Friday, December 17, 2010

Time to Look at the Positive

I confess that Pollyanna has been sleeping lately.  I look at the drafts I have for blog posts, and most of them are complaining about one thing or another.  Operating on the old idea that you weep alone, but the world will smile with you if you smile, I'm going to take a different tack on this post.

I'm excited that I will be able to buy the recipe today for some Intellect food made from Deepsea Sagefish.  It's kind of a pain that this particular fish does not school, but it means that when I come home on lunch hours or something and just want to do a little fishing, I will not have to pay too much attention and can stream "Murder She Wrote" reruns off Netflix while I'm fishing.  (Seriously, I like "Murder She Wrote".)  It's also great that my guild master gave me a tackle box for Christmas, so the variety of fish I catch while fishing in open water is not a problem, either--it all goes straight into the tackle box, with no need to sort it out.  Kind of handy.

I finally purchased some Justice Points gear.  I made a sort of tactical error in being point-capped before the expansion started (although I could hardly avoid it, to be honest), and I was unable to spend them to any useful purchase before dinging 85.  So now I have a spiffy new chest and a nice new belt (one of the items I did not find a replacement for on my way up), and I have plenty of room to acrue Justice Points in my daily dungeons.  In addition to that, I can now run a daily dungeon guilt-free because of the Justice Point acquisition, instead of feeling I have to solely quest in order to raise my Guild rep.  And since I will be running level 85 dungeons, there is a ghost of a chance that some of my other guildies will want to run with me, thus completely eliminating any guilt about Guild rep.

I have discovered the delight of reforging.  So much of the gear I have received which have been reasonable upgrades have been loaded with mastery or crit.  (Or both.)  I now have the habit, when I equip a new piece of gear with such stats, to immediately head to the Reforger to get some of those less useful stats changed to Spirit or Haste.

Although I was not gaining Guild rep from the random dungeons I was running while leveling, I was able to gain a better understanding of how the Resto Druid heals now, which is probably more valuable for me at the moment.  Unfortunately, it's less about HoTs and more about direct healing . . . but hey, the HoTs are not completely unused, either.  And it's ALL about using mana efficiently.  (Blizzard ought to be happy.)  Rule number one is keep a Lifebloom running.  It's most useful on the tank, of course, but for the purposes of Lifebloom as a mana battery, it really doesn't matter who is carrying it.  Rule number two:  if the Lifebloom carrier is taking damage, cast Nourish or Healing Touch, as they will heal damage and refresh Lifebloom.  (If he isn't taking damage, just cast another Lifebloom--cheaper.)  Rejuvs can be used, but not liberally spread around.  Wild Growth can be used, when everyone has damage.  Regrowth is for emergencies or when Clearcasting procs.  And I'm not exactly sure right now when Tree form is optimally used, except in dire situations when everyone is taking damage quickly and the Druid has an almost full mana pool.  (Regrowths cost so much that tossing out a lot of instant-cast Regrowths chews through the mana like crazy.  It's more practical to toss out a bunch of Lifeblooms, in my opinion.)  It took me a while to get used to seeing people with half-full health bars and feeling all right about it, but I have learned.

There is a contest for Druids to make up holiday-themed, WoW-themed songs and submit them to The Moonkin Repository.  I have three bright ideas already, some better than others.  I will probably submit my favorite one, when my husband stops critiquing it . . . or maybe I'll just ignore his critiques and submit it, anyway.  I love writing silly things, I enjoy performing, and I like competition in these areas, so the contest is right up my alley.  I will probably not win, but the joy is in the creation.  And my favorite idea has already made several WoW players laugh, so it's already achieved the largest desired result, anyway.  (Ok, so the comment from my eldest daughter was something to the effect of, "Mom, it's so corny, it's funny!")

And I'm now in the process of helping some Dwarves get ready for a wedding . . . at least that quest chain seems to be funny, unlike the absolute torture of Vash'jir, which I have completely abandoned at this point.  I thought composing the song for the wedding was a hoot, and I can't help wondering what the song would have looked like if I had not chosen the "romantic" options . . . (I can probably find it if I do a little research.)

I'll be honest:  Christmas is a difficult time for me to be positive.  (Pressure to do everything "right", so many potentials to let people down, etc.)  New expansions are difficult for me to be positive.  (Not being able to level as quickly as those who can take time off and have few family responsibilities makes my leveling path very lonely and makes me feel marginalized.)  Having both happen simultaneously was a recipe for disaster.  But focusing on the good things helps to minimize the bad and brightens my attitude toward the situation in general.

Now I think I can face those two Christmas parties today with a smile on my face . . . (But I don't think I'll be fishing at lunch time today; I need to practice "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" on the piano for tonight.)

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