Many Heroics for Aratria

My husband's death knight, Gabi, has been trying hard to gear up for raiding to possible take over the tanking his druid currently does. Since Stesha has gone shadow for a little healing vacation that has made my druid, Aratria, Gabi's bestest friend ever!

In the past two days I've done 7 or 8 heroics. I'm really not sure as I lost count after a while. Unfortunately Gabi hasn't been able to get the pieces he needs but I have been quite fortunate in collecting several new items for my collection.

What I'm most excited about is the War Mace of Unrequited Love. This was a huge upgrade from the silly mace I was toting about before. I also used my badges to buy a new offhand and idol. She's come a long way in a short span of time.

Fancy New Duds for Aratria

Just a little note to thank Earynn for making my Earthgiving Leggards and Earthgiving Boots. They fit perfectly and look very stylish. Oh and they're only about a million times better than what I was wearing. Thank you.

Also thank you to Stesha for sewing me up a Wispcloak! It was very much needed and appreciated!

My Friends Have Too Much Faith

As you may already be aware, I recently reached level 80 with my druid, Aratria. Now I am not new to the healing business. Aratria was originally a resto druid and actually leveled to 60 as restoration back in vanilla WoW days. I also have a healy priest that I’ve leveled to 70 as holy and now is trying her hand at discipline healing. Outside of WoW, I’ve been a healer in almost every game to compliment my husband’s tanking addiction.

That being stated Aratria just turned 80. Thanks to Keste's handiwork her gear isn’t horrible but I’m no way near great either. The last 17 levels or so she has been specced as a balance druid to help her solo her way through levels. When I switched to restoration at level 77, I got a bunch of new healy spells that I really didn’t know what they did exactly. Thanks to my husband and blogs like Resto4Life I’m figuring it out but I’m still very new at optimal “oh poop!” button spamming.

The short version of those two paragraphs would be: I’m no stranger to healing, I just haven’t had practice with the high end spells to feel really comfortable healing. I can do it but I need practice.

Last night I was tending banking matters on my priest when Gee messages me asking if I’d like to heal a heroic. I agreed to try letting them know it’s basically their funeral if they trust me to this. Gee voiced every confidence in me and tossed me an invite. Honestly, I was very excited to get to try healing heroics and nervous about messing up.

You want to know what heroic they wanted me to heal? Culling of Stratholme! Uh, this is not the type of practice I was hoping for guys.

My nervousness about this adventure just about tripled but they kept stating I’d be fine. They talked about all the virtues of Resto Druids and how I’ve healed well in the past on my priest. They really just had this blind faith that I could do it without any actual proof! This is a healing intensive very quick moving instance and I was less than confident.

It turns out I should listen to my friends more. Apart from poor Alethea getting insta-killed a few times I did fairly well. In fact, I died more than anyone else and I’m certain that’s just due to my gear being a bit less than the rest. We did so well we almost beat the 25 minute timer even though we weren’t trying. We had the Infinite Corruptor down to about 40k health before he walked through the portal and shattered our chances at the bronze drake. So close!

I still feel I need a little more practice and could definitely stand to pay a little bit more attention on my gear but this adventure has definitely been a moral booster for me.

Aratria Hits 80!

This weekend I decided to take my druid, Aratria, and finish the grind from 77 to 80. Keste made me a nice set of blue armor that sort of makes looks like a lizard or a naga or something. But it's still way better than the garbage I was wearing.

Next I need to figure out what I'm going to do with her. She's currently restoration specced. I really don't have plans with her past now. I'll find something for her!

Merrymaker the Second!

I had missed pretty much all of the end game stuff in Burning Crusade with my druid, Aratria, so I had counted her out on the Winter Veil achievements. Specifically due to the Fa La La Ogri'la achievement. She had never even started the chain of quests to open Ogri'la.

Luckily, I wasn't the only one who had skipped this and Saturday Dumadin got a group of us together to complete those group quests so we could open up Ogri'la. It didn't take much time at all.

