DnD...

So I have been using the entrecard blog promoting system (sounds like a self help series) to try and get some kind of word out about the blog. But what I am really enjoying about it is the chance to get to find some many other cool blogs. Since then, my work production may (or may not) have taken a hit due to the sudden spike in blog scavenging. One of the blogs that I came across was a Dungeons and Dragons blog, Corollax.

Now, a little backstory on Vishero, in real life. Being from a large a (13 kids) and prodominatly male (10 boys) family, most of us became a sort of wierd mix of jock/closet nerd. I grew up reading the Dragonlance Chronicles series at 6 or 7 years old. I was captain of the football, soccer and volleyball team, but loved to play Magic:The Gathering with my best friend. All that being said, I never really dabbled into DnD, until about two or three years ago. My buddy at work introduced me to it and said that he was going to be DM-ing a new campaign starting soon with some mutal friends. (this same buddy is Koreth, my Night Elf Hunter friend!) I decided that I would give it a go, and literally from the moment I started playing I was hooked. I loved the imagination it took to play, the chance to make a character and *gasp* write his backstory.

We played nearly 2 times a month for several months straight, but then life happened and we stopped, Koreth moved to Missouri and the rest of the guys, well I had kind of gotten tired of their play style ("why isn't there more treasure...") So I have all the books from 3.5 edition but no one to play with... and reading this blog made me feel like some had stolen my puppy. Don't get me wrong, me loves to play some WoW, but the most fun (and challenges) I have ever had playing came from DnD. I think part of it is that I have had this deep dark secret my entire life... I have always wanted to write a fantasy novel/series. I played DnD as though this would be a character that I would someday write about and read about. I mean my first character I wrote a 3 page backstory. It is that type of imagination and creativity that I really miss. So if anyone knows someone in the Queen Creek/Gilbert/Mesa, AZ area that is aching for some dice rolling... let me know. Cause I am dying to play...

Weeding Time...

No seriously... tomorrow Mrs. Vish has a baby shower to go to and I have a yard to work on getting the weeds out of. Someone please explain how this is a fair trade? On a gaming note though, I love the druid ability 'Entangling Roots' for so many reasons, but one of my favorite is casting it on huge creatures and watching it engulf them... like Mr. Elite T-Rex devilsaur. A few saturdays ago, whilst I was trying to level my mining skills, I decided to have some fun. In beautiful, tropical Un'Goro Crater I took some time to go big dino hunting. I think I managed to get every elite devilsaur, except for King Mosh. That lizard wasn't really worth wasting pots and elixers over to try and take down solo.

Last night I got back into questing. I managed to convince my buddy Seidhkona to come over the Hellfire to help me out. He still had that "recently dinged 70" glow about him! With the help I was able to plow through about 4 quests that would have taken me hours to do (and some I wouldn't have finished.) Eventually (at 3am his time) Seid decided to act like a grown up and go get some sleep, and for a split second I considered the same thing. However an hour later I was finishing up the Dreghood Elders quest in the Ruins of Sha'naar. The only reason I was able to do this quest string solo at 61 was another druid ability (probably my favorite) stealth in Cat form. It was super easy to walk around the camp cloaked and just talk to the people I needed to, get the items, and kill one guy. It was a nice 10% xp boost for a little under 30 mins of work...

So somewhere between Mrs. Vish leaving for her Femal bonding ritual, and me taking two Aleve for lower back pain... I hope to maybe ding lvl 62... and it's all down hill from there!

What do you value?

What we value says a lot about us. Now this isn't a soapbox rant about material goods or what is good or bad to want but rather a funny lesson I learned about playing a "game"

So there I was, standing in the Auction House in Ironforge, looking through the wares for sale. My purpose was two fold: 1) I am someone who has been called lazy (I prefer to say that I have situational motivation) and so I was trying to find some things that I could 'corner the market on' and buy cheap and resell to make some gold. 2) I am always on the lookout for item upgrades since I switched over to resto. I still have a pretty good kitty DPS set, but am always looking for more +healing items.

