Thursday, January 15, 2009
No touching
Except for i.
Sigh…iJokes were old what, like 50 years ago now?
So help me, I’m feeble-minded. Yes, I got my 16-gigabyte iPod Touch this week, and it’s lovely. Made a quick haul video for it, and have been trying to upload it to YouTube for the past two days without success. Not sure what the deal is; it’s only 1.07gb. I do wish YouTube had a better upload status bar. If it’s not up by the time I get home this evening, I may have to check out some other programs, like Vimeo or something.
Not that it’s a great video, but you know – I put in the effort and I may as well toss it out there.
Only had an hour or so the first night to download the latest version of iTunes (/shudder) and upload 7 or 8 albums. I also put Dr. Horrible on there to check out the video capabilities. Very cool stuff.
The Wi-Fi is cool, but I can never seem to access the web via “Free Public Wi-Fi” in the network browser. Safari can never connect to that type of server for some reason. I don’t really understand how all that works anyway. I know that my city supposedly has a free Wi-Fi program operational to at least some degree, but I haven’t been able to get anything outside of limited (and unlocked) residential networks in my neighborhood or downtown. It is highly amusing to check out everyone’s network names, however.
And then last night I updated the iPod for version 2.2, which includes the App store. Gotta say – not too impressed with the App or games selection, but I didn’t browse for very long.
I did, however, purchase both the soundtrack to Wrath of the Lich King and Video Games Live off iTunes. Both of them are extremely good.
Another quick 10-man raid on Archavon last night. Everyone was on their game and we only wiped once. My DPS was higher than before, certainly, since I’m getting better at the SV play style each day.
As far as damage meters go, I’m honestly trying to think less about them. Unless I’m at the bottom of the charts, I’m not really going to worry about it. Admittedly, this is due in part to the great theory-crafting discussion on the latest episode of Spouse Aggro. The hosts (one of whom, I should add, is actually my guild leader) debate the merits of living by the numbers in gaming these days. They make the excellent point that with WoW’s raiding circuit being more accessible to casual players than ever before, regular folks (like me) are paying MUCH more attention to stats, DPS, gems, enchants, etc., just like the players at high raiding levels in previous incarnations of WoW.
It’s certainly been true for me since hitting 80. Stepping back for a moment, I can say that I’ve been loving Wrath, but I’ve become increasingly obsessed with improving my gear and stats, to the point of spending easily over 100 gold to balance or boost a particular rating by 10 or 12 points. Now granted, I certainly believe that those 10 or 12 points can make all the difference in some cases. I would prefer to be hit-capped and haste-capped. I would prefer to have ungodly agility and ranged AP. But it really was becoming like an addiction on top of the overall WoW obsession.
So I figure, why spend that gold? I certainly have other things I want to accomplish. I have an extremely expensive long-term goal that I want to complete in the next few months. And as we’re headed into Naxxramas anyway next week, why drop coin on some minor stat differences if there’s the possibility I could get another gear upgrade? I’d just have to spend MORE on those new gems or enchants anyway.
It’s also not just about me, and I need to keep that in mind. The raid is not going to fail based on my character’s haste being off by 4%. It’s certainly true that /trade is full heroic pugs looking for players with very specific numbers for defense, DPS and heals, and they do exclude based on those numbers.
But I’ve seen my damage numbers vary by several hundred points depending on so many more variables than my own base stats. Your group makeup, the types of mobs, the fights, the number of wipes, etc. all affect your performance if you measure it by Recount alone.
In the end, it’s a game. It’s a game that takes skill and knowledge to play well, but it is a game. Stops being fun if you start seeing it as numbers rather than a beautifully designed world of escapism.
Sigh…iJokes were old what, like 50 years ago now?
So help me, I’m feeble-minded. Yes, I got my 16-gigabyte iPod Touch this week, and it’s lovely. Made a quick haul video for it, and have been trying to upload it to YouTube for the past two days without success. Not sure what the deal is; it’s only 1.07gb. I do wish YouTube had a better upload status bar. If it’s not up by the time I get home this evening, I may have to check out some other programs, like Vimeo or something.
Not that it’s a great video, but you know – I put in the effort and I may as well toss it out there.
Only had an hour or so the first night to download the latest version of iTunes (/shudder) and upload 7 or 8 albums. I also put Dr. Horrible on there to check out the video capabilities. Very cool stuff.
The Wi-Fi is cool, but I can never seem to access the web via “Free Public Wi-Fi” in the network browser. Safari can never connect to that type of server for some reason. I don’t really understand how all that works anyway. I know that my city supposedly has a free Wi-Fi program operational to at least some degree, but I haven’t been able to get anything outside of limited (and unlocked) residential networks in my neighborhood or downtown. It is highly amusing to check out everyone’s network names, however.
And then last night I updated the iPod for version 2.2, which includes the App store. Gotta say – not too impressed with the App or games selection, but I didn’t browse for very long.
I did, however, purchase both the soundtrack to Wrath of the Lich King and Video Games Live off iTunes. Both of them are extremely good.
Another quick 10-man raid on Archavon last night. Everyone was on their game and we only wiped once. My DPS was higher than before, certainly, since I’m getting better at the SV play style each day.
