Going Back to Cali: BlizzCon Edition

It's hard to believe it's already been two weeks since we were all gearing up for the excitement that is BlizzCon. I was wiling the hours away at work, checking the Meeting Stone forums and official site for something - anything! - to distract me from what I was doing. Now I'm grasping at straws for a way to get back to that feeling of shared happiness and belonging that I felt in Anaheim. I think that's the best thing about BlizzCon, it's unlike any other convention because everyone who came to this event is passionate about Blizzard games. You can have conversations with complete strangers about WoW/SC/Diablo and not get a confused look back. There were so many people to talk to and meet that when you come back there's this sort of... recovery time or recharge period, because suddenly you're at home not surrounded by thousands and thousands of people. Now that I've decompressed, I wanted to record my experiences and share them with all of you!

Our trip began on Wednesday. I took the day off so that I could pack and get things sorted out with the people who were going to babysit my kitties. I picked up my friend Sara (@SerrinneWoW) in the afternoon and she and I waited for my boyfriend Brian (@Chronis_) to be finished at work before we left. We drove out and picked up another guildmate, Andy (@Slout_ET) before we really started the drive to Buffalo. Let me tell you, if you need to get across the border quickly bring Chronis. I don't know if it's that Cape Bretoner charm or what but he didn't have his passport signed and we still got through the border in under two minutes.

It was so dark so we didn't see much of the scenery (although, it's Buffalo so we probably didn't miss much), but we got to our hotel safely and decided to get some dinner. We ate at this hot dog place called Ted's Hot Dogs because a) DONGERS and b) they have gluten free buns! They even changed gloves while handling my food so that was a welcome relief.

With our bellies full and the realization that we were so close, we all hit the hay and dreamed BlizzCon dreams.

Tranquil, Undaunted and Still Alive!

Hi everyone!

Boy, it's been a while and a lot has happened since the last couple posts. When I wrote my Guardian gear guide, I had just found a job and started working in earnest. Now that my boyfriend and I have moved and settled in, I find I have a little extra time to write.

In game we've been fairly busy, I've been tanking as one of three main tanks for Apotheosis and we are now 7/16H! We snagged a heroic server first kill along the way, and are currently dancing with Qin-xi and Jan-xi until we beat them into the floor. (And we're recruiting, come check us out!)

I got my green dragon,

Other than raiding I've been mostly puttering around on alts, I leveled my priest to 90 and my new monk tank to 85. I still haven't done many dailies, or grinded up the rep for many factions. I'm sadly sitting around honoured or revered for most of them. I did make it a priority to finish up the Order of the Cloud Serpent, and got the rep for gear I would need to get into raids but I haven't pushed through for Golden Lotus, or the August Celestials.

I tried out Brawler's Guild and was horrifically embarrassed when I got pecked to death over and over by Dippy. I think I've been scarred for life. I don't want to go moonkin on my druid and many of the fights favour ranged over melee. I may need to get my priest some shadow gear and try that.

And I washed my yak.

The thing that's held my interest for some time has been Challenge Modes. I recently got my Challenge Conqueror: Silver on my druid and got to pick my pretty phoenix! The really awesome thing about Challenge Modes is that as a guild, we've been rotating groups and people through to try and get everyone at least Silvers so we can all get phoenixes. We had one group get Realm First Challenge Conqueror Gold, and that spurred a lot more people to get involved.

Pretty biiiird, pretty biiiird.

I've tanked every CM on my druid and healed some of them on my priest. It's my intent to heal all of them on Kaleri and I have a group interested in Golds so we're shooting for that. I've thought about tanking Gold CMs, but you really need a set group and swapping folks in and out (the way I got my silvers) isn't ideal.

I'd like to blog a little more about Challenge Modes in a future post, not guides but more what they were like and how I felt tanking as a druid and healing on my priest. Stay tuned!

Flying off into the sunset

Mists of Pandaria Leather Reputation and Dungeon Gear

Mists of Pandaria is only a few days away and there's plenty of information out there. In the interest of having something easy to read, I've compiled a list by location of various reputations and dungeon bosses that have the gear that Guardian or Feral Druids may be interested in.

