Fast Track Update

(ZA progression with JAE...Akil'zon, Nalorakk, and Halazzi downed)
Yup, I'm still playing WoW....I geared up my paladin and slightly got back into PvE. I temporarily joined a new guild on the pally to see 25 raid content. It's a fairly casual raiding guild but they are completely and totally strict when it comes to raiding. It's nice because there's basically two people who call the shots and no one is allowed to debate about it during the raid.


(was along for the ride during their first kill of Tidewalker)
I remember from my 40 man cykos days all the BS we had to deal with when 6 people would be arguing with us about raid procedures during the pull. It was refreshing to see a dictatorship at work....imo the best type of raid for progression. So far I've gotten to see three bosses down in SSC, Mag down, and walked into Tempest Keep which was really nice.

Flip the coin though and it has a pretty huge tarnish that's already made me want to quit and get back to jae. BORING BORING BORING. Yes, I'm seeing new content...but when you're not seeing it with people you actually want to share the experience with...it's totally meaningless. It's like going on a safari by yourself...interesting but not rewarding.

There are a couple of up and coming in JAE which I think will help fill out a 25 man raid...so things are looking promising in that direction but I don't keep my hopes up or anything.


(felix with vengeful helm...awesome graphic proc)
PvP has been going relatively okay. Since a few of us have been off and on in WoW, we haven't been able to practice as much as we need to. We only get in about 40 games per week at most. And like I've said before, you're going to climb and progress slowly in PvP without practice. We're mid 1700s right now but we're missing one of our key DPS players for two weeks. Two melee dps vs two caster dps is pretty huge I think in terms of pure matrix.

On my paladin I PvP-ed until I cried....nothing is impossible anymore. Now I'm working to get my rogue to that level because she's hella fun to play in PvP. There is nothing more poetic than locking someone out for 3 minutes of the battle. You know they're slamming stuff on the other end! hahaha..


I got an email from Merivell sending me a screenshot of a BE mage in a Battleground named Alachia. He thought I had turned horde. While I'd love to confirm that rumor...it has to be denied. I'm fairly sure I'll never turn horde. It's just not in my blood and I have too much invested where I'm at. Four seventies, access to every profession, steady income, really good player resources, and of course my community.
I'd probably be more likely to switch to a new game than switch to horde. :( Sorry Merivell to disappoint. :)

In terms of podcasting...thanks to a few people who refuse to let me podfade in peace...I'm feeling insane pressure to produce the episode I've had on the back burner for 6 months now...and started to produce a new one. However, I want to do it right...meaning.. I want to find a way to produce the show on a more regular basis. My problem of course is inspiration atm.. I'd like to have at least 6 shows lined up in terms of ideas and content before I launch in 2008.

Oh yeah, thanks a lot to the people who have stuck with me and especially to those of you who keep trying to kick my ass in gear. :)

More clarification reports later on that silly shaman rumor. heheh.

Alachia Sighting?

What has happened to Alachia the ultimate noob pod-fader?
There have been wild and outrageous rumors that she went completely insane from extensive WoW play.... and then rolled a.... shaman!!!!!?????

This rumor can not yet be confirmed nor denied. :D

Don't throw in the towel

StreetChief said...
I wish I was as battle hearty as you :( I started playing seriously pretty late in season 2. Wound up getting to around 17-1800's. Oh well. I haven't found a good set of teammates yet. My character's name is Vauch(BWL). Got any tips?

I maintain that my best advice is practice, practice, practice.

it's pretty easy to get really frustrated in arenas. A lot times I end up screaming and yelling a lot and mentally worn down at the end of an arena-thon. Taint is my hardest coach for sure. We don't play coy when it comes to improving our game.

1) you probably won't have the best team matrix and will find that those who do will easily plow you over.

2) until everything is second nature to you in arenas, things will be tough. being unprepared and scared is a huge factor I run into a lot. this is where number of games comes into play...the more you do..the more you know and are prepared for. ie..this lock is probably going to chain fear me when the warrior is at 60% hp. or get ready to counterspell the pally when he goes for flash or holy light when his warrior is at 80%...10 secs is enough to blow him up.

3) you'll know you're starting to get somewere when you're blaming your execution of something rather than the whole WTF just happened?

4) find teammates who share you masochistic lifestyle.. it's no fun when you're practicing and failing...when one of your partners bails because "it's too frustrating or no fun anymore." Odds are you aren't learning anything if you're kicking ass. Failure is where you learn the most.

When I started 2v2s with warrior/pally...it was very very frustrating. I couldn't get heals off, I was constantly being cc'd or obliterated. I wasn't using line of sight right, I was moving to bubble soon enough or sometimes too soon, I dind't know to use seal of justice on a druid, I would panic a lot when I got focused etc...

We lost a ton of games on the first two days when I started to play. But as I kept practicing and getting to learn my class in an arena situation better, things got easier and easier. I started doing things automatically..like when to cast freedom or bop...when to waste the GCD on dispel rather than flash of light...etc

The same thing with my 3v3 team as well. 5v5 games won't teach you to optimize your class as well as 2v2 and 3v3s because you have to depend on yourself more than rely on other people. Often times, people are carried by a good matrix and then get the mindset that they're great at pvp and arenas.

For instance, one of the top 5v5 alliance teams on Boulderfist has characters who have 2v2 and 3v3 teams in the 1600s. This says a lot about them as an individual player...not that they aren't good, but that odds are, most of their skill comes from group dynamic rather than individual.

Practice not only makes you battle-hardened, it makes that group dynamic I just spoke of a work of art. You run up against 2k rated teams and you sware you're watching a coreographed ballet performance. No one fumbles, everyone is in LOS of each other, counter spells, fears, dispels...SPOT on...hamstrings up, freedoms on, heroism at just the clutch moment... no mistakes and TIMING is perfect! That's one of the hardest things about Arenas is finding people willing to put in the time for that level of performance.

Anyhow, I have a long way to go as well. I was happy to push all my teams (2v2, 3v3, and 5v5) to 1900+ last season but for Season 3, I'd like to hit 2k at least once. ;D
It's just a whole new ballgame when you hit that level of play.

Also, playing for fun can be great as well.. if you want to just hit the casual arena scene. From 1400-1650 is my marker for casual arena players. It gives you a decent amount of points for gear and you don't have to get into the nitty gritty of high level competition but just enough competition to feel the excitement.

ps. I almost forgot one of the hugest tips of all. COMMUNICATION. If you're too chicken-sh*t to yell at your priest for not mass dispelling fast enough or your paladin for holding out on BOP or not giving freedom fast enough...or if you're too afraid to confront your warrior for not getting hamstring or too timid to tell your warlock to not dot the rogue so you can sheep a target....you're gonna fall into the polite but fatal category of low growth.

Okay, I'm not suggesting you pick a fight with your team members.. perhaps "yell" is a harsh word. But if you can't communicate what everyone needs to improve on because you're too scared to hurt feelings.. you're probably not going to get very far in terms of group dynamics.

Season 3

Well Season 3 has kicked off. The re-gearing was like Christmas in WoW...which happens every arena season. It's pretty fun.. the re-enchanting is a pain though. We lack shards this season for the enchants so we'll be runnning a lot of heroics etc soon.
We're pretty lucky in that Felicks is the master gem crafter of the guild. I got his last skyfire diamond.. hahaha. woot!

