Monday Update

Blog Update
First, just a small blog update. I'm thinking of renaming my blog because I feel that it is no longer a "restoration" blog, and what I feel like posting, which may still have some WoW events/experiences/insights, are now mostly directed at other subjects. It may have to do with the fact I am only online when I am raiding, and no other time. It may be that my focus has shifted to other video games. Either way, I feel that it's misleading to call this a "restoration" blog when I'm not really talking much about restoration.
The shift going on in the blogsphere, where people are quitting the game or closing up blog shop, is pretty disheartening. Although WoW in-game still has what seems like a ton of people on, seeing prominent players that we may check in with daily to read their thoughts about WoW, leave the community in one way or another makes the reality of WoW much more discouraging. I wish these players all the best, and of course understand the nature of leaving. There is nothing to hold against them. But I think this shift has affected me more than I would like it.
Pokemon Update
That being said, I've been having loads of fun breeding and EV training Pokemon. I think I might post some blogs about Pokemon and EV training just because during my vast amount of research, some information I looked for was difficult to obtain. Until 4.1 hits, I don't have much to report about druids, so I might focus a bit on Pokemon 
Life Update
Facebook is an interesting social networking tool. It has me connected to people I probably would've forgotten about. I remember their names and faces (and apparently I am remembered too). I went to a K-8 private school and was with the same 15 or so kids for over 10 years. And although the majority of us went our separate ways in high school, it's still a weird sensation reconnecting with them impersonally (because we may be friends on Facebook, but we don't really talk).
My best friend from K-8 has a 3 year old kid.
Another one of my old friends just got married and is pregnant.
An old classmate, who ended up being second runner up in a Miss America Pageant, is now engaged.
It's crazy because it's the only reminder to me, who is still in college and just floating around in life, that I am growing up. I am getting to that age where marriage and children isn't necessarily out of the ordinary. If anything, it's in the very near future.
 

Sucker Punch: Deathwing visits Middle Earth

This scene is in Sucker Punch!!!!!!

My bf and I saw Sucker Punch last night, in glorified Imax. This will mark the 3rd movie of Zack Snyder's I have seen in Imax (Watchman and 300 being the others). I know a lot of people didn't like Watchman, but I loved it. Stayed true to the comic; the only disappointing seen to me was the really bad music chosen during the sex scene. That just made me facepalm. 300 was a violent dream come true. It's very ungirly to admit, but I love me some good violent action. I'm not into extremely unnecessary torture scenes (Saw), or serious realistic violence, but kick butt action with a little gore brings out the side of me that would normally be seen in a sports event.Sucker Punch was action eye-candy; brilliant choreography, homage to video games I recognized. But it surprisingly had no gore. I was actually surprised that no gore really made an appearance; there was one scene with blood in it, and it wasn't explicit.  It definitely added to the realization that Sucker Punch was about dream worlds, where the monsters, demons and cyborgs bled no blood, but hissed and sizzled as they collapsed.
The story is of a young woman, who escapes the realities of her situation by creating dream worlds where she fights monsters, machines, and ethereal beings to replicate the situations she's facing in real life. Or wait. Scratch that. It's replicating her dancing in front of a "client" because the action dream worlds are an escape from another dream world where she's a show girl/prostitute. In reality, she's in a mental institute after accidentally killing her sister while trying to fight off her abusive stepfather.
So to recap, because even I had to rethink this.
She is in a mental institute, where she dreams that she is a prostitute who dreams of being a samurai sword wielding Japanese school girl wannabe fighting off the evils of the world.
Patient -> Prostitute -> Sailor Moon
Ok. Got it? Good.
Spoilers

Just One of THOSE Days

Was unable to sleep for more than 5 hours again last night. Still battling a cold.

Got a late start this morning so could only take the late bus (which gives me 10 mins to scurry across campus and get to class)

Bus had 3 stops and was overly crowded today, so it took longer.

While rushing to class, a dude on a bike nearly crashed into me, causing me to slip in mud and basically smear the front of one leg and back of the other in mud.

Can't be late to class to clean up because I have an exam.

Was late anyways, exam went fine, but my jeans feel really really gross.

Yeah, it's one of THOSE days.

Thank god its spring break.

