What I should do...

-Post more often.

-Post better content.

-Use more colors, styles, and etc.

-Stop spending all my time gawking at the bulging muscles of my new boyfriend.

-Start actually signing up for raids (for reason i was not, see previous note).

That's it. I felt guilty for never posting things, yet I somehow find the time to comment on other blogs.

BTW... I would make blog-reading recommendations, but the one person that might actually read this already reads all the blogs I do. <3 Maybe I'll have something semi-productive to post in the next week or so... maybe.

CoH and the State of Priests

I missed three raid times last week due to negotiations regarding a pending relationship. I know, "bros before hoes" and all that jazz, but that's kinda what I'm writing this for, right? To talk about how life interacts with our playing experience. Enough about that, though, time to talk about something important.

The Nerf
The thing about Circle of Healing is that it was such a powerful spell that it was the only thing many priests in many situations used. Now that's been said by how many bloggers/forum trolls/developers/etc. in the past few weeks? (OVER 9000!) The thing about the nerf is that, while it helps loosen the role of the CoH priest as a raid healer in many regards, it also gives those priests a reason to "open the toolbox."

CoH was used in almost every situation because it was the best possible solution to almost every situation where more than one person was taking damage. Now that it's going to have a CD, many Holy priests will be forced to look at the things they have (the things that make them such amazing healers) and use them as they need to be used. In my opinion, this "nerf" will be the thing that makes the good priests even better and the bad priests even worse.

The State of the Class
Monopolizing on the presedential theme those of us in America will have running through our heads all day, I would like to address priests and inform them of the state of the class I love so much. Ahem:

To the Holy priests who are "losing" one of their favorite spells. Be not afraid. For if you know what you're doing, this will not be a sad day for you. This will be a good day, a happy day, a day that you realize that the world doesn't revolve around one spell. The reason a priest is considered a good healer is the way he or she can take-in the situation and use the best spell possible as it is needed. Know that your druid brothers are sharing the same fate, and that, while they are not as influenced by this change as you are, they share your pain. But the future is bright for you! For if you use the tools given to you by our gracious developers, you will be victorious. And to the Discipline priests, the priests after my own heart. Although your heals aren't as powerful as those of your Holy brothers, you, too, have a bright future ahead of you. For our developer on high, Ghostcrawler, has mentioned good things coming to you.

Okay. I'm done being cheesy now.

Naxx 25

I was planning on getting an early start today, since I have way too many chores to do and not nearly enough time to do them.  However, last night when I was about to log at around 10:30, I got a whisper from an old guild member asking me to go to a heroic Naxxramas PuG.  Now... the idea of *wanting* to go with a PuG was wholly appalling to me, and I knew I had things to do early the next morning.  Somehow, however, the "No thank you" that I could have sworn I typed ended up changing into a "YES!  PHAT LEWTS PLX!"  So we waited around for at least and hour (such is the nature of PuGs) before we even headed to Naxx.  Once we got there, though, it was pretty straightforward.  The only two things that we wiped consistently on were my fault.  

The first, Grand Widow Faerlina because someone else besides the raid leader mistakenly called out a sacrifice and before I could realize what happened, all 3 tanks were dead.  That enrage is a bitch.  Tips from a pro: If you get too easily distracted, like I do, make sure you tell the raid leader only to call out the sacrifices.  If you plan on watching the fight yourself to make sure that you're doing what you need to, watch for her to get big and red.  I suppose that's typically the sign of an enrage.

The next one was Razuvious.  Besides not entirely knowing what to do, this was seriously a really fun fight.  We wiped on him once when me and the other priest really didn't know what was going on at all.  Then *I* caught on, but apparently the other priest did not.  She went through 3 of the Understudies before mine was dead.  Maybe that was my fault for not taunting soon enough.  The second time, we wiped again.  The third time she went through her Understudies fast *again* and I just had the one, but this time the DPS was fast enough that we got him down.  Tips from a pro:  Personally, I hate talking on vent, so I never do.  And the fact that this fight requires decent communication between priests is bad for me, but I found my way around it.  I'm assuming the other priest did too, because we didn't talk hardly at all.  After I let her taunt Razuvious off of me, I simply watched my MC timer and after around 20 seconds I reapplied bone shield and taunted.  However, it would probably be much easier if you actually communicated.

All in all, it was a good run, though.  Four bosses down.  All of arachnid and Razuvious in military.  And Myss grabbed some new wrist pieces while there.  It now no longer looks as if she's wearing elbow-length gloves, however, and is certainly not as a pretty.  C'est la vie!

