About
I'm a dedicated WoW player who play several alts, but I focus mainly on my Warlock. Since I have a lot of characters, on this site it's easiest that I'm simply known as Saga.
I'm a raider, guild officer and altoholic who loves chasing after new mounts and pets.
This site is where I ramble about my adventures and thoughts as I continue playing WoW.
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Monthly Archives: November 2010
20 Days of… World of Warcraft Challenge – (Day 5)
Today’s Question: The Meaning Behind Your Main’s Name
My main is my warlock and her name is Démonique.
I’ve had a few people think it’s pronounced as the word “demonic”, which is not it at all. She is, in fact, named after my best friend’s daughter Dominique, and the pronounciation would be similar but with “demo” instead of “domi”.
There’s really not much more to the story/meaning behind my main’s name. Sure, in French it actually does mean demonic, and that’s obviously a plus in my book.
I love finding names for my characters, but the one for my warlock I guess in a way is the one least unusual. Saga is meant to be my priest’s name, but sadly it’s taken on every server since her first and her name has since been Idaea. In my mind she’s still Saga though and always will be.
What is your main’s name and what is the meaning behind it?
Posted in 20 days of...
11 Comments
20 Days of… World of Warcraft Challenge – (Day 4)
Day 4 Question: Favourite Emote and the Best Situation to use it in
Apart from the always loved /dance which can virtually be used in any situation my favourite emote is by far /kiss.
Now, do I run around like some overly loving fool and just throw kisses at people in Dalaran? Well, of course not. To me, it’s an insult. I especially like to use it on hordes who attacked me thinking I’d be an easy target, and subsequently died to my evil little hands.
Throwing them a /kiss as I leave their corpse on the ground behind me is the ultimate insult. It’s much better than /spit which a lot of PvPers seem to do. More sanitary too.
What about you guys? What’s your favourite emote and when would be the perfect time to use it?
Posted in 20 days of...
6 Comments
20 Days of… World of Warcraft Challenge – (Day 3)
Today’s question: Favourite NPC
I had to think about this one for quite some time, because quite honestly I’m not sure that I have a specific NPC that I could truly call my favourite. After some thinking I did think of one though that always touches a special place in my heart, and maybe you’ll consider it cheesy, but that NPC is Ahab Wheathoof.
Image from Wowhead
Through the years Blizzard has made a lot of memorial NPCs in WoW for various people, but Ahab Wheathoof (and Elder Ezra Wheathoof who was added later) was the first one I learned about, and it’s always struck a chord with me.
The quest giver and the quest itself were designed by a cancer sick boy (Ezra) who got a visit to the Blizzard Headquarters through the Make a Wish foundation, so it’s more than just a memorial NPC since he designed them himself. Elder Ezra Wheathoof was later added when the boy sadly passed away.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story and want to read it, you can do so here.
Even today, as I read through the articles about him again it makes my eyes prickle. It’s such a sad story, and I love how WoW has in its own way immortalised him.
If you can choose, what is your favourite NPC in WoW?
Posted in 20 days of...
6 Comments
20 Days of… World of Warcraft Challenge – (Day 2)
Day 2 Question: Favourite Race & Why?
Compared to when I first started playing the game many years ago my favourite race has changed. When I first started playing WoW I was horde and my favourite race to play was the Forsaken, and as I was switching to alliance I wasn’t very fond of any of their races (possibly because they had all ganked me so many times).
After having been alliance now for quite some time I’ve settled on a race that I keep coming back to and making my characters. I’ve tried playing other alliance races, but none of them feel as comfortable to me.
So, which race is this you may ask. Well, it’s human.
I know a lot of people find this the most boring race to play since WoW is a fantasy MMORPG and humans are by far the least fantastic creature in it. When I first switched to alliance I actually didn’t like humans much at all, I found them chunky and their faces plain. (Well, they weren’t rotting so I guess that by definition made them plain in comparison!)