As far as damage meters go, I’m honestly trying to think less about them. Unless I’m at the bottom of the charts, I’m not really going to worry about it. Admittedly, this is due in part to the great theory-crafting discussion on the latest episode of Spouse Aggro. The hosts (one of whom, I should add, is actually my guild leader) debate the merits of living by the numbers in gaming these days. They make the excellent point that with WoW’s raiding circuit being more accessible to casual players than ever before, regular folks (like me) are paying MUCH more attention to stats, DPS, gems, enchants, etc., just like the players at high raiding levels in previous incarnations of WoW.
It’s certainly been true for me since hitting 80. Stepping back for a moment, I can say that I’ve been loving Wrath, but I’ve become increasingly obsessed with improving my gear and stats, to the point of spending easily over 100 gold to balance or boost a particular rating by 10 or 12 points. Now granted, I certainly believe that those 10 or 12 points can make all the difference in some cases. I would prefer to be hit-capped and haste-capped. I would prefer to have ungodly agility and ranged AP. But it really was becoming like an addiction on top of the overall WoW obsession.
So I figure, why spend that gold? I certainly have other things I want to accomplish. I have an extremely expensive long-term goal that I want to complete in the next few months. And as we’re headed into Naxxramas anyway next week, why drop coin on some minor stat differences if there’s the possibility I could get another gear upgrade? I’d just have to spend MORE on those new gems or enchants anyway.
It’s also not just about me, and I need to keep that in mind. The raid is not going to fail based on my character’s haste being off by 4%. It’s certainly true that /trade is full heroic pugs looking for players with very specific numbers for defense, DPS and heals, and they do exclude based on those numbers.
But I’ve seen my damage numbers vary by several hundred points depending on so many more variables than my own base stats. Your group makeup, the types of mobs, the fights, the number of wipes, etc. all affect your performance if you measure it by Recount alone.
In the end, it’s a game. It’s a game that takes skill and knowledge to play well, but it is a game. Stops being fun if you start seeing it as numbers rather than a beautifully designed world of escapism.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
24 players plus one hole of bung…
Equals raid liquidation. Pugwise.
Last night a few of guildies lent their vast expertise to a 25-man Vault of Archavon raid in Wintergrasp. It was exciting, far more so than our modest 10-man last week. That’s not to discount the 10-mans – it’s just really fun to see so many players running around at once, all focused more or less on the same goal.
Of course, as is always the case, a few rotten dicks spoiled the whole bunch. A blowhard deathknight hopped about after each wipe, ragging on the DPS (which was absolutely fine, our guildie warlock was 3rd for overall damage) and critiquing the MT (our MT) for not taunting fast enough after each toss. This from a guy who ostensibly was the OT. After three wipes, it was over. The raid disintegrated. For the better, I’m sure.
My hunter was 11th or 15th in overall damage, and only boasted 1400 DPS for the overall raid time. It’s surprising how difficult it was for me, seeing that. I’m not a vain person, but I measure my skill and effort by how much damage I’m doing. So I don’t need to be at the top, but as a hunter I felt shamed that I was more toward the lower middle of the pack, only a few notches above the tanks.
But there’s a reason. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
I switched to Survival. Yes, I know SV is teh haute right now, with all the discussion over at BRK and the coming BM nerf, but I really was planning this for a while. I just didn’t know how. And it’s funny, I respecced SV last week without having listened to the new BRK podcast with Lienna, and then did a fine-tune respec. Then I listened to the podcast, took a few absent minded notes, and then went home and respecced again. Embarrasingly, the point spread I chose was only one point off from the one BRK and Lienna came up with. I’m not a copycat, I swears. But hey, if it works, roll with it.
My concern however is, that it may not be working for me. I know we’ll have to wait until patch 3.0.8 for the Explosive Shot buff, but I’m starting to get seriously concerned about my DPS in the meantime. It always varied, depending on my group makeup and the instances I’m ran, but I felt like 1800-2100 DPS was my norm as a BM hunter. I usually ran with my wolf.
Now, with my 3/17/51 SV build, I’m usually around 500-600 lower DPS. Granted, I’m still working out the kinks. I’ve switched a lot of my AP and Hit gems out for Haste / Agi. I replaced my +40 crit scope to the one with +40 ranged haste. My haste rating is still only half of what it should be. All of that, by the way – expensive as fucking hell. I need to stop replacing gems and enchants, it’s becoming like a surgical addiction.
The thing is, despite my low DPS, and thus low MMO character self-esteem, I really enjoy SV. Beast Mastery was fun for the exotic pets and the ragin’ wrath, but in retrospect it was just a matter of spamming a few buttons over and over and popping a few cooldowns.
Survival, on the other hand, is about timing and reflexes. With my Glyph of Immolation Trap, Lock’n’Load and Noxious Stings, I’ve got a damage boost to a DoT trap, plus a 100% change to proc 2 free Explosive Shots AND additional damage from all shots based on my ticking Sting. And that’s just on one pull.
After the 25-man dissipated last night, guildies split into groups and we hit up heroic Utgarde Keep. I took my wolf for furious howl (+100 AP) and had our prot pally give me Blessing of Kings, since Might overrides the howl. I think I have enough AP, so I wanted more stats.
