Cross-Realm Zones…and Why it’s a Good Idea

Today Blizzard announced Cross – Realm Zones for the upcoming expansion.  This seemed to elicit a lot of mixed feelings from the community, many are unsure whether or not it’s a good idea.

I feel like this could be a really great change, especially for any incoming new players.  Think about it – think back to when you started playing WoW.  For many of you it’s probably about the same time a lot of other people started playing WoW, so as you leveled up you had plenty of people to group with and run around doing things with.

This was not the case for me.  I started playing WoW during Wrath of the Lich King, and while I saw a few players here and there, leveling up a fourth alt, the fact of the matter is if I hadn’t had my husband (then boyfriend) to play with I would have been a very lonely Hunter.

Cross – Realm Zones will not only be healthy for those of us leveling up our sixth alt, but it will be healthy for those players who are new to the game.  Many new players now probably feel lost, they don’t have as much help as they might in a newer game.  No one is around to show them the ropes.  Sure with the introduction of the dungeon finder new players had that option, but often times when leveling up you have group quests you’re unable to finish or you simply just want the companionship.  In my opinion this brings the very community aspect back into the game that many of us seem to miss.

In addition, for those of you who PvP, this brings back an aspect to the World that has been gone for quite a while.  That is of course, world PvP.  I know for many who PvP this is something that has been long missed.  I’m sure many of you will be glad for its imminent return….I know I’m not!

Lastly this can really help lower population servers, since they’re already pretty empty anyway – this makes lower level areas especially empty where sometimes you might not encounter someone for the entirety of your leveling experience below 70.  I feel like this will definitely help alleviate this issue, even on higher population servers you might only encounter one person in each zone you happen to be in.

In my opinion this change is absolutely fantastic.  Not only will it re-populate some stale areas, but it will also bring more sense of community to the game, and it will help drive new players to keep playing once they have friends to play with.

What are your thoughts on this new feature?

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by Lynesta on May 10, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Mists of Pandaria
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Posted by Lynesta on May 10, 2012

http://wordofglory.net/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-and-why-its-a-good-idea/

Infiltrating the Alliance: The Top Five Things To Do When Joining a New Guild

As many of you probably already know, I recently faction changed and server transferred to join a new guild.  Generally speaking for most people, joining a new guild can be quite a trying time; there are all these new people and a billion-and-one new things to get used to. New people, new raid strats, and sometimes even a whole new city and server dynamic.

Today before raid I decided to fly on out to Dragon Soul to be ready to zone in as necessary, completely forgetting that I am now on a PvP server and thus risked being assaulted by Horde characters.  Thankfully this didn’t happen because I remembered at the last second, but it could have been really bad.

I even got to crack a joke about there being too many Alliance on my gunship….and I didn’t know who to kill first, the Alliance or Blackhorn.  Thankfully it seemed like a few in my guild share my same love for the Horde, but I wouldn’t have known that unless I spoke up…which brings me to point number one:

Speak up! You’ll never know the answer to your questions if you don’t ask.

  •  Don’t be afraid to check if you’re required to bring food and flasks, or ask where you can find your healing assignments for the night.
  • Don’t be afraid to let someone know you’re unsure of a strat, especially if it’s a fight or a difficulty mode you’ve never done before.  If you need help with something, always ask!
  • If, after your first night of raiding, you feel like you were lacking, seek someone of your class, or your class lead, out and ask for things you can do to better improve your performance.  You don’t want to invest a bunch of money in a transfer only to have it not pan out.
  • Say HI! when you come online, a lot of people sometimes don’t realize there’s a new person unless you put yourself out there to let them know you’re available for dungeons and what-not.

Your new guild won’t know you don’t know something, unless you tell them.  So let them know!  It will make everyone’s life easier in the long run….but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come prepared.

Be prepared! In all facets of your character.  This means if you’ve moved from 10 man to 25 man and you have to change your spec, you should do it before your raid begins.  Usually I keep food and flasks on me anyway just in case someone decides they don’t want to drop any more feasts for the night, and the same goes for flasks.  In addition if there are fights you are unsure about you should at least make an attempt to research them and understand them prior to joining the raid force for an evening.  Then, if there are things you still don’t understand or aren’t sure about you’re left with point number one…SPEAK UP!

Be open-minded not everyone is just like you.  Going in to a new guild there are always going to be differences, so tread carefully.  I personally try to stay out of conversations that don’t directly involve me as much as possible.  This way I avoid saying something that someone might find offensive.  That is, at least until I’ve gotten more comfortable and I’m more aware of the guild’s atmosphere.  Sometimes this can take a week or two, or sometimes you can get the general feel in just a couple of hours, but always, always be mindful of what you say.

