Take this gem:

This week gave us 45 resolved bugs (mark and fu were rocking the review queue), which are described in this week’s code tour by sporky_rat.

So, I realize that not everyone will read that and think coding and resolving 45 bugs in a week is “fun” and “glamorous”. However, it reminds me of the days when I was working on Enthusiast and my other scripts, of working on my couple dozen websites. It was fulfilling and fun to set out to do something and have it done quickly.

Now, where to find the motivation to look at PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript after a day’s work on the same thing? Or even to go back to web design? That’s what I’d like to know.

Sadly, frost has never seen this sort of attention. I know frost is really good for PvP, which is the reason behind why Blizzard can’t really buff frost too much because it would be too overpowered then. However, I do miss my Water Elemental, who I’ve been with for a good many weeks while I died and ran and rode my way to end-game. And frost PvE has been buffed recently, with a permanent Water Elemental and Deep Freeze damage on bosses (those permanently immune to stuns). So I decided I’d give it a whirl for fun purposes.

So I took the cookie-cutter frost PvE build and tested it out on a boss training dummy. Since stat weights are similar for frost as with arcane, I didn’t change anything; I’d forgotten about arcane having 6% hit and frost having only 3%. Meter sample incoming:

Missing 3% hit: 5254.7 dps over 1,006,856 damage

Not too shabby. Note that I am basically missing 3% hit as well as slows on the target dummy (to proc Torment the Weak); the actual DPS value of TTW is anywhere below 12%, since I have my mirror images with their frostbolt and the occasional Brain Freeze-d frostfire bolt occasionally slowing the dummy.

Next, I went and queued up with a tank friend for a random dungeon to try out my frost spec on a boss. We got Culling of Stratholme, but sadly I wasn’t able to get a screenshot of my meters then. Meathook meters were 5,152 dps over 237,440 damage. (I went arcane for the rest of the dungeon, to get the fights over with, and because I felt I needed to redeem myself, lol.)

During the dungeon run however, I kept pulling from Vhinz, which I felt was completely crazy given that, um, I was doing less damage as frost. The culprit? Only 10% threat reduction (although the Water Elemental accounts for some of the damage, hence less 10% threat as well?), and no threat reduction for fire talents (i.e. frostfire bolt). Pretty significant coming from an arcane mainspec, with its 40% threat reduction. (Thanks to the people over at Elitist Jerks’ Frost PvE thread.)

After all of this, I realized I was under hit. -_- So I just went and tried myself again, against a training dummy. Much better numbers, my tests kept running at around the following meter:

Hit capped: 5550.7 dps over 1,204,615 damage

Not too bad, although to give it a little perspective, as arcane I was anywhere between 6500-6900 dps in the same fight duration (3 minutes) and identical buffs. Applying Torment the Weak modifier at only 9% (to account for mirror images and frostfire bolt slows — obviously a number just pulled from the air though), dps rises to 6050.3, while arcane would likely be around 7200 up. But it wasn’t very dismal; as frost I can still go into 25-man Vault of Archavon and not shame myself silly. Raid buffed I would likely reach above 6200.

I don’t think I’ll ever see me in raid with a frost spec, however; especially seeing as how I’ve gotten a fair amount of ribbing from the guild that it’s escalated into something being very annoying. Additionally, as one of the usual hard-hitters in the guild, it’s unlikely the guild will be able to afford 15% lesser dps; it makes me a little envious of some raiders whose guilds allow them that flexibility, though I believe these are usually either theorycrafters or those not too serious with progression raiding. Neither of which I am, or my guild is.

But, as my guild master said: “At least it’s not like the 2,000 dps like I thought it would be.”

