Meet Guppy

Yes, this is on live.

How is this possible, you may ask?

Simply type this into your chat window:

/run PetRename("name goes here")

Big thanks to Grimmtooth for pointing this one out!!

Don't Hate the Mage!

Image from http://www.manaobscura.com/

Hello there! Gazimoff here looking after Ang's blog while she is away!

Let's be honest, us Mages have a bit of a bad reputation amongst the healing kind. We're known for being aggro-hungry DPS monkeys that have trouble with anything more complex than our two-button spam. We're incredibly squishy, yet utterly reckless. We've been known to reduce the most tranquil person to bouts of fists-on-keyboard rage.

It's time to put that behind us. In the spirit of mutual understanding, let's move on and work out how we can help eachother against our common enemies, the Paladins.

So what do we have to offer our Druidic allies?

1. Strudel. We know that those fights can be long and tiresome, but make friends with a Mage and you'll never go hungry again. A Mage that you know well will even make you food when you're just out questing.
2. Portals. Need to get around in a hurry? Ask a friendly Mage to lend a hand and open a portal. Bonus points if you arrive with your own portal runestone for him to use.
3. Remove Curse. Yes, we know you're fed up of removing nasty curses from people, especially when the fights are difficult enough to heal anyway. Ask your Mage friends to lend a hand with getting rid of them so that you can focus on keeping people alive.
4. Would you like fights like Deathbringer Saurfang, Patchwerk and Dreamwalker to be that little bit easier? Just ask your Mage for Amplify Magic and watch your heals get a significant boost! Don't get too used to it though - it's being removed in Cataclysm.

And for our Moonkin chums, we have even more to offer!

1. Arcane Empowerment. How does 3% extra damage sound? Arcane Mages can buff the entire raid with their mere presence alone! Yes it's available from some Hunters and Paladins as well, but ours is better!
2. Focus Magic. You like to crit big and crit often. So do we. Prove yourself as a big critter and you can earn Focus Magic from a friendly Mage. Don't be surprised if it doesn't happen with two or more Mages in the group though - we look after our own first!
3. Improved Scorch & Winter's Chill. Got no destruction Warlocks in your group? Don't worry, both Fire and Frost Mages can offer you a 5% increase to crit against whatever they're casting at. Watch your critrate soar thanks to a few handy spells.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Wow, Mages can offer us all this? I never knew! But how can I get to be friends with a Mage in the first place and get all this great stuff?" Well that, my Druids, is the easy part. What we ask for in return is so very little.

Combat Ressing. If we're dead, we're usually alt-tabbed. We might be looking at lolcats or funny videos on Youtube. We might be ordering pizza or something. Whatever it is, if you're going to give us a combat res please let us know first so we can be ready for it! That way, we don't tab back in after the wipe with the resurrection option in front of us.

1. Innervate. Please, please, once in a while throw us an innervate. If it's a really long fight, if our mana bar is so low we're running on fumes then please think of us.Wanding is *incredibly* boring.
2. The Bad Stuff. Mages like to stand still because our best spells have casting times, so we'll only move when we have to. Most of the time, we'll move out of the *really* bad stuff, but if there's only something that's slightly bad then we'll probably leave it. If we're giving you problems though then don't suffer in silence - let us know!

What do you think? Does this sound like a plan? Could we strike a deal and bury the hatchet here? Just think of the possibilities, the bosses we could defeat, the Paladins we could crush!

And maybe, just maybe, one day we could duo a Warlock.

On Frost Mages

I love playing my mage. She's just so much fun to play, blinking around with Welly in tow. 

It's nice to play a pure dps class after a hybrid. It releases me from the pressure of thinking I should be doing the healing, because I can't actually heal anyone except myself with my poncy little flower shower.

I play her as Frost, because that's the way I leveled up.  I used Krizzlybear's guide to learn to play it, and I love it when all the procs go off and the big crits roll in.

Today Krizzlybear wrote about his frustration at a certain article on wow.com listing an ICC DPS analysis, showing Frost Mages at the very bottom of the DPS heap. 

I think he really hit it with this statement:

I cannot simply post my own numbers and use them as evidence supporting the viability of Frost Mages in raids.  Hell, I’m not even bothering to try and beat a dead horse subject such as this.  All I can do is perform, and pray that the raid leader does not kick me because I’m falling behind other players.

I know that Aefa could be putting out more deeps as Arcane.  But I really don't care that much.  All I can hope is that people accept me in groups, and that they are satisfied with my performance.

