Wow it's been a long time since I've updated. I haven't forgotten you guys, I promise. :-)
Life has been pretty hectic for my husband and myself over the past month or so. Let me give you a little update about our lives before I hit into the real reason for my post today.
Around the beginning of August, I started having really bad pains in the lower left part of my stomach. My doctor blew it off as an inflamed colon and said it would take care of itself and I didn't need to worry about it. However, when the pain didn't go away, he sent me in for an ultrasound to see if there was something else there that might be causing the pain. We found out from the ultrasound that I did indeed have a cyst on my ovary which is what my doctor was thinking, but it was on the right side of my body, and not the left where my pain was. So that left us thinking it's either a kidney stone or a UTI. He put me on an antibiotic to clear up any kind of infection I might have and I started drinking lots of juice in case it was a kidney stone.
Meanwhile, since I have a cyst on my ovary, he recommended I let my gynecologist know and he told me that the hospital recommended I go back for another ultrasound in six weeks to make sure the cyst went away. I did a little reading about cysts and discovered that they do typically go away on their own, but if they get to be in the neighborhood of 5 cm or so, they usually do surgery to remove them. I found out from my gyno that my cyst is 2.9 cm long but she's not that concerned about it. I'm actually going to have another ultrasound in a couple of weeks to make sure it goes away and she switched the meds that I'm taking to see if that helps keep cysts out of my body.
And in case you're wondering, the pain has indeed gone away, so we're thinking whatever I had was an infection of some kind. So yay for no more pain. :-)
Then last week, my husband and I went on vacation with my parents to the beach. We had a great time. A little bit of an emotional rollar coaster because of a few things, but overall, we were able to relax and I really enjoyed spending time with my mom and dad.
However, nothing is ever perfect and the day before we were supposed to leave, my husband wakes up sick at his stomach and discovered he has a kidney stone. Yippee! Thankfully, he was only really sick on Saturday, and was feeling well enough to be able to ride in the car on Sunday for our drive home. He's had a rough couple of days at work, but he's feeling a lot better now and is pretty sure he's passed the stone. So good news there. :-)
As far as the guild goes...well, what can I say. I really don't want to go into details, as I've put the anger and the hurt behind me for the most part, so I'll just say we've had a few people leave while I was on vacation and I'm at the point where I'm having to restructure how things are going to be handled. I've already started working on a game plan for the guild and what I want from it. This next week is definitely going to be testing the waters to see how the guildies I have react and the desires they have and committments they're willing to make. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm hopeful and I know we can bounce back from this.
Now, onto the real reason for my post. I'm going to turn things a little more personal here and ask that those of you who share my faith, pray for me. I mentioned several posts ago that I have a desire on my heart and here, several months later, the desire is still very strong. Strong to the point where I'm actually reading, researching, and finding out more information about this desire. However, my husband still needs some convincing. I've been praying for several weeks now that God would either take the desire from me if it's not His will for my life OR change my husband's heart for it.
I was listening to a podcast this morning about this desire that I have, and something they said made me realize, I'm expecting so much of my husband. I expect him to fully embrace this and jump into it with me, but he's shared a desire of his with me and I'm totally against the idea. God and I are going to talk a little more about that one as I'm still very much against the idea, but I realize now I need to be more open and accepting of my husband's dreams and desires if I expect him to be open to mine. Two way street Tab, two way street.
In any case, please keep us in your prayers for my unspoken prayer request and that a decision can be made one way or another before I go crazy. :-)
And...one last thing I want to talk about before I end my book. hehe Check out this awesome video I found today. I hope it touches your heart as much as it touched mine.
About Me
- Ahtabat
- United States
- Ahtabat - The Scyers - Level 80 Feral Druid
Neeuq - The Scryers - Level 75 BM Huntard
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Not just a Toon
DISCLAIMER: This post is not calling one individual out. There have been several guilty of the rant that follows. If this post is NOT directed at you...then a big huge freaking THANK YOU!!!!!!
So I want to throw this out there to all you non-raid/guild leaders. The person behind the toon...yea, they're a person. Like a real life, living breathing person. And that person...male or female...totally has feelings.
I'm not a prick. I'm really not. I'm a nice person, and especially in WOW. I bend over backwards for people, I give up my time for others, I sacrifice a lot of things to do for my guild. I'm probably a lot better person in wow than I am in real life. And I really do enjoy it. I enjoy giving of myself to better someone else or even just make life a little bit easier for them. It makes me feel good. Makes me feel accomplished. And it really does make me put forth more of an effort in real life.
But I tell ya what. When I'm disrespected...it really pisses me off. When people don't show up for raids, when people show up late for raids with no reason or excuse, when people blow me off or go against the rules we set for the raid and the guild...yea, that really pisses me off. And whether you think it is or not, it's disrespectful. It's a complete lack of respect for the person that put the raid together.
Not everyone has been a raid leader or a guild leader, I get that. But give me a break. Do you have any clue how much of my time outside of wow I sink into getting our raids together each week? A lot. A whole lot. What we do for a couple of hours three times a week, I spend three times that much time putting together assignments, groupings, looking for tips and tricks to make me a better leader, studying our dps to see how to split groups, watching to see what's being upgraded and what's not, putting together gear maps for people, etc. I put a lot of stinking time into doing it. And when you don't show up for a raid you signed up for...or better yet, show up late...yea, that's disrespectful. That shows me that your time is more important than mine. And guess what...it's not. My time is just as valuable as yours. I don't care if you have kids, pets, family you have to take care of, friends, or whatever. My time is the same as yours. We are all equal.
Stop disrespecting me. Stop...now. Or I'm really going to be someone you don't want me to. I was extremely close last night to chewing a few people out, but I held my tongue. And you're really luck I did too because I know I would have hurt some feelings last night. Part of it was because I've lost some sleep and I'm a little grumpy anyway, but I'm getting to the point where I've had enough. Steeper punishment will be coming if it continues, and I don't care who you are.
Get your acts together, get to raids on time, and if you're NOT going to be there, then freaking tell me ahead of time. You have a ton of ways to let me know. If you need my e-mail or my phone # then freaking tell me so I can get it to you. It's not a big deal...it really isn't. But when we get to this point where I'm upset and you're not only disrespecting my time but 24 other people's time...then we have a problem. And you are not going to like me when it's all said and done if the pattern continues. Get your crap together and let's do this. Seriously.
So I want to throw this out there to all you non-raid/guild leaders. The person behind the toon...yea, they're a person. Like a real life, living breathing person. And that person...male or female...totally has feelings.
I'm not a prick. I'm really not. I'm a nice person, and especially in WOW. I bend over backwards for people, I give up my time for others, I sacrifice a lot of things to do for my guild. I'm probably a lot better person in wow than I am in real life. And I really do enjoy it. I enjoy giving of myself to better someone else or even just make life a little bit easier for them. It makes me feel good. Makes me feel accomplished. And it really does make me put forth more of an effort in real life.
But I tell ya what. When I'm disrespected...it really pisses me off. When people don't show up for raids, when people show up late for raids with no reason or excuse, when people blow me off or go against the rules we set for the raid and the guild...yea, that really pisses me off. And whether you think it is or not, it's disrespectful. It's a complete lack of respect for the person that put the raid together.
Not everyone has been a raid leader or a guild leader, I get that. But give me a break. Do you have any clue how much of my time outside of wow I sink into getting our raids together each week? A lot. A whole lot. What we do for a couple of hours three times a week, I spend three times that much time putting together assignments, groupings, looking for tips and tricks to make me a better leader, studying our dps to see how to split groups, watching to see what's being upgraded and what's not, putting together gear maps for people, etc. I put a lot of stinking time into doing it. And when you don't show up for a raid you signed up for...or better yet, show up late...yea, that's disrespectful. That shows me that your time is more important than mine. And guess what...it's not. My time is just as valuable as yours. I don't care if you have kids, pets, family you have to take care of, friends, or whatever. My time is the same as yours. We are all equal.
Stop disrespecting me. Stop...now. Or I'm really going to be someone you don't want me to. I was extremely close last night to chewing a few people out, but I held my tongue. And you're really luck I did too because I know I would have hurt some feelings last night. Part of it was because I've lost some sleep and I'm a little grumpy anyway, but I'm getting to the point where I've had enough. Steeper punishment will be coming if it continues, and I don't care who you are.
Get your acts together, get to raids on time, and if you're NOT going to be there, then freaking tell me ahead of time. You have a ton of ways to let me know. If you need my e-mail or my phone # then freaking tell me so I can get it to you. It's not a big deal...it really isn't. But when we get to this point where I'm upset and you're not only disrespecting my time but 24 other people's time...then we have a problem. And you are not going to like me when it's all said and done if the pattern continues. Get your crap together and let's do this. Seriously.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Reminder
Hey...all you male types out there. Here's a little memo. We females...yea, we totally have feelings.