Now I actually really like humans. Not all of their faces mind you, but quite a few of them are really pleasant when you get used to them (female ones, I stand by my original opinion that the male faces are horrible). I also like the human racials and the animations.
Whenever I make a new character and I want to decide on a race (if I try not to make it human) I will check the animations for melee/casting depending on the class I intend to be. I’ve tried being a gnome, dwarf, draenei and night elf – but I still prefer human. There have been times when I leveled a character to a certain level (anything from level 20-62 was the highest) and then deleted and recreated it human because I didn’t feel “right” being something else.
So, while I do have a few other races (1 gnome, 2 night elves, 1 undead, 1 tauren – who will soon be worgen) everything else is human. That may make me boring, but it’s what I’ve chosen as my favourite race.
What about yours? What is your favourite race in the game?
Posted in 20 days of...
8 Comments
20 Days of… World of Warcraft Challenge – (Day 1)
Since after my move I still don’t have internet at home (I’m sneakily posting from work during a break), I jumped at the “20 days of World of Warcraft”-Challenge that Ama posted about on Specced for Drama. This works out great for me since it gives me things to write about – even when not getting to play much WoW.
I talked to my ISP last week and they said I’ll get internet “within 21 days”. That was almost 7 days ago now, which means I still have up to 14 days to go. This makes me sad. And worried. Because as we all know Cataclysm is coming out in 14 days – and I can only hope that nothing happens to delay my internet. If I don’t have internet when Cataclysm launches I think I will cry. Or break something. Or both!
I’m sorry to everyone for not commenting on your posts as much as usual either, I do love reading through everyone’s blogs and at the moment I get very little time to do so. Gief internets now! I currently have 93 updated posts on my feedreader. *dies a little* I hope you’ll forgive me for not being as active currently. Hopefully I’ll soon have some internet again *crosses fingers*
Anyway, back to the subject. Day 1 of the Challenge poses the question:
Favourite Class and Why?
Now, I’ve played a lot of classes during my many years of WoW. In fact, I think I’ve played them all even though there’s a few I’ve not played at level 80. I’ve been a tank, a healer and a dps. I have two classes I keep coming back to though, the Priest and the Warlock. My priest hasn’t been my main since Karazhan days but I still love her and she’s always the second character that gets leveled to max level (so will also be the case in Cataclysm). However, when I think about it – my favourite would have to be the one that is my main character. And after spending a year as a tank, I’ve come full circle and I’m back to my good ol’ warlock in time for Cataclysm.
My warlock is special to me, and I guess you could argue if it’s the class that I love or the character. Démonique (whom you’ve met in the comics) has her own personality and background, and I love her to death. No character of mine has ever come to life as clearly as this particular warlock. And I don’t even role-play.
Now, what do I like about warlocks in general, and not Démonique in particular? Well, after having tried melee dps as well as caster dps I definitely favour ranged classes (I had a brief love story with my hunter and was for a bit considering making her my main for Cataclysm rather than the warlock), but in the end the warlock caster class appeals to me the most. They have demonic pets summoned from the Twisting Nether here to do their bidding (albeit reluctantly, I’m looking at you, Laznik!) and they can fight with either fire or shadow. There’s also a lot of utility in that you can provide your raid with healthstones, soulstones and summons.
I enjoy the versatility and choice that I can either be a bursty caster (destruction), or a master of demons (demonology) or run around putting up curses, banes and draining life/mana/souls. What else could you possibly want from a character?
I think the class you enjoy the most is very personal from person to person, and I’d like to know what others prefer. So, what is your favourite class and why?
Posted in 20 days of...
10 Comments
New UI
Since patch 4.0 broke my old UI I ended up doing a new one. I’m still sticking to my favourite style of having everything at the bottom except for buffs. I just like having everything in one place. I realise this is probably not the same for everyone, and I admittedly move my Grid to a move central position on the screen when I’m playing my alt healer.
