No time for hurt feelings...

After trying to kill Garrosh for 3 weeks with close attempts (8% on phase 3) and no success, everyone is getting a little frustrated. Totally understandable. The problem is mainly due to people going the opposite direction of the rest of the group during Empowered Whirling Corruption and that's when they are not dying to random stupid things, like getting hit by the Iron Star for no reason other than just not paying attention.

We have a pretty cool 10 man group, we all get along fairly well, we joke around and have plenty of laughs during raid time. Everyone in the group is mature and know what they have to do and get it done. It's very rare that I have to say something to them, unless they're having a little too much fun during a boss fight and it's affecting their performance. At that point my tone gets a little stern, I tell them to focus, they do, the boss dies and we all go back to enjoying ourselves.

Garrosh is a jerk though, and he's making me be a bit more harsh with my raid team than they are used to, especially this weekend and some people didn't like that. We've been raiding together for almost 2 months and although I like to generalize it, so as to not single anyone out when people are messing up, some of them wanted to know if it was them in particular. So after 3 hours of wiping on Garrosh people needed to be called out on their mistakes and that's when feeling started getting hurt.

Why are you getting defensive? Did you want me to ask you nicely not to stand in things that will kill you, or stay to please stay in the vicinity of the healers, or not die to stupid shit? Did I need to say pretty please with a cherry on top??? Seriously! Why are you getting me at me for finally raising my voice after 3 hours and 3 weeks of the same mistakes?

Sigh...

Maybe I have a different mind set or just used to raid leaders yelling in general. Is that the biggest difference between 10 and 25 mans? I've raided 25 mans for the past 7, going on 8, years. I've raided hardcore with plenty of heroics and casual with my fair share of bad pugs in between.  I'm used to having an entire 25 man team being yelled at for making the same mistakes after just a few attempts on progression fights and unless I was being disrespected I never took it offensive, much less personal.

So why is there a difference in 10 man? Shouldn't a 10 man team be a more tight-knit group and therefore less likely to get butt hurt for being individually asked to stop screwing up? Or is it because you are so much closer that they take it so personal? Maybe this is more an issue of people just not being used to progression raiding?

Lessons in raid leading at it's best, I suppose. I've been told that sometimes I need to treat them like children, I have 4 of those, so I guess I should have plenty of experience to deal with them then lol.

Bettle.net ap, Flex and Garrosh...

I decided to install the Battle.net desktop app this morning and I have to say it's pretty cool. Here's a screenshot of my desktop so you can see what it looks like:

You can manage your account, get support, change download settings for patches. There is a "news" tab where you can see what's going on with blizzard and all their games. You also have the option of viewing just World of Warcraft updates.

You can see when your Bettle.net friends are on and what game they're playing. There's also a timer showing you how much game time you have left. 

And of course, you have a "play" button, so you can jump right in. I've set mine to launch when my computer starts, so WoW will already be open when I want to sit and play, and the best part is you don't need to log in to the game, it will automatically take you to the last character and server you were playing on! How sweet is that?

I def recommend it, especially if you're like me, who's always going to worldofwarcraft.com to check for updates and patch notes.

In other news, Izzy finally got his Merrymaker and mount yesterday. Of course I had to create 4 characters for him to do Let it Snow to be able to get them! 

We also did flex with the guild and that was excruciatingly painful :( We had a smaller group than usual this week, about 18-20, and a lot of them I don't even know. New members or alts? I have no clue, I was on my shaman and she's not in the guild to check who they were, but it was a mess. Wing 1 was fine, but for whatever reason they decided to Q for Wing 3 after that and that's where the shit hit the fan. After 5 wipes on Malkorok we finally got him down with half the raid dead. The problem seemed to be mainly with dps who, by the way they were acting, were there to get carried and not do a damn thing! I get that it's flex, but please don't make it hard for those that are on their mains to help get YOU gear. Talk about being selfish. Spoils was better but not by much, so I decided for mine and Izzy's sanity not to stick around for Thok. I was getting to the point where I wanted to yell at people, so I decided we needed to go before I went bitch-mode on someone.

Tonight we have our raid and I'm hoping we get to Thok or Blackfude, so we can get as much time as possible on Garrosh. Last week someone suggested we try a new strat, leaving the desecrated weapons up during phase 2 because that would give us 10% more DPS on Garrosh. After seeing how the night went, I've decided to go back to DPSing them down. There was so much running around when we left the weapons up that the 10% we were hoping to gain where lost going back and forth.

