Undying Conspiracy

Our dedicated 10 man Naxx group decided a while back that rather than become "alt friendly" (although we do have two guys with healer/tank alts that switch it up), we would focus on getting some achievements done.

I think I've stated before that I don't actually hate achievements, I'm just not as obsessed by them as a lot of people have become. The two that I would really like to have are Undying and The Immortal. As a healer, I like the challenge of trying to make it all the way through a late night Naxx without letting anyone die.

The trouble is, we seem to be cursed with really bad luck. I know that these achievements require perfection (or the ability to save the day) on boss fights, but, for the most part, our recent failures haven't been user error. They've been flukes.

I wasn't there, but three weeks ago, we had a poorly timed taunt between our main tank and off tank on Gluth. The report I received said: "Basically, our druid was off tanking Gluth and the warrior told him to taunt. Just as a decimate hit. And well, you can guess how that went. The warrior was watching his debuffs and not the decimate timer."

Two weeks ago, we made it all the way to Kel'Thuzad. A retadin 'sploded, but the healers managed to save him. Unfortunately, his life dipping was only an instant before our elemental shammy was iceblocked. In my defense, he was the one person who had stepped out of my range. But that's no excuse. Three healers should have been able to save him--if our attention hadn't been on saving the pally one second before.

Last week, our Canadian friends had some internet issues. These issues decided to present themselves after we started the Heigan dance. We kept one of them (a healer) alive until he could make it up on the platform, but his counterpart happened to be our main tank.... We weren't as successful with him. The raid broke up after that, but he reported that he had no more lag the entire evening.

This week started out promising despite the fact that the same Canadian duo were at a BSG-themed lan party (meaning slightly buzzed and sharing the internets). We wouldn't let them talk about BSG, but the run itself was going well. We breezed through Heigan. Recovered from a miscommunication on Four Horsemen. And even managed to survive a kinda rocky Grobbulus (there were WAY too many slimes at one point for comfort). Everyone seemed to be on the ball, and even if we had some minor mishaps, we were surviving them. Until Gluth. There we all are, preparing for the Decimate. The Holy Priest had a binding heal cued up to land on the adds tank and himself as soon as the cast finished. I had a chain heal going on the tanks/melee in the front. And the pally was doing his pally thing. We were set. We weren't going to let everyone down. This was the week we'd make it.

Only it wasn't. Apparently there is a known (but not known to us) bug where if you use commanding shout or a warlock imp during the Gluth fight, the encounter can miscalculate how much health you actually have when dispensing the Decimate damage. And instead of taking you to mostly dead...it takes you to overly dead. All three healers died. Instantly. Our preparatory casts were useless to save us or anyone else. I used my reincarnate and we ended up killing the boss, but over half the raid died.

So I guess this week we should research and try to find any other obscure bugs that will ruin our chances at this achievement. Damnit, I want to get Undying so I can stop staying up all night, or at least start taking the Shadow Priest. It's a conspiracy. I know it is.

Image courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner.

Anatomy of a Healer: the UI

The User Interface of a computer game is one of it's most important hooks. No matter how pretty a game is, if you can't figure out how to perform basic functions easily, you probably won't play for long. World of Warcraft's UI can be customized to fit your play style, and tweaking your UI can make your reaction time faster and the survivability of both you and your group or raid go up.

So how can you take your screen from out of control to controlled chaos?

Then:

Although I'm embarassed to show the screenshot to the right, that really is my Priest healing in Molten Core. It's a miracle that I didn't fall into the lava and burn to death every week (I'm not saying I never did, just that it's amazing I didn't do it more often). Not only is it ugly (/shudder), it is hideous. Ok, so yeah, the ugly factor is what is most apparent. But it's also not good to have a 3 inch square of actual visibility. With all the information overload on the screen (most in bulky frames that overpower the environment) it's hard to tell where exactly I was standing, much less see what scary thing might have been heading my way. Luckily, mod makers have come a long way and I've found ways to condense the information while still having access to it. (A larger monitor helps too. At the time of this screenshot my monitor was a 15". So the picture is pretty close to actual size.)

The important information displayed on the screen includes:

• Raid Frames (they're huge!)
  
• Buff Durations
• Target and Target's Target Frames
• Incoming Heals/Heals Cast on the Target (the huge box in the bottom right is tracking who the healers are targeting)
  
• Resurrection Monitor
• Damage/Healing Meter (I'm winning, otherwise it wouldn't be that important)
• Chat Box (where we're discussing a drama magnet in Officer chat...some things never change)
• MiniMap (so I can get lost)
  

Now:
A little over two years later, my UI looks more like this. Most of the information is still available to me, but the overall feel of the screen is more open. I now actually get to see the fights, which is incredibly important with nearly every encounter requiring heightened awareness of what is going on around you. I now also have room to see who has used a cooldown, countdowns on boss abilities, and a truncated combat log.

In my current UI, there are five main areas that I focus on.

1. The Boss Mod (I use BigWigs) announces important phases of the fight at the top center of my screen. This place of prominence is out of my way, but still noticeable enough to be ready for Deep Breaths or Lava Waves (most of the time).
2. The center area is reserved for my cast timer and situational awareness. The scrolling combat text that floats at the edge of this area also makes it easy to notice the big heals that land and, conversely, the ones that are all overheal so I can judge whether or not my healing rhythm is in sync or not.
   
3. The player bar has a lot of crucial information. My totems and their duration are prominantly displayed above the health bar, as is the timer on Water Shield. All buffs are arranged beneath the mana bar. And debuffs appear to the left of my name.
4. My raid frames are also packed with information. Player health bars are colored by class, and players with aggro turn a bright red. Players in range of my totems have the buffs below their bars, so I can tell if we've moved too far out of range and I need to drop them again. I accidentally deleted the names from my raid frames a while back, and, for the most part, I like it this way. If I hover over a player, the name will appear on the screen, but, in the heat of battle, who I am healing doesn't matter. I've always joked about having a "No Heal" list, but I clearly don't. I don't usually even know which dps I'm healing at any given time. The green oval shows my group, which generally has other healers in it. I try to watch their mana to judge when to drop my Mana Tide Totem.
5. My Shaman mod, TotemTimers allows me to see what totems I am using as well as quickly change them in mid-fight. A pop up menu appears when I hover my mouse over the bar, so I can switch from Mana Spring to Poison Cleansing or from Strength of Earth to Tremor when needed. Over to the right, it tracks my Reincarnate, Shields, and Weapon Buffs.
   

