MoP Beta Changes build 15889
06 days ago
We are now onto the third update in a week for the beta, and with it are some changes for resto druids.
Cenarion Ward now costs 14.8% of Base Mana, down from 22.4%.
Nothing really wrong here, a lower mana cost to CW just makes it more attractive.
Dream of Cenarius now proc increase healing done by your next healing spell by 70%, up from 30%. Tranquility is not affected.
I must admit I am not entirely surprised by either part of this. With only a 30% buff to healing DoC looked very weak when compared with NV.
Druid’s generally have a hard enough time anyway with GCD demands and with the inclusion of healing shrooms, that pressure is only going to increase. The argument against using DoC is that for ST healing the extra GCD you use to cast wrath (for example) to buff a HT could just be used to cast another heal. However, a 70% buff will be more useful in AoE heavy fights where it can be used to buff WG (especially if combined with ToL and the WG Glyph)
Due to the increase of the buff and the potenetial for some pretty big AoE healing, it is good to (in some ways) to see that Tranquility is not affected as this would help push this talent just a bit too far towards being OP. After, gaining a 70% to “normal” heals is one thing, but buffing a 3 min Tranq by 70%? – no good. A well timed Tranq can already save the day, so it does not need such a huge buff.
Nature’s Vigil now increases all damage and healing done by 20% for 30 sec, down from 30%. Single target spells now damage or heal a nearby target for 25% of the damage/healing done, down from 50%.
As I have said on various places on the interweb since NV was announced I have been expecting this. The original version of this talent was just too good. This is the second alteration to the talent since it was announced 4 days ago so clearly it was not entirely thought out before being released (but hey, what’s new 
).
It is still attractive despite the changes and is similar now to the Paladin ability Avenging Wrath with an added splash component.
Depending on your spec, NV will still be a good choice, it just won’t be as monstrous if stack with other things such as Berserk, Incarnation etc.
So all in all, not a bad round of changes on the Beta and nothing really unexpected.
Kat
Changes to Druid level 90 talents and WM: Bloom
11 week ago
Today saw the release of a new build of the MoP beta. With it came a few rather nice changes for druids to the level 90 talents and to the Wild Mushroom: Bloom ability.
Level 90 talents
Initially these changes were hinted at yesterday by GC posting in the US forums;
We’re not yet happy with the druid level 90 row. We still like the theme of it playing into the druid’s hybrid nature and we want to reassure you (which I think most of you already know) that druids won’t do lower damage or healing compared to other classes just because some other class has an unambiguous throughput increasing talent at level 90. Classes are balanced around their whole package.
Nonetheless, we want the bottom row of talents to be exciting. In the next (hopefully) build, you’ll see a few changes.
Disentanglement — no longer a talent. Shapeshifting for all druids just breaks roots.
Dream of Cenarius — increases damage spells by 70% (up from 30%).
Heart of the Wild — now also grants 6% passive Agility and Intellect.
Nature’s Vigil — replaces Disentanglement. Increases all damage and healing done by 30% for 30 sec, with a 3 min cooldown. While active, all healing spells also damage a nearby target for 50% of healing done, and all damage spells and abilities also heal a nearby friendly target for 50% of the damage done.
Let us know how they feel once you get a chance to try them.
Now the major change change that jumps out there is the new talent, but let’s deal with the changes in order;
Disentanglement – Thankfully they have gone back on this one. The heal component has been removed and this is now a baseline ability for druids. This is going to make a lot of people happy.
Dream of Cenarius – No important change here for resto, though our feathered compatriots may be alternating between being pleased and annoyed – yay more damage vs more pressure to include healing in a dps rotation.
Heart of the Wild – The same as the previous version (with all the same issues) but now this also grants a passive 6% bonus to Agi and Int. Really this feels like a lacklustre attempt to sweeten the horrendous mess that is Heart of the Wild, especially when you look at the changes to Agi and Int in MoP (certainly more Int won’t equal more mana and iirc the whole agi/dodge equation for Guardians is being rejiggled and agi won’t be as awesome as it is currently).
This is also on top of Blizz stating a desire to move away from passive, flat bonuses. Something serious still needs to be done with this talent to make it work properly – and tacking a hefty flat % bonus to primary stats is NOT the way to do it.
Nature’s Vigil - This is the important part now, the replacement talent for Disentanglement. In some ways this is very nice and in others, not so.
As a healer I am unlikely to use it for the damage enhancement unless we have a period of very low healing requirement and I know I won’t need it for the healing increase within the next 3 mins. This means that it essentially becomes a standard healing CD to be used and cycled as Incarnation etc. From the PoV of getting another healing buff it is quite nice, but it isn’t *exciting* like it could be. Don’t get me wrong, I am pleased with the change and it is very nice to see something happen, but I can foresee problems with it.
