Is Blizzard greedy?

This post sat in my drafts for a little while, unfinished because I got busy.  So .. late to the party once again.

So Sparkle Ponies were released, and everyone had an opinion.  The first day they came out, I was reading over my Google Reader and came across a long-time blogger who managed to put the words "Blizzard" and "greedy" in the same sentence, relating one to the other. 

I shut my Reader down in disgust.  I'm tempted to unsubscribe from their feed, to be honest.  Their walls-o-text are usually boring and I usually only skim them, anyway, but when they said that ... well ..

I don't want to talk politics here.  Not really.  I'm quasi-Libertarian, I'm against government bloat and waste and I'm for people taking care of their own damn selves, not looking to the government to wipe their asses for them.  I'm GLAD I live in America, where we are at least somewhat free from complete socialist control.

So, do I think Blizzard is being "greedy" because of this new RMT?  It's a pretty, shiny thing, no in-game advantage, just a simple skin over whatever mount you currently have.  If I had the extra $25, I'd buy one for myself without question - when I first saw pictures of it, I claimed that it was the second coolest mount I had ever seen for the game, after Ashes of A'lar. 

Blizzard sold a ton, no surprise.  They made a good chunk of change that day.  The price was out of reach or simply unacceptable to many, many people.  "Slippery slope" arguments abounded, with semi-good reason (my opinion - I get what those people were saying, but I really don't think this is a slope towards anything - Blizzard will not be selling gear or other items with an in-game advantage, I'm relatively sure of it). 

But the "greedy" comment .. really?  A private company, NOT a charity, in a country where capitalism is the name of the game, makes for purchase a small cosmetic item.  No guns to heads, no advantages to having it, no threats of purchase-or-die .. just a simple cosmetic, useless item offered for purchase that people can choose to buy or not. 

In a capitalistic society like ours, companies start up to make money, not to give away things.  That's what charities and, to a more frowned-upon (by me) sense, government agencies are for.  They continue to make money, they continue to operate, employing loads of people and putting out a superior product.  In Blizzard's case, they continue making this wonderful game with a relatively cheap suscription fee (I spend hours a day [can be unlimited] playing WoW for $15 per month, but I spend roughly 1 hour a week watching tv for $35 a month for basic cable, or spend $9 for a 2 hour movie, $50 for a day at the amusement park, etc. - what's the cheaper amount spent on entertainment out of all of those?).  Is that greedy?  Who gets the money? 

Why, it goes to overhead, mostly.  Paying for the facilities in which the developers work, and the salaries and benefits of those employees.  A large portion goes to taxes to the Royal Government, and yes Blizzard donates to charities.  I'm going to assume that like most companies, Blizzard rewards their employees with bonuses and perks for a job well done.   Like any company, no one person in charge gets to walk away with all the cash.  It gets SPENT, right back into the company to keep it running.

So what's all this "Blizzard is greedy" nonsense?  Seems that it came from some socialist-loving liberal who doesn't understand economics at all, in my opinion.  But what do I know?  I'm just another "greedy" person, taking home as much money as I can from my paycheck every two weeks - I'm not giving it away.  If I get extra, I'm treating myself for a job well done, not giving it to someone else.

UI Post!

So I did a UI post way back in the day, but now it's completely different.  I found problems with Quartz recently - there are these little tiny bars that track my dots that appear on both the top right and bottom left of the Quartz cast bar, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to get rid of them.  They screwed with my whole set up, and I completely deleted the UI in frustration and started over.

I downloaded Coehl's UI after it was featured on WoW.com one day.  I kept finding that I had this weird need to have access to all sorts of actions and items even though I didn't need them necessarily in combat.  Coehl's UI was the answer - it's set up to where there's a bunch of buttons hidden behind the dps meters (in this case, Skada) so that you can merely click on a tab and have access to them if you need them, but you don't have to clutter your screen with extra action bars.  There's also some extra action bars on a sort of "sidebar" that is also hidden at any time with the click of a button (if you wish), and the minimap does the same thing.  I did not find everything that I wanted with Coehl's UI, however, so I erased some things and replaced others, and added yet a few more (ugh, I hate you PallyPower, but dammit you are necessary). 

