Family

Now that I'm not playing WoW anymore, I've neglected my blog and haven't posted in a while. I actually started writing a journal (diary sounds so 13th grade girl) instead of keeping a blog, with some of my thoughts on life and just a way to get it down on paper.

But I decided this morning, after waking up that there were some things that were meant to be shared.

I had a dream last night that we were having a family gathering at my grandparents' house, as we often do. My mother's grandparents host our big annual family reunion, going back to perhaps my great-grandfather's children I think. There are usually a lot of people there. And every year, my grandparents look more and more tired in the week leading up to it. I think they are around 80 years old (Is that terrible of me not to know? understand at least this, my mom has 3 siblings, my dad 7. I have around twenty something cousins. Remembering everyone's age is out of the question for anyone outside of your extended family.)

Anyway in my dream, I saw my grandparents doing the hosting of the party, but they looked much older and slower than they usually are. Especially my grandfather. He was going up and down steps that looked much more like ladders when he climbed them, and at the end of the dream, he collapsed in the grass outside. He had simply passed out, because he sat up. I made him stay laying down, and it wasn't too long before I woke up, covered in tears.

I decided to share this because of another story that I have to tell. In the summer of 11th grade (2001 it would have been) I went to Governor's School for Health Care from July 1 through August 4. I met someone there who I ended up making good friends with. We talked about a lot of stuff. One of the things we ended up talking about were our grandparents. He had lost the grandfather that he had been so close to, and impressed upon me the importance of spending time with grandparents while they are on this earth.

We had one weekend that we were able to go home, and so on that Saturday my dad was headed over to visit his parents, and I decided to tag along. My grandmother was a house-wife, having had 8 kids. I never talked to her much, most of my time spent over there was with my cousins. But while I was there I took the time to talk to my grandmother. It couldn't have been more than 15 minutes, but it was something that I had never done. I could tell that she enjoyed it.

The morning after I came back, August 5th, I found out that my grandmother had passed away in the night due to heart failure. Apparently she had a disease that doctors have given her one year to live...in 1991. She lived another 10 years, and saw her 17 grandchildren (at the time) grow up. And I had gotten to say goodbye before she left.

This helped me immensely. I don't know if I would have had peace in my heart without those valuable 15 minutes of time that we spent.

I still have 3 grandparents left. I am blessed in this way. But I know that someday they will be gone. I know that someday my parents will be gone, and all of these aunts and uncles that I hold so dear to me. And so my message is this.

Make sure you spend time with your families. Families are wondrous things. They pull different people with completely different personalities together in a loving relationship. Although some families would call themselves dysfunctional, they are still bound by love and the time shared together. I have a very strong family, and I am eternally thankful for that. I pray that I am able to spend more time with my grandparents before they go. But it could happen in 5 minutes to any of them.

You may never get that last hug before they go, so you'll never be truly ready. Even if it's just 15 minutes, make sure you spend time with those you love, just in case something does happen. They will appreciate it, and you will too.

Have I beaten WoW?

So with Rubix leaving and Murien not playing nearly as much, and Bootz dropping off of the face of the earth, it leaves me little left to enjoy on WoW. To be quite honest, for a while now, anything other than raiding and PVP has been old. I hate to be a poor guildie, but I'd rather be playing Starcraft (old school FTW) or Zelda: Twilight Princess or Evil Genius (my current flavor of the month) than running Arcatraz for key fragments. It just isn't fun for me anymore.

Playing other games for the first time since I don't know when since I started playing WoW got me thinking. Why has WoW been an endless source of entertainment for me? Why has it taken this long for the game to catch up to me? For a solid 2 years I have played this game, and now it has finally ceased to entertain. I know a lot of it is the people who I encountered. Also a lot of it is the enjoyment I get from learning how to play better and better.

In the end, I think if I were to quit WoW, right now, I would feel like I've beaten the game. No I haven't seen Magtheridon go down. No I haven't seen SSC or The Eye. No I haven't become a Justicar or a Gladiator. I haven't beaten any decent 2v2 teams by myself. So why do I feel this way?

