Des's Tech Support: Session 1 - Lockups, Freezes, and Crashes

Last night, my guild took on RAGNAROS!!!

I say my guild took them on because for the life of me I could NOT engage that fight without WoW freezing up and having to be force closed.  I think out of all of the attempts we made at him last night I was unfrozen for...3 of them?  Nothing will drive a raider closer to the brink of absolute insanity like not being able to stay connected and help their team try to kill stuff.

I'm not 100% sure what the issue was, but I have a few ideas...and because I know I'm not the only player that experiences this type of nonsense I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to try and write a helpful post on how to fix this problem.  Well, I mean...HOPEFULLY fix this problem.

The first potential cause of game lockups and freezing could be a corrupted game or mod file.  It's actually pretty easy to see if this is the cause.  Here's what you do...


Right click on your launcher icon and select "Open File Location" in the drop down menu.  This should open the folder where WoW is installed on your machine.  Blizzard's advice is to DELETE your Cache, WTF, and Interface folders...


My advice would be to rename them and possibly move them to a new location temporarily, instead of deleting them.  A lot of your in-game preferences are saved in these folders along with your addon settings.  If you delete the folders completely, you'll lose all of that information. 


Another reason you might want to rename and move them is that I've heard that occasionally the game will refuse to function completely without the files present.  This shouldn't happen, but apparently it does.  If you've totally deleted the files, it could make recovering your game that much more difficult.

You can also manually locate your WoW folder through your start menu, but the exact location will depend on if you've taken Blizz's advice and installed in your Public>Games folder or if you've put it elsewhere.   I usually go the Start Menu-My Computer-Public-Games-WoW route, but that might not necessarily work for everyone.  Oh, and if you have a MAC I can't help you.  No one can.  XD  Just kidding.  Blizz has MAC-specific instructions on their technical support site as well.

If you run into problems doing it that way, which can sometimes happen, Blizzard has additional instructions on their website that can help you locate the folders.  You can email me at mydruidrocks@aol.com and I can send along instructions on how to do this as well. 


Now, Blizzard tech support would tell you to run the Repair Tool at this point.  I wouldn't do it just yet because it resets EVERYTHING and usually removing the Cache, WTF, and Interface folders will do the trick.


But...you can run the repair tool at this point if you want.  It probably won't hurt anything.  You'll just have to reset your visual preferences once you're logged back in.  Not a big deal really. 


The next thing you want to do is launch WoW without any addons installed to see if the crash-happiness continues.  If not, I'd recommend re-installing your addons one by one.  I know it sounds really tedious, but it's better to do it that way.  

Let's say you use 10 addons and you have no problems running the game with none of them installed.  If you just plop all 10 of them back into the game and fire it up and the issue returns, you'll have no idea which addon is causing the problem.  If you install them one at a time, you'll have a better idea which addon might be causing it and you can start to troubleshoot from there. 

 If those steps fixed your crashing or freezing up problem, then congratulations!  If not...you might need to try a few other things.  Here are the next steps as recommended by Blizzard:

• Update your sound and video drivers.  You should be able to do this for free and fairly easily.

• Close all of your background applications.  Running iTunes so you can crank phat tunes while you're raiding?  Yeah, that could be causing you some issues.  You can use "selective startup" to decide which programs will be launched when you start up your computer (which can actually make the thing boot a lot quicker), but this requires a restart.  If you're crashing during a raid...like some druid we all know...you can CTRL+ALT+DEL and hit your task manager to shut some background programs.

• A complete reinstall might be required!!! OH NOES!  This is about the last thing any of us want to deal with, seriously, but sometimes a fresh install will fix a crash/freeze issue.  Once you've completely uninstalled the game and all folders associated with it (you may need to delete some of the folders manually), then you should probably run a ScanDisk and Disk Defrag.  Ugh, I know...they take forever and a day, but hey...if it fixes the issue...it's worth it.  Once you've run the ScanDisk and Defrag you can go ahead and reinstall the WoW client and see if things are working better.

• There are other things you might have to do like updating MB chipset drivers, killing power management, run a system file checker, update your OS if there are updates available for it...or your computer may be over heating or having other issues.  

• If you've updated everything you possibly can and are still having problems, you should consider taking your computer to be serviced and checked by a pro....or even consider splurging on a new machine if yours is a little older.

 Hopefully that helps any of you that are currently going through the same freezing up, game crashing hell that I'm going through.  If you need additional information, feel free to email me and I'll try not to tell you to GDIAF.  Kidding...kidding...


I'm just hoping that the "easy fixes" work so that I can actually enjoy raiding without wanting to put my computer through a wall.  I'll write about how horribly frustrating it was in a later post if I get a chance.  For now, I am off to enjoy the RL thing for awhile! 

A DPS Talks About the Firelands Nerf

Hello, boys and girls. This is Arador, failmage extraordinaire, giving you a DPS-eye view of the Firelands nerf that hit yesterday. Truth be told, this makes it more of my level of raiding: Easy enough that I don’t fuck everything up. However, I’ll admit that it was too easy and even somewhat boring at times. Now remember, this is all from the standpoint of a DPS. With that said, let’s go through a quick re-cap of our guild’s FL run last night, shall we?

Trash 1: I’d love to say that the 25% nerf on almost everything made trash easy as hell… We wiped on the trash for Shannox because a certain warrior was being a tad impatient.

Shannox: I didn’t see much of a difference in this fight, to be honest. Rageface -> Riplimb -> Shannox, same as always.

Trash 2: Now, this bunch on the way to Beth’Tilac felt much easier and it went much faster than usual.

Beth’Tilac: This is when I really started to see the effects of the nerf. The adds were fuck-all easy. Spiderlings? Those went down quick as hell, same as the Spinners. We even had to halt DPS on the Drone to avoid killing it too fast. When Beth’Tilac came down, we obliterated her, though we had to kill some adds that had spawned while we were waiting for her.

