I realize that the Scarlet Monastery is old.
I realize that the revamp of instance loot (Back in TBC was it?) was about shuffling stat points around, not about re-doing whole instances and changing the original intent of a boss's drops.
I realize that Library hardly holds the greatest collection of mail physical loot.
Herod is still an ass.
This also means I've access to SM Armory at last, and despite the little whinge there, the xp from the mobs is great. It's also pleasant in the sense that a decent tank will take nearly all the damage there is to tank - very little random damage in my experience.
Perhaps I finally have a chance of beating the sixth partymember. At the moment we usually fight for first place on healing done, I'm not even joking; last Lib it was 45% done by the totem.
Maxed out healing way and a new rank of healing wave equals ~1k heals. Sadly, this also means that trying to use it efficiently, meaning with no overheal, is the same as begging the tank to start crying "omg heal!" when they frequently have 1.5-2k hp.
Also realized the derivative glyph heal can crit. I am dreaming of double crits, but with my 7%ish crit chance, it's not likely to happen soon. And even less likely to happen when I need that 300 heal.
But when it happens, I will notice, and I will go into the kitchen and grab a soda to celebrate.
Because I never drink sugary beverages unless I've deserved them.
Now if you're done haranguing me about my sugar-ethics, I'll postpone the discussion on how a 0.49% chance occurence is a celebrationable occurrence on my part, and instead go grab a drink. I woke up over an hour ago and there's no sugar in my system.
Showing posts with label state of the class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label state of the class. Show all posts
Friday, 12 February 2010
Monday, 18 January 2010
Found it.
Found what? Since I don't have car keys to lose, nor any dignity to speak of, I am naturally speaking of that insubstantial "challenge" I've chased since I realized Gnomeregan is ridiculously easy, falling damage aside.
No, tabbing back and forth between browser and WoW every sixth second does not constitute challenge.
I found a proper challenge in SM Library.
Naturally, this means I dinged 30, which was fantastic; Earthliving weapon is nice, a second glyph slot is very nice, and nature's swiftness is twice as wonderful as I thought it would be. That two minute cooldown really makes it a different spell than the druid version.
Oh, and grounding totem. God damn it is hot, and having access to something that can eat a spell without the potential of missing is great.
All in all, though, dinging didn't change too much. Despite these new toys and ranks, my healing toolkit is still rather limited, and the lack of chain heal and riptide* is quite well pronounced now. As ever, I lean on my healing stream totem to cover the splash - lil' thing's ticking for 25 now!
But yes. New Toes, the L30 edition, proper healing imbue on weapon, thus set out to fill her second glyph slot. Let's browse the potential candidates, discarding LHW, ES, CH, Mana Tide and Riptide, as I don't have the relevant spells for those yet.
That's a long list.
Earthliving, Healing Wave and Water Mastery.
That, however, is a short list. Color me unimpressed. I've no idea what color unimpressed most resembles, but I think it's something vaguely fuschia.
Being a manly man, I have no idea what a fuschia is, or how it tastes, by the way.
Lacking any proper active AoE healing, feeling that 4.5 mp5 wasn't terribly exciting, I opted for the healing wave glyph, and set out to conquer the Scarlet Monastery, now with new and improved Library taste.
If you're one of those people who read every line, you may already have received some hints as to whether or not I was challenged, but of course, the fun doesn't end there! We must analyze and overthink!
First, the dramatis personæ of these two Lib runs in rapid succession;
The Paladin Tank; An important character of the first part of the story, this handsome chaps buffs with a smile, does a smashing job of tanking, and occupies the dark, handsome silent type personality. He is a blood elf.
The Mage In The Background; Delivering fantastic dps, buffing, and never standing in the fire, this heroine is as competent as she is a feature of the scenery. In the hardcover book version of this story, she has a scene wherein she utters a word. This word did not make the cut to the blog adaption. She is also a blood elf.
