Monday, November 29, 2010

Racial Diversity FTW

Why yes, I did roll an alt when the Cataclysm hit.  It wasn't one of the  new combos though.  I decided to re-roll my lvl 28 Orc hunter, and I'm actually really glad I did.  It all started in the Valley of Trials.

Friday, November 5, 2010

31 Days till Cataclysm

I've been pretty successful over the last few weeks in getting myself set to go for Cataclysm.  Yamira is 80 and about 3/4 geared.  That was made possible by the roaring success of my glyph business after 4.0.1 hit.  I must have been making about 5k a day once I got my addons straightened out.  It has dialed back to about 5k per week, even with that bastard Woodwitch camping the AH all day long.  Now that I'm pushing 50k it just doesn't seem to matter anymore, and I've managed to find a sweet spot for the high end glyphs where they always sell at about 300% profit, though it's probably to glyph resellers.  I'm fine with that.

I actually ended up gearing Yamira for Feral.  Yes, I'm tanking now.  The main thing that made me feel OK about gearing for it was that, apparently, bear and cat gearing is the same, it's all in the gems and talents.  I've been enjoying cat form too, so if I ever decide tanking isn't for me it wasn't a complete waste.  Not that the gear will stick around very long after the cataclysm.  I've got the basic tanking down, it's not too hard as a bear, but I really need to get some keybindings done and my cooldown tracker set up again.  I'm considering trying PowerAuras for cooldowns, but I think I like TellMeWhen's persistence in the interface.

I wiped out all my addon settings when 4.0.1 went live.  I haven't reloaded anything that changes the look and feel of the interface, except Vuhdo.  I think I can permanently ditch a few of the really heavy duty add-ons like MSBT, and I'm not going to re-install Omen, Recount, or (gasp) Deadly Boss Mods unless I feel I really need to.  The boss cues blizzard gives us are so blatantly obvious now DBM seems redundant.  Then again, maybe I just know the boss fights so well at this point they don't matter.  I won't be raiding for a while, so it won't be as critical.

I'm finally getting excited about the new expansion.  I'm tired of Wrath.  I barely leave Dalaran anymore, except to do the event quests.  I'm very disappointed that I missed the Echo Isles chain with Zully.  I got about halfway through it and called away to do something, and it was removed before the expansion hit, before I realized it was going away so fast.  Well, whatcha gonna do.

Finally got my Classic Raider achievement, and did Zul'Aman.  I'm hoping for a Black Temple or SSC run sometime soon.  I'd really like to get my Glory of the Hero done as well, maybe the guildies will help me out with that this weekend.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

So About My Interface...

I guess I know what I'm doing for the next week.  Overhauling my interface.  Major updates are not good for the addons.  I'm going to try just turning them all off temporarily.  No, really.  I mean it.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

And There Was Much Rejoicing (Yay!)


That's right, I have an auction boy.  He's making me money RIGHT NOW.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Things to do while waiting for Cataclysm

No raids?  Tired of dugneons?  Here's what I've been doing to pass the WoW time when I'm not in the mood for Starcraft.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Holy Priests are Easy to Gear

Yet another installment in the unfinished posts series.  What the heck was I rambling on about here?  Yeah, if it has Spirit it's good for holy priests, but did I really need to say more than that?  I think I see where I was going here...

Friday, July 30, 2010

Response to Breakfast Topic: Where's the epic?

Part Two in my series of "Blog Posts I Never Finished" is about Wrath not being as "epic" as Vanilla.  In a nutshell, not in terms of having to work hard for your gear, but in terms of scope and storyline Wrath wins.  This one even has links!  Why didn't I finish it?  It's missing the transition paragraph, I generally don't write my paragraphs in order.  Here you go!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Ugh Writer's Block

I have no less than four posts sitting in my "draft" bin right now.  I get started writing them and I'm on a roll and then... I disprove my point, which isn't all bad because I learned something.  Or I realize I'm telling the SAME STORY of my WoW life that I feel like I've told a million times before.  I think a lot of it is just that the game is stagnant right now as the build up to the expansion increases.  There's nothing to look forward to really until the Cataclysm starts, and we don't have any idea what the date is on that.  There won't be any major talent changes until right before launch.  Yeah the Ruby Sanctum will be added to give us lewtz to obtain and there will be some RP going on over in the Echo Isles, but nothing to analyze or really strive towards.  Just roll along status quo until the earthquakes start.

