RL PvP with bears: ur doin it wrong

Forgive me, I'm on a bit of a bear kick at the moment, having just got my bear form on Kiiva, and having fun with it (the header *does* say "predominantly" resto-flavoured, after all). By the way - it turns out that if you've done that bear form quest 6 or 7 times, you end up REALLY pro at it! Who'da guessed it?

Avoiding bear PvP IRL

Concerned about being ganked by a bear druid IRL?

Are you constantly looking over your shoulder in fear of a RAWRBOMB attack?

Never fear! Bear spray is here! Simply spray all over yourself to deter those pesky bears.... no, wait... don't. That would be STUPID.



From one of my favourite sites, Not Always Right - funny & stupid customer quotes:

Me: “Hello, thank you for calling [outdoor supply store]. How can I help you?”

Customer: “Yeah, um…I bought some bear spray from you earlier today and now my skin is burning.”

Me: “Your skin is burning? Did the bear spray come into contact with your skin?”

Customer: “Of course! I sprayed it all over myself!”

Me: “Did you read the instructions?”

Customer: “No, I thought it was like bug spray.”

Me: “Sir, you’re not supposed to spray it on your skin. You’re supposed to spray it in the bear’s eyes. You should probably go take a shower.”

Customer: “So I can’t repel the bears by putting bear spray on my skin?”

Me: “No, sir…are you sure bear country is the right place for you?

YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.

Night Elf bear forms

Night Elf bear forms have been released.

I actually REALLY like the white bear in this series, so I feel better about being "stuck" with a bear that matches my hair colour. I still think linking directly to hair and skin colour is a little inflexible for people who are very particular about those elements of their character.. but I won't complain about how the white bear looks for elves. I'm happy with how it looks. In fact, it's probably my favourite of the bunch! :)

Also, last night I played a NE bear for the first time in years. I noticed something very glaring - the eyes are TERRIBLE on NE bears. They look painted on, and as if they don't really fit the model mesh properly at all - you can barely see them. I never realised how much better the Tauren face looked.

The new eyes look great, and fit the whole "glowy elf eyes" deal that Night Elves have going on.

And the ears... they seem a little less goofy.

I think the Taurens look better overall, but they always looked beefier and a little more.. bearish. But these new NE ones look really nice, they have much more elf elements blended with the bear skin. I like them a lot - nice work Blizzard - they look awesome!



Cat forms to come now.. nervous about that. Four years of complaints about the hideous Tauren version.. will they fix it? Or just rehash the same idea? If we're still wyverns, I think there's going to be a huge outcry. I'm also slightly concerned about the NE versions because I adore the current NE cat. I hope the silver/white corresponding cat looks good, because I do spend a lot of time in kitty.

Exciting!

My thoughts on new forms announced

I'm late for work but here's my two cents on the new druid forms changes:

WHY ARE THEY DIRECTLY LINKED TO OUR CASTER FORM APPEARANCE?

What if I want Keeva to have white skin but I want a black bear?

What if I want Kiiva to have blue hair but I don't want a blue bear?

Am I being ungrateful?

I just think that this is like giving us something awesome, being really flexible by allowing us to change at a whim in the barber shop (that's great!) but then on the other hand being inflexible because you have to like both your caster hair/skin and your feral skin at the same time... what if I think bluebear is great, but I can't stand blue hair on my Night Elf?

For example, Keeva has white skin, but I don't like that white bear - I like the black one. So I either have to pick a caster skin that I don't like, or a bear skin that I don't like. I can't have two that I like at the same time.

Not only that, but Keeva, as a tauren, can't really just change her skin colour after 2 years. White skin for two years.. suddenly I'm a black Tauren instantly! ....mmmno.

I want to stay "me", but still be able to have interesting feral skins. Is that too much to ask?

They do look MUCH better though - they've done a lot to improve the overall look. It's smoother, has more definition. The face and horns especially look better. I wonder if they will change the big NE ears?

Keeva has had white skin for over two years. I know that to a lot of people, skin and hair colour doesn't mean a thing. But to some of us, our characters are important. You might be able to get a haircut, but you can't just magically change from having white skin to having black spots. I'm Keeva and I have white skin. And I chose Kiiva's hair colour very carefully and deliberately. I don't really see it as something I want to change every now and then when I feel like turning purple in bear form.

