Light in the Nether

Arrangement of Pixels: Rank and File

2010-05-31T05:23:00.003-04:00

While it has been quite some time since I’ve written, I wish to report that rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Sadly, rumors of an extremely busy life outside of the pixilated world of fashion and monsters known as World of Warcraft are not as exaggerated. Dwindling time and dwindling bag space have left me with not much to show of late, but it occurred to me I should do something and make an attempt. I keep promising myself to write of the many raiding and guild changes that have been going on, but time is not favoring that likelihood anytime soon.

In the meantime, I give you my beloved little soldier, the warrior alt not yet past level 23 in an outfit I have loved for years as the perfect recruit’s outfit. Yes, she has been 23 and wearing this for literally years. But isn’t she cute?

Flying Tiger Goggles
Silvered Bronze Shoulders
Fortified Cloak
Fortified Chain
Stylish Black Shirt
Fortified Braces
Fortified Gauntlets
Lambent Scale Girdle
Fortified Leggings
Silvered Bronze Boots
Cruel Barb
Burnished Shield

Yes, I now realize this is basically the Fortified set, but I admit that I had no idea until writing out that list, literally just now. That explains why it all matches so well. And check out that elite dungeon drop, Edwin VanCleef is no joke.

So there you have it. I’m alive, my warrior is adorable, and I need a European vacation.

Arrangement of Pixels: Darkness and Light

2010-05-08T02:17:00.002-04:00

So from darkness there was brought light, and where the light burned brightest, the shadows did grow the darkest.

Opposites attract they say, and the opposing dynamic of my character with my husbands is one I am fond of.

When first we started playing, his main was a warrior. Tank and healer was an amazing dynamic, first for finding groups, and second for the romanticized dynamic of protecting and sustaining each other in the face of adversity. Since that time his main has changed to the newly released death knight. He still moonlights as a tank in 10 mans to appease my romantic whimsy, and the juxtaposition of undead warrior of death paired with priestess of holy light just makes it that much more fun.

So when he says to me he’s found a new strutting outfit to let him RP walk through Stormwind looking like the epitome of badass DK, clearly I have to make him pose for a picture.

Acherus Knight’s Hood
Sanctified Scourgelord Shoulderplates
Winding Sheet
Acherus Knight’s Tunic
Greatsword of the Ebon Blade
Acherus Knight’s Gauntlets
Furious Gladiator’s Girdle of Triumph
Acherus Knight’s Legplates
Bone Drake’s Enameled Boots(H)

The priesty outfit is one I’ve shown before, but it is truly one of my favorites.

Valorous Circlet of Faith
Mantle of the Avatar
Mooncloth Robe
Benediction (There’s never a bad time to put on Benediction)

Simple and sweet, and Icebound Fortitude with Guardian Spirit makes for even more dramatic imagery.

Can these two such opposite creatures find strength in each others’ arms enough to battle that very force of darkness which created his unlife? What will become of him once the will of his creator is broken?

So yes, I am a hopeless romantic, thank you for asking. And the answers are yes, and he will collect ph4t l3wts, log off, and be subdued for snuggletime. Raiding with your significant other is the best.

Arrangement of… Yeah I fail this week

2010-05-03T22:58:00.002-04:00

Totally getting killed this week. Work, life, WoW, everything. Especially my guild. Want to strangle my guild. So.. very much. AND that evil NPC who has my dress is back to taunt me in Dalaran. Someday, Formal Dangui, you will be mine, and I can cease to hate children’s week.

Who am I kidding? Oh well. My DK is camped in Moonglade waiting, so here’s to vain hope!

I had time for one entry this weekend and I really needed a brain dump, and so you get what came previously. Here in the meantime, a cute Troll Priest!

Sporting her newly rewarded Juju Hex Robes, BOA Tattered Dreadmist Mantle, and… some lowbie bracers I’m too lazy to look up.

Augh curse you OCD. They are the Barbaric Cloth Bracers. Oh and the Devout Aurastone Hammer. AND the Ceremonial Cloak. Somehow it all matches.

I confess Orgrimmar is not nearly as hard to navigate as I used to complain about. As long as you don’t have to leave the Valley of Strength. All bets are off on winding paths that go behind stupid stores and weird stairs and bridges. Why oh why must Silvermoon be so out of the way? Heck even Undercity I can navigate, if the locations are inconvenient.

Anyway. Here she is, and she is cute. I was going to go with long green swept back braids, but the crazy pixie haircut wouldn’t stop niggling at my brain. Pink punk rocker troll? Yes please. And I’m usually so not a pink type of person.

Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

2010-05-01T14:55:00.002-04:00

It appears to have been quite the busy week, in game and out. Work has been quite busy, and the precarious weekday balance of raiding + family raising in between is not one I wish to risk tipping with added time spent writing, no matter how much I enjoy doing it.

As a result of this, I have composed the better part of three or four blog posts and one, maybe one and a half short story vignettes in my head during the lengthy ‘thinking’ time that is my commute. Given the lack of express train routes between Podunkton and Wanna Be Chic Urban Centre of DC Suburbia as well as the lack of portable speech recognition word processing software and hardware in my possession, they are all sadly locked in my head fading word by word as inspiration flits elsewhere.

So let this be a warning, this may be a conglomerate ramble of all those things with most of the important bits missing! I bear no responsibility for the comprehensibility of my writing from this point forward, or even this point backward.

This is to be a World of Warcraft blog, or at least so was my original intent, so of the many things rattling in my head I’ll focus primarily on things game related.

What news this week! Or last week.. Or sometime recently, it’s all a blur really. The change of raiding as we know it! No longer the kings of raiding progression shall the 25 man guilds be if the news is to be believed. Instead an equal co-sovreign with the heretofore overshadowed queen, the 10 man guild!

Could this be so? What will it mean? A story of tragedy, deceit and betrayal? Will the queen’s deadly blade strike true to the heart of her once noble and lofty king? Is the age of 25 man raiding.. dead??

Or do we find a more enlightened and happy tale instead? No malice between two dearly loved and kindred spirits, but an end to conflict! Will the queen, much beloved but rightly frustrated in her efforts to step from the shadows of her esteemed king, not to surpass but to find equal standing worthy of her own illustrious station, finally be given chance to stand side by side in equal and enlightened rule with the one whose dreams and aspirations so closely mirror her own? One can only hope!

To escape the flowery prose (you were warned), the change to the 25/10 man lockout and reward system is huge. Reactions have varied from high elation to wails of endless QQ, some going so far as to call it an end to ‘real’ raiding with the continued dumbing down of the game.

I have to say I fully support this decision, and if executed well, it will change the game forever and make players of all attitudes able to find that much more enjoyment from it.

25 man guilds are far to strong to die out. There are amazing groups of 25 like minded people who all work well as a team, and this will not impact them in the slightest. Ideally, more loot, more benefit from the guild leveling system, and other perks will make 25 man raiding worth their while.

The good here is in giving the groups of 10 who really enjoy raiding but can’t find the big group to do it with a chance to be competitive. The point has been brought up that raiding without a challenge is boring. This is 100% true! But if Blizzard does what they’re saying they will, there will be equal challenge for the 25s and the 10s, and equal chances to really enjoy progression!

25 man raiders don’t have a problem with 10 man raiders progressing and being recognized. They have a problem with lazy players getting the same recognition. I do too, 10 or 25. The vision I see from Blizzard’s latest statement is one I support wholeheartedly. Hardcore players get their choice of hardcore guild sizes. Much of their time will be spent in heroic modes getting rewarded for their extra accomplishments at higher difficulty. There will be easier things too so casual players can futz around with raiding from time to time and get their fun toys too. 10 & 25 hardcore & casual all have their fun and get rewards equal to effort given, and they all live happily ever after!

The problem here is in the execution. I’m equally excited and reserved about these changes. The ideal is amazing, and well worth working toward, but some things work much better on paper than in practice. Communism anyone? That isn’t to say that I think it’ll turn out like that, but the success of the final release hinges on a razor’s edge balance. In my micro-sized experience of game development and balance on MUDs, I do not envy at all the folks at Blizzard who have to work out this balance on such an incredibly huge scale.

