A few weeks into beta and Blizzard’s making some bold moves. This isn’t the first time they’ve done something so bold, but needless to say it always worries the community. We have a few more months. If you have worries, then people in the beta probably have the same concerns and are providing feedback already. If you get into beta, then provide constructive criticism once you’ve tried it.

Don’t knock til you try it.

Yeah, I’m worried about missing my Divine Spirit. Having been a Disc priest for so long, it’s going to be weird not having that buff. But, I want to try it before I worry about it. They say we don’t need it. We probably won’t. I am a bit concerned that they kept the Lightwell. Great spell in theory, but I rarely see it used. It requires two things: a group trained to use it and DPS having the opportunity to walk over and use it. In the AOE battles of today… it’s hard. It’s almost useless in some fights. I can’t even imagine using it on Marrowgar. However, I prefer my Disc spec.

I like condensing the talents. Looks like we’re going to still have plenty of room to move about. Locking us into one talent tree until we finish it? I don’t mind that so much. When I’m leveling a character I tend to do that anyway. Just like old days we’re going to have about 10 points to go into other trees. Same flexibility as vanilla in that respect. As long as we don’t have…”trash” talents that no one wants, then I think we’ll see variations in builds. It would be nice to see less “cookie cutter” builds. I’m not really going to comment on Mage or Rogue trees. I don’t raid with either one and I don’t feel I have the grasp of them to say anything.

I will comment on CC though. I love crowd control. I use it. I abuse it. Solo or not, I really, really like it. Leveling, I shackled, sheeped, and have sapped my way up. Maybe you can just beat it down with AOE, but I find the dynamics of crowd control much more fun.

I remember shackling through Scholo, Strat, and Naxx. Heck, I even shackled in ICC 5 mans. Why? It makes things easier. That means though that you have to move you AOE away from my shackle. That means you actually need to coordinate who you’re attacking. It means… OMG… you have to mark your targets. I played back in vanilla when you had to coordinate without AOE awesomesauce or having marks built into the game. I do not feel the current AOE design allows for the building of teamwork. It’s great for PUGs, but that’s about the only allowance I can make on it.

Cataclysm is supposed to bring that back. Blizzard, thank you. The number of times that a well-placed CC has saved my priest’s life is more than I can count. Especially when fade or shadowmeld was on cooldown. Most importantly, you’re giving purpose to these abilities again. I know that I hate having that spell on my bar that I never ever use. Or worse yet… you need it after nearly a year of not using it and you have to find the dang thing. To me, it’s important that the abilities that you give us have a purpose. Especially an entire category like CC, so I hope that you do bring them back. As much as I fussed about trying to heal and CC at the same time… it added an exciting dynamic and challenged me in a new way. We need those types of challenges.

Oh yeah… and fishing. Please, please, please change it! I fall asleep at my keyboard. I can’t believe that was ever your intention for fishing. PLEASE! Thanks! I hope I see changes in the later beta builds. Although I’ll have to rely on others for that information since I’m not in beta. ^_^;

Now, I said that I was going to touch on RP. Yeah, yeah. I know. This is an RP blog and I’ve been spouting mechanics for several paragraphs. Thanks for being patient if you’ve survived thus far. *grins* I think Cataclysm will be opening up tons of RP. After all, the entire world is changing. I’ll try not to be specific as I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone that doesn’t want it, but I can give some general ideas.

Guildhouses. Tons of RP guilds have an area that they hang out. You might want to have a backup plan/story/plot just in case yours isn’t there come Cataclysm. There’s a good chance that even if it’s there changes might have occurred. Be prepared. Where will you go? How will the loss of something affect you? Do you have RP memories associated with it?

Bosses coming back. For me, this is awesome. I love how this will affect one of my characters. Serephim despises one with a passion. It could put her in extreme danger. Will she become his unwilling minion? Will she stay his worst enemy? Are there any bosses that are going to affect your character? What about the new races? What about choices your faction/race is making? How does that make your character feel?

Every change is an RP opportunity. Look for them. Use them to your advantage. Let the world that Blizzard is changing influence your character. It’ll add a fun and new dynamic.

Most of all, realize that Cataclysm is still in beta. What we see now will not be the final product. There’s plenty of time for feedback and change. I know that I’m looking forward to see what Blizzard will do. And like most, I too am hitting refresh on my battle.net account and hoping to see the beta invite. Until then, I will have to rely on all of you for my information. Thank you!

