A Casual Encounter

Talent Preview

2010-06-11T05:26:00.001-07:00

I know, I probably haven't posted enough for my opinion to matter on this, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm not going to say too much, though. If you want to read a good, in-depth review of the preview, go visit Wow.com's Dawn Moore for the healy version of priests or Fox Van Allen if you're feeling a little darker.

Personally, I'm very intrigued by the new changes, especially all of those to smite/holy damaging abilities. While Smite spec still isn't quite viable, it's very very close. Not only that, I think it may be possible that a holy healing/holy smite hybrid build would work... kinda. Here is the build I came up with. If you consider all of the bonuses to smite (Evangelism, Chakra, Searing Light) that's a 44% bonus to damage! Not only that, a 20% extra chance to hit, meaning we wouldn't need hit in holy gear, and Atonement will allow for those chunky smites to heal while they damage. When you get tired of smiting? You can use Archangel to restore a little of your mana and increase your healing output for a few seconds. Now... let's do a little thinking... I've seen my smite now crit for 7k? I think. That's probably just me making up numbers, because I haven't smited in forever. But let's use it anyways... Say I do 7k with a smite. 44% more smite is 10k. That's a nice bit of damage, and if it crit, you can immediately normal smite with Surge of Light. Not only that, but, if you have Atonement, you heal a nearby raid member for around 4.5k. Now... that's not a huge amount, but it's a "smart" heal that immediately helps someone near the thing you're smiting (probably the tank if you're smiting the boss), and it's about the same as a Flash Heal for the cost of a smite. And that's just the current numbers that we see in Wrath.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the possibility of priests (i.e. ME!) being able to do a little damage with their healing. Not at the cost of healing poorly, but with good situational awareness and a little bit of luck, it may be possible.

It's been a long time...

2010-03-27T15:11:00.001-07:00

It sure has. I got out of my habit of posting after raids, so I got out of my habit of posting. Basically though, I've been able to get into all the ICCs I wanted to and haven't had to worry about all the extra people (extra people also mean more people that have emergency reasons they can't go). But right now, I'm back to once a week raiding because I have so much shit going on right now. In fact, I'm using posting as a means to put off doing some homework. I still want to try and make a wordpress site just because it looks like you can do more with it (I'll admit though, I haven't tried to do too much with this site).

Uh... I'm back to being dual heal specs. I imagine I'll mostly just holy heal since I'm much better at it than disc priesting. However, I wanted to give our other tank healers (we only have three =X) the option of being able to miss... or bring an alt... or spec DPS for a fight if they want to. I'll admit, I'm probably not the best geared Disc priest, but I've gone away from enchanting or gemming regen simply because I'm good with mana management (generally). If I'm oom... something has gone terribly wrong. I'm trying to save up honor/badges so I can get gems to change all of my gems to SP.

Speaking of honor... I've also started pvping more (which is actually where quite a bit of my honor came from... and was spent on) because of the random bg thing and extra honor. If I know that I'll get *at least* 1k honor from every BG (quite a bit more if you win)... it's a great incentive to BGing. The other night I did 2 and got 10k... enough for a gem. Uhm... I would also like to post a shout out to the new people that have showed up in BoO in the past couple of months. They're all fantastic people (esp Krikket and Penitant). That's pretty much it. Now wish me luck on my homework =].

Updates

2010-02-11T15:32:00.000-08:00

I have to go make dinners, so this will be a short post, but basically I've started raiding two nights a week and Jason doesn't seem too depressed about that... probably because I'm pretty good at paying attention to him at the same time (most of the time anyways). However... we have new people coming into the guild... most of them have healing specs, too. The guild is about to go back to only Core Raiders being able to go to raids, which makes sense, but I think there are already enough "Core Raiders" as healers to fill up a 25 man... plus all those people coming in, I feel like I probably won't have a good chance at being promoted. Which is fine with me, I suppose... >_< I just don't like this sense of anticipation I have. Also, since I really have to plan ahead of time when I'm playing for the week (so I can make sure Jason doesn't volunteer us for anything). I'm glad that the guild is going to be better... I just hope that I get to be a part of that.

ICC 25 for funsies

2010-02-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

So... BoO went into ICC 25 for the... third? maybe time last night and for the first time (I think) actually killed stuff. Yay! Nothing prolonged this week, I just wanted to hop on, say stuff, then post pictures.

Orithea is a big girl and throws around big girl pally bubbles.

First Marrowgar kill! Boner spikes are bad. This only took like 5 attempts and we ended up 2 tanking it. Bad ass heals, if I do say so myself.

First Deathwhisper kill! We finished her off in the third attempt. Lots of fun, really. =] I called out mind controls during the fight.

First Gunship success! This is cake. If we didn't win on the first try, I probably would have lied and said we did, LOL.

Weekly Raid Report

2010-01-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

I think I'm seriously about to change to Wordpress and just call my blog "Weekly Raid Report." That's all I do anymore. I'm okay with that... and if I can get into the habit of writing once a week, maybe eventually I can habitualize myself into writing more often. I'm just gonna keep going with this once a week thing for now, though. Last night... was an utter failure. This was our first ICC 25 since it first came out, and quite a few of us had upgrades, me included, but it just wasn't enough. To be honest, the majority of the blame for our 15 wipes can be placed on the pugs that we took with us or shitty RNG on boner spikes. Beyond that though, I had a smidgeon of fun. On the fail Tuesday raids, I very rarely get to raid with all of the major raiders of BoO... =] Ky was missing, but everyone else was more or less there, and I came to realize just how much I really enjoy my new WoW family. I'm still not around enough, but the idle thoughts I was having about xferring back to Kirin Tor are now long gone. I still don't want to level anything on Azgalor though. PVP realm... /shiver. All that being said... I do believe I'm going to change the name of my blog. In the event that that isn't possible (because it may not be), I'll be making a new blog. This just isn't a Casual Encounter anymore... It's not very much about me leveling alts or real life or other video games like I wanted it to be. It's me talking about my most recent raids with a smidgeon of character added in.

Goals for next week: Run a successful ICC OR run a successful Ulduar in which we keel Yoggy. Either of these would be fun, but we'll see what Amber has in store for me before I make up my mind =].

Sorry

2010-01-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

I was mopey last week. I'm not sure why really, but I was mopey. This week's raid went a lot better... kinda. Not ICC. Nope, we didn't even get past Marrowgar (and the next wing is open now? =X) But, we tried twice and then, in a moment of clarity, I said. Well... If we're not even going to get past Marrowgar, and we're still looking for a DPS... why don't we go to ToC and do the weekly? Wouldn't that be a helluva lot more gains? I was right, of course. Not everyone in there needed something from ToC, but alot of us got some upgrades. I got rid of my ridiculous Naxx10 shoes. Now if someone would just take away that freaking offhand. Oh well. Overall though, I can't remember the last time I've had that much fun. Mostly because we kinda goofed off. Kyr probably could have one healed it, but I was there to tank heal while he was making sure the raid wasn't dead. We single tanked Anub... he didn't even get one submerge in. 2 min fight lulz. Needless to say, I think we full cleared the place (this included one wipe) in about 45 minutes. I repeat, I can't remember when I had that much fun on a raid. Maybe that's what I need to do? Organizing old raids for kicks and giggles and badges? The only problem with that is some people don't seem to want old raids. They want new raids with new gear. We'll see... An Ulduar run could be fun, maybe.

