Ketchup

I really do not care for ketchup a great deal – a very tiny bit is good with french fries sometimes, though, hash browns are the one thing I really do like with ketchup – at least, not enough to so casually post with a title seeming to praise it.  It is more the fact that the English language never fails to amuse me.  Words with similar meanings, words with similar spelling, words with similar pronunciation.  So many ways to play on words.

I figured an update was long past due, my blogging has been far too infrequent lately.  But with the new job, I am just trying to stay focused where I need to be.  So far, things are going great.  My stress and anxiety are relatively low.

Speaking of focus, I have developed a spreadsheet for my Level 90’s.  Something to track who’s killed what world boss, who’s VP capped, who’s done their LFR runs.  I am even using it to monitor if I harvested and planted my farm on a toon, if they did their daily profession research cooldown, and if they did a dungeon that day.  It worked better than intended last night, Monday, the day before reset, when I am usually scrambling to figure out who needs what.  A Nalak raid formed, I knew just which toon to bring.  Sha and Galleon were next, and I knew at a glance what toons to switch to.  A few LFR runs were made, and I went on a different toon each time, based on what we queued for.  🙂

Effy and Effy waiting for an Oondasta pull

And Nalak, the World’s Worst Gatekeeper (Not only have I 20manned this guy, but this guy just lets adventurers stroll right past him into his master’s lair!)

In fact, I should just show you what the spreadsheet looks like, eh?

Oh, but while I was taking that screenshot, I realized how very awesome screenshots are from my desktop with two monitors!

HUGE!

And yes, that has been my desktop since around Christmas.

Anyway…  Even though I did not cap all my 90’s, I felt it kept me aware of what I should be working on.  And I say “should” very emphatically.  Because despite all my organization, I spent most of this past week on the wee Hunter.  Actually, she is not so wee anymore, she is 78 already.

DING!

One thing that is awesome about a Hunter, is taking great time and care to determine what pets I want to run with.  (The next step in this being to of course create a transmog outfit around the chosen pet.)

I have always liked bug pets.  The silithids and wasps are some of my favorite.  (I have mentioned before that I have a fond curiosity for the Silithids and their lore, since it was them who in fact got my interest with WoW lore started.)  So it did not take me log to decide that the rare wasp in Silithus, Rex Ashil, was the pet I really wanted.  He is unique, the only wasp of this color, and in fact the only pet with this color.  WTB silithid pet in this awesome blue-grey!

After picking my wasp up, I was talking to my guildie, Otoka (whom we all call simply O), and realized I had intended to find the perfect battle pet to name for him.  Hunter pet?  Even better!

Just for the record, apparently you cannot name a Hunter pet with only one letter.  So I could not name my wasp “O”!  So I settled for “Oh” and had a giggle with O about the philosophical significance of the name.  Not only does it give a name, but it is also a pondering noise, thus naming one for their deep thoughts.

Rosa and Oh

Rosa’s outfit to match her pet is still a slight work-in-progress.  I cannot be 100% happy with boots, it seems.  Silly humans and their FEET.  What the heck?  I am thinking of boots much like those she is wearing above, but more blue.  I think I can get some from a Dragonblight quest.  I like the black outfit with the Level 70 PvP bow very much, and I have received several compliments through whispers while doing dungeons with her.  🙂

Among doing lots of dungeons on my Hunter, I have just about caught up Sifaol, my Disc Priest, gearwise.  I have not been heavily focusing her, she progresses slowly, but she has made remarkable improvements.  I realized soon after getting her a few LFR pieces that I am quite fond of her in some current content gear.  This is even after being so appalled with her quest leveling outfit not too long ago!  Sure, the outfit is a mixture of various things (and the staff is a re-skin) and I would really like some MSV shoulders, but it looks quite good on her.

Even as a human!

I missed Atonement, I really did, and I am thoroughly annoyed that as soon as I start getting back into my Priest, Blizz is nerfing Atonement (in 5.3).  ><

Oh!  And we also got a random guild achievement the other day!

State of the Raider: Guilty Conscience Edition

Now, so that I do not feel so guilty about falling behind, I am also going to post a condensed State of the Raider!  (AKA progression and kill screenshots!)  I left off last on our Durumu kill.

The Mysterious Case of the Lemming Blobs

A strange sight, in the halls between Durumu and Primordius

I cannot quite get the oddity of this out of my head.  These lil guys just endless ooze down the hallway, and then throw themselves off the side!  It is an endless cycle of lemming-like suicide, so it seems, as they somehow flow back up to start all over again.

