The View Through The Branches

I haz them, and I love them.

As everyone knows, I love my guild. If it wasn’t for my guild, I wouldn’t have my boy – who is my everything.

I probably wouldn’t have my best friend, cos when Respice shriveled and died, if he hadn’t come to Flames he would probably have quit wow.

I wouldn’t have one of my other closest friends, Nyo.

Last night, our raid didn’t run. We were a tank short and Mother’s Day meant our guild was empty in comparison to non-holiday nights. So instead, we just…messed about.

Me and Zal spent pretty much the entire weekend on vent, bitching about something or other. Be it him complaining about Paladin healing, me complaining about the fact it would take 509 jewelcrafting tokens to buy every available recipe now my jewelcrafter was maxed and the inevitable realisation I was going to have to level her to 80 to be able to competently even COMPLETE the jewelcrafting dailies in the FIRST place (QQ), and us generally complaining about PuGs (I think I did 20 heroics this weekend). But we enjoyed it.

I also managed to ding 65, level my hunter’s jewelcrafting to 450, and then level her to 66.

On Sunday, I spent more time messing about, moseying through heroics, and then I did a nice regem of my gear, replacing some of my mixed haste gems with pure spirit and pure spellpower.

And then Sunday night. Sunday night resulted in me and Zal running another heroic to get his hunter his frost, and then possibly my 3 favourite people joining me on vent for a night of social wow fun. Me and Mike headed to Kara, and then ZG, for our usual mount runs – no drops. Zal PvPed, complaining about rep the entire time, before swapping to his shammy and embarking on Outland instance PuGs. And Nyo levelled his baby priest.

Vent consisted of druid abuse (resulting in Mike getting globally muted), in the other three debating changing our guild theme to black and pink playboy bunnies (resulting in my ignoring them all til they shut up), and in dwarf abuse (when Zal suggested changing his draenei shammy to a dorf).

I ran Mike through Scholomance on his baby paladin who will be joining my DK at level 58 for some joint-levelling fun, and I got abuse from all three guys for watching a TV programme about pets with special needs. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the masturbating parrot.

I love my friends.

The Sanctum of the Stars is a Scryer base in Shadowmoon Valley.

The area is open solely to Scryers and those who are of the Aldor-persuasion will be shot on site and thrown out of the encampment.

As is typical with blood elves, the design of the buildings includes the usual domed rooves, pale stone and intricate red and gold lattice work.

If anyone can find anything interesting to say about this, go ahead…

River’s Heart is unusual in that it is a lake that is way below sea level.

All the rivers of the basic run into the lake, and it is the home to Pilor Vic and Marvin Wobblesprocket.

Escaping out of Sholozar allows you to reach both the Frenzyheart and the Oracle base, and the area has lots of access to ores, herbs and there are tons of animals to be skinned.

The Twilight Grove is in the middle of Duskwood. The path to it is long and twisting as the area is blocked in by hills.

The Twilight Grove is one of the four portals to the Emerald Dream, which are guarded by the Green Dragonflight, and Ysera. The Dragons of Nightmare can also be found in the Twilight Grove. These were once Ysera’s lieutenants, twisted and damaged by the aberrations within the Dream.

The Dragons of Nightmare are Lethon, Emeriss, Ysondre and Taerar,

Lethon: his exposure to darkness within the Emerald Dream darkened the hue of Lethon’s scales and gave him the ability to pull dark shades from within his enemies. Once he had a collection of these shades joined up with him they imbued him with energy and healing.

Emeriss: the nightmares within the dream have damaged Emeriss and diseased him completely. He is described as disgusting, and a monstrosity. When he kills combatants, it has been documented that blighted fungus sprout from their dead bodies.

Ysondre: Ysondre was once Ysera’s closest companion. However now she has been twisted, and the powerful healing she used to provide have been overtaken by shadow and dark magic. She also now has the ability to induce sleep, but not a dreamless pleasant sleep, a nightmare infused horror.

Taerar: Taerar was most damaged by the nightmare within the dream. Not only was his physical form affected, his sanity was taken from him. He is now a specter, and he holds the ability to split into many forms and incarnations of himself. Taerar has become cunning and relentless.

****I’m terribly sorry about this slow posting guys but my laptop has exploded and I’ve spent 2 days solid submerged in php code. I apologise for being a week behind and all these getting back posted but I’ve been very busy recently. I’m also rubbish at making excuses.****

The Eventide is not only the home of the Dalaran Merchan’t Bank and the Dalaran fountain, but also the home of a statue of Antonidas.

Antonidas was the leader of the Kirin Tor mages, and also Jaina Proudmoore’s teacher.

