December 28, 2009

It was Christmas weekend, so most of my time was spent with family and friends. (ment) But, I did get some opportunities to play.

Shammie Girl on the Rise
I decided to burn through the rest XP I had on alts. Once I got the paladin's out of the way, I switched to my shaman. I put myself into LFG and a few minutes later I was in a group. What fun!

She was enhancement when I started off and I had been using the Bloodied Arcanite Reaper. It's not actually optimized for shamans, but I already had the weapon and it worked fine for her. Anyway...I noticed quickly a few things:

• I don't like melee. Really, I don't. Positioning myself behind mobs is a pain in the butt. I much prefer ranged.
  
• My gear was a mix of spellcasting and melee items -- meaning I wasn't great at either.
  
• Getting into groups as DPS took forever.

So, I made plans to switch her to dual spec Resto/Elemental. Despite my low damage as enhancement, I made it through enough instances to gain 10 levels over the weekend. As soon as I hit 40 I paid for dual spec, sent the axe to my pally and got the Dignified Headmaster's Charge (once again, not the optimal weapon -- a mace and a shield might be better -- but I already had the staff...). I healed or dpsed my way through more instances and quit only 200 xp shy of lvl 42 when I had to switch for raiding last night.

Instances I saw were: Scarlet Monastery (all 4 wings), Razorfen Downs, Uldaman and Maraudon. I got very tired of Scarlet Monastery by the end of the weekend, but there's really no complaining about the amount of XP I got from each run. This new LFG system is great. I remember only a few months ago commenting on how hard it was to find a group while leveling my warlock. That problem is solved with this new system. Though, there is a shortage of tanks, that's for sure.

Speaking of tanks, I ran across several bad ones.

• In a few groups the designated tank was actually a dps in disguise. Most times this lead to disaster, though on one occasion, the skill of the group as a whole made up for it.
• There were a few tanks that were impatient. They'd run into a new area while the healer was still drinking. Then, the usual complaint about lack of heals when he died.
  
• There was one who couldn't hold aggro at all, even though he was Prot spec. He admitted being new to the game and having no idea how to play. (I had a hard time believing that, considering some things he new really well, but whatever.)
• There was the one that went into a room of mobs, aggroed them all, caused a wipe, then laughed and said obscenities to all of us before leaving the party.

I read an article the other day in which someone posited that the negative effect of the new LFG system is the prima-donna attitudes of tanks. I saw that first hand this weekend. Although being a jerk is never excusable, I do appreciate their plight. Until they can get dual spec at lvl 40, being a tank is tough because it's not easy to quest. Killing mobs alone as a tank is a slow process. No wonder so many could-be tanks choose to be dps. And then, when dual specs are available at lvl 40, it's still difficult to choose tanking over dps. At least as a healer/dps I can pretty much share my equipment across specs. Hit rating isn't really required until much higher level, so switching between resto and elemental for me is a simple change of specs. Tank/dps folks must keep two sets of gear. That must be tough.

Anyway, enough about the LFG system. What do I think of playing a Shaman? I love it! The last time I played her I had gotten to the point that I was frustrated. There were too many totems to think about and I was having a hard time killing mobs quickly enough for my tastes. But this time around, I was in the right mindset to figure out how to play her.

First thing was to recognize that my equipment choices (as explained earlier) were the cause of my slow mob killing. Once I switched to Elemental and put on spellcaster items, kill speed went up quite a bit.

Although this didn't come until I hit lvl 40, Call of the Ancestors really helped. Now I have two totem bars. One is for my standard set, the second has some choices switched out. Then, in my regular bars I only have those totems that don't appear in either of my totem bars.

I also removed several of the buttons that I would never use, like Rockbiter Weapon. Previously, I had put every option on my bars so I wouldn't forget they existed. But, I will never use spells such as that, so who cares if I forget about them? My interface is much cleaner now. I feel I have a better grasp of what tools I have at my disposal.

Both healing and DPSing on this toon are a blast (no pun intended). I'll probably never raid with her, but I will enjoy getting her to 80.

