PTR Fun!

Well the end of old Azeroth is here! The Shattering has hit the PTR in full swing. New class/race combos, Revamped Zones, Shiny new Orgimmar/Stormwind, and a few hidden changes! Now we all know the changes to priest currently on the PTR and if you don't here is a brife list (Thank you MMO-Champion!) 

Holy

• Binding Heal base healing value increased by 20%, from [ 3960 - 5091 ] to [ 4752 - 6110 ]
• Greater Heal base healing value increased by 20%, from [ 6968 - 8098 ] to [ 8361 - 9717 ]
• Heal base healing value increased by 20%, from [ 2613 - 3037 ] to [ 3136 - 3644 ]
• Flash Heal base healing value increased by 20%, from [ 5227 - 6074 ] to [ 6272 - 7289 ]

 However, there are 2 awesome changes to holy they didn't mention! First off we have Chakra. Now when you are in a Charka state the icon of HolyWord:Chastise spell changes depending on your state. This is an awesome change. Also, the built in Power Auras shows a spell effect when Chakra fades. Another welcome addition! Next we have Body & Soul. This is my fave new change. They changed the sprint portion of B&S to a new spell effect. Watch my video below to see the changes.I made this video in a hurry so it looks best in 1080p and sorry for the watermark and the laggy PTR. I'll get another video up with more content as soon as I can and Yes I am a Gnome (shudder)

Guide to Healing Cata instances through the Random Dungeon Finder Part 1

So, You have lost your mind. You decided you wanted to do Cataclysm instances through the Random Dungeon finder as a healer. My god have mercy on your soul because these bosses won't. Listed below is my guide to healing the random dungeon finder. Lets get started shall we.


Throne of the Tides: Abyssal Maw, Vashj'ir
Level Range: 80-81
Entrance Location: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7gAel8cRTs

Bosses: Lady Naz'jar, Commander Ulthok, Erunak Stonespeaker, Ozumat

Lady Naz'jar: This boss is fairly easy. She has two phases. Phase one is a tank and spank. She will randomly cast a blue vortex that your dps will stand in and they will probably die. The vortex throws you up in the air and you take a nice amount of falling damage. As a healer its your job to let the retards who can't avoid these die. Phase two she becomes invulnerable and spawns adds. Your DPS in the group will continue to hit the boss while she is immune to damage while your tank keyboard turns to pick the adds up. As a healer you'll die to the adds while the DPS blame you for dying.  Once you gather your body and get buffed up again you manage to some how down the boss and the mage need rolls on the spirit cloth. You make your way to the next boss.


Commander Ulthok: This boss is a really fun boss. This boss spawns void zones that tick for a huge amount of damage. Your DPS will stand in these and die. These can and will spawn under the tank. If your tank suddenly takes huge amounts of spike damage he's probably standing in one. If your dps manages to live through standing in a void zone RNG will probably play an evil joke on you. This boss always has a squeeze much like Kologarn in Ulduar. It does 5k damage every 4th second for 20 seconds. You can't heal yourself if you happen to be squeezed so make sure you keep yourself topped off. If you manage to make it past this boss I commend you. 

Ernuak Stonespeaker: This boss is actually really fun unless you have bad luck. If you are anything like me then you have terrible luck. This boss starts out as a mind controlled NPC. Phase one is fairly simple, Dps the boss to 50% HP to release him of his mind control squid. Once the Squid has been release he turns into a mindless one. The mindless one will jump on the person with the highest threat. Once he is on the persons head that player must be brought down to 50% HP. That's right payback time for those retards who have no idea how to avoid stuff. The mindless one jumpped on the mage and he decides its a good time type in chat "Lol afk for a bowl" You secretly wish he would choke and die on his "bowl" Repeat the mindcontrol stuff 3-4 times depending on how decent your dps is. While the mage is still afk move on to the next boss.


