[WoW] Cataclysm Heroics: Halls of Origination

Just ran this HEROIC with the guild. Yesterday I got enough upgrades from normal dungeons to qualify for Heroics ( iLvl 329 average). I barely squeaked by. I didn't consider myself at all ready to actually heal heroics. Today some guys from the guild asked if I'd heal a heroic for them. I told them that I just got to 329 and that I probably wasn't geared for it yet, but said I'd give it a shot anyway. We ended up in Halls of Origination, which I hadn't even run on normal yet!

It went very well. We one-shot all bosses. In fact our only wipe was 3 trash pulls into the instance. I lagged or had a brain fart and tried to keep a dying DPS up. The tank got an extra mob on him and started dropping fast. A dps and the tank dropped, while we had 2 mobs still up. We ping-ponged one of the mobs between DPS until it was dead ( it was pretty close already), then the mage polymorphed the other mob. We were then able to wait until the tank and 2 dps were able to run back in. Guess technically we didn't wipe, but other than that it was groovy.

Impressions

My first impressions of heroics? They're SOO much harder than Wrath heroics. To be honest Wrath heroics were hard at first, but these are at the level of Wrath raids. I truely felt like I was in a raid ( and not just cause it took 2+ hours to do the heroic). The trash pulls had to be CC'd, and I was on my toes the whole time.

Interrupts are crucial. In one of the fights (Temple Guardian Anhuur) its absolutely required that there be an interrupt capable DPS to do the fight well. We happed to get a compitent PUG DK with us. He did very well and stayed up on the platform on his own. He was even able to keep himself up with Death Strikes until the ground phase was done and I could sprint back to heal him up. To Riakk of Wyrmrest Accord, you were awesome. He did very well considering that was also his very first heroic.

A lot of fights required more twitch healing than I thought it would. A few times I absolutely had to use Flash of Light because anything other than a Holy Shock + 3HP Word of Glory wouldn't have been quick enough and hit for hard enough to make it.

Mana

Mana was a much bigger issue in Heroics than in Normals. With casting Judgement on every CD, and heavily favoring my mana-efficient spells, I was able to heal pretty well. I'd have around 30% of my mana left at the end of a fight. But if ever started to neglect casting Judgement my mana would plummet and I would be OOM very quickly.

Also, if I ever let the tank get too far down, it takes an extraordinary amount of mana to catch up. I had to do it a few times and it wasn't fun. Good choice in healing spells was important as well. Sometimes everyone is just taking so much damage that you NEED to use your AOE heals. Being a pally healer having AOE heals is new to me and as such under stress I go back to the furious whack-a-mole style healing that's ingrained in my muscle memory. In some situations this was simply not an option. Holy Radiance was very very useful. When everyone was getting low and I just absolutely needed to do a crazy amount of healing, there's nothing popping Guardian of Ancient Kings, Avenging Wrath, Holy Radiance, then a 3HP Light of Dawn towards a melee heavy group. The entire screen lights up with green number and the little green bars shoot up like jack's beanstalk. Its a sight to see. Of course you hope this is towards the end of the fight because its difficult to regen enough mana to be useful much longer.

All in all it was a good experience, and I gained some upgrades. There really is nothing than a trial by fire to hone your skills and see how you do. If Heroics are already so epic-ally raid like, how are the raids going to be?

[WoW IC] Lunitari out on her own

Lunitari, Apprentice Mage, - Sunstrider Isle

Taking a break today from working. Thats right, I'm working. I decided that I'm not going to let Nuii or Soli have all the fun. I'm gonna strike out on my own. Of course I haven't TOLD them this, but they're both away for work for at least a week so I can do what I want. I decided to start out slow, so I made my way back towards the Mage School, on Sunstrider Isle. This time I took the Windrunner service, got there in fraction of the time.

Currently I'm doing odd jobs, tending to whatever needs tending. The scourge are still everywhere so there's plenty to do. I've also done some training from Magi Sunstriker. My power has steadily improved, and yesterday I decided to focus on the Frost aspect of magecraft. The first spell I trained for was to summon my own Water Elemental. Unlike the Earth and Fire Elementals that Shaman's are able to conjure, mage summoned Water Elementals are allowed to stay on our plane for much longer. Whether this is an inherent ability of Water Elementals or because of the Mage summoning, I don't know.

Communicating with the Water Elemental seems almost harder than learning to summon. As far as I can tell, its the same Elemental every time. He ( or she? ) seems to be able to pick up strong emotions from me, but direct communication is more difficult. Mistress Garidel says that eventually I will be able to speak with the Elemental intuitively, but for now its mostly just him protecting me when I run into trouble.

Work is going pretty well. I've been helping out Starbreeze Village mostly. They're closer to the remaining scourge than other towns, so the fighting there is a bit more common. Its not terrible, there aren't overwhelming hordes of scourge set to pounce on the town. The local militia tends to keep the numbers low enough that travelers aren't in too much danger. Still, sometimes I have to go at it alone and I'm glad I have my elemental with me.

Malware and Blue Screens

Currently the den has felt more like a triage center for computer than a place of gaming and merriment. A few days ago my desktop gets some spyware on it. By "my desktop gets" I mean that I was browsing on the seedier side of the internet, where I knew I really shouldn't be going, and ended up clicking on a dialog box. I'm pretty sure I said "no" to whatever it was that popped up, but I don't think that mattered. "System Tools 2001" stealth-installed and then proceeded to "Scan" my computer. Eventually the system is unusable. I'm able to get it removed by booting into safe mode and installing malwarebytes.

Still, I wasn't completely satisfied that Squirrel( yes all computers in the house have a name, as they should). So I set to work backing up and reformatting the system, just to be sure. As the reinstall is progressing, I work on Fiance's computer. I decide that its defenses need some bolstering so I proceed to grab a "few" anti-spyware/malware/firewall programs. Get those installed, a few quick scans. I fire up WoW and merrily quest. Everything is fine for a few hours until I switch to my lowbie mage. I start to quest and BAM Blue Screen of Death. I find that odd, but I chalk it up to doing too many things at once ( I was still scanning as I was playing). I fire it up again and start to quest, 10 minutes later another blue screen. I disable the newly installed programs, but same result.

At this point Squirrel is back up and running, I copy over the WoW folder from the backup and try playing there. Almost instantly I get a blue-screen. Wow... that was bad. As I'm googling to find a way to remidy this, it blue-screens even while NOT in WoW.

