20 Days of WoW Bloggging – Day 9

Day 09 – Your first blog post

Waaaay back when I first started this blog, my very first post was the obligatory introduction post, talking about my main toons at the time. Looking back, it’s almost sort of cute. Only 3 80s at the end of Wrath compared to the…many more 85s I have by the end of Cataclysm, I don’t know how I didn’t get bored faster with only 3 max-level toons! Well, I suppose only 2.5 since I am/was pretty hot & cold with the Death Knight. Also, OMG THOSE GEAR SETS. I know I can transmog them now, but just looking at the screenshots gives me a little of that unique nostalgia of winning those big gear upgrades. I’m a little afraid that if I transmog those sets, seeing them everyday will wear away at that feeling.

Also not really limited to my first post; rather this applies to probably the entire first half of this blog, looking back I feel like I tried so hard to come across as someone I wasn’t. Which is a bit of irony especially with an introduction post.

20 Days of WoW Blogging – Day 8

No apologies for lack of updates. I do what I want 😉

Right then, down to business; where I left off. I told you all, I was determined to finish this thing no matter how long it took me.

Day 8 – 10 things we don’t know about you

Hrm, well. This one is rather awkward to me. Chances are good that if you don’t already know it about me, I don’t want you to know it. But, to play along with this I will try to figure out 10 previously unknown things about myself to all of you.

1. I love having an avocado for breakfast. An avocado in the morning to me, is what coffee is to normal people in the mornings.

2. I dabble in Rift. And am terribly excited for their expansion coming out soon! I play on both factions there as well.

3. I have never seen the movie Grease. Nope. Not even once.

4. I make the best scrambled eggs.

5. ((I’m struggling to come up with more for this list))

6. My first gaming console was a classic Nintendo.

7. I sleep on the right half of the bed, with a 20lb Lhasa lodged firmly in my back or attached to my hip.

8. I really do wish we could all just get along.

9. My favorite coffee is a Caramel Mocha from McD’s, although it will never quite fill the gap that Seattle’s Best left behind.

10. I feel like the only one who is not going to make a Pandaren monk in the next expansion; Draenai and Trolls monks, all the way.

And there we have it. 10 random things you most likely did not know about me. Some game-relevant, some real life-relevant. This post was a huge pain to do because I’m normally a private person, especially online. I usually just wait for people to ask if they want to know something.

20 Days of WoW Blogging – Day 7

Day 7 – The reason behind your blog’s name

I admit, the name of my blog isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I first decided I wanted to start blogging about WoW. Of course, at that time I played a hunter and had hopes of writing a hunter-specific blog. But I realized I was also a rampant alt-aholic; I love making new toons and running starter zones, and I knew that my tales of alts would work its way into my blog no matter what. So with that information in mind, I knew my blog should have a more general sort of name – nothing really role or class specific since I didn’t want to mislead readers. So, the name “The Azeroth Log” was made. I’ve thought about changing the blog’s name and just throwing in a disclaimer under “About” to explain the alt-alicous posts that can and will pop up, but then I realize I can’t think of a good role-centered name for the blog that…fits me.

Healing Questionnaire – Resto Shaman

I know I’m kind of breaking the cycle by nicking off with this without being tagged by someone, but I really liked it and it’s given me a few things to think about.

I came across this nifty thing while crawling around blogs; I found it at Non-Squishy Heals which was linked from Vidalya at Manalicious

1. What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Mertaka, restoration shaman.
2. What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
10man raids, with a lot of 5mans, and occasionally some PvP.
3. What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
I would have to say Riptide. It heals for a good bit, especially thanks to our (improved) mastery, and it gives me a delicious reduced cast time for my next two direct heals (except Chain Heal). I always have Riptide on CD.
4. What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
I would have to say Healing Surge. Yes, it’s a nice, fast heal…but it sucks up my mana. My personal stance is, if you’re in a situation where the only thing that’s going to save you in a Healing Surge (unless you’re the tank), then there’s no saving you.
5. What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? All of the utility! Seriously! I know a lot of classes say that they have a lot of utility, but shamans *really* have it. On my shaman I can interrupt, purge, CC two different things (Hex and Bind Elemental), and DPS a little bit all while I’m healing. And this isn’t even touching on all of the nifty things my totems can do.
Also, Bloodlust. Sorry mages, we were here first.
6. What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Really, I’m not sure. I’m really really happy with the class and spec at the moment. I know that doesn’t mean that there aren’t weaknesses; it means I just can’t think of them right now.
7. In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
I haven’t raided 25man in ages, but I would definitely be on raid healing, the same as I was in Wrath.
8. What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
I really haven’t thought much about this before. I don’t have an answer D:
9. What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Same as above.
10. What is your worst habit as a healer?
Going on a sort of healer cruise-control and just using my big heal >.<
11. What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Other healers healing outside of their assignments. I know they’re just trying to help, but it makes me feel like they’re saying in an under-handed way “You can’t handle what you were given.”
12. Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
I think resto shamans are pretty balanced when compared with the other healing classes and specs, yes. Maybe a little on the OP side, but I don’t think we’re leaps and bounds ahead of the other healers.
13. What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
I know it’s not the most accurate of measures for healers, but I take occassional peeks at the Healing Done and the Overhealing meters. I also look at how many started the encounter and how many are alive at the end of it.
14. What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
I think a lot of people think we’re still just Chain Heal dispensers.
15. What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
Balancing their regen with getting enough throughput. But I think that goes for all healing specs/classes.
16. If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
I think they would see a moderate amount of overhealing (mostly due to thinks like Healing Rain, Healing Stream totem, EL, RT). They would also probably see that I tend to heal on the tanks a lot, depending on the fight. Some fights our DPS is good at not taking damage and I have to do something!
17. Haste or Crit and why?
Currently I’m going for haste. Crit acts as a regen stat as well for resto shamans and I’m comfortable right now with the amount of mana regen I’m getting from spirit + Water Shield.
18. What healing class do you feel you understand least?
I would say priests, especially Holy. I tried to play Holy for about a month, but I couldn’t get a handle on the cooldowns and some of the mechanics. It felt so bulky and weak.
19. What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
I use HealBot, alongside Decursive, although I’m thinking of giving VuhDo another go. I use NeedtoKnow to keep track of procs and such.
20. Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I tend to stack stats. I’m still stacking haste, but I would like to at some point get a balance going. I love our mastery now, but I’m sort of unsure on how useful it can actually be in 10mans which is what I primarily raid. If I were to ever do more single-target healing (which I don’t foresee. Ever) I’d go to stacking Crit I think.

