Grimm noticed this first, but it’s hit me, too.  The Apothecary bosses are just horrible on pets. Grimm at least has a HoT heal for his (that also cleanses). Phil the Phelguard doesn’t have a chance. I was able to recover slightly by bringing out Iggy the Imp and, as long as he followed me, keep him alive.

What this fight does is highlight what someone else was saying elsewhere; Blizz is making it hard on our pets, and for those of us for which pets are significant (hello, BM Hunters and Demon Warlocks!), this causes a major drop in our usefulness to the team.

So much for “Avoidance is the answer”.

Moving on.

I’d like to introduce you to Squicky, isn’t he the cutest lil thing? His hobbies include eating rats, moles, mice, small cats, and beagles when he’s really hungry (and really big).  I like hanging out in the tram station with him just to watch him chase the rats.

Over the past 48 or so hours, there has been much trash-talking about the Ensidia world-first kill of Arthas (and subsequent fallout).  People are weighing in on both sides.

One prevailing viewpoint of the pro-Ensidia crowd is that Blizzard failed to test the software “properly” and thus, somehow and ergo, Ensidia is blameless in this situation.

What utter, profound crap.

Let me essplain.  No – it is too much. Let me summarize.

There is a rule of thumb in the software testing world, which boils down to this:  “to attack the software properly, you have to think like a criminal” – such as , for example, when dealing with things like credit card processing – the storage of account numbers and so forth, especially. The designer will tell you how it’s supposed to work under normal conditions. You get to figure out what he didn’t think of, the cracks in the shell that you can exploit.

So; this rule of thumb helps one find good testers, but it begs the question as to how to “catch a thief”! Until you’ve sat in the seat of an interviewer, you really don’t know how difficult it is to find a mediocre tester, much less a world-class game buster.  To “catch a thief” to work on your team, you kinda have to think like one, too.

So that’s one issue.

Another issue is what I like to summarize as “the view is really good from the cheap seats”. Really, until you’ve actually been put in the place of finding bugs as your bread and butter, you really have no idea what you’re talking about when you criticize the work done by the testers in this situation. You really, really, don’t. You have no idea what kind of guidelines they were given. You have no idea what level of knowledge they were given about how the encounter was supposed to progress, nor how complete the testing environment was. You have no idea, at all, how this was tested, or even if it was testable.

So sure, go ahead and talk trash all you want, but those of us that work in the industry know exactly how hollow and foolish your critiques are.

Walk a mile in my shoes, and we have common ground to talk.  You can make real critiques at that point, not a bunch of generalities that mean absolutely nothing.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Regarding Ensidia; Grimm said this elsewhere, but I will reiterate now.  You don’t play this game for five years, earn a seat in one of the premier raiding guilds in the world, and somehow not know that this was an exploit. Saronite bombs are to be thrown at the enemy, not collapsed portions of a platform, and the enemy was not standing on collapsed parts of the platform. No, this was deliberate. And anyone that’s been playing that long would know it.

To whine that they’re victims of faulty QA is disingenuous at best. That QA team didn’t make them toss bombs off where they would (theoretically) do no good.  That QA team didn’t force them to take the achievement. That QA team didn’t keep them from reporting the issue.The QA team didn’t make them crow at their achievement.

-=-=-=-=-=-

An analogy, and then I will shut up on this topic.

You are walking through a mall. Ahead of you, a woman’s purse has a broken strap, and the wallet has fallen out. When it hits the ground, a bunch of $50 bills spill out on the ground. She continues on, unaware of the incident.

If you take the money and toss her wallet, who’s in the wrong?  Sure, she should have fixed the purse, secured the wallet. But does that in any way excuse theft? I don’t think so.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Ensidia, I’m sorry that you didn’t get a nice set of steak knives, but maybe next time you will use your heads and not risk your reputation on something so obvious. Or if you do (and I suspect you will), I hope you can at least own up to your stupidity next time.

Oh, and gratz to Paragon, that did it without exploits.

The Warlock walked into the Gnome’s office unannounced. He looked up and leered. “Ah, Flora! I’m so glad to see you! Something’s come up, and I’m sure you’re just the right person for the job!”

“Don’t waste pleasantries on me, Milo. I got word all the way in Dalaran that you were looking for me. So I’m here. Talk. I have things to do.”

