 player)
The Fall of Naxxramas (10 player)
The Undying

With only three DPS we were 20 seconds off from getting the Patchwerk three minute kill. It was a clue that we were not going to have any trouble DPSing our way through the instance.

As a hunter I was suppose to kite Gluth’s adds. Well that didn’t go so well. I had no idea where they came from. I had no control. I didn’t do so hot. Half way through Uba took over the kiting and I turned to kill the boss fast.

I did have a close call with Heigan where on the first move I got a little singed. Scared me, I almost went down but with some quick heals and some focus I had no more problems.

We left Four Horsemen for last. For most of the run we talked about how we were going to do the fight. With only seven of us it was impossible to do and guarantee that no one would die.

We pulled in an eighth. An under-geared Holy Pally alt of a guildie who would be following Uba ensuring he didn’t go down. It was all we needed.

It was the most relaxing focused run I have ever done. There was joking and laughing. It was a really great time. We were all prepared to fail but stayed encouraged that we all had the knowledge to get this done. Yes, people died from frogger, but that was how we knew it was a Naxx run.

First Thoughts on Sindragosa

2010-02-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

We now get a chance to kill the big dragon on the log-in screen. If this is not a sufficient reason for you to want to kill her think of it this way. Who do you see when you are DCed? Sindragosa

RAWR

Tankspot has some variations of boss placement. My tanks placed Sindragosa to the left of the stairs. At the point where the stairs end and the platform starts.

As ranged DPS you don’t have to worry about the Cleave, Tail Smash, and Frost Breath. As in all dragons there is just no reason for us to be in front or behind.

Unchained Magic… *growls* we will get back to that one.

Icy Grip sucks you into melee range of her. She then casts Blistering Cold. After the 5 second cast there is an AOE that kills anyone in a 25 yard area.

Demonic Portal is your friend. Put your portal out in ranged and after getting gripped you can port back to it.

Don’t rely on only your portal. You can portal on the run. MOVE. Portal. Then Move some more.

I had no problem at all in the first 10 attempts. I was caught once standing on my portal still to close, so I learned to keep moving. It happened because the tank needed to move the dragon and I didn’t adjust my portal placement.

Then there were the next few attempts. I kept moving … but started dieing from being to close. My portal failed and so I had to run like everyone else.

I needed to minimize my flight time when Icy Gripped. As we wiped and wiped I apparently was moving as FAR AWAY FROM ALL THE SMELLY RAIDERS as I could. I was at my max range. Really, it was nine guys running around for over two hours. I shoved some frost lotus (I know it is expensive but it was for a good cause) into my nose. Getting closer to the dragon shaved off flight time of the grip, giving me the 0.5 sec I needed to make the last few steps out of the AOE of death.

*sigh* Unchained Magic.

When you get Unchained Magic every time you cast you get one stack of Instability debuff on you. Each Stack will deal 2,000 damage when it falls off after 8 seconds after not casting. (No, you cannot just continually cast. It expires automatically after 30 seconds.)

Work with your healers. Initially I was allowing 5-6 stacks on me before waiting the 8 seconds for the debuff to drop off. Eventually we moved that to 8-9 stacks.

Every SB, Haunt, UA, Corr, CoA, and even a Life Tap will add a stack. I think even portaling to your Demonic Circle puts a buff on you. Our job is DPS. Standing there starring at dragon butt is not an option. Attacking with your wand does not put Instability stacks on you. Yea, I totally wand the dragon, that was more DPS then standing there.

Then there is an Air Phase. It is raid awareness. Raiders who are marked with the Frost Beacon and then Iced Tombed place themselves where the rest of the raid can line of sight the Frost Bombs.

I am a player that does not always look at the fight head on. I constantly mess with my camera angle and how far I am zoomed in or out. I also look at my toon from the side or even above. It is imperative for you to make a straight line from the Frost Bomb to the Ice Tomb to the top of your head.

To keep my trinket buffs up I DPS the Tombs only a bit. We had melee work on them.

An unexpected hard part was actually the transition from phase 2 (air phase) back to phase 1 (ground phase).

Affliction warlock DPS has to be ramped up. Our dots need to start ticking. By the time the dragon lands… all your work is gone. So I got a lot of time to learn to be efficient at starting the DPS cycle.

At 35% you go into the last ground phase. Sindragosa has all the same ground phase abilities but adds Mystic Buffet. Pretty much making you useless if you get Unchained Magic cast on you. You also get an Ice Tomb on a player that will help you manage your debuff stacks.

If raiders are not good with their spacing or they don’t anticipate where bad things can happen phase 3 is hard. Everyone needs to have controlled movement. Everyone needs to manage their debuffs.

I got to the point that if I had Unchained Magic it was more important that I do nothing so I survived at the end of the 30 seconds, than any DPS I could contribute at that point. Figure out what the debuffs look like and manage them accordingly.