So that being said, I come across some items that would be a definite upgrade for me, but by the same token the mace cost 24g, but was head and shoulders above what I was using. I seriously sat there staring at the screen for 5 or more minutes, debating, thinking "Can I really afford it?" Then it hit me... I AM PLAYING AN EFFING GAME. It isn't like if I buy this mace I am going to be short on my mortgage this month. I wasted 5 mins. of life debating whether I could use fake gold to buy an imaginary weapon to better my perceived status in a fantasy world. Really? Can I afford this? Heck ya I can... because worst case scenario, I have to suck it up and go farming to get more leather and ore, to then sell to some other shlub who will debate whether or not he can pay the 10g for "just a 20 stack of rugged leather." I can see him (or her) vividly in my mind debating whether they should continue to stock pile their (fake) gold because "you never know what may come along" or if the 1-2 lvls that they might get in leather working is worth the 10g...

Long story short I am under 100g for the first time in a long time, but overall I am feeling a lot better about my ability to heal. Talent is important, and I am hopefully building that each time I play, but having better gear plays an integral part to making yourself better. Just ask the kid whose mom "bought" her son's way onto the soccer team in the 7th grade... yep he was that bad and it still bothers me... I finally settled on about 5 new items from bracers to rings that added to my +healing. I am now at about 490 +healing with 5300 base mana unbuffed. I could have been higher on my +healing, but I went for a happy medium between the healing and loss of base mana and base hit points. I also stocked up on things to begin questing again, you know little things like scrolls and elixirs and potions and food and what not. And how hard is it to explain to a non-gaming wife how you can spend an hour or two “playing” but not really accomplish anything in the game, but having a blast practicing economic principles. (See it is more like homework for econ then playing)

I won't soon forget the lessoned learned about what we hold dear... cause if WoW gold is anywhere near the top of someone's "What I Hold Dear" list, I think it might be time for them to reevaluate their lives/priorities.

300...

Great movie... (with a couple of scenes that I could have done without and frankly didn't really add to the movie) but better feeling. Yep, I hit 300 mining over the last couple of days and it feels so nice. However the journey there wasn't so great and I swear that I will never set foot again in those freaking bug holes in Silithus! But all in all, it felt good to get above that mark, but it felt better to get all the gold that I made off that ore. I have been trying to play the market again and see if I can't get up over 500g for my epic ground mount. It has been going pretty well so far and I am holding steady between 300 and 350, but I bought up a bunch of items to try and re-sell over the weekend.

I digress... with my mining above 300 I finally can focus most, if not all, of my attention to Outlands. Not to say that aren't great things to be had back in some of the Azeroth instances, but for personal experience so far I have found that everything in better in Outland. Jeez... kind of sounds like a Texas add.

And on the topic of Texas, I will have to see if I have a priceless picture from my time there. My wife and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon (greatest idea I have ever had!!!) and it left out of Galveston, Texas. We got to spend a day in Houston with my little sister (who lives there with her hubby) and I saw the most classic billboard. I had a picture of a can of "Lone Star" beer and the caption read "Lone Star Beer. The National Beer of Texas." Really? The national beer of the state of Texas, I am confused, because I thought that Texas was a sta….

Again with the digressing... Now that I can focus my time in Outland, and I have grown way tired of BG's, I am hoping that the leveling train is coming into the station! My buddy, Seidhkona hit 70 this week and that motivated me a little more to work on leveling. My only problem has been that I have been playing around with my alts so much, working on their professions. It has been fun, but I think I am ready to branch out my questing options. For the most part I stick to the Stormwind area for beginning quests because a) they are familiar and b)they are pretty easy. But I am getting a little tired of killing Yowler for the umpteenth time and I swear if I have to "investigate" Jasperlode mine one more time I'll...

/take aspirin and put down cricket bat

So I think from here on out I want to level my toons somewhere new. There is so much to in the game that I have never done, and I am not talking about the end game stuff. I mean low level stuff that I have skipped because it was in "Emo Elfland" (as a friend calls Darnassus) but that might be on hold for a while. If I was any good at Photoshop (which I am not, and yes is I am jealous of Phae) I would have a picture of Vish holding his "70 or Bust" sign!