Poor blobs.  You should live!  There is so much out there!  Don’t give up!

Seriously, though.  GG Blizzard at giving us something to wonder about.  I cannot figure out the purpose of these guys for the life of me.

Primordius, the Visually Pleasing

Progression and Pretty Colors

Ooh, shiny!

Primordius down in 25man!

Okie, so maybe it is more my guildies and their spell effects that are visually pleasing… Either way, I was tickled by the colorfulness of the shots.

Primoridus, after what seemed forever on Durumu, went down in one shot.  He is a nifty boss, I like the idea of mutating into a Saurok for a short time.  His monologue, though, is a bit creepy and very Gollum-like.  I think this guy went down so easily because one thing that motivates my guildies is telling them “X will make you do more damage!”

I Sing the Body Animus

Dark Animus down in 25man!

Dark Animus was an okie fight.  It was pretty much all or nothing.  Either we wiped early because adds got out of control, or we killed him.  Once it is just the boss, it is a pretty straightforward tank-and-spank.  Yah yah, there is other stuff going on, but there were no transitions, it was really just a burn.

It did take us some organization and some practice to manage all the adds.  It was a different kind of fight, certainly.

Ice, Wind, and Fire… and Iron Qon

Iron Qon down in 25man!

Huh, that is my best progression shot from Iron Qon?  Bad Effy.

Iron Qon was a challenge, especially the final burn phase when it is just him.  As a healer, I got to take advantage of the preferential treatment as #1 priority to use a Warlock gate out of the wind storm.  There were several times I just did it with some well-timed Rolls, though.  It was cool to have four quite different phases in that fight.

Twin Consorts and the Anti-Climax

Twin Consorts down in 25man!

Take that as you will in its purposeful double meanings.  After all of the… commentary… over the Twins and their “place” in Throne of Thunder, they went splat with a disappointing quickness.

Thunderstruck by the Thunder King

Lei Shen, however, is not disappointing.  He is proving to be just what an end boss should be, many phases and many mechanics… and when things go bad – MANY ADDS!  Unfortunately, this means that he is a nightmare as an LFR boss.  I think a mechanic or two could still use some tweaking, or even removal.  But on normal, he is perfect, and though he is not dead yet (Sunday was our first full night of work on him), I do not think it will be too much longer and when he dies, it will be a great accomplishment for my guildies and me.

~Effy

Ding x2!

Ding! DK-Effy!

Ding! Sifaol!

 

I got DK-Effy and Sifaol to 90 in the wee hours of the morning.  (Stubbornness.)  That makes Level 90’s number 4 and 5!

But wait…  No Quintessential Quintet?  <reads the fine print>  Oh, bugger.  “Reach maximum level with five DIFFERENT CLASSES.”  Details, details.  Two DK’s do not count.    Back to leveling Lazheward…  Or perhaps I need to level a Horde?  <looks at her hunter uneasily>

Ironically (AKA quite frustrating at 3am) Sifaol’s questline bugged out at 99%.  (Klaxxi quests…  Bugged out…  Waits for the horrible puns from gchat.)  So I put in a ticket and ran around in circles, killing everything.  Thankfully, I came upon a random sparkly!  Ding!  And I promptly went to bed.  🙂

Oh ello, Klaxxi.  I apparently just love you guys SO MUCH that I want to do MORE of your dailies!  D:

~ Effy

90% of the sprites in Pandaria are tiny lil trolls, but these guys from the Beergarden quests are cool. Wee!

Dual-Boxing: Furthering the Obsession?

DK-Effy and Sifaol questing together – Level 89

Effy and Ireenia doing dailies

I have two accounts.  My second account sprung from a RAF creation.  I had fun for a bit with the idea of dual-boxing while doing that.  Though, with my old desktop, that meant one account on the desktop and one account on the laptop.  The funny part?  Most of the characters I leveled that way are on servers where I no longer play.  Pretty funny.

I have since updated my desktop and acquired and second monitor.  🙂  It is great for my multi-tasking needs – both surfing and dual-boxing.  I still use the laptop, though, it is usually an over-glorified boombox when I am not dual-boxing.  I prefer surfing on the desktop now whenever I can – bigger screen and it means not having to switch keyboards.  Yah, WoW on a laptop keyboard was never all that great.

