What's In Kita's Bag?

In my endeavors to help our guildies as they discover WoW and all of it's loveliness, it occurred to me that when I was just starting out, I wanted to hoard EVERYTHING.  I had no idea what to keep on me, what to put in my bank, and it took me a while to figure out exactly where to put everything.  Then again, I'm a natural pack-rat, and when combined with mild OCD, it makes for very organized gaming.  But in any case, I thought I would give you glimpse inside my main character's bag to let you know what an end-game character is toting around.

Rainbow-colored bags!  :D

The top of my bags have at least 40 free slots for items that I pick up, and that seems to be a pretty good number for what I do in-game.  I'm a big fan of cleaning out my bags frequently and repairing my gear just as frequently!

I'll start from the lower right hand side.  The square that is not highlighted at all in the corner, of course, is my hearthstone.  Gets you back to wherever you choose to bind yourself at, and I never leave home without it!

Next, the yellow squares.  These are squares that pertain to my professions.  Akane is a blacksmith and engineer, so she has her tools that help her do that.  The vertical yellow section contains my fishing gear and cooking hat!  Gotta love items that increase your secondary professions' skill level and speed.  The cooking hat makes you cook like you are an Iron Chef, no joke.  o.o

The other couple unhighlighted squares are quest items for the Darkmoon Faire.  If you haven't been there yet, you must.  Even if you are a lowbie, you MUST go there.  Fun faire games, heirloom items, achievements, fishing...  Oh yesh.  Go there.

The light blue squares are items that enable me to teleport to different locations (other than where my hearthstone is bound).  These are immensely handy when trying to get somewhere fast, or when my hearthstone is on cooldown.

The large section in red is actually my secondary spec gear and my PvP gear.  Some people will leave their extra sets of gear in their bank, but if they don't have a way to quickly pull it out of their bank when needed, it really defeats the purpose of being able to quickly fulfill a role.  Plus, when a Night Elf is camping your favorite fishing spot, you're gonna want to bust out your PvP gear quickly and destroy him before he even realizes you're there!

The green items are my playthings!  WoW has all sorts of fun items to play with, whether you're waiting for a dungeon queue to pop, or just hanging around with friends in-game, everyone has at least one item like these in your bags.  My personal favorite?  The Bones of Transformation.  I <3 being a naga.

The dark blueish-purple items are a MUST: raid food.  Now, in my bags, there are several different foods that I carry because of my diverse abilities.  There are also feasts in there; items that will feed more than just myself are handy when tackling a particularly tough situation and you need everyone in your group to be on point!

And finally, the pink section is the flask/potion/first aid section.  Flasks are a MUST for raiding, and again, I keep several different flasks on me for my different roles.  Same thing goes for potions (which I appear to have run out of ^.^').  Always be prepared and bring health/mana potions, as well as bandages.  You never know when those can come in handy, especially if used in conjunction with a macro.

Well, that's that.  I hope I have given you a helpful little glimpse into what my characters normally run around with, and what you can throw in your bank to make things easier when questing, raiding, or whatever else you may want to do in WoW.

This post features the addon "OneBag," which makes organizing and searching in your bags an easy and stress-free experience.  ^.^

Raid Leading!

So, I have never been a raid leader.  There seemed to be a lot that they needed to do, and I had no flippin' clue when it came to little things (like how to place the world markers).  xD  But yesterday, I had finally had enough of looking in trade chat for a Baradin Hold raid for myself and 2 other guildies, so I figured, "fuck it, I'ma try to raid lead.  Can't be that bad..."

