A Year in Review

It’s hard to believe that a year ago I had never stepped foot inside any Raid instance. Back then I was still running my first real guild “Order of Cenarius”, trying to recruit a solid 10 members so we could finally raid Karazhan. I was level 70, trial-and-error learning my way to how to tank. DPS was something I only did soloing, or when we found a better tank. I certainly wasn’t an expert at anything I was doing then, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to ever become a “hardcore” raider.

In early 2008, after losing many members to larger guilds, the most active members of “Order of Cenarius” and I set out to find a new guild to call home. After trying to PUG Kara, and joining other Kara PUGS, we knew we couldn’t do it on our own. We decided to find a guild that would take us all, and that guild was “Brilliance”. We quickly embarked out on Karazhan, learning everything as we went, growing stronger and stronger with each week of experience and loot. I became a raid leader and main tank for my Kara group, and after many attempts we finally cleared all of Kara. As a guild we progressed on to defeat Gruul and Magtheridon, and eventually on to Void Reaver who we downed once. Yet, after all these successful raids, the guild began to crumble beneath us due to disputes and drama. Many of the members, including me, splintered off into a new guild, named “Intolerance”. I however quickly lost my tolerance for them, then decided to set off on my own to find a new guild.

After applying to many guilds, and a few short stays with some guilds I really didn’t like, I settled down with “Maelstrom”. I took a step back in my own raiding progression to join them, heading back into Karazhan raiding and prepping for 25 mans. We raided together very sucessfully through the summer of 2008, downing Gruul, Magtheridon, and Void Reaver yet again. As the summer waned, people started raiding less which in turn led to more drama and then once again, the guild fell apart due to disputes and drama.

By this point I was spending only part of my gaming time playing WoW, as I was participating in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. I put my raiding career on hold, as Wrath was only a few months away, and spent the time I had playing around in Beta and farming gold in BC. I rejoined my old guild “Order of Cenarius”, which at this point had become just a bank for all of my characters’ junk.

In early November I decided it was time for me to start looking for a guild who planned to raid in Northrend. After a lot of searching, I came upon the guild “Luminosity”, and joined them as a trial member. Next thing I know I am in Black Temple, killing lots of baddies. I eventually backtracked with them and saw some more TK, SSC, and Mount Hyjal. I never got to down Archimonde or Illidan with them, but the experience of being in those big 25man raids was enough. This guild, too, suffered from more problems and the guild dis banned. Many of the members reformed as “Evolution” which also bit the dust after not very long. Once again many of the members reformed into yet another new guild. This one being “Paradigm Shift”.

Then we all got what we were really waiting for: Wrath of the Lich King. The members of “Paradigm Shift” quickly leveled up and began gearing up for Naxxramas. Two weeks after WotLK hit, I was already level 80. Next thing I know we are in Naxxramas and wiping, next thing I know after that we are in Naxxramas and downing stuff. It was definetly quite a high. But, alas, all good things must come to an end. A few weeks into raiding and I am out of “Paradigm Shift”. I don’t need to rehash out all the details, and frankly it all doesn’t matter anymore.

With just a few days left to the year, my boys of “Paradigm Shift” finally hang up their hats with that guild and that GM, and join our new guild, “Leviathan”. All my friends have come together to be in this guild, and we are running it right this time. We haven’t started raiding together yet, but that will all come in the new year. I will not be screwed over in this guild, I know it. We all respect each other more and know each other so well. I’ve also been made a Senior Officer, which is basically a Co-GM-type rank that a few of us share. I am also in charge of the guild website. It feels nice to be in this kind of guild. I’m looking forward to a lot in 2009 with these guys.

- – -

I started this blog in early August of 2008 to document all of this. In the beginning I barely had any traffic, other than my fiancé and one or two friends. I really began blogging for myself more than for anyone else, that people were reading and enjoying my blog was a huge bonus, but just a bonus. I started using Twitter not long after, and then became friends with many of the so-called “WoW Twitteratti” on there, which increased my blog traffic slightly. Then thanks to another WoW Blogger, Matticus from over on WorldofMatticus.com, and a link featured in an article on his site, my blog traffic went up exponentially. In the entire month of November I had a whole 52 views. In all of Decemeber my views had gone up to 836. While I haven’t gotten near the almost 200 hits I got on the day the Matticus post went up, I have averaged around 50 views a day since.

