MotW

"The world is doomed..."

A throw away line that just showed how much Buffy could NOT do.

I know that I've stuck to movies up to this point but if you remember WAY back, I did tell you there would be exceptions to the Movie of the Week, this is one of them.

Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy (as well as Angel and Firefly), has put together some character that are unforgettable. The discs have four episodes per, giving you about 3 1/2 hours of time to have background noise without having to worry about changing disks.

I have all seven seasons. I play them regularly when a movie doesn't strike my fancy. You would be remiss not to do the same.

What's in a name?

So I love my character names.

I’ve already given the reasons for two of my 70s but I’ll give them again for the sake of the post….

Luciel – This was my second ‘serious’ character. When the Burning Crusade launched my brother, Forester, and I decided we wanted to reroll. He had a hunter at 60 and was sick of easy mode (His name was Forester), so he went the OTHER extreme and level a Priest…he named him Forester. (Very Original, I know very original.)

My Paladin’s original name was Wayne. Why Wayne? Cause Bruce was taken and I couldn’t see myself naming a character Batman and being taken seriously…so I got stuck with Wayne. (He would get renamed twice, when he was moved to Zangermarsh he went under Odd and then when he landed on Nordrassil he was redubbed McGregor.)

Luciel was my attempt at something a little off kilter. I’ve already told you I’m a man of faith. Some people believe that before Lucifer (the devil) was cast down from Heaven for his revolt against God, his name was the Morning Star, Luciel (Loo SI EL). I saw, and still see, a Shaman as a healer. I figured it was a nice way to say that I would be a force for good the way that some were before the fall. I didn’t realize that many would see it as the female version of the name….Luciel Ball….go figure.

Lubacca originally started as Bosque. It was a play for my brother since he was Forester I named my Druid, Bosque, which means Woods in Spanish. I recently told you that he was rechristened after a chat on TS with my guild where I made the snide comment that if I had known I was going to be a Moonkin I would have named myself Chewbacca instead. Because everyone in guild calls me Lu, they altered it to Lubacca. I was honored, flattered and tickled by the name so I made it official.

Dotinursix…what a name huh? Yea…I know I was high. Sorry. My bad.

Dotting your six is supposed to be a play on military terminology. (Watch your six! “Watch your ass!”) I thought I was being clever. Unfortunately there is another player, Py, who is an old timer and also has a Warlock, level 70 and he named him Dotyaup. This tends to cause some confusion when I’m on my alt.

So I did some research and changed the named of my character today to Lubrona. Having Lu in the name is almost mandatory now with my friends since even if I’m playing Eriq, my priest or Dotinursix, they still call me Lu. Brona, was a choice. Reading up on different Warlocks this name really stuck with me.

Terry Brooks has done a series of books, The Sword of Shannara series, one of the characters is named Brona. His backstory (which I feel fits perfectly for me) is that he was a Druid who began to delve into the dark magic. They eventually consume him and he ends up becoming a Warlock. Pretty clever eh?

In any event Lubrona has been born and I’ve already committed time, money, resources and talents into him. He’s not going anywhere. Welcome him to the fold.

Horn's Advice

If you read regularly you know that I talked some about locks, Horn (from Yet Another Warlock Nerf!) Graced me with a response, then I retorted and he's given a lengthy response this time. I'm going to cut and paste it here so you can read up. I will be switching my build to this one just to see how it works out.

I am going to admit that I'm going to miss my Treants since they were my 'oh shit' button but willing to try this for a bit.


Horn:
I usually spec like this..

If you want, you can put the point from Omen of Clarity into Subtlety (in restoration), but I personally find it useful in certain situations.

As for balance talents, Force of Nature is useful (as well as Wrath of Cenarius), but having instant cast Healing Touch will save your ass on many occasions; usually those when you fight 3v1 and beat em all. Don't even use Nature's Swiftness for Cyclone or Roots or whatever, save it for Healing Touch.

Here's a macro if you want:
/stopcasting
/cancelform
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast Healing Touch

I wrote about druid macros awhile back here.Now, the practical part.

