Tale Seventy Two: Notice

*Hangs up the "Shop is Closed" sign*

I'll be going on vacation on Saturday so if you don't hear from me, you'll know why.

A quick note before I disappear: I cannot express how happy I am over the Catalysm raid changes. As someone who loves doing, leading and being a part of stricly 10 mans, I am glad that we will no longer will be the odd ones out: doing the same amount of work as 25 mans but not getting the same loot. This way, we'll ALL on equal footing. I'm sure people who enjoy 25 mans will surely keep that raid size alive. But for quiet little old me... 10 mans is the way to go.

Cheers!

Tale Seventy One: Dealing with Raiding in a in a casual guild.

The guild LB is in right now has a rather interesting spin on it... it's doing raiding in a casual atmosphere. What's interesting about that, right? Lots of people do it!

Well, in the guild, raiding is expected by at least 50% of it. The other 50% are retired toons, casual players that have only about 1 hr a day to play, players that WANT to play but have school/work/kids. Players that LOVE to PvP but raid only once in a blue moon. Players who play with their kids.

I just started noticing the...division? I guess, that's the word... since our guild master Grimm left for personal reasons. Since then, I've been promoted to officer and hilariously enough, I've been playing the game less.

Since Grimm left, the ranks changed as well... I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But I've never been a fan of having ranks according to how much you raid. Especially NOT in a casual guild where half the guild doesn't even raid. We've had a player playing with us since the guild existed -so five years. And all the sudden he gets demoted to just "member" or whatever the hell the rank is... and I don't know. It just doesn't seem right to me that he gets to be at the bottom of the food chain just because he doesn't like to sit on his ass for 4 hours a night. I realize that ranks don't mean anything in RL life... but in game, I'd be pissed if me being in the guild with the rank Member for 2 years has to watch as the New Guy gets promoted to Ubber Awesome just because he raids ALL THE TIME.

There has to be a balance, surely. Or maybe this is the casual me in a casual guild.

*sigh*

Tale Seventy: WHAT THE CRAP, BLIZZARD!

If I wanted to see my armor when I heal, I'd go and roll a priest, shaman, or paladin. The druids mojo is the SHAPESHIFT! That's what brought many of us to the class, the simple fact that we get to shift into a bear to tank, a cat or owlkin to dps or tree to heal.

None of the other specs are being pushed to dps or tank in their "caster form". Why should us healers!

Come ON Blizzard! So what if we can't dps in tree form. WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO! THAT'S WHAT OWLKIN IS FOR!

Disappointing preview for catalysm. No new resto ability, a shiny "OH LOOK FLOWERS UNDER PEOPLE YOU JUST HEALED" and ToL on Cooldown.

Tale Sixty Nine: Real Life Ding!

As the tittle suggests, it's my real life birthday!

This weekend has been tons of fun with lots of food and laughter, and of course in guild banter... of my age. Bah! ;)

Tale Sixty Eight: Healing is a Trust Game

Today, it struck me "healing is very much a trust game."

And you know at what precise moment it hit me? Moments after I was hit by another vehicle today. I'm not sure why I thought that, and at that moment. But I did.

You see, when you're on the road, you expect -or rather- trust, that the other drivers will follow the rules of the road. And if they don't follow the rules of the road, you just hope to God that whatever the hell they're doing keeps you alive.

Same with healing. In a raid, you hope to the WoW Gods that your healers keep you alive. Without healers, there is no raid. Same goes for tanks and DPS, but at the moment, we're sticking with tanks.

When I was "healing coordinator" in After Hours, I would make evaluate how well the healers did together. Why? Because, as silly as it sounds, healers need to have some sort of chemistry. I've run into so many groups (especially PuGs) where one healers is over healing because they don't trust the other healer. Or where they have amazing healing potential but they keep blaming each other because one heal didn't go off or X person didn't heal enough...

I've also found that while in guild raids, us healers trust too much. For example, I feel completely safe and sure of what I'm doing when I heal with Grimm, Mr. Littlebark or Apadwa from my guild. When others from my guild heal with me, I still trust them, but I'm still on my toes with them in case it's needed. It's almost mechanical. I know what my healing team will cast, what they'll use, what their OH SHI- buttons are.

So to sum this all up: healing is very much a trust game.

Tale Sixty Seven: Block'ed

This is what I stares at when I tank.

It is very big.

Tale Sixty Six: Blog Makeover!

If you've walked in here and are wondering what on earth is going on and who is this anyways, it's okay.

This is still Littlebark. Just less bark and more claws.

I'm shifting the content of this blog to resto/feral instead of resto/whatever fluff post I want.

I have to thank Jaedia, for being taking the time to do the header for me. It's great, its much bettert han what I had drawn out in my head. So, thank you Jaedia!

If not for her... I would have done the blog makeover and it would have looked something like this: