Altoholic

Old Skool Night: Special Icecrown Edition!

2011-07-10T05:31:00.001-07:00

One of the things I love about my guild is that we have a fair number of people that are down for going back to play in old raid content. So on Saturday nights, we run an event called Old Skool Night. Usually I run it, but since my guildmate Jurchen was the person that originally ran Old Skool when I joined, I like to think of the event as being both of ours. I was kind of a slacker though and stopped leading it for a while. Now that I am back and trying to be more active, I am making an effort to see Old Skool events get off the ground on a regular basis.

Typically the content we go play in varies - we run anything from lvl60 raids like AQ20 & 40, to BC raids like Black Temple and Sunwell, and more recently Wrath-era raids. Last night we went back to ICC.

Now, the thing with running old content is just that - it's OLD. And people are going to have different reactions to it. For some, it's a chance to see content they missed out on back when it was current, and it's fun to finally get to check it out under the security of knowing you overpower pretty much everything inside. For others, it's a trip down memory lane, full of nostalgia and giggles and cool gear that you stash in your bank in hopes of BLizzard giving us appearance slots someday. And for others, old content is something to leave in the past, never to revisit again unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

Most of the time when we run Old Skool night, we head into places that really don't require a lot of participation. Cacc and I can pretty much duo most old raid content up to Naxxramas, and we only get tripped up by certain fight mechanics on bosses where more than two people are necessary. So even if only a few people show up to Old Skool, the night will go off as planned and be a success.

ICC though was recent enough that I wasn't sure how it would go, so I wanted to try and take in a full group if I could. That meant 2 tanks, 2 healers, and the rest DPS. Normally with Old Skool we can wing it that night and go wherever, but for this event I put it on the calendar two weeks in advance and made a post on our guild forums asking for participation. Thankfully, I got enough people to come along, including 2 tanks and 3 healers, so we were going to be in fine shape.

We had a great time and knocked out a number of the 10man achievements needed for Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10man). We managed to get a few people shiny new Kingslayer titles, and one of our raiders even completed his final two achievements needed for his Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher mount! I finished up a number of my achievements as well, and all I have left to do for my mount is finish up ICC10 on heroic mode and get the achievement for Lady Deathwhisper, Full House.

We had so much fun and were so successful in 10man in getting achievements for people that I think 25man is definitely possible. So in a few weeks I'll put another 10man ICC on the calendar, and then later start rounding up people for a 25man. Hopefully I'll get some participation for it! :)

Raid rage

2011-07-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Our guild raiding situation is in a bit of a bind. Over the last few months, we've lost over half of our core healers. Most are simply busy with RL stuff, a few left the guild for more "progressed" raiding guilds (after we helped them gear up, of course), and others simply aren't playing. So more often than not, our healers consist of me, a druid, a shaman, and one other - usually picked from among the pool of guildmates that have healers but don't raid regularly.

Our shaman sometimes can't make it due to work, and in a few weeks we'll lose the druid when he moves to Russia to start a job opportunity. So I'm a little scared about our healing/raiding situation. We have the numbers on a nightly basis to pull off 2 10mans...if we only had the healers.

I'm really hoping some of the guildmates that are off dealing with RL find a way to give some time here and there to raiding as it would help so much, but I think the reality is that I need to either go within the guild ranks and try to convince people to start healing, recruit on the forums and within the WoW community, or reduce us to being a single 10man raiding guild and focus on it being a progression group where I take a solid, stacked raid group into Firelands.

That latter choice isn't the best one, since it would mean deviating from from our plan to be an inclusive raiding guild, but I feel like I'm being left with little choice. Firelands is essentially a progression raid for us, and our policy on progression is that the inclusive policy doesn't apply on those raids, and that the raid leader is to take the best group possible for those nights. Our inclusive policy applies to our "regular" raid nights when we have the most people around, and we have to try and give everyone an opportunity to get in and raid.

There's also the fact that we may have to accept we simply don't have the people to raid current content and that we need to keep focusing on previous tier (BoT, BWD, ToT4W) until others are geared up and more comfortable in a raiding environment, and THEN progress into Firelands. After last night's really successful full clear of BoT in just over 1.5 hours with people that don't regularly raid, I'm thinking that may be our best choice for keeping with our inclusive policy on raid nights. But then, I risk alienating those raiders that have already done their time in BWD/BoT/ToT4W and are ready to move on to new content.

What's a raid leader to do?