He was killed when the scourge invaded Dalaran.

Antonidas was always a quick learner, joining the mages as a young man and quickly outclassing many of his peers.

I’ve talked about him before, when I’ve discussed the Violet Hold.

Fishing in Dalaran Fountain

Fishing in Dalaran fountain can supply you with copper, silver or gold coins.

These coins are heavily full of interlinking lore, tales of relationships, family and love. A few of them are actually quite funny as well.

The copper coins are:

A Footman’s Copper Coin – “Wish I had that cousin of mine’s duty to do nothing more than lug wood around carelessly…” – this references the Footman and Peasant classes of the RTS Warcraft games.

Alonsus Faol’s Copper Coin - “One day, I hope to spread the path of the light to the common people and teach them the value of the Three Virtues.” – Alonsus saw the destruction of Stormwind by the orcs. He then, alongside Uther, formed the Knights of the Silver Hand.

Ansirem’s Copper Coin – “I wish for happiness and acceptance for my daughter. She feels so out of place here…” – Ansirem Runeweaver is the previous ruler of Dalaran. His daughter is Catelyn, a pirate who lives in Booty Bay. It is presumed that the coin was thrown into the fountain sometime before she left Dalaran to become a pirate.

Attumen’s Copper Coin – “Can I have a more comfortable saddle? My hindquarters ache.” – Attumen is the first boss in Karazhan. He rides a horse called Midnight who is very coveted by normal plays – he has an incredibly low drop rate!

Danath’s Copper Coin - “I hope a troll dies, right… NOW.” – Danath Trollbane is one of the heroes who leads the Alliance Expedition into Draenor. He is actually descended from the line of humans that worked with the high elves to defeat the Troll Amani Empire.

Dornaa’s Shiny Copper Coin – “I wish that that jerk Arthas would fall into a pile of magnataur doody!” – Dornaa is a draeni orphan Alliance player’s encounter during Children’s Week.

Eitrigg’s Copper Coin - “May Tirion’s quest here in Northrend end with success, or may he die honorably in battle.” – Eitrigg is an orc, saved by Tirion Fordring, in the Second War. He is now Thrall’s faithful servant and works alongside the Argent Crusade in Zul’Drak.

Elling Trias’ Copper Coin - “Being a rogue is hard work. Someday I hope to pursue my life’s one true passion…” – Elling is a rogue that resides in the Cheese shop in Stormwind. Presumably the fact that he now lives in the cheese shop means a cheesemaker is his life’s one true passion!

Falstad Wildhammer’s Copper Coin – “I hope I end up in another book eventually.” – The book Wildhammer talks about is ‘Day of the Dragon’, where he is a main character.

Genn’s Copper Coin - “Pah, the fountains in Gilneas could grant ten times as many wishes as Dalaran’s!” – Genn Greymane is the leader of Gilneas. It’s quite clear from this he is not a fan of Dalaran.

Inigo’s Copper Coin – “I wish I had my father back…” – Inigo Montoy is a quest giver in Light’s Hope Chapel. This is a pop culture reference to the character by a similar name who’s father was killed.

Krasus’ Copper Coin - “My prayers go out to my brothers and sisters who still suffer in the heart of Grim Batol. I WILL free them.” – Krasus is the prime consort of Alexstraza. His true name is “Korialstrasz“, and his comment on the coin is in reference to the Dragonmaw Clan using the dragon soul to control the Red Dragonflight.

Kryll’s Copper Coin - “Boom. Now boom? I wish for a boom. Boom go! This coin must be broken, I wonder if it’ll explode.” – Kryll is a goblin engineer who served Deathwing.

Landro Longshot’s Copper Coin – “I wish I’d kept that coin…” – This comment clearly displays yet another goblin’s desire for money! Landro is the TCG redeemer in Booty Bay.

Molok’s Copper Coin – “Just once — that’s all I ask for, just once — let the lass ride with me…” – Molok is a Wildhammer dwarf who fought alongside – and died whilst helping – Rhonin, Vereesa and Falstad get to Khaz Modan. This again links to the Day of the Dragon book.

Murky’s Copper Coin - “I wish the water in Northrend wasn’t so cold, it makes me sleepy.” – Murky was the 2005 Blizzcon pet.

Princess Calia Menethil’s Copper Coin - “I hope that handsome nobleman Lord Prestor notices me! He’s so dreamy!” – Calia’s coin must have been dropped into the fountain during the Second War. She was the older sister to Arthas Menethil. Calia was betrother to Lord Prestor, who actually turned out to be Deathwing.