Here's a screenshot of a very recent raid - last week's Heroic 25 man Festergut and Heroic 25 man Marrowgar, to be exact:

• A.  Fortress - my Fubar thingy, I'm "meh" about it, really, and I've seen better looking ones, but I've been too lazy to go searching for a fix.
• B.  CooldownButtons - I don't even know why I installed this, really - to keep track of the Rebirth cooldown?  I look at it for my Fear Ward cooldown, but that's about it - I need to consolidate this information into the "shorter" cooldown tracker
• C.  Decursive - Ah, good old Decursive, how I love you.  I really prefer this method of dispelling poisons, diseases, and curses to tracking this stuff on Grid or some other method - the familiar sound it makes when something is applied to a raid member that I can remove/dispel, the little colored box (and number, if stackable) - this addon is essential for me
• D.  Grid - I'm sort of apathetic about my raid frames - I want something that's not totally in the way when I'm dpsing or tanking, but I do want to be able to see everything I need to see when healing.  I can move this Grid frame out of the way or disable it if I need to, but it seems to really take up a lot of space.  I dunno.  Doesn't fit anywhere else for now.
• E.  Chatter - my chat addon, gives a lot of information and filters, but I just use it straight out of the box and it suits me fine
• F.  Heatsink - My cooldown timer.  ForteXorcist was giving me hives, was doing something wonky, so I removed it and switched to Heatsink.  I can't seem to figure out how to add abilities to track on it, however, and I think it's only tracking cooldowns and not actual dot durations like the duration of Flame Shock (it'll track the cooldown of general "shock" spells, but it won't tell me how long Flame Shock is ticking on my target), nor will it tell me what's ticking on mobs that I'm not targetting (though I think there's a way to add this).  I might try something else - seems like there should be something easy that tracks dots AND cooldowns.  My head is stuffy just thinking about configuring something like that for all of my toons and specs, though.
• G.  Pitbull - my unit frames.  serviceable, I suppose, but nothing spectacular - does what I want, and that's good enough for me - G is me, G1 is my focus, G2 is my target's target (making sure my tank has aggro on what I'm attacking), and G3 is my target
• H.  AzCastBar - I dumped Quartz to make out with this, though I'm not as in love with it like I was with Quartz.  Seems to do what Quartz did, though, so I'm not sure what it is about it that I'm not all that impressed with ...
• I.  Bartender - I like Dominoes, since it's so easy to configure, but this UI package came with Bartender and I didn't have to configure anything, so I have no opinion of this
• J.  (the one in the middle of the screen - I'm a noob and labeled two J.'s)  MFClip - just for shadowpriesting, but it seems to be very in your face, I don't know if I like it all that much
• J.  (the one at the bottom right)  Skada - Recount+Omen in one, does everything except the pretty pie charts - this UI comes with a second Skada window (you can easily make one yourself, though) for tracking threat (J1) at the same time as dps, and it takes less memory that only Recount, much less Recount+Omen - I love it, and will probably never switch back, even if a future UI package comes with the two
• K.  Mik's Scrolling Battle Text (MSBT) - my combat text, really easy to configure, the main thing I like to see on a combat text is how many targets my Mind Sear is hitting - everything else is just filler for me (though Mik's throws out the "____ spell ready!" messages that are handy
• L.  Power Auras Classic - PAC is a proc tracker - I also want to roll this into my cooldowns and dots tracker, but for now, this works - the exclamation mark is telling me that Black Magic has procced (there's a timer for it, but it's hard to see in the shot) and I can refresh VT and DP and drop MB for the duration of it, and time another DP and VT at the end if I didn't get one in the beginning
• M.  Deadly Boss Mods - my boss mod of choice - I've tried Deux Vox and Bigwigs, but nothing beats that "BURR BURR" warning sound telling me to get my ass out of the fire, etc
• N.  pMinimap - resizes and moves the minimap and let's you configure what you want showing on it - nothing too exciting here
• O.  TipTac - I love this tooltip addon, but don't ask me how to configure it
• P.  Satrina Buff Frames - my buffs/debuffs tracker thingy, I like glancing at buttons more than bars
• Q.  TidyPlates+ThreatPlates - LOVE this nameplate addon combo - big and green outline for mobs that I do not have the aggro of, red and smaller if I have aggro - can't be much simpler - very handy when I'm tanking and looking at a screen full of nameplates - I can just manually click on the green nameplates and taunt

So that's it - I like the layout, and everything I want is on the screen, but I dunno - seems a bit cluttered, and I'd like to consolidate my cooldowns, track my dots, and track my procs in one addon, if possible.  I also want an easier way to tell if I am missing a buff or not.  Any suggestions on improvement, simplification, or complete redos would be appreciated.

