Does Your Character Have Character?

This is a common question throughout the blog sphere: What made you decide to play [insert class name here]? Was it because it sounded fun? Did you feel a sort of "calling" to play your particular class? When you made your character did you create a back story or other sort of role playing element?

For me the most important part of first making a character (other than it be somewhat pleasing to the eye) would be its name. I cannot hope to complete a character until a proper name strikes me. The same went with Raíne. While I do not play on a RP server I couldn't stand running around with some generic "moo cow #583902" name. Most druids I've noticed tend to take pride in the name of their character. To me, one that goes with normal naming conventions for either Taurens or Night Elves works best...depending of course on which faction the player decided to go with. So I actually took about an entire week thinking on a name for my little spotted moo that worked well with Tauren lore.

I'm not entirely sure if there was any sort of back story involved with the creation itself. Playing D&D like I do there is an amount of detail that does go into the start of a new character.

Raíne was given the skinning and leatherworking professions because if she had to kill animals it was best not to be wasteful. Even if she herself could not use all of the items crafted at least someone out there would be able to put some use to them. She tends to be helpful to others in need; stopping to heal the wounded or even bless them with her mark while on her travels. She tended to run head long into dungeons with whoever may be willing to champion the cause of the common folk. But now the wisdom of years has shown her that some caution must be taken else wise many hours stuck on a hopeless cause would be spent.

Even Zeksíe tends to fall in the same line of logic. Her name may be a little on the silly side though at the same time it does sound like the phonetics of any Troll's name. My Shaman took the up the cause of herbalism to create inscriptions and recount her tales of adventure while simultaneously help give others an edge against their foes. Still quite brash, she'll attempt to tackle creatures she has no sound reason to go up against. As if it was only to prove to herself that she could be victorious all along...even if that sometimes means having to pick herself up several times before the goal is accomplished.

That's enough about my little baby alt however.

I imagine Raíne variously in different situations. Again maybe it is with age that she finally decided to stop attempting to prove she was the strongest and now wishes to take the role of the nurturer standing to the back to heal the wounded and tend to those poisoned. Before she would wish to horde all of her knowledge of her art. Now she would gladly share those insights to any young druid who would stop only to listen.

A small view of a rounded character (and perhaps even a look into the person behind the keyboard)

To those who blog:

I'm interested to know about the scope and lengths taken to make your pixelated image seem more like a living being. If you have the time write a response on your own blog and post the replies here on the comment board. I'd love to read through them.

Made In The 80's

Sorry for the lack of posting this past week. I've been quite busy planning for a party, enjoying the party, then recovering/cleaning up from the party. The States turn 233 years of age and I myself am now a very much younger 25.

I had originally thought to be a little cliche and really ham up the fact that I had recently "dinged 25" but I figured I did that enough on facebook and on the guild website anyway.

Now For Something A Little Different

Last night was a pretty fun raid night.

We had five raid members either away for personal business or unable to start raiding at our regular time. After waiting about an hour we were able to drum up enough interest/players to get VoA running. After downing Emalon with nine players (two healers, of course) we decided why the hell not play around with Ulduar.

On the flight up we were unable to find a 10th member and headed in despite it. Flame Leviathan was one-shotted, and I got to try out a new vehicle. I'm normally a siege engine driver but last night I hopped in a demo. Actually, it was a lot of fun. We had two choppers, two demos with only one person hopping onto FL, and two siege engines sans one gunner.

Razorscale went down with little effort. Healing on her is a joke with two realitively well geared players. I was the raid healer with a disc priest being the main; both throwing out heals where they were needed and both teaming up on the tank as they taunted the dragon about.

XT was a little exciting. Due to some misunderstandings our rogue accidentally got too close to the boss before he could ToT to the tank. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty. Luckily he was brought back but due to unlucky timing our spriest went down to a tantrum/bomb combo...and no way to bring her back. So after eight-manning most of XT he was so kind as to drop the Vest of the Glowing Crescent. Woot.

It has less about 5 less MP5 than the old T7 vest and the gems aren't as great. Oddly enough, I had read through Rolling Hots the day before about the big changes to druid mana regen. I suggest you read through it if you have the time. Really. Do it.

Lastly, the night was finished up with Kologarn. All and all, a good evening. I look forward to my strict 10's guild to take on the Iron Council with only two healers this week, I have great faith in getting over that hump. We've done it multiple times with three, but I think it's time to slim down.

3.2 Talent Consideration

Oh Boy! 3.2 has introduced a new spin on an old talent. For anyone who had been living under a rock for the past few days:

Empowered Touch: Your Healing Touch spell gains an additional 40% and your Nourish spell gains an additional 20% of your bonus healing effects.

Pretty nice, huh?

Well hmm, how best to allot talent points with the subtle change of words? As it so happens I do have a few recommendations.

