Kill Command

Don't Drop That- crash ...Box.

2009-04-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Just a link/heads up that I'm moving the blog. Wordpress has a few more options and nifty management features, so I ported all my entries over to there and have been setting up shop. I can finally declare things functional!

Linkage: http://killcommand.wordpress.com/

It Takes Two, Baby!

2009-04-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

The Dark Side tempted me with cookies and cake (or was it punch and pie?), and I finally gave in. Rerolled. New server, new faction, same class.

What? You didn't think I could start with anything BUT a Hunter, did you? :P

Revn is now level 11 and questing his little heart out, Engineering goggles firmly in place. But I digress - this post is about the most important quest a Hunter will ever face: Taming a first pet.

After a bit of confusion as to which zeppelin would get me to Howling Fjord, I was on my way to the cold dark Aran was always trying to tell me about. Having never been on one of these airboats before, I took a tour, attempted to talk to the crew (apparently goblins get cranky when they're cold), and anxiously awaited departure. Now, I have seen Howling Fjord before. I have NOT, however, seen it through the eyes of a very squishy L10 Blood Elf. It was stunning up until the snarling wolves found me. One cannot outrun these things without a mount. Trust me.

Just beyond the wolves is that oh-so-inviting lift, boosting folks up into the continent proper. I found it interesting that, once I was past this lift, I only ran into a problem once. Did you know that there is a dwarf hiding near the entrance to the Keep? Yeah, he apparently has issues with Horde. Talk about uncalled for ganking...

As soon as I revived, however, I saw my target. Daggercap Hawk, level 6. Scraggly. Underfed. Pitch black.

I had to have him.

A guildmate of mine suggested Lucien as a name, and I think it fits him. Lucien, the Tauren Dru- er, Daggercap Hawk. And here I was going to name him Edgar or Poe or something.

The Sound of... Techno? o.O

2009-04-08T00:19:00.000-07:00

Some things in this world require sharing. Things like, I'unno, a large group of people bursting into dance to a techno remix of Do Re Me from The Sound of Music. In the middle of a Belgian train station.

My favorite part of the whole thing is the look of sheer joy on the face of the guy who starts it. He knows what he is about to do. He is about to kick off something of epic proportions, and look like an idiot doing so. And he loves it!

I wonder what it'd take for someone to do this in America... Well, watch and enjoy. I know I did. :)

1) Get bored. 2) ??? 3) Profit.

2009-04-04T04:23:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when I am up all hours of the night stalking a book spawn with only one person to talk to. I get bored. And when I get bored, I do crazy shit. Tonight's crazy shit is... a blog header.

It was done in paint. That's as hi-tech as I get, folks. Besides, the whole blog is ghetto, why should it have a super fancy header?

Huh?? WHY I SAY?

... Another 1.5 hours to go for the next spawn... Guess I better grab more caffeine.

EDIT: Book did not spawn at 6 AM like it should have. Must wait for 7 AM. Good thing I work at 2:30 PM unlike a normal person.

EDIT 2: Blizzard has a way of rewarding the tenatious (read: stupid). My book did indeed spawn, and I collapsed into bt immediately after for about 6 hours sleep. I hope everyone else slept better than me! :P

How Is Surv Working Out?

2009-03-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

The spec: 5/14/52 Survival

The (Major) Glyphs: Viper, Steady, Serpent

The Pet Spec: Pure DPS, baby.

The Gear: Mostly purple.

Thoughts: Alvar counts as ~400 dps. Must not let kitty die, even as Surv! With Alvar still up I'm constantly seeing above 2k dps, otherwise I drop to about 1700. Lag is still killing my DPS - I'm sure if I wasn't seeing 2k ms and tiny random lag spikes during a boss battle, I'd managed 2k DPS on my own, with Alvar being pure gravy. Ah well, not much I can do on that front.

I have cleared Naxx to the Four Horsemen, and seen Sarth die on both 25 and 10-man, no drakes. Next goal: Malygos! His fight looks awesome, with the mages on flying circles you can hijack, and the platform exploding just so you can be picked up by red drakes to shoot fireballs into Maly's face... Aah, I so want to try it, even if I fail miserably. Oh yeah, and I want the rest of my Naxx achievements!

