The Good, The Bad, The MaMa

It’s the Lich King’s fault! Really, it is…mostly =p

Wrath came out and it doesn’t run well on my iBook. Blizzard said it wouldn’t. I got a pretty good connection running my lower level alts at a lower resolution rate, so I’m not complaining…much. But I want to play Baila (renamed ChibaC via Character Transfer.) She’s my main, I leveled her to 70, she deserves to go to 80, I love playing a druid…these are all good reasons (excuses) to put WoW on my daughter’s (she got it this summer for doing well in school) MacBook, which runs Wrath just fine thank you.

Trouble is, she’s a teenager, she likes to be on her computer and that means I don’t get to play in Northrend much. I’m not gonna just sit around tapping my foot waiting so I started another Hunter alt (you already heard) and it’s all good.

This Saturday an old idea hit me and before I thought about it too much I asked her if she was interested in playing WoW with me. Her eyes did a sparkle thing (I kid u not) and her smile alone was worth the wait (2 years since we first started playing.) Turns out she stopped playing cause doing some of the quests scared her; creepy music, thingys attacking you suddenly. Playing with me takes that out of it wOOt!

She’s playing a Priest, I’m a Warlock and I almost feel guilty about how easy it is for us to quest. Things die SO quickly. We’re just about to ding 20 and we can’t wait for maintenance to be done. Oh, and in case you’re wondering – by mutual accord, this is a vacation thing only. It’s still not Northrend but it is me and my baby – kickin’ ass!

Get Funner Than That

My daughter wouldn’t let go of the death grip she’s got on her computer so I could use it for an hour or so today and log onto my main in Northrend. (My laptop is an iBook. It’ll run Wrath but not well enough to go play the new content. I’m spending a lot of time leveling my lower alts and waiting for my kid’s computer to be free. You can guess how often THAT is ;p)

I’m still in my 70s and working on completing the Borean Tundra quests. Not particularly hard but I gotta tell ya, I don’t remember the last time I had as much fun as I did on “The Plain of Nasam” quest. The one where you get into the tank and plow through mobs.

Not only did the tank look good but it had an element of mayhem that just made it a hOOt to do. I may just abandon the quest so I can do it again. Oh, and just when I thought I’d milked every last drop of weeHA! from this baby, I got ejected and that was even better!

Leveling Spec for my Druid

Ever notice how everytime you bad mouth something it inevitably comes back to bite you in the butt? Ive talked trash about New Jersey drivers for so long, it wouldn’t surprise me if I end up living there one day. (Damn, got to start bad mouthing Hawaii instead ;p)

Sure enough, I’ve been bit. I’ve been trash talking Moonkins since the first (and only) time I spec’d to one. I was so excited to finally get enough talents points to spend on it. For some reason, I’d never seen one, so was SHOCKED to find out that I’d turned into a frakking OWL! What is it with Blizzard? The Druid forms were so fierce looking, until Moonkin. I lasted all of 3 days, spec’d Feral and never looked back.

To be fair, I’ve also talked about wanting to play all my possible forms. I leveled as Feral, went ToL to raid and so it seems kinda fitting that I’m wobbling around as a Moonkin in Northrend. It wasn’t really a difficult choice to make. I’ve got all that T4/T5 gear for me Tree, my Feral kit isn’t anywhere near as good. The merger of Spell Damage and +Heal into Spell Power makes for a very decent Moonkin set right out of the box, hence…Owl feathers…everywhere…=p

These are the talents I’m working with right now. Here’s a look at some of the major ones:

I’ve been a fan of Insect Swarm since back in ‘I played for 3 days’. DoT are sweet and this one makes an annoying buzzing sound that I always like to think ticks the mobs off. I keep having this picture of them swatting at the damn things as they hear that teeny voice from the original “The Fly”movie saying…”Biiite Meeee”

I haven’t actually used Typhoon yet. To be brutally honest…I forgot about it til just now. (Hey, never…almost never played this owl before. Lots of feathers in the way, new buttons to push =p) A little pricey on mana but I’ll give it a go. Knockback…good…

Did I say pricey? Hurricane costs a small fortune! Looks good for raids though, why is it in my leveling build? ReSpec! Oh wait, 81% of base mana is level 70 without additional mana from stats, so maybe not so bad after all. NOW I want Omen of Clarity. ReSpec!

Starfall – Is there anyone who doesn’t want AOE dps? Not me, gimme, want it, mine!

