Monday, March 31, 2008

Back from the dead

Yes, that's right, Rysteranch, the Troll Hunter is back from the deleted pile and tearing up Ravencrest.

After running around on Daxen, I found a guild that is just starting to get into end game content and got an invite. I really wanted to help out, but at level 22, Daxen wasn't going to be there any time soon. So I got to thinking....and submitted a ticket to undelete Rysteranch. After he made his glorious return to life (on Anvilmar), I got him his gold back and transferred him to Ravencrest.

So, Kruel has a new guildie, and he's already burned through his rest XP to level 52. Woot on him!

In other news, my son has decided to pick up WoW again, so he rolled a Pally on Ravencrest, and I started playing Daxe, my OTHER BE priest, not to be confused with the one on Anvilmar. So far we've made it to level 9, and I'm looking forward to teaming up all the way to 70! Or until he gets tired of the game again....lol.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Aggro - I haz it

My wife's grandmother died yesterday, so I bowed out of the Purple Poxers fun that was scheduled for last night. Everyone was really supportive and understanding (A big Thank you!!), and we just rescheduled for next week.

My intent was to just hang out with my wife and be, but it turned out that she had a massage scheduled for 8 pm! Uh, ok. Since I had already called off the Poxers meeting, I hopped on Daxen again.

It seems like if I'm able to quickly quit what I'm doing in WoW or not really pay attention to what I'm doing ingame, that the wife aggro is greatly reduced. If I'm in an instance or raid, I can ill afford to pay her any attention, and it seems that aggro goes up. And, of course, in the current situation, I knew that if I wasn't there for her that I'd have HUGE AGGRO...lol.

So, between last night and this morning Daxen hit 21, had 15 gold to her name, bought that last 14 slotter, got fishing up to 100, bought the 225 cap for skinning, and completed all but two quests in Ghostlands. One of the quests is a 5 person quest, so we'll see if I get that one done. I'd really like to find a couple of people that I can group with for taking on quests like this and instance running...something like a guild. ROFL.

Actually, I did sign a guild charter to help someone out, so we'll see how that goes. Nobody had logged on in the past day, though. So it doesn't look promising...

I did get an invite of sorts from a guild that was looking to increase its membership, but I really didn't like the name. Sons of Vicious Mothers. I know, I know, it's all in jest, but still, I don't want that name above my head.

So, she's coming along just fine. I have freezing trap now, so maybe a little RFC action is up next....

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Daxen

Last night, instead of participating in the lagfest that was Sunwell Island, I decided to play around with my BE hunter on Ravencrest. Allow me to give you a bit of her history.

Since starting Daxe over on Anvilmar, I realized that, while I had played the Horde side before, I hadn't played the two new BC zones on the Horde side - namely, Eversong Woods and Ghostlands. I also figured out after the Purple Poxer's first meeting that we wouldn't be doing the content as a group either. Combine that with high server populations on both Baelgun and Anvilmar AND a low server population on Ravencrest, and you have the rest of the picture. Enter Daxen.

I had some specific goals when I rolled my newest hunter.

1. I wanted to experience the new Horde starting areas; all the quests, all the rewards, all the glory. /snicker.

2. I wanted a Raptor mount when I turned 40.

3. I wanted enough coin in my pocket so I didn't have to worry about it.

4. I wanted to play the hunter in the "correct" fashion, meaning I kept mobs at range or kited them to their death.

I posted earlier about Hunter Goodness on this toon; I'll expand on it here. Or not.

Starting in no particular order, I was pretty successful at learning to kite mobs. Did I jump shot? No. I strafed. Start at max range, turn sideways, fire on mob and start strafing away; if the area is congested, I learned to kite in a circle so I always had the target in my front 180. Once I got Concussive Shot, it was much easier, but the mobs still went down fairly easy without it.

I picked up skinning and mining to help with the coin issue as well as flipped a couple of items on the AH. After I completed most of the Eversong quests, I headed over to Durotar and ran through all the Orc/Troll starting area quests to grind rep for the mount and a little money.

After I finished up Durotar, I headed back to Eversong and completed the remaining quests there. I then pushed on to the Ghostlands and completed several quests, which brought me to where I stood last night.

