Hi guys! It's been a WHILE since I've hit the forum. I had to take some time away, but finally, I'm back. Things got insane outside of WoW...absolutely insane and I couldn't balance anything. Very sad.

It looks like I'm way behind the ball, too. I've got some major amounts of reading to do it looks like.

How is everyone doing? Hopefully this finds you all well and rawr!

Oh, and I got my first compliment from a healer last night! I managed to hold threat versus a lvl 80 ret pally, a 75 Mage and a 70 Mage...Yaaaaay bear! /cheer! :thumbsup:

It was the first time I've gotten a compliment on my tanking from someone who wasn't already a friend of mine outside of the game...I'm so excited about tanking again! (Yes, that means I'll be here all the time picking your brains for better strategies and stat ideas and being the curious little druid I always am...so I'm sorry in advance!)

I'm still really confused about gear as far as end game goes (and really...even as I level...), but I'm not even close to being there (only lvl 71 *sigh*), and I figure I can probably do some trial and error as I level and collect new armor pieces.

Any ideas on what the final stat goals are for either a stam-bear or a dodge-bear? I started reading here again, but haven't found anything and was wondering if you guys had heard yet. I finally got my dodge to 35%, and armor is just trickling over 17k unbuffed /sigh. I've got so much work to do...

But, I'm glad to be back. Hopefully I'll find some time to read up what you have all been talking about. From one druid to another, I missed you guys.

:grin:

Welcome back. :)

Thank you! Good to be back. Incredibly sad to hear that Annikk has left us, but I hope all works out well for him in the future.

It's great to have a group of mentors like what we have here, and very sad to lose any one of them for any reason...

I miss Annikk as well. As a Feral Cat, I think he would have really loved LK, as their DPS is just crazy right now.

Oh absolutely! Unlimited target swipe...as a kitty?! MEEEEOW!

I'm loving my feral druid! (Worry not, though, I'm a bear at heart...RAWR!)

You know, I think Annikk will return someday. I was in about the same boat. My husband was the ONLY reason I played this game ever, and the reason I started a feral druid. We went through a really rough period in our marriage and I just couldn't look at my druid and not think about RL issues...but things worked out and I'm enjoying the game now, more than ever.

I just hope he finds solace and that things work out for him. RL can be brutal. Hopefully he knows he's got friends here. Makes me feel kind of bad for going on my own little "hibernation"...

welcome back Des

and yea, tlbj, i miss Annikk, too, and i think you're right on about him having an absolute blast as a dps kitty.

SKWID! HI! And thank you! I'm SO excited to be back druiding again. Many Rawrs to you all!

whey hey Dest :)

i thought you'd been gone a while when i saw you posting in feral forums earlier !

just spotted you posted this now !

glad you got everything sorted out in RL.

RL has really taken over for me the past few months and i've still not been inside any single new Wrath instance! as you'll gather from many of my posts and the gear i've got or not got !!!

Still i enjoy the time i do get in Wow and can come on here and see how some people are 'pwning' Naax and getting loot i can only ever drool over :o

You'll catch up soon....and then start getting great gear from heroics and raiding.

You know, in all of my WoW career I've not been in ONE heroic? It's sad. Very sad.

And Khel, I'm in about the same boat you are with squeezing the time in for WoW. I log in every evening, but between the phone, child, dog, and everything else...I'm afk more than anything. It's making the grind to 80 rather difficult LOL

Since I've come back though, I've been having so much fun! This group on TDG reminds me a lot of my guildies. The guild I'm in is like a HUGE family. It seems the same here. Everyone's very supportive and genuine. It's good to find friendly druids. The "mentor" I was supposed to learn from in game, well, he's an elitist jerk in a very literal sense.

You know, in all of my WoW career I've not been in ONE heroic? It's sad. Very sad.You will in LK. They (most) are quite a bit easier than heroics in BC. In fact, the moment you ding 80, buy a few AH/crafted pieces, you can jump into the easier heroics. hUK is the easiest by far, hNexus isn't too bad. hGun I didn't find too bad either as the fights are more gimick sort of thing than needing a special group or good dps, etc.

One of the Halls isn't too bad, but the other one is tough.

You know, in all of my WoW career I've not been in ONE heroic? It's sad. Very sad.

And Khel, I'm in about the same boat you are with squeezing the time in for WoW. I log in every evening, but between the phone, child, dog, and everything else...I'm afk more than anything. It's making the grind to 80 rather difficult LOL

that's a surprise Dest ! most of my gear was badge gear in BC as all i managed to find time for was to run a small number of heroics a lot...SP/Mech/Ramps in the main. I guess i spent circa 400 badges which took me a long time to amass ! Think i still have about 50 !

Yeah i am more time limited now than before. For a while the wife was rehearsing for a musical production so the agreement gave me time early evening to run heroics (17:00-19:00) before i took over sorting him out for bed and milk.

More recently she has wanted me around more to help so i've had to cut back on early Wow time - by the time he's gone to bed (circa 19:15), i've cooked tea, we've eaten tea its gone 20:00 and all i feel like doing is some dailys or non Wow stuff !


that's good to hear again tlb - we concentrated on the heroics i mentioned above cos we could run them fast which suited me.

if we can get into some of the smaller ones soon in Wrath and run them (even with say 2 people from LFG) in like 45 mins then i'll be ok to do some.

i just need to do the ones you lot have mentioned for the Staff and that Helm !

Tlb, If you could see the time line of leveling before I took the two months off, I doubt you'd be surprised at all that I've not seen a heroic yet.

When I hit my late 50's in early fall, it was an almost immediate hard core grind to 70. In fact, due to lack of grouping options, drama (ugh the drama) and lack of focused time for instancing, there are a bunch of BC instances I haven't seen either! I just saw Auch Crypts for the first time earlier this week, and it was only the last boss room!

When I hit 70, we then had the whole Headless horseman thing going on, and I tanked that every night for the entire duration of the event...it made for me being a very miserable tank...for sure. While all of that was going on, RL tensions were mounting, and after seeing Kara only once, I decided I'd had enough. I never really did much to grind rep with any of the BC factions in order to even get a heroic dungeon key, to be honest. I just hadn't had the time and that made my decision to give up WoW in lieu of taking care of RL issues so much easier.

All in all it became very frustrating, and presently, I am under IMMENSE pressure to get to 80 as quickly as possible. It's already becoming very frustrating. The good news is that I really haven't set any time guidelines for myself. I'll get there when I get there...I'm in no rush.

And I'm looking forward to running heroics! I've never seen one, so I'm imagining that it will be quite fun!

The nice things about LK...

QuestHelper (or Carbonite) makes leveling/questing easier and far less painful than ever before. Though I did find the number of "use this item" type quests in the first 2-3 zones extremely painful. What happened to simple kill quests?!?!
Gear requirements for easier heroics can be obtained with just a little bit of gold (AH/craftables)
No rep required to enter heroics
Many of the rep grinds are nearly passive since you just have to wear the correct talbard to get rep in any lvl 80 5-man or heroic. I still haven't done a single daily in Northrend!!!!

agree with tlb for No 1.

i got Questhelper and TomTom for the first early in the grind to 80 and doing almost the whole grind to 80 solo it made it soooooooo much easier/faster/more enjoyable.

4. i've not done a single dungeon...normal or heroic ! all of my rep to date has been from quests and dailys !!

Wow, Khel! The very first night out in NR I spent in UK tanking. I had spent two weeks tying up loose ends, doing a few "a cheese mint" rep grinds (as our GM calls it), and really just wandering and getting used to the whole thing again. I hit level 71 by doing the three coilfang instances on my first weekend back.

I'm trying not to be too long-winded here. There's just been so much going on in-game that I'm excited about! The armor changes, the weapons changes, and the compliments I've gotten on my tanking have all really made me enjoy the game that much more!

I'm leery of changing my spec from anything but pure bear, because it makes up for my lack of armor/good gear. I know you guys have all suggested it in my other thread, but I'm not having too much trouble leveling, even solo, and the bear talents come in handy.

I've been in a lot of heated debates about spec with some friends. I have some that INSIST you need OoC to tank effectively, others that say you don't need ANYTHING in the resto tree, and others that say you should have a mix build. It's a little confusing.

SOMEDAY I hope I'll be able to evaluate gear/spec without having to rely on the experts. I just haven't really taken the time to learn much about theory crafting yet. I will eventually. I have to soon, as I've got bags full of gear now that I just don't even know what to do with!

I've been in a lot of heated debates about spec with some friends. I have some that INSIST you need OoC to tank effectively, others that say you don't need ANYTHING in the resto tree, and others that say you should have a mix build. It's a little confusing.You do not need OoC to tank. The proc is random so you can't count on it happening when you need it. If you ever find yourself out of rage early/mid-fight, cast FFF. It generates quite a bit of threat (as of 3.0) and it is free. In fact, FFF is part of a max TPS rotation. Who would have thought FFF would ever be part of a rotation?

That said, I'd still get OoC eventually.

For trash you just use swipe and maul (assume you have the maul glyph). Once you have a good hold on the pack (3-5 swipes), you can throw in a mangle or lacerate on your current target to help with DPS. Once the current target is down to 20% or less, move to the next target with lacerate/mangle.

Use Lacerate for DPS and to boost Maul from RnT. If you never use lacerate there is no point in taking RnT.
Mangle for DPS and huge threat.
Swipe for trash, though it should still be used on single targets as it generates quite a bit threat.
FFF when you have a free cycle
Demo Roar when you have other free cycle
Barkskin when the cooldown is up to give your healer a break.

Are you kidding? My threat generating rotation is all about Lacerate/Maul/Mangle depending on how much rage I have built up. I'm going to have to rearrange my hotbar again. Bark skin is missing from it and I like to have it there. I believe I have SI too right now, but I'm not entirely sure.

I use FFF for armor reduction on targets, and it makes for a great way to pull only what you can handle on mobfests. I think my rotation is good. It's my spec/gear/stats that are hurting right now...I'm not entirely worried about it right now. I'll really start focusing on that as I get closer to 80.

I've ALSO heard that dual specs will be coming up within the next little while- a patch or few down the road. 50g to unlock. Initially, I thought "Oh! Resto/Bear!" But now, I'm thinking Kitty/Bear if that really does ever happen. Less gear for me to carry around, as I don't care for healing at all and only do it in dire situations.

Has anyone else heard the Dual Spec rumor?

Has anyone else heard the Dual Spec rumor?It is not a rumor. Though Blizzard hasn't said when it will be available. I'm hoping in 3.1. It will be on the PTR for some time, as I'm sure it will break quite a few things. So, we should have plenty for warning.

I wouldn't go Kitty/Bear though. I would reccomend Bear/one of the caster specs.

The reason I say this is, you can do either Feral job "well" with either build. You can do either caster job "well" with either build. So I think Feral/Caster is going to give you the most utility with dual spec. (Unless you really hate caster roles that is)

For Example, I will be going Bear/Boomkin, because I just won't kitty DPS if Caster DPS is an option and I can heal rather effectively as a boomkin! (unfortunatley, do to dead healers, I have tried this on more than one occasion)

:texla: YES!!! That's awesome news! (I've been avoiding the Blizzboards like the plague!) The less I know about before it happens (ie- armor nerfs, etc etc) the happier a druid I am. Seems dumb, I'm sure, but if I know something's coming that's going to mess with my druid, I tend to get anxious about it. If it just happens, and I log in and my armor is up or down by 4k or my bear doesn't work quite like it did the day before- I have an easier time adapting to it and it's less stress.

Man, now I'll have to really think about two specs. I'll talk to the old guild and see if they have a preference and go from there (when it happens). I just despise carrying around so much gear - bleah...

TLBJ, you're a ray of sunlight today!

Orginally I had planned on Feral/Resto. And I had purchase (~2500g) worth of healing stuff. Now I see how stupid that was. I'll probably go Feral/boomkin.

Boomkin dps is great and you can always off-heal if needed. And for many fights ranged DPS has it far easier than melee DPS. So, if I'm not tanking, I'd rather be in the back row....

Besides we don't have a boomkin in our guild, so the aura alone would be a huge boost on some fight.

Plus, at least for me...Boomkin is the best for dailies / farming.

I love picking up a half stack of caster food with one starfall/barkskin/hurricane. 15 secs = ~25 dead Rhino's!

Eew tlb. I'm a little gold-starved at the moment so the prospect of spending 2500g on any kind of gear is scary!

I still think I'm going to stay feral and pick up Resto- as we seem to always be looking for healers. That's an entirely new side of druiding I've never tried my hand at really since level 40 instances.

That, or I'll pick up a bear + Kitty dual spec, in which case I'll have both builds and be able to do what I like to do, and that's Melee. I'm not a big caster type. It's fun, but not as much fun as getting in there and tearing it up!

Eew tlb. I'm a little gold-starved at the moment so the prospect of spending 2500g on any kind of gear is scary!I had ~7K when I hit 80. I burned thru it rather fast since I have almost no source of income outside of questing. Damn inscription is a money pit and I'm way too lazy to play the market.

Last night I spent a bit buying a tanking ring, a gem, and 3 enchants. I'm down to 400g now?!?! I haven't had that little cash since I bought my lvl 60 mount.

OH MY GOLLY!

Sounds like a nightmare! I'm still working toward Epic flight! lol

I didn't have my Epic Flight until about 2 weeks ago either. Being a druid is very expensive business!

I finally got tired of being poor and dumped LW for JC. Within about 2 weeks of being a JC I had my epic flight.

Yeah, I'm starting to regret Herbalism/Alchemy, but after going through the quest for Master of Elixirs, I just can't see dumping it. And honestly, if I put the time into making elixirs and potions, some of them sell really well on the AH. I just haven't had/taken the time to put any up recently.

I am not sure what level you are, but once you can fly (even 60%) you can make some pretty good money just selling the raw herbs. I get about 80g for a stack of lichbloom and 50-60g for a stack of ice thorn. You can farm up probably 2-3 stacks of each an hour just trolling around off peak times.

I'm only 72, about 3 bars away from 73. I've got a ways to go and my herbalism is slow to level right now. The BC herbs still sell like crazy too on our server. I could probably go back and try and farm those awhile, but it takes away from time I could spend questing and leveling.

Finding the herbs in the first 3 zones of Northrend (HF, BT, Dragonblight) is not too easy. But they are more common in GH, no so much in ZD and fricken everywhere in SB.

But it does help that you are behind the leveling rush, so I'm sure those starter zones will have more flowers than they did when I went thru.

So far all I'm finding is Goldclover. I'm apparently not strong enough to pick a tiger lily! Reminds me of the one comic on worldofwarcraft.com where they show a tauren I think it is trying to pick a flower and getting "Failed attempt" then starting over...I should head out to IQ and pick some mana thistle. It seems fairly abundant there and will definitely help level my herbing.

Oh, and on another old thread, I had asked if anyone finds themselves wishing they could hit space bar in their car in order to bounce to wherever they're driving to...I do it all the time hehe.

go go go Dest !

i've always had a bear build cos i want one and have always tanked 5 mans but as you'll see i dont actually do much tanking these days !

i'm sure i could alter my 0/55/16 to a more kitty / levelling / daily build but i'm happy with it.

i reckon we all had bags full of gear in the early 70's we did not know wot to do with......tbh i junked almost all of it til after 75 iirc cos if just did not match up to my BC gear.

See, I didn't really get much in the way of BC gear. I went into "hibernation" (as Annikk put it) right after I hit 70 and after one Kara run. The only thing I had that was worthwhile that I still have from BC is my Blessed Leggings of Undead Slaying. They're great for tanking right now.

I just haven't bothered to go through my gear and see what works for "kitty" leveling. A big part of me just wants to sell it all off and call it a day...I can level in bear gear, it just takes a bit longer I suppose.

I'm just excited that I keep getting compliments on my tanking. It's such a relief to hear that rather than "Des! Omg you're such a NOOB!"

I see. most og my crafted epics and badge epics lasted me past lvl 75 tbh. and some items closer to 80 given i was not running instances etc.

tbh if you dont have much in the way of 'good' gear from BC then you will get 'good 'gear often as you level up in Wrath. i remember often thinking 'wow, that's a nice piece of kit' but it was never better than my BC epics, or very very rarely.

ie : i only ditched Earthwarden for a blue staff when the recent armour nerfing patch came out ! lol. so i was the 'noob' running around in Wrath using Earthwarden when everyone else is 'ohhing and ahhing' over their Trickery or Orgins thingy etc !

I dont think you will lose much by selling it all off and then getting kitty gear as you level from drops and q rewards.

That's what I've been doing.

And let me tell you that it's been an INTENSELY frustrating grind. Holy COW! I just can't fathom how people did the grind from 70 to 80 in just a matter of days. I'm on week 2 I believe. Of course, I only play a few hours a night, and I guess I'm leveling fairly quickly...but not fast enough! haha!

I'm not really worried so much about gear. The quest rewards and drops are nice, but I'm not even going to worry about it until it's time to start hitting the heroics.

The fewer things I have to worry about while leveling...the better!

Don't worry, it took me 6-7 weeks to go from 70 to 80 (Xmas night I ding'd 80!). I can't imagine how long it would have taken had I not used Questhelper.

If I were to level again in Northrend, I'd run all quest in the follow zones...

BT
DB
GH
SB <-- awesome zone if you have lots of rest XP coming as their are so many kill quests

...at that point you should be lvl 80. I ran HF after BT and that was just stupid. And then ran ZD (I hit lvl 80 about a third of the way thru this zone) after GH which was a mistake as many of the quests in that zone really, really suck. Even more so if you can't fly yet.

i think i got 80 in ice crown. i did absolutely every q i could find levelling.

started in BT>DB>GH>ZD>SB>IC

i still not done SP. and i will one dya go back for some HF ones i guess just to do em for achievements.

i play little as you know and this helped as my whole grind to 80 was on rested. reckon i got 80 just b4 xmas. took 4-5 weeks.

found it very easy compared to the old days of levelling.

and yes QH is God !

i think i got 80 in ice crown. i did absolutely every q i could find levelling.

started in BT>DB>GH>ZD>SB>ICDid you not have any rest XP? I can't see how you had to complete 2 more zones than I did to reach 80. Plus you leveled in higher level zones which give more XP than the zones I leveled in. I only ran 2, maybe 3, 5-mans before I reached lvl 80. So, it is not like I earned lots of XP from group stuff. And as a Druid I go out of my way not to kill anything more than I have to in order to complete a quest. So, I didn't have all that many unnecessary kills while leveling either.

Weird.

FWIW, I have since finished all the quests in ZD and SB. I'm working on SP now...

I also hit 80 by the time I was in SB, but I did not try to hit every quest. I did the ones that were convenient for me. I did run ~15-20 5-man instances though too.

I went BT (only did about 50% the quests), then DB (75%-80%), then GH (40%), ZD(30%), SB (65%-75%)...and hit lvl 80.

Yeah, I did every quest in BT, HF, DB, GH and about 30-40 in ZD. I do think I might have run a few more than 3 5-mans. Maybe 4-5. I had full rest the entire time.

i dinged 80 in Storm Peaks. I ran almost all the quests in BT, almost all in DB, some in GH, all in ZD, and all in SB, and only ran maybe 3 instances... I definitely still have quests left in Storm Peaks, but i've started questing in IC to get my Knights of the Ebon Blade area open...

at some point, im sure i'll go back and finish the rest of Northrend, and possibly even go back and finish BC...

wow... it has just occurred to me that im buying into the achievement system a lot more than i thought i *ever* would.

Did you not have any rest XP? I can't see how you had to complete 2 more zones than I did to reach 80.
yes tlb - as i mentioned i had rested for basically the whole of my levelling as i dont play that much.

possibly i hit 80 in SB then ? hmm my memory is suspect these days...

just looked and i hit 80 on 16th December.

hehe Well I started in Borean about, oh maybe a week and a half ago or so.