I have GOT to finish upgrading my gear to the dungeon purples I can get... My rings and trinkets are fine, but that helm and those boots have GOT to go! (Not to mention the helm is fugly as hell.)

A Bitter-Sweet Goodbye

2009-03-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

Today we watch as another blog of huge importance (for me and many Hunters, anyway) shuts down for at least three months. For once, though, I understand and completely agree with the reason - usually the blogs I read just cite "real life" and leave it at that, but our good Daniel Howell of BRKWWA has explained why. I won't go into that, just head over and read the post. I'll wait.

I'm not going to turn this into a eulogy - the guy isn't dead, he's just not blogging/playing right now. But I do feel the need to thank him better than I could in the comments, thus this post.

Thank you, BRK, for teaching me how to trap and kite, the mechanics of aggro and why it's so important to Feign Death early.

Thank you, BRK, for showing me it's ok to love a spec even if it's not the "best" one.

Thank you, BRK, for keeping the love of the Hunter class alive for me through all the nerfs, buffs, lag from my ISP and disapointment from not being progression-worthy DPS.

Thank you most of all, BRK, for the laughs. For not being afraid to admit that you Disengaged off of a boss platform right after the pull. For sharing the conversations between you and your Brain (and incidentally calling attention to the fact that I have some inner dialogue like that, too).

And thank you Daniel for sharing your stories of the Air Force, showing it's not all drills and spittle and running around pointlessly, and inspiring me to take a step out of my comfort zone and talk to a recruiter myself. I always saw a lot of potential, but it always scared the shit out of me too. But hey, you seem to have had good times as well as bad.

We will miss you while you are gone, and if that ends up being forever, well... Thanks for all the fish.

-Eric (Xanthelei, Alliance - Suramar)

Bring It On Home

2009-03-26T13:14:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been a while. I simply wasn't having fun playing on Xanth, as Suramar is a plain PvE server, I can't seriously raid in anything progression, and I remember days of Huntering around Azeroth with no lag.

So what changed? Well, Tuesday night my best RL friend called me up.

"Hey E, you up to doing a 10 man Naxx with the guild? We got a lot of people interested with alts, but we need more DPS."

"I don't know, M..."

"Come on, we haven't raided together in too long. And I'll be on my priest! I'll heal Alvar for ya."

".... Fine, I'll go sign up on the forums."

So I do so, and the raid gets underway. Full guild alt/second string raid, nothing much to be proud of, but hey, it's been a while and maybe I'll get some achievements I haven't managed to snag yet. We start clearing the Spider wing, and lo and behold, Maexxna drops her Wraith Spear - and I'm the only one who wants it. /cheer! Nice upgrade, even if I'm losing some hit with it.

Move along a bit, and we're killing Gluth. I dislike Gluth because, even as a Hunter, all I can really contribute to chew toy kiting is my trap. Seriously, my lag is bad enough I can't kite shit around a frost trap and keep aggro off the pocket healer! Sad times... So we had the holy pally kite them around, I unleashed all the Survival DPS I could, and we got the kill. What drops? The token for my tier chest! Did I mention we had no Shamans, and the Warrior had it already?

"I think the GMs are trying to tell me to come play Xanth again, M."

"You should."

Last night we finished everything up to the Four Horsemen (had a few troubles with our Spriest tanks in the back eating it, thus making the raid explode - is it bad I found the latter part hilarious?) and I picked up the tokens for both the legs and the shoulders.

I am now 3/3 in tier from Naxx 10. Plus an awesome polearm. In a matter of two nights.

Wakey wakey Xanth, we have baddies to shoot in the face!

Stable Master

2009-02-26T02:16:00.000-08:00

I don't know about any other Hunters out there, but I adore my pets. I've had a few over the years - Vryth-the-cat who became Vryth-the-carrion-bird, Yona the black bear, and Irwin the ghost-croc to name a few - but I've only held on to the ones I truely love for any great length of time. Currently all the pets in my stables have a story to them, and because this is my blog and I can, I'd like to share them with you. :D

Meet Alvar. This is the pet that, as soon as I hit 21, I begged my Shaman friend to help me find and tame. He's a Ghostsaber, the only "official" ghost pet in the game (all the others with ghostly appearances have been rendered untamable). As you can see, he's transparent. How awesome is that!?

