It’s Monday again. And today definitely feels like a Monday. Honestly, I think the only thing that is getting me through today is the fact that I know we have Shadowmourne chest goodies to pass out tonight, and are bringing another group of contest folks in for our Lich King kill – which is always extremely rewarding for everyone involved. So what has Beru been up to lately? Let’s find out, shall we?!
On Raiding
10 Man HM Lich King – I officially hate this fight. It has gone from fun, to frustrating, to completely un-fun for me. At one point in the raid last night, I quite literally wanted to cry out of frustration. What I used to find “challenging” is now just 2-3 hours of high key stress. Last night we pushed into phase 5 a few more times, and survived harvest soul a few more times and worked on dealing with the Vile Spirits. We got him down to 27%. We are so close to a kill. I have no doubts that a few more times into phase 5 and we will see our kill. But oh Christ, that means more attempts.
So what’s the problem? It’s the fight itself. I know that I’ve mentioned it before, but I am two healing it with a Disc Priest. I do not recommend doing this if you want to keep your sanity. Every pull I am keyed up. Every pull I almost lose a tank. Every pull I struggle with keeping my mana in check as I try to manage everything from a healing perspective. Every pull I am quite literally on the edge of my seat hoping that I can keep it together. And I’m going to be honest here, if we don’t get it soon I just don’t know how many more pulls I’ve got in me before I completely lose my sanity.
I think part of our problem is that we only see the fight one time a week. So it takes us roughly an hour to “relearn” what we worked out last week. Then we have an hour where we have some great progression attempts. And then our attention starts to decline and we take steps back in progress, which is understandable because of the level of constant attention the encounter requires each and every pull. After talking with Brade this morning, and looking at our absentee list for our 25 man roster for the week, and seeing that we are out two main healers and a main tank – we may make an exception this week and not push HM RS as was originally planned and give our 10 man team more time with HM LK.
I know the fight is supposed to be a challenge. But there is a fine line between challenging and poor design. And HM LK, in my opinion, is more of the latter. A fight requiring an almost exact raid composition (which we do not have) is not good design, we should not be at a disadvantage because of our healing composition – and yet we are. We should be able to take 10 skilled raid members into the encounter and have the same challenges and successes with the encounter as any other 10 people at the same skill level. A fight leaving little to no room for even a small error isn’t fun, it’s frustrating. I can honestly say that I will be glad to have this finished for the 12 people that have put the time into this encounter, so that I never have to go back.
I’m sure once we knock out that last 17% I’ll have more thoughts to add, but for now I think I’ll just suffice it to say that I find this to be one of the most un-fun encounters that I’ve experienced in my 6 years of the game.
25 Man Heroic Halion – We have been sort of almost half heartedly working on this encounter. Our raid team as a whole has a bit of malaise floating around, and so we are trying to read the guild very carefully as we work progression. We usually spend about one raid night a week working him, if that, and have started learning phase 2. That is to say that we’ve worked through phase 1 and the transition into phase 2, now we just need to survive phase 2 so we can start learning phase 3.
Personally, I think I’ve come to a bit of a peace with this encounter. I’d love to finish it out before the expansion, and I certainly think that we are capable of doing it. But on the other hand, if we don’t I’m not going to be devastated over it either. We intend to keep picking at it each week and giving it a good effort – but I think that most people feel a bit how I feel.
On the Topic of Feminism and WoW that has Permeated the Blogosphere
I’m not going to be making a post on it.
But Beru, you are female and play WoW, why not?!?! The answer is simple. I’m oversaturated with the topic. I have gotten to the point that 90% of the blogs that are now posting on it, I just don’t read that post. I play WoW as a form or relaxation – and while I certainly have opinions on the topic (and many others), I don’t really want to integrate them into my entertainment. It’s largely the same reason that I don’t see 90% of war or politically driven cinema. If I go to a movie, chances are that I just want to unwind for a bit, or let my mind be engaged, depending on the type of film. I do not want to be preached at while I’m trying to unwind.
In my opinion, and for me (not that it’s the same for everyone), I want to bifurcate these types of issues from the venues that I chose to help me relax. I’m not saying the issues aren’t important, and that there aren’t issues to be addressed. I’m just saying that this isn’t the place I want to address them, if that makes any sense at all. As such, I won’t be saying much more, if anything, about the topic here. If you are interested, there are a plethora of other bloggers discussing it, I’d recommend starting here: http://mentalshaman.com/
On Alts
Mynn – This weekend as I was camping mobs for Frostbitten, someone said “I’m bored, let’s go do an ICC 10!”, and I was like “I’m in!” – because after days of camping rares anything to get away from it for a bit is good. Surprisingly this was a fantastic alt group, with a main or two thrown in, and we ended up going 10/12 HM (no Putricide) and most of the group just needs Metas and HM Putricide for a 310 drake. I’m hoping to find a time this week to take this group back in to complete this (although it will be two weeks for me, as I’ll need to take Earenn in for bubbles on LK this week, the week after one of the other priests should be able to do the same for me so Mynn can get the achievement!).
It ended up being a whole lot of fun and I’m looking forward to finishing it out.
