Friday, April 18, 2008

Shadow Word: Death

I don't need both my hands to count the times I have used Shadow Word: Death. I have never understood what's so great about it, and I figured it's about time that I do.

So what is it? Tooltip says



Hmm a word of dark binding that inflicts about 620 Shadow damage to the target, with the added twist that if this does not kill the mob, the priest that cast it will get hurt for that very same amount.

When to use it
Uses I have found for it in PvE while trolling dah intarnet includes:

- Stopping a runner with an insta-cast spell, just make sure that it will kill the mob since you will get hurt yourself otherwise, and the 12 sec cd makes you unable to spam it even if you have enough health left to risk that.

- Tag mobs when farming. The Shadow Word: Pain ticks don't set in at once and other players can steal your mob.

- Suicide by SW:D in wipe situations since you take no durability damage if you kill yourself.

- Shadow priests can get a large amount of healing from SW:D'ing a mob that has Vampiric Embrace on it, even though the Word does not kill the mob it seems very useful in raids.

- Holy priests can use it to pass on Prayer of Mending, since the PoM will jump to the tank or another player as it heals you when from the backlash of SW:D.

This is actually a truly imba use for a holy priest and I wonder why I have never thought or heard of it before. Example:

Jools in her healing gear has 597 bonus spell damage, so the total damage from a non-crit SW:D will be about 875.

She also has about 1455 bonus healing, so she will get about 625 extra healing to the PoM's 800 base healing, or a total of 1425.

The PoM will thus heal her for more than the SW:D damages her. And since her Holy crit is about 5 % larger than her Shadow crit, the chance of getting a PoM crit is also larger than the chance of getting a SW:D crit.

The cost for the SW:D is 309, but Jools has the talent Mental Agility, so she only spends 278 mana on it. Putting out a new PoM would have cost 351 mana (or 390 for the untalented ones).

When not to use it

- The Curator fight. Killing yourself with a 300 % Shadow Word: Death crit would be a sure way to make you look naabish ;P

[Edit: After having started to write this topic I was healing in heroic Slave Pens, and now I definitely can't count the times I've used SW:D on the fingers of both my hands ;P]

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Back in Karazhan

Remember how I always complain about express certain unfriendly views on people coming to raids unprepared?

That was me yesterday. Unprepared. (Well, in my defense I must say that I had not planned to start raiding again so soon, and going to Kara that night was not something I contemplated at all.)

I was playing my little warrior Dizzie (still guild-free), grinding out a few more rep points with the Wintersabre Trainers (sloooow going), when a friend of mine from my new-found old guild whispered and asked if I wanted to come raid with them with my warlock Paynne.

I told him I hadn’t signed up for the raid, hadn’t updated any of my addons, and I was pretty rusty and unprepared so it was probably not a good idea.

He told me aww, come on, you are pro, you don’t need addons!

Turned out they were trying to get two Kara groups going and didn’t yet have enough people to fill them, so I said I’d relogg my warlock and see what came up.

Said and done, Dizzie out, Paynne in.

I got a whisper immediately from one of the raid leaders, asking me if I wanted to join for Kara. Told him the same thing, no add-ons and no time to start downloading updated versions, no TS, rusty and unprepared, but if they wanted someone to get the raid started I could join and they could replace me when someone else logged in.

Ka-bam, raid leader invites me to a group.

I managed to enable Deadly Boss Mods, but my Omen and other usual raid add-ons were dead, and my TS acc was not accessible. So the raid leader went on WoW-voice with me so I could at least hear him, if no one else.

Paynne was in Stormwind, and as I took her to the weapons dealer to repair her I got asked if I could bring Joaq instead since a tank was sorely needed for this group.

Woot? Not only do you want me to do my first raid in months without the help of any technological constructs or even me having time to think about it, you want me to tank it as well? Although I knew my old guildies would probably forgive me for being a nab tank, there were many faces that were new to me and I didn’t want to make a complete fool of myself the first time I ran with them. (This since the first rule of instancing/raiding is: When wiping, blame someone else, usually the tank for not keeping the pain away from you.)

Ah, well, why not? Attumen and the Maiden ain’t that hard to tank, Moroes could be a little trickier though, and depending on which event, the Opera could be a killer, but let’s try to have a little faith in myself, right?

Only as I was summoned to Kara I found out that those bosses were already dead, killed off yesterday, and we were going to start with Nightbane.

