Classic bear tanking

First post on this blog in QUITE some time. Here goes:
     I met a cool person and it turned out that he ALSO has had a traumatic brain injury. He invited me to join his guild - I _WAS NOT_ looking for a guild to join. At the time, I was leveling my druid (Droodad: Atiesh-Horde) as a balance druid. After giving it some thought, I accepted his invite.
     Keeping in mind that druids don't necessarily have the best rep as the best of anything, I have always enjoyed playing as a balance druid. They are, admittedly, under-powered in Classic - just as was the case in late Vanilla when I originally started playing WOW.
      The guild is a small guild, trying to build ranks to tackle bigger content. They needed another tank and offered some assistance to me if I respecced to Feral to be another tank for the guild. Despite me lack of experience as a feral druid tank, the people were quite kind and supportive - AND... I was a less than thrilled with the slow leveling as a balance druid despite having gained Moonkin form. In the back of my mind - with their offer - I had been contemplating spec-ing to help get to 60 a bit faster. I decided I'd go ahead and  respec and did so )at this point I've been thinking of respec-ing AGAIN to reapportion my talent points to a better mix. it's been several weeks..maybe months.. and I haven't mad a decision BUT I'm leaning toward doing it.
      EVENTUALLY... I would l like to respec as a balance druid. WHEN I win a roll that as good for a balance druid (+Spell Damage) I hang onto it. In the time I've been with the guild I have helped several members (typically clothies) get BIS items from Dire Maul.

I cannot say I LIKE playing as a tank (especially as a Druid- I might know what your're SUPPOSED to do but that don't mean I do WHAT you're supposed to do WHEN you' re supposed to do it. Usually - not of my own volition - I don't).

MOST of the time I like finding my way among the massive variety of quests (non-dungeon) available. As most of you are aware, there are a LOT! There are a bunch that are dungeon quests onluy - those will MAY take while to get completed...others...meh.
Quests like the ones for the Cache of Mauri...My bear druid might be able to take that on. We'll see.

Since I've been with the guild they have been VERY encouraging despite my personal misgivings in my ability to perform effectively as a tank. They had been farming a boss in Dire Maul West for some priest trinkets when I came into the the picture and - despite some gearing issues - I was able to catch up and perform within reason for that specific farm. Since then we've started trying to take on other areas of Dire Maul and other instances with mixed success.

Part of the issue is my own gearing - I know I'm not there, but I'm also not someone that REALLY enjoys instances. Like my blog title says, I am a reluctant tank. I can do it - feel I'm much better as a warrior tank (only for having done that sooo much more).

At this point of THIS post I feel like I've lost the focus of what I started wrting about (like I knew...). My guild has been great, super supportive even when I feel like I'm fucking up; They seem to get that I'm not 'QUITE' there as a main tank but can occasionally fill the bill, and they've been great about helping me get gear to do a better job.

Overall I'm having a LOT more fun in Classic WOW than I've been having in BfA. Maybe it's because I can do stuff I wasn't able to do back in Vanilla WoW, but a lot feels like there's less pressure about WHAT to do. There are numerous things I CAN do, but none feel particularly mandatory and I can can slowly work to building rep in several factions as quickly as I want (and am able...)

Will it matter? Who knows? Does anything really matter in a world in which "norms" of 30-40 years ago are now pointless in face of unbridled greed and purchased (coerced?) loyalties of *cough* heads of state' and *cough* senior gov't officials.

I'm doing the best I can to be best person I can be (despite some occasional.. lapses) until my failing body gives up. Hopefully I'll disappoint as few people as possible while they're stuck with me.

Mishi is EVIL!

Lorewalker Cho's 'trustworthy' is NOT trustworthy! I was hanging around in the Shrine of Two Moons, getting the lay of the place and introducing myself around around when some guy tells me Lorewalker Cho wants to meet wight me (AGAIN!) and to go see Mishi to take me to Cho. So being the trusting Orc that I am (along with having good experiences with Cho thus far in my adventures in Pandaria) I find Mishi and get a ride over to the top level of the Mogu'shan Palace when the dirty rotten beast unceremoniously dumps me right before we get to the ledge!! Needless to say I dropped like a stone and next thing I know I've talking to a spirit healer who tells me I can go run back to my body!!

