Affliction Refugee

I am a very disgruntled Warlock player right now. Let me tell you how much I love Affliction…

I LOVE LOVE AFFLICTION

The dance of the affliction lock is something that makes me smile to myself in pleasant company and cackle about when they turn their backs. Cast DoT, DoT, DoT, and run.

I always imagine Hydrargyrum being a toe runner while destroying her enemies. It was not about out running forever, but to out run the DoTs to take the health to zero. Running while kiting and casting above and behind, even at times jump shooting front only abilities… You could move just to move.

But something happened in 6.0. Something bad. Haunt didn’t feel right, cast times were added, and spells were removed. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly, but affliction felt GROUNDED. No toe dancing. No moving just because you can.

After 8 years (I don’t count that 2 weeks of experimentation in BC) …

I switched to Destruction.

If I was going to be grounded then I would try a purple mage.

I grumbled. That might be to lite a word… I Bitched! … then I admit it … I pouted.

So during the month before WoD was released I raided on my Kitty Druid…and continued to be disgruntled.

… but I didn’t want to change to Druid for WOD so Destruction it was for Dungeons.

Then Highmaul started two weeks ago.

… I am still Destruction and still disgruntled.

With the new changes made this last week SimulationCraft shows a more equal output between Destruction and Affliction again. But will the dance be there? Will I not feel grounded? What if Hydra is no longer an Affliction refugee?

Now I am scared.

Who’s that Raider

I have met some great female World of Warcraft players over the years. I have had half the raid female, and then at times only me. But none are better then some of the ones I am raiding with right now. We are 3… healer, tank, and dps.

Our healer is great. She is someone we make single heal (old) normals ... well... because she can.

One of them is our Main Tank (or is that co-Tank?) who actually streams on Twitch! So if you want to see me raid sometime you can find me on her screen. Check her out on twitch.tv/zentha452 She actually has some of our kills on there in her Highlights.

Then there is me. I consider myself an adequate player, mediocre podcaster, and sometimes never blogger.

You should watch our Sleepless' Heroic Protectors kill. I watched the Recount (WoW addon) numbers, Rogue Husband and I are battling it out for top DPS spot, but then the Hunter sneaks in at the last minute. I would say something disparaging about said Hunter, but he is loot master and that would be bad loot Karma.

With the release of Patch 6.0 I have seen some more familiar faces in raid and am excited that everyone can join us once more.

That reminds me… I will need to make a list of must have addons, one being Recount. With all the changes going into WoD, we will have to monitor for a while. Yes, I don’t currently have it installed.

I told you … I’m an adequate player.

Expansion MoP Hat

I’m still into hats. Now with us being able to Transmogrify all our gear… I start with the hat.

When MoP released I spotted the rice paddy hat on a few of the NPCs.

AND I MUST HAVE IT!!

And Pandaria made available so many! While questing I picked up the Angkhal Cowl.

And with the help wowhead I was able to look for and pick up a matching set. It is called the Nayeli Regalia.

So it really doesn’t matter how much gear I get. If it is questing or Heroic raid gear it all looks the same. Though not being able to Transmog the Legendary cloak is annoying. My PvP gear looks the same too!

And now after taking the screenshot I realize my waist wasn’t Transmoged.

Be right back…

The Spawn and I on Jimmy Fallon Clip

TNB Represent! 

You have had to be someone who ignores all Warcraft news to have missed the "We are the World of Warcraft" on Jimmy Fallon. If you missed it here is a link to the Blizzard announcement. LINK

I actually FORGOT to put it in my update. The Spawn and I did a video and we are actually in the final expansion out of videos into the world. You can see me in the Blizzard screenshot to the right where it says "Night" (The Spawn is covered.)

If I was going to take so long to post about being on Jimmy Fallon I should provide a bonus for you. Below is a video of The Spawn getting ready to record.

If you actually see us in the video, The Spawn is concentrating on the music in her headset. I had it plugged into my phone and was playing the entire Jimmy Fallon song you hear in the video. They provided it to me and so I used it to get her attention.

I wore my TNB Blizzcon shirt and I put The Spawn in the Evil Baby shirt I had picked up at a convention. You cannot see either in the final. Oh well.

After 8 minutes of whining and crying after doing the videos, it dawned on Husband and I that she was not asking for "Kitty" youtube videos but wanted to play World of Warcraft which to her is called "Kitty Jump". Which makes me laugh that the millions of dollars spent to develop the game and that is the game boiled down too.

Me: There a rabbit NOM NOM NOM
Spawn: *giggle fits*
Me: There is another one! NOM NOM NOM
Spawn: Another Another!