Kicking back in his chair a bit, he grinned up at her. “Oh, you’ll love this. You know that bit of work you did for the Argent Crusade at Crusader’s Pinnacle?  Well, Fordring himself has been asking for you personally. I guess you made an impression, girl.”

The Warlock frowned; her felguard growled. Milo could get so … fresh … sometimes.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If there was one thing that Paladins hated, it was Warlocks. Keepers of demons and trafficking in fel magicks, it was only natural that they did. But there was one thing they hated even more, and that was the Scourge. Good fortune for both, then, that Warlocks would do what Paladins would not in battle against a common enemy.

But, Fordring … the Grand Poobah of the whole crowd of “holy” warriors? Asking after a Warlock? There must be foulness afoot, indeed, if he was going to shake hands with the likes of them.

“Ah, there you are.”, he smiled at her – although the smile seemed a bit … off. He explained that a Hero of the Crusade had gone missing, and he needed help to find him. Why the Warlock? That was never discussed, but as she had some reputation of getting things done, maybe that was all there was to that. “He was spotted heading to the far northeast, towards the Silent Vigil. Bring him back to me that I might honor him for his valor.”

At least he didn’t call her “girl.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Finding the Hero was not easy, but find him she did. He lay, broken, falling to the Scourge Plague that would turn him into something terrible, a new toy for Arthas, a powerful new enemy for the Lich King. Just over the rise, was the new Tournemant grounds, with many who might help. And yet he refused for fear of infecting others. “Leave me… and see to it that no one else comes looking. You would do me a great disservice if you were to expose anyone to the plague that I carry.”  GAH! Paladins! She fumed as she mounted up and prepared for the long flight back to Fordring. Not only was the mission failing, but the odds of getting paid were withering away.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Emerald Nightmare … was nightmarish. Even the Felguard was uncomfortable. There were those that theorized that The Emerald Nightmare came from Fel magick, but every fiber of her being screamed in a most unnatural way. If this is Fel magic, I’ll eat a Soul Shard, she thought, as she fumbled around in search of her prize. Finally, something out of the corner of her eye … Ah, acorns! Squirrels might be better at finding them, but who’s gonna bring them back? That’s right, send a Warlock!

Suddenly, the gloom deepened. Looking around, she realized that the tree to the left hadn’t been there before … and it appeared to be very angry!  What was it that Remulos said?

Seriously! Remulos! Talking to a Warlock!

Oh, yes. Pinch myself.

Pouf

The Keeper grinned back at her. “I told you to be careful. I am glad you are back, Floramel. Not everyone is so fortunate. Here, let me see what you have, there.”

She suspects she’s been pranked – just a little bit – by a demigod.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“You must understand, that cleansing the body in favor of life anew is something well within my grasp … removing the plague of undeath without affecting the body, however, is beyond the scope of the powers that I control.

“If this Bridenbrad is the beacon of light that you profess him to be, perhaps he will endure such a cleansing and thrive, but I cannot state with confidence that this is the salvation that you seek. Take it and go with all of my blessings.”

“That sound painful, Life-binder. Is there no other way?” She surprised herself at the audacity of questioning Alextraza’s word.

The Dragon Queen smiled ruefully. “Oh, it is painful, and dangerous, too. But like with the flowers, the Scourge must be burned out in order to allow Life itself to flourish. He will either survive it, or he will pass. We can do no more. There is no other way.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Fordring looked haunted, angry, and a number of other emotions that could not be clearly described. Desperate. There, that was close to it. As close as a Highlord might look to Desperate, at any rate.

“This won’t do!”, he spat. “I will not give up on him!”

“Floramel, go now to Shattrath…”

After a moment, she demurred. “Highlord … I am a Scryer. Is this wise?”

He smiled a little smile. “The Naaru are beyond petty faction squabbles, Floramel. I’m sure he’ll hear you.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Fear not, young one, for this crusader shall not taste death.”

As Bridenbrad’s spirit went aloft, he smiled down at her – with gratitude? Possibly. It was hard to tell, her vision was swimming.

“Young one, why do you weep?”

“I’m not crying!”, she spat. “I just have something in both of my eyes.”

The sound of bells – was the Naaru … laughing? “Forgive me, young Floramel. We Naaru are, of course, unfamiliar with human emotions, and often make mistakes.

