Moonkin Archive

1

Burn Out

I have been experiencing a case of the WoW Burn-Out Blues.  I have had to force myself to log in, and didn’t even do that very often over the past few weeks.  Even though I kind of wanted to play, other things like reading, photography, gardening, cooking, etc. just seemed [...]

I have been experiencing a case of the WoW Burn-Out Blues.  I have had to force myself to log in, and didn’t even do that very often over the past few weeks.  Even though I kind of wanted to play, other things like reading, photography, gardening, cooking, etc. just seemed so much more appealing.

I’m really not sure what caused it.  Maybe it was the funk I was in from the RBG team changing the days of games to days and times that I just can’t make.  Maybe it was the feel of the guild with all the changes (not all bad).  Maybe it is just the fact that I am enjoying real life so much.

There is no question that I have fought growing up.  Although I am a pretty responsible adult, I always had that kid-like outlook on everything.  Playing games is one way that I have always kept young.  Now, with the career and the house and the cars… I just see myself more as a grown-up than I ever have before.  I love World of Warcraft.  It has been a big part of my life for years and to be honest, it scares the shit out of me that I might be outgrowing it.  I just don’t get that same feeling that I used to when I log in.  I guess some of the magic is gone.

It kind of reminds me of stories you hear about heroin addicts.  That first high is so intense and new.  They spend forever trying to chase that high again but it never comes.  I kind of feel that way about WoW.

When I started playing (in BC), I was amazed by everything.  I was challenged at every turn and each level was a milestone.  I had to run everywhere until level 40 and getting that mount was cause for celebration.  Now, everything seems to be handed to me.  The sense of accomplishment just isn’t there.  I feel sometimes like I am playing some shitty game on Facebook.  I am hanging on until Pandaland, hoping that some of the excitement will come back, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

My guild is pretty active so that has helped, and the Twitter community always keeps me motivated.

Now if I could only get the pink rocket mount… that would seal the deal.

 

2

Back in 2012

After many months of inactivity, I have decided to cast a Rebirth on this blog and get back into the swing of things.  What better day to start than on January 1st?
I thank so many of you for the emails and personal notes on Twitter.  It is humbling to know [...]

After many months of inactivity, I have decided to cast a Rebirth on this blog and get back into the swing of things.  What better day to start than on January 1st?

I thank so many of you for the emails and personal notes on Twitter.  It is humbling to know that people actually enjoyed my little bit of writing here and I hope that I can step up to the plate this time and keep it going with fresh content, more RP and a lot of Moonkin talk.

Looking into the new year, I have some personal goals for the game.  First and foremost, I want to get to at least 400,000 honorable kills before the expansion.  I am not sure if they are going to add another title/achievement for honorable kills but I sure hope that they do.  There has been some speculation that it will be for 500,000 but I am hoping they stick with the gap of 150,000 and move it up to 400,000 for the next one.  That is well within my reach.  As of today I have just under 357,000 and with my active guild and good friends (HI SNOWY), I am always in a battleground having fun!

Next, I would like to do a little more PvE.  I know, I know… that is very uncharacteristic of me but I actually had some fun doing it.  Just wish that I had a little more time to devote to it.  With work and PvP, there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day.  Not to mention that I enjoy the social aspect of WoW tremendously and love to spend time just hanging out and RPing.

Lastly I would like to hit 2200 in RBGs or arena.  I have come close but always have the team break up or some other silliness happens.  My own lack of persistance hasn’t helped.  Hopefully, that will change.

To all of you, I wish you a very safe, happy and prosperous new year!  Please check back often, because I already have some posts ready for publishing.

12

Lufitoom And Barexx Do Firelands, Conquest Vanguard Gank Style!

So after all the drama about when it is appropriate to gank in the questing area and should there be camping/no camping, I was annoyed enough just to say “fuck it” and go balls to the wall (or tits to the glass in my case) and just start spending my [...]

