Elemental Adventures

Time Off...

2009-06-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hey guys.

I know a number of bloggers have called it quits from the game, and i am not sure if i will be either. i know i just got this blog started, but i did that knowing full well i would be where i am now (South Africa) for the summer working with a mission organization. When i return in August i may pick this back up (along with the game), but it all depends on what life has in store for me next.

if you'd like to learn more about what i am doing, feel free to visit www.tenthousandhomes.org

lazor out!

A Story Told Through Achievements...

2009-05-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well, i had to admit that i DO like and AM CURRENTLY addicted to achievements for this to even be possible (thanks Kam!). but, i have been thinking about what i've been doing this past week and a half and did not know how to tell a rather boring story without making it, well, boring... so, to spice it up with some ridiculousness, here goes...

I FINALLY got some time in Ulduar as of late and thought the guild was progressing quite nicely for our size and commitment level. i mean, a guild that only has about 20 active players (not counting alts) probably will not roll through in one night. But, we seemed to be making very solid progress, on par with many guilds on our server.

Taking down some of the bosses was quite fun, and picking up random achievements along the way was even better!

Unfortunately some guild issues surfaced and gave us some raid scheduling conflicts, but that was ok because i ended up knocking out two meta achievements with my free time. This, indirectly, took me to some battlegrounds i don't often frequent, so i thought why knock out two birds with one stone

Well, needless to say, with my PvP achievement window open, i realized there had been some pretty easy ones i had neglected while leveling and raiding

Well, holiday's are nice and all, but back to raiding, right? NO! say it isn't so. Guild break up... well, technically the guild is still there, but with the interum GM transferring to another server (fail) that apparently has a higher horde population, along with a couple of my real life friends (social fail!), there is not much left of our small guild. needless to say, i had a lot more free time on my hands...
so i decided to make lemonade out of these lemons...

which also led to me doing a little /flex

but after awhile... once you get used to raiding every couple of days, the boredom sets in, so you begin to have to get creative with how to entertain yourself in a game, i.e.

but atleast it's random and funny right? it could be worse, i could be now settling for getting my kicks from

doh...

all in all, i am getting bored with wow fast because of this. i am contemplating joining another guild, but with only three weeks til the wife and i head out for the entire summer, it seems pretty ridiculous for us to join a guild just to be inactive for two months... choices, choices, choices...

we will see how pugging fares me this weekend. if it doesn't lift my spirits, then i may be taking my break a little earlier than expected (fail!).

Ok, I Lied...

2009-05-11T09:35:00.001-07:00

though i basically had decided to leave Noblegarden alone, and thus how i had gathered that Children's Week would also come and go without me giving it a second thought...

This is for two reasons...
1. most of the guild convinced me it would take me 3-4 hours tops.
2. my wife wanted the matron title

with that put out there, hopefully most of you know, "when mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" so, i had the pleasure of escorting my wife around the BG's and other areas so we could get our titles. i have to say, it was not that much of a time sink and it is always fun to quest with the wife.

but yes, sorry i lied... maybe i will have a pretty purple proto drake after all...

OHNOES!!! not the Oculus!

2009-05-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

Why? why didn't i have the foresight to just do it on heroic in the beginning. i have only completed the Oculus one time, on normal. Now, it is the only thing that stands in the way from Eleazor being crowned a Champion of the Frozen Wastes. I cannot convince anyone in my guild to run it with me for the title, even people who need it as well! though, most ran it once back in the hayday of heroics (literally two months ago)and have vowed to never set foot in it again.

i would say, hands down this is the WORST instance in the game. i think i would rather run Uldaman at proper level, multiple times, before i set foot in this one. there are a number of reasons why i could just do without it... most of this comes from the obvious fact that you ride a dragon through most of it.

the problem isn't that simple though. it's not that i just don't like a gimmick every now and then, sure, thanks for variety blizzard, but seriously... we need to take a dragon around to get from one place to the next, and maybe kill a couple of dragons along the way, ok. but, basing an entire boss fight around it? it's not even a compromise like the Malygos fight where it's based on gear/class skill most of the fight, then you work it in.

that gear/class skill, i think, is my biggest gripe AND the reason i can't get anyone to go with me (or if i do, it's a pug that can't master the whole dragon concept as lots of people have face rolled their way through so many heroics they let their gear compensate for their lack of skill). it's one thing to have me on a dragon, but it's another to say that no matter how good or bad my gear is, nor how good or bad i am as a shaman matters to if i can take down the final boss of an instance. i can only assume that blizzard admitted their mistake when they made the Flame Leviathan in Ulduar a gimmick fight, but had vehicles scale with gear, AND worked in an element of non vehicular combat to it when taking out parts of the FL during the fight. they would probably not admit it outright, but i have to say there would be a number of complaints if a guild walked in with lvl 78 blues and took down the boss of what is considered the toughest instance in the game at present.

anyways, two weeks of trying to get Oculus knocked out with no success (even when it's the daily!) has driven me to nearly pull my hair out... but, as with everything else, it'll come, and it'll be glorious. i have enough RL friends that, once we're all actually online at the same time, we'll get it knocked out. but, even so, still does not excuse the ridiculousness of the final fight...

does anyone out there not see it the same way? i know there are instances that are really tough on heroic, like Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom or Azjol-Nerub, but those always seem to me to be more like a challenge to me, not a gimmick.

anyways, that's it for now -- more posting fury soon... keep it real!

Oh yeah, that Tournament Thing...

2009-04-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

So much to do... Continuing to get myself and my alts into 10 man Naxx/Maly/OS/VoA runs, and farming, and watching Ulduar Boss video's at tankspot, dailies for various professions, and, oh yeah, wasn't there some type of tournament going on?!

Well, as a self defined "casually hardcore" player, i have found myself with some choices to make. Do i try to knock out two Meta achievements back to back and fill basically all my available time picking up eggs and escorting war-orphaned children into pvp battlegrounds, or... enjoying the game?