How Did it Evolve?
I am constantly tweaking my UI, and I'm proud of how much better it looks now than in Molten Core. But it is also more informative without being overwhelming now. But how did I get it to this point? I started by researching compilations of mods on Curse and WoWInterface. Once I found one with a screenshot that appealed to me, I downloaded it and began tweaking. Over time, many of the individual mods have needed to be replaced, and I've learned how to configure their replacements to do what I need them to do. It has taken a lot of time, patience, and trial and error to create a UI that works well for my play style. I do not recommend downloading a new compilation or any mod that significantly changes your UI unless you have the time to customize it and try it out in a low-pressure setting. You do not want to try to heal with it right out of the box. But if you take your time and work at it, you just may find that it increases your healing effectiveness to have a UI that is aesthetically pleasing and functional.

I also recommend looking at other people's screenshots. I recruited these two from fellow healers in xeno. Mase's Priest and Moxy's Druid both have effective and appealing UIs. I'm tempted to give Moxy's target set up a try. PlusHeal also has a thread going with a collection of UI screenshots. You never know what great idea you'll be able to steal until you've looked around. There may be an awesome new mod that does exactly what you need just waiting to be discovered on someone else's screen. So keep looking and keep tweaking. Your UI is never done.

For a partial list of mods I use, check out this post.

Anatomy of a Healer: the Class

Why is it that looking for the images to accompany my insightful blog posts (it's my blog, I can pretend I'm insightful if I want to) almost takes longer than actually writing them? Today I got distracted by a blog by a med student/resident. Evidently she wants to be a pediatrician (but not the cutesy "here's your lollipop" kind) and has fat cats. Now on to the actual post.

If you don't count rogues with bandages--and you really shouldn't--World of Warcraft has four classes that can choose to heal: Druid, Paladin, Priest, and Shaman. Each is very different both in lore and play style, but all can be excellent at healing. So why should you choose one over the other?

I'm not trying to get into the intricacies of each class, or preach about why one is better than the other. What I do want to do is explain why, to me, it doesn't really matter which you choose, as long as you take the time to be good at what you play. I'm going to oversimplify a lot here. And I'm probably going to get yelled at by my healer friends. Please don't take my statements as gospel, but research your chosen class and read the blogs of people who actually play those characters.

Hybrids:
First of all, all healers are hybrids.

There are four "pure" classes in the game: Hunter, Mage, Rogue and Warlock. These classes cause damage. That is all they can do. If a Rogue respecs from Assasination to Sublety or vice versa, she will still do damage. She does not have a tanking tree or a healing tree--she has three dps trees.

Every other class in the game is a hybrid class. Let me say that again. Every other class--except Hunter, Mage, Rogue and Warlock--is a hybrid class.

I'm sorry for harping on this. But Priests are not pure classes no matter how much a certain guy I know thinks they are. And it's important to think of all healers as hybrids in order to get over certain misconceptions many people have.

Druids:
Now that I've beaten the hybrid concept into the ground, we can focus on the class that is arguably the biggest hybrid of them all. Druids who choose to embrace their outer Barkskin are very powerful healers in Wrath of the Lich King. Restoration druids have many heal over time spells to absorb spiky damage as well as several larger heals that make it possible for them to heal bigger chunks as well. The druid play-style isn't for everyone and requires that you be able to manage a lot of different timers as well as predict who will take damage when. I see druids as proactive healers who can spread their healing over many targets. They are less whack-a-mole and more sand box; they enjoy filling the smaller dips with HoT stacks but are able to pour out more healing on demand to plug the larger holes as well.

Paladins:
Holy Paladins are still great at single target healing, but WotLK gave them more tools to use as well. Playing a paladin well requires quick reactions and is most often seen as whack-a-mole at its finest. I'll admit that I know little about raiding as a paladin. But from what I've read on other blogs, WotLK has given them more flexibility. And I know I'm always glad to have them along.

Priests:
I'm biased. I love the priest class. I chose to bench my priest for a few different reasons, but none of them was because I disliked the class.

Priests are my favorite healers because they have so many different tools to choose from. If you need a priest to be a single-target healer, they will do it. If you need a priest to spot heal the raid, they will do it. If you need a priest to help mitigate incoming damage on a player, they will do it. Priests can do everything, and they can do it all well. I'm not saying that a priest will do better than another class at a specific job, just that they can do any job. Being a good holy or discipline priest requires the same level of dedication as the others with the added burden of choosing the right spell at the right time.

Shamans:
I've talked about shaman healing a bit before, so I won't bore you with all the details here. Wrath of the Lich King gave shamans a few new tricks to make them a little more rounded than they had been before. Chain heal is still what we're known for, but it isn't the only spell in our arsenal, and shouldn't be the only one we use. However, in a raid situation, knowing who to use as the anchor for chain heal based on positioning is very important. Shamans need to have better than average situational awareness (something I'm still working on) in order to choose the right spell to the greatest effect. Using a Chain Heal on the mage who is way out of the group may not be the best choice. Likewise it may be better to cast a Chain Heal on a rogue when those around her are about to take damage than to top her up with a Lesser Healing Wave. I may not advocate true heads up healing, but knowing what is going on around you as well as who is standing where is necessary to be a great shaman healer.

Whack-a-Mole, Sand Box, Heads Up, Spacial Awareness. Whatever you want to call it, healing takes skill, patience and a certain amount of trial and error. I stand behind my assertion that all healing classes can be effective healers. No one class is better than the others, but one class may be better for you.

"Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass"

10 points if you recognize the quote. 20 if you know the episode.

Being in a leadership position often requires a lot of lip biting (or backspacing). WoW is no different. You need to be able to tactfully tell someone how to improve. You need to be able to explain what they did wrong without hurting their feelings. And you have to stop yourself from lashing out at them for pissing you off--at least most of the time.

And frankly, it sucks.

There are days when I just want to tell it like it is. I want to be able to tell the whiny person that if they get off their ass and get some heroic gear they'd stand a much better chance of getting to raid. I want to be able to tell someone that their efforts to "help" aren't really all that helpful. And I want to be able to throw a hissy fit when things don't go as planned.

But I normally don't.

Because, despite the momentary satisfaction, the fallout is absolutely no fun at all. Having to apologize after blowing up at a guildy (who deserved it) is a lesson in humility I'd rather not have to endure again. Alienating people who help even a little just makes me feel guilty. And publicly freaking out over a botched pull, failed raid, or massive stupidity doesn't make the next pull, raid or stupid person any easier to deal with.

But I think it.