Status at start
Level: 16
Coin: ~12 gold
Bags: all 10 slotters w/ one medium quiver
Skills: Had mining, fishing, and skinning at 50 or above and had bought the level 150 cap. First aid and cooking were around 30 or so.

Status at end
Level: 19
Coin: ~12 gold
Bags: one 10 slotter, two 14 slotters w/ one medium quiver
Skills: Had skinning above 100, First aid and cooking above 80, mining...uh - worked on, and fishing, the same.

Several observations that I can make.
1. Those two 14 slot bags were around 4 gold apiece, so, while it looks like I broke even for the night, I actually amassed around 8 gold in my endeavors. I also bought a new bow. 8~)

2. I like the way the new area (Ghostlands) send you to the other quest hubs. I suppose the Durotar quests do the same, but there seems to be more quests to find in the new area. In fact, one of my fellow Pox bloggers did a quick check for the Alliance side and found more quests for the Draenai areas, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were more.

3. I love my pig.

4. At level 18, I took on one of the level 21 elite quest mobs - not on purpose, but in a valiant effort to save a level 19 huntard. They weren't paying attention and started to get smacked around by it. So, I sent Pigglet to the rescue, slapped a mend pet, and started blasting. I got him down to half health before poor piggy died, then, it was kiting time. Luckily, I only had to kite him a bit (and used a health pot) before the other hunter finally started DPSing and sent in their kitty. We ended up killing it! Since we weren't grouped, I was the only one to get the head for the quest.

5. I have been holding onto a +2 agi/+2 sta 2H mace until I finally got around to training maces, only to find out after the trip to Thunderbluff that I can't learn maces....lol!

6. There is a rep grind in the Ghostlands!! I've only done the Draenai quests once, but I don't remember there being a non-major faction rep grind on the Ally side. The quartermaster has some decent stuff for sale at reasonable prices.

7. Quest rewards in the new areas are SO much better than in the old areas. You'd think that Blizz would even things out a bit....

What's up next? In no particular order:
1. Finish the Ghostlands. I still have a number of quests to do, including some collection quests...ew.

2. Solo/Duo RFC. At 19, I should be able to kill all of the mobs, but I'll have some trouble with managing the larger pulls. I have no freezing trap or feign death, so I would have to do some serious micromanaging of my pet, including landing Growls on each of the mobs. Assuming Pigglet can take the beating, this means I have to hold off on DPS until I'm sure she has a firm grip on aggro. Here's where I really wish I could mark targets without being in a group.

3. Buy another 14 slot bag. I can afford the 4 gold; I just need to do it. (I like easy goals!)

4. Track down and do all the Crossroads quests, even if they're low level. Troll Rep, FTW!

5. Spend some time fishing. The shores of Ratchet are a wonderful place to fish for skill level and profit, so now that I won't get eaten by the inhabitants, it's time to go fishin'!

Well, that's enough for now. I suppose Daxen is my new Secret, just don't tell her!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Banner weekend

Last weekend was very good in terms of WoW! All three of my level 70 toons got either phat lewtz or skill points or BOTH!

Friday
Rysteranch has been running Heroic Mech for the epic gloves (which he got a while ago), the Beast Lord helm, and badges. With Turion, the Pally Tank, on duty, we proceeded to kill everything with minimal wipes. Skipped the fire chick (yeah, chick - not lady!) and made it through the gauntlet to Calculator. We had absolutely no problem taking him down and, yes, he dropped my hat! Woot on me!

Saturday
I started the day with Rysteranch in Kara with The Iron Ring. We had no problems with Attunmen and Moroes (no drops for me). And as agreed upon prior to the run, I brought along Daxie for Maiden for the increased healing. Around about the third trash kill, she hit Honored with the Violet Eye and got her epic version of the healing ring. Woot on her.

But the run was not finished! Killed to Maiden and....one shotted her! This was The Iron Ring's first Maiden kill, so there was much rejoicing. And then we looked at the loot.....The Shard

....
....
....
Dropped!!!

Since the other two healers already had better, I asked if I could have it. And they let me! Woot! On! Me!!!