I have to take a little time out to complain about some of these achievements from the view of a druid that Desdarii just didn't have to face. For one I didn't own a flying mount. I was the flying mount. So to complete Fa La La Ogri'la, I had to go and purchase a flying mount. It was painful and felt wrong. Not to mention I planned on buying my epic flight at level 77 (still level 76) so my slow arse was constantly shot out of the sky. Good to note that you can still get the achievement if you fall off your reindeer. Just make sure you have a lot of holly.

Another druid issue I had is with the With A Little Helper From My Friends achievement. I was not allowed to shift forms or I'd lose my gnome/elf costume. As if it wasn't bad enough that I was a undergeared level 76 pvp noob entering the battleground, now I can't take advantage of my different forms! I ended up getting frustrated dying so often. I was a quick and easy target being 4 levels lower than most.

What did I do about it? I cheated. Sorta.

Not that I found myself super helpful to begin with but after four runs of Alterac Valley and only 1 honor kill to my name I decided to go the cowards route. I found a safe place in our base where action would be close by and I shadowmelded to soak up my fellow's honor kills. Sure I was found by the Horde a couple of times. I was in ghetto stealth and 4 levels lower than everyone else. I wasn't winning any hide and seek competitions. If found I would go into Moonkin and try to earn my keep. I wasn't trying to jinx the alliance, just get my junk done.

Doing this though ended up being the only way I saw to get this done without going absolutely crazy. It worked and though it still took several runs I was making at least some progress in each instance and completed the achievement. I feel a little bad for going about doing it this way but I have a feeling I'll get over it.

Anyway thanks to Dumie and friends I was able to have a second Merrymaker in my roster!

When Elves Attack

Aratria and four of her very good friends attacked the Nexus to get us some more winter hats. Aratria refused to put back on her armor after obtaining hers and attacked as a holiday hand to hand fighter instead. Poor Aelaan did a great job keeping her alive through her silliness.

Aratria's Secret Santa

Aratria had a fun little toy in her mailbox today from a secret santa known only as Guildie Claus. It's a super fun toy gorilla from the Dalaran toy shop!

I'm unsure who our secret Guildie Claus is but what a fun little game to play! I'm going to try and figure it out so I can send a gift back!

Aratria is 72

I played Aratria in my off time this weekend. Mostly when folks didn’t want to do heroics and after I completed my dailies. I didn’t attend the Naxxramus raid so I got a lot of playtime during that. As a result I was able to level her up to 72. She’s about half way to 73. Sure I’m not the fastest leveler but I’m getting there!

It’s really odd. Things feel like they’re going much faster than with Desdarii it’s just not appearing like it’s going faster. It feels faster because I’m not reading all the quests this time around. I’m more just rushing to where I get the whatever and bring it back. It’s not appearing any faster though because although I’m just smashing through quests as fast as I can go, I’m still only 72!

I’m not questing in a pair with my hubby like usual which I can’t seem to figure out is slowing me down or speeding things up. I think for the most part questing as a couple makes things go faster. Questing with 2 or more only is a pain in the tush when each of you needs to collect 15 things and so you’re stuck killing 300 monsters trying to get everyone set. Kill quests or quests that rewards the group for completion is king when questing together!

Aratria did try a run of the Nexus this weekend. It didn’t go as smoothly as she had hoped. We ended up dying so often we gave up when the dungeon respawned.

The healer was too high for the dungeon and kept getting agro (Although what was she to do? Stop healing? I hope not!). The tank was a death knight whose primary character was a mage. He wasn’t a bad tank. He just needs more practice, I think. He was too focused on the kill order and adds kept breaking lose and hurting everyone which just caused more healy agro issues. It’s a magey thing to be sure. You tell us to kill skull then (apart from any sheeping assignments) we’re spamming bolts until skull is dead. The rest of the mobs be damned! He’ll figure it out.

Aratria’s completed the achievement for Fjord quests and has moved into Dragonblight. Let’s hope I keep creeping ever closer to be helpful to my friends as a healer.

Curiosity Killed the Moonkin

Aratria was working on The Echo of Ymiron in the Fjord she decided not to remove the effects of the incense when she had completed her task. Instead she started wandering about the village to just look around and explore thinking it was relatively safe. She was in the spirit world after all.

