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!)