ToGC 25 (Priest)
Last night was a raid night and we went to ToGC 25, since it was the only thing we hadn't completed earlier in the week. It went poorly...very poorly. Even though we had a full raid, our top players were not there due to the holidays. It was evident. It took us forever to get through the first two encounters and we stopped after a few attempts on Faction Champs. All was not lost though; I got a Trophy of the Crusade, with which I purchased my final tier item -- Velen's Gloves of Triumph. I had been putting it off, thinking it was only a minor upgrade to Velen's Gloves of Conquest. But, the net effect was higher than I expected when all was said and done. So, it was a good call.

After all the drops I got this week, my loot priority has dropped substantially. That's as it should be. I really made out like a bandit this week. :-) Unless strange luck smiles upon me, I'll need to sit back and accept that no drops will be coming my way for a few weeks. Just in time for the new bosses to be released.

I also purchased the Circle of Ossus with my frost emblems. Another good upgrade for me. I had been indecisive about saving them for tier items or purchasing regular frost items with them. In the end, it seemed like the best choice.

Miscellaneous
I'm considering switching my mage into my priest's guild. I had avoided doing so because I didn't want to lose the connection with the friends from the other guild. But, I've spent little to no time with them the last few weeks. And, when I do switch to my mage, it's to do an "alt" run with my priest's guild. We'll see...

December 24, 2009

Kiting? Why?
Yesterday I had a very strange experience. I was going to blame it on the new looking for group system (or "dungeon finder" might be its new name). But, in retrospect, I realize this could have happened in any group, no matter how it was formed.

Heroic Violet Hold was the random dungeon and I was in there on my druid. The tank was a bear with some very good equipment. Clearly he was an experienced player, no question about that. First portal opens, out pops a mob. The tank gets its attention and we start dealing damage. Then, the tank proceeds to kite it around the room. I thought it was odd, as I've never seen a tank do that before. But, I shrugged and adjusted.

The next portal had multiple mobs. Time for AoE spells. Nope, no good. The tank pulled them away from the portal and kited them all around the floor. No chance to focus AoEs.

He repeated this on every pull. Finally, the mage in our group spoke up and pointed out that kiting didn't seem necessary and it was making it difficult for the dps to do their job. The tank's response was...well...something I wouldn't write in my blog. Let's just say the tank didn't like his methods being questioned.

As (horrible) luck would have it, our first boss was Xevozz. This boss requires effective kiting to beat. Can you guess what the tank did? He stood perfectly still, which eventually caused a wipe. He then said, "What? I thought you didn't want me to kite."

/sigh

The group disbanded. Thank goodness you don't get the dungeon debuff if you leave a group while you're dead!

So...his asshattery aside, I'm curious why he was kiting the mobs. If any tank happens to catch this post, please let me know if you can give me insight into why he was doing that. On EVERY other time I've done Violet Hold -- I've done it 51 times on all my lvl 80s combined (13 on normal, 38 on heroic) -- no tank has ever kited regular mobs. Kiting Xevozz, sure. That make sense. But kiting the regular mobs that spawn through the portals. NEVER. Why did the tank do this? He was adamant about knowing what he was doing. But I'm hard pressed to understand his reasoning.

Miscellaneous
Nothing much else to note from last night. I did random daily heroic on each toon then spent the evening snuggling with my husband. :)

December 23, 2009

What A Difference A Day Makes!
I have to say, yesterday will go down as one of the most memorable days/nights I've ever had in WoW. So much has changed in less than 24 hours.

Promotion Time
Before we started raiding, our guild leader announced three promotions. I was grats-ing the people whose names were called. Then suddenly I realized the last one was mine. What??? I was promoted so soon??? Yowzah! Just yesterday I was talking myself into being patient while I waited for the possibility of being promoted in a month or so. I was shocked and excited. Woo hoo!!!!

ToC 25 (Priest)
We started in regular ToC 25. Quick and easy run. We had an applicant along with us who was amazed at our speed and efficiency. It really is true...the guild is great. We got to Anub'arak and I held my breath. Would he drop my coveted Misery's End? No! :( But he did drop Armbands of the Ashen Saint and I got them!

ICC 25 (Priest)
Next stop, ICC 25. I half expected to sit out, but luck was on my side and I got in. While clearing trash, I got the Stiffened Corpse Shoulderpads. Item #2 for the night.

