Still alive, but we do not have the internet at home yet, nor a working PC (should be fixed today) so I haven't had any chance to write. That said, I'm not sure if I will continue to write this blog. I enjoy it and it's been a lot of fun, but things have changed and it may be the best choice to stop.
Still playing WoW whenever I can, though the new job takes up most of my time. Still a mana battery. Still on Dentarg. The only thing that's really changed is the guild (goodbye Kamuflasjefylla!). With the introduction of PvE to PvP server transfers though, I'm sorely tempted to transfer to a no-gank realm. Still a carebear ;)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
067: Intermission
Got a job in Ireland, moving there + moving in with the Paladin in a few days. Very busy. Won't have the 'net for 1-2 months (please send help!). The Paladin has resigned as officer and we've both gone casual rank due to this + with my new job I'll have less time for raiding anyway. It's sad, but real life has to come first after all.
Things to blog about once we're all settled and have been hooked back tolife support the internet:
* I HAVE A BUG!
* Kinda sorta but not really a World Dragon kill.
* The Staff. Finally.
* Wait, I'm a Rogue now?
* Reputation addicts.
In other news, boy am I glad I've got tailoring on my main! The flying carpet mount (if it is indeed true) sounds infinitely cool and I will be getting one stat once the expansion hits. Now would someone point me in the direction of where that turban headpiece drops cause I have some farming to do...
Things to blog about once we're all settled and have been hooked back to
* I HAVE A BUG!
* Kinda sorta but not really a World Dragon kill.
* The Staff. Finally.
* Wait, I'm a Rogue now?
* Reputation addicts.
In other news, boy am I glad I've got tailoring on my main! The flying carpet mount (if it is indeed true) sounds infinitely cool and I will be getting one stat once the expansion hits. Now would someone point me in the direction of where that turban headpiece drops cause I have some farming to do...
Friday, July 4, 2008
066: How Cartographer can get you a girlfriend
Shortly before I joined Kamuflasjefylla I went on a heroic run of SL with a bunch of them. At that time the only people I knew were Dave, Tammy and Chiwi, so I had no idea who anyone were. During the run, at one point, the Paladin healer pronounces my characters name wrong on vent and I yelled at him for it. A couple of days later, now a member of the guild, that same Paladin whispers me asking if I want to group up for the dailies. He says something about how since he's a healer it takes him 2 hours to kill a mob while I'm built to melt faces. He hadn't needed to present any reasons, I was brand new in the guild and wanted get to know everyone. The next day we team up for the dailies again.
That was December 2007. It's July 2008, now, and we're planning on moving in together soon.
It's funny how Warcraft brings people together - through partychat, guildchat and especially voice chat we get to know each other and form deep friendships. In my guild alone there's at least 5 couples, of which more than half met through the game.
Many months after that first heroic Shadowlabs, Tom/Emerald/Adagio the Pink Paladin revealed to me that it had been my yelling at him for not saying my chars name right that had piqued his interest in me. Or as he so eloquently put it: "...and I thougth, hey! She sounds hot!" (Meanwhile I was feeling bad that I'd shouted at one of the guilds officers and all. :P) When I joined the guild he used Cartographer tostalk me see where I was located, and upon finding me in Skettis that day he whispered asking for a dailies group. Who knew that this little map addon could get you a girlfriend/boyfriend? They ought to advertise this, in my opinion. I'm certain the amount of downloads would skyrocket.
So there you are, the main reason for my absence lately. I went to visit him in England for two weeks in early June, and in a couple weeks time we're going on a mini-holiday together to visit some friends in Ireland. The other reason is that my guild, Kamuflasjefylla, died and was reborn that same month. Our Prot Paladin transfered to play with a friend in a M'uru guild, and both our solid-attendance, awesome-gear Resto Shamans packed up and went with him. So did Dave, who was gearing up his mage (not banned as it was on a separate account) for Sunwell. In the wake after those four left, we lost a DPS Warrior to rerolling Horde and the breakdown of our raiding capability was a fact.
After a few days of considering our options and being politely declined after approaching our servers second best guild asking about a merge, we allied with a Sunwell guild on another server. They were in roughly the same situation as us and were persuaded to transfer over to Dentarg to join us. In the process we abandoned Kamuflasjefylla and adopted the name of the transfering guild: NES. Supposedly it stands for lots of things, like Never Ever Sleep and Never Ending Story, but it does not under any circumstances stand for Nintendo Entertainment System. I'll always miss the old name and the story behind it, but in the end the name you raid under doesn't really matter much. What does matter is that after some horrible weeks and over a month of not even being able to get proper BT/Hyjal raids up, we're back in Sunwell were we belong.
What does not break you makes you stronger, right?
That was December 2007. It's July 2008, now, and we're planning on moving in together soon.
It's funny how Warcraft brings people together - through partychat, guildchat and especially voice chat we get to know each other and form deep friendships. In my guild alone there's at least 5 couples, of which more than half met through the game.
Many months after that first heroic Shadowlabs, Tom/Emerald/Adagio the Pink Paladin revealed to me that it had been my yelling at him for not saying my chars name right that had piqued his interest in me. Or as he so eloquently put it: "...and I thougth, hey! She sounds hot!" (Meanwhile I was feeling bad that I'd shouted at one of the guilds officers and all. :P) When I joined the guild he used Cartographer to
So there you are, the main reason for my absence lately. I went to visit him in England for two weeks in early June, and in a couple weeks time we're going on a mini-holiday together to visit some friends in Ireland. The other reason is that my guild, Kamuflasjefylla, died and was reborn that same month. Our Prot Paladin transfered to play with a friend in a M'uru guild, and both our solid-attendance, awesome-gear Resto Shamans packed up and went with him. So did Dave, who was gearing up his mage (not banned as it was on a separate account) for Sunwell. In the wake after those four left, we lost a DPS Warrior to rerolling Horde and the breakdown of our raiding capability was a fact.
After a few days of considering our options and being politely declined after approaching our servers second best guild asking about a merge, we allied with a Sunwell guild on another server. They were in roughly the same situation as us and were persuaded to transfer over to Dentarg to join us. In the process we abandoned Kamuflasjefylla and adopted the name of the transfering guild: NES. Supposedly it stands for lots of things, like Never Ever Sleep and Never Ending Story, but it does not under any circumstances stand for Nintendo Entertainment System. I'll always miss the old name and the story behind it, but in the end the name you raid under doesn't really matter much. What does matter is that after some horrible weeks and over a month of not even being able to get proper BT/Hyjal raids up, we're back in Sunwell were we belong.
What does not break you makes you stronger, right?
Friday, May 23, 2008
065: Field Trip
We kept reassuring her that it was just ol' Sillydan and there was nothing to worry about. She didn't seem too convinced. Eventually, after some discreet bribery (strawberry ice cream and a candy bar), we were able to talk her into posing for this shot:
Where did you take your orphan?
Also, if you click to view the larger image, please take notice of that Rogue's name. First time he was with us for an Illidan fight was hilarious: "Alright Shadowdemon, he does this... shadow... demon thing.... you, uh, DPS the... shadow demons... Bwahahahahahaha." "Look, just comitt suicide in phase 4 and we should be okay!!" He was not impressed.
Where did you take your orphan?
Also, if you click to view the larger image, please take notice of that Rogue's name. First time he was with us for an Illidan fight was hilarious: "Alright Shadowdemon, he does this... shadow... demon thing.... you, uh, DPS the... shadow demons... Bwahahahahahaha." "Look, just comitt suicide in phase 4 and we should be okay!!" He was not impressed.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
064: RIP Meepmeep
On May 20th, in the late evening (European time), Blizzard took the names and credit cards numbers that they had obtained and compared it to their database of accounts. The names and numbers were those of people who had purchased the well-known Warcraft bot Glider. They were all perma-banned.
We were in Sunwell, progressing on Brutallus. Since we got him down a few weeks back we haven't been able to repeat it. We lost a few of our strong DPSers to burnout and Age of Conan and exams, and while we've filled in the ranks again, they haven't had the gear to provide sufficient DPS until now. Our first attempt went really well, even without flasks we had enough raid DPS to bring him down.
"Did anyone else just get disconnected?", our raid leader says on vent. He was the only one. Then the disbelief when he tried to log back in. The cries of "You're kidding me, you've got to be kidding me." I was whispered shortly after by a friend asking if anyone in Kamuflasjefylla had just been suspended. Three characters in my friends guild had, only minutes before.
We speculated at first if there was something wrong, since none of them had gotten emails stating why. It became obvious soon enough when the forum threads began popping up.
I first met Dave back in my old guild, when Tieryn was around level fifty-something. He and I got dragged along on a fun-run of ZG and all I remember is that he played a Hunter then, and that he'd given his pet cat his own name. After that I'd bump into him from time to time - sometimes he'd merely be mentioned by my guildmates, other times he'd come with us on an instance run or a heroic run. I grew to like him, an alright fellow that laughed a lot and had so much more experience with BC raiding than us. At some point his Hunter was hacked and destroyed and he switched to playing a Priest. I looked up to him, as he was the only one I really knew who played hardcore and had raided all the instances I secretly dreamed of some day seeing myself. As time passed, he would be the one to invite me into Kamuflasjefylla and give me the chance to fulfill that dream.
