Guide to Healing, Leading, and Progressing in WoW Raids
Interviews with other bloggers around the WoW blogosphere.
Kestrel decided to pull a fast one on me this week and ask me 20 questions. So if you’re interested in learning a little more about the mind behind the blog, by all means give it a read. Although I should caution you that you may find some unexpected answers.
Every week, Matt gets a chance to sit down with a WoW Blogger chosen this week by Haris Pilton. Find out a little more about your favourite bloggers as he tries to get to know them a little more!
This week, TJ of her self titled blog Temerity-Jane dot com somehow miraculously found enough time to answer a few questions.
So how did temerity-jane.com come into being anyway and what motivated you behind it?
I’ve been blogging on and off for about 10 years now – the first site was one of those site builder AOL jobbers back in 1998 or something, followed by pitas, livejournal, and eventually a self-hosted site. I kept up with the self-hosted site for a long time, until the demands of writing, responding to comments, answering emails, IMs, and even hate mail, just became way too much and I quit in a fit of rage. Ok, actually I just stopped writing it. Between my last self-hosted site and this one, I still found myself blogging – on my myspace page, or even just emails to friends, and when the whole graduating college-getting a job-becoming a real live adult thing had settled, I figured, "Well, I guess I might as well do this again." I never really stopped, through the whole 10 years. Even at points where I didn’t have a blog online, there are notebooks full of stuff that I wrote – and oddly, none of it is personal – I mean like, personal diary entries about my feelings. (Haha, feelings.) Even when I was writing stuff that only I would see, I would write like I was trying to amuse someone. Why waste me on just me! Seriously, though, I have mentioned once or twice on my own site that I have a disorder, and because of that, I find it a lot easier to communicate through text than I do in my day to day real live life, and blogging, for me, is mostly selfish. It’s kind of a validation that I can be interesting, smart and funny, when I don’t really feel like I come off that way at all on a day to day basis.
Think the Druids are going to be mad at you for killing so many trees?
I’ve been trying to lay low in Aetherial Circle, otherwise known as "Druidial Circle." A raid in our guild is not complete unless it’s 42% druid. Now I’m probably going to have nightmares of being beaten to death by the limbs of a heard of trees, like those mean ones in the Wizard of Oz, remember those?
Which came first in terms of WoW? BRK or TJ?
In terms of WoW? I believe I’ve been playing longer than BRK, but his blog has existed longer than TJ.com has existed.
Speaking of WoW, what’s a clear officeholic like you playing that highly addicting game anyway?
A few years ago, in the fall of 2005, I got really sick. Not like, the flu – I mean really, long term, in bad shape overall kind of sick. Even when I started to recover, I was too tired to leave my house and dealing with bad pain in my legs that made it so that once I got up to my attic bedroom (where I lived with my cats, no joke), I wasn’t coming back down until I had to. So, for the most part, I was pretty much homebound for a few months there. I’m not a hugely social person in general, but anyone will go a little nuts confined to their home long term. I was playing a lot of StarCraft at the time, but the people I played with weren’t always available – mostly college students who had to do crap like "class" and "studying" and "drinking lots of beer" and couldn’t always be around to keep me entertained. Someone suggested World of Warcraft as an alternative to keep me busy until I was up and about again, and said "But look out, it’s addictive." I rolled my eyes like, "Yeah, right," – like anything was going to take me away from my StarCraft addiction. I did pick up the game, though, and installed it on a Saturday afternoon, and the next time I looked up, it was dark. Whoops. Guess they were right, huh?
What is the history of the demonic ponytail? Has it been holy at one point?
The demonic ponytail is actually a Fio creation. We were chatting on gtalk one day, and, having seen the Mr. T commercial and been unreasonably tickled by it, I demanded Fio make a guild rank, just for me – Night Elf Mohawk. Fio, being the reasonable and logical type, said, "But you’re neither a night elf, nor a mohawk." NOT THE POINT, I told him, and continued to insist. Must be NIGHT ELF MOHAWK! "Human afro?," he suggested? NO! MOHAWK! "Demonic ponytail?" "NO! It– oooh! Demonic ponytail! YESSSS!"