I think I'm going to reformat Squirrel yet again, and this time not install anything but the bare essentials. I'm pretty sure its just software. If it was just one computer failing then I could see that it might possibly be hardware, but both at once?

[WoW IC] Hooff

Traveler's Journal, Illustious Grand Master Paladin, Hooff

Day 180

Well, I'm still here. I'm still me, I think. I've been in this land for 180 days now, and things have certainly been interesting. When Rhonin first approached me about this assignment, I didn't think it would turn out like this. The one constant has been that I don't know when or even if, I'll ever get to go home.

At least I'm not alone, theres about a dozen other warriors gathered here. Some I've worked with before, a fellow Paladin, Nib, a hunter named Kess and others. They also went through the "program" with Rhonin. There are also others from other lands. Many were able to keep their original forms, most from my homeland were not. I have taken the form of a Blood Elf. Valen help-me, I've had to become one of them. The fact that these Blood Elves aren't the ones that committed the atrocities against my people is of little comfort. They've committed atrocities against other peoples, just happens to not be mine.

Why I've come is still not clear to me. Rhonin mentioned that there is a coming evil, and that this land was in need of warriors. I naturally thought of the Lich King, infact we did aid in storming his Citadel. My batallion fought for and defended Valithria Dreamwalker. Our warriors were able to keep the Scourge at bay while the healers tended to the great dragon's wounds. Eventually the green dragon was well enough to move and was able to escape. We also faced the undead wyrm Sindragosa, but repeatedly she was able to repel our advances. There were heavy casualties but we were able to escape with our lives.

I heard days later, while recovering from my wounds that another Batallion was able to kill the Lich King, and the war was over. After such a long campaign ( both here and at home), it was almost bittersweet to not have had a direct hand in his downfall.

Since then the scourge has been steadily declining. Not all attacks have ceased but their forces are on the decline. It seems without their master, the scourge are content to hold onto whatever lands they've conquered. It will take years to reclaim what was lost, but it will get done.

I'm headed back "home". The warriors from home, as well as other distant lands have formed a guild of sorts. We are few, but it helps to keep ties to what you still have. We have a guild office in Orgrimmar. Apparently to be recognized by Thrall as a "sanctioned" guild, then you must have an office. It consists mostly of a table, a small chair, and a sign in the window that reads "Out". The only time the office is ever occupied is when we have a meeting, which is few and far between. Each of the members have their own residences in other horde controlled areas. I've taken to staying at an Inn in Silvermoon. While I have no love for Blood Elves and their precious city, they do have the most comfortable of beds.

[WoW] Healing thoughts

Miss Medicina made a comment on her come-back post that got me thinking. Here's the original post She's Alive.

The comment was that she was having to re-adjust to healing again from the hiatus from WoW. Specifically she remarked that "I throw heals on people and it is the perfect example of a drop in an ocean." I couldn't agree more. I've really started to notice this when I'm healing the new dungeons ( still on normal as I haven't reached 85 yet). The health pools are quite massive, even at pre-85. A guildie tank at 82 had 70k health, an 84 DK DPS had 85k+. With healthpools that massive, even our big heals won't make a dent if the target is <40% health.

I think this is one of the big causes of healers feeling very underpowered. Personally, when I heal the big green crits are nice, but they're not my main focus. My main focus is how much of that little green bar filled up after my heal. So even though we're healing for huge amounts, since the bars aren't refilling near as quickly as they used to, it FEELS like we're weak.

This also contributes to the feeling of OOM that many healers have complained about in the forums. What do you do when your last heal didn't bring the green bar up high enough? You cast it again and again until the bar is comfortably full.

Don't let it fall

The way I've handled this is actually opposite of what Blizzard was telling us we would be doing in Cataclysm. I'm topping off more than normal. More specifically, I'm using my smallest and/or most efficient heal, and topping everyone off as soon as I see that the heal won't just be 80% overheal. For pallies this is Holy Shock/Word of Glory on cooldown, or Holy Light if needed. In a perfect setup I would time the perfect heal, with the perfect cast time, to do as little overheal as possible. But since we're all still learning these fights I'm giving up some overhealing in order to keep the healthpools up in the 80-90% range.

This keeps me used to seeing smaller changes in the healthpool, and reduces the frantic heal spam when someone's health is in the 30% range. Once I get into heroics I'm sure I'll have to alter my strategy a bit, but for now this seems to work well. This is especially useful in pugs where, to be honest, I don't trust the DPS or even the tank to blow defensive cooldowns when they're in trouble. I'll be more adventurous in a guild run, but any group from the DF means I'm on my guard.

Mana regen

Since the server transfer, I haven't had a chance to go back to my old server and try healing on my shaman, so I can really only comment on Paladin, and to a lesser extent, lowbie Priest healing. But Blizzard seems to have built an offensive mechanic to allow healers to regen some mana. Priests have their Smite + Archangel combo, but I have yet to see real gains from it. My priest is stuck at around level 50, so I can't comment on how well this regen works.

For Paladins, being a hybrid class, there seems to be some intended, and possibly unintended synergy between our offensive abilities and mana regen/conservation.

1. Judgements: Judging restores 15% of base mana. Thats a lot considering the cooldown and cost of our judgement spell. Not only are we doing a small bit of damage to the boss, refreshing our Haste buff, but we're also getting mana back. At 83, with a mix of t10 and cata quest blues/greens I'm getting back about 6% of my mana per judgement.

2. Divine Plea: Our old mana regen. Blizzard nerfed it like crazy, but it does still give back some mana. Watch out for the healing debuff though. I usually cast it more in the beginning of the fight, when damage hasn't ramped up yet. Also useful for trash pulls, instead of drinking.

3. Crusader Strike: Yes, it requires being in melee range, something no other healer would dare. But we're paladins, wearing plate, with more defensive cooldowns than some tanks ( sorry warriors ). CS won't actually return you mana, but it will gurantee a holy power charge. If you can position yourself in a semi-safe area where you can melee on a mob ( I personally go behind a caster mob, or slightly back of the melee hitting the boss), you can CS on cooldown significantly increasing the rate at which you can Word of Glory or Light of Dawn. Even a single CS gives you a free heal.

Also, this works well with Holy Radiance. Most pally healers would probably use Holy Radiance by sitting next to the casters. They can cast holy radiance to heal the casters, and use Light of Dawn to AOE the melee. I turned this backwards. I sit next to the melee, and Light of Dawn the casters. Since the casters tend to like to spread out, this fits with the cone targeting of Light of Dawn.

