Sparking a Change or Two

General, Rahel, Teca 6 comments.

It’s been a couple of days since I last posted and quite a few things have attributed to that. I’ve been working on a project for a friend, trying to work with two friends to do another project that may be related to this site, have been attempting to gird myself for NaNoWriMo with a close friend breathing heavily down on me so that I’ll mindlessly pursue my goal and he can read the results, and working on a variety of alts. For one, Rahel Isera’duna — my cantankerous priestess and former Discipline doll — has fully embraced the dark side of the priestly trees and emerged as a Shadow priestess.

The decision was the only viable one left to me, since I’d forsaken Holy for Discipline with the perky priestess and couldn’t condone having a Holy priest again since the class didn’t appeal to my playstyle.  Having two Discipline priests seemed sillier than my earlier decision to have not one but two healing priests, even though their specs and intended functions originally set them apart.  This was a big step for me, since I hadn’t played a Shadow-specced priest beyond thirty since those naive pre-The Burning Crusade days.  It’s surprisingly been a lot more fun that I recall and the new changes that have occurred since¹ make the return to Shadow much more intriguing.

Like many people, I finally settled on a 5/0/56 raiding build that seems to be very popular at the moment.  It’s worked very well for me thus far, though I am trying to decide on how much benefit there is to be gained from Improved Shadowform.  In a way, it seems more like an improved version of Fade rather than an actual viable talent to acquire, and those remaining two points might be better spent on talents like Improved Power Word: Fortitude or picking up two points in Improved Inner Fire for when Rahel reaches 71 and the spell increases Spell Power in addition to Armor.  I go back and forth on the issue, since I don’t know if I could train myself to use Fade enough to make the talent worthwhile, but can see the benefit of it in raid scenarios where splash damage tends to run rampant.

I’ve been letting the matter mull in my head while I work on yet another alt, my draenei warrior and former Vindicator Teca e’Veritas.  She had managed to reach the vaulted status of 50 prior to Patch 3.0.2, though I had managed to work up the gumption to play her a handful of times in recent months.  However, the changes that made soloing as a Protection warrior more viable intrigued me and I took the opportunity to gleefully return to the Protection tree from my prior Fury build.  She’s currently 0/0/43 and I’m floored by how much fun I’ve been having playing a Protection warrior.  When I had first begin leveling Teca, I had attempted to do so using some horrible Fury-Protection hybrid that I’m almost ashamed to admit that I test, but as fun as it was to gather up a bunch of enemies, I found it frustrating to spend a singnificant amount of time trying to wear them down.  Post-Echoes of Doom, however, it’s been beyond enjoyable to multi-tank targets for quests; I gleefully round up a group and tear into the with surprising ease.

I think that I’ll enjoy leveling my warrior prior to the expansion.

Regarding Politics

Today we held our elections within the United States, including the presidential elections.  The results are out and there’s a lot to be said regarding the changes, but I’ll borrow a bit from the “Autobiography of Mark Twain” in saying:

In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.

That said, I’m certain that for many of you your servers’ global channels were full of posts regarding today’s elections — just as they were on the Feathermoon US roleplaying server today and in previous weeks.  While some of the discussion was actually quite interesting and engaging, most of it was just mindless babble from unwashed masses that really served little purpose other than incite others.²  I, for one, am glad that the elections are over because it might mean that Trade and General can return to some semblence of normalcy.

There were, however a number of noteworthy quotes that I managed to capture this evening just before the results were announced!

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Zombies Ate My Inn Keeper

General, Roleplaying 2 comments.

A number of months ago I lamented about the emotional tug that recent prior world events seemed to lack.  In “Enemy at the Gates: The Scourge Invasion,” I spoke about how the original Scourge Invasion that heralded the new dungeon Naxxramas in Path 1.11 was my favorite world event ever implemented by Blizzard.  I wrote:

In the months before the first expansion was released, the world of Azeroth came under attack by Scourge forces under the command of Kel’Thuzad. Giant necropoleis hovered overhead as waves of undead assaulted the lands⁵ below. Some of these creatures would manage to find their way into capital cities, harassing the local populace and implacably moving forward in an effort to take out the city’s leader in a single blow.

