Optional Pants

Part I: Therapy Session

Germans, French, Russians, and Yanks: oh my!

Yesterday evening, after basically two days' of play and miscellaneous life stuff, I realized that the inner dialogue in my head was just like every addicted personality I have ever known: rationalization, bargaining, enabling, and all that unhealthy stuff. I did not want to work on NaNoWriMo, (not, "could not," I "did not") and putzing around in Azeroth was having an AA meeting in a liquor store. Not a good idea. I turned off the game, put even the laptop far, far away from the TV room, and watched an old film, one of those classics that everyone should watch but probably don't think about, "The Third Man." It was----trippy. Post-war symbolism, setting Vienna, and yes, even Orson Welles.

And it's always about a dame, ain't it?

Afterwards, I turned to Cross-Dressing Rogue and admitted I need help. (Isn't that the first step?)

Help with what, you ask? The fact that I am becoming so chained, enslaved, to Azerothian duties. (I am a person who quit smoking cold turkey, but there were other motivating factors, so I know it can be done, but but but...)

He is an experienced game designer and player, and tried to remind me again that WoW is never meant to be "won." Ever. It has no beginning and no ending, and for someone like me who needs end-caps, this lack of structure and time-management is truly debilitating. Since the expansion came out particularly, I have been feeling this odd mix of having a great time/having the worst time in this chosen hobby. And it is an avocation. I considered that I'm coming up on my three-year anniversary this next May, and though there are many of my friends and loved ones who've been playing much longer, I got the end-game bug pretty bad. (Maybe the Klaxxi's sting is more venomous than we imagined.)

Earlier in the day, we both went off on a tiny rant about some of the ways Blizzard seems to sadistically hurt their long-time and newer players. I found this quote on MMO Melting Pot:

And Green Armadillo says that saying dailies, LFR or coin hunting is optional is rather like saying wearing pants is optional – “Lecturing the customer on why they are incorrect, not as good at playing the game as people who are beating the content with the minimum gear, and need to find new friends with lower expectations – however accurate all of these statements may be – is not a good business strategy. “

Yes, it is a bad business strategy, but they are the Breaking Bad geniuses, and that first taste is free. It's up to me to scrape together whatever intelligence I can muster and try to focus, really focus. Enter rationalization: it's hard. Each one of those alts provides another dimension to play time that is unique. I have really been enjoying starting to get serious about raid healing on Mataoka, and continue to privately, subtly, enjoy my enhancement spec for questing and kicking monster ass. As far as healing goes, I think I have potential to be a decent raid healer. Consider the other night I went in with less than stellar gear, and managed to get past the dogs at the gate. But the other alts, as I said in my choppy attempt at poetry, have this amazingly interconnected professional life.

All I wish -- really wish -- is that Blizzard got the altaholics like me. I don't want anything to be soulbound, I don't want anything to be limited. My alts are one person: me. If they're worried about illegal gold farming and such, I'm sorry. To me, it's like being worried about drug cartels or bootleggers when I want a glass of wine. Guess what? People are always going to skirt the law: there are systems in place to protect the economy of Azeroth, and have its legitimate players such as myself enjoy a few hours of play. I want when my druid plants a crop my shaman can water it. All efforts go across the board. Period. Done. Move on.

Part II: By Which I Get Serious About Restoration Shaman Specialization

MMO Melting Pot's guide is really terrific, in my opinion. Validated a few things, surprised me on some, and all in all a great, quick read. Hugh delivers as usual. I am off to Ask Mr. Robot (still like this site a lot) and see what's what. 

Few Quick Awesomesauce Resources:

MMO Melting Pot Quick Start Guide to Resto Shammy

Life In Group 5 Rocks-the-Resto Advice

Here is where I stand (and yes, I am standing on agility boots. Yes. Yes I am.)

And here is the wish list:

So: trying to focus. Trying. I know there are changes coming up in the next patch or whatever. I know. I may fly over the coo-coo's nest by then, and it may be too late. 

In the meantime, I'm off to go boot shopping. Thank you, Icy!