Nightbane? The skinny dragon that does a shitload of different AoE damage and fears, that needs to be positioned very carefully, that spawns a zillion skellys that needs to be kept away from the healers and dps? That Nightbane?

I was beginning to regret this. Luckily (for me) I didn’t have to re-start my raid tanking career by showing everyone how out-of-shape I was, because no one in this group could summon him ;P

So we went for the Curator instead.

Easy pulls along the way, once one mob was down I ran for the next, going fast.

The Curator is a dead easy fight for a tank usually, and so it was this time as well. Down he went, and he dropped a pair of shoulders that I got for my healing set since noone else wanted them. Nice!

And I got Exalted with the Violet Eye as well when the over-sized mechanical hit the floor. Yay! Finally I get my Violet Signet of the Grand Protector!

Onwards we went, clearing the room full of arcane watchmen and then the circular one with mana aberrations and stealthed undeads. I was even given the task of marking them, which I managed to do without too much hesitation.

We snuck into the room of the Shade of Aran, and I put on my kitty-cat gear to maximize my dps. Got one of the scattered tomes, The Legacy of the Mountain King, from one of the group members, which I thanked him for and promptly proceeded to completely forget to use it. (Which he merrily chided me for later, but come on! I was totally focused on trying to not fubar the spells I use in my ordinary playing, and now you want me to remember using books as well? :-)

The Shade went down fast, I used my Tranquillity once while standing at the wall, waiting for his Arcane Explosion, but I don’t think it was really needed.

Onwards, brave soldiers! We were ahead of the other group, since they had stopped to kill Nightbane, and things were looking good.

Got a whisper from another one in the group, telling me I had Blessing of Salvation on. Ah right, I hadn’t even looked to see which buffs I had on, there being twenty-plus or so of them, and I agreed with him, BoS is perhaps not the best choice of buff for a tank, so I clicked it off and asked for a Blessing of Might or Light instead.

This same group member whispered me again some minutes later when we were clearing the rooms leading up to the chess even, this time telling me I was in dps gear. Right, so I was. Forgot to change gear after Aran. Ah well, imba healers had kept me up without problems in my very much crittable 16 k-armor catsuit. I swapped outfits as soon as I got out of combat.

Chess event went without a hitch, a group member had to go afterwards and was quickly replaced, and we went to kill the big boss, the Prince Malchezar himself.

And here we wiped for the first time.

I tanked the Prince in the usual spot, bear butt to the wall, the rest of the raid clustered up in front of the door, and the first Infernal that spawned choose to do so just slightly behind the Prince, on the far side of the raid. Its Hellfire AoE was hitting me heavily and I was asked to move a little away from him. This did unfortunately take me too close to the raid, so the Enfeeble and following Shadow Nova killed off a lot of us, and then I died and we wiped. Sorry about that, guys.

Next try, usual tank spot, and the first damn Infernal that spawns does so in the same location as before, just behind the Prince. Bugger this, I thought, I am not going to kill off my fellow raiders again by moving closer to the raid to avoid the Hellfire. So I dragged the Prince with me out into the Hellfire-free space in the middle of the stone terrace, and tanked him there.

The raid was a little surprised by my move but quickly adapted and followed. I kept tanking him there, using my Feral Charge to get back to him in a fraction of a second when his Shadow Nova kicked me back. (Unlike warriors, bears can charge while in combat.)

Was going pretty well, and then another blasted Infernal spawned close, making me drag the Prince closer to the stone railing of the terrace, but I was safe from the Hellfire waves there, the rest of the raid were out of range of it too, and they had enough manoeuvring space to get out of Shadow Nova range while enfeebled.

10 Infernals in total spawned, but most of them were far away and didn’t hurt us, and we killed the huge ugly bastidd on this second try!

People were nice and polite and patient with me for being a bit slow sometimes (at least I think they were, might have been swearing at me and calling me all kinds of nasty names for all I know since I wasn’t on TS with them, but somehow I don’t think they did) and I was enjoying myself a lot. I was having fun :-)

I was a bit tired mentally from having been focused for so long, my fingers were all sweaty, but all in all I think I managed to do a not-too-shabby job on this my first raid for ages, both on the bosses and on the trash pulls in between them.

And kudos to everyone in the raid for managing your threat so well when I, the tank, was probably the shittiest geared of us all and the only one who didn’t have a threat meter.

