Well, There's So Much to Talk About

I have so much to talk about that I can't organize it all.

I'm going to start with my post-80 experiences.

After I finish writing this post, I'm going to update the Armory link to that of Xaith, so ya'll can look at that.

The other day (don't ask me which) is when it all started. I hit 80 the Sunday before Christmas, and I was slowly but surely getting a little bit of gear here and there. The next day (after I dinged) I wanted to do a Heroic really badly, but couldn't muster up a tank. After looking in Dalaran for a while, a Pally Tank messaged me (who is now my current Guild Leader, (more on that later) (was that a parenthetical epxression inside a parenthetical expression? why, yes, it was)). I wanted to run Culling of Stratholme because I had learned a couple of days before that there was a mount you could grab if you did some sort of timed event. I got in there, mind you, this is my first instance besides Utgarde in ALL of Wrath of the Lich King. My gear sucks at this point, but we continue in. Long story short, the pally tank is uber, we clear the thing faster than he'd ever done it, (9 minutes left on the timer) and I won every drop, including the Bronze Drake. I had gotten 3 or 4 upgrades from the instance, and I was bolstering with confidence, I ran a couple more the same day.

I kept that Pally Tank on my Friends List, and hit him up every day for the next 4 or so days to do the Daily Heroic and a couple more. He brought his guildies for most of these runs. I'm starting to realize that I'm starting to get some upgrades, and that I should actually start getting in to the mindset of getting back in to the raiding scene. I check out my Hit, too low, and work on that first. Anywho, skipping all the boring details, I decide to join the guild of my new Pally Tank friend, because I felt like I was stealing loot from them (with all the Heroics I was bumming off of them.) That night, I realized that I need to show these guys something, and I dropped about 1800g on the mats for a Titansteel Destroyer.

The next day was a 10 Man Naxx day for my new guild, and I was invited briefly, but removed when someone better came online. I went to Storm Peaks and did the 100 quests for the Achievement in 1 day, recieving several upgrades, and about 1000g of the 1700g I had just spent. (I did all this because someone told me Sons of Hodir rep was important).

So, I got myself hit capped, and I had my spiffy epic weapon, and I was all proud of myself, and our guild decided to do 25 Man Naxx, of which 7 or so were pugged. I was all excited to test out my skills and abilities and to really show them that I had something to bring to the table. We start out that night and a Death Knight mentions right before we get to the First Boss of the Arachnid quarter how great he was doing on DPS, that he was 2nd. I thought to myself that if a Death Knight this well geared is 2nd on Damage Meters, I'm toast. I pop open Recount and lo and behold, guess who was #1? Xaith. I was so proud of myself, mainly because I have never raided as a Ret Pally before, and I had only done 3 or 4 Heroics, and was just going on what I knew, and it worked.

We cleared 2 quarters, and I got my Tier 7.5 Shoulders off of Loatheb. I prayed to the WoW God for these bad boys.

So anyway, all that's well and good, and I'm about to go to lunch today, and I realize that my helm blows, so I drop about 1000g on mats for a Spiked Titansteel Helm. I then went and did from 100-137 quests in Icecrown and almost made back that entire 1000g.

Anywho, this week has been a blast, my Christmas was great, I've got 10 Man Naxx clear that I'm guaranteed to be in for on Thurs/Fri, and I want to thank The Forgotten Few for being so open and loving to me, and counting me in on everything that's going on.



I've got a great story to tell you guys about how I killed The Lich King.

You've been Hathorned.

Okay, so...

Well, I figured it was time for a change.

My Druid isn't my main anymore, and I think my Blog should reflect that. The web address will stay the same, and I will still sign off with "You've been Hathorned." However, the stories are going to become more Paladin themed.

I will eventually get to leveling my Druid, but there is so much for me to do right now with my Paladin that I have to catch up with everything (Sons of Hodir Rep, Get Badges, Raid, Do Heroics, Quest, Rep Grinds, Maxdps.com) and it's slightly overwhelming. However, I realize it's just a game, and I'm looking forward to starting anew with the blog, and writing about something fresh and interesting. Wait, did I just refer to Ret Paladins as "fresh and interesting?" Why, yes, I did. They're so much fun to play, and in the coming days, while I'm still on vacation, I will talk about my experiences thusfar, both raiding, and the class in general, as well as some PvP stuff and more general non-funny anecdotes courtesy of me.

Thanks for bearing with me,

You've been Hathorned.

Updates Coming Soon About the Blog...

For now, take a look at the new picture!

You've been me'd.

Merry Christmas!

May all your hits, be crits!


You've been Hathorned.

Ding!

80 on my Pally.

This is a short post.

I'm realizing that this blog hasn't been much about Druids lately,
and I don't know what to do about it.


More later.


You've been Xaith'd.

Quick Update

Just hit 77 on my Paladin, got Cold Weather thanks to an awesome guildie, and everything is great.

Zul'drak is way easier Flying, and I can only imagine that Sholozar/Storm Peaks/Icecrown will be that much easier with it.


I added my little Sig thing for my paladin at the top, and got rid of the Obama thing, he's been elected, time to go down.


You've been Hathorned.


(You've been Xaithed doesn't have a good ring to it.)

Now They're Just Getting Greedy

I opened up Firefox, it opened up World of Warcraft's homepage, my homepage, and I click on General Forums.

LO AND FREAKING BEHOLD: There are ads. Not just ones on the thread pages, but in each individual thread, all with individual URLs to prevent AdBlocking just the one image/website. However a clever forum poster found a solution, and I'm putting it here:

How To Remove The Ads:

Use Firefox (a given).
Download the following addon:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/521

Install then restart.

Now, open up a topic on the forums. Right click on the ads (or big black area if you are using Ad-Block), click RIP Advanced, then choose Remove From This Website option.

Now, right click on the area where ads are (or would be, if you are using Ad-Block) again, then click Remove This Permanently.

Voila, ads gone and frames fixed!

This worked perfectly for me, I just had to fiddle with hitting "Permanently Remove iFrame" a couple times to get all the layers to go away. Now I'm clean, just as a I was before.

Phew, close call.


You've been Hathorned

Some of You Might Be Saying...

Jesus Christ it's been a long time. However, I don't think anyone is saying that except me.

Anywho, to today's poast. Err.. post.

I preempted the Great Hunter Nerfs '08 (GHN08). I foresaw them, I predicted that they would be coming. After I saw the glee that Bigredkitty was enjoying I knew the devs wouldn't let him have his cake and eat it too. I got to 73, realized that Hunters were going to get Nerf Tanked soon, and dropped my Hunter.

I started leveling my Paladin from 65-70, and that took my about 2 days RL time because of the leveling speed nerf. Got to 70, and I'm now 76. I started out with about 1400g to my name (from leveling 70-73 on my hunter, I had just bought epic flyer for him before LK came out) and I started saving.

*quick tip* If you are saving for your epic mount... do whatever you do to get money, play the AH, dance naked on Mailboxes, I don't care. In order to keep your money, though, make a level 1, or use another alt, and send every bit of gold over about 50g (or 25g, set the limit for yourself) to that character. You don't even realize how fast it will accumulate. I sent 1350 of the 1400 I had to Hathorn (who is sitting in Dalaran enjoying the sights) and 50 to my Paladin. Every time I finished 5 or 6 quests, I'd have 125-200g, and I'd send all of it, except for 50, to Hathorn. Low and behold, in 6 levels, I had 5000g to buy my epic flying skill.

Okay, back to the real stuff.