Postscript: Update - who knows if I'll be raiding or not? Who knows? No one knows. No one. /Sigh

Dear Azeroth: Why We Hate to Tank

It's more fun to play warlocks anyway: be careful what you wish for, Azeroth.

Nine times out of ten when I hit the Dungeon Finder the goody bag is up for tanks. Sometimes healers too, but not nearly as often. That bag sure is pretty. It's like a big blue embersilk bag, made of the finest materials, pregnant with the promise of gold, gems, and maybe, a puppy! I have received a mulgore hatchling and a hyacinth parrot while playing Zeptepi healing, but usually just gold and an unnecessary flask for Luperci Who Is Not a Fail Tank. But, like a lottery ticket, it sure does have potential, and since the odds are if Luperci looks, sure enough, the bag is offered.

I put Luperci to the side a while ago. My goal is to have 4000JP for each of my favorite characters by the time Mists hits. Mataoka is there, and so is Luperci: Zeptepi isn't far behind, the trailers being Ceniza and Momokawa. Momo is still stubbornly refusing to go into LFR after umpteen thousand failed final platforms. I was looking around at some items for Luperci, and spent some of her JP on HP things, and to make up the deficit, saw sure enough, goody bag meets time - off we go.

The new protection paladin set up is still a bit of a mystery to me, but only because I haven't spent any time studying it, and it seemed unnecessarily confusing before, and more simple now. In other words, at first glance, the changes of simplification seem good. And, like a good little paladin, if I see a druid in the group, I hit Blessings of Might.

I am quickly told that because there is a shaman in the group, my blessing is superfluous due to shaman mastery.* Not the word he used, but you get the idea. I asked why, to no answer. In fact, any question I asked this little warrior, or the group, was met with stony silence. They were having a grand conversation with the mage about his combustion. So imagine walking into a car show and everyone is talking hemis and carburetors, and you just want to know about tires.

The rogue fight, and the smoke, and the slow movement out, etc. Little warrior jumps right in and pulls the boss the second she drops to the ground, and though I was ready and pulled her too, he dies a few seconds later, and then of course, it's my fault, can't hold aggro, can't do anything right, etc. Tanks suck, blah blah blah, and then another player pipes in and says "Well he's better than the other 14 I've had today."

I am wondering: at what point does a player perhaps look in the mirror and stop blaming others? Oh, you wacky generation of no accountability and it's someone else's fault: I blame your parents. (See what I did there?) They told you it was the coach's fault for benching you. Or the teacher's fault for your F. Or your mother's fault. Or your father's fault. But maybe, just maybe, if you were the tank and pulled the boss, little warrior, you would have been okay? And maybe, just maybe, little warrior, if you weren't the tank and pulled the boss with your mighty aggro and died, it just might be your fault? Ain't gonna bubble azzhats, sorry.

And--why is it ALWAYS WARRIORS?!?!

Sigh.

Well, it's his repair bill, not mine. I got 74 gold out of the goody bag, and an inferno ruby.

BUT--that tale of griping leads me back to my original question: what is it about shamans and mastery now? How have the totem changes affected shamans? Anyone want to weigh in and give me their thoughts on this? I'm seriously considering going more full-time restoration on Mataoka, and would love to know your thoughts:

*Resto Shaman Mastery, Pandarian Style: http://lifeingroup5.com/?p=2965

Theme Song: See It No Other Way/Slighty Stoopid
Theme Song II: Handlebars/Flobots

Postscript: Maybe I'll start kicking warriors out of hand in Portuguese. Going to make my macro now:

Parar de puxar o chefe, ou eu vou chutar.

Fresh-squeezed mana. With pulp.

Lizzy: is it possible to, well, um...how do I become a better shaman healer? Good elves are dying, and I can't hit those buttons any faster--I want to make it rain! Rain NOW! (This is best said in an Arnold-voice.) "Mar-reeAH, get me da doilet pappeer, NOW!" Okay. That was inpsired by Amateur's imitation, and I can't quite pull it off.


But I need help. And not just with my Austrian accent.

