The Faire? The Faire!

All black and brown and covered with hair. Nope, that's not how it goes. (Sorry, little Song of Fire and Ice joke there. Anyone else enjoy the Bear and the Maiden Fair, or is it just me?). Anyway, about the Faire.

Yes, I finally got around to checking it out. A day late, to be sure. And while I complained on Friday about the new heroics (albeit in character), I have no complaints about the Faire. I'm actually suitably impressed. It is not a giant hub, but it is fun. The games are interesting, and it all seems well done. I haven't noticed any glaring issues yet, and even the small things seem to have been thought of.

It almost seems to me to be a Tale of Two Design Teams. There are a plethora of little things that annoy me about the the implementation of the new heroics. They just don't have that same level of Blizz-polish. There are small bugs here and there, and the storytelling is not as fluid as I might like to see. On a larger scale, they're fine. The fights are interesting when working, the venues pretty when you have a moment to take it in, and the cameos by lore characters are fun when you actually get a chance to digest that they're there. However, the demon lord is in the details, they say, and there are some details in the heroics that are even now being hotfixed.

The Faire, though? Seems flawless so far. Is it odd that that surprised me?

In a world of Skyrim and SWTOR, it really is the details that will make or break my playtime decisions. The minor details won't make me completely quit a game, but at the end of the day, I simply want the most fun for my time spent. My time is precious, and there are tons of things competing for it right now. The Faire may well win a temporary spot where the heroics have failed. It's not simply about rewards... it's how I feel when earning those rewards, and the heroics feel to rushed for me. It's more stress, not less.

"Oh come they said,
Oh come to the fair!
The fair? said he,
But I'm a bear!
All black and brown,
And covered in hair!"

I'll leave you with a tip: Did you know there's a trade goods vendor just outside of the return portal (in Elwynn Forest at least)? Yep, Fuu didn't. She went all the way back to Stormwind to get her trade goods. The closer vendor really makes the dailies pretty trivial. Just sayin'.

Stupid Harbinger

It's been a busy one around the Manor this last week.  This Warlock has basically been working two jobs to make 13 hour days, leaving me only time enough for small tasks in WoW before I collapse.  I can't whine too much, though, because the second job is a volunteer position.  It isn't like someone forced me into it.  (For those who might not know, I coach HS football in the fall.  It's two-a-day time right now.  This is also why I didn't get to an IC Friday post last week.  Apologies.)

Fortunately, I'm to the point on my main toon that I don't need to do dailies anymore.  Everything is unlocked.  All I have left is to finish up the achievements because I'd like the Flamecaller title.  Most of them have been pretty easy.  Things you can knock out one day at a time.  I'd been tracking three achievements on my screen at a time, knocking them out as I go.  I saved the hardest (and longest) for last.  Those happened to be Ready for Raiding II and Death from Above.

I wouldn't say these are the hardest skill-wise, but they do rely on random daily spawns and just getting the appropriate quest in the first place.  Thus, you're not always in control of your destiny when it comes to completing these.  Still, I wanted to share a few tricks I picked up from various places that may help if you're looking to finish these up too.

• If you need to wave at folks, remember that you can use "/tar name" to find them.  It doesn't even have to be the full name.  For about a week, I was flying around the roost typing "/tar man" every time I logged in.  Mankrik was my unicorn for that one.
• If you're having trouble with Ludicrous Speed, after you turn in the quest (but before you kill the mini-boss for the next part and thus lose the ability to become a flying something-or-other) you can keep trying.  You also have no specific bird limits at this point, which is nice.  You can nab hawks for a 15 stacks each (instead of stupid owls at 5 or songbirds at a paltry 1).  Rule the skies!
• For Ready for Raiding II, you do NOT need to pick up the quest to get the achievement.  I unlocked the ancients last (and thus the kill quest), but I was working on these guys long before that.  As long as someone else comes along to start the event, you can get in on it.
• For that same one, most of them are pretty easy.  Just avoid the bad.  If you screw it up the first time, wait for the next round.  Or be lazy and tag it and run away (works for most).  For the Harbinger, I had a really hard time.  I pulled out all the tricks.  I waited for the last 10% to tag.  I sandbagged it.  I tried to burn.  We had a warrior interrupting.  I think on that day, it was simply bugged for me.  The next day I logged to find the Harbinger still up (wewt) and got it first try.  You have to avoid the flames, and I think jumping makes sure the meteor doesn't hit you.  I just ran around and jumped a lot.  I guess the tip here is that if you've tried and you think you are avoiding the bad yet don't get it... maybe come back a different day?  This one drove me nuts.
• When all you have left is the bombing run achievement (if this is not your last one, you've either planned very well or gotten very lucky.  The odds are totally against you.  You have to get the quest, which isn't always up, and then get the spawns you need, one per day.  Ugh), you can simplify the process by not turning in the quest.  Thus, it should remain active for you.  Obviously, you're sacrificing marks, but if you're done, who cares?  The downside here is that you'll need to log out near the quest giver because the fire comes back every day (or do some clever corpse running to get there).  If you don't, then you can still get there by completing the pre-requisite dailies, but that's sort of a pain.
• Apparently the bombing run guy switches twice per day.  I've not really checked this, but it may be worth your time to pop in both the morning and the evening.  (I think they swap at like 1pm and 4am or something, server time.)

 I still have three guys left to hit on the bombing run, but that is all.  Then, I'll have acheesed my way to another title.  I've grown fond of the quest achievements, and so far have gotten all of the Cataclysm ones.  For people who enjoy questing, I think they're balanced well.  That is, they're not super-impossible as a ranged clothy and solo-able by a Pally.  Not that has ever happened before.  Oh no.

