Posted By Llanion on July 3, 2009
As of unholy-o’-clock this morning, Llanion has his Flame Warden or Flame Keeper or whatever the title is connected with the Midsummer Fire Festival. Got it all in one marathon four-hour session.
Random philosophical thought: Post frequency seems to vary in some proportion based on how much I think of this blog as work. Interesting.
Catch you later, folks!
Posted By Llanion on July 2, 2009
Convalescent is an odd word. The Latin ‘vale’ is literally “be well” as a demi-command.
I totally wrecked my shoulder heaving around 400 pounds of concrete on Tuesday. I am con-valescing.
I’m doing remarkably well, considering- I made a trifle (gotta get the recipe for that one up here) to celebrate Canada Day yesterday. It was possibly the most polite revolution in history (”Please, may we be our own country now? Thank you!”).
I still haven’t done the Midsummer Stuff as my farewell tour. For such things are weekends made, I suppose.
Within the next week, I need to start making the Lessons of WoW TCG post-series.
I’ve noticed my blogging tends to fall off during the summer to one a week or less, as I find it harder to focus.
I’ll be orbiting away now, but hey, still alive…
Posted By Llanion on June 23, 2009
Edit: See note below picture.
I guess I lied in my last post. In my defense, it wasn’t intentional.
See, the great experiment? The long weekend away? It became more of a week. I came back, I tried out Ulduar, and it was fun… but after I logged off, I just felt… I don’t know. Not so ‘charged up’ as I used to be coming off the high of raiding, or heroics, or even tough quests. The week stretched, and then another one was added, and then I realised something. As I said to my guildies:
Lately, I just haven’t been feeling that spark that drives me to do the crazy things I do in game… …the game has recently felt like being at a party with a bunch of good friends… but not actually doing any partying. Just sitting there with my drink in my hand, listening to the music and counting ceiling tiles.
So what does this mean?
As of July 5th at approximately 6 AM local time, I will no longer be an active player of World of Warcraft.
Edit: Can’t brain today, I have the dumb: This is for the summer. I will be looking at the situation again come September.
Things to do before the 5th: Getting my mailbox in order.
Picking up the Fire Festival achievements (because damn, but I’m going to want that purple drake later and waiting a year would suck).
Wild farewell bash including getting totally trashed on cheap booze and running through Elwynn setting off fireworks.
Log out somewhere nice.
This is not the end of this blog.
I have found myself of late reading blogs less because of their pure WoW content and more because I enjoy seeing the things other Warcraft enthusiasts have to say. More to the point, this is not the end of my involvement in the World of Warcraft- I play (and am local judge for) the card game; I am known to write fiction based in that universe; I enjoy reading the published fiction. You can expect a shift in topic, certainly- my blogging will touch on other games and gaming, there will be more fiction and more recipes, there will be some ’slice of life’ and there will be much, much, and again much about the card game. If that is not your cup of tea, then, sincerely, thank you for reading, and good luck to you elsewhere.
If that sounds interesting… I’d be lying if I said I knew where this ship was going, but I’m going to hang on to the wheel, brace my feet on the deck, and out-shout the storm. We’ll see what happens.
~Llanion
Late of Arathor (US) Realm
Level 80 Tauren Druid
“The Mad Cow”, “Fishmonger”, et al.
P.S.: Even if you just normally lurk, even if you don’t feel you have anything to say, could you leave a comment if you’ve found this blog insightful, amusing, or useful somehow in the past? Raise your hand, wave a lighter over your head, it doesn’t matter… I’m just wondering if I’m writing for more than four people. 
Posted By Llanion on June 3, 2009
The venerable Stop is no longer a WoW player (and therefore, naturally, no longer a WoW blogger).
In his post, he goes over a list of reasons why WoW has, for him, become less of an entertainment and more of an obligationistic time-sucker (verbiage my own).
It got me to thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know). I used to do all sorts of things. I played games (many of these). I coded. I wrote.