Given that resto druids seem to be entering MoP with a similar level of mitigation to that which we have currently (basically we will gain Ironbark) it would appear that once again we are going to be dependent on raw throughput to carry the day. However, as we saw with WG and such in Cata, the other healing classes don’t like this and are swift to cry “OP!” when we regularly top the meters due to the monstrous output we are capable of.
With that in mind, the possibilities of this talent could be quite obscene. Imagine the 30% healing buff combined with Incarnation, which would already give us a 15% healing bonus as well as buffed versions of WG, RG and LB. This would dramatically increase a druids throughput for 30 seconds every 3 mins, especially if used during heavy damage or AoE phases where it would maximise the healing from WG etc. One way to avoid this would be to make Incarnation/NV mutually exclusive so that you can chain them, but not stack them. EDIT: as of 13/5/12 NV only affects single target spells – so no heavily buffed WG or Tranq, and the buff/splash is only 20%/25% instead of 30%/50%.
Another possibility is to scrap Nature’s Vigil as a talent, lower the buff (maybe to 15-20%), lower the splash effect and make it our powerful level 87 ability instead, thus giving all druids of all specs a good burst spell.
I am too tired to analyse this properly right now, but I suspect that it will be too good and unless we have some kind of exclusivity for Nature’s Vigil, I am pretty certain that it will receive a nerf before too long.
Wild Mushroom: Bloom
This is very a simple, but very important change; the radius of the effect has increased from 6 yards to 12 yards. Doubling the radius sounds like a lot, and it is.
A circle with a radius of 12 yards covers quadruple the area of a circle with a 6 yard radius (an area of 452 square yards vs 113 square yards).
Simply put this means that people can move around to avoid bad stuff and have less of a chance of being out of healing range, they don’t have to stack on top of each other and as a consequence the poor druid won’t have so many wasted mushrooms that need replanting.
As with Nature’s Vigil. I suspect this will prove to be too much and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the radius reduced down to 10 yards, which is still very good (same as Healing Rain) when compared to the previous 6 yards.
Even if WM:B and Nature’s Vigil take a hit, at least things are ,moving in the right direction and finally the Blizzard seem to be addressing some of the concerns of the community.
Kat
Summary of changes affecting Resto Druids in MoP beta
02 weeks ago
As a few people have asked me various points regarding what has and has not changed for resto druids so far, I thought it would be appropriate to compile a summary of the changes to resto to this point. This post is just a quick intro, as the main text is on the shiny new page “MoP Resto Summary“. I will try and keep that page as up to date as possible, and it will simple be a list of the changes, not a discussion of them.
Kat
MoP Beta stuff – Blooming Mushrooms
23 weeks ago
So I decided that my ranty post has been up as the last thing I wrote for long enough now, and Cantor has made it abundantly clear that he isn’t currently writing anything (too engrossed in the beta I think) so I thought I should 
Now that I have been able to have a brief fiddle in the beta, and a few other druidy types out there have also been playing around, I thought it was about I had a good look at two of the major changes facing resto druids in Mists – The Healing Mushroom and Symbiosis. In this post I will look at the healing mushrooms we are getting.
As I said, some other bloggers have already written about them and here are their posts for reference;
Cannot be Tamed: Symbiosis – Boon or Bane?
Cannot be Tamed: Symbiosis – How to make it better
Restokin: MOP Feedback: Healing Shrooms Revisited
Restokin: Symbiosis feedback part 1
Restokin: Symbiosis feedback part 2
Falling Leaves and Wings: Mincing Mushrooms – Beta Problem One
Falling Leaves and Wings: Fixing the Forest, Part I – Analyzing the Issue
Falling Leaves and Wings: Fixing the Forest, Part II – Searching for Solutions
The Way of the Mushroom
For some time now we druids have commented that our healing toolkit is lacking in certain areas. One of those areas is an AoE direct heal. Currently all of our AoE healing capability is HoT based or channelled, druids simply do not have an AoE direct heal.
Enter the Bloom
Blizzard have tried to fix this by adding a new option to a pre-exisiting ability. Resto druids now have the ability to cause their placed mushrooms to “bloom” and heal nearby allies. This doesn’t initially seem to be too bad. However, once you look closer it is not as nice and simple as it seems.
The Big Problems
Unfortunately there are a number of issues with the concept of healing around a point on the ground. After all, look at the trouble Shaman have had since the introduction of Healing Rain – you place the spell and then everyone moves, or has to spread or fire/poison/ice etc gets dropped right under the rain and so on.
The healy shrooms also have the problem that to maximise the effect you have to place 3 of them. Now thankfully, this isn’t as bad as when the beta launched, when you had to click and place every one. So your setup was something like – click ability: place mushroom, click ability: place mushroom, click ability: place mushroom. Whereas now the ability only needs to selected once and then you click up to three times to place the mushrooms. Each one still activates it’s own mini GCD but at least you can place your cursor and just click-click-click rather than reselecting the spell each time. As well as being a clunky way to setup a heal, it also means that resto druids end up trying to work in another item onto their agenda of maintaining things.
