Tale Fifty Five: A Letter To Grimm

Grimm:

Okay! Well you know that I’m a “blogger” now, which basically means I have to spend HOURS upon HOURS of reading other blogs.

And I ran across this on Keredria's blog: The WoW Spouse.

I laughed. Before, at one point -when I used to play more- I would have agreed to more than half of these.

Here we go! The purple is my own little thoughts, because you know… I’m awesome like that.

1. You and your WOW spouse regularly share mats or food buffs.
Okay, we didn’t really share stuff because you had everything. But you shared stuff with me! I guess I shared when I started to put down Fish Feasts…

2. There are inside jokes that you and your WOW spouse share. You and your WOW spouse may also joke and kid around by giving each other a hard time about certain things.
Well, we had the whole “Littlevoice” inside thing going on. And you even made up the ******AnAss channel so we could joke, kid and give each other a hard time. You know that a whisper would have sufficed right?

3. You can be bluntly honest with each other about raid performance, gear choice, or whatever. You're comfortable enough to point things out and ask what the heck they think they're doing.
I’ll never forget the day when I was tanking on my pally, and I kept loosing aggro. I was annoyed beyond reason, and ever so gently with a hint of laughter in your voice you said, “Hon? Righteous Fury.” You still are my go-to Guru for everything.

4. When something eventful happens in an raid, your WOW spouse is the first person you start whispering frantically. Or over vent in a raid, one WOW spouse may yell to the other to do something, to which the other responds, "Geez, I'm doing it already!".
Haha! Yes! Of course, you’d be the first person I’d start whispering, if Fara wasn’t on. Sorry, but sometimes gossip can only be shared by girls first. But if you were in the raid or group and someone pulled an asshat move, I’d start bitching to you.

5. Your WOW spouse knows exactly what type of elixirs, potions, or flasks you consume.
I’m pretty sure this one is standard, right? Fish Feast with a Flask of Frost Wyrm on the side.

6. You can finish each other's sentences over vent or find that you are thinking the same things at the same time.
I don’t think this one rings true to us… I think I’d be slightly scared if I started to finish your sentences because then that would mean I know what you’re thinking. And that right there is a scary scary thing.

7. Your WOW spouse knows almost as much or more about your real life as your best friend or real life spouse does.
Maybe as much as my best friend but not as much as Shock. He does hang around me all day long, after all.

8. You and your WOW spouse may have disagreements or minor spats. But you know these spats aren't the end of the relationship, spouses are bound to disagree at times! The WOW wife then waits for the WOW husband to come back with flowers and apologies.
Hmm… I don’t know about this one. Usually it’s you and Shock disagreeing over stuff. I’m just kind of in the background, rolling my eyes at Shock and nodding at you with sympathy.

9. No one else knows how to push your buttons or guilt trip you as well as your WOW spouse.
I totally agree with this one. I remember when I transferred Littlebark over to Alliance, and left a note on the forums. And when I went to check if you’d read it, you said something like “maybe I’ll see you when I PvP.” I turned to Shock, tears STREAMING down my face and wailed “I’ll never get to see him because he never PvPs!!!”

Yeah. You made cry!

10. Your friends and your real life spouse know about your WOW spouse.
Shock knows about you, obviously. I think he got sick of you at one point in Ulduar, where I would start 70% of my WoW conversations with “Grimm says that…” or “today, Grimm and I…”

The only friend of mine who knows about you is Rak-something. She was in our guild briefly, and I’d talk to her about you a lot. What can I say, you influenced my gaming!

All my other friends don’t care about WoW, and therefore, don’t care about you. Sad, isn’t it?

PS: I actually thought about this, and since you're all buddy buddy with Apadwa, "WoW Spouse" isn't really the right term is it? WoW Accomplice?

Tale Fifty Four: This Is It.

As of tonight, I am a guild master. I don't have the tittle yet, but this is what happened:

I blame Avatar.

Yes. You read that correctly. AVATAR.

Something about the blue Neytiri or whatever chick sparked something in Mr. Littlebark and he decided that enough was enough. Apperantly, he wasn't having fun in WoW anymore and he wanted to be carefree, and all that hallmark crap.

And he told me this at Walt Mart. There I was, about to order my Double Cheeseburger combo at McDonald's and he tells me "Oh, and at 10:30 tonight? I'm telling everyone that I'm quitting WoW."

I admit: I got pissed off. The guild is doing SO well right now. We almost downed Saurfang and would have on Sunday night had it not been for our connection. We have our heads straight and we're working so hard.

And Mr. Littlebark decides that this is too stressful.

This next part is going to sound like a rant but honestly, right now? I don't give a flipping birds tail. He basically has the GM tittle ONLY to lead raids. The other stuff, I do. I fish for the Fish Feasts, farm mats for flasks, make sure there is guild repair money, update the web posts when we have new kills, I recruit when needed, check the Realm Forums, talk to other GM's from other guilds in case we need a guild alliance in the future and on top of all that, maintain this blog.

Mr Littlebark's job was: show up at 9:15 and send out invites. Explain the strats when they weren't known and hand out loot.

It's painfully obvious how his job is SOOO stressful.

So tonight, I solved it. I told him that once I bought the game card for LB's account, I would transfer the leadership over to her. He will be booted down to Member and he will be invited to raids. However, since he won't be part of the core group, to not expect a spot in the raids everytime.

I've lead raids before. I've learnt from my mistakes. I know the fights and I am now well educated on how to reach out to all those amazing bloggers out there for support.

My guildmates especially have been great through this. All of them are stepping up to the plate. I told them that because of the enormity of this, I need till the end of the weekend and by then I'll have an action plan. Guildies... thank you. For not /gquitting the moment Mr Littlebark said he was done. For having a little faith in me and for offering your help.

This also brought up the question of expanding to 25mans. Several people are interested and though I feel a certain dislike to them due to my old guild, I'm willing to recruit and see it happen here. The worst that can happen is that the trolls troll and wreck havoc. But as a good GM its only fair to try.

I hope this holiday season finds you all well. If you can, send good vibes our way here... I might need it now more than ever.

PS: Mr Littlebark. Oh yeah? Well I’ve got something YOU don’t have! My collectors edition Sparkle Pony. Because it sparkles.

Mr Littlebark, I do understand that a burn out is awful. Take all the time you need.

Tale Fifty Three: Petal Takes Over!

Treebloggers United


Hello everyone! I'm called Petal and I muddle around on a blog called The New HoTness http://healovertime.blogspot.com/... but before that I was known as Doodlebug on the Kael'thas server in the Big Bear Butt's guild, the Sidhe Devils. I left that guild to raid, decided raiding wasn't for me and moved to a brand new server to start all over again. Also, I was the artist and co-author of a short lived comic called Road to BlizzCon http://roadtoblizzcon.blogspot.com/ — so while my blog is kinda new, my 'pedigree' (if you can call it that) stretches back a little bit.

Saresa over at Destructive Reach http://www.destructivereach.com/ and Blog Azeroth http://www.blogazeroth.com/ has thrown together a little "Blogging Kris Kringle / White Elephant" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange where different bloggers switch around and get to post their random thoughts and so forth on others blogs and I'm honored to be posting on Littlebark's.

