Priestly Bubbles

Ugh, the world of pugging...I know, I complain about it all the time.  But I swear it gets worse when all the good players are taking breaks because there's no new content.  So I made a list of the generalizations I make when I see those pretty colors in party or raid chat.  I know there are others not mentioned, but these are the most frequent in my daily ventures on WoW.

The guild brought in a new shadow priest.  I was nervous at first because it was when my computer was out of commission so I thought I was being replaced.  But the officers have said over and over that they don't want me going anywhere and that we just needed more ranged.  They're also encouraging me to make friends.  I'm trying, okay!

What's the first thing I do?  I critique him.  Yeah, it's a bad habit.  Whatever.  He's almost perfect.  If you took the sticky on the priest forums and turned it into a priest, this is what it would look like.  He's got Woaden's spec and gemming.  The only difference is that his off set piece is Gunship Captain's Mittens instead of the pants.  I guess he preferred the hit from them.  I prefer my hit bracers and neck.  So far, he looks good.

After I pick up Dying Light and do my typical "I just won an awesome piece of loot!" dance in my chair, I compare our gear.  We both have 4 set sanc, except his off set piece if Gunship Captain's Mittens and mine is heroic Sanguine Silk Robes (because I used to go holy a lot for this guild).  We both have heroic Dying Light.  We have several pieces of alike gear.  We both have regular Phylactery of the Nameless Lich, but I have regular Muradin's Spyglass where he has heroic DFO.  In my math deprived mind, I think "our dps should be about the same".

A little background info.  I'm extremely competitive.  I would be in a top guild if I could handle the social retards that tend to lead those guilds.  Some of my friends are in some FANTASTIC top guilds, but I can't seem to find one that needs a priest.  So I'm in this casual HM guild.  I love it here.  They're fair, relaxed and mature, and I've made some amazing friends.  They know I'm a crazy, but they like me for it.  Anyway, moving on with the little story.

My goal is to beat him on every fight.  Another shadow priest in the raid is really good for my dps.  I beat him on a few fights, but he beats me most of the time.  I check and compare our rotation, dot uptime, etc.  Everything seems to be the same.  Finally, I'm watching party chat, and I see something that gives me an idea.  Everyone in party is bragging about how high they can get with their spell power when everything procs at once.  I get about 5k, one of the mages 4.5k (mages tend to have lower spell power than priests, but more benefit I guess), and the new shadow priest above 6k.  6k????  WHAT?  I armory him and compare our spell power.  It's about the same unbuffed.  I compare our haste.  I'm sitting at 850 ish unbuffed.  He's at 1100.

I confide in my mage friend, and he laughs at me.
"Heroic DFO is a bigger boost than you think."

It's amazing how much a little haste and one trinket can do.  Now I want that trinket so bad I can taste it.

So I'm leveling my druid again.  I'm queuing as heals, because it's faster, and I have a healing set/spec.  She's 74 right now, and healing is a breeze.

First instance queue pops.  It's Old Kingdom.  I glance over the party members.  Who is the tank...?  I finally figure out that it's the dps death knight that's pulling everything.  I start healing like crazy.  Several trash pulls, a brez, and an innervate later I finally get a chance to sit down and drink.  The "tank" pulls the boss.  He drops like a rock.  Fed up, I drop group.

I requeue.  OK again.  I switch back to my resto spec and figure out who the tank is as she pulls the first trash mob.  Shit...I'm still in my cat dps gear and I have no mana.
After the trash pull, which is somehow managed to keep us alive:
"Could I maybe get some heals?  I got to like 100 health there."-paladin tank
"Could I maybe get some mana?  I had like 100 mana there."-me, snarky because I'm already annoyed with pugs
"Dude, you only have like 5k mana.  That's so fail."-some idiot dps
 "Well then give me half a second to switch to my resto gear."-me
You have been removed from the group.
Wtf...really?

I switch to my level 30 paladin to heal some instances there.  I get Gnomeregan with a prot paladin, a ret paladin, and two other random dps.  The tank is pulling as slow as humanly possible...or blood elfinly possible.  Finally, the ret paladin gets tired of waiting on Mr. Protpally to pull and starts pulling for him.  Fine with me as I'm starting to get bored.  After a few ret paladin pulls, Mr. Protpally runs around in a circle gathering up a bunch of mobs, stands on the ret paladin's consecrate, announces "LET THE TANK FUCKING PULL" and drops group.
Well we wipe...of course.  I apologize to the group and inform them that I'm tired of bad tanks, and we all decide to just drop and try again later.

I think it's time to play Super Mario Galaxy.  I don't have to play with other people and I'm 12 stars away from opening up a secret level or something or other.

Side note:  My computer is deadums.  The 160w power supply finally gave out and I needed a new one.  I wanted to buy a 300-400w power supply, but because I have an HP Slimline, the only power supply that fits that motherboard is an $80 160w.  NO thanks.  I'm waiting on a new motherboard that I can use my 350w power supply with.  I should be back up and running on Monday!

Okay, so it wasn't your standard QQ.  But seriously, there was a lot of it.  Some of the posts I read had the most amazing arguments.  Unfortunately, I'm sure Blizzard employees did not sit down and read all these fantastic arguments and debate back and forth on each one.  I'm sure it wasn't the impressiveness of a clear and concise argument, but the sheer numbers of those opposed.
Anyway, on to my point, those of you who actually do stop by and read my rants/thoughts/advice (thank you!), you may think that Blizzard does not listen.  You may think that no matter how much feedback you give, you, yourself, will never change anything about a Blizzard decision.  However, that's not entirely true.  It's hard for Blizzard to listen to every single well thought out suggestion, but a suggestion backed by thousands of voices?  Possibly.  Next time you want to speak out against or for something, remember the impact of the average player during this little battle.

/steps off the soapbox
Moving on!  I seriously need to keep up with this.  As of Tuesday of this week, I am 9/12 25 ICC heroic.  ICC 10 I won't even comment on, because it's all mix matched.  I think I'm something like 8/12 (Princes is retardedly hard in 10 man) and 5/12 for the drake.  Something like that...