So after all the drama about when it is appropriate to gank in the questing area and should there be camping/no camping, I was annoyed enough just to say “fuck it” and go balls to the wall (or tits to the glass in my case) and just start spending my time making Horde lives miserable.  I do not care at this point if they have 8 children and only have 5 minutes to do their dailies.  I am going to do everything in my power to prevent my enemy from being successful.

I am very glad my friend Barexx (Rogue) shares my passion for WPvP.  We are usually found together, although we do gank apart as well.  We decided early on Saturday that we would spend the day ganking with absolutely no mercy.  This was after I was privvy to some comments in Horde general chat the night before as you see below:

Plea for Help

Broken English but yeah...

Please note the name “Icyvenom” because he makes another appearance later!

More Rage!

Gotta love it!

Nothing like some raging to motivate us!  Anyway, we started our day early and found a Shaman named Grommie that was a glutton for punishment.  After the fourth or fifth gank, he decided that messaging Barexx using a level 1 Alliance would be the way to plead his case.  His anger was apparent.

Hate Tell

Anger and tears feed us!

This was a win!  Yes!  To get this reaction means we’re “doinitrite”.  I guess he felt that this game, on a PvP server was serious business so he followed up with this… an actual death threat!  SCORE!

Death Threat

Pixels on a Screen is SRS folks!

After this, Grommie logged out, without reclaiming his body and was not seen again.

Now we decided to make our home “The Furnace”.  It is a large hole in Firelands where you go down after a “boss” fight during a daily and then when you are done with the dailies down there, you catch a hot air vent back up to the top.  The hole is always there.

The Furnace

The Furnace as seen after you have done the dailies.

It is quite menacing!  Once you have done the dailies, if you jump in the hole (without the benefit of a parachute/levitate/slow fall etc.) you will die and take durability damage.  There is a rappelling rope on the side tho that allows you to descend safely (see below).

Edge of The Furnace

See the rope?

Can you see where I’m going with this?  Do you know the temptation that a Moonkin feels when there is a ledge or a cliff around?  Not only that, but when the questers come back up from the depths of The Furnace, they are placed on the edge where a nice, refreshing Typhoon is waiting courtesy of yours truly, Lufitoom, the Bloodthirsty.

Game on!  Victim after victim plummet to their deaths, not once but multiple times.  Barexx was on hand for the rare times that the Typhoon did not work or was on CD.  It was more satisfying than you could imagine.  Please enjoy some screenshots of the fun that was had at the expense of the dirty Horde!

Mcsteve!

Tauren Mcsteve gets naked to avoid any more durability damage after the 6th fall back in the hole!

Arriana the Paladin

Arianna enjoys her trip back south.

Arriana Tries Again!

But with no better results! GG!

Oh boy!  Here comes another customer….

Handel

Well dressed Druid tries his luck!Still failed...

After 5 Attempts, Handel Goes Bear!

Still failed...

This continued on and off all day.  Some made it out, most ended up doing what this Warrior below did… Hearth!

Hearth!

The only way out?

Now before anyone goes ragey on me, remember… I too have been on the receiving end of this.  You have outs.  Someone can summon outside the area in Hyjal, you can use many abilities to get out (Mages blink for instance).  People were smart and took advantage of my 20 second cooldown on Typhoon.  This is not a situation where you just can’t get out.  I have been held hostage by a rival guild before (mind controlled and healed back to health and then chain cc’d for over an hour).  It’s a game.  Be clever and cunning and you can get out of anything!

We didn’t just stay there though.  We caused murder and mayhem all over the area.  While Barexx was taking his lunch break, I found my friend Icyvenom once again (remember him complaining in Horde General Chat?).  I took the opportunity to teach him a lesson about whining.

So, leaving the original screenshot name so you can see the times:  Poor Icyvenom gets mad!

 

The rage continued during the evening hours and into the morning.

I know that many of you don’t approve of ganking but this is how I view it.  I am Alliance (Night Elf at that) and I hate EVERYONE.  I am going to fight against those dastardly Horde and prevent them from being successful.  I will utilize every tree, rock, hole, spell, ability, pie, frog or rubber band that will help me.  Case closed.

