Moar Wallpapers
Posted on December 14, 2008 - Filed Under Other stuff
New Northrend Wallpapers - consider them your Sunday Screenshots!
(either that, or I could post a picture of the amberseeds, with a big sign saying “DO NOT EAT”)
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Dear…
Posted on December 13, 2008 - Filed Under Healing, Other stuff, Silly
Dear People Who Group With Me In Heroics:
Remember how level 70 heroics were hard when you first did them? I know, I know, the people on the cesspool official forums say heroics are easy. They probably ARE easy, since those people are in 10 man Naxx gear.
But, you’re undergeared. I’m undergeared. The tank is undergeared. This isn’t 3.0 before Lich King where you can brute force everything. Stop screwing around, use your CC buttons, stand BEHIND the mobs, and please, for the love of the flying spaghetti monster, do not bring your level 75 pet so you can “get him some levels”. And don’t be afraid to chug a health potion if you are stupid and pull aggro or stand in a fire.
Also, I’m going to have to drink after just about every pull that involves more than one monster. This means that if you finish the fight without full health, YOU GET TO EAT TOO. I don’t have the kind of mana that lets me fling around huge heals post fight. Eat a biscuit, dammit.
Love,
Anna
PS: Thanks BRK for illustrating exactly why!
Wallpaper Update
Posted on December 12, 2008 - Filed Under Other stuff
Thanks to a little kick from Mania, the wallpapers section is updated to my current screenshots. Kalimdor is pretty much done. I need to go actually photograph the rest of Eastern Kingdoms and Outland!
Resto Shaman - Q/A
Posted on December 12, 2008 - Filed Under Other stuff
I’m working on a post for Tuesday called “So you want to be a Resto Shaman”. So far it covers basics like healing spells, buffs, and what stats you want/don’t want on gear. I’d love to know what else to throw in there or any questions you might have!
So! Leave a comment, use the contact form, or email me at toomanyannas at gmail dot com and let me know what you’d like to see!
RP Friday Five - What Dreams May Come
Posted on December 12, 2008 - Filed Under Roleplay
Here are five questions to think about with your character - they can be answered here as comments, turned into a blog post of your own, or just something to think about while you grind away leveling over the weekend. This week we’re tackling skills and abilities.
You’ll find something like this every Friday here at Too Many Annas - and my answers are under the “read more” tag.
- Describe your character’s sleep habits. Do they eat breakfast or have other routines?
- What do they dream about at night, if anything?
- Is your character a night owl or a morning songbird?
- What do they wear to sleep?
- Is your character ticklish?
Heroix Wut?
Posted on December 12, 2008 - Filed Under Other stuff
Just a quick note that my first heroic healing experiences went very well - I’m enjoying holy healing a lot, though it does have its frustrations. Tonight we did Violet Hold and The Nexus. Also enjoying getting to do things with friends again. Slowly, her gear is looking less like crap (though I still have ugly green boots that don’t match ANYTHING), and I got a new mace ( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37169 ). RP Friday Five in the morning!
Just Dual Spec - A Rant
Posted on December 11, 2008 - Filed Under Other stuff, Raiding
(Since the Model Viewer is currently broken, mentally add an image to this post that is a Shaman in healing gear standing face to face - mirror image style - with a Shaman in enhancement gear.)
I could easily turn this into a number of different things. But for now, I want to focus on this problem:
Its primary purposes is so that player feel like they dont need to keep respec’ing for different roles or kinds of content. By far the two biggest cases where we think this is needed are:
The player who want to both PvP and run instances.
The player who swaps frequently among tanking, healing or dps (even if the dps part is to solo).
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that first bit. PVP specs and Instancing specs (even for healers) are frequently very different, and having a way to swap between the two is fantastic, as is the ability for a DPS specced hybrid to dual spec as a healer/tank for certain raids where you might need an extra for one fight, or fill two potential roles over the course of a raid. My issue lies with the second one.
That “even if the DPS part is to solo” part. That’s the problem.
Basically, this is a giant steaming pile of cop out.
