Blood and Glory

The Excitement Grows

2012-01-03T11:52:00.004-04:00

A New Year.
Meh.

A new holiday season come and gone.
Meh.

A new laptop computer for each of the girls and the wife?
Woohoo!

Anyway, Wintereenmas ... uh, Xmas is over, and the new year has begun. Still waiting to get myself relocated to a new server, but once AGAIN blizzard has thwarted my designs by make the LFR tool useful, and fun. So now I can FINALLY raid on my alts. The desire to leave Darkspear has once again been diminished in January. This has happened before, you know. I'm just saying.

I myself will (hopefully) be getting some new PC hardware - notably a MB and more CPU power, perhaps some RAM too. Also there are a few existing hardware projects on the go that I intend to complete by end of month.

New Home Server
PC with network shared media
Ubuntu up and running on a full time rig

So much to do, so little time.
Meh.

Suspension... and Disbelief

2011-12-15T15:39:00.005-04:00

So I am writing this blog to begin the tedious process of sharing my life (and the little insights I have regarding same) with the hordes of people who really give a crap about it.

CURRENT
Currently my WoW account is temporarily suspended, due to the negative cash-flow of Wintereenmass - uh, Xmas. Hopefully it will return soon. However this has given me an excellent opportunity to review and replay some of my other favourite games. Here is a partial list:

Total War: Shogun 2

GTA: San Andreas

Dungeons & Dragons Online

APB Reloaded

PREVIOUS
There is way to much to cover since April, so I will merely summarize the most general items:

The boy has grown, and continues to be a handful - both of joy and frustration;
Summer plans to visit with close friends were a big hit (at least for us heh heh);
Work continues to occupy my life 45 hours a week;
The girls and I are going to embark on a "Brickfilm" adventure...

UPCOMING

January 2012: I am going to be increasing my presence and participation in Social Media

Fire blasting those socks off

2011-04-20T10:03:00.003-03:00

I have come across a website that you may find interesting. World of Logs gathers data from all the raids in game since Wrath, and compiles handy charts and graphs for us to ooo and awe over.

I am about to show you the top dps listings for 10 man normal Bastion of Twilight, the Cho'gall fight.

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

You aren't ready.

And that's why it's good to play with fire.

Kingslayer ... finally

2011-01-16T11:45:00.004-04:00

So last night, Schokti arranged a raid group, and she and I finally got to get the "Kinglayer" title.

It. Was. Epic.

I wish I'd had video recording software to record this epic moment. It was a little late coming, to be sure, but better late than never.

Next on the acheivement agenda? I honestly don't know, since as of this writing, Himhotepp still isn't 85 yet. Still, I am slowing working toward a few achievements - cooking, exploring - you know, the easy ones. :)

I'll try to keep everyone posted.

Cheers,

~ Scott

Synchronicity

2010-11-07T10:39:00.002-04:00

Everyone is talking fire these days. Here is a pretty decent article from WoWInsider. Aside from his comments on fire blast (which is covered thankfully by others in the comments following the article), it's a pretty good read.

Get going. Go.

Fire Mage Rawr

2010-11-02T11:07:00.003-03:00

I was asked to post a fire mage guide for my guild and thought I would share what I have done up. Any questions/discussion points, feel free to ask!

---//---

Alright so I've finally gotten off my hiney and started this guide. Please remember this is a guide only, you may find things here you disagree with and would prefer to change based on your style of game play.

Talents

With the new talent trees came a few lovely changes for us fire mages, though I'm going to approach this as if this was your first time playing with fire.

You can check out my talent tree here.

Instead of explaining why I put points in the categories I did, I will go over the ones I missed and put few points in.

Burning Soul - a key thing for a mage to learn is threat mitigation. It does your party no good (and irritates healers, melee dps who are running after the boss, and tanks for obvious reasons) to pull threat. As you won't be pulling threat, since you are a good mage, you will not be getting hit. Ergo, damaging attacks will not be an issue for you. So save your points. The only reason I have anything in this talent is to get to the next row.

Blazing Speed - this is completely a pvp talent. If you want to pvp with fire, and it is a fantastic spec to do that with now that it has so much more instant casts, definitely put the points in here. As you won't be moving around much as a raider, this talent really is not beneficial.

Cauterize - this is a tricky talent. It is very very cool, but it can backfire. If you have heals on the ball, a hot will often carry you through that last tick, and save your life. It may also be the difference between downing the boss and a wipe. It is important to note that the more points you spend in this talent does not change the percentages of the damage or healing done, but rather the frequency of the talent proc'ing. So really it comes down to how lucky do you feel? I put the one point in this talent mostly to get to the next row, but I leave that one up to you.

Improved Scorch - Now I could have used the one point I put in cauterize in this to max out this talent. The reason I didn't though, is because aside from being something one can cast on the move, there is very little use for scorch now. In fact, since this update has been released, I rarely use it, even on the move. I usually try to time my movements with my instant pyros and fire blast procs. Again though, if you decide to pvp as fire, I would highly recommend this talent, as you should never be standing still for pvp anyway. And free is free.

Molten Shields - this is again a pvp talent. As it procs the Blazing Speed talent, I refer you to my comments there.

Every other talent in this tree should be maxed out. If you have any questions on why, feel free to post here or send me a message.

Once you have filled out your fire tree, it's completely up to you where you want to spend your remaining points. I have split it up between upping my haste in the arcane tree, and my crit chance in the frost tree. If you have previously been using icy veins, I'm sorry, there is no way by 85 that we will ever get that back unless you go frost.

Glyphs

Prime glyphs - Glyph of Pyroblast, Glyph of Living Bomb. Unfortunately these are the only two fire glyphs available. If you use mage armor at all, you can grab that one for a third, but as you shouldn't have any mana issues and you should be using molten armor, it's not necessary to fill in this space.

Major glyphs - Glyph of Frostfire, Glyph of Molten Armor and Glyph of Mirror Image. Why frostfire over fireball? Frostfire doesn't do as much base damage, but the difference is tiny. It has, however, the slowing effect, and will do frost or fire damage based on your target. With the glyph, it also adds a dot of another 3% damage. Dots are good. More dots. Molten Armor should be obvious as crit = good. And mirror image, well, you are a fire mage, son, time to shoot some fireballs and take advantage of your damage increases.

Minor glyphs - honestly, this is totally and completely up to you. The minor glyphs really are minor. The only one I recommend is Glyph of Slow Fall, as not having to fill your bags with feathers is a good thing. Once Glyph of Armors is available (if it ever is), this of course is another good one to use.

Stats

Stats for a fire mage really haven't changed that much. You should stack your stats in the following manner:

Hit (17% is cap) > Crit chance (about 35% is fine, more is a bonus) > Spell power (coming from Intellect if you don't have anything else directly buffing spell power) > mastery > haste

The reason why I put haste last? Really with all the instant casts we have available (and if you are stacking your crit, you will have a lot of them), the only thing we really need to worry about is global cool downs. Yes, haste is always a good stat to have, but balancing it out over the other stats, it really isn't that big a thing. Of course, this is for fire only - if you go with frost or arcane, haste is much higher up on the list.

Rotation

This is where the real fun starts. And where the disagreements really start flying. That being said, this is the rotation I use, and it has been working fairly nicely.

Start off on your dots - Living Bomb, then Combustion. As you will note, Combustion doesn't work unless there is already a dot on, hence living bomb. Like other DOT classes, you will have to maintain your dots. Living bomb does more damage the longer it goes, doing an aoe at the last tick as well as more damage. If you do not want it to aoe off, it is now refreshable at any time. If you can avoid it though, let it go for it's full timing to get the max dps out of the spell.

Fireblast is next on my rotation. No, it doesn't do huge damage, but it is an instant cast that has a high critical strike chance which will give you burning soul and other goodies. Remember that your instant pyroblasts are based off of your critical strikes - the more of them you have, the better.

Next is Frostfire bolt. This again adds more dots and the other effects I discussed earlier, as well as more crits.

Keep repeating Frostfire bolt until you either a) you have an instant Pyroblast proc b) need to refresh your dots or c) Fireblast cooldown is up. An instant Pyroblast is the ONLY TIME YOU SHOULD BE CASTING THIS SPELL. Unless you have haste of 1000%, it should never be cast at any other time. The time it takes to cast this spell without the instant proc is ridiculous and a waste of your time. This is one of your hardest hitting spells, though, and the reason why we stack crit chance over so many other stats. Remember that this also procs off of any critical strike from any fire spell - so the more you cast, the better.

AOEs

Unfortunately this was the biggest nerf Blizzard handed all mages. As fire mages though, we have one saving grace - both our Flame Strike and Blast Wave are instant and can be cast in a specific location. For an AOE rotation, I use Blast Wave which slows down the mobs, followed by Flame Strike and then Blizzard. Back to Flame Strike, Blizzard, then Blast Wave which should be off it's cooldown. Remember as well that Living Bomb can be cast on multiple targets, though I find the time it takes to cast it on large groups is not worth it.

And so there you have it. Again, any questions you have, just ask!

Now THAT is a dragon

2010-10-19T08:54:00.001-03:00

The Cataclysm trailer has been released, and it does not disappoint. In case you haven't seen it:

There can be only one

2010-09-18T11:03:00.003-03:00

Race, that is. Suddenly, I have a hankering to change all my toons to undead. The best racial ability in the game just got better.

Read the article on WoWInsider.

End game woes

2010-08-30T10:48:00.002-03:00

When we last left our intrepid explorer....

Sensabull is now 80, slowly gearing up, (as fast as can be with waining patience for pugs so I JUST. DON'T. PUG.) No raiding, yet anyway, and although this druid is soooooper fun to play, I have too much raiding commitments already to jump in with yet another toon.

And fyi, I won the bet. Handily.

In other news the great Himhotepp has been brought down. In fact all of Scott's toons have been brought down. By a hacker. Alas. Our banking guild has been cleared out and all his toons stripped clean. We are awaiting that resolution.

So back to raiding. It is starting to become a frustrating ordeal. I don't know if it's that school is starting again and so schedules are becoming an issue, or if it's because the expansion is coming soon, but people just aren't logging in for raids. It poses a question whether end gamers are there for the gear or just for the fun of the progression.

Both Schokti and Kali are in end game guilds, with the Lich King being the final hiccup for 10 player regular mode. I am the type of gamer that would love to just see the guy go down. I don't care how many attempts it takes, we don't win until we see that final drop. I know, it unlocks heroic modes and then we get to start all over, but I am a progression player.

I recognize that some people are not. Some just want the best gear they can possibly get, which, I admit, I have my wishlist of gear as well. But I don't find that to be the be-all of the game. I don't put a whole lot of stock in gear score or in dps meters, trusting that by the time you are end game raiding, you simply know your class enough to gel with most groups and get the job done.

A recent conversation with one of our guilds brought into question the role that the guild plays. It seems that one of our guilds is being treated almost like a teaching guild - a safe place for new 80s to join and run the first four bosses of ICC and get gear and learn how to raid. I must conceed that these types of guilds are necessary, but it does put a damper on my raiding.

I know that not everyone playing Warcraft today is a vanilla player. Most players have no idea what to do in group dynamics (beyond more than 5 people), don't understand that it is important to let the rogues drop the traps and let the tanks pull instead of some warlock, or even what crowd control is. While I think it's fantastic that we have all kinds of aoe tanks to choose from these days, 30k dps is not impressive if you are aoe'ing down 15 mobs. Show me a hunter who really understands chain trapping and kiting, or a mage who can keep it's mob sheeped (and corresponding players that understand that damage = broken sheep), or a priest who will mind control a lost mob back to the tank or shackle the skeleton before he wipes the group - these abilities that can save a wipe that simply aren't used any more. Perhaps I'm just being a class snob, or maybe I just like that challenge. Either way, it makes me question why people play.

Are you a progression player or a gearing player? What thoughts do you have here?

A bit of an update

2010-07-06T10:59:00.003-03:00

So much happening these days. First and foremost, Cataclysm Betas are out and... we don't have one. /sad face. I'm sure they lost our e-mail. But with WotLK the beta received in this house didn't come until the beta had been out for a month or two, so our fingers are still crossed.

In the mean time, we are both trying to complete end game before the expansion drops. Himhotepp and Schokti are both getting nicely geared, and are once again guilded together, with a guild we are both loving mucho grande. Focus in our guild is on 10 man progression, to get the ICC completed eventually on heroic modes and then on to Ruby Sanctum.

A "quick" 10 man into ICC last night gave huge gains to Schokti, where I finally got my reputation to exalted with the Ashen Verdict, giving me 40 exalted factions and the title "The Exalted". I will post a photo when a) the servers are up and b) I am awake to do so. Last night's quick run lasted 4.5 hours, and we finally progressed past Professor Putricide and one shotted the remaining bosses to Sindragosa. Our best attempt on her was to 20%, wiping mostly due to inexperience with the fight. Our timing was off in the third phase, but of course with progression this is expected.

Our plans now are to extend the lock out for this raid and get her down tonight, hopefully getting a chance at the big man himself.

In the mean time I have been levelling a druid, AND TOTALLY LOVING IT. I knew druids were somewhat OP, but there are things I can do with this toon I have not been able to do with any others. It has become so much fun to play.

Add to that our daughter has challenged me to a race to 80, with her mage Fyggi against my druid Sensabull. A celestial steed is on the line for her should she win, and bragging rights for me, since I already have the mount. Believe me, bragging rights are far more exciting lol. And so... game on!

Epic

2010-05-03T13:12:00.004-03:00

Our readers (yes, all three of you) may already know, but a baby is on the way here at house horde. And to celebrate, some wow buddies of ours sent a rocking gift in anticipation:

Huge thanks to Master Zombie of Geeklat and his awesome partner in crime. You guys rock!

Ok so now what?