Rift between Us Part 3

Yes, I love this title- a simple, yet brilliant pun that perfectly expresses how I feel. I would like to clarify that I have NOT played Rift, nor will my current money situation allow for any Rift playing in the foreseeable future. I am quite satisfied with my new found obsession with Pokemon and Breeding and IV/EV/Natures in between. (More on that later).
I was reading Larisa's post, a response to many other blog posts that are addressing the current WoW issue at hand:

• Is WoW dying?
• How is it dying?

And most importantly, if it is

• Why is it dying?

There is a state of uneasiness within the community and it's not simply because of Rift. It would be irresponsible to blame everything on a single game. WoW is a powerful enough entity, with a strong and opinionated community to stand up for itself; if anything, it is digging it's own grave.

It's Taco Tuesday!

The one thing I love about rainy days is  the days after, when the sky is bright blue, the clouds are fluffy and white, and the air holds a cool dampness that keeps the rays of the sun from burning. Today is one of those days.
I'm happy that after a tough night filled with Kleenex and water, my fever broke, and I can be placed into the category of "I sound worse than I feel." My throat is still the highlight of my pain, but the coughing has subsided and my nose isn't runny, it's just plugged up. I can live with that.
A Dose of World of Warcraft
Last night, I logged onto WoW to start experimenting with Haste on my druid. I wanted to see if I could reach the 2005 haste cap without hurting myself, which didn't turn out painless. Dropping so much mastery ended up taking 5% off of my mastery bonus, which I was kind of sad to see. I never thought I'd be behind mastery, but my numbers have definitely gone up when my mastery did. However, I plan to bite the bullet and take on the haste cap because of the changes to Efflorescence (and hastes effect on it) in Patch 4.1.
I'm going to have to walk around with two sets of healing gear (basically 3 pieces I switch out), if I want to hit the 2005 haste cap. I had to switch out my Darkmoon Fair Card: Tsunami out with a heroic Gale of Shadows, which gives me 250+ haste that I was lacking. It does also give me over 300 spellpower to make up for losing 341 intel, but it's still a 341 loss of intel that may hurt me. Which is why I'm carrying around two sets. I also have mastery legs from Maloriak, and the t11 Boomkin legs from a lucky TB run (haste legs) to switch out.
I'm hoping to eventually grab the dagger off of Magmaw, so that I can switch from my Arch Tol'vir staff to 1h+oh. Maybe even try and get the dwarf staff if I ever get back into digging. Either one would give me a hefty haste increase and allow me to switch back the trinkets.
I'm hoping to raid sometime this week (even though I have been part of the stumbling block on our raiding), but I might not get to experiment in real time until next week.
About the Title
My boyfriend and I are going to go out and buy some Tacos from Del Taco <3 Taco Tuesday :D 

Rain, Thunder, Sneezing, Coughing. FML

I've been working in retail for over 5 years now (moving towards my 6th year :O). Because of this, I work all the major holidays, deal with all the major shopping days (hello Black Friday) and know what to expect. I understand that during Thanksgiving and through December, I can rack up some nice hours and earn some good money, therefore preparing for early January, when our hours shoot down because sales tend to plummet. I spend most of November and December trying to avoid sickness. One person gets sick in my work area and its a domino effect. It's one of those lose-lose situations. If you call out because your sick, it's not good because you lose hours, there's a loss in productivity, etc. But if you come in sick, you will highly likely infect others around you, thus making call-outs more likely.
I'm really lucky that my job offers free flu shots to their employees. I've taken advantage of this every year it's been offered. Despite the many complaints from fellow coworkers about how the shot tends to give them the flu instead of immunity, I have yet to have had a bad experience after getting the flu shot. And this past Christmas season is probably the best testament of it.
I usually tend to at least develop a sort of cold of some sorts. Usually just a runny nose and excessive sneezing and/or coughing. But never a flu or some sort of serious fever. I swore I felt some sickness coming on, but after a night or so of runny noses, it would pass without much of a cough. I got through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, January and February without a cold.
Now here we are, just a week before Spring Break, and I am feverish, coughing, sneezing, my nose running without a stop. I have to go to class because it's the last week, and I have a test and two papers due. We've had last week off from raiding, so I feel like I need to be on this week, but all I want to do is roll up in a ball and sleep. I need to write papers, continue getting little sleep, and study for a couple days to maintain my good grade. But at this moment, I really REALLY just want to be in my bed with Kleenex and a good dose of Pokemon.
F.M.L.
I am thankful though that I fought off sickness throughout the past 5 months. A nice scary stomach flu floated around work for a while. But I feel so gross, sitting in class, sweating, listening to the thunder and rain outside that I will soon have to be walking in to get to my next class. Ugh. :(

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We complain! Blizzard listens!