Sadly, I am not really connected up with anyone else that would be interested in filling this out D: So, in lieu of actively tagging it, if you happen to Play a healer in WoW, feel free to grab this up and fill it out.

20 Days of WoW Blogging – Day 6

Day 6 – Your workplace/desk (photo and/or description)

Here it is. My little techie corner of the house. This is where I game and blog and all-around waste time. My desk sits by the front door so I tend to get a lot of random stuff (that’s usually not mine) tossed on my desk and therefore there’s usually a lot of clutter, like you see on the left-hand side. Of course there’s Mt. Dew; what sort of gamer desk would this be without the gamer life-blood? Not pictured is my dog, who sometimes will hop up on my desk and cuddle up with me while I’m poking around in-game. He’s a small dog so I can just wrap my arms around him and he’ll cuddle his head in the crook of my elbow. It’s pretty darn cute 😉 And a great stress reliever for those less-than-savory pug groups.

I love my little green (fake) orchid on my monitor. It came off of a small box of candy and I stuck it up there upon deciding that with my black keyboard, black monitor, black speakers, and dark grey mouse…I needed some color. And of course I have my WoW Day-to-Day calendar. That thing has made me realize how much useless information I know about the game.

The desktop wallpaper on my monitor is from Vortex Pinnacle. I was on my shadow priest and we were coming up on Altairus and we had paused while someone went AFK. So, digging into my awesome bag of shadow priest tricks, I pulled out Mind Vision and began to enjoy the view of the dungeon from the boss’ eyes. And this lovely screen shot is the product of that. Angelya at Revive & Rejuvenate inspired me with her awesome gallery of screenshots to take note of the more picturesque aspects of Azeroth and to capture them when I see them!

20 Days of WoW Blogging – Day 5

Without further delay…day 5! I’m a quarter of the way through this meme. It’s been a bit slowed but I’m still rather proud of making it this far in.

Day 05 – Favourite item(s) in game

For me, this depends entirely on the character in question. I know in this post I will talk a lot about what items I’ve kept; since I can tend to be a neat-freak about my characters’ bank space it’s safe to say that if I’m keeping it, it’s a favorite.

Kandin collects her bows. Hell, I think she may even still have the Felglacier Bolter in her bank. I like to keep her bows and guns because they’re the feature weapon for her class.

For Crimiia and Mertaka, they have their shields – Mertaka more than Crimiia since Crimiia never really got to do much in Wrath in the way of dungeoning and raiding. Although thanks to some retro-running, Crimiia did end up with the Ice Layered Barrier from Hodir’s rare cache that is rather nice looking.

The other favorite item(s) that goes across all of my characters (at least the ones that reached level 80) is their tier 10 gear. Kandin still has her t10 gear, Mertaka has her t10, and Roneka even has her t10 as well. I’ve debated on going back and getting Crimiia’s t10 set as well because pally skirts are love; I plan on making the t12 pally skirt her first valor purchase!

20 Days of WoW Blogging – Day 4

Sorry for the enormous lapse in posting! Real life has had me a bit tied up and/or distracted. So I’m here to hopefully pick this up and continue now to the end.

Day 4: Your best WoW memory

This is kind of hard for me. I imagine like a lot of other WoW players, I have a lot of “best” memories!