When my Monk, Ireenia, hit Level 90, I let out a audible groan when I realized: Now I have to do lots and lots and lots of dailies with her!  Not only was the dailies part not appealing, but doing them in low gear all over again.  I remember the rough curve Effy had when she started.  Wait!  Effy!  I could pair them up, finish off Effy’s reputations and do dailies on two characters at once!

For the most part, this has made questing a lot easier.  Effy, even in Resto gear, is geared enough to plow through dailies.  The only down side?  Collection quests.    The bane of my dual-boxing existence.

Since the day Ireenia turned 90, she and Effy have knocked out dailies together.  In the process, Effy is finally finishing off some reps I slacked on.

Ireenia harnessing the power of the Jade Serpent

While grinding through quests with DK-Effy (yes, yes, I am leveling a SECOND DK to 90) I thought to myself what a shame it was she was not using her OP-ness to level another of my characters.  And so, I started questing DK-Effy and my Priest, Sifaol, together.

I tell you what – mobs with you-better-move mechanics are fun with one toon, but kind of tricky when you have to move for two.  lol  I think I am becoming a better tank for it, though.  It’s okie, Sif, you don’t have to move for Dread Webbing, I will just move the mob accordingly.  Being on auto-follow does mean that whirlwind abilities are still a concern though.  lol

This dual-boxing thing is unfortunately leading to a new obsession!  (Me?  Obsessed with something?  No way!)  I have started contemplating all of the leveling pairs I can make of my characters.  The problem?  I have discovered that at some point my two accounts became very lopsided.  I have all of my story characters as in-game characters in some form or another, and I have in general two of each class on Elune.  But somewhere down the line, the majority of story characters who are not really getting leveled ended up on my primary/Effy account.    How did this happen?

Well anyway, I am currently working on the details, but I do think there will be more pairs coming up soon.

Aerora ready to go and looking all Shaman-y

In fact, I think Toggle, my Gnome Warrior, and Aerora, my needing-to-be-restarted Holy Pally, are going to be the next pair.  So far, though, my first two pairs have story reasons for their being together.  Hmm, I wonder how Toggle and Aerora would meet up?

Can you tell I have entirely too much time on my hands right now?

I also finally, finally started pet battling again.  Honestly, until two days ago, I had not pet battled since I started heavily leveling Ireenia!  But I realized that since I am exalted with Cloud Serpents on Effy FINALLY, that means new battle pets were available!  I had to get one of each.

Qui

Qui and Ireenia – he’s still little

Ireenia has taken a liking to the lil jade guy, whom we named Qui (Draconic for “Jade”).  In fact, she decided to raise the lil guy into a Cloud Serpent mount.

The reason I bring up the whole dual-boxing thing is because I seem to be drawing some attention with it lately.  I had a lengthy conversation with a young Druid last night, who was interested what it takes.  Well, two accounts and the ability to somehow run them both at the same time.  And some patience.  I have a tendency to lose the follower on rocks and fences and hills, as well as from CRZ’s and phased areas.  Having both toons moving at the same speed is fairly important, otherwise, things get more tricky.  It also takes some practice to not get the follower killed as I mentioned above.  And remember to loot!  For a while I was passing on loot on my follower, and only picking up quest items with her, but then I realized she was not getting any Motes of Harmony that way.  So I am back to looting on both.

It takes some practice and some trial and error.  I don’t imagine dual-boxing is for everyone, but it works well for me.  🙂

~ Effy

Totally off-topic: Wanna push the button!

Maximum Monk! (Ding 90!)

Sunday sometime around midday, my Monk hit Level 90!  I have to give some big thanks to a few of those who accompanied me along the way…

• Amowrath, who did many many dungeons with me with his own Monk, mostly through the starter dungeons (20ish) and the Wrath bracket.
• Ranico, who ran me through normal dungeons and helped me reach my iLevel goal for LFR!  (Though, I still think he did them just as much to flex his OP Death Knight muscles.)  😉
• And the biggest thanks to my partner of Levels 87-90 – Finalflame.  He joined me on his Warlock all weekend, and there was much music and chit chat to be had, which made the questing so much easier.  He also leveled through dungeons with Amo and I on his Monk around the 20-30 area.

Instant Gratification iLevel

Above is Ireenia as of 11pm or so last night!

I already had some pieces lined up for when I hit Level 90!

• 496 Chest and Gloves – With the help of my GM, Mindalen, and some of our guild Leatherworkers, I had the 496 chest and gloves ready to go.
• 450 Trinket – The Ghost Iron Dragonling trinket, with some further help from Final.