Ozumat: Oh boy, where do I even start. This fight is a huge cluster fuck for the RDF. You have to defend Neptulon from Ozumat. The fight starts off with swarms of none elite adds. As a healer you'll be doing a lot of tanking in this fight. Hope you are ready for it. As you watch your tank keyboard turn his way around the room you die a little more inside. As the smaller adds die more powerful adds begin to spawn. These adds need to be picked up by the tank. Oh did I mention theres a stacking dot on everyone and the boss now spawns void zones along with adds? Yeah you read that right. The DPS need to focus target the "Mindless Sappers" once they all die phase 3 can begin. Yeah I know asking people to focus fire in the RDF is like asking a mage for a table or a pally for a buff. Its just not going to happen. If you manage to get these guys down you hit phase 3. In phase 3 Neptulon gives everyone a buff 500% Health, Healing and Damage. You must down Ozumat in 60 seconds. Which SHOULD be fairly easy given the buff.  There you have it. That's how to heal ToT via the Random Dungeon finder.

Throne of the suck

Blackrock Caverns: Blackrock Mountain, Searing Gorge

Entrance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTgdmT0WBp4

Level Range: 80-81

Bosses: Rom'ogg Bonecrusher, Corla, Hearld of Twilight,  Beauty, Acendent Lord Obsidius

Rom'ogg Bonecrusher: This boss is easy. He only does two things, but those two thing require DPS to pay attention. *facedesk*  He randomly spawns earth quakes on the ground. DPS will probably stand in these and die. If they manage to avoid these then his next ability will kill you all for sure. Every so often he will pull everyone on top of him and begin casting an AoE spell. To break free of the chains DPS needs to DPS the main chain down. Since this is the RDF you'll probably die to this. If you manage to down the boss without the group falling apart then kudos!

Corla, Hearld of Twilight:  This boss can be done two different ways. The easy way and the still easy way but requires thought process. So, Lets do it the retard friendly way. This boss has 3 adds channeling purple beams. They are harmless until the beams turn them into dragons. They hit the tank really hard when they are in this state but if you focus fire them down you can dps the boss. Yeah, I know asking DPS in the RDF to focus fire is a bad idea but the other option is worse I promise. After the adds are down DPS the boss. Simple as that. 

Karash Steelbender: Haha, this boss has fire which is my personal fave. There is a center pilar of fire that your tank must drag the boss through it. Once your tank drags him into the fire the boss can begin to take damage. However, Once in the fire he starts to do an aoe attack. The longer he's in the fire the more damage he does which will lead to your group wiping. So its up to the tank to drag him into fire hold him there for 3 stacks and then move him out. You repeat this process until the boss is dead. This will be painful on you as a healer. If the tank is horrible he'll end up walking through the fire which will kill him or he will keyboard turn and leave the boss in there too long. Either way prepare for a wipe. 

Beauty: Another boss with fire. This one however will require your DPS to avoid it. This fight is very very very simple. Avoid the fire patches and dps the boss. This boss has 3 little baby corehound adds. All three of these adds can be pulled at the same time. However. try to avoid killing Runty. That will cause the Boss to enrage which if you are in a bad group is going to wipe you. If you manage to down this boss without wiping to fires then congrats! 

Ascendant Lord Obsidius: This boss has two dwarf adds. These adds must be kited. They can be slowed, rooted and frost trapped. They will switch places during the fight and do a soft enrage. You want to continue to kite the unenraged one while killing the enraged one. That's it there is nothing else to the fight.  All you have to do is have DPS kite an add. Easier said then done.

Soon to be your doom.

 Still want to punish yourself some more? Stay Tuned for Part two of my guide. Don't like my sense of humor? Then you must be the dps that dies in the fire every time or the keyboard turning no CD popping tank. If you are these guys then I hate you. I hate you with a burning passion. 
 

New Hottness

A fabulous poster over at MMO-Champion by the name of Crazytaco93 made me my lovely new header. Thank you so much Crazytaco93.