Hunters definitely got the biggest xmas present. They got to buy their season 3 weapons without a 2k rating. Wut up with that Blizzard?

So we were going to spend the night doing heroics to gather shards but we ended up having enough people on our team to do 5v5s. Yeah, we're crazy and masochistic and wanted to eat plenty of dirt. hahaha.

It's quite fun, painful, and interseting getting to go up against some of the most bad @ss teams in the battlegroup. We played for hours...didn't want to stop. We finally cracked 1600 and then called in a night at 2am. lol. Our lowest point was 1496. It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. We even got to play against some of the top 15 teams from last season. Talk about intense!

Our first line up was paladin, holy priest, demo lock, warrior, and rogue
Second line up for the night was pladin, holy priest, frost mage, warrior, and rogue

Next time, we'd like to try pally, priest, mage, lock, warrior

I told Felix he needs to get 6000 shards in his bank so he doesn't have to stop to get more shards. Apparently two full bags isn't enough when you're on a roll. I wish they would refund shards back to locks after the arena is over.

Well last season we weren't able to break 2k. When we changed our line up, we got up to 1960 but the last week of the season we had to sub in all of our characters into that team so there wasn't anymore progression. :( On a good note though even though we subbed in all of our alts, we still ended with a 1915 rating. Not bad for scrubs. :D

Reigndeer in November

On Sunday, I ended up talking to Britnay and Flipmax about random crap we have in our bags etc. And some how we got to talking about the Christmas treats. Someone said they saw someone on a reigndeer flying mount. I was like, flying wasn't even available last x-mas in WoW.

Turns out 2.3 they activated [preserved holly] to work on flying mounts!! woot!!!
I had debated throwing my 25 stacks of preserved holly out awhile back..I'm sure glad I kept um....

We tried it out and spent like a good 2 hours just flying around Shat.
/console pitchlimit 750
allows you to do flips!! We were making coordinated stunt shows in front of the aldor and scryer bank. It was awesome!!!

Anyhow, hope everyone has a nice holiday!

What's your game?

hahaha.. my guildmate posted the links to the new wow commercials on our forums..
They're pretty funny! Thanks Gravin!

Mr. T

Shatner

I'm just waiting for the Chuck Norris one. lol!

American Pie...wowcast twist

a parody of the song American Pie by Don McLean with a wowcast twist by Spurlock
LMAO!!!!!.. he did it again!

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that podcast used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I might capture a fleeting glance
And, maybe, we could play wow for a while.

But November made me shiver
With every download iTunes did deliver.
Hardly a podcast in the queue;
I didn’t know what to do.

I can’t remember if I cried
When Blizzcon her last cast did deride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the wowcast died.

So bye-bye, miss alachyiiiiiiiiiiii.
Pointed my browser to her website,
But she only talked about Tai.
And them good old listeners were starting to cry
Writing’, "is the end of the podcast nigh?.
" is the end of the podcast nigh?."

Do you arena three on three,
And will you team your pally with me,
If Blizzard tells you so?
Do you read elitist jerks,
And do you think their strategy works,
And can they teach me how cc warriors?

Well, I know that you are quick on heals
`cause I saw your tank he never ever keels.
You both have paid your dues.
Man, I dig those purple and blues.

I was a level 30 undead lock
Without a mount I had to walk,
But I knew now the game would suck
The day the podcast died.

So bye-bye, miss alachyiiiiiiiiiiii.
Pointed my browser to her website,
But she only talked about Tai.
And them good old listeners were starting to cry
Writing’, "is the end of the podcast nigh?.
" is the end of the podcast nigh?."

Now for two months we’ve been on our own
And without wowcast we feel alone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the boys sang a song from Diana Ross,
Their loyalty it did come across
In a voice that hurt the ears of you and me,

Oh, and after Tai described the ice mage path
An emailer pointed out an error in math
The listeners were dismayed;
Respecced the mages they played.
And while Felix talked about molten core,
Only a few thought him a bore,
And fans everywhere cried out for more
The day the podcast died.

So bye-bye, miss alachyiiiiiiiiiiii.
Pointed my browser to her website,
But she only talked about Tai.
And them good old listeners were starting to cry
Writing’, "is the end of the podcast nigh?.
" is the end of the podcast nigh?."

Karazan in a ten man raid.
All ten jae, a guild premade,
Ten bosses pulled and dying fast.
The maiden almost kicked your ass,
The players nearly died in mass,
When Saddin killed the bitch at last.

Now the metaverse talk is sweet perfume
Perhaps some day its discussion will resume.
`cause metalk it kicked some but;
But Spurlock’s mouth he rarely shut.
Didn’t we even talk of smut
The day the music died?

So bye-bye, miss alachyiiiiiiiiiiii.
Pointed my browser to her website,
But she only talked about Tai.
And them good old listeners were starting to cry
Writing’, "is the end of the podcast nigh?.
" is the end of the podcast nigh?."


Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A 25 five man raid lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: Felix be nimble, Felix be quick!
Felix flash heal before the dot tick
Cause plus healing is the pally’s only friend.

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

So bye-bye, miss alachyiiiiiiiiiiii.
Pointed my browser to her website,
But she only talked about Tai.
And them good old listeners were starting to cry
Writing’, "is the end of the podcast nigh?.
" is the end of the podcast nigh?."

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went to the wowcast site
Where I’d listened to casts all night,
But the page said the casts wouldn’t play.

And in the blog: the posters screamed,
The haters cheered, and the supporters dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The hyperlinks all were broken.
And those little things I loved the most:
A courageous, funny and endearing host,
Would I ever see them in another post?
The day the music died.

So bye-bye, miss alachyiiiiiiiiiiii.
Pointed my browser to her website,
But she only talked about Tai.
And them good old listeners were starting to cry
Writing’, "is the end of the podcast nigh?.
" is the end of the podcast nigh?."


So bye-bye, miss alachyiiiiiiiiiiii.
Pointed my browser to her website,
But she only talked about Tai.
And them good old listeners were starting to cry
Writing’, "is the end of the podcast nigh?.
" is the end of the podcast nigh?."

Gruul Heads

So last night we ran Gruul's again. It was our second attempt as a guild. To the shock of everyone, we one shot King Maulgar! Well, I was surprised anyhow because we had a fair amount of new people.

For some reason, we all ended up with pumpkins over our heads. lol! I'm not sure when it happened cuz I was too busy trying to get the raid together. So the goal was to beat Gruul's by the time the pumpkin heads wore off! hahaha.

Okay, so we didn't make the deadline nor did we down Gruul's. We ended up getting Gruul's down to 7% with 24 people (someone had to leave early). And so we were sure we'd get it on the next attempt because we were able to pull in an extra pug to help with DPS. But then we took too long for that last attempt and got respawns that split some of the raid in half....and then there was a resulting wipe..at which point we had to call the raid. I think we did about 5 Gruul attempts. Robbed I say!!! That 6th attempt should have been ours!!