Something about blogging, and especially blogging about my tree druid is intensely fascinating, which is why I restarted after quitting the first time. There's a veritable forest of trees out there, blogging their thoughts, their numbers or their achievements... so I'm thinking it's just as fascinating to a lot of people. I'd love to one day see a chart or study of how many WoW-themed blogs there are and how many are druid-centric... my purely intuitive feeling is that druids would come in first, paws down.

I think it's because druids are a hybrid class (and thinking about it a little more I bet other hybrid class blogs would number high on that mythical study as well). As hybrids we have a lot to chatter about: kitty DPS, feral bear bashing, boomkins going oom, trees running and healing and hotting the place up. Any or all of those I have seen and read and been entertained by. I also love the names that druids come up with as well: Tigerfeet http://secretagentcat.wordpress.com/, of course Littlebark, the world famous Leafshine http://www.leafshine.net/ and my own little baby Tauren alt, Honeythief. See, there's just something about druids and druid bloggers that make me happy.

It also makes me happy when I discover new blogs and bloggers, and as part of this continuing Winter Veil link-love fest, comment below and include one of your favorite druid-themed blogs. We all know the 'big names' so link us your little ones, if you please. Someone you read who may not post that regularly and could use some traffic and encouragement. Also be sure to pimp your own blog, as I so shamelessly did above.

Thanks again to Saresa for organizing, thanks to Littlebark for letting me leave my leafs all over the place and Happy Winter's Veil to you all.

Tale Fifty Two: The Tooting Totem

I don't know why, but the tittle has me giggling.

Anywho. Putting a new blog on the spotlight! It's called The Tooting Totem by Shockbox.

AKA Mr. Littlebark himself.

Yep, he's taking a go at this blogging thing, and is going to focus on his Shammy and everything else he does in WoW.

So if you have time, go over and /wave.

PS: He has posted a horrible horrible video where he and I ganked a Horde guildie of ours in IF.... I claim insanity!

Tale Fifty One: 2009 Review Meme!

Snakedriver at Bible of Dreams post a meme at Blog Azeroth Shared Topic (I'm probably 2 weeks behind on those.)

In return, I'll tag Keeva over at Tree Bark Jacket, Leafy at Leafshine, Averna (so we can get her back into the blogging world) at Nerf This Druid , Caliban at GnomeDruid, Termenus at Whats?! In The Hat!? (not really a WoW blog -though WoW is sprinkled here and there- but a guildie from Lords) and.... how many did we have to tag again?

Anyways...


What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Considering this is my first real year of raiding, I'd have to say being ready for a patch. I've never been able to fight a new boss (raiding wise) in the first week it came out. With 3.3, I was able to go in on Wednesday and drop kick Lord Morrowgar.

What was your favorite new place that you visited?
Honestly? It'd have to be River's Heart. It's probably one of the most visited and known places in Northrend. But when I was leveling Tauren Littlebark (way back in the day), I accidently stumbled upon it while killing all those crocidiles and it took my breath away. I immediatly thought that if I were ever to have a WoW wedding, it'd be there. Scholar Bazin in general is such a wonderful place, I think Blizzard did a beautiful job with it. That, and its music.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More PvP on Littlebark, I think. Specially Resto PvP. Mr Littlebark's rogue and feral LB did a stint of PvP awhile back, and it was fun! I also PvP with my brother-in-law but since we're not in the same house, we start off together and then he sneaks off and I'm left to fend for myself. Not fun. But yes, I think I would love to Resto PvP. They seem to be annoying to try to kill.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
This is going to sound silly, but getting the Walrus-Men Fishing Pole, along with my of Darnassus and of Stormwind tittle. I have to make it very clear here: I am not one to grind. I hate rep grinding. So when I actually set a goal and stuck to it... *deep breath* yeah, I was so happy to be done with it. Took me about 2weeks, sometimes I'd log in to do just that.

What was your biggest failure?
I wouldn't call it failure, more of regret. We never got Yogg down. We got to phase 2, then it all went to pieces. Not long after, we started to focus more and more on the Coliseum, so that Yogg and Ulduar was soon forgotten.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Again, it'd have to be patch 3.3. I was silly excited. While the servers were down, my fellow guildmate and I were on Facebook looking at strategy guides and talking and speculating. I stocked up on everything! THIS IS THE BIG ONE, DAMN IT! Arthas himself! The honcho, the boss, the one who rules the Scourge!!!

What do you wish you'd done less of?
Huh. Less of. Maybe... play a little less. I'm constantly on, even if I'm just afk... but yeah. I mean, I don't regret it. But I am on A LOT.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
I don't listen to podcasts. Actually, that's a lie. I was listening to the Twisted Nether Podcast last night but it happens to clash in right with raid time. So, I had to turn them off :( a damn shame too, because they were speculating on the whole who's gonna be the next Lich King.

As for my favorite blog... it'd have to be a toss up on Tree Bark Jacket and Nerf This Druid. Keeva does an excellent job of getting her point across and Averna is comically funny in all of her posts.

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.
That there is heartache even in a game such as this.

Tale Fifty: A More Coherent Post Coming Soon.

Not what I had planned for my 50th post, but just peeking in to say: I'm alive.

I've caught what appears to be the cold. I sound like a chain smoker, I'm coughing non-stop, and I can barely breathe out of my stuffy stuffy nose.

Raiding last night was interesting.

"Bone spike on *COUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHDYING* on LB!"

Kept going AFK to get some water, to the bathroom, to maybe kill myself.

I have not been sick in the past 3 years. This is no fun. I've done what most people have suggested too!

Peroxide in my ears? Done.

Cold towel on my throat? Done.

Tons of water? Done.

LOTS of sleep? Done.

And the list goes on and on. And I'm still sick damn it!

I have to go to work today (I feel horrible since I might get someone else sick, but my boss says that since I missed one day, I can't miss another) but tomorrow, I'll have a more coherent and worthy post. Something Druid related or something.

Until then, wish me luck that I don't cough up a lung or something.

Tale Forty Nine: With 3.3 on the Horizon...

I can actually say, "Bring it on!"

You see, I've never before been prepared or cared about a patch. EVER.

I was BC Baby and got my first level cap toon to 70 in August 08. Lich King came out in November and by then, I'd gotten bored of my hunter Thienna and started leveling my druid, Littlebark. The xpac hit -and despite having 2 level 70 toons (Thienna and Jezabeth the lock), I continued to level Littlebark who was level 64 that weekend.

So of course I missed the first weeks of Naxx. And of course, my work schedule is weird, so I could only raid on the weekends. As fate should have it, my guild did not do weekend runs back in the day. So I didn't really get any Naxx25 gear sadly and only got Naxx gear because I volunteer to start up Naxx10 runs on the weekends.

3.1 comes out, and with it Ulduar. Again, I'm not quite ready for it. I'm mostly geared in Naxx10 gear with some Naxx25 here and there. I take a break from raiding 25 mans because I am not compatible with the guild we did our joint runs with. Start leveling the dwarf Alliance priest instead of pugging Ulduar. Get the priest to 80. Start a guild with Mr. Littlebark so I raid late night weekdays and thus, After Hours is born.