Vs. rogues
If they don't Cheap Shot (CS) you from stealth, you win. If however they do manage to sneak up on you (which will happen in most cases), here's how to get out of it. First, never use your trinket on cheap shot. If you don't have the trinket, get it asap. Don't forget you can use Barskin when stunned, so that's the first thing you should do after CS. As soon as the rogue Kidney Shots (KS) you, use the trinket and cast Nature's Grasp. He will most likely use Cloak of Shadows, so for the next 5 seconds try not to die. Go bear form and use Bash; if you're at least a bit lucky it won't be dodged. That's your chance to Cyclone him fast. Cast Regrowth on yourself, and start casting Roots so it grasps him as soon as Cyclone breaks (get NECB, Quartz or some other addon if you don't have timers). If however he uses his trinket after Bash+Cyclone combo, try to get into Travel Form to get some distance, and then Root him.The aforementioned macro is your panic button so use it if you're low on health (duh). Try to stay in Boomkin form since it gives you a significant boost to armor. Try to stay away from the rogue as much as possible via constant root & cyclone. Fakecasting is also important since you don't want your nature school interrupted. Don't forget to cast Faerie Fire on him so he can't Vanish, and try to time Starfire nukes right after Cyclone breaks - Starfire stuns really help. Again, fakecasting is essential here, if he missed with Kick you can freely Root/Cyclone which gives you a major advantage. HoT yourself when possible, and don't remember to stay in Moonkin. He should go down eventually. Oh, keep Abolish Poison up, especially if he has Wound poison.

Vs. warriors
Use the same means of escaping as versus rogues, other than that I don't know what to say - they're much easier to beat due to limited amount of counters, unlike rogues.

Vs. warlocks
You die. Unless they are mentally challenged or poorly geared. Or both. Fear + Drain Life is just scary vs. a druid, and unless you can get a lucky streak of crits on them, you're wasted.

Vs. priests (both shadow and discipline)
I usually hope they have no experience vs. moonkins and don't use Mana Burn. If they do, you're in trouble; hard to nuke them down fast enough.

Vs. whatever else, you can only loose if they are significantly better geared.

Enhancement shaman are easily kiteable, some even spam Purge constantly and keep dispelling your Lifebloom.

Hunters are in most cases retarded and can't do anything but Serpent Sting and pet attack (remember to Abolish poison often). The tactic you mentioned is quite alright; root them, Hibernate the pet, get into their melee range and pew pew. If the hunter and his pet turn red, you're in a bit of trouble, but only for 18 seconds. Instant HT ftw!

Mages will go oom faster than you if you keep healing yourself; shift to Travel whenever you're freezed by Nova.

Resto druids aren't worth it, it's a waste of mana since they will escape unless you have help. Feral can't do enough dps if you stay in boomkin with HoT's on you; root them, they can't shift as much as you due to their very limited mana. Against other moonkins, ... well what do you think?

Retributors can burst you down real quick, but can't kill you with instant Healing Touch. Use Nature's Grasp, let em blow Blessing of Freedom.

Death Knights are just imbalanced so don't try to avoid them at all costs. Oh wait... nevermind.

Now, I don't know how much resilience you got, but without at least 250, most classes will kick your ass if they are better geared (read: 400+ resilience).

And for fucks sake, don't listen to people and put talent points into Brambles. I read it on one very popular druid blog some time ago and... Oh I better not go there. Just promise me, ok?

I'll be doing warlock vs. x guides soon so stay tuned. In short, warlocks have almost no escape abilities and rogues are a major pain in our behind, and that's exactly where they want to be.

Awesome response and it had me laughing quiet a few times. I'll try this and keep you posted. I guess I'll be getting that trinket instead of the helm =/ lol

Warlock retort

Warlock and Moonkin rebuff

So yesterday I rambled on about locks and the classes I can defeat as a Moonkin.

This was the reply I got:

Horns said...
I can't believe you have problems vs. melee as a moonkin; they barely touch me when I respec, which is often lately.You'll have a lot more trouble vs. rogues on your warlock, trust me. Oh and, it's Seed of Corruption, not Destruction ;)

For those of you who don’t know who Horns is, he’s the notorious author of Yet Another Warlock Nerf! Which is a great blog in case you’ve never read it and has an incredible sense of humor.

So first I will correct myself and it’s Seed of Corruption. I believe I felt like it was Destruction because every time I have that thing on me it seems like I don’t last another two seconds. Terminology should be correct though so there’s that.

Now in response to the whole melee thing I can say this. If a Rogue gets the drop on my and kidney shots me, I usually don’t have the chance to cast out of that form or regroup enough to do much of anything. By the time that Kidney shot finally elapses I’m usually about halfway through my hps. Switching to caster to self heal just leaves the door open for faster punishment and they’re close enough that they can continue bridging the gap between us to just end it quickly. The close proximity and the advantage of having taken out half my hps before I can retaliate really do just screw with my sense of timing and I go into freak out mode. =/

Warriors, I can take’em out because I see them coming. Just root them, they can’t get close enough to do much of anything.

Against other druids, (Bears and Kitties), well that can go either way. I have seen many druids go caster, cast life bloom and go back to melee forms, which draws out the fight and it’s basically which runs out first, their health or my mana. 9 times out of 10, I win.

The thing that I do end up bringing with me recently is mana/health pots. Reason being is because I have so many AV tokens that I can just waste them to get some nice rebuffs.