The Druid DPS And Tank And Healer; Towards the second chapter of our story, this lovely female bovine becomes the main driving force of our likely** band of heroes as stellar dps, tank of the second half, and healing when our main character suffers under the curse of Oom. Being a tauren female means mad love, too.
The Warlock; At once occupying the realms of comedy and tragedy, this third blood elf takes the reins of comic relief, as well as sparking a devastating intra-party conflict between the two acts. He is naturally a blood elf as well.
The Second Warlock; After the Warlock's departure, this replacement, apparently the identical twin in all but color on Recount of The Mage In The Background, does actually know how to play.
Our Hero; On a quest to discover who she really is, and test out a really slick new glyph, this restoration-specialized shaman is terribly skilled and good looking to boot.
Act One
Party, except for Warlock: Hi, excellent looking and no doubt fantastic people***!
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Our heroes bravely vanquish the first dozen of soldiers in a monumentally big battle wherein grounding totem proves its worth numerous times. Toes discovers to her pleasure that the glyph of healing wave proves perfect for situations where there is heavy tank damage and some casters have aggro on her.
Toes: Mana break, please
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Party, except for increasingly disliked Warlock: please stop spam?
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
The party continues to smash apart the Library wing of the Monastery, destroying many thousands of gold coins worth' of books, something that would have saddened Toes if she could read. The eminent healer notices that the warlock, possessed of slightly more than half her hit points, has a penchant for hellfiring regardless of the number of enemies faced. This causes her much consternation.
Toes: Warlock, could you please cut down on the hellfiring when there's lots of damage going around?
Warlock: okay i dont do hellfire
This would turn out to be a lie. Faced with such skullduggery, Toes remained resolutely silent, noticing that the Druid was shifting out to assist healing far more often as a result, which, while appreciated, was making her wonder if they thought her a bad healer.
The warlock proved his mettle, or lack thereof, by judicious amounts of standing around afk as his companions yelled for help, and by helpfully running into new rooms and around corners to die. He was much appreciated by the party for this.
So much, in fact, that they decided that the warlock, after such an intense effort, could have a break, and let them do the rest.
Not, however, before the last remaining human in the Library was slain, where Toes learned to appreciate the newer expansions where 8-10 second silences are considered a little rude.
Party, except Warlock who just got a one way ticket out of party: We like eachother, and we will do this again.
Party, still not including warlock: Yes we do!
Act 2
As Act 1, minus warlock, with druid tanking instead.
End.
On a more sincere and straightforward note, it is fantastic to heal, pulling every trick (and grenades) out of your bag, and realize at the end of a fight that if I had not been a troll, with my fantastic 20% haste panic button, the tank would have splatted.
The glyph did nearly 60% overheal, but I still consider it highly useful.
Nature's swiftness saved our arses more often than I thought, and was always off CD when I needed it.
If anything let me down, it was earthliving - I didn't really know what to expect, and 2-3% healing done isn't bad, but I suppose it's more a chain heal + blessing of the eternals thing than it is tank healing condusive.
Last, I've finally met a "bad" player of the kind you always talk about. I'm not pleased about it, nor displeased: He didn't hurt our run too much. If anything, I'm a little sad that he got kicked, all things said. I think that's for another post though. This is already ridiculously long, so I'm gonna end this riiiiight-
Here.
*Not that I have healed a lot on my 80 shaman, but I have tried it and I know the holes when I see them.
**We queued through the LFD. It doesn't get likelier than that.
***This may be a slightly liberal transcription.
Goddamn footnotes.
No, tabbing back and forth between browser and WoW every sixth second does not constitute challenge.
I found a proper challenge in SM Library.
Naturally, this means I dinged 30, which was fantastic; Earthliving weapon is nice, a second glyph slot is very nice, and nature's swiftness is twice as wonderful as I thought it would be. That two minute cooldown really makes it a different spell than the druid version.
Oh, and grounding totem. God damn it is hot, and having access to something that can eat a spell without the potential of missing is great.