2010-04-21T10:13:00.003-03:00

With the addition of the Celestial Steed to the game, Schokti became one step closer to that elusive achievement, Mountain o' Mounts. And oh yes, as I had been slowly inching my way past 95, you can be sure I got that steed. Its lovely, but as it is also so popular, I am afraid I will rarely use it. But my lowbies will never have to buy a mount again.

And so I found myself looking at 97 mounts. A nice nudge from my hubby to remind me that honor can be sent as a bind on account item and it works for both twinking the main as well as your alts, and I got the last of the battleground mounts I was working towards. A few more days of dailies and I got another Argent Tournament mount. 99.

The options left to me were to grind for another 10 days and I would be able to get another Argent Tournament mount, which was all well and fine. But I wanted mount number 100 to be special.

You see, I have, for the last several months, been running Stratholme for the mount from Baron Rivendare. You see where this is going? Kismet, my friends. Last night, on Rivendare kill #40, it dropped.

It was exciting, let me tell you. And so:

I have my red dragonhawk.

Now watch me log in this evening and find the Time-Lost Proto Drake.

Ok, Don't Panic

2010-04-10T08:38:00.003-03:00

As most Wow players know, Blizzard announced some upcoming class changes for Cataclysm over the last few days. For the most part, I don't worry too much about these announcements, as things usually will change before the expansion is released and I generally agree with most of the changes.

If you want to read up on the changes, you can read the blue posts, here.

Of course the one I will read about is the mage. Because, well, that's what my main is. Most notably, the fire mage. I was excited to see what they would do as there are so many improvements that can be made for mages, of all specs, and I am now bummed. Let's go over it.

New Spells

"Flame Orb (available at level 81): Inspired by Prince Taldaram’s abilities in Ahn'kahet and Icecrown Citadel, this spell allows the mage to cast a flaming orb that travels in front in a straight line, sending beams that cause fire damage to passing targets. Once it’s cast, the mage is free to begin casting other spells as the Flame Orb travels. While the spell will be useful to any spec, Fire mages will have talents that improve it, possibly causing the Flame Orb to explode when it reaches its destination.

Time Warp (level 83): Grants a passive Haste effect much like Bloodlust or Heroism to party or raid members. It also temporarily increases the mage's own movement speed. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.

Wall of Fog (level 85): Creates a line of frost in front of the mage, 30 yards from end to end. Enemies who cross the line are snared and take damage. The mana cost will be designed to make Wall of Fog efficient against groups, not individuals. This spell is intended to give mages a way to help control the battlefield, whether the mage is damaging incoming enemies (Blizzard can be channeled on top of Wall of Fog) or protecting a flag in a Battleground. 10-second duration. 30-second cooldown."

Pretty standard spells, nice for each spec. No complaints there.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

"In addition to introducing new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.

- Arcane Missiles is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available, similar to how the warrior’s Overpower works. The damage and mana cost of this spell will be reworked to make it very desirable to use when available. This change should make gameplay more dynamic for the mage, particularly at low levels.
- We are planning to remove spells that don't have a clear purpose. Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Fire Ward, and Frost Ward are being removed from the game, and we may remove more.
- The ability to conjure food and water will not become available until higher levels (likely around level 40), as we're making changes to ensure mages generally won’t run out of mana at lower levels. Once mages learn how to conjure food and water, the conjured item will restore both health and mana.
- Scorch will provide a damage bonus to the mage's fire spells. Our goal is for Scorch to be part of the mage's rotation and a useful damage-dealing ability, even if someone else is supplying the group with the spell Critical Strike debuff. Scorch will provide the mage with more specific benefits, which can also be improved through talents."

Again no complaint here. Blizzard is making things far more mana efficient (and woot for that at low levels!); finally making food and drink one item. I don't know why they are removing the frost & fire wards, as they are helpful in pvp, particularly with the right talents & glyphs - not to mention a fire ward has saved my life a couple of times after I hit something with a reflective shield on it.

New Talents and Talent Changes

"-Arcane Focus will now return mana for each spell that fails to hit your target, including Arcane Missiles that fail to launch. We want Arcane mages to have several talents that play off of how much mana the character has and give the player enough tools to manage mana.
-The talent Playing with Fire will reduce the cooldown of Blast Wave when hit by a melee attack, instead of its current effect.
-Pyromaniac will grant Haste when three or more targets are getting damaged by the effects of your damage-over-time (DoT) fire spells.
-The Burnout talent will allow mages to cast spells using health when they run out of mana."

So now we have come to the part where I start freaking out.

The arcane talent change I totally agree with - for the 13 seconds where I tried arcane out, mana was my biggest problem. I frequently hear about how arcane mages have to really watch their mana use. I don't know, however, how many arcane raiding mages actually miss their target. Every raider who knows what they are doing are hit capped to minimize that chance. I know its an event for me when my spell doesn't land. So this may be more of a levelling buff, I don't know.

The next three...

Playing with Fire Rank 3
Increases all spell damage caused by 3% and all spell damage taken by 3%.

Sigh. So now instead of a damage buff, I can blast wave mobs off if I'm hit. Here is my problem - if I am a decent mage, I WON'T GET HIT. There are several crowd control devices already in the game that will negate that. The only benefit to this talent is for PvP.

Pyromaniac Rank 3
Increases chance to critically hit by 3% and allows 50% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.

I really, really, really hope this is a case of "in addition to" not "instead of". As a fire mage, I depend on high crit ratings to get my instant pyroblasts. Haste is nice, but not as big as crit. To remove that 3% in favour of haste is not a cool move and honestly I don't see the benefit.

Burnout Rank 5
Increases your spell critical damage bonus with all spells by 50% but your non-periodic spell criticals cost an additional 5% of the spell's cost.

Yes, I like that I can now use my life to cast spells. But again, this critical damage bonus should not suffer. I never have a mana problem. Never. I have a mana gem in my bags that hasn't been touched in 3 months. Again, hoping that this is an "addition to". But realistically, this is Blizzard, it isn't going to happen.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

"Arcane
Spell damage
Spell Haste
Mana Adept

Fire
Spell damage
Spell Crit
Ignite

Frost
Spell damage
Spell Crit damage
Deathfrost

Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.

Ignite: All direct-damage fire spells will add a damage-over-time (DoT) component when cast. The flavor will be similar to how Fireball works; however, the DoT component will be much stronger.

Deathfrost: Casting Frostbolt places a buff on the mage that increases the damage for all frost, fire, and arcane spells. The only damage spell that won't be affected by this buff is Frostbolt."

I hope, for arcane mages sakes, that they will have a lot of mana increasing mechanics. Because that will suck if they don't.

Ignite - again, it currently gives us a 4% crit buff. Unless the dots are going to crit, this is again going to suck.

Deathfrost - the only really exciting thing I see here. Frost mages have been passed over time and again, and this is something totally usable. Why it would not affect frostbolts, since that is the frost mages #1 spell, I don't know, but we'll take what we can get.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Blizzard is taking the fire mage into PvP more and more. There are very few usable raid changes here, and I find it upsetting. I realize this is just a preview of changes, and I hope some fire mage at Blizzard wakes up and makes a stink. Of course, I could just be panicking because I haven't had my morning coffee. Either way, boo!

So It Occurs To Me...

2010-04-02T13:15:00.003-03:00

... that I have not paid very much attention to the blog signatures. Most specifically the one that follows every post I make.

     I was recently inspired to update my signature (see the siggy that follows) and that quest made me realize how little I do to spread my joy of this game with others. Really I play the game, and then when I log out, I log completely out.

     So I was thinking I'd like to try out some other sig-generators, just to see what else is out there, and since I have this space for game-related topics, and this is game-related, here is the results of my search.

     I have included below some of the generated signatures. Clicking on a signature will take you to the site where I created it. On with the show.

1. XChar.de (current favourite)

~ I like this because it is clean and easy to read. The colour is awesome, although I would prefer something a tad more sinister... heh heh. Also they have the option when you create the sig to have a big one (shown) or a little one like this:

2. SigLaunch.com

~ This site was the easiest to upload an image to, and gave me a lot of fine tuning, although what I was allowed to customize was limited (specific data and font colour, bg img, avatar). Still I like it enough to make it my second choice.

3. WoWSigs.com

~ This one had a great interface, and although it does require that you register (free) it allows you to upload a personal image (but it needs to be less than 10K in size). The default image was fine, although I do prefer to upload one myself.

4. RPG Outfitter

~ This one was my default, and the data site of choice for my guild management, for almost 2 years. It does require that you register with the site (free) and run a small file in your AddOns folder, and you must manually update this website (which only takes a few secs) for the data to be accurate. HOWEVER, it updates your signature dynamically, is customizable on several levels, allows uploading of custom images, has a great support forum, and on and on...
~ I confess that I have not updated the info recently, with my work schedule being what it has been. Nevertheless I intend to get this info up-to-date A.S.A.P. so I may return to the siggy I remember so fondly creating.

5. Create My Own
     Well actually this option is a work-in-progress. I have no idea how to make it happen, and with so many sites out there which can already make me very happy, I must confess a certain lack of enthusiasm. Still, it would be nice to make a completely custom signature - unique, proprietary, and sinister ... heh heh. I know I will eventually get around to something along these lines, and I have had custom signatures made for other games (CoD comes immediately to mind). I guess the only thing to do is to try to create something and keep you all posted.

In Summary
     Well, I imagine that for most people the choice is based on ease of use, compatibility, and level of customization. Once they are made up I prefer to forget about them. I would like a dynamic sig for the current toon I am leveling (which I'll admit happens in fits & spurts) so I don't need to update it everytime I get a new piece of gear or level up. For me, I think the XChar.com choice is the one I will use for now, at least until I get a better handle on make them for myself.

~Cheers, Scott

Another Day, Another 80

2010-04-02T10:59:00.005-03:00

Greetings Mortals,
It's been a long time since I was able to leave a note here, and even longer since I had anything of note to leave.
After a long absence, however, we have returned to Azeroth!
Newsworthy Notes:
1. Hamuneptra finally made it to 80. Oi! I think it took less /played time than Himhotepp, but it took significantly more RL time.
2. Himhotepp is definitely on the search for a new server. I am tired of not being able to raid 10/25 anything with my main. I am certain that it has more to do with my play schedule and less to do with my class choice, however if I am to ever see the inside of ICC I will most likely need a new home.
3. Velvyt is getting an overhaul. My original rogue is going to get a new profession: Alchemist. Phykshin has been stalled out at 65 for almost 5 months, and I really think it's time to just make the effort to delete him and transfer the skillset to Velvyt. I cannot imagine deleting the higher level rogue since it took so long to get him where he is in the first place.

~Cheers, Scott

WoW.com's Guide to WoW Resources

2010-03-18T19:43:00.002-03:00

Not much to say here except that if you ever wanted to know ANYTHING related to WoW, this is the place to start. Really. I just spent quite some time clicking link after link, and these guys have done their work. An excellent resource.

WoW.com's Guide to WoW Resources

2010-03-13T10:04:00.002-04:00

I have frequently complained about ninjas in groups needing after everyone greeds an item we can all use. Frozen orbs being the item du jour, everyone needs them for what ever it is that they craft, need crafted, etc. Needing them in a group is silly, as (at least on my server) they only auction for 10 gold - and there is never a shortage. Behaving badly in a group to save 10g is really quite stupid. And I end up needing a longer ignore list.

So good news! A blue post the other day saves us from these would-be ninjas (though they will probably need on the epic for the shard)...

-----
"No, you won't be able to exchange Frozen Orbs for Emblems of Frost.

Yeah it just takes one person to press Need after everyone's pressed Greed on the Frozen Orbs and you miss out. But the good news is that in patch 3.3.3 this won't be the case anymore -- the roll for Frozen Orbs will be an automatic Greed roll. Rejoice! "
----

Huz-freaking-zah!

Happy birthday, big guy

2010-03-10T14:45:00.004-04:00

This would not be a true WoW blog (and horde side, nonetheless) if we did not do tribute to the man of the barrens himself.

Seems dude is OLD today. Happy 70th, Chuck!

(Please don't beat me for that old comment. Its all in good fun, yes?)

Farmville > WoW?

2010-03-09T20:02:00.001-04:00

Well I can tell you, my farm is doing quite nicely...
----

Activision: Farmers Could Kill WoW?

No, not those kind of farmers, but rather the 82 million+ users currently growing the garden of their virtual dreams on Facebook's wildly popular Farmville sim.

Activision-Blizzard's annual 10k report, filed on March 1 and analyzed by Robert Purchese over at Eurogamer.net, is chock full of worrisome anecdotes about the future of their massively multiplayer behemoth as well as some interesting tidbits regarding payment models.

While the report stops short of painting a completely dire picture, Acti-Blizz clearly considers the growing social gaming scene a major threat to its stranglehold on the massive genre.

"A substantial portion of our revenue and profitability will depend on the subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game category," proclaims the report. "If we do not maintain our leadership position in this category, our financial results could suffer."

Sound like common sense? Maybe, but it should be interesting to watch the current market leader adapt to the rapidly expanding online gaming space.

WoW Classes and You

2010-01-06T15:13:00.004-04:00

A recent article on Geeklat made me ponder and respond.

What Your Class Says About You left me wanting. And so my opinion. Because you know this important topic matters.

Druid

When levelling any other class, it seems that the only thing that drops is druid gear. This is the class that goes best with the undecided. The class that can fill all three rolls, exceptional healers even if they are undergeared or underplayed, beast dps just by switching to boomkin, and tanks. Well, tanks because they can. I find druids who are tanks are such because they really really hate healing. When you roll a druid, you just want to do it all.

Death Knight

The "I really don't know anything about game mechanics and want to face roll my toon" class. Honestly, having played a death knight (can't beat them, join them idea), that is all there is too it. I don't even understand the rotation. Just bash, you will have the highest dps in the party. Guaranteed. The problem arises when button mashing syndrome gets to be so bad that many death knights think they can tank. Since its introduction, I have ran with three (count them, 3) successful dk tanks.