Shadow has become my main spec.  I've gotten a bit addicted to dpsing and find it to be good times.  Holy is my off spec, which I will find myself using less and less as we pick up some solid healers (I mean, ones that SHOW UP FOR RAID).  Sorry, I dislike those who don't give it their all but expect raid invites when they do happen to log on.  No, gtfo.  Disc is a thing of the past, for now.  We have a pretty solid Disc priest raider, and as we all know, having more than one is a bad idea.

The death knight tank is sitting on the back burner for the time being.  I bring her out for alt guild runs, which are rare.  My frustration at being turned down for every ICC 10 because I'm a tank with a gearscore of 5300 has become too much for me to enjoy playing her.

My hunter took my death knight's place as my first alt.  So much fun to play!  Nymarl of Nathrezim if anyone's curious.  Feel free to insult her gear.  I'm coming back to huntering and when I was actually a hunter, I was BM, because it was still the cool thing to do.

I will try to keep up with this as I continue to raid.  I'll post more stories and screenshots of us in raid.  We have a good time while we progress!

My boyfriend and I will be moving in November!  Into a larger, nicer apartment with some friends of ours.

This crazy kitten has actually begun to gain weight!  She might no longer be underweight.  She has also gained a friend (and part time lover....eww) by the name of Kon.  A huge black short hair tomcat.  Besides spending the first day hissing and running from each other, they now eat, play and sleep together, typically if they don't think we're watching.  They're quite an amusing couple.  Little Nym, the intrepid troublemaker.  Playful and loving but sometimes with the attitude of a grounded teenager.  And the larger Kon, the typical uninterested tomcat.  However, he becomes interested when he thinks it might eat him.  He's terrified of anything larger than him, excluding Chris and I, unless we're being loud and rambunctious.  The only thing Little Nym fears is the vacuum cleaner.  But she swears to me, in quite a loud voice, that that vacuum cleaner is going to eat her.

This time I'm not coming back.  My reasons?  I will list them plain and simple.

1.  I do not wish to be called by my legal name.  Thanks Blizz, but I don't even go by my legal name IRL.  College and jobs do not make me use it, why should a video game?  My Facebook is not under my legal name, but the name I am called by.  I find it ridiculous that you will not allow me to be called by the name those call me IRL.

2.  I'm sure I could be found.  My name is quite common.  However, if you know my e-personality, including my character, real name, and other things (like my accent), I could be found.  A true stalker could find all my information.  Even though this doesn't completely terrify me, it does make me nervous.

3.  A dear friend of mine has a very uncommon last name.  Excluding her family, I've never heard her last name anywhere else.  It would be simple to find her and that makes her very uncomfortable.  I continue to fight Real ID for her sake as well as mine.

4.  This is a ROLEPLAYING game.  Yeah, I'm lame.  I like being called Nym.  All of my characters are named Nym.  It's a name I use in every single game I play.  A variation of Nymarie is what I want to be called.  Not my real name.

5.  I highly doubt the trolls will leave.  As far as I can tell, only those who are regular contributors and dear to our forums are leaving.  So what will that leave us with?  You think the trolls care if we know their real name?  No.  It's their mains they want to protect.  Not their real name.  CAD summed it up quite perfectly.

6.  Blizzard employees will be exempt from this.  Excuse me?  So it's okay if a player is found and stalked, but not an employee.  Right, makes sense.  Blizzard obviously knows this is not a good idea.  Why on earth are they implementing it?

7.  I found where someone on Facebook said that they were banned for posting links that proved that this is illegal.  Their posts were also completely deleted.  Does this make me curious?  Very much so.
This is a copy of the post:

• REALID IS ILLEGAL IN THE USA!!
  

  The Cyber Security Enhancement Bill of 2002 makes this illegal!!
  
  http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/homeland_CSEA.htm <-- guidelines you need to see, Blizzard. Guidelines the whole ruddy world needs to see!
  ...
  http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001030----000-.html <---- More proof that this is illegal in the USA!!
  
  We need to petition the Supreme Court to shut this down. Nearly 30,000 posts have been made about this. People are pissed, there is no precedent for this kind of behaviour... let's make one. Let's make it clear to the world that a company like Blizzard does NOT have the right to give out our names. A friend of mine, Khull of The Darksun Tribe, who knows about law searched these laws up and woke me up to tell me about it. He has a common first and last name, but knows enough about cyber security, being /b/tard, to know that even he isn't safe if Blizzard makes this change.
  
  Copy and paste on the US forums!!

 

If you honestly think you don't care if your name is there for all to see, good for you.  But don't be a dick and say that everyone should be okay with it.  You can't change people's opinions and some people just aren't comfortable putting their names out there.  There are other ways to combat forum trolls!!!!  I agree perfectly with the author of CAD:

• If they've got the Battle.net account system in place, why not allow us to choose a single nickname associated with the Battle.net account. Any time you want to post on a Blizzard forum, this is the name that is going to show up. This is the name that you are known by in the Blizzard community, no matter which game, until you decide you've fucked up enough that you need to buy a new account to get a clean slate. And if you're really nasty, Blizzard removes forum permissions for that Bnet account.

One thing I'm seriously ready for is the 10/25 shared lockout and gear.
I was told yesterday that I'm a lazy ass casual who doesn't care about their gear because I prefer not to tank 25 mans.  I'm not sure how the latter makes me the former.  I simply don't like tanking 25 mans.  Even if I did, my guild doesn't run an alt 25 man and I hate pugging...

But, when I was asking about 264 off set pieces vs. 251 Tier 10 for Death Knight tanking, I was told it didn't matter because I obviously don't care enough to gear my character "correctly" or "the best way possible".

My favorite thing to do on my Death Knight is tank ICC 10.  I think it's fun.  I can run with a ton of friends on their alts and have a good time, but I still want to be the best I can be for them.

But yesterday, I was completely disgusted by this prick of a 25 man raider calling anybody who doesn't do 25 mans "lazy" and "uncaring" when it comes to their character.

