World of Dorks!!

The Directory.

2010-03-23T02:33:00.002-10:00

It's up there in the Header, but just FYI I publish the actual blogs at 3 different places depending on what I am writing about. The only place to see everything is here:

World Of Dorks Directory

There's finally an entry for 2010, finishing up 2009. I hope to get some 2010 pics up some time soon. I've been so busy!!

Kanack Attack, continued!

2009-04-25T03:02:00.018-10:00

So, I have this friend Krissy.

Krissy used to have a Wood Elf Druid named Kienya that ran around various areas of Norrath with my Dark Elf Mage, Kassafeh. Yes. We were EQ dorks. Krissy stuck with EQ while I made forays into DAoC, NWN, CoV, FFxi & EQ2, but when I started playing WoW she did too. That's 'cuz we're friends. Dork friends.

But real friends. And that's important.

I first rolled Tamastara on Tichondrius, with From Chaos. It was a raiding guild. Then the Hawaii people of From Chaos decided to separate from the mainland people of From Chaos due to irreconcilable differences (like... mutual hatred.), & rolled Alliance toons on Staghelm & called themselves FTM (Fuck The Mainland - after their old Tribes clan). Some of the other Hawaii people of From Chaos remained on Tichondrius, deleting their level 60 Horde toons or utilizing additional accounts to roll Alliance on Tichondrius, forming EH, at which time we (actually, Tako & a few others) leveled up, then tracked down & ganked one of the dudes that had pissed the Hawaii people off enough to leave.

They Fraps'd it too. Excellent job, there. Demonstration of why to play on a PvP server.

In EH, then in FTM, Krissy rolled new toons. And then, because I was about to rip my fucking EYES out if I had to play Alliance any more, we made I Heart Seki on Staghelm, a Horde guild of FTM Horde alts, & Krissy rolled a toon there too. In fact, while I raided Crossroads alongside Seki on my NE hunter, an undead priest named Sekigohan, with the guildname I Heart Seki, was following Bryan around emoting /love at him.

It's called double boxing.

When Burning Crusade came out, my sister Audrey, who was playing a NE priest with EH, expressed an interest in playing Horde again... but not on a godforsaken PvE server. I mean, she was playing Alliance on one of the oldest PvP servers in the game, which meant that there was love to be had, everywhere. Hell no, PvE. So we rolled level 1 Blood Elves on a brand new server, Shattered Halls, guild name: Bunnies. And Krissy rolled a Bunny.

The politics of Bunnies were weird. I decided to quit WoW. In 3 months of not knowing WHAT THE FUCK to do with myself I spent a ridiculous amount of money online shopping. So I came back & moved Tamastara to Onyxia where some of the FTM guys were playing Horde. And then we moved to Bloodscalp for better ping. And then WotLK came out & all the guys went back to their Alliance toons, merging with other From Chaos/FTM original players who had moved to Zangarmarsh on Khaz Modan. And there they remain, happy. Fuckers. Alone on Bloodscalp & not willing to play Alliance, I moved to Uldum to join Kanack Attack.

And so I brought Krissy with me. I'd perused her many characters, none of whom she ever got to level very far because she'd be just getting her groove on & I'd jump to another server. I found her highest level priest, put 10 more levels on it, & moved it to Uldum. And then I bought her a mount. Her first mount ever.

And that was the point of that whole long, boring story. KRISSY GOT A HORSIE. KRISSY HAS HORSIE, BITCHES.

But I was getting to do some fun shit.

And, I got goodies too.

And there was at least one time I did more damage than the tanks.

And I guess I didn't really like that Penny guy.

I got to see more instances. As always, I just did whatever Stef did.

I had to work on reps. Wyrmrest Accord, for one. I had already gotten halfway through Honored with Kirin Tor strictly from doing the daily Cooking quests, which Keith said was really sad (but I have lots of Northern Spices!). I leveled Krissy's priest some more, botting her through multiple Scarlet Monastery runs. I did take some lowbie guildie who since then has disappeared. I can't remember his name, only that after that he seemed to think that I lived to plow lowbies through instances.

That was a little annoying. I don't miss him.
At level 80 I still hadn't even visited Icecrown or Storm Peaks. I needed to get my butt to Storm Peaks to start working on Sons of Hodir rep. Meh, I like questing. It just seems so out of the way though. And the Storm Peaks quests weren't as fun as the Wyrmrest Accord ones.

Every day I got on I did my daily Cooking quest in Dalaran, then I flew down to the Wyrmrest Temple & did the daily there. Then I's fly down to Mo'aki Harbor & gather pups for the Kalu'ak daily, then either travel East or West to do the other Kalu'ak dailies as well as the Wyrmrest dailies in Coldarra.

Aces High! was really hard at first. That damn global cooldown kept faking me out. But I eventually got it.

Drake Hunt, of course, was boring as hell. Except for that one time I picked up an elite add.

And, there were more instances.

And then there were BGs.

I love my spec. I wanted the magic resist in the Arcane tree & then I went for all the proc goodness on the Frost side. I skipped the Improved pet. I never even remember I have one anyway. I got the free Fireball & the constantly proccing Fingers of Frost along with moderately proccing Clearcast.

I jumped into BGs wearing PvE gear. I hear that's what everyone was doing. It seemed to work just fine. I couldn't believe how some people blew up. It was like throwing rocks at the bloated body floating in the river.

Ok, not really.

And, instances continued.

And... BGs continued. Strand of the Ancients became my new favorite pastime. And hunter pets continued to die.

And finally... got my fishing pole & my red horsie.

Man, that was a long blog.

Landing on Uldum.

2009-03-31T12:44:00.006-10:00

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.

Moonlighting.

2009-03-02T15:23:00.002-10:00

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.

Maybe It's Time To Consider Options.

2009-02-20T13:32:00.004-10:00

So, I was 80.

I had been 80 for awhile. I didn't know how long. I know I documented it somewhere in an earlier blog, & it's a good thing. Because I just can't remember.

Every day was kind of the same; I'd log in & do my dailies. I'd organize my shit. I'd log out. Sometimes Phil logged on with his Death Knight & so we did run Strat once & that was fun. But overall it just felt like getting old.

I never had a problem with playing EQ by myself. I ended up in good guilds, & then the guilds ultimately broke up due to infighting, & I'd have a smattering of friends I'd made ingame that I'd never met or spoken to IRL, & that was fine.

I couldn't really see doing that again, somehow. I guess because the caliber of people who played EQ was so much higher, intelligence & maturitywise, than the troubled, aggro nerds in WoW. Just about every person you ever met in EQ was of normal intelligence & was an adult; it wasn't utterly dumbed down like WoW is.

WoW has managed to provide entertainment for all walks of mind, from the organized & aggressively intelligent to the drooling cretins who are probably going to take over the world purely by accidental proliferation. But I digress.

One day I logged in & I realized that the guys were doing too well on Khaz Modan. And they were never coming back. And if I just kept playing Tamastara here, on Bloodscalp, that every day was going to be pretty much the same as the day before. I could BG, I could work on my rep & my professions, but the truth was that everything was just going to be like this.

The truth is, I enjoy playing Tamastara. I'm not really interested in playing a Death Knight on Khaz Modan. It's not necessarily even an Alliance - Horde thing. I think I really just want to play Tamastara. I can vacation on other toons for periods of time, but eventually I'll just want to go back to Tamastara.

I really do wish I could play with everybody on Khaz Modan. Not because I want to raid, although God knows that's quite novel for me, but because of the company. Certainly I'd get sick of various people, but it's still interesting.

I never thought that I would start caring about being part of a herd, in a stupid game or otherwise. I'm not sure how to feel about that. But then who cares about feelings.

If I didn't play WoW any more, imagine everything else I'd be doing with my life. Or not. Maybe my life has already been ruined, & even if I managed to get clean & to get through rehab, I would still never do anything with myself. I don't think WoW is what killed me though. WoW is just a medium.

Even pvp wasn't that interesting any more. Well, we blew them up too fast. I left after the initial wiping.

I also joined a PUG Vault of whatever. I had no idea how the fights went. I died to fuckin' rocks like 3 for 3. But at least I knew better for later.

It was after that 25-man that I decided it was time to move. If I'm going to drink, I want to drink better stuff than this.

I made another Druid.

2009-01-30T23:21:00.003-10:00

And this time I am determined to make it to level 20 so I can get Cat Form. Prior to this, my Druid Level Record was 17. Actually, I guess it still is 17. BUT I SHALL PERSEVERE.

Also, I figured out why Davin never responds when I say hi to him.

How Ryan Lum shows his love.

2009-01-20T14:57:00.004-10:00

Those who know my ex-roomie will understand the strange love affair that goes on. Click to enlarge, btw.

Tamastara to 80!

2009-01-17T01:45:00.013-10:00

It's been fun questing, even questing alone. A lot of the group & most of the dungeon quests had to be dropped, but frankly there were so many quests period it really didn't matter. I ended up pugging more group quests than I expected to.

I spent a bunch of time in Dragonblight, which is more fun for Horde than it is for Alliance (on Minionette, Dragonblight was like torture!), & I did the Cooking Daily... daily. Every day. One day the Mustard Dogs quest led me to an NPC who sent me off into Sholazar Basin.

This place looked like it might take me awhile to level.

I fished- I mean, took a look around Sholazar for a bit, then returned to Dragonblight to finish up green quests. I already knew that Sholazar Basin was going to be my Stranglethorn Vale, my Oasis of Marr. Somehow I always felt, in STV & Oasis, like I was on vacation. It didn't matter how much I died (As in the fucking difference between "orc warrior" & "A orc warrior!"), the surroundings were just relaxing.

In EQ Fishing was the only thing you could gain skillups in & obtain loot by while you were medding. In the old days meditating involved your nose in your spellbook, which took up your entire screen, so you couldn't see anything else. You also had to be seated, so you couldn't even autorun yourself along the hillside in Kithicor Forest.

Yeah, all this solitary play has made me nostalgic. Krissy knows what I'm talking about.

I finished up in Dragonblight, then headed back to Grizzly Hills to finish up green quests there. Sholazar Basin haunted the back of my mind; it was like a ghost calling out to me. Waving at me with a tackle box.

Grizzly Hills are another great fishing zone. Glacial Salmon, my friends. The lake just below Camp Oneqwah has 3 Glacial Salmon schools that continually repop. And Firecracker Salmon is 46 spell power. Speaking of repopping schools, Keith woke me up one afternoon telling me about a certain spot in Borean Tundra where multiple schools of Musselback Sculpin simply litter the perimeter of the lake. Naturally I had to go check this out.

And then I hit 77. Over a pool game (Which he was winning. With ease. I need to practice.) Phil informed me that I could now get a flying mount. I had thought it was 78.

OMG A FLYING MOUNT MAKES EVERYTHING SO MUCH EASIER. Questing, herbing, discovering, moving to a new fishing spot --- it's all so much easier.

Feeling rather chipper, I bought myself a stack of pet treats & the leash. The leash was boring but the pet snacks became addictive. No, I wasn't eating them. The "happy" effect only lasts 5 minutes... so you have 5 minutes of imagining your pet is fawning, smiling up at you with approval... & then that little heart disappears. And then you get this weird feeling like your little cat or your shiny firefly is looking at you... with reproach. Or with sad, hurt eyes. Howcome you won't give me another treat? I follow you everywhere. Don't you love me any more? It's ok; I'll still follow you... sniff.

The pet snacks thing is really fucked up.

I continued questing in Grizzly Hills, which is really a very beautiful zone. It was like Canada. When I grow up, I'd like to live some place like Grizzly Hills, although with running water & broadband. I'd fish my supper. Well, with running water, broadband, & a Costco. Yeah.

One day I was doing some pvp daily, & the Alliance NPCs kinda kick my ass. They're archers - & I can't deal with 2 of them shooting me; I always have to sheep 1. I've died over there. It's embarrassing. Anyway, there I was, nuking my single "Alliance unit," & this NE rogue comes swooping down on me from above & starts hitting me.

