Can I have your loot?

I need to have a talk about this, because it happened again some days ago. A druid claiming to have equal rights to cloth as clothies because this and that. So I thought we'd give "this and that" a work-through to see if there is something valid there or just plain old scrooginess.

First of all, yes I do main a clothie. A healing priest to be precise (disc/holy dual). I agree I might be somewhat biased by this, after all it is some of my loot you're after (I don't care much about the hit-rating loot though). I will try to keep this in consideration for the following arguments and so could you. I also agree simply saying "clothies should have cloth because it's cloth" isn't a wholly worthy argument. More is needed.

1. Ok, so let's look at some arguments pro. Or actually the argument I get to hear. Some of the cloth loot is simply BestInSlot to balance/resto-druids. While I haven't checked into this myself I have simply taken the druids word for it and so for this discussion will assume this is true.
I do think that if something is the besterest you can get your hands on you should have some shot at attaining it. Question is of course, should you have an equal shot as say someone who can't get anything else? So Blizzard have put slightly more/better stats into some cloth-gear. Why? No one knows. Perhaps the druids get punished by having that extra armor in their leather, which they apparently care very little for. This means in cloth, some armor has been turned into say spirit or intellect instead. Maybe most druids think there is too much spirit in the leather gear and want the spirit free cloth loot? There is spirit free leather loot too though so that can't really be it.

I can digg that one would prefer another stat over armor, heck maybe even stamina if you're a caster. So is armor such a worthless stat for caster-druids? Let's keep this to a pve-setting. Neither resto nor balance has any aggro reduce skill which means once they get aggro they have to live it through and wait for someone else to help them. Druids can't use shields either but have been compensated by this by getting extra armor in tree respectively chicken form with the possibility to increase it further with Bark Skin (which actually reduces dmg taken and therefor also works for spells). This would indicate armor is of some matter to druids. Clothies who don't have armor have threat reduce skills of varying quality so it would feel safe to assume Blizzard has planned it to be either armor or threat reduce skill to keep you safe. This is true also for shamans and paladins. Of course this doesn't have to have anything to do with how it works in game. It wouldn't be the first, and surely not the last time, Blizzard thought something would work some way and it definitely didn't in the end.

Is armor too easily frowned upon by druids? Can they play equally well (or better as they would claim) in cloth? This might not be completely impossible. I'd even stretch to say this is a fair argument in the druids advantage. So let's move on to the next argument and issue.

2. "There are way more cloth loot than there is leather with spellpower". I have heard this too and of course, everytime someone says that I have to say "could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that there are three times as many clothies than there are spellpower using leather wearers?".
That's a simple fact. There are three classes sharing approximately the same cloth loot (the only difference being whether you need hit or not) and only one class using spellpower leather. Therefor it should be about 3-1 cloth vs spellpower leather. And again of course, Blizzard most likely plan their loot tables after the assumption that class distribution is somewhat equal, which of course doesn't have to be the truth. Druids are very popular and resto and boomkins more so over ferals (at least on my server). Druids are actually the third-most played class after Paladins and Death Knights. But the differences are still not large enough to claim that there is too much cloth loot in comparison to cloth users. There are still alot of cloth users out there. Over at -http://armorydatamining.appspot.com/general?t=PopBigPicture- you can see for yourself that in November 2009 druids were played by 10,4% of total, while clothies made up 26% of total. Ok not three times as many, but removing the ferals from the pool would make it pretty damn close.

Are the cloth drops really three times as many? Let's look at our most recent instance addition - Trial of the Crusader. Looking at 10-man normal and disregarding anything but cloth- required and leather- required (and only counting one side, in this case horde-drops) one finds 8 cloth items and 3 spellpower leather items. Wow, that really is one third! At 25-man normal the stats look better though (for druids anyway); 11 cloth-items and 5 spellpower leather items. Hmm, half.

Let's add it up; if druids could need on cloth as any other cloth that would be an approximate (just a hip-shot here, I admit) 27% increase in the clothie-population (7% total casterdruids to 26% total clothies assuming one third of the druid population are ferals). Unfortunately my math skills suck so badly any attempts from me to crunch numbers beyond this would make you laugh (actually you probably have already). But in any case we've seen that spellpower leather is more common overall compared to the amount of spellpower leather-user population than cloth is common to the clothie-population. No one in their right mind would say it would be fair to give something to someone that already has more? Would they? This would mean this is an argument against druids being able to roll on cloth.

So to the conclusion.
We've seen two arguments around this issue and they end up in slightly for and slightly against. It appears it differs somewhat between a 10-man and 25-man setting and of course it could differ even more in another raid all together. Also once could take into consideration how many clothies one has in the raid compared to how many caster-druids. In 10-mans this could matter.
The fact that cloth is better itemized for druids than the leather loot in some cases is according to me a pretty strong argument and maybe something Blizzard should look into. Unfortunately I don't think the stat-gains are that huge that it would warrant an extra strain on the clothiedrop-pool as spellpower druids already have their fair share. What are we talking about here anyway, 2 extra spirit? 5 extra haste-rating?
No cloth for the druids in other words!