I have made a tough decision to enjoy the game instead. I wanted to attempt the grind, but, after taking a look at the "work" involved, i decided to not "work". I know that some things are a grind, and there are rewards for it, but i thought about the fact that i am going to be gone for two months this summer without WoW, meaning i will miss the fire festival and all the achievements that correspond, so my dreams of purple drakes would have to wait another year anyhow. with that bit of info, it was easy to just find some of the new content that i enjoyed...

which leads me to THE ARGENT TOURNAMENT! i was skeptical at first about how gimmick-ey the whole thing would be. would it be a serious content drop worth checking out, or just another grind for people who need more mounts and pets? well, while i do not debate the fact that people will use it for that, i am actually enjoying the lore aspect and the new quests.

I do think the mounted combat is neat, and am really interested in seeing how they can use it for future patches and content. also, it's nice to feel like you are part of something similar (though not nearly on the scale at the moment) as the events that led to the AQ gates being opened. The LORE is a changin' and i am excited to see where it takes me... until then, i do dailies, which have still earned me some achievements on the way.

also, thanks to Zanderfin's Blog, i have pretty much mastered the basic strategy of jousting and earned myself another achievement...

what can i say? i love beating up on allies, i mean, they have it coming after all! hehe. It's also just kind of fun and different at the same time. So, if you haven't taken the time to explore what the Argent Tournament has to offer, i would suggest giving it a shot. i mean, it sure does break up the monotony of profession dalies or the grind of leveling/gearing an alt!

how are you liking the Tournament so far? what do you think Blizzard has in store for it? that is an awful big building we seem to be gathering lumber and stone for, don't ya think?

BOOYAH!!!

2009-04-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

straight outta Lord of the Rings!!!

That is all...

3.1 Shaman (Mostly Elemental) Changes

2009-04-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

I do not think i have ventured to try to have a line by line break down of my thoughts of a patch yet because Baluki (an elemental shammy) or Kam (over at FlameShock) usually beat me to it and do such a wonderful job that there isn't room for me to comment, but, after this past patch, i feel like i have enough to say to warrant a post, so for all your elemental shamans, here goes some hopefully helpful insight, and some cheap shots to those shamans not smart enough to spec elemental - but all in good fun ;)

(credit to Kam for organizing most of these changes so all i had to do was copy and paste!)

Races: General
- Command (Orc Racial): Applies to shaman pets, and now correctly applies to death knight pets.
Spirit Wolves do get a damage boost... but the real problem is that you are specced enhancement! (j/k)

- Gift of the Naaru (Draenei Racial): The heal has been changed to an
instant-cast heal-over-time.
The only problem bigger than being specced Enhancement, is to be a Draenei; fix those two problems and you will probably be on your way to improving your play as a shaman... aren't i full of myself?

Ok, on to real Feedback...

- Mana Regeneration: The amount of mana regeneration derived from intellect and spirit has been reduced by 40%; however, talents that allow for mana regeneration while in combat have been increased. As a result, in-combat regeneration for classes with those talents will stay the same, while out-of-combat regeneration will be lower.
Now, i do feel that Resto-Shaman's may have a little harder time with the mana regen because of this, i think blizzard has thought it through enough to keep them about where they were -- which is in desperate need of MP5. Elemental Shaman on the other hand, as long as we're criting, we have full mana... If you are an Elemental Shaman and running out of mana in raids, then chances are you are not keeping up water shield or you are missing some very key talents.

- The Shaman’s Fire Elemental and Spirit Wolves, mage’s Water Elemental and Mirror Images, and druid’s Treants have all gained avoidance from area-of-effect damage similar to what warlock and hunter pets already have.
This is probably better for resto and enhancement shammies trying to up the DPS a little. With our spellpower and desire for Totem of Wrath, it is usually either a waste of DPS to have our Fire Elemental out, or it would be easier to just drop a magma totem. Kudos for the change though!

Shaman
- Bloodlust/Heroism: Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes, but Sated and Exhausted now last 10 minutes.
I understand that this was meant to "help" raiders out by making sure BL was available only once per fight, and even though most bosses in Naxx were on a timer, i think they didn't want to have to build in a timer for every boss from here on out, so this was Blizzard's way of hitting BL with the nerf bat while making it sound like a postive thing. all in all, i don't mind, just think there is more to it.

- Earth Elemental Totem: The summoned EarthElemental should now have significantly more health and slightly more armor.
Having a little buddy you can pull out of your pocket to keep you from dying is awesome. the ability to heal him and have him reasonably tank elie mobs only makes soloing as a shaman that much more versatile!

- Fire Elemental Totem: The summoned Fire Elemental should now have moderately more health and mana, and its damage scaling has been increased. In addition, the Fire Elemental’s spells now cost less mana.
This seems to just be a good change for us all over. They might actually be able to keep mana long enough that they warrant a heal every now and then to keep them up, wehre as before once it had blown all it's mana in 10 sec, it was really just floating around taking up space.

- Flametongue Weapon: Bonus damage from spell power now based on weapon speed. Slower weapons will benefit more from spell power.
i still claim that if i was an enhancement shaman i would carry around a 2H axe... oh, the novelty!

- Frostbrand Weapon: Damage increased by approximately 20%.
This does indeed look like a PVP buff, and in general, i have noticed that Blizzard will do most anything when some ability of a class isn't used by any spec, and heck, when is the last time anyone has used FB weapon?

- Mana Spring Totem: This totem has been redesigned. It now provides the same mana benefit as Blessing of Wisdom to the entire party or raid, but is exclusive with that effect.
This is great because you either improve your mana regen solo or in small parties, or you are able to allow fewer pallies in a raid stick to the other blessings

- Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem have been merged into Cleansing Totem. Cleansing Totem pulses every 3 seconds, down from 5.
Thank you... it is nerve racking to sit in an arena and wonder which will suck more, DK diseases or Rogue poison...