I put a poll up for guildies, asking them to let me know which nights they prefer to raid on. I also proposed restructuring our Cataclysm raiding plan. After seeing the responses, I am leaning toward 3 nights a week of raiding, with a possible 4th night thrown in. One night would be spent on previous content since we've proven that post-nerf it can be cleared in less than the 3 hours we usually devote to raiding nights. Two nights for Firelands content. And the 4th night should be to accommodate those people that want to raid but can't make it on our regular nights.

I'm hoping for a bit more feedback from guildmates before I make a final decision with the other guild raid leaders. Hopefully we can settle on something definite soon!

Healing Circle 2011

2011-07-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

A while back, there was this blogger, Miss Medicina, who really took the WoW healer/blogger world by storm. She's not blogging anymore. I wish she was though because I loved her blog. She also played a priest, and I found her insights into my favorite class to be really helpful as I refined my character. One of the things she did was get other bloggers to participate in a blogging Healing Circle by answering some questions about their class and healing in WoW. I didn't participate at the time, though I wish I had.

This time around, another blogger, Saunder, has picked up the mantle and decided to call for another round of Healing Circle questions. I don't want to miss another opportunity to participate so this time - even though this little blog is just mine, has no readers really, and barely any posts (since the previous ones were all Second Lie related and I deleted them, MUAHAHAHA) - I'm going to give it a go. :)

1. What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?

Ikuri, Priest, Discipline (34/5/2) Actually I just changed it to (33/8/0). Less Haste, more capability for Renew and tank shielding. We'll see how it works.

2. What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

Usually 10man raids, and 5man heroics. back in Wrath, I also healed in 25man raids

3. What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
For healing, I love Smite/HolyFire. It's fast, heals for a goodly amount, and doesn't cost a lot of mana. Plus, Evangelism/Archangel (LOVE!) I also love Penance, just for how cool it looks when I cast it. Other favorites include Inner Focus (free Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing every 45 seconds? YESPLZTHX!) and Leap of Faith, aka "Life-Grip", aka "get out of the damn fire!"

4. What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Flash Heal - too much mana for too little return, and if I am playing it smart, I shouldn't need it anyway. Which is funny because I used it ALL THE TIME in Wrath. My how times change.

5. What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
Great ability to mitigate damage. Fantastic mobility. Strong support healing. Excellent mana conservation - when druids are OOM, I still have nearly a full bar. :)

6. What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Direct heals that aren't as strong as I would like them to be. Slow-casting heals. I miss the faster-pace of my healing from Wrath.

7. In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

Be it 25 or 10, I usually feel I am best suited as a tank healer, especially healing a tank that needs to kite. I don't feel that my healing output vs. my mana conservation works well for raid healing.

8. What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
I love the synergy of healing alongside a Druid most, followed by a Shaman and a Holy Priest. I heal with a Druid in our raids now and it works awesome.

9. What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
I hate to say it, but I don't like healing with Holy Paladins much. Maybe that's because we don't have many Holy Paladins in our guild. When I heal with them, even though their healing output is so much higher than mine, it just feels weak alongside what I am used to with a Druid/Shaman. :-/

10. What is your worst habit as a healer?
Not making good enough use of my cooldowns. I've become better! I keep Inner Focus on CD, and pop it every time it is up. I need to use Penance more often. Power Infusion is the one I am really bad about - I should definitely use it more than I do, but I'm still too used to giving it to one of our mages, so I don't think to apply it. I also need to improve more at not letting stacks of Evangelism fall off.

11. What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
When people take avoidable damage. It drives me nuts. Like, you can avoid that damage, so AVOID IT! Don't let yourself get caught by it! Anytime a DPS takes damage they could have otherwise avoided, that's more healing work I have to do, which means less heals on the tank. Needless to say, I am a big fan of the concept of "triage healing" and my guildmates know I have no compunction over letting them die. I also get really prickly when in a PUG and my healing skills get criticized. I have some funny stories about that actually (saves for a future blog post.)

12. Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
Overall yes, though I need to get more comfortable about healing with a Holy Paladin. And I still wish that my direct heals had a bit more "oomph" to them.

13. What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
I use Skada, and I run World of Logs when we raid. It took a while to train myself to not be discouraged at seeing myself at the bottom of the healing meters. I know I am a good healer, and the numbers don't necessarily mean I am not doing a good job. So I try to use those tools to make sure I am maintaining a consistent healing output, that I am making use of cooldowns and procs, evaluating my healing strengths and weaknesses, making sure I am not being too reliant on one spell over another, and watching my general performance and awareness as a raider.

