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Sshhh

The Munqui’s have been going through a quiet patch. At it’s worst recently, friday evening, I logged on and there was only one other guildie online!

Our guild master has been swamped with work and (I think) a little bored with WoW.

A few guidmates are occasionally playing in an open-beta.

Raids are being cancelled due to low sign-ups. I’m not completely innocent on this, I’ve had to downgrade to tentative on this weeks raid owing to predicted bad weather).

All in all, quiet. Not quiet all the time, it still gets positively raucus at times, but at other times it’s deafeningly quiet. This has been going on since before christmas, but it seems to be getting worse lately. Threads have even been appearing on the guild forums discussing other MMO’s.

Is it time yet?

No, not yet. I should clean my own house first and ask myself what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, what I *can* do, and where I’m going.

Once that’s done, I can come to a decision.

Something to think about on the train tomorrow…

2010 02 08 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

oops

Wordpress deleted some text from the bottom of the last post, so in summary:

I got invited to a guild on another server, sweet.

I got a couple of thanks for the healing. Always nice.

2010 02 08 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

blah

blah blah blah.

Okey dokey, you can stop reading now.

I’ve done it, I’ve respecced elemental, from now on I’ll be joining looking for group as healer or dps, guess which role I’m likely to end up playing?

Gearing elemental is much much easier this time, three pieces of T9 from emblems of triumph get me 212 +hit chuck in a couple of JC-only gems and a single epic and I’m sat at a teensy bit over the raid hit cap, and insanely over the Heroics hit cap. My elemental gear is not sharing about 10 items out of 15 between healer and elemental, freeing up billions of more bag slots. So I can stop deleting items just to loot stuff, yay! Last time I tried gearing elemental it was very much a scrabble with Greens and Blues to try to get a reasonable +hit. Plus ca change.

I had a very quick bash at a target dummy and pulled around 3k DPS, I guess in a dungeon scenario this will probably still be respectable. Not that I’ve actually dps’d anything yet, not even on the daily quest!

–

The dreaded gear score has finally made it to Darkspear, with Trade being spammed with

lfm ICC 10 W/ME acheiv and class 5k gs plus

Sigh, not only do you have to have a bonkers “gear score” but you also have to have done the bloody dungeon already. Just so’s you know Flowersz is still a little shy of 5k sitting at 4.93k. Now any sensible person would thing that being 1.5% short was pretty trivial, but no:

2/7 18:48:14.494  Surenius whispers: hello how much gearscore?
2/7 18:48:24.334  To Surenius: just a mo
2/7 18:48:30.700  To Surenius: 4934
2/7 18:48:54.675  To Surenius: why?
2/7 18:49:02.030  Surenius whispers: nvm

I was in looking for raid for ICC, so I guess the request was related to that, anyway, apparently 1.5% off 5k is  just too low! I did say I was a little under 5k in the comments, maybe I needed to be 4950 or I’d DIE! Bugger ‘em all, that’s what I say. Plonkers!

I did get a Vault of Archavon invite, and once again we see..

2/7 18:55:56.822  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: Inv Mooiid
2/7 18:56:05.155  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: Healer =)
2/7 18:56:14.343  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: Wait
2/7 18:56:19.772  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: asking him for achi
2/7 18:56:46.016  Mooiid has joined the raid group.
2/7 18:56:55.608  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: What is your gear like?
2/7 18:57:08.323  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Mooiid: more than enough
2/7 18:57:09.564  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: Let's inspect in WG, and replace if necessary
2/7 18:57:19.488  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: And that goes for everyone

Damageugood links his achievements…

2/7 19:00:36.671  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood:  Storming the Citadel (25 player)
2/7 19:00:41.479  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood:  Toravon the Ice Watcher (25 player)
2/7 19:00:47.175  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: No need to inspect me.
2/7 19:01:00.427  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Flowersz: Is the achievement a pre-requisite?
2/7 19:01:01.517  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Musek: you know, achiv can be faked :)
2/7 19:01:15.671  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: No it cant
2/7 19:01:20.918  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: Just click it, and check name and date.
2/7 19:01:23.930  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Musek: rly?
2/7 19:01:30.953  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Mooiid: but people can be carried thru it and be so bad
2/7 19:01:36.111  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Damageugood: Sure.
2/7 19:01:41.255  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Musek:  Fall of the Lich King (25 player)
2/7 19:01:47.690  |Hchannel:raid|h[Raid]|h Flowersz: then its pointless even asking then isn't it?