Alvar has leveled with me from 21 on, almost always staying right up there with me. If Blizzard ever decided Hunters are allowed only one pet, Alvar is the pet I'd keep.

This is Wailflash, my Gorilladin. He spent a few days as Gorilla because I just couldn't think of a good name. The solution? Name him after guildie Mages of course! :) He comes with me to grind leathers, since he can handle piling them up in a neat skinning mound for me.

Now, I read over at SES that all tanking pets will have access to Thunderstomp come the next patch... So what, if anything, would replace Wail as my farming buddy?

Hmm, I don't think he's impressed.

Next in line comes the newest member of the team, Aspatha the Broodmother. (Anyone seeing a theme here?) The name rocks, so she got to keep it. I've heard rumors that Moths are actually decent for raid DPS, so I'm going to level her up to 80 and do some pet-only testing against Alvar. And should Mrs. Flappy win out, Alvar will get a well-deserved break from dying in a fire during Sarth raids. (Seriously, wtb better way to position pets against bosses!)

For the rare occasion of PvP I like to bring out my WaspofLSDoom (yes that's the pets actual name!) because once I sic him on Rogues they can't Vanish for the stunlock - which means I have a infinitesimally better chance at kiting them to their death. Will it ever happen? Heck, not on this connection, but it's a nice dream eh? :P

I have to give a shout out to BRK for the inspiration for his name - he's been calling the Hive Queen "LSD Wasp of Doom" for a few months now, and it totally fits!

Last, and just maybe least these days, is Reptilicus the Devilsaur. He's stuck in the stables while I run around as a Survivalist, and seems less than happy with that. Once Aspatha is up to level 80, I might just spec back to BM to finish leveling the poor thing, give him some fresh air. ...Or maybe I'll be lazy and demote him to Raptor status. <.< Dunno if I can get away with this, but I would love for BRK and Pike share their current pets and any stories behind them. I'm sure Pike has an RP background for them all (loved the story for Wash). If not, I'll be content with this snapshot of my stables, for posterity's sake.

It's Kinda Like My Raid DPS

2009-02-26T01:13:00.000-08:00

So I changed the layout a bit. I think this is less distracting than the old one, and hopefully a little less dull. I tried to keep with the colors on the Kill command icon in game, but I think I only did so so... At least it's less formal feeling. :)

Should I ever figure out how to work a paint-like program, I might even have a header someday! /cheer

Just In Time To Curl Up With

2009-02-24T02:20:00.000-08:00

I can has teddy bear transport?

Yes, but only at the cost of catching the flu, it would seem. *sigh*

In other news, Skinning has reached slvl 375 and I have Aspatha the white moth to level and test for DPS. At least I can keep myself busy while I'm sick.

Xanthelei the Argent Champion

2009-02-22T17:14:00.001-08:00

Has such a nice ring to it, I must say.

When In Rome...

2009-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

Pike at Aspect of the Hare was recently tagged for a meme to show off the 6th screenshot in her folder, regardless of what it is, and in turn tagged anyone who wanted to. Well, I happen to like my 6th screenshot, so I'll share. :)

This is the coolest picture I have ever taken, bar none:

The view of Light's Chapel from the Death Knight staging grounds, just before charging in for a one-sided fight. But while I love the DK starting area - and it's quests! - I just can't get that into my DK. So he's probably going to be stuck as my auctioneer.

/comfort Tenderizor

How Blizz Got It Wrong By Getting It Right

2009-01-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

It seems these days that poor Blizzard just can't win one. As the title says, they got something very wrong in getting something very right in Wrath.

Achievements. Love 'em, hate 'em, ignore 'em; whatever floats your boat. Me, I'm a completest. When I was younger, I was so into Pokemon I actually caught all of the originals on my Yellow cartridge - just to find out that you did not get Mew, or the ability to buy some super awesome item for $10, but instead you got to print out a certificate that says "I have no life!" On a Gameboy printer neither I nor anyone else I knew even had heard about.

Yeah, I started over.