If anyone has any suggestions and strat ideas for Garrosh, I would love to hear them. This will be week 3 on him and he seriously needs to die already! We have the heals and we have the dps, but when the empowered desecrated weapon comes out it all falls apart. Our best attempt got him to 17% in phase 2. Any advice you could give me to help our team would be greatly appreciated :)

But they're NOT my characters!

I'm certain that there are a few of you out there that get where I'm coming from here. The last few days I've found myself playing on Izzy's priest more than my own characters! Since he came back to playing I've been trying to get him his legendary cloak, he's on secrets right now and half way through revered with the Black Prince.

Last night we were playing with some guildies, very random stuff like PvPing in Blasted Lands, moved to Hellfire only to end up doing Maly and Grull's. At some point he realized that Winter Veil has begun and after checking his achievements he noticed it's the only thing he needs for his Merrymaker and What a long, strange trip it's been. First words out of his mouth are "you're going to do this for me, right?" >.< /rolls eyes  /facepalm  /wrist

Seriously?

I got mine back in 2008, but the man keeps quitting WoW around the same time every year and always misses his Merrymaker achievement lol. So I literally logged on Kaliapy for 5 minutes this morning to tend to my farm and then switched to Rah when a friend mentioned needing to do the achievements as well. So after spending the day running around trying to get these things done I've finally gotten all of them except for Let it Snow. Which is proving to be a pain in the butt because I can't seem to get ANY snowflakes! These revelers don't seem to like me :P

Between kissing under the mistletoe and running LFRs for secrets that don't want to drop I have done nothing to make gold on MY toons today. Rah hasn't been completely unlucky though, last week he got a Primal Egg which ended up being a Red Primal Raptor, and today he got another! We'll see what it turns out to be in a few days. And because they needed healers for LFR he also ended up with a Phoenix Hatchling in his bags as well.

I complain because I'm a Latin woman and it's one of our specialties :P, but I don't mind it so much. He's working all day and doesn't really have the time to do all these things. So I do it for him to keep him happy and playing WoW :)

Haters will hate...

As some of you know my raid team has been together for 5 weeks now and this is our second week on Garrosh, with no kill yet :( I can tell people are starting to get frustrated, probably because we've killed everything else with much ease and now it feels like we're hitting a brick wall now. We've spoiled ourselves into believing that we would breeze through Garrosh as well. I believe that with this weeks gear upgrades we'll get him.

I myself was dying to stupid things last night and it has a bit to do with the bit of gossip I got from Izzy during raid. Let me give you a little back-story so you understand:

When I left group 2 (solely due to their change in raid days) and made this group, I made the decision of not having any alts in the group. Although I have no issues with alts I don't feel that the dedication is there as it is with a main character. I was able to find core raiders except for 1 tank before our first raid. The GM and her boyfriend, Xinu, offered their alts to help as we needed them until we were set up. Both of their mains are in the guild's main raid group and Xinu is actually their raid-leader. Our entire group had about a 540 ilvl when we started and we've all worked hard for our gear and for those boss kills. After many days of looking for a tank for our group Xinu told us that he would dedicate the time on his monk alt to our group and so it has been for the past 5 weeks. Which leads me to last night's gossip. Group two is run by the GM's son (who's also in the guild's main raid group) and his girlfriend, and while we've progressed to Garrosh, they have been stuck between Galakras and Shamans for the past 6 weeks. They don't have a consistent group, many alts and end up melee heavy a lot of the times, none of which is any of our fault. And so now the GM's son's gf feels the need to complain and pretty much talk shit, saying that Xinu, who is on his alt and just as under-geared as the rest of us when we started, is carrying us. She feels that he should do the same for her group, which I don't get because they hate him anyway, but I guess not enough if it means a stupid boss kill. Oh but wait, her bf is in the main progression group as well, and his alt is in group 2, so why isn't he carrying them all the way to Garrosh? Could it have something to do with the fact that one person can't carry an entire group? 

It's very upsetting for me to hear this because even though I left group 2, I have continued to recruit for them in hopes of getting them consistent raiders. I certainly don't wish them bad, never have. When our group started there was talk of friendly competition within our own groups chatter, never in guild chat and never in a malicious way. When we passed shamans our competition shifted to the guild's main raid group (who are now 3/14H) and that kept us motivated to push forward.

So now after 6 weeks of having a dedicated group we are at risk of losing our tank because this woman is jealous that we are at Garrosh and her group isn't. It has a lot more to do with the family dynamics than anything else, and I hate the fact that it's starting to affect my raid team. How bad will it get when we do get our Garrosh kill and start working on heroics?

