Direction?

When I started this blog, I wanted to write about the trials and tribulations of raiding when you didn't want to.  (I have so many stories from Wrath that it's insane.  I'll post one at the bottom of this entry.)  I love WoW.  I love the world, I love the lore, I love the furbolgs and the murlocs.  I love that when I was at Dragon*Con a few years ago, when someone's murloc cell phone ring went off, my friends and I all looked around like "WTF, they're here?!!?!"

What I didn't love was the huge effort the raidleader and officers had to do to get 10 or 25 people together, in one place, to raid.  Especially when 10-15 of them didn't give a shit if they were there or not, nor would they put forth their best effort.  When our guild started, we have 8 people who could/would raid each week.  We did Naxx up til Thaddius with 8 people and only then did we get more.  We did end up getting KT down the week or day or something before Ulduar came out.  Though, I can't remember if it was 10 or 25 man now.

However, we never really reached the critical mass so we could stop fretting about 'Will we have enough people to raid this week?'  It was draining and annoying.  When we started our guild, we have 4 officers, myself, my best friend's husband, a paladin that used to be a holy priest in BC and another one of our close friends who leveled up a DK and tanked with him.  However, we got big, the paladin left to go do RL things (he was getting married and changing jobs) and my DK friend left to go to school.  We picked up 2 more officers and I strong armed my husband into being an officer too.  One of our new officers was a DK and he ended up leaving for RL as well.

However, at that point, we picked up a smaller guild that my personal group of friends had played with back when they started.  (I played with them too, but I didn't like them too much so I avoided them.)  We made one of them an officer so they would have 'representation' and moved forward.

During all this, we raided 10 and 25 man Ulduar.  We scraped together our 25 people and had people quit because "this is just too hard, let's go back to Naxx".  We got much further on 10 man then we did in 25 and we killed Yogg on 10 man on November 10th, 2009.  Which was about a month before we got 25 man ToC.  (I don't remember getting 10 man ToC and I don't see it in my achievements, so yeah.)

When ICC came out, I ended up raiding it 3 times a week.  Once on Karegina in 10 man, once in 25 man and once on my shaman in 10 man.  It was insane.  We had such a hard time with 25 man.  People were getting burned out, *I* was getting burned out.  I ended up taking a couple week break from the game and let one of the 'new' shaman healers take my place.  This put more frustration and crap on my husband, who didn't handle it well and ended up punching a wall and breaking his hand.  I came back to raid the next day.  (This was completely out of character for my husband and I tell him that if he didn't punch like a girl, he'd have been fine.)

One of our last 25 man raids was this (and here is the story I was telling you about):

We had cleared all the wings except for Frost Wing, the only bosses we had left were Sindragosa and Arthas.  Over half of us had been successful in the 10 man raid and MOST of us knew what we were doing.  However, we were short a person or two.  So, we look in guild and lo, there is a warlock sitting around who always says how much he wants to raid.  We ask him if he wants to come and he eagerly agrees.  He says he knows the fight and just to be sure, my husband goes over it for him.

The pull happens, the first ground phase goes smoothly, and then the air phase happens.  The five people are chosen and 4 of them run to their places at the base of the stairs.  The fifth, which happens to be our warlock guildie, turns and runs right into the main group.  Everyone panics, vent explodes and then the ice blocks hit.  And all along the back, where the ice wall is, a ice representation of the Andes appears.  The warlock had managed to ice block about 15 of our raiders.  My husband literally face palmed, I sighed, over officer chat our GM goes "WTF is that?  I thought he said he knew the fight?!?!", over our private channel my best friend says "Umm, that wasn't supposed to happen" and over vent you hear "Sorry mate, I didn't realize I had the ice block."

This would be more impressive if I had screen shots, and I might ask the husband if he has them when he gets home tonight.

At that moment, I felt frustration and an overwhelming urge to shout "But I don't even want to BE here" at my guildies.  I was exhausted mentally and physically.  I was only going to raids to help out my friends and other people were making my efforts impossible.

