Sorry it’s been a little while since I’ve made a new post on here.  Things have been a little crazy in my world.  I’m living in a temporary apartment in  a different city for my family medicine clerkship rotation for the month of November.  So I had to move this past weekend, get settled in, and I started working in a family medicine clinic this past Monday.  I also have other school requirements, a very difficult exam to study for, and a large project that I have to get started working on.  Needless to say, add in raiding and I’m a very busy person.

Unfortunately, idiocracy has still failed to kill ToGC 25-man Anub’arak as of yet.  It’s crazy how many little tiny things there are that have to be perfect in order to get to phase 3 and kill him.  The ice patches have to be positioned correctly, the adds have to be misdirected correctly, the interrupts have to be spot-on, phase 2 kiting has to be pro, dps have to aoe the adds and still hit anub, nobody can pull threat, BoPs have to be perfectly executed, the list goes on and on….  It’s not that our guild doesn’t know how to do all these things; the problem is that they all must occur simultaneously.  You cannot lose any person during phase 1 or 2; lose more than 1 or 2 during phase 3 and it’s over.  And I haven’t even mentioned healing in phase 3 yet.

As this post is titled…kiting is hard!  Now, I do say that with just a hint of sarcasm.  Now everybody knows that the spikes follow you when you get targeted, but unlike your character, the spikes can’t make those hairpin turns and they tend to take the shortest path to follow you.  That means….you have to make wide turns.  You have no idea how many times we’ve had ice patches used up early because someone either wasn’t paying attention or didn’t understand that they had to make a very wide turn in order to prevent the spikes hitting the patch prematurely.

Another issue that we have had, which has since been mostly resolved, is healer threat.  Yikes, I know, those adds wanted to pound my face in the dirt….and they were successful many times.  So, the healers in our guild had to modify some of our specialized healing talent specs in order to pick up those healing threat reduction talents.  Previously, in my post Anub’arak – Bane of my existence, I linked my previous healing spec for anub.  Here is a new link for my current build.  What I decided was that basically, I do not use nourish during the fight and I only keep up a regrowth on the tank for it’s HoT portion.  Therefore, I dropped my points from nature’s bounty so I could fill out subtlety and natural perfection (yea for 3% crit!).

Another issue I’ve been ruminating on is mana regen for phase 3.  My innervate has basically got a paladin’s name on it for phase 3 because our two paladin’s are spamming the tanks during that phase.  Therefore, I know that I have to rely on my own mana regen and intellect to get me through that phase.  In addition, I know that I cannot use a mana potion because at 15% the entire raid pops mighty frost protection potions.  So I’ve been contemplating using either Flasks of Pure Mojo or perhaps a different kind of food, maybe Spicy Fried Herring.  Cause frankly, I’m finding that we’re getting to 10-15% on Anub’arak, and I’m basically oom or getting dangerously close.  There are very rare occasions in which I’m willing to trade spellpower for mana regen.  However, I believe all that is necessary for a resto druid during phase 3 is to be able to throw out a 0.6-0.7 sec 6-7k heals on a target with penetrating cold and the mana regen to last the entire phase.

Anyway, my guess is we will try some more attempts on Anub’arak tonight.  Wish us luck, I’d love to get A Tribute to Skill (25-man).

Fîrewood

There are kite surfing kites for every stage of the sport. Because this sport becomes more and more popular, the kites get more and more advanced technologically  features on a kite cause certain consequences. For example, a thin forward edge is indicative of a kite that reacts rapidly to the controls. This can be fantastic for an experienced kite surfer and disastrous for a beginner.

There are kites that are made particularly to be very nimble and fast in order to admit the surfer to practice all sorts of intricate tricks and maneuvers, while there are other kites that are designed to respond very slowly and in a more stable manner. These surfingkites are fantastic for the beginner and will help to hold him or her mostly out of trouble while they learn the ‘ropes’.

If you are looking into getting into this wet and wild sport, you’ll want to be in very good physical shape as it needs a good amount of physical strength and endurance in order to successfully control a large kite in the wind.

You’ll want to talk to enthusiasts that are already enjoying this exciting sport, get tips and suggestions,  acknowledge from them and find out what you need to know in order to set you up to purchase the exact right kite for your skill level, physical endurance level and desires.

This is a short guide to help people get started raiding. Much of the advice is not class specific, however it was inspired by an email I got from a fresh level 80 hunter, who had never grouped for an instance.

Depending on the activity of your server (and your guild, and your playtime), you may get to level 80 with a minimum of instancing, and never learn the basics. This can hinder you if you want to raid in the end game.

