Skrawlings

And the ugliest boss award goes to…

2007-10-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

Princess Theradras!

Is she not the ugliest thing you have ever seen? Is she some long lost cousin to Cuato?

And what is with the fart attack? OMG what was blizzard thinking when they created this boss? To each their own, I guess.

We started out in Maraudon with a party of five (not the tv show). There was Hopeless (that’s me!), Bronog and Findre, of course. We then supplemented our ranks with two awesome shado priests: Mihf and Preecher. We set a break-neck pace down the purple side. We never wiped and handled every pull with the greatest of ease. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was with a nonconventional group of level 47s (we did have a few ding 48 while in there). Bosses and encounters I remember being more difficult. It was a good time.

After the purple side was completed Preecher took off and Mihf stuck with us long enough to complete a quest outside the dungeon. The three of us decided to run the orange side. I really wanted to get the rod quest done. At the same time hoping his spirit hadn’t despawned while we worked our way their. We had some tough spots where we had no way to easily hand AoE pulls, but we made it through them with Bronog and I chain trapping together to slow em down. Other pulls where we had 4 or 5 mobs to deal with we would each chain trap one of the elites while we dps’ed down the others. It was a blast. Only one spot where we almost wiped (I say almost cause I didn’t die :)). Bob pulled an extra group and it was too much for us. Gotta love feign death! We down all the bosses on the orange side and start talking about how we hope he is still there and what did we find…

His spirit had despawned.

But it was replaced with brand new shiny boss. Instead of him being gone and having to reset the instance he reset himself. We had to kill him again, but that was ok! Bob lost his life, again, but that was OK! We got to complete all of our quests for that place in one night. Not bad if you ask me.

I did get a new bow from one of the quests. It’s not up to BC standards but it will do for now.

Meanwhile, I successfully leveled Tearless to 48 to catch up with me. Now I have to get my nameless ape to catch up.

Until our next adventure…

Peace.

To loot or not to loot! That is the question.

2007-10-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

*deep breath* and exhale!

That feels nice. The night before last my loving and caring mother-in-law payed us a visit. It meant an evening of no WoW so I hated her already. So without getting into a lot of drama here let’s just say she did things of which I did not approve. Did I mention her visit kept me from WoW?

Enough of her! Last night we ventured into the depths of Kara. Poor Jenet still got no loot. I don’t have a very good memory on these things, but I’m pretty sure that dungeon forsakes her every single time she enters it. It’s almost comical! She doesn’t think so, but I’m on the outside looking in through the purple haze my equipment is making. hehe

We cleared all the way through Curator. I can’t tell you how much fun it is making these guild runs. I almost always look forward to them. I say “almost always” cause lately Jenet has not been very happy. Not just in kara, but in the 5 mans also she just can’t get loot. She tries to get better gear but the WoW gods have not been kind lately.

Speaking of loot, recently, I have been immersed in some interesting discussions about looting rules. First, I will say that I like the way our guild handles loot in dungeons. If you need the gear you roll on it. We have always used this method. My buddy Raydz is a proponent of another method you guys might be familiar with: DKP. I have been in a guild that used this system. I was not in the guild for very long because it fell apart when the guildmaster moved and lost his highspeed internet connection. Apparently, it’s tough to run 40-man raids on dial-up. I see reasons why someone would like either method. Rolling has zero maintenance outside the run you are in at the moment. DKP rewards players for being on time and showing up on a consistent basis. However, I think DKP falls short in a situation where you have more than enough people to run a dungeon. Now you have to make a choice to forsake some of the players or try some sort of rotation to keep the points balanced so every who is serious about going has a shot at some loots. Whereas just simply rolling on an item means you are rewarded immediately for being part of the group that night. Whatever! I could go on and on tearing the two methods apart. I’m sure somewhere there is a balance and I’m sure someday it will be implemented by Blizzard and we will all hate it.

Since this whole game is centered on the loot you receive looting rules can make or break a guild when it starts running dungeons. So my faithful readers I pose the question to you: What loot method do you prefer?

Peace.

Krawl Lives

2007-10-09T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hopeless took a break last night. Bronog had some family to tend to and Jenet needed gear. Our GM Ferth invited us to a quick Botanica run. We were to get in, kill through the second boss and get out. It took a little longer than expected due to Jenet’s microphone not working. I just love climbing behind computer desks to fix things when the only way to get to it is from the top and the hole to reach it is barely bigger than my arm.

“I’m a large man, SpongeBob!” to quote one of my children’s favorite shows. I just love Patrick!

Alas, I digress. I get the microphone working. Off to the dungeon. A simple task, you say. Not for me. I get caught in tangents like flies to a web. There on my desk sat a brand new, fresh out of the box, shining example to modern technology, Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad N52. That’s right folks. A new toy for daddy! I know I died once due to the sole fact I was distracted by that beauty sitting there on my desk. Not to worry, however, we downed the two bosses.

I really don’t like that second boss though. I think his/her (it’s hard to tell, it’s a blood elf) name is something like Friar Weedpuller. We tried all gathering around him over the bridge and staying close so the trees the friar summons can’t shoot us. We died a couple of times with that strat. So we adapted. We overcame. We switched tactics to pulling the trees out of the radius of the disco lights and AoE’d down. The friar went down easily. And what drops you might ask? Not the boots my beautiful Jenet wanted. Once again a dungeon run leaving her wanting. *sigh* The WoW gods are cruel!

Speaking of cruel, the 5v5 arena team I am on, Blessings of Winter, met last night to do battle. I say it was looking cruel because we are bad. Not bad. We are terrible. It comes from being undergeared, lack of communications and this is our second week of doing them. I said all that just so I can say we went from a 0-10 record last week to a 4-6 this week. We actually kept our rating about 1300! WOOT! It was really fun. We have some things to work out and I have a lot of PvP gear to still get, but it’s a blast to hang with my fellow Heroes Inc’ers (is that a word?!?) and kill some foes. So hats off to Nim/Mif, Tomtit, Fontam and my lovely wife Jenet! You guys rock!

