Status - Deer-in-Headlights

Didja ever have a project, a task, that was so huge, so daunting, that you were literally just frozen by it? Unable to move in any direction, even knowing that ANY move would be progress?

Right now, D is aheming loudly, gesturing wildly to our only-partially-remodeled home.

Yeah, that's kinda how I feel about WoW right now. I'm working 5 toons, remember. Just for my own use I thought I'd run through a sort of To-Do list, by character, to help me get focused.

Despairity, 58 UD Frost Mage: Her gear is okay, ready for Outlands, but I really wanted those two extra levels on her before she digs in to Hellfire Penninsula. I did manage to get her cooking up over 280, and it needs to be maxed so that she's not having to come back to Azeroth for cooking. On this one, I should probably head to Winterspring and grind bears for the meat and XP.

Malarea, 70 UD Aff Warlock: Mal is great. She is maxed on fishing, cooking, tailoring, and getting oh so close on Enchanting. She wants that Ahune staff, though, so I really need to be running her through Heroic Slave Pens. Also, with the new 28-slot herb bag coming, I need to be farming the primals and crafting Primal Mooncloth every 4 days.

Rigatoni, 70 BE Rogue: Rigs wants for nothing right about now. Bless her little soul, she's so undemanding. /hugs

Principessa, 70 BE Shadow Priest: Prin's fishing skill sucks, she can only do the Orgrimmar daily. Also, she's lagging behind in SSO rep and only needs 5 more points to max Jewelcrafting. There's also that whole "dropping mining to power-level tailoring" thing - I gotta decide if I'm really gonna do it - and if so, I need to be mass farming ores and cloth in prepartion.

Hawli, 59 BE Hunter: Hawli's got needs, oh lordy lordy. She NEEDS 48 more AV tokens for the Frostwolf mount, she NEEDS 11 more Mining skill points before Outlands, she NEEDS 27 more Engineering skill points to hit 300, as well.

So - now to prioritze... I'll get back to you.

A Change in Strategy, Profession-wise

Up til now, Prin has been rocking a Mining / Jewelcrafting profession. Decent money, for the most part, since even beginning-level ores and smelted bars are selling well. Not to mention accepting tips for cutting raw green- & blue-quality gems. Since the beginning she's followed D's gathering / crafting formula for leveling professions without going broke. What's that? Oh, dude, it's so easy - 50% of the gathered materials used to level the crafting profession, 50% sent directly to the bank alt for placement in the AH.



There you go, don't say I never did anything for ya. : )



So she's hit 70, she's got the epic flyer, and she's hurting for gear in a big way. There really isn't anything she needs to be spending money on, as I'm trying to make do with the patterns available for rep. Okay - that's not completely true. You should see me whenever something like this pops up: [2. Trade] WTS [Design: Bright Living Ruby] pst



I'm like - immediately /w the seller, tell him I'm omw with some gold, log out where ever I am, doing whatever I'm doing, jump on Prin, /w the seller again, race half-way across Azeroth because this living wonder decided to take a little side-trip to Desolace while he was waiting for me (his alt needed the 150 Cookbook), and drop the equivalent of 2-3 days worth of dailies on a recipe that will probably net me some gold in the way of tips, definitely if I manage to prospect some Living Rubies.



I'm thinking of dropping the mining to power-level tailoring, strictly for the Frozen Shadoweave set.



I can hear you out there, you know, groaning, "omfg you mean u haven't already?!?11"



No - I haven't. Why? Well, I'm not maxed on JC yet, for one - I'm stuck at 368. Hawli's coming right along and will be in Outlands in just 2 more levels* so I'm going to have another supplier soon. But then I'm afraid Hawli's engineering will suffer if she's feeding two crafting professions. Not to mention that the expansion is coming. So, even though Malarea has the set and I know first-hand how tear-jerkingly delicious it is, I ALSO remember leveling tailoring to GET to it. Oy, vey. (When did I become Jewish? O.o See what the very thought does to me?)


But I digress... the point of this post is that I'm trying to psych myself up to abandon a perfectly good maxed-out Mining skill in favor of the "splinter under the fingernail" pain of power-leveling Shadoweave Tailoring. My one consolation is that Mal's Shadoweave cooldown will also be of use, but I shudder when I think of all the primal-grinding I put into it.