Anyway, are there any other title chasers out there?  (Titles, Mr. Connery.  Famous Titles.)  Got any tips I missed?

And The Award Goes To...

It's a little known fact (and we like it that way) that every year the various Warlock Councils of Azeroth get together for a fel-studded, gala event.  The purple carpet is rolled out and the edgiest of robe fashion is put on display by some of the darkest and most demonic in the Warlock Community.  It's a night of prizes and surprises, celebrating the most corrupted of Warlock culture! 

I mean, who can forget last year's Your Mom Is A Succubus?  Or the Howl of Terror threat during the show in '07?  And who wasn't riveted in '08 when emcee Impasmic was banished from the stage by the spirit of Medivh, back for a surprise hosting gig?

This year's show is full of promise featuring musical offerings by the Blue Void Group, DJ Elemental Ernie, and the Latin stylings of DG and the Infernals.  Rumor has it that Seven Sexy Succubi might show up for an impromptu dance number, and Hand of Gul'dan is in charge of the pyrotechnics.   Also, a confirmed guest appearance by Cho'gall and the Twilight Hammer Performers promises to make things a bit crazy.  The Covens are hosted this year by none other than Wilfred Fizzlebang and Lord Jaraxxus, whose work inspired us all in last year's Crusader's Coliseum (to not fail, of course).

Recently and exclusively released to KeS! were several of the nominees for Best Quest, Most Gratuitous Gore, and Hottest Supporting Roll.  Our pick to win it?  Well, we don't want to spoil anything, so let's just say that it's our opinion that hot newcomer Fusion Core will be going home with quite a lot of hardware this year.  We even got our blood-spattered hands on several still shots from the nomination video.  How can they not vote for the big guy?!

An inside source assures that all gnomes destroyed in this film were most likely irredeemable.

Green Screen Technology was used when two instances of Mr. Core were required on screen. 

You can see in some of this pre-production footage where they will later add copies of Mr. Core in.

So far, Mr. Core's camp is keeping mum about any potential wins, though one friend close to Fusion told us: "Yo, FC's plannin' a ballin' after-party.  Gon' be a blast!  Hot bodies all up over this be-ach!"  Sounds like you can count us in...

The Misadventures of a Huntard: Nagrand Style

Tamed Fuu has been by far one of the most neglected alts that I can even think of. She was the second toon I rolled after Fuubaar. I would have to say that I think she was created before Wrath was even out. I wanted to roll a hunter because... well, why does anyone want to roll a hunter?

-Pets are cute
-Shooting guns/bows are pretty sweet
-They are almost indestructible as far as Classes go
-Very easy to catch on to a simple rotation

So I named her Tamedfuu and off I went. I believe I got her around level 40 before I totally abandoned her somewhere. It wasn't because I hated her. To be honest, I can't even remember why I stopped. So one of our RL friends wanted to start playing the game and I rolled a Priest for the Recruit a friend thing. I ended up gifting Tamedfuu my additional levels maxing her out at level 60.

Again, I left Tamed in Shatt awaiting the moment when I had some down time.

Fast forward to a week ago:

Oh look! Some free time!

I've had the chance to occasionally do a couple of Battlegrounds with her and all of one random dung. (yes I'm calling them dung now) I'm leveling her Beastmaster like any sane individual. I slowly (I mean F-ing slowly) got her out of Hellfire and decided to head off to my favorite zone in all of outlands: Nagrand! Who doesn't love this place? It's green, lush, has floaty islands with waterfalls, and it has the Nesingwary Hunter Quests. Sounds like the perfect opportunity to get my hunter from 64-68 :-)

So I head up north to the Nesingwary Camp from memory (which I must warn you is quite dangerous). Sure enough, I found it with out too much problem. I picked up the three quests:
-Kill 12 Birds
-Kill 12 Talbuks
-Kill 12 Clefhoofs

Easy as pie. Send in Harlow, put up a hunters mark, smash keys to victory! I was about half way through the kill quests when my little Draenei stated the most horrifying words that a hunter can hear "You are out of Ammo"

/facepalm

Ok, no worries, Halaa is close & we own it. They should have an ammo vendor there & I can just come back. So I wander over to find that all of the NPCs are missing. Oh FFS! Hello level 80 horde. Yes, thank you so much for coming out to this remote location & screw with level 60s. Damn it! So, now what?

I remembered that there is a large questing hub to the south for Alliance called Telaar. Wandering around a bit, I did end up finding it. Hurray! Now, why wont anyone speak to me :-(

I pick up the only quest that is available to me at this time. Some quest about killing Ogres and one of them drops some sort of plans... Oh great, a killing quest with no ammo. This should be humorous.

So this is what it feels like to use Mongoose & Raptor Strike on the back side of an ogre. Not my finest Hour.

So I got the plans to drop with only a minor inconvenience & scarring to my pride. So I run back to turn it in only to find "Now I need you to kill MOAR ogres AND talk to some ultra Mega Ogre on the top of the Ogre Hill with TONS of linking Ogres" "You must finish this before you are allowed to talk to our people" You bitch! I have gold that I will give you for some pointy sticks to throw!

Mother of Pearl... Harlow! Stop Mooning the Ogres!