- Talents - Elemental

New Talent: Booming Echoes: Reduces the cooldown of your Flame Shock and Frost Shock spells by an additional 1/2 seconds, and increases the direct damage done by your Flame Shock and Frost Shock spells by an additional 10/20%.
I feel that this isn't a mandatory talent, but i don't see what you would skip it for unless you wanted improved shields. but then again, we don't really need more mana regen, so... why not take more direct PvE damage? Frost Shock doesn't help a whole lot as we are mainly just keeping up Flame Shock for Lava Burst, but, i have noticed that when i am moving and i already have Flame Shock up, i make a point to use Frost Shock instead of Earth Shock for a filler spell.

Elemental Mastery redesigned: When activated, your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Lava Burst spell becomes an instant cast spell. In addition, your Fire, Frost and Nature damage spells have a 15% increased critical strike chance for 15 seconds. Elemental Mastery now shares a cooldown with Nature’s Swiftness.
I understand the change again, but still, i am not sure what the problem was. I can live without an instant cast spell (unless i am in PvP). my best guess is that PvPers were pissed they lost their guaranteed instant crit, and PvEers didn't want to give up the crity buff. i know that it doesn't guarantee a crit, but i have been using a macro with this and Lava Burst so it activates and i get an instant Lava Burst crit and all my following LB/CL casts will benefit from the buff.

Elemental Reach: Now also increases the range of your Flame Shock spell by 5/10/15 yards.
Just moves this ability to another talent that you should be using anyways.

Lava Flows: No longer increases the range of your Flame Shock spell, but now increases your casting speed by 10/20/30% when your Flame Shock spell is dispelled for 6 seconds.
This is still a mandatory talent, even though the side effect is a PvP benefit. Well, until they have bosses that realize that if they had decurse they could win, hehe.

Lightning Overload: Reduced to 3 points (7/14/20%), down from 5.
More points to put into Booming Echoes

Storm, Earth and Fire: No longer increases the range of your Earth Shock or Wind Shock spells, but now also causes your Earthbind Totem to have a 33/66/100% chance to root all nearby enemies for 5 seconds when initially cast.
This stinks for those of you who were happy to be able to spell interrupt from a greater distance (mainly in PvP), but i would say that the rooting ability = more crowd control = teh winzorz! so less QQ and more PewPew! in PvE, i have yet to be able to test this on puppy chow in naxx

Thunderstorm can now be cast while stunned.
Up yours rogues...

- Talents - Restoration

Just a word of warning: I have been dual specced to resto for 1 whole week now, so be gentle...

Ancestral Awakening: This talent now accounts for your ineffective healing, rather than effective.
This will make this finally a viable thing to use. Before when i tried this out, i wondered why i wasted the points.

Ancestral Healing and Healing Grace have swapped places in the Restoration talent tree.
Completely done to help out shaman's in arena/PvP

Cleanse Spirit now has a new icon.
i guess...

Mana Tide Totem: This spell no longer costs mana.
i actually thought they would make a glyph to do this, similar to Paladin's Glyph of the Wise, but even better!

Restorative Totems: Reduced to 3 points, down from 5. Increases the effect of your Mana Spring Totem by 7/12/20%, and increases the amount healed by your Healing Stream Totem by 15/30/45%.
Less points for the same or greater effect has always been a good thing. Healing stream can always be handy in fights like Sapphiron where small amounts of samage are taken over the course of a fight

Riptide: This spell has a new icon.
and it looks stupid... unless you are a fan of that goo from Ghostbuster's II

Tidal Force: Now has a new spell effect.
and i think it may change again

Items - Glyphs - Shaman
Glyph of Earth Shield: Increases the amount healed by your Earth Shield by 20%.
I will be using this on my resto build -- i can't think of a reason not to

Glyph of Feral Spirit: Your spirit wolves gain an additional 30% of your attack power.
enhancement? really...?

Glyph of Hex: Increases the damage your Hex target can take before the Hex effect is removed by 20%.
if i PvPed more maybe i would remember where this way on my bar... as it stands, i almost forgot i was excited about getting hex at one point in my shaman life. even if i did use hex... ever... then this strikes me as not worth it, even in PvP

Glyph of Riptide: Increases the duration of Riptide by 6 seconds.
I have read mixed reviews on this one. It sounds like a good idea, but i have yet to see one resto shaman with this equipped over other glyphs available

Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem: Your Stoneclaw Totem also places a damage absorb shield on you, equal to 4 times the strength of the shield it places on your totems.
seems nearly mandatory for PvP

Glyph of Thunder: Reduces the cooldown on Thunderstorm by 7 seconds.
i have not given PvP much time due to elemental's being pretty worthless outside of 5 mans, especially after Thunderstorm was a flop (except when defending the lumbermill in AB or guarding the flag in EoE - woooohooo!), but now with being able to be used while stunned and a slower cooldown, i might just give it a go. a must for an elemental PvPer

Glyph of Totem of Wrath: When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem's bonus spell power for 5 minutes.
I saw this and have given it serious consideration. Right now we have two raiding elemental shamans in the guild and i hardly ever have to drop ToW, but this would give me a reason to. i am still not convinced that it would be better than Glyph of Lightning Bolt, but i think i might try it in the next week or two (or just go to elitist jerks and see what the numbers come out to!).

Cleanse Spirit is now properly in the Nature spell school.
i need less things in the nature school... this sucks

Tremor Totem: Now correctly pulses every 3 seconds, up from 1 second.
/sigh. oh well...

- Racials
Blood Fury: The tooltip on the attack power version of this ability will now tell how much attack power it grants to the orc.
Ever since Blood Fury has not given a healing reduction debuff, i have popped this like candy.