Aefa's my alt - a character that I don't intend to raid seriously with, therefore I play her for FUN.  Now I know that, having never played in an Arcane spec, I can't say that Frost is more fun than Arcane.  I have been intending to respec to try out Arcane at some point but I've never got around to it.  I just enjoy myself with my elemental and my frostbolts, and no-one's ever said anything about it, until this weekend.

On the weekend, I saw someone advertising for Onyxia 25 in trade. Having recently picked up a few more badge items Aefa is now at a more respectable 4700-ish gearscore (yeah I know, but I need to know what it is so I can get into pugs), so I thought, might as well ask and see if they'd take me.  I got an invite so I was happy.

I zoned in and we buffed up. I summoned Welly and whipped up some strudels (it's amazing what you can do with one of those little camp stoves, you know).

Before the first trash, the other Mage in the raid whispered me.

ArcaneMage: you're dpsing as frost?

Me: Yeah, is that ok?

AM: Why?

Me: Because I like it?

AM: low dps, lol

Me: *shrug* It's enough.

And do you know, it was enough. Ony went down first try, Aefa was 5 or 6 on the chart (despite me forgetting to use Mirror Image until the very end, raaaar), and the group dispersed, happy.

You want to know the best part? Mr ArcaneMage died on the first wave of whelps. I know these things happen, but it didn't stop me sitting there pointing at the chart going "ha haaaaa ha ha haaa!".  I didn't say anything though, and neither did ArcaneMage :)

I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes we get really worked up over spec stuff.  I know it's been going around and around for ages and a lot has been said on all sides and it's not going to stop anytime soon, but the fact is, that if bosses are still dying, let people play the game they love in the way they love it. The best players will still shine through and take the top accolades, and the rest of us will still enjoy playing the game.

I don't like the way they portrayed Moonkin as also low in the charts, but that's a tale for another day...

Guilt with Dragons

I feel guilty.

I was saving up my coppers so that Leesah could learn her swift birdy form... and then I went and spent the money on Aefa instead. 

Why would I go and spend five thousand gold on my alt instead of my main?

Well the thing is, I love Leesah's birdy form.  I have a Bronze Drake sitting in her bank that she will learn eventually, but will never use, because bird form is so awesome. The swift bird form is even more awesome, or will be when she eventually gets it.

I had been considering spending the money on Aefa for a little while, since she also had a Bronze Drake sitting in her bank, but felt kind of like I was cheating on Leesah even considering it. 

The final decision-making straw fell one day when she went along to Oculus...

and ended up with a blue one.

I went and dropped that 5kG like a Wag who's got wind of a Sale at Jimmy Choo.

Since she how has the skill do to it, just last night Aefa pulled some mats together and sewed up one of these babies, with Frozen Orbs hanging off the corners and all!

Don't you think with that little pillow at the end, they should totally change the /sleep animation to roll your carpet out before you lie down?

So although my poor druid is still flip-flapping her way around slowly, Aefa the (im)Patient already has herself a flock of flyers to choose from, and has started a secret mission to help the poor maltreated Netherwing Drakes out at Shadowmoon Valley...

Have you ever felt guilty about buying something or working on a special achievement for your alt?

Then there were Two

Aefa reached the 80th level on Tuesday evening just before maintenance. She had been slaving away to try to reconcile the problems between the Sons of Hodir and the God Thorim - a lofty goal but one she is almost there with.

Since that time she has mostly been launching offensives at various places around Northrend with her guildies and sometimes other random strangers, and has slightly better armour than she did on this night in the Temple of Storms.

In other news, I have installed Disqus on the blog after Zelmaru's success with it, because I was unhappy with the default Blogger comment system.  Please do add a comment so I can see how it's working!

Progress Post: Bumbling Along

I haven't done one of these for a while so I thought I'd catch up a bit with my toons.

Leesah is having a great time, healing in randoms and mostly Moonkin in guild things, since we seem to have a healer surplus. I don't mind going along as dps, except when healer gear drops, because then I feel guilty about rolling on it. We're running ICC-10 twice a week and I'm usually the third healer, so I'm dps most of the time then I heal on the harder boss fights. We've got both Festergut and Rotface down now so tonight it's all new - either Blood Princes or Putricide (or both?!?!).

We do the weekly raid on Thursdays so my Frosties have been adding up a little bit - in fact I just purchased my first T-10 piece, the gloves. I'm wearing them at the moment but I might go back to 4-tier-9 until I get enough for a second tier-10 piece.  