So, we wait and see. Sounds pretty fantastic. I’m thoroughly excited. But I’m still holding final judgment until we see it for real.

In other news! With greater relevance to the title (You thought I was just being clever with the raiding metaphor, didn’t you? Well. I thought it was clever.), we have finally killed Lich King 25 as a guild. Finally. It is a love-hate relationship, this guild. They are all good players. The GM attitude of penalizing failure and rewarding accomplishment regardless of rank, status, or seniority is phenomenal. They are also, for the majority, raging assholes. When the epeen is high, the failure is high as is my urge to stab somebody in the eye. This is far too high a percentage of the time. In the past weeks of attempts, only 2 nights prior to the down felt like we were actually working and accomplishing anything.

Happily, the GM decided not to put up with the bullshit anymore when we failed at heroic Marrowgar a few times because lazy meter whores didn’t feel like switching to spikes. Seriously guys, way to be completely stupid on something we usually one shot. But it worked out in the end, because the GM declared no more freebie heroic modes until LK was dead. Not even lootship (oh the outcry over that one…).

Wouldn’t you know it, the douchebags and asshats got their shit together, wiped out the rest of the instance and FINALLY KILLED THE FREAKING LICH KING. Was that so hard? Once you get your head out of your ass, no. No it isn’t.

Finally, I am happy to say I now have a troll priest <3

Since back in the day of stupid priest racials, Troll Priests have always been the coolest because their racials sucked and people who played them tended to be laid back and awesome. Thus I have always loved troll priests. I explained this to my husband who asked why in the hell I would play a troll priest and he looked at me weird and said, “But you’re not laid back, you’re an unrelenting rager.”

…yeah, he’s right. When it comes to raiding, if people aren’t doing their jobs to the best of their ability, I am a complete rager. I get completely infuriated by laziness and sloppiness in others and in myself. This is why it’s hard to have alts, because I have dedicated SO much effort into perfecting my main. It’s hard to maintain that kind of effort on more than one character, and it’s hard for me to do anything but on any character I play.

BUT this is my funtime lazyness alt. She will be shadow, and she is on our home of Twisting Nether, so if I decide to say… gather some folks for a little world PVP, I may or may not bring a brigade of hordies to rape the ever living shit out of some of the worst offenders in Saintz. We’ll see. High ambitions for level 5, given how long it took to get my hunter to 80. But it’s fun to think about.

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Rags to Riches

2010-04-26T05:37:00.004-04:00

After a week of soaring highs and hair-tearing lows, I considered deeply the thought of blowing this off again. But on my journeys from store to store in the plane known as “IRL”, an idea occurred to me that I had to laugh at.

Financial difficulties being at the forefront of some of these frustrations, I thought I would do a quick and easy showing of bank alt sets.

Sidenote: Bank of America customers, take care to notify your bank of any changes in spending habits. Dining out three times at a newly discovered shopping center a mere ten minutes from home when normally we would drive 20+ minutes to the closest commercial area flags the account to lock the card for ‘unusual spending activity’ outside of our ‘normal spending area’ despite the ‘unusual’ spending area being of equal close proximity to both.

This means no debit use or withdrawals from an ATM, which is a most inconvenient discovery after already having eaten dinner and not yet paid for it. We tried calling but of course customer service is not very serviceable at that hour.

So in honor of our shifting fortunes, a few outfits for both the merchant and beggar. For those of fickle fortunes online, feel free to swap between the two as a marker for the tides of gold.

The Paragon of Prince and Pauper

We all have to start somewhere, and whether we begin our journey in Northshire Abbey, Mulgore, Azuremyst Isle, or the Eversong Wood, we find ourselves immediately burdened with stuff. From kobold to kodo, everything we meet (and kill) has the inclination to carry on their person an extra pair of pants. Why the jormungars do, I cannot venture to guess, but there they are all the same.

Red Linen Vest
Recruit’s Shirt
Archmage Bracelets
Heavy Linen Gloves
Bright Belt
Frayed Pants
Linen Boots

And what glorious pants one can find, and shoes and shirts and more! Sad to say that the majority of these circumstantial pants are not always under the heading of glorious. Many a figure like the one above can be heard joining the lament of Topper McNab and others like him. “can u giv 5g? plz i need gear” Such a pitiful sound truly pains the ears (or the eyes as it were).

But lo! There is hope! By selling the trash and the trifles to poor unwitting vendors, we can climb our way from the pit of our destitution! Careful investment, the study of a profession, and sometimes pure windfall can bring us out of the quicksand!

Noble’s Monocle
Haliscan Jacket
Tuxedo Shirt
Diamond-tipped Cane
Gloves of Tormented Recollection
Haliscan Pantaloons
Dress Shoes

And thus the dashing bank alt is dressed for success, ready to take on the auction houses of the world! I will confess, I cheated a little, but sometimes you do what you must to get by.

Of course, by cheating I mean that I used items that are unlikely or impossible to obtain by level 1 characters and replaced the Noble’s with the Chief Architect’s Monocle since I had it lying around, but you can improvise at the local auction house once your prospects improve. Really, what else could I have meant??

A word to the wise, however: have a care with your hard earned fortune and don’t spend it all at once!

A penny saved is a penny earned, so sitting at the auction house buying up all the fancy bits of clothing that catch your eye is a sure-fire way of ending up destitute on the streets again.

Repair bills and consumables don’t pay for themselves, so stock up before you go spending the rest! Or else you may end up begging your husband for flasks at raid time, and oh the eye rolling you must endure.

Trust me, I speak from experience.

And on that note, I may have stumbled upon a potential future topic: “Dress to Impress: Methods to Marry for Money”…

Game Over!

2010-04-24T23:22:00.001-04:00

So I finally beat the game. Saved the princess (or just Azeroth), won the day and saw the final epic cinematic as Arthas’ last breath as Lich King expired.

I could quit WoW and never be really hard pressed to go back (at least until Cataclysm). I probably won’t, because there are still things to do. There are 3 more difficulty settings to kill him on, and I’m psyched about that, but the real moment was that first epic ending scene I had been waiting for so long.

My guild and husband are still amazed at my ability to avoid all spoilers until that point. So as a courtesy to anyone else who has steadfastly avoided them and not yet seen the end of the game, there will be spoilers after the jump! To skip past, click here.

Spoiler free guarantee is now expired. I was so.. so.. SO excited to see the end of this. A weight is lifted and I don’t have to be so grouchy about downing him on 25, though the fact that we haven’t is definitely stupid.

The ending was amazing. Predictable, but amazing. Even without spoilers, I pretty much knew what was going to happen with Bolvar. With the event in Halls of Reflection saying “There must always be a Lich King” and the shouted conversation at the start of Icecrown Citadel showing that Bolvar had been brought from the dead and was still fighting the whole undead brainwash thing made it blatantly obvious. Was interested in seeing if they did anything particularly unexpected on the way, but they didn’t.

They did pretty much everything I expected to happen. But they did it perfectly. As much as I have griped about Arthas being a whiney little bitch who couldn’t handle the weight of his own decisions, there were tears in my eyes at the exchange between him and the spirit of his father. Especially poignant was the moment his eyes cleared and his father offered bittersweet comfort, “No king can rule forever.”

Tirion and Bolvar’s exchange was not as touching but definitely necessary, and I really liked the transformation of Bolvar, even in that short span it was clear he had really become the Lich King rather than just controlling the scourge. “Jailor of the damned” was a cute title too. Tirion is 100% badass, but I guess he doesn’t have that sentimental attachment for me.

I know I’m going to catch flak for this because I admit, he IS a jackass, but I really honestly like King Varian Wrynn. He has history, personality. Paladins who are awesome and holy for the sake of being awesome and holy and go around doing awesome holy things are awesome and holy. But Wrynn has history and scars and hatred and love all brought from them. For me, Wrynn is to Batman as Fordring is to Superman, and I have ALWAYS found Superman to be super-boring. I HAVE AMAZING POWERS and no personality. Awesome (/sarc).