I'm Famous in Eastern Kingdoms

Oi, I'm sick. It's times like this I wish I was a priest IRL. I'd cast a few spells and BLAM all better. Anyways, I'm all done with Eastern Kingdoms! Loremaster is proving to be a major time sink but it's bringing back such wonderful memories. Do you remember the first time you set out on your first quest? I'm going to tell you guys the story of my very first character in World of Warcraft.

Dear badlands. I hate you. Signed Honsue

I played WoW when it was in beta for about 2 weeks. I mostly played Alliance but decided I would go horde because I liked the way the Forsaken looked. Well, I thought warlocks were neat in beta so I made one. I was a little tiny level 4 when I ventured outside of deathknell. I wanted to see what was on the other side of those walls. I began running to Brill getting attcked by a few darkhounds along the way. I even died once because I thought it would be a good idea to check out that neat little farm along the road. Those zombies did not fall for the whole me being a zombie thing. Once I made it to Brill I saw the neat towers just outside of the small town. I thought "Oh wow what are those?" and off I went to check them out. As I climbed the long and winding staircase I saw the zeppelin pulling up and was blown away. I quickly hopped on the zeppelin and waited for it to take off. I was excited to know where it was going. Now, I had a pretty terrible computer back in the day. It took me a really long time to load on loading screens. Once I loaded all the way in the zeppelin was still moving so I thought I would hop off it and explore my new found lands. Bad idea. The zeppelin was hovering over the thunder lizard cavern and I died upon landing on the ground. I had no idea you couldn't jump off those things like that. I released and started running back towards my body. I got very lost and by very lost I mean lost for almost 45 mins. I was so frustrated that I logged off and deleted that character. I said to myself ok this time I won't go adventuring until I know more about my surroundings. I made a male undead rogue with a purple mohawk and named him Anthrax. We went through some epic times together. I remember when I first stepped foot into Shadowfang Keep. I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen in a video game before. Anthrax and I had a hard time trying to figure out how rogues worked but once we got the hang of working together we were an awesome team. We stabbed, kicked, blinded, and posioned our way to 60 in about a month. 

My first video game boyfriend. <3

 Shortly after I was 60 I joined a raiding guild. I knew what raiding was from my experience with running UBRS. However, I had no idea what I was getting into. I farm and farmed and farmed to get my full shadowcraft set. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I mean who doesn't like a ninja hood? I know I do. I must of run UBRS 30 times to get the chest to drop. I remember yelling "WOOOOOOO" really loud at 3am when I finally got it. My dorm neighbor wasn't happy. The night I joined a raid group for a place called "Molten Core" I was excited. We ran through and attuned people about an hour prior to the raid starting. I got on a little program called Ventrilo and started chatting. Before I move on.. Back then female WoW players were unheard of and the harassment I got then gave me the thickskin I have now anyway back to the story.. after vent chilled out we all started to zone in and bam I was instantly hooked and we hadn't even started on trash yet. I was taken back by the amount of people we had. There were 40 people that was a lot more than the 15 we had in UBRS and the 10 we had in Stratholme! We managed to kill two bosses that night. I made out with a pair of nightslayer bracers. My very first purple. Anthrax and I raided our way through Vanilla WoW slaying deadly bosses and grabbing their phat loots. With each passing day my skill grew stronger. I remember the first time I had someone comment me on my playing. We were mid way through a Blackwing lair raid and we just wiped to Chromaggus. The raid leader opened his mic channel to yell at us for wiping. I remember his exact words. "Listen we need to stop wiping to bosses we know we can kill. The dps is aweful. Guys, you are being beaten by a girl. Anthrax is third on the DPS charts. How does that make you feel?" I was grinning from ear to ear. I know its not really a compliment but to me it was. I stayed with that guild until the bitter end. The guild eventually parted ways when we got stuck in Naxx. Anthrax is still there to this very day forever locked at 60 and he will always have a special place in my heart. As will vanilla WoW. I will always and forever remember Azeroth as it once was. Please if you read this share your WoW memories with me. Let us have an epic nostalgia session.