After I hit Level 90, I was in a hurry to get some more higher item level pieces!

• 450 Weapon – The Arena of Annihilation gives an iLevel 450 weapon from the quest there.  This scenario is basically the current expansion’s Crucible of Carnage.  Only three people are needed for scenarios, and this one was quite easy as fresh 90’s with all DPS specs.  (Thanks to Lissanna for coming with us!)
• 476 Boots – A quickly thrown together Sha kill was all it took to get the Claw quest item (remember to loot the corpse!) and turn it in at Shado-Pan Garrison for a pair of 476 epic boots!
• 480 Necklace – Love is in the Air is currently going on, and the holiday dungeon drops 480 epic necklaces.  I was quick to pickup a caster (non-spirit) version, but I have yet to see the healer (w/spirit) version drop.
• 450 Rings – Jewelcrafters can make iLevel 450 rings, and they are not Unique Equip, so I picked up two of these.
• 476 Staff – I thought about sticking with my one hand weapon and a 476 offhand Mindy also got me, but I remembered a stack of Scrolls of Wisdom in my Shaman’s bags and thought maybe it was time to make the Inscription Staff.  There is a 424 Rain Poppy Staff that can be made and then upgraded to the Inscribed Crane Staff.  It is Bind on Account, so you cannot sell it, but I can repurpose it to another caster (likely my Priest eventually) once Ireenia is wielding better.
• 475 Trinket – Ranico was benevolent and beyond gracious enough to pick me up a Relic of Chi Ji.  I was pretty floored, as when he asked if there was anyway he could help me reach 460 to do LFR I was mostly joking when I mentioned it.  It is from a full desk of Darkmoon Cards of the Mist, and though I have Scrolls of Wisdom, they take mucho Starlight Ink and are totally random.  Not to mention, the quest for turning the desk into a trinket is only available when the Darkmoon Faire is in town.  I was happy for some instant gratification instead.

I was not too lucky with heroic drops, but I did pick a cloak and belt.  And I picked up some offspec agility gear.

It seems everyone was pretty happy to help out with running heroics and putting their lives into the young hands of my undergeared Monk.  😉  Big, big thanks to Finalflame, Ranico, Otoka, Pawnfu, Amowrath, Aesadonna, and Beefbus!  And of course to anyone I may have unintentionally missed!

Professions and Enchanting Gear

Okie, yah, still working on Ireenia’s professions.  I decided on Leatherworking and Enchanting, and I am hitting snags with both toward the end of Vanilla levels.    Looking forward to getting over the hump and starting on BC and forward.

I cannot wait to be able to enchant her wrists and rings!

As for readying her current gear, I decided to do enchantments, gems, and such on everything that was at least Heroic (463 iLevel) gear.  My BoA staff does not have Jade Spirit, only Windsong.  I might debate putting Jade Spirit on it once I have Ireenia’s Enchanting maxed, since I can reuse it with other toons.

That is all for now.  Time to get cranking on more heroics and dailies!

~ Effy

BTW, I have to say I am so so glad I finally have a Level 90 on my second account.  Now, I can do dailies with Effy and Ireenia at the same time!  😀

Single-Minded Effy and the Bombshell

I have a tendency to stagnate when I am without a concrete goal to push for.  Similarly, I become very single-minded (obsessed even?) when an important goal does form.  This seems to be complicated by my recent state of mind consisting of self-pity and the general emotional torture I inflict upon myself when I am melancholy.

So, needless to say, my WoW playing has been a rollercoaster lately.  I went from heavily focused on gearing Effy to comfortably complacent to trying to focus on an alt to latching onto the first “goal” that captured my attention (ie. Pet Battles) to being mad at myself for slacking everywhere else.  I was not doing the dailies on Effy I should have.  I was not leveling alts.  I was not working on professions.  I was not making any money.  (In fact, I am hitting rock-bottom in that regard.)

Then, the most absurd idea grasped hold of me, and even before consulting the credulity of the implications of that idea, I ran with it.  I took ownership of it.  I made this idea mine, and my goal.

The Idea

I very much want my Draenei Monk, Ireenia, 90 and NOW.  In fact, I am going to raid with her.

The whole idea is utterly ridiculous, especially considering:

1. I have NEVER raided with anyone but Effy (except in an “alt run”).
2. I have a Pandaren Monk at 85 – so close to 90!
3. Ireenia was Level 30 or so at the time I made this decision.
4. We are nearing the end of a Tier and UR is currently working on Hard Modes.