Now I spend my evenings playing WoW, a lot of the time. Not recently- in a twisted way, I have Blizzard to thank for the wake-up call- but still.
Those of you who are biting your nails in suspense, calm down a little.
I still enjoy the game, for all its faults. I know this is because I have friends who I can spend time with only in-game, and/or because the game’s challenges haven’t quite worn off. But… it doesn’t need to take as much time as I have been known to give it. I can make time for my own things and reduce the time I spend in WoW. There’s nothing making me play.
So… after tonight- I get to see the beginning of Ulduar, hopefully, with some friends, and I do find that exciting- I am not going to log in to WoW until, at a minimum, Monday. Call it an experiment, if you will. That gives me Thursday and Friday evenings, and all day Saturday- Sunday was (for a marvel) already scheduled for out-of-game things*- with which to try other things.
Perhaps I’ll resume one of my many, many half-finished strategy or RPG games. Perhaps I’ll restart one of them. Perhaps I’ll finally put the last polish on some rules I wrote for tabletop strategy. Perhaps I’ll even get some coding done.
Maybe I’ll even write in my blog (yeah, right).
No, I’m not quitting blogging. Or WoW. Put the handcuffs down. Hey! Help! Aaaaaah!
*okay, so Sunday’s activity is overseeing, demonstrating and playing the Warcraft Trading Card Game look it’s not the same thing okay it just isn’t. stop looking at me like that.
Posted By Llanion on June 1, 2009
I’ve found myself into the WoW TCG a lot recently, largely due to deciding at random to drop by the comic shop on a Friday night just under a month ago.
Things sort of snowballed from there. I am now the area Tournament Organizer, Judge and Specialist for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.
And- shh, don’t tell my guildies- I’ve actually been having more fun with it than I have with the online raiding.
Some draws-
You don’t have to spend time- weeks or months in my case, as I’m notoriously slow at levelling- doing ’secondary’ content before you get to the cutting edge stuff. Any deck can compete the instant it’s built.
Old content doesn’t stale. Is the Onyxia raid deck easier than the Black Temple raid deck? Yes. Is the Onyxia raid deck trivial enough that you can solo it the way you can in Online? … not even close. You’d get eaten whole- it’s still a challenging fight for a raid group.
You can switch it up in a hurry. If I get tired of playing my main deck (Hybrid caster Horde druid) I can just stick it back in the box and pull out one of my others; the deck I replace it with will similarly be ready to go.
Jerks are rare- and they don’t last long. If someone is being a griefer in the online game, your choices are to log off, /ignore, grit your teeth or some combination of the above. If someone is being an equivalent jerk in the card game- which is unlikely, as people don’t seem to be such jerks offline- you can pop him one (or, more likely, ask the judge to pop him one investigate the matter). Unlike the online game, Judges- the card game’s version of a GM- take ‘good sportsmanship’ seriously, and your griefer could find himself awarded a game loss or even ejected from the premises.
So is it going to replace my love of the online game? No, I don’t think so.
Is it in there reminding me just how good Blizzard is at making compelling properties? Yes.
I will leave you with a picture!
This is Morova of the Sands. There are many Heroes, but this one is mine. She and I beat down a gnome warlock yesterday. It was fun.
And a question! Anyone out there play the card game? Anyone out there want to learn about it? (Anyone out there wish I’d shut up and get back on topic, already?)
Posted By Llanion on May 27, 2009
Sylly has tagged me for a meme; recounting my experiences when new. Well, here we go:
I’m late to the party, so I’m not going to tag anyone, but please, I’d love to know- what’s your single most hilarious ‘newbie’ moment?
Posted By Llanion on May 20, 2009
So it’s been two weeks since I last blogged.
I have no tales of derring-do, no thrilling escapades with which to regale you. Essentially, the mind-numbing furious frustration engendered by School of Hard Knocks burned me out faster than a piece of dry tissue paper plunged into the fiery heart of a neutron star.
