How Is Surv Working Out?

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.)

Bring It On Home

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!

How Blizz Got It Wrong By Getting It Right

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...

Rep: It's The Original Achievement System

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

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

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.

Holy Flying Ziggernauts, Batman!

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

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.