The Scourge Invasion was finally repelled by the combined forces of the Horde, Alliance, and Argent Dawn.

The world event was beautifully enacted in such a way that completely blows my mind away. First off, it was clearly a world event of epic proportions. While the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort attempted to allow everyone to get involved by turning in needed supplies, most of the action was far away in Silithus, not easily accessible by most inexperienced players. The Scourge Invasion, however, was everywhere you turned; whether outside of Stormwind, inside the Undercity, or leveling in the Plaguelands, the Scourge was certain to have a presence. Questing for the invasion began as low as level 6, though most of the content was limited to those near to the then-current level cap.

I stand by those words.  The Scourge invasions — both before and its current incarnation — exemplify characteristics of the game I find so appealing.  I’ve had so much fun within the last week, even as others have railed against Blizzard and their zombie infestation.

I’m enamored.

I may have mentioned before that I used to be a staff member of one of the larger Ultima Online free servers.  While I focused primarily on answering pages and beautifying the world, I did help organize a number of world events during my tenure.  The current incarnation of the Scourge Invasion is exactly like something I would have loved to plan, organize, and implement.  Whether players like it or loathe it, they’re involved and they’re vocal about it.  People are reacting in a way that is very appealing — I was getting tired of hearing cries to further nerf paladins.¹

I love the disarray caused by the world event.  From what I can discern, it’s intentional. The invading Scourge should be disrupting people’s lives; it underlines the concern that the Lich King has turned his focus back to Kalimdor and Azeroth, and that his efforts could have lasting effects on the world.  Everyone is involved in this fight, whether it’s by participating in defending his home or by being swept up by the undead and mindlessly following other converted individuals.  People can’t avoid this because Arthas’s reach is just that far.

I found that the people who had the most fun in this event were the ones who were willing to adapt, temporarily shelve their goals, and get involved rather than lament how Blizzard has ruined their game.  Honestly, it’s an event that won’t persist beyond a week — does it warrant people claiming that they’re going to cancel their accounts or that Blizzard

In general, I had fun this week playing the perky priestess and allowing her to interact with others during the Scourge Invasion.  At the time of the first invasion she was still dutifully training and focusing on other goals; this time, she’s thrown herself headlong into the fray and is helping as she can in true Csilla fashion.  Last night a friend and I were stoically defending Stormwind from attack, clearing the Trade and Cathedral Districts of zombie infestations and curing people of their diseases.  It was ridiculously fun and people either joined us or threw themselves at our defenses.

Csilla eventually faltered when a wave of nearly twenty zombies overwhelmed her and I finally got to experience my first taste as a zombie.²  At that point, I went onto the offensive and gleefully slaughtered the very people that I had hoped to protect.  I focused on players at the current level cap since I didn’t want to disrupt people who were unable to defend themselves, but my friend and I³ cleared the area that we had until that moment been defending.  Once we died, however, we returned to our posts and cleaned up the mess that we had created.

The evening was especially overwhelming for poor miss Csilla, who kept hearing the insidious whispers of a malignant spirit as she fought the Scourge infestation.  Much like the letters that were lootable from the Scourge both now and then, this little effort really is wonderful.  For a young woman not yet confident in her abilities⁴, the whispers of an unfriendly spirit can be rather disheartening.

This Week on Airee.Net

I have a few projects that I’ve been working on since Friday.  There was a post regarding how to tackle the Scourge Invasion as a roleplayer, but with the final wave of zombies supposedly ending today that might be a bit moot now.  I may post it regardless.  I also acquired The Eye of Shadow which, coupled with The Eye of Divinity, will allow me to complete the pre-The Burning Crusade priest quest Balance of Light and Shadow.  I plan on recording this and eventually posting the final movie on this site, but I may put that off until after the world event ends.  It’ll be a wonderful precursor to Wrath of the Lich.  Expect the movie to be chock full of mindless Cynra commentary and effusive babble.

I’ve been told that I’m good at providing that.