Reputation Gear

Klaxxi
Honoured:
Bracers: (crit/mastery) Cruel Mercy Bracers

Revered:
Neck: (hit/crit) Choker of the Klaxxi'va 
Belt: (crit/mastery - blue socket + 60 crit) Klaxxi Lash of the Burrower 
Legs: (crit/mastery - red socket + 60 agility) Dreadsworn Slayer Legs

Exalted:
2H Polearm: (hit/haste) Amber Spear of Klaxxi'vess


August Celestials
Honoured:
Cloak: (crit/haste) Bladesong Cloak

Revered:
Hands: (exp/mastery) Fingers of the Loneliest Monk
Bracers: (hit/crit) Quillpaw Family Bracers
Feet: (hit/haste) Tukka-Tuk's Hairy Boots 

Shado-Pan
Honoured:
Legs: (hit/mastery) Tough Mushanhide Leggings
Ring: (crit/haste) Mark of the Dancing Crane

Revered:
Trinket: (static stam/mastery on use) Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage
Cloak: (hit/mastery) Blackguard Cape 
Helm: (hit/mastery - meta and blue socket + 180 agility) Red Smoke Bandana

Golden Lotus
Honoured:
Gloves: (crit/mastery) Surehand Grips

Revered:
Shoulders: (hit/crit - yellow socket + 60 agility) Imperion Spaulders 
Chest: (hit/exp - yellow and blue sockets + 120 agility) Softfoot Silent Wrap
Ring: (hit/haste) Anji's Keepsake

While you're leveling (or afterwards if you plan to farm some dungeon gear) here's where to look for leather drops:

New Mists Dungeons - Normal ilvl 410 Heroic ilvl 463

Stormstout Brewery

Ook Ook
Chest: (crit/haste - heroic: blue gem slot + 60 agility) Nimbletoe Chestguard (Normal) (Heroic) 

Yan-Zhu the Uncasked:
Shoulders: (crit/haste - heroic: red socket + 60 haste) Fizzy Spaulders (Normal) (Heroic)

Hoptallus
Belt: (hit/exp) Belt of Brazen Inebriation (Heroic)

Gate of the Setting Sun

Saboteur Kip'Tilak
Bracers: (haste/exp) Saboteur's Stabilizing Bracers (Normal) (Heroic)
Ring: (crit/mastery) Pulled Grenade Pin (Heroic)

Raigonn
Legs: (exp/mastery - heroic: red gem slot +60 mastery) Wall-Breaker Legguards (Normal) (Heroic)

Shadow-Pan Monastery

Master Snowdrift
2H Staff: (exp/mastery) Snowdrift's Bladed Staff (Normal) (Heroic)
Trinket: (static mastery - dodge on use) Heart of Fire (Heroic)

Taran-Zhu
Ring: (hit/haste) Seal of Hateful Meditation (Heroic)

Siege of Niuzao Temple

Vizier Jin'back
Neck: (crit/haste) Engraved Amber Pendant (Heroic)

General Pa'valek
Cloak: (hit/crit) Aerial Bombardment Cloak (Heroic)

Wing Leader Ner'onok
Helm: (haste/mastery meta gem/red socket + 180 agility) Windblast Helm (Heroic)

Temple of the Jade Serpent

Wise Mari
Cloak: (crit/mastery) Wind-Soaked Drape (Heroic)

Lorewalker Stonestep
Trinket: (static agility + haste proc) Windswept Pages (Heroic)

Liu Flameheart
Ring: (crit/exp) Signet of Dancing Jade (Heroic)

Sha of Doubt
Shoulders: (hit/exp - heroic red socket + 60 exp) Doubtridden Shoulderguards (Normal) (Heroic)

Mogu'shan Palace

Gekkan
Trinket: (static stamina + dodge proc) Iron Protector Talisman (Normal) (Heroic)

Xin the Weaponmaster
2H Polearm: (crit/haste) Ghostheart (Normal) (Heroic)
Feet: (haste/exp - heroic yellow socket + 60 agi) Boots of Plummeting Death (Normal) (Heroic)


Scarlet Halls

Houndmaster Braun
Hands: (exp/mastery) Hound Trainer's Gloves (Heroic) 

Armsmaster Harlan
Bracers: (crit/mastery) Lightblade Bracer (Heroic)

Flameweaver Koegler 
Neck: (hit/exp) Scorched Scarlet Key (Heroic)