14. What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

I think a lot of times people misunderstand how a Disc Priest is played, especially now when Holy seems to be king. They don't understand the concept that my direct heals aren't going to be as big as a Holy Priest's or a Shaman's, and they don't take my shield abilities into account. I've had PUG's criticize my "low" healing numbers because their dps meter isn't recording my shields and absorbs, and it gets frustrating to have to explain how a Disc Priest actually heals. So I think sometimes the expectations are wrong.

15. What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
To manage their mana, and practice triage healing. Often I see new Disc Priests relying too heavily on PW:Shield and then panicking when they can't immediately apply another shield, then panicking again as they watch their mana disappear in an instant. I see a lot of them with a spec that's not suited to PvE healing where they took PvP talents and overlooked other crucial talents they thought seemed useless. I also see a lot not glyphed properly - for example I had a guildie using the Smite spec, yet they were not glyphed for Dvine Accuracy. BLASPHEMY! I've had to tell new Disc Priests that it's ok to let health bars go low - Disc Healing isn't about filling health bars so much as it is about keeping those health bars from depleting faster than the mob's. It's about stabilizing the raid, practicing triage, prioritizing heals and anticipating damage rather than simply reacting.

16. If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see
Not too much overhealing. Lots of Divine Aegis shields, lots of Atonement healing. Good mana management. Hopefully not too many "fails" where I stood in the bad or screwed up otherwise. I'm a raid leader - I have a reputation to uphold!

17. Haste or Crit and why?
Grrrr....tough call. I love crit. Love love love it. I wish I had more! I love seeing my spells crit and that Divine Aegis bubble proc (which btw Blizzard, Y U CHANGE MAH BUBBLEZ? I want the old Divine Aegis bubble graphic back!) But, I've found myself looking at Haste as an attractive stat too. Overall, I really strive for balance between both as much as possible.

18. What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Druids. I don't understand how they heal, but I like they way they do it. I am leveling a druid now, but I've been leveling her as balance and have not had to heal much with her (yet!)

19. What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
VuhDo, definitely. I can't imagine healing without it, and I try to talk all of the other guild healers into using it as much as possible. It's just such a fantastic program. I also use Power Auras for helping me be aware of proc alerts, spell cooldowns, Evangelism stacks, etc. I use CursorCastbar also - I like that it is right there at my mouse cursor so I can see it more easily. Dr. Damage is nice for quickly assessing how much healing my spells will do, even on the fly. And I use ElvUI to help keep my UI clear and clean.

20. Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

Mostly I strive for balance. When I first started in Cata, I went for a lot of spirit to help balance out any mana issues while I adjusted to a new style of healing. As I got more comfortable and managed my mana better, I went for more of a balance, giving equal weight to Crit, Haste, and Mastery. I also began to focus less on Spirit and more on Int, since I wanted a bigger mana pool and was doing ok on managing my mana.

Yay! I participated this time! If you'd like to see answers from other participants, you can read them here. Cheers! :)

Level 85! Again

2011-07-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

My other priest finally dinged lvl85 last night. Yes, I have two priests. Yes they're both lvl85 now. It's ok, my guildmates think I am nuts too.

Iky is my Goblin Shadow Priest. She's had an interesting journey. See, she was my very first WoW character ever! Back in Vanilla, I'd started dating a guy that played WoW. He got me to come play with him, so I made two characters - a druid and a priest, both Night Elves. I thought the druid sounded SO cool, but I couldn't get into playing her much, and I abandoned her at lvl19. The priest, Xova, I found fun, and I played her until lvl29, but I couldn't get into playing as Alliance and after I stopped dating said guy, I abandoned her too.

Later when BC was released, I was dating someone different and he wanted to give WoW a try. So we made Blood Elves, and again I rolled a priest, my main character Ikuri. This time though, I loved it. Something about the Horde storyline really grabbed me, and I connected to playing as Horde more than I ever did with Alliance. And I loved my priest! I originally played her as Shadow, but soon switched to Holy so I could heal my boyfriend while we quested. We were on a PvP server, and let me just say that leveling as a Holy priest on a PvP server back then was PAINFUL. But I managed, and despite breaking up with that guy (I'm detecting a pattern here), I finished leveling Ikuri up to 70. I joined a raiding guild with her and raided a little bit (mostly in Karazhan) but eventually I stopped playing.