So I brutally fought my way up the hill towards Lump the Ogre. I sent Harlow in & put my hunters Mark up and ran in for the melee attack when all of a sudden a level 71 Blood Elf Paladin landed next to Lump and killed him. Lucky for me, I had tagged him before the Surprise bombing. I thought maybe he was trying to be helpful since I looked so desperately pathetic. So I /cheered him on & /bow'ed towards this interesting fellow. I finished my quest and talked to Lump on the hill. Out of no where, this paladin started spamming "Duel" requests. WTF is wrong with this guy? Not only am I seven levels below him, but I'M MELEEING! What the hell did you think was going to happen? A close victory? I kept declining it and he kept spamming. I wish there was an emote that I could say "Tamedfuu is out of ammo you twatburgler." After about 5 more requests, he finally /chicken'ed me and flew away. What a wonderful lad...

What ever! I have my quest completed and now to get my damn ammo! I ride back to Telaar and check each of the vendors to find the one who sells arrows.

ICE CREAM!?! WTF am I suppose to do with that? Throw it at the Ogres? Well, actually that's not a bad idea if I do say so myself...

Maybe I can fashion an arrow out of this quill. Harlow, get off of the bed and stop scratching your ass. Do I need to get you monkey ass cream?

Oh here are the arrows...

So I finally broke down and asked someone in the area. I found this lovely Warrior gal (Thank you SOOOOOOOOO Much Marish! You are a life savor!)  who made circles around Telaar just to save me more humiliation (if there was such a thing) She found me the vendor and I bought up 3,000 arrows.

The thing is, even after almost three years of playing this game, I find out something new. Did you know that you can flag ammo vendors from the mini- map? Yeah, well, WHY WOULD I? Lousy DPS and their stupid consumables. *grumbles*

Since I wasn't having a great track record, I let Harlow pick the next questing area.

Lucky me...

Fuubaar's Top 10 List of A.D.D. Crap To Do Before Cataclysm

Hey Gang!

As the mass majority of you out there are winding down waiting for Cataclysm news, you find yourself not logging into the World of Warcraft quite as often as you had before. I’ve compiled a list of things that I’m currently doing in-game to keep myself busy with goals. I’ve ranked them in the order of easiness (10 being the easiest while 1 is excruciatingly difficult & time consuming). I’ve also listed things that you can do by yourself (aka Solo). You are more than welcome / encouraged to do these tasks with friends to make them a lot more fun & fulfilling but, again, this is to fill up your own time because others aren’t logging on nearly as much. It sucks when you are in the middle of something and someone else ruins your plans.


10) Finish up the Argent Tournament: If you’re like me, you probably got very excited when ToC came out and felt the urge to Champion all of the Horde or Alliance cities. Well, if you’re also like me, you got through 2-3 cities before you lost interest. It’s probably been long enough by now that you’ve forgotten how truly boring it really is (see: ADD) and could force yourself to finish those up. Hell, just try to do one full round and see how it feels. If it still brings back painful memories, call it a loss and move on.

9) Northrend Reputation: I’m assuming that you’ve probably worn every tabard that you could get your grubby little hands on and are now exalted with every one of these factions. Well, what about the Factions that don’t give you a tabard? Go look; I’ll wait… yeah that’s what I thought! You aren’t quite done now are you? Get to it! Those Walrus men have many Wolvar puppies to steal!

8) Northrend Heroic Achievements: Many of us are quite ill at the thought of running more Random Heroics by now. As your gear goes up, the speed of bosses living goes way… way down. Like 30 seconds down. Like He spawns in an instance, and he dies instantly because you thought about running that heroic. I’ll bet that if you were to look at your Achievement Tab for Heroic Achievements, I’ll bet that there are more accomplished than you realized. Gather up some of your best friends & finish the remainder of those up! This shouldn’t be too terribly hard if you have the right people. Plus, you get a mount!

7) Kalimdor/ Eastern Kingdoms Dungeons: Let’s head to Vanilla shall we? Depending on when you started playing WoW, you’ve either blown so far past these instances that you’ve never set foot inside them, or it’s been so damn long ago that you’ve done these, that you might have forgotten the beauty that these old instances hold. Pull up your Classic Dungeon-master Achievements and start filling them in. This is going to require quite a bit of traveling on your end but if you have the flight paths, you could knock out every instance in a matter of hours. I would not only suggest figuring out what you need to run, but also figure out where they are located. This will really make your travel time sleek and as slim as possible while finishing this achievement. Not only is this one pretty simple to complete but it’s really the best time to do it so that you can say that you’ve seen what these instances used to look like before the big Cataclysm ripped them a new one (literally).

6) Outland Dungeon/ Heroics: If you have a lvl 80 toon of any class, I’m pretty sure that you could Solo Outland Heroics. I’ve been doing this with my Protection Paladin and I haven’t run into any major problems. Now, this is not to say that I haven’t gotten myself killed a few times... because I have. I’m pretty sure that every class will feel differently about these heroics. DPS could burn down a single target pretty damn quickly and may struggle with pulling large packs of mobs. Whereas, Tanks have a problem with burning things down fast enough but could tank large groups of mobs for days without much fuss. Healers, on the other hand, I have no clue about you. You may just want to switch to an off-spec to achieve this. I mean if you’re a Priest & have Holy & Disc as your two chosen specs, then Smite away you mighty Smiters! Let me know how that turns out. I’ve also noticed that I had to deal with some of the gimmicks that a DPS didn’t even know existed such as kiting Bosses, or interrupts just to name a few. I’m also going to attach a warning to this if you are indeed soloing these on a Heroic level: Since you are a lvl 80 & have such a small aggro box, you will tend to skip pulls and head straight to a Boss without much thought. The Major problem with this is that some of these Bosses, when engaging them, tend to pull the entire room that you skipped. Please be aware of this before engaging a boss. This could lead to a wipe & body run of embarrassment. It’s almost humorous when you engage a boss & you see a sea of red mobs running straight to you. Just an FYI :)