One of the more satisfying things for me though is seeing how many people come over from links and searches, versus how many come to the site without being referred through another site. The traffic from Google searches has certainly gone up a lot, with my Winter Veil guides I have written bringing in many people. But the thing I have noticed lately is that the number of people that come to the site directly has climbed higher than the number coming in over links. Which means I have a lot of people that come here on purpose, to read my bloggings.

I have a lot planned for DruidKitty the blog and Kathoid the actualy Druid Kitty for the year to come. 2009 will be a great year for me.

Thanks to all my readers that have made 2008 an amazing blogging year for me.

Love, Peace, and Best Wishes for this brand new year ahead of us.

-Kathoid

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

Ah, dilemmas, dilemmas.

I’ve been trying to keep all the guild drama out of my bloggings because I really want this blog to be about being a Feral Druid; questing, instancing, raiding, and doing some achievements along the way. But not matter how you put it and no matter how you play, at level 80 you need a guild. It would be near impossible to be successful at raiding without one, especially on a lower population server, like my current home Dalvengyr. It’s also been extremely difficult for me to find a good raiding guild on Dalvengyr after I split with <Paradigm Shift>.

Long story short, Guild Leader (herein: GL) forgot to mention that when I rejoined I had NO raiding spot at all. Many of the members are very mad at him. GL is spreading lies about me. Members miss me. GL won’t let me back in. Now GL is running raids with no druid at all – No MoTW, No Innervate, No BRez. Not very smart, in my opinion. Not to mention they are missing out on my DPS, which is always higher than GL’s DPS – he being in all epics, me only having 4. He’s kicked me and banned me from the guild vent, which he doesn’t even own or pay for. The member that does fixed it so I can go back in vent and took away GL’s ban privledges. GL thinks I am only in Vent to make him mad. What I think, and what a member thinks, is that he is mostly mad at me because I get more respect than he does.  GL thinks that I sit around all day thinking up ways to make him mad. Truth is, no one spends that much time thinking or caring what the GL thinks. I miss the boys there – most of them are extremly nice and very respectful – and I think most of them are getting very tired with GL’s dealings with thing. Some want to leave and make a new guild, but they have been saying this for a few weeks now. (Ok, not so “short”…)

I have tried looking at other Guilds on the server. I have apped to a few, and either haven’t heard back or I just wasn’t impressed enough to join. I’ve talked to a lot, and I really was hoping there would be some better quality guilds on the server. The good ones have raid times that don’t work for me.

I have a few options, but I’m not really sure what I should do.

• I could sit around and wait for the <Paradigm Shift> members to leave or for the guild to fall apart, then reform a new one with them. This might take a while…
• I could start my own guild, and try to recruit. I have run my own guild before, and found recruiting on this server to be very hard.
• I could server transfer. And leave all my friends behind.

It’s tough to figure out what is right, and what is best for me, and what will work out best in the long run.

I welcome any and all advice. I’m really confused as to what to do. I’ve only really ever played on one server before, and I’m not really sure of the best way to start looking at other guilds on other servers.

Please Help!

Christmas Loot

My Christmas went pretty well. I spent it back home with my family, which also means a lack of WoW for me for the next few days. It really makes wish I had a laptop to game on. I am really looking forward to getting to play around with all the tons of new add-ons I installed on my newly working computer, and playing WoW on a widescreen set up. I did manage to log on to WoW before heading down here in order to get my present unwrapping skill up and finished off the last of my achievements to get my “Merrymaker” title!

So as for Christmas loot, I definitely made out pretty well. On top of the toaster oven I’ve been wanting (I know I’m weird, but you should have seen how happy my sister was to get her garbage can, long story) and the leopard print PJs (*very* feral) I got a bunch of really cool stuff. My mom also got me the 2009 World of Warcraft Wall Calendar. Yes, from my mom!! I had totally forgot about it, even though I’ve had one the past couple of years. I always love the art they put in there, plus the little stickers that come with it. Some say “Raid”, “AFK”, “DND”, as well as many others. Now if only I had a Guild to raid with, I could put a few more of those stickers into action. Also, trying to explain what World of Warcraft is to my Uncle and Grandma was very interesting.

My fiance got me a few awesome WoW presents, too (other than the awesome monitors). I got the talking Murloc Plush and the Baby Murloc Plush who came all the way from Korea to live at my house. Both very cute.

Well there are still many more Holiday festivities for me to take part in while I am home, so I won’t be back to my house for a few more days. I may get some time to write a post or two in the next few days, but without any WoW to play I’m not sure how much I will have to write about.