Trash 3: …We wiped here, too. Twice, if I remember right.

Baleroc: This asshole was a joke, as always. We got him down long before his enrage timer was an issue. One of our tanks died, but that was the only exciting part about the fight.

Trash 4: Again, the nerf reared its head.

Rhyolith: This guy took a little longer than expected because a certain failgator needed to do something to progress in the quest chain for Dragonwrath. As always, easy.

Trash 5: Same as always, nothing big here.

Alysrazor: Holy shit. I’ve had to sit out on the last few Alys kills because I couldn’t get the tornadoes down. Now? I, much to my surprise, survived. The tornadoes have been nerfed big time, from their speed to their damage done. The babies were really easy to kill, too… Oh, hell, that sounded really bad, didn’t it? ANYWAYS. Because of the afore-mentioned failgator, we had to, I’m serious about this, completely halt all DPS on Alys for an entire phase. Once he got what he needed, we wiped out the ~5% of health Alys had left. I’m serious; the nerf turned a hard fight into a joke.

Trash 6: Holy fucking shit, we didn’t wipe on the guys before Staghelm. This is a milestone for us. I got stunned twice by the cats because I had forgotten how the pounces worked. See? I’ve earned my title of ‘failmage.’

Majordomo Staghelm: Damn. Just…. damn. We had beaten Staghelm for the first time just two nights before, so the difficulty was still fresh in our minds. After days of wipe after wipe, we got him down with… one wipe, and that was only because of a fluke. The Flame Scythes (the ’c’ is silent, dammit!) in his Scorpion form hit a lot less than they used to. Same goes for his Pounces in Cat from. People paid attention during seeds, too. All in all, Staghelm got a massive nerf and he’s practically a loot bucket now.

Trash 6.5: I say 6.5 because I had to leave after the first mob. And what a mob. In case you didn’t know, this asshole makes the lave raise on the walkway he’s on, leaving you safe patches. These huge streaks can even be a few yards apart, giving you only a couple of feet to stand on. I didn’t get to a safe patch.

Ragnaros: We're still learning this asshole.



All in all, this was a major nerf to Firelands and a huge help to many guilds. However, it also pissed off many hardcore raiders who liked the difficulty. Me? I welcome the nerf with hesitantly-open arms, hoping I’ll get that damn trinket from Ragnaros.

sNERF, sNERF!!!!

For any of you reading this who don't like when I rant...you probably ought to just go back to your Youtube pr0n right now because this...this is sort of a rant.  I am one disappointed druid right now...

Dear Blizzard...You suck.  You've dumbed down Firelands too much and basically ruined a good, challenging raiding experience.  You have failed...again.I

Here are the Hotfix Notes:

Dungeons & Raids

• Firelands
  • Hell Hound Rend Flesh damage has been reduced by 25%.
  • The damage multiplier granted by energy to Unstable Magma has been reduced by 50%.
  • Alysrazor
    • Health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty. Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    • Alysrazor now drops 1 additional feather in 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers in 25-player mode in all cycles.
    • The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
    • Alysrazor’s Fiery Tornados now move slower.
  • Baleroc
    • Health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty. Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    • Baleroc now swings 25% slower while Decimation Blade is active.
    • The duration of Tormented has been reduced on normal difficulty.
  • Beth'tilac
    • Beth'tilac's health and damage have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
  • Lord Rhyolith
    • Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
    • The health and damage of additional enemies in this encounter have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
  • Majordomo Fandral Staghelm
    • Health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty. Health and damage has been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    • Druid of the Flame have had their health reduced by 15%, and Sunfire damage reduced by 25% on both difficulties.
    • The health and melee damage of Spirit of the Flame have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty, and reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
  • Ragnaros
    • Ragnaros' health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty.
    • Ragnaros' damage has been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    • Magma Trap damage has been reduced on all difficulties.
    • The health and damage of additional enemies in this encounter have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty and 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    • Wrath of Ragnaros now knocks targets up, but not back, on normal difficulty.
  • Shannox
    • Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
    • Riplimb's health has been reduced by 15%.
    • Rageface's health has been reduced by 15%.
    • Magma Flare damage and Hurl Spear damage have been reduced by 15% on both difficulties.

Doesn't it seem like we just got started in Firelands?  I mean, seriously...

Last night, our 25 man team went into this "fixed" Firelands raid and basically steamrolled everything....including Majordomo Staghelm.  That...sucks.

Normally, I'm not the type to cry about stuff like this but as a healer last night, I can honestly say it was sort of...well...boring.  The first 6 fights in this raid are pathetically easy for our guild.  I'm not saying that we're super elitists or anything, but we've spent the last few weeks learning each encounter and learning how to do it well.  We were already one-shotting bosses a few weeks before this "nerfing" took place, but there were still a few encounters that we had a bit of trouble with and were still trying to learn.  It took us a few nights of consistent trying and failing on Staghelm before we got him down.  Wiping isn't fun, but the feeling you get when you've spent a few nights wiping and trying to learn a fight and then finally, at long last, you down the boss...is just awesome.

I'm going to keep using Staghelm as an example.  My guild struggled with figuring out how many flame scythes we could take at first.  When we figured that out, it was learning how to position ourselves so we didn't screw ourselves over with a poorly placed "leaping flame" circle of death when we got Searing Seeds.  Then it was everyone learning to obey their Searing Seeds timer and not blow us up...and then it was trying to make sure we got healing cooldown rotations set up correctly so that the combination of searing seeds and flame scythe didn't wipe us all out...

I think you get the point.  We learned the fight a step at a time.  Monday night was our first Staghelm kill together.  The fact that we went in the following night, God-Moded our entire way through to Staghelm and then took him down after one....ONE...wipe...means that the nerf was maybe a little too much.  