Switched back to Rysteranch and helped get a guild first downing of Opera (R&J). No hunter loot, but did get da badges.

Is it still Saturday??? Yup. Heroic Mech, again. This time Dax got some sunshine, well, since the instance is indoors, not really....anyways. This was a great run. I was backed up by a shadow priest (who is The Iron Ring's main healer on her main), so mana and cushion healing were abundant. It was so good that our first wipe was on Calculator himself! And that only because I didn't say anything about getting hit by the adds so Turion could taunt them off me. So we two shotted him...and....my boots....DROPPED! Boots of the Pious replaced one of two remaining blues that I have. So, Woot on Dax!

Sunday
Finally, Sunday. I've been working on my fishing skill on Dax, so I was fishing away in Tanaris @ 360 or so fishing. I managed to level it up all the way to 375. So I figured I'd hit up the Mixed Highland Schools and see what I could fish up. Well....how about a Mr. Pinchy? YUP!! I got one! So I immediately used a wish and got.....a Magical Crawdad pet! Sweet, phat lewts! I also got enough Furious Crawdads to get my cooking up to 375 as well. Wow! Professions Woot!

After church, I jumped on Rysteranch and was determined to get at least one skill point in LW. I've been languishing on 364 leatherworking for quite a long time now, and it was high time I started working on it again. So, about a billion dead clefthoof bulls later, and I had 30 clefthoof leathers to go with the 10 I had in the bank. Yay, two boots later leave me at 366 LW. Groan woot.

Later that evening a bunch of DA guys wanted to open up the Or'grila dailies, so since I've never done that on any of my toons, I figured I'd get all three done at once. It took a bit of juggling and logging out at the right spots, but I was able to get all three of my 70s named as Ogre Royalty and opened up the daily quests for fun and profit. Whew! What a weekend.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Hitting the wall

/sigh.

It was bound to happen eventually. I have no motivation.

I've been in college for roughly 19 years now. I've quit, gone back, quit, gone back, quit, etc. I got an associates' degree for my trouble and have a fairly secure job working for the U.S. Gubment. This semester was my "go back" phase after taking the last two semesters off.

One of my issues is that I have absolutely no interest in learning the content of my two classes. One is Networking stuff, and the other is UML software design stuff. So you poor readers get to read my various thoughts and analysis of the issue. You may stop reading any time you like.

1. My lack of motivation does not stem from doing poorly; on the contrary, I have A averages in both classes.

2. Time is not an issue, as I can freely do school work on my work time (I know, your tax dollars at work...erm, school...uh, not working....nvm...). As such, my school work does not interfere with my WoW time (class does a bit, but homework doesn't).

3. My field of study is only marginally useful to my current field of employment, and I have serious doubts as to whether I'll ever leave this job before retirement.

4. Paying for classes is somewhat of a consideration. Why should I be paying for something that I won't use and don't really care about?

5. I keep hearing the same thing: "You only have 9 (or so) classes; you need to just finish it!" Finish it just because I'm so close. I get weary just thinking about it.

6. I'm tired. Tired of trying to learn this junk. Tired of the effort of homework. Just sick and tired of school.

7. Yes, this is a pity party. You were warned....

8. The situation would be different if I were 22 years old with my whole working life ahead of me, but I'm 40 and in the middle of my career. For whatever reasons, I am where I am, and I'm comfortable with that. So, why exert all this effort for no gain?

9. I have a week and a half before the last date to withdrawal with a "W" instead of an "F" to make my decision.

10. I come to conclusions too quickly and too often act on them.

/sigh.

I'm not looking for you guys to encourage me or chide me or whatever me. I guess I just wanted to vent, and since I happen to write the blog....well, yeah.

So, HAVE A GREAT DAY!! HA!

Posting is sooooooooooooooooo last week

Uh, yeah.

I really need to post some more. I've been up to plenty on WoW - Rysteranch is getting a daily dose of sunshine and PuddyTat is lovin' it.

Ok, let's go with that. Saturday, Rysteranch got to be in on a Kara run for the first time. This was The Iron Ring's 2nd week being in Kara, and Turion, the Pally Tank, was gracious enough to invite the Huntard along.