"25 mans aren't that hard to do or get in to."  I never said they were.  I said I don't enjoy tanking them or pugging them.

People need to realize that just because they enjoy the game a certain way doesn't mean other people do too.

Not.

I jump into the first 25 man raid I get to go on with this guild and everything decides to hate me.
We pull trash.  Some new trial pulls two different groups and we wipe.  ON TRASH.  WITH A 20% BUFF.
/sigh

We get to Marrowgar.  Something odd happened....and we wipe.  Wtf?

We approach Lady Deathwhisper.  I decide it will be fun to spill coke on my keyboard.  My b and p fall in love and I cannot type one without the other appearing somehow.  Then, completely random, my mouse dies.  So I think, I'll tab target this fight.  Ha.  My tab button becomes spacebar and I can't target anything.  I attempt to restart my computer and don't make it back in time.  I miss the emblems from LDW and the quest reward.

We start the Saurfang fight.  Suddenly, everyone's lagging.  Then BOOM! server crash.  I mean really?

Now I'm sitting here staring at the "Logging in to game server" screen while the majority of the raid is already logged back in.

Okay, Fates, whatever it was that I did to piss you off, you think I've paid for it enough now?

Well she's not really a baby, just an old abandoned 80 priest from Naxxramas.

I'm absolutely frustrated with the fact that there is a lack of caring in our guild.  I got into a pug on my death knight tank last night and got as far in 10 man as our guild run did.

So...I'd rather stay on the server but I want to raid again.  I miss it.  But the only guilds on the server recruiting any sort of priest want holy priests.  While I wait for a response from the guild, I have specced little Caestine from Bladefist holy and I intend to learn the only priest spec I don't know so that I can raid again.  It's not really learning from scratch.  It's still a priest...and I did play holy when I was leveling to 80.  But it's been so long!  I know almost nothing.

Okay work time!  <3 the arcade.

Yeah....I'm back.  I've been posting on the priest forums, so I figured I'd start back up here.  I don't hard core raid anymore, so I'll just blog about things I learn, whether it be about the priest class, certain achievements or WoW in general.  So what's Nym doing now?

I've moved to the server Hyjal with some RL friends.  And somehow...I became the guild leader of a small 10 man raiding guild.  Though we're having trouble with a consistent tank healer.  I have become the "dps with a heals offspec".  So I'm Shadow as much as I am Disc.  I have both specs' 4 piece set bonuses.

My baby Death Knight has become a badass little tank.  She completed Storming the Citadel (10 player) this past week.  Tanked the whole thing with no messups.  ^_^

Started a little Ret/Holy paladin on Hyjal.  I will learn to heal with every class!

I got exalted with the Sha'tari Skyguard.  Awesome looking Nether rays for the win!  I'll post a SS later.

We did some old raids.  Got some badass old gear.










Though I had to dps next to some naked mages.  -_-










The strangest things seem to happen in our raids.  o_O




















I really need to get some sleep so I can't blog much more tonight!  More updates and screenshots to come!

This is going to be a long one.  (Well a bunch of little ones in one post.)
Anub-ToGC25
Last Thursday, I was able to step into a ToGC25 on Anub with 50 attempts left.  It was very much a mix between ToC25 and ToGC10.  The strategy was fairly simple.  Three very spread out ice patches were dropped (four if you include the "tank" patch).  The person targeted in Phase 2 ran to the outside of one of the ice patches (order was back, front, back).  A paladin would bubble the raider, allowing the raider to stand in the spikes until the bubble is almost up.  Then the raider runs onto the ice patch, stunning Anub.
On Phase 3, the healers focused on keeping Penetrating Cold targets alive.  The groups were kept up with passive healing.  However, this isn't failproof.  Myself and a couple others died from the Leeching Swarm at the very end.
With 48 attempts left, I finally finished ToGC25.  And we got our Mad Skills achievement.
Update:  This week we had some major server lag on Tuesday. Both guilds in the race for server first Tribute to Insanity wiped on Anub25 heroic. Next week, we have it!

Yogg +0
Monday night, we worked on Yogg +0.  Fairly simple until Phase 3.  You just don't have Hodir's random ice block if you die or Freya's beams of sanity.  So you have to really watch your sanity.  What does Mimiron do again?  Oh well, I guess it wasn't important.  Phase 3 gets very difficult.  Thorim is not there to kill the adds so they will continue to spawn until Yogg dies.  The good thing is that their damage is minimal when at 1% health.  They have to be dpsed down just as much as Yogg.  I'm not sure if we have decided on a strategy for this yet.

Blood Prince Council
Now that we're up to speed...this week.  Curious, we went to the Blood Prince Council first after the first wing.  When you enter the room, you see three dead princes lying on a platform.  Above them Blood Queen Lana'thel hovers, channeling a spell.  On the left we have Keleseth from Utgarde Keep, Valanar from Naxxanar, and on the right we have Taldaram from Ahn'kahet.  After killing the trash and walking a little bit further into the room, you will see Lana'thel rez the three princes and fly up into her room.
The princes have a "shared" health pool, however only one will have the health pool at any point in time.  This is the one that must be dpsed.  They gain a buff called Invocation of Blood, and they basically become more annoying.
Keleseth
This one needs to be range tanked.  His abilities are single target only.  He melees for around 60k so the ranged tank must stay away.  He does a Shadow lance for a good deal of damage.  His Empowered Shadow lance will one shot the ranged tank if he does not have any Dark Nuclei.  Dark Nuclei are large purple orbs that spawn around the room.  They attach either to the closest raid member or the last raider to hit them.  They decrease shadow damage.  The ranged tank must have three to survive Empowered Shadow lance.  They will slowly kill themselves.  The best plan, it seemed, was to have another ranged pick these up and bring them to the ranged tank.  At the beginning, the ranged tank will probably be hit by a few Shadow lances before he has any Dark Nuclei.  Healers should use cooldowns to keep him up.
Valanar
This prince to me is the most annoying.  First he throws a kinetic bomb into the air.  It must be kept in the air or it will explode, dealing a ton of damage and knocking over everyone back.  His main ability is a shock vortex.  It appears as a small circle of electricity on the ground.  All raiders must get 13 yards away from it.  It deals damage and a knockback.  Empowered Shock Vortex is much more difficult.  All raiders within 30 yards will get this under their feet.  All raiders within 15 yards of them will be hit by it.  Melee must get out and away from other raiders.
Taldaram
This is the fire prince.  He inflicts Glitter upon his enemies.  Yes....glitter.  How threatening.  This can be dealt with by simply dispelling any raider who has it.  Conjured Flame targets a player and flies towards them.  Any player near the targeted player should move away to avoid extra damage.  The Empowered Conjured Flame does much more damage but will do less and less the more flares it throws out.  These are little flames that do a small amount of damage to nearby raiders.  
That's the fight in a nutshell.  Not too hard when you get it down.