Elentari – She’s just about ready for Northrend, sitting at level 67. I went back to try and catch her alchemy up – only to realize that I didn’t have a philosopher’s stone. I went to make one – only to find that all of the black vitriol on the AH didn’t have a buyout and was put up for 48 hours (ps…people who don’t put buyouts on things like that suck!). I also need to go and get her potion mastery quest so that I can get it completed before she heads to Northrend. I expect that she will be hopping around Northrend soon enough though J
Nadine – So I finally spent some time playing my alliance paladin yesterday. I managed to get her three and a half levels and she is now halfway to level 64. That means that she only has four and a half more levels until I can start in on the Alliance side Northrend quests, which I’m extremely excited about!
I also tanked my first few instances with her. The first one I did, I felt a bit clumsy for about half of the zone until I started to get the hang of paladin tanking. And then the next epiphany that I had was “OMG THIS IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN WARRIOR TANKING” immediately followed by “wtf…where is my AE silence button, I want to get these casters in here, oh right, not a blood elf”. Which actually brings me to the next, somewhat interesting point about Nadine…
I am finding that being a Dranaei is…different. Out of all of my characters this is the first one that I have ever felt outwardly…well, Skanky, for lack of a better term. Perhaps it’s because I’ve spent so much time on the Horde that I feel this way, but I have several Blood Elves and I’ve never felt so…well, sexualized I suppose! My Dranaei just seems so, er, come hither, sex kitten to me. I don’t find it disturbing as much as I find it interesting, well actually more bizarre than anything else I suppose! It makes me wonder why female tauren can’t be a bit more feminine…and y’know at least sound like they are female when they talk! Just sayin’ 🙂
On Achievements
I’m still trucking along on my quest for Frostbitten (need 8 more) and Bloody Rare. I am questioning daily what made me think this would be a good idea! I’d also like to pick on a good number of the Ulduar achievements that I’m missing in both 10 and 25 man. Oh – and Earth, Wind and Fire! Yes, please!
Anyhow! That is what has been going on in my corner or Azeroth! I’m still trucking about and trying to get a few things accomplished before Cataclysm Launches! How’s everything going for everyone else out there?
Falling Leaves and Wings 
“OMG THIS IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN WARRIOR TANKING”
That made me laugh, I had the very same reaction when I tried tanking on a paladin I leveled to 80. (My main is a Prot Warrior) It’s ridiculously easy to tank 5 mans in comparison. I wonder how that will change in Cataclysm though.
While I find the women in WoW topic interesting, I’m not going to write anything about the feminism topic myself either. I can understand where they’re coming from, and I agree with quite a few points as well – but when it comes to actually playing the game – I just want to enjoy it and relax. And that’s what I write about.
I actually think that learning to tank on a warrior really *taught* me how to tank, if that makes any kind of sense! It’s so immersive and interactive that I do believe it made me a better tank 🙂
personally i take the transmute quest then pay the 150g to switch to pot master altho more expensive way especially if u buy the mats off the ah
Ah – I probably could have done that! Especially since I transmuted a bunch of primal might to get my skill up. But I’ll do it the proper way and bribe Brade into taking me through Botanica 🙂
To be honest, I am currently bored in game. Perhaps it is the end of the expansion syndrom or the 5+ years in game. That is a long time for a game, played on a daily basis.
But yeah, I get that feeling every 3 months or so. That could be it too.
I yet have to complete my third Insane in the Membrane feat. Only some junkboxes left to farm. But it is tedious. When I log on, I intend to have some fun. This is not fun. Regardless, I will complete it prior to Cataclysm launch.
I also have 2 level 74ish, debating if I level them to 80 or not. I have a newly 80 already (my fourth), a paladin. He is pretty much my only concern for now (gear and whatnot).
I also tend to spend a lot of gold on my characters. That is something playing against me, as I wanted a decent amount for Cataclysm. Same goes for the Insane feat. That reduced my gold by a lot.
So yeah. Being a casual raider, I don’t have much to motivate me to log on: tedious rep farming or gold farming. Urgh.
As for the achievements, well, I am at around 7.3k on Rholm. And that is nearly without any raid or PvP ones. Heck, I never even stepped into Naxx25, Uld25, OS25, RS10-25, Maly25 and few 10 men content.
Without being a raider and a PvPer, I think I accomplished quite a lot in the other sections that the game has to offer.
But now, what to do, what to do. Finding groups to get back to Naxx, Uld etc…? Easier said than done. And I hate PuGs.
I go in phases as well. Sometimes I’m bored – sometimes I’m not! I play during non-raid night when I feel up for it, and do other things if I’m not feeling up for it 🙂
I too am trying to stockpile some gold! Darn leech-y alts!
I hope that my contributions to the gender discussion didn’t scare you away – as I was incredibly thrilled to count you as a reader and I appreciate the visits you make to my page and the link love you showed me.
I would like to think that everyone involved has spoken their peace about this and we can all move on to other things – I’m actually working on a piece about Revitalize and this is going to lead to inevitable number crunching (which I’m horrible at – scary, considering I work for a bank).
🙂
Oh, I still stop by! Don’t worry about that at all. If I see a post that isn’t a topic that interests me, I just don’t read it…but that doesn’t mean I’ll never read the blog again! 🙂
I firmly believe that blogs, above all else, should be a place that the writer can express their thoughts on whatever bee is in their bonnet. I tend to just skim over things that I may not be as passionate about, but that doesn’t mean I’m not reading other offerings 🙂