So, to conclude, I did not plan to go raiding when I logged in that evening, but I did go and it was a fun and fast raid with fun and nice and cool players, even though I Was Not Prepared!

(And sadly enough I never even once remembered to take a screenshot.)

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Wipe at BM? Run run run

So we were headed off to heroic BM for fast badge/rep run. Got started a tad fast, I had a little trouble keeping up, and when we got to the first boss, I was standing too far away and got pulled in by that thing he does, interrupting my healing. I lost the tank there, and the rest of us soon followed. Bugger.

Ah well, we waited a few minutes for the soft reset and then we headed off again. Much better this time, fast and smooth and me keeping the rest of the crew alive most of the time.

Was at the last boss, Aeonus himself, in no time. And then I failed again. I didn’t have the tank topped off and Renews ticking on him when Aeonus did his time-stopping thing, and even me shielding the tank when I could cast again didn’t prevent his taking fatal damage. And we all died.

However, the shield was at a 100 % still when we wiped, so I told the others to release and start running ASAP! Reluctant a bit first, saying it was no use, but they obliged me. And when we got back the shield was at 48 %, and ticking down fast.

We did take the time to rebuff, drink and eat to full health, and when we engaged the big dragon again the shield was down to 10 %.

And this time we killed him.

So, the moral of this story is, when in the Black Morass, keep the shield intact for as long as you can so that, if you should happen to die while fighting the last boss (or any boss I guess), you can release and run in as fast as you can and still have a pretty good shot at taking the ugly mofo down!

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Found a guild

have been looking around a little on the server for guilds that matches my LFGuild ad, and found none. Too hardcore (required to be online and raid 3-4-5 days a week, several hours a day? No thanks), too immature (pwnzor? No thanks), too patronizing (demeaning rank names for new members? No thanks), too repulsive (guildleaders with public avatars describing sexual practises for the slightly more advanced? No thanks).

Well, there was this one guild that was a pretty good match, not perfect but close enough. Problem was, it was the one I left some months ago… and I was pretty convinced I would not get an invite back… and if against all hope I did get an invite, would I get burned out and leave again?

It wouldn’t be fair to my friends to join them (if they would let me) just to go running off again after some time.

So why did I feel so miserable before, miserable enough to make me leave all the sweet people in that guild and go on alone for months?

The reason I left when I did was because of some disagreements with one of my fellow officers that just got to me too much, but I’ve realised since that that was just the last straw, the top of the ice berg, and not by a long shot the one and only reason. Our disagreement wasn’t even a major reason, it was just the last tiny drop that made the glass of irritation and annoyance overflow.

I do not want to raid lead, have never wanted to. During a period of some weeks, our usual raid leaders were mostly offline for various reasons and I had been trying to keep some raiding going to not lose people. Yes, there were other people to help me, but I still felt it was my responsibility, and I hated it.

Also, when we did raid (with or without me as raid leader) the raids were too often starting late because people did not respect the start times, with new people needing to be hand-held throughout every encounter and other people going afk, making everyone wait and things like this.

There were a lot of new members in the guild due to the recruiting to fill our raid groups. It took a lot of administration time to get the new ones set up with forum and ts accounts, addon helping, general explaining and question-answering.

Also, some of the new ones were downright nasty disgusting asshats and dealing with them took a lot of time and energy. (Thankfully, they are no longer in the guild).

And ofc there were a lot of members that had been with us for some time who had promotions coming up or being overdue, and interviewing these people and discussing their promotions also took a lot of time and energy.

I guess I could have said something earlier, but I just didn’t realise how much all the raid and guild admin stress was getting to me, didn’t understand what my almost constant irritation and crankiness meant until it was too late and I just had to leave.

(To be fair, my leaving was not in any way preceded by two months of unbearable horrors, I had so much fun too, but it was getting to a point where the stress and frustration just took the fun out of anything and everything I did. I was in way over my head and I was drowning.)

There are two types of persons, I am told. There are those that thrive on socialising, who gain energy from being with other people and are lonely and depressed when left on their own.

I am the other kind of person. Although I enjoy being social when I so choose, I reload my batteries and gain energy when I am alone, doing my thing on my own in my own pace. I like this time for myself, I need this time, and if I don’t get it I will be miserable. Irritated, cranky, going into sour-mode, annoyed with anything and anyone.