Try not to forget that.
Seriously, I don't know what it is, but here lately the guys I work with seem to have forgotten that I'm a female and I'm a little more emotional than they are.
So here's a tip. Get your head out of your gludious maximus and treat me with a little respect please. That's all I want. I don't belittle you and treat you like a jerk, so you wanna umm...I don't know...do the same freaking thing for me?
What's amazing is I don't even bite your head off when I get upset like you do me. I actually go cool off first or put in my headset. But here lately I seriously feel like I have to walk on eggshells around some of these guys to keep from setting them off. It's seriously unnerving and a totally uncool environment to walk into every day.
So the next time you get upset at a woman, please try to remember she's a little more emotional than you are and if you're going to talk to her, at least treat her with respect and don't be a prick. She'll thank you for it later...I promise.
And one of these days I'm going to grow some and make these guys that tick me off...yea, I'm going make life hell for them until they learn that. One of these days...
Try not to forget that.
Seriously, I don't know what it is, but here lately the guys I work with seem to have forgotten that I'm a female and I'm a little more emotional than they are.
So here's a tip. Get your head out of your gludious maximus and treat me with a little respect please. That's all I want. I don't belittle you and treat you like a jerk, so you wanna umm...I don't know...do the same freaking thing for me?
What's amazing is I don't even bite your head off when I get upset like you do me. I actually go cool off first or put in my headset. But here lately I seriously feel like I have to walk on eggshells around some of these guys to keep from setting them off. It's seriously unnerving and a totally uncool environment to walk into every day.
So the next time you get upset at a woman, please try to remember she's a little more emotional than you are and if you're going to talk to her, at least treat her with respect and don't be a prick. She'll thank you for it later...I promise.
And one of these days I'm going to grow some and make these guys that tick me off...yea, I'm going make life hell for them until they learn that. One of these days...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Another one of those
So I've really been bragging about my guild a lot lately...and now I'm going to do it again!
Last night, I had more than enough people on to fill a 25 man raid. I actually had to ask if anyone would be willing to sit out so someone else could come in. I can't tell you the last time I've had to do that...oh wait...that would be never! So while that's a really cool thing in my eyes, it's also a pain. I hate having to ask anyone to take a seat on the bleachers to allow for someone else to come in and play. I'd rather do it myself. But Kroff kinda coached me before the raid last night and he felt it was really important that I stay in and be the actual raid leader instead of the coach from the sides. So I stayed. And in the end it worked out. Someone had to leave early so I got to get the person that volunteered to stay out back in the raid and we actually only had one person that's normally with us not in the raid.
So we charged in last night as the beginning of our first week in shortening our 25 man runs to two nights instead of three. My goal was to get at least two wings down and maybe a couple of bosses from another wing. That was my goal. It wasn't too lofty as we've cleared three wings in a single night before.
My goal...yea...they far EXCEEDED my goal last night. 10 bosses...that's right...10. 10 bosses killed in a single night. That's more than half of Naxx. 10. Amazing. Utterly amazing. We downed Spider, Plauge, Military, and Patch. I finally had to call it after Patch before people were going to have to leave before of work and such. But I swear we made awesome time last night!
And...get this...to make the night even better...I had like five or six people get enchants from me after the raid. That's more than doubled from the one or two that would want something. That tells me two things. 1. People are getting upgrades. 2. People care enough about their dps/heals/tanks to make sure they are gemmed and enchanted to the best of their ability so they do the best job possible.
/proud Honestly...I can't get much prouder. The push for content, the push for improving, the flat out FUN we had. I mean, it was just an amazing night.
I'm super excited for Sunday now. We have three bosses in Construct to murder and then the last two guys. My goal...yea my goal is to get all five of those bosses down and go kill another 25 man raid. Exceed my goal again guys...I know you can!
Last night, I had more than enough people on to fill a 25 man raid. I actually had to ask if anyone would be willing to sit out so someone else could come in. I can't tell you the last time I've had to do that...oh wait...that would be never! So while that's a really cool thing in my eyes, it's also a pain. I hate having to ask anyone to take a seat on the bleachers to allow for someone else to come in and play. I'd rather do it myself. But Kroff kinda coached me before the raid last night and he felt it was really important that I stay in and be the actual raid leader instead of the coach from the sides. So I stayed. And in the end it worked out. Someone had to leave early so I got to get the person that volunteered to stay out back in the raid and we actually only had one person that's normally with us not in the raid.
So we charged in last night as the beginning of our first week in shortening our 25 man runs to two nights instead of three. My goal was to get at least two wings down and maybe a couple of bosses from another wing. That was my goal. It wasn't too lofty as we've cleared three wings in a single night before.
My goal...yea...they far EXCEEDED my goal last night. 10 bosses...that's right...10. 10 bosses killed in a single night. That's more than half of Naxx. 10. Amazing. Utterly amazing. We downed Spider, Plauge, Military, and Patch. I finally had to call it after Patch before people were going to have to leave before of work and such. But I swear we made awesome time last night!
And...get this...to make the night even better...I had like five or six people get enchants from me after the raid. That's more than doubled from the one or two that would want something. That tells me two things. 1. People are getting upgrades. 2. People care enough about their dps/heals/tanks to make sure they are gemmed and enchanted to the best of their ability so they do the best job possible.
/proud Honestly...I can't get much prouder. The push for content, the push for improving, the flat out FUN we had. I mean, it was just an amazing night.
I'm super excited for Sunday now. We have three bosses in Construct to murder and then the last two guys. My goal...yea my goal is to get all five of those bosses down and go kill another 25 man raid. Exceed my goal again guys...I know you can!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Goals
A lot of the blogs I've been reading lately, the gm's and raid leaders set goals for their group and strive the group to work toward them. So I've been thinking about doing that with our group. Question is, what do I want from them? Obviously I want everyone to learn their toon. I want people to not just coming into a raid and press 1 repeatedly til the boss dies; I want them to understand their rotations, their gear, how the boss encounters work, how to make the most out of their toon and their class. I want them to understand what exactly they bring to the raid. I'm pushing for that right now. And believe you me, I know every single person in our guild is capable of that. Yea, there are some who aren't catching on like I'd like them to, but I know everyone can be that amazing character that other guilds are envious of. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to push people for this so I can show them off. Heaven knows I could care less about having the best of the best in my guild. I want them to reach their full potential because in the end, THEY are the ones who are proud of themselves. I've seen it happen before. You pull someone up out of a spot, maybe they've never raided before, maybe they've never known x about their class, or what have you. You go over a few things with them, you take them raiding, explaining as you go, and bam! totally new person at the end of the day. Seeing the excitement, yea, it's awesome. There's no better feeling than that.
Anyway, kind of got off on a tangent there. So below I've set some realistic goals for my group. Goals that I know we can obtain and goals I'm giving us about a month and a half to reach.
1. I want all dps pushing 3k. Now I know some of this comes from gear or lack there of in some cases, but I really believe some is partly due to spec choices and gear choices. Having these classes classes is helping in this goal, but I'm really going to push my guys to do this. I want everyone carrying their weight in raids and right now some of my higher ups are definitely carrying the lower dps. And right now, that's not too bad, but it's not going to cut it in Ulduar and later dungeons.
2. I want to cut my healers overhealing down to less than 30%. First I want to concentrate on dps so we can beat enrage timers, but overhealing has been bad lately. The last combat log we did, overhealing was 50% across the board. That's awful. I know a lot of it has to do with the paladins and their lack of dots. I'm no expert on healing, but I'd think there must be something we can do for that. Hopefully when we have the paly class, our teacher has some ideas for us.
3. I want to be in Ulduar 25 by the beginning of September. As I said before, I really want to push my guys. I want them in Ulduar 25 by the beginning of September. That gives us a little over a month to push our way to farm on Naxx 25 and start learning the fights in Ulduar 10. We're already behind in Ulduar (not to other guilds but to beating the next patch). I want to get us in there and going so we're better prepared when the next dungeon comes out.
4. I want everyone to learn what 'on time and prepared' means. Right now I have a few people who are sitting at the stone half an hour ahead of raid ready to go. Then I have some guys who are consistently late or never show. Punishments aren't too heavy right now. Sometimes they get left out, sometimes they get lucky and there's a spot open. But I really want my guys to learn dedication. I know real life happens, and we've always been full supporters that real life comes first, but I know people can learn to respect the 24 others that are waiting on them by being on time and ready to go.
I really think giving my guys those four goals to shoot for, we'll see the raids significatly improve. I've already seen them improve since we first started out. A lot of it has to do with me getting my act together and being a better raid leader. I strive very hard to be a positive, influencial leader and I'm getting there. I've still got some work to do though. :-)
Anyway, kind of got off on a tangent there. So below I've set some realistic goals for my group. Goals that I know we can obtain and goals I'm giving us about a month and a half to reach.
