Big News...

See anything different about the sidebars?

Do you?

Do you need a hint?

Yes, that would be my pally hitting 80.  I then went on to get a ton of pvp achievements (since the easiest libram for me to get was the pvp one) and ran my first heroic as holy.

Now comes the gearing and figuring out how to play in dungeons as ret.  I kinda have a handle on holy, though I need to work on my mana regen skills.
And because this picture makes me giggle...

No, that is not an Outlands set.  It just looks like it.  The skirt is a blue mail piece, and the shield is Zom's Crackling something or other.  Whatever happened to my nice drab gear?

Arena Toons!

Okay, so I rolled my 3 toons, and um, this is the greatest thing ever and how did I not know about this?  Dwarf braids!  And they spin!  Now why isn't this hairstyle available for my nelves?  I want this hairstyle Blizz!


So yes, that is my dwarf priest, spec'd pvp disc/pvp shadow.  I also rolled a gnome frost mage and a space goat ret pally.  And yes, the gnome is ridiculously cute, and if I didn't have issues with the short, I would so roll one just like her.  But having to mount just to be able to see, yeah, not going to work for me.

Yes, I posted just to show you spinning dwarf braids.  Now, back to pally leveling...

Main vs Offspecs Loot in 5 mans

I've been kinda pondering this because of the pally (78.6 and leveling!), and a post over at You Yank It, You Tank It made me decide to write about it.

I likely have a bit of a odd perspective here.  After all my first toon has the exact same gear for main and offspecs (though I do keep meaning to get her some tier 5).  And as for Lyllea, well, disc wants int and spellpower, thinks spirit is icky, and doesn't care much about mp5.  Most people see spirit or mp5 on cloth and go "healy gear" so I've had more than one argument about what should be main spec gear for her.  Mostly with caster dps, who are grumpy that the healer's rolling on gear they perceive to be theirs.  My philosophy on that is "it's only reserved for caster dps if it has to hit, otherwise it's fair game."

I'm of two minds on the "queue as what you're rolling on" idea.  On the one hand, I do agree that the tank or the healer should get first dibs on tank or healer loot.  In a guild run or a raid, I would never roll on tank or healer loot unless I was performing one of those rolls or none of the tanks or healers wanted it.  But in a 5 man, the rules are a little bit fuzzier, simply because I cannot count on my fellow puggers to observe those principles.  More than once during Lyllea's gearing process I lost nice pieces of healing loot because a tank or dps was building a heals set.  Didn't matter to them that I was the one actually healing their butt, all they cared about was getting themselves gear.

Rolling need on offspec gear almost seems like rolling need on the Frozen Orbs, simply a way to prevent yourself from being screwed.  After all, if I go into a dungeon with Adowa as holy, and want to get ret gear, it's going to be a bit of a struggle.  Loads of competition for dps plate and weapons, and there's sure to be some very annoyed plate dps if I started rolling on "their" stuff.  But I could wait in the dps queue, and get my pick of spellpower plate (not much competition there).    And then we have the time investment.  The healing queue's quick enough that I could probably run twice as many heroics as holy, getting twice as many emblems and twice as many shots at gear.

I don't really think there's a clear answer to the main/offspec thing in 5 mans.  I'm thinking that I'll probably do more or less what I do with shadow gear on Lyllea.  I watch to see if the caster dps roll need on the shiny before I roll.  If they need, I greed.  Same thing should work for plate stuff, especially if I announce at the beginning of the run that I'm trying to gear my ret set as well as my holy set but will pass if a plate dps needs.  Will I get screwed?  Probably, but at least this way I feel like I'm being fair.

And in case you were wondering, I'm currently the lootmaster for my guild and our loot rules for raids are...
1. Main spec before off spec, main spec being the spec you're in the raid for.  If we ask you to switch, you can pick which spec you want to be your main.
2. Once you win something you go to the back of the line
3. Hunters get preference over melee for ranged weaponry, melee get preference over hunters for melee weapons.
4. If you want something that isn't your armor type (like a caster druid wanting cloth), it's an offspec roll.
5. Patterns are open roll if you have the profession at a high enough level to learn the pattern on the toon you're on.
And the most important rule... Don't be a dick!
We pug a lot so they're pretty simple, but they work.

10 Random Things about me (and nothing whatsoever to do with WoW)

I don't really have much to say, but I figured instead of my normal Random Tuesday Thoughts, I'd give you 10 random facts about me... Mostly because I can't really think of anything WoW related to say.

1. I get most of my vitamins in gummy form.  Yes, my daily multivitamin, my calcium, and even my omega 3 are all in gummy form.  I have to take a lot of vitamins and the gummy versions tend to be easier on my stomach.

2. My hair has not been its natural color since I was 14.  As pale as I am, my medium brown hair is too dark and so I lighten it with highlights or dye it blonde or red.  It was even blue for a short time.

3. Despite being a huge fantasy buff, I did not read the complete LotR trilogy till after I saw the first movie.  I had tried to read it when I was younger and gave up.  I made up for it later by reading not only the trilogy, but also the Hobbit, the Simarilion, and the Unfinished Tales.  At one point I could recite Elrond's lineage.  I think those brain cells are now dedicated to random wow and D&D lore.

4. The Hobbit (Rankin-Bass version) is one of my all time favorite movies.  I love the music.  And the idea of Elrond singing "tra-la-lala-laley, down here in the valley" never fails to crack me up.  In fact I wrote an entire fanfic about it.  And I am still amazed that I was not banned from church for wandering around singing "When there's a whip, there's a way" when I was 6.  It's a very catchy tune.

5.  I read War and Peace.  Twice. For the fun of it.  I blame my Russian novel kick in late adolescence.  And yet I can't get through Twilight.  Draw your own conclusions.

