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.

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.

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. =)

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!)

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, 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.

Lets start RP’ing!

If you’re new to RP, don’t be frightened. RP’ing doesn’t make you a nerd, a dork, a geek or a loser. RP’ing is for any player who wants to interract with other players in character. That means you drop the pretense of being the average human and pick up the facade of being a Night Elf, Dwarf, Orc, or Troll etc. The aim of RP, above making yourself unique in a world filled with “the most beautiful” and “the famous”, is to have fun and convince others to have fun as well. In fact, lets keep that as a mantra for my posts: “Have fun above all else.”

The best place to start is on a Role-playing Realm. I play on numerous RP Realms: Farstriders, Kirin Tor, Sentinels, and The Scryers. If you’re feeling adventurous, try an RP-PVP server: a Realm that allows you to both kick ass and RP at the same time. At one time, there were strict rules about role-playing on RP Realms: strict adherence to RP-names, not breaking character, and more. But RP Realms are a little more — shall we say — relaxed these days. Still, they’re called RP Realms for a reason.

How to Initiate RP

There are many ways to engage in good, clean, role-playing fun. The easiest way to initiate RP is to ask for help with a quest or in the chat channels. Let’s take everyone’s favorite level 11 elite mob, Hogger: Say you’re a squishy little Mage who just can’t seem to cast Fireball fast enough to take the porker down. You need some help — don’t be afraid to admit it.

Here is the wrong way to ask for help:

Magealot: lfg hogger omfg plzzz!!! need halp now!!!!

Not only is this an abomination of the English language, but it’s not in the least bit role-playing! If I see this in a chat channel, I will do my best to ignore it. Unfortunately, if multiple spams in the General channel go unanswered, chances are Magealot will start whispering people around the area for help.

Here is an example of the right way to RP for help:

Magealot: Would any brave soul out there care to assist me in a small matter? That fiend, Hogger, needs to be taken down, once and for all!

You don’t have to pepper your request with fancy words like “thou” and “art” to get your point across. Hell, you don’t have to sound like you have a British accent (if you’re American) either. Plain, sensible English will do just fine. Something like this small but meaningful attempt will get notice MUCH more than the former attempt.

Asking for help doesn’t have to be your only method of initiating RP. Say you want to take a break from the drudgery of the game to just make simple RP contact with another player or a group of players. How can you do so in hopes of finding another soul willing to participate?

Here’s a quick story that happened to me recently. In my spare time, I like to stand next to people in the bank or at the Auction House and inspect them. Yes, that sounds very creepy and I’m almost ashamed to be typing that. -_-’ I don’t do this to be weird, I just like looking at the gear people wear. Occasionally I’ll get “caught” and someone will turn around and target me. Before WoW implemented the target-of-target trick, I could run through life inspecting as many people as I wanted in reckless abandon. (Thanks for ruining it for me, Blizz. XP)

Well, this time I got caught inspecting a level 70 Mage. I love looking at the stuff Mages wear, but I think peaking at this one particular Mage pissed her off. As soon as she selected me, I froze. To my horror, she /frowned at me! Eek! How do I get out of this??

Answer: role-play my way out of it.

Iriannis: I beg your pardon ma’am — I was just admiring your gown. How lovely!

A few seconds passed before the Mage smiled at me. She didn’t say anything in reply but she de-selected me and turned back to face the Auctioneer.

My point here: not only can RP’ing initiate contact with another player, but it can also get you out of sticky situations.

How to Keep RP Lively

You’ve managed to get into some heavy role-playing goodness at the Scarlet Raven in Darkshire. Like all relationships, things begin to cool and after awhile you and your fellow RP’ers are sitting around going “Indeed” and “Aye” ad nauseum. You want to continue, but you could have run from Expedition Point to Booty Bay on foot five times and this conversation still wouldn’t have changed its tune. What do you do?

Here are my two methods of getting out of stale RP: Number one is ask another player something about himself or herself. Everyone’s favorite topic, without fail, is themselves. Ask them about any recent trials or tribulations. Ask if they’ve been down to the Stockades yet and how they feel about the treatment of prisoners versus the treatment of beggars. Bring in celebrity gossip and ask if they think Jaina Proudmoore and Thrall are “more than just good friends.” If you pride yourself on your knowledge of WoW lore, don’t be afraid to involve it here, either.

Number two is to talk about yourself. Make up some elaborate story about how you braved the waste lands of Desolace but found the beasts of Feralas much more intense than you thought. Discuss how you spent days in bed, delirious and vomiting, because of a disease you acquired in the Hinterlands. Whatever you do, make it interesting. For example:

Magealot: Ten days! Ten days, they promised us. It would only take ten days to sail from Ratchet to Booty Bay. But I had no idea that the storms would come and nearly capsize us! For eight of those ten days, I clung to the mast and prayed to the Goddess I would survive to see Stranglethorn…

Here, you’re taking a common incident (traveling from Ratchet to Booty Bay) and turning it into an adventure. It’s fine that you took the boat from one continent to the next, but what happened along the way?

How to Affectively End RP

Sometimes that RP well just runs dry. It’s ok, it happens to everyone and there is nothing to be ashamed about. It is time now to make a graceful exit without breaking the fine RP you’ve established and kept going.

You’ve got to help grandpa or you want to answer the dungeon run request in the LFG channel. Whatever your reasons for leaving your RP, you’ve got to make your exit polite and in character. This is hard to do when you’re the one coaxing people to RP with you in the first place. But it can be done.

I have three steps of leaving an RP conversation. First, always apologize for “leaving so soon,” even if you’ve been going strong for twenty minutes. My apologies are usually very contrite with a lot of /sighing and /frowing, but it gets the point across. I don’t want my new RP friends to think I’m abandoning them and if we happen to run into each other in the future, I might like to RP with them again. Therefore, I try my best to let them know (in character) that I’m not trying to ruin the RP but I have other priorities.

Second, give an honest explanation of why you have to leave. Nobody likes a liar — don’t tell them you’re going to run Heroic Mech with a few friends because you promised you’d help them earlier and then go straight to Nagrand and farm elementals for those Motes of Water. If they’ve already added you to their friends list, they KNOW where you are. If you lie and say you’re going off where you are not, then it looks like you were “too good” for them and just wanted to rid yourself of their presence.

Being honest doesn’t mean being hurtful. If your RP friends are boring you and you want to leave, don’t /yawn and make a big deal about finding something more interesting to do. A simple “Pardon me for my abrupt exit, friends, but I have an errand I must run in the Blasted Lands,” will do just fine. If you have to logoff because your mom needs to check her email and refuses to understand why you CANNOT POSSIBLY PAUSE THE GAME, add something metaphysical to your goodbye. Say, “I must go for now, friends — for as much as I enjoy my time with you, otherworldly beings call to me.” (If it’s something as simple as a bathroom break, an out-of-character explaination will do: “((brb: bio.))”) Keep it brief, keep it simple, keep it polite.

Finally, wish them luck in questing. This can be a cute “Happy questing,” or “Good luck to all of you,” or even “See you around someday.” If you have no intentions of seeing them again, that’s fine too. Leave a good impression and you’ll be remembered.

That wraps up my introduction to role-playing. In my next post, I’ll talk about the different types of RP out there.