A girl can only take so many 2%, 3% 7% wipes until the dragon finally dies. I did more damage then the other lock, completely must have been all the wanding I did (inserted only to annoy the other lock.)

With a dead dragon… we went after the Lich King.

[RL] What is the difference between real raiders and us?
[RL] They know how to get to the next boss.

We ran around. Went up and down elevators. Went around in circles. Crossed paths.

From Sindragosa’s room, turn left, go up the ramp. There is an elevator which puts you in a hallway facing the val’kyr room. Avoid the val’kyr as you run to the center transport that is now working. It takes you directly to the Lich King.

We got him to around 82% before we died a painful but swift death.

Heartbreaker

2010-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

A good achievement to get on Valentine’s Day.

ICC Fun with Kilrogg

2010-02-12T06:44:00.000-08:00

So…

Yea…

Bored warlocks are … bored.

If you are curious like I am…

Eye of Kilrogg DOES NOT agro trash.

Eye of Kilrogg DOES agro the boss.

Next time the RL goes /afk I will check out Lady Deathwhisper.

Differently

2010-02-11T15:32:00.000-08:00

[RL] Stop dieing.

[Hydra] You told me to do it differently. So differently I am doing it.

[Hydra] Since you asked me to do it differently I have to throw out the difference. It is different then what I have been doing the last 60gazzion attempts and am relearning it differently.

[Hydra] Unfortunately this new differently is different enough that difference makes me die.

Following is where Hydra rambles some more…
When I learn a new encounter it is extremely fun. There are some fights that are classified as “tank fights” or “healer fights”. Every once in a while it is a “dps race”.

A big HUGE part of my dps is movement planning.

To effectively move well I consider
Boss cooldowns,
My cooldowns,
My DoTs,
Tank placement,
Healer placement,
Life Tap timing, etc.

Affliction is the least movable spec right now for locks. If you remember I noted with the combining Siphon Life with Corruption was a HUGE movement nerf to Affliction. I love the damage change… but I like to move. A change of three instant casts down to one.

Once everything is applied affliction’s only instant spell is Curse of Agony. CoA gets refreshed every 24 seconds. If glyphed it is 28 seconds.

Destruction locks can plan on moving every Conflagrate. The cooldown is every 10 seconds.

It might be basic but movement is also when you use your Life Taps, Death Coil, and Nightfall procs.

I move way more then my instants allow me. … Why? Umm. Because dieing is bad.

A fight like Rotface, I am killing boss and planning. I am positioning myself so things on the grown don’t kill me. I move from things thrown at me. I watch where the off tank is. I plan my course if I get oozed. I watch the wall spouts so I know where it is safe to run too. I see who is next to me. I watch if the off tank changes direction. I watch if the tank turns the boss around.I have my next three spells planned out.

I plan how many steps I have to take.

That is correct… down to the steps.

Rotface sprays in my direction. I need to move three steps. It looks like I will get sprayed but… I don’t.

Then there was this weeks Professor Putricide (This was the topic of the “difference conversation” with my RL. Granted a bit one sided. But well. … I was dieing and I don’t like dieing. … at all. I use to stay in melee so I would miss the oozes all together and then just dodge the flasks on the ground. To ranged with you!)

TOSSING OOZES ARE CLOSER THEN THEY SEEM.
(Seriously … they are like car mirrors.)

I WILL GET YOU, WARLOCK! AND YOUR LITTLE FELPUPPY, TOO!!
(I swear that is exactly what the oozes emote at you. Listen the next time you will hear it too.)

If I had a computer that could handle recording WoW, I would love to show you how I move in the Putricide fight. But there are probably bunches on youtube by now.

Point of all this… I don’t know. Except a place to put some screenshots…

Staying alive is more important then dps, BUT giving your movement purpose gets the boss killed.

It's Football

2010-02-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

[Hydra] I want the Colts to win.
[Husband] Why would you want the Colts to win?
[Hydra] Because they are not the other team.
[Husband] The Saints
[Hydra] Yea, them. I want the Horsie team to win.
[Husband] I don't want Peyton Manning to win.
[Hydra] I don't know who he is. I just want the Horsie team to win.
[Husband] *eyeroll*
[Hydra] For PONY!!!!!

WoW Achievements on a Blogger Blog

2010-02-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

Some creative bloggers on Blog Azeroth created two different ways to put your last five achievements onto your blogger.com blog.Even with the recent armory changes this has continued to work.

I tested out both methods and found both to work very nicely.

Zigi of Twenty-Five Boxes did an extremely customizable achievement feed using yahoo pipe.

Gameldar of WoW in and Hour made a custom google gadget. This is what you will see on Almost Evil’s side panel.