Ever thought about writing a book?
Kakalaki asked me the same question a couple of days ago, to which I replied "Ha!" No, not at all. What would I even write about? And could anyone really tolerate me for a few hundred pages? Highly unlikely.
You mentioned to me earlier that you were entering a temporary hiatus from WoW due to work issues. Any plans on when you will be returning to Azeroth and the Outlands?
Work is keeping me pretty busy. It’s not even that the hours have been so long this year, thanks to some great part time help (not including Saturdays and the occasional Sundays) but the pace is so stepped up and the stress is running so high that I’m just exhausted all the time when I get home. My main, a 70 lock that I had been raiding with, has pretty much been shelved for the time being. I just can’t muster up the energy I need to not only last a whole raid, but actually, you know, contribute. However, I haven’t been completely absent from WoW – I picked up work on my priest alt, he just hit 61. Leveling is all right – I can log in and play for a couple of hours, or for 15 minutes if I’m just too worn out. I’ve also been playing with the Pox Arcanum people, though my schedule has lead to me dipping out on them twice in a row now and I feel like a total buttface. But that’s also been a lot of fun and a pretty cool experiment, and I’ve enjoyed a couple of hours with them here and there as we plan it. As far as raiding goes, you can see from the blogs of Doom, BRK, Brigin and more that AC has been plowing through the bosses, and I’ve not been there. My main is also sorely lacking in badges for any kind of badgey gear, so I’m just falling behind and falling behind. Busy season is over in a month, and after that, I’ll have to see where the guild stands and where my toon stands to know what’s going to happen from that point on.
Have you thought about taking any pre-emptive measures to minimize meeting random guys in traffic intersections from happening? I hear the KGB has some great tips like randomizing your route to work.
Just moments ago, Doom was helping me with knife shopping. It’s not that I think that this particular guy is a threat of any kind – he’s probably just an overly friendly guy. The thing is, these overly friendly guys don’t realize how they come off to women sometimes – if I’m alone in my car, or in a parking lot, or any place that’s not bright with lots of people around, I’m generally going to be really on guard if approached by someone. I don’t know if all women are like that, but I’m willing to bet that I’m not totally alone in that. I know the Guy in Car story is funny, I wouldn’t have told it if it wasn’t, but the truth is, I certainly didn’t enjoy the whole experience and do plan on buying a sharp object of some kind – not to defend against this specific guy, as I said, but because this kind of stuff – that is, being approached by strangers when I’m alone – happens to me and a lot of women on a reasonably regular basis. Certainly a lot more than I’d like, anyway. I don’t plan to stab anyone, but the whole Guy in Car thing made me realize I’d like to invest in a little more personal security, if you get my drift.
Several weeks ago, you suffered an attack upon your very own principles. It appeared that your belief in Pirates over Ninjas was beginning to waiver. What has transpired since then? Are you still wrestling with your own inner demons about them?
You know, I’ve really tried to be alone with my thoughts on this matter, after broadcasting my internal dilemma for the whole internet to chime in on. I still feel I strongly identify with pirates. I don’t feel as close to ninjas. However, looking at the two, pirates are starting to look less and less badass to me, and more like drunk crusty old men, whereas ninjas are the ultimate in badass. Not being very badass myself, you can see how I would be a bit intimidated by the ninja crowd. The allure is strong, though.
I made the mistake of once asking this to BBB several weeks ago. Seeing as you’re not in the military, I think I’m in the clear this time around. Might you have a favourite WoW or a story involving BRK that no one knows about?
A favorite WoW story or a story involving BRK that no one knows about… well, my WoW life is, for the most part, pretty uneventful. As far as stories involving BRK, the only ones I can think of involve me shrieking "AND YOU CAN’T PUT THIS ON YOUR BLOG!" at the end. So I’m certainly not going to get into those.
Hilary or Obama?
Heh. No comment.