I went from Borean to Howling Fjord. I know...I know. But the kills went incredibly quickly and I plowed through the quests very fast. I did almost all of Dragonblight and then after that it was Sholazar Basin(omg WOW) and then I'm sitting in Zul'Drak right now. I've had about my fill of the cursed Scourge too! Grrr!

I had taken about 2 months off, leaving my druid in the Inn in Shat the entire time, so I was maxed out on Rest XP when I came back. It was probably the best thing I could have done. (My alts are also all maxed out on Rest XP- so this should be an awesome few weeks for my lil ladies!)

So, I sit one less than one bubble away from 80. I just ran out of time to complete the last handful of quests that would have pushed me to 80. If I did have the time, I don't know if I could have handled one more quest. I had two or three that I just could not complete.

But, I'll go back to that. For now, I want to do some research for pre-heroic gear. :) I can't WAIT!

so you've not done GH Dest ? I enjoyed that zone.

rested XP and QH/TomTom made it very easy to level compared to the grind to 60 in the old original Wow days.....

yeah a pre-heroic gear list would be good, dont think i have seen one specifically anywhere.....

I know someone posted it in response to my question, but I can't find it to save my life. I did see your list and thank you :)

I'll do some research on getting mats and stuff to get my lil bear geared better.

I'm not going to lie. I'm SO glad the grind is over.
I had a lot of fun in SB. Reminded me a lot of Nagrand, and I ADORED Nagrand!

One of my beloved guildies calls me his Pocket Tank. :) So, I assume they'll keep me busy and get me really well practiced on being a "good" tank. I can't wait! This'll be the first time I'll be able to experience "end game" for longer than a month! lol

I had a lot of fun in SB. Reminded me a lot of Nagrand, and I ADORED Nagrand!I haven't done much in Ice Crown or SP, but I, too, think SB was one of my favorite zones. And maybe GH (it looked really cool).

I plan on going back to get the Loremaster Achievement eventually, so I'm sure I'll get to see them all.

I hope to see them all, anyway.

SB was quite fun and i really like GH.

Have to admit i'm another Nagrand fan. My 'home' inn was in Nagrand for many months in BC. I used to sit outside, above the inn on my Cenarion Hippogryph and see how many people asked me about the mount ;)

Is the Loremaster the one for doing all quests everywhere ? I'd like that one.

Someone got a Seer one the other day which i think they said is for doing 3000 quests ? (not sure if that includes dailys or not ?)

I'm sitting at a little over 2300 quests done iirc.

I ought to look at the achievements in more detail and maybe aim for a few ! All that happens is suddenly one flashes up that i was totally unaware of ! lol.

Yeah, Loremaster is for completing X amount of quests in each of the old world kingdoms, Outlands, and Northrend. Some of them are really tough. Took me FOREVER to find the last few in Dragonblight.

I should try and quest to get that one out of the way. I just haven't forced myself to do it. I've been rockin' my pally lately.

And the achievements seem to happen like that for me too, Khel. The "Going Down?!" achievement was a complete accident! I fell into a gorge in winterspring while working toward my frostsaber mount and it flashed across the screen, followed by many "Grats Des!" in guild chat. Yes! Congratulate the clumsy druid who was too dumb to stop auto-run in time not to fall into a gigantic hole in the ground! woot!

I'm going to try and make the time to finish up the final few for my Nagrand Slam. I just can't seem to find one of the quest givers in Shadowmoon who starts a chain that eventually leads you back to finish up Nagrand. Maybe if I paid more attention...

I must be close to Loremaster - i reckon the only place i need to complete q's is HF cos i've not done any there to date.

pretty sure i've done all the quest achievements for each zone in Azeroth and Outlands.

the best achievement i've got recently was a sudden flash on the screen a couple days ago....i was doing my 3 daily's from Shadow Vault up at the village - using the harpoon guns, planting banners in dead people etc when suddenly i come face to face with a levitating big elite taskmistress type of mob.

although 80 elite she only had like 18k HP ? so i thought np and waded on it......she died easily and suddenly it flashed up an achievement - whose name escapes me but its one you get for killing a very rare mob - and there is a big list of them on the achievement.

LOL Des - if only your guildies knew the full story they would not have been saying 'gratz', more like 'n00b' ;)

i had a lot of trouble with Nagrand - i think i ended up doing it after wrath came out when i actually went into AC for someone doing something and completed the last quest i needed.

i also had to wait around to find the rare NPC who you have to help save in NE Nagrand.

Mm, a quest in AC...I'll have to check into that! I'm missing 3 there I think. I'm a little jealous. I'm nowhere NEAR the Loremaster. I've been too busy screwing off every chance I get. I can't tell you guys about my antics because it involves torturing hordelings, and I don't want to get banned from here or have you guys seeking me out on my own server to destroy me. PvE server FTW!

I got a few "Des- duh...noob"'s from them when I explained what happened.

I SUPPOSE I should find a way to be useful. Though, I did take some guild-mate alts through Ramps and UB last night. They got gear and a cheese mints out of it, so, that makes me useful, right?

actually i'm not as close to it as I thought.

so that's something else to add to the list of things to do sometime when i have time ! go back and finish off old quests in places ! like Azeroth!

yeah i'd not run AC or the other one (not Sethhek) very much so i did find a couple quests for them instances. you could go back now and solo em probably on normal !

indeed Des, that makes you a very useful guildie running lower level 5 m,ans to help out alts :)

i'm sure i speak for us all when i say we'd love to hear about your antics :)

The antics...gosh I could write a series of novels on my noobish antics.

I've learned a few things though. A druid with an incendiary device does NOT work the same as a rogue with "Distract." Who knew?

Anyway, I might be a little more quiet for awhile. I don't know what's wrong lately- if it's RL stuff, guild drama, other in game drama...but I'm feeling like it might be time for hibernation again. There's been some guild drama as of late, which has caused so much tension. It's making people miserable, and I think it's just time to leave. It's just heartbreaking to leave so many good friends behind- people that "raised me" as a druid. It's been really depressing to log in and I'm not really enjoying any of my toons, so I'm probably going to hibernate awhile.

I'll try and keep in touch through this thread if you'd like. I could tell tales of Des-uber-noobishness...

Des u cant go away again ! /hug

lol Khel, the only reason you want me to stay is for my epic noobishness.

My arrow keys stick. Ok, ONE of my arrow keys sticks from time to time. That would be my forward Arrow key...No, I don't use the letter keys to move and I play on my laptop, so mouse navigation isn't really fun...

At any rate, one time, with a PuG I was getting ready to pull the group of 4 guys in H:UK in the room with Prince Valanar. I was just out of range of a trash pull with FFF so I figured I'd just inch closer. My fwd arrow key stuck and I ended up getting the 4 mobs, plus the Prince. I couldn't get my bear to STOP running...so I ended up running around in circles the entire time and party chat looked something like this:

<healer> Dest what the hell...
<me> I dunno, just RUN!
<DPS1> Des?
<me> Don't be a hero, just run!
<healer> I'll try and heal you through...
<me> Please just run...please?
<DPS2> I'm ok with dying just to watch this...this is hilarious!
<DPS3> Me too! ROFLOL

*sigh* Me and two of the DPS stayed and died...I'm sure there were many ROFLOL's had at my (and my gear's) expense.

Afterward, the healer was like, "You know, you could have just hit the back arrow to stop auto run"

Then I had to explain that the arrow key stuck, and that the only way to not run like a fool was to hold the back arrow key...which isn't conducive to a successful boss fight or trash pull...the one DPS still sends tells if he sees me on.

I've been kind of half-heartedly playing lately, not really getting in to many Heroics.

I also realized that on the Sartharion fight, I should NEVER try to DPS it. Those lava walls might not kill me, but group leaders might. They posted a recount type thing of who was hit by the walls and how many times. Finally the RL marked one of our Melee dps and pst's me saying, "Just stay on Diamond, he'll keep you safe...you poor thing!" At least they didn't boot me, right?

lol Khel, the only reason you want me to stay is for my epic noobishness.


We need MOORRREEE stories! :grin:

Serg, there's just so many...it's hard to remember them all...

I should probably keep a diary of my epic fails to bring them to you guys to enjoy.

Are you all just looking for the epic Desdruid fails? Or are you wanting to hear my alt failures too?

Just wanting to know if I should make note of them all or just the druid tanking fails LOL

lol Khel, the only reason you want me to stay is for my epic noobishness.

not true not true.

we loves you lots

/hands Des bunch of Talindra's Roses

We need MOORRREEE stories! :grin:

oh my yes.

i'm ready and waiting Des....:epopcorn:


Are you all just looking for the epic Desdruid fails? Or are you wanting to hear my alt failures too?

omg, you mean you have epic fails on multiple characters, its not just with the druid :rolling:

in that case we're sorted for stories for the next couple years :)

just so we can get in the right frame of mind Des tell us a list of alts so can we anticipate the sorts of stories.....ie dps noobishness with a mage or stealth noobishness with a rogue ? maybe some kiting noobishness with a hunter ?!

oh my the possibilities are endless !

In fact if you dont have a particular type of alt Des i think we'd all vote that you roll on now :)

:texla:

Hey Des... it's not YOUR epic-fails we like.
They happen to all of us all the time.
It just gives us the feeling "yeah i know what u mean". ;)

Here is one of mine:
Sarth 25. About 2 1/2 hours of trying have passed. Everyone gets frustraded.
I'm MT and am positioning sartharion.
After moving cause of a fire-wall sartharions position is really crappy (dont ask me why he even moved... shouldnt have done it).
So Serg thinks: "He's Flame-Breath comes about every 15-30 secs. This is enough time to bring him back in position"
So im waiting for the next breath to come.
I eat the breath and start moving sartharion towards the raid.
5 sec have passed and suddenly i see a castbar on sarth with "FLAME BREATH". 2 sec later 18 man are down.
Raidleader: "Serg what was that"
Me: "Seemed there was a slight miscalculation in my plan..."
10 ppl: ".... serg u noob. we should shave his fur...."
RL: "btw... WHY are u the only one alive???"
Me: "i blew my cooldowns and made it into the portal of the subboss" (sarth despawns if u are in there and no one else is alive :icon_lol: )
RL: "serg....... I HATE U"

:band:

:lmao: Serg, sounds like a Des move...(I got my group knocked around with his tail while trying to position Sarth my first time in there)...

And yes, I have a few alts. I have a holy paladin (2), a warlock (8), a mage (10), a warrior (21 or 22) and a priest (6). Sadly, they're all below level 24 right now. They haven't really been able to fail too much, as their instancing is somewhat limited because of their level.

I'll have to really start probing for stories of noobishness...

In H: DtK, I was trying to pull some of the raptors out of King Dred's little pen, but I was prowling into the place in kitty form, FFF, then running out and popping into bear. Not a bad plan if you get into bear fast enough.

Also not a bad plan if you AVOID pulling Dred + 4 adds. Normally I'm able to get all but one or two of them out of the pen before pulling him. Not sure what I was thinking, but I ended up pulling him and 4 raptors, and I was so panicked that I'd completely forgotten to switch into dire bear...yes...we wiped.

Another noob story from the ever noobish Des...

Last night we hit Vault-10. We were working on clearing trash. We pulled two of those guardians that cause the stones to crash from the ceiling. I'm not sure what happened, but when the MT finished with his trash mob, he told me I needed to let him taunt mine off of me. No problem, right?

Wrong. Des-noob tried to hit frenzied regen and hit Growl instead, thus causing the trash mob to come back and one shot me. No one else died, it was just me, but they were lol-ing on vent about it.

*sigh* More to come I'm sure. And BTW, if all of your armor is yellow, you should NOT jump from Wintergrasp, over the edge and into SB to avoid getting destroyed by a B.Elf Hunter... Why? 52 gold repair bill. That's why. *double sigh*

Des u are not the only one. I have plenty of them too. :biggrin:

STORY ON
----------
It was a wonderful afternoon.
I was pretty confident, that i have almost all heroic-gear there is for me and feel ready to kick some Archavon ass (for the first time).
So there i am, joining this raid for archavon 25 as MT.
They posted the Teamspeak-data. i copied and wanted to connect.... "error. server not found" .....
I tried 3 times and then gave up.
I thought "Pah. No need for TS. Archavon is just tank and spank"

So the fight started and i did a pretty good job. Suddenly archavon jumped away from me to another player.
Me thinking "oh no, u wont... come back here" *serg charging at him*
So i was standing there and tanked and tanked.
There was just 2 thoughts i had at in this time:
1) "whats that cloud doing on the ground around me? is this maybe a DK-ability?"
2) "why the hell is there so much damage on the raid incoming?? he is just hitting me."

The fight ended with 13 ppl alive. I got my deadly-gladi-gloves said thx and went to our guild-TS back.
Suddenly a guildie who was with me in the raid came into my channel laughing like hell.
Me: "why are u so laughing??"
guildie: "didn't you here anything in the raid??"
me: "nope... couldn't connect to the server"
guildie: "and what about your chat-window"
me: "i'm in the tab where i see my damage. why?"
*serg switching tabs and scrolling up*

player 1: "Druidserg get out of that cloud. it does damage to everyone in it"
player 2: "Hey tank, get out of the cloud"
player 3: "omg noob, OUT OF THE CLOUD"
player 1: "are u dumb or something!!!!!!"
player 4: "what a noob...."
player 2: "we should put him on ignore"
guildie: "that doesnt look like him.... he is normally a skilled player"
player 2: "i dont care... TANK... get your f.... ass out of the cloud"
.
.
.
.
and so on.


guildie: "you should have heard the flames the players yelled at you in TS... they wished u to hell!"
me: "ehm... puh... well i got my gloves" *cheers*
-------------
STORY OFF
:eusa_booh

The fight ended with 13 ppl alive. I got my deadly-gladi-gloves said thx and went to our guild-TS back.

this is the point were i stopped reading...

kidding... gratz on the Vault love :)

Omg Serg! LOL! Grats on your gloves! lol

Still, sounds like a Des move. A month or so ago- I did the same thing on the one boss in ZA with a PuG raid that was mostly their for the achievement, since there's really not much other reason to run that raid these days...

This one Boss there has an AoE that looks similar to Consecrate. We had a pally OT and a DK there, so between the two of them, I didn't really realize there was a huge AoE destroying the DPS. The healer we had was a complete a%$#@!~ though, and was swearing and belittling us all, but it wasn't until I got nasty back that he told me what the actual issue was.

We never finished the raid because the group disintegrated because of that ONE jerk. But in my defense...with a pally and a DK, not to mention the two warlocks, the mage, and the boomkin druid there...it was REALLY hard to see anything the boss might have been throwing versus the AoE's our group was throwing down...and had I seen it, I'd have moved the boss.

Ah well...I guess that's partially a noob story, partially a "Des logged off and cried on her husdruid's shoulder because of some of the AWFUL things that healer/raid leader said to her."

I'd never been in ZA before that, and I've not been back since...

Here is a short one!

Serg at Malygos 25 MTing.
Our tactic:
Position Malygos with the tale in the direction of the spark after landing from his cyclone thingy.
RL says the direction in teamspeak.

Malygos landing:
Raidleader: "Spark in northwest"
serg a little brain-afk thinking: "what uhh ehhmm northwest?? ok... northwest it is"
At the next breath i saw why running NW as tank was a bad idea. :D


@Des: i have sooooo much of them too. :flipbg:

I think it's the mistakes we make that keep the game fun and light-hearted. Don't get me wrong...I love a perfect raid/heroic/instance run as much as the next person. Believe me, I do.

But when you make some sort of weird mistake that makes people laugh, even if you wipe, it's almost "worth it" if that makes sense.

We're going into Naxx again hopefully this weekend. I'm sure I'll return Monday morning with some "ZOMG I'm SUCH a noob" stories for you. If not, then I must be slipping!

Another short one:
Naxx 25 -> Sapphiron -> MT:
Sapphiron is in the air and casting iceblocks.
As usual i pop out of bear to through around some HoTs.
Run behind a block and look at the raidframes -> 2 ppl very low.
So i cast some regrowths + nourish on them to help out the healers.
Sapphiron lands, im running towards him pressing my hotkey for bear-form with nothing happening.
My mana-bar is laughing at me showing me a value of 240. :rolleyes:

Since then i always have some mana-pots with me... just in case. :elfbiggri

Lol s3R - bet the raid loved you charging him down brandishing your trusty 2H staff :rolleyes:

My mana-bar is laughing at me showing me a value of 240.I haven't had that happen to me yet in bear form, but it has happened often when doing Kitty DPS. Rebirth, heal or two, MotW...."Damn I can't shift back into cat, WTF?"....mana potion...shift.

I have another one with mana issues:

1-2 hour of sarth +3 trys. All gear is yellow so the whole raid goes reping. I shift into birdie, fly up shift into cat, dash to the rep-guy -> dash runs out so i shift into human-form. put some hots on myself. jumping down to the entrance and pressing the flightform-key............................................... .....

1 min later:
Raidleader: "Serg pull"
Me: "I cant"
Raidleader: "why?"
Me: "Cause im still outside"
Raidleader: "wtf... why?"
*clicking on the NPC to repair my stuff*
Me: "Don't ask...."
:blow:

Serg, you are adorable! I <3 you!

I wish there were more out there like you, particularly either in my guild or on my server!

i think we have a valid contest here for the achievement 'most n00by story' and with goes the much sought after title

'Druid of the n00b'

so you could be :

Destinae, Druid of the N00b
or
s3Rio, Druid of the N00b


:flipbg:

:epopcorn:

I don't know. It would be a close contest. Serg sounds like he's a little more experienced in being a "non-noob"...

I'm pretty sure my title of Desn00b still holds strong if you ask friends on server...

Since there's no Doomkin one's I will share mine...

On "The Instructor" Boss one, wing 3 25-man going for the "no deaths" achievement.

Having completed wings 1 & 2 on a previous day, and successfully dancing without losing a single one the raid is feeling pretty good about this achievement (I missed wings 1&2, out sick :( ). Healer are being overly careful, and running as a true to form, careless DPS a second boomkin and I are razzing each other about DPS.

We got to pull the group of 6 or so before the boss, a perfect opportunity for some 10k + AoE DPS action right???? WRONG.

Having skirted the left side of the room to avoid unneeded pulls on the right my fat chicken but was pressed up against the wall of the "Instructor's" pit.

An what would any cocky careless boomkin do? You guessed it, Starfall! Rasuvious and his four henchmen then made quick work of me and the raid.

...I wore the nipple of shame the rest of the raid and to this day am told to remove starfall from my action bar when raiding boomkin. Some folks are just meant to be bears I guess.

An what would any cocky careless boomkin do? You guessed it, Starfall! Rasuvious and his four henchmen then made quick work of me and the raid.Not to derail this fun thread, but is Starfall primarily an AoE/trash spell? I thought I read it could be used on single targets as well, but I'm not sure I understood the post...

LOL Solar! That's awesome! I've not yet been assigned a nipple of shame, but our guild doesn't have that so...

We'll have to get the rest of these druids who are pretending they've never noobed something up to judge our stories if this contest should ever come to fruition.

@ Tlbj, it's hard to derail a noob-train...we're hardly on track to begin with...

Not to derail this fun thread, but is Starfall primarily an AoE/trash spell? I thought I read it could be used on single targets as well, but I'm not sure I understood the post...


I only use starfall on AoE trash. You many be confusing it with "Starfire" which is the boomkin's #1 single target DPS spell.