/shudder



See? *spots random player queueing up for Kara* Hey, you - can I go on follow on you, for say, 3-4 hours? Let me know if something drops I should roll on. Thanks.





*I think a hunter will be much easier to start in Outlands than the Priest - even a shadow priest. Wish me luck with this.

I'll be staying right here, thanks.

I'm totally pumped for the expansion. D and I are of slightly different minds concerning original WoW and BC. He's a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the old world, the old instances, more difficult quests, no sparkly objectives with flashing neon lights exclaiming "Click HERE, Noob!" and the sense of accomplishment all of the above brings.

I'm a big fan of being 70. There, I said it. I like leveling, I love instancing and questing, but there's a lot to be said for BC instance design over Azeroth instance design. Yes, Stratholme is eerie. Yes, Maraudon is amazing, and Dire Maul is a blast, and Shadowfang Keep remains my absolute favorite old-world dungeon. But as I was complaining last night, there ought to be a limit to the number of toons one must drag through Jaedenar.

So what's my deal? I like doing Kara. I don't necessarily want to do it for 6 freaking hours. I like doing heroics, if I can find a Pug who knows what they're doing. (BIG if.) I enjoyed experiencing Magister's Terrace, but it took me four groups to finally get all the way to the end boss. (Thank you, mage, for passing the epic gloves to me! /hugs)

I'm thinking a nice shiny new Death Knight and a new group of zones might be just the ticket. I certainly have no interest in Age of Conan, at least not immediately. One of our best friends and guildy "took one for the team" and test-drove it. Her most lasting impression? Twelve-year-old mouth-breathers exclaiming, "ZOMG, bewbies!" So, yeah, WoW is going to be able to keep its claws in me awhile longer, I believe.

Extended Maintenance takes the Supreme out of my Chicken Soft Taco Supreme

I raced home from my doctor's appointment, Taco Bell take-out in hand, eager to jump into some Quel Danas dailies, or perhaps work on my neglected Consortium rep... (I simply MUST reach honored).

To my dismay, it appears that my realm will be down for at least another hour. And when Blizzard says "another hour," they really mean, "soon."

Ah well, an opportunity to jump over to Zangarmarsh and work on my long-neglected ICFtB toons: Mahmi and Lachenrohl. If anyone cares to join me because your main server is down, too, by all means! Chat me up. This is a good time to do it, anyway, with the upcoming event.

Visit http://www.wowinsider.com/category/it-came-from-the-blog/ for details. Hope to see some of you there!

Patch 2.4.3 - Unofficial

Haris Pilton is on the cover of Yahoo!'s Entertainment News today. Seems that the mainstream media has been attracted to even the most random of Paris Hilton references; that of an almost-namesake NPC in World of Warcraft. How sad is that? Did nothing blow up today or what?

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/virtual-paris-hilton-sells-bags-in-world-of-warcraft/1221824

No matter. Patch 2.4.3 is coming, and that right early. Other than 1200g bags and useless jewelry, what else is in store?

Mounts at level 30, and apprentice training for only 35g. Am I bummed or hyped about that? Neither. I don't have any toons left below 50, and don't expect any more prior to WotLK, either. D, however, DOES have a new little mage coming up in the ranks, and it'll be good to see him get another boost in leveling speed.

We're getting one new non-combat pet (oh boy) and some graphical fixes to the movement of others. There's nothing new out there for Priests except for a small change to Mind Vision and something about healing (tldr, lol).

Warlocks are getting a combined curse for the four magic trees available to mages and 'locks combed: Curse of Elements will apply to Frost, Fire, Shadow, and Arcane magical damage. Woot! You AND the lock are getting good news here, since a mage in the group almost ALWAYS meant only the +Frost and +Fire curse. Our own Malarea can't wait to try this new change out...

I'm also pumped to see some of the profession changes & fixes, like having green gems drop from mining nodes again, and losing the cooldown for regular Mooncloth. One of my guild's upcoming warlocks went without the Robe of Winter's Night, simply because he wasn't in the level range long enough for me to make the damn cloth. Oh yeah, and also because I wasn't planning ahead and underestimated his leveling speed.

