Ama vs Viva (Disc Priest vs Resto Druid)

Having played around with both of my so-called main characters, I can firmly say at this time that provided things don’t change too much more before expansion, Vivacious will be my main.

She’s opened me up to a whole other world known as DPS. For some reason Shadow spec never rubbed me the right way. I just couldn’t get it down, even with decent gear and being hit capped, I was lucky to do 2k dps. Perhaps Boomkin is just an easier DPS class to play, or maybe I just like being a giant laser chicken more than having a shadowy aura.

I think this may be the best opportunity for me to break into druid healing. There are so many people who seem so dissatisfied with the loss of tree form, and the change to the appearance of the form that is incoming. Some of these people are flat out refusing to druid heal any longer.

Viva giving The Park in Stormwind some lovin'

I am absolutely adoring the new Efflorescence talent. This has to be the most fun AoE heal ever. Especially when it trips your tank up in Pit of Saron and he runs out of it thinking its poison. Hehe!

I’m trying to focus on the positive here, and that is my newfound joy in Druidic goodness. Quite frankly, I’m feeling a lot like Tam right now in regards to Discipline healing (see his posts here and here) , or perhaps even more so. I just can’t bring myself to really stick to the Smite Priest model. I commend Tam for his diligence in truly giving the spec a thorough shake down.

I ran a grand total of 3 heroics with it and immediately decided I can’t split myself that way. I’m a healer. It would be alright maybe if Smite was my go to dps spell in between healing spells, but, well, it just isn’t. Smite feels terribly weak when compared to our DoTs like Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, and of course Holy Fire. Mmmm… Sexy Holy Fire… ~drool~ Or even Mind Sear with its delicious AoE-ey-ness. Wait. What was I talking about? Oh yeah. Smite.

Maybe my dislike for Smite stems from leveling up through what felt like a billion levels with no damage spell of any real value but Smite, snatching up my mana like its going out of style and leaving me to wand my way through packs of mobs. Admittedly I leveled Holy during BC, so perhaps my viewpoint is a bit skewed.

The bottom line for me, is that using Smite in this way is feeling very forced and I just plain don’t like it. One of the things I’ve always loved about any healing class is that there is much more room for fluidity in rotation. This doesn’t feel fluid to me at all. As Tam said, “it’s far too easy to either get stuck in a smite-frenzy only to look round and discover everybody is dead, or to get so caught up in healing (it’s your job after all) that you forget you could also be smiting a bit on the side.”

As terrified as I am of it, I think I have to seriously give Holy a try. Yep, I’m hopping on that bandwagon. I feel horrible for it, but I just can’t do this. In the meantime I’m spreading some Druid love around Azeroth.

Revenge, At Last!

Old school achievements and dungeons are not my guild’s thing. Luckily enough, my best friend’s guild sometimes does these things, and I get to tag along. Many thanks to you guys, and to you, Spell. <3

Today, Ama got her revenge on Lady Vashj, finally! I know, I know. Not the most epic of achievements for a level 80, but a milestone for Ama nonetheless.

Die, you naga wench! Die!

The guild I was in during BC ended its raiding days without having completed the last bosses in SSC or TK. We made brief attempts at Mount Hyjal, but were only able to down the first boss there. We never stepped into Black Temple or Sunwell. We were exceptionally late to the game, and the introduction of Zul Aman created epic proportion drama that destroyed the guild.

We had made a few attempts at Lady Vashj before we moved on to Mount Hyjal. That fight has to be one of the most infuriating fights in the game.

This morning we did it with 10 people, which was a challenge in and of itself, given all of the adds and the different corners where the cores come from and then need to go to. Thank heaven for Vent!

We also completed TK and killed Kael’thas. Unfortunately I didn’t get screenshots of that. It was very fun to get to see. I had seen all of the bosses in TK except for Kael’thas. By that time it was nearing the end of BC and our repeated failures on Lady Vashj had us convinced we would not be able to kill Kael and his council.

