Teh alt train

I don't know if playing a Hunter is like playing on easy mode or what, but I leveled like crazy this weekend. I rolled her on Monday night and got her to 10. Then I got her to 14 in a few hours on Wednesday. Pushed her SIX LEVELS up to 20 over the course of Saturday and then up to level 25 today.

So there are three possibilities here: 1. I have no life. Very possibly true, as all I do are work, hang with my girlfriend or mess around online; 2. The Sunstrider Isle to Eversong Woods to Ghostlands quests are a level-a-thon; or 3. Playing a Hunter is an extremely easy way to level up on WoW.

Naturally I'd prefer it be the latter two.

The starting quests taking new Blood Elves up into their 20s are extremely fun. I hit exalted with Tranquillien very easily and got a pretty nice rare cloak. It was kind of a sad moment when I ran out of those quests and found myself directed to Tarren Mill or Stonetalon Mountains for further duties. Ah well. I did just do a run up to 60 over the last two months, so I know that it can be done if one pushes past the monotony.

And...another alt.

On a lighter note, I did create a new character on another server to join a podcast guild. I always wanted to try that, as I missed the boat on some of the other guilds rooted in WoW podcast fandom. It’s a newer show, and it’s a little outside of my demographic, but I enjoy listening, and they seem like nice people. No details now, as I need to wait and see how the guild goes. I rolled a female Blood Elf hunter (I know, I know…but I *like* hunters, and wanted to replay the Ghostlands quests). Plus, I missed not having a pet or minion out there with me when I was leveling the mage.

I wanted to try something new, so I picked up mining and engineering. I’ve always heard that engineering is a PIA to level, and expensive as hell, but I haven’t hit that yet. I was able to hit 75 in both professions easily by level 10. Plus, if I recall, the hunter is usually the last one alive in a group, as they always fucking feign death. So if I have me some jumper cables, I can make myself useful.

It should be interesting to see if the hunter is quicker to level than the mage. Just soloing before I could tame my first pet, I was kiting and shooting through mobs like butter. High volume of arrows needed, but it’s a small price to pay at this point.

Side note: is it just me, or is the bow stance for Blood Elf women totally bass-ackawards? My toon holds the bow out with her left arm, draws with her right, and yet she keeps her left foot forward. It’s like she’s twisting to shoot. And as she cocks the bow sideways, the arrow hangs BELOW the wood; it doesn’t rest on it, as I generally understand it to work. I kinda miss the bad-ass crossbow flip my Dranei hunter had.

Ah, well, her two-handed sword animation totally makes up for it. Reminds me of Beatrix Kiddo.

EDIT: OK, I'm an idiot of epic proportions. The Blood Elf bow stance is not backwards. She's just right-handed. I'm a lefty.

Motivation

Is it rooted in progression? Is it the thrill of playing with your friends? Is the potential for something new and exciting up ahead?

Strangely enough, I haven’t pushed my mage beyond 60 yet. She did some Hellfire quests, a horrific PUG through Ramparts, and grabbed all of the flightpoints in Hellfire, Terrokar Forest, Zangarmarsh and Nagrand. Her lethargy is certainly not for lack of quests or rewards, ‘cause they run a’plenty in the Oh El. I actually think it’s for lack of friends in the game.

My first push from 60-70 was with my old guild, with whom I leveled to 60 in “Classic WoW,” pre-BC. After 70, though, there was a bit of a falling out, and I’ve yet to find a decent guild since. Not a decent guild; that’s the wrong wording. I’ve yet to find a guild where I’ve fit in, and made friends. I think the most time I’ve ever spent in a guild has been 5 months or so. Most of the time I end up leaving after a month at the most, simply because no one ever talks, or talks to me, and there’s just no socializing to be found. No general conversation, lame guild chat saturated with links to gear people will never have, and a greater sense that you’re just not there. I’ve heard that some of the higher-end raiding guilds will simply regard your character as just another body of the 10 or 25 or 40 total they need to achieve their goals. In my guild experience, it’s been the same situation, only the guilds I’ve joined don’t have any goals.

Post-70, in February 2007, I jumped servers to get out of my classic guild. Four months later, I jumped again. Now, I’m on another server, and still having the same problem – loneliness. I’m searching for friends. The irony is crushing. In a game where a reported 9.5 million people play globally, I’ve yet to find people I can connect with on a social level.