“’sokay,” she mumbled.

Hmm … wonder if Fordring might want this tabard back?  “Hey, Naaru, is it OK if I take this back to the Highlord?”

Looking around, she realized she was alone.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Standing this high up in Dalaran, you can almost see where he laid down to die alone. Almost. Rarely had she been touched by the actions of others, and this week she had been touched by the actions of many, so many, giving what they could to honor this “beacon of the Light.”

The Warlock contemplated the week’s events, and held on to the warmth she had when speaking with A’dal. Was it wrong for a Warlock to want to feel that way again?  The Naaru were … very hard to pin down.

Illume walked out from her study to find her “sister” lost in thought.

“Hello, Flora. It’s good to see you again. How are things going?”

Smiling faintly … “Not bad, sis. Not bad, at all.”  She turned from the balcony. “Buy you a drink? I could use some company right now.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Meta: this story is set – loosely – in the questline starting with A Tale of Valor.

Fai reported something she saw in Zangarmarsh, and I’m at a loss of words.

A melee Warlock.

Some Orc, Demon spec, level 68 (in a 62 questing area) with his trusty felguard. He’d pull with his wand, his felguard would attack, and then he’d start stabbing with his blade.

I just can’t wrap my head around that. It’s like watching a Mage tank with her face. There are no words.

So Jas ran Grimm’s sweetie’s alt through Uldaman last night. Overheard in party chat:

“I swear, there’s no doubt you’re Floramel’s sister.”

I’m so proud, I’m almost misty over here.

Almost.

DoTs are DoTs are DoTs, sister.

While Jas has been Miss Popularity in raiding circles and Grimm has been our soft and cuddly front man, I’ve been working the numbers and the gear to be all I can be. Now, I might be blowing smoke here, but I really think that coming within a few percentage points of our GM’s fire mage is reason to believe that I might just be able to hold my own in a raid.  Our only other raiding warlock usually comes in far below her on the charts, so if I can manage to stay alive¹, then maybe I have a chance in raids.

Of course, that means I would have to actually, you know, raid. Jasra’s got that slot all sewed up at the moment. Our GM’s making noise about getting her priest up to raiding speed, though, so we’re trying to come up with some sort of DPS plan.

Grimm does love his BM spec, but without the end-all BM pet (Spirit Beast), BM is pretty gimped. He has as of yet resisted shifting to Survival, and thus is self-gimping. Additionally, his to-hit is pretty ugly compared to mine due to gearing. This is not deliberate, but as luck (i.e. the RNG) would have it, Grimm’s gotten little of the good gear compared to what I have at this point.

What it comes down to is who gets to fly the Clan Grimmtooth flag if Jasra isn’t in the raid.  Our emotional decision is that we find a way to gear Grimm up and find a way to get past the BM gimping, such as dual spec. The pragmatic decision is that I go in for the team since I’m closest to ready for the venue.  Right now that is the direction that we are all leaning, at least until our other raiding Hunter quits coming.

So. Let’s talk theory.

Currently I’m running Dual Spec with Demon / Emberstorm as my main and Destro as my alternate. Demon/Ember basically is a fire spec, and feeds on the synthesis of Immolate + Incinerate with Decimate kicking in at 30% on the mob’s health. Heroic-buffed that means I see close to 7K crits on my main nuke and 11K on the heavies.

I have heard a lot about Demon / Meta, and seen evidence of what a T7 geared ‘lock can achieve when Decimate kicks in. I am at this point sorely tempted to chuck Destro as my secondary and replace it with Demon/Meta so I can play around with it a bit. The raw numbers say I should see another 10% improvement which translates to close to 3K DPS in heroics, without a single scrap of Naxx gear, if theorycraft translates to reality.

This is one of those moral quandaries that Warlocks hate.  On the one hand, our old raiding favorite, Destruction, is slowly being walked out to the old folks’ home. On the other hand, our most favorite spec of all, Demonology, now offers two effective specs for raiding.

I’ve had worse decisions to make in my life.

Further research is clearly indicated.

---

1. A feat he rarely manages. [↩]

In the comments for a blog article about the new Warlock mechanics in WoWCAT¹, some person commented that the changes might “make them dust off my level 70 lock again!”

Well. Isn’t that special?