Currently we are already trying to maintain LB on a target, which means 1 GCD every 10 seconds on LB or a direct heal, and we are aiming for a high uptime on harmony as well, which can require another GCD. To then add in a 4 click and GCDs (even if 3 are “mini”) ability to maximise our AoE healing is not a good plan. This is especially an issue as no component of the healing mushroom cycle causes harmony to be refreshed.
Finally, the actual radius of the heal is a paltry 6 yards (so 12 yard diameter). As a range comparison, Efflorescence and Holy Word: Sanctuary have an 8 yard radius and Healing rain has 10 yards. I think (though please correct me if you know this to be wrong) that healing mushrooms would be the smallest AoE heal (on area covered) in the game. If this extra couple of yards doesn’t sound like much then check out the relative areas covered by these spells
Spell Radius – 6 yards
Area Covered – 113.04 yards
Spell Radius – 8 yards
Area Covered – 200.96 yards
Spell Radius – 10 yards
Area Covered – 314 yards
Spell Radius – 12 yards
Area Covered – 452 yards
As you can see, an 8 yard radius spell covers nearly double that of an 6 yard spell (+77.7% coverage) while a 10 yard radius spell covers nearly triple the area (+177.7% coverage). That is a lot more movement allowed for positioning etc before people leave the area of the spell’s effect.
EDIT: As of build 15668 the Bloom has had it’s radius increased to 12 yards.
Game of Fixes
So then, now we know the problems with the healing mushrooms, what can be done to resolve them? There are a few options that I think would make healing mushrooms a more attractive prospect;
INCREASE THE RADIUS!! Seriously I think this is a complete no brainer. If mushrooms are supposed to be our fix to a lack of AoE direct heal issue then the area covered simply has to be larger. Even a 2 yard increase in radius would increase coverage by over 75%. 10 yard radius (same as Healing Rain) would be better, but really it should be a minimum of 8.- Make the “Bloom” count as a direct heal and therefore activate harmony. This is pretty simple, we already have a 15 sec CD that activates harmony and drops an AoE heal (Swiftmend) so why not tie Bloom in as well? Then we have 3 single target heals, a combined ST/small AoE heal and a large AoE heal all capable of activating harmony. Given the number of clicks/GCD that mushrooms take to use, causing it to activate harmony would remove some pressure from druids juggling mastery, LB, shrooms etc.
- Make mushrooms castable on players rather than the ground. To avoid the issue of people moving etc, allow druids to cast mushrooms on players, and allow them to be spread out still, so long as there are no more than 3 planted at once. This way you can prepare for incoming damage by planting the shrooms on the best targets and then it doesn’t matter if they move to avoid Bad Stuff(tm), you can still bloom the shrooms and heal everyone.
- Set a specified healing amount for the Bloom, then divide by the mushrooms currently active. Now I can hear the calls of WTF?!?!?! but hear me out on this. Currently there is an issue regarding the number of GCDs and the amount of time it takes to plant all the mushrooms and thereby gain maximum effectiveness. However, by having a fixed amount from the Bloom divided by the mushrooms present then we can choose to either drop a single mushroom for maximum heal on a single group of people, or if we need to spread the healing out we can scatter 2-3 shrooms where they are needed. I think this is better than X per mushroom because with the “X per shroom” model, you always have to cast 3 shrooms for maximum healing and there is no way to make it more efficient, whereas “X healing divided by number of shrooms” means that the amount of time you take to setup and use the spell can be reduced under certain circumstances.
As well as those four suggestions that I think would improve the idea of healing shrooms there is another thought floating around that I definitely think would be detrimental to an already poor spell – adding a HoT to the heal.
While at first I thought this would be a good idea, the more I think I about it the more I decide it is a bad idea. If we had a HoT tacked onto the heal then to balance it, the actual direct heal would have to be lessened, this thus weakens the spell that is supposed to fix our lack of direct AoE heals.
The counter argument is that some HoT element BEFORE the Bloom i.e. for standing in the right place when the shrooms are planted, would lessen the problems of moving away before the Bloom occurs. However, other options such as plater targeted mushrooms, increased AoE etc could negate that rather than simply lessen it slightly.
So there’s my thoughts on the new shrooms, I am still considering various points about symbiosis so that will come later.
Kat
P.S. regarding the odd paragraph titles; while reading up on blogs and such for this post, I somehow ended up reading the Bruce Lee wiki page, so in homage to the odd ability of the internet to make you spend hours looking at stuff NOT REMOTELY CONNECTED TO WHAT YOU ARE RESEARCHING!, the paragraph headings are slightly altered versions of the names of some of his films.