This wasn’t meant to be a QQ post. I’m generally a homebody in RL, and have a few select good friends, but I don’t know anyone else who plays WoW. I can certainly continue my solo style, but I can’t help missing that element of group play just a little. I certainly get nothing but frustration in PUGS. That, or cool professionalism from good players. And in those cases, we get in, get the job done, and get out with little or no conversation.

A nice counterbalance to my WoW solitude has been Team Fortress 2, which is fucking killer.

WoW: low-key, task-oriented, amusing, entertaining.

TF2: Loud, crude, yelling, rocket-to-the-face-as-your-killer-dies-in-Pyro-flames insane. :)

Dingaling.

Ah, I remembered replacing a fair amount of stuff in first hour on Hellfire Peninsula, but I'd forgotten how huge the gear bump was. She looks like a blind clown, but my mage is now level 60.

/golfclap

Done and done.

Well, except for those pesky 12 remaining levels.

My mage is now level 58, and I've decided to hit Outlands because, well, I'm broke. I'm not careful with my gold, and I'm nowhere near rich enough for an epic land mount. I figure if I grind through Outlands on as little quests as possible, I can run back through them all for the gold.

It's a theory, anyway. Mostly I'm just glad to be done with the Azeroth grind. :P

Mage love

Again with the delay in posting…

‘Cause, yeah, I write for an audience of one. (Hint: 3-letter word beginning with “e” and ending with “o.”)

But it’s fun to look back and see some kind of progression. That’s something I’ve really been missing with my mage, as it feels like I’m flying along.

She’s more than six days /played at level 52, but I did a lot of dallying at the lower levels. I know that she was level 40 about 2.5 weeks ago, and I got her to 44 over the course of a full-out Southpark-style hotpockets weekend. Then Patch 2.3 hit on November 13th, and my advancement nearly doubled. I know that in a given evening, if I was very focused and stacking quests, I could get a level and a half per night with only a few bubbles of rested XP. Now, with the 2.3 changes to XP gain, I can easily do a level in 2 hours of focused play, just on quest completions. I’ve been pushing myself, though, and have been averaging around 2.5 levels per night since the patch. And as I only have 2 or 3 nights per week for full WoW immersion, that’s not bad.

So. The Mage. Seriously the most fun I’ve had in the game. Granted, I have a special place in my heart for the warlock, but he just feels sluggish when I play him. Barely any burst damage (he’s demo / low-destro), and slow kills. And I keep having to farm shards. I hate the shard farming now.

The mage, on the other hand, is like a breath of fresh air. I started her on a whim, like 10 months ago, first as a mule and then as a possible alt. Then I started playing her more and more. Once I started getting Frost Nova, Blink, Counterspell, Cone of Cold, Presence of Mind…all that stuff, holy shit. The difference between the warlock and the mage is like the difference between an out-of-shape aging wrestler and a 120-lb acrobatic ninja.

So there’s that, and there’s the twinking. I got her the Staff of Jordan (too lazy to link-up Thottbot) and slapped +40 spell damage on it. Then I just kept building the bonus damage as she got high enough to wear the miscellaneous items. I think she’s at 197 bonus damage, unbuffed. It may not be much, but I’m pretty happy with her wardrobe at the moment.

At this rate, I fully expect to hit 60 by the end of this coming weekend or maybe early next week, depending on how many Thanksgiving festivities I attend. So the question then is, do I continue the rocket path to 70? Probably. I’m not going to hit the Dark Portal at 58. Too many people shoot right in and get their asses handed to them for the first few levels. I’ve been hearthed to Shattrath City since level 17, so I’ve already learned my Master Alchemy and Enchanter skills. I do need to get myself aligned with the Scryers and start gaining rep. If I do the rush to 70, I can also go back and do all the other quests for money.

Low on gold at the moment, though, and I’ll have to shell out for an epic mount anyway before 225 flying skill. I’m halfway through revered with Orgrimmar, so perhaps I’ll grind some rep and nab an epic wolf.

And I’ve got another alt waiting in the wings. The way I see it, it’s going to be even more of a pain in the ass to level an alt once Wrath of the Lich King gets released, so it’s better to bring up some characters now while I’m stuck.

I’ve about given up on raiding. I just don’t have the time to put in for progression. I’m fine with my high-end quest-reward blues. My warlock is easily geared to *enter* Karazhan, but I’d have to gear-up for post-Kara through raiding, and that’s not happening. I’ve never been past Moroes, and I’m pretty sure I’m never going to, unless I find a guild that fits my play style.

