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?
Friday, January 25, 2008
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!
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