That's when Aratria saw him. The Lich King himself standing in the center of the village. It was too much for her to ignore. She was curious of what he was doing standing in the spirit world and decided she was going to walk up and poke him in the eye with her new dagger.

Well that's not exactly how the events played out. When Aratria got close the Lich King pulled her to him and pinned her to the ground. She then had to listen to him threaten her before finally killing her.

I guess she's got a little more work to do before she's ready to solo the Lich King.

Secret Druid Revealed!

Not that I kept her super duper secret to begin with but I'm ready to give up and just play my druid with the masses. The more I played her the more of my friends discovered who I was anyway. But let's make it official.

Everyone meet Aratria.
Pronunciation: ah-RAH-tree-ah
Current Level: 70
Specced: Balance (to go Resto at later date)
Professions: Herbalism & Alchemy

I've gone ahead and joined Turus Thalanaar with the rest of my toons since there's really just no better place to be. She was brought to Dalaran by none other than the amazing Firefizzle and Lord Gwydion himself gave her a tour of Dalaran and helped her get situated.

History

I do not have a story developed for Aratria at this time. She was on a PvP server for a long time and only RP'd ... well pretty much with the NPC's in town. It wouldn't stop her from trying with others but she generally got as much a response as the NPC's.

Aratria is actually the first character I had ever made in World of Warcraft and the first character I had ever gotten to level 60. As such I have a special love for this character. She was made back on launch day 2004 on Arthas (PvP) with the name "Goldy" as it is a typical name I game with. Our guild later moved to Nathrezim (PvP) and I moved her to be with them. I moved her to Blackwater Raiders sometime last month. Since I already have a Goldy on the server I of course had to rename her and I selected Aratria, which in Elvin means Golden Dancer. The name doesn't have anything with naked mailbox dancing. It's sort of an homage to a character I had in a previous game.

Aratria's roots are in old world druid healing. Back in the days when a druid who wasn't restoration was doing it wrong. She's seen the killing of Onyxia, visited with Ragnaros in Molten Core and has peeked her head inside of Black Wing Lair. This all back when these things were considered amazing feats. She quit raiding shortly after starting BWL because the 40 man raiding just wasn't for her.

I had leveled her to 60 as restoration and had never once respecced. It had been a tough road as restoration even though I was rarely alone. I decided to go with Balance for 60+ to make things quicker for my solo grind. I first tried feral but I really just don't like being that close to my enemies. Boomkin was closer to Desdarii's play style so I adapted to it much easier.

Personality

For Aratria's personality she's pretty reserved and polite until you get to know her or she has decided for you that you two are friends (which she will do sometimes). Then you'll wish she had an off switch. She lives simply and doesn't often ask for help or objects.

Being a druid Aratria is much more comfortable outdoors than in a city. She loves picking herbs just for the gathering of them even though she is a skilled alchemist. If you are out questing with her and find her missing, it's safe to assume she's found a pretty flower to collect somewhere. Either that or she's found some little corner to admire as she has a large dose of wanderlust.

She's also a bit of a softy when it comes to having to harm others which is why she prefers healing to killing. Also don't be surprised if you can't find her anywhere near you if you bite off more than you can chew. She's a runner and her drive for self preservation is strong. In time you'll come to appreciate this when she does return to revive you back to life.

So there you are, my latest project that I will be playing probably mostly on off hours or slow days when it is unlikely that Desdarii is needed. I've got her hanging out in the Fjord now as I enjoyed that zone more than the Tundra. Druids are quite fun classes and I'm enjoying playing her again even if she looks a little different with her new haircut.

To Heal or Not to Heal?

I’ve been talking with our raid leader and one thing we seem to be very short on is healers. Aelaan has been nice enough to stay restoration even though we know it’s not his preferred spec. Our other healer’s account was hacked and he actually hasn’t been able to return to the game yet. Our back up healer has taken to playing her hunter to 80. Our group sits just about ready to start Naxx with only one healer available.

Our main tanks are both hybrids. Gee a paladin and Keste a druid. Both have volunteered to go healy but then we’ll just be short tanks! Silly plan if you ask me.

