I haven't had time to get together my thoughts and get them down on paper regarding the next 3rd of my two week roadtrip, but as today is Thanksgiving, I thought I'd just do a silly little gamer post about something I'm thankful for.
I'd been having trouble, when playing The Hunter, of only finding does. Now does are nice, and my tracking and shooting has been skilling up quite well. But... well, does aren't trophies. Not really. So I made a post on the Hunter forums asking where the heck all the bucks were. Thanks to some advice from the forum people, I finally have begun taking actual awesome trophies. Allow me to share them with you now, and be thankful for all the (virtual) venison, elk, bear, and pheasant with me!
(Can't link pictures from my site's flash gallery here, so check out the original post to see all the pretty food- ah, I mean, animals. :P )
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
A Bit Of (Irrational) Guilt
Might take a break from playing The Hunter again after today. However, first I have to share with all of you the beautiful pictures and live shots I took today. (Yes, even live deer! Mostly... That's where the guilt comes in. I'll explain in a bit.)
I was taking some basic shots. Something about this stump really made me happy, so I decided to take a nice shot of it and practice my Rule Of Thirds (leftover from Photography class). I like how it came out. While I was framing this picture, however, I heard several mule deer call. I responded with my imitation call, and headed toward the sound.
For the last couple of days, I've been following this herd off and on. Always too far away to see them, and by the time one comes into view, it's isolated and I usually try to take it as a trophy. Today, I managed to catch a distant picture of the herd. Two deer can be easily seen, and there were four others, however they're mostly behind trees.
Later on, again following calls rather than tracks, this lovely girl and I came face to face as she climbed over a pile of logs. She froze, I froze. I had two choices - gun, or camera. I chose camera. Right after I snapped this picture, she turned and bolted over the logs... and here came the moment of guilt.
The Hunter is an incredibly realistic hunting game - down to the fact that panicked deer can injure themselves. After this beautiful girl bolted, I went around the logs to challenge myself and pick up her trail. I wanted to see if I could track her down a second time, knowing the general direction she'd run.
On the other side of the logs, I found a trail - but not the one I'd expected. I found blood.
I hadn't fired a shot, except for the camera, but the flash had scared her. In going over the logs, she hurt herself. I started following the trail of blood spatters and hoofprints, until I found her less than half a mile from the pile of logs.
She was laying in a pool of blood that you can kind of see in this picture. I walked around and her head followed me as I walked, watching me. She was breathing in quick, shallow pants, but her eyes were bright. In my moving around her, I saw what was wrong - the hip she's laying on is a bit mangled - it isn't surprising she didn't get too far.
Like a horse, when a deer breaks a leg, there's really nothing to be done. And that I was in a hunting game and couldn't exactly call wildlife services or anything, I only had one choice.
I pulled out my rifle, whispered an apology, aimed carefully, and shot her in the head. I put her out of her misery. But the way she was staring at me... I've never had a game feel so real that I felt shaken up afterwards. I feel that way right now. I wandered for nearly half an hour after "bagging" her. I ignored tracks, I ignored calls. I spotted a Feral Hog through my binoculars, and spooked a couple of pheasants into flight.
Through my wandering, though, I found something lovely, and it's the last thing I did before logging off of the game.
This is probably modeled after a real place, but it's beauty took my breath away. I released my guilt over the doe and let it float away on the wind as I took several photos of this beautiful vista. Then I closed the game and logged out of The Hunter.
It got a touch too real today, and I'm still shaken up. My guilt is COMPLETELY unfounded - the doe was nothing but a mass of pixels with a wonderfully designed AI that mimics the behavior of a deer. I can't turn the flash off on my in-game camera, so my only other choice would've been to shoot her anyway. Either way, it turned out the same, and I got the trophy. It's only a game.
So why do I still feel just a bit sad?
I was taking some basic shots. Something about this stump really made me happy, so I decided to take a nice shot of it and practice my Rule Of Thirds (leftover from Photography class). I like how it came out. While I was framing this picture, however, I heard several mule deer call. I responded with my imitation call, and headed toward the sound.
For the last couple of days, I've been following this herd off and on. Always too far away to see them, and by the time one comes into view, it's isolated and I usually try to take it as a trophy. Today, I managed to catch a distant picture of the herd. Two deer can be easily seen, and there were four others, however they're mostly behind trees.
Later on, again following calls rather than tracks, this lovely girl and I came face to face as she climbed over a pile of logs. She froze, I froze. I had two choices - gun, or camera. I chose camera. Right after I snapped this picture, she turned and bolted over the logs... and here came the moment of guilt.
The Hunter is an incredibly realistic hunting game - down to the fact that panicked deer can injure themselves. After this beautiful girl bolted, I went around the logs to challenge myself and pick up her trail. I wanted to see if I could track her down a second time, knowing the general direction she'd run.
On the other side of the logs, I found a trail - but not the one I'd expected. I found blood.
I hadn't fired a shot, except for the camera, but the flash had scared her. In going over the logs, she hurt herself. I started following the trail of blood spatters and hoofprints, until I found her less than half a mile from the pile of logs.
She was laying in a pool of blood that you can kind of see in this picture. I walked around and her head followed me as I walked, watching me. She was breathing in quick, shallow pants, but her eyes were bright. In my moving around her, I saw what was wrong - the hip she's laying on is a bit mangled - it isn't surprising she didn't get too far.
Like a horse, when a deer breaks a leg, there's really nothing to be done. And that I was in a hunting game and couldn't exactly call wildlife services or anything, I only had one choice.
I pulled out my rifle, whispered an apology, aimed carefully, and shot her in the head. I put her out of her misery. But the way she was staring at me... I've never had a game feel so real that I felt shaken up afterwards. I feel that way right now. I wandered for nearly half an hour after "bagging" her. I ignored tracks, I ignored calls. I spotted a Feral Hog through my binoculars, and spooked a couple of pheasants into flight.
Through my wandering, though, I found something lovely, and it's the last thing I did before logging off of the game.
This is probably modeled after a real place, but it's beauty took my breath away. I released my guilt over the doe and let it float away on the wind as I took several photos of this beautiful vista. Then I closed the game and logged out of The Hunter.
It got a touch too real today, and I'm still shaken up. My guilt is COMPLETELY unfounded - the doe was nothing but a mass of pixels with a wonderfully designed AI that mimics the behavior of a deer. I can't turn the flash off on my in-game camera, so my only other choice would've been to shoot her anyway. Either way, it turned out the same, and I got the trophy. It's only a game.
So why do I still feel just a bit sad?
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Morning Stroll
I recently reread the book Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote, one of my favorite books of all time. As usual, it awakened in me a need to get out into the wild and hunt. However, despite what my taxidermic collection might say, I am not a hunter in real life. I satisfy this craving through video games for right now.
If I'm in the mood for a quick run, I play Hunting Unlimited 2009, or Deer Hunter 2005. Sometimes I'll play Carnivores or another more fanciful hunting game. But this book awakened a need for something realistic, so I went for the most realistic hunting game I know of: The Hunter.
Now, I have a free account, so all I can hunt are Mule Deer, but that's fine. It's the area and he feeling I love so much. I hunted for over an hour today, and while I spotted a doe, I was so shocked to see her that I couldn't get a shot off in time. Instead, I spent time tracking a couple of deer, and enjoyed the lovely views.
I started the hunt at six am, game time, and enjoyed the sight of the beautiful pink sunrise that greeted me.
Within an hour, I was caught in a sudden downpour that made tracking difficult. I lost the deer I'd been tracking in the resulting mud, but I was left with a gorgeous image as I looked to the sky.
I loved this image so much, it didn't matter to me that I didn't get a deer. I saw a pheasant and tried to get some pictures of it, but I couldn't get close enough for it to be defined on the camera, so I won't share those photos of fail with you. However, I feel refreshed and calm, as if I really did just go on a nature walk. I'm going back into the game now, and perhaps this time I will bag a deer. More photos to follow - I will probably edit this entry. :)
EDITING!
Went hunting again and finally got the hang of tracking. I still have yet to even see a buck, but I bagged 4 mule deer does, and managed to get a couple of good pictures of a live pheasant. :D
This was the first deer I took down. I didn't think I'd hit her at first (I forgot to hold down space when firing, which causes your character to hold their breath and therefore steady your aim), but then I found blood on the ground and tracked her a few hundred yards to where she fell. :D
The second deer I managed to hit was a stomach shot, and had it been real I would've seriously apologized to it for that. It walked a very long way, almost a mile, before it laid down and died. It took me nearly 20 minutes to find it. It looked so peaceful laying there that I aimed my camera carefully to get the best shot.
This was the only deer I hit that fell where it stood. Inspection showed I'd taken out one of it's neck vertebrae, and death was instant. I angled the shot so the entry wound could be seen.
This deer didn't walk nearly as far as the second one before it fell, but it did walk far enough that it laid down and died. Again, I angled the picture carefully so it looked to be resting.
And now for the live shots!
I'd been tracking the 4th deer in the above set, after having shot it, when something moved in my peripheral vision. "No way," I thought. "I hit that in the lung... it couldn't still be walking around." I brought up my binoculars and looked. I was shocked to see a pheasant, walking calmly in low grass. I crouched and moved closer, expecting it to flush at any moment and fly away. But it stayed, and I kept getting closer. Eventually I dropped all the way and belly crawled toward it. The following shots are what I got before it finally noticed me and flew away.
A very pretty bird and I was very happy to have seen it. I don't have a license for pheasant or it would've been a trophy for sure, as close as I got to it. However, I loved seeing it walk around. So far I haven't been able to get any photos of live deer - they're always too far away and spook before I get close enough for a good shot. But some day, I will just lay in wait and get a nice picture.
Not of the first buck I see, though. He's going in my trophy collection for sure. :P
If I'm in the mood for a quick run, I play Hunting Unlimited 2009, or Deer Hunter 2005. Sometimes I'll play Carnivores or another more fanciful hunting game. But this book awakened a need for something realistic, so I went for the most realistic hunting game I know of: The Hunter.
Now, I have a free account, so all I can hunt are Mule Deer, but that's fine. It's the area and he feeling I love so much. I hunted for over an hour today, and while I spotted a doe, I was so shocked to see her that I couldn't get a shot off in time. Instead, I spent time tracking a couple of deer, and enjoyed the lovely views.
I started the hunt at six am, game time, and enjoyed the sight of the beautiful pink sunrise that greeted me.
Within an hour, I was caught in a sudden downpour that made tracking difficult. I lost the deer I'd been tracking in the resulting mud, but I was left with a gorgeous image as I looked to the sky.
I loved this image so much, it didn't matter to me that I didn't get a deer. I saw a pheasant and tried to get some pictures of it, but I couldn't get close enough for it to be defined on the camera, so I won't share those photos of fail with you. However, I feel refreshed and calm, as if I really did just go on a nature walk. I'm going back into the game now, and perhaps this time I will bag a deer. More photos to follow - I will probably edit this entry. :)
EDITING!
Went hunting again and finally got the hang of tracking. I still have yet to even see a buck, but I bagged 4 mule deer does, and managed to get a couple of good pictures of a live pheasant. :D
This was the first deer I took down. I didn't think I'd hit her at first (I forgot to hold down space when firing, which causes your character to hold their breath and therefore steady your aim), but then I found blood on the ground and tracked her a few hundred yards to where she fell. :D
The second deer I managed to hit was a stomach shot, and had it been real I would've seriously apologized to it for that. It walked a very long way, almost a mile, before it laid down and died. It took me nearly 20 minutes to find it. It looked so peaceful laying there that I aimed my camera carefully to get the best shot.
This was the only deer I hit that fell where it stood. Inspection showed I'd taken out one of it's neck vertebrae, and death was instant. I angled the shot so the entry wound could be seen.
This deer didn't walk nearly as far as the second one before it fell, but it did walk far enough that it laid down and died. Again, I angled the picture carefully so it looked to be resting.
And now for the live shots!
I'd been tracking the 4th deer in the above set, after having shot it, when something moved in my peripheral vision. "No way," I thought. "I hit that in the lung... it couldn't still be walking around." I brought up my binoculars and looked. I was shocked to see a pheasant, walking calmly in low grass. I crouched and moved closer, expecting it to flush at any moment and fly away. But it stayed, and I kept getting closer. Eventually I dropped all the way and belly crawled toward it. The following shots are what I got before it finally noticed me and flew away.
A very pretty bird and I was very happy to have seen it. I don't have a license for pheasant or it would've been a trophy for sure, as close as I got to it. However, I loved seeing it walk around. So far I haven't been able to get any photos of live deer - they're always too far away and spook before I get close enough for a good shot. But some day, I will just lay in wait and get a nice picture.
Not of the first buck I see, though. He's going in my trophy collection for sure. :P
Friday, October 7, 2011
Brewmaster of Disappointment
Wow's Ocktoberfest-alike, Brewfest, ended this past Wednesday. One of the mechanics of the holiday is that there is a "holiday boss" accessable through the Dungeon Finder. On your first kill each day of the holiday, you receive an extra "treasure" contained in a "keg-shaped treasure chest." In this chest, you can find one of five things - a dagger, a mace, two unique mounts (Brewfest Kodo and Brewfest Ram), or.... nothing. Or, rather, not nothing. But a few Brewfest tokens, the holiday currency, and around 25 Justice Points - average for killing a boss.
Being the mount-aholic I am, I dutifully went every single day of the holiday, killed the boss, collected my reward, and opened it. All but 1 day (on which I received the dagger - ironically the day after I'd gotten something better than it and so couldn't use it anymore), I received the latter prize - that is, tokens and JP.
Now, this could just be luck-of-the-draw - and in all honesty, it is. However, I'm a BIT steamed. See.... Everyone else I know got a mount once during the holiday. There were people in chat complaining of having gotten the same mount 3 days in a ROW. Lona got the Ram, Nyx got the Kodo, Kata got a Ram, my friend Enya got a Ram.. But no mount for me. Now I'm happy for Lona, who I know is working toward the 100 Mounts achievement (more feverishly than I am, honestly, as she has the Nether Rays, which I don't yet, and she will have the Tol Barad drake in another day or so)... But it just felt unfair that I didn't get a mount.
Yes, I am complaining about a random number generator that refused to generate a number in my favor. :P NO, I'm not actually angry, and I know there's always next year.
In the mean time, I look forward to this month's holiday, Hallows End, and I hope to lay my hands on the Headless Horseman's mount which will drop from HIS treasure chest (I predict "pumpkin shaped". :P). Every mount I get is one step closer to the Blue Dragonhawk that is my eventual goal. I know I'll get there eventually. But the way I'm going, Lona will be tooling around on hers months before I get there.
Then again, I only have 4 steps left on "What A Long Strange Trip...", which will reward me with something I've long sought after: a proto-drake. And I'll eventually work up the patience to camp the Time-Lost Proto-Drake for days and days until it decides to show itself to me. And I'll keep leveling Archaeology in the hopes of obtaining the fossil raptor mount (seeing Lona with hers makes me jealous - I'M the paleontologist, dangit! :P ) And I'll eventually grind up the patience to finish the dang Sha'tari Skyguard grind for the Nether Rays (at which point, I swear, I am NEVER going into Outland again if I can help it... not unless they do something to streamline it or whatever... as it is, it's my least favorite area and makes the slog from L60 to L70 absolutely intolerable for me - which is why my characters seem to get stuck there since I don't like dungeoning, and if I want to get through that 10 levels without questing, that's kind of how I have to do it).
All things said and done, I'm still making progress on that achievement... and there may be an Ancient Eyes post later this weekend, because a LOT of stuff has happened since my last post and I feel the need to catch up. But right now, I'm going to go back to my homework. Blogging was a nice break, but right now Stats has my attention and priority.
And that, at least, is a certain probability. ;)
Being the mount-aholic I am, I dutifully went every single day of the holiday, killed the boss, collected my reward, and opened it. All but 1 day (on which I received the dagger - ironically the day after I'd gotten something better than it and so couldn't use it anymore), I received the latter prize - that is, tokens and JP.
Now, this could just be luck-of-the-draw - and in all honesty, it is. However, I'm a BIT steamed. See.... Everyone else I know got a mount once during the holiday. There were people in chat complaining of having gotten the same mount 3 days in a ROW. Lona got the Ram, Nyx got the Kodo, Kata got a Ram, my friend Enya got a Ram.. But no mount for me. Now I'm happy for Lona, who I know is working toward the 100 Mounts achievement (more feverishly than I am, honestly, as she has the Nether Rays, which I don't yet, and she will have the Tol Barad drake in another day or so)... But it just felt unfair that I didn't get a mount.
Yes, I am complaining about a random number generator that refused to generate a number in my favor. :P NO, I'm not actually angry, and I know there's always next year.
In the mean time, I look forward to this month's holiday, Hallows End, and I hope to lay my hands on the Headless Horseman's mount which will drop from HIS treasure chest (I predict "pumpkin shaped". :P). Every mount I get is one step closer to the Blue Dragonhawk that is my eventual goal. I know I'll get there eventually. But the way I'm going, Lona will be tooling around on hers months before I get there.
Then again, I only have 4 steps left on "What A Long Strange Trip...", which will reward me with something I've long sought after: a proto-drake. And I'll eventually work up the patience to camp the Time-Lost Proto-Drake for days and days until it decides to show itself to me. And I'll keep leveling Archaeology in the hopes of obtaining the fossil raptor mount (seeing Lona with hers makes me jealous - I'M the paleontologist, dangit! :P ) And I'll eventually grind up the patience to finish the dang Sha'tari Skyguard grind for the Nether Rays (at which point, I swear, I am NEVER going into Outland again if I can help it... not unless they do something to streamline it or whatever... as it is, it's my least favorite area and makes the slog from L60 to L70 absolutely intolerable for me - which is why my characters seem to get stuck there since I don't like dungeoning, and if I want to get through that 10 levels without questing, that's kind of how I have to do it).
All things said and done, I'm still making progress on that achievement... and there may be an Ancient Eyes post later this weekend, because a LOT of stuff has happened since my last post and I feel the need to catch up. But right now, I'm going to go back to my homework. Blogging was a nice break, but right now Stats has my attention and priority.