Favourite drink:
Diet anything. Except Diet Dr. Pepper. Tastes too much like regular Dr. Pepper. Which I do like. But I want my diet soda to taste like diet soda.
Favourite WoW encounter:
I have a love/hate relationship with Molten Core, since the best times I had in the game were there, but gaaaah Molten Core. I did like the Magmadar fight quite a bit though, and the Baron was just a good time. I like any encounter that makes me feel confident, like I can handle it. Right now, I would say the Black Morass event right now. It’s so orderly.
When stressed, you ___:
Cling to routine.
If you could have ONE of your in game class abilities in real life what would it be and why?
The ability to summon minions. They don’t have to shoot fire at anyone, or chop someone up with their big axe. Maybe just fetch me a diet soda every now and then as needed.
Sports? Hobbies?
I don’t play any sports, but I like to watch baseball and hockey. As for hobbies, is reading a hobby? I do a lot of that. And I work. I don’t know if work is a hobby, but if I tell myself it is, I don’t feel so soul-crushed after a 12 hour day. I also like to play poker. I am a better poker player than I have any right to be since, technically – by the book, considering odds and chances and risks and such – I suck. I’m bad. I make bad moves, risky moves, overly conservative moves, based on nothing but the whim of the moment. And I win more than I lose.
Top 3 TV Shows
House, seaQuest DSV and… I honestly don’t watch TV much right now. I catch some episodes of things online when I remember to, and just watched all the episodes of MacGyver, Due South, Bones and Scrubs over the last few months. As far as current TV shows, I’m sadly out of the loop. And I’m not one of those snobby pseudo-intellectual types that likes to talk about how they don’t watch TV by inserting it into conversation at every possible opportunity – I love TV. I would marry TV. I am obsessed with TV. To dangerous levels, even. But I’m also lazy, as is my roommate, and we never hooked the TV in my bedroom to the cable.
As a veteran blogger, can you share some blogging tips and ideas?
I really wish a lot of bloggers, in the WoW type area especially, would be more aware of what is being written around them. The WoW blog thing has really exploded lately, and it’s a pretty saturated market. When patch notes are released, I can pretty much bet on the fact that my feed reader is going to fill up with people posting the patch notes. Over and over and over. Thing is, you’ve got to look at what other blogs out there are doing – the bigger, more established ones for each class or niche are most likely going to write about these patch notes as well – a site you probably even read. Why would you duplicate that? I wish more bloggers would realize that the reason they’re not getting as many hits as they want, the reason they’re not getting the feedback they’d like to see, is because someone is already doing exactly what you’re doing and they have been doing it longer, and possibly better. In a subject area like WoW-blogs, you’ve really got to do SOMEthing to set yourself apart. The day to day leveling and questing experiences in WoW aren’t that interesting since we all do them, but Ratshag manages to make it interesting. That kind of thing – intentionally or not, most times you’re just copying the same information that’s going around and around and around. If you can’t say anything new, at least say it differently.
Most ridiculous fantasy ever:
Isn’t this a family blog? Aside from the usual connotations when someone asks about a fantasy, I mostly think about normal people things. Winning the lottery, maybe. And even then, my fantasies don’t get wild – I’d pay off my student loans, send my brother to college to cut my parents a break. I’m even boring in my own wildest dreams.
You were once a student. Any tips for Matt on successful time management? Or pulling all nighters. One of the two. Or both.
1. Honest and realistic priorities – for example, it’s nice to say "school work comes first, always and forever, amen" but for a WoW player, it’s not necessarily honest or realistic.
2. Don’t pull all nighters. It always ends badly. Develop good sleep habits and everything comes easier.
3. Schedule your days down to the minute until you develop a more natural habit and routine and can loosen up a bit.
Shout outs to:
All my jackals, who I am hoping will count this as a post from me for the day.
TJ’s Blog: Although it’s not entirely WoW related, she has a sharp yet entertaining wit all the same. Don’t forget to subscribe!
Every week, Matt gets a chance to sit down with a WoW Blogger chosen by a rare Manna Biscuit found in Alterac Valley. Find out a little more about your favourite bloggers as he tries to get to know them a little more!