C'est La Vie

2010-01-13T20:57:00.000-08:00

This isn't a rant per se. It's more like... me being all mopey because my limited play time is catching up with me. Not like I'm getting worse or anything. I don't think I am. But with the fact that ICC is a real raid, and not a thing you can simply hop in to and get loot, and the fact that I only do one day a week, is really starting to show, it seems. I just feel like I don't bring as much to the table as I could and that the other healers are supporting me. This is compounded by the fact that the only night I really can raid, starts an hour later than every other night, yet still ends at the same time. Not really anyone's fault, but the raids never start on time anyways, and Tues seems to be the alt run. This means... we down one boss and I have a 100 gold repair bill. Again. This is really just me being mopey and writing something down, that hardly anyone reads... except a few guildies, which brings me to my next mopey string of words.

I've been in the guild now for a few months, but I'm still not really making friends like I would have liked to. Maybe it's because a lot of them are already friends irl... I just feel like... I'm there for business and that's it. I want to be there for more than just heals. They could get pugs for that. I don't know... maybe it's just the "bad" run last night that has made me kinda down, but I just feel like it's not getting fun. Once again, though, all this stems from me only being able to raid once a week. It sucks, but c'est la vie.

I was tagged =O

2009-12-09T15:35:00.000-08:00

Ky at Casual Hardcore, a fellow guildie, filled out this survey of sorts and tagged me! And, since I'm currently sick with a cold, wounded from putting up christmas lights, and feel like doing nothing more than vegging, I'm going to fill it out...

My Warcraft Year in Review Meme

Please leave a link to your meme post in the comments here. Please tag 5 other folks to complete the meme and copy these instructions and the questions into your blog with your answers.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?
What was your favorite new place that you visited?
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
What was your biggest failure?
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
What do you wish you’d done less of?
What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Played Alliance. That's not entirely true. I have a level 35 warrior, but for the most part, I've been very anti-alliance. And for good reason. A large majority of the people I've met that haven't been in my guild have been asshats, but find a good group to play with and it's, I dare say, even better than Horde.

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

Icecrown! Although it's a huge zone, and I kinda despise having to do things in it, the lore nerd in me goes "amgamgamg ICC. Arthas I'ma keel u!"

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

More max level characters! Seriously. I don't know what my problem is, but I just can't grind any of my other characters up to 80. I have two that have been within 10 levels for six months now.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Doing cutting edge content. I think this is the first time that I've been able to do new content AS it comes out. A week or so after every major content patch, I've been able to go into and do the new content. Not always successfully (Ulduar, I'm looking at you), but I did it. Something that makes me very happy.

What was your biggest failure?

Not being as good a player as I should be. I still only have one high level profession. I still don't have max fishing or cooking. I don't raid nearly as much as I'd like to (twice a week would be nice ;.;)

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

GETTING AN EPIC MOUNT FINALLY! Seriously.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Uhm... Not much really. The thing about me, is that I'm a decently disciplined person (about most things /glares at exercise equipment), and I'm not one to do something to excess.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

Well... no podcast really. But I have a few blogs on my roll. My FAVORITE... is probably Amber. In fact, I enjoyed reading it so much, I eventually transferred and faction swapped so that I can raid with her!

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

It doesn't matter which faction you choose. Both sides have asshats. Both sides have wonderful people.

Title #1

2009-12-03T15:24:00.001-08:00

I know. Very original title, but I really don't have much to say. Also, I've always been horrible at titling any of my stuff.

First - =] Turns out I'm number 36 in the guild (according to wow-heroes) on the level of my gear. ^^ I think that's pretty good. I'm missing an enchant on my new cloak, but I do have all epic gems. I really should try and level my inscription all the way to 450 since it's only like 150... or at least high enough to do the special shoulder chants.

Also - I need to know what to do with my emblems. I have 24... Should I buy a new ring? or the T9 boot?

I totally started writing this post a week ago and on a further note, this topic is rendered more or less irrelevant because of the fact that 3.3 is coming out tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be running the 5-mans enough (since they are the same ilevel as ToC10) that I don't need to worry about that. Have fun with 3.3 tomorrow guys. =]

I Raid Lead IRL

2009-11-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

Turns out I'm a raid leader IRL.

Okay, not really, but the parallels I tend to draw between things makes me laugh. This one in particular.

Backstory: My parents own a BBQ restaurant here in Texas where I worked as the manager forever (read: a year and a half). Recently, since my only source of income is from substitute teaching (gg failing economy and lack of jobs), I'm working there again in the mornings so that I can have some income.

The other day one of the older ladies walks in and I'm standing there cutting onions or something and she asks "Where am I working today?"

Immediately, I start sizing up the strengths and weaknesses of the people I work with. This person has probably got the lowest IQ I know of; however, she knows how to cut things without removing a finger. That person has horrible people skills and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the customers. etc, etc, etc... And then the idea hit me "I'm like a RL, but IRL." I laughed at the idea, but then realized that I backseat RL all the time. When someone says "Hey, let's do X," I sometimes say loud enough for only me to hear (unmute the mic? nowai) "I think y would have been better" or "Man, that's a good idea." It gave me a good laugh, if nothing else.

Interwebz slow because...

2009-11-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

Patch 3.3 on the background downloader! I suppose that means I'll have to occupy my time by folding clothes or washing dishes. Or I can just play Neverwinter Nights 2. In news unrelated to how I while away my time...

Blizz released news on how the next tier of raiding is going to be activated. Some people in the blogging community have strong opinions of it. Positive and Negative. Personally? I'm on the fence. Like Seri says, it seems that it's a little pandering to the casuals, which devalues the effort that top raid guilds put into the game, on the other hand... I'm a casual! Well... not really. I consider myself in the grey zone between casual and hardcore. If I could, I would probably try to raid 4+ days a week; however, I can't. So, what I do is raid when I can. When I do raid, I go fully prepared. I'm pretty business. I don't listen to music, I don't have the TV on. I have vent and headphones (well, had headphones. The land shark pomeranian known as Dexter saw to it that it was no more).

TL;DR I'm neither casual nor hardcore.

I see the merit in wanting the hardest dungeon in an expansion cycle to be practically inaccessible to all but the most hardcore of raids. It's so they can wear their leet gear and say "Look, I have this awesome stuff that you don't have." It's elitist, but, like I said, there's merit to it. I understand it. On the other hand, the game isn't just about "leet gear." It's about challenge. It's about story. It's about working with other people to the best of your ability to achieve a goal. That's the part that I like most about the game. I want Myss to beat Arthas. I want to see what happens with my own eyes. That is EXTREMELY important to me. So... we'll see how much I like this new raid system.

In news about Myss: I got more T9! Gloves this time. I've almost got enough Triumph emblems to get her another new ring too, so that means my only piece of i 200 gear after that will be her offhand (those, apparently never drop). After that, I'll have very FEW 213 (or whatever the next half tier was). So... =] I think I'll have caught up after I buy that ring. Also, starting next week, I think I'll be running 25 ToC instead of 10 ToC. Meaning... I GET BETTR THINGZ. Maybe. Until next week!

SPOILER ALERT! LICH KING IDENTITY REVEALED!

2009-11-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

I was wandering around on facebook, when suddenly I spotted it. A picture proving something that I think I should have known all along. --.-- I knew that there was something wrong with the Lich King. He was just... too evil to be Arthas.

