Just the two of us. And then, something completely different.

Itarilda and Freewind returned to Stormwind City, prepared to cleanse the Stockades of the rioters. Just the two of us, so we visit the meeting stone and touch it. Wait. "MMM mmm. Dum dee dum. So. How's things? Like the weather we're having? 'I don't know about you, but I can't understand a thing those wisps say. I usually just nod.'"

Well, we stopped waiting and went in to see how it'd go. I being level 29, she level 31, how tough could it be? I carefully pull and we keep back. One or two at a time was easy enough. The only annoying part was the runners. Playing a Fury Warrior like Msaker I tend not to "stance dance". But I wanted to see how quickly I could fire off a hamstring once their health got low. I stayed in defensive stance, with a shield thank you very much, and then when the health got low I went into battle stance. All my rage was there. I dropped a hamstring on them and then an execute. Tactical Mastery for the win!

We worked our way down the corridor, and at the T made a left. This took us to Dextren Ward. It was going real well. We had a Druid join us for a few rooms but he disconnected. After we'd killed Dextren another person joined the party. Unfortunately the prisoners were back and we had a bad pull. When the new party member says "Well, I'm going to join a group that's ready," I'm thinking "We've cleared 2/3 of this place without you." and I say "Good luck to you." and uninvite him.

Back at the start, just the two of us again, we worked our way back through, and at the T made a right. Is it common knowledge that Hamhock is a Shaman? Mmm. Well, that's that then. We did get 3 out of our 4 quests completed and it was fun. Itarilda did a great job of keeping me alive and I think I did a pretty good job of keeping all the bad guys off her.

Leaving the Stockades and reporting back to Warden Thelwater, we both gained a level. I was now 30 and she 32. Time for training and then some R&R.

---

Getting to Exalted+ with Frostwolf (see below) concluded with a nice win for the Horde.
I do love it when someone actually takes charge. One of the last games, in the silence of the cave, I sent to raid chat "Silence until they take they Relief Hut, and bitching till we lose." It remained pretty much quiet until they took the Relief Hut and bitching till we lost. "Worst game ever," someone said towards the end. GG Battlegroup 7.

But yesterday somebody was suggesting strategies. And when I saw a few turn left at Iceblood Graveyard, and head towards the Garrison, I joined them. I'd never been to the Garrison and that was the first time I saw Captain Galvangar. We were actually going to defend it. But, frankly, how often do the Alliance defend Balinda?

So now there's eight of us in the Garrison, waiting the inevitable approach from Snowfall on the other side of the Field of Strife. And here they came. Like chickens to the stewpot. This went on for a little bit and then quieted down. I went east again to Iceblood Tower and climbed it. Alliance bunkers are much different from Horde Towers. Was it me or were there simply fewer archers defending here? Up next to one of our archers I take a Frostbolt. Hmmm. So I walk to the back and then begin a descent. I hear fighting below. Hmmm. So I fire up a Lightning Shield, put up a Windfury buff on my Unstoppable Force, and drop into a furball. Crikey! (to honor Steve) but there were a bunch of them. Red names. Alliance. I don't last long at all. So that's that then.

I resurrect at Iceblood and make my way north again. Stonehearth bunker, garrison, and graveyard are all taken. Progress!

Someone says "Need Healer and more DPS for Bal". That just happened to be right where I was. I swing left and dismount next to him. He charges the gnome captain at the door. I keep him healed and a mage joins in. The gnome drops as I run out of mana. (Sheesh. Shamans.) So we move in, we're five now. And Balinda is easy enough.

As we ride out I see our frontline has been doing well. Moving up the road to Stormpike Graveyard. This is usually where we get bogged down. Not this time. Our steamroller has kept rolling. Stormpike itself was lightly defended, but never abandoned. We were literally fighting Alliance, two or three at a time, around the flag, while we killed Marshall's, and through the killing of Vannadar himself. That final battle I was just running around the room targetting hoping to catch an Alliance player. And there were a few regular die-hards. Thanks for the HK's, ding! Horde Wins!, and good night.

Blood Guard + Frostwolf's (Epic Trinket) Eye of Command.

Woot.



And the +15% Ghostwolf speed is great for picking herbs.

Exalted with Alterac Valley. Or, Boy, those Pirates are going to pay!