Keste has been playing more often as a tree lately just due to the healer shortage we’re seeing in the guild as a whole. He’s good at it thanks to people like Phae and her wonderful blog but I know it’s not his preferred playstyle. Plus there is the potential for Keste’s work schedule to change to something very unfriendly to raiding (or seeing me awake for that matter). We’re still crossing our fingers on that.

We’re hoping to find a dedicated healer somewhere but I’ve got 2 potential healers in my line up that could fill this void. I have a priest as well as a druid on the backburner that I could level up. Finding a new DPS to fill Desdarii’s spot shouldn’t be an issue. The problem is I do believe I would miss Des.

Not just being a mage which is wonderful. All the free food, the portals all over, the pretty spell effects. Mages are great. On top of that though I’d also be setting aside all the extras I’ve done for Desdarii. All the achievements, all the money I’ve spent on pets for her, the titles I’ve earned, etc. I wouldn’t get to enjoy this hard work if playing on one of my other toons who by comparison have done very very little in the world.

On the other hand I’m not against healing. I’ve been Keste’s personal real live heal-bot for years. I believe I’m good at it and it is something I do enjoy. I’m not against doing this for the group as it’s a role I think I could really thrive in.

If I did do it, I think I would go with the druid. It’s just more versatile than the priest. Goldy is fun I love the personality I’ve given that girl but the tree might be more useful in the long run. I’m not certain. Perhaps some of my problem is not knowing enough about Naxx. For all I know priests could be highly desirable.

Our raid leader has told me not to rush on a healer unless I truly wish to play her. He’ll look for a healer elsewhere first to see if we can keep Des in the line up. I’ll probably start leveling a healer this weekend though just in case.

The Facts about Keste’s 80

Keste states in his latest post that I was upset about his turning level 80 before me. Let me explain why.

ALL I DID WAS WAIT FOR HIS SILLY FUZZY BUTT!

Every time we were going out to quest I would be careful not to do any quests without him to avoid having to re-do them again with him. It just seemed more efficient for us to do them together once rather than each on their own. Makes sense right?

I usually did my dailies in the morning before work. Later that evening he’d be off doing his dailies (or so he says) and I waited for him to be ready to go. So instead of quests I did small little things that wouldn’t affect my exp gain at all. Mostly I fished. I fished a lot. My fishing skill is maxed if that gives you any clue how much I’ve fished waiting on him.

After all my careful consideration towards him and waiting on him so I wouldn’t get so far ahead the poohead has the audacity to some how secretly gain half a level on me and then wonder why I was upset.

I could of being doing stuff instead of waiting on you! RAWR!

Yes, I did turn level 80 the next day but it was a hard day’s work to catch up instead of the easy pace we had previously been sporting. It wasn’t like he was a bubble or two ahead of me. He was a good chunk ahead of me. Especially for one who supposedly was just doing the same quests as me.

He said it was because of his leather gathering that he got so far ahead. I don’t know if I believe him but now you know the full story. I wasn’t upset he had leveled. I was annoyed that he was sneaky and was purposely gaining experience behind my back while I sat like a ninny fishing and waiting for him.

Stinker!

I've been stuck at 49 noncombat pets since receiving Bananas and it was really bothering me. However, it was not bothering me enough to spend the ridiculous sum of 2,500 gold to purchase one of the whelplings I do not own from the auction house. My choices were limited. I still am unsuccessful in obtaining the rat from the Dalaran sewers. I resigned to the fact that I would have to wait until I could obtain pengu.

Keste once again jumped to my rescue and contacted our good friend Dumadin to use his engineering skills to build me a tranquil mechanical yeti. Keste helped gather all the materials and Dumie built it for me. Keste delivered the yeti to me this afternoon.

Immediately upon training the yeti I had a rather smelly package in the mailbox from none other than Breanni. I was also recognized for another achievement.

Breanni had sent me my very own pet skunk named "Stinker"! I had Keste pose in the picture with me since he was such an instrumental part of this victory of mine. Isn't stinker so cute? You get used to the smell after a while.