Anyways, i hope this has been remotely helpful -- feel free to leave me comments or email me with any questions!

Ulduar (Utter) Dissapointment...

2009-04-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well, the good news and bad news... good news is that the guild has downed the first two bosses in Ulduar and progress on the third seems to be underway. bad news is, i'm not there!

WARNING: the following may contain much QQ

It seems the guild officers had a meeting right before raid time and decided that (conveniently enough) the officers should go on behalf of the guild. Now, what would i have a problem with that for? i mean, in MOST guilds i have been in, officers are usually the class leaders who are the more hardcore player/raider types anyhow. in our guild, however, since there is very little structure (i guess there is always good and bad to being a fairly casual guild) the officers, from what can be surmised, are basically whoever is logged on the most. it should be noted that in most cases hours logged /= best at class.

I guess the biggest gripe is communication. Myself and a number (~4-5) other non-invitees had been on before the raid time, gathering pots, cleaning up UI's, and reading up on strats, awaiting invites -- assuming, as had been talked about, "best geared goes." Unfortunately, at 10min til raid invites we saw a guild message informing anyone who did not have an invite on their in game calender that Ulduar could only hold 10 people and some "selections" had to be made. For weeks before, though not written in stone, the talk was that Ulduar would be much harder than our Naxx runs, so if you did not have gear/skill maxed and/or were not pushing your dps/heals then you would not be there. well, obviously i wouldn't be upset if our officers led the way in that...

unfortunately, about half of the officer/class leader types aren't the best of their class in guild, due to spending too much time on alts, or being bored with their main, or just not putting in the outside research to hone their spell/skill rotations. but, when asked, the GM simply said "sorry, need someone with 'x, y, z' buffs" (cooincidentally taking all officers). i guess they didn't get blizzard's memo about bringing the player not the class... sad.

the other problem is guild size. not enough to run two 10 mans, or 25 man, so, gotta sit, wait it out. other problem is that they were unwilling to go back the next night with a few raid member changes for people who couldn't be there both friday and sat. another night nearly wasted... i say nearly because i was able to get in on the new VoA boss, and on my first Maly kill -- so kudos to that!

however, the officers still seem to have it their mind they are doing the rest of us a favor so we don't have to pay the repair bills of learning new content. well, most of the fun is first kills and working out strats with the creme of the crop in a guild. if my goal in game was loot, then sure, take the pain and get me in their when it's on farm -- but i miss the rush of a first kill.

i am done QQ'ing... for now.

even with all of this, i know the simple answer would be "find another guild". but, i do like a majority of the people in this guild, and i do have all of my RL friends in it, and we all enjoy it a lot. i would say this has been the first real thing that has caused any ripples in my relationship with the guild at all. so, with that said, i am hoping to talk to the GM to have some things cleared up and learned from so that, what i am sure they will see as a "misunderstanding" will not get so many people up in arms in the future.

PS. I have been doing a refer-a-friend with one of my buddies from the army now that he's back in the states. this has actually been a good time to work on that since i know i am not missing anything that i COULD be going to, to level with him. i will soon have two more level 60's (a priest and pally) to show for it. then, getting them to northrend will be easy... i love having options!

THE SECRETS OF ULDUAR...

2009-04-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

are still secret...

After two days of dual spec wonder, the guild still has not set foot into Ulduar. Now, i know our intention was to give it a couple days before we gave it a decent shot, but i know we have been itching to atleast romp around and see what is up. I am sure that it is happening on many servers, but ours seems to be extra terrible. I am hearing that some guilds are making progression already into Ulduar, but we could not even run VoA without the instance freezing. For all intents and purposes, the instances have been considered down or unplayable since launch. A few brave souls have tried to test out heroics, only to get frozen in the instance for hours. This was especially terrible considering i know a number of us were really hoping to try out our new dual specs and talents/abilities in Naxx before we jumped into Ulduar.

That aside, i have thoroughly enjoyed this patch. it was tedious to work through all my specs on all my characters, especially my alts! but, it is done now, and they are all re-glyphed and ready to roll. All my buttons have been moved around for optimization and my specs seem to be swapping back and forth with ease. Also, i have had the chance to peek into the argent tournament and it seems like it will soon consume hours of my attention, so i am pleased with that as well. anyways, more to come with more time in game...

good luck to those who are plowing ahead through Ulduar, laughing in the face of server crashes! also, hurry up and post some of those strats so we can do some research :)

3.1 Has Arrived!!!

2009-04-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

or so i hear... i am at work... obviously WORKING hard... so hard that i post.

I am excited about a few changes in specs, but for the most part the Shamans were left alone, barring the few tweaks. the big news will be "do i spend 1000g to dual spec?" i can't decide... do i want to advertise that i could heal when i don't really want to? i guess i should as our guild is lite on healers, but eh... it's just not that fun. oh well, i may have to take one for the team.

I guess it's not such a hard decision on my DK. i mean, i know the general consensus is "throw some +def gear on and now i'm a tank", but if you are TRULY a tanking DK, you know that's not true. it will be nice to have a little separation between my two sets of gear, as i know i can really ramp up my DPS with a slightly altered spec. heck, i might even try PVP again...

anyways, good luck to all of you logging in this afternoon, let's all pray for low crashes. if nothing else, i have been helping a friend level and can't imagine the old world will feel too much pain from this, so, here's to hoping!

and in the meantime, please enjoy the latest Patch video from Blizzard... most exciting!

Mixing it up...

2009-04-08T05:44:00.000-07:00

So, i rededicated myself to interesting content about a month ago, then got so caught up in my layout that i forgot to post until yesterday. i am still working on colors and layout ideas, as this is my first REAL blog. i am also going to work on making me a new banner for the page that will be many times more epic... though, high atop the storm peaks being inspired by the natural lightning, is, for an elemental shaman, pretty BA...

eh, so let me know what you think... i will be listening. BOOYAKASHA!!!