On an average pull, I would toss out a Freezing Arrow and Wyvern Sting, Cc’ing two mobs. Then I would focus on the main target and get him down in time for my trap cooldown to pass and toss an Immolation Trap on the second mob, proccing Lock’n’Load. One free shot to the second target, and another to the Wyvern Sting mob.
Or I would just run right in with the pally and drop an Immolation Trap at the mob’s feet and back up as quickly as possible while starting the Serpent Sting and Explosive Shot rotations. I also have my tracking icons on the action bar now, to take advantage of the damage bonus to whatever type of mobs I’m tracking. So often in fights last night I was constantly switching between humanoid, undead and dragonkin, depending on which mob was up.
This, compared with BM’s Serpent Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Serp, Beastial Wrath….snooze.
I ended the UK run with about 1670 DPS. Not bad, I guess. There’s massive room for improvement though.
On another note, I bought an iPod Touch! Here's hoping it arrives soon. I'm actually planning to make a "haul" video for it, since some guildies asked for pics. Should be interesting. My computer camera is not awesome.
Last night a few of guildies lent their vast expertise to a 25-man Vault of Archavon raid in Wintergrasp. It was exciting, far more so than our modest 10-man last week. That’s not to discount the 10-mans – it’s just really fun to see so many players running around at once, all focused more or less on the same goal.
Of course, as is always the case, a few rotten dicks spoiled the whole bunch. A blowhard deathknight hopped about after each wipe, ragging on the DPS (which was absolutely fine, our guildie warlock was 3rd for overall damage) and critiquing the MT (our MT) for not taunting fast enough after each toss. This from a guy who ostensibly was the OT. After three wipes, it was over. The raid disintegrated. For the better, I’m sure.
My hunter was 11th or 15th in overall damage, and only boasted 1400 DPS for the overall raid time. It’s surprising how difficult it was for me, seeing that. I’m not a vain person, but I measure my skill and effort by how much damage I’m doing. So I don’t need to be at the top, but as a hunter I felt shamed that I was more toward the lower middle of the pack, only a few notches above the tanks.
But there’s a reason. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
I switched to Survival. Yes, I know SV is teh haute right now, with all the discussion over at BRK and the coming BM nerf, but I really was planning this for a while. I just didn’t know how. And it’s funny, I respecced SV last week without having listened to the new BRK podcast with Lienna, and then did a fine-tune respec. Then I listened to the podcast, took a few absent minded notes, and then went home and respecced again. Embarrasingly, the point spread I chose was only one point off from the one BRK and Lienna came up with. I’m not a copycat, I swears. But hey, if it works, roll with it.
My concern however is, that it may not be working for me. I know we’ll have to wait until patch 3.0.8 for the Explosive Shot buff, but I’m starting to get seriously concerned about my DPS in the meantime. It always varied, depending on my group makeup and the instances I’m ran, but I felt like 1800-2100 DPS was my norm as a BM hunter. I usually ran with my wolf.
Now, with my 3/17/51 SV build, I’m usually around 500-600 lower DPS. Granted, I’m still working out the kinks. I’ve switched a lot of my AP and Hit gems out for Haste / Agi. I replaced my +40 crit scope to the one with +40 ranged haste. My haste rating is still only half of what it should be. All of that, by the way – expensive as fucking hell. I need to stop replacing gems and enchants, it’s becoming like a surgical addiction.
The thing is, despite my low DPS, and thus low MMO character self-esteem, I really enjoy SV. Beast Mastery was fun for the exotic pets and the ragin’ wrath, but in retrospect it was just a matter of spamming a few buttons over and over and popping a few cooldowns.
Survival, on the other hand, is about timing and reflexes. With my Glyph of Immolation Trap, Lock’n’Load and Noxious Stings, I’ve got a damage boost to a DoT trap, plus a 100% change to proc 2 free Explosive Shots AND additional damage from all shots based on my ticking Sting. And that’s just on one pull.
After the 25-man dissipated last night, guildies split into groups and we hit up heroic Utgarde Keep. I took my wolf for furious howl (+100 AP) and had our prot pally give me Blessing of Kings, since Might overrides the howl. I think I have enough AP, so I wanted more stats.
On an average pull, I would toss out a Freezing Arrow and Wyvern Sting, Cc’ing two mobs. Then I would focus on the main target and get him down in time for my trap cooldown to pass and toss an Immolation Trap on the second mob, proccing Lock’n’Load. One free shot to the second target, and another to the Wyvern Sting mob.
Or I would just run right in with the pally and drop an Immolation Trap at the mob’s feet and back up as quickly as possible while starting the Serpent Sting and Explosive Shot rotations. I also have my tracking icons on the action bar now, to take advantage of the damage bonus to whatever type of mobs I’m tracking. So often in fights last night I was constantly switching between humanoid, undead and dragonkin, depending on which mob was up.
This, compared with BM’s Serpent Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Serp, Beastial Wrath….snooze.
I ended the UK run with about 1670 DPS. Not bad, I guess. There’s massive room for improvement though.
On another note, I bought an iPod Touch! Here's hoping it arrives soon. I'm actually planning to make a "haul" video for it, since some guildies asked for pics. Should be interesting. My computer camera is not awesome.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
First raid, or at least first gathering of 10 people ostensibly working for a common goal...