Be patient not everyone does things the way you are used to doing them.  At this point you may have been raiding Dragon Soul for 20 straight weeks using the exact same strat every time.  Suddenly you join a new guild to do heroic progression and a lot of their strats are different.  The other thing is, especially if you’re joining a guild that is higher progressed than you and is still working on some fights, you’re going to have to expect a few nights where you just wipe.  This is what progression sometimes is.  You work on something, seemingly beating your head against a wall, but not realizing that you actually are getting a little bit better every time.  Patience is something that is necessary for progression, and sometimes it can be very difficult to keep that patience especially if you see someone messing up the same thing every pull!  Just try not to get frustrated!

Be yourself.  Just because you’re watching what you’re saying doesn’t mean you should clam up and hide.  Your new guild can’t get to know you if you’re just completely silent at all times.  I was in a guild a long time ago who would call every person who claimed to be a girl, “Bob” until she would talk in vent.  Even though we were just teasing we all knew it could be really easy to offend a new recruit, so we didn’t ever press the issue.  It was just meant in fun!  Try to joke around and get into the culture of your new guild.  It will make your transition all that much easier.

Most of all have fun, remember it is just a game.  Ultimately if you don’t have fun in your new home it won’t be worth it anyway.  So always above all else try to have fun, but remember: Speak up, be prepared, be open-minded, be patient, and be yourself.

Good luck wherever you end up!

4 Comments
by Lynesta on May 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Dragon Soul, Raiding
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Posted by Lynesta on May 8, 2012

http://wordofglory.net/2012/05/08/infiltrating-the-alliance-the-top-five-things-to-do-when-joining-a-new-guild/

A Call To Action: The End of Female Gamer Stereotypes and Why I Entered the Maxim Contest

As a female who games I have long struggled with the fact that boys find me (us) to be a hot commodity.  Something to be held up above all else….the mythical “Gamer Girl”

On one hand I have made many friends by being noticed for being a woman who games, and on the other hand I despise that I have been noticed if only because I have a nice pair of mammories. 

I have fielded comments along the lines of “So did you learn to play this game just so you could demo it?”  “How much are they paying you to stand at this booth all day and demo” and “Do you actually play this game?”  I mean sure it is fun to watch jaws drop when you start listing all the games you play, or explaining “the chain” to a Magic the Gathering player who happened to come by your demo booth.  Or dazzling those same guys with your absolute knowledge of this game that you are standing in front of them playing.  In reality though?  My heart sinks a little bit every time I get asked those questions.

For those of you who don’t know me very well, and as is mentioned elsewhere on this site, I have been playing MMORPGs since I was 12 years old (that’s 12 years kids).  Before that I played Super Mario Bros, Twisted Metal, Street Fighter, and Sonic among others.

I started playing EverQuest right before my 12th birthday.  I made a Warrior and of course I made a female character.  My first day playing, when I was just exploring the town I started in by trying to find my way out, I ended up with much more money than I started out with and a nice set of some low-level armor.  At the time, my ripe old age of 11, I had no idea why I was being given these things, I figured it was just because I was a new player, some good Samaritan was trying to help me out, and that was cool.  It wasn’t until much later when I started to play EverQuest2 and with the advent of programs like TeamSpeak and Ventrilo when people found out that the face behind the character was really a girl that I began to understand why I had received special treatment for so long. 

For the longest time I refused to talk in Vent.  I didn’t want to be labeled as a girl.  Why?  Because I didn’t like the comments I received after people found out. 

Oh…you’re a GIRL tank?  Do you have an alt healer?  I think we already have a tank.

Oh…you’re a GIRL dps….you must be bad, girls are only good at healing.

Oh you’re a GIRL?  Do you wanna talk later in Vent?

I almost quit playing.

Thankfully I found a guild of people who were respectful, and didn’t trash talk my DPS just because I was a female.  I continued to play EverQuest2 and then eventually moved on to World of Warcraft….the player base of WoW is sometimes a little less respectful but overall I think females have asserted themselves enough that it’s not as commonplace in-game to hear those comments anymore.

However, this doesn’t mean that people don’t perceive female gamers in the same way.  Girls are still bad, and can’t do anything except for heal, they cyber the Guild Master to get the best loot first, they throw their boobs around just for attention, and they aren’t taken seriously.

This article on Kotaku talks about how female gamers sometimes feel pressured to remain anonymous in-game, if only to hide from the inevitable trash talk of female gamers.  It’s sad really.