Where Do I Begin...?

2009-04-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

So, i have leveled a number of characters to various levels and have noticed that i tend to do certain things every time. In this installment, i want to share some basic things you can do to prepare yourself to level!

Class Research
Seriously! But not THAT serious. There are numerous class guides out there that can give you an idea of what roles and abilities your class will have, and it is good to know them instead of finding out the hard way. you don't have to be a contributing memeber of www.elitistjerks.com, but it wouldn't hurt to go to www.wowwiki.com and give your class basics a once over...

Zone Research
Again, this isn't a "memorize every quest turn in" type of research, but, simple planning can give you good direction when planning to level. knowing that the Barrens covers a certain level of quests will let you know when it's good to head there, and how many zones you need to visit before you get there. it can also be frustrating to get to level 20 and realize you can pick from 3 zones and have quests in all of them... now THAT is a lot of leg work!

BAGS
need i say more? much like the "bag of holding" from Dungeons and Dragons fame, having bad space will nearly ALWAYS benefit you more than spending money on anything else first. The more space you have, the more greys and junk you haul back to the vendors to sell = the more cash you have to spend on your shiney new sword!!! of course, this is always best if you have a higher level alt or friend on the server to send you some -- OR, i have even found if you just spam trade chat with "anyone getting rid of low level bags?" may wind you up with some. it never hurts to ask...

Flight Points
I think it might be foolish for someone to try to get every flight point in azeroth when they are level 1, but, in a more realistic fashion, around level 10, taking the time to make the trek to all the major cities and the flight points on the way will reward you many times over with the ability to quickly get between quest turn in's and aucion housing and banks!

Weapon Training
Speaking of major cities, when you get there, if you can afford it, buy EVERY weapon skill you can train in -- even if you don't think you'll use it. it sucks to be wandering around the souther barrens and getting a nice green 2H sword that you have to go to UC to train to use... ouch!

Equipment/money Management
Now ok, so you're chest piece is getting a little old, but just because all of the stats for old world gear have spirit on them for some reason, doesn't mean that it's a good idea to spend 6g on that lvl 12 chest piece. If you think about it, you will probably just out level it in a few days anyways and be in the same place... with less gold. always keep a good ratio in the back of your head for how much you pay for something compared how long you plan on being in the level range of that item. an epic hammer may be at an incredibly low price of 250g on the AH, but how long do you plan on keeping your paladin around level 40 to use it? two weeks...? eh... maybe not worth it -- but that green mace with 2 less stamina and strength for 3g might be a bargain!!!

Be Patient
for serious... most classes don't get very interesting until level 20 or so, ESPECIALLY the healing classes. so just because you only have 2 attack options for awhile, doesn't mean you won't love the class once you get a couple new moves. try to remember why you rolled the class in the first place and consider if the boredom of low levels is worth it. also, some classes get borish around their 30's, but pick back up around 50 with new talents and abilities. again, consider why you rolled the class in the first place... if it still doesn't stack up, hey, you can always reroll!!!

Find Friends/Guilds
there are few things that make leveling more fun than doing it with people that you can relate to. it's nice to occassionaly have your lvl 80 friend run your through SFK for phat lootz, but it's also nice to have a friend who was a lowbie like you always leveling with you. old instances can be very fun if you have a good party, so, find a few people around your level, or even better a guild with a wide level range. add these people to your friends list and see if you can help them or they want to party to go take out some Azerothian instance!

but seriously, have fun... i love my shaman, but it's always nice to take a break from end game to enjoy the old world and other classes. make it challenging, quest in new places, do different instances, i mean, hey, the game has a lot to offer!!!

Wife Aggro?

2009-03-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

So, i hear a lot of talk in general channels and in guild vent channels about how "terrible" it is to have your wife/girlfriend on your case about playing wow. i guess i am lucky to not really understand this. my wife also plays warcraft, and for this i am grateful. but, i will say, i think the reason i am grateful is why i don't have the same complaints as most...

typical situation is this:
i want to play wow. my wife hates it. so i have to trick or earn video game time from the evil killjoy.

my situation:
i love my wife more than the game. she loves me and is interested in the things i am. she was hesitant to play, but gave it a shot. she enjoys playing, but not near as much as i do. i realize that sometimes i have more important things to do than play a video game.

my wife is great about it -- though sometimes she knows i get caught up in it, and that is where she comes in. and conversely, i want her to enjoy the things in the game i do, but it's not the end of the world if she doesn't power level to 80. she plays casually, and spends lots of time leatherworking and fishing. i wouldn't want her to tell me how to spend my time playing, so why should i tell her? it's about enjoying something right?

i have thought about making a list of do's and don'ts for your significant other. but if i did, they would all probably work around this golden rule"
"The more fun your wife has playing WoW, the more she will make your time playing WoW enjoyable"

this all comes from making sure that she knows that she is the number one priority in your life... RL or WoW life. it seems simple, but we're all a little selfish at heart...

but these are just my thoughts, and i would love to hear some of your spouse wow stories!

Emblem of Who Cares'ism?

2009-03-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

I never got into doing heroics in TBC. By the time i picked up the expansion and leveled to 70, sunwell was on it's way and i had enough distractions to keep me more than occupied. but as WotLK dropped, i was in the thick of things, leveling, trying all sorts of content, and generally doing anything i could find enough people to go do. so, heroics, naturally, drew me in with the upgraded loot, challenge, and the ability to get Emblems of Heroism.

i always watched as my friends or raiding guild members walked around in all their "phat badge lootz" from TBC and wondered if i would EVER have the ability to earn such amazing things. When i learned that i could start obtaining them in heroics in WotLK, i got very excited. for a bit...

i noticed the selection was pretty thin. But, that didn't matter, because they were upgrades, and when i hit 80, i was gonna need them. well, it honestly did not take too much raiding or even heroics themselves to out live the usefulness of most of the loot. i have no presumptions that my gear is the best inthe game, but what i am saying is that after 5-6 heroics and maybe even a jaunt into 10 man Naxx, suddenly, the badge loot doesn't really look so great. this explained why i saw so many lowbie's running around with Bloodied Arcanite Reaper. before i couldn't understand how people could use their precious badges on something that certainly was neat -- but i mean, COME ON!!!

now i sit in my gear, probably better than a part time gamer's gear, and wonder what to do with all these extra badges. i want to hold out hope that they will release more badge loot into the game, just for variety. but i guess if not, then i might be headed towards getting my PVP Set. heck, who knows... with about 6 more badges, maybe Endur, my little pally could be weilding a very large AXE next time you see him running around the Thousand Needles...

hmm...