Cata class previews (spoilers!) and D's thoughts

Anyone else just skip right on past the blog posts featuring Cataclysm class previews?  Especially if they are for a class you don't play?  Yeah.

So I'm not going to regurgitate the blue posts - these are just some meandering thoughts on some of the "previews":

1.  I couldn't believe how bored I was when reading the priest preview - especially for shadow.  Floating orbs?  Really?  *snooze*  Mind Spike would be more interesting if it didn't have a cast time - I want something to spam while moving, dammit.  But at least we'll get to move faster.  And I don't heal much nowadays, but yay for Power Word: Barrier!  I have a sneaking suspicion I've heard about a spell like that before, though ...

2.  WHATISTHISIDONTEVEN!  Shamans already do poo damage compared to mages (similar gear and skill for both - don't lie, you know it's true), whether it's because of the bullshit "hybrid tax" or just because Blizzard sucks at shaman dps design.  Either way, now mages do more damage AND get heroism/bloodlust?  Maybe K will become my farming toon in the expansion - they already gave her totem buffs to other classes, after all.  Take away her heroism, and all she has left is poo damage (I do more damage on all of my other dps toons, after all, even though I'm better geared on her) and great healing (but I don't LIKE shaman healing, BLAH). 

3.  Oh, there were hunter, rogue, death knight, warlock, and warrior changes?  I didn't read them - anything cool?

4.  No more permanent tree form, QQ.  I can understand the "outrage", but really, I can understand Blizzard's side of things, too.  The tree forms look like soggy, days-old cooked asparagus tops - if they were flowering and lush and green and pretty, I could understand wanting to look like that all the time.  But really, threatening to reroll or cancel because you won't be a tree full time?  Seriously?

5.  Speaking of druids, I LOVE LOVE LOVE TANKING AS A BEAR.  I see absolutely zero problems with bear tanks - they are super awesome to play.  Okay, I take that back - on Lich King phase 1, I kept pulling threat off of our bear tank until I went and respecced with a point in that shadow threat reduction talent.  The bear is massively geared and very talented, and I was just doing my normal "rotation" (with Fade every cooldown) - so it definitely wasn't the bear's fault.  Glad to see that Blizzard is keeping bears in mind when trying to fix "threat".

Some of the elemental shaman changes do sound kind of cool, like that earthquake thing.  I just last night respecced enhancement back to elemental, just to try to not fail at it (again).  I don't know, though - it's the lack of mobility that really gets me (same with boomkins).  I know shadow priests have their rough spots while moving, but at least we have a way to regen mana (dispersion) and we have most of our damage tied up in dots which are still ticking during movement.  Balance druids (S's offspec) have only a couple of not-that-great dots, and shamans have exactly one (Flame Shock).  Could throw a Magma Totem down before moving (but that in itself would require moving - elemental shamans don't exactly stand right next to the boss most fights) and use Fire Nova on cooldown, but it's just not that much damage if you are moving and changing targets for most of the fight.  I guess I just can't really get into it as much as I can on D.

Plus, reading some of the changes, it seems as if Blizzard really wants to focus more on movement-oriented fights.  All those movement speed increases for all those classes should be telling us something.  Even priests get one.  But again, do shamans?  Balance druids?  Nada.  Unless they get roared on by a bear tank - but once again, when do ranged dps stand beside tanks/next to the boss?

Sounds like I need to focus on my 2-button arcane mage TW (now level 74) and my super cool rogue T (level 44ish I think).  I hate healing, anyway - not sure how all four of my level 80's happened to be the exact four classes that could heal. 

I'll almost certainly drop balance for resto on S, and I might race change him.  I love him as a night elf, honestly, but if we get to LOOK like a worgen even we are druids (I never understood the appeal of being a worgen druid, if you won't see the worgen form anyway) that would be pretty cool.  I'm still iffy on the worgens, though - I want to look like a worgen, but the casters seem kind of goofy (wolves in dresses) and I hate hate hate the human models (especially the males).  So I'd only want to be a worgen tank or melee dps, but druids will only have cat or bear, so you won't see the worgen forms anyway ...

Well, that was rambling.  Good to be blogging again, so you (all one of you) can read my thoughts and go "wha?"  Right on, D.

My next post will probably be on my fail UI, pictures and all.  It's serviceable, certainly, and I have definitely seen worse (did you see that WoW.com one maybe two "UI Post"s ago?  Holy Moly!) but I get bored easily.  I like the minimalist ones, but always end up adding more stuff that I think I need, cluttering it up again.