Professor Putricide
Finally got this down on 10 and 25.  It's a three phase fight.  Each time he drinks a new flask, he gains a new ability and gets uglier.
Phase 1
For the first phase he summons slime pools around the room.  The person in the Abomination (this should be your offtank) needs to eat these to keep them under control.    Putricide casts a spell called Unstable Experiment. This experiment switches back and forth between spawning a green ooze and spawning an orange ooze. DPS should kill these quickly. The fight starts with green. The green ooze will pick a target a few seconds after it has spawned and attach itself to that target with a long green tether. That raider will take damage and be unable to move. When the ooze gets to its target it will dish out an AoE that will one shot if several raiders aren’t stacked on top of the target. A spread out/collapse rotation must be used. The orange ooze uses a tether as well but the raider is able to move. Nothing will save the raider if the ooze gets to them so they must kite him against the wall while the ooze is quickly killed. (Body and Soul is great for this.) At 80%, Putricide will cast tear gas, freezing everyone in place and run to his experiment table. Try to get him to 80% when there are no oozes up.
Phase 2
Putricide will drink one of the flasks on his table, causing him to sprout tentacles from his back. This gives him a couple of new abilities. One is a gas bomb, which appears as two small orange flasks on the ground. The tank must now begin kiting him. The second is Malleable Goo, which our raid refers to as “flippies”. He also retains the abilities he had in phase 1. At 35% he casts tear gas again to go into the last phase. Watch for the oozes; it’s even worse to have one up in Phase 3.
Phase 3
The tank in the abom will get thrown out and the abom will despawn. The two tanks must now start a taunting rotation as Putricide gets stronger. Towards the end of the fight, tanks and healers must pop cooldowns on the tanks to keep them up. Beware of the slime pools, flippies, gas bombs and ticking AoE. Get through this phase quickly and you have him!

Best in Show
We went back and killed Festergut and Rotface.  When we killed Precious, I noticed the loot was assigned to me.  I crossed my fingers and searched the corpse.  There it was!  My very own Precious's Ribbon!  It gives a silly little buff that says "Best in Show" and doesn't look too bad.

I also received my Perky Pug.  Cute little thing.

I’m absolutely loving the new guild. I feel like I’m already starting to fit in and find my place.

I apologize for the long blog.  I've been busy still unpacking!  I'll attempt to keep up with it more.
Plague wing healing guide to come soon!

Loot from the past two weeks:
Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom-finally got my rep ring
Kilt of Untreated Wounds-last week's ICC 10 man, gemmed with spell power and intellect (since I needed a lot for BQL)
Amulet of the Silent Eulogy-got this for offspec, but it's better than what I was using for mainspec! (Gemmed with hit for my offspec set...not sure what to do about that just yet.)
As of right now, I’m still using Nibelung to heal because of the increase of spell power over Illumination. Planning on Frozen Bonespike and Shadow Silk Spindle.
I have killed Blood Queen Lana’thel in 10 man but not 25. I’ll go over her abilities when we down her in 25.

I got to run with my new guild last night. It was a lot of fun. It was interesting to be the one learning instead of teaching. They were serious but fun. Marrowgar I got my first glimpse of the officers and how they work. I was just doing my thing like normal. Healing and avoiding things. On Lady Deathwhisper, the first phase went well. Second phase came along with the ghosts. I skirted along the outside of the semi circle, bubbling and trying not to clump up. Everywhere I went, ghosts spawned. I was trying desperately to survive. Looking like a tard in my first raid with a new guild was the last thing I needed. Finally I had a small break and was able to cast a few heals. At that exact moment, two ghosts spawned within 5 yards of me. One on either side. I watched helplessly as the two exploded almost simultaneously. My finger flew to my desperate prayer keybind and I was rewarded with “You can’t do that while dead.” Awesome.

“Goodbye new girl.” Several laughs.
As I lay there chewing on the floor, I realized two things. One, that when Lady Deathwhisper wants someone dead, she makes certain that it is accomplished. Too bad she was too fixated on making me look stupid to notice the raid kicking her ass. Two, that this guild didn’t know me well enough to know that me dying is a once in a blue moon thing.
“Goodbye new girl.”
Nymarie: -_-
I sheepishly accepted my rez and turned to talk to my friend who had come over to watch me in the new guild.
“I don’t die.”
“I know.”
“No you don’t understand. Nymarie doesn’t die.”
“Relax. Stop being so focused on making a good impression and just heal.”
I bit back a retort and turned back to the computer.

At the end of the first wing, I was asked to step out for a core healer so they could get Putricide. While speaking to the guild leader and one of the officers, I realized that my death hadn’t made a big impression. One of the officers assured me that I would get to see the second wing with them.


“Goodbye new girl.”

Yeah right. Looks like I’m here to stay.

So I made the switch to a more "hard core" guild.  It's a little more serious when it comes to raiding but still fun loving.  They have downed both Algalon 25 and heroic Anub 25 and have A Tribute to Skill.  Things that I envy.  >_>
I raid with them tomorrow (hopefully) and I'll let everyone know how it goes!
I'm kinda in between guilds and sorta in a transition phase so I'll blog about kitties!  Who doesn't love kitties?!?
So for now, I post about my demon child.  Oops, I mean pride and joy.