My favorite part of 3.3 (besides getting to kick in Arthas' teeth)

2009-11-11T14:09:00.000-08:00

I suppose today I should review an upcoming feature of patch 3.3 that I'm really looking forward to. And by review, I mean I'm going to talk about something that I've never experienced and pretend like I know something about it. I absolutely LOVE the idea of the random PUG dungeon. Why? Because I despise most DPS specs.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, I don't know if anyone has ever noticed, but it is EXTREMELY difficult to heal a mob to death. You hadn't noticed? Well, let me tell you. It's extremely difficult to heal a mob to death. It's also difficult (albeit not as difficult) to let mobs beat on YOU until THEY die. So, if you prefer your spec to be of the tanking or healing variety, you are out of luck, my friend. Maybe...

With the advent of the random dungeon (which includes, most importantly, a cross-server LFG), Blizz will be, once again imo, pandering to the heal/tank-nuts like me. SERIOUSLY? SLAP IN THE FACE, BLIZZ!!! Okay, but really, I think this is fantastic. Now, maybe my poor druid will actually... I dunno... get to level 68, where I hear running as a resto spec isn't nearly AS painful. Or... Maybe my pally will actually get to some level higher than 30 because letting things beat on you by yourself isn't nearly as fullfilling or experience-ful as I had hoped it would be. The reason this is great is because you queue up for dungeons much like you do BGs, and let the machine do the work for you.

It's so difficult to find dungeon runs that I've actually been trying to pvp my way to 68 on Apa. PVP! What the hell is the world coming to? Fortunately, now that it looks amongst many servers (I'm assuming within battlegroups), the 1 person that's signed up to go to Underbog becomes 4-5? That's amazingly cool, I think. Now maybe I'll be able to dungeon run my way to the top and heal and tank to my heart's content. Running dungeons and raids is the best part of this game by far for me, and now, being able to do it just a little easier on my way to 80, makes me want to give Blizz a big gold star. <3

In other news, my average gear ilevel is up to 220.88 now! only two more ilevel 200 items to get rid of, and something that, I'm thinking, should happen somewhere after next weeks raid.

In other other news, I'm trying to decide if I want to go to wordpress with this blog. I really don't know if I post enough to justify switching to a new medium, but I suppose I'll let my... 4-5 readers decide. (/sigh)

Why I Don't Blog as much as I'd Like

2009-11-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

So... I was scolded for not posting enough (Sorry, Jov). I suppose I will actually have to ATTEMPT to make an effort to post more often.

Last night, another successful ToC run. I got some pants and enough badges to buy my first T9 item. Yay! Maybe my average item level will start rising to something that better represents the content I'm doing? Doubt it.

Also last night, a bigger success than the gear, I began talking more to my new guildies. I think I must seriously have real social anxiety problems, because even IRL, I have problems talking to new people. I used to not be so bad on the computer (chat room RP ftw), but lately I kinda just get on WoW to run my ToC, maybe an Ony, then I log off for a whole week. Yesterday, however, I was on early and was just chatting with Amber and Cel. Something I don't do nearly often enough. I'm going to stop here, and start to actually think about making a post that is more than just "Diary of My Toons."

Monthly post time

2009-10-23T08:18:00.001-07:00

I really should get into the habit of posting more. Like... more than once a month, maybe? Maybe I'll try and make it a habit to post after my weekly run with BoO. Those have been going swimmingly, btw... I mean, when I actually sign up for the right date and not a raid that went on a week ago. I hope no one noticed that, because it was pretty embarrassing. And I suppose if no one noticed it then, someone will get a good lol out of it now. The ToC run on Wednesday wasn't all that bad. I don't remember dying too often... Faction Champions eated my lunch, though. They're pretty rude to healers, especially those of the clothy variety (aka PRIESTS). So... this blog was supposed to be about, what?

WoW + RL? Well... It's more RL than WoW now... especially since, for some reason, I just can't bring myself to do dailies. I hate repetitiveness, I guess. It's ALMOST too much for me to raid once a week, same raid, same day every week. Almost. However, each time there are so many factors that could possibly change what happens since the other 9 people you play with all have minds of their own (Well, most of them do, at least I suppose). Unlike dailies. Dailies can DIAF.

On the other hand, Faction swapping completely reset alot of the quests I did Horde side, so I can now go back and redo quests for money. Not a bad idea actually, and I've already done quite a few. Wrathgate, Bronzebeard, and Shadow Vault quest chains are completed. There are still a few more phasing quests that I haven't completed that I need to.

On a totally unrelated note, I was wandering around Terrokar trying to heal things to death on my broccoli sprout and an old guildy asked me where Myss was. I explained that she's now a space goat and he made sure that I knew that Draenei racials were inferior to Human racials for a healer type. As if that ever made me think twice. Human females are ugly and have huge hips. Don't even get me started on Dwarves. I almost did Night Elf, but for some reason... I've always disliked night elves. The only viable option for me was draenei. This, however, may change when Cataclysm comes along. Gnome priest? kthx I'll have.

A new day dawns...

2009-09-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

I know... the title is a little melodramatic. HOWEVER! >_> It's true. This morning I went through with a faction swap and server transfer so I could join the folks on Azgalor in Brotherhood of Oblivion and my new second favorite priesty spacegoat Lyrandre. Why is she my second favorite?
Because... Myss is now a priesty spacegoat. Unfortunately, the faction swap means that I now have to redo ALL of the Argent Tournament quests... Except the Black Knight maybe. I still have that achievement, so I may not have to redo that chain. We'll see... in like two weeks. Also, notice how the horde picture is bigger, shows more of Myss, and is just better overall? While my new home is with that ugly blue color the alliance tends to like, my heart will always beat red. =/ I already miss my hoardie friends, but this was as much an experiment in trying new things as it was an option for a new raiding home. =] And I already know I'll make great friends on this side of the Wrathgate as well.

I've been cheating.

2009-09-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

On WoW

I feel like some salacious harlot standing at an MMO intersection. Champions Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online (free to play now, btw), Guild Wars. What's wrong with me?

To be fair, the majority of the people that I enjoyed raiding with in my guild left for greener (i.e. more active) pastures while I was on vacation, and the guild most of them joined is now full of healers. Hopefully my plea of "I won't even raid if there's no room, I just want to be where my friends are" might win over the powers that be. Not only that though... the few people that were there and active raiders were discouraged and have stopped playing those toons. So... not only am I not raiding with the people I want to, but the people I don't even necessarily want to raid with aren't even raiding.

You guys can't see it, but there is an extremely unhappy sad face going on right now.

That being said, since I'm not doing much on WoW, I've been playing other games. Champions online is fun, but not really healer friendly. DDO is mostly just because I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was 12, and the fact that it's free to play. Guild Wars is *amazingly* healer friendly. You really don't do anything without a group. If you're not one to enjoy actually playing with other people, you enlist the help of NPC henchmen. These NPCs aren't the smartest cookies in the box, but they do a good enough job that I can just heal away while they take care of the mobs. =] I enjoy this a lot, but I still miss my friends and my Myss.

=/ Anyone looking for a decent Holy Priest to add to their arsenal of healers? I may be willing to faction/server change. I don't want to leave my friends, but I'd rather not put my hard work to waste.

In which Myss goes Holy and pwns....... hard

2009-07-20T05:51:00.000-07:00

AMG Not much time: work soon. Quick post before I go... O.O I'm actually doing Ulduar. I've been disc almost exclusively since the expansion, but a lot of my guildies have been down on the spec (DIAF all you Holy paladins, stop stealing my tank healing slot). So, yesterday I went Holy for our Ulduar25 ran (with an allied guild). And...