This week, Nightravyn of NE Hunter LF4Mobs was awesome enough to stop mending her pet for a few minutes to answer a few questions.
I know I keep mistaking you as Nightrayne but that’s because I used to play BloodRayne when I was younger. Now I just think of you as a vampiric, dual wielding hunter. What influenced the name Nightravyn?
Nightravyn is a long-standing internet usename for me. I adore ravens, and at the time I created the name, I was spending a lot of time up in the wee hours of the morning. When I went to create a name, I tried "Nightraven" but it was taken, so "Nightravyn" it became. Cheesy, yeah, but it fits me still.
What is your real life alt?
Real Life Alt? But, but, but Nightravyn isn’t my character’s name! Hmm, well there’s my main character in WoW, Siana, who’s my hunter and the one that I write mostly about. And then there’s my real name, Amy. I can’t really consider any of those alts, though. Hmm, I guess if I could pick, I’d have to go with whichever alt of me that exists that has cabana boys waving palm fronds over my head while the IT crew finishes setting up the online gaming facility for me to lounge in. You know, the rich one. ::sighdream::
I’m absolutely hopeless when it comes to dealing damage. A hunter would be the last class I would play because I’d have to manage a pet as well. What three things about Hunters could you tell me about in order to lessen the intimidation of playing them?
I’d never been a "pet class" person before starting WoW but found it horribly easy to handle.
1. Pets make lovely meat shields, increasing your survivability.
2. Pets increase your DPS letting you plow through mobs even faster.
3. There’s just something heartwarming about seeing a giant animal you’ve named and trained going after a mob, killing it, then coming back to you with this "Moremoremore?!" attitude. Well, heartwarming until you have to feed the twerps every two seconds cos they’re bottomless pits of starvation, or they go pathing off in the wrong direction when the raid’s still buffing. Oh and let’s not forget the… oh, um, ::cough:: "petz r gud."
Just for the heck of it, what’s your Hunter’s spec and why is it specced in that way?
1. Right now, Siana’s spec’d Marksman. Yes, I said it. Marks. I’ve been playing with her specs, trying MM/BM and mostly MM, with MM/Survival up next for the testing. I appreciate the DPS that a BM-centric spec has, but it’s just not my play style. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t fit me as well as the MM spec does. I’m thankful that I belong to a guild that doesn’t frown on any spec, as long as you do the job you’re there for.
What did you find most appealing about rolling a hunter instead of another class?
The last game I’d played by Blizzard was Diablo 2. I’d loved playing a Bow-spec’d Amazon, and knew that I would love any class similar to that. Also at that time I was closing out my career as a cleric in EQ and was tired of healing, so "Hunter" was a good fit for me to try out. I promptly fell in love with the class and haven’t looked back.
Which particular class do you find yourself having trouble with killing?
I’m going to have to say the infamous "25-man raid" class. Although "Paladin Guild/Raid Leader" comes close, too (danged bubbles). In all due seriousness, since I don’t PvP or Arena, this is kind of a hard question for me. I haven’t the faintest idea! ^^
What are you going to look forward to the most in 2.4?
New 5 and 10 man instances. Oh and new dailies. Although, I still have a cooking recipe to get and need to finish out my Netherwing rep and… hmm, maybe I don’t want more dailies/rep grinds.
There are hunters in this game that can’t seem to hit the broad side of the barn. Do you think implementing tracers and laser sights would solve that?
Some of them, sure. They just need a little training. Others? Mmm not so much. Although now that you’ve mentioned tracer rounds, that would be kinda cool to see.
Any top secret and classified plans that your readers might be interested in knowing about?
Oh boy! Oh yes, yes I am! It’s going to be this… hey wait a second here. C’mere. I’ll whisper it in your ear. Don’t mind the knife in the hand behind my back. No reason to be worried…
As a Sci Fi person, would I like watching Farscape?
