I'm going to get WHAT?!

Nerfed!!!

Patch 5.1, titled Landfall, hasn't yet hit Europe, but it will do so in just a few hours, which means that a couple of changes apply to classes I play actively; in this case shaman and particularly death knight. Why particularly death knight, although my main is a shaman, I'll tell you now.

Death strike is getting its bonus healing removed in PvP with 5.1. As this only applies to player verses player combat, blood death knights will still heal themselves as they used to in PvE, and retain the basic healing from death strike in all situations, as well as the blood shield absorption, while the bonus healing is lost in PvP. Below is the description of death strike at level 90, and the bolding indicates which part (according to my understanding) no longer applies to it in PvP.

Focuses dark power into a strike that deals 280% weapon damage plus 748 to an enemy and heals you for 20% of the damage you have sustained during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 7% of your maximum health). This attack cannot be parried.

I generally PvE way more than PvP, although there have been seasons that I've been quite active in PvP - but the truth is that it's still fairly rare activity for me. During Mists of Pandaria I've completed a total of two battlegrounds. Not impressive. I did, however, have plans for it and particularly in the case of Vlad. I was going to distinguish myself in the PvP area, as a blood death knight, because, well... If you compare my skill when it comes to, say, raiding and when it comes to PvP, there's a big difference, so I need it to be easymode! EZmode, I tell you. Also because PvP is a nervewracking experience for me, it makes me nerdrage.

I mentioned shaman, too. There's more bad news for me when it comes to my PvP future. Totems will now be considered spells, which means they cannot be cast while silenced. This may not sound like much to a non-shaman, but a ton of shaman abilities come from totems. With totems we're able to, for example, remove fear and absorb/reflect a harmful spell. Although the talent and ability changes in the pre-Pandaria patch made totems less important in a way, they're still a great part of shaman gameplay.

While I am nearly traumatised by PvP as elemental shaman, I haven't completely abandoned the thought of it, as I have great and fun memories of it, too, not only losing my nerves and taking it out on the wrong people. Like that one time in Arathi basin, when I annoyed a priest healer by throwing him down the cliff at Lumber Mill. He came back with revenge in his mind, trying to mind control me off the cliff, but I prevented that three times, first by interrupting, then with a totem, and once more by interrupting - as back then wind shear had a 5 second cooldown. Until I get over the upcoming nerfs, it seems that my only hope of the holy trinity for PvP will be my somewhat holy paladin.

I think this was about all I wanted to rant about this evening, thank you and sorry! Now a long, deep breath and...

My nerdy turn-offs

Do you relate to any of these?

Latency talk
A superiority complex ultimatum of the kind of nerdism that ruins the nerdy reputation of others. When it kicks off, it brings out everyone's most irritating sides. And it happens a kazillion times more often than framerate talk, which I think I find slightly less tarded. My latency is lower than your latency! I pay more for my internet than you do for yours! Oh shut the duck up already. You'll all still blame lag spikes when you die to Smoldering Devastation.

Subtly requesting invitation to something on public chat
Imagine there's someone advertising a raid that isn't regularly run anymore, for example Ruby Sanctum. They're sending "LFM Ruby Sanctum" messages to trade chat (because they don't know the Looking For Group channel exists). Then, instead of whispering the person that's running the raid, someone says "LFG to Ruby Sanctum" as if it was something as regular as a request to join a Baradin Hold group. I can't comprehend this and it annoys the living corehound leavings out of me.

Claiming Ultraxion doesn't play fair
Heroic Will is never on cooldown when you actually need it, assuming you don't just use it at random times.

... & -.- & -_-
When these are used alone, they give an impression of a "I'm better than you" attitude without bothering to really explain anything, just "sigh, you noobs." Even if they weren't directed at me, I can never stay silent when I see those.

Duo-tanking with someone who...
...thinks they are superb compared to you, taunt everything off of you and make stupid and life-threatening decisions just because they want to tank things. Not only it makes me feel useless, but also extremely bored. Luckily I only encounter these on LFR, since I rarely pug raids anymore.

People who can't get over the thought of pandas
Yep. Basically people who only think MoP will suck arse because pandas are coming to WoW and therefore ignore all the other things and improvements. Was Cataclysm all about worgen and goblins? Of course not, and you got perfectly used to them. Dogs are just as cute and cuddly as pandas are, so please, do get over it.

Cursed Gilnean /flirting to me in worgen form
It makes me feel like a freak. I love dogs, but not that way.

wtf/omg *insert role or class*
Something that certainly states one is a retard.

So...

Something happened. I got disgusted by my own writing. It frustrates me beyond understanding that something, in this case language skill, is preventing me from being as good as I could be. Writing is the only thing in the world I am really good at, and this situation pains me a lot.

I can't and don't want to just stop updating my blog, but I'm going to take a break from those (excuses of) stories and just write something else for a while. I'll probably try again one day, but not now. I don't want to hate the one thing I am talented at because of other people. So please, enjoy my break and keep reading my blog, but if you would be so kind, please don't read the earlier posts.

This one is about PvP.

I would never call myself a PvP pro of any sort, so I'll just settle for explaining something of my own that, like always, makes little sense.

My main character Nicasia is elemental/elemental specced, meaning that her main spec is elemental for PvE, and off spec elemental for PvP. Her talent trees, as of patch 4.3.4, the last one of Cataclysm, look like this:

And she is glyphed like this:

I feel the need to say something about these. Stoneclaw glyph is there only because we thought of the possibility of me soaking an Hour of Twilight at Ultraxion. Then I never came to change it, because I didn't think I needed to. Ghost wolf is there for a better chance of avoiding a Shockwave when further away, faster movement at Zon'ozz and all that stuff. I like Glyph of Elemental Mastery for PvP, because I seem to suck at avoiding the situation where I get hit. I also suck at having EM available at those times. I should probably swap it for Stoneclaw, as the absorption effect still persists if you change your earth totem after popping it, however I probably won't PvP much before Pandaria.

My problem with PvP is that I lose my nerves. I get annoyed, I rage at myself, I ruin what's left of my peace of mind and wreck my day. It has a lot to do with my fear of failing. In fact player verses players, doing it and talking about it, is one of my weak spots on World of Warcraft. I haven't PvP'd with Nica, or any other character except my lowbie Forsaken rogue Ancelot, since a very traumatising arena match some months ago. There doesn't seem to be a limit to how much I can terrify myself with my own behavior. Despite all that I have some amazing player verses player memories. Not to mention that I am a great!! amateur psychologist, and therefore try to cure myself with music therapy.

Warriors by Freedom Call works great in Warsong Gulch, which is slightly too much a claustrophobic battleground for my taste. I have some awesome memories of that, and I imagine it would also work in various other situations.

If I'm generally not in any particular kind of mood, I like to play Supreme by Robbie Williams. There's absolutely nothing about Robbie that would make one associate him with PvP action, but if you take a closer look at the song's lyrics, it's actually understandable why it fits a moment of aggression and uncontrollable rage.

... And all the best women are married
All the handsome men are gay
You feel deprived

Yeah, are you questioning your size?
Is there a tumour in your humour,
are there bags under your eyes?
Do you leave dents where you sit,
are you getting on a bit?
Will you survive?
You must survive

... Do you need a bit of rough?
Get on your knees

For a couple of battlegrounds I tried Eros Ramazzotti, but found that the memories related to his album Stilelibero are too far from anything gaming-related.

Now something for the imaginary readers: what's your PvP soundtrack like?