I hit 76, had 5200g, sold some stuff at auction I'd been accumulating, went to SMV, got my skill, whatever, now I have about 200g to my name. I need to make 750 in the 78% of a level I have left, else, I might cry if I can't fly immediately. So, that's fun.

Grizzly Hills is a very, VERY, fun zone. It is visually stunning, everything is spread out nicely. Venture dailies make me happy, and Venture Coins are good for stuff too. I really liked the Fjord, and I really liked Dragonblight (Wrathgate eat my heart out.) However, Grizzly was the first zone where I got a sense of the massiveness of the world, huge trees, strong questlines (especially Ursoc), and I'm really enjoying it there. I've got about 12 quests left, so I'm happy.

On to Paladins. Retribution is $&#*ing fun. %&$*ing fun. My Paladin was my first 60, I cleared MC more times than I want to remember, did BWL at least 15 times, AQ20 down, ZG down, AQ40 to the Twin Emps. I experienced everything except Naxx on this character. Now I'm back at it, and back then, I was Holy (because Ret blew, so did Prot (kinda')). I feel like a Warrior-Priest, I'm dealing damage, getting instant heals, contributing to groups with Replenishment, and all the Imp Ret. Aura talents. I'm just having a blast.

Even though we were shot by the Nerf Tank, I think we're perfect now, and just need a little fine tuning. Like the recent change to Divine Shield/Forbearance/Avenging Wrath. Shared 30s cooldown is reasonable, and Divine Shield hacking 50% of our damage is fine too, because ususally, I'm either healing in Divine Shield, or Hearthing. I mean, let's face it, sure it's 12 seconds of immunity, that's definately abusable, but it's always just a panic button for me. Doing less damage while in it isn't as big a priority for me as is staying alive.

Anyway, I know this is supposed to be Druids Do It Animal Style, but for a while, it might turn into "The Light and How to Swing It."


You've been Hathorned.

Post About Stuff Coming At Some Point...

Probably about my new love.

Starts with an "r" and rhymes with pet rallys.

You've been Hathorned.

Task #1: Checked Off

It's all mine. I've wanted a Bear ever since they announced the Amani War Bear, and now I have Smoky. (That's his name).

You've been Hathorned

My Queue Brings All the Hate To The Yard

So, first off, I probably wouldn't have gotten to this today if 2 of 2 things hadn't happened.

1) I got out of work.

2) There's a queue on Drenden, something like 12 minutes.

So, that's why I'm---- WAIT JUST A MINUTE. A QUEUE ON DRENDEN?!? THE SERVER THAT I TRANSFERRED TO BECAUSE OF THE QUEUES ON DALARAN?! SON OF A BEE STING.

Now that that's out of my system, both of the things mentioned above happened, so I'm writing this post.

This post is about a slew of things, but most importantly, Ret Paladins.

Just like the rest of the general community, I think that Paladins needed a change, and Blizzard definitely made them too OP in the beginning. With the nerfs of 3.0.2 and 3.0.3 as well as some hotfixes, they have been generally reduced to a little above where they were above 2.4.3. Now, by little above, I mean they don't run out of mana, they do more damage, and with Art of War, they feel more like actual holy warriors. 

So, as none of you know, my first character was in fact, a Dwarf Paladin, he was the character on which I did my first raid ever, Molten Core, back in the days when the first Molten Giants might as well have been bosses. He got left behind at Burning Crusade after I got Hathorn to 60. But, with these recent changes to both leveling and pallies, I respecced and got to 65 in maybe a day /played... less? I'm not sure, anyway, it's freakin' FUN. So, the whole point of this part of this post is to congratulate Blizzard on a job well done with Ret. Sure you let us down when we got nerfed a couple of times, but I think they're pretty close to perfect now, and with all the nerfs we've recieved, it's going to be hard to justify more for a while.

*BREAKING NEWS* I just tabbed in to the game, and before it was 436 in queue with 11 mins. to go, and now it's 242 in queue with... 11 MINS. TO GO.. KKTHXBYEFAILBLIZZARD.

Back to the post. I went to Gamestop today and picked up my copy of Wrath (the CE of course) and come home, ate lunch, watched some Mythbusters, and then meandered over to my computer and installed it. The first thing I noticed was the speedy install time... ~15 mins. to install and patch back up, and I was in the game. The first thing I did, since this was at about 4:30 PM, was to create a Death Knight, level it up super fast and get out of Ebon Hold before all the kids come in on the weekend and make it LagFest2k8. So that's done and checked off the list.  So, the only thing I really have left to decide is who to level to 80 first? I've got some 707 days /played on my Druid, and some 10 /played on my Hunter. I'm thinking Hunter, because he's going to get more upgrades from quests, and it will give me more time to learn how to play (even though I was pushing ~1100 DPS in Season 0 gear pre-Wrath). Starting off with a new class has me re-energized in to the game, and I'm pretty excited to rediscover the fun of leveling a Hunter. I'm not even sure if I'm going to level my Druid before I level my Paladin. I'm under the influence of the idea that this expansion is really about Paladins. It's about Tirion coming back to power, coming from hiding to fight Arthas. It's about the Ashbringer (which I'm vowing to get somehow, on my Paladin) which is held deep within Paladin lore. This sense of lore really has me wanting to get my Paladin back up with the times, especially now that I have the holy warrior aspect that I want.

I've still got ~5 minutes in queue, but there's not much else that I want to say, and I think this might be the most wordy post I've written thus far.

You've been Hathorned.

It is now...

Mathematically Impossible for Obama to Lose!

SUCK IT MCCAIN!

What's The Deal With...

The new Zombie Event.



Let me address something real fast... just so you guys know, I'm a huge fan of reporting late on things you probably already know about.

In all reality, I just post when I do, because I'm a very busy person, and it just happens that stuff happens and I don't have time to post about it at that moment, and besides, I don't even know if more than 3 people read this thing.


Anywho, I was just going to talk about the Zombie Event, if you don't know what it is (you live under a rock) you can read about it here. It's on the home page, and there are several posts about it intermixed with other WoW news.

So, I just wanted to give my view on it, and perhaps, later in the post, someone else's.

I didn't really do any of the infecting people and stuff, mainly because I find it annoying, and I chose a PvE server in the first place to stop griefing. However, it's happening rampantly on my server, you can barely find a Battlemaster anywhere, and I have resorted to Darnassus for my queueing needs. What I did participate in started with the new boss, Tenris Mirkblood. We killed him, grabbed his Bat, and lost his Axe in a roll of 96-93. He was pretty fun, not really challenging (read: went in there with some geared people, but also some ungeared alts and took him out with 1 death.)

After that, I realized that there were some zombies landing in places, and I realized that, "Hey, I should get in on this." (read: EPICZ, GIMME GIMME GIMME.) So, I flew around Azeroth for 3 hours trying to track down Necropoli, and managed to get 30ish runes and some epic leather legs which I didn't need. However, even though they are patching it to allow more to spawn, it got really crazy, and I never managed to tag an elite so I could open up the store to buy my Tabard.

So, that was all pretty fun, and I had a good time, grouped with some people to take stuff out and such. However, there was one person who was happy about the rune stuff, but was unhappy about the zombies...

It's Reviewin' Time...

Up on the docket for today is my new Logitech Wireless USB Headset.

Some quick technical details before the review:

• 2.4 GHz wireless: Move freely up to 33 feet (10 meters) away from your computer.

• Laser-tuned audio drivers: Advanced laser design technology delivers high-quality, uncompressed, stereo audio.