Obviously this won't work for every boss, and in some bosses it would be bad news. For these normal dungeons its working well, as long as the boss doesn't have a stomp or anything. I'll keep you guys posted if and when this thing backfires on me.

Happy Healing.

[WoW] Dungeon Finder "First Impressions" or How to fix "meet the requirements for this dungeon" error.

The past few days I've been receiving that error whenever I've tried to queue up on the Dungeon Finder. I finally figured out that though I HAD discovered Throne of Tides and Blackrock Caverns, I still needed to discover The Stonecore before DF would let me queue. Yesterday I discovered it, and got brave. I queued up as DPS or Healer.

About 10 minutes later the DF pops and I'm notified that I will be a healer for an "Already in progress" dungeon. To me this was a bad start, as there are quite a few disadvantages to being matched into a dungeon thats already started.

1. Less loot, since they're already killed mobs and bosses then there's less chance for loot you.

2. Ditto as #1 for XP. Less mobs killed, less xp.

3. There's a good chance that the reason they need to REPLACE a healer is because the previous healer got fed up with their shinaniggans.

This was the experience I had in this dungeon. It had almost EVERY stereotype DF fail-group personality. The gogogog rogue, the hunter that "accidentally" pulls more mobs, and the tank that loved BIG pulls. Here's how it went down.

I zone in to the dungeon and switch specs/gear. As I'm switching I call out in chat that I've never done this dungeon, so someone may have to explain if there's something complicated I need to worry about. The tank chimes in that its his first time also. This seems like a plus to me, inexperienced tank means he might be more cautios. Rogue immediatly pipes in and says "gogogo" (-100 for him). I guess the tank pulls, and they fight a pack of mobs. I say I "guess" because I'm still at the front of the instance running towards them, while they're somewhere in the middle. They last a little while, tank dies, then the rogue, then the pally. Hunter feign's death.

Tank asks in chat "heals?".

I reply "Still in the front of the instance, I just zoned in".

Tank replies, "Then why did someone say gogogo?"

Surprisingly the rogue speaks up and apologizes ( +1 for him ), then asks if he can be rezzed ( -1 for him ). I rez him and the tank, and we buff up and eat/drink.

The rogue then says "gogogo" again.

I reply "Jeez, chill", since one of the DPS is still running back, as her body was too close to the mobs for a safe rez.

We were making decent progress, so I decide to stick with it. In the room before Ozruk, where there are 4-5 groups of mobs pretty closely packed. The tank decides that he'll tank one group of mobs where they were, but not before waiting until a patrol comes by so that he can get them both. That was annoying but nothing I couldn't handle. This is when the hunter decides to tab-target once too much and pulls ANOTHER group. Unfortunately they're ranged so the tank can't just taunt. I end up having to run over to the mobs, stun them, and then line of sight them over the tank, and hope that the tank notices and hits a thunderclap. At some point in the fight another group is pulled. I'm healing like mad, bubbling the DPS, throwing out Light of Dawn on CD. Eventually we live, but not before I was completely OOM. The DPS are cheering, and I just put one phrase in the chat.

"Smaller pulls please."

We did down the rest of the bosses, so I can't really consider the group a fail-group, it certainly wasn't relaxing. I did the same dungeon again, but this time with the guild and it was much smoother. The tank did die once, because I got line-of-sighted in the Ozruk fight with the falling rocks. Other than that smooth sailing.

The guild then 4-manned Blackrock Caverns. I think we've 4-manned every dungeon available to us so far ( except The Vortex Pinnacle, we've never been in there). The dungeons are certainly doable, and having one less DPS just makes the fights last a bit longer.

Keep in mind this is all on Normal difficulty as we level up. I'm sure it'll be much different once we hit Heroics.

[WoW] Ganking in Vashj'ir

Last night was my first real experience with Ganking/Griefing. I was trying to do the quests inside Nespirah, the ones that involve you going to his "brain" chamber. 3-4 Alliance toons decided that it'd be a hoot to sit there and gank any horde trying to talk to the quest giver. 3 Alliance toons is enough to cause even a decent PVPer some issues, especially when one is a healer.

I had to wait until there was a sufficient amount of hordies being killed that we could run in together and kill the gankers. This didn't take long at all, but as soon as we did that, grabbed our quests, everyone dispursed. 10 minutes later, when I'm trying to turn in said quests, the gankers were back. This got annoying quickly, since we had to go back to that NPC multiple times. Eventually 1-2 people stayed at the NPC in order to keep the ganking down. Funny enough, the horde "keeping the peace" let Alliance members get the quests as well. They only attacked when attacked.

That really shattered my long and totally illogical image of the horde as the "Mean" faction.

True Story.

[WoW] Cataclysm Dungeons - First run

Last night, a few of the guildies wanted to try our hand at running these mythical, CC-requiring, dungeons of Cataclysm. Going into the dungeons, to be honest we were a bit nervous, after hearing how hard Cataclysm dungeons were. TLDR version, dungeons are awesome, but completely doable if you have a group that can work together.

I'm not going to go into detail about which bosses do what, because there are already guides that do a much better job of it. I will give you my impressions though.

We went into the dungeon with the following compilation: Prot Pally, Frost Death Knight, Shadow Priest, Ret Pally(me) and Resto Shaman healing. This wasn't planned or anything, it just happened to be the mains of the people that were willing and inclined to run the dungeon. Also, the prot pally and frost DK are main spec tanks, and the other three of us are main spec healers. My personal DPS was complete and utter shiet. I don't know if there' something fundamentally wrong with ret dps, or if the problem was the chump at the keyboard, but I was pulling low 4k DPS. This is in full vendor T10, some Naxx25 pieces, and a few Cataclysm quest greens. The Shadow priest was similarly geared, and pulling about the same DPS. The Death Knight was putting out 8K DPS. We were all about level 81 or so ( though a lot of us had forgotten to train up our 81 abilities ).

We went into the dungeons NOT having read up on strategy or anything. The most preperation we had was the tank watching a video from the beta, once, a month ago. We went in with the purpose of just seeing the dungeon, trying it out, and seeing how far we get.

Throne of the Tides

Trash pulls did not require us to do any CC. That being said some did require an interrupt. DBM gives you the big INTERRUPT NOW alerts, so it wasn't terribly difficult to get it done. Even when we did fail to interrupt, the damage done wasn't horrible and our healer handled it fine.