Start missing the druid. Family and friends pop up in WoW... Alliance side. Make the painful decision to tranfer LB to Alliance. Start Naxx10 from stratch with the new guild. Progress to Ulduar.

3.2 comes out. ToC. After Hours is NOT ready for it. Keep doing Ulduar. Not enough people to raid. I start to get restless with no raiding. Start working on my Argent Tournament dailies instead of recruiting. A week later we try ToC10 even though our gear sucks. We down Anub on our second night.

With After Hours taking me by suprise, and finally having our core members, I truly do feel ready for Icecrown. I know the raiders like me in the guild are itching to get in there.

I've taken a few steps to actually be ready for this:
- Sold a couple of things from the gbank so that we'll have repair money.
- Stocked the bank up on Flasks.
- Made 60 Mana Pots.
- Went fishing for 3 hours today just so we'll have enough Fish Feasts.
- Bought extra head, shoulder, and leg enchants so I can put them on new gear I gear.
- Have extra glyphs to switch in and out.
- Sent a bunch of greens to my enchanter so she can disenchant mats for me. Mr. Littlebark is a enchanter, so I'll be able to have my new gear enchanted and ready to go as soon as I get it.
- Bought extra water and bandages (no mage in our raid ): )
- Bought extra reagents (for our paladins, priest and druids) and poisons for our rogue in case they run out.
- Watched and read up on strats.
- Reviewed and triple checked the patch notes.
- Almost decided on my spec/glyphs.

So yeah. This is a big deal for me. I've never ever been this crazy and ready for any raid before.

Is it slightly crazy? Yes.

But I'm totally glad I did it.

Tale Forty Eight: The Women Issue in WoW

I’ve been lurking around some blogs/posts/Trade chat the last week looking for a topic to write about – other than Icecrown and Patch 3.3.

And I stumbled on this gem:

Some people believe that girls can’t play WoW as well as boys.

What is this, kindergarten again?

Let me clear a few things up:

No, we don’t have cooties.

No, we don’t always have pillow fights topless at sleep overs.

And last but not least, yes, we play WoW.

And some of us play it pretty darn good!

The base of argument here (well in Trade Chat – Ah, Cenarius, how filled with drama you are!) was the same old thing. “Guys can physically do more than girls.”

Alright, but this is WoW. This is not Real Life where a guy can lift up 100 pounds and I’m dying as I lift up 10 pounds (Yes, I’m weak. Leave me alone!)

In a game, we’re equals. Oh yes. A girl can kick your ass in PvP. She can beat you on the damage meters. She can be an amazing tank. The one that I will not buy is that we make better healers because we’re naturally nurturers.

Just go ask my friends how nurturing I am. I won’t go pick up after you, I will not kiss your boo-boo and I plain don’t care about your latest drama.

I mean, last time my two best friends had a major fight I immediately told them, “I am Switzerland. Leave me out of this”.

Pretty non-nurturing if you ask me.

Apperantly, a girl gamer is still a weird concept. I got invited to do Ony 10 the other day and when I called out the Deep Breath in vent, three guys –whose voices had not even cracked yet- said ‘Woah! A chick! And she’s totally kicking your ass on the healing meter, Pally”.

I /sighed in real life. Then the paladin healing with me made up a bunch of lame excuses such as ‘Druids are OP’ or ‘she’s better geared than me’. Yeah right.

I just don’t get it. Why is a girl gamer such a taboo?

In my guild, 3/12 of us are girls. Two of us are healers, the other dps. In my guild, we don’t get any of this crap. We’re all raiders. Then again, it’s a real family-style guild so that’s probably why.

In my Horde guild, with over 300 toons (alts included), we have a healthy dose of boys and gals. The only time I’ve really thought ‘woah, she’s a chick’ was in an Ulduar 10 run and our tank’s wife spoke and sounded more like a seven year old than 20 something. Mr Littlebark and I just stared at each other and burst out laughing. Grimm, in his ultimate glory of geniuses, changed her guild note to ‘tanks wife ‘honey, I’m seven!’ Whenever I think of her, all I see is her famous ‘Shut upppppppppppp!’ in g chat. Slightly annoying? Yes. But that’s her thing, and we love her for it.

So, I guess I myself don’t think of myself as a chick in WoW. I think myself as Littlebark. What really made my teeth grind was when someone suggested that girls play boy toons so they don’t have to go through the whole ordeal.

Why should I have to look like an ugly Night Elf Male just because you’re too immature to accept that I am a girl and I play?

I heard from another friend that there was a guy who kept harassing her after a run (Vent had been used) and he kept telling her to send him her picture, because her voice had given him a – well, gentlemen, you know the terminology.

Even /ignore did not stop this guy, and in the end she got a name change and reported him to a GM.

Alright, so guys can be pretty immature. But it does not help when girls in WoW cause unnecessary drama. A girl who snarls “If your name isn’t fucking ---- don’t fucking start the event” will leave impression of ‘man, what a bitch!’ in a persons’ mind.

If you talk and talk and talk, not allowing the raid leader to say anything, you leave the expression of ‘Jebus Christ on a Crutch. Shut her up. Girls talk too much.”

So, I can see how guys immediately think girls = trouble. But honestly, we’re not. Most of us are amazing players who love the game.

Tale Forty Seven: Have you ever looked at the Statistics Tab?

I was curious to see what I had done in my time in WoW and ran into a couple of suprises.

Doesn't suprise me. I'm a very huggy druid.

2, 435 fish and still no turtle mount. ):

Really? Only? It feels like so much more..

Oh my... whacking those poor critters in instances does add up!

*sheepish look*

I was a bit suprised at this one. That's almost a 1000g in travel!

Protest these mad taxi fares!

Vain druid is vain. And I have noticed that since I switched LB to alliance,

I do get more haircuts.

So what about you? Any statistics that suprised you?

Tale Forty Six: Northrend where I live.

So. I thought I was literally in Northrend today. We had a blizzard warning all across the province. And by 10AM today, it was insane.

Needless to say: roads were crazy and the blizzard has still not let up. It's now 12:19 AM. More than 12 hours since those pictures were taken.

Quick, and somewhat embarrasing question. I keep hearing 'PTR' being thrown accross the boars. I know it stands for Public Test Realm... but last time I tried setting it up, my computer funked up. Can anyone help this silly tree? What goes on there?

Hope you are all staying warm!

Tale Forty Five: Seriously. Another one?

What is that LB!?

Let me tell you, reader.

That, is LB002.

You see, Blizzard thought it would be hilarious that my server crash five minutes after I log in. From coming home from work.

4 hours later, and it's still not up.

None of my servers are up, none of my friends server are up.

So I rerolled an alt on an Oceanic-that if it ever gets leveled up- I will probably ship back to Cenarius.

This druid looks what my beloved Littlebark looked like before I turned her to Alliance. I think I'll have fun ;)....

Until the damn server comes up.

Server being down = me not being able to do my Turkey Achievements. = me being a sad panda.

Taler Forty Four: Everyone has already talked about it!

But I really don't care.

Several bloggers have given their opinions on the pets that you can now purchase off the Blizzard store.