Last (but not least, this stuff is important), I had been more or less ill for a long time, colds and sniffles followed by the flu followed by pneumonia… The winter of 07/08 was not a fun time for me. This also rendered me completely unable to exercise as much as I used too, since I started wheezing and coughing just by climbing the stairs to our top floor at home, and I never got to use working out as a way of ridding me of all negative stress and pent-up irritation.

Fast forward to now, two months after I left, having been free of all obligations game-wise (real or imagined), having played and had fun with some of my friends (yes, most of them from my old guild), I feel good again, I am happy, I work out regularly, I play a lot and I have fun while playing.

So, all things considered (including some other AFK issues that I won’t discuss here), I think I will like it in my old guild a lot (again) and stay on the safe side of burn-out if I take a few precautions:
- I don’t want any officering or anything resembling it. I’ll play, chat, run instances and raids, help out and ask for help but I’ll leave the decision-making and leadership to those who enjoy that, I’ll just sit back and relax and accept whatever comes my way with a smile.
- I’ll join with my 70’s only and keep the little girls unguilded to make sure I get my “cave time”.
- I’ll sign up for raids only if I feel ready for it.
- I’ll keep working out as much as I do now, because I like it and because I want that glorious endorphine rush and because it makes me so much more mellow and relaxed.

Well, finding out why I was miserable and how to avoid feeling so again was just the first part…

The second part was to actually apply to my old guild again…

A quick check of which guild members were online made me realise it has grown a bit since I left it. I didn’t recognize half the names, but they still label themselves not as a raiding guild, but as a social guild of RL and online friends, who find most aspect of WoW game play fun, including raids. (Their guild charter is the one I wrote when I was still there, so no wonder it appeals to me ;P. Or maybe they just haven’t gotten around to change it.)

Writing the application was easy, since they are considerate enough to have an example application to help to new applicants, which just so happens to be written by yours truly a long time ago. I copied it, updated the parts that needed to be updated and posted it.

And then I felt sick. What had I done? Can’t remove or edit posts at the forum if you are not registered, so there was no going back for me, but I was terrified of being thrown back to the wolves after having faced my own inner demons and posted on a public forum like this. “Here I am, this is my application, please don’t kill me.”

I went for a long invigorating run, sweating away the dread and nausea and anxiety. Silly, really, to feel so nervous about an application to a game, but that’s how it was.

I didn’t log in that evening, and I was pretty nervous when I checked in on my app the day after and saw that there were replies. Several replies, in fact.

Have you seen the Disney film Mulan? It’s about a Chinese girl at the time of the Mongolian invasion, when every family is required to send a man to the army to help fight the invaders. Mulan borrows her father’s gear and sneaks off into the night, masquerading as the young boy Ping, enlisting in the army as a representative of her family to spare her frail father.

In China, at this time (might be so still for all I know of China), passing yourself off as a man was punishable by death, no trial, no jury, just a quick blow with the axe, so her father dares not come get her and expose her deceit. Of course, Mulan turns out to be a very resourceful young girl and almost single-handedly defeats the entire Hunn army, saves the emperor and makes the handsome young prince fall in love with her (after he discovers she’s a girl).

Anyways, when she’s done saving the empire she returns home, bringing gifts from the emperor. She cautiously approaches her father as he sits by the creek down in their garden and kneels before him, holding the emperor’s gifts up to him as she looks down, not daring to face his being angry her for running away. But her father just lights up when he sees her, falls to his knees too, throws the emperor’s gifts to the side and hugs her.

This scene always makes me smile and feel warm at heart, and this is how I felt when I read the replies.

The people who posted were people I knew from before, and have talked to and played with since I left, and they all expressed unconditional joy and happiness for my wanting to come back to them! Enter, that warm fuzzy happy glow and silly smile, I will not cry, I will most definitely not cry! Oh bugger! Ah well, tears of joy are a good thing :-)

What have I done to deserve this? But then I realise, it’s not about me, it’s about them. These people are truly nice and genuinely sweet and would be happy to welcome back any prodigal son (or daughter).

They are people with big hearts, and I am really glad to be back with them.

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Sunday, April 13, 2008

BoE loot?

So we were fighting our way through normal Steam Vaults when one of the nagas dropped Pants of Living Growth .

The group setup was me, bear tank, hunter, shaman and paladin healer. When the pants dropped the druid screamed Neeeeed! but I pointed out that it was a BoE-item, so we ended up all rolling for it. And I won it. Nice addition to the healing set of my druid Joaquime, eh?

