Hello, Goodbye…

I think it’s past time to close up shop here at ILB land. I don’t have a lot of WoW talk to share these days, and despite making an attempt or two, can’t bring myself to blog non-WoW stuff here, either.

But fear not!  You can find me over here form now on, instead. I promise I will still toss out the occasional flowchart, the content will just be a lot more…random in topic.

Coming Soon to an LFR Near You

Coming soon to a LFR near you: that mother fucking disc priest in PVP shoulders, a +hit chest (albeit reforged), and a fucking blue weapon.

Fuck yeah, baby. Lyrandre’s back in town. You know you missed me. I sure as hell missed you.

Don’t look at me like that, internet. I promise I will gem and enchant ALL THE THINGS before I hit LFR.  Even if they’re PVP and +hit things. Except maybe the weapon. I’m just going to have to replace that piece of shit.

The healing reflexes were pretty rusty when I started this project, but I think I’ve got them mostly working now. I haven’t wiped a 5 man in awhile–just that one time, when the tank and I ran in opposite directions by accident. I’m excited to get Lyrandre back into a raid situation–even just LFR–just to see how it flows.

When all else fails, retreat to what you know best.

Smote

I’ve been doing my best to level Lyrandre with something resembling haste, which has lead to me being terribly bored of smiting.

I mean sure, it’s entertaining at first–but by the time you hit 83/84, suddenly your mana bar seems to have sprung a leak, and holy fire/smite/smite/smite turns into holy fire/smite/smite/smite/smite/holy fire/smite/SW:D/fuck I misjudged, smite.

This is where you’d say Amber, isn’t Lyr dual specced?

Yes, yes she is.  Disc and nothing.

…what do you mean I should use that second spec for shadow?  Pffft. 

I’ve hit 84 and the dreaded Twilight Highlands, which means that I will be a paper armored smear on the ground several times from here on out. Woe.

My pugging experiences have been mostly good, until I got one of Those Tanks the other day. He was in partial casting gear (BARE tank, I’m guessing moonkin otherwise) and at one point–after I nearly died on the first trash pull–I made him aware that hey, untanked caster mobs tend to eat the healer.

He said that was fine. He was invincible!

No really, he said that he didn’t care if I died because he was invincible.

By the time I hit 85 the rust should be completely, brutally knocked off my healing skills…

Comfort of the Familiar

The cycle of bubble / holy fire / smite smite smite smite is soothing. I level my priest half to help my raid (possibly), and half to help myself.

I can’t smite my future mother in law to death, but I can smite something.  I like having this routine thing to fill my time and and offer a pretty platform to talk to my friends through.  I do not play because of World of Warcraft, itself, but rather for the comfort of the familiar.

RL is a two-edged blade at the moment. My new position sucks much less, although I’m a little keyed up over being, well, new. Josh however, has hit a low of seething hatred for his current job (the company is showing every sign of going belly up in a bit, anyway) and that washes back on me despite his best efforts. The wedding planning is driving me crazy. Most of the friends that I was looking forward to seeing can’t make it, and Josh’s mother is driving me into a frothing rage.

HOLY FIIIIIRE!

WIIIINNNGGGSSSSS.

And so I fill my evenings with simple pleasures.

Fact: I Do Still Play WoW!

I am, in fact, still around–however between having a Warmachine army to paint and my wedding being now less than a month away, you can probably expect me to be quiet for awhile longer.

Weddings suck, man. If I’d known so few of my friends would make it out here I think I would have eloped after all.  What’s the difference between having your future mother-in-law bitch about you eloping behind your back vs having her talk shit about your wedding plans behind your back?

Why yes the process so far as been delightful, how can you tell?

I had a Twitter follower spot (and then come say hi to!) me at Wizard World Comic Con on Saturday, which was apparently a rather bemusing experience for the Cranky Tank.

“Who was that?”

“Uh, someone from the internet.”

“…someone from the internet?”

“Someone from the internet, yes.”

Josh thinks Twitter is pretty moronic, so I left it at that.  I have to say that Comic Con isn’t really my cup of tea–I’m more of a Ren Faire girl, I suppose. My Green Linen Shirt also confused Peter S. Beagle. Anyone have a good way to explain that shirt? I sure as hell don’t.

