My cup runneth over

Literally.

I love this offhand, first time I’ve ever had one which isn’t either some dusty old tome or a random body part. Here’s to hoping that Icecrown continues the unusual offhand trend. Besides a perpetually full cup has to make you the life and soul of the post raid party, hope that’s something tasty like bitter cactus cider or a good dalaran white pouring out of it.

Its been a busy and interesting week. We finally got enough people online and in the same place whilst the server stopped lagging enough to kill Anub’arak 25 heroic mode. That has to be the most horrendous and hateful fight ever conceived to heal. When he finally died, my hands were shaking so badly that I stopped healing my mark with penetrating cold, which would have been fine if it wasn’t me. Dying three seconds after the boss is embarrassing.

• Disc is definitely better than Holy here.
• We ran with 6 healers, 2 paladins, 2 druids, 1 shaman and 1 disc priest which meant than in phase 3, once the marks where handed out, we had one healer left who was concentrating on the tanks/throwing out downranked rejuvs on people looking dangerously close to death.
• My job fun as it was, was to keep shields on both tanks (MT and OT –  actually a fight where the OT is far more important than the MT eek), keep up my mark in phase 3 and throw shields on our 4 rogues whenever their health dipped really low. That’s a lot of global cooldowns when your hands are shaking.
• Most importantly get GridStatusRaidIcons, which places a mark on anyone with a debuff, allowing you to assign raid marks for healing penetrating colds easily. However, make sure you have it turned off the rest of the time as annoying really doesn’t do it full justice on most fights.

In other news, I want to complain. Look at the names of the tier 10 sets, ScourgeLord for deathknights, Ymirjar Lord’s for warriors, Blood Mage and Frost Witch… and what do priests get. Oh look we are wearing the Crimson Acolyte’s Raiment.

“The word acolyte is derived from the Greek word akolouthos, meaning companion, attendant, or helper.”

Wonderful, everyone else gets evocative powerful sounding sets but even the name of our gear reinforces the fact that we are “standing at the back in our sissy robes”.  Although the whole set has a Disney feel to it in my opinion (possibly caused by the really ugly stitching), think I’m going to spend most of Icecrown dancing around with my magic broom singing cheerful songs and refusing any crunchy apples if offered by a warlock wearing that witches hat. Its just too big a risk, my guild can only muster two dwarves, Dopey and Grumpy and I wouldn’t trust them to look after me. The other thing that bugs me slightly is, shouldn’t the raiment of the Crimson Acolyte be well, crimson? Definitely not pastel blue, neon green, orange with pink bits or purple and yellow. Thank Elune that I’m a female Nightelf and thus look good in everything.

So only raiding for 2 fun packed nights a week means more time for random running around the world, alts and working on achievements. Yay. Although I’m looking forward to Icecrown I rather hope its at least 4 weeks away.

The Virtual Menagerie

I couldn’t resist and besides its for a good cause. Although in principle I do have my doubts about the system. I’ve always felt that everything in-game should be obtained through an in-game method but unlike the trading cards, at least this way the randomness is removed.

Posing panda, naughty nest

The other thing that bothers me slightly about the commercialisation of pets is the fact that once upon a time, due to both in-game financial shortages (I always sucked at grinding) and bag space I used to take my time and pick pets which suited the personalities of my characters. Now, with the BoA pets like Mr Chilly and The Blizzard baby bear, plus the new additions like these, all my characters start out with a pet as soon as they reach a mailbox.

For example, both my warlocks are cat people. Perhaps because there is something slightly witchy about the whole class, hanging out in darkened rooms with candles made from skulls whispering dangerous incantations and the like. Then like cats, I see them both as slightly aloof, slightly disdainful of others.

My baby druid on the other hand prizes her hyacinth macaw above all others. She got it way back in vanilla when the Gnomeling, ever a knight in shining armour rushed to the aid of a guildmate being camped in STV. He was whiling away  the passing hours waiting for the aggressor to return to life by slaughtering pirates and there, lying in a corpse he found it. Obviously a reward for a job well done he carried back to Stormwind as a gift and its kept her company ever since.

Then there is a my hunter Fauna. In the gift package she was sent at creation, there was a white tickbird hatchling nesting amongst the armour, bags and food. In those long 10 first levels as she learnt her craft, she had a feathery friend watching over her.