Have you ever had to deal with family issues within your guild ranks? How do you deal with people like this, who don't seem to be happy unless everyone is miserable like they are? I'm more determined than ever now to have my team, group 3, succeed!

Proving Grounds as a Resto Shaman

Let me start off by saying that the NPCs in the proving grounds are retarded some times and you will want to kill them, especially the Mage. This is not an easy achievement to get, so please be patient with yourself as you learn the waves and figure out what cool downs to use and when.

A few things you need to know before you get started:

- Any item above ilvl 463 is scaled down to 463; items at 463 or below are not affected or scaled up.
- Find a trinket of ilvl 463 or above with a good proc for this (I had just gotten Thok's Acid-Grooved Tooth which has a nice healing proc and prov what helped me get those last 3 waves in).
- Tier set bonuses are not active, neither are Sha-Touched Gems, legendary meta gems, or legendary cape procs (if you have any of the above, find a good replacement before you try or you will be very frustrated like I got on my monk before I realized this).
- Stats from flasks, enchants, gems and profession bonuses are not reduced (so buff yourself up!) It's also important to note that mana pots don't work here, keep that in mind as you plan out your CDs.

Now let's talk about glyphs, talents and strategies:

I used the following glyphs: Glyph of Telluric Currents, Glyph of Eternal Earth and Glyph of Healing Wave. TC was useful not only to regen a little bit of mana, but it also helps with dps and in combination with Glyph of Eternal Earth it allows you to stack ES back on the tank without losing mana for it. Glyph of Healing Wave allows you to focus on everyone else. I can honestly say that I barely had to heal myself, with this glyph and standing in Healing Rain, I was set.

I used the following talents: Stone Bulwark Totem, Totemic Persistence (although Call of the Elements would probably be better for this because it would allow you to use your Bulwark, Healing Stream Totem and Capacitor Totem back to back in a pinch every 3 minutes). I also used Ancestral Swiftness (for the stats and that oh shit moment when you need a quick GHW on the tank), Conductivity (can't go wrong with endless healing rain!) and Primal Elementalist (helps greatly when you get behind on DPS and you need a little push to get caught up or simply to Empower your healing.

About the Endless waves:

- The mobs have a buff that adds 1% damage each wave.
- The same set of 10 waves repeats endlessly, but doing 10% more damage each time.
- Each wave is 1 minute long and there is a 15 sec break after every 10th wave where you will be out of combat (so do you're best to get that last mob down so you may sit and drink).

Before you start the actual challenge you will find NPCs that provide you with a few useful items like a soulwell, reforging, JC supplies and stat foods.

You'll want to use the following spells EVERY wave:

- Earth Shield the tank.
- Riptide on CD (if the tank still has his Riptide buff and someone else takes damage, like the hunter, use it on them and let that bring their HP back up, focus on the tank, he's not a brick wall as he claims to be lol).
- Unleash Elements in combination with your Earthliving Weapon to buff up your next direct heal or healing rain by 30%.
- Healing Rain on the group (all should be in your healing rain except for the hunter and sometimes the mage when she's being retarded).
- Healing Stream Totem also helps you heal that stinking hunter back up, I tried to save it for the last part of each wave when all interrupts and stuns have been used to help with the healing.
- Wind Shear when you can, but not at the expense of getting so behind on heals that you end up going oom trying to catch up.
- Capacitor Totem on CD, should use it once every wave to minimize damage and sometimes twice when you can if you're feeling overwhelmed.
- Searing Totem or Magma Totem to help with DPS.
- Stone Bulwark Totem especially when there's a lot of AoE damage going out, again usually towards the end of a wave after stuns and interrupts have been used up.
- Mana Tide Totem around 3rd wave and on CD every time after that.
- Lightning Bolt every chance you get to regen mana, help dps and add ESs back on the tank.

- And last but not least don't forget to pull up your totems at the end of each wave to get that extra bit of mana back. 

Now for the big Cooldowns:

Wave 1: Large Illusionary Flamecaller, Small Illusionary Ripper x2.
     Simple wave, no CDs needed here except for those you should be using each wave.

Wave 2: Large Illusionary Hive-Singer, Large Illusionary Aqualyte, Small Illusionary Ripper.
     If you can interrupt the Hive-Singer with both Wind Shear and Capacitor Totem you will minimize a lot of damage. Just be careful not to lose your tank to all the incoming damage. Clear the debuff as needed.

Wave 3: Large Illusionary Tunneler x2, Small Illusionary Ripper.
     You'll get a few chomps here which will not go away until your target is healed to 90%. This is where you might want to use your Healing Tide Totem.
Chomp goes away at the end of the wave, so if you are feeling the pressure just focus the tank and keep a riptide and healing stream up on the chomp victim.