1. The Dark is Rising Sequence, by Susan Cooper – I picked up Over Sea, Under Stone over the weekend (a BookMooch find!) and was quite thoroughly hooked, hence even though I’d prefer getting the books individually, when the second book wasn’t in stock and the rest didn’t seem like it would hold out much longer, I didn’t hesitate; I took the compilation. Hence the whole sequence looks like a “proper” long fantasy book for me now, being quite thick and in small print to boot. I’m not really complaining; I pretty much got the whole set at less than S$10 per book.
2. Lord Sunday, by Garth Nix – It’s in the same edition as the rest of my Keys to the Kingdom books, albeit in hardcover. I don’t mind; I’d been looking for this for a good while and it was the only copy on the shelf. I wasn’t going to pass it up.
3. The Fall of Gilead, by Stephen King/Robin Furth – squee! Next installment of the Dark Tower graphic novels. The artwork is still superb, but the story is even more chilling and depressing. Well, it is the fall of Gilead after all. While parts of the previous two issue compilations we know about from Roland’s memories in the books, this part of his history is something quite new. We know some things–like the grapefruit tricking Roland into shooting his mother sort of thing–but we don’t know a lot more, like what happened to Cort, to the gunslingers, and to everybody else. It’s painful to read for all the death that comes, thankee sai, but very riveting.

Three books I’ve been looking for, or waiting for…and they were all there for the taking. EBIL LAFF.

(In other words: hello! I need to get back to blogging. A bit of a website layout tweak is in order, methinks.)

I wish I took closer note of the materials I used, the thickness of the paper and whatnot, but it didn’t really cross my mind at the time. For each album, I prepared five signatures of four A3 size black sheets (relatively heavy paper), folded in half to have A4-size pages for the albums. I covered illustration boards with this pretty wrapping paper I’d been keeping in store (er, kind of hoarding, lol), and used silver thread for the actual binding. I had been planning to wax the thread as usual, but I was worried the thread would lose its shine, so I didn’t this time around.

I had also prepared a good number of self-adhesive photo corners, but in the end, I didn’t stick them ino the albums, just included it in the gift package itself. After all, who am I to dictate how they wanted to arrange photos, or what size photos could they use in the album? Additionally, the covers also have a thin sleeve on the inside for various thin…things.

Each album took me around three hours to do, from preparing the materials to the actual stitching. It should probably have gone faster, but I was quite careful, especially with the first binding when I wasn’t used to the rhythm and the thread yet. It’s quite a soothing experience, sewing the signatures together and piecing the book slowly together; and I really like Coptic binding since the book can lay flat on its covers without destroying the spine.

I finished each album with each family’s name in glittery letters on the front, but alas, no pictures of those.

Well, I stayed up all night before my flight back home to the Philippines to finish The Hunger Games audiobook; and then yesterday I was finally able to buy a copy of Catching Fire from Kinokuniya and I curled up to read it at around seven. I finished it at midnight. And I even attempted to draw them. (Operative word: attempted. I haven’t drawn in ages!)

Peeta, Katniss and Gale (quick sketch)

I’ve read all the snarls about how it’s just basically Battle Royale, how it was a “ripoff”, and all that. Maybe it was; I haven’t read the former and I can’t recall any book I’ve read so far which follow basically the same plotline (of at least the first book). Maybe so, but that doesn’t detract from the sheer enjoyment of this book. From the overwhelming urge to keep listening, to keep turning the page, to find out what happens. The direct, no-nonsense writing fits well with the book; and the audiobook, read by Carolyn McCormick, is also commendable.

Who am I kidding, I just want to know what happens to Gale! :D Unlike some other heroines I can name (*cough* Makino Tsukushi *cough*) who I hated for a while because of all the shuffling, I actually understand, and aren’t annoyed with her confusion between Peeta and Gale. I like Peeta very much, he “got there first” with the bread, and I worry for him; but well, I’d take Gale any day ;)

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

I do wonder what’s going to happen to Peeta. Katniss is a figurehead, that’s true; but Katniss was right when she said that Peeta can sway people with his words. He’s emotionally strong, has commendable principles, has that charisma and wit that ignites feelings in people; he would shape up to be a fine leader after the revolution, for sure. I don’t want him to die, even though I know is death will also anger and fuel the people in Panem because of his sheer goodness. But if he doesn’t die, what happens to Katniss and Gale?