Agro

• NPCs (like raid bosses) keep track of who they see as the largest threat, and they will almost always attack whoever is highest on threat. They track this by keeping a “threat table”, and every time someone does damage to them, they add threat to their entry on this table.
• Healing someone on this table also adds threat to the healer.
• Tanks are a special type of class that are good at both generating more threat than their group mates, as well as being able to survive the punishment these bosses can mete out. Most tanks can “taunt”, which puts them automatically to the top of the threat table, however this can be resisted, and has reduced effectiveness as it’s used more often on the same target.
• Many classes (especially hunters) have abilities that reduce their threat. Hunters can feign death, which takes them right off the threat table.
• “Pulling agro” means doing so much of whatever you do that the boss decides you’re a bigger threat than the tank, and decides to eat you instead.
• There are typically very few tanks in a group, however the loss of a single one will often result in a wipe, unless cooldowns are used to recover.

Healing

• As the tank (and other members of the group) take damage, a healer can keep them alive by casting heals on them.
• This causes threat, however many healing classes can mitigate their threat with abilities.
• Healers are almost universally very squishy, and will die if hit by the boss.
• There are less healers than damage dealing classes in a typical raid group, however they are equally important, so the loss of any one healer is much more likely to cause a wipe than the loss of a damage dealer.

Damage Dealing

• Often called “DPS” (damage per second). You can refer to, for example, a hunter as a “DPSer”.
• The goal of all PvE raid groups is to kill a boss (or group of bosses) as quickly as possible. These days, most bosses have an “enrage timer”, which when expires, causes the boss to enrage and become many times as powerful as he was to start with.
• The goal of all DPS players is to do as much damage as they can.
• A dead DPSer does no damage, so if there is an aspect of the fight (like a fire or void zone on the ground, or a direction from which the boss can not be safely attacked) that can kill DPS players without requiring them to pull agro, they must carefully avoid it.
• Of all the people in a raid, a DPSer is generally the most expendable.

Crowd Control

• For raiding, don’t worry about it.
• It’s an obsolete tactic by which some of the raid’s targets would be rendered harmless temporarily while the raid focused on another target.
• These days, we tend to use area of effect damage instead of crowd control, other than for a few fights.

. . .

Now that you know the overall dynamics of raiding, let’s talk about how to be a good DPS player, and some of our goals.

Goal: do not pull agro.

• Accomplish this by knowing how much threat you have built up on a boss, and making sure you never pass the tank.
• The default blizzard interface will flash your screen red around the edges if you pull, and will display a small percentage number above the target’s frame telling you what percent of the tank’s threat you have.
• If you are at range, you have more leeway, however if you stray into melee range, you will need less agro to pull off the tank. The percentage number will update based on distance.
• There is also an addon called omen that will show you everyone’s threat.

Goal: survive the encounter, and continue doing your job the whole time.

• Before you do an encounter, know it’s mechanics. If it has avoidable damage, be aware of it.
• Install an addon like scrolling combat text, and configure it so that it’s obvious when you are taking avoidable damage.
• Have cooldowns available if survival is in question. If the healers are busy keeping the tank alive through a spike in damage, it can help for you to have a health potion off cooldown if you make a mistake. As you get better, you’ll make less mistakes, and you’ll be able to use that potion cooldown to replenish your ability to do DPS, or to temporarily increase your DPS.

Goal: be able to focus fire.

• If an encounter has a mechanic that makes it important to all attack the same target, get good at paying attention and attacking the right target.
• You can use the default blizzard raid framed- shift click on a name from the raid tab, and drag a person onto your main screen. Right click, and check “show target”. If you set another DPS player (or a tank, or the main assist player) up this way, you will be able to target their target very easily by simply clicking it.
• You can also use the game’s “focus” feature. If you set a tank or main assist player as your focus and have configured your user interface to show you their target, you can click on a focus’s target (as above), or even create macros that will target your focus’s target with abilities. This allows you to have one thing targeted, but use your abilities on another target. Google “focus macros” for more details.
• Learn to remember kill orders. If your raid leader marks things with a raid marking, and then says “kill skull then X”, don’t rely on seeing who other raiders are targeting, just switch to the next target. You can also, optionally, download an addon called Magic Targets. This will let you see all the marked targets. It also shows you who is attacking which targets.

Goal: be able to do your main job and remain aware of your surroundings.