We definitely should have had a bit more trouble on Staghelm, considering this was only our second kill on him.  I don't even think we got close to our 3rd scorpion phase on him...hell...I think we had him down around 60% health or so before the end of the FIRST scorpion phase.  That means that the raid is now broken.  It's no longer a challenge for raiders that have invested any amount of energy into really raiding and knowing how to play their class optimally. 

I can't help but feel a little robbed of a challenging raiding experience right now.  Sure, it's fun to GOD-MODE an entire raid...but I'm going to miss the actual challenge in each of the fights.  Another really bad thing that can potentially come out of this is:  Bored raiders don't show up for scheduled raid nights.  Once everyone realizes what a joke Firelands has become and they get bored with facerolling it...they'll stop showing up.  That makes things much harder on guild and raid leaders. 

I guess that's all I really have to say about it.  Part of me is glad it'll be easier because that means easier access to epics, but part of me is really going to miss the challenge.

Jormuttar is Soo Fat...

I know it's been awhile since my last post...life got in the way again.  No surprises there, right?

So quick updates:

1.  After a few nights of working on Majordomo Staghelm - He was killed last night.  We were pretty excited to have downed him before all of the nerfs they're making to Firelands.  That makes our guild 6/7 Firelands right now, which really isn't that bad considering the level of difficulty of the content.  

2.  They're nerfing Firelands.  Seriously, Blizz?  I mean, I totally understand that casual guilds should be able to get in and see the content and down the bosses, but I didn't feel like Firelands was that hard.  It takes more focus than the facerolls they called raids in Wrath, but it was far from impossible.  I'm glad we got as far as we did with before the nerf because I think that I, like the rest of my guild, like a challenge and feel as if we've accomplished something more.

3.  I've been leveling my hunter and, to a far lesser extent, my paladin.  I think my hunter is level 73 right now, but I'm not sure and I'm not really in the mood to deal with the Blizz sites and how slowly they're loading right now.

4.  We're getting ready for a new patch in the next few months that will include 3 new Five-Man dungeons as well as a new raid.  The boss to beat?  Deathwing...Don't worry, kids.  I'm sure Blizz will nerf the hell out of that raid, too...as well as the five mans.  

That's about all I've got for today.  I have some other things that might be happening aside from LBT.  I'll post on that if/when things get rolling.  

Happy Brewfest, Everyone! 

Winsauce!

Heroic:  Halfus Wyrmbreaker (25 man)

Yep.  We did.  We totally whooped his ass.  It's pretty chaotic for tanks, and yes, I tanked the fight.

Admittedly I wasn't completely perfect, but next time...I will be much better.

All in all it was an amazingly fun fight.  I forgot to grab screen shots though.  Bleh.  




hehe

Other than that, I don't really have much to talk about.

Just a quick update on my beloved druid.

I've decided that I wanted to work on leveling my Death Knight as a tank to potentially fill another role needed by my alts' guild.  Maybe I should invest the time in my paladin instead though.  Hmm....I don't know.  Guess I'll have to wait and see how I'm feelin'. 


RL calls...so until next time...happy pwning!

WTB Your Thoughts

Some of you already know that the idea of vlogging has crossed my mind...where maybe once a week I would post a video here instead of writing and boring you all to pieces.  I had let that idea die awhile back because I just didn't think I'd be able to find enough interesting stuff to say and my living situation is less than ideal for any sort of decent video production.  I mean, housemates are great and all but I wouldn't get any peace and quiet unless I locked myself in maybe closet...or my bathroom...

But a dear friend of mine has been working on a new website with a friend of his about bein' a geek.  I'll throw the link down at the bottom of the post for you guys.

I fail at intelligent transitions today...anyway...I jokingly complained that he didn't have any WoW geeks on his website.  I mean, really...how can you say this is the ultimate geek website if you haven't even got a WoW nerd on your panel of Ultra Geeks?  Just didn't seem right to me.

Don't you know...Mr. Geek Guy tells me I should be the WoW Geek for his panel.  Uh....and it doesn't stop there.  I wouldn't be writing like I do, quite comfortably, here.  He asked if I would do vlogs.  I instantly started trying to wriggle my way out of it.  


Some of you know me but for those that don't...I'm incredibly shy.  The thought of putting myself in front of a camera and producing a video that potentially...other people would see...kind of makes me want to hide in a well sealed box for the rest of the day.  It's terrifying really.


There would also be the issue of what to talk about.  90% of my posts here are just random jibber-jabber about something that happened in game recently...or maybe an alt reaching a new landmark (like my huntard breaking 70 recently).  None of it is terribly informative.  I've done a few dungeon guides on request, but the day I post them is usually when a fight gets nerfed to the ground and everything I said about it is obsolete.  So what is there to really talk about?

I mean...
 
....It's WoW...right?  

I mean there are patch notes I suppose that could be talked about...But we all know how well that works with me, don't we?  I don't even really read them.  I think it would be pretty hard to discuss, intelligently, things I haven't even read yet.  Hmmm...


I've asked a few friends for their thoughts on this.  Of course, my darling friends are in FULL AND TOTAL SUPPORT of me making a total and complete ass out of myself.  Not surprising really...I asked another friend to help write with me (read: write FOR me), should I decide to take this on.  He agreed, of course.  I wonder where these supportive friends are when I need a back rub or something...


Anyway, the point of this post is to see what you guys think.  Email or comment below. 


OH...and as promised...Here's the link to G33k Lif3

so...like...rawr...n stuff

Damn It Feels Good To Be A Geek-stah!

This won't necessarily be a long post because I haven't really been playing much again...Logged in, standing in SW talking to friends is about all I've been doing.  I've just been perfectly uninterested in much else this week because of a combination of stress and sleep deprivation.  Maybe "uninterested" is the wrong word to use.  I've just been to "out of it" to do much of anything.