On an even more positive note I took some time to peruse the great BRK’s blog. I found a great thread on chain trapping that is worth reading. A great tutorial for those hunters out there that have never done it or for those out there wanting to see if you are doing it right!

Hopeless will no doubt get my attention tonight. I need to get a name for her hairy little ape. I have received a few suggestions so I may post a poll on it this week. It’s not too late for suggestions!

Happy Anniversary!

2007-10-08T11:16:00.001-07:00

This weekend marked mine and my wife’s 11th wedding anniversary. Although it kept me out of the game on Friday we had a hell of time. We closed down the bar, I offended a bunch of people at IHOP and was just too darned drunk to play the game at whatever time I got home. At least my wife thought I was too drunk to play the game. Remember kids, don’t drink and WoW!

As for Hopeless she is cruising right along. She finished off the weekend at level 47. I did some pet training in Feralas. It was kind of fun. I get a little irritated, however, when it takes a really long time to learn a particular skill of an animal. For now, though, I think I have settled on the pets I will keep for a long time. My little kitty Tearless will stick with me and my nameless (for the time being) gorilla. If anyone has name suggestions I’m open to them. In fact, if I get enough responses I’ll take the top few and post a poll to name my hairy little ape!

I have come to love the ability to hold multiple mobs and spam some multi-shot. It has even saved my wife’s druid, Findre, a few times. She is so cute. She starts yelling, “I’m being hit! I’m being hit!” I start switching my monkey to different targets and spamming growls while I wait for the ground stomper to become available. I love it. It feels like a full time job raising two pets, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

When I hit 70 I plan to lose growl on my kitty and make her all PvP. Nothing I hate more as a level 70 mage is running into a hunter or two with big red kitties gnawing on my little gnome while I try to peek through a spot on my screen not filled with red cat to see what is shooting me. ARGH! At that point I hate hunters. I hate hunter’s pets. I wish them all dead. On the other hand while I’m playing my hunter it is a wonderful feeling turning Tearless into a red ball of flesh eating fur. Even when the little mage blinks out of range there is my cute little Tearless filling up his screen chewing on him the whole time. I LOVE IT! And just between you and me, Krawl loves having a hunter as a little sister!

Ah Krawl. I miss the little guy. I’m sure my guild enjoys him not being there soaking up all the loots, though. Jenet has really slowed down on farming mats for my tailoring so I maybe forced to do some myself.

Nice profession! Not happy!

As for my leet hunter skills they leave something to be desired. I still cannot successfully chain trap something and I am forever hitting things I do trap. I think I need to discover the wonderful world of macros with my hunter. Something along the lines of allowing me to keep my main target selected while I pull another into the trap so I don’t have my trapped one selected when he comes to get into the trap. So even though I am 2/3 of the way to 70 I am still a hunter noob! I hope BRK keeps the hunter info coming until I can hold my own!

A little side note…I noticed in the next patch Arcane shot will not only do damage it will remove a magical effect from the target! How cool is that!

Anyhow, I hope to have some adventures this week with Krawl. I’m gonna try to add some screenshots to my blog too in hopes of it not being so drab and boring.

Peace!

Mi Amigos...uh...hello...where are you?

2007-10-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

I just had to make a second post today. What is up with the Mi Amigos links. I go through all the trouble to put these guys on my blog because ... hey ... they are guildies ... they are pals ... they are comrades in arms! And how do they show their appreciation? They don't keep their blogs updated or they tear it down in a fit of rage. Well, as a response to that I have a plan to fix them for good. I shall do nothing about it. I will leave the links to out-dated forum posts. I will leave the dead links to forums removed. That's right. I will take no action whatsoever. So take that, Mi Amigos!

Aahhh...Napalm

2007-10-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

"I love the smell of Napalm in the morning" I love war movies. Last night made me feel like I was in one. Hopeless has been turned into a beast mastery hunter. So now we roll with two BM hunters (Hopeless and Bronog) and a feral druid (my wonderful wife Findre). We had one more quest to finish up in STV; Cracking Maury's Foot. I got there first and decided to try out my new monkey pet on an elite ogre. We pwned the ogre. The monkey made a nice little tank. Bent down to loot the ogre and oila! there was my key for the quest. I was a happy little hunter. Bronog and Findre show up with an orc warlock in tow. We drop him like a bad habit and start in on the next ogre. After about, oh I don't know, a million ogres later, their key does not drop. Bronog and Findre made an executive decision to try another day (meaning never lol!). We headed out to Tanaris to begin questing anew. Little did we know it was going to be 3 hours of bloodshed. The sand in the pirate's cove south of Steamwheedle was soaked with the blood of horde (and a good portion of ours). First we encounter a level 46 mage (i'm pretty sure). Now we are all level 42 so it should have been a fair fight right. one level 46 against 2 BM hunters and a feral druid. HA! I couldn't tell you how many times he died. I can only assume he was 10 years old in real life and mom and dad hadn't caught him staying up late playing WoW! Everytime he would die, back he would come. He tried hiding behind things to shoot us. He tried hiding in the water (enraged pets don't need air!) Sometimes he would get a PoM Pyro crit and be able to kill one of us, but for the most part he died a lot. After what seemed an eternity of him getting dead Bronog is dropped in one hit with an Ambush of about 3k by what I can only guess was a level 70 rogue who just happened to be in the same guild as the numbskull mage. The rogue made short work of us a few times when I decided enough was enough and logged out. It was time for Krawl. If the mage can escalate things so can I. However, to my dissappointment, the rogue and the mage were gone before I could get there. So not wanting to waste the trip I decimated the level 47 Blood Elf Pally. I wish I had thought to get a screenshot of that pally. She (at least I'm pretty sure it was a she, it's hard to tell with Blood Elves) was able to take on all three of us and gave as much as she got. What I did learn from this epic battle was Viper sting is my friend. If a battle is gonna last a while against a caster then I am gonna stick 'em with a Viper sting. No mana makes for an easier pally to kill. I had no doubts we could kill the pally it just takes forever. She played well, though. We must have been in that area for hours killing horde, getting killed by horde and trying to finish the quests in between. On the pally's exit we got introduced to a level 49 warrior. Now, is it just me or are these guys getting higher in level as we continue. The warrior who had the tenacity of the mage mentioned earlier died a lot also. I love killing horde, but I was so tired and just wanted to sleep and this guy would not relent. Charges...dies...comes back...charges...dies...rinse...repeat...you get the idea. We had to finish the quest while killing him. It was a crazy and bloody night. I would say we came out on top with the killing blows and damage done to the horde, but it did come at a price. Remember kids, don't gank! Peace! (Note: The new format didn't work out for me. Hope it doesn't break the hearts of my many readers! HA! Many readers! I kill me!)