Living Seed has been unlocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REJOICE!

Losing Steam

Heh, who knew. It's not like I have no time. I'm actually doing well in college and even though time isn't something I have to enjoy, I have been able to manage my time successfully and see it produce results.
This is important because I have a dedicated 4 days a week, 3 hours a day, devoted to raiding.
Lately though, I feel myself losing steam. Sure Patch 4.1 is heading our way soon. And there's this new game called Rift that's always another option.  But nothing seems to be pushing me.
I thought maybe having the opportunity to raid on alts would increase their desirability to play, but my paladin is still sitting untouched at level 84.
I even tried Feral and it was fun for a couple dungeons, but then I got tired of it (specifically the dungeons. God I hate Cataclysm dungeons) and stopped running. My guild has been put on hiatus for a week or so because of life, which is fine, but what is concerning is that I'm actually really glad we're not raiding. I like having the time to watch primetime tv fully, to play little console games, and nap as long as I want.
It's disappointing for me, as a gamer who loves Blizzard and World of Warcraft. This game has always held my attention, to the point that I was concerned about a gaming addiction. Cataclysm was a great amount of fun, and there's a lot to do. But maybe there's not enough. The longevity of the game is definitely it's one downside. I think, even without Rift, we would still see a shift in gamers' attention.

As I look ahead, Patch 4.1 is it. I understand that Blizzard is planning to release patches in smaller amounts, but faster, and I can appreciate that. However, in this crucial time, when they are not only fighting the usual gamer interests, but now this Rift game, they may need to change their game plan. I have this feeling that Patch 4.1 will only produce about a week or two worth of interest, before it grows old. Honestly, the only thing I'm looking forward to is the changes to Efflorescence. Don't really care about ZA or ZG. Don't really care about trying to get even more mounts or pets. Maybe with increases Rare spawn from Archaeology, I'll dapple in that more, but there's a good chance the RNG system will still kick my ass, as always.
The problem Rift poses, as compared to other MMO competition (and games in general) is that it presents WoW with almost a clone rival. Actually, a shinier, more better tailored clone rival. I STILL think WoW will continue to thrive, but Rift might actually shake its foundation.
I think Rift has affected me a lot, even when I don't play it. A lot of the blogs I read are now focused on Rift, which is honestly a bit disheartening. It's mostly discouraging my reading of them- if I see Rift in the title, and I know the author is playing it, I tend to just not even bother looking at it. I know I meander off topic to different games or other media, but I still try and post something WoW/Druid related. It seems like mostly, these blogs are focusing on Rift. And more Rift. /yawn

At least there's this little DS game to fill that void. What's kind of scary though is how MMO's have affected me playing other games. Before, I played WoW, I was all about the story and characters; I would burn through games to better understand the story. Now I'm all about collecting things, looking at the mechanics of my characters (or Pokemon) and trying to build them to be the best. I never though I'd ever try Pokemon breeding, and yet here I am, trying to breed multiples. I look up information about which Pokemon have the highest base-stats and try and get the strongest I can. It's an odd feeling because I know I won't be dappling in competitive play with anyone, and beating the AI doesn't take this level of preparation and study. Yet here I am, trying desperately to play the game in the same way I play my druid.
It's a weird feeling. I like Pokemon because of it; it seems like such a simple game, and yet deep down, it's actually incredibly indepth complex. I kind of like uncovering this.
 I do find amusing is the amount of Youtube videos I've watched recently that are made by kids. It's kind of cute listening to their squeaky voices as they teach me how to Pokemon breed.
Or the chubby kid telling me how to trick my Pokewalker so that I won't have to exercise.
Good times.  

Happy catching?