Of course I’m listing getting to level cap (80, at the time) on my first toon, Kandin the hunter alongside my husband’s warlock Kazishini. I even remember the area we were in when I dinged 80!
The first time our guild downed the Lich King with 9/10 guild members. We had pugged our off-tank from one of the more progressed guilds on the server and some may say it was a carry (and I truly do not believe it was), but that doesn’t detract at all from the excited yells and laughter that flooded our Ventrilo when we saw that bastard hit 10% and kill all of us. I remember it was the Day of the Dead holiday; in the screenshot of the achievement, Mertaka is a little undead girl in a black dress!
(Yes, I’m a Wrath baby so a lot of my firsts were in that expansion)

But then, I have other “best” memories, like when we created our guild and got it rolling. The 7 of us (now down to 6, sadly) were finally free from the train wreck that was our old guild. We could do things our way and improve upon the things that we took with us from the old guild. We’ve had lulls and some down slides, but we’ve managed to hang in there and more or less work as a team and I’m quite proud of us.

My first successful time healing a dungeon on Mertaka without having an in-guild tank is another one of my best memories. I don’t remember the dungeon, but I do remember this sort of feeling of “Oooh,I’m a REAL healer now!” come over me and it was such a confidence boost to know that that healing thing I’d been so afraid of? Yea, I could do that on my own now.

Really though, I think this topic is a bit odd or at the very least worded oddly. How does one have a best memory? Even if the scope were my entire life so far, I know I wouldn’t be able to single out one best memory.

20 Days of WoW Blogging: Day 3

Ah! I missed Day 3 yesterday, so here it is. For those of you paying attention, sorry about missing yesterday!

Day 3: Your first day playing WoW
This strikes me for some reason as an odd thing to blog about.

My first day playing while I was still playing on the 10-day trial, I rolled a Troll warrior on The Underbog, a PvP server, because one of my friends insisted that a PvP server was the BEST way to enjoy the game. I remember I had gotten her to about level 13 or 15 and I don’t even think I had spent her talent points yet. Most of the leveling was thanks to killing plainstriders on one of the mountains in the Barrens while I looked for my class quest objective (turned out I had been killing things on the WRONG DAMN MOUNTAIN for about 45 minutes). Then later that evening while at the Crossroads, figuring out what I wanted/needed to do next, I was asked to tank Wailing Caverns.
Tank? What’s that?
A dungeon? What’s that?
At this point I feel I should mention that I was wielding a 2-handed sword and probably had some cloth and/or leather gear on.
While I had no idea what exactly I was being asked to do, I gave the other people fair warning of it, and followed them in. What happened next can be quickly summed up as 30+ minutes of them yelling at me “Warrior come hit these things and get them off the healer!” Needless to say I was pretty anxious and upset by the time I had the courage to say “Guys, I can’t do this. Sorry.”

So, yep. There ya go. My first day of playing WoW. Usually happenings like that will put me off completely from something, so in retrospect I find it surprising that that run didn’t put me off from WoW.

Day 4 of this meme will be so much better – promise!

20 Days of WoW Blogging: Day 2

Day 2: Why you decided to start a blog

To be honest, I’m not quite sure there’s one good solid reason I started a blog, which sounds rather lame. I enjoy sharing my opinions, and I enjoy WoW, so it seemed like a good next step to make a WoW blog 😉

I’ll admit, having a Wow blog hasn’t exactly followed the plan I had for it. I had originally hoped for this to be mainly about huntering and a little bit of alts. Then it turned into alts and other assorted game-related topics. And now I’m using the blog as a place for healing-related things and fun stuff like this.

20 Days of WoW Blogging: Day 1

I’ve seen this floating around a few other blogs and I figured I’d give it a try. At the very least it’ll be nice to give some activity to The Azeroth Log!

Day 1: Introduce Yourself

I always feel sort of silly writing these sorts of posts – I’m one of those people who never really know what to say about myself. What is too much or what isn’t enough. We’ll see where this takes us though.

Most people in game know me as Kandin (My MM hunter), and people who have gotten to know me more recently know me as Mertaka (Resto shaman) or Crimiia (Holy paladin). I play 99% of the time on the Horde-side of Velen(US). I mostly do PvE, but this expansion has seen a healthy appreciation of PvP on at least 3 of my characters. I am the GM of my guild, Sanctis Draconis which has been a very rewarding experience so far for the most part. I play WoW with my husband who is known in game as Kazishini (or “Kaz” for short), a Destro/Demo warlock. Even though Velen is a Normal server, I do enjoy a little bit of RP and have been lucky enough very recently to find someone who is willing to indulge me! It’s also something I’ve been meaning to throw into the blog a bit.

Me in meat space (if this sort of thing interests anybody), I’m currently a housewife because I can’t teach, drive truck, or possess the knowledge to operate factory machinery. I’m 26 and still trying to figure out what it is I want to do with my life, even though I went to university for English. No, I never wanted to teach with it. I’m thinking about picking up and writing a little bit lately, which is rather big to me since I haven’t written anything creatively in about….3 years.

Well, I do feel like I’ve said enough – stay tuned for hopefully 19 more days!