Goals and Priorities

For the last month or so my buddy Rashtag over at Need More Rage has been slowly chipping away at his list of Goals and Priorities.  I’m jealous…  I have several things I want to accomplish, but they just seem to be nothing more than idle desires at the back of my mind while I’m keeping my dearest companion (read tank) alive in Kara.  So, in order to force my self to be productive, I’m going to post my goals for Galadria and update you all on my progress (thrilling… I know).  In no particular order:

1. Get exalted with the Aldors – I want that enchant and that spellthread!!!!!!!!!
2. Get the recipe for Ironshield Potion, Captian Skarloc dropps it in Heroic Old Hills.
3. While I’m at it, get exalted with Keepers of Time – a couple of guildies want Flask of Supreme Power.
4. Get exalted with Cenarion Expedition – for Flask of Distilled Wisdom, again a couple of guildies want that one.
5. Buy my Epic Flying Mount – I’ve already got the rep with Shatari Skyguard to get the Nether Ray, just need about 3500g more… that’ll take no time at all!
6. Get the recipe for Whitemend Pants – just because it chapps my hide that I don’t have it.

There we have it people!  Galadria’s Goals and Priorities!  I’ll keep you up to date on my progress.

Just for fun:

“But wouldn’t it be great if number one this Christmas wasn’t some smug teenager but an old ex-heroin addict searching for a comeback at any price? All those young popsters come Christmas Day, they’ll be stretched out naked with a cute bird balancing on their balls and I’ll be stuck in some dingy flat with me manager, Joe, ugliest man in the world, fucking miserable because our fucking gamble didn’t pay off. So if you believe in Father Christmas, children, like your Uncle Billy does, buy my festering turd of a record. And particularly enjoy the incredible crassness of the moment when we try to squeeze an extra syllable into the fourth line.”

This is one of my favorite movies, and true to Hollywood, the old ex-heroin addict tops the charts and sings naked on TV (if that doesn’t give it away, I don’t know what will)

Comming Soon, to a Blog Near You!

Hopefully work will slow down soon (I’m really hoping here because the outlook doesn’t look good) so that I can get back to some regular posting.  In an effort to do some kind of a tease here’s what I’ve got in the works.  I’m not going to promise to post within a specified amount of time like I did a few weeks ago, but I’ll get them up soon!

1. Sidone has hit 30, I have a new Leveling Your Priest post to write (this one I probably will do over the weekend) I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot to say, but since it’s a decade level, there were lots of new spells (and thank God for Patch 2.3, the leveling has been a breeze!) (Done)
2. Spell Review on the New and Improved Starshards!  I LOVE this spell.
3. I’m thinking about doing a review on Chastise but I don’t have a whole lot to say about it, espcially since Sidone is only 30, but I’m going to write up a draft and see if I like it.
4. My first attempt at a little bit of theorycrafting.  A friend sent me a post written for Shammy’s recently and I’m going to see if the same holds for Priests (and no, I’m not going to tell you anything about the post so no one steals my thunder before I can wrap my little brain around the math!) (Done)
5. I’d also like to set some Goals and Priorities like Rashtag did.  He has been plugging along and checking things off of his list and I must confess that I’m jealous!(Done)

On another note, Nightbane went down last night for the first time!!!  We expect Netherspite to follow suit tonight.  The leadership team (mostly our Raid Master) has made a big push to get a full clear of Kara so we can start looking to Gruul.  We’re  hoping to go try High King sometime before Christmas.  Along these lines I have a question for all of you Priests out there on teh intarweb.  During the air phase last night (on all 3 attempts) I got targeted by Nightbane for his ginormous DOT and died with in seconds every time.  I’d start the phase with a Shield up but even with that I didn’t have enough time to get a Flash Heal off to try and keep my self alive, no one else had time to heal me either.  If I remember correctly, I’m just over 9k HP raid buffed so I don’t think there’s a whole lot I can do there.  The other Priest said he did a Frisbee instead of a Shield because the Shield gives you too much aggro… it seems to me that a Frisbee has the same issues.  Anyone have any thoughts?  How do you Priests out there deal with the debuff?  Does Fade work?  Does Spell Warding make a difference?  Am I just really slow?  I’m at quite a loss as to what I can do differently.

Anywhoo, Happy Friday everyone!

Leveling Your Priest: Sidone at 25

Sidone is FINALLY at 25, so here goes!