I ran, of course. I also aggroed another Alliance NPC with my panicked strafing. I used a potion, my mana gem, & my Lifebloom & by the time I Blinked across the river I was like 10% & kissing the ground. The Rogue had vanished, at about 30%, & I didn't think he would follow that low. I bandaged, ate, turned in my daily, then mounted up & went back.

There was a happy ending. This wasn't due to my mad skills. This was because that guy was silly. ROGUES STEALTH, YA DUMBASS. Even I know that.

Ah, the joy of flying mounts. Instead of heading back to Sholazar Basin when I finished up in Grizzly Hills, I ended up in Zul'Drak. What a gloomy, sad place. Fortunately it was a relatively compact, easily navigated place, & to be honest I find that Apothecary daily quest to be really fun. I don't know why. It's just really fun to get shit off that dude's shelves. Maybe I have issues. I don't know.

There ended up being a fuckton of quests in Zul'Drak. Keith told me that the factions I should be concerned about are The Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, &... something else, I forget. I have notes. Anyway, I did all the Ebon Blade quests I could get in Zul'Drak & then spent what seemed like an eternity doing shit for the dancing trolls & the cat goddess.

Meh, it was fun.

And, I spent some time fishing. Having used up all the Outland recipe caster stat food in our gbank, I could finally start using food my own level. Ryan1 never used any of the food I sent him, because either he never remembered, he wanted to save it for a rainy day, or he was simply too leet. I don't know. But I'm not leet. I'm also alone here. I eat that shit every chance I get.

And then finally I was back in Sholazar Basin, where I am now.

There's a fair amount of pvp there. Earlier tonight I was AFK up on my nether ray, alt-tabbed watching an episode of House. I heard someone Moonfire me & alt-tabbed back so I could fly away from the asshole druid who was trying to kill me. WTF, can they hit you from midair? I guess that shithead was perching in trees & shooting at me. Name was Saba. Yeah, a fricking druid named after a mackerel.

Then later, while I was doing Oracles quests (green drake!!), I was joined by a pally/druid couple. I think only the druid killed me. The pally stunned me & that was about it.

I hate pallies.

Anyway, earlier this evening I hit 80.

I texted a bunch of FTMers & was answered with various congratulations, some of them enthusiastic, some of them bored-sounding. I like to think that Bryan's typo in "finallb" was a mark of excitedness. No? Oh well.

I think I'm going to be in Sholazar Basin for awhile. Between the fishing & the Oracles rep, it looks like I'll have a lot to do. What I need to know now is... should I respec? No, not Frostfire. I'm ready to deal out a little payback.

After dinging 80, I went to Orgrimmar to train.

Oh, Tamastara.

2009-01-06T01:33:00.009-10:00

There's a lot of fishing in Northrend.

I don't know why it is I gotta play Tamastara. It's not that I want to play a mage, because I have a mage on Uldum & it's just not the same feeling. It's not that I want to be 70+, as we saw with poor Minionette. I don't know what it is. It's not just the evil laugh or the bony elbows.

Every other toon I have is just a character that I have. For whatever reason all the things Tamastara does matter more to me than any of my other characters.

Maybe I need professional help.

Being all alone at odd hours, I get a decent amount of pvp. Leveling my mage on Uldum has kind of screwed me a little, because when push comes to shove I can't always remember that I'M FROST, HELLO. So here I am hitting Blast Wave- oh wait.

I think if I only played Tamastara all the time, it would all come back to me. But even now I get stuck. By 70 I've got so much shit I can use but I can't remember where the hell I put it & the OCD part of my psyche freaks out even more because I'm fairly certain I'm not using it in the most efficient order & then I can't think because it's making so much noise. My therapist says it comes from not feeling safe as a child. Well, fuck.

While questing by the murlocs in Borean Tundra, I made friends with a sweet warrior/pally couple who basically followed me everywhere & ganked me probably about 6-7 times.

The first time it was because they were beating on a nearby warlock so I joined in. Naturally by the time I realized that Corruption & Curse of Agony will make it difficult to sheep & so I finally got a Frostbolt off, the lock was dead & I was alone with a warrior & a pally.

Not one of my more popular fantasies.

Needless to say, I got dursted & I'd probably spent most of the engaged time (like, 3 seconds out of 5) trying to remember where the hell I'd bound everything.

The 2nd & 3rd time I was glad they'd come back because it was painfully obvious I needed the practice. Adrenaline has historically gotten me into a lot of trouble & so from childhood - 4th grade, to be specific - I trained myself to kind of shut down when the adrenaline levels surged. Instead, everything slows down & I think to myself, "Is that numpad 3 over there, or is it numpad -? Gosh darn, I wish these buttons would show more than the 1st character of the binding." And by then I'm dead.

The last few times my newfound friends got me I realized that they were anticipating my location by the questline I was on, & that pissed me off. I mean, it wasn't like we were doing the same quests; they were deliberately lying in wait for me. I put up some decent fight at the end but I can't kill a warrior with a pally healing him. And I can't sheep a pally with DoTs on her. And that warlock was on the same questline.

And then there was the pally/DK team. Actually, initially it was just a DK that jumped me while I was pulling a mob. I rezzed, medded, went & found her, & waited until she was done with her mob so that we could go again & she could kick my ass.

I don't know anything about DKs, which explains why I was willing to stand inside her anti-magic thingy & wonder why she wasn't getting hurt. Frankly, the fact that there are so many damn DKs running around is probably good reason to roll one myself so I can learn what those 5 million direct damage, instant cast, self healing spells they have are. Fuckers. I hate DKs.

NERF DEATH KNIGHTS.

I figure I'll level a DK after I get Tamastara to 80. I can only do so many different things at once. I have the mage & priest on Uldum, & Tamastara here. And all this fishing.

There are some very cool quests on Northrend. I've been enjoying them. When I was in 9th grade, my favorite band was Ratt. I also had a succession of pet rats that one of the senior guys would get for me. Two of them ran away into the wild, 1 ("Rook") ate wolmanized wood & died, & my last one, a gentle, affectionate Rowan I named Rue, lived a few years before developing cancer (Rowans do that) & growing tumors all over her body.

I buried her at one of my favorite hiking spots.

I made Channon log on to make me a 2nd bank tab because all the herbs & fish wouldn't fit in my own bank & I didn't want to make a mule. Because when I make mules I forget what they have on them.

One of the guys at the bar, who plays FFxi, asked me how the new WoW expansion was. I said it was great. He then asked me if it made WoW a better game. When I didn't understand the question, he explained that the latest FFxi expansion had made FFxi a better game.

"That's because FFxi needed to become better," I said. "WoW is already a great game & the expansion doesn't change the game, only adds more content, making it the same game, with more stuff." I had probably imbibed a significant amount of tequila that night (probably; I'm just guessing, randomly). And that guy still comes in & sits on my bar. He must be really understanding.

I joined a PUG for Azjol Nerub. I did the same for Nexus too. I've had pretty good luck with PUGs; maybe I just bachi'd myself by saying that.

And then there's pvp with level 80 OP classes, who seem to like to hang out at Emerald Dragonshrine. First there was the DK, & then there was the Hunter. I can't learn very much from this. But that DK must have sucked because I got him under 60% before I died. I was 75.

And then it was Christmas.

I have more screenshots, but I think that's enough for now. Tamastara is currently 77 in the Grizzly Hills, enjoying the clean air & good fishing. It may be awhile before I hit 80. But I'm having fun.

Brewfest, literally.

2009-01-02T13:53:00.000-10:00

We were going to 4-man the Brewfest guy. I say 4 man because although there were 5 of us, I was only 61 or 62. Tako had just finished celebrating the football game having a BBQ at his house & was sitting at his desk with an almost-finished bottle of 151. Which he intended to finish.

The first time we wiped it was because we needed a different strategy. The 2nd time, I noticed Tako would lay DoTs, then stop moving, & I'd yell at him on Vent & he would say, "Wha-what? I'm DPSing." I'm not sure if we wiped 3 or 4 times, but the final wipe involved a sound strategy but it was really difficult to play because 1) we couldn't hear eachother over Tako's snoring, & 2) we were laughing too hard.

Anyway, I have Vent recordings & a couple other videos, but Tako's still my friend & I want to keep it that way, so that's all I got. lol

Email me for recordings.

Angryfasay.

2008-12-29T12:26:00.004-10:00

I'd realized that a hunter was not for me. In spite of my lovely corehound & my cuddly devilsaur, rather than enjoying the lack of threat from any mob at all, I found myself battling unconsciousness constantly. It's not fun.

Easy does not equal fun. It's rather disappointing.

So, I rolled a mage. Keith felt that I had some mental issues when I opted to roll a level 1 rather than transfer a mage from another server (I have a couple gnomes), but the fact of the matter was that I WANTED THE ANGRYFACE.

The 1st time I rolled a gnome, I picked the pretty face with the green eyes. It's just automatic to always go for the prettiest face. But then we got those Christmas gnome machines --- whatever they are called --- which we would all 15 of us use before going into a BG. And I would go back & forth in it until I got the Angry Face.

Then one day Channon asked why I didn't roll a gnome with the angry face, & then I could always have the Angry Face gnome.

And so I ended up with a 2nd gnome mage on our old server. Well... I didn't really have an interest in any of the other gnome classes.

Angryface on the old server wasn't of high enough level to be worth transferring, & I felt that having the Angry Face would be more conducive to leveling for me, so I deemed it worthwhile to roll all over again.

Bleh. I forgot what it's like to level a mage.

So while everyone was doing Naxx on Khaz Modan, I was bouncing/hopping along on my Angry Face gnome. Finally getting Pyroblast was like high school graduation. Phil was kind enough to run me through Stockades & then RFD. Warlock AE is pretty bad ass.

We played the looting game again. I also couldn't control myself on several occasions & I ended up charging into the middle of Phil's group & Blast Waving. And then dying. Well, it was fun.

I think Blast Wave has to be the greatest redeeming factor of Mage Fire Spec. I've always been a fan of Frost (Tamastara leveled to 60 Frost... yeah, it took awhile.), but this Blast Wave stuff... & then this Dragon Breath stuff... well, what mage doesn't go crazy for AE?

I should probably keep leveling Angryface. A couple of weeks ago I couldn't stand it any more & I started playing Tamastara (Bloodscalp) & Jaspre (Uldum) again. I just couldn't stay with the herd, although I did try. But the fact of the matter is I think I'm just an Undead chick.

WotLK, continued.

2008-12-15T16:28:00.010-10:00

Rob & Ryan1 were the Dorks To Watch in the race to level 80. I actually don't know who hit it first; I'm thinking Rob but I'm not sure.

I'm not sure I hit 70 before they hit 80.

I still had a ton of quests in Nagrand. I decided to level in Nagrand during the day when Phil wasn't on so that when Phil did log on later, we would still both have the same quests. I ended up doing most of my Nagrand quests, & catching up to Phil at 70, even getting a little ahead of him. Phil's schedule & my schedule didn't match up all that much. But the xp kept rolling in.

I received a call from Ryan2 while I was at dinner at my parents', informing me that if I logged on I could get a panda. I immediately jumped on my sister's computer & logged in. Well. It was a polar bear cub. Not a panda. But still cute. And when you click on it, it makes that same weird Eraserhead Baby noise. I love it.

During this time I was beginning to suspect that I found playing a hunter boring. Perish the thought, said my corehound & my devilsaur. But only too often did I find myself nodding off, or zoning out, as I sat here on autofollow.

But there are dangers.

As if aggroing every Shoveltusk Bull we came across was not sufficient, Phil killed me a few times. I would have thought he was just checking to see if I was awake except that he died too.

Another time we received a quest that required us to swim to a spot across the water, & instead of riding down I decided to just jump off the cliff into the water. Only, the edge of the water was a little farther than my calculations had determined.

Phil rode down.

Then there was the day that I was chatting with Ryan2 about various events, & I began getting an annoying constant pop up error. I continued to chat with him, trying to ride through Nagrand while dealing with this stupid box that kept popping up.

The error message said something about "wtfroflthis" & I was fearful that it was some kind of insidious prank, so I decided to ask the guild if anyone knew anything about it. At the same time, Ryan2 also said he was getting the same error.

And then I thought, "This is like... a chat STD."

