Zombified Love

I don't gank. I don't like to be ganked. As a Druid or Warrior or Hunter or any other class I still hold to that.

However...

When I am a zombie, I will join the zombie horde and kill everyone and everything no matter what level, gear, quest, or other function you or they serve. When you are a zombie, you will understand. If you don't, then do yourself a favor and go play something else until it's over.

This is the coolest event that I have experienced in WoW.

BRAAAAIINNNSSS!

WAR. Oh yes.

Newbian raiding is over for Burning Crusade. We got Vashj ans Kael down multiple times which, for a casual raid, is quite an accomplishment. We took no fewer than 50 different people on 9 Vashj kills, which I suspect is either a record, or at least REALLY freaking uncommon. Regardless of its World Status, I doubt ANY other raid did this on Dark Iron.

So I doubt I'll see Illidan die. Oh well. Some folk will certainly go back into BT after hitting level 80 and go kick his ass. Warglaives will be the newe ashbringer.

Eh, we are stopping to get out the car for some reason. This trip is going to take 20 hours.
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Holy wowbreak

Well, it happened, I cancelled my accounts. It seems odd that I have to make that plural, but there you go. They are actually both paid up until early october, and hell, if the v3 patch gets pushed sometime after that I might just re-up to play with the new talents. Eh, who knows. I'll probably keep grinding my warlock at times, and lord knows I am going to need to farm up lots of old world herbs to level up inscripting.

But DAMN W:AR is fun as hell. It's hands down the best MMO PvP I've ever played. I'm playing a damn tank, and enjoying every minute of it. I am hard as hell to kill. Hard. As. Hell. Fights last longer than they do in WoW, even at a lowly level 8 (though the level cap is only 40). And, the best part, you can level up doing nothing but pvp. It's freaking great.

You should go get it. Next wednesday.
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Macro Heaven

OK, I multi-box, I'm an altaholic and I play on two computers sitting side by side.

I also swap out which toon is on which computer AND I use macros a lot.

And I find out today that:
"Macros and key bindings are now saved server-side so there is no longer a need to reconfigure them when logging in using another computer. "
http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_3.0.2#User_Interface

Can I just say:

Thank You Blizzard!

Now if it would just hurry up.

I'm still Thinking

Video games as a meditative practice ... yeah. It's a little out there but I'm still thinking about it. I'm not saying it's a GOOD meditative practice or even all that productive but ... with certain types of games (like arcade style or even shooters) there's a kind of auto-pilot trance state you can get into where your brain isn't worrying about all this shit it normally worries about.

No, that has nothing to do with WoW.

I did, however, tank a couple of Kara key-frag runs and then swap to a 5-man AQ20 on my 67 warlock. That's WoW related right?

How NOT to Gank...

...and still kill me.

Last night, I was running my first toon, my gnome warrior, and I was turning in a quest when a horde rode up and patiently waited for me to do my quest turn in.  Then when I was done, he /waved and I /waved back.  Then he /bowed and I realized he was asking me to fight.  He had 6 levels on me, but I decided it was cool and /bowed back.

Needless to say he annihilated me, but it was cool.  And in fact what annoys me is that about 90% of the way through killing me, a couple of alliance showed up and I had no way to tell them that I was cool with it before they jumped him.  Heck, I figured I would rez and we would go again.  I didn't yell at them after he fact, heck they were trying to help me, but I wish they hadn't run the horde guy off.  I was having fun despite dying.

Which is why I'm hesitant to transfer any of my toons to a PVE server, cause I'm sure I could have flagged, but it was even cooler because Mr. Horde last night didn't have to be cool about it, he just was.  While PVP servers allow people to be asshats and gank, they also allow for people to be very honorable, something I think is actually good about PVP servers.

This one is about WoW

Well, I finally managed to get my highest toon to 55 on my second account so I can have two PPHGDKs* per server. Now if only I and/or Skroo were able to have used the new refer a friend program, we could have level 60s in minutes, since he referred me and I referred my wife and my second account.