I honestly LOVE the new bear model. It looks fantastic. Awesome idea, love the new colours.. but it doesn't quite hit the mark in terms of implementation. It makes sense that all of your forms would have a visual link between them (such as blue highlights, or white skin/fur), but I really don't like the idea that I might have to sacrifice my preferred caster appearance in order to get the feral appearance I want.

Why should I have to throw away a big part of my character's identity in order to have a good feral appearance? Or, to reframe that question, why should I be lumped with a feral appearance that I don't like, because I choose to keep my character's appearance the way I have always wanted it?

I don't know if it is possible/realistic/practical to change the way it will be done.. but I really hope that there is a way around this.

The same, but different

Meet Kiiva.

Kiiva is (as of tonight) a level 10 Night Elf druid. I didn't quite manage to get bear form before the server went down, but that can be tomorrow's project.

A lot of people will probably think I'm nuts, but I thought it might be fun to reroll. Again. This makes druid number.. 5. Well, officially. There have been others - but this will be the fifth druid that goes somewhere.

Contrary to popular belief, I DO actually have other characters, but only a couple have made it to the post-60 bracket. I have a hunter mid 70s and mage mid 60s.. but I just keep coming back to the druids. I honestly really enjoy levelling druids, plus I know them inside out, so I don't have to learn to play a new class (some people would argue this is the point of rolling a new character - some variety - but I just love druids that much). I keep the same bindings and UI, so as my lowbie druids acquire new skills, the bindings are already set and ready to go - and I don't have to teach myself new abilities.

I do, however, often forget that I don't in fact have Wild Growth at level 7.

Starting from absolute scratch

I have absolutely nothing. I started with nothing. No money, including my Alliance auction alts - they sent all of their goods to the other side, and I gave my small amount of gold away, so that my alliance characters had zero cash and no assets. I wanted to start with absolutely nothing.

Why? Probably because I'm nuts. But also because one of my favourite "mini games" in WoW, aside from actual farming, is making money - and making it from scratch is a lot of fun.

To not have the luxury of a level 80 that can farm, quest, or dump hundreds or thousands into the Auction House to turn a profit. I had to start with zero. It's surprisingly exciting (to me, the nutter..) to start with nothing, and sell a half stack of linen cloth that you scraped together for 50s. Fifty whole silver - that's a lot of Refreshing Spring Water!

To start with zero copper and earn every penny, no loans, no favours, no help.. and turn that into a couple of gold in the first few levels - it's exciting. I love it. I could easily send over 5000g from Keeva, but I'm really enjoying this. Everything from scratch - levels, achievements, money.

I'm excited again.


Loremaster, server firsts, turtle mount..

I love improving my characters, and at the moment Keeva is really just doing dailies and grinding out the last few reps that she wants. It's.. dull. And while I do appreciate a bit of a breather, I need something to work towards. Achievements and rep grinds alone will not sustain me.

So I'm starting over. For fun. Problem is, I lose a lot of big achievements that I really like having. My server firsts. My Of the Nightfall title. My turtle and rocket mounts. Things I won't likely get back. And of course the fact that on Keeva I have 34 exalted reps, and on Kiiva I have none. Particularly the ones I'll probably never get back - like Hyjal and BT. My many, many pets.. my Brewfest mounts (not to mention the rest of the meta achievement), my Headless Horseman mount. My titles. Loremaster. Mr Pinchy. The Immortal. Five shards of Val'anyr (HA!)

I've put a LOT of work into Keeva.


Masochism at its finest?

It stings to leave those things behind. I'm not tossing them away - just shelving them for a bit. I couldn't walk away from Keeva entirely.

But the loss of all the achievements, levels, reps, gear.. it means that I am starting with a clean slate, and every achievement will be one that pops up on my screen as I go, unlike when the achievement system was implemented and a lot of the achievements were already in place. This time, I'm earning them one at a time.

One painful rep at a time..

And I just did Argent Dawn, Cenarion Circle, and almost finished ZG.. *weep*


I've missed the Alliance

It's been a couple of years since I played on the Alliance side. I miss the cities - I love the music of Ironforge, I miss the quest lines. And I haven't seen the Alliance side of Northrend yet. That is the same reasoning I used when I rerolled Horde - that I had basically been missing out on a chunk of content - I'd never seen Orgrimmar, I didn't know where all the Horde towns were. I'd like to see that part of the Northrend content.

