Summer Ends but Cataclysim Still Waits

As summer draws to its inevitable close, I ponder how have you beat the summer slump? We are still waiting for Cata to arrive in our mailboxes, game stores, or hard drives (direct downloads here is my nod to you )

If you haven’t thrown yourself into summery outdoor activities; how have you kept your interest in the game?

For myself it has been the rediscovery of long shelved alts. (We all know I have an alt problem) But these are alts made early and left in storage collecting dust. My shaman has finally made it to Outlands and ponders why tanks won’t let her get mana back to heal them. My pally has been remade into a tank and found the joy of instant pops in the Looking for Dungeon system. And not to be out done my baby Horde warlock has her fast spikey mount, affectionately named Spikey (what else?)

Of course this is sandwiched in with my daily soaking of Vitamin D aka walking. I lament only that the end of summer means the supposed end of grilling season.

Cataclysm still looms large over the gaming landscape, taunting the content and loots to be had once it arrives.

So how about it! How have you kept out of the summer gaming slump?

Got the Summer Blues?

Ah the long wait for Cataclysm continues unabated, of course this coincides with the natural summer doldrums. School is out, the weather is warm, and the great outdoors call! This is the time of the year guilds and raiders struggle the most with attendance and participation.

The question for you left still playing and raiding is; how to beat the doldrums and keep it fresh!

Zhavi’s Healer PSA

*taps on screen* Hello there. I’m Zhavi and I’m here to have an honest talk with you. Please don’t worry I am talking directly to you, no one sees you looking around. It’s all right…we’re alone.  I know about your shame and how you like to keep it hidden.  When people ask, you try to calmly deny it, but inside you can’t deny it. You have a healer and you are pretty good at it. You’re a tank or dps…maybe both? You like healing…secretly on the inside where you don’t talk about it. It is time to talk about it.

Every day 5man, 10man, and 25man raids are falling apart; because you aren’t there to heal. But for just a few hours a day you could help these raids happen, bosses would be downed, and loot would be had. It is time to cast off that shame and step into the light! Dust off your healer, ready your spells, and help these raids see the bosses dead!

Zhavi’s Truisms and Random Thoughts of the Week

Sometimes I have random thoughts that materialize into nifty (to me anyways) posts. Sometime they are just the random cluttering within my mind. I would hate to deprive you of my random thoughts of the week please below. More often then not they are inspired by listening to healer chat. So sad.

Bad Raids and Bad Groups Happen.

Sometimes what is bad about a pug can be bad about a guild (charter) run.

Healers will always been the first to be blamed.

My humor and sarcasm are funnier to me than they are to everyone else.

I don’t care no one gets my humor in the middle of a raid when we keep wiping and people are yelling at healers.

Hating your raid group will wear you thin no matter how awesome they kill shit or how much you want the loots.

Hating the instance will wear you thin no matter how much you like your raid group or want the loots.

A bad raid environment or raiding culture is like paying someone to abuse you.

Not paying attention is the hallmark of a bad player.

Not caring is the hallmark of a burned out player.

Not paying attention because you don’t care is the hallmark of someone who needs to /log.

Knowing it is time to /log usually happens well after you are knee deep and sinking faster.

DPS will always whine when they grab agro and die.

Ignore DPS when they whine, they will always whine and ignoring them now will save you headaches later.

When a tank tells you I didn’t get heals for <X amount of time> he is…blaming the healer.

Remember not to attend all the fights dps and tanks invite you to.

When you do attend make sure you can back it up with something witty like, “That is funny I see that <insert actual spells cast> landed on you in that time.” Or if is DPS, “You are right I made the decision to heal the tank so we don’t wipe, my mistake.”

Make friends with a paladin. They will bubble you when it comes to wipe time.

Make sure to rez said paladin first if they do.

Everyone thinks they know how to play a healer.

Most of those everyones are mediocre at best.

Remember we play this because we want to not because we feel guilty other people can’t find healers.

I need a head…I mean pumpkin!