• Noise-canceling microphone: Reduces background noise for clear conversations and voice commands.

• Quick-access audio controls: Adjust volume and microphone mute right on the headset.

Okay, now that those are done with here are my impressions:

It is an extremely sturdy headset, and appears that it will last quite a while. Best Buy offered a 2-year warranty which are all crap unless it's something extremely expensive. The controls for volume and muting are on the right earpiece and only took a couple of minutes to get used to. There is an on/off switch and a power jack.

This headset does not require batteries, but instead, needs to be charged every 6-8 hours of use, which for me, is perfect. It's got some really cool effects, like when you plug in the charger, it glows orange, and the microphone boom has a red light indicating whether or not you're muted, which was a major problem with my last headset, it would frequently mute itself on some part of my chair or clothing by hitting the little mute button. Anyway, the voice and noise quality appears to be crystal clear according to the people on the other end, and what I've heard. I have not had a chance to really test the distance, but 33 feet doesn't really sound like an arbitrary number, so I trust it. For the most part, it's comfortable, and doesn't make my ears sweat after several hours of use like my last pair.

Just a couple of notes about some things, it appears to be built for someone of a smaller head size. I managed to pull it out a little further than normal so that it would fit my ginormous head comfortably. I do like the fact that you can still use it while charging, and it just feels like a normal wired headset.

All in all, I'd give it a 4.8/5. That's a 9.6/10 for those people who prefer base 10.


You've been Hathorned.

100th Poast... Perfect Timing for Large Announcements

(This isn't me, but it's what it was like...)

Even though my grammar was terribad in the tantalizer post, it's time for the real thing.

My Hunter is Level 70.


WOOOOO HOOOOOOO. My second 70 ever, and now I have a farming class. I hit 70 on Thursday night and have just been trying to get used to a completely different style of play. Of course, however, I have been making considerable antics with Misdirection (read: Before the tank can get threat on Drek, I MsD to a Mage that has more kills than me. I. Am. Evil.)

On top of all this.

Patch 3.0.2 ECHOES OF DOOM has been put forth on the servers today.

And there are several changes that I'm going to let you read, so as to not bore you like every other blog most undoubtedly has been, or will.

However, you can read the Patch Notes here.


You've been Aethiused.

P.S. That's the name of my Hunter, without the "ed."

Quick Note on a Great Beta Tool

The BlueTracker set up by MMO-Champion is an absolutely fabulous reference tool for finding class changes, item changes, boss changes, or feedback on pretty much everything there is about the Beta, the PTR, or WotLK.

You can find it here.



You've been Hathorned.

Let's Take a Minute and Reflect Here

SCREW THAT!!!11!!111!!!oneeleven!!1

HUNTER CHANGES:

Upcoming Hunter Changes
Greetings.

I have some good news, and some bad news. First, the bad news. Unfortunately we won't be able to do the Aspect of the Viper change I discussed yesterday (passive instead of requiring you to attack the target) at this time because of technical limitations and its potential to shake up our current balance goals. However, we will evaluate it as an option for a future patch.

Now, the good news.

- Aimed Shot - This shot will now be instant cast, its damage/effect/cooldown will remain unchanged.
- Scatter shot - This will now be an 11-point Survival talent.
- Readiness - This will now be the 21-point Marksmanship talent.
- Trap Mastery - This will now be the 41-point Survival talent. Granted, not very sexy for a 41-pointer but we'll do some changes there in a future patch (after WOLK ships).
- Surefooted is swapping places with T.N.T. (so Surefooted is now in tier 2)

These changes will be live in an upcoming beta build.




WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

You've been Happythorned!

I Stay Up Late And I Don't Do Anything Productive

So here I am, 2:51 in the morning, waiting for the daily timer to countdown so we can have 5 more "go's" at the Brewfest Kodo. We just finished our first 5 ever about 18 minutes ago, and we wanted to try again so we wouldn't have to think about it tomorrow.



I'll let you know how it turns out, we've had one of every trinket so far, and I got my healing trinket. YAY.

But still. WTB 5 Kodos in a row.

/pray

You've been Hathorned.


Edit: %&$*ing %&$(ers made the reset time 4 AM when the quest log says 3 AM. Oh well, more to look forward to later tonight.

So, It's Time For That Post

Get used to this face (no, not Clint Eastwood's). If I have it my way, this man (haha, Salvi) is going to be the next President of the United States, and there are so many reasons why. I agree with most people that gaming should be left to gaming, and blogging about gaming should be left to blogging about gaming, but this takes precedence. This is about our future as a nation, this is about the sacrifice we have made to a pointless cause, this is our time.

When Bill Clinton left office there was 3 Billion Dollar surplus. George Bush's first year in office had him borrowing over 133 million dollars. Our National Debt is now 10 Trillion dollars. Trillion, that's a lot of freaking money that we don't have. We owe 40% of it to our own Federal Reserve, so, I have a question... where do we have the money to pay for EVERYTHING WE DO? McCain wants to cut taxes and spend more. HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE? Let's get less in from the Nation, and spend more? I'm don't have a P.h.D in Economics, but I can tell you that -10,000,000,000,000 + more spending = more debt.

"Obama wants to increase taxes on the top 5% in the country." This is the thing that everyone freaks out about. Bill O'reilly sits on his high horse every night and preaches "Redistribution of the Wealth." What people don't seem to understand is that we aren't increasing taxes on the top 5%, we are just putting them back to what they were before the 8 Years of the Bush error (yes, era). We are reverting back to the time of President Clinton, when the nation worked, gas prices were low, we had money to spend and we didn't know what to do with it.

Who the %&$* does Sarah Palin think she is? That's what I want to know. McCain said the other day, "Sarah Palin is the most knowledgeble person in the United States about Energy Policy." DID SHE LEARN EVERYTHING ABOUT ENERGY IN THE FOUR COLLEGES IT TOOK HER TO GET HER BACHELOR'S IN JOURNALISM. DID SHE LEARN IT DECIDING WHAT KIND OF COOKIES TO BRING TO SNACK NEXT WEEK DURING HER P.T.A MEETINGS? Where does she get her qualifications from? If McCain gets elected (I swear to god...) the thing he's going to have to worry about the most is Palin coming out from behind a corner at the White House, yelling, "Boo!" and him having a heart attack.

People just don't understand. They watch this republican slander and think that they are all cool when they can repeate Rush Limbaugh. The government under McCain would be an idiocracy, that's not what the country needs right now.


You've been Hathorned.

Big Political Post Incoming

Tomorrow.**

But for now, here's a tidbit:

This man is full of win.

** Actual date of post may not be tomorrow.

So, I'm Sitting Here And Thinking

And the thought crosses my mind... what would happen if a giant strawberry landed in the middle of Africa.

When I say giant.. I mean.. like.. the size of Texas.

1. I don't know WHY this thought came across my mind.

2. If the strawberry were that big, how big would the seeds be?

3. How long would it last before it was gone?

4. What happens if it magically cures AIDS?

5. How awesome would that be?

6. No more AIDS!

7. Read Salvi's blog here. He still doesn't quite know how to capitalize his words, or use proper grammar, but I'm sure as he develops more as a blogger, he'll figure it out. :)

You've been Hathorned.

GG Warriors and Rogues... GG

• Warrior
• Mace specialization changed, it now gives your melee attacks a chance to generate 10 rage when using a Mace.

• Rogue
  
• Mace Specialization (Combat) no longer stuns enemies, and instead increases critical damage bonus by 2/4/6/8/10%.