Snarky Tam is alive and well.

Who's the Boss?

In WoW there are many types of guilds. Many people join a leveling guild soon after beginning to play the game. Others have a group of friends who start a guild of their own. Some end up in twink guilds focused on lower-level PvP. Almost any aspect of the game can be the basis for the commonality needed to make a guild. Well, maybe not fishing. In my experience, raiding and end-game PvE content has led to the creation of the largest number of guilds. These guilds range from the casual to the hardcore and everything in between. And each one is run differently. Many are under the leadership of one person with a vision, but others, like mine, are run by a group of Officers who work together to handle the many responsibilities inherent in a raiding guild that also tries to be a pleasant place for all members.

I have read a few blog posts lately about guilds and how they illustrate how society works on a larger scale. What is expected of a member of a guild is what is expected in all societies--that they do their share to help the group accomplish a common goal. But who sets the goal? Who's the boss?

In some societies--and, by correllation, some guilds--the people at the top of the food chain decide what is important and everyone else falls into line. The people making these decisions are expected to focus on things that benefit the group as a whole, and as long as they do this--or have power over the group members--, they can make the decisions. If they stop making decisions that benefit everyone, they face the risk of revolution (or mass /gquit). In other cultures, the people themselves make their wishes known and do what the majority says. Still others have a combination of the two: a person or persons who lead the group, but who also listen to opinions about what should be done. But what happens when no agreement can be made? What do you do when some people really want to do one thing, others really don't, and the rest don't care enough to express much of an opinion either way?

Our guild is facing this kind of discussion at the moment. I don't want to call it a "problem," at least not yet. Right now we have a few people that really (and I mean vehemently) want to do all of the requirements for the achievement Heroic: Glory of the Raider. The 17 requirements for the Meta-Achievement include killing bosses with fewer than 21 people in the zone, changing strategies to make the fights more difficult, and keeping everyone alive on every boss fight. The reward for completing the achievement is a faster mount.

I'm not going to get into my own personal feelings about the achievement itself. Instead, I want to focus on who gets to make the decision about whether or not we adjust (and in some cases, break) our strategies to do achievements.

I can see both sides of the issue. I understand wanting to feel like you are part of the decision-making process whenever the choice affects you. (After all, that's exactly what I've been whining about in my work situation lately.) But I also know that sometimes decisions have to be made "without input from 30 different people." (Sigh, I seriously just quoted my boss. Don't you hate it when something happens to make you see the other side of the issue and then you find out you agree with the enemy?)

I guess you can figure out that I think the Officers and Raid Leaders should make the final decision about whether or not to switch things around in order to do the achievements. So I guess what I'm saying is we're the bosses. That doesn't diminish your own freedom, you are free to choose for yourselves whether or not to stay or leave, raid or not raid. But the decisions about what happens during a raid are the Officers' responsibility. And I'd appreciate you shutting up about it now.

Goldilocks?

I read quite a few WoW-related blogs. I don't always agree with every one of the authors, and I don't always care about everything they write, but overall I enjoy hearing from people about all aspects of the game. One of the best things about this is being reminded that there are other people out there wanting something entirely different out of the game than I do. Whether that is every mini-pet available or an AV that lasts 12 hours doesn't matter. What is important is that checking my Reader reinforces the fact that WoW is a game with wide appeal.

But is that wide appeal diluting the things I loved about the game?

My guild is ranked in the top ten on our server (or at least we were the last time I looked at a ranking page), but we aren't cutting edge progression either. We've killed Sartharion with one drake up (did I mention how ridiculously easy that was?) and plan to tackle him with more drakes alive this week. In my almost three years raiding with xeno, we have gone from being a bit behind the raiding curve to being right in the thick of progression guilds. Every step has been a challenge, and overcoming those challenges was part of the appeal of the game. I love the feeling you get when a group of people from all over the world work together to accomplish a goal.

Many of those blogs I mentioned have commented on Blizzard's apparent watering down of the raid content. Most hardcore raiders dislike the trend to make things easier. There have been rants about the changes in WoW reflecting the overall tendency in our culture to make things fair for everyone. There have been parodies comparing WoW raiding to a rollercoaster that can now only go 10 miles per hour. I can understand these authors' viewpoints, but I'm not sure I share them.

Don't get me wrong. I do think that the early raiding content in Wrath of the Lich King has been very easy compared to raid content in both vanilla WoW and the Burning Crusade. But I'm not convinced that this is the end of the game. Blizzard has promised that harder content is coming. And although I've jumped on the "hurry up already" bandwagon, I think that the easier early content will mean that my guild can be part of the cutting edge when it gets here. We're farming Naxx, Eye of Eternity and Obsidian Sanctum. We're gearing up our regular raiders and their subs. We're teaching new members how to raid with us. And we're learning how to work together as a team. All of these things will help us conquer the next wave of content.

Are the raids too easy right now? Possibly. Mama Bear's bowl of porridge was too cold for Goldilocks, too. I'm hoping that Ulduar and the raids that come after that will be just right. And that the early content will have taught us how to use our spoons.

Anatomy of a Healer: Peripherals

When I first picked up a copy of World of Warcraft (after much badgering by Marnas), I was under the mistaken belief that it would be like every other computer game I'd ever played. I'd played strategy games like Rise of Nations and role playing games like Prince of Persia. I'd even played Warcraft (the original) and Diablo. But the largest number of people I'd ever played those games with was four. I thought I'd load the game on my system and that would be it. I never dreamed that three years later I'd own a special keyboard, a gaming mouse, be constantly seeking a more comfortable (but affordable) headset for vent, and have upgraded not only the memory and graphics card in my computer, but also have purchased a new system--and even have upgraded that.

To start off my Anatomy of a Healer (because really we are a totally different animal than tanks or dps), I thought I'd start by discussing some Peripherals I use now.

Keyboard:
As I have become more and more focused on PvE endgame, I have sought ways to decrease my reaction time. Despite being a typing teacher's daughter and taking a full year of the course in high school (back when we actually used--gasp--typewriters), I fully admit that I have never really mastered the number keys. On a regular keyboard I can hit 1 to 6 fairly reliably. The rest are really beyond me. Especially when my right hand is on a mouse. So for a long time any spells or abilities bound to 7 through = could only be accessed by clicking them. This wasn't necessarily a problem back in 40 man raids when my priest mostly just needed 1 for renew and 2 for flash heal, but as I learned more spells (and went shadow) I needed to be able to hit more keys more quickly.