Wave 4: Large Illusionary Aqualyte, Small Illusionary Aqualyte, Small Illusionary Flamecaller.
     You'll get two debuffs at the same time here, so be aware of everyone's location and choose who you want to cleanse carefully. If it's on you and an NPC, clear the NPC and back away from the group, then you can go back and stand in the healing rain. If it's on the hunter and someone in melee clear the melee, you don't want you're group taking damage and getting knocked out of healing rain. If it's on 2 NPCs in melee clear one and prepare to heal everyone back up. I like using Stormlash Totem here to help DPS these guys down faster.

Wave 5: Large Illusionary Conqueror, Large Illusionary Hive-Singer, followed by Large Illusionary Tunneler.
     I use Spirit Link Totem here when the tank gets low on HP and once the Tunneler comes out I use Ascendance to clear chomps and bring everyone's HP back up to full. I also use my Fire Elemental for that extra DPS.

Wave 6: Small Illusionary Aqualyte, Small Illusionary Flamecaller, Small Illusionary Tunneler, Small Illusionary Ripper.
     This wave can feel a bit overwhelming, just keep focused, be sure to stun every time you can here and hold on till you can use your Healing Tide Totem again. Watch those fires, the NPC can get low on HP very quickly.

Wave 7: Small Illusioanry Conqueror x2, Small Illusionary Hive-Singer.
     This wave isn't too bad just a lot of damage on the tank. Be sure to stun and use your Earth Elemental to get some damage off the tank when possible.

Wave 8: Small Illusionary Flamecaller x4, Small Illusionary Ripper.
     Stuns and healing rain. Ascendance when it's up to get caught up. Watch out for those fires again.

Wave 9: Large Illusionary Hive-Singer, Small Illusionary Tunneler, Small Illusionary Aqualyte.
     You'll want to use Healing Tide Totem again here and your Fire Elemental to help DPS things down. Stay focused cause you'll also be dispelling here and you don't want to clear the wrong target. You can also use your Spirit Link for either this wave or the next.

Wave 10: Large illusioanry Conqueror, Small Illusionary Flamecaller, followed by Small Illusionary Aqualyte.
     The Mage will Lust/Hero here to give you that extra push to get through this wave. Use your Earth Elemental, Stormlash totem and anything else you have in your arsenal to clear this wave fast. You want to be able to drink up the moment the last mob dies. And remember that the next wave will be fairly simple, so you can let the tank take a few hits before you have to get up, so try to fully regen.

Remember that the next 10 waves will be 10% harder than the previous ones. The more you practice, the better you'll get at them. If you can manage to get through the first 4 or 5 waves of each set without using a CD you'll be better prepared for the more difficult waves closer to 20 and 30.

Once you're ready you can talk to Trial Master Rotun to begin.

I hope this helps some healers, resto shamans in particular, out there trying to get this awesome achievement! If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment, I'd be more than happy to add your tips to this guide :)

Happy Friday the 13th!

the Proven Healer!

Since the Proving Grounds came out I've been slowly doing the achievements as I had time, but the last two weeks the only one I had left for healing was the endless (30 waves) and I finally got it done yesterday on my shaman!!!

Around wave 26 I starting getting nervous and excited and the adrenaline was rushing and I couldn't even scream because Izzy had just gotten home from work and dropped dead on the bed lol.

So here is Rhyannon proudly showing off the title she earned!

Makes me realize that I'm a way better shaman than a monk and have every intention of going back to her come Warlords of Draenor. I would do it now, but she's only at a 516 ilvl and Kaliapy is at 557 and my raid team would probably kill me if I tried to gear out Rhy when we're already on Garrosh. That's ok though, this little break has only made me realize how much I LOVE playing her and how well I know how to play the class. So come Warlords you will be seeing a lot more of her :D

I'll try my best to make a post in the next few days on how I did the proving grounds on her while it's still fresh in my mind for anyone that is interested.

Good luck to all the healers out there trying, keep at it, it's worth the trouble, I promise!

OMG, they know I have a blog now!!!

So last night in the middle of a raid boss fight I notice some chatter on guild chat and I read just enough to see someone post about how they joined the guild because of my blog! My first thought was "cool, someone actually reads my blog!" And then the panic set in "omg, what have I said in my blog that could affect me in this guild!" LOL Of course there is nothing, because there is nothing bad to say about this group of people. They are the friendliest bunch I've ever met. They love doing things together and pitching in to help each other when they can. They raid new and old content together, they pvp, level alts, you name it. I sincerely couldn't be happier with my new home on WoW. In case anyone is interested in joining just send a tell to Kaliapy on Bleeding Hollow horde side and I'd be more than happy to invite you to the guild. So anyway, Ripclaw, next time you're on I hope we have more of a chance to chat!