What I find even more sad is the fact that female gamers everywhere seemingly feel the need to only add fuel to the fire.  By this I mean, if Female Gamer X puts herself out there saying, I am a girl and I am proud to be a gamer and I am not a slut! Girl Gamers Y, Z, and R will most likely have something say about it. 

A recent prime example being the Maxim Gamer Girl contest, of which I am personally a contestant.  I have read many great opinions on the subject, and I want to preface by saying that I respect everyone.  You are all entitled to your opinion and I am just here to share my own.

I don’t disagree that the contest is making money on the idea that women exist as caricatures for men to enjoy.  In fact I agree whole-heartedly.  So let me explain why, even though my opinion is that this contest is sexist, misogynist, and objectifying women, I chose to enter.

I saw this contest on my Facebook just as it started.  I even jokingly posted a comment saying, “I think I want to try out for that….at least then it would be a legit gamer.”  The comments following weren’t directed at me but were still hurtful in a way – especially one which said, “I would break off all relations with anybody who told me they entered or won this.  It’s insulting to women and to gamer women especially.”

I was initially a bit deterred by the slew of terrible comments directed at the competition and chose not to enter.  I spent about a week or so looking at entrants and I was actually surprised by the number that appeared to be actual gamers, I was even excited at the prospect that maybe one of these girls could legitimately represent female gamers everywhere in a more positive, less objectified way.  Then I realized….why couldn’t that girl be me?

My husband even pushed me to enter the contest.  He asked me one day what I was looking at and when I told him he responded by saying, “You could beat the pants off of all those girls, you should enter.”  (We can all admit he is clearly a little biased, but hey he’s allowed.)

So with the support of my husband and a few of my friends I set up my profile with my main goal being that I could stick it to Maxim if I won.  I could throw it in their faces that they wanted a pretty girl for their silly contest and all they got was little, normal, me, a girl who actually plays games because she enjoys them not because she gets attention from boys.

I didn’t have much support for the first few days.  I posted links on my Twitter a couple of times per day reminding people they could vote once per day.  In the space of four or so days I probably had something like 60 votes.  I gave people incentives to vote, which felt a little bit like selling out, by saying I would post 5 new photos once I reached 100 votes.  Which I promptly followed through on by posting photos of my cosplays, me playing our XBox, and a photo of me from GenCon2010 where I attended the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game World Championships and demoed the game.  I purposefully chose pictures that were not of me in a bikini.

Then something very interesting happened.  A friend of mine posted my link on his Facebook, calling for people to vote for me…and suddenly I was posted on the Facebook for The Daily MetaGame, myWoWTCG, and even the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game official Facebook.  I want to put out there that I did not ask to be put on these pages, someone (or several someone’s) are really very nice and have decided to show their support for me in a big way.  I am forever in their debt.

However, with being posted so publicly, I began to get a lot of backlash especially from other female gamers who don’t appreciate the message this contest is sending.

I’ve had people say things like “no one even knows this girl in the gaming community so why even bother” also “you are gross and stupid” [for entering this competition].

I have also had an overwhelming positive response where people have told me to stand up for the rights of female gamers everywhere.  Which I fully intend to do if I managed to get anywhere in this competition.

I simply wish people could respect my decision to enter this contest and support me in my endeavors.  I don’t expect you to understand my convoluted opinion that this contest is stupid but I entered it anyway, I know it doesn’t make sense.  The fact of the matter is I still have this delusion that I can fix it, I can make Maxim see that female gamers are not here to be stereotyped.

Girl gamer or guy gamer, the fact is that we are all equally important parts of the gaming community.  By respecting each other’s strengths and differences, we can ensure that all gamers can feel comfortable voicing their opinions–whatever they may be.

Just remember before you comment that I’m a real person, with real feelings and just because you can’t see how hurt I am by your comments, doesn’t mean I’m not.

5 Comments
by Lynesta on April 11, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Feminism
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Posted by Lynesta on April 11, 2012

http://wordofglory.net/2012/04/11/a-call-to-action-the-end-of-female-gamer-stereotypes-and-why-i-entered-the-maxim-contest/

Why I haven’t written about BlizzCon yet….

There are so many things I have to say about my very first experience at BlizzCon.  I have an article I have been working on for a separate blog about my experiences as a “booth babe” (and I use that term loosely) at the con, which should be out soon.

Unfortunately I’ve been totally wiped this week.  Being sick, trying to find a new job, and throwing a kick ass Halloween party took up much of my time, but I promise I will write soon!  Never fear!