My current guild tries to hit Kara on Thursdays and Fridays, but they always begin raids an hour before I get home. Granted, they’re always starting late and putting out a call for members, but I haven’t been feeling like joining, what with my focus on the mage.

I dunno, I may just end up transferring servers AGAIN to hang with my little brother.

The quarterly update.

OK, yeah, so it hasn’t been 3 months since the last post, but it’s been a while.

Feels like a lot of shit went down, but that’s only because it happened over the course of a little more than a month.

I’m actually playing Mercot more often than not these days, since I found a relatively decent Horde guild. Nice, motivated people. They let folks do their own thing, but also keep the progression moving. Regular Kara runs, though I’ve either not been on or properly prepared during raid times.

Gnomcot, sadly, must remain parked at level 42 for now, as Horde is suddenly fun again.
I started a couple of alts, one of which I’ve actually been having a blast with. For the first time in over a year, I’ve been hitting RFC, WC and SFK with a character of the appropriate level and with others of the same level range. I never thought I’d experience that content in that way again.

The funniest thing about it is that we largely find the crappiest loot imaginable, yet the old arguments remain. Even at level 18, where you can find far better gear for 50s to 3g on the AH, people argue endlessly about need/greed. Better to just greed or pass at these levels, because frankly, I’d rather be gaining levels right now and worrying about gear progression when it really matters. Really I just want to get my mage up to 20 and learn blizzard. I’ve always wanted to try the frost nova / blizzard farming technique. Ever since Alachia went over it in fascinating detail on WoWcast.

Speaking of podcasts, I discovered a few more great ones: Analog Hole Gaming, SModcast and In The World podcast. Check ‘em out if you haven’t heard. They’re great. Analog Hole is made up of remnants from Gamecast Online and the Pod People, SModcast is Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (director/writer and exec producer of Clerks, Chasing Amy, Mallrats etc etc etc) and In The World is another WoW podcast with more Pod People. Analog Hole and SModcast are both pretty damn explicit, so be wary, all you Kindergarteners.

Not too much going on, otherwise. I’m reading the Empire of Ivory the new installment in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. It’s like reading a Jane Austen novel set in the Napoleonic Wars in a world where dragons are used as an aerial corps. Highly recommended.

Recenty read: Watchmen – Allen Moore (Fucking amazing), The Walking Dead – Robert Kirkman (Vol. 5 was so fucked up I’m not sure I want to continue), Hellboy: Strange Places (Damn, Mignola is amazing), Buffy – Season 8 (they really need to step up production on this, cause it rocks).

What the pod?!

Here it is, 8:15 on a Saturday morning, and I want to do some grinding/mining/skinning. I need some talkey to go along with it.
UNFORTUNATELY, Libsyn appears to be down. And with it go World of Warcast, Pottercast and any other cast I might not be caught up on yet.
rumble.rumble.rumble.rumble...

RTS education

So after watching some of the Warcraft: III tournament coverage of Blizzcon (fascinating, if only for the awkward banter between the commentators, one of whom had a German accent thicker than the jungles of STV), I started thinking a bit more about my RTS (Real Time Strategy) play style. Basically, it’s build, farm, build, farm, recruit army, arrange defenses, etc. I have no strategy for defeating the other player. My only successes in RTS have been in story or campaign modes in various games, and that’s usually only because the computer isn’t on the offensive.
But watching these Blizzcon players and hearing the commentators note certain strategies and weaknesses in the matches kinda made me want to learn more about online RTS matches.
I know these games are old as hell, and I’m a total latecomer to the PvP aspect of RTS, but the idea is very cool. It’s basically a mix of chess and Risk.
I have four RTS games that I play once in a while, just because I love the genre: the original Age of Empires, LoTR: Battle for Middle Earth, SW: Empire at War, and then Warcraft III (which I purchased mainly to experience some of the lore prior to World of Warcraft). I was never very good at any of them, but I love building armies and directing them through skirmishes and battles, even if I lose most of the time. (NOTE: If they ever were to make an RTS based on Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, I’d crap myself).
So last week I sat down and popped in BfME and set up an online account through EA. Played a few 4-way matches and got my ass handed to me many times over. Pulled out WC:III and arranged to play a few more online matches. As always, I’m choosing the “noobs only” sections or groups (which may just be snares set by Leets looking to up their rankings).
Basically, I really haven’t found my stride in RTS warfare. I’m aghast at how quickly the other players are able to gather resources and power through their upgrades and units. I suppose my instinct is to dig in, and get defenses up first. Maybe this comes from BfME, because all of the positions are pre-set, and you just have to find and activate them.
In terms of WC:III, I hang out and set up my perimeter, create workers, toss up defense towers, and then start building up the army. Then, about 15 minutes later another player will sweep in and just decimate my modest army and town. They’ll have a level 6 or 7 hero and a horde of armored units. It’s really no contest.
I know there’s a trick to this that I’m missing. I know it’s a matter of getting a hero out early and leveling it up by attacking creeps and gaining experience. But I’m really just straining to gather resources off the bat, and usually can’t afford enough units to support hero until at least 20 minutes into the game, if I want to stay on top of all my upgrades and buildings.
I suppose it’s just a matter of practice. It’s a side of RTS I never realized, and it’s fun to have a challenge outside of WoW, which really isn’t a challenge in the slightest (the way I’m playing these days), just good fun.

