And So It Begins!

Whoops, didn’t mean to neglect the blog for so long… also forgot about poor old Twitter too. It’s been an exciting week for <Damage Control>. We decided to take on the raiding as soon as possible and its been a fun trip so far. This week we’ve cleared Ten Man OS, Ten Man VoA, Naxx (Spider Wing, Patchwerk and Plague Wing up to Heigan the Unclean) and ALL of the Horde City Leaders! I think this is pretty damn good for spur of the moment raiding. I personally also finally managed to heal the last boss of Heroic Halls of Lightning. I have no idea why thats been so tough for me but it has.

Also in Andrea news… I’ve leveled Herb/Alch on my DK to 375. I want to get it up there to prepare pots and such for our raids. Im also working on my rogue still. She’s only 76. I have no idea why it’s pissing me off so badly but I am leveling her slowly all the same.

I’ve got some more informative posts circling in my head that I’ll hopefully have up for you all soon… in the meantime, have some screen shots of the guild’s achievements:

 

Ten Man OS Cleared

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way to Patchwerk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thunderbluff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Undercity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spider Wing

Diving Right In

So, I’ve been helping to run my guild. Our head guy, Lutrail, did some work lately with our ranks and I think we’ve narrowed it down to a much less confusing state of being. Which is awesome. I do think any guild leader should ensure that ranks are not only understood, but that the members know if and how they can promote, even if they aren’t that worried about it. Knowing that you can makes all the difference, in my experience at least.

I’ve noticed that the guild is still a little on edge, though things have certainly calmed down and people aren’t leaving anymore. I recently scheduled a guild meeting for Thursday. I intend to do this fairly often, to not only keep the guild informed, but to keep them INVOLVED. Like right now, we’re recruiting, and really, I don’t like to recruit people I’ve never run with. However, if the members meet someone great on a run, and they’re interested in joining, I am ALL over that.

Still, there were some concerns. A good chunk of the guild approached me in tells or on our forums asking me why we were having this meeting. I think they were worried about bad news. I of course reassured them that communication was important and I was just trying to keep everyone informed, but I think they are still worried. The idea over the guild meeting is to go over a few things and answer any questions. Some topics I intend to cover include:

1. The Guild Vault – See, we have this vault, and its loaded with goodies, but due to the prior leadership not only leaving up filling up every alt with the goods from the guild, I think others are a little bit afraid to take. I want them to take! So I will make sure to mention this.
2. The New Ranks – We changed their names, but not really the permissions. There are 9 ranks plus the GM. Each one is moreso an indicator of time in guild, or readiness to raid. Promotion is possible and encouraged. The factors include time in, and upon request. Of course, if someone feels they are in a position they shouldn’t be, or one they WANT to be in, all they must do is say so, and we can talk about it.
3. Raiding – We put our guild on a mini hiatus while we figured out what we still have and still need. Now that we’ve figured it out we are ready to buckle down and dive right in, so we want to make the guild aware of this. Also that means not running with PuGs every Tuesday so we can run guild runs. We should also discuss the plans for looting, raid schedule, and invite methoods.
4. Recruitment – Things have gone well with this area. I am closing the Paladin class, the Hunter Class, The Boomkin Druid, and the Warlock. However we are still in need of Mages, 1 Holy Priest, 2 Restro Druids and some Shaman, Elemental or Restro.
5. Getting to Know Each Other – What I mean by this, is as a healer, I try to get used to healing all of the tanks. They all have different styles, different speeds of obtaining aggro and different aoe abilities. Some die faster then others. Knowing my guildies will make the raids that much easier, and I suggest the same to the guild.

 

The tank appeared naked in OS

So that’s the plan, anyways. On another note we decided to throw together a ten man VoA last night. We managed to keep it guild only. We got him on the first shot, but it was a little sloppy. I only took two healers, myself and my husband. I wonder if I should have opted for a third. Either way the boss went down, and thats what really matters. Well, that, and I had fun. I was so happy for them, we decided to continue to a 10 man OS. I swapped out three people, brought in an extra priest healer, and a mage PuG. Half of the raid had never been before, so it was a learning experience for them. As for me, I’d only been once successfully, and that was a ten man, so we took our time. We had extra long fights on the double pat group, with the mage not understanding his decursing job, but after quickly instructing my DPS to stop casting with the buff, and trading heals around to keep it from getting worse, we managed to down them.

 

We also suffered some trouble with the second drake. I had assumed (wrongly) that with three warlocks and a mage (and a hunter too, with a DK OT) that the welps would be a breeze. That wasn’t the case. We wiped three or four times before finally getting the welps under control and downing the drake. We finished up the trash and decided to continue tonight. So here’s to hoping that the guild sees success. I know they need it, really badly.

