We started out as Horde on Tichondrius, then were Alliance on Staghelm, then... sheesh, I forget already.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Landing on Uldum.

And so I moved to Uldum.

So, I already had a level 54 mage sitting in Uldum's Stratholme entrance. But she had been there for weeks.   Maybe she was never going to get a Strat/Scholo run.

When I transferred Tamastara, the Kanack Attack welcoming committee was already putting together a welcome package for me.   Terry texted me from Warren's house: "We're checking you out on Armory & planning out your gear."   Thank God.   Because my soloed-to-80-only-ever-did-2-instance-runs self felt a little... you know... ghetto.

Now, I know there are some of you who aren't going to be impressed by my new threads, but believe me, you would have been hella impressed by my old threads --- you would have been impressed by how shitty they were.   But I simply wasn't doing very much there on Bloodscalp by myself.   So this generosity really meant a lot to me.   I mean, hell --- my damage was up to 1200!!




After this, I felt I was ready for anything.

Right away I got to see Violet Hold for the first time.

This was extremely exciting once I got someone to explain to me what VH stood for & where it was. Excellent; I was already in Dalaran!   This was so cool.   I repaired & filled up reagents & everything!!

My first Heroic Violet Hold didn't actually get that far; we wiped several times before giving up.   The shammy healer blamed it on the under par DPS, but actually I had been holding back so as not to pass our tank on my Omen window (yes; I actually finally used it!  Wewt!), & if I at 1200 was holding back, then I'm sure Stef at 1800 was holding back.   And maybe that shammy guy is just a dumbass.

Wipes & dumbass & all, though, it was really awesome to do something in a group again.   I never thought I would say something like that, but can ya blame me??   I'd probably quit a game where I couldn't do anything without a group (hello FFxi), but I don't know how much longer I would have lasted just going fishing every damn day on Bloodscalp.

And the fucked up thing is... my Fishing isn't even 375 yet.


AND THEN!!! Warren got me into a 25-man VoA.

Now, I know what VoA is. It's Vault of Archavon. And I know this, because back on Bloodscalp I had joined a 25-man VoA, & during the long spaces of time while I lay there dead inside the instance I had a lot of space to reflect on where I was.

I mean, they had to rezz me 3 times in there. And it's not like I did anything other than die. I died at the beginning of every fricking mob. Actually, I must have made it through at least 1 trash mob, or more probably they pulled 2 at a time & I didn't even realize it.

So this time I was determined to make it through. To actually land some nukes on something. I told Warren not to move around too much because I was going to stick to him like GLUE. He said what he always says to me:

"lol"

Anyway, it was like I could hear drums beating when we got in there. I think I had Keith on the phone while I was doing this, & he had to listen to me obsessing about staying alive.

"I need to fucking stay al- OH SHIT FLYING ROCKS!!"


Ok, so my crowning achievement - I stayed out of the flying rocks & the swirling cloud. Good girl. I think Keith was probably as relieved as me when it was over. Frankly this is what I keep Miller Lite in the refrigerator for.

You know.

Miller Time.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Moonlighting.

Not a lot of people know this, but while we were still FTM on Onyxia, I was moonlighting on Uldum. Some of the guys I threw darts with (& when I say "with," I mean that we were in the same general area playing darts but if ever I even scored against them it was because they were bored & trying to break the monotony of the game.) had a guild on a PvE (aw) server called Uldum.

You know me. It's not enough to have a billion alts. I need to have a BILLION ALTS on a BILLION SERVERS. I'm still waiting for WoW servers to hit the billions. I figure it'll take another year or so.

I was leveling a priest & a mage with my friends' guild, Kanack Attack, & revisiting all the places of my youth. When I had been leveling Tamastara up on Tichondrius, I always had my bf's hunter with me, & somehow his constant whining about how slow I leveled (compared to him - a hunter - yeah, fuck him) kind of dampened my experience a little.

Soloing without someone whining in the background ("You only go to STV 'cuz you want to pvp." "You should be in Swamp of Sorrows." "Who cares if it's pretty?" "You make me feel like an object." "Why do you talk so mean to me?" "We never go to New Hope any more & I don't feel like a proper Christian.") was liberating in a way. And in other ways it was just nice.

Brad did have a point back then, though, because I do take a lot of detours.

But you know what; fishing is IMPORTANT. When you get to Outlands & Northrend, although you can farm Shoveltusk Steak & stuff, you can also be fishing for ingredients to make the highest AP or spell power foods in the game. And quite frankly, a lot of noobs that just got a level 72 quest to slaughter shoveltusks will thank you for going fishing instead of killing mobs that they need. Not that you care. But still.

I was slowly but surely leveling my priest, but I was enjoying my mage a little more, & she ended up moving a bit faster. Obviously, in the Which WoW Class Are You? Personality Quiz I would score "Mage." In EQ it took me a ridiculous amount of time to get my Wood Elf Bard even to level 8, largely because I always ended up lost in Greater Faydark, madly running with no idea where the fuck I was, where the fuck Kelethin was, & about 15 orcs chasing after me. Then I would die ("LOADING, PLEASE WAIT") & not know where the fuck my corpse was & so I could never get any of my shit. And then I would get frustrated & reroll. Another Wood Elf Bard. And then I had this thing about rusty scimitars. I was so clueless. Seriously.