My Little Pinto

And things keep rolling on.

I quit the game in May, shortly after my previous post. Got fed up with my lack of decent groups, rep grinds and bags overflowing with mats for professions which seem to go nowhere. I think the tipping point came with one of the patches broke MoveAnything! and I lost all patience with re-organizing my UI.

So I quit. Even cancelled my subscription.

I spared not a thought for WoW for about a month and a half. Even put Warcraft III out of sight in my filing cabinet. No Blizzard memories for me.

Played a bunch of KoTOR: II, SW: Empire at War and LoTR: Battle for Middle Earth. Even dug out the original Age of Empires, the game that fueled my love for RTS.

Then, in July, EA released Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is a pretty damn amazing game. Great graphics and fun wand-work. The movement controls, though, were a little irritating. It would be much more interesting visually to set Harry on autorun and move the camera at will. Kinda like another game I used to play. A game about war, and the craft therein...

So I returned. Levelled Gnomcot to 29 in a few days. Then I got heartsick for my old Undead warlock, and played on him for about 2 minutes before logging out and rolling a gnew little Gnome warlock on Scarlet Crusade. Got her to 25 over the course of a weekend. Left her alone for a while.

Gnomcot dinged 40 on Wednesday, the same evening he hit exalted with Stormwind and nabbed himself a neat little Pinto.

So, yeah...I'm back in Azeroth, and life is good. For now.

Success

Short post today, with good news.
Gnomcot finally made it past the usual age of death for my alts. He hit 25 last night while grinding dark wolves in Duskwood for leather.
There's lots to like with this character. I dropped blacksmithing, as I quickly found that I can make more money with two gathering professions. I can use my profits from Auctions to buy better armor than I could have crafted myself with precious time wasted trying to find minerals for mats.
So the combination of mining and skinning has me living quite comfortably in reasonable greens for my level. I found Killmaim for what I thought to be a bargain at 10g around level 19 or so. It's been my DPS two-hand ever since. :)
I also managed to get into a very small casual RP guild. Haven't done too much with them as of yet, but I have been thinking about developing Gnomcot's RP backstory. Have to work out a few details, including where the fall of Gnomeregan falls on the Warcraft timeline, but I'll post that when I polish it up.

