I’ve Moved!

http://www.musingsofaraider.com

I’m impatient, and on occasion impetuous.

If you’re reading this in a feedreader, welcome to my new self-hosted site! Yes, I did post just this morning contemplating it, but it’s been on my mind for several weeks. Seeing Pike of Aspect of the Hare migrate over to self-hosting this morning was simply the catalyst for me to finish what I’d started.

There are definite advantages to going self hosted now:

• I’m relatively new to the blogosphere, so I don’t risk losing TOO many readers (all 10 of you!) in the shuffle
• The lack of javascript on wordpress.com was just really bothering me
• I can do all sorts of new things like the wowhead tooltips, and CommentLuv!

If you’ve linked to me in posts or blogrolls (thank you!), please update your links to http://www.musingsofaraider.com.

I still have some work to do, but I think this is the way to go for the long haul.

WTB Wowhead Tooltips :(

Is it bad that I’m considering going to self hosting simply to have the ability to add the wowhead tooltips?  WordPress.com doesn’t allow javascript, so my cheapie fix has been the SNAPshots, which doesn’t really do that much.

Even I got a headache trying to use my gear list well.

Thoughts from those of you that went selfhosted with wordpress?

Gear Plan – WotLK Edition

My blog has moved!  Check out Gearing Your Shadowpriest for Naxx 10 for all the info you need.

Dear Diary: Let the Clowning Begin!

Due to a lack of raiding the last few weeks, I’ve been attempting to level my someday-Resto druid.

She stepped foot into Outland yesterday.  I’ve been in Outland for ages on Isis, but stepping through that gate still feels epic.

She did her first set of quests, and has started collecting new feral gear – let the clowning begin!

I’m so excited for Wrath to come out – if it feels this epic to walk into Outland, I can’t wait to see what Northrend has waiting for us.

Post Your Bank!

My real life closet is also full of stuff I should get rid of.

I blame Pike for this.

Clicky for a bigger view!

I LOVE Baud Manifest.  It really helps me keep stuff sorted.

So, let’s see what we’ve got:

1. Pets – Yay freed up bag space in WotLK!
2. LoLGear – We had a guild meeting in Stormwind Park and were forbidden from wearing raid gear.
3. Currency – Yay freed up bag space in WotLK!
4. Recipes – I’ll level my cooking someday … really…
5. Quest – I don’t know what half this stuff is for.
6. Armor – Old stuff I’m scared to throw away, and a Black Rose from my boy
7. Misc – Those snowballs are fun in July >.>
8. Consumable – More stuff I should throw away
9. Gem – even MORE stuff I should throw away or sell
10. Trade goods – Tailoring/Enchanting stuffs

It’s pretty organized, but still full of crap.

Now – what to do with those Badges of Justice? Buy the Tormented Demonsoul Robes for leveling (since Frozen Shadoweave is getting nerfed) or buy gems and sell them?

Communication Part 2: What I Want from My Leadership

I’m a raider. That means I have to be on time, be prepared, and, most importantly, follow directions.

In return, though, there are a few things that I want from my leadership, whether in a raid or just in guild chat.

As a note, this is not a list of things I wish my guild leadership would do.  Some of these are things my guild is very good at – others, not so much.  Regardless, with any guild I’m a part of, this would be my wishlist.

Clarity

This is numero uno.  From clear guild policies to loot rules, things need to be spelled out for me to feel really comfortable.  A lot of this is work upfront when creating a guild – what loot system you use, if there are any exceptions, how to move up in guild ranks, etc.  Whatever your rules are, I’ll probably be okay with them – just let me know what they are.

This impacts the raid schedule, too.  For example, if, according to our raid calendar, we’re scheduled to clear Mount Hyjal on Monday, and Black Temple on Tuesday and Wednesday, what happens if we don’t clear Mount Hyjal on Monday?  Are we going into Black Temple on Tuesday as originally planned, or is it more important to clear Mount Hyjal first?  I don’t care either way – just let me know.

Maybe I’m more paranoid that most raiders, but before going into a T6 raid, I skim the bossfight tactics on our guild forum, WoWWiki, or shadowpriest.com – even if it’s a boss we’ve downed several times before.  Having a clear plan for the raid that night helps me prepare as a raider.

Negative Feedback

Auz, from Chick GM, caught me off guard in her post about interviewing recruits. She asks her recruits:

How you you like to receive feedback about your gameplay?
This is for me. Every single raider in my guild has received feedback from me. From “good job” to “dude quit that shit.” Each one of them prefers to get it in a different way. One of my shaman likes for me to call it out in vent. One of my priests gets very defensive if I call stuff out in front of others. One of my pallys likes to hear stuff right then in the raid. Another shaman would rather I give them a short instruction in the raid but always after the raid would like me to explain my feedback in detail. I will have to give you feedback and your preferred way has to be something I can actually do.

The first thing I thought was “Dear GOD this woman is a genius!”  Everyone doesn’t respond to feedback the same way.  Personally, I hate being called out on stuff in front of others.  I already know I screwed up, and I already feel like crap because I caused others to have a higher repair bill or just plain work harder to make up for my messup.  And you know what?  Other people probably know I screwed up too.

I want the negative feedback, but please give it to me in private.

Positive Feedback

Larísa of The Pink Pigtail Inn wrote earlier this week asking, “when did you last tell a fellow player that he’s great?”  It’s a great reminder to thank your fellow raiders (and leaders!) for all the hard work they do.

