Tale Seventy Five: A Fond Farewell

My best friend, the one who hooked me into WoW and druids is not renewing her game time when it runs out in July. Tonight, we went around collecting screenshots.

Goodbye, Rakota... I loved having you as a partner in crime.

PS: Has anyone noticed that more and more people are taking breaks or leaving the game? ):

Tale Seventy Four: One Year Old

Tomorrow is this blog's anniversary.

It hasn't felt like a year, and I've found that this blog has been a "WoW Therapy" of sorts for me. And while it started as a blog about me, I found it soon evolved into a WoW blog.

I haven't really "defined" what this blog is, I suppose. At times, it's felt like a me-me blog. Other days, it can actually be a helpful blog to other people. I also did a stint at doing ICC guides! That died down pretty quick since everyone else was doing it and I felt that I could focus on other things. At one point, I even did a bit of RP! Of course, there was the one where Petal took over. And when I ranted about the women issue that happens in WoW. And a fun blog post about the statistic tab. I also compared Northrend to my Canada. And most recently, we went through a blog makeover.

All in all, it's been a fun ride. And while I've been silent this last month, it's because I'm not raiding or playing much. With the summer here and my guild not being the same as before, Mr. Littlebark and I have been playing a druid/shaman alt (role reversal!). Here's to another great year!

Tale Seventy Three: Understanding the Feral Side

Specs:

There are two differents a feral cat can run with. This one focuses on single target DPS, leaving one point left over for you to decide where to put it in.

This spec is a AoE oriented spec, allowing you to pump out as much DPS while AoEing.

Personally, I run with the first spec. I need my maximum damage on bosses, where I NEED to output as much dps as possible.


Glyphs:

What I find to be the best glyphs for kitty DPS are: Glyph of Savage Roar, Glyph of Rip and Glyph of Shred. Coming in behind these glyphs are the Glyph of Mangle and Berserk.

For minor Glyphs I tend to stick to Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth, Glyph of Challenging Roar and Glyph of Dash.

Enchants:

For the head enchant, I would recommend Arcanum of Torment, which can be purchased off the Ebon Blade Quartermaster.

If you're an inscriptionist, you should be using the Master's Inscription of the Axe which is better than the Son of Hodir's Greater Inscription of the Axe.

For leg enchants, I find that the Icescale Leg Armor. If you're a Leatherworker, you can stick with the Nerubian Leg Reinforcements.

Unless you're an engineer or tailor, you'll be better off with the 22+ Agility for your back.
When looking for a chest enchant, +10 stats to the chest is the best.

And for your weapon? In my opinion, I'd say Berserking, then Mongoose, then Massacre then Executioner.


Gemming

Meta - when at all possible, stick with Relentless Earthsiege Diamond.

Red - Fractured Cardinal Ruby only AFTER You have reached 400~500 ArPen. Before that, agility is the way to go, so if you're not at that point, gem with Delicate Cardinal Ruby.

Blue - I find myself sticking Nightmare Tears in blue sockets. When I don't worry about socket bonuses, I socket with the two red gems mentioned above.

Yellow - Up to your discretion. If the socket bonus isn't worth it, I'd just stick one of the two red gems. If you think it's worth it, then go ahead and decide between an Accurate Ametrine, Glinting Ametrine or a Deft Ametrine.


Caps & Facts!

Hit cap when you're fighting a level 80 is 5% or 163.95 hit rating. If the target is level 83+, our hit cap is 8% or 262.32 hit rating.

Expertise rating is something that I found a lot of melee players overlooked in my old guild. It is quite an important stat, since it lessens the chance of getting parried or dodged. You should always be behind your target. You need 26 expertise rating (213.13) to be "capped". However, you SHOULD have taken Primal Precision in your talent build, which automatically gives you 10 expertise rating.


DPS Rotation, whaaaa!

To be truly honest, I find that kitty DPS does NOT have a set rotation. This makes the class more exciting and fun to play -for me, as I do not have to spam 1,1,1,3,1,1,2.

That being said, here are some pointers on what to do whilst DPSing.

*Always keep Savage Roar, Mangle and Rake up.
*When you have 5 combo points and you have Savage Roar up, proceed to slap Rip on your target.

Most importantly, try to have fun. I've met people who have walked away frustrated with the kitty's DPS and rotation and stats and stuff. But it is quite honestly my favorite DPS class. And if worst comes knocking on your door? At least keep an ear out for the awesome feline sound your druid makes when you fire up Savage Roar.

Happy Hunting!

~LB

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! ;)