On another note I went to a Naxx 1o man with another guild called Brothers N Arms. Very nice group of guys, RL friends, the whole guild. So I got in at Gluth and continued to clean the place out. I was greatful for the experience so I can use it to lead my own raids, but I also got lucky and walked out with my tier 7 helm as well. I am so excited for the guild to get in there now, I really think they’ll see great success!

Sarcasm Abound

Is it bad when Garen is posting more often to my blog than I am? Naaaaahhhh we’re married, that means I get half the credit! Anyways, here’s a post from Garen that is totally full of sarcasm, don’t take anything he says to heart… (I never do) – Andrea

 

I was torn on what to title this post, so I have decided to use them both. I proudly present:

 

You're Doing It Wrong!

WORDS IN WOW THAT ANGER ME
Or
YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!

 

I do not consider myself to be a scholar by any means, however, there are a number of words that just anger me when people decide to either not pronounce them properly, or just don’t give a rats behind.

I intend to show you how you are, in fact, doing it wrong.

I give you the following:

-MEDIVH-
Medivh is the guy who let the horde into Azeroth. Some people consider him to be a pretty irritating guy. Others think he payed for his mistake in Warcraft III when he setup the whole Mt. Hyjal thing with Thrall and Jaina.
The reason that this word pisses me off so much is because people do not pronounce it correctly. In written type, the name Medivh can be butchered to no end. However, if you have game sounds turned on, or have played Warcraft 3 or Warcraft 2, then you know the truth.
It is not “Med Vuh”.
It is not “Mee duh vuh”.
It is not  “Med Eee Vee”.
The proper pronunciation is “Meh-Deeve”
The next time someone screws this up, smack them, kick them from the guild, educate them, then publicly ridicule them on the realm forums.

-SHATTRATH-
Shattrath is the city of refugees that is stuck in the corner of Terokkar forest. You can’t PvP there, but you can throw yourself from the aldor rise and successfully kill yourself.
The reason that this work pisses me off so much is again, pronunciation. I look at this word and see something very simple. Let’s do a breakdown. Shall we?

SHATTRATH
SHATT – RATH

People call this city “Shatt” for short. It’s easier. It has a good flow to it. People enjoy doing it. So, tell me, how the hell do these same well educated people look at this work and see Shatharuh city?
That’s right, “Shath-uh-ruh”. 
WHAT THE HELL!?
The next time someone screws this up, smack them, kick them from the guild, educate them, then publicly ridicule them on the realm forums.

-DALARAN-
This is a reletivily new one that pisses me off. The city has been in the game since day one. However, people have only recently begun to butcher the name. Blizzard uses the Long “A” sound, the short “A” sound, and the “Uh” sound for “A’s” all the time. The trick is knowing when to use what.
So, lets look at this word.
Dalaran.
I’ll give you a hint. There are who long A’s and an UH.
The proper pronunciation is as follows. 
DAL. That’s like “HAL” from A space odyssey: 2001.
UH. That’s like “Uh, wut?”
RAN. Like…. Ran. If you try and read too deep into that one, you need kicked in the back of the knee.
Don’t say it like you are English, or Australian, or a Kiwi, or any other breathy sounding nationality. That is, unless you really ARE one of those nationality, then it just sounds awesome! Seriously, ask an Australian to say “Water”. It’s great! But like I was saying…
It’s an AAAH. Kinda like your screaming. If you don’t understand me yet, get in my vent server and I’ll say it for you. REPETEDLY!

-REAGENT-
This one makes me want to claw my eyes out.
It’s a Re-“A”-gent.
Not a rEEjent.
Not a rEE”g”ent.
It’s a  RE “A” GENT.
RAWR!

-ROGUE-
Last time I checked, Blizzard had an age limit to play this game (I could be wrong), but I’m pretty sure you should kinda have some knowledge of how to spell if you are going to use the chat function.
I’m going to be blunt here, I apologize in advance.
ROGUE = Sneaky thief guy who can sap, steal, and pops lock boxes. Usually picked last for groups.
ROUGE = Powdery make up that some women put on their faces so that rich guys will buy them food so that boobs can be squeezed!
Got it?
You screw it up again and I’ll kick you in the shin so hard your dog will limp from sympathy.

-SCHOLOMANCE-
Scholomance was a school of magic before the invasion of the horde and the arrival of the scourge. Back in Vanilla WoW, a lot of players complained about Scholomance simply because it was a pain in the butt to get any good gear out of there for your specific class. This meant that EVERYONE was running the place. Since everyone was running the place, a lot of people were pronouncing it wrong. This is why I hate this word. Now, I don’t REALLY hate it. I like this word a lot when it is pronounced properly. It makes me smile. But when it gets butchered… I just want to SCREAM!
Scholomance. Everyone gets the “MANCE” part right. Kudos to everyone for that.
But, the Scholo is the part that makes me cringe. 
SCH can make a “SH” sound in some cases. But, not in this one. 
The SCH makes the SK sound that you get from the word School.
The scholo (being a school after all) almost sounds like school when pronounced properly, but it is actually…
SKO-LOW-MANCE.
Easy, right?
Right!