Hunter

One of the funnest classes to play, in my opinion. You get your own tank to run with, while you stand back and pew pew. What I don't understand is a hunter without a pet (ie marksman or survival). Can you tell I roll a BM? As a hunter, your pet is the reason for the class. If you want a range class with a lot of crowd control and big hits, roll a mage. Want to be a bit more social and run as a team? Roll a hunter.

Mage

Glass cannon. Enough said. Mages are big hitting squishies. And our egos match. All we ask for is a tank that can hold the aggro we generate. If you like big damage numbers scrolling, roll a mage. And make sure you know where your ice block button is.

Paladin

I have a huge bias against paladins. When I get ganked by one, or get one to 2% of his life before he bubble hearths, I get angry and want to quit the game. Then I run my lowbie pally and get frustrated by that. Honestly, I can't get passed level 24. My co-writer to this blog runs a pally tank and by all accounts its fairly easy. In raids I love pally tanks, both from dps and healing perspective, as I can cut loose on aoes and overhealing (which I do frequently) is not a problem. That being said, I find most pallys have egos bigger than mages. I had one raid where our main tank (a pally) actually got up to answer the phone and was afk for quite some time and maintained aggro on the boss. Another class that can do it all - tank, heal & dps. Another class for megalomaniacs.

Priest

It has become my standard response on my priest to say, "Sorry, I'm shadow". I say it often enough I should just have it macroed. I do heal, I don't like it too much. It is hard work. And you get blamed for everything. Tank over pulls? Where are the heals? Mage runs into a crowd and expects to tank? Where are the heals? To roll a priest you really need the personality of one. Patience really is a virtue. Either that or you really need to be an ass.

Rogue

My rogue sucks at pvp. Ok, most of my toons suck at pvp. That would be the controls behind the toons. But! As a brand new 80 wearing mostly greens, my rogue is awesome in dps. It is astounding how often blizz caves and nerfs rogues (and they did it again recently, dropping hunger for blood from 15% to 10%), and yet they still do all kinds of damage. And sustain it. Quiet personalities play the raid rogues. Those who just nod & smile. And gut you when you sleep.

Shaman

From the dawn of Warcraft, I am pretty sure the Blizz CEO is a shaman. It explains why they can now heal as well as they do. Because the two forms of dps they out do everyone on just isn't enough. Expect a tanking tree in the next expac. That being said, the shamans I have run with are the most easy going players around. A common response to any issue is "Meh, we'll get through it."

Warlock

Taking the best parts of the mage, shadow priest & hunter and rolling it into one massively cool goodness. Incredible dps & crowd control, and great looking gear. The only thing that is missing on a warlock is a good threat wipe. Which is fine, since most warlocks don't really seem to care. And they are awesomely fun to play.

Warrior

One class I have yet to figure out how to play. I am in awe of a good warrior tank. Since he has probably been around since WoW launched, a good warrior gets it. And they do insane damage which I drool over. Unfortunately a dps warrior also expects the tank to hold aggro over the 3000 dps more that he is doing over everyone else in the party. A warrior has to be a grounded personality, with a "just get it done" attitude. And he should probably like Conan.

Happy Holidays... to me!

2010-01-01T01:36:00.001-04:00

So after many weeks of saving and irritating dailies, I have purchased a hog for myself. Huzzah. I had originally wanted this to be my mount #100, but I did not want to wait that long. And so, Merry Christmas, to me.

Cataclysm

2009-11-04T09:52:00.001-04:00

So because I have been away from the game for a while (or living under a rock, which ever you prefer), I missed the announcement of Cataclysm. If you are even more sheltered than I am, its going to be the next big WoW release from Blizzard.

Go ahead and check out the launch page here. I'll wait.

There are a bunch of stuff that excite me here, but stuff I wonder about. It is yet again increasingly obvious Blizz wants us to run end game. Most things cool for this expansion is for the 80s and their alts.

So lets go through the big features.

New races - Goblins and Worgen.

The Worgen

I suppose I will have to read up on the lore (I admit, I am lacking in this) but I am confused as to why the Worgen are an alliance race. The elves help them, fine, but to what end? Because they are tree-hugging-peace-love-a-dove-freaks? They wouldn't be at war with the horde then, would they? Apparently they started with Arugal, which last time I checked, was an enemy to both horde and alliance.

So they have a civil war within the worgen because... they don't want to be "evil" any more? They don't want to be worgen? Isn't this the same fight as the Foresaken?

It seems to me the Horde has always adopted the woe-begone. I am not drawing lines here between the "good" Alliance and the "evil" Horde because there is no reason to go there. It just does not seem to fit that the Worgen ally themselves with the Alliance. If anyone would reach out, it seems to me that would have to be Sylvannas, especially since the events in Undercity from Lich King. She needs as many friends as possible.

The Gobins

Apparently the Horde needed little people.

And that's all I have. I see no reason why these capitalists would allign themselves with anyone.

And so...

You know I am going to be creating at least one of each. Both races will be cool to run and it will be a nice change. I wonder if we start off with fairly high Steemweedle Cartel rep if we roll a goblin...

Level Cap increased to 85

And cue end game content. Here it is... everything you could ever want to do without actually winning the game. In T10.

Which brings us to:

New high level zones and raid content.

Well, duh.

The one thing I am VERY excited about here is the heroic modes for SFK and Deadmines. The classic instances have always been lots of fun, and I can't wait to see them on heroic mode. Now they just need up Wailing Caverns.

Classic Zones Remade

I must admit, this is one of the things that excites me the most. It is no secret I enjoy levelling and questing - I find it is a core part of the game (or it should be, Blizz, if you are reading this. /snort). I do hope that they incorprate the phasing terrain technology they started with in Lich King to do this - there is a lot of great stuff in Vanilla, I hope we still get the chance to do this.

Flying Mounts in Azeroth

About time. We have been able to fly in the harshed climates but not what we grew up in? Puleeze.

Guild Advancement

I think this is FANTASTIC. We have all been guilded with people who are in it for the loot, do nothing for the guild, expect free stuff because they are guild mates, etc. This is an excellent push for what a guild should be - a group working as a team to acheive the same goal. Guilds used to be about progression. They rapidly became about bank space and tabbards. This is an excellent move by Blizz and I thank them for it.

The down side to this is guilds are going to be elitist again. The best of the best of the best are all going to be guilded together, which means the rest of us better find a good core guild to stick with now. And that means running with people you like and get your game.

Final thoughts

Overall I am looking forward to this expac. Keeping up current trends we may have to start saving now for its release, when ever that may be. In the mean time, I will be sure to keep my info up to date with Blizz and hope for that eagerly awaited Beta invite. ;p

2009-10-22T09:38:00.002-03:00

Ah well it has been a while, non? We took a bit of a break from WoW over the summer, as real life forced its way in. C'est la vie.

But the important thing is we are back. And the game has been nerfed, again.

Let me tell you - it is a good thing I wasn't around for the last patch, as this blog would have been written months ago.

I expect in the next patch, we will be granted 60 free levels and a mount just for logging in the first time.

Don't get me wrong - leveling has never been easier. And when you are that last 3 bars away from your chosen goal, 5 minutes really can make a difference. I guess my issue is that its too easy.

Recently we gifted a family member with a WoW account. We grabbed the "recruit-a-friend" promotion and started gaming. We created two characters (alliance, sadly) and finished the Dwarf starting map in no time - and finished at level 15. Remember when we were barely level 9 and we had to kill boars to level just so we could go collect some shimmerweed? Yeah those were the days.

No longer will it take 15 days of game play to ding 80. Heck - start a death knight and you have skipped 10 of those days!

If it sounds like I have a problem with power leveling, I don't. Really, for those that just want to play the end game content, have at 'er. What I do have a problem with is playing the end game content with noobs who don't know their class. And if you have only been playing your toon for 3 days? Guess what folks, you don't know your class.

The end of an era

2009-04-15T09:16:00.004-03:00

A couple weeks ago, my Hunter idol, Big Red Kitty, decided to take a break from WoW and spend more time with his family. Kudos, sir.

Now that 3.1 is out and I am looking at the changes to hunters, I wonder if he had an ulterior motive. Beast Mastery is no longer the spec it once was, my friends.

A moment, if you will.

Barbaracue has finally dinged 80, and I ran my first heroic that night. My new Nesingwary 4000 in hand, I ran into the Nexus, full of gusto. And produced a whopping 800 dps.

Yep, 800.

My 72 priest is hitting 800 dps.

Where is this uber damage? I realize a lot has to come from my rotation, and I am not geared yet. But I should be hitting better than a priest 8 levels lower, should I not?

And so with the new patch I am thinking of perhaps going *gasp* survival. I know, so awful. I might have to stable Sauce out of the horror. Or I may learn to save my gold and dual spec so I can swap out as necessary. Either way, BM just isn't cutting it any more.

/flex

2009-03-24T13:39:00.002-03:00

Again, haven't been posting much, just playing. Recently Schokti has been grinding instances to get the gear I need for the end game runs. I am getting there. In running Utgard Pinnacle last night, I got this:

Huzzah!

Tim Buckley does it again

2009-02-17T14:40:00.000-04:00

If you are in the complete dark, please head over to Ctrl+Alt+Del. Now. You can thank me later.

My Precioussss

2008-10-27T07:40:00.002-03:00

I knew there was a reason to grind my rep!

You love me, you really love me!

2008-10-02T10:45:00.003-03:00

A while back I mentioned Schokti would begin grinding rep with as many factions as possible. The other day I realized I was less than 7500 rep away from Exalted with Undercity, Darkspear Trolls and Thunder Bluff (each). Yesterday I took it upon myself to start the long grind of that last few points.

I got exalted with Undercity within an hour. Thunderbluff took an hour and 45 minutes, since after doing all the quests I was still just under 500 rep away. I discovered I had yet to do the TB quests for RFC, and in I went. Ding.

Darkspear Trolls was by far the hardest rep for me to grind, since I had already done all the quests in Durotar and the Barrens in order to get my wolf mount from Orgrimmar so long ago. I checked Desolace, and found only one quest that I didn't do (in Mauradin - can you blame me?), one in Feralas (I even did the hippogryph egg and got a bad one - score 3 points!) and then I was stuck. Along browse through the quest list on Wowhead showed a few quests in Arathi Highlands which I was pretty sure I didn't do.

I was right. Back when I was leveling Schokti, the mobs in Stromgard were still elite - I got around 1500 rep there. Which left me with about 3300 rep to go. Back to Wowhead to investigate.

I found a quest line in STV that I was sure I hadn't done. Saving Yenniku was a quest line that awarded another approximate 1500 points. When I got there, sure enough, I not only had I not done that quest line, I had not done ANY QUESTS IN GROM'GOL! Being on a PvP server, Stranglethorn Vale is hot point of ganking and I guess I decided as a squishy, it would be better for me to level somewhere safer... like the badlands. And so, after all this, my line of mounts:

My wolf, which I had starting this mission. You may recall the getting of said mount with this post.

My horse:

My kodo:

And my raptor:

The reason for this serious rep grind? Why this, of course!

The First Report

2008-09-05T19:16:00.003-03:00

Here is my new Death Knight: Antagonize.

As I get the links sorted out I will include a few of the items I have on him. It took about 3 hours to get through the "training area" and level from 55 to 58. There is of course no way to know at this point if that is good, bad or average, since this is my first time, however there were many familiar faces at the end of that period that seemed to all start near the same time, so I will go with average for now.

Himhotepp has had his name changed to Hamuneptra (heh heh) and is still sitting at 70. The thing is, that Himhotepp had NO MONEY on him when I copied him over to the test realm. He is BROKE. Really depressingly broke. Like he only has 1g and some copper lmao. I really hope that he can make some money out there in Northrend.

I have yet to take Justiss, who is now called Justified, out into the big bad world. I haven't even spent his talent points yet, lol...

It has been very disturbing to be thrust into this world without any of my AddOns to help me along. Granted many of them are simply candy (WowEquip) or are unnecessary at the moment (DBM, ). The rest just don't work. I really miss only a few - Bartender3, FuBar (and it's various goodies), Autobar (/sigh) and ArkInventory are the most heavily missed, at this time. I've completely forgotten how to play the game without these little gems.

I have struggled mightily...

So here it stands at this moment.
~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Latest News

2008-09-04T17:02:00.000-03:00

Well, the latest news concerns new servers, new guilds and of course new Toons.

To start withm, I should announce that I am intending to move Himhotepp from US-Darkspear server to US-Shu'halo, and PvE server where Durgah (my current Shu'halo main) is placeholding for Himhotepp.

I am really enjoying this server, and the new guild that I have joined there - The New Imperium - of which I am creating a forum (again), which I will link on the bar. It seems to be a guild of people who enjoy the game for what it is - a game. I am hopeful that they will be happy to have me along when they finally make KZ. I really want them to be geared for the new content before it launches.

And Speaking of the new content, that brings us to my third latest news. And this is the big news. Big News.

I have been invited to Beta Test Wrath of the Lich King. Skreee!

LMAO - Schokti is terribly jealous that she hasn't gotten an invite. I tried to empathize, but meh - I got an invite and she didn't so nah-na nah-na boo boo! LMAO

I haven't really had a chance to test it out yet, but it had better be worth it after the 5 hours of downloading that I had to do /grrr

I copied Himhotepp and Justiss to The Northrend server, however I had to rename them both. I can tell you that it did not make me happy to rename Himhotepp...
I have created a Death Knight (of course) and I will keep you posted as I level him.

More to follow
~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

2008-08-11T07:06:00.005-03:00

I HATE PvP!

Let me repeat that so I can be perfectly clear.
I HATE PvP!!

Now that I have that out of my system, let me clarify what I mean by that bold statement. I do not hate the conflict between opposing forces, nor do I despise the often frustrating battlegrounds. Even the occasional battle between one toon and another can be fun from time to time.