My WoWTCG guide is also still in the works for those of you who are interested (I know there are a few).  I hope to have both finished by weeks end.

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by Lynesta on October 31, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in BlizzCon
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Posted by Lynesta on October 31, 2011

http://wordofglory.net/2011/10/31/why-i-havent-written-about-blizzcon-yet/

Lynesta at BlizzCon!

As everyone knows BlizzCon is fast approaching, with only 10 days until we hop on a plane bound for LAX I’m sure everyone is getting a little excited.

So I figured I would tell people where they can find me!
I will try to make it to the WoWInsider meetup on Thursday night.  This is all very dependant on when my plane gets in and when everyone is settled in and such, but plans are as of now to hang out there on Thursday night. 

Friday and Saturday I will be found demonstrating the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game at the Cryptozoic booth.  I will most likely be sporting my “Horde” and “Paladin” Jinx pins so you can find me that way, or just walk up to the booth and shout Lynesta!….you’ll find me even easier that way.  So come by, play a couple games with me, or learn to play!  I’m happy to teach anyone. 

My plans for Sunday and Monday are rather up in the air at this point.  I think my family wants to hit up Disney Land and hang out there for a day, and anyone is welcome to join our crowd.  Monday afternoon I’m bound for North Carolina.

This year I will not be competing in the costume contest because my time will be tied up with actually working the show.

Stop in! We’ll go out for drinks and such.

Hope everyone has a wonderful trip there, and I hope to meet many of you. 

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by Lynesta on October 9, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in BlizzCon
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Posted by Lynesta on October 9, 2011

http://wordofglory.net/2011/10/09/lynesta-at-blizzcon/

Trading Up?

Anyone who’s been following my blog since inception will know I’ve been through a few guilds since Cataclysm launched.

At the beginning I was part of a guild called Easily Distracted and I played on US-Stormreaver.  The guild was one started by a real life friend, and I spent the better part of T11 trying to build it up.  By the end we had a solid team…..but they were a team of prima-donnas.  They wanted things I couldn’t give them.
Some wanted a casual atmosphere to go with our 3 day raid schedule.  Some wanted to add more raid days, which others were unwilling or unable to do.  In the end I got tired of leading a guild that wasn’t mine and so I left.

When I left I had had to consider my options which then were either start playing a Druid, move to Eldre’Thalas, faction change, and play with Apotheosis.  OR continue playing my Paladin and move to Turalyon to play with Fusion, a guild who had once competed for world firsts during Burning Crusade and Wrath.  In both guilds I had friends, so the choice was difficult.

I ended up on Turalyon with a guild that was far more progressed than I was at the time, having killed all except Nefarian.  I continued to raid with them through most of Firelands until something happened…..apparently I was no longer a good player.

And so I left again, immediately transferring to Ysera where I now play with Myriad.  When I left I knew I would be moving backward in progression, and I knew the team needed that extra push and maybe I could provide it.
I’ve since ended up as a sort of “healing lead” although I’m not officially designated as such….but I’ve introduced our healer chat and we decide assignments as a team.

Even though I went backwards in progression, and most people might consider that trading down, I feel like I’ve traded up.  Its been a long long time since I felt welcomed in a guild, and I have team Synergy to thank for that.

For those people who think I’m just some casual who will never see heroic modes, or that I QQ too much about raid nerfs, consider this:
Once upon a time I raided 4 nights a week.
Once upon a time my cell phone number was on a call list for rare world contested spawns.
Once I competed for server first achievements.

Just because a guild doesn’t have a competitve schedule, or doesn’t push their entire roster to the breaking point just to kill a few pixels, doesn’t mean you’ve traded your guild down.  In fact I feel quite the contrary.  When I stopped raiding 4 days a week, the first Saturday night I went out was the first Saturday night I had had free in 3 and a half years, and that my friends is a good feeling.  To finally be free of the bonds of getting the first kill on something.

I’m looking forward to working on heroic modes with my current guild, and I’m also looking forward to going into the next teir of content and conquering it with them.  Will we clear 7/7 HMs before 4.3?  Probably not.  Do we care? Definitely not.  To us we have cleared Firelands once we kill Ragnaros.  Heroic Modes are just a bonus.

So did I trade up in Cataclysm?  Oh yes I did…

1 Comment
by Lynesta on September 26, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Cataclysm, Raiding
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Posted by Lynesta on September 26, 2011

http://wordofglory.net/2011/09/26/trading-up/

Firelands Nerfs – The Voice of the Casual Guild

Dearest Blizzard
You have created quite a rift in your community.  Not only are us casuals a little more than upset, but there are many who seem to feel that if we couldn’t clear this conent before then clearly we needed the nerfs anway.