Logged on last night just in time for a spontaneous Archavon 10-man in Wintergrasp.
It was pretty awesome, seeing as how this was our first guild raid at level 80. There’ve been some semantics over whether Vault is actually a raid, seeing as how it’s made up of like 5 trash mobs and one boss, but I’m of the mind that if you have to coordinate more than 5 people in a raid group and concentrate on a unique boss that takes more than a few minutes to defeat, then it’s a raid.
A pretty basic and easy raid, but a raid nonetheless. I liked the falling rocks and the stacks of damage we took when Archavon shot out the stone spikes. We’ll return for the 25-man version once we get enough 80s, but for now that’s difficult to plan since access is dependant on whether we hold zone.
Following that, we split into two groups and hit heroic Nexus for some easy emblems. My DPS remains among the highest in the guild these days, but I’m starting to get nervous about the coming Beast Master nerf. Along that line of thought, I was thinking yesterday about experimenting with Marksman or Survivalist specs, and lo and behold, today we get a nice discussion of some (apparently flawed) experimentation with the Survivalist tree over at Big Red Kitty. Good food for thought.
And finally, my Xbox 360 finally came home yesterday! The invoice didn’t provide an explanation of what went wrong or how they fixed it, just a brief, “Here’s your system. Sorry about that. Here’s a free month of Live.” Who knows how long the fix will last?
It was funny, too, since I was in the middle of Archavon when the UPS guy showed up. I’ve been in full bachelor pad mode while the girlfriend is busy, so I’ve got my desk parked in front of my 37” LCD TV, and the computer hooked up to it. WoW looks gorgeous, and the UPS guy looked over my shoulder actually said, “Wow, I wish I could play World of Warcraft on a TV like that.” I think I mumbled something like, “Yeah, it’s pretty sweet,” and signed his electronic pad.
I wish I’d been more congenial, seeing as how it was an opportunity to meet a random WoW player in RL, but it was in the middle of my hallway, and I felt self-conscious about my apartment manager’s thin door being three feet away. Plus, the guy was probably busy and I was in the middle of a raid. Still, funny how it happened.
So after the raid and heroic last night, I logged off and fired up the White Beast. Had to download a few updates, reconfigure my avatar and reset my account with Live, but on the whole my 360 appears to be in working order. Popped in Gears 2 and oh my fucking god, what a beautiful game. Everything is a massive step forward from what was already the best action shooter I’d ever played (and yes I rate the first Gears over CoD4). The dialogue, the training, the opening sequence, the spectacular fucking visuals. GAAAH! Love it. Started on hardcore mode, and got to the 3rd part of what I assume is chapter one (if this installment follows the same storytelling style as the last) before I died. It was bitch death, too, seeing as how I tried to chainsaw a locust and the gun wouldn’t engage fast enough. Hope to be playing a lot more of it in between WoW heroics and preparing for our first Naxxramas run in two weeks.
Other games I need to get my hands on: Left 4 Dead, possibly the 360 version of Fallout 3, and LoTR: Conquest.
Penny Arcade did not seem impressed by Conquest, and called Pandemic’s previous Star Wars: Battlefront series “pierced tins of rotting meat, swollen with the byproducts of their putrefaction.” Harsh. I loved ‘em to death. But then, I’m a mostly die-hard Star Wars fan who enjoyed The Force Unleashed. Many people also didn’t like that game. I’m an apologist for many things Star Wars. I will not, however, back the new “Clone Wars” TV show. There’s some rotting meat for ya.
It was pretty awesome, seeing as how this was our first guild raid at level 80. There’ve been some semantics over whether Vault is actually a raid, seeing as how it’s made up of like 5 trash mobs and one boss, but I’m of the mind that if you have to coordinate more than 5 people in a raid group and concentrate on a unique boss that takes more than a few minutes to defeat, then it’s a raid.
A pretty basic and easy raid, but a raid nonetheless. I liked the falling rocks and the stacks of damage we took when Archavon shot out the stone spikes. We’ll return for the 25-man version once we get enough 80s, but for now that’s difficult to plan since access is dependant on whether we hold zone.
Following that, we split into two groups and hit heroic Nexus for some easy emblems. My DPS remains among the highest in the guild these days, but I’m starting to get nervous about the coming Beast Master nerf. Along that line of thought, I was thinking yesterday about experimenting with Marksman or Survivalist specs, and lo and behold, today we get a nice discussion of some (apparently flawed) experimentation with the Survivalist tree over at Big Red Kitty. Good food for thought.
And finally, my Xbox 360 finally came home yesterday! The invoice didn’t provide an explanation of what went wrong or how they fixed it, just a brief, “Here’s your system. Sorry about that. Here’s a free month of Live.” Who knows how long the fix will last?
It was funny, too, since I was in the middle of Archavon when the UPS guy showed up. I’ve been in full bachelor pad mode while the girlfriend is busy, so I’ve got my desk parked in front of my 37” LCD TV, and the computer hooked up to it. WoW looks gorgeous, and the UPS guy looked over my shoulder actually said, “Wow, I wish I could play World of Warcraft on a TV like that.” I think I mumbled something like, “Yeah, it’s pretty sweet,” and signed his electronic pad.
