Alright ZA its time to punch you- right in the babymaker

7 08 2008

Alright.

Got a good makeup for the run. We should own this, let’s go ZA!

Hopefully I’ll have good news to report on later.

Update:

Ok, so went into ZA all set for three timed chests and got none. The problem? The first pull on the gaunlet went badly….very badly. Some people didn’t know what to do, and when one of those people is your second tank thats a problem for the gauntlet.^_^

After we got over that hump we did fine one shotting bosses one or two wipes mainly due to pulls while people were afk for drinks/bio and so on. Then we got to Hex Lord. I had never gotten to do Hex Lord – I’d done all the bosses before and Zul’ Jin but never him. Well the first pull had some issues, so we wiped, then I fucked the second pull by dotting my shackle target >_< – as a side note if any other priest ever makes the same mistake you can keep shackling to keep the shackles up after they come down with each tick of pain but I wouldn’t reccomend it. I was able to buy us some time but that also pulled me out of the DPS rotation meaning less DPS AND no mana/health being returned. Needless to say we wiped. Then I got a macro set up – and I discovere the beauty of focus target.

Yeah, yeah, I know – I should being using focus target seeing as how I’m in a guild breaking into T6 but I just had never thought to do it. Normally when keeping shackles up I just retarget the mob and recast. The beauty of focus target though is a) I don’t have to stop DPS on my main target and b) quartz monitors my debuffs on focus targets. The quartz monitoring alone is worth focusing because i dont have to refresh shackles really early in order to ensure he stays shackled. I can easily see how much time is left and when it breaks – yes, I know there are shackles add-ons that can keep me posted on this BUT I already have a metric shit ton of addons and more will lead to  bad lag in places like hyjal, where I REALLY can’t afford it.

We wiped again though, even after the shackling fix. Why? Because no one killed the sheep target (which was the healer) and there were issues with kiting Hex Lord when he stole consecrate and traps from our palies and hunters.

All in all I learned a lot on the run which is just as good as gear…though I would have REALLY liked to get the hex shrunken head or hood of hexing = (

Maybe I can get some peeps to help me down him tonight before our Hyjal raid – or maybe tomorrow – OR maybe we’ll get by the second boss in hyjal FINALLY and get into some leet T6 loots…..Yeah…..that sounds yummy!





3 Crimson Spinels – One Destroy Prompt…

7 08 2008

I wanted to cry.

I would like to express today the importance of research and theory crafting before making decisions in near end game content. As I have been climbing higher and higher in game content I’ve noticed that my decisions cost me more and more in game. Sometimes this has been good – increased dmg, survivability, better PvP, yada, yada, yada. This post is not about one of those positive times.

So while running Kara for badges on Tuesday night I received a piece of loot – this is unusual since I had been running Kara with the assumption that I don’t need anything out of Kara. (Check out my armory to the side if you’re curious) What loot you ask? Trial Fire Trousers off of the witch bitch in the oz opera event. After receiving them I thought to myself “hmmm3 gem slots, and +49 dmg will get me more spell dmg! than my spell strike legs!”

At this point the shadow gods should have dropped an anvil on my head with Spell Hit inscribed across the front.

No such anvil dropped.

Luckily I logged off that night before doing anything rash.

Unluckily I logged on the next day with 31 badges, 210g, and an acute case of stupidity. I gemmed my pants….all three slots with Runed Crimson Spinel….only to realize: “Wait! Now I have to change my talents to make up for the loss of 22 spell hit…” I wanted to mind control children off the edge of Thunder Bluff.

There is only one other possible solution I can think of at this point to maybe remedy the situation – haste. Once your reach 1400 raid buffed dmg 1 haste becomes equal to 1 dmg and recently in Hyjal I have been sitting around 1500 buffed raid dmg. SO I am going to re-gem my new pants with Haste and spell damage gems – then fix my tree to include more spell hit. I’m thinking with the change at least I’ll get the socket bonus +5 spel damage then the added haste.