I now have a signed copy of The Last Unicorn, though.  That’s pretty awesome.

In other, actually WoW related news, my shaman is level 69 and braving Northrend. I ran a dungeon with Alas on Lyrandre as well, bringing the bubble priest to close to 82. She may yet make a return thanks to our sudden dearth of priests.  What? Where’d you all go guys?

Last but not least, Stands in Bad in recruiting! At this rate we can work with just about anything, but heals are definitely a priority. We’d prefer a priest (again, where the fuck did they go?) but we’re not exactly being picky.  Just be geared to do t12 and don’t suck. The name is a joke, not a goal!

Bringing Back the Bubbles: The Disc Priest Journey from 80 Onwards

I was perusing through my search terms today (you people are fucking disturbing) and along with many many searches about how fucking STUPID Rhyo is, there were a LOT of searches for leveling disc priests.

So, hi.  First off, leveling disc priests is awesome. I leveled Lyrandre entirely disc, but I started her off in BC.  Things are so different now that I don’t dare touch the lower level stuff, but I can talk a wee bit about going from 80 on up.

Step One: Spec smite heal.
Step Two: Bubble thyself.
Step Three: Holy Fire!
Step Four: SMITE ALL THE THINGS.
Step Five: Pop wings for the pretty graphic/if you actually need mana.

If I managed to pull multiple mobs then I’ll toss around SWP and DP. Penance doesn’t really get used for questing unless I feel like seeing the pretty graphic, but it’s handy in case something actually manages to hurt you.

I can pull for quite awhile without drinking, but I’m also in ICC gear, so make of that what you will. So far I can quest and dungeon heal effectively with the same spec (my second spec currently sits empty).  I’m well-nigh indestructable questing because I do a pretty good job of healing myself with smite. I just have to make sure I don’t let people die in dungeons while smiting. >.>

And now, to actually comment on anything past level 81 for these posts, I’m going to have to go level my priest…

Hmm.

Yesterday, I dusted off Lyrandre and sent her to go swim her way through some questing.

Today, I hear about PW:S getting nerfed.

Coincidence?  I THINK NOT.

Bringing Back The Bubbles

Hi, folks. Arrens here from that other site that hasn’t been updated regularly in far too long. Blame work. And work filters. And whatever else pops into my Sudofed-addled brain this morning.
 
Anyways, I asked my arch-nemesis if I could provide a guest post here. See, I’ve been leveling a priest for the better part of this year. Theodious is my dwarven disc priest, the dispenser of bubbles and all-around cad. (Seriously. I play on an RP server. If you happen upon Feathermoon-Alliance and engage in an in-character discussion with Theo AND you’re playing a female toon, run. Fast.) 
 
Theo isn’t my first attempt at a priest. He’s actually my 6th. (Amber in: it’s a disease; Lyr was 5th or 6th) The previous 5 never made it to level 20 before finding the delete button. They were tedious and boring and GODDAMMIT WHY WASN’T THE LFD SYSTEM OUT A LOT EARLIER?!
 
Ahem. Sorry. But Theo sat at level 12 for months. Seriously. For nearly 6 months, he gathered dust as I couldn’t be arsed to go out and smite my way through gnolls and spiders and the odd troll/yeti hiding in caves. But something happened along the way. I got the itch to level him, something I never could have foreseen. And I did. With great gusto. Full use of heirlooms and the LFD system had me tossing bubbles out left and right. I learned about spamming Flash Heal and have been laughed at time and again for my overuse of Renew as a non-holy priest. But you know what? It worked and I kept my groups mostly alive. (Except mages, who I still let die because my inner warlock chortles.) (FYI: you are supposed to let ROGUES and WARLOCKS die, not mages.  Mages give you noms.  Arrens is doin’ it wrong.)

 

This picture isn't relevent to anything. I'm just breaking up Arren's wall of text. You're welcome.