I am pretty sure that was our last 25 man raid.  We switched to 2 10 man raids.  And as people got less and less inclined to show up, we scaled down to 1.  And then, when people stopped showing up for THAT (since we were working on our ICC 10 man drakes), we found a pug run by the best guild on our server, and finished up the last 2 or 3 achievements to get them.   It looks like my last in guild achievement was on August 3rd, 2010 and then I got the last two achievements (heroic Sindy and Been Waiting a Long Time for This) on September 29th 2010.  I went on that run one more time to try and help other people but then Blizz changed the lock outs so I stopped.

When Cata hit, I was eager to level and run the new heroics.  We had a great time and I was excited to get into the new raids.  However, after 2 or 3 runs, I was once again exhausted.  I drug myself to raid every night and fell asleep right when we stopped.  Some nights it was all my husband could do to get me to the bedroom.  However, around this time, my husband noticed that while I slept, I stopped breathing.  So I made an appointment with a sleep doctor and had a sleep study.  Turns out I have mild sleep apnea and need a machine to help me sleep.  I got one and ever since I've been eager to raid.  I don't get tired at 8:30pm and feel like I'm going to pass out.

Anyway, since then, I've not had as much of the frustration as I had been having before.  And as a result, the focus of my blog went from being a place I could tell the more humorous of the stories, to a place I could just talk about my love of WoW instead.  I had wanted to be a resource for baby trees but instead, I'm more of an altaholic.

Speaking of, I got my rogue to 85 this morning before work.  I then went on the AH and bought her the brewfest tankard of terror, the troll instance BOE agility ring, the BOE epic boots, the BOE epic hands, a blue quality hat that has a meta on it and I got her the valor bracers as well (since Kare doesn't need any valor items anymore).  I spent about 2000 gold on all that.  Plus I have the blue Guardians of Hyjal gear too, a neck piece and a chest piece.  I also grabbed a blue quality cloak out of the gbank which I'll probably just replace with the Thrall quest line one.  Hmm.  I do have a nice trinket (for now) the Heart of The Vile BOE that drops in Twilight Highlands.  It dropped while I was questing there!  I also have the blue ring from Therazane too.  We have Riplimbs Collar in the gbank and I'm going to see if I can buy that for her too.  I'll have to see.  The husband told our new quartermaster to sell all that.  I'll see how much they want for it!

This turned out longer then I was expecting.  The way my mind works or doesn't work amazes me!

Grinds aka Achievements

My husband and I were talking the other day and (as usual) we started talking about the upcoming 'grinds' we were going to do.  And by 'we', I mean 'him'.  My most beloved is competely batshit insane when it comes to the following items:

1. Mounts
2. Achievements
3. Pets
4. Achievements
5. Tabards
6. Achievements
7. Raiding
8. Achievements
9. PVP
10. Achievements

I think you get the picture.  Since November 1st, he's gotten the following achievements: Insane in the Membrane, a ton of the ICC 25 man achievements (we're going back in today to wrap it up so we can do it heroic style), Alterac Valley All-star, and I Smell A Rat.

His next 'grind' is going to be for honor kills (sorry Alliance players!) and for gold.  As such, he's trying to get me to go into any 10 man raids (Naxx for example) just so we can loot the bodies.  (I wish I could impress upon him that his obsession with achievements do not come over to me and I don't WANT to grind everything out for months just so HE can get 10 more points on a imaginary bar.)  

He worked on Insane in the Membrane for probably about 2 years I want to say.  I'm *still* mad at him about it too.  I really dislike the Bloodsail Admiral achievement.  Mostly because during my many times questing through Booty Bay, it sucked to have my quest givers killed over and over and over again.  If he ever brings up that he did that, I get all pissed off and him and leave the room.  It's so fun!  He even did the part with the night elf mages, the books?  I can't remember what that's called but he carted so many books in there that he got exalted.  AND when I refused to go farm him the lockboxes to get his Ravenholt rep, he leveled his own rogue and did it himself.  