This was Little Nym.









She was dehydrated...
...overheated...
...malnourished...



Covered in fleas and plagued by worms








After cleaning her up and getting her healthy, she began to grow very quickly.










She became curious and playful.






This is what she is like now...(Random pictures)




Why you always sitting here playing on that computer thing?  Look at me!  I'm cute!  Pay attention to me!







You can't see me.
I am ninja!










Macbooks are for warming butts.











I see your wet hand creeping towards me.
No I don't want to get into the tub.








No you stay in the tub.
I'll stay here...next to your towel.









Oh dear...she got me in the tub.










Bitch...








The DRAIN!
It makes funny noises!










Mmm warm and dry in a towel with Mommy.

Wednesday night, we did our ICC10.  We killed Festergut fairly easily.  We went to Rotface and slowly learned the fight, but seemed to get him easily enough.  We had started fairly late so we didn't get any tries on Putricide.
Thursday night, we went back into 25 man and downed Festergut with 6 healers.  Rotface didn't take as long to learn as Festergut and we had him down towards the end of the raid.  We were able to get two attempts on Putricide.  I don't have much info on Putricide so I won't try to write about him just yet.  Let's just start with Rotface.

Rotface
Like Festergut, this is a very new sort of fight. It’s less confusing than Festergut but harder to execute in my opinion. The tank keeps Rotface in the middle of the room, with all of the raiders stacked behind him.
Rotface will target a raider and cast a poison debuff on them, much like the debuff from Grobbulus. Everyone else should stack on the tank (who will now be behind Rotface) to avoid the spray that he does. After he sprays, he will turn back to the tank and the raid must get behind him again.
The raider with the debuff must at first stand still while he turns to do his spray. When he is about to spray, it’s a good idea for that raider to start moving. The debuff can be dispelled or it will wear off. Either way produces a small add that starts off with a large amount of aggro on the raider that spawned it. It doesn’t do much damage.
The second raider that gets the debuff must run his little ooze into the first little ooze. They will meet up and form a big ooze. This add does a lot more damage than the small one and must be kite tanked around the outer ring.
As raiders get the debuff they should meet up with the kiting tank, drop their add and make sure that their add forms up with the big one. When enough adds converge, the add will explode and the cycle starts anew. If two small adds join up and a big one is already up, the two big ones will not come together and the aoe damage from the two makes this pretty much a wipe.
After he spawns enough adds for the big add to explode and despawn, the raid needs to spread out to avoid everyone being hit by all the add's explosions.  Once the add is finished exploding, run back in to the boss.
As if this isn’t enough to pay attention to, the adds will throw little poison pools on the ground that must be avoided and Putricide will be causing slime pipes to pour slime onto sides of the room. The slime doesn’t do as much damage as the little poison pools but it does slow you down quite a bit and should be avoided as much as possible.
Well that was a long explanation for a very fast paced fight. However disgusting these two bosses are, they are quite the interesting challenge. I can’t wait to see them on heroic.
He dropped the wand and I won:  Corpse Impaling Spike

Well this was a very short post but I'm attempting to finish up my Ulduar achievements for the Rusted Proto Drake!

Well, the new ICC wing came out yesterday. It makes the first four bosses look like easy mode heroics. My guild did not down any of them. However, it was a fantastic raid. We blew through the first four bosses. The Abacus did not drop again. How typical. I’ve been saving dkp for that bloody thing. But I did get one of my “wishlist” items. The ring from the Gunship battle. I gemmed it with the basic 23 spell power.


We then moved on to Festergut. There was a new version of Frogger directly after Saurfang. I wasn’t paying attention and when I was ported in, I took a step forward and died. It’s a fairly simple Frogger, just have to avoid the icy blasts that come out of the walls. They are very slow. The trash before Festergut was interesting, definitely keeping things alive. First you fight a Val’kyr that flies down and attacks you. Then two abominations that will do their little chain grip. You have to be careful or they will grip you into more enemies. A few more basic trash pulls and you come across Festergut’s puppies. One named Stinky and one named Precious. Needless to say Precious was not at all precious. The two puppies are basically the children of Gluth from Naxxramas. They both do a decimate. Stinky sends out rows of painful gas and Precious summons ghouls to eat and regain health. Precious must be kited around the room. After killing a few more geists, we were in Festergut’s room.

Festergut
This is definitely a new sort of boss. Forgive me if I don’t completely understand it, I have not been able to get on tankspot to look it up so I was just following orders last night. Basically, you need two tanks. These tanks must switch before 10 stacks of one debuff or they will explode. We didn’t test this so I’m not sure whether it just kills the tank or hurts the melee as well. The tanks will also get another stacking debuff increasing their damage taken as the fight goes on. (This is incorrect.  See the edit below.) We discovered that spammy heals aren’t enough. Healers and tanks need to be rotating cooldowns. After fixing our cooldown rotation, we got to the enrage every time with both tanks alive. Thursday, we just need every raider to focus on staying alive. The ranged must be spread out 10 yards apart around the room. Festergut will send out a debuff that causes the raider to vomit, which means they are incapacitated for a few seconds. This debuff will hit anybody within a ten yards range of its target. He also sends out spores into the raid. Each spore will land on a raider’s head. Every single raider must be near a spore when they explode. He does this three times. Every raider must have three stacks of the buff from these spores when he does his aoe or they will not survive. After he does his aoe, he starts the spore-spore-spore-aoe rotation all over again. He’s on a five minute enrage timer, which makes the fight very difficult. I think the best way to do this fight is with 6 healers and 2 tanks. We’ll see what we’re going to do on Thursday.

Even though we didn’t down any of the new bosses, last night was a good raid. Everyone was in a cheery mood, excited to see new content. We all worked together, giving advice to each other and thinking up solutions to the different problems that Festergut presented. This is one of the reasons I truly love my guild. I left the raid in a good mood even having wiped on Festergut for almost two hours. I know we’ll get him Thursday and I’m sure I’ll get to kill him in a 10 man tonight. The 10 man tonight will also give us more experience with him and possibly more ideas and options.