Talents – (0/0/16)

The first 11 are the same as last time, but for a recap:

• 5/5 Spirit Tap
• 5/5 Shadow Focus
• 1/1 Mind Flay
• 2/2 Imp SW:P
• 2/5 Imp Mind Blast
• 1/2 Shadow Reach

I am now seeing mobs die before SW:P times out, I think this is largely because I’m fighting 1 and 2 over level mobs, but whatever the cause, I filled in Imp SW:P. Next I took 2/5 in Imp Mind Blast, and 1/2 in Shadow Reach for the increased range.

Spell Rotation

I have 3 spell rotations that I’m currently using. The first is for killing mobs that I don’t have the room to fear, the second is for killing 2 mobs at the same time while fearing them, and the third is for killing overlevel mobs espcially ones that hit hard.

Normal Spell Rotation (fear is not available/possible):

1. Pull with Mind Blast
2. SW:P
3. Shield
4. Mind Flay x2 (x1 if substantially under level)
5. Wand until death

With this rotation I get enough mana regen that I don’t have to stop and drink very often.

Fear Juggling (if you are a regular reader, you’ll have seen this allready but I’m posting this here again anyway and I now know for sure that this will need to change at later levels, but that’s another post!):

1. Pull mob A with MB and SW:P
2. Shield
3. Pul Mob B with SW:P
4. When it’s in range, fear both
5. MF Mob A until dead (I can usually get 2 MF’s off before the fear wears off and if it’s not dead a 3rd will kill it before it gets back)
6. Kill Mob B however you like, it should be at about 1/2 health (if I’m trying to conserve mana, I’ll do SW:P and wand, if not MB then Smite will do the job)

Overlevel mobs, the most recent ones that I had a hard time with were the raptors in the archaelogical dig site in the Wetlands. They were 2-3 levels over me and hit hard for that level.

1. For this I pull out Holy Fire, it does a good amount of damage and adds another DOT that helps taking down the tough mobs
2. Shield SW:P
3. Mind Blast
4. Fear if possible
5. Mind Flay x 2 (and a 3rd if the shield is still up)
6. Mind Blast

The last Mind Blast usually kills off the mob, if not I’ll throw a Smite. For this rotation I like to kill with a spell instead of wanding. I’m not really concerned with mana efficency, this is for guys that hit hard, have a relativley large amount of health and therefore need to die quickly.

Where I Played

I started out by trying the Absent Minded Prospector quest in Darkshore… I was not able to solo it and after SEVERAL tries gave up. Then I tried the escort quest from Grove of the Ancients to Myathstra’s Post in Ashenvale and a stupid Tauren kept killing my NPC…. gave up again. I think you can understand I was a bit discouraged at this point. I moved on and did some more questing in Ashenvale, moved on to Stonetalon Point for Pridewing venom sacs and killed some Venture Co. peons. Then back to Ashenvale to work on getting Dartol’s Rod of Transformation (haven’t finished that one yet) and on to the Wetlands. Killed some murlocs, young crocolisks, raptors, and currently collecting war banners.

Professions

I’ve picked up Fishing and Cooking, I’m going to pass on First Aid for now. I’m probably going to want it later on since I’ll be Shadow but it’ll be really easy to power level later and I want the cloth for leveling Tailoring. A great way to level fishing is to do the fishing quests in Darkshore. On a side note, I got Galadria’s fishing up to 298 last night before I had to go do Arena (that’s another story for another post).

Gear

I’m slowly replacing the greens that I picked up from Azuremist and Bloodmist with Tailoring greens. I’m still not finding much in the way of quest rewards that is better, but the tailoring peices are nice. Although I picked up my first pair of shoulders last night!

SuperCoolPoints

This one is easy… but it’s one of my favorite movies (my husband proposed while we were watching this one!)

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

HealPriest Raiding Guide

The guide that I wrote for our guild website is finally complete!! It’s over there on the side bar under the “Pages” section. This guide was written with the new 70 in mind before entering Kara. Maybe I’ll get Sidone to 25 soon and can write that one 🙂

HealPriest Raiding Guide

I’m almost done with the Guide that I’ve been working on for our guild webpage and I’ll have that up here soon.  I’m going to list my gear recomendations, I’d like some feedback.  I mostly used Kaliban’s Loot Guide and my memory for this and I want to make sure there aren’t any other good options that I’m missing.  There will be no links here, you’ll have to WoWHead the items yourself, but when I post the guide in it’s entirety there will be links. 