Anyway, I'm not here to complain today.  Shocking, right?  I'm here to show you guys this CosPlay blog that we were talking about at work this morning.  Now, I can truthfully say I've never done any CosPlay and I'm not really sure that I would because I think LARPing is just outside of my comfort zone.  There's nothing wrong with it, and perhaps if I had friends that were down with it...maybe I'd give it a try.  I'd have to get good at making costumes though...

Here's a link to her blog!

Kinda liiiiiiiiiiiike....Kamui, actually.  Despite my reluctance to participate in LARPing (Live Action Role Playing - if you don't know what that is) and CosPlay (LARPing in costume)...I have to admit that this girl's work is PHENOMENAL!  All of her costumes and weapons are incredibly detailed and absolutely amazing!  It's brilliant...for realzies!

My inner geek wanted to run to her house and borrow her druid "glowy tier" costume and wear it around for the rest of the day with pride.  Actually, my inner geek was all kinds of giddytarded over some of her costumes.  It sort of makes me want to see what I could come up with for Halloween.  Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of time left and I'm not exactly rolling in cash right now...soooo...I'm just not sure.  If I do end up coming up with something pretty crazy awesome, I'll maybe share pics here for y'all to see.  (Probably not, but at least I SOUND like a nice druid, right?)

Anyway, that's really all I have for right now.  I just wanted to share with you my geektarded excitement over someone's crazy costume creating skills.

Take care and if I don't stop in this weekend - have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend, gang!

Monday Morning Mumblings: Chapter 1

So here we are...another Monday morning...guess that means it's time to mumble a little.  Hey, bear with me please...I'm still working on that first cup of coffee.  It's hard to be coherent before say...NOON...on a Monday, despite having already been at work for a few hours.

As part of my Monday Morning rambling, I wanted to talk a little bit about feeling burnt out.  Hard to believe, right?  But it's true...I'm definitely feeling burnt out.  In the beginning of patch 4.1 or...whichever brought us Firelands...the whole idea of what my raid guild was doing seemed awesome.  We'd all be asked to raid 2 nights a week with the option to have a 3rd night off with an alternate taking our place.  That seemed so awesome...but our guild hit a rough patch a few weeks into Firelands and now we're struggling to fill our 25 man raid group.  No, there wasn't really any drama...but we've had a streak of nasty luck.  One of our main tanks got really sick, another main tank's computer died...two of our healers have too much RL stuff going on and have canceled their accounts for now...

That means that I get to raid 3 nights a week.  Every week.  And while I do love to raid...sometimes I just want to go be a total noob on an alt someplace...People keep saying to me that I can just tell my guild leader I need time off...but I don't want to be that guy.  You know...the person that's preventing your entire raid team from running because you aren't there...the 25th person they're waiting for...yeah I don't want to be that guy and like I said, I love raiding.  I've been there for all of our First Kills in Firelands so far and that's a cool feeling.

I'd especially like to be there for our first Staghelm kill...and Ragnaros.  The Rags fight looks so fun...

But anyway...I'm feeling a little less than enthusiastic lately.  I've let one of my dearest friends hang out on my account a lot lately.  Mainly he farms for me...occasionally does dailies...runs up repair bills...stuff like that...I love running instances on alts with friends still, but actually going out and questing and stuff...it's just not my cup of tea right now.  Running dungeons to gear my level 85 alts?  NO THANK YOU.

I'm sick of grinding rep and valor points...Luckily, my valor points get capped easily on my druid every week because she's actively raiding.  I usually only have to run 1 or 2 heroics to finish it off with her.  My shaman and priest (my "main" alts) are another story.  I haven't actively raided on either of them, nor do I even want to.  I'm so sick of healing I could scream...that's why I thought leveling my warlock would be a good change of pace...but she's 85 and trying to gear her makes me want to scream, so...I don't bother with her too much these days.  I don't even play my death knight or my mage at all anymore.  Maybe melee dps would be a good change of pace...I suppose I could give that a try, but I'd need to get my DK two weapons, because she's frost and 2h frost is broken supposedly.  

Meh.........

Maybe I'll just take some time off and go read the Twilight series...nothing would make you miss your night elf more than a twinkling vampire...right?  

I apologize for the "filler" post today.  I've been a little under the weather for the past 2 days and have sort of been less than enthusiastic about playing the game so I really don't have much to say.  

For someone without much to say, I sure do talk alot.

HA!  Anyway, RL calls so I'll post again soon.  Take care!

Reflections: Why My Main is a Druid

One of the most frequently asked questions to any World of Warcraft addict is:

Why did you pick that class as your main?

Recently, I got asked this question and decided that since I've never really talked about it...maybe today would be a good day to do that.

My WoW journey (aka addiction) began near the end of Burning Crusade.  My husband, at the time, had installed the game and paid for a subscription for me for Mother's Day.  It took me over a month to even log in for the first time because I had never really been a gamer and I was busy with getting us settled into our new home.  Once we were all settled in, I made the mistake of mentioning to a really close friend that my husband had given me a subscription as a gift and everything was installed and ready to go but that I wasn't sure I wanted to even log in.  My dear friend convinced me to give it a try, as we were long distance friends, and it would give us a way to "hang out".


Thus began the journey.


My friend decided to roll a hunter named Phaeryn.  I remember doing extensive research on the classes to try and decide what I wanted to play.  Maybe you'll giggle, but I have always  been fascinated by elves, so my first character (and many subsequent characters) had to be an elf.  Since all of the people I knew on my server were Alliance, I decided I would go that route...that and my husband at the time forbid me from playing Horde.


I originally picked the druid because the lore surrounding them made them seem so earthy and natural.  They were the protectors and seemed so peaceful.  When I found out that, ultimately, my druid would be able to turn into a bear...I was sold on the class.

