Injuries stink

So, lack of posts....

Between a shoulder injury (OWIE) and a migraine that's now a week long (also OWIE) there has been very little computer time and even less wow.  But I promise some sort of entry when I get back from Anachrocon, though it may just be pretty pictures.  Hey, it works for knitting blogs ;)

Oh, and raiding changes.  Yay or boo, depending on my circumstances come Cat.  If my guild actually runs 10mans again, which we kinda have been, then big YAY.  I will have to figure out whether I'm healing as disc (yes, I still have 10man healing fear) or going as shadow (which I still fail at) or switching mains.  But I got some time, and I've got some choices.

And have some pretty screenshots while I sneak off to pack (owie).  Yes, I finally got to run Kara...

The Alt Project Update (wow, this has been a long time coming)

So, the Alt Project.  Long-time readers of this blog may remember this idea.  I get one of each class to 30 and then talk about it.  30 was chosen because it was mount level at the time.  Well, since then mount level's been lowered to 20, and all of the alts are at least 20, so I'm calling it done.  So here's my final conclusions...

Druid-> I have my ups and downs with the druid.  The first 20 levels are not fun, but once you get kitty form things pick up.  I hit 60 and respeced to moonkin, which I enjoy in dungeons but not so much running around the world.  I'm currently contemplating respecing back to feral, but I'm keeping my broccoli second spec.  Healing is different from any other class, but quite fun.  This is a great class for trying all the different roles available to you in WoW, and I would heartily suggest rolling one if you haven't already.  LFG queues can be quite short if one of your specs is tree or feral tank, and you should be able to heal in moonkin spec well into Outlands.  Not so sure on tanking in feral dps spec, but I'd guess you can get away with it until 40 or 50 with decent gear.  As far as soloing group quests, I would guess you can, but I have yet to try it.

Hunter-> YAY! Slow to start but once you get a pet it's so fun.  However the first 10 levels are a bit slow, so you might want to wait until Cat to roll a hunter alt.  Also, hunters are dps, and only dps, so lfg dungeon leveling can be slow.  They completely make up for that with incredible solobility.  This is one of those classes that can solo many group quests.

Mage-> Many people in my guild say you have to be a special kind of crazy to love mages. I agree. I lack that crazy. Painfully slow, but explosions are fun. It's also good practice for when your pet can't hold aggro worth a damn and you have to play the burn them down before they hit you game.  As far as lfg goes, playing a mage in a dungeon is nothing like soloing with one, and is great fun.  AOEfest for the win.  You still go squish easily though, so keep an eye on that threat meter or trade water for extra heals. 

Pallies->Make it past the first 20 and they're great. But the first 20 are kinda painful/boring.  Okay, mostly boring.  Then you become INVINCIBLE.  Not really, but a plate-wearing class with self-heals, buffs, and some nice damage abilities is nothing to sneeze at.  Prot pallies are also generally considered the kings of AOE tanking, and pally tanking is quite easy to pick up and learn.  A great class for LFG, as tanking and healing still get quick queues.  This is another of those can solo many group quests classes. 

Priest-> Ranged dps while insanely squishy. Not my favorite thing. I want a pet. Same problem as mage, really, just mitigated by self healing.  But once you get into the higher levels, it gets much much better.  Another good class for LFG, and you can heal in shadow spec until Outlands at least.  Remember your wand and stacks of drinks are your friend in those low levels, and you'll be fine.

Rogue->Not wowed by the other mechanics, but sneaking rocks.  Again, as only dps you'll have LFG queue issues, and with the squishiness, I'd wait till Cat when they get a self-heal.  On the other hand, no class rules PVP quite as completely as rogues do, so if PVP is your thing I would certainly recommend trying it.  If you're curious about how rogues play, but don't want a toon limited to melee dps, roll a druid and go feral kitty.  It's not the same, but gameplay is similar.

Shamans->Not quite as awesome as pallies, but still quite fun. Plus you can do either melee or ranged dps.  You can heal as elemental till 60, and once you get the totem bars things simplify dramatically.  Just remember to put totems down, and heal self as needed and you should be good.  Not many LFG issues, since you can queue as heals or dps.