HOWEVER!

I do not consider Corpse-Camping a valid or appealing form of PvP. Where is the challenge in attacking someone who has just rez'd? How difficult is it to get that person again? This is especially irritating when I am just trying to complete my daily quests, or simply trying to get that last Mote of Fire to make a Primal Fire, or maybe I am trying to bring my dismally low fishing skill up several points, or any one of a number of other activities that do not include attacking other players.

The last thing I want to do is corpse run 6 times because someone is camping my body. I (almost) never camp bodies, and I never camp a body after I have killed the toon twice. I have killed the same toon repeatedly - but they invariably attack me after they rez, because I am grinding the same area or whatever. Also, if someone I know (guildmate, RL friend, family member, or whatever) is being camped by someone, then I will definitely take a personal interest in seeing that the person doing the camping is camped back to the point of calling in reinforcements to clear me off.

Doesn't happen a lot. =)

/deep_breath
/another deep_breath

OK. So the point of all this is simply to announce that I am transferring Himhotepp off of Darkspear as soon as economically convenient. Since finances are always a problem, it ay be a couple months, but I would like to be settled into a new raiding guild on the new server before WotLK goes live.

Well, more later, I guess.

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Spirit of Competition

2008-08-10T09:11:00.003-03:00

So I came home from work yesterday with Scott excitedly showing me the latest cool thing Blizzard has put into the game, in honor of the Olympics.

One runs a battle ground, and gets a Competitor's Tabard (the Olympic Flag). For each BG win, you get a chance to get the Gold Medallion, which summons a Spirit of Competition. This looks strangely like a Chinese Dragon! I knew immediately this was a must have.

And voila - after only one battle ground:

"And so...

2008-08-08T09:41:00.002-03:00

... so so so, I will tell you another good trick that I know."

Like the Cat in the Hat, I do in fact know a good trick. It's called /gquit.

Let's start from the beginning. Sadly, Death Threat has been disbanded. A lot emotions ran high and something happened which we can't really seem to get the actual story on, but it came down to the GM asked everyone to leave, after two members were booted and others left. Which is perfectly in his right since it was his own banking guild to start off with. Cue the search for a new guild.

Those that got booted started a new guild, and invited all ex-Death Threat members. I lasted about 15 minutes and begged out, knowing it was not what I was looking for. I could not see progression happening in this guild, regardless how they justified it. One less person does not solve the problem.

And so I joined another guild, Horde Mafia (which has one of those stupid o's with a line through it so I am not even talented enough to look it up on the armory much less link it here). Things were looking promising. They are a brand new guild with early raid times, and everyone was excited to start running Kara. Now while there is very little out of Kara I still even want (badges and a couple of enchants), I figured someone with some experience might be good in a group that was relatively new to the instance.

You would figure.

Except that they didn't listen. At all. Can you sense the frustration here?

The only boss we attempted while I was there was Maiden. Apparently they had already downed Attunmen the previous day, and had skipped Moroes. So when laying out the tactics, the raid leaders instructions were... "Spread out and stand on the first step" and "pop your trinkets".

:o

blink.

The tanks and heals were all new in this raid. They kind of need more information.

First wipe on Maiden (we had 2 getting to her): 15 seconds. I cast one scorch and was dead. The tanks didn't even hit her.

So we started again. This time I laid out the entire fight. Suggested instead of the pally tank, let the two warriors in the party tank her. Pull to the heals, etc... we all know the tactics.

After arguing with the pally tank that if she were stunned she would be dead (since the healers would be unable to heal being stunned) and therefore unable to pull aggro, they decided on another go. This time, everyone did the EXACT SAME THING AS THE FIRST TIME, with one exception - the tank got to get 5 sunders first. Cuz that helped. One repentance, everyone is stunned. The tanks stood there and kept on hitting. And guess what? They died, because no one pulled to the heals, as I had mentioned already in the raid chat 3 times. At least we got her down to 95% that time.

Ok, one more time. This time, I stressed yet again, the importance of the tank to pull her to the heals when the stun pops. This time, the raid leader started yelling that the healers need to pop their Insignia of the Horde!!!!! WTF? I don't have one, most raiders don't have one, and unless you are in the BG most of the time, you don't have one!

Sure enough, the two raid leaders had one. A hunter and a shaman. And assumed everyone else did, too. Sorry, sweet cheeks. Not like it was going to help.

Wanna guess what happened? Yeah, you know this story. A) The trinkets were freaking useless and b) the raid leader started yelling at the heals for not popping them!!!

I naively thought no one could be this stupid. Seriously. I was wrong.

Once more, I laid out the fight. Once again stressed that the only thing that stops repentance is damage.

And then. In chat.

"OMG"
"I'm such an idiot"
"OMFG"
"I can't believe I forgot this!"
(this is all from the same guy, our raid leader)
Other raid leader - "What?"
RL - "Jesus - I totally forgot - Tremor Totem."

/face palm

And so the totems were dropped, we wiped again, yada yada.

"Forget this, let's do Opera" said the raid leader.

To which I said, "No thanks", quit the raid, quit the guild, rezed at the grave yard and ported to Shatt where I started my quest for a new guild.

Fun trick that /gquit. Wish I had used it sooner.

Ding

2008-08-02T09:45:00.002-03:00

I admit, I have been lax in my duties as co-contributor of this blog. But, as stated in previous blogs, I prefer to PLAY the game, rather than chat about it. :D

Let's see... what's happened...

Schokti is pretty much as geared as she is going to be, without running the 25 mans. Between the crafted and Kara drops, there is very little else out there. Now all that is left is to re-socket a few gems.

I have been busying myself with my main by starting to grind mounts and rep. I just think it would be cool to be exalted with pretty much everyone. And if they give me pets and mounts in the process, so much the better.

I have the Onyx dragon, but only since I didn't want any of the myriad shades of blue, nor did I want green. Alas, there was no red, because you know I would be all over that in an instant.

Next was the Shatari Skyguard grind, which went much faster as I could kill as many as I wanted and get rep for the kills plus the shadow dust drops. No worrying about finding eggs, and only two quick quests to do so it was mostly all a mindless grind. My reward is the Red Nether Ray. Of course. And the little pet that goes with it.

So now my grind is for the Cenarion Hippogryph. Alas, for that one in order to get rep I am at the point now where I need to run a thousand times in steamvaults. Or something. Either way, I am sure I will be sick of the Coilfang instances.

To take a break from this rep grinding, I have been playing Barbaracue. She dinged 70 yesterday morning. I have decided to make her my PvP toon, since she pwns now anyway, and I am not even geared. I can't wait to see what I can do when I actually learn how to play my spec correctly. I foresee a lot of Maxdps.com forum reading and BRK in my future.

Speaking of spec, I need to figure out where to best spend my talents. My BM portion is good, I have no problems there. I have been recommended to respec for the best hunters mark and aimed shot, with some pretty good arguements. I may do so. (Of course, by the time anyone reads this, I may have already done so).

That's where things are at the moment. You may notice my toons on the left have been updated, some have been deleted and a new one created. Xerzes is my 42 Dranei mage, and levelling her has been a breeze at this point. We shall see what comes of it.

Until later,

~Christine

Dragon Mounted

2008-07-30T16:09:00.002-03:00

Finally!

I have my Dragon Mount! I selected the Purple Netherwing Drake (naturally) and will post some pics later this week.

In other news, Death Threat continues to flourish, although I detect a major shift in the Form and Function... also in the roster (which always seems to follow the changes in Form and Function). I am standing by for that.

Schokti had her dragon mount (for a couple weeks now, I think) before me, and has even achieved the Nether Ray mount, in red of course.

More to follow...

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

We're Baaaaaaaack!!

2008-05-29T17:27:00.003-03:00

And we have Epic Flyers! I can be seen zooming around on my Epic Purple Flyer, and Schokti can be seen on her Red Epic Flyer.

We are now active members in a new guild - Death Threat - and are moving toward Zul'Aman with eager anticipation. This is a great guild, with great people. And with our help, it will become even greater! Muha!

I am certain that Schokti will want to post pics of her new precious mount, and give all an update, so I will leave that to her, for now.

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

to be "back" or not to be "back"...

2008-04-04T14:46:00.002-03:00

So I am here waiting to get my account going again. I have missed the release of 2.4 and I am sorely pressed to remember why... although I have lately been feeling the "pangs of addiction", especially when I check out the Armory and see what I have and what I still need...
/sigh

Still the urge to play has been strangely absent... perhaps the knowledge that I would play alone is what deters me... perhaps not. Whatever may be, I have felt little or no compulsion to play for along time. In fact, the lack of compulsion to play predates my temporary absence... interesting food for thought.

I feel obligated to my clan to be a presence ... that is the only reason I am even entertaining the notion of return to WoW at this time. Without this guild, there would be virtually no reason at all...

More to follow.
~Cheers, Scott

...Lie? ...Me? Never!! The Truth is far too much fun!

Guild Wars

2008-02-12T11:23:00.000-04:00

Well now, it has been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that. I guess that happens when one gets ~~sucked in~~ plays too much. Add to that much has been happening.

Where did we last leave our intrepid explorers? Schokti moved on to the guild Hellraisers, and I believe I was around level 62. Hrm. That was a while ago. Schokti has now pretty much become my main. At level 70 she has become fairly nicely outfitted and is Kara keyed. Things did not work out so well with Hellraisers, and while the guild has potential, it was not what, in the end, I was looking for. So Schokti and Himhotepp are members of Death Threat. This guild is very small (16 members, I think) and only a few of us are not keyed. That is only a matter of time, and soon we will be able to do a few Kara runs. I got keyed three days into the guild and we ran our first guild only run into Black Morass. What a rush! I love that instance! Even with two portal stone glitches we rocked the place. I can't wait to see what the heroic version is like.

My recent guild jumping has made me wonder what makes a guild sucessful. In Hellraisers, we managed to get to 130 members - then there was a mass exodus when Kara events did not go as planned. I left when I had finally had enough of trying to get any guild members to help me with my BM key. It is unfortunate, and I truely hope this guild gets back on its feet. If nothing else, there are good people there.

We still have Cursed Earth, which is in limbo. We also only have about 18 members there, mostly in the 16-30 range. I would love to have this as a thriving guild but I really don't want to put the effort into it. I know - reap what you sew. Perhaps one day.

In the mean time, Barbaracue has made it to the outlands, and is now level 61 and rapidly advancing. Kaewhy is now my farmer, grinding primals for various money making things I am doing. I will respec her to combat one of these days, and try and get her PvP geared. One day.

My frustrations with Schokti recently caused me to check out life as a tank. I started a warrior, again, and this time really getting it. Understanding the purpose of a tank and wrapping my head around the concept of threat is helping. He is only level 16, but I plan on levelling him quickly.

In other news, Shamue, at level 42, got deleted. She hasn't been played in over a year. I still had all my talent points from when they gave back all the shaman points three patches (I think) ago. That should be a hint and a half.

That's all the news for now. Perhaps I won't wait 6 months before I post again.

Learning to raid

2007-10-01T10:07:00.000-03:00

So as previously mentioned, the head honchos of Cursed Earth have gone on to complete four of the outlands instances. We move on to Auchindoon later today. Schokti, however, is no longer a member of Cursed Earth, but rather a Hellraiser. The reason for this move is that realistically, Cursed Earth is just a few of us good friends and our alts. It will be a while before we are a solid enough guild to run events like Kara and the like. So Schokti made the switch.

Yesterday was the first time Schokti went into an instance in Outlands, and Hellraisers ran the Ramparts as well as Blood Furnace. Fortunately I went in knowing a little bit about pulling aggro and held off on my major spells, and things went well. A couple of things I learned:

1. Don't break the priest's line of sight when he is healing you. Bad news. FYI. Should probably note that on a big neon pink post it some where. Just so you know.

2. Announce when you need mana. The warrior/hunter-puller etc. does not think about that and will charge in when rage is high/mobs are clear, etc.

3. Have some heal pots and bandages ready, just in case. The priests main job is the tank. You may be on your own. Unfortunately Schokti has been grinding tailoring recently and all my available runecloth has been going to bolts and not bandages. I was caught in a tight spot for a few minutes without any bandaids. Oops.

4. As a mage - when you sheep a mob, do not follow it up with a dragons breath. Make sure your fingers are on the right buttons. FYI. Just so you know. Bad news. Should probably note that on a big neon pink post it some where.

5. Not everyone is good at directing traffic. Just because you may have run the instance a thousand times and have all the phat loot from the head bosses and you are only in here to get the one item that drops 0.000001% of the time, this may not mean you understand the tactics of the pulls. And if you do understand it, chances are there is someone in the party that doesn't. As a raid leader, make sure everyone is marked, lay out the plan before the raid for standard pulls and follow up the combat.

As an example. I have been spoiled running with my husband and friends because Scott, as a raid leader, marks everything and lays out combat thusly: Rogue sap circle, always. Mage sheeps diamond, always. Priest mind controls moon, always. (As a note - we run with 2 priests usually). If we happen to have alternate cc (which is rare), they get the X. Always. DPS on skull, always. Combat goes dps Skull, then X (since this is usually the first cc to break, then circle (usually second cc to break), then moon (cc can be redone if necessary), then diamond (cc which can also be redone, if necessary). Always. As long as all party members understand the timeline and take care of their jobs, the raid runs smoothly. Of course not all combat runs the way you want it too and accidents happen, we are all high on adrenlin, but generally speaking, know your job and stick to it. If your job is the sheep, keep the damn mob sheeped. Everything else is secondary.

In doing the BF run last night, we had two mages. We would both sheep one and everyone would dps the skull for a standard 3 mob pull. Then the party was at a stand still. Which sheep goes first? The other mage would start a cast and the warrior would charge the other one. Boom, the healer now has to watch both combats. And that is how wipes happen. So if you aren't clear on how the full combat runs, ASK. That way everyone knows.

