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.

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!)

Since the patch dropped on Tuesday, I’ve been unable to upgrade most of my add-ons. As of this post, both Curse and World of War are DOWN! Grr!!

Ah well. Blade’s Edge Mountains are waiting for me. Time to kick some Son of Gruul tail!

I’d like to point you in the direction of this post at Petoholics Anonymous. Faeldray hits it right on the head why I (and hopefully other people) aren’t in any insane race to get to level 70.

I’ve been playing WoW for almost three years now and I don’t have a single character that’s level 70. The closest is a Druid — my first character — who is at level 65 and isn’t going anywhere these days. I’ve started before and around the same time as other people and they’ve gotten character to 70 long ago.

Does it bother me? No.
Part of me wants to dangle the “ha ha I have a real life and you don’t” card over their heads, but that’s just mean. *wink* Truth is, Cappy and I enjoy playing WoW for the same reasons Faeldray enjoys playing WoW. We like to take our time and get to experience the game. I, myself, eschew dungeon runs for the solo life. Others may look at me in horror for not getting the EPIXX and the WOW GOLDS, but I just laugh at that. They’re just pixels, people! Don’t obsess over pixels!

My dad (who also plays WoW) plays ONE character and never plays anything BUT that character. For him, that’s fine. But I would die of boredom and never play the game again if I was only allowed to play with ONE character the entire time. My interests lie in getting new quests, getting done with those quests, and moving on to new quests. Grinding can be boring, but if you get bored, stop and move on to something else. When I play the game, I play to have fun. When I get bored, I turn it off or play another character.

In the end, it comes down to this: it’s a GAME so HAVE FUN. Don’t make it a JOB!