What is the loot etiquette for BoE's anyway?

As one of the party members told us, the pants were worth approximately 600 gold on the AH. While not being an enormous amount of gold, it's a sizeable chunk for anyone saving up for their epic flyer.

I knew three of the people present, had never met the fourth before but he seemed to be a nice person.

Had it been different had we had a druid healer for whom the pants would have been an upgrade? Would they have been his by default then?

I think the easiest way to avoid loot drama in a party is to roll on all BoE items that drop, greens, blues and purples.

So what did I do with the pants? I gave them to my friend of course, he had tanked us through SV without a single death (and he would have gotten them even if he had caused us to wipe repeatedly).

(But I have to admit, it was pretty tempting to give them to my friend Joaquime instead, but the better me prevailed ;P)

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Nice Catch!

Muahahaha today's fishing trip was a good one! I just flew off to Allerian Stronghold to go fishing in the Terokkar rivers for the Blackfin darter required for the Bait Bandits. A few casts later I caught myself one and headed back to Old Man Barlo to turn it in and received the usual Bag of Fishing Treasures.

This time, however, the bag contained the recipe for Captain Rumsey's Lager! Now I can go fishing the proper way, with a few cans of lager to help me get in the correct meditative mood ;P

In addition, the bag also contained a Mariner's Log, telling the story of a sailor named Cedric who seems to enjoy his rum a lot (or being disciplined).











Or for those whose screen resolution makes the text on the images above illegible:

First Watch. Seven Bells. Cedric found in rum closet again. Disciplined.

First Watch. Eight Bells. Watches changed. All is well.

Middle Watch. One Bell. Cedric found attempting to break into the Captain's wine cabinet. Disciplined.

Middle Watch. Two Bells. Cedric climbed rigging. Became tangled and fell. Attended by Ship's surgeon. Sent below to sober up.

Middle Watch. Four Bells. Bottle of rum found in Cedric's pants. Disciplined.

Middle Watch. Five Bells. Cedrics clothes found. Cedric found separately. Cedric disciplined.

Middle Watch. Six Bells. Cedric singing lovely. Woke Captain. Cedric disciplined by Captain.

Middle Watch. Eight Bells. Watches changed. All quiet. Two men sent to locate Cedric.

Morning Watch. One Bell. Fire in Captain's quarters. All hands roused. Throwing powder overboard.

The log ends rather abruptly, so I wonder if they really had time to throw all powder overboard and put out the fire.

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Chair-shaped

I was talking to a fellow WoW-addict the other day and she told me her bottom was beginning to take on a very chair-like shape. You take me, she said, you get the chair.

I laughed, and told her to get a laptop and a wireless internet connection so she wasn't tied to a chair (not literally ofc ;P) when playing, but could alternate between the couch, the bed, the kitchen table or wherever she'd like to play, and she could be sitting, lying semi-recumbent, or flat on her belly, or however she would like to sit/lie down/whatever.

I do this. But even when I move around a lot during my playing I still feel like my bottom is squashed, my back is like a stiff hundred-year-old, and my neck is severely vulture-like after a several-hour-long bout of WoW-ing.

And beach -08 is closing in on us real fast!

I wish I could be more like my WoW-girls, who run wherever they are going! (Well, it's not that bad because luckily I like to exercise as well as play WoW, and although its really difficult sometimes to tear myself away from the flickering screen and go to the gym or outside for some fresh-air exercising like running or cycling, I have been doing it regularly lately.)

And I have some other tips for those who start to feel their body is failing them and is starting to object to the constant screen-staring and key-clicking.

- Remember to blink a lot. Staring at the screen all day will make your eyes go dry and blinking will keep the tear film intact on your eyes, rinsing them clean of dust particles and other irritants.

- Switch mouse hand. I always use my left hand for the mouse at work, and my right hand when I play.

- Use key bindings whenever you can instead of mouse-clicks. Macros are very handy here to save action bar space and limit the number of clicks needed to get a certain spell.

- Take occasional small breaks, 1-2 mins in your instance runs and jump around afk to get some blood flowing in your bottom and the rest of your body again. Blame the phone if nothing else works.

- Open a window and let some fresh air in. (If Mohammed can't come to the mountain, let the mountain come to Mohammed, eh? :-)

And those times when you just stare at the screen, bored, not knowing what to do and not really feeling like doing anything, turn the computer off and go outside into the real world for a while. You will feel so much better when you come back.