Scarlet Monastery

Brother Korloff
2H Staff: (crit/haste) Firestorm Greatstaff (Heroic)
Chest: (hit/crit - yellow socket + 60 agi) Korloff's Raiment (Heroic) 

High Inquisitor Whitemane
Trinket: (static hit + agility on use) Flashing Steel Talisman (Heroic)
Feet: (crit/mastery - yellow socket + 60 agility) Dashing Strike Treads (Heroic)

Scholomance

Instructor Chillheart
Belt: (crit/mastery) Icewraith Belt (Heroic)

Jandace Barov
Legs: (crit/haste - yellow socket + 60 haste) Ghostwoven Legguards (Heroic)

Lillian Voss
Hands: (hit/haste) Tombstone Gauntlets (Heroic)
Trinket: (static crit/agility proc) Searing Words (Heroic)

Zone: Helm: (hit/crit - meta and yellow socket + 180 agility) Soulburner Crown (Heroic)

Shared Topic - Three Must Haves

My first Blog Azeroth Shared Topic comes from Mataoka of Sugar and Blood;

...with the new patch, and all the new things coming, what are three things that you will absolutely not leave behind? Consider these three objects your virtual backpack- the twist is, a tiny story to go along with each item.

My priest, has many sentimental memories associated with her, but not really a big amount of items I would save. I rifled through her bags to see which items I would never be able to delete, and came up with three things - though one is a "set".

 WoWHead Image

Argent Dawn Commission

I remember picking this up and thinking I would farm Argent Dawn rep at the time. I was hooked on this trinket because it used to make your character salute and a light effect would surround you (kind of what the leveling "ding" animation is).

There's no way I'm getting rid of this now, as the trinket is no longer available in game. I like to have things that no one else does!



Original Tier 6 

My first full tier set on my priest was T6. I raided in T4 and T5 but the Frozen Shadowweave Set was far too good to replace until T6 (and even then, the Shadowweave chest was still better than the T6 chest).

My dagger is still enchanted with Frost and Shadow Damage, my cloak still has 2% Reduced Threat and all the gear has the original gems and enchants.

I have great memories about T6 and the Burning Crusade, so my T6 will always have a place in my bank - no matter how many spaces I seem to keep filling!

"Best in Show!"

Precious' Ribbon

I love this pink shirt, and I love that it gives your character a "Best in Show" buff! I remember looking at Precious when we were in ICC and thinking that it was adorable that she had a ribbon on her neck! Obviously someone really cared about that pooch.

When I won that shirt I wore it around everywhere and it's my default shirt when it doesn't clash too horribly with my outfit.





Since I've had my druid as long as my priest, I decided to check what items she had that I placed value on.

Chained Essence of Eranikus

Ah, yes. I love this trinket, and I really thought the questline was neat up until it just kind of... stopped. I did this quest on my priest first and lost her trinket but decided to keep it on my druid.

Everytime you use this trinket, Eranikus speaks to you;

• It hurts so much... Itharius, my old friend... please help me...

• Will the nightmare ever end?! I cannot force myself awake!

• Torture me no more! Release me, mortal! The Swamp of Sorrows... mortal... please

• My eyes! It burns... it burns...

• Foolish mortal, I will rend your soul in two once I am released!

• My charge to watch the temple has failed... my corrupted soul knows no peace...

• My soul is not a trinket! Mortal, you must release me from these chains!

• Foolish mortal, I will rend your soul in two once I am released!

• You are an agent of their wicked god, fool. I will see you destroyed!

I remember when I first used the trinket and Eranikus was quite angry. I'd never seen anything like this before, and I still feel sad for Eranikus being trapped wherever he is.

This particular version of the Essence is no longer available in game, but I plan on keeping this trinket forever.

That green stuff is the Essence of Eranikus, I swear!

Essence Infused Moonstone

Once upon a time, druids had to complete a long (awesome) quest chain in order to get their final flight form. This key used to be part of the chain where you had to go summon Anzu, the Raven Lord and defeat him to move on with the chain.

Afterwards, you got to keep the Moonstone and go back to Sethekk Halls whenever you wanted to farm the mount Aznu drops.

I had a group of people who I used to bring my key for so that we could farm the mount. Now that you no longer need a druid there's no reason to keep this key, but there's no way I can get rid of it.