On a side note, my paladin got ditched! hahahaha. We were lacking in DPS during the Gruul fight so they called out my shadow priest to be the...how did they put it?..."mana battery" for the mages. lol. It really did make a difference too because the mages didn't run out of mana after that. It's too bad the battery pack doesn't work on myself as well. I have to chug mana pots to keep up...fix that kk blizzard?
:D

Zul'Aman

Patch day was pretty exciting. We had people crafting new things, making airplanes, getting new cooking recipes, new enchants, new gems..

We also successfully took down the Nalorakk, the bear lord in Zul'Aman tonight. You have 20 minutes from ringing the gong and the gates opening to the first boss to slay him for a chance to save the hostage who will give you extra loot. I was like 20mins my @ss! Maybe for a heavy 25 man raid group to come back in and slaughter this joint..yeah maybe.. lol. [Pauldrons of Primal Fury] dropped...and of course, we had no hunter in our group. :P

We also tried for the Eagle boss but the add-pulls were insane.. wave after wave of birds and elite dudes with no end in sight. We're thinking we might wait another week or so before attempting the rest of the instance. Hopefully more information will be out by then so we don't have to be the pioneers who pay 50g a night doing attempts. :D

Our guild is actually doing Gruul's tomorrow night. I don't have full confirmation on our filler guild but I'm 99% sure it's on...so I'm excited about that.

Patch 2.3, My Highlights

So I always wait to read the patch notes the day the patch comes out. After I finish downloading the patch, I read the notes as it installs. As we all knew, it sure was a big one!

Here are the ones I'm pretty excited about or thought were noteworthy!

1. New enchant available to shields to increase resilience.
2. Soulwell's take less time to make now...yay for warlock's in Arena prep time.
3. Dispel Magic has been increased to 40yrds. Noteworthy for me because I used to gauge Karazhan Prince Shadow Volley by the 30yrd dispel range..now I can't use that as my measuring tool.
4. Engineering recipe from Niobe Whizzlespark in Shadowmoon for Flying device!! woot!
5. New meta gem in Shadowmoon valley that adds crit from Coilskar Siren.
6. Gladiator Gear from different seasons now stack for set bonuses. ah yeah!
7. Apexis shards from Ogri'lla daily quests in larger quantity can now be turned in for global use elixirs. Time to raid!
8. You can now run Heroics with only Honored reputation!
9. There are now Dungeon daily quests from lower city...as well as BG daily quests and a new cooking daily quest! Cha-ching!
10. When you inspect people, you can now see their talent trees. Hehehe.. why did you put points into that moron!!??
11. One mail can now send out 12 items...maybe this is the start to not needing a mail mod.
12. Minimap has upgraded features like showing you who has recently sent you mail and where NPCs are by serch.

Also a ton of class changes...but everyone should read through all of those...some are pretty significant changes that may make you think to respec...*cough*Priest!*cough*

edit: Oooh. more cool stuff. Mages can conjure vending machines now instead of being one! And you can buff for free mana before BGs begin now! Woot!

Portal Wallpaper

Designing for 1%

I'm pretty excited about Patch 2.3 this Tuesday. I'm very happy about the new 10 man instance Zul'Aman. Two days ago, we were running Sadin's lock alt through steamvaults...after we were done, I turned the party into a raid and hopped into Serpentshrine Caverns. WoW. That place is soo cool looking. The art concept was quite unique to what I've seen so far in most raid dungeons.

Then it kind of made me sad to think that less that 1% of our server has probably seen the inside of it. What a waste. So yea, I'm happy about the new 10 man content. We're going to try and give it a whirl on Tuesday...see if we can't get the first boss down.

As for the 25 mans... there is a possibility that our guild could start seeing more of it. I've been trying to work with another small guild to hook up with us to fill in our Gruul attempts. So far, we've only been able to get enough people from our own guild once...and that was like 5 weeks ago.

This week we're going to try the filler guild out and see how it pans out.. I'm hoping there are no issues so it can help us out to see more 25 man content.

PvP bounce

So I have to admit, I've been very hesitant to play my paladin in arenas..I just felt like she wasn't good enough. But last week, Taint finally convinced me to just go for it...and bite the bullet.

So I started up the 2v2 and 3v3s a little more aggressive. It was super rocky at first..mostly with me being yelled at a ton while I was learning how to move and what to do for what class. Can't brute force the heal.. you have to be a NINJA.

I still need a ton of practice of course.. nowhere near enough practice. Can't stress the word practice for pvp. But I was able to jump to 1734 from 1500 something on my 2v2 and we're about 1818 on the 3v3. But we also started practicing 5v5 and today we almost broke 2k rating! Lots of quad dps blew us the hell up though..omg...heroism+mage+lock+shadowpriest+elemental shaman = dead @ss warrior in 2 seconds. lol. flavor of the month teams suck.

Alachia's UI

StreetChief said...
How come we never get to see Alachia's UI?

hehe. That's because there's nothing all that fancy about my UI. About a year ago, I stopped using most UI mods to alleviate the frustration when patches came around.

My must have mods right now are Quartz, Grid, Simple Action Sets, Damage Meters, and Outfitter for normal usage..
and Ora2, Bigwigs, and Big Brother for raiding.

all the buttons on the bottom two rows are pretty much keybound to my keyboard...and the ones on the right side are buffs and professions etc.

Happy Candy Day 2007

Eat Candy till you Puke!!

Happy Halloween!

Kara complete

Happy to report that jae has finally completed Karazhan. Netherspite and Nightbane went down this week. Very interesting fight. Nothing like slaying a dragon to complete your week. I'm surprised at how much I have enjoyed going back and doing casual pve raiding.

However, I think I will take a break this week from raiding.... I have to concentrate on Halloween!! The sacred ritual of spreading the joy of candy!! wohoo!

Dear Alachia...about Arenas

hi i'm Vampy level 70 orc female warrior on blackwing lair medium population.

my question is this. i just started arena'ing not too long ago during season 2, ive heard rumors about season 3 that you might have to have a certian point rating in order to purchase weapons and gear, while other equipment like shoulders and season 1 gear you can buy with just arena points. for somone like me that doesnt have any good pvp gear *was mostly prot spec for instances and dungeons) to move to pvp arena and have a hard time as it is to get a group together for a 3v3 or 5v5 and get points. the prospect of having to build up a certain rating to get good gear to me sounds like a nightmare, reminds me of the constant av battlegrounds i did pre-bc to get honor to get marks and gear... plz see what you can find about this, do a show on arena and any info on season 3 would be appreciated. (>'.')> THANK YOU! ^^
------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Vampy,

Season 3 will bring new limitation to arena gear for sure. It will make the standard for Season 3 shoulders and weapons a lot higher. 2k rating for shoulders and 19k rating needed for weapons. Also, they are moving to a new personal rating system so you will no longer be able to jump on a high rated team to boost your rating. This is so you don't have 2k rated teams selling their service or their team for thousands of gold.

Season 1 Arena gear, you will now be able to buy from BG honor. So this will help immensely for people just starting off. In order to work your way up, any new player will have to grind just as hard as the veterans did back in Season 1.

Luckily, the gear upgrade from Season 1 Arena gear to Season 2, was not that much...so you're probably still not looking at too much of a disparity between Season 2 and 3 is my guess.