Listen, if soul shard mechanics were make or break for them, they have other issues to deal with. If a change to how our spells work changed their  outlook on the entire class, they’re still probably not going to do so well.

There are a number of warlock bloggers that have stuck with the class for the last year; they have researched, toiled, practiced, and succeeded where Mister Dusty Level70 Warlock could not. They have the advantage in that they were willing to learn the class and excel with it. It just turns out that all those changes that made Warlocks look so gimped with the 3.0 patch were just misunderstood, and once understanding was achieved, the class is doing just fine, thanks, without the magical shard redo thingy.

So if they couldn’t keep up then, what makes them think they will be able to in the future?

They should stick with Death Knight. Better for all concerned, I suspect. Kill off that dusty ‘lock and roll up a Goblin Mage or something.

Don’t mistake my tone for dislike of the new system. First, it’s far from done. Second, I never said I didn’t like it. I am neutral until I see it in action. It’s just the way some people bail at the first sign of difficulty annoys me to no end.

Good luck with that DK.

---

1. I want a quarter everytime someone says that! [↩]

Now that we have that bit of drama all cleared out, some random observations.

• Hellfire is always a crowd-pleaser, but only if you either have a pocket healer, or keep a close eye on your health bar.
• In honor of the above, Illume has drawn on her past experience as an alchemist to create a new drink called the “Flaming Flo.” Privately, I love it. It’s almost as good as The Slaughtered Lamb’s signature drink, “Dark Desires.”  Publicly, all I can say is it’s a good thing I owe her a few favors. Otherwise I’d properly illustrate the meaning of “Frostfire”, if you take my meaning.
• Two-man groups are unable to summon a doomguard. Flora is a sad panda.
• I am king of the Ogres. Who wants to be first to say it?  I have plenty of soulshards.
• Patch 3.2 dropped today. Rocks fall, everybody dies.

Last year, instead of having our All Hallow’s gathering in Dun Morogh, Grimm decided to have it on the more amicable shores of Southshore.

Faiella didn’t make it, and that worried everyone. A lot. The whole crew set out to search, with Grimm apparently tromping every square inch of sod between Silverpine and Hammerfall.  Eventually, he called off the search, thanked the family, and returned home to try to find some sort of peace.

With any other group, that’s probably where it would end. Well, any group without a Jasra.

Dalaran, 5 months ago

I know I’m not going to see the inside of a raid for quite some time; not only does the Guild need Jasra more than me, but there’s also the possible gimping of my abilities. I’ve even tried Affliction, and while it was nice having the puppy out for a change, it still wasn’t doing it for me.

Up in the library, she found me.  “Floramel. We need to talk.”  Unusual for her, she’s usually pretty chatty with or without permission. We wander out to the balcony.

“I’m not giving up on Fai. This is killing Uncle Grimm. He has no closure, no idea what happened. Is she dead? Did she just run away from home? He just needs to know. I’m going to find out.”

What?

“Jas, he gave up of his own free will. He’s a trained tracker. He can practically see through walls. He wouldn’t have given up if he thought she was still alive. He’s making his peace now. Don’t reopen this, it’ll just make it worse.”

She doesn’t look away from the view, but for some reason I feel her eye upon me. “Flora … he gave up to spare us. If it wasn’t for his family, he’d still be looking. But he knows we wouldn’t abandon the search as long as he kept at it.   Watch him, you’ll see. Any chance he has to get back to Hillsbrad, he’s there. But he wanted to spare us from a long despair. As usual, he sees us as the children he adopted. We’ll always be kids, in his heart.”

“Jas, that’s a long stretch… ”

She cut me off. “Listen, I’m not asking for much. I’ll do most of the work. I just need you to keep your eyes peeled for anything … significant … here in the capitols. You and Illume are the city dwellers among us, and you especially have the best connections. Can you do that for me? Please?”

Part of me wants to say yes, part of me wants to keep from encouraging her. “Illume? She hardly comes out of the mages’ towers now that she’s taken up Inscription. And what makes you think Fai’d be in the city, anyway?”

A chuckle – at least she can still do that. “Illume serves the cause in her own way. And everyone else is focusing on wilderness areas, no worries there. But you have the connections. This really can’t work without you, Floramel.  Please help us.”

The road to damnation starts with baby steps, my mentor once told me. “Fine. Tell me what you need, sister. I’ll see what I can do.”