All in all it was a great time, and I look forward to running Slave Pens. I imagine I will learn a few more things on that run.

Hmm, it's been a while.

2007-09-27T17:51:00.000-03:00

So. Yeah. How 'bout that?

We have been busy. So sue me. Heh.

A couple of good friends of ours are back online and we have taken to running with them the last little while. Both Kaewhy and Himhotepp has seen quite a few hours of play, most notibly in the Outland instances. We have never run them, so we thought with our two level 68 (now 69, 40% until 70) priest friends, we could start from the bottom and fight up.

And so we started with Ramparts, then Blood Furnace. Seeing as these are both early 60 level instances, we managed them quite nicely. Running Blood Furnace was much like RFC for the Outlands - Sap one, sheep one, kill. Sap one, sheep one, kill. Oops, there is four in this mob. Mind control one, sap one, sheep one, kill. Hey, one resisted! Kill faster.

We also ran the Slave Pens, which gave us a little more trouble (specifically that boss with the totems. Dude is tough!). But we managed it and we plan to run Underbog this weekend.

Of course, being the levels we are the drops were good for disenchanting fodder. Which is good, since Schokti just finished a two week grind with the Timbermaw Furlbogs to get the +15 agility enchant for one handed weapons (side note - did anyone notice that in this latest patch they upped the rep rates for Cenarion Hold, Argent Dawn and the Timbermaw? Nice. The day after I got the reward for grinding. Very nice timing, Blizz.), and the cost for this enchant is EXPENSIVE!!!

I am all for expensive enchants, but I have a line up of 6 daggers to enchant for the top rogues in the guild. That is 36 large brilliant shards, 36 greater eternal essences, 24 arcane dusts and 12 essence of air. That is a hefty price tag. But its a +15 ag! How sweet is that!

Catch up and new spec

2007-08-28T16:57:00.000-03:00

Recent events in the life of my characters:

Schokti entered the portal at 58:

... at which point I pretty much dropped every other quest I had at the time. She is now 60, already I am waaaaayyyy better equipped. On to flying mounts!

I tried for a time to play Kaewhy as assasination/combat, and it did not work for me. While I get that the build works, I am too much of a stealther. I don't want to be detected until it is too late and half of your life is already gone. I cannot seem to adjust my thinking as is neccessary with assasination, so I respecced back, with slight differences:

You can check the armory for more details here. I am liking it already. I put points into ambush which I didn't have before and the numbers are where they should be now, and with the shadowstep I am thinking like a rogue again.

I should clarify that statement. The assasination/combat build was far too close to just plain DPS for me and therefore in my tiny little brain too much like a warrior, which I just do not "get". I realize this build works for a great many, but I am far too much of a personality that likes to stay in the shadows.

So it's been a while...

2007-08-28T16:26:00.000-03:00

Yeah, sorry about that. We took a bit of a hiatus from the game and didn't notify anyone. Sorry 'bout that. Now we get to play catch up.

I will divide this post into two parts. This part is all the rares I didn't post over the last few months. You will note we are still playing alliance side but there are a few horde there as well.

Alors.

Gorefang:

Gorefang's loot:

Snort the Heckler:

Snort's Loot:

Rocklance, whom with this character I could not take down:

Great Father Arctikus with loot:

Gibblewilt:

Gibblewilt's loot:

Krellack:

Krellack's loot:

Arash-ethis

Arash-ethis' loot:

Rogish Jowl:

His loot:

Timber:

Timber's Loot:

This one was an interesting surprise. We found a ?? vulture around Westfall, Vultros:

And then he found us:

So we had to dig up his loot. Sweet, non? It may be worth a trip back to try and find this pretty blue.

Sergeant Brashclaw:

His loot:

Blackmoss the Fetid:

Who dropped something interesting:

Which became this:

Uruson:

His loot:

Foereaper 4000, whom I got down to 10 life with my rogue, but just couldn't kill:

Shadowclaw, whom we saw as just as he unstealthed right beside us:

His loot:

And finally, Narg the Taskmaster:

His loot:

See why this is going to be two posts?

Wooooot!

2007-08-04T10:49:00.000-03:00

Ok, I was excited about flying mounts, a new map, all the goodies that came with BC. But this - destructable buildings and seige engines!!!!!!

Wrath of the Litch King preview.

Yes, death knights will be grand, but come on - SEIGE ENGINES!!! Try to stealth that!

Another Adventure Begins...

2007-07-31T16:32:00.000-03:00

World of Warcraft

We (Christine and I) are embarking on a joint venture, creating a new story and (attempting) a web-comic. Our Darkspear Characters will be the main focus, although we are speculating about creating new versions of these characters on an alternate server. Time will tell, of course.

We will of course keep everyone here up-to-date on this new development, and I hope you will all check out the WIP (work-in-progress, for those who are unfamiliar with this acronym) page as it is created.

Galactic War 5

There has been little to report. I have not been contacted by EMAIL regarding playtesters, although some have expressed interest. I cannot explore the Play-By-Email format unless I have email addresses to work with.

Despite this setback, the game-data and game mechanics seem to be progressing smoothly. I am hoping to complete some "player packages" before the end of the first week of August, and the first Update has been emailed. Again, time will tell....

That is all.

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Looking for feedback...

2007-07-09T21:03:00.000-03:00

Many years ago, long before we were "officially" Mr. and Mrs. we were involved in a game that has long been one of my favourite games of all time. This game was based on some real games, some popular, some not so much. It had a healthy dose of originality though, and it was an authentic game experience for all of us.
Thus, Galactic War was born.

Its parents were "Star Fleet Battles" and "Master of Orion". Its game play was very much an exercise in LARP, although strictly speaking it was a table-top RPG. There was even tactical "space combat" for those of us that craved that particular challenge. It really had something for everyone. Mrs. Blood-and-Glory even played! It was truly a marvel of the modern age!

It was played every Sunday at the local game club/shop. There were 25 races in the original version, played by 23 teams, with 3 races played by the game referee (GM). Although the names and maps and even to some extent the basic racial info was based (albeit loosely) on the Star Trek Universe, it was definitely NOT a Star Trek game. There were definitely other influences: Star Wars; Battlestar Galactica; and Sid Meier's Civilization, to name but a few. I imagine there were other influences in the creation process; however I did not create this game originally, so I cannot speak to those not-so-obvious other sources.

It was an instant success, and spawned a series of repeat games - unfortunately for me, what made the game such a success in its maiden voyage was lost on subsequent incarnations. I never forgot that first game though, and over the intervening years I have made several attempts to recreate that success, including joining the 2nd version of the game (which was dismal compared to the first, btw).

My early attempts at recreating this game were simply to provide the "original" version rules to the interested persons, explain the basic concepts and the "clear-as-mud" rules revisions, and then off we went. Something was lacking however.

Later attempts involved some rewriting of the existing rules, and some modification of the game play. This version never made it to fruition, as I was never really happy with what I had achieved.

The latest version (dubbed GW-5) is nearly unrecognizable from the original. The original rules still remain in the folder and binder in which they sat after the conclusion of the first game. I had adapted several "computer-based" game ideas and incorporated some original ideas of my own, and armed with this desire, and of course my "creative genius" (don't laugh), I set out to capture what I enjoyed most about this game, but on a much larger scale. I decided on a PBE format.

What was I thinking???

It started out as a basic enough formula:

Modified by the original spirit of Galactic War. To my eyes it looked like a recipe for success.

Looks are deceiving, aren't they?

Which brings me to this purpose of this post. I have (finally) arrived at a configuration that I think may in fact work as a PBE-RPG game. I have even accounted for the possibility of tactical (rather than strategic) combat, but that is for another day. It is not quite ready for public consumption, but I am interested to find out if there are any among you, our dear readers, who may be interested in participating. I will of course require beta-testers, but the beta won’t be very long, and then I will be onto the full game.

I would be very appreciative of any assistance that you can offer - beta testers will contacted by email with details. All materials will be provided, and there are only a few simple concepts to understand. Anyone familiar with the "Conquest" genre of games will be right at home, at least initially. LOL

Email me at BETA if you would like to participate as a Beta Tester.
Email me at PLAYER if you would like to participate as a Full Player (when available).

Thank you all in advance, and I look forward to hearing from you.

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

My Gaming Background

2007-07-09T18:03:00.001-03:00

Some of you may know me as a gamer from way back. Waaay back. I mean all the way to the beginning of "Gaming" itself. Yep, I mean Dungeons & Dragons™. I played that back in the late 70's thanks to my dad (who is almost as avid a gamer as I am).

This led me to play other RPG's: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons™; Top Secret™; Top Secret:SI™; Paranoia™; Runescape™; Gamma World™; TMNT™; Marvel Superheroes™; & Twilight 2000™. There were others, but you get the idea.

There were also board games: Monopoly™ (a favourite); Axis & Allies™; Risk™; Chess; Go Moku; Generals™; and more.

Then there were the hybrids - board games that involved some role-playing. These were, in the early days, primarily of the Military Strategy variety: Squad Leader™ & Advanced Squad Leader™; Tank Commander; Car Wars™ and the like. There were others of a less militant nature. I was less fond of these.

There was an endless stream of computer-based games as well – some with titles above, some not. Most followed the same general themes – conquest, military and economic development, scientific breakthroughs, etc.

To round out this group are the myriad game-mutations, game modifications, and game creations that I concocted over the years of my gaming life. Some of them have no names, some have working titles, and some have almost complete work-ups. I even contacted a game vendor in Calgary some years ago concerning the possibility of consignment sales of a game I had developed – “BattleArena”. Alas, the heyday of my game development was brought short by that great equalizer: No Money.

I have never given up on developing a game, and some of the ideas I generated for games I still have – one dating from grade 10 (an untitled epic of Country vs. Country on a global scale that could support up to 32 players and involved politics, economics, military development & deployment, scientific creativity, and a well executed overall strategy). It was an ambitious undertaking for a 15 year old kid who couldn’t even get other “strategy enthusiasts” to look at it, due in large part to the 35lb box it was carried around in. I was waiting (unknowingly) for the computer age to evolve to the point where this game could be done. Here it is, the age is upon us and the game remains “undeveloped”. For now, heh heh.

Where does this lead me? Well, I am not sure, but I know that gaming is going to be a large part of my social life for many years to come.

GAME ON!

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Bloggity Goodness

2007-07-04T10:52:00.000-03:00

We have discovered (and when I say "We" I really mean "I") some new blogs that are really really impressing us (me). Now I realize our readership isn't that fantastic but for the three people who do read this blog, who may not yet know of these other blogs (it could happen), I thought I would share.

Mark of the Wild is a blog by a druid. And his adventures in WoW. He has a very easy reading blog, and it's quite enjoyable.

The next two are brand new blogs. If you read BRK (and, let's face it - you probably do - his blog is better), you already know of these guys, but their latest posts deserve a kudos.

Arms and Fury is a blog dedicated to warriors. No, I don't play a warrior myself (I lasted to level 14. Woot), but if I ever did, this would be a great blog to reference.

A View from Behind is dedicated to rogues. Can you guess my new favourite blog? This guy gets it. And you may see me respeccing very soon.

Of course, these three now are on our link list. Enjoy!

Adulterer!

2007-07-03T11:27:00.000-03:00

We have been cheating on the horde. I know - I know. Shake your head in shame. Blame it on altitis.

Say hello to Belgarath and Polgara, two mages on Aggrammar. Included in this lovely family portrait, Hogger. Or what's left of him. Easily handled at level 11.

Don't worry, we will be back. The urge to yell, "For the Horde" is strong within us.

Supervillans

2007-06-27T12:01:00.000-03:00

This was posted on WoWInsider today and is a very clever movie. Kudos to the creators!

PvP

2007-06-25T12:21:00.000-03:00

So Kaewhy and Himhotepp have taken the plunge. We have decided to create a 2v2 arena team. And so, Two Unlive Crew is born. And we did ten runs in the arena, and got our arses handed back to us, neatly carved up and in some cases, charbroiled. In ten games, only one came close. It was against a mage and a pally, and we both ganged on the mage while we cc'd the pally. It came down to me and the pally and well, the pally can heal. All I can do is pray for mercy.

One strange issue we have found. Against a hunter, Himhotepp simply freezes, blinks, and the pet is out of commission for a few seconds. In the arena, not a single pet froze in place. Not one. We came up on four hunters, and of course, their pets. If he can't take the pet out, the mage is out of commission. Is this a spec'ing thing that 70 pets have? Or is it an arena glitch? I can't imagine every single one of those hunters being spec'd the same way. Even assuming they resisted, there shouldn't be that high a resistance rate.

So it was a learning process, and continues to be. We will be arena battling a couple nights a week and hopefully we will get better. Fingers crossed!

So tell me about your guild...

2007-06-23T11:03:00.000-03:00

Since Scott is the GM of Cursed Earth and I am his ... well, wife... we have been taking a look at the guild and searching for ways to improve it. Now that we are 70 we obviously want to run a few end game instances and the best way to do that is to start with ones guild. And so we have opened the floor to our guildmates to start inviting and to open up our numbers.

There have been a few additions recently in response. We are now up to 43 characters, which is better than we have been. We have noticed a few issues, though.

- A few of the new guild members have been rolling alts and those have been added to the guild. While that isn't a problem (obviously we have a few ourselves), it does skew our numbers and limits the players we can have to run instances.

- We aren't selective about our entry process. We haven't kicked anyone out yet (fortunately the really questionable ones have left themselves), but perhaps we do need to be a bit more vocal about what kind of guild we run. The other day we had a new edition to our crew - yay, we thought, a level 38 rogue. Perfect for all of those mid level instances we wanted to run. Well aside from the constant "can someone run me through..." and complaints that no one was available - there was like two of us on at the time - the fellow was actually advertising in STV that he was buying Runescape accounts since his had been banned. How ever you want to spend your money, pal, is fine with me, but do we really want that advertising associated with our guild? He quit the guild shortly thereafter.

