Updates, NaNoWriMo, and Discussion.

As all of you can imagine, moving makes you very very busy. Well this is true. So I have not been able to post much because I have been working during the day and playing Fable 3 packing a ton of boxes in the evening. D-Day is next week and we still have a ton to do. Ok…ok…my husband has a ton to do because he is not working and should be packing all day, not playing Fable 3 or Fallout 3 or League of Legends ( I know what you are really doing! Get off the interwebs 🙂  ). I am restricting myself due to the whole 7 months pregnant thing along with the great ability I have to fall asleep at 8 every night!  

With that being said I have not been on WoW much at all. But I have been keeping up with the goings on by reading all the wonderful blogs on my blogroll (plus a few more that I have yet to put on there…I am a bad updater!) So check out all those great blogs. As for me, my goal is to write a ton of posts that will pop up during the move so that I will not have to write in the car…which would end very very badly.

Also Monday November 1st marks the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where writers of all sorts take the month of November and write 50,000 words! Not as easy as it sounds but it rounds out to about 1,667 words a day. This will be the third year I am participating in this epic event. I would recommend to anyone who even enjoys writing just a little bit to try it out. Heck you can even write about WoW! Get some friends and participate in some write-in’s, they truly are the best way to get the word juices flowing. Anyone out there participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

Finally, a quick discussion. I know we are all gamers, and we all love to game. However, there are some people who just take it way too far and hurt those around them with their “addictions.” While reading Kotaku this morning, I happened along a post about a woman who killed her child because they were interrupting her Farmville time…yes you just read that correctly, a Facebook game has driven someone to murder. For reference, find the article here.

I am just appalled and frankly, I am not sure what else to say. This is wrong on so many levels, not that murder in general is not wrong, but to let a game affect you that much is just sad. Not that this needs to be said, but when a game is getting you to the point of anger and rage, just stop, take a breath, and walk away from the game. No game is that important to ruin your or someone elses life. So please remember, game with love, not with anger. Games are supposed to bring us joy, not sorrow.

What were your reactions to this article?

Rebirth…or Not?

This is something I forgot to mention a couple of days ago, and is something I am really on the fence about. Rebirth has changed dramatically.

Now, I am not talking about the cooldown change from 10 to 30 minutes. This is something I completely understand. Yes, we were spoiled and could rez pretty much every boss fight, but it was really not needed, well not necessary I should say because I think we can all name a few fights where Rebirth is loved and desired.

What I am disappointed with is that only one Rebirth can be used per fight. I do not think there were guilds stacking Druids just to receive 6-8 Rebirths per fight. Most we even ran with in our 25 mans was 4, which I would think is about an average number in many guilds. I do not believe it is something that is truly abused by the masses.

But Blizzard thinks so and with the one Rebirth per fight rule, this will make many Druids rethink who they are going to rez. Will you rez the 10k DPS who died because he stood in fire, the healer who makes mistakes, or the tank that is taking way too much damage for the fight? Or will you wait to see if someone who is a better choice dies before you BR? These are many questions that I do not want to ask myself during combat. Our Raid Leaders are good about letting Druids use the BR according to their best judgment, however it seems now, they will need to call the shots so that the wrong person is not rezzed by accident.

This is another change that will take time and practice to get used to.  Here is a fun little flow chart to help you get in the Rebirthing mind set! 🙂

***Added some arrows for ease!***(Angry Tree Image from Murloc Parliament)

What do you think about the new Rebirth rule?

New Druid Healing…First Thoughts.

First a quick apology for not being very “posty” these past few days. My husband and I are planning an unexpected move so my brain has been mush…wait…it may be mush because of the pregnancy, but I really cannot tell anymore! 🙂

I have done two 10 man runs in ICC over the past week and have had some time to sit and think over what I like and what I am not liking at the moment with the state of Resto Druids and some other WoW features.

Spells:

Mana – After the patch, my mana pool went to around 42K, which was way higher than before. I know costs can seem a bit skewed at the moment so I think the high mana pool is really not letting me see any of the mana issues that I will be having when I reach 85. I think this is a good and bad thing. Before the patch, I was already having little to no mana issues so I am used to cruising though fights. Not much has changed with the patch with that aspect. I am thinking there might be a harsh reality check when we hit 85 and are in raids.

Tree Form – I cannot count on both hands how many times I hit the number 5 on my number pad and went into Tree Form accidentally during these raids. It was happening to the other Resto Druid in the group too. This is something that is so automatic for me. For example, after we killed Rotface, I was just standing around when I saw a trap went off, I shifted to cat, dashed to the scene and….went Tree Form. Wasted that cooldown. In general, I already posted how I am unhappy with the cooldown, and I can say that playing with it has not made me happier. Most fights I would not even enter Tree Form and I feel awkward and clunky in caster form (weird seeing that I used to be a tree huh?).