Some reacted positively, some negatively and others just didn't care.

I reacted positively.

When I saw the Monk months ago on the Wow.com site, I was thrilled. I'd promised myself that I would grind and sweat blood until I got him.

When I saw that I could buy him for $10, I was happy.

Saresa from Destructive Reach made a video on her view. I saw it and while I didn't agree with somethings, enjoyed it quite alot.

Two things that stuck out for me:
-'$10 is alot'
-You don't get the sense of satisfaction like you do from grinding a pet.

To the first point: to some people $10 IS alot. And if it is, you don't buy the pet. Keeva from Tree Bark Jacket knew that she had car payments ($6000 is 9 months! Woo hoo Keeva!) and therefore did not buy the pet. However, when her friend bought it for her, she was happy. As she said, she'll lecture him about his car payments later!

For those of you that don't know, I'm a college student and I work part time. I live with Mr. Littlebark and we share all our bills. Even with this, to me, $10 is NOT a lot. And $5 of it goes to the Make A Wish Foundation. That right there made me happy I bought it. Sure. $10 could get you a meal at McDonald's or new socks, etc. But it's your money and you can do whatever you want with it.

The second point: I have never grinded for a pet. Ever. I think the only thing I've grinded for is the Talbuk from Nagrand. And that took me almost 6months after I dinged 80. Did I get a "OHMYGOD you guys! Look what I got!" feeling? Nope. It was a "Ohmyeffing God. About frigging time!"

When I logged in and summoned the Monk and Lil KT, I was so happy! I DID get the "OHMYGOD YOU GUYS! I GOT HIM!" feeling. Even now, I love to summon them and giggle when I hear the Monk playing around. I understand that to some people, it might be all "Ho hum". But to me, it's fun. I would have grinded for it, but I didn't have to.

What was even better was that because of my Monk and Lil KT, one of my guildmates bought one too. Another guildmate had just bought it before me. Already, that's $15 for the Make a Wish Foundation.

So to the people that say that $10 is too much for a pet, let's talk numbers:

WoW Game Card (two months): ~$32.00
Snacks (monthly): Varies for people.
Meals (take out): Varies for people

So, in reality, you're spending quite abit on WoW. What about those of us who have multiple WoW accounts? Or, why bother buying the Collector's Edition of a new Xpac? The normal version will give you just as much as the other one.

So you see, I guess my pet peeve is: people slamming those who BUY the pets. You don't have to buy them. So can you please stop calling us Morons and telling us it's silly? As Chandler Bing once said, "We are rather fond of the silly!"

Tale Forty Three: Going Back to My Roots

First:Then:

And the final product:

Well. That's a nice thing after a horrible week of PuGS on the Paladin. Thank you, Littlebark, for cheering me up. <3

Tale Forty Two: I honestly don't why I put up with it.

PuGs. You've read my hate for them.

So why do I keep doing them?!

Honestly? The only answer I can come up with is I'm a complete moron.

And don't you dare disagree with me.

I'm so annoyed with the game. Nay. I'm annoyed at the people who make these PuGs a horrible and painful experience.

I transferred my Paladin to an RP server with Mr. Littlebark's warrior. What pisses me off, is that we transfer them, RP for a day and then he loses interest! Which means that I'm left to wander up and down the server by myself, knowing no one and clad in Naxx10 tank gear, Naxx10/25 holy gear.

No one, and I mean no one, wants a partially geared paladin. Which means I have to PuG. Not knowing who the ninja's are on this server, no one on my friends list. If you read several of my posts, you know that I work hard on my toons.

So, of course, this means pugging content that is now considered on farm.

Wrong.

People are idiotic, people have what appears to be 0 knowledge. I had a druid answer my LFM trade ad with "hey mate, I saw your Naxx25. I dinged 80 just now. Run me threw?"

Yeah. Welcome to my ignore list.

Finally got a Naxx25 group, with my brand new guild. And one of the guys in my guild tells the tank to pull, whilst some of us were still summoning. We wiped, people cried bloody murder and all the sudden, we have a new shaman in the group.

When the hell did that PuG rogue get assist!?

"Either he leaves, or people are going to start dropping."

The "he" that he was referring to was, as fate should have it, my new Guild Master.

I kicked the new shammy, told the people who had assist to stop the nerd rage and to keep going. Only one person dropped.

By the time we got to the boss, I knew it was going to fail. And of course, it did.

Honestly, I am sick to death of WoW. Sick to death of the fact that so many people and PuGs are ruining the game that I love.

No. I am not burnt out. No, I do not want to quit. I just want to gear up as quickly and painless.

Is that too much to ask!?

Tale Forty One: Guild Recruiting/Applying

All is quite on the Druid Front.

I just wanted to make a quick post, touching on guild recruitment and applying to guilds.

When you see an 'ad' in trade channel that looks something like this:

The Make Believe Guild is recruiting dedicated DPS! We raid x times a week and are currently focusing on ToC and Ulduar. Our raid times are X-Xpm. For more information, send me a tell or visit our website @ whateverourwebsiteis.com

You have to ask these questions:

-Do the raid times work for me?

-Can I make most of the raids?

-Am I geared for the content they are on?

I quickly want to touch up on the last point. Lately, while we've been recruiting, we've had a couple of people whisper us who are interested. However, once looking at their armory, we cringe. When applying to a Uld/ToC guild, greens and blues -with a HH ring- is not the best impression. It tells us that you just dinged 80 or just haven't bothered pugging a Naxx or heroics... you can now gear up faster thanks to the badge system. A guild who is still working on Uld/ToC does not want to carry you.

Once you have answered the three questions above, and all of the answers are yes, you should check out the site (if they provided one). Do you like what you see? Is it easy on the eyes? How do the forums look?

If you're satisfied with the site, time to whisper the recruiting officer! Remember, this is what you can call your 'job interview'. This is where you can ask as many questions as you can about the guild. ie: whats the age range? Is the guild chat casual or full of hardcores? Does the guild offer repairs or no? Whats the policy of the guild bank? Whats the guild ranks? Is there a trial period?

Any questions about the raids, and guild that you have, the officer will most likely answer. Just like in a job interview, you have to feel somewhat comfortable too. Whenever Mr. Littlebark is recruiting, he asks a silly question first (ie: what are you wearing?) This can go either way, and we get to see what kind of person you are. Our guild likes to joke around alot, so it can be an eye opener for us.

Hope this helps whenever you're looking for a guild. Happy gaming!

Tale Forty: Burnt Out

No, not me. Mr Littlebark, who has been playing the game much longer than I, told me today that he would probably stop playing the game. He doesn't find anything to do now, he'll just run around in circles in Dalaran and realize he's been doing that for 10 minutes straight.

What happens though, when I am still very much playing the game?

He's our Guild Master, he's amazing at leading raids and he reads up on fights. He's good at his class, at all the spec and he made this guild for me, really. So I could raid even though I have a weird work schedule.

Has anyone else had partners that just stop playing WoW? What should I say/do?

/sigh

Tale Thirty Nine: A trip down memory lane.

I know everyone is focusing on the Tier 10 bonus sets and Icecrown Citadel and stuff.