/Disappointed

It's hard to say where I'm at with WoW. I was having a hard time on my main, Mercot, because my current guild is - go figure - cliquish as hell. I have no ties to these people. I've grouped with them on occasion, and they seem OK.
But what do I look for in WoW? I look for friends. I look for welcome and conversation. I look for groups.
Yet there are none to be found. I used to LFG in guild chat. I'd get maybe one person and we'd spend the next hour or so spamming Trade or sitting in the LFG queue. Eventually, one of us would get tired of it and leave. Now I suppose I wait for groups to happen. Someone will announce in guild chat say they're looking for DPS or an extra hand in X dungeon. I say I'll go, but often I get no response or am told that my class isn't necessary.
I'm one of maybe 8-10 level 70 Warlocks in the guild. Most are demonology or destruction. So I respecced to Affliction. Hey, why not? I levelled on that tree until the Pre-BC patch, when the Felguard was released. I still love affliction. It’s a great tree. But it does not change my appeal to the guild when there are still other Warlocks to be used. Somehow, the Warlock has become an overplayed class. I don't know when it happened.
I don't see myself as necessary to the guild. I don't feel needed. Should I? Probably not. It's a game. It's a game that people will continue to play as long as there are others to play with. As of now, no one will play with me, as least while I'm a level 70 Undead Warlock in a guild full of Warlocks.
Why should I stay? Karazhan? Whatever. I finally got into a guild raid last weekend. I was pumped. You know how far we got? Um…we wiped on respawns three times before hitting Attumen. Then we wiped a few more times on the stupid Warhorse. Then we died several more times clearing out partygoers. We couldn't even take down two of Moroes' lackeys. Then one of the priests starts in on the MT for not waiting for mana before pulls and the tank up and DCs, saying that he's not focused enough to continue. Bah.
Sorry, I'm just really disappointed.
I was so bored on Sunday that I levelled my first aid from 125-335, cooking from 1-177, and fishing from 190-244. The only thing that keeps me returning to Mercot, I realized, is the cooldown on Shadowcloth.
I need a WoW reset. I need to find my love for the game again. I need a hero. I need…a Gnomcot.
Who? Ah, yes, that little Gnome Warrior I created for Metatalk. The one still collecting dust at level 17.
I had to force myself to play him at first. Get back into the Warrior mindset. So I went to Redridge and just started grinding on spiders. After a while I started to enjoy myself again. I think that I'll try something new with Gnomcot. Whenever possible, I'm going to interact through RP. To enhance this mindset, I turned off player and guild names. It's quite bizarre to see blank space over people's heads. You don't notice players at first, and the only way you'd know it was a player is the way they move, or if you were to mouse over them and get the tooltip info.
I pushed Gnomcot to 18 last night. He's now officially my highest Alliance character ever. Now I need to break through the next wall: level 23, or the highest level alt I've ever had. It was a while ago; a Tauren Druid. I ended up deleting him after not playing him for 6 months. Now I've just got to make Gnomcot my game from now on. Screw level 70, or at least the level 70 experience that I was having.

The Interesting Thing About Being A Warlock

...is your sense of character. Is the class inherently evil?
A Warlock's primary elements are shadow and flame...sort of, well, Hellish, wouldn't you say?
They can summon, enslave, banish and even detect demons. Their connection with the netherworld is somewhat suspect. And without doubt, they are the tails to the Paladin heads.
I gotta say, the darkness is what drew me to the class. Flipping through the WoW manual when I first bought the game, I knew that I wanted two things: 1. To make a Horde character, and 2. To make a caster (or some class that used magic). An acquaintance of mine already had a shaman, and I didn't want to copycat, so I was left with Druids, Priests, Mages or Warlocks. So I rolled a Lock because it was a dark magic class, and because I could be Undead. Because really, what's better than a dark magic caster? That's right, a ZOMBIE dark magic caster.
And when I first started, I was like "Oh, hey, he gets some pets to follow him around. That's cool."
SO, 69 levels later, I find myself putting the nature of the class and its spells in perspective.
Not only are we shadowy, fire-flaming summoners of demons, but one of our most basic spells is actually quite insidious. And I rarely even think about it. The majority of Warlock spells require the use of a single reagent: a soul shard. Your healthstones, soulstones, spellstones, firestones, shadowburn, soulfire, and all demons save the imp require a soul shard to cast.
This reagent can't be bought from any vendor. It requires a simple spell to be cast in the final few moments of a victim's (i.e. mob not more than 7 levels below you) life. You cast Drain Soul, a channeled spell which refines the soul of the mob into a single soul shard. Pretty simple.
Anyway, I was doing Black Morass last night, and it wasn't going well. We were trying it with a 70 Rogue, 70 Priest, myself, 68 Paladin and a 68 Shaman. We never got past the first big boss, and kept wiping. I mentioned in passing that I was running low on soul shards, so we went on an extended clearing run to take out the outer trash mobs. The priest was asking me about the shards, and how many I usually started a run with. I explained that I start with probably 30-40 shards, or about 10-20 above my soulbag limit. This gives me the freedom to use as many soul shards as I want without fear of limiting my ability to cast soulwells or soulstones. I then explained that I usually just head to the little Windyreed Village just west of Aldor Rise and clear it out completely in two or three runs. I get as many shards as I need, and am set for an evening of instances if necessary. The priest then mentioned that that was a little creepy, actually. And I had to agree.
I go out and slaughter an entire village almost daily to feed my soul shard need. Now if that doesn't add to the darkness of a Warlock, then I don't know what does.
On a lighter note, those repeated attempts at Black Morass, combined with a few more successful runs of Old Hillsbrad, got me to revered with Keepers of Time, so I picked up my Continuum Blade, which allows me to finally make use of some of the offhand items I've picked up lately. Never been a mainhand-offhand person. Usually just like my staves and wands. But this sword is pretty damn cool :)
Of course, it sadly takes away from the ungodly crit bonus The Bringer of Death afforded me, but it'll make for a new look while I'm leveling enchanting for the +spell damage I hope to learn at some point. It's weird to find myself stockpiling different armor for different occasions now. I have some +crit items, some set items I won't use until I get more for the bonuses, and a few other odds and ends. Never been in a position to have different sets of armor. Welcome to the endgame, I suppose.