I have slain the King!

It is done. Arthas has been put out of his misery by mine own hands. Well, not just my hands. Well, actually not really my hands at all, but I did keep those alive who did do the killing bits.

And along with his demise came these:

 

Precious achievements! My Precioussssss!

I am beyond happy! I was truly concerned that I wouldn’t achieve my ultimate goal for this expansion, and I would have had no one to blame but myself. I would have had this done long ago if I hadn’t taken a break from raiding and explored other realms.

I’m not sure if there are others in the guild that still need titles, but for now we are still scheduled to return to the Citadel next week. Maybe we will try some hard modes, maybe we will just grind it for badgers and fun. Either way, the pressure is off, and it feels wonderful!

 

Oh, Sindragosa… again.

So, the Alt team is making its way through ICC 10 man. Since myself and two others who were on the progression team didn’t make it to the Lich King kill, we have been relegated to to the Alt team, which is really the only team. Are you confused yet? So am I.

We’ve killed everything, except for Sindragosa and the Lich King with the Alt group. This should be an accomplishment, but since everyone has already done it all on their mains (except the three of us), we kind of thought it would be a cakewalk. Well, not so much.

Welcome to nights of wiping on Sindy.

I managed to make the most of it, by playing with my Teldrassil Sproutling between attempts.

Ama playing with her Sproutling between Sindragosa attempts

As attempts wore on, the poor sproutling got kind of tired, and Ama didn’t blame her.

Sleepy Sproutling

One thing I have learned, sometimes Ama is perfectly content to be trapped in an ice tomb.

Happily tombed Ama

And sometimes Ama absolutely hates being trapped in an ice tomb.

Grrr! Ice tombed again?!

Particularly after Lady RNG has seen fit to chain tomb healer after healer until we wipe.

All in all, I think we are doing well. The first time we killed Sindragosa was after wiping on it for a week. This is a completely different group for all intents and purposes, and although we may all be the same people behind the toons, we are a different team. Many are re-learning how to do the fight in a completely different role than they are used to, and we are all re-learning how to work with each other in our different roles. We should be proud of getting her down to 8%. I have faith that we can get her down, but it was never going to be easy.

EDIT: The bony bitch is down! Woohoo!

Fail Death Knights are Fail (and other fun stuff)

I ran a heroic CoS a few days ago, and it was good fun. The group was great, except for that one DK. You know the one, the one who can’t beat the tank in DPS. But there’s something seriously wrong when they can’t even beat the healer in DPS.

I’ve been working on Viva quite a bit lately. I spent a fair amount of time in Sholazar Basin recently, and I still love it! The quest chains are fabulously fun, plus I get to skin all the critters I kill.

 

Croc Surfing!

There’s nothing better than the petty war between the Frenzyheart and the Oracles and those quest chains. Ama is a Mercenary of Sholazar, and while it was a bit excrutiating towards the end, it was so worth it. I only wish it was a title.

 

Boomkin on a Mammoth?

Where else can you do this, but in Sholazar? It’s just wrong!

And now for something completely different!

This was several PuGs ago in a random Blood Furnace. I’m still not exactly sure why he had to let her out of the house.

Discipline Healing in 25 Mans (A Rant)

My main is a Discipline Priest, and I don’t think I’m a horrible one, but I seem to always run into trouble when I’m asked to Main Tank heal anything that is not with my guild.

This morning I ran an ICC 25 half-pug with my friend’s guild, and I ended up rage quitting. This was just about the worst thing I could have done, but I did it. Emotional priest is emotional and erratic. Sorry.

Here’s the thing, I am a Discipline Priest. While we are designed as Single Target healers, we are not designed to solo Main Tank heal. At least this is my understanding of my class. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong and call me a baddie.