I Am Alive!

I swear.. I am.. this is not something that is automatically set up to happen if I haven't posted in a long time.

I promise.

I really do.


You've been Hathorned.

I Am Alive!

Well.. I Think Warlocks Are Getting What They Deserve

I think 56 Million is a good Trade Off for how OP Ret Pallies are now.

Make sure that you keep watching, at least until halfway through.

Teron Got Pwnededed

That's pronoucned Pone-did-id.


It's a tough fight, and we prevailed in the end to go 4/9 BT!! W00T


You've been Hathorned.

Edit: The picture becomes bigger when you click it, and I'm am the Murloc jumping in the air in the front.

Druid Talents and Spells for WotLK: Balance

So, as you may or may not know, I was in the Alpha, and of course, I'm in the Beta. I can't describe the overwhelming joy I felt when I first realized the extent of the change from +healing/damage to Spellpower. I have about 1700 +healing (which may seem low, but I have almost 700 Spirit, which I decided to gear for first.) Anyway, when I logged into the Beta for the first time after the Spellpower change had actually been implemented, I was overjoyed. I had almost 1000 Spellpower, which made me immediately realize, that I should spec Balance, and take advantage of this. (If you don't catch my drift here, I have no +damage gear, and wearing my healing gear in WotLK is the same as if I had geared for Spell Damage Moonkin gear the whole time.)

Anyway, let's take a look at some of the new Talents and Spells given to the Balance Tree.

Improved Moonkin Form
3/3, Requires 1 Point in Moonkin Form, and 30 Points in Balance Talents
Your Moonkin Aura also causes affected targets to have a 100% to increase their Spell Haste by 20% when they critically hit with Spells for 8 seconds. This effect has a 30 second cooldown.

This talent is an immense upgrade to the viability of Balance Druids in the Raiding and Group setting in WoW. With the added bonus of Spell Haste reducing the global cooldown of all your spells, this talent is even more of a plus.

Owlkin Frenzy
3/3, Requires 1 Point in Moonkin Form, and 35 points in Balance Talents
Attacks done to you while in Moonkin Form have a 15% chance to cause you to go into a Frenzy, increasing your damage 10% and causes you to be immune to pushback while casting Balance Spells. Lasts 10 seconds.

On the surface, this talent may only look useful while leveling, and then diminish when you get to the more Group style of play. However, this is also a huge bonus to the Moonkins out there who want to be able to Tank, or who are required to tank something (like one of the bosses in the High King Maulgar encounter). Also, as a note, spell pushback immunity is always fantastic.

Eclipse
3/3, Requires 40 Points in Balance Talents
When you critically hit with Starfire you have a 60% chance of increasing the damage done by your Wrath spell by 10%. When you critically hit with Wrath, you have a 60% chance of increasing the Critical Strike chance of your Starfire spell by 10%. Effect lasts 30 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown.

While this Talent may seem diminished by the 2 minute internal cooldown, that is overshadowed by the fact that this helps to reintroduce Wrath into your casting rotation to give your Starfire that extra 10% crit. While you may not be using wrath every 12 seconds to get this effect, it does allow for a DPS increase every 2 minutes when you can get your Starfire that extra 10% crit.

Typhoon
1/1, Requires 1 Point on Moonkin Form and 40 Points in Balance Talents.
Instant Cast, 475 Mana, 20 Yard Range, 20 Second Cooldown.
You summon a violent Typhoon that does 516-517 Nature Damage when in contact with hostile targets, knocking them back 5 yards

The mana cost and cooldown, as well as the lack of stupendous damage, paired with the fact that most end game mobs are immune to knockback, make this talent more aimed towards PvP.

Gale Winds
2/2, Requires 40 Points in Balance Talents
Increased the damage done by your Hurricane and Typhoon spells by 50% and increases the range of your Cyclone spell by 4 yards.

Yet again, on the surface, this talent doesn't look like it offers much, but the fact that Hurricane does not have a cooldown makes this talent almost a must if you expect to have a Viable AoE Spell. 50% is a lot, and can you imagine having this with a Hurricane with no cooldown during Hyjal Trash? I can... and it makes me drool.

Earth and Moon
5/5, Requires 45 Points in Balance Talents
Your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance of applying the Earth and Moon effect, which increases Nature and Arcane damage done to the target by 2%. Lasts 12 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

This talent, compared to other Tier 10 talents is slighly weak. 2% stacking up to 5 times would be better. However, it is still a 6% potential DPS increase. And eh... why complain? It's more DPS right?

Starfall
1/1, Requires 50 points in Balance Talents
Instant Cast, 655 Mana, 30 Yard Range, 3 Minute Cooldown
You summon a flurry of stars from the sky on all targets within 30 yards of the caster, each doing 111 to 129 Arcane Damage, and an additional 20 Arcane Damage to the targets within 5 yards of the caster. Maximum 20 starts, last 10 seconds.

I have deemed this a Ron Popiel spell. You set it and forget it. You activate it, and watch the damage fly up around you. When this spell was first implemented in early alpha, it was EXTREMLY OVERPOWERED. It did something like 433-455 damage to every target within 30 yards. It was absolutely rediculous. It however seems underwhelming now, and we'll have to see what kind of Spellpower cooefficient it gets. To clarify, the addition 20 Arcane Damage is added to each star that damages a target within 5 yards of you, the ones from 6-30 yards, don't get this extra damage.

All in all, Balance seems much more viable now, and I'm looking forward to going from 70-80 with a Balance Spec.

You've been Hathorned.

Coming Soon To A Druid Blog Near You

Coming soon: an in depth look at all the new Druid talents and spells, and maybe we'll take a peek at some Warlock ones
too.

This post is short because it's 2:22 AM and I'm typing it on my iPhone.

You've been Hathorned.

My Warlock Brings All The Demons To The Yard

So... remember when I said this?

And then this happened?

Well guess what now?

I'm back at it!!! 66 now, and loving every minute of it. I just did the Ring of Blood questline, and did 502 DPS!!! I'm so proud of myself.

You've been Hathorned.

Livin' La Vida Loca...

I don't know why the title of the post is Livin' La Vida Loca, but I have the song stuck in my head, so suck it if you don't like it.

My computer comes soon, like tomorrow or the next day. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

3G destroys EDGE hardcore.

I'm leveling a Shaman, almost 39 now, because Enchancement is so fun, and it's getting a huge buff in the expansion!

I just drank a Vitamin Water of the energy variety!


You've been Hathorned!

I Am Now Addicted to my iPhone

So, my birthday was Friday. I got an iPhone 3G. I. Am. In. Love.


You've been Hathorned.

A New Computer In My Future

PROCESSOR	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB, 3MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM	Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
LCD AND CAMERA	Full Hi Definition, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD (1920x1200) & 2.0 M
MEMORY	4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
HARD DRIVE	Size: 250GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE	Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
VIDEO CARD	256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
WIRELESS CARDS	Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB	Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate)
BATTERY OPTIONS	56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
SOUND OPTIONS	Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition
FINGERPRINT SCANNER	Finger Print Reader XPS M1530

A Veritable Myriad...

My authenticator came and it owns. Very easy to set up and use. I feel safe now and I can stop being so paranoid about links and all that. (Although I am still a die hard Firefox and NoScript user.)

As I'm sure you've seen, MMO-Champion released it's WotLK talent calculator function, showing you all the new talents and skills for WotLK, except for Hunters and Paladins, because they aren't done yet.