As for the Sewer Rat achievement, I know that he had over 500 of the crystal vials you can get  9% of the time down there.  He had been working on that before Cata came out.  So, probably a year or two on THAT achievement as well.  He's insane.

Also, before the world broke, he did the Veteran of the Shifting Sands quest.  He started playing in BC so it just facinated him.  (I was around when it went down, so it was not that cool to me.)  He actually finished that on November 30th, 2010.

And his Alterac Valley All-star, he was doing all this stuff and then realized "Oh, I just need to do X to get this" so he ran up to a tower and was going to cap it, but a kitty druid was already doing that, so what did my achievement insane husband do?  Bubbled the cat and capped it in front of the cat.  *hangs her head*  Oh Honey.  Luckily, the kitty druid was a good sport, so I didn't have to beat my husband!

Now, you might be asking, what am I crazy about?  Characters.  I love to level and if I could have 1 of every race/class combo, I would totally do that.  Right now, I'm working on my rogue (she's about halfway through level 84 now, almost 85!!) and when I finish with that, I'll pick that elemental shaman of mine and level her up (probably with J's druid).  And then, I'll take my hunter and level her up (probably with J's warlock).  Then It's either the DK or the warlock.  And I'll probably end up with 2 warlocks at level 85 before I get my warrior up there.  Oops :)  My goal is to get 1 of every class on my horde server.  Yay!

Shared Topic: Dear Pandaren, what class should I roll?

Hi guys, Thought to share this idea about knowing What class are you playing with the new race Pandaren on the new upcoming expansion (Mists of Pandaria)?. I know most players are excited to role as a Monk, but there are lots of options to choose from, Are you going to be a Pandaren healer, melee, caster dps or a tank? Please share your thoughts! Thanks!

 I love me some healers.  I really do.  Right now, at level 85, I have my beloved resto druid who is my apple of my eye, a holy priest who is my primary alt, a prot pally (who has a holy offspec), and a mage (who is only around to make me alchemy things and farm herbs).  At level 81, I have a elemental shaman who spent more time in Wrath as resto then anything else (she healed 10 man Lich King on an alt run we did back in July of 2010) and then my little rogue that has been half-assed leveled for the last 3 or 4 or 5 years.

At this point in time, if I'm going to have any new characters I either need to get a 3rd account or I need to delete some of my precious babies.

But, Pandaren, I must have them.  I know I will end up leveling a few of them and probably race changing at least one of my current toons to a Panda.  I know I want a Pandaren Monk.  And I'll probably race change my hunter (level 76) to be a Panda too.  I will probably end up leveling a couple other classes as well but will probably burn out on them early on.  (I have a 75 undead warlock but I'm more interested in my level 70 troll warlock.)

But my Pandaren Monk will be a healer.  Because that is what I do.  My healers all have dps offspecs but I am a healer through and through.  There is no changing that!!

By the way, here's a list of my current toons I have on my server:

level 85 resto/kitty tauren druid
level 85 holy/shadow blood elf priest
level 85 fire goblin mage
level 85 prot/holy blood elf paladin
level 81 combat undead rogue
level 81 elemental/resto orc shaman
level 76 beast mastery blood elf hunter
level 76 blood troll death knight
level 75 affliction undead warlock
level 70 demonology troll warlock
level 62 elemental goblin shaman
level 50 fire orc mage
level 42 ret tauren paladin
level 41 shadow tauren priest
level 40 arms goblin warrior
level 34 kitty troll druid
level 17 bank blood elf priest

Plus I have a worgen warrior and a dwarf priest that I can't remember their names so I can't look them up on the armory!  I have too many characters.  When you look at a name in the guild list and you can't remember who that person is and then you realize it's you, yeah, makes me feel stupid!  But that's 19 toons on that server.  My husband only has 1 account (for now).  And the funny thing is, I can't figure out who to delete to make room for my Panda!

Go to hell Real Life, I'll punch you in the face!