See, I think Gale is the right man for Katniss. He’s from the same background, and they know each other infinitely more than Peeta and Katniss know each other. They work very well together, and are evenly matched. It’s not to say that I think Peeta’s a “wimp” next to Gale, because he’s not; in a way, he also works well with Katniss because he complements her, he’s strong where she’s weak and vice versa. And really, there is just nothing to not like and admire in Peeta.

But this is Katniss we’re talking about. A girl who’s like Makino Tsukushi, like Alanna of Trebond. Let’s say Peeta lives, and is catapulted into leading the new world, or being groomed for it: a life in the spotlight, of placating other people, of politics, is not for Katniss. She would be powerless to go out and about, be active, hunt. That isn’t a life that’s altogether suited for her character. She would hate it.

It’s all conjecture, of course; I don’t even know if Peeta lives, and if he will be a leader if he does. If he didn’t die with the force field malfunction, President Snow would keep him alive to undermine Katniss. And Katiss would still endeavor to rescue him, which is only right. And then what? She’s right that she needs him; he’s her Hanazawa Rui. But I don’t want Peeta to endure Katniss getting married to Gale; and I don’t think Peeta’s like Jonathan of Conte who’ll fall in love with someone else.

August can not arrive soon enough.

My 2009 was…interesting, to say the least. I’ve been going through my journal entries starting January last year, and it’s interesting how the year has gone on, some things have been under way long before you started noticing! I’ve gone to more new places this year, re-discovered old friends and made new ones even in the unlikeliest people, and found heartache in the ones I thought I could trust. It’s a curious mix, of happiness and sadness, of boredom and stagnation and exciting new vistas. It’s bittersweet; for all the pain that’s been my share, there has always been a silver lining somewhere.

2010 is a new year, and what better way to spend it than moving forward? Things will not always fall into place, and I will get hurt, and I will cry; but this year, I will focus on moving forward, saying yes, and choosing happiness.

I will move forward: sometimes, things just don’t work out. No amount of fixing, tears, and hours spent on it works, and the only result is a lot of baggage being carried along for the longest time. I will learn from the past, and then close the book on them; I will move forward with the things that matter.

I will say yes: admittedly I saw this from a friend’s journal post, and I loved the idea. (I also realize there’s a comedy movie on this. Yes, I’ve not been watching my movies.) So many things in the past year happened only because I said yes, when it was easier and more comfortable to say no. So many good and wonderful things, I must add. So what better way to spend the new year than saying yes? (Warning: only works when the thing in question is reasonable. Lol!) I’ve started doing this consciously and it feels so liberating.

I will choose happiness: life is too short and fleeting to dwell on what hurts us.

“I find it hard to forgive.”

“What is there to forgive?” demanded Rochester. “Ignore forgive and concentrate on living. Life for you is short; far too short to allow small jealousies to infringe on the happiness which can be yours only for the briefest of times.”

(On a very random note, my room is pretty once again! Admittedly I might just be a bit attached to the new mauve bedsheet and white pillows.)

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Of course I couldn’t resist picking it up. I also found the deluxe edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which boasts of 30% more zombie mayhem, so I certainly couldn’t pass that one up. I pre-ordered the first edition of the latter off of Amazon and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever ordered from Amazon, no doubts about it. I don’t think I’ve talked about P&P&Z here before (possibly only in my journal), but any Austen lover must have it. It’s so irreverent it’s hilarious! If this one is 50% as fun as P&P&Z, it’s bound to be a good read.

S&S isn’t my second-favorite Austen novel (that goes to Persuasion) but it’s also pretty close; and the Colonel as a sea monster? Oh too much to resist! I’m still debating whether I’m going to bring both or just S&S&SM (that’s a whole lotta Ss!) back to the Philippines while on holiday. Holidaying with sea monsters and zombies sounds quite fun. ;)

(All my recent posts are WoW-related -_- I do have other things ongoing but none I can talk about yet!)

