But since theres only the one reader as far as I can tell, my motivation hasnt been as high as it could be. So heres a quick recap of the last 20 days for yall
GenCon SoCal - "The Best Four Days of Gaming!" and they were.. except I hardly had a chance to game since I was working the show. I was judging the D&D Minis events for Wizards of the Coast for the event and had a spectacular time. I met a bunch of great folks - some for the first time. I didnt make any significant judging errors and felt I was fair and reasonable. No one died or was otherwise maimed by me in a moment of rage. I saw the worst comedy show in the history of man (that had nothing to do with Michael Richards). I didnt drink, eat nor sleep nearly enough. I got a fair amount of product, saw a bunch of new games and well - I had a kick ass time. But that was 6 days without WOW, Email, web browsing or free time.
Thanksgiving - I had dinner at my sister's group home with her, my uncle and A (my wife). It was completely stress free and enjoyable. Having a handicapped sibling is hard as hell most of the time but the unconditional love you share is awesome. After dinner we went out to the movies and saw the new Bond film, which was great.
Wife - A's dad is on vacation in India with his brother and that leaves her to run his company while he is gone. So she is burning vacation time to keep that going while he is away so Im not seeing her as much as I could and that bums me out a bit. But I was in California having fun - i need to take her on a vacation somewhere soon.
Work - Im a network security engineer by profession and these past two weeks have been busy as heck fighting a virus in one of our companies. Lets just say that theres alot of stuff I would rather be doing than dicking with this stuff for 2 weeks.
Upcoming weekend - I will be down in Maryland to judge another DDM limited qualifier. So I will be gone Friday thru Sunday.. only two nites, but still.. A and I have both been away and busy too much lately..
Then theres WOW. God Damn WOW. Its all I do. I cant stop. About the only thing I can say is that I needed a break from Alliance so I went back to Horde to "play around a bit".
13 Warrior
23 Rogue
Transferred a 60 from Hellscream over to the new server
Ive joined up with a few friends to a great guild of folks. We swear, joke around and try to have fun swording with other jokers. Nothing serious. No overarching goals, no drama (in my limited view), no loot whoring. And Im having fun playing a rogue.. back to back same class alts have been bad for me in the past but this time is kinda cool. Im currently doing Combat w/ Daggers but as soon as I can get better weapons off the worst AH in the game (seriously - this server seems to just vendor all their greens! and then they want like a billion gold for a mediocre blue) I will probably switch.. unless I get a Meteor Shard out of SFK. But the rate at which I am levelling is kinda scary. Course, Im playing more than I should and work is suffering for it to a degree.
But all that - December is coming and my druid is still 44. I need to get her up to 60 and get some gear for the 60-70 march in January and beyond. So my rogue might be shelved or put on part time status while I spend more time focusing on my druid for a bit. Hell, I just need a bit of a push past where I am to get into the next range and start my climb again.. but alts getting to 60 arent a common occurance for me.. I'd like to fix that and finish both toons.. but that wont happen before BC. And since i already have a 60 on both servers Im playing on the pressure just isnt there to really drive me to complete a goal (another issue I have).
Today's useful tidbit will be a link - http://www.wow-loot.com/ - just click your class and it will show you what instance / quest gets you the nice items for your level. They might not be the "best" but damn its useful. Mitigates some of the search times thru Thottbot that I used to do trying to find what weapon is available and how to obtain it. Maybe this week I will cover Auctioneer finally. And possibly pimp this site out at a few of the podcast / wow sites.
Wednesday, November 29
Friday, November 10
Quiet lately
I havent been playing as much. Feeling tinges of burnout hitting with all the alts. As the BNL song goes "Its all been done". I started up a Tauren Warrior and remembered a few things from the old days
1 - Taurens have the biggest starting area by leaps and bounds - and its got a much lower population density
2 - Its obnoxious as hell to do the Tauren starting quests
3 - Taurens are freaking HUGE - frequently I cant even see the creep Im fighting (or that just aggro'd me)
4 - GD it feels like a long ass run out of the noob town to the first town.
5 - Im REALLY not looking forward to the run from TM to Ogrimaar
But, thats where Im spending some time. Im trying to get fired up.. and i think the only way thats gonna happen is going to be taking a break. Cause right now, as of this moment, Im totally burned out. And I think that this blog helped that along. "He who burns brightest, burns shortest" or some shit like that.
But dont worry - I still want to get my knowledge base into a permanent form. I will still write up a long ass post about Auctioneer, its features, the included mods and how many cool things you can do with it.
