"My name is Phillip Lang and I neglect my blog."
As said by me, just over eight months ago. Nothing really changes, it was true then, it remains true now.
First, I'm going to talk about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Specifically, raiding and the changes to the lockout system.
With 10man and 25man raids sharing a lockout, many players are calling it the death of one or the other, but I disagree.
To paint a picture, you have your core 10man team, all needing to gear up. You have at least 15 players sitting by wanting to raid. You also have more pieces of gear dropping in 25man raids. So, what do you do? You run 25man raids. It's simple really. You effectively double your chance at getting the right drops, assuming the core raiders get first shot at gear, your effectively gear up twice as fast as anyone else. Once they're geared sufficiently, go push progression on ten man.
Death of 25man raiding? No. The birth of 25man farming.
Second, how are you going to level to 85? I've heard a number of good ways, but most of them I've been sword to secrecy about, although I highly doubt no one else is planing on using the same methods. I'm also rather sure that some of the better ways will be prevented by Blizzard.
Personally, I plan on grouping with three real life friends (2x DPS, 1x Tank, me as heals), all of us sitting in the same room, and spamming heroic dungeons. That we'll have ample time to perfect the pulls and strategies is simply a bonus.
Professions? I'll be levelling my enchanting, certainly. Any mats won by any of the four of us will be used to level Vori's enchanting, with any extras being sold and the profits split. I'll also be on the lookout for any and all herbs, and donating them to one of my friends for alchemy.
With any luck, I'll hit 85 during the first wave, and also have high enchanting by the time it's wanted.
Thirdly, I detest being sick. I was hit by a ridiculously strong wave of nausea about an hour ago, so needless to say I went from being asleep to wide awake, and my stomach is now empty. Pretty standard really, the whole being ravenously hungry but still rather queasy however, is plain annoying.
I did have a rather full day planned for tomorrow, but that’s been cut down to only what I need to do. Appointment with the employment agency is still on, still at the time I was told it would be. Tangent, but I’d be much happier about going if I had any choice whatsoever as to when it is. It annoys me quite thoroughly when I’m told “You need to be here at xx on yy” at the end of my appointment, especially when it’s only three days later.
Fourthly, how do you tell someone that even though their skill surpasses their gear level, they’re not ready for ICC? Especially when this person is someone you know in real life.
Yeah, he’s (barely) geared for it. Yeah, his skill is better than his gear. However, he’s too set in the random heroics frame of mind, he doesn’t react fast enough, and makes little mistakes over and over again.
Prime example; Consecrate, Avengers Shield, then melee’s Deathwhispers adds. Adequate, if DPS hold back for a couple of seconds, but too slow if they don’t. Low DPS? He waits until one set of adds are dead before grabbing the next, causing, if we’re lucky, unnecessary raid healing.
As an off tank with a reasonable main tank, he’s fine. The problem with this however, is that no tanks want to group with him because of his gear. Meaning we end up with him main tanking, and an off spec tank as off tank, along with the problems they bring.
Fifthly, how the hell is my sister so smart?! She's 6. And reading novels. She's six, and easily dividing, multiplying, and doing basically any other math. She's six and spouting off words I can't even fucking pronounce, spelling them, and telling me what they mean. "Trichoglossus haematodus". Seriously. Can you pronounce that? Can you imagine being able to spell it? Can you imagine a fucking six year old being able to spell it? Year one, and no matter how hard I try, I can't stump her. The only time I've come close was "onomatopoeia", she got it her second try. It's ridiculous.
And to finish, I did have three or four lengthy posts half written in a word document, which unfortunately, was wiped, leaving me having to start over. And I dislike starting pieces of writing over, as I can never remember the wording, or get it nearly as good as it was, so it’s unlikely they’ll ever be re-written.
"Felyia, write a poem about butterflies and warriors losing threat!"
"Just as butterflies fly,
Warriors let people die,
Reroll pally eye em oh,
Keep the ground yellow,
Simply by pressing '1',
And suddenly you have won."
"I'm speechless, I've just been hit by a five minute silence."
Felyia, my low level druid, and a random trade troll at approximately four in the morning.
