The Game Dame

Here is one of my new favorite bloggers, Pai over at The Pensive Harpy.

She’s written a brilliant commentary directed at good guys who condone the idiocy of the bad guys. Please read it while waiting for me to get something intelligent posted here.

Oh teh gauntlet has been throwed, my friends! My buddy Link over at Big Daddy Gamer has tagged me with a “5 Lessons in 5 Years” meme. He has also challenged Smaken Dahed (best ogre name ever), Kill Ten Rats, Strangelands, and The Pensive Harpy, although I have yet to see their memes posted yet. I’m giving them a free plug for incentive and I’ll add them to the Game Dame blogroll if they eventually answer the meme.

From what I understand of the original post on Se7en Samurai, it was intended to be lessons about gaming…?

1. Make sure your cat is loved-up BEFORE you sit down to play. Otherwise, you get what you deserve. Or this too.
2. Don’t heal yourself if you’re not the designated healer. It really pisses off the squishies or the pallies if you waste their mana. This rule goes for Druids too. [Corollary: Discuss with the healer ahead of time when you are allowed to heal yourself and when not.]
3. Don’t use Chain Lightning on full-health mobs that the tank is trying to hold aggro. This cuteness means certain death. And not for the mobs. And I mean your entire party.
4. Try to look as far as possible around the corner before entering the room. Any FPS player will benefit from this rule.
5. The Auction House is your best friend (sellers only). [Corollary: The Auction House is a rip-off (buyers only).]

I now tag the following bloggers to continue the meme:

• Big Red Kitty
• Kurgguz at Camp Taurajo
• Wilhelm2451 at The Ancient Gaming Noob
• Shelbi at VectorVixen
• Jon at The Bronze Kettle

Yesterday Blizzard wiped the Shaman talent builds. Fortunately, I realized this development before
I went into any kind of combat. (It was pure luck that I did. I accidentally hit the N key on the keyboard and went, WTF??) At first I totally freaked out because I had no memory of the specifics of my spec — other than it was mostly Elemental — and was unsure if I could rebuild it.

Then I remembered that I had wanted to respec to Enhancement anyway and nearly paid the gold to do so on Patch Day. So I started diving into websites with sample Shaman builds to figure out which talents to grab when suddenly my guildies wanted me to join a BRD run.

I panicked. (Yes, I’m a bit high-strung.) I wanted to go with them but I was afraid of learning on the job to be an Enh Shammy and getting everyone toasted as a result. So in the interest of expediency — not to mention short-term group survivability — I did the best I could putting together my former build.

I think the time pressure was good for me because I could remember the talents I really needed to have (Elemental Mastery, Lightning Overload) and specced straight to them, skipping some of the talents I’d never really used. In fact, I ended up having quite a few points left over for some better Resto skills than I’d had before the Patch. You can see the new build here.

I heard around the blogs today that Blizzard wiped the Shaman builds on purpose so that everyone could respec according to the new buffs/nerfs of the Patch. I feel bad for folks who’d already spent the gold to do it Tuesday because I was almost one of those poor sods.

End of story is that I went into BRD with noticeable improvements, thanks to my speedy, not-over-muddled respec! Happy Shammy, happy Shammy!

Man, I’m addicted to WoW blogs! Unfortunately, I’ve found none that focus on Shammies, of which my main, Slig, is one. (Yes, Slig’s a dude, get over it! I liked the broken horn, so sue me. He’s a luvable lug, not a trannie.) I know that Shammies represent a fairly low population among all the WoW classes (actually, the lowest). I’ve seen a few reasons for this on WoW Insider and on the Forums, but I’m not sure I agree entirely with their point of view. If Shammies are nerfed for PvP, it doesn’t mean we aren’t quite effective and versitile for PvE or generally group/PUG play. Since I’m not a raider and haven’t even hit level 60, it’s quite possible that I am not qualified to speak for the entire Shammie population. However, I know there are a ton of casual WoW players out there and I think Shammies work well for solo play if you build them correctly.

So, my question to you, my few readers, is this: should I start a WoW Shaman blog? Any thoughts?