But now as I am looking more at it  this actually may continue to be an ok upgrade without regemming. After all my old pants had 2 +12s and 1 +9 runed gems. Thats one increase – but the thing that I am really noticing now is the difference in stamina and intellect – 30 more stamina and 32 more intellect…..thats a decent amount of survivability. Plus the extra life wil help alot with the AoE dmg and random target dmg I’ve been having an issue with in T6.

So tonight I will test the new trousers.

God I wish I had a personal theorycrafting assistant….





So about that review…

6 08 2008

So yeah my laptop is not playing nice with my Bluetooth …. And my in comp mic sounds better right now. Gonna play with it some more and see if I can get some better results. More to come





Yay

6 08 2008

Nothing feels better than a 2 hour kara.





Sometimes its all about the sound

1 08 2008

I splurged…. Went out and got the jawbone 2 today. Now I’m excited to use it with my shiny iPhone 3g – whom I believe has found his name: kael – but what I’m REALLY stoked about is using this fancy headset as my new vent headset. I’ll post back here later on tonight with a rundown of both the raid (ssc) and the headset.

Excited? You should be.





Kara….just when you thought it couldn’t get easier

29 07 2008

It woops your ass.
Not because it’s hard.
Not because you aren’t geared.
Just because well as IT admins say-
The problem is found between the keyboard and the chair.





GhettoBubbleEvocationInnerFocus?

29 07 2008

So WotLK released their first beta patch notes and whaddya know! Apparently someone is at least half paying attention to someone besides rogues, pallies, and death knights. There were lots of significant changes, most of which I don’t feel like going in to here. So stop being last and go out to check for yourself (wotlk wiki is good but updating slowly)
What was good to me in the patch notes?
Dispersion.
For far too long blizzard ignored the fact that EVERY other casting class had mana regenerating spells- they have us a thee legged extremely stupid shadow pet for a few seconds which normally gives you enough mana to type a full OOM sentence rather than a quick simple oom. Dispersion was supposed to fix that – and then they made it last for only 6 seconds on a 5 minute CD. So in arenas you wouldve had to plan your dispersion use VERY carefully and in PvE it would end up replacing one maybe two of your mana pots. But now they have reduced the CD to 3 minutes – meaning in arenas I could possibly use it twice. But more importantly for nijessi – with dispersion and my now extended duration shadowfiend mana pots may no longer be a requirement for raids. I can use those pot cooldowns for something like….oh, I don’t know…. Destruction pots? So while they may have nerfed raid mana regen for us they have finally given us some mana efficiency inthe shadow tree! So I would like to say this while I still can (ie before someone at blizzard realizes “zomg someone helped the Shaowies. Quik grab the nerf bat!”)

Fuck you discipline tree.
I’ve got my own friggin mana regen now!

………though I am gonna borrow that new tier 1 spell dmg talent when you’re by lookin…..





Mount Hyjal- What Now Biotch

28 07 2008

So after a few weeks of languishing in T5 trying o’ so desperatly to bust through SSC we did it.

Dawn of Redemption is now flinging itself headfirst into T6 content!

After downing Tidewalker in what was a seemingly effortless fight the decision was passed down that on Sunday we would be marching into Hyjal with guns blazing. And so we did.

For those who do not the Battle of Mount Hyjal. The instance is essentially defending the tree of life against the scourge onslaught. Your raid braces itself with the help of alliance NPCs against wave after wave of increasingly difficult scourge minions: ghouls, necromancers, and abominations are just a few of the crazys you’ll be fighting against. After your eigth wave of mobs comes the first boss (which savy Warcraft 3 players will recognize as the heroes from that most excellent RTS game) – first boss? Rage Winterchill.

SO knowing what lay ahead (thanks to youtube videos) we all waited as the first wave came, and then the second, and so on and so on. Time began getting cut short as the eigth pull happened – we needed to drink so we sent out Boywonder our brave rogue to distract the incoming Lich. Distract went up and Boywonder went down. But he did buy us some time, some very needed time in order to mana up.