He's a nice guy. He doesn't seek to hurt anyone and he isn't the kind of person that would break the law or deliberatly try to mess things up for others. He didn't use the bot to farm for gold, he merely wanted to skip the boring leveling on his new baby hunter, wanting it to get to 70 faster so that he could have his lost Locutus back. He'd talk about his plans to get a pet Scorpion called Bob again and go back onto the barricades, promoting the use of Scoprion pets in high-end raids. He didn't mean any harm. Few people who use bots do. He's a nice guy. Most people who use bots are.
I'm not saying what he did was okay or that his banning was unfair, because it isn't and it wasn't. I'm saying that the people who bot are people like you and me. It might not actually be you and me, but it might be your friend or your guildie. I'm saying that in an instant he was disconnected from the servers forever. His Shadow Priest with five or six pieces of tier 6, Skull of Gul'dan and the Spectral Tiger mount was gone. All because he wanted to speed up the boring leveling process a bit. Most people don't see that as a big deal. It is a big deal.
No matter your reason to use a bot, it is against the Terms of Service. It's not a big thing - it's not like stealing from a store or hurting another person - but it is against the rules you agreed to follow, and thus punishable as per the terms.
Realise what you're risking. Realise it can all be taken away from you in a heartbeat. Everything you've worked so hard for. If you're an end-game raider - realise what you're risking for not just yourself but your entire guild.
When he first logged on, after having namechanged from Cascada to Meepmeep.
The Shadow Council won't ever be the same :/
Goodbye Meepmeep, we had some great times ♥
We were in Sunwell, progressing on Brutallus. Since we got him down a few weeks back we haven't been able to repeat it. We lost a few of our strong DPSers to burnout and Age of Conan and exams, and while we've filled in the ranks again, they haven't had the gear to provide sufficient DPS until now. Our first attempt went really well, even without flasks we had enough raid DPS to bring him down.
"Did anyone else just get disconnected?", our raid leader says on vent. He was the only one. Then the disbelief when he tried to log back in. The cries of "You're kidding me, you've got to be kidding me." I was whispered shortly after by a friend asking if anyone in Kamuflasjefylla had just been suspended. Three characters in my friends guild had, only minutes before.
We speculated at first if there was something wrong, since none of them had gotten emails stating why. It became obvious soon enough when the forum threads began popping up.
I first met Dave back in my old guild, when Tieryn was around level fifty-something. He and I got dragged along on a fun-run of ZG and all I remember is that he played a Hunter then, and that he'd given his pet cat his own name. After that I'd bump into him from time to time - sometimes he'd merely be mentioned by my guildmates, other times he'd come with us on an instance run or a heroic run. I grew to like him, an alright fellow that laughed a lot and had so much more experience with BC raiding than us. At some point his Hunter was hacked and destroyed and he switched to playing a Priest. I looked up to him, as he was the only one I really knew who played hardcore and had raided all the instances I secretly dreamed of some day seeing myself. As time passed, he would be the one to invite me into Kamuflasjefylla and give me the chance to fulfill that dream.
He's a nice guy. He doesn't seek to hurt anyone and he isn't the kind of person that would break the law or deliberatly try to mess things up for others. He didn't use the bot to farm for gold, he merely wanted to skip the boring leveling on his new baby hunter, wanting it to get to 70 faster so that he could have his lost Locutus back. He'd talk about his plans to get a pet Scorpion called Bob again and go back onto the barricades, promoting the use of Scoprion pets in high-end raids. He didn't mean any harm. Few people who use bots do. He's a nice guy. Most people who use bots are.
I'm not saying what he did was okay or that his banning was unfair, because it isn't and it wasn't. I'm saying that the people who bot are people like you and me. It might not actually be you and me, but it might be your friend or your guildie. I'm saying that in an instant he was disconnected from the servers forever. His Shadow Priest with five or six pieces of tier 6, Skull of Gul'dan and the Spectral Tiger mount was gone. All because he wanted to speed up the boring leveling process a bit. Most people don't see that as a big deal. It is a big deal.
No matter your reason to use a bot, it is against the Terms of Service. It's not a big thing - it's not like stealing from a store or hurting another person - but it is against the rules you agreed to follow, and thus punishable as per the terms.
Realise what you're risking. Realise it can all be taken away from you in a heartbeat. Everything you've worked so hard for. If you're an end-game raider - realise what you're risking for not just yourself but your entire guild.
When he first logged on, after having namechanged from Cascada to Meepmeep.
The Shadow Council won't ever be the same :/
Goodbye Meepmeep, we had some great times ♥
Thursday, May 15, 2008
063: QQ
For many months now, Tom and I have organised a Karathon every Friday. I do the signups, make sure we have enough tanks and healers and raid lead. He assists me and handles the occasional loot buyer + distributes voids at the end. At first it was all fun and it felt nice to raid lead Kara again like I used to do in my old guild. These days though, it feels like more hassle than it's worth. The below is the list of Rules I want to post in the next signup thread. I won't though, I think it's better to just take a break from running these things altogether.
#1: If you sign up and then get saved before Friday, have the courtesy to let us know. Preferably before we log on Thursday night and see your character is in Karazhan with some other group. Or if we don't happen to see you do this, let us know before we start sending out raid invites ten to seven on Friday evening.
#2: If you sign up as a tank, get saved with some other group and decide that this is okay cause you'll just come with your other character (who is not a tank), don't just whisper the severly undergeared feral druid that's coming to be geared up and tell her 'You'll be offtanking, I'll come on my lock instead'. Especially do not do this and not tell us anything about it. She's not strong enough to fill that role yet and we'll have to arrange something else. We'd like to know we need to do so before it's one hour until raid time.
#3: Don't sign if you're not going to show up. If you have an excuse that's fine, but 'I forgot' is not an excuse. Neither is 'It's just Kara, chill'.
#4: Do not show up drunk to the point where you keep dying and/or wipe us because you a) overaggro, b) pull extra packs of mobs, c) spend your time whispering your crush and not paying attention to what the group is doing, d) auto-run into packs we skipped, e) fall down and die, f) set off Flame Wreath on Aran, or any other ridiculously stupid thing. It's not cute. You're just pissing everybody off and wasting our time.
#5: You are not a special snowflake. You will be DPSing the flares on Curator and you will be DPSing the chains on Illhoof. You will also corpse run with everybody else when we wipe.
#6: If you're listed as a DPS and you're told to DPS, do not go into bear form and taunt things off the poor off-tank with lesser gear than you. Yes, you are the better tank, but he does buggerall damage with his prot spec and he doesn't have adequate DPS gear. You do. Next time, state that you'll only come if you can tank and we will work around it.
#7: No, that guy isn't in our guild. He is a good friend of mine that asked very nicely if he could come along for badges (and we needed a well-geared DPSer to carry your blue-and-green geared alt). He's 15, a sweetheart and about a million times more polite than you. Stop making fun of him and act your age. You make me ashamed to wear the same guildtag as you when you get all elitist like that. If only you worked as hard to be a nice person as you did on getting your t6!
#8: No, you can't just take that item. You'll pass on it like we always do, and then the interested people will /roll and we sort it out. This is how we've always done it and you've run Kara with us plenty of times before. There are others here too that wear cloth/leather/mail/plate/need healing gear/need tanking gear/can use that weapon (cross out as applicable). Stop being greedy!
Yeah, I need a vacation :/
#1: If you sign up and then get saved before Friday, have the courtesy to let us know. Preferably before we log on Thursday night and see your character is in Karazhan with some other group. Or if we don't happen to see you do this, let us know before we start sending out raid invites ten to seven on Friday evening.
#2: If you sign up as a tank, get saved with some other group and decide that this is okay cause you'll just come with your other character (who is not a tank), don't just whisper the severly undergeared feral druid that's coming to be geared up and tell her 'You'll be offtanking, I'll come on my lock instead'. Especially do not do this and not tell us anything about it. She's not strong enough to fill that role yet and we'll have to arrange something else. We'd like to know we need to do so before it's one hour until raid time.
#3: Don't sign if you're not going to show up. If you have an excuse that's fine, but 'I forgot' is not an excuse. Neither is 'It's just Kara, chill'.
#4: Do not show up drunk to the point where you keep dying and/or wipe us because you a) overaggro, b) pull extra packs of mobs, c) spend your time whispering your crush and not paying attention to what the group is doing, d) auto-run into packs we skipped, e) fall down and die, f) set off Flame Wreath on Aran, or any other ridiculously stupid thing. It's not cute. You're just pissing everybody off and wasting our time.
#5: You are not a special snowflake. You will be DPSing the flares on Curator and you will be DPSing the chains on Illhoof. You will also corpse run with everybody else when we wipe.
#6: If you're listed as a DPS and you're told to DPS, do not go into bear form and taunt things off the poor off-tank with lesser gear than you. Yes, you are the better tank, but he does buggerall damage with his prot spec and he doesn't have adequate DPS gear. You do. Next time, state that you'll only come if you can tank and we will work around it.