So, since my company left last Wednesday, I've had very little down time.  On the job front, the day after I took the tests (Friday), I got a call back (before 2pm) asking if I wanted to come in next week for an interview.  Well, since my boss is on vacation this whole week, I had to arrange the interview for after work.  I get off work at 4pm, which is really early!  But it takes me 30 minutes to get into the big city from the small town that I work in.  So, I got an appointment for Wednesday (that's today!) at 4:30pm.

I arranged with my mother to go interview clothes shopping and we spent all day Saturday shopping, getting our nails done, getting my hair cut, fixing my mom's internet to be wireless since she's having surgery tomorrow (Thursday) and various other things.  I left my home at 8:30am and got home at 10pm on Saturday.  Then Sunday, I played my rogue a bit and did housework.  It was not very exciting.

Monday, however, I got back into the swing of things and took my holy priest on a retro 25 man ICC run.  It was awesome.  She's never been in ICC at all, ever.  And I had a good time with that!  My shaman buddy went too and she was like "Aww, I'm being out healed by two undergeared toons".  :(  Blizz, WTB shaman healing fix! PST!

And then I spent Tuesday farming for fish and herbs for our guilds fish feasts and cauldrons.  I also posted up a post on my guild forum that said "Hey guys, please to be donating fish/herbs/volatile life for fish feasts and cauldrons" and got told "Why can't the gbank just buy that stuff?"  I kinda think they missed the point of what I was trying to say but I think it will work out.  I'm having a good conversation with the lady who is volunteering to run the AH/gbank stuff.

And now it's Wednesday.  I got up at 6am to ride my exercise bike and ended up having about an hour to play WoW before I had to start getting dressed.  And during that hour, my little rogue dinged 80.  I suppose she's not so little now.  Heh.  I still have no idea what I'm doing, but whatever!  It's all good!

Wish me luck on my job interview!!

Radio Silence Broken!

This past week has been a blur.  On Friday, the 28th, two very special people descended upon my little real life group of WoW players.  One of them is the sister of my best friend, visiting from Germany.  (My bestie is a transplant.  Lucky for me!!)  And the other is another friend of ours, visiting from New York.  Both of these people play WoW with us and have been in our guild for years.  Both of these people played our first online roleplaying game as well.  (Which is actually how we all met in the first place, but that's another story.)

So, we housed our friend from New York and of course, my best friend and her husband housed her sister.  My weekend was one thing after another, I barely had time to log into WoW at all!  I think I got an hour total from Friday until Wednesday evening, which is when our house guest left to make the return trip to New York. 

It was wonderful to see them and even better was on Halloween, another one of our guildies and old friend came out from back East to visit as well.  (They told me where he lived like 5 times but I've completely forgotten again.)  He only stayed for 1 day but he was fun and awesome to see. 

During all this, my best friend, her husband and my husband took off Halloween through Wednesday.  Which was great for them but rough on me.  I got off work early on Monday however to spend some time with them, because my boss is really awesome sometimes.

However, during all of this, I am looking for a new job because my boss is planning on retiring in the next few years and doesn't want me to end up unemployed at the end of it.  So, Friday, when our friends arrived, I ended up picking up our house guest and driving him to drop off a job application.  I made it 5 minutes before 5pm, the application deadline.  However, apparently they liked what they saw because by Monday at 4pm, they had called me and said they wanted me to take a skills test.  So I scheduled that for today at 4pm. 

It was 4 tests: a situations test, a Microsoft Excel test, a Microsoft Word test and a typing test.  I got 100% on the situation test, a 82% on the Excel test, a 75% on the Word test and I typed 75 words per minute.  I'm not feeling very confident right now. 

Which leads me to raid tonight.  Because of her sister visiting, my healing partner won't be raiding for a while.  We 9 man-ed it, two of the spirit axes dropped (that my healing partner has been waiting for this whole time) and the flaming kitteh staff dropped again.  This time, the hunter, who knew I'd been looking for it for a long time, cheered at me and was so happy to see it in my hands.  I promptly respec-ed my offspec to kitty dps from boomkin and went out looking for things to murder.

After a exhausting, yet wonderful, weekend and a horrible day, this was the best thing to happen.