I currently use the Merc Stealth Gaming Keyboard from Ideazon. And I must say I love it. It combines a regular keyboard with a special keypad. The keypad is offset at a slight angle that has eliminated some minor wrist pain I was experiencing. The number keys are arranged in two rows making it possible for even me to hit all of them when needed. The software allows you to bind keys to any series of strokes you want, making it possible to press one button instead of a complicated series of keys. It takes a little getting used to, but the main drawback I have found is not being able to function on other people's keyboards. I kinda suck on the regular kind now.

Mouse:
I splurged about a year ago and purchased a Razer Diamondback Gaming Mouse. I spent some time looking over the options at a couple of computer stores before making my purchase. The main feature I wanted was a thumb button for my vent bind. I know a lot of other people get fancier with their buttons, but for the most part I'm old school with the mouse. I just wanted it to fit my hand (I have pretty small hands and a lot of the big gaming mice felt awkward to me) and have the thumb button. I appreciate the responsiveness of the Diamondback, and I haven't regretted buying it at all.

Headset:
A few members of my guild often gripe that the Officers don't read Raid Chat. Although I do try to read most of what scrolls through my chat screen, I don't always manage it. And I'm convinced a couple of the other Officers don't really even try. We're vent people, and we'd much rather explain a fight or discuss a problem on our Ventrilo server than try to type it all out. Because of this, I spend at least 11 hours a week wearing a headset. I think I have a permanent indentation on the top of my head where the band sits.

I'm not completely satisfied with the Logitech USB Headset I use, but the microphone doesn't usually make my guildies yell at me, and the sound quality is good. It isn't incredibly comfortable, but that is probably due to the fact that I don't wear it correctly. I run game sounds through my speakers and only use the headphones for vent, so I keep the left earpiece behind my left ear rather than on it. I'm on my second set of similar headphones; they seem to last pretty well even through my rough treatment. I tried using a bluetooth headset for a while, but evidently I sound much better through this headset, and I'm vain enough to not want to sound horrible.

Gaming Peripherals have become big business. Everytime I step foot into BestBuy or another computer store I am amazed at the number of new products taunting me from their shelves. Although I can't bring myself to spend $300 on a headset, I do think the makers of gaming accessories fill a niche in the marketplace. I spend enough time playing, researching, and thinking about WoW to justify making my experience in game comfortable--maybe not $300 comfortable, but even that isn't really absurd. I remember my dad having headphones for listening to his records that I wasn't allowed to touch...I think I once got a spanking just for looking at them. I guess spending big bucks to enjoy your hobby isn't anything new after all.

Balance.

We all need it. And we all struggle to find it. In our families. With our friends. At work. In our guilds.

Marnas retracted a post about our guild and the way raid spots are filled. A friendly, if somewhat bumbling, melee dpser caught me tonight with some complaints. Other friends and guild members have expressed (sometimes vehemently) their feelings about raid invites. Not surprisingly, these conversations generally happen when they are not confirmed for a raid.

Why do they talk to me? Well, for one I am an Officer, and my name often shows up on our website as the one confirming people who have expressed interest in attending the raid. Although I am the one clicking the confirm box, not all the decisions are mine alone. In fact, I am usually in communication with at least one other Officer, sometimes two or three, as I click. Why else do they talk to me? Probably because I let them. I let them blow off steam, and I listen to their concerns. There may not be anything I can do about it, but I try to listen anyway.

So what do we look for when confirming people to raids? Balance. But not just a balance of classes, or even a balance of roles. We also have to balance the conflicting desires of the people in the guild and the entire guild as a whole.

In the Burning Crusade, we made the conscious decision to focus on progression, which changed a lot of how we did things. Those changes have carried over into Wrath. In vanilla WoW we were a casual guild that raided. Confirmations were made on a first come-first serve basis. It usually worked out that the dedicated and talented players signed up first, so they were confirmed, but if you forgot to sign up for Molten Core early, you were likely to sit out, no matter how dedicated and talented you were. In Burning Crusade, we tried to make that same system work, but with fewer people allowed in the raids and the difficulty amped up in the early encounters, we quickly found that that did not work. Since then, our confirmations have been based on more elusive things than signup order. And of course, this doesn't always make our decisions popular.

Skill. Dedication. Preparation. Reliability. Availability. Loyalty. These are easy to type, but not always as easy to measure...especially in oneself. It's easy to say, "Soandso's been to two raids this week and it's not fair!" It's harder to acknowledge that Soandso has quicker reflexes than you do and only needs a fight to be explained once. It doesn't always seem fair, and I'll admit that often it isn't, that someone who is hateful and annoying gets to raid because they do more damage than someone who is nice. But when the focus is progression, sometimes the abrasive but skilled win out over the friendly, but bumbling.

In addition to the idealistic qualities listed above, the truth is a raid confirmation may also hinge on who you know. I know that sounds bad. But it doesn't make it less true. I'm not saying that the entire raid roster will be filled with people getting special treatment because they are related to or friends with an Officer. But if a decent player has the ear of an Officer, he or she is more likely to get into raids than a decent player who doesn't. Maybe these are truths that I'm not supposed to share. Maybe I'm breaking some oath of confidentiality by telling it like it is, but honestly, that is how the world works. I've gotten my last three job interviews based almost exclusively on the recommendation of someone I already knew working there. My qualifications got me the job (or the offer of a job) but the word of someone the employer already trusted got me the interview.

I know we sometimes trip and fall, but for the most part, my fellow Officers and I try to keep a balance between people and progress, guildies and friends, the guild's casual atmosphere and getting things done. We're walking a tightrope. And we're doing the best we can.

Momma Said Knock You Out at The Hundred Club

We cleared Naxx 10 again tonight, as did another 10 man group from our guild. I'm more proud of them than of us, though, because I think this was their first night to finish in one setting. They also seemed faster than us, although a late start contributed to that, it wasn't the only thing that went wrong. We just weren't as smooth as we usually are.

We did challenge ourselves to complete a couple of achievements, though none of them were for speed--too many oops pulls for that (including one where I stepped too close to a spider who thought I looked tasty...have I mentioned my hatred for all things arachnid?). We killed Grand Widow Faerlina without killing one of her adds near her to dispel the frenzy. It made tank healing a little more intensive, but wasn't too bad with a holy priest, resto shaman and resto druid. Then we killed Sapphiron without any frost resist. Usually, I drop a frost resist totem to give us at least 130, but tonight we went without (or at least beneath 100). We didn't one-shot it, but that was more unlucky blizzard placement than the additional damage. It made the fight more challenging from a healing standpoint, but it also made it more fun.