Private Marcus Johnathan’s Copper Coin - “I wish to grow a glorious, bushy mustache someday.” – Johnathan, now General of Stormwind, obviously achieved this as he now has a full moustache and beard!

Salandria’s Shiny Copper Coin - “Someday, I’m gonna be more powerful than all of these mages!” – Salandria is the blood elf orphan the Horde tour round in Children’s Week.

Squire Rowe’s Copper Coin - “I hope I can get transferred out of Stormwind eventually and see Cersei again. Nothing good ever happens in this city.” – Squire Rowe is part of the team who defeat Onyxia when Katrina Prestor reveals herself. Cersei is actualy a Horde questgiver in Stonard.

Stalvan’s Copper Coin – “You mages refuse to provide me that which hastens the inevitable fate of two people in love, when only one is too naive to see it. I wish you all ruin.” – Stalvan was a schoolteacher. He fell in love with a student, Tilloa. He saw her with her betrothed and went into a rage, killing them both. This, along with his presence in Old Hillsbrad allows us to speculate he travelled to Dalaran in an effort to find someone who would sell him a potion to make her love him, but failed.

Vereesa’s Copper Coin – “Asto’re da shan’re. Turus Fulo Il’amare, A’Talah Adore. Isera’duna…” – There is no sure translation of this, however the best details, “I wish for my honor. I will make peace, and the people will survive. Orcs are…”.This could signify her desire to make peace with the blood elves, however this may well oppose her creation of the Silver Covenant.

Vargoth’s Copper Coin – “I wish Captain Sanders would hurry up with my shipment of wine.” – Vargoth was a Kirin Tor mage, who went through the Dark Portal to Draenor. Captain Sanders appears in Old Hillsbrad and also in Westfall, where you help him find his cargo.

But It looks like we’re posting pets

These are my two:

This is Hollie. I’ve had her since October 2008. She’s a RSPCA rescue moggie, about 6 apparently. She hates other people, other cats, and being surprised. She likes food.

Hollie is named after the computer in Red Dwarf.

And this is Caspar. I’ve had him since November 2009.

He is a pedigree chocolate point siamese, but also a rescue cat. He was my 23rd birthday present. He’s about 2.

He is very very very vocal, and thieves anything he can get his hand on. I repeat, he is very very vocal. Siamese have a totally different vocal range to other cats and Caspar likes to express it whenever possible.

He likes to make noise, carry around his favourite frog toy in his mouth, shed hairs everywhere and sleep between my body and the radiator at night.

He also likes to follow moving pictures across the TV screen with his foot.

Caspar was going to be called “Lister”, in keeping with my Red Dwarf theme, however I thought he was too elegant and pretty to name after a beer drinking, curry eating scouser.

They are my cats, anyway

Silvermoon City is the home of the Blood Elves. It is located in Northeastern Eversong Woods within what is known as the kingdom of Quel’Thalas.

It is the largest of all the Horde cities, and houses the largest population of blood elves that still remain in Azeroth.

The city was once double its current size. The entire Western side of the city was destroyed by the Scourge during the Third War. The ruins of Silvermoon and the city itself are separated by the Dead Scar, which is the path Arthas and his undead army used when attempting to resurrect Kel’thuzad.

History

The City of Silvermoon was originally founded by the high elves thousands of years ago after their arrival in Lordaeron. It was constructed from white stone and living plants, much in the same style as ancient kaldorei civilisations.

Central hubs in the city were the Academies of Silvermoon – a centre of learning of Arcane magic, and Sunstrider Spire, the home of the Royal family of the high elves. The ruling body of Silvermoon – the Convocation – also lived here.

The Second War left the city relatively untouched. The magi used the powers of the Sunwell to protect the city with a magical barrier, however the Third War was very different. Arthas and the scourge pushed through the city in their attempt to reach the Sunwell, capturing the city.

They kept the city whilst draining it off its resources, however left once they had finished with the place. Leaving the buildings mostly intact gave a ghost-town feel to the place for a long time.

Silvermoon was taken back by the blood elves, using new magics taught to them by Grand Magister Rommath. They reconstructed the Eastern side of the city to its former glory, however the Wretched still control the Western part of the city.

There is a massive amount of arcane energy that has been used to reconstruct the city, and cai

I’ve decided to combine these two together because the creation of Single Abstract Noun has certainly added towards my laughter count many many times over the past few days.

I’m pretty sure everyone knows what SAN is about by now but if not, mosey on over to visit Tam, cos he started it all off!

Anyhow.

What’s made me smile over the past month?

Firstly…

I decided I should sing along to something to distract Jae. I do believe I selected “Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey. She spent the rest of the day trying to embed a variety of terrible pop songs into my head…

The joys of being a paladin healer, hey Zal?