The best news, to me, anyway, is the Herb Bag pattern to be available from Sporeggar at Exalted status. I'll be farming rep for Malarea, my tailor, and presumably making bags for all the herbalists currently in the guild - I know of at least 3, right off hand.

Lots of other minor fixes and changes are in store, and I guess the best thing I can say about 2.4.3 is that, so far, at least, I haven't seen anything distressing. Check it out for yourself at WoW Insider, and tell me what YOU'RE looking forward to.

Enquiring minds want to know.

Totally Unrelated - Farewell, Mr. Carlin

On behalf of gamers, who are as likely to employ your seven words as the typical sailor, truck driver, and pee-wee league coach, we wish you peace.

/salute
/sob

Prin Does PvP - Part 4 (Eye of the Storm)

First foray into this battleground was an eye-opener. BGs at level 70 are a whole new ball game, my friends! My gear - while not bad for a 69, was horrific for a 70. As I rode out of the starting gate, I began making mistakes, one after another.

• I missed the first jump, which means I rode into battle with less than half my health.
• I was sapped by an Alliance rogue while trying to decide which tower to help take.
• I became flustered and confused, watching my health drop dramatically.
• My Psychic Scream was resisted.
• I committed suicide by hitting SW:D instead of SW:P.

Sigh. We were slaughtered, receiving exactly zero points for the 3 minute battle. I also received 21 honor and one EotS Mark of Honor.

Let's try this again, shall we?

Much, much better. I'm remembering to fear, remembering to follow flag-carriers while shielding and dispelling. We managed to take and hold 3 of the bases for most of the battle, ignoring the flag for the most part, and took this one 2000 to 744. After 16 minutes of battle, I'm awarded 253 honor and 3 Marks. Not too shabby!

All in all, I'm still not a fan of PvP and I don't think I ever will be. I'm simply not of the right personality for it. It's not that I'm not competitive... it's that I'm the world's most horrible sport, that kid to whom you used to throw Hungry Hungry Hippo games in order to avoid the subsequent tantrum. I'm having a blast if we're winning, and if I'm being ignored by the opposition. Oh yes, I'm cackling madly, trash-talking my butt off, throwing out insults like confetti. But as soon as the tables turn... so do I - into a chessboard-throwing monster.

It's not pretty.

That having been said, I think it's best for everyone if Prin hangs up her PvP hat. I've got plenty of honor for the trinket, and I think I ought to be satisfied with that. Before anyone really gets hurt. Don't you?

On Choosing a Guild

Your guild... it's your Azerothian home-away-from-home. It's filled with the people with whom you'll be spending most of your online time. Depending upon how dedicated of a player you are, you may be spending more time with these folks than with your family members! Rather like co-workers, you'll get to know them on a personal level. *You'll have to listen to them blather mindlessly about their jobs, spouses, children, schoolwork, teachers, RL friends, and family members. You'll be there to congratulate their successes and commiserate with them on their failures. Like any large organization, the guild's reputation becomes YOUR reputation, and vice-versa.

For this reason, it's especially important to choose your guild wisely, yes? Yes. Unfortunately, just picking out a reasonable and like-minded group of people isn't enough.

The All-Important Guild Name

It's shocking, really, how few fledgling guild leaders spend any quality name designing the guild name. Grammar, spelling, and originality are all necessary components, as is proper capitalization. Keep in mind, every other player on your server is going to see your guild name along with your character name. When it's especially jarring, those two labels will become connected in the viewer's mind so that even once you've moved on, they will still remember Jingleytoast as being with the guild, "lords of azoroth." /eyeroll.