I guess I'm not against all dungeon or raid achievements anymore. But I also have the 4 piece set bonus and pretty awesome gear overall. Maybe my opinion hasn't changed. I've just got the gear to make them fun instead of painful.

Auld Lang Syne

Since my blog hasn't been around for a full year, I thought I'd treat the obligatory Year's End post as more of a guild round up. After all, if you've stuck around this long, you've probably already noticed I talk about them more than how to play a Shaman anyway.

January
We started off the year with a bang by clearing Serpentshrine Cavern. We killed Lady Vashj [Laeedee Vae-eh-sh] (I just can't convey the correct nasal pronunciation no matter how hard I try), on January 7th. Unfortunately, we were unable to kill her hair, which caused some concern due to the creepy factor. I also got to experience the awesomeness that is having your healer sitting next to you during a raid. Mase came to visit for my birthday and we enjoyed being nerdy together by playing WoW side by side. Before you judge, let me remind you that my town pretty much sucks, so it's not like we were missing the night life or anything.

February
By the end of January we were working our way through Tempest Keep, killing Alar and Solarian for the first time on January 24th. We spent February working on Kael'thas and avoiding those annoying goblin cupids. After all, we didn't want a stray arrow to make anyone fall in love with a Blood Elf (they hog the mirrors).

March
In like a lion, out like a...really ugly Naga? March brought the demise of Kael (and our eardrums as people whooped on vent), our entrance into the battle for Mount Hyjal and an assault on Black Temple. We killed Rage Winterchill and High Warlord Naj'entus shortly after kicking Kael's ass back to where he belonged--Magister's Terrace. We killed our first boss in Black Temple prior to patch 2.4 which did away with the attunement. Although several people missed the quest chain (something we have just now--we hope-- heard the last of), we were able to get enough attuned prior to the change to be able to say we earned it.

April
Supremus, Shade of Akama, Anetheron, Kaz'rogal, Azgalor, and Teron Gorefiend showered us with loot during the month of April. Fun times were had by all, except the few that really sucked at the Teron Gorefiend flash game.

May
Who needs flowers when you can save a tree? Archimonde hit the dirt in May saving the World Tree (and our sanity). Who knew keeping 25 people from face-planting into the ground and running through fire would be so hard? I'm pretty sure small children learn to avoid falling on their face or touching an open flame. Needless to say, we had a few issues and frustrations (we don't really excel at the GTFO fight mechanic), but eventually we did beat him. I personally like the fight, I'd just rather not bring 24 other people who missed the day of pre-school dedicated to fire safety.

June
We focused on Black Temple after learning to kill Archimonde (and not ourselves) and defeated the Reliquary of Souls and Mother Shahraz in June. I also decided to be a blogger. Pretty much the only post really worth anything is the one about the Second Kill Curse (although I'm probably reaching to say any of my posts are worth anything).

July
I got to go home for the Fourth of July and squeezed in a small get-together for some Texan guildies. We raided a decrepit bowling alley, but didn't get to keep the shoes. In actual WoW news, we downed Bloodboil (worst fight ever for me) and the Illidari Council. Pre-nerf, Bloodboil was a disaster for me on my Shadow Priest. It was incredibly annoying to be on the verge of pulling aggro the entire time even after waiting a significant amount of time to start attacking. I also stopped blogging.

August
In August we beat Black Temple. Illidan never dropped his Glaives for our rogues making them sad-pandas, but the fight was a fun one. It was nice to get to be at the top of the meters for once on my priest.

September
Over Labor Day weekend, a number of guildies traveled to Toronto for what has become our annual xeno Meet. More than 20 of us showed up from around the US and Canada for our third annual Meet. It was a great time in the Great White North, that suprisingly in September, wasn't all that white. We did see a statue of a moose wearing a Mounty uniform, so I guess that was a win.

October
I think we raided in October. And apparently we talked about Wrath of the Lich King, a lot. Not too sure what else happened. And I started blogging, for real this time. It was also All Hallow's Eve. Ooh, and zombies. How could I forget the zombies?

November
We stood in line (or in my case waited for ethical people even though there wasn't a line) to buy Wrath of the Lich King. And we missed our last Black Temple raid because of server failure caused by a mailbox revolution. Wrath of the Lich King rocked our socks, and we had our first level 80 within four days. Yay Silver!

December
We cleared Naxxramas 10 and 25, Obsidian Sanctum 10 and 25, and Eye of Eternity 10 and 25. We kinda beat WoW. Marnas agreed to help me with the blog, and between us we managed to write enough to average a post a day. Not too bad for two WoW chicks with responsibilities.

Thanks for sticking around so far. I'd promise to bring you more awe inspiring posts in 2009, but we all know what I will actually do is share my thoughts and turn my frustrations into blog-fodder.

Happy New Year!

Huh? He gave up?

Tonight I experienced one of those moments that make the game worthwhile. It wasn't clearing Naxx - 10 in 2.5 hours. It wasn't winning epic loot. It was a much simpler moment than that. It was picking a flower in Sholazar Basin...and living through it.

I play on a PvP server. I'm not here to cry about the ganking or anything, but to revel in one moment where I managed to get the better of the other player--because, as my friends would gladly tell you, I suck at PvP.
I was farming flowers in Sholazar tonight and I managed to pick a flower that a level 80 Tauren Druid was eyeing. To express his displeasure, he shifted out of flight form and proceeded to attack me in Moonkin form, even going so far as to release his trio of Treants (herd? gaggle? army?) on me. And all I did was heal. I threw on Earth Shield, hit myself with Riptide, cast a few Lesser Healing Waves (glyphed of course), and at one point popped a Nature's Swiftness/Tidal Force Healing Wave. To be fair, I did hit him with one Flame Shock, but not until he had finished fighting some mobs that had spawned behind him. I was getting close to running out of mana by the time he gave up. But the point is that he gave up. He bowed and clapped for me and allowed me to go on my way.

Maybe the Spirit of Christmas isn't totally dead after all. I hope Greatfather Winter brings him more spellpower this year.

Trust Me?

“He who does not trust enough, will not be trusted.” Lao Tzu

Tonight we finished off Heroic Naxxramas, killing Kel'thuzad for the first time as a guild. Afterward, we headed to Heroic Eye of Eternity. It was my first time facing Malygos in a 25 man raid, and although we did not walk away victorious, it was a fun time and should set us up to kill him soon.