I'm not bitter, I'm actually just wondering if I should have bought my wife and I second and third accounts respectively. Though the 90 days limitation would probably have made it pointless.

That said, I wish they would give us the option to make extra toons at higher levels once we've reached a certain level. 1-70 gets long even for me, and I have yet to actually get one to 70.







*Pink Poofy Haired Gnome Death Knights, and yes, even if they don't give me pink, it's assumed.

Huh

It occurs to me that I just made three long posts to describe what is essentially a music festival.

Go me.
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Not WoW, part three

So what? I'm a believer in synchronicity. I don't know what it means, but I believe it exists. Concurrent with my weekend adventure in Real Life (but not the Real World), was the Penny Arcade Expo. Many of the people in what I tend to think of as my tribe are probably heading home from it now. PAX has likely turned into the biggest video game convnention in the country since the demise if E3. Pretty impressive considering it was started by two nerds who make a web comic.

So on the other side of the country, in Seattle, were My People gathered for their largest meeting of the keyboards. Gamers. What an odd lot we are. From the acne covered kid with coke bottle glasses, to the Bud swilling fistpounding frat boy who likes to frag "fags" in Halo. All of them hanging out, shooting each other with pixels, and oggling booth babes.

Given the choice (and honestly, the expense would have been roughly the same), I think I'd rather be here with the Boomers, Yuppies, and Hippies. At least for the weekend. A good chunk of Tribe Nerd would likely think me cookoo bananas for that. So it goes.

Why have I been thinking about this crap so much? Well, I've had time and, I am a lousy meditator. My brain never calms down. Also, with the exception of a couple of phone calls, I've barely talked in going on three days. One thing I notice whenever I spend a time not talking is that very little of what I say is very important. I've found most of what I've used my voice for (aside froim chanting) is social politeness. Thank you, excuse me, would you like me to move? Its rather startling to me how important these polite terms are. It probably keeps us from punching each other in the face regularly. But that's too much drift for even a poorly thought out and unproofed blog post (I KNEW there was a reason I stopped doing this years ago).

This time on my hands with a rushing brain put a question in my head: could video game playing be considered a meditative practice?

I believe, in certain cases, yes.
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Not WoW, part two

This folks in the office said my checkout time today is 1pm, but the sign in my room says I have to have all my stuff packed and out of the room by 9am, eh. I packed everything up and left it IN my room. The regular program goes until 2pm or so today, with a lot of extra stuff going well into the evening. I can't imagine they expected folks to just pile all their crap willy nilly around the center. some of these people brought a LOT of crap.

Speaking of crap. There are some things I will certainly bring next year, like herbal cough drops and a small bag of some kind to put Important Crap in (keys, wallet, phone). Maybe a travel mug so I can expand my coffee consumption to beyond the dining hall.

Soon after I got here my wife was helping me carry my crap up the hill to my room, and she observed all the Boomers here. By evening I could toss people into one of three catagories: Boomer, Yuppie, Hippie. I personaly don't fit in any of them. Though, to be fair, most of the people here probably don't think they do either.

The Boomers are the ex-hppies who consumed a pharmacy worth of chemicals in the 60s and 70s, thinking it was going to expand their minds and enlighten them, or something. They've been following this kind of stuff for a good chunk of their lives, and many of them seem to be the real deal. You can tell it isn't a fad for them, but a real devotional practice that has deepened with years of experience. You can see it right on their faces. They're ... happy.

Nice folks but, not my tribe.

The Yuppies are. Well I don't know that yuppie is the best word for them. Most of them are technically Boomers too but its best not to get TOO complicated. I'm trying to make Broad Generalizations About People I Don't Even Know. Best keep it simple eh? The Yuppies are, in large part, downstate women with too much disposable income and nothing to do. How many times did I overhear the answer to "where do you live?" as "Wes-Chess-Tah." Oy vey. And they won't ... Stop ... Talking. Susie from Bed-fahd's broker husband is going to have his jaw broken to correct an overbite because "he's so wrapped up in an ego phase. His ego is just really out there right now." Molly from Jersey finds "aruveyda is really good the bowel." Oy vey.

