Everything in TNB36 about me is a LIE.

-cough-

-Mortified-

(It was technically 2 comments, and a trackback from a post where I mentioned that I had been mentioned. And the second comment was a correction to the previous comment. SORLY, it was one comment and a small mention in a post which automatically did a trackback.)

And I’d better do it before Harii /bitchslaps me again! D:

Eresin also tagged me, so I better hop to it.

Basically, it’s a set of RP questions that you answer as your character. I’m going to do Ellaria, because she has personality. Faulsey is boring. Yes, my Alt is more interesting than my main. Silence!

1. What is your name, and where did it come from?? My name is Ellaria, and it’s a fairly common Draenei given name.
2. How old are you, and what is your birthday? Has no one ever told you it’s rude to ask a ladies age?! Hmph. I was a child during the Draenei-Orc war, that’s all you’re getting. As for my Birthday, it’s sometime during Spring. Birthdays don’t mean that much to us Draenei, so we don’t really keep track.
3. Are you in love, and with whom? I have no answer to this question. (Because I can’t think of anything clever.)
4. What is your favorite mount, and why? As an Engineer, I love my Flying Machine – I built it with my own two hands! Besides, it’s really neat and unique!
5. Do you prefer a certian type of Azerothian meal, and where do you get it from? I rather like Wyrm Delight, which is usually prepared for me by Faulsey… though he won’t tell me exactly what’s in it.
6. You know those giant mushrooms in Zangarmarsh? What is your theory on how they came to be, and why they are so huge? We did it. Or rather, that freak Jessera did. He has this seriously creepy obsession with Mushrooms, so he cultivated an entire forest of them. Hence, Zangarmarsh.
7. If you saw the Lich King walking towards you, what would you do? Hearth. It’s a tried and tested tactic. For all the Lich Kings power over undeath, he can’t defeat a good old Hearthstone.

In other news, did 10 man VoA last night. I got nothin’, but Kazura got some Resto PvP gear, since she was the only druid there. Lucky for some!

I mentioned this briefly in my post after I ran VoA, but I’ve tweaked it since, so here’s my rankings of “Raid Nastiness,” from least to most deadly.

1. Void Zones – be they called by that name or otherwise (Dust clouds on Archavon, poison clouds on Grobbulus etc)

2. Flame walls – the only thing in this category I can think of is the Flame Walls in OS. These aren’t much more difficult than void zones (on their own), except that they require a bit more situational awareness – you need to see where they are coming from and move to avoid ‘em.

3. Flame Walls and Void Zones – Double the trouble!

4. Heigan – since he’s meant to be a complete bastard.

Anyway, I ran 10 Man OS tonight, or rather, I fought Sartharion (they’d taken the Drakes down already, but before I could say “Well, I think I’ll pass, I wanna experience the whole thing,” I’d recieved the invite and decided just to go for it. I’m sure if I can do Sarth, I can do the rest of the raid >.>)

Before the fight (Added because all you can see of him in other screenies is some dead black dragon booty (HAWT!)

It was good fun. We wiped the first time we tried (with me, they’d wiped before I’d joined too) due to the adds kind of overwhelming us when they got caught in the Flame Walls. Things were ok till about 50%, then from there to 25% slowly went downhill. The DPS just wasn’t enough, probably – I was sitting on top with about 1.8k DPS by the time we wiped.

Second try, we brought in a couple of replacement DPSers, including an awesome Elemental Shaman, and with more careful handling of adds, were able to maintain decent DPS and take Sarth down.

OS 10 clear!

It says 5 minutes, it felt like an absolute eternity, let me tell you!  Also notice in the above shot: I didn’t take a single flame wall! I was really pleased with myself for managing that, and I’m sure I should be able to continue to do that from now on. What I need to work on is pet control during those phases – I was usually quite good about remembering to call Erethia back, but I did forget or do it too late a couple of times, so I kind of incinerated her. -coughs-

No gear loots for me, but I did win the roll on something awesome:

22 Slot bag, omnomnom!

I’m generally quite good about keeping my bags as empty as possible, but it’s important to note I didn’t have any consumables taking up bag space. I’d intended on bringing some, but completely forgot; fortunately, 10 man OS with no Drakes is forgiving enough that it didn’t really matter. Still felt kinda silly though, even though no one else I could see was using ‘em.

Second Raid Ever: Success! I enjoyed this a lot more than I did VoA – I think it was because it’s slightly more challenging. I’ve been reading up on all the boss strategies, so I’m feeling confident about trying Naxx soon-ish. -fingers crossed-

Oh, and I’d like to thank whoever it was in BA Chat (I think it was Stop? I really can’t remember, sorry!) that suggested I check out TankSpot – the videos there are really helping me understand how fights should go. Raiding confidence, I am building it!

