Confession time!

I hate theorycraft. I do. Can’t stand it. It’s a useless buzzword attached to a useless pseudo-science. I get really frustrated with other players who analyze the details of their DPS, their mana, their rage, and their energy. Maybe it’s my bias as a casual player speaking, or maybe my dislike of high-end mathematics. Reading the word makes the skin on the back of my neck crawl.

Anyway, I hate theorycraft. I take a very general approach to spells, attacks, and weapons. For instance, I know to conserve mana by not pummeling my targets with Stings as my Hunters. I know that Arcane Missiles devours my mana pool and to cast it at the end of battles. I know to use Pounce at the begining of a fight, because I know it will let me stun my target long enough for me to do a severe amount of damage. But, you have to actually play the game (read, have fun) before you figure this out.

It takes me a long time to learn how to play the game. Sometimes I even finish a game and realize I could have gone back and done something a bit less complicated. On average, it takes me two or three times to actually “get” anything: a video game, a book, a movie, a painting, whatever. Needless to say, there’s a lot of stuff in WoW that I’ve missed when I played the game with my Druid that I now see with my Hunter or Priest. If theorycrafters could turn their speculation into benficial help, I’d have a lot more respect for them.

For instance: Isys had some fun in the Pools of Aggonar today. By fun, I mean, she chopped the hell out of some Terrorfiends. The oozes were a bit trickier for me, since they attacked in groups of three (one Ooze, two oozlings) and gave my pet, Sleet, a nasty disease. After killing three required for the quest, I figured out a much simpler way of killing them:

First, set down an Exploding Trap within range. Target the big ooze (don’t forget Hunter’s Mark) and send in your pet. Second, fire a Sting at the big ooze, then use Multishot to draw the oozelings over to you. Keep the big ooze targeted and ignore the little guys: as soon as they step on your trap, they’ll die. Third, help your pet finish off the big ooze.

Got that?

1. Set down an Exploding Trap and target the big ooze.
2. Use a Sting, then Multishot. Oozelings die.
3. Kill the big ooze.

That’s SO simple. Why didn’t I think of that before? Why didn’t I think of a similar method as a Druid?

(Another method of killing oozes and oozelings is to use Volley. You stand a chance of not killing the oozelings with it and having them come after you. You can set down the Explosive Trap, but Murphy’s law will have it that your oozelings do die during your Volley attack, and you have a wasted Trap that some Terrorfiend stumbles into. Yeah, that happened to me.)

Back to theorycraft: things are so much simpler if hardcore theorycrafters relax just a bit. Stop dealing with numbers and theorums and logarithims and explain in plain English the benefits of Scorpid Sting over Serpent Sting. Otherwise, the game becomes work and we all know how much I hate working in a video game.

Yep, you read that right. After hours and hours of reading Ego’s blog, I became inspired to bring a Priest of my own out of semi-retirement. Say hello to Aliarlynn (Ali for short).

After reading her post on Shadow vs. Holy builds, I decided to re-spec Ali to Shadow. In particular, I’m using this build, with all my points in Shadow until I learn Shadow Form, then moving to the Holy tree for a few levels, and finally finishing up the Shadow tree. I wanted to get Shadow Form as quickly as I could, which is why I chose to move to the Holy tree only after I learned it.

And damn. I’m impressed. I can do some serious damage. After a few battles, I developed my own rhythm.

1. Shadow Form
2. PWS
3. SWP
4. Vampiric Embrace
5. Mind Blast
6. Mind Flay x2
7. Mind Blast

Dead! Call it my Seven Steps of Slaughter or something trendy like that. Don’t forget PWF or Shadow Protection, especially around the Trolls in the Hinterlands and the ghouls in Azshara. The PWS protects you and allows you to cast Mind Blast and channel Mind Flay without interruption.

So Shadow for grinding/PvE works very well for me. Plus, I think I look pretty badass in Shadow Form on my black stallion.

I started a Twitter account for my WoW-ing experience! Feel free to Follow me (I’ll probably Follow you back, too) and/or keep track of my recent adventures on the sidebar. *Points* By no means am I using Twitter as a way of getting out of blogging. I’m just using it to keep track of stuff I did. I don’t always remember everything that I do in the game, so Twitter’s job is to keep me organized.

Anyway, I’m taking Kahlah out questing and leveling since Isys is at an impasse until she gets her epic Tiger mount. This is great news, because I can explore the new content around Dustwallow that Blizzard added three or four patches ago. >_< It sure beats the hell out of questing around in Stranglethorn. Oh, I’m also missing several pages of The Green Hills of Stranglethorn. I hate that quest so much but I do it to satisfy the obsessive-compulsive in me.