I can't see a practical use for Starfall on a single taget. It hits all mobs within 30 yd of the druid (360 degree, to my demise, regardless of distance up or down). Hits each mob for ~500 a tick or so with a +2k spellpower set. Ends up being like a 30% boost vs just hurricane I think. Thats a rough guestimate though. I think my hurricane hits for 1k-1.5k per tick.

Starfall can be built in your rotation for single-targets.
Cause it's not challenging you will trade 1 GCD for a lot of damage!

BTW: I made a friend build me a mana- and health-potion-injector just in case of recent stories. :)

Starfall can be built in your rotation for single-targets.
Cause it's not challenging you will trade 1 GCD for a lot of damage!

BTW: I made a friend build me a mana- and health-potion-injector just in case of recent stories. :)

I suppose if you are fighting single mobs for an extended period of time, starfall would be a decent addition. That being said, once its proc'd it is almost impossible to fight a single mob. The nature of the spell is to slap everything in a large area.

I almost never use the spell outside of raid (except to farm / Hodir daily's) Its great for aggroing everything and then just hurricane it all down.

Aww, you guys are getting all serious again... :(

BTW: I made a friend build me a mana- and health-potion-injector just in case of recent stories. :)

No im not. :texla:

:D

Good! I don't know if I have any great noob stories this morning. I didn't play much last night at all.

I'm sure I'll have some stories for you after Naxx if I go tonight...

U have time till monday! I'm not often around here on weekends. ;)

Same. I only poke around here while at work during the week.

There are some RL issues that actually might prevent me from playing much, but RL > WoW. (My husdruid mentioned going out...on a DATE...instead of hanging out at home...which means I'll probably miss the raids this weekend)...but we could really use the "us" time right now so...

So if I don't have many stories for you from the weekend, I'll be sure to get caught back up on my Noob Quota during the week next week... :ange:

yeah i noticed it goes quiet as a graveyard at the weekends !

zomg a date ! outside of Wow !!

Go Go Go Des ! :rose:

The "date" didn't end up being a date really.../sigh. Maybe someday. A girl can dream, can't she?

I did manage to noob up Naxx, but nothing too serious. In the room with the widow, I was supposed to just pull the little spiders that skitter through the room...but I ended up with the spiders and one of the groups of casters.

We recovered, though. And I didn't end up going back the following night to finish. I just stayed logged out and watched some hockey. We lost. No surprises there... (I'm a Sabres fan, for those of you familiar with the NHL). *cry* Doesn't look like we're going to make it to the playoffs again this year.

I'm starting to think I should have stayed hibernating in my little cub cave for awhile longer...

sorry to hear that Des.

drop hints for another weekend :)

you can hibnerate in the winter ! tis spring so time to get out and about :)

we be doing BBQ's soon i hope :)

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I just need to take some time off I think. Maybe go on a real date...or two...

Dropping hints = Epic Fail. I think his idea of date night is going into Naxx together, where mine would be going out and experiencing something new that we haven't done together yet...or even something we've done before...wouldn't matter to me. Just so long as I'm not caged up in the house so much.

We all know what happens when you keep a big old bear caged up for too long...

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I just need to take some time off I think. Maybe go on a real date...or two...

Dropping hints = Epic Fail. I think his idea of date night is going into Naxx together, where mine would be going out and experiencing something new that we haven't done together yet...or even something we've done before...wouldn't matter to me. Just so long as I'm not caged up in the house so much.

We all know what happens when you keep a big old bear caged up for too long...
sorry to hear that, i'd be out on my ear if i put wow first. hence why i do not raid etc now.

he sounds very into wow and raiding !

sound like you need to get away for a long weekend somewhere....

indeed we do, the damn Bear chews your carpet to shreds ! :biggrin:

Yeppers! Us bears get destructive and a bit ornery when we're caged for too long!

I suppose it's just a matter of us enjoying different things. He enjoys games and stuff, I prefer long walks and cuddling. You know, the cutsie stuff that makes other people sick to their stomach.

And I don't really shred the house too much... I do, however shred the husdruid when I'm feeling caged. RAWR!

I'll have to go fail a few heroics tonight to get some n00b stories for Serg. I didn't log in much at all this weekend, so I've got to make up for that...maybe some good n00b episodes will bring me back into the game. Who knows?

Well, Des. I've got one not by my druid, but instead by my Huntard!

I just hit 80 ~7-10 days ago. Thought, I would just jump in 25-VoA LFG, cause its cake and I could get some nice epics/Valor Emblems.

After convincing the RL to bring a hunter in blues and greens, we get to the last pull before the boss, and I watch my pretty little wasp go whizzing right past my target to the boss.

Oops, about 15 people demanding I be kicked were thankfully ignored, and we downed the boss with little effort after that, but needless to say, I felt oh so stupid!

I am sure my hunter is now on about half the servers "never talk to again list" but heh...mistakes happen.

Grats on 80!

I've been with hunters with aggressive pets. Not a huge deal so long as the tanks and healers are paying attention. Like I said, none of my alts are really high enough to cause much of a commotion.

Though, I did end up in stockades with my level 22 Holy Pally...alone. Why? I got invited for Deadmines to heal, but somewhere in my head I got stuck on the notion that I was going to Stocks instead. So there I sat. Alone inside the instance portal. Finally, I was like "Well aren't you guys coming?"

They reply with, "We're already here...at DEADMINES.../sigh"

Ooooh...DeadMines...oops! So I took off and raced to deadmines. It's a good thing they were a forgiving group in need of a healer. /facepalm! Many lolz at my pally's expense...

I just hit 80 ~7-10 days ago. Thought, I would just jump in 25-VoA LFG, cause its cake and I could get some nice epics/Valor Emblems.

so you signature needs updating Solar :gratz01:

Grats on 80!

I've been with hunters with aggressive pets. Not a huge deal so long as the tanks and healers are paying attention.

Thanks btw.

There in lies the embarassing part...the pet wasn't on aggressive. I just somehow managed to target the boss when I was trying to target the trash mob, and then clicked my mark/attack macro...I can't blame anything but my own "oops".

Oh...hmm...yeah I imagine that's a little more scary. It's happened to me before though, where I'll be targeted on the wrong thing and hit FFF. Next thing I know I've got a bunch of mobs on me, or worse, a Boss...plus every mob in the room.

I still <3 you Solar. You should have just told them you thought the group was absolute letesauce, and that you didn't think taking on the boss and the trash would be much of an issue for them.

It never hurts to try and fluff some egos after an "Ooops!"

I feel your pain guys:
I remember some situations where im in 5mans with my mage and i tab for the next target -> cast frostbold -> and thinking "oh ****" as my spell flys away with almost 90° -> just shouting "RUN".

BTW i have another story from yesterday Sarth +3:
While trash im always in kitty-gear cause 3 tanks are enough :-D
(it was respawn, we did about 15-20 trys before )

So trash is down and we go on Sarth again.
I pull and notice: "hmmm 28k hp is not that much for my resi-gear...."
I start shouting "RUN. I'm in kitty-gear"
*no one moves*
"Hey guys... RUUUUNNNN"
*2nd drake landing when i notice my mic is muted*
"ehm guys... im in kitty gear... get your f... asses out of here!!"
people start to panic and run towards entrance but are brain afk and run not behind sarth, but through me in front of him -> a smile comes on my face when i see sarths castbar for breath :D

after the flames i got for not having the right gear on and some flames cause i didnt die because i ran into portal,
it was a very nice evening. 2 drakes down and 3rd at 60%.
:dance:

PS: those try-evenings hurt your gold bad. i had about 200-300g rep-costs.

So, I suppose it's a good thing that I'm just always in bear gear. I don't really have any "good" kitty gear for 80 yet.

Although...I have a noob story for you along those lines, Serg...

After having tried H:AN a few times and failing epically on the first trash pull in the beginning (The poisons are INSANE), we decided we'd wait until our guild as a whole was a little better geared so we could just burn through it.

I sometimes like to play dress up with my toons. So there I am, prancing around Darnassus in my "Pretty Black Dress" and I get whispered: "Des, will you tank H:AN? We've got an amazing group for it!"

My reply?: "TOTALLY! Let's DO this!"

They summon me, I plop into bear form, we buff up and blammo, we're ready to go! I pull the first group and it was like..."Destinae has died." almost instantly!

The ret pally took over and the tree battle rezzed me, so I jump back into bear form and go at it again. Instantly dead again. So, everyone runs to the instance door, I release spirit and walk back.

When we regrouped just inside the instance door, our shaman looks at me and says, "Des, what the hell are you wearing?"

I look at my character screen and reply: "A...pretty...black...dress....omg I'm SO sorry!!!"

We didn't make it through the entire instance. We didn't make it past the first trash pull...I have this feeling they didn't take me so seriously after that. Our group quickly disintegrated. /cry

I had a similar situation, with a better result in H-Gundrak.

I was chilling at my bank trying to assemble a boomkin PVP set (setting up my "outfitter") when I got a tell from some distressed guildies who had a noob sauce tank with them that just bailed after a few wipes on the the snake boss.

Now, druids are not ideal for this guy, but we can make it happen. We cleared the instance only dying once, when just before the Rhino we were buffing and one of my guildies asks..."Solar, do they make tanking daggers now?"...sheepishly I replied..."oops".

Tanked everymob in there (except the Rhino boss) in my spell power set. So, I guess this is more a story of Noob meets OP druid modifiers.

To be noted, my boomkin set at the time was all leather and PvP type gear so it had all the Stam/armor I needed, it was just a miracle that I was able to hold threat over anything!

Caster-bears...fun FTW!

I still believe that our silly mistakes are what make the game the most fun. I doubt that my Black Dress group will forget that "noob bear" they took with them. LOL

LOLpanzerkin tank :)

So I learned a valuable lesson last night on the 3 pull at the end of the Drake Trainer hall in H:UK.

If I tab-target and growl, and the mob doesn't respond...I'm obviously on the WRONG target...

3-pull: Two Drake Trainers, One Drake. The "extra" trainer decides to destroy our Healer, so the fury warrior picks him up and tells me to taunt off him.

I tab target from the drake onto the trainer. I growl. Nothing happens. O.o

I growl again. He keeps eating the warrior.

Hmm...so...hmm....

Turns out, both trainers were at about the same % of HP remaining, so when I tab targeted after the warrior brought the extra one toward me to pull him- I'd targeted the WRONG trainer...so I'm trying every threat gen move I can THINK of...on ... the wrong...trainer...(hangs head in shame)

I got him off of the warrior but it took longer than it should have really, the warrior was precariously low on HP by the time I taunted the thing off of him...

After the fight, our healer says: "Des, were you trying to make sure I was awake hun?"

Me: "No, I noobed it up. Really really sorry.../cry"

We didn't have even one casualty during the whole instance though, so I suppose it wasn't that bad...but for a few moments I was completely baffled as to why my taunts weren't working at all...

When the **** hits the fan, you can always use Challenging Roar. That forces all mobs to attack you for 6s. However, it does not move you to the top of their threat table like growl does. But usually CR followed by a couple of swipes will has the same effect as growl.

It has a long cooldown (though I think there is a glyph to make it shorter), but given I use it maybe once a month it doesn't really matter.

FWIW, while I tab target for just about everything else, I don't do it for growl. Espeically now that you can growl things at range.

The only reason I didn't use Challenging Roar was because we were a little too close to another group of mobs and I was afraid they'd jump into the fray.

At least I'm allowed to have feral charge on my hot bar again. I was "grounded" from feral charge for a little while...

Des - i'm missing my 'noob' stories from you !

its been several days and i'm getting cold turkey ! :p

And you must explain why you was a grounded from feral charge bear.......

That's just one of my many "forbidden fruits" I think.

I was just allowed to put Feral Charge back into my rotation. :D Very exciting for this little cub.

But the reason I wasn't "allowed" to use it is because during one of my early on and rougher heroic runs- I hit Feral Charge rather than Enrage (they were right next to each other and I was nervous and just mistakenly hit the wrong one).

I believe it was in H: DtK...where there are those Abominations surrounded by ghouls? At any rate, I zoomed into the room full speed and pulled just about EVERYTHING in the room on me. Anything I didn't pull when I burst into the room was probably just too busy laughing at me to attack. Needless to say, it was an instant wipe because the healer just couldn't keep up with the damage I was taking. No one was mad really the first time it happened. When I went into another Heroic later on, and ended up doing almost the exact same thing, I was urged to remove it from my bar, or at least reposition the ability so I wouldn't be so apt to mess things up.

I dunno. Just nerves + Noob = wipe sometimes I guess....

BTW- the Black Dress Tanking Incident still haunts me.

We PuG'd for H:UK per my healer's request Sunday night. So when everyone gets summoned and we're just inside the instance portal getting buffed and ready to go, I get a whisper that says...

Puggle: "Oh, hey! I thought your name looked familiar!"
Me: "Have we grouped before?"
Puggle: "Totally! I'm surprised you're not wearing your black dress today though..."
Me: "Oh boy...yeah can we just keep that on the DL?"
Puggle: "lol"

/sigh

Don't worry Khel. I'm sure I'll continue creating chapters for my saga...

/waves as Des
/welcome back

:)

Lol, at least your n00bness means you are remembered and not in danger of ever being forgotten :)

but at least now you are able to change your char name if you need to ;)

It's just too bad I'm not being remembered for my successes. I'm being remembered mainly as "Yeah I ran with her, she's really fun...she tried to tank in a lovely black dress for H:AN...LOLZ"

Oi! Someday I'll figure it all out. Until then, I guess I'll keep you all entertained with my noob sagas.

BTW Guys, I was looking back at the old Polls and there was one about what your droods look like...

Maybe I'll submit a photo of my lil Dessy for you guys to ROFLOL at lol!

I think I'm going to go resto for a new brand of n00bish fun...

Seems like all of our trees are running scared because of the upcoming changes, and threatening to become DPS. Maybe it's time to play a new role for the little bear?

good luck.

i cant stand the idea of healing on my druid.

loving oomkin though.

spent a fortune today on more gear for him.

Hehe, healing isn't so bad. Its kinda boring in the larger settings, but that may change.

I am just curious how they plan to balance the mana regen in 25man without absolutley destroying it in 5/10 man?

well Solar, in the early days way way back when ferals in raids were a joke i spent my entire 40 man raiding career as a healer with no healing talents !

dont want to do it now.

Yeah, our druid healers are getting ready to go DPS- one wants to go boomkin, the other feral. All because of the forthcoming changes.../sigh

We'll need good healers again and none of my alts are really even close to 80 (one is 22 the other is 12). I doubt I'll end up switching because I would have to tank to earn badges to get the resto gear, or spend gold I don't even have to try and get crafted/AH items. So...I'm sort of in limbo right now.

I don't really know what I want or should do...

A question just occurred to me...How is it that you can tell a "healer piece" from a "caster DPS piece"? There are some people in guild that just, instinctively know...and I'll stare at the stats and be like Hmm...yeah...err...Hmm? O.o?

curious question really...I'm going to start building a resto set for dual spec (if not sooner) and I'm really not even going to pretend I know the first thing about it. Which is why I said earlier that this'll be an entirely NEW brand of Desnoobishness!

For gear:
Hit - DPS
Crit - could go either way, probably prefers DPS pre-3.1
MP5/Spirit - healing

But these are not set in stone - hit does almost nothing for a Resto, while Balance still gets some benefit from regen stats. IMO if a piece is an upgrade for you, it's an upgrade, regardless if it's optimal itemization for your role or not.

Which is why I said earlier that this'll be an entirely NEW brand of Desnoobishness!
can't wait Des :)

Yeah as Raging says i'm looking for gear with crit (and hit if i raided) for my new oomkin gear.

Whereas for healing set i'd be wanting spirit and mp5.

For examples look at the LW crafted epic gear :

Windripper - Oomkin
Earthgiving - Resto

See the main differences between these. I've got the Windripper legs in my oomkin set but i'd need the Earthgiving to be optimal for healing.

Just look to take any nice item from 5 mans or raiding that no one wants for your heal set. you can worry about how optimal it is post 3.1.

Seems like resto is yet another forbidden fruit for my druid...No one I know wants me to switch specs. I'll keep working on my healadin though. He's such a refreshing change of pace from tanking all the time (even though he's only lvl 27). He's my little sanctuary from the ever-frustrating end game PuGatory my druid seems to be stuck in.

Since I'll be staying bear, can anyone recommend sites where I can learn strategies for 5-man Heroics and Raid tanking? I've been through tankspot.com and they don't seem to have much on the 5-mans, just raid tanking (which is awesome...but I really need easy badges and have yet to see some of the end game heroic fun).

I'll continue to search, but was just curious if any of my fellow cubs had recommendations. I'm sure I'll manage to screw up the strategies, so I figured I'd ask here so I can have the ever hopeful "Oh those strategies sound great" followed by...So, I tried to ... and I noobed it...

Des, you have to do what you want to do....not what others want or dont want you to do......

i've not done many heroics yet but the ones i have dont seem to need much in the way of strategies in the same way that proper raids do ?

apart from that bloody annoying VW boss in VH !

we romped through UK last nite in a little over 30 mins. only been there about 3 times in total ! tank and spank....dead bosses.....take loot.

Since I'll be staying bear, can anyone recommend sites where I can learn strategies for 5-man Heroics and Raid tanking? I've been through tankspot.com and they don't seem to have much on the 5-mans, just raid tanking (which is awesome...but I really need easy badges and have yet to see some of the end game heroic fun).



Well, I have to start by saying, you should really play the role you want. It almost sounds like you and Husdruid have different goals in WoW. Sounds like he enjoys the "hardcore" raiding experience while you enjoy the "Casual Heroics" more. Thus causing you undue tensions.

Anyway, my favorite strategy site for all tanking is:

Tankspot.com

They focus alot more on Raid content now, but if you dig back into the archives, you will find some good stuff on heroics too.

I love Tankspot! I've been studying like a druid crazed to learn as much as I possibly can before this weekend. I'm running with another guild as a PuG tank and they're expecting big things out of this bear. (I think their expectations might be a LITTLE high...but we shall see).

As far as going resto, I will eventually head there. I have to tank to earn badges and farm resto drops.

I've been told by resto druids on server that Mp5 is where it's at...but then in Resto4life- she says Mp5 is bad...so, that leaves me confused...

With the forthcoming Druid changes, I'm not sure which direction to go anymore...feral kitty? Bleh...

Hehe, Dest. Druids are very complex little creatures. And to be honest there is a post out there that will tell you each stat is the best!

As for MP5, be careful the context in which they are using it. As a stat (ex. 15 mana per 5 on a weapon) its not as good as say Spirit. (Spirit = MP5 & Spellpower). Others use MP5 to describe their incombat mana regen. This is an important stat (found on your character sheet) for Resto's, but is influenced by both MP5 (as decribed above) and Spirit. Make sense?

I favor spirit > MP5 for most items, but have a balance of both. Looks like MP5 may be getting more important for 3.1, but who knows???

oomkin Des !!!

:band:


i'm loving it :texla:

less pressure tbh, and no continual nerfs like bear is getting.

i still say this shield thing is a poor substitute for the amour and stam nerfs we're getting hit with recently.

i still say this shield thing is a poor substitute for the amour and stam nerfs we're getting hit with recently.


I agree, even with 14/16 slots filled "BIS" my tanking set, raid buffed sits about 5800 AP. Which means on crit I will absorb 1450 damage. Assuming there will be no stacking of the barrier (will work like Sheild Block, but not passive) that is not all that much damage reduced. Even if you are Critting 50% (I sit in the 44% range with current gear/Raid buffed/shifted) you are looking at moderate improvement to single target, slow hitting mobs. Once in AoE situation, we are just taking it in the shorts. That barrier will be long broke as soon as it procs, and then we are just taking more damage until it procs again.