What do fellow restos think?  Is the crit bonus on Rejuvenation significant enough to keep the 4-T-9 bonus until a second piece of T-10 comes along?

I'm finding now that I've been running 10-mans again that I'm missing 25-mans a bit. I healed a pug 25-man ICC last weekend and it was fairly disastrous, not to mention that they gave the Abacus to a druid who had come along as Moonkin (/facepalm).  The group fell apart on Saurfang after we hit the enrage timer a couple of times. I'd much rather stick with guild groups but my guild just doesn't have the numbers for 25. I'm not ready to move just yet either and the people in this guild are lovely, so we'll see how the pugging goes for a little while.

You might notice in Leesah's achievement feed -> that she's been getting a few Outland dungeons done.  This is because my latest project is to get the Karazhan key. There's just Black Morass left now! I've managed to solo most of them, but I broke last night on the Mechanar gauntlet.  I'm also going to bring help for Black Morass because if something goes wrong, you have to start the whole thing again, and I just cba with that :)

Oh and she's now Leesah the Noble. And may I just say that Chocoholic is one of the most satisfying achievements I've done.

Aefa collected just enough eggs to get the Polymorph: Rabbit spell. I didn't bother with the rest for her because there is really only so long one can hunt eggs for before mush-brain occurs.

She's been working hard for the Horde in Northrend the last couple of weeks.  After the events of Wrathgate she headed out to Grizzly Hills for some rest and recuperation as Leesah did, and is close to 76, helping out some old troll called Drakuru. I'm quite looking forward to having two level 80s again just for a bit of choice and a fresh project.

My poor baby Shaman Balindah is sitting in Swamp of Sorrows at level 41.  I kind of abandoned her there after our Refer-a-Friend finished - I hope she's not minding the mosquitoes too much. /guilt

And apart from WoW? I've been working on another project - rewriting my travel blog a year later. If you're interested in reading about a journey overland from London to Beijing, check out http://1yearago.wordpress.com.  Shameless self-promotion ahoy :)

Introducing Aefa

Allow me to introduce the next pair of adventurers to travel together as refer-a-friend buddies:  Aefa the Blood Elf Mage and Mengfu the Orc Shaman. 

At first, Aefa thought "He's green - that sooo clashes with my hair!", but as they travelled on into the Ghostlands, she found a nice green robe to wear so that she matched a little better with Mengfu.

As they increased in power, they found that Mengfu had to continue to travel all the way back to Orgrimmar to learn new Shaman skills, plus undertake an epic quest all over Azeroth to earn his fire totem.  This left Aefa with time on her hands.  


The Alchemist's Shop

Aefa pulled another handful of Silverleaf out of the ground and shook the soil off the roots.  She muttered under her breath, "This is so boring.  Why can't I go questing off across the continents too?".  She frowned as she lazily hurled a fireball at a passing Vampiric Plaguebat, cheering up a little as she saw it Ignite and burst into flames.

As the plaguebat dropped to the ground she felt a whoosh of inspiration - her 24th season had arrived.  She noticed that her pack was getting full of wilting Peacebloom and squashed Silverleaf, so she decided to pack it in and head back to Silvermoon City to see if Master Quithas had anything interesting to teach her.  She looked around for her hawkstrider and saw it a short distance away preening itself, as usual.  Aefa whistled and it looked around in confusion.  "Dratted bird," she muttered as she stomped over to it and mounted up. 

In Sunfury Spire, Master Quithas had some news for Aefa as well as some new lessons.  "Aefa, I want you to travel to Undercity and speak with Anastasia there, in the Magic Quarter," he said, fussily brushing some Strange Dust off his robe.  "I believe they are having some kind of rift disturbance there and I said I'd send some help."

Aefa was overjoyed.  "Oh thank you Master, I haven't been to the Undercity in aaaages so I'd be happy to go!" And have the chance to do a bit of shopping as well, she thought excitedly.  Finally, something to do!

Her hands tingled as she cast the teleportation spell, concentrating on the thought of Undercity so that she didn't end up in Orgrimmar again.  A few seconds of dizziness and blurred vision later and she was standing in the Magic Quarter of Undercity.  She inhaled and started coughing as the damp smell of the sewers assailed her.  She steeled herself to the slightly unpleasant thought of dealing with the Forsaken and looked around for Anastasia.

"Anastasia, how are you?" she gushed as she spied the mage trainer at the top of some stairs.

Anastasia's decaying face looked stressed.  "Aefa sweetie, I'm glad you're here.  I'm flat out with trying to get this treatise on the applications of Arcane Magic to the Kirin Tor magisters finished by the close of business today - would you do me a favor?"  Her smile looked strained.

