Asking to play with decent or at least not-douchebaggy doods in WoW is like asking for fire to not be hot, I realize, but good grief people can be such jerks over the smallest things.

I’m bumming around as Phil to get him gear so that old man, too, can go raid. Unfortunately, with Boss once again out of the picture and bro often going AFK to watch TV (I swear, I am this close to getting him a Slingbox and one of those MIMO monitors so he doesn’t have to go AFK or leave the TV on and turn the volume up hella loud), I’m left having to use LFD, and 9 times out of 10 it ends up with a little more of my soul withering away because people are so mean.

“Cry moar,” right? Maybe. I’ve finally ditched all of Phil’s Bloodthirsty gear (that would otherwise be useful except for the PVP stats), and I’ve respecced and reforged to pile on as much spirit as possible and use the right flasks/food buffs so he’s not having to chug after every group… and I’d like to think I know how to play a Holy Priest, on top of all that.

Now, I’m not like Boss in that I have a slightly higher tolerance for stupid tanks (or at least, tolerant enough where it’s a better use of my time to try to heal through boneheaded moments rather than bitch about bad tanks in guild chat), but even I have limits. I do what I can, but when I go OOM because Mr. Dumbhead Tank can’t be bothered to let me drink before charging into that next mob, then gets all pissed off because despite all good efforts I can’t heal him in time… yeah, it kinda stings a bit. :( But I’d rather not pick a fight with someone I’m not likely to see again, so in the worst cases I end up quietly dropping from the group. Maybe in a way I’m also denying Mr. Dumbhead Tank the pleasure of ragekicking me, so that offsets things a bit.

I could just pimp myself out locally… but that would mean using Trade/LFG Chat which, of course, is just… no. It seems all the potential nice people are all guilded up and out of sight. It’s kind of sad, really. Even though Shattered Knights is so small that it has issues filling 5-man runs, I can’t think about dropping it just so I can find not-jerks that I can consistently group with… you must remember that WoW is often the only way I can talk to bro because he’s a dork who doesn’t answer his phone or emails. It’s also too bad that boss and bro hate people so much that they won’t consider recruiting. I was lucky to even convince Pigeon to roll alts on Draenor.

Worst case… well, this is why I have Koyoshial on Khadgar (Blood Elf Mage, basically Kopii Yoshi). Still too small to raid (lv 75) but she IS in a raiding guild and so far the doods there have been pretty nice. Ah…

On the upside: Phil got a hat and staff upgrade. Granted, the staff is a caster DPS weapon but 1) this is why we have Reforging and 2) it should otherwise hold him until I either get the Heroic Soul Releaser or something from ZA/ZG. :P

Presuming, of course, that I get a group that doesn’t either fall apart or ragekick me first. People are wonderful like that, aren’t they?

Troll Butcherer, dood. Freaking WoW’s version of the Haseo-brand chainsaw sword. Old man Phil passed along a Massacre chant-on-a-scroll, for extra AWESOME.

If Hynderia were a Fury Warrior at 80, she could dual-wield it. But, this space goat is Arms, so she only gets one. Still, CHAINSAW SWORD! (Or at least looks close enough to one.)

Not sure if I’ll get her a Quel’Delar just so she has one— it has a pretty long shelf life as Leslie was able to make hers last until 83-ish before it started to become obvious that there were better 2h swords out there. I’m not sure if Hynderia, too, will end up being another sword junkie or if I’ll find/make some badass freaking axe. (Leslie I was kinda picky with… swords or bust with her!)

Elsewhere, Yoshi is close to once again being raid-viable. Finally got Exalted with Baradin Wardens and I think I’ve hit my limit on gear upgrades I can do with justice points/reputation. BUT, it looks like this time my brother may want to take me with him when we start fishing for raid teams, as opposed to last time when he just went off on his own. Not sure who I’ll be gearing up next… boss and bro sound like they may want Phil just so we have healers on hand once one of our other guildies leaves for boot camp (!). I don’t mind, but I like playing Hynderia and Rei, too… hmm.