Cooldowns, How do they work?

Today you get an added bonus post. We have a tank in our guild who doesn't use his tanking cooldowns. As a healer you know how annoying this is. He's a Deathknight. I KNOW I KNOW I'm not hating on Deathknights but its very typical right? Anyways, Yesterday we're doing HM Sindra and our MT died in Phase 3 twice in a row and we were running by a few ways to save the wipe if it happened again the following conversation took place on vent.

Raid Leader: "DK can't you just taunt and Pop your CD's on Frost Breath while we Battle Res the Pally"
 
Pally Tank:"Yeah that sounds like a good idea"

DPS Guy: "You're asking him to use his Cooldowns?"

DK: "I don't use CD's on Frost Breath" 


Healers in the healing channel: "WHAT?!"

Anyway we killed it on next attempt without the MT dying in P3. This is just a public service announcement for tanks out there. Call out your tanking Cool Downs over vent or use the add on that says when you've used your CD's in raid chat. This will save your ass in sticky situations and help the healers know when to rotate their healing CD's. You'll make things a lot smoother. /Signed Healers Everywhere.

Y U NO USE THEM?

You Were Prepared!

I may of said this in a post a few weeks ago but I plan on getting a server first achievement on my priest. The past two weeks between raiding, Loremaster and work I've been gathering things to prepare for the grind. I've built a pretty nice Shadow leveling spec from 80-85. If you are a reroller I'll post it in a level by level format. Lets get down to it shall we. 




General Info: 

• Set Your Hearthstone to Orgrimmar or Stormwind prior to 4.0.3a but do not log out in the city. Your toon may become stuck in walls, rocks, the ground and buildings. 
• Get your Justice Points to the cap. 4k This will allow you to get a jump start on getting geared for Heroics/Raids.
• Decide which starting zone you are going to hit first. My personal suggestion is Hyjal. The questing flow is slightly better here which is key for powering through. However, Once you've leveled don't skip out on the beauty that is Vashj'ir.
• Clear your bags. We all know questing is the fastest way to to power level if you do it properly. Leave all your healing/pvp gear in the bank. If you don't have full 24 slot bags buy them. They'll save you an extra vendor trip. (If you are on Wyrmrest Accord Horde I'll make you some bags)
• Respec your second spec to an optimized leveling spec. (Check below for my suggested shadow leveling spec.)
• Make or buy buff food. Every little bit helps to speed the process of killing mobs. I suggest pure SP or Haste food. 60-80 should be enough.
• Buy or Make Health/Mana pots. I suggest 80 of each. These will lower downtime and help in a pinch if you grab adds while questing. (The mobs hit a lot harder than they did in Wrath. Think TBC and dying in Hellfire.)
• Use any left over raiding flasks while leveling. These will help speed up the process of killing mobs and they won't be useful @ 85.

Mana Mana

 Now that you have gathered the stuff that will help you along your way while leveling in game it's time to buff your health bar IRL. 

Staying awake:

• Keep cool. Warm closed off rooms will make you sleepy faster. It'll drain your mental energy fast. 
• Drink ice cold water. It'll help you stay alert and if you start to feel the sleep creeping in splash some cold water on your face. 
• Chew gum or breath mints. Anything minty will help you stay awake. 
• Low Carb snacks. Fatty foods will slow you down faster.  Fruit and Veggies will give you the energy you need. 
• Every hour or so stand up and take a stretch. 
• Turn on all the lights in the room. The darker it is the more you'll want to sleep.
• Find a leveling buddy to chat with on vent or pump some upbeat tunes. (Personal fave Techno.) 
• If all the healthy stuff isn't you then stock up on 5hr Energy. However the crash from this stuff will be bad so prepare for that. 

Its bad for you but oh so good.

 

Now for the fun part! Lets build a Shadow Leveling spec. I know you crazy people out there who want to level as holy or disc but lets face it guys Shadow is the fastest way to level. I'm going to break this down per level bracket to help all you rerollers out there and you guys leveling from 80-85. 