This gives all druids permission to log on to Terenas, find my boyfriend and berate him for describing trees as “smelly moth eaten tree things”. Berate away, fellow trees.

“Ste, (Yanader), I put you in my first ever funny screenshots post”.

This is what happens if you’re a draenei paladin honoring Elders in horde territory…, ‘flyby honoring’. Sounds like some sort of shooting incident!

I was explaining Putricide to our rogue in terms I thought made it clearest…

The worst bit is I cannot remember how we got into this conversation, but I am most DEFINITELY not up for some ‘girl on dead blue girl’ action, and I also learnt a little something about my raid leaders

This is what happens if you get boosted through Gnomeregan by a ditzy mage. THINGS CHASE YOU!

The day I simply faced the fact that me and Rotface were never going to get on.

My raid leading sensei promises to gift me the understanding of moonkin DPS…

Zal was having a tough time tanking baby instances on his warrior.

I maintain if he’d picked a better race (female gnum warrior? On what planet does that work?) things wouldn’t have been anywhere near as hard.

You know, he doesn’t even have to try. That one made me snort food everywhere. Thanks Zal <3

I can’t even get away with a typo.

I think I need to complain to someone about harassment or something…

Oh, Single Abstract Noun, how you amuse me…

I cant even remember what we were talking about, but from now on, wepwep = reverse pewpew.

I think we all know somebody with Curse of Annoying, right?

We were trying out the RP on Argent Dawn, sound advice from Tam there – don’t RP a stalker!

Yes, you can buy trolls in Tesco.

Discussing the formation of Abstract Noun and the fact there are lots of female bloggers out there, apparently

This isn’t a funny, more of an awesome. My first encounter with another SANer in Silvermoon.

Nice jugs!

OMGZ! Guild drama!

I’m leaving this one completely contextless…

Alzubra and Kumquat get down and dirty…

I went to take some screenies of myself and Kumquat to celebrate the formation of SAN.

I was having a bad day…

He brought this one himself, he really did.

Sorry Tam!

New terminology – Tam the Tonkadin. He has shield, will travel.

I don’t quite know why I wanted to catch Zal, but apparently it’ll be harder than anticipated!

And this is where Wingus and Dingus comes from. Festergut and Rotface will always be known as Wingus and Dingus now.

Apparently, raids are more important than boyfriends

Anyway.

I hope some of these gave you a giggle, thank you to all the SAN-EU members and of course Zal and Jae for providing me with hours of entertainment!

Sophxxxx

Last night was a really, really good night.

We had no raid on Friday, we were a couple of people down, however on Wednesday we’d taken down Lower Spire and Wingus and Dingus (Festergut and Rotface for those not au fait with the lingo). So, last night, we cleared some trash and faced the Blood Prince Council.

And, we got him down.

Our team was made up of 3 exceptional tanks (1 prot warrior, Grags, and 2 bears, Groulinis and Dhearic, Groul of which did an absolutely exceptional job of taking the shadow ball thingies), 2 healers (myself and Zalduun), and 5 DPS (Nyo (moonkin), Kabooms (the mage of the exploding strudels), Hammerhands (hunter), Rydia (Unholy DK) and Shamubar (a melee shammy – neither me or Nyo can remember whether that’s Elemental or Enhancement).

As Zal says, it was a stressful fight. We were all working our butts off, and a few things really helped us on our way:

• There are 2 kinetic bombs on 10 man. Our first few tries we missed the second one, but once we realised there was two, our ranged handled them brilliantly.
• You do not need a caster tank. Take a ‘real’ tank. It is doable with 5 DPS, and the fight wasn’t massively lengthy. The presence of a bear tank with 60k HP on made the pressure on us a lot easier, meaning we could safely…
• Use two healers.

We had a great composition and a great raid, fantastic add management, fantastic tanking, people paying attention and it all came together, netting us the guild first Blood Prince Council kill, and also the BPC section of the meta-achievement.

Congratulations, Flames!

We then, as one would do in this situation, moved on to Blood Queen Lana’thel. Who is spectacular. You know, I enjoy raiding. I love Flames, and I love my guildies. That’s why I love raiding.

But last night? I loved me. Those that know me will know I don’t have what could be ever called confidence in my own abilities. But last night, I rocked. I’ve actually changed how I raid recently. I’ve started paying a lot more attention, being a bit more serious about it all, possibly contributing a little more. And I do feel good for it. Last night was a prime example of that.