-

Speaking of building, a minor Ellaria note: I made both the physical and the caster mail level 72 Engi goggles today. In a reversal of what was the case for the TBC ones, the huge grind was leveling Engineering – you need hundreds of Saronite ore to level, but apart from the Frozen Orbs and the Borean Leather, if you mine everything you need to level, you’ll have most of the goggle mats by 340. I was lucky enough to get one each of the gems needed for the goggles (each pair required two rare gems) from mining, which helped cut costs a little.

So Ellaria is now sporting two pairs of goggles, which are lacking in the Meta Gem department, as all my gemmed Outlands gear is going to be replaced soon, and I can’t guarantee gem slots from elsewhere, so just leaving them empty until I get some stable gem slots on stuff.

Now, I just need to get 72 so I can wear the blasted things.

Patch notes, both documented and Undocumented, as they apply to my classes and specs – doing everything for a class would just overwhelm me, plus I cannot really speak about specs I have little/no experience with, so none of that here.

I need to write this down to get my head round it, information overload.

Documented Hunter Changes:

Disengage: Cooldown increased by 5 sec.

Back up to 30 Seconds. I’ll live, I’m sure.

Frost Trap: If the target who triggers Frost Trap is immune to its effect, the Frost Trap area effect will no longer be triggered.

Only really going to affect PvP and trap dancing, I think?

BEAST MASTERY

Improved Aspect of the Hawk now has a new spell effect.

I reackon that’s just a new animation? Oh, the joys.

Improved Wing Clip: This talent has been removed.

Wrong tree! A hit to Hunter PvP though, I guess.

Distinct lack of documented BM changes, eh?

Whilst survival gets all sorts of crazy stuff! (Trap launchers) I think there has been a nerf to trap dancing though, which may bring DPS down a bit.

PETS

Roar of Sacrifice can be used on the hunter only.

Not really a huge problem – Tenacity pets are really only used for soloing, where only the Hunter needs the effect.

Stampede (rhino) only affects 1 target, but adds a 25% bleed damage debuff (that does not stack with Mangle etc.) in addition to its knockback.

Waitwhut? No more Rhino Bowling? Must do more WG with Vetr whilst I still can!

Undocumented Hunter Changes

Beast Mastery

Skills

• *New Skill* Call Stabled Pet – A pet of your choice busts out of its stable and joins you no matter where you are, replacing your current pet. Cannot be used in combat. Instant. 30 min cooldown. Requires Level 80.

Ooooh. The much awaited “switch pets where ever” ability. Not really much I can say except for: Most handy!

Marksmanship

Skills

• Kill Shot no longer has a minimum range. It can now be used in melee range.

A nice little change – nothing more irritating than being too close to Kill Shot!

Glyph changes:

• Glyph – Aimed Shot – Reduces the cooldown of your Aimed Shot ability by 2 sec. (Old: Reduces the mana cost of your aimed shot ability by 20%)
• Glyph of the Monkey – While Aspect of the Monkey or Aspect of the Dragonhawk are active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec. Can only occur every 20 sec. This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects. (Old: Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey – While Aspect of the Monkey or Aspect of the Dragonhawk are active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec. This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.)
• Glyph of Wyvern Sting – Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by 6 sec. (Old: Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by 15 sec., but decreases the damage it deals by 20%.)
• Glyph of Snake Trap – Snakes generated by your Snake Trap take 90% reduced damge from area of effect spells. (Old: Your Snake Trap creates 2 additional snakes)
• Glyph of the Hawk – Increases the haste bonus of the Improved Aspect of the Hawk effect by an additional 6%. (Old: Renamed from Glyph of Improved Aspect of the Hawk)
• Glyph of Chimera Shot (new) – Reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 sec.
• Glyph of Explosive Shot (new) – Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 4%.
• Glyph of Kill Shot (new) – Reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 sec.
• (This is the only Glyph I’m really interested in, but can’t see where I’d put it if it’s a major, which I assume it is. Steady Shot, Serpent Sting and Bestial Wrath glyphs all too good to give up.)
• Glyph of Explosive Trap (new) – The periodic damage from your Explosive Trap can now be critical strikes.
• Glyph of Scatter Shot (new) – Increases the range of Scatter Shot by 3 yards.
• Glyph of Raptor Strike (new) – For 5 sec. after using Raptor Strike, you take 20% less damage.

Shaman Documented Changes:

Bloodlust/Heroism: Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes, but Sated and Exhausted now last 10 minutes.