At the end of our ganking day, we had gotten over 300 honorable kills by ganking in the Firelands alone.  No battlegrounds. This brought my lifetime total to over 329,000.  I am proudest of the screenshot below.  Before we arrived, this path was clear and clean.  It is now littered with the bones left behind.  Oh, and HI NER’ZHUL!  Barexx and Lufitoom love your moxie and thanks for all the good times and good fights tonight.

Barexx and Lufitoom Were Here!

8

My Moonkin Tattoo

I know that people have been wanting me to talk about getting my wonderful Moonkin tattoo designed by http://magicalmelonball.com and tattooed by Rick at Solid Ink Tattoos in Tallahassee, Florida.  Well, here it is after healing a bit:

Here is a shot a day after I got it so you can see the [...]

I know that people have been wanting me to talk about getting my wonderful Moonkin tattoo designed by http://magicalmelonball.com and tattooed by Rick at Solid Ink Tattoos in Tallahassee, Florida.  Well, here it is after healing a bit:

The Lufi Leg

Here is a shot a day after I got it so you can see the details a little better, although it was still puffy:

Yes, my Moonkin is wearing a pink bow.  She is yelling “Bandu thoribas!” which is Darnassian for “Prepare to fight!”

People have laughed at the fact that I have a World of Warcraft tattoo but I find it no more odd than people having Yosemite Sam or any other cartoon character.  I love Moonkin and this has been a big part of my life for many years now.

Next… my Druid bar will be tattooed on me.  Somewhere.

 

1

Moonkin PvP in 4.2

Even thought I had been dreading the changes to Balance Druids, I wanted to wait and see what actually happened in 4.2. I was accepting my fate of nerfage. Sadly, this has been one nerf after another since Cataclysm dropped. Before you start saying “but but but you have 23% [...]

Even thought I had been dreading the changes to Balance Druids, I wanted to wait and see what actually happened in 4.2. I was accepting my fate of nerfage. Sadly, this has been one nerf after another since Cataclysm dropped. Before you start saying “but but but you have 23% moar damage in your Starfire and Wrath!!!!11!11!!!” let me say that even though that’s nice, it still is a nerf from my PvP perspective.

As a PvPer, I can’t just stand in one spot until the predictable fire/green shit/frost/etc. drops onto the same places it does every time in a PvE encounter. I have to be on the move, avoiding the blender and staying at ranged from some annoying melee classes. My moonfire/sunfire spam allowed me to do that. Now if I had some sort of defense (like the instant roots they took away) I could agree with this change. As it stands now, I cannot be offensive or defensive. I have been reduced to popping everything and hoping the other player(s) are weak enough to go down. That’s it.

I am a firm believer that Blizzard really has not had a knowledgeable person on the staff when it comes to Moonkin PvP. It’s not their fault, we are more rare than you would think in the grand scheme of things. I don’t want to be OP or faceroll (see Mage lol). I just want to be competitive.

So here are just two suggestions:

  • Provide Balance Druids with a serious cc/escape mechanism. Instant roots/cyclones (on a cd of course). Would give us a chance to get back at ranged, but with a good cd, it couldn’t be spammed.
  • Buff starsurge again for pvp. If it procs, we have an opportunity to win. Still running on RNG it wouldn’t be completely controllable and not like the current Pally and Warrior 1-click I win buttons.

Why only two? Because I am a realistic sort of gal. I am not trying to become overpowered. I just would like to be able to have the escapeability that so many (most) of the other classes have. I mean come on, Pally/DK/Warrior/Mage/Priest/Rogue/Hunter/Warlock all have the OSHIT buttons to at least give them a chance. They are instant and powerful. Shaman too, but in a lesser degree (not gonna even talk about healers really… that is as it should be).

So, how ’bout it Blizz? Can a feathered friend get just a little love? You have really broken us.

Don’t make a Moonkin cry.