How do I improve your playing?

We've all met them, the players who play the same class and spec as you but just don't do it right. It could be gear, talents, glyphs, gems, enchants and playstyle.
All of the first ones are quite easily fixed if the person isn't daft and as long as you don't use a totally un-diplomatic approach to tell them what they've done wrong. The last one though - playstyle - is alot trickier.

I don't claim to know much about any class except priest healing (and healing in general to some extent). And when I see a priest that doesn't do it right and if I know the raid/part is suffering by it I just can't keep my mouth shut. The problem is, what am I gonna say? I could simply say "hey, you're not doing it right, use this and that spell instead" or the like. But will it actually improve anything? I am not so sure.

The problem is - what is someone doing when they're stressed out? When they can't think about their next move it has to come naturally to them. This is what pvp is all about for instance, but it is needed in normal raiding too to some part and in heroic raiding to a big part. If I use the wrong spell at the wrong moment, the raid could and most likely will wipe. Every class and spec has to think about this but I think to healers it is even more important. Of course no one can stand in one-shot mechanics without being killed (except for nasty paladins) and therefor have to react quickly to the changes of the environment. The thing about healing is you usually have to think about all these environmental changes for yourself and for the rest of the raid. A dps or tank doesn't have to think about what another tank or dps is doing right now, just hope they're doing it right and do their thing right. But the healers job is to make sure everyone can do their job right. Ok, some dps have to tot/md, some tanks have to taunt but healers have to keep an eye on the mobs, the players and the environment at the same time. This means it is easier to be stressed out as healer than any other class (a tank who has to pick up adds comes to a close second though).

I am sure many won't agree with this. But one can put it into simple numbers. In a 25 man raid a healer has 25 targets to keep track of + not standing in fire. Tank and dps usually has 1 + not standing in fire. Quite the difference. But enough about that and back on track. What do people do when they're stressed?

Usually not the right thing. I remember not so long ago when I started healing I used to fall in nab-traps all the time. Taking your time to choose between slow big heal and fast small heal when the tank is near death. Choosing the wrong one and starting a big slow heal when the tank is near death. AoE-healing when there aren't enough targets to benefit from it and vice versa, not AoE-healing when too many are taking dmg. Not using cooldowns when they're needed and using them when they're not needed. Casting them on the wrong target. One favorite is of course spam healing yourself because you've forgot to mark the tank/whoever needed heals.

The list can go on and on. They usually compile to two issues - using an ui that doesn't aid in healing and not being totally familiar with your healing. Me targeting the wrong target has long since been fixed by using Clique. Using macros and the like to target is also helpful.
But chosing the right spell at the right time has only been helped by practice practice practice and even more practice. First time you encounter a new fight you can apply all your old knowledge all you like, but there still will be moments after a wipe where you think "oh ok, it works like that, well then I have to use this spell even faster".

A good example is Fusion Punch on Iron Council hardmode. Whenever I'm not healing I am telling the assigned healer "Ok, Fusion Punch has to be dispelled asap. I don't care what you do, drop it and dispel. Asap. Ok? Asap. Not like after one second. Start dispelling before it lands". Still it usually doesn't matter how many times I say it, if the healer doesn't see for his own eyes how frickin asap it has to be he won't do it.

And now to why I bring this up at all. We have a great priest healer in my guild who for some reason looks up to me as her healing guru. I mean great as in really nice person and really interested in improving her healing skills. To me it is interesting to see her do all the old mistakes I used to do and try to improve them for her. I have introduced her to clique and other features which really helped my healing. The problem is of course that she might give them a try, but when she's stressed out she will revert back to her old style of healing with the old mistakes. And if I tell her patiently and kindly to do it in another way over and over she will only become more uncertain and stressed about it. If she doesn't think she can improve she never will, no matter how many good ideas I throw at her.
So what is the difference between me and her?
I had no one to look up to when I healed. I did my mistakes but I had no one looking over my shoulder saying I could do it differently. I was for a long time the only active raiding priest in my guild and no one had more knowledge about it to give me any hints about anything. For some reason this turned out to be more good than bad. Having to figure it out all by myself means I can actually say I really know how to heal and know when I do something wrong. My healing is far from perfect and perfecting it is what has kept me going all these years. But the most important thing is I don't expect people to think that I'll do things badly.

I think for healers, letting people learn from their own mistakes, without it resulting in too much hazzle for the rest of the group, is the best way to improve their playing.