So uhm, what am I THINKING??

Thought Process AKA Rationalizing

Okie, try and follow me here.  My point(s) will probably wander.

Our healing team is pretty solid.  The biggest gaping hole in our team is a good Mistweaver Monk.  We started the expansion with an okie Monk.  We recruited a pretty good Monk.  Both are no longer raiding with us.

Now, we are back to recruiting a Monk.

I think I can be a great Monk.

We happen to have two Resto Shaman at the moment, myself being one.  And now we have a third coming on-board.  Our second Shaman is a Pandaren, and therefore frustrates me to no end in a crunch moment where I cannot push out the numbers he can.  At least, not without completely burning through my whole mana pool.

I believe our new Shaman also is a Pandaren.

This extra push of stats pandas get should not effect me so.  I know.  But it does.  It shatters my fragile healer self-esteem.  😛

The thing is…  I have tried numerous different things, but Effy is so comfortable to me that even when I make wee adjustments, they are so awkward that I usually switch back.  I have become TOO comfortable.

For example, the single-target healing thing.  I detest AoE healing with my Shaman anymore.  I hate casting Healing Rain.  I hate resorting to Chain Heal over a few better placed regular or Greater Healing Waves.  They are so mana inefficient and laden with overheals they make me cringe.

I hate overheals.

But then, I severely doubt a Monk will be LOWER in overheals.  Everyone has ridiculous overheals.  Why are overheals so ugly and high right now?  Is it because we run heavy on healers?  Maybe, but I still do not think that is entirely it.  I think it is the climate and setup of raid healing in general.

Even with a full raiding team, I have always been pleased with my low percentages in overheals.  My efficiency.  I thrived in the triage Cata setting, especially with Shaman Mastery to back me up there.  Then, MoP hit, and triage went out the window and we seem back to blanket healing everything.

So it is not the overheal thing.

Maybe it is just because Monks are new and shiny?  But…

I did not raid with a Worgen in Cata.

I did not change Effy to a Dwarf.

I did not change her to a Pandaren come MoP.

So why a Monk?

Well, I played every healer class/spec at max level at some point in Cataclysm.

• Shaman – Well, that one is obvious, though, it was pretty painful at release.
• Priest – Okie, so I only really played Disc.  I tried Holy for like four heroics and went insta-OOM and decided screw that.  I ❤ Disc too much.  Disc was a lot of fun, but for some reason the style of it never felt like ME.  Alt-appropriate, but not my main.
• Paladin – Holy Pallies are fun.  I alt raided on my Pally through much of Dragon Soul.  Once again, she just never felt like ME, and once again, only an alt.
• Druid – Ugh, I do not even know if I can say enough how much I fail at Druids.  I do not get it.  I have just never been able to play Resto.  I keep trying, and I will likely try again sometime this expansion.

None of them rang true enough to be what I could raid heal on regularly.  Or what I could ever call ME.

Then, Blizzard introduced a new healer class.

Chiyu, my other Monk, was almost right.  I like the style.  I like dynamics and complexity.  I like the way the heals chain together.  But I just could not feel the panda part.

Try #2, Ireenia, is a Draenei.  Why do I even bother with other races?  Really?  You would not think it would make a big difference, but it does.

Add to that, the most superfluous reason – Ireenia is one of my story characters now.  And I am loving her character.  I have learned well before now that my stories = my enjoyment.  Effy’s story is slowing down.  Most of my ideas for her are filling in portions of the past.

It is time for a new story.  Or at least, a new chapter.

Be that in my stories and in raiding.

Justification

So far, this whole post seems to be me trying to justify my decision.  I blame Laz, which is ridiculous, because he is not even here to blame.  But seriously, I have spent the last week wondering what he would think about this whole changing mains idea.

I should be beyond caring what he thinks.  ><

But I guess he still tempers my more hair-brained and poorly thought out ideas. My passions overrun me often, and some level-headed logic is what I need.  I guess I should be happy that simply thinking: WWLD? keeps me in check most of the time.

Luckily, even after an unintelligible spewing of reasons throughout this post, I know that this idea is a good one for me.  Even if I cannot seem to form a coherent way of explaining myself.

So why a Monk?  Why now?

Reasons.

Surprisingly, this idea was met with more optimism than I expected.  I kind of expected to get laughed at.  It is the middle of the expansion.  I am a tried and true Shaman healer.  Other stuff…  But it is pretty much set in stone now, and just waiting for me to finish leveling and gearing and plain step up.