After collecting the last criterion for School of Hard Knocks, on Thursday, I logged out, realizing that I, well, really didn’t want to play. I spent my weekend playing cards- I am a fan and proponent of both Magic: The Gathering and, to a greater extent, the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Yes, I realize there is some irony in escaping from World of Warcraft to play… World of Warcraft. There are some key differences, but that’s a topic for another time.
Weekend ended and, well, I didn’t feel like playing WoW. The guild was going through drama, and the little voice in my head that is The Loyal Officer was hoarse from all the shouting. The I-Am-Stressed-And-This-Is-Not-Relaxing voice tied him up and dragged him off somewhere.
Guild drama shook itself out over the next week; we are now a smaller guild. I admit to being relieved- I’m on record as having stated I felt the guild was too big, and all but one of the recent /gquits were members with whom I’ve clashed at least once. Still didn’t feel like doing much, so I played my tiny fire mage from level 11 to level 14.
Yesterday I stepped back into the game proper (my druid) for the first time in almost two weeks. Four of us went and demolished Utgarde Keep.
I noticed that Typhoon, when glyphed, has a shift in its usage paradigm, and picked up a staff for my offspec. I also had fun chewing the fat with three of my friends as we turned vrykul into proto-drake kibble.
I guess I could be playing again, now. As for blogging… I took advice from the venerable Kestrel, who I will now paraphrase because I simply cannot remember his exact words: “You don’t have to post every day, or even every week. And the posts I like the best are when a WoW blogger posts about something tangentially or even directly related to WoW, rather than a rehash of game mechanics.”
Well, I can’t promise posts about game mechanics (or neat twists on them) will fail to appear here… but tangents? That I excel at.
N.B.*: I have not forgotten that I was tagged to do the Newbie Flailing meme. I will get there. I have not forgotten that I have failed to update NibNotes in about a month now. I have not forgotten the e-mail from Tyberiuss- shout-out to Ty and his buddies in AIE.
I have simply not gotten around to them yet. I probably will- please hold.
‘N.B.’. Abbreviation. Latin; “Nota Bene”, roughly “Note well”.
Posted By Llanion on May 6, 2009
So I’m really hating School of Hard Knocks, and for one reason- that Warsong Gulch criterion. It makes me furious.
Just got out of a nice run with some friends, though. We started buck naked at the beginning of RFC. We ran a few instances, equipping only what we found… and ended up with UBRS as our fourth (fifth?) run.
Drakkisath dropped some sword for our paladin. We’ve all kept track of what we had equipped, and we’re going to try again later.
It was fun.
That is all.
Posted By Llanion on May 4, 2009
I know, I know, the cow hasn’t been around much lately. The cow has been spending his time treating WoW as World of Chatcraft, to be honest- thus I have no huge revelations about my escapades in Ulduar.
What I do have is some advice. See, Dual Specs came out in 3.1 and, delicious as they are, they presented me with a problem: Feral bear is something I haven’t played in two years. It was my dual spec of choice; I did not want to do it badly. Trying to find an easy dual-spec guide was an exercise in frustration…
So here we go!
Click here to see Llanion’s Recommended ‘Core’ boomkin spec.
So what’s so special about this spec? It’s the absolute bare minimum of talents needed to do decent (not extraordinary) boomkin DPS. It allows six points of leeway.
“What talents should I get with those six points, Llanion?”
That’s really more or less up to you. If you’re having mana problems, perhaps investing into Dreamstate or Intensity will be helpful. If you want more powerful AOEs, Gale Winds is nice. Typhoon and Starfall are fun but extremely situational spells; Improved Insect Swarm is a nice boost to DPS (roughly 2% overall).
ON NO ACCOUNT should you be investing points into Genesis, Brambles or Owlkin Frenzy; the first one is actually a healer talent in the Balance tree (the improvement to our dots goes beyond ‘negligible’ and straight into ‘laughable’); the other two are straight-up PVP talents.