#7: No, that guy isn't in our guild. He is a good friend of mine that asked very nicely if he could come along for badges (and we needed a well-geared DPSer to carry your blue-and-green geared alt). He's 15, a sweetheart and about a million times more polite than you. Stop making fun of him and act your age. You make me ashamed to wear the same guildtag as you when you get all elitist like that. If only you worked as hard to be a nice person as you did on getting your t6!
#8: No, you can't just take that item. You'll pass on it like we always do, and then the interested people will /roll and we sort it out. This is how we've always done it and you've run Kara with us plenty of times before. There are others here too that wear cloth/leather/mail/plate/need healing gear/need tanking gear/can use that weapon (cross out as applicable). Stop being greedy!
Yeah, I need a vacation :/
Friday, May 2, 2008
062: Speedy!
I haven't seen any announcments anywhere, but apparantly it's Children's Week again. I ran into some Horde players yesterday with orphans in tow so I headed over to the Stormwind Orphanage this morning to pick up my own. Some 15 minutes later I had my very own Speedy the turtle, a pet I've wanted ever since I first started playing :D
Go grab one for yourself!
Go grab one for yourself!
Monday, April 28, 2008
061: Life and times
Still no 4set. Like I mentioned 2 weeks ago, I sat out for 1 Illidan raid and of course 3x Conqueror tokens dropped. Then there was a change of tanks, or rather, the changing of a holy paladin to a tank, and last weeks only Conqueror token went to him on tank-prio. Now bosses are dropping Conqueror left and right (much to the amusement of our new straight-out-of-Karazhan imp-bish - more on that later) except for, of course, Illidan. The new rogues are happy, our new new Sherman is happy (we can't seem to hold on to enhancment Shamans & thus we are in a perpetual state of gearing a new one up) and all the offspec-hungry guildies are happy.
Me, not so much.
:(
It wouldn't have been so bad if Illidan hadn't sent Sathrovarr a memo, but he did and now that pesky demon isn't dropping Conqueror either. It feels like back when we were progress raiding Illy and no weapon would drop for me. I guess this means I'll get my 4set once Felmyst is down or something. Maybe the Twins.
Spreaking of - that damned dragon isn't down yet. We banged our heads against Brutallus again this weekend after a shoddy Kalecgos-kill, but he refused to play nice for us. It's a big shame cause as of today we're on a week and a half's raidbreak to try and cure a guild-wide burnout. Most of the core raiders don't need loot from BT/Hyjal anymore. Even though we've stopped going to Hyjal completely, farming BT every Wednesday and then progress-wiping the rest of the week in Sunwell is draining everyone. Some are dodging raids, some are whining and some show up, shut up and just want to get it overwith. It happens. It happened before I joined too, when Kamuf prog-raided TK. They took a break back then too and once it was over they nailed a boss they'd not been able to get down before. Here's to hoping it'll have the same effect this time!
(And maybe there'll be more frequent blog-posts now that I'm not doing much until May 7th.)
I mentioned some new recruits. Since Illy went on farm we've had the obligatory 1-3 people fall off, either to xfers or quitting the game entirely. I'm pretty sure the officers knew it'd happen, it seems like this happens with all guilds that down the "final" boss. At any rate, after some recruiting we've picked up a new afl Warlock, a new enh Sherman (#5 I believe, here's to hoping this one lasts!) and two new Rogues. Nothing terribly interesting if it wasn't for what I previously mentioned - the Warlock is straight out of Karazhan. (If you were reading my blog back in December you'll remember that so was I when I first joined. Hell, I hadn't even killed Netherspite and Nightbane.) As such, his gear was obviously not the greatest.
Let's face it though, a guild like Kamuf can take a player in blues and greens and epic them out in BT/Hyjal in a matter of weeks. Skill, attitude and loyalty are much more valuable assets than gear when it comes to applicants. This guy? He knew he didn't stand a chance but he was bored, it was late at night and he decided he'd give it a go anyway just for the hell of it. He posted a long, well-written application to our forums that was soaked through with personality. He was funny. He wanted to raid. He was taken in and put on trial the next day.
After pretty much half the guild had crawled all over him, inspecting his gear, his gems, his enchants, his rep and told him exactly how tough a job he had ahead of him, he was brought along for the last BT clear before the raidbreak. Being naturally friendly and helpful to newbies (I've worked as an admin on a large message board for 7 years) I'd taken it upon myself to whisper him the tactics from a DPS point of view for each boss so that he'd be somewhat prepared. I must say he did remarkably well for someone who'd never set foot in the place before!
Then Mother dropped multiple Conqueror tokens (of course) and only one of the core raiders rolled on it for mainspec. The new Warlock rolled too, for the hell of it, even though he barely had any DKP. (He is a 'for the hell of it' kind of guy.) His voice on ventrilo when the raid leader offhandedly told him to pick up one of the tokens was a real treat. The poor thing had not expected to end up with tier 6 shoulders on his very first raid into Black Temple and was quite awed and surprised. The next day when we came back for Council and Illidan, he got himself some tier6 pants as well. I don't think there was a happier guy in all of Azeroth and Outland that day. :)
Me, not so much.
:(It wouldn't have been so bad if Illidan hadn't sent Sathrovarr a memo, but he did and now that pesky demon isn't dropping Conqueror either. It feels like back when we were progress raiding Illy and no weapon would drop for me. I guess this means I'll get my 4set once Felmyst is down or something. Maybe the Twins.
Spreaking of - that damned dragon isn't down yet. We banged our heads against Brutallus again this weekend after a shoddy Kalecgos-kill, but he refused to play nice for us. It's a big shame cause as of today we're on a week and a half's raidbreak to try and cure a guild-wide burnout. Most of the core raiders don't need loot from BT/Hyjal anymore. Even though we've stopped going to Hyjal completely, farming BT every Wednesday and then progress-wiping the rest of the week in Sunwell is draining everyone. Some are dodging raids, some are whining and some show up, shut up and just want to get it overwith. It happens. It happened before I joined too, when Kamuf prog-raided TK. They took a break back then too and once it was over they nailed a boss they'd not been able to get down before. Here's to hoping it'll have the same effect this time!
(And maybe there'll be more frequent blog-posts now that I'm not doing much until May 7th.)
I mentioned some new recruits. Since Illy went on farm we've had the obligatory 1-3 people fall off, either to xfers or quitting the game entirely. I'm pretty sure the officers knew it'd happen, it seems like this happens with all guilds that down the "final" boss. At any rate, after some recruiting we've picked up a new afl Warlock, a new enh Sherman (#5 I believe, here's to hoping this one lasts!) and two new Rogues. Nothing terribly interesting if it wasn't for what I previously mentioned - the Warlock is straight out of Karazhan. (If you were reading my blog back in December you'll remember that so was I when I first joined. Hell, I hadn't even killed Netherspite and Nightbane.) As such, his gear was obviously not the greatest.
Let's face it though, a guild like Kamuf can take a player in blues and greens and epic them out in BT/Hyjal in a matter of weeks. Skill, attitude and loyalty are much more valuable assets than gear when it comes to applicants. This guy? He knew he didn't stand a chance but he was bored, it was late at night and he decided he'd give it a go anyway just for the hell of it. He posted a long, well-written application to our forums that was soaked through with personality. He was funny. He wanted to raid. He was taken in and put on trial the next day.
After pretty much half the guild had crawled all over him, inspecting his gear, his gems, his enchants, his rep and told him exactly how tough a job he had ahead of him, he was brought along for the last BT clear before the raidbreak. Being naturally friendly and helpful to newbies (I've worked as an admin on a large message board for 7 years) I'd taken it upon myself to whisper him the tactics from a DPS point of view for each boss so that he'd be somewhat prepared. I must say he did remarkably well for someone who'd never set foot in the place before!
Then Mother dropped multiple Conqueror tokens (of course) and only one of the core raiders rolled on it for mainspec. The new Warlock rolled too, for the hell of it, even though he barely had any DKP. (He is a 'for the hell of it' kind of guy.) His voice on ventrilo when the raid leader offhandedly told him to pick up one of the tokens was a real treat. The poor thing had not expected to end up with tier 6 shoulders on his very first raid into Black Temple and was quite awed and surprised. The next day when we came back for Council and Illidan, he got himself some tier6 pants as well. I don't think there was a happier guy in all of Azeroth and Outland that day. :)
Monday, April 21, 2008
060: I've drowned in the Funwell
So tired these days once raid ends, no real time and energy for blogging even though I have lots of things I'd like to write about. Kalecgos is on farm, Brutallus is finally down after some heartbreaking 2% and 1% wipes, and we're now progress raiding Felmyst 5 hours a day.
It occured to us only tonight that the reason Mass Dispell seems to resist abnormally often is that it's not a shadow based spell, and the priest +spell hit talent only counts for shadow spells. Bugger. Will have to look into that and maybe set up a +spell hit gear to get over-capped just for this fight. And farm more Primal Manas for Cauldrons of Arcane Protection. And mats for Destro pots. And for Pure Death flasks. And Mana pots. And... and....
