A mixed bunch of screenshots from my travels through Grizzly Hills and Zul’Drak.  Whilst I was not a hue fan of Grizzly Hills as a questing area, I did like some of the scenery.  In  Zul’Drak I loved the style, themes, quests and scenery but I took a woefully low number of screenshots due to beig pre-occupied by the above *grin*.

Grizzly Hills

Zul’Drak

Dear Healing Druids and Priests,

I am a Resto Shaman.  Yes, one of the persons to whom you’ve been directing your antipathy these past few weeks and months - ever since you heard of  ‘The Nerf’ which was to come.  You’ve wailed and cried and, perhaps, you’ve come to terms with it or, hell, maybe you’re still fighting and trying to overthrow ‘the man’ to keep your beloved, non-nerfed circles of healing and wild growths.

Well, I support you.  No, really, I’m not being facetious, or mocking - I really wish priests and druids were not getting this nerf - especially priests.  Why?  Because I’m sick and tired, to be honest, of what I see being the case once the patch comes out:

That I’ll be:

• Sick of being ‘forced’ to AoE heal because I’ll be the ‘best’ class at it.
• Sick of being called a one-button healer and it being true (again).
• Sick of being told I only hit the top of the meters due to said easymode healing.
• Sick of people complaining about how they’ll never get a raidspot versus shamans when we currently (and likely will continue to) run with over four priests in every raid  (in TBC we ran with as many as 6 in one raid) and very few other guilds will change their setups either.
  
• Sick of the dps/tanks blaming CoH nerf and not their own ability to get out of fire on them dying.*
  
• Sick of priests whining about not being amazing uber imba healers who can do everything better than every other healing class when they drop a tiny bit on the healing meters.**

I don’t mind things being harder, I applaud it and I understand their reasoning for the nerf.  I also know how it is to have one of your tools which seemed so cool and all-purpose being changed into something completely different (look at how many of the new shaman talents don’t actually affect chain heal).

But I am also concerned that it’ll negatively impact raids - we run with one priest who actually has done (and frequently does)  the fabled 70%(+) CoH on some boss fights (without running oom) and whilst it does make the content fairly trivial I’m concerned people are not prepared to ‘tough it out’ until priests (and druids) learn to cope with their modified healing tools.

I know a lot of you will disagree with me on this but these truly are my feelings on the issue.  I don’t want to see the nerf going through because it’ll take away the enjoyment I have at being able to be a single-target healer - I don’t want to go back to the days of spamming chain-heal because, well, it’s dull.

However…

I also know that with two CoH priests in the raid I, currently,  might as well go afk on trash - the only thing I can do is throw an earthshield on the tank and the occassional riptide, anything else will be healed by the time my heals land.  Another shammy in my guild (not naming names) was on a pug Naxx with a group who had a CoH priest who was being chain innervated and just spammed CoH doing 70% of the entire raid healing whilst gleefully announcing how awesome a healer they were; said shammy also mentioned how utterly boring it is to be in a raid at the moment with any priest of that ilk.

If there’s one thing I’d like you both to understand it’s that I don’t care if I’m 1st on the meter so long as I’m keeping people alive and doing reasonably versus others of my class who’re in similar gear, and I know you probably don’t either.  What I do care about is the fact that if we bring 2 CoH priests to a raid it makes me so ineffectual that I can dps 99% on some bosses - but when it comes to bosses which require a lot of  single-target healing or widely spread AoE damage, the same priests and druids have trouble keeping people up.

I really wish I could propose a middle ground but I know that, at this point, it’s a ‘deal with it’ sort of issue.  I’m only hoping that it turns out to be like the ‘zomg mana regen nerf’ worries of pre-wrath in that it changes gameplay less than is imagined.

* I know there’s been a lot of ‘dps hate’ recently and I know that not all dps are awful but I also know that many of them tend to be blinkered when it comes to healing - “I never received a heal for ages” when they were being spam healed…

** I also know not all priests are like this but I’ve met too many for my tastes.  We’re all in the same boat, stop asking for a bigger oar.

Excuse the lack of imagery in this post, but I’ve not managed to get around to reistalling photoshop yet.  Oops!

Oh and sorry disc priests,  you’re being slightly shunned in an effort to make the post shorter and not have to include ‘except disc priests’ every third line.

No, really, is being like an atom-bomb with feathers or getting your wood on so much more fun or ‘cool’ at the moment that everyone is abandoning feral?  Now, I know that, in theory, feral druids do, in fact, still exist but in game I’m hardly seeing any at all.  We currently have no 1 feral druid raiding with us and almost all of the alts I see are levelling as boomkins.

