Kudos to my Fellow Druids!

For a very long time, I had been wearing the cloak off KT in Naxx 25. Yes, with the opening of ICC, this means I was wearing a piece of gear about 3 tiers down on my back. Now, don't get me wrong--it's a great cloak--but after Ulduar, I started looking to upgrade it.

The best cloak upgrades pre-ICC were in ToC25 Beasts and the Heroic version thereof. (I won't even list the tribute chest cloak, which was so far out of my reach it might as well have not been created.) Every time we downed Beasts, I'd hold my breath just a little and be disappointed when no cloak appeared. Once it finally showed up in Heroic, but another player was in line for it according to our loot system, and so I had to be satisfied with waiting a while longer.

When ICC came out, I did my customary search for gear and listed what I would hope to get. There was a reasonable cloak to be had for Frost Emblems, but it was equipped with crit, and I was hoping for haste, as was on the Beasts cloaks. But Saurfang (25) dropped a cloak with haste, and that ended up being the one I put on my wish list.

Last night, Saurfang dropped the cloak. The names of people interested started being listed . . . and I was ahead of them according to our loot list. At last! I would be able to upgrade my ancient cloak! But then one other player put his name in--Supremus, our beloved moonkin--and he was ahead of me. I sighed and ported back to Dalaran with the rest of the raid.

Over Druid chat, I commented that someday, I really would be able to upgrade my cloak. When Supremus saw which cloak I was wearing, he graciously spoke with the loot master and passed in my favor.

Alphadark, my companion in tree healing, was excited I had finally gotten my long-hoped-for cloak upgrade, and he volunteered enchanting mats and a gem to complete the set-up.

So with the help of my very good Druidic friends, the old cloak is now upgraded, and I am excited to help them get their upgrades. (Alphadark is hoping for the neck upgrade next . . .)

Thank you, guys!!

A Hasty Decision

With the changes to the Druid talent tree in 3.3, I've found myself chasing haste. Before, I didn't worry about it too much. If it was on my gear, well and good, but I found the amount I had to be sufficient with my Gift of the Earthmother talent to make my healing life fairly simple.

But with the changes to that talent, I suddenly found my Global Cool Down feeling very sluggish. I had to watch it spin, so I didn't click too soon and slow down my healing by having to click again because the first one didn't cast. I started eating haste food instead of spellpower food. But I still felt that everything was moving too slowly, almost like I was trying to force my way through mud or snow or Jell-o.

So I have caved in to the latest stop-gap trend in Restoration talent speccing: 18/0/53. I specc'd for Celestial Focus, dropping Living Seed.

I have to admit that it feels a lot more comfortable now. The GCD is spinning at what seems to be a more proper rate, and I am not finding myself becoming bogged down as I was before. I'm hoping to pick up some more haste gear along the way and when I get a few more pieces, I may be able to scale down my Balance Tree speccing and put more points into the Restoration tree again.

Sometimes when you finally give in and do what you have to do, it ends up being a lot less painful than you thought it would be.

To Tell or Not to Tell

Recently, a former raider from my guild applied to another guild. On the surface, this didn't seem like anything terribly disconcerting. He hadn't raided with us for a while, due to scheduling concerns, and he had apparently had some success in putting together PUGs, which is not a talent of mine.

To be honest, most of us in the raid wouldn't have wanted him back, even if he had applied to raid with us again, which is our normal policy for those who leave the raiding group and want to return. And if he had applied to any guild other than the one to which he applied, I would not have a single concern about it.

But the guild to which he applied is one which I respect greatly. The overall guild culture is congenial and decent, unlike several other guilds I could bring to mind. I've had nothing but positive experiences with the members there I have encountered in PUGs and so forth. And I don't want to see them have to deal with the troubles we had pertaining to this particular individual.

Part of me wants very much to whisper one of the guild leaders, to tell them the personality, skill, and integrity problems we had with this person. But I am not part of their guild, nor do I have any sort of relationship with the guild leaders. He going to their guild is not hurting mine. I have no foundation of credibility with that guild, and I think it would only serve to lessen me and my guild in the eyes of the other guild's leaders. And so I will keep silent, hoping that the leaders of that guild can read between the lines of his application and put two and two together.

I have usually followed the policy that people will reveal their true character if left to their own devices; they do not need any help from me. I think that this case is probably no different.

Postscript: It looks like the guild leaders really were able to read between the lines. This particular person remained unguilded for quite a while and has now apparently started his own guild.