I ended up downloading an error frame mod from Curse while I tried to figure out what it was. In the end, Bryan convinced me to do what you're supposed to do, & I disabled all my addons & turned them back on one at a time. Turns out it was due to using an outdated version of Carbonite.

What I get for using cheater mods.

I don't know if using a mod like Carbonite or Questhelper ruins the discovery aspect for me. I guess it does. But frankly, I was so ridiculously bored playing my hunter that I didn't really care enough to gauge my experience. You see me speaking in past tense but just be patient; we'll get to my mage eventually. I've still got a lot of screenshots.

Howling Fjord is beautiful.

Bryan's birthday is November 26. Since this year Turkey Day fell on the 27th, I had to do something else to celebrate.

And then there was the thing with Fishing.

I level Fishing on just about every character. There's always a character I roll that I say, "No. On this toon, I'm not going to do fishing. I don't need to do fishing on this toon. It's such a big timesink. All my other toons can fish, so I don't need to do it on this one. Just this one. No fishing. No. Don't talk to the trainer. Walk away."

Sometimes I can hold out for many levels. Sometimes as many as 40 levels.

It's Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris that will get me. Or, if I'm really, really strong, sometimes I make it as far as Azshara.

And then I go train fishing. There's no getting past Azshara without going fishing. Seriously. I should probably take Azshara completely off the itinerary for any leveling because it takes me so long to get out of that zone. All I do is fish. It takes an hour to finish a single quest.

And does anyone remember this reference, from my very first blog, now lost forever since I deleted my MySpace account? Who is Joc?

At 72 Phil & I needed The Nexus. And our wish was granted, with Travis tanking on his Death Knight & Rob healing. In addition to that, we had 2 locks - Phil & Tako.

So my first trip through The Nexus was extremely quick & everything was very pretty. I don't know if I'll ever experience an instance with a group the appropriate level.

Oh well. I'll live.

Sheesh, I had no idea I took so many pictures in there. Sorry.

Phil & I got a quest which required us to collect doo doo from bats (not from RFK.). After pooping, the bat would attack us & we'd have to kill it. To circumvent this, Phil figured out that calling the bats down to a raised surface caused them to poop but be unable to attack. The bats would reset & then we'd call them back down for some more poop.

One of the things about running around with an overpowered class (yeah, listen to the hunter saying that) is that outside of jumping off cliffs we don't die too much. It's also nice to watch a little gnome running around with 10 mobs on him while I informally shoot at them.

I knew Phil would level faster without me, & I actually was really missing my mage. So at 74 we agreed to just solo upward.

Thanks Phil! And watch out for that axe.

And then there was the little discussion between Tako, Darren, & Phil. The server was about to restart, & they were discussing other players asking Darren about his lifetime pvp title. All it took was a little suggestion to really get the conversation heated.

You guys are such dorks. I love it.

I tried to get the last 15 seconds but failed. For the record, it was Phil.

WotLK on Khaz Modan.

2008-12-15T04:48:00.009-10:00

November 13, 2008.

I was still only 67. I'd busted a proverbial nut getting there & I was still too low to go to Northrend. My own fault, of course. I had dilly dallied for quite awhile.

When I made 68, I still had a ton of green quests in Nagrand. To this day I still haven't even set foot in Blade's Edge Mountains or Netherstorm. I've been to Shadowmoon Valley once, to get my slow flying mount. It was all the spiders & birdmen. All that rep grinding.

Everyone else was already enroute to 71, with Ryan1 already there. At Kanpai we'd jokingly mused over who would hit 80 first, & I had been confused as to why there was even any doubt that it would be Ryan1. Dude is a nutcase. He's crazy. I can't believe he has a girlfriend. Unless she's the one standing there with the little tub for him to poop in.

Ok, I'm just joking. It was also a bad mental image. But seriously. Ryan1 is on drugs.

When I hit 68 the only person willing/low enough level to participate in my Northrend Debut was Phil. Tako got a lot of Ladies' Man mileage from my good fortune. However, a Hunter, a Devilsaur, a Warlock & a Felguard make a pretty kick ass questing group. I got so sloppy it was ridiculous & Phil would just ride straight through Shoveltusk Bulls like that was the way he meant to go. Then he'd get unhorsed & we'd have to kill it.

One of the coolest early quests was rescuing baby murlocs. You know, baby murlocs --- those things that some bastards got for going to one of the damn geekfests that I can never go to. Dammit.

Just for a little while, I could have baby murloc pet. They made the coolest noises. Little happy gurgles. I was going adoption crazy. Crazy, I tell you.

Part of me was foolish enough to hope that maybe... just maybe, we were going to get to keep one of the little tadpoles as a quest reward. Of course, then I would have seen folks running around with these in tow all over Northrend. But no, logic is not my strongest suit when it comes to pets.

And here, I'm going to have to say "To Be Continued" because it's 5:15am & I'm fricking tired. I shall post up the rest of the November 13+ pics tomorrow or something. Goodnight.

For Khaz Modan!

2008-12-13T00:23:00.000-10:00

With my new Gucci pet, I proceeded to dilly dally about with Minionette's leveling.

Hallowed End trick-or-treating got me Sinister Squashling pets for both Minionette & my I Still Yearn To Spam Frostbolt gnome mage, thereby insuring the life of both characters.

The Echoes of Doom patch brought a lot of very cool new things to gameplay, like Achievements (this spells disaster for people with OCD) & a free Fire Ball for Deep Frost mages. Yeah, I do still yearn.

I did get a lot of help from my higher level guildies, but frankly I didn't empty out that Rested XP for a long time. Right off the bat I screwed myself regarding faction: after taking the tour of Shatt, I chose alignment with the Scryers.

This decision was made not for the cool enchants or the tradeskilling items you could get from the Scryers, but because the Scryers' platform was lower to the ground than the Aldors' & so I could usually survive jumping from it.

I hate elevators, ok?

The reason why taking Scryers was bad was because it turned out there were almost 300 Marks of Sargeras in the guild bank.

So, just minutes after I had aligned myself with The Scryers, I found myself outside in Terrokar, killing spiders. I think I leveled 62-63 just getting Neutral with The Aldor. But on the bright side, I also collected a few stacks of Netherweb Silk that I could give to our tailors.

This pain & suffering reminded me about Lower City rep, & I think I leveled 63-64 just grinding Arakkoa Feathers. So, at 64, I still had a buttload of green quests in Zangarmarsh & even Hellfire. I hadn't even touched the quests in Terokkar.

As November 13th neared, I found myself still dilly dallying. My wake up call was when Ryan2, 70, flew over to Zangarmarsh solely to help me finish my quests. I tried to get some decent screenshots but that guy just doesn't stand still.

At that point I realized that I had a good reason to get Minionette to 70, so that I could actually do stuff with everyone else when the new expansion came out. And I had about a week. It also reminded me that there were a lot of really nice people in my guild that I wanted to play with.

You know, it makes me nauseous, how everyone is always saying that Hunters are "so ezmode." BECAUSE IT'S TOTALLY TRUE. It's ridiculously true. Tako advised me to go tame a Devilsaur from Un'Goro because they were faster leveling pets than Corehounds (It's like Victorinox vs Gucci. Which one has more pockets?), & so I went & picked one up. And sure enough, even a few levels short, things flew even faster than they already had been. I'm a Hunter & that was a pun. Oh well.

I did 5 levels in less than a week. And then November 13th found me standing outside Ala Moana GameStop at 11pm, cutting in line with Jahni & Fique, so I could get my copy of Wrath Of The Lich King.

And that's the next blog.

Landing on Khaz Modan.

2008-12-11T18:15:00.001-10:00

So, I didn't want to play Alliance.

However, the very guys that got me to start playing WoW again (luring me back with a Horde contingent, on a PvP server) were joining other old friends with their uber Alliance toons to play on a PvE server. No, it didn't make it sound any better.

To add to my misery, the only Alliance character I had above 60 was a Hunter, & after playing Deep Frost on Tamastara when Burning Crusade came out, I knew that my mage was simply more fun. Thinking I had found my home, I never went back to my dear Minionette, as ezmode as she was.

But now I had to.

To help the pill go down, the guys --- including one guildie who is probably sorry he did anything to help me since then --- took me to MC to get me a corehound. It was my first night back & not only did I have to spec Beast Mastery, a tree I had not previously explored, I just plain had to remember how to play a hunter at all.

I know hunters don't require very much. It was more like I had to train myself to not try to spam Frostbolt with a crossbow.

So, we entered MC.

I screwed up trying to tame 3 or 4 dogs. At level 62 I'd do a smooth body pull, or aggro an extra mob. I'd manage to trap the dog, but not take my autoshoot off (I think that was what was happening). It was a little ridiculous & I was sweating bricks here, worried that I was wasting everyone's time with my ineptitude.

I finally did manage to tame a doggy, but it took several stress-filled minutes of Tako tanking & the healers minimally healing him as I did everything I could think of to get fricking aggro without using up too much mana. Remembering I had fricking Distracting Shot helped. You understand, I hadn't played Minionette in almost 2 years. But finally... it worked.

We then continued on, probably for nostalgia, & downed Garr just before the server shut down.

Anyway, thanks guys. If hunter pets were bags, you guys gave me a Gucci.

Last days on Bloodscalp

2008-11-21T19:49:00.000-10:00

I know, I know --- you're all going to vomit if you hear me whine about how I would rather play Horde because it's less gay which makes it more immersive for me. And how I would rather play on a pvp server because, well, it's less gay & because I like world pvp.

Well.

Vomit away, you freaking gay bastards.

It was with a moderate sense of horror that I received the news - disgruntled Alliance FTMers on Staghelm & formerly disgruntled FTM Alliance players who had, when Burning Crusade came out, migrated to Zangarmarsh & named themselves after what they felt like they were on Staghelm --- "The Forgotten" ---were now merging on an LA based server called Khaz Modan to perhaps lose the disgruntledness & be happy again.

Gayness!!!

So I had no idea, this day when we ran Magisters Terrace on heroic mode, that I would have to choose between my beloved, naughty Tamastara &... gayness. But I'd have to choose the latter if I wanted to play with my friends. As gay as they might be.

I do have a couple of videos from this run posted up on YouTube. You have to click on the "View in high quality" link at the bottom right of the screen to be able to see anything though. Otherwise it looks like crap. If anyone knows how to SHOW the video in high quality by default, please tell me how.

I continued to queue up for BGs even though a general sense of lack of direction in regards to BGs had settled in. I continued to kill hunters' pets & then run away. Some things just become habit, I guess.

One day we decided to run some of the Coilfang instances, & I was the first to get to the summoning stone. There was a human pally named Rowend also hanging out, & since I'm of the "live & let live, but it would be more fun if you hit me" philosophy, I hung out with him. I just cruised. His armor sure was pretty.

Rowend didn't make a move until one of his friends showed up, which I think is kind of weaksauce, since his shit was from Neiman Marcus & my shit was from Jeans Warehouse. Instead he waited for one of his friends to show up --- as luck would have it, a hunter --- & then the two of them karanged my ass without even giving me a slight chance at downing the pet.

I wept.

This probably caused my friends to swim a little faster. By the time my rather bruised ghost ass had gotten back to the summoning stone & rezzed there was already a decent skirmish going on. We continued to arrive & they apparently also had more coming.

We had three stealthers & besides Ryan1 & so in the end it turned out kind of how most of our world pvp tends to turn out: us camping them for as long as we possibly could as if we had no lives whatsoever.

Of course we have lives.

What we didn't have was marshmallows. I mean... you'd think that a role playing game that allows you to buy supplies to make a campfire would also have marshmallows somewhere.

But no. No marshmallows.

Oh well.

Eventually we did run out Alliance & we ended up running our instance.

A couple of pics of Stratholme with Tako's 3 characters & Rob. Damn, can druids tank. I did go on several AE sprees in here. And I died. At level 70, I died AEing in Stratholme. /sigh

Also, I want an elephant baby. I want one.

This picture is from Quel'Danas; I found that if you sheep a mounted Blood Knight after aggroing (not before; he has to be aggroed), it's extra embarrassing for the Blood Knight. This piece of information may have been the catalyst to Keith's return to magedom on Tichondrius after a several month break. "I'm gonna log in just so I can see that," he told me.