1. I want all dps pushing 3k. Now I know some of this comes from gear or lack there of in some cases, but I really believe some is partly due to spec choices and gear choices. Having these classes classes is helping in this goal, but I'm really going to push my guys to do this. I want everyone carrying their weight in raids and right now some of my higher ups are definitely carrying the lower dps. And right now, that's not too bad, but it's not going to cut it in Ulduar and later dungeons.
2. I want to cut my healers overhealing down to less than 30%. First I want to concentrate on dps so we can beat enrage timers, but overhealing has been bad lately. The last combat log we did, overhealing was 50% across the board. That's awful. I know a lot of it has to do with the paladins and their lack of dots. I'm no expert on healing, but I'd think there must be something we can do for that. Hopefully when we have the paly class, our teacher has some ideas for us.
3. I want to be in Ulduar 25 by the beginning of September. As I said before, I really want to push my guys. I want them in Ulduar 25 by the beginning of September. That gives us a little over a month to push our way to farm on Naxx 25 and start learning the fights in Ulduar 10. We're already behind in Ulduar (not to other guilds but to beating the next patch). I want to get us in there and going so we're better prepared when the next dungeon comes out.
4. I want everyone to learn what 'on time and prepared' means. Right now I have a few people who are sitting at the stone half an hour ahead of raid ready to go. Then I have some guys who are consistently late or never show. Punishments aren't too heavy right now. Sometimes they get left out, sometimes they get lucky and there's a spot open. But I really want my guys to learn dedication. I know real life happens, and we've always been full supporters that real life comes first, but I know people can learn to respect the 24 others that are waiting on them by being on time and ready to go.
I really think giving my guys those four goals to shoot for, we'll see the raids significatly improve. I've already seen them improve since we first started out. A lot of it has to do with me getting my act together and being a better raid leader. I strive very hard to be a positive, influencial leader and I'm getting there. I've still got some work to do though. :-)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Kel Kill
My guild, the awesome bunch that they are, killed Kel last night for the first time!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so proud of them. :-) We've been waiting for a while for this and last night we did it. I'm totally confident that we can down him again and again and again now. My goal is to fine tune our two nights that we've been going and be able to do a full clear in two nights of raiding. We're starting ten man Ulduar next week so I want to be able to get Naxx on farm the other two nights we're raiding 25 mans. As soon as Kel's on farm status, into Ulduar 25 we go! I'm completely excited about what lies ahead.
I really think after last night's kill that the morale boosted 100% in the guild. Now they've seen they can kill him. I've been telling them that for weeks, but now they know they can do it so things will be a lot better from here on out. :-)
That's really all there is from me today. I'm totally proud of my guildies and their accomplishment. :-) Way to go guys!
I really think after last night's kill that the morale boosted 100% in the guild. Now they've seen they can kill him. I've been telling them that for weeks, but now they know they can do it so things will be a lot better from here on out. :-)
That's really all there is from me today. I'm totally proud of my guildies and their accomplishment. :-) Way to go guys!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Summer
It's one of those days today. I feel pulled in a thousand different directions...but not in a bad way. I've definitely got a lot on my mind, but I don't really feel stressed.
A friend is going to hit 80 today and Kroff and I have plans to go dungeon romping with him tonight. I'm excited for that. Not really the dungeon romping per say, but the spending time with friends and not worrying about hitting some sort of goal or keeping up with everyone.
Work hasn't been too bad today. It's been busy enough to keep me off the internet, and I have plenty to do come Monday. No cranky customers, and no rude co-workers thus far.
Tomorrow is our company summer party and everyone's excited about that. I myself am looking forward to it. It'll be nice to get out of the house after spending so much time at home this week.
A co-worker gave me a lot of her old clothes, some that have never been worn before, to go through and see if I like anything. I think I'm going to call up Jules and see if she's interested in going through them with me and seeing if she likes anything. There's a ton there and I know I won't want to keep it all. :-P
I'm also excited about the raid Sunday. Wednesday night was a good run. Little bit of drama, but other than that I think there was a good time had by all. We only got one wing down, but I have high hopes for Sunday's run. There's already 21 people on the calendar and it's just Friday. That's a good sign. :-)
I feel a lot better after kinda confessing some things to the raid Wednesday too. I'm coming at this whole raid leading thing from a different approach this time. I'm going to try to engage everyone in conversation and get them talking and sharing ideas. If we can do that without biting each others heads off, hopefully the runs will go a lot smoother and our time in Ulduar will be better spent learning the fights instead of learning each other.
All in all, I'm excited about the next few days. It's going to be good times all around. :-)
A friend is going to hit 80 today and Kroff and I have plans to go dungeon romping with him tonight. I'm excited for that. Not really the dungeon romping per say, but the spending time with friends and not worrying about hitting some sort of goal or keeping up with everyone.
Work hasn't been too bad today. It's been busy enough to keep me off the internet, and I have plenty to do come Monday. No cranky customers, and no rude co-workers thus far.
Tomorrow is our company summer party and everyone's excited about that. I myself am looking forward to it. It'll be nice to get out of the house after spending so much time at home this week.
A co-worker gave me a lot of her old clothes, some that have never been worn before, to go through and see if I like anything. I think I'm going to call up Jules and see if she's interested in going through them with me and seeing if she likes anything. There's a ton there and I know I won't want to keep it all. :-P
I'm also excited about the raid Sunday. Wednesday night was a good run. Little bit of drama, but other than that I think there was a good time had by all. We only got one wing down, but I have high hopes for Sunday's run. There's already 21 people on the calendar and it's just Friday. That's a good sign. :-)
I feel a lot better after kinda confessing some things to the raid Wednesday too. I'm coming at this whole raid leading thing from a different approach this time. I'm going to try to engage everyone in conversation and get them talking and sharing ideas. If we can do that without biting each others heads off, hopefully the runs will go a lot smoother and our time in Ulduar will be better spent learning the fights instead of learning each other.
All in all, I'm excited about the next few days. It's going to be good times all around. :-)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Blogs, Blogs and More Blogs
I have been reading BBB for quite some time now. I find him to be funny, entertaining, and incredibly informative on all things Bear. For the past couple of months, I found a little treasure that is a noob that I've come to enjoy. BBB linked to him one day and I've been hooked since.
Yesterday I stumbled a cross a couple of other little treasures that I will slip into my daily reading. One is after my own heart. Casual Raid Leader is definitely a blog I'll be reading for advice and comfort when I'm at my wit's end over my guild.
And another fun blog I ran upon yesterday: No Stock UI. This is something to check from time to time for updates on awesome addons.
There are many others out there but those are the ones I check most often. I highly recommend looking for blogs about your class. I tend to gravitate toward bear blogs because...well...I are one. I also tend to gravitate towards gm/raid leader blogs...because I are one of those too. And if you put them both together...well that's just perfect for me!
So get out there and look for blogs for your class. I promise you there are tons of them. It may take you a while to find good ones, people that update often, and/or good, solid advice and information, but when you do, keep up with them. These are the kind of people that have the motivation I lack to keep good information coming your alls way.
Honestly, I don't have time to study and learn the inner works of each and every class. Heck, I don't even know about resto druids or boomkins and I know very little about kitty. But I can tell you anything and everything you want to know about bear tanks because I put my all into being the best tank I can be and knowing is half the battle.
Good luck in your blogging hunt!
Yesterday I stumbled a cross a couple of other little treasures that I will slip into my daily reading. One is after my own heart. Casual Raid Leader is definitely a blog I'll be reading for advice and comfort when I'm at my wit's end over my guild.
And another fun blog I ran upon yesterday: No Stock UI. This is something to check from time to time for updates on awesome addons.
There are many others out there but those are the ones I check most often. I highly recommend looking for blogs about your class. I tend to gravitate toward bear blogs because...well...I are one. I also tend to gravitate towards gm/raid leader blogs...because I are one of those too. And if you put them both together...well that's just perfect for me!
So get out there and look for blogs for your class. I promise you there are tons of them. It may take you a while to find good ones, people that update often, and/or good, solid advice and information, but when you do, keep up with them. These are the kind of people that have the motivation I lack to keep good information coming your alls way.
Honestly, I don't have time to study and learn the inner works of each and every class. Heck, I don't even know about resto druids or boomkins and I know very little about kitty. But I can tell you anything and everything you want to know about bear tanks because I put my all into being the best tank I can be and knowing is half the battle.
Good luck in your blogging hunt!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Yes I know
I'm a terrible updater. :-P I've been reminded.
Okay so today's blog is going to start out with a link to another blog. This is how I feel. That's it in a nutshell.
I feel like my raid is burned. Attendance has dropped. Content that should be on farm isn't. And morale is low.
And me...well...I have no clue what to do to fix it.