Now I know we have the buff. The buff is great. I am all for the buff, and every other blogger in the world has either complained or cheered the buff, so you don’t need my reasons too. I’m not a “serious” blogger in that sense.

So I know the buff certainly added towards last night’s performance, but I’m not going to let that detract from our awesomeness.

When the Lich King was defeated for the first time, and numbers started to be released on DPS figures, HPS figures and whatnot, I took interest.

Now, I’m competitive. I shouldn’t be – if I wanted to blast numbers, I should have rolled a paladin.

I’m comfortable with my niche. My synergy with Zal is awesome – we yin and yang, my HoTs cover the little spaces and his big blasts of light cover the big gaps. I’m used to my smaller numbers. It’s how things work. But Lana’thel is just…amazing. It is the most druid friendly fight I’ve ever seen, and cos of it, I felt like I could shine.

On the try where we actually got Lana’thel down to 10%, I was putting out 7.7k HPS. Now, when Paragon defeated the Lich King on 25man, their top output healer was putting out 4024 HPS. It made me think – I can do this, we can do this.

And I really hope we do.

I was on such a high.

I cannot wait until next week where we get to have another crack at her and hopefully get her down.

The second part of this post’s title is feeling vindicated. I’m the only druid main spec healer in our guild.

I don’t like Elitist Jerks – I’m not good with theorycrafting and numbers. To be honest, I suck at maths. I find the site confusing, complicated, lengthy and…full of obnoxious idiots. Ahem.

My research comes from blogs. I read so many druid blogs that I feel like it comes out of my ears sometimes. I find an idea. I look at that idea. I spend a long time reading everyones opinions on that idea. And then I follow it through.

And also, I have this obsession with socket bonuses. I don’t like grey text on my character sheet. I like my sockets to all make sense.

So. I read about the GotEM nerf. I didn’t understand it. But what I DID understand was that I needed a respec. Because I’d spent a long time working towards a system where I could get 5 rejuvenations into one Wild Growth cooldown. And I wasn’t quite there. So, with this change, I’d be even further away!

So, off to Moonglade I went. Me and the trainer had a chat, and I suddenly became the proud owner of the Celestial Focus talent. And then, the lovely druid bloggers of the world told me that there was this nice round number – 856 – that would mean that my spec could shift from this, back into points I liked having – like Living Seed. So I had something to aim for! So. I spent some money, I bought some gems, and I was at about 600 haste. So far away! I cried. But I’ve inched my way there, and with the purchase of my Vestments of Spruce and Fir, I passed that 856 number. Now, I was casting so fast, I barely had time to move across pitbull to my next person to cast again before the GCD had reset.

I was elated! However not a lot changed. Because our healing team works they way it does, although I personally noticed a change, I highly doubt anybody else did!

But Lana’thel, giving raid healers a chance to shine, allowed me to shine. It allowed me to say YES I am right for choosing this piece of gear and not having the 4set bonus (until testing proves me wrong, I won’t be investing. I favour the haste more than the crit, and to be honest although the 4pc may be fabulous for 25 man raiders, I already HAVE a rejuvenation on every single target almost all the time anyway, making it…a bit crap. FotP is about to embark on some 25 man raiding, and this may make me change my mind, but for now…no thanks), I am right for gemming as I gemmed to get my haste up, for choosing the spec I chose, for enchanting how I enchanted.

I felt proud of my research, I felt proud of myself and I felt proud of my character. That never happens, and I’m still elated and buzzed up today.

Long live haste, long live druid healers and long live feeling good about myself. I only wished it happened more often!

I know my druid, and I’m pleased about it. I just want to say, my eternal gratitude does go out to all the druid bloggers out there whose careful explanations, well written posts and fabulous drawings, because without them I’d have been left totally stranded.

The Observance Hall in Utgarde Pinnacle is the home of Svala Sorrowgrave. Svala was once a vrykul (whose culture and shape I discussed in February when I wrote about Skorn.

She is however, when you enter the room, in discussions with the Lich King. We do not know what about, but Svala has completed a great task for the Lich King, which causes him to transform her into a Val’kyr.

Her first mission as a val’kyr is to destroy the group of intruders who have entered Utgarde Pinnacle.

Val’kyr themselves are undead vrykul. They are a relatively recent addition to the armies of the scourge, and act as the Lich King’s ambassadors in the spirit world. They are described as “fearsome creatures made of pure nightmare”.

Val’kyr are created from female vrykul who accept the lich king’s “gift”. Valkyrion Aspirants can be found at Valkyrion, as can Nascent Valkyrion.

Val’kyr also appear to judge fights and battles, deciding if one can become a vargul or ymirjar, and they also ‘judge’ fallen vrykul.