Continued Presence

From the first post that I wrote in January 2010, I fell in love with the blogging community; specifically I find the World of Warcraft blogging community is spectacularly warm and welcoming. I have recently been thinking about my relationship with World of Warcraft and try as I might, I cannot find the appropriate interest that is enough to keep me playing. Even in my boredest moments, WoW is not something that I want to turn to to occupy my time anymore.

I wonder sometimes why it is and I still can’t pinpoint any particular reason. I know that leveling isn’t as fun, I have a lot of problems with the experience gains and linear questing style even though I love the phasing. I wish that we could fix the experience gains for things like mining and herbing without effecting our other avenues like questing or instancing;  I don’t even like the speed of questing when it is combined with guild perks and heirlooms, I pass so much it is no longer worth it and I far surpass my gathering professions in a zone or I leave all the quests behind.

I love all the people in my guild and I love all the friends I have made in the community but I don’t like the direction that Cataclysm took the game, I lost a lot of interest and I can’t continue. I know that there are several other bloggers who are retiring from the game and some I am still glad that I can stay connected with outside the WoW blogging community.

This post from Anna really helped to express a couple of the thoughts that I was having about the questing progression…

I’ve now completed Vashj’ir, Hyjal, and Deepholm, and in each one I was coming into a situation not as a subordinate helping a greater group but as a savior bailing out an inept group who couldn’t do it without ME.

I was THE CHOSEN ONE. I SAVED THE WORLD. There are PROPHECIES about me. I’ve single-handedly turned the tides of war and bailed out various groups who screwed it up or couldn’t hack it in the first place.

There are more great community members like Jaedia and Qeith. Anna also has another post or two that holds significant meaning to me right now.

But with all that said, I don’t want to leave the community, I don’t want to leave all the friends that I have made behind so I have decided to partake on the task (fun task btw!) of having a personal book blog. Within Pages is a place for all things books including reviews, events, book tours, book swaps, etc. Please, I would LOVE to see you over there and I am VERY excited about taking part in an extended blogging community. And yes, I will still be on twitter and yes you can still email me at tarinae (@) gmail dot com!

I know I have mentioned this but I LOVE YOU ALL!

Thank you for everything and I hope that you continue to join me for the rest of my blogging adventure over at WP.

Sharing the Beauty

Okay okay, so I know that I was taking a break from WoW but a very dear friend has gifted me with some time because the moths in my wallet are no fun. All the same, I have been re-analyzing how I am looking at this break from WoW and I know now, and know it well enough, that this is not permanent; this is a “let’s hope I get the promotion” and more money.

But to calm my anxieties, and there were many, about not playing I made my background one of my favorite screenshots of all time. Not only did I love the main storyline in this zone it has become my favorite in appearance as well. This image is working as a 1680×1000 desktop.

Sad Times

I have tried and tried to figure out a way not to have to write this post but sadly, I have no other options right now. I have decided to take a break from the game. This negatively effects a lot of things that I really enjoy doing but I have sat down and done some analysis with my boyfriend and we have decided it is for the best right now, for the both of us.

During the pre-Cataclysm lull, I felt too much responsibility to take the break the same time everyone else did; I held on to the guild that I had founded and I nurtured it some more, and I have held it close to my heart for three years. But now, I hold on to it, but I’m going to let it grow. At least for the time being…

There are so many reasons people take breaks, there are so many hopes for when people come back.

I have made FANTASTIC friends. Friends I hope that extend out of the game and friends that will be there when I can come back.

Why is this post making me want to cry?

I can’t say thank you enough for making the last year of my WoW experience absolutely spectacular and fun and entertaining and expanding my networking exponentially to add to that wonderful list of friends.

I feel like I am ending the chapter of the book of my life, but like all of my favorite novels; I will return to the book.

For the first time in over three years…

Good-bye

Tuesday with Tarinae 2/1

And we’re back! We I apologize for the gap in your World of Warcraft news but here, giving you a kick start to your February!

First the fun stuff!

Core Hound Pup Adoption Campaign

Feel the love.

Adopt the pup.

Win an iPad?!

SRS BSNS

Blizzard wrote a complaint to Paypal about goldsellers using PayPal as their means of collecting funds due. When PayPal received the letter they offered them the chance to prove they are not infrigning on “intellectual property” or their mechandise will be removed from the websites. Blizzard – 1 Gold Sellers – 0!