We ran with seven healers tonight, which is fairly standard for our guild. There were three Priests, two Holy and one Discipline; two Resto Druids; and two Resto Shamans. We managed phase one pretty well once we had figured out the positioning when returning to the platform after a vortex. Phase two was a little tricky for the tanks to reliably pick up all the Lords so they didn't kill DPS, but we'll get it next time. But our learning curve isn't what this post is about.

This post is about trust. (See the clever way I named it. Tricky I am.) Specifically trust among healers.

As I have stated before, I do not think that any one healing class is better than the others--at least not in all situations. I believe there is a synergy inherent in Blizzard's design of the classes and their respective skills that makes us strongest when we work together. I guess since I have leveled all four classes that have healing buttons (even though I've only raid healed as a Priest, Druid, and Shaman) I've always thought this concept was obvious.

I was wrong.

When WotLK came out we had several people change mains--including me. A few other people switched specs. A couple of these switches brought people who had never really raid healed before (and here I'm talking more than 10 mans with two-three healers) into our healing corps. One of those individuals was in the raid tonight. Before WotLK he had always played DPS classes, and he played those classes very well. In the expansion he chose to level his Holy Priest.

Tonight after one of the attempts on Malygos, he said in vent "I go OOM so fast in this fight." This comment prompted our raid leader, a Resto Druid, to ask what he was doing to run out of mana that fast--he was completely tapped before Phase 2 every attempt. His response was that he was hitting Circle of Healing constantly since the raid was taking so much damage. When we explored this further, we found that he was spamming CoH during the vortex and after a blast. I explained that Chain Heal is not an instant spell, but will help to top up the raid within a few seconds, and that with two Resto Shamans he needed to trust us to heal after a blast. His somewhat joking response was that there is only one healer he trusts...himself.

I blame his DPS background for this mentality. When you play a Warlock, your only job during most fights is to do damage, and to do the most damage you possibly can. You are not part of a "DPS Team." Most of the time you do not have to think about who else is also damaging that mob, you just have to hit the boss as often and as hard as you can with your spells (while also making sure to GTFO of any bad things).

Healing is a whole different ballgame, and I guess it takes longer to acquire the proper mentality. Healing is not about topping the meters. It isn't about healing harder, it's about healing smarter. And to be a smart healer, you have to be aware of a lot of different things: the mechanics of the fight, so you know who will be taking damage and when; the strengths and weaknesses of your raid members (like knowing which squishy mage is likely to forget to GTFO of the AoE and will need extra healing); and how your healing style meshes with the rest of the healers. The last requires trust. You have to trust that your healing corps isn't watching The Family Guy and not paying attention. You have to trust that your healers will manage their mana so that they can last to the end of the fight. You have to trust that they will follow the tank who has gone out of your range and keep him alive. You have to trust each other to know which spells to use to maximize the synergy. Without this trust, you turn into a one-man army that runs out of mana within the first 2 minutes of a 10 minute fight.

This individual was close to the top of the healing meters for the night, but, to me, this means nothing. The raid leader actually told him to stop worrying about the meters and to trust the rest of us. I don't know that it sunk in, but it's good advice for all of us. If topping the healing meters is all you care about, I can't trust you to heal smart. And if you aren't healing smart, why are you in my raid? Like the Chinese guy said, trust me or I can't trust you.

Zero-Sum with a Twist

I follow one of the premier WoW Healer blogs, World of Matticus (I think all healers should take a gander at his site frequently; it's not just about priests anymore). Lately Matt and Syd have been chatting about Loot Council and how it works in their newly formed guild. This got me thinking about my guild's loot distribution system and made me want to analyze what works and what doesn't with our Zero Sum DKP system.

Guild Background

My guild has been around since before WoW launched. The founders came from a first-person shooter background and have been clan/guild members since the 1990s. I lucked into the guild just about the time they started seriously running Molten Core in vanilla WoW. At the time they needed extra bodies to fill the 40 man raids, so they made an alliance with another guild. I was a noob Priest in the other guild, and I raided both Molten Core and Zul'Gurub with xeno before I actually defected and joined them. A few months later I became an Officer, and I've never really looked back.

We've had the same basic loot distribution policy since Zul'Gurub, although we have tweaked it as we've experienced new issues. We started out as a close-knit group of friends, and even though we have grown considerably with time, the core values haven't changed that much.

We strive:

1. To be as fair and open with loot decisions as possible.
2. To avoid even the appearance of bias.
3. To reward the faithful without punishing the new.

Raid Points (RP): Origins

First of all, we use the term "RP" rather than "DKP" when discussing the intangible currency used to purchase all items that drop during a 25 man raid with our guild. Our RP is tracked on our website and recorded either during or after each raid, depending on who is running the auctions that night.

We have drawn from several different distribution systems to create our unique model. Zero-Sum DKP, Open Bidding, Escrow and Efficiency Rewards are all combined in our system.

Zero-Sum DKP + Bidding

WoWWiki states that "Zero-sum DKP means that DKP is distributed based on the value of items that drop. All members in a zero-sum DKP start with a score of 0. When an item is given to a raid member, they have to pay for it in DKP (going negative if necessary). These DKP spent are immediately distributed among all the raid members. Thus the amount of DKP, i.e. the sum of all members in the system, is always zero."

"Although 'zero-sum' describes only a method of earning DKP, and it would in theory be perfectly possible to combine this income method with bidding for finding the item prices, nearly no raids actually do that."

Except us. We do that. We have a modified zero-sum RP system (there are 1000 points per person in our system) but do not have fixed prices for items. Instead, we have a minimum bid amount of 100 and all subsequent bids must be increases of 50.

The points spent during the auction are distributed to the members of the raid present at the time of the kill, including the person who purchased the item. So if I spend 250 RP for an item, each person in the raid receives approximately 10 points, and my RP balance is decreased by about 240. (The lack of certainty is because of a small tax placed on all bids in an effort to reduce inflation in our system.)

Escrow, or Balancing New and Old

One of our concerns was creating a system that both protected us from guild-hopping leeches and allowed us to minimize the DKP gap between long-term guild members and quality new-comers. Our solution was to give everyone--recruits and members--1000 points to spend, but recruits points are locked in "escrow" for a period of time. Members unlock these points by attending raids where they also earn RP from purchases made by others and efficiency rewards. It takes a new raider 20 raids (usually 3-4 weeks) to fully unlock his 1000 points. But he is able to bid as soon as he has earned 100 points to cover the minimum bid. This system helps to protect us from people who only join to get geared up quickly, but also gives new people who intend to stay the opportunity to bid on more popular items after a few weeks.