Thanks for your input!

The Primal Mooncloth and Whitemend sets are HIGHLY recommended for Priests. I wrote an article in my blog about why, but here’s the short version. The Tailoring gear is comparable to Tier 4 stuff. The +Heal on Tier 4 is about 60 less than the Tailoring, but the other stats are higher. Tailoring is also available at 70 (assuming your Tailoring is high enough, PMC is BoP) and you have to get all the way through Magtheridon to get all of Tier 4.Here are some specific gear recomendations for each slot before entering Kara. These are by no means the only options and I’ve tried to include items from various sources (quests, instances, badge rewards, and heroic instances)

• Head – I definatley recommend Whitemend Hood, it is BOE crafted by Tailors; the mats are expensive but well worth the effort. Other than that my best recomendation would be Watchers Cowl which you can get from Cenarion Expedition at Revered
• Neck – The best option in my opinion is Necklace of Eternal Hope, available as a badge reward. Some other options are Necklace of Resplendent Hope and Natasha’s Guardian Cord
• Shoulders – If you are a Tailor Primal Mooncloth Shoulders are the best. If not, Hallowed Pauldrons and Pauldrons of Sufferance are other choices.
• Back – Apexis Cloak is one of the best options, available at Revered with Ogril’la. Other options are Cloak of Scintillating Auras, Light-Touched Stole of Altruism, and Cloak of the Everliving
• Chest – Again Primal Mooncloth Robe is your best option with Tailoring. Others are Hallowed Garmets, Raimaments of Divine Authority, and Anchorites Robes.
• Wrist – As with most casters, items for this slot are few and far between. The best option if you have the time for the rep grind is Bindings of the Timewalker, available at Exalted with Keepers of Time. Goldenvine Wraps or Shattrath Wraps are both Quest rewards.
• Hands – Hallowed Handwraps or Prismatic Mittens of Mending are both good options until you get T4
• Waist – Primal Mooncloth Belt is your best bet. Otherwise Cord of Sanctification or Cord of Belief.
• Legs – Whitemend Pants are BOE and the best option (again, expensive though). Pontifex Kilt is an excellent alternative, Hallowed Trousers, and Pontiff’s Pantaloons of Prophecy are also options.
• Feet – I highly recommend Boots of the Pious from the Calculator in Heroic Mechanar.  If you don’t want to do Heroics, the go with Jeweled Boots of Sanctification from Shattered Halls
• Rings – Any two of the following options are good choices Band of Halos, Keeper’s Ring of Piety, Cosmic Lifeband, Band of the Crystalline Void, Ring of Fabled Hope, and Ring of Convalescence.
• Trinket – This is a slot where I like to itemize for mana regen. The best options for that are Talasite Owl if you are a Jewelcrafter, Bangle of Endless Blessings, and Lower City Prayerbook. Scarab of the Infinite Cycle is also a good choice (I find it procs very often and the Spell Haste is nice). Also Essence of the Martyr is a good choice from Badges
• Weapons – In general terms, Staff’s will give better Sta and Int, while Mace/Off Hand will give better +Healing. Decide which is more important for you and choose accordingly.
  • Staff options: Serpentcrest Life-Staff and Epoch-Mender.
  • Mace options: Shockwave Truncheon from Heroic Sethekk Halls, Hand of Eternity crafted by Blacksmiths, or Gavel of Pure Light available at Exalted with Shatar are all comparable and will give you the most +Heal. They are all also relativley dificult to obtain. Other options are Hammer of the Penitent or Lightsworn Hammer.
  • Off-Hand Options: Tears of Heaven, Lamp of Peaceful Repose, and Swamplight Lantern

2nd Kara Group

We have been doing some HEAVY recruiting latley (actually our recruiting hasn’t changed much, we’ve just been very sucessful latley).  We are up to 25 lvl 70’s and I think all but 2 or 3 are keyed for Kara.  We are looking at starting a 2nd Kara group.  How do you go about deciding who goes in each group.  Because of the raid id issue, players are not interchangeable once they have been saved.  As I see it there are 2 basic options

1. Group 1 gets all the best geared and most skilled players to maximize progression
2. Best geared and most skilled players are split between the 2 groups so both have a good chance to progress.