Tirion Fordring IS significantly more personable than Superman, don’t get me wrong. And Wrynn is probably a little more fucked up than Batman. But I just don’t get that heart-string tug from Tirion.

On another note, the Alliance seriously needs another strong female leader. We lost our best one to the Forsaken. Okay okay so Sylvanas was never actually ‘ours’ to claim but can you blame me for trying? Seriously, Jaina can only be spread so far. You can read into that what you want, too.

END PLOT DISCUSSION

Seriously seriously crazy week for me. No time for writing, hardly any time for thinking. Working on pixels but I only have my half-bits and I haven’t even logged in to WoW today. Vegitating hardcore for now and spending a little time with the munchkin. It’s a good thing.

Other than all of that, I am something akin to worn out but to a higher extreme. BUT THE EFFING KING IS DEAD SO ROCK ON!

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Expanding Horizons

2010-04-19T16:12:00.002-04:00

This weekend has proven to be a very busy weekend. Signs of this may include, but are not limited to, my still referring to it as ‘this weekend’ though Monday has already reared its ugly head as well as my working through the list of things to do ‘this weekend’ well into Monday.

I spent most of my time-wasting this weekend fretting over what to wear! My newly level 80 hunter occupied the bulk of my WoW time finding her things to look cute (and shoot good) in, and the remainder was taken in upgrading my pony. With recent affirmations that someone actually might be reading and looking forward to this, panic set in.

Luckily my own habits toward vanity and some wheedling and begging in the direction of my husband have produced ample offerings for the week.

Leather & Links

Today I am happy to introduce to you Evedra, freshly leveled 80 hunter. Why did I level a hunter? I.. don’t even know. It’s been fun. And one of the primary incentives to reach 80? The Knightbane Carapace (and other reskins thereof).

A hunter? In leather?!? How terrible! I swear and avow, I needed the hit rating, really! Though I keep thinking 10%, so I’m over cap right now, especially with my racial buff, but once I get rid of some of the blues… Okay, okay! I did it for the corset. But really, who can blame me?

Winterfin Patch of Honor
Epaulets of the Devourer
Knightbane Carapace
Cerulean Filigreed Doublet
Windrunner’s Legguards of Conquest
Rhino Hide Kneeboots
Tidebreaker Trident
Nesingwary 4000

Luckily the hunter tier 9 looks lovely matched up with it, so I’ve used that to assemble a makeshift space-pirate outfit. When time permits, I will most certainly embellish on this idea.

The idea of my draenei as a space pirate first tickled me when I previewed the gear from the murlocs in Borean Tundra. I had a chest piece and leggings with lots of leather and buckles - the effect was beyond words. I knew then and there I had to gather clams until the trident and eyepatch were mine. Sure I really didn’t imagine or play the character as anything even remotely space-piratey, but the look was absolutely irresistible!

I think it was well worth my while. How about you?

I’ve also determined that boots on a draenei are mostly stupid. I gave up searching better ones for the night (it was very.. very late) and decided the kneeboots would have to do. This will bear more investigation later.

I happily had the foresight to keep my Haramad’s Leg Wraps on my hunter as well (sadly vendored for the priest), which goes well with the corset-I-mean-carapace. Also handsomely paired with the skirt are the Whispering Tunic (another lost to the vendor on my priest) and the Mighty Girdle. Oh the joys of expanding beyond cloth!

Now for a final treat, I present as promised, darling husband’s Spartan outfit!

I did say it would be worth the wait, didn’t I?

After 300 was released, hubby who has forever been a fan of both graphic novels and Greco-Roman military history decided to plunder the Auction House. The result was as you see.

Bloodscale Helm
Sergeant’s Cape
Light Mail Bracers
Belt of Might
Aboriginal Loincloth

Light Mail Boots
High Chief’s Shield
Bronze Shortsword
Thick Bronze Darts

For a few weeks he did his normal laps of leaping around the tree by the Stormwind auction house. Shortly after, inspired followers appeared until it seemed the entire cast of the movie could be found bouncing around in circles around the tree. Curmudgeonly internet hermit that he is, my husband did not quite take to such a following. He grumbled about the first few, but as numbers grew he quickly stashed the gear away and never donned it again. He didn’t get rid of it though, and happily I convinced him to dig it out once more.

This week I will scour for more cute things to wear and costumes to assemble, and hopefully have a post actually on the weekend this time! I have bits and pieces of some sets that I can’t find the right matches to, and if I’m really pressed I’ll share my favorite single piece dresses. I had hoped to save that entry for when I get the dress I’ve been hunting for ages though, so wish me luck in my search!

Now with 30% more sparkles!

2010-04-19T10:15:00.003-04:00

I have a sparklepony.

I will not apologize or justify the investment. It is a pony. It sparkles and spits out magical stars that trail behind you. Magical sparkle ponies need no justifications.

For those in support of the pony, squee with me! Squeee!!! PONY!

As luck would have it, this same weekend I finally managed to tag along with a group hitting the hardmodes in Ulduar 10. An achievement 8 months overdue (grrrrr but never mind that) finally completed, One Light in the Darkness. The drake is pretty cool looking, better than I had thought. But now, I have a 30% faster pony, and that’s the coolest thing ever.

Side note, it was a busy weekend but Pixels are coming I promise! Teaser: I even convinced my husband to dress up for this one. Well worth the wait!

Fangirl Moment

2010-04-13T18:20:00.002-04:00

I love World of Warcraft fan art. I adore well drawn in game characters and NPCs especially, either portraits or action scenes. Many, many times I have considered getting my own commission done for me and my husband’s characters. Today, I got lucky enough to get a free doodle from one of my favorite WoW artists, @Baenhoof, whose amazing work you can find at Deviant Art. I’ve been a huge fan for a while and only recently found out. The author of Duct Tape and a Prayer remodeled his blog and gave full credits to her for the art, and in browsing through her DA gallery I found pictures I had already considered favorites.

So this is me showing off:

And this is me running off to convince my husband that artwork is a worthwhile investment.

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Mixing It Up

2010-04-11T06:10:00.001-04:00

Last week was a busy one with the holidays both real and digital, so sadly I didn’t have time to play dress up. I considered blowing it off this week and saving it for later, because really who’s reading? But sticking to deadlines is good for me and I still have some of my favorite sets to go.

This week I’d like to look at a couple of collections and explore the versatility of random single items. My favorite skirt, pants, and tunic are in this one – favored because they look good, and also because you can do so much with them. Also for the clothies out there, a reminder: even if you are always wearing a dress, it never hurts to check your pants just in case!

These sets are fun, all-purpose looks that can be used for a wide range of occasions, formal to casual. For this week’s images, I took a little pub crawl through Dalaran.

Dining, Dancing, Drinking and Dress-up

The first set I discovered while playing around on WoW model viewer. I found this amazing skirt and I just didn’t know what to match up with it. The matching shirt is nice, but just seemed dull to me. Sure I copied Whitemane and Paletress, but as a priestess my fascination with Jaina Proudmore faded around the time her buff in Hyjal wasn’t necessary anymore. Maybe if I were a mage…

Soothsayer’s Kilt
Soulcloth Vest
Belt of False Dignity

Optional:
White Swashbuckler’s Shirt
Light-Mantle of the Incarnate

This set can easily be dressed up or down depending on what you add to it.

To the left is a simple casual look, adding modest sleeves with the Swashbuckler’s Shirt. Center shows a sleek sleeveless look with upswept hair and a wine glass, ready for a formal wine tasting at the Legerdemain.

To the right, a more official looking outfit given the weight of authority by the Light-Mantle of the Incarnate. I made mention of having to return to Gruul’s lair after getting rid of these before. This is why. Of all the other purple shoulderpads, only these seem to really match.

Jessera’s Fungus Lined Tunic
Leggings of Transcendence
Black Swashbuckler’s Shirt
Black Mageweave Boots

Jessera’s Fungus Lined Tunic
Pants of Prophecy
Recruit’s Shirt
Recruit’s Boots
Seer’s Fine Stein
Blue Brewfest Stein

Mordant’s Travel Tunic
Leggings of Transcendence
Belt of False Dignity
Black Mageweave Boots

This is where we come to the casual pants sets, good for lounging about in the Alliance Inn or getting rowdy in the Beer Garden out back. I’m really fond of the Draenic off the shoulder neckline found in a lot of Burning Crusade tops. There’s a lot of freedom to modify them with shirts as shown with the soulcloth and Jessera’s tunic.