Offensive names, inappropriate word use, attitudes
21Warning: this is angry post and has various trigger words in it.
Also the “you” used is not directed at my usual reader base, but only to people who are actually guilty of the things mentioned here.
This is a post about something that really pisses me off.
Contrary to what some people think, it actually takes an awful lot to really get my hackles up. I am usually very laid back and even though I can sometimes come across as annoyed or whatever (especially online ^^ the internet is not always a good medium for getting across how you are feeling) 99.99% of the time anything I say/write is done with a smile.
However, this topic is discussed with what is most certainly not a smile. There is also a fair amount of anger in there as well.
So what is it that has caused such strong emotions in me that I feel it is necessary to spew forth on the internet
Simply put, it is the attitude of online gamers.
I am not talking here about the inspecting someone and kicking them/dropping group just because they are not what you consider “good enough”, nor am I talking about the derogatory remarks regarding someone playstyle or similar. That is all simply covered by people being dicks.
What I mean is when it goes a stage further. When it crosses the boundary between being an wannabe l33t and actually being someone that you are glad you do not have to meet face to face.
This is a sliding scale, at the bottom you have the people who think it is “cool” and “edgy” to use offensive terms to describe other people. Repeatedly.
Again, not the ones who describe a T2 dressed paladin as looking “gay”, but the ones who persistently use (relatively) low level offensive names and direct them at the PERSON PLAYING not the character.
This itself is pretty bad, look at the logic behind it and the reason for the name calling. You think someone who fails to hold aggro and wipes the group you are in is bad. To sum up this feeling you call them a name, instead of “bad tank”, “fail tank”, or even “completely fucking useless no good tank” you call them “stupid gay tank”. Immediately that shows a group of random people a whole lot about you. Especially if you persist along this line and start raging in chat about them.
All you are doing is showing yourself to be a homophobic (or racist or whatever depending on the term you used) dick who needs anger management lessons because they cannot control their temper in a game. Why do I say homophobic? – because you instantly linked and equated being bad or failing with being gay.
Somewhere above this on the scale you have people who think it is equally “cool” to use inappropriate words to describe things.
My personal (very strong) dislike here is to use a certain word to describe what happened when you beat someone in PvP or similar (or were beaten). Just in case anyone who flagrantly throws around such a term is reading this, I will just clarify the matter for you. YOU JUST BEAT OR WERE BEATEN ONLINE BY SOMEONE PLAYING A VIDEO GAME! You were not forced into a non-consensual sexual act that has left you potentially physically, mentally, emotional hurt or damaged in such a way that it may affect the rest of your life. In short you were NOT raped. It is very hard to write how much the prolific online usage of that one word in entirely the wrong context angers me.
I had to deal with a group of young lads in our guild a few years ago with exactly this issue. Three of them joined at the same time and they all PvPed together. After a particularly crushing defeat of the Horde, they were gloating in /g (as you do) when that word sprang up. A female guildie pointed out it was inappropriate and would they please refrain from using it. Two of them apologised and ceased, but the third refused and started on the tired old line of “it’s just a word”.
Long story short, it quickly degenerated into this lad hurling abuse around until it got to the point where someone reported him and he got a 24 hour ban. This did nothing except cause him to take it up on the guild forum with a exceptionally vitriolic post about the guildies who objected to the use of the word before leaving the guild. As 2IC I then get /w from him “explaining” how the guild is a bunch of easily offended idiots run by a bunch of girls. He then wondered why I wouldn’t invite him back. O.o
Then right at the top you have people who actively engage in trying to push other people over the edge deliberately. The “edge” in question could be trying to goad them into leaving a group or guild, it could be trying to make them snap and get angry (both of which are lower down the scale) or in very rare cases it could be something as monumentally insensitive and idiotic as the recent complete lack of sense shown by The Mittani at the recent EVE fanfest.
Without going into too much detail, he basically told everyone about a suicidal guy in EVE before adding “Incidentally, if you want to make the guy kill himself, his name is [redacted], he has his own corp. Find him.“
But, hey, this ok because he was apparently very drunk and then issued an apology so everything is fine. /sarcasm
A brief apology for such behaviour does not make it all ok. What if the player in question had been online and a few idiots decided to try and push him. While the drunken Mittani is still staggering on stage thinking he is so awesome, the player is filling the bath and hunting out some sharp knives.
Think an apology would cut it in the morning? Maybe to his parents or any other family he has? “Oh, yh, umm, like I was really drunk and told a bunch of people online to push your son until he committed suicide. Sorry”
Doesn’t quite work does it?
Now this was a very serious incident, and thankfully one that doesn’t seem to happen very often.
However, at the core of all these attitude problems there is a pair of issues – firstly, those engaging in the offending activity are thinking only of themselves and how they look/sound/feel or whatever, and secondly they are forgetting that on the other side of every single character in every single game online is another human. One whom often you know nothing about.