"Sure thing, what do you need?  New boots?  A Netherweave Bag to go with your new robes maybe?"  Aefa grinned hopefully.

"Sorry, you'll have to leave the shopping until later," Anastasia said apologetically.  "Algernon's alchemist shop in the Apothecarium is the locus of a strange disturbance. Invisible creatures, made solely of magic, wander the shop--there must be a reason, and we must find it!  I need you to take these coffers and capture a few of the creatures."  She gestured behind her with one finger dangling slightly from her rotting hand.

"I-invisible creatures?" Aefa said, looking apprehensive.

"It's okay, just read this scroll and they should appear.  You should be able to deal with them easily after that.  Embrace the shadow," she added cheerfully.

Aefa took the coffers and the scroll and rode around to the Apothecarium, wondering how exactly she was supposed to deal with the creatures.  She found the Apothecary shop and nodded to Algernon.  "I hear you're having some magical trouble?" she said, shivering as the cold creepiness of the shop crept over her.

Algernon nodded and grunted.

Forsaken are so helpful sometimes, Aefa thought sarcastically as she turned away and rolled her eyes.

She stood in the middle of the shop and looked around.  Nothing but shadows, she thought, but felt her skin crawl as the magical rift made the air feel slightly greasy.  She stood up straight and waved a hand, chanting the scroll's contents under her breath.

She started violently as several apparitions appeared around the room.  They silently all turned to look at her, then started rushing forward towards her.  Aefa screamed and cast Frost Nova in panic and ran for her life away from the shop and over the bridge toward the centre of the city.  She stopped running near the Enchanting shop and stood, panting, watching for a few moments to make sure the void spawns weren't following her and trying to look as nonchalant as possible with a beating heart thumping in her ears.

Those little monsters, I'll teach them to make me look like a fool, she thought as she headed back to the Alchemist's, readying the scroll again.  This time she read the scroll and as the spawns came towards her, she Frost Nova'd them again and backed up, summoning a Blizzard to rain ice on them.  As Aefa stood struggling to retain control of the powerful Blizzard, the Frost Nova broke and the spawns charged in and beat her until she was no more than a broken heap on the stone floor.

Aefa hated the spirit world.  It was cold and grey and generally messed up her hair.  It had the added benefit though of not allowing emotion so she calmly ghosted back down into the city and thought about how to avoid another death.

The first breath is always very painful after a resurrection.  Aefa sat on a step and drank some conjured water to get her strength back, and realised just how quiet it was in this corner of the city.  She stood up and moved carefully into the Alchemist's shop again.  Alganon barely paid her any attention.

She crept forward, carefully feeling the air around her for magical traces.  A rat scuttled in the corner, making her jump slightly.  Pull yourself together, girl, she thought as she released a small burst of arcane energy from her fingers.  She moved forward a little further, releasing another burst. 

This time, she felt a slight resistance in the air, a pushing back.  She released more arcane energy and suddenly a void spawn exploded out of the air almost on top of her.  She leaped back in fright but managed to gather her senses and charged up a fireball quickly. She threw one of the containment coffers on the ground and it opened, drawing the struggling void spawn into it and closing with a snap.  The coffer lay there on the floor, jumping around slightly.  Aefa let out a whoop of triumph and repeated the process, creeping around the room and casting Arcane Explosions until she soon she had a bagful of struggling void spawns in coffers to take back to Anastasia.

"Oh, Aefa, there you are, what took you so long?"  Anastasia put down her pen and looked up, taking in Aefa's ripped dress and tousled hair.  "What happened to you?" she asked, trying not to laugh.

Aefa was upset.  "Your magical disturbance has ruined my dress," she said indignantly.

Anastasia said hurriedly, "Oh I beg your pardon, allow me to replace it for you."

Aefa looked mollified, but changed her mind when Anastasia added, "I'd get it myself but the pattern requires Dalaran Power Gems from Silverpine Forest and I really am flat out this afternoon..."

Aefa sighed and called her hawkstrider over again to get ready for a long ride.

~o~

Thanks for reading my first attempt at a Wow short story.  Please feel free to let me know what you thought of it (but try to be gentle!).

The quest Aefa did was part of the chain for mages that ends with receiving the rather fetching red [Lesser Spellfire Robes].  The top tip for using Arcane Explosion to pull just one void spawn at a time came from the comments on the wowhead page for the quest, and worked like a charm.