But back to World of Warcraft's Achievement system. In Burning Crusade (and possibly in Vanilla) end game, there wasn't really anything to do other than PvP, raid, or level another toon. To combat this ending of the game syndrome, Blizz decided to copy Xbox and give you titles, items and mounts for doing certain things in the game. Uncovered all of the map while herbing? Have an Achievement! Reach level 80? Have another! Mastered your craft? Here you go - a fancy ding! just for you. Got the Bloodsail hat, pointlessly making all of the goblins south of Northrend hate you in the process? Erm, yeah, have a ding, a title, and seriously - go get some fresh air.

On paper it sounds like a ton of fun. And I'll admit, it's nice to see something for doing something you'd do anyway, like train a craft or hit a new level. But there's people in this world where the casual, "Oh hey I got something done" mentality just doesn't work. People like me.

I have already decided I will have the Admiral title, the Loremaster title and tabard, that little skunk minipet, and as many proto-drakes as I can stuff in my digital bags. And when they decide what to do with the points that come along with the cool stuff, I'll be able to buy everything in the store. And since my work is keeping me from raiding right now, this gives me a nice reason to keep playing my toons.

The real problem comes in deciding what I'm going to work on. In the past week, I've powered Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting to 300 on my Paladin (yes, I am crazy), leveled Leatherworking on Xanthelei from 1 to about 370, started collecting items for turn ins with Cenarian Circle, gone through a third of the quests needed in Ice Crown to inch my way to Loremaster... and a bunch of other stuff I can't even think of right now.

How am I supposed to DO it all? I can't even keep track of what I was working on two days ago, let alone filter through all my "dailies" for rep, items, and such today!

The solution? Permanent Achievement tracking. Blizzard is on the right track in making Achievements filterable, and allowing you to track a certain one per session. What they really need to do now is fine tune this. I would love to see Achievement (and quest!) tracking saved between sessions (and in fact Overachiever has already proven this can be done), as well as letting you track more than one Achievement at a time. Even if this meant you could only track up to six Achievements and/or quests at once, I would be happy with that.

So what's the bottom line, in my opinion? Love the Achievement system, but want to buy better basic tools for working with it. And I'm really hoping the rep returns in Booty Bay have increased, because 5 per kill is cramping my Steady Shot finger...

A Letter From Thrall

2009-01-11T12:54:00.001-08:00

I been keepin' busy dis mornin', what with runnin' round an' grabbin' herbs outta da ground. Got me a few shinies for dat, too.

I had just returned ta Razor Hill when de inn keeper, Grosk, told me a letter had come for me. He seemed ta tink it be important, so I checked de mailbox - an he was right.

Thrall, de great warchief o' da Horde, had summoned me ta Orgrimmar for an audience.

O'course I went immediately! Kneeling before da great warchief was thrillin', mon, even if it be a bit scary. He told me der be a corruption near Orgrimmar, and asked me ta find and kill a person o' rank in dis Burning Blade cult. His idear were ta get whatever marker dey use ta identify der higher-ups, den test an ally o' his - Neeru Fireblade - an' make sure he not be one o' dem nasties. So I done it and got meself a stone rune what say I be important, den go talk to dis Neeru fella.
Les just say, I can see why Thrall be da warchief. Sure enough, Neeru starts tellin' me how we be part o' da Shadow Council and rippin' on Thrall's honor. Was all I could do ta not shoot an arrow in his eye right dere, but Thrall said to just get his reaction to da rune. My pet Scorpid, Bloodtalon, sure picked up on me bein' outta sorts, so I got outta dere 'fore he decided ta sting dat filthy liar in de foot.

I were surprised ta see Thrall was bein' so cheerful 'bout all dis when I reported back. I told him all dat Neeru had said ta me, an' I was told ta head into dat Chasm in de city ta shoot arrows in de faces o' two leaders o' da Searing Blade. I weren't ta let Neeru know it were me, o'course, since dat'd blow my cover 'n all, but I be happy ta oblige de warchief. Jus' as soon as I know I ain't gonna die in dere, yanno?

Show And Tell

2009-01-10T11:08:00.001-08:00

'Ello mon. My name be Nykol, and dis be my story 'bout runnin' round Azeroth. Now, Xanthy dun know 'bout my talkin' to ya, so keep it down-low, ya?

It took me a while ta get outta dat valley where dey make ya do chores for your allowance, but now I be on my own in Durotar. Lotsa runnin' mon, and I tell ya, someone need ta make shoes we Trolls can wear. Dem rocks hurt!