I know real life happens. I know work schedules change, husbands and wives have kids to attend to, dogs need to be let out, food needs to be eaten at dinner time, and crap just happens.
But seriously...for the past couple of weeks I've had to pug every single raid. What happened?
My guild tells me they want in Ulduar. I want in Ulduar and I want to get us there as a guild. But we can't even get Naxx on farm status. Correction...we won't get Naxx on farm status. We can...I know without a shadow of a doubt that we can. The problem is just doing it.
Last night we got to Kel and consistently got him to 20% or so with 5 pugs in the raid...FIVE pugs. That's incredible. And did I mention a lot of our guys were melee? Yea...we did freaking awesome!
Now why can't we do that every week?
I'm at a complete loss as what I need to do to get my guys fired up again. Do I take another week off again? Sometimes that helps and sometimes it doesn't. Do we have a guild meeting to try and raise morale? I just had one of those a couple weeks ago and it didn't really help too much. Do I implement a dkp system to reward attendance and consistent good runs? I hate dkp...like, with a passion.
So what do I do? Maybe I should call raiding altogether. Maybe if the guild didn't run anything we could get back to being a family again and just enjoy one another. But I'm afraid I'll lose people if I do that.
/sigh
Okay so today's blog is going to start out with a link to another blog. This is how I feel. That's it in a nutshell.
I feel like my raid is burned. Attendance has dropped. Content that should be on farm isn't. And morale is low.
And me...well...I have no clue what to do to fix it.
I know real life happens. I know work schedules change, husbands and wives have kids to attend to, dogs need to be let out, food needs to be eaten at dinner time, and crap just happens.
But seriously...for the past couple of weeks I've had to pug every single raid. What happened?
My guild tells me they want in Ulduar. I want in Ulduar and I want to get us there as a guild. But we can't even get Naxx on farm status. Correction...we won't get Naxx on farm status. We can...I know without a shadow of a doubt that we can. The problem is just doing it.
Last night we got to Kel and consistently got him to 20% or so with 5 pugs in the raid...FIVE pugs. That's incredible. And did I mention a lot of our guys were melee? Yea...we did freaking awesome!
Now why can't we do that every week?
I'm at a complete loss as what I need to do to get my guys fired up again. Do I take another week off again? Sometimes that helps and sometimes it doesn't. Do we have a guild meeting to try and raise morale? I just had one of those a couple weeks ago and it didn't really help too much. Do I implement a dkp system to reward attendance and consistent good runs? I hate dkp...like, with a passion.
So what do I do? Maybe I should call raiding altogether. Maybe if the guild didn't run anything we could get back to being a family again and just enjoy one another. But I'm afraid I'll lose people if I do that.
/sigh
Monday, June 29, 2009
Remeber When...
So yea, a while back I promised you guys a Druid PVP post...well today I'm going to attempt to write that one! :-)
Keep in mind, I'm not a PVPer. I've only recently begun PVPing just a little again and taken an interest in arenas. Mainly it's achievements pushing me towards this, but I do enjoy it every once in a blue moon.
So I've picked up the entire Hateful Gladiator set except the helm. I do have a PVP helm, but it's the blue one. I put off upgrading it til last so I can work on getting the off pieces.
With the pieces I have, I'm currently sitting at a whopping 358 resilience. But I only have two pieces gemmed and enchanted and I'm missing all of my off pieces.
Here's what I'm sporting as of right now (minus the helm of course):
The base resilience on these pieces will give me 306 with the set bonus included.
We've got three red gems that we'll throw a [item]Fractured Scarlet Ruby[/item] in to get our Armor Penetration up. Or if we're still struggling on resilience we can put in a [item]Lucent Monarch Topaz[/item] bringing our resilience up 24 points.
For the yellow gems we'll put a [item]Kharmaa's Grace[/item] in and bring our resilience up 40 points.
Blue will be [item]Steady Forest Emerald[/item] bringing us up another 24 points.
Now the meta gets a little trickier. I'm considering the [item]Enfulgent Skyflare Diamond[/item]. Caster's eat me up in pvp so it'd probably be a worthwhile investment. If I don't go that route I'll probably grab a [item]Enigmatic Skyflare Diamond[/item] for the stun reduction.
So there's our gems. We're up to 400 resilience rating. That's a little better...or at least we're headed in the right direction. Let's look at enchants.
For our helm we have [item]Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator[/item] bringing our resilience up 25.
Our shoulders will use [item]Inscription of Triumph[/item] adding another 15 to resil.
Cloak doesn't have a resil enchant, so I'll probably just stick to my 20 agility enchant.
Chest is a no brainer with [item]Enchant Chest - Exceptional Resilience[/item] adding 20 to resil.
For bracers you have a couple of options. Six to all stats is a good choice or major stamina, depending on if you're trying to make up some lost health. Either way, no resilience options for bracers.
Same thing with gloves. No resilience enchants, so we'll go for agility or stam depending on what you need more.
Don't forget to grab a socket adder to waist and throw a [item]Kharmaa's Grace[/item] in there to add 20 resil.
Legs will need to have a [item]Earthen Leg Armor[/item] kit on them to add 40 resil to our set.
For feet I'm probably going to stick with [item]Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality[/item] for the crit.
Since I'm an enchanter, I get to add lovely enchants to my rings. I'll probably stick with the 4 to all stats and not fiddle with the stam. But the options there if you need it.
Weapon is going to be another tricky one. Until I find better, I'll probably just stick with Mongoose.
We're up to 540 resilience now. Much, much better. :-)
Now let's look at our other pieces and see where our total will end.
For the weapon, I'm hoping to pick up [item]Deadly Gladiator's Staff[/item]. That'll add 84 to our resilience and I wont' have to use arena points to get it. :-)
There's a couple of options for neck. [item]Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Triumph[/item] or [item]Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Victory[/item]. One has more hit, one had more crit, but both give 34 resil.
The same is true of the cloak. One is for hit, one has crit, but both of them give us 38 resilience.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Armwraps of Triumph[/item] give us 37 resilience.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Belt of Triumph[/item] gives us 49 resilience as well as another blue socket to throw a [item]Steady Forest Emerald[/item] in it to add another 8 resil.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Boots of Triumph[/item] gives us 49 resilience plus a yellow socket to put another [item]Kharmaa's Embrace[/item] in it to add another 20.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Band of Triumph[/item] x 2 gives us 74.
For our trinkets, I'm personally going to try and pick up [item]Medallion of the Horde[/item] which won't give us resil, but is a definite must for pvp. As well as [item]Platinum Discs of Battle[/item] which gives us 95 resil.
We're at a grand total of 1028 resilience.
According to Elitist Jerks, the cap for reducing your chance to be crit has a cap of 1229.62. So we're still a little ways off, but really dog gone close. And none of that that's listed is arena gear. It's all purchaseable with badges and/or honor and Stone Keeper Shards.
Hope that helps all you PVP junkies out there. :-)
Keep in mind, I'm not a PVPer. I've only recently begun PVPing just a little again and taken an interest in arenas. Mainly it's achievements pushing me towards this, but I do enjoy it every once in a blue moon.
So I've picked up the entire Hateful Gladiator set except the helm. I do have a PVP helm, but it's the blue one. I put off upgrading it til last so I can work on getting the off pieces.
With the pieces I have, I'm currently sitting at a whopping 358 resilience. But I only have two pieces gemmed and enchanted and I'm missing all of my off pieces.
Here's what I'm sporting as of right now (minus the helm of course):
The base resilience on these pieces will give me 306 with the set bonus included.
We've got three red gems that we'll throw a [item]Fractured Scarlet Ruby[/item] in to get our Armor Penetration up. Or if we're still struggling on resilience we can put in a [item]Lucent Monarch Topaz[/item] bringing our resilience up 24 points.
For the yellow gems we'll put a [item]Kharmaa's Grace[/item] in and bring our resilience up 40 points.
Blue will be [item]Steady Forest Emerald[/item] bringing us up another 24 points.
Now the meta gets a little trickier. I'm considering the [item]Enfulgent Skyflare Diamond[/item]. Caster's eat me up in pvp so it'd probably be a worthwhile investment. If I don't go that route I'll probably grab a [item]Enigmatic Skyflare Diamond[/item] for the stun reduction.
So there's our gems. We're up to 400 resilience rating. That's a little better...or at least we're headed in the right direction. Let's look at enchants.
For our helm we have [item]Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator[/item] bringing our resilience up 25.
Our shoulders will use [item]Inscription of Triumph[/item] adding another 15 to resil.
Cloak doesn't have a resil enchant, so I'll probably just stick to my 20 agility enchant.
Chest is a no brainer with [item]Enchant Chest - Exceptional Resilience[/item] adding 20 to resil.
For bracers you have a couple of options. Six to all stats is a good choice or major stamina, depending on if you're trying to make up some lost health. Either way, no resilience options for bracers.
