This will be lots of fun.

So, I just had the chance to pay the PTR a visit with my priest.

Just one word. Amazing.

In comparison to the current patch, I gained 10k health, a little more than 20k mana, almost 900 spellpower and about twice the mana regen.

Mind you, that is before buffs. 

I like how archangel looks, the wings are cute. I will probably be a little sloppy with healing a day or two until I get used to how I am supposed to heal now... especially because my all around spell has a cast time of 2,5 seconds, which is a bit much if you got Flash Heal down to 1 second and practiced GCD spamming. Strength of Soul seems like an interesting talent. I kinda like reducing the weakened soul debuff.

I really like the change to lifeblood, finally some use for herbalism in a raid environment. I never hit the button as of now, I imagine that will change. 240 haste is a lot.

I honestly imagine Blizzard will take out the nerfbat on healer soon. I can't imagine that mana will be a problem before the expansion is released, it even seems that it will become even less of an issue than it is now.

My in combat regen is actually high enough to keep spamming Heal all day if I want to. With Manaspring / Blessing of Might (new version) and replenishment and rapture I'll probably get more mana back than I could possibly spend.

I'll probably take this spec here on level 80

http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#bfMkGoshfodcZ0b

und upgrade that to this one in the progress of reaching level 85

http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#bfMkGoshfodf0RZ0b

Gay night elves; thoughts about Beta and PTR; Twinkraid?

First things first, I attempt to start a longer RP-Story with a friend and I created an additional blog for that.

It's a story about two night elves, Druid and Warrior.
Short summary:
Tandral, the warrior was trapped inside Ahn'Qiraj for the last ten centuries. As the doors were opened again, he was freed from the will of C'thun and brought to Dolanaar to recover.
Kilean is a ambitious druid and was Tandral's partner long ago. He still loves him and would do anything for him.
Shortly after Tandral is brought to Dolanaar, Kilean hears news of the arrival of an injured elf, of which they say he was mad and brought here from Silithus.
At first, he does not believe it - but curiosity gets the better of him.
As they meet Kilean is in shock. His love actually still lives. However the warrior has lost all his memories. What will become of them now?

Yes. THEY ARE GAY. Live with it. Anyone who's interested in reading what develops in that RP is welcome to go over to
http://kileantandral.blogspot.com/
and read. I wrote an introduction, more is soon to follow when we get started.
As a sidenote I actually write this RP in German, so I'm sorry for any (if there are!) english readers that I have to disappoint like this.
Whoever does not want to read it / does not like gays - KEEP OUT. You were warned. Don't complain. I'll just delete your comments in that case anyway.

MOVING ON.
I am not in the Beta, and I am slowly abandoning hope I will actually get access to this one before the expansion ships. However as 4.0 is being tested on the PTR currently, I snuck over there to get a glimpse of what's to come on my own. (I devour TotalBiscuit's videos as well as the ones from Yogscast, so I have a good guess of what's going on in Beta.)

Now, charactercopy is NOT working at all in EU PTR at the moment so I am yet again cursed to not being able to test the changes with my priest.
I began leveling a druid out of absolute boredom.
I like the new spellbook, I like the talent trees, I really like cat form at level 8.

I don't like the current numbers. I for one am a strange person - the higher my level, the less ambition I have for pvp. I love PvP at lower level ranges, the 10-19 bracket especially and I leveled char till twenty through pvp, deleted him and started anew several times already.
Lower level PvP is absolutely broken right now.
Everyone oneshots everyone. The numbers are RIDICULOUS.
Well I guess, numbers are not final applies here. At least I hope so.

I will probably test the new glyph interface as soon as I get my 80s over there (if ever.)

TOPIC CHANGE YET AGAIN.

Like everything else, terms in world of warcraft are sometimes subject to personal interpretation and definition.
So.
How do I define an alt-raid (Twinkraid, in German).
For me that is supposed to be a raid with known participants - in a different role, however.
Nevertheless, they KNOW the fights and are probably still performing better than your average trade pug.

As such, I differentiate between "acceptable mistakes" and "what the hell are you DOING?"

For example.
Being inexperienced as a tank and therefore not performing a good job on Keleseth with collecting dark nuclei - completely acceptable.
Waiting for the first dark nucleus to spawn and not tanking Keleseth at all while watching how the other tank is literally torn apart - not so much.

We have to tell basics apart from encounterspecific tactics.
Building up aggro on a mob you are assigned to is part of the basics - running around after that is done and collecting shadow orbs is encounterspecific.
Now. Knowing the encounter from another perspective makes you more likely to not totally screw up IF you master the basics.