I’d think so! I loved Farscape. Amazing effects, fantastic plots, the Henson Creature Shop behind it which meant the aliens looked alien! It had this wonderful mix of drama, with bits of comedy thrown in at prefect times. The storyline was compelling, and you grew to really care about the characters. And then there was the eyecandy: for the girls, there were guys in leather pants. For the guys, there were girls in leather pants. It was a win/win!
Best pet in the game:
Cat! (but I’m biased – go kitties!)
First thing you do when you see Horde:
Tauren – Wave/hug. Everyone else – ignore.
Favourite raid encounter in the game thus far:
Old School – ZG. TBC – Karazhan.
Most creative use for feign death:
Creative? Don’t know about creative, but /kissing Mojo, turning into a toad, then feigning death sends me into giggles each and every time.
Effective way to deal with troublesome domestic animals:
Swear a lot, Feign death and apologize. Oh, you said "effective". Pets to passive, don’t target the tank’s mob til it really is pull time, and lock your real life cats in another room.
When you’re not playing WoW you are _____:
Reading, playing on the Playstation/PSP, annoying the cats, or at (gag) work. Soon to be adding "harrassing The Boyfriend to help me paint rooms in the house" to that list.
DPSing is like ___ :
Pewpew! Pewpewpewpew! ::boom:: ::giggle:: Pewpew! LEWTZ!
Dual Wielding Guns (yes or no):
Only with silencers attached to both. -.-
Favourite Sci Fi Captain:
Hmm. Captain? Brains: Captain Picard. Guts: Captain Kirk. Insanity: Captain Crais. All other ranks, including Captain and above: Honor Harrington. (David Weber ftw!)
3 things that annoy you most about other hunters:
1. Not feigning death and complaining when "the tank lets you die".
2. Not knowing how to turn the "Growl" button off on your pet.
3. Giving people any chance at all to paint all hunters with the "Huntard" brush.
Special thanks to:
To Kestral for noticing I’d snuck into existence. To Phaelia and Valenna for creating Blog Azeroth. To the Hunter bloggers for proving there are good Hunters out there and helping educate the populace. To my guildmates who are an amazing and determined crew of insane, fun people. To Aerye and Uber Pally, friends and guildmates that said "Sure!" when I poked them and asked if I post some of their tales and information. To The Boyfriend for putting up with this, and to the real life kitties who wait (mostly) patiently while I do "one more thing" on the computer before giving them their pettinz. A shoutout to all the all the people in the Blog Azeroth chat room (there’s a lot of us in there now!), with nods to Big Bear Butt, Anna, Bellwether, Siha, Matticus, Jon, Maerdred and Leafshine (and I know I left someone out! /cry)
Nightravyn’s blog: One hunter, a "teal" cat (looks blue to me) and infinite ammo cheat enabled! While you’re visiting, don’t forget to subscribe to Nightravyn’s blog!
Every week, Matt gets a chance to sit down with a WoW Blogger chosen by Matt’s right wing. Find out a little more about your favourite bloggers as he tries to get to know them a little more!
This week, Siha of the Banana Shoulders was awesome enough to stop healing for a few minutes to answer a few questions.
Tell us a bit more about yourself and how you got into gaming and World of Warcraft.
In the real world, I’m a very geeky girl living in Brisbane, Australia. I’ve always been into geeky pursuits, and I’ve been a roleplaying gamer (i.e. pen-and-paper/tabletop gaming, particularly Shadowrun, Exalted and Dungeons & Dragons) for fifteen or sixteen years. I first got into MMOs with Ultima Online – a bunch of my workmates were playing, it sounded awesome, I picked it up… and loved it, until they all fled UO for EQ and somehow I missed the MMO memo. I came back to MMOs with SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) and that led me to EQ2… and then WoW.
How did you come to power in your Guild?
