UI Investigations

On Tuesdays when WoW is having fun with the patch, I usually take a few minutes to do a little research on what Pantheon will be looking forward to for the next raid week. I try and find videos, addons, or new strats to help with our progression. Today I looked into some videos on Valithria since she is going to be a focus of our progression this week. While watching the videos, I came across some Druid specific content. Lately I have been jumping between my Mac Powerbook and my kids PC. It has been driving me a little crazy- going from a wide screen monitor to my laptop screen takes some getting used to. It has made me notice that my screen real estate is a complete mess. I've seen cool pictures of UI's but I know that they take a long time in setting up. I think I have gotten to the point where I need to figure out how to improve my UI. I found a video of a Resto Druid UI and I could not believe how nice it looked! I think I am going to do the long-needed over-haul of my ui! I will post the addons I use and a video of my UI in the near future. I am also going to do some before/after pictures so you can see the difference.

Matticus Video on Healing Valithria Dreamwalker

This morning I got an email update on a new posting by Matticus with his first shot at video recording. I really enjoyed his take on healing Valithria. We've tried the fight once in Pantheon and I was extremely confused. When I went into the portal, I had no clue what I was doing. I had watched the Tankspot video, and read up on stratfu how the fight went, but as far as the mechanics of what I needed to do, I was pretty clueless. Matticus makes this fight look so easy! I think as contributing raid officer, I'm going to push for us to try this fight out on Sunday. I think we have the group for it.

I noticed that Matticus is running with 7 healers, while Pantheon typically has been using 6. We'll need to make some decisions on how to organize the raid group for the last couple of fights in Ice Crown Citadel. We have a couple hybrid classes in our raid, so we can have them switch specs to fill out the needed rolls.

I am very excited that Matticus is starting to make videos. I've watched the healing ones on Tankspot, and they were pretty good. But I think too much is made my the chickie making the videos- they are more about her rather than healing. And I don't like how healing is treated like an after thought on tankspot. But it is a Tanking resource, so it makes sense. Matticus is my favorite healing resource and the videos just make it better!

New Mouse!

I recently had one of those fun things we call birthdays, and one of my presents this year was the new Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000- in the bright Berry Pink. My daughter insists that everything be pink, and I always take her advice. I love to play WoW while sitting in my La-z-boy recliner and laptop. Raiding is always so nice and comfy.

My previous mouse worked fine, but the reciever stuck out of my laptop a couple inches. I like to play on my Macbook Pro. I only have 2 USB slots, one on the right side and one on the left side. I have a wireless headset, and a wireless mouse. I hate the fact that the recievers for my wireless equiptment stick out. I have to be very careful not to bump these, and that gets a little annoying. The thing I like best about the mouse is that the reciever is small- what they call a micro-reciever. I hardly notice it now. I only wish that my wireless headset had one too!

Another nice feature of the mouse is the size. Many mice are made for a man's hands, not a woman's. I've gone through many mice, trying to find just the right one- one that is comfortable to use, and has functionality that I want. This one fits nicely in the palm of my hand.

I love the tracking on this mouse. When I do my serious raiding, I always use a laptop table, but if I log on during the day I am more casual about it. I don't like to use my laptable if I don't need it. This mouse will track on anything! Many times I'll set my laptop on my lap and use the arm of my chair as a surface for my mouse, and I have never had a problem.

My only complaint is that the mouse is only 4 buttons not 5. I like the 5 button mouse to use with Vuhdo, my healing addon. I can get by with only 4 buttons, so I tend to use this mouse over my others.

Hello!

 Dueling Healers


This blog is going to be mostly on the two healers that I play on World of Warcraft. I've been playing for about 2 1/2 years. Everyone knows me as Arret, who is the first avatar I made, and also my main toon. She leveled to 70 as a "restokin", and quickly became a full-time Resto Druid, mostly healing for raids. When Wrath of the Lich King was released, Arret continued her resto spec. I've been a full-time healer for roughly two years now.  

Last summer I wanted to learn more about the other healing classes and rolled a priest, shammy, and pally. I quickly leveled my priest with the help of a friend, and since then she has also been raiding. 

I am an officer in the Guild Pantheon, on the Misha (US) server. Arret was one of the pillars of our raid group, so switching mains was out of the question. Arret was too geared, and I played her too well for my guild to let me run with my priest. As my kids went back to school in the fall, I found a daytime raiding guild, and they were willing to work with me to get my gear up to par for TOC raiding. Daybreak has been a great little guild- lunchtime raiding a couple times a week (when people show up) has been a lot of fun. Currently, my priest is better geared than my druid.

My latest project has been my 30-something Pally Laydle. A druid and priest have a heal for every occaision, and it is great to have such depth in choice for healing. This little pally is very different! The challenge is how to heal with only two heals, and a couple of "oh sh#!" buttons. The healing is very easy on a pally and I am enjoying this new challenge.

In addition to healing topics, I am addicted to addons and gadgets. Being a healer, I have some very strong opinions on which tools I like for raiding. Being an officer of a raiding guild, I have a list of tools that I find useful for our weekly raids. I'll also be touching on some guild/raid management issues as I need to vent things!