And now finally, the game of “Guess what’s under that robe!” Did you catch the priest tier pieces on the list? The first time I noticed this was when I was swapping around outfits and found myself in the Transcendence pants and a shirt. I fell in love with the embroidered pattern immediately and decided to take a second look over other leg pieces I had picked up along the way. Who would have suspected these pants to go with the robes below!

The Transcendence pants at least match some of the patterning on the front of the robe, but the green cargo pants are mind boggling under the black, red, white, and gold.

For any non-priests looking for either of these, the Pontiff’s Pantaloons of Prophecy have a pattern similar to the Transcendence. The cargo look of the Prophecy can be replaced with a number of models, easiest I imagine being a cheap green drop.

So now that Noblegarden is over and you’re no longer searching for chocolate eggs, poke around in the armory and see what other surprises are in store. I know one I’m looking forward to when 10M Heroic Festergut decides to give them up. I won’t give away the surprise, but I’m sure those who really want to know can figure it out. Haste and crit and a new skirt model? Yes please!

Cataclysm’s Leap of Faith

2010-04-08T14:05:00.001-04:00

No, I’m not talking about the proposed priest ability in the new expansion. I’m talking about expansion previews and releases that come out before the game can be played. Everyone who cares has seen the priest preview already, right?

From our current point of view, many of these things can look wonderful and some can look downright awful. But our current point of view doesn’t give us the correct game reference to actually make valid conclusions because we can’t possibly know the game mechanics these abilities will reside in.

We’ve been given hints and ideas on how the new face of World of Warcraft will look as it dons the reinvented regalia of Cataclysm. But we don’t know the intricacies of the final mechanics and we won’t until beta comes out. Even then, the mechanics will be in a rough draft state. Nothing is final until things are live.

But what fun are tidbits of information without rampant speculation? Pure opinion and wild conclusions BEGIN!

New Priest Spells

Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the "new" Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest's go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes.

This looks pretty good to me. I liked downranking in BC because it allowed for fine tuning and control in varying healing situations.

I understand that downranking was an unintended mechanic, as was the standing around doing nothing for FSR management. Happily, Blizzard understands why that kind of control was desirable. This addresses both sides of the concern.

Mind Spike (level 81): Deals Shadowfrost damage and puts a debuff on the target that improves subsequent Mind Spike damage. The intent of Mind Spike is to fill a niche missing in Shadow DPS, though it may be occasionally useful for healers as well. Mind Spike provides a quick nuke to use in situations where the priest doesn't have time to set up the normal rotation, such as when adds are dying too fast or you have to swap targets a lot. Spamming Mind Spike will do about as much damage as casting Mind Flay on a target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. The idea behind the debuff is that when you cast Mind Spike, we expect you to cast a lot of them; we don't intend you to fit it into an already full Shadow rotation. It also provides Shadow with a spell to cast when locked out of the Shadow school. (School lockouts will no longer affect both schools for multi-school spells.) 1.5-second cast. 30-yard range. No cooldown.

From clarifications: The idea behind Mind Spike is that you can't always settle into your normal, and high-ramp up rotation. It's also useful when you have to move or get school locked.

PEWPEWPEW! I don’t shadow much, but it seems to fill a gap I had heard complaints over. I hope it’s flashy!

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can't have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis.

From clarifications: Neither Inner Fire nor Inner Will has charges. The decision is on which armor you want up at the time.

I always love a movement speed buff, and increasing the capacity to heal on the run is never bad. Flexibility in personal buffs and situational customization makes things interesting. I like! The charges are also very much good riddance.

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

Leap of Faith is by far the single most sensational ability in this release set. Love it, hate it, everyone has some opinion on this crazy new toy. From current perspective, it is simply that. A toy.

@Rilgon from Stabilized Effort Scope asked “Why is every person's immediate reaction to Leap of Faith to think "how can I use this to be a dick to my friends?" *sigh*”

Answer: Because we can’t think of much better to do with it! Aside from saving people who suck (whom many of us aren’t overly inclined to save sometimes anyway), it doesn’t have a lot of practical application in PvE. In WotLK, it is a toy.

BUT! This isn’t for WotLK. This is for Cataclysm. I predict with all the buffs to movement and healing on the run, there will be a lot of movement dependent encounters upcoming. Maybe something will be vitally dependant on having a dps with a sprint/blink ability, and LoF will allow yet another raid comp that can execute it. Who knows! Benefit of the doubt, it sounds super fun and super silly, but I am willing to believe it will have its uses. Or possibly be too OP in PVP as some have speculated, and not even make it live.

I like the idea I’ve seen on giving it a tagalong effect, i.e. dropping that target’s aggro or some other ‘bonus’ to give it added PVE benefit. I don’t think an actual casting buff I’ve seen suggested like haste will make it, mostly because of PVP.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately. Hasted HoTs and DoTs will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks (meaning they will gain extra ticks to fill in the duration as appropriate).

Win! What’s not to love?

We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health.

Moar pewpew! All the better for killing blows? Ask a shadowpriest.

While we want to keep the priest's role as a well-rounded healer, we also want to make sure the class is a viable tank healer, which is something priests moved away from a little in Wrath of the Lich King. Greater Heal will probably be the tank-healing spell of choice, though we've also discussed giving Discipline a second shield so that they have a small shield to cast on lots of different targets, and a big, more expensive shield to cast on a tank or anyone else taking a ton of damage.

This I’ve seen argued many ways, but I really do like this. Before CoH spam was the norm (remember when people thought it was bad?), I loved that I could take on any healing role effectively. Not enough pallies? I can MT heal like a champ. Too many? Got the raid covered! Mind you, I barely have enough room for the gear sets I collect now, but this would be well worth a major investment in bag upgrades.

I always have and still do think this level of flexibility was and should be a defining trait for priests! If discipline is weaving heals and absorbs in a way that can be fine tuned for raid maintenance or more tank oomph, I think holy’s very different cast style will still remain unique if they’re given the tools to keep the tank alive as well as any other healer.

The major caveat on that is that balance is absolutely critical on this one to prevent loss of uniqueness without over/underpowering something. I think it would be fabulous for both priest specs to be equally capable of raid and tank healing. If you want to tip the scales very slightly, maybe make disc the better tank healer and holy the better raid healer. But don’t tip it so far as to make one overlooked for one role over another.

Another extremely crucial balance issue is avoiding the jack of all trades, master of none scenario as mentioned by Avalonna from Tales of a Priest. Should we outheal paladins on tanks and druids/shamans on raid (assuming their role stays the same…)? No. But is it reasonable to expect to keep up and hold our own? I think so. Skill should determine the better healer in these scenarios. They key is to limit homogenization to general effectiveness while keeping style and execution fun and unique. If Blizzard manages this, I will be a very happy camper. But that is a very big ‘if’ and a very daunting balance challenge that I wouldn’t want to touch with a fifty-foot pole. I truly, deeply, from the bottom of my heart wish the development team the best of luck in this.

Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit will be removed from the game. As Spirit will be the primary mana-regeneration stat, we don't want it to vary as much between solo, small group, and raid play. Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild will not boost Spirit either.

Already announced. Not a big deal. Finding more details on regen mechanics would be fun. The following is a great teaser for that one. Can’t wait to find out more, because again, before buffs and patches in BC, mana management was a measure of skill and it made the game fun and challenging. I am thrilled for mana management, as long as they’re careful of the balance between ‘painful’ and ‘fun’ as mentioned below.