Then miracle of all miracles- we one shot the bastard.

Yep, our first night in T6 and we one shot our first boss.
I know there are tose out there already hemming and hawwing about oh well the first boss is easy, or bug whoop I’ve downed him a million times. To those naysayers I say this – poop on you. It’s people like that who, well, get to endgame content without any friends. SO despite what you say we are currently basking in the glow of a succesful T6 start. We even tried to push onto the next boss Anetheron and got him down to 15%.

I have a feeling that T6 might end up moving as fast as T5 did. We’ve got a great core group of raiders and I’m thinking that this is just the begining of what is to become a massive progression ass-whoppin.

I’ll keep you posted.

***side note: I am going to post a shadow priest’s view to the fight after our next bout through Hyjal which will hopefully be wednesday. I think that there aren’t enough walkthroughs by class of raids outside of the weird crazy shit like warlocks on Leo in SSC. Maybe I’m way off the mark – feel free to comment below to let me know***





T5 and Craftables: If I Knew Then What I Know Now

15 07 2008

If you’re a shadow priest and haven’t been here yet then you should stop reading right now and check it out. I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how many questions are answered there. All kinds of questions and I do mean ALL – from the mundane to the extremely convoluted, it’s a one stop shop of information.

So it should come as now surprise that I use that immense compendium of knowledge (also known as WoW players with WAY to much spare time on their hands….or people with great job security and lax IT departments) to vet my gear choices and upgrades.  Now those of you who have seen me in game know that I went the route of craftables. Before I was in a guild the idea of running PuG karas over and over and over and over and over just didn’t appeal to me…call me elitist – not to mention that the REAL drool worthy stuff was housed in places like Tempest Keep and SSC. When I discovered that instead of spending hours in game with people whose skill levels I didn’t know and crossing two of my three troll fingers for loot, I could spend hours in game with someone whose playstyle I know very well (me for those not following this tortured sentence) and farm mats I was , needless to say, satisfied.

With information in hand I set off, and after spending more time in Nagrand than should even be permitted I crafted the entire Frozen Shadoweave Set, Spellstrike Set, AND Belt of Blasting. Yeah, I got them all within about 2 weeks of each other….as I said earlier, if I never see Nagrand again it will be too soon…

Now, today as I am perusing the forums over at SP.com I find something that unsettles me. I couldn’t BELIEVE IT! I was under the impression that my gear was the best until Hyjal and BT! I had given up countless hours of precious sleep and been ganked but hundreds of alliance (gotta love PvP servers) in order to get all of those fuckin mats (did I mention that language is mature on this site, no? well language is at times not intended for little ears….er eyes).

After I had thrown somethings around and calmed myself with a cup of java I tried to look at the situation again a little more rationally.

—–

At this point in my post I am going to venture into a rat hole for a moment.

For future reference when I notice that I am sliding into one of these ratholes I will separate it out as seen here so those who wish to read it may and those who don’t can skip on down.

I was thinking recently about how peoples real life personalities match up with their toons in WoW and not just any toons but their main toons. Ya know, when you’re sitting around with friends and you realize that the guy (or girl) next to you plays WoW.

“OMG! You play WoW?!”

Yeah! I’m on <insert server info>! You?”

“Me too!”

^—-I know that rarely happens but for sake of argument..—^

Yeah I play a rouge”

“FUCK YOU” *breaks bottle and comes across table

*End Scene*

So you see the second person in the situation may have many alts, but they didn’t list them right off the bat, that comes later when you’re strutting your epeen.

But alts arent what we’re interested in, it’s that character that is truly yours. Sometimes its the first toon you made. Sometimes its not. But either way the connection that particular class has to a personal actual psyche I find amazing.