I've stopped playing my Hunter as of now for my Paladin, who is Ret. Contrary to popular belief, Ret paladins are actually good. They have good DPS, they are good in PvP, they are an all around stable class. (If you doubt me see here, and here.)

Knight Watch is 3/9 in BT (Teron on the way, we had 5 or so solid attempts tonight) and 3/5 in MH with Kaz'rogal going down on our next MH "pass-through." We are currently trying to recruit 1 Elemental Shaman that can raid 7:30 - 11:00, Tues. - Thurs. and Sunday.

If you haven't noticed, I've changed the links list to an actual BlogRoll of all the blogs I read on a daily basis and I'm going to be updating it soon with some new Paldin blogs that I'm starting to read.

I got back on Monday from a 13 day trip to Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego California. It was about 105 in San Diego the day before I came, and when I got there, it was a breezy 75 the whole time. The day after I got back, they had several fires all throughout the states with temperatures in the 108 range. Dodged that bullet.

I'm contemplating on getting another dog, an Australian Cattle Dog, supposedly one of the smartest dogs out there.

Other than that, not much has been going on...

I'm kinda' looking for suggestions on things to write about, if you have any, feel free to leave them in the comment or email me.

You've been Hathorned.

Well, I Think It's About Time...

Blizzard finally released another security measure against hacking. The Blizzard Authenticator. Seen here. You tie it into your account, and every time you log in, you generate a random number on the token, and you have to enter it in the game.

After hearing about Adellm getting hacked, I decided that I should probably buy one.

So I did.

Now I feel much safer, assuming I don't get hacked in 8-10 days, while I'm waiting for it and on my vacation in California.


You've been Hathorned.

My New Friend!!

You've been Hathorned.

Breaking News! Supremus and Akama down!

More news at 11:00!


You've been Hathorned.

Edit: It's 11:14... and what now?!


AKAMA GOT PWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


That's 3/9 in BT. It was a lot of fun!


You've been Hathorned (again).

So Close To Supremus

Got Supremus to 21% tonight after 4 attempts at him. Killed Naj in 2 attempts, getting a lot easier. We're going back in Thursday night to kill him. He's a tricky fight, but easy at the same time. We started at 50%, and worked our way down 21 over the 4 attempts. People just have to figure out how to dodge the Volcano's and not die during the kite phase, the Tank and Spank phase is the easy part.

You've been Hathorned

High Warlord Naj'entus Gets Pwned!

Sucks to be him!

Edit: I'm the Tree in the front, not the one who's named Cifo :D


You've been Hathorned.

New Guild -- Plus, Anetheron Falls!

Now that I'm no longer under the oppressive reign of No Vacancy, I can move on to bigger and better things, like... Knight Watch!

I'm actually getting somewhere now, we killed Anetheron for the first time on Sunday:

You won't see me anywhere in that picture however, because I was not as geared as I needed to be at the time, and they replaced me halfway through the trash when a better healer got on.

However, last night, I did get in for the entire 2/5 raid, and got some sweet EPICZ:

Enchanted Leather Sandals

And, as I posted last time, I am now Resto, because Ferlol got very boring, and after I left NV, I wanted to try something different:

Still trying for some better gear, but my BeImba is at 200 now, which means I'm getting better.

Until next time,

You've Been Hathorned

I Fail At WoW

A couple of months ago, I posted that I was going to get my Warlock to 70 no matter what.


I LIED


I can't... do... it... anymore! It's just so boring. I have one macro, that I just hit and the thing dies, I don't want to do that!

*this is that part that will make you laugh*

So, I decided to level my Hunter, har har, very funny, a hunter, the suckiest class in WoW. Well guess what, I'm having a bunch of fun, and I can't wait to get to 70 so I can farm. Since I'm Resto now, more on that in a later post, I can't kill anything, and this hunter is the perfect solution.

You've been Hathorned.

So... Those Kevlar Lined Walls...

So, I mentioned the Kevlar Lined Walls of Blizzard in my last post. As I may or may not have written about, I toured Blizzard headquarters back in the old building somewhere around 2005-6ish. My tour guide was the Chief Operating Officer, Paul Sams, who showed me around the whole joint. Before our trip started however, I met him in his office, which was adorned with things that anyone as into WoW as I am, would fall head over heels for. All the collectibles you can imagine, WoW Coke Cans from China, figurines, miniatures, everything! A side point, every 5 years with the company, the employees get a token, like a metal sword, or shield or something like that.

Anywho, before we started our tour, Mr. Sams told me a story about how they made a change to the game at one point, that made so many people mad, a mob of people came to the building with guns and started shooting at the walls. After that, they decided to get each outside wall reinforced with kevlar, to prevent anything like that from occuring again.

Anyway, it's late, and this entire post probably contains terrible sentence structure as I'm sure I'll find out in the morning.

You've been Hathorned.

Since When Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

As you all know, I used to be in Aetherial Circle, and during my time there I got to know a lot of people, some more than others. One of the people I did not get to spend a lot of time getting to know was Lamaa, and even though I did not know him all that well, I knew about him, and what a great person he was.

While this opening paragraph sounds mighty grim, like my post about "teh Moo," it is about something entirely different.

As I was reading Temerity-Jane today I read her story about Lamaa getting banned for supposedly using Glider, you can see his personal story here:

***Notice of Account Closure***

Access to the World of Warcraft account, ********, and any World of Warcraft account associated with the payment information you have provided, has been permanently disabled. The account has been identified as having used unauthorized game modifications and thus is in violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. The recurring subscription on the account has been disabled to prevent further charges.

Please review the World of Warcraft Terms of Use at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html, which you accepted when you installed World of Warcraft and established the account(s). Section 4, Paragraphs A and B detail the limitations of game play modifications and use of any third-party or packet sniffing software.

Furthermore, any activities not intended by game design which affect the economy, the client, player characters or the world itself have a tremendous negative impact on the potential enjoyment for all players. The effects of these activities take many forms including a bloated game economy, server instability, and allowing unauthorized access to accounts, computers, and player data.

As a result, the account(s) will no longer be accessible and will unfortunately not be reopened under any circumstances.

Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter and respecting our position and all statutes within the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

Regards,

Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
www.WorldOfWarcraft.com

This was the message I received when I got home from work on Tuesday. I have replied to the email requesting for the reason for the closure and for further investigation, as I’m sure if they actually looked into the account and the characters they would realize their mistake. I let them know about my use of wine/linux and the logitech g15 keyboard

I did try to contact them via phone. The billing department is the only people who will talk to you and are absolutley useless to talk to, even concerning the 3 month subscription charge that was renewed the day my account was closed that is apparently non-refundable.

I really don’t know what else I can do. I’m frustrated and a little sick to my stomach over it. It’s not like I have a whole lot in life to look forward to right now and it really feels like they are ripping away the past couple years of memories and experiences with the friends I’ve made in game.

Though they can’t really take that away despite everything; the friendships I’ve made here with you guys will endure even this.

It just may be awhile before we play together again Smile

Thank you all for your support! <3

On a side note, I made a trial account and got spammed with 4 gold selling/powerleveling advertisments as soon as I logged on to the character. GG bliz, way to get the bad guys!

As TJ said, you guys probably don't know him, but if you know of anyway of getting past the Kevlar lined walls (yes, this is a true fact, more on that later) of Blizzard, please let me know, and I'll try and get in contact with someone who can get in contact with Lamaa directly.

You've been Hathorned.

Hex Lord Malacrass Down!

5/6 in ZA now!