When WotLK was released, I picked Ikuri back up and started leveling her again. I also switched servers to Moonguard where some old gaming friends were. They ended up leaving the game not long after I transferred over, so I mostly played solo. Eventually I hooked up with another guild - an RP raiding guild. I don't RP though, so I never felt like I fit in. I mean these guys RP'd ALL THE TIME - in dungeons when I was tapping my foot waiting for them to start the encounter, they'd be acting out an RP scene with the boss. Oy. When they opened free transfers to Farstriders from Moonguard, I checked out Farstriders, found Natural Order, fell totally in love with the guild and transferred every character I had. I even dragged Groztokk with me.

All this time my original character, Xova, was languishing away on her server, still stuck at lvl29. From time to time I would think about the character and debate trying to play her again. But she was on another server, and on a different faction. I even tried race-changing her from Night Elf to Draenai since I liked their casting animations, but I still couldn't get into the hang of playing as an Alliance. Cut me and I bleed Horde red! So she sat there untouched.

Then Blizzard announced faction transfers. I could transfer my poor little priest over to the Horde! Two priests on the Horde side though? It seemed silly. But I was determined. So I transferred Xova over and made her a Forsaken. MUCH better! I played her casually, leveling her up by using my high level alts to run her through dungeons. I gave her the same spec that Ikuri has - disc/shadow - and ran lowbie dungeons with her. It was fun, and it was a challenge. I got her to 80, finally, and then left her for a bit.

Then Cata dropped and with it - GOBLINS. To say I love the Goblin race is an understatement. They're my favorite Horde race, hands down. So I knew I wanted some of my characters to be Goblins. Not Ikuri though. Ikuri is still a Blood Elf, and will always be so, not because she's pretty or whatever, but because I love her racial, Arcane Torrent, for playing a raiding priest. It's part of my playstyle, so I don't want to give it up. But I really wanted a Goblin priest (along with a Goblin Warlock, Hunter, Mage, Shaman, etc.) So I decided to race-change my Forsaken Priest, Xova, to a Goblin. And since nicknames are popular in our guild, and my guildmates all call me Iky, it was only fitting that my new Goblin Priest get a new name too. :)

So Iky the Goblin Shadow Priest was born and she finally hit lvl85 today. I have no idea what to do with her at this point. I don't need another priest for healing, and if I really wanted to make the effort, Ikuri has a shadow spec and some pretty nice shadow offspec gear. I might make her a PvP character, even though I've come to hate PvP. Regardless, it's nice to have her and know she's not languishing away someplace anymore. :)

Shannox down!

2011-07-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Whoo-hoo! After a few nights of attempts on Shannox, we finally downed him on the last pull of the evening in true NO style! Grats goes to Kibito, Cacciatore, Magechick, Moobuckaroo, Gnomewrecker, Pollygix, Holycow, Groztokk, Zeelatani and me! Grats to Magechick for getting ranked on World of Logs for this fight (because no one else raids as Frost, he says - lol!) Grats also to Zee for getting his first drop for his legendary staff! Go Zee! :)

Our attempt tonight was a last minute one. Cacc put it together, and we had enough people on to run the raid as a good, solid group. Not only did we manage to get a good amount of rep for clearing, we also got a boss kill! So, woot!

I know at this stage many guilds have already cleared all of the current content. In fact, an Alliance guild on our server has cleared Firelands on normal mode. On the one hand, yeah it would be nice to get those server-firsts and be the most progressed, etc. But on the other hand, we're a casual guild, so we approach raiding casually. That we can pull off some of the kills we do (in the way we do) is pretty cool as it is. So I try not to let my inner progression raider feel too frustrated with our slow progress and just enjoy moments like this when we achieve them. :)

Get back in the kitchen!

2011-07-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

Chris has me watching a lot of Gordon Ramsay's TV shows lately - Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Master Chef, Ramsay's Best Restaurant - and it made me think of this guy. So I had to go pay him a visit. I wonder what he's there for? Maybe something to do with the new legendary staff questchain? Or does he have some other purpose?

This is one of the things I love about WoW - all these silly little pop culture references and tropes. It's fun stumbling across them when you least expect it. :)

Al'Akir down!

2011-06-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well we finally got Ak'Akir down. We were really hoping to get it done before the patch, and I think if we'd had another 30 minutes, and had started the night a bit earlier, we would have done it. As it was though, we were struggling with the final phase and just ran out of time to fine-tune it before it got to that point in the evening where people were getting tired and unfocused.

