Vanity Plate

in the interest of disclosure, (but to keep the smoke down), I'm simply going to state that Chutes, Lucy, and Amp are no longer members of The Pod People. It was a difficult decision to make, but I arrived at the conclusion that my individual goals and the general direction I was heading wasn't one in the same with the guild.

That said, Echuta still hasn't settled into a guild and likely won't any time soon. Amp is right at home under the benevolent but strict reign of the Princess of Fire Mages in The Burn Clinic, and Lucy is mistress of her own domain. Before getting the tiger mount in ZG the other night, we've been joking that certain things we say on Vent just sound like they'd make perfect guild names. As a matter of fact, it's been a longstanding joke among all of us that we've had great guild names, but were always with TPP, so there was no interest in losing all of those benefits and community just for a clever guild name. All that said, though, you have to admit that there's some poetry and beauty to beating down somebody in the BGs and their friends tell everybody that dude got effed in the A by somebody from «Alcoholic Death Muppets»...

Circumstances are much different for many of us now, so given the chance to splurge on a boutique guild tag, I decided to go for it. Based on the unmitigated carnage that was handed out in that ZG run, the other night, I'd commented that Chad and Zach had pulled so many tigers that it was like "Siegfried and Roy's wet dream," when Thay looked at the broken tiger carcasses and asked, "What? Tiger porn snuff film?". That was a definite "Save That" name, but Ren astutely commented that there's little chance at getting away with "Porn" in your guild name. Dammit. The absence of numbers also means that you can't do «Tiger Pr0n Snuff Film» either, so we were thinking «Tiger Prawn Snuff Film». Only afterward did I think that that was a wonderful euphemism/reference to killing gnomes, too. But alas, it still didn't have that je ne sais oomph.

A few days later, we were discussing an upcoming Kara run for Team Fire Engine, and I was telling Zach that I wasn't sure if there was a conflict between running that evening between that and the CCC run for KZ where Lucy heals. "Don't make me take back the tiger...," he joked on vent. My response was "zomg, jungle cat repo!"

And so «Jungle Cat Repo» was born. Orange tabard. White kitty on it. Life is good. Some people leave their folks to start a raiding guild. I left mine to make a riding guild.

You've Got Mail!

While I'd rarely kept many secrets about decrying the paladin class, in general, throughout my WoW career, it had always fascinated me to see to what "depths" Holy pallies would "descend" just to get +Healing gear. Pallies in cloth and leather weren't uncommon, and since they were unavailable to the Alliance, shaman weren't ever a factor, so when there'd be a random piece of +Heal chain mail dropped, it was as good as the paladin's that wanted it. But for someone that could wear all four armor classes, if they weren't wearing the highest, then that cloth or leather piece was obviously ill-gotten. Made me want to grab them by the metaphorical lapels and slam them up against a locker. You know, get all Jack Bauer on them: "Who was the poor druid or priest that was gypped out of their healing gear, just so you could feel adequate, Warrior of Light???" As I leveled Echuta through The Burning Crusade, I remember a litany of swear words whenever I'd go to turn in a long quest chain that culminated in a group quest where the reward was hidden from sight- (tucked neatly away into 3 more steps of the chain which were rarely more than standing right where you were and talking to the same guy again and again)- and finding that the reward for plate wearers was +dmg/healing, rather than strength, stamina, or defense. Once I began to level Lucy, and Outland became more and more of a realistic destination, I vowed never to become THAT pally- the one in the back with all the scavenged gear. I knew for a fact that there was more than enough +dmg plate out there that there'd never be a need to downrank my armor class.

And I was right. From a certain point of view.

It looks like Blizzard overcompensated for the fact that you don't really find any +spell dmg/healing plate until lvl 60 in WoW 1.0. What they neglected to do, however, is supplement that with straight +healing plate at level 70. I mention all of this because Lucy got her first two epics in Karazhan, the other night. They were both Restoration shaman drops- chain mail. I had to make the decision of whether or not I was going to violate my stern paladin principles (LOLZ) and become THAT paladin. We had 4 priests, so they certainly couldn't use them, and they were clear and present upgrades over the green "of Healing" pieces that I had. Maulgar, the other night, proved to me that AC hardly matters in the healing world, because I was still getting Pyroblast one-shot by one of the ogres, plate-be damned. Might as well take the upgrades any way I can get them, at that point.

It dawned on me, though, that while it was easy to hate on the pallies in a general, prejudicial sense, I never stopped to think about what you do when you're forced with the realization that just because you might love healing with this class, that doesn't mean that Blizzard is going to play nice with drops for your particular class. The more I've looked into it, the more I realize that the only specs that got shafted more than the Holy paladins in the pre-expansion world were the Retribution and Protection ones. All of the +dmg plate you see once you arrive in Outland is Blizz making amends to not giving the players of the class the tools they needed to succeed.

Put a tiger in your tank

So we're working on some quests the other night, and I say to Zach, "You know, there's no reason why we don't go into Zul'Gurub every few days and farm the hell out of Tiger and G'hazranka to get the mount and the turtle book." He decides that that's precisely what we ought to do, so we take 16 people (all but 2 70s) in and raze the place. Bat goes down in a minute and a half, Snake's adds get AoE'd down while Thay tanks him in the corner. Spider's webs are resisted by most everyone, and we tear her a new one. Bloodlord was interestingly tough (comparably) but he got clobbered, too. Panther got the luxury of vanishing once, and then it was lights out. Ghaz'ranka had no turtle book, but he knows no pain, now.

Jin'do needed a second attempt, but everyone was cool with the fight once they saw the mechanic behind it all. It would've been nice to have done that back, before TBC, but the thumb-sucking set wouldn't hear of preparing for the fight and working up a targeting macro to hit the Shades, totems, and then Jin'do. (Granted, we didn't do that this time, either- but then again, superior firepower cures a multitude of sins). Even Hakkar only got through 2 life drains, and then that was all she wrote for ZG.

Oh.

Wait.

What about Tiger?

That's right. That one went a little sketchy, thanks to the fact that we let Lor'Khan get off a heal just as we were bringing everyone together to be dropped at once. Somehow we got her back down from 50%+ within the time limit, but Thekal got rocked, and when the smoke cleared, the Swift Zulian Tiger was left in the rubble. I've seen 2 on our server. The first was the one stolen from Cicle by Paradoxmage, and I just saw a gnome on one, not long ago. As with all drops, we passed then rolled. Alusara started the rolls with a 96. Hell yeah, Blood Elf on a tiger.

/bask

I am now the John Madden of Outland. I'm not flying anywhere I don't have to, and even then, you've gotta spike my milkshake like they did Mr. T on The A-Team. I'm going everywhere I can at sea level, now.