- Since our schedules are so wonky, we have asked that our guildmates register on our forums, so we can schedule instance runs, etc. No one is doing this! Is this something that a lot of guilds face or is this something that is just for us?

Guild management can be extremely frustrating when the guild isn't all together with you. How do you get over that?

EXALTED!!!!!

2007-06-22T12:27:00.000-03:00

Schokti spent some time last night grinding all kinds of low level Orgrimmar quests to get the last 4000 rep points so I could get rid of The Stupid Ugly Bird. I tried handing in 60 extra runecloth and discovered that while one's first donation results in 350 rep, subsequent donations are only 75 rep. That is a lot of runecloth. So I started scavaging for more quests. I recently started a troll on another server and recalled a few quests in Sen'jin village that led to Org quests. Well it turned out even killing tigers and Zalazane resulted in Org rep. I followed all the quests along, finally reaching the conclusion by destroying the demon seed, and was 115 points from exalted. Arg!

I checked out WoWhead (since Thottbot is woefully lacking in rep quests and anything except exact searches) and discovered that while the first samophlange quest from Ratchet results in rep from... Ratchet... the resulting quests gave Horde rep which was enough for me. I did the samophlange and talked to Wenikee Boltbucket, sauntered in and gathered nugget slugs, and delivered them to Orgrimmar, which pushed me over the edge. And so:

My second step:

As if they needed to ask me twice. ;)

---xxx---
In other news, some more rares:

Death Flayer, to the west of Razor Hill:

His loot:

Felweaver Scornn in Skull Rock:

His loot:

Rathorian, guarding the altar the demon seed quest (fyi - I did this quest with two different characters yesterday, he was here for both of them):

His loot, the same thing both times:

And of course everyone's favourite pink flamingo, Mazzaranache, wandering around Thunder Bluff:

And his loot:

Rares? Aren't they supposed to be hard to find?

2007-06-20T17:54:00.000-03:00

I decided it would be fun to start cataloguing the rares I am finding in the WoW world. So here are a few screencaps I managed.

Geolord Mottle, at the quillboar camp outside of Razor Hill:

And his drop:

Magister Hawkhelm at the elf camp in Azhara:

Her drop:

Sister Rathtalon near the Stonetalon Mountains-Barrens border:

And her drop:

Snarler, in Feralas north of Camp Mojache:

His loot:

Tregla, in the troll camp south of Silvermoon City:

His loot:

And one rare elite that Vassyleen was unable to beat so no drop shot, Geopriest Gukk.

Hmmm

2007-06-12T02:10:00.000-03:00

For the story, click here.

Gone fishing

2007-06-11T10:38:00.000-03:00

So in grinding away for my 5200 gold for my epic flying mount I have found Kaewhy seriously lacking in food. It seemed like a good time to take a break from gathering motes and felweed and I decided to bring my woefully lacking level 279 cooking up. Since the only things right now I can cook is clam meat, I thought I would also bring up my fishing at the same time (since that was at an even worse 204). And so, I figure, since I am up passed 200 that it is time to get the book to bring my fishing to 300. I discover I need to go visit Nat Pagle - but have fun finding him in all of Azeroth.

After checking Thottbot, I discover he is in Duskwallow Marsh (fyi - south eastern area, on an island). So we have a chat. He says sorry, you aren't high enough for the quest yet, may as well stick around and fish.

And so I started scavenging around for a better fishing spot (fyi - it really doesn't matter. Every 7 fish caught your level goes up between 200-225). And I found a rare. Woot! Voila, Lord Angler:

His drop:

I finally logged after about 20 minutes of fishing, I have 8 more levels to go. Only 56 more fish.

Vassylleen update

2007-06-06T15:11:00.000-03:00

Today I dinged 25 with Vassylleen, finishing quests for Gann and getting a totally useless ring. But I got plenty of junkboxes to lock pick so its all good. This completes my barrens quests (yay!) and I have moved on to Ashenvale.

In my travels I have found another rare, Thunderstomp:

And voila, his drop:

To 26!

Grinding away

2007-06-04T12:21:00.000-03:00

Kaewhy has finally completed all the quests in Netherstorm do-able by one person. I now wait for guildies to catch up, or anyone who is looking for a group. Shouldn't be hard. Of course, I decided to do some Skettis quests to grind for the purple Nether Ray. Can you imagine Kaewhy on that baby? Giggidy giggidy.

I also to Barbaracue into WSG again, since I am having so much fun with her in there I decided to make a break for the level 28 Outrider's bow. Saturday's numbers:

(Note the gratuitous shot of Sauce, my pretty kitty.)

---xxx---
And finally a question for the readers:

I love reading general chat. I enjoy the banter, and even all the bad Barrens Chuck Norris jokes and slams at ones mother do not bother me. I came across this conversation in Netherstorm:

The person in red is a 66 warrior, Prot spec'd complaining he can't complete quests on his own because he isn't tough enough. He has been asked to be prot spec'd by his guild and now is trying to quest and can't get it done. How is this possible? How does a warrior, wearing plate, able to take all kinds of damage, not be able to kill some Sunfury magic users? Can someone explain this to me?

Which brings up another question. Any thoughts on guilds demanding certain specs? I feel if a player knows their class (and I certainly hope that if one is over level 60 they do), they should be able to play the spec of their choice. I have seen shadow priests be more effective healers than holy priests (and vice versa), and rogues out tanking warriors. It all depends on the player. So what are your thoughts?

Fan Mail

2007-06-02T10:32:00.000-03:00

I played around with Barbaracue yesterday and had grand fun. But it is all said in the fan mail I sent to BRK:
----

Gah. I am writing fan mail about a computer game. What a geek – scratch that – enthusiast – I have become. Anyhoo…

Greetings!

I felt the grand desire to thank you yesterday when I went into WSG with my level 28 hunter and saw my stats. Let me give you a backstory:

I am a rogue by nature. I love sneaking up on people, two shot killing, making them bleed all over. The only other character type that has come close to that carnage that I had found was the mage. And then I started reading your blog. I took my lowly hunter, who was specc’d evenly across all three (I know, she was only level 28, but she was absolutely no fun to play), to the trainer and paid my gold piece and respecc’d. All 19 points into BM. And then I went off and finished some quests, a little faster than normal.

But I really got what was happening in the battle ground. A friend convinced me to try it (this character had never been in – I have never seen a hunter do well), and that combined with your post on PvP’ing I sauntered in.

My kills-death ratio was not fantastic. But my damage meter was amazing. I have attached it here. Barbaracue is at the top of the list – that’s me. Sauce? The number two spot? My cat. Wooo hoooo!

I am now half way with markers to get the level 28 bow. ‘Nuff said.

The only thing better than one...

2007-05-29T12:18:00.000-03:00

My wonderful husband bought me an in game gift. Seems he had been perusing the auction house and found Ced's Carver for a mere 65 gold. Considering I have never seen it for less than 150, this was a steal. And so:

Pretty, non? Complete with a life stealing enchant. Where did we get that fancy enchant, you ask? Well we are a pretty small guild, with 16 accounts. There are only 6 characters (4 players) over 60. So guild run instances in the Outlands right now is not an option. We do want to help bring our guild up so we thought we would do a few Scholo runs to see what the deal was (yep, most of us had never run it), and to see what we would need when our guildies got high enough to start getting their Tier 1 armor. The first three times we ran it as a group, (Kaewhy at 70, two 65 priests and Velvyt at 55, 56, 57, & 59), the Life Stealing enchant dropped FOUR times. Once it dropped TWICE in the same run. Gah. Needless to say our guild enchanters are very happy.

I had a supply of Nogginfoggers elixir on me during these runs, and had great fun -

I was shrunken down and Peanut kept looking at me with love in his eyes.

So what about this blog title then? Glad you asked. A few days later Scott found another Ced's in for 80g. And so:

Complete with Life Stealing - to balance things out, of course.

Applause

2007-05-26T15:00:00.000-03:00

Gold Spam: Our Continued Efforts

Nice. If you are going to go after one, go for the most annoying. Yay, Blizzard.

egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam

2007-05-24T12:54:00.000-03:00

I was reading WoWInsider today and an article popped right out at me. And it made me think (I know! Shocked me too.). Where's all the spam gone?

Can this be true? We will actually be logged in for more than five minutes without being whispered about gold for sale for only $69.99? What ever will we do? How will we go on? I may miss this as much as my add ons!

FYI - we now have most of the addons running. Now, I haven't actually played for longer than 20 minutes, just to check the mail and the add ons, so the true test will come on my day off.

Yay, patch day

2007-05-23T11:35:00.000-03:00

Patch day will from now on be henceforth known as "Add ons? What add ons?" day. When we were finally able to log into our server last night (Scott was just a tad irritated with all the rolling restarts that finally stopped about 10:30 pm last night - just in time for me to come home and log in), we went in with the knowledge that our add ons would not work. But we had no idea how much we had come to rely on them. Yes, we got a hint when BC came out, but it was so much fun playing a blood elf that we were able to overlook it until the next fu versions came out.

Do you have any idea how irritating it is to actually have to exit out of auctioneer to check your level of enchanting to figure out if it really is worth 8 gold to to buy the Enchant Bracer: Greater Stamina? And how frustrating it is when you know you have scored a record crit fireball and there is no way to record it? Or even to know at a glance how many of your friends or guildmates are online?

Sigh. So before I do any logging in today I will be perusing the various websites to get all my precious bling back.

Before I go, I thought I would like to Big Red Kitty's take on the patch - quite funny, IMHO.

---xxx---

Edited to add:

I realized it was remiss of me to talk about downloading our add ons but not listing which we use. The various sites we use:

Cosmos - 2.1.0 is up and good to go.
RPG Outfitter - we use Character Profiler and Guild profiler. The 2.1.0 patch is up and running
WowAce.com's Files - (WoW 2.0 only) - this is the One-Stop-Shop location for AL the AddOns, with a very simple interface and a great download speed. And unlike WoWinterface.com & Curse-Gaming.com it is not laggy at all.
WoW Interface Add Ons - this site is extremely busy as of today and having download issues. There isn't a lot available as of yet. This is the site that hosts FuBar, which apparently hasn't been updated yet.
I have found a FuBar 2.1.0 on Curse gaming. This is just Fubar, but the site has the other Fu-additions. Go nuts. I sure am.

Scott's note:
I use files.wowace.com almost exclusively now. WoWinterface.com & Curse-Gaming.com are always so damn laggy. Curse-gaming is so bad that I frequently time-out when waiting for the download dialogue. WowInterface.com does have a large amount of info, and is sometimes worth the wait to get hard to find or rare AddOns, but I use a limited list now, and all I want is to get the latest build for the AddOns I have. Hence, I go to files.wowace.com for that.

Just keep grinding

2007-05-20T12:01:00.000-03:00

So Schokti and Vassylleen have seen more play time recently and I have managed to get Schokti to 45 fairly quickly. She is now spending her time in the Hinterlands killing trolls and owl beasts. Woot, good times.

Vassylleen is busy grinding most of the Crossroads quests. Yesterday, thanks to Ravenkiller she got her poisons. Yay! And then, like a total noob (and a sure sign I have been playing Kaewhy far too much), I promptly went and spent two gold on crystal vials when I should have spent 3 silver on empty vials. Some days I am convinced I just bought this account on eBay.

I did manage to find a rare I have never seen. Ravenkiller tells me he is a popular haunt for hunters, and now I know where the blue raptor comes from. And so Takk the Leaper met my blades:

And he dropped something I could actually use. Woot!

And in true form I created a new character yesterday. I know - I just can't stop myself! I will try to resist logging in with her, I really just wanted the name.

My (soon to be) frost mage on Valen. Cuz I want to see what Scott is on about with Himhotepp's "mob control". Plus she just looks cool. But I have to catch Vassylleen up with the rest of the guild first.

Now What?

2007-05-17T12:37:00.000-03:00

So we are 70. Woot. Now what? We are casual gamers so we have NO raiding experience - i.e. anything above 5 person groups has never been done by either of us, and if we want any of the tier armor that would be the way to go.

Yes, we can ask to join groups, but we are up front about our experience and raid groups at our level tend to be looking for more experienced players. Sure, we could withold that information, but that just creates bad blood. So now what. Well, we wait until we have more of our guildies up with us, and try and run our alts in more raids to get the experience.

So what alt should come up next? I am thinking Schokti will be the next to ding 60 for me, Velvyt is well on his way there already. I have (thanks to Himhotepp) two pieces of the Magister's regalia for Schokti already and I imagine it won't be difficult to get the remainder. Tier gear for at least one character!!

I will also be playing Vassylleen a bit more. Buttered Monkeys is a guild of casual gamers so we can all learn raiding together. I just need to catch up now. Heh.

The grand ding

2007-05-15T19:19:00.000-03:00

Not to be outdone, Kaewhy dinged 70 Saturday night. Unfortunately I didn't get the screen cap or note how long it took me to get there. 30 days seems to be the best guess, though.

Today we ran off to get the flying mount. Voila:

Previous to this we have been running a lot of low level instances for our alts. Shamue now has every single piece of the Scarlett Monastary set. The only thing that would make it more complete would be the sheild from the big protector dude. Don't ask me his name, I don't remember.

We pulled through Justiss through Gnomeregan, not knowing that getting the quest from Orgrimar first will greatly facilitate the run into the instance. Noobs. The instance itself was a cool run, we got some great drops for the pally.

Kaewhy and Velvyt ran through Mauradon and have decided that while the Princess is cute, the instance itself is the most annoying waste of time ever. EVER. There are virtually no trash drops for all the work you do to get through the instance and though it is fun to kill the princess for the extra attack sword quest reward, that is the only reason to run the instance. I will likely never run it again.

All of the instance runs have an ulterior motive - Schokti is now a level 275 enchanter. Which means fiery enchant is mine. Woot!