0

Upcoming Nerfs and Moonkin Survivability

It had to happen.  I have been waiting for the nerf bat to be swung mightily in my direction and aimed directly at my Starsurge for a while now.  I guess the first clue might have been when I hit a Warrior in Tol Barad for 87k.  So what exactly [...]

It had to happen.  I have been waiting for the nerf bat to be swung mightily in my direction and aimed directly at my Starsurge for a while now.  I guess the first clue might have been when I hit a Warrior in Tol Barad for 87k.  So what exactly are they doing to it?  The patch notes can be found here.

Ok, so a 20% reduction in my Starsurge is not going to be game breaking for me in PvP.  The only thing that it might shrink other than the sexy big numbers is the size of my epeen and that still will be enormous with or without the big numbers.  But seriously, I’m a Moonkin, I’ve been through nerfs before.  I’ll still kick ass, take names, and make the Horde cry.

The nerfs that are going to be affecting me the most are not Balance specific.  These will be affecting all Druids and I believe are meant to be pointed at other specs and for PvE oriented characters.  Sadly, it will really hurt the survivability of us PvP Moonkin in a big way.

First, let’s talk about this nerf: Cyclone duration has been reduced to 5 seconds, down from 6. While that doesn’t sound like much, it’s a huge deal especially since they took out the glyph to make our roots instant, and nerfed our Thorns (due to melee classes that should have been licking the windows of short buses as opposed to PvPing).  Now, the one thing I have left to try and either give me enough time to get away to ranged distance or just GTFO in general, will disappear even faster.  This is will leave me extremely vulnerable.

The next nerf is supposed to be balancing things out between healers but it really affects me since most of my healing has already been nerfed to the point that I might as well not even roll a hot.  Lifebloom‘s bloom effect has been reduced by 20%. In addition, it now costs 11% of base mana, up from 7%.  While this might not seem like a lot, this is the only heal that was able to give me that extra survivability as I was running away like a scared little schoolgirl.  The mana increase will hurt Restoration Druids more than me, and I don’t think that PvE Moonkin will worry about this much at all.  It’s the bloom effect that will sting.

I know that these nerfs were needed in some capacity but Blizzard needs to look at the big picture.  It seems that when they make these changes, they are tunnel visioning PvE or PvP, one spec, or one issue.  They seem to forget that not everyone PvEs (or PvPs for that matter, because some nerfs have been brought on by PvP issues and completely gimped PvE focused specs.)

Qieth has an excellent post on his blog that brings to light another nerf that will most certainly affect those who are inclined to slay more dragons than I do.  What he highlights will affect me but not to the extreme that it will him.

Honestly, I’m not going to get my feathers into a ruffle, because it is early in the patch testing phase and hopefully things will be adjusted or evened out before it goes live.  I just hate to see that for the first time in a long time, being a PvP Moonkin was viable and now it seems that piece by piece I am being pushed back to the bad old days.


 

4

300,000

Yep, that’s right folks.  Little Lufitoom has finally reached 300,000 Honorable Kills.  Not that I get anything for it.  (Other than a growing e-peen.)
That is all.
Tweet

Yep, that’s right folks.  Little Lufitoom has finally reached 300,000 Honorable Kills.  Not that I get anything for it.  (Other than a growing e-peen.)

That is all.300,000 Honorable Kills

1

Love Is In The Air

Lufitoom grabs an annoying Gnome by his neck and lifts him up to her eye level.
“Just what in Elune’s name do you think you’re doing, squirt?”, she snarls.
“I I I was just testing out the perfume!”, he stutters.  As he squirms his little legs, he whines “Eeeeeveryone is doing it!”
The [...]

Lufitoom grabs an annoying Gnome by his neck and lifts him up to her eye level.

“Just what in Elune’s name do you think you’re doing, squirt?”, she snarls.

“I I I was just testing out the perfume!”, he stutters.  As he squirms his little legs, he whines “Eeeeeveryone is doing it!”