I wish I’d been more congenial, seeing as how it was an opportunity to meet a random WoW player in RL, but it was in the middle of my hallway, and I felt self-conscious about my apartment manager’s thin door being three feet away. Plus, the guy was probably busy and I was in the middle of a raid. Still, funny how it happened.
So after the raid and heroic last night, I logged off and fired up the White Beast. Had to download a few updates, reconfigure my avatar and reset my account with Live, but on the whole my 360 appears to be in working order. Popped in Gears 2 and oh my fucking god, what a beautiful game. Everything is a massive step forward from what was already the best action shooter I’d ever played (and yes I rate the first Gears over CoD4). The dialogue, the training, the opening sequence, the spectacular fucking visuals. GAAAH! Love it. Started on hardcore mode, and got to the 3rd part of what I assume is chapter one (if this installment follows the same storytelling style as the last) before I died. It was bitch death, too, seeing as how I tried to chainsaw a locust and the gun wouldn’t engage fast enough. Hope to be playing a lot more of it in between WoW heroics and preparing for our first Naxxramas run in two weeks.
Other games I need to get my hands on: Left 4 Dead, possibly the 360 version of Fallout 3, and LoTR: Conquest.
Penny Arcade did not seem impressed by Conquest, and called Pandemic’s previous Star Wars: Battlefront series “pierced tins of rotting meat, swollen with the byproducts of their putrefaction.” Harsh. I loved ‘em to death. But then, I’m a mostly die-hard Star Wars fan who enjoyed The Force Unleashed. Many people also didn’t like that game. I’m an apologist for many things Star Wars. I will not, however, back the new “Clone Wars” TV show. There’s some rotting meat for ya.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Happeh too thousanine!
Another month of no posts.
Granted, it was a fairly busy month on and offline.
Hit 80 a few days after that last update. Immediately started pugging heroics and learning boss fights. I did my due diligence, saved my badges, upgraded gear, gems and enchants, wore my tabards and listened to BRK podcasts like a dedicated hunter should.
A month, later, Be.Imba says I’m geared for Eye of Eternity, 25-man. I highly doubt its accuracy in that claim, but it’s a nice thought. Haven’t started Naxx yet with my guild. Many folks are still taking their time getting up to 80. Interesting how an expansion throws everything out of whack for a while. Guildies I know who joined the guild this summer and leveled their characters from 1-70 just in time for Wrath’s release had the pleasure of catching up to the raiders and chugging right on through the new content. Now quite a few of them are 80 and running heroics with the rest of us, while some who were previously on the high end of the guild are still working their way to 80.
It is not all happiness, if course. My most hated boss at the moment is Loken of the Halls of Lightning. Bastard is a son of a horticulturalist on heroic. Second would be Skadi of Utgarde Pinnacle, whose gauntlet tore us to pieces until we found the rhythm and learned to take it slow and steady. Third most hated (though she has been downgraded now to just annoying) is Keristrasza of the Nexus. Again she was tough until we learned to keep moving, and now I find her annoying if only because the achievement for keeping her ticking debuff off for more than 3 seconds remains elusive.
My most favorite bosses (in no order) are probably Anomalus of the Nexus (he just looks cool, and the environment is stunning), Malganis of CoT: Culling of Stratholme (very easy on heroic, but it’s cool to see him again), and Anub’arak (as opposed to the old Barack) of Azjol-Nerub (a tough and fast-paced fight at the end of a tough and fast-paced run, he’s a pain, but I really enjoy this fight for some reason).
I’ve hardly been questing at all since hitting 80, thought I know there are probably over 100 more non-daily quests out there for me somewhere. I’ve meandered my way through Icecrown, happily stumbling onto the Matthias Lehner questline. If you see the ghostly lad, do as he says and you’ll be rewarded with some of the coolest quests since Wrathgate.
I’ve been slowing down a tad on WoW, though. Part of it is probable burn-out on the endgame of Wrath, though I don’t intend to actually “quit” WoW anytime soon. There’s plenty of content to enjoy yet, and I’m not having any serious issues with my guild.
The downtime from endgame content has consisted of leveling my little Troll priest. She’d been 32 for nearly 6 months when I dusted her off last weekend, bringing her up to level 42 by Monday. I thought perhaps that I would be more motivated to quest if I had a bit more firepower, so I respecced Shadow (with my meager talent point selection). Amazingly, I hate Shadow. Reminds me too much of playing with my warlock, and without the benefit of a demon pet. So I switched back to Holy with a few points in Discipline and carried on my merry way. I’m still completing red and orange quests without much trouble, so I’m content with the Holy tree. Plus I very much want to heal, so I want to be as familiar with the Holy spell arrangement as possible as I get closer and closer to 70 and 80. I don’t think it will take very long. I had a Ret pally questing with me from level 32-42, and then I was offline until yesterday. I logged in last night and he was already at 54. My god, leveling is easy as effing hell these days. I’d say it was obscenely so if I didn’t want to get to 80 and start healing already.
My Xbox 360 repair page is showing that maintenance has been completed, and that the console is apparently on its way back to me. So that’s cool. I’ve definitely been missing that old thing, and Gears of War 2 has been taunting me for over a month now.