So, there you go Horns. I would love to learn how you handle the specific classes and your thoughts on how rogues will be more painful as a Warlock.

New Banner!

It's late for me but Ryan Broussard, the original creator of my banner went and out did himself with this new one. I wanted something that tied together the three classes that I babble about the most.

He put down Super Smash Brothers long enough to create this beauty...not too shabby eh?

I got a response on my last post and I'll reply in the morning. For now, just enjoy the new banner!

Warlock, BGs and Classes I can Beat

Why are the Clothies so much fun?

So in my last post I told you that I started a little priest. My alt-itis is getting worse as I’ve decided to go ahead and make another one. This time it’s a lock. See, while I love Eriq because he’s unique, the viability of Shadow Priests in PVP has become smaller and smaller.

I’ve spent some time on the war fields with Lubacca and I can honestly say there are two classes that I find myself smacking myself against the head with, Shadow Priests and Warlocks. Those DoTs, the Fear, the pets, the mana suckage and the life drain…there’s nothing I can really do that’s going to counter it and while I have a moderate amount of resiliency I find myself getting hammered by them.

When the enemy has your number, figure out what they’re doing and try to crack it.

I have a Paladin. While I must admit that Horde Paladins for some reason strike FEAR into me, I know how to handle them. With 2.4 I’ll know how to handle them even better since the Seal of Blood is migrating over to Alliance. I know that Consecrate is a little obnoxious spell that is basically a DoT if you stand there like a noob and take it. I know that they have two spells that can mess you up and ‘sap’ you, but they cool down time is enough to let me know that it’s twice and then I’m clear to mess them up if I’m still standing.

Warriors are pure melee. Yes they can throw, shot me or arrow me to death but it’s not like a hunter. Root them, Treant them and then just straight blast them.

Hunters…these can be tricky. As a Moonkin, what I do is Cyclone the hunter, sleep the pet, root the hunter, blast, blast, blast. I have a buddy, Grimlok, who’s an incredible hunter. He does awesome and has much better gear than me. He recently got the Bow drop from Prince in Kara. We’re standing outside of Kara and he drops the duel flag on me. I smoked him. The reason is that when is comes to dps, I can out gun just about anyone! However when they come up close and melee me I’m at a loss.

Which is why I hate ROGUES! These troublesome little bastards can just destroy me. The come up behind me, kidney shot and then the rest is history and because they can keep up the kidney shot I never get my feet under me again. (I need to get one of those damn trinkets). If I can see them coming, I can root and then just blast them from here until next week, spit on their bodies and laugh on my way to the next flag.

Against Druids, well it’s not a stalemate, I’m equipped to be a caster, I can turn kitty or bear just fine but it’s NOT going to be the same thing. I can hold my own but in the end, if it’s a bear or kitty druid, I’m down. If it’s a Moonkin I can hold my own and usually end up winning! (This is mostly due to the generous healers that see me fighting a good fight and feel within their hearts to heal me – To them I say thank ya.)

/Ramble Off

Back to the Warlock

So I had an itch last night and I wanted to play a warlock for a little bit, born was Dotinursix (Dotting your Six, Six meaning the term that most military heads say instead of ass…so like Watch your Six, watch your ass….I’ve over explained it.)

In any event, I’ve got several guildies who have high level Warlocks and this is the conversation that went on:

“What type of build should I use?” Me

“I used Demonology but it really depends on what you want to do.” Aliester

“I used Affliction, it’s great.” Thog

“I’m a Moonkin and the only thing that I HATE is Locks in PVP.” Me

“Why?” Al

“Because the fight usually goes like this: Dot, Dot, Pet, Fear, Dot, Dot, Life Drain, Me dead.”

About three minutes of straight LOL, ROFL, ROFLMAO, ROFLMFAO, OMG, Tee hee, Titter…

“That’s Affliction. You can Drain Tank with that build.” Thog

“What?” Me

“What they do to you in BGs is called Drain Tank. If you have a healer with you, you can spam Seed of Destruction all you want and cause serious damage.” Al

The rest of it was basically laughter at the thought of my feathered ass running around like a chicken with my head cut off to just end up dying somewhere with a lock standing over me, spitting in my eye and laughing on his way to someone else.

So, I will be trying the Warlock class for a bit. The way my playtime is breaking down recently is I either run a Heroic or a Battleground with Lu and then switch over to a lowbie for about an hour or so and then call it a night. So…there you go. I will be talking to you about tales from the lock pretty soon. I do want to say though that I think it’s SICK how I can already take on things 3 and 4 levels above me with relative ease…I’m only level 10.