So we came back on Patch day and downed it within a few attempts. I think the fight is bugged since Acid Rain wasn't stacking AT ALL, and this completely trivialized the fight. P3 was still difficult - if you weren't paying attention the lightning storm would easily kill you. But the rest of the encounter was kind of a joke. That's not to downgrade our accomplishment - this kill finally got some of us our "Defender of a Shattered World" titles and our Reins of the Dark Phoenix mounts. Woot! But I wish we'd spent a bit more time on Al'Akir earlier in the expansion instead of ignoring him until now. Our first time attempting him was one of our worst raid nights ever and after that I think none of us really wanted to go back.

Grats goes to Holycow, Kibito, Avel, Taevar, Groztokk, Sethunya, Moobuckaroo, Bloodnickel, Feralfail, and me! And grats everyone that was able to purchase their Dark Phoenix mounts with this kill. Good job guys! :)

Nef down!

2011-06-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

Finally Nef is down too! Apologies for the lousy screenshot - I wasn't in the best place for it. It took us a bit longer to get Nef down since after our Cho'Gall kill, a few of us were feeling the burnout and went to play RIFT a bit. But we rallied together, switched up our strategy, and pulled off the kill! Grats goes to Cacciatore Holycow, Groztokk, Gnomewrecker, Avel, Moobuckaroo, Relmiste, Kibito, Sethunya, and me!

I think what finally clinched this fight for us was two-fold. One had to do with add-placement. Avel has proven to be an extremely capable kiter/third tank. So with an assist from Relm, he managed to gather up the adds nicely and get them all deposited on the outer perimeter of the room. Then in P3, Holy took Nef while Kibs took the adds. Holy kept Nef in the middle of the room and rotated him around the diameter of the circle, while Kibs kited the adds around the perimeter. Kibs kept the adds a few steps behind where Nef's head was (so close to the right shoulder) and both tanks moved counter-clockwise. That kept the adds from getting hit by Nef's breath, kept Kib and I from being tail-swiped, and kept fire out of the raid (who mostly stood back by Nef's left flank.) This worked beautifully and we downed him within a few tries of switching to this strat.

We're going to try and attempt Al'Akir before the patch, so hopefully I'll have another kill photo soon! :)

Cho'Gall down!

2011-05-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

After weeks of working on it, we finally downed Cho'Gall! I guess all of my yelling to "STACK UP" and "AVIOD AVOIDABLE DAMAGE" paid off, lol! Grats goes to Cacciatore, Aristeniae, Moobuckaroo, Zeelatani, Doklove, Zukanga, Relmiste, Sethunya, Taevar, and me!

I don't think the fight itself is very complicated. I think where we struggled most was add placement of the oozes (not sure how this fight can be done without a hunter since Frost Trap was indispensable here) and the transition to P3. It helped us a lot to get Cho'Gall into his throne area for P3 so we forced the eyestalks to spawn close, then have them focus-fired through Zee. We also made use of whatever cd's we had for heals, extra dps, etc. for that final push. Feels good to finally have him down! :)

Burnout pt. 2 (ok, not really)

2011-03-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

So, when I wrote my original post, I was pretty burned out on raiding, on WoW, on gaming in general. I thought I would get back into blogging again, but then realized I didn't have a whole hell of a lot to say. So I focused on work and on spending more time with my son. I got in a few visits to my boyfriend in Mississippi, which was really nice. I played RIFT casually (fun game!) and messed around with other single player games as the mood struck. I also got into reading a lot more, thanks to my Kidle e-reader that I got as a birthday present from the boyfriend (LOVE!) So I kept myself pretty busy, even though I still didn't have much to say.

I'm still not sure that I have a lot to say, but I'm not feeling so burnt out any more and I am feeling the blogging bug again, so figured I'd give it another whirl. If anything, it will give me something to do while I'm working and in-between helping customers. :D

Burnout pt. 1

2011-03-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

Burnout. It's something I've refused to admit to for a long time. But it might finally be hitting me.

I've been my guild's raid leader for about a year now. Not the only raid leader, but definitely the main one. I took the position over when the previous raid leader left for greener pastures. My guild leader was handling the raids in the interim and one night asked me if I would invite everyone to raid since he would not be there. About an hour before raid time I realized that meant I would actually be LEADING the raid. Cue moment of panic.

I survived that first night and have come a long way from reading raid strats off Wowiki and taking forever between trash pulls. Raid leading is a pretty thankless job, most of the time. It's also very stressful. And I think raid leading for a casual guild with an inclusive policy can be even more stressful, especially when you are the type of player that really likes to push progression.