New Blog Format...Light and Refreshing

2007-10-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Last night...

Hopeless, Bronog and Findre quested and were ganked
Krawl and Jenet ganked the gankers
Horde died
Hopeless, Bronog and Findre continued questing

Note: Killing a Booty Bay Bruisers causes a loss of 125 Rep with Booty Bay, but increases rep with the Bloodsail Buccaneers.

Also, I have been educated on a couple of good sites for Hunters by my buddy Raydz (he has a hunter alt named Bouncie). Those sites are...

Enjoy!

Refocus and Focus Again

2007-09-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Jenet and I have been kind of absent from the level 70 scene lately, except for Kara, PvP and the occassional daily quest. In part it has been because she hasn't been feeling well. The biggest reason I would say is Bronog (damn him!). Bronog, or rather the guy behind Bob, has been like a brother to me most of my life. We pretty much did everything together. I have known him since 7th grade (BTW that was a long time ago) We worked together, we gamed together. About a year or two ago we had a falling out and not only did we stop talking he ended up leaving the game. I have to admit not only in real life but in the game I was pretty bummed out. The game had lost so much of it's appeal when one of the people I depended on was gone. Obviously, I endured. I left the server I was on (Spirestone) at the time with my wife, Jenet. I was a bad ass undead Shadow Priest. Jenet was an undead Warrior (I am not sure of her build). Enter Altar of Storms. Raydz was the one that convinced me, Bacon and Talon to come to Altar of Storms. He is quite the server hopper. It seemed like everytime a new server opened he would be jumping ship and heading to the new server. I digress. Back to me and Bronog. There we were on Altar of Storms. A new server with most of the population of WoW on it. Had to form a raid just to get to kill a level 1 wolf. It was a mess. It was also my first experience with a queue logging into a server. I hated it, but I endured because I had this sentiMENTAL notion that it would be like the old days of questing together. Me, my wife, my brother, Bronog and Bacon (who was not Bacon on Spirestone :)). We did just about everything together when we first started playing wow. When Bacon wasn't around (he didn't play as much back then) we 4 manned dungeons and quested together. Every night coming home from work I knew that as soon as I logged on I had people there to start doing things. Never having to pug it. Never having trouble with group quests. Heck we never even used group loot. All that changed on Altar of Storms. My brother got married and left the game. Bronog and I were not on good terms and he left the game. Just my wife and I. Now don't get me wrong. I love playing the game wth my wife. A lot has changed since then. I had felt like someone removed one of my arms. So many things you take for granted that dissappear when someone that close to you leaves. The game just wasn't the same for me. A few weeks ago Bronog and I started talking again. I just about drove him crazy talking about the game and Heroes Inc. I finally convinced him to activate his account again. I waited for him to get out of newb town and then Jenet and I started playing alts with him. Even all the old drab and boring quests have taken on a new feel. I have felt almost whole again. It has once again reminded me of what this game is about to me. It is about the friendships. Everything we do in life is a game. And it truly is how you play the game that matters. Long story short. Bronog is an old friend. He is a close friend. I am not forsaking Heroes. Heroes has been like a family to Jenet and I since we joined many moons ago. I am bringing them a new hero and leveling a few alts along the way! Get ready to discuss some PvP strategies, Ferth! Peace.

News from Afar

2007-09-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Busy...busy...busy... It seems my life has really gotten busy lately. Between Kara runs, PvP nights, helping Bronog level, arenas, eating sleeping and working I don't which way is up! Heroes headed into Kara once again on Monday. We attempted Curator and punished him for thinking he could thwart our efforts. We had a couple of wipes not really due to lack of skills just, well not paying enough penies to the attention jar. I think both wipes were because of someone aggroing before we were ready. The first was a slaughter, really. The second (which is the one I caused. Thanks Zadorr for saving my cute little gnome butt on that one!) wipe we had it together we just didn't focus our dps properly. Third times a charm. We tore him up and his little energy wisps too! Jenet was #2 roll on the tier 4 drop. Congrats Zadorr on joining the Tier 4 club! We started heading towards Chess, but ran out of time :( It was a really fun night. After Kara Jenet and I had to do some arenas with Mif/Nim and Tomtit. I was so tired I fell asleep at my desk waiting on the queue. Thanks guys for being so understanding. A special thanks to my wife for finishing my Arenas for me! She is so awesome! She cooks...She cleans...She plays WoW! What more could a guy ask for?!? Yesterday was pretty much an evening of alts. Jenet and I quested with Bronog. We ran into a few unruly horde that liked to gank, but we also found a few that had to pay for the others ganking us. Remember kids...Ganking is wrong! We have another Kara run tonight so maybe we can get Jenet some uber drops and make that cute as a button warrior look fierce! I mean come on Blizzard. A warrior that is only 2 feet tall with pink hair that sounds like a rubber ducky when you hit them does not seem all that threatening. Peace.