Taking flight

My priest on the other hand, has a veritable zoo hidden away somewhere. From mythological beasts, lethal looking fruit and domestic pets nothing is safe from her desire to “catch them all”.

Unknown and Unseen

Another use of the Day of the Dead Marigolds is to see a couple of hidden ghosts sneaking around Azeroth. The Unseen of Raven Hill for example can only be seen when the veil is pulled aside.

The poor lingering dead of Duskwood, their presence unfelt (unless you are in the habit of aoeing empty houses) by the living still wander the ruins of their homes. Makes you wonder how many other “hidden” features there are scattered around Azeroth.

My warlock might have to go a wandering with detect invisibility.

Sugar skulls and Marigolds

When I first read about the new Day of the Dead festival coming to Azeroth I was really excited. We spent a couple of months travelling in Mexico and fell in love with the people, the culture and the food. So the first thing I did on returning from Halloween celebrations was log on and rush off to see what was available.

Candy skulls and marigolds, flowers of the dead

What can you do?

Visit any graveyard outside a major city (so Goldshire, Azurewatch, just outside Darnassus, Dun Morogh) for the Alliance along with Dalaran and Shattrah and emote /dance at Catrina. That nets you the only achievement available.

It also gives you a 12 hour buff turning you into Catrina if a female character or Chapman if male. As per usual with this type of seasonal thing, druids will lose the illusion the second they change form.

Then talk to Chapman who sells a variety of bits and pieces festival related stuff. I’m fairly impressed with the way they catered for all levels. Lowbies with a gold shortage can pick up the orange marigold rather than having to shell out 1g for the bouquet.

To go along the one achievement there is one quest, which requires you to make Bread of the Dead for a ghost. In order to see the quest you first need to head along to your own race’s graveyard or to Dalaran (Dead mages obviously don’t care who feeds them) and then use the marigolds to see the quest giver.

In order to complete the quest, you will need to either buy the bread recipe and make your own, or buy bread off a passer-by (since you buy the ingredients in 5s, most people will have 4 more than they need). The ingredients are easy, just ice cold milk and simple flour. Its also possibly worth picking up the materials in town, because tracking them down in the various villages can be tricky. You can’t cook it over just any fire either, it has to be made over the bright blue flames of a ghostly cooking fire found in any of the graveyards Catrina and Chapman are currently visiting. As a side note, the bread of the dead skills up cooking until 40 cooking skill.

Your reward for the quest is a cute little marionette which unfortunately only lasts the duration of the festival plus either gold if 80 or experience if lower level.

Catrina wannabe, Evil mask eating Nightelf and 2 marionettes planning on world domination

My big issue with this festival is the fact that virtually everything is temporary. I want to keep my cute little skeleton friend, I want to make dead man’s bread all year around if I feel like it. I hate being given something and then having it taken away. Yes, I know I sound like I’m three years old but that’s beside the point. In fact it seems like the only tangible item we get to keep is the bouquet of marigolds, although the use part will only work during the festival.

What I would like is the following:

• Make the pet a proper pet. Dancing skeletons fit in with Azeroth just as well in December as they do now
• Add more cooking recipes. I would like to be able to make sugar skulls for my friends for example

All in all though I have to admit brief though it is, I enjoyed it.

Above we can see the celebrations taking place on Azuremyst Isle and below, those from Darnassus (the graveyard is in Darnassus itself. If you are riding out towards Dolanaar, you want to take a left turn after passing through the Warrior’s Terrace but before the final city gate).

Holy Nova Batman, its a circle of healing!

Whilst wandering around the internet I came across Miss Medicina and a fascinating meme which isn’t a meme about healing. Reading through the various responses, my interest in the results got the better of me so I decided to gatecrash. After all, the more data the better right. Also I have to admit, its reassuring to see there are still plenty of holy priests out there. On my server at least, we seem to be a dying breed.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Erinys, primarily holy priest

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Almost 100 percent 25 mans. I tend to roll as disc for 5 mans and 10 mans.

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?