There are a few other words in WoW that really anger me, but I have chosen to not chronicle them at this time. If you feel the need to get into vent with me, I’ll be happy to discuss words and such. But right now, this is a good starter.
DON’T SCREW THEM UP! Or I’ll kick you from the guild, educate you, then ridicule you on the forums!

Being Prepared: The Holy Priest

Looks like Garen has got a whole series of priesting posts for my readers to enjoy. Perhaps he’ll eventually become a full time writer here… in the meantime, here’s Garen’s post on priest preparedness…

-Andrea

I warn you now, this post may seem a bit controlling, BUT, this is how I learned, and some of the things it taught me were actually very helpful. So, take it for a grain of salt.

When I was younger, between the ages of 12 and 18, I was in the Boy Scouts. While enrolled in that great institution, we had a motto. 
Be Prepared!
Seems simple enough doesn’t it?
Make sure you have what you need, when you need it, so that you don’t die, someone else doesn’t die, and you don’t get eaten by a bear. From that idea, with the exception of the bear thing, it seems like Boy Scouts and Priests have a lot in common. Well, Priests don’t usually carry Gnomish army knives. But that is neither here nor there.
What I intend to rant about in this space is what all a good priest needs in order to be prepared. This will include things to carry. Macro’s that are helpful. And simple tips that a lot of people/priests don’t always consider. It’s a tips and tricks of the trade kind of thing.

I’ll divide this up into two sections. I hope you enjoy.
THE BACKPACK
What to Carry

The basis of being prepared is what do you take with you when you go places? This can be instances, raids, battlegrounds, etc. Everything you carry is all you have to work with. You can’t take the bank to battle.

Bags: (Big) You start the game with a single 16 slot backpack. This is enough to keep you happy until level 2. MAYBE level 3 if you are competent. But, from that point on, bigger is better. As a level 80 priest, bag space is at a premium. There are a few different methods of acquiring bigger bags. If you are the raiding type, then Zul’Aman is an option. Onyxia’s lair and Magtheridon’s lair are options as well. But if you just wanna burn the cash, then picking up tailored bags of the 18-22 slot variety is your best option. Once you have a stack of bags, you are going to want to designate ONE of them as your utility bag. Set it as your last bag slot, because we will be keeping it full of fun stuff.

Candles: (4 Stacks) Priests have three major buffs that they hand out to their parties/raids. This is Prayer of Fortitude, Prayer of Divine Spirit, and Prayer of Shadow Protection. These buffs utilize candles. Now, since a recent patch, buffs affect the whole raid, not just parties. This is limited the number of candles that each priest must carry. However, since I’m lazy, as most people are, I plan to be prepared.  I carry FOUR STACKS OF CANDLES. That’s 80 candles. That’s enough mats for around 30 buffing sessions. Put these in the bottom row of your utility sack.

Food: (2 Stacks) Food is interesting for a priest. Since you can heal yourself, you don’t really NEED to carry food, but there are those times where you don’t want to drink, heal, then drink some more. So, food is useful there. However, there is another type of food. Stat Food! That stuff is awesome. As a healy priest, I usually carry +Spell power and +Spirit food. But if that isn’t available, then anything that increases spell power or haste is always a good thing. You want two full stacks of this. Nothing is more irritating that starting a boss fight and realizing you ate your last firecracker salmon on the last fight. You want the highest level you can get your hands on.

Water: (2 Stacks) Heals take mana! Mana is restored by drinking. If your regen is high enough, then having a lot of water isn’t really needed, however, there are times you need to drink. (Flashbacks to that 10K hp “tank” at level 80 who didn’t own a shield and preferred the stats of leather and cloth!) Two stacks make sure that you are ready. You want the highest level you can get your hands on.

Potions: (1 Stack of Each) Potions come in many colors. I assume the different colors do different things, but I’m not sure what. Okay, I’m kidding. I know what they do. Considering the dynamic nature of priesting, you always need to have one stack of Mana and one stack of Health potions on you. They stack to 5, which isn’t bad, but could be better. Blizzard made it better by introducing the potion injectors. If you grab an injector kit, you can fill it with 20 charges. That’s usually a better option than only carrying 5.

Elixirs: (1 Stack of Each) Elixirs come in two styles. Battle and Guardian. Each can grant different buffs. Since I’m still leveling my alchemy, I don’t know which ones I’m going to carry yet. BUT, you’ll need one stack of each.