Lady Naz'jar

Right off the bat, this fight requires quite a bit more coordination than most Wrath bosses. When Lady Naz'jar casts the shield on herself, adds spawn. The adds don't hit particularly hard, but they should probably be tanked. Since we had 3 plate wearers in the group, we ended up just each tanking and DPS down our own adds. It was a bit chaotic, but everyone just kind of handled it. We one shot her, and got an upgrade for our healer.

Commander Ulthok

This boss wasn't too difficult. His big mechanic is that he pulls one of the party, holds them up in the air ( but the member can still cast) then slams them into the ground for a bunch of damage. We got through that by popping any kind of damage preventing cooldown ( mine was bubble ) before being slammed. The Slam hits hard but its not 1-shotting. We downed this boss in 1 shot as well.

Erunak Stonespeaker & Mindbender Ghur'sha

Erunak has probably the most interesting, and in my opinion is the most challenging boss in the instance. Its mostly tank and spank until Ghur'sha, which is an Aliens-style facehugger thing, lets Erunak go and finds a new host. That new host is one of the party members. When one of the members is mind controlled, they are CC'able. We took a hybrid stun, kill them, strategy. To be honest we just started killing anything we could before we figured out that we were actually killing a teammate.

Our healer actually OOM'd on this fight, will all the crazy damage, and the length of time we were fighting. Eventually she called for someone else to spot heal, and I started throwing out heals to help her catch up. We lost 2 members but we were able to down the boss. Very fun.

Ozumat

This is actually a multi-phase fight. The first phase you are defending Neptulon a'la the dragon fight in ICC. Tank and DPS took care of the adds that try to start attacking Neptulon. Our tank picked up the bigger guys while DPS usually just took care of the small adds, then helped finish off the bigger ones. This sounds very organized but really it was just a chaotic melee of death dealing. At some point Neptulon casts a spell that makes everyone HUGE. You then fight Ozumat, which is an octopus thats sticking to the side of the room, from the outside. Pretty crazy. At this point it was basically tank and spank, don't stand in fire idea. We downed him pretty quickly too.

Thoroughly enjoyed this dungeon, look forward to running it again.

Blackrock Cavern

We actually ended up 4-manning this dungeon. Our healer had to leave so I switched to healing. We really just wanted to discover the dungeon so that we could queue for it in the dungeon finder. Once we were there we said why not and 4-manned it. We actually downed the 3rd boss with just 4 people, where we called it for the night. That being said, we died ALOT in this dungeon, mainly because we were trying things out and in general gooffing off quite a bit more.

Rom'ogg Bonecrusher

Pretty easy fight, though we did wipe 3 times. Its tank and spank until he brings everyone in and casts Chains of Woe. At that point EVERYONE has to target the inner ring ( it'll be right next to you) that links the rings together and DPS them down. Because we were 4-manning it and were already low on DPS, this was trickier than it should have bene. Also after killing the chains, everyone needs to RUN OUT of where the chains are, before he casts The Skullcrusher, which insta-wipes the party.

Corla, Heral of Twillight

The interesting mechanic of this fight is a simplified version of Netherspite from Karazhan. She spawns with 2 adds, there are beams of light going to those adds. The beams stack a buff on the adds that goes up to 100. Once it reaches 100, they turn into Evolved Dragon things and go around hitting everyone. The point of it is that party members have to take turns breaking the beams and keeping the adds from reaching 100 stacks. The members also have to worry about making sure they let the stacks fall off when they're not in the beams or else they will turn into dragon things and be mind controlled. The dragon things can still be CC'd.

We first tried splitting the tank and melee dps taking turns interrupting one beam, while the healer and the range DPS take turns interrupting the other beam. It worked ok, but we couldn't find the right balance of being in the beam, and being out of the beam to let the stacks fall off. On our last try, the ranged add turned into a dragon thing and the tank just picked it up. The four of us then focused on making sure the other add didn't get a 100 stacks. I think this strategy might be the best for PUGs, as its less complicated, with more margin for error. In heroic I'm not sure it'll be an option because I'm sure the adds will hit much harder.

Karsh Steelbender

This fight is actually pretty easy if done SLOWLY, and extremely difficult if done too quickly. The big mechanic is that the tank has to put the boss inside this lava flow, in order to make it damage-able. But while its in the lava, everyone takes alot of damage every second. The trick is to put the boss in the laval for 3-4 seconds and then pull him out and let the healer catch up on healing. It makes the fight slower, but infinitely easier than just leaving it in and healing/dpsing through it.

At this point we called it a night.

Impressions

The dungeons were awesome. The bosses are much more involved, and generally take much more coordination to down. I can see almost any of these bosses be group killers in a completely random PUG. Specially in PUGs that are used to the AOEfest of Wrath. We did pretty well considering we didn't prepare for the fights. But also, we were on Ventrillo, which helped with calling out things in an emergency. Also this particular group has played together in varying degrees since 2007, so they're pretty used to each other. All in all I can't wait to run more of these, and see how the raids are.

[WoW] Cataclysm First Thoughts

WoW. Vashji'r is pretty amazing. The zones are very vibrant, and the story is pretty compelling so far. I haven't actually read quest text since the release of Wrath ( and even then after Grizzly Hill I stopped reading). This is the frst major high level questing I've done Horde side, and it certainly has a different tone than I remember from questing Alliance. I don't know if thats more because of the expansion or something inherent in the way Horde quests are. I guess I'll find out when I take one of my alliacen toons through Vashji'r also.

Mobs:

The mobs are much heartier than Wrath mobs, by a lot. They hit harder and have much more HP. Take this example, while doing daillies in Icecrown for the Argent Tournament, Hooff had to kill those Twillight Disciples ( or equivalent). Hooff almost always two shot, and at times one-shot those mobs. In Vashji'r Hooff will get through the rotation at least twice before the mob goes down. get 3-4 of the mobs together and I actually have to pay attention and heal myself. A few times I've had to bubble to keep from dying. To be honest, I'm liking it. It really makes you feel like you're going somewhere savage, seeing the change in the mobs.

Professions:

I actually missed out on quite a few skillups because I mistakenly went to Vashji'r BEFORE training up my professions to Illustrious. After hearthing back to Orgrimmar to train my professions I've been keeping an eye out for herbs, as well as skinning anything I can. An unfortunate change is that turning scraps of savage leather into a whole piece of leather now requires a leatherworking ( as opposed to wrath where scraps of borean leather could be combined by anyone).