Prayer of mending. It might be annoying in the sense you have no control over where it goes and it has a tendency to get stuck on pets, but its a joy to behold zinging around. Although I admit, I actually found this question a bit hard to answer (failing on the easiest question…). There were other contenders, but prayer of mending won out because of its uniqueness.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

Greater heal. Even with a three stack of serendipity, its just lacklustre in both its casting speed and the amount it heals for. I often go for entire raids without casting it once. In fact unless we screw up on trash and lose half the healers and I need to spam the tank, I just tend not to cast  it.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

Our versatility. We have different ways of approaching each fight. We can handle burst damage like shamans and periodic damage auras like druids. Obviously the trade off is that we have slightly more pitfalls in using those tools, i.e like party specific heals and less ticks on our hot. But to balance that we also bring a tank saving cooldown.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

Being the primary tank healer in 25 mans. Yes we can do it, but we aren’t designed for it and other classes handle it better in my opinion.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

Raid healing. With our 4 multiple target heals (divine hymn, circle of healing, prayer of healing and holy nova) coupled with a hot and the totally awesome prayer of mending, we are designed for it. Of course raid healing does include the tank so they should always be looked after as well. I tend to keep a renew at the very least on ours.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

Druids. They bring the stabilising comforting blanket of hots and we provide the burst safety net. A marriage made in heaven really. Plus some times I get their innervate which means I can spam even more and if we fail to keep someone up, they can combat res them.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Shamans, smart heals get in the way of prayer of healing Plus ours cast heroism with no warning which is bad for timing shadowfiends.

What is your worst habit as a healer?

A tendency to bounce. I think thats why I like using instants. Plus I’m a control freak with a bad habit about not trusting people to heal others, specifically me. We play a trust game on Mimiron sometimes, where you aren’t supposed to heal yourself if you get napalm…. I fail at it badly. Which is unfair and something I’m trying to fix.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

People who blame the healing without taking a moment to analyse what actually went wrong. If someone stood in a rocket thingie on Mimiron, it really wasn’t the healers fault and so on. I find fairly often people are too quick to blame the healers for things. Also in PuGs non healers assigning the healers, when there are two holy paladins and one holy priest, telling the paladins to cover the raid and beacon Mr non tank pug leader and the priest to cover the tank is “interesting”.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?

On the whole yes. However there are a few small tweaks I would like to see. A slight reduction in the cost of prayer of healing for example and a change to surge of light which would enable it to crit, but not chain proc of itself.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

Recount primarily. I like to see the percentage of spell usage, as it varies from fight to fight. I like trying different strategies on fights to see if I can improve my performance. This also includes swapping gear around and using cooldowns at different points.

I’m also interested in overheal (although given my current regen its more to do with curiosity than anything else).

I look at the damage taken tab to make sure I did a decent job of avoiding damage because raiding isn’t just about the amount of healing you can throw out. If I die, I want to know why to make sure if it was my fault, I won’t repeat it.

When I first started healing in vanilla, I used to take it personally if anyone else died, but luckily (given my current raid group and its suicidal melee), I’ve mellowed. Now I check what damage they took and what their death looked like before I start blaming myself.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

I’m beginning to get the feeling that people think we are substandard to shamans/druids for raid healing (based on a couple of conversations in guildchat). We always used to raid with multiple holy priests and now we are down to one (me). In fact we seem to be heading towards the Sunwell days of stacking shamans again.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

Which of our many spells should be used at any given time to ensure you get the maximum out of the class. Its not helped by the fact that there are multiple ways to reach similar results.

What’s best for regen, after all we have three potential regen stats now, int, spirit and mp5.

Maximising procs and cooldowns. What with surge of light, holy concentration and serendipity combined with the fact that the game doesn’t display them very well without addons, I think its tricky. It looks like our tier 10 set bonuses are only going to add to the confusion. That’s before we even start looking at cooldowns, both hymns should be used on every fight. Hymn of Hope is great when used with other priests or shaman’s manatides so you need to pay attention to what others are doing as well as their mana bars. On some fights shadowfiend can be used twice, so you need to get a feel for the duration of combat. Guardian spirit, when to cast it… Inner focus should always be coupled with divine hymn but its 3 min cooldown means you can usually use it twice in a fight. There is a lot of juggling to do for all priests, I would imagine its a bit of a nightmare at first.

For new healers of all types, I would add setting up a good interface which is comfortable. Whilst the basic Blizzard one can do the job, there are so many better (in my opinion) options out there. Yet, you have to go digging around on the internet to find them.

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?