One o'da first tings I wanted ta do was ta go and train up in de arts of skinnin' and herbin'. I figure if I's got gold, what I need craftin' skills for mon? I can just buy what I need! Besides, dem mounts ain't free, and I ain't walkin' my whole life. Anywho's, best place ta train up in somethin' be Orgrimmar, so dat's where I headed. Found a few tings ta do along da way, so I had a few silver which ta buy some trainings with when I got der. But, heh, what's a girl ta do when some goblin promises a whole new look for under a silver? So I let 'em chop off da mane and add some ogre spit, and I must say, dis be sassy.

So after blowin' half my moneh at dis place, I got around to da trainin'. And whaddya know, some orc be runnin' round Org tellin' everybody 'bout some fairground outside of Thunderbluff. I knows an opportunity when I sees one, and dis be an opportunity for fun, so off I go.

Problem is, I forgot about da runnin'. /grimace

Fairs always seem to be more hype dan dey are fun. After all dat runnin', all I could do was turn in the voucher that fashion-deprived orc gave me for five tickets, then hearth back home, where I celebrated my 10 season milestone. At least I found a few flight paths for later.

Now I gotta snag a few beasties for dis orc what be trainin' me ta befriend 'em, so I better get to it. Later mon.

Comma =/= Period

2009-01-08T22:37:00.000-08:00

So I've been on a small hiatus from WoW the past, oh, three days, while I get my finances in order. It's hard to enjoy shooting things in the face with a bow an arrow when you're screaming inside about a bill bigger than rent, electricity and internet all rolled into one (yes, I'm glaring at you, Sallie Mae!).

Meanwhile, I have found another blog I may read sporadically that serves a dual purpose, the first being to enjoy reading. Lienna the Belf Huntress is Surviving well in Northrend, it seems. Love the down to earth style of writing, but the run on sentences make me cringe inside. Ah well, not everyone is anal about writing like I am, and I can live with that. Check her out, random Pike-person who apparently checks my blog every so often. (Seriously gal, you came back? I'm impressed!) :P

Meanwhile, I shall return to crunching numbers and shortly fall into bed. I am blessed, I have a job... too bad it's an hour's drive from here. =(

And yes, I've left off the second purpose off on, well, purpose. I'm not ready to share with the class yet. :D

Rep: It's The Original Achievement System

2008-12-30T21:30:00.000-08:00

I have been AFB due to the fact that 1) I need rep and 2) I need gear. First Strike is a raiding guild, first and foremost. And it's ok to be a non-raider in a raiding guild (no, really, it is); but if you want a decent shot at the raid lewts when you go in, you have to make Raider status.

So I've been grinding reps and trying to get geared for 25s. We do 10s, but it's informal. Anyone can sign up, first come first serve, and loot goes to whoever needs it most. But once we get the 25s going, things will go back to the old rules.

I'm ok with this. Heck, I signed up for this! But with working two jobs, juggling finances - I'm glaring at you, Sallie Mae - and every day life stuff, WoW has become a treat.

So I did some math on the three reps I'm actively grinding right now: The Kalu'ak, Sons of Hodir, and Frenzyheart. Two are 'for fun', but I can get away with that - I wear an Argent Crusade tabard exclusively these days.

With the Kalu'ak, I have only 8 more days of quests before I can snag that penguin minipet and epic fishing rod, and then it's on to another rep. For the Frenzyheart, it will take longer... I decided immediately I wanted the Mercenary achievement, but I went Oracle at first without realizing the Frenzyheart have no concept of Phat Lewts. So I switched... about three days ago. Time until I can go back to my minipet-and-mount-giving Bigtongues: 4 days in Honored and 12 in Revered. Ugh.

And finally, the Sons of Hodir. These guys stink, seriously. Two of the three dailies that give rep have limited spawns that are heavily camped, and the other requires a decent-ish droprate item from mobs being farmed, not just for the daily, but for Crystalized Waters. I'm only about half way through Friendly, so I figure it will take 5 days to get Honored, another 8 days to get to Revered, and finally 12-ish days until Exalted. Total time: 25 days.

Sigh. It'll be a while before I get to work on my Dungeonmaster achievement... or coin fishing... or Loremaster... Sometimes it stinks being obsessive about completion. :)

What's A Blog? /level

2008-11-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Holy Flying Ziggernauts, Batman!