Click for Full-Size 
Add-ons used:
Bartender
Btex
Sexymap
Buttonfacade
Shadowed Unit Frames
Quartz
Classtimers (okay, you don’t actually see it on this shot, but I use it for tracking DoTs)
OmniCC
Chatter
Satrina Buff Frames
Mik’s Scrolling Battle Text
TitanPanel
In addition to those that are for the UI itself I of course use “the usual stuff” like Recount, Deadly Boss Mods and Omen Threatmeter.
One little neat addon I’d like to recomment though is Obituary. It’s something I find highly useful in raids. What it does is print out the killing blow of people in your party/raid in your chatlog so that you can see it without having to go into Recount/Skada to find it. You may still need to do that sometimes when investigating further, but I find it’s really helpful to get an initial idea, and you can immediately tell if someone stood (and died) in fire.
Obituary showing a killing blow
Posted in UI/Addons
10 Comments
Five Points on What Makes a Raid Leader Great (Warlock Version)
My inner warlock couldn’t help but make her own list of what makes a good raid leader (after Alas asked for a post about it).
A great Raid Leader should:
- Tell the Mage to give the Warlock Focus Magic. They don’t want to? Make them!
- Allow the Warlock to Soul Stone herself (cause she’s the most important person in the raid).
- Make sure that the Warlock is summoned to the raid; not the other way around!
- Let the Warlock have the best position on boss fights so she doesn’t have to move, moving messes up her rotation and she doesn’t like this!
- Offer every piece of cloth loot and caster weapon to the Warlock first, if she declines the other casters may roll/bid.
These are the things that make a great Raid Leader!
If you could choose the perfect raid leader for your class, what would that Raid Leader do?
PS. Today is moving day (yay for scheduled posts!) – wish me luck and that there’s no snow storm like there was earlier in the week!
Posted in Funniez, Warlock
8 Comments
What It Takes To Be a Great Raid Leader
Some time ago Alas over at Kiss My Alas was bossing people around telling them what to write about for a post – for me, she asked me to write about five things that I think are important in a raid leader.
First of all, if you’ve been a raid leader you will already know this, but for those that aren’t – maybe you don’t realise but to be a good raid leader there’s a lot of time and energy going into it. It is not an easy job to manage 24 or even 9 other people. You have to not only keep track of your own dps/healing/tanking, but everyone else’s as well. Not to mention knowing the strategies for every boss, and figuring out what’s going wrong when the bosses aren’t dying.
Five important things to being a good raid leader (in no particular order):
1. PATIENCE
Your team will wipe. That’s just the way raiding works. So as the Raid Leader you have to have a lot of patience. When everyone else’s spirits are down from wiping for a full night – it’s your job to be the one to cheer them up, to coach them on and keep them going. Or know when to call it. Sometimes, it’s better to call it and come back another night refreshed.
What you definitely should NOT do is yell and rant and tell people they were horrible and how they sucked. What you SHOULD do is find the problem areas and address them in a calm manner and figure out what can be done to fix it for the next raid.
Yelling at people and telling them they’re bad players is not going to make them better players. Telling them what they can do to be better players will.
A good raid leader has enough patience to keep their calm during even the worst night of wiping. You can be angry, and annoyed – but you don’t start yelling and telling people they’re useless.
2. KNOWLEDGE
While you should expect every single one of your raiders to read up on boss abilities and know the gist of the fight it is your job to decide on which tactic to use. You have to do this for every single boss in the instance. A good raid leader can explain the boss tactics in an easy to understand way and give directions to the raiders.
However, it’s not only boss tactics that you have to know – but really you need to have at least a general understanding of pretty much every class in the game. As the raid leader you are the person who chooses which classes/specs you bring to the raid. You have to make sure that you bring the roles that you need and that can do the job.