It says “we know you can’t kill a mob 10 levels lower than you, but you can dual spec to a DPS spec!” I try very hard not to whine about class mechanics - and even though there are some really frustrating things about both Paladins and Shamans right now, I’ve been pretty good about staying away from the QQ stuff, since I think that there’s no real benefit gained from being upset about things over which we have no control.
This, however, is a little different (at least in my brain), because it’s not about a single mechanic. This isn’t about holy paladins, prot warriors, boomkin druids. This is an attitude issue on the part of Blizzard, and it frustrates me.
Instead of making each spec a viable way to play in more than one role - even if it’s focused on one particular role - this says “all characters with X spec are for Y task. If they don’t want to do Y task, well, they can dual spec to do a different task!”. And maybe I’m being overly fatalistic, but I see this as the writing on the wall for the end of hybrid flexibility.
No longer will you have ret or holy paladins that pick up a set of tank gear in an instance to help out, or resto druids that throw on some boomkin gear and DPS. Hybrid functionality - the ability to do more than one role (even if the secondary roles are not as good as a primary role) - is slowly dying. With the advent of 51 point talent trees, all hybrid roles are more specialized than ever, and being effective with “hybrid” specs is almost impossible NOW - imagine after six months or a year of dual specs?
And what does it say to new players if the standard answer to “I’m having trouble balancing my tank spec with the time I spend soloing” is “well, don’t be tank specced when you solo!”. To me, that’s the best reason NOT to spec for a specialized role (tanking/healing) - and there’s already complaints of healing and tank shortages.
It says very clearly “we know being a healer sucks when you’re not healing, we wouldn’t spec as a healer unless we actually HAD to” - and I think that’s a shame.
Unfortunately, there’s probably little or nothing anyone can do about this.
I’m not sure anyone else sees this as a problem, and I’m quite sure that they’re not going to change their minds about it now (especially since it’s been officially announced). And, at heart, I don’t think dual specs are the issue - I like the idea, as does anyone that’s played a hybrid class and been forced to be something they’ve not liked for just one night so the raid could go on. I know druids and paladins that love the idea of being able to tank OR heal on the fly as they’re needed, and that’s going to be the fantastic side to this change.
It’s the attitude toward soloing that bugs me.
I want my holy paladin and my resto shaman to be able to do simple daily quests by themselves and not have it take 5+ times as long or require outside help just to complete. I don’t want to have to flip flop repeatedly to some other spec that I like less just so that I can be competitive as a raider and have the appropriate reputation gear/enchants. I don’t need to have to carry more gear and more reagents than I already do. I don’t want purchasing “respec reagents” (or shelling out cash for respecs) to be a part of playing a healer or a tank class.
And, to be perfectly short about it, I don’t want to be retribution or elemental.
My characters have the specs that they have to fit with the people that they are. Aelflaed is a terrible ret pally - not because she does terrible DPS, but because when she’s specced ret, she’s impulsive, reckless, occasionally stupid, and constantly stressed out. She is a *holy paladin*. And Annorah is similar - her greatest relationships are with the elements of Water and Fire - Water for healing and balance, and Fire for scrying.
As class designers, Blizzard is responsible for keeping things reasonable with each spec of each class. Sure a beastmastery hunter might be able to solo faster than a survival hunter - but the survival hunter does just fine on her own. The same is NOT true of non utility/DPS classes. That should be adjusted, not glossed over with the ability to carry a second spec. Having two specs should <increase> the total functionality of hybrids, not gloss over the fact that some of the specs are completely useless when not doing their one single role.
While the idea of dual specs is fantastic in premise, especially for hybrids that might need to pick up a secondary role for a specific fight in an instance, or people that do both PVP and PVE, the increasing trend of “Just dual spec” to solve the problem of soloing is a cop out. Blizzard just made spellpower and healing the same stats, and fixed tank stats so that they’re carrying strength and AP as well as avoidance/mitigation. Both of those changes reflect a desire to have people holding non-DPS roles be able to hang on their own as well.
Unfortunately, Dual Specs could potentially blow all of that away, as class changes get made. The idea of carrying two potential talent trees is fantastic, but the attitude and response that “if you can’t do it by yourself as a healer/tank, just dual spec” is not.