What the heck?!?!?!

I thought Mishi and Cho were decent sorts, but I'm starting to think that just maybe they've been spending just a little bit too much time cozying up to those sneaky Alliance backstabbers!

Can I trust Lorewalker Cho? I don't care what anyone says, I'm keeping a wary eye out for anything involving Cho's *cough* 'trustworthy' companion from here on out. I've got a trustworthy green foot for that rat of a pandarian dragon. *GRRRRR*

MoP Tanking so far

Compared to how well I do playing some of the squishier classes, I find tanking to be a fun alternative in MoP. Even for heroics, despite the occasional mechanic that throws me for a loop til I grasp how to react to it, their is little pressure and a lot more fun going on than I recall experiencing with Cataclysm heroics. For Cataclysm I cannot recall tanking much of anything, at least not until the last 3 heroics came out in the last major patch.
I just popped over to the Eastern Kingdoms tonight to see about doing the Greench quest. I got there to find the boss mob up and I was the only one around for a short bit until a BElf Priest showed up. As I was on my pally, I switched specs to tank, geared up and and trusted the priest to start healing me. She did and a long-ish fight ensued. Some other folks showed up but at no time was I ever at a point where I felt out of control of the fight. Once it was over I shouted out about the great heals and even got a compliment on my tanking!! That always feels nice.
Such a nice change from Cataclysm to be able to switch over like that, start tanking and never have to really worry about not being geared up enough. While I don't think I'm there for tanking LFR, I've been handling almost every heroic fairly well.
Tanking in MoP is making tanking in WoW fun again!!!

Best and Worst Auction Markets in MoP so far

OOPS! I goofed a bit, no surprise there, I do that often. I "THOUGHT" I remembered what Cold's  Blogging carnival's next topic was but got it a bit wrong. No big deal though, as this is a subject upon which I've an opinion or two. It bears repeating, I highly recommend Cold's blog for WoW related content, particularly if you are into making gold in WoW.

     Some people have a toon they use as their auctioning "main" - at least that's my impression from what I've seen in blogs and on my server, Cenarion Circle. I used to use my Rogue for that for some time, then I found he was a blast to level, but he still tends to be my go-to guy for auctioning.

     CC is a great server, I play primarily on Horde-side, but I dabble over on Alliance every so often. I mention that since my observations and opinions in this post come from my MoP experiences on the Horde side. I haven;t had the greatest luck with buying things and turning them around for profit. Part of that is lack of patience for playing the 'long game' in the AH. I like getting out in the world and hopefully profiting from doing things that are fun for me while I'm out there.

On to the meat of the subject at hand: What I think has been best/worst in the auction market so far. 

     For what's been the best, I have to say I've had a great luck with Cataclysm leather, specifically Savage Leather. That really has been a nice (and profitable!) surprise. I have several toons that have skinning as a profession and I find skinning to be oddly satisfying. Way back in Vanilla I would see all these bodies of things laying around the environs surrounding Crossroads in the Barrens and I thought it was a shame, so I took up Skinning and Leatherworking for my Druid and had a blast doing what I still refer to as 'battlefield cleanup duty' running around skinning all the dead mobs. There are places in Cataclysm one might go to consistently get mobs to skin, and so far in MoP it has been consistently worthwhile and rather nicely profitable! If I could find a place to gather Embersilk Cloth and Frostweave Cloth in large enough amounts consistently, I believe the market for them is also reasonably profitable as both types typically sell very well. Also worthwhile, though a bit...spikey is the best way to describe it, would be the enchant market. Be it inscriptions for shoulders, threads for mage legs or any other type of enchant I see and on occasion do well in it, but find the spikiness to be a bit off-putting for regular profitability. Then again, I may not be as consistent at these things as some folks.
     As for the Worst Markets, my first nod is to the pet market. Pricing for battle pets tanked and the entire pet market just seems largely chaotic. I can still sell the occasional pet for a marginally decent amount, but it usually takes too long. Next, the glyph market. BLAH! If I need a glyph for one of my toons that I don't have, it's just as easy and cheap to get one from the AH as it is to bother to have my max skill scribe make one.