Weapon Oil: (2 vials) The new level 80 oils haven’t been released as of this writing, however, as soon as they are, there will be two vials of the stuff in my bag! +Spell power is preferred.

Bandages: (1 Stack) While it IS true that priests can heal themselves, there are times in combat where you are unable to heal for various reasons such as mana constraints, silence, and so forth. For this reason, your first aid needs to be maxxed out and you should have one full stack of bandages on you at all times. You never know when heals may get that critical.
Inventory of your “Utility Bag”: (Assuming 20 Slot)
1. Candles
2. Candles
3. Candles
4. Candles
5. Food
6. Food
7. Water
8. Water
9. Mana Potion/Injector
10. Health Potion/Injector
11.Guardian Elixir
12. Battle Elixir
13. Weapon Oil
14. Weapon Oil
15. Bandages
16. Profession Specific Slot
17. Profession Specific Slot
18. Profession Specific Slot
19. Fishing Pole
20. Hearthstone
SURVIVAL
How to light a fire under water

For this section, I will provide a few little tools that will make you even more useful that you already are!

Trinket Macro:  Most priests carry trinkets of the healing sort. A good number of these trinkets have a “/use” feature. And again, a good number of the priests who carry a good number of these trinkets never use a good number of these /use features. A hunter friend of mine (Dechion) found a way to combat this. I have since made it part of who I am and how I play. BEHOLD…. A macro.
——————–
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Greater Heal
——————–
The reason this is attached to the greater heal is because you use it all the time, which means your trinkets will get used all the time. Also, you won’t be opening the fight with greater heal, so you don’t waste your trinkets on a spot where they aren’t needed.

Rez that Jerk!: In scenarios where there could be multiple deaths, there is the problem of numerous healers trying to rez the same person. This causes lost time and a confusion as to who rezzed who. How do we solve this? Well, this is a throwback to days of yore in the Molten Core!  BEHOLD…. A macro.
——————–
/s %T, way to die! Now I have to rezz you. (Or some other witty comment)
/cast resurrection
——————–
Now, the “%T” is the important part, because that is what will tell the crowd who you are resurrecting. If you would like suggestions for something witty to say, you can hit the priest forums on the WOW forums. They always have a thread up about witty rez macros.

Sunscreen: A couple of years ago, Baz Lurhman put out a song called “Sunscreen”. It was about good advice that could be attributed to life. While I am not nearly as successful as he apparently was, I offer the following.

Do Not Let Your Tank Die! The results of keeping your tank alive have been proven to increase your life span and the life span of those you are partying with. This will reduce your repair costs, the cost of reagents for buffs, and frustration from your party. The rest of my advice is just that, advice!
•    Always open combat with a prayer of mending and a renew. It gives you a good start on any encounter.
•    Don’t shield the tank unless you have to, or he has sufficient threat/rage. Shielding him can cause him to not generate enough agro to keep the party safe.
•    Use your shadow fiend at every opportunity. You never know if you will be around at the end of the fight. The same goes for your  Inner Focus.
•    If you have to pick a member of your party to let die… It’s going to be the rogue.
•    You are the person keeping the party alive. If they don’t treat you well, you can always leave. But, don’t be a snob, your reputation can precede you.
•    And for the love of everything holy… You don’t need crit rating. That stuff is for mages! You want haste and spirit and regen!

That’s my series of thoughts on the above matters. Now, it may seem like this post came to an abrupt close. And you’re right. It did. I apologize for that. I’ve just been working on it for two days and I’m sick of looking at it. So there you go. I hope it helps. This is my personal contribution to being part of the priesting gustapo.

I’m gonna go write a post about how things are supposed to be pronounced.
And then I’m writing my damn farming guide. Money for free baby!

Glyphs for the Holy Priest

It would seem Garen is on a roll with his information on his holy priest and why he is… well the way he is… So here you have it… Garen’s Holy Priest Glyphs.

-Andrea

Okay, for the sake of this opening thought process, let’s assume that I am you!
So I’m a shiny new level 80 priest. I’ve already got a little healing experience, and I have made the decision to improve myself.
The first thing I did was respect to “Garen’s Awesome Spec ©”. I then went and loaded up on reagents. (That’s another post).
Now, I’m staring at the AH figuring out what I want for glyphs.
Glyphs? What are those?
Now, back to me being me, and you being you.
Well, Wowwiki gives a decent explanation of what glyphs are and what levels you need to be to use them.
Let’s read that now, shall we?