It occured to us only tonight that the reason Mass Dispell seems to resist abnormally often is that it's not a shadow based spell, and the priest +spell hit talent only counts for shadow spells. Bugger. Will have to look into that and maybe set up a +spell hit gear to get over-capped just for this fight. And farm more Primal Manas for Cauldrons of Arcane Protection. And mats for Destro pots. And for Pure Death flasks. And Mana pots. And... and....
Sunday, April 6, 2008
059: Bummed
First in line for t6 chest but not invited to this week's Illidan raid. Of course three Priest/Paladin/Warlock chest tokens dropped, just to rub it in. Oh well, that's the way life goes sometimes I guess. :(
In happier news, Kalecgos is finally down.
In happier news, Kalecgos is finally down.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
058: That pesky Kalecgos
We've killed him twice after the 2% wipe, but we haven't killed him right yet. So, no loot :/
The Kalecgos fight is a bit like Karazhan's Romulo & Julianne in that both the Demon inside and the Dragon outside have to die at the same time, with the added complexity that they're in two separate 'worlds' which you keep teleporting between. Additionally, the dragon in his half-elf form is inside the spectral realm with the demon and needs to be kept alive in order for the kill to count. Not the easiest of fights, in other words, but I'm quite pleased with that. Illidan is kind of ridiculously easy once you just get the positioning right, so this is nice. I always enjoyed the timing aspect of the Romulo & Julianne fight anyway.
More progress-wiping inc tonight!
The Kalecgos fight is a bit like Karazhan's Romulo & Julianne in that both the Demon inside and the Dragon outside have to die at the same time, with the added complexity that they're in two separate 'worlds' which you keep teleporting between. Additionally, the dragon in his half-elf form is inside the spectral realm with the demon and needs to be kept alive in order for the kill to count. Not the easiest of fights, in other words, but I'm quite pleased with that. Illidan is kind of ridiculously easy once you just get the positioning right, so this is nice. I always enjoyed the timing aspect of the Romulo & Julianne fight anyway.
More progress-wiping inc tonight!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
057: /bows to the tanks & the healers
It's unlikely that this will be interesting to many people, but I was so impressed by the tanks and the healers last night that I need to write this down.
We'd put off the last part of BT until the end of the week so we could focus on Kalecgos. Sunday they had him at 2% so the following day they took the exact same group in the hopes that the magic would happen. It didn't, unfortunatly, as one of the 3 tanks had a family emergency bomb land on them in mid-raid. Unable to progress on Kalecgos, they went on to pluck off some BT bosses and got all the way to Mother. Since I wasn't in the raid and the raid was full, one of my good friends logged off his own char and onto mine, knowing that I was first in line for the t6 shoulder token if it dropped. Unfortunatly it wasn't a good night for anyone and Mother stayed up. Sometimes you just can't win.
Enter Tuesday, the last day of the reset, and we have 3 BT bosses left standing: Mother, Council and Sillydan. Afterwards we were meant to go Kalecgos hunting. Mother gets one-shot in probably our best kill to date (and I got my shouders! Woo!) but Council proves tricky. Our main tank suddenly disconnects which happens from time to time, but on this occasion he can't get back on. He's stuck on authenticating. We set up a trivia bot and play a few 20 questions rounds in the hopes that rebooting/resetting IP/other technimagical things will work, but no cookie. One of the Paladins is shipped off to Ironforge to respec. The Samurai Bear is switched from the Rogue to the Paladin, and the freshly specced Tankadin gets to play with the Rogue. Both are tanking these targets for the very first time, but it's perfectly executed. Council down and we're loving this whole 3 tier tokens business. Too bad the t6 legs stink for Shadow Priests.
Main Tank is still offline, so we set things up to let the Tankadin give Sillydan a try. It's 3 hours until end-of-raid and tomorrow everything resets. We really really really don't want to leave him up. (Plan B is to kiss the feet of one of our Horde buddies in the hopes that he'll be persuaded to log on our MT's character and tank for us.)
There are a few wipes - apparantly Blizzard messed around with the Flames of Azzinoth and made them a little harder than they used to be. We die to a couple charges until the Beartanks figure out what's been done and adjust accordingly. There's an embarassing wipe on behalf of all the healers where Tankadin dies 5 seconds into phase 3 because nobody heals him. Whops!
But then! Then everything starts to come together. Sort of.
I go down in phase 2. By then, two of the DPS'ers in my group are already dead and so is the Tankadin. In order to get at Samurai Bears combat rez (which is the only available), the order is given for the other Bear to taunt flame #2 as soon as flame #1 is down. The healers are so focused on the tank-switch that they forget about Dark Barrage. I'm dead in 3 seconds. No chance. Oh well, at least Tankadin is up and buffed before Illidan decends. One of the mages gets a little crit happy before Tankadin has established enough aggro and there goes the 4th person in my party. Clearly group 3 isn't the place to be.
But they plod along even though several of the key DPS'ers are down, and slowly but surely take him down to 30%. There's at least two occasions where Parasites aren't handled where they ought to be and there's a couple more deaths, but they get there. The mage gets a combat rez when somebodys cooldown is up to help with the parasite nuking. Maiev isn't in a friendly mood and keeps putting traps in walls or all the way over by the warlock tank. 4 DPS'ers and 1 healer are down and we keep watching the enrage timer. Thankfully, the Tankadin who has never done this before does everything perfectly and Illidan switches into Demon form at 3%. The warlock tank burns him down with ease. It's the most stressfull kill we've ever had of him, and I certainly hope we won't put him off until the last day again. It's a recipe for disaster: everything that can go wrong will go wrong in such scenarios. Still, it gave our tanks and our healers a chance to shine. They showed us just how far they can stretch, just how adaptable they are, just how good.
One of my chest token dropped. Tankadin took it. Methinks I'm first in line now. /wipes drool
We'd put off the last part of BT until the end of the week so we could focus on Kalecgos. Sunday they had him at 2% so the following day they took the exact same group in the hopes that the magic would happen. It didn't, unfortunatly, as one of the 3 tanks had a family emergency bomb land on them in mid-raid. Unable to progress on Kalecgos, they went on to pluck off some BT bosses and got all the way to Mother. Since I wasn't in the raid and the raid was full, one of my good friends logged off his own char and onto mine, knowing that I was first in line for the t6 shoulder token if it dropped. Unfortunatly it wasn't a good night for anyone and Mother stayed up. Sometimes you just can't win.
Enter Tuesday, the last day of the reset, and we have 3 BT bosses left standing: Mother, Council and Sillydan. Afterwards we were meant to go Kalecgos hunting. Mother gets one-shot in probably our best kill to date (and I got my shouders! Woo!) but Council proves tricky. Our main tank suddenly disconnects which happens from time to time, but on this occasion he can't get back on. He's stuck on authenticating. We set up a trivia bot and play a few 20 questions rounds in the hopes that rebooting/resetting IP/other technimagical things will work, but no cookie. One of the Paladins is shipped off to Ironforge to respec. The Samurai Bear is switched from the Rogue to the Paladin, and the freshly specced Tankadin gets to play with the Rogue. Both are tanking these targets for the very first time, but it's perfectly executed. Council down and we're loving this whole 3 tier tokens business. Too bad the t6 legs stink for Shadow Priests.
Main Tank is still offline, so we set things up to let the Tankadin give Sillydan a try. It's 3 hours until end-of-raid and tomorrow everything resets. We really really really don't want to leave him up. (Plan B is to kiss the feet of one of our Horde buddies in the hopes that he'll be persuaded to log on our MT's character and tank for us.)
There are a few wipes - apparantly Blizzard messed around with the Flames of Azzinoth and made them a little harder than they used to be. We die to a couple charges until the Beartanks figure out what's been done and adjust accordingly. There's an embarassing wipe on behalf of all the healers where Tankadin dies 5 seconds into phase 3 because nobody heals him. Whops!
But then! Then everything starts to come together. Sort of.
I go down in phase 2. By then, two of the DPS'ers in my group are already dead and so is the Tankadin. In order to get at Samurai Bears combat rez (which is the only available), the order is given for the other Bear to taunt flame #2 as soon as flame #1 is down. The healers are so focused on the tank-switch that they forget about Dark Barrage. I'm dead in 3 seconds. No chance. Oh well, at least Tankadin is up and buffed before Illidan decends. One of the mages gets a little crit happy before Tankadin has established enough aggro and there goes the 4th person in my party. Clearly group 3 isn't the place to be.
But they plod along even though several of the key DPS'ers are down, and slowly but surely take him down to 30%. There's at least two occasions where Parasites aren't handled where they ought to be and there's a couple more deaths, but they get there. The mage gets a combat rez when somebodys cooldown is up to help with the parasite nuking. Maiev isn't in a friendly mood and keeps putting traps in walls or all the way over by the warlock tank. 4 DPS'ers and 1 healer are down and we keep watching the enrage timer. Thankfully, the Tankadin who has never done this before does everything perfectly and Illidan switches into Demon form at 3%. The warlock tank burns him down with ease. It's the most stressfull kill we've ever had of him, and I certainly hope we won't put him off until the last day again. It's a recipe for disaster: everything that can go wrong will go wrong in such scenarios. Still, it gave our tanks and our healers a chance to shine. They showed us just how far they can stretch, just how adaptable they are, just how good.