The Heartbreaking News

We have spent a few weeks waiting on 4.0.6 to arrive and yet…we find our selves waiting some more. This morning rolling restarts were performed and the realms were already playable by 12:30 EST. And as always you can check out the patch notes; they were last updated January 28th! If you are really antsy to play newer stuff, you can always download the PTR and test; please email me or comment and I will gladly help you figure out how to download it if you do not know how!

Thanks, Byez, and Pictures!

Thank you all for the great congratulations on the blogoversary and the birthday! I had an absolutely fantastic day and coasted on that loving, natural high all the way through the next 24 hours. I hope that you can enjoy my screenshot as a token of my appreciation. It was taken from within the scar in the Badlands illustrating that there is always beauty waiting to be seen, even if from the darkest places.

The Blogoversary!

Okay, so this is the time of my blogaversary! Wow, I have been doing this for a whole year! That is pretty amazing in my eyes. I have some blog news to cover and then move on to some of the highlights of the year!

First, I would have to admit with the Scout’s Honor that this happens to be a very bad time for such a monumental occasion…I have been in a terrible internet rut for about two weeks. Facing some health issues (not terrible but blah), starting a new diet (12lbs baby!), excerising, and a whole lot of just looking at the computer and wishing it was the TV.

I will also be looking for a new theme to carry me further into 2011, so don’t be alarmed if you see a lot of dust flying around this place as it goes under construction!

And even though my technical anniversary was yesterday (as in I created the blog), I decided to wait until today to do the write up because it is the day of my first post AND just happens to be my…..

So it is a very special time today! I mean how often to you get to turn 24?!

I’m going to share the statistics that wordpress pounded out for me for 2010 starting with my health meter that surprised even me:

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 51,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it. Since 2010, I have generated 7300 page views in less than a month!

In 2010, I’ve written 135 new posts, not bad for the first year! From those post I have generated 430 comments.

The busiest day of the year was May 4th with 1,584 views. The most popular post that day was For the Children!. The particular reason that this post was so popular, and I was very proud of it to be honest, was that I was linked as a holiday guide on WoW.Com! They referred almost 1000 viewers and the post had 5 pingbacks and 4 comments! I did work pretty hard on it as I hate those series of acheivements I tried to share my easy-ways-out!

Pulling out my very first post from the dungeons was Beacon Who? with 328 overall views! This article was what got me started into blogging after applying for the healadin column with wow.com Adam responded that they really enjoyed the piece and my voice but that they had decided to stay internal but not to quit writing. So, January 30, 2010 I put that out here for the world to see and have been doing great ever since!

The top referring sites in 2010 were holypaladin.net, wow.com, rhida.ch, wow.danomatic.com, and bossypally.wordpress.com. I’d like to thank all of these wonderful sites and/or bloggers for linking my content and placing me in their blogroll! Bossypally and Rhidach are some of the first blogs that I started reading, so I feel really honored!

Some visitors came searching, mostly for paladin mastery, healadin 4.0.1, healadin, holy paladin build 4.0.1, and cataclysm holy power. Recently, since my amazing Secret Santa post, I have had a surge in people searching for the Dark Phoenix as well! I am proud to direct the tons of people looking for healadins in 4.0.1 to my spec and stat priority posts that are part of my current guide that surpasses the 4.0 changes! With the current patch notes, neither of these should change drastically but should they need it, you will find them updated!

My top 5 posts for the year have been:

• 4.0.1: Talents & Mastery
• Paladin Mastery Specs
• Cataclysm: Paladin Talents & Mastery Changes
• The Leveling Healadin Part I
• Cataclysm: 31 Paladin Talents

Running right behind all of those would be my Recycle A Post: Gylph Analysis which is now outdated and links to an updated version that is climbing in views: 4.0.1: Glyph Analysis! The Leveling Guide is a strong resource that answers a lot of the questions people have about the BOAs they should be using as a leveling healadin!

Goals

I would love to get out of my general internet rut and back to a good steady posting routine. It seems that the only post that I get out is Tuesday with Tarinae and I opted out of that this past week because I simply couldn’t muster the strength to sit at the computer and write it. I would also love to get back into Shared Topics; Blog Azeroth was a strong part of my beginning and I kind of just dropped off the face of Azeroth (ha – you see what I did there!). I would love to write more compelling stuff that gets my readers interested and encourage them to comment more and/or email me thoughts; a blogger of this type of material is nothing without readers. This isn’t a personal journal and I am so glad you guys have been here to share it all with me. I have made some great online friends in the year since joining the blogging/twitter community and have branched out from just a little blog to co-hosting and guest appearing on podcasts.