You've been Hathorned

No Vacancy Slams SSC

After the destruction of Leotheras the Blind on Monday Night:

NV decided to give Tidewalker a try last night, and down he fell:

That puts us 4/6 SSC, and 1/5 MH.

W00tacular.

You've been Hathorned

Blah!

BLAH.

You've been Blahthorned.

Curt Schilling Plays WoW

If you heard the one of the latest Instance podcast, you would know that Curt Schilling, the Boston Red Sox pitcher, plays World of Warcraft.

http://www.myextralife.com/wow/?p=316

He has two 70s and a third on the way.

Whooda' thunk?


You've been Hathorned

The Passing of a Friend

This is going to be a more personal post, than it is a world-wide post.

Sharvan, a Balance Druid, one of the founding members of Aetherial Circle, passed away today, and the details are still not know.

Everyone that knew her, loved her, she made you feel as if you were welcomed, and she did not judge.

I knew Sharvan for a little over a year, since the start of BC, when I joined Aetherial Cirlce myself. During that time, I knew of her, and spoke to her a few times, but never too in-depth. It was not until I had departed from Aetherial Circle that I started to talk to her a little bit more on Ventrilo and such, and although I did not know her as much as some did, I was still aware of what a nice person she was.

For those that knew her, she will be missed, and my condolences go out to those that were super close.

There is only one thing to say.


/moo

No Vacancy Downs Rage Winterchill!

Yep, that's right, and it only took 3 attempts.

So we're:

2/6

0/4

1/5

0/9

Kinda' funny isn't it?

I think so.

I'm just happy we got down a T6 boss. Great job everyone!

You've been Hathorned

S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-orry!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted for a couple reasons:

1) My computer is BACK into HP because it broke because I hate HP so much that I had to created a run-on sentence to describe how mad I am at HP.

2) I am kinda' faltering with my Warlock. I kept wanting to try another class, but then I kept thinking about how I swore to only play my Warlock until he's 70. So, every time I tried to play another character, I had to go back to my Warlock. So, this constant back and forth between characters led to my Warlock only being 63 and 1/2.

The obnoxious "sorry" in the title is for not writing anything, and I'll try and think of something to write tomorrow.

Latahz,

You've been Hathorned

Level 63 Now... A Revelation!

So, my Warlock is now level 63, and after looking at my backpack, I realized something.

THE BEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY IS TO LEVEL ANOTHER CHARACTER.

(OR DO DAILIES ON YOUR MAIN).


I started at level 60 on my Warlock with 0 (zero) gold due to the Warlock Epic Mount quest. I am level 63 with 414g. I have bought nothing, and sold everything that wasn't an upgrade. You shouldn't need to buy anything from the AH until 70 anyway, all the upgrades are available from quests/instances.

414g is WITHOUT a gathering profession, in fact, I am 1/375 Tailoring and 375/375 First Aid. Those are my professions. (You read it right, I don't have a second profession). So, I'm WELL on my way to purchasing my Flying Mount upon hitting 70 with my own gold, and I plan to see if I can get the epic "solo," without help from Hathorn.

We'll see.

You've been Hathorned.

April Fools!

I hope that everyone knew the stories I posted yesterday were completely false, I even put a little "april fools" in very light color at the end of each of them to make sure people didn't /pwn me when they read them and thought they were real.

Speaking of HighRoller, it is actually a mod, but when you roll for the first time after installing it, it RickRolls you, which I thought was pretty funny.

On a more editorial note, the Nihilum thing was abriged, but only one or two sentences and the actual link still stands for an original copy. I however found out today that it was indeed a fake letter written the day before April Fool's Day (those tricky bas!ards), and Nihilum is not mad at Blizzard, and they will keep playing. However, "Activision Blizzard" still doesn't make any sense.

On that note, I was just as fooled as everyone else.

I hope your April Fool's day was full of hijinks like mine was.

You've been Hathorned.

HighRoller Will Get You Phat Lootz Too!

HighRoller "...uses an advanced algorithm to time your roll requests to the server in order to increase your average roll value.

Note that the addon is rather large due to the advanced algorithm. It must take into account things such as Name, Race, Class, guild name, and position. I have done everything I can to make the addon as fast an efficient as possible (I use both Ace2 and Rock so that its twice as fast!)

I'm not sure if this addon is completely legal (though they say anything doable in the default UI is), so download it quickly before its taken down!

Also, this AddOn will not work on Macs due to several differences in the way system time works (sorry!)

Note: Due to initial calculations, you may be locked out of your UI for a bit the first time you roll after installing the AddOn."

It even debuted on WoWInsider, and this is a mod I am currently using, and I can't wait until my next raid.

You've been Hathorned.april fools

No Vacancy downs Kil'Jaeden!

Through the use of some clever stealthing techniques, No Vacancy took a mix of 25 Rogues and Druids of all different specs into Sunwell Plateau and after hours of attempts managed to kill Kil'jaeden.

This world first took top guilds across the world by surprise especially Nihilum who was so upset by this that the majority of the guild has quit the game:

Oh blizzard why hast thou forsaken us? -- Nihilum Quits.

If you think you’re freaking hilarious (you’re not) and are thinking TOO LONG DIDN’T READ, let me sum it up for you. Nihilum is finished and most of us have quit. Bye.

It’s been a 3 year roller coaster ride. We have enjoyed ourselves, sometimes. But all good things must come to an end and all that. I think we have reached a point where enough is enough. There is only so much your face can take after repeatedly smashing it against a wall. It seems like we are fighting a multi-million dollar company whose sole purpose is to destroy every last bit of fun hardcore guilds can have. We’re a bunch of fishies swimming against the current. A rare breed of little fishies that don’t want everything given to them on a plate and are happy when they accomplish something that is a challenge.

It all really comes down to the state of the PVE game at the moment. It’s something that totally contradicts our reason for existence. We always try to use every single advantage given to us. And thus we are forced to “test” PTR content just to stay ahead or keep on par with other guilds. This is ridiculous, we should not be testing anything, an internal testing team should. Oh how incredibly awesome it would be to zone into and new instance and not have a CLUE what bosses exist, or what tactics to use to kill them, or what gear will drop.

I think the fact that No Vacancy killed Kil'jaeden before us was the final blow. Why bother trying to compete for world firsts if the leading guild has to twiddle their thumbs after some guild comes out of the blue and kills the boss before we can. Why bother race to the finish line when it’s only Kil’jaeden that matters? It’s like a four hundred meter race where everyone has to stop and wait for the last guy every hundred meters. It’s unreasonable, and makes me not want to bother. And when everyone in the guild has that mentality, it collapses.

“Make some positive suggestions instead of whining blah blah”
We are not the company with infinite resources and the best creative and design team gaming has to offer, we don’t need to come up with anything, we are useless bums living in our parents basements remember?

So what will happen to Nihilum?
Some of us will go, some of us will stay and play the casual game it’s become. But eventually you will see us make a comeback in a new game. Thanks to the fans. We pretended those level 1 whispers didn’t matter. But they made our days! We screenshotted every one, every single one! And we look at our screenshot folder on lonely days to cheer us up. Thanks to the sponsors that believed in us. We had such big plans coming for the website and the community...a pity really :(.
Goodbye cruel world...

...of Warcraft.
P.S “Activision Blizzard” doesn’t make sense.

Posted here.

You've been Hathorned.april fools

WoWMatrix Rox My Sox

After seeing a small hint about WoWMatrix on BRK's blog recently, I had to check it out. Holy god of all sox, it rox, especially around Patch Days.