My first advice is to farm 104,000 BG honor points while you're doing your arena teams. You can store 75k. Get all of the Veteran BG stuff you can get ...or at least store the honor to purchase next season's BG gear.

I'm a little upset about the standard of the 2k rating for shoulders but I also see why they are doing this. Too may people are simply playing a minimum of ten games per week and through the course of several months, are entitled to the same gear as people who play 30 games a day. I think there should be some separation between people who are only in it for gear..and those who are really committed to Arena play.

Like any thing in WoW, a couple weeks of grinding is in order. This is a sad sordid fact but true nonetheless. If you're serious about Arenas, you'll need to find a truly committed 3v3 or 5v5 team so you can practice daily. Also, if you check out a lot of the armory for the top teams, you will often find players in the top spots who don't have full Mericless but are rather blue in gear. This is because some matrixes allow for class composition to compensate for gear.

Hope this info helps. And GL with the Arenas!!
take care,
wow4life,
Alachia

Friend or Foe

You ever have one of those really crappy weeks in wow...where you get so angry you think you should just walk away?? like..maybe I should just watch syndicated re-runs every night or maybe I should take up gardening and spend my weekend knee-deep in cow dung? hahaha.

yeah, I'm definitely having one of those weeks. It's so weird too because everything was seemingly going pretty well. I thought I was finally cracking out of my shell and learning to socialize and not be so anti-social and exclusive.

But people have a funny way of disappointing you...and maybe as a person I have too high expectations... like consideration, respect, courtesy..but maybe those terms don't exist in today's society.

I can't get into details of course because I can't start shit in my own guild. But for example... Let's say Carl has a 5v5 team. After season one, he makes room for a friend of his to join the team. People have to shift characters and talent specs to make this work but it's done. Everyone seems happy. But Carl's friend Nicky has night classes and can't play most days of the week...especially during optimum times for the group. But the team works around it. The team does well almost even breaking the 2k rating. However, due to more night classes and other priorities, the team doesn't practice as much. They drop in rating from only playing 10 games per week and serious lack of communication. Last week, Carl finds out that Nicky ups and leaves the team to join another 5v5 team without telling anyone. Not even the courtesy of giving the team warning or caring about what situation it leaves the team in. Carl isn't so much stressed about the lack of a player..it can be remedied..that's not the point. Carl is pissed because he thought Nicky was a friend and that there was mutual loyalty and trust. But f-that.

And that's just 1/10th of what happened this week. >:(

Quest for the Pumpkin Head Complete

Day 4: Starts out like it normally does with a quick summon of the Headless Horseman. We beat him down through the three phases...only our dps is lighter than before and we don't one shot him during the third phase...but he still goes down. BOOM. Hallowed Helm drops first kill!!! I can't remember if I rolled NEED and won or if I threatened to put a severed head in everyone's bed if they didn't pass....can't remember...details fuzzy. :)


So yeah, meh gotz a glowing pumpkin head to spread the joy of jacko brain to all of Azeroth and the Outlands now. We ran the quest four more times after that and nothing but the rings and some brooms dropped. I think Felix and Sad were glad that I got it so they wouldn't have to be dragged back into SM every day. hehe.

Quest complete! Now...time to finish the hunt for the Tauren Mask.

Quest for the Pumpkin Head Continues

DAY 2: More epic rings drop. No helm. :(

DAY 3: No WOW. Someone pissed me off.

DAY 4: Five more attempts at The Headless Horseman, no Hallowed Helm yet! But I got 3 Swift Flying Brooms! I sold all 3 in the trade channel for 30g. Pretty cool! I figured it's better to get the gold than to hang onto a cool item that only lasts 14 days. Sadin got [The Horseman's Helm] though. And a shaman in our guild got two rings, then switched to his druid and got two more rings. lol.

NO Hallowed Helm yet... :(

Also, I've been trick or treating at the Inn and no Tauren Mask yet!! So far, not much luck this halloween.

Quest for the Pumpkin Head

DAY 1:
3 something years ago when I was playing FFXI, I saw some of the other taru taru with the pumpkin head helm. Upon research, I found out it was something you could only get from the Holiday quest. :( I was so disappointed. I really wanted one.

This year in WoW, I have my chance!! Yesterday was the first day I went to Scarlet Monastery Grave Yard and fought the Headless Horseman six times. No [Hallowed Helm] yet. But the quest for the helm continues!

Headless Horseman Fight
Phase 1: DPS down the Horseman
Phase 2: DPS down the head and him while he conflags random people
Phase 3: DPS down the Horseman and his ads

Phase 4: Pray for the helm to drop!!

So far, I've gotten a ton of candy that makes you go fast and throw up if you eat too much. I've also gotten the [Witching Band]. No broom yet for me.

Healer Box

(my world is a few boxes but I see way more than squares)

For some reason, people keep asking me, how can you like playing a healer? Don't you get really bored? Isn't it boring? Aren't you just spamming one button?

First, this is my fourth 70 character so if I do get bored, it's not like I don't have options..so it's no real tragedy. Second, at the moment, no, healing is not boring at all. Yes, I do tend to spam a certain FOL (flash of light) button over and over again alot but it's not the only thing I got up my sleeve! hahaha

Healers not only have to heal, they have to calculate other incoming heals, try to prevent over healing to conserve mana, but never underheal so that people die during spikes. There are a lot of emergency triggers as well all healers have to be on the ball for... ie.. power word shield, mending, nature swiftness, blessing of protection, fear, shackle, purge, dispel, etc. And all that supplemental stuff must be done in between a steady stream of heals.

The average pull...yeah, probably easy enough blindfolded...but what separates a good healer from a bad healer is their ability to recover from a not-so-average pull.

For me, I get excited whenever we get through an entire event without wiping or if no one dies at all during a fight. The healers are the bottom line. If that bottom line drops out...everyone else can't do their job right.

Rogue, Mage, Shadow priest....the same as a healer in my opinion in terms of "excitement".... you have your usual dps cycle you spam...and then you have your supplemental spells you have to use at a moments notice when things go bad or the battle one ups you. I'm told by all the tanks, it's the same way. Spam the same buttons over and over again until someone pulls agro over you, then you slam the few other keys.

It's all about perspective I suppose. Do you get more of a high from seeing damage output or healing output.

To the Cave!

(jae gnomes raid gruul's lair!)...beer goggles ftw!

Not too bad! It took us about 3 real pull attempts until we finally got down High King Maulgar. It really is about the pull like they say. The rest is pretty easy. My job was definitely easy. I was main healer on the 1st tank who was on Seer, the Priest...then I moved to raid healing. I don't think I even cracked past 75% mana.

I thought it went quite smoothly and there was plenty of time for the guys to get their man on man homophobic banter on as well. hahaha. My personal favorite is the LFM guy on guy action, straight males only need apply....based off of something Boozefort found in an actual paper ad. heh.. well. the guild would get it.

Anyhow, I digress.

We had to figure out the trash pulls on the fly but once we did, things started to get smoother and we know for next time what to do on the final trash pull. There are two healers and a warrior mob all together. The warrior mob needs to be pulled far, far away from the healers because missing one stun on a heal is like starting from scratch.