I've missed so many old-world things too. I've missed Stormwind, Elwynn, and Westfall (note: I have NOT missed the Defias).


Number 5 is alive!

I brought Kiiva over to Stormwind on the boat (I prefer Elwynn for lowbie levelling). I started with nothing, and quested and vendored greys until I had enough for herbalism training. I got my fishing nearly to 20. I put two stacks of linen on the auction house and got excited when they sold for a gold or two. When a green training sword of agility dropped I was thrilled - it actually felt like treasure, rather than something I would normally vendor out of laziness. I raced back to put it up for auction - jiggling at the prospect of my odd collection of auctions getting my purse to 5 or 10g, so I can start playing the auction house.

I'm looking forward to levelling professions. Fishing. Northrend greens. Reputations. Heroics. Badges that I can use for things instead of having them gather dust. Harold's Rejuvenating Broach. Dual specs. Healing and raiding in poor gear while I work my back back up (yes, I enjoy this - I used to take off half my gear to do heroics). Not leaning on my big bank or Ulduar gear.



I know it's nuts, but I am really enjoying this.

Jousting - help for beginners

I used to hate the jousting quests that are part of the Argent Tournament. For a while, I skipped them.. but it bugged me that they gave me so much trouble. I was irritated that a daily quest would take so long to do and often I would fail and have to start over.. yuck. So I stopped doing them for a while, and sulked.

But, being extremely stubborn and not wanting to be beaten by a quest, I wanted to finish what I started. A friend offered me a few pointers and the difference was amazing. I went from being absolutely smashed by these mobs (and being very embarrassed and sullen about it) to finishing fights with 90% health.

So - here are some tips for how to make it a little easier if you've been having problems with it. This is not a quick method, but it is "safe", if you're trying to get the hang of it. (Note: please see comments for some readers' suggestions for how to speed things up)

Before you talk to the NPC, start with three stacks of Defend
ALWAYS start with 3 shields up. Quickly renew your shield if your opponent removes your stacks, so you don't lose too much health.

Most importantly, don't get distracted and let them drop off! Renew them periodically even if no stacks have been removed. It's easy to forget to renew them if you are doing well or concentrating on your opponent's shields. Your opponent will tear through your health if you have no shields up.

As soon as you engage, break his shield and close range
After you talk to your NPC, he will turn and turn towards the center of the ring. As he runs away from you, toss a Shield-Breaker, but run after him as you do it - so that he never gets far enough away to be able to charge you and remove your shields.

Stay in melee range as much as possible
Stick to that guy like glue. Simply put, the "safe" way to joust is to keep Thrusting merrily away at melee range, and anytime the NPC runs, toss a Shield-Breaker and then run after him ASAP to get back in melee range. By doing this, your opponent can never get range to charge you and remove your shields, but you'll take a shield or two from him and gradually whittle him down.

Every now and then I will back up slightly (in all my keyboard-turning glory) or run away a tiny bit to get range to shield break again (if you reduce his shields to yellow or red, you'll win faster by doing more damage). Remember though, this opens you up to being far enough away for him to charge you and reduce your shields. If this happens, just refresh to green again.

Doing it this way often means that the mob can never remove even one of your shields, which means you should lose very little health over the course of the fight. But don't get complacent - make sure you renew your shields before they expire and drop off. If they run out, the mob will damage you very quickly while you try to get the shields back up.

Why I don't usually bother charging
Charging is pretty cool and a bit of fun. Wheeeeeee, zooming across and wheeling around. The problem though is that once you have charged past your opponent, you have such a wide turning circle that it takes you a few seconds to sweep around and run back to him (unless you jump-turn, and I'm guessing if you're having problems, you're not confident doing this). In that time, you are vulnerable to being charged yourself, meaning that you'll lose a shield stack, and for a few seconds he'll be able to damage you harder. So it's not as "safe" than just meleeing and shield breaking him.

Of course, if you are reducing his shields with extra charges, you'll be killing him faster, so it won't matter too much if your shield drops a stack from a charge; but if you've had troubles with jousting in the past I would recommend just sticking with this safe "melee method" until you're a little more confident.