-WoWWiki’s Thoughts-
Glyphs are spell and ability enhancements that can be created by inscription.
Two kinds of glyphs exist: 
Major – large improvements to skills. 
Minor – small improvements to skills or cosmetic changes. 
Individuals gain a glyph slot based on their level: 
Level 15: 1 Major, 1 Minor. 
Level 30: 2 Major, 1 Minor. 
Level 50: 2 Major, 2 Minor. 
Level 70: 2 Major, 3 Minor. 
Level 80: 3 Major, 3 Minor. 
To be able to install a glyph, major or minor, you will need to stand close to a Lexicon of Power, which can be found near any Inscription trainer. 
Like gems, once installed, a glyph is consumed. It cannot be recovered. 
Glyphs can be overwritten, major by major and minor by minor. This can be used as a minor form of or in conjunction with respecing. 
-End of WoWWiki’s Thoughts-

So, glyphs can be kind of cool. Well, then there comes the question of WHICH glyphs do I want to use?
There aren’t that many glyphs available for each class. And the difference of Minor vs. Major glyphs is improvement vs. cosmetic.

Here is how I glyphed, you can change it as you see fit. But this is what made sense to me.

MINOR 1: Glyph of Levitate – Your Levitate spell no longer requires a reagent.  
Here is why this is cool. HOW IS THIS NOT COOL? Farming light feathers sucks. Add to this that when you jump off a ledge and you are mashing on that button and it turns out you DON’T have any feathers, you swear as you pancake on the ground. This removes the need to farm, and it adds a level of security that few have known before. If you only have one glyph on your priest, This is IT!

MINOR 2: Glyph of Fortitude – Reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 50%.  
Here is why this is cool.  Every time there is a wipe (That’s the tanks fault!), and every time you form a group, you utilize PW: Fortitude. Mana reduction increases your ability to stay in the fight, and decreases the amount of time required to buff your group. This is always a plus.

MINOR 3: Glyph of Fading – Reduces the mana cost of your Fade spell by 30%.  
Here is why this is cool. Mana reduction on spells is a common recurring theme in my posts. Anything that the priest can do to improve his healing ability or lengthen his staying power in combat is considered to be a plus. In this case, since you are mashing on the fade button every 30 seconds anyways (You are, aren’t you?), this will removes some of the mana cost of doing so. Thus, giving you 30% more fades for your money before you run out of mana. Or, over the course of 6 fades, giving you one more greater heal. That’s always a plus.

MAJOR 1: Glyph of Renew – Reduces the duration of your Renew by 3 sec. but increases the amount healed each tick by 25%. 
Here is why this is cool. I throw out renews to keep my tank alive. My tank takes massive damage. I can renew on a regular basis, but for those 10 seconds that this is ticking, it is doing a more effective job of keeping him alive.

MAJOR 2: Glyph of Flash Heal – Reduces the mana cost of your Flash Heal by 10%  
Here is why this is cool. Flash heal is a bread and butter spell for priests. Considering that mana usage is what determines your long term effectiveness, any method of reducing the mana cost of a common spell is considered a good thing. By reducing an already lowered spell cost by another 10%, you are improving your staying power in a long fight by that much more.

MAJOR 3: Glyph of Dispel Magic – Your Dispel Magic spell also heals your target for 6% of maximum health.  
Here is why this is cool. About half the time that someone is affected by some sort of magic, it is also causing damage. This eases the number of spells I need to cast to keep someone alive. Pair this with talents that lower the mana cost of this spell, and talents that lower the cost of instant spells in general, and this become a very cheap and very effective multi function ability. 
Of all the glyphs that I use, this one is the only one I have reservations about. I have been unable to find the Glyph of Spirit of Redemption on the AH as of yet. As soon as I do, there is a decent chance this one will be replaced.

So there it is, THAT is how I am glyphed. That is WHY I am glyphed the way I am. And this is all part of the equation that makes me as AWESOME as I really am.

Comments are always a good thing.

Holy Priest Spec

Here’s another post by my forever awesome hubby, Garen…. Garen has been a holy priest nearly his entire wow career, and he doesn’t play by everyone else’s rules…. I hope you enjoy his post about the spec he uses for raiding! Sorry for flipping classes so suddenly, but this is ALToholics Are Us, after all.

-Andrea

I’m a priest!
I’m a half way DECENT priest.
I’ve been doing it for 3 and a half years now.
So, the other day, another priest asks me… “Why are you so good?”
Other than the obvious answer of “Cause I’m Awesome!”, I told him it’s because I put a little thought into my spec, and I fill a role that most other priests don’t quite want to touch. So I fill that niche that all guilds need, but no one wants to fill. All the while, I still remaining an awesome and viable healer.

Allow me to give you the break down.
Priesting in the healing sense utilizes two of the three talent trees.

Discipline (Yes!) – Holy (Yes!) – Shadow (No!)

Okay, here we go!

DISCIPLINE!