I'm also selling anything and everything from Vashji'r I can. Learning from my mistakes in Wrath, I'm not stockpiling anything. The thing that seems to sell the best so far is the Embersilk ( Cata equivalent of Frostweave ) cloth. Any and all cloth I put on the AH is snapped up within 5 minutes. The herbs I've gathered are also fetching a pretty penny, though much slower. In Wrath I hoarded everything, so that I would have something to use later. This time I'm going to simply sell everything while the prices are high. Then in a week or two I'll get what I need off the AH for much less, to level whatever professions I want to level.

Gear:

Estimates from WoWInsider said that epic (ilvl 254 ish ) gear should last you well into level 82-83. Either my gear was substandard ( Hooff is in full T10 for Ret, and T9 for Holy ), or their estimates were way off. I've already replaced 3-4 pieces of gear from green quest rewards. It hurts a little to replace a hard one epic with a quest green, but the sheer crazyness of the stats softens the blow a bit.

Ganking:

Since transferring to a PVP server, I've wondered when I would encounter this mythical ganking everyone has been talking about. Up to now I hadn't really been affected by it. Once or twice I would get killed randomly by a passing Alliance on one of my baby triplet casters, but they were few and far between.

With the proximity Alliance and Horde toons were questing in Vashji'r, I was expecting quite a bit more ganking. I think it was the scenery, and the immersiveness of the quests but the factions tended to leave each other alone. At least in the beginning. In the first quest hub the only world PVP that happened was when one toon would use an AOE that would hit a nearby member of the opposing faction. The injured enemy would retaliate and one of them would die. They would rez and be on their merry way. This happened to me once or twice, sometimes it was my fault, sometimes not.

By the second or third quest hub, the PVP picked up a bit. There were actually one or two people working together to kill members of the opposing faction. Still, these didn't last long and people weren't inconvenienced in any major way.

I did find that I am truely horrible as PVP DPS. Part of this was because I tried to Bubble + Lay on Hands, which I found later is no longer possible. Lay on Hands causes, and checks for Forberance.

Other toons:

I did briefly log into my Alliance toons on my old server. I got each of the high level toons Azeroth flying ( 250g, a bargain). I spent a few minutes flying around Stormwind. Its amazing how expansive Stormwind really is. You can't really get a scope of it until you're flying over it. Overall it looks amazing.

I'm not sure when or if I'll ever really level my alliance toons. I'm sure I will eventually, but no idea about a time frame. As for if I'll transfer another character, I'm not sure on that either. I guess it'll depend on how well the guild holds up to raiding. I don't want to transfer a toon and have the guild dry up.

Conclusion

So far I'm really enjoying the story, and taking it slower than I did in Wrath. Hooff is a quarter of a bubble away from level 81, but I was too tired last night "power through it".

[WoW] How To: Cross the Greate Divide

Crossing the Great Divide

If anyone is still wondering how to cross the Great Divide between Northern and Southern Barrens, this is how I did it (assumming you can't fly accross because you have no FPs down there). As Horde, I rode down from Durotar to Ratchet. In Ratchet, I went southwest, around the coast. You'll have to got through some Alliance controlled encapments, but they're pretty easy if your level 30+. If you're less than 30 then its probably not a good idea to be heading down to Southern Barrens as a Horde. I followed this route until I crossed the divide and then high tailed it to the nearest Horde FP, so as to never have to do it again.

[WoW IC] Nuiitari Origin

Adventurer's Log, Journeyman Warlock, Nuiitari

Day 37

Well I arrived in Silvermoon yesterday. Luni came to meet me at the gates. Its a good thing I dismissed Jhuutom before I was in sight of the gate. He was not happy about that, but he's bound to my will, whether he likes it or not. Of course that doesn't prevent him from fighting it. I'm still getting used to asserting my dominion over this new demon, I only first summoned him a week ago. In fact I'm still getting used to controlling all the demons. The Imp is the most annoying, I think he's incapable of shutting up. The voidwalker has been the most... subdued. He's quiet and does as he's told, though I still have to be on my guard, lest I become the minion. The Felguard, Jhuutom or Jhu for short is my newest demon. The Warlock that trained me in summoning him mentioned that its only recently that they've found a way to enable Journeymen Warlocks to summon demon as powerful as a Felguard. Previously you had to be at least an Artisan Warlock to be able to summon such a demon. As the price paid for summoning a felguard at this level, the demon itself is weakend quite a bit. But I was assured that as my power grew, so would all my demons.

It seems strange to write those words now. Just hardly two months ago I was studying to be a Blood Mage back in Sunstrider Isle. That all changed when in a fit of rage, I unconciously summoned . That was startiling to say the least, for the both of us. It was a good thing we were in a semi-deserted courtyard, or else there would have been quite a bit of damage. Magus Sunstriker sheeped the Imp, then blinked away. She blink back again a few seconds later, with Summoner Teli'Larien in tow. Magus Sunstriker removed the sheep spell and Summoner Teli'Larien cast some sort of control spell on the demon, and banished it. Teli'Larien looked at me for a second, nodded to Sunstriker and walked towards her office. Magus Sunstriker motioned for me to follow them, quickly.

The Magus and the Summoner then explained to me that I had a natural connection to the twisting nether. Having an untrained magic-user summon a demon fully, is very rare. Thats when they asked me if I would consider becoming a Warlock. I'd never considered being a Warlock. In idle conversation, Warlocks were regarded as Magi who couldn't resist the temptation of the arcane, and delved too deeply in the darker arts of shadow.

Summoner Teli'Larien said that while Warlocks are more plentiful now than in days past, there are still far fewer Warlocks than Magi. Warlocks are no longer merely fallen Magi, there are students who choose to train to become a Warlock from the start. She did caution me that the way of the Warlock is both thankless, and not for the weak willed. The only thing keeping your dominion over the demons is your force of will. Not only do you have to keep dominion over a demon at all times, you have to keep dominion over 5, at the same time.

The one question I asked her was, is a Warlock inherently more powerful than a Mage. Summoner Teli'Larien cracked a crooked smile and simply replied "No, we're just meaner".

[WoW IC] Nuiitari is here?

Adventurer's Log, Apprentice Blood Mage, Lunitari

Day 36

Nuiitari finally made it to Silvermoon. She wasn't like I was expecting. She wasn't wearing the Apprentice robs that I was given when leaving mage school. In fact she was wearing armor that was worn, as if it had been in battle recently. I didn't mention this too her because she seemed exhausted. So exhausted in fact that she fell asleep shortly after we had dinner. Her sleep didn't seem very restful, she tossed and turned, mumbling softly.