Then Lord Marrowgar dropped the Frozen Bonspike. I stopped breathing as I waited to hear the outcome of the rolls. I won it!!!! Item #3. No more waiting for Misery's End! I won an even better weapon. Yay!

As icing on the cake, I reached Honored with the Ashen Verdict and got the upgrade of my ring: Ashen Band of Greater Wisdom. Item #4.

Ulduar 25 (Priest)
We ended the official raids by going to Ulduar to kill Igniss for the weekly raid quest. I had forgotten that he was the only boss in the starter area that I had never killed. I got 4 achievements upon his death: Shattered (25 player), The Siege of Ulduar (25 player), Stokin' the Furnace (25 player) and Hot Pocket (25 player). I got a lot of friendly ridicule for spamming the guild chat with all those achievements. :)

Next up...10 man team.

ICC 10 (Priest)
With all my new healing gear, ICC 10 went even more smoothly than the week before. I noticed an immediate improvement in my healing throughput. Also, my haste jumped almost 200 points and I could feel the difference in my "rotation". Previously I could count on casting PoM, followed by 3 Flash Heals to proc Serendipity. At that point my PoM would be off cooldown. Last night I did the same rotation and when I clicked PoM the second time, it wasn't yet off cooldown. Woo hoo! Haste has changed things for me. Gotta figure out a new rhythm to get into.

We easily got the achievement Boned (10 player). Not really a hard one to get, if your dps are quick to react.

The final boss, Deathbringer Saurfang, dropped Thaumaturge's Crackling Cowl. Item #5 for me that night.

I can't remember any night when I've gotten so many items. My gearscore went from around 5110 to 5344. A jump of over 200 points. Woo hoo! But, more importantly, my SP went up by around 300 and my Int and Spirit increased too. I can't wait to see how well I do in Heroic ToC 25!

Ulduar 10 (Mage)
The final activity of the night was an alt run to Ulduar 10 to defeat Ignis. I hopped on my mage and we downed him so quickly that we got Stokin' the Furnace (10 player).

Phew! What a night!!!! A promotion, lots of loot and lots of achievements. Fun fun fun!!!

Thoughts on Loot Distribution

I've been mentioning my frustrations lately with loot distribution and I thought I'd put some more positive thoughts down. I spoke with a guildie the other day about my being so far behind everyone else and how upsetting it was to see two weapons I need be rewarded to another priest. (I mentioned that in a previous post...I felt I should have gotten one of the weapons, since the priest who got them was just going to trash the first one after he got the second one.) My guildmate encouraged me to take a deep breath and wait. My time for loot will come when I get a promotion.

Here's how loot works in my guild:

Rank: First, your rank matters. So, let's say there are ranks 1-4. 1 is for officers and 4 is for newbies to the guild. I'm currently rank 3. The priest who "got my loot" :) is rank 2. When the two of us are rolling on the same item, he gets it, regardless of the roll.

EPGP Loot Priority: Second, your EPGP loot Priority matters. So, let's say two people of the same rank roll on an item. The one with the higher loot priority is the one who wins it, regardless of the roll. This supports the effort/loot balance.

Roll: Third, if two people with the same rank who have the same loot priorty roll on an item, the one who wins the roll gets the item.

It actually seems fair to me. But it's very very frustrating for those of us in the lower ranks. I still have more than a month to go before I will be considered for a promotion to the next rank. So, as we go into ICC 25, I'm almost guaranteed to get nothing for a while. I will only be eligible for an item if no one of a higher rank wants it. That's not likely to happen, since all the people in the higher ranks are still getting gear there. But, the stars might align...

But, the beauty of the EPGP system is that my loot priority will continue to rise. Even with the weekly decay, as long as I'm getting EP and spending no GP, when I reach the next rank, my loot priority will be higher than everyone else's and I'll get loot right and left. I just noticed this phenomenon when the guild leader posted the latest EPGP numbers. Last week I was near the bottom of the priorty list. This week I'm in the top 5. That's because the higher rank players are getting loot in ICC, thus lowering their priority. It has no effect on me now, since rank is still considered first in loot distribution. But, over the next few weeks as they get more and more loot, their loot priority will continue to lower and mine will continue to rise. When I'm promoted, I'll be near the top on the priority list. Then, I'll get first pick of loot among people of my rank. Woo hoo!