I haven’t noticed the complete absence of any other class’ spec (though I am completely oblivious to the difference between most warlock specs) with the exception of arcane mages (whom I’m told may make a comeback after the next patch), and have, in fact, noticed more diversity amongst other classes than less - more discipline priests, retribution paladins (duh),  frost mages, elemental shamans,  prot warriors, and marksmanship hunters.

Feral seems more exciting to me than ever so why so few ferals?

Has  there  never been a time before where the feathered and fluffy laser-beam boomkins have had it so good?  According to Fim, doomkins now have more boom than ever!

WTB more ferlols, pst.

Winter Veil is a time fer meetin’ up wi’ yer friends and havin’ a pint, maybe a carrot juice or somethin’ for the elf-inclined types.  Ah’v made a few new aquaintances this year an’ ah’m proud tae introduce ye to them.

I decided it was time to get off my arse and update my blogroll a wee bit - I’ve added quite a few to my feed reader since the last time I updated (over 6 months ago) and been overly slugging about getting them actually linked.  I’ve also started putting things into categories - something I’m not overly keen on but my links section is getting rather large…  If you think I’ve assigned you wrongly or feel you belong in a particular category then poke me - I’ve only sorted the ones so far which felt ‘obvious’ to me as it was 4am and I didn’t feel like much deep thinking.

I don’t usually post about other blogs unless I’m replying to a post they’ve made but, then, I don’t ‘usually’ post about any one thing in particular.  I wanted to highlight a few of the blogs I’ve been introduced to this year which I think others might enjoy - I know most people will likely know them already as I’m often late when it comes to catching on to new blogs but someone out there might find some benefit in these links.

Tree Bark Jacket - A tree flavoured druid in a progression minded guild,  Keeva’s posts are interesting and range from light general posts to some strong looks at the current state of healing as well as other info-packed posts.  Everything comes wrapped up in a very pretty package, too - her ‘kill shots’ for the various bosses are beautifully done and she’s a female tauren to boot (the best kind of druid)!

Secret Agent Cat - This blog and it’s author are crazily fun - Tigerfeet’s posts range from the obscure (saurkraut during raid time) to the informational (gems for kitties) - but are always a fun read.

The Druid Team - This trio of druidlets are doing something a bit different and their adventures whilst doing so are always a joy to read - One druid of each spec, clearing their way up through all the content and enjoying the ride.

The View From Down Here - Namthe is from my own server and I’ve somehow only managed to bump into him once! I don’t always agree with his opinions but his posts are interesting - covering a wide range of topics, with a general tank-flavouring, and often mirroring the issues which are also in the forefront of my mind, within the game.

Shield’s Up - Drug has very strong opinions and states them well in his blog - if you’re an aspiring resto shaman I recommend adding this blog to your feed.

Hoof N’ Healz - Another resto-shammy blog which I’ve enjoyed reading -  Jager has some guides up on healing Naxx as well as several discussion pieces on specs and gylphs.

Artisan Level - This is a blog I was linked to fairly recently and am enjoying for its relaxed mix of topics from the general point of view of a guild leader.

Binary Colors - I’m not quite sure how to describe Binary Colors except that it’s incredibly fun to read and written in a somewhat captivating manner.   Go check it out!

I’ll probably be rejigging a few things over the next couple of days - my character page was all out of date, for instance, and I want to add that pretty recent achievements thingy to my sidebar.  First of all, though, I need to reinstall windows on my laptop, install Wrath and get the new model-viewer working so I can actually get some nice images working for the site again!

*Rolls up sleeves*

I hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays - it’s certainly keeping me busy!

I have a rather large pile of screenshots from levelling so I’m trying to group them up a little - these are a few of the nicer shots taken during levelling whilst on missions from Wyrmrest.

It’s been a while since I did some Sunday Screenies - I’d been hoping to get back to them a little faster than this but ah well.  This post is a ’special’ one as it’s got more than just one or two or even three pictures - when looking through my archive I found I had a lot of pictures of me, whilst levelling, on various mounts the game provided via quests and the like.  So I decided I’d make a post with a collection of those varied mounts as it’s a part of the game which I enjoy (collecting mounts as well as being thrown around on silly ‘vehicles’).

Ok, so usually I am stubbornly anti-meme/tags but I rather liked the more ‘personal’ feel of the current one -

Who was the first person to leave a comment on your blog that is still blogging?

My very first was none other than Mr. Matticus over at worldofeveryoneexceptmatticus.com! Though, it must be pointed out that he beat out Phae from resto4life by a mere two minutes!  Both of them posted before I’d even made my blog public, which rather astonished me at the time - totally having not realised that by linking to them in my blogroll I’d already created a pathway  to my proto-blog.