When she was dep in sleep, I sneaked over and "accidentally" knocked one of her bags over. Being the ever caring sister that I am, I gathered her belongings to put back in the bag. Her spellbook was a strange color. It wasn't the deep red, with blue trim that mine is ( again given by the magii at the school). It was a dark violet almost black, with gold trim. I've never seen a spellbook this color before. I didn't dare open it, the spellbook of a magic-user is very personal, and is rarely shared. The more powerful magii were said to cast protection spells around their books. At best they would befuddle a curious on-looker, at worse it could seriously injure or kill a thief. While I don't believe either Nui or I ( or even Soli for that matter ) are powerful enough for something like that, its better to respect this tradition. The only other time I've ever handled a spellbook that wasn't mine was when Soli asked me to hand her her's. That was a pale yellow, with white trim.

Speaking of Soli, she left late yesterday. She mentioned that she might be gone for an extended period this time. She said she's heading to Orgimmar again, by way of Undercity for the Zepplin. She asked if I'd heard from Nui, which at the time I hadn't. I was a bit surprised she asked about Nui. Soli and Nui have never really been close, at best I would consider their relationship, cold. Its not that they ever openly argue about matter ( not since we were small children anyway). When one of them used to give an opinion, it almost seemed like the other simply stopped listening. Ohh well, they're family, and sometimes thats just how family is.

[WoW IC] Shadow

Log of Expert level Priest, Solinari

Day 34

It took me a few days, but I recovered from my little ordeal in Tarren Mill. Rather than shatter my will, I think it has steeled it. I've redoubled my efforts into becoming more powerful. One day I hope to meet that Death Knight again, I won't be as lenient as that Blood Knight.

To that end, I've decided that I need to embrace both aspects of what it means to be a Priest. All my life I had dedicated to healing, and the ways of the Light. Even when protecting myself, I used the blinding aura of Light to intimidate, and when necessary, punish those who would do me harm. With what happened to me at Tarren Mill, I've discovered that while power from the Light is potent for healing, they are simply not meant to hurt. To truely be effective at slaying the evils in Azeroth, I would need to turn to more dark arts.

I made my way to Lady Balestra in Silvermoon, to inquire for training in the ways of Shadow. She didn't seem surprised at my inquiry, I guess in these dark times more followers of the light are looking at effective ways to fight back. She mentioned that there is a way to follow two avenues of the light at the same time, but it takes special training. It also doesn't mean that I will be equally powerful in both aspects, the training would simply allow me to switch which aspects becomes more powerful, after some meditation.

Lady Balestra directed me to Master Aldrae, possibly the most powerful Priest trainer in Silvermoon. He started my training to allow me to switch aspects. The training itself wasn't terribly difficult, though Master Aldrae seemed surprised that I was able to get through it so quickly. We were finished within a few days. Master Aldrae then directed me to Orgrimmar, to study under a Dark Cleric Cecille. He said she would be able to teach me all about being a Shadow Priest.

Shadow Training

Going to see Dark Cleric Cecille was a mixed blessing. I was glad that she was located in Orgrimmar, and not in the Undercity. I was relieved to know that I wouldn't have to spend any more time in Undercity than absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, getting to Orgrimmar involves going through Undercity, plus the Dark Cleric is a Forsaken ( figures ), so it would still be a constant reminder (plus the smell).

Tomorrow I set off for Orgrimmar to start the training. The trip should be quicker because of the extra training I've received in riding. Strut ( my hawkstrider ) received some new armor as well, so he's in fine form.

I've decided NOT to tell Luni about my decision and training. She thinks I'm just going back to adventuring, like before. She's already worried about Nuitarri. Her worry has kept her pre-occupied so I haven't had to lie per-se, but I don't like keeping secrets from her. She doesn't like anything to do with the Arcane, let alone Shadow teachings. I guess she can't help it. I've heard its drilled from the very first day of magecraft to be wary of the Arcane arts, since they so often lead to Shadow magic. Shadow magic being so addictive, many a magii have fallen under its spell never to be the same again. Luni still hasn't told me exactly what happened to Nuitarri, and why she isn't here yet. Maybe on my way to Orgrimmar I'll inquire with a Magii to see if I can find anything.

[WoW] 4.0.3a The Shattering thoughts

I would love to say that the most memorable part of my first night playing after the shattering was the new vistas, or the new classes, or even seeing Deathwing ( which I haven't yet ).

But no, the most memorable part was feeling like a noob.

The biggest contributing factor to this was that I could not figure out how to get anywhere. I was logged into my Solinari, and trying to make my way down to Duskwallow March , on orders from Warchief GARROSH *grumble grumble*. I made my way ( on the regular, non-epic ground mount), through Durotar and over to Northern Barrens. Passed through Crossroads and ended up at the "Great Divide". I followed the divide looking for a way to cross. Asking in chat yielded the usual "Lol jump" answers. Wowhead for once was no help. Someone suggested I fly over, which would be fine if I had any flight paths down there. I made my way over to Ratchet and decided to fly to Thunderbluff and run east to the barrens from there.

After arriving in Thunderbluff, I rode out to Mulgore. Unfortunately the entrance to the barrens from Mulgore now has a huge gate, aptly named "The Great Gate". I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get through it. Frustrated I flew back to Ratchet. I then made my way across the coast and finally made it down past the divide and into Duskwallow Marsh. By then I was too tired to quest, so decided to just level my cooking on my alliance toons.

Sweet potato portion of the cooking, I could not figure out where the Pilgrim's Bounty setup was in darnassus. I thought that since every other city had it outside the city walls, then it should be in Rutheran Village. It was not, someone on Trade said it was at the Exodar. I flew over there, but it wasn't. I could not figure out how to fly back, simply because the flight point had been moved. The hyppogriphs were in the same place, but the flight master was gone. After 15 minutes, someone told me it was INSIDE the exodar now. Of course I should have remembered, since I FLEW INTO Exodar. By this point I was annoyed and just logged off.

Granted quite a few of these were my fault, but it reminds you how annoying getting around was before the Shattrah/Dalaran portals. For high level toons, its not as big of an annoyance, mainly because they already have most of the flight paths. But for people re-running alts, its a major headache. Not that I'm suggesting its a bad move, just something we have to get used to.

Its true though, it does make the world feel bigger, just because you have to run through more of it.

[C++]

Learned something new today.

If you get the "jump to case label" error in g++. This is caused when you don't have brackets in a switch-case but are trying to instantiate variables within the case statement.

switch( num )

{

case 1:

int a;

...

break;

....