I can't wait for RealID to roll out, though I'm not sure why.  When they first started talking about it I thought I'd have people left on Dalv that I wanted to talk to without having to sit over there and do nothing, but really there's only a few people I think would actually be interested.  Maybe Pex, Lalo, and Reid.  Pretty much everyone else either I don't care about talking to, or probably don't want to talk to me (frowny face).  It will be convenient to see people without having to keep track of a billion alts.  I just hope there is an "invisible" mode where it goes back to the old system.  That way if I want to just log into my auctioneer, do my crap, and leave as quick as possible then I don't have to feel guilty about telling people I have to go 2 minutes after I log in.  If not, I'll just have to post a status message of something like "Logging Off Before 5:52 AM".  Heh.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

My WoW Buds Already Know This

... but I haven't had a lot of time to play lately.  I've taken WoW breaks in the past, but usually they're self-initiated or self-enforced.  I tend to get grumpy when I'm forced not to play.  This time has been a little bit different, because I've been able to log in and do my auctions, say hi to Mal and Sil, do a few chants, etc and a half hour here and there to mess around.

Surprisingly, the top two things I choose to do when I have spare time right now are auctioneering/crafting and running low level instances.  If I had a little bit more time, I'd probably spend it working on Yokanolu's gear.  I've given up on the morning Frost Badge run.  I'm tired of healing heroics, even though it doesn't take very long.  It's boring, and since I got my high level robe, pants, and boots I feel like anything else is just icing, so I can sleep an extra half hour instead.

This has caused me to push off my auctioneering to the last 45 minutes before bed.  It's working out pretty well actually, because I have enough time to get everything done without rushing, including restocking the crafted items which have sold.  I was worried I wouldn't be making much money when I finally dropped the glyph market (I'm taking credit dammit.  There's only two other high volume glyph sellers I know of in the market.  Their prices are ridiculous, so I cut it in half for my sales. I've quit seeing their names except when I discover a new profitable glyph.  YOU'RE WELCOME Alterac.)  Yesterday I discovered that one of my competitors (not glyphs) is our guild bank sales toon.  No mercy!  The only person I've ever made an exception for is Sil and his bags, and I usually do that by purchasing the bag so I can re-post it at my own price.  It looks like the minimum level for auctioneers is going from 1 to 10, since the mobile application that's coming out will only work with characters that show up in the armory, and the min level for the armory is 10.  Eh, my banker's already 6 so that will only take me a few hours to do.

A while back I think I posted about my old high school Facebook friend who has (sigh) a night elf hunter on another server (ironically, in the same battle group as Altarac).  I rolled a little space goat priest to see if I could catch him online.  Well, it's been two months and I've NEVER seen him.  However, I have been having a good time healdpsing the lowbie dungeons at level with no heirloom gear.  They seem... easier than I remember.  I ran Stockades for the first time ever.  What a lame instance, RFC is a lot better than Stockades.  You got shafted Alliance.  She's level 27 now. If I only have 30 min and my auctions are done, it's easier than trying to explain why I don't want to do heroics/raids/pvp with the guildies.  I guess it's just my knack for helpfulness, I have to go somewhere I don't know ANYONE to get single player me time.

I do miss raiding.  Not so much the raiding part, but the teamwork with my guildies.  I feel like it's been forever since I got to spend time with Fooc and the twins.  They've made some progress too, I feel a little guilty about expecting to walk back into my raid spot when my break is over.  I feel like I'm getting preferential treatment, but I'll be really disappointed if I've been replaced.  I can't join group two because they raid during the week :-(

Anyway, I should be back soon, but I still have a going away party and a baby shower, and another commitment on Sat mornings till September that I'll talk about in a future post.  See you all soon!

Monday, April 26, 2010

All Under One Roof

I finally pulled Yokanolu from Dalvengyr to Alterac Mountains.  I've been debating it for a month now.   Nobody I really wanted to talk to was online the few times I logged in to Dalv, and by the time I prepped my final transfer I had been demoted.  I don't blame them, having inactive characters is a real bank risk.  I'm curious who actually pushed the button, but it doesn't really matter now does it?   I went in and sold off the junk in my bank for around 800g and  remembered to grab my heirloom stuff this time.  I really didn't have much stuff left, most of it went over with Zully.  When I was in the character transfer area the history reminded me that Yoka, then Morningrain, moved from Bloodscalp to Dalvengyr in 2006.  She was only level 46 at the time, and my highest level character.  Boy, things were really different back then.

Things have been rolling along in ICC, though we've been stuck on Putricide / Princes for about three weeks now.  I'm at the "good enough" gearing phase right now.  There aren't any drops left from the farm bosses, so I've been saving my badges for a new robe.  I can't decide whether to get the tier piece or not.  Either way I'll be breaking my second set bonus, but it's going to be about three weeks before I can get the four set after I buy the robe.  Really, the issue in ICC is the dance, not the gear.

The Eye Facebook group has been pretty active.  It's fun to see other people's screen shots and chat back and forth when I'm not in game.  Especially since I'm really not in-game all that much anymore.  I'm down to one raid a week and my early morning frost heroic.  Ten hours a week really isn't much.  I may even have to take a raid break for a few weeks.  I don't really want to, but it's just temporary.  RL > WoW as it were.