And that, at least, is a certain probability. ;)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Druidic Versatility and Heroic Confidence
OK, right now, it is SO official. I am changing my weekly posting day from Monday to Friday. So look! Now this post is early instead of late. :)
That being said, the events described in this blog happened earlier in the week. I apologize for any inaccuracies if anyone involved happens to read this. :P Also, I'm doing some further organization on this blog - new subcategories have been added under Tooth & Arrows, so that people who only wish to read my WoW blogs can do so, and people who are interested in the other types of games this blog is about can just look at THOSE if they wish! (This doesn't effect you if you're reading this on Blogger or LJ. Blogger already keeps the sub-blogs separate and LJ... well, I THINK I've done a good job tagging all entries!) It'll be a couple of days while I go back into the archives and properly sort all the T&A blogs into their respective new categories, though. Please pardon the dust while I remodel.
That being said, on to the meat of this blog!
I've recently started playing Kalitri, my previously mentioned Worgen Druid, on WoW again. Perhaps it was this month's holiday, Brewfest, (Des has another title now!) and the chance to get a couple of rare mounts and pets that has spurred me on, but for whatever reason, she's gone from L61 to nearly L65 in the last two days, and I only stopped playing her because I ran out of "rested." I'm going to be playing Reyune (my DK) while she has a chance to build up her rested status again. I want her and Rey both to be 85 as soon as possible. And fast leveling means one thing - dungeoning. Both characters are tanks, so this should be easy, except that I still have my aversion/fear of tanking to a point.
That makes this kind of difficult.
However, something happened two nights ago that has given me a huge confidence boost in my tanking ability. I was queuing as DPS so I could do other things around waiting to dungeon, and I had the time to do so. I got into The Underbog for Kalitri's first time after less than half an hour wait (nice, for DPS), and was looking forward to trying out my new "assist the tank" macro. I focus-targeted the tank... and waited.
The tank didn't move. It was a human warrior. The mage got jumpy and started bouncing around. The priest healer tossed a few heals over time (HoTs) on the tank, trying to spur him to move. I /poke-d him. Nothing. Then when he started moving... he was walking. The rest of the party shot ahead.... then came back. The tank slowly sauntered up to the first mob and FACE PULLED it (face pulling = walking up to the mob and getting it's attention via your very presence, instead of using any ability to generate threat and actually try to keep it ON you - not something any tank should be doing on purpose, and something all non-tank characters should do everything they can to AVOID).
I don't know if the mage didn't notice that the tank had only face pulled, or if they were just so jumpy and impatient that they didn't care... But they laid down their ice AOE (area of effect attack - an attack that hits all mobs in a certain radius, usually chosen by placing a "target circle" on the ground that only the caster can see) around the mobs that the tank had annoyed... And of course, with the tank not trying to gain threat, the mobs went straight for the mage. The tank slowly walked back toward the mage as if to take aggro away from him, but by then, the mobs had decided to leave the mage and pounce on the healer. I reacted the only way I could - I shifted to bear form, I hit Enrage, and I Challenging Roar'd the mobs onto me, gained threat with a Demoralizing Roar and two Swipes, and tanked the pull. The healer immediately shifted to healing me, and the DPS focused on the mobs. By the time the walking-tank had gotten back over to where we were, the mobs were dead.
I asked in party chat, "Tank, why walking?" I didn't get a response at first, until it was echoed by both the healer and the mage. We got one response, "Stuck. Can't stop. Lost keybinding." So the mage goes, "Look it up? Fix it?" The tank didn't respond to that... and instead started walking toward the next set of mobs. After a repeat of the previous pull (with the exception that this time, I didn't LET the mobs get on the mage or the healer before I yoinked them onto me), we vote-kicked the tank for being a troll. I mean, really? He couldn't change his keybinding? Look it up in the settings and fix it, then toggle walk OFF? It would've taken us about six hours to go through the dungeon at that pace... assuming I was able to keep everyone alive.
We requeued, with me again selecting DPS, and hoped to get a new tank. After a few minutes, a tank hadn't showed up, and the mage asked me if I could just tank it a bit while we wait, and the healer said yeah, he didn't have much time and would like to get as far as he could. So I tanked, we did small pulls... and we made it 2/3 of the way through the dungeon before our new tank showed up.
The new tank was a blood DK, who showed up mid fight and tried to steal aggro from me. I can't blame him - it must've looked like he got pulled into a mess or like we had pulled accidentally or our previous tank had ditched mid-fight. But we finished up that pull, and then he went RUNNING ahead, not giving us time to loot.
I shifted to cat and hit dash to keep up with him. He got out of line-of-sight of our healer, and died. I once again had to shift to bear and gain aggro to keep the party from wiping. (Now, to make matters worse, I had shifted talent trees back to my cat tree after the tank had shown up, so now I was tanking in my DPS spec, so I lost a lot of my armor boosts and other things I have talented in my bear spec.) I was focused on keeping the mobs off the other party members.... and I got out of LoS of the healer, and I died. But the mage was able to AOE down the last two surviving mobs, and we didn't wipe. I couldn't help but notice that the healer rezzed me before rezzing our new tank, who had been dead twice as long. :P Favoritism, much? :P
Right after that, our healer said he had to go and apologized. The mage and I wished him well, and he dropped party. The tank became dungeon leader, and requeued us to pull a new healer.... then took off running. I said, "Where are you going?!" He responded, "Drood heals."
Drood is a fairly derogatory way to refer to a druid, but I let it go. I chased after him in cat form. "I'm dual Feral, DPS and Tank. I'm not spec'd for healing!" But it was too late, he'd already pulled. I wasn't interested in being part of a wipe, and the other two dps (the talkative mage and the hunter who was so silent he might as well not have been there) had no way of doing anything, so... I shifted into caster form, targeted the tank, and started healing.
I've never healed before. Ever. To me, it's the most stressful role in the dungeon, though now both Nyx and Lona have told me otherwise. I can't change how it feels to me. And I kept remembering the things I know about druids.
First thing's first - a druid of ANY spec (Feral, Balance, or Restoration), can technically perform any role up until level 60, limited only by player skill. At that point, the talent trees and the talents gained from them start to become mutually exclusive. This is why, at 60, I changed my previous dual spec (Feral/Balance) into a Feral/Feral, with my secondary feral specialization gearing toward the bear talents and my primary gearing toward the cat for DPS and questing. As a dual feral druid, my armor stacked agility and stamina, and I was gemming for dodge and crit, so that (until endgame level, at least), I could have one armor set that could perform both possible roles. As much of a pain as it is to build the two sets at endgame level, to try and do it WHILE LEVELING is almost impossible, since you level past items almost as fast as you acquire them.
The point of this being that I could either tank or DPS in dungeons, but I didn't have intellect or spirit on my gear - I wasn't talented to heal. Yet here I was. To make matters worse, the tank didn't wait for me to regain mana after the fights - he just kept going. Thank goodness I had some dropped mana potions on me, and the druid's ability of Innervate to renew my own mana supply (though that ability isn't nearly as good as it used to be, and I really was feeling that particular nerf).
Anyway, I fell into a rhythm and relaxed. Between my limited healing ability and the fact that the tank was a blood DK which has a lot of passive self-heals, no one was dying and we were still moving. Just as we got to the last boss, the new healer finally showed up. A nelf Priest. I relaxed and shifted back to cat to DPS the final fight (I was going to finish the dungeon in the role I'd originally selected, dangit!).
Mid way through the fight, the tank died. I guess the healer lost sight of him around the boss' legs or something, or maybe the healer had to sneeze. I have no idea. All I know is that once again, I had to step up. I leaped backwards (I WISH cats had the Hunter's Disengage ability!), targeted the tank, and hit my in-battle resurrect spell (SO glad I carried reagents for Rebirth). I tossed a heal on him, then shifted to bear and pulled the boss off of the mage and hunter who'd been bouncing him back and forth between them. The healer threw off a "WTF?" but I ignored it. When the DK could tank again, I shifted back to caster and started healing him. The healer that had come in "WTF"'d again, and I said, "We've been through most of the dungeon like this. Just... dps it." And with the healer's "whatever," he and I officially switched roles. I healed the tank, and the healer DPS'd the boss. We finished the dungeon, the healer left immediately, the tank waved at me and left... and the mage told me I was awesome. The hunter /bow'd to me, and I took a bow of my own.
Druids are versatile. I knew this from the very beginning - they're one of only two classes in the game (the other being Paladin) that can fulfill all 3 dungeon roles. But I'm fairly certain that Paladins become rather talent-locked early in their leveling lives, as I've gathered by both playing my pally and watching Lona play hers, whereas, as I've said before, druids can fulfill any role until L60. And apparently, in the right situation, until L64.
I am more confident in my tanking abilities than I ever have been before, and this experience has made me want to roll a druid healer at some point, just to get an idea of what I'd really have been capable of if I'd been properly geared and talented for what I was doing.
In other news, last weekend, Destylae ran her first heroic in which I was NOT in a guild group. I did good, reliable damage, no one complained, we CLEARED Halls Of Origination, and at the end - I won the roll on the Chaos Orb. That's one down, five to go toward making my new gun. :D I'm confident in my abilities as a Hunter, finally. And Kalitri keeps reminding me just how GOOD of a druid I make. Honestly, I can't wait to play Reyune some tonight... Let's see if I'm getting to be a better DK as well!
That being said, the events described in this blog happened earlier in the week. I apologize for any inaccuracies if anyone involved happens to read this. :P Also, I'm doing some further organization on this blog - new subcategories have been added under Tooth & Arrows, so that people who only wish to read my WoW blogs can do so, and people who are interested in the other types of games this blog is about can just look at THOSE if they wish! (This doesn't effect you if you're reading this on Blogger or LJ. Blogger already keeps the sub-blogs separate and LJ... well, I THINK I've done a good job tagging all entries!) It'll be a couple of days while I go back into the archives and properly sort all the T&A blogs into their respective new categories, though. Please pardon the dust while I remodel.
That being said, on to the meat of this blog!
I've recently started playing Kalitri, my previously mentioned Worgen Druid, on WoW again. Perhaps it was this month's holiday, Brewfest, (Des has another title now!) and the chance to get a couple of rare mounts and pets that has spurred me on, but for whatever reason, she's gone from L61 to nearly L65 in the last two days, and I only stopped playing her because I ran out of "rested." I'm going to be playing Reyune (my DK) while she has a chance to build up her rested status again. I want her and Rey both to be 85 as soon as possible. And fast leveling means one thing - dungeoning. Both characters are tanks, so this should be easy, except that I still have my aversion/fear of tanking to a point.
That makes this kind of difficult.
However, something happened two nights ago that has given me a huge confidence boost in my tanking ability. I was queuing as DPS so I could do other things around waiting to dungeon, and I had the time to do so. I got into The Underbog for Kalitri's first time after less than half an hour wait (nice, for DPS), and was looking forward to trying out my new "assist the tank" macro. I focus-targeted the tank... and waited.
The tank didn't move. It was a human warrior. The mage got jumpy and started bouncing around. The priest healer tossed a few heals over time (HoTs) on the tank, trying to spur him to move. I /poke-d him. Nothing. Then when he started moving... he was walking. The rest of the party shot ahead.... then came back. The tank slowly sauntered up to the first mob and FACE PULLED it (face pulling = walking up to the mob and getting it's attention via your very presence, instead of using any ability to generate threat and actually try to keep it ON you - not something any tank should be doing on purpose, and something all non-tank characters should do everything they can to AVOID).
I don't know if the mage didn't notice that the tank had only face pulled, or if they were just so jumpy and impatient that they didn't care... But they laid down their ice AOE (area of effect attack - an attack that hits all mobs in a certain radius, usually chosen by placing a "target circle" on the ground that only the caster can see) around the mobs that the tank had annoyed... And of course, with the tank not trying to gain threat, the mobs went straight for the mage. The tank slowly walked back toward the mage as if to take aggro away from him, but by then, the mobs had decided to leave the mage and pounce on the healer. I reacted the only way I could - I shifted to bear form, I hit Enrage, and I Challenging Roar'd the mobs onto me, gained threat with a Demoralizing Roar and two Swipes, and tanked the pull. The healer immediately shifted to healing me, and the DPS focused on the mobs. By the time the walking-tank had gotten back over to where we were, the mobs were dead.
I asked in party chat, "Tank, why walking?" I didn't get a response at first, until it was echoed by both the healer and the mage. We got one response, "Stuck. Can't stop. Lost keybinding." So the mage goes, "Look it up? Fix it?" The tank didn't respond to that... and instead started walking toward the next set of mobs. After a repeat of the previous pull (with the exception that this time, I didn't LET the mobs get on the mage or the healer before I yoinked them onto me), we vote-kicked the tank for being a troll. I mean, really? He couldn't change his keybinding? Look it up in the settings and fix it, then toggle walk OFF? It would've taken us about six hours to go through the dungeon at that pace... assuming I was able to keep everyone alive.
We requeued, with me again selecting DPS, and hoped to get a new tank. After a few minutes, a tank hadn't showed up, and the mage asked me if I could just tank it a bit while we wait, and the healer said yeah, he didn't have much time and would like to get as far as he could. So I tanked, we did small pulls... and we made it 2/3 of the way through the dungeon before our new tank showed up.
The new tank was a blood DK, who showed up mid fight and tried to steal aggro from me. I can't blame him - it must've looked like he got pulled into a mess or like we had pulled accidentally or our previous tank had ditched mid-fight. But we finished up that pull, and then he went RUNNING ahead, not giving us time to loot.
I shifted to cat and hit dash to keep up with him. He got out of line-of-sight of our healer, and died. I once again had to shift to bear and gain aggro to keep the party from wiping. (Now, to make matters worse, I had shifted talent trees back to my cat tree after the tank had shown up, so now I was tanking in my DPS spec, so I lost a lot of my armor boosts and other things I have talented in my bear spec.) I was focused on keeping the mobs off the other party members.... and I got out of LoS of the healer, and I died. But the mage was able to AOE down the last two surviving mobs, and we didn't wipe. I couldn't help but notice that the healer rezzed me before rezzing our new tank, who had been dead twice as long. :P Favoritism, much? :P
Right after that, our healer said he had to go and apologized. The mage and I wished him well, and he dropped party. The tank became dungeon leader, and requeued us to pull a new healer.... then took off running. I said, "Where are you going?!" He responded, "Drood heals."
Drood is a fairly derogatory way to refer to a druid, but I let it go. I chased after him in cat form. "I'm dual Feral, DPS and Tank. I'm not spec'd for healing!" But it was too late, he'd already pulled. I wasn't interested in being part of a wipe, and the other two dps (the talkative mage and the hunter who was so silent he might as well not have been there) had no way of doing anything, so... I shifted into caster form, targeted the tank, and started healing.
I've never healed before. Ever. To me, it's the most stressful role in the dungeon, though now both Nyx and Lona have told me otherwise. I can't change how it feels to me. And I kept remembering the things I know about druids.
First thing's first - a druid of ANY spec (Feral, Balance, or Restoration), can technically perform any role up until level 60, limited only by player skill. At that point, the talent trees and the talents gained from them start to become mutually exclusive. This is why, at 60, I changed my previous dual spec (Feral/Balance) into a Feral/Feral, with my secondary feral specialization gearing toward the bear talents and my primary gearing toward the cat for DPS and questing. As a dual feral druid, my armor stacked agility and stamina, and I was gemming for dodge and crit, so that (until endgame level, at least), I could have one armor set that could perform both possible roles. As much of a pain as it is to build the two sets at endgame level, to try and do it WHILE LEVELING is almost impossible, since you level past items almost as fast as you acquire them.
The point of this being that I could either tank or DPS in dungeons, but I didn't have intellect or spirit on my gear - I wasn't talented to heal. Yet here I was. To make matters worse, the tank didn't wait for me to regain mana after the fights - he just kept going. Thank goodness I had some dropped mana potions on me, and the druid's ability of Innervate to renew my own mana supply (though that ability isn't nearly as good as it used to be, and I really was feeling that particular nerf).
Anyway, I fell into a rhythm and relaxed. Between my limited healing ability and the fact that the tank was a blood DK which has a lot of passive self-heals, no one was dying and we were still moving. Just as we got to the last boss, the new healer finally showed up. A nelf Priest. I relaxed and shifted back to cat to DPS the final fight (I was going to finish the dungeon in the role I'd originally selected, dangit!).
Mid way through the fight, the tank died. I guess the healer lost sight of him around the boss' legs or something, or maybe the healer had to sneeze. I have no idea. All I know is that once again, I had to step up. I leaped backwards (I WISH cats had the Hunter's Disengage ability!), targeted the tank, and hit my in-battle resurrect spell (SO glad I carried reagents for Rebirth). I tossed a heal on him, then shifted to bear and pulled the boss off of the mage and hunter who'd been bouncing him back and forth between them. The healer threw off a "WTF?" but I ignored it. When the DK could tank again, I shifted back to caster and started healing him. The healer that had come in "WTF"'d again, and I said, "We've been through most of the dungeon like this. Just... dps it." And with the healer's "whatever," he and I officially switched roles. I healed the tank, and the healer DPS'd the boss. We finished the dungeon, the healer left immediately, the tank waved at me and left... and the mage told me I was awesome. The hunter /bow'd to me, and I took a bow of my own.
Druids are versatile. I knew this from the very beginning - they're one of only two classes in the game (the other being Paladin) that can fulfill all 3 dungeon roles. But I'm fairly certain that Paladins become rather talent-locked early in their leveling lives, as I've gathered by both playing my pally and watching Lona play hers, whereas, as I've said before, druids can fulfill any role until L60. And apparently, in the right situation, until L64.
I am more confident in my tanking abilities than I ever have been before, and this experience has made me want to roll a druid healer at some point, just to get an idea of what I'd really have been capable of if I'd been properly geared and talented for what I was doing.
In other news, last weekend, Destylae ran her first heroic in which I was NOT in a guild group. I did good, reliable damage, no one complained, we CLEARED Halls Of Origination, and at the end - I won the roll on the Chaos Orb. That's one down, five to go toward making my new gun. :D I'm confident in my abilities as a Hunter, finally. And Kalitri keeps reminding me just how GOOD of a druid I make. Honestly, I can't wait to play Reyune some tonight... Let's see if I'm getting to be a better DK as well!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Catbird
It's monday.... and I'm bringing you a Tooth & Arrows instead of a These Ancient Eyes post. Why? Well, because there hasn't been a T&A post in awhile, and also because I wasn't sure where to go with the TAE post I'd been writing. So, without further ado, a bit on love for a catbird.
I tried valiantly to get Kalitri, my feral worgen druid, to L60 last night, only to pass out about four bars from finished. However, a situation arose that brought up to me just how far I’ve advanced since I was having so many issues with her back when she was a Night Elf (pre Cata, as I remade her Worgen the day after Cataclysm came out).