Bad.

switch (num)

{

case 1:

{

int a;

....

}

Good.

[WoW] Title to Level

In the stories I try to write, there's really no concept of "level". I can't say in character that I've leveled up or reached a new level. Usually you just say less/more powerful. So I think I've come up with a simple way to express the levels, in a way that people can relate to. I've made a mapping between the profession levels and class levels.

In Wrath, the highest profession skill you can attain is 450. When you start a proffession, you begin at level 1. There are currently 6 proffession levels you train for as you progress: Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, Master and Grand Master ( Cataclysm is introducing Illustrious Grand Master). I've broken up the 80 levels, into these "titles".

Apprentice 1 - 14
Journeyman 15 - 29
Expert 30 - 44
Artisan 45 - 60
Master 61 - 70
Grand Master 71 - 80
Illustrious 81 - 85

Master, Grand Master and Illustrious corresponds to the levels added when that skill as activated. The other 4 levels were divided between the 60 levels in Vanilla. This will mean I'll have to retcon some of my old stories, since Lunitari and Nuitari are still considered Apprentice Magic Users, and Solinari is now an Expert Priest. I'll have to find a way to explain an "Expert" Priest, but that should be fun.

[WoW IC] Unexpected help

Adventurer Log, Solinari, Priest.

Day 15

Spent some time in the Undercity today. Wow, that place was a bit terrifying. There were body parts everywhere, not to mention falling off some of the inhabitants. I think the worst part was the smell, I'm still trying to get it out of my robes. I stayed in Undercity only as long as absolutely needed before venturing to Tarren Mill.

At Tarren Mill I had my first taste of Alliance "hospitality". I was hired by the inn keeper at Tarren Mill to gather some herbs and hunt for some meat. Not the most prestigious instructions, but coin is coin. I was just returning with the meat and herbs when I heard a commotion outside the inn. Outside was an Alliance death knight! The death knight was not in a particularly good mood, judging from the way he was coming after the Forsaken, he seemed rather grumpy. I guess he hasn't quite figured out the difference between Scourge and Forsaken. Strange for a Death Knight to not know the difference, but maybe he just didn't care?

Before today, I'd never actually SEEN a Death Knight before, only descriptions and accounts from survivors of the fall of Silvermoon. They're quite a bit more intimidating in person. In fact they're very intimidating when they're barreling at you on a deathcharger while the guards are 2 strides behind him and losing ground. For a second I considered getting onto my hawkstrider and making a run for it, but from the pace his deathcharger was going, I wouldn't have gotten far.

By instinct alone I cast my go-to protective spell, "Shield" on myself. I knew that the shield would protect me as well as some dried leaves but it was purely instinct at this point. The shield materialized, which looked about as imposing as the dried leaves I mentioned before. At this point I steeled my nerves and willed myself not to look away. If I'm going to die, I'm gonna die facing my opponnent, not cowering away. Before my eyes could shut out the actual blow, I did notice that my shield became much more opaque. For a split second I stood there, waiting for the flash of pain and darkness, but none came. Instead a dull POP was all I heard. Opening my eyes, I saw the death knight's rune blade arching once again for my head. The blade simply deflected as if it had hit pure stone. The death knight himself had a confused look on his face, probably the mirror of my own confusion. The death knight's head shifted ever so slightly over my right shoulder and he took a reactive step backwards.

I turned my head to see what could possibly enlisit such a reaction from a death knight. Behind me was, a Blood Knight. This was no journeyman blood knight, judging by the armor he was wearing, and the way he stood, this was a grizzled veteran. His left hand was extended after having cast a Blessing of Protection ( thus saving me ). In his other hand was the hilt of a huge black battle axe. The axe itself glowed, and seemed to actually BLEED. With the cowel of his helm over his face, he looked like the epitome of a golden warrior out for blood.

This image was not lost on the death knight as he took another step backwards. By then the forsaken guards had closed in and were preparing to deliver their own attack on the death knight. With surprising speed the deathknight leaped to get back on his deathcharger and rode away from the forssaken guards. With the speed of the mount he was able to start putting distance between himself and the forsaken, but not before a few arrows could ding his armor.

When I tured back to thank my savior, he was gone. I caught a brief glimpse of him as he rode off on his own red and gold charger, going the opposite direction. After that turned in my herbs and meat, took the next bat back to Undercity, then headed back to Silvermoon. Usually I would have stayed in Tarren Mill to save on the fare, but all I wanted to be was back in the semi-familiar surroundings of Silvermoon.

Luni met me at the door to our little apartment in Silvermoon. We had dinner, and I told her about the experience. She seemed more frightened than I was. I tend to forget that Luni hasn't been outside the Silvermoon walls yet, so in many ways she's more sheltered than I. I think I'm going to stay in Silvermoon a few days, let me get myself back together.

[WoW IC] Lunitari

Excerpt from the log of Lunitari, Apprentice Blood Mage...

Day 2, Apprentice Mage Log

I left Sunstrider Isle mid-morning yesterday. Currently staying in an inn on the west side of the Ruins of Silvermoon. They've blocked off the East side of the city, no access from this side to the next. Some of the guards mentioned that in order to gain access to the city, adventurers have to cross the dead scar farther down south. They are able to provide protection up to the dead scar, and from the dead scar into Silvermoon proper, but not inside the dead scar.

It took me longer to get here than it should because I stopped to help a few folks out on the road. With the state of the land and everything, we need to really stick together. Also, they were paying some good coin, and my purse is very light. I've saved about 10 silver up to this point. Not a lot, but certainly more than I've ever had at one time. There was no real need for coin at the Mage school, most of our needs were provided for by the school.

Spellcasting has gotten easier with time, I think I'm getting more and more used to the arcane energies. Casting a fireball has become almost second nature now, though i'm embarrased to admit that I occasionally still singe my robes in the attempt. Magister Erona mentioned that as my proficiency with spells increases, I will need to train with more experienced Blood Mages.

I'm told that in the near future I'll have to pick a school of magic to specialization into. I heard about this specialization in mage school as well, but I haven't decided which specializatoin to pick.

From my understanding Fire is the most popular, because of the sheer power of the spells. Unfortunately I've also heard its the most taxing, exacting a heavy toll on the bodies and minds of its practitioners. But for those interested in sheer destructive power, its an attractive school.

Frost is another popular spec, almost being the polar opposite of the Fire specialization. This seems a more controlled specialization, using elemental ice. One of the Magisters at the school gave a demonstration where they could incase both their enemy and themselves in solid blocks of ice!