Tier 1
Unbreakable Will  (5/5) – When a priest is stunned, he’s useless. When a priest is feared, he’s useless. 5 points in this talent makes you less useless!

Tier 2
Silent Resolve (3/3) – When a priest  takes agro, he dies. This reduces agro.

Improved Inner Fire (3/3) – Inner fire now increases your spell damage/healing. By putting three points into this talent, you get a buff of almost 200 spell power. That’s healing, damage, and awesomeness in a fiery can!

Tier 3
Inner Focus (1/1) – FREE CAST OF ANY SPELL! Popping a greater heal while regaining mana is an excellent way to keep you in the fight longer. Also, when you are OOM, this makes it so you can save your tanks life. Though, as a good priest, you shouldn’t be OOM.

Meditation (3/3) – Priesting requires mana. Anything you can do to make that pool fill faster or not stop filling is a good thing. Keeping a 30% regen ticker on your mana pool is AWESOME. It means you run out less.
Improved Power word: Fortitude (2/2) – Two points needed to be spent, and I chose to put them here. Stamina is an excellent stat to have. It helps everyone. Savor it!

Tier 4
Mental Agility (5/5) – Renew, Prayer of Mending, Dispel Magic, Shadow word: Pain, Shadow word: Death, Lightwell, Power word: Shield. What do these have in common? INSTANT CAST! Mental agility reduces the mana cost. Again, this keeps you in battle longer.

Tier 5
Divine Spirit (1/1) – THIS is why I spec the way I do. SPIRIT! Spirit translates into mana regen, +Healing,  and a buff to damage to anyone that receives it. PUT THE POINT HERE!

Improved Divine Spirit (2/2) – This is the part of the spirit combo that gives you the buff to damage. Don’t forget these points!

Tier 6
Enlightenment (5/5) – I had 5 points to put somewhere in either the holy or the disc trees, I found that the stat increases made me happier than the prayer of healing increase (Cause I don’t use PoH very often) Crappy reason, but it’s true. You can put these 5 wherever you want actually. I won’t be mad.  ^.^

HOLY

Tier 1
Healing Focus (2/2) – Pushback can ruin a perfectly good greater heal. This will help to keep you from being stopped in your tracks.

Improved Renew (3/3) – Renew is a vital spell for keeping groups and raids up. It’s a constant tick. Making it better will make each tick better when you aren’t paying attention.

Holy Specialization (3/5) – Crit on a heal is awesome, however it’s not required. While putting points in other places, this was used to get me up to the next tier. On the plus side, it DOES make me crit more often.

Tier 2
Divine Fury (5/5) – This will make you cast faster! Faster casting = More heals = Less dying!

Tier 3
Desperate Prayer (1/1) – Sometimes when healing, you take agro, this will heal you. Instantly! Even good when you ARE desperate. But don’t say you’re desperate. People can’t know what we really feel as priests.  

Inspiration (3/3) – You heal tanks for a living! Tanks use armor! This improves your tanks armor while you keep him alive. Both parties win!

Tier 4
Improved Healing (3/3) – Less mana used = More heals cast!

Tier 5
Spirit of Redemption (1/1) – If for some reason you die, you have an additional 10 seconds to keep your party/tank alive. This can mean the difference between life and death. 

Spiritual Guidance (5/5) – I made the comment that spirit is vital to a priest. It IS! It is one of your most important stats. This improves on it by increasing your +healing by a percentage of your spirit. More spirit = More heals.

Tier 6
Spiritual Healing (5/5) – This increases your healing done. As a holy priest, this makes you better, OR, as I like to say… “More Awesome!”.

Tier 7
Holy Concentration (3/3) – Clearcasting allows you to get a free cast every so often. Free casts cause mana regen. Gotta love that.

Lightwell (1/1) – NO! It is NOT a “LoL-Well”. This is a vital tool that gives a free renew to your party at their own leisure. USE IT! Just try it and see what your parties think. It’s actually pretty cool.

Tier 8
Empowered Healing (5/5) – Again, increasing your +Healing makes you a better healer. (In theory)

Tier 9 
Circle of Healing (1/1) – Mass healing with a single click with no need to pay attention. Serious, what’s not to love?

That’s how I run my priest. You can run yours any way you see fit. But I hope my comments have made at least SOME sense. 
I’ll do another post soon about how/why I love spirit. And another one about glyphs. But, this should suffice for now.
Let me know if you have comments.

Lets Talk About Rogues

My rogue is currently level 75. I had never been one for melee classes, but I am enjoying her. I admittingly am NOT a rogue expert, as I am still learning the class. I however hope to play her equally as well as my other classes, and maybe get to run with her every now and again. I am completely noob to the rogue, still learning all the ins and outs… but at level 74 I pulled over 1k in an instance… which isn’t bad. For now, I am just leveling her up, mostly through questing but lately Ive been pulling some instances, and I also took a good hard look at her spec. I knew I didn’t know what I was doing, so I hit up a senior rogue in our guild, and asked his advice… here’s what we came up with.