Guh, I should have gone to bed already.

Old man Phil. Lv. 85, punks. (Also hur hur Trifo— I mean Ramkahen tabard, wee)

But more importantly… LOOK AT THAT HAT. THAT HAT IS AMAZING.

It’s all pointy and stuff.

Also holy crap ow, I totally killed my wallet levelling tailoring. I’m totally going to farm cloth tomorrow. Ahahaha…

Leslie dinged 85. (Guild first FTW!) Sadly, it was about an hour after my brother left for work, so he didn’t get to see. Booooo!

I dunno if I’ma finish clearing Twilight Highlands and Uldum before I throw in Yoshi. I do need to max Leslie’s Blacksmithing, if only so she can make that badass sword… and shove all the excess craftables onto Phil for DE fodder. ;P

Levelling order for my remaining 80s is as follows unless something compels me otherwise: Yoshi -> Rei -> Dinah -> Phil*

Chances are, old man Phil may end up stalking someone else in the guild to heal them (or sitting in LFD, ew) because I sure as hell am not putting his shadow spec back on. Phil and DPS builds don’t exactly get along. :( Also holy crap Dinah is going to be so freaking spoiled, she’ll have awesome craftables available to her off the bat because of those who came before her. :D All part of the master plan~

Ah, extended maintenance. Usually the signal of OMG PATCH, and in this case, it’s the one that literally sets up for the END OF THE WORLD.

Cataclysm? Do want. Screw coordinating with my brother, if I can just buy the upgrade code at launch. I bought the activation codes for vanilla, BC and Wrath, so why change? Less waste of having all that packaging that I’ll never touch, either. :P

Anywho, while the masses cry about nerfs and talent overhauls and what-have-you, I’ll tell you what I’m reeeeeeally looking forward to: Flexible Raid Lock. HELL YEAH. No more being SOL for the week when my raids bleed out after some fool ragequits after Marrowgar, or during the mass bleed-outs in 25-man after freaking Saurfang. (Well, 10-man bleed-outs have been less of an issue for Leslie and Yoshi as of late, those two have been pretty good about getting into raids that can clear up to Sindragosa.) If they bleed out, it’s just a matter of flashing my golden ticket and transmigrating into a less fail group later on in the week.

Because, you know, I reeeeeeally want Kingslayer. Bwahahaha~

Also? Scaled mount speeds. Now, I’m probably in a minority, but I like the looks of the basic ground mounts (especially the horses and hawkstriders) FAR more than the “epic” ground mounts. Since when does “armored horse” = “faster horse?” If anything, armor should make you slower! Nice to know that I can break out my AMAZING HORSE that isn’t encumbered with all that ugly armor and looks all evil, but not be slower than mud. This applies particularly to Yoshi and Phil. Something about cloth-users… they just look better on basic mounts. :P Same goes for their original flying mounts; the base gryphons look so much cuter!

Finally… really? Dual Monitor Support? It’s mentioned in the patch notes. I AM INTRIGUED. I’ll have to investigate further when the servers come up.

Phil is a Holy/Shadow Priest. I’m not too fond of the Shadow part; I only specced into it so he could DPS (and thus level). It’s not that I don’t want old man to DPS— though I GREATLY prefer healing since that’s his day job— but… does he have to do it with shadow? That just doesn’t suit him at all.

Yeah, priests can DPS with holy… they get, what, 3 Holy spells that do damage? Smite, Holy Fire and Holy Nova. Weaksauce! And before anyone trots out “lol paladins,” I’m aware of that but they’re melee. I want more DPS spells for Holy Priests! Caster damage! Gimme! :( Besides, Paladins don’t exactly get much more in terms of Holy DPS magic, either— Exorcism, Holy Wrath and Holy Shock… oh, and Consecration, I guess.