Finally, I’ve been working on a series of articles regarding the post-Patch 3.0.2 Discipline tree and what I’ve learned since adopting a new spec for raiding.  In particular, I’ll look at the spells, implementation, builds, and gearing, but I’m still trying to get everything written down — especially before November arrives and I hopefully begin NaNoWriMo.  However, I am curious to hear what other people would like to see in a guide: what do you wish to learn about the Discipline tree?

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Tackling NaNoWriMo

General, Roleplaying 1 comment.

One of the more recent topics to flood the World of Warcraft blogosphere has been the impending arrival of the National Novel Writing Month.   Otherwise known as NaNoWriMo, this yearly event invites peoples to embrace literary abandon and write a 50,000 word novel within the course of thirty days.  Whole communities have embraced this annual event, while other individuals are left scratching their heads in confusion.

While the novels can entail any universe — even one of your own devising! — many fellow bloggers have contemplated writing stories specific to the World of Warcraft environment.  Others have elected to write, but not about World of Warcraft.  Vonya at The Egotistical Priest wrote in “NaNoWriMo” claiming that she’d managed to drag both Hannelore and Bre of Gun Lovin’ Dwarf Chick into the project.  She went one step further to create a World of Warcraft community on the official site called World of Wordcraft.  Matticus of World of Matticus wrote “7 Cliche’d Ideas to Jump Start Your WoW Related NaNoWriMo.”  At Bringin’ the Wood, Jive explains more about NaNoWriMo in “We interrupt this WoW-ing for RL!“  And this morning Megan of Out of Mana announced her interest in writing this year in “Readers, Riters.”¹

I’m sincerely considering attempting to do NaNoWriMo this year.  I have tried so once before, but a family emergency halfway through the month made it difficult to complete.  Like many other bloggers, I’m interested in penning a story regarding World of Warcraft, specifically about one of my many characters.  As an amateur writer and a roleplayer, the idea of finally getting my stories written down² appeals to me a lot.  In particular, there are two ideas in my head that would work admirably for NaNoWriMo:

• The story of the undead mage Cili, but before she was Forsaken.  The novel would follow the final adventure of Mariska Stormborne as she meets an eclectic group of characters, attempts to reconcile her devotion to the Alliance with the “new” Alliance that has evolved following the fight at Hyjal Summit, and crashes headlong into a new amorous pursuit that may be a bit more serious than she had originally hoped.
• Or, I could follow the adventures of independent contractor and blade for hire Tzigane Thistledown³, a young gnome rogue.  Unfortunately, Tzigane’s prowess with lockpicking leaves something to be desired and she’s captured while performing a task for one of her occasional employers.  This technophobe and her dwarven ally — a man with more muscles than grey matter between his ears — are coerced into performing a task for the Stormwind guards that leads them into the heart of Horde territory and might cost them their lives.

At the moment, despite the appeal of roleplaying Tzigane again after disregarding her for so many years, I’m leaning more towards writing Cili’s story.  The story is more or less complete, in that the main body of events occurred during a tabletop roleplaying sessions almost three years ago.  On the other hand, I know how Tzigane’s story would start and how it ends, but everything in between is fluff for now.  A whole lot of things occur, but at the moment I have no clue.  Furthermore, Tzigane’s story revolves around her quick wit and occasional brash attitude to progress, while I feel that Cili’s is a little more deeper.  At least that’s how I’ve always visualized it in my head — it may be an entirely different matter when if I were to start penning it.

My only concern is that I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to pursuing any type of creative endeavor.  I reread constantly, correct, change, and rarely progress as much as I’d like due to my obsession with getting everything just right.  In this, the definite deadline of NaNoWriMo could be both a blessing and a curse: while I’d be forced to write regardless of its unpolished nature due to the impending conclusion of the month, I very well might explode before then.

I think that I’ll get together my notes from that roleplaying session and plan things out.  I might also post a short story or two just to get the creative juices flowing a bit before November.  Any preparation that I can get done ahead of time to help ease the process would make success that much more likeky!

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Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

General 4 comments.