So, does this system work? Let's compare it to how my mage's guild does things:

Whenever we go into a raid, the reward system is a clean slate. How much loot you got last raid does not matter. When an item drops, you roll for main spec and show the item you will be replacing. If there's one person for whom it is a bigger upgrade (based on iLevel), it is given to that person. So, let's say a level 232 item drops. Four people roll on it, three of which have ilvl 226 items and one has an ilvl 219 item. Automatically, the person with 219 wins it. If everyone has the same ilvl, then the highest roller wins.

A friend in my mage's guild pointed out that the likelihood of him getting loot any time soon is pretty low. His gear, although below the level that drops in the raid we were in, is higher than that of our other guildies. So, even though drops are all upgrades for him, they are bigger upgrades for everyone else. He can't win. He won't be able to get items until they pass him up. For example, his gear is all 226. The raid drops 232. Our guildes are mostly in 219 gear. When items drop, they will go to the 219 folks, not the 226 ones. So, those with 219 will jump to 232. Those with 226 will have to wait until the others are at 232 before they can start getting gear. It's demotivating for him. Even though he and I are both waiting for loot, he has to wait for a very different reason. For me, there's a definite date on which it will change. For him, there's no end in sight. He has to wait for others to gear up, which could take forever in a casual guild with semi-regular turnover. As long as there are people with worse gear than his, he can't win loot.

Is this method better, worse or as good as the one used by my priest's guild? A plus side (from a player's perspective) is that it means you always have a chance to get loot -- no waiting until you get to the right rank. A plus side is that it's possible for loot to be more evenly distributed across the raid group. (Though one person in Friday's raid got three items because all of his gear was ilvl 200.) A negative is that good loot can go to a fly-by-night guildie, whereas the method used by my priest's guild pretty much ensures that most loot goes to those members who have proven their intent to stay for the long haul. This helps the guild gear up more evenly, whereas my priest's guild's method favors gearing up the top ranked players.

Is it better to have some ultra-geared members and many not so geared? Or to have no one ultra-geared but everyone around the same level? For example, I'm the lowest geared healer in my guild. My healing output makes that very evident. Is the guild's progression hurting because of this? Is it good to have such a big difference between my output and theirs? I think the answer might be "yes". And, as mentioned above, as soon as my rank changes I will be able to get lots of loot to bridge the gap (assuming it actually drops!). So, in the scheme of things, it's a risk the guild takes. While I'm proving I'm here to stay, they'll continue to gear up their loyal players. Once I've proven myself, I will be brought up (closer) to their level.

Oops, I got distracted. So, I was comparing the two systems and trying to determine if either was better than the other? I think the answer is "no", neither is better than the other. The reason: the goals of the guilds are different. My mage's guild is not focused on progression. They're very casual and focused on having fun and doing what they can. There's no overarching need to be the most progressed guild on the server. So, spreading loot evenly (or as evenly as possible, considering the randomness) is not going to hurt their goals. My priest's guild, on the other hand, is a progression guild with the overarching goal to be better than the others on the server. Loot allocation is very important. We don't want to risk giving a good item to someone who will turn right around and leave the guild (though we recognize anyone, even the most loyal, can do so). Giving loot to the loyal players helps ensure that the guild will continue to progress. And, while loot is going to higher ranks, the lower ranking people are gaining loot priority that will kick in when they get promoted. It works.

Phew! I got that all out. I feel much better about the loot system. I just have to stick with it and look forward to my impending promotion!

December 22, 2009

I Hate Spell Reflection
Yeah, yeah, QQ more. I know. But, nothing sucks more for a mage than spell reflection. Not even silence or disrupt effects. At least with those, you know you can't cast, so you can do something else. But with spell reflection, you often don't realize it until it's too late....when you've taken damage. Then, you don't have a clear idea when it is gone and you can start casting again.