That's me in the middle!

Earthwarden

My very favourite weapon. I farmed Cenarion Expedition rep so hard to be able to have one of the best tanking maces ever. I collected spears, unidentified plant parts and ran Underbog so much I'm sure I went crazy.

It was sold by Fedryen Swiftspear for 265g, which at the time for me was not a trivial amount.

I tanked with this mace for a long time, I never did get a Wildfury Greatstaff... I loved that bear druids got a mace called Earthwarden - it's a very fitting title!

I'm saving this mace in the hopes that one day, druids will have a viable tanking mace to use so that I can transmog to Earthwarden.

Lulls and Changes

Expansion transitions are interesting times. People start to review what they need to finish before they have to worry about leveling again; old achievements, battleground goals, profession material farming and more. So a few posts have been circling about that are listing what folks are trying to finish up before the Mists of Pandaria comes to Azeroth.

Profession Work

With my main swapping from priest to guardian, I had to look at what I needed to get Kalbeari raid ready (aside from leveling her to 90). Currently, I have Leatherworking and Skinning but have gathered all of the mats needed to level Jewelcrafting once Mists hits and I've leveled Leatherworking.

The problem with this set up is that I've recently found out that Alchemy will blow JC out of the water for my choice of second crafting profession. Currently, the Guardian druid mastery is scaling things like armour elixirs and potions, (GC confirmed that it is intended) and with the Alchemist perk Mixology, it's clear that I'll have to farm mats for yet another profession.

The plan is to level in Mists with LW and Skinning, then drop Skinning and powerlevel my second profession - Alchemy.

Filling Time

There are things that Kaleri has that I would like Kalbeari to have, so I've been leveling my cooking and fishing so that she'll be self-sufficient. I picked up a Dalaran ring, and a guild cloak for easy transportation back and forth.

I've been doing mount runs every Tuesday with Serrine and Serrath two guildmates of mine, and so far we have: an Ashes of A'lar (mine), a Blue Drake from Malygos (Serrinne) and an Azure Drake from Malygos (to Serrath). Not bad for about a month's work!

Caw! Caw!

Raising some gold is a priority, too. I've never been super rich in WoW and with the introduction of some big gold sinks (Grand Expedition Yak, new JC mounts, Black Market Auction House) I'd like to have some extra gold.

I've tanked an LFR on the Beta, watched a bunch of livestreams and videos, recorded my loot list and have generally been itching for new content. I want to make sure I'm as prepared as possible!

Blog News

With main-swapping comes the consideration of what this blog will be once Mists rolls out. I originally intended to write about priests and raiding but I feel that once I am no longer playing my priest I won't carry the same authority that I did in Cataclysm.

I've asked my friend Sara (@SerrinneWoW) if she would be interested in writing some posts come Mists of Pandaria for priest related info, so expect to see some posts written by her in the future. (Plus that means I can keep part of the blog name the same - bonus!)

I'll still be here, but you can expect some more tank-centric and druid related articles from me in the future.

The url of this blog may be changing, not sure to what yet - have to pick a good name! If you notice some funky things happening with the layout and background don't worry, it's just me futzing around with some changes for Mists.

What are you doing to prepare for Mists? Are you taking some time off between expansions? What are you up to in the meantime?

A Crisis of Identity

Flying through the Vale

Preparing for an expansion is no small task. There are mats to farm for leveling professions or making gold, there's massive amounts of guild organization and there are decisions to be made about characters and roles you want to play. If you read Kurn's Corner, you'll know that there are steps to take when preparing a guild for a new expansion, and having guild members decide what role they'd like to play in the future is one of those steps.

I had to decide; healing priest or bear tank?

Ultimately, I chose to play my bear in the upcoming expansion. I've been having a bit of an identity crisis with my priest lately, and the more I play on my druid, the more I enjoy the game. I love my priest, I even wrote a post about how much I love her, but we've had a disconnect somewhere down the line.