With so many pets now it's really difficult to choose which one I want to tag along behind me. I was joking how I wish I could have all 51 of my companions chase after me everywhere I went. Keste wasn't too keen on the idea.

Happy Thanksgivingmas?

Keste and I are horrible at present giving. Honestly, it's mostly me. When I buy someone a present I want to give it to them right now so I can see their face light up when they open it. I believe this attitude of mine has infected Keste because he's now just as bad at me when it comes to present giving. We're lucky if we have any presents to actually open on Christmas Day. So far I've been strong and not allowing him to open his big Christmas present which I already have and wrapped so he can't peak.

As a Christmas present Keste had planned on getting me Bananas Charm from the card game. No sooner did he have the card and the code than did he tell me and email me the information so I could login immediately and obtain it.

So here it is. A full month before Christmas and I have one of my presents. And I don't care! I love little monkeys so much! I would have a monkey as a real life pet if Keste would let me.

Best part of this pet is clicking on him to hear his tiny little monkey noises. I've already been stopped and asked where you get that item. I proudly said that Bananas comes from having an awesome husband and trotted off happily with my little Bananas in scurrying along behind me. I then of course got a whisper and told them the complete answer to their question.

Thank you Keste for my little Bananas. No, you can't open your big present yet. Yes, I know you know what it is already.

Matted Hair and Sharpened Claws

Say hello to Matted Hair and Sharpened Claws, a new World of Warcraft blog written by none other than my furry druidic husband, Keste! I was really wondering when he would decide to get in on the act. See he actually can write, not just blather on like I do. I knew it was just a matter of time.

He plays a druid and primarily tanks although can be found in panther form quite often. He has healed from time to time with success including Burning Crusade heroics. To my knowledge he has not played a boomkin himself so probably only minimal information about that play style. He is a big fan of the druid class and I think a nice addition to the blogging community.

Apart from his druid centered obsessions he is an add-on addict. He's really got it bad. He's got mods that tells him what his mods are doing. You should probably also expect add-on information and reviews from him.

I do recommend taking a look at his excellent post on Loot Rank. He sent the link to me and I blinked at it for about 3 minutes to make it look like I was figuring it out before admitting I didn't know how to use it. He made a wonderful post with instructions on how to use this tool.

Secret Druid Level 69

My secret druid project is going very well. She now has her flight form and yesterday reached level 69. She now only has approximately half a level before she joins the ranks of my level 70s.

It looks like I'm going to reach my goal of having her ready for Wrath. I don't know if I'm going to play her but it's nice to have her ready to give me a choice.

Setting Aside Desdarii?

It is tempting with the expansion to switch mains and move forward with a different character. I have to say it's an idea I've tossed around more and more since the 3.0.x patches came out. I have re-specced several times and I'm doing ok damage but I'm just not really having a whole lot of fun lately.

I've considered the reasons this may be:

1. The dungeons are quite a bit easier.

Our raid has moved on to ZA but we still do Karazhan and we can get the dungeons completed in one night a piece. We used to spend at least 2 days to knock out everything in Karazhan alone and were still kind of scared of ZA. We blast through Karazhan just AoE tanking everything.

I will admit this was SUPER fun at first. Getting through a raid dungeon in one night was very satisfying. But just flying through without much of a worry has gotten a bit old. We were able to finish a Heroic yesterday with 4 people when someone crashed last night.

I think a challenge is needed to keep things fun.

2. I really can't find a spec I enjoy.

I've re-specced several times now and like I already mentioned I'm doing fine, just not what I feel a pure DPS class should do. This could all completely be user error and I could be doing it all wrong. I don't claim to be any mage expert. I mostly like to dress up and dance around. When called upon I can smash buttons to make pretty effects that hurt monsters.

I'm currently trying a fire spec with a splash of arcane in for support. It was sort of hard to gauge how well it performed in Karazhan since all we did was AoE our way through it and I had some sort of issue with living during boss fights. I only died during two, but it was irritating.

I have some pretty darn good gear for my play style and still I'm just feel like I'm lacking in performance. When I died early on in a fight yesterday the boss still died very quickly. My contribution wasn't missed at all. This could all because of #1 and the dungeons being too easy but it's not really a good feeling to not be needed.