Gruul himself. Our first attempt, we got him down to 49% with half the raid dead from the very first shatter. We only got 3 attempts in before we had to call the raid. We could only raid from 10pm to 12pm.

So not bad for our first go at it.. I had a lot of fun for sure. It was a super nice change for the guild I think and I love us being able to do something as a guild. We are often segmented into our own groups, you miss out on the cool-ness of the other peeps.

But yay on our first two guildies to get tier 4 shoulders! I'm uber proud. I hope we can try again next week but we shall see.

Thanks for the tips! Those really helped!

One more thing, is there any way to have the range dps use the wall crevices and columns to avoid being Groundslammed all over the place??

Gruul's Strat

Hahaha. PHREAK I'm freaking!(hackers reference)

Yeah, I tend to go a little psycho when I'm planning something out sometimes. I want everything perfect and as efficient and organized as possible. And to be honest, when you have no experience with an instance except for a super botchy attempt made months ago, you don't have much to go from.

I've read what I can from wikki, forums, and bosskillers but you never know if what works for one guild, works for another.

I'll be super excited if we down High King Maulgar tonight. I've pretty much broken up the raid into the different adds.

Seer- Kill first. Sibyll will tank. Rexfelis to midirect on Sibyll. Myself and another pally will be healing. When shield goes up, raid will be asked to burn any instant dps or just anything to burn down the priest shield. Rogue will have applied poisons etc. When shield goes down, Rogue stuns the Seer so he doesn't AOE heal the rest of the adds. Repeat until down. Once done, Mathas and myself will move to spot healing the raid. Sibyll will help dps.

Warlock- Kill Second. Two tanks. Sad and Boozefort. Nublock (lock) will enslave the felhound during the first pull. Nub and Gataki (locks) will then be need to keep felhound enslaved or banished. Felhound can be used as off tank if controlled right, if so, healers will need to keep the felhound up as well. Gravin(pally) and Theadin(priest) will be the healers for this fight. After downed, Gravin will move to Trax and Theadin will move to healing Blackfist and Rexfelis on the Shaman. Sad and Booze move to dps.

Mage- Kill Third. Runciter(mage) will be the main tank. He should spellsteal fireward before the fireball. Fearrar(priest) and Aiikea(priest) will be the main healers for Runciter. Healers should stay out of Blastwave range. After done, Aiikea will move to Trax(main tank) and Fearrar will move to spot healing raid.

Shaman- Kill Fourth. Rex and Black with Aspect of Nature up. They both tank ranged on the far side of the room near Gruul's gate. When one gets sheep, the other begins tanking. Perhaps is the main healer for this fight. After done, Perhaps will move to Trax(main tank) and Theadin will move to raid heals. Rex and Black move to dps the boss.

Maulgar- Last kill. Blackfist to misdirect on Trax. Trax tanks full fight. Sang (shammy) should dps in range to drop tremor totem, grace of air, and mana spring totems. At close to 50%, Mahon (dwarf priest) casts fearward on Trax. All dps and healers should move away during whirlwind (7k dmg to plate). Raid healers will have to clean fast after random charge attacks. Amplify magic should be kept on Trax during the fight (Neusa priority but if dead, Flipmax, then Hoodwinked responsibility). Melee dps-safest to approach Maulgar right after whirlwind.

I'm still sketchy on the initial pull though. Some say to do it with the mage, others say to do it with a Pally bubble. I guess we'll try the mage pull first.



For Gruul:
Amp magic, devo aura, HP buffs etc on the entire raid.
The objective is to kill Gruul before he hits around 17 Growth debuffs.

Tanks:
MT must have more agro than OT. OT must have more agro that the rest of the raid at all times. MT will be hit with a normal attack, OT (second agro) will be hit with HURTFUL STRIKE (12,350 dmg). MT and OT should be topped off at all times to counter healer cc.

Pull: Misdirect on Main tank. Let MT and OT build agro. Raid gets into position and then begins dps.

Raid Fight:
Important general raid info is to stay around 9 yards apart from the next player.
Random attacks (GROUNDSLAM/SHATTER) will occur that will need spot healing. As long as players remain apart during these attacks, the dmg should be easily healed. GROUNDSLAM: Players will be tossed in random directions...important to move away from another player asap. SHATTER: aoe dmg around the target 15yrd radius. Players can use obstacles in the lair to avoid being tossed far from GROUNDSLAM.

Groundslam:
MT and OT must run back into position. OT must regain second agro asap.

Trax (druid) to main tank and Sad (warrior to offtank). They say warriors can use last stand and shield wall to survive the last of the HURTFUL STRIKES.


If any of this seems off, please let me know in a few hours! hahahah.

Luckiest Pally that Ever Ran Kara

Today was the start of our second week doing Karazhan. We seem to be getting faster. Last week, we finished up Prince on Thursday. We even did a one shot attempt at Netherspite to get people familiar with the fight. I thought we'd wipe out at the first phase but we lasted to 30% before he enraged. So last week, I finished off the week getting the [Legplates of the Innocent] from the Chess Event and [Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted] from Prince.

Tonight we ran Kara for 2.5 hours and got to Currator. I got [Libram of Souls Redeemed] from the Big Bad Wolf Opera Event and [Justicar Glove] from Currator! It's like this sign that I was meant to play pally!! CRAZY. I never ever would have though I'd get gear this fast. NEVER!!!

Normally, we would have stopped at Opera Event and stopped at 11pm. But I asked if people minded spending the extra 30 mins to clear to Currator. Normally, we'd probably knock out Currator, Shade of Aran, and Illhoof the next day. HOWEVER, tomorrow we are actually going to attempt Gruul's Lair as a guild!! So, we will probably only have Thursday to finish up Kara...that's why I wanted the extra push.

I'm quite excited about this Gruul's Lair attempt. The first time we did this as a guild, we were SEVERELY under-geared and under-manned. We were going in with only 20 people. It's been several months later now...and most of us are very geared and have had more experience raiding and instancing with our characters.

Unfortunately, our guild only has about 32 level 70 characters and only around 20-22 are active during the week at a time. Everyone is older and have "R"esponsibilities to tend to...etc so our schedules vary a lot.

but SOMEHOW, I was able to gather 25 people to sign up for Gruul's Lair. It took some begging and some schedule shifting but hopefully tomorrow night there will be 25 JAE heading into the cave!

I'm hoping it goes well so that people will be more encouraged to try 25 mans out in the future. I wish Blizzard would decrease the raid to about 15-20 which is perfect for a family sized guild. I know..hard core raiders would HATE that but it seems more realistic to me. Just looking at my server alone with less than half the raiding guilds even making it all the way through Serpentshrine Caverns and only one guild who has even stepped foot in Mt.Hyjal and Black Temple. I mean, doesn't that say something? Only 25 people in the entire server who have seen the instance?

