Re-Roll

Hey all,

I realize the holiday work stoppage ended up extending a little past said holidays. However, be assured that I have not abandoned Re-Roll, I just needed a break. There /should/ be a comic on Sunday, barring any unforseen circumstances. Much love to those of you still with me through this.

-Lore

Hey all! No comic this week, unfortunately. Today is my birthday and I was really busy leading up to this weekend. Re-Roll wil be back next Sunday.

So, in cases like this, would you guys prefer filler art, guest comics, etc.? Or just a blog post?

There will be a comic next Sunday, it’s in the works! Along with the busy October I’ve had this back injury (that my doctor is working on) for about two weeks or so now and it’s making it difficult to sit leaned over my tablet PC for extended periods of time.

However! I’m sure what you all really want to hear about is WoW.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on the Shaman class, but I did level my space goat from 1 to 70 in full Restoration spec so I’m familiar with how the whole thing works. My World of Warcraft career started off with a Night Elf Rogue and she was really the only character I played extensively until Burning Crusade came out. At which point I started Arliece and leveled her alongside my husband’s tank Druid. So for my first healer, I chose what may be one of the more complicated healing classes. Or the easiest, depending on how you look at it.

Priests gets two viable healing specs and whole lot of tricks, they are the original healy class. Holy Paladins have a few options in the healing department, and I know tree Druids have more than their fair share of HoTs. (Am I missing any of the other healing classes? Bandage spec Rogue, perhaps?) With all of these options your difficulty comes in deciding which heals to use in which situation. For a long time all Shamans had was; Healing Wave, (which felt like a lifetime to cast when in a pinch) Lesser Healing Wave (which was NOT mana efficient), and Chain Heal. Then, any aspiring Shaman healer was pretty much told “Just spam Chain Heal.” I’ve actually been yelled at for deviating from that perfect plan. Thus, your difficulty level with a Shaman comes from not having a whole lot of options. Shaman healers did a lot of what I called Preemptive Healing, casting a heal and hoping it hit at just the right time. There was Nature’s Swiftness, which gave us an instant-cast nature spell every 3 minutes. Also hoping your Healing Way procced and increased your critical chance on your next heal.

I got through Kara and my fair share of Heroics in this fashion. I loved Shaman healing, regardless.

When Wrath came out I did the great Server/Faction hop. I left my 70 Rogue and my 70 Resto Shaman on Argent Dawn and made the move to Hyjal with only a 20 Blood Elf Rogue for company. Larscelia has been my epic-geared and stalwart companion ever since. She’s been through Naxx countless times, downed a number of bosses in Ulduar 10 and made her way to Faction Champions in ToC 10. (I hate that fight, btw.) As inevitably happens though, I felt the call of the healer. The Schadenfreuidan Slips has a number of awesome Shaman and I’m pretty sure all of them has a healing spec as either their main or off spec. So I was a little intimidated when I rolled Thistlehoof and started leveling her up. Without the benefit of a Druid to tank for me, I went Enhancement and actually found myself enjoying it a lot more than I expected to. Those damn wolves are fun as hell! Somewhere around 40 I dropped the 1K to dual spec and picked up my Resto spec. At 40 not much was different from what I remembered about Shaman healing. But eventually Thistlehoof made 80 and I realized just how much things had changed since my last Kara raid.

I love the fact that Shaman have a bigger arsenal. Lesser Healing Wave is viable now, Healing Wave tends to be a waste. Rip Tide is love and if you glyph for Chain Heal you hit a fourth target! I’m having a ton of fun back in the healing role! I still don’t feel like I’m up to speed with all the changes but our guild’s resident healy Shaman has been coaching me. I’ve healed Naxx twice now and a fair number of heroics. No worries though, Lars isn’t getting the back burner, I don’t think I’ll ever get the hang of DPSing end-game content as Enhancement.

Next challenge: Death Knight tanking!

What about you guys, did you step away from a class only to come back and remember how much you loved it? What classes or specs are you struggling with? What classes or specs did you take to right away? What classes or specs do you want to take up?

I realize I’m a bit behind on comics. I haven’t forgotten and I haven’t abandoned the project. Halloween is just a busy time of year for me. Perhaps busier than Christmas.