For what it's worth, that's my take on the MoP auction market so far. One thing I really enjoy about being somewhat active and knowledgeable about the auction market on my server is getting familiar with who the real major players are on my server. We have some very creative folks on CC, and I'd like to throw a huge thanks to Lovina for her always entertaining barking for her stylish clothing business! 

Mist of Pandaria: Likes and dislikes

My first post for Mists of Pandaria is going to be submitted for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. I highly recommend Cold's blog for WoW related content, particularly if you are into making gold in WoW.  (I goofed about what I thought the topic was to be for January...WHOOPS!! guess it'll be my 2nd MoP blog post for the carnival, LOL)

Unlike a lot of folks out there that were complaining about MoP being a ripoff of the 3D Jack Black Kung Fu Panda movie, I never thought so. Blizzard has a great track record of providing rich, engaging story-lines with WoW in which you can immerse yourself in many ways with the huge variety of races and classes available to players.

One thing I am REALLY enjoying in MoP is the incredibly rich lore they have created for Pandaria. I am   impressed that they have done a great job of showing that Pandaria was connected to the rest of Azeroth with things like the inclusion of Zandalari Trolls and the story of how Pandaria was separated from the Azerothian mainland at the time of the sundering.. I must admit that I am not a deep scholar of all the lore of Pandaria, with just a single level 90 toon.  As can be expected, I have a lot of questions with Pandaria having seemingly been part of the original mega-continent of Azeroth, but that in no way distracts from the rich lore they have created within Pandaria.

Now for the 'not so much' stuff.
The early levels and zones for 85 and 85 are super easy for the most part. I remember (maybe not exactly fondly, hehe) that the stuff in Hellfire Peninsula and Zangarmarsh, at least right after BC launched, had mobs at 61 and 61 that deserved a significant amount of respect sue tho the (then) massive amount of damage they dished out. I don'tr recall Wrath or Cataclysm being AS drastic, but to a certain extent it was there since you never really went into a new area with most of the mobs there being at a level BELOW the previous expansions max level. You HAD to respect the mobs, even if they were at your level (anyone remember the Nerubians just outside of Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra, they could and did teach you to respect them very quickly, if for no other reason than they could get a gang on you rather quickly. But the next irksome thing I am discovering is that the difficulty level seems to grow exponentially once you start doing quests at 87 and into 88. You get accustomed to a certain level of difficulty from what you encounter at lower level then start getting into questing areas where you can get your ass handed to you over and over again - and get overwhelmed VERY quickly by too many mobs in too tight an area. I've run into quests that are supposed to be for level 87 that I have shied away from doing on certain toons.

That gets into a parallel gripe that some classes are just gonna have a hard time leveling by doing quests in an area FOR their level. There are things in KunLai Summit and Townlong Steppes that seem atrocious for the alleged levels for which they're 'designed.' A lot of stuff seems better suited for tackling only after you've hit level 90 and have a minimum item level of 450 or better, preferably better. I've never considered my druid or my rogue to be particularly squishy until I started trying to do some of the quests in those zones at levels 87 and 88. I'm finding that my warlock is able to take on some very amazing challenges that I could NEVER duplicate with my druid, rogue or warrior (though to be fair, I haven't gotten my warrior up all that high yet in this expansion ever since discovering my prot pally has amazing survivability and usefulness in gather leather from big pulls and from herbing nearly anywhere she wants.

The nice thing is there is a lot more life left in Mists of Pandaria and I am looking forward to everything I haven't gotten to yet that is already out, and for things yet to come.

OMG! I Completed a Cataclysm Raid!!

Oh my goodness! I completed a raid in Cataclysm within 2 months of it's release in patch 4.3!

As someone who has not raided much, I have to say, it's rather amazing. I have so far gotten into two (2) LFR groups on my mage Rizzir. He's Arcane specced for PVE (though i'm considering switching back to fire - fire just seems more fun, as opposed to spamming 1 or 2 buttons like you usually do as an Arcane mage. I'd really prefer to raid as frost, but the DS just isn't there, even with all the upgrades that have gotten me to a gear level allowing entry into LFR raids.