Why I love the Horde (QUEST SPOILERS)

Seriously. This was just cool.
The other night I finished up the questline offered by Greatmother Geyah, matriarch of the orcs in Garadar, Nagrand. This questline only becomes available to you after you've completed ALL of the quests in Nagrand, even those not associated with Garadar. I heard about it a while ago, and I'd been itching to start it, just to see the final part. It's a lore thing. Essentially, you are called to the Greatmother because she sees the hesitation in leadership by Garrosh Hellscream, the de facto warchief of the Garadar. (By the way, Geyah was mate to Garad, who let the Frostwolf clan before the first war and the downfall of the Orcs and Dranei.)
The Greatmother starts you on a questline that goes through something like 11 or 12 parts. Most of it is soloable, though at the mid-point you're directed to the Auchenai Crypts. Upon completion of all the quests in the chain, you're directed back to the Greatmother, who tells you the story of her son, Durotan, who died long ago on another world. She's basically crying at this point, and you're given the chance to tell her that you know of Durotan, that he was a great and noble leader, and that his son Thrall, is your warchief and the noble leader of your people back home in Azeroth. She gives you the quest to contact Thrall, and Thrall, upon hearing this, tells you that he will travel at once to Outland to meet his grandmother for the very first time.
It's soooo cool to experience this stuff. I always thought the origins of the Horde were fascinating, but to see this stuff in a quest that furthers the story in the Burning Crusade, and on top of that to be a part of it yourself, was amazing.
Garadar's honor guard lines up to welcome Thrall as he comes into the village, and he comes in and meets Garrosh. He tells Garrosh that his father, Grom Hellscream, was a great warrior. He even has a hologram thing that displays the epic battle with Mannoroth the Destructor, in which Grom sacrificed himself for the Horde. In all, it gives Garrosh the sense of identity he needs to lead his people, and Thrall the closure in finally being able to connect with his long-lost family. Killer quest.
I ALSO DID A BUNCH OF QUESTS in Netherstorm. Got neutral with the Netherwing, along with a sweet offhand item. So I'll now have access to that questline wherein you can grind for the Netherdrake mount. OH WAIT. No I won't. Apparently you have to have the epic flying mount skill in order to even access those quests after the 2.1 patch. Ugh. Ridiculous.
Also, this picture illustrates why I love being a Warlock :)