Pokemon White: Finishing Up and Post Credit Gaming

Pokemon White's difficulty level began curving up faster as I went farther in, but after fighting the Elite Four, endgame content skyrocketed. I don't know how I feel about this. It is entirely possible to continue without much of a hitch, and the National Pokedex expands your Pokemon availability from 156 to over 400.
That was the fun part. Being able to replace all these new Pokemon with old favorites who are stronger (I caught a level 64 Milotic....).
SPOILERS?!?!!! D:

Thursday Thoughts: Patch 4.1, Haste, and Being Bipolar

Moving On
Despite the bad feelings that were created a couple nights ago, we moved on last night without a hitch. One-shotted Chimarean, which made me feel good about myself (lol). Probably drop into Bastion tonight and get back at Cho'gall. We're going to have another off week because of absences, which, as far as I'm concern, is okay because I like playing Pokemon. I wonder when we'll get to the point where we can 2 heal fights. Probably not. too much bad luck type stuff happens.

Pokemon White: 4 Gym Battles In

The Power of Catching Them All (a short review)
I love this game. It's so much fun and it's renewed my love for the series and for console gaming itself. I've been so wrapped up in WoW and raiding and team playing that it's nice to be solely accountable for myself and only myself and battling the AI without any social play. Of course there's plenty of social opportunities in this game, but I don't need them.
Story
Pokemon White (Black) introduces the world of Unova and the 156 Pokemon that inhabit it. There are some things in the introduction that I wish could be bypassed (like learning to catch a Pokemon), but it's not enough of a complaint to warrant a change. There are two rivals this time, instead of one, and both portray a different type of stereotyped personality. The boy, Cheran, is the smart intellectual type, with his glasses. He smartly picks the Pokemon your starter is weak to. The girl, Bianca, is blonde, ditzy and not that smart. She picks the Pokemon whose weak against your starter. Throughout the game, you encounter them and battle them, and listen to their antics and small back stories. (Bianca has one, which seems weird.)
I'm impressed with the story overall. Team Plasma (the Team Rocket of Unova) is an interesting enemy. Instead of the usual "we steal pokemon and take over random centers of interest because we're so bad," Team Plasma has taken a more political approach. They are led by N, who doesn't believe owning Pokemon and battling with them is right (although he battles you several times). He is on a journey to form better relationships with Pokemon, but at the same time, his entire team spends the game harassing you and preaching about freeing Pokemon from us, the trainers. I was kind of shocked with the political nature of this conflict. I'm sure we won't be freeing the Pokemon any time soon, so I wonder how they will justify us as trainers capturing, collecting, and battling with them.
For some reason this story seems more mature than the game's intended audience. Good thing. Hell yah.
Graphics
I'm not a techie, spec person, so I don't understand the nature of what the DS is capable of. However, that being said, I would think that the height of the DS's graphics is Kingdom Hearts 365/2. Pokemon has always been a sort of 2d adventure. And while they maintain the same feel of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, they've also managed to make the graphics feel updated. The Pokemon have unique animations. There's even "3d" type areas, including a whole city, that brings some depth into the game without overwhelming anyone. Celestial Tower has a winding staircase that you can actually climb and wind with. Impressive.
Battles
The battle system hasn't changed much at all. The new types of battles, Triple Battles, and Rotation Battles (which are Black), are the new additions. I guess Triple battles are exclusive/more common in Pokemon White. I'm not a big fan of Triple battles. Your Pokemon are restricted depending on where they are standing (the one on the right can't reach the Pokemon on the left) and there's a lot going on. Two battles I think are enough.
I like that the leaders are strong enough, but not over powering. I remember when "super effective" moves would barely hurt a gym leader's Pokemon, even if you out level'd them by a ton. The level gaps aren't nearly that big either, so the game is nicely paced so far.
Leveling   
I love leveling. Power-leveling has been given a nice boost in the form of "shaking" grass and the elusive Audino. You run back and forth near a grass spot (don't have to be in the grass, so you can avoid the random battles), and when you see a shaking grass spot, you enter an encounter, usually with Audino. This cute Pokemon yields a ton of XP, even to higher levels.
EXP is now distributed differently. If a Pokemon is lower, it gains extra EXP, while a higher lvl will gain slightly lower. This is great when coupled with EXP Share item, which now shares the experience with just one Pokemon instead of all of them. You can easily level a lower Pokemon to reach the right level using this method.
There's still a level of "farming" for the shaking grasses, but it bypasses the need to be constantly in a random encounter.
Bravo!
Overall so far
I'm loving this game so far. It's reminded me of how awesome the series is and that despite how old the anime is getting, the games never do get old. Nintendo and Game Freak do a great job at updating the game while keeping the same formula that makes the game great. I'm not sure about Post-Credit content, but I''ll update more when I reach there.
Happy catching!   