Amongst the still-blogging commentors on my first blog posts was Anna of toomanyanna’s (before it was even toomanyannas!) I am proud to be one of her first, too,  as it was knowing that I was not the only ‘new kid’ on the blogging block - Anna’ having started her wow blog only a day or two before I started mine.

If you want to see my first comments, go take a gander here.  From the bottom o’ my heart I thank all those who commented then and since.

I don’t really do tagging so I offer a free-for-all excuse courtesy of /hug hehe.

Ho ho ho! Ah huv tae admit, ah love the christmas season an’ ah widnae miss the celebrations fer anythin’ - especially no them ragged-arsed scourge buggers.  Food, drink, dancin’ an’ bein’ cosy inside watchin’ the snow ootside. No that different fae normal in Ironforge but it’s whit yer drinkin’ an eatin’ that makes the difference… *ahem*

I’ve been busy, maybe more than some others, an’ it’s taking me a bit longer to get back into the blogging swing and get writing regularly when there’s so much cool stuff going on but I made a special slot in my schedule, logged off, put aside my doodles and pulled up a blank page in Wordpress for this. World events, I love them, and I will wax lyrical at ye mercilessly and pitilessly with my take on them!

So, Winter Veil,  the holiday season vaguely associated with Christmas - Snow, presents, special food, drinks and corporate enterprise!

Achievements

For many, all that they will be concerned about this holiday season ar the associated achievements so lets look at what we have:

Merrymaker - Alliance // Merrymaker - Horde

Not to onerous, in my opinion, and it certainly looks to be less painful than some of the previous ones.

• On Metzen
• Scrooge (A) // Scrooge (H)
• Tis’ the Season
• Simply Abominable
• Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s (A) // Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s (H)
• He Knows if You’ve Been Naughty
• With a Little Helper From My Friends
  
• Fa-La-La-La Ogri’la
• Crashin’ & Thrashin’
• Let It Snow
• The Winter Veil Gourmet
• A Frosty Shake

Some of these quests might be a pain for low levels, new Death Knights and those who hate PvP.  I was a bit surprised at “Fa-La-La-La Ogri’la” as it requires you to have done a quest chain which people even hard a hard time getting a group for just prior to Wrath never mind post-wrath. I guess there will be groups made and suchlike but it seems a little unfair that some will have to go through a lot more than others just to get their achievement.

The Horde version of Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s has a lot fewer NPC’s to visit but at least one of them is in Icecrown and far hader to get to for lower level characters.

Once again we get a pvp-based quest and, whilst I’m not as much of an anti-pvp-er as some, 50 HK’s might be a bit wearing since the costume doesn’t persist through death.

Let It Snow will also be interesting given that I’ve not yet seen an Orc Death Knight on our server - I’m sure a bit of pvp for the previously mentioned achievement will solve that, though, or running around Dalaran in th early evening.

Quests

Winterveil has always had a few fun quests (most now with associated achievements) and I have to admit I rather like this, in a world event.  Quests allow you to get into the spirit of the event within the ‘format’ of the game and often introduce the story better than a simple collection of dailies and repeatable quests.

• Metzen the Reindeer
• The Reason for the Season (A) // The Reason for the Season (H) (and follow up)
  
• Stolen Winter Veil Treats (starts a chain for seperate Horde and Alliance versions)
• Treats for Gratfather Winter (A) // Treats for Gratfather Winter (H)

It would have been nice to get something new here, other than the quest which simply allows yo to ‘buy’ preserved holly.

Items

Winter Veil comes with lots of gifts and presents and suchlike as well as some seasonally associated items. Some are associated with achievements and some not, but most are fun to have and collect.

Winter Garb

• Red Winter Hat // Green Winter Hat
  
• Red Winter Clothes // Green Winter Clothes
• Winter Boots

To craft 1 set you’ll need:

• Clothes: 4 bolts of runecloth (20 peices of runecloth), 1 bolt of woolen cloth (3 pieces of wool), 2 red or green dye & 1 rune thread.
  
• Boots:  1 copper bar,  1 bolt of woolen cloth (3 pieces of wool), 4 rugged leather & 1 rune thread.

The rune thread can be bought from most tailoring or leatherworking suppliers or a trade goods vendor.  Wool cloth is easily garnered by making a quick run through stockades if it’s too expensive on the auction house and runecloth can be picked up by the dozen in Tyr’s Hand in Eastern Plaguelands or a quick trip to Stratholme.

Rugged leather and copper will need to be bought unless you have the associated gathering skills (though if you do the above ‘Treats for Greatfather Winter’ first you might get the copper you need!).