Perhaps it’s not an accident that ever since last Tuesday, I’ve gotten Oculus only twice. Perhaps they hotfixed something. Perhaps they knew something was wrong. Whatever they did, I’m pleased with it. If I continue to get heroics other than Oculus, I will go back to doing Oculus whenever I get it.

Well…tomorrow is 2010. The end of 2009 was horrible so even though nothing is actually changing, I feel better that a new year is about to start. First I'll brush up on what happened this year. Then I'll let you in on my plans for this year. Warning: there is RL stuff in this blog. :)

2009
Spring Semester
RL:
In January I decided that I knew what I wanted to do.  I desperately wanted to be an anthropologist.  Here's the problem.  My parents will only pay for this crappy college that has no degree even close to anthropology.  It was decided that I would graduate with a General Studies degree and then work my way into a grad program for Anthropology.
Also in the Spring semester, I signed up for classes that I thought would be moderately easy.  Every single class I signed up for had a research paper.  Stressed, my asthma began to get worse.  I finished the semester with decent grades, not high enough for me...but decent.  I also fell in love with and dated off and on a priest with similar interests.
I dropped my computer while moving and had to buy a new HD.  In the process of this, the room I was staying in flooded.  By some miracle, none of my things were harmed.
WoW:
I also started getting into raiding.  At the end of Naxx, I was one of the best geared hunters on the server but I wasn't happy.  I had more fun on my draenei Discipline priest dressed in blues and ilvl 200 epics.  Before Ulduar, it was decided that I would switch to a priest full time in my Horde guild.  A few officers offered to help me level.
Nymarie was born in March of 09 and was 80 in less than a month.  On her first day of 80, she was in Ulduar with 6 epics (mostly crafted and BoE stuff from the gbank).

Summer Semesters
RL:
I went right into the summer semesters with a week's break.  I became more and more depressed with my degree plan and realized that I would be no better off with a degree in nothing.  I sluggishly finished the already paid for summer sessions.  I came to the conclusion that I would be a college dropout before the Fall semester and began to look for a job.
Sometime in July, a black runt of a kitten was born in a trash pile near Hwy 90.
WoW:
Towards the end of Ulduar, I was kicked from my guild because of a spat between officers that I somehow was the cause of.  Feeling that I was losing nothing because of the way I had been treated, I began my search for the perfect guild.  I applied to several, was whispered every day due to my lack of a guild tag and did a lot of research.  I found one that I liked and applied.  Elitist had only one holy priest and no disc priests.  I was happily accepted and almost immediately treated like family.  My first Yogg kill was with this guild and I began to feel at home.

August
RL:
My job searching began!  With this proclamation of WOOT! I began my job as an office coordinator at a hospice.
While pushing over a burn pile with a backhoe, my friend's dad found a little half-starved, dehydrated and overheated kitten. My friend sat with her in the air conditioning in his truck. With no strength other than the strength to loudly protest her situation, she glared at the large man holding her. Forcing her to swallow KMR and Nutrical, I nursed her back to health. Finding her facedown asleep in her bowl of mixed kitten food and milk was one of my happiest moments with her. She had the will to survive! She was named Little Nym and swiftly became my best friend.
WoW:
ToC came out and I started my blog.  I also started to read Paolo's.  My first post has been deleted and has been slowly going through quite a bit of construction.  My next post Twin Val'kyr and Hard Mode FL down! was my first description of a raid and a new boss.  That same week I made the post Hard Mode XT Down.  I voiced my frustration with Blizzard's lag fail.

September
RL:
Searching for a new home and trying desperately to keep my sickly kitten alive.
WoW:
Several accomplishments in ToC and ToGC!  Nym was proud of her ability to "permafrost".  Here I met Perfectalpha.  Onyxia down.  Heroic Illumination.  And Tips for Healing 10 ToGC as Discipline.  We also downed Yogg +3.

October
RL:
In October, I turned 21 and celebrated by getting drunk with my mother and doing algebra with two very cute drunk guys.  During this time Little Nym begins to develop a headstrong personality.
WoW:
We went back and downed 3D.  A few weeks later we had ToGC25 NrB and Jaraxxus down.  I also finally killed Anub in ToGC10.  In October I met Miss Medicina!

November
RL:
I found and moved into my new apartment, completely separating myself from my parents.  My kitten began to get stronger and run around the apartment, climbing and sliding with her newfound strength.  She also starts to develop a teenage attitude.
WoW:
We cleared ToGC25 Faction Champions.  Here is where I met Sushi-cookie.  I discovered Vuhdo!  We downed ToGC25 Twin Val'kyrs.

December
RL:
December was a horrible month RL wise.  I had a ton of trouble when I moved in with the electric company and dsl company.  I lost several friends.  I had a terrible breakup with the aforementioned priest.  I now have trust issues and have become a bit more cynical.  I have to thank several friends for bringing me back from my wallowing and keeping me from going crazy or offing myself.  I made some new friends and got away from the forums.
WoW:
I did not raid for two weeks and got behind on dkp and gear.  I came back to my blog after a small hiatus and wrote about the new ICC wing.  I met Sinespe this month.  I voiced my frustration with the non-randomness that is the random heroic.


That was my year in a nutshell, RL and WoW.

For 2010
RL:
I'd like to get back in shape.  Like I was when I was dancing alot.
I hope to save quite a bit of money for what I call my Anthropology fund.
I plan to teach my kitten not to play so roughly!  Orphan kittens have trouble learning this.
I also plan to decorate my new apartment and make it more mine.
I hope to accept the date offer and not let my fear of trust take over.
WoW:
Get my druid to 80!
Help my friend get his first toon to 80 and get his best friend into playing.
I hope to not be so haughty when dealing with stupidity in pugs.
Help my guildies more!