That's it!
To recap:

- always start with full shields
- whenever the mob runs from you, shield break and run after him
- stay in melee range as much as possible, keep Thrusting
- if you get a chance to toss extra shield breaks, this will help you DPS faster
- don't let your shields drop


Oh, and don't forget to re-equip your normal weapon when you're done. It's pretty embarrassing to pop out of cat form after killing Chillmaw, and have a huge Tauren-sized lance in your hand because you didn't realise (in flight or kitty form) that it was still equipped. HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT ME! I'M REALLY DUMB! (*flashing neon arrows*) :/

Hope this helps - good luck!

Cold turkey: Day.. what are we up to?

It's really very weird, suddenly not raiding, after doing it for so long.

I don't know whether I feel happy, or sad. Both, I think. Sad because I feel a little robbed, after working so hard... and because I've lost a big chunk of what I've been doing for the past couple of years. Happy because now I am actually sleeping well, looking after myself, and I don't dread logging on to face a bunch of stress that has to be dealt with before 7:30pm.

I know I could find another raiding guild easily. I could be raiding again this week if I wanted to.


The fors and againsts for going back

Part of me wants to, for a few reasons:

- I've raided so long, I feel lost without it
- I'm very big on having a sense of completion. Not killing Yogg is very irritating
- My character now feels "incomplete"
- I play to heal, and excel; there's very little healing to do when you're farming!
- I find it hard to spend time playing if I have no goal; I could research upgrades, but why bother if I won't be raiding anymore?

Part of me wants to stay down, though:

- I'm sleeping better and for longer (no more nightmares)
- I have more time for friends and family
- I have more time to get things done around the house
- I have more time to look after myself
- I can log on when I want, and log off when I want
- I can watch my favourite TV shows
- I can decide to have an early night
- I can go away for the weekend or for short trips without letting anyone down

So I still feel very torn.

For the time being though, I really don't feel like raiding anything - not even 10s. I thought I would.. I thought I would want to jump into 10s to at least be raiding a little. But I didn't realise how badly I needed a break from it all, and I'm enjoying it.

.. but part of me hates that my character is unfinished, Yogg is alive, and others are raiding while I have nobody to heal. I hate loose ends. I know that when Warcraft is taken down our characters will disappear... so ultimately we are pouring our time into characters that will be deleted - but I still feel compelled to "finish" Keeva. To cap out her reps, to have her kill all of the bosses, and to collect the best gear she can. I don't like leaving things unfinished.


My biggest, perpetual frustration

For as long as I can remember, my biggest frustration in Warcraft has been playing with people whose goals, standards and expectations do not match my own. Whether something simple like pairing up with someone who wants to do quests in a different order, or they want to quest while you want to farm... to the biggie - raiders who don't have your same level of commitment - it all just drives me nuts.

Of course, this is just the double-edged nature of MMOs. You're not playing with thousands of people who are you. I can't expect everyone to want what I want.

...but it still drives me crazy.

In my experience, there will always be a handful of extremely committed raiders who are there to get the job done. They have top attendance, they're at the instance early (no summons), and never have to be told to buff or move out of AoE.

But then there will always be people who drag their feet and drive me around the bend. The random AFKers, people who want to be summoned to the instance. The ones who ask for a repair mount despite the fact that I put one up last attempt. The ones who mess up and then say "lol my bad". The ones who feel like doing something else so they don't turn up at all. The ones who are either only there for loot, or just there "for something to do" - and don't really care what happens. And the worst of the lot: the ones who think they are awesome and/or extremely "pro" but are either bad players, or let us down in the ways listed above.

Plus there are the unexpected real life interruptions that can wreak havoc with your team, too - school, illness, family, work. These can't be helped, but do add to the frustration.

The handful of skilled, committed and dedicated players - I love them. I wish I could find 24 of those and mash them together. 24 people who are just as committed, can make all of the raids, don't need someone to hold their hand, and want to win. But in my experience, it is nigh impossible to get those 25 people in the same guild and on the same team at the same time.

So call me defeatist, or pessimistic.. or just call me a plain old whiner. I honestly feel that no matter where I go, which guild I join, or the content I choose to enjoy - (some) people will always let me down because the majority do not have the same standards that I do.