If they wanted us to have a "Shield Block" value, it needs to be passive. Also, they seem to want to make us more like the other tanks in the game, but keep forgeting that we still can't Parry. (we're the only tanks that can't) Thus the need for more physical mitigation.

i'm in now way a number cruncher Solar, but its sounds pretty useless ?

i know ptr testing may prove me wrong and maybe Blizz do know what they are doing ;) but we're getting/have had some pretty big stam/ar nerfs and all we seem to be getting as far as i've seen is this shield on a proc based on AP.

for somone like me with no real raid tanking gear my AP is much much less than 5800 Solar, so my damage reduction will be significantly less.

oh well i'm enjoying oomkin. and my dual spec may even have to end up as healer /spit or more likely kitty dps not than tanking.

Same here Solar. My AP is incredibly low. I haven't gotten to clear content that would afford me the badges/drops I'd need to become more well geared recently.

I've been completely disheartened by a few things people have said recently, and I just don't enjoy druiding as a whole. My husband is planning on picking up a dual-spec of Kitty+Resto. It seems like healers won't be so hard to find after 3.1 now, so going resto seems like it would still leave her on the sidelines.

I'm really just at a complete loss and find myself feeling the same way I did in November...ready for retirement from WoW. Only, this time...I don't think I'd come back. I don't know what to do right now.

I have no idea what gear to look for when we get hit with the nerf nukes this time. Blizzard seems like they're trying to make a druid tank Obselete. With the coming of DK's...tanks seem to overpopulate our server, so it'd make sense that they're trying to push druids into Kitty (with the buffs kitties are getting soon) and other DPS/Healer roles. It's a sad situation for those of us who really enjoy our roles as protectors and see that slipping away patch after patch.

Once in AoE situation, we are just taking it in the shorts. I assume you mean tanking multiple mobs....if so I thought I read that is is the one area where SD shines. As long has you have no more than 4? 5? mobs SD is an improvement (because it will be up 100%). And frankly, when do you need to tank more than 4-5 mobs that aren't just AoE trash?

The real problem with SD (besides the bugs that still exists on the PTR), is on fast hitting boss fights?? Though the fact that lacerate bleed crits (from Primal Gore) now trigger SD is boon that many didn't consider originally, so that might offset the boss encounters a bit.

My real fear is that this will have a negative impact on the class from the community, raiders and guild leaders. Even if it doesn't have a real impact in-game. But if that happens, we can only blame the druids for all their constant QQ'ing about something for which many have 0 firsthand experience.

Another reason why SD, along with the armor nerf, was brought about is because there were some bears (and maybe even some devs) that were afraid of us hitting the armor cap a couple of patches down the road.

While this is without a doubt a nerf to bear tanking, I'm confident that we will be okay when it's all said and done. If the nerf hits us too hard, Blizz will adjust the numbers. Bears will *ALWAYS* be viable tanks.

Well BLEH...
Back to the cave I guess...

I wasn't trying to QQ about the nerf. I don't understand it, but assume that the geniuses that work at Blizz know what they're doing. I'm saying that people don't "understand" bears and don't do the research to try. Throw in the fun nerf and the people who already don't understand us are going to think that we're the worst possible choice for ... well everything...

That's all I'm saying. The desire to remove the game from my hard drive stems from a lot of different sources, and oddly enough...none of them are related to the nerf. Yes, I'm frustrated by it because I enjoy being OP to some degree and I'm not a real "mechanics" person, so it's hard for me to understand what's changing and what I need to do to compensate for the changes...

The real desire to just hang up my gear for a final time has to do with a stalker who just causes my in-game life to be a perpetual nightmare, reports aren't doing anything and my /ignore list has grown probably hundred-fold in the past two weeks or so. It's very frustrating and really makes the game a miserable experience to be honest. Alas, I shall finally make my shaman and hide on her until he manages to find that toon also and harass me...

Well BLEH...
Back to the cave I guess...
Is it a nice cosy one Des ? Central Heating ? Satellite tv ? well stocked fridge and bar ? :beerchug:


I wasn't trying to QQ about the nerf. I don't understand it, but assume that the geniuses that work at Blizz know what they're doing.

Des, i think you're over estimating the quality and calibre of the hamsters, i mean developers employed by Blizz :rolling:

The desire to remove the game from my hard drive stems from a lot of different sources, and oddly enough...none of them are related to the nerf.

Shame you have that desire. Someone in our guild whose other half is in a big raid guild recently gave up to :( she'd not long been 80 as she had been fed up for a while. but just as she was getting to be able to come to 5 mans with us she goes on a game break.... :(


The real desire to just hang up my gear for a final time has to do with a stalker who just causes my in-game life to be a perpetual nightmare, reports aren't doing anything and my /ignore list has grown probably hundred-fold in the past two weeks or so. It's very frustrating and really makes the game a miserable experience to be honest. Alas, I shall finally make my shaman and hide on her until he manages to find that toon also and harass me...

In game stalker !!! WTF ! Do you know who 'he' is ? Or why he is stalking you ? Can't Blizz do something ?

I've found that Blizzard has usually taken that kind of stuff pretty seriously. First time they usually give a warning but if you report it again they may suspend or ban him eventually.

I've talked to them about it. One of the people who used to be in the guild I'm in had a little chat with him and that seemed to end it for awhile. But now he's gone back to /who <insert my alt guild here> and is finding out my super secret hidden sanctuary alts and harassing them.

It's at a sort of stand still as he threatens to report me for cussing him out over his obsession and harassment (I probably went overboard, but we all know when you back a bear into a corner, their only option is BERSERK+MANGLE). For now, it seems like he's backing off - husdruid is very protective of his armored cub and suggested to this person that he leave me alone or we'll have his ass banned permanently.

But it's really sort of drained a lot of fun from the game. That, and just a general amount of frustration. I think I may just be burned out on tanking, since immediately after hitting 80 I tanked 3-4 heroics a DAY for nearly two and a half weeks straight. I don't mind tanking. I think I'm just a little burnt out is all. I've been enjoying experimenting with some alts lately. (Thankfully the creep doesn't even KNOW about my Death Knoob. Can I get a faceroll please? *wink @ Skwid*)

And no Shaman yet. I...don't understand that class tbh. And Khel, I don't really put so much faith in the hamster...err Devs at Blizz but I don't distrust them so much either. Just like the nerf Pre-Expansion, they tweaked it until it worked. I believe I logged in a handful of times to differing armour values and empty talent trees.

get husdruid to go lacerate his ass Des !

take a little break Des, but dont go hibernate, we wont like that cos we need more n00b stories to make us laugh :)

I doubt I'll hibernate now. I'm putting together my resto gear, and should hopefully be full resto by next week. (Sooner if possible, but we shall see.)

I don't know if I'll miss tanking yet or not, but with dual specs around the corner, and my intention of keeping all of my so-so tanking gear, it will always be a door that's open to me.

I also think that the change in roles will help me start a brand new chapter of the Noob of Azeroth series.

This weekend, I might be able to create some new Noob stories for you, as we've pick-up-guilded for Naxx. Two guilds- one Naxx...this is gonna be AWESOME! I'm pretty psyched, tbh. Should be a lot of fun. I'm just hoping they're as laid back as my baby guild and our folks are.

Speaking of resto- if any of you have any recommendations for the best raid healing spec, I'd be so grateful to see what you have. There are SO many builds out there and I can't decide if giving up wild growth in favor of more talented Mp5 is the best raid/heroic healing or if it's better to have WG...it's all so...confusing...

Speaking of resto- if any of you have any recommendations for the best raid healing spec,I would start with this build. (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid=0532003100000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000230033312031500531050313051&glyph=000000000000&version=9757) Put the remaining 4 points in Living Seed or Tranquil Spirit (Nourish is far more useful in 3.1). If you don't need Revitalize in your groups, you could move those points into Tranquil Spirit and/or Improved Tranquility.

Nature's Splendor (Balance Tree) might not be as useful depending on which Lifebloom strategy you choose to use.

Someone else will need to help you with the Glyph choices.

I agree with Tlbj's spec. You don't, under any circumstance want to give up Wild Growth. It should be your #1 splash damage spell. Its a smart heal, so you don't have to worry too much about who to allocate it too. Just click the little bar with the least health!

Glyphs:
Swiftmend = MUST Have
Lifebloom = MUST Have (pre 3.1)
#3 could be any of several depending on heal style. (I like Innervate, not for my mana, but form other healers sake.) Other viable options include, Glyph of Rej or Regrowth

Also, please get Healbot if you haven't already. It will help remove most if not all the stress of Healing!

GL Des.

and i am already looking forward to Part 1 of the Resto Noob Stories from Healer Des

:band:

I've talked to them about it. One of the people who used to be in the guild I'm in had a little chat with him and that seemed to end it for awhile. But now he's gone back to /who <insert my alt guild here> and is finding out my super secret hidden sanctuary alts and harassing them.

It's at a sort of stand still as he threatens to report me for cussing him out over his obsession and harassment (I probably went overboard, but we all know when you back a bear into a corner, their only option is BERSERK+MANGLE). For now, it seems like he's backing off - husdruid is very protective of his armored cub and suggested to this person that he leave me alone or we'll have his ass banned permanently.

If it were me, I'd still report him next time he does it, bad language or no. They can see the full chat logs, so they'd probably know he was stalking you anyway.

I just ignore him. It seems to be working better than anything else right now.

As for healing...we ran Naxx on Saturday night (Arachnid and Plague), and I got a bunch of gear...the unfortunate part is that it's all boomkin gear it seems. The guild I just moved too was awesome about letting me tank but still letting me roll on caster gear. It's got nice intel, spirit, stam and spellpower, but Spell Hit and Crit all over the place. It was frustrating. There were only two druids wearing leather there- me and husdruid. He's got a decent healer set, so I got almost all of the drops that were caster leathers. I got an off-hand and some other stuff but...again it all seems to be boomkin. I imagine that's better than nothing to start a healer set. I still lack a belt, rings and trinkets...and a relic of some sort.

I tanked for Naxx though. I don't think there was much that I noobed up other than hitting CONSTANT lag spikes. When the MT went down on Anub'Rekan I couldn't pick him up because I was completely frozen. So we wiped *sigh* it was terrible and I felt bad. But lag spikes don't = noobishness...at least...I hope not.

At any rate, since it looks like I'm going to have a Bear/Healer spec when 3.1 comes out - does anyone know yet what stats us bears will need for that in order to keep our TTL up and work this Savage Defense thing to maximum awesomeness?

I get bad lag spike sometimes if I have my graphics settings turned up too high. Especially spell effects. 1-4 clicks from the bottom seems to be OK for me. If I go much higher things can get ugly and I never know when it will happen. Once the problem starts I have to set it down to the lowest setting for a time otherwise the lag spikes will continue. Seems to happen more with DKs in the party than without.

This weekend, it didn't matter WHAT I did...I lag spiked healing Stocks on my pally. Lag spiked being a Death Knoob DPS (who couldn't obey a threat meter to save my life) in Ramps. Lagged in Naxx and Occulus...it just didn't matter. I lagged out farming herbs. It was just a rough weekend. Husdruid had the same issue.

I guess they've recruited a few new tanks into our guild, so...I imagine I'll be turning into a tree sooner than later...TLB, thank you for the build! I'll use that spec to get started.

Do you have any "beginner with not amazing healer gear" spell rotations? Suggestions on figuring out when to rank down a healing spell?

Ideas on setting up the healing bar? It's horrifying to me to have people's lives in my hands.

Which spells would you normally rank down? Is it possible to heal heroics and raids in boomkin gear? I have so many questions! Put ranked down spells on the hot bar next to one another? What are the base stats for healing 10 mans and heroics? I wish you could download a "Resto druid companion" to help ya get set up! lol

*Destinae is scared!*

Des, to start, don't use ANY downranked spells. Blizzard changed them to cost the same mana as the full spell but give less output (so no point in using them anymore).

A Tree's rotation is going to be highly variable depending on your responsibility.

For Tank Healing: (make sure you have Glyph of Swiftmend/Lifebloom)
1) Cast 1 LB on the tank before he aggro's
2) Cast Rej just about the time he Aggro's
3) Another stack of LB (should be x2 now)
4) Start "PreCasting" Regrowth. (Don't let it land unless the tank is down below 90% health or so)
5) Once you have hit him with Regrowth, or before your LBx2 blooms, refresh LB. (Now x3)

Now just keep your HOTs Rolling. Use swiftmend any time the tank takes a hard hit (below 50%) and use Nourish for small top offs that the HOTs don't seem to be covering. Also keep WG near and dear to you. Anytime Melee DPS is taking damage work WG into your rotation. Its a good heal for the tank and helps the raid healers emensley.

Splash Damage: (Make sure to have Glyph of Wild Growth (only available 3.1))
Your #1 Heal will be WG (almost every 6 secs)
And your #2 will be Rejuv

Strat = Just hit Rej or Nourish on DPS taking focused damage (i.e. one target) or use WG on a damaged players when the its several folks getting hit.

Yes, you can easily heal in boomkin gear, but going boomkin in Resto gear can be tough.

As for healing bar, I strongly reccomend a healing mod that doesn't have any dependence on the heal bar. Healbot allows you to see and heal every member of the group/raid without ever targeting a single one or pushing a button on your action bar. Simple combinations of mouse clicks and occasional "Shift,Alt,Ctrl" will be needed. When you are first getting used to using the mod, you are going to fumble through, so I reccomend running a Non-heroic lvl 80 to practice. (lots of room for error)

Something like Clique sounds great, but I don't use a regular mouse. For the present time, I'm playing on an overpowered laptop. (I know...it's not the best).

However, I'll be replacing the laptop for a desktop very soon. I didn't even play WoW when I got the laptop. It was a gift so I could work on writing and it was to replace my beloved desktop that had died *cry*.

I don't mind click healing for now...but I plan on setting it up to make healing ezmode when I finally go resto.

All I'm missing is the belt, rings, trinkets and a relic...and a weapon. But the GM says he can make the weapon and the other stuff I think I can pick up from instances/badges. I'm not in a huge hurry. I'm having fun tanking right now. I'll continue to pick up the best gear I can though. That way if they need me, I'll be ready.

The guild I just moved too was awesome about letting me tank but still letting me roll on caster gear.

you moved guilds then in the Des ?

had not realised.

Yes, I just joined up with Liberi Ex Draco...and I'm loving it! It's not a raid guild, but we run heroics and raid pretty regularly. They want to raid in the "Casual friend guild" sort of environment.

There's no pressure and they don't crucify me for ... being me. The other guild I had been in didn't destroy me for messing up either, but they've just become so small...it just got too difficult to try and get guild groups together for anything. And who really wants to run heroics only to see someone else's guildie get geared? Pfft! I'd rather see my own crew getting geared.

Now, having stated that...I've got some horror stories/n00b stories for you.

Horror Story:
Let's start with Heroic Halls of Lightning. I started the evening with 20 Wild Quillvine. Enough for 20 druid buffs. Normally, I use maybe 1-2 in a heroic. When I ended the night, I had only 2 Wild Quillvine left. 100+ Gold repair bill. And for once, the 18 wipes weren't my fault! We had a healer that...well she had JUST hit 80 that day and was specced discipline and just really wasn't throwing enough heals. We died SO many times on trash pulls...it was hell. Finally, after a 3 hour H:HoL Marathon, I apologized and bowed out of the group. Nearly cried myself to sleep...it was that frustrating.

Didn't get the daily done. Didn't get my guildy his Axe from the last boss either. Grr!

Moving on, we decided we'd go to H: Nexxus. Phew! EZMODE HEROIC HERE I COME! But...we had a tank. What to do, what to do...Oh right, throw on what little kitty gear I have and tear stuff up! Groovy!

You know that room with the ramps and stuff, where you fight Anomalus? Has the little rifts and whatnot in it? Yeah...

Well, we get done fighting some trash on one of the little platforms and everyone jumps off the side and lands safely on the floor. Where do I land? On some little ledge with no way to get to my party. So they're all standing there and party chat begins to look like this...

WL: "Where's Dest?"
Tank: "She was right here..."
Me: "Guys?"
Healer: "Well she's not dead..."
WL: "She stealthed?"
Healer: "No, I'd see her..."
Me: "Guys...I...fell..."
Tank: "Where'd you land??"
Me: "Right...next to you guys...kind of..."
Me: "Come over to the edge and look...I'm dead south of you..."

<party comes over and looks>

Healer: /sigh @ Des "can we warlock summon her?"
Me: "I can just jump and die and run back...then you won't waste the shard..."
WL: "Nah Dest, no worries. We'll summon...from...10 feet away...LOL!"
Me: /cry

I don't know if that was an incredible stroke of dumb luck or...

And then, on Sarth...10, no Drakes.

"Guys, remember...the number of lava monsters that spawn is based on how many of you get hit by the walls."

<everyone acknowledges, we hit a ready check and GO GO GO>

At the end of the fight, someone says- "Did anyone notice that an awful lot of those fire monsters were named Destinae?"

me: /facepalm

Yeah, Me as DPS on Sarth...epic...fail. someone /cheered me when I managed to avoid one of the walls...go figure.

And if you're wondering, no, I've not gone resto yet. I'm still farming badges for the last few pieces I still need. Some sort of ring and my other trinket/relic. Ooh...and the belt. I can't decide between the cloth badge reward belt or the leather one...the cloth seems bigger on spirit and I think Intel (been a few days since I /drooled over them), but the leather one is...leather...

lol Des - i must say you've cheered me up today and its not a good one atm.

i've done the same in nexus, managed to fall down - but i fell a long way and died /sigh

i actually did some healing in my oomkin set last nite in a couple heroics. we lost the healer a couple times early in fights, including one boss fight. i seemed to do ok. got like 1650 healing.

Well I'm glad it cheered you up :)

Yes, normally I plummet to my death also. I was surprised when I landed on this strange little ledge and didn't die. I think the healer I normally run with was surprised also. He's used to me getting lost and either finding trash to kill me or me somehow finding a non-combat way to die while we're running together. /shrug

I have enough badges to get my final few pieces now. I just need to grab enchants/gems now. It isn't that I'm afraid of healing. I love it, but druid healing is so different from paladin spam heals. It'll be fun, I'm sure.

I guess it's kind of like...Hmm I can't think of a good way to describe it. Part of me doesn't really want to give up my bear. I <3 my bear. But being healer even right away, right now, will allow me to see heroics I've not been able to see yet so far. And EVERY DAY my guildies say "Oh, let's get you into Gundrak!" So we put together a group...and we're ALWAYS missing a healer. *sigh*

So we've not gone yet. But tonight, I don't care what I have to do. I am GOING to Gundrak! RAWR!

yeah plenty of them i've still not seen

Drak
Gun
CoS
Occ

etc!"

The only one I've not yet seen on your list is Gundrak. I've seen the other three on Heroic mostly. CoS on regular to get my healing trinket (which dropped the very first time, woot woot!)

I've not seen AN or Old Kingdom on Heroic yet...Don't think I've seen OK on reg either actually.

I almost fainted last night. We did H: VH and we had a tank, but I REALLY wanted to go (Shards and Emblems and it was the Daily heroic...I soooo wanted to go). So I went as DPS again. For someone who doesn't have gear/isn't spec'd for DPS - I rocked about 1300 DPS overall!

I also died on the stupid CoreHound boss guy...forgot about the whole "If you're taking dmg as DPS, you're probably standing in the wrong spot" rule. /shrug.

Khel, if you were on my server, we'd TOTALLY hit those together!

hehe yeah we sure could run em all Des :)

i've only done :

HoL - normal
HoS - heroic
Nexus - heroic
VH - heroic
AN - heroic
AK - heroic
UK - heroic
UP - normal

most of mine as you can see i've only actually completed on heroic.

and still a few to run on either normal or heroic.