Today I think Im gonna go off for a few minutes about the WoW PodCasts. You might have noticed that I link to a few on the page - those are the ones I recommend. I have a bitch about podcasts tho -
They are a pre-recorded medium. There are a few things that shouldnt happen when you can edit the cast later
1 - wrong or lacking data - you can pull up the web site and provide it.
2 - consistent volume - if you are hosting the show with another person can you PLEASE make sure that you arent blowing out eardrums and the co-host is so quiet you cant make out exactly what they are saying
3 - lack of reason for podcast - FFS! if you have nothing to say, dont record it. Come up with a list of things to talk about. Flash cards, something.
Funniest Podcast host has GOT to be Slanik on WoW Radio: Vendor Trash. An irish git who is generally funny as hell... tho since its a Radio show he plays smidges of music. bah.
1 - Taurens have the biggest starting area by leaps and bounds - and its got a much lower population density
2 - Its obnoxious as hell to do the Tauren starting quests
3 - Taurens are freaking HUGE - frequently I cant even see the creep Im fighting (or that just aggro'd me)
4 - GD it feels like a long ass run out of the noob town to the first town.
5 - Im REALLY not looking forward to the run from TM to Ogrimaar
But, thats where Im spending some time. Im trying to get fired up.. and i think the only way thats gonna happen is going to be taking a break. Cause right now, as of this moment, Im totally burned out. And I think that this blog helped that along. "He who burns brightest, burns shortest" or some shit like that.
But dont worry - I still want to get my knowledge base into a permanent form. I will still write up a long ass post about Auctioneer, its features, the included mods and how many cool things you can do with it.
Today I think Im gonna go off for a few minutes about the WoW PodCasts. You might have noticed that I link to a few on the page - those are the ones I recommend. I have a bitch about podcasts tho -
They are a pre-recorded medium. There are a few things that shouldnt happen when you can edit the cast later
1 - wrong or lacking data - you can pull up the web site and provide it.
2 - consistent volume - if you are hosting the show with another person can you PLEASE make sure that you arent blowing out eardrums and the co-host is so quiet you cant make out exactly what they are saying
3 - lack of reason for podcast - FFS! if you have nothing to say, dont record it. Come up with a list of things to talk about. Flash cards, something.
Funniest Podcast host has GOT to be Slanik on WoW Radio: Vendor Trash. An irish git who is generally funny as hell... tho since its a Radio show he plays smidges of music. bah.
Wednesday, November 8
Yesterday....
Well, yesterday was Election Day here in the US and I did my duty as a citizen and went out and cast my vote (LIGHTNING BOLT!). Being an abhoration in this day and age (a non-conservative Republican), I split my votes across both parties and one Independant. I did a bit of research and actually knew something about most of the candidates in my district. No town elections this year but I did have state and federal congress plus my governor, attorney general and other positions. I voted, did you? Commie bastard!
Plus, I played WOW. Only about 3 hours while my wife was to be studying - but I still felt guilty. I should have just hung out with her and watched the news while she read to see what was happening in my state and country - but I played wow and watched the Family Guy movie. Addict that I am.
So what happened yesterday? I dinged 28 with my rogue, got instant poison 2, sold some crap on the AH, hit 200 herbalism, made some potions for my use (really trying to go slow on Alchemy as I still have 7 more levels before I can get above 225 and I need the money from Herbalism) and.. um. killed stuff. Progressed most of the duskwood quests to the point where I will need to group or get assistance from a higher level toon to finish them. I think I will group then try to run Stockades for the first time ever (Ive run it once with my 60 Hunter helping friends thru it - but that doesnt count). I also upgraded my weapons for 2g - two maces. Im thinking of going mace spec for the stun lock and the generally lower cost on maces vs similiar swords. But I dont know.. that might change a few times between now and 60. Im skipping training skills that require dagger to save some coin (Ambush for example) as I am not using them and have been advised that there arent many good daggers til 60+.. but again, that might all change.
Im giving serious thought to parking my rogue and playing a horde toon during the time I have been spending with her. Why when Ive been having fun and levelling quickly? Well, a friend is playing Horde now and I want to "sword" with him and stuff and Im still waiting for a different friend to catch up to my druid so I can move forward with her. I really like my Kitty Druid and want to keep playing her.. but who knows. I can feel the burnout beginning.. Alt-itis is the first step (making many alts and playing them for a while then parking them) - that follows a general malaise in playing in general. Plus, I really REALLY need to spend time this week on Minis. I need to know the rules and clarifications for judging next week at SoCal (I cant believe its already next week!). But dammit - Im next on armor rotation for Hunters, have a metric TON of unspent DKP if a weapon drops that I want and I know all of this end game grinding / raiding is for naught in 3 months time.