Here's our line up for tomorrow!
Tanks
1. Sibyll-Warrior-> Seer Priest (kill order1)
2. Sadin-Warrior-> Summoner Warlock Main (kill order2)
3. Boozefort-Warrior-> Summoner Warlock Felhounds (kill order2)
4. Runciter-Mage-> Krosh Mage (kill order3)
5. Rexfelis->Hunter-> Crazed Shaman (kill order4)
6. Blackfist->Hunter-> Crazed Shaman (kill order4)
7. Traxxas-Druid-> High King Maulgar Warrior (kill order5)

Healers
8. Alachia-Pally-> Sibyll (kill order1)
9. Gravin-Pally-> Sadin/Unknown (kill order2)
10. Theadin-Priest-> Sadin/Unknown (kill order2)
11. Fearar-Priest-> Runciter (kill order3)
12. Aiikea-Priest-> Runciter (kill order3)
13. Perhaps-Priest-> Rexfelis/Blackfist (kill order4)
14. Mahon-Priest-> Trax/Fear Ward (kill order5)
15. Felix-Pally-> Trax (kill order5)
16. Mathas-Pally-> Trax (kill order5)

DPS
17. Gatki-Lock-> Banish/Enslave Felhound 1st (every 2min)
18. Nublock-Lock-> Banish/Enslave Felhound 2nd (every 2min)
19. Nodden-Lock-> Banish Felhound if needed
20. Sang-Shaman->Tremor Totem on High King Maulgar 50% Enrage
21. Bril-Rogue
22. Hoodwinked (possible mage tank. need to compare HP)
23. Neusa (possible mage tank. need to compare HP)
24. Flipmax-Mage
25. Britnay-Warlock

Yeah, it's kind of crazy. We're like one of those rare guilds that has very few rogues and hunters. hahaha. Lots of tanks and healers though!

I plan on splitting the raid up into 3 parts tomorrow on vent (tanks, healers, dps)..and breaking down the fight to them separately including positioning etc. If I have time, I'll send the tanks a synopsis of what they need to do via in-game mail so they get more detail...same for the healers and warlocks.

If any Gruul veterans have pointers, I'd really appreciate it! We're bringing flasks, elixirs, and pots to help make this as best a done deal as possible...*cross fingers*

Blizzcon Free Stuff Winners

Congrats to Sheldon, Brad, Nick, and Saul!

The Global 5v5 Arena Champs for 2007 was MOB Turtlebeach aka We lose cuz Daorok sux.

The goody bag with t-shirts and the booster packs should be shipped this week.
No one asked for the Hunter or Pally starter packs we got so I guess I'll be keeping those for the next cruise. lol.

For those of you who asked me why they only gave out X-Large t-shirts...hahaha. I felt the same way...I'm pretty sure it was because they didn't want to have to order different sizes which would cost more...so the obvious thing to do is to pick the largest size so everyone can wear them!

Episode 29 is up

hehehe... one of my occasional not just a blogger moments!

Okay..I hit 70 and as promised, I began work on editing this week....and so I finally got the Blizzcon 2007 episode out!!! yay!! SORRY SORRY FOR THE UBER DELAY. I know it's like soo 2 months ago!

Anyhow, THIS IS DEDICATED TO ALL YOU MOFOS OUT THERE WHO BEGGED ME TO GET THIS ONE OUT! thanks.. I needed it!

So, I apologize that it's not all good news etc...but it's my account of Blizzcon nonetheless..hehe.

Special thanks to Malcort, Krystofar, and Mak.
Music for Episode 29 provided by Merivel :D


(porn pop-up ads)


(monitor problems)

Karazhan - Pugs = Success

So last Saturday, I said we did an attempted Karazhan run with 3-4 pugs. We mucked through it but it was rough going. DPS was pitiful and there was no crowd control or room for error because the player base was so poor.

This week, we launched out a new JAE kara group in the guild and so far (knock on wood), it's been a success! We weren't sure how we'd do really since most of us haven't run the instance in several months... and a few of us are green to our new characters including myself and another former shadowpriest turned warlock.

Our line up for this week has been Prot Warrior, Arms/Fury Warrior, BM Hunter, Marksman Hunter, Fire Mage, Asass/Combat Rogue, Affliction Warlock, Holy Priest, Holy Pally, Holy Pally.

I know I know...it's Kara..and that's so last year and everyone else is on to the Black Temple or whatever... but I don't know, it's still feels good to do this as a group. I like the ten man set up...it's intimate enough and manageable.

I'm still hoping to get the guild on a Gruul's Layer run in the future..but we pretty much have about 25-27 Level 70 people in the guild...and it's pretty rare for all of them to be on at the same time. We usually have about twenty 70s online...just a smidgen off from the twenty-five that we need.

Anyhow, Tuesday, we downed Huntsman, Moroes, Maiden, and Opera Event (Romeo and Juliet). Yesterday, we downed Currator, Shade of Aran, and Illhoof. Tonight, we hope to do Chest Event and down the Prince. Hopefully all goes according to plan.

I've been quite the lucky mofo. Healing gear has been raining down from the sky. It's quite unexpected too since I didn't expect to get anything for several weeks. Maybe that's the trick??? Go in expecting nothing and then you'll get something? :D

My Kara booty!: [Pauldrons of the Justice-Seeker], [Whirlwind Bracers], [Gauntlets of Renewed Hope], [Belt of Gale Force]

Postcard from Boozefort

I didn't wanna send anything until I had something different. I found where the water ends suddenly. This is between Burning Steppes and the human starting area.
Postcards from Around the World (of Warcraft)

I leveled, I dinged, I passed out

(how I imagined my DING Level 70 party)

As predicted, I hit 70 last Thursday. It's weird. When I put my mind to something, I usually can't stop until I finish. People seem to think I really love to level characters but the truth is I hate it. I hate the constant grind WoW makes you do when all you want to do is try out another class. However, I tell people that you're simply mistaking being good with enjoying.

I got good at leveling somehow along the way. Part of it is instinct from past experience and the part is knowing how to utilize the resources to benefit the instinct. NEVER guess on what you're doing, you could waste up to a whole hour. Just take the 5 minutes to plan out your route and the exact needs of your quests...then hit the road. It's worth it. This is for efficiency purposes only...everyone should play the game how they want to...even if its wondering around the world of Azeroth for hours on end :D

I have to thank a couple of people though that really helped me out big time...Sadin who helped run me through a couple of the instances I couldn't tackle myself. Flipmax's warlock and Felix's mage and warrior alts who road the pain train with me for a few levels. And finally Felix's druid who hooked up with me at level 63. Together his feral druid and my paladin were like their own raid group. I must say it is an amazing thing to be able to carry with you a main healer and a main tank. You're pretty much set with that combo. Pugging was easy and all the quests were a cinch.


(the set up shot was ready)

So...back to the day I hit 70... I was all ready for it. I knew it was going to happen. I was just smidgens away from hitting 70 when Felix had to go to class...so I thought I'd just grind out the few thousand XP on mobs in Terokkar forest. Sadin had just returned from a business trip and was enthralled with all the Brewfest festivities. He was determined to win the Ram race. So after a few minutes, he says he has some hat to show me. I'm like cool, yeah, I'd like to see it.

In the meantime, I was getting ready to screen shot my ding. I kept positioning my camera and hitting the screenshot button right before the mob died. I did my final calculations and was like..okay..this is it for sure, I only have 800 more xp to go, this mob will do it.