All in all, though, dinging didn't change too much. Despite these new toys and ranks, my healing toolkit is still rather limited, and the lack of chain heal and riptide* is quite well pronounced now. As ever, I lean on my healing stream totem to cover the splash - lil' thing's ticking for 25 now!
But yes. New Toes, the L30 edition, proper healing imbue on weapon, thus set out to fill her second glyph slot. Let's browse the potential candidates, discarding LHW, ES, CH, Mana Tide and Riptide, as I don't have the relevant spells for those yet.
That's a long list.
Earthliving, Healing Wave and Water Mastery.
That, however, is a short list. Color me unimpressed. I've no idea what color unimpressed most resembles, but I think it's something vaguely fuschia.
Being a manly man, I have no idea what a fuschia is, or how it tastes, by the way.
Lacking any proper active AoE healing, feeling that 4.5 mp5 wasn't terribly exciting, I opted for the healing wave glyph, and set out to conquer the Scarlet Monastery, now with new and improved Library taste.
If you're one of those people who read every line, you may already have received some hints as to whether or not I was challenged, but of course, the fun doesn't end there! We must analyze and overthink!
First, the dramatis personæ of these two Lib runs in rapid succession;
The Paladin Tank; An important character of the first part of the story, this handsome chaps buffs with a smile, does a smashing job of tanking, and occupies the dark, handsome silent type personality. He is a blood elf.
The Mage In The Background; Delivering fantastic dps, buffing, and never standing in the fire, this heroine is as competent as she is a feature of the scenery. In the hardcover book version of this story, she has a scene wherein she utters a word. This word did not make the cut to the blog adaption. She is also a blood elf.
The Druid DPS And Tank And Healer; Towards the second chapter of our story, this lovely female bovine becomes the main driving force of our likely** band of heroes as stellar dps, tank of the second half, and healing when our main character suffers under the curse of Oom. Being a tauren female means mad love, too.
The Warlock; At once occupying the realms of comedy and tragedy, this third blood elf takes the reins of comic relief, as well as sparking a devastating intra-party conflict between the two acts. He is naturally a blood elf as well.
The Second Warlock; After the Warlock's departure, this replacement, apparently the identical twin in all but color on Recount of The Mage In The Background, does actually know how to play.
Our Hero; On a quest to discover who she really is, and test out a really slick new glyph, this restoration-specialized shaman is terribly skilled and good looking to boot.
Act One
Party, except for Warlock: Hi, excellent looking and no doubt fantastic people***!
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Our heroes bravely vanquish the first dozen of soldiers in a monumentally big battle wherein grounding totem proves its worth numerous times. Toes discovers to her pleasure that the glyph of healing wave proves perfect for situations where there is heavy tank damage and some casters have aggro on her.
Toes: Mana break, please
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Party, except for increasingly disliked Warlock: please stop spam?
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
The party continues to smash apart the Library wing of the Monastery, destroying many thousands of gold coins worth' of books, something that would have saddened Toes if she could read. The eminent healer notices that the warlock, possessed of slightly more than half her hit points, has a penchant for hellfiring regardless of the number of enemies faced. This causes her much consternation.
Toes: Warlock, could you please cut down on the hellfiring when there's lots of damage going around?
Warlock: okay i dont do hellfire
This would turn out to be a lie. Faced with such skullduggery, Toes remained resolutely silent, noticing that the Druid was shifting out to assist healing far more often as a result, which, while appreciated, was making her wonder if they thought her a bad healer.
The warlock proved his mettle, or lack thereof, by judicious amounts of standing around afk as his companions yelled for help, and by helpfully running into new rooms and around corners to die. He was much appreciated by the party for this.
So much, in fact, that they decided that the warlock, after such an intense effort, could have a break, and let them do the rest.
Not, however, before the last remaining human in the Library was slain, where Toes learned to appreciate the newer expansions where 8-10 second silences are considered a little rude.
Party, except Warlock who just got a one way ticket out of party: We like eachother, and we will do this again.
Party, still not including warlock: Yes we do!