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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Mains vs alts?

One thing that struck me as I was browsing different guilds’ forums and application pages was how much they all differentiated between mains and alts. Some guilds even only allow you one or two alts in their ranks.

Tessy is my main. Period. She has been from the start and she will be for ever, she was my first, my precious, and she is the one closest to my heart. Nothing will change that.

Granted, at the moment I don’t play her as much as I play some of my other girls, and she has never yet seen the inside of Karazhan or Zul’Aman, but that does not matter to me. (To be fair though, she is the only ones of my girls that has seen the inside of the Molten Core and Zul’Gurub back before TBC.)

Tessy is the undisputed clan leader of my unruly flock of girls, and when I take her fishing or doing the cooking quests it feels a little like coming home.

Maybe its just because we share a name, and I feel WoW-Tessy is more of a representative of AFK-Tessy than any of the others. Maybe it’s just a matter of semantics, and the main/alt thingy is really no big deal. (Or maybe I am just a little nutty, or more than a little. Well, this last explanation does strike me as a true one :P)

I can maybe understand if the more seriously inclined guilds frown upon you bringing a new alt to every raid or so, or maybe that a role-playing guild would want you to play your character and not branch out with a lot of alts, but why should any other kinds of guilds object to you having a zillion alts?

My flock of girls feels a little like some online family and I can't really see how they can be separated. If you want Tessy, you have to take that I will play with the rest of them too :-)

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Looking for Guild!

I recently read BigBearButt’s blog post about him and his wife leaving the guild they were in and let me just say: I would really like to find a guild like the one they are forming now.

It made me refine my earlier sentiments about why I want to join a guild again and elaborate on them a little. The operative words in my earlier post are not “I miss raiding”, its “I miss raiding with friends and people I like”.

I remember when my old guild went for our first Kara tries in a joint venture with another guild. It was hilarious. It was a lot of tactics talk before everything, a lot of waiting around, there were deaths and wipes and general confusion, but what I remember most was how fun it was – all the talking on ts and in /raid (a lot of it actually related to what we were trying to do but also a lot that was not) and the general goofing around.

I remember some other runs in Kara with my guild, when we did the same thing, more intent on having a good time and playing more for fun than for shinies. We died and wiped a few times but generally laughed a lot.

I remember a Steamvaults run I did with some guildies. We were having a blast. The healer went and pulled extra mobs when he felt that we were not getting enough of a challenge, and the dps went on a mad kill spree, unleashing everything they could and I was feverishly trying to tank in the middle of the mayhem.

Another one, a run through the Mana-Tombs. There were three 70’s, my priest, a shadow priest and a warrior tank, totally overgeared for the normal dungeon but we were having two 65-ish rogues with us (hence we could not go Heroic) and we were just steamrolling through it, talking and chatting and pulling way too many mobs even for our overgeared imbaness, but it was the funniest Mana-Tombs run I’ve ever been in.

A run through Magister’s Terrace, mage sheep-pulling, melee shaman and shadow priest nuking, our shammy healer yelling at us for spreading out too much for his Chain Heals to be effective, me running around all over the place to try to pick up all mobs and get them to beat on me. Wipes happened, but the chatting, joking and all around fun and happiness is what I remember from that run.

There are plenty more like these, the kinds of runs I think back on with a warm fuzzy glow in my heart.

Sure, I got myself some shinies in these runs, and in other runs too, but that is not why I so fondly think of these runs and wish for more like them. I wish for more runs like this because I vividly remember how happy and thrilled and excited I was and how we were playing this game for fun, not for the sole purpose of getting some new pixels to flaunt or for the dreaded progressing.

And then there are…the Other Runs… the ones where you spend two-three hours in total silence because you are too annoyed with some people to even talk, the runs where you wonder why you even play this game, where you have to suffer people yelling nastily or swearing or just being small-minded disgusting asshats. The runs you leave with a kind of sick and disgusted feeling to your stomach, no matter how many brand new shinies you have in your outfit or no matter how many bosses you have downed. The runs you leave realising that it was three hours of your life that you will never get back again, all in the name of “progress” or "gearing up", and definitely not in the name of “fun”.

I don’t care if I never see Magtheridon or Mount Hyjal or whatever, or if I have to go through this game dressed in quest items only, I want to have fun with friends and people I like when I play.