If someone is failing at their job, you have to know to replace them with someone else. Either with someone already in the raid – but otherwise maybe even replace them with someone else. It’s a harsh thing to do, you might think – but in the end, you’re there to progress and it’s for the guild in general and not the failing player in particular.
Sometimes it may be as simple as just changing around the responsibilities between your current raiders in the group. If player X isn’t managing to keep the orbs off the floor on Blood Princes, maybe player Y can.
Know your raiders’ strenghts and weaknesses and make sure you have the right person for each job.
3. RESPECT
It’s important that the raiders in the guild respect their raid leader and listen to what they say. If they ignore you and go off to do whatever they want, you’re bound to wipe.
On the other hand, it’s also important for the raid leader to respect the raiders. It’s easy to forget that the players in your raid are people too. We’re all playing a game and we’re playing to have fun – not for someone to start yelling and telling us what a terrible player we are.
I am not saying that you can’t tell your raiders off when they do something wrong/stupid. But think of HOW you do it. Give constructive critisism, not just a bunch of curses and shouted namecalling.
A good raid leader is respected by his/her raiders – but respect them back as well.
4. DELEGATION & ORGANISATION
An important part of being a raid leader is knowing when to delegate and to organise raids in the best way possible. Put your raids up in the calendar well in advance, make sure you confirm people who sign up that get a raid spot, and put the others on stand-by. Make sure that everyone knows what the statuses mean.
During the raid depending on the role you play, it may be impossible for you to keep track of absolutely everything. That’s why delegating is an important part of being a raid leader.
If you have officers in the group, perhaps ask them to keep an eye out for things that go wrong as well – then it may be easier to pinpoint the reason you may be wiping on a boss.
It can also be helpful having a healing lead who will give healing assignments. That takes some work off of your plate – and unless you’re a healer yourself, they’re probably more likely to know who is better to heal what anyway.
Another option is to give the Master Looter to a trusted dps (perhaps another officer?) so that you as the raid leader can run forward to the trash before the next boss and keep the raid going rather than have downtime while everyone is standing around waiting for loot.
Knowing what and when to delegate is an important part of being a good raid leader.
5. CONSISTENCY (or being fair)
With risk of sounding like Supernanny – it’s important to be consistant. If you’re calling player X out on doing a mistake – you have to make sure that you call out player Y when he does the same mistake too. There’s no special treatment in raiding. You can’t have favourites. (Or at least you can’t be obvious about having favourites!)
You may want to decide beforehand if you’re going to call people out on mistakes in raid chat for everyone to see – or if you’re going to whisper them (at least the first time) to let them know and give them a chance to do better next time. Whatever you decide, make sure you do the same for everyone.
Every member of your raid has to feel that they are a valued member of your raid.
It’s also important to be consistent when it comes to who you invite to raids. Have clear, transparent rules on who gets invited. The rules may very well be “I’ll invite whoever I damn well please!” but at least everyone should be aware that those are the rules. If you give less invites to someone with less attendance, it needs to be the same for other people with less attendance too.
To summarise; a good raid leader is someone who encourages their raid members to do better, and gives them the tools and structure to do so.
What do you think makes a good raid leader?
Posted in Random Ramblings
8 Comments
Moving Time!
You may have noticed that there’s a distinct lack of writing lately, and for this I apologise. I’ve been very busy since on Saturday I’m moving to a new apartment. Since I (unfortunately) don’t have demonic minions to do my bidding in real life I’ve had to do all the packing and preparations myself.
I wish...
Hopefully things will be back to a more regular posting schedule after the move, though I’m a little bit frightened about the fact that I don’t have internet the moment I move in. However, I will still have access to internet at work during breaks and will try to get online to read the blogs I follow as much as I can until I have internet again.
I will not say good-bye, because I have every intention of being around as much as I possibly can – and between packing I’ve tried to prepare a few posts to go up even while I’m bus/without internet – so please stick around!
Posted in News
6 Comments
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