Ditto

2007-09-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

I got a lot done this weekend and a lot has happened this weekend. I could try to sum it all up, but I think Origami did just fine in his blog. Thanks, Origami, for pretty much summing up my feelings on the matter. Honors, I love ya man and I wish you all the best. I truly am sorry to see you leave. God bless and God speed!

Old Friend...New Guildmate

2007-09-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

Bronog hits the scene with the legendary Bob! Thanks go out to Ferth for the guild invite to not only Bronog, but to mine and Jenet's alts. I should probably bring Feandra into the guild, but right now she is the guild leader and pretty much the only member of a guild that I just can't bring myself to disband. We once again devestated Troggs and then headed off to hunt the great beasts of Loch Modan. Crocodiles, vultures, bears, and boars all died in the wake of our destruction. Only a few more quests for these demanding dwarves and Bronog can move on to the Wetlands. Anyone else notice how the dwarves demand their new recruits to be delivery boys. They had more requests to deliver a message or an equipment order or whatever else they needed hand delivered. In the end Bronog got a few levels under his belt as did Bob. Pretty soon they will be a force to be wreckened with or is it a wreck to be forced to be with. I get that confused all the time. I can't wait to run some instances with them and see if Bob is the same aggro monster he has always been :) Not sure what the weekend will bring for Jenet and I. We will not be on Friday at all, most likely. It being Warsong Gulch Weekend we really need to grind some more honor and I know Jenet needs about 30 marks. Krawl still needs to hook up with that wiley Honors to discuss some 2v2 Arena action. We will rule the arena! Well, I have taken so long to finish this I have forgotten any further points I would like to bring up so I am going to leave you with this thought...

Rebirth of a Legend

2007-09-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Krawl and Jenet were incognito last night. We played some alts that no one knows about! muhahahaha! We played with an old friend that has come back to the game after a long sebaticle. He started a dwarf hunter and along with his faithful pet Bob we began the ever-so-exciting trek through Loch Modan. Troggs and Tunnel Rats were no match for our trio of destruction. They cowered in our wake of destruction. Well, all except for those troggs in the cave that kept killing us, but those don't count. It was so much fun. Don't worry guildies I have not forsaken you for some fly-by-night fling with a dwarf hunter. First of all, that's disgusting. Second, I have high hopes of recruiting him to the ranks of Heroes, Inc (uh hum...with Ferth's approval of course). Alas, he is only in his teens so he has quite the hill to climb before he is gracing the halls of Kara or dancing the spears in the battlegrounds with the Heros. A fine Hero he will make one day! As for me and Jenet we will keep plugging away at the rep grind and gear lusting, leveling Feandra and Allyours and helping our new WoW mate get up to speed. Good luck and Godspeed in Kara tonight! I do believe you have a mage this time! Peace!

Good Times All Around

2007-09-05T06:51:00.000-07:00

I got a late start last night. I had to stop by Talonfist's house (in real life). He was oh so gracious enough to give me a couple of old monitors he had taking up space. Jenet's old video card had blown up all our other monitors so this really helped out. Thanks, Talon! Once I got the monitors going on both our machines I logged on with Krawl. I made some bags for a buddy of mine who just got back to playing the game! Yay! I then saw on guild chat the chant for water. The Kara run had no water dispensing unit in the raid. I offered to make em some so I met Origami in Duskwood and hooked him up with bunches of water. It's so nice to feel needed...even if it is for my consumables :) After that I logged on with Feandra and proceded to make some lowbie leather items for my new hunter friend! Me, Allyours, Nim, Schmedlap and Tomtit (anyone else see his name is Catboob, no offense Tom, I just think it's hilarious) headed off for Ramparts. It was a pretty easy run with the massive level 70 dps in the group. Schmed and Nim tore through stuff with pretty much no effort. Feandra got a couple of healing pieces and the staff she had been wanting off the second boss. WooT! I love running dungeons with guildies. PUGS SUCK! Aftwards, I really wanted to run Furnace with em also but I forced myself to log and go to bed. I am in dire need of catching up on some needed sleep. It was a good night. I got to help out some guildies with water, some guildies got to help me and Allyours with a dungeon and I got the phat lutz I for which I was looking. And to top it off I got a new friend in WoW! Peace!

AV'd Out

2007-09-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Alterac Valley anyone??? OMG anyone else tired of running AV? Jenet was just shy of obsessed with farming honor this weekend. I was just shy of committing hari-kiri! I have to admit, however, when more guildies got involved and it turned into more than just run to relief hut and see how fast we down Drek I enjoyed it more. So much happened this weekend I'm not even gonna try to go into details. We ran our alts through a dungeon or two. Some of them with guildies, some of them PUGS. We even managed to run Jenet and Krawl through some dungeons in between AV grinds. I do believe next weekend is Warsong Gulch. We will see if Jenet's obsession wth honor points hold true while being tortured in that place with loss after loss! I did just enough AV to get my Grand Marshal's head piece. Next, per Ferth's advice, will be another piece of the Grand Marshal set. Ferth was kind enough to point out what a good idea it would be to start out with those because of the 2-piece set bonus of plus to resilience. I should have that next piece by the end of coming weekend. Another month of losses in Arenas and I might have enough points to get a piece of equipment! All in all it wasn't too bad of a World of WarCraft weekend. I can't wait to begin again! Peace!

Sethek of this, Part Deu!