I am proud to say that my raid group (group 3) is now 12/14 SoO with Paragons of the Klaxxi at 35% or so! I couldn't be happier with the progression we've made in 3 weeks. And I think we've been a little off cause we've had some pugs and alts come in to fill due to the holidays. I have no doubts that we'll be seeing Garrosh by our second raid night this week! I can taste the heroics!!! :P

And last but not least, yesterday was our elemental shaman, Verbalm's birthday. He turned the big "30" and Izzy and I decided to get him a Royal Satchel to help him celebrate!

Me? Raid leader???

So after joining my current guild's second raid group they decided to change the days, for one person, to Fri and Sat. There is no way that I would raid two weekend nights in a row! So I spoke with the GM and asked her if another group could be started. It was either that or I was going to have to find yet another place to call home. Didn't really want to do that cause I like this guild. She said yes and told me to put it together and lead it. O.o

I have never lead a raid before, however I have been in plenty of good and not so good raids to know the basic requirements. My first mission was to convince Izzy to come back to playing WoW and to help me heal. He agreed, although he doesn't like the idea of being in a so called 3rd group, that's his elitist side talking lol. So with a bit of guidance from him I put together a group with a few guildies and recruited to fill the gaps. Our first week we ended on shamans which we got down to 5%, when we came back this week, it was a piece of cake. This week we made it all the way to Thok, and left his ass at about 32%. Not bad for only two weeks of raiding together!!!

Our tank guides us through most fights and we make adjustments here and there when needed, which leaves me to put the group together, make sure we have noodles and flasks to go around, and keep them moving when they get to chatting too much before pulls. We've ended up with 3 couples in the group which is kinda cool and makes for a very laid back and fun raid dynamic. I'm very much looking forward to hitting heroics with these guys, we're kicking some major SoO butt!!!

Guild hopping?...

I really hate switching guilds too often, but I had to. The guild I joined when I server transferred has a little clique that I felt like I just couldn't get into. My intentions weren't to leave, but simply find a group that I can raid with casually n a weekly basis with. Last week while I spammed trade for such a group I got a reply from a shaman named Diamond who convinced me that I should join his guild's second 10 man raid group. He convinced me to join a team that was only 2 bosses into SoO!!! How he managed that is beyond me. I know I'm only 10/14, but 2/14 O.o, I can do that with a pug! But something about they way he spoke of his guild drew me in and I joined and hoped for the best.

I did my first run with them on Saturday night and we're already 6 bosses in with a good feeling that more will die tonight! I'm very happy I made the change. These guys are great! I was immediately made to feel welcome, a part of the team, it's been great thus far. I'm very happy that i made the change and look forward to progressing with this wonderful group of people!

Have you ever felt like an outsider in a guild? Did you stick with it or look for another place to call home?

Freebie for WoW addicts...

I've been working on some printables that's I've designed to sell on my Etsy store and I was inspired to make one for all of us WoW addicts out there :D It's a black calendar with the horde and alliance emblems. If you like them feel free to save it to your computer and print it as much as you like. You may also share it on your blog or with friends, no link back is required, but is always welcomed!

After making these I was inspired to make a 12 month calendar with all 11 WoW classes, I'm hoping to have that finished in a week or so, so if you're interested look for that at my Etsy shop soon :)

Big move...

So, I did it! I server transferred! In the end I decided to move my monk instead of my shaman for a few reasons, one: she is my best geared which gives me better chances at raiding and two: she's my money maker. I hope to bring my shaman over next, but at the moment there's no money for it. Unless someone out there wants gold for the transfer, I'd be all over that! I've only been on Bleeding Hollow for a few days now and I LOVE it! The guild I joined is great, and there are plenty of people looking for raids in trade chat, not to mention all the PvP that's going on as well. I've made a few lowbies because I know that I will not be able to transfer my druid or priest for a long time. So they are name holders with a guild bank for now.

The guild I joined is called Tabbed Out, and I had originally applied to join them on my shaman, but her gear is too low, and I knew this but gave it a shot anyway, so I was denied. However I was extended an invite to the guild none the less because they liked my application and so I took it. So I was invited to tonight's alt SoO run and I'm hoping to impress. Fingers crossed, wish me luck! I know they are looking for a monk, I'm just not sure if my gear is good enough. I'm at 545 right now, but they are already starting on heroics. So we'll see, I keep telling myself not to commit to raiding 3 nights a week again, but DAMN this game for being so freaking addicting!