Same thing with gloves. No resilience enchants, so we'll go for agility or stam depending on what you need more.
Don't forget to grab a socket adder to waist and throw a [item]Kharmaa's Grace[/item] in there to add 20 resil.
Legs will need to have a [item]Earthen Leg Armor[/item] kit on them to add 40 resil to our set.
For feet I'm probably going to stick with [item]Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality[/item] for the crit.
Since I'm an enchanter, I get to add lovely enchants to my rings. I'll probably stick with the 4 to all stats and not fiddle with the stam. But the options there if you need it.
Weapon is going to be another tricky one. Until I find better, I'll probably just stick with Mongoose.
We're up to 540 resilience now. Much, much better. :-)
Now let's look at our other pieces and see where our total will end.
For the weapon, I'm hoping to pick up [item]Deadly Gladiator's Staff[/item]. That'll add 84 to our resilience and I wont' have to use arena points to get it. :-)
There's a couple of options for neck. [item]Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Triumph[/item] or [item]Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Victory[/item]. One has more hit, one had more crit, but both give 34 resil.
The same is true of the cloak. One is for hit, one has crit, but both of them give us 38 resilience.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Armwraps of Triumph[/item] give us 37 resilience.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Belt of Triumph[/item] gives us 49 resilience as well as another blue socket to throw a [item]Steady Forest Emerald[/item] in it to add another 8 resil.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Boots of Triumph[/item] gives us 49 resilience plus a yellow socket to put another [item]Kharmaa's Embrace[/item] in it to add another 20.
[item]Deadly Gladiator's Band of Triumph[/item] x 2 gives us 74.
For our trinkets, I'm personally going to try and pick up [item]Medallion of the Horde[/item] which won't give us resil, but is a definite must for pvp. As well as [item]Platinum Discs of Battle[/item] which gives us 95 resil.
We're at a grand total of 1028 resilience.
According to Elitist Jerks, the cap for reducing your chance to be crit has a cap of 1229.62. So we're still a little ways off, but really dog gone close. And none of that that's listed is arena gear. It's all purchaseable with badges and/or honor and Stone Keeper Shards.
Hope that helps all you PVP junkies out there. :-)
Friday, June 19, 2009
Patch Time is Upon Us
It's that time again. The glorious day of a new patch awaits us not far on the horizon. I'm really excited about this one. Usually I dread patches and they inevitably make silly changes to classes and abilities, however this one is not that bad. Druids are getting a slight nerf with some of the cat abilities, but it's not too terrible. I'd say it has a lot to do with feral druids easily hitting 5k dps in most of the raid dungeons.
I'm really excited about the new druid skins. Nothing new for Boomkins and Trees yet, but from what they say it won't be too far off. Night elves still look amazingly better than Taurens, but the new forms are a vast improvement from the old, so I'm very excited.
Along with the patch comes new dungeons, new raids, new mounts, tabards, vanity pets, and achievement's galore! Definitely a lot to look forward to. This also means I'm going to have to get my rearend in gear and get the mounts, pets, and tabards from the current tournament quests so I'm not too far behind on the new content.
I'm currently sitting at 77 of 101 possible pets. Not too bad if I do say so myself. I'd, of course, like it to be higher, but I'm getting down to only the pets I have to farm again and I'm really dreading that.
The new patch is also bring a few interface changes which could be very neat. One of the things is a in-game item comparision. If this works the way I hope, there's one last add-on I'll have to worry about updating at patch time.
Fishing's getting a new item available as a reward from the dailies. 100 gold for a grey item? Bring it on!
Cooking is getting a few nice changes. The Chef's Hat, a worthless item except for the ach before, now allows players to cook faster while wearing. That's pretty neat. At least it does something.
Mounts are now available at lower levels and a few have had their speed increased. That's definitely good news for alt lovers. They're also lowering the gold required for training and purchasing mounts as well as including mounts in faction discounts. Too bad I already rounded up all those! :-( Mounts are also down from a 3 second cast to a 1.5 second cast.
Players can now get experience from battlegrounds. Good news for PVP lovers.
They're also adding in an available 'turn off experience' for a 10 gold fee. Now this could be pretty cool, especially for those who like to raid old world content and those who like to have twinks for pvp. The way I understand it is you pay a fee to this dude, he turns off your experience, then you go on your merry way to gain no more xp. If you decide you would like to lvl some more, you go back to said dude, pay 10 gold, he turns xp back on and you go on your merry way to lvl. You will not receive anything for xp you might have missed while you were in 'no xp mode'.
Pretty neat idea. I guess we'll see how it plays out.
Also new mailboxes, ports, and flight paths. I'm definitely excited they're adding in a port to the Dark Portal. That will make me go finish out my BC reps fo' sho'.
We're also getting a new Children's week in Dal. Woo hoo! Does this mean three more years before we can own all those pets? I suspect so!
That's not everything. For a completely list check out Wow Insider's list here or visit Wow's website and check out the PTR notes.
The future looks bright friends!
I'm really excited about the new druid skins. Nothing new for Boomkins and Trees yet, but from what they say it won't be too far off. Night elves still look amazingly better than Taurens, but the new forms are a vast improvement from the old, so I'm very excited.
Along with the patch comes new dungeons, new raids, new mounts, tabards, vanity pets, and achievement's galore! Definitely a lot to look forward to. This also means I'm going to have to get my rearend in gear and get the mounts, pets, and tabards from the current tournament quests so I'm not too far behind on the new content.
I'm currently sitting at 77 of 101 possible pets. Not too bad if I do say so myself. I'd, of course, like it to be higher, but I'm getting down to only the pets I have to farm again and I'm really dreading that.
The new patch is also bring a few interface changes which could be very neat. One of the things is a in-game item comparision. If this works the way I hope, there's one last add-on I'll have to worry about updating at patch time.
Fishing's getting a new item available as a reward from the dailies. 100 gold for a grey item? Bring it on!
Cooking is getting a few nice changes. The Chef's Hat, a worthless item except for the ach before, now allows players to cook faster while wearing. That's pretty neat. At least it does something.
Mounts are now available at lower levels and a few have had their speed increased. That's definitely good news for alt lovers. They're also lowering the gold required for training and purchasing mounts as well as including mounts in faction discounts. Too bad I already rounded up all those! :-( Mounts are also down from a 3 second cast to a 1.5 second cast.
Players can now get experience from battlegrounds. Good news for PVP lovers.
They're also adding in an available 'turn off experience' for a 10 gold fee. Now this could be pretty cool, especially for those who like to raid old world content and those who like to have twinks for pvp. The way I understand it is you pay a fee to this dude, he turns off your experience, then you go on your merry way to gain no more xp. If you decide you would like to lvl some more, you go back to said dude, pay 10 gold, he turns xp back on and you go on your merry way to lvl. You will not receive anything for xp you might have missed while you were in 'no xp mode'.
Pretty neat idea. I guess we'll see how it plays out.
Also new mailboxes, ports, and flight paths. I'm definitely excited they're adding in a port to the Dark Portal. That will make me go finish out my BC reps fo' sho'.
We're also getting a new Children's week in Dal. Woo hoo! Does this mean three more years before we can own all those pets? I suspect so!
That's not everything. For a completely list check out Wow Insider's list here or visit Wow's website and check out the PTR notes.
The future looks bright friends!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
So Yea
I have the most amazing group of people ever! I gotta say my guys are awesome!
I told you that we ran a ten man Naxx the other day and while a couple of people had to go, most of the group stayed the entire run, and didn't complain. Not once did they want to give up or go home. They stayed and toughed it out and we got everything but stupid Kel down. grrr we're coming for you Kel!
So last night we charged back into 25 man Naxx with a few of our out of guild friends and we got everything but Thaddius and the last two guys down. We consistently got Thad down to around 5% or so but we just couldn't finish him off before the enrage timer. We ended up going about 50 minutes past raid time because everyone wanted to keep going. Even when I called it I still had a few that wanted to keep pressing on. I'm so extremely proud of you guys. You're hard work and dedication this past week has definitely been very refreshing for your GM.
And to top it all off, one of the officers from Karaviri was very impressed with you all. He said I had an awesome group of people and he was very honored to have run with us and would gladly run again if we needed him. That makes me smile. :-) I'm very happy that you guys were impressive enough to want pugs to come join us again...and not just because we made progress, but because of our attitudes. Because you all didn't bicker and fight, you stayed positive, gave it your all, and kept going back even after the wipes. That is what raidings all about and for others to see that too, well that's awesome for me! Nothing makes a leader happier than watching her family be successful and happy in whatever they do.
You also had another outsider say that our crew was the best raid she's ever been to that not only progressed but that she was actually enjoying being in. THAT'S awesome! I don't know if you guys realize it or not, but it really is.