In Miss Medicina style, my proudest moments of 2009?
RL:
Watching a tiny black kitten scale the couch in my living room.  The same kitten that a few months before had been too weak to even suckle on a bottle.
WoW:
Finding Elitist, my family and home.
Goodbye 2009 and hello 2010.  Let's make this a good year, shall we?  :)

Before I start this post, I want to make it clear that I don't mind Oculus as an instance. It is just as easy as the others. When heroics were random, I was not one of the ones to skip a day if Oculus was the daily. However, now this is not the case.

For the past two weeks, I have started attempting to stock up on Frost emblems and get the gear I need from them.  Here's the problem.  Not a day goes by that I don't visit Oculus.  I did Oculus more times than I can count and got sick of the damn place.  So one Saturday, I said to myself, I don't care how long I have to wait, I'm not doing that instance again.  Because, you see, getting emblems shouldn't be just grinding to me.  I do heroics as shadow and I want to have fun while I get emblems for gear.  Doing the same bloody instance every day is NOT fun.  So this Saturday, not the past one but the week before, I queued up for my daily heroic.  What did I get?  Oculus.  I apologized to the group and left.  Fifteen minutes later I queued up again.  I got Oculus five times before finally giving up and logging off of WoW, very frustrated.  The nights since then I have a system...

I queue for my daily heroic.  I get Oculus.  I apologize to the group and leave.  I requeue fifteen minutes later.  If I get another instance, I have a good time.  If I get Oculus, I quit trying.  Do you want to know how many emblems I've gotten in the past week?  Four.  Excluding the ones I've gotten from raids.

I've been talking to my friends about it and I'm sure they thought I was exaggerating.  Well, last night while they were at my home, I got Oculus...twice.  "Damn...you were right."

I'm not bitching about Oculus.  If it was Nexus, UK, VH, whatever, it wouldn't be any different.  So can someone shed some light on this?  How is this random heroic tool not so random?

FYI, from now on, I'll be letting you guys know which nights I get Oculus and which nights I actually run the heroic.  Just to show you.

I have been spending a lot of time analyzing the Tier bonuses and BiS gear for Discipline from ICC25. Reading both Paolo and Sinespe's blogs have actually helped, even though they have differing views. In a typical raid (nowadays), I use mostly shields, ProM, Penances and a mixture of Flash and Greater heals. The amount of flash heals I use is usually pretty small. If I'm not being lazy (I mean c'mon I have to press SHIFT to cast Greater), I tend to stick to Greater if I feel the need to throw a raider a heal. Flash heals feel weak to me. Perhaps it's just my playstyle. Either way, I discovered that I would benefit more from the BiS gear (which is retardedly better than the Tier pieces) than from the Tier set bonuses.
The only Tier piece I see being one to get is the helm. It appears to be BiS for 264 gear. Last night, the trash shoulders dropped. Doing a quick comparison, I ranked them the highest of the 264 gear and bid on them. I won. :) So here they are in all their glory, gemmed with two Luminous Ametrines for that extra intellect that I've been needing.
Stiffened Corpse Shoulderpads

Another reason for not picking up Tier (this one is quite silly but it's semi valid) is that once heroic ICC is available, I will be replacing gear that I spent about fifty billion emblems to get. Seems kinda silly, ne? I know it's a dumb reason, but that's how my mind works.
 
Anyways, my reasoning may not be perfect but my decision is to choose my gear by stats.  I advise everybody to check out the two opposing views posted above and decide for yourself!

This is going to be a long blog... Okay guys, I'm back.  I went through a really rough time the past few weeks and I haven't been doing well.  I had a few friends by my side for about three weeks, keeping me going.  Without those guys, I'm not sure I could have kept going.  Man, this has been a crappy year.  I'm not going to sit here and bitch about all the stuff that happened.  You guys don't want to hear all that.

My Christmas shopping is done.  I got my family gifts and for my friends I play WoW with, I got in game gifts.  Sorry guys, but I'm broke.  However, anybody who reads this:  got a suggestion for a good friend's birthday present?  He doesn't play WoW but he is a gamer.  I believe his main games are L4D, FFXI, Aeon, and some other stuff.  He flits between games, so I have no clue what he's playing now.  His birthday is right after Christmas, so I need to get it soon.


Feast of Winter Veil
I'm working on my Merrymaker title right now.  The two achievements I have left are Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la and He Knows If You've Been Naughty.  Obviously, for the second one, I have to wait until Christmas.  For the first one...yeah...I've just been lazy.  I'll attempt to do it tonight.


Icecrown Citadel
I'm really enjoying this raid.  It was pointed out by a guildie that we seem to be "roflstomping" ICC25.  Well, here's my two copper.  Blizzard has now designed raids so that casuals can get into the hard content, so that everyone can see the content.  However, hard modes have been designed for those raiders who raid every week and put their all into it.  ICC25 is designed for raiders who are casual and in ToC25 gear.  That's regular.  While we are not gearstomping ICC25, our ToGC25 gear is definitely giving us a boost.  I think these complainers will be given a reality check once ICC25 heroic comes out.  I'll give you guys a rundown of each boss and how I do things.

Lord Marrowgar
This is a fairly simple fight.  Kind of neat though.  The two tanks tank him in the middle of the room (his debuff hits both I believe to alleviate the damage on one).  The dps and healers spread out around the room in a semi-circle.  He will send out lines of blue icy fire.  These are easy to avoid.  Just strafe away from where they are aiming.  He also impales raiders on ground spikes.  These have to be dpsed down so the raiders can get free.  His other phase is fairly simple as well.  He begins a whirlwind which is very difficult to avoid.  Just be sure you are avoiding the fire and try to stay away from him.  Healers should be able to cast instants while running to heal through the whirlwind.  Whirlwind+fire=dead, so be careful.  That's basically the fight.  Two different phases and a really neat voice telling you to "stick around".
Discipline Heals for Lord Marrowgar
In the first phase, I shield both tanks and any dps I see impaled.  I will also bubble any raiders who get caught by the fire.  Penance I reserve for the tanks, but I cast Flash and Greater Heals around the raid, depending on how much healing that raider needs.  Binding heal is also excellent for this, if I am taking damage as well.  I make sure to keep PoM bouncing as well.  (Off the tanks is always the best policy.)
For phase 2, I am running around quite a bit trying to avoid fires and whirlwind.  Because of this, I will mostly be casting shields and PoM.  I keep PoM bouncing, typically off myself since there are no tanks in this phase.  I cast as many shields as possible due to the large amount of damage the raid takes.  I gain a lot of mana from Rapture and will have time to regain mana in the other phase, so I shield without worrying about mana.