As you can probably tell, I haven’t got the hang of Moonkin quite yet. Perhaps more than four hours are required ;p Writing this post, however, is helping me reconsider what I’ve been doing and what I’ve been missing. Utilizing my Treants comes to mind. In general, I’ve got lots of room to utilize abilities and trinkets that I haven’t taken advantage of yet.

In the meantime, if you’re playing a Moonkin and can offer any suggestions, I’d appreciate it. If I’ve got to waddle around, I’d at least like to kick some ass! If, on the other hand/claw/whatever you’re like me and checking out this form for the first time, head over to the wiki or just dive right in with this article by Lithanials, (that’s what I’m doing.)

Oh and I was serious about ReSpecing. Looking at this build. Thoughts?

Jame is My Hero!

A quick wOOt to BlizzArd for doing such good work on the starting a Death Knight section of the game. No spoilers here cause I had such a good time, I wouldn’t want to mess it up for anyone else. Just a heartfelt wOOt!

On the casual side of playing, I logged off my DK cause I didn’t have a lot of time to spend learning to play her and wanted to go to Northrend and start leveling Baila. Time IS an issue and I got impatient running around looking for stuff so went looking online to see what guides might already be out there.

I’d used Jame’s guide to level Baila up to 70 when she was stuck in her 50s so was pleased to see that there’s now a Lich King version. For the purist out there, yeah, I hear ya, but I don’t have enough time to live ya. ;p

I was surprised at how much I’m enjoying leveling again. It totally suits my playtime restrictions and, at least at the start (cuz that’s where I’m at,) BlizzArd has made what might seem old hat, FUN! Yea, I’m still killing x number of things but they’re coming fast and furious making me use all that raiding experience to solo. There’s a ton of other folk running around doing likewise and, I don’t know, it’s a hOOt. I’ve been laying MotW on just about everyone and getting buffed regularly as well. The level of compatriotism seems high too, although there’s always an assh****le lurking somewhere. So far, my experience has been – everyone helping each other out. For the Horde!

The Hoopla Trap

and I’m all caught up in it. I wasn’t before this week, not really. I’ve been interested in the Lich King, sure, but I haven’t given it a lot of thought or gotten too involved with the ‘any day now’. Things have been kinda chill and that’s been a welcome change.

Then, about three days ago, it kinda hit me. Maybe it was a side-effect of the Scourge, maybe it was all the blogs I’ve been reading, I don’t know. But the bug done bit and I wants in on the fun! I believe in action, don’t you? (Yea, I know you do.) So I went and got a Release Day Delivery last night. I’m not even sure I can get it to work on my computer (iBook g4) it’s not suppose to but I’m hoping that I can turn the video settings down. If not, fear not, I gotta plan. It involves co-opting my daughter’s computer until I get the new one I’ve been planning to buy anyway. (No, really, I’ve been planning to buy one anyway! ;p)

I’ve been enjoying the show in Orgrimar, although it lags me right, left and sideways. I haven’t found out where Thrall’s fighting yet, but I definitely want to see it. Today I was watching the action when I noticed something fly by me that was too close in the foreground to see so I panned up and…

Dragons! Big-ass, bone-y boned Dragons! Sweet!

Hunting for Pets

Yea, I’m just like the rest of em, playing an alt until things get juicy again. Well, not exactly juicy. Most folks are farting around waiting for Wrath to come out, me – I’m just doing whatever I can that won’t drive me crazy every time I disconnect. For the most part, it’s working, I’m just a little crazy. ;p

I’ve recently obsessed over obtaining this pretty kitty:

I mean, ya gotta have a kitty at some point and until I can get to level 20something and can tame the one I really want (what happened to Petopia?) this big cutie is just gonna have to do.

wOOt! Petopia is back. I wanted to show you the nice picture of my oh-so-soon-to-be-kitty.

I tried taming Echeyakee when I was level 14 but I gather you have to be the same level or higher. Hence, the obsession. I’ve been scurrying around trying to gain two levels as quickly as I can and if only the goram damn servers were up I’d be there and petting it already!

I mean hunting things fiercely with it.

Look Up n Smell the Humus

As you may know, I don’t have a lot of time to hang out in Azeroth but having just gotten some moderate measure of access back, I’ve been anxious to get in-game and PLAY!

This week I’ve managed to log on a few times. I’m really not interested in tooling around on my druid unless I’m healing someone in a raid or getting prepared to heal somebody in a raid. Not really sure why that is. I guess it feels kinda pointless to be spec’d to heal without doing so. But my access is still a bit spotty, not reliable enough to join a group so…what’s a WarMaMa to do?