But tonight, I don't want to do that. So if that's what you're here for, sorry.

Tonight, I'm taking a trip down memory lane. With screenshots.

Ah... the Lords of Ancient Sin's dance party. I don't know how they began, or who began them. But that night after a raid, it was fun just hanging out in Dalaran, getting drunk and dancing the night away.

Grimmstone being made Guild Master. Most of us thought it was a joke. Our jaws dropped when we realized it wasn't. So far, he's doing a great job.

Me logging in after coming back from the death of my grandmother. I was lucky enough to have such supportive guildmates.

Tale Thirty Eight: Owned

WE GOT ANUB'ARAK DOWN!

After Hours went in: one shot Faction Champions, two shot the Val'kyr Twins (we wiped the first time due to us being silly and getting the special abilities mixed up) and two shot Anub.

Yeah yeah. You guys probably don't care. Hell, most of you are working on hardmodes and what not.

But, we're a small guild. And most of our raiders have never seen the content we're working on. It's all new to them, and our dpsers are not LEET and pumping out 5k. I think our highest is doing 3k.

Our guys are just amazing, I suppose. We had two healers for the whole thing -Mr. Littlebark's Shammy and myself - and it was crazy and so much fun. Our dps listened to our 20 minute monotone explanation and they did it brilliantly.

Guys, so proud of you.

Now, let's get Algalon down, aye?

Tale Thirty Seven: LF Porn, I mean, PuG

So.

Um, I'm a little traumatized.

I was in a ToC25 PuG... and there was a girl on Vent. A very very talkative girl.

Who soon began to talk about Jello, a bath tub and swallowing balls.

O.O

Her boyfriend was in the raid, of course. But she was flirting -interacting?- with another guy.

Mr. Littlebark and I soon came to the conclusion that she sounded like one of those girls that need attention.

"Are we ready yet? 'Cause like, I'm totally getting bored. And I feel like I'm talking too much."

"Well, you are." I snapped, thinking about muting her.

"I feel like punching her in the face," said my usually non-violent fiancee.

And all of this, before we got started.

All in all, her voice sounded like one of those bad porn flicks. Maybe it's just me, but I try to keep my voice low and 'professional' in any PuG or with my Guild. I don't like girls who squeal or have high pitched voices or talk and talk and talk. So I keep my voice as minimal and as normal as I can.

It was an amusing PuG, I suppose. Plus, I got an upgrade! Boots of the Unrelenting Storm! And y T9 shoulders!

So gear, plus that little erm... "show" that fellow raider put on = a decent PuG.

Happy Gaming!

-LB

Tale Thirty Six: If you need to be cheered up....

... just go to World of Warcraft, eh?

Honestly, I loved Kelly's comic. They are about a passive and caring druid named Cadistra and a erm... quirky and brave paladin named Kissless. And they're Horde. No one barely ever does a Horde Female Tauren Druid. Hardly any one plays them! Why is that? Well, because from behind, they look like slightly smaller Tauren Males. Or at least that's what I've been told.

Anywho, being an Ex-Hordie myself, I have totally embraced these comics.

Oh, and another quirk... she's Canadian. Just like me! I totally got all her 'Canadian based comics' and had me LOL'ing in RL.

She's been around for awhile, so I'm a bit late to join the party. However, Kelly does deserve a mention, so go! Go check them out and let me know what you think.

/wave

Tale Thirty Five: When A guildmate turns his back on you

Keeva over at Tree Bark Jacket made a really interesting post on a certain member in a guild run.

Like I said in her comment section, I’m glad I’m not the only one going through this.

When I transferred Littlebark to Alliance, I did it with the sole purpose of being to play her in a late night guild that Mr. Littlebark, myself and a couple of friends/family were starting up. We’re not L33T or anything, just people enjoying the game we love whilst having a fun time.

Of course, the four of us can’t solo Ulduar so we recruited and found some pretty amazing people in the form of a hunter, a boomkin, a holy priest, a DK, a rogue, two pally tanks and a mage. All of us work together as a team, and only lately have we had a bad week in terms of raiding.

Anywho, the mage has been an officer since day one. Mr. Littlebark and myself hold up most of the load, but we still needed someone who would sell the BoE’s from runs, help us control the Ep/Gp, etc. The Mage was amazing at doing this and he was a great officer. Sure, he was a little late to runs and recently he stopped showing up. It severed our raids and we’ve had to call them due to lack of DPS.

The last time he showed up to a raid was 2 weeks ago. We handed him a BoE to sell and when in a week I checked the bank and didn’t see him deposit anything, it struck me as odd. Mr. Littlebark said ‘maybe he still hasn’t been able to sell it yet’.

On Sunday, said Mage /gquit the guild and must have transferred to another server or gotten a name change. Because we have not seen hide nor hair from him.

It hurt the guild morale. And what hurt us the most was that we did not get the BoE back, he took about 200 relic of Ulduar –which we use to help alts power level their rep with Hodir or we sell them – and a couple scroll of enchants. We did not see him as that kind of person.

To you bigger guilds out there, that is not a lot. But we’re a ten man family style guild. When you are accepted into the guild, you get these benefits:

- Free enchants for Ulduar/ToC or tier gear
- Free Flasks (Pure Mojo/Stoneblood/etc)
- Fish Feasts
- Guild bank repairs on raid nights
- Mr. Littlebark and myself always willing to help improve a dps/healer/tank since we have played every single class in the game
- A casual feel in the guild

So, as you can see, that’s a lot of things being donated to the bank, and usually by one or two people. We ask that any greens in a run be donated to the gbank so we can disenchant them for the free enchants people will get later. Lately I’ve asked guildies to donate Frost Lotus as well, since they don’t seem to drop for me when I farm. I’m Elixer specced, so on a good night, I get a proc of 4, four times in a row. The Fish Feasts are provided by the hunter and myself, since that’s something we both enjoy to do. But as for the bank repairs…

Where does the money for that come from?

As I’ve stated, BoE’s from runs. Sadly, those don’t go for a lot though (holy pally bracers that dropped were going for about 300g). I’m an Alchemist, so of course, I sell my transmutes for the gbank. We have a generous guildie who donates once in awhile. With all of that, we only have around 2k in the guild bank.

During a raid night, we use up around anywhere from 300-700g (yes, we wipe a lot).

Which is why when I went to grab the relics of Ulduar from the gbank to sell them -200 relics are going for 500g!- I was floored when I saw that The Mage had taken them out 3 hours prior and not deposited anything back to us.

The scroll of enchants, we think he justifies with ‘I’m the one that enchanted them in the first place’. That doesn’t matter, since the guild as a whole provided the mats, via surrendering the greens from runs.
As for the BoE that he never deposited the gold from…*sad sigh*

Of course, I was appointed with the task of talking to GM. This feels slightly like Déjà vu, seeing as this happened to me on my Horde guild as well –however in that case, the toon had been hacked. This guild mate, he just left.

And it’s not like he left on a bad note, either. Last we spoke to him, we we’re all happy about single shotting Thorim and Hodir for the first time as a guild. He was a great dude, and he brought a certain charisma to the group. And of course, his mana strudels.

