Chicken Scratch
If I had a moonkin blog, it would totally be called Chicken Scratch.
So, my first impressions of raiding as a critchicken?
- The new Moonfire is pretty. (... New to me, anyway. It's taken me over two years to level Ihlana to 80 and she hasn't seen caster form since wandering into the Barrens at level 12 to commune with gank a bear.)
- Oh. My. God. I totally understand why Neville /rages at Eclipse! PROC, DAMN IT, PROC!
- Squawk and Awe? Teehee.
- Squawk and Awe! <3 <3 <3
- ... But I don't wanna heal. /pout
- Okay, FINE. I'll heal if I can roll on +hit gear and you don't make fun of my roots. I'm sensitive.
- Actually, healing is kind of fun. Look at me! I can jump! And heal! At the same time!
- But THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN STAND IN POISON. I may be an over-powered tree but I STILL CAN'T HEAL STUPID.
- Do these feathers make me look fat?
- WTB spell hit, PST.
- Naxx10? Yes, please! (Never thought I'd hear myself say that again... )
- Wait. This isn't Naxx. This is Ulduar. ELAM! I AM SO NOT READY FOR ULDUAR. I HAVE GREEN GLOVES AND A GREEN HAT AND AND HEIRLOOM SHOULDERS.
- I don't want to get carried. /sulk ... but, ooo, staff. Shiny.
- Pew, pew.
- Oooo. I can cat dash between trash! Look at me go!
- And I can prowl ahead of the group with the ever-impatient rogues! Sneakykittysneakykittysneakykitty.
- OK, I'm doing, like, 1,200 DPS. I did twice that on the target dummies! What am I doing wrong? Why do I fail so hard? Can I just go back to healing now?
- Oh, it's not me. It's Eclipse. Proc, damn it!
- Dear Eclipse, H8. </3 Lana.
- Dear Eclipse, ilu. <3 Lana.
One weekend in and I'm already developing a love/hate relationship with Eclipse. On one hand paw talon? whatever, it's a lot of fun. Like, A LOT a lot. It makes a relatively simple rotation exciting. On the other whatever, it's really freaking annoying when it doesn't proc. If I get a lucky string of Eclipses — the tremendously fun Lunar! Solar! Lunar! rhythm — then I can actually do some decent damage for my gear. But if I don't, then I might as well be running around and beating things with my stubby little wings.
I'm sure it'll feel less random as my gear improves (although thanks to that Ulduar run and some serious ToC farming, it's much better now than it was on Friday). I'm still a good 200 hit shy of the magical number 17, and my crit is low as well...
It feels weird to be playing DPS again, stacking hit and attempting to balance my other stats around some inscrutable formula to eke out one or two more damage per second. I retired Sari because I find the competitive nature of DPS stressful, and ultimately less rewarding than the collaborative effort involved in tanking and healing. (Also, I'm not very good at it. >.>) Still, it's a nice change of pace as long as no one expects too terribly much of me. And my pet trees are cute, in a pathetic "you're just going to die in a few seconds and look absolutely shocked about it — again!" kind of way that inevitably makes me feel guilty for having summoned them in the first place.
(I'm a druid! I'm not supposed to be a bad tree mother!)
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October 12th, 2009 - 10:10
wait wait – are you trying to get 446 hit as a moonkin? but but..the best part about moonkins is that they have like the lowest caster hit cap in a game! improved faery fire plus 4% you get from tallents, equals – happy moonkin! I think you need something like 274 and you are done! sure faery fire might miss once ina while, but you just apply it again and off you go!
October 12th, 2009 - 11:14
There’s 4% from talents /and/ 3% from Faerie Fire? O.o
No wonder I wasn’t missing! I was /peering at Recount after a prolonged session on the heroic target dummy and could not for the life of me figure out where my miss % was. Wow, nerf druids.
October 12th, 2009 - 11:09
After 4% from talents and 3% from Improved Faerie Fire/Misery (share that buff ’slot’), the spell hit cap is 10% – or 263 rating.
You may well be there already.
Forreststump´s last blog ..Now, back to Azeroth…
October 12th, 2009 - 11:16
I’m not /quite/ there, but I’m much closer than I thought I was! I think I’m sitting at 190 now, after a marathon ToC farming session with some of the classiest PuGs on BDF netted me +hit shoulders (leather, no less!) and a new +hit ring.
… and is that a blog link I see?
October 12th, 2009 - 14:34
Oh yes… about 7 posts long, so far…
October 12th, 2009 - 15:00
*glee* Welcome to the fold, Forrest! I’ve added you to my guildy blog list, since, yanno, yours is actually being updated.