DEFINATELY not my tribe.

The Hippies are, well, hippies. They are the new kids who will probably be like the Boomers in 20 years. Right now they are very in to being different. Many of them are likely either the children of Boomers, or grew up in a Bible thumping home, or most likely come from childhoods where questions like god, existence, and the nature of the soul just ... weren't talked about. They are a little over eager to show how IN to it all they are.

Good kids. Not my tribe.

So, what then?
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Not WoW

I knew when I started this nonsense, I'd sooner or later start making posts that have nothing to do with WoW. Well, I guess it is sooner.

I have not been playing much. RL stuff has kept me out of every Newbian Archie hit and Black Temple for roughly a month. They have the front three of BT down! Sheesh!

People say 'RL stuff' and others frequently assume it's something bad. I am guilty of this myself. "I hope that RL stuff works out okay" isn't an uncommon phrase. The RL stuff I have been busy with is just that; I'm busy. Most of this summer has been pretty laid back. Usually we've got like 15 things schedualed to do every weekend in the summer. It's do this do that nonstop until work on Monday. I've enjoyed just being able to chill this year and do the things I'm supposed to get done on the weekends in my own sweet time. (Mostly)

This weekend I've been in what most folks in New York consider 'upstate,' but this Albany immigrant (I'm from Michigan (as are, strangely, many people I raid with)) can't see how anything only an inch north of NYC on a map can be considered 'up' in a state as big as NY. As far as I'm concerned, Upstate NY STARTS in Albany. So there.

So anyway, I'm at a retreat center BETWEEN Albany and NYC. It's a hippy dippy spiritual retreat type place with a fairly heavy Hindu focus (though there is a small Buddha statue behind where I'm sitting in the garden). This weekend is their yearly Kirtan retreat, and I am here. Kirtan is a hindu practice of chanting certain mantras in repetition. It is supposed to be more effective in groups of people, and I'd have to agree with that. Even setting aside cosmic or supernatural significance, the energy of 500 people in a room singing is amazing.

So I've been chanting the various revealed names for three days on and off, some times for two hours or more at a strech. Namah, Krishna, Ram, Gopala, Kali, Govinda, Shivaya, etc, etc, repeat, rinse, repeat; and I'm ready to back to the Real World.

Ah! I see what I did there.

I have referred to this retreat as an RL activity to folks I game. And now I'm calling the universe outside the Omega Institute the Real World, interesting.

Layers.

Onions.
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Pink Poofy Haired Death

I mean Death Knight, not just Death :-)

Ok, the real question about Death Knights is:

What percentage of the alliance DKs are going to be pink poofy haired female gnomes.

I know mine will be. At least they will be if it's possible, but either way, as brightly colored and as poofy as I can make em.

Now I'm not some sort of perky goth, I'm not even a goth. Heck, you ask Skroo, I'd bet he'd say I'm more of a redneck, who listens to punk and death metal, but still a redneck.

So what's the appeal of a tiny poofy haired gnome?

In my case, it's that it never gets old. Seeing a small ball of terror run across the screen never loses it's appeal.

"Roughing it"

Car camping. Do people in the world besides North Americans do this? You pack your car full of crap, then put a tent next to your car, and essentially live out of you car for a few days. Well, that's what I'm doing right now.

Kael is done. We have put that bitch to rest and are now working on Archie and the front part of BT. Or rather, the rest of the Newbians are doing this. I've got crap going on every weekend for the next two months or so. Maybe most of the bad Archie wipes will be over by then. Anyway, WAR starts next month and I have a feeling most of my game time will get sucked into that.
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Death Knights

Ok, the real question on the minds of everyone who plays, and can make a Death Knight when WotLK comes out is:

Do I level my highest toon to 80 or play a Death Knight.

My answer: All four.

I'm going to level my Druid and Gnome to 80 on Dark Iron, my main server.*

However, I'm also going to level a pair of Death Knights on another server where a different set of friends play. The only question remaining is whether they both will be female gnomes with poofy hair. It's assured both will be gnomes, but I might make one male.