Alliance tailors with the requisite levels will usually have a pattern sent to them to make the red winter clothes and Horde tailors  get the green winter clothes pattern sent to them.  However, vendors also sell the pattern - red in Ironforge, green in Orgrimmar and since they are goblins and thus neutral, if you fancy getting a hold of the othe faction’s pattern colour you can have a go at corpse-running your way through an opposite-faction city.  It took me three ‘tries’ on my level 65 tailor to get into Orgrimmar, buy the pattern and hearth out and I’ve already made a reasonable profit selling green costumes on the Alliance auction house.  *Grin*

The  Winter Veil Disguise Kit is a quest reward costume that you’ll also need for an achievement.  Proper winter clothing!  It should turn up in your mail box some time after completing the quest line started by Stolen Winter Veil Treats.

Food

• Gingerbread Cookie
• Egg Nog
• Hot Apple Cider

These are all recipes trainable during Winter Veil and are needede for the Winter Veil Gourmet achievement.  The necessary materials are relatively light:

• Cookie:  1 small egg, 1 holiday spices
  
• Egg Nog: 1 small egg, 1 ice cold milk, 1 holiday spirits, 1 holiday spices
• Cider: 1 sparkling apple cider, 1 holiday spirits, 1 holiday spices

Remember you will need extra to make the 5 cookies needed for ‘Treats for Greafather Winter’!  Everything except the small egg is buyable from a vendor - the milk comes from any low level drink vendor (the nearest one usually being the innkeeper) and the rest from the Smokeywood Pastures vendor.

Small eggs, at this time of year, can go for silly prices on the AH given how easy they are to get.  If you can’t be bothered then fair enough, but if you have a spare hearth and don’t want to pay silly AH prices for things then go to Westfall, Azuremyst, Darkshore, Mulgore,  the Barrens or Eversong Woods and kill one of the many low level creatures which drop small eggs.

• Graccu’s Mincemeat Fruitcake

This is required for ‘Tis the Season and is contained in items you get in the mail after completing some of the Winter Veil quests - Treats for Greatfather Winter and Metzen the Reindeer.

Fun Stuff

Also contained in the special gifts sent from Greatfather Winter, can be:

Recipes

• Formula: Enchant Weapon - Winter’s Might
• Plans:  Edge of Winter
• Schematic: Snowmaster 9000
• Recipe:  Elixir of Frost Power
• Pattern: Gloves of the Greatfather
• Pattern: Green Holiday Shirt
  

Other

• Mechanical Greench
• Preserved Holly

Revelers

During the holiday season, you can blow a kiss (/kiss) to a winter reveller and recieve:

• A Handful of  Snowflakes
• Fresh Holly
• Mistletoe

These are all used in some form for the achievements and the mistletoe, if it’s still the same as last year, will give a small spirit buff if you use it on another person.

Enjoy the Event!

It seems like only a few weeks ago that I was gleefully squeeing over my awesome new tier 6 shoulders!  Oh, it kinda was.  Ah well, as is the way of things I’m slowly starting to phase out my old gear and replace it with new shinies and, inevitably, the shoulders had to go.  I’d be a little more sad if I wasn’t replacing them with t7.5  *ahem*

If it isn’t shoulders as wide as I am tall it’s shoulders as tall as I am wide!

That was going to be the end of this delighted-shiny-lookit-what-I-got post but then we went back to Naxx after I’d half written the post and, well… [Chains of Adoration], [Quivering Tunic], [Wraith Strike], [Atonement Greaves], [Legguards of the Undisturbed], and [Girdle of the Gambit] all in one night.  I think I took something from almost every boss - despite asking the Paladins if they wanted anything even if it was mail but, no.  I guess there’s some benefit to being the only resto shaman raiding at the moment…

Well, at least our guild now has a very nicely geared shaman.  These, along with my new trinket ([The Egg of Mortal Essence]), have increased my stats rather a lot - from:

• Healing: 1545
• Mana: 15.9k
• Mp5: 358 (whilst casting)
• Haste: 137
• Crit: 20.55

to

• Healing: 1931
• Mana: 18.5k
• Mp5: 381 (whilst casting)
• Haste:288
• Crit: 22.39

Almost 400 +healing in one evening, not to mention a nice chunk of mana, crit and haste.  I am a little wary of the haste, though, so I’m going to poke through my gear and see if I can sort out a haste heavy kit and a regen kit alongside a balanced one.  Too much haste is pretty useless if not downright dangerous in some fights so I want to be able to make sure I control the amount I have.  Oh and I need to go recheck the values for it again *makes a note*.  I’m also still, sadly, using green gems as couldn’t even buy the blue quality ones from the auction house! There were simply none of the kind I wanted so my stats will see a further boost from that once I have it sorted.

In other news…

Someone mentioned in guild that a  raid to kill the opposite faction leaders was going on and I leapt at the chance to do For the Alliance!, scoring myself another bear - [Reins of the Black Bear]!  Really, though, it should be called a slightly-dull-grey bear rather than a black bear…