I'm tired of pushing people uphill. People who really only care about themselves, their loot, their personal goals - and are using the group to facilitate that. Some people might say, "that's the point.. you team up to raid and improve your character" - but I play for more than that. I play for team achievements, for group goals. So when I'm playing with 15 or so people who clearly don't care about the team, but only about themselves, it drives me nuts.


Yeah, I'm STILL annoyed about easy content

And on top of all of that, there's the fact that content is getting easier, which is making raiders lazier and lazier (this is more pronounced in raiders who did not do "vanilla" raids). They have come to expect fast clears and little work to be able to conquer new content (and I use the term conquer VERY loosely). There's no challenge anymore. Hard modes... sorry, but to me, they're just gimmicks. You kill the boss normally... now come back next week and kill him again with more raid damage and 50 elite Smurf adds that bite your ankles while you dodge pools of lava and periodic lasers that turn your healers to stone and make the MT take 250% damage. Zzz.

I don't want to detract from the people working on these hard modes, good on you, but I still see them as a bit of a bandaid fix to keep the "hardcore" raiders happy. Snore. I hate gimmicks.

So I think I might be done.


This might be it

I always thought that I would raid until the game dies. But I would say a good 90% of people are lazy, bad raiders who don't really care about anything except themselves. I know you good raiders are out there, but you are a minority, and that is incredibly frustrating to me... to the point of making me ill lately.

I'm actually sleeping now. I'm eating well, I'm not having nightmares. I can relax and do what I want, when I want. I don't feel stressed all day in anticipation of what I might have to face when I get home. I can work on reps, chat with people, play casually, and walk away whenever I want. I know in my heart that all of this is a good, good thing - it's positive. But when you drop something you've been doing 4 nights a week for several years... especially when it isn't "finished".. it just doesn't sit right. I want to say I'm done with raiding.. but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll have to eat my hat sometime down the track.

Who knows, maybe I will want to get back into it sometime later - lots of people take a break and come back. But I'm wondering if this is my "chance" to get out of raiding without letting anyone down. Without suddenly announcing mid-progression that I'm bored, bye. I want to do it. I turn 30 next week (ahh!), and I'm thinking it's probably time I stopped playing games all day and did something productive.

I don't know that I want to give it up yet... but I know that I probably should.

I'm just so tired of only ever being able to rely on a tiny handful of people, at best. The majority just keep letting me down and making things painful - and it happens over and again.

Is it even worth trying again, starting all over from scratch? I'm not sure that it is.

Ulduar screenies

I was saving this post for when we killed Yogg, but that isn't going to happen now, so here they all are. Maybe I'll get a 10 man Yogg instead sometime.

NB: I don't have shots of the first couple of bosses because I was stuck at work.



















Oops, apparently my Vezax picture isn't up. I'll have to edit it in later.

One day I'll do Yogg and finish things off.

Break from hardcore raiding

This morning I made the announcement that we would be transitioning from a hardcore 25man guild to a casual 10man guild.

It stings. I play this game to raid; I will always be a raid healer, it's what I love. But it got to the point where I was spending every spare moment doing my Taz devil impression, whirlwinding around to try to keep everything running, to keep our heads above water. It's definitely been a labour of love.

Unfortunately, I had more faith in my team than my team had in themselves. A handful of them decided that we couldn't keep going (despite the fact that we had a very successful raid week). And we all know what happens then - it snowballs as more and more people decide that if we've lost 1 person, we'll lose more, and then more, and it becomes a race to see who can leave first - because nobody wants to hang around when things get messy.

Some people did us proud. They stuck around, despite telling me that they would like to find another team. They were committed to seeing things through and finishing what we started. Unfortunately we couldn't do that.

Other people just jumped and didn't look back.

And others took it that one teeeeeeeeny step further into "unhealthy e-rage" territory, leaving me love notes to discover in the morning:

...f#$k you, now im actually gonna help tear your pathetic excuse for a guild apart.

srs game... is srs.

I guess I am quite naive and old fashioned, I tend to think of this game as a really pretty chat interface - this is a social network to me. But to others it is purely about winning, about loot, about colouring in their achievement panes.. and it doesn't matter who they step on or step over or leave behind to do that. That makes me sad, because I count all of my guildmates as friends, so when they jump ship without a word, it does hurt.

I think in most cases it is probably embarrassment though, that people feel they can't hang around anymore. I would be lying if I said I wasn't angry at them for being quitters. If they had held it together for just two more days, things would have been dramatically different. Two days.. but they quit and walked away.