When life gives you lemons...

So we have all heard the saying... "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" and that is all well and good. But what about when life is just giving you nothing but crap... what do you make then? Now I don't want to come off negative, but sometimes it seems like whenever the words "Well, at least it can't get any worse" escape my lips, the clouds part, the heavens open and I am reminded that it can!

Mrs. Vish has been sick for some time now and a combined 20 yrs. of medical school can't find anything to give us. (assuming that doctors go to 4 yrs. schooling) And ever since Friday life seems to been in a downward spiral.

Friday - Mrs. Vish hydroplanes and spins her car completely around, in the process giving herself a mild concussion. A couple of hours in the ER and things are all better!

Saturday - We both wake up with sore throats and by the end of the day (another trip to urgent care) find out that we both have strep and she has bronchitis.

Sunday - All in all a good day, except for that whole strep/bronchitis thing...

Monday - Mrs. Vish's lady doctor (ob/gyn) calls and informs her that someone is writing fraudulent prescriptions under her name, and there is going to be an investigation into it and if anyone is found guilty (implying that she is) that it is a felony crime...

Skip Tuesday to Wednesday - Had an appointment with a GI doctor (apparently GI doctors are not nearly as cool as GI Joes...) and got to schedule a colonoscopy for Mrs. Vish next month. This all seems bad but the GI at least had some ideas of what may be causing some, if not all of her problems.

All of that being said, things are looking up, well as up as they can be. The antibiotics are working like a charm... like a lvl 70 camping in STV... There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, even if that light is connected to a medical instrument and the tunnel is... well you know. So I kind of sit back now looking back over it all and thinking to myself... yeah, it sure sucked going through it, but in the long run... um, not too bad. Sure there is still hurdles to jump (not easy for a large fellow such as I) and things to get taken care of, but it isn't that bad... right?

Raid... and not the bug spray

So last weekend I got my first taste of what a raid was like, and worse, it was a complete pug raid. I joined a group that was going to down Ysondre, the wonderful green dragon! I had never even heard of this mob, let alone tried going after her. But I saw they needed healers and wanted to try my hand and see how I could do. Here are some of my observations, but keep in mind... this was a pug group.

Trying to get 20 - 30 people together is a real pain in the butt, especially with the afk-ers.

Some people think that they are so superior in the game because they "have done this a million times." Being on vent only further showed this to be true.

On the flip side, there were more than enough people that really didn't belong in the group to begin with. Yeah there were a couple of people that didn't understand that they were taking over aggro, and they kept wondering why they were dying so fast. But then there were a couple of like lvl 30 and below characters....really? Why are they even there? Pretty sure they aren't really bringing anything to the party.

Organization was the key. We wiped the first time because some moron completely went against everything the raid leader said. Second time, although many died, we were able to down her pretty easily.

Loot sharing between 30 people really sucks, especially when all that drops is mail, plate and cloth items, and when you do roll, you roll a freaking 12!

All that being said, we dropped Ysondre in Darkshire area and then ran up to the portal... ha ha very funny the portal doesn't do anything... yet. i have been reading the rumors that the next expansion (not WotLK, the one after that) could possibly have something to do with the emerald dream. Perfect, this portal may be a dud right now, but I think there is a plan waiting for it. All in all it was a fun experience, but not something I want to do on a regular basis.

Random ramblings for Thursday night...

So I am not sure where any of these came from... I guess things that have just been on my mind today and what not.

- Why is it that Doctors think that they are helping by telling you what you DON'T have? I have never understood that. They look at all of the symptoms then explain what it isn't... really how does that help?

- Demetri Martin is one of the funniest people alive today (if not the funniest) He doesn't even really tell jokes, he just makes me laugh my head off... seriously you need to check him out on YouTube. I suggest "Jokes with guitar" and also his flipchart ones... freaking classic!!

- Why do I feel like such an idiot trying to put on oven mitts... I mean the first one is really easy to get on, but then trying to get the other one on is harder than brain surgery... especially for someone with big fat guy hands.