Tank Healing

There really shouldn't be any second thought when it comes to wanting the new Empowered Touch talent. For this, I offer a 14/0/57 build to work it in. Here are some of the key points highlighted:

Subtlety 2/3: With the mechanics of all tanks to basically be able to AoE most if not all hostile critters 3/3 points spent on this talent would be a waste. Unless it's a bad pull or a boss spawns adds periodically most healers should not be very high on the threat list. If you are, there is something seriously wrong. I'd recommend taking fewer points in Subtlety but at least two points are required in the second teir of talents in order to continue moving down the line. That, and who uses Healing Touch without a Nature's Swiftness beforehand?

Tranquil Spirit 3/5: In order to gain full points to Empowered Touch I have intentionally left this talent at 3/5. Here's my reasoning for this... Mana is fairly plentiful for druids in the upcoming patch 3.2; mana gained from item bonuses has been increased by a fair 25%. Items like Bands of the Great Tree now boast ~21 MP5. It doesn't seem huge, but it'll more than likely make up for some mana lost from the extra two points of TS.

Nature's Bounty 5/5: Of course we want this talent, it gives Nourish the ability to crit more often and proc Nature's Grace more often. A little bit on that momentarily. More crits equal more Living Seed procs (if you've elected to take that talent) on spells such as Regrowth and Nourish.

Nature's Grace 3/3: This talent, while on the balance tree, has a sort of symbiotic relationship with it's neighbor on the restoration side. The more times a Druid can crit on a spells such as Regrowth, Nourish, Swiftmend...etc the more times this ability can proc. More procs can mean the difference between "I got the heal off just in time" and "If I only had .2 more seconds...". In a way, with a little extra time it can also enable a druid to multitask and throw more heals out on surrounding targets. Provided of course a host of other outside factors...but let's not delve into those here.

The Natural Perfection / Living Seed / Revitalize Debate - 3/3: Three points can be sunk into any of these three talents. Which one to choose? Personally, I stick with Living Seed for tank healing hands down. Yes, more crit does equal more chances at Nature's Grace. However, let's take a look at the math behind Living Seed.

Say I cast a Nourish that crits for about 8.4k and none of it was wasted over healing. The corresponding seed will "bloom" for about 2.5k on the next hit. That's essentially an instant extra Rejuv tick plus all of the hots already running on the tank.

It's always a good idea to note the amount of crit that can be found on current WotLK items as well. Along with Nature's Bounty most druids can typically find enough crit through gearing to give ~20%. That's quite a bit of crit on one of our most spammed spells.

As far as Revitalize goes...I have a love/hate relationship with the talent. Maybe I'll chat about it on a different post but know for now that the talent has no real use for tank heals. Sure, there is the occasional Wild Growth on surrounding melee to make this beneficial; but your focus should be primarily on the tank. Tanks rarely need assistance gaining rage/rp/mana. So this ability is more or less worthless to a good tank.

Raid Healing

This may seem like a cop-out answer but a lot of talent spec'ing for raid healers depends greatly on their own preference for spells. First off completely skip Tranquil Spirit and add the last talent point to Subtlety to advance further down the tree. I would advise looking into taking Revitalize, for the overall raid utility (regardless of my own thoughts on the silly thing). Living Seed should be thrown out, due to it's nature. All raid members aside from the tank should only be taking raid damage through AoE so long as everything is going smoothly.

Haste is also a big component in raid healing. Big heals faster can again mean the difference between wipe and success. Nature's Grace, Gift of the Earthmother, and Celestial Focus can help with this. If going for Celestial Focus know that you'll need at least 15 points in the balance tree to be able to unlock the fourth tier. Haste rating is fairly easy to find with current gearing and I wouldn't sweat Celestial Focus overly much.

For those druids who like to use Nourish (buffed or naked) try fiddling with a point or two in Empowered Touch. See which works best with the amount of raid damage that is being taken.

I guess in other words a 16/0/55 approach may not be too bad. If anything, attempt to swap points between Empowered Touch and Celestial Focus until something catches your eye.

Burnout

Thanks to running all around the various worlds to either honor or extinguish fires has left me a tad run down. Especially considering I didn't want to step away from my computer while I collected all of the fires in the Eastern Kingdoms (it was a major pain). Luckily I was able to get my title on Monday but as a result I needed to destress and unwind from the game for a day or so.

However odd it may seem, I read various druid blogs yesterday. I want to hop into the PTR but don't think I'll have the time in order to do so with any effectiveness. At least we already know what the druid set bonuses will be like with the incoming patch. That and the talent trees have been edited to 3.2.

Later I'll play around with the talent points and figure good combinations for both tank and raid healing druids.

Will We Overcome?

(Sorry this post came so late in the week after the announcements were made. I'm usually busy with real life concerns on the weekend aside from raiding and not to mention the all of the running about for the Midsummer Festival!)

Patch 3.2 has caused many changes that have had druids of all specs reeling in some aspect. Here are a few of my reactions to these changes.

Lifebloom Nerf

The final bloom has had it's amount reduced by 20% of it's base amount heal and the amount done by spell power coefficients. What in the world would prompt this sudden and massive change? Would it by chance be PvP? Very much more than likely. Could it also possibly be the fact that on a crit I could heal 2/3 of my tanks health without us seeing tier 9 gear? That too. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do like seeing a random 21k flash on my screen. Unless by some extreme "luck" of spike damage my tank more than likely won't need this kind/amount of healing. If s/he did, I'd already have used a nourish.