Anyway,  no-one asked ME for my achievement (which I DONT have). I guess healers are exempt for all this general ass-hattery.

We one-shotted everything and Flowersz came a very respectable 2nd on the new boss out of 3, and 1st over all the bosses.

–

Not everything was full of *ankers.

2010 02 08 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

When the tank blinks

So, not a whole lot went on this week.

Our ICC raid got postponed and then cancelled through lack of sign-ups, not a total surprise since the only times we’ve been in there we’ve been collectively pwned.

I’ve been logging in daily and doing my random dungeon for the “frosties” and  my JC daily for the tokens which can be exchanged for 100g on the AH.

After that I’ve been either logging out or joining with guildies for another random or occasionally queueing for Pit Of Saron.

Randoms is easy, too easy; queue, grab a Griffon to do the JC and before I land I’m in a group and in a dungeon. Easy, but not too sociable. Anyway the ease with which we can all get into dungeons now is not all good news, I find that it steals my guild socialising time! I need to do much more fishing…

Watching people gearing up their alts is making me a little twitchy and I’m thinking about switching my off-spec back to elemental so I’m well enough geared to DPS. At the moment if I join a Guild run (always as healer) I occasionally feel like I’m forcing another guildie to switch from heals to DPS.

With the wonderfully geared tanks we’re seeing now the healing is almost too easy, and would give good “starter” practice for those who want it.

Unless the tank pulls the entire room while their healer is watching TV. Even with a full room pulled, like last night, if I take a dirt nap I sit looking at the Reincarnate/Release buttons for a minute or two trying to decide if it’s a wipe or not. Like as not, by the time I reincarnate the fight is nearly over without any help from me and no more deaths anyway, I feel a bit pointless.

So, as I was saying, I’m thinking about DPS again and though I love Enhancement it’s such a different style of play that I think I should perhaps go back to Elemental which should be reasonably similar, and start lobbing lightning bolts.  I’ve got enough Emblems of Triumph to buy 3 pieces of T9 which will give me way to much hit for a heroic and not quite enough for raiding, the remaining slots could be filled with my healer gear.

 So, as always, we’ll see.

Then I can start saving emblems for buying some Heirloom leveling gear for when I roll my Worgen Priest.

Oh, and the title? One of my guildmates was complaining that he was a rubbish tank and everytime he blinks the healer dies. I’ve healed him, he’s not rubbish, he’s learning. Each time I do a dungeon with him he’s better than the last time.

2010 02 05 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Back to shield again.

A couple of nights ago I helped a newly dinged guildie through Normal Pit of Saron and Hall of Reflection and won me a [Protector of Frigid Souls]! It’s like Blizzard have been checking up on Drug’s Frozen Halls resto loot post and making sure that resto-shammies get stuff from this list. I think the only think I’m missing now are the [Mudslide Boots].

So my very brief foray into wooden-staves is over and it’s back to a shield and metal.

So I’m back with:
[Surgeon's Needle] and [Protector of Frigid Souls] (MP5 heavy combination)
against
[Unspeakable Secret] (haste heavy)

Unfortunately the staff doesn’t really stack up too well against dagger and shield. Except that I’m not having mana issues and haste seems so desirable when you see the multiple health bars dropping like stones. So the choice seems to come out as the staff for 5 mans & mobility fights verses dagger+shield for 10 man endurance fights.