I LOVE positive feedback.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and really makes me feel like I’m contributing to the success of the group. It doesn’t have to be lavish praise, either.  One of our raid leaders will consistently throw out words of praise like “great shackles,” “good job on that sheeping,” or “nice pickup on those adds, tanks.”  It truly gets the raid pumped up, and we feel like we’re on top of the world.  But the important thing is that this praise can’t be contrived, or tossed out like it’s a formula for success. This praise affects me because I know the raid leader means it.

Respect

Starman over at Casual Raid Leader noted in his recent post that communication can be essential to avoiding burnout.  He comes at the question from a raid leader perspective, but it’s definitely applicable to raiders.  If, for whatever reason, I am unable to raid, I’ll let my raid leader know.  In return, understand that I’m not flaking out – I just need a night off.  I’ll let you know what I need from you – just tell me what can happen, what can’t happen, and why. Mutual respect goes a long way in creating a great raid team.

Fun!

Yeah, remember that part of it?  It’s a game!  Okay, so this part isn’t strictly about communication, but it sure is important.  I love raiding with my guild/raid leaders, but some of my most fun with them happens when we do a 10 man we way outgear, stomp through a heroic dungeon, or just hang out in Vent or guild chat poking fun at each other.  We play this game to have fun, and even though you’re leading a guild, we want you to have fun too.

Communication Series

Communication Part 1: What I Want from Blizzard
Communication Part 2: What I Want from my Leadership
Communication Part 3: What Others Can Expect from Me

Photo Credits: lukasd2009

Shadow Word: Pain Rolling Changed in Build 9014

Prior to build 9014, if you cast Shadow Word:Pain while using a trinket or some other damage boosting ability (as I mentioned with the old Dispersion mechanic), when you refreshed SW:P by casting Mind Flay (with the Pain and Suffering ability), your SW:P would carry that boosted/trinketed damage the entire fight, or until you manually refreshed it.

Build 9014 changed that.  Now, when you refresh SW:P by manually casting it or by refreshing it with Mind Flay, the SW:P ticks are recalculated.  So if you pop a trinket, cast SW:P, when the trinket wears off, the SW:P ticks will continue at their trinketed damage level until you cast Mind Flay.

This isn’t really a nerf, though – it’s a bug fix.

Ring Enchants for Enchanters Only

Attention min-maxers!

In BC, you could level up your enchanting, enchant your rings, and then drop enchanting for some other profession (such as leatherworking for the drums, or jewelcrafting for the BoP gems).

Crazy, right?

Well no more!

You’ll only have the enchant active if you currently have enchanting skill above 350.

As it should be, in my opinion.

Communication Part 1: What I Want from Blizzard

There’s been a lot of talk about communication lately here in the blogosphere. Specifically, how do we want it?

Where is this coming from?

I started thinking about this a few weeks ago when I saw something on the shadowpriest.com forums. With constant revisions of talents and nerf bats coming seemingly out of nowhere, the snippets we’ve gotten from the blues have been, at times, very confusing. Someone called Koraa out, claiming incompetence, and pointed out various “oops, I meant…” statements scattered across several class forums.

Nijessi of Burning Legion responded in the thread:

Fact is if blizzard DOESNT have the man power to communicate effectively and accurately than all they are doing by attempting to communicate is creating turmoil. I would rather effective communication above all else – but if it’s not available then I would say make it a walled garden.

A couple weeks later, 2nd Nin from Life of a Nin wrote a piece about in-game design. While the piece focused on tanks, there’s some really insightful nuggets that apply to everyone. She notes that:

… none of the beta testers have seen a vision statement for each class or talent tree and instead we get limited snippits from dev from time to time. By hiding (or rather not revealing) the overall plan Blizzard minimises the chance that we can give useful and productive feedback to them.

Though this is focused on our ability to give feedback, it points out something very important – we don’t know where Blizzard is going with any of this. Wrath is like a completely new game and we don’t know what Blizzard is trying to accomplish with each class and/or spec.

Merlot from Misery posted a great view of how the response from shadow priests to Blizzard is really a study in trust. She, too, points out:

[there is a] lack of transparency with the development process. We have no clear iteration of Blizzard’s vision for shadow priests, so we have no context in which to view certain decisions.

The rest of the article is fantastic, and gives a great perspective on the shadow priest-blue dynamic.

So what do I want?

I don’t expect full transparency into the developer thought process. Blizzard is a business – it will make whatever decisions it feels is right for their game. But among those millions of players, there’s a strong group of people who will theorycraft, simulate, and make alternative suggestions.

It’s just really hard to do when we don’t know where you’re trying to take us.

I don’t want a “walled garden,” but I would LOVE a little something more cohesive than what we’ve seen so far.

So here’s my wish: Give us a road map, a vision statement, or any number of other business clichés. For ALL classes and specs. What are you trying to do with each class? Where do you want them to be at level 80, at the top of the raiding/pvp/soloing game?

Blizzard, you’ve created a wonderful, insanely addicting game, and have facilitated the creation of a massive community. I wouldn’t still be playing if I didn’t like what you’ve created – so I have to trust that you have the best interests of the game at heart. But since you want feedback, please let us know where you’re trying to take us, so the suggestions that are crafted with so much love for our respective classes can match up with what you want us to be.

I don’t need all the nitty gritty details of each decision – just an idea of what it was based on.

To come:

Communication Part 2: What I Want from My Leadership
Communication Part 3: What Others can Expect from Me

Image credit: Pontuse

Naxx 25 gear – I Want it Nao!

I was poking around mmo-champion and saw this:

Gosh, that’s pretty. Even the name gives me chills!