I started playing Des because Kalitri’s original form taught me that I didn’t have the focus necessary to play a melee class, or so I thought. Questing through Darkshire, I would find myself with 2 mobs on me and be very suddenly dead. The mobs were even lower level than me. I’d just get so caught up in what was going on, and I’d switch targets, not knowing who I should focus on… and then I’d be a dead little nelf kitty. I essentially ragequit the character in frustration, though I didn’t delete her – she was my first character, no matter how upset I’d become with her. And one day I would figure out druids.
In the meantime, I rolled Des, who would eventually become my first level cap character, and started several others. Then Cataclysm was launched and the worgen were released. I played through the starter zone on a hunter the night it launched, but quickly discovered I had no interest in leveling yet ANOTHER hunter. I was looking at my character screen and my eyes settled on Kalitri. The nelves allied with the Worgen and helped them. What if one of their envoys was bitten?
The story continued in my head until even the worgen’s human form was explained – a nelf, cursed with the Forsaken plague, would turn into an undead human (as we all know, there are no non-human Forsaken). So during the battle, she was cursed. But before the plague could fully pull her into undeath, one of the quick thinking Worgen bit her, hoping the power of the wolf would fight off the plague. It worked – but at the cost of her original species. She was now human/Worgen instead of Night Elf… and even her forms had changed.
No, I didn’t pay for a character change, though I thought about it. But then I realized I’d just be stuck where I was, with a Worgen instead of a nelf. I needed to relearn the class, now in my much more experienced state. So… I clicked the delete button on the original Kalitri, and immediately remade her as a worgen. By the time I’d left Darkshore, I already had a much better handle on playing the class than I had when she was a nelf. I’d even tanked a couple of dungeons as a bear. (Another big deal for me, as I’d never tanked anything before.)
It seemed very quick that Kalitri got to L40 – even with me playing most of the time on Des to get to L85, and playing through all the new Cata zones. But then she just kind of… stuck. I wasn’t having trouble playing her so much as playing her took a lot of focus, and I wasn’t in a place where I could do that. As a Hunter, I can tab off the wow window and do something else at any time. If I look back and something’s attacked me, my pet has usually taken care of it and my only frustration is that I lost out on loot. On any non-pet class, however, you get yourself distracted with, say, writing a paper for school, or responding to a friend’s text, and you click back on to find yourself dead. So… I stopped playing her for a while.
From the moment I’d created the original druid, what I’d looked forward to the most was L60 – the flight form. No mounts to fly, no need! Just leap into the air, become a bird, and fly away. Never mind that it’s one of my favorite real life daydreams – I would actually be able to DO it as a druid. And it was even cooler for Kalitri who, until recently, used no form of transportation other than herself. She used Running Wild as her mount, or simply dashed around in cat form. Also, the ability to cast flight form while moving will make for some awesome saves. Being chased by something through Howling Fjord? No problem! Turn, leap from the cliff, insta-cast Flight Form and you’re in the air! An excellent way to drop agro – which is the one thing the class is lacking, as far as I’m concerned. But I’ve been spoiled by my Hunter’s Feign Death.
So recently, as the only thing I’ve been doing on Des is rep grinds, I started playing Kalitri again with the decision to A) learn to focus better – clicking buttons should not make that much difference in speed from hitting hot keys. And B) to see some of the higher level Cata-changed zones. So began her quests. I started in Desolace, finished that zone, and then moved on to Burning Steppes and then Blasted Lands. I can now reliably take on up to 3 enemies at the same time that are at least 2, if not 3, levels above me, and win. I’ve mastered shifting out of cat form to heal myself, but keeping the DoT of thorns and Rake on the mobs at the same time, so sometimes they actually die while I’m still healing myself. This was put to the test in Hellfire Peninsula last night with dramatic results.
I was sent into a Fel Orc encampment to mark their sentry towers with smoke signals so they could be bombed from above by the Gryphon riders of Honor Hold. This isn’t too hard – I Prowled into the middle of the camp and no one even saw me. I neglected to realize that when I used the item it would take me out of stealth mode, however. And that’s when it got fun. The 3 tower guards came down on me. It was only then that I noticed they were L61. I was L58. THAT was a bit of a level difference. I freaked out, and I don’t even have my panic button anymore of shifting to bear form and tanking them with the extra armor, since I had to split my DPS spec from my tank spec at L50 – the talent trees start to get mutually exclusive at that point – so I was throwing everything I had at them. I pulled Tiger’s Fury, I Ravage!’d, I Raked, I Mangled like there was no tomorrow. I put up Thorns and Nature’s Grasp, shifted to caster and leaped back to heal myself as they were grabbed by the Entangling Roots proc of Nature’s Grasp and therefore were out of range while I healed myself, then I shifted cat and Feral Charged right back into the fight. I almost died several times, but I finally pulled it off, and the 3 mobs lay dead at my paws. I looted them and realized in shock that I was fine – I was better than fine, actually. My last round of healing me had stuck, and I had full health and full energy. I stealthed again and headed for the next tower. But this time I Feral Charged in the moment I was within range.
A repeat of the previous battle occurred, except that it went faster because I’d had time to hit myself with a heal over time and put Thorns on before I initiated. Two more times, I repeated the fight, and by the time I completed the quest, I was impressed. Gone was the druid who didn’t know what she was doing and died to 2 low level undead npcs could easily kill, and here was a seasoned feral warrior able to take down three mobs that were each three levels above her.
Tonight, Kalitri will ding 60 and finally gain her illusive flight form. What I’ve been working towards on her since creating the character originally. Onwards to 60!
I tried valiantly to get Kalitri, my feral worgen druid, to L60 last night, only to pass out about four bars from finished. However, a situation arose that brought up to me just how far I’ve advanced since I was having so many issues with her back when she was a Night Elf (pre Cata, as I remade her Worgen the day after Cataclysm came out).
I started playing Des because Kalitri’s original form taught me that I didn’t have the focus necessary to play a melee class, or so I thought. Questing through Darkshire, I would find myself with 2 mobs on me and be very suddenly dead. The mobs were even lower level than me. I’d just get so caught up in what was going on, and I’d switch targets, not knowing who I should focus on… and then I’d be a dead little nelf kitty. I essentially ragequit the character in frustration, though I didn’t delete her – she was my first character, no matter how upset I’d become with her. And one day I would figure out druids.
In the meantime, I rolled Des, who would eventually become my first level cap character, and started several others. Then Cataclysm was launched and the worgen were released. I played through the starter zone on a hunter the night it launched, but quickly discovered I had no interest in leveling yet ANOTHER hunter. I was looking at my character screen and my eyes settled on Kalitri. The nelves allied with the Worgen and helped them. What if one of their envoys was bitten?
The story continued in my head until even the worgen’s human form was explained – a nelf, cursed with the Forsaken plague, would turn into an undead human (as we all know, there are no non-human Forsaken). So during the battle, she was cursed. But before the plague could fully pull her into undeath, one of the quick thinking Worgen bit her, hoping the power of the wolf would fight off the plague. It worked – but at the cost of her original species. She was now human/Worgen instead of Night Elf… and even her forms had changed.
No, I didn’t pay for a character change, though I thought about it. But then I realized I’d just be stuck where I was, with a Worgen instead of a nelf. I needed to relearn the class, now in my much more experienced state. So… I clicked the delete button on the original Kalitri, and immediately remade her as a worgen. By the time I’d left Darkshore, I already had a much better handle on playing the class than I had when she was a nelf. I’d even tanked a couple of dungeons as a bear. (Another big deal for me, as I’d never tanked anything before.)
It seemed very quick that Kalitri got to L40 – even with me playing most of the time on Des to get to L85, and playing through all the new Cata zones. But then she just kind of… stuck. I wasn’t having trouble playing her so much as playing her took a lot of focus, and I wasn’t in a place where I could do that. As a Hunter, I can tab off the wow window and do something else at any time. If I look back and something’s attacked me, my pet has usually taken care of it and my only frustration is that I lost out on loot. On any non-pet class, however, you get yourself distracted with, say, writing a paper for school, or responding to a friend’s text, and you click back on to find yourself dead. So… I stopped playing her for a while.
From the moment I’d created the original druid, what I’d looked forward to the most was L60 – the flight form. No mounts to fly, no need! Just leap into the air, become a bird, and fly away. Never mind that it’s one of my favorite real life daydreams – I would actually be able to DO it as a druid. And it was even cooler for Kalitri who, until recently, used no form of transportation other than herself. She used Running Wild as her mount, or simply dashed around in cat form. Also, the ability to cast flight form while moving will make for some awesome saves. Being chased by something through Howling Fjord? No problem! Turn, leap from the cliff, insta-cast Flight Form and you’re in the air! An excellent way to drop agro – which is the one thing the class is lacking, as far as I’m concerned. But I’ve been spoiled by my Hunter’s Feign Death.
So recently, as the only thing I’ve been doing on Des is rep grinds, I started playing Kalitri again with the decision to A) learn to focus better – clicking buttons should not make that much difference in speed from hitting hot keys. And B) to see some of the higher level Cata-changed zones. So began her quests. I started in Desolace, finished that zone, and then moved on to Burning Steppes and then Blasted Lands. I can now reliably take on up to 3 enemies at the same time that are at least 2, if not 3, levels above me, and win. I’ve mastered shifting out of cat form to heal myself, but keeping the DoT of thorns and Rake on the mobs at the same time, so sometimes they actually die while I’m still healing myself. This was put to the test in Hellfire Peninsula last night with dramatic results.
I was sent into a Fel Orc encampment to mark their sentry towers with smoke signals so they could be bombed from above by the Gryphon riders of Honor Hold. This isn’t too hard – I Prowled into the middle of the camp and no one even saw me. I neglected to realize that when I used the item it would take me out of stealth mode, however. And that’s when it got fun. The 3 tower guards came down on me. It was only then that I noticed they were L61. I was L58. THAT was a bit of a level difference. I freaked out, and I don’t even have my panic button anymore of shifting to bear form and tanking them with the extra armor, since I had to split my DPS spec from my tank spec at L50 – the talent trees start to get mutually exclusive at that point – so I was throwing everything I had at them. I pulled Tiger’s Fury, I Ravage!’d, I Raked, I Mangled like there was no tomorrow. I put up Thorns and Nature’s Grasp, shifted to caster and leaped back to heal myself as they were grabbed by the Entangling Roots proc of Nature’s Grasp and therefore were out of range while I healed myself, then I shifted cat and Feral Charged right back into the fight. I almost died several times, but I finally pulled it off, and the 3 mobs lay dead at my paws. I looted them and realized in shock that I was fine – I was better than fine, actually. My last round of healing me had stuck, and I had full health and full energy. I stealthed again and headed for the next tower. But this time I Feral Charged in the moment I was within range.
A repeat of the previous battle occurred, except that it went faster because I’d had time to hit myself with a heal over time and put Thorns on before I initiated. Two more times, I repeated the fight, and by the time I completed the quest, I was impressed. Gone was the druid who didn’t know what she was doing and died to 2 low level undead npcs could easily kill, and here was a seasoned feral warrior able to take down three mobs that were each three levels above her.
Tonight, Kalitri will ding 60 and finally gain her illusive flight form. What I’ve been working towards on her since creating the character originally. Onwards to 60!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Heroic Leap
Trying to fix 85 levels of bad habits when gaming on Destylae lately is my big focus, along with my usual reputation grinds and the new Molten Front dailies (I want that Hippogryph!). I spent all of the game focusing on armor when I should’ve been stacking stats, and now at the end game level, I’m paying for it. Grinding for justice points to purchase gear I should’ve already had the equivalent of through normal leveling – but I picked up whatever gave me more armor, no matter what stat it effected… and recently I was so bad in dungeons I was doing less than 4k DPS.
But you’ve all heard me complain about that before. The point being that I’ve now gotten my iLevel up high enough that I can get into L85 Heroics, though PlayerScore says that the difficulty for me is “light,” I have other things to say. Heroics aren’t called heroics because they’re easy – they’re called heroics because it’s more than just item level or gear – it’s skill and teamwork that gets you through them. And now, having been along on the completion of Stonecore, Vortex Pinnacle, and now The Lost City of the Tol’vir, I have to say – I’m not entirely certain I have the skill level to be running Heroics yet.
The thing is, though – sometimes I’m damn good. It’s performing consistently that I have an issue with. If I eat my agility boost food, and use an agility scroll, I can pull DPS as high or higher than Nyx. But if I screw up, for even a few seconds – if I pull too much agro and have to run to the tank to avoid getting my little Draenai tail handed to me on a plate, or if I do what I did last night and accidentally pull a mob because my hand just happened to hit my “Target-FIRE” macro button while we were talking about the fight (thankfully that didn’t happen in a heroic, and it wasn’t a boss, but my point still stands) – then my DPS drops by more than half and I wind up doing so low that I spent the rest of the dungeon trying desperately to catch up to Nyx in overall DPS. Then I have the problem that my eyes are so much on the DPS meters that I forget the mechanics of the fights.
Now, last night, I actually don’t think it was specifically me that screwed up at any given time other than the ones I already mentioned – agro pulling and the one shot botch I somehow managed to do – but it still stands that… Well… The Lost City of the Tol’vir, on regular, takes a good group about 20 minutes to burn through. On Heroic, the average time to rip through a dungeon is doubled or tripled, because you can’t skip individual mobs in most places and so spend longer killing the trash on the way to the bosses. But last night – we were in Lost City for nearly 3 hours.
Given the normal ratio, it shouldn’t have taken us more than an hour at most to complete that dungeon – and that’s on the long side. We had a good group, all five of us knew what we were doing… and yet it still took 3 hours and a lot of character-shuffling on the part of our 3rd DPS as we tried to find a good fit for us. His Warrior pulled too much agro off the tank, his healing Pally was instance locked and couldn’t come help us, he wasn’t practiced healing heroics on his Priest… eventually he wound up pulling in a pinch hitter for us on the last boss, and he sat the fight out while she healed. She and I were the only two to die in that final battle, and we finally got our pattern down. But it doesn’t change the fact that it took us 3 hours to get through what should’ve been a 1 hour dungeon, and part of me wonders if it’s my skill level that’s contributing to the problem. I wasn’t really on my game last night, I admit. Not like other nights.
Last weekend, we spent the day doing random regulars. And I was on the BALL that day. My DPS was high, my focus was good, every time we ran through Halls of Origination, I easily pulled off the “jump-pull lever-run from snakes-reenter fight” sequence on the first boss – something I usually get confused by and wind up running around down in the snake pit looking for the stairs – every single time without fail. I CC’d when my Frost Trap was needed, and I didn’t miss. I kept control over Hatari (who has now been joined by Nzuri, a white Hyena who I’ll probably talk about in a later blog), and I made sure I knew where he was at all times. I timed my shots and my Kill Commands perfectly. I was a damn good Hunter that day, and my low agility didn’t even seem to matter.
But last night, I was out of it. And it translated into the real world, even, when I managed to burn the pad of my right thumb badly when picking up a hot dish, after we’d finally finished the Heroic. I was struggling to stay where I should be on the DPS charts, I ran out of agility scrolls and had to fight that much harder – I lost nearly 400 DPS when I ran out of scrolls. And now I need to make more agility food, which means I have to go fishing in Uldum along the coast for Fathom Eels. I haven’t gotten around to that, yet.
To sum up, while I’ve taken the “Heroic Leap” (an actual Warrior ability, but I thought it was an appropriate title anyway), I worry that I may have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. But only continuing to do it will I learn. Especially since, when I cap my engineering skill, I’m going to want those Chaos Orbs so I can make myself a better gun.
So, with more in front of me, I’m just going to keep trying. In the wise words of the Eleventh Doctor – GERONIMO!
But you’ve all heard me complain about that before. The point being that I’ve now gotten my iLevel up high enough that I can get into L85 Heroics, though PlayerScore says that the difficulty for me is “light,” I have other things to say. Heroics aren’t called heroics because they’re easy – they’re called heroics because it’s more than just item level or gear – it’s skill and teamwork that gets you through them. And now, having been along on the completion of Stonecore, Vortex Pinnacle, and now The Lost City of the Tol’vir, I have to say – I’m not entirely certain I have the skill level to be running Heroics yet.
The thing is, though – sometimes I’m damn good. It’s performing consistently that I have an issue with. If I eat my agility boost food, and use an agility scroll, I can pull DPS as high or higher than Nyx. But if I screw up, for even a few seconds – if I pull too much agro and have to run to the tank to avoid getting my little Draenai tail handed to me on a plate, or if I do what I did last night and accidentally pull a mob because my hand just happened to hit my “Target-FIRE” macro button while we were talking about the fight (thankfully that didn’t happen in a heroic, and it wasn’t a boss, but my point still stands) – then my DPS drops by more than half and I wind up doing so low that I spent the rest of the dungeon trying desperately to catch up to Nyx in overall DPS. Then I have the problem that my eyes are so much on the DPS meters that I forget the mechanics of the fights.
Now, last night, I actually don’t think it was specifically me that screwed up at any given time other than the ones I already mentioned – agro pulling and the one shot botch I somehow managed to do – but it still stands that… Well… The Lost City of the Tol’vir, on regular, takes a good group about 20 minutes to burn through. On Heroic, the average time to rip through a dungeon is doubled or tripled, because you can’t skip individual mobs in most places and so spend longer killing the trash on the way to the bosses. But last night – we were in Lost City for nearly 3 hours.
Given the normal ratio, it shouldn’t have taken us more than an hour at most to complete that dungeon – and that’s on the long side. We had a good group, all five of us knew what we were doing… and yet it still took 3 hours and a lot of character-shuffling on the part of our 3rd DPS as we tried to find a good fit for us. His Warrior pulled too much agro off the tank, his healing Pally was instance locked and couldn’t come help us, he wasn’t practiced healing heroics on his Priest… eventually he wound up pulling in a pinch hitter for us on the last boss, and he sat the fight out while she healed. She and I were the only two to die in that final battle, and we finally got our pattern down. But it doesn’t change the fact that it took us 3 hours to get through what should’ve been a 1 hour dungeon, and part of me wonders if it’s my skill level that’s contributing to the problem. I wasn’t really on my game last night, I admit. Not like other nights.
Last weekend, we spent the day doing random regulars. And I was on the BALL that day. My DPS was high, my focus was good, every time we ran through Halls of Origination, I easily pulled off the “jump-pull lever-run from snakes-reenter fight” sequence on the first boss – something I usually get confused by and wind up running around down in the snake pit looking for the stairs – every single time without fail. I CC’d when my Frost Trap was needed, and I didn’t miss. I kept control over Hatari (who has now been joined by Nzuri, a white Hyena who I’ll probably talk about in a later blog), and I made sure I knew where he was at all times. I timed my shots and my Kill Commands perfectly. I was a damn good Hunter that day, and my low agility didn’t even seem to matter.