Oh! I almost forgot, Moya's name was taken :( So I went with Kaliapy :D Now I'm gonna have to find a new name to call my hunters!

I think this is also a good time to update my about me page and change gear scores and such, it's been long over due.

I also owe you all a tour of Karazhan, I've had the screenshots for weeks, just haven't gotten around to making the post yet. Sigh... busy, busy, busy.

Hectic life...

I've had my plate full this past month. We have had our niece over since the end of August and she will be here till the first week of November. She's an only child and let's just say she's been learning a lot while visiting us: like how to share, and take a joke, and not whine for everything, and not to repeat herself, and to not butt into grown up conversations, and to not constantly try to one-up her little cousin... Man, she's gonna go back home a new kid!

I've been working on Halloween costumes. We've decided on a Starwars theme. Livy our 7 month old is going to be an Ewok, Sabeene (our niece who was named after my druid) is going to be Leia and Rene our 2 year old is going to be Darth Vader. The older kids still haven't decided what they want to be, and if they take much longer they're gonna have to wing it because I'm not making 2 more last minute costumes!

I've also been working on getting Izzy's business up and running. Nothing crazy, just an Etsy shop and business by word of mouth. He does graphic design and printing, and so far he's gotten a few clients but we need more of course. I'm hoping this will make us enough money for me to be able to continue staying t home with the kids, otherwise i'm gonna have to start seriously looking for a job real soon and put the babies in day care :(

Nothing much is going on in WoW. My guild is 10/14 SoO and just like with ToT, they are struggling with the mix of raiders: casuals, those are are thrilled to just be working on current content and experience hardcore raiders who feel we should already be working on heroics, like me. The progression they are making is not bad considering that our server only has 1,500 players, with only four 25 man guilds working on SoO at the present time.

I was looking for a more active server recently and found Bleeding Hollow. I made a character there to test things out and I am loving it! It's a PvP server, which is a must for me and there are over 10k players with a 2:1 horde over ally ratio. There seems to be people looking for groups and things to do ALL THE TIME! There is even talk in general chat outside the cities, can you believe it?!?! I've had a lot on my plate lately and having a hard time making it consitantly to raids, infact Izzy pretty much quick a few weeks back. He's been working a lot lately and doesn't like having to commit another 9 hours of his life to raiding. He'd rather play games that he can pause. This is one of the reasons I've been looking into a more populated server, because I figure I can pick up a raid group when I feel like raiding and not have to commit to the full 9 hours a week that we just can't seem to afford these days. I've been thinking about transferring my shaman over to this new server when I have the money. She's my baby, I've been raiding with her since the beginning and although I love my monk, I really miss my shaman. So if and when I do transfer I will let you all know. But for the moment, I'm enjoying leveling, it always has been one of my favorite things to do in this game :D

Have you ever server transferred? How did it go and why did you make the switch?

Tempest Keep: The Eye - Mistweaver Style!

Lately I've been on this kick to do old raids and dungeons for mounts and pets, so I decided to put together a little guide on how I solo them as a Mistweaver. I'm starting with The Eye and will do my best to add a raid every week.

Tempest Keep: The Eye

The Eye can be found in Outland in the Netherstorm region.

The trash in this place is not bad and can be easily AoEd down.

The first boss is Al'ar. He's fairly simple to kill just pull him from the top balcony and move along as he does until u get his health down to 0. He will then re-spawn in the center of the room you'll just DPS him down again.

If you get lucky he'll drop a Brilliant Phoenix Hawk Feather and if you already have the pet, simply cage it and sell it in the AH, they go for over 1k on my server. Here's Moya with her Phoenix Hawk Hatchling.

Now it's off to visit Void Reaver. Be sure to clear the trash in the room or they will pull when you agro the boss.

I hate this guy on my casters >.< As a Monk though we are fortunate enough to be able to melee him down with no problem :)

Getting silenced here is a little annoying but since we get healed as we DPS the damage we take is never really an issue.

He drops a Tiny Fel Engine Key. Which is a really cute mini pet version of himself :) Here is Moya with her Pocket Reaver. Again, if you already have it and want some extra gold you can sell this one too.

Next is High Astromancer Solarian. Here you def want to clear trash, or at least kill the two Nether Scryers walking around the room. They Mind Control and if you pull the boss you'll just get MCed and keep resetting the trash and boss.