So let me paraphrase BBB’s post and make my own LFGuild wish-list ad:

“Looking For Guild; Rogue on Vashj (EU) with a large unruly accompanying flock of alts is looking for a guild that is not raiding hardcore, and doesn’t ever really want to, but which, when raiding, do it prepared and relaxed and respectful of other people’s time and efforts. Must consist of emotionally mature, friendly and open-minded people, possessed of compassion and patience. Interests include Karazhan and Zul’Aman runs once every week or so, occasional heroics and regular 5 man instances, doing dailies and chatting and questing. Must be willing to endure bouts of incessant joking and silliness. Must love good music, chocolate and Mojitos. Be prepared to have anything and everything that you do be recorded or blogged about without warning.”

Don’t think that I will get many offers since not many people read this obscure blog-diary of mine but at least I know what to look for now, on this server and on others :-)

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Sweetsheeks

Didn't really think this would happen but now my little blood elf paladin Sweetsheeks has grown a bit and gotten herself a pretty horse with a dress!


The paladin class has actually been one of the most boring to play so far. I had a dwarf paladin that never made it past lvl 17 (and after that she got reborn as a hunter), and I started Sweetsheeks mainly becuase I wanted another tank after my druid Joaquime and warrior Dizzie.

The slightly odd name (and the slightly odd spelling of it) was what a friend from my Alliance guild used to call me, and I thought it was pretty cute. Once when he actually spelled it correctly and called me Sweetcheeks I got suspicious and didn't think it was him ;P

Anyways, it is getting funnier to play her as she gets more spells and I try to learn the difference between the seals and when to judge them. All to easy to fall into some habitual spell sequence and never explore the full potential of the paladin.

She is in a guild started by some real life friends of mine (its true! its not some lame excuse to go guild-hopping ;P) and maybe I will get her to 70 and do some laid-back casual raiding with her and my friends.

Now my son has started playing WoW again and he has a tauren warrior on this same server, so we play together on occassion too (although for once he is levelling so much faster than me :-).

Talents
Sweetsheeks is retribution specced atm, but I started her to make a pallly tank out of her and still plan to do that when she grows up a little. Still prefer to play solo or questing with my friends and family when I level a new girl :-)

Professions
I made her a skinner and miner to make some gold for her as I level up, and as a paladin I didn't even have to buy her that pretty mount she rides on now, she learned how to summon her warhorse at her trainer's!

Current goals
Just one goal for Sweetsheeks atm, and that is to level up and have fun while levelling :-)

Armory link for Sweetsheeks

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Looking for Guild?

I have been thinking of joining a guild again.

Strange as it may sound, I am starting to miss (of all things!) the raiding.

Well, maybe its not that strange, I get the social parts of being in a guild very much fulfilled anyways since I play and chat with some of my friends from my old guild every time I am online, running instances, doing dailies, questing and chatting and helping each other out, so I don’t need a guild for that.

But I can’t go raid with them. And I miss that.

I miss working together with my friends for a common goal (to down that ugly mafa!), the preparation before (reading up on encounters, considering what would be handy to have in your bag, maybe some macro practice), and the analysing afterwards of my own performance (did I miss doing anything important, did I heal/tank/dps as I was supposed, and how may I be better next time) and the raids (why did X die, why did we have to do that and not this, and how may we be better prepared next time).

There are raid pugs going, at least for Karazhan and Zul’Aman, but somehow I don’t find that very alluring, since it’s lacking the consistency and improvement possibilities of raiding with people you know and trust and like. Not saying that it can’t be fun though, but since I have been very weary of raiding I don’t want to start again with a pug.

So I think I will go check out what this server has to offer guild-wise, and see if there is anything that catches my fancy, picky and choosy that I am ;P

I'll let you know how it turns out.

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Saturday, April 5, 2008

Fishing in 2.4

Never been that much of a fan of outdoor angling, but I enjoy fishing in WoW. (Yes, I know there probably is something wrong with me, having without too much pain skilled up fishing to 375 even before the recent nerfs to the fishing profession).

So after the latest patch (2.4) I am taking my precious rogue Tessy out for daily fishing trips, catching all kinds of new and interesting fish.

Daily Fishing Quests
The quest giver, Old Man Barlo, stands in the shallow waters at the shore of Lake Silmyr just north of Shattrah, surrounded by basilisks, spiders and nasty things in the water, so it is advisable to fly there unless you want to have to kill some of the encroaching wildlife.

