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. :)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
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.
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