Hope everyone else got some WoW Loot for their Holiday of choice!

I’ll write you all again before the New Year, promise!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate out there!

I got my Christmas present: My computer works again!! And boy does it look better than ever with my two 20 inch widescreen LCD Dell Monitors! Much better than my old, mismatched, hand-me-down, million pound 19 inch CRT Monitors.

I’m still installing WoW, which is taking a really long time. I’m copying as many files as I can over from my fiancé’s computer, but it is still taking longer than I had wished it would.

Next step will be to try and remember all the add-ons I was using and to try out a few new ones. If anyone has any suggestions on WoW add-ons, let me know. I’m always open to suggestions on that front.

This is my shopping list on what Add-ons I will be getting to start off with:

FuBar
Omen Threat Meter
Deadly Boss Mods
Grid
Atlas Loot

I need something for Fishing, something for gear outfits, and I want to find something that will randomly choose a mount and noncombat pet. I’m sure I’m missing a lot, but I haven’t messed around with add-ons in a while.

This should be fun! Enjoy your holidays!

Just one in 11.5 million…

Unsurprisingly, World of Warcraft has reached yet another massive(ly multi-player) milestone: 11.5 millions worldwide subscribers now play the game.

To read Blizzard’s press release on the matter, please go here.

I find this exciting news, as it means that Wrath has brought back many old players, and that many more new ones have started playing the game. Assuming this is not a half million more teenage boys from the last milestone, I welcome this news.

Onward to 12 million we go!

If you would like to start playing the game, or know of someone who does, let me know and I would gladly do the Refer-A-Friend program to help you get started leveling. It would, of course, let me get that Zhevra mount I have been drooling over for many months now, but I will gladly repay you with helping your character level, and sending you many screenshots of me and my Zhevra, galloping through Azeroth and right into your heart. (Ok, that was entirely too cheesey, I think the Holiday “cheer” is getting to me.)

I get by with a little helper from my friends…

Ask any wannabe “Merrymaker” Druid, this is the worst achievement for us this Winter Veil. There are tons of Druids out there who love PVP, BGs, and Arenas, so how could this be so hard for us?

Let me first explain a little about how this achievement called “With a Little Helper from my Friends” works. You have to: “Earn 50 honorable kills as a Little Helper from the Winter Wondervolt machine.” To get turned into a Little Helper you have to first find the locations of the Winter Wondervolt machine. There are a few locations you can find the Winter Wondervolt machine in, but my machine of choice was the one in Runeweaver Square, Dalaran. (If you need to brush up on your Dalaran skills, that is the small park in the center of the city.)

To get the costume put on you, all you have to do is walk into the transporter looking thing and wait a second or two and POOF! you are a cute little gnome.

The reason I like the Dalaran location is its proximity to the Battlemasters. Get your costume, and run a few steps and queue for a Battleground.

All is simple, except for this one thing: the act of shapeshifting removes the costume. So whether cat, bear, tree, or moonkin, all druids will be cursing a little (or a lot) at Blizzard this holiday season. Therefore, all druids must complete this achievement in caster form. I think that ferals will really have the hardest time with this, as we have the lowest mana pool. I am not sure if Priests shifting to Shadow Form will affect this, or if being Polymorphed would have an affect either, however you will lose your costume regardless of class when you die.

I am kind of surprised by this in this day and age of Wrath. Especially as while heading through Brunnhildar Village will transform me into a blue lady no matter what form I am in. This is especially interesting while in flight form, as I then appear to be swimming laps in the sky. Getting this costume placed upon me does not break me out of any form, and changing forms has no affect either. If they can do this, they could certainly make it so that when I am a gnome I am in cat form, too.

Regardless of what could have (or should have) been done, we druids just have to deal for this Winter Veil. Here is how I went about getting the achievement. I know that chances are that it may take a bit longer for you all to get it, as I just got really lucky in the BGs that I entered.

I chose the above-mentioned Dalaran Wintervolt machine, and chose Eye of the Storm as my BG. Why EotS? It is a relatively short fight, has a small group of people (15), and it doesn’t make me want to avoid BGs for the rest of my life like some of the others do. Like I said, I got extremely lucky here. I ended up in what was quiet possibly the best group I’ve ever been in for EotS. I was able to get about 35 kills in one BG before I died.

