Looking for me? Or really looking for Holy Paladin MoP info?

You may think that I have run off to the mountains to do shitty stunts like, I dunno, a 22km hike in the pouring rain and spending the next 48 hours trying to get my body temperature back up. And then go climb another mountain 2 days later.

And take horseback riding lessons for 2 hours. And jump headfirst into Bikram Yoga again.

You may be right.

(My poor knee is so mad at me right now. It confined me to my living room, where the lack of physical exertion is slow causing me to lose my mind. If it doesn’t hurry up and heal, I suspect the search and rescue party will find me in my apartment all rabid and drooling like a crazed caged animal.)

It’s all because of things like this:

I mean, really, how can you resist that?

But! I haven’t been totally absent.

Summer Podcast Funsies!

While Oestrus and I wrapped up the Double O Podcast, you can still hear my delicious (and by delicious, I mean, squeaky and off-key) voice at a few places.

I guested on the 5 WoW Things podcast back in June.

It was a blast. I remember how nervous I got before podcasts a few years ago. I still get nervous, but instead of the old “OMG I AM GOING TO DIE FROM NERVES“, I get a feeling of “OMG I CANNOT CONTAIN THIS EXCITEMENT!” Now, while I was probably the pottiest mouth to ever get through pharmacy school, compared to most of the world, I am an extremely polite, mild mannered lady. Which makes me sound a little weird on rowdier podcasts. But I love it. When I manage to throw off the shackles of a lifetime of high pressure, I have so much fun. BGO and Jan wasted no time with the unshackling and I think the end result was pretty good. And by pretty good, I mean most excellent.

Then O and I were guests on the Grand Old Podcast in July.

I am thrilled with Sayomara’s executive decision to put my name first in the title. I don’t get to have my name first in titles very often, so I just had to point it out.

For those of you who frequently scold me for not talking enough when O and I record together, I think you will be happy with my performance. Sayomara was an absolutely brilliant host, asking all the right questions to bring out the differences in O’s and my personalities and spark some heated discussions. A lot of the topics that came up stayed in my head for days, and will probably find themselves into blog posts, should I ever come down from the mountains long enough to write regularly again. It made for a fantastic and enjoyable (in my not-so-humble opinion) show, and if you’re curious at all as to what an in-depth confrontation between an extrovert (Oestrus) blogger and an introvert (myself) blogger sounds like, you will be most satisfied.

And the future in all this?

The game is not over, not over at all!

This Saturday, Megacode is hosting a holy paladin roundtable with the most excellent paladins Kurn, JoeEgo and Chase Christian.

Your humble servant will also be there (which means I’ve got about less than 2 days to finish studying for MoP! I’ve been working hard, though, so I think I’ll do ok!) so she can be reminded how wonderful it feels to talk about paladins again. I don’t think we’ll be recording live, but I’ll be sure to post a link once the show is available.

Because many have asked (it blows my mind that anyone cares, but I am definitely flattered), I will be raiding in MoP and I will be playing my holy paladin.

Rykga’s been getting a break over the summer, but within the next few weeks, she’ll be attending training camp for MoP. And by training camp, I mean the Beta, and hopefully some Dragon Soul runs in 5.0.

My interest in WoW had indeed wavered a lot in the spring and I’ve been really enjoying the past few months of indulging in single player games. It’s not WoW’s fault. I’m not a nerdrager, never have been, never will be. It was really a combination of the exhaustion following several years of booking 2 to 5 nights a week off to raids and my real life suddenly becoming extremely enjoyable.

After my guild killed Madness on Heroic and started to talk about expansion plans, I knew I was coming back. But my decision wasn’t based on WoW, but rather on having found a guild I adored. I felt like there was so much more I could experience with these guys and gals and I couldn’t just waste this opportunity.

I think that is good news, but the even better news is that, lately, I’ve been finding myself missing my guildies and raids (most of us have been on hiatus for a couple of weeks). I downloaded the Beta (which took almost a week, stupid thing) and logged in. To my greatest surprise, deep inside me somewhere (gut nerve endings are so vague, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact location of these feelings) I felt some excitement.

I started reading about MoP. I’ve got a few of my own MoP posts in the early drafting stages.

Good times, I think, are on the horizon.