Ironforge, three months ago

When Uncle Grimm decided to adopt a number of homeless war orphans, he sunk his entire inheritance into a rather large apartment in the side of the mountain. Being a Wildhammer, he chose the wall of the mountain overlooking the Wetlands. “If you look right over there, lassie, you can see the window to my old home at Grim Batol”, he’d tell me, and point it out. I’d always pretend like I saw it, because it pleased him to think I did. “Someday I will reclaim my father’s house, and then the family will have a proper Keep!”  Sometimes we forget that he, too, is an orphan.  I imagine this view is all that keeps him going at times.

For the five hundredth time, I’m squinting, trying to make it out. Jasra joins me. She’s a bit beat up, but otherwise exuberant. “We were that close to taking down Meaxxna!”, she beams. “Next time, I’m sure we’ll do it!”  As I help her clean up and mend, we talk business.

“He’s out there again, I’m sure of it,” I tell her. “I saw his gryphon go by this morning. He thought he was being clever by aiming it at Arathi, but we both know he never ventures into the battleground.”

“So you believe me, now. Any other news?”

“Word of a Death Knight that may have some of her belongings. My sources are trying to nail down some sort of pattern that we can use to get closer to it.  My mentor says he may know a way to extract information from it if it proves uncooperative. Where it found the things. How it got them.”

“Where at?”

“Stormwind, mostly. Sometimes Exodar, sometimes Darnassus, but usually around Stormwind. Never in Ironforge. That may be significant.”

“Unfortunately, I have Guild business to attend to. I’ll loop around the capitols to see if I can spot this Knight, too. I’ll return as soon as I can. Good luck, sister. ”

Well, I have to admit. We’re making more progress than I thought possible.

Ironforge, six weeks ago

“Hail the returning hero!” As Jasra walked into the common room, the entire family burst into cheers, with Uncle Grimm leading the way. My little sister had done something none of us has done yet – vanquished the dread lich Kel’Thuzad, and we were full to bursting with pride. As the night went on, various guildies also dropped in, to shouts and applause.  Swan, Dedi, even Shima made a brief appearance.  A lot of these people were old compatriots of Uncle and myself from the Kara days. Much ale consumed, many stories told.

Later, quietly, we get some time together.

“I’ve news, sister. I’ve seen this Death Knight a number of times now. It carries a rifle with the Wildhammer seal on the stock.”

Her eyes got large. “Did it tell you where it got it?”

“I’ve only seen it, Jas. It’s pretty elusive. It would give Uncle Grimm a run for the money. I’ve seen it in Stormwind, chased it through three flight points only to have it disappear in the middle of nowhere. It knows it’s being tracked now, I think.” Might as well tell her. “It was here, this evening, watching you come home, from above the barber shop.”

“You let it get away!?!” Really, she can move pretty fast when she wants to.

“Yes! I let it get away! What, did you want me to call attention to what we were doing at a time like this? Think, sister.  We can’t show our hand yet.”

“Hand? What are ye on about, cousin?” A somewhat lit Uncle Grimmtooth was leaning against the doorway. “What are you two conspirators up to?”

Jasra practically squeaked. “It … it’s supposed to be a surprise, Uncle!” Well, this should be interesting. “I’ve been … busy, or I’d have been done by now. Can you pretend you didn’t hear anything and act surprised later?”

He laughed a little. “Aye, busy you have been. Ah, it’s hardly necessary, lass, but if it makes you happy I heard nothing at all.” Slow wink. “Looking forward to seeing your ‘hand’ when the time comes.”

As he sauntered out, I couldn’t resist. “Nice play of the martyr card, sis.”

The glare I got made Hellfire seem tame by comparison. “Shut up!” Just shut up!” Fade to shadow. “Find me that Death Knight!”

“Sure, sister. By the way, your shadow’s showing.”  I really shouldn’t goad her. I really shouldn’t.

Grizzly Hills, one week ago

“I’ve seen it, Flora. I’ve seen it, followed it, and lost it, just like you said.  Many times. It’s definitely on to us. How did you even get close enough to see the stock of the gun?”

“I have minions. I know things.”, I murmured as I watched Pizkip playing in the embers of the campfire. “It was watching me so closely that it failed to notice a Felguard walking right by until too late to avoid that.”