It was a long weekend and Blackhoof sallied forth into the battlegrounds again. This was no honor grind. Honor is precarious. Given out by the Powers that Be, and revoked as easily by the same Powers. The Powers grant benefits and rewards, and the Powers are also the first to lock you out again when you fail to pass the muster. The Powers won't deny progress, but the Powers are soon to be packing up. When Honor changes in the future, to become nothing more than a rankless commodity to be spent like copper, that's the day our War is over. That's when we become mercenaries, assassins, and/or terrorists. Out on our own business or vendettas when we lose State sponsorship. "For the Horde" will be such a hollow battlecry. While Blackhoof will never make Warlord, he doesn't deserve to wear that Warlord gear. If "Honor" is to become nothing more than credits earned towards buying reward, this is nothing more than being able to buy General's stars at the pawn shop. You're not a General, you've only got money.

But, I digress. Alterac Valley, the last few battles, were absolutely horrible! The Alliance are taking the Frostwolf Aid Station and we're still on the road leading to Stormpike Graveyard. Is it me, or is Frostwolf way too spread out to make defensible? I mean we enter Stormpike and we have towers on both sides, NPC's everywhere, live defenders all over the place. I was over in Frostwolf and I was alone when I watched a mage two-shot the entire Frostwolf Aid Station guard with Arcane Explosions. He was backed up with Paladins and some Rogues and then there was a swarm of them. We've captured Stonehearth and they're assaulting our Aid Station. It's always the same. We get Stonehearth, they get SnowFall. Then they grab Iceblood and it's we who ride the gauntlet through them to our frontline.

Second to last match I'm in I see a /say while we wait for the gates to open. "Anyone for Capture a Mine?" I see someone say "Sure." I ask "Can we also do Proving Grounds?" "Sure." So we ride out, Blackhoof and two Hunters. It's very easy with them. We capture the mine from the Kobolds and see it revert to Orcish labor. Then we ride south to the Windpaw Caverns. Again, very easy. At that point I see by the map that the Alliance have assaulted a few bldgs in Frostwolf. The Horde is strung out on the road north, and there's more than 10 AFK according to the raid chat. :/

It took a week but the Alliance x-server pugs have gotten the Zerg to Drekk down to an art.

I reach exalted though and take my ride up to the Frostwolf quartermaster north of Tarren Mill. I buy my Immovable Object and I buy The Unstoppable Force. Yes, I respecced back to Enhancement, with Stormstrike, to see how the up-close-and-personal battles in Arathi Basin will go. I do have about 1,000 more Reputation to earn with the Frostwolf and that will get me the Rank 6 Frostwolf Insignia. That'll be a nice "Been there, done that, lots" memento. And Faction Reputation, unlike Honor, you can't lose. I'll always be esteemed by the Clan. That's an accomplishment.

After reaching exalted, but before respeccing, Blackhoof accompanied Droonda down to the sands of Tanaris. She had never been there and took the missions the goblins had to go kill Rogues and Bandits and Assassins. She did the business, and I kept her safe and healthy. We didn't group so she'd receive the full benefit of the experience. Except on the mages, which I'd pull by attacking their voidwalkers.

We also rode up to Steamwheedle and got all the pirate missions. Blackhoof had never done them himself so we grouped for that. And when Nachmahd appeared and learned where we were, he wanted to join us as well. Rum: Everyone wants some. And we rolled through that camp like cavalry through a wheat field. >>Epic'd Shaman<< thank you very much. But 20 pirate hats took so long! But this was satisfying. Especially after the drubbing given the Horde by the Alliance. At least in my Battlegroup.

Msaker, level 49 now, Droonda, nearly level 44, and Nachmahd, also level 49, have a few more things to do yet in Feralas. The rain forest is very nice in the rain too.

And my Alliance characters... Where's the time??!

Blackhoof's not an egotist. ... No, wait a sec. Nope. He is. :)+

It's been mentioned that I don't talk enough about the other people I play with. Oh, I don't know about that. I've mentioned Droonda/Itarilda, my wife. How she just got her Timberwolf mount. Even had the picture to show for that. Nachmahd my buddy. The only screenshots I could catch of him show an empty scene, no Tauren. What's up with that? He's probably out of range picking an herb somewhere. I'd call him a Pansy, in honor of his devotion to herbs and such, but he's about 2 feet taller than me and double my size. Don't mess with a Tauren or you'll get the horns. So Hippy and Flowerboy will have to do.

Soooo, without further adieu, let me tell you a little about our latest adventure.

We set off to kill us some pirate captains. You know the three Captains, moored off the beach to the east of Booty Bay.

We make our way out to the island. There's a mess load of warlocks to be cleared. I go after imps first, then the 'lock herself. I hate the fireballs. Nachmahd is beside me, damn Enhancement Shaman making me work to beat him in DPS, and Droonda is backing us up, yay for Restoration Shaman! It's easy to clear off the island.