But last night, I was out of it. And it translated into the real world, even, when I managed to burn the pad of my right thumb badly when picking up a hot dish, after we’d finally finished the Heroic. I was struggling to stay where I should be on the DPS charts, I ran out of agility scrolls and had to fight that much harder – I lost nearly 400 DPS when I ran out of scrolls. And now I need to make more agility food, which means I have to go fishing in Uldum along the coast for Fathom Eels. I haven’t gotten around to that, yet.
To sum up, while I’ve taken the “Heroic Leap” (an actual Warrior ability, but I thought it was an appropriate title anyway), I worry that I may have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. But only continuing to do it will I learn. Especially since, when I cap my engineering skill, I’m going to want those Chaos Orbs so I can make myself a better gun.
So, with more in front of me, I’m just going to keep trying. In the wise words of the Eleventh Doctor – GERONIMO!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Still Kicking...
With all my WoW blogs, you'd think I don't play anything else. But that's not true - I play many other games. WoW just tends to be the only thing in which anything interesting enough to blog about happens. However, that changed today.
I was playing Hunting Unlimited 2009, my usual "play me for five seconds to calm down" hunting game. I chose to go after a group of Bison. I'm very good at sniping and getting head shots on larger prey (bison and elephants, specifically), so I did that from a distance. I watched the bison I chose and shot stagger and fall.
However, watching it through my rifle scope as I prepared to mount my horse and head over to collect my trophy, when I noticed something strange. The downed bison's leg was still twitching.
Ok, so maybe that was a glitch. It was about 300 yards away. I figured it'd have stopped moving by the time I got over there. But no - it hadn't.
In fact, when I got up close to my trophy, I could see that it was quite literally not a glitch.
The bison was still alive.
It was on it's side, mouth opening and closing, trying to struggle to it's feet over and over, and it kept falling back down. I stared at it for a long moment. I've killed hundreds, maybe thousands of creatures in hunting games - never have I seen a virtual animal go DOWN and still be alive. Usually when they fall, they're dead.
I walked around the Bison and gave a close look at it. The bullet had entered the head behind one ear, and exited the other side in front of that ear, cutting cleanly through the brain.
But the Bison was still alive. Standing right next to it, the "claim" button wouldn't work, because the trophy was still... kicking.
I walked around in front of the bison, leveled my rifle at it's head, and the next time it fell back to the ground in it's struggle, I fired. Right between the eyes. And then, only then, did I get the "Head shot!" exclaimation, and the bison stopped moving.
I pulled it into my bag, then went out into my trophy room to get a look at it, and I took the following screenshot.
I was playing Hunting Unlimited 2009, my usual "play me for five seconds to calm down" hunting game. I chose to go after a group of Bison. I'm very good at sniping and getting head shots on larger prey (bison and elephants, specifically), so I did that from a distance. I watched the bison I chose and shot stagger and fall.
However, watching it through my rifle scope as I prepared to mount my horse and head over to collect my trophy, when I noticed something strange. The downed bison's leg was still twitching.
Ok, so maybe that was a glitch. It was about 300 yards away. I figured it'd have stopped moving by the time I got over there. But no - it hadn't.
In fact, when I got up close to my trophy, I could see that it was quite literally not a glitch.
The bison was still alive.
It was on it's side, mouth opening and closing, trying to struggle to it's feet over and over, and it kept falling back down. I stared at it for a long moment. I've killed hundreds, maybe thousands of creatures in hunting games - never have I seen a virtual animal go DOWN and still be alive. Usually when they fall, they're dead.
I walked around the Bison and gave a close look at it. The bullet had entered the head behind one ear, and exited the other side in front of that ear, cutting cleanly through the brain.
But the Bison was still alive. Standing right next to it, the "claim" button wouldn't work, because the trophy was still... kicking.
I walked around in front of the bison, leveled my rifle at it's head, and the next time it fell back to the ground in it's struggle, I fired. Right between the eyes. And then, only then, did I get the "Head shot!" exclaimation, and the bison stopped moving.
I pulled it into my bag, then went out into my trophy room to get a look at it, and I took the following screenshot.
The bullet wound in the forehead is the kill shot. The wound on the side of the head is the initial bullet wound that felled but didn't kill the bison. The trophy itself isn't that impressive (I have much more impressive bison trophies), but I will NEVER let go of it for this reason.
I spent an hour or two after this trying to recreate the situation with other creatures as well, unsuccessfully. Near as I can tell, this was a one in a million shot, and I don't think it'll happen again... But that doesn't change that it was... kind of awesome.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Oh, THAT'S Why...
So Nyx and I did some comparison today after I once again had crappy DPS in a dungeon, and we finally, FINALLY figured out what is wrong with me- my global cooldown is MUCH longer than hers. If she called out the rotation and I followed, I would run out of focus, trying to keep up with her, despite the fact that my haste was more than hers. It makes me wonder how slow I'd be if my haste was as low as hers.
But the ultimate culprit? My agility sucks. And I mean horribly. It was 2k below Nyx's. No WONDER I couldn't get off the DPS she could. Working my rotation on a single target, I was doing really well... but in the dungeon there're these long moments when I'm just not firing because I'm out of focus or everything's on cool down. I could do burst damage and cap out high, but then my DPS would crash, and for a lot longer, it would be low while I waited for my cool downs to reset.
So I've started gemming and enchanting my gear for agility - we'll see how I do in a dungeon in another couple of days. I also made a note of gear I want to buy when I finish getting Exalted with the Cata factions.
So! Perhaps it isn't a skill issue at all - perhaps I do NOT suddenly suck at being a Hunter... I can't wait to see the DPS I'll do in BM as well once I get my agility up where it should be.
Endgame? Please. I'm just getting started. :D
But the ultimate culprit? My agility sucks. And I mean horribly. It was 2k below Nyx's. No WONDER I couldn't get off the DPS she could. Working my rotation on a single target, I was doing really well... but in the dungeon there're these long moments when I'm just not firing because I'm out of focus or everything's on cool down. I could do burst damage and cap out high, but then my DPS would crash, and for a lot longer, it would be low while I waited for my cool downs to reset.
So I've started gemming and enchanting my gear for agility - we'll see how I do in a dungeon in another couple of days. I also made a note of gear I want to buy when I finish getting Exalted with the Cata factions.
So! Perhaps it isn't a skill issue at all - perhaps I do NOT suddenly suck at being a Hunter... I can't wait to see the DPS I'll do in BM as well once I get my agility up where it should be.
Endgame? Please. I'm just getting started. :D
Monday, July 11, 2011
Ganked By An NPC
A warning for those who will read this who have NOT played through the Death Knight starter area, in Wrath Of The Lich King and beyond. Here, there be spoilers. Skip the block quoted part of the post to avoid them.
I've talked about Ionaria, my Troll Druid, and how she's the first Horde character I've ever had that I really liked. Well, now I have two. At Lona's suggestion, I decided to make a Death Knight on the same server, solely because they start at high level (55) and come out of their starting zone geared in blues for Outland, and I would be able to make some quick cash to help bankroll the server. The problem is, while I've made multiple Death Knights in the past, there's only one that I've ever felt like playing beyond the starting zone, and that's Reyune, my Worgen DK on Galakrond. And that's because I put so much thought into creating him and his design and personality and back story that I not only fell in love with him as a character, but he's the first WoW character that I've bonded.
Therein lies the problem, however - I didn't like the way any of the Horde races looked as DKs. The Worgen DK... well, he was a nightmare coming at you, twice cursed, huge fangs... I mean, what's more terrifying than a super-powered undead werewolf? Then Lona suggested I build a story for my Horde DK as well, so I'd enjoy playing her. And then she made the best suggestion I've ever heard - Why don't I build the DK as whatever class/race combo she would've been BEFORE being a DK, and then click the DK class button to convert that? Suddenly, creating her became SO much easier.
I built her as a Tauren Druid, and already a story was building up in my head. She was Exalted with Cenarion Circle, and one of their advance guard sent to replant and clear the Scourge's taint from the Plaguelands. However, in doing so, she was killed in battle and her body taken by the Scourge.
I clicked the "Death Knight" class button, and her whole life ended... and was reborn. Reborn as a DK, she was under the thrall of the Lich King, her connection to the Earthmother severed - that is, except for a tiny Cenarion Hippogryph Hatchling that followed her wherever she went - the hatchling baby of her mount that had been killed in the same battle where she lost her former life. (I went to the mail box that's a PITA to get to the moment I created her, pulled all my BOA pets out of it, and summoned the hatchling immediately when this part of the story came to me.)
If the Death Knight, Koratana, saw the hippogryph, she paid it no mind. Though in the story, it was constantly hiding. The Hippogryph mounts are incredibly intelligent, and being born of the Cenarion Circle itself, this one sought to reestablish Koratana's connection to the Earthmother. Slowly, the Lich King's voice quieted in her mind, and the more people she killed and hurt, the more some part of her began to cry out in desperation. So when she reached a certain quest and had to take the life of a certain NPC, that was all it took to all but snap the Lich King's hold over her mind.
Now we reach the part of the story where the player, IE, me, made a decision that the character wouldn't have made. And herein lies the spoilers.
So then, there I was, at the end of this "epic battle," when the mock cut-scene takes over and you get the last of the DK story, basically. However, the last NPC I'd been attacking remembered me for some reason. During the actual battle, you have a huge health regeneration buff on you, so even if you're being beaten on by five or six Elites, you actually have a fairly good chance of killing them before they kill you. But the moment the counter reaches the correct numbers and the battle ends, you lose that buff.
However, this particular NPC remained pissed at me. I walked over to kneel where I usually plant a DK character during this sequence... and the NPC leaped up out of where he'd been kneeling for his OWN part of the cut scene, came running over, and killed me with a single blow.
Huh, I thought. That's weird... I walked back to my body, rezzed... and he immediately jumped up, charged me, and killed me again. I blinked. I tried rezzing from further away this time - and he still came running up and ganked* me. It was as if I was in PVP and had annoyed another player to the point that they were corpse-camping* me and taking every opportunity to kill me. I realized by the 3rd time that I was caught in some sort of glitch, because there was no way that this was supposed to happen.
The person you turn the quest that all of this is a part of was standing right next to my nemesis when the cut scene was over. It took four more deaths before I could turn the quest IN, and get sent back to Ebon Hold to finish out the zone. Normally, I would have simply used my Death Gate spell to return there, however the NPC still had aggro on me, and the DG spell is a lot like a Hearthstone or mounting - you can't do it if you're considered by the game to be "in combat." And because of one NPC who apparently was holding a grudge against me, I couldn't do any of those things. So I went with the time-honored tradition I practice regularly on my main (which has lead me to get the strange compliment recently of being "really good at surviving") - I ran away.
But the NPC kept chasing me, and even when he STOPPED chasing me, I was still under constant aggro warning. So I couldn't mount, I had no speed boost, and it was a damn long way back to the Scourge Gryphons, if they were even still THERE given that I'd phased out of the zone at that point. So I did the only thing I could do - I kept running.
In case you're wondering - no, this was not part of my character's story. She witnessed the events the way a DK is supposed to, then Death Gated on to her next quest after reuniting with the hippogryph hatchling, who finally came out of hiding when she was free of the Lich King's taint. She still cannot channel her former Druid abilities, and never will again - something she is in emotional agony over at the moment... but the little hatchling is a reminder that the Earthmother is still there, even if she can no longer feel her, and Koratana is determined to find a way to feel nature again, the way she should as a Tauren and a trained Druid - she refuses to be nothing but a blind instrument of death, no matter what happens to her. I plan on her story to include befriending Ionaria (who I had to log into to send her 10 gold by the end of all the times the NPC killed me, by the way - she'd racked up that high of a repair bill, and definitely didn't have that on her - I pity anyone who has this glitch where a DK is their only character on the server), and slowly learning how to reconnect to life and nature, despite her Death Knight status. She will become exalted with the Cenarion Circle again, and will ride a Hippogryph - at which point the hatchling following her will have grown up, and have a hatchling of it's own.
Ultimately, it was a fun and interesting situation and now I have another DK that I enjoy playing and who's story I enjoy greatly. I haven't bonded her... yet. I say yet, because I spent last night dreaming about Taurens and things that I think were her living-world past. Either that's a bond in formation... or just the writer in me filling in the gaps. I'll know which depending on if she starts commenting on things in the next few days. :P
I've talked about Ionaria, my Troll Druid, and how she's the first Horde character I've ever had that I really liked. Well, now I have two. At Lona's suggestion, I decided to make a Death Knight on the same server, solely because they start at high level (55) and come out of their starting zone geared in blues for Outland, and I would be able to make some quick cash to help bankroll the server. The problem is, while I've made multiple Death Knights in the past, there's only one that I've ever felt like playing beyond the starting zone, and that's Reyune, my Worgen DK on Galakrond. And that's because I put so much thought into creating him and his design and personality and back story that I not only fell in love with him as a character, but he's the first WoW character that I've bonded.
Therein lies the problem, however - I didn't like the way any of the Horde races looked as DKs. The Worgen DK... well, he was a nightmare coming at you, twice cursed, huge fangs... I mean, what's more terrifying than a super-powered undead werewolf? Then Lona suggested I build a story for my Horde DK as well, so I'd enjoy playing her. And then she made the best suggestion I've ever heard - Why don't I build the DK as whatever class/race combo she would've been BEFORE being a DK, and then click the DK class button to convert that? Suddenly, creating her became SO much easier.
I built her as a Tauren Druid, and already a story was building up in my head. She was Exalted with Cenarion Circle, and one of their advance guard sent to replant and clear the Scourge's taint from the Plaguelands. However, in doing so, she was killed in battle and her body taken by the Scourge.
I clicked the "Death Knight" class button, and her whole life ended... and was reborn. Reborn as a DK, she was under the thrall of the Lich King, her connection to the Earthmother severed - that is, except for a tiny Cenarion Hippogryph Hatchling that followed her wherever she went - the hatchling baby of her mount that had been killed in the same battle where she lost her former life. (I went to the mail box that's a PITA to get to the moment I created her, pulled all my BOA pets out of it, and summoned the hatchling immediately when this part of the story came to me.)
If the Death Knight, Koratana, saw the hippogryph, she paid it no mind. Though in the story, it was constantly hiding. The Hippogryph mounts are incredibly intelligent, and being born of the Cenarion Circle itself, this one sought to reestablish Koratana's connection to the Earthmother. Slowly, the Lich King's voice quieted in her mind, and the more people she killed and hurt, the more some part of her began to cry out in desperation. So when she reached a certain quest and had to take the life of a certain NPC, that was all it took to all but snap the Lich King's hold over her mind.
Now we reach the part of the story where the player, IE, me, made a decision that the character wouldn't have made. And herein lies the spoilers.
During the battle for Light's Hope Chapel, I normally do what my conflicted character would do - I hide. Nothing the player does can make the battle go any faster - it's dictated by numbers and the NPCs massacring each other is more than enough to cause what is going to happen to happen. And as all DKs are in the part of their progression where they're shaking off the Lich King's control and remembering the heroes they once were, it isn't a hard jump to imagine that the DK "Champion" of the Scourge would get as far out of the battle as they can and hide while the last vestiges of the Lich King's control over their minds is shattered by the Light itself.
This being said, I normally hide in Light's Hope Chapel during this part of the storyline. But this time, I decided to participate in the battle. So I followed one of the Scourge Highlords around and attacking anything he attacked.
So then, there I was, at the end of this "epic battle," when the mock cut-scene takes over and you get the last of the DK story, basically. However, the last NPC I'd been attacking remembered me for some reason. During the actual battle, you have a huge health regeneration buff on you, so even if you're being beaten on by five or six Elites, you actually have a fairly good chance of killing them before they kill you. But the moment the counter reaches the correct numbers and the battle ends, you lose that buff.
However, this particular NPC remained pissed at me. I walked over to kneel where I usually plant a DK character during this sequence... and the NPC leaped up out of where he'd been kneeling for his OWN part of the cut scene, came running over, and killed me with a single blow.
Huh, I thought. That's weird... I walked back to my body, rezzed... and he immediately jumped up, charged me, and killed me again. I blinked. I tried rezzing from further away this time - and he still came running up and ganked* me. It was as if I was in PVP and had annoyed another player to the point that they were corpse-camping* me and taking every opportunity to kill me. I realized by the 3rd time that I was caught in some sort of glitch, because there was no way that this was supposed to happen.
The person you turn the quest that all of this is a part of was standing right next to my nemesis when the cut scene was over. It took four more deaths before I could turn the quest IN, and get sent back to Ebon Hold to finish out the zone. Normally, I would have simply used my Death Gate spell to return there, however the NPC still had aggro on me, and the DG spell is a lot like a Hearthstone or mounting - you can't do it if you're considered by the game to be "in combat." And because of one NPC who apparently was holding a grudge against me, I couldn't do any of those things. So I went with the time-honored tradition I practice regularly on my main (which has lead me to get the strange compliment recently of being "really good at surviving") - I ran away.
But the NPC kept chasing me, and even when he STOPPED chasing me, I was still under constant aggro warning. So I couldn't mount, I had no speed boost, and it was a damn long way back to the Scourge Gryphons, if they were even still THERE given that I'd phased out of the zone at that point. So I did the only thing I could do - I kept running.
In case you're wondering - no, this was not part of my character's story. She witnessed the events the way a DK is supposed to, then Death Gated on to her next quest after reuniting with the hippogryph hatchling, who finally came out of hiding when she was free of the Lich King's taint. She still cannot channel her former Druid abilities, and never will again - something she is in emotional agony over at the moment... but the little hatchling is a reminder that the Earthmother is still there, even if she can no longer feel her, and Koratana is determined to find a way to feel nature again, the way she should as a Tauren and a trained Druid - she refuses to be nothing but a blind instrument of death, no matter what happens to her. I plan on her story to include befriending Ionaria (who I had to log into to send her 10 gold by the end of all the times the NPC killed me, by the way - she'd racked up that high of a repair bill, and definitely didn't have that on her - I pity anyone who has this glitch where a DK is their only character on the server), and slowly learning how to reconnect to life and nature, despite her Death Knight status. She will become exalted with the Cenarion Circle again, and will ride a Hippogryph - at which point the hatchling following her will have grown up, and have a hatchling of it's own.
