Our newest featured WoW blog shines a light on Killing 'em Slowly, a blog that shows the ins and outs of raiding with a Warlock and a Death Knight. We speak with the writers about their WoW habits and more.

ZAM: How would you describe yourself as a player? (causal, soloist, hardcore raider, etc)

Fuu: I would describe myself as a “casual” player in game and hardcore out of game. In game, I’ve only found the time to raid once a week for two hours. Fulguralis and I run with a 10 man raiding guild that is composed of some of the brightest and craziest raiders and I’m so proud to be a part of it. Last week, we finally downed the Lich King with our strict time schedule, and I couldn’t be more tickled about it - AKA I want to shout it from the rooftops! WE ARE THE AWESOME SAUCE! *cough* So yes, with only being able to raid two hours a week would most certainly qualify us as casual.

Now, I also mentioned that I was Hardcore out of game. The reason why I say this is because I do quite a bit of research for my Tanking Paladin. I’m an avid forum goer and I try to blog about it when I have the chance. I want to know the ins and outs of my class and what is the best way for me to spec, glyph, gem, etc. I do a bit of theorycrafting and mess around with what people say is the best way to play while still understanding the uniqueness of my playstyle and creating a nice blend suited for me. I’ve found that this keeps me up to date on in game changes while not taking away from my in game time because who enjoys reading when you can experience it firsthand.
 
Ful: Yeah, we're obviously casual, though we tend to be on for an hour or so each night.  We take raiding seriously though.  I mean, we definitely have a lot of fun, but we've lucked into a group of people who take things like "being on time" and "speccing correctly" seriously while still being able to goof off.  We used to be officers in a rather large guild, but left that behind after a couple years in favor of our current small guild.  There are only about 15 of us, most RL friends, and we really don't have a guild structure any more.  It's really been a great transition from big to small.  I've always tried to be knowledgeable about my spec, and am quite competitive, so I'm known to have one eye on the damage meters at all times. 

ZAM: How long have you been playing WoW?

Fuu: Fulguralis and I have been visiting Azeroth since May of 2008. This was near the end of The Burning Crusade. We hit 70 soon after and found ourselves with a wonderful end game alliance who raided a few times a week. We were able to see Karazan, Gruul’s Lair, and SSC before The Wrath of the Lich King came out.
 
Ful: Yep, we were TBC babies.  We dallied with several other MMOs (Guild Wars, Final Fantasy) before winding up in WoW at the behest of a good friend.

ZAM: Why did you start this blog?

Ful: A good friend of mine, the one who enticed us to start playing WoW, introduced me to the blog scene as well with John Patricelli's Big Bear Butt Blog.  From there, my reader has grown to encompass many different blogs, but from the start I noticed a distinct lack of Warlockery out there.  There were a few good ones (Nibuca from Mystic Chincanery and Saresa at Destructive Reach were some of my early inspirations), but by and by, I felt Warlocks were woefully underrepresented out there.  A proficiency in internet searching and a passion for the written word led the aforementioned friend to suggest: "If you feel so strongly about it, why don't you start a blog?"  I forget what we were, ahem, discussing... Thus, Killing 'em Slowly was born!  I mean, I was going to do the work to be competitive anyways, might as well write about it too.
 
Fuu: Well, actually, Fulguralis actually proposed the idea to me randomly. “Hey Fuu, I’m going to start a blog!” “K”. Yeah… that’s how it happened. Now, I’m not the main writer for the blog, but I do sneak in a few tidbits of my own thoughts here an there. I attempt to write at least one post a week. Normally about what I’m up to in game; mostly, random thoughts of mine.  I will occasionally write up Protection Paladin guides of some of the research that I’ve found and how I’ve tailored my spec for my own use. I’ve never been one to just use a spec, gem, enchant, glyph that doesn’t work with my play style. I also don’t feel that our readers enjoy that either. I give my reasoning as to why I do the things that I do and I hope that our readers have come for the thoughts and understanding of game mechanics not HERE IS HOW TO SPEC AND YOU MUST DO WHAT I SAY OR YOU ARE FULL OF FAIL! I also enjoy the comments that we receive about what has worked for them.  The conversations and information that is traded there makes it such a great place to learn even for us writers.

ZAM: Favorite nostalgic WoW memory?

Fuu: In Game Memory: Probably Tanking in Hellfire Ramparts. This was the first really challenging tanking experience that I’ve ever had at the time. The pulls needed to be marked and timed. Everyone had to be on the same page and work together as a group. It was a struggle and really showed what I was made of. I learned a ton about tanking in that instance and things I still use today.

Out of Game Memory: When I wrote an article where WoW.com (now WowInsider) linked one of my posts and said that I was a guy >.> I just laughed and laughed. I guess that’s what you get for being a girl in a man’s game right? I’ve was linked another time (on a rather random post of mine about Elemental Shaman twinks). I think they realized not to say who wrote it and just made a link. Silly people.
 
Ful: The first time I found myself atop the damage meters.  Now, don't get me wrong, meters have a time and a place, but are not the be-all, end-all of raiding.  I've always prized overall "damage done" above raw "DPS", as I feel DD takes into account the important things like "did you live".  Still, everything with a grain of salt.  That being said, the first time back during a run on Gruul in TBC, several months after I'd hit 80, when I noticed... wow, I'm on top.  To me, that was a sort of validation that I was, indeed, not made of suck.  Also, that I could raid.  Up until that point, we'd been sort of guided by guildies into the raiding scene.  It was really after that that I felt I became a raider in my own right, not just "that guy that's behind everyone else since he joined late."  Did I mention our first guild was made up of folks who had been around the game since day one?  They're still going too.  We try to keep in touch despite having moved on to a different crew.

ZAM: Alliance or Horde?

Fuu: Alliance DUH! Even though I PvP… I still love my Alliance. Even if we lose the majority of the games. <3
 
Ful: For the Alliance!  I've been a Warcraft junkie since way back in the days of Orcs & Humans (which still makes me wonder why I was so scared of trying the MMO, but I guess you'll have that), so, to me, Alliance is where it's at.