Reaping Rewards

So, at this point, I feel a little better about blogging things, because I have some quasi-cutting edge raiding under my belt. In BC, I didn't ding 70 until after 2.4, the second to last major content patch (the last being 3.0 which heralded WotLK). The most I ever saw was Karazhan, Zul'Aman, Magtheridon, and Gruul's Lair. Now, however, I'm actually doing things that a lot of people are working on! I'm not the only one. In fact, I hit 80 before one of my favorite fellow-bloggers (to be fair, I remember reading she was working on her rogue first). While I suppose I'm still slightly behind the rest of the pack, I'm not too far behind. So, my post today is a response to one that I just read by Sydera over at World of Matticus.

TLDR; She says that 10-man versions of raids are actually harder than 25-man versions and should offer equal gear.

While I haven't exactly felt the difference between the 10-man and 25-man versions of anything (I have merely about half of Naxx 10-man under my belt), it seems natural to say that the margin of error makes all the difference. A 10-man raid cannot handle the three, four, or five deaths that sometime naturally happen during the course of a 25-man fight. Since the encounters are basically same (most being "Be here, or you take massive amounts of damage"), the room for error in a 10-man is amazingly smaller.

The problem then is, for the added stress, what does a 10-man runner have to show for it? Well, not much. I like the idea that was falsely spread around Wowinsider the other day. The idea was that someone thought they saw in the patch notes that you could exchange one Emblem of Valor for 10 Emblems of Heroism. While the exchange rate is a little ridiculous, I think it offers a good solution even though it turned out to be a mistake and not like that at all. It allows for 10-man raiders to eventually get that gear that they probably deserve.

Something I always liked about Zul'Aman was the fact that it was difficult. Not as difficult as Sunwell Plateau, but it was difficult, and the thing about it that made it almost as difficult as, say, Tempest Keep (just a guess really) was the fact that it had such a small margin of error. While trying to get that bear mount, you couldn't die. Not only couldn't you die, but you also just couldn't pad along. You had to run nonstop throughout the entire instance. The only thing raiders ever got to show for their achievement which by and far was simply one of the hardest things to do in the game was that nice looking bear mount.

This, however, seems to be a losing battle, because the hardcore 25-man raiders already raised enough hell about the simple fact that Blizzard allows raiders to put a raid on easy mode and 10-man it. This idea probably would not go over very well, but here's to hoping that something gets done about the fact that 10-man raiders have to work just as hard, if not harder, as 25-man raiders.

First Naxx Run: Day 2!

Two more bosses down! Congrats everyone who won rolls, and a special congrats to Otanoel for winning the first piece of Tier 7 from a guild run!





P.S. There aren't many people in these pics because they forgot I wanted to take pictures. >_<

First Naxx Run for IA!

Infinite Ascension had its first guild Naxxramas run tonight, and overall it was very successful!

We cleared out all of the Arachnid Quarter, all but Gluth in the Construct Quarter, and got to Noth in the Plague Quarter before it was midnight and quitting time for most of the guildies. Not even that many wipes either. We 1-shotted Faerlina, Noth, and Patchwerk. Posted below are pictures of all the ones we downed. Missing are Grand Widow Faerlina and Plaguebringer Noth, because I forgot about them. I'll take their death pics next time. Congrats to the raiders of Infinite Ascension!







On a side note:

I would like to say that I suppose I have no life, because just Tuesday I hit 80. Tuesday night. Therefore I didn't do anything on Tuesday and starting Wednesday was when I really started getting myself geared, and I didn't really do all that much, besides spent some money on gems, ran some heroics, and bought a badge item. Maybe it's a testament to my guild's willingness to let someone slightly undergeared run with them. Maybe it's a testament to my abilities (LOL)? Maybe it's just a testament to the fact that I work 5 hours a day, I see my love interest 2 hours 2 days of the week (not by choice) and I sleep about eight hours a day. The rest of that time I'm playing, because, like I said, I have no life. Yay me. Here, however, are the fruits of my labors. Myss in pretty new gear. Yay Myss!

TONIGHT!

Sorry for the caps, but I'm just really excited. Myss is level 79 with but 27% left until level 80. She also has 1000 gold sitting in her pocket ready to be spent on heaven knows what. Probably mostly crafting mats so that I can get her tailoring and inscription up like it should be. Tailoring isn't too far behind, but inscription needs quite a bit of work... I might have to steal a friend's toon for a little while for herbs if I can't find them on the AH. I honestly can't wait to start doing the important things that all of my other guildies are doing. When someone asks "Anyone wanna heal H VH?" I can finally say "Yes!" while actually *wishing* that they check to make sure I'm of the appropriate level. =] I just wanted to do a little update post before the Great Ding of 2009.