My last point for the day is that Ive discovered a new feature of Auctioneer and have decided that it is worth an entire blog post on the mod all by itself. It (with Enchantrix and Beancounter) is probably the most fully featured addon Ive ever used and just.. wow. So look for that tonite / tommorow. And Ive just managed to miss yet another impromptu meeting at work cause I was thinking about WOW and not about my job. Dammit.. I really wish it was Wife, Job, WoW, Minis.. but lately its been alot more WOW, Wife, Minis, Job. Im gonna pay for that someday. I just wish I could bring about change.
Plus, I played WOW. Only about 3 hours while my wife was to be studying - but I still felt guilty. I should have just hung out with her and watched the news while she read to see what was happening in my state and country - but I played wow and watched the Family Guy movie. Addict that I am.
So what happened yesterday? I dinged 28 with my rogue, got instant poison 2, sold some crap on the AH, hit 200 herbalism, made some potions for my use (really trying to go slow on Alchemy as I still have 7 more levels before I can get above 225 and I need the money from Herbalism) and.. um. killed stuff. Progressed most of the duskwood quests to the point where I will need to group or get assistance from a higher level toon to finish them. I think I will group then try to run Stockades for the first time ever (Ive run it once with my 60 Hunter helping friends thru it - but that doesnt count). I also upgraded my weapons for 2g - two maces. Im thinking of going mace spec for the stun lock and the generally lower cost on maces vs similiar swords. But I dont know.. that might change a few times between now and 60. Im skipping training skills that require dagger to save some coin (Ambush for example) as I am not using them and have been advised that there arent many good daggers til 60+.. but again, that might all change.
Im giving serious thought to parking my rogue and playing a horde toon during the time I have been spending with her. Why when Ive been having fun and levelling quickly? Well, a friend is playing Horde now and I want to "sword" with him and stuff and Im still waiting for a different friend to catch up to my druid so I can move forward with her. I really like my Kitty Druid and want to keep playing her.. but who knows. I can feel the burnout beginning.. Alt-itis is the first step (making many alts and playing them for a while then parking them) - that follows a general malaise in playing in general. Plus, I really REALLY need to spend time this week on Minis. I need to know the rules and clarifications for judging next week at SoCal (I cant believe its already next week!). But dammit - Im next on armor rotation for Hunters, have a metric TON of unspent DKP if a weapon drops that I want and I know all of this end game grinding / raiding is for naught in 3 months time.
My last point for the day is that Ive discovered a new feature of Auctioneer and have decided that it is worth an entire blog post on the mod all by itself. It (with Enchantrix and Beancounter) is probably the most fully featured addon Ive ever used and just.. wow. So look for that tonite / tommorow. And Ive just managed to miss yet another impromptu meeting at work cause I was thinking about WOW and not about my job. Dammit.. I really wish it was Wife, Job, WoW, Minis.. but lately its been alot more WOW, Wife, Minis, Job. Im gonna pay for that someday. I just wish I could bring about change.
Tuesday, November 7
User Interface
Here is my UI as it stands currently.
Some of the mods you can see are Scrolling Combat Text, Monkey Quest, Perl Frames, Insomniax Button Bars, eCasting Bars, etc. Around the mini map you can see Gatherer, BeneCast, CTMod and CTRaid control panels and others. Across the top is TitanBar with some added features. All of these will be covered in the upcoming posts.
As for my actual play - I only played for about 60 minutes yesterday, did a down level quest and dinged 27 on my rogue. Then I spent time out socially (as Im wont to do on Mondays) with friends and my wife and we had a good time. Im hoping that I will be able to put away some clean laundry tonite before I start just playing wow all nite.
My big link for today is WoW-Pro.com - this site has some very detailed and well planned levelling guides from 30-60 for both Alliance and Horde. My only concern with them is that they do have spots where you are told to grind out a level or whatnot.. and I just wont do it. But when those come up I swing over to another zone that isnt used because it is inefficient and do quests there. Because even quests that force you to kill dozens or hundreds of mobs for a freaking tusk are better (IMO) than just killing mobs endlessly. For me at least.
Some of the mods you can see are Scrolling Combat Text, Monkey Quest, Perl Frames, Insomniax Button Bars, eCasting Bars, etc. Around the mini map you can see Gatherer, BeneCast, CTMod and CTRaid control panels and others. Across the top is TitanBar with some added features. All of these will be covered in the upcoming posts.
