Hanging up my Tank Boots, and Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I have to admit, I'm not really feeling it this year, the Christmas Spirit, that is. Ultimately, I'm down because instead of enjoying Christmas day with my family, I will be in the office, slaving away. No Christmas dinner, I'm in until 7:30. No early morning present opening, we, children are older now and the presents will begin opening at roughly the time I clock in. My parents have offered to drive me in, if I still want to spend the night at their place, which I have traditionally done, but it makes no sense, to the practical side of me at least, to have them wake up early to drive me in.

The whole situation just makes me seethe. I'm so angry, so angry that because I am my mothers daughter, all I have wanted to do, this whole month, is cry.

Because it's not fair.

Because there is nothing I can do about it.

I have never, in my life wanted to quit a job more than I do now. The truth is, I can't. Voluntary unemployment with no real prospects would be irresponsible and something that we couldn't handle financially at the moment. It's something that I can't do, but I want to.

I cannot see myself being anywhere near functional on Christmas morning when I go into work.

I hate to be such a downer this close to Christmas, but pretending that everything is awesome felt contrived and dishonest. I'm not willing to lie.

I know, that I'm being a huge baby about this. Believe me, I do. I know, that it could be worse, and that I am infinitely lucky to have a family that I wish so desperately to spend the holiday with and traditions that I hold so dear that it breaks my heart to let go of this year. Cy has told me more than once that I need to grow up and stop complaining about it. He doesn't have to work on Christmas. His advice just makes it worse.

Would you believe this was originally supposed to segue into a chat about WoW, and my Death Knight? Really, it wasn't meant to be an emotional over share, and I never intended to become so personal on here.

Back to that Death Knight post eh?

I had originally wanted to talk a little about what I've been doing this past week, since my school vacation started. The answer to that is levelling my death knight, like a fiend. Since I'm not raiding yet, and probably won't be, realistically, until the summer when I'll have time to seek out and devote to a raid team, levelling has provided me something to do in WoW since I'm not really feeling my dailies lately.

Really though, in discussing my levelling, I really wanted to talk about the quality of the dungeon groups I've been getting, or rather, the lack thereof.

It seems to me, that if your group has an asshat in it they can smell your insecurities. I've been a healer for 6 years now, and let me tell you, it is the ONLY role I fit comfortably into these days, which is ultimately the reason I'm levelling a class that cannot heal. I feel like some diversity in the role I play would probably be beneficial. I am not very confident yet as a tank.

I know the fights. I have a grasp on rotation. We almost never wipe and those wipes are not always caused by me. I would call myself a competent blood death knight, just not a confident one. I think that shows through my play style because regardless of how a dungeon is going if there is an asshat in my group, they will be taunting actually, I think I'd like to call it what it is, bullying me.

I've responded accordingly. I never engage the asshat. I initiate a kick, and if that fails, I leave myself. I'm just tired of dealing with this and because the only behaviour I have control of is my own, I went frost and decided to quest the rest of the way to 90. I really like my blood spec, and I'm going to continue using it to solo while I collect pets for raiding with leashes. I just don't think I'm ready to tank LFD yet, and that's fine.

Also, I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, again I'm sorry that I can't share in the spirit right now. I'm working on it.

Doing Heroics

I once said that I would never be geared for heroics.

Looks like I lied.

Again.

 I haven't done many heroic dungeons yet, but the few I have done have surprised me. They aren't impossible. They are doable. Dare I say it, they are even fun.

Allow me to make something clear, new heroics... maybe even new max level dungeons are what puts me off of new expansions. Ever since Cataclysm hit and I couldn't heal through one group, much less a whole heroic, I've become a little bit wary of new dungeon content. I am pleasantly surprised that Blizzard learned from the travesty that was Cataclysm and did not make heroics so punishing that they were un-fun again.

That's not to say I found it easy, I have pretty much the baseline required ilevel and have an average skill level. If it was easy for me, I would have been disappointed. If I were an exceptional player, I would probably find them too easy.

I've made it through all of the dungeons I've gone through with minimal mana starvation and only one or two party member deaths which were all due to lack of attention paid to mechanics on their part and not really because of my lack of skill or mana.

I am so pleased that I can complete them without A) going holy or B) ripping my hair out in frustration. I've been reading lately that a lot of players find that Disc output is lacking (maybe it's just for raids?), but I was able to keep my group up adequately and; therefore, have no real complaints except that I still want my Divine Hymn back without going Holy. I feel a little bit lost without carrying it around in my back pocket in the event I fall behind, get stressed, and want a get out of jail free card. I'm sure that will pass though, I still have plenty of toys in my toolkit to play around with.

I still need to work on using Spirit Shell optimally, but I think that will come with time.

Also, LFD has given me decent, non-douche bag groups lately. I didn't know those existed, but am thankful, I needed a break especially after learning that I'm being forced to work both Christmas, and New Years. If I could afford to quit... Anyone want to hire a poor college student trained pastry chef?

I'm trying not to dwell on that.

I suck at not dwelling.

I would also like to draw your attention to my blog roll. It seems that it only took me two months to learn how to make one, and I'd love it if I could get suggestions for awesome blogs to put up there. Priest related, or WoW related, doesn't matter, anything that's worth a read.

IntPiPoMo - Shiny new stuff

Well, the last two weeks I've spent farming have finally paid off. I got my Terrible Turnip this morning. I was so excited yesterday when I looted his ominous seed that I could hardly sleep last night. Even typing this, I'm so excited that I finally have one, and excited to share him with you.

Even disgusting root vegetables are adorable when you put eyes on them.

I also managed to get exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpents today, which means that this little guy

 

is now all grown up and all mine.

 They even threw me an initiation ceremony.

 

And here we are. The end of my IntPiPoMo journey.  I leave you with another photo from my archive. None of the other pictures I took over the month felt right, so here is a cat waiting for a boat - both the beginning of something and the end of something else. 

A huge thank you goes out to Angelya of Revive and Rejuvinate for hosting. I had a great time participating.

For a list of participants, and links to their blogs click here

50/50

IntPiPoMo - Darkshore

This evening I took a trip down to Darkshore. I'm still in the mood to reminisce about my early days in WoW and Darkshore was the second zone that I ever entered. I took a trip down to see the wreckage in early Cataclysm, and to snap this ridiculous fan-girl photo with Malfurion.

  That's right. I tried to play it off like we were both waving at the camera.

I haven't been back to Darkshore since then, except to fly through. In fact, last night I was going down to Un'Goro to train my battle pets and, hopefully, catch some new ones, I flew right through. Normally, I would just watch the tv, but then I noticed the river underneath my character.

 

 I took some without the Hippogryph too, but I ended up liking this one the best.

It was then, that I knew Darkshore needed to be revisited.

 This is a waterfall by the Grove of the Ancients.

 

The Auberdine pier, this still makes me sad.

 

Enormous waterfall, appropriately in the "Maw of the Void"

 Bridge in Lor'danel, the new quest hub that replaced Auberdine, over one of the rivers that feeds the Maw.

46/50