“It’s like that Ironforge appearance was its way of taunting us.” Jas sighed as she threw back her drink. “And now it’s gone to ground completely. I haven’t seen it in two weeks. And neither have you.”

“There are two possibilities, as I see it,” I mused. “The first is that it has left the cities completely and retreated to the wilderness, which is unlikely. The second is that it has changed its haunts, knowing it is being watched. I will work on the latter. You work on the former.” Nod. “Piz, come. We’re leaving!”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee YouWillPerishInFlame!” fwooosh “Eeeeeeeeeeeeee That’sRight,PickOnTheLittleGuy!” fwoosh “Eeeeeeeee IMeanYesMistress!”

Always pushing the boundaries, my little imp.

Blackrock Mountain, three days ago

I like doing nice things for Uncle Grimm. He’s gotten himself a sweetie, and we’ve all been pitching in to make her feel at ease with his rather large and diverse family. So into Blackrock Mountain we go – me, Headhun, and Rosamunde. I admit I like her style. Getting her picture taken on the Emperor’s throne was inspired.

As I headed to the mailbox in the Underbelly, one of the shadows peeled off of the wall and spoke. “Floramel.”

Jasra’s getting really good with the shadow form.

“I have news, Jas. My old mentor in Stormwind knows where our friend has been hiding. She – it’s a she, and a dwarf, as it turns out – often takes her evening meal at an establishment he knows of before retiring to wherever it is that Death Knights retire.

Gasp. “Flora, I … I have news, too. I found Fai’s stuff. In behind Tarren Mill, her pack and a few other items. But no body.”

No … Oh, Gods, No!

Even in shadow form, I could tell that she had reached the same conclusion.

“Let’s not be hasty, sister. If we spook … her … again we might never know.  I’ll handle this, Jas. Coordinate with Illume. Be where we can find you.”

She nodded mutely.

‘And, Jas?”

“What?”

“Don’t be a hero.”

There’s that look again.

Stormwind, two days ago

“Milo, that’s not fair! We had an agreement! I’ve kept my end of the bargain up. Now do likewise!”

Milo, my old mentor, didn’t look at all impressed. “Flora, I am changing the terms of the agreement. Keep this up and I’ll change it again. And you’ll never see your precious little Death Knight again. I want a certain noble dead, you will do it, or else. All I have to do is tell her one word, and she’ll bolt again.”

Fume

Milo, I’m … I’ll … GRRR!” He grinned up at me. That Gnome had me by the short hairs, and he knew it. “Let me think about it. I need a drink.”

Smugly, he nodded assent. “You know where to find me, my dear. But don’t take t0o long. Some things are … perishable.” You know you’ve already won, don’t you, you bastard?

Headhun glared across the table at Milo’s demon, a doomguard. “What happened to your friends?” Oh, I’m going to have to zap him a few times if this attitude keeps up.

I have varying tastes. When I’m in a good mood I often go to the Blue Recluse and enjoy the show as the scrubs come in to clear out the ghosts from time to time. But on a night like tonight, I wants it strong and angry. There’s only one place that carries the darkest of rums, distilled (so they say) from demonic grains harvested on Argus itself. The Slaughtered Lamb. Right below Milo’s quarters, and above my old training grounds.

The gleam of blue glowing eyes staring back at me from under a hood frightened me out of a year’s growth. That bastard! Right under my nose!

I’m either going to kill him, or buy him a drink!

Ironforge, present day

The view from the balcony is, as always, breathtaking.

Milo, it turns out, was more annoyed at having to renegotiate than anything else. For a suitable lump sum of gold, he now has a shiny new soul shard on his mantlepiece, which he occasionally has his doomguard swallow whole and then … retrieve. I am lead to understand that this will be an object lesson to said noble, who will eventually find himself back home with a healthy new respect for the “worst that can happen.”

Uncle Grimm is happiest I have seen him in months. He even seems younger. Jas is, as always, an exceptional healer.

I feel a presence next to me on the balcony. “Aunt Flora, I haven’t had the chance to thank you. I’m sorry I put you through all that. I’m glad you didn’t give up.”  No wonder this little Death Knight gave us such a merry chase. She’s still a hunter at heart. She even still cuts her hair with her skinning knife. I guess Amus is right – it’s the heart that matters, after all.