There's also the third specialization, Arcane. This is a dangerous specialization, especially for Blood Mages. With the Sunwell restored its less of an issue, but you still have to be careful. Delving too much into the Arcane puts us dangerously close to letting the addiction take control. Personally I've never considered this specialization, but I know some who have. Including some that have taken an almost too keen interest in it.

[WoW IC] Back to the bottom.

Correspondence between Solinari, blood elf priesttess and her sister Lunitari, blood mage. Read from the top down.

Greetings Solinari,

As we agreed I will be staying with you in Silvermoon once I complete preliminary training. My instruction will end in 3 days, so I am planning on starting off on the journey within a week, I just need to gather some supplies and tie up some loose ends here. Nuitari will not be joining me, as she has run into ... complications ... with her training. Its a shame, I would have welcomed the company on the trek from Sunstrider Isle to Silvermoon. I've heard from travelers that the route has become especially treacherous in recent months. You would think there would be less scourge in the dead scar, because of the fighting in Northrend, but I guess they have plenty.

As you said, I'm not bringing too much on the trip, basically what I can carry in my backpack. I've brought enough provisions for the trip, plus a little extra in case its needed. When I graduated, one of the magi gave me a small quarter-staff, its my first weapon. I really hope I don't have to use it.

Well that should be it, see you in a week or two!

Sincerly,

- Lunitari

-----

Hi Lunitari,

Its a shame Nuitari isn't going to be joining you. I know you guys were planning on making the journey together for a while. Maybe its a blessing in disguise, the accomidations I've been able to get are... humble. Lodgings are expensive here in Silvermoon. Its not very crowded ( there's not really much of us left ), but everything is still expensive. I think its a throwback from when the city was bustling from before. Some of the innkeepers can't seem to let go.

Speaking of the innkeeper, once you arrive in the city head for the ____ inn, its near the bazaar area. Ask any of the guards, they'll help you. They're mean at first, but a little flirting softens their demeanor quickly. When you get to the inn, we're upstairs and to the left, room 65.

Yours,

- Solinari

-----

Hello Solinari,

Wow I wasn't expecting a letter so quickly. I guess these new mailboxes are pretty quick with the deliveries. I'm guessing someone from the Kirin Tor had something to do with that.

Well anyway, by the time you read this I should be on my way.

Sincerly,

- Luni

WoW Update

Heroic burnout is upon me. I've run so many heroics the past week that I literally cannot stand to be in heroics again for a while. This has lead me to trying to level my Priest ( lv 31 ) and my new baby lock ( lvl 10 ) so that I have something new to do.

Hooff - Retribution
The reason for all this heroic running was to get better gear for Hooff. Hooff now has 4pcT10 for his Retribution set. Unfortunately even with 4pcT10, Hit and Exp capped, he's still only pulling 5k DPS max on the target dummy. That hurts considering that Bob can pull almost 5k DPS in 4pcT9. Both Melee DPS and more specifically Retribution DPS has been crap lately.

I've started to get pretty comfortable with the new Ret rotation. Its more complicated than the previous priority system, but its not super complex. I do still sometimes TV at 2 instead of 3 stacks, or do CS when I have a full 3 stacks of holy power, but its not as common as it used to be.

Looking at Hooff's DPS gear, there are a few things I really need to work on. The non-tier gear is pretty low level, most are from Naxx or OS. This is of course because that was when Hooff was hardcore raiding. A big contributor to the low DPS is probably my weapon. As with most melee classes, the weapon makes a huge difference in DPS, mostly because a lot of the abilities are based on weapon damage. Some classes, such as kitties are based on AP, which weapons seem to have a lot of also. Currently Hooff has the Tyrannical Beheader from Pit of Saron, Scourgelord Tyrannus. Its a good weapon as weapons go, certainly better than any other 2-hander from 5-mans. I'm hoping that maybe there's a PVP option I can grab to raise my DPS.

Pre 4.0.1, ret solo DPS wasn't too great, but it was usually helped with having DS in our rotation. With DS, we had a built in AOE that helped with trash mobs and such. I know DPS on trash doesn't really count for anything, but its still nice to have something to help.

Hooff - Holy

So far I've decided NOT to upgrade Hooff's 4pcT9 set with the t10. I didn't put too much thought into this, it was more of a helper reason for upgrading the Retribution set first. The T10 bonuses are pretty lack luster, especially the 4pc bonus. Because of the way the names of spells have been mixed up, the t9 2pc bonus is actually pretty good. The 4pc T9 bonus is +10% more healing with Flash of Light. Pre-4.0.1 this was to help make flash of light not so weak. Because of the 4.0.1 changes, this effectively boosts our Big+Fast+Expensive heal even higher. With the almost infinite mana pre-cataclysim I use this spell more than almost any other ( Holy Shock + Word of Glory being the other two).

I'm sure that the stats differences between 4pc T9 and 4pc T10 more than make up for this +10% healing but I haven't done that math yet.

Solinari

Solinari just got Shadowform. That plus devouring plague has really stepped up the DPS. I'm able to kill mobs quite a bit faster. Unfortunately I also go OOM much much quicker now as well. This is especially true in dungeons. After a few pulls I'm completely tapped. Also, since a lot of Shadow priest damage is DOTs based, I do very crappy damage on recount. Overall, DPS on this priest has been lackluster. I'm hoping it picks up soon.

Healing on the other hand is pretty fun. There's elements of mitigation ( Power Word:Shield), HOTs ( Renew ) and direct healing ( Flash Heal). Even when I'm almost completely OOM, I can still keep the tank up, because of the synergy between PW:S and Renew. PW:S is really nice, especially when someone's health is dropping like a rock.

Nuiitari

I tried leveling another baby lock. I guess I just can't get away from having a Warlock. It was my first toon, and I just love having one. It took some getting used to having a "guardian" instead of a "minion". For the first few levels your demons are guardians, meaning you don't give them commands. They just attack anything that you attack, or attacks you. It was disconcerting, I kept thinking it was some addons that were malfunctioning.

Over all its harder than I thought to relevel another toon. There's none of the wonder of a new toon, just reminders of how you did this already but are doing it again. I'm planning to level demonology, just so its something different ( leveled Affliction then Destrution previous).

Lunitari

My mage is still the banking alt. I want to level her but the thought of going through the belf starting area AGAIN makes me want to shoot myself. I figure she can wait until after 4.0.3a, so that it'll be new quests and such.