Roll an ALT!

I didn’t want to pay another $25 to move an alt so I rolled one on my new server. (A troll hunter cause I had so much fun last time with Boners.) Sure enough, I can jump in and out of the game, disconnect from the server or not and it ain’t no thing. Fun…happiness…WoW.

So I’m tooling around Durotar doing the beginning quests for, what, the tenth time? Maybe more than that. I look up and…

Is it just my spotty memory or is the coast line a whole hell of a lot closer than it used to be? And the trees…they’re…green! Lushy green. They weren’t like that the other ten trillion times I did these quests!

I…I…I like it…

Exit Poll in Azeroth

Did you see this already?

Bringing Up the Rear

I’m in the silly position of being so far behind in WoW that I’m just now fixing my add-ons from the latest patch.  Yeah, I know, turtle time!

But hey, gotta write about something don’t I?  (Shush, yes I do =p)

So a late, but heartfelt – OW! It’s ALL a mess!  Actually, it was kinda funny.  My buttons were hanging out in the middle of my screen like they were trying to emulate Grid.  X-Perl just wasn’t happy with me. Lua errors right and left. No clue what’s going on so disabled the sucker.

I sat in a local tea house most of the afternoon looking very genteel, sipping Chai Tea with Soy from an English-style tea cup with a pot.  I stayed away from the huge oatmeal cookies as long as I could but finally succumbed. I did manage the following:

Hung out in /join guildinvite until one of my new acquaintances from the guild’s forum came by and, hot damn, she was an officer.  Signed us all up.  Very sweet.  Yes, new guild. The old one moved, (yet again,) and that was a move too many for me.  I figure they’ll move a few more times before they’re through and I’m too much of a stay-at-home for that. Found what appears to be a solid, friendly, large group of like minded folk to hang with.  They’re big enough that they’ve got it all – hardcore raiding, casual, pvp, whatever a MaMa could want.

I actually managed to run around and grab a few pieces of Hollow’s End candy in the insane hope that the Pet would drop but…nope.

Lag was INSANE in Shattrath (I know, who am I telling) but I did complete fishing daily over in Nagrand.  I kid you not, got the Monstrous Mudfish on the first cast.

I also took a look at what was in my bank in terms of armor that I might want to wear but it was too annoying trying to compare pieces without Outfitter, so I’m downloading that tonight.

As it stands, I still don’t really have access to WoW from home (although I’m continueing to work on it cause I realize, I’m nothing if not tenacious =p) But happy to have had a few hours in-game with new friends and new abilities.  VERY interested to see how the new Druid talents Living Seed, Replenish, Gift of the Earthmother and Wild Growth play out.

Oh, and my biggest kick was using Lifeblood. Via WowWiki:

Lifeblood is a new ability with Patch 3.0.2, exclusive to herbalists. It is a free, instant HoT that increases in power for every 75 skill points in herbalism. It does not scale with spellpower.

Rank table
Rank/ Healing/ Skill level
1/ 300/ 75
2/ 480/ 150
3/ 720/ 225
4/ 900/ 300
5/ 1200/ 375
6/ 2000/ 450

All that to say…anyone that trains herbalism now has an instant HoT AND it has the SWEETEST animation! eight or more flowers sprout up around the caster, growing into maturity in just a few seconds and then blooming while giving off radiance. VERY nice. I rain it over and over standing by my trainer. Hey! I’m late to the game but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it!

At Long Last Warcraft

What a relief! Finally…after almost two months, I got logged into WoW today! wOOt! I’m just going to admit up front that afterwards there was a huge grin on my face.  The music was thundering and it was kinda overthetop but wonderful…ya know…and I was…what’s the word…happy.

The challenge of finding time to play still remains but damn, at least I can log on. Still don’t have access at home but WiFi is easy to find.  In some ways not being able to play much is a helpful thing, makes it easier to get more done at work and at home, etc.  But also it’s an enforced way of learning to balance my WoW time.

I’m a little befuddled about exactly what I’m going to do.  Quest?  That doesn’t exactly sound like a whole lot of fun after raiding.  Maybe joining in on a raid when needed cause, hey, most groups are looking for a healer at some point. 😉

For now though, just glad to have gotten back on and in case you’re interested, the problem was that I had to re-download the game without access.  I don’t have the hours it would have taken to stay parked in front of a HotSpot.  The Goddess is Good and today a student offered to tranfer his WoW files to my computer via FireWire.  It took all of…what…ten minutes!  wOOt!  At long last…