Regrowth – I do enjoy the instant cast Regrowths in Tree Form, something that I will probably hate at 85 with the mana cost associated with it, I am not a fan of the 6 second HoT tick. I feel with the mana cost and the limitation on Lifebloom on only one target, then the tick should be for at least 10 seconds or more. This is something that will call for  a major adjustment and mostly will be used as a “Flash Heal” that will help for a few seconds later. In fact, I have currently taken this spell our of my rotation for now, and only using it when the “Oh crap” situations arise.

Lifebloom – I am someone who used Lifebloom ALL THE TIME back when it first came out and was way too overpowered. I loved rolling LB, especially on the tanks, and now I feel only being able to cast it on one target unless in Tree Form is very limiting. And I cannot even count how many times I forgot and started stacking it on the second tank therefore not even healing the main tank at all. At this moment, I feel the healing is there, but not quite. There are times when large spikes of damage are on the tank and my HoTs are seemingly doing nothing. The only way to counter act would be to let the LB bloom, which has always been counterproductive in the past (mostly due to mana cost).

Swiftmend – This has always been a spell that I used as my “oh crap” button. I would save it for just the right moment and use it on the dps that accidentally pulled aggro. Now, it is more advantageous to use it whenever it is off cooldown on the tank to help with healing (or where ever there are group members clumping up). The other druid in the raid was WAY better at remembering to do this than I was. This is another aspect that will take much practice to perfect.

Effloresence – Speaking of Swiftmend, its counterpart Effloresence is cool, but like I said I forgot to Swiftmend all the time so there was very little healing done for with it. I will need to practice this rotation better.

Rejuvenation – Currently there is no real change to this spell for me. I was not having any mana issues so I could cast this freely. I know at 85 there will be some major differences because of the mana cost but for now I feel ok casting this on the raid and tanks for the healing it does. Plus it is always nice to make sure I have a HoT on someone so they can be Swiftmended as needed.

Nourish – Boy to I miss the fast casting time of Nourish. I really feel I am lagging when I cast this spell, although there was no lag at all. This was one of my favorite spells to cast on Tanks and raid members that needed a big heal before they would die. I found myself casting this in the same situation and they would either get healed by someone else or…they would die because of my slowness. I really am not a fan of using this spell now, I know it will be better when I am just tank healing, but for now I am really not in a situation where I am solely doing that job. I will need to practice on timing and try to use this spell, especially with the Mastery help you will get when it is used on someone with a HoT on.

Healing Touch – This is a spell that I will need to force myself to remember to use. Before, unless I was using it with Nature’s Swiftness, I never would use Healing Touch. Again, one of the many in my “oh crap” arsenal. I did use this spell when doing Dreamwalker, I actually got to go in the portals! I was having some great crits and generally high hits with it. With the same cast time of Nourish, in fights like Dreamwalker it was awesome. But, with the very high mana cost, I will need to closely pick and choose when I use it.

Wild Growth –  I have always loved Wild Growth, and since not much has changed for me yet (ie no big mana effect) I am still casting this spell with glee. I am not too worried about the longer cooldown. I remember when this was an instant cast and we druids were just insane, so I have been through cooldown changes before. I think a longer cooldown is good here. With the increased mana cost, we need to have the reigns pulled back a little bit so we are not draining ourselves dry.

Tranquility – I am hoping there are more good fights to use this spell in. So far I using it very sparingly, but it would be cool to see a fight where it is a needed spell to blow.

Talents:

Swift Rejuv – Right now I do not think this talent is working. I read you needed to have 2 points in it for it even to work at all. I placed two in it but have not seen the benefit yet. Hard to tell if there actually is a decrease in the global cooldown or not.

Addons:

While raiding, I was having the addon day from hell, mostly with Grid since I could not seem to get it to work right for me. As I have stated in the past, I use mouseover macros and Grid combo to heal with. Well, my old version of Grid would show me icons of the spells on the player they were on. For example, with Lifebloom I would see the icon and a little 3 when I hit 3 stacks. Without that addon, I was flying blind. I know, I should not need a crutch to heal, but they are always helpful. I ended up keeping the tank targeted at all times and counting them manually on him with Pitbull. Way more annoying. Plus I could not see all the correct debuffs with Grid either.

I hear Grid is being fixed, but if you have any idea as to how to get my icons back, please let me know!

I tried the new raid frames that Blizzard provided since I could not get Grid to work before my first raid. I was impressed with the amount of info you could see, but the inability to completely resize was annoying. They would only go to a certain size and they were way to big for my area I wanted them in. My OCD was making me insane with them looking too big for their spot! Plus the ugly bar/arrow thingy on the side of my screen was an eyesore.

I have yet to try out all of the new Blizzard features, I really have not had the time, but I would like to soon.

Gylphs: 

I am really happy with the new glyph system allowing you to only buy them once. I feel bad for inscriptionest though. Seems their money maker is gone. But really, were they rolling in the dough before? I never had one so I am not sure what changes they are making for them. But I will say, not having to glyph and reglyph is great!