My guild is pretty casual.  We are a rather rag-tag band of misfits who until recently didn’t even have a consistent roster of players.  We were finally making some progress in Firelands, having downed two new bosses in the last 3 weeks.  We were feeling accomplished….we were SO CLOSE to getting down Majordomo……….

And it was all taken away.
You took away the satisfaction I would have felt for organizing my healing team into victory.  You took away the satisfaction we would have felt when he fell over dead for the first time.  Instead of the normal cheering our response was, “Wait….that was it?”

Why did you decide now was the time for nerfs?  Had you not nerfed the raids we would have killed Ragnaros before 4.3
You could have waited, Blizzard, but instead you jumped too soon.  In fact you SHOULD have waited.
There is no logical reason to have nerfed the raids this far away from 4.3 …unless I am somehow mistaken and 4.3 manages to drop after DMF Philly, meaning it would drop the week of 10/4 and I highly doubt this is the case.

Many in the community have these same laments.  We are upset that the glory has been taken from us.   We feel you have decided we weren’t good enough to finish the content and so you are now spoon feeding it to us.  The dogs no longer have teeth, the birds no longer have sharp talons, scorpions no longer sting, and the fire no longer burns.

While Ragnaros may still be a challenge….I don’t need Heroic Modes handed to me Blizzard.  I want to work for them, I want to earn them with my sweat and tears and lots and lots of coffee.

….and you took that away from me.

Yours,
The Angry Holy Paladin
Lynesta of Ysera and the guild Myriad, team Synergy

3 Comments
by Lynesta on September 24, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Cataclysm, Raiding
Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Lynesta on September 24, 2011

http://wordofglory.net/2011/09/24/firelands-nerfs-the-voice-of-the-casual-guild/

A Little Change

So many of you, who may or may not be frequent visitors, may have noticed a bit of a change around here.

After some shenanigans with my web host, and my site being down for the better part of two months, I decided to just forego having a host at all and use wordpress.com’s free service.

I still pay for my domain name, so you can still find me at wordofglory.net but some things may look a little different around here, and you may notice a few posts missing.

Unfortunately I was unable to recover everything, so the site will be in a semi-construction state until I can get everything sorted out.

In other news: this Sunday I will be a guest on the Double O Podcast as part of their first healing round-table!  I am SUPER excited and I hope you all will give it a listen.  Ophie and Oestrus are two of my favorite girls, so I am so honored to have been asked to take part in their next podcast!

Look forward to new blog post soon – I’ll write about something.  I have a few ideas floating around in my head, about the latest round of content nerfs, what it’s like to heal after 12 straight weeks of no upgrades, and how healing with a new raid team can be a challenge.  We’ll see how things go.

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by Lynesta on September 22, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Podcasts
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Posted by Lynesta on September 22, 2011

http://wordofglory.net/2011/09/22/a-little-change/

How to Heal a ZA Bear Run: The Holy Pally Way

The other night my guild decided to scratch a raid night and run through ZA several times to get many of our raid members their Zul’Aman Bear 2.0

This is my 1.0 bear though, since I was not playing during the time period where ZA was relevant content.  I am a little sad about it, I would have liked to have had both bears, but I’m happy with what I have.

So here’s my super-duper-easy-win guide to running through bears repeatedly for hours.  We got 4 total in our one night, and ended “raid” an hour and a half early (which was nice).

The path you should take through ZA should really be determined by your groups comfort level with the zone.  There are a couple of places where we jump walls and cut corners to avoid a couple of pathing groups.  This probably shaves a good minute or two off your time since you’re not killing these mobs.

As the healer it is very important you keep everyone alive in the group at all times.  One death can set you back several minutes while you kill whatever you’re killing slower and then wait to rez whoever has died after combat ends.  This is a VERY mana intensive run.  I can make it through an entire run without having to stop and eat/drink to regain mana.  This is very important for making the timer.

Our group has gotten pretty good at this.  Using the Archaeology daily (which requires one troll tablet) we were able to shave only one minute off of our time (so its not a necessity but it definitely helps).  We make the timer with roughly 5 to 7 minutes to spare.
The steps you can take to ensure, as a Holy Paladin, you will not run out of mana, not die, and keep your group alive are very simple.