The First time I did LFR I came in after the 2nd boss and the raid fell apart on the last boss at Malygos' old stomping grounds (I hated that fight the ONE time I did it on my main).

So, some thoughts after doing LFR twice. Yes, it definitely has a much 'easier' feel to it. No harsh mechanics that will wipe a riad for one persons mistake. I have to say, I get real confused with the massive amount of action going on onin a raid - trying to determine which things are good and what is bad (i.e. not standing in fire). LFR is pretty forgiving in this regard, and people explaining things helps a great deal, too. Not saying folks don;t explain things in regular raids, but what happens in LFR is muchmore forgiving for mistakes people make.

I have a 2nd toon tha tis ready for LFR now in addition to my mage. My old standby bank alt for 3 expansions, my rogue Snid. He's actually been around since Vanilla WoW. For some reason I never really got into playing him all that much and used him for storage and as a bank alt for the longest time. I even had his XP frozen at 19 for quite some time, up until it was apparent that twinking as we new it in Vanilla/BC was dead. He's actually made some of the fastest gains of XP and equipment of any of my toons. It helps too that he has maxed out enchanting and tailoring (I like the flying carpet!). He's good to go for LFR as either a Sub Rogue or Combat, as he has good gear for both specs and I seems to have a decent idea of how to play him relatively effectively.

I've gotten a bit bored with my Main toon, Eeo. I like him, but having finished Molten Front I've been kinda blah about playing him much lately - although getting that bad-ass axe from the Echo of Baine in End Time had really helped his PVE DPS. On a side note, I was thrilled to get that axe on my Alliance Dwarf Warrior Rogin on his first run thru End Time (just like Eeo!). Thank goodness for 377 PVP gear allowing me to qualify to get in there. Rather amazing how much his DPS jumped w=once he upgraded to a 378 Axe from an iLVL 316 blue mace!!

Now that I know I can get into raids and experience end game content, I'm happy to hav e achance to go back and go through older content with soe other toons. My Mage is getting Netherwing rep moving up, so maybe a mount is somewhere in his near future. I want to do that on my main as well. And since they're in Outland, I'll have more chances to max those other outland reps and just MAYBE get the rare mount from Anzu is Sethekk Halls.

Having Fun? Maybe after 4.3 hits....

I keep asking myself that question. Too many times I find I'm getting onto WOW just to pass some time, but with a patch coming soon™, I find I am loathe to try to skill up any professions or make much of anything as it will be nigh but obsolete after the patch hits.

Once 4.3 hits, then it's another story. I'm hoping my tailor will be able to make higher item level PVP gear for skillups. if they don't sell I can always disenchant them - enchanting was why I took up tailoring on my rogue so many years ago. Poor fella was loitering at level 19 since...oh, sometime in BC. He's been my default 'banker' for much of that time. In the last few months I've gotten him to 85, had a quite a bit of fun doing it, too. Rogues, I have discovered, are quite a fun class to play.

I even used him to lead a pickup group raid on Garr up in Mt. Hyjal. We wiped a good number of times, learned a few thing (you can zerg him). So despite a REALLY high repair bill for the adventure, it was a rather fun little diversion - and a chance to work with a tank I'd worked with in raids in Wrath.

My most recent tanking outing was one I did with my Paladin in Zul Gurub. I've been there a handful of times and have a rough (VERY rough) idea of what to do in the fights. The last boss was the biggest challenge - particularly in the 2nd phase when you have to pick up the big guys and let them trash the chains. I'm still foggy about dealing with the ghosts, but despite a number of wipes while I was learning things and having our dps lineup change a few time, we finally defeated him (Jin'do I think it is...). I kept getting shispers about needing better gear, but I think most of the people who said something realized I was there to GET better gear. I did get a better tanking weapon out of the deal.

I've got until the 21st of December to get that toon upgraded and then that account is going dormant for an undetermined period of time. I can't justify having 3 active WoW accounts when the game is in the doldrums and I'm not terribly enthused about playing right now.