Ultimately, it was a fun and interesting situation and now I have another DK that I enjoy playing and who's story I enjoy greatly. I haven't bonded her... yet. I say yet, because I spent last night dreaming about Taurens and things that I think were her living-world past. Either that's a bond in formation... or just the writer in me filling in the gaps. I'll know which depending on if she starts commenting on things in the next few days. :P
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Massacre - A DK Tanking Experience
Reyune is my 3rd Death Knight. On the same server. Yes, I know, you can only have one per server. :P The other two have been deleted. One without ever even getting out of the starting zone. But Reyune is different. He's a Worgen, and... He's awesome. I love his facial customization, I love his attitude... I really love him. I built him carefully, using a dual spec of Blood and Unholy, so he would be capable of tanking should I get up the nerve to do it. But, until last night, I hadn't tanked at all as anything other than a Druid.
Then, again, my fiance nudged me. :P She had a healer who was right at Rey's level range, and she's working on leveling her currently. So she asked me to tank for her. I was freaking out at first, but she urged me. She's been tanking on a DK at that level for awhile, so she gave me some quick pointers, we partied, and we queued.
I freaked out at first, but... No one died. And when I did die, it wasn't my fault, it was actually that Lona hadn't healed in awhile and she had some issues. Another time it was because she got silenced by a mob, but we actually never completely wiped. I was thrilled.
She then pointed out that she was a couple of levels above me, and I should probably do a little catching up before we continue, and get used to other healers so I wouldn't be afraid to play the character without her. I agreed, we disbanded the party, and I queued solo.
I did just as well with the other healers! And, over the course of the night and several dungeons, I had a Hunter and a Warlock who insisted on pulling around me. And a Rogue that stealthed ahead of me and pulled - and I kept working well. I got stuff off of them, I held aggro, I Death Gripped things when they got too far away... I was GOOD.
I can now Tank as a DK and as a Druid... I'm actually impressed with me. 0.o Warrior's my next learning curve, but I want to get my DK to L85, and my Druid to L60, as well. I have a lot of goals. It's exciting. :)
Then, again, my fiance nudged me. :P She had a healer who was right at Rey's level range, and she's working on leveling her currently. So she asked me to tank for her. I was freaking out at first, but she urged me. She's been tanking on a DK at that level for awhile, so she gave me some quick pointers, we partied, and we queued.
I freaked out at first, but... No one died. And when I did die, it wasn't my fault, it was actually that Lona hadn't healed in awhile and she had some issues. Another time it was because she got silenced by a mob, but we actually never completely wiped. I was thrilled.
She then pointed out that she was a couple of levels above me, and I should probably do a little catching up before we continue, and get used to other healers so I wouldn't be afraid to play the character without her. I agreed, we disbanded the party, and I queued solo.
I did just as well with the other healers! And, over the course of the night and several dungeons, I had a Hunter and a Warlock who insisted on pulling around me. And a Rogue that stealthed ahead of me and pulled - and I kept working well. I got stuff off of them, I held aggro, I Death Gripped things when they got too far away... I was GOOD.
I can now Tank as a DK and as a Druid... I'm actually impressed with me. 0.o Warrior's my next learning curve, but I want to get my DK to L85, and my Druid to L60, as well. I have a lot of goals. It's exciting. :)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Flame Warden Destylae
Last year, when Des was only around level 50 or so, the Midsummer Fire Festival hit. I saw the Honor The Flames achievements and thought, "That's what I want. I can use these to help me get Des closer to the Explorer title!" And so, I set out on an epic journey.
I died. A lot. Running through high level areas - nowhere was harder than Outland, though. I was ten levels below where I should've been to be running around out there, and the Path Of Glory was my death SO many times.... But then I'd done it. I had all three achievements complete... Though I hadn't Desecrated any of the Horde's flames. I felt quite accomplished.
This year, as I'm now 85 and actively working toward the What A Long Strange Trip It's Been achievement, the Midsummer Fire Festival was the next achievement and title in line for me. Remembering the hell it had been to do all that traveling last year, I wasn't really looking forward to this. This festival contained a Holiday Boss, something I'd never been able to participate in before, as well as a hell of a lot of traveling AND deliberate assaults upon the opposing Faction's main cities. I expected this to take the full 2 weeks of the festival, honestly.
Imagine my shock when I came out of my first day doing the Festival with the title of Flame Warden... as well as the title of Assistant Professor, as during my wanderings to honor and desecrate the fires of the world, I also found a rare archaeology item and earned THAT title. As well as the ability to, ah... encase myself in amber for five minutes at a time, for no reason other than that it's amusing.
So yeah, as my fiance put it - this is the easiest Holiday ever. :P Another step down on the path to What A Long Strange Trip... and all the more to show for it!
On another note, I noticed something that I feel is awesome, as a Hunter, when the latest patch dropped. Now, when I mount on a ground mount, my pet doesn't despawn - he stays and runs beside me! This is something that existed in Vanilla WoW that I'd wished they'd bring back, but didn't see a way to in these days of all-world flying... However, they did! The moment you jump on a flying mount and take to the air, it acts as it always did, with your pet despawning and respawning when you dismount. But for ground mounts? Hatari never leaves my side now.
It's an encouragement, to me, at least, to take the slow path of the ground more often. I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing him at my side. :)
I died. A lot. Running through high level areas - nowhere was harder than Outland, though. I was ten levels below where I should've been to be running around out there, and the Path Of Glory was my death SO many times.... But then I'd done it. I had all three achievements complete... Though I hadn't Desecrated any of the Horde's flames. I felt quite accomplished.
This year, as I'm now 85 and actively working toward the What A Long Strange Trip It's Been achievement, the Midsummer Fire Festival was the next achievement and title in line for me. Remembering the hell it had been to do all that traveling last year, I wasn't really looking forward to this. This festival contained a Holiday Boss, something I'd never been able to participate in before, as well as a hell of a lot of traveling AND deliberate assaults upon the opposing Faction's main cities. I expected this to take the full 2 weeks of the festival, honestly.
Imagine my shock when I came out of my first day doing the Festival with the title of Flame Warden... as well as the title of Assistant Professor, as during my wanderings to honor and desecrate the fires of the world, I also found a rare archaeology item and earned THAT title. As well as the ability to, ah... encase myself in amber for five minutes at a time, for no reason other than that it's amusing.
So yeah, as my fiance put it - this is the easiest Holiday ever. :P Another step down on the path to What A Long Strange Trip... and all the more to show for it!
On another note, I noticed something that I feel is awesome, as a Hunter, when the latest patch dropped. Now, when I mount on a ground mount, my pet doesn't despawn - he stays and runs beside me! This is something that existed in Vanilla WoW that I'd wished they'd bring back, but didn't see a way to in these days of all-world flying... However, they did! The moment you jump on a flying mount and take to the air, it acts as it always did, with your pet despawning and respawning when you dismount. But for ground mounts? Hatari never leaves my side now.
It's an encouragement, to me, at least, to take the slow path of the ground more often. I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing him at my side. :)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Dual Specing The RIGHT Way...
These days, when I make a new character on Wow, I bookmark talent builds that I want them to have and I spend time focusing on their talents and glyphs so that they maximize their DPS for leveling, and their other abilities for dungeoning (in the case of my tanks - Reyune the DK, Kalitri and Ionaria the feral druids, and Betamus the warrior).
However, somehow, my main got lost in the rotation. I wasn't as diligent when I created her. Heck, I didn't even KNOW you could look up/emulate talent builds. I didn't know what Glyphs were until I was high enough level to use six of them. I focused on her story and living my little in-game life. Now, this didn't work too badly for her chosen primary spec - Beast Mastery. My pet did hells of damage, kept stuff off of me, and I got a lot of compliments and shock at him and how powerful he was (speaking specifically about Hatari the hyena, now, who's praises I have extolled in earlier blogs), and therefore how much damage I did. So I thought I was doing awesome.
My brother, though, does his research. And as we were planning to repeatedly, as a guild, run Obsidian Sanctum to get achievements and to get each of our guildies the Black Drake mount, one at a time, he suggested I dual spec and pick up Marksmanship. Marksmanship is supposedly the highest DPS Hunter Spec, and ideal for high end raids.
I, however, have far too much pride. I couldn't believe that a simple spec change could improve on what I'd already proven that I excel at. But, I'm in a place in my life where I'm trying to accept people's advice without question unless in action I prove them wrong. So, knowing we had a raid last night, I looked up a good Marksmanship raiding talent distribution, and dual spec'd for the first time on my Hunter.
Here's the thing - I went to the Stormwind Training Dummies, hit off a few shots and organized my action bars, then logged right back off the game. I didn't do a Recount evaluation of my DPS, I didn't bother to try and find out the most focus economical rotation of shots... I just set up my action bars as close to my BM bars as possible so I'd know where things were, and logged off.
When I logged on next, it was Raid time. I went in just like always, confident in my DPS.
I kept running out of focus. I kept having issues with firing while moving and line-of-sight problems. I kept forgetting to trigger Kill Command, so even Hatari's DPS failed me.
The Tank in our Raid did more damage than me.
And, largely because I wasn't pulling the DPS numbers I should've been, we failed the Raid.
Now, here's the difference between the way I'm handling things now, and the way I used to. If this had happened even a couple of weeks ago, I would've said, "Well, I guess Marksmanship just isn't what I need for it to be!" And I would've given up on the talent tree. But the new me accepts people's suggestions and tries harder to achieve goals she thinks might even be impossible. SO! Today, I went to a training dummy in Ironforge, and, for the first time, pulled up the Recount add on's Real Time DPS meter. I went at the dummy for awhile in MS spec, and finally figured out a rotation that was pulling between 7300 and 10000 DPS. I thought, "Oh, that's good." Then I thought, "Well, can I make it better?"
So I went off to the auction house and spent about 300 gold on Glyphs to power up the shots I found I was using the most in that rotation. I applied the glyphs, then returned to the training dummy.
It was only then that I realized I had no idea how much damage I normally did in BM spec. So I activated my primary spec, pulled up the DPS meter, reset recount, and slammed that target with the rotation that I've built up over 85 levels of Beast Mastery experience.
And I stared in shock at the DPS meter.
I was pulling, on average, between 3900 and 6900 DPS. On the high end, when I was able to slam with Kill Command multiple times and Arcane Shot/Multishot repeatedly, it slid up to almost 9000 DPS, but then crashed right back down as I blew all my cool downs at once and had to rely on Steady Shot to rebuild my focus while Hatari became my main DPS generator. And while his numbers are impressively high, mine were depressingly LOW. Though I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't already tried it in MS spec and scored so much higher. Though even I know that 3900 DPS is low for an 85. I should be averaging 5k. An undergeared Balance Druid could out preform me in DPS if I wasn't paying attention and didn't get off as many high DPS items as I could.
I called Hatari off the training dummy and dropped my threat on it. I reset Recount, waited for my DoT's to wear off and the meter to flatline, switched to MS spec... and then let loose on it with the rotation I'd worked out earlier.
My meter lit up, shooting up into the 12000 + range repeatedly, and only dropping below 9500 when I forgot to trigger Rapid Shot or Readiness in sequence. But there was no doubt about it - I was doing nearly TWICE the DPS, reliably, in MS that I had been in BM. And I'd fixed my focus regen issues - by factoring in a pair of Steady Shots every few shots, I could easily keep my focus on actually fighting rather than waiting for cooldowns and focus regeneration.
However, Recount also allows you to see the damage you do versus the damage your PET does, and suddenly, despite the higher DPS, I discovered why BM is still a better spec for me, who spends most of my time soloing PVE.
See, in Beast Mastery, your pet is about 70% of your DPS, + your threat generation. As a result, during PVE combat, the enemy remains focused on your pet. However, in Marksmanship, your weapons are over 70% of your damage, and the pet is barely 30% on the high end. Which means that *I* am generating a massive amount of threat, and nothing will stay on my pet, so I get flattened.
However, this is exactly how Dual Spec is supposed to work. One spec for one thing, in my case - BM for solo play, and one spec for another - MM, for raids and dungeons. Something that I'm already doing on all of my other dual spec'd characters... But for some reason, I'd never done it on my main.
I feel far more confident in my playing of my Hunter, now, and I'm ready to be the best I can be when we try that Raid again next week - and every week until we all have the Black Drake Mount.
However, somehow, my main got lost in the rotation. I wasn't as diligent when I created her. Heck, I didn't even KNOW you could look up/emulate talent builds. I didn't know what Glyphs were until I was high enough level to use six of them. I focused on her story and living my little in-game life. Now, this didn't work too badly for her chosen primary spec - Beast Mastery. My pet did hells of damage, kept stuff off of me, and I got a lot of compliments and shock at him and how powerful he was (speaking specifically about Hatari the hyena, now, who's praises I have extolled in earlier blogs), and therefore how much damage I did. So I thought I was doing awesome.
My brother, though, does his research. And as we were planning to repeatedly, as a guild, run Obsidian Sanctum to get achievements and to get each of our guildies the Black Drake mount, one at a time, he suggested I dual spec and pick up Marksmanship. Marksmanship is supposedly the highest DPS Hunter Spec, and ideal for high end raids.
I, however, have far too much pride. I couldn't believe that a simple spec change could improve on what I'd already proven that I excel at. But, I'm in a place in my life where I'm trying to accept people's advice without question unless in action I prove them wrong. So, knowing we had a raid last night, I looked up a good Marksmanship raiding talent distribution, and dual spec'd for the first time on my Hunter.
Here's the thing - I went to the Stormwind Training Dummies, hit off a few shots and organized my action bars, then logged right back off the game. I didn't do a Recount evaluation of my DPS, I didn't bother to try and find out the most focus economical rotation of shots... I just set up my action bars as close to my BM bars as possible so I'd know where things were, and logged off.
When I logged on next, it was Raid time. I went in just like always, confident in my DPS.
I kept running out of focus. I kept having issues with firing while moving and line-of-sight problems. I kept forgetting to trigger Kill Command, so even Hatari's DPS failed me.
The Tank in our Raid did more damage than me.
And, largely because I wasn't pulling the DPS numbers I should've been, we failed the Raid.
Now, here's the difference between the way I'm handling things now, and the way I used to. If this had happened even a couple of weeks ago, I would've said, "Well, I guess Marksmanship just isn't what I need for it to be!" And I would've given up on the talent tree. But the new me accepts people's suggestions and tries harder to achieve goals she thinks might even be impossible. SO! Today, I went to a training dummy in Ironforge, and, for the first time, pulled up the Recount add on's Real Time DPS meter. I went at the dummy for awhile in MS spec, and finally figured out a rotation that was pulling between 7300 and 10000 DPS. I thought, "Oh, that's good." Then I thought, "Well, can I make it better?"
So I went off to the auction house and spent about 300 gold on Glyphs to power up the shots I found I was using the most in that rotation. I applied the glyphs, then returned to the training dummy.
It was only then that I realized I had no idea how much damage I normally did in BM spec. So I activated my primary spec, pulled up the DPS meter, reset recount, and slammed that target with the rotation that I've built up over 85 levels of Beast Mastery experience.
And I stared in shock at the DPS meter.
I was pulling, on average, between 3900 and 6900 DPS. On the high end, when I was able to slam with Kill Command multiple times and Arcane Shot/Multishot repeatedly, it slid up to almost 9000 DPS, but then crashed right back down as I blew all my cool downs at once and had to rely on Steady Shot to rebuild my focus while Hatari became my main DPS generator. And while his numbers are impressively high, mine were depressingly LOW. Though I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't already tried it in MS spec and scored so much higher. Though even I know that 3900 DPS is low for an 85. I should be averaging 5k. An undergeared Balance Druid could out preform me in DPS if I wasn't paying attention and didn't get off as many high DPS items as I could.
I called Hatari off the training dummy and dropped my threat on it. I reset Recount, waited for my DoT's to wear off and the meter to flatline, switched to MS spec... and then let loose on it with the rotation I'd worked out earlier.
My meter lit up, shooting up into the 12000 + range repeatedly, and only dropping below 9500 when I forgot to trigger Rapid Shot or Readiness in sequence. But there was no doubt about it - I was doing nearly TWICE the DPS, reliably, in MS that I had been in BM. And I'd fixed my focus regen issues - by factoring in a pair of Steady Shots every few shots, I could easily keep my focus on actually fighting rather than waiting for cooldowns and focus regeneration.
However, Recount also allows you to see the damage you do versus the damage your PET does, and suddenly, despite the higher DPS, I discovered why BM is still a better spec for me, who spends most of my time soloing PVE.
See, in Beast Mastery, your pet is about 70% of your DPS, + your threat generation. As a result, during PVE combat, the enemy remains focused on your pet. However, in Marksmanship, your weapons are over 70% of your damage, and the pet is barely 30% on the high end. Which means that *I* am generating a massive amount of threat, and nothing will stay on my pet, so I get flattened.
However, this is exactly how Dual Spec is supposed to work. One spec for one thing, in my case - BM for solo play, and one spec for another - MM, for raids and dungeons. Something that I'm already doing on all of my other dual spec'd characters... But for some reason, I'd never done it on my main.
I feel far more confident in my playing of my Hunter, now, and I'm ready to be the best I can be when we try that Raid again next week - and every week until we all have the Black Drake Mount.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Cross-Faction Consideration
I am an Alliance player. I am apparently among the minority. However, recently, I've become curious how the other half lives since the Cataclysm. As a result, and thanks to my fiancee's experimentation along the same line, I've rolled a couple of Horde characters on the Dawnbringer server.
A Death Knight, as a bit of a bankroll for the server since I don't have several hundred gold to spend on ease of leveling my server main, and my new obsession - my Troll Druid, Ionaria. And it would seem with my faction cross, a new place, a new start, has given me the mental drive to do something I've never felt able to do before. Ionaria is a Feral Combat Druid, and therefore a Bear Tank. And thus that is what she's queuing, and has been from L15. She's L26 now, hasn't left Orgrimmar except for dailies that required me to head into Azshara after the eye of a stag, and a few minutes to get Joy Ride for riding the Goblin highway from one end to another. I've now tanked everything up through Blackfathom Deeps, I'm excited to say - without a single wipe that was my fault.
However, I'm finally starting to understand the frustration that's been expressed by Kata and Lona when they tank. In an early group, I got a Hunter who insisted on running in ahead of me and pulling stuff. After the fourth time, I said, "Only warning you get - you pull it, you tank it." Meaning, in short, if you choose to get ahead of me and attack something, then I am not going to come running in and take it off of you so you don't die. After that, the Hunter hung back like a good DPS player. We finished the dungeon quickly after that.