For the first trash pull, when there are all those little mobs that die in two to three hits – it is important to pop Divine Protection.  Since you will be healing your tank through the two bigger guys who hit a bit harder, it is very likely the packs of wimpy mobs will aggro to you first.  Divine Protection ensures you can take a hit or two while your tank gets aggro.

If you’re smart with your mana you can make it through the entirety of the first boss without having to use Divine Plea.  I make sure to use Arcane Torrent on cooldown – if you’re not a Blood Elf you obviously don’t have this option.  I also keep mana potions on me as backup, along with using the Jar of Ancient Remedies whenever it is off cooldown and I have 5 stacks of Inner Eye.  Lastly, of course, always, always,ALWAYS, ALWAYS Judge on cooldown.  Always guys.

Once you have killed the first boss its a good idea to pop Divine Plea, since you will probably be low on mana.  Mount up, hop the bottom wall, avoid the mobs to your left that you didn’t kill, run down the hill toward the center structure to avoid the two pathing mobs, and then kill the three guys in the corner (or is it 4?).  Run around and kill the two bears and then up the stairs to the next boss (after a couple more trash packs).

Generally speaking I will leave the looting to the DPS – if there are Hex Sticks anyone can loot them so I don’t need to worry about it.  I just keep up with the tank and continue healing him/her.

For the second boss you will have to determine who will take the charge.  If you have three ranged in your group then you’re set because each one of them can take a turn.  If you’ve only got two ranged and a melee, it will be up to you as a healer to take the third charge.   Otherwise this guy is pretty straight forward.  Remember he has an aoe silence, so make sure your tank can survive through each one and you’ll be golden.  Divine Plea again before you mount up and run to the next area.

Coming down the steps from the second boss you will have to worry about Scouts.  Your group MUST kill the Scouts before they reach the drums or you risk having even MORE trash to kill.  These guys die in two to three hits so they should not be a problem.  The other thing you will have to watch for is the Flamecasters.  It is important to CC some of the mobs in these packs, generally killing the Flamecasters first and making sure to interrupt Firebolt Volley (or something similar I forget what it’s called).  Be sure your tanks and melee are watching out for earthquakes from the mobs.  This can be especially difficult if you have a Shaman in your group.

Kill the third flamey boss.  Avoid standing in fire.  Use Divine Protection as much as possible to avoid dying to the adds.  The dot the adds will put on your tank stacks to a ridiculous amount, but one cleanse should clear the whole stack.    This is a good fight to use Holy Radiance on since the group will likely be taking a lot of damage either from not moving out of fire quickly enough or from the adds.  Divine Plea again after combat ends.  Be sure your group avoids the wandering trash pack and moves straight on to the pack of kitties.

It is essential to either bring Water Walking potions, a Death Knight, or a Shaman with you to your group for this next part.  What you want to do to avoid as much trash as possible is this:  Avoid the wandering guy with the two crocs and run across the water toward the kitty gauntlet.  DO NOT swim – you waste more time than you save.  If you can mount up and run however, it is well worth it.

Then kill the kitties, Divine Plea again just before you pull the 4th and final boss for the bear event, and be sure your group (not the mob) stands in all the little green circles.  If you stand in the healing totem you can pretty much spam Divine Light and Exorcism and not run out of mana.  I like to use Holy Radiance on cooldown during this fight, since the group does take some AoE damage from Lightning Totems.

If you follow these steps, and make sure to not take any breaks – you will beat the timer with plenty of time left.

Good luck and have fun!

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by Lynesta on June 17, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Dungeons
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Posted by Lynesta on June 17, 2011

http://wordofglory.net/2011/06/17/how-to-heal-a-za-bear-run-the-holy-pally-way/

Firelands Gear – Why Holy Paladins are Screwed

So I took a look at the new Firelands loot tables that have just been posted.  Now of course none of this is final as it’s all just on PTR and can change at any time…but as of right now I have just one thing to say:

Whoever itemized Holy Paladin gear (ie Plate with Intellect on it) needs to be taken out back and shot….maybe even repeatedly.

I’ll go slot by slot here for upgrades.  I wish we had the stats for all of our set pieces out so I could at least feel a little bit better about the sheer amount of Mastery that is currently plaguing our T12 gear.

Head:

Current: Glaciated Helm or Reinforced Sapphirium Headguard

Right now I wear my set helm, along with my set shoulders for the two piece bonus all the time.  Sometimes I swap in the set gloves and legs when I know I need to be casting Holy Radiance a lot.  Most of the time, however, I don’t even swap in the other two pieces because I’m wearing Heroic gloves and pants.