Since I started raiding as Disc during this expansion I have tried desperately to be a Main Tank healer, and I always fail (unless I overpower the raid dungeon through gear). Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Maybe my rotation is wrong. Maybe my gear is wrong. I don’t know. I do tend to be OCD about getting my slot bonus for gems even when I don’t really need it, so my gemming is probably a bit wonky. I’m fairly confident that my spec is good.

I can’t solo heal a single tank through the Festergut fight on 25 man regular. Is this wrong? Should I be able to do this? I don’t know.

This is not a new issue for me. This is part of the reason I left Resolution and quit raiding so long ago. This is the main reason I rarely do 25 man raids. This is the reason I am always hesitant to 2 heal a 10 man dungeon. This is THE reason I don’t do VoA EVER. I’m a fail tank healer that needs back up. You’re better off bringing a Holy Paladin than bringing me into your raid. I will only disappoint you, and in turn end up disappointing myself.

I’m awesome at being a support healer. I can balance any group by helping with tanks or with raid healing. I am awesome on fights with AoE damage because I can mitigate this with bubble spam. Put me as the Main Tank healer on any fight and expect me to be able to pull it off without any help from other healers, you’re asking for a dead tank.

I know there’s a ton of Discipline Priests out there in the Blogosphere. Help me out here. What am I doing wrong? How do you tank heal? Am I really as fail as I’m feeling? Time to roll a Paladin?

TLDR: Disc Priest fails to keep tank alive in ICC 25.

Obligatory Lich King Post

Oh, Arthas...

I’ve finally made it to The Frozen Throne.

There will always be those who don’t really understand or care about the lore, who don’t understand what is happening in the final cut scene. These are the ones who want to sit on Santa’s lap.

Me, I kneel at Arthas’ side in quiet respect. When this is over it will be a bittersweet victory, but rest assured I will kill the Lich King.

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What Mementos Have You Kept? (Or Amaranth’s Closet)

Amaranth is my main, and she is the collector of my bunch. What special items do I keep in her closet… err bank?

Well, the bulk of the mementos that I keep are dress up outfits. I’ve had to weed out the less meaningful ones over the years.

Allow me to play dress-up for you and explain why I’ve kept the things I’ve kept.

Ama in her Burning Crusade mementos

First is my old Burning Crusade Gear, which includes a Violet Badge, Violet Signet of the Grand Restorer and Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration. The primary pieces though are my precious Wings, my Robes of Heavenly Cleavage, my Voodoo Shaker, and my Gavel of Naaru Blessings. Burning Crusade was my heyday, and I can’t bring myself to part with any of my gear from then. When I finally replaced my Mantle of the Avatar during WotLK I vowed to keep it, but accidentally disenchanted it. I wound up petitioning a GM and begging to give this angel her wings back.

Ama in her Lunar Festival gear

 

One of my other favorites is my Festive Black Pant Suit from the Lunar Festival. The Lunar Festival as well as the Midsummer Fire Festival are the two festivals that give me the fondest memories of my Jezzabell.

Ama's Chef outfit

Every woman ought to have maxed cooking, and Ama can fish on top of it. My cooking outfit consists of the Tuxedo Pants and Shirt, Chef’s Hat, and Old Crafty for dinner.

Ama's Birthday outfit

This is my favorite outfit of all. The dress was a very special gift from a good friend for my Birthday. It can only be gotten Horde side, so it is truly something special for my Night Elf. To date it is still my most favorite in game Birthday gift, and brings back good memories of good times with this friend.

I pair it with the Halo of Transcendence, the original from level 60 Onyxia. I keep that one as well as the level 80 version in my closet because I love the model so much.

I have other outfits, but I also keep other random toys and mementos. Among them are:

• Seal of Ascension – completely useless now, but I worked hard to get it and can’t let go
• A Steamy Romance Novel: Northern Exposure – for those lonely nights
• Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon – see Seal of Ascension notes
• Titanium Seal of Dalaran – every girl needs a lucky charm
• Piccolo of the Flaming Fire – every girl loves to dance
• Brazier of Dancing Flames – ^^
• Orb of the Sin’dorei – because who doesn’t want to be someone else for a while?