5) Outlands Reputation: Again, depending on when you entered the game, you may or may not have a large task at hand with this one. Similar to Northrend, heroics offer you reputation by simply killing mobs. Please note: You do not need a Faction Tabard to grind specific reputation. In Outlands, you have to run a specific dungeon to get specific rep for each faction. For example: Cent. Expedition, you will need to run Coilfang Instances that are located at the bottom of the lake in Zangermarsh. If you are super lazy and just want to run random heroics, go for it & just note what reputation you are receiving from each one. I’m pretty sure that if you want to get your Outland Dungeon/ Heroics Achievements finished first, you’ll have a nice chunk of Rep. already completed. For the factions that are not represented in a dungeon, this will require completing dailies and/or Repeatable turn in quests. Some of these repeatable quest items can be found on the AH and I suggest looking there if you want to become exalted quickly rather than inexpensively. I would also suggest looking into some of the neat little things you can buy with Faction Reputation. Non-combat pets, tabards (that you’ll actually want to wear), & mounts (Riding & Flying) are definitely some of the best rewards that you can get. Have fun!

4) Attunements & Keys: This may or may not seem pointless because a lot of these attunements or keys aren’t needed anymore. But what else are you gunna do with your time?! In Wrath of the Lich king, there weren’t any attunements or keys factored in because they weren’t “fun” for the player. But here’s the thing, these story lines of how the instance was locked away or how the bad guy inside came to be is lost without these quests chains. What really got me on the kick to work on these attunements/ gather keys was the Karazan Raid. To this day, you still need a key to get inside. The Karazan key/ urn of Nightbane quests will take you all over the place in Outlands & into a lot of dungeons that you’ll need keys for as well. This one could be a doozey if you let it.

3) Non-combat Pet/ Mount Collecting: Some of these are extremely easy to get/ purchase from a vendor or a quest chain. While others, are downright luck based drops or Reputation grinds. If you really like vanity stuff, this could seem endless (hence why it’s number 3 on my list). With the reputation grinds that you are accomplishing, you’ll definitely be gathering up some of these cuties right & left. The biggest Challenge that I present to you will be the luck based drops. Examples for vanity pets are the little Whelps that could drop from your first mob or your one millionth. These little guys are so adorable & they squeak when you poke them. If you are a dragon lover such as myself, you’ve gotta catch em all. Plus, I have a horrible feeling that since these old world zones are being torn asunder, these pets might not be available much longer. Same with some Mounts, as zones & instances are being reworked, who knows if these little goodies will still be around. Good Luck!

2) Loremaster/ Seeker Achievements: Yeah, you knew that I would go here. If you are the ultimate completionist, this should be on the top of your list of things to do. This is actually quite nice to accomplish if you do it in chunks. Working by zone or Continent really makes this task look a lot more digestible. If you are serious about completing this one, I would suggest downloading an addon from Curse.com called “EveryQuest” It lets you view all of the quests that you have previously completed and ones that you still need to complete that count towards your Loremaster title. If you do complete these achievements, you’ll receive the Dungeon ones too.

Drum Roll Please…..

1) Insane in the Membrane Feat of Strength: Can I say one thing here: HOT DAMN! If you really want everyone to know how bored you are right now, tackle this Achievement and you, my friend, are a badass of the ultimate kind. If someone called you a “No-Lifer” before, those fools will grovel at your feet and call you their King. Not only would you become Exalted with some of the most obscure Factions in the game, but you would probably have to dig down deep and have to become hated with Goblins & then make them love you again without pissing of Pirates (yeah that sounds pretty insane by itself). There have been so many strats on how to achieve this written that I’m not going to even bother. I must say though, I highly suggest making a plan before you attempt. Make sure that you know what’s involved and what’s at stake here. Not only will these be extremely time consuming but extremely expensive if you let it. In the end, you will have the coolest (subjective) & hardest to achieve title in the game. This title is so rare that I’ve actually never seen it in game.

So there you have it folks. This list, if completed will probably take you well into Cataclysm. If you’re sitting there complaining that you have nothing to do…. PACK OF LIES! If you are that one guy who has achieved every single Achievement in-game, then fine, you win. But the rest of you 10.9 Million slackers better start crackin’ because boredom doesn’t go away by itself ;)

<3 Fuu

Shadows, Now With More Cunning

The night before last, we finally finished the Quel'Delar quest chain. The hardest part, as expected, what knocking out each of the new heroics. As previously mentioned, they can be difficult enough to still cause a myriad of problems with random PuGs, so a good, preformed group really helps here.  I'm not going to ruin the storyline for anyone who hasn't done it, but I will say that the last two steps after you get out of heroic mode can be solo'ed. Don't let the word "Sunwell" scare you... you aren't going retro-raiding.

After it's all said and done, I was able to pick up a rather amazing 1H weapon for my DW DPS set. You can check out the stats (and my addons) in the following screenshot:

You can see I use both Pawn and Ratings Buster addons.  As with most 1H DPS weapons, this one is devoid of any Strength stat, which is a bummer, but the other goodies more than make up for it.  The best thing?  It's slow.  And by slow, I mean fucking slow.  2.7 swing speed slow.  That's good stuff for a DW DK.  Especially with a 205.6 weapon DPS.  Pop this puppy on your MH and watch your OB numbers skyrocket. 