VH-H is a pig. so random based on the bosses u get and the grp you have.

But Khel, you get credit for both heroic and non-heroic if you run them on heroic, right? Works for me. If I got both achievements for Occulus by going in there on heroic, I don't ever have to go back, right? I don't do well on the random "vehicles" that Blizzard implemented with WotLK.

I fail.

I love Heroic Violet Hold. 3 Emblems on EZMode! WOOT FOR THAT!

yes Des, i just figured it was not worth listing above the normal cos in all cases where i listed heroic its cos i've only ever run them as heroic but yeah i got the achievment for normal to :)

hate VH-H.

last nite we got the etheral boss first...took us 3 attempts to down him. and that was with one dps going - amazing dps much more than me but could not control his aggro and kept pulling the boss.

then we go the water one and for some reason we wiped on him so had to do the damn etheral again to :(

then somehow we managed to wipe on a normal portal - the last one before the last boss.

suffice to say we did not complete it but i got my 2 badges which meant i could buy my tier 7 chest :)

The Ethereal Boss is a little tough. We always kite him.

As for the water boss...ugh...you either have to try and burn the little elementals down when she "explodes" or you have to touch one of those crystals to kill them. We almost always use the crystals on that boss. I HATE THAT ONE!

The only other one I've had trouble with is the voidwalker boss, but now that more people are getting geared, it's not so bad. Just need to burn the adds down super fast when you get "shifted" and can see them. It's not so bad.

So, I tried healing as a bear in healer gear last night and failed. I didn't give myself much chance to "learn" and it's not as easy to do when not specc'd correctly. Fail. Lost my DPS a lot because I was SO afraid of the tank dying...Oi! I started to get the hang of it, and I think I'm going to spec resto tonight maybe. It's a little scary trying to remember a spell rotation.

As a bear, I watch my threat meter and if anyone comes close I just throw a maul or some mangle and it's all under control. Maybe I'm just not meant to be a druid healer? LOL

A big help for you once you respec Resto is Wild Growth. You get to keep healing the tank while covering splash damage on the DPS. :)

LoL Solar, I commented on that in the resto thread I'd started.

I managed to keep LB rolling and keep Rejuv up, but then I'd miss the splash damage healing for the DPS. They were a really amazing group, very patient with me. I told them it was my first time healing AND Hadn't respecc'd yet as I was just trying to see if this is where I wanted to go or not. They were very sweet. I imagine it would have been smoother had we chosen an instance with a bit less AoE (Ingvar is tough on a noob healer for sure). I'll respec and give Nexxus a go tonight. Husdruid wants to take his mage through there :)

I really hope I get the hang of it. As I've mentioned before. Healing is very relaxing for me when I roll out my holy paladin for an instance or two. But there aren't any HoT's to obsess over. Just spam flash of light and then holy light if I've got time for it before someone takes a hard dive. I <3 my pally. I just prefer my druid. She's awesomesauce!

Btw- Unbuffed with no gems and only shining spellthread on her pants- she's sitting at 1501 Spell power and 713 Regen. I hope that's good...but being as I know nothing about casters (and a pally's mana regen isn't the same mechanic type...)...

interesting that you find the pally healing easier Des.

one of my 2 guildies has a pally healer and he finds some places tough to heal in (ok his gear is not the best as like me he does not raid) and he's probably not bought the epics i have either.

He wont come to VH-H now for sure, although as we know that place is so random based on the easy / hard bosses you get.

unfortunately a few 5 mans have put him off healing at all and he hides on his alt shammy ! (who is goin to be a healer though as he feels it will be easier with more group healing ability from the chain heal ?)

sounds great mp5 Des, its the one place my oomkin falls down

Btw- Unbuffed with no gems and only shining spellthread on her pants- she's sitting at 1501 Spell power and 713 Regen. I hope that's good...but being as I know nothing about casters (and a pally's mana regen isn't the same mechanic type...)...

That is a very good start Des. Most of your top end Resto's are in the 2k spell power and 1k regen area, which you could get close to with gems and enchants!

I imagine if I grab some nice gems and enchants my spellpower and mana regen will be decent. I also didn't have enough emblems to pick up my belt, so I'm wearing something that dropped in one of the instances we've run (I think...I don't quite recall). I logged out in my bear/kitty gear last night as I was questing and didn't have the nerve to go fully resto.

I hear that my initial goal is 1700 spellpower, but haven't really read or heard anyplace what my mana regen goal should be to start off. The spellpower I have also is in a feral spec. I assume that when I spec resto, it will change both my SP and Regen a little.

@Khel, I ADORE healing on my pally, but keep in mind he's only level 30, enchanted like a little healing twink, and wearing mainly cloth and leather to increase his mana pool to some ridiculous degree. I rarely find myself /oom and most often don't have to drink between fights if my tank doesn't pull too many to start it off.

I just don't have to think about timing as much with him. His major downfall is his cast time for heals. If he gets interrupted or stunned and the tank gets too low on HP, we all start praying that LoH isn't on cooldown lol!

My intention is to go through and start healing some 5-mans, either heroic or regular just to get some practice in. I don't dare heal a 10-man. I imagine I'd be coming back here and telling you horror stories if I tried that...hehe

I hear that my initial goal is 1700 spellpower, but haven't really read or heard anyplace what my mana regen goal should be to start off. The spellpower I have also is in a feral spec. I assume that when I spec resto, it will change both my SP and Regen a little.



Des your Spellpower and MP5 will change dramically! I would expect you to be +1700 spellpower before enchants with a respec.

Thanks to the patch going live today, you can be both, feral and Resto, so that should help you to get all the practice you want without the pesky respec! :)

Bleh to 3.1. Dual specs is going to complicate a lot of things. And I lose my practice tank, as he'll be primarily resto again with a tanking off-spec.

Right now I lack the gold to pick up dual spec and properly gem/enchant/glyph for both. Lots of decisions will have to be made tonight, assuming the install isn't as miserable as some other patches have been...

That and I really don't understand the change they've made to bear. Now, if I understand correctly, I'm going to have to pile on more stam to make up for the nerf, while grabbing as much agi, str, and AP as I possibly can? Or am I completely off base there? So confused...so very confused...

Many bears have many different opinions about stam. IMHO, the way you handle stam is entirely dependent on 1) your current gear and 2) the encounter you are tanking.

I would almost never reccomend a pure stam gear set unless you are tanking 3D or some other very very hard hitting/Magical boss.

Assuming I remember your bear gear correctly, you are in a mix of Heroics / Naxx10 gear...right?

If that is the case, you are likely past the "Stack Stam" stage of bear tanking. When you are just sticking your little paws in Naxx for the first time, Stam stacking can be helpful to keep you alive. Once you have progressed into about 1/2 i200+ lvl gear, you can safely start dumping your stam enchants and gems for agility. I would not ever gem for strength, until you are in the "BIS" (Best-in-Slot) level of gear. Strength is the same color slot bonus as Agi, and Agi just straight out benefits a tank more than Strength.

Diminishing Returns are certainly a factor in your agi calcs, but again, not somthing you will start to worry about until you are ready for Uldaur.

My Bear suit (normal) leaves me in the ballpark of 45% dodge, and 48.95% Crit raid buffed. Both those numbers are becoming more important with the armor nerf bears are getting in the patch.

BTW, without being BIS I am still well over armor cap with healers critting me in raid, so raid bears probably won't notice the nerf as bad as we all are fearing.

I just didn't understand it. So it "seems" that presently I will still need to focus on the same stats I have been focusing on all along. I'm still wanting "some" stam, but picking that up on new gear pieces and looking more for the Agility, Hit and Expertise (so those bosses stop dodging me...).

For resto, with the changes they've made...I still see 11/0/60 as being the build I'd go with...Dreamstate seems like it would be beneficial maybe on certain encounters, or for one druid to compliment another druid in healing, but I'm not thinking it's going to be my best bet on a build. With talents and whatnot making it easier to extend the duration of LB and other HoTs, I don't know if I'm going to go with the 14/0/57 build either.

I'm really, really novice at druid healing though, so I'm very open to suggestions and tips from the professionals. I think I'll be a n00b til the day I give up on WoW forever...

you'll never give it up forever Des !

you'd have no reason to come here for our words of wisdom and appreciation of your n00by stories :)

Speaking of n00b stories...

My most cherished druid friend (I refer to him lovingly as the bear handler, as he's almost always assigned to heal me when we raid together)...and I decided that we'd go give our new talents a test run.

We decided we'd start easy though, hitting a BC Heroic Ramps because it's quick, easy, and he needed the achievement.

Well, when we started off, I tanked it, of course, because that's what I do. Regardless of the fact that I initially created my druid to heal, I do have this infinite love for tanking. So...we're both just in AWE at the wild jumps and leaps my HP bar is taking. It was wild. Of course, both of us were sort of half paying attention, half still reading tool tips and whatnot...thinking about our other toons specs and such.

At one point he decides that he'd like to see this "Savage Defense" thing for himself. So we change rolls.

Now, when I got hit with a Mortal Strike sort of thing- I never had to worry about it because he always managed to heal me through it.

The pull was destined to go wrong from the beginning though. Just as he pulled I realized I still had my feral trinkets equipped, and while trying to keep him healed, the phone rang and I nearly jumped out of my skin!!! Needless to say, my much adored friend died in battle...mere seconds later I also died.

Oh...

And to make matters worse...I was standing in the wrong spot and inadvertently managed to pull the first boss in Ramps plus his two friends. So not only was my kitty spec bear battling 5 guys, one of which was ever so kindly giving him the Mortal Strike debuff...but he also had to pick up the boss and co....

The boss aggro'd on my little bark covered bum from like 50 yds away though, which surprised us both I think.

The second time he died (yes, I failed him TWICE on the same trash pull) was because I didn't know how to heal him through a mortal strike...I mean, in my defense, I had only had these new "healer" buttons for about 20 minutes before we went to "experiment". I was frantically trying to learn how to use everything while he was dying...Poor, poor bear handler...It's a good thing he's a very very forgiving friend...

I promised you a n00b resto story...well...here goes...

We decided to run H:VH last night, I had stupidly asked to heal for it, and so there I am...a little tree standing next to a dps kitty, our Holy/Ret pally GM, the DK tank and a hunter.

Well, the healing was going semi-ok at best for the first handful of portals. The DPS kept yanking aggro so I was never able to figure out a good rotation to keep my tank alive. I did well enough considering...and then we got that nightmare Water Elemental boss thing. I HATE THAT BOSS...with MORE of a passion now than EVER before...

I couldn't quite keep our entire group alive, since no one hit the "Holy Crap" buttons to kill her adds...they themselves were killing her adds, so I spent more time sailing around the room on knockbacks than healing. I couldn't figure out where to stand, so we wiped.

Well, since it was the first boss, we decided we'd give it another go. We managed to get her down, and I think maybe one person died. (I'm the worst healer ever...I know...but I'm learning...)

So we get through the next portals and we get the big lava barfing dog. The tank was awesome and kept the dog faced away from the group so we got him down on one try. Not too bad.

We go through the last set of portals and there she is...Cyanigosa. Oi...Well the tank for whatever reason was "spinning" her. As in, running around her so that I was either getting hit by her breath, her cleave, or her tail. It didn't matter WHERE I tried to stand...if I moved she'd suck me in with that vacuum move she does. We wiped. I almost cried.

Myself and the pally tried to tell the group we were done for the night. Both of us were frustrated...

But the tank started the event again. That means ALL of the portals and ALL of the bosses...again...*cry*. I was already feeling like the worst healer EVER and really didn't want any more opportunities to show how much I needed to learn, but, we went at it again. Since we'd faced everything previously, it seemed like we got through it quicker.

And then Cyanigosa. I don't know what the freak happened, but she was unleashing her wrath on me like...wow...the tank didn't spin her this time, but I was either getting sucked underneath her with the vacuum trick, getting hit by Blizzard and trying to run out of it to throw heals on the group, or she would cast mana destruction on me and pretty much leave me Oom. So, Try as I might to at least keep myself and the tank alive, I couldn't. We failed again. Very miserable experience...to say the least.

It isn't that my spellpower and regen are so low that I can't keep up with it...it's that I have no idea what I'm doing.

To add to the frustration...just a little while earlier, I had to bow out of the VoA-10 because I was just too squishy to take on the 4 adds, and they wouldn't switch me to the main boss...then had found myself nearly dead but oddly rage starved in H: Nexxus. Oh, and pulling without your healer right behind you...yeah...that's a recipe for fail. *sigh*

I'm kind of lost right now...can't heal, can't tank, hate DPS...back to the drawing board...

blame the patch Des...its wot everyone else is doing atm :)

normal service will resume next week after 4-5 hotfixes !!

I wish I could blame the patch, and say that a nerf caused me to oom instantly, but I was doing alright on mana conservation during it all...my mind was just on other things, I was stressed out before I even logged in, was too distracted, and had already dealt with a few epic fails just before I went in to both Nexxus and VH.

To make matters worse, I was getting harassed all night by some moron who I used to run instances with @70 because he was pretty solid DPS and we had become "Friends". But as I got to know him, I found him to be QUITE the irritating jerk not to mention the BIGGEST drama queen I've ever met in ALL of my life...and he just...well, I'd tell you the story but it's not that interesting.

Easier to just say that ALL of his alts, plus one of his sister's toons are now on my ignore list. I was just too distracted last night to do much of anything. *shrug* I'm going to just go back to dailies for awhile until I can find people willing to just do regular instances where there's a lower stress learning environment...With my ignore list fully buffed...I should be able to focus better.

do some heroics etc with people you know well / guildies Des for less stress.

You'd think it would be less stress...but you never want to let your guild down...which I unfortunately did last night. No one wants to wipe to help a healer "learn". And an inexperienced healer + a heroic= bad news. I can keep a tank up. Can't keep my dps up. That's the next chapter in "How to NOT be an uber n00b 101". Haven't gotten that far.

I need a more efficient way to set up my healing hotbar...I think it all comes down to that. I just need to set it up better and get really familiar with it...I can tank blindfolded. Learning new spells, how they work together and where they ARE is a miserable thing. :bonk:

Just need to stop being such a n00b. I did, however, try out a handful of different rotations last night. Nourish...wow! Reminds me of my Flash of Light Spam heal when I heal with a pally. I dig it.

I think overall I'm just not seeing yet how all of these puzzle pieces fit together. I got called a noob for maintaining LB on my tank in a 5 man. But with LB and Rejuv rolling, he never dropped much below 90% health, and when he started to, I just let LB "bloom" and he was topped off and I could start over again. Otherwise it seems like it might just be Rejuv+Nourish spam? It's a little confusing. I'm doubting I'll ever be a mana-efficient healer. I don't understand casters, period, since I've been melee my entire career...

You'd think it would be less stress...but you never want to let your guild down...which I unfortunately did last night. No one wants to wipe to help a healer "learn". And an inexperienced healer + a heroic= bad news. I can keep a tank up. Can't keep my dps up. That's the next chapter in "How to NOT be an uber n00b 101". Haven't gotten that far.


As a Raid leader, my favorite saying is "If the tank dies, its the healers fault....If the healer dies, its the Tanks fault...if the DPS dies, its the DPS's fault!"

With the exception of a handful of heroics (HOL / AN) I can't think of encounters where DPS have to take large amounts of damage. If they are pulling aggro, they need to learn to manage it, not expect the healer to just heal through it. Especially a new healer!

I think overall I'm just not seeing yet how all of these puzzle pieces fit together. I got called a noob for maintaining LB on my tank in a 5 man.
just because someone called u a n00b does not mean :

a) you were
b) you are
c) they know jack sh1t about healing
d) they know jack sh1t about LB
e) they know jack sh1t about druids !

Just get more info from people here as i'm doing with that big new novel of mine in the resto forums :elfbiggri

how did you do for mana by keeping LB rolling on the tank ? i only wonder cos that's the one thing i've seen people moan about for 3.1 for restos - something about LB now costs 50% more mana to cast but you get some back when it blooms - so if u are keeping a rolling stack of 3 on a tank you can get through mana fast ?

Lol, not to mention its been 3 days since patch....

So everyone is either...

1) a noob
2) part of Insidia or Blizzard
3) a cocky know it all, that likely knows nothing

Maintaining LB with the LB glyph on a MT is not a poor use of heals! Many PTR Druids have reported this. There are a few different strategies that may be more efficient in certain circumstances, but so far as I know, there is no difinitive "cast order / rotation" for Resto Druids as of yet. There simply hasn't been enough content covered by the bulk of the druid population yet.

Prepatch, there was a "Best Rotation", and continuing to use what has been successful in the past does not make you a noob.

Khel, I'm probably not the best to ask, as I had never healed prior to 3.1. Also, my healing experience was limited to H:VH...

@ Solar, I don't have the LB Glyph...but maybe this is something worth looking into until they make the Glyph of Nourish.

I don't deny that I am a n00b in the Resto world. My first/only "real" healing experience went better than I had anticipated it would, to be honest. I can keep a tank up. It's the group healing I have trouble with, including myself.

Honestly, Khel, I didn't have a mana issue with rolling LB's, but if I kept it rolling for an entire fight- I would end the fight with a nice chunk missing from my mana bar. If I just stacked it when the tank started taking a bit heavier damage and let it bloom, it seemed to work out a bit better. I'm sure it still has it's place in a healer's rotation...or at least it "could" still have it's place.

I need more experience, and more chances to try different things out and just see how they work.

It's a lot to take in, this resto thing, after 80 levels worth of tanking only. I'm not even great at that after 80 levels...we shall see what the weekend holds though. I have a sinking feeling I'm going to be thrown headlong into healing in Naxx, and I am TERRIFIED.

go go go Des.

uphold the Honour of the Tree and report how it went after the weekened /hug

Honour of the Tree?

Oh...I have only one Saga of the Tree to tell...For whatever reason, our guild couldn't put together a Naxx10 run Saturday night to save our lives. So we ended up grouped with these folks...they were FAR less than friendly.

I managed to keep our OT alive on Patchwerk through the hateful strikes. YUM! It was the MT who went down the fastest because I wasn't able to get the supplemental heals onto him in time. I had long feared that my first real test of healing would be in a 10 man, and there it was.

I was assigned to raid healing. We started in the wing with Patchwerk. So we got to Patchwerk pretty easily.

Imagine my horror that my first real healing assignment was the OT during the Patchwerk fight. ZOMG I WAS TERRIFIED!

During our first try, I kept him up but the MT died. My fault, mainly cuz I was too scared to take my eyes off the OT in order to throw helpful heals on the other tank :(. So we tried again and I managed to get a few heals off on him and we seemed to be doing alright but I hit a wave of lag (DK's always do that to me) and we ended up losing our OT and wiping again. I apologized, not that it did any good.

The PuG we were pulled into was the most miserable bunch of elitist brats I've ever met! We were all on vent together and as soon as the first wipe happened they started barking at my GM who was pally healing the MT and cussing and such. It was destined to be a miserable run from the beginning though. They were pretty mean to start off, and it only got worse. Our 3 guildies + one of my friends ended up leaving their group just because they were such jerks. So, no Naxx for Des...again.

It's a long story about why we had to PuG. Not a great story either.

But, on the plus side, I got a bunch of badges this weekend. Ended up running a bunch of heroics with some REALLY fun folks! Got to finally see Gundrak! WOOT! It was so fun! I was tanking all weekend but the groups were cool and a lot of fun so I loved it! YAY BADGES!

well you still one up on me Des, i have never been to Naax.

I do need to try my healing out in a 5 man but as you've said have sole responsibility for heals, something i've NEVER done is a scary thought.

and my healing days are long long gone in the past of 40 mans when we had something like 8 healers to cope.