Efficiency Rewards

Over time, we have searched for additional ways to encourage and motivate our raiders to be efficient. The most effective way (short of making them cookies) has been to award bonuses for being on-time and staying throughout the raid. This is where the majority of our inflation comes from, but we made the decision to depart from the true zero-sum approach in order to help our progression.

Currently we award bonus points to:

1. Individuals who are in the zone 10 minutes before we start.
2. Everyone, if all raiders are zoned in and ready to pull at raid time (this one rarely happens).
3. Individuals who remain until the end of the raid.
   
4. Everyone who is present the first time we kill a boss.
5. Everyone who remains for three or more attempts on a new boss we have never killed before.

These were added to increase efficiency by having people show up early and stay late, as well as to reward those who push through all the wipes while we learn an encounter. We wanted to show our appreciation to those who are willing to suffer with us rather than wait for us to have everything on farm status before signing up for raids.

Musings

I know I'm biased since this is the only system I've ever used, but I like our system and think that over the years we have adjusted the original idea to suit our needs. Our open auctions do not allow us to handpick the recipient of gear, but they do make all loot decisions transparent to our members. It also places the responsibility on each raid member to know which drops are upgrades. Each of us is responsible for choosing our own gear and the method that we obtain it. We can bid the minimum or continue to bid as the price skyrockets, the choice is ours.

I'm convinced that there will always be the occasional "grr" moment in any loot distribution system, but we have made the choice to allow our members control over their own gear destiny (within the limitations of our loot rules, but that's another post) and that works for me.

Best Guild Application Ever...

As an officer in a raiding guild, I get to see many interesting approaches to our application form. Recently we had one with so little information that an officer asked, "Could he have put LESS information?" Here is another application that answers that question with a resounding "Yes."

Email: **********@yahoo.com [e-mail actually seemed normal enough]
Main char [name, class and level]: 80 [Seriously, I didn't delete anything.]
Current talent spec: RET [Ohhh, a Paladin. Why didn't you say so?]
Alts: *********/ROGUE LVL 70 *******/WARRIOR LVL 70
Armor level [e.g. T4/5/6, S1/2/3. Provide armory link if appropriate]: [I know we need to update our examples, but I guess he didn't think even the armory link was appropriate.]
Primary weapon(s): BLUE [I prefer pink weapons myself. It's nice to maintain a sense of femininity while slicing and dicing.]
List nights you are available to raid from 7pm-11pm server time: 10PM WEEKEND ANYTIME [So does that mean he can start at 10 pm or he has to end at 10 pm? My gut is saying his mom turns out the lights at 10:01.]
How often are you expecting or hoping to raid?:ANY TIME IF NEEDED [As long as it's before 10 pm.]
Current/previous guilds and reason(s) for leaving: THEY SUX NO RAID [Must be a server transfer because I'm not familiar with the guild "They Sux."]
Professions: ENCHANTER /SKINNER
Do you have speakers and microphone?: YES
How did you hear about xeno? [friend, recruitment channel?]: FROM MY FRIEND *****1,********2 [1 is a decent Holy Paladin in our guild. 2 is the Shaman we gkicked.]
Who do you know in xeno, and how?: *****1 ,********2 [Guess he didn't get the memo about 2's removal from our guild.]

Tell us a bit about yourself, and why you're interested in joining = WANNA BE PART OF THE TEAM ,HAVE FUN ENJOY FRIENDLY AND KILL THE HORDES AT ALL TIME LOL [I don't even know where to start...]

Heroic Achievement? I'll Pass

Marnas and I ran a couple of heroics tonight with some guildies. We had a good time although things didn't always go smoothly.

I have decided that until I am completely decked out in at least 25 man Naxx gear, I am not letting someone talk me into attempting a boss on heroic in a specific way "for the achievement." I will cheer if I am pleasantly surprised by an achievement sneaking up on me, but I will not seek it out. I am not an achievement hater, and when I have time (read vacation) I will gladly go explore all the nooks and crannies of the old lands. I think it is cool that each heroic dungeon has more challenging ways it can be completed, and getting an achievement for being able to pull it off is something I support. However, every time someone convinces me to do something the hard way "for the achievement" we die--over and over. I don't get upset when we wipe, and I prefer having a good time to everything going perfectly. But I now have higher repair costs due to wearing mail armor instead of cloth, and even with the influx of gold, it hurts me to pay 50g in repairs for a heroic run. So, for now at least, please don't ask me to hold my mouth this way and jump up and down on one foot while hitting my healing buttons just because it's an achievement. You won't like my answer.

Roadblock

Tonight we hit our first obstacle to guild progression. Patchwerk in Heroic Naxxramas is a gear check, and one we didn't pass. I think we were close to downing him, and if we weren't dealing with warlock soulshard issues, cranky raiders, and weather-induced internet crashes, I think we would have succeeded. But since we did have those issues, we didn't quite manage to walk away victorious. However, I'm proud of us. Our casual approach to semi-hardcore raiding allowed us to take 25 fairly new 80s into Heroic Naxx over three raiding days and down 9 bosses. We blew through the Arachnid, Plague and Military Quarters wearing mostly blues, and we did so while having fun.

We haven't finished putting together our steady group of raiders that we call the Progression Group, but we will soon. We're using these early weeks of raids to give both new and old members a chance to prove themselves to us, and, for the most part, they are doing well. We have a few that may not make it to a regular raiding spot due to scheduling issues, connection problems, or attitude, but most have shown promise. I can't wait to get back into Naxx on Wednesday, but I plan to use tomorrow night to heal a few heroics and pick up some more pieces so that my gear will help us succeed the next time we face Stiches's big brother.

Healing (Normal) Naxxramas--Some Tips for Shamans

While waiting for enough guild members to hit level 80 for Heroic Naxx, a group of us ventured into the 10 man version. Here are my musings on the first two quarters.

Arachnid Quarter
First of all, why did it have to be spiders? Ask anyone that knows me--spiders freak me out. I jump a foot when even the tiniest spider gets near me. And I play a computer game that throws them at me every time it gets the chance. Don't ask me why.

Anub'Rekhan
Phase One: Heal the tank and people who get impaled. To avoid getting more than one person impaled at a time, don't stack up in a straight line.

Phase Two: Don't forget to heal the tank who is running around in a circle, especially during the transition. I would toss Riptide on him to help out the priest assigned to him. Keep everyone else alive.