And finally, a pleasant memory to end my little space of happiness with Tamastara. I left the pictures big because... well, because I'm lazy.

But this picture is normal sized.

I guess I can only hope that eventually we get tired of doing whatever we're doing on the new server & we return to our Horde characters on Bloodscalp. I mean, dammit, we had only just transferred there. A lot of the guys we're playing with on Khaz Modan won't play on the Horde side because it would be more work for them, or maybe some of them don't want to play ona pvp server.

Normally I would just say "You guys have fun; I'm going to go do what I want to do," but in this instance I decided to put the direction of the group before my own. Only time will tell if that was a stupid decision or not. But I tend to think not.

Still, I sure miss Tamastara. I really miss her.

Slammers, June 2008

2008-11-08T02:32:00.001-10:00

Sorry for the long delay. It was a pretty full summer & I'm only now getting to a buttload of pictures & other recordings that have piled up. These are some pictures from a get together back in June, when we still had Monday night pizza at Slammers on Kalakaua.

Basically, I have a bunch of pictures of Brent in his final stages of Alcohol Victiminity (of course that's a real word.). This is just one of the ways Brent won his way into being a permanent fixture in the GMOTD.

For the record, Brent did drink a lot of shots & so I commend him for being a good sport, & for providing us with great entertainment. You get boring when you get old, you know.

At glasses up (much to Brent's distress, as expressed in the video!) everyone moved out into the parking lot. On any other night we'd make plans to eat somewhere or say goodbye & go home, but on this evening we all hung out in back of Slammers because... because it was entertaining to do so.

Landing on Bloodscalp.

2008-09-25T15:32:00.001-10:00

When Bryan first started leveling his rogue with us on Onyxia, I recall one of the first things he said was "Who the fuck picked this server?"

On my mage I didn't really notice the 350+ ping except when I tried to CS. But when I decided to level my rogue I noticed there was a problem. For months we agonized over it; Phil, Tako, Baron & I rolled level 1s on various LA-based servers, reporting pings to eachother. We kept checking & checking. Bryan's subscription expired & he disappeared. I no longer had someone to mock in guildchat. I mean, there's Tako but he gives me the guilt trip so it's no fun.

It took Channon, & the opening of PvE to PvP transfers, to put things in motion. "I'm moving my druid to Onyxia," he said. "No, wait; we're going to move to an LA based server so don't transfer until we know which one," I said.

"I'm gonna move him," Channon said.

Fuckfuckfuck. "K, hold on," I said. I checked my notes. I knew that I was going to have to make a decision --- something that we had all avoided for months & months. No one wanted to choose the new server. If it turned out fucked up in any way, the chooser would be to blame. I didn't want to choose the new server. What if it wasn't that much of a latency improvement? What if Ryan1 had decided he didn't want to transfer now? What if Bryan had actually by now decided never to reactivate his account?

"Bloodscalp," I said.

Channon moved his druid to Bloodscalp.

I sent out the email.

The next day I moved Tamastara, &, even though I had said I wasn't going to until she hit 70, Isep. To be honest, it made more sense to have my rogue over where there was a more reasonable ping than my mage.

As agreed, I Paypal'd Kevin $25 but was let off the hook by Aaron. I held my breath as Ryan2 reported a ping of 82 (what?? I got 150!!) & slowly FTMers trickled over.

Channon made the guild charter & Phil, Alex & Miles, who couldn't transfer just yet, rolled level 1s to provide signatures. The accessibility of various friends' accounts also helped. See, it's trust that keeps us together. Literally.

And FTM was established on Bloodscalp.

Bryan, King of Dorks, informed me that he would eventually return to claim his title when business events gave him more time. I called him a fag. I threw things at him. Then we drank Corrallejo & I forgot what I had been talking about.

Bloodscalp, so far, seems to have more Alliance than Onyxia did. Of course, Onyxia had more Alliance than Shattered Halls, since I'm certain I actually saw red once or twice on Onyxia.

During my first week on Bloodscalp I can recall getting jumped by Alliance twice in a 3 hour period, which is more than I've gotten since Tichondrius (nothing can beat Tichondrius world pvp. Oh... but then, we were Alliance.). The first time I got dursted by a warlock. Once upon a time, dursted. The end.

The second time it was a human priest who jumped me while I was farming Firewing Signets in Terokkar; luckily Vanish was up & I had 5 stacks of Flash Powder in my bags from pickpocketing.

She ran around looking for me. Like a little kitty cat, I slunk off. She started pulling mobs to try & lure me out. Yeah, I may never forgive myself. I just might not have been ready. I mean, it had been so long. It's like, ghost town.

While I was questing in Nagrand I was jumped by a gnome rogue, who got me the first time. I got him the 2nd time.

He got me the 3rd time.

Then his Night Elf priest friend showed up & I failed to get either of them the 4th time.

I failed the 5th time too.

And by then Channon, level 64 I think, had landed in Nagrand to help rectify (heh, I said "rectify.") the situation.

Rob came along as well & the three of us had a short stint of stealth camping, made successful mostly by the gnome's tenacity; he was determined to stick around & kill at least one of us before we got him. I realized that Combat Swords wasn't much use in pvp. For one, I needed to move faster while stealthed. Dammit.

Being a stealth jacker --- really, that's what a rogue is --- definitely has its upsides, regardless of what spec. One day some guy named Puunisher was asking for help at Ring of Blood because some Alliance were jumping them when they engaged the NPCs.

I was chatting with Keith on the phone at the time. I was level 67. Puunisher, & Pawnisher, reported being harrassed by 3 level 70s - a paladin, warrior & druid.

"I should go," I told Keith, resignedly. I had visions of being camped by 3 level 70s - a deadly class combination as well - basically like being camped by someone 143 levels higher than me, if you do the math - but dammit, do unto others! Besides, I was on my rogue. I'm supposed to pvp. And dammit, I'm LAUREN, MOTHERFUCKERS.

ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT??

Anyway.

"I would just turn around & head the other way," Keith advised me. But then he thought about it. "Ring of Blood, though..."

"I'm already here," I said.

So anyway, I'd say that our move to Bloodscalp is going pretty well so far. I've been badly neglecting my leveling efforts on Uldum, but hey, Bryan's doing welcoming committee shit at Kanpai & he's the bastard who wanted to move in the first place. I'm just the messenger. And the person who picked the server. And it's good. Right?

...Right?

Female Draenei Faces

2008-07-30T18:03:00.000-10:00

I was thinking of visiting my friends on Zangarmarsh last night, & as I contemplated the Character Creation screen the OCD kicked in.

Last Days Before S4

2008-07-29T00:39:00.000-10:00

Well, I had a few more days of fun with guildies before Season 4 came out & they all went back to Staghelm. Oh well. I guess it was fun for awhile.

I eventually got Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive doing daily quests in Quel'Danas. I say eventually because there were many distractions & I was somewhat preoccupied while working on my quests every day.

I mean, I can't be expected to just grind out quests when people are trying to kill me. It's... it's just not polite. And you know me.

Always trying to be nice.

So then there was the day that my friend Darren (Wetard) was getting camped by a couple of 70s from Most Hated in STV. I actually wasn't familiar with the guild Most Hated, although I would come to be. Basically, at the beginning of this fight, I didn't hate them. Heh.

Kevin reached them first & basically played chase master with the pally & mage until I got there. And since I went around the wrong side of Gurubashi when I first arrived, I guess it's a good thing Kevin's got mad skillz at chase master.

Davin joined us with his warrior, & we killed them & camped them, then killed them & camped them... you get the idea. When they died far apart we split up & camped them. Etcetera.

Eventually we killed them & camped them up to the Rebel Camp. We thought about sitting outside & jeering at them but it was more fun to just enter the camp & kill them some more.

As a side note, I made a mistake while typing out the alignment HTML for these 2 screenshots, & ended up with a kind of pleasant picture-text layout. I think I'm gonna keep it.

Anyway, as can be predicted, eventually their friends showed up. If anything can be said for Most Hated, they have guildies who come to help eachother out.

That's cool.

Although their guildies did show up one at a time, it was still fun to see the odds slowly stack up against us. It seemed only fair, anyway, since the odds had been somewhat unkind to Salenne & Hajiie to begin with.

Oh, but wait --- except for when they were picking on a level 37 shaman. Ah ha!!

Anyway, the day's fun slowly wound down as more & more Most Hated showed up. It was still fun, of course, but since my length of time spent alive was getting shorter & shorter between rezzes I'd have to say the Fun factor was getting compromised.

It happens.

One hordie showed up, but he turned out to be a cross-faction friend of Most Hated. Oh well. It was fun anyway.

In other news, I finally got my Arcatraz run. =)

We also had some fun when Brent went AFK.

I think Ryan1 did end up having to die (did Feign Death get resisted?) while we stood at the end of the hallway giggling to ourselves like evil schoolchildren. But it was worth it.

It probably would have been even funnier if Ryan1 decided to bring the mobs down the hall to us & wipe everybody, but he didn't. I guess that's a good thing.

And, more time for fun in... I forget where this is. Mechanar? Botanica? Sheesh, it was a long time ago.

And then this picture made me think of what it was like to be married. Thank God I was able to get out of THAT one.

In addition to running much-needed instances & getting back at those asshole Fel Reavers, we also did a few BGs. Ryan1 is indeed leet, by the way.

Oh!

And Arena! I got to go again! And we actually won some games! I didn't end up feeling like a complete loser!

I don't know if it's that I finally got my Resilience over 300. I worked my butt off getting the Honor needed to buy that 40k Medallion of the Horde. Took me almost a week since I refuse to use any of those cheater botting mods.

I have to admit, though... it's tempting. I think to myself how much wear & tear I'm putting on my poor overworked hands, & how I could just do it while I'm sleeping, or while I'm at work. Just for a few hours.

But no.

I'd rather know exactly how I got whatever I've got.

And then we took three rogues --- including Isep --- to my favorite instance.

Scholomance.

With Logs tanking & Ryan1 healing, we three rogues didn't have a whole lot to worry about. We only wiped once when Logs ran up to Marduk Blackpool & whacked him, aggroing the entire room of students.

Couldn't resist.

It was fun though. And we got them all the second time around. Probably faster than two mages would have. I don't know.

I also got to take a couple of cheap shots at Tako.

Hee hee.

And in other news, Audrey & I ran around on some alts. I was so inspired by Davin's Wrath Of Air totem that I rolled a shammy. Kind of a pain in the ass to level, though. I got to 10 & then I was frustrated.

And then there was the Midsummer Fire Festival. I don't get it; is this supposed to allude to the 4th of July? I did a whole lot of torch catching in hopes of earning enough blossoms to buy that Dancing Flame. I'm about 2% of the way. Yeah, I'm a lousy torch catcher.

One of the quests offered involves putting out the big flames in enemy territory, thereby depriving them of this cool buff. This meant that there were sometimes Alliance in Horde territory.

We found some, outside Thunder Bluff. I got there as soon as I could.

It was a group of some gay guild called BestFriendsForeverClub, & some of them had pvp gear, but maybe they weren't used to world pvp. So we killed them, & we camped them, then we killed them & camped them, then we chased them & killed them, & camped them... you get the idea. Other Alliance came to help out, in vain. It got awfully monotonous.

In the end the Alliance all scattered & ran away --- we killed them as far as we could but we couldn't catch 'em all. We tried. Ryan & Kevin eventually headed back to Shatt, but Logs & I decided to try to hold on to our newfound friendship with one of the shammies.

We chased him right out of Mulgore & into The Barrens. We caught up with him at one of the Oases, whichever is on the way to Ratchet, where he figured he could get some help from the guards if not his BFFs.

After we killed him in the oasis, Logs hung out by his corpse & I rode ahead to wait patiently on the road to Ratchet.

Yeah, we're so sneaky.

Then we killed him along the road to Ratchet. He was so close to safety! He must have been wondering just how long we would actually wait around just to kill him again.

BGs continued.

And... more AE in Zul'Farrak. This is why I got that mallet, you know. So I could go on ZF runs.

