All Stories

A few days ago, Monique of Girls Don’t Game wrote a great piece detailing her illustrious history and experience in Death and Taxes. While there’s no way I’d be able to match up to her story, I do feel that I can share with you a few key points in my WoW career that shaped my path in a way that won’t come to an end like hers.

Casual times, hardcore philosophies

As a student that wants to succeed in school, I knew that I had to find myself a guild that raided often enough to get my money’s worth but didn’t raid enough so that I wouldn’t get left behind. A lot of guilds rate their ‘coreness’ by the amount of time they invest in raiding.

I didn’t want a Guild that would go from 6 PM – 12 AM. There’s no way I can sustain those kinds of hours. I wanted a Guild that had reasonable raid hours. I wanted one that wasn’t going to do more than 15 hours a week, tops.

At the same time, I wanted an organization didn’t slack off, that didn’t take a casual outlook on progression, and wanted to excel. I found such a Guild in Carnage. They share the same mindset. We all strive to be the best that we can possibly be.

If it weren’t for the fact that we raid such limited hours on a weekly basis, I have no doubt that we would be in Sunwell right now.

Lesson: The game can be addicting but only if you allow it. I was able to set limits on myself.

Blizzards Intervention

Monique’s story about the world dragons are something to be remembered. They could spawn at any time and players had to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. I’ve never been able to kill one. I’ve tried them several times but the group I was with at the time was never good enough. My group had to bow out to other Guilds that were capable of doing them. They respectfully gave us a few attempts. Quite courteous.

Blizzard seemed to say enough was enough. World bosses don’t appear to be a priority for them anymore since there are only two in the expansion: Doomwalker and Kazzak. I suspect we might not see any in Wrath at all.

Lesson: They smartened up here. It’s as if they don’t want players to overextend themselves too much and drop what they’re doing to go after these world bosses.

Monique’s story is an extreme one. I know if I tried and let myself go, I could easily turn into a player who sleeps when the world wakes up. I used to do that before during the summer months just participating in epic DoTA games. Sometimes I yearn to just go and do it. With 3 high level and well equipped healers, I’d have no problem getting into a progression Guild (especially with overpowered Resto Shamans in high demand). But I also recognize that doing so would conflict with my goals in the real world and it is not something I’m prepared to sacrifice just yet.

I love raiding! I love the thrill of killing bosses! It’s who I am and what I want to do. I may not be as hardcore as Monique once was, but I don’t fit in the average WoW player demographic. Because like Monique, I’m constantly pushing myself and constantly doing everything I can to become better within reason.

As I write this, I’m currently “borrowing” the internet connection of a neighbor. I wanted to update you all on what has been an extremely eventful (albeit fairly painful) week.

• I injured my lower back earlier this week which had stopped temporary production of posts.
• I received a text message earlier yesterday that knocked out my ADSL modem (cellphone, bad phone filter, etc.). A tech is being dispatched at some point later this afternoon or early during the weekend. Depending on how quick they can diagnose and troubleshoot the problem, I may not be able to make the WoW Insider show.
• Wynthea’s boss doubled her work-load then went out of town, so she’s been out-of-commission.

Just wanted to keep you apprised. I haven’t quite disappeared off the radar yet.

On another completely different note, if you possess a router that has wireless capabilities, please do the following:

1. Disable the wireless aspect if you don’t have any wireless devices
2. Change your password to something that isn’t: password, admin, nimda, apple, your birthday, or your street address backwards.

All the best!
– Matticus

Carnage has a position open for a free agent Resto Druid. We’re literally on the cusp of killing Illidan. Hyjal is on farm status as well as the first 8 bosses in Black Temple.

In the brief

Server: Ner’Zuhl (West Coast, PvP, PST Server)
Guild Name: Carnage
Website: http://www.carnage-guild.org/pn/
Raiding Schedule: Tuesday, Thursday: 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM, Sunday: 3:30 PM – 9:00 PM [Note that times are subject to change] That’s under 13 hours of mandatory raiding a week

Faction: Alliance
Progress: 5/5 Mount Hyjal, 8/9 Black Temple

What our Guild can offer:
* A relaxed and fun raiding environment
* Adult, mature players to interact with
* A great sense of community and belonging
* Ventrilo

Ideal Candidates:
* Are mature, over 16 years
* Possess a working microphone and are not afraid to use it
* Possess a stable internet connection and a raid capable computer that will not explode
* Skilled Player: Skilled in the class that you play
* Excellent Attitude: No negativity. A positive personality that synchronizes with the rest of the guild is an asset
* Should be geared in T5 level/Badge epics

Note: If you need gear from Karazhan, this is not the Guild for you.

UI Requirements:
Omen
CTRA/ORA2 (For raid querying only, you can use whatever raiding interface you like)
Deadly Boss Mods/Bigwigs

We are looking for:

Healer: Part time position available for a Resto Druid.

Once again, contacts: Send in game messages to Mallet, Maeve, Rackham on Ner’Zuhl. Alternatively, you can create an account on the website, and post on the Recruiting Forums.