Mana will be a bigger consideration for all healers. We aren't trying to make healing more painful; we're trying to make it more fun. When the cost of a spell isn't an issue, then casting the right spell for the job is less of an issue because you might as well just use your most powerful spell all of the time. We are, however, getting rid of the five-second rule, because we don't want to encourage standing around doing nothing. We're also going to cut back on the benefits of buffs such as Replenishment so priests (and all healers) don't feel as penalized when those buffs aren't available

New Talents and Talent Changes

We want to improve Discipline's single-target healing capacity. One key is to make sure shielding isn't always a more attractive option than healing.

YES! Yes yes yes yes YES. I am excited for some higher scaling healing. Not a lot, because it doesn’t need it. Too much would be overwhelming and overpowered. But overall, an increase on single target throughput would be win. Stamp of approval.

We want to improve Holy for PvP healing. One way to do this is to make sure that Heal's throughput is similar between both specs.

Okay. I don’t PVP so kudos to holy PVPers!

We want to improve Shadow for short fights and reduce its susceptibility to school lockouts.

Yay shadowpriests! Sounds good anyway.

Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield.

From clarifications: The closest analogue to PW:B is the DK Anti-Magic Zone, but it has some important differences, such as a way to counter it in PvP (since it absorbs all damage, not just magical damage).

ABOUT. FREAKING. TIME. WOOOOOOOO! I was beyond excited for this in Wrath. If this falls through for Cataclysm I will be of a mood to kill puppies. But instead of puppies it will be whoever I can happen to blame.

I. want. this. ability.

Thank you.

We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast.

From clarifications: The idea behind the Holy "cast three in a row" talent (it's called "Chakra") is that we've always positioned Holy as a versatile healer. This talent lets you shift into different modes. If you need to be a tank healer, cast three single target heals and your single-target healing is now better. Cast three area heals, and you can be a temporarily specialized group healer. We're going to try to play this mechanic up with a cool UI to try to get that "I'm almost in the zone" feel. We'll let it apply to as many types of spells as we can, perhaps even Smite for those times when nobody's taking damage.

This sounds like a lot of fun. Other comments I’ve read indicate that 3 PoH in a row sounds a little excessive for a buff, which I’m inclined to agree with. A self cast buff that procs a different effect based on what spell you cast immediately after could be another good execution of this. That seems contrary to their ‘in the zone’ feel though, so perhaps that just means ‘area’ spells will include CoH in with PoH and/or something else, effectively creating groups that build your chakra one way or another.

It doesn’t sound like this is finalized by any means, so as a general idea, I think this sounds like something I would definitely love to play around with.

Since the Shadow tree has a lot of passive damage-boosting abilities -- something we're trying to avoid in Cataclysm -- we will need to replace several of the tree's talents. One idea is to play off of the new Shadow Orbs mechanic (see Mastery section below), possibly allowing you to consume an orb to increase damage from Mind Blast or reduce Mind Spike's cast time.

(throwing this in from clarifications since it applies to the doesn’t-apply-to-me category)

Preventing dot clipping is something we want to do in general. It obviously benefits Shadow priests just as much as warlocks.

Alright! Sounds… great? Sure! Good enough for me.

Misery will no longer affect spell Hit chance. We want players to be able to gear themselves around a Hit cap that isn't variable depending on group composition.

From clarifications: We pulled Misery because we are pulling every group benefit that improves hit. It's annoying to have to swap your gear in and out depending on who shows up for your group. In general we're going to push even harder in Cataclysm for bringing people you like to play with, not bringing people who have awesome buffs. The answer to almost every question of "But why would they bring me?" should be "Because you know what the hell you're doing."

Let’s repeat this, and let’s hope for it to be true some day.

“The answer to almost every question of "But why would they bring me?" should be "Because you know what the hell you're doing."”

This goes back to my earlier homogenization comment. Homogenization of effectiveness is a good thing, assuming that all the classes have fun and unique methods for varying playstyles to execute the responsibilities of their role. I approve.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Discipline
Healing
Meditation
Absorption

Holy
Healing
Meditation
Radiance

Shadow
Spell damage
Spell Crit
Shadow Orbs

Absorption: Improves the strength of shields such as Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Barrier.

Reasonable as far as passive bonuses go. So long as the healing is scaled well to match and we’re not relegated to bubble-bots, I’ll take it.

Radiance: Your direct heals add a small heal-over-time component to the target.

Could definitely be spiffy. Could be underwhelming. I’m hoping it turns out to be fun and effective. Side note, the lack of straight healing/spellpower passive bonuses for both sides makes me hope for decent holy/disc balance. Fingers crossed.

Shadow Orbs: Casting spells grants a chance for Shadow Orbs to be created that fly around you and increase your shadow damage. This will help lower-level characters feel more like "Shadow priests" before they obtain Shadowform.

Anything that makes you look more like swirly death is a good thing. Thumbs up!

So there you have it. I’m going to take a Leap of Faith here. I’m going to allow myself to really be excited about the new expansion. As the beta and later live information is released, I believe suggestions will be given and adjustments made, and things will make more sense as other mechanics are revealed. And it will be so much fun. As it stands, I’m thrilled and looking forward to finding out more!

Edit: Additional points of clarification published at 3pm today

We've seen some confusion about Mind Spike. The intention is that you can’t always get your full DoTs up on a target in time before it’s dead. Shadow priests sometimes aren’t sure what to do on, for example, a fight where a boss suddenly spawns an add that you’re supposed to quickly burn down and then go back to the main boss. Mind Spike is what you do to that add. As a rule of thumb, if it’s going to die in under 15 seconds, then go with Mind Spike. Otherwise get your DoTs up and go into your longer rotation.

This made sense to me and I’m not even shadow. Maybe it doesn’t make sense if you are a shadowpriest… (something I’m missing? who knows)

The movement speed from Inner Will stacks with the boot speed bonus. It won’t stack with some movement buffs like say Body and Soul.

WOOHOO!! This made it worth adding an edit to this post. I like to go fast. Body & Soul is the only reason I keep my holy offspec.

We know a lot of people are looking for answers about Lightwell. We're reviewing the talent and spell functionality, but do not have any details to share as of yet regarding its future.

Translation: We know this is broken. We just… don’t know what to do with it yet.

Moving Forward

2010-04-07T11:48:00.001-04:00

It feels like a lot of things are finally moving forward, and it’s definitely exciting. The guild is progressing, news for the expansion is progressing, and the stuck-in-a-rut feeling is abated for now.

Last night’s raid was great. We’re finally pushing a little bit of progress and working on a few hard modes. It’s fun and challenging and progression is where I really enjoy being. Not to mention, hard modes get people to show up.

Did I fail to post our Lich King kill? Sadly, no. Not at all. We’re totally cheating.

A dissatisfied healadin joined our ranks, carrying with him the heroic unlocks. I have very mixed feelings on this.

So it’s not technically cheating, but it definitely has a sense of ‘we didn’t earn this.’ It’s going to constantly bother me on some degree until we actually kill the Lich King.

But… (and there is quite a ‘but’ to it, now that' we’ve taken advantage of it) I have to admit I’m thoroughly enjoying the way we’re working the hard mode fights. This week, we took on some of the easiest ones. If we wiped a few too many times, we went back to normal without beating our heads on it too much because our ultimate goal is still the same: a full clear as fast as possible to get back to work on the Lich King.

We got Marrowgar after making some adjustments to bone spikes during bone storm. This was a good starter challenge without really slowing us down, stimulating enough to keep you on your toes a little instead of sleeping through the first wing. Deathwhisper we didn’t bother because people were looking for a quick easy weekly. Gunship is… still lootship on hard mode.

Heroic Saurfang was really great. My biggest fear of working hard modes was that we’d lose sight of the end game and ignore clearing to Lich King. We had some really good attempts at Saurfang. The biggest challenge to our guild/raid makeup was managing the new uber-beasts. We worked on it. We learned something. And then we moved on. After a reasonable amount of time on it, we switched back to normal, said “run it like it’s heroic” and carried on with our lives.

This attitude greatly increased my confidence in our likelihood of future Lich King encounters. After killing Heroic Rotface, it was getting late, so we breezed through the rest of plague and all of blood on normal, just to make sure we got it done. Tomorrow, pretty sure we can smoke the dragons (probably trying Heroic Valithria) and get back to THE MAIN EVENT! Woo!

