'Everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong'

It's Murphy's Law: the ultimate expression of the perversity of nature and human endeavor. First used by shipping agents in 1877, and finally named from one of a few possible Murphys in the United States Air Force, It has hundreds of corollaries from "It only rains on my day off," to "The milk's expiration date will always be the day before you check it."

Needless to say, Murphy's Law extends to raiding in World of Warcraft as well! I consider these truths to be self-evident:

• Whatever loot drops from a boss will be exactly perfect for the alt you didn't bring to the raid.

• That loot will always get sharded.

• Whenever you /roll a 100 for a piece of loot, the item will be uncontested.

• Furthermore, you will never /roll 100 on a piece of loot that is a fantastic upgrade for you.
   
• You will always be targeted by the boss with a CC effect or a debuff requiring your action to manage just as soon as you pop your trinkets and major cool downs.
   

A Word about The Blog

Heyas!

I just wanted to take a brief moment and say how things are going here:

I have slowed down writing just a little bit in the past two weeks for a couple of reasons. One: I'm just a wee little bit close to game burnout and trying to just relax a bit until Cataclysm comes out. And Two: I keep having small problems with my posts.

Recently, a lot of stupid formatting things happen. Like, all my new paragraphs disappear. Or, adding captions to a picture throws everything off into chaos.

But, as a result, I have a number of mostly-written pieces that are not published because the formatting has gotten so hopelessy scrambled.  Also, blogging just becomes less fun in general when you sit down to do it and then get bogged down in technical details. But, I'll keep plugging at that stuff and one of these days, I'll either figure it out or apply myself to finding better workarounds.

The other thing on my mind today is readers: I get to see the readership and, I mean, it's not huge, but it's not non-existent either. Which makes me very happy. I wasn't planning on becoming the Hawt Blawg of WoW or anything (yet. When that becomes my main goal, I'll rename this site "The Hawt Blawg of WoW" so you'll know)

But I just wanted to urge folks to write comments if they like. I would LOVE to engage in discussion here with folks who enjoy playing WoW.  Few things would make me happier.

The other aspect to me calling for comments is that some of my in-game friends read the blog, and then they want to debate me about stuff in-game. And like, y'know, if I'm in-game, I'm probably busy playing the game. It's always a hoot when somebody whispers up to say "Hey! Cool article!" but I can't talk about release dates or debate Telluric Currents at the same time I'm working on the Lich King.

So. That's all I wanted to say. Take care and see ya next time.

Shaman Heals: T-minus Two Months and Counting

Well, we are getting really close now. A date has been announced and even more jarringly, Patch 4.0 is probably just around the corner ("around the corner" = "next week") How is Shaman Healing coming along?

Overall
Healing feels sluggish. Heals are smaller than on live, and they have overall longer cast times. Characters also have much larger health pools than they did before, so it's fairly common to drop around a 15k heal on someone and it barely seems to make their health bar move. The fact that most of my recent experience has been in ICC with a 30% buff probably makes all this feel worse than it really is.

Focused Insight
Sigh. There's no avoiding this talent. A 30% buff to a heal is just too large to ignore. But I don't think it is going to be featured in standard rotation. The logistics of it are just too unwieldy. Shamans also have no lack of spells we can cast that have buff effects on the next spell. Unleashed Elements buffs 20%. Tidal Waves leaves behind haste buffs. Riptide creates all sorts of bonus goodness when used next to a chain heal. So, keeping all these short-CD, augmentation effects in constant play is probably going to be an overwhelming juggling experience.

/Snap

Hey! Look who I ran into in Orgrimmar!

Gravy has become a bartender in Orgrimmar's Valley of Honor, which is altogether fairly reasonable.

I did leave a beta note for the developers:

"This vendor should be out where the Alliance can meet him too, and one of the items he sells should be tacos. I'm sure everybody wants to /s It is Taco Time!"

4.0.1 To-Do List: You Are Not Prepared!

Unless something mighty funky happens, one week from now, WoW Patch 4.0.1 will be upon us. This includes all the changes to just about everything in the World of Warcraft that doesn't include new content.

Here is a short list of some of the things changing:

• New launcher
• New gem stats
• New glyphs
• New stats
• New abilities
• New 31-point talent trees
• New gear
• Reforging

Pretty much everything you know about your character now is changing.
But, there's a week left. Time enough to get prepared. To that end, here is my to-do list:

Woot! There It Is...

The Cataclysm release date is December 7.

Jesus Christ was a Shaman!

The biggest thing we have in common: We both have the power to blow yo' mind!

Please don't get offended at me for the comparison. There is no disrespect intended towards anyone or anyone's beliefs. I just get a smile on my face when I think about stuff like this. What would George Bush be if he were in WoW? A ret paladin if you ask me (and probably a Belf, too). Barack Obama? A warrior tank. How about Julia Roberts? I think she'd roll a Night Elf Hunter--a little exotic, but still just a hunter. 

But what about the big man, JC himself? 

A shaman. Totally. Just like me and William Shatner.

Let's do the list!

• Cure Disease?               Check
• Drive out evil spirits?   Check
• Walk on water?             Check*
• A spiritual leader of the people?         Check
• Cause people to rise from the dead?   Check
• Cause oneself to rise from the dead?  You know it, baby!

*Levitate is not the same thing, so priests can go levitate off a cliff if they want to raise that point. Death knights, don't even get started that Path of Frost makes you Christ-like.