Anyway, that's that.  I'll try to post more, but there really hasn't been much to say.  Have fun out there!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

WoW Real Money Transfers Part Two: Eat, Drink and be Merry

I think everyone agrees that once you've reached max level, getting gear is the new game.  Players stop counting dings and start counting gear score.  In reality, gear only gets a character 80% of the way to being able to raid or PvP competitively, without factoring in the Gear vs Skill debate.  Considering that gear is essentially non-obtainable using gold, that leaves 20% for the gold sellers to fill in for the high-level WoW crowd.

Turns out Blizzard found ways to cut out the external gold seller here too.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

And Just Like That

Seth popped back into existence again. He has a habit of doing that. One minute he's there, the next he's gone. Well, he is a rogue after all.

The updates here have been a little thin. Partially because I've got serious writer's block on my series, but mostly I just haven't had much to talk about. Things were pretty status quo until yesterday, when that crazy rogue popped out of stealth.

The march of badges goes on. Had some issues picking up the weekly, which is annoying. Some drama in the guild, but that's normal. Anyone who claims to be in any oranization that has no drama is a liar, liar, pants on fire. We can tear through the first wing of ICC with no problem, as long as we don't have people going AFK all the time.

Working on my drood some. If I can burn off her rest bonus regularly it should go fast. I think I'm gonna make her a boomkin at 80, and second spec tank. I'll probably be lousy at both, but that's what alts are for, heh.

That's about it. Nothing special really. I'll get on that series this weekend.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

WoW Real Money Transfers Part One: Badges and Tokens and Trophys, Oh My!

"Welcome to SusanExpress.com we have the greatest deals $15 for 5k gold..."  "Level 1-70 in seven days!  Safe, Discreet, and Fast"



How many of these have you ignored or reported in the last month?  One? Five? Twenty?  Have you seen that pile of 200 Level 1 Tauren on the ground outside the Auction House?  It's annoying and common, but Blizzard has put up a good fight against black market trade in gold, items, and maximum level characters.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Superpowers for Good (and not for awesome)

WoW.com Breakfast Topic What intangible qualities do you bring to a raid?

My raid superpower is multitasking.  One of the things I've always been able to do, in gaming and in life, is step back and look at the overall picture, then focus down on what I need to do to meet that larger goal.  This usually requires me to queue three spells up in my head while I strafe left out of the fire and yell at the huntard for standing in said fire.  Here's how I got to the point where I can use my superpowers for good (and not for awesome).

Monday, February 1, 2010

The Only Thing Constant is Change

So I went and got myself promoted to officer.  It's been 6 months plus since I was an active officer.  Apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Keeping Up to Snuff

I was talking to the Twins yesterday and they were asking me why I like my priest so much.  Holy has always offered variety and challenge as a class.  There's so many different ways to approach it.  healing in general is more about planning and prediction, as opposed to twitch reflexes.  You kids and your FPS make me look like a slug when I'm trying to DPS.  When I told them I was a healer at heart and had been playing holy since level 1 pre-BC they were surprised at how long I've been playing, especially the leveling as a healer part.  Mechanics wise, holy is a lot more difficult and annoying single player, but back then you could do at-level dungeons all the way up.  Not having to depend solely on solo questing made it a lot easier.  And L2Heal in the process.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Time Has Come... For Awesome

This was a bit of a down weekend for me, but I did get to raid (sorta) and I'm optimistic about getting my tier pieces a LOT faster than last time.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The State of the Blog

A few years ago, I started this blog as an outlet to talk about WoW because my social network friends didn't understand what I was talking about.  It has jumped from private to public and back again a few times.  I've talked about my past and my future, my successes and failures, my guildmates, myself, and the state of the game in general.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

One shot, one kill

Things have been stirring in the guild the last week or so.  I can't really talk about it because it hasn't come completely out in the open but as they say, the winds of change are blowing.  Personally, I think in a good way.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Fear My Red Pen of Doom!

Every once in a while I get on a "red pen" kick where I want to edit someone else's work.  I've found that doing this to the family Christmas letter or a coworker's big presentation are generally not good outlets for this urge.  That's where wikis come in.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Zoooooooom Ding!

Every once in a while the new LFG tool comes up with a really stellar group.  I've had a lot of success with my dungeon achievements, maybe found myself an arena partner (finally), and I just want to kick every dwarf I see square in the teeth.

REPOST plusheal.com: Raid PUGs

I was out in the Badlands working on Loremaster, and I got a whisper out of the blue asking if I wanted to heal Ulduar. I figured what the heck, might as well. I haven't really done much in Ulduar anyway, and it's Sunday so I doubt the guild is going to do it.

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