Also something to look forward to today?

Class change announcements!!

What exciting things are due to be revealed for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion? I’ve heard some theories about heal/lesser heal making a come back. Personally I’m hoping for some inkling they’ll actually do something regarding that fruit of Tantalus that is Power Word: Barrier. Fingers crossed disc enthusiasts all!

Long Week

2010-04-02T12:11:00.001-04:00

So it appears that recruiting has been working out. Yesterday the attendance was down, but we had a full raid + standby on Wednesday. I wasn’t even there yesterday due to family stuff and I expect a lot of folks are doing spring break/easterthings this week, so I’ll grant leeway.

New people took some learning on Sindragosa, and we didn’t get as far on Lich King as we did the first night we had made attempts, but at least the recruits seem to be solidly geared and fully competent if not fully experienced. Learning another guild’s strategies always has a learning curve, small or large.

As a bonus we got a heroic unlock in one of our recruits, so there was a smashing of the easy heroic modes. We hadn’t expected it so it was just a roflstomp through gunship and I think maybe something else, I forget (I was on standby so they could gauge the new healers). Next week we start to actually work on hardmode funtimes.

Hoping to fix my FPS issue that has been rearing its ugly head again. It had cleared up so nicely since 3.3.3, and then Wednesday it was back with a vengeance. /cry

Pro tip for superspeed in times of need – know when you’re about to have to move and prepare yourself. I have to point my screen at the wall while healing on Sindy so I could mash both mouse buttons down and run straight out after the icy grip. Turning the screen takes about 2 full seconds per frame, which just won’t cut it. Running straight through is also an option if needed. Luckily I don’t have the FPS issue on 10 man, so I can actually see and enjoy the fights there. Stupid computer. /kick

I managed to get home in time for the ‘official’ start time of our 10 man G2, but the schedules were wonky from the partial TOGC they did for half the night. Some people had logged by the time I got home so we didn’t have the balance we needed on at the same time yesterday, but we’re planning to get together tonight. We WILL get this 10 man going this week. I will SEE ARTHAS DEAD.

Or at least see attempts. I want to tear my hair out sometimes because it’s not a question of whether we’re capable, but a question of whether everyone is there and willing. It’s getting better, though, so he’s going down soon I predict, at the very least on 10. Especially with LOL10%. Here’s hoping heroic modes don’t distract too much on 25 so we can stomp his ass there too!

What a Rush

2010-03-30T20:56:00.001-04:00

Updated today, the ICC buff has been increased from 5% to 10%. I know it’s meant to give more casual players a chance to see the latest content for the expansion, but at the same time it feels like anyone not on the bleeding edge is in a race against the clock. The race between guilds for rankings and first time kills is one thing, pitting skill vs. skill, but now it seems like there’s a countdown timer in-game to do the content while it still presents a challenge.

Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely worse things that can happen, especially considering you can turn it off if it’s really such a point of pride. But the fact that you have to pick between going E-Z mode and rejecting help when available for the sake of pride gives a sense of urgency I’m not overly thrilled with. The higher the buff gets, the more you lose the sense of good old fashioned accomplishment, and turning it off just has this sense of vanity that doesn’t go away.

This just goes to show you can’t please everyone. When looking at it from an outside objective point of view, I have to admit that I can’t think of a better form of compromise between hardcore and casual. But I just wanted to make note of a sense of dissatisfaction from somewhere in the middle. I’d love to see some minor reward for those going without the buff so it’s more than just a vanity thing. Extra frost badges at the end of a wing, or maybe another tier token, or some sort of reward between heroic and buffed regular. Something to say “Hey, you did it on your own time, but you did it on your own two feet.” Or 50 feet as it were.

We’ve gotten a good amount of new recruits, so with luck we won’t have attendance problems Wednesday and Thursday. Killing the king would definitely appease me. Since it’s so rough getting our 10 man together at any solid time slot, we’ve saved our raid ID from last week to at least take him on there. I look forward to that a LOT.

Really, I guess it’s not that big of an issue overall. It’s the end of an expansion, and things are going to be winding down. We’ll take out the Lich King, hopefully at 10%, and that will be good enough. I just need to remember my own priorities. 1) Witness the awesome that comes after killing Arthas. Really can’t wait to see what happens. And 2) get the white tier or tier reskin so I look like a freaking priest again. If those two things happen, I will be super super happy, and I will have done what I wanted to do before Cataclysm. I’m hoping the new raid has some fun stuff as well, and maybe some pretty new gear skins, but that’s just a bonus.

One bonus to blogging I have discovered is this – having a place to air out my irritations and frustrations where I can pretend somebody is listening really helps me feel better so I get over it and have a much easier time staying positive. I’m optimistic for this week, even though I have to abandon the raid on Thursday for family stuff. Today and Wednesday we will totally kick some ass and it will be super fun.

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Holier Than Thou

2010-03-28T03:52:00.008-04:00

Since last week, I’ve made great discoveries in the world of WoW costuming and fashion. The greatest of these is sure to be Kirina’s Closet, an extensive resource on WoW fashion and costuming for every occasion. Can’t find what you’re looking for in the regular blog? Click the Fashion tab at the top for an index of outfits she’s collected. Want more? Check out the Forum where other like minded fashionistas and costumers have contributed their ideas and browse through the various ‘catalog’ sticky posts with photographed listings of most every dress, top, and leg item you could be in search of.

So now that I’ve endorsed this amazing resource, on to my own designs. This next set are some of my very favorite outfits because they’re particularly special for my character. I have played and loved the priest class for years now, and I take pride in dressing my priestess as well as any priest you can find in game. So this week I present to you some of my favorite priestly outfits.

Holy Haute Couture

The first set is one I’m sure has been done before and will be done many times since. My first in depth scouring of the internet for costuming resources was to find just the right pieces to match this, my first idol among priestesses. Leveling with a tank as I did with my husband, the fervent and devout couple of High Inquisitor Whitemane and Scarlet Commander Mograine were an inspiration. Yes, I made a macro to yell “Arise, my champion!” when I resurrected him. And yes, every once in a while, he humored me with the response of “At your side, milady!”


Whitemane’s Chapeu Shroud of the Nathrezim Cindercloth Vest Footpad’s Shirt Earthmender’s Bracer of Shattering Gloves of the High Magus Cindercloth Pants Infernoweave Boots Invincible Stave (not shown)	Optional: Gossamer Belt Tabard of the Achiever Scarlet Tabard

This set posed some difficulty as the tabard length tunic is not available to players and neither are the correct upper sleeves. I made due with the footpad’s shirt, and depending on circumstance or mood I’ll swap out the two tabards shown above. The belt is to fill the unfortunate gaps that all tabards have at the waist. The gloves and bracers are the hardest to find matches for, but the crafted top and legs are easy enough, and while there are several models of the boots, what else was I going to do with those extra badges of justice? Also, the most ‘authentic’ weapon choice would be the one listed above or perhaps the Glowing Brightwood Staff, but priestesses are creatures of vanity. As the saying goes, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.

The next set is also somewhat dependent on some later quest items, but well worth it. The release of the Crusader’s Coliseum meant a new fair haired priestess to admire, and this one plays the part of allied NPC as well as Coliseum Opponent with impeccable grace. Recently, she has even been declared victor in one of WoW.com’s Two Bosses Enter segments. Needless to say, when the first patch notes and screen shots were published on MMO Champion, I was there and ready with my outfit for Argent Confessor Paletress’ debut.

Gossamer Headpiece
Silk Mantle of Gamn
Sylvanaar Elite Caster’s Armor
Tabard of the Argent Crusade
The Ėgg of Mortal Essence
Embersilk Bracelets
Gloves of Prophecy
Gossamer Belt
Elegant Leggings
Gnomish Casting Boots
Redemption (not shown)

Once more we have trouble with what’s available vs. what’s 100% accurate, so some choices were made. The authentic shoulders I could find in every imaginable color but white, so I made due with the low level quest shoulders. You can also use Magician’s Mantle or Gossamer Shoulderpads. Gloves were hard to match as well. I’m fond of the look of the prophecy gloves, but you can easily match one of the common Northrend cloth gloves such as the Gloves of Tormented Recollection. The silk wrapped bracers, as the shoulders, come in many colors that are not yellow, so instead I decided to match the straps and buckles of the tunic’s upper arm bands. Benediction is, again, not authentic, but doesn’t it just look amazing? As it is, I think it’s perfect. If only we could let our hair down while wearing a hat. Ah well.