6.  I wanted to be head of NASA when I was little.  Then I learned it was a politically-appointed position and was sad.

7.  I was allowed to watch Monty Python when I was little, but not the Cosby show.  My grandmother, while sweet and wonderful, was also born in the deep south in the early 1900s and had some prejudices.

8.  I became a fan of Firefly when it was first shown on Fox.  I still love it, and I've gotten to meet several of the actors.  Jewel Staite is a sweetheart.  Yes, Joss Whedon is my master now.  I even liked Dollhouse.

9.  I am a Harry Potter fan mostly because I adore Jason Isaacs.  Tom Felton isn't so bad either.  And I'd listen to Alan Rickman read a phone book.  Man has a great voice.  I live in hope that the endless camping will be cut from the Deathly Hallows movies and they will add more Lucius.  You really can't go wrong with more Lucius, especially if you throw more Severus in as well.

10.  I am a gamer geek girl.  I have even used THAC0, though I prefer D&D 3.5's system.

WTH do I do with the pally?

So the pally is halfway through 77, and I need to figure out what she's doing at 80.  Right now she's ret/holy, but hasn't healed a 5 man since that ok run, and I'm completely unenamoured of holy in 5 mans.  Things might change once I get some gear, but I a) can't stand the lack of group heal options, and b) am so sick of going oom it's not even funny.

I'm leaning towards keeping the current specs, using the awesome tank/heal combo in our guild to gear with instant queues, and reciprocating by queueing with the heal on his dps so his queue is shorter.  Lyllea doesn't need anything from emblems of heroism at this point, but I figure helping him is good for the guild and good for me.

Once I get full holy tier 9, I will hopefully be able to tag along on some of the positive push alt runs, get some gear, and maybe even pug my way into icc.  I honestly don't see me tanking any time soon (I really don't like being in charge), and melee dps is not my cup of tea, so I'm not sure what else I would do with her besides extreme soloing, and I plan to try that anyway once I have a viable holy set.

The problem is that holy pallies, while insanely kickarse at healing tanks, are kinda well, mediocre at any other type of healing.  I can run 5 mans on my druid without a problem, but I fight to keep a group up as a holy pally.   The idea of fighting through heroics, or of waiting for the dps queue (generally about 15 minutes), well neither appeals.  Honestly, that would be why Garetia isn't better geared, I can't stand the wait as pure dps, and if I have another option I will take it.

This might be why I don't see myself raiding with a non-pure dps class till after Cataclysm.  The gearing options are well, not as good as the hybrid options.  I don't really see a way around that for Blizz, other than giving priority in dungeon queues to the nonhybrids, which just doesn't seem sporting.

Healing 10 mans. Not as scary as they used to be.

Ran ICC 10 today as disc.  It went really really well.  Two healing with a shaman, and we made it through Putricide and even had a couple attempts on the Princes.  I got new gloves with to hit for shadow, a hat, and a new ring with a shiny red socket.   Still no offhand, but I continue to hope.  Having such a good run really did help with my confidence level.  It was odd at first, but I concentrated mostly on the tanks, threw in a prayer of healing now and again, and flashed and penanced like there was no tomorrow.  I need to remember that my flash heal hits harder than I think it does, so I use less greater heals.

I did respec back to shadow after the run.  Holy was a nice change of pace, but I missed my bubbles and face-melting is FUN!   Plus eventually our pro holy priest will return from Italy (volcano willing) and I'm more useful as healer/dps/mana battery.  But Tam, I will remember your advice, and I appreciate the help!

In other news, the pally continues her relentless assault to level 80.  She's 76 and spending a lot of time in Zul'Drak.  It's a zone none of my toons have really done yet, and it's nice to see new lore.  And kill trolls.  Killing trolls never gets old.

Arena-wise, I am still waiting on the aforementioned priest to return so we can discuss things.  Thanks to Cynwise for your advice, and I made a cute gnome frost mage.  Then I remembered why I don't play gnomes.  I can't stand being short.  Yes, I am weird.  I am a pervy elf fancier who doesn't do short toons.  I like the gnome models, but the shortness drives me nuts after a little while.

Now back to figuring out shadow gearing options in Rawr.  I realized I have an entire bag full of purple gear, and I'd like to winnow that down a bit.  Sure, I have 4 gear sets, but there is a lot of overlap, and I'm pretty sure I don't need 3 different sets of pvp gloves.

ACK, my shield has a cooldown!

I respec'd Lyllea from disc/shadow to disc/holy mostly because we're trying toc 10 again tonight and the team of two disc priests wasn't really cutting it.   Okay, so part of that was having a healer and a tank who've never seen toc 10, but still more group healing power would help.

And yes, that was my first impression.  I'm very used to PW:S spam, so this cooldown thing is strange and alien. But I do love circle of healing's group heal and wow, I have a fail angel now.  My tank healing tools kinda stink (I miss my lasers), but Renew is actually half-way decent now.  Still doesn't make up for the shield thing.  

My keybinds haven't changed much (because confusing myself even more would be bad), but I think I need to stick Circle of Healing on its' own, really big bar.  I keep hitting divine hymn or desperate prayer or hymn of hope instead.

As far as I can figure, holy healing goes like this...

Coh.

Flash heal or renew.  Throw a greater heal if you have 3 stacks of Serendipity (wth is Serendipity?). Repeat till coh off cooldown.  Then coh again.

Profit.

I am probably vastly oversimplifiying, as I have many more buttons I could be hitting.  And I hear things about Guardian Spirit, so I should probably look into that.

This may end up being a very short-lived respec, or not.  I am supposed to heal ICC 10 on Sat, after all, and having the extra flexibility would be nice.  And I have all this tier 9 gear, might as well use it, right?