I outhealed and under overhealed a large majority of people geared significantly better than me. WTF?! Is this what Holy priest healing is like? I know I know... the meters aren't important. I should realize this. Especially after being Disc for so long, and I still prefer disc more. But... if I do this well as Holy (the meter doesn't lie about how much healed, and being number one for the majority of the run is nothing to scoff about, imo), and more than just that, if people STAY ALIVE a little more when I'm having to raid heal most of the time anyways, then I will probably be Holy for most of our runs. Yay for looking impressive again!

On a side note: I have been feeling down about myself in our progression stuff in 10 mans (which we do prominantly with only guildies), because people die and the other healers always say "Disc is shit, go Holy you'll pwn." I suppose the VERY succesful 25 run helped lift my spirits significantly.

3.1 Update

2009-04-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hrm... I haven't posted in a long time. Ooops.

On Dual specs:

Right now I'm specced Disc/Shadow. It's very nice to be able to do my dailies in less than a bajillion hours then be able to heal a heroic/raid without batting an eye. However, I'm thinking about changing my shadow spec to Holy... because I really like healing, and this would make me like... the Superman of all healers.

On Priest stuff:

I'm very excited about the different priest changes, despite the mana regen nerf (which I have felt, but still not even enough to like... use a potion... or a shadowfiend... or even an arcane torrent). Disc became even better, and Holy suddenly became very good. I was very unimpressed with some of the changes that happened in 3.0 (For example: Holy concentration and Serendipity). The newer versions of each, however, are vastly superior. I'm in love. On a Shadow-note: Critting dots makes me feel strange.

Wherein I talk about real life a little bit.

2009-03-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

This blog is not just about me and WoW (though I wish I played a little bit more now-a-days to actually talk about WoW some more). It's about me and life too. So if you came here looking for my thoughts on maybe the new T8 stuff (which I probably won't see), I'm sorry.

For some reason, this week I got back into the habit of doing what I hope will be my profession in the future: writing. Specifically writing poetry. It started when I went back to my alma mater. That makes it sound like I took a cross-country visit to some college, but not really. It's kinda on the way home from work so I stopped by one day (also note, I only graduated a few months ago... I just like saying that I have an alma mater). I stopped by Lamar University to pick up the most recent issue of our literary magazine where I have two award-winning poems published. I got some money for them, and they were the best! (out of the 100 or so English majors that actually submitted poetry at the school).

Without much further ado, I'd like to present those two poems, plus the one that I wrote after talking to a few of my professors while I was there. =] Enjoy.

First, winner of the Eleanor Poetry Award. Which is the category for the best overall undergraduate poem.

An Address to My Father

The first time I saw you cry was the day your father died.
I was outside playing when you drove up.
You hugged me then told me the news,
and that he wasn't coming back.
At first I couldn't understand, but seeing you fall apart,
sad that you had forever lost that piece of your life,
told me that this was death,
and I wept with you.

The second time I saw you cry was the day that
I explained that I always felt different.
You turned away and didn't talk to me for weeks.
A month later you drove me out to the cemetary,
where your father lies, and held me close
while tears ran down your face,
sad that you had forever lost some piece of your son.
And I wept with you.

This next one won the Barnes Poetry Award, which is the award for best structured poetry. It's a sonnet, to be specific, and I was told by both of the professors at the university (who are both well-established poets) and by Morri Creech (who was a visiting and even more well-established poet) that it was one of the finest sonnets they'd ever seen. =] I had a big head for a little while.

On Shelley's "Ozymandias"

A traveler from an ancient land once said
that kings and kingdoms all to rubble fall.
But common people suffer too. They dread
the graveside mourning and the ghostly pall.
For when the peasant piece is gone and dead,
a whispered letter in the poem of man,
no soul remembers all that came before;
no soul believes the lightness of the span.
So on my stone--it's owner, friend of sod:
"My name is Garry, son of workers poor.
Look on my grave and feel despair, ye gods.
All men and kings live only for decay."
And so amount to nothing but foul clods,
until their time when they are washed away.

This last one is one that I just recently wrote, and if anyone actually reads these, I would *more* than appreciate any comments (good, but especially bad) that you have. =] Thanks.

Fleeting Moments

Sex is most profound in those moments
just before two people first make love.
It’s in the way two people, almost unsure,
almost scared, touch and look
and feel each other in those
vulnerable seconds before their
bodies bond.

It’s the way his breath washes
over you like cinnamon,
sweet and hot and bitter.

It’s the way, just before things
get heavy, my pulse speeds,
my breathing deepens.

But only when the act was over
and we fell asleep looking
into each other’s eyes,
I realized that a moment
had slipped away,
and I’d never get it back.

Theory Craft

2009-03-12T05:35:00.001-07:00

As you can see above, I've tried my hand at a little bit of theorycrafting. Just something I did while at work because I was really bored. Unfortunately, there are some things that I'm not too sure about. I should also mention that this is according to the current news on 3.1. The live numbers for Disc are going to be slightly lower. The gear level is assuming 2k +sp, I'm assuming that's kind of the median that people will be at when 3.1 hits live. Finally, the specs/glyphs that I used to consider the final numbers are here(Holy) and here(Disc).

Finally, a few observations: I've noticed that the two specs both have their major weakpoints addressed through crit. With Divine Aegis, disc's throughput increases with crit. A disc crit is actually 45% more effective than a holy crit, and that may have even more value since that 45% appears in the form of a bubble. I know I moaned and complained about Rapture being nerfed, but if you look at the above chart, the spells that disc is going to be using the most have better mana efficiency than holy, and almost as good (or much better in the case of Penance) throughput. So I'm not worried about Rapture, and Divine Aegis isn't as useless as I thought it might have been.

Holy, on the other hand, has problems with mana efficiency. Crit for them increases their mana regen, and with enough crit a good holy priest will have Holy Concentration up close to 100% of the time. ^_^ Enjoy my number crunching, I'm pretty sure I did some things wrong, and if you see that, tell me. <3

I feel dirty

2009-02-27T06:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in IA's weekly Sarth run, we had way too many tanks. Rude came up with a very good idea, actually. She decided to get on her warlock alt, and let the pally tank heal instead of her. This meant that healing, we had one paladin and one disc priest. I offered to switch to holy, but they told me not to worry about it. However, after that run, I decided to switch to holy for an Arch 10 run simply because I haven't been holy since I hit level 80. Now. My gear isn't exactly right for it, but you know what? It felt really good being able to top healing charts again. I got too used to announcing to the raid after healing charts were posted that a good deal of my healing comes from shielding. But... I was not geared as well as the paladin, and I still healed more than him by about 10%. So, like the title says, I feel dirty. That doesn't mean I'm shirking my love for disc. Especially because in 3.1, they're phasing out any possible need to use greater heal by allowing us to glyph Penance to take off another two seconds and making flash heal even cheaper with an increased chance to crit. BUT I forgot how much I like holy. ^_^ So... My dual spec will probably be Disc/Holy. Hope my guild doesn't mind.