I guess in the end for someone to have felt that they have truly beaten WoW, they would have to level 9 characters, one of each class, to level 70, complete Karazhan, defeat SSC and The Eye, kill Illidan and Mannaroth, and get Gladiator on each one in PVP. But what's the use?

I'm a priest. I will be until the day I quit WoW. Sure it'd be fun to be a paladin or a shaman or whatever else. But the grind involved is not worth the reward that I would reap. I'd rather spend time outside of the gaming world for enjoyment.


But in the end I've come to realize that I've become just about the best priest that I can be. No I'm not the very best PVP priest. Even when specced properly, I'm not the best. But I'm pretty good, and I've had some good fun. No I'm not the best PVE priest. But I've done some crazy things in my time and had a lot of fun doing it.

I guess beating a game may not truly come down to actually doing it. Watching the cut scene in the end of the game isn't truly the point of winning a game. If you've beaten the game without cheat codes, the knowledge that you've truly beaten it is enough. I could join a heavy raiding guild for a month and tell them that I don't want loot....just to experience the fights. I know that I could belong there, because of the things that I've done. But I wouldn't enjoy it. That's like beating a game with God-mode on. If I'm going to see those fights, I'm going to see them with TN.

Back in March of last year, I joined Silver Hammer. I was hesitant to join a raiding guild. I didn't want to have to commit large blocks of time to raiding. I didn't want to have to say "sorry I can't do that, I'm busy on Monday nights." But I joined, and I loved it. Same with TN. But for example, today I got asked by my church choir "Why don't you sing with us? Rehearsals are on Wednesday nights." But Wednesday nights are Gruul's nights.

So now you see my dilemma.

I don't think I'm going to quit WoW altogether. I was addicted for a long time, and it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure I'll post something about how WoW has helped me as a person at some point here. But I will likely not be online guaranteed for raiding nights, or for arena. It will be more of a "I feel like playing WoW tonight." And if someone's online and wants to run Arcatraz, that will be fine. If we are going to kill Void Reaver, assuming I'd still be wanted, then I'd come as long as I felt my skills weren't rusty. But I think that it's about the time in my life that I need to stop structuring it around WoW, and start structuring it around...well, my life.

Farewell Rubix

It's official. Rubix has cancelled his account. His time on Cenarion Circle is through. And I doubt he'll be coming back.

This really changes my perception of WoW in a lot of ways. While I love the people in my guild, the primary reason for me playing was to have a good time with my friends. Bootz hasn't logged on in weeks, Rubix has quit, so we're down to myself and Murien. In very little time, I expect my attendance on Azeroth and the Outlands will be minimal.

I realize that it will happen eventually, as we all know it will for us all. However, it's much like having your grandparents pass away. You know it's coming. But the day it happens, the shock is still present.

I have noticed attendance being sluggish from the guild as of late. I doubt that it is directly correlated to Rubix and Bootz leaving. Maybe everyone has different reasons at this point.

I don't intend on quitting WoW altogther (well unless Murien does, and then that'll probably be it for me.) but I do intend on limiting my time to mostly raiding and arena. Those are the two things that keep my burning ambition alive. It's what challenges me the most and is thus what I enjoy the most about the game.

This isn't a goodbye, but an explanation as to why I haven't been posting as much lately, and why you may not be seeing me much anymore. When you live in a house with only one other person, and they aren't playing WoW, there's really less of a reason to do it.

I fully intend to support the guild raids and whatnot. I also hope that we can recruit some new mages soon, cause replacing him is going to be tough.

Heroics vs. Karazhan

So obviously, the progression for level 70 content goes as follows:
1. 5 man regular instances
2. Karazhan and Gruul's Lair
3. SSC and The Eye
4. Black Temple and Mount Hyjal

So where do heroics fit in?

I'd like to suggest that heroics belong on the same tier as Karazhan.

Now most people look at the gear coming out of Karazhan compared to the epic heroic gear, and say that clearly the gear from Kara is better. The item level is higher. You get more loot.

This is true. However, I would like to suggest that Karazhan is easier than heroics.

Preposterous you say. But think about what makes 25 man raids so difficult. There are three elements to a solid 25 man raid.

1. Organization/Team Work - having a good raid leader, good class leaders, and people who know their roles in a group are essential in a good 25 man group.