Now we have two boat ramps. Up the left one we go. There's two or three at a time. Swashbucklers and Mages and some sort of Rogue slash Deckhand type. I so hate being gouged over and over. Hard for me to hold the aggro. Me being Msaker of course. (See it's not all about Blackhoof. ):p )

Hey, isn't that some nice emoticon for a Tauren?
):) = happy Tauren.
):( = sad Tauren.
): = ambivalent Tauren.

:][ = tusked Orc? (We don't smile)

Where was I? Ah yes. So we've stormed the first ship. We do pretty good. Droonda is pulling a little aggro, but nothing we can't handle. (Cheaper on the bullets that way.) We clear through to the Captain and kill him.

Next!

Next boat. Same procedure as last year. We clear down to the Fleet Admiral this time. Hey! This is easy. The 2nd and 3rd targets of our assassination quest done here.

The first on the list must be on the boat off to it's own. "This is going to be sooo easy" I think.

We swim over, clear the island. Mana regenned we storm the boat. Kind of a WTF moment arises when we are just surrounded by pirates. What's an adventurer to do? "Run" I say to my wife and I turn and leave the boat. "Run" I type in party chat. I keep moving out. "Run" I type again in party chat. I've got 4 or so on me. Droonda and Nachmahd's health bars are dipping. Mine is too. (Love the shield and plate armor.)

Two pirates swim after me and take me down to about 1/3 and then stop. They just stop in the water. This is like a guard spawn! That's NOT what was on the other ship. They spawned more and more just because we were there.

Well. That's just not fair.

Nachmahd anked, Droonda is rezzed, and I dance and wait. "I'll pull" I say and go up the ramp. Pow and I get two to follow. Maybe it's three. Well, this seems to be the toughest boat. There seems to always be more pirates than we see and expect. BUT we're two Shaman and a Warrior. You think we can be stopped? Nah. The 1st Captain is killed and we swim back. Job well done.

That concluded our adventures for the night and everyone logged. Everyone, that is, except that wished-he-was-an-Officer Blackhoof. But let's not talk about him again. :)

Rank 6. Nice. Never been an officer before.

"And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to." - Col Jessup, A Few Good Men.

So I got into the Officer's Hall finally. Bought myself a nice Officer's Tabard. Next week I hope I'm rank 7 and I can pick up some of the officer gear. It's late nights, but a 15% increase in my Ghostwolf run speed might be worth something.

And all the while my faction rep grind is steady. Over 1/3 of the way to Exalted with Frostwolf. Half way or so to Revered with Warsong and the Defilers. All of these factions offer nice rewards. My goal, if it's even possible at my casual pace, is "Champion".

It's not all wins and wins.

Alterac Valley we lost 3 times in a row. Twice as we were working on Vanndar. The first we got bogged down on the road to Stormpike Graveyard. I can't imagine the hours long battles that used to be waged. But I got 3 tokens out the effort here.

Arathi Basin I entered in with some trepidation. This is the toughest one of the battlegrounds for me and the battles seem most personal. It was pug-vs-pug and we five-capped it. Woot. 3 tokens from this.

Warsong Gulch, and it's gotten late. I only needed 1 more token to make 3. Initial rush out the gates. I see Alliance running down west side of the Gulch and we running up the east side. I'm epic mount, carrot on a stick, mithril spurs, and I always dismount outside so they can't hear the dismount. I'm alone and I run to the balcony. There's a fight going on below and someone bubbles me. "God? Is that you?" No matter, I grab the flag, drop an earthbind, a searing totem, and run for the door. Ghostwolf and start running. Back down to our base along the west side. Our flag is taken and is going north mid-field. I have company with me. Troll. Friend. I go up the ramp. Our flag is still gone. I tuck myself into a corner and wait. I see a Night Elf ride up and approach. I jump down and land on a gnome. (Heh.) Earthbind and I run down the tunnel towards the speed boots. Gone. And 3 more red names coming up at me. Hmm. I turn and run out the side tunnel. Up to the roof. I cross the area, jump down, drop an earthbind, and then go out the door I first exited at the game start. I ghostwolf and make myself scarce behind some clutter in a corner. I see that I've been targeted, by a hunter. Dwarf. Grrr. Well, I can't stay put. So I take off, moving to the east, and then north, off the cliff. But I don't want to go too far, so I cut hard to the left and simply run west along the bottom of the cliff. Not sure I want to try the tunnel, since most flag deliveries are handled via the tunnel I expect there'd be a mob in there, so I keep running west. Then up the ramp, back around to the left, and then up into the base at the balcony. Bang, our flag is returned and I jump off the balcony and cap it. 1/0.