*pointed stare at Keaton and Eanin*
Naithin´s last blog ..The 5-Year Old Post
October 12th, 2009 - 15:06
Keaton gave up, I think, and Eanin’s off doing important things like writing a dissertation and making babies.
Still, I can’t bring myself to remove them from my blogroll so I just … leave ‘em there … /pokes them with a stick
I added you to my links too, Forrest, but I apparently can’t comment on Blogspot blogs from work. Alas! I will have to argue politics with you another time. >.>
… also, no more trees.
I think our healing core is pretty strong, and I have a holy paladin coming over from another server to help fill Korev’s desire for a bacon buddy. His gear needs some work but Elam rolled “need” for purely superficial reasons, so we shall see!
I’m gonna save that last treespot for Naithin either way.
October 12th, 2009 - 17:38
It is a shame if Keaten has totally given up, I read quite a number of his posts and really enjoyed them. He certainly had the knack for it. In Eanin’s case though, I suppose he can be forgiven.
Also, much <3 to you, Sari! I simply cannot wait for the freedom to come. I even have a date now! Nov 14th will see the last of my exams completed. *squee*
Naithin´s last blog ..The 5-Year Old Post
October 12th, 2009 - 11:11
Ooh, I have to check out Squawk and Awe, that sounds fun. I hit 80 on my druid yesterday and I’m trying out this crit chicken thing on her too
October 12th, 2009 - 11:17
Silly chickens went and copied Shock and Awe — and gave it a better name!
Have fun chickening!
October 12th, 2009 - 11:22
I just abandoned my DPS role in favor of healing…. I felt like DPS were a dime a dozen and I didn’t want to be a replaceable part of the machine. Felt like I was there and that was fine, but it didn’t matter if I was or wasn’t, the bosses would go down just the same with any old DPS in that position. Healing I feel like I’m actually part of the outcome. Me, personally.
But I can see myself wanting to go back to DPS for relaxation purposes every now and then… sometimes it is good to feel like everything doesn’t hinge on your personal performance.
Rhii´s last blog ..A Matter of Trust
October 12th, 2009 - 11:32
I made the switch from DPS to healing towards the beginning of WotLK (although not before winning the guild’s first Turning Tide on my warlock, which they still haven’t forgiven me for!), so I understand exactly where you’re coming from. For me, it wasn’t just about wanting to be “irreplaceable” — although that was certainly a part of it — but also about not wanting to spend every minute of every raid enslaved to Recount. DPS is competitive by nature, whereas healing in a raid environment is cooperative. Communication and teamwork are critical, and that’s the kind of shared experience I thrive on.
Besides, I’m really not very good at DPS. I understand the theorycraft of it, but I’m not so hot at the execution.
I hope you enjoy healing. It’s a whole new game, but — imho — a better one.
October 12th, 2009 - 11:26
I really like moonkins. I think they’re hilarious. I’m so sad I lost the screen shot of one of our attempts on FL where someone tested to see if he could pull the boss by launching a big fluffy moonkin at him.
jong´s last blog ..Miley, grant my mortal allies the power of thunder
October 12th, 2009 - 11:33
I hope he was thinking happy thoughts.
October 12th, 2009 - 18:59
I lol’d way to hard reading this. Also:
# Naxx10? Yes, please! (Never thought I’d hear myself say that again… )
# Wait. This isn’t Naxx. This is Ulduar. ELAM! I AM SO NOT READY FOR ULDUAR. I HAVE GREEN GLOVES AND A GREEN HAT AND AND HEIRLOOM SHOULDERS.
Pfft, no one will notice your green gloves and hat- you’re a doomchicken 90% of the time anyway.
C WUT I DID THAR.
Elam´s last blog ..No longer being updated.
October 13th, 2009 - 01:14
Mhm, yeah – critchickens are delicious.
I specced Moonkin for the first time when I hit 80, being bored of Feral for 78 levels (with a short resto intermezzo at 70) and I love it.
I still stand to my “Caster dps is horribly easy compared to Melee” but at least it’s fun as a Boomkin. (Plus I have a healing offspec, yay. Same goes for my Shammy, I love sharing half of my gear between specs).
By the way, even if it lags one patch behind most of the time, I can only recommend http://www.raider101.com if you hit 80 with a fresh alt – it’s like EJ condensed into a single page, very well good enough for aspiring raiders. Nothing new if you’ve played for a while, but it has hit caps, best gems, glyphs and a few reasonable specs.
*squawk*
Armagon´s last blog ..Armagon: My guild started to reply "generic rant no #xyz" when I curse about stuff.Actually,many people do. I’m contemplating setting up a blog now.