Time For Timeless Raiding

In the past, when you get a character to a level cap, you would get an email from one of the main NPCs of the particular expansion, and get a little goody bag to celebrate your accomplishment. So, at 70, 80, 85 and 90 you would get a letter, some potions and words of encouragement to get off your butt and get to work, so you can raid and kill bosses and collect purples.

This is the mail my level 64 Shaman is awaiting her at level 90:

This is one of five similar mails waiting for her.

Welp.

I started playing WoW at the tail end of the Burning Crusade. For the longest time, the way we adapted to new raid content has evolved.

It always had an upgraded gear tier, which then made the newly depreciated gear a bit more readily available. Maybe for the lesser tokens, maybe for Honor or Valor. New factions would allow you to relatively quickly get a few key pieces of gear.

A freshly level-capped character preparing to raid endgame content still had a good amount of work to avoid being carried in raids.

With the Timeless Isle concept, you can give an alt with a more than adequate set of gear that makes life a lot easier. It makes it so you can get through dailies a lot faster and opens up heroic dungeons and scenarios.

It also means that it’s not hard to qualify to go into the end-tier raid on LFR, almost IMMEDIATELY after dinging 90. Rezznul just ran around the Isle and found all the treasure chests and was able to have plenty of tokens to share. My Warlock, who I never have raided on, except a few LFRs, is better geared than Rezznul. I find it easy and fun to run around the Isle solo, killing rares and getting tokens for everyone.

I realize Blizzard wanted this to replace the normal gear upgrade progression of discounting previous tier goods, making it so you can build a decent set that allows you to grow into the end-game content. The huge side-effect is in LFR.

Ever since LFR emerged, the experience is quite varied. However, with Siege, I have heard more horror stories about LFR than ever before. Why?

Sure, are there parts that are overtuned? Sure. I’m always of the mindset that it’s easier to nerf a fight than buff it, so some fights may turn out to be way harder than intended.

However, I think the root cause is the ability to plop into the last raid of an expansion after quick leveling up to 90 (which Blizzard has done a great job of streamlining), getting your Timeless gear, and then having no clue how to best use your abilities in a raid that is challenging even for people who have experience raiding.

Add to the fact that people became spoiled in earlier raid versions of LFR, where mechanics were removed, or changed so much over the regular version that they become inconsequential. So, the tolerance for people learning a fight is much lower. Wiping on LFR is tantamount to ultimate failure to many, so if all you see is LFR, you can’t treat that as your “progression wiping” that regular raiders experience.

As an experiment, I got my OTHER druid in Waypoint, Rosavin to 90. She is Cynwise and Valys’ pocket healer on the Battleground, and locked at 87 for most of MoP. We all finally unlocked and worked up to 90. Rosa had a full set of Timeless treats waiting for her. She had her 450 weapon and offhand.

I went into LFR ToT with her. I qualified for SoO, but deferred. Even in ToT, I could tell the difference. The Timeless gear is very good, don’t get me wrong. However, it’s not going to allow you to do whatever you want right away.

The problem is, a lot of people don’t think that way. So, they get their Timeless gear for their alt, or offspec, pop in and think they can just will their way through. They aren’t necessarily bad players, but they maybe overestimate their gear against what they think they can do.

So, the wipes pile up. People hate LFR even more. The Timeless Isle floats on, caring not for anything around it. The mailbox gets more and more full.

When entering a LFR with a newly Timelessed character, I think the best thing people need to remember is the words of many a Pandaren: “Slow down.”

Pocket Healer

NOTE: I wrote this on Tumblr, but it was lost to the scrolling monster. This is a little piece I felt like writing. Cynwise and I are a great team, so I just wanted to flesh it out a bit.

———-

I was running through the open field, sprinting towards the base. Suddenly, I see a red banner running towards me.

“Help me!” the desperate rogue gasped.

I grunted, spun and followed him, healing him while he was surrounded by enemies. Suddenly, he burst forward, and I was temporarily stuck.

“You fool! Stay near me!” I growl.

I see orcs, blood elves and who knows what else pounce upon him. I streak forward, only to hear him gasp his last breath. My mouth curls in a grim smile, my teeth gleaming.

“Sorry, m’boy. Allow me to get back to my business at hand.”

I spring forward, darting through the fog of war. Blades slice at me, I feel the burn of magic upon my body. I grimace, and pour healing energy into myself. The more they attack, the more I enjoy it, I’ve found.

I peer up, and there she is, 30 yards away, if it was a foot. She was running about, casting spells as carefree as a gnome in a junkyard. I leap forward, sensing that she is weakening. I quickly heal her, and she glances my direction.

“How was your tea and cookies, m’lady?” She clicked her tongue.

“Shush, you. I was trying to save a fool from an early grave. He was too thick to realize it, so here I am.” I feel the heat of a blast of fire upon my fur, and I cringe. “Bloody hell, get them off of me!”

“I will do that, just as soon as I am finished making smoke monsters in the sky,” she said in a calm tone. She then laughed, and suddenly my attacker falls in a tremendous burst of fire.