Yeah, I know. There are usually visual signs...and often if you look at your target's buffs, you can see the effect and at what rate it is expiring. But still...I hate it. It hurts! :-)

I'm just QQing. I think it's a useful mechanic for the devs of the game, so my complaint is really just whining, nothing else. It keeps me on my toes and breaks the monotony of AB-AB-AB-AB-ABARR/AM.

But it still hurts!

Forge of Souls (Heoric) (Mage)
First thing I did last night was log on my druid. I'm determined to get a random heroic in on each of my toons each day. But, before I could get into a group, a friend of mine asked me to help run some of his friends through the new instances. Before we got inside, one of them suggested we try non-heroic first. In retrospect, we should have. It was a disaster. Complete disaster.

The only other time I had been there as DPS I was on my priest. It seemed easy. But, most likely because everyone was geared enough for it. This run was anything but easy. Partially because of not enough DPS, but mostly because of lack of attention to the details of the fights. The worst example was the Bronjahm fight. On the first two attempts, I was the only person dpsing the souls. The first time is excusable -- they didn't know the fight mechanics. But, the second time? It seemed like two of the dps thought it would be alright if they stayed on the boss while the other two of us took the souls. Well, that meant I was the only one dpsing them AGAIN. Third try was better...everyone did their job, but we still failed due to lack of DPS.

We exited, switched it to normal and completed it.

Halls of Reflection (Heroic) (Priest)
The first random heroic I did on my priest was heroic Halls of Reflection. I joined a group that was in progress. I couldn't help wondering why the previous healer left. I found out quickly. We barely survived the first encounter. Then, when we got to the "escape the Lich King" encounter, we wiped...twice! I know I haven't done that instance many times yet, but I've never failed at it. /sigh

This LFG system is good and bad. It's definitely easier to find spots in PUGs more quickly than before. However, the quality of the PUGs has begun to decline for me. I really like the new system. So, I think it's just a matter of accepting the bad side of it.

Tonight
Raid night tonight. I hope we do ToC 25 first so I get a chance at an upgrade. You never know what the officers will decide though.

December 21, 2009

What a Fun Weekend!
I had a really good time in game this weekend. Such a good time that I didn't even realize how much snow had fallen outside. Seriously. I saw the snow on the windowsill. My husband commented on the amount of snow. But, I was so focused on the game that I didn't know the true amount of snow until this morning.

That's the sign of a good weekend in WoW! :-)

ToC 25 (Mage)
Friday night I logged in with my Druid to transmute a gem when one of my friends in my mage's guild asked if I wanted to go to ToC 25. I switched to my mage and went to a raid for the first time with this new guild.

It was a fun and interesting time. Fun because I was with my friends whom I haven't partied with in weeks. Also fun because it was the first time being in there with my mage. We got through Northrend Beasts and Lord Jaraxxus fine. The funny thing was that both encounters were completely chaotic. No positioning determined ahead of time. No strategy involved. Just chaos. They were successful, which is what matters in the end. We stopped after a few tries at Faction Champs.

After the raid, I spoke with the guild leader and offered to give him strategy tips if he ever decided to try hard modes. His response was that this guild isn't the type that will attempt hard modes. Fair enough, I offered to help out whenever I can. He seemed very appreciative.

Ulduar 25 (Mage)
After ToC, we went to Ulduar to do the weekly raid quest. We earned the achievement Shutout (25 player). Then we headed straight for XT for the quest.

I had a good time with them. Though there are a couple things they did that made me really glad my priest is in the guild she's in.

• They called others out when they made mistakes -- by name. Not the guild leader, actually, but the guild members. So, that's a good indication. But, they were relentless. So much time was spent after each attempt ridiculing the people who had made the mistakes. It got very annoying. In my priest's guild they are much more professional (if you can use that word in this context) about it. We wipe, we run back. The raid leader explains what went wrong, without naming names, and we move on.
• They use no strategies, as mentioned above. They just go brute force. It works for them because it's normal mode and some of them are very geared. So, I can't say they're doing it wrong. But, it's not an environment that makes me comfortable. I'm a Virgo. I like order. In my priest's guild, it's all about organization and strategy. Or course, we do hard modes, so it's absolutely necessary to be organized.
  

After Ulduar I did a random heroic on my mage then switched to my priest.

