Day 20 – If This Was Your Last Day Playing WoW, What Would You Do?

Easiest question in history.  I would cause alliance to "experience an accident" on my enhance shaman.  Shooting people in the face with lighting bolts never gets old.  Would truly be a way to go out with a "Bang!"  I wouldn't give my stuff away or say goodbyes.  I would simply fade into tomorrow with the wind not looking back to see where my wreckage lay.

Day 19 – In Your Bags/Bank

We'll start with a picture of my inventory and bank.

Pretty basic... I don't sort my equipment sets anymore thanks to the in game gear profiles.  I do still sort my enchanting mats, food, potions, flavor items, and engineering mats & toys.  I could go through and manual force things to sort that for some reason don't pick up. Namely sandbox tigers and frost grenades but yeah.

I'm not looking forward to providing a place for old keys after 4.2 but such is WoW.

Day 18 – Your Favorite Outfit

My favorite outfit(s) are any of the ones provided by various illusion buffs.  Such as the Zandalari medal, the blood elf one, or the deviate delight ones.  I've never been one to collect fishing clothes or older sets of gear but if I had to any of the pre Tier 9 priest sets are equally awesome.  From Tier 9 till now they all look pretty crappy imo.

Day 17 - Your Favorite Spot (In Game or Out)

In game my favorite spot anywhere/anytime I hit that perfect rotation of damage applied to all the targets of the encounter at 98% or higher uptime on 3+ mobs.  Dunno if that makes sense to anyone but there are just those certain times when you are "in the zone" where everything goes off with precision.

Outside of the game I enjoy anywhere with my wife.  Especially when we are at a concert or movie together.

Day 16 - Things You Miss (Post Cataclysm)

Well I just noticed that the last few days of blogs that I posted didn't actually post so I will try to repeat these as best as I remember.

First of all I miss the healing of vampiric embrace.  I know every class had their self healing nerfed for the nature of Cataclysm gear and stats but it has went from cushion group healing to negligible healing.

Second I miss being able to cure disease in shadow form and now being able to cure anyone else but myself.

The most recent change I'm going to miss is our power of multi dotting if the most recent ptr changes go through on our damage. Still unclear on this as plague can't be multi dotted but as usual shadow dps is cyclical.

Day 15 - Your Dekstop Background (On Your Computer) and Why You Chose It

This is my current desktop.  Not much to see here.  Another widescreen display from digital blasphemy.  I choose displays from this site to promote the creators art and I enjoy every one he has made. I'd like to setup some kind of display mod like JM uses but currently I'm just too lazy.  I have always been a fan very minimal things on the desktop.  One of my biggest peeves are peoples' computers with 300 icons on it.

Day 14 - This Upsets You

#1 Paying For Something That Doesn't/Won't Work

Nothing exists that makes me more mad than feeling like money is wasted because the thing won't work.  It doesn't matter what it is.  This is also one of the few things that can cause me to loose my temper.  Ask my wife (sorry Mel!)  This usually applies to computer related things or equipment that I have to use around the house - mowers, weed trimmers etc.

#2 People That Are Just Plain Stupid

What can I say?  There's no pill for this, but I can only handle so much of people being stupid or just not caring.  Sample drivers at work, people in public, or people in MMOs it doesn't matter.

#3  85lb white boy in a three+ colored because he wastes his money on crap plastic pieces instead of painting the ones he has with a muffler so big and wrong that he had to cut the rear bumper and already crappy plastic add-a-rice with a hack saw to make it fit driving a Dodge Neon or Chevy Cavalier.  Just stop.

Day 13 - People (players/bloggers) That You Admire

First off I admire each of my 10man raiding team.  If I wasn't confident that they were not the best at their particular role I wouldn't want to be there.  There are a few others that stand out from my gaming career.  From EQ there was Hile, Saloorn, Tigole, Sinnah, Zanira, and Maht. My entire company (guild) in Planetside.  "Take out the spawn tubes!!" 

I'm having a memory lapse this morning but I know there are a few others from EQ2 and a couple other stragglers but I can't recall them this morning.

As far as bloggers - I only know a few and those that I enjoy have a direct link here.  So make of that what you will.

Day 12 - A Usual Day In Your Life/Online Time

I wake up 6-6:30 and am gone by 7:00.
Drive 37 miles to work at an environmental lab
Leave at 4:30 and drive home.
Feed the cats, clean on the house a bit, get a shower.
Do some things with the wife.
Go through previous nights logs for a 2nd time.
Raid time at 8:00-11:30
Post logs and examine for what I can do better next time/where I failed.

This is a "normal" day.  That's why I try to get in anything to break the cycle on the weekends and sometimes the week.  Hopefully usually it's something that I checked for raid conflicts first (sorry guys!)  My wife and I enjoy music greatly so we frequent any concert we can.  When there is something good playing we will catch a matinee on the weekends.