• The Illiterate: Misspelled, not capitalized, often assumed to be the product of the guild leader's cat walking across the keyboard during the naming process. At least, that's what we'd rather believe. Avoid at all costs - nothing says, "I'm a tool!" like running around with a misspelled word over your head. After all, you can't claim to have not known, right? I literally have TONS of screenshots of these, but I can't use them and still abide by the disclaimer below. This type of guild name is guaranteed to make you the object of laughter and scorn, and insures that you will never be taken seriously. And no, I'm not being too harsh. This is reality.
• The Mad-Lib guild name: Easily recognizable by the format, _______ of _________. Legion of Doom, Defenders of Azeroth, Champions of the Alliance, etc. /yawn.
• The (Hopefully) Clever Pun name: "Hor'de Oeuvres" was full of win and Cheetos, while "Ur Moms a Horde" was just painful.
• The Pretentious Latin Phrase guild name: Depends. If it translates to something funny, like Seize the Buttocks (Carpe Buttockos, I'd presume, but then I don't speak Latin) then I'd say go for it. Or perhaps if the name was in Pig Latin. Otherwise, you may be writing checks that your gaming skill can't cash. In that case, I'd go for
• The Self-Deprecating guild name: Rejects, Nihilim Said No Way, This IS My Life, etc. Almost always a good bet, if only because you have nothing to live up to. If you suck, whatever, you never claimed not to. If you're good, it's a pleasant surprise, and everyone's happy.
• The Snappy One-Word guild name: Easily recognizable, so in this case, it's doubly important that the guild has a good rep. You don't want that one word to become synonomous with "Moron," right?
• The Random Pop-Culture / Non-sensical guild name: My favorite. You love it when you see one of these, and actually get the reference. Or maybe you don't get the reference, but that particular turn of phrase or combination of words just tickles you for some reason. There is a guild on my server of this ilk, and I love it. Whenever I see one of their members, I'll spend the next several hours singing a jingle I created just for their guild. I can't help it. I cannot see the name without singing the jingle. Just ask D. I've often been tempted to offer them the jingle in exchange for membership, but I'm afraid I'd never log out.
• The Obscene, Inflammatory, or Racist guild name. Why bother? It's not funny, you're not clever, and someone with more sense than you is going to see it and report it, and then you'll have to change it. Just - don't.

Now is a good time to take a long look at your guild, its members, and especially the guild name. Are you happy? Are you having fun? Do you look like a tool with a misspelled word over your head? These are the questions to ask. Now do a /who Capital City and see if any of those guild names inspire you to write jingles. Do your homework, pug with their members, and watch Trade Chat. This is where idiots tend to gather, and it's easy enough to get a proportion of guild members to idiots for any given guild.

*Guild members who send you cards and flowers while you're in the hospital are only slightly less amazing than those who advise you to double the pain meds, just this once, so you can finish that LBRS run. I love my guildies - they are the utmost Cat's Meow.

**Disclaimer - all toon and guild names in this post are the product of the author's imagination and have NOT been personally witnessed on her or any other server. That is the author's position, and even if you ARE Jingleytoast, you cannot prove otherwise. So there. All complaints will be handled by the Melted Faces legal department. This department has not yet been formed, we'll let you know.

DING! Level 70

So! I'm home from the hospital, recuperating well, driving D nuts with my inability to NOT clean, bend, reach, stretch, pick stuff up, etc. About all I can do is WoW and Blog, so...

Lucky me, huh?

So yeah, Prin dinged 70. As this is my 3rd to cap, I'm not quite AS excited. It was, however, nice to be able to move directly from her epic land mount to the epic flyer. Having 2 toons able to grind out those dailies is a real padding of the pocket, if you know what i mean. *wink* I went with the purple Windrider since I'm almost always in Shadowform, so he'll be purple anyway, right? No real plans to grind out either the ray or the drake, though. There's just way too much to do for a purely aesthetic change in ride.

So what AM I going to do, now that I've reached that longed-for pinacle? For starters, I'm going to hit up the rep vendors for the blue PvP gear and replace anything I have that's still green. No point in even TRYING to volunteer for heroics in greens, right?

Working up my Shattered Sun rep doing dailies is a great idea. Especially as a jewelcrafter.

Next, I'd like to complete each Outland dungeon at least once. Now that D's bear tank is also 70, we shouldn't have much problem pugging them. Also, we're looking to move a couple of toons back to our old raiding guild just have access to heroics and the occasional raid. That should help. We are still going to complete the PvP series and check out Eye of the Storm, that should be fun. And - you'll love this - I'm trying to talk D into having each of us switch our priest specs for a day. His will go Shadow, while Prin goes Holy. I KNOW! How wacky is that?