I switched up some talents, moved some things around, and what I want to do it make stuff go faster. I feel like I'm using Coumadin when I should be using a beta-blocker. What's a doc to do? So, if you have a moment, and want to look me over in the Armory and tell me what's what, or if there is any way I can cast Healing Rain faster, or other healing spells faster, I'm all horns and ears.

In the meantime, I cleaned out bags, banks, and storage closets, organized, had a yard sale, and came up with this transmog ensemble:

May have found the look that the Kirin Tor tabard can work with...at least for 21,000 more rep points...

 I'm going to Ask Mr. Robot, too, and check you out. Yup. That's what I do. Imitate.

No regrets.

Nothing like a good old-fashioned night fight...

I have no regrets about not studying for the 4.3 Patch--last night was a blast. Got through most of the new dungeons easy-breezy, and wasn't too distracted by how beautiful they are. I can see how they can become tiresome later, but that is always the way, and not my problem now. Plenty of new content to learn and play. If I have any regrets at all it may be that I did play grasshopper a bit too much when others were being ants, but really, not sure it matters. I don't like to farm, and making a lot of gold doesn't appear to be a big priority for me. I do wish I could have glammed up with some new things I bought, but ya know? In time. It's all about the pacing for me. 


But, thought it was time to review the patch notes. These are the items that are important to my shaman, Mataoka "Please call me Matty and No I won't be an Elemental Shaman but Might Try to Heal You," Zeptepi the Confused Holy/Shadow Priest, Luperci the Reluctant Paladin, Haanta the Hillbilly Huntress, and Magadora "the Gas Tank" Mage. 


Some love:
Enhancement

• Improved Lava Lash now causes Lava Lash to spread a Flame Shock debuff from the target to up to 4 nearby targets. This excludes crowd-controlled targets and those who already have a Flame Shock debuff from the shaman.
• Improved Lava Lash no longer increases base Lava Lash damage by 15/30%. This increase has been rolled into the base Lava Lash skill.
• Mental Quickness has been redesigned. Instead of granting the shaman spell power, Mental Quickness now causes Enhancement shaman spells to behave as though the shaman has spell power equal to 55% of attack power. Enhancement shaman spells no longer benefit from spell power from other sources.
• Maelstrom Weapon can now also proc from fully absorbed melee attacks.

This I probably should have known:


Wind Shear's base cooldown has been adjusted to 15 seconds, up from 6 seconds.
Oops. That would have come in handy during a certain rainbow dinner party fight.


Oh, guess I'm not so dumb after all: Mages

• Mages
  • Pyroblast's initial damage has been increased by approximately 26%, and its damage over time has been increased by approximately 100%.
  • Fireball damage has been increased by approximately 17%.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Fire
      • Living Bomb damage over time has been increased by approximately 10%, and explosion damage has been increased by approximately 120%.

Official Hour of Twilight Patch Notes


Blood Diamonds: Dangit, Blizzard. Why'd you have to go and make access to the wealth so much like real life? And with pepper spray, too?


I'm already enhanced. 


Thank you RNGs: 

• Zul'Gurub
  • Players now only have to kill two of the four initial dungeon bosses (High Priest Venoxis, Broodlord Mandokir, High Priestess Kilnara, and Zanzil) to face Jin'do the Godbreaker.
• Zul'Aman
  • Players now only have to kill two of the four Troll avatars before they may face Hex Lord Malacrass.

And a few "What the hells?": (Did I even have these spells? What the heck have I been doing?!)

• • Priest - Holy 
    • Spirit of Redemption has been rebuilt to address a few functionality issues and make it more responsive. Spirit of Redemption otherwise remains unchanged.
    • State of Mind has been redesigned and is now called Heavenly Voice. Heavenly Voice increases the healing done by Divine Hymn by 50/100%, and reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn by 2.5/5 minutes.
    • Guardian Spirit's healing bonus has been increased to 60%, up from 40%.
    • Holy Word: Serenity now has a cooldown of 10 seconds, down from 15 seconds.

Paladins (I don't think I've ever understood my hammers from my seals...yikes.)