By the changing colors on what few non evergreen trees out my door, all evidence points to it being fall. The plethora of pumpkins sold in stores and by street stands means it is time to get ready for Halloween. For Azeroth this means tricking, treating, and killing headless knights on demon horses!

I’ve been playing WoW since Dec of release or there about it could’ve been Nov but I’m 99.9% sure it was December. In all this time I’ve not once even seen the Headless Horseman. He was in Scarlet Monastery spending time with the dead bodies of the psychotic Scarlet Crusade and I felt pretty good about leaving him with them. I mean…seriously wouldn’t that be torture enough?

It was with much groaning (ok not really) I agreed to go help my friend Leagnis on his DK alt with my druid alt healing. It seemed like a bad recipe waiting to blow up. I’m on an alt not yet 80 to heal a group of mostly unknown people. But never one to turn down a challenge especially one aimed out my healing ability I went anyways. (it was odd being the only non 80 in the group) But to their credit no one questioned my ability to get the job done. (which wins them points for that alone if nothing else.)

Honestly it wasn’t half bad. I didn’t really know what to expect having never done it before. I was a little heart broken no pets or mounts dropped. However, both casty rings dropped and were easily claimed by me! I even asked before taking the second one even though I was the only casty type with two melee and two hunters. I felt manners should take precedence and wasn’t wrong wheneveryone laughed and agreed I should have them to level into.

Sadly, those rings like to drop like candy. Zhavi saw something like 4 drop on her run. *shakes head* It was sick. I’d have been happier had there been people there that could’ve used them. Rotting loot bothers me but such is the fate when loot is random.Nevermind, everyone in Zhavi’s group (including me) just wanted the mounts.

Overall, I thought the fight was fun and slightly regret having missed it in years past. This seems to be the year for me making up for missed holiday bosses. I finally saw Ahune this summer as well thanks to Jairone taking me in to kill him. I believe this just leaves Omens in Moonglade to summon and kill. Ahh the tracking of holidays by who you have to summon and kill.

Quick achievement note: take a 5 summon group in to kill old Headless and you will get enough candy to get sick and receive the “Get it out” achievement. Everyone one I went with got it during the downtime waiting on the pumpkin to respawn; which if you have done it before you know is super fast)

A Furry Foray Part 2

A lurching feeling quaked through Delith’s belly as she jumped into the swirling blue portal. The feeling dissipated almost as quickly as it came though. Taking a step forward, she barely avoided her compatriots emerging from the portal behind her. Deep throat-ed grunts let her know someone had landed on one of the dwarves.

Delith paid them little attention though, instead surveying the cold labyrinth before her. Cold air breezed from three directions as she peered in, each issuing from one of the tree tunnels breaking off the central room she looked into now. Gazing across from the entrance something shimmered blocking what Delith presumed was the direct route to her goals. Retreating wyrmkin moved away, down the flanking halls. Delith able only to make out the darker blues and whites of their tails; sighed thankful no enemies would confront them so early.

A Furry Foray Part 1

Delith stood before the Kirin Tor wizard, bedecked in pink robes inlaid with gold. A singular spot between her shoulder blades itching; too much time spent out of her natural form. Delith tried to ignore the urge to shift into bear form which seemed to reside in the itch, the concentration not to change making it difficult to focus on the wizard’s words.

“Essentially, you’ve something to be retrieved from the Nexus? Since Malygos sees fit to replenish his forces within the last expedition’s success hasn’t been…lasting?” Delith inquired, tired of listening to his prater about the vagaries of magic within the Nexus. He had been lecturing on temporal displacement…whatever he meant by that. It was all outside the scope of a druid’s work but then Malygos’ actions were having a profound affect on the natural world, and thus her willingness to intervene.

“Hmm? Yes. As I was stating…” he began again.

“Fine, I suppose you are willing to reward well enough for another expedition. I know a few souls to trust my back with. How large an expedition are you looking to send?” Delith cut him short. Too much time as a bear eroded her natural elven patience.