-cough- Lolwut? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You can now use this ability every five minutes, but it’ll only work every 10! Seriously, Blizzard, what?

Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem have been merged into “Cleansing Totem.” Cleansing Totem pulses every 3 sec, down from 5.

Very handy, but I see no mention of Healing and Mana stream totems recieving the same treatment, as they are meant to.

ENHANCEMENT
Lava Lash now has a new icon.

-no comment-

New Talent: Frozen Power: Increases the damage done by your Frostbrand Weapon if it is enchanted on your main-hand weapon by 10/20%, and your Frost Shock has a 50/100% chance to root the target in Ice for 5 sec. when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you.

Certainly sounds interesting, but I highly doubt this’ll see much use in PvE – definitely looks more PvP.

Spirit Weapons: Now reduces all threat generated by 30%, not just physical attacks.

This I like – a large portion of Enhancement DPS comes from spells (Shocks, Lightning Bolts, Chain Lightning), so threat can be an issue at times.

Stormstrike charges have been increased by 2, and cooldown reduced by 2 sec.

This is what the Improved Stormstrike talent currently does… it now does this:

Improved Stormstrike re-designed: When you Stormstrike, you have a 50/100% chance to immediately grant you 20% of your base mana.

Out of all the changes, this is what I am most excited about. If no other class change makes it through, please please put this one through <3

Toughness: No longer increases your armor. Instead, this talent now increases your total Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Again, PvP related – I can see Stamina being a lot more useful, given mail armour doesn’t exactly give much benefit anyway, and is of course useless against magic.

Unleashed Rage – Reduced to 3 points, down from 5. Each point now also increases your total Agility by 1/2/3%.

Kind of disappointed that the Crit change they previously mentioned didn’t make it through, but 3% extra Agility and the crit and AP that brings is hardly anything to be disappointed with!

Shaman Glyph Changes:

• Glyph of Thunderstorm (new) – Reduces the cooldown on Thunderstorm by 7 sec.
• Glyph of Feral Spirit (new) – Your spirit wolves gain an additional 30% of your attack power.
• (And if no other glyph changes make it through, the above must. I love my wolves. I’ll love them more with better AP <3)
• Glyph of Riptide (new) – Increases the duration of Riptide by 3 sec.
• Glyph of Earth Shield (new) – Increases the amount healed by your Earth Shield by 20%.
• Glyph of Totem of Wrath (new) – When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem’s bonus spell power for .
• Glyph of Hex (new) – Increases the damage your Hex target can take before the Hex effect is removed by 20%.
• Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem (new) – Your Stoneclaw Totem also places a damage absorb shield on you, equal to 4 times the strength of the shield it places on your totems.
• (This one is kinda interesting. I only use Stoneclaw as an “I want to mine this node without being interrupted” or “Run away” totem, but with a damage shield, it could have a few extra uses.)

-

The Hunter changes are actually “better” than the Shaman ones, I’m sure, but I can’t help but be excited about Stormstrike and the Feral Spirit Glyph – those just look amazingly tasty.

So, there’s my little summary of the current notes for the specs I play. Everything in there could be changed at any time before 3.1 hits the live realms, so I’m trying not to get too excited about anything.

And now I think I have my head round it all. I was out all afternoon, and came home to an information explosion. It was not fun.

It’s that time again; the time when I, Ellaria, grace you all with my presence!

I see Faulsey has been keeping you all up to date with my many daring do’s, but here’s a brief recap:

• Smashed the Fel Orcs in Hellfire Citadel
• Squished the Naga in Coilfang Resovoir
• Slaughtered the Ethereals in the Mana Tombs
• Solo’d the first opponent in Nagrand’s Ring of Blood! -cackles-
• Boggled at Ethereal Technology.

Eco Domes - breathtaking, aren't they?

My time in Netherstorm was fortunately brief, but in the time I was there, I made sure to spend it in the Eco Domes created by the Ethereals. As an engineer myself, I’m highly jealous of the Ethereals – just look at the wonders they can create! But alas, they will not share.

It’s OK though, I helped some Goblins to … liberate some of their tech, so us Goblineers might be seeing some of it in the future.

When I was finished in Netherstorm, it was time to get off that forsaken rock, and join the bulk of the Alliance forces in Northrend!

-

And I thought Outlands was hectic… there’s so much going on in Northrend, it’s hard to stay on top of it all. So far, I’ve assisted Valiance Keep fend off waves of Scourge forces, saved Gnomes who had been turned into robots (I know, it freaked me out too!) and worked with the Red Dragonflight and the Kirin Tor to weaken the Blues, who have went totally insane and are trying to wipe magic from the face of Azeroth.