Argh

2009-02-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

So... I suppose I spoke too soon. I assumed that the regen nerf wouldn't affect me and that nerf suddenly doesn't. The nerf to Rapture, on the other hand, does affect me. It's one of those hidden undocumented changes, but for Rapture disc priests can now expect to receive mana from *only* Power Word:Shield and *only* when it is destroyed (completely used up or dispelled). The amount of mana gained is up from a variable amount to always 2.5% of total mana which is a bit of a buff, but the fact that Penance and Divine Aegis no longer affects it is a rather large nerf. Rapture also added the ability to give whoever you cast PW:S on some mana/rage/energy/runic power. On the plus side, a new talent makes PW:S spammable (disregarding "Weakend Soul"15 second CD) and significantly cheaper. I'll write more about the stuff going down if once I get a chance to actually test it.

The History of Myss [COMING SOON]

2009-02-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

Myss started on an RP server, and I really adore RP (despite the fact that I never have time to nor do I ever really try I guess). So, when I first created her, I created a whole backstory to go along with her, including the reason she blasphemed the light by specializing in shadow magic. It wasn't until she happened along a night elf druid that reminded her of her sister that she realized what her family stood for and blah blah blah blah blah. To make a long post really short, all of this I wrote was stored on Penelope, so as soon as I get her up and running again, I'm going to post the story on here. Or maybe I'll do something productive tomorrow and just rewrite it on here. ^_^ But it'll be fun nonetheless.

Also! I need to start thinking of a name for my new laptop!!! ^_^ She's being shipped tomorrow and arriving... Sat? Mon? I don't know something like that. Maybe I'll just name her Myssidia, but I wouldn't count on that.

WTB New Laptop

2009-02-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

I have bad news. Penelope died sometime last week. She was only about two years old and still seemed to work well until about Tuesday. Before I continue with my post I want to have a moment of silence for my little white Angel, Penelope.

~*~*~*~*~

Okay, now that I'm through being dramatic, I'm going to announce that Penelope is my Macbook. I know! Almost as sad as a real two year old dying (no not really, I just live off of absurd humor). I mean I still have my omg badass desktop that my kind exboyfriend helped my build, but I was using my laptop to play at my new boyfriend's house every now and then (since I'm not home that often). No more of that though, and I'm sad face, so literally I haven't touched poor Myssidia since last Tuesday when we were wtfpwned a million times by Vespereon and Sartharion before I finally put on my big-boy buisness belt and saved the day (overdramatic much?).

This is where all of my 3 faithful readers come in handy. I need a new laptop. Sure, I could get Penelope fixed, but after two years I was getting tired of her anyways. And I'm actually thinking about spending good money on this one. So... I have about two thousand dollars that I'm willing to spend. Anyone want to point me in the right direction for a fairly nice gaming laptop? Preferably one that won't embarass me while raiding like Penelope did?

Priest Changes!

2009-02-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

So, I'm going to be fancy and link the posts because I'm so excited, but odds are you've heard of all the really awesome stuff going on behind the scenes at Blizzard. I'm going to start by discussing the changes that affect priests only.

Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.
Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova’s mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.
Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.
Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.
Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.
We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

I am most excited about two changes: the idea that Disc is getting an AOE bubble (although I would love it even more if it was for the whole raid instead of just the group), and the fact that they're making Prayer of Healing targetable to other groups. Yay! Let's talk about this stuff a little more indepth.

Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.

This is nice because it's something that priests have wanted for a long time. I mean, around the expansion, a large percentage of posts on the official forums where all "GIVE PRIESTS DS AS BASELINE OR YOU FAIL!" It's a very nice buff since so many classes actually use spirit now, and raids seem to actually *miss* it when it's gone.

Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).

SRSLY?! I would like it better if the spell... say... worked with the raid as a whole instead of just the priest's group. Or like the new Prayer of Healing change (which I will get to) you can target groups. I was thinking something along the lines of what the Death Knight's Anti-Magic Zone was, but physical damage instead of magical damage prevention. I think it just makes me happy imagining a huge glowing golden bubble and all my friends cowering underneath it. I'd probably macro "YOU SHALL NOT PASS" to it. Cuz I'm a dork.

Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova’s mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.

This is really cool, too. Now I'll have to think harder about whether to glyph Prayer of Healing or Holy Nova. Glyphed Holy Nova heals almost as much as Circle of Healing with a lower coefficient, so it doesn't scale as well (I think). Glyphed Prayer of Healing adds a HoT component which could be nicer for chaining Prayers because it allows for the group to still be healed a little while you're winding up that long 2.5 second cast (significantly less with enough haste + Borrowed Time). I'm super happy since I was seriously super fail at raid healing. Now I will be slightly less fail. Something in there for our Holy brothers, too. Grats =]

Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.

... There's a third priest spec?

Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.

This will only be cool iff (if and only if) the missiles go out a little then shoot back towards me... like a boomarang. My tank would never get healed because I'd be PEW PEWing myself in the face too much.

Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.

Uhm... in lieu of or in addition to the original affect? I personally don't think this will be a good change if it's in lieu of (in light of the upcoming out of 5SR regen nerf), but it could bring the hps up to be more competitive with Disc's (not better, because who can beat Shield->7k Penance->7k Greater Heal in under 3 seconds?). I'm thinking a few flash heals and your greater heal would eventually be the same cast time as a flash heal... and heal like a truck. I don't know. It depends on your playstyle.

We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

If it's enough to make me not want to destroy the world, then you've got your work cut out for you. GOOD LUCK!

Now... Onto the regen post, which, honestly, I'm not too worried about. Why? Because it's mostly affecting healers who operate primarily outside of the 5SR. This is a long one, but I'm not going to be picking it apart like the last one.

Regeneration while not casting (outside of the “five second rule”) will be decreased. We think that (1) the ability to cast heal over time spells and then sit back and (2) benefitting from a clearcasting proc that also gets you out of the five second rule both provide too much mana regeneration, even over short time periods.
To make this change, we are reducing mana regeneration granted by Spirit across the board. However we are also boosting the effects of talents such as Meditation that increase regeneration while casting. The net result should be that your regeneration while casting will stay about the same, but your not-casting regeneration will be reduced. This change will have little impact on dps casters, since they are basically always casting.
The specific talents and abilities being boosted are: Arcane Meditation, Improved Spirit Tap, Intensity, Mage Armor, Meditation, Pyromaniac and Spirit Tap. Yes this makes these “mandatory” talents even more mandatory, if such a thing is possible.
Since paladins rely less on Spirit as a mana-regeneration stat, we have to address them in other ways. We don’t want to change Illumination or Replenishment. However, we are going to increase the healing penalty on Divine Plea from 20% to 50%. Divine Plea was originally intended to help Protection and Retribution paladins stay full on mana. It should be a decision for Holy paladins, not something that is automatically used every cooldown.
In addition, we are also changing the way Spiritual Attunement works. In situations with a large amount of outgoing raid damage, as well as in PvP, this passive ability was responsible for more mana regeneration than we would like. We want to keep the necessary benefit it grants to tanking Protection paladins, while making it less powerful for Holy paladins in PvP or raid encounters with a lot of group damage.
We are also taking a close look at clearcasting procs themselves. One likely outcome is to change them to an Innervate-like surge of mana so that the net benefit is the same, but healers won’t shift to out-of-casting regeneration so often.
We balance around the assumption that even 10-player groups have someone offering Replenishment. To make this even easier on players we are likely to offer this ability to additional classes, as well as make sure that existing sources of Replenishment are more equitable.
These changes are ultimately being done to bring the different healing classes more in line with each other as well as to give the encounter team more leeway when designing encounters, who can balance with these new mana regeneration numbers in mind. In a world with infinite healer mana, the only way to challenge healers is with increasingly insane amount of raid damage, so that global cooldowns become the limiting factor since mana fails to be. An example is the Eredar Twins in late Sunwell. We weren’t necessarily happy with that model, and this change hopefully allows us to move towards giving healing a more deliberate and thoughtful pace rather than frenetic spam.