Miscellany

N00B Priest

I broke down and did it. I couldn’t help myself I swear. You see I can only do SO much PVP daily before my brain shuts down and I refuse to do anymore. I have grinded 21k honor this weekend. Think about how many AVs that was. Think about how many times I had to run that map….::Shudder::

So I went ahead and decided that one of my little lowbies would get some love. My 10 slots on Nordrassil are completely used up so I don’t have the luxury of making a new one, I just pick up one that I might have started before. This time it fell to Eriq to help me out.

Eriq is my lowbie priest, he is currently sitting at level 18. From what I understand the priestly fun doesn’t begin until level 20. It’s been interesting playing a cloth only character since I know that it’s more difficult and you really have to know your mechanics well in order to survive. I’ve been impressed with the fact that I can take on 2 mobs at once and not die. My only hope is that it gets better with time. Of course if you read anything, every player will tell you that the best type of clothie to have it in fact a Warlock.

Warlocks are supposed to be the destroyers of hopes of all other PVP players.

Still I’ve never been one to go with the flow and wanted to try something a bit different.

School

I have a PhD in Spiritual Studies. Many people don’t know that. I make it a thing not to tell people that. I don’t want to shut doors because when people hear anything ‘Spiritual’ they think you’re some kind of Bible thumper that’s going to come to their house and tell them how to live. I’m not one of those.

I’m a booster. (Points if you catch the reference.)

Seriously I did it because I’m a believer. Please don’t take that and run with it, it is what it is, I believe that there is Someone bigger than me out there in the big blue that looks down and helps me along the way. That doesn’t mean that I expect you to feel the same. I like to be there in case people have questions that they need answered but don’t want to go to someone of ‘authority’ and instead want to talk to the guy next door. That’s me.

That being said I have this itch. I need to continue to learn. I don’t know how to NOT learn. I think it’s why I read so much.

One of the schools that I went to years ago sent me an open invitation to come back. Now personally I love to learn but I also have this –pull- to go back and finish up some stuff that I have put off for a long time. If I went back it would be for another diploma.

Course there is a part of me that knows that if I do go back into school this will kill some of my play time. This may not be a bad thing. I have some short sighted goals that I’m completing in game at this time. I know that 2.4 is going to be dumped on us soon and I’m waiting for it but after that, what? WotLK is going to get dropped at some point but it’s highly doubtful it’ll be before the winter season.

So this puts me at a bit of a crossroads. One of the classes that I’m considering taking, The Gospel of John, is going to be taking place on Wednesday. This would be directly after work, effectively destroying my work with the POX crew for the time being.

I have a meeting tomorrow in the morning to talk with admissions a little more, see if perhaps this will or won’t work out for me. In either way I’ll keep you posted.

Banner

So I have been talking for a bit about getting a new banner, something that reflects all the aspects of WOW that I am currently playing. My good friend Ryan has agreed to mess with his time and effort and put one out for me. It should be coming shortly and when it’s ready I’ll swap it out. So be on the look out for it soon!

It's AV weekend!

I love AV weekend. It’s the best time for PVP honestly. It’s a time for you to grind out ridiculous amounts of honor in a short amount of time and get gratification for it.

This weekend has been AV weekend and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. Although I will point out for the Alliance players that it seems that Sundays is the day that casual Horde players come out in force and you’re going to be harder pressed to win one of those matches, otherwise it’s like a duck shot. You just sit around and wait for the honor to come in.

Between Friday and Saturday I was able to grind 15k honor, enough to get my Gladiator Pants and spent a little gold to get an additional 20 stamina put onto them. My resiliency jumped up to about 131. While many say that this mechanic has destroyed the way that the game is played, I’ve enjoyed the benefit as it seems that it’s taking a little bit longer for the opposing players to bring me down to my knees. Looking at the stats for most of my fights, I was only killed about one or two times per battle as opposed to the seven or eight times I would bite the dust when I first started doing PVP hardcore.

This morning when I logged on to check where I stood, I had about 7k honor sitting around, I have tonight left to try and earn the other 7k I need in order to get my helm. That would bring the resiliency some more and I have two jewel slots that I can put some more stats into.

While its pvp gear, I still find that it’s useful when it comes to doing some raids.

How about it guys, how have you fared with the PVP this weekend? Do you also take this time to try and grind as much as possible to try and get some nice upgrades?

MotW

“My Name is Alice and I worked for the Umbrella Corporation…”

I have a love of zombies. I think they are the best kind of bad guy, one that doesn’t have any kind of motivation except for the undying hunger within their bellies and minds. The Resident Evil Movies fill this gap in a way that is inexpressible to someone who hasn’t seen the movies.

They all have unending action, silly one liners and beautiful women in each and every single installment. You can’t ask for better honestly. This is a double feature, so you have two times the zombies without having to switch the DVD.