 
Then along comes patch 4.0.1 and everything gets flip-turned upside down. New talents, new spells, and SWEET BABY ZOMBIE JESUS MY MANA POOL JUST TRIPLED! So I have that going for me, which is nice.
 
Yesterday, Theo hit level 70. He’s been through Utgarde Keep (So.  Tired.  Of that instance.)  about a dozen times now and I’m thankful to largely be away from the new DK tanks who don’t know what threat generation is. (Seriously, guys. Use Blood Presence now if you’re tanking. This is non-negotiable and will cause me to drop group if you pull the first group in anything else.)  (If only it was just the DK tanks.  Oh my god.  Something about UK brings out the fail in tanks.)
 
“But Arrens,” I can hear you say. “What’s the fucking point of this post aside from telling us that you’ve done what everyone and their goddamn brother has done in leveling another toon?” To which I respond, Relax, skippy. I’m getting to that.
 
See, Amber’s blog is titled “For The Bubbles.” Yet, when’s the last time she talked anything about bubbles? She hasn’t in a long, long time. No, she’s almost all hunter, all the time. (Do you know how many disc priests you can have in a raid?!  THE ANSWER IS NOT THREE.)  Which is great and all, but the snark’s gone. (Gone my ass.  Wit’s as sharp as ever, baby.) She’s lost her bluster. (LOL) The fight between my arch-nemesis and I isn’t so much a fight anymore as it is a roflstomp on my part. (LOLOLOLOL.  Delusions!  So cute!) So as a means to get back to our roots, I’m going to provide her with some snark on this here blog and give the leveling tips from a Disc Priest’s perspective in the post-4.0 universe. Some of these are obvious no-brainers. They’ve been around since the dawn of WoW. But others? Well…some folks need could use a smack to the back of the head when they queue in the LFD. This is for them.
 
1.) I need mana. No, really. I need mana. Tanks, if I sit down for a drink because I’ve only got 1/4 of my mana left after you opted to pull the entire bloody instance, please let me fill it up before going back for more. I know you’re sadistic sonsabitches taking whacks to the head for the greater good, but I can’t heal you unless you see blue under my green health bar. If you continue to run all willy-nilly and we wipe due to your impatience, I will leave. (Sidenote: Priests need Life Tap. Serious.)

2.) Power Word: Barrier is a pretty cool mechanic. It’s like a giant bubble for the whole group. You stand under it, you don’t get hurt and any heals I cast on you are increased by 3%. So melee? STOP RUNNING OUT FROM UNDER IT, YOU FUCKTARDS! I have two level 80 rogues. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many inappropriate uses of Sprint as when I cast PW: Barrier. You’re all giving my second favorite class a bad name. I hate you.  (I’d say that it’s because we’ve trained them SO WELL to not stand in things, but anyone who heals knows that no, they haven’t absorbed that lesson, either.   So really they have…no excuse.  Except not understanding the AWESOME that is PW: Barrier.)

 
3.) Prot Pallys, I don’t know what’s happened to you since 4.0. You used to be my favorite class to heal, what with your awesome AOE threat generation and your, what I can only guess was, fantastic dodging and parrying abilities. But that’s all changed. Every pally I’ve healed in the past week has been taking some pretty incredible damage. Stop that. Please. You make me go into an anaphylactic shock all the damn time now.
 
4.) Warrior tanks, you have replaced Prot Pallys as my favorite tanks to heal. Keep it up, guys and gals. 
 
5.) This one isn’t so much a tip or even an observation I’ve seen happening frequently as it is just (what I hope was) a singular event that occurred yesterday in UK. I’m in a group with one of those aforementioned prot pallys that couldn’t keep threat on more than two mobs at a time. We had a rogue, a fury warrior, a frost mage and myself filling out the group. All the DPS were pretty decently geared for upper-60’s, low-70’s toons and were constantly pulling threat. The frost mage, on several occasions, kept pulling entire groups off the pally and would proceed to run. Not to the tank. Not to me, the healer. No, he would start running backwards as fast as his gnomish feet would carry him. Well out of LOS of me and way to far for the pally to lay down a consecrate. When he died for the sixth time in that run, I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. Nothing makes me giddier with glee than seeing a mage die. Make it a gnome? Well hell. It’s like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one.  (Isn’t it DELIGHTFUL when they do that?  Their repair bills are like a stupidity tax.)
 