“But…I don’t want to wait for new posts, where can I read about MoP and holy paladins NAO?“

Elitis Jerks has been oddly quiet about holy paladins, but Plus Heal has a few discussions going.

Ruthra and Megacode have been writing about the Beta for some time. The Crimson Hammer has an interesting post on the interaction of Druid Symbiosis and Paladins.

And if you’re looking for a must-read with some solid stats information, JoeEgo did an excellent writeup on mana and mana regen in MoP.

I’ve been doing my best to keep an eye out for relevant holy pally information for MoP, but I probably miss quite a bit (you silly, shy bloggers and your fear of self promotion!), so feel free to point me where I haven’t looked and I’ll gladly update this post.

Looking into my Crystal Ball

The past week I’ve had my mind filled with plans and projects. So instead of writing a sophisticated, thoughtful post, I’m going to ramble nervously.

Podcast Hype

Had it just been me, I probably would have kept the Good News a secret until the very last minute (I love giving surprises), but Oestrus has been promoting our little project for some time now and has been getting the Twitterverse pumped at the thought of hearing us talk to each other for an hour.

Well, I guess there is something to it. After all, we’re both fearless (her moreso than me, but I’m easily influenced), in-your-face and no nonsense. And I’d like to think we have a good sense of humour too.

I’m really excited about the project and if all goes according to plan, we should be doing our first recording around this time next week. We’re both super new at this so no live shows yet, but I wouldn’t discount it in the future. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t edit out anything juicy.

I volunteered to take care of the production aspect of the podcast so I spent the past week experimenting with different sound editing software. I was taken by surprise. I wasn’t expecting to have so much fun playing with noises! I felt like I was 13 again, having just spent my saved up babysitting money to buy an electronic keyboard with midi output. Back then, I had big dreams of becoming a sound engineer and I spent a lot of my evenings trying to mix tracks with minimal cacophony. Trying and failing.. Let’s hope I’m better at it 13 years later.

Anyway, if you want to listen to two gutsy girls goof off and talk about WoW, you’ll love the Double O podcast.

Writing about Paladin Stuff

If not for the title, I don’t think any new readers would guess that this is a paladin blog. It’s just that when choosing between writing about a paladin cooldown and the impulse of the moment, the impulse of the moment always wins.

I did promise TopRosters a paladin-related guest post, though, so I do plan on making myself useful some time in the near future.

In-Game Plans

Since moving on from Conquest, I’ve been taking it easy in game so I can get through my clerkship without too much pain. TeamSport has been lovely and welcoming to the little drifter that I am. The culture shock was tough at first – I’m not a 10 man raider and I’m not a casual player, but after nearly two months, I’m finding it easier to relax in raids. I laugh at jokes, I don’t mind if I screw up and I’ve even tanked a couple of times without any kind of shaking, sobbing or hyperventilating! I’m also finding myself getting attached to the team and I have to hold back to not throw myself headfirst into guild life.

At the same time, I’ve got my eyes open for after I move in July. I know it’s a long way off, but the thought of guild shopping again stresses me out. I don’t think I’ll rest easy until it happens. I’d like to stay on the server. Ner’zhul is a great place to be. I want to keep in touch with a number of people from TeamSport and Conquest and keeping transfers as the last resort is the easiest way.

But the list of 25 man progression guilds on Ner’zhul, like most other servers, is pretty short. The top guilds are crossed out on my list. Raiding 20 hours a week really isn’t my thing and, besides, their members are constantly making fools of themselves in Trade and PuGs. I can’t imagine having to put up with them in guild chat!

So that leaves two guilds. One is the guild I already left. Which brings the selection down to one guild. One single guild. I hope we’ll be compatible.

From my own observations and from what O’s reported, when guild searching, healers get pounced on like a piece of fresh meat. I hope that guild will be like a hungry tiger in a couple of months. My lack of gear, end boss kills and hard mode experience makes me somewhat less appealing. I’m less like a piece of fresh meat and more like festering roadkill.

Perhaps, during the two and half months between finishing clerkship and moving to Alberta, I can rent myself out to other raid teams on offnights and get some extra experience.

I know it’ll all work out in the end, but I’m anxious to see where and with whom I’ll be ending up. The suspense is eating up my insides like they’re a delicious rare steak.