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By Heather, January 26, 2010 2:29 pm

Since the random PUG system came out I have seen all sorts of things, and I have grown accustomed to the dps being low or people not knowing tatics. So when I started pulling aggro off the tank on my boomkin just now in a heroic, my boyfriend and I just assumed we had a bad tank. No, it wasn’t as simple as that. This druid from the realm Kilrogg EU was in fact not tank spec at all. He had restoration and balance as his two specs. So he basically signed up as tank knowing full well that he had no tank gear and was not specced for it.

Why?

Just so he could get jump the queue and get his 5 frost badges quicker.

I’ve got nothing against people going to random dungeon as their off spec, but they are generally the right talent spec and at the very least have SOME of the gear for it. However this guy signed up simply so he could jump the system without any regard for anyone else. It is that sort of attitude that angered me, especially when he started using his tree form at one point saying that the Death Knight could tank instead because he was going to heal. EXCUSE ME?! I think what is worse is that he is probably right; he can act like that and do whatever he wants, no one will report him and at least one person in the group was not even willing to kick him. I tried to vote to kick him and it failed.. I mean.. are you serious?! Tanks are rare in random dungeon queues but they are not worth that hassle for.

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By Heather, January 18, 2010 8:37 pm

This is me forcing myself to get back into the habit of posting here, and to commenting on other WoW blogs. I admit I have been terrible at both, so getting back on track was one of my new years resolutions. I was busy, had a small online break and generally have not been well since the last entry. So this is my official ’start’ of that resolution, although a lot later than planned.

So what has everyone been up to? Personally my WoW adventures have been going from raiding ICC 10 and 25 man, a few Ulduar hardmodes here and there, and leveling a new character. I finally caved in and made a paladin, she’s now level 47 (Melantha, Aerie Peak EU) and I am really enjoying playing her. I’m leveling mining and blacksmithing on her, something I don’t have on another character yet. Currently just started Tanaris, and going to Ferelas as well soon.

Now.. ICC. I have to say I am loving it so much more than Ulduar and TOC. I think the lore involved in it helps with that but in general the fights are more fun, and more of a challenge. My guild has downed all current bosses in 10 man, and all but Professor Putricide in 25 man. I unfortunatly have missed out on a lot of first kills in both, although I was there for Rotface and Festergut. They were very hard fights, but once we got the hang of them they went down easy. The 10 man version of Rotface I 2 (wo)maned it with my fellow healer Aeval, who is a paladin, so yep we had two tank healers healing it. Stressful but a lot of fun and a wonderful achievement for both us healers. I had actually been raid healing all of the run as discipline spec. While I know holy spec, I am not that good at actually playing it, so it’s easier for me to do raid healing as disc. It certainly didn’t cause any problems for us, and I had a holy spec as my second spec anyway.

When we’ve run out of tries on Professor, run out of bosses, or generally have enough people online/enough time, our guild has been catching up on Ulduar hardmodes, both 10 and 25 man. I have to give a big congrats to the 10 man group who got attuned to Algalon and downed him As a guild I think we could have gotten him down earlier, but unfortunatly there had been some difficulty in getting a group together for it. I have missed the 2 Algalon kills, and hope to go next weekend when I’m feeling better (here’s hoping *crosses fingers*).

Also, a rather big non-WoW announcement – Chris and I got engaged during the New Year Well, this is semi-WoW related because without WoW I would never have met him. We met in game in August 2007 when a former guildie of mine invited me to a fun run in Molten Core. Chris was in that guild and the run, and the next day he whispered me. The rest as they say is history

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By Heather, December 13, 2009 7:50 pm

The days leading up to 3.3 were not fun, there were problems with raiding and it did just seem as though everyone had finally had enough of Trial of the Grand Crusader 25 man. So it was a relief that the new patch arrived when people said it would, I think I would have cried if we had another week of ToGC.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a very cute core hound pup awaiting me in my mailbox, and I have to say, I adore it. Just watching it for a few minutes cheers me up so much. If I didn’t already have an autheticator I’d definetly be getting one now. Other than the pet the only thing I have really experience in the new patch is random PUG set up, which so far I am really enjoying. I hate pugs and I really dislike gearing characters up, mainly because of pugs, but this new tool is so quick and easy it’s great. My druid, Aleassa, now has two pieces of T9 which before this patch I’d never thought was possible.