2008-10-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

First Strike went 5/9 in Black Temple this past Friday, with two of those being new bosses (Teron and Bloodboil). We're going back in to hopefully see the rest of 'em die tonight, but it's pure progression now, so it'll be fun. Even if we see no phat lootz.

But phat lootz we saw! Legionkiller is now ours, with a shiny crit scope slapped on top. This has to be the best looking crossbow in the game, and now it's mine. Bwahaha!

But now, I have Scourge to kill for Argent Dawn rep. I want that tabard and it's acheivement. And besides, it's fun.

/target Xanthelei, /cast Revive

2008-10-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well, now that our skies are blue once more, it's about time to get back to blogging! I have been busy while I was silent, so I'll start with what's new in the Draenei realms.

Firstly, I have added a new blog to my blogroll (as well as renamed it from "Blogroll"). Big Bear Butt has caught my attention, and even his non-WoW posts are hilarious. And since I'm leveling a resto Druid for PVP myself, it's fitting he's next to be added to my blogroll. I'm still looking for good blogs to read, so if you know of any, feel free to drop a comment and let me know!

Next, we move on to the Armory. Erikka, my Protection Paladin, is finally added, as is Ruinator, aforementioned Druid. I took the liberty of appending their titles, as well as updating Xanth's. This is my current "team" of played alts - more may or may not be added. Not pictured is my little Dwarf banker, Bankofxanth. Why? Because he has no roleplay potential, natch. (And I'm lazy.)

And finally, Gorilladin + Volley = more fun than monkeys in a barrel. Pun totally intended. So who are my pets now? Well, I have Alvar the Ghostsaber (of course!), Wailflash the Gorilladin, Origima the Wind Serpent, and Kaida the Warpstalker. Who's liable to return to the wild? Kaida and Origima, should I find a good reason to. I have one un-bought stable slot that is being saved for Rhino Bowling funtimes.

Ah, but now it's way past 11, the servers are likely up, and I must go have some leveling fun with my friend M. Or he might Charge poor Ruinator and beat him over the head with his shield.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

2008-10-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry the blog has been a bit quiet lately. Besides the fact that First Strike isn't doing much raiding right now, I've also found out that my satellite internet service, Wild Blue Communications, has a hidden clause that states "You have 12,000 MBs of downloads in any given 30 day period." (It resets to the last 30 days every day.) How much have I used? 12,115. So they've slowed us down to about 30-40% of the normal speed that we pay $70 a month for.

It takes a while just loading my own blog. =(

So, if I haven't been raiding, what have I been doing? I have messed around on the PTR a bit more, and am happy to see they've finally fixed the Beastial Wrath bug. For a few builds, having The Beast Within was a wasted talent point, as every time you used Beastial Wrath it would ONLY apply the pet buff. Your poor Hunter would stand there, watching his big red pet sadly as he himself was denied the joys of being big and red.

But that's fixed! So /cheer! Also fixed is Spirit Bond. It may take a while to register with the server, but it does now affect Mend Pet. I gave my L65 bear full Stamina and Rhino Blood, then had someone hit him a few times to see what MP would tick for. I got about 165 per tick, which isn't bad. Then I popped one of my unspent talent points (I have a habit of only taking the "duh" talents when on the PTR, so I can check various effects and such) into Spirit Bond and took him on the Dailies grind.

At first, I was disappointed, as I couldn't see any difference in the Mend Pet ticks. The tooltip also hadn't changed, so I figured it was a lost point in Spirit Bond and I should report the bug/misleading talent tooltip. About five minutes later, I noticed that MP was indeed ticking for more healing now - and probably had been for some time. So I dropped another point into SB to see if it would increase again, wrote down the new number, and continued on. About 3 mobs later, Mend Pet began giving 215 health per tick - much better at keeping my little bear alive against L70+ mobs!

On Live, I've been going into a collector's frenzy. I already have increased my mini-pet collection from about 5 unique/rare pets to, say, 14. I've listed out all the Horde-only pets, the grind-pets, the rep pets, etc. and do plan on getting all of the ones I can. Why? Because in about 8 days mini-pets will no longer take up bag space! Same with mounts - I've been grinding rep with the major Alliance factions for the racial mounts, and have actually bought all three L30 Stormwind horses. (Yes, I'm a nut, I want them all!)