She's very simple and if you can avoid getting tossed in the air even better!

It's not easy getting good screenshots while you're getting tossed in the air!

She drops Crystal of the Void, which gives you a cute Lesser Voidwalker. This one seems to be more popular and goes for about 3k in the AH on my server.

And finally we get to Kael'thas Sunstrider. This one takes a little coordination to do, but still simple enough for us Monks thanks to Touch of Death.

Start by killing the first 2 members of his council, Thaladred the Darkener and Lord Sanguinar in the back of the room behind Kael.

Then run to the front of the room and kill Grand Astromancer Capernian.

Then run all the way back and finish off Master Engineer Telonicus where you killed the other two. Then AoE the weapons down.

When you're done there you'll have a good bit of time to recover and run to the front of the room where Grand Astromancer Capernian will rez. Take the time to regen enough Chi to do a Touch of Death, because as soon as she pops up you'll need to use it on her otherwise you might be in a bit of a mess if they other guys catch up to you while she's still up! If you feel more comfortable getting a weapon then grab the Staff of Disintegration and you wont have to worry about his council. You could also do Kael before the Void Reaver and use the weapon on his, especially if you're a caster.

Then it's just a matter of DPSing Kael'thas and you're all done. 

If you're lucky you'll get the coveted Ashes of Al'ar mount! I haven't been fortunately enough to get it yet, but I will keep trying.

At this point I usually send all my Netherweave cloth over to my tailor to make Netherweave Bags which sell very well on the AH. I send the greens to my enchanter for disenchanting and sell the mats on the AH as well. All the epics I sell for money unless there is something I want to keep for future transmogs. You can make about 300g just from the run itself which only takes about 30-45 minutes, not including all the possible items you can sell in the Auction House for profit.

Next I'll be heading to Karazhan to show you how to solo the Chess Event! 

WoW Screenshot a Day: Day 15-21!

Wow, did I really slack on this for so many days?!?! With the kids heading back to school, my days have been very hectic!

Day 21: Slow

I love my Sea Turtle, but man is she slow!

Day 20: Stairs

This was taken in Karazhan, at the top of the stairs of Prince Malchezaar.

Day 19: Lost

Lost to time in Azshara.

Day 18: Someone you spoke to today

This should have been my slow day! it took forever for that rock to disappear off my farm!

Day 17: Exercise

Running from The Big Bad Wolf is a lot of exercise!

Day 16: Cooking

Cooking Engineer style! Mmmm... look at that tasty fish burger?!?!

Day 15: The Best

The best graphics and most detail I've ever seen in this game.

Monk Healing Changes for 5.4

5.4 is bringing some big changes not just to Pandaria and it's beautiful landscape, but to healers as well. Since I'm playing a Monk as my main, I'll start with that one first. The following comes from Blizzard and the red text is my opinion on the subject.

Monk

Mistweaver

Mana Tea is now consumed at an increased rate of 1 stack per 0.5 seconds (up from 1 stack per 1 second). I still prefer the mechanics behind the Glyph of Mana Tea and will more than likely stick with it. It's just easier to work into a rotation than to find the time to channel it in busy fights.

Revival's healing has been reduced by 30%. We all knew this was coming, I'm sorry if you were in denial, although 30% seems a little harsh.

Talents

Chi Brew now restores 2 Chi, has a 45-second cooldown (down from 1.5 minutes), and generate stacks of Brew/Teas based on the Monk's specialization. I tried this talent for a bit, but noticed I didn't use it as much as I should have. I tend to prefer passive talents over those with cooldowns unless the rewards are really significant, and now I am definitely not investing in it. I believe most Mistweaver Monks use it to Uplift 4 times in a row during heavy AoE damage. Now you'll only be able to get 3 in there making it even with Ascension, minus the 15% mana increase.

• Mistweaver: 2 stacks of Mana Tea

Chi Burst no longer requires a target. It now travels as a 40-yard line in front of the Monk. Much easier to use this way. I switch between this and Chi Wave depending on the fight.

Healing Elixirs will no longer activate if the Monk is already at full health, and activate automatically when the Monk has less than 35% of their maximum health. A good fix, but I personally still prefer to use Diffuse Magic. I tend to get into trouble sometimes due to lag and this helps keep me alive.

Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger now has a pet control bar for Xuen, and the talent is no longer on global cooldown for all Monk specializations. Because this provides no healing in and of it self and only through Eminence, I use it very seldom. I prefer to use Chi Torpedo. If I have to move anywhere during a boss fight I make every effort to do it either by Chi Torpedo or Spinning Crane Kick.