And then this guy. I know there are cheaters (you fuckers) who bot entire AVs all night. But in smaller BGs, like Eye of the Storm, it hurts when someone does that. This guy only went AFK for several minutes of the game, but he's still an asshole. And the fact that he wanted to discuss his asshole with me was just annoying.

Tako also hit 70 on yet another character. Grats Tako! Preez try to Bombzahabba!

So anyway.

I log on to Onyxia, say hello, listen to the echo, then try to get my BG daily done. Krissy's back, & I know Tako & Reid are still around, but most of the time it's just really quiet. I assume the guys will eventually come back to Onyxia once they've gotten all their Brutal gear or once the politics get too stupid, but in the meantime I just feel lazy.

So text me if you guys are going to be on & I'll log on. Til then I'm hanging out somewhere where I don't mind it being that quiet.

Dolcè.

2008-05-18T11:05:00.000-10:00

Foolishly, I still cling to the idea that one day Audrey is going to play WoW again. So when she mentioned thinking about reactivating her account the other night, I decided I was going to roll an Undead priest for her & level it up as a surprise. Back in EQ Audrey had a couple of Iksars named Dolce & Gabbana, & so I used that idea here.

While running around in Tirisfal Glades I actually turn on the music, but on Quel'Danas for some reason I'm just not in the musical mood. A lot of Alliance (& probably Horde) hang out on Quel'Danas just for pvp; it's a nice concentrated area of players, not to mention somewhat scenic.

Yesterday while questing there was quite a bit of pvp, & things went quite well except with this damn warrior. I couldn't freeze this guy to save my life. Literally. He ended up following me all over the island, ultimately killing me twice. How humiliating.

To his credit, Lski didn't emote on me or anything. Frankly, he didn't need to. While I was desperately running from him out amongst the boats, a mage named Plovos who had been in the original forest-side skirmish & a hunter named Doest blithely stood by while I got pwned by this guy.

When I mentioned in General that I was having a bit of trouble out in the water, Doest remarked, "Yeah, I saw. It was funny."

Note to self: fuck Doest. And fuck Plovos.

Makes you want to reroll Alliance sometimes. But anyway.
BGs continue, but not as much. Pets are still dying. I am running out of Light Feathers.

Berhar, as Daifukku, was being camped for quite awhile in Tanaris. A bunch of us flew down, scenting some vengeful pwnage (sure enough, the camper was only 66.). I got there first. Bryan was unable to make it, being on janitor duty at home.

There was actually a 70 druid around as well, but he showed up later, & then only to help Erni escape.

I got there first. I blasted her a couple times, convinced her she wasn't getting away, & then we danced a little bit while Berhar returned to his corpse. To her credit, she kept dancing until the killing blow.

And then we camped her.

Aaron, having arrived too late to get to kill Ernishawa very many times, felt unfulfilled, & so we trotted around Caverns of Time hoping to get some action.

We didn't actually find any Alliance. They found us. As we were riding along, a group of reds descended upon us with the fury of --- I don't know, little mice.

All I have to say is that Aaron is one hell of a healer. Dayam. Staying alive in pvp, especially when we're outnumbered, is something of a revelation to me, for all the little safety valves Deep Frost affords. When Ryan2 joined us the scales were very much tipped in our favor.

Yeah, Berhar. You can get camped any day.
I'll just put all the Zul'Farrak pictures here.

In the last month we've made a couple of runs, & probably the most successful Divin-o-matic AE event was with me & Ryan2, doing a run for Bill. That Seed of Corruption is the shiet. My Blizzard doesn't ever distribute the corpses in a freaking moon design. With a dude in the middle.

That's skillz.

I've never levelled a warlock past 30, in spite of Tako's constant litany that they are the shit. I believe him, although I'm not necessarily scared of warlocks I encounter in BGs. If I hit them for more than 1k, then I know it will probably be alright.

I kill their pets. But anyway.

And then we took Brent to Kara.

This was a different run than the 9-man Moroes, but it was that much more fun. Poor Brent!

Everybody's basically wearing pvp gear. We barely have enough to run Karazhan, much less anything else. Quite frankly with all the 70s we have it's actually a rare treat to run even a 5-man. When I have to help out more often in my dad's office starting June I'll have even less time to play. Although it's possible that I might be able to post blogs from work. But still. I have so many group & dungeon quests just sitting there in my quest log, & you'd think with all these badass guildies I'd be able to get some of them done!!

And yes, I'm complaining. lol

And, look who's playing WoW again. =)

lol
Sunken Temple revisited; I was pleasantly reminded of the AE possibilities in that place. I didn't go SFK, but hopefully Brent did.

And then this guy. I had named the 2 Ryans Ryan1 & Ryan2, but then said that if this Ryan started playing with us, I would just refer to him as Dickhead. I'm sorry. This guy was never nice to me in From Chaos or in FTM. It didn't really occur to me that he was a jerk until he posted a boast about how his pregnant girlfriend had accused him of caring more about the game than her. Proudly, he told us that he'd told her it was because "the game isn't mental."

Now, granted it's her fault for letting him impregnate her. But once she's fettered into the relationship with his child, & preparing to undergo the most dangerous thing she will ever do in her life, him treating her like that just sucks. And then to go brag about it on the guild forums just reduces him to a piece of shit in my eyes. I'm sorry if you guys like him. I don't. That's my prerogative.

And now for some happy shit.

Apparently there was some silly rogue sneaking around Tarren Mill picking on the lowbies. I didn't have anything to do at the time, so it was a welcome diversion. Other players either blow me up or are blown up. This guy was of the latter persuasion.

And now, I think I'll go get some WoW in before I have to go to work. Fishing daily, you know.

Summer of Love

2008-05-01T11:51:00.000-10:00

I never thought I would say it, but I'm beginning to have days when I just don't really feel like playing Battlegrounds. Days when I'd rather just do my daily quests, or go fishing.

Now don't get me wrong --- world pvp is still the prize, whether I destroy or am destroyed, but in Battlegrounds I just kind of fall into the same old routine.

Kill the pet.

Use Point & Laugh macro.

I think my favorite dailies are on the Isle of Quel'Danas, a level 70 island with beautiful scenery & dailies which gain favor with the Shattered Sun faction.

In EQ I always played Dark Elves, & had the initially scary experience of being charged & one-shotted by guards when I ignorantly tried to enter Felwithe or even parts of Freeport. This instilled in me a desire to beef up my faction with various sectors so that I would no longer feel nervous any time I went anywhere they were too... white.

I did finally get to go to Arcatraz, where I enjoyed effective CC (can't even tell you what a luxury it is) as well as discovered the joys of using Spellsteal in PvE.

I'm so backed up with screenshots that frankly at this time I can't even remember very much about Arcatraz. I'm just fricking happy I got to go. Got my key fragment & cleaned up some other quests. I'm hoping to go back some time, but I haven't had a lot of time to play lately, & when I am on, there aren't really enough people to run anything.

Maybe I should just PUG. Hm.

I've gotten so spoilt.

And in other news, I finally got Exalted with Sha'tari Skyguard. Behold, my new horsie.

And then finally, finally, I got to go to Black Morass.

When I was still in Rapture I recall getting an invite to Black Morass, &, remembering it was the instance Keith had said I would enjoy, accepted.

Only to find out that I didn't have the prerequisites to enter, & was booted from the group with a "Sucks to be u" from one of my own Rapture guildies. And then I cried.

Ok, I didn't. But still, it was a bad experience.

So finally I was able to enter this much-anticipated instance, which reminded me of Swamp of Sorrows... but with DRAGONS. Look, dragons!! I took a lot of pictures. It's unfortunate that everything comes out so freaking green --- it was a little less green when I was there. I'm only willing to edit the pictures so much.

When Audrey & I first decided to break away from EH & FTM & roll brand new on another server, I rolled a Blood Elf rogue. I had already played 2 hunters & a mage, & remembering the Synr Babysitting in STV days, I thought it would be cool to level a rogue that could then babysit everyone else. After all, we'd chosen a pvp server.

But when Shattered Halls began accepting incoming transfers in July 2007, I moved Tamastara over, & taking my friend Whut's advice speccing deep Frost, became addicted to the Mage class again. Suddenly I was inadvertently in a levelling race with the other mage in the guild, who seemed to take Tamastara's presence as a red flag. It was to the point where I just didn't even want to log in any more, but if I did, it would be on Tamastara. And poor Isep was put on the backburner.

I do take Isep out on occasion, though. She's got all that Rested XP. and needs to level her Lockpicking, badly.

And for the first time I went to Karazhan. Keith has been telling me all this time that I'll really enjoy Kara. And I did. Although we've only killed 3 bosses so far.

The first time we entered Karazhan, we only went as far as Attumen The Hunter, the first boss. We were all surprised (well, except for me, since it was my first time there & I never expect anything to be hard for these guys) at how easy our initial foray was. We had only 9 people. I forget why the guys decided to stop there; I think someone had to leave.

On our 2nd visit we had only 9 of us again but we downed Moroes. That was a little harder.

And I had to run Magisters Terrace three times to be able to run it Heroic because the first time I didn't click on the orb thing.

The 2nd time I freaking released while we were on the boss Kael'thas, whose head I needed to complete the quest. I know, I know --- I should know these things. But nevertheless I ran back, couldn't loot him, & we had to run me through again, later.

It is finally done though.

World of PvP, continued.

2008-04-29T04:50:00.000-10:00

I knew there was a reason why I was always carrying 2.5 stacks of Light Feathers in my bags.

In Basin, it means I can assist at the Blacksmith after looking down from the Lumber Mill & seeing that they need more hands. And of course Slow Fall is wonderful for surprise attacks at the Gold Mine.

In Eye, it simply means that I can end up in the same place as anyone else within the same amount of time, without taking fall damage.

But most importantly, it looks very cool. And Priests can't do it with Levitate. Heh.

I was in a Warsong Gulch that started off just looking like a simple, straightforward loss. The game started, & a few of us headed in on Offense, but there was no team to speak of & our attempt seemed to disintegrate.

After the Alliance had capped the flag once, I told the group that someone had to agree to go in & get the flag & I would cover their exit. 4 of us went in, I did as promised, & all of a sudden we became a team, complete with communication & camaraderie. Apparently everyone knew how to operate as a team, but someone had to actually say something to get a concerted effort.

It was actually pretty exciting when everyone began working together, but we definitely worked very hard. 188 honor doesn't seem like enough.

Anyway.

In other news, I helped Liltu evasion tank Stratholme... & we saved the girl! I've never saved the girl before. Someone called it a 45-minute Strat. Well, I guess that was my first one. Very pleased.

More hunters siccing their pets on me in Eye, then calling their pets back... too late.

I know... it's getting boring.

One day we were in a group, about to run something, when Davin made some new friends just outside Shatt. Eventually they gave up, but it was fun for a little while.

Old Hillsbrad. Since back in that time there weren't Undead & Taurens, etc., we all had human forms once we entered. Good to know I didn't get the "old lady" face.

As I've said before, it's a treat to be able to run instances with people who are not only my friends, but who know what they're doing.

Sometimes, although lately rather often, I find myself in a group of friends who know what they're doing... & I don't know what I'm doing. I've heard Logs rip people new assholes, so being in a group with him always adds a little bit of excitement for me. Like when I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing, & it becomes a little riskier-feeling when I make guesses.

I think Logs hasn't yelled at me (yet) because I'm a girl.

Yeehaw, girl card.

I don't remember grouping with Keda-Logan much, but I bet it was similarly exciting. Except that I don't know if Keda-Logan answered random trivia questions while tanking & ripping new assholes.

Kevin: So Logan, who was the first man to climb Mount Everest?
Logan (without pause): I believe that would be Edmund Hillary.
Kevin: And what country lowered their flags to half mast at his death?
Logan: Uh, New Zealand.
Me: What the fuck.

And... pvp continues. It's rare but nice to get shatter crits on other players. This is mostly because they never stay frozen long enough. So it's nice when it actually does happen.

More time spent defending Halaa.

And... pvp continues. I'm sitting down drinking in Nagrand, & I see a little NE hunter looking at me. He smiles at me. I smile at him.