Levels 10-19

2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain
3/3 Darkness
1/2 Twisted Faith

Levels 20-29

2/2 Twisted Faith (1 point from last level)
3/3 Improved Mind Blast
1/1 Shadowform

Shadowform at level 29 is awesome. It makes lowbie leveling so much faster.

Levels 30-39

2/2 Improved Devouring Plague
2/2 Improved Psychic Scream
1/1 Vampiric Embrace 

The nerf to VE makes this damn near worthless for endgame but while leveling every little bit helps so I decided to take it.

Levels 40-49

1/1 Silence
2/2 Masochism

1/2 Veiled Shadows
1/1 Vampiric Touch

Silence I've added for caster mobs and its needed if you are leveling at higher levels on a pvp server. Silence is a must! Don't forget to purchase Dual Talent Specialization. It's only 100g now and at this level healing instances as shadow becomes troublesome. 

Levels 50-59

1/2 Pain and Suffering
2/2 Harnessed Shadows
2/2 Veiled Shadows (1 point from last time)
1/1 Psychic Horror

Pain and Suffering is just filler for now to help you progress down the tree. It's not very good for leveling at low levels. Psychic Horror is good CC for PVP servers and decent CC in instances. 

Levels 60-69

3/3 Shadowy Apparition
1/2 Phantasm
1/1 Dispersion

Here is where the fun begins. Outlands mobs will die really fast while will allow you to pull more than 4-5 at a time. AoE SW:P and Shadowy Apparitions are fun. 

Levels 70-79

3/3 Twin Disciplines
2/2 Improved Power Word: Shield

At 78 you can travel to the new Cataclysm zones where the mobs hit A LOT harder than they did in Northrend. Imp PW:Shield is a must for lowing downtime.

Levels 80-85

2/2 Evangelism
1/1 Archangel

Yeah, I know its nerfed now but more damage output = faster killing = faster leveling. Use the last two points where ever you see fit. Going back and maxing out Phantasm is what I did. 

Glyphs
This is an easy one. 
Prime: Dispersion, SW:P, and Mindflay
Major: Pyschic Horror, Spirit Tap, Pyschic Scream
I went with the Physhic scream glyph because feared mobs like to bring friends to the party. Faster CD on Horror is nice while leveling.
Minor: Levitate, Fortitude, and Shadow Fiend.  

Well that's it guys. This is the spec I plan on using. Is it perfect? Nah probably not I'm sure there is some crazy numbers guy out there who has a better spec. Stay tuned for my instance guides and how to find them post over the weekend. I probably won't post it until Saturday. I mean a girl has to see the new Harry Potter!

Haters Gonna Hate

I've been working on Loremaster for the past week. Well, For the time my priest wasn't stuck in the Twisting Nether. As I sit here looking around at the Burning Stepps I realize this is one more thing to add to my "Hate List". I'm like an old grouchy lady. I hate everything and the older I get the worse it gets. So today my fellow gamers I give you my hate list. The list is made up of stuff in games in general and in real life. 