I can't sing enough praises of you guys. I'm thrilled that you all did so well this week. We got everything but THREE bosses down! That's awesome! We did it with pugs, which is even more amazing! AND you had an awesome attitude the entire time, even after all the wipes. I'm so proud of you all.
Keep it strong Sacred Pack!
and...I <3 you Lil....:-)
I told you that we ran a ten man Naxx the other day and while a couple of people had to go, most of the group stayed the entire run, and didn't complain. Not once did they want to give up or go home. They stayed and toughed it out and we got everything but stupid Kel down. grrr we're coming for you Kel!
So last night we charged back into 25 man Naxx with a few of our out of guild friends and we got everything but Thaddius and the last two guys down. We consistently got Thad down to around 5% or so but we just couldn't finish him off before the enrage timer. We ended up going about 50 minutes past raid time because everyone wanted to keep going. Even when I called it I still had a few that wanted to keep pressing on. I'm so extremely proud of you guys. You're hard work and dedication this past week has definitely been very refreshing for your GM.
And to top it all off, one of the officers from Karaviri was very impressed with you all. He said I had an awesome group of people and he was very honored to have run with us and would gladly run again if we needed him. That makes me smile. :-) I'm very happy that you guys were impressive enough to want pugs to come join us again...and not just because we made progress, but because of our attitudes. Because you all didn't bicker and fight, you stayed positive, gave it your all, and kept going back even after the wipes. That is what raidings all about and for others to see that too, well that's awesome for me! Nothing makes a leader happier than watching her family be successful and happy in whatever they do.
You also had another outsider say that our crew was the best raid she's ever been to that not only progressed but that she was actually enjoying being in. THAT'S awesome! I don't know if you guys realize it or not, but it really is.
I can't sing enough praises of you guys. I'm thrilled that you all did so well this week. We got everything but THREE bosses down! That's awesome! We did it with pugs, which is even more amazing! AND you had an awesome attitude the entire time, even after all the wipes. I'm so proud of you all.
Keep it strong Sacred Pack!
and...I <3 you Lil....:-)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Raiding and the Like
I have to say, this past week my guild has been awesome! Wednesday night was a fantastic turn out for us and we blasted through wings of Naxx and attempted the new boss in Vault. It was a great run all in all and we only had two pugs with us. (Thanks to Twilight's Call for helping us out!)
Saturday I took ten of through Naxx10. We had a great time. A couple of people took alts and the rest took mains. We had to stop a couple of times to switch out some folks and I even healed! Crazy I know! We ran through and cleared everything but Kel. I was really impressed. We could have had him but it was getting late and we had already spent a good 6+ hours in there so I think everyone was getting exhausted. I'm thoroughly impressed that everyone wanted to keep going though. Every time we'd loose someone I'd ask if they wanted to call it or keep going and everytime everyone wanted to keep going. It's truly a remarkable thing to get 10 people together that want to keep pressing on. I'm impressed guys. :-)
Last night was another awesome night for us. We had to pug 6 people all together. (Thanks Karaviri and Family til the End for helping us out!) We downed four bosses leaving us only three left for tonight before the last two guys. We had a little bit of trouble on Four Horsemen. I'll take the blame for a lot of it. I had never done the fight the way they were wanting to so learning to lead it was a new thing. But they were patient with me and I was patient with them and we got through it and now I know how to lead a new fight and my guild knows another strat for those guys. :-)
I truly had a blast last night as I hope everyone else did as well. :-) Many thanks again for those that filled in for us. We love you guys and are happy to have you as part of our extended family. :-)
Oh and I <3 you Lil! :-P
Saturday I took ten of through Naxx10. We had a great time. A couple of people took alts and the rest took mains. We had to stop a couple of times to switch out some folks and I even healed! Crazy I know! We ran through and cleared everything but Kel. I was really impressed. We could have had him but it was getting late and we had already spent a good 6+ hours in there so I think everyone was getting exhausted. I'm thoroughly impressed that everyone wanted to keep going though. Every time we'd loose someone I'd ask if they wanted to call it or keep going and everytime everyone wanted to keep going. It's truly a remarkable thing to get 10 people together that want to keep pressing on. I'm impressed guys. :-)
Last night was another awesome night for us. We had to pug 6 people all together. (Thanks Karaviri and Family til the End for helping us out!) We downed four bosses leaving us only three left for tonight before the last two guys. We had a little bit of trouble on Four Horsemen. I'll take the blame for a lot of it. I had never done the fight the way they were wanting to so learning to lead it was a new thing. But they were patient with me and I was patient with them and we got through it and now I know how to lead a new fight and my guild knows another strat for those guys. :-)
I truly had a blast last night as I hope everyone else did as well. :-) Many thanks again for those that filled in for us. We love you guys and are happy to have you as part of our extended family. :-)
Oh and I <3 you Lil! :-P
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Updates from Sacred Pack
Since I haven't posted properly for over a week now, let's have some updates!
Ahtabat is one away from her Fawn. And her 75 pet achievement. :-) I'll receive my first tournament pet not today, but tomorrow probably so that'll finish me off. I'm very excited! :-)
Battle Bots are now live. Go here and pick yours up if you haven't already. The only thing that disappoints me about them so far is you have to redeem a new case of battle fuel every day. I want an unlimited supply dang it!
Nakar is a proud new daddy and Akarra is a proud new grandma. Congrats to both of you!!!
Zara and Teacc should be expecting their little bundle of joy in the coming weeks. :-)
Kroff and I are still NOT pregnant nor do we plan on becoming pregnant for a while. :-P
Sacred Pack has it's 25 mans up and running again and I gotta say, I'm impressed. We've done well in what we've done thus far. We're tearing Naxx apart and I'm hoping to have it cleared by Sunday and us back into Uldar on Monday.
I'm very grateful to our friends at Twilight's Call for filling in the spots we have open. You guys are awesome and we love having you as honorary family members. :-)
Oh and Liliann is awesome and I <3 her. There ya go Lil :-)
Ahtabat is one away from her Fawn. And her 75 pet achievement. :-) I'll receive my first tournament pet not today, but tomorrow probably so that'll finish me off. I'm very excited! :-)
Battle Bots are now live. Go here and pick yours up if you haven't already. The only thing that disappoints me about them so far is you have to redeem a new case of battle fuel every day. I want an unlimited supply dang it!
Nakar is a proud new daddy and Akarra is a proud new grandma. Congrats to both of you!!!
Zara and Teacc should be expecting their little bundle of joy in the coming weeks. :-)
Kroff and I are still NOT pregnant nor do we plan on becoming pregnant for a while. :-P
Sacred Pack has it's 25 mans up and running again and I gotta say, I'm impressed. We've done well in what we've done thus far. We're tearing Naxx apart and I'm hoping to have it cleared by Sunday and us back into Uldar on Monday.
I'm very grateful to our friends at Twilight's Call for filling in the spots we have open. You guys are awesome and we love having you as honorary family members. :-)
Oh and Liliann is awesome and I <3 her. There ya go Lil :-)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
New Boss!
So my head is killing me this morning so if some of this is kinda random, that's why.
Last night Kroff threw together a ten man Uldar and in we went. We downed FL, Razorscale, and XT in one shot each and decided to skip over Ignis and charge on to new things. We hit up Kologarn and killed him one shot and went onto Auriaya. I wasn't in the group that worked on her last week, but I picked up what to do and we charged in and tried her. She actually wasn't that bad. It's a little bit of movement, but the main aspect is having enough damage...and enough aoe damage to take down the adds as they come in. Tanking her wasn't any big deal...except I died right before she fell over.
That seemed to happen a lot last night. I felt squishy for the first time in ages and I don't know why. I'd like to caulk it up to it being a new dungeon and a tougher dungeon, but I may need to re-evaluate Aht's gear, gem, and enchant choices.
In any case, we downed Auriaya and moved onto Hodir.
Here's a fun fight.
Hodir himself isn't too bad. What makes or breaks this fight is the movement. None of us had done this fight before and none of us had read up or watched videos on it. Del got online real quick and read us a strat and we tried him out.
Let me attempt to describe a little bit everything that's going on.
Okay, first off you have Hodir himself who must be kited around. Reason for kiting is ice shards that fall from the ceiling and squish/knock back anyone beneath them. Your warning is a little blue circle on the ground where they are going to fall. So I had to kite him around so I wouldn't be death to falling icycles.
While I'm kiting him around I'm having to constantly bounce so I'm not standing still. Reason for continual bounceage is because he works a lot like the last boss in Nexus where you get a staking debuff on you if you stand still. I imagine this was a lot harder for the healers than for me to continually bounce around like an idiot. (Haha)
While I'm doing all this, the dps is having to break four NPC's out of a block of ice so they can help kill Hodir. One of the NPC's cast's a beam of light that gives 100% haste buff if you stand in it. So while I'm avoiding falling ice and bouncing around, I'm trying to move into the beams of light or at least move Hodir close to the beams of light so the melee can stand in them.