I had to stop scavenging with Kahlah. It started off as a fun idea and I made it through level 30 without too many problems. By level 35, I was starting to struggle a lot. I could only find level 25 and below drinks and food and I never seemed to have enough meat for Maia. Now that I’m 41, it’s near impossible to just scavenge for food and drink. I hate deviating from my own rules like this, but I have no other choice. I can’t let Maia starve!

I also have to update my Characters’ pages, my blogroll, and my to-do list. I’m getting to that. =)

Finally! (I actually started writing this a week ago and forgot to post. Sorry!)

Now, I’m finally able to wear my Primal Mooncloth Shoulders and Belt that have been in my bags for a while. The intellect isn’t as high as it was on my previous gear, but the added healing bonuses will make me an even better healer in dungeons and crap (and prevent me from having to respec. ). I’ve been wondering, though — was I hasty by going ahead and putting the first gems I could get my hands on into the belt? Can you take them back out again to put in new ones? Beats me!

Either way, I’ve been having fun doing dailies and what not (Yeah, about that, Blizzard — you’ve kinda solved the gold farming problem at high levels, but you’ve created some pretty nasty inflation in the meantime…)

(Note: You may have noticed the little mouseovers from WowHead.com’s JavaScript addon on this page to make their links show up as Wow-style item descriptions. I tried using Thottbot.com’s as well — to create them from our older posts — but apparently Thottbot’s tries to override Wowhead’s script and show its own links instead of Wowhead’s. Bad form!)

You know the best part about being level 70?

The daily quests. Srsly.

I spent hours today running all over Outland and the Sunwell Plateau just for daily quests. I don’t have my MoneyFU addon installed anymore, but I kept mental track of my earnings and discovered that doing just a few daily quests yielded seventy (70) gold, right in my Druid’s hot little pocket.That money’s going to Isys, who doesn’t have her epic mount yet. =( Yeah, I know. I’m a little late on getting her the white swiftsabre that she’s been eyeballin’. Chalk that up to re-specing and re-gearing at level 45. -_-’

I do appreciate the rare moments of cross-faction role-playing on Sunwell Plateau — even if it’s only brief. Today’s CFRP came courtesy of a Blood Elf Rogue who helped me take on a giant, flapping demon in Sun’s Reach. I had taken on one too many and before I could run away in pathetic cowardice, she appeared behind my attacker and killed him. After I /thanked her, she gave me a /pat.

Oh yeah — I’m in kitty Form, I thought. Then I /purred at her and /cuddled her like a good cat. Had I thought about it, I would have given her a /lick too, but A] that would be creepy and B] I don’t know too many cats that lick for affection. =/ We said our good-byes and I went on my merry way.

Tomorrow begins another day of daily questing in hopes of getting Isys her new mount. Running around Hellfire Penninsula and Zangarmarsh with a rare mount just doesn’t cut it. >_<

Yes, I’ve been AFK from the Warblog for a while. I apologize — I didn’t play much WoW for an entire month(!) but I had a marathon last week. It took us all weekend but…Mike and I FINALLY made it to level 70 with our mains!

Yes, it has taken me a long time to get to level 70. I’ve been playing the game for three whole years now and I don’t have a single character to 70 until now. Why has it taken us so damn long? Well, a number of reasons: First, my husband and I are casual players. We play when we have time and inspiration. Sometimes when we have the time, we don’t have the inspiration. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat down at my gaming PC, turned on WoW and then immediately exited out. I just did not want to deal with the overwhelming amount of WORK that lay ahead of me. I hate that. I hate when a game becomes work. So I take occasional breaks that happen to be a month long.

And when I come back, I appreciate it so much more.

The other reason why it’s taken us so damn long to get to 70 is because we started the wrong characters. Had Mike and I been a Rogue and Hunter respectively, we would have leveled to 60 years ago and level 70 a month or so after we got the BC. But we didn’t — we chose a Priest and a Druid. When I played as a Hunter for the first time, I knew that it was the class for me. This is why I have so many Hunters in the first place.

But no violin-playing. We’re level 70! Yay!

And you won’t believe this. My dad (who’s now a retired OT in a major raiding guild) invited us to join his guild. They’re mostly adults who actually screen their members, meaning they don’t put up with whiny teenagers who OMG DIDNTGET TEH EPIX WTF. They also don’t have any requirements for joining — no gear requirements, no spec requirements, hell, they’re not even picky about Hunter pets. So I promised him that if I made it to level 70 and he was still playing, I’d join his raiding guild.

Well, he still plays and I keep my promises.