Lady Deathwhisper
Lady Deathwhisper reminds me of two bosses in Northrend.  Kel'thuzad in Naxxramas and that lich in Gundrak.  It makes sense, since she is also a lich.  She will summon adds for the first phase, giving them buffs.  The melee dps must burn these adds and tanks must pick them up.  Ranged dps will stay on Deathwhisper, dpsing down her mana shield.  She will randomly cast a Death and Decay on the ground.  Raiders must be sure to get out of it.  Phase two starts when her mana shield is burned down.  She will stop summoning adds.  It's generally a good idea to slow down when her mana shield is at 5% to allow the melee to kill any existing adds.  She will throw frost bolts around the raid and will summon the ghosts that will explode upon reaching their target.  The ghosts must be avoided.  Other than that, phase two is a burn phase and ends fairly quickly.  Phase one, however, is fairly long.
Discipline heals for Lady Deathwhisper
This fight isn't nearly as good for Discipline as Lord Marrowgar.  Basically, I heal phase one as I would heal trash.  It's fairly simple.  No one should be taking large amounts of damage.  In phase two, I dispel the frost bolts to enable the dps to be able to run from the ghosts.  Bubble tanks, keep PoM bouncing and that's basically it.

Airship Battle
This is a really fun fight.  First, one of the opposite faction's mages will create a portal over your airship, causing adds to spawn on your airship.  Kill them.  Avoid the pretty red marks on the ground.  Three raiders will need to man the cannons and shoot the other airship as fast as possible.  At a certain percentage (I can't remember what), the airship's captain will call for a mage to shut down your cannons.  The raiders will be pushed out of the cannons and your rocketpack crew will jump onto the other airship.  Tank first.  Dps down the mage channeling the frost spell on the cannons and then jump back.  And repeat.
Discipline heals for Airship Battle
I stand near the cannons so that when the group jumps over, I can reach both airships.  Bubbles, PoM, your basic healing.  Pretty easy to heal as long as everyone is paying attention.

Deathbringer Saurfang
After a fairly long but cool introduction, the Saurfang fight starts.  This is a really cool and really new type of fight.  Every bit of damage your raiders take will give Saurfang power.  Once his power meter reaches 100%, he will cast a debuff called Mark of the Fallen Champion on a raid member that must be healed through the rest of the fight.  The more debuffs he throws out, the harder the fight gets to heal.  Tanks will get a debuff called Rune of Blood that causes him to gain power.  Raiders will get another debuff called Boiling Blood that gives him power as well.  He also summons blood beasts, which give him power every time they hit a raid member.  He has a soft enrage at 30% which Bloodlust/Heroism should be saved for.
Discipline heals for Deathbringer Saurfang
This is the best fight for Discipline right now.  I try to keep PoM bouncing if I have the GCD to spare.  I keep shields on the tank, anyone who has Boiling Blood, anyone who has Mark, and anyone who is targeted by the blood beasts (vuhdo shows which raiders have aggro).  The shields are a full time job.  Watching DBM is very important here as it shows who gets what debuff.  Because shields absorb damage, Saurfang gets less power from a raid with a Discipline priest than he would from a raid without one.

Achievements my guild has accomplished in ICC
I've Gone and Made a Mess (25 player)
I believe this achievement has a lot to do with the fact that our raid makeup contains a Discipline priest.
I've Gone and Made a Mess (10 player)
Same with this one.
Boned (10 player)
Fairly simple.  Just do the fight correctly with good dps.

ICC Loot
I haven't won any drops, due to my dkp being a bit lower than most.  (I missed a few raids from RL drama.)  However, with 60 frost emblems, I obtained Gloves of False Gestures.  As far as I can tell, these appear to be BiS for Discipline, even surpassing the 277 gear.  Just barely.  If anyone finds anything better, please link it here.  I'd love to be challenged.  I gemmed my gloves with two Luminous Ametrines.  For the socket bonus, but also because I noticed that I needed a bit more mana to be comfortable on Saurfang.  I also achieved friendly with the Ashen Verdict and picked up my first rep ring:  Ashen Band of Wisdom.


Ulduar Hard Modes
A few of my guildmates, myself included, have noted the fact that we have left a boss standing in an "older" raid!  Algalon.  Since it will be a while before the entirety of ICC is available, we will have time to go back into Ulduar and finish the hard modes that we have skipped.  We will keep this raid lockout until we have finished all of them.  This week, we started with Iron Council.  Difficult fight but interesting.  We managed to down it, as we have worked on it quite a bit in the past, getting very close several times.  Gear stomp?  I think not.  The way Ulduar is designed it is nearly impossible to gear stomp these fights.  More gear definitely makes the dps/heals part easier, but IC is not based on heals or dps.  Every raider must be paying attention.  When finishing up Steelbreaker, no one must die.  We are proud of our accomplishment and hope to continue on to the keepers' hard modes next week.


Shadow 3.3
Shadow is so much fun in 3.3!  I've been selecting dps only for my random heroic each day.  I'll continue to heal raids, but I want to dps heroics from now on.  Unless I'm helping guildies.  I can keep up with those on par with my gear!  Dpsing as shadow is super rewarding now.  I'll have to start putting aside haste pieces for my shadow set too.  Haste for shadow and crit for discipline.  Now it is easy to tell which shadow priests were complaining for good reasons and which ones just...sucked.


Let's see...did I forget anything?  If I have, I will edit this post.