As for my actual play - I only played for about 60 minutes yesterday, did a down level quest and dinged 27 on my rogue. Then I spent time out socially (as Im wont to do on Mondays) with friends and my wife and we had a good time. Im hoping that I will be able to put away some clean laundry tonite before I start just playing wow all nite.
My big link for today is WoW-Pro.com - this site has some very detailed and well planned levelling guides from 30-60 for both Alliance and Horde. My only concern with them is that they do have spots where you are told to grind out a level or whatnot.. and I just wont do it. But when those come up I swing over to another zone that isnt used because it is inefficient and do quests there. Because even quests that force you to kill dozens or hundreds of mobs for a freaking tusk are better (IMO) than just killing mobs endlessly. For me at least.
Monday, November 6
Mods
I have done some modding of my interface - well, actually using other peoples modifications in parts and wholes and chunks and such. I took a screenie of it but its sitting on my memory stick at work and.. well, its another post I guess. But I can provide links to essential mods (IMO) and ones Ive used for various reasons and to "clean up" my incredibly cluttered UI. So lets begin with the core mods - ones that every player of every class can get use of. The other mods will be covered in supplemental posts. Otherwise this will go on forever.
But before that, two things. Never run an executable (.exe file) you download off the internet from an untrusted site (Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, etc). When you download mods, always get the .zip files and extract them yourself to the correct locations. I get all my mods from Curse-Gaming.com, however I will be linking to the mods official site where available. Why? cause Im difficult maybe?
Also, Run anti-virus / anti-spyware software on your computer. Use whichever you want they are all about the same. Im a personal fan of McAfee.
Back to the mods -
Auctioneer (with Enchantrix) - http://auctioneeraddon.com/ - This is the bestest mod EVER. A must have for everyone. The mod scans the auction house (a 15-30 minute process) and stores the information. This gives you historical record over the course of the months that you will play. For example, if you are playing wow you have probably seen people asking for price checks - auctioneer not only can provide me the information in the tool tip of how many times its been seen at auction and what the suggested price for the item is. Its an incredibly simple mod that has alot of possible complexity. Im very impressed by the continued development of this and what all it can do. Just get it, spend a few weeks scanning the AH daily and see the magic for yourself.
Altas - http://www.atlasmod.com/ - Ever been inside an instance and wonder if you were susposed to turn left or right? or which boss was at the end of this hallway? Well Atlas is the mod for you. Its pretty simple. Get it, Use it, Love it.
KLH Threat Meter - http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-3488-1-klhthreatmeter.html - (I will cover tinyURL in another post someday.. remind me). KTM allows you to know when to back off damage. using this mod is simple - everyone in the raid / group that is running it should be reporting to a common pool. Up at the top should be the tanks, if you are gaining on them simply lower your damage.
DamageMeters - http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-791-1-damagemeters.html - this is my e-peen mod. It allows me to see how much damage Im doing vs the others in my group / raid. And prove how much cooler I am than they are.
Did I mention that auctioneer includes enchantrix? this portion tells you what things are likely to disenchant into what components. Example - Wicked leather Headband has a 33% chance to turn into Greater Eternal Essences. Nice, eh? Now how about the fact that it will also tell you not only the AH price of the items, the price a vendor will give you AND the price that you can get for the mats if you disenchant it! It does it ALL!!
QuickMountEquip - http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-282-1-quickmountequip.html - this is silly simple. When you get on a mount it will automatically equip items x, y, z.. for example - I equip boots with spurs and my carrot on a stick. horray for a few % speed boost on my epic mount. And then, when I get off my mount, it switches back. Weeee! Ive tried ItemRack and other such things, but this one is just a bit simpler. Im sure that someone out there will tell me that Item Rack does this and that.. and it does. but QME was simpler and I dont have a major need to change items that frequently.
MonkeyQuest - http://toctastic.net/ - I dont know why I love it, but I do. I didnt like the limitations that I found on the default quest tracker and MonkeyQuest removes them. It allows some customization and cleans things up a bit. You will see how Ive put it in my UI.. like Ive said.. its "cleaner" not "clean". Tommorow maybe.
But before that, two things. Never run an executable (.exe file) you download off the internet from an untrusted site (Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, etc). When you download mods, always get the .zip files and extract them yourself to the correct locations. I get all my mods from Curse-Gaming.com, however I will be linking to the mods official site where available. Why? cause Im difficult maybe?
