Ailis in Hunterland

Yes, yes, I’m a complete slacker.  3.3 has been out for weeks, the second wing of Icecrown is about to open and I just now got around to updating the gear posts.

Better late than never?

Anyway, all four posts have been updated/tweaked with the latest in Shammy goodness so peruse and use to your heart’s content.

PS – Found out today I’m having a girl…  Gamer girls rule!

My mage hit 80 roughly a week before 3.3 dropped so, I’ve been spending a LOT of time in the new random LFG system emblem farming to gear her up.

(Protip: group with a tank or a healer before queuing up.  It goes a lot faster.)

In my travels through the system and meeting folks from other servers, I’ve come across several things that I thought I would share with you guys.

1. Cheap buffs are perfectly fine.  Some folks have no issues using their reagents on the full awesome party-wide buffs but if you want to conserve instead of using reagents every 20 minutes or so, that’s completely okay and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
2. Gear judging is not your job.  You may snicker at the hunter wearing a spell trinket or the ret pally wielding a sword and board, but to comment on it and make them feel like a total loser doesn’t help.  Yes, you guys will probably never see each other and what you say is simply a passing comment but keep them to yourself unless you are of that class in the group – pally to pally, hunter to hunter.  Otherwise, you just come off as an obnoxious know-it-all elitist.
3. For the love of pete, greed on the stupid frozen orbs.  No one “needs” them anymore.  Period.
4. Speaking of loot (and here’s my huge thorn in my side), the new need before greed/disenchant system is nice.  It has a couple of hitches such as treating greed and disenchant rolls equally.  So the days of needing for main spec and greeding for offspec are gone.  Most groups have adopted a “need for both specs” attitude which I have no problem with IF the person that is needing for offspec waits to see if anyone else needs for main spec before rolling.  Twice yesterday I watched people need on an offspec item against someone who was needing on it for mainspec, win, then drop group or argue as to why they “deserve it” when I said something.  One argument presented to me was “Well, that is normally my MS.  I’m in here in my OS.”

   Fantastic.  How are any of us supposed to know that’s your offspec and you’d like to roll mainspec on drops when there is obviously someone there that needs it for the mainspec they are running AT THIS POINT.  *shakes fist*

   The other argument I hate is “It’s just a heroic.”  Well, yes.  If this were any heroic under Trial of the Champion or the new ICC 5mans I wouldn’t even open my mouth.  But seeing is how ToC drops 219 gear on heroic and the new 5mans drop 232 gear on heroic, it’s a bit of a bigger deal.  People trying to gear up quickly to raid need this gear more than anything that will drop from any other heroic.

   My point is this – if you’re in LFG for both your specs and the random system asks you to go in on your offspec but you’d like to roll need on mainspec, say something to your group.  Don’t steal loot from your tanks or your healers because that’s exactly what it looks like.

All in all, the random cross-server LFG system does not give you permission to be a total douche to everyone you meet.  Just because you will likely never see them again doesn’t mean karma isn’t a bitch.  Run your heroic, do your job, say hi, be fair with loot rolls, and leave.  I’ve seen personally and heard from guildies more and more asshats showing up in heroics.

Maybe we’re all just unlucky and get the local nuts but maybe there’s more to this and people need to just pay a little more attention to how they act.  And, if you witness something like this – unfair loot rolls or someone just being a prick to someone else – say something.  You don’t have to do what I did and really lay into someone (to be fair I’m pregnant and a bit pissy nowadays – my poor husband) but speaking up briefly will help over time.

Enough folks speak up on a regular basis, the better it can get.

<selfish post>

My guild needs a healer.

*clears throat*

We are looking for a healer to fill in the final slot on our 10-man raiding team which was recently vacated.  While we would prefer a Resto Shaman or a Holy Paladin (we have a Priest and a Druid), we’ll consider every application we get.  This is a kickass raiding team who is already charging headfirst into Icecrown Citadel.