Warlock->Doom and pets! More DoTs! This is probably the closest to the hunter class, so no wonder I find it fun.  Again, the dps lfg problem rears its ugly head, but this is a very soloable class, so just go quest while you wait for that queue to pop.  Do watch aggro in dungeons, remember no excessive life tapping, and switch out your voidy for another pet when lfging. 

Warriors-> This class is the quintessential tank class, and most people in lfg will expect you to tank.  This is not my favorite class by a long shot, but it does have its moments.  Just make sure you have some health potions on hand, especially for those first levels.  Stance-dancing is also an option, and can be quite useful.  To anyone wanting to hit stuff with a weapon, the warrior's a great class.  I just don't really like hitting stuff with weapons.

Final Thoughts: I'm not a melee dps fan, so warrior and rogue aren't really my favorite classes.  Mage is a bit squishy, but seriously go run a 5man before you give up on the class.  Trust me, it's completely different and a lot of fun.  Shamans and pallies are a bit bewildering at first, with all the buffs and hammers and auras and totems, but once you get those figured out they're fun.  Warlocks and hunters are always great, and probably the classes I would suggest to brand new players who want to dps at range.  Melee dps would be rogue or warrior, since pallies are a bit boring for those first 20 levels.  I'd suggest a pally or druid for someone who wanted to tank (nothing against the warrior, but both pallies and druids are a bit more flexible role-wise), and for a healer I'd suggest druid or shaman.  Given the pally's lack of group healing, something I find rather frustrating, I wouldn't suggest them, and priests, well, slow-leveling combined with squishiness means I would save them until 3rd or 4th alt. 

As far as where my alts are, the rogue is being ignored, the warrior's now a cloth bank alt, the mage is hanging out at 30 till further notice, the shaman's being leveled slowly as is the pally, and the DK and druid are in a holding pattern till the shaman and pally are done, or until I respec the druid and try feral again to see if it's more fun.

Dear Blogger

Why, oh why, won't you let me comment on my own posts?  GRRRRRRR!  And yes, I am in class and should be busy writing a document on how to construct a widget.

Anyway, this is a response to a comment on my Druid Forms post by Oakstout.

He said...
"I have to agree! I finally leveled up my druid to 80 and although the boomkin form was fun for a while, its kind of silly to still have to use it. But Blizzard has kind of painted themselves in a corner because a lot of talent bonuses are dependent on those forms to work, like the extra int in Boom form and the extra Healing in tree form, etc.

If they take away the tree form then you have to still give resto druids a talent that lets them have extra healing ability even when they aren't in tree form otherwise they will pretty much gimp the class to some degree, wouldn't you think? "

And I say...

I do agree that they'll have to be careful when rebalancing the class, but I suspect that since they're redesigning the tree as well they'll be okay in the end.  Plus they can always fiddle with the mastery bonus to buff further if needed.

And I love the idea of tree form being a bit like heroism, but for when you need more healing now instead of more dps.  In fact, imagine a raid-wide healing buff when a druid shifts into tree form.  That would be very nifty indeed.  I can just hear a healing lead yell "Tree now!" over vent. 

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I am all for a new tree form, and like an Ancient of War, well that just sounds really cool.  I will be much happier with druid forms if they give the rest of them a facelift.

Yay for trying to make pallies viable raid healers.  I think the trick there's going to be balancing that with their ability to tank heal.  I'd love to see it where a good pally can raid heal a 10 man.  The tanking and dps changes are eh, but I think giving crusader strike early on is a good idea.  The early pally levels are, well, BORING, and getting a button to hit will help.

310% speed mounts now trainable.  Since I don't have a toon with a 310 mount, I don't care all that much, but it will be nice.

I have to say that the more they talk about the revamp of zones, the more I look forward to it.

I want another character slot for Cat, Blizz!  Oh, and new player models.  PLEASE?

As far as sparkleponies go, I want one.  I want to get my baby shammy off her elekk.   It keeps getting her stuck in random places, like bank entrances, covered bridges...

Yes, I am still fail at shadow, and still not in a happy place regarding the main.  I ran Naxx last night, cleared two quarters and Saph and KT, but this was the best moment of the night....

That is a Mr Bigglesworth kill by my Little KT.  It was great.