So there ya have it, folks. My tales of leveling as Disc in the post-4.0 apocalypse. Any tales to share of your own? Toss ’em in the comments.

I Am That Crazy Healer In Your PUGs

When a guildie offered to pop into queue for FoS as heals so that my hunter wouldn’t languish forever, I gladly accepted.  After proving to myself, yet again, that THE TRINKET DOES NOT EXIST, I hopped over to Lyrandre to return the favor.

It’s at the point now where anything but Halls of Reflection is boring.  Thus I feel almost compelled to apologize to any group I’m in beforehand, because boredom does bad things to me.

Imagine this: you zone in to Forge of Souls.  Your healer screams in party, “IF THE TRINKET DROPS WHILE I AM ON MY PRIEST I SWEAR BY ALL THAT IS HOLY THAT I WILL DROWN A KITTEN.”

You’d probably look at her at least a little bit sideways.  Anyway, you move on.  You make the first pull.  This time the charming little space goat says something along the lines of “Bubble, PoM, renew, nap.”  The other priest in the group laughs knowingly.  Apparently napping isn’t actually on the agenda however, because during the next two pulls she is…hopping around the group casting Holy Nova?

Moments later you see “HOLY FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE” as she casts said spell on one of the mobs.  The ret pally by this point is giving some of the casters hugs, but the priest does catch her before she dies.  “Oh,” she says.  “Someone actually needed healing.”

The paladin, blessedly in the spirit of the moment, replied with “I’m just helping to keep you awake.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have raided the easter chocolate,” your healer confesses.  Aha.

The run continues uneventfully–and deathlessly–with the priest happily running  around the party in circles, casting holy nova…

 Beware asking me to heal heroics for you, I guess.  >.>

(The trinket my hunter wants did not drop, but that just adds more weight to my theory that IT DOESN’T EXIST.)

Where are my sparklies?

Lately I feel like I do a lot of complaining about holy paladins, which is just silly because I was the one who decided to change my main from my disc priest to the holy paladin in the first place! And while I LOVE healing as a paladin (crazy, I know. I just love pushing two buttons), that doesn’t excuse that there are sometimes serious issues with it.

Yeah, I’m talking about the lack of awesome spell effects.

Look at discipline priests – Amber gets to throw out OMG PEW PEW LAZER BEAMS, and when she bubbles someone and there’s a crit, BAM, rainbows in your face! What’s not to like about rainbow soap bubbles? Even holy priests have PoM bouncing around, and probably other cool looking things that I don’t know about, because I’ve never been a Fail Angel. Trees get little green leaves and swirls on their targets, which is pretty sweet and very fitting for the class. Shamans have some sort of water falling on your head spell that makes me go “crap, what am I standing in, MOVE” whenever it’s cast on me, because I’ve been taught that if you see something besides plain ground, you need to haul ass. Not to mention that chain heal looks pretty snazzy when it’s moving around.

What do paladins have? Itty beams of light and glitter, and the exact same beams and glitter for both FoL and HL. This is insufficient for my needs, Blizzard. I require big explosions of light – when I cast Holy Light on a tank I want to see Light dripping from his every pore. Beacon of Light? HA, those silly Elder’s moonstones that everyone’s playing with right now are brighter than my bacon. There could be no confusion amongst multiple paladins in a raid when it comes to who’s Beaconing whom if there were actually a huge pillar of light over the Beacon, rather than an animation that makes the target dispense some light beams from her armpit. Sacred Shield is even disappointing because it doesn’t look like ANYTHING most of the time.

Pally wings are pretty much the only amazing spell effect that I have at my disposal, but WAIT! I have to save those for important moments involving Divine Plea and massive amounts of damage, so they don’t even get blown on many fights unless I do it at the end, because I’m always worried that I might need them later. Their awesome is not enough to make up for the fact that the majority of my healing looks boring, like this:

Amber Edits to Add:

Here, I fixed it for you.