- Do you think that Blizzard could do something about long freaking flight paths? I mean being a druid is cool because we can teleport to Moonglade, but then to try and fly from there (with the necessary travel to Ruth. Village) to say somewhere like Un'Goro crater is ridiculous. 45 mins later I am ready to start mining...

- Speaking of mining, wtf is the idea behind leveling mining from like 245 to 300? Seriously the first 200 is a cake walk to get, but then there is a huge lull in progression. If the only thing that you can mine to get there is thorium, blizz might want to make it just a bit more accessible. Honestly there were 7 people trying to mine the like 4 thorium nods in Un'Goro last night... give us a break blizz.

- I am glad the writer's strike is over, cause lets face it, if I have to choose "Rock of Love II" and whatever rerun is on then there is really no point to owning a DVR. Can't wait for new episodes of "Chuck" and "The Office" to be back on!

- Cooking is much easier to level as you progress in the game, then to try and go back and level it with a high level character because you finally realize that it IS important and helpful in the game (thank heaven for golden fish sticks)

- Do you think that when we die, there might maybe, just maybe, be a movie about over life? At times I ask myself what kind of movie mine would be... a comedy, a drama, a lame 80's movie? And then I spend more time thinking about songs that we will be on my movie's soundtrack. I think tonight I found the perfect song for my ending scene... you know the one. The one when I am about to die, and I am sharing some profound wisdom with my children/grandchildren, and then it is instant flashback and scene flip through pivotal moments in my life. What scenes will be in that 4 min span as the song plays... maybe times when I lived in Argentina, or perhaps my recent wedding day. Heck, I am only 25 so I bet there are times still to come that will be in the movie montage... but regardless, the song is "All kinds of Time" by Fountains of Wayne. FREAKING ROCKS!!!

Anyways, that is just a few things that I have had on my mind the last little while... thanks for letting me get that out of my mind, the other voices were starting to get jealous of the space those thoughts were taking up....

Super noob....

Sometimes my noobishness astounds even myself. So I have been trying to get into this wide world of blogging and it has been going pretty well. Mrs. Vish sometimes complains that I am addicted to WoW (which I ademitly deny!) but for a long time now I have been much more addicted to WoW blogs... anything really, not just druid stuff. I think it all started with reading BigRedKitty, and then that became a part of my daily routine. From there I got hooked on other blogs... BigButtBear, Resto4life, Tj and the demonic ponytail, ect. and I now find myself reading them each throughout the week. They are kind of what inspired me to start writting, that and a deep down desire to better my writting skills.

So off to the blogging world I went and I would make sure and keep my wife updated on it (after I asked her permission, I mean told her I was doing it!!! again addiction worries surfaced...) She has been great to tell me how proud she was when my site meter hit 10... only to find out most of those were me checking on the blog. (noob) I had to pick her up off the floor when the blog hit triple digit visits... hopefully not all from me this time. She was excited when I set up my entrecard account and low and behold TJ (whom Mrs. Vish got to hear all about even though she could care less) wanted to advertise on my blog. And I think I almost brought her to tears when BRK (again his reputation proceeded him) decended from his mighty throne on Mt. Buttkickus to advertise on my blog. I found myself wondering if I was worthy of such demi-gods presence as their's, and the many other wonderful bloggers that I am getting to know better.

That being said... I have been trying to get better about posting comments and some ask for me to leave my URL, to which I gladly did. Come to find out I think that I have been leaving the wrong URL at times... WHAT A NOOB. No wonder solo healing a 5 man instance is tough for me... I can't even get the URL right. So, who's the goose...ME! I got my fill of humble pie and thinking that "this blogging stuff isn't too hard... A NOOB COULD DO IT" Well I am here to tell ya that a Noob is doing it...

The picture says it all...

So this weekend I got my first taste of the wonderful world of pugging (Pick Up Group) and I can now see why this isn't the method of choice for raiding. I got to heal in Ramparts and Blood Furnace, and this was my first time in either of them.