The tall Night Elf drops him down to the ground, brushes her hand as if she has touched something unclean, and then bends her tall frame down to him.  ”Don’t ever, EVER, do something like that again to any of us in <No Mercy Mafia>.

The Gnome nods apologetically and scampers away, looking back at Lufitoom over his shoulder.

“I hate this holiday!” Lufitoom mumbles to herself as she makes her normal rounds to pick up the “payments” from the Stormwind shopkeepers.  At least providing the “extra protection” to these citizens keeps her mind off the true reason for her hatred of Love Is In The Air. Even for a tough Mafia member, the memories of that Human that she risked everything for a lifetime ago, are too painful to dwell on.  Southshore is no longer the place where she could let her braid down and forget the struggles.  Life was different then.

Hearing the bells chime out the time, Lufitoom starts to ready herself for battle.  The rumors have it that the Horde are once again causing a nuisance in Gilneas that needs to be remedied.  As an afterthought, she decides to check her mail and see if anything had arrived.

To her astonishment, there is a red ribbon wrapped letter there with a beautiful red rose.  She glances around to see if anyone is looking, then hides it in her bag.  Not wanting anyone to see her with something so… sentimental, she makes her way to the Dwarven District to find a secluded spot at the tavern.  At least there the Dwarves are usually too drunken to notice what she is doing, and the ale flows freely for the ones in The Family.

After grabbing an ale, she finds a secluded spot in the corner and takes the package out and sets in gently on the table in front of her.  She glances around to see if anyone is watching, but the patrons all seem to be paying attention to the Draenei “working girl” who is dancing on a table.

“I’ll have to make sure she gives us our cut!” Lufitoom snickers.

She refocuses on her gift.  Her long, slender fingers caress the ribbon.  It has been a long time since she has been given something so pretty, so feminine.  Slowly, she unties the ribbon, and stashes it away.  The rose, now free from its shiny red bondage, rolls to the side off the envelope.  Fighting the urge to breathe in the beautiful scent for fear someone would see her and mistake this moment for weakness, Lufitoom places it gently and securely in her bag.  She opens the letter and smiles before she can think not to.

It’s from Kujoh.

The Love Letter

"Love is in the Air"

The writing, albeit a little scratchy, reads:

A true boomkin of a Moonkin.

Night Elf with goggles.

Your feathers can’t hide,

The backside I oggle.

Have a happy “Love is in the Air”.

Sincerely,

“The corner of the page is pierced by a set of canine tooth marks.”

“Maybe this holiday isn’t so bad after all.”, she muses and orders another tall ale from the barkeep.

0

You’re Not The Boss Of Me!

There I was, wandering around the streets of Stormwind last night, when I received a message from Vayren, a level 81 Mage whom I have never seen before.  The message?

“Stack HASTE not mastery!”

I know that I have gone through this ad nauseam on Twitter and in many a bg conversation, but I figured last night, “What the Hell!” and I regemmed and re-enchanted it all to haste.

To be honest, I had a blast.  The PEW PEW PEW of my LAZERZZZZ was amazing.  I speed at which the magic was flying was incredible!  There was only one small little problem.  I was only about doing 3/4 of the damage I normally do.  I gave it a chance, did several more battlegrounds but the outcome was the same.  Sure I was still top in damage, but I was no where near the numbers I am used to.  In PvP, I rely mostly on my instant cast spells (say what you want but moonfire/sunfire spam is where it’s at) and I only cast to drop a bomb or get closer to that eclipse.

Most of the PvP Moonkins think I’m nuts for stacking mastery but it works for me.  With the four piece PvP set bonus that has been increased to 20 Solar Energy and 13 Lunar Energy, up from 5 and 13, I stay in Eclipse without even trying.  Yes, I get hit that much.  I am a large target after all.

I tried to explain this to the all-knowing mage that messaged me, but as usual, he just logged.  I get that a lot, but usually they are rage tells from a Level 1 Warrior that likes to call me an “old hag”.  Ah well, just gonna go and kill some more Horde in his honor.