We need to freaking nerf Hunters. Hunters are certainly overpowered. But not that overpowered. For whatever reason he attacks (yay!), but then starts running once he realizes he is going to die; he doesn't get to run very far of course. The 70 human warlock didn't lift a hand to help him as he ran by either.

I probably should have just killed his cat & then gone after him (oh, poor thing, no flying mount?), but I figured I would be straightforward about it.

And that's all for now. I still haven't gotten through April's screenshots, but the sun is rising already & I need to go to bed.

Adventures on Onyxia, continued

2008-04-05T01:20:00.000-10:00

While I waited for the rest of the guys to level to 70 (Birdy being in the lead), I made friends with Liltu & Keyker, uber rogue & mage, respectively. I'd first met Liltu when I came in as the 5th for a Shadow Labs run. Apparently I didn't fuck up too badly, & Liltu began inviting me on other excursions, almost always with groups that completely outclassed me in gear & experience. I was pugging but I was still spoilt.

BGs were no exception. I was (still am) so undergeared I would get blown up over & over again, while everyone else simply kept fighting. Once in some heroic the priest literally told me I shouldn't even be running heroics dressed as I was. In another BG, someone gave me shit about my staff, & I was so embarrassed I bought a blue staff off the AH during the queue, but entered the next BG with my fishing pole equipped. Naturally someone pointed it out. Bleh.

In other news, I maxed out my fishing.

Also, at this time I should mention that Aaron, Kevin, Ryan1, Ryan2, & I (did I miss anyone?) were still in Rapture, which was the Karazhan guild Aaron's friends were in.

While the leader Fleise & her boyfriend were really nice, the vast majority of the guild was annoying. There were a few people I had on Ignore, like that idiot Lousiffer after he spent an evening ranting about what a "tard" his wife was. He later revealed that he was in therapy for some kind of behavioral handicap. Shocker.

Guildchat was usually either stupid... or stupid. And then there were a few puritans who couldn't handle foul language, & the subsequent guild discussion was so childish on both sides that I couldn't wait to ditch these monkeys.

One day I logged in & 5 Rapture guildies said hello to me, which was a first. I was then informed that I was now the only level 70 mage, & pledges were made to help me key for Karazhan, etc etc. I was overwhelmed, since previously even when I said hello in guildchat it was generally ignored.

It took me a few days to get used to being greeted when I got online. Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. I discovered another level 70 mage, Abscent, had been guilded, & so I was no longer The Golden Child. Abscent, while pvping, bragged to Liltu & Keyker that he had an application in with Hell.

I gloated gleefully, anticipating my return to popularity in Rapture. Yeah right. I felt a sense of rightness knowing that I didn't have to feel any kind of kinship for these fair weather noobs, & when I told Bryan about it, he had exactly the right response. Thank you, Bryan.

And then, serendipity. Tichondrius, housing many of our old, beloved Horde characters, was overfull & Blizzard offered free character moves to --- of all servers --- Onyxia. It was like God heard my prayers. Suddenly we had enough to make our own guild.

But anyway, pvp was still occurring. I was grouped with a pally in Netherstorm when we were jumped by a pally/warrior duo. I released & ran back looking for them, & was rewarded when they appeared, chasing a troll rogue & his 3 mobs, just as I finished rebuffing & medding.

The rogue escaped the warrior at low health, & I saw the pally bringing up the rear at half health, busy healing his partner as she battled the 3 mobs. I nuked the fuck out of the pally & the rogue came back to deliver the coupe de grace on the warrior before she even figured out where I was. Payback in less than 3 minutes. Who could ask for more.

Several minutes later my pally friend showed up (pussy), & as we stood there medding, our 2 friends appeared, mounted & half health.

My fucking partner waved at them. I thought I was going to vomit.

We did see them again a little while later, but they left. Disappointment. Chances are my pally partner would have let me down. He seemed like a wuss.

Then there was that human priest that jumped me while I was farming runecloth (needed to level Tailoring) in EPL. I killed her the first time, only to die to her SW:P just afterward. Consequently she had the jump again when I rezzed, & so we parted ways 1:2. Fuck.

BGs, of course, continued. I was pretty determined to get my Gladiator's set, especially the freaking staff. 27k honor for that thing. I toiled & toiled. Thank goodness for friends like Liltu & Keyker.

And then came the day that I had a bunch of level 60+ FTM guildies. I'd run RFC, WC, SM, & ZF until I wanted to pull my hair out. But finally, finally... I had guildies in Outlands.

I don't remember if Kevin (Birdy) was the first to 70. Ryan1 levelled his hunter pretty damn fast, & Aaron had (has) that cool off/on work schedule that allowed him to chronic for days in a row. I want a schedule like that.

Anyway, spending a day helping the guys complete their group quests in Hellfire Peninsula was rewarding. It's a luxury, you know, to have guildies who know what they're doing, & it's reward in itself to help them accomplish whatever it is they need to accomplish. You know, help out your fellows.

Especially since they keep running into Alliance.

Ok, here's the thing about me & pvp. I don't like to hit them first. If they hit me then I gleefully hit back. That was how Audrey & I operated on Tichondrius, & I like the idea of discriminating. Sure, we play on a pvp server... but it doesn't mean that we have to kill every single red that comes along. To me, that's boring. Maybe I belong on a freaking RP server. Meh.

One day Terry & Tako were attempting the pvp daily in Hellfire Peninsula & found themselves at the mercy of a level 70 rogue & mage. Logs was there when I arrived, & died as I failed to negotiate the top of the Stadium on my newly acquired epic flying mount.

Yeah, that's right. I hit the side of the building instead of landing on top of it. Yeah, ha ha.

A rather drawn out battle, full of camp fires & Tako dying over & over again, ensued. I was not critting on this rogue at all. We had the upper hand for a bit, & then it all went to shit when I ceased paying attention & let the mage get a shot at me while I hovered in the air feeling omnipotent.

And then Firewind was warming his mana pool by the side of my camp fire.

We did get the last kill in, though. The rogue finally left, & Firewind stuck around long enough to kill me & Tako, but succumb to Terry's Blind Mullet style.

And then we GTFO'd.

And yes, I was a bad girl. Say hello to my little friend.

Needless to say, the guys levelled very quickly. If I wasn't already 70 when they rolled level 1s I would have been left in the dust.

On Shattered Halls, I had soloed Tamastara to 70. There were only a few of us in Bunnies, & the only other guildie who was on often didn't like me (actually, almost all of them didn't like me), so I had run very few instances. In fact, I had only been in Ramparts & Blood Furnace solely due to the graces of an undead priest in another guild who would call on me whenever he needed a mage. He was in Georgia, however, & our hours rarely coincided; he'd said he was going to get me in on Karazhan runs with his guild, but by the time I hit 70 I was discouraged enough to stop playing WoW altogether.

Running stuff with Liltu & Keyker was wonderful; both of those guys were so skilled & geared that I operated under a ton of pressure, but it was a great experience. With the rise of FTM on Onyxia, I found myself playing with dear friends again, & not having my sheeps broken over & over again, & seeing mobs successfully Freeze trapped, & then trapped again, & correctly & matter-of-factly executed LOS pulls.

You guys have no idea what a luxury that is.

And of course, I have no complaints in the pvp area.

I ran into Hrist again, in EotS. I killed her. I enjoy Eye of the Storm; it's unfortunate that even when you win it yields so little honor.

And then there was the day we grouped up & went to The Ring of Blood to complete the series of quests there. For those who don't know, basically your group has to fight a series of champions in the little arena, the Ring of Blood. The fights are tough enough without interference.

When we first arrived, there was another group of Horde doing the fights. We jumped in & helped them, hoping that they would stay & help us. No such luck. We were lucky to find someone to tank for us, & then we started the events.

The first Alliance member who jumped in on us while we were fighting a champion ruined our fight, causing us to have to abandon & start over. Reds continued to show up, all members of Film Actors Guild; we killed them, but failed our matches. Finally they outnumbered us & we succumbed to slaughter.

Then the idiots started the Ring of Blood quests for themselves.

Bill (Clackh) invited me on a Shattered Halls pug, & while he & another group member were outside they got hit by a group of Alliance. PvP followed.

I put in a decent amount of time defending Halaa. I spent a lot of time in Nagrand farming Oshu'gun Powder so I could get my 18-slot Halaani bag (which I did; thank you).

I give props to any Alliance who go after pvp objectives on any pvp server, because they're always outnumbered. There are always armies of pvp-hungry Horde all over the place, just looking for something red. When I hear of a Crossroads raid I feel great admiration. God bless those Alliance. God bless them for coming over so we can kill them.

One day a couple of Horde were asking for help defending Halaa; a group of Alliance had killed all the guards & them as well, & they were unable to rezz. I wish I had screenshotted swooping in on the tightly clustered group of reds & basically Frost AEing them dead.

Sometimes it doesn't even work that well with mobs.

As I type, Brent is still not 70. I'm not sure he's even 60.

I still have about 40 screenshots left to blog with, but I'm going to call it a night. Thank you if you are there reading my ramblings, & thank you FTM guys for making WoW fun for me again.

So tomorrow can we run Arcatraz?

Spring 2008, Part I.

2008-04-01T00:35:00.000-10:00

Alterac Valley. It's currently the best way to farm honor; even if you lose you still make a couple hundred. I've been in pathetic losing AVs with various other players berating the entire rest of the raid for being stupid (it has to be some kind of psychological complex.) & AVs where we were inexorably, unavoidably losing only to somehow kill Vanndar Stormpike before the Alliance guys got Drek, & I sat here confused for a few seconds staring at my screen. I've been in games where we won with both generals still alive; the Alliance simply ran out of reinforcements.

There are so many aspects to playing Alterac Valley as well. Within the categories of Offense & Defense there are many different tasks which must be carried out to ensure a strong & timely push. Personally, I'm a fan of Defense --- any aspect of Defense, or actually as many aspects of Defense as I can fit into a game --- because on D there's a lot of red.

At right I am fulfilling a long-contemplated fantasy, which involves AEing folks in the Iceblood Garrison. They've come to kill Galvanger, who is, frankly, fairly easy. But then a mage! Comes out! And annoys everyone!!

It's like real life!! Well.

I am a mage & I love to AE. I don't know if other mages also have this sickness, but I would assume so. To have a small room packed with other players that I can AE is... well... it's just exciting. Now the truth is that I'm going to get blown up faster than a goldfish in a pirahna tank & will have barely made a dent in the Alliance army's progress, but it'll be fun.

I mean, just look at all those yellow numbers.

Once in awhile I'll actually try to sheep a healer before I hop into the mob & do my thing, but usually it's just about AEing & making as many yellow numbers as possible before I show up in Iceblood Graveyard, where a few, or sometimes a lot, or sometimes all the Alliance that just finished blowing me up inside Oceblood Garrison are just about to cap the Iceblood GY flag.

Sometimes I can take down one of them before they gangbang me all the way back to Frostwolf Graveyard. Other times, there aren't any Alliance out at Iceblood Graveyard yet & in disappointment I must mount up & ride South to defend Frostwolf territory.

I know, it's so mundane.

There's still world pvp, of course. Mostly we've had skirmishes in Outlands while those not yet 60 pined away as my pvplog went off. I was lucky enough to score a little action while running around STV on my hunter.

Ok, so it was dumb action, but action nonetheless. I was killing pirates out on the beach, looting snuff & looking for maps, when a stealthed rogue snuck right past me (yeah, I saw him as he passed by.) & surprised me by going after my pet. Not the most popular strategy, but maybe he thought that with 3 or 4 levels on me he was uber enough to be that sassy.

The way I see it, though, is that I've got 163 levels of Hunter to his 47 levels of Rogue. And besides, Hunters need to be nerfed so badly it's not even funny. We needed to be nerfed even before they took away our deadzone & gave our shots more fuckyouup enhancements.

So anyway, he jumped poor Sausage, who was scrapping a pirate caster. I started shooting him, & although he killed my piggy, was unable to re-stealth (Rogue 101: you can't stealth with a Hunter's Mark & Serpent Sting on you), although he still used his flash powder. He then came after me, but dueling pet-less with Toshiaki on Staghelm had impressed upon me the virtues of kiting, & so I kited him. In the water. In a circle.