I really miss the old bear form sometimes.

Phae and I leveled together each night after my child went off to bed, and I think it helped me adore my druid that much more.  It was the adventures we had, the trouble we found, the fun we had that really helped make my love for my druid become eternal and pushed me to actually begin learning about my class.


Admittedly, in the beginning, I really didn't know there even was an "end game".  I thought it was all about questing and picking flowers.  I didn't know anything about raiding.  It wasn't until after we had reached level 50 or so that the guild I was in really started talking about raiding with me.  


Phae had gone away to visit family for about two weeks and I was on my own.  One of the guild's main tanks sat me down and talked to me a little bit about raiding and what was involved.  That's the point where I started really trying to learn as much as I could about my class.  I updated her spec to become a tank and I started questing hard so that I could tank for our guild when I hit level 70.  (Which, unfortunately, left Phae behind...but that's another story for another day).


I started reading up on EJ about my class, had found a great forum in The Druid's Grove in order to really learn what I was doing.  I had always been a bear at heart, but had never really tanked before because I was nervous and wasn't sure I knew what I was doing.  My first actual tanking experience was in Karazhan.  


Yeah, I know.  Nothing like tanking for the first time in a raid to get your feet wet, right?


Overall, I did well given how "poor" my gear was and being that it was my first ever time tanking...actually, it was my first time raiding...ever!  I got a lot of positive feedback which only pushed me to learn more about my class and get even better.  


As time passed and I started learning more about my druid as a whole, not just bear stuff...I started to fall even more in love with the class.  During Wrath of the Lich King, we were granted Dual Spec...which allowed me to transition back and forth between healing and tanking as needed...and let me just say, there is nothing more fun than going from being the main tank on one fight to the top healer on the next!  Dual spec made me love my class even more than I did before.

I miss the old tree form, too..../mourn

 I guess to make a long story short:  The reason I play a druid is because I love the versatility of the class and I love how much fun I have when I play my druid.

I hope that answers your question about why I chose a druid as my main.

And since I answered your question...Why did you pick the class you did for your main?  

Feel free to email responses or reply in the comments section below!  I'd love to hear the reason you chose your main!

Filler: A Blogger's Crutch

I intended to post more often.  It didn't happen.  My bad.

I have been busy.  Or not...

Quick updates:  The warlock is 85 now and I have to work on her gear.

BUT WAIT...

"Don't you still have to gear your shaman, priest, death knight, mage, and keep working on gearing your druid?"

Yeah.  I do.  Add the 'lock to the list of things to do now.  Except, she's lower on the list.  

That's about all I've got really for today.

I'd love to sit here and tell you that I'm going to go over patch 4.3 notes BEFORE it goes live, but we all know I won't ever end up doing that because ... Hey look!  A bunny!

Hey, At Least It's Progress...Right?

My main's guild took down Baleroc last night.  Finally.  We've been working on him for about two raid nights now and it took us a little fine-tuning but we got it.

The problem with that fight is that one mistake can really mess up the entire group.  People really need to be on the ball there.  

On the plus side though, we've almost got Shannox and Lord Rhyolith on farm.  That's a few guaranteed purples every week now, which is good.  I'm pretty sure we one shotted Rhyolith last night and maybe 2 attempts on Shannox to get him down.  That's definitely a leap in the right direction.  At least we're not spending 2 nights wiping on bosses and getting no kills.  No kills = frustrated raiders and miserable druids.

I got complimented last night I think.  Generally, we barely have enough raiders to completely fill our 25 man team, but last night we had a surplus of healers.  I had offered to sit out so that our regular paladin healer could step in and was told I was going to stay in the raid.

"There are four healers I want with me every night until all of these bosses are on farm."

That's what I was told.  I definitely took it as a compliment...and despite all my griping about being forced to heal during tier 1 raid content...I'm actually really enjoying it right now.


I really want to rant too, but that's for an entirely different reason and I'm going to save that for my next post.  If I get a chance, that will be posted today.  Time is working against me today, so I'm going to end for now.  I just wanted to share our recent progress and I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting more regularly.  

 (Yes, I got your emails...yes, I got your guild page link - no, I'm not switching factions/servers for the time being - sorry).

What Once Was, Isn't but what Isn't Might Be?

What Once Was, Isn't but what Isn't Might Be?

That's about as confusing for you to read as it was for me to write as I was coming up with a good title for my post.  Rest assured that this won't be another babbling rant.  Yes, it will be a lot of babbling, but not a rant.

What Once Was, Isn't.  

That means, I was a tank in tier 1 raiding content for Cataclysm with my raid guild.  Let me be more clear, I was an off-tank on quite a few nights and occasionally asked to heal.  

So...

I once was a tank.

Isn't?

In tier two raiding content, I'm healing almost all encounters and only occasionally being asked to tank here and there.

I isn't a tank anymore...kind of.

I didn't really think too much about it as we made our way through the first night or two of raiding.  I tend to think very little about the potential loot drops and more about the fact that I'm just happy to be bumbling around with the raid group.  It's an awful lot of fun most of the time.

But when we downed our first boss and a resto druid chest dropped, it dawned on me that I really had no idea what spec I was really supposed to be looking at as my main spec and which was an off spec.  I passed on the first two resto pieces and one potentially feral piece until I decided maybe I needed to check in with officers.

I mean...main spec in  previous raids was always bear.  Off spec was resto.  Surely that wasn't still the case.  But I wasn't sure.

When I inquired about this, you know, because inquiring bears wanna know...I was told that it seems like my main spec is resto for now, but that might or might not change.

That was kind of the conclusion I already had.

I guess I've never really been in a situation where this mattered before.  Previously, I always ran with 10 man raid groups because the guilds I ended up really just weren't big enough for 25 man raid groups.  So either I was the only one in the entire run that could wear any leather, or I was the only druid.  We rarely had rogues with us.  They seem to be a rare find these days.