Well, my guild – Southern Wardens – was formed in 2003, as an Aussie guild in Star Wars Galaxies. In mid-04 people started getting excited about the upcoming EQ2 and WoW releases. Most of the guild went to EQ2, and I was guild leader for the EQ2 section of the guild, but over time people started trickling across to WoW as it was frankly much more fun. Eventually I went with the flow, picked up WoW in early ’05 to check it out… and I don’t think I ever logged into EQ2 again. I became an officer in SW fairly quickly; I’d been an officer in SWG and guild leader in EQ2, and the guys knew I’m an organiseaholic (and therefore good for delegating stuff to!) We had three previous guild leaders in WoW, but all had to stop playing or drop back to very casual hours for RL reasons; I tended to work very closely with the previous incumbent, so when he had to stop playing, I was the obvious choice. The short version, of course, is "because no other lazy sod would do the damn job when I tried to give it away". 🙂
I asked Kestrel if he had any advice for up and coming GM’s. I’m going to ask you something similar. What is one mistake that you’ve learned the most from throughout your time as GM?
Not communicating things quickly enough. Good lines of communication are essential with your guild; if your guild trusts that the officer crew are managing things equitably and transparently, they’re more willing to accept that the decisions you make are for the good of the guild, and more willing to speak up calmly about problems instead of causing storms of drama. And, of course, you stand a better chance of actually keeping your guildies satisfied.
What are your initial impressions of 2.4?
I really like it. I think some of the high-level raid decisions by Blizzard are fairly insane – like taking stamina off a lot of the T6 pieces in Sunwell Plateau, or adding T6-equivalent badge loot – but I think the world event is going to be much more fun (and less server- destroying) than the AQ40 and Naxx world events. The Shattered Sun quests are a great expansion to the dailies, and overall I’m just happy with it. Plus there are some great specific additions – the ability to link spells and quests in chat channels like you can now with items, for instance, or the badges of justice that will be dropping from many 25-man raid bosses. Thumbs up.
What made you pick a Paladin over the other 3 healing classes?
I like healers, and always have. My SWG main was a Master Doctor/Teras Kasi Master (TK being the unarmed martial arts in SWG); my EQ2 main was a Templar (a plate-wearing cleric)… the ‘healer who can take a melee beating’ is just a fun archetype. To be honest, though, I didn’t really realize I was picking a main I’d still be playing and raiding with three years later!
Why are protection Paladins so freakin’ hard to kill and what is their one weakness?
Hard to kill: like any other tank, they have great armor, stamina and survivability. They’re hard to kill in PvE content, too – just ask the raid bosses who die at their feet every week. 😉 Plus from a PvP perspective it’s particularly tough for melee classes to take them on; the mechanics of tankadins means that they specialise in reflected damage (from Holy Shield, Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary and some gear choices) so any meleer who’s trying to beat on a prot pally is more likely to kill themselves than the pally. Weakness: can’t kill a damn thing? Does that count? More seriously: everything a paladin will use in PvP (unless they’re a Ret pally) is a Holy spell. Lock down their holy school with interrupts, counterspells, slams and the like and they can’t do _anything_ – no Holy Shield, no bubble, no heals, no nuffin’.
Have you ever been treated differently as a female gamer by other > players?
Never, actually. I wish all female gamers were as fortunate.
So with all that healing gear you have on, how is levelling in the expansion going to be?
Just fiiiiiiiine, thanks to the change in 2.3 where healing gear adds spell damage. For a healer/offtank-specced character, I can put out some decent DPS – I’m not going to be winning any contests, but it’s fine for most questing. I’ll likely respec to 40/0/21 shockadin spec for some heftier DPS (sacrificing my ability to offtank, which doesn’t matter for levelling) and I’m not anticipating any problems at all.
You have your own domain and webhosting for your blog so I can see > you’re fairly committed to the blogging enterprise. Your 2.4 notes have been terrific and insightful. What can readers expect to see from Banana Shoulders in the next year?
I’m hoping to have time to get deeper into analysis and some light theorycrafting about paladins and general game mechanics. I also enjoy writing guides, like my guides to the daily quests or to holy paladin tanking, so there will be more of those if I see a subject that needs writing about. And finally, I’m really hoping to get into the WotLK beta (as I did for the TBC beta) so you can expect a lot of WotLK blogging if that happens. In particular, I wrote a popular jewelcrafting levelling guide during the TBC beta ("Siya’s Jewelcrafting Guide" for those of you that used it), and I’d like to provide a similar service for Inscription (and, of course, Jewelcrafting 376+).