Oh, and I randomly discovered the Underbelly while taking my druid to get her shoes shined in Threads of Fate.  Weird.

Just Feeling Kinda Fail Right Now

I ran icc 10 as shadow, and well, with my gear, I should NOT be around the 4k dps mark.  6k would be fine, but not 4.  My naxx and ulduar geared hunter can out dps my icc10 geared priest.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, other than not being perfect on the spell priorities and possibly clipping my dots.  I do occasionally hit the wrong button, but that doesn't seem like it'd add up to 2k missing.  I am reading shadowpriest.com, trying various addons (like ShadowGreenLight and a clipping addon), and going to spend a lot of time on the dummies, trying to figure out what's going on.

It's just been a not-good raiding weekend for me.  The ICC 25 I was in hit the wall hard at Fester, and I personally felt like a useless healer.  I died frequently due to tank healing tunnel vision, and since the tank I was healing was also beaconed, well, I really just felt like I didn't even need to be there.

Oh, and I was really looking forward to an Ulduar 25 tonight.  Ended up being slightly late (with notice) and the 25 man had turned into a 10 man with no slot for me.  Now, I completely understand that (and I don't really have a good place in a 10 man right now since I am fail dps and uncomfortable with 10 man healing) but it just feels like the icing on the FAIL cake.

I'm going to take a brief break from serious raiding, give myself a couple of weeks to a) regroup and b) recuperate and decide what I want to do.  If I want to raid dps, well, then I need to regear my hunter, and if I want to 10 man heal, I probably need to go holy.  In the meantime, it's back to profession and pally leveling.  She hit 71 tonight, and has about 30 quests to go in Howling Fjord.  At least I'm not fail on her, she can take down an elite her level.

personal post

This falls under personal accomplishments, but...

That's 2 dings in a day, and now I have a shaman ready to be dualclassed and a pally only 10 levels away from 80.  And yes, that is Northrend.  I managed to completely forget about the plan to level in Outlands (because well, I was really tired), so I will just have to do it with the DK or the druid.  Probably the DK, as I like running dungeons with the druid.

I am really happy because I'm getting closer and closer to my goal of maxed professions.  To recap I have...
Maxed alchemy, herbalism, inscription, mining, and jewelcrafting.  My engineering's at Northrend levels (350ish), and my enchanting is 400.  Tailoring and leatherworking are waiting on a) the cash to dualspec the shaman resto/elemental and b) getting her to 65ish.  Blacksmithing is in the 180ish range, and skinning is waiting for me to level it on the druid.  Right now my cash reserves are a bit low, but I'm hoping getting the pally to 80 will give me some extra gold, especially since I'm happily questing away rather than dungeon-running.  I haven't done Howling Fjord since my first 80, and it's nice to see all the quests again.

Druid Forms.

So, Broccoli Form.  You are, no doubt, aware of the big kerfuffle surrounding the announcement that it will have a cooldown in Cataclysm.   Personally, I went yays, but that is a personal reaction.  I understand that many trees are very attached to their tree form, and are rather annoyed about it going away.  So, what can Blizz do to keep the rabid trees happy?  Also, why a tree?

Keeping the trees happy: well, this one isn't hard.  Either a glyph or a talent in the resto tree to remove the cooldown.  It looks like they're leaning in the glyph direction, and I say yay for that.

Why a tree?  Well, I have no idea.  Tree and boomkin puzzle me, to be honest.  I understand being a cat for feral dps (since nelves and tauren lack claws) and I understand a bear for tanking (because bears are hard to kill), but why a tree for healing (a wilting tree at that) and a boomkin for magic dps?  Is the boomkin form supposed to protect the druid from the corrupting effects of using magic?  What's the lore behind tree and boomkin, or is there any at all?

Logically, boomkin and tree just don't make a lot of sense to me, and I do wish that they were making the same changes to boomkin that they are to tree.  Being a boomkin is amusing for about a minute or so, and then it gets old.  Let's face it, boomkin are not intimidating, they're amusing.  Personally, if I'm blasting your face off with the power of nature, I'd like to have the option of looking slightly scary.

Yup, while I hope they keep an option for those diehard broccoli lovers, I'm happy about the change.  And yes, I will say something about the paladin changes, eventually.  I'm trying to really dissect and ponder them before I go spouting off.