Rescuing an Archmage of the Kirin Tor

An attack on Malygos

The war with the blues is particularly terrifying… after I’d helped Keristrasza lure Malygos out, he captured her and took her for his consort! I’m now to enter the Nexus and put an end to her suffering… -sigh- This could end up being one of the greatest tragedies of the Nexus War.

I think that I’ll attempt that tonight – the problem will be finding others who aren’t afraid to go into the heart of Blue Dragon territory.

On a lighter note, I’ve reached my 70th season, and built myself a rather awesome little Flying Machine. It’s pretty slow, but since I’m not cleared for flight in Northrend for another seven seasons, I really can’t justify begging Faulsey for the gold to upgrade it.

I love my Roflcopter! <3

-

Blah, Ellaria’s personality didn’t really come out much in that one. I kind of lost where I was going partway through. Ah, well, such is blogging!

-

One final thing I’d like to say, totally unrelated to Ellaria, is to note with great sadness that Phaelia of Resto4Life is closing the doors on WoW.

I’m sure I’m not alone in having found her blog, and her, to be a huge inspiration for my own blogging. This blog has been around for longer than I’ve known of Resto4Life, but her site was effectively the portal to the rest of the blogging community for me. Had I not found Resto4Life, I’d probably never have found the Twisted Nether Blogcast (via a link on her site to her and Runy’s interview), and from both sites, the wealth of excellent WoW blogs out there. And recently, I’ve been trying (however feebly – I’m really shy!) to get involved with Blog Azeroth, which was created by Phaelia.

As one of the best WoW bloggers out there, she’s going to be greatly missed. I wish her all the best, and I can’t congratulate her enough for the baby that’s on the way!

Red Drake!

Woot! I’m sure most people will agree that the first time you’re checking the Wyrmrest quartermaster, the thing that immediately catches your eye is the Red Drake. It certainly caught mine, and a few months and many Heroics (Argent Crusade was more important!) later, I finally got my grubby mitts on it!

My random flying mount button is starting to be a bit more random – used to be just Gryphons and Nether Drakes. Now I’ve got a ray and this beauty to spice things up a bit! Hmm. I’d rather like a Bronze Drake next

I think this drake is my favourite mount so far, simply for the gliding animation. I dunno why, but I just think that’s the coolest thing ever. Pretty sure neither my Nether Drakes nor my Gryphons glide – even if the gryphons did it wouldn’t be that impressive.

So cool!

Going to work on Ebon Blade rep next. I’m a bit into Revered with them, though there’s nothing I want at exalted. Just might as well get the rep with them.

And it was kinda terrifying, even though it was only 10 man VoA. That was just nerves though, having never raided.

The Raid itself is incredibly simple – there’s a whopping total of around five trash mobs, which take all of a couple mins to clear, then it’s onto the very simple boss.

I hadn’t realised how accurate the statement of “stay out of the nasty stuff” was until I did this raid. Really, that was all it was about. It was pretty fun though, and I think I did pretty well – second in DPS, behind a much better geared Survival Hunter.

No loot, but the fact I have now actually done a raid has made me a tiny bit more confident about starting serious endgame business.

My first raid... -sniff- My little toon is all grown up now.

That’s overall DPS, DPS on boss alone was actually lower (by about 80DPS?), which is a reversal of the norm for me – I’m usually lower when you factor in trash.

I think my next goal is to either PUG 10 man OS, or actually get my ass in gear and get a raiding guild now that I’ve shown I can survive rank 1 nastiness. (Rank 2 nastiness being void zones, 3 being lava walls, and 4 being Heigan.)

Did a quick Slave Pens run on Ellaria afterwards – we were all level 66-67, so we really just tore the place apart. I hit 1.2k DPS on the second boss, which kinda blew me away, given I’m only 66.

im in ur slave pens, wunderin why teh last boss is a fungal giant

I soloed all of the Mastery quests in Nagrand (like that’s surprising!) so all I’ve really got to do is Ring of Blood, then a level of Netherstorm. Possibly more, I need to grind Revered with the Consortium first. Bah!

-

And finally, minor geekout time. This is just silly, but it made me “squee” nonetheless. I was given a brief mention in the most recent TNB, where Fim and Bre tried to remember my name. I forgive them for forgetting it because, well, I’m just glad they remembered that I’d been at the live show! I ended up posting a total “amagadfanboy” comment, but hey, I consider them to be WoW Celebrities, so I’m allowed to be excited! Don’t lie and tell me you (you being less prominent bloggers like myself) wouldn’t be excited if they mentioned you.