What would the 51 point holy talent be?
I’m not actually sure, to be honest. My initial response would be "please god, some kind of multi-target heal" but I’m not entirely sure that’s appropriate. That one needs some thought. So for now I’ll just say "a multi-target heal, please!". 🙂 >
Being a successful raid healer requires:
Situational awareness and focus.
Best way to wipe:
The very first time a hunter discovers that pets path funny when he jumps down from a high ledge. Hellooooo, half of BRD, we’re very pleased to see you!
Most common excuse for your tank dying:
On Teamspeak: "Uh, guys, WoW crashed. Have you pulled yet?"
Buff:
Mages.
Favourite non-combat pet:
The Robotic Homing Chicken, from a loot card in the WoW Trading Card Game.
Favourite non-WoW related stress releasing activity:
Watching escapist TV – current favourites for that category are NCIS, Family Guy, Scrubs or Burn Notice.
I can’t heal without my:
background music.
Name of your 2H DPS mace (all Paladins have one, don’t lie):
That Thing In Bank Bag #6 That I Don’t Have Room For In My Bags. (Actually, it’s a Hammer of the Naaru off Maulgar.)
Best way to say no to a guild member:
Make my 2IC do it. (We’re good cop, bad cop.) …I kid. Mostly. The best way is to be firm but fair, and try and suggest an alternative that might meet their needs.
3 things you want to see more of on other blogs:
Special thanks to:
My 2IC Alinden for all the hard work he puts into helping run the guild and coordinate our raids. My guild as a whole for being so damn awesome (four first kills in four weeks, hooray!). And the folks in the Blog Azeroth chatroom – especially Valenna, Nightravyn, TJ, Bear, Bellwether, Phae, Megan and your good self – who have all provided lots of good company (albeit at weird hours, you strange Northern Hemisphere people, you!) and an inspiration to be a better blogger.
Banana Shoulders is an excellent resource for Holy Paladins and authored by a terrific person! While you’re visiting, don’t forget to subscribe to Siha’s blog!
Every week, Matt gets a chance to sit down with a WoW Blogger chosen by Highlord Bolvar Fordragon’s mustache. Find out a little more about your favourite bloggers as he tries to get to know them a little more!
This week, Galadria of the Holy Light was awesome enough to stop healing for a few minutes to answer a few questions.
First, for anyone who may not have an idea of who you may be, how about a little introduction?
I play a Holy Priest on the Uldaman US server. Our guild has raided through Kara. I have been playing WoW for about a year with my husband, we started playing together (he’s a Hunter if you’re curious). We’ve been married for five and a half years and live in Austin, TX with our gorgeous English Bulldog Missy. If you can’t tell from the SuperCoolPoints on my Blog we love to watch movies.
How has 2008 treated you so far (both in game and in RL)?
This year has been good for me, though it’s flown by. Personally, I’ve got a lot of goals (haven’t gotten around to any of them, but I will!) and I’m looking forward to working on them. I’m not playing Galadria as much as I’d like, since our guild fell apart so it’s kind of hard to say how the year has treated me. I’m still enjoying it so I guess it’s treated me well!
If you could roll a new class and archtype what would it be and why?
What I’d like to see is coming in the expansion. Batman is one of my favorite comic characters because he is so dark (I LOVE Christian Bale as Batman because you really see the sad and tortured side of him). Wolverine from X-Men for the same reason. I love the “Devil with a Good Heart” archetype. I think the Death Knight will fit that type if character very well. I’m not sure if I’ll be getting one, we’ll have to see if I have an alt up to 70 by then!