Another example is Sindragosa.
Not being able to turn her around masterfully on your first time tanking - fine. I was not doing any better.
Not turning her at all, obliterating almost half the raid on the first frost breath? What the hell were you doing?

I know this might sound like hatespeech to the persons involved, but keep in mind - it is not.
You could also take it as advice. Study the basics! Different roles have different views of the fight - however you should use that to your advantage!
A healer generally has the best overview of boss abilities, encounter tactics and what's happening when. We have to, because we are supposed to counter this abilities to make sure our raid survives.

Don't tunnelvision. Try to envision yourself in the role of other people in your raid and you might be able to adjust the tactics to best fit YOUR group.
That can not be done if you only know one perspective of the fight.
This is especially important as a raid leader.

Aside from that I am now aware how horrendously I suck at Valithria Dreamwalker inside the Dream.
Whoever has thought of that insanity? I demand that he be punished.

Great raid!

After the three week summer break of Caladon, we did a full assault on the evils that lurk in Icecrown Citadel and all I have to say is...

WOW!

That was a great great great raid, we stormed through previous bosses like they were on normal, not heroic, and then after a few tries the Blood Princes bit the dust. It was a close kill actually with some very scary almost-tank-deaths, but we managed to score yourselves another bosskill.

Which is great. We did a few tries on Valithria after that as well and I was positively surprised.

I was a little bit sceptical, because Sucara, our holy paladin was not attending raid today. We were a three-healer setup as usual, Feuerblatt/Druid, Elementon/Shaman and me/Discipline.

I was sceptic. Especially concerning healing the group, which I usually do - and successfully did on heroic before - alone. Well, the last two weeks with Ritter der Apocalypse made me doubt my own skills as well as the group's on that boss.

It went so smootly. Adds were quickly killed, none or almost none frostbolt volleys were uninterrupted, Blazing Skeletons often died without even beginning to cast Lay Waste.

We are on 9/12 hardmodes.

Only Professor and Sindragosa remain. 

I honestly see enough potential here again to get these bosses down if we keep up the perfomance from tonight. 

Score me another 310% drake, Caladon. That's an order! :D

Bewaare

my paladin, Darrick, now not only knows how to tank, but also how to heal.

I am still missing a piece or two. A ring, a trinket, I also want the tier 9 helmet, but I have enough to heal some stuff.

I think "once a healer, always a healer" applies. I know how to heal in general, so it just need some getting used to paladin healing. Which is a bit different to discipline priest healing, but... it's easy to learn.

Also:

I killed Professor Putricide on Heroic now, with my tank. Nevermind that I was on Abomination-Duty, which means I know almost no difference at all (aside from "oh, that's two oozes now" and "there's someone with a big black cloud around".) buut, considering I fought against Blood Prince Council and Sindragosa on heroic aand killed everything else on heroic as well, that means... 

I know 11/12 hardmodes.

Wow. It feels kinda irreal, because I imagined some fights there to be harder, to take longer for me to see but... eleven of twelve. Only Arthas missing.

I saw almost every boss in the game on all available difficulties. (10man however.)

Impressing.

Awesome awesome awesome

First:

I never have to visit a heroic instance on my priest ever again in wrath. I finally got my 2500 emblems achievement, and I couldn't care less about the frost emblems. No more Halls of Stone!

Second:

Obviously I left a good impression on the raid members of Ritter der Apocalypse. We are not counting Maraxos in that, mind you. So, I got invited to the raid on Monday, which meant some tries on Heroic Sindragosa. Let's just say that the abundant practice on normal with Caladon results in me never getting hit by any frostbomb (and, if I was about to be hit I could disperse anyway.), not blowing up anybody with the Instability Debuff and Blistering Cold is nothing more than a nuisance because I waste time with running out.

Others? Not so much. A lot of deaths to frostbombs, a few to Blistering Cold... and tank deaths in the last phase because the moron ran way to far out. I mean, I even use grid on my paladin and it is quite easy to set it up that it displays if you are out of 40 meter range of your main healer. ... But that is just me I guess.

Nonetheless, my flawless performance (and a few helpful suggestions like "put the two shadow priests in different groups" for example... yes. It should be common sense, buut...) leads to me being invited AGAIN for the raid this weekend.

Yes. I feel awesome. I am a repeatedly invited random because I know my stuff. Unfortunately for them, I don't intend to switch raids, so Ritter der Apocalypse will be on their own again after this lookout.

What a pity.

Third:

Today I was lucky to see a member of Drachensilber, the best guild on our realm searching for a Shadow Priest for their alt run. I immediately whispered him/her.

Requirements? Clear experience and an average item level of 264.

So. I made sure that clear experience (and especially hard mode experience) from the 10 man version is good enough for them (it is). I had him/her check my gear and... I passed - with an average itemlevel of 257 or something on my shadow.