After a little while, Hodir decideds to freeze the entire ground. At this point, he knocks two huge ice crystals to the ground while he's casting his nine second freeze. After the crystal's fall, everyone has to run over and stand on it because it creates a snow mounds that frees the player from getting frozen. The crystals that fall here look exactly like the others, except there bigger. It took us a couple of wipes to realize this.
Alright, so after the freeze, the dumb NPC's are frozen again and the dps has to break them out so they can help again. While this is going on, Hodir switches attacks and the offtank, wearing frost resist, has to taunt him off the main tank so the main tank doesn't get one shotted. Yay Del! This part actually wasn't too bad with our add ons. Once I saw what to look for I could do more than just wait for Del to call it out to re taunt.
So there's the fight. It doesn't sound too complicated until you start doing it. And honestly, it wasn't that bad of a fight when you get the movement's down. It's just learning it that's the fun part. We had him under half way last night when we had to call it and I'm confident that we can get him down with another week.
Last night Kroff threw together a ten man Uldar and in we went. We downed FL, Razorscale, and XT in one shot each and decided to skip over Ignis and charge on to new things. We hit up Kologarn and killed him one shot and went onto Auriaya. I wasn't in the group that worked on her last week, but I picked up what to do and we charged in and tried her. She actually wasn't that bad. It's a little bit of movement, but the main aspect is having enough damage...and enough aoe damage to take down the adds as they come in. Tanking her wasn't any big deal...except I died right before she fell over.
That seemed to happen a lot last night. I felt squishy for the first time in ages and I don't know why. I'd like to caulk it up to it being a new dungeon and a tougher dungeon, but I may need to re-evaluate Aht's gear, gem, and enchant choices.
In any case, we downed Auriaya and moved onto Hodir.
Here's a fun fight.
Hodir himself isn't too bad. What makes or breaks this fight is the movement. None of us had done this fight before and none of us had read up or watched videos on it. Del got online real quick and read us a strat and we tried him out.
Let me attempt to describe a little bit everything that's going on.
Okay, first off you have Hodir himself who must be kited around. Reason for kiting is ice shards that fall from the ceiling and squish/knock back anyone beneath them. Your warning is a little blue circle on the ground where they are going to fall. So I had to kite him around so I wouldn't be death to falling icycles.
While I'm kiting him around I'm having to constantly bounce so I'm not standing still. Reason for continual bounceage is because he works a lot like the last boss in Nexus where you get a staking debuff on you if you stand still. I imagine this was a lot harder for the healers than for me to continually bounce around like an idiot. (Haha)
While I'm doing all this, the dps is having to break four NPC's out of a block of ice so they can help kill Hodir. One of the NPC's cast's a beam of light that gives 100% haste buff if you stand in it. So while I'm avoiding falling ice and bouncing around, I'm trying to move into the beams of light or at least move Hodir close to the beams of light so the melee can stand in them.
After a little while, Hodir decideds to freeze the entire ground. At this point, he knocks two huge ice crystals to the ground while he's casting his nine second freeze. After the crystal's fall, everyone has to run over and stand on it because it creates a snow mounds that frees the player from getting frozen. The crystals that fall here look exactly like the others, except there bigger. It took us a couple of wipes to realize this.
Alright, so after the freeze, the dumb NPC's are frozen again and the dps has to break them out so they can help again. While this is going on, Hodir switches attacks and the offtank, wearing frost resist, has to taunt him off the main tank so the main tank doesn't get one shotted. Yay Del! This part actually wasn't too bad with our add ons. Once I saw what to look for I could do more than just wait for Del to call it out to re taunt.
So there's the fight. It doesn't sound too complicated until you start doing it. And honestly, it wasn't that bad of a fight when you get the movement's down. It's just learning it that's the fun part. We had him under half way last night when we had to call it and I'm confident that we can get him down with another week.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Excitement!
I mentioned a while back I'm completely addicted to the Twilight series. I've read all four books, own the soundtrack, own the first movie and I'm totally stoked about the second one.
There was only one concern I had about the entire thing. They introduce the werewolves in the second book and you see them 'transform'. This kinda bothered me because even though the entertainment industry has a huge potential for CGI and special effects, they also manage to screw stuff up a lot.
I fear no longer!
Check it out.
I think I just peed myself a little.
There was only one concern I had about the entire thing. They introduce the werewolves in the second book and you see them 'transform'. This kinda bothered me because even though the entertainment industry has a huge potential for CGI and special effects, they also manage to screw stuff up a lot.
I fear no longer!
Check it out.
I think I just peed myself a little.
Achievement Whore
So here's what I've been doing...achievementing!
43
That's right! I'm 43 out of...however many are on our server. hehe
It started last weekend. I sat at the fountain at Dal and tried to get my last three coins I needed. And an hour or so later...ching ching! Three achievements one right after the other. I also managed to get the Strand Crawler from the fishing daily which put me three away from getting my fawn. /cry
Monday was Memorial Day so we spent most of the day on WOW goofing off. I was doing dailies and Kroff wanted to do something with me so we grabbed a couple of people and went and pwned the BC dungeons for the achievements. I finished off my Outland Dungeon Hero with the seven + dungeons we ran and racked up a ton of points.
Then on Wednesday I hit the 500 daily quests done. Woot woot! Honestly, I'm surprised at myself. I HATE dailies. Despise them with a passion. But, I've really buckled down and started doing them. Not every day, but pretty dog gone close. I gave 1000 gold to a guildie to get his cold weather flying and I've been broke since. So dailies it is! And I'm loving it. Not the dailies, but the gold I've been collecting as a reward for doing said dailies.
Thursday I went and played around in Caverns of Time and finished off my Keepers of Time rep to get the last one I needed for both 25 Exaulted Reps and The Burning Crusader.
Friday we took time off from WOW and went and saw Star Trek. OMG awesome...please go see it. I'm not a huge Trekie but I like the Sci-Fi movies. My dad is the Trekie so I've seen all the movies. I don't know that I would have gone to see this one except my husband got an iching to go see it so we went with a couple from work. Definitely worth it. It was really good even for those who aren't huge trekies.
Saturday was another day off from WOW since we had company over that evening.
Sunday I was able to play a while and finished off one the groups for the Argent Tournament. /sigh It's going to take me forever to finish those. *keep eyes on goal* Pets and Mounts and Tabards galore!
I also was able to get the To All the Squirrel's Who've Shared My Life and Pest Control achievements yesterday.
That was fun!
I'm going to play around with the cooking one's one of these days. It's one of those things I just need to sit down and do. I'm also going to attempt to get some guildies and go pwn all the classic raid dungeons to get those ach's out of the way. If I keep plundering away at the Tournament dailies I'll soon have enough to get my pets. :-)
Achievement whore out.
43
That's right! I'm 43 out of...however many are on our server. hehe
It started last weekend. I sat at the fountain at Dal and tried to get my last three coins I needed. And an hour or so later...ching ching! Three achievements one right after the other. I also managed to get the Strand Crawler from the fishing daily which put me three away from getting my fawn. /cry
Monday was Memorial Day so we spent most of the day on WOW goofing off. I was doing dailies and Kroff wanted to do something with me so we grabbed a couple of people and went and pwned the BC dungeons for the achievements. I finished off my Outland Dungeon Hero with the seven + dungeons we ran and racked up a ton of points.
Then on Wednesday I hit the 500 daily quests done. Woot woot! Honestly, I'm surprised at myself. I HATE dailies. Despise them with a passion. But, I've really buckled down and started doing them. Not every day, but pretty dog gone close. I gave 1000 gold to a guildie to get his cold weather flying and I've been broke since. So dailies it is! And I'm loving it. Not the dailies, but the gold I've been collecting as a reward for doing said dailies.
Thursday I went and played around in Caverns of Time and finished off my Keepers of Time rep to get the last one I needed for both 25 Exaulted Reps and The Burning Crusader.
Friday we took time off from WOW and went and saw Star Trek. OMG awesome...please go see it. I'm not a huge Trekie but I like the Sci-Fi movies. My dad is the Trekie so I've seen all the movies. I don't know that I would have gone to see this one except my husband got an iching to go see it so we went with a couple from work. Definitely worth it. It was really good even for those who aren't huge trekies.
Saturday was another day off from WOW since we had company over that evening.
Sunday I was able to play a while and finished off one the groups for the Argent Tournament. /sigh It's going to take me forever to finish those. *keep eyes on goal* Pets and Mounts and Tabards galore!
I also was able to get the To All the Squirrel's Who've Shared My Life and Pest Control achievements yesterday.
That was fun!