Your fictitious cousin Renaldo Geraldo Waldo is in a bind (Yes, I watched Family Matters). He works at Blizzard as one of their developers. The executive developers at Blizzard gave him a 24 hour window to design a new type of healing spell for Priests to compete against the overpoweredness of Shamans, Paladins, and Restoration Druids. He knows of no other Priest to turn to (lets assume I’m incapacitated in some fashion due to too much ale) and by helping him out with this big favor, you know he will owe you big time. What is the one healing spell that you suggest to him that be put in game?
An AOE (or party-wide) HOT would be cool. Something like the T4 set bonus but actually viable. Then improve it with talents and make it castable on other parties.
What was your motivation behind your blog and what inspires you?
I started my blog because I wanted to be better and more knowledgeable about my class. If I was going to be telling others what I think, I’d better be informed! It’s worked too! The game is what really inspires me. Almost every post idea comes from something in game.
If your kid wanted to play WoW, how would you react?
Depends on the age. If I thought s/he was mature enough to handle the people they would likely encounter I wouldn’t have a problem (with some strict time limits)
I could use some new tunes to listen to while raiding. What would you suggest?
I’m a big fan of Bare Naked Ladies so I listen to them a lot. The music is upbeat and I know ALL the words so I jam along. I also like Eminem for raiding. There’s something primal about some of his music and it fits well with killing bosses. Now for one you’ve probably never heard of. Chicane. The genre is called Trance. It’s kind of like Techo, but softer. The music is very ethereal and calming.
If there was one thing different you could have done to your blog, what would it have been?
Self-host from the beginning!
With that in mind, what can we look forward to from you in 2008?
Self-hosting! I’ve got some big ideas that I’ll have to see if I have enough time to accomplish when I get that set up.
You’re traveling on the roads towards Theramore in Dustwallow Marsh. You encounter a badly beaten up Orc warrior with his axe embedded into the ground beside him half broken. Voices startle you and to your amazement, you recognize the language. It sounds like a bunch of drunken Stormwind cadets and they’re getting louder almost as if they’re heading towards you. A quick glance at the peon, and in a flash you realize those cadets are coming back to finish the job they started. A quick Shadow Word: Death would end his misery and prevent the humiliation from a band of kids. On the other hand, Horde forces and the Theramore militia have a certain understanding that has been brokered by Thrall and Jaina. Do you end his life and fulfill your duty or protect him honoring the treaty? Why?
Protect him and honor the treaty. If he did something to deserve the beating he got, he should be brought to justice and can be if he’s still alive. Then the treaty was obviously broken by the other side. If I kill him then the treaty has been broken by us. On top of that I’ve killed another person just because he’s on the other side. Who knows what he was doing there?
Best 41 point Priest talent:
VT… but I’m not Shadow 🙁
Worse pickup line ever:
“Did you fall from Heaven?”
Biggest pain in the ass encounter in the game?
Sunken Temple as a whole is a huge pain. As for a specific encounter, Kael sounds like a real pain. With what I’ve expirenced I’d have to say Netherspite.
Favourite type of tank:
Warrior
Do you think mages need a new rank of conjured water so us Priests can get more mana back?:
absa-frickin-lutley
Favourite in game holiday:
Halloween
If you could describe healing a raid in exactly 10 words, what would it be?:
I’ll do it in 3, Whack-a-Mole
3 posts you’d love to see other bloggers write:
I wish my Priest would…
HTML/PHP/CSS for dummies (because I’m a total Intarweb n00b)
Epic Fail stories… though someone I know already sorta did that 🙂
Steve Urkel or Samuel “Screech” Powers?
Screech… totally! Though I’m more of a Kelly than a Lisa.
Favourite NPC
Hummm… that’s a tough one… Probably Nat Pagle because I love the back story.
Shout outs to:
I’m going to copy straight from my New Years post because it sums it up nicely!
“I’d espcially like to thank Ego and Kirk for giving me something to aspire to and much inspiration. Matticus and Kestrel for sending many readers my way and helping show me how to be a good blogger. BRK, Rashtag, TJ, and BBB for making me laugh every day.”
Remember, Galadria’s blog has a lot more interesting posts and topics about Holy Priests then I could ever have covered here. While you’re at it, don’t forget to subscribe to her blog!