So until next time, I'll leave you with a PUG story:

I see someone forming a group for Onyxia 10, and since I have never been on E (paladin), I whispered that I could tank it (my ret gear is so-so with two blue trinkets, while I've been tanking ICC 10 for weeks).  We form up, get there, buff up (four paladins in the raid, I'm the only one with PallyPower, and of course two different paladins decide that they should be buffing Might, leaving no one buffed with Wisdom) and I get ready to start pulling the first trash mob.  The other tank is right next to me.  The first mob and second mob are both coming towards us, so no problem - I move to pull them both and face them away from the raid, figuring the other tank would grab the second one off of me and stand with me.

Wishful thinking, of course - he does pull the second mob off of me, but he does not turn that mob around.  Four raid members get cleaved almost instantly.  He dies shortly after, since two were healers (what the healers were doing right up on the tanks, I have no clue.)  "WTF?  Why did you pull both?" asks one healer.  I calmly explain that both tanks were ready, one tank per mob.  "That's not how it works," the healer says.  "Only pull one at a time." 

"Well, since it's too much to handle for the healers for one tank to hold one mob each, I'll do it that way this time," I say as we're running back.  We rebuff, again with no Wisdom, and off we go.

Two mobs coming.  I hold back.  Other tank rushes forward.  Pulls the first mob, does not turn it around.  "Pull it back," order the raid leader.  "Out of the way, I'll pull him back here, everyone move back," I say, and taunt the mob.  No one moves.  People get cleaved.  The second tank still stands there, doesn't move, body pulls the second mob.  Wipe.

"You tanks suck," says the healer, and drops the group.  I follow suit without saying anything.  It's ONYXIA, not ICC.  It's not hard mode.  Two wipes on the first trash mob, and I look bad because of the other tank. 

To say the least, I was not happy.

Pwning your way through ICC - a shadowpriest guide to maximizing dps

These are tips and tricks I've picked up for Icecrown Citadel as a main spec shadowpriest - please feel free to leave any advice or suggestions in the comments, particularly if I forgot anything.


I know this was done on WoW.com, but Fox Van Allen or whatever his face is left a few things out, so these are my own observations and things I've picked up while playing through these fights myself.

Make sure you have the following in your bags before the raid:

• 2 x Glyph of Dispersion
• 3 x Glyph of Mind Sear (you can start off with this one, but see Marrowgar points below - otherwise you'll need an extra Glyph of Dispersion)
• a stack (or more, depending on wipes) of Potion of Wild Magic
• a stack (or more, depending on wipes) of Potion of Speed
• a few Flasks of the Frost Wyrm

Of course on the trash, Mind Sear ftw - trash isn't important in the grand scheme of things if your raid is filled with good people that know what they are doing, but you don't want to spend your potions (and save your flask for when you are about to engage Marrowgar) on this stuff.


--------------------------------


Marrowgar


-hopefully, your raid (minus the huntards) is stacked INSIDE of Marrowgar's red aggro circle - some raids do it with everyone spread out, though, and if your raid is one of them, swap your Glyph of Mind Sear for Glyph of Dispersion
-a good raid leader will give a short countdown before the boss is engaged - use this to your advantage by double potting: use a potion RIGHT before the boss is engaged, which doesn't count towards your one-pot-per-fight (freeing you up to use another potion during the battle)
-in Marrowgar's case, you'll want to start with a good Potion of Wild Magic
-while running in, use your instants to build up your five stacks of Shadow Weaving (DP, SW: D, 3xDP should be sufficient, although you should be able to reach him before the five - in that case I'd suggest an opener of DP, SW: D, DP, MF (2 ticks), then you can apply your SW: P and other dots as normal)
-Mind Sear during bone spikes (unless your raid is spread out or there's a hunter that is spiked - in that case, apply VT+DP on farthest spike, then VT on the second, SW: D on the third [by this time the spikes should be almost dead anyway, so no need in applying a dot] and back on the boss - be sure to use MF first to refresh your SW: P stack before it falls off)
-continue applying VT and DP while he's bone storming around, and keep MFing, but if you are low on health make good use of your Dispersion while moving into place for when he stops spinning
-use your Potion of Speed right after a bone storm ends - DP while getting back in his aggro circle and VT also while it is up - if you are already in place then VT and DP refresh as soon as you pop the potion, then reapply both right before the effect wears off (you should have a timer for this)