So we lost a guild mate and a couple hundred gold. Honestly, we’re more bummed about loosing the guild mate.

However, if you ask some guild mates, they will tell you ‘screw him.’

Well, we’re not all saints you know!

Tale Thirty Four: Playing With the Big Boys

What I love about Wrath:

You get to interact with major characters.

Oh yeah. LB playing with the Big Boys.

WTB Armor Upgrade for Thrall. PST.

Tale Thirty Three: When Raid Leading Goes Bad

I learned a very important lesson today.

Loot rules are there for a reason.

Mr. Littlebark had a business thing tonight and our other Officer has dropped from the face of the world (of Warcraft). So it was up to yours truly to lead the raid. We use the Ep/Gp loot system in After Hours, and its usually Mr LB and the other Officer that control that. I have no idea what they do make the mod work. By the time I got home, I helped a guildie with her respec, got the Flasks, Fish Feasts and Mana Pots ready and by the time I was ready, it was already time to raid.

I hadn't had time to read up on the Ep/Gp thing. So I told everyone that we'd just be doing /roll for tonight and Mr LB and the other Officer could sort it out later.

However, whilst I stupidly did that, little did I know that to one guild, I would be basically slapping him in the face and giving the loot to and alt rather than to him. Said guildie didn't roll on the item, he didn't tell me about it until after the raid.

But it is still my fault.

Here's why:

1) Loot Rules are there to avoid drama. When you have a looting system, people are happy. If we had used Ep/Gp, that guildie would have gotten the trinket. He had the highest amount of points, he donates more to the bank and he's always early. Always! He's one of our finest people. And because of me, he almost quit the guild.

2) I feel like I let him down. I couldn't get the trinket back to him, because by the time he told me, 2 hours had gone by. He refused to let me open a ticket on his behalf. I feel like utter crap because of my leadership, someone had been kicked in the teeth.

I talked it through with the guildie. Like I've said, he's one of the best we have. I remember every recruit story, and I remember his clearly. I have nothing but good memories of him. He gives 110% to the guild. Hell, he even let us know -by INGAME MAIL!- that he wasn't going to be able to be at a raid because of RL. Hell, most people in the guild just don't show up. I have family in that guild and they never tell me if they'll be there or not.

Anyways, guildie. If you read this, I'm sorry. You're one of our best. I'm proud to have you in our guild.

~LB

Tale Thirty Two: Offering to Buy Gear? Yes or Nay?

I was in a PuG VoA25 the other day, with 3 resto druids and a boomkin. Inside, I’m groaning because that’s three other people I’m going to have to roll against to win tier gear –if it drops. Yeah, go ahead and call me greedy.

I’ve been having a very “is it full moon” kind of month, and rolling anywhere from 1-30. Fail. I do VoA25/10 every week, because if you have the right dps/tanks/heals, its basically free loot and badges. And for the past month no druid gear has dropped and if it has, I have rolled a 1. *weep*

I got a whisper from one of the other druids (lets called her PvPDruid), asking me if I would be rolling on PvP gear. I told her that no, I wouldn’t since I don’t PvP. Go ahead and flame me (please don’t, remember I’m a tree!) Anyways, the druid said that she was here for PvP gear. I said, ‘all yours’.

What I understood from this was: if you don’t roll on PvP gear, I won’t roll on your PvE gear.

Sweet, right?

I inspected her gear and kind of did a double take, wondering why she didn’t want any PvE gear with the gear she had. PvE gear is still an upgrade from a blue in PvP right?

Fast forward to the boss fight. We shot down the first dude whose name I still can’t remember and I run my barky legs over to his corpse. And Oh.My.God. The T9.5 legs. When it came time to roll on them, I said a quick prayers to the healy gods and pressed /roll.

And boom: a 94.

My celebration was cut short however, when I saw this:

PvpDruid rolls a 95
ThatOtherDruid rolls a 94
TheBoomkin rolls a 40

I said a quick ‘grats’ in raid chat and started my vent to Mr. Littlebark, who also happened to be in the raid.

“Offer to buy them off her,” he said quickly.

WHAAAA?!

“No!” I snapped, thinking off how horrible that sounded. Buy gear that she won?

[PvpDruid] whispers: If any PvP gear drops, I’ll consider passing it on.

I was so upset that I just responded with a “no worries”. As I knew it would happen, no more druid gear dropped. At the end of the run, I left the party and sulked in Dalaran.

Mr. Littlebark and I had a conversation whilst I was making dinner about 5 minutes later, in which he said he didn’t see why I didn’t even try to buy them off her. First off, they’re T9.5 pants. They were more of an upgrade for her, obviously. And I was embarrassed that I wanted the pants bad enough that his suggestion sounded great. So he offered to speak on my behalf.

And lo and behold, two minutes later, Mr. Littlebark came back into the kitchen and proceeded to tell me that I now was the proud owner of new T9.5 pants. My first T9.5.

“I can’t believe she agreed to give them to you,” I said, a grin plastered on my face.

“Well, you’re 1000g short now, but I kind of figured she would sell them. She’s a PvPer. And besides, she said she’s cash starved at the moment.”

1000g…

*sigh*

Well, at least I have new pretty pants.

Tale Thirty One: Noob Alert

Noob Alert !!!

One of my co-workers and I were talking about Druids today at work. He’s a fellow druid himself, and he’s been playing WoW for 5 years.

5 Years!!

Anyways, I was complaining about the Wild Growth bug and he smiled and said ‘I remember the days when there was no such thing as Wild growth.’

Whaaaa?!

Excuse me while I go contemplate the life of Druids ‘back in the day’.

Tale Thirty: Important *sorta* news

It's important to me.

About 1-2 weeks ago, I switched my beloved druid to the Alliance side.

Now, when I understood the difference of Alliance and Horde, I swore never ever to play Alliance.

But my will broke and I leveled a Dwarf priest to 80. And I started to play with friends and I was having so much fun. Plus my life is suddendly so insanely busy at the moment that I only had time to really play and raid after 9pm.

So, even though my priest was fun to play and she's an amazing healer, I missed Littlebark. Alot. I mean, she has 450 cooking, 437 fishing and maxed alchemist and herbalist. Most of my achievements are on her. On her, I could tank or dps. And I had an option as to what kind of dps I wanted to do!

I ended up playing my priest more than Littlebark (LB) and I was miserable. I missed my HotS. My battle rez. My running-around-like-a-headless-chicken during a fight.

In the end, I transferred LB to the Alliance and it was hard. I've been playing Horde since I started playing WoW. I had so many friends on my Horde Guild. The guild master (Grimm) and another player are my best friends in WoW. Grimm is my mentor, my friend and the one who I can talk to in WoW about random stuff! Lords of Ancient Sin, for lack of a better word, is my WoW family.

In my Alliance guild, I have no Grimm. Or Fara. While we joke around, it's just not the same you know? I love this guild as well, and I'm pouring myself into it whenever I'm online. I do like being able to play LB now in raids and seeing my name at the top of healing meters (though they mean nothing, I swear!). It's the same as Lords is in Ulduar in the progression scale. But overall, I'm having tons of fun with my friends.