Demon touched
Tainted by the Legion
Our life is such
That we stand our ground

Unseen, Uncared,
Outcast, Ignored
A danger shared
We stand alone

Sacrifice the fright
Sacrifice the Sight
Sacrifice the light
Fel warrior of the night

Who are you to judge us
We stand for you
We ask only for trust
Instead hatred you pursue

Sacrifice the fright
Sacrifice the Sight
Sacrifice the light
Fel warrior of the night

Blinded by ignorance
You fail to see
Blinded by Fel
We choose to fight

Ashamed of our burdens
You outcast your own
Burdered with demons
We find strength

Who is truly lost?

We fight until the end.

Until the Legion’s end.

Until we end.

We are the Netherbane.

Sacrifice the fright
Sacrifice the Sight
Sacrifice the light
Fel warrior of the night

I’m a casual gamer. Do you want to know why I’m a casual gamer? Because I would drive myself insane otherwise. I’m a perfectionist. I don’t like to fail. So, every time some kills me in a game, I fail to kill something, or, in the case of my priest, I fail to keep someone alive… it irks me. A LOT.

I’m no innocent on vent either. I grumble, I curse, but when it’s all over I’m ready to try again unless I’m exhausted and I try to be optimistic. As someone who has been playing computer games since they were too young to remember it on a Commodore 64, I think I may have a bit of pride just because I’ve been playing games that long.

After all, I’m a girl gamer. I want to be taken seriously and not like a bit of fluff. So, I don’t like to be told I’m doing something wrong. I like to learn things myself and figure out my own style. It was part of the reason I’d avoided healing mods and blogs for the longest time. However, I realized that I don’t need to do all of that. I can be proud of how I play no matter what. It’s gotten me this far. It doesn’t matter how I do it.

I have a Nostromo page for my left hand. I have it set up differently that anyone else I know. I use all the buttons on my keypad for abilities. I scroll to select different sets of abilities (the different color sets for the device). By now, I bet you’re wondering how I move. I use the thumb-stick… (waits for explosion).

I use my mouse to turn, but I use my scroll wheel forward to auto-run, scroll back to jump. And I still mouse click some things. I also use Heal-Bot so I have a lot of spell bound onto all of my mouse buttons… and I don’t have Alt, Ctrl, or Shift bound even though I have keys bound to them.

Speaking of which… does anyone regularly re-evaluate how they’re playing to see if they need to redo things? I tend to have a spring cleaning where I evaluate how my current setup has been working and what I’d like to do to make it quicker and better.

I’m half-way tempted to just grab clique and get rid of Heal-Bot, but I’m not sure yet.

Just playing with ideas. I’ve gotten side-tracked, but really what I want to say is that we can all be proud of our gaming accomplishments no matter how we play. That goes for @geekgirldiva and many others out there.

Rock on and play hard!

1) Skill
Skill is something you only get from experience. Sometimes it’s just a certain fight or with your class and abilities. I dual spec and I know that there are times that I’m not using my abilities to their utmost. I would love to say that I react perfectly every time, but I’m only human. You know that Desperate Prayer button. It sits under my left ring finger for fight after fight and guess what? When I actually need it, I still forget to press it. I’m constantly working to improve myself and my skill to use more and more of my abilities to their fullest.

2) Spec
I’m dual spec. One’s Holy and the other is Disc. Again, I’m pretty sure they’re not perfect and when I get a moment, I’ll research and update them. It happens, especially when they update talents and suddenly one talent is more useful than another. Again, this is something as a player I work on.

I know there are several people who have asked me why I dual spec’ed healing if I’m not always raiding. First, if I want to DPS… I’ll hop on my mage. It’s much more satisfying for me. *grins* Second, I find that certain fights can require a different style of healing. I’m particularly attached to Disc, but I find Holy can be very useful when I lot of people are taking damage.

3) Gear
No matter my skill. No matter if I have the latest uber spec. There are times when my gear is just not up to snuff for the job. And I have thrown myself at that wall desperately to try and get my group through a fight… and sometimes I scrape by through luck. Luck, is just that, luck. You want to be able to make it through a fight consistently through hard work, not just luck.

I recognize that. I have accepted that. Last week, I struggled with some of the Heroic ICC 5 mans. I failed at 10 man TOC. So, I looked at my slightly better than Naxx gear and said, “You aren’t doing it for me anymore.” I took a serious step back and realized that if I really wanted to main heal for my tank, then I needed to up my gear to be able to handle what was dished out to him.

I still have more upgrades to go, but after a week of gearing up through our local PUG finder and hitting certain heroics for upgrades, I’m starting to not dread the Heroic ICC 5 mans. I’ve worked hard to get my reputations up and I can now get great helm and shoulder enchants. I’m starting to look forward to seeing what I can do in 10 man TOC.