One of my chest token dropped. Tankadin took it. Methinks I'm first in line now. /wipes drool
Monday, March 31, 2008
056: Guild meet
I attended a mini guild meet this weekend in Denmark and came home feeling like a detox was a good idea. I met two other Shadow Priests (a fellow Norwegian guy and a Swedish girl), a Holy Priest (British guy that just moved in with Swedish girl) and a Resto Shaman (Danish guy). We proceeded to get drunk, take lots of pictures, talk shit and theorycraft (Kalecgos at 2% on Sunday!!). It was lots of fun and a second guild meet is already in the works - I can't wait. It's really nice to meet people you play with in real life and get a chance to find out if they're ticklish or not.
Not to mention taking pictures of them while they're drunk for future blackmail!
Not to mention taking pictures of them while they're drunk for future blackmail!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
055: Murlocs are everywhere
I'm sitting at the train station, waiting for the homebound train, when I hear an all too familiar sound.
"Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!"
What? What the hell? Murlocs at the train station? No. Just the ringtone of the guy sitting beside me.
"Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!"
What? What the hell? Murlocs at the train station? No. Just the ringtone of the guy sitting beside me.
Monday, March 10, 2008
054: Raiding post-Illidan
"So what are we doing tomorrow?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Take over the world!"
What does a guild do once Illidan is down? Game's over, right? There are no more challenges, no more bosses to progress, nothing you haven't seen. You've done it all. So what happens then? What's next?
First of all, and I can guarantee you this - no wait, actually, I will bet you 100g that this will happen - right after Illidan is down, someone in your raid or someone lurking on vent will say the magic words 'so what are we doing tomorrow?'. Provided that you didn't kill him on the last day of the reset, this is. (They might try and say it anyway though, never underestimate the individuals need to say something witty-only-it's-not-really-witty-at-that-time-but-kind-of-a-bummer-to-everyone-actually.) We had two people do this, one of our Wonderbears and a Hordie lurking in our vent channel. All I can say is that it sort of breaks the magic of the moment and forces you to think about the fact that the game really is over, at least until the next patch/expansion.
Bumming as it is though, it pays to be prepared. Kamuflasjefylla had held off attuning new people to BT/Hyjal while we were progressing Mother/Council/Illidan so attunement runs through TK and SSC were naturally planned. To give the raiders a treat though, we were gonna hold off a couple weeks longer and head off to Naxxramas once Illidan was down. A few people had raided Naxx pre-TBC but none had cleared the whole thing and at any rate, they were all just as excited to see it again as the rest of us were to see it for the first time. I don't want to sound like a whiny bitch but I really do feel like more care were put into the little things in the oldschool raid instances. I don't know. Maybe I just fail to see the little things in Black Temple and Hyjal because I'm too focused on the encounters. Anyway, the atmosphere and music in Naxxramas is amazing.
We didn't do much when it came down to it - took out Patchwerk, Grobbusomething and the big doggie, then wiped a couple times on Thaddius cause one of the tanks kept getting knocked into a wall - but we thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery. Really, just seeing some different colored walls than the brown-and-gold of BT was a relief.
For most guilds though, the immediate focus after Illidown is to cut down on raid time. As you progress raid the bosses you normally play pretty hardcore (we did 5 hours, 5 days a week) and when Illidan is the only one left you might push it even harder (6 days a week!!). The main focus we've had since we killed the Betrayer was to try and get the clearing of both BT and Hyjal down to 2 days. Not only would this give us some time off, it'd also open up for doing other things like attunement runs and farming Gruul's Lair for that elusive Dragonspine Trophy our rogues are drooling over. (I'm still hoping to squeeze a World Dragon or two into that free time somewhere!) Let me tell you this though: Clearing those two raid instances in two days is a pain. The bosses aren't much of an issue, but the trash? Is neverending. Especially the Mother ShaWaWaVoom trash - seeing all those luxurious beds with their inviting pillows is a pain when you've been raiding for 4 hours+ and you're getting really sleepy.
We've somehow managed to do it though, and these days we normally take out BT up to Council on Wednesday, then take out Council, Illidan and all of Hyjal on Thursday. Fridays I organise and raid lead a Karathon for badge-horny mains and alts in need of gearing up. Saturday is off, Sunday we sell loot in Gruul/Maggy/TK/SSC to encourage more 25 man guilds (our server still sorta sucks Alliance-side) and Mondays & Tuesdays we watch our poor raid leader bang his head against the desk as Sunwell on the PTR is down yet again. Since my Karathon project is on a volunteer basis, that means I only really raid 3 nights a week. For some, that suddenly freed up spare time is best spent out there in the real world doing... I don't know. Stuff. Things. For those of us with little to no life though, it means we get to focus on PvP or level up alts. I find myself in Outland for the second time now, as my baby warrior walked through the Dark Portal recently, and this time around I plan on not rushing it so I can actually enjoy the different zones. I also plan on focusing a lot on reputation farming, so I can get those rep rewards while they're still useful, like it was meant to be.
My point is that I think a lot of guilds fall into a trap once they've downed Illidan. Simply plodding on and doing nothing new or different will most likely wear down your raiders pretty fast, and might lead to people quitting or going on breaks. Everybody wants full t6 and even full offspec t6, but don't do it at the cost of good raiders. Give them some treats, make sure their schedule is varied and interesting. Drag them to Onyxia one day for the hell of it. Schedule a 25man Naxxramas run. Go say hi to C'Thun for old times sake. Go world dragon hunting (and take me with you, damnit!). Insert some flavor in the schedule and things won't be so bad when you step out of progression and into the unending lands of farm-raids.
And beware those luxurious beds.
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Take over the world!"
What does a guild do once Illidan is down? Game's over, right? There are no more challenges, no more bosses to progress, nothing you haven't seen. You've done it all. So what happens then? What's next?
First of all, and I can guarantee you this - no wait, actually, I will bet you 100g that this will happen - right after Illidan is down, someone in your raid or someone lurking on vent will say the magic words 'so what are we doing tomorrow?'. Provided that you didn't kill him on the last day of the reset, this is. (They might try and say it anyway though, never underestimate the individuals need to say something witty-only-it's-not-really-witty-at-that-time-but-kind-of-a-bummer-to-everyone-actually.) We had two people do this, one of our Wonderbears and a Hordie lurking in our vent channel. All I can say is that it sort of breaks the magic of the moment and forces you to think about the fact that the game really is over, at least until the next patch/expansion.
Bumming as it is though, it pays to be prepared. Kamuflasjefylla had held off attuning new people to BT/Hyjal while we were progressing Mother/Council/Illidan so attunement runs through TK and SSC were naturally planned. To give the raiders a treat though, we were gonna hold off a couple weeks longer and head off to Naxxramas once Illidan was down. A few people had raided Naxx pre-TBC but none had cleared the whole thing and at any rate, they were all just as excited to see it again as the rest of us were to see it for the first time. I don't want to sound like a whiny bitch but I really do feel like more care were put into the little things in the oldschool raid instances. I don't know. Maybe I just fail to see the little things in Black Temple and Hyjal because I'm too focused on the encounters. Anyway, the atmosphere and music in Naxxramas is amazing.
We didn't do much when it came down to it - took out Patchwerk, Grobbusomething and the big doggie, then wiped a couple times on Thaddius cause one of the tanks kept getting knocked into a wall - but we thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery. Really, just seeing some different colored walls than the brown-and-gold of BT was a relief.
For most guilds though, the immediate focus after Illidown is to cut down on raid time. As you progress raid the bosses you normally play pretty hardcore (we did 5 hours, 5 days a week) and when Illidan is the only one left you might push it even harder (6 days a week!!). The main focus we've had since we killed the Betrayer was to try and get the clearing of both BT and Hyjal down to 2 days. Not only would this give us some time off, it'd also open up for doing other things like attunement runs and farming Gruul's Lair for that elusive Dragonspine Trophy our rogues are drooling over. (I'm still hoping to squeeze a World Dragon or two into that free time somewhere!) Let me tell you this though: Clearing those two raid instances in two days is a pain. The bosses aren't much of an issue, but the trash? Is neverending. Especially the Mother ShaWaWaVoom trash - seeing all those luxurious beds with their inviting pillows is a pain when you've been raiding for 4 hours+ and you're getting really sleepy.
We've somehow managed to do it though, and these days we normally take out BT up to Council on Wednesday, then take out Council, Illidan and all of Hyjal on Thursday. Fridays I organise and raid lead a Karathon for badge-horny mains and alts in need of gearing up. Saturday is off, Sunday we sell loot in Gruul/Maggy/TK/SSC to encourage more 25 man guilds (our server still sorta sucks Alliance-side) and Mondays & Tuesdays we watch our poor raid leader bang his head against the desk as Sunwell on the PTR is down yet again. Since my Karathon project is on a volunteer basis, that means I only really raid 3 nights a week. For some, that suddenly freed up spare time is best spent out there in the real world doing... I don't know. Stuff. Things. For those of us with little to no life though, it means we get to focus on PvP or level up alts. I find myself in Outland for the second time now, as my baby warrior walked through the Dark Portal recently, and this time around I plan on not rushing it so I can actually enjoy the different zones. I also plan on focusing a lot on reputation farming, so I can get those rep rewards while they're still useful, like it was meant to be.
