I did my 1st Heroic Instance run on Blackrock  today for the daily.

On the 1st pull a green dropped, and I greeded it.  I then saw that the other 4 needed it.

“Oh” I said ” you guys need your greens on this server”

“Yeap”

“What about Orbs?”   Need too.

We went merrily on our way.

On Dath’remar   we Greed on greens, and Need on orbs.  There was a post on the Dath’remar forums recently that we are one of the few realms that need on frozen  orbs, and a horde pipped up, and said it was only Alliance that needed on orbs  – So not only are there realm cultures to learn, but faction cultures too!

Dear you know who.

Yes you get your own post,  because I am sad you are sad,  and I’m guessing your feeling a little betrayed at everyone leaving you.

We didn’t  leave you though – just the server, 

and Yes it does matter because it seems to matter to you. If we were important enough in the first place then you will make the effort to stay in contact.  Cause there will be a point where even I will give up trying to use bandaids.

So maybe the issue isn’t supposed to be worthy of a public post  – but damn it you got one.   If that doesn’t stroke your ego,  then I’m not sure what will get to you.

So yeh.  Peace and Mungbeans.

A TOC 25 Run was in LFG looking for one more Dps for a hosted Gold DKP run.  I didn’t have a lot of gold on my main,  but I wanted to see what it was all about,  get a handle on how it worked – even if I didn’t end up bidding on anything.  I’m the type of GDKP person you definitely don’t want on the run – they want people to spend gold so people get a decent share of the pot,   but in my defence I told them -

“Shadow Priest 2882 Sp 5108 Gs  – Just after badges. “

They didn’t have a shadow Priest on the run, so I was welcomed, and it was relatively simple  – someone got hit by Icehowl ( noob!)  but it was tranq shotted by a on the ball hunter, and we wiped once on Anub.

I made over 1k gold on that run on the splitting of  the loot pot. Which was a poor pot but still free gold, and got easy badges.  No caster trinkets dropped, which would have driven up the bidding, and I would have emptied my coffers trying to get,  but it looks like they go for a lot of gold, so I better get saving.  Most of the gold came from people bidding on the trophies for just over 2.5k,  Orbs sold for 300 which could be resold on the AH for round 380-400  – There wasn’t even loot that dropped I could roll for cheaply for offspec.  We needed less geared cashed up people on that run.