When I finally decided to try out a Dark Elf Magician, that was when I finally saw level 10. And level 20. In fact I think Kassafeh is level 54. I miss her. I've tried to go back but I've been ruined by WoW. EQ is too hard now. WoW has dumbed me down.

In WoW it's important to have priorities.

Winter Veil found me still playing my 50+ mage, Jaspre, on Uldum. I have yet to reach Exalted with Argent Dawn on any of my billion characters & I thought Jaspre would be the one. I had done all the Plaguelands quests I could pick up & was --- & still am --- waiting for my high level friends to take me through Strat & Scholo.

In fact, as I type this blog, Jaspre is camped out at the entrance to Strat. She's been there for over 2 months.


I guess at least I got SM.


Audrey & Krissy also rolled toons on Uldum. Audrey, being closely related to me, rolled about 5 toons on Uldum. But neither of them really had time to play, which is a shame.

Krissy had a Wood Elf Druid named Kienya back in EQ days. She & my mage would run around, killing shit & hopping up & down & whatnot. The good old days. When I started playing WoW, Krissy tried it out as well, & as a result of my nomadic play style, now has characters on Tichondrius, Staghelm, Shattered Halls, Onyxia, Bloodscalp, & Uldum.

So. I move around a lot. Sue me.

When FTM made the move to Bloodscalp, I didn't play on Uldum for awhile. After all, I had picked Bloodscalp (we needed to move from a Seattle-based server to an LA-based server, in the hopes of lowering our typically 300+ ping) & I was part of the welcoming committee.

And then, the unhappy Staghelm(A) peeps & the disgruntled Zangarmarsh(A) peeps, who had all once been Tichondrius peeps(H) decided to merge together & be Khaz Modan(A) peeps.

It was like, "Et tu, Brute." No, not really. It was like, "No. I'm not going to cry. I'm going to stand tall. I'm going to be str- YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ME LIKE THIS."

But they did. I did go with them, for a little while, but the only high level Alliance toon I have is a hunter. Actually I have 2 Alliance toons over level 60. AND THEY ARE BOTH HUNTERS.



Did I mention that Uldum is a PvE server?

Ok, look. I can totally see the point of playing on a PvE server. Frankly there's a lot of game content that you can experience without that bit of added adrenaline. In fact, there are a number of quests that on a PvP server I would have... oh what am I talking about.

PvE SERVERS ARE FUCKING BORING.

You know, it's not like I'm asking to be - say - Alliance on Tichondrius. My friends there - Keith... ok, my friend there - Keith - gets ganked multiple times a day, especially when he's trying to herb. A lot of times when he's trying to do dailies. In fact, I think that the common denominator in all the times Keith gets ganked multiple times is that he's IN A CONTESTED TERRITORY.

You do have many, many instances on PvP servers where a higher level red, or en equal or only slightly lower level red hunter/warlock will see you but spare your life. I've shared many camps with members of the opposite side; I've even had enemy players help me out when I got too many adds. I've done the same.

On Tichondrius, both Horde & Alliance side, my rule was to never hit first (ok, unless it was a rogue.) but to ALWAYS hit back. It didn't matter if they outnumbered us by 3 players & 50 levels.


Actually, on Shattered Halls with my rogue Isep, I had so many chance encounters with a warrior/shammy pair that when I finally ended up chatting with them they said that if I ever rolled Alliance they would invite me to their guild. There were actually only 2 of them in their guild, & they were roommates ("BFFs," the shammy told me.) in Australia. But they participated in a lot of activities, including arena, with one of the larger Alliance pvp guilds on the server, so I could have accessed the personalities of allll these people I had killed or been killed by. It would probably have been fun. If I could stomach playing Alliance.

In the other direction (back as Alliance on Tichondrius), the guys in From Ashes, after reading my blogs in which I posted pics of pvp with the guildmaster's little brother (little Asian emo faggot who wears ninja clothes IRL playing a geared up orc warrior - figures) & basically narrated with statements like "FUCK FROM ASHES. FUCK THEM. FUCK THEM WITH A BROOMSTICK." told me that if I ever reinstated my Horde account I would have a place in their guild. To be honest, I was a little sheepish that they had caught me brazenly shouting out against their guild, which was larger & more progressed & undoubtedly more badass than mine (Audrey & I were the only pvpers, unless you count Tyler, who liked to pvp guys 20 levels lower than him), but dammit --- FUCK THEM.

Frankly it might have been cool to play with them. I've never had a ninja suit of my own, you know.

When the Bloodscalp FTM guys decided to play their Alliance FTM toons on Khaz Modan, I tried to go with them but I just couldn't. I can see why my ex-bf thought that WoW was so easy mode when he was leveling up his hunter, & the amazing thing to me is that he managed to stay awake the whole time. My God, if I'm not in BWL getting ready to peel for the MT or kiting 10 mobs for Razorgore, Jesus Christ hunter is boring. While adventuring with my friend Phil (warlock/hunter leveling team - yeah, I can see a Staying Awake issue right there) I seriously could not keep my eyes open. And when I logged out, I wanted to immediately log back in... & play my mage.

Even after that fucked up patch where DKs got cooldowns reduced & damage increased... & mages got to be able to cast fucking Slow Fall on other players.