2007-08-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

Last night was a milestone night. We finally got Jenet's new video card in from TigerDirect. After almost 3 weeks of waiting she could finally boot her machine up without blowing up a monitor! We purchased the ATI X1600 PRO. It's a 512 meg video card. I was not as impressed as I felt I would be once the game was launched. The card itself got good reviews so I am guessing putting it into an AGP 4x slot instead of 8x slot makes a big difference. Oh well. The important thing is she is back on her own PC and can stop using my laptop! Once the video card saga ended Jenet and I headed off to Sethek halls again with Sameth (Ferth in disguise), Homerjay (Lakini in disguise) and Nim (Mif in disguise). I think I was a bit wound up and not playing as well as I should have been playing. We wiped a few times due to carelessness. All in all it was a really fun run though. Jenet and I were able to finish up our last quest for there and get the Shadow Labs key, FINALLY! Jenet even got a nice belt off the last boss. I was thinking I was wanting a drop off him, but I think the ones I am wearing are the best I'm gonna see until a purple finds it's way into my greedy little paws! After Sethek we turned in the quest and saw that Rhubarb was asking for help with some whack dude in Shadowmoon. Off we headed to Shadowmoon along with a few other guildies; Origami, Bubos (Regolas in disguise) and Aleks. All was seeming grand until it Bubos starts explaining that we will not be able to help because we are doing our rep grind with the Netherwing. As soon as we get close to those stinking orcs we automatically put on an orc suit that makes us friendly to 'em. Bummer. Now they have gone from 6 people ready to destroy him to 3! We wiped the first time, but we did learn the elite he summons during the fight can be targeted by us orcs in disguise. The next time we immediately pull him out of the fray and allow Rhubarb, Aleks and Bubos to finish off the whack dude. I died for the trouble, but it was worth it. I love the improvising we accomplish at the drop of a hat. With the whack dude dead Bubos took off and we headed to another area in Shadowmoon to take care of a couple more elite quests that we all had. Okay, most of us had. We mowed through 8 elites and an army of non-elite orcs in short order to complete 2 more quests. I had so much fun spending the night with guildies! The wipes don't sting as bad when it's with friends for some reason. I wish every night could be as fun and as productive as last night. To sum up the night, Jenet and I got our Shadow Labs key, completed all of our quests for Sethek Halls, completed all of our non-daily quests in Shadowmoon Valley and had a blast doing it with guildies. And on a kara night to top it off! Thanks guys for an uber evening!

Sethek of this!

2007-08-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

OMG! I did it again! I pugged! I'm so sick of getting dead all the time. I ran Sethek Halls with a couple of guildies (one being my wife, Jenet) and the other being Australis (a holy Pally, as in he heals..not full of holes). The other two were a retribution pally and a mage. It was no one particular person's fault that we did not succeed. Jenet and I were really tired and not playing as well as we should have been playing. Jenet was never that great at tanking and is only worse now that she is not longer prot specced. I was also a bit bummed going in there cause the run just before that we tried to help Mif in BM and we failed miserably. Need more dots! Sethek is a pretty easy dungeon from what I can tell. Some bad pulls because of impatience and a second mage that couldn't keep a mob sheeped to save his life (literally). It was kind of funny when one of the mobs would drop a totem that would charm someone in the party and make the start fighting everyone else. The first time this happened it charmed the retribution pally and he came after me. I didn't even notice at first he was doing so little damage! No offense, Oak, I just don't think this guy had your leet skills! The next 3 times I got charmed. As I screamed for them to destroy the totem my hands warmed up another fireball. The first time we wiped. I destroyed us before anyone knew what was happening. The next couple of times they were a little quicker to destroy the totem! :D We also got a quest done last night in Netherstorm. I didn't need any of the loots but it did give 1000 Aldor rep and 24g so I wasn't complaining. Only 600 rep away from revered! Night before last I got to run Kara, finally! Guess those guys didn't realize how leetz i am! I cleaned house in that place. The professor plums were raining from the sky! I got some purple gloves off some trash mobs only a couple of pulls into the dungeon. They were for a frost mage so was gonna decline, but Wichita suggested I take them in case I ever respec. I guess it beats sharding 'em. Attunemen went down without a hitch. No mage droppings off of him. Off to Moroes we went. I didn't die on the AoE pulls heading to him and only died once on the AoE pulls after him so that was a blessing! Moroes was slightly more kind to me. He dropped some nice purple +SD item (can't remeber what it was...i think it was a waist item). I tried to defer to Calexis and Darolyn, but they both declined. It made a better item for PvP than what I had currently so I was happy. We skipped Maiden and headed for the opera event. We got the big bad wolf. It was pretty funny watching people get turned into little red then start running around the room. No mage droppings from opera, but I think Schmedlap got some hunter gear! Grats, man! Once the wolf was tamed and shamed we moved on to the curator. Two bosses in one night I have never been to before. It was pretty exciting! We wiped once on Curator. Or I should say he wiped with us. He is a pretty cool boss with such a soothing voice. When he was put out of commission and the lootz were linked I was ecstatic! My tier 4 gloves dropped! Ok so my newbness didn't even know they were the tier 4 gloves till later, but I was still happy. I, once again, tried to defer the loot, but everyone was grumbling about how those stupid things drop everytime and how Schmedlap has them already. So I begrudgingly took them. You guys have no idea how horrible it was to receive all those purples. :D Seriously, though, thanks Heroes Inc for having me once again. I had a blast in Kara and really just couldn't imagine doing it with any other group. Now I just need to get Jenet geared so she can run Kara and I will be able to sleep without a knife in my neck! Peace!