Act 2
As Act 1, minus warlock, with druid tanking instead.
End.
On a more sincere and straightforward note, it is fantastic to heal, pulling every trick (and grenades) out of your bag, and realize at the end of a fight that if I had not been a troll, with my fantastic 20% haste panic button, the tank would have splatted.
The glyph did nearly 60% overheal, but I still consider it highly useful.
Nature's swiftness saved our arses more often than I thought, and was always off CD when I needed it.
If anything let me down, it was earthliving - I didn't really know what to expect, and 2-3% healing done isn't bad, but I suppose it's more a chain heal + blessing of the eternals thing than it is tank healing condusive.
Last, I've finally met a "bad" player of the kind you always talk about. I'm not pleased about it, nor displeased: He didn't hurt our run too much. If anything, I'm a little sad that he got kicked, all things said. I think that's for another post though. This is already ridiculously long, so I'm gonna end this riiiiight-
Here.
*Not that I have healed a lot on my 80 shaman, but I have tried it and I know the holes when I see them.
**We queued through the LFD. It doesn't get likelier than that.
***This may be a slightly liberal transcription.
Goddamn footnotes.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Jeopardytune.mp3
In lieu of waiting/pause music. Still need to work on them titles.
Having decided to limit myself to one (or two) instances daily, and no (or some) quests, it was a monumentally infinitesimal step to sneak into a battleground (or two). It would reduce the likelyhood of getting the instances I've already run quite a few times, and be the best way to get used to my new UI.
See, I wish I could write a post where I was either surprised or at the very least honestly dismayed by getting trod on by twinks. Sorry; I fully expected it, and almost relished that one time my healing made a slightly suboptimal twink beat out a seemingly perfect twink.
No, even that sounded whiny. I do not mind, damn it. And it's not like FROST SHOOOOCK ever gets old.
It was great for analyzing my performance in a, shall we say, quicker paced arena, though. Beyond interrupting 0.5-1.5 sec casts in dungeons, very little requires snap reactions.
Things I learned;
-Frost shock is fantastic.
-I love purge and press it whenever I have nothing better to do.
-I don't purge enough.
-Certain classes are in abundance and are, at this level, Okay at killing me.
-Frost shock has a nice icon.
-Using large copper bombs in pvp is even more fun than it is in pve.
-Heals are always one tenth of a second too slow.
Now where's that L27 haste gear.
Having decided to limit myself to one (or two) instances daily, and no (or some) quests, it was a monumentally infinitesimal step to sneak into a battleground (or two). It would reduce the likelyhood of getting the instances I've already run quite a few times, and be the best way to get used to my new UI.
See, I wish I could write a post where I was either surprised or at the very least honestly dismayed by getting trod on by twinks. Sorry; I fully expected it, and almost relished that one time my healing made a slightly suboptimal twink beat out a seemingly perfect twink.
No, even that sounded whiny. I do not mind, damn it. And it's not like FROST SHOOOOCK ever gets old.
It was great for analyzing my performance in a, shall we say, quicker paced arena, though. Beyond interrupting 0.5-1.5 sec casts in dungeons, very little requires snap reactions.
Things I learned;
-Frost shock is fantastic.
-I love purge and press it whenever I have nothing better to do.
-I don't purge enough.
-Certain classes are in abundance and are, at this level, Okay at killing me.
-Frost shock has a nice icon.
-Using large copper bombs in pvp is even more fun than it is in pve.
-Heals are always one tenth of a second too slow.
Now where's that L27 haste gear.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Tomatoes, cucumber, salami and bread.
In a non-special special, today threatened to be incredibly boring, pulling my second Stockades run so far. It was a depressingly simple thing, meaning it incorporated all the things you expect of a lowbie run; disconnect, subsequent fourmanning, and me and two dps staying behind to kill another pull to grab that ding - 25 in my case!
Probably initially subconsciously, after having read Pink Pigtail Inn's recent post on the anonymity and businesslike manner of pugs, I endeavoured to make it a little chatty.