After a while, you may play your class for so long that you may think you know all the tricks there are to know. Use SW: Death to bounce Prayer of Mending? yawn. Use Inner Focus before a mana-free spell to get the crit benefit to TWO spells? Yeah, Blizzard figured that one out, too. Fixed in 2.3 . For me especially, it can feel like I know everything there is to know about Holy Priests. But even after leveling two of them, the class still manages to surprise me. Here are a few of my favorite odd-ball ideas. Feel free to share your own!

Unusual uses for spells:

Mind Vision:
Can’t find someone that needs a heal and is out-of-range in a spread-out venue like Mt. Hyjal? Mind vision them really fast to find them, and you can run over and patch them up.

MV also works great when someone is lost running back through the instance. This way you can give them first-hand directions!

If you can MV a Rogue in a PvP situation before they stealth, you’ll be able to see them. Personally, I just like to throw Pain on them and keep them from stealthing in the first place, but that only works if they’ve burned Cloak.

Got an opposing faction flag-carrier hiding somewhere in the BG? Check their name at the top of your screen, target them manually, and Mind Vision away. Suddenly, they’re not so sneaky anymore.

Wonder if it’s worth getting an epic flyer? (It is.) MV a buddy while they’re riding theirs. Zoom!

Holy Nova:
Priests either hate this talent (Matt) or love it (Me) – but once you get used to pain-pulling 6 or 7 mobs and Nova-ing them down, it’s hard to do without it.

Don’t have an AoE DPS in Magister’s Terrace? Shield, Renew, and ProM yourself, and let someone pull the Mana Wyrms to you before the 2nd boss. You can Nova the whole room in two pulls. (remind your group that it won’t cause any threat, so they should just sit tight and let you handle it.)

Rank 1 Nova is WIN for finding stealthies before they’re ready. When I re-rolled from my Human to my Troll, I missed Perception at first: now I know better!

Okay, so the output isn’t that great, but Nova HEALS and DAMAGES with NO THREAT. If you’re pulling aggro, but about to die, and you have to run (i.e. you can’t binding heal, which is low-threat) pop a couple Novas. It’ll burn some serious mana, but it’ll get you a bit of health back, too, without getting you skewered. And anything burns less mana than DYING.

PW:Fortitude:
Everyone has someone same-faction that they can’t stand. (or is that just me?) If you ever have the opportunity, this can be really fun:
When your good buddy is about to jump off a high ledge (high, but not deadly. Think Scryer Tier or the Zepplin tower in UC) throw them a Fort right after they leap. Since fall damage is a % of total health, increasing their health pool causes them to take MORE damage when they hit the ground. Max-rank Fort is usually enough to make them go splat, just don’t forget to Levitate down yourself!

Mind-control
Most of us know that you can MC someone from the opposing faction, and buff them with anything insta-cast. This means a Fort, S.Prot, Renew, or PW:Shield. You can also let your buddies buff them. Did you know you can toss them a leather ball?

You may know this already, but in many instances, you can MC the mobs, and BUFF your own party. Try it with the Physicians in the Mechannar.

Shadow Fiend
The little guy takes a lot of crap for only lasting 15 seconds. If you find you’ve pulled more than you can handle (even with Nova!), DON’T DPS one of the targets – just set your fiend on him, and watch the little guy tank. He doesn’t generate a lot of threat, so be careful, but he might just buy you enough time to get yourself healed up.

If you have a Pally that’s open to it, get him to throw a might on your Fiend. He gets a lot of mileage (and you get a lot of mana!) out of buffs. Those scrolls of strength or agility you may randomly get and vendor? keep ’em. He likes those, too.

Fade:
Fade is pretty misunderstood mechanically. It’s not a threat-dump, it simply reduces your threat on the aggro table by 1,500 for 15 seconds. Anything you do in those 15 seconds adds threat normally, (be nice if it was threat-free, wouldn’t it? HEY BLIZZARD!!!) and at the end of the time, the 1,500 you lost comes right back. What you might not know is that if you fade and don’t do anything else…. the mobs won’t pay attention to you again until you DO something, even after the 15 sec are up. If you’re running for your life on a boss reset, pop a holy nova or two to get a little no-threat healing in, and then Fade. THEN DON’T DO ANYTHING UNTIL YOU’RE SAFE. It won’t save you the repair bill every time, but it works often enough to be worth trying.

SW:D
This one is pretty well-known, but bears repeating: a well-timed SW:D can break you out of some types of CC (like Polymorph). Make sure you cast it right as they’re finishing up their cast – the backlash damage will knock you out of sheep!

Racial: Hex of Weakness (Troll)
Okay, so reducing damage dealt by 35 is pretty worthless. But reducing healing taken by 20% is pretty win. ANY boss that gets healed should have this thrown on them. Because it’s a curse, I especially like to toss it on arena teams with a Paladin or Priest healer. Just another reason Troll Priests are more than a pretty face.

Levitate
Sure, Shamans can walk on water, but we don’t even get our toes wet. You can fish, summon your flying mount, eat or drink, and do just about anything but jump this way. Very handy when wanting to fish deep water or farm Primal Waters uninterrupted.