This ignorance and selfishness is the most debilitating thing in online gaming today. The idea that it is ever ok to label someone else with a potentially very offensive name is ridiculous. You have no idea who the person is that you are labelling as gay/fat/jew etc.
The tank mentioned above might well be someone with very confused ideas and feelings about their sexuality and who does not have any support network to help them. However they do have you banging on in party chat about them being gay and worthless and stupid and useless and fail and a homo.
Likewise any number of other terms that people regularly use supposedly in “jest” can be highly offensive. When you are on forums, an open chat channel, a voice coms server or anything there could be any number of people who you are upsetting, making feel uncomfortable etc by throwing around things like “I totally raped that priest in WSG”, “that stupid fat nigger just stole my node” and so on.
Words have power. They have the power to inspire confidence and drive people forwards to something better. They also have the power to crush people and make them feel worthless and nothing.
Also, this power does not have to be directed at the person in question. Someone who is feeling low can draw inspiration from hearing someone else receiving a pep talk. Just as easily, someone else can be crushingly depressed to overhear joking talk of “mongs” when they have disabled people in their family.
Remember that just as in real life, unless you are talking in a direct chat to the other player, your conversation is at least partially public and can be seen/heard by more than just you and a friend.
The major point I am trying to make here is that usually you never know who is on the other side of that random character you are running with in a dungeon, shooting at on CoD etc. Ultimately, we all play for fun, release, downtime or something similar and no one likes having their chill time shattered by a random person. Throwing words around that you know are offensive to some people is not big or clever, it is a very childish and immature act that does not make you “cool” or anything. It makes you an insensitive idiot.
This has rather rambled on for long enough now, it’s pretty much all over the place but this has frustrated me so much recently I just needed to vent something.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading.
Be excellent to each other
Kat
Regarding MoP changes, beta etc
01 month ago
I have had a few emails and such in the few days along the lines of “Are you and Cantor doing a beta post? What do you think of the already released info?” and so on.
The reason we haven’t put a post up yet is because we are recording the next episode of Roflmiao tomorrow and we will be discussing it there. Once that is out of the way we will be condensing it down and posting up something here – just like every other WoW blogger in the last few days 
As for beta access – currently Cantor has it and I don’t (yet) 
Kat
BBB Writing Challenge
1Earlier this week The Big Bear Butt issued a writing challenge. Here is my entry
Approaching the entrance cautiously, Kat treaded lightly over the loose rubble and broken tools. She would have preferred to not have to enter the abandoned mine at all but one of her saber cubs had escaped and was last seen heading into the old workings.
As she progressed deeper in the mine, the light faded and she shifted into the form of a large purple cat.
Kat padded down the passageway, her whiskers and ears twitching as she constantly scanned for any sign of the cub in the darkness.
She placed a paw on a pile of rotten timber and sprang back as it gave under her weight and collapsed into an old shaft, the broken wood bouncing on the sides and echoing as they landed with splash, far below.
That was close, she thought, I should concentrate more on where I am going.
As the final echoes disappeared, her ears flickered – down a side tunnel she could hear a very faint mewing sound. She turned and started to run down the tunnel. Unlike the main passage, it was only partially excavated and piles of rockfall from the ceiling littered the way. The end of the tunnel was blocked by a fresh cave-in and she paused, listening again for the cub.
Quieter this time and barely audible, the mew was coming from behind the rock fall. Kat pawed at the rubble and tried to break through. As she scrabbled at the heap, fresh pebbles and debris rained down on her from above.
She swore as part of the wall slid down next to her and an old torch bracket caught her leg.
Digging more gently this time, Kat started to clear a gap through the rubble further away from the newly collapsed wall.
Eventually she shifted enough detritus that there was a small hole through into the rest of the tunnel. Shifting back into her Elven form, she lay downa nd with a lot of effort managed to slip her slender body through the hole.
The remainder of the passage was filled with old crates and buckets. Whistling softly Kat searched for the cub, carefully moving things until she found it hidden under an discarded blanket.
The small animal was shivering and whimpering.
“Hush now” said Kat, “it’s alright, I found you and I will get back where you belong. There might even be a big juicy steak waiting for you.”
She thrust the cub through the tight opening and slithered after it, skinning her elbows in her haste to ensure the cub didn’t run away again.
The movement caused more pebbles and dust to tumble down, and an ominous rumble echoed up the tunnel
Shifting back into her cat form, she picked up the cub by the scruff and ran out down the tunnel, her paws a blur as she dodged the shattered pit props and debris falling from above.
Shards of rock rained down around them as Kat hurtled along the passage. She bounded over the exposed shaft and thundered out of the mine into the night as the entrance collapsed behind her, showering them with dust.
Gently placing the shaking cub on the ground, she licked it clean and made sure it was safe before allowing her own vain side to take over and clean the dust from her own fur.