–

I’ve been looking to see if I can get an even better staff, but there are only two I can find within my “reach”:
[Cold Convergence]Anub’arak
[Enlightenment]Eydis Darkbane

both in ToTC

2010 01 28 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

One hand tied behind my back

Raided last night on Malygos and we were hitting the enrage timer, for several reasons really. Anyway we decided to respec one of our three healers to DPS. We had two resto-shamans and a master healing Druid, so it was one of us shamen. There wasn’t really any question, the other shammy has far more experience at playing DPS and probably had mucho better gear. But we still went through the whole “Who’s a better healer?” debate before accepting that we should be asking: “Who’s a better DPS?” with its obvious answer.

Now, you may remember I no longer use recount, so I can’t really say who actually was the better healer last night. But last week I uploaded a ToTC raid log and, on that night, I did technically “top” the healing meters, only by a percent or two. Anyway, by that measure, we’re about the same.

But before I can engage “smug mode” there something else you need to know…..

Nymph was only playing one handed that night!

We are about equal in healing but only if she’s playing with one hand behind her back! Bah!

Respect to Nymph. /salute

2010 01 28 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Pit of Saron

This weekend I pugged another Pit of Saron normal bringing my total up to a measly 2 times on normal (according to the warcraft feed, though I’m sure I’ve done it a couple of more times).

So I braced myself and set up to do PoS heroic. And I survived! With only one wipe on the trash up the hill. I did also snuff it on Garfrost in the last second or so. I’ll have to find out what I’m doing wrong there.

We even got the Don’t Look Up achievement in the fun cavern.

And I got [Surgeon's Needle], though if I equip that I have to use my lowly shield so I’ll be sticking to the [Unspeakable Secret] until and unless a nice sheild drops somewhere. I have to say, I quite like the staff, both because I’m fed-up with looking at the sheild and because I prefer its stats. If a heroic version of the staff drops I’m totally gonna be ninjaing it.

These new dungeons (and PuGs) are quite fun so far; I’m having to pay attention, do interrupts and generally blow cooldowns regularly which is more entertaining than Earth Shield, Riptide and DPS for a grand total of 5% damage done.

Next, I need to run PoS heroic a few more times (mudslide boots please) and start looking at Halls of Reflection.

–

I don’t know if its me, but as a healer I can get a PuG in a minute or so, if I take even a single DPS with me it takes at least 5 minutes or more.

2010 01 25 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Good times

Just a shortie…

Did the ToTC 10 man raid with the guildies last night and to say it went well would be an understatement.  This is only my third time in there, and I think the guilds 4th or 5th. We one shotted everything, no wipes and in under 2 hours including summons.

Yikes!

I wish I could say I didn’t die, but I did.

I wish I could say why I died, but I can’t.

 It was out of combat on the bit where you drop down to see the last boss. The best guess at the moment is that I had Water Walking on, but I’m really not sure why I would have cast that, it’s not keybound, I’d have had to actually click on the icon. Strange. I’ll not be standing dead center again.

I made the fatal mistake of suggesting that we had the place on Farm, so next week I’m sure it will be wipe city all over.

2010 01 22 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Back on the road again

Whee!

Today, for the first time this year,  I rode into work on a motorbike! I am chuffed! no more hanging around waiting for trains. My working day has just got an hour shorter!

It’s not my bike though, it’s Sue’s new R1150R! What a monster, massively overpowered, but there were very sound reasons for buying it. To whit: it’s pretty much the last year that BMW made a boxer on a frame with lowish seat height, invaluable for short-arses like me. In truth a 400cc engine in the same frame would have been more than adequate.

When we gt the lower seat though I’ll have to give it back to Sue and inherit her older R850R which still rocks!

An extra hour a day! Imagine that!

I might even sign up for tomorrows raid now that I can be reasonably sure of getting home in time.

2010 01 20 Andrew.Rowbottom General Comments (0) Permalink

So Wrong

AN, Old Kingdom, was my random pug of the day. And at the end:

So Wrong

Grandelf was only with us on the last boss. I tell you no lie, there was another rogue in this party!

I wish I had some rogue experience, so I could maybe offer some roguish advice, but I don’t. Well actually I do have one piece of advice…

Don’t let the healer do more interrupts than YOU!

I didn’t really mind, it was good practice.

So once again AN, OK and a couple of wipes!

2010 01 18 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (1) Permalink