Also purchased Fallout 3 through Steam this week, a sure sign I’m jonesin’ for some non-WoW entertainment. I would have preferred playing it on the Xbox, and thus on my 37” TV, but the PC works. Very, very interesting game so far. I didn’t play the previous incarnations, so I don’t know if there’s some over-arching story continued in this one, but it’s quite fun.
Granted, it was a fairly busy month on and offline.
Hit 80 a few days after that last update. Immediately started pugging heroics and learning boss fights. I did my due diligence, saved my badges, upgraded gear, gems and enchants, wore my tabards and listened to BRK podcasts like a dedicated hunter should.
A month, later, Be.Imba says I’m geared for Eye of Eternity, 25-man. I highly doubt its accuracy in that claim, but it’s a nice thought. Haven’t started Naxx yet with my guild. Many folks are still taking their time getting up to 80. Interesting how an expansion throws everything out of whack for a while. Guildies I know who joined the guild this summer and leveled their characters from 1-70 just in time for Wrath’s release had the pleasure of catching up to the raiders and chugging right on through the new content. Now quite a few of them are 80 and running heroics with the rest of us, while some who were previously on the high end of the guild are still working their way to 80.
It is not all happiness, if course. My most hated boss at the moment is Loken of the Halls of Lightning. Bastard is a son of a horticulturalist on heroic. Second would be Skadi of Utgarde Pinnacle, whose gauntlet tore us to pieces until we found the rhythm and learned to take it slow and steady. Third most hated (though she has been downgraded now to just annoying) is Keristrasza of the Nexus. Again she was tough until we learned to keep moving, and now I find her annoying if only because the achievement for keeping her ticking debuff off for more than 3 seconds remains elusive.
My most favorite bosses (in no order) are probably Anomalus of the Nexus (he just looks cool, and the environment is stunning), Malganis of CoT: Culling of Stratholme (very easy on heroic, but it’s cool to see him again), and Anub’arak (as opposed to the old Barack) of Azjol-Nerub (a tough and fast-paced fight at the end of a tough and fast-paced run, he’s a pain, but I really enjoy this fight for some reason).
I’ve hardly been questing at all since hitting 80, thought I know there are probably over 100 more non-daily quests out there for me somewhere. I’ve meandered my way through Icecrown, happily stumbling onto the Matthias Lehner questline. If you see the ghostly lad, do as he says and you’ll be rewarded with some of the coolest quests since Wrathgate.
I’ve been slowing down a tad on WoW, though. Part of it is probable burn-out on the endgame of Wrath, though I don’t intend to actually “quit” WoW anytime soon. There’s plenty of content to enjoy yet, and I’m not having any serious issues with my guild.
The downtime from endgame content has consisted of leveling my little Troll priest. She’d been 32 for nearly 6 months when I dusted her off last weekend, bringing her up to level 42 by Monday. I thought perhaps that I would be more motivated to quest if I had a bit more firepower, so I respecced Shadow (with my meager talent point selection). Amazingly, I hate Shadow. Reminds me too much of playing with my warlock, and without the benefit of a demon pet. So I switched back to Holy with a few points in Discipline and carried on my merry way. I’m still completing red and orange quests without much trouble, so I’m content with the Holy tree. Plus I very much want to heal, so I want to be as familiar with the Holy spell arrangement as possible as I get closer and closer to 70 and 80. I don’t think it will take very long. I had a Ret pally questing with me from level 32-42, and then I was offline until yesterday. I logged in last night and he was already at 54. My god, leveling is easy as effing hell these days. I’d say it was obscenely so if I didn’t want to get to 80 and start healing already.
My Xbox 360 repair page is showing that maintenance has been completed, and that the console is apparently on its way back to me. So that’s cool. I’ve definitely been missing that old thing, and Gears of War 2 has been taunting me for over a month now.
Also purchased Fallout 3 through Steam this week, a sure sign I’m jonesin’ for some non-WoW entertainment. I would have preferred playing it on the Xbox, and thus on my 37” TV, but the PC works. Very, very interesting game so far. I didn’t play the previous incarnations, so I don’t know if there’s some over-arching story continued in this one, but it’s quite fun.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
When in doubt, mount.
LOTS of mounting going on around in my neck of the woods lately.
Washed away the dreary malaise of level 76 and pushed through the Zul'drak main quests. Glad I did so, since I got to ride a storm giant in the end. That was pretty freakin sweet.
Hit 77 and flew back up to K3, where I found to my surprise that a kind goblin was willing to give me a Loaned Wind Rider while I saved up enough to buy my Cold Weather Flying Skill.
It flies at 60% speed and operates like a vehicle, but it was an incredibly nice surpise all the same. Did a bunch of quests for the Goblins of K3, including the sprawling battle across the minefields. That was crazy. Reminded me of films and stories of World War I, with doomed soldiers charging the trenches on the other side of death.
Then I logged on today, and found I had Auction House mail available from nearly three weeks ago! I sold a Tranquil Mechanical Yeti the on the Monday before WotLK hit, right when all the in-game mail got screwed.
Thought I'd lost it all, but hey, all of the sudden here's 266 gold in my mailbox. Not bad at all. And with that extra golden boost, I had enough for my Cold Weather Flying Skill.