Day 11 - Bad Habits & Flaws

I am somewhat of a neat freak at times.  Or rather I should say very obsessive about things being just the way I want them.  Very detail oriented.  This may be partly because of my career as an analytical chemist.  It's surprising if I click the "restack" option on arkinventory less than five times an hour.  I have extremely little patience for stupidity and when things I pay for don't work the way they should or at all.  I can be absent minded or forgetful often especially if my complete attention was not on the topic at the time of occurrence.

If it's not obvious from my posts I am also a poor writer as English and composition were never my thing.  People tell me I can be overly critical, joke too often, and complain but I consider these to be good things.

Day 10 - Blog/Website Favorites

Shadowpriest.com is the quintessential site for shadow dps and theory crafting as Elitist Jerks is very lacking in the shadow department.  Still I do ready and study through the forums at EJ.  I regularly checkMMOChampion for ptr info on my iphone. Mr. Robotis a nice site for gear & reforging suggestions.

I enjoy reading each of my guild mates blogs and their diversity of topics and style.  I know if I want a good laugh I go to see what wombcrusher is up to.  For general info and paladin things I can visit wrath of the lightbringer or divineplea.

Outside of WoW I am a member of Digital Blasphemy which is a website for a graphical artist.  Woot is excellent for creative tshirts.  I also frequent Ninjai and various shopping websites.

Day 9 - Your First Blog Post

No surprises here.  My first blog post was Day 1 of the 20 day challenge.  On this day I also announced the start of this blog and what my intentions were.  With the exception of yesterday when Blogger was down I have yet to miss a day.

Day 8 - 10 Things We Don't Know About You

Some how I will struggle through these and come up with 10 notable post worthy facts.

1.  I was once married to a demon or the daughter of the devil, whichever strikes your fancy.

2.  In high school I unknowingly drove the vehicle in a drive by.

3.  When I was born doctors told my parents I would never walk.

4.  In college I once played guitar with Chris Thile not knowing who he was.

5.  For my 21st birthday I turned down front row seats to Eric Clapton because I didn't want to go by myself.

6. In high school I was hit by a slab of blacktop from a moving car going 60mph.  It crushed part of my chest and I believe I suffered a broken rib.  I never went to the doctor or told my parents because I was partaking in questionable activities.  To this day I think they still don't know.

7. My first car was a total death trap.  The passenger wiper didn't work.  The electrical wiring was bad in it and the lights would go out at random while driving home from work at night.  The pin holding the steering wheel column to the front in once fell out and I couldn't turn the wheels. I had to keep a walmart 1 gallon ice cream bucket under the passenger side dash to catch water when it rained.

8.  The above mentioned car while in dire need of restoration saved my life in a wreck where I drove into an embankment, bounced and flipped the car onto the roof over my head.  Had I not ducked and been in an older built car I would not be here today.

9.  I'm extremely detailed oriented.  In WoW if arkinventory didn't have the "restack" and "refresh" buttons my head would probably explode.  I have to hit these each time I hearth. This spills over into my work and how I can't clean at all without cleaning completely or everything in sight.

10.  I was nearly arrested at 17 for insulting an officer that I had worked with previously at Arby's because I knew he was dishonorably discharged from the army and was fired from Arby's for "internal theft."  How did that one get through the background check?

New Legendary Stick

As I'm sure everyone is aware the new legendary for the Cataclysm expansion has been named and it is an offensive based staff.  Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest

The blue posts have stated that it would have an offensive based proc. This left me wondering what could it be?  Hopefully not another mastery joke but I would hardly define that as offensive since I know at least holy priests benefit nicely from mastery. 

Of course for shadow priests stat priority is roughly Int > Haste > Crit >= Mastery, Hit.  Before I'm flamed I am aware that crit is slightly better than mastery and both better than hit, but these values also vary with your overall item level. For more information seek out Shadowpriest.com.

I am sure the current information released on shadow T12 2-piece / 4-piece bonus will undoubtedly change five times or more before 4.2 is released.  As it stands the 2 piece bonus is fairy huge in my opinion coupled with Sin and Punishment.  I would even dare to say over powered.  One thing for sure is with the current 2-piece bonus of Tier 12 shadow priests should have no problem with mana as many heroic fights now give.

So to end this rant of futility I'm hoping for some type of massive buff to dots, haste or even crit for the offensive proc of Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest.

Day 7 - The Reason Behind Your Blog's Name

No real reason exists.  I simply was being lazy and looked through the shadow talent tree for something that appealed to me.  There were a few contenders but in the end I went with the only one that I didn't absolutely hate.  Hopefully as the blog fleshes out I will come up with a better or more appropriate name.  Then again Twisted Faith might just grow on me.

Day 6 - Your Workplace/Desk (Photo and/or Description)

In this picture you will find:

• My setup with a desktop from Digital Blasphemy
• A G13 game pad, G19 keyboard, Razer Naga
• A Warhammer 40k Novel - Let The Galaxy Burn
• The Wild Things by Dave Eggers
• Extra Strength 5 hour energy
• My raiding supply of orange Tic Tacs
• Large glass of unsweet tea required for raiding
• An old Gameboy Advance SP with both Metroids
• Some WoW TCG cards
• Guitar Pics
• Vitamins
• Various family photos and a painting by my wife.