I think this year has been a great start and I hope to see more progress in the future, but I couldn’t do it with out you, the reader, so thank you!

[Holy] 85 Guide: The Spec

This is part of my healadin guide for those interested in end-game healing as a paladin. You can view the important stats for healadin incliuding stat priority in the first installment by clicking here.

32/5/4

They way the current talents are working there are a variety of different ways to plant a certain amount of points. Given the options, I will go through each tier to highlight the options.

Tier 1

Arbiter of Light – This is a DPS talent given that our judgement crits give us no benefit and we don’t have Templar’s Verdict.

Protector of the Innocent – At least 2/3 is recommended here to fulfill the 5/5 points to move to tier to. This allows every heal you deal to others to deal a small self-heal amount that is also transferable to the Beacon target.

Judgements of the Pure – Maximize this talent 3/3 for a full 9% haste. This buff lasts for one minute and you should try to maximize its uptime to all close as 100% as possible.

Tier 2

Clarity of Purpose – This is not one of the aforementioned optional talents. This reduces the cast time of Holy & Divine Lights by upto 1 second and with those slow, spend-forever-casting-times you’re going to find these necessary.

Last Word – Whether or not you are an avid user of Word of Glory or not, given the other options this talent has a great life-saving mechanic.

Blazing Light – This talent is unneeded as an end-game PVE healer as we do not use Holy Shock in damaging ways.

Tier 3

Denounce – This talent is a leveling based talent given that it focuses around Exorcism.

Divine Favor – Haste & Crit? Yes, please!

Infusion of Light – If you are a Holy Shock-aholic, critical effects will directly shorten the cast time of Holy Light by 1.5 seconds.

Daybreak – No HS CD? Cha-ching.

Tier 4

Enlightened Judgements – This provides judgement range, hit rating from spirit, and a judgement self-heal. This talent can be optional given that the range is small being only 5 yards and we don’t get that much from hit rating other than for jdugements; our heals will not miss.

Beacon of Light – Take.

Speed of Light – More haste? Yes, please.

Sacred Cleansing – Given the mechanic changes with Cleanse, to remove magic you must spend this point.

Tier 5

Conviction – At 3/3 you can get to a maximum 9% buff to all healing done. This is one of the foundations for crit being on the priority stat list given that it procs from Critical Strikes.

Aura Mastery – Take.

Paragon of Virtue – This has a good benefit to reduce the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 1 minute which matches it with Divine Plea. Given the buff to DP, off-setting the remaining deficit with AW will make stronger heals during the 4.0.6 9 second duration of DP with a remaining 20% boost to healing for a remaining ~10 seconds.

Tier 6

Tower of Radiance – Given that this no longer benefit and grants HoPo from Holy Light casts (and hasn’t benefited from HS in a while), it has been debated in dropping this talent but I still find that the benefit of this talent are somewhat strong when fast HoPo may be needed or for general tank healing benefits.

Blessed Life – While this talent is specifically a PVP talent, people have reported specific fights or occurrences where the HoPo generation can be as great as 17% of all charges generated; however, these are very specific mechanics when this happens.

Tier 7

Light of Dawn – A spell that has been changed multiple times since its induction as our 31 point talent, it can still be a decent heal and use for HoPo but it does require skill in placement as it is a directional, conal heal.

((For Prot & Ret tree support, check behind the cut!))

Tuesday with Tarinae 1/18

Welcome back for another installment of Tuesday with Tarinae, the column were you can find out all the latest news in a short, easy to read synopsis! Get the latest info on World of Warcraft, MMOs, small updates on my player status, blog updates, and much more! But you know what you can find here, that is why you keep coming back…right?! So let’s get on with what it is you’re here to read!

Guild Experience

There has been a pretty significant change to the way guild groups can work in dungeons to earn guild experience that seems very positive overall, especially for the smaller guilds who struggle to get 4/5 members.

We have redefined the definition of a Guild Group for 5-player dungeons.

• If 3 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 50% of the normal rate.
• If 4 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 100% of the normal rate.
• If 5 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 125% of the normal rate.
• Also note that Heroic dungeons offer a 1.5x multiplier on all guild experience earned.