For instance here are some traits that I have noticed at least on my server and in my in game experience:

Warlocks: Ok so disclaimer, my boyfriend plays a lock. So I get a LOT of time in game with that particular class. Hands down the one thing I notice about warlock players time and time again: Short Fuses. I have seen warlocks go postal over things as simple as ready checks, ‘lol’ being typed twice instead of once, being summoned before they have expressly asked for it, the list can just go on.

Rogues: Patience. As much as I love to hate rogues in PvP I have never come across players as patient as they are. I have seen rogues stalk people for longer than 2 hour stretches waiting for the exact right moment to provide th maximum amount of piss-offness to the player they are ganking. While some view this as extremely douchey (and in many regards it is) I have to give them props, that kind of determination is SAINTLY if only mages could be the same….

Which brings us to Mages: Who seem to often be the other end of the spectrum. If I had a mana potion for every time that a mage goes “Well nice try guys <magename> has left the party/raid” I would never have to worry about chuggin pots again. I’m not saying they’re quitters perse but I just am boggled by how many times I’ve seen it happen. And don’t even get me started with the not providing mage tables in BGs – that’s just cheap. (though I don’t often hear them screaming about buffs the way that….)

Warriors: Always the first to let you know they don’t have a buff. You could be dead and running back to your body after a wipe and you will STILL get whispers “fort plx” 2 seconds later “buff?” UGH! wait a minute will you I’m not even in a BODY right now! On top of that the amount of unguilded ( and I do specify because warriors are slightly different in guilds) who seemingly have no comprehension of mana: “me: drinking – warrior: pulling – me:DRINKING – warrior: inc – me: *sigh*” Though I will say nothing makes a PuG run smoother than a good warrior stepping in and telling everyone to shut up and leading the group, even when they occasionally lead incorrectly. ^_^

Priest: OmgWTFreallyWhatsgoingon/lickdanceparty! I have never com across any class in game that seems to always be saying or communicating or emoting at someone as priest. Whether they’re randomly chatting not stop in trade or emoting in front of the bank or squatting in vent for the next person to get on I have found an ungodly number of priest have an addiction and it’s called talking. And shadow priest have another strange tick … they all come across as slightly off their rocker. Whether its randomly saying things that have NOTHING TO DO WHATSOEVER with anything that’s going on… or when they respond—-on vent——- -with—–long—-drawn—–out answers——that could—-have maybe —–been answered—-with a yes or—-AGGRO. While there are many benefits to the fact that lots of priest like to talk (ie sp.com and people like Noxn) the one thing that saves most priest from eventually ending up on ignore list is the fact that they are just crazy enough to make it entertaining – usually.

Well I’ve been on a rathole long enough now. I think I’ll continue this discussion later on and get some input from others and see what their experiences with the varying classes in the game.

Back to armor!

—————

As I looked at the chart I realized the difference in DPS wasn’t all that much – in fact it was only 2 pseudo damage. Yes, I have forfeited some boosted stats -but that aside I have yet to be out damaged on my raids by other shadow priest who have decided to go the other route. Why is that? One word – roll. I didn’t have to compete against other priest, warriors, AND druids for my armor. In fact I didn’t have to set foot into a raid in order to gear myself out for raiding content and now that I am actually raiding I am holding my own and getting higher level upgrades.

So kudos to those valiant priest who either a) get in a guild early who helps them farm gear or b) deal with the constant frustration of PuGs or fail guilds  to get their armor. More power to you.

But for whats it’s worth all you shadowies just recently turned 70 start leveling that tailoring and learn the times that your opposing faction farms elemental plateau – I’d recommend during those times hitting up the void walkers in the south of nagrand. ^_^





So Spellcheck?

15 07 2008

I just realized that apparently the spell check in my browser combined with the spell check in wordpress somehow = not asking me for corrections and just inputing whatever word it sees fit. That combined with my occasional inability to form coherent sentences WITHOUT having a spell check assist me has led to some garbled sections in my previous post.

For that I apologize.

And I should get around to fixing it soo…..oooo look at the shadow kitty!