I didn't noob it up too bad. I wasn't tasked with freezing anything, just the occasional Misdirect and of course, Massive Quantities of Sustained Ranged DPS. Attunment went down and hunter bracers dropped. I absolutely refused to even link my bracers or consider taking the loot. There were two guild hunters that got to roll on them, and I was more than fine with that.

On to Moroes; we ended up pulling him before one of the hunters was back. Whoops. 9 man?

YES! That's right, we ended up nine manning Moroes. Killed him dead. He dropped some nice leather boots. The raid had no leather wearers. I saved the boots from a terrible sharding future.

So, now I have some nice epic leather boots with a +Int gem in them to offset the loss from the boots I was wearing. Cool, a real epic!

Then either Sunday or Monday, Turion and the gang (and Rysteranch) were in Heroic Mech. There are some nice gloves that drop off Calculator that my hunter had yet to see in the 3 or 4 times he'd been in there. And, long story short, they dropped! We were so excited that we decided to try the fire chick....and killed her! That's the first time we've killed her on Heroic.

Last night, no Kara, so Rysteranch went on the daily Heroic, which was Sethekk Halls. I did have to trap my way through the instance, but was able to top the damage meter until the very end. The DPS warrior was able to stay alive on the last boss, and I found out it's hard to DPS when you're dead. Meh. Got BoJ's and little ring and a lot of fun. Woot on me!

So, there ya go. A little update on what I've been up to. Tonight is Pox night, so Daxe will be in Wailing Caverns with the Purple Poxers. Yay!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

RFC is sooooooooo last week

Last night, the Purple Poxers got together for 3 hours of fun, frivolity, and farming.

First stop was RFC. We gathered up, buffed up, and danced up (lolwut?) before charging into Yellow's living room. Pull, kill, pull, kill, pull, kill, etc, etc, etc. There really wasn't any challenge until Harisan accidentally pulled 4 instead of the intended 3. Woot! I got to use Lesser Heal!

We suffered no deaths, got one shard, and got Salindar his red robe so he could look like Daxe, only not as good. And we also got everyone to level 16 while we were in there so we could all go train right there in Orgrimmar, well, except for Madja....poor Druid..../sadface.

Then we scampered off to the Barrens to start the two quest chains that send us into the Wailing Caverns. We've decided to level by doing instances, but would like to have the quests for the instance as well. As a side note, I've always hated getting quests that send you into an instance to complete the chain, and here I am actually LOOKING for quests to send me into an instance.

So, we're finding the Forgotten Pools - no problem, planting seeds in the Stagnant Oasis - only one of us had to complete this for the group!, and collecting Altered Snapjaw Shells. Ew! We each needed 8 (that's 40 total for the math challenged). Thankfully, each turtle dropped a shell and the hardest part was finding a corpse that you had to loot that got killed over yonder. But we persevered and dominated the poor things. And then the fun started.

See, we had another collection quest for Intact Raptor Horns for the quest Smart Drinks. This time we only needed 5 each (25 total for those without a calculator), so I figured it'd be a bit faster.

Wrong.

It turns out that during battle, quite a number of horns must have shattered, burst, or chipped, because we found very few Intact Raptor Horns. The first area around the colored nests yielded only a few, and the surrounding area only gave up one or two. By that time, though, we remembered the raptors west of Northwatch Hold.

Yes, pretty much all of us that had ever quested as Horde in the Barrens remember the fast respawn rate of these dinos and being trapped by them. And dying at their claws. Oh, the Reckoning WAS AT HAND!!! We slaughtered and slaughtered and slaughtered and...well you get the idea. We must have cleared the area 4 or 5 times before we (I was the last.../cry) got all of our Intact Raptor Horns.

Good grief! Thankfully, the next couple of collection quests will be inside WC, which we'll be running a couple of times.

We then killed our way to Ratchet, turned in the quest, picked up the follow up, flew to Xroads, turning in the turtle shells, flew to TB, turned in the quest there, flew BACK to the Xroads, and headed out the WC to find a bottle of port.