What I would like to see is Blizzard try and pull something similar to Feral Combat druids (since they can be either tanky bears or DPS kitties). Surely there would be a way to jam some more DPS oriented-options into the Holy tree for Priests, right? And, of course, adding new spells to be learned for them. How awesome would it be, if they could get a Holy-looking version of Arcane Missiles, thus a Holy DPS Priest could have a single-target rotation (not unlike, say, an Arcane Mage’s 3x Blast + Missiles + Barrage)? Or pull some Grand Theft Everything as Blizzard loves to do, and lift either Judgment or Grand Cross from the more recent Tales games (Abyss and Symphonia come to mind… I like the version in Abyss more) for some real AoE action. Take THAT, Paladins, with your Holy Kaboom— I mean Holy Wrath!

Of course, I can’t say that Undead Priests would be too happy about the Light crawling further up their asses… but that’s why there’s a Shadow spec. I want more shiny on my priest (especially with these icky t10 Priest armor pieces that don’t look awesome at all… I’m a priest, not a wannabe-Warlock!). Why should Paladins have all the fun there? :P

Speaking of Paladins…

I GOT YOU, WHITE CHOCOBO!

…ahem…

Dude. Swift White Hawkstrider. Also something I blame my brother for, since he got one first on his shammy (who will be SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE NO MORE once I footstomp that Lich King) and thus set off CHOCOBO FEVER. Hawkstriders are so freaking awesome and I hate how they’re Horde-only… except for this one. And then, of course, Chocobo Fever spread to Boss, so now we’re farming Heroic MGT until we get it on everyone who wants one. (Leslie was just the first. Yoshi wants one too! And maybe Phil…)

You can solo MGT on Heroic… if you’re a class that can heal itself. Paladins tend to have a greater success rate on that front (usually as Prot… but if you’re Ret, just switch on Concentration Aura). In addition to this badass mount, there’s also the Phoenix hatchling pet, and, my second-favorite, the Orb of the Sin’dorei, which will let you turn into a Blood Elf for a few minutes. And I gotta say, Leslie doesn’t look bad at all that way. ;D

Leslie is also to be the final recipient of my ICC craftables… at least, among my characters. There are, of course, guildies who need stuff, but for my set, I just need to make Leslie’s DPS pants. Getting stupidly lucky in VoA25 took care of her healer pants— er, skirt— so I just need to pile up the 8 saronites needed for the DPS pants.

To quote Meathook (Culling of Stratholme 1st boss): New toys!

Flung old man Phil into a 10-man that needed a healer. It was a guild run so I figured the odds of a mass ragequit after a wipe were pretty low. Turned out to be an alt run and very newbie-friendly… pity that it wasn’t a 25-man else I’d have tried to get these doods to bring in the other two guildies that were on at the time.

We wiped lots and lots, though (but, even the best of us do, and most of ‘em were learning the bosses anyway), and it ultimately didn’t go past Saurfang, but that’s okay because I got enough frost cookies to upgrade Phil to a better hat and thus get him the 2-piece t10 priest healer bonus. *drool*

But even better…
See that staff he’s packing?
Oh. hell. yes. Mag’hari Chieftain’s Staff FTW.

More amusingly, these doods offered to recruit me. Hah! Flattered, but… I’ve no plans to jump ship from Shattered Knights. Sure, we can’t fill a 5-man to save our lives, and the odds of our ever being able to do a pure-guild 10-man are laughable, but bros before random joes, ya know? :P They are understanding and I’ve instead been given permanent priority invite status for future alt runs. :D

….oh DUR. I forget, this is Phil, so obviously there was a “Reverse Trap Moment” on Vent. This happens pretty much every time I raid as Phil; raid doods see old man, raid doods hear a voice that is most definitely NOT an old man, and think I’m either a 10 year old boy, that I have a headcold, or, in this case, that I’m freaking Felicia Day with a headcold. WTF. Never mind the headcold part (because I always sound like that without lots and lots of soda)… really? I mean… I guess there might be a little similarity there with the geek girl thing. Huh.