Last night we must have fought the Headless Horseman some forty times within an hour.  Perhaps more — I lost count due to all of the characters that we rotated in and some had two summons as opposed to just the one.  While we saw The Horseman’s Blade twice and a handful of Hallowed Helms, there wasn’t a single Sinister Squashling nor The Horseman’s Reins.  Balaa — who coincidentally came up with the title for this post — was very disappointed.

Hopefully he’ll be more excited to learn that both the Hallowed Helm and Sinister Squashling can be acquired by Trick or Treating!

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Pimpin’ the UI: “Echoes of Doom” Edition

General, Raiding 6 comments.

Like many people, Patch 3.0.2 introduced a number of changes to my user interface.  Rather than completely overhaul everything, I instead chose to modify my existing UI, replacing those addons that no longer functioned with similar and updated ones.  The results are as follows:

• Bartender4 — This addon allows me to rearrange my bars at whim, including which are visible, what their sizes are, how many rows and columns I want, and even if they disappear during combat.
• Buffalo — I stumbled across this addon via Eye for an Eye in “New Hotness.”  These new buff and debuffs bars are wonderful, especially since I was having difficulty interacting with the default ones displayed with X-Perl.  It’s very customizable, which appealed to me a lot.
• Clique — I’d heard a lot about this addon and I’m starting to like it.  I’ve effectively reduced the number of bars visible in my user interface by binding a number of abilities and talents.  It’s especially helpful in reducing the amount of movement associated with clicking as a healer.
• eePanels2 — This is easily my favorite skinning addon.  It allows you to create customizable panels that can be skinned with different designs.  This allowed the grey decorated bar along the bottom of my screen, which looks much more visually appealing than the black bars you often see in images and movies.
• flagRSP2 — flagRSP2 is a roleplaying addon maintained by a fellow Feathermooner.  Players are able to describe their characters’ appearance and set a roleplaying status that indicates both experience and whether or not they’re looking to roleplay with others.  You can also display custom titles and even other names, which is very appealing to some roleplayers.
• FuBar 3.5 — I learned of FuBar from BigRedKitty over a year ago and I’ve been enarmored with it since.  FuBar generates easily skinned bars that can display all sorts of information by downloading further addons.  I currently use ExperienceFu, FactionsFu, DurabilityFu, FriendsFu, GuildFu, MoneyFu, BagsFu, Micro MenuFu, ClockFu, and AmmoFu on my hunter.
• Hat Trick — I downloaded this addon strictly for aesthetic purposes.  It generates a check box on your character screen that allows you to select if the character’s cloak and helm are visible.  While I claim that I like this addon for roleplaying purposes, I really just didn’t like seeing either most of the time regardless!
• ScrollingCombatText — As the name implies, this generates scrolling combat text including healing done and received, damage done and received, buffs received, and more.  I’m leaning towards downloading Parrot as an alternative in the near future due to many people’s recommendations.
• simpleMinimap — simpleMinimap is an addon that modifies the minimap within World of Warcraft.  This allowed me to have a circular minimap as opposed to the normally rectangular one in addition to deciding what information I want displayed on it.  In particular, I love that it displays coordinates.
• X-Perl UnitFrames — For nearly three years I stubbornly clung to an outdated version of CT Raid Assist for my raid frames while using Perl Class to display my group.  However, Patch 3.0.2 destroyed that addon and I was stuck seeking new raid frames.  I don’t like any of the alternatives and X-Perl is set up in a way that mimics my old CTRA.  The only thing I can’t get to work is having the buffs I want — Power Word: Fortitude, Divine Spirit, Shadow Protection, Power Word: Shield, Renew, and Soulstone — appear on the raid frames.  I’ve been told that this feature doesn’t seem to be working currently and I’m crossing my fingers that it’ll be changed.

Not downloaded as of yet are raid appropriate addons such as Deadly Boss Mods and Omen Threat Meter.  While I can typically get away with not having these as a healer, the latter has become a bit more important since I elected to respec as Discipline.  Knowing which damage class is nearing the tanks on the threat meter would help me determine to whom to apply a Pain Suppression.  Either way, I’ll have both up and running in time for Friday’s night raid.

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