Hmm. I'm going to need more gold. /plot

Can't Touch This

2008-09-22T12:53:00.001-07:00

First Strike has downed Kael'Thas in The Eye and finished all of Teir 5 content as of about 10 PM PST, 9/20/08!

Aside from the fact I noobed it up and accidentally abandoned the quest to kill Kael and Vashj (and then didn't pick it back up before raid time ><), I was there! I saw him die! The little bugger got me with a fireball crit right after I landed and bandaged up to full health, so I sat out the last 15%. But it was still awesome. And I can't wait to go back in there - I wants a chest from him! (T5 2 peice bonus is so sweet looking.)

As it was, no Hunter loot dropped. But again, that picture alone is worth it. Congrats to all of First Strike! :D

(Also, this is late in getting posted because I am in the last week of school right now for this quarter. So, real life before WoW, and all that. Now, on to Brewfest token gathering!)

Where I Stick My Foot in My Mouth

2008-09-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

Once in a very great while, I find myself on the WoW forums (usually the Hunter forums) looking for a good debate, entertainment, or general news I somehow missed. Today, I found this thread.

I've been reading through it and honestly wasn't planning on writing anything about it, since I don't PVP, but I have to share a post written byAktarin, a Hunter from the Shadow Council server:

Hunter: Look, I think this is overpowered and here's why. *sets out logical arguments*
Rogue: OVERPOWERED?! YOU ALL HAVE STUNS! STUNLOCKS! POISONS! THINGS!
Hunter: No, that's you that you mean.
Mage: Um yeah. That'd be you.
Rogue: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! You ALL have stuns and things I can't fight! You.. you.. you can iceblock! NOT FAIR!
Hunter: Can we just get back to the point?
Rogue: THE POINT IS THAT YOU CAN'T PLAY!
Warrior: What were we talking about?
Rogue: How hunters are overpowered! They can wingclip! And frost trap!
Hunter: No, we WEREN'T talking about that! We were talking about dismantle and how it's unfair when you already have a gajillion stuns against our class!
Rogue: *starts flailing around spouting gibvberish and quoting improbably statistics*

-pause-

Warlock: Oh god. he's going to do the wookie defence.
Rogue: But, ladies and gentlemen of this supposed raid, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!
Hunter: Oh god.
Rogue: Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this matter of OPdom? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this matter at hand! It does not make sense! Look at me. I'm a roguer defending my unbelievably overpowered class abilities, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that developers room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this raid and development team, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must nerf hunters!
Warrior: But..
Rogue: LOOK AT THE MONKEY! LOOK AT THE SILLY MONKEY! *waves a stuffed toy*
*Warrior's head explodes*

I may be alone in this, but this just cracked me up. Part of what I like about the Hunter community is we tend to attract some hilarious people. BRK is a very good example of what I mean. These people can make their point and do it in a way that is funny. I'm sure other communities have people like this, but I'm biased and so enjoy the Hunter people more. :P

So what's the skill they're all crying and ranting and debating about over there? Rogues are getting a new skill called Dismantle. It is first available at level 20, and increases from there - meaning Rogues will have this, as a base skill, come the 3.0 patch.

Is it OP? I honestly have to say "I don't know" because I didn't fight that many Rogues when I was dorking around in arenas with my Shaman friend. I have never really fought a Rogue because I know, with my latency, I can't kite him. That, and I don't enjoy duels anyway. :P

However, I can say if I had tried to level on my old PVP server and Rogues had this, I probably would have quit by the time I got to STV. It was bad enough getting camped by 70s, but having no weapon to help defend myself against a same-level Rogue would have been worse. I have managed to beat a Rogue at the same level as me on a PVP server in STV, but it was a very close thing. Only saving grace was a freezing trap -> aimed shot crit -> arcane shot crit. If he had had a trinket, I would have been toast.

So while I personally don't care if Rogues get more buffs to arena, I know there are plenty of people out there who would like to PVP on their Hunters. For their sake, I hope this gets reworked, because I can't come up with a way to get away from a Rogue without a melee or ranged weapon equipped that is not easily countered by a PVP spec Rogue. Short of having a secondary weapon, anyway (if you can even re-equip when disarmed).