I'm going to play around with the cooking one's one of these days. It's one of those things I just need to sit down and do. I'm also going to attempt to get some guildies and go pwn all the classic raid dungeons to get those ach's out of the way. If I keep plundering away at the Tournament dailies I'll soon have enough to get my pets. :-)
Achievement whore out.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
It's been a week since I updated. I'm surprised I haven't heard about it yet. :-P
Today's probably not the best of days for me to be updating. My mind is far from one single thing, and the thing I most want to talk about, I won't. Makes a lot of sense right?
So instead I'll update you about what Aht's doing and maybe a few other things. :-)
Ahtabat is going to give Restro a whirl. She only needs four or five pieces to complete her resto set and she's going to attempt to heal Naxx 10 this weekend. I've got to get crackin on finishing her set out before then, but I'll admit, I've been side-tracked.
Kroff and I have been working on our alts for the past little bit. Neeuq is my hunter. She's now 74, halfway to 75 and made the switch from BM to Survival. I'm honestly a bit disappointed. I know my gear is far from anything to brag about and I definitely don't have the best arrows or pet to be putting out major dps. But with the switch, I only saw my dps go up about 50 points. I was kinda hoping for a little bit...well...more.
However! Since I've been playing Neeuq a little more these days, you can expect to see a full hunter breakdown of stats and gear and such in the upcoming future...right after that pvp druid breakdown. :-)
In other news, the guild has been having a little bit of trouble raiding as of lately. I really just thing spirits are down. I wasn't privy to the raid last night as Kroff and I had to attend our niece's graduation, but I heard they did really well! I was excited...am excited! :-) They didn't get Kel down, but this is the second week in a row we've made it to Sapp so that's good.
I'm taking a few to try Uldar and learn the first fight Thursday in hopes that we might be able to try him 25 man in one of the upcoming weeks. If it doesn't happen this week, then I'll be able to rotate a few more people in and let them learn the fight so hopefully we can go 25 man next week. We'll see what they're up for.
In any case my plan is to let them see Uldar, see what they need to work for, and hope that raises some spirits. If the subtle way doesn't help then it'll be time to break out another Ahtabat pep talk. :-0 I know everyone just loves those! hehe
Today's probably not the best of days for me to be updating. My mind is far from one single thing, and the thing I most want to talk about, I won't. Makes a lot of sense right?
So instead I'll update you about what Aht's doing and maybe a few other things. :-)
Ahtabat is going to give Restro a whirl. She only needs four or five pieces to complete her resto set and she's going to attempt to heal Naxx 10 this weekend. I've got to get crackin on finishing her set out before then, but I'll admit, I've been side-tracked.
Kroff and I have been working on our alts for the past little bit. Neeuq is my hunter. She's now 74, halfway to 75 and made the switch from BM to Survival. I'm honestly a bit disappointed. I know my gear is far from anything to brag about and I definitely don't have the best arrows or pet to be putting out major dps. But with the switch, I only saw my dps go up about 50 points. I was kinda hoping for a little bit...well...more.
However! Since I've been playing Neeuq a little more these days, you can expect to see a full hunter breakdown of stats and gear and such in the upcoming future...right after that pvp druid breakdown. :-)
In other news, the guild has been having a little bit of trouble raiding as of lately. I really just thing spirits are down. I wasn't privy to the raid last night as Kroff and I had to attend our niece's graduation, but I heard they did really well! I was excited...am excited! :-) They didn't get Kel down, but this is the second week in a row we've made it to Sapp so that's good.
I'm taking a few to try Uldar and learn the first fight Thursday in hopes that we might be able to try him 25 man in one of the upcoming weeks. If it doesn't happen this week, then I'll be able to rotate a few more people in and let them learn the fight so hopefully we can go 25 man next week. We'll see what they're up for.
In any case my plan is to let them see Uldar, see what they need to work for, and hope that raises some spirits. If the subtle way doesn't help then it'll be time to break out another Ahtabat pep talk. :-0 I know everyone just loves those! hehe
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
A little deeper into the Bear
I mainly use this blog to focus on my life in wow. My guild, my friends, and my toons. I try to bring you information about Druid's as I find out about it because that is what I play...most of the time. Occasionally I touch on other aspects of my life and recently I delved a little into my personal beliefs.
I want to do that again...but a little deeper this time.
As I said before, I'm a Christian. There's a song that describes how I feel in my Christianity; "deep water faith in the shallow end". When I was younger I had a heart for Christ. I stayed in church, practically lived there in high school. I poured myself into activities: missions both home and away, teaching, learning, singing (even playing guitar in our praise band), VBS...well you get the idea. I never really had much of a deeper relationship at home. I prayed, but never like I should and I studied rarely on my own. I deeply regret those things now as I feel that's, in part, why I feel the way I do now.
I have been struggling with my faith, or lack thereof, off and on for a long time now. Going on three years I suppose...actually probably longer than that. I stayed mad at God for a long time. I never denied Him, but I didn't want to go out of my way to be that that I claimed to be. I didn't go to church and I never studied or prayed on my own. I even stopped reading Christian books and listening to Christian music. I faded further and further from who I am. I even tried to be someone else for a while. I never tried alcohol, drugs, or other addictions to fill the gap that I was blocking out of my life...but I might as well have. I slipped further and further from the God I call Daddy...the one Father that I have never been without. I drifted into a dark hole and while I've never been tested or treated for it, I know I have some form of depression. To what extent it would be "diagnosed" I dunno.
Please understand I'm not proud of what I've done or who I've become. I'm extremly blessed that I'm still alive and that I'm married to a wonderful, Godly man who loves me more than I deserve. I have a wonderful house, a good job, and beautiful babies (two dogs, a rabbit, and a fish). I have a good life. I write to get this off my chest and hopefully out of my head.
I won't go into detail (save that for another post :-P) but there are so many things I've been wrestling with lately. My past, my job, my morals, my goals, my dreams, my thought process, my priorities. Basically if you can think it I have been and it's definitely a little overload on my brain. I have a lot to work through.
I have a dream of one day becoming a woman worthy of calling herself a child of God...I dream of becoming this woman...
She is more precious than rubies.
11 Her husband can trust her,
and she will greatly enrich his life.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
Pray for me. I need lots of it. :-)
I want to do that again...but a little deeper this time.
As I said before, I'm a Christian. There's a song that describes how I feel in my Christianity; "deep water faith in the shallow end". When I was younger I had a heart for Christ. I stayed in church, practically lived there in high school. I poured myself into activities: missions both home and away, teaching, learning, singing (even playing guitar in our praise band), VBS...well you get the idea. I never really had much of a deeper relationship at home. I prayed, but never like I should and I studied rarely on my own. I deeply regret those things now as I feel that's, in part, why I feel the way I do now.
I have been struggling with my faith, or lack thereof, off and on for a long time now. Going on three years I suppose...actually probably longer than that. I stayed mad at God for a long time. I never denied Him, but I didn't want to go out of my way to be that that I claimed to be. I didn't go to church and I never studied or prayed on my own. I even stopped reading Christian books and listening to Christian music. I faded further and further from who I am. I even tried to be someone else for a while. I never tried alcohol, drugs, or other addictions to fill the gap that I was blocking out of my life...but I might as well have. I slipped further and further from the God I call Daddy...the one Father that I have never been without. I drifted into a dark hole and while I've never been tested or treated for it, I know I have some form of depression. To what extent it would be "diagnosed" I dunno.
Please understand I'm not proud of what I've done or who I've become. I'm extremly blessed that I'm still alive and that I'm married to a wonderful, Godly man who loves me more than I deserve. I have a wonderful house, a good job, and beautiful babies (two dogs, a rabbit, and a fish). I have a good life. I write to get this off my chest and hopefully out of my head.
I won't go into detail (save that for another post :-P) but there are so many things I've been wrestling with lately. My past, my job, my morals, my goals, my dreams, my thought process, my priorities. Basically if you can think it I have been and it's definitely a little overload on my brain. I have a lot to work through.
I have a dream of one day becoming a woman worthy of calling herself a child of God...I dream of becoming this woman...
A Wife of Noble Character
10 b]">[b]Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?She is more precious than rubies.
11 Her husband can trust her,
and she will greatly enrich his life.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She finds wool and flax
and busily spins it.
14 She is like a merchant’s ship,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household
and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.
16 She goes to inspect a field and buys it;
with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She is energetic and strong,
a hard worker.
18 She makes sure her dealings are profitable;
her lamp burns late into the night.
19 Her hands are busy spinning thread,
her fingers twisting fiber.
20 She extends a helping hand to the poor
and opens her arms to the needy.
21 She has no fear of winter for her household,
for everyone has warmc]">[c] clothes.
22 She makes her own bedspreads.
She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.
23 Her husband is well known at the city gates,
where he sits with the other civic leaders.
24 She makes belted linen garments
and sashes to sell to the merchants.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
26 When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.
27 She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness.
28 Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
29 “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
31 Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.
Pray for me. I need lots of it. :-)
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