Deathwhisper


-Potion of Wild Magic right before the pull (you can actually pull yourself), normal opener (my preferred is VT, DP, full channeling of MF, then SW: P)
-hopefully, you are on the boss unless there's an Empowered/Deformed Fanatic up (or even better, on the boss full time, but your dps won't decrease that much by taking care of those particular adds) - if not, after applying dots to Deathwhisper, VT every Fanatic you see and Mind Flay the last one - it is imperative that you have a dot timer that tracks dots on multiple targets
-Potion of Speed at any time - usually groups pop heroism/bloodlust at the start of the last phase, so feel free to wait until after the effect wears off to use your potion, thus extending your haste bonus for what will most likely be the remainder of her health


Gunship


-(assuming you are not assigned to the cannons and are not jumping over) stand on the edge, VT a few of the axethrowers, pick one in the middle (you should still have Glyph of Mind Sear), and Mind Sear until adds on the ship spawn
-for 25 man, Mind Sear the adds on the ship, then work on the axethrowers again
-for 10 man, VT the adds on the ship, then work on the axethrowers again


Saurfang


-Potion of Wild Magic before fight starts (should have a timer for "combat starts")
-VT the beasts (can tab target or click on them individually) if you are one of many ranged with slowing powers (shamans with earthbind totem, hunters with frost traps, arcane mages specced into Slow [unlikely])
-if you are one of only a few ranged with slowing capabilities, you'll need to actually help with slowing the beasts - SW: P first beast you target and MF until dead, then switch to next, etc. - make sure you clip a MF on the boss before SW: P falls off (your handy dot timer, remember?)
-use Potion of Speed either in the beginning of the fight or around 30% right after beasts are dead (some raids use bloodlust/heroism in the beginning and some at 30% or so, adjust your timing of Potion of Speed accordingly)


Festergut


-stand near the edge of the ranged semicircle, if you wish - thanks to Dispersion, you do NOT have to group up for the spore innoculation
-Potion of Wild Magic before the fight starts, switch to Glyph of Dispersion
-if you get Vile Gas, feel free to use Dispersion ONLY IF IT'S EARLY IN THE FIGHT or very soon after a Pungent Blight (and only if you are glyphed) - if you are not used to the fight or using Dispersion during Pungent Blight, you probably want to not use it at all except during Pungent Blight
-of course, if you get the spore, you still have to group up with folks
-as soon as you get the warning that he is casting Pungent Blight, use Dispersion - feel free to right click it off as soon as it's over with, to get back to dpsing as soon as possible
-tip for DBM users that rely heavily on the sound warnings like myself - go into DBM and turn off "special warning for Vile Gas" - more than once I have cast Dispersion during Vile Gas that was on me right before Pungent Blight instead of at the correct time because I reacted on the sound warning (same sound as the Vile Gas warning) instead of visual cue (I know, I suck ... until I turned the special warning for Vile Gas off)
-use Potion of Speed early (after a spore is cast on the raid) but not at the start of the fight, unless you are absolutely sure that heroism/bloodlust will be saved for later in the fight (different raids do it at different times)


Rotface


-still Glyph of Dispersion, still Potion of Wild Magic before the start of the fight
-use Dispersion to zoom through the huge slime puddles to get to where your ooze-kiting tank is
-use Potion of Speed right after he casts the disease on someone, relatively early enough in the fight so that the diseases are not coming too fast


Putricide


-still Glyph of Dispersion, still Potion of Wild Magic before start of the fight
-use Potion of Speed right after an ooze is killed (but well before the phase shift - most raids use bloodlust/heroism in the last phase and it goes by fast, but feel free to save your pot for after it wears off if your collective raid dps isn't very high)
-Dispersion if orange ooze is chasing you and is getting close, and use it during phase 3 if you need to get across a slime puddle


Blood Princes


-still Glyph of Dispersion, Potion of Wild Magic before start of the fight ONLY if the Princes have been engaged before (and so are targetable before the fight starts)
-Dispersion if some dillwad runs too close to where you are standing during Empowered Shock Vortex
-Dispersion if you need to get to the other side of the room when target swapping
-you should not be on kinetic bombs, but if you are, MB, SW: D, the opening cast of DP, and wanding are effective, your dots are not
-use Potion of Speed right after a target swap when you are in range - it doesn't matter which target, really


Blood Queen


-still Glyph of Dispersion, still Potion of Wild Magic before the fight starts
-Dispersion when you get the link and have to move towards someone else (you are taking damage during it and you are moving, so there's really no better time)
-FEAR WARD yourself right before the fight starts (or sometime in the beginning of the fight) and reapply when the cooldown is up - you can continue dpsing during her air phase when everyone else is running around like nubs
-when (if) you get bitten, Potion of Wild Magic, reapply SW: P, and go to town!