Obviously there are ups and downs for both.  In the first option you are most likley dooming the second group to large repair bills and lots of frustration.  However, this may be the best option if your guild has a lot of players that can’t commit to a set weekly raid schedule.  The second group is cobbled together with whoever can make it that day and give it the old college try.  You also have the problem with people who feel slighted at being put in the second group.  With the second option both groups may have trouble with content that the better geared group from the first option would have had little dificulty with.  This may be a good option for a guild with a large base of players that can commit to regular raiding.  Both groups would progress at the same rate and be ready for 25-man content at about the same time.

Our original intention was to go with the second option when we were ready to start a 2nd group.  However, we have enough people for the second group before we anticipated.  I think our issue is that we don’t have enough expirenced raiders that have some gear from the second half of Kara to split them up.  We still have some trouble in the first half if (and i hate to put it this way, but it accuratley describes our situation) we have too much dead weight.  In last weeks Kara runs we had several undergeared, new players and it was really messy.  Lots of wipes and bosses that barely went down.  When we’ve got better groups it goes quicker, smoother, and cheaper.

I don’t really have a conclusion here other than to say that you’ll have to figure out what to do with the players your guild has available.  We still haven’t decided what to do with the second group (and actually we’d like to wait until we have 30 keyed players to ensure that both groups have enough players every week).  This is a really hard thing to decide and it seems to me that the guild leadership has to pick what will be the lesser of 2 evils for their situation.

A non-WoW weekend

I know I promised many things last week… but I didn’t do anything WoW related this weekend except my dailies in Skettis and Ogril’la. 

We did get a look at Nightbane on Friday night.  The group configuration was… less than optimal so we went in there just for the purpose of seeing the fight.  We got to see a ground phase and an air phase and see him land again before wiping so we know what to expect when we get in there with an optimal group.

Sidone is at 22… let me just say I dislike Ashenvale… can’t wait to move on.  I’ve got my fear juggling tactics down for single mobs, but at the moment I’m fighting mostly 2+ so taking on 2 mobs doesn’t work well, I’m still ironong out the kinks on that one.

As for the rest of the stuff… I just wasn’t at home.  Saturday my girlfirends treated me to a day at the spa.  I got a facial and a massage.  Then we watched the University of Texas game and grilled out.  Then we went to see American Gangster.  I got home around 12 and went straight to bed.  Sunday morning we walked in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure (5K).  21,000 people and raised 1.5 million dollars.  Good cause!!!  I didn’t get home from that until around 3 and I was just too tired to do much of anything.

That was my jam-packed weekend (I need a vacation now).  I do have a post in mind for today or tomorow that is not on the list from last week so I’ll try and get that up soon.

Happy Monday!

Edit:  I almost forgot!  I got my Whitemend Pants made!!!  My unbuffed +Heal is around 1720 now and I haven’t even finished socketing or put spellthread on them yet!

Comming Soon

This has been a very busy week for Galadria…  Since I haven’t gotten a real post up here all week, I thought I’d let you know what I’ve got planed for this weekend.

1. Sidone WILL hit 25!!  And therefore the next article for the Leveling Your Priest series can be written
2. We now can summon Nightbane and he WILL be eating dirt sometime tonight or tomorow!!  And therefore I will have something to say about the fight.
3. I’m planning on a couple of guides that should be completed this weekend:
   • Priest Raiding Guide – I’ve been clowly plugging along at this for our guild website and I’ll post it here when it’s finished.  It covers a lot of basics for getting ready to raid from gear to talent builds to consumables to enchants.  Phealia over at Resto4Life is hopefully going to help me with some of the Druid stuff for this guide and I’m still trying to find someone to help out with Pally and Shammy stuff (*puppy dog eyes* pwease?)
   • Reputation Guide for Professions – I’ll be starting with Alchemy and Tailoring since those are the two crafting professions that I have, but I may do the others as well.  This is also for the guild website, but I’ll also post them over here when I’m done. 
4. Last and most important: the recipe for the Whitemend Pants WILL be MINE!!  I’ve had all the mats for over a week now and it kills me that I have a Primal Nether sitting in the bank just waiting for me to have the recipe… I just can’t make my self pay that much for something that I can craft.

That’s my goals for the weekend (can you tell I like to set the bar high for my self?)  We’ll just have to see if I get it all done!