Just as I'm about to kill the mob, Sadin flies in on his bird, charges the spider and bam, my XP is cut in half. I was like NOOOO! hahahaha. But then I saw the Brewfest hat he was wearing and started cracking up. Just then he hit another mob, practically one shot it and bam...I DINGED. I was still laughing but was like "you a-hole! you made me miss my screenshot! You distracted me with your stupid hat!"


(got my wings)

hahaha... so yeah.. that's how I dinged 70. It wasn't part of my ideal plan but it was bloody memorable. LOL. Soon, after, I got my flying mount and finished the Kara attunement quests. I also was able to do Slave Pen heroics to get my one primal nether to finally craft my [Justicebringer 2000]. Woohoo.. My gear isn't so bad atm. My healing bonus is 1287 and I'm blues and purples...so I'm keeping up.

My hope is start another kara group in my guild. For more than anything, I have found through leveling again, I kind of want to return to the social aspect of the game. And our guild is so segmeneted, I thought it'd be nice to have something as a guild to do. We sometimes do JAE preform Bgs but it's sporatic and usually on the weekends. There is another group in our guild that does Kara every week. I really admire their comradre and attitude.

I was able to form a spotty Kara group on Saturday with about four pugs and the rest JAE. WOW. those pugs were bad. The hunters did 25% of the mage dmg. The warlock did 25% of that.. However, we were able to down Huntsman and Maiden. We got Moroes down to 1%...No priests suck on Moroes due to the lack of cc on the adds. I have yet to see a hunter succesfully keep the adds cc'd during that fight. Anyhow, it was fun being a pally for once in Kara. Stoneform FTW. I knew I rolled an ugly dwarf for a reason!

Today is going to be our first full JAE run at Kara in a long time. It's partial new alts and partial mains. I'm just happy there won't be any pugs.


(Money Shot: the day I turned 70, I hit EOTS..no one protects the healers in PUG Bgs..I found myself dead a lot..but still on top of the healing meters :D sad...I know. Alliance suck)

Mooo-diculous

Wow... tauren look really stupid with the rocket helm on! hahaha. btw, when I went to take this pick, the wee little cows tried to shooo me away... lol. MOoooooove away!

Coming of Age

I am 99.99% sure I will hit level 70 tomorrow on my paladin!!! I'm very exited. Any one who hits around 68 and doesn't head to Netherstorm is missing out on some of the fastest XP evarrr!! I've done this roughly four times now and I will have to say that after you hit 67, it's a home run.

You just go to Netherstorm Area 52 and pick up [The Archmage's Staff] quest line. From there, you do two quick quests to make the staff and in the meantime you knock out [Consortium Crystal Collection], [Mark V is Alive] (hehehe Johnny 5 is Alive!), and [You're Fired]....

Then you head to Kirin'Var Village in Netherstorm and BOOOOM roughly 30 quests you knock out pretty much in succession and all in the same area!

And then if you need more after all that, you head to both the Eco Dome and the Stormspire...which are domed areas with a ton of quests in close vicinity again..can't stress enough having quests in close proximity to limit time not gaining xp.

Anyhow, I'm super excited! I feel like I should throw a Ding 70 party. hahahah.
Finally, Alachia has her 70 paladin...and no more excuses as to putting off the podcast which has been sitting on her comp ready to be edited for almost a month and a half. :(

Maybe I should get the White Gryphon this time?? ..since I'm all Holy. heh. Meh. Non epic flyers are a pain anyhow. But I know I'll need one to get up to Arcatraz. So'well.... woot!!! This is my LAST toon.. I sware.. no more!

Wolpertinger

be sure to get your Wolpertinger while Brewfest is going on! hahaha. looks like a half rabbit, half owl, half deer tri-hybrid. lol.

[Wolpertinger's Tankard]

The Bank Girls

I really take pride in my two main bank alts. I like them to look super nice for some reason. I think it's because my other characters can't necessarily look that great due to racials and gear.


So when I saw this ring on the AH, I was like SWEET, must get it for my bank alt. Then I saw the level requirement. BOOO... but just so you guys know, you don't need to buy this stuff off the AH. It's available in Exodar or Silvermoon unlimited from vendors. http://thottbot.com/c17512

I was hoping there would be a level 5 ring but the closest is a level 10 [mood ring]. Yay for Griftah and his shady dealings...[Soap on a Rope] level 1 necklace FTW! Now if I could get him to sell me some knock-off level 1 rings...

Protest Line

THANK YOU BLIZZARD....gah. So Monday, still part of AV weekend and the last day to get your Arena points in....they decide..let's enable voice chat on a multitude of servers.

First thing---AV crashes and que times go from 30 seconds to 19 minutes..and on into forever.

Second thing---Arena ques, even the 3v3s and 5v5s hit the 18 minute que marker but they actually extend into infinity as well.

The beauty---voice chat still doesn't work.

WHY?! Why did you have to jack with my precious AV weekend!??? Plus, they are resetting servers Tuesday anyhow...couldn't it have waited until then????

So while we were waiting in que for Arenas, we saw this huge line forming going around Shat. Our guess was that it was a silent protest to the Blizzard botch up. hehehe. So of course I joined in for a few rounds. I should have made a macro to chant "Ventrillo Forever!" :D

Top Healer at the Young age of 66

So my leveling came to a halt this weekend. AV weekend is a huge must for anyone who cares a bit about PvP or arenas. You don't miss AV weekend!! So Friday I stopped the questing and hit the AV ques. To our Boulderfist alliance surprise, almost no que times! Pretty instant. I'm not sure what happened..either less horde are playing or more alliance are...we suspect it has a lot to do with the afk reporting system from patch 2.2

In any case, the honor has been pouring in. Even for losses, I get as much as 480-550 honor if you can believe that. I already have over 30k honor. And shockingly, I have found myself top alliance healer at level 66 :D Not bad for going up against level 70 epic-ed out healerz. I guess I've found my calling after all!

Medallion of the Alliance-16,983 honor
Belt-17,850 honor
Bracer-11,794 honor
Boots-17,850 honor
Back-9,435 honor
Necklace-15,300 honor
Ring-15,300 honor
TOTAL: 104,512 honor needed. 70k more to go!

Oh also, there are a few quests you can do in AV that give roughly 6600XP for your first time in...if you're non 70. Okay..gonna go que up again! GRIND GRIND GRIND.

Watch me Fly!

Thanks to Sadin and Felix's warrior and lock, I was able to blow through the pally epic mount quest series...from eastern plaguelands to Southshore to Dire Maul to Scholo...and about 350g later, I'm riding the golden horned beast... and two minutes after that, I turned in 50 AV tokens to get my Battle Ram.

I use this macro:
/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Crusader Aura; [mounted] Concentration Aura;
/stopcasting
/use [nocombat, nomounted] Stormpike Battle Charger;
/dismount

and bam!! I fly at the speed of light every time I mount up and am ready for battle every time I dismount.

and for those of you who like the look of the Pally Warhorse instead, you can use this macro:
/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Summon Warhorse
/castsequence [mounted] Crusader Aura, Summon Warhorse
/cast [mounted] Concentration Aura

The reason I don't like the Warhorse macro is that you have to hit the macro twice in order to change the aura because it's two casts not a /use...I like the all in one..

but man... you sure do FLY when you've got cader aura!