Guilty Much?

2009-03-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

So, our guild has successfully taken down 25 man Naxx twice now -- which is surprising because half of the guild is very well geared, and the other half, well, is not. we believe this is because we really jumped the gun into 25 man Naxx without taking the time to really learn and farm 10 man Naxx. regardless, due to circumstance, it seems that a number of our members will be gone for the next couple of weeks, so, with the numbers for 25 man out -- we will be focusing on getting our members geared up in 10 man Naxx runs.

on to the bad news; i am pretty well geared. as an elemental shaman, i only have to split the drops with only one other member in the guild (expect for neck, back, rings, trinkets, etc.), so i am pretty well geared. i am pushing some pretty high DPS in relation to the rest of the guild, and there is really no reason for me to go on 10 man Naxx runs because i would take a spot from someone who needed the upgrades more!

Which brings us to the topic. Last night, i was going along with a 10 man to help it out, but volunteered to drop due to having a couple other players on who really needed some upgrades. i was happy to do this as i know the better gear the guild has, the easier a time we all have, and the faster we can push through 25 man. the guild leader did tell me that if there was a boss i needed to let him know and he'd get me back in. i, almost as a joke, told him that if they got to Kel, then i'd like a crack at him (not knowing how far the 10 man would get). so, to who's surprise was it when i got a tell on my pally alt when they were there.

Not to be ungrateful, i swapped over, took out Kel, and my T7 helm token drops, and i am the only one from the classes it covers, who could really use it. so, guilty much? i am glad to have my new BADACE looking helm (though it was a semi-lateral gear move compared to the helm i was using) though it's nice to finally have a set bonus. but imagine my feelings, i skip out on nearly an entire clear, come in for one boss, and boom, i get a drop! luckily my guild is full of cool people who were just happy that someone could use it.

you know, playing with people who don't always think of themselves first (though i am guilty of this at times) makes everything more fun...

Dissapointment in me

2009-03-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

Well, i have realized something about blogging... it is hard!

i had a concept that i would make epic posts that people would flock to, but alas, it is hard to make a weekly epic post (that is any good) i believe, unless you are a professional blogger (hehe) or a real writer. this is where people who are avid bloggers, but neither of the previous, get mad - ONOES!

so, i am going to take a different approach. shorter, more quick hit blogs. this is due to my new believe that quantity does not equal quality! i hope you agree, and thus, will enjoy this much more.

regardless, i will point you who are curious as to shaman changes in the upcoming 3.1 patch to another blog that has made some good points on shaman in general (though mostly healing)!

Shields Up!

more to come!

Alt-aholics

2009-02-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

What can i say? i love to have options... but don't get me wrong, i LOVE my shaman. i can say that with pride now that i have leveled (to some extent) every class in the game.

i mentioned in a previous post that shaman wasn't even my first love... it was priest. but then being the worst equipped to get money by oneself landed me a rogue. eager to expand my knowledge of other classes i jumped from warrior to pally to mage to shaman. THIS is when warcraft had me for good... no matter my mood, i had options.

what is my current love affair? well, i must say, though they are annoying, my tauren death knight, TabusBlackus, makes me giddy. i think it mostly had to do with my mindset that i am going to tank with him no matter what. i have had much aggravation when trying to insist that the DK class can tank. mostly scoffs, or just flat out laughs in my face -- but i have done it at low levels, and with certain talents, and gear of course, i don't see why it can't be done in 10+ dungeons. anyways, i like a challenge.

regardless, eleazor has taken a back burner this week with me getting basically where i want to be with him. i downloaded recount and it told me that i was able to push around 3000dps on a target dummy. i thought this good enough for now. i eagerly await The Love Is In The Air festival, though much like Flame Shock pointed out here, it's not gonna be much fun. we'll see what we can get done and go from there. more on that soon...

for now, i sit here, downloading the new mini-patch, getting ready to go to mmo-champion to see when the latest REAL patch will hit. we shall see... no achievement this week. i think i am going to start writing more often. i hate being late with news, and i'd like to post as it happens...

see you in game,
for the horde!

Respect Your Elders!

2009-01-29T08:49:00.001-08:00

Now THAT'S a lotta Rep!

Man, talk about hard work...

when i saw how few achievements there were for the Lunar Festival, i was like "sweet -- surely i will have this title by the end of the weekend!" no such luck... and most of you probably know why.

Talking to all the elders in the world is serious business. i would say they made the Northrend ones VERY accessible to anyone who can fly -- especially epic flying, but as always, trekking through the old world is a hassle unlike none other! i know i am not going to be flying in the old world anytime soon, but a shaman can dream can't he? after basically using an unusually large chunk of free time on both saturday and sunday, i was able to get nearly every Lunar festival achievement completed, minus the Elders of the Dungeons. but with this big step out of the way, i have nearly two weeks to run these dungeons, hopefully on heroic, to get badges, loots, AND elders. easy enough, eh? atleast there aren't any in outland, right?

for those of you who haven't discovered it yet, and are wondering just how to track down all those pesky elders -- here is a link that will be VERY useful!