The wizard snapped a disapproving gaze up to her. There were some benefits to being a night elf in a negotiation. “It should take no more than five and a skilled expedition would likely achieve our goals with but four.”

Raid/Life Balance

You know you are too tired when the raid hasn’t begun invites yet and all you want to do is curl up in the corner and go to sleep.

I’ve pulled the raiding back to just 1 day a week. Raiding til 11:30 = me not getting to bed til almost midnight. Also it is hard to explain to a 10 yr old why you are getting on the computer from the moment you get in the door from work until well after they are asleep. I’ve already been round filing the general ribbing I’ve started getting about the whole thing.  I will give it to the raid leaders it isn’t coming from them, and oddly it wasn’t even coming from regular raiders. (Wow to think of it, it was coming from some twit who doesn’t know me but felt being in the same chat with me must mean they did…twits)

Though Tay does inform me I need a second vehicle and I agree. But life doesn’t agree with putting me in a situation where it is feasible just now. *sighs* priorities. I miss the simpler times …man I sound old.

*curls up and naps before her raids tonight*

Pretty colors introduced to my WoW

Ah, the beauty of moving from a behemoth CRT monitor to a sleek widescreen 23” flat panel cannot be expressed in words. Not that I won’t try to convey it to you anyways.

The hub was the man and ordered me a new monitor because he knew I wanted one and honestly I don’t know as proof he thinks I’m adorable when I squeal and new computer bling? But the icing on my flat screen layered cake was that I came home to it already set up and calibrated for WoW! And because you need candles with a tasty cake like that he even totally cleaned off my cluttered desk to make room and stuff. (btw yes I did squeal when I saw the monitor sitting there and then have my jaw drop when I noticed my clean desk.)

Wow is very pretty now, in ways it wasn’t pretty before. Oh it was still pretty colors before but not these pretty colors. *beams like a kid with her new toy* So I took it for a test drive putting some work in on Delith, you know to make sure the monitor was good and stuff..*whistles* What? I needed to give it a test run! Of course I wasn’t able to stay absorbed too long, as the rest of the house needed cleaning for the in-law visit. Just for the weekend though.

The Downside of Leveling Your alts.

Delith (my druid) made 58 and has made her way to Hellfire. But there is a snag in her super leveling spree. Rest xp. See I took BBB’s advice on bind on account gear. She is leveling feral to reduce my downtime, because speed is king and I like smashing things with my face.

Shoulders- Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders

Chest- Stained Shadowcraft Tunic

Weapon- Repurposed Lave Dredger

Notice anything specific? Perhaps that the shoulders and chest give me 20% exp boost from monsters and quests? *nods* Ohhh yeah. But you are wondering what downside could there possibly be? Bliz has already made leveling super fast and with the 20% boost it must be flying by?! And it is.

And there is the problem.My rested XP bar is going by so fast! A few kill quests and I’ve burned it all down. Nothing I hate more than leveling in the purple. It is still faster with the changes made but being in the game since launch has made me dread a purple exp bar. There is that mental nagging in the back of my head to log out get rest xp built up and come back later.

So what to do?

1. Well, if you are a hardcore raider  and leveling an alt on the side this isn’t much of an issue. Most of your time is spent on your main all the while your alt is building up beautiful blue bubbles. Actually if you are a gatherer type person you are probably on all the time gathering those mat things people need and get the same result.
2. You could be leveling multiple alts switching them out as each burns up exp. Doing an alt round robin.
3. Or you could be one of those rare crazy people that…logs out of the game and does something in the real world instead. (which I think I will increasingly find myself doing now being a full time mom. who knew kids took up so much time! )
4. Do a mixture of them. I raid so on raid days alts don’t see much light, otherwise I switch between Delith and my dk Sember, all the while juggling the needs of a modern gamer geek family.

I still find great satisfaction in raising a toon up though. I really am loving the druid, if only her rest bar would stay in the blue! I’ve tried rotating my warrior Pookie back in to try and get her past 70…yeah it is slow going just can’t get the spunky oomph that she used to have which I really need to get into playing her.