So now we are waiting on a couple more guildies who are close to dinging the grand 70 and then we start on the outland instances. I am very close to being honoured with the Scryers so goodies are starting to look very, very nice. Especially that Deathmantle Armor. Insert Homer's drool here.

The Final DING!

2007-05-12T02:47:00.000-03:00

Well, it took 33 days, 14 hours, 17 minutes, 18 seconds ... but it's official.

Himhotepp is now 70!

And he has a flying mount. Woot!

Now we are grinding to get an Epic Flying Mount... but 5000g??? OUCH!!!
Hopefully, screencaps to follow...

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

A HA!

2007-04-29T23:25:00.000-03:00

I figured out why we don't post often to this blog.

Cuz all our free 'puter time is spent playing.

Remind me about Gnomeregan and great SM armor. Heh.

Dings and other notable notables.

2007-04-22T14:11:00.000-03:00

I have been tired of staring at Shamue, sitting there all pretty in her leather at half way through 38. I finally got the motivation to get her levelled and mounted, so off we went through Scarlett Monastery for two reasons - the fantabulous mail set that drops and hopefully a level. Or two. And so:

Voila, my third mounted character. Most of what she is wearing is from SM, including two pieces of the Scarlett set. Fortunately the helm and shoulders also match the fantastic red. I am such a girl at times.

I have been running Vassylleen as well and she is level 12 now. In the first hour I had her online, I got all kinds of these:

Ah, good times. I will say that since Valen is a new server the lag is practically non-existant. Which all I can say is, Woot! Now I just need to get to the SMC to sign the guild charter.

Another new toon

2007-04-19T10:38:00.000-03:00

Meet Vassylleen, the second. The Buttered Monkeys have decided to move over to Valen and in doing so we have all rolled new characters.

And so she is a skinner/leatherworker, uber-rogue-extraordinaire-to-be. Hopefully. If I can afford it. Heh.

Three more levels...

2007-04-14T11:33:00.000-03:00

It was my day off yesterday and I spent it with Kaewhy. She and Himhotepp went grinding in Nagrand and I ended up grinding an entire level. Yay, 67! Since RPGO for some reason isn't updated (again), you can check out my Armory profile. And the beautiful mace I picked up. I am using it off-handed for now (daggers have never really been big for me since I find backstab a waste of time and I do more damage with cheap shot than ambush), until I get my mace skill up and then I am switching hands. I think it will do until I get the Night blade, non?

My new goal.

2007-04-12T13:49:00.000-03:00

The Night Blade.

And the Dirge in my off hand.

Let's all bend our will towards this, shall we?

I would never play any other character again.

Grind, grind, grind...

2007-04-10T12:56:00.000-03:00

As much as Himhotepp has been grinding, so has Kaewhy. I have gotten her to 66 on Sunday, and in the last few days have been earning an average of 75 gold per session, from drops and quest rewards. I have been putting nothing in the auction house, saving every penny for my epic mount. And I have been rewarded.

Now I have four more levels to go to raise enough for the flying mount. But I have to come up with a few gold for my level 66 training first. This is more urgent than I realized - I get Cloak of Shadows as an ability. Mages and priests no longer even have a chance.

Especially those gnomes.

A Double Dose of Gaming

2007-04-09T12:13:00.000-03:00

So today post consists of 2 parts. The usual WoW info and an new section, called "MY CoD". First, the WoW.
~~~

My WoW

So I have been listening to my own advice (finally, right?) and started grinding Himotepp again... just get out there and DO the damn quests... and guess what? He dinged 67 early this morning! yes! 67!! W00t!!
He has picked up a lot of cash and very few new items, but I am grinding for the flying mount! /drool
I want to be able to DING 70 and then fly up and celebrate!
LOL

~~~

My COD

Call of Duty. This was my passion before WoW, and there are still many days when I cannot decide between them which to play! Inevitably I wind up playing both on the same day, which of course means I don't really get into the rhythm of either one! LOL
I wasn't sure if I should post here regarding CoD, being as this is (so-far) mostly a WoW blog, but wth... it is my blog too, and CoD is almost as big a part of my gaming life as WoW. Except Christine doesn't play it... yet! L0L

The big news for me in CoD is that I recently (couple days ago) got the my highest rank ever in the game - Gunnery Sergeant! W00t!

For those not familiar with the game, CoD is a WWII FPS - and probably the best one ever created (so far at least). Graphics are awesome, gameplay is smooth (most of the time... heh heh) and the MP gameplay is outstanding! I've been playing that for a little more than 3 years, and the MP for nearly as long, and I have arrived at the following conclusions:
(*see below for a defintion of the abbreviations. ~S)

I prefer MP* to SP* play. Hugely...
I prefer TDM* to all other types of games.
I prefer SOSniper.net as the best server to play on. SO much so in fact, that I applied to their Clan. Wish me luck!
CoD is superior to CoD2 in every conceivable manner and way, IMO.

Abbreviations
FPS = First Person Shooter (type of computer game)
SP = Single Player (usually one player against many computer controlled characters, called bots)
MP = Multi-Player (usually online with many people playing against each other, and no computer controlled characters)
DM = Death Match (every man for himself)
TDM = Team Death Match (Team "A" vs Team "B")
CTF = Capture The Flag (there are variants of the name, but the game is the same)
SD = Search & Destroy (obvious name choice for the game style, lol)
BEL = Behind Enemy Lines (like TDM, except you are outnumbered 4:1 or 5:1 and score points for kills AND for simply staying alive.)

I will add more abbreviations as they become necessary to understand my upcoming posts... lol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Watch it cuz it's funny

2007-04-05T13:07:00.000-03:00

So there is a contest happening at YouTube featuring a bunch of different WoW videos. Some are downright hilarious, and as viewers, we get to vote.

Here is our favourite.

W00T! The Shanker Dropped!

2007-04-05T04:46:00.000-03:00

I know as incredible as it sounds, I got the Barman Shanker already! 2 bars into level 50, and there it is! w00t!! I also go the Mixologist Tunic and about 5g in random BOP drops. All in all, a sweet run.

We took about 7 successful attempts to get to the bar (and about 25 deaths to send me back to the beginning) but there it was. On the majority of runs it was just Christine and I - all but the last few where another old friend "Heyblinkin" aka Dave Bolton, joined us for some Roguish fun! lol

Kaewhy (64 Undead) Heyblinkin (61 Undead) and Velvyt (50 Troll).

Pics to follow as soon as I get them ready. w00t again!

btw: we each died at least once (and I died 3 times) on the last run... heh heh but it was all worth it now!

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

You know you're a twink when...

2007-04-04T13:37:00.000-03:00

So, I realize that I have been spending too much time on my alts (away from my main) when I start to say things like:

"He needs a new weapon, 'cause that one is just ugly."

Huh? When did this happen? How shall I rectify this situation?

0_o
I'll get him a new weapon.
That'll fix it...

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

A note from the Burning Legion...

2007-04-03T15:08:00.000-03:00

Well, we finished an SFK run on Burning Legion (we have 2 characters on that server - Hephaestius and Vassylleen), and I have to say it was quite a successful run, indeed.
Having been the only time I have ever run SFK with a group, and not having any healers with us, I was skeptical of our chances, but we DPS'd our way through in about an hour. And only 2 deaths... Woot!

More later!
~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Velvyt Finally Made 50!

2007-04-01T02:55:00.000-03:00

w00t! Velvyt dinged 50 this morning (after much grinding). Now the next big thing is in the works: Barman Shanker. heh heh

Also, I have made a plan for his Epic Mount: I will do 3 BG runs for each of the BG (WG, AB, AV) for each level - this will result in (at least) 30 BG tokens for each BG, which in turn means : EPIC WOLF!! WAHOO!!

It has been along climb, and now that I am here, I am feeling almost the same pull to get to 60 that I felt with Himhotepp.. lol must be a proximity thing.

In other news, my other alts (except Fripple) are all 23/24 and I am going to try to level them all to 40... starting with the Paladin (Justiss) and the Warlock (Magewannabe) because they don't need to buy a mount! I guess we'll see what happens...

~Cheers, Scott

Lie? Me? Never! The Truth is far too much fun!

Ding, ding

2007-03-11T13:43:00.000-03:00

So I spent some time with Kaewhy yesterday and brought her up to 64. I now only have the dungeon & group quests remaining in Zangramarsh and three group quests in HP and I am off to Terrorkar forest. About bloody time. I think I am spending less time with her since it takes so freaking long to level. I did a round of 8 quests yesterday in one loop and I went up two bars. TWO bars. That includes the kills. Sigh.

I did get a cool new ability though. I can now slow down my opponent to 50% speed, and the same ability increases damage from missile weapons. Perfect for those beasts who run away at around 25% life.

Later in the evening Scott and I brought on Vassylleen and Hephaestius. We each got to 21 (I think Scott is a few bars from 22) and finished our Ghostlands quests. I have a purdy new dagger and our exalted status got us each a groovy new cape. Of course between this glowing new red dagger, my red cape and a pair of pants that are bright red and orange, they quite clash with my blue shirt. So I have ordered a red one. Apparently elves like red.

SO I was surfing some game trailers...

2007-03-05T15:25:00.000-04:00

I was surfing some game trailers at www.gamevideos.com when I came across this little gem. I thought it was really awesome and wanted to share it with all of you. Please enjoy!

Thoughts? Let me know what you think...

Cheers,
~ Scott

What WoW character am I really....

2007-02-25T20:59:00.000-04:00

OK. OK. No one is morwe surprised by this than me...

Well almost no-one. Mwahahaha

Undead Mage

Undead are the forsaken: just like you. While it's important that you don't fall apart (physically or mentally), you might find yourself salivating in an unhealthy manner when someone comes selling cookies. Get more sleep.

As a mage, you like blowing things up. Your favorite bit of technology is anything that goes, 'boom'. You live for that huge front-end KAPOW - but, after the dust has settled, you'll find yourself searching for something else to explode.

Find out your real-life WoW race and class at QuizGalaxy.com

Cheers
~ Scott

Well, maybe...

2007-02-23T13:14:00.000-04:00

I discovered this on Kinless' blog and thought I would play along.

It's pretty close, if Gnomes were of the Horde faction....

Gnome Rogue

Gnomes are strange little things. Fascinated with gadgets and shiny things, gnomes are often plotting and planning - but are pretty smart, despite all the explosions.

As a rogue, you're always looking out for number one. You aren't afraid to do whatever it takes to win - and if things take a turn for the worse, you can always vanish into the night... Just don't run out of flash powder.

Find out your real-life WoW race and class at QuizGalaxy.com

On being a rogue

2007-02-22T13:22:00.000-04:00

I have been spending some time these last few days trying to get Kaewhy up to 64. Kudos to Blizzard, they are dragging the BC thing out as long as possible - grinding a level these days take FOREVER.

Now don't get me wrong - I am loving every minute of every hour I snatch out of my day to play. And I am totally loving the fact that I am finally outfitted to play PvP - I am at par with my faction mates who have epic'd themselves out pre-expansion. Getting ganked these days is more a tribute to the skill of the player now than his equipment.

As an example. Himhotepp (who hit 65 btw - group portal to Shattrath!) and Kaewhy were off gathering something for some quest. I don't remember exactly, but it was in the area where there are pretty lockboxes which are handy for rogues to bring up their lock picking skill. So, naturally, there were a few of us around. One I will mention, was a night elf, level 70. Hiss.

He conveniently waited until the other two levle 70 horde players disappeared from view and proceeded to pummel the life out of Himhotepp and moved on to me. Knowing my inabilities I hit my speed to boot out since vanish would be useless against a player 7 levels higher, regardless of how I am specced. And he used a simple distract to stop me. Gah!

What could I do? Bow to the master, wait for my inevitable death, and learn that trick for the next time someone tries to run away on me. Lesson learned, master rogue, lesson learned.

I had been playing Vassylleen and got her to 14. I love being a rogue so much that I didn't mind the inability to kick (which I finally have! woot!) or hit evasion (which I also finally have, double woot!). I think it might be my personality - I like killing only the quest dude I have to kill, and move on. Yes, I don't get the xp of all the kills leading up to the main guy, but I finish quests faster.

Plus I like picking pockets. One is never broke as a rogue. Heee.

---
Oh - on the template change. That would be my bad. I was updating our side bar and apparently our old template did not fit with the new blogger beta way of thinking. This will be fixed as soon as I figure it out. Don't hold your breath.

The Tao of "DING!"

2007-02-20T10:48:00.000-04:00

So I am on the verge of dinging 65 with Himhotepp, and it has been quite a trip so far. I am liking the Outlands, more so since I have Christine to adventure with, but I have done most of the stuff out there alone. This has led me to a revelation which I'd like to share with you.

I have realized that Himhotepp has "decided" to adventure alone. That is, I would rather go alone than with a group of people I do not know. (There are many reasons which I have used to justify this decision, however, they are merely obscuring the truth - it was my decision.)

I am going to adjust this decision process with my other alts, namely Hëphæstius on Darkspear, my new Undead Mage, and Justiss, my Blood Elf Paladin. I am using Hëphæstius to correct the mistakes I made with Himhotepp (and my goal is to eventually replace Himhotepp with Hëphæstius). Justiss, is my adventure as a Holy Warrior. LOL

I have been invited to more groups in the Outlands in 4 (almost 5) levels than I was invited to in the 60 levels before I came here. Is this a reflection of the new mindset that accompanies the BC Expansion? Definitely. Have I accepted these invitations? Some, yes. Is this a reflection of my mindest? Definitely.

I am trying to MAKE myself accept the invites to group activities. I will never get the Frostfire Armor Set otherwise!

Cheers,
~ Scott

And finally... a review

2007-02-05T13:44:00.000-04:00

So I have managed to pull myself away long enough to write a good review of the BC expansion. I have now tried out a few characters for various possibilities, and I know you are all waiting for my thoughts.