From a performance point, I was sitting 5-9th for the 1st 4 bosses, and 11th on Anub.  Which was a much better place to be in comparison to the 10 man Toc I pugged and got top dps/damage the night before.

~~~~~~

I worked out why I got rejected from an a run I tried to get into the night before last,   everyone wants you to link your achievement,  stats, and gearscore.   

“Shadow Priest 2882 Sp  2727 GS”

The catch phrase on some of the LFM messages are No reply = No thankyou.

I didn’t get a reply.  I was a little confused.  According to Wow – Heroes  and their Gearscore by class and realm  I was around 13th Alliance side ( 42nd Horde and Alliance    /cry)  so given most of the people higher then me where in raiding guilds I couldnt understand why I was rejected for a pug.

I asked one of my ex guildys that had transferred  “  What do they use to work out their gearscores?”  

“It’s an add on?”
“Ahhhh” 

So I downloaded Gearscore from Curse to find out my gearscore was  5108 – a massive difference to the 2727 Score I was quoting – So no wonder  I was rejected.  ( and that score is with 2 ilevel 200 trinkets)

Onyxia 25 was forming – I joined,  we were doing well untill the 2nd phase of whelps.   Raid wiped  – raid leader Dc’s  people start leaving,  someone starts to reform.  Thinking I might be able to salvage it, I stick around.  The raid leader of the reform then whispers me wanting  to know what loot I’m after – I tell him helm,  he says he wants the cloak.    

 He was checking to see if I was going to roll on the cloak before we had even got 25 people in the raid.  My brain ticks.  Guildless raidleader, with master looter wanting loot bad enough to check with a dps that they don’t want it before we even formed.  Ninja warning ! went off in my head.

Maybe I was being overtly paranoid – I didn’t know this person from squat – it’s just purple pixels blah blah , what do you expect from pugs ect.    I was getting a clear impression that he wanted me to say ” I will not roll on that cloak”

We still see people in pugs though not wanting to stack the raid with more than one of their class/spec so as to get better loot chances,  what was going to stop him from kicking me if he thought I was a threat to his loot, even if he was a boomkin.  Didn’t want to risk it, and so I left the raid with a . ” “I don’t do loot deals sorry”  If I told him I didn’t want the cloak if it dropped and I rolled on it then he would loot it to himself because I said I didn’t want it, and if I said I wanted the cloak then he had the power to remove me – as I owed nothing to him,  he owed nothing to me

It’s early in the raid week – I don’t think I will have many issues picking up at least the base of the 10’s and 25’s – the TOGC’s because I haven’t fully cleared them look to be a problem  4/5 for TOGC 10 and  3/5 for TOGC 25  - the Pst achievements seem to be essential to get an invite.

Trade channel is full of people looking for more –  for runs for everything.

A LFM Ony25  Pst stats, GS, and achievement  popped up in trade last night while I was standing in Dalaran contemplating what time the dailys were ticking over ( different server time then I am used to)   So I grabbed it - In the run I found out my recount wasn’t working, so I couldnt measure myself against the rest of the peeps,  but I was riding the tanks butt on threat on Phase 3.

The guy running it was  from a guild that I had looked at their site of for  as a potential app, untill I saw the quality they were accepting,  and maybe they will grow up into better geared/skilled raiders,   but some looked like fresh 80’s with AH bought blues.

The run was easy – loot was fair,   they did things a little differently but that was more with placement of Ony and it wasn’t too hard to catch on.  I lost the roll on the Cloth helm I have been gagging for.  ( story of my dice)    its a funny helm,  it’s not really a shadow helm as it has no hit,  but its not a healing helm,  but I’ve lost it to healing priests every single time it’s dropped by the roll of a dice.

Spent the rest of the night doing premade EOS with my ex guildys on the server, and a little herbing on my Herbing alt.  Got ganked once by a rogue, he was after the herb node.   My mage may not be geared,  but she at least annoyed him a little, sheep, nova, blast and in fairness he ganked me and didn’t camp me – I waited an extra min on my rez in case, but he was long gone.  

The herbing market seems somewhat healthy so what doesn’t get turned into flasks for my main I am selling, and I’ve made about 400-500 gold already selling some stuff I bought over and the herbs. It’s well worth transmuting the lifes into fires which are going for 30g each at the moment. 

So it’s been ok so far – maybe also because I like this idea of a break from have to be on at this time raiding,   I want to do at least a week of raid Id’s to try ‘feel’ it out.  I feel a bit nakid without a tag, but I am feeling a lot better about being ‘here’ then I was back on Dath - if only for the thrill of  running past flagged people  – and not knowing if they are going to try and gank me.

So I have done something wild and unpredictable.

I am now Zahraah on Blackrock – I transferred my Main and my herb/alch alt off Dath’remar, a safe  PVE realm to a dangerous PVP realm.  If anything I might be able to now document via blog the trails and tribulations of a coddled  Shadowpriest  who finds herself in in a gankfest of a PVP realm.   My little hunter  on Jubie is stuck hiding in Tanaris Inn at 42 because that pvp world was a very dangerous place. “I’m just trying to level man!”  /dies for the 100th time. 