As for raids I have only really been seeing what I’ve caught a glimpse of over my boyfriend’s shoulder as I’m on a small break due to health problems. So far it looks very interesting, although the second boss looks rather like Shade of Akama in Black Temple. There’s another council event, the council of blood, as well and I’m looking forward to that because I loved the one in Black Temple. It was the first time I got to solo heal someone and show what I could do. That’s not such a surprise nowadays as I often get someone to heal on my own, but back then it was really enjoyable for me.

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By Heather, December 8, 2009 4:15 pm

For those that know me, in game and out of game, most of you will already know of the various health conditions I deal with on a daily basis. For those of you who don’t know me here’s a quick run through before I continue. I was born with a condition called Hypermobility Syndrome which means my joints, muscles, ligaments etc. are all extra flexible. Cool right? That’s what I used to think, until I got older and everything started hurting. So I am on pain meds 24/7 to deal with the pain. To add to that, I also suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Asthma and Migraines.

You might be wondering why I’m giving you a lesson in my health problems. The reason is to discuss how World of Warcraft as a game and a social environment is beneficial to people with different health conditions.

Continue reading 'Health & The Raider'»

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By Heather, November 23, 2009 5:32 pm

I’ve been planning this entry for a few days, planning to update on our recent raid progress in Trial of the Grand Crusader and some Ulduar hardmodes. Well, since that was decided the progress has gone even further. Since my last update I’ve had a busy few weeks raiding, in the last 1-2 weeks alone my guild has been busy making it’s way through Trial of the Grand Crusader 25 man.

On November 12th after a lot of wiping and frustration, Beasts finally went down. Next up was Lord Jaraxxus, who only took about 8 tries in comparison to Beasts. From a main tank perspective he really was a nice rest from the intense healing of tanks in Beasts. Faction Champions proved to be harder than Lord J, although thankfully not as bad as Beasts, and we downed them last night

On the 10 man front, saturday night I got a chance to do the 10 man version of Trial of the Grand Crusader, and we got to Anub’arak with 45 tries left. Unfortunatly he’s a pain in the ass so 20 tries later we called it a night. It’s a hard fight, and I didn’t expect to down him.. I hadn’t even expected to get to him that night, let alone with only 5 wipes! We were also 2 healing it instead of 3 as you need to swap out the third healer for a dps for the tatic we were using, so yeah, intense.

We’ve also been combating 10 man Ulduar heroics, starting with Orbit’uary and then went onto do Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare. Unfortunatly due to work I wasn’t able to finish that run, although I’d done quite a few Ulduar 10 hardmodes in a previous run. Ulduar has never been my favorite instance, but while normal mode bored me from the start I have been really enjoying the hard modes!

Kaelea has gotten a lot of new achievements and gear recently, including 3 pieces of Tier 9 now. I’ve been in a PVP mood recently so been doing a lot of pvp achievements with my boyfriend. Also, thanks to the Pilgram I managed to finish Chef de Cuisine, and I currently just need a Troll Rogue – so if anyone on Aerie Peak EU has one /kiss Kaelea

I use this thread on the EU WoW forums to help work out what achievement to do next. Basically you give the person above you an achievement to do, and the next person then gives you one to do. Most are very sensible, I’ve only seen a few OTT ones given out.

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By Heather, November 15, 2009 3:33 pm

Don’t worry, this blog has not suddenly turned into something commercial! When I started this blog there were three things I wanted to do with it; the first was use it to discuss what I’ve been doing in game, the second was to review WoW products and the third was to shed some light on what players have been creating out of game; fan art, icons, websites etc.

So where do I start? The most logical place seemed to be with my own collection of World of Warcraft goodies. I’ll be going through what myself and my boyfriend have collected or read over the past years, including photos of what we have as well as the ‘official’ photos. This is so you can see what the products really look like when you get them on the wall/out the box.Please forgive any dodgy photographs, I’m not the best when it comes to taking them at times

Continue reading 'Spotlight: World of Warcraft Products #1'»

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By Heather, November 2, 2009 8:45 am

I’m breaking a few of these rules unfortunatly, mainly because I’m still fairly new to the WoW blogger world and those I do know have already done this!