So, when I'm ganked to death by all the arena uber-super-grand-masters leveling in Northrend, in their "gank-suits," I'll pop over to my other friends PVE server and level a pair of DK's.


*I have two accounts , two computers, and I dual-box.

Nothing Drops

Ok, I'm one of those crazy folks who level up crafting skills on toons who aren't 70. Heck, I don't have a toon at 70 yet, my Druid is at 68. That said, between the wife and I, we have the three gathering skills at or near 375, which means we farm for our other toons so they can level crafts. Somehow, as a Druid, I managed to not get skinning, which means I have both herbalism and mining. I've tried to talk her into a swap, but honestly, I don't blame her.

I have my 49 Gnome Warrior (Gnomes Rule!) at 300 Engineering and somewhere around 260 Blacksmithing. So to get that far I either get to spend a fair chunk of change, gather with my Druid and/or beg my wife to gather for me (for the leather). Now for materials that drop, I can usually farm those with my Warrior, but it sure goes faster with my Druid.

The hassle comes when you are looking for some random material that drops off some random critter. So I go to check the auction house, and there's nothing there. Unusual, but it happens. So I go out and decide to kill the hell out of the mobs that drop the material. Only it's one of those class of mobs that drop absolutely NOTHING half or more of the time.

See, this is annoying, not because I'm not making any money, but because it's an extra step in the process. I still have to try and loot the mob. How about if mobs with no loot don't get all sparkly and we all don't have to waste our time trying to loot them.

Just in case anyone's curious, I'm after Breath of Wind so I can make a pair of these, if you play on Dark Iron and have at least 8, (but I'll take as many as 12, so I can also make one of these) lemme know.

(Mouseovers thanks to TeePee's post here though it's a little out of date, now you can paste the script under the "head" tag in the template when you edit the template by going to the Layout Tab and selecting Edit HTML. Also if you don't want to do this, you can "add a gadget" and select the html/javascript gadget and insert the script there, which allows you to mostly just follow the directions in TeePee's post)

KoS, PvP, and Me

I'm not using @#$% to protect anyone's sensibilities, I'm using @#$% because it stands in for my favorite derogative (and it's not 4 characters long, but 4 characters are plenty for a stand-in), I'm using it because I want you to insert YOUR favorite derogative.

I just deleted a huge post about my Kill on Sight list and what it takes to get on it, but you know, in the end, if you are an @#$%, you get put on my KoS list, if you are not an @#$% you don't.

Unless I'm near a World PvP objective, ganking me means being an @#$%, as it's always rude (since I'm pretty much helpless) and I don't care if it's on a PvP server. I like the fact that we can fight each other mostly anywhere, that's cool, but you can do that without being an @#$%.

If you use /spit or /rude or /teabag after killing me, guess what, you are an @#$%.

If you attack me, and I have virtually no chance, guess what, you are an @#$%.

If your raid is waiting to get into SSC and I'm on my way to one of the 5 mans and you, with a group of friends, jump me, guess what, you are an @#$%.

Don't want to be an @#$%? Don't do things to others you wouldn't like. And if you say you are a masochist and like all that, well that pretty much makes you an @#$%.

I never gank, but I do retaliate for gankings done to me or to someone I know or see ganked in game. So if I'm ganking you, it's because you obviously asked for it by ganking someone else.

And the first person to say: "Well you rolled on a PvP server," can have my boot for breakfast, cause guess what, you are an @#$%. A PvP server doesn't excuse poor behavior, it just allows for it, just as it allows you to behave well.

Yes it's a game, but it's multiplayer, which means you are in a social environment with real other people, don't be an @#$%.

Phone post

So I'm sitting in a new chiropractor's waiting room. I suppose if I had a hobby that didn't involve sitting in front of a computer for hours, and a job that involved the same, I might be somewhere else. I did have a job that made me ripped though, but my back was pretty much fucked all the time.

Anyway, I can't raid for the next three Saturdays because I've git other plans. Oh darn, I'll miss Kael.