We picked up the quests above WC, found the guy and killed him, retrieved the port, sipped a little port, headed to the port for the turn in, and parted ways.

/whew!

There was a lot of running around last night, which I didn't really like. I think what I really like about this group is the team play. I am amped about getting into Wailing Caverns next week.

Even if we don't get very far, even if we have a wipefest, even if we shard all the blues.

I just like playing with my fellow Poxers and taking down instances as a team. Pure joy!

So, next week, watch out WC....we're comin' for ya!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Shattered Halls, another post?

Shattered Halls is one of the instances that I've not spent a lot of time in...until recently. Rysteranch has been in it once (and got the bow), and Dax was in it once as well (completed one of the quests for a pair of boots he still wears).

But recently, I really wanted to get Revered with Honor Hold for the Glyph of Renewal, which adds 35 to my healing and 7 (I think) MP5. The glyph is a head enchant, so it is pure additional goodness to replace the +10 stamina that I had there.

Over the weekend, I attempted it on Heroic with a PuG. Not good. Then got halfway through it on normal with a PuG before I aggroed dinnertime (yes, we eat dinner as a family - how quaint). And after dinner, we moved on to Heroic Mech. On Sunday, I convinced Turion and company to run through it, but around 1/4 of the way through, he had enough people for Kara, and we dropped it.

Which brings us to the after work session yesterday. Turion, Bloodpebble, Sweetmage, and Daxenos decided to 4 man the instance when we couldn't find another DPS. Four man.....a level 70 instance......riiiiiiiiiiight.

I was expecting just enough progress to get Revered, or at the very least clearing the first couple of pulls a number of times between wipes...lol. What I was not expecting was for us to take that instance by the tail, twirl it around a coupla times and lay the smackdown on it.

But that's what we did. Yes, we had some wipes, but they were due to unanticipated adds or stupid stuff. One wipe happened on the first boss when Turion got locked outside the door that had been unlocked by BP. We got the boss down to around 12% before he finally killed us....and that without a tank!

Pulling 6 elites at once? No problem for Turion with Dax at his back! I almost never drew healer aggro; in fact, the mage drew aggro more than I did, even though I was at times spamming Greater Heal.

At one point, Sweetmage had to watch one of his siblings, so he let her play for him. We pretty much 3 manned the instance at that point as his sister usually just wanded the mobs.

Other than that first boss wipe, we didn't have any issues with any of the bosses. I guess it shows what a good tank, a good healer, and good DPS can accomplish. In fact, if Sweetmage wasn't busy afking, babysitting, and trying (TRYING!!!!) to pull aggro, we probably wouldn't have had any wipes!

I guess I wrote this up because I'm still amazed that we were able to 4 man the instance. Oh, I forgot to mention that Dax is the only one that's epic'd out. Turion, Bloodpebble, and Sweetmage have some epics, but mostly have blues.....and we still rocked the house!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Hunter goodness

I have had a hunter ever since I started playing WoW.

My first hunter was Rysteranch, the Troll, with his faithful companion PuddyTat, the Barrens Huntress. My troll survived to level 49 and was relegated to twink status to farm BGs and low level instances for the rest of the Ryster team over on Spinebreaker.

After I got tired of the repeated gankings on the PvP server, I decided to reroll as Alliance over on Baelgun. My first toon was a Pally and quickly became a bank alt. My second is the much heralded Daxenos. And my third is Rysteranch, the Night Elf Hunter, with HIS faithful companion PuddyTat, a Tedrissal black striped cat. He is level 70 and somewhat active.

With over 119 levels of huntering behind me, I started another hunter, Daxen the Blood Elf, over on Ravenquest so I could experience the Horde side of things again. Daxen's first pet was, like my others, a beginning area kitty, which I named PuddyTat (how original).

So, yesterday, Daxen at level 15, was looking to find a pet that had dash so she could train PuddyTat with it. She bought a stable slot and went looking around Durotar for a raptor. She soon realized that she might be in for a couple of fights before she found her new pet, so she decided to tame a "trash" pet.

Enter some poor level 7 black boar.

Daxen had no issues taming the boar and after feeding it, sent it in to tank a scorpid that was blocking the way.