Elder Locations

FRUSTRATION OF THE WEEK...
another good wow week, except for all the traveling. but even the traveling wasn't that frustrating as i was able to get a lot of my exploration done. so, if i had to choose, i would go with the fact that for two weeks now i haven't gotten my green proto-drake from my oracle egg. even though i know it's a small chance, and i have gotten nice pets -- it's still the feeling of opening a present christmas morning and having something cool, but not the only thing that you had asked for. not ungrateful, just getting my hopes up for something different.

and besides, we all can't be as lucky as Baluki!!!

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK...
story time... /snooze
so, i decided that the best time to run into an alliance city (for my Elders of the Alliance), especially one(s) that people still actually go to, on a server where we are outnumbered so badly to begin with, would be early in the morning, when most of the kids (i mean, night elf rogues) are in school... so, a couple hours after the servers reset for the day, i hopped on and made my way for Stormwind.

my general plan was to go through Westfall, to the harbor in Stormwind, and easily to the park. maybe a couple of guards, but it would be quick enough i could get it, even with a few alliance about. i would probably die after that, but then i could strategically resurrect and make my way to the tram to get to Ironforge. i die a couple times on the whole, but, good plan i thinks...

well, as i am double checking my map to make sure i know where i am going, two lvl 80 DK's come a running by. they stop, look me over, and after realizing we're all on the same mission, i get an invite. i tell them my plan and they are cool... so we make our way EASILY to the park in stormwind, and after dispatching a few guards, and drawing a small crowd, make out way to the tram.

unfettered and unmolested (to any real degree) we arrive in Ironforge. here is where i was most pleased... i had that rush of knowing i could be attacked at any moment, making me fidgety in my chair (why i didn't roll on a pvp server, i don't know...). but we headed out, this confirming the fact that my DK counterparts may have never experimented with alliance, as they had no clue which way to the mystic ward. Ironforge has smaller doorways though, so getting to the right place proved slightly more annoying, but still, arriving at the elder easily. there seemed to be a number of NPCs about where we needed to be so we completed the quest amongst fighting through. about then is when a couple lvl 80 alliance decided that they were gonna knock out a couple horde fairly quickly while some NPCs beat on them... unfortunately, no one showed alliance how to kill the guy with heal buttons first...

i admit, the two DKs were well geared and laid it down hard and fast, and i really only had to heal towards the end. and honestly, after realizing we really didn't have anywhere else to run (reasonably), we stood our ground for what we thought would be a quick hurrah. unfortunately for the alliance, we lasted much longer... i counted killing one mage 4 times, and a pally twice, before i ran out of mana to back up my new compatriots. all in all, i think we got away with around 20 kills before we were done in by NPCs and respawning (pissed) alliance...

needless to say... a suicide run that turned into a lesson for a few foolish alliance, AND getting an achievement, a welcome change of circumstance.

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK...
it would only be fitting...

Patch Test Results

2009-01-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

I promised an update from my test runs on the patch... i hope that you find this helpful, and remember that i, in no way, have actually crunched the numbers -- but can only go on what i have seen and contributed to groups and raids.

overall, the shaman changes seemed to me to be non-impressive at first. i respecced and was like "that's all?". i immediately went out and expected to be critting mobs for some obsurd amount of damage that makes me spin in my chair... not so much. but...

i noticed that once i got into groups that suddenly, i was laying it down. damage meters, in my opinion, are not the things to live or die by, but, they can be helpful to guage yourself on how you are doing and ways to improve. in normal raids, such as Vault of Archavon, Obsidian Sanctum, or Naxx, i always seemed to be around the middle of the pack, no matter how i buffed, or laid into some bosses. since the patch, i have been first on every meter that i have had -- usually by a good amount. i also don't say this to brag, though i am pretty pleased, but it shows me that those small tweaks have turned into a GREAT amount of SUSTAINED dps increase. i contribute this to a number of things... things that i want to go over now!

1. Shamanism - probably the most obvious, and the one that needs the least explination. But, anytime you give me a boost to my two most used attacks, even a small amount, it adds up in fights over abotu 10 sec

2. Elemental Mastery - Boohoo! i can't have an instant crit... sucks for pvp. but you know what, it is awesome for PvE. i am sure there are a few of you who could show me how this is the best thing in the world for PvP somehow, but, i don't see it. with this, i get 30 seconds of 20% crit on top of my normal ~25% (~30%+ for lightning bolt). i would be happy with that alone, BUT WAIT, that's not all... this reduces mana cost AND basically guarantees that the majority of any outting will have you buffed with Elemental Focus! mana conservation + crits = awesome!

3. Elemental Oath - The way that this was tweaked to give additional spell power when Elemental Focus is active basically makes it almost a consistent spell power bonus -- thank you!

4. Fire Totems - a BIG surprise here. the boost in damage AND the lack of threat basically makes this ezmode AoE. i know, i know, it uses the same totem as Totem of Wraith, BUT, i say this to you -- when there are 3+ enemies in a group, you will lose the spell power from Wraith, but you are getting constant ticks on all enemies, laying down some very respectable AoE.

Honorable Mentions: 3 point Unrelenting Storm, Elemental Warding

For those of you interested, my current spec can be seen HERE

IN THE GUILD...
So, a new guild and... i guess that it has been a good thing. there are basically tons of people on all the time who want to run heroic instances -- this is good due to my need to run heroic instances. got to see obsidian sanctum for the first time -- and smack it in the mouth... awesome.

IN THE GAME...
After much outcry due to the patch junking everyone up for a couple days, Blizzard seems to have gotten back on track (like they do) and fixed what they needed to with minimal down time. best part was, when they froze wintergrasp, horde controlled it - haha! seems like on our 3 to 1 outnumbered server, horde finally got a break!

also, the Lunar festival just started, but i haven't had a chance to really get into it yet -- so more on that next week!