“Just don’t go doing a fool thing like that again, little sister.” I try my best to be gruff. “Otherwise, I swear … I swear I’ll kill you so hard that you won’t come back.”

For the first time since we found her, she laughs.  It’s cold, deep from the ground, diabolically chilling, but it’s mirth nonetheless.

I kinda like it.

Check it out – a post from Megan @ OOM. Kudos to Meta for being too lazy to prune his unused RSS feeds.

Megan has set us quite the challenge here.

Apparently it takes the blogdeath of a Hunter, Druid, Supa Fly Ret Palli, and (perhaps) a ‘lock to get her to post again.

So this is like that episode of Babylon 5 entitled “Deathwalker.” A war criminal of the Dilgar War, Deathwalker perfected a serum that would grant immortality.  The catch? It required the death or 1000 or so other sentients to harvest the reagents to make it¹ .

So is this the game? For every four blogdeaths, we get a shiny new post?  And would the death of one blog such as this, which houses many souls, suffice? ’cause I think Meta’d take one for the team, if it came down to that.

I’m getting a little nervous now that I think about it.

/cast WebBrowser

/click Craigslist

/click Warlock Job Opportunities

What?

I’m just looking!

---

1. I always thought they should have followed up on that to discover that the regents were, in fact, the “souls” of the being, and then the Soul Hunters would somehow figure into more drama surrounding this serum. [↩]

On twitter, a mage friend was musing how she’ll often Ice Block if she knows a particular person is right behind her on the aggro table, especially if she just pulled aggro. She claims that she doesn’t have it in her to play a warlock. I think this illustrates that she does, in fact, have it in her.

She just needs to go back to that special place, the groove she was in when she was “handing off aggro”.

It’s The Zone.

Just what is The Zone? Jong expresses it pretty well HERE and later HERE. Apparently a Belf Ret Pally’s happy place involves flipping out. In that regard, we have much in common. That happy place is The Zone.

In our case, for a moment, we let go of everything that keeps our seething hatred of everything in check. We let that hatred flow out through our fingers as pure rivulets of pain and suffering and broken dreams. For a brief moment, we are not the base flesh that we regard in the mirror, but rather we are beings of pure shadow or fire or agony. We become these things, and we visit them upon our enemies. That is The Zone.

Consider the ending of Return of the Jedi. Palpatine was clearly a Warlock. When he starts to fry Luke’s innards, his teeth are clenched in a grimace of pure hatred, and that lightning might as well have been coming out of his eyes.

He was in the Zone. That is the Warlock’s special place. When you’re wondering where your DPS went, invite Palpatine to help out, and it will all come back to you.

I am led to understand that the basic ennui of being a Shadow priest fuels DPS in a similar way. They have The Zone, too.

Find the Zone. Live in the Zone. BE the Zone.

… with Affliction, of course. What, am I stupid? Don’t answer that.

Following advice given by the esteemed Nibuca and Fulguralis, I’ve been able to eke out a 10-15% improvement in my effectiveness. We ran two instances last night, one with a fellow Afflic lock (level 80) and the other with two level 80 mages (1 frost, 1 fire). I was 100 dps ahead of the other lock, and the fire mage by around 50-75.   I went basically from around 800-900 range to a steady hover around 1000 dps. Not bad for someone geared as poorly as myself.

I crossed over from 77 to 78 in HoS, which according to the forum rats means I have even more right to an opinion than I did 5 minutes before. (har har lol lol)  But seriously, I’m 78 and I haven’t even started Grizzly Hills or Zul’Drak. Awsome.

I think I’ve mastered the 1-2 trash mobs rotation, as well as the general process for groups of trash. I still need to work on boss / omgbiggie rotations and arrange my bars for optimal rotation in all cases.

Up next: reexamine my spec, make sure I’m not missing anything. Memorize the most desirable traits in armor and weaponry (I’m actually not too far off) and configure Rating Buster to help. Work on getting enchants together, and at 80 develop a gear plan.

Check it out, having fun. Who knew?

Unexpected call to arms tonight to assist in DK. Grimm could have gone but it seemed like a good opportunity to (a) get some XP, and (b) try out my shiny new Afflic build.

I had a feeling … so last night, before Illume claimed the CPU, I ran over to Ironforge and got a respec, and set up my bars, and so forth. So I was ready.