There is a brief moment of calm, and we survey the room. It’s a dreary place, still smoldering from Cyn’s antics. I sniff.

“Would you stop that damnable sniffing?” she said.

I start to sniff again, but then stop, being aware of who I am. I look down for a moment, but then chuckle.

We sit in silence a few moments, when suddenly, we are surrounded by the enemy. We stand back-to-back, and nod. Suddenly, we unleash an attack, and the enemy is attacking us with all of their powers. I think to myself that this may be the time we won’t make it, but I push that aside as I feel the comforting sting of a sword slicing at my leathers.

I spin around and deeply curtsey. “A dance, guv?”

The orc Death Knight roars, and attacks. I dance away from him, making sure I do not stray to far from my partner. I continue to keep my and her strength up while the orc furiously attacks me. His compatriots join in the fight, I hear something that does not sound very polite, and it makes me laugh out loud.

I continue dancing, and watching as Cyn continues to pummel our dance partners. I’m jumping, biting, casting spells and annoying everyone. Well, everyone but Cyn and myself.

I get into a frenzy of attacking and healing, that I suddenly look about for an attacker, but I find the room silent. We stand amongst the fallen, and we smile a tired smile. The battle has been won.

We’re sitting in the common room in Sliverwing Hold, having a well-earned drink.

“That was quite a scrap just before, you’re lucky I was there to save you from those horrible, smelly Horde,” I say. I grin at Cyn, exposing my sharp teeth, still stained with the blood of the enemy.

“You are disgusting at times,” Cyn said, wrinkling her nose. “Ain’t anything going to die without me around, mind you.”

I laugh. “You can’t deny me a little bite now and then. It’s only for the best reasons.”

The clarion call goes out. I hoist myself up, look over my leather, all nicked and stained. I grin.

“Let’s get back to work, my friend.”

We step out onto the battlefield.

RNB, resurrected? (I hope)

At the end of last week, I was messaged by Rilandune on Twitter and asked if I’d like to be a guest on The Twisted Nether Blogcast.

My first response was, “Sure, but why would you want to talk to me?”

After he talked me down for a bit, I figured that it didn’t hurt to sit down and yak it up with Fimlys and Hydra about social media and my extensive blog resume.

The discussion did get to the blog, and we had a discussion why I haven’t written more. My reasoning is that I felt I didn’t have the time. I didn’t want to put out a bad product. Great reasons. Right? Right?!

It was a great talk, and afterwards, as I was winding down from the excitement, I had a lightbulb go off over my head. I promptly turned it off, because do you think my house is made of electricity? Sheesh!

The thought I had really came from when I was talking about my blog name. Fimlys was mentioning the diary part was a logical thing, and that was it! I realized I was approaching my writing all wrong.

I don’t need to write super-long posts. In the interview, they said I was really good using the 140 character limit. I didn’t deny it. I am HILARIOUS.

However, why not apply that concept to here? I may have a seed of an idea, so why not jot it down here.

So, I hope to pop in here, write an entry, and go about my day. Sometimes, it’ll be about me being a noob. All right, most of the time it will be about me being a noob.

… So, hey, what about that rez? WHAT? WALK BACK? Fine. *stomps*

The Bread of Life

These are my best creation, Buttery Almond Bear Claws.

I love cooking. More specifically, I love to bake more than anything. I’ve never really given it much thought to why I love baking so much, aside from the reason I’ve become quite good at it.

I was making a batch of bread for my family today. I’ve gotten into the habit of baking a lot on the weekend, so we have things over the week. Plus, it’s a nice way to relax.

I was sitting there, listening to music, and gazing at my mixing bowl. All that was in it was yeast, sugar and water. It had fully proofed, with a beautiful light brown foam of yeast and carbon dioxide taking over the bottom of the bowl. I suddenly had an epiphany. In one thought, I finally really came to grips with my love of baking, and why I love healing as a Druid so much.

Yes, I'm a cookie AND mana monster.

As I looked upon my proofing yeast, I realized that for me, the thing that defines me as a resto Druid is Lifebloom.

Lifebloom has gone through quite a few changes in how it’s used since being introduced. The way I’m using it now is really my favorite application since I’ve been healing.

I see the spell and yeast dough as the same thing. It’s a gradual growth, only to have a large expansion at the end. In my view, druid healing is very similar to baking bread in general.

In both cases, you develop a feel for what is right, and have the confidence that your skills will result in a positive result. With baking, making sure you’ve proofed the yeast properly, and kneaded the bread to the right consistency goes a long way to how good of a loaf you bake.

With resto healing, it’s how you apply your HoTs, and how you have the confidence of your strategy that you will do your job in a fight.

I also have said the same thing about both baking and resto healing, “It’s really easy, once you get the feel for it.”

Now I must go tend to my bread. Like resto healing, bread still requires attention and love to make it the best that you can.

Coming soon…

After a long break, I have some posts percolating that I’d like to share. Hopefully, soon!