In other news, the shaman elemental tree for LK is looking seriously tasty. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I won't end up healing in LK raids more often than not. That's the problem with being good at something most people don't want to do. Maybe if I was a really shitty healer it would be easier but, to paraphrase, every time I try to quit ... They PULL me back in!

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Azeroth Big, Outland Small, Dire Maul Easy

I helped a friend with Dire Maul West yesterday. I helped him get his charger for his pally. We used a rogue to pick the lock. I figured I would just leave Dire Maul West after we were done and go get the key in Dire Maul East, so I can later help my pally get his charger (I have two accounts, don't try this with only one). Instead I got locked inside and had to teleport to Moonglade and fly back to Feathermoon again.

It takes something like 10-12 minutes for each flight, which means I spent 20 minutes yesterday on a gryphon. This was after riding my robot chicken with my gnome warrior from Gadgetzan to Feathermoon (with a swim at the end) just about 20 minutes before helping with Dire Maul.

I'm fairly sure that in the time I spent riding from Gadgetzan to Feathermoon or in the time I flew from Moonglade to Feathermoon, I could have ridden from one end of Outland to the other. This isn't all bad, I actually like that Azeroth is so damn big and full of interesting visuals, but can we please get faster gryphons, or more teleports, or something. Outland, on the other hand, is tiny, and though it has some cool visuals, don't blink, you might miss them.

As an aside, I stealthed in to Dire Maul East and managed to get the key with my 67 Nelf Druid, really no sweat. Except I'd never been there before and fell off one of the ledges into the bottom. One of the ledges has what looks like vines on it, turns out the ledge is cracked there and you fall. While trying to find the way to the top took on a boss in cat form (should have used bear) and got killed. Otherwise getting the key for Dire Maul East was really not hard at all. I had to clear some mobs to talk to that imp each time, but in the end, I just beared up and beat the crap out of him and all his buddies. I finished the fight at about 40% health and never had to heal.

The Neverending Wipe (Kael part 2012)

Today is likely going to be my last Kael day. 6+ months is enough. I've seen him die, and I'm done. I can't do it anymore. Seriously, four hours of watching at least one person die in phase one is enough. We are taking 4 dps today that have likely never seen the fight before. This either means we'll kill him in a couple of attempts, or we will keep dying early in phase 3.

If we win, it's because the new people are actually paying attention, have read up on the strat, and want to win.

If we lose, it's because the new people didn't bother to read the strat, don't know what they are doing, and haven't even brought flasks or elixirs.

Of course, there's the third possibility. We lose, and it's because the vet who've been doing this fight for six months have taken a vacation in their minds.

If this isn't the last week of Kael, I am taking a break from raiding for a month. It ceased to be fun like three months ago but I kept it up because I wanted to see the fucker die, and I wanted to help the raid. Well, almost all of our vets have seen him die and have their rings/titles ... and there is zero motivation to be there. major upgrade for my RL, I amI am actually next up for the T5 chest if the Champion token drops. If my RL wants it and will wear it refgularly, I will pass. If not, I'm taking the damn thing for a haste set.

The Gank

Ok, just in case everyone isn't clear, here's how you gank:

1. Wait on a boat in Ratchet for an opposing faction player at least 10 levels lower.
2. Go stealthy.
3. Move towards the player, who has probably put their back to the water, but may have now initiated a /bored, /tap, or even /sleep.
4. Get stun-locked by the stealthed 70 Rogue who is of the same faction as the lowbie you were going to eat alive.
5. Die and get laughed at by both.
6. Lowbie falls off boat after the loading screen appears and has to swim to Booty Bay cause they backed up too far to the edge of the boat.

Needless to say, I was the lowbie, and I won't reveal names, but it was great.

At the moment I only really have two anti-ganking strategies:

1. I always put my back to the water and stand right on the edge of the boat. At least half the time the ganker seems to think they can fit between my back and the water. Yes, they then fall off the boat and into the water...
2. I have two accounts and two computers. It's very fun the have my high level druid follow my lowbies, while stealthed.