(And yes, I know, there’s both nothing I can do about it, and no solution posted in this post - because I don’t have one. Heck, I’m not sure there *is* one, and I think the “death” of Hybrids had been coming for awhile. Hence this being a rant (: Feel free to agree or disagree, I’d love to see some discussion, but keep it civil - not that you guys have ever made me doubt your ability for civility!)
State of the Blog Address
Posted on December 10, 2008 - Filed Under Other stuff
So, I’m sure you’ve noticed that things are a little different around here than they were say, last April. Part of that is because when I started blogging, I was in the midst of 25 man raiding - and that was a large part of what I was doing in game. Part of that is, probably, because I’ve grown and changed in the last 10 months (which is a good thing!), and what I do in game has grown and changed over that time as well.
With the recent Wrath “reset button”, you’ve all been exposed to some of those other things. I play about a million alts. I roleplay (a lot!). I get totally wrapped up in one character to the exclusion of others for two weeks at a time, only to ignore them after I get wrapped up in another one. I’m obsessed with fun/cool looking in game clothing and hunter pets.
I also (gasp horror) have a real life.
And that real life has kept me from playing tons of hours, from being level 80 in a week, from doing everything before any of you guys so that I can write and teach you about it. I wasn’t in the Beta. I don’t play on the PTR. Unlike someone like, say Matticus or Wynthea, I can’t teach you how to heal anything in Naxxramas - I’ve never been inside, and that’s intentional. I am a raider, yes. I love raiding, seeing new things, and killing bosses. But I am not just a raider, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Aelflaed reacts to running CoT:Stratholme (read: freak the hell out), or how Annorah deals with the titan/elemental lore in Storm Peaks.
And I know that many of you who read this are already knocking at Kel’thuzad’s door and threatening his minions with dismemberment. TRI will be there soon - our raids won’t start until January (most likely the end of January). I’ll start 10 mans when I can get into one that’s consistent and I have gear that doesn’t suck.
I love to teach - and teaching people how to heal (and lead healers) is a lot of fun - and probably the thing that gives me the most satisfaction out of blogging: knowing that something that I’ve done has inspired, helped, or made your life a little easier.
I also love to write, and I’m getting better with the creative side of writing as opposed to pure informative blogging.
Some of you really like the RP stories that show up on Thursdays around here. Others of you, I’m sure, completely ignore them. Some of you love the Friday Five, others - not so much. Monday miscellany posts keep you updated on what I’m doing - and those are well received as well. And you’ll still see a healing guide show up on Tuesdays (at least once I start doing 10 and 25 man raids where I can actually teach about them - which means having seen the fight and killed the boss at least twice).
So what am I getting at?
This blog isn’t Too Many Shamans. It’s not Too Many Paladins, Hunters, Priests or Druids. Nor is it Too Many Raids, or Roleplay Stories, or Screenshots, or Silly Songs. It’s all of those things, rolled into one big happy jumbled mess (kind of like one of those holiday appetizer platters where you can get a little bit of everything, or maybe a game of pick up sticks).
I try not to do too many meta posts where I blog about blogging, but based on a few questions and comments I’ve gotten recently, I thought it might be time to reassure you that this is still the same blog as always. I’m still a resto shaman and a holy paladin and a holy priest and a weird little hunter. I leveled a paladin first this time - that doesn’t change the blog, nor does it change the fact that I do all of those other things as well. Annorah and Aelflaed will both be raiding, and we’ll just have to see how things shake down in the next few weeks as to what is needed or not needed for that raiding experience.
Now - to end this on a silly/fun note - Typhoon Andrew, over at Eye of the Storm, has developed a WoW Code - here’s mine:
N:Anna, M: Pa80-Hu-Holy/Sh75-Dr-Resto, Alt: Hu71-NE-Beast/Pr70-Hu-Disc/Dr55-NE-Feral, S: Feathermoon-US-RP-PVE, G: Wildfire Riders/More Cowbell, Pvp-, Pve++, Y2005.6, Pt: Sergeant Major, D+HC, Ori: BWL, TBC: MH/BT, WLK: N/A, L++, RP++(sometimes)H, :), V0.2
(Also, because he said I should, I’m to inform you all that Stop is awesome. *nods*)
Beaten to the Punch
Posted on December 9, 2008 - Filed Under Guides, Healing, Other stuff, Paladin
I sat down this morning to set about turning the gear lists I made yesterday for Aelflaed into a real post. Quite fortunately, I was going through Google Reader at the same time.