On the new Looking For Group mechanism

But before the scheduled progression run I did get to try out the new LFG and random dungeon option (not gonna pass up my emblem of frost, y0). After the raid, I also went a second time. Both times were… quite different. It feels like I went the full pickup group experience spectrum, actually; which is to be expected, I suppose.

For the first group, we got Nexus and it was quite a fast run; one pull after another, finished flawlessly plus some chatting about the new LFG. It was a nice, friendly bunch of people, with some jokes and laughter all in. If I could add them to friends list, I would have. (Much love to the new disenchant option. I’ve grown to hate doing it, it’s such a chore to look through rolls manually and whatnot.)

For the second group, it couldn’t be any more different; once I got zoned into Drak’Tharon Keep, the tank already had aggroed the first few trash mobs. And he kept going through the whole hallway. Straight to business, eh? By the time the last trash pack in that hallway was down, I was almost out of mana, and wasn’t able to pick up any of the loot from the earlier mobs. Without waiting for the healer or myself to regen, he pulled two of the abominations and goodness knows what else in the room before Trollgore. No communication whatsoever, mind. Naturally, we wiped. On DTK trash.

We went in again, got Trollgore down. Pulled all the spiders. Started Novos right when running in (no regen), didn’t finish off adds coming down. No regen, went directly to the room with the bats. Straight on to the dinosaurs and riders. (Still no talking at this point.) Once we got to Dred, tank said, don’t heal, I’m pulling all. He went directly to the end of Dred’s area, and didn’t come back. We wiped. He asked why he didn’t get any heals, and the healer said LOS (line of sight [issues]). Why where you LOS? he asked.

Healer quit.

I don’t blame the healer in the least, man. Tank has the gall to say, why did he quit? What the hell. The kitty with us commented that he shouldn’t have pulled all; I asked, are we in a hurry? Kitty said no, tank remained silent. Seriously, if you’re going for a quick run, make sure the rest of the party is in the same boat as you. It’s not like old LFG where you can whisper prospective party members and say “fast run only” or whatever. You should have woken up and smelled the coffee when we wiped on trash mobs, slow down a bit, y0.

We did finally get to have a healer stay for a half-finished dungeon, and finished the rest of the dungeon without much more fanfare (and no more stupid too-fast chain pulling). And I’m ashamed to say that the tank apparently is a Filipino player (based on his name anyway). I was going to get chatty and say I was too, but given that kind of player? Hell no.

I forgot to put that tank on my ignore list. I’ll have to check out how later.

On the new Icecrown Citadel raid

We went for 10-man last night, we had three groups running concurrently. I finished the whole raid, but on different toons. :D For the first group we ran into a problem when our warlock disconnected on the gunship battle and didn’t come back online, and we couldn’t get a replacement; after a couple more tries 9-manning it, another guildie needed to go, so we called it and continuing later tonight.

After going back to Dalaran, my guild master (who was raid leading the second group) asked if my priest was 80, etc. So I came in a subbed on the gunship battle as well. We got both the gunship and Deathbringer Saurfang down! So essentially I did get to complete the whole raid within a night, just on different toons. Heheh.

The fights were prety interesting; I should think gear is important but they felt more like mechanic-driven fights than anything else. There are plenty more qualified sites that talk about strategy, so I’ll just add a couple of my own notes on the fights:

Lord Marrowgar

Interesting movement fight, can be rather challenging to find a place to run to when he whirlwinds and there’s cold fire all around. A target Bone Spike macro should come in handy here for casters–I couldn’t tab to it half the time and had difficulties clicking on it to target and dps down.

Lady Deathwhisper

Add fight, basically. It looks like getting most DPS on the adds and getting them down quickly and then switching to the boss’ mana shield is the way to go. It was a little messy and crazy, and should probably bear with some reading up on the fight to smooth out the fight next time. Good thing 10-man didn’t have the crowd controlling part–really need to work that in somehow (buff and debuff notifications are a little off when using Pitbull for raid frames and nothing else).