Zoe.
Em.
Gee.

I (yes perspective change) was in love. I had never run with a piggy, so I'd never been able to experience the thrill of the charge. That sucker took off like a rocket! WHAMMO!!!! Even without the benefit of training, my piggy did a great job of holding aggro and taking the hits.

I immediately named her Pigglet. Yes, how original. 134 levels of huntering, and I've finally got my first pig. What a noob!

PS. And when she dies for the first time...BACON!!!!....before rezzing.....

Pug guy in action again

Saturday, Dax played Pug guy again; this time it was for his old guild, The Iron Ring(TIR)! It seems that Turion has done a bang up job of recruiting and conned,erm, persuaded enough level 70's to join his guild for a Kara run.

So, 8 Iron Ringers, one PuG'd Warlock, and Pug Guy Dax headed into Kara for what I thought would be a wipefest. Oh, I didn't mention it, but we only had two healers. Now both of the healers were in mostly T4 or equivalent and had over +1700 healing, but still, we only had two.

The first try on Attunmen resulted in one wipe on trash and another on him. By the time we got to the second try on him, trash had respawned and joined the fight! Ok, meet up at the entry, buff up, and clear trash again. This time the trash went faster as now the raid knew we weren't kidding about trash respawns!

I'm pretty sure we had at least two tries on Attunmen that time. Anyways, the last time (ha ha) we killed him! And there was much rejoicing. Kat won the leather thingamajigs that dropped and Av won the plate. So gratz on them. I had to leave after that, but they continued on the the Moroes wipefest with another healer.

Sunday
We started with the crackhead Moroes. Wipe, wipe, wipe. Etc, etc. Of course, every raid has to figure out the best strategy depending on their raid make up. DA has two warriors tanking Moroes and a druid tanking the adds; we burn down all the adds and then kill Moroes.

TIR has no such make up. In fact, I didn't realize it, but tanking of the adds wasn't really discussed. So, we were just letting whoever had aggro on the add, tank it.....ROFL!! No, it did not go well....and I got Cleaning the House aggro and had to leave.

So, after I left, the raid continued with another healer and tried the strategy of keeping all of the adds CC'd and just burning Moroes. This seems to be the best strategy for them as they got him all the way down to 3% on one try.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

RFC - PWNED


A nice little photo op with the weird scrying ball thing in RFC after downing the bosses for the second time.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Ka-Plok

Or something like that. Daxie went to Kara in Dax's place last night. Yes, I was hoping for all priest drops since I would be the only one that could use them. But...none dropped. She did get a nice wand off Opera and some rep with the Violet Eye, so she feels good about the run.

Tonight, I'm really looking forward to RFC and running with my fellow Purple Poxers. I've laid off playing Daxe in order to concentrate more on my Alliance toons, so it'll be good to play her again. Also, I've temporarily suspended my AH activities on her to let the other Pox People take advantage of the markets. It's nice to be level 12 and have 200 gold....rofl!

Monday, March 3, 2008

And smiled....and smiled

Yes, Dax got more epic loot last week. In addition to replacing his last AH green with a nice pair of gloves from Attunmen, he picked up a nice purple trinket that added 14 more +healing and won the roll on the cape from Prince, which was an upgrade, but just replaced an epic with an epic.

But the real news of the weekend was the Chess event. And the hat. The Headdress of the High Potentate. I was very excited to see this upgrade to my Watcher's Cowl. Now, finally, I have something worthy of grinding Honor Hold rep for the Glyph of Renewal (or what ever that thing is called).

So, Dax now has just two blue items left - a pair of boots and the Lower City prayerbook. I'll be running Heroic Mech in hopes of Boots of the Pious, and at 75 BoJ's, I can get another trinket that will add 18 +healing.

Now Dax has almost everything that he wants out of Kara. The T4 gloves, Boots of the Incorrupt, and Prince's mace would be nice, as well as the healing bracers off Maiden (I have the caster bracers off her). But, I'm happy where I'm at for the time being. Besides, if I get more stuff, that means I have to grind out the enchanting mats and gems for it....which isn't a lot of fun...