Firelands “Upgrade”: Casque of Flame (Immolation Headguard)

While, of course, we will be gaining some Intellect over even the Heroic set helm, and it is nice that this new helm has a Red socket for even MORE Intellect (that would be a total of +70 if you use a red gem), we also get….211 MASTERY?  Doesn’t Blizz know that our mastery isn’t even that great?  Most of the time my little wimpy shields are wasted as it is.  I’ll watch them tic off a ranged person that maybe got hit by an AoE and just think to myself…man I wish I wasn’t forced to waste heals.  On the Tanks, which I am healing most of the time anyway, of course these shields are not wasted and that’s great….but JUST Mastery?  Give me a break.

Neck:

Current: Wyrmbreaker’s Amulet

Our current “best in slot” neck isn’t even that great by my own standards simply because it only has crit on it, but compared to other necks, at least it has spirit.

Firelands:  There are a couple possible “upgrades” in Firelands and realistically I would take one over the other.

Flowform Choker and Nightweaver’s Amulet

The Nightweaver’s Amulet is probably going to be easier to get until your guild is clearing some of the new content.  The Flowform drops off of the 6th boss in the new raid instance, just before you get to Ragnaros.  The Nightweaver’s is a reward from Marks of the World Tree so will probably be easier to obtain than the Flowform.

However, if you’re clearing things relatively quickly The Flowform is going to be the better choice, it’s got more Intellect for one, not to mention a nice Red gem socket.  I would end up reforging some of that mastery to spirit though.  Again with the Mastery…come on guys.

Shoulders:

Current: Burden of Mortality or Reinforced Sapphirium Mantle

Firelands “updgrade”: Spaulders of Manifold Eyes (Immolation Mantle)

This actually isn’t much different from our current choices.  I wore the shoulders off of Chimaeron for quite a while before I got the token for my set shoulders, and the Firelands shoulders are exactly the same stats.   I still hate that the only thing on it is mastery, and I hated that when wearing the Chimaeron shoulders as well, and I hate that our set only has Crit on it too :p

Back/Cloak:

Current: Drape of the Twins

Firelands: Lightwing Cloak, Flowing Flamewrath Cloak, Mantle of Desire

The current choice from Valiona and Theralion is pretty much perfect in my opinion.  If the darn thing would ever drop, I probably wouldn’t reforge away any of the Haste to anything else.

Looking at our Firelands choices though….The Lightwing Cloak is a raid drop from the Third of the Firelands bosses, which (hopefully) shouldn’t be too difficult to get to.  In my opinion though, the stats are lacking.  The Lightwing has no Spirit and no Haste which leaves us with a double whammy of bad.

The Flowing Flamewrath Cloak looks a little bit better.  It will be coming from Friendly with the Avengers of Hyjal reputation, which I imagine should be relatively easy to get.  For a friendly status cloak it is pretty dang good.  This cloak DOES have Spirit on it, which makes it more desirable than the raid drop in my opinion.  Again though, its only other secondary stat is Mastery, which can be reforged to Haste.  I will most likely be going for this Cloak.

The last of the three listed is from a quest which I believe starts and ends with Thrall (though I could be wrong) It has both Haste and Mastery as secondary stats but does not have Spirit.  This one is probably the least desirable in my opinion, but maybe the easiest to get.

Breastplate:

Current: Breastplate of Avenging Flame

Firelands: Clutch of the Firemother (Immolation Breastplate)

This breastplate is probably the only armor item I am actually happy with.  With the exact same itemization as the current best in slot BP (minus the socket bonus) it’s perfect for us.  This drops off the third of the firelands bosses, and depending on the stats of our set breastplate this is a definite item to pick up.

Bracers:

Current: Shackles of the End of Days

Firelands: Bracers of the Dread Hunter

I’ve been saying since the beginning of the expansion, whoever itemized Plate Intellect bracers is on drugs….maybe it was the same person who itemized all the Firelands gear!

Prior to patch 4.1 our only Epic level bracers dropped off of Cho’Gall…and the secondary stats aren’t even that great, but at least the Shackles have Spirit.   Now we also have the iLvL 353 Bracers of Hidden Purpose which don’t have Spirit, but DO have Haste and drop out of Zul’Aman

In Firelands, the only redeeming quality to our bracers with Mastery is that they also have Spirit and drop in the middle of the instance rather than the very end boss….so that’s a bit of an improvement I suppose.