Which failed horrendously seeing as how a Stockades "run" takes about eight minutes.
Those quotation marks, should you be curious, are saying, in a sort of indignant and probably high pitched voice, oh so it's all just beeline to the important boss nowwadyas eh, well, when I was young..
Voice doesn't have much of a point in an instance that has not yet grasped the concept of loot, though. The only real drop from Stockades* is from a rare spawn.
I realize by now that I've spent half a page saying that there was nothing to say.
Not sure what to make of that.
I'm halfway watching/listening to MLG's saturday thing.
So I figured, let's do another. There has to be something more interesting out there. Something to write about.
Like Gnomeregan.
You just know when that loading screen - which I have not seen before - pops up, that there's gonna be a story. Or multiple ones.
Problem is, catastrophies are good reading, success stories aren't, apparently.
You sick bastards.
No, sadly, I got a tank - 5 copper if you can guess which class - who clearly knew what he was doing in every sense, i.e. taking charge and pointing the way through the entire instance, choosing some funky paths I am pretty sure never existed before he gazed upon them. It may have been a space-time continuum tunneling bear.
The other option being that someone knows anything in this game better than me - even Gnomeregan - is clearly not even half as likely.
Toss in two stable dps, and one unstable dps in a pally who heroically involunteered** to find out how much damage the explosion on the cave collapse event does (answer: enough to kill a 1200hp pally) to be replaced by a warrior of the stable, silent variety. End result is a 30 minute Gnomeregan clear.
There's not a lot to say about any specific happenings in that run, since the druid tank calmly handled every sticky situation admirably. No deaths were had, not even when the warlock peered over the edge in one of the tunnels, rewarding us with a Train of Doom. It was a rather social and nice group with "Nice healing!" and "Nice tanking!" being outnumbered only by polite grats'es on dings. Instead of commenting on minutinae with no relevance, I thought I'd say a few words on the state of healing as a resto shammy at this point. The point, currently, is L25.
First off: I have no AoE heal. For a shaman, specifically, this means I lack my laser heal. Since, while mana cost scales smoothly with level now, - as a step taken to prevent downranking - I pretty much prefer whichever heal of LHW and HW is the recentmost upgraded, rankwise. For me, this means I am sitting around waiting for someone to take 450 damage so a HW doesn't overheal.
The result here, I expect, will be that people sit around 70% and cry "omg heal!". It hasn't happened yet, but it damned well will. Walk it off, soldier, I say!
Of course, it's not that bad. Enter healing stream totem!. I went so far as glyphing it, and I am prioritizing talenting it too. Having a passive 12 hp per tick, 6hps, partywide for a pittance of mana does wonders to patch up the wounds that an actual heal would partially overheal, destroying my mana.
I love the damn thing.
And yes, I generally forget to bring drinks, so mana is a concern for me. I'm sure this makes me a bad healer, but so far I've managed fine by the occasional drink I loot. Today I found two melon juice during the run, and I tell you, I was never happier for an epic than for those two consumables.
Another interesting aspect of relying on Healing Wave, as my most efficient heal at the moment, is that I actually find myself spending a lot of time in combat, out of the five second rule. Spirit is actually helping a damn lot, and as an mp5 caster, it feels very wierd but a little good and funny too. Were this at 80, I would probably be dps'ing if I had a ten second period where no healing was needed.
Instead, I stand around looking doing my best impression of a deer caught in headlights, then killed in the crash, but gently, so that the hobby-taxidermist who ran it over is able to save it, and places it in Gnomeregan, for some reason.
Point is, doing nothing can be damn comfortable. It may be my motivation for pumping that talent to 3/3 as soon as possible.
Four down, still only one death, still no horrible experiences, and at least one downright pleasant run. I'm almost disappointed, but plenty more dungeons to go at any rate!
*Meaning: With a pleasant blue color.
**Volunteered, involuntarily. Basic wordsmithing.
Probably initially subconsciously, after having read Pink Pigtail Inn's recent post on the anonymity and businesslike manner of pugs, I endeavoured to make it a little chatty.