There is so much more, including a consistent stack of Savory Deviate Delights and Ribboned Wrapping Paper just in case I want to give someone a present.

So, now you all know, there are no skeletons in Ama’s closet.

At last!

At long last, Ama has finally gotten her Reins of the White Polar Bear! After many hundreds of dailies and much torment, Lady RNG has seen fit to bless Ama with the mount she’s been wanting since she first saw it with the release of Wrath.

Squee!!

I will love him and squeeze him and cuddle him and feed him and call him George! Oh wait. George is my Shadowfiend’s name. Ummm…

~thinks~

Jerry! His name is Jerry!

~Grateful bear dances with her new polar bear~

Random Misadventures

Three randoms attempted yesterday. Two completed.

Number One

The first was a heroic on Ama. I got H Old Kingdom. I feel like I always get Old Kingdom. But that’s ok. As we enter, the shaman asks if we can do all the bosses because she needs emblems. The tanks says it’s up to the group. As we approach the first boss, I suggest that we compromise and skip the mushroom boss. The shaman bails halfway through the first boss saying that she needs the emblems too much.

Seriously? Now she’s going to have to wait out her half hour deserter debuff before she can get any badges. Isn’t some better than none? Besides, I was just making the suggestion. If she had insisted, I would have backed down. She insisted and then instantly left. Didn’t even give us the chance to change our minds. I only made the suggestion because the mushroom boss is kind of out of the way and annoying.

I wish she had stayed because her replacement was a rather obnoxious GOGOGO mage. We completed this dungeon fairly smoothly anyway and did all but the mushroom boss.

Number Two

The second was a random regular WotLK dungeon on Viva with Totally (new and improved for your enhancement! Hehe!) We get an Utgarde Keep already in progress. The group is just past the first boss. The DK tank starts chain pulling. I’m having enough trouble keeping him alive as it is. We wipe. I’m sorry, but there is no reason to chain pull at level 70. The tank can’t handle it, the DPS can’t handle it, and I can’t handle it as a healer. Maybe that makes me a fail healer, but I can’t do it yet. We ended up bailing on that dungeon. Probably the same reason the previous healer/dps had bailed.

Number Three

The third was another Utgarde Keep with Viva and Totally. We were doing fine with a warrior tank until we got to the dragon room. He tried to bypass the dragons on the side, and managed to pull three dragons on accident. We wiped and the hunter bailed. The tank asked us to give him lead so he could bring an 80 in to run us through. Neither me nor Totally wanted that, so we declined and queued again. Apparently this upset Mr. Tank, because he ran into the dragon room aggroing everything and left the dungeon group.

We queue again, and wait about 15 minutes for a new tank. Meanwhile the Ret Pally tries his hand at tanking, in all ret gear, no BOAs, and often forgetting Righteous Fury. Totally ended up tanking most of that room as best he could. Somehow my Enhance Shaman partner is less squishy than a Ret Pally. Some of us die, and this hilarity ensues.

Level 70 Paladin without his rez spell. /facepalm

Tonnto was a remarkably apt name for him.

Shortly after this we got a real Pally tank in the group and completed the dungeon.

There was much hilarity from Tonnto throughout. He kept yelling about needing Ingvar’s head, until one of us explained that Ingvar was at the end of the dungeon.

At some point he told us we were mean for saying /facepalm when he said less than brilliant things. I dunno, I’ve seen much meaner things. Maybe we weren’t exactly super friendly and helpful, but I wouldn’t say we were mean. If we were mean we would have kicked him.

We had a little chat about our mains, to which Tonnto responded that this was his first character. No surprise there. I’ll give him this much, he did ok damage for his level, despite obviously being a little clueless. I’m guessing he’s just a kid, and I mean no offense in my mocking. It made for an interesting run and a little bit of fodder for my blog. Thank you, Tonnto.