Here's what it does:

EVERYTHING YOU COULD DREAM OF!







Okay, what it really does is load a database of all the AddOns you have installed, then checks to see if there are any updates, and then download's the new versions automatically (after you tell it to). Now, I used to use WoWAceUpdater but it only updated Ace2 AddOns that I had, but WoWMatrix updates them all, and has a database of 1,500+ addons that you can install manually without having to go to Curse or WoWUI.

It is just simply fantabulous and I love it, and I'm happy, and it's amazing.

So, hopefully, you'll try it out and have it's fantasticalness shine over you.

You've been Hathorned



P.S. All AddOns have been scanned for Virus' and my personal Virus/Spyware scanner said the program was completely clean.

P.P.S For all of you who use Vista (me), it even has support for it too.

Happy Easter!

Well, I posted the other day that Lurker went down, and that we were going to kill VR the next night. That, eh, that didn't go so well. VR trash is a b!tch. We started at 8:30, and by our raid cutoff time at 11:30, we had one more trash group to clear and never actually got to see Void Reaver himself.

Oh well.

Happy Easter everyone, may all your eggs have Elegant Dresses in them.


You've been Hathorned.

Lurker Went Belly Up!

The big fish is dead, WEWT!

I was #1 on Damage Done for the kill (2nd attempt) and we got DPS Plate, Healing Plate, and a Pally Libram. /cry

Anywho, we're now 1/6 SSC and VR is going down tonight.

(I'm in the Murloc suit up front)

Lurker's been Hathorned.

Warlocks Do It Demony Style?

So, as the 8 people who read my blog know, I'm leveling my Warlolok to 70. (Yes, I have an obsession with "lol" in names, Ferlol, Warlolok, Ferlol, Lolcoil, Cyclol, Kittylol, and so on...) During this time (58 now) I have observed a couple of faults with the Warlock as a class and some things that need to be done to make them less underpowered (as they are right now and I will debate this) and more balanced.

To start:

Improved Health Funnel - Health Funnel is already good as it is, Imp. Health Funnel is in my book, a waste of talent points for any spec, even Demonology. I would like to see a change similar to Improved Mend Pet where over the 10 second duration of the spell 2 Magic, Disease, or Poison debuffs are dispelled. At 3 seconds in, and 6 seconds in.

Fear - Fear is currently nerfed into oblivion, in fact, I think they nerfed it too hard. It needs to be changed to be more counteractive against melee, even if this requires a cooldown. First, I think it needs to become a Horror effect, implying that trinkets could get rid of it, but Warriors wouldn't have 50 ways of being immune to it. Secondly, (idea from a friend), it needs to have a debuff on the end similar to "Shaken" that reduces movement speed by 30% and AP by 15% for 5 seconds in order to give the Warlock some time to prepare for the next onslaught. Fear is the Warlock's only real defense against Melee and right now, it can be kicked, pummeled, and counterspelled which completely locks down their defenses.

Now that I've gotten a couple of those gripes out of the way, I want to advocate my personal position on the amazingness that Demonology is in respects to leveling. I was a HARD set Affliction Warlock. I would roll with my Imp out, dot up the mob, and either Fear or Drain Tank and Dark Pact to get all my mana back. Until a friend (same friend as above) told me that he tried Demonology in a couple of raids recently, and was stunned at the performance. This triggered me to attempt to respec to Demonology at level 54. The improvement in leveling speed was simply remarkable going 1.5 hours or so between each level. I have one Macro that I use that gets everything done:

#showtooltip
/petattack [pet:voidwalker/felguard/Wild Fel Stalker]
/castsequence reset=combat/target/10 Immolate, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Life Tap, Drain Life, Shoot

So, what this does is sends your pet into attack so long as the pet is a Voidwalker, Felguard, or a Wild Fel Stalker from the HKM fight. The next line makes the macro reset when you leave combat, change targets, or after 10 seconds. Then it casts those spells. It is really a dream macro and makes leveling so easy.

Anywho, I've ranted for long enough about warlocks, and someone told me this was a Druid blog, amirite?

Well, I guess,

You've been Hathorned

So.. I've Absolved Myself

I am going to level my Warlock to 70, and that's f***ing FINAL.

Level 54 now, can get a level in about 2-3 hours /played.

It's going a lot faster now though because I respecced to, what I once called, Nubguard.

But now, I have a snappy macro:

#showtooltip
/petattack [pet:voidwalker/felguard/Wild Fel Stalker]
/castsequence reset=combat/target/10 Immolate, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Life Tap, Drain Life, Shoot

That makes life so much easier.

I can easily solo orange and some red quests, kill 3-5 mobs at a time.

It's pretty great.

Will write again soon.

You've Been Hathorned.

On Me Not Posting

My Grandmother has been sick for a couple of weeks, pretty much since I posted my Ferlol Druid's guide to 1v1. Today, she took a turn for the worse, and passed away at the age of 84. So, whoever reads this blog (anyone?) will know, I will be sparsely posting over the next week or two while I get everything worked out.

I just want to say a few kind words about her for the internet to see:

She was one of the best grandparents you'll ever meet.
The mother of 4 boys, who all grew up during Vietnam, she raised them through hard times.
If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here today, so that I thank her for.
She birthed my father, one of the smartest men I know.
I feel extremely sad for my Grandfather, who is 87, and now has to live without his wife, who he's had by his side for over 50 years.
I loved her.
She will be missed.

Thanks for your patience,

Hathorn

How to Druid 1v1

Edit: Kreeonah reminded me to put in the link to this awesome website.

Edit 2: I forgot to clarify, these are FERAL Druid PvP tactics. Some people were confused and asked me why I never cast Moonfire..

It allows you to see what's wrong with your character, rate it, and it even allows you to do Guild Audits to make sure everyone is where they need to be in terms of gear, enchants, and gems.


As Blizzard has stated, this game is not designed towards 1v1, but there are numerous times where the outcome of an Arena Match comes down to a 1v1, or you're dueling for a raid spot, or you're screwing around with Kreeoni, making him think he's good.

So I come to you today, with my experience on what to do against all the other classes in 1v1. My goal is to make this from personal experience only, not using any guides, or CliffsNotes: Druid, or anything like that.

Before I start however, I'd like to point out that it is really great to have NECB found here. It keeps track of cooldowns, spellcasting, and the like.

Hathorn's Druid Guide to 1v1 and You

1) Mages:

Sucks to be you if they're Frost with cooldowns. The trick to this fight is making sure you have enough mana to be able to shift back and forth out of Frost Nova/Frostbite, and staying close to the mage. Putting pressure on your target always makes them do worse, and that means you do better. If they pop the Frost Elemental, DPS it down first, then continue back onto the mage. Mages in PvE gear will go down in 3 or 4 Shred Crits, so just stick to it.

If they're Fire/Arcane watch out for AP/PoM/Pyro, when you see them start getting all electicified, hit Bear Form ASAP to help you take the blunt of the blow. Charge them, Bash, and hope Blink is on CD so you can Cyclone and Heal.

Mages are all about putting pressure to make them cast the wrong spells, staying close, and outlasting their damage.

2) Hunters

Lots of people have varying results with Hunters, but I for one find them extremely easy to beat (BRK will fire me for saying that, but I'm still waiting to duel him.)