It’s a US realm,  and I have no idea what guild  – if any I will be apping too.  I am determined this time to take my time and do the right thing for the right reasons.  Will feel out my options,  try and do some pugs – do some dailys see how bad a Pvp realm can be.   Merlins robe emptied my coffers a little, and I don’t have the capital to do any Gdkp yet.    Give me a little time, and maybe a little patience and I shall be ok. 

If I don’t like the new realm  I’ll transfer elsewhere.  I have no guilt leaving my newest guild – I didn’t have any attachments,  I tried to feel a little attached over the weekend but it didn’t work, and there is enough on Blackrock/going to Blackrock from my guild that disbanded to make it a better place to be. 

I’ve been rather flakey – I put it down to too much choice – waiting to see what choices other people made.   It’s a measuring cup,  if A, B and C  stays,  but B goes horde on the same server,  and D, E and F go to one server, and G talks about going, and H only has an Alt here.  However then I & J talk about transferring server, K is definitely staying and L  is going to stop raiding.    Who do I stay for ?  Who do I leave for.  “Do what makes you happy” a good friend tells me.  Forcing change is what is making me happy at the moment.

Am I up to standard of a hard cord raiding realm – uh I don’t know.. but I want to see!

My loyalties though  lie with myself.  I got fracked around a little back in early guild hopping days trying to follow the people I had leveled with – and when it came down to it their reasons for leaving didn’t always suit me, and out of some dumb loyalty I still followed -  I found the better experiences when I did my own thing.  So why have I moved servers to be with people I liked playing with? When I have left behind people I liked playing with?

Be the change! 

It’s done though. I’m comitted  for 3 days at the least, looking forward to some attempted gankage – but how about I leave you alone,  and you leave me alone eh?

I managed to do some  Ebon dailys quite safely,  in my Pvp gear however with 940 resil just in case. My first PVP experience was herbing on my alt in the wee hours of the server morning.  A Orc Warlock spotted me and ran through the minefield in Icecrown.  His pet got a smack off before a mine catapolted him backwards, and I mounted up, and watched him bounce around the minefield a little bit.   My mage has no Pvp gear, I can see this herbing thing becoming a problem…..  I think I need to work on her looking a little more intimidating.

Apparently GDPK  ( Gold DKP) has been around for a little while now,  basic idea is you have a base amount of money to spend on gear you get inspected by a trade window check to make sure you have it,  you go on a run organised by a respected guild/person, and people bid on the gear they want,  the money goes into the pot and gets split at the end of the run.  So you can make a profit if you don’t want/need any gear.   It sounds like a good way of getting upgrades and most BIS or close to it gear can be bought for less than it costs to make a craftable item, and having just just purchased off the AH for 9850 Gold Merlins robe,  and I already have the crafted bracers this crafted item business is getting expensive.   ( orbs are still 800-900 each so add the cost and the cool down requirements for the cloth  ect ect  It was going to work out to be the same,  and besides the person had already put one spellpower gem, and +10 stats on it,  so I was saving money on that anyway.    It was the 3rd best in slot according to the  Shadowpriest.com 3.2 Gear list  . 

This trend has crossed over from the PVP oceanic realms and popped up on my realm the other day – maybe because we are losing a lot of our raiders to Pvp realms where the raiding is harder, and better  – but we are still talking to these people and they are dropping new traditions onto the normal realms, and if this sticks around,  it will be even easier for people to get gear, and you won’t be as reliant on being in a good guild to get the gear you need.

I have been in a new guild now for three whole days. I got to listen to a 4 hour wipe fest on H 25 Twins on monday night on vent after I was accepted – they were not successful, but were making good progress

Last night, the 1st night of new week raiding for us, I ran Normal 25 Toc and Heroic 25 Toc up to the Twins last night with them where they booted me for an extra healer ( I did get to see their twins strat when we did it on normal) Their practise from their attempts on Monday paid off because they got the twins in a couple of tries.

I was told I did fine – I don’t think I am going to make within the top ten on the Dps anytime soon, I did 10th on 25 Normal Beasts, ( don’t forget to reapply SWP after that wall smack!) and no log because they only started logging after champs on Normal, but 11th on that fight on Heroic 25 Beasts I scaled around 11-15th depending on the fight for the rest. I haven’t shamed me, or my class but it’s a little discerning to be so far down the bottom all the time. It does however mean that everyone else is doing so much better, and if anything should push me harder to be better.

I’ve had never successfully done H 25 Beasts, Jaxx and Faction champs. So I was a little thrilled to see that 25 H is really not that much different to 10 H so except dying on H 25 Faction champs because I just kept getting beat upon and fade, fear, meld, dispersion, shield, healthstone ( all my oh crap buttons.. ) could no longer save me