Knight-Captain Kaleri on her Vicious War Steed

I am a good healer. Hell, I'd venture to say that I am a great healer but it just doesn't feel right and it doesn't feel like a challenge. I think that part of the reason for this is the race change of Kaleri from draenei to human back before Firelands, and the other part are the nerfs in Dragon Soul. She's still my priest, but she's not Kal. This fierce little human with a penchant for PVP and Hardmode bosses isn't the draenei I rolled back on Bronzebeard, clumsily fighting through Karazhan, applying to guilds through the mail system, and tailoring her own clothes.

SUPERBEAR

Taila (or Kalbeari, now) has been a steady rock since Karazhan. She's mangled and swiped her way to victory over Malchezzar, Kael'Thas and Vashj. She held the lines while Illidan was vanquished, used the Tears of the Goddess to thwart Archimonde and stood in awe of the Sunwell. Together we've been the shield for the healers and the damage dealers through many battles, and that will be our role in Pandaria.

I leveled Kalbeari to 90 on the beta, and started goofing around in heroics with my friend Sara, a healing priest. Watching Cascade bounce around, or seeing Spirit Shell makes me a little regretful, but as soon as I hit that Incarnation button and become SUPERBEAR, those feelings go away. I watch the boss previews from MMO-Champion and I think, "I get to tank those. My raid will need me to be at the top of my game to survive and take the hits.". It's exciting and scary but I know it will be the challenge I need.


Does the class make the person?

My priest was my safe haven for some time. I created her just before University began, and played her while my struggle with Crohn's Disease was at it's height. I accomplished a lot with her, and many memories are recorded in her achievements and Feats of Strength. I was Kaleri.

My druid was created before my priest but the guild I had joined needed a priest healer (I was later asked not to heal, but to instead play as shadow). Kalbeari was always there when I needed a break from priesting, and I always thought of those two characters as friends of a sort.

Kaleri with the DS raid achievement mount

When I play Kaleri, I am a healer. I support my teammates, I take care of them and they keep Horde and enemies away from me. It's not my fault if someone dies to a loose add, but it is my prerogative to heal the tanks, so they can catch those adds. Healing can be a thankless job, especially when you do it so well no one will know what you had to do to pull it off.

Take Heroic Spine as an example. My job is to heal the tanks and watch the dispels. It's not a particularly hard job to dispel, but if you screw it up the entire raid knows it was your fault. However, if you do it perfectly the raid never has to know that there is a dispel mechanic and you take away that problem for everyone. You rarely get thanks, but there's a certain satisfaction when you can do it that well.

But when I play Kalbeari, I change a little. I have to be a little harder, take more control and be ready to help the raid as I can. Meaning anything from tanking more adds if someone goes down, using cooldowns like FR to the raid's benefit, to battle-rezzing someone or doing as much DPS as possible while I'm tanking. There is so much a bear tank can do right now to help out, it's insane.

Will a new role change me?

I think it will, a little. I feel like I've changed and grown as a person since I first created my characters. I've always been in awe of excellent tanks, and it never ceases to amaze me how a good tank can make or break a dungeon or raid run. I will have to take charge more than I do now, and speak up with more authority if I have to call something tank-related.

I'm afraid that I will feel a little helpless at times, not being able to heal but my priorities will shift from watching the raids HP to keeping an eye on my own. I used to get really antsy watching other healers while tanking but I've started to learn to let it go. How can I be a good tank when I die because I'm too busy watching the raid frames and I miss my cooldown? That can't happen and I'll have to place my trust in the healers, just like our current tanks trust me.

WoW needs more tanks, in particular it needs more tanks who are women. I'm proud to have the ability to switch to my druid and fill those roles.

Mists of Pandaria is approaching and it's nearly time for Kaleri to take a break from fighting monsters and the Horde, and fish by the gates of Stormwind for a time. The world has changed, and so have we.

Home

The ladies

This post is coming a little later than I wanted it to, but since Cynwise posted “On Revelations” before a field trip, I ended up forgetting about it until just recently. I originally wanted to reply to Cyn's post in the comments but it ended up morphing into something much larger.

Reading Cynwise and Vidyala’s stories (here and here) about what they enjoy playing, and figuring out what they want to play was very interesting to me. I play a priest, and have played her for a long time; first as shadow back when we only did 1400 dps but returned mana for the mages and warlocks, and now as a healer. I also play a druid tank, who has been around as long as the priest. I've had many internal battles over which character I wanted to play, but there's just something about those two roles that I can't quite get anywhere else.