Scary and exciting.

The Plan

Now, on to what I am actually doing when I am not obsessing about this at work, where I cannot do and can only think.

This weekend consisted of a blistering pace from Level 47 to Level 84.  I ran dungeon after dungeon after dungeon until Level 80.  Monk daily quests and the class quests every 10 levels helped with their bonus XP, but obviously since I powered through in a few days, much of my leveling was not with Monk bonuses.  I also took advantage of the Merry-go-Round at the Darkmoon Faire for as long as possible.  Add to this full BoAs, including the Dread Pirate Ring, and I was making some good bonus XP.

About 77 or so, the queues started slowing down considerably and I actually started working on some professions.  I decided on Leatherworking and Enchanting.  Both of which I have on other toons, but since those toons are not max level or maxed in professions or raiding, I figured it was pretty inconsequential.  Up to that point, I did not spend much more than ten minutes in queue as a healer.

At Level 80, I dropped the dungeons, and threw on my meager agility gear.  It was time to learn to Windwalk.

Can I just say that HOLY CRAP Draenei look awesome doing every single Monk ability!  Wow!

At first, questing was painful, but I quickly got into my groove.  And as I got more agility gear, that helped too!  One of my guildies also made the suggestion of the Chi Wave talent for soloing, and that helped me A LOT.  Much better survivability.

I have a Cata quest path that works very well for me:

• Mt Hyjal: Level 80-82 – If you remember opening up the Molten Front dailies for alts, I quested right until I met with Aessina and healed the Regrowth, before moving to the east side of the map with Tortolla.
• Deepholm: Level 82-83 – I quested until I received the quest “That’s Not a Pyramid!” from the gnomes in the Temple of the Earth. Basically, I got the two pieces of the World Pillar, and did not do any of the Therazane quests.  Hahaha, take that, Therazane!
• Uldum: Level 83-84 – I hit 84 right about the time King Phaoris voted to start the war, without doing the Harrsion Jones quests.
• Twilight Highlands: Level 84-85 – This is a pretty easy run that goes through running around with Anduin, opening up the TH portal and a few quests for the dwarves after that.  It is made even quicker with some friends to help you through the Crucible of Carnage, which is really good XP.

Once I hit Level 85, I plan to run a similar circuit through Pandaria.  I am not sure how much questing in each zone that will mean, but I will likely skip Krasarang Wilds, and zoom ahead to Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes as quickly as possible.  Starting my Shado-Pan and Klaxxi rep early is going to be key.

At 90, I will be starting my legendary questline ASAP.  Then, I will be hard-hitting Klaxxi and Golden Lotus dailies – all the way to Exalted for the jewelry.  And it will be lots of heroics and LFR runs.  Whee!

Wow, it feels kind of like I have done all this before…

So, uhh, yah…  Surprise!

~ Effy

Monday Musings: DK Effy

Gotta look good while leveling

After my post about the Effy’s, I realized I missed DK-Effy and honestly she should be my main Death Knight.  So I have taken to leveling her!  Caeridwen may become a purely farming toon, or perhaps farming and PvP.  We shall see.

Leveling amongst distractions…

It is always fun tanking on a DK, especially when that DK is Effy.  The only downside?  I keep trying to hit Ghost Wolf.  ><

I did spend some time on Effy too.  I did my pet trainer dailies, and on a whim, I decided to see how my luck fared for something other than that effing Scourged Whelpling…  Apparently good, because it only took me about 20 minutes to find this lil guy…

Squee! Cute lil Emerald Whelpling!

The Noxious Whelplings in Feralas were much more accommodating.  And so my Dragon Army continues to grow!  Time to level some more dragons.

~ Effy

Enter the Monk: Initial Mistweaver Thoughts

Chíyu from the WoW Armory. For some reason, you cannot see her Monk belt. 😦

Now that I am Level 65 on my Pandaren Monk, Chíyu, I have realized I have not posted my thoughts on the Monk (or more importantly, healing on the Monk) at all.  Well, except for a short blurb in my post about Effy hitting Level 90:

4. I also made a wee Pandaren Monk – Chíyu.

Yup, so I am pretty sure that is the extent of her introduction on my blog.  For shame.

I usually do not get too in depth talking about my alts, except when I create their stories.  Talking about how they level and my dungeon/questing experiences is not usually something I get into.

