The Times They Are a-Changin'

The Times They Are a-Changin'.  Actually quite an appropriate quote from a song writer many of us know of and love.  Work's been busy.  Off time has been busy.  Half-way through holiday season now and everything conspires against me putting in more entries into the blog.  Before Cata hits I thought I'd throw one last entry onboard as things will be hectic for a while.

Firstly.  Cata hits Monday night at midnight.  I'll be one standing in line at one of the local Walmarts, hoping to get a Collector's edition (wasn't bright enough to pre-order one through the local Gamestop).  Although I may break down and just do a digital download during the day on Monday.  I've got two boys who play and they'll be wanting their copies too. 

I'm growing to love the changes they've been making to druid healing but the model that came out in 4.0.3a is less than thrilling.  I find the thing I forget most is that I can change to tree.  When I do remember it's getting late in the fight and mana is becoming an issue.  As many have found out, changing to tree really just provides a way to burn through massive amounts of mana in a short time.  I keep finding myself getting near OOM during our guild raids so I need to work on overhealing less.  Adapting a Monty Python song: "Every mana is sacred, every mana is great, for every mana that gets wasted, God gets quite irate."  I'm going to have to learn, and raid/dungeon people are going to have to get used to, having my party/raid members running at less than 100% health for longer stretches of time thatn we're generally accustomed to doing.  i.e. Must be smarter at healing.  The mechanics and reasonings for this have been hashed out by people far smarter than I on other boards.

I really like our "little" guild.  It's been relatively stable for the two years I've been in it so far.  Guild drama is a rarity.  We're reaching one of those growth points though and the strain has been building underneath the surface.  We're historically a leveling guild, and by all accounts still accommodate leveling toons with enthusiasm.  But, in practice, we've really grown into a casual raiding guild.  Raid style looting vs dungeon style need/greed looting has become an issue.  I think we've settled on a toon being able to roll on an item if that toon can use it at all (in either of that toon's specs).  This will further the 'leveling' custom, as we're working to let a toon advance itsself, not just advancing the current spec a toon happens to be participating in.  In retrospect, all of this will be moot shortly, at least for a while.  We'll all suddenly not be upper and lower level 80's but equivalent 81's, working our way to 85.  We'll readdress how we handle the issue when we have different "levels" of 85's.

With luck the new dungeons / raids will provide some stimulus for more entries as we dive into Cata.  Have fun out there.  Enjoy seeing old things in new ways.  Stop to look at the new scenery.  Happy hunting!

Living life one GCD at a time,
Tunin(n).