3. I'm just bleh and tired in RL

Seriously all I want to do all day is sleep. Keste's little bear cub is sucking all my energy and making me want to hibernate. I'm grumpy and whiny when tired and it could be contributing to my being so bored and annoyed with my mage. I think, "Sheesh I'm barely helping kill these things. Maybe my time would of been better spent sleeping since they wouldn't miss me."

I continue to show up because I like my team quite a bit and don't want them scrounging around for a replacement at the last minute. They are a fun team and worth the company.

So what would I play if I did shelf Desdarii?

I haven't decided really. I may fall in love with Desdarii all over again when Wrath does get here. I do have other possibilities I am kicking around though.

I have Goldy, my priestess, and I had planned to respec her to shadow for leveling in Wrath. I do love to melt faces with shadow priests. It could be good fun to be DPS but able to switch to a healing spec when required. Makes me feel a little more versatile than "Shall I hit the monster with a blue bolt or a red bolt?"

I also have my secret druid that is only a few levels shy of 70 at this point that I could move forward with. I was thinking a Balance/Resto hybrid so I could possibly take on a healing roll in the new dungeons if required. And talk about versatile! Druids can do everything! I have always been really horrible at melee range fighting though. /blush

I know I'm not the only one kicking around this idea either. The new expansion is the perfect opportunity to swap characters and play one you really enjoy. Everyone will be on similar leveling playing field and you won't feel like you have all this catching up to do. Keste has considered switching to his little warrior though I don't think it is likely. He loves his druid. He may be just experiencing the same "waiting for expansion" lulls I am.

It's not a done deal. Just something I'm kicking around in the back of my mind. Only things that would be a big snag for me is 1) I love teleporting all over the world in seconds and 2) Dang it I've done a lot of achievements on Desdarii already!

The Secret Druid Project

Alright it's not soooo top secret. My husband knows about it and I've sent trade goods to guildees I know could use it from the druid. Oh, and I've done a little roleplaying with guildees with her although I don't always announce it's me.

Apart from those little discrepancies, my druid is a secret character I've kept unguilded for me time play. She doesn't group with anyone. Mostly just leveling herself through the world isolated from others. This leveling has gotten much easier with the 3.0.2 patch. I don't have to spend a lot of time playing her and can feel like I'm getting somewhere. It's very satisfying.

This is an old character. The first character I created, actually. This character was an old world champion battling in Molten Core and Blackwing Lair. Destroying Onyxia in her lair and defeating world dragons in her spare time. She was nicely decked out in mostly Tier 1 gear when I logged her in which was amusing to browse through.

I transferred her from my old PvP server as I do not foresee me ever wanting to return to PvP server play. I had to rename her and picked a nice elfy name for her. No, I'm not going to tell you what it is. I will give you a hint. Its translation means "Golden Dancer". See if you can figure it out.

What I had forgotten is how much fun this character was. I used to be down right obsessed with my druid and how awesome she was. I'm totally in love with her again. She's only 65 right now but the levels are coming quick. I've found playing her to be an excellent diversion while waiting for Wrath.

It's Funny What Mages Don't Know

Keste was attempting to finish the trick or treating across Azeroth last night when he asked me something.

"How do you get to the Exodar?"

I stared blankly. I should know this right? It's where I call home. It's where I'm from. It's been a long while since I've had to travel there by any fashion other than teleport. All I had was a less than helpful, "I think there's a boat somewhere."

I guess I should of offered to teleport him but I was busy farming primals for an enchant I needed. He got there anyway so no harm done.

Keste's Kodo

Yesterday we quickly ran to Blackrock Depths before our scheduled Kara run to try and get some more guild members some trinkets. To our surprise in addition to a trinket, a Brewfest Kodo was also available.

Keste was the lucky winner and it's good because it's not often that he gets fun little goofy stuff like this. Seeing that is is also a useful goofy thing he'll actually use it often.

I'm still working on getting my Dirndl. Hopefully I can have it by tomorrow.