My point is that I think a lot of guilds fall into a trap once they've downed Illidan. Simply plodding on and doing nothing new or different will most likely wear down your raiders pretty fast, and might lead to people quitting or going on breaks. Everybody wants full t6 and even full offspec t6, but don't do it at the cost of good raiders. Give them some treats, make sure their schedule is varied and interesting. Drag them to Onyxia one day for the hell of it. Schedule a 25man Naxxramas run. Go say hi to C'Thun for old times sake. Go world dragon hunting (and take me with you, damnit!). Insert some flavor in the schedule and things won't be so bad when you step out of progression and into the unending lands of farm-raids.
And beware those luxurious beds.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
053: Oh dear
Back in late summer one of my best friends decided she wanted to try this WoW thing. I lent her my old vanilla-WoW guidebook and explained at length about the different classes, races, specs, etc. I instructed her to try leveling at least a couple different class/race combos to level 10 so she'd get a better feel of the differences, and then focus on whichever she liked best. I walked her through the first five levels on a human warrior and a night elf priest, stressed the importance of repairing continously and taught her the gear basics. Then her trial ran out. Life was busy so she didn't come back to WoW again for some time, though I'd ask her every now and then if she was planning on returning.
Christmas arrives. Said friend is very pregnant and can't move around too much so her boyfriend gets her, among other things, a pre-paid card. Unfortunatly this was around the same time my attunement took place and I began hardcore raiding so I wasn't able to play alongside her anymore. We kept in touch through whispers though, and I answered various questions as the weeks went by. She crawled her way through the levels slowly but surely and I was happy to see her ding 20 on her priest last week.
Yesterday we had an off-day from raiding and out of the blue she whispers me and asks if I'm busy. For once I'm not, so I send my baby hunter over to Ashenvale so we can quest together. As I arrive I inspect her of course, and I am horrified at what I see. The poor thing has no clue, of course, and how is she supposed to, really? It's not like this game is easy - we've all been there at some point.
She's weating about 3 greens, all below her level, a pair of blue gloves from Deadmines and the rest are vendor-whites. She's very proud that she's bought all new items from the vendor recently. Oh, and she's disc-specced, with 5/5 in both the first talents.
/mortified
I tell her to not move an inch and send out a distress call to my friends. 2 minutes later she's safely tucked away in my old guild and I've hopped on my baby rogue to summon her to Westfall. Mr Rogue, he of level 70, runs us through Deadmines. It's slow moving, as I explain with each drop whether she can us it or not and wether the stats are any good for her. I should have made her write it down. The mysteries of the need/greed system are unravelled for her, bit by bit. She explains that last time she was there she had no idea what was going on, at all. She'd been whispered by some random person, invited into the PUG and summoned. She had no idea where she was, or what to do. She was the healer in the group and she knew how to heal, but nobody took the time to explain anything to her. At all. By the time they reach the Goblin Foundry they tell her she's useless and kick her from the group.
My very pregnant, very homronal friend had a little cry over that one. Oh the poor thing. I felt so ashamed that I hadn't had the time to babysit her little character more and teach her the ropes.
After the boost was over I took her to Stormwind, made sure she got the flight paths and then had her respec Shadow. I told her where to put her points and showed her how Mind Flay works. She was most impresssed and declared it her new favorite spell, as it 'looks much cooler than Mind Blast'. Then she had to go. I picked up some items off the AH and mailed them to her with strict instructions to swap them out with her last remaining whites.
It's nostalgic, as I said to Mr Rogue during the DM run. We've all been there, but how much do we really remember? I can vaguely recollect not being able to figure out how to swim underneath the water surface for the life of me, until I finally asked a friend around level 30 or so. There was also something about not being able to locate a cooking trainer even though the guard insisted that he was in that building. Nobody told me there was a back room! I'm sure there were a million other little things that I didn't understand or did wrong, too, but they've all faded with time.
A part of me is envious as everything is new and exciting to her. When was the last time I discovered something new in WoW, after all? I bet she wishes she knew her way around already though. At least she's got my old guild now.
Christmas arrives. Said friend is very pregnant and can't move around too much so her boyfriend gets her, among other things, a pre-paid card. Unfortunatly this was around the same time my attunement took place and I began hardcore raiding so I wasn't able to play alongside her anymore. We kept in touch through whispers though, and I answered various questions as the weeks went by. She crawled her way through the levels slowly but surely and I was happy to see her ding 20 on her priest last week.
Yesterday we had an off-day from raiding and out of the blue she whispers me and asks if I'm busy. For once I'm not, so I send my baby hunter over to Ashenvale so we can quest together. As I arrive I inspect her of course, and I am horrified at what I see. The poor thing has no clue, of course, and how is she supposed to, really? It's not like this game is easy - we've all been there at some point.
She's weating about 3 greens, all below her level, a pair of blue gloves from Deadmines and the rest are vendor-whites. She's very proud that she's bought all new items from the vendor recently. Oh, and she's disc-specced, with 5/5 in both the first talents.
/mortified
I tell her to not move an inch and send out a distress call to my friends. 2 minutes later she's safely tucked away in my old guild and I've hopped on my baby rogue to summon her to Westfall. Mr Rogue, he of level 70, runs us through Deadmines. It's slow moving, as I explain with each drop whether she can us it or not and wether the stats are any good for her. I should have made her write it down. The mysteries of the need/greed system are unravelled for her, bit by bit. She explains that last time she was there she had no idea what was going on, at all. She'd been whispered by some random person, invited into the PUG and summoned. She had no idea where she was, or what to do. She was the healer in the group and she knew how to heal, but nobody took the time to explain anything to her. At all. By the time they reach the Goblin Foundry they tell her she's useless and kick her from the group.
My very pregnant, very homronal friend had a little cry over that one. Oh the poor thing. I felt so ashamed that I hadn't had the time to babysit her little character more and teach her the ropes.
After the boost was over I took her to Stormwind, made sure she got the flight paths and then had her respec Shadow. I told her where to put her points and showed her how Mind Flay works. She was most impresssed and declared it her new favorite spell, as it 'looks much cooler than Mind Blast'. Then she had to go. I picked up some items off the AH and mailed them to her with strict instructions to swap them out with her last remaining whites.
It's nostalgic, as I said to Mr Rogue during the DM run. We've all been there, but how much do we really remember? I can vaguely recollect not being able to figure out how to swim underneath the water surface for the life of me, until I finally asked a friend around level 30 or so. There was also something about not being able to locate a cooking trainer even though the guard insisted that he was in that building. Nobody told me there was a back room! I'm sure there were a million other little things that I didn't understand or did wrong, too, but they've all faded with time.
A part of me is envious as everything is new and exciting to her. When was the last time I discovered something new in WoW, after all? I bet she wishes she knew her way around already though. At least she's got my old guild now.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
052: Plans for the future
* Complete the Noggenfogger questchain
* Kill a World Dragon
* Kill the Four Horsemen in Naxx until Corrupted Ashbringer drops, then freeride with the lucky winner into SM for the RP event
* Hoard DKP until I can get Handguards of Absolution
* Level the baby warrior to 70
* Gather mats for Bracers of Nimble Thought
* Raise a toast to spell haste in the next patch, and another for Fear Ward being castable in Shadowform
* Have 'never ever go back to ZA' tattooed onto the back of my hands
Illidan Stormrage is a really really long encounter, and it's sorta boring to watch. At least more than once. Especially if you've been wiping on that encounter for hours and hours. In order to prevent ours from being just another run of the mill Illidan kill movie, we spiced it up with an RP intro and a rap song. I take no responsability whatsoever, though I helped with both:
http://www.stage6.com/user/cascada/video/2127048/
From the Rogue's POV I am my normal human female self. However from the Shadow Priests POV I am an undead, as he uses skins. I'm the one with Marge Simpson hair :[
* Kill a World Dragon
* Kill the Four Horsemen in Naxx until Corrupted Ashbringer drops, then freeride with the lucky winner into SM for the RP event
* Hoard DKP until I can get Handguards of Absolution
* Level the baby warrior to 70
* Gather mats for Bracers of Nimble Thought
* Raise a toast to spell haste in the next patch, and another for Fear Ward being castable in Shadowform
* Have 'never ever go back to ZA' tattooed onto the back of my hands
Illidan Stormrage is a really really long encounter, and it's sorta boring to watch. At least more than once. Especially if you've been wiping on that encounter for hours and hours. In order to prevent ours from being just another run of the mill Illidan kill movie, we spiced it up with an RP intro and a rap song. I take no responsability whatsoever, though I helped with both:
http://www.stage6.com/user/cascada/video/2127048/
From the Rogue's POV I am my normal human female self. However from the Shadow Priests POV I am an undead, as he uses skins. I'm the one with Marge Simpson hair :[
Friday, January 25, 2008
051: What's in a name
The best thing about killing Illidan is undoubtedly this. I don't know how I lived without it! Being able to HS to Black Temple every 15 minutes makes travelling around the worlds so much easier, not to mention the Netherwing dailies.