I stayed back and moonfired as many horde as I could see so that when they eventually died I would get the HK for it. I also kept myself and many of my other teammates healed up, too. With my low mana pool I found myself popping my Innervate whenever it was up, and drinking whenever I was out of combat. I also used bandages to save my mana for moonfires. Don’t forget you can always shadowmeld to remove yourself from combat if you end up OOM. Shadowmelding does not remove the costume from you. You can also root people in place to keep yourself out of the middle of the action. I thought for sure that I would get targeted immediately by the horde for being a gnome in Santa clothes but I didn’t encounter any of that. My big tip would be: stay back and just use your moonfire to tag a target, don’t spam it or you will OOM and undoubtedly piss off the horde.You are more an observer here. And if you do die, don’t fret, you can pop into your form of choice and beat the snot out of the jerk that killed you and messed up the Achievement for you. Trust me, that is very therapeutic.

I ended up only having to enter 4 battles of EotS to complete my achievement. One was so bad I entered a midbattle fight and we were stuck on the rock twidling our thumbs until they won. Another was so good that we beat them 2000 to 0, which also rewards an achievement: “The Perfect Storm“. We also won that battle in under six minutes, rewarding: “Flurry“. For someone who doesn’t really care for BGs or PVP in general, this achievement was actually fun for me.

You do have until January 2nd to complete this achievement. And you can do 50 BGs and only get 1 HK in each if that is how the cards fall for you. You can mix your BGs too, and you can mix BGs in with Wintergrasp, or you can just camp level 71s in starting zones if that is what you desire. It’s up to you how to complete the achievement.

I did read a good tip on Wowhead for those who love to Wintergrasp. Once a battle has begun, hit up the Wondervolt Machine in Dalaran then pop into the portal to Wintergrasp. If you die, you can just right click on your minimap icon to “Leave Battleground”, get your costume on and head right back. (I haven’t tested this theory out, but it should work.)

I hope this helps you all be a little Merrier! Happy Winter Veil!!

Character Survey

I found the link to this very interesting survey from Matticus’s blog here. It sounded very interesting, so I decided to take it. To read more about it, you can head over to his blog and check it out.

It tells you what your Character Strengths are (and I don’t mean your WoW Characters). I do feel that it does relate a lot to how I play the game though, and how I deal with things in life in general.

“VIA Survey on Character (VIA-IS): Identifies how you exhibit the 24 VIA character strengths in top-down order, beginning with your top five signature strengths.”

If you would also like to try out the survey, check it out at http://www.viasurvey.org. It took less than 15 minutes for me, even though it is 240 questions.

Here are my results:

Your Top Character Strength

Appreciation of beauty and excellence
You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.

Your Second Character Strength

Creativity, ingenuity, and originality
Thinking of new ways to do things is a crucial part of who you are. You are never content with doing something the conventional way if a better way is possible.

Your Third Character Strength

Fairness, equity, and justice
Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.

Your Fourth Character Strength

Forgiveness and mercy
You forgive those who have done you wrong. You always give people a second chance. Your guiding principle is mercy and not revenge.

Your Fifth Character Strength

Love of learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

I think it got me pretty spot on. It really made me realize some things I didn’t really notice about myself, mostly the third and forth points. Maybe I am a little too forgiving, and maybe I do give everyone second and third chances when they don’t really deserve it. Sounds a lot like my problems in <Paradigm Shift>.

Computer Issues Updated…

So turns out I have a corrupted hard drive. I am now actually happy we had to get the service plan thing, because Dell is going to come replace it within the next two business days. Which means Tuesday, I think… ugh.

So I have lost thousands of photos, hundreds of songs, hundreds of WoW screenshots, along with a ton of important files both WoW and non-WoW related. My fiancé is working hard to see if there is anyway he can get some of the files off the drive. I don’t really trust Dell to be doing that, though. I seriously don’t want pictures of my cats all over the web.

I guess I’m forced to rebuild everything from the ground up both on my computer and on WoW.

I’ll write more about the guild drama, because the details are too plentiful for this whole “QuickPress” thing I’m using, but I am not in a guild and I am considering server transferring.

I guess starting fresh can’t be the worst thing in the world.

Computer Issues…

I’m not ignoring you all! I’m having computer issues (aka I hate vista?) and was hoping to have them resolved sooner. Typing on an unfamiliar keyboard is not my favorite thing to do, but ‘ll have a legitimate post up later on.

TY for stopping by, and HELLO!! to all my new readers.

Shoe-Thrower: WoW Style

I found this link on digg.com. Thought you would all find it humorous.