I don't hold grudges though.

Well, unless you turn your personal issues with me into a vendetta against my entire guild. That pretty much gets you stricken from my Christmas list indefinitely.



So for me.. it's time to go casual. Kick back. Breathe. Take a break from pushing 20-odd people up a hill when they really didn't want to be going up the hill at all.. they just wanted an easy ride to the picnic at the top.

I have to stop using so many lame analogies.



Time to farm, finish reps (finally got that darn Cenarion rep done), fish, do 10s, heroics, dailies. Blog!!! I've missed you, blog.

I need a holiday, and intend to take one soon.

Last night I had my first good night's sleep in weeks.




I chose the name Inexorable. At this point, the people who left are probably laughing and thinking it is an ironic name. Personally, I think it is more fitting than ever.

I'm not dead, I feel happy

I've been neglecting you guys really badly. Probably not as badly as my Children's Week orphans - I really need to stop flying off cliffs and forgetting there's a small child following me...

I still don't really have time to write anything substantial. Working two jobs, plus some illness lately, plus a lot going on in the game has meant putting the blog to one side for a bit. Also, honestly, I don't really have much to write about at the moment because I simply haven't had a chance to stop and think about my character or general happenings in the game. I've basically been going through the raiding motions for the last few weeks and haven't even had a chance to stop and check out the new stuff.

I'm not a big fan of constantly regurgitating WoWInsider or MMO material - I do it sometimes for the big stuff, but I never intended my blog to just be another news snippet portal. I want to *write*. Part Time Druid's article on blogging is spookily-timed, sometimes I think a few of you druids are nosing around in my head.

The point is - I don't really like the idea of posting for the sake of posting. I could easily throw down some snippets from MMO etc, to make it look like I'm being active and whatnot, but the fact is that plenty of other people do that, there's not really any need for me to, and if I do it too often I start to feel like a cheater.

Add to that the fact that I could be posting these news items, but I don't have time to sit and discuss my thoughts at the moment. Take the legendary mace for example - obviously a hot topic.. but I don't have time to put my thoughts down about it. And even if I did, I'm not sure I would want to since I'm lagging behind everyone and everything has probably already been said. I don't really want to be rehashing other people's ideas.

I'm certainly not criticising those of you who are reporting back with your thoughts on items and changes.. I just don't like looking as though I am piggy-backing.

So until I can relax a bit and find some time to come up with some of my own content, I'm not happy just reposting blues etc. I don't mind posting on hot/shared topics, but I need to feel that what I am writing is valued and fairly original, otherwise I feel like I am doing myself a disservice.

A quick update

But I will give a brief update on what has been going on for me in the last few weeks:

Yogg Saron is cool.

Still working on Yogg-Saron. Awesome fight; kinda annoying that we need to take fewer healers though (and even then those healers need to spend time DPSing). We are pretty much neck-and-neck with our nearest rival guild; I think they may take the server first tonight if we aren't able to get back in there. That will make me a very sad panda, considering all the problems we've had in the last week or two.. but they have been working hard this last week. It has been a good race. I just don't like being second ;)

Drama llamas

The guild is bouncing back from the AMGDRAMA of our MT/Raid Leader having a progression meltdown and transferring in the middle of the night. Another officer took the opportunity to leave at the same time, shaving us down to 4 officers, which doesn't sit well with me at the moment - I prefer around 6.

We lost a few people to RL stuff, a few jumped ship because they felt the grass was greener in another guild that was 2 weeks/1 boss ahead of us, and we lost a few people to a mix: those who claimed RL issues but really just wanted to leave to go to a "better" guild. Poor form kids - it's not hard to find you, and it just makes you look like your pants are on fire. I expected better... but what can you do. I don't understand why people feel the need to cover up their intentions and reasons. I've been in a situation where I couldn't raid according to my standards and my goals, and it's horrible. If people really want to go, I can empathise. I just don't understand why you would lie about it - it just makes things even more unpleasant.

If you're really unhappy and you feel that moving on is the only solution, just say so. Just say you want to go to a more progressed guild. Don't look me in the eye and tell me you're failing school and giving your account away to someone or your car exploded so you can't afford to play anymore, and then let me notice you back and playing in another guild on another server under another name. We're not idiots, you just make yourself look bad doing that. Man up, say you're not content and that you need to move on. There'll probably be a little bit of annoyance, but a whole lot less than if you spin some ridiculous lie and then get found out later.

