Whoops.

Yeah... so. Hello! I kind of spaced I had a blog. Awesome.

The (on time) release of WotLK has come and gone. Dusk hit level 80 pretty quickly (I think I was the third in our guild). I had been leveling my hunter after her, but she stalled at 77. Quite to my surprise, I blasted my paladin to 80 and have been doing 10 mans with him. So. Much. Fun.

I found myself rather disenchanted with the changes being made to feral tanking (and with 25 mans we seem to have an abundance of tanks), so, with that in mind, I changed Dusk's primary spec to restoration.

Yeah, yeah, I know. She's dual spec-ed though, so her second spec is still tank when/if it's needed. Disenchanted, but not abandoned! It's great for soloing.

That being said, I am having a blast healing. I don't know how good I am at it--I have a hard time parsing my crap from WWS logs, since last time I checked it has problems properly attributing Lifebloom stacks/blooms to the right healer--but I guess I'm not horrible. I'm still re-learning the instincts for healing. Grid is freaking invaluable, as the way I have my raid bars set up is pretty terrible for healing (but great for everything else). I need to remember to use Swiftmend more, especially since I have the glyph for it. I also need to recreate my "oh shit" macro for Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch + Swiftmend.

I absolutely adore the changes to Tree for WotLK. I had been saying for a long time that they need to buff tree form, give it some kind of armor buff (because it is a FREAKING TREE) or something. Well, ask and ye shall recieve. I also love being able to cast Thorns in tree form, and Abolish Poison, and Remove Curse. And obviously, Healing Touch. Oh man. And Wild Growth is a pretty fun spell, even with the six second cooldown (which, honestly, is not a big deal). Those changes make healing fun for me, again. So, yes, having a jolly good time.

When 3.1 hit, I purchased dual spec for the paladin as well. I figured I could spec him for retribution as primary (because I am all about whacking the shit out of things with a giant weapon) and secondary, healing.

Oh, my god. I am terrible at paladin healing. It literally frightens me.

To be honest, I think part of my problem may have been some of the gear Mal has, but I believe the majority of my problem is that it's such a turn-around from druid healing. There is an incredible lack of mobility--I never really realized how difficult it is to try to move and heal until I tried it--and I have no HoTs to toss up while I'm running to change positions. I now have much greater respect for those paladins that choose to be holy.

Alright, I think that's enough ranty pants from me. More later, including an update of my avatar (I hope).

In regard to two posts ago.

(This one)

Lady Vashj -

Thanks for rolling over and dying. So glad to have my main *and* my alt have your vial. And fishsticks.

I'd like your belt, by the way. Mind dropping it?

Lots of love,
Me

Count Chocula Anetheron -

Thanks for dropping your staff. I love it muchly. It matches my outfit.

Keep dying,
Me

Al'ar -

I like my side of fried chicken to go with my Kael'thas dinner. Too bad we haven't killed him yet.

Extra Crispy Style,
Me

Void Reaver -

I'm sorry I haven't called. Things have been busy. Tai really wants to see you but I've been making her play with Kael. I'll see if I can't convince the raiders to pop in and say hi to you.

XOXO,
Me


And now for some new letters...

Kael'thas (or, The Thas) -

You are a tough motherfucker! We're so close to killing you though. We just need to get our shit together through Phase 3. It is the weak spot. Alternatively, you could just surrender your damn vial. Need the title please kthx.

Frustrated,
Me

Archimonde -

When The Thas goes down... consider yourself On Notice.

Eagerly awaiting the moment,
Me

Officially, our guilds are 6/6 SSC, 3/4 TK, 4/5 Hyjal, 3/9 BT. I'm happy to say that I feel like Dusk's gear has gotten flippin' ridiculous. I can't wait to get more T6 for her. :3

On Friday, I should be getting my beta invite for WotLK. I am incredibly excited. Go go Gnomish Death Knight! XD

I am planning on playing Alliance during the beta so that I can see the Alliance-side quests in Outland and in Northrend. My only high-level Alliance character is 61 and I don't have the patience to play her.)

Once I gain access, I plan on using this blog for documentation of my time playing with the DK class, and what I learn about the new druid and hunter talents. Probably paladin as well--he's 66 now, shouldn't be too hard to get him to at least 67, hopefully 68, before I copy him over.

Anayway, look forward to it!

A day of win and lose.

Sunday was an interesting evening of raiding. First, we hit Gruul's Lair (I took Tai; still no hunter gear for her... it's a bitch to be an alt). After Gruul's, I logged Dusk for TK. We zoomed in and tore apart the trash mobs and then somehow managed to steamroll High Astromancer Solarian in one go. That was an amazing first kill (no one killed the raid, woo!).

After Solarian was looted, we went back out to the main hall and started attempts on Al'ar. Now, I hadn't done the fight before, so it took me a couple deaths before I figured out what the hell I was doing. I felt like a twat, but there's only so much I can do. Anyway, I did eventually get my roll as a tank down (the hardest part was watching for Al'ar to go to the next platform or to go up to Flame Quill people). We got him pretty close to death--that is, *after* he dies the first time. But I had to go before we were able to get him down all the way.

Well, I guess they found replacements enough because they kept on trying him and actually managed to kill him... except, somehow he bugged and reset to 100%. The going theory is he meteor-ed out of the room toward the add tank and bugged out. Either way, it is the suck, because they worked so hard to kick his ass. :/

Anyway, I would still call it 3/4 in TK. We'll pwn him again today or tomorrow.

Fabulous.

Oh hell.

Okay, first of February. Hello, blog.

The guild conglomeration has made a lot of progess in the past two months. We are 5/6 in SSC, which is amazing to even be able to say. We did 5/6 all on Tuesday night, actually. 4.5 hours.

Here's a few newsworthy things in the world of WoW:

First, this makes me happy. Even if it's just a minor victory, it is some sort of victory against gold farmers. Rargh.

Second, Druids are getting a buff to Lacerate in 2.4. "The Feral bears will be seeing an improvement with Lacerate dealing additional damage based on your attack power. (from the class forums)" This is really awesome because a) druids get retarded awesome attack power from their weapons and b) Lacerate is a primary tool in threat-building. (My rotation: Mangle, Lacerate until the 6 sec cooldown on Mangle is up, repeat... it gets the job done.)

The other changes being made for 2.4, like warlocks *finally* being able to summon people into instances, sound like they are further streamlining the game experience. I am glad of it. In that particular instance, the last thing I like to do is wait around for someone to get to the goddamn instance so *then* we can summon them.

/end news tidbits

I feel like a dickhead because I have yet to mention my second 70 in this blog. Taidiriel, or Tai, is a blood elf hunter. I am having a blast playing her. I've been putting her through some Kara runs and so she is getting some epixx (see: Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix!). I've gone Gruul's a few times with her as well, in the hope that I will get the T4 pieces, since the place is pretty much on farm status now. No such luck yet, but we'll see what happens.

Expect to see some screenshots later on, as well as some pictures of the awesome Figure Print I got of Dusk. And it occurs to me I haven't mentioned my acquisition of the WoW Laptop from Dell. Well, there you go. I can has glorious laptop, with which a "golden ticket" for Figure Prints came. Awesome sauce.

Back to work.