Stolen from Miss Medicina, and to see other peoples answers go here

Post this questionnaire, with your answers, on your blog. Pick the healing class you know most about (or is the focus of your blog) for the questionnaire, and then send it over to another healing blogger you know and love who heals with a DIFFERENT class. Include a link to the blogger who sent you the questionnaire, as well as a link to the blogger to whom you are sending it.

• What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Kaelea, Priest, Disc.
• What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) Primarily 25 man raids, some 10 mans and the occasional 5 man.
• What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? This would be a toss up between penance and power word: shield, both are just very useful spells as disc which are great for keeping tanks alive. Penance has saved many a tanks ass in it’s time!
• What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? Lesser Heal and Heal.. with flash heal, penance and greater heal these two heals really aren’t that useful to me. I always find I have a better alternative.
• What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? For priests as a whole I would have to say the diversity of spells. With both disc and holy at our disposal we are able to heal pretty much anything in a raid. As disc; damage reduction. While other healers can beat us by miles on the healing meters we’re the kings and queens of damage reduction and that makes us a very valuable part of a raid group (finally! ).
• What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? I might get shot for this; but the ease of Circle of healing, especially before they added in the cooldown. Way too many holy priests were using just COH and many who started in TBC never really understood how to heal properly as holy. COH is great, and much better now it has a cd, but it needs to be used properly and in conjunction with other spells. As a disc priest who has always loved disc, right now I don’t have many complaints because I am finally able to play the spec I have always loved without being told I need to respec to holy to be able to heal a raid.
• In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Main Tank healing, and in some cases this depends on the tank and the fight. Some fights it is best to put me on the lesser geared tank, on other fights, such as Sarth 3D I’m needed on the tank on the boss due to cooldowns.
• What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? Always disc priests, so yep I’m in my element right now as it is my main spec for raiding I have a holy spec, I can use it, but I am the first to admit I am not very good at it. This isn’t anything to do with my lack of knowledge but more to do with my play style. I’m better focusing on tanks, and cross healing as disc. This could be due to a few health problems which mean my play style is set in a certain way.
• What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? Druids and Shamans. I admit I have less esperience with the later, but back in classic WoW before I created Kaelea, my druid Aleassa was a healer. I find it very difficult to throw heals around everywhere for some reason, as I said before, I’m much better tank healing and with longer heals.
• What is your worst habit as a healer? Forgetting to use trinkets. I much prefer trinkets that have an equip value rather than a ‘use’. Also, as mention before, I do tend to be very set in my healing style and spec.
• What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? I think it has to be the blame game in raids when people look to the healers and complain they had no heals, or someone yells ‘heal me’. So many people seem to think healers stand around and do nothing, completely ignoring peoples health bars. Health bars are pretty much all we look at sometimes! To the point where we may even miss fire Plus, people who complain they got no heals.. sorry but there’s not much we can do if you go splat within 0.5 seconds! And then of course there’s the peeve of being a disc priest; the healers who always seem to think being low on healing meters means you’re crap or slacking. Some people just don’t learn no matter how many times you tell them. Oh.. and pallys aren’t the only main tank healers, thanks
• Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? Yes I do, but in general I’m not really one to complain about my class unless there is something majorly wrong.
• What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? As a main tank healer the best indicator is if my tank survived. Dead tank = something didn’t go right. I occasionally ask my boyfriend to see the healing meters, or more specifically the power word: shield add on you can get, which shows a more accurate idea of what a disc priest is healing. Otherwise I look at the WWS reports after the raid, which give a much clearer impression of what I did during a boss fight.
• What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? People still don’t believe disc priests can heal. I remember a month or so ago healing a guildie say he was told by a 5 man that he couldn’t heal it. Disc priests can heal, we may not top the meters but that’s because we have a bundle of tricks up our sleeves.
• What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? The range of spells that we have. As I commented on earlier I have seen too many holy priests just use COH. Priests have a whole spellbook of healing spells, some which you will very rarely use, but others that are required for specific occasions.
• If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)? Low healing output simply because I am disc, but a closer look would show the amount of damage reduction and bubbles being thrown around.
• Haste or Crit and why? I originally stacked crit and intellect up, and once I felt I had enough I switched to haste. I am now trying to get a balance, however, no matter what I seem to do my crit keeps going up! So many items have crit on as well as haste. At least my haste is also building though
• What healing class do you feel you understand least? Shamans.. druids I have experience with and Paladins I have experience with via other people. But Shamans I have no clue with and am quite happy to admit that. I know the basics and know where to assign them in raids, and that is it.
• What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? I use XPerl for my unit frames, and mouse over macros for healing. I’ve found that is the best way for me, and it also means I don’t need to depend on an addon being updated every time a new patch comes out. Even without x-perl I still have my macros and can heal   I also use Prayer of Mending Tracker which I really suggest, it’s great for keeping track of your POM.
• Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? In the past there has been a specific stat, such as intellect and haste, but now I am just looking for a balance between them.