Also, Run anti-virus / anti-spyware software on your computer. Use whichever you want they are all about the same. Im a personal fan of McAfee.
Back to the mods -
Auctioneer (with Enchantrix) - http://auctioneeraddon.com/ - This is the bestest mod EVER. A must have for everyone. The mod scans the auction house (a 15-30 minute process) and stores the information. This gives you historical record over the course of the months that you will play. For example, if you are playing wow you have probably seen people asking for price checks - auctioneer not only can provide me the information in the tool tip of how many times its been seen at auction and what the suggested price for the item is. Its an incredibly simple mod that has alot of possible complexity. Im very impressed by the continued development of this and what all it can do. Just get it, spend a few weeks scanning the AH daily and see the magic for yourself.
Altas - http://www.atlasmod.com/ - Ever been inside an instance and wonder if you were susposed to turn left or right? or which boss was at the end of this hallway? Well Atlas is the mod for you. Its pretty simple. Get it, Use it, Love it.
KLH Threat Meter - http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-3488-1-klhthreatmeter.html - (I will cover tinyURL in another post someday.. remind me). KTM allows you to know when to back off damage. using this mod is simple - everyone in the raid / group that is running it should be reporting to a common pool. Up at the top should be the tanks, if you are gaining on them simply lower your damage.
DamageMeters - http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-791-1-damagemeters.html - this is my e-peen mod. It allows me to see how much damage Im doing vs the others in my group / raid. And prove how much cooler I am than they are.
Did I mention that auctioneer includes enchantrix? this portion tells you what things are likely to disenchant into what components. Example - Wicked leather Headband has a 33% chance to turn into Greater Eternal Essences. Nice, eh? Now how about the fact that it will also tell you not only the AH price of the items, the price a vendor will give you AND the price that you can get for the mats if you disenchant it! It does it ALL!!
QuickMountEquip - http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-282-1-quickmountequip.html - this is silly simple. When you get on a mount it will automatically equip items x, y, z.. for example - I equip boots with spurs and my carrot on a stick. horray for a few % speed boost on my epic mount. And then, when I get off my mount, it switches back. Weeee! Ive tried ItemRack and other such things, but this one is just a bit simpler. Im sure that someone out there will tell me that Item Rack does this and that.. and it does. but QME was simpler and I dont have a major need to change items that frequently.
MonkeyQuest - http://toctastic.net/ - I dont know why I love it, but I do. I didnt like the limitations that I found on the default quest tracker and MonkeyQuest removes them. It allows some customization and cleans things up a bit. You will see how Ive put it in my UI.. like Ive said.. its "cleaner" not "clean". Tommorow maybe.
Sunday, November 5
Full Weekend? Not too busy for WoW!
Well, today it has been. Been out all day being social seeing friends of ours.. but yesterday went pretty much like every other saturday day for the last few months.
My wife gets up, goes off to do her Stich n Bitch then heads to her fathers office and does his books and helps with the work there.
I get up, kiss her good bye and play wow for hours on end. Why? cause Im an addict.
So what happened yesterday? I played my rogue for a few hours and, iirc, am about 3/4 of the way thru 26 now. And Im loving her. The toon is just fun as hell to play.
Last nite I ran Molten Core with the alliance. Its our fourth run and we dropped 6 bosses. We have never wiped on a core pack nor a lava pack.. in fact we handle it with aplumb. Ive been very impressed with our progress.. next week we are doing nothing more than just working on our speed.
But Ive promised that I would include some mod information. Im thinking that I might have lied. Yep, I did. Tommorow - I promise.
My wife gets up, goes off to do her Stich n Bitch then heads to her fathers office and does his books and helps with the work there.
I get up, kiss her good bye and play wow for hours on end. Why? cause Im an addict.
So what happened yesterday? I played my rogue for a few hours and, iirc, am about 3/4 of the way thru 26 now. And Im loving her. The toon is just fun as hell to play.
Last nite I ran Molten Core with the alliance. Its our fourth run and we dropped 6 bosses. We have never wiped on a core pack nor a lava pack.. in fact we handle it with aplumb. Ive been very impressed with our progress.. next week we are doing nothing more than just working on our speed.
But Ive promised that I would include some mod information. Im thinking that I might have lied. Yep, I did. Tommorow - I promise.