And, even better: He/She asked if I would be interested in a regular spot in that particular raid.

Everything depends now on if I am confirmed for Tuesday, and am able to satisfy them in regards to my performance and especially DPS. I can pull 10k in a 25 raid occasionally and I checked - the BiS-list for shadow priests before hardmodes simulates something along the lines of 11k to 12k DPS.

Means, I am good where I stand, now to get my framerate to a reasonable amount in a 25man. Should work out. Probably have to play on lowest options again, but hey - I know every polygon on these models anyway.

I'd like to have this before Cataclysm hits...

You know this mount, don't you?

It's the reward for the 10 man Glory of the Icecrown Raider Achievement.

One out my final goals before the next expansion hits, is to get this mount while the corresponding instance is still serious business.

I got my Rusted Protodrake from Ulduar 10 man - on 06/10/10. Way way way after the instance was still hard.

This is how it looks like on my priest. Several achievements still to obtain which... are a little bit hard to get in a PuG.

Things like All You Can Eat and Been Waiting A Long Time for This or, of course the Heroic: Achievements.

Missing the boss kills for that: Heroic Blood Council, Heroic Putricide and Heroic Sindragosa.

Honestly... I know for a fact I will not call this dragon my own due to the accomplishments of Caladon. Too many bosses we still struggle with and such things. Nonoptimal raid compositions and the dependence on some people who can't really pull their weight.

The number one guild on our realm, Drachensilber offers boost raids for this achievement for 50k all inclusive.

The buyer has the opportunity to get each piece of loot he needs, the achievements for the dragon...

But... I'm not sure. I think I would still pay 30k for these achievements, but not 50k. I mean, I don't need the loot anyway, I got half the achievement already done on my own...

I think while we do not exactly know when Cataclysm will hit, I'll just try to farm more gold. IF the release date is getting closer and I am still on this stage of progress I'll probably even pay the full 50k.

I know for sure I'd be absolutely capable of getting these achievements without me paying for that with a decent group, but... I like it in Caladon. The people are not exactly total pro players, but the majority is okay and fun. Which is why I am not intending to just switch raid for no other reason than my selfish ambitions of getting me another 310% drake.

If I pay them I'll only be not available for one or two lockouts. And I can still tank then, anyway. But I don't like the thought of paying the same like everyone else who needs everything although I... well got a lot of it done on my own.

Stupid pride.

Some evenings are more amusing than others.

“When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.”

I like this quote. Especially because it accurately describes my thoughts about the raid I joined yesterday.

So. I was idling in Dalaran, camping book spawns for my Higher Learning Achievement, when Eleonea, one of our more valuable raid members - an Elemental Shaman - asked me if I could heal for her guild's raid.

I said sure, because I had nothing to do and like to help out people I know.

So I got an invite.

Immediately, the teamspeak information was posted, I joined, went into their channel...

and the first thing I heard was "I am surprised he didn't leave immediately after reading my name" from Maraxos, one of our ex-hunters.

I like joining raids and be the center of conversation without doing anything. It means, I am important. Having a reputation and stuff. I don't care if he's badmouthing me. He's telling people about me. And, up to the current day I always left a positive impression on people who are made aware of my presence in the raid by others.

Thanks a lot.

Oh and Maraxos - you are not the center of the universe. I don't care if you are in the same raid. You are getting as much healing as every other person so we can finish the raid. That's... cooperating. Another concept you obviously do not understand.

Well, what I could tell after the few hours in the raid - he did not change. And I am glad that he chose to leave us. I am glad he made such a dramatic exit which led to the ban from our guild forum. Yes, I am glad he is gone. I admit that :)

Your behavior is absolutely childish. I can't really believe you are nineteen years old. You seem more like eight or ten. What do you get out of muting yourself if anyone says anything against you ONCE, actually hindering the raid's progression? 

It's funny that I - involuntarily - had to hear a discussion from your fellow guild members about your inacceptable behavior. Because I was reminded of the oh so many discussion in Caladon.

Different guild. Same Maraxos.

I don't even want to know why you wanted to show me that launcher of yours soo badly. Do you think I care?

I have news for you. I don't.

There is something similar between the two of us. And one important difference.

We both like to see ourselves as the centerpiece of the raid. The person that is the most important, the one raidmember that decides about rise and fall of the raid.

The difference between us there is - you have to tell everyone about that. You have to let them know that you think that without you, the raid would fail. 

I do not.

I know I am totally capable of doing what I am told to do, I know almost every tidbit of information and tricks there is to know about these bosses and I am not hesitating to share that. But I don't have to ruffle my feathers to oblivion and beyond.