So what’s the verdict? I got around 50 dps more than running through A-N and OK the other night with my Demon/Destro build. Fel Pup was out, and I maximized my DoTs as much as possible. I need to pop over to Nibuca’s and search around, I seem to remember a decent post on rotations for trash versus boss over there.

Conclusion: none. My inherent noobishness on the Afflic build will obscure any real numbers for a while until I get a handle on it. But I am encouraged.

Of course, with the changes in 3.1? Well, it’s a never-ending quest for knowledge, right?

Well, I just finished a couple of intensive days of working the ol’ Demon/Destro spec in instances and grinding. Oddly, I think I learned more about Affliction spec tricks than anything.  Getting the hang of the pet functions – and getting away from Demonic Sacrifice¹ – is helping me explore my class in greater detail.

So, yesterday, I was able to hold my own with a contemporary Boomkin. We were both running around the same DPS, swapping out the lead a few times.  Roughly speaking, at 77 we were both pulling between 900 and 950 DPS. While this is nothing compared to our GL’s 2100 DPS frost mage or Grimm’s 1700 BM Hunter, it is a solid improvement over the 800 DPS I was pulling two weeks ago at 75. Call me a newb but I’ll take an improvement now and again. That’s how I roll.

Something I have overlooked in Affliction that has me interested is how the Fel Puppy works. With a bonus attack for every DoT you have up on the target, this makes the Puppy the ideal companion to the Afflic lock. I don’t know if this was added in 3.0 or not. The sad thing is that one of our DoTs (Syphon Life) will be going away in 3.1, and I don’t know if the Pup’s skills will compensate.

Still, it has me getting excited for Afflic again. So we’ll see what comes of that. There are a few fine blogs that point out the highlights of that spec, and I aspire to be so good as them. The spec is extremely viable in skilled hands. Maybe I can work it up to at least adequate.

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1. It’s going away completely in 3.1 [↩]

OK, I caved.

I’ve been hanging on to my Demon/Afflic build far longer than intended, hoping that some twist of fate would make the spec work like, well, magic. What’s that classic definition of insanity again? Yeah.

So, I’m 76 now. Going by how a forum rat thinks, that makes me smarter and more relevant. O RLY?

:: strains ::

Nope, still can’t make rocks fly through the air using my brain. Well, maybe that comes at 77.

Anyway.

When I popped 76, I traipsed off to Ironforge to train and respec. Why Ironforge? Might have something to do with the fact that the Stormwind teleportal is 100 feet in the air and the Warlock trainer is 100 feet down in the basement, in the most obscure corner of the city. I’m all for homeland loyalty, but the Dwarves of Ironforge know how to build a city. Teleportal on the ground. Warlock trainer in the next chamber over, also on the ground. Bank and AH just around the bend in the other direction. Trainers close at hand. It is close to a perfect design, and King Wrynn should get one built.

Only this time, pay them, ‘kay hon?  Thanks so much.

I digress. Again.

So, the point that I started with.  My new build is heavy on the Destro, and I’m sliding into Demon for a few things as well, though I may eventually go heavier into Destro.

The rotation, as you may suspect, has changed. I don’t even use my shadow spells now. Looks like this:

<Curse of Elements> – <Immolate> – <Chaos Bolt> – <Incinerate * 2> – <Conflagrate> …

… then start back at Immolate. That’s right. For realsies, I kill ‘em with fire now. Beats dressing warmly.

So far with trash mobs I’m not getting past the 2nd Incinerate. It is serviceable, and they go down faster than with the Demon build, but the real test will be my next instance run.  Demon spec was posting 800-900 dps with lots of misses.  We’ll see what I can do with this one.

I plan on getting a glyph to boost Booberry’s stamina even more. If only I could find a way to boost his aggro. Further research is indicated.

I’m not even going to worry about Demonic Sacrifice. It’s gone in the next patch, so best develop methods using other tools now.

Hydra sometimes makes me want to go back to Affliction. “Nothing says love more for your healer like a soulstone made from another player.” Lawl, and, Rawr. You go, little sister. Time for an EVIL CHECK? Possibly.

Under the new rotation regime, I get two nights in a row, so I’m hitting Illume up for some glyphs and getting back into the game tonight. Might get an instance, might not. It’s nice to be back in the saddle, regardless.