Friday, November 3
Day two and Ding 25
Yesterday's work day ended shortly after completing the last post. I went home, got the mail, left a leak, got some candy from the halloween leftovers and tossed my cat on my shoulder for his 60 seconds of attention as I walk upstairs and into my "office". This was all accomplished by about 4:15 or so.. I then sat down and played for 6 hours with only a few smoke and bio breaks. My new habit is to just log thru my "mains" and check my mail then get on my rogue and fire up a movie on my workstation (2nd computer with the monitor next to my gaming rig). Yesterday I watched.. 2/3s of Pirates of the Caribbean (stupid 2nd disk was unreadable), the Devil Wears Prada and some South Park episodes. I still need to watch Spare Change but that will require a bit more attention than I should devote while playing WOW. One or the other will suffer.
During this time I did a bunch of Duskwood quests.. allow me to say this here: I wont grind. Its just not in my nature. I need a short term goal to be striving for that is easily obtainable. The closest I will get is doing quests that require me to get x of something that doesnt drop off every mob. Some of these I have termed "Level Quests" - the drop rate is seemingly determined to get you right up to the next level if you do nothing but work this quest. On my Druid the one i remember most was Skullsplitter Tusks - I was barely into the level and was about 1000xp from the next when I finally got the 18th tusk. It knows man.. it does. Yesterdays experience was not much different - tho much short. 10 ghoul fangs doesnt sound that bad.. but the mobs were 24-27th level and I was 24th. But I got them all.. and ding'd deep into 25 with the quest turn ins.
I figured it was time to go shopping as I was still using Cookies Tenderizer and a mediocre green for my main hand. I picked up a nice new broadsword for the big numbers and a quick dagger with decent stats to keep the stream of numbers going up / getting the procs of the poisons. Additionally, I did the Ravenholdt quests for no good reason. This involed
So all told, I spent several hours last nite and then a few more this morning playing this damn game. I did spend some time with the wife when she got home and we watched CSI while she fell asleep. All told, it was an okay day.
The next few days look to be very full - but fear not faithful reader(s), I will find time to play WoW. I have my "Obligation" saturday nite running Molten Core with my alliance.. the wife will be out most of tommorow and that will give me some time to play WoW. Plus, I think Im going to go play with Dolls in the afternoon - assuming I can make it back in time for the raid. Tonite - probably not so much. Charity dinner tonite and unless she falls asleep rather early Im guessing no wow for me. perhaps from the laptop to just check mail or something. I dont know. But Sunday we will be gone all day - so im SOL there too.. probably a few hours Sunday nite.. I should easily be 26 with my Rogue before monday morning and maybe even get a bit of time in on my Druid (rest XP is building as I type).
Next topic: Mods and my UI. Probably next post. Maybe thats what I will do on the lappy while we watch Forensic Files and whatever other True Crime crap is on Court TV.
During this time I did a bunch of Duskwood quests.. allow me to say this here: I wont grind. Its just not in my nature. I need a short term goal to be striving for that is easily obtainable. The closest I will get is doing quests that require me to get x of something that doesnt drop off every mob. Some of these I have termed "Level Quests" - the drop rate is seemingly determined to get you right up to the next level if you do nothing but work this quest. On my Druid the one i remember most was Skullsplitter Tusks - I was barely into the level and was about 1000xp from the next when I finally got the 18th tusk. It knows man.. it does. Yesterdays experience was not much different - tho much short. 10 ghoul fangs doesnt sound that bad.. but the mobs were 24-27th level and I was 24th. But I got them all.. and ding'd deep into 25 with the quest turn ins.
I figured it was time to go shopping as I was still using Cookies Tenderizer and a mediocre green for my main hand. I picked up a nice new broadsword for the big numbers and a quick dagger with decent stats to keep the stream of numbers going up / getting the procs of the poisons. Additionally, I did the Ravenholdt quests for no good reason. This involed
- Noticing that my trainer had an additional line of text in my choices
- getting from stormwind to southshore (its a long ass run)
- finding ravenholdt manor (its hidden in the hills behind the Syndicate keep in Hillsbrad
- walking up to a chest and not opening it (thank you thottbot!) - this quest is kinda silly now that detect traps is a passive skill. before you had to activate it and notice that it was trapped to progress the quest. Now you have to walk up to it and .. thats it. just walk up to a chest in a tunnel. If you happened to open it, a 32 elite pops out and kills you apparently. I think Im gonna go back someday and cream him.. just cause. or not.
- talk to a few folks in the manor (PS: Theres an NPC labelled "Landscape Architect" in there. Im easily amused.