Well, that's a lot of running so I try a little defense now. I'm keeping totems down by the flag. It's kind of quiet. There's a priest there with me, from my own server it turns out. Two rogues too, Night Elf and Gnome. As soon as I come out of gouge I'm gouged again. Mooo! When I come out of this gouge I just start jumping around, I'm spamming shocks, the priest is bubbling and healing, both of us, and first the Night Elf dies and then the gnome is gone. Dead? Doesn't matter because here comes a mage, with the Alliance flag, and she caps it. 2/0. Nice. /cheer!

Rinse and repeat. Except this time no rogues show up. Guess the leetness of me and the priest have kept them scared away? Good. "I AM SHAMAN! HEAR ME ROAR!" Believe it! Please? (We are seriously so nerfed vs. the pally's. Whatever shall we do?) Anyway, here comes the Alliance flag. Our base is a sleepy haven waiting for it. I drop an earthbind at our flag and then head down the tunnel. What's that I see? A blue flag. Yay! Surrounded by red names. Ruh roh! I run down and drop an earthbind. I'm trying to target the closest attacker. The mage is out in front. A Warrior. Frostshock! But, alas, the mage falls. Oh noes! I remember reading there is a delay between the flag dropping and reappearing. And it reappears ahead of the drop in the direction of travel. I am surrounded by Alliance now. They're worried about getting their flag back. "Oh. This Flag?" I grab it. I've got Alliance on me like they were ticks and I was some backwoods 'coon hound. The priest is keeping me alive. I'm concussed and poisoned and slowed and I walk the flag to our flag. Capping it as the rogues are busy trying to kill me. "HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?! I AM SHAMAN!" Heh. 3/0

Ah. It's late and I turn in For Great Honor (3 tokens from each of the battlefields). Rank 7: I'm coming for you.

Blackhoof - Kirin Tor.

Go Dawgs!

Droonda got her mount. She was very happy. And she always had a thing for red heads. (She married me afterall.)

About 120K in honor this week. Hooray for the new x-server Battlegrounds.

Road Trip!

Really enjoying playing the tank. Msaker, the name, means Carnivore in Armenian. Ashot Msaker was a king of theirs way back. Anyway, looking at it, doesn't it look like Massacre? Kewl.

Spent a bit of time in the Arathi Highlands and up in the Alterac Ruins. We're hunting elite Ogres. (When we can kill a Mauler in edgewise between the two level 49 Hunters, One a Troll, one a Night Elf, tiger and boar for pets, named Cat and Boar. They ran circuits, and the were running the identical pattern hours later when we returned. Bots? I'm 100% sure of it.

Then we do a run up into the Hinterlands. After we'd insulted the Witherbark Trolls long enough, collecting their skulls and making a village decoration out of them, (Probably a well known fact: not every troll has a skull. Yeah, mon!) I called a Road Trip. We'd run to Reventusk Village on the coast. Before we entered the village we killed a few turtles. I, level 46, and Droonda, level 39, and our friend Nachmahd, level 48, enjoyed the run.

Later Msaker and Droonda returned to Grom'Gol. The easy way.

I couldn't do that. Could you do that? Why can they do it? Who are those guys?

A line from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when Butch wonders at the trackers following them.

The new Battlegrounds. An improvement? I don't know. But I can say there were like 19 Alterac Valleys happening (mid-afternoon EST) and rather than wait 2 hours for an AV match to pop, (or more), I couldn't walk away from the AV quest giver before the match started. At one point I had 12 honor marks in my bag because the matches were coming so quick I couldn't turn them in. It also meant I advanced from about 6k in honored to Exalted. In one night.

So, staying up way later than I should have, after I was done in Orgrimmar Blackhoof mounted up and rode post haste up to Alterac Valley itself. There was a quest to turn in (had I done something?! :) that would give me a weapon of sorts. :/ The Ice Barbed Spear is worth 7g when I sell it to a vendor. The one-handed mace I could use, *if* I needed a one-handed Mace with +Str on it. Which I don't. I haven't picked yet.

Then I went to see what was available to me for being exalted with the Frost Wolf folks. More weapon choices. A big blue axe. :/ (Stats aren't that good for me.) Ah, well. With Revered I'll actually pick up the Don Rodrigo's band, and Therazin's touch, perhaps. And the Lei of Lifegiving. I'll also pick up The Unstoppable Force and that Shield, for the times I respec back to Enhancement to spice things up. And then it'll be Arathi Basin matches.

And once Revered is reached with the Frostwolf Clan I'll head out and offer my services to the Defilers. While AV offers weapon choices, AB offers armor upgrades. They complement each other. By design!?