The Uncute Pugs

Started this weekend on Gnomcot, thinking I'd bring him up a bit in level, but then I got distracted by the little Night Elf I moved over to that server to consolidate my Alliance characters. Should be easier having an alchemist over there to aid Gnomcot in his as-yet potion-free travels.
Got my first taste of Alliance grouping and instances the other day. I was fighting (and often dying) in near the southern village in Westfall when I got an invite to Deadmines. I agreed to be the offtank. We had a 20 NE Warrior, a 16 NE Priest, a 16 Gnome Mage and a 15 Human Rogue. We wiped once on the elite ogre near the first set of doors. Then the group just up and disbanded.
Gee, thanks.
As much as I enjoy the lower levels, I'm really not looking forward to pre-40 grouping. Most are still learning their class, but I've found that there are a lot of situations where one member will yell at another member for not playing correctly, and then explain how their main is of that class, so they obviously know how to do it. I don't fancy one player trying to 5-box deadmines by telling the other four members how to play their respective classes. I got that crap from the other Warrior, who was also telling the Mage and the Priest how to play.
People have no patience for leveling the third or fourth time around. They've gotten to 60 or 70, and they know what the endgame holds for them, be it in PvE or PvP. They've got those goals, so they have their next trek to 60 all planned out. All they need to do is race to 58 and enter Outland so they can start the green machine with the multitude of quests and items.
The problem with this is that no one wants to go through that path at the correct pace. People see their friends or guildmates at level 70, and assume they can be powerleveled upward. Think about it. How many people actually find a group for Ragefire Chasm these days? I mean a 5-man crew of levels 10-16 that takes the time to play through that dungeon at the appropriate difficulty? No many, I'd wager. They stand around in Orgimmar begging higher levels to power them through it. Some even pay gold, which is ridiculous.
The social aspect of this game is grouping with people of similar interests...in this case, completing the quests in RFC or Stockades or Deadmines or Blackfathom Deeps. It's proportionally as hard for a level 16 crew to take down Van Cleef as it is for a level 70 crew to down Murmur. But those level 16s either can't find a good group, can't work together, or won't take the time to try and find a group, instead opting to beg a 60-70 player to race them through in 15 minutes.
It's not a rant; it's an observation, and I think it's a more visible problem now that the Burning Crusade has arrived. There are now two general factions within the World of Warcraft: those who are in Outland and those who are not. Those who have not yet gone through the portal are feeling left out. The old world is empty. Zul'gurub, Molten Core, Ahn'Qiraj and all that other stuff is largely a casual game now. The real fun seems to be in Outland, so everyone left in Azeroth either must solo, deal with impatient PUGs or beg for powerleveling, because they believe that life begins when you roll through the Dark Portal.
Sure it does, but there's a whole lotta fun to be had before then.

Metatalk ftw

Wow 4 Life baby.

OK, So Maybe It's Not All Bad...

Heh, so yeah, maybe I will roll with Mercot a little more often than I thought.
Had a really fun Caverns of Time: Durnholde run tonight. I was only on for a minute to check an Auction item, and then I saw the call for one more party member in guild chat. Figured what the hell, I like that instance...
Start was a tad rough; we wiped twice before we even entered castle grounds. Partly because the warrior couldn't taunt the adds quickly enough, and partly due to a respawn bug. But we sighed and rezzed and got it together. Worked out very smoothly from there on out. :)
Very nearly revered with Keepers of Time now. And I always like seeing my human form...can't tell from this screenie, but I've got a sweet baldy mullet.

OK, back to Gnomcot. Onward to Westfall. And when I found a certain little farm with certain winged buzzards strutting around, I of course had to try it. God, if I never hear a Gnome do the chicken dance again, it'll be far too soon. But it was totally worth it.

The Wall Approacheth

So I started Gnomcot last week in anticipation of the Metatalk discussion this Thursday. I picked him because 1. Though my Horde roots have been sown in utter loathing of the tiny little buggers, I do secretly enjoy the quirkiness of the Gnome race, and 2. Warriors are the single class I have yet to even read about.
I know that Warlocks live to keep them honest in terms of aggro management, but that's about it.
So it's been interesting to play around with the class over the last few days.
Looking past his squeaky emotes and dandy demeanor, the little Gnome is quickly becoming a favored character among my alts. At level 10, he's an accomplished Apprentice Miner and Blacksmith, with the full Copper set. Yeah, that's right. COPPER, baby. Defias scum, ye have been warned.
But he's entering the danger zone. Statistically, most of my alts never live past level 17. Bottom line, I've never had as much fun with a character as I have with my Warlock. Until now.
I love that I can charge into a group of 3-5 mobs, rock the Thunderclap, Rend, and Heroic strike until either they're dead or I run like a girly-Gnome until I'm out of combat. I love the "chink!" sound mobs make when they're hitting my COPPER, baby armor. I don't have to pile up all that leather and / or mail in my bags...I can freakin' wear it now. Innumerable weapon proficiencies, even if they have to be trained.
I don't know...maybe it's just something new. Maybe I'm tired of the Warlock for a change. All I know is that I'm liking the Warrior, enjoying the Alliance's change of pace, and even getting in on a little RP once in a while. It's weird, but RP to me feels like when you used to "play pretend" as we called it when we were kids. You've got nothing but your imagination, and you're making it all up as you go along. Very interesting, the stuff that I've seen so far. And that's only at the tiny inn in Goldshire.
ON THE HORDE TIP, I finally hit 350 in tailoring with Mercot, and was forced to choose between the Shadoweave, Spellfire and...well, whatever the healing thread is for the last 25 tics of the profession. I've seen a lot of Warlocks rocking the Frozen Shadoweave set, but for some reason it never appealed to me. It wasn't even an aesthetic thing. The name just seemed stupid, and the stats aren't that great, either. Why does a Warlock need a frost spell boost? Of course it made sense when found the trainers in Lower City. The Frozen Shadoweave and Spellfire sets are interchangeable between Mages and Warlocks. Shadoweave carries +Frost and Shadow boosts, while Spellfire carries +Fire and Arcane. Just so happens that a Mage can probably make better use of either.
So I chose Spellfire. Why? 'Cause fire is cool, and because of all the +crit bonuses. I've heard it said that Demonology Locks should be more concerned with baseline damage than with chance to crit, but damnit, I like seeing that percentage go up. :)
And I'm more Destruction than Affliction, so hey, why not? In any case, I don't think I'll be on with Mercot for more than the occasional skill session for a while.