As the guild leader of a moderately small guild, we haven’t hit the daily cap in a while and we are moving towards the halfway point of Level 4, I think that this change is strong and beneficial. It is obvious to see the benefits that big guilds pushing 5/5 members will gain, and even though smaller groups will have to work twice as hard, they still gain the benefits.

As a note, you can always check the full patch notes and these changes are identified in the updated notes.

Genn Greymane

The community site has published a short story as part of their Leaders…Epic Short Fiction Series and in the beginning it is very awesome, but alas I haven’t read all of it as of yet. Click the image for the link to the story. There is also a link available on the original site that you can download the story in PDF format for later and offline reading.

Cataclysm LP

As of January 12, you are able to use iTunes to download and take sounds of Cataclysm with you wherever you go. Blizzard released the soundtrack on iTunes as an LP featuring 17 tracks, interviews, and much more. The iTunes price is 9.99 USD or .99 cents a song. Check out the track list and get the skinny on the other bonus content on the community site!

Login Issues

Last night on Shadow Council, we had some wonderful world lag/freezes. Someone who was technically offline was still chatting it up in guild and trade, people couldn’t dismount, some were stuck casting, and a hodge podge of other weird features were occuring. Shortly after that, Blizzard announced a list of servers that were experiencing login issues and there was no ETA on a resolution. The official update post has a list of all the servers and time-stamped updates that you can check if you were having any issues.

A Friendly Reminder

Well, I won’t keep you around for much longer. I’ve covered a lot of the hippin’ and happenin’ news for the week already but….I want to take a minute to remind you to check out The OverLores and GroupQuest podcasts for this week because I had a blast recording them! I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Podcasts Galore

I would like to take a minute and direct you to the reason you haven’t seen any more of the 85 guide lately!

On Wednesday we recorded Episode 1 of The OverLores. The podcast that I co-host with Rilandune, Nevik, Psnyister, and Nibuca and go across Azeroth as a band of worgen learning and exploring the lore that power-levelers miss…or even the lore you might not piece together while going about your business. This week we Rilandune discusses the Curse of the Worgen comics and we go into the game to experience some major changes in Gilnean life including the beginning and abrupt end of the zombie apocalypse for the city of Duskhaven. We leave the city in a state of panic and will continue our journey this week.

You can check out the full write-up and podcast at our home on the Twisted Nether Network!

And that’s not all!

I was invited along with Matticus, Nevik, and Amy (The WoW Lawbringer) to appear on Episode 12 of Group Quest, a Dawnforge Production. In true roundtable format, we discuss the hottest topics like the herioc nerfs, the change to guild experience, law suits brought against Blizzard, Tol Barad, and much more!

You can check up the full write up and podcast at the Group Quest!

I had an absolute blast doing both of these and would like the thank Medros for the invitation to Group Quest.

Be sure to subscribe to The Overlores! It goes out across the Twisted Nether feed and is now available on iTunes!

Tuesday with Tarinae 1/11

I am sitting here wondering just who is buried under all that snow. I am on a snow day myself on this frigid January afternoon. I think it is about time to get caught up on the WoW news and share some of the goodiness with you!

RIFT

Okay, so this isn’t WoW related but it is MMO related. I recently played in the RIFT Beta but sadly, I didn’t really realize that it was a limited event and I didn’t get to play for very long; I barely even got into the game. The world is very graphic heavy, almost so intensely that even a brand new computer that supports WoW on ultra settings sees lag. Granted the drivers need updating but still worth noting. There are (just like WoW) 2 factions that both start from being reborn from the dead. There are “soul” trees just like talent trees that start with improved spells (i.e. Improved Void Bolt). And I am in love with the Defiant symbol. I really didn’t get a good feel for the gameplay but I am interested in trying the next event.

There is also a lovely connection to WoW with RIFT because hey….we’re not in Azeroth any more!

If you are looking for full impressions check out the reviews and recounts from the guys at Massively.

World of Warcraft Suit

It is intense to think that someone would take on Blizzard’s (Activision) for World of Warcraft for patent infringement, but it has happened. After suing Facebook last year, Walker Digital has done a “double play” by suing Blizzard-Activision and Zynga for a gaming patent infringement about a tournament database or something. Massively has the write up and links for full details.

Patches!

The patch notes for 4.0.6 are now out and are on the PTR. For the most part this is a balancing patch that is supposed to work out the kinks. A drastic note is the change to druids healing, Nourish & Healing Wave have new learned levels and as I am about to partake in that for our podcast, I get to try it out with no prior experience, so I can’t really cry about it because I have nothing to go on. The other changes that I am very sad about are the changes to Retribution Mastery. It was so fun and different from all the other ones but now it is just the same…now it is boring.