Usually I’m hard at work, busting ass to get a costume done in time. This year I’ve gone the easy route and while I’ve made a few items or two, I’ve got no big projects. Instead I’ve been spending the time with family and friends. I’m a lot less stressed for it.

This is my second Halloween in my new home with my husband. While I’m very happy, I miss my aunt’s decorations. I can’t wait until we’re in a house so I can decorate.

Anywho, point is, I’m just super-busy and comic will be back next weekend.

I’ll try and make a WoW related blog post in the mean time.

Doesn’t that blog title just fill you with dread? I know it does me..

So, here we are on Monday, usually I’d be gearing up to post a random WoW related sketch. However, I’ve decided to hiatus the Monday and Wednesday sketches and I doubt anyone’s really that broken-up over it.

I’d started doing the bi-weekly sketch post to give the readers some content during the week instead of just waiting for Sunday when the comic was supposed to be updated, (with no guarantee that it would) and to keep me from wandering off to some other hair-brained project. Of which, I seem to come up with a good number and often. I’d also started them because I’d barely been drawing for about 2-3 years, as my DeviantArt page can attest to.

I’d also started Re-Roll, not only because I love playing WoW, but because I wanted the comic practice. My first web comic, Prophecy of the Angels crashed and burned not once, but twice. I was continually frustrated by the feeling that my art was not living up to what I knew I was capable of and the story felt stagnant. Yet I knew, if I could only tell it properly, everyone would love it as much as I did. Finally, I got a writer. You know how hard it is to hand your story over to someone else? It’s like handing your child over to someone else for them to raise. My writer was good, but my art still fell short. Yet, I really wanted people to like what I was doing. It took me a long time to admit it to myself and I’m sure the other artists out there know what I’m saying, I crave acceptance. I like attention, I won’t lie. Histrionic personality FTW or the lose. So, while I’m having a hard time getting past the “It’s a new comic, readers will come if you keep posting.” I am getting past it. Why is this important? It probably isn’t, but I prefer to be forthright about these sorts of things.

So, still burning from my prior two failed attempts, I back-burnered PotA and pretty much haven’t worked on anything major since. I’d been toying with the idea of another web comic on and off and WoW was just one of the many subjects I’d considered doing one on. Somewhere about this time, I made the switch off my old RP server to Hyjal, which is a normal server, leaving my muse behind. RP had been much of the way I’d developed my characters, so while I was having more fun playing the game, than I had in a long time, I felt kind of lost creatively. I’d spent 5 years with my PotA characters and 2 years with my Alliance side RP characters and now there was nothing.

Enter Re-Roll…

My new guild includes the mistress of World of Warcraft Wanderings, which is an awesome general WoW blog that I’ve loved reading since the first post I poked at. And people WERE reading it! This is not to imply that I don’t think WoW Wanderings is worth reading, I highly recommend it, but that people were interested in something that wasn’t “How to make more gold.” or “How to top the DPS meter?” While the latter is a completely viable subject to write a blog about, I could never do it. Wanderings is just a girl having fun playing WoW.

Then, while attending Anime Evolution in Vancouver, B.C. I met Kelly, the creator behind WoW, Eh? a very successful WoW comic. Who was very gracious, despite the fact I could tell, she wasn’t having a great time (did anyone at that con?). I read the WoW, Eh? archives on the car ride back to Seattle and between Kelly and Kim, I was inspired.

And here we are, what a trip…

All of that to give you some background and set the table for discussion, sound off. Should I bring back the sketch days at some point? Or should I just post sketches when I feel like it? Should I try and post an actual WoW related blog post everyday? RP posts about my characters? Should the comic be in color? Would it be better in color? Should I just say fuck it, and post whatever I want, when I want and how I want?

Should I do a monthly character request? Meaning, once a month I’d hold a drawing to draw someone’s character for them. I might go bi-monthly, if I think I can handle it.

On a side note, I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to befriend (am I allowed to call you guys friends?) a fair number of people in the WoW blog community. I’d like to thank you all for being you and I’ll do my best to return the favor! I promise to get everyone posted to the link list soon! And I look forward to meeting more of you!

Well, that was a lot of information… sorry.

If anyone wants a laugh, the PotA archives are still up.