Ramparts - I need the quest in here to get the three boss' body parts. (Head, hand, foot) It took all of 3 mins. to find interested people on a Sunday afternoon. We headed in and things started out ok. With healbot up things were going pretty good. The only problems we ran into are when our tank would "pull" without actually pulling things back away from approaching patrols. All of a sudden, 4 mobs jump to 8 and we wiped pretty darn quick. But through it all I think we only wiped 3 times during the entire instance, so overall I felt proud that I was able to keep most of the group alive at all times. I got my quest turned in at Honor Hold and then was led into the Blood Furnace with the next set of quests.

Furnace - This wasn't a complete PUG as my good buddy Koreth came with his bad ace pig pet BossHog! I think we ran this we four people (and two pets) and it didn't seem to take long at all. This group was a lot more organized and we only had one wipe. (again not pulling far enough away from another group) This was my first time in the furnace and it was a ton of fun to say the least. During the marathon fight (before the floating eyeball boss) things got a little hairy as I was running out of mana, but a well placed mana potion and an innerveration got us through the fight. The only other time that we wiped was at the last guy, but that wipe was due mostly because of spacing. (or lack there of)

All and all I really enjoyed doing these two instances, the first two that I had really run complete since Deadmines. I had been in a couple of others like sunken temple and zal'furak but never had I run the all the way through. Partly was because they take soooo long. These two at Hellfire Citadel went real quick, especially when we stopped dying! Also, I had never really tried to PUG before this weekend, but it wasn't as bad as I had heard. I don't want to make a habit of it, but it got the job done. I can't wait until our small (really small) guild has enough high level characters to manage a 5-man run and I know who I am dealing with a little better... until then I guess it is pugging for fun!!!

Good (long) Weekend

So sometimes it really pays to work for a bank... and other times it pays even when you aren't at work. The department I am in luckily is closed for all 10 banking holidays, with pay. So Monday felt really good to do absolutely nothing at all and know that I am still getting paid. Now if only I didn't dislike the people I work with...

That being said I got a lot of time to play around this weekend and (unfortunately) that lead to little blogging. I think that I am going to try and keep my laptop nearby while playing so that I got get in an update every now and then. So, as work permits today I will be updating and posting what really happened this weekend. In the end it sounds like a really corny joke. "What do you get when you mix a PUG, a high level area, and a noob...?" Stay tuned and find out...

Hit me....wait... no I'll stay!

BLACKJACK!!! The blackjack II actually... but wait there is a story behind it!

So you may have read my post about my least favorite holiday... the so called "St. Valentine’s Day" I explained how no one I talked to could tell me why this is even a holiday or we why do what we do this day. (I later read this article which help clear some of this up) That being said, yesterday had the all fixins' of a true soap opera day...

/do deep announcer voice

"This is the Young and the Noobish"

I thought that name only applied to my WoW stories, but apparently it applies to me being married too... who knew? Well the story goes as this. I got my wife her super awesome gift and she had gotten me some really cool stuff too, a new golf bag and a subscription to Men's Health... and no I don't really golf, but I want to get into eventually. Regardless, in the morning I get a call from my boss saying that I need to be to work early, which compounded by the fact I got up late (late night in the BG and leveling my alt hunter) made for a hectic morning. Plus Mrs. Vish was still feeling pretty sick, and wanted to go into town to stay at her parent’s house. So we are running late and I am in a hurry, which apparently is a recipe for disaster. By the time I left her at the in laws house we were both pretty upset with each other... on Valentine's Day of all days.

After several hours of meetings, she still hadn't called me, and like a lost little puppy, I tried to call her every 10 mins or so. Eventually we talked and told one another that we had surprises. I naturally thought this was to make up for the fight. So I race home after work to exchange "surprises" with her... and I was really, really surprised.