We've not finished Naxx. We got almost all the way through 3 wings on our first run together as a guild, but it got really late and folks were getting tired. We tried to go back and finish but couldn't quite get a group together the next day.

Up until last night I was sure I'd never want to heal, but we had so much fun with DtK...someone ELSE worrying about the pulls for a change...it was pretty relaxing.

Healing is more relaxing for me than tanking sometimes. It used to be, when I'd get stressed over tanking, I'd hop on my Healadin and LFG to heal for a bit. Now I have the option with my main and can still collect badges! YAY!

its how i feel about being oomkin Des - much less stressful than tanking and prob healing to.

I enjoy standing back and healing. Now that I'm learning more about the spells, it's not so bad.

I'm devastated panda today. We ran H:VH, and the Staff of Trickery dropped. Of course, the epicced out hunter need rolled and won it. I was in this state of sort of disbelief. The guy was putting out 2.8k DPS as it was...I was really frustrated.

That staff has dropped 4 times.
The first time, a hunter took it. 2 days later, he replaced it with a Naxx drop. We're friends on server, so I didn't really feel compelled to maul him over it...but it was a sad day.

The Second time it dropped, the resto druid that was with us rolled against me on it and won it. It would have been for my main spec, her off spec- and this was BEFORE 3.1. Grrr.

The third time- a Rogue need rolled on it just because he could. I lost my staff...to a rogue...

And then last night's hunter took it. I was joking with my Guild leader about it. H:VH has been a jinxed instance for me.

But we got the A-Void-Dance achievement last night. It was WILD!

As the title suggests, I went back to Academy of War last night. It's a long, dramatic story, but the good news is that this little cub is back with the family who raised her. I made amends, repaired some bridges, threw some nourishes and bandages on old friendships... and am a much happier little bear now.

It feels so good to be back home. Familiar faces, FRIENDLY folks...no trash talking, no drama...no pressure...god it's good to be home!


Destinae has earned the achievement [Mama, I'm Coming Home!]

Gratz Des.

sorry for the Staff, no doubt you will get it soon and can maybe run it more with guildies where u wont have rogues rolling against u !

Gratz - i got the Void Dance one last weekend when we blitzed VH-H with a good grp. Mr Void went down really fast and no one died !

I was positively amazed at how quickly we plowed through the mobs/bosses in there with the group I was with...zomg!

I'm not worried about the staff really. It will come. I'm just glad to be free of the drama, immaturity, and badmouthing that went on...

yeah running stuff with guildies or in my case a lot of people in various bigger guild i know is wonderful.

doing them with pug people can be annoying and has me questioning playing wow !

We had a WILD group for H:Gundrak last night. They were just off the charts as far as fun goes! Not to mention the insane DPS those folks were putting out. Makes my life as a bear a bit easier if I'm not having to hold mobs for extended periods of time. And it was a PuG. It was beautiful.

I had mentioned wanting/needing to get into a guild that raids/runs heroics together...and the hunter we were with offered to inquire with their GL to see if there would be a potential home for Des.

I don't know where I'll end up in this end game world. The guild I went home to is so empty these days because of the drama that unfolded before I left. They had a Naxx 25 run planned for this weekend, but it inevitably got canceled. I can't complain as I'm not geared for that content yet, but it does get a bit frustrating to end up back in a guild that doesn't seem to do much of anything together.

I've been inquiring to folks on server that I've met along the way in hopes of finding a home that does a LOT together. There are very few prospects out there, as I don't want to be trapped in a hardcore raid guild (I think I'm a bit too sensitive for that sort of thing), and I really am just looking for friends to have a good time with while still being able to see end game content and raids and the like. It limits my choices quite a bit. It's gotten quite frustrating. Especially since I love going to raids with my husband there with me...and it doesn't seem like that is going to be the case...Seems like we'll end up in two different guilds...that makes this little bear kind of sad. But, what must be shall be, and I'm sure I'll find a home. It just needs to be kind, friendly folks...no drama, no misery toward one another. Just a place to relax and have fun.

If it makes you feel better Des, I have a RL friend that WoW's with his wife and they are in two different guilds!!!

His guild is a hardcore raid guild that is constantly pushing endgame content (arguably the "best" guild on our server) which he loves (too stressful for me) and his wife prefers the more laid back environment (my guild). We still do end game content but she doesn't participate in the "Learning" phases of end game. She waits until we have it on farm and then joins us for the relaxed/alt gearing runs.

This obviously leaves her without much to do when new content hits, because most folks are focused on learning the new content, but she still gets to run with her hubby on the alt runs once and a while and they are both much happier with their WoW when they don't have to "Look out" for the other in a raid setting.

It's tough on a relationship in RL if one member is a hard raider but feels they need to protect and lookout for the other person who may not be. I am sure you can relate, and have had a spat or two with your hubby about somthing that happens in game. (In hind sight, feel really silly)

In the end, its kinda like they both belong to both guilds!!! He brings her into the more casual runs with his guild and she brings him into our runs when we have space (He keeps an 80 alt in our guild too)

I don't object to that. But, he sometimes forgets that RL>WoW...

I work days and he works nights. The only time we get to see one another is on weekends, and he spends most of the weekend looking for raid groups. It gets frustrating. I like to raid and enjoy the game and all that, but we only see one another 2 days a week. I'd rather not have that time promised away to a game. I'm selfish. What can I say? lol

If we were all together nights and weekends, it would be a different story. I'm just not the type of person who can plan my "life" around raid times...and honestly don't think I could deal with it if I had to plan my life around HIS raid times, since we don't get much time together as it is. That's where I draw a bit of issue with him joining a raid guild. Otherwise, I don't mind. I'm fine with running 5-mans and catching a raid once in awhile with a PuG or some friends.

Further complicating it is the fact that we also have a daughter that wants to spend time with him because she also doesn't get to see him much aside from weekends. He's usually good about hanging out with us. But rarely will he sit through a movie with us at home without logging in during the movie. Says the game's his only way to relax with the stress and stuff he has to deal with at work. He also says he doesn't like "just sitting there doing nothing"...He gets aggro a lot, unfortunately...Since I don't think "Cuddling as a family" is "doing nothing"...but everyone has their own views, right? O_O

Yeah, he catches a lot of aggro. Forced "family time" FTW! Too bad he wasn't the tank in the family. Then maybe he'd be in charge...hehehehe (Ok I admit it...I'm evil...RAWR)

Not really sure what to do. If he created a daytime raid guild, life would be perfect for us. He'd have his raids out of the way during the week and I wouldn't be pressured into PuG Nightmare raids with him.

So all in all, it's not really an issue of one of us protecting the other as much as it is the idea we don't see each other enough and I would rather spend my time with him "IRL" than in game. Computer coded kisses suck. I like real ones! RAWR!

Further complicating it is the fact that we also have a daughter that wants to spend time with him because she also doesn't get to see him much aside from weekends. He's usually good about hanging out with us. But rarely will he sit through a movie with us at home without logging in during the movie. Says the game's his only way to relax with the stress and stuff he has to deal with at work. He also says he doesn't like "just sitting there doing nothing"...He gets aggro a lot, unfortunately...Since I don't think "Cuddling as a family" is "doing nothing"...but everyone has their own views, right? O_O

Yeah, he catches a lot of aggro. Forced "family time" FTW! Too bad he wasn't the tank in the family. Then maybe he'd be in charge...hehehehe (Ok I admit it...I'm evil...RAWR)

Not really sure what to do. If he created a daytime raid guild, life would be perfect for us. He'd have his raids out of the way during the week and I wouldn't be pressured into PuG Nightmare raids with him.


I can sympathize with both of you on this one. My wife doesn't play WoW at all, and refuses to try it because she has a severe prejudice in her head of what the "Stereotypical" couple playing video games together is, and she doesn't want that. As we all know, 90% of the people on other end of the ventrillo are really just normal people, but she is afraid she or I will become somthing different.

Anyway, I have had tifts with my wife about raid times too. And in most cases she was right....I played too much WoW! Unfortunatley all raid times are evenings...they just simply don't happen during the day or early afternoon because most people can only WoW in the evenings. Also a large popluation of WoW players are your "tweeners" and thats just the hours they keep.

Her biggest issue with Raid is that I cannot just stop at anytime to address one of her whims. Weather that be just chatting, or running to the store, or cleaning the bathroom, cutting the grass...etc. She is/was accustom to me being immediatley available for anything pre-WoW. So there was definatley and adjustment period there.

The comprimise that my wife and I have come to is that Weds nights are "Video Game" night, and I am commited to a raid and off limits (pending emergency or unforseen RL complications) and the rest of the week I play WoW, but try not to get locked into too many long term events (I.E. Raids)

I have to say, since I started playing WoW, I literally watch NO TV. (I dont really count watching TV together as together time...she does, so thats a point of contention) We DVR a show called "My Boys" and watch that together, but other than that...I just hate television. I agree with your husband that it feels like doing nothing, and I get very "antsy". Also, "Reality TV" makes me want to hurt myself!!! She has Tv, I have Wow, we both agree that each other commit too much time to our preferred hobby, but agree that when she's watching TV I am free to video game and visa versa.

We have no kids, so that simplifies things lots!

yeah we got someone in our guild whose just sorta coming back from being bored and leaving wow.

she has a 80 and a couple in the 70's.

her other half has his alt with us but not played it since wrath and is in a big raiding guild and is always online in bg's or raiding.


lol yeah my wife hates wow. would never ever consider playing it.

she does some online games but mainly solo simulation/tycoon games.

Her biggest issue with Raid is that I cannot just stop at anytime to address one of her whims. Weather that be just chatting, or running to the store, or cleaning the bathroom, cutting the grass...etc. She is/was accustom to me being immediatley available for anything pre-WoW. So there was definatley and adjustment period there.


With all due respect...why should a marriage have to have an "adjustment period" to adapt to a frakkin computer game?

I could understand a marriage needing to adjust to...oh...a new baby, a new pet, a new house...but a GAME? Yeah, I don't think so. Not for this bear. And if husdruid ends up in a situation where our lives are being altered for a GAME... Enrage+Berserk+Manglespam HIS FACE...

He just needs to keep in mind that "bare is for fite"... so he should probably keep his priorities straight.

uh oh !

Look out Solar....

/tar Solar
/Cast SuperStealth Rank 10
/Cast Cower

:p

Lol, I can see how that come across as the game taking priority, but its more of her adjusting to me having "me time". Weather thats in a game, out in a bar hanging out with budddies, "bowling night"...or whatever (what he's doing isn't the issue, its how much he's doing it). The way I spend the time isn't the issue (or shoudn't be), and I suspect you have the same hang up she was.

You see him choosing game > you, and thats not the case (I hope). As a young marriage grows you will find that you need to give each other space to do things apart. Regardless what those things are, its important to respect your spouses need for some "individuality". Sounds like his "outlet" just doesn't coinside with your schedule! Maybe that's somthing you can workout (little comprimise goes a long way). Just try not to measure his desicions with your yard stick. There's a good chance you both want similar results, but are having a difficult time seeing the others point of view.

For us, it definatley meant I couldn't raid 4-5 nights a week, but there is no reason why I can't raid 1 or 2 nights, right? Again, maybe the child throws a wrench in my theory, but I assume you have hobbies outside of WoW that he respects and supports too. (my wife loves to "scrapbooK", so I don't complain when she is off doing that or gone for the weekend to a convention/party) Just make sure you are a kind bear, and not too demanding on him, that will just push him further away! :)

In College when I first met my wife, my hobbies were playing sports, going out with the boys, & watching Tv. All of those things took me away from the misses far more than WoW does now. WoW is a game to you, but are most of his friends in WoW? I know for me WoW is a way that I keep in touch with most of my friends. Some are RL friends and some are WoW friends, but taking me away from WoW would be like taking her phone away. Perhaps you are underestimating the importance of the social aspects of WoW to your hubby. Perhaps not...I don't know, but remember there is always lots more to it than you can or ever will understand, and that works both ways. You both need to trust each others judgement and keep eachother in line without being rude or demanding!

Remember WoWs almost never the problem, its just the outlet used. If he weren't playing WoW, what would he be doing? Don't be nieve enough to think he would be doing all those chores you have listed on the "honey do" list! :)

With all due respect...why should a marriage have to have an "adjustment period" to adapt to a frakkin computer game?

Bad news hun...marriages are a never ending adjustment period to everything around you! She didn't need to adjust to the game, but instead the idea, that I wasn't always available to her on a whim.

The best way I could describe it to her to understand was to say "raid night" was just like Golf day with the boys. I turn my phone off, and I am unavailable for 3 hours (even if I am just two rooms away). She too kept getting hung up on the fact that I was playing a game, but what I am doing was not the issue. I needed time that was just for me, without interuption. I played WoW and not golf, but that didn't change the fact that I had a commitment made to other people that I was upholding, and its somthing I wanted to do.

In the end there needs to be a balance, just remember that you don't get to decide what that balance is. You both need to figure out what keeps everyone happy!

Solar and Khel, I apologize for coming off so harsh. I wasn't really looking at it from the perspective of individual time...was looking at it only as a "Why on earth would someone need to schedule their life around a game?"

But I do see your point and agree. We both use it as our own little way to relax after a long day/week, and hang out with friends in game. And perhaps I'm still a little enraged over the time where his in-game time DID come before everything else. I could have been standing there with a Bookshelf collapsed on me and he would have said "Just let me get the last boss down and I'll drive you to the hospital..." I mean, there was a time where he rushed us out of my mom's Bday party to hurry home for a raid...I think I got to spend an hour with my mom on her Bday last year...if that.

I meant no disrespect and didn't mean to be harsh. I just looked at it from the wrong perspective.

I've just been very rawr lately and I'm in desperate need of some time off I think. I'm trying to find him a casual raid guild so that he can do what he loves. I have made a load of friends in game lately that have asked me to join them, but I'm not a raider really. I'm trying to get him into their guilds so that he can do what he wants/needs to do with this end stuff. So, maybe I'm not that bad...my rage bar is just a little more full than normal.

And BTW...LMAO @ the Honey Do list...we don't believe in those at our house I don't think. It's more like the "Dessy Do" list. Which is fine ftmp. I don't really mind.

I need some time off from everything. Game. Work. Everything. So I'm sorry if I came off harsh. It wasn't my intention at all...I've been in a bad place recently... so I'm just gonna go hibernate for awhile.

Des,

I didn't take it as harsh or enraged, just wanted to explain a source of ill-feeling that I have gone through, and try and save you and your hubby some heartache.

It definatley sounds like he could use a healthy reduction in his WoWing too.

Just try not to judge his time with the "Video Game" stigma. Because it sounds like its not just a video game for him, but instead a social event (maybe the same as you going shopping with your best friend (sorry for the crazy stereotyping of female hobbies, just an example))

You certainly wouldn't schedule your shopping trip to conflict with a family event (nor should he raid then) but you would be "miffed" if he were keeping you from meeting that friend to do some random task like fold laundry or clean kitchen...etc that could be easily schedule to happen at a different time. Definatley, family should come first though!

Again, don't feel bad about expressing your feelings, I just don't want you two to have a fight that I already have! Especially when in the end we both realized we were being silly and just not understanding the others needs. It's no fun!

We've had this fight. I used to be the "WoW Hating Wife". But we only see each other on weekends. He got me into the game, and there I gained some understanding of why folks play and why it seemed so important to him. It's a hobby we both enjoy, but on different levels.

I encourage him to raid, though I almost never go with him. If I get bored, I just log over to an alt or log off completely and work on the Honey Do List...

I don't really judge his time in game with any sort of stigma, because, obviously, I play also. I just wouldn't want to deal with him being "off-limits" given our schedules and how little my daughter and I get to see him. And so there is where I drew issue with what you said- where a marriage should have to adapt to this hobby. I'm just overly sensitive to it because of the issues we've faced between me, him and the game in the past. I think for me, maybe your wording seemed harsh after having already gone through it all before.

To conclude it most simply: I really don't care about the game so long as he fulfills husbandly duties (and I don't mean chores...I mean being affectionate with myself and our daughter...) and spends time with his family...No adjustment period needed for us at this point. We realized (after a few aggro sessions) that WoW > ALL for him, and we've worked on gaining our own little balance that works in our world for us. If he's raiding and I'm not wanting to deal with it- I grab a fishing pole with one of my toons and let my daughter go fishing for awhile.

The funniest part is that it seems like you think I bonk him on the head with dirty dishes, insisting he complete his "chores" before he's "allowed" to raid...Not hardly. Without going too far, our schedules right now prevent much of a physical relationship...which obviously makes him a bit rambunctious on weekends from the moment he gets home Friday night until he goes to bed Sunday... If he's stuck in a raid, I can do my housework in peace...or take a nice, relaxing shower. It affords me some time alone as well. So don't think I hate on the game. Believe me. Him + Raids = relaxation for both of us as I'm not having to fend him off while our daughter's awake!

It's just the concept where "Hobby" > ALL...that I don't deal well with. Totally understand the need. Totally agree that independent fun is necessary and healthy for a marriage. I understand and agree that individual needs/wants must be satisfied in order for a marriage to be a successful, happy one. Don't necessarily agree with the "off limits while playing/raiding" sort of thing, though. That doesn't work for us. He doesn't declare his raid time/WoW time as time where he's off limits to us, and while he's working on something in game...we don't normally bother him anyway. It's when we're supposed to be at someone's house an hour ago and he's saying, "One more try on the last boss...just one more try" (after the 5th "one more try")...that's maybe when I get a little grumpy. For the most part, we've worked it out, balanced it out and life's good with WoW for us. *shrug*

I encourage him to raid, though I almost never go with him. If I get bored, I just log over to an alt or log off completely and work on the Honey Do List...

Wait...I'm allowed to give her a "Honey-Do" list???:uptosomet


The funniest part is that it seems like you think I bonk him on the head with dirty dishes, insisting he complete his "chores" before he's "allowed" to raid...Not hardly.
This is just where my wife struggled, not that it's the same with you, but, She just couldn't understand that you can't just stop at any given time and keep a cordial relationship with others in the game. My short sitedness, was that I couldn't see that saying YES to WoW and NO to her feels like a lot of favoritism. (I am very good at removing emotion from all situations, its an important skill in my work, and makes for a great raid leader, terrible husband :( )


Him + Raids = relaxation for both of us as I'm not having to fend him off while our daughter's awake!
My wife is out of the house with work far more than I am, so my planned two nights a week are a happy reprieve for her to not have to fight me off with a stick! :biggrinfl

Don't necessarily agree with the "off limits while playing/raiding" sort of thing, though. That doesn't work for us. He doesn't declare his raid time/WoW time as time where he's off limits to us, and while he's working on something in game...we don't normally bother him anyway.

I didn't declare my raid nights before the big "show down" with the misses either, and its just a suggestion that worked well for us. It allows me to still raid consistently without neglecting other responsibilities. I wasn't neglecting things outside of the household, but definatley not being the best husband I could be while in house. (still am not I am sure...its a work in progress)

Its good to talk with you, and theraputic to talk with someone in a similar situation! :redface:

awwww i think we're having a big

/group hug

session here in the forests, amongst the tress, flowers, grasss and the twittering of the birds and the floating butterflies :)

in all seriousness I can see some of the above fitting into my conveersations with my wife over wow.

and i can see quite clearly also some of the differences being highlighted between us martians (us males of the species) and the venusians (they of the sugar and spice and all things nice variety....)

plonk your hand up in the air at this point if you have no idea what K is going on about and i'll elaborate a little more....

My wife does not understand Wow, not in the slightest. as has been said the idea of it being a 'live' game where you are interacting with 'real' people albeit through the medium of a keyboard and screen is an alien concept to some people (if not many - including my parents for example).