- pick pocket 30 markers off the syndicate folks in the zone. this was fun and easy. Ive also found out that you can pickpocket mobs that are in combat! some horde folks were trying to do the quests in the keep and were pulling mobs from under me. heh.. I still got the stuff and they got the kill - fine by me
- turning these marks in for reputation with the faction and that gives me... nothing it seems. the faction appears to be useless.. but I will swing by every 10 levels or so and see
So all told, I spent several hours last nite and then a few more this morning playing this damn game. I did spend some time with the wife when she got home and we watched CSI while she fell asleep. All told, it was an okay day.
The next few days look to be very full - but fear not faithful reader(s), I will find time to play WoW. I have my "Obligation" saturday nite running Molten Core with my alliance.. the wife will be out most of tommorow and that will give me some time to play WoW. Plus, I think Im going to go play with Dolls in the afternoon - assuming I can make it back in time for the raid. Tonite - probably not so much. Charity dinner tonite and unless she falls asleep rather early Im guessing no wow for me. perhaps from the laptop to just check mail or something. I dont know. But Sunday we will be gone all day - so im SOL there too.. probably a few hours Sunday nite.. I should easily be 26 with my Rogue before monday morning and maybe even get a bit of time in on my Druid (rest XP is building as I type).
Next topic: Mods and my UI. Probably next post. Maybe thats what I will do on the lappy while we watch Forensic Files and whatever other True Crime crap is on Court TV.
Thursday, November 2
Prelude, Purpose and Posterity
Allow me to begin simply. My name is Ack and Im an addict. In my life I have been addicted to many things - cigarettes, women (individually and as a group), television, alcohol and video games. Currently, I only have two of these addictions - smoking and video games. Specifically World of Warcraft (WOW from here on out). If you arent familiar with WOW, perhaps this isnt the piece of the internet for you.
A bit about me - I am in my mid 30s, gainfully employed, happily married for 6 years, a home owner and a respected member of my community. I have friends, do things socially outside of the game, watch television.. all the things that a normal person does. But when I am home, I am online. And when I am online, more than 90% of the time Im playing in Azeroth. The remaining 10% is spent visiting forums (various guild and alliance forums mostly), looking for new add-ons to try and various other WOW related activities. Its a sickness.
So now that you know a bit about me and my habit I will get to the meat of this - why Im writing this and what you can expect to find here. Honestly, probably alot about WOW and day to day life in it. There will be some real life observations, discussions of new / upcoming MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games) and other such frivolities - but mostly it will be WOW. Add-ons, life at 60, links to various resources, culled information and leaks about the expansion, etc. Oh - and probably more often than not a comment or 4 about living with this game as an addiction and how it affects me and those around me.
Todays post will be my pedigree for MMOs and where Ive been and what Im working on currently. Having beta'd or played in massively online games since.. well, along time Ive seen alot and experienced the ups and downs of various games. Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Final Fantasy 11, Asheron's Call 2, City of Heroes, Planetside, EQ2, SillyMuds (Silicon Realms and Phoenix), a Tolkien inspired DikuMud, Matrix Online - these are the majority of them, Im sure someone will eventually remind me of others that I have done. As for WoW, well - its the greatest one yet. I was in Beta and played several toons up to 20 to decide what I wanted to play at release.
Upon release I was on Hellscream where I levelled my Troll hunter to 60 before switching over to a PVP server (Burning Hand? Argent Dawn? will confirm later) and levelling an Orc Shaman up to 42 before I burned out the first time. This period was amongst the worst I had ever experienced with an addiction. I was skipping work, scheduling needless meetings so I could "work" from home and continue playing. The world was new and fresh and exciting and dynamic. As a matter of survival (job and marriage), I cancelled and uninstalled and backed off for a while. I managed to stay clean for approximately 7 months.
A few months back a friend of mine was starting up again with some co-workers and convinced many of us to play again. We would all be playing together and it would be awesome! So I reactivated, patched and started playing - but this time I was playing the "easy" side, Alliance. The game was stabilized - some of the class revamps had occurred, most of the end game instances were opened (only Naxx wasnt in yet) and I was playing with friends ("internet" friends tho - spread from Boston to Florida to Seattle and beyond). I hadn't done much alliance stuff and alot of the content was new to me. It was a newish server (Thorium Brotherhood) and several of us were levelling machines. We ripped to 60 in about 5-6 weeks (11 days played) and I had a fresh and new game to play with my Dwarf Hunter (yes, I did Hunter again).