The Ramparts Pugged

2007-08-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well, last night I started my game time out like I do every night. I log on with Krawl, check my mail, clean up my inventory (cause my wife usually plays him during the day), then try to find something to do. I did some more tailoring which brought me up to 355. It was high enough to buy and learn the first Spellfire item. Won't be long I will be all decked out in that and ready to do some raiding. Now if I only knew a guild that raided and would have me! Nothing panned out with Krawl so my wife and I decided to play the little guys again. Of course, they are not so little anymore. We log on with Feandra and Allyours and immediately start looking for a group for Ramps or Furnace. I need to get me in some dungeon practice with my priest. It is really getting easier to switch between mage and priest now. We were able to finish up a couple of quests by the time a group came together. Our initial group was made of Jorome (an arms/fury warrior learning how to tank), Sadistic (a holy priest), a lock (who's name escapes me right now), Allyours and myself. I knew it was going to be a bad run when the priest who invited us whispered me and said he wasn't too sure about this warrior and linked some of his equipment. It then headed straight south on the first pull when I tanked both mobs because Jorome couldn't keep them off our healer. One would have been sheeped but the lock dotted them both. *sigh* We talked a little with Jorome and found he had never tanked before this run. We almost made it to the first boss as we taught Jorome the basics of tanking as a warrior wearing greens (and bad ones at that). It went something like this: Feandra: Pull with your gun don't charge Jorome: I suck! Sadistic: Sunder! Feandra: Sunder! Feandra: Taunt! Sadistic: Sunder! Feandra: Sunder! Feandra: Taunt! Sadistic: Sunder! Feandra: Sunder! Feandra: Taunt! Sadistic: Sunder! Feandra: Sunder! Feandra: Taunt! Sadistic: Sunder! Feandra: Sunder! Feandra: Taunt! Sadistic: Sunder! Feandra: Sunder! Feandra: Taunt! Sadistic: Sunder! Feandra: Sunder! Feandra: Taunt! The battle ends. Everyone is out of mana and mobs are dead all over the place because we tanked with well timed Psychic Screams. At least the lock stopped dotting the sheep. Jorome keeps blathering on about how bad he sucks. We wiped about 3 times on our way to the first boss. On our last wipe the priest whispered me to let me know he was leaving the group to go with another if I wanted to come. I said I would if there was room for Allyours and I dropped group before I got my body back. This group went a little better. We dropped the lock and Jorome for a warrior and pally. We sailed to the first boss without even breathing hard. We downed the first boss then moved to ramp leading up when the priest logs. He doesn't say anything. He just logs. We figured he got disconnected so we wait a few minutes. Nothing. It's getting late and I'm getting aggravated with another failed attempt at ramparts. I then notice my buddy Raydz has just finished up with the raid he was on with his guild Mal Katai so I send him a pleading tell to come finish this miserable dungeon with us. He obliges after I tell him if he does this for me I will give him a coveted Severed Talon (I got this move from Origami after I saw him using oh so successfully on guildies on numerous occassions)! Within minutes Raydz is in the dungeon and we are tearing through it in no time flat. Allyours and I had to roll against each on a nice staff that dropped off the second boss. Of course, even if I had won the roll I would have let her have it. By the end of the run I was beat. It was late and I had to arise early to begin another day. Tomorrow Allyours and Feandra will be entering Dire Maul with Jeyne. I can't wait! I love all the old stuff. Even better is I'm still level 60 so I will get experience for being in there!

Rag Ripoff Dropped Again

2007-08-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

I started off my evening determined to put a group together for Feandra and Allyours to go into The Ramparts. I was not dissappointed. At least, I wasn't dissappointed until we got into the dungeon. I am still shadow specced, but I thought I could still heal a non-heroic, non-raid dungeon. I was right. The pains I felt during that run (which never finished) were aggro related. Our party was made up of a tankadin, rogue, priest (me), and two mages (one of which was Allyours). A pet peave of mine is someone should lead! The tankadin tried but was inconsistent with raid icons and tactics. We had a rogue who not only had trouble sapping successfully (why he was sapping at all with two mages is beyond me), but couldn't control his aggro. Every fight he was popping trinkets and throwing everything he had at the mobs. Now, I'm all for a go-getter like that, but as a priest is sure is a whole lot easier to heal someone wearing plate! If it wasn't the rogue pulling aggro it was one of the mages. Heck, sometimes it was even me. Pretty much everyone had aggro almost every pull except the guy that was supposed to have aggro! So every bad pull I was spamming flash heals all over the place and praying my mana lasted through the battle. I would really have liked to play around with the idea of using the bigger heals and trying to use the 5 second rule to my favor. Not even a chance to try that with this group. If I waited that extra time for the bigger heals the rogue or tankadin died. Needless to say this was once again a failed pug. Once the pug with Feandra and Allyours failed a buddy of ours, Raydz, was looking for 2 dps folks to head into Shadow Labs. With Jenet being all respecced for dps I said we will be on shortly! Of course, my excitement was purely for the fact I only needed 500 more rep to be revered with Lower City. I was pretty sure the group would fail. All my pugs do, why not this one. Our group was made up of a warrior tank (Raydz), a holy pally, lock, fire mage (Krawl), and an MS warrior (Jenet). We had a good group make up. Plenty of dps to run this dungeon. I know Raydz. He is a good tank. Our holy pally turned out to be a great healer. Jenet's dps is still a bit low but me and the lock made up for it. What became the big problem was the kill order. Raydz would put up the icons (and he was consistent everytime) and say in party chat "moon, diamond, square, skull". My polly which was circle was always last. Sound simple, right. We were all able to do that. Well except for the lock who's kill order was square, diamond, skull, moon. Oh, but sometimes he would switch it up to skull, diamond, square moon. Heck, there was a couple of times he even dotted my polly. And what happens after that happens? He yells at me to not AoE! I told him I wouldn't have to frost nova if he would follow the kill order! He left the party shortly after that and we picked up a hunter. From that point forward we had a blast. Everyone was good-natured and easy to work with on pulls. We struggled a little on the freak-show boss with all the VWs, but no no one got upset and we pulled it together and downed him. It also took us a couple shots at Murmer, but hey, we were a pug. Raydz used his intercept to get out of the sonic booms then charged back into murmer after it was over. And we whittled him down slowly but surely. Jenet picked up a blue for her dps set and I got revered with Lower city! All in all I would call it successful. Two pugs in one night! I'm beat!