So... What do I think about all this? I'm laughing a little. This is because, the changes that they are primarily making are changes to do with regen outside of the 5SR. Discipline priests, much like Holy paladins, operate mostly inside of the 5SR where most of our regen comes from Rapture and high mp5. Also, the nerfing of spirit-based regen will affect me little still since I have relatively low spirit (500-something as opposed to my intellect of 1k). Most disc priests seemed to already be leaning towards this conclusion (mp5 and Int is the way to go for good regen) but in light of these changes, discipline priests have no where else to go in my opinion. Also, the idea that Replenishment is a required buff kinda ticks me off, because some guilds don't have a Replenishment buffer (like mine), but I am excited to see that they're adding it to classes and have already announced one class that will be receiving the buff.

Improved Soul Leech – this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)

That would be a warlock talent, in case you didn't know. I'm not quite sure how this talent is going to work (since the talent an RNG based 30% to proc when casting certain spells), but the bottom line is that this is a buff to small guilds. They, understandably have a smaller number of possible specs to choose from and don't always have a Replenishment buffer. I could see them also possibly adding this benefit to Frost DKs (since they were looking for people to spec into it for DPS) and maybe Enhancement Shamans (because it just makes sense to me for some reason).

Dang. I think this is my longest post ever, and it's actually filled with valuable things. Go me!

lol-Sarth 1 Drake

2009-02-04T12:26:00.001-08:00

Apparently I'm more bad ass than I thought I was. This was indeed our guild's first attempt at Sarth and we downed him with an extra drake and only two healers. But that's not all, folks! Half-way through the fight Rude (our really good resto shaman) died due to whelpling nibbles. So there for about 30 seconds when she was trying to decide whether or not to pop her Ankh I was healing three tanks (one for Sarth, one for Vesper, and one for whelplings). It was not fun but surprisingly throwing around shields, renews, flash heals, penances, and prayer of mendings on THREE tanks is somewhat effective. Well... effective enough to give the shammy time to un-die. Also... what'd I get for my efforts? 4 badges. Yay.

On Sartharion, Compliments, and Dentists

2009-02-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

Three things to share tonight before it's time to leave work (bur):

1) Tonight we run Sarth
I don't know if it's our first time to run OS. It might be. We were supposed to do Naxx tonight but since my guild downed Kel'Thuzad Saturday night (WITHOUT ME asdfljflksjdfljf!), they decided to change it to OS. Now, this is scary because I don't even know how the fight goes, and if I had known (before the text from an ex (who is also my RL best friend and fellow guildie)) I might have been reading up on the boss fight. You might be asking why I'm not doing that now instead of posting. Luckily I can't hear you so I don't have to answer.

2) I got a compliments!
Okay, well one, so I don't suppose it's a complimentS, but it was very nice, regardless. I was talking the other day and this is how the conversation went. Sameth is our only druid healer. Zimbee (Nickname: Rude) is our shammy healer. Warning: This is how I actually talk in gchat. I find it fun to decode English and turn it into something monstrous.

Myssidia: AMG, Rude, you have teh nice lewts. Can haz, plx?
Zimbee: WAT? No, get your own!
Sameth: DON'T GIVE MYSS THE LOOTS!
Myssidia: WAT?! Y? U don't liek me, Sam? ;_;
Zimbee: He told me he hates you.
Sameth: It's not that! It's just that you already do as good as me and Rude in your subpar gear. I don't want to imagine you in good gear.
Myssidia: ^_^ I do have shitty gear...
Sameth: =P
Zimbee: =p

3) Dentists suck and make me not want to play.

Really... not much else to say. I went to the dentist today and got my FRONT LEFT INCISOR filled because I had a small cavity on the side of it and my face hurts. It hurts so much that I really don't want to play tonight, I just want to go cuddle and watch old episodes of Heroes with my boyfriend. But... I also want to see Sartharion. I despise tough choices. However, I've decided that I am definitely going to go heal as long as they don't leave my behind again. I don't get off of work for another hour and that's exactly the same time they're going to start the raid.

Finally, in honor of Amber's new blog:

PEWPEW
LAZERHEALZ
PEWPEW

What I should do...

2009-01-29T17:34:00.001-08:00

-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

2009-01-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-10T22:09:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-01-06T17:18:00.001-08:00

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.

This just in!

2008-12-10T14:07:00.000-08:00

I was browsing around the official forums (something I would rather not do, but none of my favorite bloggers have any new content) and I found a really well-written post on the Healing forums, so I thought I'd share it. The OP calls healing the most difficult role in the game. I'd be inclined to agree. DPS often gets the glory of the kill ("Wow! I topped over 3.5k DPS!"). Sometimes it's the tank, but people hardly ever actually thank the healers, in my experience. I've gotten a "Good heals" every now and then, but no one has ever told me "Thanks, Myss, there's no way we could have done that without you." Healing is a pretty thankless job.

I pride myself in being able to look at health bars and know in a split second what would be the perfect heal to use, and in Wrath this got even harder. Before 3.0, the goal of priest healing was to use some rank of greater heal so that you would get the healee as close to full without actually going over, because those were wasted heals. Now, the goal is to heal them to full and over as little as possible. These goals may seem very similar; however, the difference is that when people are taking damage, their health is constantly going down (duh). This makes the pre-3.0 goal much easier (i.e. it was okay for you to heal when you knew it had a chance of overhealing, because odds were their health would fall below that level by the time the heal was actually cast). Post-3.0 you have to practically heal your target expecting around 1k health overheal or more in order to be as efficient as possible with your mana. It's mind-numbing. Not to mention that healing as a discipline spec is completely different.

So, I would like to take a moment to /applaud that poster and thank him/her for catching the eye of the devs. I don't think it actually did much good, but we'll see in the coming months...

Romance -- It's the devil

2008-12-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, but that's why I'm here now. I've finally hit 75 on Myssidia (the priest) and 65 on Myssidia (the Deathknight). I'm certainly not the slowest at leveling; however, I am moving at an awfully slow pace. Why? I'll tell you why.

A few months ago
My boyfriend broke up with me. It hurt a lot especially after I had given him four and a half years of my devotion. You didn't come here to listen to me whine about my love life, though. Well. You kinda did. The title should have given away some of what I intended to talk about. The point of all this is that I assumed that after the break-up I'd zoom zoom zoom to level 80 really quickly. Oddly enough. The exact opposite happened. I almost completely stopped playing.

I find myself logging on to my toons now more to socialize with my friends than to actually play. When my friends aren't on, I get bored within a few minutes and log out. The game just doesn't hold my interest anymore. I'm blaming it on romance.

But now...
A recent development in my life, though, I may be on my way to starting a new relationship. Sure maybe 4 months is a little fast, especially after just getting out of one as long as mine was, but, once again, not the point of this ramble. I've found myself wanting to play more. I know this isn't good because the guy I'm talking to isn't a gamer in the least bit. He thinks it's kinda cute that I'm a little nerdy (which I certainly am, I've threatened to start theory crafting with a friend of ours if he isn't careful), but I'm assuming that he won't like me playing late into the night like I used to. I'm also assuming that he won't like me on a strict raiding schedule. Uh oh.

