Over the Thanksgiving holiday Blizzard was selling copies of the game for $5 each, with the Battle Chest selling for $10. I took advantage of this offer and picked up a Battle Chest and a copy of Wrath for a total of $15. This past weekend I finally had time to set up my second account and look into a Dual-Boxing, Recruit-A-Friend solution. My efforts into the Dual-Boxing will be chronicled here over the next coupe of months, hopefully with a post every week about the setup or playstyle.

For this first post I’m just going to keep it simple and point out that I have started a team of two Gnome Mages on my home server of Elune(US).

Phredo and Jahmbo have gone through a bit of the Gnome starting area and so far are having a great time defeating everything in their way. The only thing I’m currently having issue with is knowing when Jahmbo has Arcane Missiles up. I’ve noticed that they don’t proc every time Phredo’s proc, so that’s taking some getting used to, but other than that the set up has been fairly simple and straightforward.

I started the project with a trial version of Keyclone, which didn’t really do it for me, so I moved on to IS Boxer, which I think works better for my personal preferences. I am sure that if you’re planning to Dual-Box taking my advice as a gold standard would be foolish.

The forums over at dual-boxing.com were awesome, and I got everything set up without having to ask anyone for help beyond what I found there on the page. They’re very helpful and informative. I am sure that if I do come up against something that I cannot find help with there, I’m sure to get a few responses if I pose the question. So far though, all of my questions have already been asked by others and answered. Gee I love a forum with a robust search feature.

For my next post, I’ll be talking about the setup process with IS Boxer, which was easy to do by following their simple guides.

Popularity: 3% [?]

When the Cataclysm hit and the changes to our spells and mechanics were brought about, there was an uproar in the Druid Community. There was a fear that Druids would become mini Priests. There was a fear that our HoTs were being nerfed to the ground and we’d no longer have our Ugly Brown Tree Form to run around in.

Druids were told that our style of hitting Rejuv on everyone was going to go away and some people got very worried. We were told that keeping the entire group at 100% health was not going to work. We got worried. We know our style and have been using it for a while. How ever will we change?

A week after Cataclysm hit my guild decided to go into ICC to farm shards for a Legendary. Our DK needs 15 more and we figured we could roll through the content and get some drops.

We were wrong. Damage came in too fast and healers went out of Mana way too quickly. DPSers were no longer hit capped. Bosses went down very slowly. We wiped 3 times on Heroic Bonestorm Guy(yes my brain has forgotten his name and am too lazy to look it up). We figured out really fast that our new gear and new spells weren’t going to do too well in old content until we got better new gear.

We then split up and went and did some 5-mans. In the first two 5-mans I did I went OOM on every pull. I spammed Rejuv like an idiot. I didn’t react to the damage correctly. I didn’t change how I healed based upon how the spells were working. We didn’t wipe, but I didn’t do too well.

Last night, 4 of us formed a group and wound up hitting Halls of Origination for my first time in there. I took what I had learned and I took advice I had read on the forums and in blog posts and I rolled Lifebloom on the tank. I hit Regrowth on someone only when Clearcasting was up. I refreshed LB with Nourish or Healing touch only if the tank needed the extra healing. I wove Wild growth through the group and rarely dipped below 50% mana. The times I did dip below were AOE moments where I was struggling to keep up with the damage, But all in all, the new style of healing is very good at keeping people alive, and keeping this healer in the Blue with Mana.

The new healing style is FAR less twitchy than healing has been in the past. It used to be, “see damage, pop rejuv.” It is now, “see damage, assess the situation, and make an educated decision as to whether or not the target will take more damage or if the next tick of WG will do enough for him.” I have fully embraced the less twitchy healing experience. I like the concept of thinking before I act. I like the concept of smart healing making my Mana last. I like the concept that if I mess up, it actually matters now. In Wrath, I could spam nourish on the raid and keep people topped off and everything would be great. I’d never lose mana at all.

Now if I did that I’d be OOM in 30 seconds and it’d be a wipe. I like having to be responsible about what I do. I like having to think. It makes me feel like it matters more.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I have never put much stock in what my character looks like. My mains have always Been Druids so I never really had to care. “Yay, I look like Diseased Broccoli 99% of the time.”

Well, with 4.0.3 and Cataclysm, that all changed. I can only look like Diseased Broccoli for 30 seconds at a time, and then it’s only if I have a special glyph. Otherwise I will look like a Purple Tree-Orc-Of-Death for 30 seconds at a time, and I’ll look just like everyone else the rest of the time. Not a big deal. I don’t really care what I look like, right? Wrong. Apparently I do care. Recently I was having a conversation on Twitter with @dechion and @brajana and I completely balked at the idea of changing Maerdred to a Worgen.

Maerdred will always be a Night Elf with the specific look that he has. I recently went to the Barber Shop and changed his hair to finally get the Shave and a Haircut Achievement. It lasted 15 seconds. I Didn’t even leave Stormwind’s Barber Shop. I just sat back down in that chair and changed him right back. It seems that 5 years with Maerdred looking one way has ingrained into my head that this is just how he looks. The idea of changing him just seems foreign.

I’ve created other characters, they have all looked like Maerdred. One of whom was a Death Knight who’s back story was going to be that he had previously been Maerdred, but had been killed in action, and turned onto a DK by Arthas. The RP didn’t last and neither did the character. I made a new Maerdred for the Single Abstract Noun guild, he looks exactly like Maerdred too. Now that I think of it, I guess I have been pretty attached to Maerdred’s look, I just didn’t think about it.

Now that I spend some time pondering the looks of my characters I realize that I have a few specific looks that I stick with for most of the races. Gnomes are either Female with Pink Pigtails, or Male and look like mad scientists. Night Elves all generall look like Maerdred. Tauren are Jet black with mean looking faces…

If I have multiple characters of one race, they pretty much all look alike. I must be a creature of habit. I take a look I like and stick with it. I’ve tried changing it up, but those characters never really seem to last.

What about you? Do you associate a specific look with your characters? Are you in the Barber shop weekly changing things? Would you ever race-change your main? Let me know what you think in the comments. It’d be interesting to see how others feel about this topic.

Popularity: 4% [?]

…sniffle.

Yup. I got home from a short 4-day vacation Sunday night, slightly sick. I spent Monday in bed, and Tuesday with my head seemingly underwater.

I left work and bought my CE, and got home and instaled it, and then passed out.

OK. I didn’t pass out. I made a new Worgen Druid, but didn’t log into him. I logged on Maerdred, Finished the Storm Peaks Questing Achievement, Trained Flying, flew to the boat and took it to Stormwind.

Then I logged out.

Tonight I may actually log in. Seeing how fast people are doing so, I may hit 85 Saturday or so.

I may not. I hope to be one of the first 25 in my guild to do it. What a goal!

I hope your first night went better than mine.

Popularity: 4% [?]