Which failed horrendously seeing as how a Stockades "run" takes about eight minutes.
Those quotation marks, should you be curious, are saying, in a sort of indignant and probably high pitched voice, oh so it's all just beeline to the important boss nowwadyas eh, well, when I was young..
Voice doesn't have much of a point in an instance that has not yet grasped the concept of loot, though. The only real drop from Stockades* is from a rare spawn.
I realize by now that I've spent half a page saying that there was nothing to say.
Not sure what to make of that.
I'm halfway watching/listening to MLG's saturday thing.
So I figured, let's do another. There has to be something more interesting out there. Something to write about.
Like Gnomeregan.
You just know when that loading screen - which I have not seen before - pops up, that there's gonna be a story. Or multiple ones.
Problem is, catastrophies are good reading, success stories aren't, apparently.
You sick bastards.
No, sadly, I got a tank - 5 copper if you can guess which class - who clearly knew what he was doing in every sense, i.e. taking charge and pointing the way through the entire instance, choosing some funky paths I am pretty sure never existed before he gazed upon them. It may have been a space-time continuum tunneling bear.
The other option being that someone knows anything in this game better than me - even Gnomeregan - is clearly not even half as likely.
Toss in two stable dps, and one unstable dps in a pally who heroically involunteered** to find out how much damage the explosion on the cave collapse event does (answer: enough to kill a 1200hp pally) to be replaced by a warrior of the stable, silent variety. End result is a 30 minute Gnomeregan clear.
There's not a lot to say about any specific happenings in that run, since the druid tank calmly handled every sticky situation admirably. No deaths were had, not even when the warlock peered over the edge in one of the tunnels, rewarding us with a Train of Doom. It was a rather social and nice group with "Nice healing!" and "Nice tanking!" being outnumbered only by polite grats'es on dings. Instead of commenting on minutinae with no relevance, I thought I'd say a few words on the state of healing as a resto shammy at this point. The point, currently, is L25.
First off: I have no AoE heal. For a shaman, specifically, this means I lack my laser heal. Since, while mana cost scales smoothly with level now, - as a step taken to prevent downranking - I pretty much prefer whichever heal of LHW and HW is the recentmost upgraded, rankwise. For me, this means I am sitting around waiting for someone to take 450 damage so a HW doesn't overheal.
The result here, I expect, will be that people sit around 70% and cry "omg heal!". It hasn't happened yet, but it damned well will. Walk it off, soldier, I say!
Of course, it's not that bad. Enter healing stream totem!. I went so far as glyphing it, and I am prioritizing talenting it too. Having a passive 12 hp per tick, 6hps, partywide for a pittance of mana does wonders to patch up the wounds that an actual heal would partially overheal, destroying my mana.
I love the damn thing.
And yes, I generally forget to bring drinks, so mana is a concern for me. I'm sure this makes me a bad healer, but so far I've managed fine by the occasional drink I loot. Today I found two melon juice during the run, and I tell you, I was never happier for an epic than for those two consumables.
Another interesting aspect of relying on Healing Wave, as my most efficient heal at the moment, is that I actually find myself spending a lot of time in combat, out of the five second rule. Spirit is actually helping a damn lot, and as an mp5 caster, it feels very wierd but a little good and funny too. Were this at 80, I would probably be dps'ing if I had a ten second period where no healing was needed.
Instead, I stand around looking doing my best impression of a deer caught in headlights, then killed in the crash, but gently, so that the hobby-taxidermist who ran it over is able to save it, and places it in Gnomeregan, for some reason.
Point is, doing nothing can be damn comfortable. It may be my motivation for pumping that talent to 3/3 as soon as possible.
Four down, still only one death, still no horrible experiences, and at least one downright pleasant run. I'm almost disappointed, but plenty more dungeons to go at any rate!
*Meaning: With a pleasant blue color.
**Volunteered, involuntarily. Basic wordsmithing.
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