I’m not confident. After all, you succeed or fail as a team. I know now that I’m doing my best for my group. I can make flasks for them. I can drop down a fish feast. I can give out enchants through my alt for those who need them. I’m doing my best to give my group the best chance we have… and if we do well, maybe we can start looking at doing the 10 man ICC. So, here’s to hoping.

Good luck to all you casual raiders out there that have similar goals!

A real GM has their Name <GM> (unless they changed it while I wasn’t looking). Any other way and I would count it as suspicious. Also, you wouldn’t still be in game if you were actually suspended. Also, you can’t right click and Report Spam on a GM. I suggest you use that ability if you’re suspicious.

This particular scam sends you to account5.com. DO NOT GO THERE. My husband luckily had something that blocked suspicious webpages, but this is not an official Blizzard page.

Please be careful clicking any links that you receive in game. Also check and see if the source is creditable.

Be careful and happy playing!

I’ve been a gamer and an RPer for longer than the internet as we know it today has existed. That means that I was playing Dungeons and Dragons and games on the original home computers. What does that matter?

I have 23 years of experience in both (and no… that’s not my age, I’m 28). I’ve also been writing since then. I was 5 years old. Sure, I was a terrible gamer, RPer, and writer back then, and I’m still improving now. The most important thing is my love for them.

I played the original Warcraft games for hours. Funny enough… I refused to play Alliance. The Horde was so much for much with their dragons and ogres and trolls. I played against my friends mostly. The game was simple enough in those incarnations and I’d moved on to other games like Quake by the time that Warcraft 3 came out.

It wasn’t until years later that my nostalgia was reawakened by my friends after college. I heard that a friend of a friend was playing a Warcraft MMO. I’d never been interested in most games like that. They seemed to be glorified chat boxes or looked like crud to me, but it was Warcraft.

And that friend of a friend… he’s one of my best friends now. Tharion Greyseer, aka Richard Powell, who runs Lorecrafted, Madness and Insanity, and Raptor13. He is also the Guild Master, Shan’do, of the Netherbane.

I find myself still playing the game years later. Despite times that I got fustrated and didn’t want to, I’m still here. And I still love the game. I haven’t done any great achievements in game. I haven’t raided the newest content. I don’t even really PVP. But the story keeps me and my characters alive.

I love learning about all of the angles of the world. From the story to the design, Blizzard has created a remarkable experience. Some day, I want to be able to experience all their classes, lead a raid, and enjoy all the content. For now, though, I simply enjoy the story as I go. I look for the neat little things that have been added for fun. WoW has many possibilities for me to still enjoy and many goals that I can reach for.

Lannia Winterstorm is my first WoW character and an icon for me. She will always be the first on my list to work with because of that. Perhaps, I’m emotionally invested in her. But, should I ever step away permanently, I will miss my characters. They are representations of the time that I have spent enjoying the game and the people.

To those of you I’ve met on Twitter because of WoW, I want to say a heartfelt thank you. I never imagined that I would like Twitter at all, but all of you make it an enjoyable place for me.

Thank you for reading. May Elune look kindly upon your WoW endeavors. *grins*

Nine Inch Nails … Discipline: A Tank Version

Do I,
Do I have nuff HP?
Feels like it’s going down. (down down down down)
Is it my aggro losing ground? (ground ground ground ground)

Am I taking too much?
Go below the line? (line line)
I need my role in this,
Very clearly defined.

I need your buffs,
I need your heals,
I need your DPS,
You know once I start I cannot help myself!

Now it’s starting up,
Feel it’s gonna hurt.
Only the boss matters,
Forgive me if I’m curt.
He’s gonna leave a mark,
On our model’s skin (skin skin).
AOE, Heroism!
We hit him again!

I need your buffs,
I need your heals,
I need your DPS,
You know once I start I cannot help myself!

I cannot stop myself,
Once we start I cannot stop myself

And you know,
Once we start I cannot stop myself (x4)

I need your buffs,
And you know,
I need your heals,
Once we start I cannot stop myself.
I need your DPS,
And you know,
Because once we start I cannot stop myself. (x2)

And you know,
Once we start I cannot stop myself (x2)

I need your discipline,
And you know,
Once we start I cannot help myself.
I need your 7331 ass skills,
And you know,
Cannot stop myself,
Once we start I cannot stop myself!

Attacks began on Stormwind and there was a minor curable plague. As the days went on leading up to the expansion, the plague became harder and harder to cure until it wasn’t curable at all.

Blizzard likes escalating situations. We have earthquakes now and it’s safe to assume that since the continents sunder in some areas that they will only get worse. But what is the next stage of the disaster looming over us?