Hyjal Summit, Black Temple, Tempest Keep.
Within minutes of me logging on as my priest someone announced in guild chat that they were doing Hyjal, BT and a TK mount run. I jumped at the chance. It was a very fun night. As with my Sunwell experience a few weeks back, I couldn't help wondering what it must have been like to do them at the appropriate level. Not only did I see exciting content and get achievements for it, but I also got to spend time with guildies in a relaxed situation. They really are a fun group. We stayed up until almost 4am doing that. No mount drop, though. :\

Winter Veil (Priest)
Saturday morning I got up and was simply going to kiss one of the Winter Revelers. But, my plans changed quickly when I got Mistletoe from them. Finally! So, I couldn't resist the opportunity to go use it on the Brothers for the achievement. Meanwhile, I queued for a random heroic.

Cutting out the boring details, two hours later I had finished Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's. Then I headed over to Ogri'la to finish the requisite quests leading up to the bombing one. Luckily for me, I found the achievements website on Friday. In it they list the specific quests you need to do this.

Meanwhile, my druid and hunter buddies from my mage guild came on and they invited me to do a run of the three new instances. So, I did that then went back to Ogri'la and finished Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la

And got my Merrymaker title!

Break Time
Snide comments from my husband made me realize it was time for a break, so I logged and spent time with him, ate and took a nap. A few hours later I was refreshed and ready to play again.

Ulduar 10 (Mage)
I logged into my mage and immediately got a tell from a mage in my priest's guild. They were doing an Ulduar alt run for the weekly raid quest. She invited me to go on my mage. I got three achievements on the run: Shutout (10 player), Must Deconstruct Faster (10 player) and A Quick Shave (10 player).

It was an interesting experience to be with my priest guild but on my mage. I wasn't incognito; they knew who I was. At one point, one of the officers made comments about me not having my alts in the guild. It was said in jest, but I could tell there was a little truth to the statements. I suspect it will eventually become an issue -- at the very least I won't get invites since alt runs are technically supposed to be for guild alts. With the changes to the guild ranking system, I can understand why a guild would not want to help non-guild toons get achievements and such.

Anyway, I got a drop off of Razorscale -- a nice trinket. It made me realize how far behind, gear-wise, my mage is from my priest. I was excited to get it!

...the Patient
On Sunday I go the title "the Patient" that comes along with the achievement Looking for Many. Although I like having yet another title, I have to admit I was disappointed. I thought the Perky Pug came with it. Now I realize I'm only half way there. /sigh More random pugs! The good thing is I've only run across a handful of bad pugs with this new system. So, it's not going to be an onerous task.

And More Random Dungeons
Pretty much the rest of Sunday I spent doing random dungeons on my druid and my mage. After posting during the week that I had been neglecting the two of them, I decided to make a concerted effort to play them -- even if it's just to do the first random heroic each day one each for the Emblems of Frost.

It feels like ToC and Emblems of Triumph all over again. I remember getting two a day and wondering how long it would take me to get enough to buy anything. Now I'm going through the same thing on my druid and mage. With no real chance of going into ICC on them, the frost emblems will be slow in coming.

Except...

Icecrown Citadel 10 (Mage)
Yep...I actually got my mage into ICC 10! This is going out of order, but it follows the previous paragraph perfectly. After our Sunday raid (more below), we went on an alt run to ICC. Once again, I was the only non-guildy in the run. This time, however, there were no comments about my toon not being in the guild. We got down the first two bosses and I even got a the Scourgelord's Baton off the second boss. It was a very nice off-hand upgrade. Woo hoo!

Interesting note about the loot distribution. On the first boss, a very nice dagger (Frost Needle) dropped. The only two people rolling for it were me and the raid leader. He won the roll so he won it. He apologized to me in a whisper and promised the next mage-ish drop would be for me. Well, when we killed Lady Deathwhisper and saw the off-hand item drop there was a long pause. The raid leader finally said, that, even though he was interested in it, he was a man of his word. He gave it to me. Woo hoo! Props to him!