Power Strikes will now activate from the following Chi generating abilities; Jab, Expel Harm, Spinning Crane Kick (when it hits at least 3 targets), Crackling Jade Lightning, and Soothing Mist. This is in tier 3 of your talents along with Ascension and Chi Brew. By the looks of it they wanted to equalize these 3 talents and now it's just a personal preference of which one you want to use. 

Ring of Peace has a new visual effect that properly depicts its area-of-effect, and now disarms both enemies and those attacking allies within the Ring of Peace's area-of-effect for 4 seconds (up from 3 seconds); the silence effect for casting spells remains unchanged at 3 seconds. I tend to use this one the most from this tier.

Rushing Jade Wind has been redesigned and replaces Spinning Crane Kick.

• Rushing Jade Wind: The Monk summons a whirling tornado around them, dealing damage to nearby enemies (heals nearby allies for Mistweavers). Rushing Jade Wind has the same costs, Chi generation, and periodic rate as Spinning Crane kick, but, deals 60% of the periodic damage or healing, lasts 6 seconds, is instant, and not channeled. I am definitely looking forward to this. Now we have an AoE heal that will allow us to continue healing while it does it's thing. 

Zen Sphere now deals 15% more healing and damage. Something to test out, don't know how this boost will compare with Chi Wave and Chi Burst.

Glyphs

They made changes to some of the Major Glyphs, but the only ones that really peeked my interest are below:

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Detox causes Detox to heal the target when it successfully removes a harmful effect. This will come in handy on fights where you find yourself decursing a lot.
• Glyph of Targeted Expulsion now causes Expel Harm to heal for 50% as much when used on other targets.
• Glyph of Uplift has been replaced by Glyph of Targeted Expulsion.
• Glyph of Targeted Expulsion allows Expel Harm to be used on other players. With Spinning Crane Kick gone there will be no need for Glyph of Spinning Crane Kick which leaves an empty slot for a new glyph, and I believe this will be the one I will use. I use Expel Harm on cooldown to regenerate chi. Now I can use it to heal someone other than myself since the majority of the time it just contributes to overhealing.

I have no complains about the changes they will be making to Mistweaver Monks, and of course nothing is ever final until the patch is out; but I'm looking forward to trying out the new raids and bosses and I hope to be able to post about them from my perspective as our guild progresses through them.

Hunter on a Mission

When I first started playing in 2006 during Burning Crusade I decided to make a hunter. 

This is Corey and her pet Nanook. I collected a few low level rare pets on her and had a great time doing it. But when Wrath came out Izzy and I went horde and so I decided that I would start a new hunter.

This is Kaliapy and her pet Rahdiggah. Yesterday I got on her and played for a little bit and realized that I don't like Orcs. She will never be my main character, so why not go with something who's backside I'll tolerate looking at better. So I made a Blood Elf hunter.

This is Kaliapy #2, but she doesn't need to know that. I leveled her to 19 and headed over to Undercity to farm a few rare pets that reside in Tirisfal Glades.

The first was Nighhowl, a level 9 wolf, however I was so freaking excited about him being there undisturbed that I forgot to take a screenshot. He's located at 42,28 by Agamand Mills, tucked between the mountains down a small slope.

Then I went to check on Palgue, a level 8 dog. He's located at 57,33 at Garrent's Haunt inside a barn sleeping in the last stall on the left hand side as you walk in.

I love this screenshot, it's the exact moment he stopped being a Rare NPC and became my pet and both were captured on screen :)

Next was Fangor, a level 5 bat. He's a level 5 and can be found at 64,81 at Deathknell in the hills behind Rotbrain Encampment. The area is very populated with low level players so you might have to wait a little bit for him to spawn. 

Then it was off to the last rare that I wanted to get in Tirisfal Glades and that was Bonechewer. He's a carrion bird and a level 7. He's located at 32,46 in the Scarlet Palisade area. You'll have to climb to the top of the watch tower and more than likely wait for him to come around.

I waited a little bit and then I finally spotted him overhead.

So I begin taming my bird, but please notice the lowbie doing his quest on the left hand side there. Well...

He decided he wanted to kill my rare and bitch slapped it before I even realized what was going on :(  So there I sat atop the tower for 20 minutes until he respawned again and this time I got him.

All these rares have a transparency to them, so they look pretty cool. There are 3 more rares from Tirisfal Glades that I'll be hunting in the next few days and when I have the guts and time to spirit walk a lot I'll head over to Elwynn Forest for 6 more rares over there. I hit level 20 last night, so it will be a little easier to travel there now :)