Todays blog is gonna be a refreshing break from all the raiding I've talked about lately - it's gonna be about names. I've actually wanted to do this ever since I joined Kamuf and saw the guild list, but I've been too busy. I'm sure that in you too, in your travels around Azeroth, have randomly come across someone with a name that was just plain awesome. Either incredibly well fitting or funny or simply really cool. Well I want to hear about it!
Personally I name most of my characters names I come up with myself, or in the case of elves names put together from various elven dictionaries. Kahdri, for example, was made out of the ElfQuest characters Kahvi and Ahdri. Nemnes is from the elven word Nem which means white (she's pale and has white hair) and -Nes which means sister or daughter or somesuch. My horde bank alt is called Korathem, which meas Dark Dragon according to a different elfin word list. My main, Tieryn, is entirely made up, so I was surprised to discover that other people use the same name. Oh, and by the way, when I came up with it I did so with Norwegian in mind. It's not pronounced Ty-rynn, and it bugs me when people say it like that. It's Tee-eh-rynn. Us Norwegians don't say 'tie' the same way English people do. And then there's my neglected mage, whose name is the Norwegian word for Pancake. Don't ask.
My point is though, that some peoples names are simply awesome. In Kamuf, there's a warrior called Tantrum. How fantastic is that? Tantrum! It couldn't fit any better!
Then there's a feral druid called Lettuce. She told us the story of how she ended up with that name last night: She was on the character creation screen, contemplating using the name of one of her old characters but didn't really want to. Her boyfriend asks her what she'd like on her sandwhich that he's making and she goes 'Uhm, lettuce and... oh, that'll do.' I think it's brilliant.
Of course there's a bunch of people named after objects or food running around as well. I know a rogue called Toad. I've also seen Motorsaw and Refridgerator running around Shattrah. The only other priest (at the time) in my old guild was Tard. When I went to create a bank char for my RP Horde, I was surprised to discover that the name Nemesis wasn't taken. All awesome names. I love it.
So share yours! Which names made you go 'Hey! That's brilliant!'? Which ones do you wish you'd thought of first?
Todays blog is gonna be a refreshing break from all the raiding I've talked about lately - it's gonna be about names. I've actually wanted to do this ever since I joined Kamuf and saw the guild list, but I've been too busy. I'm sure that in you too, in your travels around Azeroth, have randomly come across someone with a name that was just plain awesome. Either incredibly well fitting or funny or simply really cool. Well I want to hear about it!
Personally I name most of my characters names I come up with myself, or in the case of elves names put together from various elven dictionaries. Kahdri, for example, was made out of the ElfQuest characters Kahvi and Ahdri. Nemnes is from the elven word Nem which means white (she's pale and has white hair) and -Nes which means sister or daughter or somesuch. My horde bank alt is called Korathem, which meas Dark Dragon according to a different elfin word list. My main, Tieryn, is entirely made up, so I was surprised to discover that other people use the same name. Oh, and by the way, when I came up with it I did so with Norwegian in mind. It's not pronounced Ty-rynn, and it bugs me when people say it like that. It's Tee-eh-rynn. Us Norwegians don't say 'tie' the same way English people do. And then there's my neglected mage, whose name is the Norwegian word for Pancake. Don't ask.
My point is though, that some peoples names are simply awesome. In Kamuf, there's a warrior called Tantrum. How fantastic is that? Tantrum! It couldn't fit any better!
Then there's a feral druid called Lettuce. She told us the story of how she ended up with that name last night: She was on the character creation screen, contemplating using the name of one of her old characters but didn't really want to. Her boyfriend asks her what she'd like on her sandwhich that he's making and she goes 'Uhm, lettuce and... oh, that'll do.' I think it's brilliant.
Of course there's a bunch of people named after objects or food running around as well. I know a rogue called Toad. I've also seen Motorsaw and Refridgerator running around Shattrah. The only other priest (at the time) in my old guild was Tard. When I went to create a bank char for my RP Horde, I was surprised to discover that the name Nemesis wasn't taken. All awesome names. I love it.
So share yours! Which names made you go 'Hey! That's brilliant!'? Which ones do you wish you'd thought of first?
Monday, January 21, 2008
050: Game Over
Illidan Stormrage is down.
World first kill with two feral druids tanking the Flames of Azzinoth. At least as far as we know. That didn't sound right to me (someone in the guild said it), so I asked the lovely women over at wow_ladies to clear it up. Most people prefer prot warriors but it has been done before.
Thank you and goodnight <3
Thank you and goodnight <3
Saturday, January 19, 2008
049: On gear and upgrades
Illidan week #2 starts tomorrow with our second night on him. We've been told by other guilds that the norm is to down him within 2-3 days of reaching him so we're all very excited. This post, however, is going to be about gear. Ever since I joined Kamuf I've been whispered by old guildmates and friends wanting to know if I've gotten any nice drops, and when I kept telling them no, they wanted to know why not. This post is for them.
Back when I joined Kamuf, the raid leader and the main tank/guild leader both inspected my gear critically. I remember Dave (my raid leader & friend) saying how pleased he was that my gear wasn't as bad as he'd feared, and that I had 'all the hard to get stuff', whatever that meant. They pointed out my weak pieces to me, and adviced me on which to upgrade via heroic badges and which to wait for drop upgrades on. Shortly after that I upgraded one of my trinkets (Battlemaster's Audacity) and my gloves (Studious Wraps).
They told me my one hander, my bracers and my rings where what I needed to focus on and get upgraded asap. (At the time my belt was also very unimpressive, but Dave had promised me before I joined the guild that once he got his hands on a second Nether Vortex and I brought him the rest of the mats, he'd make me a Belt of Blasting for free.) They also said 'don't worry about your weapon, caster one-handers drop like candy for us in BT and Hyjal! You'll get that pink dildo-mace before you know it'. Okay, sure.
My rings were a sad state apparantly, no matter how proud I was of them. I was told that Band of Al'ar would surely drop for me, but of course it didn't. Likewise with the bracers they linked for me that dropped off of something-or-other in SSC. Still, they kept telling me not to worry. Eventually I picked up the Runed Spell-cuffs even though they weren't an upgrade, just so that my bracers would be purple and not blue and Gomez would stop making fun of me, and because I had more badges than I knew what to do with anyway.
After being attuned to Hyjal I received the upgradeable rep-ring, which I wore for a while along with the quest reward from Magtheridon. It was then that my first and so far only proper DKP loot dropped - the Ring of Ancient Knowledge. That, together with the Hood of Hexing from Zul'Aman, are the only drops I've gotten.
But why? Surely running with a full tier5 guild would get me some more new gear than this? Nope. You see, I wasn't too surprised when my crafted epics - Frozen Shadoweave and Spellstrike - turned out to be better than tier4 drops in Karazhan. I was a little miffed when they turned out to be better than tier5 as well though. On that first SSC run I saw 3 pieces of tier5 for priests drop and I passed on every single one. It's a little mind boggling that gear you can craft with tailoring upon dinging level 70, without setting foot in a single raid, are equivalent to tier5. Equally mind boggling are the Shadowpriests that do not work their arses off to get said crafted epics! Same with heroic badge loot. It's a little sad as well that my first ever tier piece ended up being for offspec.
There's something about the tier sets that really appeal to me. Probably due to the fact that I never had any, ever. Well, that's a lie, I did run around with 3 pieces of the Warlock tier0 set back when I was level fifty-something. That doesn't really count though! As it is, I'm having to contend with waiting for my DKP to slowly rise so that I can get a shot at tier6. It's gonna take a while.
Then there's the matter of my one hander. Gomez teases me about that as well. They never turned out to drop like candy, at least not after I joined, and at this point it's getting pretty ridiculous. Zul'Aman, SSC, TK, Hyjal, BT, Doomwalker, hell, even Prince in Karazhan has better one handers than mine. They all refuse to drop. Last night after killing off Archimonde and Illidari Council, Dave took pity on me and sent the raid off to kill Doomwalker. Again. He refused to drop his dagger. Again.
I said to them that I'm pretty sure by now that I'm doomed to kill Illidan with my Gavel of Unearthed Secrets still equipped. It's funny, but at the same time it's not funny at all.
Tonight we're clearing Zul'Aman again, so wish me luck.
Back when I joined Kamuf, the raid leader and the main tank/guild leader both inspected my gear critically. I remember Dave (my raid leader & friend) saying how pleased he was that my gear wasn't as bad as he'd feared, and that I had 'all the hard to get stuff', whatever that meant. They pointed out my weak pieces to me, and adviced me on which to upgrade via heroic badges and which to wait for drop upgrades on. Shortly after that I upgraded one of my trinkets (Battlemaster's Audacity) and my gloves (Studious Wraps).
They told me my one hander, my bracers and my rings where what I needed to focus on and get upgraded asap. (At the time my belt was also very unimpressive, but Dave had promised me before I joined the guild that once he got his hands on a second Nether Vortex and I brought him the rest of the mats, he'd make me a Belt of Blasting for free.) They also said 'don't worry about your weapon, caster one-handers drop like candy for us in BT and Hyjal! You'll get that pink dildo-mace before you know it'. Okay, sure.