It had been marginally tough to find good, slow, 1H DPS weapons.  I now have a 2.6 off hand and 2.7 main hand.  Since I've talented so that my special attacks hit with both hands (Threat o' Thass), this means I'm seeing some great numbers now, with the beefy QD netting me awesome crit numbers for a DW.  Yep, this one is going to be a staple for a long, long time.  Not to mention the sweet lore and epic quest chain involved.  I felt bad for Fuu because her priest had to get the mace.  The mace still has great stats, but it's not the Quel'Delar you just saved.  It's more like a simple quest reward and not like you're wielding an epic piece of awesomeness.  Poor priests.

Now, I'm hoping I can get a second hilt to drop so I can get this bad boy for my Warlock.  (Still, having recently acquired Seethe on my lock, it wouldn't not be nearly as big of an upgrade... or used as much since melee 'lock = fail). 

Oh, and did I mention that you get announced in Dalaran?  Yeah, who doesn't like when some hot belf chick is screaming your name?  I'll cop to that one.

Feel free to drop a question about my UI too if you see something you like/don't understand.  Yeah, I use Fortex on my DK too, wanna fight about?  I'll QD all over your face.

We Can Haz Quel'Delar?

Back to work means back regular posting, and while I /groan at the working part, it is nice to have a regular schedule.  Holidays usually get me all out of whack and I'm one of those people that likes to patterns.  I'm a creature of habit.  Sometimes its nice to break the pattern, but other times it feels comfortable to get back into it.  Not that I'm enjoying my early, sleep-deprived mornings any more than I have previously.  I still rebel against the fact that we're a culture that completely ignores one of humanity's basic needs... all in the name of capitalism.  After all, the early bird gets the worm right?  So if you're not an early riser, you must be a lazy, no-good bum. At least that holds true for about 75% of America (I'm not sure about elsewhere). 

In any case, you probably didn't come here today to commiserate about the epic struggle of the alarm clock boss.  There is no good strategy for that anyways.  I personally prefer the "hit snooze and hope for a different spawn" approach, but I can't say that it works reliably.  Only when the instance is really glitched out.  And just ONCE I want to come into work, enter the revolving door, and be spit back out with someone yelling "additional instances cannot be launched".  I would celebrate that one.

No, I'm sure you came here today expecting to read something interesting (or perhaps at least to breeze by on your way to a clear reader).  Well, getting back into the swing of things is rough and I have a full reader too, so I'll keep this short.

Fuu and I both had what must be the luckiest day of our lives two nights ago.  We saw two battered hilts drop, and, what's more, we won the resulting need roll in both instances.  Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that they've adjusted the drop rates for the things, but still, winning both rolls on our first glimpse of the epic quest chain starter is luck indeed.  Of course, this luck found us on our alts, which is less than ideal, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  Or in any other part of it's anatomy for that matter.  A mount is a mount, except when it's an epic quest chain and then it's purple and rife with lore.

What the hell am I talking about?  Ah yes, the recently added quest chain for the Quel'Delar.  What's a Quel'Delar?  Why a sword of a course!  A purple, dragonforged, ilvl=awesome sword (unless you're a tank).  The quest chain itself is a recent recipient of a famed "Best of Show" award over at the Pink Pigtailed Inn.  The five part series takes you through all of the new instances, and even back into the old, TBC Sunwell to see it's restoration.  So far, Fuu and I have only done stage one, so I can't really comment about the entire thing, but it's already been quite epic and enjoyable.  Really, who doesn't enjoy a good quest chain?

It does require a fair amount of instance running, which should be cake with the new LFG system.  Unless of course you're me.  Then, you will always draw HoR randomly and when you suggest to the system that you'd like to do Pit of Saron you get Violet Hold because "oh-damn-how'd-that-box-get-checked".  Then when you do run stuff you get six people that want to drop for unexplained reasons and your mom calls on the tele for a chat while you wipe because you apparently forgot what buffs and armor are.  Don't ask me why, I've just all of a sudden lost the ability to do anything "real quick".  I'm stuck in Murphy's Instancing Hell.

So I'm hoping that getting back on my regular schedule also fixes my sudden propensity for group fail.  That, and I think I'm going to badger Miss Medicina into healing for me.  Help me, Miss Medicina, you're my only hope.

The Leveling Grind and Why We try to Rush it

May 6th 2008

A couple sat on their big comfy couches next to one another with their laptops spread across their laps in eager anticipation. Feet reclined and ready for anything. These two adventurers have just installed one of the most talked about MMORPGs in the world.

They are about to enter... The TWILIGHT ZONE! du du du du!

Ummm no, actually I was talking about the game we all know & love (well, love could also be ad libbed for any number of words here "Hate" "Despise" "Makes me want to punch a puppy""Throw someone onto a bed of sporks" you get the idea)

They are about to enter... The World of Warcraft!

Loading screens were up, both were nervous about what character to choose. They know that they want to go Alliance on Lothar because of a friend, but those are the only expectations given at the moment. Should they roll Night Elfs for their long ears & bouncy nature? Dwarves for their stout stature and drinking problems? How 'bout a Gnome for their... nah, there's no good reason for that race. Ok, how about Humans! Bingo.

Now, what about classes?

The boy always likes the pew pew of it all and something sort of ummm, evil?

A Human Warlock! Perfect!

The girl likes to be helpful. Her previous toon on FFXI was a healer but she wanted something different. She enjoyed the flexibility of healing, DPS, & tanking all rolled into one. That leaves a Druid or a Paladin. She's played a paladin before and really enjoyed it.

A Human Paladin! Perfect!