• As a DPS player, you will have a priority list of shots, or possibly a rotation, and will be watching for procs, cooldowns, and who knows what else.
• You can not afford to be staring at your ability buff bars if it will cost you awareness of what’s happening around you.
• Consider filtering your available data and moving the important parts to an area of the screen that will allow you to keep an eye on your surroundings, team mates, and opponents. I use a bar mod called bartender, which I’ve configured to show me my abilities while in combat around my character as a heads up display. I also have power auras set up to show me a heads up warning when I need to be aware of things (like the presence of a proc, or the fact that I’m out of mana)
• [edit: thanks Eidotrope] Install deadly boss mods. It’s not optional, and gives you invaluable insight into the mechanics of a fight. Here’s a good guide on how to use it.
• [edit: thanks Darkbrew] Read this post on raid awareness.

Goal: put the raid’s well-being ahead of your own.

• If a tank dies and the boss heads for a healer, try to sacrifice yourself to buy the healer some time. They might just be able to pull off a miracle, preventing a total wipe.
• If you have the ability to bring a buff to the whole raid (or you group) that would bring more utility overall than what you sacrifice for it, do so. For example- hunters tend to pick one person and have them spec for improved hunter’s mark, which increases all hunter DPS at the cost of a little DPS from one player.
• Learn how to do the advanced skills of your class, in case they are ever needed. Many DPS classes can, for example, kite, which means holding the attention of something and prevent it from killing you.

That’s my guide to raiding 101. I think I covered the bases, but if you guys can think of anything obvious that I missed, just leave me a note.

Today we went to Velsen Noord. It was pretty wind, but for some reason not that many kiters and surfers. But I took some pics and with a higher shutterspeed (2000) than previous times I was happy with the result

Besides action in the sea there was a lot more action on the beach. Really don’t know what the name of the sports is. But i like those beach surfers (kart).

Tommorow  I will go to the Amsterdam Marathon.

my sportcollection

A dutch guy I discovered lately, thanks to Flickr and Twitter. Find his sites here and here.  You can find lots of information on his sites about sports photography. I really like his kite pictures.

We played golf.

Not very well.

Then some kiting…

Golf Photo Album (Picasa)

Kiting Photo Album (Picasa)

Dagens næringsliv setter i lørdagens utgave fokus på nye friluftsaktiviteter og begrensinger de blir pålagt i verneområder. Overskriften er tendensiøs: “forbrytelsen” med to glade gutter på sykkel i Rondane Nasjonalpark. Artikkelen maler et svart/hvitt bilde som gjør det umulig å forstå hvorfor stivbeinte miljøbyråkrater forbyr sunne aktiviteter i fjell og hav. Det er klart at disse sporty karene representerer en oversett offergruppe i Norge siden DN kan bruke 10 sider av lørdagsutgaven på deres sak. I hvert fall viser det at mange av DNs lesere er i målgruppen. Forståelsen for naturvern er fraværende. For eksempel utaler en av syklistene: “Jeg har hatt hytte her i 30 år og knapt sett et reinsdyr” Mange vil si at dette bare bekrefter det overvåkinga av villrein har vist i mange år: reinen liker ikke hyttefelt og veier! Slike anlegg gjør reinens leveområde mindre!

Utøverne av de friske sportsgrener som får komme til ordet i DN har rett i en ting: Den norske kulturen opphøyer tradisjonelt friluftsliv. Men det er ikke riktig at nye grener mangler sympati blant saksbehandlerne. Mange naturvitere liker moderne former for friluftsliv. Dette skal jo imidlertid ikke påvirke saksbehandlingen verken i den ene eller andre retningen. Det er heller ikke en menneskerett å sykle, surfe, kite hvor du vil. Naturligvis brukes argumentet; ” hva med andre grupper? båttrafikk, forsvaret, etc”. Det viser jo effekten av presedens. Neste gruppe vil sikkert spørre “jammen sykelistene fikk jo lov?” Slik vil vernet uthules, sikkert med gode argumenter hele veien.

Noen områder er vernet – som regel med god grunn. Det stilles strenge krav før samfunnet går inn og lovregulerer slike strenge begrensinger på privat råderett.  Da er det ikke vernemyndighetene som skal forsvare vernet hver gang det kommer en dispensasjonssøknad. Dette har mange vanskelig for å forstå, spesielt de ressurssterke som er vant til å få det som de vil.  Hvis man nå kan bevise at aktiviteten ikke forstyrrer – skal man da ha en rett til å få tillatelse? nærmest automatisk? Hvilke krav stilles til slik bevisførsel?  Ikke uten grunn er dette ikke tatt med i vernebestemmelsene. Politikerne som vedtok vernet ønsket nettopp det; vern. Adgangen til dispensasjoner bør begrenses til det absolutt nødvendige. Moderne friluftsliv er sunt, men ikke livsnødvendig.