And warlocks.


Where the hell have all the warlocks gone?  I WANT MY CANDY!


Oh right, stay focused...I don't even remember what I was talking about anymore.  I just finished working on a few things for work and basically my mind still all wrapped up in that.  I guess I felt guilty for not posting and thought I'd share some random stupid experience I've had since my last post.


And apparently people in my guild are either starting to get used to me or are starting to like me?  I don't know.  Some of them are randomly being more social toward me than before.  It generally seems to be shamans that attach themselves to me.  Not sure why.  Because we share animal forms?  I really don't know.   Just saying.  


So I'm going to retreat back to my RL for a little while.  Hopefully I'll be back to post sooner, rather than much later.  Until next time...


MUCH LOVE!


PS:  So far, guild progression is - Some solid attempts on Beth'ilac, Starting Baleroc tonight and we've downed Shannox and Rhyolith (and basically have them on farm WOOT WOOT).

The Long Silence

It's been far too long since I've written.  Far too long.  Work has been hectic, life outside of work has been hectic, and being in any sort of raid guild generally limits the amount of free time you have to tab out of the game and write anything worthwhile.

But I mean...is a WoW blog ever worthwhile?



Meh...

Sorry to be all emo but not getting to write as often as I want to really makes me a grumpy, grumpy bear.  It's been so long that now I don't even remember all the things I was going to talk about.  I had notes but who knows where they are by now?

"It's 10:30am, do you know where your feckin' notes are?"  Yeah...no.

Anyway...

I'm sure a lot has happened since I last checked in.  I don't remember most of it.  I got a priest to 85 and switched her to Shadow/Holy instead of Discipline.  I either didn't understand Discipline or it was incredibly broken while I was playing it.  Any healer spec that leaves you completely OOM so often after blowing every CD you have for mana regeneration just isn't worth it, imo.

***FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW***

So I wrote this totally profound and awesome post because I felt bad for wasting your time thus far and LO AND BEHOLD...Blogspot decided to devour it.


It is lost.


LOST.


If anybody finds it, you can leave it at my doorstep and I'll be eternally grateful and/or reward you with infinite gold!


Or not...


Anyway, I was basically talking about how I meant to review patch 4.2 notes before it went live (which I failed at), and talk about the new stuff, how to get it, where to go for new quests and awesome new raid goodies (which I failed at), but that I didn't get a chance to read the patch notes before it went live nor did I find time to post about the patch notes I didn't read (I would have made up some really awesome sounding stuff which you all would have eventually come to my door angry about with pitchforks and torches)...


Best run on sentence EVER?  I think so.


I was also going to tell you how "excited" I was to actually read the patch notes today and maybe post about them "soon" (but I define the term "soon" very much like Blizz does, meaning you probably won't see another post from me for months and months but if I do pop in early with a post it's a pleasant surprise YAY)...

And I was talking about how distracted I get when I'm reading patch no...omg look!  A BUNNY!

I'm going to go look at bunnies now!

Wait...no...bad druid...I'll find something much more constructive to do for my poor, neglected blog.


I'll post "soon" (tm).

Heroic Chimaeron 25 Man

Heroic:  Chimaeron (25 man)

For the first time since I started playing the game, I'm in a guild that can accomplish stuff.  

I'm going to start this off by congratulating the entire guild on our heroic kills.  The guild is currently 3/13 Hard Mode bosses, which is incredible.  For any of you out there that are running Cataclysm raids, you know that they're no walk in the park.  Heroic content is harder, much more chaotic, and much more demanding.  So, congratulations to everyone and thank you for working so hard.

This was also my first "guild first" heroic boss kill.  The even better part?  I was tanking for them.  Even better than that?  I didn't screw up as much as I was afraid I would.

Did I forget to mention that I lack serious confidence?  Oh.  Yes, I lack confidence when it comes to raiding.  Well, I guess it's more true to say I lack confidence in general.  Anyway...we're not here to psychoanalyze, right?

We're here to rejoice at another heroic raid boss down...another awesome night raiding and new lessons learned.  

What?  You didn't think I still learned stuff about my beloved druid?

Oh, believe me.  I do.  Chimaeron on heroic is no joke.  He hits like a freight train filled with lead at maximum velocity.  I learned a great deal more about precious cooldowns and how to use them more strategically in order to increase my TTL.  

TTL?

Time To Live.  You tanks out there should know that one...right?  

At any rate, we threw a BUNCH of attempts at this boss on heroic last night.  What I like about my guild is that we don't invest a few wipes then move on to something "easier".  I think that when you do that, you hurt your progress much more than helping further it.

What do I mean?

So many questions today...jeeeepers.  What I mean is...If you wipe, say, 4 times and either switch back to normal mode or move onto a "farm boss", I think people retain less of what they're figuring out from the wipes.  I know that wiping for 3+ hours straight on ONE boss is frustrating, but I think it forces people to look at what they did on the wiped attempt and try to tweak it for the next go at it.  I know that's what I do. 



The first few attempts - I had only a very, very poor understanding of what I needed to do and what was going on, despite watching numerous videos and reading as much as I could about tanking him.


The last few attempts - I had a much clearer idea of what I needed to do in the fight and how to help recover from losing a tank unexpectedly.  The lesson I learned:  Don't try to taunt Double Attacks with 2 stacks of Break on you.  It is deadly.

Each time we wiped, I learned a few more tricks.  We managed to get him into phase 2 two or three times before finally ending the night on our guild's 3rd heroic kill.  Vent practically exploded with happy raiders.

WOOOHOOOO!!!!

Now that we've downed another heroic boss, I'm eager to see if we can bring down Atramedes on heroic.  We've put in a bunch of attempts, but we've yet to get too far into the fight on heroic.  I'm hoping that last night's victory boosts morale and encourages everyone to focus that much harder on bringing down more heroic bosses (especially frakkin Atramedes...the bastard!!!).

