What's A Blog? /level

Ah yes... I have a blog.

I'd almost forgotten, in the glow of Expansion glory. So what is Xanth up to now?

Making a Death Knigget to do his farming. Meet Tenderizor, Skinner and Miner extraordinaire. He is the sole reason Xanth may soon revert to Leatherworking - I had dropped Skinning/LWing for Mining/Engineering, and am NEVER dropping Eng! Those goggles are the hotness. :P

Speaking of. New goggles! Must have! And they only require level 70! *mines like crazy*

I've also gotten myself one of those stunning bald eagles from Grizzly Hills. Seriously, this guy is just gorgeous. We used to have a few Bald Eagle families living around here, so I have a small soft spot for the feathery guys.

And last but not least, Xanth is L72. Huzzah! I've finished all of the regular Borean Tundra quests, and am now milking XP and gold from Howling Fjord. Yes, yes, I should just move on to Dragonblight or something, but I want to experience all of this expansion. And if I learned anything in the grind from 60 to 70, it's that you save as MANY quests as you can for pure gold. Might as well get all the XP I can from the lower areas before it's too late!

Oh, and there's a small project-idea floating around in my mind, but we'll see if I even do it... ;)

The Death of Karazhan

I realize they nerfed the health of bosses a short while ago. I even realize why.

I also realize that the players in my guild are Tier 6 and, even if the gear doesn't quite match that level of play, the playing still does.

But this is just... is just... AAAAAAHH!


Netherspite has always been my favorite boss fight in the game. Kael in TK is more epic. The Council in BT is longer. And Illidan is probably more technical (we never did make it past Council, thanks to time issues).

But there was nothing like learning Netherspite with my old guild, Round Table Raiders.

That fight is nothing but Do X Or Die technicalities. And I LOVED it. RTR had to stay in on all the banish phases because we were still gearing and learning and didn't have the DPS to kill him if we ran out. We had to be very, very careful on heals with the Blue Beam or we'd have no one to take it come round 3. And we had our share of "AMG You stepped in the red beam! OUT! OUT!" moments.

There is nothing like seeing everyone wipe, switching to Monkey, popping Deterrence, and tanking that dragon in the red beam while the PVP Shaman heals your blue tail until a black hole spawns to gank you.

And now... Netherspite is nothing. His HP is gone. His difficulty level is nil. My favorite boss is dead for the last time before Wrath.

RIP Netherspite. RIP.

World Server Is Down

I have to give a big shout-out to BigRedKitty for his idea of Running of da Bulls for Ezra. I worked at that time, so I wasn't able to make it, but from the pics and movies floating around of it, the thing was truly epic. Even if they never made it to Stormwind.

Wait, what's this RodBfE thing, you ask? The idea was for people to roll baby Tauren on Argent Dawn, US server, then run them to Stormwind to sack the place. Horde were invited to come help with the actual sacking, and Alliance were invited to defend their fair city. Meanwhile, the real life avatars of these bovine were asked to donate to the Make A Wish Foundation, even if it's just a dollar. As soon as I get some spare money, I know I will.

Unfortunately... the huge amounts of people who showed up managed to trash the server. :P

I've seen numbers of 500+ baby Tauren, at least 100-150 higher-level Horde coming to help sack Stormwind, and 300+ Alliance ready to defend the city. Now, when the 650 Horde are on one continent, and the 300 Alliance are on the other, things go fairly smoothly.

When the 650 Horde catch a boat to Booty Bay... Heh.

Even the GMs on Argent Dawn admitted both the cause and the run was epic (and seemed to really appreciate the cause aspect of it). But, being GMs, they had to do their duty and /y at everyone. Literally.

So what can we take away from this? A few things.

1) No server, let alone Argent Dawn, can handle a congregation of nearly 1,000 people in the same area.

2) The GMs probably would have loved to divert server-power to Argent Dawn so it COULD handle nearly 1,000 people all PVPing in Stormwind, and then would have shown up in the flesh to battle it out themselves. Or in the pixils. Or whatever.

3) The massive trek of nearly the entire server population to Northrend is going to be very, VERY interesting... :P

/Sigh

So. We now have one week until Wrath hits. One. Week. Then we get to start leveling again. In all new areas. With all new abilities. And a totally different plot line. (And maybe no Burning Legion would be good?)

I am a Burning Crusade Kiddo. I have never played true Vanilla WoW, honestly hadn't even HEARD of WoW way-back-when. So the stories of what it was like when BC was totally new have me stoked for release night. Only one problem.

I work the next day. At 8 AM. And I'm a good hour drive from work.

So, unless my best friend in the whole world *hint* is willing to let me stay the night at his place - which just so happens to be about 5 MINUTES away from work - with my computer, I will not make the midnight opening. Which leaves me as a sad Space Goat.

Hmm. I must remember to find some blackmail on M before the 13th...

The Results Are In

Obama is the new President of my country.

Not sure yet who is the new Governer of my state, as the numbers were all over the place and I can't stay up any longer. Definitely going to have to buy a newspaper tomorrow!

Animal Handler is no longer the must-have talent is was, and I still don't know if my pet is getting any of my hit. /pout

And I can has bat minipet. Tomorrow. My addiction to the stupid election news and lack of a TV in my room caused me to miss a Kara badge run. I'm thinking I'll have to pug it tomorrow.

And it's almost an hour past my bed time! Why am I still awake!?

LFM, just need a Server then G2G!

Maintenance Day. The Tuesday morning where there is nothing to do but read blogs until 11 AM.

Unless, of course, someone at Blizz headquarters spills their Double Whip Mocha Latte with Hazelnut Flavor all over the main server, thus causing the rest of HQ to go into panic mode and push back "maintenance" to 1 PM.

I'm not sayin' that's exactly what happened, but that's certainly a valid explanation. Either way, here we are, with another hour to go until the servers return to life and answer the most important question in WoW-history for this particular Space Goat...

Is Mirkblood still there???

I'll admit, I was lazy with WoW last week. I just did not feel like playing at all, even though I still needed the Headless Horseman mask and the Batling pet. Well, I still need both items - no new title for me this year - but I'm hoping beyond hope that prissy Blood Elf is still poking around the guest chambers when the server comes back up.

If not... hopefully I can get Prince to die for the Achievement.

Erikka has reached her 60th season now, and is aiding the over-worked Honor Hold populace in thinning demonic numbers, reclaiming trinkets, and generally being a pain for the Burning Legion. In return, they are offering up some nice new armor for her tanking tail.

Surprisingly, leveling in Hellfire as a Protection Paladin isn't that painful. The painful part is not having an epic land mount. And getting pummeled by an invisible Fel Reaver after finally putting that last Helboar add out of my misery.

Have I wasted an hour yet? ...Darn.

I suppose I shall go back to looking for a good Scrolling Combat Text addon that will actually work while I wait for them to dry out the servers.