But, I miss the Horde. I find myself /targeting Grimm and Fara in Dalaran in hopes that I see them. I've seen Grimm twice in Dalaran while I was on LB, and it was like someone gave me a present. I've /hugged and /waved and stuff. And then I jump on my Horde toons so I can talk to him and he's already offline.

*sigh*

Such is the life of someone who switches sides. :(

Tale Thirty: Personal Rant. About RL life.

Personal Rant –cover your ears if you’re sensitive:

Took the frigging bus/train to work today. Already, I was peeved because it’s frigging 30C out. Living up north, I’m not frigging used to this. This is torture. I’m seriously melting.

And to make matters worse, some frigging idiot children made me feel about 100 years old today. Who is the bloody idiot who is teaching those kids to RUN down the UP escalators whilst the train arrived at the platform and there’s a herd of us going UP? And of course, these idiot kids are all laughing and pushing each other, while the rest of us are trying desperately to A) hang onto the railing –which of course is another challenge since said kids are sliding down the rail ways as well- and B) not let a stream of profanities erupt from us.

So, I managed to make it to the top of the platform –gasping and thanking the higher powers that they had spared my life. I stayed inside the platform because it mercifully had A/C going. The herds of kids are gone; I’m enjoying music when I heard this over the intercom: “Parents of the child with the red shirt. Please take your child away from the escalator. It is not meant to be played with.”

So, I don’t know if the parents were deaf or just plain didn’t understand English. But in either case, how can you think that your child playing on those electrical stairs is safe? If you see him BLOCKING THE WAY OF PEOPLE GOING UP, it’s NOT okay!

But oh no. The mother, along with her other billion kids in the same stroller, all applaud and laugh at the child doing this. Eventually peace officers came along and the mother apologized, saying that she didn’t know that the child was doing anything wrong.

W.T.F.

Thankfully, my bus came along so I escaped that little drama. Until I got on the bus and my heart sank.

My sixth grade bully –and all through Jr and High school, mind you- was on the bus.

Friggin fantastic.

It’s been 8+ years since I’ve known her. And because it’s been so flipping long ago, I don’t remember what the hell I did to make her hate me so much.

Only thing I remember was that in grade six, she stole my left shoe before lunch and therefore, I couldn’t go home for lunch, like my mother expected me to. So imagine midget LB, sobbing her heart out because she’s fearing the wrath of her mother, and panicking because now I only have one shoe. My dear bully walks by, smirking and hisses, “good luck trying to find it, loser!” The teacher won’t believe me when I tell her that my bully probably took it, because lets face it, stealing shoes is not the way to dominate the world. Of course, my mother comes to my rescue with another set of shoes, I get grounded for 2 weeks for losing my other shoe because of course she didn’t believe when I told her that someone stole it. I still have night mares about that day.

But I can’t for the life of me figure out why she hates me.

I understand why she’d hate me in grade nine. After all, I had the hots for the same guy she had the hots for. And since I had the same classes as he did, and she didn’t, I can see why she’d hate me for that. Back then, I thought this dude was like God’s gift to man. Athletic, hunky and friendly. Whether as I was into punk music, anime and being weird. And still, this guy talked to me. Chemistry, right!? Nah. Mr. Irresistable was just being a nice guy, and now I realize that that kind of guy is the cliché of High School, but will most likely end up being a door to door salesman with a beer belly a gazillion kids.

So yeah. Back to today.

Bus is near empty. The bus driver is having a smoke. And my bully is sitting at the FRONT FRIGGING SEAT.

Flipping fantastic. –breathe-

So, as it has become costume for whenever I see her: she trips me, I snarl at her, she dares me to do something. I stand up and brush myself off. Walk towards the back of the bus and turn up my earphones. Finally my stop comes up, and what the hell… she’d moved to the back of the bus. I try to jump over her suddenly outstretched legs, managed to avoid her legs… only to trip myself over my feet. And what broke my fall? My frigging laptop.

Flipping Fantastic.

There will be HELL to pay if my laptop doesn’t work and I can’t play WoW. As of right now, I’m writing from my work computer and cursing my bad luck today.

Hope you guys had a better day than I did.

/End Rant.

Tale Twenty Nine: Vuhdoh Pt2/Finale

Vuhdo is my new best friend.

I absolutley love it. And again, I only found one thing that kind of had me sighing, and that is that the HoT timer is colored dots instead of the actual icons.

But other than that, Vuhdo like Healbot, except better!

And for those of you saying, "oh she's making it sound better than it actually is", let me remind you: I was the Healbot virgin. I refused to try Grid because setting it up is just too damn hard and I just wanted something quick and good to go.

Well Vuhdo. You got me. Easy to navigate? Yes please. Quick to set up? Check! Lots of options? Yep!

It even lets you put in what you want your rez message to be. Unlike Healbot, where it says "Casting Revive on So-and-so". My rez message on Vuhdo is, "Resurrecting So-and-So. Side effects may be......"

*giggle*

So, my final verdict: If you have 5 extra minutes, go download Vuhdo and play with it. Set it up to your needs. Put in a wacky rez message. If your add on challenged like me, you'll love this add on.

Cheers!

Tale Twenty Eight: Vuhdo Pt1

Alright, so I've downloaded VuhDo. I'm logging in.

And this is what greets me:

Oh. Hmm. Well, alright. I was suprised to see that you can move each box individually.

Here's the options tab of VuhDoh.

I like it. Easy on the eyes. Easy to navigate so far!

What's this? See that red and blue square? That's my rejuv and regrowth tracker. Not sure if I like that. I like seeing which is which, by means of an icon or something...

There's the buff tracker. I like it, it's really in your face.

Also, as I was playing around with it, it gave me alot of custamization options. For example, do I want my HoTS to be count down for the full duration? Or just for the last 10 seconds?

And, when you get a debuff, it gives you a sound warning. Such as a Elf Bell Toll or Tribal Bass Drum!

I will keep playing with it and test it out in tomorrow's raid. I shall then give you my full verdict there.

Here's to hoping I won't have to use Healbot half way through the raid ;)

Tale Twenty Seven: Vuhdo?

Try two....

something screwy happened and Blogger deleted my entire post before I could hit publish. Tried ctrl+z and nothing.

I hate technology and my noobness.

Anyways.

My last post Tale Twenty six: Healbot or Grid generated quite a bit of comments. And in a couple of them, I saw you guys suggest Vuhdo.

Now. What is Vuhdo? To me it sounds like some troll thing, but on the curse.com website it says:

"What is VuhDo? – VuhDo is a raid monitor similar to CTRaidAssist or Blizzards built-in raid frames. Basically this is about displaying the health of raid members in form of clearly arranged bars. VuhDo is primarily directed to healing classes, but will make use to almost any other class. Moreover several healing spells or other actions can be asserted to mouse clicks on those bars (Click-Heal)."

Which works for me, because I'm a healing class!

So, I'm putting together an experiment.

I -the Healbot virgin- will be trying out Vuhdo.

I will be testing to see if it's easy to navigate for a technology challenged person like me.

I will explore its options.

I will see if its easy to customize -one of the perks of Healbot.

I will be as unbiased as I can be.

If you have any questions or advice on VuhDo, let me know via the comments or email at thetreeunleashed@gmail.com.