I started by telling her that I wanted to take her to one of her favorite (and very expensive) restaurants on Saturday. I had made the reservations at "The Melting Pot" which is a pretty good fondue place. Then she dropped the A-Bomb of effing surprises on me. She had gotten me a new phone!!! (Yeah... the one above) I had been telling her for weeks that I needed a new phone (sense she had inadvertently put mine through the washing machine) but I didn't think we had the money for it. Well she used her two year upgrade to get me this bad A mother. And all of a sudden V-Day is like a second Christmas... even with its highly unknown and slightly sketchy origins.

It's a Bear Market...

And that was not some well thought druid pun... It's a fact!!! So I was on the AH the other day to put a bunch of thick leather on there. While there I found several stacks at (what I felt was) well below price, so I decide to buy them up and resell them. Usually this has worked out quite well for me and I was going to make double profits on everything I bought, or so I thought. I put mine up for the normal price I have been getting for a 20 stack, around 4.5g a stack, and low and behold the market gets flooded with it over night. People are selling at 2g a stack and there was lots at that price... Needless to say I now have over 20 stacks of leather sitting in my bank, hoping for a "bull" market. Just goes to show you why I only managed a "B" in both micro and macro economics!... stupid community college.

Healbot + 1 hour = 300k

The last couple of days have been so crazy that it is really hard to keep them straight. First I had to wipe my PC clean and reinstall everything... including WoW. That took some time but wasn't too bad. Then I was out with my wife who was (and still kind of is) sick. I don't mean cold or flu sick... I mean weird body pains and not keeping any food down sick. AND NO... SHE ISN'T PREGNANT, trust me that is what every doctor has asked us (and checked) when we go to see them. So yesterday I got to spend the day with her and we had a good time. (as good as she could have) We watched "Phantom of the Opera" (the newest movie version) and spent some time at home relaxing. Also over those days my computer was on the fritz... and only yesterday was I able to get back to WoW. In the interim I did get to start a new "career mode" career as the manager of Manchester United in FIFA 07...sometimes I miss that game.

/reminisce

Anyways, last night was my first "real" night back to Azeroth. I had gone in earlier to reinstall a few key addons and reconfigure my bars and whatnot... One of the few "new" addons I wanted to try out was Healbot. Reading the addon post from BigButtBear's blog, I read that this was an exceptional addon for healers to, and upon further investigation I found that it was supposed to make healing super easy! I had my doubts, but the first time I went into AV with it all such doubts were crushed...coincidently so was the horde that game! I took some time to reconfigure the skins and make it more usable on my screen and I was dealing out the heals left and right. It made healing so incredibly easy and, dare I say FUN, that I couldn't wait to use it again. Our last game of the night the horde finally caught on and things went slow and eventually turned into a major turtle-fest. An hour later our resources were depleted, but I hade obliterated my previous healing best... a whooping 325k in heals! Oh man it rocked....

Happy Valentines Day

Well it's V-Day again... no not Victory Day, but Valentine's Day. While this "holiday" is not my particular favorite, I am married, and it is a BIG deal to her! Trust me... last year I tried to use logic to get out of it. I asked if anyone could explain to me the reason that we celebrate this day and how the commercial aspect of it fits into the celebration. Guess what, NO ONE COULD. However that didn't stop my then fiancé from getting very, very upset that I didn't take it seriously.

So this is my first V-Day as a married man and I am proud to say that I learned from past mistakes. I got her exactly what she wanted (a new Marc Jacobs necklace) and even got her a furry teddy bear and card to match it. Although the bear is kind of creepy, it had a great "inside joke" between me and my wife, regardless of it level of intense creepiness! So all and all, things are going pretty good for this druid, especially because I bought my first honor reward for AV, just in time for Valentine’s Day. I mean honestly, nothing in all of Azeroth says "Happy Valentine's Day" like a dagger and a bouquet of flowers, right?

Regardless I got the Lei of the Lifegiver last night. I don't quite get it, because I thought a Lei would be a flowery necklace not a bunch of flowers you hold. And on a complete tangent, I was super disappointed when I visited Hawaii! There was a native girl scantily glad giving everyone a lei... wtf? I digress... I got the Lei as an "upgrade" from the Enthralled Sphere I picked up a few weeks ago. I think overall it was an upgrade because of the added healing, but I did drop a bit of mana and life to get it. I have been seeing that a lot lately in the gear I have gotten. I am having to choose more mana for intelligence or choose to get +healing gear, and to tell you all the truth I am not quite sure what is a good balance... any suggestions?