Poofnstab is running 15/51/0 (eventually it will be 20/51/0 when she finished leveling) Lets take a look at her spec thus far:

Combat

Tier 1

Improved Sinister Strike (2/2): Reduces the energy cost of Sinister Strike by 5. Being as this ability is rogue bread and butter (unless you are sub, then its hemo) I figure a little less energy cost is a good thing.

Duel Wield Specialization (5/5): This increases the damage done by my offhand weapon by 50%. Since combat is about sustaining damage, this is a good one to pick up.

Tier 2

Improved Slice and Dice (2/2): Increases  the duration of Slice and Dice by50%. I use Slice and Dice on every fight, when soloing I only put up one or two points before I pop this and it lasts me the whole fight. For a boss fight putting up all five points will last you quite a while.

Percision (5/5): Increases chance to hit with weapon and poision attacks by 5%. This helps with that whole hit rating noise Im still working on.

Tier 3

Endurance (2/2): Reduces the cooldown of Sprint and Evasion by 1 min, and increases stamina by 4%. Adds a little surivability for when you go aggro happy.

Tier 4

Aggression (5/5): Increases the damage of my Backstab, Sinister Strike and Eviscerate abilities by 10%. I don’t really use backstab, but two out of three isn’t bad.

Tier 5

Blade Flurry (1/1): Increases attack speed by 20% and also hits a second mob. I usually pop this ability after getting Slice and Dice up and follow it up with Murder Spree when there is more then one mob around. Watch the numbers fly.

Sword Specialization (5/5): Gives a 5% chance to get an extra swing in on your mob. Now I just like swords. Some people prefer maces, or daggers. I’m a sword kinda girl, and thats all it is.

Tier 6

Weapon Expertise (2/2): Increase Expertise by 10. I’m still learning about this attribute, and will write more on it at a later time.

Blade Twisting (2/2): Increases damage of Sinister Strike and Backstab by 10%. Also has a 10% chance to daze your target. Again, I don’t tend to use Backstab, but Sinister Strike is constantly going off, so that 10 percent is worth it. Also, an occasional daze doesn’t hurt.

Tier 7

Vitality (3/3): Increases energy regeneration by 10%. Rogues are always out of energy, this helps lesson how often I recieve the “I can’t do that yet” error message.

Adrenaline Rush (1/1): Increases energy regeneration by 100% for 15 seconds. Great for those extended boss fights.

Tier 8

Combat Potency (5/5): Gives your offhand autoswings a 20% chance to regen 15 more energy… this is starting to sound like Mp5 right? Well thats the idea, except rogues don’t get to have mana pots.

Tier 9

Unfair Advantage (2/2): Gives a chance when you dodge an attack to strike back with 100% of your weapon damage. Yeah… that is a little bit unfair. I reccomend you read the comments on this ability under the link… its uses are truly entertaining.

Surprise Attacks (1/1): Finishing moves cannot be dodged, and gives Sinister Strike, Backstab, Shiv, Hemo, and Gouge abilities a 10% damage increase. Those little increases to Sinister Strike are really starting to add up now.

Savage Combat (2/2): Increases Attack Power by 4% and physical damage taken by mobs by 2% when they have poision effects on them. All in all, a more damage please kind of talent.

Prey on the Weak (5/5): Increases the chance to crit by 20% when the target has less health then you (as a percentage). This means if you kill it faster than it kills you, you’re gonna whoop his ass with some high numbers.

Tier 10

Murder Spree (1/1): Allows you to step behind multiple mobs hitting them every .5 seconds with both weapons until five hits are finished. You can also do this to a single target. I usually pop this with Blade Flurry when there are multiple mobs around. Its really a quite nice talent.

Assassination

Tier 1

Evisercate (3/3): Increases damage done by Evisercate by 15%. I use evisercate a lot when Im soloing, and as part of a rotation for bosses, so really, this is used often.

Malice (5/5):  Increases crit strike chance by 5%. Rogues are well known for popping out of no where and killing a mob before they even realize whats happening. Crit is a major factor in this.

Tier 2

Ruthlessness (2/3): Gives finishing moves a 40% chance to add a combo point to the target. Always nice for getting started on the next rotation.

Tier 3

Lethality (5/5): Increases crit strike bonus of all combo moves by 30%. In the previous tree we worked on the direct damage, on this tree, we’re grabbing some crit.