And, elevator! Do you get squished if you stand underneath?

Gunship Battle

Absolutely fun fight! You equip a rocket pack on your shirt slot and using the rocket pack allows you to target somewhere and, well, fly to that area. Some fall damage is imminent if you fly too high/far. What I did was, I bound it to my fourth mouse button for easy usage/targeting. Win!

Very simple fight over all, just rinse and repeat (and don’t 9-man while doing progression).

Deathbringer Saurfang

After wiping a couple times, what we ended up doing was running with two heals for higher DPS. The damage is manageable (considering that we had a geared resto shammy and my, er, not-so-geared disc priest) as long as you know who to focus on and keep alive (tanks, and whoever has the Mark of the Fallen Champion). I’ll be trying this as DPS later tonight, so should be an interesting fight as DPS as well.

The take so far

All in all, rather pleased with the patch so far, if a bit pressed for time–too many errands and things I need to do as Christmas vacation is looming closer and closer. Looking forward to finish off the available raid wing tonight, and actually get to see the 5-man dungeons. XD

So I’ve decided I’ll just post two screenshots — one which is fairly recent but in solo dummy combat, and another slightly dated screenshot in a ten-man raid. Both shots are of my mage UI, although my priest UI is very similar (only a couple settings like aura changes are different).

WoW UI screenshot in solo mode (click to enlarge)

WOW UI Screenshot (click to enlarge)

The addon differences are minimal; the only change visible is the switch from using FuBar to LibDataBroker/DockingStation (as well as general cleanup of some actions on the action bar). I’ll list all the endgame addons I use later, but wanted to point out a few notable addons, most of them visible in the screenshot:

Pitbull 4

Used to customize unit frames (target, raid, etc). On a 25-man raid, there are 5 columns down the lower portion, extending to the left of the currently-shown raid members.

Satrina Buff Frames

A really great buff organizer, I use this to show only buffs in the top right corner, my debuffs below my unit frame, target buffs and debuffs I care about below the target frame, debuffs I need to track/refresh on my target (not shown in screenshot), and short-term buffs I get (upper left of my toon).

Power Auras Classic

I use it for immediate, visual representations of stuff I need to react to. Now it’s just mostly buffs, procs and cooldown availabilities, but earlier I’ve also used POWA to show important debuffs like a Grobbulus injection and Thaddius charges. The screenshot shows my combat auras when I’m at, er, full power: Missing Barrage, Arcane Blast stacked to 4, Arcane Power, Icy Veins, a shield is on me and Incanter’s Absorption has procced, plus another random spellpower proc (like Lightweave for example).

Deadly Boss Mods

The must-have of raiding. I also use it for timers like when I can click my pew pew button again, when I can use the last ticks of Icy Veins to Evocate if I needed to, or when to pop Invisibility when my Mirror Images are about to expire.

Bartender

I like having buttons in easy reach, and rearranging them around my screen.

LunarSphere

A relatively unknown addon, but really fabulous. It’s also an action bar replacement addon but I like using it and bartender together especially for my mage. It’s collapsed in my screenshots as I’m in combat (you can choose not to collapse them automatically, naturally) but in the smaller screenshot on the right you can see that buttons around the sphere can be expanded into submenus. I use it to house my portals, professions, food, buffs, and whatnot. There are a LOT more utility features in the addon, as well.

Sunn Viewport Art

I like the cinematic feel of the viewport set up the way it is. It also shows me a lot more than how it is normally.

Here’s an annotated screenshot of the raid screenshot above. I’ve since replaced FuBar as previously mentioned, as well as LiveStats with LDB plugins as well.