But then, I made my Monk.  Even though I am doing dailies, raiding, grouping for dungeons/scenarios, running LFR, and completing other items to prep for raids on Effy… and leveling my DK… I keep finding myself trying to get in at least one dungeon on Chíyu whenever I can.

The Monk just seems to be a different type of healer.  It is similar to when I leveled my Disc Priest.  It was such a fun leveling experience that I have never been able to change her from Disc, and every other Priest I have even dabbled with has only been Disc.  Kind of like all my DKs being Blood.

Leveling on a Monk

Master Cheng dueling Chiyu

To start with, when leveling a Pandaren Monk, you have a lot of things going for you.

1. Pandaren have bonuses to rested XP (it lasts twice as long).
2. Monks have a daily quest that rewards a bonus XP buff.  (It lasts 1 hour and stacks to 2 hours.)
3. Monks receive a quest similar to their daily every ten levels, which provides the same XP buff, and a piece of leveling (and transmog!) gear.
4. I have the full set of leather casting BoAs of varying level caps.  (Shoulders, Chest, Trinkets, Ring, Staff to Level 80 & Head, Legs, Cloak to Level 85.)

They come together to make leveling pretty painless.

Add to that, even spec’d as Mistweaver, she manages quests well.  I have had no issues there so far.  She actually does a fair amount of damage, and even if it takes her a little longer to kill something (which it does not seem to), she also heals while she attacks.  Comparable damage may be due to the combat-nature of the dailies, which consist of a one-on-one match with one of the Monk masters.

In fact, in dungeons, I am finding I do quite a bit of damage when I choose to.  Spinning Crane Kick has a tendency to push me to the top of the meter when there are four or more mobs – and that is while it is healing at the same time.

I may have to try pulling an absurd number of mobs while questing – DK-style – and see if this both kills the mobs quickly and efficiently, and keeps me alive.  That should be interesting.  🙂

Healing on a Monk

Soothing Mist

At Level 65, I have a huge number of spells already.  The great part about being in BC content is that I am finally getting to use them too.

For Vanilla content I was getting by with:

• Renewing Mist – Cast on tank, spreads to low party members
• Soothing Mist – Mostly cast on tank, but switch to other low members as needed
• Surging Mist – For when the tank starts to take a lot of damage
• Chi Wave – Works as a minor Chi dump, group heal, and a small bit of added damage

Honestly, this was usually more than I needed (and more to keep me engaged) unless the tank was extra squishy or pulling way too much.  On the rare occasion when I got nervous (even in over-pull situations, I was usually overhealing), I would throw Life Cocoon on the tank.  But honestly, I mostly used it because it looks cool.  🙂

Spinning Crane Kick

Now that Chíyu is in BC content, I am finding myself healing with more of my arsenal.  Spinning Crane Kick is becoming my go-to AoE heal when the tank is chain-pulling big packs of trash.  I have to be careful with it, though, as it locks me out of using other spells, and does not heal the ranged.

The “new” skills I am playing with now:

• Enveloping Mist – Uses Chi instead of mana, and will instantly heal my Soothing Mist target (I have actually had this spell for a while now)
• Uplift – Heals everyone with Renewing Mist
• Healing Sphere – These are like one-shot Lightwells, and only require party members to walk through them (apparently, a chance to create these when healing is my Mastery)

Healing on my Monk is really fun, even if she is completely OP.  🙂  I watch her lazily keep everyone alive in situations where I would usually be forced to admit defeat in leveling dungeons with PUGs.  The only issues I have run into so far – even while healing the flood of newbie DK tanks who are always present in the BC dungeons – have been two:

1. My go-go DK tank who decided to pull two rooms and then take off out of my LoS with those two rooms of mobs.  Smart.  His response?  “Keep up better.”  <sigh>  He was the only one who died there, though.
2. Getting one-shot by another DK tank who pulled several packs of trash and then got MC’d.  Everyone else survived, of course.  <shrug>  And I imagine I could have saved myself if I had noticed he was MC’d before he stuck a Hellreaver through my head.

I am sure there will be much playstyle change between now and 90, especially between leveling/questing/dungeons and how she functions in a raid.  There was already a slight change between Vanilla and BC.

I am curious and excited to see her continued progression.

Final Thoughts

Zen Pilgrimage

I have not really played with the other two Monk specs at all.  I am having too much fun healing, and too much fun successfully leveling AS a healer.  Hooray!  🙂

Leveling as a healer is very exciting to me!

Partly, this is due to the fact that I have noticed a pattern in Mists quests, one that makes me nervous about the state of my other healers.  I noticed the quest rewards are very class/spec specific.