Anyway, that's really all I've got for today.  Life has been absolute chaos again, so of course I'm finding little to no time to drop in and post and say hello to you all and see how you're doing.  I'm wondering if anyone else out there has stories to share?  Epic stories, funny stories, screen shots?  Anything goes.  It would just be nice to share what other WoWheads have to say.

OH!!!!!!!  Before I forget...For those of you who have hit my armory and have been jabbing at me and prodding me to drop the BoE crafted epics in order to get at least 2pc t11...I did that finally last night for my bear gear.  Initially, I didn't do it because the guild wasn't really sure whether they needed me more for healing or tanking, but since we've recruited a few more dedicated healers and I've been tanking on most encounters...I decided to take the plunge and grab some t11.  I have the chest and gloves right now, I believe.  I could easily buy the legs with Valor Points as well, but I'm going to hold off on that in hopes that we'll win Tol Barad on a night I can actually get into Baradin Hold and see what drops.

One other important thing that happened last night:  My passion for my bear was revived.  I've always "liked" tanking, but I've generally been in guilds that don't see much progression or they don't attempt "hard" content until it's been nerfed into the ground and it just wasn't satisfying for the longest time.  But now...the passion is there once more.  RAWR BABY!!! 

RAWWWWWWWWWR!

F*ckin' ugly jerk...

I have a screen capture I can post of our crew standing with our kill, but of course, that's at home and I'll have to add it to this later on. 

Nefarion's End

I don't have much time to write, but I thought I'd stop by and update on raid progression with my beloved druid.

First of all, the guild has me alternating between tanking and healing, depending on what we need for the run we're in.  Now, I can honestly say I'm still nervous when I get asked to tank, but once I get into the swing of things I'm content and happy to tank for them.

Second of all, I wanted to let you know that my druid is now 11/12 Raid Bosses down.  We cleared all of Bastion of Twilight a week or two ago with me and a paladin tanking.  We've been having some trouble with the coordination on Nefarion in Blackwing Descent for a few weeks but we did manage to get him down last night.

It was such a relief to finally see him go down on a night I've been tanking with the crew.  I had begun to believe it was an impossible kill...but we got it so I'm pretty stoked.

I also finally got to see Throne of the Four Winds.  The first boss encounter seems really easy if your group is coordinated enough to do it.  We got the first 3 down without a problem.  Al'akir, however...seemed like chain lightning was puttin' a whoopin' on us!

Ah well.  It's a new raid week.  I'm hoping we can get through Throne of the Four Winds though.  I'd really like to see my Al'Akir kill before level 90 lol!

Anyway, just thought I'd stop in, say hello, quickly update and share my giddiness over the Nefarion kill from last night  before I head back out into the RL world.

Take care!

Des

Zul'Aman: Final Round - Daakara The Invincible

Daakara, The Invincible

Daakara the Invincible is the final boss in Zul'Aman.  Sure, he calls himself invincible but it couldn't be further from the truth.  This fight really isn't that hard because it's basically a melting pot of abilities you've already seen with the first four Avatar fights.

In my experiences, Daakara is only able to draw upon two of the avatar spirits before he's ground into dust by the group.  But what kind of guide would I be if I didn't get into the details?

This fight has a few different phases and the number of phases you will see depends on how quickly your group can kill him...or how long you survive.  

Phase One is always Mr. Daakara in troll form.  During this phase, he will cast a nasty whirlwind, dealing 110% of normal damage to all within melee range.  Here's a tip:  Move.  It's avoidable damage and you really need to avoid it.  Another fun little trick he has during phase one is to cast Grievous Throw on a random party member.  This is reminiscent of an ability that Rokmar the Crackler had in The Slavepens called Grievous Wound.  Essentially, this is a bleed effect that cannot be dispelled and will not go away until that player is healed to 100% health.  It's not a huge obstacle to overcome.  Just throw a fluffy heal on that player and get back to your tank.

Phase two will be random.  Exciting, right? He will take on one of the four avatar aspects:  eagle, lynx, dragonhawk, or bear.


Here's a quick list of the aspects and the abilities to watch for:


Eagle
Daakara will create an Energy Storm in which he will summon cyclones that circle around him that you must dodge.  These Cyclones will zap party members for roughly 12k damage with each hit.  You need to get as far away from the cyclones as possible to avoid damage.  They will move around the altar and "chase" players, so you'll need to be on the move for most of this fight.  


He will also summon a lightning totem during this phase which is low health and needs to be killed as well.


Dragonhawk
Daakara will create columns of fire which players need to move away from.  These are sometimes difficult to see, but the damage is hefty and you need to move away from them.  


He will also cast Flame Whirl which leaves a debuff on party members that increases their vulnerability to fire damage.  I don't believe this can be dispelled, so players need to be careful and avoid the columns of fire and flame breath.


Flame breath is the only other ability in this aspect that players need to be mindful of.  It's the exact same flame breath that Jan'alai casts and can and should be avoided.  He will turn toward a party member to cast, so if he turns to you make sure to immediately strafe out of the line of fire. 


Bear
Creeping Paralysis is one of the key abilities to keep an eye out for, should you face Daakara in bear form.  This debuff, if not cleansed within six seconds will stun the player.  Both the paralysis and the stun can, and should be dispelled because he will also be surging at random party members, just like Nalorakk did.  The surge still has the same effect and you are still going to want to alternate who eats the surges to prevent an unnecessary death here.  


In Bear form, Daakara also has a warrior-esque ability called Nearly Overpowered Blow.  It works in the same fashion as Overpower for warriors.  It can be used whenever he feels like it after the tank dodges one of his attacks and hits for 115% of normal damage.  Fun stuff, really.