Conclusion:

All in all, I am still on the fence about Resto healing. There are aspects I am really enjoying and there are some I still feel need some work. Reading other blogs and posts has got me thinking of trying new healing ways out and working on my rotation better. I will see what I think after a few more raids!

What do you think? Are you completely happy with your Druid?

Goodbye Tree Form.

Today I join many other bloggers in saying goodbye to Tree Form. I am very sad to see the form go and I am put off by the new form, which my husband says looks like a “leafy golem.” I do agree. Was the goatee really needed on the image? The angry, old man look is really not what I was going for.

Many are expressing their feelings as to why Tree Form needed to stay or go. I for one like being a druid. In fact I love being a druid. I too played as one before there every was a Tree Form and when I finally could get it, I was in love. Druids shift. That is what we do.

All of the same logic others are using against Tree Form could be said about every form we can shift into. Players want to see their armor, well bears, cats, and moonkin cannot see theirs, why not make them have buffing cooldowns. They want to multitask DPS while healing…well for one, do not play a healer if you want to DPS. Also you do not see a Cat form healing or tanking? They are a DPS component. All of our forms have a purpose, and they all stick to said purpose.

Zelmaru wrote  agreat post about this as well today too. And it included a GREAT image that Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket created.

I plan on posting some pics of my tree that I have taken over the years, but I will need to wait till I get home to do that.

What do you think? Do you like the new trees? Or are you missing the old ones?

Game for a Great Cause!

I was just reading over at WoW Ladies and I saw a post about Extra Life. I have read about this cause before, but have never really known when it was about to happen. Here is some info taken directly from their website:

Welcome to Extra Life, an annual 24-hour video game marathon that raises money to help heal sick kids at your local children’s hospital. It’s never been this much fun to do this much good.

This year’s event begins at 8:00am in your local time zone on October 16th, 2010. Each of our participants is currently raising money by recruiting at least 4 sponsors to give $1.00 for each hour of the marathon (that’s $24.00 per sponsor).

What makes Extra Life so incredibly easy, is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home. While many churches and school do lock-ins for Extra Life, you don’t HAVE to go anywhere. What’s more, you can play any game or games you want during the event. Xbox 360, PS3, PC, even games on your phone count.

If you can’t play the full 24 hours on October 16th due to work or personal commitments, nobody is going to kick down your door and stick a controller in your hand. You can make up the time later, or even get ahead by playing some of your 24-hours BEFORE the event.

The important thing is to make the commitment to help local children get better. This year, Extra Life benefits Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, meaning that 100% of the money you raise will stay right where you live at your local CMN hospital.

Thank you for taking the time to be a player, a donor, or even to simply spread the word to other gamers.

On behalf of over 3,500 past and present Extra Life participants…

I myself wish that I could just play for 24 hours straight, but being 6 months along, that will probably not happen. But I see there are ways you can play over a day or two, so I think it is worth checking out. Or even donating!

The local Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh saved my sisters life 4 years ago when she was just 15 years old. They found a brain tumor and did emergency surgery on her. They were not able to remove the whole tumor, but to this day she is receiving great care from them and her doctors. (If you would like to hear her story, just let me know. It is one of great strength and triumph.) The money donated will help children just like her.

So what are we waiting for? We all love gaming anyway! Why not spend 24 hours checking out the new druid builds? Or playing Bioshock! What about Halo Reach?   Everything counts! Lets all get out and game for children!

Blog Azeroth: Why Sarindre is Sarindre.

This week over at Blog Azeroth, Pocketheals wants to know what is in a name. Great topic especially since it is talking about the thing I am worst at…naming my characters! I will sit there for HOURS pouring over the random name generator and typing in different spellings of my favorite names, only to be told they are all taken.

So how did your truly finally name her characters? Well it is a dark tale full of magic and mystery. A tale with wizards and goblins and ghosts and….yeah ok I will stop that right now. In truth most of my characters are named via the random name generator, which I love for that fact alone. But I did make a up few! Let’s take a look at some of my characters naming adventures!

Sarindre – This name was picked by the random name generator. I hit the button around 75 times before this name popped up. I even went PAST the name and had to just remember what it said. I love this name and use it for many other things now, not just for this character.

Calencil – Another random name with the generator. Being my first characer, I was just trying to pick a name quick so that I could play. I think it is really pretty though!

Chicktree – This was not her original name. In fact it was actually Aylice, but when I transferred servers that name was already taken and I needed to pick a new one. I thought I finally would make a character with a kinda silly name, but I had no idea what to call her. My husband at the time was playing a druid named Mantree, and I thought my character should be Chicktree because we healed together, were both Druids, and were always seen around each other.

Aylice – I really really love the name Alice and this was the closest I could get to that name. I love the book Alice in Wonderland and I thought it would be really fun to have a character named after her.

Rambosaur – I honestly have no explanation for this one! 🙂 I think I was feeling a bit silly that day and wanted to make a warrior.

What is in your name?