She's a very social person but want to 'see' people whereas i enjoy the gaming and social aspects of something like Wow, even more so when we used to make use of skype during our 5 mans and actually chat as well as play. chatting etc to people from all over Europe was fun and almost educational.

Its almost worse now i have such limited time - because I have to make 'plans' to play and then i do get stressy if something overruns and i can't get my gaming fix.

it happened yesterday - i was on a day off as i was in the theatre doing a 'get in' for out next show that started with the technical rehearsal last night. i got home after lunch and said i'd like an hour for some wow between now and going back to the theatre. she had a few things to do and we agreed on a time for her to come home that would give me 1 hr before i had to be out the door going to the theatre.

so for 2 hrs I was looking after baby boy. the appointed time to return came.....and went....about 20 mins later she comes in...traffic was bad due to some road works. not her fault but by then i had no chance to do what i 'planned' 'wanted' or 'hoped' to do on Wow.

although she acknowledged she had not meant to be home late - i do know that to her its only a game and was thus not viewed as really important. but she does not like anything to interfere with her social events or plans.......


Wait...I'm allowed to give her a "Honey-Do" list???:uptosomet
steady there Solar........you might find you need some serious resto loving if you go around presenting her with honey do lists ! :elfbiggri



My short sitedness, was that I couldn't see that saying YES to WoW and NO to her feels like a lot of favoritism. (I am very good at removing emotion from all situations, its an important skill in my work, and makes for a great raid leader, terrible husband ;(
its a martian / venusian difference and a big on Solar. we remove emotion, they thrive on it !

ROFL @ "Allowed to give HER a Honey Do List"

I thought that was a woman's right only? I'm kidding. But in our house- this Honey Do List- is really just a list of chores to do around the house. The only ones that get "assigned" to him are ones that involve the killing of bugs and other icky critters...stuff like that.

Yes. I will bring his raid to a grinding halt to make him save me from a spider- I do not care how large or small the eight-legged monstrosity is...he is my husband and sworn protector- he can take 30 seconds to kill the spider...or the bee. It depends which evil beast has entered the castle...

Khel, I think you hit it spot on: its a martian / venusian difference and a big on Solar. we remove emotion, they thrive on it !

It's true. So, when you're raiding and "turned off" emotionally, it's hard for us ladies. Speaking from personal experience, when you do this, it feels to us almost as if you're turned off to US... That's never going to be a welcome feeling for a wife, I don't think, unless your marriage is in SERIOUS trouble. No wife will ever really understand why her husband ignores her for HOURS on end for a game unless she plays.

I'm guilty of getting caught up in a long quest chain or an instance where I've sort of "tuned him out" until it's over. The epic 4.5hr failing of H:HoL for example... I'm also guilty of getting a bit grumpy if I've got my heart set on getting lost in Azeroth and our plans prevent it. I don't get all enraged over it...it's more just a bit disappointed.

We both understand it because we've both experienced it. I guess if you convinced your wives to play, they'd have a slight bit more understanding.

FTMP in our house, the WoW vs RL issue has been resolved. I don't really care if he raids as long as he spends the "other" time we have during the weekend with my daughter and me doing something the THREE of us can enjoy...he also has been trying to raid during the week more...so that we have weekends a bit more free to hang out and visit friends and stuff.

I thought that was a woman's right only? I'm kidding. But in our house- this Honey Do List- is really just a list of chores to do around the house. The only ones that get "assigned" to him are ones that involve the killing of bugs and other icky critters...stuff like that.


Fun story regarding this....

So I am deep in Naxx10 shortly after hitting 80 and we are "struggling" to say the least. I am hard down focused when out of no where I my wife screams bloody murder. I literally fly downstairs (my office is on the second floor of our house), in the process break my headphones out of the back of my keyboard, and sending my keyboard about half way across the room, planting my chair partially in the drywall (fun times patching), and touching maybe 2 of the 14 or so stairs on the way down...

To find our ~9 month old Golden Retriever had found a very fun toy outside and decided to bring it in to show "Mom"....

There in his mouth, a half dead field mouse...

Apparently I was talking on over vent when the scream occured, and have my guild thought someone was being killed in my home.

So after about an hour my heart stopped racing and I finally stopped laughing at my wife...

To this day, I will never understand what can be so terrifying about anything you can kill by simply stepping on. (Particularily when the dog already did most of the dirty work!)

Men really are from mars.

I'm arachniphobic. I don't recall a time where I've screamed but for one instance when my friend threw his pet tarantula on my arm. I nearly ran through a wall...who knows where the damn spider ended up.

I believe the definition of a phobia is: A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.

You can tell me ALL DAY LONG that the spider on the wall (which might not be any bigger than a common house fly) won't kill me. But I won't sleep until it's either been set outside or dead. The odd part is that I fully realize that the fear is irrational, but whenever I see a spider or a bee, I get the creepy crawlies all over my skin and I can't shake it. Usually takes a really uncomfortably hot shower to make that feeling go away.

So, yes. You bet your sweet behind that if I see a bee or an 8-legged demon in my house- my beloved husband is expected to don his shining armor and save my life on the spot! I don't care if he's raiding, using the bathroom...it doesn't matter. If it has 8 legs- then my life is in OBVIOUS peril and he must save the day immediately...and yes...he laughs at me after his mild irritation fades from being interrupted.

Unfortunately for him, our daughter is the same way. So if we're both home with him, he's got two panicked gals rather than just having to put up with me. Poor guy.

Our emergencies are signaled either by a shriek from the cub (my daughter)...or if I'm the one facing 8-legged terror, it's either a "BABY! KILLITKILLIT!!!" or a clumsy, stumbling horrified dash toward wherever he is so I can beg him for protection. I'm a wimp. I know.

And...LMFAO @ the dead field mouse story! I'd have asked my husband to take the thing away from the dog, probably...but maybe without the scream. Your poor wife! She sounds absolutely darling though!

Getting back to the noob stories - I imagine the 8-legged "fear" would go with a RL noob saga...as I've nearly knocked myself completely unconscious on a few occasions to get away from the dreadful beasts!

I'm arachniphobic. I don't recall a time where I've screamed but for one instance when my friend threw his pet tarantula on my arm. I nearly ran through a wall...who knows where the damn spider ended up.

I believe the definition of a phobia is: A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.

You can tell me ALL DAY LONG that the spider on the wall (which might not be any bigger than a common house fly) won't kill me. But I won't sleep until it's either been set outside or dead. The odd part is that I fully realize that the fear is irrational, but whenever I see a spider or a bee, I get the creepy crawlies all over my skin and I can't shake it. Usually takes a really uncomfortably hot shower to make that feeling go away.

So, yes. You bet your sweet behind that if I see a bee or an 8-legged demon in my house- my beloved husband is expected to don his shining armor and save my life on the spot! I don't care if he's raiding, using the bathroom...it doesn't matter. If it has 8 legs- then my life is in OBVIOUS peril and he must save the day immediately...and yes...he laughs at me after his mild irritation fades from being interrupted.

Unfortunately for him, our daughter is the same way. So if we're both home with him, he's got two panicked gals rather than just having to put up with me. Poor guy.

Our emergencies are signaled either by a shriek from the cub (my daughter)...or if I'm the one facing 8-legged terror, it's either a "BABY! KILLITKILLIT!!!" or a clumsy, stumbling horrified dash toward wherever he is so I can beg him for protection. I'm a wimp. I know.

And...LMFAO @ the dead field mouse story! I'd have asked my husband to take the thing away from the dog, probably...but maybe without the scream. Your poor wife! She sounds absolutely darling though!

Getting back to the noob stories - I imagine the 8-legged "fear" would go with a RL noob saga...as I've nearly knocked myself completely unconscious on a few occasions to get away from the dreadful beasts!




My wifey is terrified of snakes, she can't even watch shows/movies with them in it or she freaks,

We had a snake in the house, she found out about and next thing you know she was in the car locked herself in and wouldn't come back in until i cuaght it and cut it's head off.

Such violence! My goodness! I'm satisfied if the 6 or 8 legged fiend gets set free outside! Just so long as the freak isn't in my house lol

Hey guys! Children's Week is upon us!

While I don't want to QQ about the PvP portion of the meta achievement, I was hoping to get a little advice. I don't really PvP, ever...I avoid it like Gnomer.

I've never even seen EotS, not even once. I've been to Arathi Basin only 1 time I think. I do have my competitor's tabbard and spirit of competition, but that ONLY came about because I was farming honor to get the Insignia of the Alliance as was required to obtain the next rank in guild. I was incredibly surprised to find that in the mail after turning in my honor points for the insignia. At the time, I didn't know the event was even going on. (I know, I'm hated for it on server too...)

I was wondering if anyone else is sort of a non-pvper that's going to try to get the meta achievement and if you guys had ideas on how to accomplish this...

I'm a PvE bear/Resto with zero PvP gear and really no intention on grabbing PvP gear just for a silly achievement. I'm looking forward to doing the PvP actually, but really have no clue what I'm doing. Noob stories will be coming from this, I'm sure.

Also, are any of you going to work on this achievement?

=D Epic fail, now in PvP flavor!

I don't PVP much either, but you have a very stong second spec to help you! Resto = GOD in PVP. As a DPS, when I am in PvP, the first thing I do is find a healer to /hug! Follow them around, and do my best to keep them alive. They return the favor and you win!

The horde are much better "team" players than the Alliance for the most part, so as an Alli you need to find some folks that are going to work together for a win to be remotley possible.

Well, initially I wasn't even going to try for a "win" (as our battle group is a nightmare with the Allies involved), but I think it would be fun, since I haven't PvP'd since I was just a young, YOUNG druid...

I'm a little intimidated by it, to be honest, because I don't pvp. So Maybe I will go in as resto and give that a try...

I can beat you on that Des. I've never once even entered a battleground. The last time I tried PvP was back when it was world PvP and a friend badgered me into it. :P

Yrys, I feel your pain. By some strange and unbelievable twist of fate, I was able to cap a flag in EotS. AND We won the battleground. I'm still in disbelief.

The Allies were working together to "get the idiots out of THEIR battlegrounds".

I really think something like this is unfair for both sides. I'm not even QQing. I'm fine with not getting the achievement. I tried, and will continue to try...

I can see both perspectives. You have the career PvPers who are having to deal with folks coming in and doing next to nothing to contribute to the success of the battleground. If they get their achievement they're /afk-ing out of the BG leaving their team shorthanded. On the other side, you have PvE'ers who don't enjoy PvP in the least, trying to work on an achievement, that for us, is impossible.

So us PvE-ers are ruining the battlegrounds for those that enjoy it and the whole PvP thing is making the career pve-ers miserable...assuming they're willing to go in and TRY the PvP portion of it. After spending nearly my entire in-game time trying for the PvP portion this weekend...I can see the frustration and resentment piling up on BOTH sides of the fence.

It's sad. I wish Blizz would look at things like this a little more thoughtfully. I feel bad for the PvPers. I tried to contribute to winning BG's as best I could, but being a bear/resto spec with no pvp gear makes it hard to help. Also, getting cussed out constantly is a huge deterrent from trying to complete the achievement at this point.

I am definatley of the "PvE" crowd, but I don't think too many people fall into one group or the other. There are lots of folks that are on the fence.

PvP crowds tend to be a bit more "intense" than your typical PvE group. They are all but forced to PuG everything, unless they do a premade and then they wait in que for eons. So I understand their eternal frustration. If I had to raid with only a handful of folks I knew and had no say in who else joined us, I would /quit wow in a hurry. (whens the last time you checked the "Auto join" function in your LFG? PvPers can't uncheck it!)

I can see why blizzard has built that into the achievement though. It forces folks like you and I to test the waters again with PvP, if you want the achievement. There is literally no game impact for you, other than cosmetic, if you choose not to pursue that achievement.

WoW has been working to co-mingle PvPers and PvEers since insception. They have been pretty darn succesful too. I think that is a big part of why they have such an impressive retention of players thus far. Most people fall somewhere between the two schools of thought and game style and you really can do either or both if you'd like with little impact on your player.

In TBC a good bear tank had to Arena, because thats where some of the best gear came from, but today the lines are less blurred and the more casual PvP folks are getting lost in the mix with the hardcore. You wouldn't group Ensignia folks with "random ma' and pa' casuals" for a raid, and PvPers are kind of stuck with that mix in BG's. Its frustrating for both, but tough to find a solution that doesn't discriminate against one or the other.

Well, honestly? I feel MORE for the PvP'ers in this particular situation. I'd like to try and get a violet protodrake, just for fun, but will I die without it? Hardly. So I'm probably skipping the rest of the achievement as far as PvP goes.

I don't enjoy being stunlocked as soon as I rez at the graveyard and instantly killed again. It really just isn't my idea of an "enjoyable" game experience. I also don't really like knowing that I'm nothing more than a burden to the folks who are actually trying to win a BG. They're as frustrated, if not more so, than us PvE folks. I feel really bad for them. They're suffering through a week's worth of "achievement chasers" who aren't contributing to the win, and who, in most cases...are causing their own side to lose the BG.

That's not the best way to introduce us PvE'ers into PvP. While I'm willing to forgo the title because I'm not willing to be sworn at for hours on end and put other people's goals second to my own...there are millions that aren't willing to do so and who are really wreaking havoc on the BG's.

A lot of folks have commented that perhaps it would have made MORE sense for Blizz to make the achievement be "Win an AV, AB, EotS, and a WSG with your orphan out." That way everyone's fighting toward the same goal, rather than just standing there camping a flag's spawnpoint in order to snatch it.

The worst part is the overwhelming selfishness that's hitting on both sides of the fence. Where Allies are competing against Allies just to grab a flag for some stupid achievement. Hordies are battling other Hordies for the chance to cap a tower. How is that really helping us PvE folks want to try BG's more often? It's making us hate our OWN faction PLUS the other faction.

They could have said, get 50 honorable kills with your orphan out. I could have easily done that while helping the career PvP'ers win a BG. But to race around, and for the classes that CAN..."sneaking" around to be the first to tap a tower while your team is getting mangled trying to actually WIN the bg...it's not making the experience enjoyable on either side of the fence tbh.

I was turned off when I saw that allies were stuffing other allies to get their achievements, then AFKing out of the BG. I just don't think it's promoting the sense of "mingling in togetherness and faction love" like Blizz wants it to...lol

That's also why I said I'm not QQing over it. So I miss out on a mount and a title. Meh...either way. I just feel bad for the folks who "only" PvP. This has got to be hell for them. A bunch of PvP noobs, coming in, disrupting "their" bg's just for some achievement...it's got to be hell.

simple answer.

remove pvp like in the good old days when it did not exist :)

Well...I "have" the title...but my husband got it for me. BG's at night when I get home from work are an ENTIRELY different creature than they are during the day. My husband works nights, and figured he'd try to help me out on that achievement. He finished it up yesterday morning. There was no way I could have done it.

I personally put about 12-15 hours total over the course of the week long event trying to do it, and only got one of the four.

He clocked another handful of hours. For us Non-PvPers it was a nightmare. I understand that an achievement shouldn't just be something simple you get handed to you, but seriously...between he and I just on my toon, we clocked nearly 20 hours of BG over the week. That's just absurd. Not to mention the hours he put in on his druid to get it. Really wish Blizz would have thought that one out.

The same-faction griefings made it a miserable experience. If Blizz was trying to convince us PvE'ers that we should try to PvP more, this wasn't a good way to do it. I'm sure I'm not the only one that got cussed out more than a million times over the orphan...

no idea what you are talking about Des ! lol

but gratz !

Referring to The School of Hard Knocks (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=1786) achievement for For the Children. (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=1793)

It was a nightmare for me and husdruid both lol

I think I'm going to start some sort of blog for noob stories and I'll just give you the link, Khel, after I've got some good stories written up there.

Good idea Des ! i've been missing your posts in this thread as it all went quiet for the past 10 days !!

http://noobianchronicles.blogspot.com/

There's the link, as promised. I haven't posted a story yet, but I'll be working on one this morning that happened my first time through Nexxus (Heroic). =) Hope you enjoy and possibly contribute!

I posted a story there about my first noobing of H:Nex.

I've been trying to write up a few stories to have regular postings. I think my lowbie alts are going to create a LOT more stories for there.

I miss you guys =( I've been spending so much time working on alts, I haven't played my druid in like 3 weeks almost...and so I haven't been able to irritate you all with noobish questions.

Surely you miss my noobish questions, no?

Oh, and I got rear-ended on my way to work yesterday morning- so I was too grumpy to post yesterday. Today I'm sore, but it's Friday =) and I have a long weekend this weekend! Memorial Day Weekend!

WEWT! Anyone have any fun plans?

i will look later Des...got baby boy at the moment.

yes ofc we miss you on here, its been v quiet.


well its not Memorial Day Weekend over here but it is a Bank Holiday weekend so I have monday off for a nice long weekend :)

I dunno -- there have been lots of people around here trying to sell sex, gambling, drugs, and viruses. :tongue:

Hmm. Sounds like the makings of a memorable weekend to me...

I posted a story there about my first noobing of H:Nex.

I've been trying to write up a few stories to have regular postings. I think my lowbie alts are going to create a LOT more stories for there.

I miss you guys =( I've been spending so much time working on alts, I haven't played my druid in like 3 weeks almost...and so I haven't been able to irritate you all with noobish questions.

Surely you miss my noobish questions, no?

Oh, and I got rear-ended on my way to work yesterday morning- so I was too grumpy to post yesterday. Today I'm sore, but it's Friday =) and I have a long weekend this weekend! Memorial Day Weekend!

WEWT! Anyone have any fun plans?



My noobish questions > your noobish questions....
Take that Des!

O.O NEVAR!!!

I outnoob you! Wait...wait...no, you're right Talon. You definitely outnoob me XD

<3

I just haven't been hanging out here lately as I've been leveling alts and haven't stumbled across druid questions...or seriously messed anything up that wasn't directly caused by lag spikes. Bleh...alts...bleh...

When my husband levels his DK tank a little more, it'll be a different story.

Are you saying you need my nonsense to keep things happily flowing on this thread?

Oh and wait, sex, drugs...AND viruses? Sounds like I missed quite the party!

good looking start to the blog Des :)

hope to read more soon when you stop hiding on your alts :p

I'm not really hiding. I just needed a little variety. I still love my druid, but since I really don't want to spec her for DPS- her roles are limited and I'm not getting to sit back and relax as a DPS. I was on her for a little while last night, maybe an hour.

It's been really cool learning about the classes more and seeing what else is out there. Believe it or not, it's helped me with my druiding a little.

I'll be posting stories as soon as I start getting the lowbies into some instances. I think the "feel" of the blog will end up being more of just a journal of adventures- not so much noob stuff....although...I do have one I could post about Thorns...*posted the Thorns story btw*

the thorns one was roflmao Des ! :)

Our poor tankadin. I thought his head was going to explode! I was definitely ROFLMAO the ENTIRE time we were in Gnomer.

I should see if I can get my guildies and on server friends to send me some of their own stories. It's great fun to have a collection of adventures =)

OH! And the URL changed for the blog...Here's the new link (http://little-bear-tree.blogspot.com/).

sadly i cant say i have any n00b stories about me.

i can only think of one class involving a then guildie back in the good old days of original wow when we were running UBRS.

http://noobianchronicles.blogspot.com/

There's the link, as promised. I haven't posted a story yet, but I'll be working on one this morning that happened my first time through Nexxus (Heroic). =) Hope you enjoy and possibly contribute!
Des - suddenly i get a 'this blog does exist error' when trying to access it ?

The URL changed to: http://little-bear-tree.blogspot.com/

Didn't like the original link, so I updated it. Hope that helps.