The Details:

Guild: Living Daylights

Website: http://living-daylights.net/

Guild Ox: http://www.guildox.com/go/g.asp?n=Living+Daylights&r=Stormrage-US

Realm: Stormrage-US

Faction: Alliance

Raid Days: Tuesday, Friday and Sunday

Raid Times: 10pm – 1am Server Time (EST)

We Want: Good, solid, dedicated people who know their class and play it well.  People who take raiding seriously but also know how to have fun.  Folks who won’t shy away from achievements or hard modes, no matter the cost.  An odd sense of humor is also welcome.

What We Don’t Want: Children, idiots, asshats, people who are full of themselves, and folks who don’t play well with others.

If you or someone you know is looking for a small, intimate guild that focuses exclusively on 10man raiding and you are a badass raiding healer, we want you.

For some history, here’s the post I wrote about us when we first started out.  We’ve evolved a little since then but we’re still true to our original vision and are still looking to build a strong raiding core to blaze through content both easy and hard.

If any of that remotely appeals to you, check out all the info on our website in the forums, ask me questions here on the site and fill out an application.

</selfish post>

3.3 has been out for two days now.  People are dealing with the usual patch week bugs, lags, disconnects and the “Additional Instances Cannot be Launched” boss.  I am always amused during patch week at the QQ from people who seem to completely forget every patch is wrought with issues and lag and so then proceed to act like this is something new and immediately fixable.

What these people seem to forget is that, on an average day you have X number of people playing on any given realm at any given time.  On patch day, and from that, patch week, you have X to the Nth power of people on every realm all the time because everyone wants to see the new content regardless of the time they normally play.

What did I do on Patch Day?  Downloaded my updated addons and did my dailies.

Anyway, enough of that minor rant.

My initial impressions of 3.3 so far?  Without having seen the new raid yet (Friday!), I really like it so far.  Here are my favorites:

The New Dungeon Finder

This is such a fantastic tool (when it works) for newbie 80’s.  My mage just hit 80 and I can use this to get into just about any heroic without having to worry about linking achievements, my gear score, or any such nonsense.  And even if someone in my group thinks I’m a total noob because I’m in blues and greens, it doesn’t matter – I will probably never see them again.  It’s a great way to farm emblems and gear up any toon very quickly.

Shaman T10 Look

I cannot express to anyone how much I love how the new Shaman armor looks.  I even love my stats and set bonuses (except the minor complaint I have at the lack of expertise on any of the items).  The color palette is great and muted and I really like how Blizzard is differentiating the levels by color.  Once again, we will be able to tell who has 10-man, who has H10-man/25-man, and who has H25-man sets by just a glance.  After the “meh” that was T9, I’m, once again, excited to collect a tier set.

The Quel’Delar Quest Line

I’m really happy this exists.  I’m not going after Shadowmourne because it’s not a weapon for me but here is a relatively easy, albeit long, quest line I can do for a 251 weapon with relatively decent stats.  The hilt to start the quest drops in the heroic modes of the new 5mans.  And it has a pretty decent drop rate – it dropped twice for my group in the Pit of Saron alone.  You go talk to a number of people around Icecrown and Dalaran (even sneaking into the opposing faction’s area in disguise!) and then go back into each of the new 5mans in order to reforge the blade.  A quick jaunt around Sunwell a few quests later and ta-da, new weapon.

So far, I’m really happy with this patch.  I’m sure I’ll have more impressions once I get into the new raid instance this weekend.

My question to everyone that I’ll leave you with is this: When do you think Cataclysm will drop?

Here’s why I ask.

We know a few things:

1. Icecrown is to be released in stages every few weeks or so, putting Arthas available sometime in February 2010 and, therefore, unlocking heroic mode.
2. Assume all the best guilds will have Heroic mode cleared by end of March with more guilds clearing both normal and heroic in April and May.
3. Blizzard stated at Blizzcon they plan to release two titles next year but didn’t specify which two.  Starcraft, Diablo and Cataclysm are in their pockets.
4. Blizzard can’t wait too terribly long between the release of Arthas and the release of Cataclysm without risking people getting too bored (which is an entirely different eye rolling rant unto itself).
5. This patch is most likely the last patch of WotLK.

So, knowing all of that, what do you think?  When with Deathwing rise up and sunder the world?