If you want more information you can find it in the Blog Azeroth Forum at Platform: Blogger - Achievement Feed?

What?

What is this?

You want me to give you the information here?

*smirks* I think not.

Go sign up at Blog Azeroth, if you are not already, to get some great WoW blogging resources. Make sure you introduce your blog to everyone. Don’t worry we don’t bite… much.

Don’t get grumpy at me for not straight out telling you. I made Ratter do the same thing. Equal opportunity torture I say.

Meet Me In Azeroth

2010-02-05T06:24:00.000-08:00

Meet Me In Azeroth - Diamond Town
My favorite part is where they get ganked dueling. I lol’ed.

Truthfully… it took me a second viewing to register why the one gentleman was wearing a robe. Yea. Yea. Yea. He plays a mage. Why would I ever think anyone would willingly play a mage? I figured it out all by myself … thanks.

Ticket for Hydra’s Cockiness

2010-02-04T06:01:00.000-08:00

Tuesday raid night we went to kill the new boss, Toravon the Ice Watcher, in Vault of Archavon. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect. I just killed boss and killed adds.

He dropped the Sanctified Dark Coven Gloves. I won them in a roll off/bid/no you take them discussion. They are not an upgrade from my current gloves. But I will use them once I can get a fourth piece for the 4-piece set bonus.

If you have not had a chance to look, the helm and shoulders for Tier 10 are the strongest pieces. Those are the first pieces I picked up.

Off to ICC!!

First wing we are really quick on. WHAM! BANG! POW! Everything dead.

Exalted!

I’m a “force to be reckoned with.” Ormus said it, not I.

It was a funny night. We wiped on Festergut. A couple of times. It was from mostly inattention and people just spazing, like me. Our first pull… I was waiting for the ooze spawns. I was actually surprised when there were none.

Then there is this glitch I keep having. I cannot seem to reproduce it on a test dummy.

I get to my spot on the outside of the circle.
I then start typing /range.
My minion is set automatically to aggressive.
Launches off to attack boss.

I have no idea what is doing it. This has happened a few times. A few weeks ago I went to a training dummy and couldn’t reproduce the minion change. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Festergut is easier then Rotface. … so of coarse we went over to Rotface and one shot him.

One last thing. Remember those gloves I won?
…

Yea.

*cough*

I left them on the corpse.

*cough*

/open ticket

It was the Pits

2010-02-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

I druid tanked Pit of Saron for the first time. I had two friends dpsing for me, lock and a mage. A ret pally was the third. Then there were the healers… That is correct multiple healers.

Healer 1
Was fine. Then decided to stand in the mines, and dies with Krick and Ick still at 70% health. We survive another 20% or so but … you just run out of cooldowns. That healer left.

Healer 2
We killed Krick and Ick with no trouble. Then came the pulls I was dreading. I have no DK with me. I have no hunter or rogue to help me get agro on everything. Plus the 3 casters and 2 melee adds change after like 2 pulls. We died twice and the healer made a snotty comment and left. While none of us commented that he was still wearing pieces of 70 gear.

Healer 3
Still had to deal with ever changing trash pulls. I had no idea what their behavior would be like. At this point my dps friends were making fun of me, something about “Angry HYDRA”. Pfft. Just because I was yelling in vent did not mean I was angry. Harrumph.

We one shot every boss in Pit of Saron. (except Krick and Ick. I choose not to count that since seriously HEALER GET OUT OF THE EXPLODING PURPLE BALLS OF DEATH.)

The ret pally was really nice. And I thank my friends for laughing at me.

My trouble was understanding how the dumb adds moved since I normally stand 30 yards away… at a safe range.

I also said to them if you know of a better way then just yell at me. The third healer pointed out a thing or two, but that was it. So healers left in a huff knowing it is not the easiest instance to pull and had no constructive input. Plus, which part of “I have never pulled this place.” Did you not understand?

Patch 3.3.2 - More Lock Buffs

2010-02-02T12:11:00.000-08:00

This maybe the last of the lock buffs for a while. I have been shocked by the ones we have been getting.Maybe I shouldn't be, but I am waiting for the stick.

With the start of Season 8 the rewards for Season 7 Arena should be out. I wonder what title I will be getting? I was informed that old pvp titles are removed and new ones replaces them. So you don’t get to accumulate them like in PvE. Not sure of the accuracy of this. Still it will pretty cool for a while.

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/ or over at MMO-Champion.

Dungeons & Raids
Halls of Stone

* Brann Bronzebeard has been getting into shape and now feels comfortable walking faster when escorted. //Win!

The Forge of Souls

* The Devourer of Souls will now cast Mirrored Souls less often. //Nerf brought to you by the nub pug near you.
* The Spell Reflect ability has been altered on several creatures. It now has a cast time, only has 2 charges, and has a 75% chance of reflecting spells. // Admittedly … I cannot see the reflect shield, I have my window scrolled back far. It is almost guaranteed that I will try to kill myself. I have seen me have all 4 dots on myself before realizing it.