I don't think I've posted anything new...but I'll work on it =)

ahha sneaky bear druid Des :p

>=)

I just realized, last night, how much I missed tanking stuff...all I've been doing lately if I log into my druid is healing instances. It's really stressful, I'm terrible at it...yuck. But last night...

I into the druid to help a guildie with some group quests. It was myself, my husband on his druid, and our guildie on his DK. So, I went in there as a bear and ZOMG it felt SO GOOD!!! It was refreshing to be a bear again and all...RAWR...People are going to have to find other healers. This druid is a bear. RAWWWWWR!

I just realized, last night, how much I missed tanking stuff...all I've been doing lately if I log into my druid is healing instances. It's really stressful, I'm terrible at it...yuck. But last night...

I into the druid to help a guildie with some group quests. It was myself, my husband on his druid, and our guildie on his DK. So, I went in there as a bear and ZOMG it felt SO GOOD!!! It was refreshing to be a bear again and all...RAWR...People are going to have to find other healers. This druid is a bear. RAWWWWWR!



Change Resto to boomkin.... problem solved...

But druid = Bear for me. It's the only think I really enjoy on my druid. Regretfully, I don't think I'm "designed" for DPS...caster or melee...or healing. I think I'm just meant to be a tank. Should be interesting when my mage hits 80...can't exactly tank Patchwerk with her...

i was the same Des, i had only ever been feral spec since Day 1 of Wow and even healed in all my 40 mans raids as feral specced.

but got a little fed up of it, esp with some of the planned nerfs to armour etc being talked about or that happened a few months back so changed to The Way of the Oomkin (tm).

Now i love it, we can do some powerful dps esp aeo which at one point in the past seemed to be reserved for only mages.

over the course of the 5 heroics i ran last nite i did about 2300 dps. we had an Uldaur raiding lock in for the last heroic who only did about 2450 so i was quite happy to not be a million miles away from him.

when i get me a couple or nice ilvl 226 BoE's from the AH i'll be rocking along to 2500 i hope :)

Nice! That's definitely sexy DPS Khel!

But the thing is that I think I'm just programmed to be a bear. I've face-tanked through all of these little nerfs (the most recent change to bears...I wouldn't call that a nerf at all btw). I've got caster alts. I've got melee DPS alts too. I think my druid and I are just happiest as a bear. RAWR!

It's helped me determine which druid gear set I'll be looking to upgrade first. I mean, my bear sits at 30k HP unbuffed in her random blues and not enchanted. I'm going to grab a bunch of agi enchants I think and go from there. Rawr!

BTW - I finally posted the story of my run-in with Durn the Droolmonger err...Hungerer as I was questing again with my DK last night...it's on http://little-bear-tree.blogspot.com/

thanks Des, i hope its not to shabby....for my gear level anyway.

the rogue with us linked DPS after CoS and he had me at 2.9k dps ! WOOOOOOT

i guess thats the difference, i only have the one high level character. no others to play.

i think from memory my bear was about 30k hp unbuffed.

You know, Khel...(and freakin awesome on the DPS...Uber Grats!)I didn't think I'd want to level any alts. Then the one day, after an intensely frustrating instance with my druid...I logged over to my warlock and just started grinding her. She's one of my favorite toons to play- mainly because she's always got a friend with her. She's great friends with her voidwalker =D.

Then I figured, well, if THAT toon is so much fun...why not try some others? And I'm finding that I really enjoy each of the classes. Plus...where would I end up with the stories if it weren't for my lowbies? Which, btw...I've posted about the nightmarish night my priest had last night...oi...

tis funny though Des how from a single heroic run when everyone links recount how different they all are ! he had me at 2.9k dps and himeself at 3.8k.....whereas my recount had him just under 3k and me at 2.4 or .5 ?

yeah u have more patience than me Des to go back over 4 yrs and start again as a solo leveller from lvl 1 :sleep:

or then try to find some grps etc and end up posting my own stories on your site of n00bs !! i could not do it.....i'd hit the pc and throw the monitor out the window.

i felt like that last nite after the priest we invited (guy we know well, grps with us a lot) to a grp for 2/3 heroics suddenly says the guild want him for 10 man naax.....ok no major issue if they need him.....despite the fact that we'd just old the healer who did Heroic HoL for us that we not needing him anymore :(

then he went and took the tank we had, (also someone we do a lot of heroics with) with him to which kinda annoyed me :bonk:

i checked out your priest fun - just adds to the 'i am not going to level another cahr' feeeling !

But it's SO fun! I really enjoy getting to know more about my other classes. So far the only two I don't have would be the rogue and the hunter. I imagine the hunter will be a bit like my warlock and the rogue, well...who knows?

I really do enjoy leveling my lowbies though.

And I really don't like when folks do that either. For me, it's usually my healer that gets ganked from me. Then we're left with one boss to go in H:HoL and no healer. Not...that it's ever happened before...and no...no...I'm not still bitterpanda over it... lol

We've been noticing huge discrepancies with Recount on our server as well. Sometimes the damage output from a character is impossibly large compared to their actual DPS (based on the reporting). Or they're doing 3k+ DPS and their damage done doesn't reflect it. I wish it was more reliable, but I imagine it's yet another addon needing to be adjusted and tweaked by it's creators.

Quick question. Do any of you use WoWmatrix for addon maintenance? I'm told it's not safe because it allows keyloggers access to your computer. (Great thing to find out after I've used it). Are there other, safer, programs like it?

We've been noticing huge discrepancies with Recount on our server as well. Sometimes the damage output from a character is impossibly large compared to their actual DPS (based on the reporting). Or they're doing 3k+ DPS and their damage done doesn't reflect it. I wish it was more reliable, but I imagine it's yet another addon needing to be adjusted and tweaked by it's creators.


Recount is still the industry standard, as far as I know. And its been that way due to its uncanny consistency. There may have been some issues with it since 3.1.2, but as far as I know it was good up to that point.

The reason you see large DPS with Small Damage or visa-versa has a lot to do with class/spec/rotation/lag. Your classes that hit soft and fast (Rogue/Hunter) are normally quite high on damage done, but a bit lower on DPS, while your mages/lock hit like a truck, but only after 2-3 sec cast times, have enormous DPS and lesser damage to show for it. This has to do with how recount calcs DPS. (all mods work pretty much the same here) It is based on your incombat and/or actively casting(swinging) time.

For the best results, disregard DPS entirley and focus on Damage Done or Heals Done. They really paint the picture for you. A mage who can do 6k DPS but OOMs 30 secs in isn't as helpful as the one doing 3k DPS but sustains it. Thus total damage > DPS. Ontop of that, the "Time" portion of the DPS calc has always been "Suspect".

Also, make sure you aren't comparing "Recount" to "Damage Meters". DM has a much more limited range, and thus misses lots of stuff.

I see. I should probably get recount again...and omen...*hangs head in shame* I've been leveling the lowbies so much recently that I just haven't "needed" the threat or damage meters really...

I'll get them soon =) Promise.

Finally convinced husdruid to be a co-author of LBT, so it's gonna start being more fun I hope.

I haven't been around too much lately- just wanted to check in and see how everyone's doing. I miss my fellow grovies!

yeah i was thinking you had gone AWOL on us !

I had just been grinding alts- so I hadn't found any new curiosities about end game druiding to ask about.

But now that husdruid wants to start raiding on a more regular basis with our guild, I've been trying to grind out Sons of Hodir rep and maybe grind dailies for some gold. I'd really like to get my swift flight form someday =(

I figured if we're going to be raiding more regularly now, I should familiarize myself with my druid again. And god...tanking is SO...MUCH...FUN!!!!!! I had an absolute RIOT in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle last night.

Everything's ezmode until Skadi. We got him down though. I was the last one alive and beat the last 6k HP out of him solo. VERY scary. We were both precariously close to death...but I prevailed (thanks to Frenzied Regen and Lifeblood)... Apparently DPS feels compelled to learn about his Whirlwind firsthand, rather than heeding the advice of a tank who's already failed the instance miserably a few times because of that exact whirlwind.

My warning couldn't have been more clear: "When he starts spinning, you start RUNNING...I don't care WHERE as long as it's AWAY from him- do NOT be in range of it. He will nuke you"

Yet, the DK went down on the first whirlwind...the paladin had a computer issue, unfortunately and froze up and wasn't able to move out of the way (so that is a little understandable). Our healer tried to cast a heal on me and got hit with it a few too many times. Husdruid tried to step in and heal, but got taken out by the poison darts- and then- there were two.

AND I DESTROYED HIM...BWAHAHA!

*insert triumphant roar here*

Anywho- that's what Desbear has been up to lately. Rather enjoying tanking again because I get to be a little more wild and reckless =)

The alts are collecting rest XP, and Des is FINALLY honored with Sons of Hodir. Have to thank Skwidly for the warning on daily quest: "Thrusting Hodir's Spear". I didn't throw the computer- but I'm sure I had a pretty venomous vocabulary for the first 2 tries. Almost had it on the 3rd- and took that punk dragon down on the 4th try with only 41 of my own HP left...=)

My warning couldn't have been more clear: "When he starts spinning, you start RUNNING...I don't care WHERE as long as it's AWAY from him- do NOT be in range of it. He will nuke you"A few tips about his whirlwind...


Once you have started fighting him, have DPS and the healer stand on the "gauntlet" side of the area and the tank on the harpoon gun side. Put him near the end of the gauntlet, but not all the way at the guns so the tank has room to back up.
It occurs shortly after he has thrown 2 of his poison spears. So, I try to keep a mental note of how many "green rings" (my unit frames puts a green box around someone who has been poisoned) I have seen since his last whirlwind. After the second green ring, I wait 5-8s seconds and announce that the whirlwind is coming and that everyone should back up (except me, I wait a bit longer as I'd rather have him chase me than DPS or a healer).
When you and everyone else backs away from his whirlwind, keep your finger on Growl. If he looks like he is getting close to the healer or DPS, hit the button. He will then start to drift back toward you. Note, the whirlwind "range" is slightly bigger than the graphic. So, don't let him get too close before you taunt.

The dps didn't really listen to me no matter what I said. We normally use the "reset" strategy- where you have a dps or two grab harpoons til they have a total of 6 or so, then you run back into the previous room til it resets- and race to the harpoon guns before the boss himself resets. That's what we did last night.

It was really just a matter of them not following the strategies we threw out there. I mean, our paladin was fine ftmp...but everyone needs to be on board for quirky fights. And it really isn't difficult to avoid his whirlwind. He scrunches up and starts whirling around...easy to recognize...easy enough to run away from it...but I think there's a misconception that the little room at the end with the harpoon guns is like a "safe zone"- so we lost two of the group when they tried to run in there and got nuked with no escape. -_- "run down this long hallway here" doesn't seem to mean the same to everyone I guess...lol

If I would have died having to solo Skadi at the end there, I would have been a pretty miserable little bear...that fight is difficult and lengthy without any DPS.

I apologize for the length here...but Des is a stressed panda right now...

Last week, I left Academy of War to join a new "raid guild". They haven't progressed much yet as a guild, but have some well geared folks and seemed like it would be casual enough for me...

I just...I can't raid with 14 yr olds. There was just too much downtime drama. We, at one point, were left idle in the raid waiting for the raid leader to drive from wherever he was back home. 20-30 minutes of downtime between pulls. I coulda been fishin'! lol That was where my desire to go back to AoW started...and it continued to grow until last night.

I "grew up" in AoW where people talk and have fun. We relax together and when we can, put together raids and heroic runs just to hang out. No pressure. No drama. So maybe that's my downfall and I'll never be able to find another guild that will make me happy...

But the other night, I was on in the "raid guild" and asked folks if they wanted to run heroics- you know- build "guild togetherness" learn how we work together, familiarize myself with a few of our tanks and how they take damage...etc etc. Yeah, no one even said a word. Apparently manners don't exist in WoW at all? When I got a group together for a 10 man VoA, I asked the guild again if anyone was interested...maybe we could make it 25 man VoA. I got a bunch of snide remarks from the children of the guild and that was that.

Also...our GUILD raid was brushed aside 2 nights in a row so that the "better" folks in our guild could go run Ulduar. That's not a recipe for a successful raid guild. That's a recipe for a frustrated Destinae who joined to raid and is still not raiding, but is now missing her friends. When I asked if I could raid lead and we'd just PuG in a few folks...it was like talking to 4 yr olds. "I'm not going unless SOandSo is going!" and "Well I'm not going if HE'S not going!"

...

-_-

I realize that raids get canceled in Raid Guilds. I realize that folks might PuG a higher raid to get better gear to help out their guild. I've been trying to do the same wherever I can. But if you schedule the raid for YOUR guild- you should show up or at least make sure it goes off. I actually got "talked to" by some 15 y/o for offering to lead the raid and how inappropriate it was...etc, etc. And accused of trying to start drama by "trying to take over the guild". -_- /gquit. I went back home to AoW. No pressure. No drama. And good friends.

But now, another raid guild on server...has been trying to get me to submit an application. The guild is called DOJO on Durotan. Very cool folks, from the few I've met so far. Seem like a lot of fun.

I'm just worried that I'll get homesick for AoW again...and I'm not sure I can commit the time to an actual raid guild now. =( Sad, but true. With all the drama and the pressure from the three guilds who've been after me to join up with them...I might actually just either take time off from the game completely or log into some alt to hide on for a bit to clear my head.

I'm relieved to be back in AoW, but we don't raid...and I'd like to see more content...but I just don't want the pressure right now I guess. Advice?

Hi Des,

As you know I went through a recent transition of guilds too.

First off, I found that everyone in WoW thinks they are a "Raid Guild" if they aspire to someday raid. To that I say...."WRONG". A raid guild is one that focuses activity around raiding and successfully, regularily, raids. (Raid = >5 people) Heroics are not raids...period.

For the longest time I desperatley wanted to be in a "Casual Raid" guild. After 2+ years of making very good friends and having lots of fun together, I am happy to say Casual Raiding is NOT progressive raiding, no matter how much we want it to be.

End game raiding is nothing short of serious business. I am not saying there isn't joking around and having fun, but there is a certain maturity, respect for others and focus that is required, that has to take priority in a raid environment.

Reciept for Successful Raiding:

1) No kids. Sorry to be the A-hole prejudice old guy, but kids = immaturity, disrespect, selfishness, and untimely RL aggro (parent, school work, work....etc etc that always seem to magically appear unexpectidley)

2) Like minded focus. If half your raid wants to clear naxx by 3.2 and the other wants to be farming Yogg, drama will certianly ensue. Predefine your goals.

3) Schedule that have only minimal fluidity. People have lives outside of WoW, and a dedicated raid group needs to be able to count on a commitment from ALL raiders on a regular basis. Yes RL happens, and somethings can't be prevented. But if you know you can't commit the 3 hours or so, then don't waist the slot that could be filled by others. There is no reason that 9 or 24 other people should wait for you to finish dinner, etc. (Not you personally Des, but anyone)

I think you should carefully research your potential new guild to make sure its a fit before you move. I know you like your friends in AoW, but if the guild isn't providing you the raid environment you want, perhaps you should move. (maybe just move your raiding toon, and keep alts with AoW) I deeply miss my daily contact with folks from my prior guild, but I don't miss their style of raids. For me, Raid is why I play WoW. Its the part I look forward to and love. The other stuff is nice, but there are nice people in most guilds. Sounds like you found a bad guild to jump into there for a bit but, that may just be bad luck.

I strongly suggest talking to the Guild lead and Raid lead (if they are diff) of the new guild and getting in a run before you make the switch. Most guilds don't like to make a spot for "Non-guild" folks, but if you explain that you are truley interested in joining them, but first want to be sure you are a good fit with their playstyle, I think they will gladly make room. This will give you a "first date" with them to feel each other out. If they don't like you or you don't like them, all thats been lost is one raid ID and life goes on.

I agree with all of the above. I'm not saying that raiding should be anything but a group of goal-oriented folks focusing and buckling down to get things done. I get that, respect it and understand it.

I just don't think I can make the required commitment at this point in my life. I don't even know how to explain it all...I'm just frustrated...and discouraged. There's just a lot of pressure right now and I'm not wanting to or am not able to deal with it all...and it's a game. It's insane how much pressure and stress this game can cause folks. I think I'm just going to go back to playing for fun...doing dailies, picking flowers, leveling alts...just having fun for awhile...

agree Solar on 1) 2) and 3).

Casual Raid guilds dont really get anywhere.....they can't as they do not wish to take it serously enough and they are people for whom RL will usually take priority over a raid.

ie if the weather is nice then they go out to the beach, bbq with family etc rather than log on to raid.

This is fine in a casual raid guild as there will not be the 'you must raid' 4 times per week mentality.

On my server I could actually probably get into a casual raid guild.

From doing heroics i've got to know a lot of people in a variety of guilds. Sometimes we get people coming along with us for a heroic or 2 that are in Uldaur 25 guilds. Other times it people who are in the smaller and yes 'casual' raid guilds....they run Naax 10 each week and are looking to recruit to more for Naax 25.

Sometimes we need an extra dps etc and someone in the grp drags along another guildie....so I get to know more people in that guild, including officers sometimes.

So now I would feel confident that if i had the time I could apply to this particular guild believing it would fulfill my goal to see a bit more of the game....ie Naax 10 and perhaps 25 without requiring me to sign a contract in blood stating i am available 24/7 for the good of the raid guild and will dream about our next raid and fight tactics on so and so Boss who wiped us the day before.

Given how I play Wow, getting to know people via heroics has given me an insight into other guilds and would allow me to make a bit of an informed choice without simply doing a blind app to a guild on website.

I think you have to rememeber Des that joining a guild does not mean you can't leave if it turns out to be 'not for you'.

Until you actually join one and do a few Raids you cant really know what they are like.....this also allows you to be part of their /g and see if they chat much etc

I'd also suggest that you register of guild forums and take a look at how active they are, what sorta stuff is being said/discussed to get an idea about the guild and its goals etc.

Also as Solar said, i'd be wary of joining any guild that has under 18's in it. If you want to raid even Naax 10 man the presence of the younger element does not fit in, imho.

Yes, leave alts etc in AoW but if you want to see more of the game and you cant get that with AoW then you will never be happy - less stressed maybe, with friends yes......but not game happy cos you will not be seeing more content.

It does not sound like 'playing for fun' will be fulfilled by picking flowers or levelling alts ?

You want to see more content.....

I do want to see more content, but at this point, given my RL circumstances, I'm unable to make the commitment required. Like I told the friend who was trying to recruit me to their raid guild, I don't want to let anyone down. I'd love to join their guild and see the content and hang out with mature players. RL just isn't cohesive to this right now.

I'm happy enough healing or tanking heroics and just hanging out doing dailies, leveling alts, etc. Actually, I'd really like to get a better tanking set. I'm failing miserably at upgrading my bear gear and it's frustrating me to pieces!

I tend to PuG a fair bit, and have definitely gotten a bit of feel for the different guild personalities available, at least on Turalyon. Some are very immature in attitude (as well as age) and their vent chatter would make me go insane if I had to listen for more than the short while it takes to pug with them.
Others are less dramatic, and to my mind, relaxed and fun.

There are good casual raid guilds out there - I lucked into The Elders a while back. We are nowhere near the leading edge of progression (currently 8/14 in Ulduar with Thorim going down any day now), but do pretty well considering RL>WoW is our motto... We call ourselves a casual guild that raids, rather than a raiding guild per se.

We have no required attendance for raids, and don't stack raids with specific classes, sign-ups are first-come, first-served and sometimes go in with clearly sub-optimal groups. But we have fun.

Heck, if you get desperate, we're always looking for more folks. It'd take a server transfer to Turalyon, but at least we're EST.

Edit: Heh. Sorry, didn't intend for this to be a recruitment message. I guess that's my inner Recruitment Officer showing...