When they were both clean and dust free, Kat picked the cub up again and walked back home through the star lit night.
When Kat met Cantor
4I often get asked how a casual Alliance resto druid ended up meeting a not casual Horde feral druid (ok, not that often but it is a good excuse to post this story^^). So here is how Kat and Cantor met. Kat maintains that Cantor started it, and Cantor claims he is innocent and Kat was picking on him.
Flying high above the canopy of Ashenvale, Kat was lost in exhilarating thrill of riding the wind. She soared on the thermals, spiraling up before allowing herself to drop down again to catch another gust of warm air.
Oh no, not already thought the druid as she saw her destination approaching I just want to keep flying!
She swooped down through the branches to land, and with a brief thought shifted back into her natural form. As she did so, she heard a slow clapping and a sarcastic laugh from behind her.
Standing up, Kat dusted herself off and turned around to see who was there. Sitting on a log was a fellow druid – though this one was from the Horde, a hulking blue skinned troll with grey hair and long, sharp tusks.
Narrowing her eyes, the elven druid glared at the laughing troll.
“What is so funny?” she demanded.
“You are” sniggered the troll, “I be sitting here all peaceful and suddenly a great squawking bird drops out of de sky and crashes through da trees. I thought someone had been hunting and shot a vulture!”
Eyes flashing angrily, Kat walked towards the troll.
“I did not crash through the trees!” she exclaimed.
Still laughing the troll rose from his log. Fully standing he was a good foot taller than Kat and he looked down at her, his tusks just inches from her face.
“Be quiet little elf” he said, “I was only joking witcha”
Calming down a little, Kat backed off and turned to walk away.
“Good” said Kat, walking away from the troll. “well I have get going, I can’t stand around all day talking. At least not with a cannabalistic savage” She smiled as the troll behind her growled.
“We are no cannibals!” the troll snarled back at her.
Turning back to face him, Kat smiled sweetly “That’s only because you had to stop if you wanted to join the Horde. Otherwise you would still be eating anything you could, just like all the others.”
The troll bristled at the undisguised insult. “You wouldn’t say dat if you knew who you was speaking with!”
Now it was Kat’s turn to laugh, “I doubt that, you are just a druid, same as me, I don’t recognise you as some fearsome hero. “
Pulling himself even taller, the troll looked down the length of his tusks at the Night Elf laughing before him.
“I be Cantor, da Dragonslayer, and you be one sorry elf when I finish wit you!”
Leaping towards the night elf, Cantor shifted in mid jump and snarled as he became a large grey cat with a great shaggy white mane. Springing backwards, Kat barely avoided a deadly swipe of his paw that left deep gouges across the hardened leather of her armour. She then rolled to one side as his teeth snapped at her face and one yellowed tusk grazed along her cheek.
Hissing through her teeth at the troll she shifted into her ursine form and reared onto her back legs with a load roar. Cantor scrambled around to face her and with a loud roar of his own pounced at the bear again. Anticipating the leap, Kat swung backhanded at the cat as it moved. Her huge paw caught the leaping cat on the chest and flung it against the broad trunk of an oak tree.
As the troll hit the tree, Kat roared and dropped down ready to charge him.
Dazed, Cantor fell to the ground, shaking his head to clear the ringing from his ears. Seeing the bear was about to charge, he swiftly moved into the undergrowth and disappeared from Kat’s sight.
Kat realised what the troll was doing, but was too late to prevent it. Growling angrily she ran over and tore at the bushes where he had been, shredding them and sending branches flying, but to no avail. The feral cat had vanished.
Slinking through the bushes, Cantor saw the enraged bear thrashing around. Smiling toothily he softly moved through the trees and bushes until he was behind her. Lurking in the shadows, the troll could see that the night elf was so intent on attacking him that she wasn’t thinking properly and hadn’t realised he was sneaking around her.
Softly padding out of his cover, Cantor positioned himself and crouched, his tail and rear wriggling as he manoeuvred ready to pounce. He unleashed his bunched up muscles and hurtled through the air towards Kat, both front paws extended before him.
Suddenly a powerful blow to the back of her head sent Kat reeling, and she felt dizzy and sick as Cantor drove both paws into her skull while he leapt past her. Swaying and unsteady on her feet, she swung her fuzzy head left and right looking for the nimble cat.
Taking advantage of the shaky bear, Cantor darted around her side and opened up her flank with a swipe of his razor sharp claws. Roaring in pain Kat shook off the daze, and ignoring the pounding in her head, spun around and clawed the cat across the face, slicing him above the eye and breaking off one of his tusks, leaving a short splintered stump. The savage blow sprayed the troll’s blood high and stained his white mane.
Yowling and with blood pouring into his right eye, Cantor spun around and jumped onto Kat’s back, sinking his teeth into her neck. The druid’s long canines drove through the thick hide of the bear and blood pumped out, running down the side of Kat’s neck and dripping onto the floor.