Sooo nice to be flying again! And doing quests for the giant warrior women is hilarious. Makes my Turbo-Charged Flying Machine look like a carnival ride. :D
And FINALLY...I declare The Storm Peaks to be my new favorite zone. Ever. Love the soft, mournful music with a touch of heroism to it. However you want to describe it. I love the quests I've done so far for Xarantar the Witness in Camp Tunka'lo. He says he was one of the very first druids, and he's learned how to talk to the rocks and the water and the sky, etc. Very cool stuff.
You know, with folks like him popping up, and insane areas like the Engine of the Makers, allusions to Uldar and things apparently coming to an ultimate showdown between the Alliance and Horde. It makes me wonder if Blizzard isn't just going all out with the lore in this expansion because they expect it to be the last one? I'm guessing the Uldar are related in some way to the ancient creationist lore we got way back in Uldaman. Are we getting the whole shebang? I guess I'd be OK with that. At least we'd go out on a high note. WotLK is a godly step up from Classic WoW and BC in every possible way. And those versions of the game were great in their own way.
Oh, and I also love the ghost mount.
Epic flight in death ftw!
Washed away the dreary malaise of level 76 and pushed through the Zul'drak main quests. Glad I did so, since I got to ride a storm giant in the end. That was pretty freakin sweet.
Hit 77 and flew back up to K3, where I found to my surprise that a kind goblin was willing to give me a Loaned Wind Rider while I saved up enough to buy my Cold Weather Flying Skill.
It flies at 60% speed and operates like a vehicle, but it was an incredibly nice surpise all the same. Did a bunch of quests for the Goblins of K3, including the sprawling battle across the minefields. That was crazy. Reminded me of films and stories of World War I, with doomed soldiers charging the trenches on the other side of death.Then I logged on today, and found I had Auction House mail available from nearly three weeks ago! I sold a Tranquil Mechanical Yeti the on the Monday before WotLK hit, right when all the in-game mail got screwed.
Thought I'd lost it all, but hey, all of the sudden here's 266 gold in my mailbox. Not bad at all. And with that extra golden boost, I had enough for my Cold Weather Flying Skill.
Sooo nice to be flying again! And doing quests for the giant warrior women is hilarious. Makes my Turbo-Charged Flying Machine look like a carnival ride. :D
And FINALLY...I declare The Storm Peaks to be my new favorite zone. Ever. Love the soft, mournful music with a touch of heroism to it. However you want to describe it. I love the quests I've done so far for Xarantar the Witness in Camp Tunka'lo. He says he was one of the very first druids, and he's learned how to talk to the rocks and the water and the sky, etc. Very cool stuff.
You know, with folks like him popping up, and insane areas like the Engine of the Makers, allusions to Uldar and things apparently coming to an ultimate showdown between the Alliance and Horde. It makes me wonder if Blizzard isn't just going all out with the lore in this expansion because they expect it to be the last one? I'm guessing the Uldar are related in some way to the ancient creationist lore we got way back in Uldaman. Are we getting the whole shebang? I guess I'd be OK with that. At least we'd go out on a high note. WotLK is a godly step up from Classic WoW and BC in every possible way. And those versions of the game were great in their own way.Oh, and I also love the ghost mount.
Epic flight in death ftw!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Gnomish Army Knife – no tool for RRoD
Welcome to Monday.
Cue fireworks.
Been a crazy week, and not a lot of WoW has been happening for me or to me.
In between work, Thanksgiving, a wedding and various RL obligations, I didn’t get more than 6 hours in game over the last five days.
I DID however reach exalted with the Tuskarr early on Thanksgiving day, and quickly grabbed my penguin pet, epic fishing pole and blue breast plate. High five.
Also hit 437 (or something) last night in engineering after a painful stretch of mats-intensive items like Sonic Boosters, Noise Machines and Heartseeker Scopes. Thankfully, I was able to get into Gnomish Army Knives at 435, and I’m back in love with the profession. I love this tool – jumper cables (useable by engineers only), blacksmith hammer, mining pick, skinning knife, flint/tinder, arclight spanner and gyromatic micro-adjuster all in ONE. SINGLE. SLOT. Awesomeawesomeawesome. AND it’s not soulbound or bind on use. You can trade it around if need be.
I sent one to our guild blacksmith last night, and linked another in guildchat for whoever else wants one. I love that so many non-engineers can find multiple uses for an engineering item. Easy mats, too. Only 10 saronite bars, a hammer, a pick and a skinning knife.
Level-wise, Paquita remains at 76. More guildies are hitting 80 each day, and I’m fairly sure I won’t be the first guild hunter at level cap. I seem to be a in a rut with questing. The motivation for dings just isn’t there. Maybe it’s the quests – I’m wandering aimlessly around Sholazar Basin these days, tapping every saronite node I can find and only doing incidental quests for Nesingwary and the two warring tribes in the zone. I had been working through Zul’Drak, but that place is incredibly dreary and a pain in the ass to run through unmolested.
I probably just need to lay off the engineering for a while and focus on getting to 80.
Actually, I picked up Gears of War 2 on Saturday and was prepared to put WoW aside for a few days, but apparently Microsoft had other plans.
The Xbox 360 dashboard (OS) update hit last week, upgrading the menu system and implementing a new Wii-ripoff avatar landscape. I hated the idea when I first heard of it and saw the cutesy avatars, but after the update I found I could live with it. I made my avatar look ridiculously stupid, so I was happy. And the menu system is actually very nice…if you can ignore the frequent screen tears and system crashes accompanied by LOUD static bursts.