(Also, in case Bre/Fim reads this, I’d like to clarify two things about said hasty fanboy comment: First, “I’m on a gap year before” should be followed by “University”, and secondly, when I say “it’ll get irritating”, I mean me showing up for every live podcast they do!)

Yesterday, I healed Mana Tombs on Ellaria, and apart from a DK dying a couple of times due to those blasted Mana Wyrms Arcane Explosion, it was smooth going.

This was a huge relief, as I’d began to think I was simply unable to heal, as I’d had two other parties I’d tried to heal where things went belly up, because I kept drawing aggro either because people were not assisting the tank, thus requiring me to heal people with low threat, or pulling ahead of the tank, with me again trying to heal someone who did not have firm threat.*

Ohwait, no, I’ve always known I was capable of healing – I just had daft Death Knights ruining everything! My fellow sometimes healers, do you fear that you might some day be put in the same situation?

Worry not! I present to you “Ellaria’s foolproof Death Knight intelligence test!”

Simply ask your non tanking DK’s these two simple questions:

1. In which situation should you use Death Grip?
A. To pull a group of mobs, even if you aren’t the tank.
B. When the squishy Healer draws aggro.

2. In the above scenarios, if you hadn’t used Death Grip to do A, you wouldn’t have to do B anyway, as the tank would have the aggro: True or False?
A. False
B. True

If your DK(s) answer(s) B to both questions – congratulations! You have a functioning member of Azerothian society, and you can heal in confidence! If they answer A to either – Run to the hills! Run for your life! (Hah, Rilgon, I got an Iron Maiden Ref in somewhere anyway!)

-ahem-

Seriously, though, I was pleasantly surprised. With people actually fighting the tanks target and not drawing aggro, healing was -gasps- enjoyable. Especially because I got to use the Lightning Bolt Heal of Doom! (I try to use Healing Wave as much as possible, but Chain Heal does see a lot of use when group damage is rampant.) I really hated healing in FFXI, white mage just bored me rigid.

Sidenote, I’m really amused at my inability to use the function keys to target people for heals… given that’s exactly how I did it in FFXI. I better shape up, or people will start dying.

* Also, I ask of full time healers: Do you ever die inside when such people then QQ when you DON’T heal them, because you know full well you’ll draw aggro and everyone will die, which is a much worse scenario?

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Hmm, what else. Well, I also did an instance in my first non failfest trip as a DPS – I was beaten overall by an Elemental Shaman, but was top on bosses. I don’t mindlessly worship the damage meters, but they do help show whether or not I just suck at a class.

Underbog clear! (Note: Wolves went off CD literally 2 seconds before she died.)

She dropped me a nice chest piece, which is all gemmed up nicely now. I love how 24 AP gems are 2-4g each on AH, and the 12 AP 9 Stam gems are even cheaper if I need a blue slot filled. Loverly!

Ellaria’s beginning to look quite cool now – none of the usual Outlands Clown Gear!

Klinderas, eat your heart out. (:P)

Since she’s lookin’ so good at the moment, I also did a second draft of her “card” which is now up on the Characters page!

-

Finally, some Faulsey news. I now have absolutely no reason not to try and raid, as I got my last piece of Heroic gear from Halls of Stone a couple days ago!

Poor Enhancement Shaman... No legs for j00!

Going out for dinner tonight, but when I get back, me and Kazura are going to try and do 10 Man VoA – an easy raid, just to get started.

Fingers crossed that we get to do it, and that we clear it. I think if we don’t clear it we should probably just end it there and then, though!

A couple of nights ago on Twitter, Harii told me she’d solo’d Brokentoe, the first boss of the Ring of Blood questline in Nagrand on her level 66 DK. She challenged me to do the same on my Enhancement Shaman, who is the ultimate in soloing. So I did!

Proofs!

First, a shot of his HP, so you can compare with the Recount

So you know I don’t any outside help!

Total DPS - matches Brokentoes HP almost exactly

Doesn’t show ALL the damage though, so just to be sure…

Damage with all Pets/Totems.

So there you have it – A good Enhancement Shaman can solo the first boss of Ring of Blood! It was really difficult, though!

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog posts. I just had to make this one seperate so the proof wasn’t lost in my other post, that should be finished shortly.

Since I was tagged by Faulsey, I had a rummage through my pc to find my 6th screenshot in my 6th folder, and here it is:

This was when I found the book in Acherus: The Ebon Hold before I was released from the Lich Kings grasp, I found it quite amusing, sadly they didnt give us Scourge Commander titles XD

Well that was my bit for today, I might have something up later on, when I work out what I am doing XD

Kazura ~x