The last of the week is something of my own invention. The friendly competitive spirit between the priest and the paladin is long ongoing. With their single target HPS and their protective plate, paladins try to claim the role of tank healer as theirs alone. I defy them to say a discipline healer cannot heal a tank, and with this set I defy them to say we have any need of their fancy plate gear!

Valorous Crown of Faith
Amice of Brilliant Light
Blessed Robe of Undead Cleansing
Valorous Gloves of Sanctification
Diamond-Core Sledgemace
Chalice of Benedictus

This set I dedicate to the hard-mode WoW outfitters, those of us with the most limited of resources to work with in getting that perfect look. That’s right. This is for you, the few, the proud, the clothie costumers!

Here also comes vindication to those of us who just can’t get rid of anything. The only set I’ve yet gotten rid of was tier 4 because I felt it was boring. In a later post, I’ll show you the outfit that had me regretfully begging for pugs to Gruul’s Lair. Never again! My bank is full, I hardly have room for candles in my bags, but I still have the Blessed Robe of Undead Cleansing. I can keep buying candles a stack at a time, but for those who weren’t around for the events leading into the Wrath expansion, this robe is unobtainable. Congratulations to those who have it. Dust it off and wear it with pride!

Showing Up: How hard is it?

2010-03-26T13:50:00.003-04:00

I’m more than a little peeved at some of my guildies of late. I should actually say I’m peeved at guildies and several former guildies, since last night we only had enough tanks for one ten man group. This provided our GM with a leisurely evening of trimming the roster of anybody who hadn’t raided in the past couple weeks. But really, it’s ridiculous. For two weeks in a row, we’ve farmed out the easy content, and nobody shows for anything even remotely progression oriented. I’m desperately in need of some ideas.

I was ecstatic with how the raid went this Tuesday, especially considering it was patch day. Everything was updated and nobody was lagging, everything was amazing. We cleared everything except Sindragosa and the Lich King and called it a few minutes early. Two days of raiding left, that’s plenty of time to knock out the frost wyrm again and get back to work on the final battle, right?

Clearly very, very wrong. 30-40 people online Tuesday nights at 7 server. 20-24 on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This is absolutely ridiculous to me. God forbid anyone put in any effort towards anything that won’t drop heaps of treasure at the first sign of a stiff breeze. It’s not like they can even say they’re ‘tired of wiping for hours’ because really, we’ve only tried the one night, and even in that short time we managed to get better every time, ending up about halfway through phase two on our last and best attempt.

It’s exceedingly frustrating, and everyone who does show up agrees. We have a large core there every night, always at least 20, but while that’s enough to knock out anything pre-ICC, it’s killing our progression. We’ve bandied around a few possible ideas on how to fix this, but we haven’t come up with a concrete solution just yet.

The obvious fix is recruitment. Get enough people who show up on Wed/Thurs, and they get priority on Tues (a practice that’s already been established). The biggest problem here is that our server is terrible for recruiting. TERRIBLE. That was one of the reasons we transferred out in the first place, though it’s become clear that playing with friends outweighs the inconvenience of that. That’s also why recruiting inbound transfers may be problematic.

We also discussed possible ways to incentivize progression nights, but the idea of that is depressing. Why even play if you’re not excited by the idea of new content? What’s the purpose of showing up to the farm content if you’re not concerned with taking down anything new? That whole mindset completely eludes me.

Still, we discussed possibilities like randomizing which nights we run what, for example surprising Tuesday only raiders with TOGC and doing ICC on Wednesday, and then only announcing what we’re doing after the raid is formed. I’m in support of saving the raid ID for one week and dedicating that week to progression, though we’d be passing on a week’s worth of potential upgrades. We’re geared for Lich King, but it only hurts later progression. Someone else suggested handing out excessive amounts of DKP to people who show up on ‘off’ days that should be progression nights. As it stands now, there is some bonus DKP for nights when a raid can’t form or is forced to go to lower tier content, but the suggestion was to make it so Tuesday looters couldn’t win over a progression raider - the counter argument to that being DKP inflation going out of control.

So here is my call for help to anyone reading this: What methods have you seen used to fight raiding attendance issues? What worked? What didn’t?

Astral Walker

2010-03-25T00:16:00.004-04:00

So, we didn’t have enough to do progression. Still seething mad at folks who will show up, grab loot from the easy stuff, but then bail when it gets to actually working on content.

I am momentarily appeased and something less than murderous for now because at least we scrounged up enough to trounce Algalon. It was fun. Aside from somebody who came in with the key, nobody had done it on 25, some hadn’t even seen it on 10. We came, we learned, we stomped old content and got fancy titles. As well we should have, overgeared as we are.

Anyway, raid ended early so I made a fancy outfit to go with the fancy title. Astral Walker needs shiny things, flowing white dresses, and space and cosmos type backgrounds, so! BEHOLD! Ceralyn the Astral Walker!

After-patch Hangovers

2010-03-24T14:15:00.002-04:00

Drunk with the power of the new ICC buff finally applying to my bubbles, the high of a smooth raid clearing up to Sindragosa with minimal mishaps, and the realization I had 5 emblems left to go, I scrounged up a 2am pug Ulduar and booked it straight to Threads of Fate to purchase the last 2 pieces of my 4 set.

Biggest regret thus far: 2 am pug raid on a work night. Not my brightest idea. But c’est la vie. It was quick, I was tired, and I get to test out how the additional shield buff measures up. But now that I am (semi-)rested, time to actually take a look at what I’ve invested in.

First reflection: If I didn’t look like a warlock already, boy do I now. Since I started looking for tier tokens, nary a one for priesties has dropped. So from orangy-red/purple/whatever, I downgrade to purple & green. If someone in this getup starts to cast a summon, would you expect to see a lightwell or a soulwell? (Not that I have lightwell BUT LOOK AT IT SERIOUSLY)

Okay, now that I’ve vented my vanity issues, time to look at what I’m actually giving up for 5% bigger bubbles.

The robe I was already wearing, so I’m swapping out Corp’rethar Ceremonial Crown, Stiffened Corpse Shoulderpads, and San’layn Ritualist Gloves. Not all ideal disc pieces, but I was spending DKP as holy until recently.

Only keeping sockets for the one +9, the rest spellpower gems gives me a net change of:

Spellpower: -45 ouch

Crit: -5 tolerable

Haste: -17 tolerable

Int: -46 double ouch

Spirit: -22 eh

Hm. Actually, that’s livable – assuming that tokens start dropping. I wasn’t ideally min/maxxed anyway, and once I get my freaking tokens I’ll be up 9 spellpower & 16 crit and only down 10 int (and 8 haste, but who cares). Plus I’ll return to the much more tolerable red/orangy set.

Oooh.. Bonus to look forward to: When we get to the point I can upgrade from hardmodes, I get the pretty white and blue version! Yay!! Oh and more stats. Yeah. To be honest, for pure disc min/max, there may better off-set singles, but I think(hope) the 4pc will hold up decently for shield spam + spot tank healing which I will be doing.

Yay. I was expecting more disappointment here. So! Works out well. Kinda sad I didn’t get to play with the penance reset set, but so it goes. So we’ll see how the bubbles perform and I’ll let you know if any buyer’s remorse kicks in.

*fingers crossed* Please no TOGC tonight PLEASE no TOGC. Let’s one shot Sindy and get to work on the Lich King again. I may hunt down anyone who makes habit of playing Wednesday dropout. Seriously. We raid 3 nights a week. That is extremely reasonable compared to other guilds. SHOW THE #^%@ UP.