I think a few people should read Matticus' articles on drama and gquitting. Call me crazy old-fashioned, but I think that after you play in a guild for a period of time, it would be nice to do the "right thing" by your team and actually talk to someone. Failing that, at least don't lie when you leave.

It would actually be nice to STAY FRIENDS instead of you burning your bridges on the way out.

On a nicer note - we gained a few people, which is very exciting. I like new faces. Really looking forward to getting to know everyone better.

Why I'm tired

I spent a few days mashing together a new guild website after ours was taken down; another reason why I have had so little time to blog! It was important to get a site up ASAP to make sure we could advertise and also just to have a web presence. I'm so excited about controlling our website; previously it was not updated frequently, and I think it looked more like an online brochure rather than something that showed us as an active, progressive guild. Now that I am in control, I can update it as often as I like, and that makes me extremely happy. I'm weird.

Our ravaged guild bank went from 10k to 30k within a few days, meaning I could turn guild bank repairs on for everyone while we are learning Yogg. I've spent a lot of time this week taking out my frustrations through fishing, farming and playing the AH for the guild bank - it has made me very happy to see it back up to a healthy level. Plus, a very generous ex-guildmate quit the game and sent us 6500g - /wave Amarant! :)

We may not get the server first Yogg kill, which will be very disappointing. But boy did we go through a lot to keep raiding... so any disappointment will likely be short lived - I'm just glad we're still here. We've been poached, robbed, mocked, lied to, let down and generally knocked around, but we're still going, and I'm so proud. Everyone could have thrown their hands in the air and said it was too hard to continue - but we're still raiding and progressing, and it feels great.

Phat Loots

Loot is a non-issue for me at the moment. Often we will kill a boss and I forget they have loot (good thing the badges are distributed automatically now, or I would have missed a lot). I'm more interested in the kills. Obviously I want to get my hands on the T8 4pc bonus ASAP, but otherwise I have a very relaxed "if loot lands in my lap, cool" attitude. I never look at my DKP, I just don't care.

So far I have picked up the T8 chest, those nice bracers, and a ring.

I also have 3 Fragments of Val'anyr in the bank :)

My direction

This recent "unpleasantness" has kinda thrust me more into a GM/leadership role than I had previously cared to perform. I can lead; I just prefer to be the quiet achiever who does stuff for the guild in the background.

The other officers are great, and we have a great new raid leader, too, which is a relief because I'm not a raid leader. I'm a one-trick pony :P

I'm not sure how this will impact on my game or blog, though. Obviously things are more chaotic than normal at the moment, but I don't know how much extra time I will need to devote to the guild (over and above what I was already doing). I worry that I'm not actually getting any time to play other than for a couple of hours on the weekend - most of the rest of my time is taken up doing officery things.

Things are still a bit up in the air at the moment, but I am very wary of burnout. I don't want to let my guild down while we are going through some changes (plus I have 3 legendary shards, and that puts a certain amount of pressure on a person to stick around and not explode!). I hope that things will settle enough that I will be able to keep enjoying my druid - with the flow-on effect being that I am able to keep blogging about enjoying my druid.



Hopefully I'll be able to get back into writing (in my spare time, not at work, this is so naughty) soon. I still owe you guys a final Healbot writeup, after all.

Inexorable is recruiting!

Hey guys, normally I don't cross-post non-druidy stuff in this blog, but I know there are some other Oceanic readers here, and I wanted to spread the word.

My guild is currently recruiting. We are leading progression on our server (Caelestrasz - Oceanic PvE), and we making a final push to get Yogg-Saron down (he should die on Sunday).

Images courtesy of Wowraid.com

At the moment we are seeking priests and hunters. Ideally I would like one of each flavour priest (holy, disc and shadow). We will also consider other dps classes, and wouldn't mind another holy pally.

I've just finished getting our new site off the ground - http://inexguild.com/ - it has more information about the guild, our progress and recruitment.

So if you're looking for an Oceanic raiding guild (or you have a friend who is looking) - have a look at the site, and feel free to send me a forum PM, email, or whisper in game to chat. I'm online every night if you need more info.

Thanks :)