The first quest I got was Bait Bandits, in which Old Man Barlow asked for a Blackfin Darter from the rivers of Terokkar. I flew around in the woods with my Fish Finding on (the Weather-Beaten Journal was probably the best catch ever in my fishing career) and stopped at every darter pool I could find, fishing them dry of Golden Darters but not a single Blackfin Darter caught the line =(

After half an hour, a lot of darter pools fished out and a stack of Golden Darters in my bag, I decided to try angling out of pools, and I got a Blackfin Darter on the third catch!

The next day, a new quest, The One That Got Away, this time sending me to Nagrand to catch the World’s Largest Mudfish. Sloppy reading of the quest text made me go fishing in the rivers first, both in and out of Mudfish Pools, but the only Mudfish I got there was the ordinary Figluster's variety.

A more careful study of the quest text revealed that it actually said “lakes of Nagrand” and after a few throws in the Sunspring Lake I caught myself the World’s Largest Mudfish!

Third day, new quest again, Shrimpin' Ain’t Easy. The lakes of Zangarmarsh hold not only an abundance of Barbed Gill Trout, but Bloated ones as well. These fish have gobbled themselves fat on Seaweed and stuff, and on Giant Freshwater Shrimp, so you just gut them like you would any other fish and extract the shrimp from their innards. Old Man Barlow wanted 10 of these shrimps, and it took me about 15 minutes to get them, throwing my line from the shores of Umbrafen Lake.

Fourth day, fourth quest, Felblood Fillet. This one sent me to my choice of Shadowmoon Valley or Hellfire Peninsula to catch a Monstrous Felblood Snapper. I was like, hmm, where are there waters in these areas? but then I remembered the nagas and their water pools in the north of SMV. So off I went, but nowhere did I find water deep enough to fish in. All the pools were too shallow!

Quick check of the map, but there was no lake or river I had forgotten to be seen there, just a lot of green lava ones… hmm let’s try fishing in the lava then! Said and done, I flew to the closest green bubbling lava stream and cast my line in. And it worked! First catch was an ordinary Felblood Snapper, second was the Monstrous variety!


Now I am just trying to remember – where are there water or lava or whatever pools of any kind deep enough to fish in in Hellfire Peninsula? There are the pools of Aggonar ofc, but they are shallow enough to ride through, don’t think its possible to fish there.

Reportedly there is another quest to be had, where you go chasing crocolisks in the canals of Stormwind, but I haven't encountered that one yet. There is a crocolisk-fishing quest, the Crocolisks in the City, where some nasty merchant has sold a flock of baby crocolisks to some kids and you have to fish one out of the waterways. I took the portal from Shattrah to Stormwind and started fishing in the canals. After about 15 tries I got a Baby Crocolisk and hs'ed back to Shatt to turn it in to Old Man Barlo.

The quest reward for each daily Fishing quest is a Bag of Fishing Treasures, which contains 6-7 gold, on occasion some Jaggal Pearls, some grey fish/water-related items like Giant Shark Tooth, or Salvaged Scrap Metal, and some things that can be useful while fishing. So far I have gotten a lot of Sharpened Fish Hooks and some Elixir of Water Walking.

A note though, don’t throw out the grey stuff you get in the bag, go to a vendor and sell it. I once got an Ancient Coin and the vendor payed me 25 gold for that!

Other reported loot from the Bag of Fishing Treasures includes a recipe to make Captain Rumsey’s Lager, a Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat, and of course…*drum roll*….The 2 Ring.

A long long time ago, when I was just a little lowbie, I was fishing in Stormwind City and I caught myself The 1 ring. The ring has long been gone from my possession, missed by noone, least of all me.

New Fish
The Isle of Quel’Danas offer opportunities to fish from the boat in the harbour or the piers, with the bonus option of trying to use your Fishing Rod as a weapon if some hordies get offended by my peacefulness.

A fishing bout of 10 minutes yielded

1 Bloated Giant Sunfish which when cut open was found to contain 3 Darkclaw Lobsters, which can be used to make some Lobster Stew, with the help of a recipe from a vendor in Feralas (Feathermoon Stronghold if you are Alliance, Camp Mojache if you are Horde),

Some Jaggal Clams with the usual Jaggal Clam Meat inside,

A few tufts of Seaweed,

4 Luminous Bluetails, which seem to be some kind of fishy mana-pot,

and a lot of Giant Sunfish.

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