Timeout for the WotLK Baby

I was reading Klepsacovic's blog about WoW difficulty, and he seemed to point out that WoW's problem isn't that it's too easy or too hard, but it's inconsistent. It definitely pays tribute to the fact that WoW has tried desperately to evolve, although not necessarily with its audience, but with something else, although I can't figure out what it is.I hesitate to say gaming community because the gaming community is so vastly varied that it would be a huge mistake to try and clump them together in one category (I've been taking a lot of Ethnic Group classes so I'm in a stereotype mode...Black or White?...is this racists...no its Pokemon!). That being said, the gaming community is where the money is at.So how do you keep so many varied people happy?
(I don't know.)

PTR Patch 4.1 Updates: What to read?

Since I'm feeling kind of down and I have a few tests coming up and will be busy, here are some great reads from other blogs I recommend you read daily.

Druid Blogs Win!
Instead of posting the same stuff that other people have said (and much more eloquently than I), here are some readings about Patch 4.1

Efflorescence getting buffed weeeeee!
Both Keeva of Tree Bark Jacket, and Jarre of R4 Healing Touch go over the big Resto druid buffs coming our way, mainly in the form of Efflorescence 3 person smart heal and Tranquility cooldown reduction.

Tranquility buffed. Nerf doom impending. 
Beruthial of Falling Leaves and Wings, offers some great insight to the awesome changes to Tranquility and the impending QQing and nerf that will follow if Blizzard continues in this direction. 

Haste Breakpoint 2005 Here I come!
And Jarre confirms the 9th Efflorescence tick thanks to an abundance of Haste. This is most likely going to make 2005 the new desirable haste breakpoint.  

Happy healing!

The Real Folk Blues

This is a personal post. This post will be incredibly vague and ill-informed. It will reveal a side of me that is extremely emotional, rash, and indecisive.
It will reveal a side of me full of regret.
It will most importantly reveal a side of me that is desperate. 