Bottom Line: I don't remember too much about this fight from my first foray into it, except the awesomeness of seeing a giant beetle-like spider chasing a tiny gnome with a green mohawk. Be careful during transitions, and don't get too close to the tank running around in a circle. The de-buff silences you and with only 2-3 healers that is bad news.

Grand Widow Faerlina
Bottom Line: This is a fairly straightforward fight in normal mode. The adds are off-tanked and killed one by one to avoid the huge damage spikes caused by frenzy. Keep the tanks alive and chain heal the raid if needed. Stay out of the rain of fire. Might want to use a poison curing totem to help ease the strain during poison bolt volley, and keep a chain heal going on the melee.

Maexxna
Bottom Line: There is a lot of damage flying around during this fight, and you will be flying some yourself. Stay positioned near the wall to the left of the entrance so that when you get Web Wrapped you fly into the wall and not away from the raid. Help keep the poison off people, especially the tank since it reduces healing. Heal. Heal. Heal.

Plague Quarter

Noth the Plague Bringer
Phase One: Decurse players affected by Curse of the Plaguebringer so they don't damage themselves and others. Keep the tanks up during the berzerker enrage. Watch out for blink.

Phase Two: Heal the tanks on the skeletons.

Bottom Line: A slightly chaotic fight, but it isn't that bad. Just keep heals on the raid and the tanks and decurse.

Heigan the Unclean
Phase One: Chain heal. Chain heal. Chain heal. The melee will be running across the room in an organized fashion to avoid the lava spurts and taking damage from the boss's aura the entire time. This is a fight where chain heal spam shines. Just stand on the stage, keep a chain heal going on the melee, and don't get in the aura because it hurts and slows your cast times down by a ridiculous amount--300%. Don't worry too much about mana, you'll have a chance to regen a lot during Phase Two.

Phase Two: Your turn to run. Now, everyone runs across the room in an organized fashion to avoid lava spurts, since, during this phase, the guy who needs a bath takes up residence on the stage. Stay with the group, but you alone are responsible for making sure you stop in the correct spots. You'll need to watch a video or look at positioning maps to get a feel for it, but even then you probably won't "get it" until you've seen the fight a few times and learned the timing of the spurts.

While you're running, top up the raid using Riptide and only Riptide. You do not want to take time to cast anything else. Instant heals are the only option during the lava dance. Make sure a mana spring totem is down to help you gain back the mana you blew through in Phase One.

Bottom Line: This is a very fun fight for Shaman healers. But if it is your first time to see it, expect to wipe at least once. The dance isn't difficult to master, but you probably won't get it until you see it for yourself at least one time. Be careful to avoid getting too close to Heigan during transitions so that you don't pick up the debuff. And cleanse anyone who still has the disease going into Phase Two or they'll probably die while running.

Loatheb
Bottom Line: This fight is all about timing your heals to land at exactly the right time. It isn't too difficult, and the damage isn't too much to keep up with, but you have to pay attention to the debuff at all times. Every 20 seconds the boss casts an aura that makes healing effects useless on everyone in the raid. It lasts for 17 seconds. Meaning you have 3 seconds to heal before the aura is cast again. You need to queue up a chain heal to land just as the debuff fades. The follow it up with either a riptide on a very low player or another chain heal if you are fast. You will probably have time to dps the boss between heals, but remember that timing the heals is more important than casting a lava burst.

The Great Mailbox Mutiny of 2008

The servers have been down all day, and as one of the government employees off work today, it has been slightly frustrating waiting to see when they will have the problems fixed. The word is that a glitch in the mail system caused the extended maintenance. I guess all the dancing hi-jinks finally overtaxed them to the point that they refused to give up the goods.

I didn't really have that much planned for today other than doing a few dailies for gold, so I'm not as upset as many of my guildies. I know a few people who were counting on the extra time for last minute leveling. One guildy wanted to work on his shaman that he is trying to get to 70 before Thursday, and another was planning to get his mage to 55. Our guild had also scheduled our last BT clear for 7:30 server time. We've never seen the glaives drop, so we were hoping tonight would be the night. Since it is now 9:45 server time with no end to the server lock out in sight, it looks like the legendary loot will continue to elude us.

Oh well, maybe we'll get the first orange weapons in WotLK.

Prepare for Battle!

First, he planted suspicious crates around Azeroth, knowing full well that we are a curious bunch. (Why else would we agree to ANYTHING the Explorers League asks us to do, if not because of our endless inquisitiveness? We want to see what will happen next, or at least whether or not we'll survive it.) When this curiosity got the better of us and we opened the crates, we found the Lich King had not sent us kittens but instead had infected us with a plague that turned brother against brother, guild member against guild member (sorry again, D, I didn't realize that was your baby alt until I'd already taken a bite), and made us desire nothing more than to create as much mayhem as possible.

Second, he invaded us with his necropolises and made traveling through such zones as the Burning Steppes, Blasted Lands, and Azshara (who am I kidding, no one travels Azshara) hazardous to our health. His Necrotic Crystals were surrounded by shades intent on killing us and withholding the runes we needed for epic loot.

You would hope that would be enough--after all most of us were a little grossed out when we came to our senses after eating brains--and that he'd be satisfied with making our major cities zombie playgrounds and parking his ugly flying pyramids outside our capitals. But no. He had to send his minions after our leaders.




Tonight, the so called Lich King went too far. He launched an all-out attack on our home land and endangered the lives of King Varian Wrynn, Bolvar Fordragon, and the people of Stormwind. Though many came to aid the King in defending Stormwind, I fear it is not enough. It's time that we do more than fall victim to the Lich King's plans. We must take up arms against this menace. We must carry the battle to Northrend and deal with the traitor-prince once and for all!

A Picture's Worth...

I realized that I've never actually posted any screenshots of my shaman (or any other character) in action. I didn't do too much with her today, instead spending some quality time on my hunter taming a new pet and farming the argent dawn shards. I did get invited to heal a Heroic Magisters' Terrace run where I picked up the sexy robe I'm sporting in the screenshot above as well as a nice chestpiece for leveling enhancement. I just couldn't bring myself to spend the respec fee twice in one day. I'll put her back to dps mode later in the week.

The interface set up I show above has taken some time to perfect, and I'm sure I'll keep tweaking, but it seems to really serve me well.

Addons I don't like to live without include:

• Pitbull
• Dominos
• Autobar
  
• Recount
• Omen
• Totem Timers
• Class Timers
• EEPanels2
• Simple Minimap
• ArcHUD
• MikScrollingBattleText
• ClosetGnome
• ORA2
• BigWigs
• Bagnon