~~wavy lines, time passes - more on this period in another post ~~
now Im playing alts - I am actively levelling a 23 human rogue and a 43 nelf druid. I want the druid to 60 before US Thanksgiving (unlikely with my convention schedule) and I believe it is possible to get my rogue at or close to 60 before BC comes out as well. Why have 3 60s? Because I find my hunter to be a pariah in 5 man groups - but he shines in 20+ man runs. I help lead a Molten Core (MC) raiding alliance with him, but getting a group for LBRS or BRD is killing me. So I wanted something more group viable - and I chose a Kitty Druid (Full Feral spec for now). One day there was too much guild drama and I needed some quiet - so I rolled a baby rogue and DAMN thats alot of fun. But again with the not horribly group friendly (more so than the hunter, but still not many calls for DPS go out over the LFG channel).
More on all of these topics later. Lets see what direction this site takes me in and go from there.
Oh - and since yall are probably wondering why Im blogging about WOW instead of playing... I have to do something at work, dont I??
A bit about me - I am in my mid 30s, gainfully employed, happily married for 6 years, a home owner and a respected member of my community. I have friends, do things socially outside of the game, watch television.. all the things that a normal person does. But when I am home, I am online. And when I am online, more than 90% of the time Im playing in Azeroth. The remaining 10% is spent visiting forums (various guild and alliance forums mostly), looking for new add-ons to try and various other WOW related activities. Its a sickness.
So now that you know a bit about me and my habit I will get to the meat of this - why Im writing this and what you can expect to find here. Honestly, probably alot about WOW and day to day life in it. There will be some real life observations, discussions of new / upcoming MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games) and other such frivolities - but mostly it will be WOW. Add-ons, life at 60, links to various resources, culled information and leaks about the expansion, etc. Oh - and probably more often than not a comment or 4 about living with this game as an addiction and how it affects me and those around me.
Todays post will be my pedigree for MMOs and where Ive been and what Im working on currently. Having beta'd or played in massively online games since.. well, along time Ive seen alot and experienced the ups and downs of various games. Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Final Fantasy 11, Asheron's Call 2, City of Heroes, Planetside, EQ2, SillyMuds (Silicon Realms and Phoenix), a Tolkien inspired DikuMud, Matrix Online - these are the majority of them, Im sure someone will eventually remind me of others that I have done. As for WoW, well - its the greatest one yet. I was in Beta and played several toons up to 20 to decide what I wanted to play at release.
Upon release I was on Hellscream where I levelled my Troll hunter to 60 before switching over to a PVP server (Burning Hand? Argent Dawn? will confirm later) and levelling an Orc Shaman up to 42 before I burned out the first time. This period was amongst the worst I had ever experienced with an addiction. I was skipping work, scheduling needless meetings so I could "work" from home and continue playing. The world was new and fresh and exciting and dynamic. As a matter of survival (job and marriage), I cancelled and uninstalled and backed off for a while. I managed to stay clean for approximately 7 months.
A few months back a friend of mine was starting up again with some co-workers and convinced many of us to play again. We would all be playing together and it would be awesome! So I reactivated, patched and started playing - but this time I was playing the "easy" side, Alliance. The game was stabilized - some of the class revamps had occurred, most of the end game instances were opened (only Naxx wasnt in yet) and I was playing with friends ("internet" friends tho - spread from Boston to Florida to Seattle and beyond). I hadn't done much alliance stuff and alot of the content was new to me. It was a newish server (Thorium Brotherhood) and several of us were levelling machines. We ripped to 60 in about 5-6 weeks (11 days played) and I had a fresh and new game to play with my Dwarf Hunter (yes, I did Hunter again).
~~wavy lines, time passes - more on this period in another post ~~
now Im playing alts - I am actively levelling a 23 human rogue and a 43 nelf druid. I want the druid to 60 before US Thanksgiving (unlikely with my convention schedule) and I believe it is possible to get my rogue at or close to 60 before BC comes out as well. Why have 3 60s? Because I find my hunter to be a pariah in 5 man groups - but he shines in 20+ man runs. I help lead a Molten Core (MC) raiding alliance with him, but getting a group for LBRS or BRD is killing me. So I wanted something more group viable - and I chose a Kitty Druid (Full Feral spec for now). One day there was too much guild drama and I needed some quiet - so I rolled a baby rogue and DAMN thats alot of fun. But again with the not horribly group friendly (more so than the hunter, but still not many calls for DPS go out over the LFG channel).
More on all of these topics later. Lets see what direction this site takes me in and go from there.
Oh - and since yall are probably wondering why Im blogging about WOW instead of playing... I have to do something at work, dont I??
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