That it really varies on a fight to fight basis. My healing output is usually up there in the top three depending on the fight and my overheal tends to be on the lower side. No higher than 50 percent on average (which in a guild of druids and paladins is on the low side), I tend to aim for around 30 percent, but with my current regen, I have a few bad spammy habits.

On fights like the Faction Champions/Yogg, I tend to be fairly high up in terms of dispelling done.

I think they would also see how much my spell choice varies on the encounter which I think is a strength of the priest class. They would also notice that I do pay attention to the tanks, especially on hard hitting fights. Prayer of mending usually starts off on the tanks for example.

Haste or Crit and why?

Crit up to around 30 percent raid buffed and then haste. 30 percent ensures a decent crit rate which means I get a decent mileage out of holy concentration and plenty of surge of light procs to throw around whilst moving.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?

I’ve raided on all four at various points in time. Priest and Druid in vanilla, Primarily Paladin and Shaman in the Burning Crusade and back to my Priest now so I think I have a basic understanding of all of them. However, the one I find myself questioning my performance the most, would be the holy paladin. There is just something about the class which doesn’t click for me.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?

Grid and Clique. Best things I ever discovered on the internet. I’ve also just found Deus Vox encounters which I like more than DBM as a raiding addon.  Then there is eventalert which I’ve customised slightly for my procs and prayer of mending tracker which I adore.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

I’m fairly balanced at the moment I think. I’m happy with where my regen and crit are, so now I’m looking to boost my spellpower and haste. If anything my int is probably slightly higher than I would like, but until the trinket I have my eye on decides to drop, there isn’t much I can do about that.

As for tagging people, I would be interested in reading the responses from Hermia over at Tree of Doom.

Happy Hallows End

A warning to trick or treaters

Outside the mist has been drifting up from the sea. We can hardly see the world beyond the garden gate so its perfect Halloween weather. Anything could be lurking in the street beyond the window, ghosts floating, witches cackling and werewolves prowling.

In short, we are all set for a spooky evening with lots of candy, candles and ghost stories but first, before I head off to scare my friends with tales of the unquiet dead, I just want to take a second to celebrate my favourite in game festival, Hallows End.

Blizzard have taken all the great festival ingredients and thrown them in a cauldron, added broomsticks and cats which bring bad luck, mixed them all together with some eye of newt, a horseman missing a head and of course candy. The end result is an excuse to run around the world revisiting old haunts.

Bats in the Belfry?

Darkshire suits the glowing pumpkins and hanging ghosts of Hallows End more than most places. Hallows End gives an excuse to farm bits and pieces for your alts, still haven’t seen the Headless Horseman’s Horse drop though. Even a reason to level long discarded alts for some quick and free experience from flying around eating candy. Who can resist candy, especially the type which gives gold and experience.

I think its one of the better fleshed out holidays, there are things for all level groups, from the daily quest to save the villages and prove yourself a hero to the orphans to the candy buckets to an albeit rather easy boss to kill. This year they even fixed the power of pine, with the addition of the Forsaken Prankster throwing stinkbombs in Southshore which was a nice touch because when NPCs attack, the world feels more real. Then there are the bats fluttering around and the black cats prowling, trying to trick you into killing them and receiving bad luck. The devil is in the detail after all.

Sinister Squashling with a pet gnome

There is something slightly sinister about a pet which is the same size as its owner, especially when that pet is a walking fruit (something I learnt today, always thought Pumpkins were vegetables… turns out they aren’t. Halloween cartoons are educational). A gnome wearing a gnome mask is a little disturbing too.

HAPPY HALLOWS END AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN

On a bicycle made for two

The other morning whilst browsing my favourite mini pet site I learnt that the rather flimsy looking gates of Zul’Aman no longer needed a party of five to knock them down. Naturally being a rather squishy cloth wearing type, soloing was out of the question but what a hunter can solo,  a warrior and priest can most certainly two man. So we loaded up the bike with supplies and snack food (might as well make a picnic out of it) and headed off to troll country.

I really do feel Blizzard missed a trick by not adding a troll instance to Northrend. Icetrolls up to no good would have fitted in perfectly and would have been a lot more interesting to play with than the Faction Champions and tired bullied Yetis.

Took around 15 hex sticks and the killing of 2 out of the 4 beast bosses, but with 10 minutes to go before the server shut down for some “emergency maintenance” I stopped rescuing random idiots and found the ultimate frog.