Here are some of the thoughts that I’ve had. This is pure speculation.

• NPCs will start mentioning the earthquakes and other events occurring.
• Desolace made begin to have green spots.
• In areas that are flooded, it may rain constantly and become marsh like.
• In areas that sunder cracks in the land, there may be a smaller crack and Deathwing’s minions may begin to emerge. There will be more as it leads up to the expansion.

I don’t know if they can do partial terrain updates in areas, but it was a thought I had. It’s actually a lot of work for something that would only show for a short period of time. NPC’s talking, constant rain, or cracked areas would probably be the easiest for a short term effect. I would like to see some of Deathwing’s minions crop up. I don’t think he’s alone.

The question is… we haven’t even heard when the expansion is going to release. How long of a lead up are we going to have? I don’t believe that any have started more than a month before release historically. Is Blizzard going to make this a slow change? If so, how are they going to handle a slow change where things are drastically changed, like the Barrens, Desolace, and the Auberdine area?

Only time will tell for sure, but I think Blizzard may have some surprises in store for us on this one. *grins*

• Some people have mentioned that this could be the screen refresh rate and other video issues, so make sure that your video card is updated (drivers and such) and set up with its optimal settings.
• There are some addons that shake your screen upon crits and such, so make sure that you don’t have any addons known to shake your screen on.
• Giants
• Felreavers
• Core Hounds
• The outhouse quest at Amberpine Lodge
• Basically any really big mobs
• Some items and spells

 Things that used to cause the effect but not longer will.

• Tamed Core Hounds – This was fixed in 3.0.

If this screen shake bothers you, you can also disable it in the video settings.

The WoW community seems split on this issue. I haven’t seen any screen shakes yet, but I’m not opposed to the idea that its possible.

There are, indeed, invisible mobs in WoW called shakers that were seen on the PTR for Icecrown. However, we don’t truly know their abilities beyond deriving what we can from their name. As far as I’ve researched, no one had the ground shake on the PTR to know if these mobs cast Earthquake on players. It’s certainly plausible.

There are also many things in game that can cause the screen to shake. There was a summoning arrow for the goblin cupid I believe that used to cause an earthquake effect. It’s impossible to know what people are doing around you. Even your computer, from your mouse to your video settings and drivers, can cause a similar effect.

Until it starts happening on a mass scale, it will be something that is difficult to prove to skeptics, even if you record every single one with where you were and time. It’s unfortunate, but true. However, I would like to believe that they are beginning with a slow lead up to Cataclysm. We would probably see small signs before the world ripped asunder.

I know many have asked online if Deathwing was on the Elemental plane, then how would that cause earthquakes? Good question. However, if the Elemental plane wasn’t overlapping with Azeroth at all, then how would Deathwing come out of the ground and change the world at all? Two planes that weren’t supposed to merge on this level are bound to change the world a little bit at a time. It would certainly make for great RP!

Overall, the tremors are plausible, but hard to prove. Harder than any other world event has been so far. We’ll have to wait for it to reach more intensity before we can say if this is truly a world event. Perhaps, Blizzard’s just pulling a fast one on us by sneaking under the radar with a world event. It’s a nice thought and I hope it’s true.

Serephim, however, is pure fiery DPS. I loved leveling her, but I knew that any group I normally went with would need Lannia, not Serephim. I kept Serephim in the background in case I really wanted to do something else. Yet, since she reached 80 several months ago, I haven’t instanced or raided with her.

Honestly, as my first DPS, I think I was afraid that I would suck as her. Then, I realized that of course I suck with her. Her measly ~1500 DPS. I hadn’t learned her fire rotations. I didn’t have great gear… let’s rephrase that… most of her gear was crud. I had a few items above 170 and that was it.

But… it was fun. A lot of fun. I didn’t have easy little click bar for the monsters. Heck, I barely knew what I was supposed to do beyond Mage Table, Buff, and hit the pretty buttons, but I can learn. However, I know that Serephim will probably be booted out of pugs if I were to try and upgrade her gear through that. So, I find myself at a dilemma.

To Pug or Not To Pug? On Lannia, I’m fairly safe as long as I’m doing a decent job. So many things affect healing including bad pulls, squishies, but I know how to handle that. I know what can go wrong. Serephim is a new side of the game. One that I’m excited to learn about, but I also don’t want random people suffering while I learn and get gear.

It’s a hard call. I really don’t know what I’ll do. And while it’s not my first priority in the game… I do want to learn to play my mage and gear her up appropriately.

Here’s to dusting off old alts. *toasts*