2. Determination - the attitude to keep trying until you are successful, and not be frustrated.

3. Solid Individual Play - each individual must perform up to high standards of DPS, healing, threat, mana, whatever efficiency they require.

Now lets look at how much Karazhan affects the people in these categories.

1 Organization/Team Work - Does a great job at teaching this. People learn their place in raids.
2 Determination - Does a relatively good job with this. However, it's easy to just follow the flow and blame a bad night if things don't go well...there's a lot of randomness in boss fights in Kara.
3 Solid Individual Play - If everyone does poorly, no one is going anywhere. However, most fights are easy to 9 man if the group has done it for a time, so missing one person usually won't kill the group.

Now lets look at 5 mans.

1. Organization/Team Work - Since the hardest part often of heroics is the trash pulls, everyone needs to be clicking with crowd control and working together. Even if there isn't a specific leader, everyone should be taking control of their piece of it and working together.
2. Determination - If you aren't determined, you won't end up with any epics. Only if you down the last boss will you be getting superb gear. Without determination, all you'll be getting is a repair bill.
3. Solid Individual Play - If your 20% of the group sucks, you won't be killing many heroic bosses. That's just the way that it is.

I'm not talking about heroic Mechinar either. I'm talking about heroic Shadowlabs. Shattered Halls. Arcatraz. The ones that used to be part of the Eye attunement. Even with a group that had Karazhan on farm, and taking 5 key people in that group, these heroics were really tough. It took a great team effort.

My point is, if you can't complete these heroics, it doesn't mean that you don't belong in the Eye. However, if you can complete these heroics, it means that you do. I'd rather see a lot more people running these heroics. It's the best way to truly learn what it takes to get prepared for the Eye and SSC. Karazhan teaches a lot. But how to truly excel at your position....run heroics.

How to Win in Raids: Determination

Last night we defeated Gruul. Yes we've done it before. Yes we've done it easily before.

But how many times did it take us last night? We had 7 true attempts, not counting the bad pull. That means that before going after him our final time, everyone knew that we'd attempted the fight 6 times and failed.

It reminds me of someone trying to parallel park in a space. I've parallel parked many times before. It isn't all that difficult once you've done it for a while. But lets say you go to turn into a space, and you cut it too hard. You pull back out and try again. Still you can't get in there right. A third, fourth, fifth time. You still can't get in there.

How many of you would give up at this point? I know I would. I'd walk an extra 3 blocks than sit there all day trying to park into that space. Well last night, knowing that it was our final attempt, we went in there and got the job done. The driver behind us was flicking us off, and we knew we only had one more go before he went postal on us. And we parked right up 3 inches away from the curb and got to blow a kiss to that asshole driver behind us.

Determination in a raid is not something that can be taught. Every raid is going to have "one of those nights." The key is to not give up. Usually a raid goes downhill on a boss after around the 3rd attempt. Progressively worse and worse. That did not happen last night. Everyone buckled down, and we had by far the best attempt on the final one. That's a sure sign of a strong raid mentality.

So as we start running The Eye, don't forget how important it is to stay determined. Stay hungry. That boss is one attempt away from dying. So you might as well give it your all and kick his ass. Make sure you're doing your job as well as you can. Because if we have all 25 people thinking that way, there's no way we'll be stopped.

The Eye

Last night in the Eye was a really good time. I haven't stepped foot in there before, and I've only really watched the Void Reaver fight on Youtube once, so just being there and kicking ass was a lot of fun.

It reminded me not of Karazhan for some reason, but of running the new 5 man instances when BC came out. It was very mysterious, and everyone was working hard to figure out how to defeat the trash. I remember running Mana Tombs for the first time, and having the mobs that mana burn. Youch.


It was like that last night. Yes we wiped a lot on the trash. But most groups do. We learned how some of the mobs work the hard way. But we got to Void Reaver in 2 hours. That's probably better than many groups can say. Plus, we only had one mage.

I had a really good time. I hope everyone else did too. I'm really looking forward to Sunday. I think Void Reaver is getting his ass kicked.