My rings were a sad state apparantly, no matter how proud I was of them. I was told that Band of Al'ar would surely drop for me, but of course it didn't. Likewise with the bracers they linked for me that dropped off of something-or-other in SSC. Still, they kept telling me not to worry. Eventually I picked up the Runed Spell-cuffs even though they weren't an upgrade, just so that my bracers would be purple and not blue and Gomez would stop making fun of me, and because I had more badges than I knew what to do with anyway.
After being attuned to Hyjal I received the upgradeable rep-ring, which I wore for a while along with the quest reward from Magtheridon. It was then that my first and so far only proper DKP loot dropped - the Ring of Ancient Knowledge. That, together with the Hood of Hexing from Zul'Aman, are the only drops I've gotten.
But why? Surely running with a full tier5 guild would get me some more new gear than this? Nope. You see, I wasn't too surprised when my crafted epics - Frozen Shadoweave and Spellstrike - turned out to be better than tier4 drops in Karazhan. I was a little miffed when they turned out to be better than tier5 as well though. On that first SSC run I saw 3 pieces of tier5 for priests drop and I passed on every single one. It's a little mind boggling that gear you can craft with tailoring upon dinging level 70, without setting foot in a single raid, are equivalent to tier5. Equally mind boggling are the Shadowpriests that do not work their arses off to get said crafted epics! Same with heroic badge loot. It's a little sad as well that my first ever tier piece ended up being for offspec.
There's something about the tier sets that really appeal to me. Probably due to the fact that I never had any, ever. Well, that's a lie, I did run around with 3 pieces of the Warlock tier0 set back when I was level fifty-something. That doesn't really count though! As it is, I'm having to contend with waiting for my DKP to slowly rise so that I can get a shot at tier6. It's gonna take a while.
Then there's the matter of my one hander. Gomez teases me about that as well. They never turned out to drop like candy, at least not after I joined, and at this point it's getting pretty ridiculous. Zul'Aman, SSC, TK, Hyjal, BT, Doomwalker, hell, even Prince in Karazhan has better one handers than mine. They all refuse to drop. Last night after killing off Archimonde and Illidari Council, Dave took pity on me and sent the raid off to kill Doomwalker. Again. He refused to drop his dagger. Again.
I said to them that I'm pretty sure by now that I'm doomed to kill Illidan with my Gavel of Unearthed Secrets still equipped. It's funny, but at the same time it's not funny at all.
Tonight we're clearing Zul'Aman again, so wish me luck.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
048: Hello Illidan
Mother Shahraz: DOWN
Illidari Council: DOWN
Illidan Stormrage: Well hello there....
We only had 1 hour of raid time left so it wasn't super serious tries. We wanted to learn how to handle parasites in phase 1 and see how long we could last in phase 2 (not very long at all) plus give the two Wonderbears some practice with positioning/kiting the Flames of Azzinoth.
It was awesome. First to finally down Illidari Council, which is another really tough encounter, then to walk up two stairs with no trash whatsoever and stand face to face with the Betrayer himself. I can't even describe it. I kept going 'eeee!' in whispers to Tom like a maniac. :(
More coherent posts later, maybe. Oh, and having 7 priests (5 of them shadow) on Council was freakin' awesome:
Illidari Council: DOWN
Illidan Stormrage: Well hello there....
We only had 1 hour of raid time left so it wasn't super serious tries. We wanted to learn how to handle parasites in phase 1 and see how long we could last in phase 2 (not very long at all) plus give the two Wonderbears some practice with positioning/kiting the Flames of Azzinoth.
It was awesome. First to finally down Illidari Council, which is another really tough encounter, then to walk up two stairs with no trash whatsoever and stand face to face with the Betrayer himself. I can't even describe it. I kept going 'eeee!' in whispers to Tom like a maniac. :(
More coherent posts later, maybe. Oh, and having 7 priests (5 of them shadow) on Council was freakin' awesome:
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
047: The Raid Break
Things I did during the raid-break between December 22nd and January 3rd:
* 2-manned Durn the Hungerer with Adagio the Healadin keeping me alive, repeatedly.
* Tanked the rare elite dragon in Blade's Edge.
* Started yet another male Blood Elf (a Paladin this time) and levelled it to 23.
* Dinged exalted with the Kurenai and got my Talbuk mount.
* Grew to hate Zul'Aman with a passion.
* Became convinced that I bring bad luck in raids.
* Walked into a 50 man raid on Ironforge after the fireworks on Newyears (and was brutally massacred).
* Cleared Zul'Farrak more than 15 times without seeing either of the swords drop (by now I've been there more than 30 times and still not a single sword).
* Learned the secret of gold-farming from a warrior in my guild.
* Set about working on Argent Dawn, Sporeggar and Consortium rep, again.
* Cleared Molten Core and cried bitter tears of frustration when the Hunter epic quest item dropped instead of the priest one.
* Became attuned to Blackwing Lair.
* Travelled to Silithus for an oldschool enchanting recipe, and was promptly ordered by Dave to go into the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj and Mind Vision C'Thun (while I was there anyway) so I could 'feel the atmosphere'. Was creeped out by his whispering.
* Farmed more heroic badges than I knew what to do with and ended up upgrading the holy gear I never use.
Then, on January 3rd, the attunement project was picked up again. During the raid-break the Holy Priest we were waiting for had finally dinged 70 and was ready for SSC. I already had my vial but needed Karathress killed, the other three attunées needed both. The next day we made a clean sweep of everything in Tempest Keep save for Kael'Thas, who really is a tough encounter. Sunday the 6th he bit the dust however, and I was ready for Hyjal. We immediatly went there and took out Rage Winterchill, completing my attunement to the Black Temple. Since then, I've cleared Hyjal (died early on Archimonde to doomfire + airburst so I didn't get to experience much of that fight) and taken out everything in Black Temple up to Reliquery of Souls, which is the only boss in there that Kamuf has downed but which isn't on farm yet. Still, we got to put in several very good attempts, and he'll probably go down on Sunday when we raid again. After that, it's Mother Shahraz, Illiradi Council and finally, Illidan Stormrage himself.
I'd wanted to write blogs as I went along, but ever since I joined Kamuf I've hardly had any idle-time in-game. I used to idle in Shattrah a lot, alt-tabbing to do other things or going AFK to watch TV. It was during those idle phases that I'd come here to write blogs. Nowadays there's always something to do, and thus the blog is suffering. That said, the past couple of weeks have been filled with learning strategies, watching movies and learning the encounters. Now that I've caught up with my guild, things should be a lot more relaxed. I certainly hope so, because I have so much to write about!
* 2-manned Durn the Hungerer with Adagio the Healadin keeping me alive, repeatedly.
* Tanked the rare elite dragon in Blade's Edge.
* Started yet another male Blood Elf (a Paladin this time) and levelled it to 23.
* Dinged exalted with the Kurenai and got my Talbuk mount.
* Grew to hate Zul'Aman with a passion.
* Became convinced that I bring bad luck in raids.
* Walked into a 50 man raid on Ironforge after the fireworks on Newyears (and was brutally massacred).
* Cleared Zul'Farrak more than 15 times without seeing either of the swords drop (by now I've been there more than 30 times and still not a single sword).
* Learned the secret of gold-farming from a warrior in my guild.
* Set about working on Argent Dawn, Sporeggar and Consortium rep, again.
* Cleared Molten Core and cried bitter tears of frustration when the Hunter epic quest item dropped instead of the priest one.
* Became attuned to Blackwing Lair.
* Travelled to Silithus for an oldschool enchanting recipe, and was promptly ordered by Dave to go into the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj and Mind Vision C'Thun (while I was there anyway) so I could 'feel the atmosphere'. Was creeped out by his whispering.
* Farmed more heroic badges than I knew what to do with and ended up upgrading the holy gear I never use.
Then, on January 3rd, the attunement project was picked up again. During the raid-break the Holy Priest we were waiting for had finally dinged 70 and was ready for SSC. I already had my vial but needed Karathress killed, the other three attunées needed both. The next day we made a clean sweep of everything in Tempest Keep save for Kael'Thas, who really is a tough encounter. Sunday the 6th he bit the dust however, and I was ready for Hyjal. We immediatly went there and took out Rage Winterchill, completing my attunement to the Black Temple. Since then, I've cleared Hyjal (died early on Archimonde to doomfire + airburst so I didn't get to experience much of that fight) and taken out everything in Black Temple up to Reliquery of Souls, which is the only boss in there that Kamuf has downed but which isn't on farm yet. Still, we got to put in several very good attempts, and he'll probably go down on Sunday when we raid again. After that, it's Mother Shahraz, Illiradi Council and finally, Illidan Stormrage himself.
I'd wanted to write blogs as I went along, but ever since I joined Kamuf I've hardly had any idle-time in-game. I used to idle in Shattrah a lot, alt-tabbing to do other things or going AFK to watch TV. It was during those idle phases that I'd come here to write blogs. Nowadays there's always something to do, and thus the blog is suffering. That said, the past couple of weeks have been filled with learning strategies, watching movies and learning the encounters. Now that I've caught up with my guild, things should be a lot more relaxed. I certainly hope so, because I have so much to write about!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