If you want to hear me talk about it you can check out Twisted Nether Episode 204. LINK There is a discussion about "Kitty Jump" aka World of Warcraft.

It was fun and Thanks for the opportunity Zahrym, Blizzard and all the people at Jimmy Fallon.

Let Me Sum Up.

Westley: Who are you? Are we enemies? Why am I on this wall? Where is Buttercup?
Inigo Montoya: Let me 'splain.
[pause]
Inigo Montoya: No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

It has been since January since I have posted anything. That is crazy. So much has happened.

Since then The Spawn finished potty training. Then she started Pre-school. She even has best friends!

Husband and I are still raiding. Our guild has gone though major changes, primarily going from two 10-man teams to only one. So many other people’s drama, I feel bad that our guild leadership had to deal with it all. But I think Husband and I were good and stayed out of it and they dealt with it as the adults we all are. We lost players to RL, other raid teams, and server transfers all in 3 weeks. But at least this time no one went to jail… That I know of.

Husband finished putting together Thunderfury. I don’t have a picture, and I should, but this post would not get up if I relied on pictures right now. I think he is working on another Legendary. I couldn't tell you which one.

I still don’t have green fire. I have only had about 3 blocks of time to try to kill the last boss. I tried going in when I normally play which is around 9 PM, but I’m too tired. I am trying not to be embarrassed in not having green fire, but honestly I cringe. I need to get it done.

I leveled my druid to 90 and for some reason I fell like kitting her in purples.

I have a bug for farming Skyshards. This is a bad idea. I only have 4. This is already a bad idea. But the payout would be the Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent… which just might be worth it.

I went to Texas and got to give hugs to Ratshag. And I totally paid for his lunch because Fimlys still gives me crap about not paying for his burger at Red Robin years ago. (Maybe I will forever make Fimlys pay for himself since I have been scared for life.) Ratters was the best part of Texas. (Though, I really liked the San Antonio Airport because all the waiting seats have plugs.)

We went to Rudy’s it was as good as we thought it was going to be. When I was telling my Cousin about going, he stopped me. I guess I called it “fancy”. He thought it was funny that a place that put meat on paper and you get your own paper towel napkins I would choose “fancy”.

Stay fancy!

Don't Shadow Trance If You Don't have To

I keep coming across things that changed in 5.0 that voids past knowledge. Does that make sense? Example. The new 5.0 Shadow Trance Gives your Corruption spell a 5% chance to cause you to regain a Soul Shard. 

Prior to the change it gave a free Shadow Bolt. If you didn’t click on your spell in the few seconds it was active you would lose that free Shadow Bold. This would dimish your dps because that was a chance to keep up your debuffs on the boss and of couse the dps from the Shadow Bolt.

Well DON’T immediately hit it now. 

For a while I kept hitting it as soon as it was up to refresh my Haunt. I thought it was a free shard and would vanish when the Shadow Trance buff left. This would override existing ticks of the currently applied Haunt. 

The Soul Shard doesn't vanish.

So...It was not necessarily the best use for the new Soul Shard. Depending on the situation you can use it for any available shard use.

This is the first time I have ever wished I could turn off Blizzard's Power Auras for a spell. Something about the aura coming on and the sound it makes still makes me want to USE IT IMMEDIATELY. Even after months of play. 

Tip: Just because you have Shadow Trance doesn't mean you need to do anything yet.

Comic Conventions, Beach, and Wow

I’m on top of things, really, I am.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This makes for interesting diaper changes the next day.

On the WoW front…

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

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

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

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

Raiding Happens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But I was able to raid!!

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

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

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

That ended my consistent two-ish month raiding schedule.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sleepless

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...well.

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

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

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

Then something happened that was funny.

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

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

What happened?

The other raiders left guild to join us.

I am now back in a 25 man raiding guild.

Sleepless, Sleep is overrated.

Patch 4.1: Guild Trolls

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

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

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

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

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

Warlocks


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

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

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

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

* Talent Specializations


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


    + Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.

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

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


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


* Pets


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

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

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

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


* Glyphs

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


* Warlock Bug Fixes

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

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

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

Warlock 100% Hit

Finally, the Cataclysm Edition for Level 85.

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

Miss

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yes I'm Here

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

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

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

BRAINDUMP OFF.

Patch 4.0.6 - My Red Gems

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hydra Done in Hyjal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I look forward to the next zones!

It is Ms. Hydra

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

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

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

It is Ms. Hydra.

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

Wrath Close: Hydra - Warlock

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

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.

Patch 4.0.3a NERFED BY 12%

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

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

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.