And now a message from Adowa

Priest Changes in Cat....

The Priest Class Changes for Cat
Blizz decided to post the priest changes at about 3 am my time.  The major thing that stands out to me....

Life Grip.  I know they're not calling it that, but I so called it.  Or rather I wished for it.  Of course what I wanted was a spell to yank the tank back when he'd run out of range, not a spell to pull an idiot out of fire.  So, Blizz, let me get this straight.  There are already too many idiots who stand in fire and expect me to heal through it.  Why should this behavior be encouraged?  I stand in fire, I DIE.  Can we have a stand in fire, take equipment damage mechanic or something?

I can see it being useful for those times you know you're running with someone with high latency or a shit computer, since you can pull them out before they realize they're in the owie.  And yes, I will likely have a ridiculous amount of fun pulling people around in PVP because I can.   Finally, revenge on all those DKs using death grip!

I like the idea of Mind Spike, since shadow dps is really dependent on getting all those dots up.  I'm glad that they recognize that's a bit of a problem.

Inner Will-> For when your group accidentally sets off multiple traps in ICC and has to run AWAY!  Like rocket boots, but replaces Inner Fire.    Though I am not so sure about the instant cast buff.  I suppose it could be nice for shielding.

Bringing back Shadow Word: Death, because the shadow rotation wasn't complicated enough?  Seriously, like I didn't have enough to keep track of as shadow, you want to add something else?

I am unsure about the tank healing thing.  I don't like healing tanks (except in 5 mans).  I like shield-spamming the raid and raid-healing.  And with power word: barrier, it looks like I'll still be able to do that.  Yays.

Not sure about the changes to holy, since I don't play holy.  I am glad that they're trying to make it a bit more interesting to play.  Of course, holy's versatility is both a blessing and a curse, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Tam's Response since I found it first.

Class previews from Cat

Well, I am going to bed because a) I am tired, and b) raid is not happening. And since I ran out of patience to continue leveling Adowa's engineering, I figured I'd go ahead and comment on the shaman and warlock stuff.

Shamans->Healing Rain. It sounds full of awesome. I also like the low-level changes to make enhancement feel different. Oh, and the spirit shield thing sounds nifty. Since my shaman is still a baby, I can't really say how this will change, but I did notice that all the shaman mains in wow_ladies were squealing in joy (except about the cleanse thing) so I'm going to go with yay changes.

Warlocks->Green fire. That's all I saw. Yeah, there was something about soul shards going away (ooh bag space) and being replaced by empowering things and you can only use three of them in a fight but GREEN FIRE!!!!!

And now, some random screenshots to make this post seem longer (and because I must show off)...

My pally has goggles again. All is right with the world.  Plus they're purple.  

Heehee, I love this quest.  Harpoon surfing for the win.

And I have a roflcopter.  How awesome is that?  Who cares that I'm mostly broke now?

Just need to run Scholo...

And the pally epic mount questline will be done. It's been expensive, but a lot of fun. I even soloed the first boss of Dire Maul (after a quick respec to prot). Some guildies ran me through Strat, and Adowa is also now keyed for both Scholo and Strat. Should make getting the Argent title a bit easier.

It's been a pally kind of week here. I've just been having a ton of fun. I even healed dungeons as holy, which was interesting. Beacon is really kind of nifty, but the time delay is a bit heart-stopping. As far as I can figure, holy 5 man healing goes something like this...
Beacon tank
Flash of light everyone as needed
Run oom
Run into melee and start hitting things for mana regen

I think I'm doing something wrong, since I never ever run oom as ret. But I have 11 levels to figure it out before 80, so I'm not too worried. Plus I'm really enjoying questing right now, so dungeon healing isn't a priority.

I also finally managed to get her engineering over 300. Her blacksmithing is still lagging far behind, mostly due to lack of ore and disinclination to go farm it.

As far as the Cataclysm news goes, I'm waiting to comment on the dispelling changes until after the class previews, or at least till after the priest class preview. I know there's a lot of grumpy shamans out there right now though, and here's hoping that Blizz has some awesomeness in store for you guys to make up for the nerf bat.