Just as a note to anyone wondering....Circle of Healing is not very good at all. I can see it being useful in 5 mans. And it has its uses in Void Reaver. But by the end, I was casting Renews and Greater Heals. There's no way to guarantee that everyone in group 2 will be taking similar amounts of damage around the same time. It's just impossible. I'll be going back to my usual scrub 23/38 again. I'm very disappointed. On the other hand, I've never had bigger Greater Heals thanks to all 5 points in Empowered Healing. But I'd definitely rather have Imp Divine Spirit in the raid.

A final note on last night. Everyone listened and paid attention. That means more than anything in there. We didn't have any dumb wipes. Sure a few times, people weren't where they needed to be sometimes, but that happens during fights we aren't familiar with no matter what happens. Thanks to everyone for making it a lot of fun. Can't wait for Sunday.

Divine Spirit vs. Circle of Healing

So I am still rejoicing over the possibility of having 30% mana regen inside of the FSR. (35% with the primal mooncloth bonus. It'll be very interesting to see if they nerf it and make it not stack with Meditation....then I can get out of these ugly ass robes someday.)

However, it still highlights one of the biggest errors that Blizzard has done. It regards the duel-healing trees. Every other class can afford to be a healer sitting at 0/0/61 in their resto tree. We priests are forced into going at least 14 in Disc for Meditation (especially now) and Inner Focus, and at least 18 into Holy for 15% mana reduction on Greater Heal. Most priests even consider 10% increase to healing essential as well, which means 30 points in the Holy tree. I know that I do.

So lets see. 14 points in disc, 30 points in holy. No big deal, right? You can go 14/47/0, and that gives you plenty of room for change. Or if you wanted to go higher in disc, you could go 31/30/0 and get power infusion. And if you really don't care about the 10% healing, 42/19/0 isn't a bad spec, especially for PVP and the changes to Pain Suppression.

All of this would be true, except for one thing. The 21 point talent in the disc tree. Divine Spirit.

Most non-priests don't know that this buff is a talent. Like the paladin Blessing of Sanctuary, it requires 21 points in a non-healing tree.

So wait, I don't hear paladins complaining. This is because the order of blessing preference for a tank goes something like this: Kings, Light (assuming pally healer), Might, Sanctuary. How often do you have 4 paladins in the raid? Sanctuary isn't really an essential buff. Divine Spirit is huge.

It gives 50 spirit. 50 spirit means the following to a priest:
1. 31.25 mana per 5 outside of the FSR.
2. 4.68 mp5 inside of the FSR. (6.25 if you have 3 pieces of Primal Mooncloth)

Now since I'm a human priest with Spirit of Redemption, I get 15% increase to my spirit.

58 spirit means 40.6 MP5 outside of the FSR, and 8.125 MP5 for me with 3 pieces of primal mooncloth.

Since I average 60% of my time in the FSR, Divine Spirit gives me an average of 21.1 mp5. This isn't quite Blessing of Wisdom quality, but it's still great.

Plus, as a priest I get 20% of my spirit converted to damage and healing. That's another 13 damage and healing.

So now you look at the numbers and you say, that's really not a huge deal, is it?

But remember that this is a raid buff. Every druid, every shaman, every paladin, every mage, every warlock, every hunter gets this buff. I don't care if you don't itemize for spirit. If you aren't casting for 5 seconds, you're getting some mana back from your spirit. This is an enormous buff for healers, since spirit is a primary stat of theirs.

So that's the 21st point talent.....but that's not all! Then you can spend an additional 2 points to make the buff increase everyone's damage and healing by 10% of their spirit. Again, for druids and priests, that's another 100-150 +damage and healing. For a mage/warlock, sure it's only 15-20 +damage, but who says no to that? It's huge for tanking paladins, who get threat based on their +damage.

So this is why most healing priests are 23/38/0. I'd love to afford some extra points in the holy tree for Circle of Healing, 2 more points in Empowered Healing, maybe even Lightwell. But until Blizzard realizes that Divine Spirit is monopolizing our talent specs, things need to change.

The problem is, with the change to Meditation, Divine Spirit is actually buffed. Spirit gives us even more mana regen now.

I hope that Blizzard wakes up and realizes that Divine Spirit should be given to all priests, much like Innervate was given to all druids. It's an enormous buff that we can't go without, and it should not corner us into a given spec.