New patch, new me

Before Magmaw

Time for another summation of my healing experiences, this time regarding how raids have gone before and after patch 4.0.6. To begin, I was getting raid invites for most of the nights I signed up for (due to spotty attendance lately we have been running the same lockout with different raid comps based on availability, rather than 2 lockouts and 2 groups). Some nights were learning nights, or as I like to call them: "wipe fests" and other nights we got 1 or 2 bosses down, usually with the magical "Last attempt, guys" buff.

Then, last week we got 3 bosses down on Wednesday, and 3 more on Thursday, a new record and our 6th progression kill. That brings us to Magmaw, Chimaeron, Omnitron, Atramedes, Halfus, and now Theralion & Valiona. The twins fight is really fun. I'm surprised at how quickly we got them - 3 steadily improved attempts and finally a kill! That fight is sort of like controlled mayhem...I think I like it. I also really like tank healing on Chimaeron. The worst part is struggling to get everyone topped up in the stack phase because it's so mana intensive, but I do enjoy my lol-dps time in the final phase.

T&V kill shot

I find that I increasingly enjoy tank healing, especially on Chimaeron and Atramedes. Rolling Lifeblooms, tossing around Rejuves and clearcasting Regrowths, spamming Nourish if I have time... it's really fun. And the buffed Wild Growth is really helpful now, too. Heroics are starting to feel *gasp* easy! Last night I pugged 3 DPS with manfriend and we had such a good run that we even got an achievement unintentionally!

SPEC, aka FAREWELL, EFFLORESCENCE

I really wanted to keep it - I put it in my spec and used it in raids and was mostly pleased by it. Looking at my raid parses, on some fights Eff. was doing as much as 5% healing. I do like it, and my raid came to love the green puddles too. There's a certain pleasure in seeing Healing Rain and Eff. layered. But the talent tree change meant reassessing, and I decided not to take Efflorescence again. The reason is simple - because it's linked to Living Seed it costs 6 whole points, not 3, and Living Seed consistently sucks out loud. I can't justify those 6 points when I could be using them elsewhere (and I am). Please unlink Living Seed and Efflorescence! I'll gladly spec back into it, but not with Living Seed!!

Talents here

GEAR

I realize that pants are usually covered by robes (*grump* even though female Tauren look totally rad in pants), but I'm a wee bit disapointed at this tier's look. The pants are wholly unexciting, although the shoulders and helm are quite nice. Of course, I don't have the helm - instead I have the very exciting Engineering helm. I love the eccentric look :) I was also able to buy my epic shoes, although I'm not willing to shell out for Lavawalker quite yet.

Aloof. Genius.

THE INSANE

I know what you're thinking. Shouldn't I have been done with this like a year ago?? Well, I put it off due to general laziness, the drive to get Cata quests done, to get exalted with all the reps, to do heroics, to get geared, to raid, to do friggin Archaeology. But a lot of that has been taken care of and that's kick started my Insane grinding again. I powered up my lock's enchanting and have been actively listing scrolls and bags in addition to the card trinkets I've accumulated, so I have funds to buy cards and mats again. I trawl the AH daily for cards - including non-epic ones!! My major deck card limit has increased to 50g and my minor card limit is around 2g. I'm frankly surprised at how successful I've been at selling the rewards of both. Because Cata decks are all the rage now I can finally afford Northrend cards as well, so I've been making more of those and putting all those Eternal Life and Frost Orbs to use. It's progressing nicely now - I just need to stop doing archaeology long enough for my rogue to finish farming lockboxes!

The guild standard does not increase quest-related reputation gain.

UPDATES INC

While I get the last of my zone achievement guides out, I'll also be updating my raid gear list to reflect the increased importance of mastery. Then I'll overhaul my Darkmoon Faire spreadsheet to include the new decks, the new rep bonuses, and the recipe gold breakdowns. When I finish the achievement lists I'll be putting them up on a new Guides page, along with others I've done. Look out for a few more posts inspired by my sudden feverish need to write guides, followed by some cheesy stories that I wrote in my free time at work.

I know it's a bug, but...please please let me keep my little sproutlings the way that they are!! I want mini-mes to remember the way I used to be :(