Moving Right Along

2007-08-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty eventful weekend. My wife and I played Feandra and Allyours pretty much all weekend with only a little time spent on Krawl and Jenet. Friday I was determined to get to level 58 so I could effectively help out with Jeyne's run into Scholomance. I do love those older dungeons. He was planning on running Saturday after PvP and I would be gone all day Saturday with no time to level except Friday. We grouped up with Jeyne and did some heavy questing in the Eastern and Western Plaguelands. I had a blast. No horde activity to mention. Of course, what idiot would tangle with a lock, mage and priest combo. Only one with a desire to walk back from the graveyard! Saturday morning Allyours and I had a little time before our mandatory meet and greet with "the family" so we headed out to Silithus to get in a little leveling. Once again, nothing too exciting. {insert mandatory root canal..uh..I mean a wonderful time with my sister-in-law's in-laws.} Honestly, how many birthday parties does a 1 year old need. This was number 2 and talks began of another. INSANE! Saturday evening finally came and we headed away from the BBQ. Ended up being a little late for PvP action. I was happy to see Ferth saved us a spot! I know he didn't "save" us a spot, but it makes me feel better thinking he has a special place in his heart for Krawl. Him being a gnome and all! Us little guys gotta stick together. PvP was a blast! We won most of our matches. We even got our butts handed to us in HKs and still came out on top of a few which to me says we are starting to work a little better on communication. I am not going to go into details on the last match of the evening but I felt it did deserver a mention since we were destroyed so soundly. It really stick in my head because of the two puggers we had one was excited that he was in a premade and I made a joke about him having to work that much harder because we suck! Little did I know we were going to get rolled over. After PvP my wife and I logged on with Feandra and Allyours to find Jeyne was no where in sight! I was a little disheartened, but later found due to a storm and lack of internet Jeyne was M.I.A. We ended up helping Honors get that last little bit of rep for Sha'tar. Sunday brought some more alt-grinding fun! Feandra and Allyours ran Scholo with Jeyne and Condramus (Thanks, dude!). We had some bumps, but all in all I had a blast. After Scholo Condramus had to leave so we pugged some Strat. It wasn't too bad. We were 4-manning with a fourth being a lvl 64 Holy pally. He was doing the job we just didn't have the fire power to down that mind controlling wraith! We grabbed a shadow priest and that was just the trick. After the strat run Feandra and Allyours headed back to Outland. We did a bunch of quests trying to get to level 60. We ended the night (or was it morning) with a run through Ramparts. A couple of real life friends took us through there. It took about 35 minutes to breeze through. I have been replacing equipment left and right since being in Outland and this run was no exception. I replace 2 pieces of equipment. The only thing out of the ordinary was the last boss. There he was flying around on his dragon. We down him before his pet lands then downt the dragon. Before the fight we noticed a huge horn that has the action cursor so after the fight was over where there was no chest we blew the horn and had to kill the boss a second time! After killing the boss a second time the chest dropped but blowing the horn did nothing. I still have no idea what that was about. We did manage to hit level 60, train, become honored with Honor Hold, and get our epic mounts! All in a day's (or maybe I should say weekened's) work. I guess I have rambled on enough. I know I haven't gone into the detail that I should, but so much happened this weekend it would be a short story not a blog entry! Peace!

Altamaniac

2007-08-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

My wife and I decided to play our alts last night. I really want to get Feandra to 70. If I can do that then I think I will have a nice variety of playing for a while. I really enjoy healing. My last priest was an undead on Spirestone. I was spec’d to melt faces with him but spent most of time in instances healing 5 and 10 mans. I never got him in a 20 or 40 man. We just started questing in the Plaguelands last night. My son “botted” her for me while I was at work. He went with my wife to turn in quests and do some other stuff. I had enough quests to turn in that he almost leveled me in just quests. I am now well on my way to level 57. My goal is to be able to run Scholo with Jeyne this weekend. I think we are going to make it. I may even have my Scholo key for the trip! Nothing too exciting happened last night. We just quested and quested. There was a pesky little undead mage that cropped up. He died a lot. Poor guy. I know he didn’t like us too much. It’s hard to stop a mage/priest combo when you are all alone, though. I did sign up for some Kara runs with Krawl. Not sure if I’ll be going though. It’s like waiting to see if you’ve been cut from the team after tryouts! Oh well! No Kara just means I can level up my priest some more! Until I write again, Peace!