Postcard from the Seas

I always thought those shammies were total pirates!

My Buddy and Me

I was pondering what my pet would be for this character. At first I wanted a big white owl cuz I'm so wise (hehe) but nothing like that exists in the game.. so I was carrying around a brown hawk for awhile.

Then it hit me! I must have the [pet bombling]! So I went to Tanaris right away...it took two renewals of my Goblin Engineering membership but sure enough today in the mail...I got my little bombling schematic!

He makes clickety clackety sounds when he walks...and when I do an excellent job healing, he tells me I'm the bomb...and I'm like.. nah man, you da bomb! hahahaha... /dork

Epic Pally Mount

Need info on the Epic Pally Mount quest. Most important question. Does the quest count as if you had bought an epic land riding skill? Or am I going to still have to buy that as well in order to get my flying mount skill?

It will cost me 350 Gold and these items which I have for the Epic Mount Quest:
5 Stratholme Holy Water
10 Arthas Tears
40 Runecloth
6 Arcanite bars
1 Azerothian Diamond
1 Pristine Black Diamond

OR I can just fork over 540g for the epic riding skill and get my AV mount free this weekend. Not sure what to do.

I'm saving like 190g...but is it worth the trouble?

BYOSP

Bring Your Own Static Party..

So I was questing in Nagrand today when a listener whispered me to give me an update on his wow status. He was having a pretty hard time because he's put a lot of effort into his guild and they're just not progressing well in PvE.

He's frustrated and tired of it and was looking for a new server. Since he's on a PvE server I suggested he try out that instance guild 'alea iacta est'...but he said he preferred alliance.. so I told him I heard they had an alliance sister guild on the server as well.

So then he said large guilds weren't really his thing. He asked about Boulderfist and I never sugar coat my server. It's full of really rude people who sh!t on you when you do them favor and make fun of you when you ask for help...and try to cheat you whenever they can. The horde outnumber us 70/30 and a lot of the major horde guilds have a KOS (kill on sight) policy for certain alliance guilds. It's definitely no picnic...but that's what I really like about it. I like that it's rough...it gives the game an extra edge I really like.

And in the end, he said "I guess no matter where I go, I'm still gonna be by myself". Sad isn't it? I'm very lucky that all my RL friends play this game...and extended family and friends are there as well so it all feels like a good community. But for those like this guy whose friends all went to go play...as he put it "evercrap" lol...you're kind of screwed.

Is it just me or does it seem like this huge huge huge MMORPG may seem like it harbors a valid way to socialize....but in the end, it may not be so social after all. How many real relationships are formed in the game? How many people do we meet from WoW while playing can we take a real relationships from?

For me? Almost all the relationships I've formed outside of my guild have been superficial. "yo" "sup" "got my new merciless piece" "nice" "thx"....etc

It seems to me like if the guild doesn't create an atmosphere of community, that you will never have the forum or opportunity to create real bonds that extend beyond the Underbog or Black Temple or level 42.

It's just an interesting observation...8 million subscribers but how many of us still feel alone?

Dwarf Pally Anomalies

Here are two dwarf pally anomalies you might not be aware of...

They are actually a lot smaller in real life.


They can now carry staffs!!

lol. okay okay.. or I'm a dork! hehehe.
[Torch of Retribution] [Noggenfogger Elixir]

You Broke it!

OMG. Blizzard's patch 2.2 has broken my favorite mod!!! Itemrack is torched. It bugs out now and won't allow me to inspect my own gear in the character screen. UGH! TORTURE!!!

I've tried going to wowinterface to download a new version but unfortunately that site is crashed out atm.

I read on some forum that outfitter>>itemrack. I've never tried it out. All I know is that I NEEED itemrack or something thereof to work for me. Right now I play four different characters and can not keep track of the pve vs pvp vs healing vs dps gear.

Damn you blizzard.. you broke it!! I think I would have preferred an itemrack type feature over the voicechat...not that chatting to pugs could be sooooo lovely.

Felix and I ran a pug Slave Pens the other night. OMG. He's a bear tank and I'm the healer...who we have in between, I don't care...they can even suck and wand the whole fight or have crappy gear...just as long as they don't cause us to wipe by being stupid and if they would STAY THE WHOLE instance. I kid you not, we went through 4 pugs that run because they would just DC all the sudden. And it wasn't like we were wiping or anything.

Felix's theory is that it all happened around 12am to 1am so perhaps they were kids whose accounts got shut down during that hour. I don't know but I haven't run an instance with pugs in forever. I just would have loved for them to commit to the damn thing...especially when they cost us like 10mins each to run out and summon.

Country meets Un'Goro

I don't know about you but when I'm in WoW, I tend to listen to music a lot...especially when I quest. It's interesting how I start to associate certain music to some zones in WoW. Terrokar Forest-Nelly Fertado, Nagrand-John Mayer, Netherstorm-4th Ambit (the audio story), etc..

A few days ago when my pally was level 48 in Un'Goro, I picked up the new Kenny Chesney album Poets and Pirates. I will have to say that by far that is the most surreal sh!t ever. Country star croonin' this love song called 'Scare Me' and my pally taking on terradactals in a lush jungle setting. hahahah. trippy!!!

Now I need a new soundtrack for the Outlands. James Blunt and Sara Bareilles were the staple for Hellfire.. I just need one for Zanger. heh.

Yup, I am now in Zangarmarsh and hittin' up quests like a storm. I've devised a clever questing plan since I'm too cheap to buy a leveling guide and don't want to waste time stumbling around. I went to google to look for a map of all the Outland territories. I was going to print them out and then mark coords to /tloc and number the points so that I go in order... my questing roadmap. Then I just cross them off as I go.

Well, when I was google-ing, I found these awesome maps I could use as a base for my roadmap. It kicks @ss. I just number them and coordinate it with my /tloc and go from zone to zone and knock um all out. Thanks to whoever did these!


zang

terrokar

nagrand

blade's edge

netherstorm

Just a Blogger :)

Foden said...
"I could spend a good two shows just talking about their uber-leetness. Make that three shows .."
You could, but you don't do the podcast anymore remember?
You used to rock, now you're just another blogger.

LOL. a blog you apparently read. :D

sorry. podcasting isn't my primary goal at the moment.

My pally hit level 60 tonight! She's a badass too. Top healer when she ran at AV at level 56...and at the time she was protection specced. Now she's full holy and I solo healed two flawless ramparts run tonight. It was so fun learning grid and figuring out how to be mana efficient with Divine Favor and Divine Illumination.

And to be honest, I was never a real podcaster...just a chick who plays wow who did a podcast every now and then. And I think people who listen and like the cast know that.

Shammy x5

(this video wasn't made by the guy who was quintupling the shamans, it was made by someone who saw the guy in AV and started to Fraps him)

(Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Healing Wave)x 5 = Game Over
Enough said. lol.

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, skip to 1:30

I wish I knew how to dual box program my keyboard and mouse to do this. I could probably do up to 3 instances of WoW. Frost mage x 3.. oh yeah!