Rift between Us Part 2

Deathwing won.
I am apparently not as strong or patient as I thought. Covers has officially been retired (so young!) simply because I couldn't handle the PvP environment. I was ganked a few times, camped once, and griefed by a little troll. I tried to endure. My friend, the reason I was on here, promised me it wasn't as bad, and I was just having bad luck. My boyfriend also wanted to keep pushing. So I tried. We were running around Ashenvale when a hunter literally swooped down, shot us both, then flew away. Well that was the last straw for me, and my bf, who was also a bit stunned that a higher level took the time to fly down, kill us, laugh at us, then fly away, agreed that we would leave the realm of world PvP for good.
I really REALLY don't understand why a higher level would take the time to kill a lowbie. The only reason I could think was that they were farming a node or herb that the higher level wanted. Other than that, no real reason but to grief other players. We can't harm the higher level. We don't give them any honor for killing us. We were in zones that yes, are contested, but really no high level has any reason to be there except Archaeology. I just don't understand the concept.
So thus I wave the white flag. I don't need to be playing on this realm, allowing other players to have the satisfaction that they are pissing me off. I pay for this game and I don't need to endure this.
Ally Lowbie Take Two
So, with my tail between my legs, my boyfriend and I journeyed to Med/High Pop PvE realm, Aerie Peak. The realm population seems like any other realm, with its eager beavers and trolls, but I don't thing Undermine ever had the amount of ninja ginvites going out like this realm Well, we were invited into a warm welcoming guild that had a couple guild perks and a couple noobs. I was leveling a death knight at the time, just to get a little gold, and was followed by another guildie who couldn't do anything on his own and had to be led around by the hand to figure out DK quests. Its kind of ironic because DK beginning quests are extremely linear and in my opinion, easy. I wonder how he'll fair in Outlands (or the world for that matter. Actually, how did he even get a toon to level 55 in the first place to unlock a DK. This can't be his real account, can it?). I chose to level a Paladin this time, simply because druids I love and love but may have over done. At least this time, I can level a Paladin right. I can't wait until level 30, when I can get dual spec and stop Exorcism-ing mobs to death.
Yes, I went Holy. At first I was planning to stick with Ret until I reached level 30 just because I wanted to quest more than dungeon run, but then we did RFC. The healer was a druid.
Here's the part where I meet a dumb druid
Now, I am a very proud druid healer. But I am also a sincerely flexible one. I don't think there is one right or wrong way in certain aspects. I mean, everyone has different playstyles and learning curves. That's a reason I read so many druid blogs-I like seeing different ideas and experiences. It's why I write a blog-I like sharing my own personal ideas and experiences that may differ from others out there. I guess writing a guide makes me seem like I believe there is a right and wrong way, but I also stress that a lot of things can and should be tailored to your own liking. That being said, I think I almost snapped after watching this druid fail.
At level 15 or so, you have Rejuvenation and Nourish. And Swiftmend from talenting into Restoration. I've noticed at lower levels, there is a lot of room for mistake, which considering our small resources at such a level is nice. If a dps pulls a mob, they won't get one shotted for being threat whores. Heals heal a lot of health. Tanks won't get smashed while your taking the 2-3 seconds to heal them. It allows for everyone to ease into their roles (at least healers. I'm not sure if letting DPS survive pulling aggro is such a good idea).
Well, the tank pulls in this little dungeon of RFC and dies. Why? I rez the tank, thinking it was just bad luck and we continue. The tank dies again. I stun the mob suddenly attacking me and look over. There's a bear next to me. The healer is in bear form. He starts to die after pulling threat. He backs up and casts a Rejuvenation on himself. And another one. And another one. I kindly tell him that casting Rejuvenation over and over again on himself will not make the "heal over time" spell heal him faster. He ignores me. I rez the tank again, then continue on. Because I don't feel like spending every fight rezing the tank, I decide to try healing the tank. I let the mage who keeps pulling everything die, and I let the druid die to make the point that continually casting Rejuvenation on yourself is not effective. But I effectively, in Ret spec, keep the tank alive and not go oom.
Meanwhile, the healer continues to do everything but heal. He moonfires a couple times. He melees some with his staff. He roles on a one handed mace with strength on it and wins over the tank. But man does he love being in bear form. Then loves taking aggro, dying, then "healing" himself continually spamming Rejuvenation.
I'll leave it at that. On to Rift
I mentioned before that the WoW Cataclysm sparkle is fading fast. I'm leveling an alt because I'm so damn bored.
Rift keeps looking more and more appealing. But that damn commercial still pisses me off.
It's like, ooo pretty ooo i wanna try ooo...wtf Azeroth?... I hate you Trion.
1. It's pretentious
2. It's admitting your competition is WoW (something we all know anyways) and begs to be compared to WoW. A lot of people say that playing Rift is like playing WoW but with rifts.
3. New audiences are probably going, "wtf is Azeroth."        
But to be honest, the only thing that keeps me from Rift is the 59.99 it costs to buy the game. There's no way I can afford that. For me, on my budget, that is a few days of food and bus fare. A 60 dollar hit to my budget is bad. Maybe when I get my tax return, I'll pay rent for a few months, and use the left over to buy Rift as a small personal reward. (WTB Old Republic NAO)
So long, farewell
A lot of my friends have been planning to leave game within the next week. Interestingly enough, these are friends I am not guildies with. We all were old guildies but most are on different realms. Out of these though, only one has mentioned leaving WoW for Rift.
I think this proves that Rift is not a WoW killer. I highly doubt there will be one, at least for a long time. People have been giving WoW heat for releasing Patch 4.1 on the PTRs just in time for Rift headstart, claiming this is why there is no competition, and shame on your Blizzard for being an MMO audience hog.
I think that is a sad thing. Honestly, doesn't Blizzard have every right to counter a game that takes jabs at them (We're not in Azeroth anymore) on every single ad and commercial they show?
I don't think releasing Patch 4.1 on PTR has hurt Rift in the least.