There are also hints at what will be coming in patch 4.1 that you can check out including a new raid and other dailies!

Scattered Thoughts

The breakfast topic on WoW.com was about how Cataclysm disappointed us. There are still so many things that I want to do that I am taking my time to do because there is so little for end game. I haven’t done a heroic, I haven’t done dailies over and over, I have a bajillion and seven alts and just dropped a maxed profession to restart something else. I don’t want to be bored in a game that I love.

But with all that said, I wish you the best this week and remember that the is the only time for 100 years it will be 1/11/11!

[Holy] 85 Guide: The Stats

When attempting to find out what a holy paladin needs, it can be complicated and hard to sift through all the numbers and coefficients that are produced on sites like Elitest Jerks. To a casual reader or player, these sites never really seem to answer the questions that you’re really asking; I’ve decided to to an end-game guide for Holy Paladins in a simple form.

I’m going to start with the basic question: What stats help Healadins?

The super simple answer to this question is Intellect, Spirit, Haste, Crit, and Mastery.

But even simple answers can have simple explanations.

Intellect

Intellect is the strong foundation for everything that a healadin needs, it lays the base to build upon by providing:

• Mana (Maximum)
• Spell Power
• Spell Critical Strike
• Mana Regeneration

To clarify that maximum mana is our highest mana possibility with buffs like plate specialization, kings, paws, brilliance, or food like Pickled Guppy. Base mana on the other hand is the minimal amount of mana that you have while being naked and completely gearless. Maximum mana directly improves mana regeneration from things like Divine Plea, Replenishment, etc.

Spell Power

With the release of 4.0.1, spell power was removed from gear, gems, and possibly most food options and/or flask options as well. The main provider of spell power is Intellect and it does appear on weapons. Spell Power is a stat that has the most potency when directly effecting our healing abilities by making the spells hit harder.

Haste

Haste for a healer makes the spells we are trying to cast move faster. With Divine Light and Holy Light having a base cast speed of three seconds, haste directly effects how slow or fast we can cast these abilities. The haste cap at 85 is well over the 3000 mark and around 27% which is hard to even contemplate at this tier level. The cap places you at the maximum 1 second GCD (Global Cooldown).

At a haste rating of 747 (5.83%) DL & HL are at an ~2.6 second cast.

Remember that as a holy paladin, we can gain 9% haste by taking 3/3 points in Judgements of the Pure and judging a minimum of once per minute.

Critical Strike

Crit was once a a prioritized stat given that it had high mana returns but that feature has been removed. Given the low amount of over-heal crit is now better than it was at the end of Wrath. The direct benefit is that when a spell crits, it hits for extremely more meaning that we will cast less, and in turn drain less mana. Critical effects from virtually every ability including Protector of the Innocent proc Conviction that stacks to 3 buffing healing by 9%; having enough critical for the most uptime of Conviction is optimal.

Mastery

Our mastery has taken a long time to be recognized in our healing done, it is arguable whether or not is still being counted accurately or not but either way it doesn’t seem to play a  big enough part with such a small effect that we can barely send a tank in with the buff long enough for the first hit. This is produced by direct heals and not through Beacon or PotI.

It takes approximately 179.28 Mastery Rating at Level 85 to gain 1 point in mastery. Noting the tooltip above, our shield will gain 1.25% absorption for every 1 mastery (~179 rating).

Spirit

The strongest source behind our most solid mana regeneration. The amount of mana regenerated through spirit is buffed by the amount of Intellect that we have. Typically, the amount of mana regeneration from spirit in combat is reduced to spirit but part of the holy specialization (Medititaion) allows 50% of our mana to continue regenerating from spirit while in combat. Spirit coefficients are complex and hard to determine but if you’re having mana troubles, try obtaining more Spirit.

Stat Priority

1. Intellect
2. Spirit
3. Haste
4. Crit
5. Mastery

The position and priority of mastery and crit can change depending on gear and further tier levels but it is debatable for the time being. It depends on how you notice your uptime of Conviction is working whether or not you need more critical strike rating, but for the most part Crit can be reforged off into other more efficient stats.

I hope this first installment of the Level 85 guide helps, please stay tuned for more information and helpful tips to making it as a healadin.