These two wide-eyed adventurers watch the intro scene and enter Elwyn Forest not quite knowing what would happen. Their friend invited them into his guild to meet the people he talked about so much. Generations was his home and wanted to welcome them into this warm & inviting place.

Generations wasn't a hardcore guild nor really ever raided very much but when they did, the Guild Chat would light up like a Christmas Tree with cheers & excitement of dropping their first Boss or someone finally getting that epic to drop. The adventurers felt so far off from ever participating with these mighty fighters. 70 levels just seems so forever away.

"Ding"s were excitedly written in the Guild Chat box. Anyone who was on, would cheer with excitement and shock at how fast they were appearing. Some felt that they were leveling at a Top Rate of Speed and it was "Frightening".

Conquered lands lay in shambles behind these two admirable foes. The forest didn't even see it coming, nor did Westfall. Gear was quickly replaced from grey, to white, to green.

The two adventures felt that this was where they should be. They would try their best to get to the highest level to be with their friends. What a game!

September 20th 2009

A new MMO has just been launched onto the scene. These two adventurers are anxious to begin. The loading screens are up. What character to choose? Will they feel the way they did before?

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Over the past few nights, something went wrong. I was angry. Was it my class? I ended up rolling something that I've never rolled before because I wanted to try something completely new. I rolled an Assassin (something similar to a Rogue in WoW). Did I just not like the play style? This game is awesome, why can't I enjoy something new and challenging?

Then I realized, I had been cursed. (Not by Fulguralis if that's what you're thinking). I was cursed by another game.

The leveling process in the World of Warcraft forces you to believe that the leveling process is just something in the way, some obstacle to block the road before end game. Blizzard is basically telling you that you have so many levels that will teach you your class before you hit level cap. Over time, they have made it easier and easier for the new player to enter the game, and fly past zones & levels and never really enjoy them. Yes, I know that some say that leveling is a major focus of the game. I would have to disagree with you. What can a level 25 anything do in the game? A few instances and if they feel up to it, a Warsong Gulch? WoW, that's cool :P

Let me tell you what a level 25 anything can do in Aion:
-Craft extremely useful items
-Level in many different zones and areas through out the world
-Fly
-Enter Rifts to other worlds/ enemy factions land
-Enter the Abyss and join in on Epic battles for Honor and experience

These are just to name a few.

I was so frustrated because I looked at my low number of 25 and felt we had such a long way to go to get to the awesome stuff. Low and behold, I already had the ability to enjoy them.

Now, is this shining WoW in a bad light?
Not necessarily. I believe that WoW has put a ton of focus on their development into their end game. So much so, that they want more players to experience it. During the Sunwell patch in TBC, the Devs felt that they had put so much work into that instance and so few got to actually experience & enjoy it, that they would change the expectations of their players in end game raiding in WotLK. With each additional patch comes easier leveling, smaller learning curves, and more experience with every zone.

The World of Warcraft is an endgame focused Raiding game. The journey to level cap is not the adventure but the beginning of Raiding. I believe that this attitude has followed its way over to Aion. I feel like I should be easily flying through levels so that I can enjoy the end game. The thing is, Aion isn't built that way. They want the leveling experience to be... an EXPERIENCE! So, comparing these two games is totally an Apples to Oranges kinda thing. There are a few things that they have in common but that's it. When people compare the games, they are setting one of the games to fail. I love both games equally for very different reasons and I will continue to play both with very different expectations.

As for readers out there struggling to let go of these comparisons, enjoy those levels because they wont come easily or quickly but there will be more than enough to keep you happy.

~Fuu /Awrath

RP: Maraudon

Last night, Tordun, the Dwarf, and I were trying to deliver these items that we snaked off of some stupid morons inside some cave in southern Desolace. The area was the home of many creatures that were not much weaker than us. But hey, we're on our 50th season now… we got this.

So, Tordun hesitantly stepped into the shadows of the cave feeding off of my courage. We walked up to the first elite-looking monster and he braced himself. I shielded him while he and I pew pewed that little plant down to the ground. Ok Ok, that wasn't so bad. We can do this. Next, a group of three of these foliage monstrosities. Tordun looked back at me with sweat on his brow. His expression of concern didn't make me falter in the slightest. I knew what I was doing and he was a paladin, he can take it. I shielded him from the initial attacks and cursed the mobs and watched.

Tordun's arms grew heavy and he started to slowly weaken while I tried to decide if I wanted to stop attacking. Oh man, he's really going down fast. I step out of my shadowy mist to save my friend from the plant fiends. I throw on another shield to save him from some incoming damage but I know that it wont hold out very much longer. They are swinging and ripping at his armor too fast. The small strength encouragements that I'm giving him just aren't cutting the mustard dogs here. I need to act fast or he'll be smashed!

A critical strike lands from one of my spells and the plant sways. Come on you stupid bastard! Hit the floor! Torduns's about to pass out when the final plant sinks to the floor and it's green tundrils curl up and stop. Phew! We look at each other and let out an uncomfortable laugh. I knew that there were other groups of these things and now I know we can handle them.

We creep into the adjoining room to investigate the next task at hand. Oh great! I've heard of these guys… slimes. They are slow and stupid but if they get a hold of you, they'll do the worst. I instruct Tordun to stay away from them and just watch the ranged master at work. Stretching out my arms, my knuckles crack. Watch this!

I see a small group of two and anger the closest one. I start to leech life from the ooze and I slowly watch my step backwards to avoid their violent tantrums of green goo. Their health is starting to drop… hell yeah! I'm doing it! Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tordun's face turn into a grin and he charges in. Stupid Paladin, you couldn't just sit back. He rushes in and starts to hack at the ooze to no avail. The green goo begins to corrode his plate and starts burning his skin. Persistent little dwarf isn't he. I throw another shield but I cant stop moving or I'll be caught in the goo's trap.