Oh and, I can't forget mentioning that we got a totally awesome achievement: Boned (10 player). Considering I didn't miss a single bone spike, I'm proud about having contributed greatly to that one. :)

ToC 25 (Priest)
OK...back to earlier in the night and our regular raids. We started in ToC 25. I was the third healer to get an invite. Woot! We cleared the place, which is expected since we technically have it on farm. I got a new belt, Cord of the Tenebrous Mist. With a belt buckle I got two sockets in it! A big upgrade for me. Woot!

After that, the officers announced we were finished for the night. The anxiety around Faction Champs was something they wanted to avoid as we went into the Christmas holiday week. So, they opted to split up and do other things. (Personally I think they cancelled it because many of the top players weren't on.)

So...this lead to the most exciting news of my entire post:

ToGC 10 (Priest)
My 10-man team went back to ToGC 10 to try to finish Anub'Arak. We had 24 attempts left when we started. And we finally killed him with 22 attempts left! Woo hoo!!! Yippee!!!! Hoooray!!!!!! I didn't get any drops, but that didn't matter. I was just so excited that we did it! Call of the Grand Crusade (10 player) baby. Yeah!!!!

Afterward it was pointed out to me how amazing it was that we did that with only two healers. Another reason to be proud. :-)

Summary
A very good weekend. Lots of fun. A couple drops. Lots of achievements (I didn't even mention some of the minor achievements that I got -- like # of raid emblems and stuff). Lots of accomplishments. Woo hoo!!!!

December 18, 2009

Yesterday I sat out for most of the raid. The raid leader made a point of apologizing to those of us who didn't get a spot, explaining that they're doing their best to mix people in so that it's not always the same people all the time. Although I believe that they are doing that. I also noted that the person who was chosen over me was that new healer that I feel so threatened by. (I'm being little dramatic, though there's a level of truth in it.)

It's all good. It was a progression run, so the best of the best need to be there. When it's on farm, I'll get in. It does make me sad, as it's a catch 22 situation. I can't rise to the level of the other healers without better gear (yes...it is really a question of gear. Specs, gems, enchants, build and "rotation" are all the same). I can't get better gear if I'm not there to get drops. (Side note: last night during their progression run a belt dropped that is on the list of things I need. It went to a DPS. Although it was an appropriate item for her (and I'm glad she got an upgrade, even though it was minor), it would have been a substantial upgrade for me. /sigh)

I'm not the first to deal with this situation and I'm definitely not giing to be the last. There's nothing really to say about it other than it's frustrating. I'll be patient, though. In time it will come. Though I fear that I will always be behind the other healers because I'll never get the opportunities for gear that they get.

OK...enough self pity...on to more positive things:

Winter Veil
While the others raided, I took opportunity to get some Winter Vail stuff done. As I mentioned in a previous post, I only have three achievements to get.

Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's -- I started off by /kiss-ing Winter Revelers for the first time this year. I was reminded quickly that Mistletoe is really hard to come by...it's all a matter of luck. Throughout the night I got in three kisses. None of which resulted in mistletoe. It's going to make this achievement difficult to get. I'll just have to make sure to take every possible opportunity to /kiss revelers. Sitting out for raids has a silver lining -- I'm free to kiss the revelers when I can.

Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la -- I'm not 100% sure yet what to do to get this one. I never opened up the rep quests in Ogri'la, though on Wow.com there was a post saying it wasn't necessary. I looked in Ogri'la for the quest giver, but couldn't find it. I'll spend some time today on Wowhead.com checking to see if there is a quest line I must follow first. While I was in Ogri'la I got invited to the raid. (more below about that).

With a Little Helper from my Friends -- I finished this one this morning. I went into a couple BGs last night and got up to 24 HKs. Each time I died and lost the gnome form, I /afk-ed to exit the BG. Yeah, I know it's rude. But, I wasn't in there to farm honor. Like so many other people, I was just there for the achievement. Anyway...I'll be rude no longer because I finished it this morning.

ToGC 25 (Priest)
As mentioned above, I was called in to the raid eventually. Faction Champs. They're our brick wall. Not much to say. We didn't get it down. It's very frustrating.

ToGC 10 (Priest)
Several more attempts on Anub'arak, and still no success. Our team makeup was slightly different than the night before and we didn't seem to be doing as well. We still have 24 attempts left. Hopefully we'll get it on Sunday.