The Nexus

* Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times. //Which will make getting the Chaos Theory achievement for this boss much easier.

The Old Kingdom

* Elder Nadox now only gets one Ahn'Kahar Guardian during the encounter. //How much are we nerfing the heroic instance bosses for bad pugs? They will never learn. I wish there was actually a boss ability description. Like a tip before a boss fight in your chat frame. /sigh They will never learn.
* Jadoga Shadowseeker now only ascends once during the encounter. //Boooooooring
* Several enemies between the Befouled Terrace and The Desecrated Altar have been removed or had their pathing altered. //How funny is it to watch a mage die from standing in Flame Strike. Good times.

Pit of Saron

* Players can now zone back into the instance if they are dead while encounters with Krick and Ick or Forgemaster Garfrost are in progress. //Stop standing in stuffs so you don’t die. Or be at melee as a healer. /facepalm

Utgarde Pinnacle

* Skadi the Ruthless can now be removed from his drake with 3 harpoon strikes, down from 5. //Boooooring
* Svala Sorrowgrave now casts Ritual of the Sword 1 time during the encounter, down from 3. //So this is actually good for me. I have this tendency to .. umm… after the boss is killed… umm… stand under the big black sword. It kills me of course. It is just mesmerizing to me.

Vault of Archavon

* Toravon, the latest boss to join the Vault's giants and masters of the elements, is now accepting challengers in 10- and 25-player formats. // A reason to go to Vault. Nice. Though. If you actually need the lesser gear in here, no one wants to kill the other bosses.

The Violet Hold

* The time between a boss being defeated and a new portal opening has been decreased. // Less time to go AFK

PvP
Arenas

* Season 8 has officially begun featuring all-new rewards. //Season 7 I should have gotten an Arena Title!! I wonder what it will be.

Warlock
Affliction

* Shadow Embrace: This effect can now stack up to 3 times, up from 2. However, the periodic healing reduction effect has been reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10% per application. //For the math impaired. old max and new max healing effect was not changed. But damage is now 3/6/9/12/15% per talent point. This may change your initial boss rotation to ensure 3 stacks are on before throwing up your dots. SB>SB>Haunt>start dots.

Demonology

* Demonic Pact: The damage bonus granted the warlock by this talent has been increased from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4/6/8/10%. The buff granted to a raid or party by this talent remains unchanged.

Destruction

* Conflagrate: The damage-over-time effect of Conflagrate has been increased to 40% of the spell's total damage, up from 20%.
* Empowered Imp: The pet bonus damage provided by this talent has been increased to 10/20/30%, up from 5/10/15%.
* Improved Shadow Bolt: Damage done by Shadow Bolt increased by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%. //Most PvE specs have this ... More SB damage is always a good thing.

User Interface

* The party leader is now referred to as Guide in chat when a group is formed via the Dungeon Finder. //Really was this change needed?
* Fixed a bug where players with Raid Assist capabilities were unable to perform a Ready Check. //Excellent.
* Fixed a bug where the first couple of tutorials were not displaying upon logging into the game. //Welcome new players!

To Ratter and my Mooj

2010-01-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

… except… Mooj you know if I could get an HK off you I will. *grin* Luckily we see each other in Dalaran more then in Wintergrasp.

/kiss to you both

Whispering In

2010-01-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

It has been a few months since I did the move to the new guild. I wanted to reflect a little on what stood out.

Raid invites are not sent out, you whisper into the raid leader.

This actually took some time to get use too. Most raid leaders start inviting people who signed up. Sending out gold lettered personal invitation saying “We cordially invite you to grace us with your presence tonight.”

Instead, as a raider you need to actively whisper into the raid leader the word “invite”. Each raider needs to actively engage in WANTING to be there.

Think about this change… the raider has to be out of party. We have mentally started getting ready for raid. We are now thinking about raid, typically reagents, buff items, and last minute gear issues can all be addressed.

At first I was creeped out by this.

I come into this new guild, getting thought the application process, now I have to tell THEM I want to raid. Strangely it felt like an imposition. Like if you knocked on a friend’s door. You know you will be invited in. But you are polite about it. You wait for the sweep of the hand to let you in through the door.

Here you just barge open their door and make yourself comfortable.

It feels more like … a meeting.

Everyone has the appointment on their calendar. You accepted or declined as you choose. But it is still your responsibility to show up. Not only show up, but be prepared to do your part… novel but not really.

For the Rogue it is now about whispering the raid leader “invite” way way way before… like 40 minutes before raid. Something about him getting food and he might as well get an early start.

I am still getting use to it.