The game isn't all that important to me, honestly. It's simply one of my more favorite diversions. So I could give it up, but that really isn't the point. I've just liked seeing the way I've handled the game while I was in my relationships. It's funny to me that at the exact time that I needed to stop playing as much, I've had more of an urge to do it (for about 5 hours straight today, something I haven't done since before Wrath). Not exactly as informative as my other posts. This one is certainly more selfish. Oh well. My blog, so I can be selfish every now and then. Also, I would like to say that I've discovered that dance music is making my WoW-time very fun.

Things that still excite me about Wrath!

2008-11-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

First, I want to say that the things I said before, still do excite me about Wrath. The problem is... I haven't been able to experience all of them yet! So I wanted to start by saying, all of that other stuff that I already said, is still on this list. So I'm going to start at number 10 and go to number 6, so that I'll now have a complete list of 10 things. That seems to be the general consensus for list postings. 10 is the minimum.

10. Death Knights

The quests are cool. The abilities are cool. There are way too many of them. Understandably so, too, because the starting area is truly epic. The one thing I dislike about rerolling characters is the idea that I have to go through the same starting quests. Albeit the Deathknight quests will probably get old, too. But the difference is you aren't just killing wolves. You are serving the Lich King. You are his hand of destruction on Azeroth. He asks you to kill innocent people. To murder them while they're running away. You people on the alliance should be ashamed for willfully doing this. I'm horde, so its okay. And then he gives you awesome blue items for mercilessly killing these people (It's good to be with the King). But really, Blizzard did an awesome job with their first hero class. I can't wait for the next one! Healing class, please!

9. The Forsaken

They were always cool. Always my favorite race. If I could, I would change Myssidia from a blood elf to a forsaken (no I wouldn't, she's too pretty). But they have an even more prominent role in this expansion. Possibly more prominent than Hellscream Jr. The Forsaken were created because of Arthas and Lich King. It was the initial plague of the Lich King that created them, and through their own willpower (with some help from their resident bad ass) that they were able to break free of the Scourge and become a free-thinking society of undead people. The best part about Forsaken quests? They're deliciously evil. I mean, in the Howling Fjord I killed dwarves. But that wasn't it! Oh no. I also had to harvest their brains for study. So I killed them then I used a hacksaw to cut open their heads. I'm in love.

8. The Landscapes

Two words: simply beautiful. Now more than two words. The most amazing thing about Northrend is that it is so real (besides the forest made out of crystals and the forest that never stops burning and all the dragon skeletons). But the forests look like a forest I've walked through. The massive, high scaling cliffs look like cliffs I've touched before. It's so amazing that everything I see awes me. Azeroth is nice, but it feels like an alien world. Then to go from that to Outland was an amazing jump into even more alien. But, it's so incredible to be brought back down to "earth." It feels like I'm walking through the real world. The colors are right. The images are right (for the most part). Northrend is beautiful.

7. The Vrykul

Why? Because of the names of their cities. They are fun to say! Okay that's a little silly, but seriously... Say "Gjalerbron"(gyalerbron) out loud right now. Say it again. See how rolls right off the tongue? Even more importantly is the fact that everything about Northrend and the vrykul is steeped in a faux Norse Mythology that's just incredibly fun to play in. Everytime I see a Valkyr I think about bugs bunny. Is that an odd thing to say?

6. The Epicness

This is something that they are certainly pushing in this expansion. From the time I set foot on the continent I can feel the presence of the Lich King. There are dead things chasing after me. And I see him popping up all over the place. All of the quests are basically pushing toward some major encounter with the Lich King. In Outland, Illidan was a problem, but he wasn't that thing that always clung to the back of your mind. All of the quest givers didn't remind you how Illidan destroyed your families, your hometown, or possibly your life (if you're a forsaken). Arthas is the bad guy I've been waiting for. He's that goal that's always there. I can't wait to take him out.

There we have it. Right now Myss is only level 72, because I've been dealing with a lot of personal issues. But hell, that's why I'm a casual gamer right? Personal issues are more important than "gogogo 80." I kinda feel like I'm letting my guild down by not rushing to 80 as fast as possible so that I can participate in the raiding like everyone else, but I'm hoping that I can catch up within the next week (maybe 2).

I lied again.

2008-11-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

Well not really. My other post is already written, but not on this computer. It'll be here soon. Very soon. Tonight after class probably. But until then I have a musing (a musing does not necessarily mean it is amusing). I was thinking earlier today that I read a lot about healing. I know a lot about healing. Maybe not as much as some of the other people in my guild, but I'm also very good at healing. Should I ask if there is anyway I could be named the healing "role" leader for my guild? I mean we don't raid all that much, and this would require me to get on a schedule to raid more than I used to. I find this idea very attractive though. I mean... in Kara when one of our tanks who wasn't quite at the defense cap was taking heavy heavy spikey damage and the direct healers (me and the shaman) were having trouble keeping her up, I took control and told the druid (who was on raid heals for some odd reason) to switch with the shaman. We didn't have troubles after that. So maybe what I mean to say is that... I care more about doing the job in the most efficient way possible than my raid leaders. I'll talk to one of the officers tonight.

I lied

2008-11-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

So... I lied. About not making a Deathknight so fast. As soon as I installed Wrath, I had a discussion with myself. I decided that (and please forgive me, this is going to get sappy) I would prefer to spend my first few hours of wrath with my family on Lightbringer (the nonraiding guild) than with my family on Kirin Tor (the raiding guild). =] It was time well spent. So in order to actually experience Wrath content over there (since none of my characters were 70) I *had* to make a DK. The quests are epic. I love justifications.

On a side note: Sorry for not updating in a long time (all of you devoted readers lawl), but I'm going through a pretty harsh break up right now. Four and half years all for nothing. =] Luckily It's been over for long enough and I'm just optimistic enough to be okay now. I'm going to try and do a longer post on Wrath stuff soon. Like when the next few days. Maybe. (possible title: Things that Still Excite me About Wrath?)

5 Reasons Wrath of the Lich King Excites Me

2008-10-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. Five things don't sound like very much, but honestly when sitting down to think about things, I couldn't think of a full ten that either haven't already been covered already or aren't that exciting anymore (e.g. talents and spells are already being experienced). I mean, sure, I'll probably roll a death knight within the first week. But it's not one of the more exciting things in Wrath. Plus, this blog is supposed to be more or less about casual playing (casual raiding, specifically), so I want to hit on things that interest me as a casual player.

5. New Gear!

I'm not just talking about stuff with stats on it... I mean... That's pretty cool too, in fact, many classes are going to be itemizing completely differently from what we did in TBC. For priests part, I'm not in the beta so I can't be certain, but from what I've seen, it looks like int, crit, mp5 might take priority over all the spirit we're now using. Like I said, not positive, because we still get an awful lot from spirit, but the mechanics of shadowfiend and replenishment... and... hell... practically every other mana regen effect in the game now goes off of a percentage of your mana. This means the more mana you have, the more you get out of these effects. But also, we're travelling into a different land, something completely different from vanilla WoW and TBC. This new place has a bunch of Norse influence, so I'm looking forward to the weapon/armor designs that are coming up.