I log in and have to quickly assess the signups I have and based on that determine what content we're going to hit up that night. I send out invites, and then have to deal with the stragglers - the people that aren't signed up, or signed up as tenative. Then I have to either sit people or beat the bushes to try and wrangle up a few more. All the while I'm being asked "where are we going?" "can we start summoning?" and being sent tells ranging from "I'll sit tonight if you need" to "can I get an invite, I forgot to sign up". Plus I'm trying to check if we have enough flasks, feasts, using my own gold (since I can't use the guild bank's) and that of others to scrounge up mats to make cauldrons, all while trying to organize the raiding group into something that is capable of getting down the content that we're about to face.

And honestly? I think it's at the point where it is wearing me out.

From this point on, I am logging in and sending out invites around 6:05pm, and then getting the raid off the ground and entering the instance within 10-15 minutes. I am not going to beat the bushes and beg people to come raid. If they aren't online by that point, they don't go. If I only have 15 people, then 5 people are sitting. If there aren't flasks in the bank or at least mats to make cauldrons, then we go without flasks. Same goes for feasts.

On that note, I would really like to see some of the people that take advantage of the free flasks that we give out contribute more by donating mats or gold toward getting the mats necessary to make flasks. Too often the people that donate are the ones that don't make use of them or worse, don't even raid.

I work full time now, and I don't have the time to play WoW like I used to. When I have free time, I am trying to spend as much of it as I can with my son or with Chris. I also play other games. I don't want to feel like I *HAVE* to log in to WoW and gather herbs, or clean the guild bank, or farm up mats. I want to be able to log in on raid nights, put a team together, and go stomp content in the face. And I want to feel like we're accomplishing something when we do instead of wiping on content that should already be on farm for us.

Our raid schedule is Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays. Tuesdays and Thursdays are regular raid nights. Friday is semi-progression. Monday is full progression. Three of our four raid nights are nights that my son is with me. I didn't like the idea of raiding that much and being stuck on the computer all day, not getting to interact with him and essentially dumping him on my sister and her family to watch. So I gave up the Monday progression nights, which was hard to do because I really want to progress. I want to be part of a group that is taking down new content, and while I am happy that the progression group is managing it, I can't help but feel a twinge of jealousy/sadness/etc. that I don't get to be a part of it. I also can't help but feel that the lack of progression on Tues/Thurs/Fri when compared to the progression Mondays makes me look ineffective as a leader. That thought really eats at me.

With all of the officers we have, and all of the people capable of raid leading, it would be nice if someone else would lead one of the "regular" nights so that I could participate in the progression runs. So maybe I just need to say that; that I am getting weary running the same content week after week with no progression, and that I need someone else to step up and handle leading on either Tuesdays or Thursdays (or both) so that I can have a chance to participate in progression before I get completely burnt out and stop logging in altogether.

I think that's the point I am getting to. We have raid tonight and a part of me is really dreading logging in and having to deal with the stress all over again when I know we're only going to get a couple of bosses down. A year is a long time to be a raid leader, and I'm really proud of myself for sticking it out this long and, despite my venting right now, I would like to continue being NO's raid leader for as long as possible. But I'd like to progress, and in the current set up I'm not really getting to, and it's definitely taking a toll on my attitude toward WoW and raiding with the guild. I guess I am tired of seeing the same bosses week after week, when I know I am capable of pushing progression.

I don't know. Maybe I need to start renewing the lockouts every other week and force progression like I had to toward the end of the last expansion. I know a lot of my guildies will be able to read this so if you have suggestions, want to sympathize, or just want to tell me to quit my bitching - go for it. :)

ohai

2011-03-20T03:38:00.001-07:00

Having found myself with more time on my hands to blog lately, I thought I would dig this up and give it another go. ^_^

I'm still playing WoW, and I am still on Second Life. In fact, I work in Second Life now, which is awesome, and yet also scary because my job security depends on so many factors that I can't be assured I'll have this job forever. I'm going to run with it as long as I can though!

I still dabble in some of the other games I have listed on the side, though mostly on a casual basis. These days when I am not working in SL or raiding in WoW, I can be found on RIFT, thoroughly enjoying playing the hell out of my rogue and fiddling around with leveling up a cleric. So I'm sure I'll be blogging a lot about that.

I've been messing with the slideshow I posted above. Pretty neat, eh? I wasn't sure of what to really say with the captions, but I wanted it to be a slideshow of all the characters I play. Eventually I'll add more, but those three "mains" will do for now. ^_^