However, my last attempt to dungeon was aborted fairly quickly. I randomed into Gnomregan for the first time. I went forward, pulled the first couple of troggs. A warlock darted past me and set his voidwalker (VOIDWALKER?! In a DUNGEON?! Please, use your freaking IMP. We need the DPS!) to pull another group of three or four troggs. He lead them back to me and I tried to take the aggro, but while a Warrior or Paladin... or even a DK, might have been able to generate that much threat on that many targets fast enough, one of the perils of Bear Tanking is that the Bear (at this level) has ONE AOE aggro generator (Swipe), and one primary single target pull (growl). I have a macro that I use for pull that triggers (Auto Attack > Growl > Faerie Fire (Feral) ), and all of those have cool downs. I couldn't get the aggro fast enough.
I should mention now that, going INTO the dungeon, the first thing I said was, "OK, I have one rule - IF you pull it, you tank it. I'm still fairly new to Bear Taking, and I can't pull too fast at this level." Everyone had said OK. Then the Warlock went right past me and dragged that group into the fight.
Needless to say, there were WTFs and "What happened?!" and "damned lock!" all around. I didn't have time to deal with a group like that - I was on a deadline as it was and had time for a quick dungeon. So I said, again, "I said, you pull it, you tank it. Congratulations - you've just lost your tank." and left party.
Now, I understand this could be seen as a bit harsh... and it was. But I was frustrated. And it wasn't until I found myself back in Orgrimmar that I laughed to myself and realized that I'd graduated into official Tank-hood. I'd left my first group out of frustration with a stupid DPSer.
I won't really have time to game again on Ionaria until after the Summer Fire Festival has been completed on Destylae - I need the rest of the achievements for What A Long Strange Trip, and the Violet Proto-Drake. But then I'll be going back to leveling her. It'll be nice to have an 85 Hordie as well as an 85 Ally. I do respect the situation the Trolls are going through, and as Troll and Tauren are the only Horde races I can stand to play, my DK is Tauren. Though I tried an interesting way of creating her, per my fiancee's suggestion.
I built her in the character creator as a druid, what she would've been before being reborn by the Lich King, and then hit the class change to DK. She ended up looking AWESOME. Her name is Koratana. She's still in the DK starting zone, though. I need to get some dedicated time on her so I can get her out of there and actually PLAY her. But I like her. And I like Ionaria. And I thank Ionaria for teaching me what she has, as thanks to her I've reorganized Kalitri's bear form action bar so that SHE can tank now, too.
I think that's it for gaming updates now. Expect a write up once the title of Flame Warden is mine!!
A Death Knight, as a bit of a bankroll for the server since I don't have several hundred gold to spend on ease of leveling my server main, and my new obsession - my Troll Druid, Ionaria. And it would seem with my faction cross, a new place, a new start, has given me the mental drive to do something I've never felt able to do before. Ionaria is a Feral Combat Druid, and therefore a Bear Tank. And thus that is what she's queuing, and has been from L15. She's L26 now, hasn't left Orgrimmar except for dailies that required me to head into Azshara after the eye of a stag, and a few minutes to get Joy Ride for riding the Goblin highway from one end to another. I've now tanked everything up through Blackfathom Deeps, I'm excited to say - without a single wipe that was my fault.
However, I'm finally starting to understand the frustration that's been expressed by Kata and Lona when they tank. In an early group, I got a Hunter who insisted on running in ahead of me and pulling stuff. After the fourth time, I said, "Only warning you get - you pull it, you tank it." Meaning, in short, if you choose to get ahead of me and attack something, then I am not going to come running in and take it off of you so you don't die. After that, the Hunter hung back like a good DPS player. We finished the dungeon quickly after that.
However, my last attempt to dungeon was aborted fairly quickly. I randomed into Gnomregan for the first time. I went forward, pulled the first couple of troggs. A warlock darted past me and set his voidwalker (VOIDWALKER?! In a DUNGEON?! Please, use your freaking IMP. We need the DPS!) to pull another group of three or four troggs. He lead them back to me and I tried to take the aggro, but while a Warrior or Paladin... or even a DK, might have been able to generate that much threat on that many targets fast enough, one of the perils of Bear Tanking is that the Bear (at this level) has ONE AOE aggro generator (Swipe), and one primary single target pull (growl). I have a macro that I use for pull that triggers (Auto Attack > Growl > Faerie Fire (Feral) ), and all of those have cool downs. I couldn't get the aggro fast enough.
I should mention now that, going INTO the dungeon, the first thing I said was, "OK, I have one rule - IF you pull it, you tank it. I'm still fairly new to Bear Taking, and I can't pull too fast at this level." Everyone had said OK. Then the Warlock went right past me and dragged that group into the fight.
Needless to say, there were WTFs and "What happened?!" and "damned lock!" all around. I didn't have time to deal with a group like that - I was on a deadline as it was and had time for a quick dungeon. So I said, again, "I said, you pull it, you tank it. Congratulations - you've just lost your tank." and left party.
Now, I understand this could be seen as a bit harsh... and it was. But I was frustrated. And it wasn't until I found myself back in Orgrimmar that I laughed to myself and realized that I'd graduated into official Tank-hood. I'd left my first group out of frustration with a stupid DPSer.
I won't really have time to game again on Ionaria until after the Summer Fire Festival has been completed on Destylae - I need the rest of the achievements for What A Long Strange Trip, and the Violet Proto-Drake. But then I'll be going back to leveling her. It'll be nice to have an 85 Hordie as well as an 85 Ally. I do respect the situation the Trolls are going through, and as Troll and Tauren are the only Horde races I can stand to play, my DK is Tauren. Though I tried an interesting way of creating her, per my fiancee's suggestion.
I built her in the character creator as a druid, what she would've been before being reborn by the Lich King, and then hit the class change to DK. She ended up looking AWESOME. Her name is Koratana. She's still in the DK starting zone, though. I need to get some dedicated time on her so I can get her out of there and actually PLAY her. But I like her. And I like Ionaria. And I thank Ionaria for teaching me what she has, as thanks to her I've reorganized Kalitri's bear form action bar so that SHE can tank now, too.
I think that's it for gaming updates now. Expect a write up once the title of Flame Warden is mine!!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
I LOVE Blizzard Entertainment!!!
I first started playing World Of Warcraft in 2009, during the month of November. I had no idea, about a week after I started playing, even what an Achievement was, when I logged in to suddenly be hit with one.
Long-time players know that it had been Blizzard's hobby to give out a unique companion pet on their "anniversary," or the game's anniversary, to be exact. On that day, World Of Warcraft turned 5, and the gift given to all players who logged in that day was the companion pet, the Onyxian Whelpling - a small, unique little dragon that occasionally takes in a deep breath and expels an adorable smoke ring, as well as the achievement "WoW's 5th Anniversary."
Well, I'd only been playing a little over a week. I got the achievement on my then Night Elf Druid, didn't think anything of it, thought the pet was cute... In fact, it was what gave me the pet collecting bug. But then I fell out of love with my druid and began moving around other classes. My Onyxian Whelpling forgotten, and the Account Bound item either in the bank, or deleted because I didn't know why it wouldn't go away. (I was a total n00b, in case you hadn't guessed.)
Well, fast forward nearly 2 years to the release of Cataclysm, when I decided to delete Kalitri and remake her as a Worgen. Not a single thought went to the unique pet that only she had... In fact, I hadn't played her in so long that I'd forgotten I had it.
I remade her as a worgen and was thrilled with her! I loved her so much that she momentarily took away from leveling my now main Hunter from 80 to 85. Which turned out to be good, as I wound up missing out on the mad rush into the new high-level zones and was able to do them in a much more relaxed manner later.
It wasn't until I calmed down, switched back to Destylae, leveled her to 85, and started working on mount collecting and reputations that I suddenly remembered the Whelpling, and it was because my fiancee's account still had one, and I saw her running around with it and wondered what had happened to mine.
Long story short, at her urging, I sent in a ticket. I explained the situation and how I'd remade the character that had the achievement and the pet, but that as it was an Account Bound item, I would really like it back, if possible, and thanked them.
Within a day, I received a response - as they couldn't find the achievement on any of my Galakrond characters, they couldn't restore the item. If they made a mistake and missed it, if I could point it out, they would be happy to replace the item.
Well, I thought, it was a good idea that just didn't work. I thanked them, and moved on.
Yesterday, the Winged Guardian mount was released in the Blizzard Store. I, of course, being a mount and pet collector, had to have it. So, thanks to my mommy, I got it. While I was in the process of hopping around characters and servers to pick it up, I took a long, hard look at my Hordies on Blackwater Raiders.
Garouna, my Orc Hunter, had been my first Horde character, but I liked my Tauren Hunter, Lakora, much better now. Should I just delete the Orc? I like her riding wolves, though... Oh well, I'll log in, pick up the mount, take a look at her, and see if something changes my mind.
And there it was, in her Companions tab - the Onyxian Whelpling.
I stared. I blinked. I stared again. There was no denying it - it was right there. She had the pet. She had the achievement. I MUST have logged in and gotten it on her and just didn't remember it.
It was a long shot that they'd accept the info from another server, but I quickly hopped back onto my Support account and reopened the ticket with this new information. It was probably a long shot and there was nothing I could do... But I had been given one last shot, and I was going to take it.
Tonight, I received the item, Onyxian Whelpling, in the mail on Destylae, with an "Item Recovery" mail from Blizzard. I nearly exploded. If it hadn't been nearly midnight, I probably would've shouted aloud and done a dance in real life. I learned it, squeed over it to my Guildies, then began the process of sending it from one character to the next and then back to Des after all my Galakrond characters had the pet.
They didn't have to do that for me - nothing was to gain by it other than something like this glowing review of Blizzard Customer Service. The item didn't even exist still on Garouna - I probably deleted it. But the Achievement was there. The Pet was there. And that was all they needed.
I used to think that if I worked for a big corporation, I'd want to work for Disney. But I think I may have changed my mind tonight. I'd like to work at Blizzard, and I'd like to be customer service... So that I can make people's days and nights when something like this happens, and make someone who did something stupid two years earlier as happy as they made me tonight.
So a special shout out and thank you directly to all the Blizzard CSR's who helped me with this issue: Rhaokirvarr, Atzelroni, and Methyrnn - you guys, and everyone else at Blizzard, absolutely ROCK. Thank you SO very much for your understanding and swift correction of one former n00b's horrible mistake.
And for the record? The item is now housed in the first slot of Des' bank, surrounded on 3 sides with the heart shaped badges you get during the Netherwing Rep Grind, to forever remind me how awesome Blizzard really is.
Long-time players know that it had been Blizzard's hobby to give out a unique companion pet on their "anniversary," or the game's anniversary, to be exact. On that day, World Of Warcraft turned 5, and the gift given to all players who logged in that day was the companion pet, the Onyxian Whelpling - a small, unique little dragon that occasionally takes in a deep breath and expels an adorable smoke ring, as well as the achievement "WoW's 5th Anniversary."
Well, I'd only been playing a little over a week. I got the achievement on my then Night Elf Druid, didn't think anything of it, thought the pet was cute... In fact, it was what gave me the pet collecting bug. But then I fell out of love with my druid and began moving around other classes. My Onyxian Whelpling forgotten, and the Account Bound item either in the bank, or deleted because I didn't know why it wouldn't go away. (I was a total n00b, in case you hadn't guessed.)
Well, fast forward nearly 2 years to the release of Cataclysm, when I decided to delete Kalitri and remake her as a Worgen. Not a single thought went to the unique pet that only she had... In fact, I hadn't played her in so long that I'd forgotten I had it.
I remade her as a worgen and was thrilled with her! I loved her so much that she momentarily took away from leveling my now main Hunter from 80 to 85. Which turned out to be good, as I wound up missing out on the mad rush into the new high-level zones and was able to do them in a much more relaxed manner later.
It wasn't until I calmed down, switched back to Destylae, leveled her to 85, and started working on mount collecting and reputations that I suddenly remembered the Whelpling, and it was because my fiancee's account still had one, and I saw her running around with it and wondered what had happened to mine.
Long story short, at her urging, I sent in a ticket. I explained the situation and how I'd remade the character that had the achievement and the pet, but that as it was an Account Bound item, I would really like it back, if possible, and thanked them.
Within a day, I received a response - as they couldn't find the achievement on any of my Galakrond characters, they couldn't restore the item. If they made a mistake and missed it, if I could point it out, they would be happy to replace the item.
Well, I thought, it was a good idea that just didn't work. I thanked them, and moved on.
Yesterday, the Winged Guardian mount was released in the Blizzard Store. I, of course, being a mount and pet collector, had to have it. So, thanks to my mommy, I got it. While I was in the process of hopping around characters and servers to pick it up, I took a long, hard look at my Hordies on Blackwater Raiders.
Garouna, my Orc Hunter, had been my first Horde character, but I liked my Tauren Hunter, Lakora, much better now. Should I just delete the Orc? I like her riding wolves, though... Oh well, I'll log in, pick up the mount, take a look at her, and see if something changes my mind.
And there it was, in her Companions tab - the Onyxian Whelpling.
I stared. I blinked. I stared again. There was no denying it - it was right there. She had the pet. She had the achievement. I MUST have logged in and gotten it on her and just didn't remember it.
It was a long shot that they'd accept the info from another server, but I quickly hopped back onto my Support account and reopened the ticket with this new information. It was probably a long shot and there was nothing I could do... But I had been given one last shot, and I was going to take it.
Tonight, I received the item, Onyxian Whelpling, in the mail on Destylae, with an "Item Recovery" mail from Blizzard. I nearly exploded. If it hadn't been nearly midnight, I probably would've shouted aloud and done a dance in real life. I learned it, squeed over it to my Guildies, then began the process of sending it from one character to the next and then back to Des after all my Galakrond characters had the pet.
They didn't have to do that for me - nothing was to gain by it other than something like this glowing review of Blizzard Customer Service. The item didn't even exist still on Garouna - I probably deleted it. But the Achievement was there. The Pet was there. And that was all they needed.
I used to think that if I worked for a big corporation, I'd want to work for Disney. But I think I may have changed my mind tonight. I'd like to work at Blizzard, and I'd like to be customer service... So that I can make people's days and nights when something like this happens, and make someone who did something stupid two years earlier as happy as they made me tonight.
So a special shout out and thank you directly to all the Blizzard CSR's who helped me with this issue: Rhaokirvarr, Atzelroni, and Methyrnn - you guys, and everyone else at Blizzard, absolutely ROCK. Thank you SO very much for your understanding and swift correction of one former n00b's horrible mistake.
And for the record? The item is now housed in the first slot of Des' bank, surrounded on 3 sides with the heart shaped badges you get during the Netherwing Rep Grind, to forever remind me how awesome Blizzard really is.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Destylae - Classic Dungeonmaster
Two nights ago, I was looking for something to do on WoW, and these days when I'm not rep grinding for mounts, that means going through the achievement list and seeing what else I can get. And it was then that I realized I had 3 dungeons left before I would get the Classic Dungeonmaster achievement. Dire Maul, Stratholme, and Sholomance. All level 40-60 dungeons.
So, last night, after some running around and discovering that the key I thought I needed to get into the parts of Dire Maul I hadn't been in previously had been removed from the game, along with heavy reliance upon maps and a couple of helpful text guides so I could find my way through the instance sections, and the "King Of Dire Maul" achievement was mine.
I was actually surprised how easy all 3 dungeons were. Within four hours of deciding to do this (and that's with a lot of getting lost - this is one of the reasons I don't tank... I can't ever remember the way through an instance until I've been through it a LOT), I had the Classic Dungeonmaster Achievement. Which, if you ask me, should come with a title. Because I did at least 60% of those dungeons solo, and THAT should also count for something.
But, then again, achievements wouldn't feel as special if you got them all the time for every little thing. So while some are easy and silly, others have to be difficult, and they can't give you achievements for every tiny thing. Which I understand. However, this has opened something new up for me. I've officially started farming for one of the rarest drops in the game - the Baron's undead steed at the end of Stratholme... Because most of the mobs don't even TOUCH me and I can practically walk right through them. So getting to the Baron and farming him a few times a day for his mount won't be difficult at all.
So, another long set of achievements down. I wonder if I can solo classic Raids... I'll have to look into that, next.
So, last night, after some running around and discovering that the key I thought I needed to get into the parts of Dire Maul I hadn't been in previously had been removed from the game, along with heavy reliance upon maps and a couple of helpful text guides so I could find my way through the instance sections, and the "King Of Dire Maul" achievement was mine.
I was actually surprised how easy all 3 dungeons were. Within four hours of deciding to do this (and that's with a lot of getting lost - this is one of the reasons I don't tank... I can't ever remember the way through an instance until I've been through it a LOT), I had the Classic Dungeonmaster Achievement. Which, if you ask me, should come with a title. Because I did at least 60% of those dungeons solo, and THAT should also count for something.
But, then again, achievements wouldn't feel as special if you got them all the time for every little thing. So while some are easy and silly, others have to be difficult, and they can't give you achievements for every tiny thing. Which I understand. However, this has opened something new up for me. I've officially started farming for one of the rarest drops in the game - the Baron's undead steed at the end of Stratholme... Because most of the mobs don't even TOUCH me and I can practically walk right through them. So getting to the Baron and farming him a few times a day for his mount won't be difficult at all.
So, another long set of achievements down. I wonder if I can solo classic Raids... I'll have to look into that, next.
Monday, May 16, 2011
On Wings Of Nether
Two weeks of daily grinding down, and today Destylae reached Exalted with the Netherwing faction!! Six Drakes came home to join my team toward the "Mountain O' Mounts" achievement. Also, Aliandara (my shape-shifting white Talbuk) gained the new form of Azure Netherwing Drake, on top of her other two flight forms of Armored Snowy Gryphon and Albino Drake. I tested all the other colors - but while the Onyx is my favorite, Azure fit Alli better, so as long as she's my mount, that'll be one of the possibilities when I call for her in flight form.
I should really write down the bits of her story that I know so clearly. :P I need to stop thinking that I have to write Draenai as a linear novel and just write the bits I know. I can always combine it later.
Anyway, that's another Exalted status to add to my collection of those as well. :P My current projects are now Therazane and Baradin Wardens. I'm also going to start the Sha'tari Skyguard quest chain, too - both in preparation for the Fa La La La La La Ogri'La achievement this Winter Veil, and to work toward the Nether Ray mount set as well. It should take a little over a month of those dailies, and any grinding I want to/have the patience to do in my free time.