Dreamwalker


-Glyph of Mind Sear!, and don't bother with wasting a potion before the fight
-Mind Sear the suppressors and the abom worms (Fade before the latter)
-VT+SW: P everything else, keep DP rolling on something (and apply all dots and regular "rotation" on Blazing Skeletons when they come out)
-MOAR MIND SEAR
-Potion of Speed when a zombie is up, if you really want to (it won't make much of a difference, though, so you really could save it, or instead use a Potion of Wild Magic for abom worm Mind Searing)


Sindragosa


-Glyph of Dispersion!, Potion of Wild Magic RIGHT before she touches the ground at the start of the fight
-Potion of Speed right after an air phase
-when you get the Unchained Magic debuff thing, continue casting and ignore the screams from DBM telling you that you have 6,8,15(!) stacks
-then when she pulls everyone in, Dispersion BEFORE your stacks explode and as you are getting back into position
-if you are careful, during iceblocks (if they are positioned sort of close together) feel free to Mind Sear instead of single targetting, but you HAVE to have some sort of way (name plates turned on, for example) to monitor the health of the other iceblocks so you don't kill them before they should be killed


Big Kahuna aka. Lich King


-Glyph of Mind Sear! and Potion of Wild Magic (and probably a well-timed Fade [your tank will be pulling him back most likely and will not have full threat on him while moving him]) before the combat starts
-use your Potion of Speed early, in Phase 1, right after he sticks that disease on someone - this will be the only portion of the fight where you will most likely NOT be moving, and there is no target switching on this phase
-reapply VT, DP, and MF clip him as he is running to the middle at the end of Phase 1
-VT some ghouls/Shambling Horrors while waiting for Raging Spirits
-during Phase 2, if your raid is doing it effectively and you have efficient slowing/stuns, Mind Sear the Valkyrs down using LK as your target (in 25 man - only one Valkyr in 10 man, so no Mind Sear need, just nuke the Valkyr down and make good use of your MF snare)
-Dispersion during any movement phase (such as at the transition between phase 2 and 2.5 when you are moving onto the ledge and he is blasting the raid with a lot of damage)
-Phase 3, this is what you are really glyphed for Mind Sear for - MIND SEAR Vile Spirits as soon as they spawn in the air

---------------------------------

And that's it! Easy! (Ha.) Anything I left out, shadow priests? Anything mentioned here not as effective as something that you do differently? Please let me know in the comments.


Happy facemelting!

Over and .. back in?

Firewall mysteriously disappeared. Can access blog again. Have felt the urge to write again, and have felt like saying a ton. Yay for me, unfortunate for you all!

I might go back and revisit things that I've been wanting to talk about, but I think for now I'll tentatively open the old blog back up. Lots of updates.

In short since the last post, though:

D is now "the Kingslayer." I realm-hopped to a new guild after a frustrating few months of people showing up for Tuesdays (when we were routinely killing the Lower Spire bosses) and not much else (that guild had four 25-man raid days per week scheduled.) I wanted to kill the Lich King, so that was that.

New guild is on a server that shall remain nameless for now, in case any new guildies wander over here. I'm not yet sure if I want to talk openly about guild -related things. All I'll say is that this new guild is about 12th or so on the server Alliance-side (yeah, I searched for a while for a Horde guild, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for - that troll haste racial would have been yummy, though) and we have 2 10-mans that have killed Lich King (I was part of one - they had not killed him before I joined, so I was lucky) and we JUST LAST NIGHT killed Lich King on 25 man after working on him for several weeks.

Er .. anyway, enough about that, though I fully intend to write a post about reading a WWS parse and increasing dps as a shadow priest. But I think we all know that I'm no expert. QQ.

Coming up: a post about the WWS parse and looking at it from a shadow priest point of view, a post about how to handle every ICC fight as a shadow priest, general thoughts about whatever fuckery they come out with tomorrow regarding priest Cataclysm changes, and thoughts about gnome dirty movies.

Okay, not the last one.

In super short: D's back! Woe to you all!