Yeah, it’s fucked. I was able to just restart the console after the first couple of times, no problem. But it got to the point where just starting it up and flipping through the menus would trigger the frozen screen and static sound.
Then, on Saturday, as I started it up to pop in my freshly-purchased copy of Gears 2, it froze for the last time. I restarted, and the 360 only took a few seconds to give me the glowy round finger in the form of 3 flashing red lights. Fuuuuck.
Thankfully, I only purchased it back in February so it is still under warranty. I called the Xbox service line, and encountered the dreaded automated repair technician, which was of absolutely no help whatsoever. I did appreciate the “hip” voice intonation though, no doubt provided to exude a cool, X-games competing, Mountain Dew-chugging, Pac-Sun employee vibe. So I now have Microsoft sending me a pre-paid shipping box, which I’ll use to send the console back for repair. Who knows how long that’ll take.
I find it amusing how every time I try to switch between game genres after a while, it costs me a pretty penny. Had to buy an Xbox 360 in February to get back into consoles after almost 2 years of WoW. Tried to return to WoW in late June, only to find that my video card had crapped itself, and I had to purchase and install a new one.
And now that I’m in danger of burning out again on WoW, I wanted to lay off a bit and enjoy a little console action. But it looks like I have to pay for it. Not in dollars, hopefully, but it’s still a pain to box it all up and send it back to Microsoft. Plus, I’ll be without a DVD player for a while.
Bugger.
Cue fireworks.
Been a crazy week, and not a lot of WoW has been happening for me or to me.
In between work, Thanksgiving, a wedding and various RL obligations, I didn’t get more than 6 hours in game over the last five days.
I DID however reach exalted with the Tuskarr early on Thanksgiving day, and quickly grabbed my penguin pet, epic fishing pole and blue breast plate. High five.
Also hit 437 (or something) last night in engineering after a painful stretch of mats-intensive items like Sonic Boosters, Noise Machines and Heartseeker Scopes. Thankfully, I was able to get into Gnomish Army Knives at 435, and I’m back in love with the profession. I love this tool – jumper cables (useable by engineers only), blacksmith hammer, mining pick, skinning knife, flint/tinder, arclight spanner and gyromatic micro-adjuster all in ONE. SINGLE. SLOT. Awesomeawesomeawesome. AND it’s not soulbound or bind on use. You can trade it around if need be.
I sent one to our guild blacksmith last night, and linked another in guildchat for whoever else wants one. I love that so many non-engineers can find multiple uses for an engineering item. Easy mats, too. Only 10 saronite bars, a hammer, a pick and a skinning knife.
Level-wise, Paquita remains at 76. More guildies are hitting 80 each day, and I’m fairly sure I won’t be the first guild hunter at level cap. I seem to be a in a rut with questing. The motivation for dings just isn’t there. Maybe it’s the quests – I’m wandering aimlessly around Sholazar Basin these days, tapping every saronite node I can find and only doing incidental quests for Nesingwary and the two warring tribes in the zone. I had been working through Zul’Drak, but that place is incredibly dreary and a pain in the ass to run through unmolested.
I probably just need to lay off the engineering for a while and focus on getting to 80.
Actually, I picked up Gears of War 2 on Saturday and was prepared to put WoW aside for a few days, but apparently Microsoft had other plans.
The Xbox 360 dashboard (OS) update hit last week, upgrading the menu system and implementing a new Wii-ripoff avatar landscape. I hated the idea when I first heard of it and saw the cutesy avatars, but after the update I found I could live with it. I made my avatar look ridiculously stupid, so I was happy. And the menu system is actually very nice…if you can ignore the frequent screen tears and system crashes accompanied by LOUD static bursts.
Yeah, it’s fucked. I was able to just restart the console after the first couple of times, no problem. But it got to the point where just starting it up and flipping through the menus would trigger the frozen screen and static sound.
Then, on Saturday, as I started it up to pop in my freshly-purchased copy of Gears 2, it froze for the last time. I restarted, and the 360 only took a few seconds to give me the glowy round finger in the form of 3 flashing red lights. Fuuuuck.
Thankfully, I only purchased it back in February so it is still under warranty. I called the Xbox service line, and encountered the dreaded automated repair technician, which was of absolutely no help whatsoever. I did appreciate the “hip” voice intonation though, no doubt provided to exude a cool, X-games competing, Mountain Dew-chugging, Pac-Sun employee vibe. So I now have Microsoft sending me a pre-paid shipping box, which I’ll use to send the console back for repair. Who knows how long that’ll take.
I find it amusing how every time I try to switch between game genres after a while, it costs me a pretty penny. Had to buy an Xbox 360 in February to get back into consoles after almost 2 years of WoW. Tried to return to WoW in late June, only to find that my video card had crapped itself, and I had to purchase and install a new one.
And now that I’m in danger of burning out again on WoW, I wanted to lay off a bit and enjoy a little console action. But it looks like I have to pay for it. Not in dollars, hopefully, but it’s still a pain to box it all up and send it back to Microsoft. Plus, I’ll be without a DVD player for a while.
Bugger.
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