Well, I have a job to do and if he just wont listen to my superior intellect, then he'll just have to sit this one out face down in the dirt. Oh, here he goes; going… going….. GONE! I hear the moan of the paladin. The corrosive acid finally did him in. Focus Abigora, Focus. I'm running out of space here. The ground was cluttered with leaves & roots making it very hard to navigate. I see the first ooze start to bubble and squirt out. HA! I got one! It turned into what looked like a gelatinous goo mold on a picnic during the Summer festival in Tanaris. Success!

The second slime slides over his previous companion with his mind set on seeking his revenge. Tordun's spirit had left so I knew that was up to me to finish this on my own. My heel caught a hidden root and I tumble backwards into a bush. The thorns pierce through my robes and tug at my hair. I can see blood trickling down my arms and legs. This ooze just wont quit! I start to panic, kicking my way backwards through the bush. I'm such a goner. In my last ditch attempt, I curse him and shield my body. I don't know if this will hold but it must! My arms are aching from the cuts and scrapes but I found the strength to cover my eyes. I don't want to see this… my final moments before…

The world stopped. The pain that I was expecting from the Ooze never came. What the?! Is he too stupid to look in the bush for me? I lower my arm to see my attacker in a green pool. I inspect my robes to untangle my snags from the bush's grip. I can't believe I actually did it! I've never been able to succeed in such a battle before. This is what it feels like to hold the power of shadows in my soul. I LOVE IT!

A sigh of relief washes over me. As soon as I regained my thoughts, a small hand reaches out for mine. My eyes slowly followed the big burly forearms of the dwarf to his face. Tordun, having returned to his body, lifts me out and helps me bandage the scrapes on my arms and legs. He was such a great friend to follow me into this horrible place, and I let him eat dirt. As I look into his face, the only thing I could think about was that cute warlock that I had met in that tavern back in Stormwind. He was so… yummy. Next time I see him, I'll definitely buy him a Dwarven Stout.

Where did Fuu go? Oh Here I am :D

Hey Gang!

Sorry that it's been so insanely long since I've made a post but here I am :) Life has been uber crazy since 3.1 hit the fan. Not only in game but RL is just plain nutzoid!

In Game Madness:

- Playing with Dualspec & learning the ways of melee dps (lolret action): I still have yet to DPS in a raiding environment because of my Tanking Main. I've attempted a few times but we always come up short. :/

- Trying out all of the new dailies: I'm really enjoying all of the Argent Tourney & fishing dailies. The Wintergrasp Fishing daily is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. Everyone flies into Wintergrasp and fishes right next to the flight path & NPC's. The opposite faction knows this little trick too but he doesn't know that when he comes over to instigate some cheap HKs, he's about to be beat down by 3-5 very angry fishermen with their fishing poles.

- Raiding: Fulguralis & I have yet to set foot into Uld. (except for last night he went without me) and be cool kids but our raiding guild isn't ready for that big step yet. We raid 2-3 times a week in 25-man Naxx to gear a few more people up so we don't get slapped in the face like noobs in Uld. I think I'm ready to tank it but I wouldn't mind replacing a few more pieces to be extra sure.

- The Back to Back Holidays: Noblegarden was cake only took me a whopping day to finish everything and get the title. Children's Week on the other hand has been proving itself much more difficult. I've finished everything except for that damn PvP crap! The Achievement: School of Hard Knocks makes me want to punt a puppy (or my orphan girl). Now, I've done all of these BG's successfully before but when everyone else has the same thing in mind, it becomes a cursing nightmare. I'll beat my head against a wall until I get my last 3 requirements then I'm taking some time off. Matron Fuubaar I shall become damn it!

Fulguralis finally told me that I wasn't allowed to PvP for a while.

- Recruit A Friend (or someone else's friend): Friday Night, I got a message from Fulguralis that one of his RL friends wanted to buy the game & do the Recruit a Friend to lvl up his first toon. So, motherly Fuu volunteers her time to be a good Officer & good Fiancee. I wanted to lvl something that I knew would be hard to do on my own so why not a clothie caster :)

Welcome Abigora! The new Shadowy Goodness.



After two days of goofing around and melting lowbie faces, I hit 23... and I'm addicted! I'm lvling with a paladin (which I cant help it to love). My major problem is that I keep running OOM on her. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I can only put up a DoT and then wand for the remainder of the fight. I keep aggroing off of him if I use anything more than a DoT, so I fade & continue on my journey of DoTing and laughing. There are so many interesting spells at my disposal that do gobs of Damage. I can see this little lady being something that I will spoil. I picked up enchanting on her and I'm just not sure if I really wanna invest time into Tailoring.

Anyways, conclusion on in game is that I feel like I have so much to do and I'm running short on it :(

Real Life Madness:

- Wedding shenanigans: Well, the clock is ticking and Fulguralis & I are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (no... we aren't dying.) With a little over 2 months left until the big day, it's crunch time! Almost every hour of every day is accounted for. We did our gift registry at Bed Bath & Beyond (we wouldn't dare step into the Beyond section ahHHHHhhhhhHHHHH oh, here are the mugs) over the weekend and we actually had a great time together. Last weekend was flowers and you know Ful was pumped..... NOT. He was a good boy though and made it entertaining for me. We have meetings almost 3 times a week for something and most weekends are spent traveling to one of our parents houses for visiting.