Obviously, that isnt all the points, but its as far as Ive gotten. I imagine I’ll continue down the Assassination tree and grab up some poision talents before Im done. Ive tested out this spec, and recently replaced a lot of gear… even going so far as to craft my new epic engineering goggles. My unbuffed attack power sits at 2168 and my crit strike is at 26.34%. I believe this is decent for a 75 rogue, but I don’t know what final numbers should look like yet. I’m going to have to start focusing on my hit more as I get closer to 80… but I imagine that will come on its own in time. Hope this helps any nublet rogues like me out there!

Well, Damn.

I’ve been dreading posting this, because I fear it will rehash the disaster of a weekend my guild just experienced, but I’m gonna suck it up and post it anyways. So I recently found this guild, and I really thought it was going to work for us. The group was chatty and friendly, and it seemed like a good place to be. We started raiding with two groups and as far as I could tell, all was fine. However, before and after Naxx last weekend, the officers and GM apparently had a few meetings, and quietly decided to xfer off our server because of the queues we’d recently been experiencing.

Thats all fine and dandy… except only the officers knew… and only the officers (and one or two members, after the fact) went. Two officers stayed, and they said they’d been out of the loop too. So I logged in Friday Morning just in time to see guild lead passed off to one of the two officers who stayed. No goodbyes, no explination… just gone… along with a tab or two out of the guild vault and 5,000 gold that members donated to the guild bank. 

So I hopped into vent with the new guild leader and quickly put together what was going on. We were in vent maybe ten minutes when that got shut down… so I offered up mine. I quickly began planning along with our new GM (who quickly promoted myself and hubby to co-gms) and started work on a new website as well… A few members decided to xfer too, and a few decided to leave guild but to stay on the server… but a good chunk have decided to hang out with us.

After many questions and upset guildies I’ve only known for a week, I decided to go to the forums, and call out the old leadership on this exodus, going so far as to say leaving that way was a chickenshit thing to do… and it exploded. I’ve been called crazy, I’ve been told I’m making a martyr of myself. Either way, I have to say I must have riled up a few feathers, because they’ve shut down that website, too. They’ve gone on to make the guild Absoultion… ironic huh?

Either way, guess I’m back into the leadership role. Obviously they haven’t hurt us too badly, as we threw up a ten man Naxx on the calendar just to see if we’d have enough…. and we do. I’ll work on our new website some more and recruit the few holes we have… (We have NO mages… how did that work out??) and we’ll move on… but it’s been a…. stressful weekend. I sure can pick me a guild, huh?

Either way… we’re recruiting… if you are interested, please visit our forums at http://www.damagecontrolguild.net/forums and drop an app… we’re in need of at least 1 of each class!

Guess I’ve got some time to work on my alts.

Spider Wing Cleared

I’ve been slacking on the posting. Been having some RL medical stuff come up and I’ve been extremely distracted by it. However, recently I got to see a REAL rogue and the kind of damage it can do, I leveled engineering up to 422, I fished my heart out for some coins and got the Silver in the City achievement, and I picked up my very last recipe from Dalaran, leaving me 14 short of my 160. There’s the tidbits, now on to the good stuff.

As I mentioned, my group of server hopping guild searching refugees friends recently found a home in the guild Damage Control. Things have been awesome, and all in all I don’t think we’ve ever been so widely accepted before. Everyone seems to be happy and that leaves me a lot more time to worry about myself. Yesterday, was regular raid day for the guild. They’d been doing 1 group for 10 man Naxx. Last night, thanks to the addition of two uber awesome healers, (ahem) we were able to get two off the ground. Group 2, my group, had about half a raid full of nooblets, including myself, to Naxx, but that didn’t stop us. With only one wipe on the last boss in the Spider Wing, we managed to clear them all with EASE even, and started down the plague wing before calling it a night. Tonight the guild has Heroic OS, lets hope we can get him totally on our own.

In with the New!

My group of friends and I have found a new home for ourseleves in a guild called Damage Control. I really like this group already and fits into the majority of standards I had set with Infusion. It’s even run by a female GM who’s name is also Andrea. Go figure… We’d been in the guild about an hour when we decided to do a run of Heroic OS. I’d never been before but the concept is actually pretty simple. We took 6 tries to get the last boss… with most of the wipes occuring at 4% or less due to bad management of adds. The group as a whole functioned well together, even though we had several PuGs. 

It was great to try a new place again and as far as “Heroic” mode goes the place really was cake. For myself, I stayed halfway between the melee and the full ranged area. I watched for the range wave, hubby watched for the melee one (the ranged is always on the left, the melee on the right.) I called out a five second warning and then we called out the wave we saw. It was very easy. The adds were taken care of thanks to the fact that we had like 7 mages present. Coordination is what took us six tries, but once we got it down it makes you wonder what was hard about it.

Its nice to be on runs again.