• Holy Radiance now has a 3.0-second cast time, no cooldown, and requires a player target. That target is imbued with Holy Radiance, which heals them and all group members within 10 yards instantly, and continues to heal them by a smaller amount every 1 second for 3 seconds.

• Seal of Insight, when Judged, no longer returns 15% base mana to the paladin. Judging Seal of Insight still causes damage, and melee attacks will still restore 4% of base mana.

• Seal of Truth, when Judged, now benefits from a multiplier of 20% per stack of Censure, up from 10%.

Oh, I know one little dwarf hunter who is going to be PISSED: The achievement Tol Barad Veteran now requires 25 victories in Tol Barad, down from 100.


Here is the cautionary tale: If you begin to grumble about the grind of the game, all you need to do is stop grinding. Goals are wonderful to have, but when they lose their original purpose, they cease to bring happiness. That's right, grasshopper. You just got fabled.


Yes, content of this post liberally borrowed from joystiq.

Aggressively passive.

Oh, the list of things I didn't do to prepare for 4.3 The Hour of Twilight.

• No PTR
• Didn't add up any justice points or valor points to see what or who needed what when or why
• Haven't visited Mr. Robot in a while. He's like the bitchy fashion designer who tells you what to wear, but doesn't give you the credit card.
• Didn't farm anything. Nothing. "Oh, Sir Orc? You want this node? Be my guest, after you..."
• No gold, no materials, emptied out pockets on professions that will probably be worthless soon, like training to be a wheelwright or farrier. (Look them up--you have Google).
• Didn't read notes again, didn't preview squat. I heard there is a rumor about a monkey with a fez, and if that is true, it will be mine. Oh yes...it will be mine.

That would be sho kewl.

Now, what did I do this past week, besides make too much stuffing, enough mashed potatoes to feed all of the Stormwind orphans, and scuttle under the darkness of a northern Pacific coast gloom? I leveled my beautiful mage, Magadora. I realized that when I get the "Explorer" title that may be a bit awkward, so I may have to change her name. In any case, between the heirlooms (shoulders, staff, and chest) and the WoW 7th Anniversary buff, she went from zero to hero in no time flat. She is now level...35? 36? Yes, she is a Fire/Arcane mage. Yes. I know it's wrong to use Fire. I have seen how slow it is, the casting time takes an eternity, especially after having Mataoka wield the weather like she owns it. But, dang: it makes me happy when I see a huge fireball hurtling toward its target, SKABOOM, down. So, on those boss fights, the little mage that could is usually top or second DPS. She is a slow boil, but look out when she's cooking. I have prepared myself to get plenty of gruff from other players, although it hasn't happened yet. So far I've heard "solid group," or "great group" and been asked to re-queue repeatedly.

But the real thanks goes to my partner-in-crime who has the patience of the world with me, and will just grind through older content just to get the cool mace or ax, no hidden agendas or demands.

I asked myself this week, concerning a few issues, "What do I want?" Do I want to be GREAT, or do I want to have fun? I feel that much of Azeroth and real life make these two mutually exclusive, but not always. I have known moments when greatness and fun unite. Maybe that's what we all do: define it for ourselves.

As far as raiding goes, I am not looking forward to LFR especially. As long as I get to bring my monkey, then I guess it'll be okay. 

Too much awesomeness.

How did I miss this post?

Simply fun to read http://wowhats.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/shamanism-and-me/

I wish we could name our feral spirit wolves. Maybe I will make an introduction macro.

Last night and for the better part of today, I'm getting my restoration gear dusted off, gemmed up, enchanted, and tailored, er, reforged. I went to see the wizard, Ask Mr. Robot, about what I should have, and golly gee, are there a lot of points for intellect. This seems counter-intuitive to me, that spirit, like GO TEAM-level spirit, would be more sought after. I am sure, SURE, my mentors in the game can and will clue me in on why intelligence and mastery trump spirit, until my eyeballs roll back in my head.

Speaking of wolves, I wish, I wish, I wish I could call them out anytime. That would be sho-kewl.