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By Heather, October 26, 2009 3:23 pm

Just an incy wincy small post to wave a hand and say I’m still here, and this blog isn’t dead. I am currently in the middle of that fun process called moving. I should be done in roughly a week, and then I need to get myself back online and some PC problems sorted out. I might have a post up in the next few weeks, I might not, it depends on how things go

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By Heather, September 26, 2009 12:51 pm

As expected, I completed the Brewfest achievement and thus ‘What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been‘. So I now have my 310% mount, the pink proto drake. Yes, I know it’s proper name is ‘violet’ but in all honesty? I’m feeling a little let down by it. I wanted a violet, a purple drake, not a bright pink one I’m not boycotting it or anything, just disappointed.

I am also a very luck girl because I have an awesome boyfriend who got me a new graphics card as an early birthday present. My 24th birthday is in a few weeks on 9th October, so as I said, an early present which was very much needed. So this week I have been back raiding, right in time for Onyxia’s return. I’ve really enjoyed doing Ony again, and have loved having a “new boss” that I didn’t have to read tatics for. I can remember doing it back in the old days with 40 people like it was yesterday. I still have my Halo of Transcendence which was my pride and join in those days, it was my number 1 wanted item and I love how it looks as well. Now I just need to fight with my boyfriend for the new priest one

I had a great welcome back this week though in the form of some upgrades. In one night I got three upgrades from TOTC 25 man (Normal). The first was a new pair of boots; Boots of the Mourning Window. Then dropped a lovely offhand to replace my Naxx one; Chalice of Searing Light. I was pretty satisfied with just those two items, and then Misery dropped, a gorgeous main hand which I couldn’t pass up on. One of my guildies, Eterion, was kind enough to pass on it which meant it went to me.

The offhand and the mainhand are both unique in how they look, one’s a chalice with liquid pouring for it and one is a bunch of coggs:

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By Heather, September 20, 2009 12:07 pm

For the past few weeks I’ve been unable to raid as my graphics card has died, and so I have been catching up with things in game and out of game. I’ve just about been able to play WoW on the laptop, but 5 mans and raiding has been impossible. I can’t even go into Dalaran without it disconnecting me! So instead I concentrated on some rep and achievements, as well as updating this site.

My profession lists have now been updated, and I’ve decided I’m not going to link the items to wowhead pages. Previously I was using the itemstats addon, but since swapping to Wordpress I have just had lists. These lists were started before Blizzard introduced the ability to link your profession/spell books to other players. Now that you can do that there isn’t really any use for these lists apart from my own personal desire to keep them updated. So in short; I’m not going to waste time linking up everything when it’ll never get used.

In game I finally completed by Kurenai rep and got my talbuks That means I’m now exalted with all TBC factions as well. Next up for Rep is Timbermaw Hold, which I’m only Friendly with, so I’m waiting a while before I start to tackle that one!

On the 13th September I finally completed “The Loremaster”. I had been about 30 quests away from completing Lormaster of Kalimdor for ages, and never had the time or patience to finish it. Thankfully it was easier than expected as I found a longish quest chain I hadn’t completed which helped a lot.

Next up for me for achievements is Brewfest.. and the reason for it being the title of this entry is because it’s the last meta achievement I need to complete to finish off “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” and thus get my Violet Proto-Drake! So I will be busy this week working my ass off to complete that one. So far the only part I have done from previous years is the Wolpertinger, so quite a lot to do for it.

I almost forgot to mention this again:

I’ve been fortunate enough to get some wonderful and rare mounts in my time (Headless Horseman, Time Lost Proto Drake) but it was this one, the Silver Covenant Hippograph which meant the most to me. Ever since I played the WOTLK Beta I have been in love with this Hippogryph and have been dying to see it available to players. So I was very excited when they finally did release it! Of course it was the first thing I saved up my 150 champion seals for, ignoring the other new stuff and going straight for my lovely hippogryph