Not that I’m bitter or anything. Or that I can really lay claim to this (though hey - we came up with the same list, or just about! woot!) because Siha has been healing end-game stuff for longer than I’ve even HAD a paladin. So yeah. If you want Holy Paladin instance/rep gear for pre-raid healeration, go see Siha. She’s awesome.
So then I thought to myself - well, you’re leveling up Alchemy (slowly - stupid transmutes) and cooking… why not take a stab at a consumables guide. Except you see, that whole Google Reader thing…. and Jov over at World of Snarkcraft ALSO posted such a guide.
So I thought, ok, so the Paladin apparently is full of bad luck when it comes to posts, I’ll do one about Shamans, even if Annorah isn’t quite 80 yet. Except then I remembered… oh right… THAT ONE IS TAKEN TOO.
And it isn’t even Monday!
So yeah. Now that Murphy and his (expletive deleted) law have screwed up even my blog posts (Murphy and I are not on good terms lately), I’m going to go work on some other assorted writings - maybe even an RP post for Thursday. I try to write guides on Tuesdays and give you guys something to learn from. Today I got beaten to the punch!
But I don’t want to leave you having learned <nothing> from coming here today. After all, what good is maintenance if you can’t learn something, so …
I did try healing Halls of Stone and Halls of Lighting (twice) yesterday. Please, for the love of the Loot Fu, make sure that you’ve got a competent tank with halfway decent gear to try Halls of Lightning. After the first attempt went belly up in a hurry because the first boss was twoshotting my tank while I attempted to cast a Holy Light (this happened several times) I thought that I was probably the problem, but my later group showed that it was a combination of not enough Tank Fu and Needs Moar DPS. Also, we were doomed by a bit of misinformation - do not pull this guy while he is big and electrified. Or you will be smashed.
For Loken (who wasn’t as bad on normal as I was expecting, but who I GREATLY FEAR on Heroic), be aware that the Glyph of Holy Light is your friend (as is any splash healing/AOE healing ability like Chain Heal, Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, Holy Frisbee, and … uh … those things Druids do - Tranquility and Wild Growth I think they are. Paladins don’t have one of those, so we have a Glyph). These will make your job easier, especially if your group members actually hug his ankles during the “aura” phases. Also, it helps if they also actually run away during his “blow you to bits” phases.
So good luck, and may the Loot Fu be with you. And if you know any spells, charms, prayers, or voodoo that will get Murphy and his (expletives deleted) law to leave me alone, I’d be much obliged!
More Monday Musings
Posted on December 8, 2008 - Filed Under Other stuff
- Aelflaed is level 80, and respecced back to Holy (though the actual IC change hasn’t quite happened yet)
-
It’s funny how a respec changes the attitude of a character, but she’s been reckless, almost to the point of stupid, since she went ret, and it’s wearing on her. She told Phileas yesterday that she “missed having pretty hands” - something that, since she’s been swinging a greataxe, she’s not had.
- Annorah is still just shy of 75, but should be more of a focus now that I can finally do other stuff with friends. I don’t like having marathoned to get to 80 with the paladin, but I got tired of not being able to do things.
- Storm Peaks and Sholazar basin are both amazing zones - I love the titan lore in Sholazar, and I love how the Vrykul and the titans are all mixed together in Storm Peaks. Also, I got to feed baby eagles. And ride on a storm giant’s shoulder!
- I am SO GLAD I have epic flying skill. I can’t imagine trying to do Storm Peaks or Icecrown without it.
- I don’t know how many of my fellow Riders read this blog, but I need to do a little shoutout to all of you for being amazing, supportive, fun people OOC, and some of the best writers I’ve ever met IC. I’m still a little bit in shock at Aely’s guild tag sometimes - your reputation for RP is well deserved, and I love you guys.
- I need help with Rirri. I’ve been suggested to build her personality before she even became Forsaken, and then trace that through her becoming a undead, and then becoming a deathknight. So far, all I know is that she was married, and had at least one kid. For some reason, I get a “mom” vibe from her.