Of course you know I would create new characters. I lasted about 15 minutes in the Outlands with Kaewhy (fyi - this link is saying she is still 62 - I dinged 63 yesterday. I don't know why it hasn't updated.) and saw what kind of quests I was getting and buggered off to create a blood elf.

And so Schokti was born. I have talked about her mage abilities already, and yes, I am totally in love with this character, which is why she is 29th level. Plus I have the ability (and the desire) to completely pimp her out. Levelling in the elven area is super easy. The only thing that is a bugger is on the first map one is running everywhere - I mean everywhere. I think I spent days running back and forth. Now, granted, once I learn where all the quests go I can be more efficient in the future, so it will be no less horrible than running from UC to the Sepulcher.

The big issue I have with the elves is of course, the ugly turkeys. But I have blogged about that before and I will now leave it alone.

But they are ugly.

Moving on. In the spirit of fairness, I created a Draenei hunter, Daenae. It took me a while to realize the draenei have goat feet and are a bit Pan-like characters, which causes them to run funny (a la with a perfectly straight posture). The Draenei have a special ability to heal themselves fairly quickly and as a low level hunter learning to do things without a pet, this came in very handy. The quests are super easy, and someone had way too much fun with some of the names of the quests. For example - "Tree's Company", where one dresses up like a tree, and "Show Gnomercy", in which one kills a gnomish traitor. My personal favourite comes not from the title but from the quest rewards. "The Kurken is Lurken" directs one to kill the nasty dog in the cave, and return with its hide, from which you can choose one of two items - the Kurken Hide Jerken or Kurkenstoks. Which, of course, are fashionable shoes. Way too much time on their hands. Way too much.

On to the Outlands. As I have mentioned Kaewhy is now 63. It took for bloody ever to get her there. I know that it should take a while, but I like the power levelling of a lowbie. What can I say? The quests are standard - kill 10 buzzards, collect 30 flowers, etc. There are the odd kill the boss quests which in themselves are easy right now since everyone wants to party up and get them done. No one seems to be picky over who shows up in their party.

The loot is incredible. I am at least 10 times tougher now than I was at 60 before the expansion, and the reason is I have completely re-outfitted myself. I have all new gear that is outstanding, where some of the greens that drop from pigs are better than some epics I have seen before the expansion. Which is the reason, I suppose Blizzard did this. So many characters have been at 60 for so long that they have had nothing to do but build up their epic gear and now they need things that are better, hence the better drops. Which only bodes well for us who did not grind to get the epics and are pretty much getting the same thing for free.

Getting a few pieces of great gear is easy in the outlands as well. One gets marks of Thrallmar for various things - marks for capturing the towers in the maps (this is repeatable) and for killing the alliance in PVP areas. The marks can add up quickly. For as little as 16 marks, one can get a new weapon.

All in all I am glad to have gotten the expansion. I don't know how I am seeing level 70 draenei or blood elves, but then others have more time and dedicatation than I. And probably fewer characters.

Welcoming Me back...

2007-01-30T21:48:00.000-04:00

Well, this is my first post in awhile, and I haven't really thought out what I was going to say. I am going to make a concerted effort to post more regularly, but hey, I have a life too. LOL

I guess I will start with a little pic of my main - Himhotepp. he is now level 63 (thank you BC Expansion) and I am leading the charge in the guild to level 70.

More to come.

Cheers,

~ Scott

Time to take a minute from gaming...

2007-01-20T15:05:00.000-04:00

So we are live with BC. And let me say - very cool. We of course went through the portal, saw all the fun stuff those above 58 can do, then logged and created new characters. I have made a BE mage, Schokti, and Scott a BE rogue, Skandell. So far, I am loving the mage - of course, she is tougher than a few of the other cloth wearers I have since I have started pimping her out right from the beginning. I am loving the mana tap ability - it is astounding how often I use it. The elves are fantastic - there isn't much I don't like.

But there is one thing.

What the h-e-hockey sticks is up with the purple ostriches? I know, they are called hawkstriders, but you can name them what ever you want - they are still retarded. They look like if we get into trouble we will bury our heads in the sand! And the epic ones? More colourful! Yay - let's breed a parrot and an ostrich! These are elves, people - can we please have a slightly more graceful mount? I am told they are adapted from some other game or something (Final Fantasy comes to mind, but I am not one hundred percent sure) - chocobos or something or other. When did Blizzard decide to compete with that?

It is only one issue, but to me it is a big one. You can bet your hiney I will be plugging my rep with Orgrimmar to get a wolf. Fast.

Arggg!

2007-01-09T12:15:00.000-04:00

So it is bad enough that Blizzard's rolling re-start thing apparently isn't working and they take away my first vice:

(atta go, Blizzard. Good oops there - don't do it next week. Seven more days. We will be at the store at midnight Monday to pick up our copy).

But the universe is conspiring against me! My second vice was also down at the same time!

AAARRRRGGGG!

We've been tagged

2007-01-06T20:14:00.000-04:00

We have been tagged by Jesse so here we are, playing along.

I am going to cheat though. I got this meme on my other blog site and I will just copy and paste. ;)

Five things you likely don't know about me:

1. I have a boot fettish. I love heeled boots. Wal-Mart's shoe department and I get along famously.

2. I grew up thinking I wanted a powerhouse lifestyle - a condo in Toronto, a high-powered job, single and loving it. I was wrong.

3. The smell of vomit makes me gag. I have no idea where my mommy instinct is on that one. Sure would come in handy if I could get over that.

4. I do NOT like dogs. They smell and drool. Of course, I have met a few sweeties who are exceptions to the rule.

5. My favourite meal is a t-bone steak, medium rare with a side of home made french fries and mayonnaise. I want that to be my last meal.

Ding

2006-12-27T13:34:00.000-04:00

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T13:36:00.000-04:00

Sigh

2006-12-22T14:03:00.000-04:00

He won.

Sigh.

BC Preview

2006-12-15T12:01:00.000-04:00

Not much to report today. Spent some time again back in BRD to try and get the Shanker, no such luck. Ended up with another copy of the Goblin Jumper Cables XL & the Mixologists Tunic, though.

In browsing a few blogs this morning I found this. Kudos to Blizzard - this is fantastic marketing.

58!

2006-12-13T12:50:00.000-04:00

Scott and I are now neck in neck. What grand fun! I am spending my time in Easter Plaguelands and grinding scourge stones and all the that other fun stuff one can collect there for the Argent Dawn. My goal? The pretty knife the quartermaster carries! Drool! Of course, I may just save it all up for the epics.

As a celebration of levelling, I spent some gold in the AH and bought the Assasination Blade.

So wandering around in EPL Scott and I decided to go grind together. We didn't get far. We were attacked by a 60 rogue & warrior. They left, we rezed and vented on a 60 mage who was sitting having a drink. My first 60 kill! Of course, we paid for it dearly since it turns out he was partied with the rogue and warrior. Go figure. We left to the other side of the map to grind.

Onward to 59!

Ding. Ding. Ding.

2006-12-12T00:40:00.000-04:00

Is that a bell? No, that is Kaewhy at 57. It is unbelievable how quickly this is going. And I am only 5 bars from 58. There are a couple of factors that are pushing me up this quickly:

- a three month hiatus resulted in almost 6 full levels of restedness. It happens quickly when each kill is 700 xp.
- killing all those darn furlbogs! I had picked up two totems from them in Winterspring and Felwood, and they both were quest items, which I could not cash in until I was at least neutral with the Timbermaws. That is 6000 rep points. Each kill 5 points. Each stack of feathers or beads is another 150. That was a lot of killing.

These last few days of gaming has really driven in that I do not have a grip on effective PVP. I got my behind handed to me in Winterspring from a 53 druid. Those damn heals! And faerie fire - aaaaaaarrrrggg! If I can't stealth, I am toast!

Ah, well, that is something I can focus on at 60. Once I have beaten Scott to the end. And I am only 8 bars behind Himhotepp.

I won't even start today about the latest patch and what it has done to all our add-ons. Purists of the game would be pleased. I am not.

The pretty colour of Blue

2006-12-04T13:23:00.000-04:00

Holy crow, will it ever stop? Three blogs in a row? Gadzooks! What can I say, I only get at chance to play on weekends.

Yesterday I did a little bit more grinding, killed a couple of allies to try and get back into practice. Turns out three months away from the game kind of hurts ones rank. And apparently it hurts one practice as well. I was wandering around and ganked a 49 priest. Let's face it - a properly spec'd priest level for level will hand my buttocks to me on a silver platter. The night elves will kiss it first. So I have to kill those lower than I. Anyways, I did so twice to the same priest who was obviously frustrated. The third time he got wise and hit his fear thingy that makes me run all over the place. And what do I do? I click on my Will of the Forsaken to stop that nonsense and grab it off my bar!!! So while I am running around like a fool trying to place it back on my bar, the whole time cursing & swearing, buddy takes off. Eh, who can blame him, really?

Anyways. A friend came on later and offered to grab his 60 rogue and take me into BRD and try and get me the Barman's Shanker. We went in 5 times, got the Mixologer's Tunic, three copies of Goblin Jumper Cables schematic and a pair of Mystical Boots of the Owl. Except for the armor, the rest are pretty much useless to me. I am sending one of the jumper cable things to my engineer, and the rest are going into AH. Where hopefully I can pick up some other blue armour since I am SERIOUSLY lacking.

Ding... again

2006-12-03T12:33:00.000-04:00

54! Seems to be going a tad quicker now. Now that I know where I need to grind to level, etc. I spent some time yesterday clearing off some maps and doing some quick easy quests in Felwood and wandered into Winterspring.

In Winterspring I was welcomed with a wave from a warlock, whose wave was actually a dot on me then he proceeded to fear me and laugh at me since I was mounted and could neither dismount nor Will of Forsaken to stop it. I am sure I provided hours of chuckling afterwards. Very nice and quite ingenious. Kudos to you, unknown ganker.

Ding

2006-12-02T11:00:00.000-04:00

Kaewhy made it to 53 last night. Finally. Let me tell you - Un'Goro is by far the hardest place to get anything done for all the allies roaming around the place. Let's just say I added up to a few HKs for a few characters. Including one kill that took place while I was AFK. I suppose I should know better than to walk away while not in the city. It took me far too long to kill pteradactyls, apes, and far too long to collect spores! Then in triumph I left and was looking over my quest list and discovered I had missed two quests. Arg!

In my frustration I vented on a NE rogue hanging out in Ratchet. It was fun. A lvl 16 Troll something or other whispered to me asking me what level this ?? rogue was. Instant stealth mode and I go look - 40. The troll had the presence of mind to say "farewell" just before he hit the dirt. Beauty! Pay it forward, I say.

Ah, the things I have missed.

2006-11-27T11:38:00.000-04:00

There are little things I realized last night in playing that I have missed. Most notably, the noobs. Or Nubs. What ever. I realize there is some distinction, but to me they are one in the same. These are the idiots who just don't get it. There is a distinction between these and Newbs, who are just new to the game and genuinely don't know any better. But the ones that I miss are those that yell out in Orgrimmar:

"What does WTS mean?"
"By the way, I'm not a noob. LOL!"

Riiiiiight.

Or the ones that contact you:
"Hi."
"Hello."
"Can I have 1g?"
And upon checking out who is asking this audacious question, one finds that this is a level 2 undead rogue in Trisfal Glades and you are in Thousand Needles.
"No. Go earn it like the rest of us."

My fondness for these types includes the chuckle at the guy at the auction house asking everyone for a gold piece so he can get that fantastic blue armour instead of running out to the dungeon itself, going through the trouble of finding a group, waiting the two hours for one priest to join the party, then getting it them damn selves. The rest of us do.

Gotta love the noobs.

And we're back!

2006-11-18T14:12:00.000-04:00

Well that break was long enough, wasn't it? Turns out we moved and it has taken us a couple of months to get back online. I won't bore you with the details suffice to say that from August to November is FAR TOO LONG!

Anyhoo. In our absence, my brain seems to have forgotten some of the finer points of gaming. Like where I left off, for instance. So to get myself back in the groove, you guessed it, I have made a couple new characters. Now if I could find a lackey to take care of all my life duties (laundry anyone?) I could get this addiction out of my system.

Blood and Glory

The Excitement Grows

Suspension... and Disbelief

Fire blasting those socks off

Kingslayer ... finally

Synchronicity

Fire Mage Rawr

Now THAT is a dragon

There can be only one

End game woes

A bit of an update

Epic

Ok so now what?

Ok, Don't Panic

So It Occurs To Me...

Another Day, Another 80

WoW.com's Guide to WoW Resources

Happy birthday, big guy

Farmville > WoW?

WoW Classes and You

Happy Holidays... to me!

Cataclysm

The end of an era

/flex

Tim Buckley does it again

My Precioussss

You love me, you really love me!

The First Report

Latest News

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Spirit of Competition

"And so...

Ding

Dragon Mounted

We're Baaaaaaaack!!

to be "back" or not to be "back"...

Guild Wars

Learning to raid

Hmm, it's been a while.

Catch up and new spec

So it's been a while...

Wooooot!

Another Adventure Begins...

World of Warcraft

Galactic War 5

Looking for feedback...

My Gaming Background

Bloggity Goodness

Adulterer!

Supervillans

PvP

So tell me about your guild...

EXALTED!!!!!

Rares? Aren't they supposed to be hard to find?

Hmmm

Gone fishing

Vassylleen update

Grinding away

Fan Mail

The only thing better than one...

*Applause*

egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam

Yay, patch day

Just keep grinding

Now What?

The grand ding

The Final DING!

A HA!

Dings and other notable notables.

Another new toon

Three more levels...

My new goal.

Grind, grind, grind...

A Double Dose of Gaming

My WoW

My COD

Watch it cuz it's funny

W00T! The Shanker Dropped!

You know you're a twink when...

A note from the Burning Legion...

Applause