So far, for my DK, it seems everything has been pieces useful to her as a tank, and I am pretty sure Effy’s quests were at least 90% caster specific.  I think towards the end, I had Intellect and Agility options.  I think…

Sifaol, my Priest, can probably get by as Shadow <shudder> as the gear will be the same (Intellect and Spirit), like Effy’s was.

But what about my Pally?  I cannot bear the thought of leveling her in Holy, and even leveling her other spec – Prot – would be long and arduous I am sure.  (Just based on the time it takes for her to kill farming pests.)  I do not want to get all the way to 90 and have zero healing gear.  😦

Same for my Druid.  I mostly play her as Feral now, but I have a long history with her as (fail) Resto/Balance, and I am determined to learn how to play a Resto Druid eventually!  (Something that has eluded me for two expansions now!)  Yes, I admit it.  I can heal on every other WoW class with a healing spec, but I have forever been a fail Resto Druid.  <ashamed>

~ Effy

P.S. = I also found out Pandaren are very buggy in WoW Model Viewer, but perhaps that is because I am running the 32-bit version on a 64-bit system.  Has anyone seen the new version in 64-bit?  I have looked!  😦

Also, Chiyu looks pretty cool as a human.

Ding 90!

I did it!  Last night, Effy reached level 90!

…

So, how about them dailies?

Last night, my mind was so churning with thoughts of prep at Level 90, at the 11th hour, I found myself seeking distraction…

*insert splashing bobber noise here*

It was so peaceful and relaxing.  And it was not entirely without purpose.  I have cooking to level, for food I will need to raid, you know.

But I still finished!

So have I mentioned this expansion so far seems to include everything I already enjoyed doing to prepare for raids?  Fishing and cooking my buff food, running dungeons, and researching.

Pre-Panda (still in Zangarmarsh)

Towards the end of Cataclysm, and being part of the organized machine that is UR, I started to miss my prepping.  Feasts and cauldrons and guild-supplied gems and enchants meant I had very little farming that I had to do.  The scarce farming I did do usually went straight into the guild bank, just so I felt somewhat justified in eating guild food and imbibing guild flasks and prettying my gear with guild enhancements.

As for dailies, though, I cannot really say they are on my fun list, but as necessity progressing towards a clear goal in mind, I am okie with dailies.

My outfit got so bad, I had to transmog… It lasted a whole 20 minutes…

One thing I have come to realize, which is also a comfort to my mind, is that in WoW I have goals and I have a plan of attack (even if it is not fully hashed out yet).  The other MMO’s I have played recently have been less so.

I need a goal to make myself productive.  It is why I suck at making money.  “Accrue lots and lots of gold” is not a substantial enough goal for me.  “Farm herbs for X flasks” or “Fish Emperor Salmon for X food” or “Acquire the mats for X” – those are goals I can work with.

Badazz Kite-riding Effy

WoW’s endgame is just more suited to that mentality, I think.  I have stat goals and iLevel goals.  I know where and how to get exactly what I need.

Right now, I realize that means dailies and more dailies.

Badazz Bug-riding Effy

I just have to get to the point where I can DO those dailies…  I was expecting a wall of blue “!” when I hit 90.  Alas, it appears I still have more to do.  BUT I did do some heroics last night, after buying a few pieces of JP gear and attaining over a 440 iLevel.

I have a solid time goal in my mind too.  I will not cloud myself with assuming I can be LFR-ready tomorrow, when the guild will be running it, but NEXT Wednesday is my goal.

460, here I come!

A couple of parting notes:

1. Though everyone seems to be getting hung up on pet battles and such, I have had no issues there.  My only pet related news: I was pretty excited about finally being able to name my favorite pet.

2. I did get some achievements!

3. I discovered that certain pets/mounts/achievements are not just account-based, they are Battlenet account-based.  So that means I do not have to fiddle with my second account, I can leave my toons where they currently are.  That also means I am likely to buy MoP for account #2 in the next few weeks.  (Above pic completely unrelated.  I just like Bleeding Hearts.)

4. I also made a wee Pandaren Monk – Chíyu.

5. A special thank you to my GM, Ranico, for his company and assistance over the weekend.  We saw much of the countryside together.  Doesn’t Effy make a great mammoth ornament?

6. I have been listening to a lot of R&B lately, and I love the piano in the background of this one – Drake and Rihanna doing Take Care.

~ Effy

Squee! Bonsai!