With her knees weak, Kat called on all her strength and stood on her hind legs before smashing the troll on her back against a tree. Cantor howled but clung on tried to bury his teeth further into the bear. Roaring in agony and fury, Kat slammed herself on the tree again. Leaves and small branches rained down on them both and a squirrel chattered fiercely at the battling druids before scampering away. This time Cantor felt something in his chest crack and he lost his grip, dropping to the ground. He staggered to his paws, wheezing heavily and gasping as his broken ribs grated with every breath.
Dropping down onto all four paws again, Kat backed away from the injured cat, growling as her side throbbed where she had been raked. Looking at the parallel slices, she could see they were puffy with a sickly green tinge and discoloured blood was slowing oozing from the cuts.
I should have realised his claws would be poisoned Kat thought as she gritted her teeth against the pulsing pain.
Focusing on her rage and desire to destroy the troll, Kat forced the throbbing in her head and side to fade into the background as she tensed herself, ready to charge and crush the troll.
Looking up at the last second, Cantor saw Kat ready herself and tried to move, but his aching body would not respond fast enough. Kat slammed into him, making him yelp in pain and knocking the air from his lungs. The bear’s head flipped him up and the weight of the Night Elf crashed him into the tree once more.
As he fell onto his back, Kat stood over the fallen troll and clamped her teeth around his throat.
With Kat’s immense jaws engulfing his neck, Cantor kicked out with his back legs and was rewarded with a muffled roar when they split open her chest, scraped down her ribcage and raked onto her stomach. Kat’s jaws loosened from his throat and she collapsed on top on the cat, breathing hard.
They lay there for a few seconds, neither able to move and both on the edge of unconsciousness.
Without warning, a twist of air thrust down out of the clear sky and lifted Kat off the prone troll, while the roots of the tree he lay against burst from the ground and enveloped Cantor, pinning him down.
“What is the meaning of this!” thundered a deep, authoritative voice.
Weakly looking towards the sound, both druids saw a furious Hamuul Runetotem.
“We druids are trying to work together to mend the damage Garrosh has caused with his thoughtlessness and what do you I find while travelling?” Hamuul bellowed at the trapped pair. “A pair of experienced druids tearing each other and the forest to pieces!”
Caught in the air, entangled in roots, and exhausted after their battle, neither had the strength to reply to the Archdruid’s words.
Seeing how injured they both were, Hamuul released his will. The cyclone holding Kat dissapated as quickly as it appeared and she slumped to the ground while the roots around Cantor retreated back into the earth.
“Now both of you change back so this can be sorted out” he said in a much calmer tone.
Groggily, Kat concentrated and resumed her elven form. The effort made her head spin and pound even hard. Groaning she pulled herself onto one knee and bit her lip to prevent her crying out in pain. Looking at her leg she let out a whimper as she saw the deep gashes again. Now that she was not a bear, the jagged tears covered all of her thigh, and the whole leg was an ugly green colour. Her head and neck were agony and she felt like she would pass out. Blood still flowed from the wounds on her neck and down her armour, mingling with the fresher blood from the slices down her chest and stomach. Looking down at herself, she was relieved that the wounds were not too serious, despite cutting through to the bone, though she would have to find someone to repair her armour – the breastplate was shredded and barely hanging together.
Glancing over to Cantor she saw he was not much better, and he spat out a mouthful of blood as he struggled to stand. Kat could see the pain he was in as he gasped and winced at his broken ribs. Blood sheeted down from the claw marks over his eye and his broken tusk jutted out from his blood covered face.
Walking over to them , Hamuul first placed his hand over the wounds on Kat’s thigh. He chanted softly as he drew out the poison and numbed the pain. Kat watched the swelling lessen and felt the pain subside until she could stand, albeit shakily.
“Thank you Archdruid” she said meekly, looking at the floor.
Hamuul then moved to Cantor. Looking at the gasping troll, the Tauren druid gently laid his hands on either side of Cantor’s chest. Closing his eyes and focusing on the worst breaks, Hamuul slowly poured enough energy into the troll to knit the fractured bones and allow him to breath. His breath still coming in ragged gasps, but not so painfully, Cantor looked up at Hamuul.
“Thank you Archdruid” he said softly.
The tauren walked away from the pair and then turned and faced them both.
“We were going try and encourage some druids from both Horde and Alliance to work together closely. I was going to ask for volunteers but I think seeing as you two have already met and seem to have been thinking alike, I will allow you to continue working together.”
“You had better both get used to each other and get over this little issue fast.” Leaving the two druids in shock, Hamuul chuckled and left them standing as he continued on his way to the Cenarion meeting.
As Hamuul walked away, Kat and Cantor looked at each other and groaned.
There you have it, the truth behind how too druids from opposite sides of WoW and became
firm friends,acquaintances,partners, well how 2 druids met and ended up occasionally collaborating.