So thats another mini pet ticked off the list. Although its reaching the stage where I’m just going to grit my teeth and start farming for the rest of them.

 

Darrowshire – 101 things to see and do

Ever since Vanilla WoW I’ve avoided questing in the Plaguelands, too many annoying mobs and too many annoying diseases. However with our hunter/paladin team we thought lets revisit old haunts and old hauntings whilst working our way through all the quest chains. To say I’m glad we did is an understatement, instead of slaughtering our way through countless mobs for a few pieces of gold we were following a proper story line and doing something worthwhile.

Take for example the epic questline that is the Battle of Darrowshire. It has everything a story needs, a hero who loses his way, evil doers, ghosts, a little girl hunting for her dolly and of course a dragon pretending to be gnome (never quite got that one myself, but who is going to argue with a member of the Bronze Dragonflight).

Darrowshire, named from the Darrowmere Lake to its west, is a village tucked into the southern foothills of Lordaeron.

It sounds idyllic enough and indeed it probably was until war came ravaging its way across the landscape corrupting everything it touched. The chain begins in Winterspring, where Jessica Redpath of the Argent Dawn begs you to find her little sister Pamela.

I fled Lordaeron during the great war, and was lucky to escape before the Scourge swept through my homeland and turned it into a plagued nightmare! I was lucky, but my family was not. I fear they were all killed during the battle of Darrowshire.

It sounds easy enough, head off to the Plaguelands and look for a little girl. Hardly taxing for a seasoned adventurer. Yet I assure you, even the hardest hearted amongst you will find cause enough for tears in Darrowshire. On arrival the village is deserted or at least it appears that way at first glance, skeletons lie where their owners died.

Listen for a second as you look around, perhaps whisper a prayer of thanks that this isn’t your village, that you know where your family sleep tonight.

As you work through the chain, misery confronts you at every turn. Betrayal, death and anguish will dog your footsteps. You will see things better off unseen, yet continue you must, for little Pamela if nothing else.

Breadcrumb by breadcrumb, the terrible details of that battle come spilling out.

I wish Joseph could again be with his daughter, but it cannot be so. His soul was twisted by the Scourge, and he became a monster. Oh, he is doomed!

Search the graves outside for Joseph’s monument. His body’s not there, for it was trampled and destroyed years ago, but under the monument is his wedding ring. Take that ring to Chromie… a strange gnome with very strange powers.

It seems that Pamela’s loving father has a dark secret and no real grave. There is however something tempting about changing fate, altering the path of time (hmm wonder if I could snag a job with the Infinite dragonflight).

The Annals of Darrowshire tell us the full tragic story:

The battle continued, and Captain Redpath led his militia bravely.  And it might have been won, had the captain not been corrupted by the death knight Marduk the Black.

~~~~~~~

The corrupted Captain Redpath then spread his evil taint among the defenders of Darrowshire, who betrayed their allies and slaughtered them.  They then turned on the town of Darrowshire and killed all who hid in their homes.

Part of the reason why I like this chain so much, despite the fact that it makes me cry everytime I do it is that it reinforces what we are fighting for. Running around Northrend, especially with this new Coliseum its easy to lose sight of our history. Of the terrible things that happened during the wars that litter Azeroth’s past and why we have so much to lose as we fight our way up to the doors of Icecrown. Joseph Redpath wasn’t a bad man, yet he was twisted into slaughtering his own people, his own family. That kind of darkness, that kind of evil has to be wiped clean before it ruins anymore lives. Besides, its the only quest chain in game which gives as a reward a cup of sugary tea made by a ghost no less.

The questline begins with either :

Sister Pamela from Jessica Redpath in Winterspring.

or

Little Pamela from Marlene Redpath’s ghost in Sorrow Hill

The chain then goes:

• Pamela’s Doll
• Auntie Marlene
• A Strange Historian
• The Annals of Darrowshire
• Brother Carlin
• Heroes of Darrowshire
• Villains of Darrowshire
• Marauders of Darrowshire
• Return to Chromie
• The Battle of Darrowshire
• Hidden Treasures

In case you need any further encouragement to see this epic quest line before Cataclysm sweeps it all way, watch Cranius’s awesome video on the subject, dry your eyes and head off to Darrowshire. Save the ghost girl, save the world!

Run away little girl

In this almost quiet period before the release of Icecrown I’ve been playing around with my talents yet again. Out of curiosity and a sneaky desire to slaughter some of our melee on Kologarn, I picked up Body and Soul. Its uses are myriad and amusing so here is the list I came up with to justify my mini sprint in case I had to explain myself.

Northrend Beasts

Gormak the Impaler

1. If you use a tactic like ours, where all the casters with snobolds run to melee, this helps them get there that bit faster
2. Gets people out of fires a tiny bit faster, although its still hampered by the fact that they actually have to stop casting and move (if only body and soul forced the person you cast it on to move whether they wanted to or not… would be heaven)

Not one but two Worms

1. Helps unite the people with poison with the person or persons with fire
2. Gives the tank a little speed burst to reach a re-emerging worm faster
3. Gets people away from those with the fire before they burn to death

Icehowl

1. Allows slightly more leeway when it comes to running away from his charge
2. If you are on the opposite side of the room to him when he crashes, you can assist the dpsers along side you get back swifter.

Lord Jaraxxus

1. Handy for melee with the legion flame, lets them get away from the rest of the melee fast.
2. Great for running away from pesky volcano adds who decide to erupt on top of you.

Faction Champions

1. This baby was made for kiting. I throw them on anyone who is being chased by melee and likely to get squashed, i.e the people in the raid who can’t pvp.

Twin Val’kyr

1. Good for your soakers, helps them reach that sneaky orb a bit faster
2. Great for making sure you can always change colour before the channel
3. Fun for dodging orbs on your way to switch colours back

Anub’arak

1. Helps kite spikes around
2. Lets you run away from annoying little beetles with really sharp teeth (one of our trials who is no longer with us, managed to get that stack thing up to 26k a tick…. evil bugs).

Ulduar

XT

1. Useful for getting the debuffs out of the raid cluster that bit faster. Especially handy to be popped on the slightly slower than average caster every raid has. You know, the one watching tv or drinking a beer at the same time with only one eye on his or her monitor.

Kologarn

1. Seeing how much attention your melee actually pay to what’s going on around them. Guaranteed there is someone in every raid group who can be made to fall off the cliff. (Not recommended for use on your tanks or your raidleader though).
2. Handy for dodging eyebeams
3. Useful for running away from rubble

Thorim

1. Good for escaping Sif and her wintery touch.
2. No excuse for being hit by the charge with body and soul.

Mimiron

1. Handy for dodging lazors
2. Useful for getting melee away from bursts or w/e its called
3. A bit of speed for slacky dpsers who don’t see big bubbles of water until its a bit too late
4. Also great for running the frogger bomb gauntlet, either for helping people you like to avoid them or running people you don’t like into them

Vezax

1. If anyone’s tanks still kite, the mini sprint would be useful here
2. Good for dodging shadowcrashes
3. Handy for limiting the Mark of the Faceless Damage

Yogg-Saron

1. Allows you to move from one side of the room faster as you hunt tentacles
2. Better running away from people with maladies
3. The self depoison is handy. The mana drain is the most annoying of all the debuffs on that fight.

Algalon the Observer

1. Helps you reach black holes that bit faster
2. Handy for finishing a cast and then putting distance between you and cosmic smash

Basically most fights have some aspect where a mini speed boost is useful, whether its on yourself to ensure you don’t get hit by something or on someone else. If you are brave or crazy or just plain lazy like me and PvP as holy, its equally fun in a battleground setting too. You can run annoying fellow teammates off cliffs in Arathi Basin. You can assist flag carriers in WSG or EoTS and most importantly, you can run like the wind albeit briefly as angry enemies pursue you.

In conclusion, its a been a lot of fun but my main worry is that it could become a crutch. Something I rely on to avoid scary stuff, which of course could mean I go squish a lot when playing Disc (just like not having glyph of levitate on my disc spec…..). Therefore, amusing as it is, once Icecrown is released, I’ll most likely drop those two points back into something less gimmicky. In the meantime however running away was never more fun.

The wind beneath my wings (101 things)

Everyone should at some point in their WoW playing experience take the leap from Thunderbluff offered when the Darkmoon Faire is in town.

I also want her outfit, it would go perfectly with the Bloodelf Bandit mask.

The view of Bloodhoof village as it looms towards you is rather impressive although I don’t think I’ve survived a jump yet, but that just adds to the charm.