Regardless, I like the look of the flowers or the sphere. I mean every time I get that sphere out I looked like i was holding one of those weird lawn globes. Why do people use them anyways? In my opinion it is a toss up between lawn globes and lawn gnomes which are the more useless/creepy weird yard decoration. We have a couple that we hang out with here that decorated their kitchen with garden gnomes... and the first time I walked in there I about freaked out!

Patch 2.4...

/insert preface

This post has little to do with the patch notes on 2.4 because those can be seen on any number of other (imo better) blogs. I wanted to give my take on what I had found out...

/preface off


So I was surfing the blog scene and loved reading Brelaine's posts on the patch notes over at Healer LFG. I highly recommend going through them if you play any sort of mana based class... interesting stuff. That being said I am really excited for the changes that are happening to the druid class, even without fully understanding them! The buff that Lifebloom gets sounds great, and hopefully I will start leveling again and get Lifebloom. The charts/graphs that she has there in regards to intelligence vs spirit are great and helped me to better understand what gear I should look for (yeah...I’m that noobish!) All in all it was really informative and helpful to a casual player such as me, to better understand the game.

This is the real reason I started this post... and I know it may sound cliché but it is totally true. I started this better to better understand how to play my class(es) and to develop my budding writing talent (or lack thereof) I don't plan on posting anything groundbreaking or amazing, but hopefully every once in a while I can manage something funny, maybe a profound thought here and there... here' to dreaming right! But that being said, I know that there are soooo many others out there blogging their hearts away that are much, much better than I. I hope that the 10+ people that have come by this site so far (hey it’s a start!) enjoy their visit and stop back by once in a while. I aim to please, but let’s face it... I couldn't even hit the huge target in Boy Scouts... so don't hold your breath too long.

She said, he said...

So I was readin Resto4life the other day and found this amazing project that Phaelia is working on. It is a complete list of druid blogs in one central location. I took the opportunity to add this link to my blog in hopes that some one (if any one ever happens by here) might see it and find it useful... I know that even in the short time I have had it I have enjoyed exploring the web insearch of new blogs to read, especially druid blogs that will potentially improve my game play (or make my laugh hystarically out loud...thanks bigbuttbear ;) I admire such wonderful people that time out of their busy lives to put something like this together... here's to you Phaelia... the toast of the town!!!

IT'S NOT A DRESS..... IT'S A KILT!!!

So I was out questing with my buddies Koreth and Seidhkona the other day when we got the great idea to go into Ramparts. Seid and I had the quests in there to work on so off we headed...

In this group I have a funny spot to fill. At the time my druid was a nearly full Feral Spec, with limited talents in Restoration (just enough to get omen of clarity) However, whenever the three of us got together, I always ended up being the healer. In no way, shape or form am I complaining about my lot in the group, but I wasn't very good at it when I started. After reading some other blogs, most of all BigButtBear and Resto4life, I realized that I needed to start to collect a set of "healing" clothes. So off to the AH I ran...

/drop huge amounts of gold on new items
/lament loss of gold

So after a day or two of perusing the AH I found some pretty good stuff (in my opinion) I was now ready to be, as Koreth puts it, a true Healing "B" (insert own comments there) So I show up to heal in this outfit (see pic) and Seid says "Wow.. really taking the healing to heart, you showed up in a Dress!" Usually I have no problem with comments from these guys, but a dress? This got my Scottish blood a boiling... and I answered like any self respecting Scot would.

"IT"S NOT A DRESS... IT"S A KILT" Without even realizing what I was saying (jokingly), I was actually right on this one... I was wearing a kilt. Who knew? Needless to say gear was only part of the battle. It wasn’t until recently that I did a respec to resto/balance that healing has really taken off for me. Now I get the chance to wear the kilt all the time, not to mention my healing pimp hat… whats not to like about that…

I am still new to the healing game play and gear, but I am having a blast now learning all these new things, and occasionally stealthing in cat form to do some damage!