FYI, I never gank, but I will camp in retaliation.

Yeehaw, isn't world PvP fun...

Ugly Mugs

I have feature request I'd like from Blizzard. I'd like to be able to pay some money and change the face of one of my toons. I didn't make a mistake when I made the toon, but he was made on a lower-res machine. At the time I thought he looked kind of cool. Since upgrading hardware and getting a better look at him and way more looks at him over time, I can't stand him.

Now, if I can find headgear that will cover his face I turn it on. I'd give up in game bonuses just to cover his face. And what is really funny... He's a druid, and a feral one at that. That's how much I hate the face of this toon. Even though I live in cat form while grinding, and bear while instancing, I just can't stand his face. The barbershop in WotLK will be some help, but I want to change his face.

What is kind of funny is I already paid $25 to change his name and I'd probably pay $25 to change his face, so Blizzard will have yet another opportunity to rid me of that awful feeling of money in my pocket.

And YES, that was a bad toon creation moment and I NEVER make new toons on my lower-res machine anymore.

Huntard

I did the hunter thing. Probably a good idea, even though I was outgeared by the other three, my dps was better than most of the mages ... go figure. I'm curious about what kind of numbers I could have pushed elemental though.

Elemental It Is (Probably)

As I thought about it more, I've decided to do SSC elemental specced instead of doing the huntard dance. Eh, maybe. The temptation to stack four BM hunters in a group for stacking FI insanity is pretty tempting.

But there are also four mages.

But I already bought arrow.

The horror.

The horror.

Druid Gnomes

Just to be clear, I chose the name DruidGnome because I WANT to play a gnome that can heal, and it would just be totally weird and funny if Blizzard let gnomes become druids.

There a plenty of others who feel Gnomes should be able to heal. Search the WoW forums and you should see plenty requests and complaints on the subject.

After starting this and doing a search, I noticed the following:

The Gnome Druid Movement
(the images are 404ed, but the main argument is interesting)

Gnome Bear Form
(originally from this thread)

And apparently there are transporter accidents.

Which are all good starts, but really, I want a Gnome Druid because it's totally freaking weird.

And just FYI I had nothing to do with this video, but I kind of like it, since it reminds me that I don't have a little poofy haired gnome warrior wielding a lightsaber and I need to go make one.

Yes, yet another alt...

Back to SSC? What the hell am I thinking?

Tonight I'm going back to SSC, this time as a hunter. I considered doing this on my shaman and just speccing elemental, but then I'd still have heals on my bar. Must ... not ... heal ... Besides, until Blizzard pushes down a patch with the Lich King gear changes to +heal, talents, and the whole rest of the mess, my elemental gear is mostly just my heal stuff. That, and what pure elemental pieces I do have aren't enchanted.

Not that my hunter gear is much better, but at least it's Kara/Gruul stuff and mostly enchanted.

I do this because 6 months or more of healing Kael attempts has made me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon.

Altamatic Altaholism

I have tons of Alts and I'm not afraid to use them. If only I could raid...

I was going to count up all the toons and levels I have on various servers, but that looked like too much work and Skroo asked me to tank with my highest level alt for one of his alts last night. Yes, my highest level alt, not my main, cause honestly, I have no idea which toon is my main.

I know conventional wisdom is that the highest toon is your main, but in my case, I really don't feel that way. My highest toon is just the one that I have played the most. I am certain I have spent at least as much time on toons under twenty, that I have deleted, as on my highest toon, and, more importantly, had just as much fun.

Skroo, who is the guy who turned me on to WoW when I asked about MMOs, loves to raid and he's been at me to GET TO 70 since the beginning, and he's been very helpful, but, considering that my highest level toon was probably the tenth one I created, I'm sure it's been at least a tiny bit annoying, since he knows me in real life and I play the same game on the same server.

So, I am slowly leveling my druid and learning to tank, but I'm still horribly tempted by alts, and the two hours I spent playing a new mage on another server a couple of days ago I'll just keep to myself and I won't mention the priest I made last week...