The only other news I have, last night Prin tailed along behind D's druid and a couple of our friends to LBRS, trying to get D his UBRS key. Because he wants it, that's why, and that's usually reason enough. : ) It was a slaughterhouse. I barely healed anyone at all, and basically just went on follow, tossing out renews here and there, while relaxing with a cup of coffee. Now THAT, my friends, is healing.

Have a little "LOL"

Oh Sister, Where Art Thou?

Prin has taken a little break to finish the leveling sprint to 70. She'll be back on Friday with PvP Part 4 - Eye of the Storm. I probably won't have the opportunity to post after that until at least Monday. Until then, meet her sister, Rigatoni.

http://sinisterstrikes.blogspot.com/

Prin Does PvP - Part 3

Alterac Valley - I have to say, I feel a real affinity for the AV Battlemaster in Shattrath City, Wolf-Sister Maka. Of course that might just be because we have the same head piece on. Or at least, we did at the time of this photo.

So I gave AV a shot today - it's the BG weekend, don'tcha know. I've done my share of AV on other toons, predominately Rigatoni for the Frostwolf mount. That was before the recent changes to AV, and also, it was on a rogue. 'Twas a much different experience today, kids.

First - the battles were over much quicker than I remembered. I ended up doing 3, since we lost the first two, but I was still done in just over half an hour. Second - I didn't see much "fighting in the road" today, and that always appeared to be, like, the Horde's super-secret-shooting-ourselves-in-the-foot strategy. No real taking or defending of Graveyards, either. Just a race to Balinda, and then a race to the final boss, Vanndar Stormpike.

All in all, my strategy in this BG was simple: hang back, dot SW:P and VE on everything, bang anyone low on health with a hearty Sha-BAM! of a SW:D. It appeared to work, as for the first time EVAR I suffered 0 deaths in any of the 3 matches I played. We really met no resistance on our way to the two boss-kills.

Summary: Alterac Valley currently appears to be a race for the two bosses, with no defending or taking of towers, graveyards, and the like. It certainly wasn't the most exciting Battleground I've tried, and based on chat messages it's also the least likely for the Horde to win. It was, however, fast, furious, and efficient. Three matches, 5 Alterac Valley Marks of Honor, and a total of 1436 honor for the day. Not a bad haul, and I'm only about 431 honor away from the Insignia of the Horde! Now if only I could figure out a way to fix this:

Isn't he just the cutest thing?!?

D has a fondness for the non-combat pets in WoW.


That's putting it mildly.


Some might say - "obsession."



I can't really blame him... I've got several of my own, and I love them all dearly. From the Bombay Cats we had to smuggle over from the Alliance side (they match my RL kitty, TibbyCat) to the Children's Week quest rewards, to the rare, farmable, but ultimately purchased-off-the-AH Tiny Crimson Whelpling, I have to say I've got quite a few bank slots occupied by cute-n-fuzzies myself.



I mentioned to D way back when patch 2.4 introduced the Daily Fishing Quests that there was a chance to get a baby crocolisk in one's goody-bag. I didn't really think much more of it. I didn't even think about how odd it was that D was doing the fishing daily, like, every day. I've always loved fishing in WoW; he only did it for the consumables. Hell, back in the day, I did it FOR him so he could take Free Action pots into BGs. It's not like I needed them.


So the other day, we're working on dailies, and I hear D gasp. Loudly. And then - again. I look over and - well, he's just the cutest thing ever. And he couldn't have dropped for a more deserving guy, /hugs.


Introducing the newest pet in D's stable: Muckbreath.




D's delighted with the lil'fella, as am I. He's a lot of fun, and makes adorable burping noises when you click on him.


So here's the thing... while creating this post I discovered a couple of interesting facts: 1) the pet only drops from completion of the Crocolisks in the City quest, and 2) there are 3 other possible pets to be had: Chuck, Snarly, and Toothy. I'm almost afraid to see what happens when D finds out...


And you know... there is that Firefly in Zangarmarsh...

June Poll is UP!!

And so is WoW - it wasn't, this morning. Some kind of broken path between several specific ISPs and the WoW servers, from the gossip mill at GameFAQs. Apologies for the delay - had a graduation party to attend yesterday (GRATS, LAUREN!!).