Beast Mastery seems to be the easiest for me. Pounce (if trapped: Trinket) -> Mangle -> Shred -> Shred (Hopefully you have 5 CPs) -> Rip or Maim (if they have gotten you down a bit) -> Bear Form or Mangle/Shred (if you Maimed)-> Charge -> Bash (if you need it) and then do what you have to to finish them off. I don't really know what else to say other than stay close and don't let them get a Concussive Shot on you.

MM Hunter's ranged attacks are more powerful, so if you let them get away they will do a lot of damage, fast. Trinket out of Frost Trap, stay close, abuse Maim, Cyclone, Feral Charge, and Bash. Also, don't be afraid to Ferocious Regeneration if you need to.

Survival, basically, for these guys, all you have to do is, /dance.

3) Warriors

The key to Warriors is getting the jump on them, watch their Rage bar, and if they have any you can be taken out of Stealth until they run out, so stay away. Pounce and DPS them down until you can get a 5 point rip, then just go in Bear Form and Mangle/Lacerate/Maul until their down, and if you run into trouble, Bash/Cyclone and Heal or Barkskin and Heal. Pretty easy, especially if you have a high amount of Dodge.

4) Warlocks

You know, most people say Warlocks are OP, and I say to them, yes, but only if they have good gear. A warlock with equal gear to you is as fair game as a Turkey with a .45 is to a Hunter (IRL).

Affliction is all sucky, Siphon Life and Drain Life = suck. Not much you can do if fear lasts long, the only thing I hope for is a crit. Shred crits on a S1/S2 Warlock for ~2800, a couple of those and it gets a little easier. Abuse Maim, and heal if you can when you can Cyclone. The key is to stay in their grill and knock them around as hard as you can, if you can't kill them before they get a fear off, it might be over.

SL/SL sucks even more, and I don't have a strat for this because I've never won.

Demonology is hard too, just hard to kill, DPS as hard and as fast as you can.

Destruction is pretty easy, not too much CC, basically like a Shadow Mage with Fear. DPS hard, stay close, don't let them control the fight.

5) Druids

Balance is the easiest, Pounce, Mangle, and KILL. Don't let them get off too many spells, Shred for a lot and just keep at it. Should go fast.

Against other Ferlol Druids, it just comes down to gear and skill. I only have trouble against other Druids if they have S3 and stuff higher than me, other than that just do what you would do against a Rogue or Warrior.

6) Rogues

Rogues blow if they have CD's, any spec. Survival is the key. Rogues can't Cloak of Skill out of Bleeds, so Lacerate, Pounce, and Rip is your friend. Keep FF on for when they Vanish w/o CLoS. Trinket out of 6 Second Kidney Shot and try and get a 5 point Rip then Bear Form. It really helps to be able to get the jump on the Rogue, that 2 or 3 seconds can determine the match.

I seem to have the most trouble against Rogues because they always have something to counter what I'm doing.

7) Shamans

Resto: Lol

Elemental: Pounce, Mangle, and Shred. Maim when they get about 1/2, wait until the end and just DPS them down. Don't really know what to say against these guys, never had a problem.

Enchancement: These guys can put out a fair bit of DPS so watch your Health Bar, before you know if you'll be at 1/2 health after 459434 Windfury crits. Just do your DPS, 5 Point Rip, then to Bear Form. Survival and health are key.

8) Paladins

Retribution: Lol

Holy: Lol

Protection: This blows, Holy Shield = Dead Druid, avoid if possible.

9) Priests

Holy: Lol

Discipline: Long fight, you should win if you can put out consistent DPS and Heal yourself in a crunch.

Shadow: This can be a little difficult. DoTs and Mind Blast/Flay/Fear can mean Dead Druid, stay close, and try and keep them stuned/incapacitated as much as possible. Heal when you can, but watch out for Silence.


For the classes I put LoL, it generally means that if you can't kill them, you're doing something wrong, and feel free to leave comments asking questions if you desire more information.


It's late, and I'm tired.

You've been Hathorned.

Making Out Like a Bandit

Just finished up Attumen ---> Curator.

I got two new epics, one for Resto, and one for Ferlol.

Gauntlets of Malorne

and

Masquerade Gown

I are happy.

You've been Hathorned.

A Whole New Perspective..

So now, I'm on a PvE Server, Alliance Side, and a Melee Class.

I'm making a new character: PvP Server, Horde Side, and he's a Caster.

I don't think something could be more polar opposite. He's my new BE Mage on Anetheron, level 22 right now. The change of pace is amazing, new areas to explore (read: Tarren Mill without getting owned by Horde that fly in immediately) that I've never seen before. The hardest thing to get used to is higher level Alliance running around and killing you. Luckily, I haven't actually been corpse camped yet, but I can't wait to get a little higher and exact me revenge.

The Mage is a fun class, and being a BE throws in a bit more flair. It seems true too, the Horde side seems more mature, and friendlier all around. I mean, I have friends on Drenden (read: 1 or 2) that are really nice (read: Zakarum) but the Horde is just more open to helping the random n00b (read: me).

So far, it's been a lot of fun, and I can't wait to level more.


You've been Hathorned.

(read: ...)

Lurker Can Bite Me..

So, we tried Lurker for real tonight, and, eh, I hate him. I have tried him before and all that, but he still sucks. I think his learning curve is a little too high for his placement in SSC, but that's just me whining because we didn't kill him.

I'm so tired, I don't know what else to say, except for we got 2 Nether Vortexes, some Boots Pattern, and some actual Healing boots.

I guess it was better than nothing, especially with Tank repairs from the guild bank.

/yawn
/zzzzzzzzzzz

You've been Hathorned.

Erm... umm... yeah

I don't really know what to write about, I need inspiration.

So, let's.. uh.. pretend that this was long, thought out post that was insightful and witty.


You've been Hathorned. (In small quantities).

New Blogs in the Links

Just added Doomilias' blog and TJ's blog, to the Links section.

Go check them out.

You've been Hathorned.

Holding To My Word..

So, I tried Balance out this weekend for sh!ts and giggles. It was actually pretty fun, and I was just using my gear that I had built up on my way to 70 leveling as Boomkin.

When I was leveling up, I had this notion in my head that when I hit 70 I will be able to find tons of leather +spell damage gear, and I will be a Starfiring Panzerkin. We just didn't get itemized that way. I didn't want to wear cloth, so I specced Feral after a brief stint as Resto. This weekend was pretty fun however, I have Kara entry Balance Gear, and I was getting 4000 Trinketed Starfire Crits in Shadow Labs. Then, I tried to do Heroic Botanica. Oh em gee, was that way too hard for our group. We had a great healing priest, and an epicced out Mage, but our tank was new to tanking and I hadn't Boomkin'd in a long time. Needless to say, we wiped a total of 6 times and called it after we killed the first boss.

This really discouraged me, and I started missing all my Feral epics, and teleported immediately to Moonglade and respecced with a satisfying "Ahhhh, Mangle, how I missed you."

So, I decided to make my:

Top 5 Things That Need to Be Changed About Balance Druids:

5. A Viable Form of CC, OR, Entangling Roots indoors.

4. A Viable AoE, something more than once a minute.

3. An OoC type buff but for Spells.

2. More Leather +spell damage gear other than T4/5/6.

and finally,

1. A small heal over time spell usable in Moonkin Form. This could in the form of a seed that leeches health from your target and gives it to you, or just a HoT in Moonkin, maybe on a Cooldown. Nothing gamebreaking, just something to help keep the Druid from having to shift back and forth to heal, but still have the Crit Aura.

So, that's my 2c.

I'm still Ferlol at heart.


You've Been Hathorned.