I'm not kidding about the circle. It really was in a nice little circle. I didn't want to swim too far out.

I rolled a hunter alt on Spirestone to play with my friend Greg, & every time someone challenged me to a duel in Brill I would ask them to give me a second while I turned off my pet. And then I just kited their asses. I only ever got challenged by melee types, & never anyone lower level than me. Typical. Anyway, hunters are stupidly overpowered.

I'll refrain from making a disparaging comment about an ex-boyfriend here.

Once, on Staghelm, Toshiaki ("Come on, Toshi!") invited me to duel while we waited for our friends in the hallway of the Stratholme back door. It's a long L-shaped hallway, with the instance entrance on the shorter leg. I hadn't called my pet &, being excited about dueling (I have no experience dueling.), I forgot. When the countdown started, I ran down the hallway & hid behind the corner, dropping a freeze trap. Tosh stealthed into the freeze trap, & I ran past him into the long hallway, Concussive & Scattershotting him as he tried to follow me. By the time he got into my deadzone (we still had one, back then), a Raptor Strike finished him off.

Yeah, only duel I ever won on Minionette.

Speaking of duels, here's one right outside Shadowfang Keep.

Bryan does have some violent tendencies, although coupled with his good taste in Undead facial accessories entirely forgivable. I feel the need (the need for someone else to bleed) myself sometimes. But here I just wanted to see if he could actually hit me. Yeah yeah, insert worn out innuendo here. Anyway, after stabbing me to death (Yeah right. We didn't have that kind of time.), Bryan went on to have a friendly duel with Brent.

Tako started hanging out & transferred his nekkid rogue Bombzahabba over. Well, not completely nekkid.

Tako is, like many of the FTM dorks, some kind of fucking biologically engineered WoW gear library. I'm serious. Tako could be wildly successful in the World of Warcraft Personal Shopper Service, where poorly geared simpletons such as myself could ask for help & he would say, "Oh, easy. You need to go to & kill for which has , but has a drop rate of like so we'd have to probalby run it a few times. And then after that blah blah blah more of the same."

Anyway, there was something Tako wanted out of Zul'Farrak, but we ended up making a full run of it, & Ryan scored. Well, not really. lol

Anyway, that's all I'm going to post tonight. I have more, but... I'm sleepy.

Camp Fire.

2008-02-05T04:31:00.000-10:00

Today in Blackwind Landing (Skettis), some fire mage named Faustus was taking shots at various Horde who were running around amidst guards who would attack us if we fought back. As long as he cast out of range of guards, he wouldn't catch aggro from them.

He got me twice. Took me a little while to figure out where he was.

He also took out a few other Horde that were in the Landing, some of them AFK. Frankly, it's a great idea to use that Fire range & nuke other players who assume they're in a safe area. I'm not sure what I think of his talent build, since it seemed like all he knew how to cast was Pyroblast.

He had another full fire mage named Craiig helping him, & that guy actually did me in really fast. But then my gear is crap.

Anyway, the sneaky nuking lasted a few minutes, & then everyone was on to him. He did a good job of fleeing into the middle of the Landing where he thought we'd have difficulty nuking him, but no such luck. He did have the "Run Like A Bitch" talent (Blazing Speed) but he died anyway.

When he rezzed he immediately ran into the Landing but there were 3 of us on him, & we were pissed. It takes some effort to make a dent in all that resilience but we were determined. The orc rogue even took durability so he could get the killing blow.

Considering that Alliance are 1:3 on this server (well, that may change with the free incoming transfers), it's a gutsy thing any time Alliance want to play. I suppose I can see why he'd try to be sneaky like that. We should give him props for having balls for sniping.

But anyway.

Fuck you Faustus.

Landing on Onyxia

2008-01-22T03:55:00.001-10:00

It was at Sean's Christmas BBQ that I was lured back into the World of Warcrack. I'd sat there on Sean's back porch, enjoying the friendly geektalk, never realizing that my sojourn in the land of nongaming emptiness was about to come to an end.

Here's kind of how it went.

Kevin (Shimatori): So, are you ever going to come back?

Me: I want to. But I just don't want to play Alliance. (sad face)

Kevin: We're playing Horde on this other server.

Me: RLY? (really, that's how I said it.)

Kevin: Yeah. Blah blah blah blah blah. (My hearing becomes impaired when I'm excited. Sorry.)

Me: Is it a pvp server?

Kevin: Yeah. Blah blah blah blah.

Me: What's the name of the server?

Kevin: Hold on, I gotta ask Brent. It's Onyxia.

Me: Onyxia?

Kevin: Yeah.

Me: Gee, look at the time. K, see you guys later.

I ended up leaving the BBQ just as Darren, Cy & Kruse were arriving. Darren scored a very spiffy folding chair since in my haste to get home I forgot to pack it up. It's a very comfortable chair. Moto kept trying to sit in it every time I went inside the house. Maybe I better get that chair from Darren.

After 2 months of abstinence (well, not real abstinence... I played Krissy's characters) & an $800 spending excess (this is outside of the Christmas shopping), I was ready to come back. In fact, I was looking for a reason to come back. I went home that night & transferred both Tamastara & Isep from Shattered Halls.

Remembering how to play Tamastara wasn't instant; I kicked around Skettis for several days farming Sha'tari Skyguard rep & basically just relaxing.

Yeah. I want one of those nether ray mounts.

Now, you guys don't have to believe me. But it's nice to be back. Tamastara is my first WoW character & she'll probably always be my favorite. Hell, look at my email & my MySpace. While certain friends of mine are unhappy about my return to Warcrack, the joy I feel is undeniable. I'm sorry guys. Moving on.

Phil advised me to spend some time in Battlegrounds, & so I forced myself. It's so important to have discipline for when you do stuff that's really fuckin' fun.

On Shattered Halls I had really enjoyed BGing with my priest, Dunizel. On Onyxia I decided to roll an Undead Priest (Devouring Plague). I named her Cemira, after a character from Tanith Lee's Mortal Suns. I've been spending so much time on Tamastara, though, that I doubt I'll get very far with Cemira. Still, it's fun. =)

I've never been successful playing a Tauren, Orc, or Troll. All my characters are either Undead or Blood Elf, & between those 2 I prefer Undead. I love my laugh. I love my jokes. I love looking evil & gross. When other players thank me, I welcome them by saying, "Ehh." When someone else levels, I congratulate them with a sarcastic, "Today certainly is your day!"

So, maybe I'd enjoy an RP server. In DAoC I always rolled on those. I'd never get married ingame or anything though.

That's just retarded.

Joy rolled a Tauren warrior, Audrey rolled a BE warlock, & Jayson (Ino's brother) rolled a shammy. Which meant, of course, a visit to RFC.

Kevin got his horsie. I know, I know... I'm a dick. lol Hey, Isep has to ride one of those around!

On Onyxia we've joined a level 70 guild called Rapture, but it's taking awhile to get to know people. I've volunteered to go on instance runs here & there when a guildie asks for help, & even flown across Outlands to help out a guildie lucky enough to get some pvp. They've invited me to Karazhan a couple of times but I have yet to get keyed.

Recently I was lucky enough to get a skilled, personable PUG for Shadow Labs. Believe me, it's lucky. So far it seems like any PUG with Perdition will go well.

I dunno; is that good?

On the same night we headed to Steamvault, another virgin instance for me. It was extremely quick, but fun.

Perhaps the best part was running into some Alliance outside. In the end I got blown up, but there's nothing like world pvp to put a wide smile on one's face.

Kevin & I had both picked up our ZF mallets & so we made a foray into Zul'Farrak, where I found more opportunities to sing, loudly.

Rapture's Guildmaster, Fleise, gave me my Conjure Food 8. This damn tome has been 500g on the AH every time I checked. When I mentioned that I did not yet have Ritual of Refreshment (Refreshment Table) due to lack of Food 8, Fleise mentioned that they had one in the guild bank & to meet her so she could give it to me.

I'm so happy now.

So far I've only put one Rapture guildie on Ignore, & knowing how Ignore Happy I am, that's not bad. Fleise seems to be genuinely nice & every time she's on it's obvious how well-liked she is by all the guildmembers. I've also chatted with a few others & they seem very nice.

Initially I wasn't entirely pleased with certain guildies, like the 61 Paladin who asked for help in Eastern Plaguelands & then gave me shit about flying from Undercity when, as she said, flying from Ghostlands would be faster. When I told her that I didn't have the FP to Silvermoon City, she said, "Can't you get there from the translocator in Undercity?" Nevermind that I've never picked up the FP to Ghostlands. Hey bitch, I'm coming out to help you, ok?

In Nagrand a 68 pally asked for help with a 70 warrior who was camping her. I was nearby so I flew over to lend a hand. Pinkhair was already halfway when I got there, & for some reason never got the Intercept off, & went down fairly quietly. The pally rezzed & I hung out a bit. Pinkhair came by to say hello to me, then went back to whatever she had been doing. The pally booted me from group once I told her it looked pretty safe. That's the thanks I get.

Today I spent celebrating AV weekend. Supposedly we get more honor than usual playing AV, but I would never know because I never look at the damn BG window when it closes. I'm too busy trying to get out so I can queue for another game. Oh well. Who cares about the stupid honor anyway.

And then we ran Wailing Caverns. I ported to Silvermoon City (no, I didn't get the port yet. I used the stupid translocator in Undercity, like the paladin bitch said.) & moved Bryan's 18 Priest to Orgrimmar, & then we ran to The Barrens. I felt so safe, being shielded & Renewed as we trotted along through dangerous level 10 lands.

I know, I know... I give Bryan a lot of shit. Girls are allowed to give Bryan a lot of shit, & God knows that we do. He's actually a really good sport about it, no doubt because he knows it all stems from love. Picture me nodding my head with an earnest look on my face.

Even more ludicrous is trying to picture Bryan as a healer. Hm. He's gonna be Shadow all the way. At 18 he's already got points in Blackout. You know why he rolled a priest. It wasn't because he wanted to make the world a better place. This is what I love about Bryan. lol

That & the fact that he's almost as fun as Lavicka. Meaning that all he has to do is be present & funny shit pops into my head. Hm, how I miss Nephilim. Speak into the lower microphone please.

Anyway. I'm back. I'm back, & I have this big smile on my face. Ah, the adventures we shall have. I get to play Horde. On a pvp server. With FTM guys. And my sister. And my roommate.

Would you tell me, how could it be, any better than this?

Minionette's Last Day

2007-11-04T02:30:00.000-10:00

The end of October.

My account was up on Halloween, & before pulling the plug I figured I'd make a last visit to my friends on Staghelm. My stomach was a little upset, maybe because I was considering cancelling my subscription. Or maybe from the avocado.

I was greeted warmly. Can't tell you how nice that is.

And then Rob took me along to visit the Headless Horseman!

The Horseman was quite a friendly guy. Very impressive entrance; decent poetry. I realize I was quite privileged to be along on what was meant for a team of level 70s. There are some perks to being friends with badasses I guess; they made it look so easy.

We actually ran it twice, & I may have mixed the picture order up a little. It was very nice to see Acer, who I hadn't seen since everyone was 60 & we were running AB & WSG all day.

Anyway, thanks guys for a great last day. I did have until the end of the month, but once it was cancelled, I just didn't feel like logging in. Besides, I had my goodbyes to say on Shattered Halls. To Tamastara, & Dunizel. /sniff

Don't worry. If I can't hack RL, I'll be back. I figured I should at least give it a try, you know?

But man, will I miss the pvp.

Tamastara's 2nd blog

2007-08-28T06:46:00.000-10:00

I think this was written in May 2005. Copied from my MySpace since blog storage seems a bit precarious over there. Do yourself a favor & scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page, & then navigate from the Archives lists.

This is Bryce's Narcoleptic Panda. It's a bonus that came with the WoW Collector's Edition. I really really really want one now.

Here are a few shots from an Alliance raid on Undercity, the main city in my hometown. For those of you who don't know (but still care), when an enemy is in your hometown they can't attack you unless you attack them. While they can't attack you, their names will all appear in yellow. Once it's on, their names all turn red.