Kat’s sixth
02 months ago
by Katarnas
in Meme of 6s
<picture of bandwagon galloping into the distance with Kat running behind trying to jump on>
As no doubt everyone knows now, there has been a meme going around about posting you 6 screenshot from the sixth folder taken on the 6th of June 2006. Ok, maybe not quite like that but certainly the 6 pic from the 6th folder.
I was taking a little break when it happened, but I just found out that Karegina at Reluctant Raider had tagged me for it on twitter, so here goes
Now I don’t have a whole lot of organised folders, something went wrong and I currently just have a bunch of random loose images so I have posted the sixth one of those I found (skipping duplicates, I take screenies like I take photos – lots and lots and then pick the nicest)
This came about one day a few years ago when our server was down! :O We bounced around some ideas on the guild forum and through the chattering teeth of cold turkey decided to make a horde guild on the realm most of us had migrated from – Aggramar. So that lunchtime at work, I quickly sorted and levelled a DK ready to register a guild and then that evening we did so. The main rule was that you ahd to name your character after someone else in Otaku, but not your own characters. This made for hilarious confusion on vent
random guildie: “Hi Mal,”
me: “it’s Kat”
RG: “but it says Mal on your character!”
me: “I know, you didn’t read the forum properly did you?”
RG: “no…….”
As we were from Chamber of Aspects and were going nuts not being to log in (iirc it was a raid night as well) the name CoA Looniebin seemed obvious. We all created a bunch of undead and just messed around, dancing, making conga lines and generally having a laugh. Some even made it to 15 and went dungeoning. So mass fun was had for all, a good evening
Kat
Ending the Drought
02 months ago
by Katarnas
in Guild Stuff
As followers of RiE (or the Roflmiao podcast or Kat on twitter or my guildies) will probably know, we have been having a little trouble with Zon’ozz in DS normal. Thankfully the git is now dead. It has been a troublesome kill and not one we expected to be so hard.
We have had a few issues along the way -
- Unhittable ball – the first evening we tried it, we didn’t realise the ball was unhittable for a few seconds after a bounce and we placed the two groups to close to each other, this meant it passed through the melee group and hit the tank or the boss.
- Raid attendance – as a small guild we have often had trouble getting enough people to fill the raid team on raid nights.
- Healer issues – once we started to get in multiple black phases, we were finding that us healers were having quite a lot of mana trouble and were going OOM pretty fast. However, we identified the root of the problem and managed to fix it, which was;
- Tank kept dying – our warrior tank was regularly getting jobbed by the boss. After studying his stats, avoidance etc we found the reason why – he had been trying for socket bonus’s of dodge and parry, and had been trying to balance his dodge/parry rather than going pure mastery. This meant he was only at 88% avoidance, and was needing more heals. It also meant that as we went for 7-5-5 bounces, he was often getting killed in the first series of bounces as the boss’s damage increased. A quick reforge and such later and voila – he didn’t get hit anywhere near as hard.
So yes, after a good while I have now had my my first new boss kill since the day after 4.3 hit. This makes Kat very very happy
Unfortunately, what doesn’t make Kat happy is reading my logs after the evening’s raiding. You may recall that after starting if Firelands I began to try and openly analyse my performance through the blog in order to identify my weak spots and set myself so goals to achieve.
Looking through the logs, I see that for whatever reason, my healing has slipped somewhat. Now it may be down to having a break, the fact that I was getting stressed on the boss or any one of a number of reasons. However, no matter what the reason the result is the same – my healing was below what it should have been.
Looking back at my original post about critical self analysis, I see that I am still exhibiting the bad things I identified back then.
- Swiftmend: my usage of SM is still low (I had improved bu now it is slipping again) on Zon’ozz especially I consider this not acceptable, the AoE from the void ball and the black phases alone is enough to warrant pretty much using it on CD.
- Harmony Uptime: Despite using PA, I have somehow still allowed my uptime on harmony to slide down. Where it used to be 95%+ it was hovering around 75-80%. Again, not good when I am AoE healing or using a lot of rejuvs and could really do with the buff. This is particularly important currently as I am comfortably at 2005 haste and am pouring everything into mastery.
- Cooldowns: Granted, on Zon’ozz we are cycling particular cooldowns for the black phases, but I still missed some out. As I am still stuck with an old 365 trinket with a 2 min CD, it could have been used easily on phases 1+3 or 2+4 and I didn’t. Innervate could probably have seen more use as well. I also notice that it was specifically that trinket and innervate that I mentioned back in FL as being my major CD weak point.
Hopefully this is just because of taking a break and I will get back into it now, but unless I manage to change these over the next few raid nights I am going to have to take speak privately with myself after the raid and give myself a talking too about playing my class properly.
Here’s to striving to improve yourself.
Kat