I REALLY need to get to bed. I have a presentation in class in the morning, and a test tomorrow night... A FINAL. No more game thoughts for now! Night, all!
I should really write down the bits of her story that I know so clearly. :P I need to stop thinking that I have to write Draenai as a linear novel and just write the bits I know. I can always combine it later.
Anyway, that's another Exalted status to add to my collection of those as well. :P My current projects are now Therazane and Baradin Wardens. I'm also going to start the Sha'tari Skyguard quest chain, too - both in preparation for the Fa La La La La La Ogri'La achievement this Winter Veil, and to work toward the Nether Ray mount set as well. It should take a little over a month of those dailies, and any grinding I want to/have the patience to do in my free time.
I REALLY need to get to bed. I have a presentation in class in the morning, and a test tomorrow night... A FINAL. No more game thoughts for now! Night, all!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Retro Gaming - Returning To Your Roots
I don't even remember what year it was that my parents got me a Sega Genesis and The Lion King for my birthday. My guess is 1995, since that would be about a year after the movie came out, and since I know they got the whole shebang at Funcoland (a forerunner of Game Stop), that makes sense. It was a huge deal, at the time - my first game system. I'd played Sega Genesis in Target on their demo machines (Sonic 2 & Sonic and Knuckles), and at Funcoland itself, also on a demo machine, where I'd fallen in love with The Lion King.
Getting the game and the SG for my birthday was a huge deal, and a source of issues in months to come when I perceived a mistake in the game where there wasn't one and wound up spending money on calls to the game hotline as well as getting a replacement game only to have the same issue happen... Only to realize that what I thought was broken was an intentional puzzle on the part of the game manufacturers, and something that taught me ultimately that you do not leave ANYTHING you can interact with in a game un-interacted with. (The stalactites at the end of the 8th level, for those who are wondering - you're supposed to knock them down to blow a hole in the floor, and then continue on the level back in the opposite direction... but if you don't KNOW that, it looks like a dead end - and who would've thought to randomly smack at rocks on the ceiling?)
Many other games followed while I had that SG. Other favorites were Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition, and Ecco The Dolphin and it's sequel, The Tides Of Time, and, of course, the iconic Sega legend, Sonic The Hedgehog and all of his related games up through Sonic 3D (which gave me headaches, honestly, so I never beat it).
My mother enjoyed watching me play, and we bonded regularly over my video games. From that point on, I was hooked. I upgraded to a Playstation (PS1) within the next few years, and eventually to a PS2, which I still have to this day.
The point of this post, however, is emulation. As it is legal to own ROMs of games you actually own, I've made a point to keep my old Sega cartridges. Why, you may ask?
Well, because sometimes, like last night, I feel like returning to my gaming roots... And I'll take an hour or so to play through Sega Genesis' The Lion King, from beginning to end. And, retro or not... it's just as fun now as it was seventeen years ago.
Getting the game and the SG for my birthday was a huge deal, and a source of issues in months to come when I perceived a mistake in the game where there wasn't one and wound up spending money on calls to the game hotline as well as getting a replacement game only to have the same issue happen... Only to realize that what I thought was broken was an intentional puzzle on the part of the game manufacturers, and something that taught me ultimately that you do not leave ANYTHING you can interact with in a game un-interacted with. (The stalactites at the end of the 8th level, for those who are wondering - you're supposed to knock them down to blow a hole in the floor, and then continue on the level back in the opposite direction... but if you don't KNOW that, it looks like a dead end - and who would've thought to randomly smack at rocks on the ceiling?)
Many other games followed while I had that SG. Other favorites were Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition, and Ecco The Dolphin and it's sequel, The Tides Of Time, and, of course, the iconic Sega legend, Sonic The Hedgehog and all of his related games up through Sonic 3D (which gave me headaches, honestly, so I never beat it).
My mother enjoyed watching me play, and we bonded regularly over my video games. From that point on, I was hooked. I upgraded to a Playstation (PS1) within the next few years, and eventually to a PS2, which I still have to this day.
The point of this post, however, is emulation. As it is legal to own ROMs of games you actually own, I've made a point to keep my old Sega cartridges. Why, you may ask?
Well, because sometimes, like last night, I feel like returning to my gaming roots... And I'll take an hour or so to play through Sega Genesis' The Lion King, from beginning to end. And, retro or not... it's just as fun now as it was seventeen years ago.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Matron Destylae + Netherwing Reputation Grinding...
So there I was, the last day of Children's Week, with the Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley goals still unmet for School Of Hard Knocks, but every other achievement for the Children's Week meta complete. I was having a horrible time with PVP, though I DID manage to grind my honor points up to the point that I was able to buy the Black War Ram. And get almost halfway to the Black War Tiger, too.
Anyway, PVP was evil. Very evil. Kicking my little Draenai tail evil. It being the last day, EVERYONE was trying to get this achievement. I queued for Alterac without much hope (the fourth time that day, but as it was the easier of the 2 goals, I was trying to do it first.
I shot out of the gate at the beginning, mounted, and ripped down the valley with the pack of players, at least half of which were being followed by orphans, Human, Draenai, or Wolvar. I had my Wolvar orphan with me for the sole reason that he was small enough that he might not get noticed - OR he might get mistaken for the Wolvar pet from completing the quests. So Hordies (who I'd learned were specifically targeting people with orphans) might miss him and therefore NOT target me. I was old hat at this sequence, but had decided to try something new this time. I took off away from the pack of Ally players and tore my own path down to the far end of the Horde field. I climbed one of their towers, killed their NPCs and entered the flag room with my orphan out for all to see.
There was a large, imposing bull Tauren standing in front of their flag. A player. I stopped, just inside the door, and I imagine I might have had the air of "oh, just kill me and get it over with" about me. To my surprise, he didn't do anything. Then he /poke-ed me. Then he /point-ed at my orphan. It didn't take me long to realize what he was offering... He was giving me their flag so I could get the objective done.
I captured the flag, stepped back - fully expecting him to gank me now that I was done. But he just calmly took the flag back,and /wave-ed at me. I was so excited that I /hug-ed him, and then left the tower and headed back for the pack of Ally players. There was still a battleground to complete, after all!
Alliance lost that BG, but I didn't care. That was one more objective down, thanks to that friendly Tauren. I proceeded to queue for Warsong Gulch, now more determined than ever to complete the achievement and the meta.
Warsong is arguably the hardest of these four achievements, as while the other three just involve grabbing flags or towers, Warsong specifically requires you to allow your flag to get taken, chase the attacker down and kill them, and be the first to click on the flag when he drops it upon death, reclaiming it for your faction.
After several attempts over the week to do this in the battleground at large, I realized that this one would require actual strategy. So, with my Orphan out, I didn't run out of the flag room with most of the rest of the pack of Alliance. It was me and a couple of other players, both with their orphans out as well. I camouflaged myself and hid near the main entrance to the flag room, then proceeded to lay ice and snake traps directly underneath the flag. The first enemy player to get near it would be slowed and poisoned, almost instantly.
Soon enough, a Tauren druid came darting in and went straight for the flag. The blue sparkles of the flag itself hid the ice trap well, and I imagine he might not have even known what hit him when he was suddenly slowed violently, and then set upon by ten snakes, all poisonous. He grabbed the flag and was immediately attacked by me, my pet, a paladin, and a warlock and his pet. He shifted to swift running form and managed to get away from us enough to get out of the room. Hatari's dash meant he was the only one of all of us who could keep up with the swift-running Druid... and he got too far away from me before I could get closer. Hatari despawned, and we lost the flag.
However, it DID cement in my mind that the strategy of hiding in the flag room and trapping the flag actually worked quite well. So I kept repeating it in each successive battleground. Finally, on my fourth try of the day, I managed to be on top of the flag stealer when he was killed, and, with my orphan out, I was the first to click on the flag. And there it was! The School Of Hard Knocks achievement, as well as For The Children and it's associated title, Matron! I think I squeed aloud. I don't remember.
But then I thought about the Tauren who'd helped me in the other battleground. Alliance was already losing this instance, so I spoke to the group at large and asked if anyone would mind if I returned the favor to the hordies. To my surprise, no one argued, as long as I only gave up the one flag. So I went running for the Horde base. Twice I was killed on my way in, but I kept going. I put on my new title and desummoned my Orphan to make it clear I wasn't competition.
I made it into the horde flag room... and was promptly killed. But I DID see a Troll Druid with his Orc orphan in the room. I returned. After 2 more attempts, I took the flag. Three of the hordies in the room ran for the door intending to intercept me, I think... but I didn't move. I stood there, next to the flag, and /point-ed at the Troll Druid and his Orphan. His bear form stared at me for a moment... then attacked. I'm assuming he got the idea.
What made me happiest was that it was obviously the last thing HE had for the achievements, too... because when I died and he grabbed the flag, I saw the general chat announcement that he had gotten both School Of Hard Knocks, AND For The Children, just as I had. And, to make it complete, he /salute-ed my body in thanks.
I was content, my purpose served, my achievements won, and the kindness paid forward back to the Horde side. I hope that Druid will remember the Draenai who sacrificed herself so he could have his Patron title. The battleground ended shortly after that, but I didn't care. One more step finished on the path to What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been!
The way I'm going, assuming I don't fail any of the Holiday metas for the rest of the year, next year during the Love Is In The Air festival, I should get the Purple Proto-Drake. :)
My in-between holiday project is reputation grinding for mounts, to take me closer to another coveted mount - the Blue Dragonhawk for the Mountain O'Mounts achievement. I decided to start with the Netherwing faction two days ago, and already I'm having a lot of fun spending part of every day pretending to be an Orc.
I also haven't even ENTERED Uldum yet. I plan on getting my Netherwing Drakes, picking a favorite, and having that be my mount around Uldum. You don't see them that often anymore. Another mount I'm trying for when I have time just to kind of sit around in Storm Peaks and let the NPC Scan add-on do it's thing, is the Time Lost Proto Drake. I lose inspiration for haunting for that particular mount quickly... Also known as getting bored. :P But I will get it eventually, I know I will. It's just a seriously rare spawn, so hunting for it is literally hit or miss. So far, I haven't even seen it DEAD. But I hold out hope, and my positive has already proven to effect the game, so that's part of this as well.
In the mean time, another holiday meta down, and more mounts on the way... I'd say my WoW career is just beginning.
Anyway, PVP was evil. Very evil. Kicking my little Draenai tail evil. It being the last day, EVERYONE was trying to get this achievement. I queued for Alterac without much hope (the fourth time that day, but as it was the easier of the 2 goals, I was trying to do it first.
I shot out of the gate at the beginning, mounted, and ripped down the valley with the pack of players, at least half of which were being followed by orphans, Human, Draenai, or Wolvar. I had my Wolvar orphan with me for the sole reason that he was small enough that he might not get noticed - OR he might get mistaken for the Wolvar pet from completing the quests. So Hordies (who I'd learned were specifically targeting people with orphans) might miss him and therefore NOT target me. I was old hat at this sequence, but had decided to try something new this time. I took off away from the pack of Ally players and tore my own path down to the far end of the Horde field. I climbed one of their towers, killed their NPCs and entered the flag room with my orphan out for all to see.
There was a large, imposing bull Tauren standing in front of their flag. A player. I stopped, just inside the door, and I imagine I might have had the air of "oh, just kill me and get it over with" about me. To my surprise, he didn't do anything. Then he /poke-ed me. Then he /point-ed at my orphan. It didn't take me long to realize what he was offering... He was giving me their flag so I could get the objective done.
I captured the flag, stepped back - fully expecting him to gank me now that I was done. But he just calmly took the flag back,and /wave-ed at me. I was so excited that I /hug-ed him, and then left the tower and headed back for the pack of Ally players. There was still a battleground to complete, after all!
Alliance lost that BG, but I didn't care. That was one more objective down, thanks to that friendly Tauren. I proceeded to queue for Warsong Gulch, now more determined than ever to complete the achievement and the meta.
Warsong is arguably the hardest of these four achievements, as while the other three just involve grabbing flags or towers, Warsong specifically requires you to allow your flag to get taken, chase the attacker down and kill them, and be the first to click on the flag when he drops it upon death, reclaiming it for your faction.
After several attempts over the week to do this in the battleground at large, I realized that this one would require actual strategy. So, with my Orphan out, I didn't run out of the flag room with most of the rest of the pack of Alliance. It was me and a couple of other players, both with their orphans out as well. I camouflaged myself and hid near the main entrance to the flag room, then proceeded to lay ice and snake traps directly underneath the flag. The first enemy player to get near it would be slowed and poisoned, almost instantly.
Soon enough, a Tauren druid came darting in and went straight for the flag. The blue sparkles of the flag itself hid the ice trap well, and I imagine he might not have even known what hit him when he was suddenly slowed violently, and then set upon by ten snakes, all poisonous. He grabbed the flag and was immediately attacked by me, my pet, a paladin, and a warlock and his pet. He shifted to swift running form and managed to get away from us enough to get out of the room. Hatari's dash meant he was the only one of all of us who could keep up with the swift-running Druid... and he got too far away from me before I could get closer. Hatari despawned, and we lost the flag.
However, it DID cement in my mind that the strategy of hiding in the flag room and trapping the flag actually worked quite well. So I kept repeating it in each successive battleground. Finally, on my fourth try of the day, I managed to be on top of the flag stealer when he was killed, and, with my orphan out, I was the first to click on the flag. And there it was! The School Of Hard Knocks achievement, as well as For The Children and it's associated title, Matron! I think I squeed aloud. I don't remember.
But then I thought about the Tauren who'd helped me in the other battleground. Alliance was already losing this instance, so I spoke to the group at large and asked if anyone would mind if I returned the favor to the hordies. To my surprise, no one argued, as long as I only gave up the one flag. So I went running for the Horde base. Twice I was killed on my way in, but I kept going. I put on my new title and desummoned my Orphan to make it clear I wasn't competition.
I made it into the horde flag room... and was promptly killed. But I DID see a Troll Druid with his Orc orphan in the room. I returned. After 2 more attempts, I took the flag. Three of the hordies in the room ran for the door intending to intercept me, I think... but I didn't move. I stood there, next to the flag, and /point-ed at the Troll Druid and his Orphan. His bear form stared at me for a moment... then attacked. I'm assuming he got the idea.
What made me happiest was that it was obviously the last thing HE had for the achievements, too... because when I died and he grabbed the flag, I saw the general chat announcement that he had gotten both School Of Hard Knocks, AND For The Children, just as I had. And, to make it complete, he /salute-ed my body in thanks.
I was content, my purpose served, my achievements won, and the kindness paid forward back to the Horde side. I hope that Druid will remember the Draenai who sacrificed herself so he could have his Patron title. The battleground ended shortly after that, but I didn't care. One more step finished on the path to What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been!
The way I'm going, assuming I don't fail any of the Holiday metas for the rest of the year, next year during the Love Is In The Air festival, I should get the Purple Proto-Drake. :)
My in-between holiday project is reputation grinding for mounts, to take me closer to another coveted mount - the Blue Dragonhawk for the Mountain O'Mounts achievement. I decided to start with the Netherwing faction two days ago, and already I'm having a lot of fun spending part of every day pretending to be an Orc.
I also haven't even ENTERED Uldum yet. I plan on getting my Netherwing Drakes, picking a favorite, and having that be my mount around Uldum. You don't see them that often anymore. Another mount I'm trying for when I have time just to kind of sit around in Storm Peaks and let the NPC Scan add-on do it's thing, is the Time Lost Proto Drake. I lose inspiration for haunting for that particular mount quickly... Also known as getting bored. :P But I will get it eventually, I know I will. It's just a seriously rare spawn, so hunting for it is literally hit or miss. So far, I haven't even seen it DEAD. But I hold out hope, and my positive has already proven to effect the game, so that's part of this as well.
In the mean time, another holiday meta down, and more mounts on the way... I'd say my WoW career is just beginning.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Epic Moment...
My brother-by-love, Kata, has a level 85 Worgen Death Knight. As a tanking, Hero Class, he's incredibly powerful and VERY good at what he does.
Tonight, my Hatari and I beat him in a one-on-one duel.
I don't usually PVP, as I've mentioned repeatedly, but Lona had never healed on her Pally before, and we were about to do a 4 man run of Utegarde Pinnacle in order to get the Children's Week achievement Hail To The King, Baby!, in which you must beat the last boss of that dungeon, with your Orphan out with you. (As of completing that, I only have ONE more achievement to complete... the ever-annoying School Of Hard Knocks, and I only have 2 more PVP objectives to complete ON that achievement before I'm done. I'll get it in the next 2 days for sure.)
Anyway, Lona wanted to test her healing, so Kata and I agreed to duel, with her healing him. Only we didn't quite take into account just how much damage I, as a high end Beast Mastery Hunter with a powerful Ferocity pet at my side, can actually DO when I throw everything I have at one target.
I did a lot of moving around, and didn't even DO most of the damage, though I know for a fact that it was my Kill Shot that won the round- most of the damage he took came from Hatari, well-timed Kill Commands, his Hamstring ability, and a few well aimed shots from me. THe point being - with a Pally focused on healing HIM... I won the duel.
I was... shocked. I went running around to see why Hatari was back at my side again.. and I saw Furfur (Kata's Worgen DK), sitting down to eat and heal. Kata is the best gamer in the house... Probably the best gamer I've ever MET. He beat Portal 2 in a little under a day, and I was amazed. He was the first of us to cap, and it was before Cataclysm came out. He once earned 10,000 gold in less than 2 days, because he wanted his flying speed maxed and he wanted it NOW.
SO the fact that me, a fairly unexperienced gamer, could actually BEAT him... I don't even know what to think. Other than that, once again, I am VERY happy with Hatari.
My very, very best friend in WoW world, Hatari the Hyena, I love him. :P
Tonight, my Hatari and I beat him in a one-on-one duel.
I don't usually PVP, as I've mentioned repeatedly, but Lona had never healed on her Pally before, and we were about to do a 4 man run of Utegarde Pinnacle in order to get the Children's Week achievement Hail To The King, Baby!, in which you must beat the last boss of that dungeon, with your Orphan out with you. (As of completing that, I only have ONE more achievement to complete... the ever-annoying School Of Hard Knocks, and I only have 2 more PVP objectives to complete ON that achievement before I'm done. I'll get it in the next 2 days for sure.)