“I notice you have two major glyphs and one minor glyph picked out. Why? What should I use as my other major and my other two minors?”
The Glyph of Starfire is a boost to both your mana efficiency (extra ticks of Moonfire without having to recast?) and your DPS (because you aren’t burning time to re-cast Moonfire as often).
The Glyph of Moonfire provides two important benefits: First, it is a net increase in your DPS (90% of your Moonfire slam is a much smaller amount than 75% of the dot portion, particularly after Nature’s Splendor extends it, and again after the glyph of Starfire extends it). Second, it allows you to backload threat- you can begin your casting rotation immediately without worrying about also, immediately, peeling the tank.
As for other glyphs: Minors don’t matter. Seriously. Unburdened Rebirth is so good as to be amazing. The other minor options are, for a boomkin at least, well, meh. Pick what you like.
For Majors:
If you want to be flat-out amazing DPS, Insect Swarm or Innervate are good choices. Focus and Starfall… the Starfall spell is pretty situational already; it’s your choice whether to glyph it or not.
Okay, I’m specced and glyphed- what’s my rotation?
Easy there, cowboy. First, check your gear- you need 263 hit for raids. Enough crit to get you 20% in form is a nice baseline. After that, you should be shooting for Spellpower and Haste in no particular order. Don’t turn down crit if you get it on gear, but don’t pursue it as such.
Llanion- my rotation, please?
Fine, fine- Faerie Fire, Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Wrath. Keep casting Wrath until the dots fall off or Eclipse procs. If the dots fall off, put them back up. Cast Starfire until Eclipse wears off, maybe take a couple extra shots (Well, more if you can time it- more on that below), then back to Wrath.
Some Notes:
Edited to add: Oops! Totally forgot about this. Check out the addon ‘Squawk and Awe’- it’s really useful for timing Eclipses. Also, you can ignore Faerie Fire on trash mobs. Cheers!
Posted By Llanion on April 24, 2009
Many thanks, as always, to Anna of TooManyAnnas for the five questions to answer- and here they are below.
* Is your character participating in the Tourney? (If no, are you doing it OOC?)
Llanion: I am participating in the tournament, yes. It is good to test lances against my fellow Horde, and it does my heart some good to know that not all of those Porahalo, those Alliance, are like their sechalo* of a king.
* If asked “What is your home city”, how would your character respond? If the answer is not their “Faction Capitol” - why not?
Llanion: A difficult question. Fleeing the Centaur and studying the wilds was my childhood, my adolescence, until the war. Since then, the Orcs have helped my people build our great city, our Thunder Bluff but this is my home no more than the Moonglade, where the Kaldorei have relented and allowed us to join the Circle. A home? I have none, really.
* There are rumors in Dalaran that a Dwarven Expedition has unearthed an Old God - how will your character react?
Llanion: Awak yakee a’hok!** They’ll doom us all- where’s my mace?
* Does your character side more with Varian/Garrosh, or with Thrall/Jaina?
Llanion: That impulsive fool Hellscream will lead us to ruin. I side with the Warchief of my people’s brothers, and with the golden-haired mage who helped us during the War.
* Meta Question: Are there things you do with your character that are OOC, but have IC rewards? (Reputation for a Faction Item, farming for a non-combat pet, or Dailies/Quests for a title like Loremaster, for example?) Do you have an IC explanation?
Llanion: Always and always, there is work to be done; there is the unnatural to root out and destroy; there is the Balance of the Wild to preserve and tend.
*Translation: This Is Not A Nice Word To Be Called.
**Translation: lit. “Damn those fools!”
Me - A twenty-something self-professed science nerd from Northrend.
Him - A category-defying Druid on the Arathor US realm, Llanion is a healer with an unfortunate (?) predilection for feathers and mass destruction. Getting a solid grip on his spec is proving troublesome, as he seems to be switching back and forth between Restoration and deep Balance on a regular basis.
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