Direktøren ved fylkesmannens miljøvernavdeling i Vest-Agder kommer med et viktig poeng; revisjon av verneplaner. Her kan man komme med innspill til aktiviteter og skjøtselstiltak. Noe bør kunne tillates når skadevirkningene er fraværende. Da har alle anledning til å fremme sine synspunkter. Samtidig bør man ha respekt for at vern representerer et kraftig signal om prioritering av rettigheter – til fordel for arter og deres leveområder.

Mange glemmer at byråkrati er resultatet av politiske beslutninger. Politikerne skal ta helhetshensyn og forventer det samme av spesialistene i forvaltningen som skal håndheve reglene. Verneområdene er under press fra mange interesser; friluftsliv av forskjellig art, utbygginger, transport til vanns, i lufta og på land. Hvor skal grensen gå? – Som regel ved starten av verneområdet.

Kiting is an esential part to becoming a succesful Mage. You need to be able to kite in order to stay alive if mobs get too close. So you may be asking “What is kiting?” Kiting is essantialy running from the mob once they get close to you. Upon hitting 20, kiting becomes very easy. If you are specced fire, you should be pulling with a pyro blast then firebolting the mob until they get to you. This is where kiting comes into play. Now you are going to frost nova and spin the camera around and blink away. Get another pyroblast going and by the time that is off, the mob will have broken the ice and be running towards you. Fire blast them and hopefully they should be dead before thy reach you. If you are fighting a mob higher level then you or an elite/quest mob, this all will change. Start with a pyro blast as usual but immediatly throw out a frost bolt after the pyro blast is finished. You may need to frostnova and blink several times to take them out. You might also consider using evocation if you run out of mana. My next post will deal with talent specs and such. Until then, go out and practice some kiting. Farewell!

As my first post I would like to cover the first 20 levels of the Mage. I call these levels the “tutorial” levels. Playing is fairly easy through here. Your rotation will be quite simple on most mob, firebolt. Start with a frostbolt then just firebolt them down. Monsters should usually die before they get to you. If they do get to you, throw out a fireblast then frost nova, back up again and fire bolt. This is called kiting. My next post will talk more about kiting and the different techniques.

I have now passed the stage where a good kite session is more fun than a bad surf session.  Specifically, kiting in good conditions is more fun than surfing in bad.  This is primarily due to my kiting ability improving to where the primary goals of “not injuring myself or others” and having “no dramas” have become more givens and less goals.

I would go so far as to say that I’ll miss kiting when the season is over.  Fortunately, this longing will be quickly addressed compensated by the onset of the surfing season.  Without kiting, I would normally be jonesing hard at this time of year for surf, but now, I’m very content for the windy summer days to continue.  When the Fall waves start showing up out of the Northwest, that’ll just warrant a pleasant change in wetsuits.

Officially now laid off from work, no more transitions, no more training, finally some adventure and relaxation…We were gifted a trip to the DR with a free place to stay (thank goodness for the generous!) We visited Cabarete a kite surfing community new and up and coming in the DR on the North East coastline….WOW! Miles of beaches, gentle winds, sunny skies (a definite difference from our New England summer thus far!)  We had a wonderful time and are both happy to be rejuvenated as land back home as well as wishing we could have stayed longer.

Cabarete is beginning to become a resort town and destination.  It’s known for its wonderful wind that calls to an abundance of pro windsurfers as well as kiters (=us). We had a wonderful time crossing language barriers, exploring local sweet spots, including caves and secret beaches as well as taking in all the flavor of this part of the DR. If we ever get back there it will not be the same, I guarantee! A precious little jewel that will soon be overcome with resorts and tourists bartering for chach-keys. There is so much local flavor, so much immersion in the culture and people who live there. Hopefully all the building and influx of  money with tourism will bring a rebirth within the community that is striving to make a change.

Check out a DR government run program to help out- http://www.dominicandream.org/

Last night I turned on the TV for the first time in since we’ve been back. Dateline or Primetime (one of those news shows) happened to be on. It was that last 15 minutes or so of programming and it happened to be about the musician Wyclef Jean. He is originally from Hati (the country separated by a mountain range next to the DR). As I watched the program after being so close to that culture I felt even  more so aware of the issues that the people are face with. Wyclef Jean recognizes where he came from can change and grow, he has developed programs and funds to help reach out to his community, it was amazing to watch the impact he has made. He spoke so eloquently. This is definately his destiny and it was amazing to witness. I highly recomend checking him out…i hope we can all make an impact in the world we live for such positive change.