Gloves

Current: Flash Freeze Gauntlets

Firelands: Grips of the Raging Giant or Gauntlets of Living Obsidium (Immolation Gloves)

The Grips of the Raging Giant are really not all that terrible, and will be dropping again off of the third of the bosses, but the Gauntlets of Living Obsidium are better in my opinion, as they’re itemized exactly like our current best in slot gloves and come from Marks of the World Tree.

Belt:

Current: Sun King’s Girdle

Firelands: Searing Slice Girdle or Belt of Living Obsidium

The Searing Slice Girdle is probably going to be the better of the two choices being that it does have Haste on it, whereas the Living Obsidium one does not.  Both should be relatively easy to obtain though so that is nice.  The Girdle comes from being Honored with The Avengers of Hyjal and the Living Obsidium is a Mark of the World Tree reward.

Legs

Current: Legguards of the Emerald Brood

Firelands: Legplates of Absolute Control (Immolation Greaves)

The Firelands Legplates do somewhat redeem themselves by having TWO red sockets, which if you use two red gems this would give you a total of 100 extra intellect on these pants.  The do also have Crit on them which is a little bit disappointing since the rest is so nicely itemized in my opinion.  Again, this is a piece where I’m hoping our set will have better stats.

Boots:

Current: Eternal Pathfinders or Life Force Chargers

Firelands: Treads of the Penitent Man

Personally I don’t really care for either one of our current boot choices.  One lacking spirit, the other lacking haste neither one is really ideal at all.  The new Firelands boots are at least itemized with Spirit, which makes them better than the current Valor Point boots by leaps and bounds, but they do lack the haste that the Pathfinders have which makes me a sad sad panda.

Rings:

Current:

Firelands

Since all of the new options from Firelands (either quests, rep or raid) are all itemized with Mastery our choices here and kinda…meh in my opinion.  The Signet comes from Avengers of Hyjal reputation and at least offers Spirit, which is great because neither of the other rings have Spirit on them at all.  Most likely most people will be wearing the reputation ring with some other ring in their second slot – much like it was during ICC.  Of the other two options the Heartspear Ring is going to be the better choice simply because it has more Intellect, Crit, and Mastery.  I would reforge to Spirit on this one probably.

Trinkets

Current:

Firelands:

Our trinket choices I am actually really liking.  The Jaws of Defeat looks like its going to be a replacement for the Darkmoon Card: Tsunami.  The Eye of Awareness reminds me a bit of the old Glyph of Holy Light and would give us some splash heals again which is nice the other nice part is that on paper it at least tries to be smart in who it is healing.  I’ll most likely be picking up the Fiery Quintessence and at the very least the Jaws of Defeat.  I would really like to try out the Eye of Awareness though.

Weapon

Current: Twilight’s Hammer

Firelands: Hammer of the Firelord

This hammer makes me incredibly happy.  It is PERFECTLY itemized for us…it’s only downfall is it drops off of Ragnaros.  Again with the last boss dropping one of our (probably) most sought after items.

Offhand

Current: Kingdom’s Heart

Firelands: Ward of the Red Widow

Not only does our new shield have a socket on it, it also has Haste instead of Crit.  This is another win for us, and drops off of the very first Firelands boss.

Relic

Current: Relic of Eonar

Firelands: Relic of Elune’s Light

This Relic doesn’t have Spirit on it, and admittedly our Relic choices for T11 are really not that fabulous either.  The new Relic is itemized like our other choice for T11 the Relic of Norgannon which I personally bypassed because when I purchased my Relic I needed the Spirit of the other one….aaaand then I never got around to purchasing the other one (woopsie)

So overall not that terrible of a Relic I guess.

Overall I’m a little disappointed with the sheer amount of Mastery that is just everywhere on our off pieces.  Our Teir set bonuses are pretty nice, so I can only hope the stat itemization on the pieces is equally nice.

Edit:  I hadn’t actually seen the Immolation set stats prior to posting this – and even after looking practically everywhere I STILL had not seen them.  However, THANKFULLY our set pieces are much better itemized than the current set.

Immolation Mantle

Immolation Greaves

Immolation Headguard

Immolation Gloves

Immolation Breastplate

In light of this I am definitely happier overall with at least our main pieces being decent.  I am still disappointed at many of the off piece choices.  I think overall though we should remain to be okay on Haste/Spirit after reforging and all that.

I will again most likely be skipping the breastplate in this set for the more desirable Haste on the Clutch of the Firemother but will most definitely be taking the other 4 pieces for the bonus.

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by Lynesta on May 26, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Raiding
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Posted by Lynesta on May 26, 2011

http://wordofglory.net/2011/05/26/firelands-gear-why-holy-paladins-are-screwed/

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