Day 5 - Favorite item(s) in game

Goblin Fishing Pole
To this day this quest reward still makes me laugh hard.  The flavor of this item is so true to the nature of goblins of this game.

Tier 3 Warrior Armor
This still remains my favorite gear set of armor.  Not to mention I was an orc warrior at the time.  The shoulders just made it for me.

Savory Deviate Delight

These are the only way I got through tanking on a tauren death knight.   I hated their size and still do but the racial buff was the best at the time for tanking.

Day 4 - My Best WoW Memory(ies)

This is somewhat of a hard one.  I've never been part of a server first anything, I've never obtained a legendary on any toon, and I've never participated in an epic proportion limited time event unless you count the lame WoTLK and Cata ones.  So my favorite memories are somewhat random and probably special only to me.

My Warlock vs 3 Alliance in Desolace - Pre BC

I happened to be running through here I think gettin a better fishing pole or something when a pack of alliance decided to jump me.  Now it was early morning but somehow I responded quickly with a bomb to stun them (thx engineering.)  My lady went to work seducing the healer while I rolled my dots on the other two.  I was thankful I had just restocked on infernal stones because yeah, that's what they got.  Putting some distance between me and the pack I was quickly able to finish off them and the last one that my succubus had enthralled.

My warrior tanking in a dungeon crawl of Mauradon

I was with Iliana, Kyoti, and friend playing a priest I can't remember other than he often forgot he was healing.  So we were working our way up to the rock boss toppling lesser rock golems left and right.  My pseudo healer, JM (Iliana), and his wife (Kyoti) have the necessary mana so I pull.  Approximately 30 seconds in my warrior (Golrah) gets punted, clears the landing, the cliffs - 3 sets of them, and lands at the entrance quite dead.

First pvp as arms after obtaining my Lionheart Executioner

Iliana and I were guarding the Y between blacksmith and the mines in AB.  A gnome rogue sprints towards us. I charge and mortal strike.

Me: Where did he go?  Vanish?
Iliana (JM): Chris, you killed him.
Me:  Seriously?  1 shot? LOL.

Tomorrow: Favorite item(s) in game

Day 3 - My First Day Playing WoW

My very first day of WoW consisted of being forced to roll a char on the Emerald Dream server because Vonkaiser's was full.  Now my previous MMO experiences were all tank or characters that could tank so I made up my mind to try something different.

I noticed there was an intro video I could watch for the game
Intro Video

When the undead warlock's feet burned the grass I sat straight up in my chair.  As the picture panned up I knew my then what my roll would be.

Once Thunderlord was open I made my undead warlock.  Now he looked no where near as wtf bbq pwn as the video but this was to be assumed.  I ventured out of my crypt and after obtaining my tiny imp we went to work killing wolves and spiders.  My weak warlock grew up hard and fast on a pvp server until me and my seductress could waltz into 3 alliance and only one came out alive....well undead.

Tomorrow:  My best WoW memory.

Day 2 - Why I decided to Blog

Honestly I'm not really sure.  I do like the idea of the 20 day blog challenge.  I suppose being able to simply write whatever you want as it comes can be therapeutic after a long day at work.  I don't really expect to gain a huge following or hope for my blog to become some kind of movie like Julia on Julia.

I suppose it would just have to be the commitment to creating something that you're proud of that would be the reason more than anything.  Whether I can do this without simply being a road sign telling you to turn left to shadowpriest.com remains to be seen.

I look forward to tomorrow with a more enjoyable topic of my first day in WoW.

20 Days of Blogging Challenge

Day 1 - Introduce Yourself

Not a whole lot to say here.  I live in Kentucky with my wife.  Kentucky isn't one of my most favorite states but I've lived here all my life.

I've played games of one sort or another nearly as long. My first MMO was Ultima Online.  I would go visit my friends in college and lan party at their dorms until the early hours of morning.  A year after I graduated came the wonder that was Everquest.  I played this and various other games for years until one of my friends (JM) mentioned he was enjoying playing WoW.  Never being one to enjoy the RTS games I was very hesitant to try a whole world of Warcraft.  Luckily I did take the chance because I've enjoyed every minute of it since and met many great people.

Known as many while by few. I have been called Zeal, Genth, Reios, Tristessa, Golrah, Thanatesa, and finally taking another old name from my Planetside days Grievus - Shadow Priest.

Like I said before there's not a whole lot here but I am looking forward to writing my thoughts on these topics over the next 20 days.  I also plan to flesh out the blog site more to give anyone interested in shadow priests a place to find information should they not already have what they need.  Further sections to include things such as BiS lists, macros, useful addons, and what I do for individual encounters.