Why females live longer than males: is it due to the father's sperm?

Why females live longer than males: is it due to the father's sperm? <-Link to original article
I found an interesting post over at Science Daily about what actually make female live longer than males on average. Apparently that is a phenomenon not just common among humans, but nearly any mammal species as the article will say. They did an experiment where they compared mice who had genes from two mothers to mice who had genes from the "normal" type of setup, one father and one mother, and found that the mother-mice lived significantly longer than the father-mother-mice. This would/could indicate that there is a father-specific gene, or male specific if you like, that makes you live shorter. Or less long.
However the article doesn't discuss the reason for this so I am wondering, what would be the benefits of living shorter? The male gene that supposedly could do this must somehow further some other mechanic that is needed but doesn't make you live long in a germ-free environment where these mice lived. Or of course - living long isn't necessarily optimal seeing from an evolutionary perspective.
I read/heard somewhere long ago that cloned creatures live shorter than their "parents" because they get "used up" genes. That is, genes that already have used for some time and somehow know about it and therefor start the aging process earlier in cloned animals because to the gene (I don't really think the gene thinks anything, it's just the human way to explain stuff :P) think it's about the right time.
It would be really interesting if one could find these genes and see what happens if you remove them? I don't think people could live forever because there are other processes affecting that, like the oxygen decay on the body and such. But I wouldn't think it impossible for people to live for 200 years. I mean afterall, 2000 years ago people didn't live much longer than to 50, today people get to 90 easily! Well in most western countries anyway, I read that in many African countries the average life expectancy is still below 50 years.

The Huntress

I had a dream where I did a raid instance with some people and encountered a boss which I found interesting. It was a hunter boss (named Raziela after a guildie hunter I did heroic daily with yesterday) who was standing on a terrace sort of like Ingvar does in UK. The interesting thing about her, because she was an orc female, was that she had an attack called "Sickle" which oneshotted whoever she targeted. She wasn't tankable and I suppose that healers weren't all necessary either, so all you really had to do was kill her fast enough before that Sickle thingy oneshotted you and ultimately wiped the raid. I think there is a boss similar to that in Black Temple... I only did BT once in wotlk for funsies, so I'm not sure :P

I suppose to make the encounter interesting for non-dps classes you could implement mechanics that would allow healers/tanks to either dps for themselves or run around buffing the dps. Actually I like the second option better since that is what tanks/healers sorta do already, they help dps down the boss by keeping them alive which could be seen as a buff (the buff of life!). Maybe heals would instead of heal (since no healing is needed, you're either at full health or dead at this imaginary boss) they'd buff the dps somehow. Maybe hots (all healers have at least one hot) could give extra dmg done and direct heals give haste or whatever. Similar to what druids do with the birdies on the Anzu boss in Sethekk Halls.
Tanks on the other hand could get into special vehicles or pet or something the like to help the raid.
I really like the idea! Well it's my idea so that might not be so odd...

Have ya ever thought about imaginary bosses and how they could work?

Private Picture

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

I watched a great movie yesterday, The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951. I've seen some black and white movies and I've liked most of them because of the special feel they give. House on Haunted Hill and some of Ed Woods movies are really entertaining. But I must say The Day the Earth Stood Still (DESS) had some special about it.
First of all it was exciting from the beginning to the end, had great effects (seriously)and good enough acting. Actually I found the little boy to be among the best actors although I usually dislike children-actors for their phoniness or over-achieverness. The story is a good one, without cheesy plot or dialogue. Some scenes are actually amazing like when
(HERE BE SPOILER!!)
Klaatu becomes shot nearly the first thing that happens after he lands (gogo trigger happy USAnians) or when he tries to get an audience with the leaders of all the world and the director guy (don't remember what he was now) tells him that's impossible. Oh and the scene when he shuts down all the electricity and I thought "hey, he said no one would die. But what about the airplanes and hospitals" and immediately after they say "For some reason the hospitals and airplanes still have electricity!".
(END OF SPOILER!!)
What I really liked most about this movie was that there was no scene or happening that felt out of place or funny eventhough it wasn't meant to be, which I otherwise see in nearly any other movie, be it new or old. There is always some scene where you think "no, that didn't make sense" or "haha, what is that supposed to be?" or where they say stuff that makes you wish you could punch whoever wrote it. This movie had nothing of that. It's worth every 1,5h of your time, not only because it's a classic referenced in many other places but because it really is good!
Fun Trivia: The Klaatu Birata Niktu phrase is re-used in the movie Evil Dead 3, but there with less success.
Fun Trivia2: The intro-melody (which too is awesome by the way, I love how they used the Theremine in old movies. Why don't they do that anymore? :/) can be reaheard in a really good remix by Timo Maas. The song is named Maas Attacks (couldn't find it on YouTube tho or I would've linked).