FRUSTRATION OF THE WEEK...
it was a pretty friggin good week of WoW... i would say the worst part was trying to log back on a hundred times during the wintergrasp crashes. i mean, can't there be some type of exploit that lets me farm WG marks without kicking me off after every battle?! c'mon!

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK...
saturday was a good day... i ran 4 heroics on saturday. which, after a week where i barely stepped foot into a dungeon, took my total for the week to 6 heroics in a week! i am sure this pales to some of the gamers our there, but, for me... this was truly an "epic" week!

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK...
"I AM MIGHTY!!!" -The Tick

Critter Jitters

2009-01-28T08:57:00.001-08:00

So, i have discovered Critter Bites and now i am as popular as i want to be at any given time. this roughly translates to anytime i feel lonely, or can't get a group -- i create my own minions, through the cunning use of food. who knew?!

what this really means is that i have been stupid bored with no patch and no guild progress. i was able to bore myself into completing a number of random achievements in the place of any real game progress. i will say that, even doing pathetic damage, i have enjoyed playing my shaman more than my lvl 73 death knight for the moment. i am guessing it is because i just can't bring myself to redo all those northrend quests quite yet... and...

i learned i can make SERIOUS BANK farming herbs... i knew this was possible, but i DIDN'T realize how much i liked money until i actually tested this out. from about an hour farming, i was able to bring in about 600-700G, not bad. though i am sure there are those of you out there who would put that to shame. all i can say to that is , gg.

IN THE GUILD...
i was guildless for a day as real life friends decided they wanted to play elsewhere... once i am acclimated to the new guild, there will be more news of the guilded variety

IN THE GAME...
FINALLY... patch 3.0.8 has landed, and boy did it screw some stuff up. not shaman stuff, mind you. i would say that the minor impact that the major changes to the class have given us that extra little bump to make us competitive with other DPS classes. with one whole day under my belt, it looks like this might have been the answer we have been looking for...

as for everyone else... i am sorry that wintergrasp and arenas are down. good news is, that if you were on yesterday when the servers came up, then you were able to basically farm WG marks and honor non-stop. it suddenly made running the vault secondary. i'll take the good with the bad. 10,000 honor in about 2 hours of non AV, AB, or Warsong is OK with me!

FRUSTRATION OF THE WEEK...
i don't think i ran a single heroic... WTF?

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK...
i know it's the easy way out -- but i was like a kid on Christmas morning when i found out that the patch had dropped. the very concept of making my pew pew lightning bolts stronger just about made me tear up

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK...
OMG i bakes!

Achievement Fever

2009-01-28T05:19:00.000-08:00

So, in thinking what i wanted to include in this space, i realized that nothing promotes consistent readership like on going themes. and i am not above gimmics to get people to come here and see what i think is important in a video game. with that in mind, i have decided that my first "shameless tidbit of interesting gimmic" that i will lure you into my world with will be "The Achievement of the Week". this will more than likely be something silly that i do, or, more than likely, something that i finally achieved, though many of you already got it on the day of launch. enjoy... at the end

in the meantime, i would like to make note of a few newsworthy items...

IN THE GUILD
i was fortunate enough to tag along with a second run at Naxx. the first night i missed a trample through the arachnid quarter, and a good start to the plague quarter. last night, i was able to help work our way through the military quarter, and get our toes wet in the construct quarter. the big news is after many frustrating attempts last week, we couldn't be deterred, and finally were able to take down Heigan the Unclean. anyways...

IN THE GAME
as an elemental shaman, i cannot wait for the newest 3.0.8 patch. the news of a talent restructure and some abilties will actually (hopefully) help us as elemental shamans, feel like we are doing some actual damage while casting lightnight bolt, waiting for our lava burst cooldown.
if you are not aware, as i am late on posting this, you can see the full patch notes here.

FRUSTRATION OF THE WEEK
i like wintergrasp, but i hate having to fly AROUND it to get to sholazar basin... come on...

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
i was able to lead a small contingent of guild members on a run to onyxia and then to ZG. as an old school player -- it was nice to revisit these, and realize how some of my guildies who have picked up the game since BC, just could never know the frustrations of it. but that's not a bad thing!

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK
i am such a tough guy...
in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "I hope you leave enough room for my fist... because I'm going to ram it into your stomach!"

credibility...

2009-01-27T06:35:00.000-08:00

i'm not here to convince you of anything...

i have enjoyed world of warcraft (perhaps too much) since a month after launch. i started, as many people did who had never played an MMO before, rolling alliance, leveling up, and becoming insanely addicted.

as time went on, RL changed and playtime did as well. i went from being an epic heals priest, to rethinking my whole approach to the game, giving up alliance, re-rolling horde, and becoming casually hardcore. i feel i am probably not the only one...

at the time i re-rolled, shamans were still a horde only class. i immediately jumped at the chance to play something this unique and try to "master" it in my own casual way. the versatility and uniqueness of the class, coupled with the fact that it seemed i could actually switch between any position on the battlefield i wanted, made this the most fun class i had played. on top of this, i would say that in one chatacter i was able to replace (to different degrees) my priest, rogue, mage, and warrior i had on alliance.

goodbye to the past, hello to the future.

that was still a long time ago -- now i have multiple real life friends who have joined me on my nerd-core adventures and i still put way too much time into the game. i have a zillion alts like i did before, if for nothing else but curiousity about other classes.

i think i am pretty good at this game, breaking down the numbers, filling a role, helping others, spamming lightning bolt, etc... but i know i am not the end all to shamanism. i just have some crazy ideas, and some crazy adventures -- and i am guessing that if you're reading this, then the things that make me geek out probably make you feel the same way.

Elemental Frustrations

2009-01-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

Bitter from seeing so many enhancement shamans, and jaded from being asked to heal based on the fact that i don't dual wield...

This is the result...

My adventures as, Eleazor, an Elemental Orc Shaman!