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.

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.

Patch 4.2: for the flames.

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

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

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.2.0

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

Classes: General

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

Warlocks

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

Items

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

Patch 4.1: Guild Trolls

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

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

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

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

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

Warlocks


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

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

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

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

* Talent Specializations


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


    + Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.

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

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


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


* Pets


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

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

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

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


* Glyphs

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


* Warlock Bug Fixes

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

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

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

Crocolisk Attacks!

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

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

The End.

Patch 4.1.11 Preview

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

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

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

Warlocks

* Female warlocks are now correctly called witches.

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

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

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

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

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

Warlock 100% Hit

Finally, the Cataclysm Edition for Level 85.

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

Miss

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Patch 4.0.6 - My Red Gems

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hydra Done in Hyjal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I look forward to the next zones!

Shammie's Cheat

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

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

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

It is Ms. Hydra

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

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

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

It is Ms. Hydra.

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

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!

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.

Patch 4.0.1 Rock Our World

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.

Your Healers Know

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

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*

Sluggles Epic Adventure

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.