Last night Brad & I were questing in Ashenvale, which is contested territory. We did see a few Alliance running around, but since the previous night we'd shared space with other Alliance without bothering eachother, we ignored them. But in truth they were really just waiting for an opening. Oh well.

And then that piece of shit spit on Brad.

And here are a few pictures from Alliance lands.

So what, Greg, do you know this guy?

Things to be happy about: My sister is playing WoW with us, my girlfriend Krissy is playing WoW with us, and we got to gank back at someone who 3:1'd Brad when he had just come into port at Ratchet.

Update February 19: Freaking Brad is level 37 now; I haven't been able to get much play in because of the new job. Fuck.

And my friend Tom (Maslethalo/Hotcana of EQ Bastard Fame) starts up on our server.

Monday February 21. THANK GOD FOR PRESIDENTS SO THAT WE CAN HAVE PRESIDENTS' DAY!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Can you tell I had a long week?

Brad & I had some questing to do in Stranglethorn last night. There were a lot of Alliance running around, & though in the end we were outnumbered & outlevelled, I did have some fun before I died like 10 times. The only thing that really burned me up was that I never got to do any damage to that sneaky bitch Clea. Come out & fight, dammit!! p

And damn those Hunters.

February 26: So the other night Mark decided to accompany me through Stranglethorn. Stealthed. It was SWEET.

And then there was this Hung Hing guy who kept coming back. And coming back. I think we must have killed him like 10 times. This guy wouldn't even wait until he had recovered hitpoints from his rezz to start trouble all over again. Later on we saw a bunch of Horde beating up on some Alliance dude. Again, it was Shaolinkid. He should really try using the Force next time. Or just logic. But I just don't like his guild anyway. They just give me bad feelings.

Anyway, remember my friend Lune?

I saw him again at Crossroads. I swear, Envy just LOVES Crossroads. Maybe it's the wealth of Horde toons usually around 40 levels lower than them that they like. Oh, & NPCs 20 levels below them. Anyway, I only assisted in it, but finally, finally, my dream is made reality...
I'm so happy!!!

Anyway, here are more pics of fun I have had in Stranglethorn. Brad doesn't like that zone, but I do, even with the PvP. Maybe because of the PvP. Or maybe it's just the Tropical Beach Island Reality Show feeling the place gives off.

Know what I really hate? I really hate it when you're fighting int he forest & you can't see 'cuz of leaves. That is SO irritating. And no, there's not usually enough time in a fight to adjust the view. Or there wasn't this time, dammit.

Monday, February 28. I'm not going to get to play Tuesday & Wednesday of this week & I'm kind of bummed about it. Brad is 45 now --- that tweaker. Channon made an alt like yesterday & will probably outlevel me in a few days at the rate I'm going. Yeah, so I'm a little depressed.

I'm getting more used to the early hours of my job, & I think I've reached a point in my training where I can actually make an assessment of how little I know. Previously I had no fucking clue how much I didn't know. Now it's beginning to become apparent how little I know. And this is progress. Sheez.

Anyway, Joy & I were jogging on the beach in Stranglethorn when this Troll Rogue zooms past us, hotly pursued by a NE Rogue. We paused to watch them go past, & when I realized it was aggro & not purely gayness (hey, it was a Night Elf.), & sheeped the NE & Joy & I resumed our jog.

We reached our spot on the beach & were about to lay out our towels when lo & behold, the NE came running up the beach at us. Yeah, I understand we have that effect sometimes. So I rush him, root & Cone, & then we killed him.

Same night, Envy, being already on my KOS list, gets Boldface & Underline too.
\
My last few hours in Stranglethorn with Joy did involve a few mobs, but I have no pictures of them. Instead I have these:

Yeah, we killed Darkrival 5 times & Malekith 4 times. This is because Malekith showed up to the fight late. Please note the stats under their icons. And see, I did owe that dude Minas' guild. Although I do feel bad about killing him 3 times to make it even.

And then I was really tired & had a nap with Korupter & my sis in Orgrimmar.

Last update:
I think I have to start a new blog already because this is getting too long. And MySpace now won't let me view my blogs one at a time, so it gets hard to scroll down quickly without missing the end of the page.

I hate MySpace. I wish I didn't have my blogs here. Everything takes SO long to load. And I get all these messages from people I don't know who just want to fill up my limited time with nonsense.

Ok, so I'm tired & need a nap. Here's a pic of my PvPlog. It's from a UI called "Remod" which I got from my guildie Bokonon. The numbers have changed by now. But I thought I would just post it for record-keeping's sake.

From the MySpace Archives: From Chaos days

2007-08-28T05:49:00.000-10:00

MySpace has never been overly blog-friendly, especially in the realm of archiving. I'm going to slowly start moving stuff over. In the meantime, I offer you my beginner's html. Just look at all those resized pictures. Beautiful. I can't believe I went through so much trouble to have blurry graphics. Oh well. I go through a lot of trouble for small rewards; it seems to be my lot in life.

Blame Darren.

He stops by on my last night at KSC & gives me his copy of WoW & a naughty-looking 10-Day Buddy Pass. He tells me the guild really needs more casters & the WoW version of a Chanty is like an EQ Chanty with better nukes. And then there's PvP. I guess maybe I was doomed already.

We're playing Horde, which is the other choice besides Alliance. Alliance are humans, elves, dorfs, & gnomes. They're all so freaking cute. They really are. It's amazing to me that everyone on the Alliance side isn't all still level 20 or under because they've been spending all their gaming time on cyber in the noob towns. Horde side is Undead, Trolls, Orcs, & these big old bull-looking things called Taurens. Yeah, we're not sexy at all. It's amazing we're not all level 60 already simply because it's easier to look at mobs than eachother.

So far, my Undead Mage (the WoW version of an Enchanter) is 24 & is running around in a PvP zone & getting killed all over the place. I have participated in the deaths of several Alliance bastards, but killed none solo. And then recently Brad & I developed these "standards" against killing Alliance that were friendly. I know, we need to toughen up.

In my 1st few days of play, I noticed that Keith's gf Jocelyn didn't play WoW along with us. And I thought she should. A few other friends agreed with me.

One of the things that's really keeping me involved with this game is that a large number of people I personally know & like play it. They don't look like this in real life, of course. At least not on the outside.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the WoW version of Mezz is to turn the target into a sheep? Har har har.

Brad started playing along with me. He made an Orc Hunter. Hunters are cool 'cuz they have pets. They develop relationships with their pets & all that. I have a pet - a little kitty cat - but it's not as kickass as Brad's pet.

And then there's PvP. We like PvP. We still suck, but we like it.

And here are other miscellaneous pictures from my 1st few weeks of WoW.

February 8, 2005
So now Tamastara is 26 & levelling has slowed down a bit. But the PvPing hasn't.

Then just when I thought they were all gone, this freaking NE rogue comes out of nowhere (well out of Stealth.) & slaughters me. But then a Troll rogue just happened to be nearby. And then, Beefcake in Charred Vale. That asshole.

And then there was the night that our server crashed, & disappeared from the server list. So we logged into Laughing Skull, where I understand we play Alliance. Joy & I made these 2 gay little Night Elves.

More miscellaneous screenshots.
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Alt adventures.

Sorry!

2007-02-24T11:35:00.000-10:00

There probably won't be any more Staghelm blogs for awhile, since I'm not playing on Staghelm any more. I'm having too much fun at Shattered Halls right now. Besides... well, nevermind. =)

Winter on Staghelm: PvP on a PvE server

2007-01-06T12:15:00.000-10:00

And so commences my first FTM blog on Blogger. God knows anything would be better than freaking MySpace.

With winter came Blizzard's seasonal Winter Veil event, & with Winter Veil came that machine outside Ironforge that turns you into a gnome. Sweet.

I know, we're a bunch of dorks. But then this is WoW we're talking about.

I keep telling Monica she needs to hurry up & get level 60 so she can PvP with us. It's so much more fun to play with guildies who communicate over Vent & actually have a plan. And with so many idiots playing Alliance, it's probably very rare as well.

The Gnome rage continued. For quite awhile. Winter Veil is probably my favorite Blizzard seasonal event.

I can't decide which I like better; Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin. I guess as long as it's with guildies it's fun. Even the games we lose are fun, outside of the occasional crying that occurs on Vent. Well, at least it's only occasional. There are still guys who are good sports about it & can appreciate when another team has played well. A few.

Then there was some "spontaneous" PvP in Westfall while I was levelling Audrey's dorf Priest, Yume. When I say "Spontaneous" I mean non-BG PvP; since we're on a PvE server there actually is no PvP out in the world unless someone deliberately "flags" for it. In this case, an Undead rogue was running around Sentinel Hill flagged, trying to get some stupid noobs to succumb to temptation & hit him, which would then flag them. And of course some noobs did. And then Phil flew in.

Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of good action shots. Well, next time.

And, then, the gnome madness continues. Grats Tako on the shoulders.

Phil was saying that he could change gnome faces at will. But in truth he only seems to switch between a few faces, & mostly the old one. There were many more changes than this, but I figured I would spare you all. Somewhat.

Anyway, you get the idea.

FTM gnomes continued to run around in WSG & AB. Gnome suits are kidna convenient for Priest, I would think, because you can't be identified immediately on sight as a healer. You just look like this little red or green thing hopping around. I swear that in the green Angry Face Gnome guise, I died a lot less. It could have been because I could hide in bushes; I dunno.

Look, Phil's still going.

Then, here are some pictures of Monica's boyfriend, Rich, in BRD. Phil & Aaron, with Birdy there to save us all, ran him through Tanking 101. It was probably traumatic. Rich had to listen to us talking through Monica's speakers, since his Mac couldn't run FTM Vent, & of course anything he wished to reply had to be typed. But I did get some pretty pictures. Rich is a photographer for the Star Bulletin, btw.

And then!!!! I got my crossbow!!!

I know, I know... all the other hunters have their epic bows. The nice big green things. Well, fuck. I got the sinew & talked to the trees what - 5 months ago? - & I haven't done it, & I refuse to have Phil kill the demons for me. If it's a once-per-hunter thing then I'm not giving it away. I'll do it when I do it. Shut the hell up. Go pick on Dave.

I've had pretty good luck with GMs so far on Staghelm; I only ever had one that wasn't any fun. The others were either funny, or at least tolerant. I don't know if GM Nefour heard Samberg & Timberlake's "Dick In A Box" but he was a good sport about it.

And then, I've had poor luck with kids that can't spell. Someone can't spell, then I pick on him, & then he turns out to be a little kid. Geez. And all this time I thought it was a whole lotta illiterate adults playing WoW. Well, it's probably still true.

Oh look! More spontaneous PvP! In Westfall! Hey, there's Phil!

Guess I was on Angryface. I like her; she's fun.

Let's take a break for some gayness.

And now, some "spontaneous" PvP in Eastern Plaguelands. Bryan ("Seki") got into a little brawl with a couple of Not Suitable For Kids guys, & Phil & Jay (Kefe) went down to even it out a bit, but there were always more Horde. I flew down, but at the time I got there, the Horde were getting spanked a little too much by our majority or 1 or 2 fewer than them, & so I would have felt bad joining in.

But my moment arrived. They still seemed outnumbered... for a little while.

Look at Jay go!

Then a few more Horde arrived or joined in, & we were somewhat outnumbered. In addition to that, the fighting got a little too close to the Argent Dawn guys, who kicked everyone's asses.

Eventually Stillblade & friends moved back to Light's Hope Chapel, seeking a little breather amidst the Argent Dawn guards. Haterade was by far the most popular guy with us. We focus fired him at least twice. That was fun.

And then the carnage continued.

And then here's that guy Juicce that we just saw in WSG last night. This guy had some major issues; he was emoting all over the place. Even Dave complained about him: "Juicce is gay." And coming from Dave, that's pretty bad.

Still flagged, our Horde friends rode away from LHC to the nearest tower, & we followed. No, we didn't feel like dicks. We were all going to have big repair bills anyway.

On Thursday, although my dinner ran kidna late, I still managed to get into the BWL raid. Nefarion's level is certainly pretty.

And then it was back to PvP.

And so ends my first FTM blog on Blogger.com. Let's go see how this thing looks.

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