Lynx
During the Lynx phase, Daakara will summon lynx adds that should be burned quickly.  They do a pretty beefy amount of damage to both the tank and party members with the Lynx Rush and Claw Rage abilities and they leave bleed effects on their targets.  These adds can tear apart a party member if they're not taunted and deaded real quick like.  


That's basically the fight.  It's a recycled fight where you face similar abilities to the first four avatars.  It's fairly easy provided you avoid as much damage as possible and burn adds quickly.  It's doable.  I've seen groups soar during this fight and I've also been with some that crash and burn.  It's a test of your awareness, like so many other Cataclysm fights.  


So that's it for the Zul'Aman bosses.  I'll start working on the post about the trash, since that tends to be one of the biggest nightmares in this instance.  I haven't decided on a format for that post yet, but it's probably going to be a list-type post as it's just easier that way.


Until next time, take care and good luck pwning trolls!


With infinite love,


Des

Zul'Aman: Round #5 - Hex Lord Malacrass

The fifth boss you'll take on is Hex Lord Malacrass.  This boss is a little more complicated than the previous four because he will siphon abilities from your party members as you fight him.

Here is a rough list of the abilities he will steal:
Death Knight:  Death and Decay, Plague Strike (including Blood Plague), Blood Worms
Druid:  Lifebloom, Thorns, Moonfire
Hunter: Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, Snake Trap
Mage:  Fireball, Frostbolt, Frost Nova, Ice Lance
Paladin:  Consecration, Holy Light, Avenging Wrath
Priest:  Heal, Mind Control, Mind Blast, Shadow Word:  Death, Psychic Scream, Pain Suppression
Rogue:  Blind, Slice and Dice, Wound Poison
Shaman:  Fire Nova Totem, Healing Wave, Chain Lightning
Warlock:  Bane of Doom, Rain of Fire, Unstable Affliction
Warrior:  Spell Reflection, Whirlwind, Mortal Strike


Obviously, you want to do your best to negate these abilities, avoid standing in the ground AoEs, and dispell as much as you can. 



There will always be two adds standing next to him drawn randomly from a pool of about 8 possible mobs.  That's according to old notes on the boss.  So far, I've only seen the blood elf, the snake, and the demon in some combination.

Generally, as you prepare to engage the boss, you'll crowd control both of the adds.  If you can only crowd control one of them, make sure to burn the other add right off the bat, then engage the boss.  You should always be able to remove one of them from the fight.  Keep it locked down with crowd control for the duration of the encounter.

The possible Guardians (and abilities) are:


A Blood Elf caster that heals Malacrass.
An Imp which casts fireballs at the party.
An undead which hits the party with a knockback and casts curses on the party.
An undead Wraith which will use an ability like Psychic Scream and AoE fear everyone.
An Ogre that regularly breaks CC and melees random party members.
A dragonkin with a flame breath and thunderclap.
A snake with a poison bolt volley.
An elemental which will cast an AoE nature damage.


So the basic concept of the fight is to deal with the little adds first, either via CC or nukefest and then obliterate the boss while dealing with abilities he steals from a random party member.  It's not a very difficult fight.  It just calls on your party to be aware and adjust a bit on the fly. 

Zul'Aman: Round #4 - Halazzi (Lynx Avatar)

The last of the four Avatar bosses you'll encounter, assuming your group takes the standard route through the instance is Halazzi.  It's really an incredibly easy fight if you pay attention.

Halazzi [Lynx Avatar]

Halazzi has two phases:  Normal and Lynx phases.  During his normal phase, he'll drop two types of totems, water and lightning.  When Halazzi drops a water totem, the tank simply needs to pull the boss away from it and all of your ranged, including the healer, need to stand inside the green circle. 

Now, I've seen quite a few caster dps NOT get in the totem which is just ridiculous.  While standing in the totem you have basically unlimited mana and it heals you.  Wait, rewind...let's see that again.  UNLIMITED MANA WHILE STANDING IN THE WATER TOTEM.  Whoa!

So if you're a mana user, just do yourself a favor and get in the green circle of amazingness.  You'd be dumb not to.  Hunters should just do it to reap the healing benefits, if nothing else.

The endless mana is going to be important for healing this fight, especially when Halazzi decides to enrage himself, decreasing time between attacks by 100% for six seconds.  That's a lot of damage, a lot of healing and a lot of mana. See?  Standing in the green circle of YAY is a good idea.

Halazzi will also drop Corrupted Lightning Totems.  Unless you're going for the achievement, you need to have your dps kill these ASAP.  These totems do pretty big damage and it's easier to just get rid of them right away.  

At both 66% health and 33% health, Halazzi will do something like a holy nova, splashing damage on all party members and healing himself to full.  At this point he'll summon Spirit of the Lynx.  You can't avoid the boss healing, so don't worry that you've done something to reset the fight.  You haven't.  It's just the way he works.

When Spirit of the Lynx is active, your party can either blow up the kitty or completely ignore it.  Most groups just ignore it and stay on the boss, knowing that the lynx will eventually despawn.  The lynx does pretty nasty damage, doesn't have a normal aggro table, and can't be CC'd.  It will "fixate" on a random party member and go to town.

When the lynx fixates on you, you can use damage reduction abilities or avoidance abilities to get away and cut your healer a little break.  For ranged dps, standing in the water totem ring will help the healer keep up with the lynx's Lynx Flurry damage.  Other than that, mages can use abilities like ice block or one of their bubbles, hunters can disengage, etc. 

The last notable ability of Halazzi is his Flame Shock.  It doesn't hit obnoxiously hard but leaves a DoT on the victim, inflicting fire damage to them.  I'm not entirely sure of the amount or duration, but I do know it can and should be dispelled.

But there you have it.  Halazzi in a nutshell.  Overall, it's a fairly easy fight as long as you use the Refreshing Water Totems to your advantage.