• MMO's with insane UI's. Aka Lord of the Rings. I mean really what is all that shit on the UI? I get it you went Free to Play, I don't need to see the shop add pop up everytime I level. 
• The people bitching about the Female Worgen Model on MMO Champ. GET OVER IT. 
• Wrath of the Lich King Heroics.
• Deathknights. Its not because everyone and their mother has one. I just hate the way they play. I've tried countless times to level one and I always give up around 65-67. The play style is too close to being like a ret pally with dots for my taste. 
• People who drink can soda with a straw. I mean really? 
• People who assume all gamers are neckbeards or fat women. Not all of us are mouth breathing window lickers.
• People who use "Gay" when referring to somthing that is  dumb, stupid,lame, retarded and so on. 
• "Relax man it's just a game" Yes, its just a game that you are terrible at.
• People who spam trade chat with song lyrics. Just a small town girl..
• Ads on you tube videos. I understand you're trying to make money. Go away with the ads before videos. Stick to banners and sidebar ads. 
• Talking ads. "CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE KNOWS YOU ARE AWAKE NOW HAHA!" 
• People who stare. I mean don't get me wrong I like to people watch just as much as the next person but there is a limit to how long you stare!
• HERP DERP HURR DURR. This stopped being funny a long time ago.
• People who type "alot" it's A LOT not alot.
• People who sit too close to you in waiting rooms or stand too close to you in line. 
• Close Talkers. You know the ones. HEY LETS GET IN EACH OTHERS FACE AND CHAT. I do not want to smell the garlic you had for lunch kthx.
• That one person in your guild that EVERYONE hates and is pretty awful but no one bothers to ever say anything about them.
• Facebook spammers. I DON'T CARE IF YOU JUST GOT OUT OF THE SHOWER!
• E Skanks. I mean really? You feel the need to whore yourself in a video game? 
• Badlands Quests. The amount of craftable items you need from the quests here is ridiculous. 

• 

  Angry cat agrees with my rage.

Now for part 2 of my hate list.

• Socks. I hate these things. They might make your feet warm in the winter but my fuzzy slippers do the job just fine.
• People who post screenshots of battle ground stat menu. Grats you did damage in a BG. You were probably that asshole camping the bot in the Alliance GY while the rest of us were actually running the flag in WSG. 
• People who ask trade "Whats the best spec for x class" Guys, Its called Google. Use it. It takes 5-10 mins of reading to figure out the most played spec of your class. All with detailed info on how to play it.
• People who don't understand how gemming in WoW works. Just because that socket is blue doesn't mean a BLUE gem has to go in it. They make hybrid gems for a reason.
• PvE nerfs to balance PVP. Honestly blizzard make pvp trees and specs for PVP. Leave the PVE players alone and Vice Versa
• Ke$ha Please crawl back into your trailer and just die already. 
• People who constantly ask you "What ya doing?" When clearly they can see what you're doing.
• Sports fans. I don't like sports and you don't like video games. So why do you think I care about the Flyers game? Do I tell you about me killing The Lich King? Nope Didn't think so. 
• Gold Spammer whispers. Ex: "Hey Whats up?" *Shift Right click* [Stolenaccout Level 1 Shaman, Durotar] It always makes me feel like someone actually wants to talk to me. HUGH LET DOWN 
• Warhammer Online's PVE. Yes I know its a PVP game but seriously Mythic you could of tried a bit harder with the quests.
• The shitty amount of XP you gain in low level battlegrounds in WoW. Give us XP for killing players blizzard. Make it have the old honor diminishing returns.
• The way people think its raging when you disagree with their statements about their gear.
• People who correct you in the middle of a sentence. I realize I dunno how to pronounce that word. Do I care? No and you shouldn't either. (Side note these people are fun to piss off.
• Twilight. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Twilight is only for gay men, little girls and lonely old fat women/housewives.
• Guild Rules against "bad words" I'm sorry but if your child plays online video games he/she has already seen the word fuck and if not from video games then from school. Turn on the profanity filter if you are offended by "bad" words.
• The fact that Guild Wars has no jump button. What a stupid thing to leave out of a game.
• People who stand on top of NPC's with their mounts. 

• People who hover in Dalaran on their flying mounts. Grats you have a Green Proto Drake. So does the rest of WoW. 
• People who afk during heroics, raids, BG's and group quests to "Smoke a Bowl" Then complain about dying, wiping, losing and not getting quest credit.

Me every time someone afks to smoke pot.

As you can see I can keep going on forever.but I won't. I think this is enough for now. Stay tuned for more posts this week. I'm working on a "Preparing your Priest for Cata" and I plan on posting detailed info on all the new 5 mans and their boss strats.  (Edit: I have no clue what that white box is down there. It won't go away no matter what I do. So I now hate it too.)