Anyway, Lona wanted to test her healing, so Kata and I agreed to duel, with her healing him. Only we didn't quite take into account just how much damage I, as a high end Beast Mastery Hunter with a powerful Ferocity pet at my side, can actually DO when I throw everything I have at one target.
I did a lot of moving around, and didn't even DO most of the damage, though I know for a fact that it was my Kill Shot that won the round- most of the damage he took came from Hatari, well-timed Kill Commands, his Hamstring ability, and a few well aimed shots from me. THe point being - with a Pally focused on healing HIM... I won the duel.
I was... shocked. I went running around to see why Hatari was back at my side again.. and I saw Furfur (Kata's Worgen DK), sitting down to eat and heal. Kata is the best gamer in the house... Probably the best gamer I've ever MET. He beat Portal 2 in a little under a day, and I was amazed. He was the first of us to cap, and it was before Cataclysm came out. He once earned 10,000 gold in less than 2 days, because he wanted his flying speed maxed and he wanted it NOW.
SO the fact that me, a fairly unexperienced gamer, could actually BEAT him... I don't even know what to think. Other than that, once again, I am VERY happy with Hatari.
My very, very best friend in WoW world, Hatari the Hyena, I love him. :P
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
PVP Perils
Right from one achievement string to another! I'm in the middle of another WoW holiday achievement string - this one is for Children's Week, and a title I don't particularly want: "Matron". But it's a necessary trip on the road to the "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been" achievement which rewards the Violet Proto-Drake mount. Yes, I'm doing all of these, not just for the TITLES... but for the mount. Another drake to add to my collection of mounts.
Anyway, the achievements for Children's Week involve taking little orphans (who manifest as non-combat pets) around to different places and letting them see different things, then doing other things with them. The most evil of the achievements is The School Of Hard Knocks.
This involves you running some PVP battlegrounds with your orphan out, and accomplishing specific goals. The only issue is... I don't PVP. Not normally, anyway.
However, my first battleground, Eye Of The Storm, went REALLY well. I got the objective I needed, and then proceeded to not only help the Alliance win the battleground, but I got an insane number of compliments on the amount of damage my hyena did. No one had ever seen a Ferocity pet do that before - mostly Hunters bring pets from the Cunning family tree in to Battlegrounds - I brought a Ferocity... and he lived up to the family name.
I came off of that feeling off really good, and promptly queued for Arathi Basin, figuring I'd just rip through the other three just as easily. I was wrong. 0.o Had some issues, and one of them was a glitch, even.
However, I kept trying, and eventually got SOMETHING to work properly. I got 2 of the 4 battlegrounds out of the way last night. And here I go to attempt the other two again. Then a quick Guild Run of Utgarde Pinnacle, and another title will be mine. Then it's on to the Midsummer Fire Festival in a few weeks!
Ah... I think I see why the achievement's called "What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been...". :P
Anyway, the achievements for Children's Week involve taking little orphans (who manifest as non-combat pets) around to different places and letting them see different things, then doing other things with them. The most evil of the achievements is The School Of Hard Knocks.
This involves you running some PVP battlegrounds with your orphan out, and accomplishing specific goals. The only issue is... I don't PVP. Not normally, anyway.
However, my first battleground, Eye Of The Storm, went REALLY well. I got the objective I needed, and then proceeded to not only help the Alliance win the battleground, but I got an insane number of compliments on the amount of damage my hyena did. No one had ever seen a Ferocity pet do that before - mostly Hunters bring pets from the Cunning family tree in to Battlegrounds - I brought a Ferocity... and he lived up to the family name.
I came off of that feeling off really good, and promptly queued for Arathi Basin, figuring I'd just rip through the other three just as easily. I was wrong. 0.o Had some issues, and one of them was a glitch, even.
However, I kept trying, and eventually got SOMETHING to work properly. I got 2 of the 4 battlegrounds out of the way last night. And here I go to attempt the other two again. Then a quick Guild Run of Utgarde Pinnacle, and another title will be mine. Then it's on to the Midsummer Fire Festival in a few weeks!
Ah... I think I see why the achievement's called "What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been...". :P
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Destylae the Noble!!
Bit of an update to a previous post, but last night I finally got the Noblegardner Acheivement last night! However, it involved some very fancy footwork and learning the limits of the Guards at the main Horde City, Ogrimmar.
As I mentioned in my post on Dalaran, I had luck finding a Blood Elf and an Undead there, but for the achievement (the very last one that I had left in the series, too - EVERYTHING ELSE was easier), I also needed an Orc, a Tauren, and a Troll. All females. All over level 18.
Dal was coming up short, obviously, so I decided to try checking out the Horde secondary cities, Brill and Razor Hill, hoping that perhaps there would be appropriate Hordies looking for eggs for their own achievements. I flew from Stormwind to Brill (not very long with Master Flying, and faster than any auto-gryphon could get there), and quickly realized that it was worse than Dalaran as far as finding level appropriate Hordies. Especially the ones I needed.
So my next stop was going to be Razor Hill - which is, of course, on the other continent. I groaned inwardly at the thought of winging all the way back to Stormwind, just to boat to Rut'theran and have another incredibly long flight to Durotar. Then, just as the Horde guards spotted me and shot at me a little, causing me to fly up and turn around, I spotted the solution to my problem - IF I could pull it off.
You see, I was hovering over Brill. Which is right next to Undercity. But something even more important was between the two cities. That would be the Horde Zeppelin station.
Now, I've played Horde before, so I was familiar with the routes. However, I'd never attempted to ride a Horde Zeppelin, while playing an Alliance character. So I circled a bit until the Durotar Zeppelin came in to dock, sized it up, and decided to land right on top of the blimp balloon. I figured, if I got attacked by the bruisers or the crew, that would be the easiest place for me to escape straight up from. However... no aggro warnings flashed. I didn't get marked as PVP... and the blimp shortly began to move.
I was congratulating myself for an awesome idea as the screen changed and I entered Durotar. Then I realized I hadn't taken something into account.
Pre-Cataclysm, which was the last time I played Horde, the Zeppelins dropped you off outside of Ogrimmar, to one side or the other. Well out of Auto-PVP range.
Well, apparently, SINCE the Cataclysm... the Zeppelins have been moved into the exact center of the city. I freaked out and took off straight up. I was marked PVP, because I was in the HEART Of Ogrimmar, so of course I was PVP... And I hate PVP. Players gang up and beat the crap out of me. Guards I can outrun. Players? Nope.
However... nothing attacked me.
The Zeppelin station is already very high, and the flights of winged guards don't pass close enough to aggro me - and apparently most Hordies fly below the Zeppelin level when they fly on their own mounts. No one saw me.
My first thought, after I did a little mental dance for not being dead, was that hey! I was in the middle of Ogrimmar. Maybe I could spot a pool of water deep enough to fish in, from the air, and figure out a safe approach to it, and get the Fishing Diplomat achievement. I pulled that off with... incredible ease compared to how annoying it would've been pre-ability to fly. (Not that I attempted it.. four times... over the course of leveling up... or anything...)
Then I took to the air again, swooped out of Ogrimmar, headed over to Razor Hill... And only managed to knock "female Tauren" off my list. That left me with an Orc and a Troll still needed, and me with very little patience.
Around this time I struck up a conversation with someone in whispers who was likewise haunting Razor Hill. Together, we decided to go see how close we could get to the Ogrimmar gates without getting marked PVP, and therefore be able to just sit out there and wait until we saw what we needed to complete the achievement. Since Horde and Alliance are similar in many ways - one of them being that the players like to do their dueling outside the gates of their main city. So we flew there.
Over the course of the next few hours, I got aggroed by guards, marked PVP once and flattened by the very Hordies we were observing, but overall it was fairly uneventful. I found a female Troll, but I got incredibly bored after awhile and decided to see if I could fly back INTO Ogrimmar and land on the blimp, to plan and see if I could get out the same way I came in.
It was easier than I thought it would be. So I wound up landing on a VERY HIGH outcropping of rock - higher than the blimp dock - and watching the goings on below. Also, much like Stormwind, the area between the Bank and Auction House seemed to be fairly busy. So I started hovering over players and clicking on every one that the tooltip identified as Orc, looking for a female. Now, as I was in the city, I was marked PVP. So I knew that if I was to pull this off and get out with my life, I'd have to do it carefully.
I mounted my Albino Drake - a big mount that blocks your immediate view of who might be riding it, and that is also faction neutral, as it's given by an achievement that both Horde and Alliance can complete. I put out my Horde Windrider noncombat pet, and dismissed Hatari so I wouldn't have to worry about him running off and attacking some random Hordling if I DID get knocked off my mount, which was a possibility.
Then, I saw one - a female orc. I selected them so I'd be able to see my target, and dove off the rock spire I'd been sitting on. I already knew from previous encounters that the item I needed to use for the achievement could be used while mounted, but this would still take PERFECT timing.
I swooped down into a whole group of Horde, skimming right over their heads, and the moment my button turned white, I clicked it. The achievement, the title, and the final achievement all snapped on at once, even as I was pulling up hard. I saw general chat - the crowd was yelling, and I was hit by an arrow and what I think was a fireball... but then I was too high. No one chased me... I went as high as I could and waited. I guess the random Draenai swooping down out of nowhere and essentially throwing a pair of bunny ears onto someone's head was strange enough that they were all kind of caught off guard. Anyway, I put on my shiny new title, and slowly swooped down when I saw the Trisfal Glades zeppelin come in for docking, and landed on top of it, dismounting from my drake and remounting my Armored Snowy Gryphon in the process so I'd be a smaller target, but no one seemed to see me, and within a few minutes I was back at the dock in Brill, where I'd started.
Wearing my shiny new title, I winged my way back to Stormwind and logged off for the night. It was exhausting, but SO very worth it. And now I'm one step closer to the Violet Proto-Drake mount as well!
And, so, now Galakrond server welcomes it's newest titled lady, Destylae the Noble!
As I mentioned in my post on Dalaran, I had luck finding a Blood Elf and an Undead there, but for the achievement (the very last one that I had left in the series, too - EVERYTHING ELSE was easier), I also needed an Orc, a Tauren, and a Troll. All females. All over level 18.
Dal was coming up short, obviously, so I decided to try checking out the Horde secondary cities, Brill and Razor Hill, hoping that perhaps there would be appropriate Hordies looking for eggs for their own achievements. I flew from Stormwind to Brill (not very long with Master Flying, and faster than any auto-gryphon could get there), and quickly realized that it was worse than Dalaran as far as finding level appropriate Hordies. Especially the ones I needed.
So my next stop was going to be Razor Hill - which is, of course, on the other continent. I groaned inwardly at the thought of winging all the way back to Stormwind, just to boat to Rut'theran and have another incredibly long flight to Durotar. Then, just as the Horde guards spotted me and shot at me a little, causing me to fly up and turn around, I spotted the solution to my problem - IF I could pull it off.
You see, I was hovering over Brill. Which is right next to Undercity. But something even more important was between the two cities. That would be the Horde Zeppelin station.
Now, I've played Horde before, so I was familiar with the routes. However, I'd never attempted to ride a Horde Zeppelin, while playing an Alliance character. So I circled a bit until the Durotar Zeppelin came in to dock, sized it up, and decided to land right on top of the blimp balloon. I figured, if I got attacked by the bruisers or the crew, that would be the easiest place for me to escape straight up from. However... no aggro warnings flashed. I didn't get marked as PVP... and the blimp shortly began to move.
I was congratulating myself for an awesome idea as the screen changed and I entered Durotar. Then I realized I hadn't taken something into account.
Pre-Cataclysm, which was the last time I played Horde, the Zeppelins dropped you off outside of Ogrimmar, to one side or the other. Well out of Auto-PVP range.
Well, apparently, SINCE the Cataclysm... the Zeppelins have been moved into the exact center of the city. I freaked out and took off straight up. I was marked PVP, because I was in the HEART Of Ogrimmar, so of course I was PVP... And I hate PVP. Players gang up and beat the crap out of me. Guards I can outrun. Players? Nope.
However... nothing attacked me.
The Zeppelin station is already very high, and the flights of winged guards don't pass close enough to aggro me - and apparently most Hordies fly below the Zeppelin level when they fly on their own mounts. No one saw me.
My first thought, after I did a little mental dance for not being dead, was that hey! I was in the middle of Ogrimmar. Maybe I could spot a pool of water deep enough to fish in, from the air, and figure out a safe approach to it, and get the Fishing Diplomat achievement. I pulled that off with... incredible ease compared to how annoying it would've been pre-ability to fly. (Not that I attempted it.. four times... over the course of leveling up... or anything...)
Then I took to the air again, swooped out of Ogrimmar, headed over to Razor Hill... And only managed to knock "female Tauren" off my list. That left me with an Orc and a Troll still needed, and me with very little patience.
Around this time I struck up a conversation with someone in whispers who was likewise haunting Razor Hill. Together, we decided to go see how close we could get to the Ogrimmar gates without getting marked PVP, and therefore be able to just sit out there and wait until we saw what we needed to complete the achievement. Since Horde and Alliance are similar in many ways - one of them being that the players like to do their dueling outside the gates of their main city. So we flew there.
Over the course of the next few hours, I got aggroed by guards, marked PVP once and flattened by the very Hordies we were observing, but overall it was fairly uneventful. I found a female Troll, but I got incredibly bored after awhile and decided to see if I could fly back INTO Ogrimmar and land on the blimp, to plan and see if I could get out the same way I came in.
It was easier than I thought it would be. So I wound up landing on a VERY HIGH outcropping of rock - higher than the blimp dock - and watching the goings on below. Also, much like Stormwind, the area between the Bank and Auction House seemed to be fairly busy. So I started hovering over players and clicking on every one that the tooltip identified as Orc, looking for a female. Now, as I was in the city, I was marked PVP. So I knew that if I was to pull this off and get out with my life, I'd have to do it carefully.
I mounted my Albino Drake - a big mount that blocks your immediate view of who might be riding it, and that is also faction neutral, as it's given by an achievement that both Horde and Alliance can complete. I put out my Horde Windrider noncombat pet, and dismissed Hatari so I wouldn't have to worry about him running off and attacking some random Hordling if I DID get knocked off my mount, which was a possibility.
Then, I saw one - a female orc. I selected them so I'd be able to see my target, and dove off the rock spire I'd been sitting on. I already knew from previous encounters that the item I needed to use for the achievement could be used while mounted, but this would still take PERFECT timing.
I swooped down into a whole group of Horde, skimming right over their heads, and the moment my button turned white, I clicked it. The achievement, the title, and the final achievement all snapped on at once, even as I was pulling up hard. I saw general chat - the crowd was yelling, and I was hit by an arrow and what I think was a fireball... but then I was too high. No one chased me... I went as high as I could and waited. I guess the random Draenai swooping down out of nowhere and essentially throwing a pair of bunny ears onto someone's head was strange enough that they were all kind of caught off guard. Anyway, I put on my shiny new title, and slowly swooped down when I saw the Trisfal Glades zeppelin come in for docking, and landed on top of it, dismounting from my drake and remounting my Armored Snowy Gryphon in the process so I'd be a smaller target, but no one seemed to see me, and within a few minutes I was back at the dock in Brill, where I'd started.
Wearing my shiny new title, I winged my way back to Stormwind and logged off for the night. It was exhausting, but SO very worth it. And now I'm one step closer to the Violet Proto-Drake mount as well!
And, so, now Galakrond server welcomes it's newest titled lady, Destylae the Noble!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Dalaran: City Of Emptiness...
Destylae is working her way toward the "the Noble" title, for this year's Noblegarden. We have completed every achievement save one - "Shake Your Bunny-Maker." The object of this achievement is to use the Spring Flowers item to place bunny ears on the heads of a female PC (player character) of every race but Goblin and Worgen.
In the Pre-Cataclysm days, this was fairly easy. You'd do your own faction in the main home city (Stormwind for Alliance, Ogrimmar for Horde), and then head to the neutral Sanctuary of the day (Shattrath City in Outland for the Burning Crusade expansion, and then Dalaran in Crystalsong Forest for Wrath) to find the requirements for the other faction.
Cataclysm has made this difficult in that there... isn't a Sanctuary for the highest level players. The closest you get is Tol Barad, and you get marked PVP just for entering it. I decided to go to Dal to try and find my required opposing faction women, figuring SOME people must still use it, right?
Wrong. The gorgeous city that used to be affectionately known as Da-lag-ran, thanks to so many players being on and causing a huge amount of lag, is now more like Da-lone-ran... In that I am currently the only player in the zone.
Now, I have found both a Blood Elf and an Undead here. This isn't completely without hope or reason. However, it's just so striking the difference. When I was of level to be questing for exp in Northrend, Dal was my central hub. My hearthstone was set here for such a long time, I can hardly remember a time when it wasn't. But now? If I /yell-ed, there would probably be an echo.
Come on... I just need an Orc, a Tauren, and a Troll... That can't be SO hard... I'm this close to pulling the trick I did accidentally last night and riding on top of the blimp from Brill INTO Ogrimmar, and trying to find them that way.
Drat. That Tauren was male. Double drat, now I have a five minute cool down to wait through...
This title is getting more annoying by the second.
In the Pre-Cataclysm days, this was fairly easy. You'd do your own faction in the main home city (Stormwind for Alliance, Ogrimmar for Horde), and then head to the neutral Sanctuary of the day (Shattrath City in Outland for the Burning Crusade expansion, and then Dalaran in Crystalsong Forest for Wrath) to find the requirements for the other faction.
Cataclysm has made this difficult in that there... isn't a Sanctuary for the highest level players. The closest you get is Tol Barad, and you get marked PVP just for entering it. I decided to go to Dal to try and find my required opposing faction women, figuring SOME people must still use it, right?
Wrong. The gorgeous city that used to be affectionately known as Da-lag-ran, thanks to so many players being on and causing a huge amount of lag, is now more like Da-lone-ran... In that I am currently the only player in the zone.
Now, I have found both a Blood Elf and an Undead here. This isn't completely without hope or reason. However, it's just so striking the difference. When I was of level to be questing for exp in Northrend, Dal was my central hub. My hearthstone was set here for such a long time, I can hardly remember a time when it wasn't. But now? If I /yell-ed, there would probably be an echo.
Come on... I just need an Orc, a Tauren, and a Troll... That can't be SO hard... I'm this close to pulling the trick I did accidentally last night and riding on top of the blimp from Brill INTO Ogrimmar, and trying to find them that way.
Drat. That Tauren was male. Double drat, now I have a five minute cool down to wait through...
This title is getting more annoying by the second.
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