Tanking Pet Goodness

2008-09-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

I managed to get onto the PTR last night (indeed, I was up until 6 AM my time), and decided to test out the pet tanking abilities. So I grabbed my Warp Stalker, named her Kaida, and went looking for someone to test with.

A Boomkin in IF was willing to duel me, so I could test out some things that I'd heard rumor of and/or wanted to see myself. First I put up a Serpent Sting and trapped him; yes, Traps will last with a dot! Next goal is to get a lock to help out, dot the bajeezus out of a tank, then trap him. I'm curious to see if there's a damage limit to what the trap will handle, or if it only counts direct damage now. I'm sure if they fixed this for trap, Hex/Sheep is the same. Hmm, must test that too...

Then I played around with Disengage. Going up hill it sucks. I think I moved 2 feet. =( But going downhill (we were testing on the road out of IF) it is wonderful. Popped me to my max distance, and I landed with auto shot still running. Can't wait to try it against a SStep Rogue and charging bear/Warrior. :D

Oh, and Viper Sting still sucks.

After he did his testing, and found his Resto set was better for Boomkin than his Boomkin set (lawl), we went off to test the healing capability for him and the increased heals for my pet. Banthar, take one: down in about 15 seconds with hardly any mana missing from the Druid. Hmm, we need something with more hit points... Oh look, there's Durn. *grin*

He took a bit longer to kill, but again, there was no real strain to keep Kaida healed. Since the instances were down, we headed off to BEM to take one the dragons. Instead of dragons, though, we were met with... tiny blue-and-white checkered boxes?? I wish I could find that screen shot! Kaida tanked like a pro, and even took on two adds our Druid friend was feared into. Peice of cake! Add a mage, Titan warrior, and pally to the group and off we go for Dragon 2. No aggro problems, no adds, and no lack of heals.

"Your pet is easier to heal than some tanks I've had."

/boggle

Tonight, I'm hoping to do a Ramps run or two with this guy. Just the two of us. It shall be epic.

A First Time for Everything

2008-09-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

The PTR is open for patch 3.0, and I did a very odd thing. I got off my lazy bum and figured out how to get onto it. I only managed about a half hour today, but I do have a few first impressions.

1) The sign in screen for Wrath > the sign in screen for BC.

2) Everyone is on the PVE realm! Why is everyone on the PVE realm!? Get off the PVE realm so I can get on already!

/cast misdirect [target=PVP] /shoo!

3) The graphics got a nice upgrade. Love what they've done, but somehow things seem a bit grainier than they are in Live. Though, this may be because there's so many people on the same server... Also, must see if the shadow thing is on live - cause I love it.

4) Love the pet Ferocity tree! Respec'd Alvar, my ghostsaber, then had to respec him again as I found Heart of the Pheonix is borked. How is it borked? For those who haven't followed such things on the Beta forums, HotP allows you to rez your pet for free during battle. However, it has a cooldown of 10 minutes (though the tooltip shows it as 7 minutes). So what's the problem?

This cooldown restarts itself every time your pet is summoned. Mount up to go from the pet trainer to the Auction House? It resets. Still on cooldown and you have to rez your pet? It resets. I'm not sure as I haven't managed to test it, but I'm reasonably sure zoning into an instance and taking a taxi flight will also reset the timer.

5) Love the pet Tenacity tree! Went and tamed a white L70 Warp Stalker in Terokkar to play around with, and realized after that I had no fruit or fish. /facepalm

So, I plugged in the talents, and went off to see how quickly Guard Dog would increase happiness from Sad to Happy. Three mobs later, I had a fully content Stalker. /cheer!

6) The Cunning tree looks good, but I haven't had any chance to play around with it yet. A certain Shaman friend has demanded any testing I do be with a Spore Bat (indeed, he demanded I go tame one immediately), so we'll have some fun with it. Later. When the server isn't locked.

7) I am staying Beast Master for the expansion. Why? Because I already demand the 4 extra skill points Beast Mastery provides. Though, to be honest, I wish respecs didn't cost 50g in the PTR... Because of this, and my perpetual Broke-ness, I will not likely test the other two trees.

8) Five pets. 'Nuff said. (Though, 50g and 150g for the last two stable slots really hurts, considering the first two are 1g and 10g each.