Tale Twenty Six: Healbot or Grid?

Here's a question:

What is the big difference between Healbot and Grid?

I've read Keeva's Grid vs Healbot guide and was like, 'm'kay'.

Tried Grid for about 30minutes, trying to set it up and gave up. I'm a huge addon noob.

I heal just fine with Healbot, and I love the simplicity of it. No, not the way it makes the game easier. It doesn't, not at all. I'm still the one making the decisions in a split second: should I Nourish or let the LB tick? It's my decisions that will -literally- save the tank/raid.

Apperantly there was some beef where Healbot used to pick the spell ranks for you. If that was still the case, then I wouldn't use it. But it isn't the case!

So why all the hate versus Healbot?

Just look at some of these comments I've seen around the web while watching Ulduar guides:

"lol healbot = fail healer"

"Learn to play without using easy-mode add-ons. You got your gear from being carried. You got your "skill" from an add-on that does the work for you. Get skill kthanksbai"

"Yes, because when I play a GAME!!!! I want it to be as easy as possible...not! I heal everything with no healbot because I want the added difficulty. Otherwise I might as well play some other easy game like Final Fantasy or something. And it may not translate into skill, it does however translate into quicker reflexes. Grats for taking free handouts."

Obviously, my reactions to some of these comments are =O

When I first signed up for Lords and told them that Littlebark would be a healer, they told me that the add on they use to heal is Healbot. M'kay, easy enough.

But now I pose the question to all you druids out there: What is the real difference? Am I missing out on something? Is all really customization? Or will Grid better me as a healer?

Tale Twenty Five: I'm such a traitor!

I have to tell someone. It's killing me...

I am a traitor to the Horde. I am, it's true.

On Sunday, I killed my faction leaders. All for the For the Alliance! achievement and a pretty Black War Bear.

I don't know why I did it. I was running aimlessly around Dalaran and Mr. Littlebark said, "I'm gonna do that raid to kill the Horde leaders." I had an internal war and 30seconds later said, "fine, I'll go."

Now mind you, we'd attempted it earlier. At 3AM. The group was stupid (38 random people you don't know, doing whatever they please? No thanks!) and I don't know what so many Horde were doing up at that time. Normally, us Hordies just ignore them as they kill Thrall. The Alliance ratio to Horde on the Cenarius server is 5:1. Pathetic. Anyways, the 3AM raid. We had Thrall at 75% when all the sudden this swarm of red invades the room.

Oh look, there's that DK from that guild we do our 25mans with! Hello, Mr. DK! It's me, Littlebark! Oh, hey... hey, stop beating on me. Stop that! Someone get this jerk off me!

Dead.

Mr. Littlebark and I were so disgruntled, not to mention tired, that we quit.

Later that day, we joined the second raid. The group was stupider than the last. I swear, it was. But we managed to get them all down. I think a total of two Hordies came to defend Thrall that time, and on Cairne (which I sobbed at, by the way, as he died) a level 10 druid watched as we mercilessly killed his faction leader. Sylvanas was a cinch (I didn't cry as much on her, she's a jerk to me all the time) and the Blood Elf leader whose name I still don't know and have no clue why he's the leader, I didn't even realise that we had fought anything by the time he died. Run on sentence much?

Anyways. My heart shattered when we killed Thrall. I sobbed as we killed Cairne. I let a tear slip for Sylvanas. And I didn't even know we killed the Blood Elf Dude.

But look! Don't we just look so pretty?

- A very ashamed Littlebark

PS: Thrall is SO MUCH easier to kill than King Varian. He's a pain and a half to kill.

Tale Twenty Four: A congrats goes to...

My Horde toons all belong to a guild on the Cenarius Server called Lords of Ancient Sin. It's one of the oldest of living guilds on the Cenarius Server (November 2005....!) and made up of people who ... are plain awesome, I guess.

We raid 4 times a week. 2 nights are dedicated to 10man Ulduar. 1 night is dedicated to H ToC. And the other night, dedicated to 25man Ulduar...

Mind you, while we raid alot we are not at all hard core or anything. We goof around and we have fun. Our 25 mans are done with a joint guild because we both don't have the numbers. I feel that the 25mans are more stricter. There's not enough laughing. Most of my pet peeves come from the 25man runs.

Now. Our 10mans have not seen Yogg. They haven't even seen Freya! We only just thought up of the genius idea of doing Ulduar 2 nights a week. We always get stuck on Hodir, because by the time we get to him we're pooped!... but on Saturday night, Lords taught that jerk a lesson. Hodir went DOWN!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Our small and fun group beat him. FINALLY! (PS: Thanks Averna for your guide >.>). You should have heard the vent celebration. It was amazing.

And then today, we all walked back in there, not thinking we'd really get anything else down. Just practise, right?

.....

We killed Thorim as well! (PS: Again, thaaaanks Averna!) Celebration. Happy tears. Fireworks. Fun times.

Moral of the story: A good guild is one that doesn't leave you wanting to bang your head agaisnt the key board. Over and over again. A good guild will give you a few laughs rather than wanting to stop playing all together. A good guild will laugh off the mistakes yet learn and push forward instead of blaming each other.

A good guild is trying over and over again and finally seeing the fruits of your labour.

Lords of Ancient Sin, you made me proud this weekend.

A job well done.

Tale Twenty-Three: So... Blizzard hates me.

So some of you may have heard the speculation of the new expansion pack. Here are the possible new classes each race might have:


•Human Hunter : This I can understand. In fact, I used to think humans had the option to be hunters.
•Orc Mage : Eh... not the worst one out of the convo. I still can't see it though. Imagine, this manly looking orc suddenly casting... a cute baby sheep.
•Night Elf Mage : This one is so wrong. The reason the Blood Elves and Night Elves
•Dwarf Mage : This one I don't see a problem with, I guess.
•Blood Elf Warrior : This one should totally been brought in when Belfs came out.
•Dwarf Shaman : I don't know Dwarf lore, so I'm not sure about this one.
•Undead Hunter : All I can see if their pet running away with their arm that fell off.
•Tauren Paladin : To quote some people "HOLY COW!" I can't see this
•Tauren Priest : Or this one for that matter. Tauren are very spiritual... shamans and druids kind of follow the same beliefs. All about nature...
•Gnome Priest : *giggle* doable, I guess.
•Troll Druid : No. Just no...

AND that's not the worst part:

The New (New) Horde

Thrall will hand over the leadership of the Horde to Garrosh Hellscream, while he serves as a coordinator for both the Horde and Alliance forces in and effort to combat the new threat of the Naga and Black Dragonflight. Without Thrall to keep Garrosh in check, he declares open war on the Alliance. In the political upheaval Cairne Bloodhoof is implicated as a traitor to the Horde and murdered by Garrosh. Cairne's son Baine takes over as the new Tauren chieftan.


......


Way to go, Garrosh, you IDIOT. Like father like son, I guess. And what the hell is Thrall doing/thinking? Is he so trustworthy of him that he didn't see that coming?!

AND!

"Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion. "

That makes me so sad. Orgrimmar is the Horde's home. I love it there.

Thoughts? Comments?