WOW UI Screenshot, annotated (click to enlarge)

And my list of endgame addons (endgame addons mean stuff like QuestHelper, Auctioneer, etc aren’t included):

• Auditor – money management (for obsessive-compulsive types :P)
• AutoLootToggle – LDB plugin to automatically toggle loot on/off
• AutoNo – automatically reply to whispers for ports, etc :P
• Bartender 4 – action bar replacement
• Various LDB-based addons, like AltGuild, Calendar, CPU, Factions, GemFriends, GemGuild, Location, Repair, StatsNow and Trade Cooldowns
• BuffEnough – quick visual as to whether I have all buffs I can get or not
• Chatter – chat enchancement
• Clique – for managing click bindings
• Deadly Boss Mods – raid/dungeon helper/alerter
• DockingStation – for data broker displays
• LunarSphere – circular action bar replacement and utilities
• Mik Scrolling Battle Text – scrolling combat text replacement
• Omen Threat Meter – threat meters
• pError – to suppress error messages I don’t need to see
• Pitbull 4 – unit frames enhancement
• Power Auras Classic – visual indicators of buffs/events
• Quartz – cast bar
• RatingBuster – quick look into item ratings
• Recount – various meters
• RecountGuessedAbsorbs – for my disc priest
• Satrina Buff Frames – buff tracker/organizer
• SexyMap – map customization
• Sunn Viewport Art – cinematic viewports

I’m always on the lookout for useful addons and ideas on UI improvement, so probably this time next month my UI will be slightly different again. XD Would love to hear about any addons others are using, so comment if you have a suggestion or question!

Talá at 80

I never got around to announcing it beforehand, but my priest dinged 80 around two or so weeks ago! /cheer

Hence I’ve been focusing on getting Talá geared over the last week. She can now heal Onyxia’s Lair (both 10- and 25-man versions) and Trial of the Crusader 10, possibly also the 25-man version (but have not tried yet). She’s discipline/shadow-specced at the moment. She’s a bit of a spoiled brat really, getting mats and stuff for crafted BOEs from her older sister Eilonwyn. :P

Healing is quite enjoyable, in a different way as opposed to being a damage dealer. I find that a lot of times, it hits extremes of pretty much any experience in a dungeon or raid; at easy heroics with a geared tank I get sleepy, but in raids where my gear is just right for it, it can be quite nerve-wracking. You also get to be really happy (“my heal target lived!”) or really sad (“omg I’m so sorry lag spike QQ”). I feel that DPS is a lot more linear in this regard; even if you’re overgeared for the dungeon, you’re still doing something pretty much all the time, as opposed to the healer throwing a bubble on everyone and then waiting.

I’m also finding that gearing up healing is slightly hit and miss. From the perspective of someone who’s been a damage dealer for the longest time, with tools like Rawr that tells you equipping this item or using the gem gives you +x amount of damage per second, it’s not as straightforward for healing.  There are stat weights, but even juggling between throughput and longevity depends on a lot of factors–factors which you’ll only really know through experience. For example, I thought my intellect was more than enough, until I ran dangerously OOM on Koralon.

Even healing styles are varied, and from the discussions I’ve seen there is no hands-down right way, unlike when you DPS it’s usually pretty linear when you have your rotations down pat. It’s possibly easier for other healing classes, like trees (uhm, bind everything to rejuv and roll face on keyboard) but I’m constantly feeling that I’m not using my priest abilities to its full potential. I don’t use a lot of them enough: binding heal and prayer of healing to name a few (but I love divine hymn; it’s like my lazy button).

Being disc, though, I’ve already come across people who complain about my performance on the “healing done” meters. I’m usually last; while gear probably plays a small part here, the biggest reason by far why disc priests would be lowest on the healing meters is that discipline’s strength is in damage mitigation, such as through Power Word: Shield and Renewed Hope. Sadly most people just love looking at nice big numbers. :( Yes, you’re a pally, you have heavy, huge-ass heals. I’m not, kthx.

Maybe once I’ve got disc down pat I’ll change over to disc/holy and see how raid healing goes. I like the focus-target style of disc, but can’t hurt to try other heal styles, too. Now, just need to find out how to change the clickbindings in Clique automatically based on what spec is active. Hmm. *goes to hunt*