I am a little concern about long term stability – on the monday raid 9 of the 27 raid able were trials – we had 30 people in raid last night – and had lost two raiders the half an hour before raid because one recent app had a life change, and the other person didn’t want to raid with out them. The core officer group seems steady though.

No major issues, a little bit of a later start, and end to what I’m used to, and no sunday raiding, but it seems ok so far.

There is nothing like scrutiny to push you to new limits,  wanting to be better, and being asked questions of your application to another guild opens your eyes to flaws or things you may not have considered.  You start thinking that you got too comfy in your fishbowl.  A few of us have had to switch mentality a little for the  guild we have app’d to – how flexible are we with specs – our gears and talents under the microscope.   Not that we would expect anything less –  it’s part of the application process at least at the higher end guilds.

Why I was in a weird Shadow offspec?, do I have a  healing set?  Having to justify my gear choices, explain why I use a particular trinket,  answer would I be willing to heal ? Why I am so over hit cap?  ( that question annoyed me a little. ) Explaining some of my gear planning.

Gear planning becomes a little different when your not guaranteed an ‘income’ of badges and gear.  I was running all the 25’s in a week,  at least a full 10 man Toc clear and I had been doing a few 10 Heroic Toc bosses,  plus a daily occasionally – I was eligible to roll on Loot, and I was getting Badges, getting my turn to get trophies, and  that stopped.  This week has been left over guild member run 10’s and we run 25 Toc last night and pugged half the Dps so I have been getting some Badges, and even a trophy. 

We are expecting a reply back from the raiding guild some of us app’d to this week.  Even then,  they need to trial us,  so find a run for us to fit into, which may not even be a full raid,  so we lose a raid id for a week.   Then if we do get accepted wait an official trial period of three weeks before we are eligible for loot.  So realistically that means I’m looking at another month of raiding before I get any on the books upgrades, unless of course no one else wants something, and then it depends on their policy on that.

That means I need to do as much as possible out of raids to get upgrades.  Currently am planning  for Merlins Robe,  fluctuating mat prices means that it will possibly be cheaper to buy it already crafted.  They are going for under 12k for now,  I might do some trade spamage to see if anyone needs to offload one badly for cheaper, but I should have it by next weekend.  I upgraded to a T9 chest this weekend but Merlins robe is still a bigger upgrade,   I’m only 2 piece T9.5  so If I lose the chest  only a T9  ( the 3rd piece)  then I won’t mind,  if I had waited I could have used the trophy I got in a run last night for T9.5 but I had the badges,  and it was better then what I was wearing and when your application is under a microscope,  any upgrade looks better then not trying at all

Apping to stay on server was a bit of a knee jerk reaction – and probably best explained in my reason ” Why do you want apply for … . Blah.. ” . 

I want to do 25 raiding, its disappointing to be needing to leave ……, but I like 25’s. Your recruiting a Shadow priest, and seem to be in the position to be able to deliver 25′ raiding. As a guild you have been around the server for a long time, and hopefully will continue to be stable……

I don’t actually  sound like I want to be there do I ?

Maybe I should set my sights higher – I’m geared,  I have been tweaking rotations and trying to push out as much Dps as possible no matter the competition or class expectation – should I aim for a real raiding guild attempting firsts and real hardmodes,  and that would mean server transferring, might take me a little longer to find a home ,  but 3.3 is a little way off – I’m looking at another month anyway for any guild I get into  to consider me as a ‘raider’   so maybe it’s worth throwing caution to the wind and do something daring ( for me at least)

Being  being ripped to shreds by ’elitests’  to become a better player could be fun…  I only have had my current fishbowl to be measured against -  lets see how I measure up to the real world of raiders

I should really stop thinking  – and “Just do it!”

I know farming is lame – but a Frost Lotus is going for upwards of 50 gold on my server at the moment so well worth it to sell,  after I have already made a stack of my own Flasks.  

Doing something somewhat productively when you are multitasking like watching a Dvd on your other screen – makes the farming time better spent and while maybe ungoblin like,between Lotus’s, Icethorn, Lich blooms, and the Eternal Life’s I get out of it  it’s not a bad little cash cow place.

My herbalist does repetitive circles along this area. She used to do it on a ground mount because the circuit allows you within reason to do that,  and it was quicker on an Epic ground mount then an slow flyer,  I couldnt afford her epic flyer at the time as she was an alt,   but that was soon fixed.  The respawns are ok as long as no one else is farming and most people don’t keep going round,  they follow their own farming path that usually only crosses mine as they come down from the mountains.  I think it beats flying all over the country when you can just go in a circle around K3

You can see from the Gatherer screenshot the density of the possible spawn points for Lichbloom and Icethorn