Speaking of nourish, it's going to recieve an upgrade in an obscure and what is arguably the least loved resto druid talent. Notice also that the amount of the spell has been buffed by 20%. I'm wondering if it's to be an offset for those druids who drop LB from their healing arsenal. Personally I doubt that I'll stop using lifebloom altogether; it's still a decent spell if I need quick heals. It just won't overheal as much any more.

Feral Damage Nerf

Most damage over time abilities that cats use will be toned down by 6-11% while our the need to use shred while behind our targets will remain unchanged. Again, I wonder if its due to future tier 9 gearing, or if there was too much crying from other classes about the massive damage we can do on bosses who don't move. You know, the only one who doesn't have any major targeting/hitbox/positioning issues...XT-002. Either way I've heard/read from some early number crunching on Elitist Jerks that the dps will suffer a total 2% loss.

Emblems of Conquest

Who hasn't heard of this very controversial change? Players will now be able to collect emblems of conquest through level 80 heroic instances along with raids like Naxx. These emblems can be traded down one to one for badges of valor or badges of heroism.

Seriously?

Personally, I think the idea itself is pretty cool. My alt upon reaching level 80 could start farming heroics and wind up decked out with some really kicking gear. I know that I myself am a fairly decent player (my guild mates upon reading that would more than likely yell at me for attempting to be so modest) and it would benefit my guild if they were to ever need an extra shaman in a higher teir raid. At the same time, I think the cut off point for the emblems should be at least Naxx.

Everyone else I've read seems to have a very different opinion on the matter. Well, aside from at /hug that is. I'll agree whole heartedly with that post.

Let casual players have their upgrades to feel like they've earned something in the game for their troubles. Maybe when they've ran enough of those they'll be able to really excel in Naxx and feel good about their accomplishments when they are able to make them.

No, they may never have the hard fought and well deserved wins that players first learning the raid might have had. Then again, maybe they will. Stategies have to be learned somehow. Oh hell, it's just a game anyway.

I can remember the first time we squeaked by Hodir and beat him for the first time. The only two players left standing were the DK tank and a rogue...and we honestly thought they weren't going to make it. Since then we've tweaked techniques and know what works best...and subsequent upgrades on other bosses haven't hurt either.

My experiences playing the game, my personal achievements (the ones that will never be known to anyone other than my prideful self) like the time by some great miracle I brought a tank up from 3 HP on a bad pull...those are the ones that matter. Not what gear I see other players in. Frankly, I'm not paying attention to what other players are wearing. And those people who vie top the positions on GuildOx will still be on the top when the new content and achievements come out.

Complaints about how the bads will somehow infiltrate and overrun top raiding guilds? Please. If you somehow managed to get that guy someone really screwed up on the raid application. If you notice someone applying to your guild with mostly emblem gear, some heroic gear, and no Naxx/Ulduar experience...you may have found a bad who is looking for more free loot.

Urgh. I could continue on with this rant, but I think everyone gets the idea.

this is not a patch note update

Almost every other WoW blog is exploding with information on the new patch notes. New mounts? Sweet. New druid forms? Kickin'. Shaman totem changes? Awesome. Feral cat nerfs? ...A shame. This post isn't about that however.

No, this - strangely enough - is partly about my drive home from work. On the way home from work I drive over the local interstate route; today it happened to be jammed up as far as the eye could see. After a quick turn around I'm headed down a little scenic suburb listening to the local radio. Sometimes it's a news broadcast, other times it's rock/alternative. Mostly though I don't pay attention to it; it's only white noise to fill the space when I'm busy thinking on something else entirely.

Since the drive home from work took much longer than normal (it was fairly pleasant and congestion-free) I was in the car long enough to hear the bottom-of-the-hour-news. While I couldn't hope to explain what was happening in the world, it did give me a certain known-it-all-along-but-tucked-it-into-the-back-of-the-brain sort of feelings. Almost a fuzzy euphoria that can only be achieved after the realization of something much larger than yourself.

What was this great and grand epiphany that Raine experienced? It probably has something to do with Warcraft, how could it not? Honestly and strangely enough, it was one of those little, simple joys. How something as seemingly insignificant as a video game could bring a hugely diverse collective of people together.

Call it morals, call it values, call it a political viewpoint... Either way everyone was brought up to think a little differently on all of the various facets of life.

All of those preconceived notions are easily thrown out of the window with most MMOPRGs. Unless you concider trade chat...but that's an completely different animal in and of itself. WoW, like many online worlds that have a huge fanbase of people who wish to chat about, and help out others who may have a similar interest in the subject. All of this while ignoring said preconcieved notions of the individuals taking part in the exchange.

Take for example any guild: When they get together to run instances or have fishing expeditions it's in the context of having a good time. Most worldly concerns are ignored for maybe an hour or two. Gone, completely. Thrown out the window. None of it matters.

Don't ask me why, but sometimes thoughts like these are really a breath of fresh air in this seemingly stuffy world.

Had to share that thought. Man, now I'm feeling quite a bit like Bear and his Blogger. Silly, no?