So, that's what I've been doing for the past 3 weeks now. I was going to post about my new Tanking spec but it's not even that new. We got 1 new talent and it's not even all that cool. I'm still sporting a 5-60-6 MT raiding spec. If someone really is interested in my spec let me know and I can help you out. For now, I'm off! I promise I wont wait this long to post something fun :)

(because I know how boring Fulguralis can be... I'll try to save all of you from his warlockery drivel)

FOR THE LIGHT! (or shadow now?)

Hump Day

And in case you haven't heard that term for Wednesday before, rest assured it is not obscene (though I thought it was the first time I heard it and was like... whaaaa?). What it means today is that I'm halfway done with a busy week and going to be a bit lazy.

First off, here is the picture I referenced yesterday. Love it. And I totally dropped that wyrm yesterday first try style. He can eat snow and die.

Charge!

Secondly, Skeleton Jack presents us with a great blood spec here. It isn't the one I'm personally using, but since I've tried to be blood from the start, I can at least relate. After rolling a DK on Abi's server and going with a Frost DPS spec though, I think I might have to switch to that. Great burst damage with frost, but blood can obviously put out some good numbers. HS is just plain win.

Lastly, speaking of Abi over at Fear.Win. I wanted to link his take on achievements since I'd been talking a lot about them on my blog. He states his view well and I'd have to say I agree with most of it. I've stated that I hate the "there's always next year" line, mostly because there may not be next year. We could all move on to a new game. I'll grant that I don't see it at this point, but its not like anyone predicted the rampant success of WoW either. Hopping from RTS games to the MMO world was laughable when first conceived.

I also agree that nearly all the achievements now are "time sinks". I guess I just think there are enough places to sink time in the game already. Blizz can do better than achievements, AND make them more valid/respected. Some show promise of this, while others are a joke. I stand by that I dislike the attitude that has arisen during the holidays from the drive to get the drake (and other rewards). If you're going to sink time, do it on something you enjoy, regardless of the reward. Do you play the game for the pixels or for the people? If you've read me a bit, you'll know where I stand.

This Is What Happens When Fuu Gives Me Extra Coffee

So apparently I'm going to work on getting exalted with Sons of Hodir now. You see, I hit 77 with my DK over the weekend and that means flying training again. I'm about 2k gold short of my second epic flying skill, and I'm not sure I can tolerate slow flying again. It's sort of the same as what I always say about stacking haste on Warlock gear. It's completely like a drug addiction. If you've never had it, you don't miss it. However, as soon as you taste the new speed, you're hooked on it. Take it away and you go through withdrawal. I don't recommend stacking haste (or doing drugs), especially to the detriment of many of the other stats (or your life), but boy does it make me feel fly (not the drugs part, the analogy ended a while ago... catch up).

In any case, flying (yes, I purposefully used "fly" earlier in a different context because I'm nerdy and thought it was a funny segway) around on a slow bird makes me feel antsy, so I decided its time to go back and grind some on my main. The money is faster, and I could use the rep. I can't say there is much there gear-wise that excites me. I have the 30 SP and mp5 head enchant right now. I know I have no use for mp5, but the 30 SP is tasty. I'm thinking that I'll switch for the slightly less SP on the SoH head enchant since it also gives a nice bit of crit. I'd rather not waste stats if I can help it.

The 22 slot bag pattern will be nice, but the mats are pretty steep right now. I wouldn't mind having the fun mammoth mount too (the 900G one, not the 9K gold, though if I preform a WoW heist soon, maybe I'll magically get 9k).

The dailies around there aren't a bad way to pick up some crystallized earth and fire too, since you usually run across revenants that drop them. Sort of like in TBC when I did the Fire over Skettis daily and then farmed up a Primal Water on the way back to town. I don't really need the Earths, but I know a good alchemist who can transmute them to something useful for me.

All of the dailies are pretty easy, except one. If you've done them, you know the one. The stupid spear and kill a wyrm quest. It definitely takes some getting used to. Having him drop me from the sky to my death really sucked. Warlocks totally should be able to do something to mitigate falling damage (even if its on a long cooldown so as not to be useful all the time). Mages and Priest both have things right? Clothies do spells, spells save lives... Warlocks, kill? You're right, I guess mitigating falling damage doesn't really go with our street rep. Bring on the falling damage!

In any case, to be successful at killing the wyrm, I've found you need to basically alternate the quick attack and the grip buttons constantly, throwing in the powerful attack whenever the cooldown is up. You're gonna wanna try to throw in a dodge when he swings he claws, but don't worry, it's not on GCD so it doesn't mess with your rotation. Once you get to phase two (in his mouth), just spam the first button until you get lowish on health or feel luck and then hit the second. I'm not sure what to look for in the second phase other than having "pried" a bit before trying to stab him in the mouth. After you kill it, you're not going to want to try another one just for grins.

It has been recommended to learn this fight in the buff, so as not to damage your gear, but keep in mind you'll probably lose a good chuck of stamina in the process. The rest of your stats don't really help out, but having that extra health is nice. I have a good picture of me zipping off to fight au naturale, but forgot to send it to work... maybe I'll put it up tonight for grins.

Doing all of the dailies nets you a decent amount of rep, plus ~120G before repairs. All in all, not a bad way to spend an hour. (I rather do do a lot of asides, apologies, but parenthesis are totally "in", at least in my world. Perhaps I'm on drugs after all if I think parenthesis are cool. Can you be on drugs and not know it? Is that like how crazy people don't know they're crazy? If you time traveled and saw yourself would your head explode?)

(We would like to apologize again for the asides. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked. /headdesk).