Also, in utterly unrelated news, Paletress defeated Falric in WoW.com’s Two Bosses Enter series, which clinches my decision on what my next costuming topic will be about. They’ve always been my favorites anyway. SO! Look forward to that when I get around to it, hopefully this weekend.

Patch Day!

2010-03-23T16:46:00.001-04:00

Ah the joys of patch day!

Tons of lag, sorting your addons, not to mention hoping that the encounters still spawn correctly...

Okay okay so I'm having a serious negative day. Time to cheer up! After all, I got buffed! Or, well. Un-gimped, but hey that's a buff!

I also am having some success in camping for dresses in Moonglade. Two Red Traditional Hanboks and the bright springtime-y Green Wedding Hanbok (different than the dark green). Still no Formal Dangui. Someday it will be mine!! I've demanded Varimir check the vendor when the servers come up. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, for more funtimecheerylike patch info, I found this most excellent summary of patchnotethings from another priesty-blog: Patch notes from I Like Bubbles

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Styles of the Sea

2010-03-20T13:58:00.009-04:00

Having spent considerable time researching the subject, I find myself saddened at the lack of resources on my favorite niche of World of Warcraft – Costuming.

Everyone loves gear of course. You’d be hard pressed to find a player who hasn’t drooled over the ilvl of the leet purps coming from the latest content. Do you have a wishlist? Are you planning the perfect stat balance for your ideal gear set? I certainly am.

But really, when it comes down to it, we all want the same thing. To look awesome.

Gear is more than the dataset its attached to. The arrangement of pixels is what makes the difference between “Optimal/BiS” and truly “Epic”. So let’s get superficial here, throw away all the stats, and see what we can take down the catwalk, or in this case, the plank.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and sometimes the easiest ideas to work from are someone else’s. Blizzard has paid professionals coming up with this stuff, let’s borrow from their creativity.

My first costumes were all based on NPCs and mobs found in game. I thought I would share a few of my favorites here but after realizing just how many outfits I’ve accumulated thus far, I’ve decided to break them up into groups. For the moment, I present to you:

The Maritime Modiste

I’m not sure about the horde, but alliance side, the first instance we encounter is The Deadmines. And who doesn’t love pirates? Ninja aficionados perhaps, but even then it’s a love-hate relationship. My very first costume was the pirate costume.

First Mate’s Hat
Crimson Silk Vest
Crimson Silk Pantaloons
White Swashbuckler’s Shirt
Swashbuckler’s Sash
Buccaneer’s Boots

If you work hard enough and prove your mettle with a band of seafaring brigands, they may even be so kind as to provide you an official uniform.

Bloodsail Admiral’s Hat
Bloodsail Shirt
Bloodsail Sash
Bloodsail Pants
Bloodsail Boots

Finally, for those of higher moral fibre that truly detest the romanticization of murder and larceny as a way of life, we can follow a creative tangent on this nautical theme and assemble a very respectable naval officer’s uniform.

Admiral’s Hat
Regal Armor
Royal Trousers
Gossamer Belt
Recruit’s Boots

These are, of course, simply starting points. Swashbuckler shirts and matching vests come in any number of colors, including the seldom seen purple variety. Breeches come in a rainbow of colors, with and without buttons at the side. And those lucky classes with more varied armor proficiencies can embellish their salty sea dog personas with one of the available eye patches.

It’s all a matter of taste and imagination. The next time you’re idling at the auction house browsing for good deals, leave the item preview box checked. Sometimes you’ll be surprised at what you find.

No Progress

2010-03-19T12:48:00.006-04:00

So no Lich King this week. Last night was worse than Wednesday even, so we ended up doing TOC. Regular. I was sick and feeling lazy/sneaky so I gave up my healing spot for Varimir's paladin alt. I guess it went alright, though only ret gear seemed to be dropping. He utterly despises his Aegis of Damnation and can't seem to replace it.

I was off negotiating terms of surrender and/or fruit snacks with a 4 year old when they finished. Got back to the room and apparently they had been waiting for me to start TOGC, with threat of -100 DKP for anyone not teabagging/jumping up and down on my avatar where Varimir had parked it in the instance. Well then. I had no idea, so hopefully they weren't waiting long.

Overwhelmed by Nerubians

TOGC was successful. Guild's first Heroic Val'kyr kill, so that was a plus. But realization dawned that first kill meant they hadn't spend the grueling hours working on heroic Anub'arak we had. Nightmares relived.. /shudder

Didn't take long...

Unprepared as we were, thankfully we only took a couple whacks at it and broke up to our 10 mans. I was so sick and tired by the end of it I only remember it vaguely. Illness does not good raiding make. Did have a nice chat with Domni, who I'm hoping does not think I am a crazy wow-stalker.

I will be patient and get my 4 set. I will be patient and get my 4 set.

Damnable Meteor Chaser's Raiment keeps taunting me. "Look! I'm ilvl 264 and you can buy me right now! No tokens! No waiting! No spirit!"

I will be patient.

The Means to Kill the Lich King

2010-03-18T16:09:00.001-04:00

I got to play with the Lich King in 25 man last week.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I think the encounter is sufficiently epic for what Blizzard has built him up to be through the expansion. I wasn't far enough in to see the end of the Sunwell when it was current content, so I can't accurately compare the two, but I am having so. much. fun.

I'm pretty sure this is the reason I was asked to go back discipline full time as well, another thing I am extremely excited about. I feel like the game has gone from the miserable grind it became on our brief stint away from Twisting Nether to something a lot more challenging and enjoyable.

I'm really hoping we get to visit him again this week. Yesterday went surprisingly well for the low attendance we had. Hooray for green beer and drunken raiders! We had a lot of people I'd never seen before filling the blanks, I think many were alts of guild friends so the dps was definitely lower than usual, but we managed to sweep out most everything except for Blood Queen and Sindragosa which we didn't have the DPS to bother trying. We broke early and managed to clear out a good chunk of our 10 man a little early even.

Sadly we had the DPS on Tuesday to clear the whole shebang, but excessive lag really crushed us (2-5 second power word: shield casts anyone?) when we got to Rotface. How embarassing...

Our first tries at the Lich King encounter last week were an epic wipefest, but that was half of the fun. It was definitely not something we could steamroll in a couple of tries. We will spend many more hours wiping and learning the fight, and when we wiped last week, we did learn and progress farther and farther every try.

We accepted the ICC buff even though it feels entirely too soon, but every little bit helps. For those concerned with ranking, we'd still be doing it before anybody who did it after without the buff. Personally I'm just impatient to see him dead for my own sense of accomplishment.

One thing that I'm less keen on is picking up an unlock for hardmodes before we down Arthas. This may or may not be in the works (arrangements are being investigated currently) and it feels a little like cheating. I'd like the sense of accomplishment in saying we followed the expected progression path. I can understand the opposing point that getting better gear will make us more likely to down the boss, but the way we were starting to progress last week makes me think we can do it without heroic gear. But then, we could probably do it without the Strength of Wrynn buff too. C'est la vie.

I just want to see what happens when he dies. I think maybe the true achievement so far has been avoiding any spoilers to know just what happens during the ending cinematic. I may or may not be an RP/Lore nerd but that's the real reason I'm pushing progression with jackasses instead of hanging back with friends and sociable players - I want to see what happens next, and I want to be the one doing it. I missed too much content in Burning Crusade and was unsatisfied because of it. I still find time to socialize and we all still chatter at each other in our special Octo-buddychannel which we couldn't do cross-server. But when it comes down to it, I'm a gamer nerd, and I want to beat the game.

The Would-Be Blogger

2010-03-18T16:01:00.001-04:00

I've toyed with the idea of a WoW blog several times in the much-too-long span I've played the game. It was a fairly novel idea at the time (I knew very few of note) and now suddenly everyone is doing it.

I think that may be why I'm doing it now. There's less pressure to be exceptional unless I'm seeking gamer-fame and I find security in the idea that even if my little blog goes entirely unread, it won't be alone in the sea of little fish floating through the internet at present.

So without further ado, here goes nothing!

Spellpower:	-45	ouch
Crit:	-5	tolerable
Haste:	-17	tolerable
Int:	-46	double ouch
Spirit:	-22	eh