4. New Storylines

Some of them don't sound too interesting. DEHTA... really? But besides that... the Forsaken having a huge role? That's awesome. My very favorite race is the Forsaken, and Sylvanas is bad ass. Have you all seen her new look? I'm thouroughly impressed and excited that they brought her back to her Dark Ranger looks, instead of the rediculous Night Elf thing that she was. Besides that, though, they seem to be using this expac to go back to the roots of what Warcraft is: a game that is steeped in incredible lore. For TBC, they had to more or less pull some things out of their ass. I personally don't see why the horde got the blood elves. I mean, my main is a blood elf, but I thought it was a horrible twist of the lore in order for it to happen. And the draenei? What dev thought of that? All that aside, what I'm looking forward to is a return to the incredible lore that WoW is based on.

3. New Raids

This is in the middle of the list for me because, honestly, I haven't raided that much and I don't suppose I know what I'm missing. From a story stand-point I feel like such a heel for not ever doing Tempest Keep, Serpent Shrine, Black Temple, Sunwell, or Mount Hyjal. Especially Mount Hyjal. I probably will never experience these places that are so rich with story. Now we're getting more raids dealing with things Lich Kingy... and I wants them. I wants them bad.

2. New Mechanics

Specifically, new raid mechanics. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't get to do that many raids, but the few that I did get to do were incredibly fun. Why? Because each boss fight had its own set of mechanics that you had to know or be screwed. And when the raid all knew what to do, it acted like a well-oiled machine. And half the fun about that is learning how to become that well-oiled machine. Sometimes there are wipes on the way to that, but its fun getting there (20 g repair bills and 2 hours worth of corpse running aside). I'm looking forward to new raids with new boss mechanics to learn about. I've already begun reading up on boss strategies for Naxx. Maybe this is cheating, but I'm hoping that I can take those 20 gold down to 10.

1. Non/Heroic Raids

This, above everything else, goes the furthest to reaching out to casual players like myself in this expansion. I suppose I could have joined a more hardcore raiding guild, but honestly, I don't have the time to devote to that. So there is a lot of game content that I couldn't see. A lot of stories that I couldn't see. This is all going to change, though. In Wrath, every raid. Every raid will be 10-mannable. I've been more excited about this than absolutely every other change that's coming along. This is so exciting to me that I can barely hold myself back from squealing like a girl. If only they had done it before... I could have been able to see Illidan, Kael'thas, or Vashj. But that's okay. Because I'll be able to kill Arthas. He is probably the single most horrid character in all of video gamedom. And in my head (not outloud, my guildies would make fun of me) I will be celebrating his death. I will mentally be screaming "For Sylvanas! For King Menethil!" as I take all of his glorious loots.

Friends and the Game

2008-10-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

There is a major problem that I have experienced many times during mystint as a WoW player (since Nov 06). I began playing with an even more casual attitude than I have now. I didn't have a single max-level character until about two weeks after patch 2.4 came out. I know right? What the hell is wrong with me? Since then, though, I have had some problems. The thing about a game, MMOs specifically is that they are people based. It doesn't matter if you say that the primary reason you play a game (any game) for the single player game; games are created under the assumption that, at some point, more than just one person will go into the doings of the game. Okay, that's probably incredibly too broad, but it's generally the truth. Sorry, back to WoW, the reason you're here.

I became a member of this guild, still my favorite guild I've ever been in, called Show us Your Crits. I know, classy, right? Well the purpose of the guild wasn't pvp or raiding or anything specifically. It was just a bunch of people that have been playing since the game's inception who wanted to play with friends. These people quickly became some of my best friends and I just couldn't stay away from the game, not to play necessarily, but to be able to talk to friends. I became frustrated though, I could tell that I had some modicum of talent in my class of choice and wanted to try a little something harder, so I ended up pugging many Kara runs. These runs were largely successful, and I soon had so many invites from various raiding guilds that my head was spinning. I didn't want to leave my some of my best friends, though, and here is my problem.

Should I stay with the people that have helped me enjoy my time on WoW?

OR

Should I seek greener pastures and ultimately more bad-ass lootz?

I suppose it looks like I'm probably priveleging one over the other, but I'm really not. This is a question that truly bothered me for months, because while I love my guild and I love the people and I love the things they were doing, it was filled with too many lazy people to actually progress anywhere (e.g. 5 hour Kara stints wiping on trash countless times). So I've thought to myself that this is probably a problem that keeps most casual players from starting to do the things that will actually help them enjoy the game.

The thing about being a casual player is that your allegiance ultimately goes to your life. Your children, your job, your spouse, or your real-life friends are all, in a major way, more important to you than the progression of a game. So you think that you don't have the time or the ability to commit to a regular progression/farming schedule. Therefore, you, the average casual player, tend to stick to a guild because you have friends in the guild. You see that leaving them would be likened to treason.

My answer to this question is: TAKE BOTH. Okay, I suppose you people haven't figured out how to clone your characters yet, but I'll come down to your level and pretend that I *can't*. Your character is not you. You are the person talking to those people not your character. I love the people I met in Crits (in fact, I have the guild leader's cellphone number and she is quickly becoming one of my best and closest friends), but I can just as easily keep in contact on other characters. Other characters which I am attempting to level so that I can start actually doing things with these guys again (I just despise levels 40-45 and 50-55). My main, though, transfered to a new server where I was gladly accepted, and have been raiding ever since. Kara, ZA, Gruul, Mag all down. And I'm fine with the fact that all I do is 10-mans and the easy 25-mans. It can become more than I can handle with just those.

Coming Soon: Things that excite me about WotLK!

1st Post!

2008-10-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to A Casual Encounter. Sounds dirty, doesn't it? Let me get started with the basics: my name is Garry. I play World of Warcraft. Surprisingly, this doesn't mean I don't have a life. I go to school as a full time student. I am an English major, with an emphasis on creative writing. I hope to be a poet someday. Probably not a very good one, but if I can teach a little and get some poems published, I'll be happy. I also work. Twenty hours a week I work at a library where I help my students learn to read, obtain their GED, or obtain citizenship. The rest of my time is spent studying, writing, talking to my boyfriend, helping my parents run our family restaurant, and playing World of Warcraft. The reason I started this blog was twofold.

I want to talk about the things I read. I read a bunch of blogs... most of them I agree with (why else would I read them?). Sometimes I just like to talk about things. World of Matticus, World of Snarkcraft, WoWInsider (I may have stolen the name of the blog... I need to check on that and change the name if that is the case. Stay tuned, I don't like the possibility of lawsuits), and etc. are written by wonderfully talented people. Yet, the problem I see is that most of them are hardcore raiders. Which brings me to my second point...

I want to talk about raiding as a casual player. Casual players have a lot of things that they have to deal with. Work, school, family--Life in general plays a huge part in what they do, but, as Jov said in a recent World of Snarkcraft article casual players "aren't stupid." And I'm not. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I haven't found many priests on my server that can do what I do as well as I do. I've been on PuG runs with T6 geared priests that have been amazed at how well I could do with the resources I have available to me. I don't have the time or the resources to be able to do T6 raids, and, to me, having fun with a group of people I like is better than playing a game that feels like an occupation. And takes about as much time. I don't know how much I'll actually be able to talk about. Hopefully this doesn't turn in to me talking about my personal life too much. However, being primarily about casual players, stuff will get introduced every now and then.

Now...

My character: Myssidia, level 70 Blood Elf Priest. Kirin Tor server.

Yes... that is one green and one blue. The rest are epics. That should show that I am at least somewhat devoted to what I do. =] That's all for tonight. Soon: My first serious post!