All things in "mod"eration...

"Remember to take all things in moderation, including World of Warcraft" - WoW loading screen

So for the past little while I have been somewhat addicted... not to WoW itself, but to finding, downloading and installing new addons for the game. I have take most of them from what I have found on BigRedKitty and this post on BigButtBear. Now there are some great mods out there to be used, but my problem is that I was trying to do too much and I lost track of the gameplay (and many functions that I need to play the game) The long of the short is that today I had to wipe my system and start from scratch by reinstalling WoW to my PC.

There is a lot to be said for the developers of these addons who spend countless hours scripting and coming up with some great ideas, but I don't think that even they are running 35+ mods on the game (I know.... it got bad) I have to agree with BigButtBear when I say that I am (now) a minimalist in regards to what addons I am going to try out. Moderation in all things... I think I have heard that somewhere before.

Milestone... I think

So last night I broke a personal record in any battle ground... I broke 100k healing!!! I don't know that this is necessarily a good thing that the Alliance needed over 100k in healing during the BG, but I am up to the challenge. This actually was one of the longer BGs that I have done as of late...may have been the longest AV I've ever done! Regardless, I do take some small amount of pleasure that I was able to do this, especially since I just recently changed specs to become a healer. Not bad for someone who has never really done it before!

But even as my pride hat is being worn, I know that there is a big slice of humble pie waiting for me still in the game. (uummm pie...) I have yet to experience any of the big raids in the game, well I guess even the smalls I haven't really gotten to. That is what I love about WoW... there is so much that one can do that the possibilities are endless, or at least seem that way. For example, I just recently joined a small guild on our PvP server. Know I don't know if and when this guild might become a raiding guild, or if we will even get enough members to do so. But if not, I have two buddies that play and we are going to form a 3v3 arena team. And if that didn't pan out I can always just hit the BGs or maybe even try to PUG an instance or two (not the mode of choice I hear) My point is that Wow really does have something to offer no matter what type of gameplay you are looking for. And I haven't even tried an RP server...

And so it starts...

So here i sit at my computer debating whether or not to even start this blog... My buddy over at The Elementalist is (in my opinion) a professional writter and I know that he eventaully may read this blog. That in and of itself is daunting to think about, regardless of however many more people may (or may not) read this blog...

/wipe sweat from forehead

What is in a name... an interesting thought. I was digging through my brain (a short dig indeed) for something catchy and important. I think it goes without saying that I have failed miserably. I don't want potentially readers to think that I am some young kid. I chose this name because I am still realativly young in playing the game, and therefore do some things like a complete Noob!!! That being said, I want to intorduce myself. I am an avid player of, what i consider to be, the best social interactive game ever World of Warcraft. I wouldn't classify myself as a "hardcore" player (though my wife might disagree) however I do enjoy playing the game and more importanly I really enjoy learning how to play better. My main charater is a Druid by the name of Vishero on the Agamaggan (US) server. I know he is only a lvl 60 right now, but I have gotten into the kick of playing Battle Grounds (bg) over the last week or so... thus the lack of leveling. For the last 60 lvls i have keep his specced out as a feral machine, with the ability to occasionally heal in a pinch. However, recently (mostly do to playing in the bg) I have respecced him as a resto/balance mana machine! But he is one of a couple of characters that I have been playing recently. My playing style is kinda like an episode of any soap opera...(again reason for the blog title) Characters come in and out randomly, but there are a few main key players! Vish is my main star, well the closest thing that I have to a star.

I wanted to write this blog for several reasons...some of them selfish at best. I want to use this to vent and/or rant. I want to be able to chart my experiences through Azeroth and remember funny little stories along the way. Most of all I want to be able to interact with the wonderful wide world of bloggers, bounce ideas of some readers (if any) and learn from others. I don't really have high hopes for this blog... nothing that is going to make me famous, but if along the way I can meet some cool people than I am down with that! So there you have it... in a nutshell I guess.