It's a working title...

...and I only started it to be able to post on other blogs. Gets around the troublesome Anonymous filter.
Not sure if I'll keep up the posts. None of my other blogs have endured over the years. I think the single most successful was my Myspace blog. But...well we all know how that ended up. Adspace. Spamspace.
So...a little bit about me.
RL, I'm a 25-year-old years old, have a great girlfriend, two cats and a reasonably fulfilling range of interests spanning from TVonDVD to comics to books to select current TV shows to film(EDIT: 2008 ) . And of course that all-encompassing time-suck, the Internet.
OL, I'm Mercot, a level 70 Undead Warlock in the World of Warcraft.
I first saw WoW in February of 2006, over the shoulder of a friend's brother. I was like, "THAT'S Warcraft?!" Previously, I had known Warcraft as a weird little RTS game that seemed far inferior to my preferred Age of Empires 1 or 2. I never had a real computer of my own, or at least one that could barely run more than AoE 2, so I pretty much consoled my way through video games up through last year. But when I saw WoW, I was amazed at the level of detail in the gameplay. Particularly the art style. But I was poor, and all I had was a 4-year old Dell Inspiron laptop.
I didn't land a decent job until a few months later. Weighed the stats of an Xbox 360 versus the more expensive (and more versatile) game-worthy PC, and ended up buying a custom-built box off Craigslist.
Bought the game, installed it and, of course, got hooked. Took me a month to get to level 15 or 16. :)
Didn't hit 60 until December 26, 2006, and then I dinged 70 sometime in early Feb 2007.
So basically, this is my first real "computer game" after roughly 6 or 7 years of being out of the PC loop. My first RPG was Kotor (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) on the Xbox, so I at least had an idea of how an RPG played.
But I can't describe how massive WoW first seemed to me in terms of scope, detail, design, gameplay...and the list goes on. Most of it was basic MMO stuff - the lingo, the mechanics and the pace. But having only played on a console previously, I had to learn how to play an MMORPG in addition to the actual game, World of Warcraft.
I'm sure this story is relatable for millions of other players.
So...today. I'm still learning. I feel like I've mastered my Warlock and the PvE game style. I've done as much 5-man and solo content as my play schedule allows. My non-gamer girlfriend tolerates roughly 3-4 nights per week, on which I usually focus solely on WoW.
For me, WoW is, to quote the poor dude on Tyra Banks's talk show, an escape. But it's designed that way. It's another world, largely separate from our own. I've explained it to non-gamers as a hobby, like fine-tuning a classic car. Except that car is your character, and you can create other cars for other capacities and build them up as well.
Not sure if that works as an analogy.
Anyway, like I said, I started this blog as a way to post on Metatalk, WoWcast.net or other Blogger sites if I wanted. Screens and other posts may follow, but I'm making no promises.
Also, in anticipation of the Metatalk discussion on April 12, 2007, I created a Gnome Warrior on the Scarlet Crusade server. His name is Gnomcot. I leveled him to 7 and parked him in the Stormwind Park.
Also got a chance to observe to real RP in Elwyn and the Stormwind square. Very interesting stuff. It was also my first real exposure to the Alliance from the other side of the faction tracks. Night elves (at least the RPers that I encountered) are kind of jerkish.
But that could have just been their character. :)