Into the Depths

2007-08-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty fun. I logged on a bit before Jenet last night and hopped into a group with a bunch of guildies to help knock out the Ring of Blood quest. I was the first to show and up and I noticed a Night Elf rogue trading blows with 3 horde just outside the ring. I dropped down in the middle of the fray and dropped the horde the NE was chewing on with a well time Fire Blast and Dragon’s breath. The Dragon’s Breath stunned the other two, which were down below half health. Little did I know in that short time the other two members of their group arrived. I was dropped before I even knew I was hit. As I was walking back from the graveyard Heroes begin showing up at the ring. Once my guildies arrived the horde no longer had any sort of foothold on the ring. The quest line was started and Origami charged in to tank the first boss. I think about 7 or 8 Heroes were on hand tearing down the mobs in the ring and during our battle with the mobs the horde continued to try and gank. They were heavily disappointed to find we had enough fire-power to not only tear down the mobs but to also drop them like bad habits. Once the ring was completed all the Heroes departed to go back to whatever it is they do on the other side of the guild chat. Jenet and I decided we would log and play our alts, Feandra and Allyours. I ran my Allyours through ZF the night before with Krawl to help her catch up on a Sunken Temple quest so we were ready with 6 quests to head into the depths of the Sunken Temple. I have always liked the Sunken Temple. I don’t know why it appeals to me. I just think it is a cool dungeon. Bacon was on and I knew his alt Jeyne was needing to run ST so I shot him an invite. We had to go to the Hinterlands first to get some silly little Troll egg (I didn’t know Trolls laid eggs). Up we went into the ruins. It was just Jeyne, Allyours and Feandra downing these elites. We were slightly overpowered for their level. We pretty much breezed through to the top with only one hiccup. A level 70 tauren hunter comes out of nowhere and decides we would make easy pickins. He was right. My wife was owned before she new what hit her. I ran straight at him hoping to get a Psychic Scream on him. He resisted. I knew I was in trouble. While he was breaking me down like a shotgun Jeyne was loading him up with dots. . I was soul stoned so I had to merely wait for him to die or leave then pop back and res everyone else While I was pushing up daisies I had plenty of time to contemplate what I had done wrong. I should have moved behind a wall and forced him to move in closer to me. This would have stopped his shooting and let Jeyne’s dots work a little more. I then could have used that time to heal myself. He had less than 20% life when Jeyne finally died. Had I not jumped onto his sword we could have come out on top. Lesson learned. The hunter regained his life then mounted up and rode away. I popped soulstone and brought Jeyne back from the dead. Allyours had been running back the whole time. We sailed up the rest of the way and got the egg. Allyours and I needed to rescue Sharpbeak so we did that real quick. Nothing spectacular. At this time, it’s about 11pm and I’m getting a little tired, but we decided to run ST before sleepy time. Origami was almost finished in Botanica and said he would run us through when he was done. Wichita joined in after we were all in there. Let me just say that, other than Origami falling off a ledge, the Sunken Temple never stood a chance. Origami was tearing things up and after Wichita showed up I was lucky to complete a 3 second cast before groups of mobs were dead. I couldn’t even keep up with skinning the dragonkin. The kill rate was phenomenal. Jeyne got Jammal’s kilt which was an upgrade for what he was wearing. Grats Jeyne! I’m not too concerned myself with what equipment I have right now. I know Outlands is going to replace everything before I leave Hellfire. I can’t wait! Thanks Origami and Wichita for running us through the Sunken Temple! I had a lot of fun. I felt like a little kid trying to keep up with big brother and his friends as they ride their bicycles through trails I can’t navigate. Ah good times…good times!

Healer blues

2007-08-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

Last night was kind of drab. I convinced my wife to respec from prot to MS. I am not sure if she likes it or not. I'm sure if I can get her some equipment her view may change. We didn't have much opportunity to test it out, however. I really wanted to get her in a dungeon, but once again....no healers. I know what you are thinking...PUG it! Forget that. I have tried PUGs and they suck. They refuse to work as a team. Everyone out for themselves. Don't even get me started on ninjas. My view on PUGs and ninjas are pretty basic. I hate them! It's the same to me as downloading an executable from a hacker's website and running it without checking it for viruses, thus allowing the hacker to browse your hard drive via the trojan horse you just installed for him and steal all your goodies. So when people in the guild can't run I would prefer to do something else. It's getting harder and harder these days to do casual dungeons. Blizzard seems to have whipped everyone up in a frenzy of rep gaining. No one seems to run dungeons just for the fun of running a dungeon. I can understand the reasoning people have for it. I just don't agree with it. I miss the days of logging on to play the game with some close friends. We would all get on and play together. It didn't matter if what we were doing that night only benefitted only one of us. We played together because it was fun. Alas, I digress with yearnings for the past. I love the guild I am in and in no way expect them to cater to my whims. I just wish more of them had my whims. :) So, due to no healers, no desire to PUG it and the lack of anything but group quests Jenet and I logged off. I guess tonight we will start all over again. Peace!

Initiation sequence

2007-08-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

My first blog! How very exciting! I just could not avoid the temptation any longer. Some guild mates of mine started blogs and I have enjoyed reading them so much I decided to start my own. I'm pretty much just gonna drabble on about my toon on the World of WarCraft's (WoW) server Altar of Storms named Krawl. I have been playing WoW forever. It's been so long I can't remember when I started playing. That being said, Krawl is not my first toon. He is, however, the toon I plan to stick with for the rest of my life, or until I get bored. Whichever comes first. I digress. Krawl is a level 70 fire mage in the guild Heroes Inc. My wife also plays the game with me. She has a level 70 warrior. At the moment she is prot spec'd, but I think that is going to change soon. I'm trying to convince her to go Mortal Strike! Our guild held a PvP night last night. I hadn't done any PvP in a while so I volunteered. I would love to start doing more, but with my wife being prot spec'd she doesn't enjoy it too much. You know what they say..."Wife ain't happy...ain't nobody happy!" I don't remember how many Warsong Gulches we played or how many wins/losses I just know I had a ton of fun! We started off the night in Arathi Basin. We five capped em and one in no time flat. It was great! Warsong Gulch had it's ups and downs and we really only got mowed over once or twice. One of them I will remember for awhile. A few Mortal Strike warriors and some healers makes for a lot of pain. I spent a lot of time running back from the graveyard! Hopefully, with a few more nights like that I can start acquiring some PvP gear. I some honor points saved up and a bunch of markers so we will see. I plan to setup links to my guildies blogs soon. Mainly, so they think I still like em! :) Stay classy San Diego! Peace!