Lessons Learned:

1. Do not be so soft-hearted as to allow just anyone in.  Ask if they know the fight, and at the very least, look over the tanks to make sure they aren't geared in greens.  As a person, I like a challenge and I usually have the time to explain everything, but you must keep in mind the raid as a whole may not have the time or energy to deal with people who are not prepared.  If a person is not pulling their weight, explain to them that they need to be better prepared, and that you will be replacing them.
2. Organize your raid beforehand.  Depending on the fight, I am a fan of having one tank and one healer in each group or all my healers in one group.
3. State loot rules at the beginning, and that way if anyone has issues with the rules you have set forth, then they can leave.  Make sure to set your loot to whatever you see fit; a general rule of thumb is that main spec (the spec you are in at present) > off spec.
4. Explain the fight basics for each role.  If people shouldn't stand next to things/people, tell them beforehand.  I neglected to tell people that standing near the tanks was probably not a good idea, and lost a few due to that.  Tell the raid what you expect of them.
5. ALWAYS do a ready check before pulling the boss.  Hell, check twice if more than a few minutes has passed.  I told my one tank to pull when the other tank was AFK.  That was an unnecessary wipe!
6. DON'T get caught up in typing during the fight!  This goes for anytime and anyone, really.  Always be aware of what is happening around you and keep Raid Warnings short and to the point.

Fortunately, we did just fine after a couple rough starts, and defeated both bosses in Baradin Hold.  I do want to raid lead again, as it was pretty fun!

Me on my Hog with the tiny Noggenfogger buff, bringing a normal-sized Tauren guildie to Zul'Farak.  xD

 

Position Earned!

I successfully earned my position on the Raid Roster for Bloodforged!  My final hurdle was to heal Baradin Hold (10) and to combat log it, and my GM told me that my performance was near perfect, and that I wouldn't have any issues getting into any raid that I wanted to with logs like that.  Plus, I had gone through the Crucible (healing chain pulls in Stonecore before Ozruk) and geared/enchanted/gemmed my paladin as much as I could.  I'm super happy about earning my place.

The only thing is, just as I earned my slot, my GM was pondering who else to get for heals on our roster, and is seriously thinking about getting another Holy Paladin.  I understand at this point, paladins seem to grow on trees and it would be easy to find another one.  Plus, Moontree, an applicant and a friend of ours who is transferring over to our server, also has a holy paladin that he would much rather play as opposed to his Restoration Shaman, who failed the Crucible yesterday (though to his credit, the GM literally sprung it on him, that was kinda rough).  I enjoy playing with Moon, but I would much rather see a more diverse selection of healers in our raids.

Pros of having 2 Paladins:

• 2 Beacons.  Beacon of Light is a super powerful way of healing, and to have two of them up at once is quite the sight to behold.  2 paladins can successfully heal both of their tanks and do fairly well with AOE raid heals in fights like Occuthar.
• 2 Auras.  No matter how you cut this one, this is a win-win.
• 2 Blessings.  If you don't have a druid for Mark of the Wild, having Kings and Might is also a win-win.
• Survivability.  Let's face it, a healer in plate armor is quite awesome.  Being able to take a hit and keep healing is something that most other healers can't do. 
• Spike damage, anyone?  This being our specialty, having two to deal with idiots that stand in the fire too long certainly can be beneficial.

 Cons of having 2 Paladins:

• Not enough raid heals.  One thing that is a bit of a deficiency for paladins is the fact that our multi-target healing and AOE heals are kinda weak compared to those of priests and druids.
• Decreased diversity of heals.  The utility of having other skills at your disposal is invaluable.  If your other healer is a shaman, you forsake the abilities of a druid, etc.
• Unbalanced raid composition.  If you have 2 paladins that are centralized on tank healing, then it goes without saying that your raid heals will probably suffer unless that one other player is a demi-god behind the keyboard.

I see that it would be beneficial, but it could also hurt us...  Plus, it's frustrating to have someone doing the exact same thing as you; no one wants anyone else to be going for the same gear they are!  My GM asked me, "so you just don't want to have to compete," and yeah, he is right, who wants to lose out on tier gear to someone else?  But the argument of not wanting to have to compete against someone else for gear seems petty to me.  *sigh*  I have no solid argument because I can see both sides of the coin.

Well, if he ends up getting another Holy Paladin, I'm just going to have to be known as the better one.  >:3