All in all, I was pleased last night with my ability to play Alterac Valley as much as I wanted.

One negative though. Previously playing against folks on my server, I knew a few of the people on my side, "Oh, look! A guildie!" and some on the other as well. "Not those punks. Not again!" Knew *of* them that is. Now each match is a collection of 40 strangers from across the servers. I keep looking at the list trying to find someone else on from Kirin Tor. Or find someone from my old guild over on Smolderthorn. (There are Battlegroups of servers? How's that determined??" I wonder if we'll make "friends" and "acquaintances" like the old days, heh, or is 6 Million players too large a pool to expect that?

Anyway, Blackhoof of Kirin Tor /salutes you.

Why do we fight? Why do our factions fight?

Do my actions in the battlegrounds effect anything or anyone except myself? No. I could get a rank that I have to fight to maintain. That's just a tag over my head that other people see. I could get my hands on the officer's gear of my faction (Horde or Alliance) if I get high enough rank, and I can get gear from the groups who we do battle for (Frostwolf Clan, Silverwing Sentinels, etc.).

Remember last year-end? The "Christmas" themed city decorations? I was thinking why not use that kind of "decorating" as a reward for a faction doing well?

Picture the NPC's walking around. Shoulders stooped. All of them dressed like Topper McNabb. Blue skies are gone, replaced with gray clouds. (No rain though. Just gray skies.) Take away the luster, add some general shabbiness and gloom. This place looks like it's hit the skids.

Over in Orgrimmar, the innkeeper and her patrons are wearing tuxedos. The stone floor in the bank and the auction house are replaced with marble. The open fires are contained in fire buckets. Things look a little bit neater. The vendors are buying stuff for a slight premium. There windriders fly a bit faster than the alliance's griffins, who've succumbed to a miasma of sorts.

Oh my! Has Stormwind City suffered a plague? An economic downturn? No. The Alliance side has not earned as much honor, relatively, as the horde side. (More Alliance population needs to get more Honor against a smaller Horde population.)

If we can string up Christmas lights, we can certainly make a place gloomier, or brighter, in response to how the faction has done in battlegrounds.

This would give folks an incentive to participate in the wars raging every day in the battlegrounds. (When they're working, of course.) Each side will want the pleasure of, and take pride in, getting their side the spiffy digs and improved earnings, and would love to see the other side living in greater squalor.

Now that's something worth fighting for. I want to see gnomes on skidrow, their persistent little smiles removed from their faces. With extreme prejudice. "Death Coil this, my preciousses." >;) Or living in splendour, whatever your poison. Whatever you are willing to fight for. Because it'll make a difference to everyone around you.



You'll know your side has been CRUSHED when your beautiful cities look like Stratholme. Time to contribute.

GG Blizzard. Ya went and broke World of Warcraft.

To whom it may concern,

You began extended maintenace two hours early today. And now you tell me it is scheduled to last two hours later as well? Due to issues? What the hell? Key rings and a Shaman nerf. Bam. You patched those in just fine last time. Yeah, I admit, Cross Realm Battlegrounds sure sounds like a technical feat. All that networking mumbo jumbo is meant for brains brighter than this Tauren's 25W bulb. Cross-Realm = Cross Server, no? Aren't you having server problems as it is? Sorry, but IMHO you should have fixed the server issues first. Experienced a few weeks of server happiness. Then patched cross-server stuff into the game. Servers broke? Check. Broken servers connecting to broken servers? Check, check. Hmm.

Anyway, hurry it up. I've got rank to check.

Yours truly,

Blackhoof of Kirin Tor

P.S. Love the game. Please fix it. KTHXBYE.

P.P.S. In way of apology you might, if you are so inclined, drop one of those Totems of the Storm in my bags while the server is still down. I don't have one of those yet. Sure would like one though. If you could arrange it I'd keep mum about it. Promise.

Consolidated on a good server: Medium population, more RP, less 1337, active Battlegrounds, all my characters.

Darkhoof retired from Smolderthorn and has been resurrected as Blackhoof of Kirin Tor, 60 Tauren Shaman. Blackhoof is quite pleased that twice the number of alliance versus horde means the battlegrounds are as busy as ever. Too, horde tend to win most bg's. And, shocking, he actually gets invited in BG raids. (On Smolderthorn in AB and WSG nobody ever invited anyone and folks just lose, and they were always losing, on their own.)

Oddity also retired from Smolderthorn and has been resurrected as Msaker of Kirin Tor, 45 Orc Warrior.

Msaker is joined by Droonda, my wife, a 37 Orc Shaman. Their friend Nachmahd, 46 Tauren Shaman, greeted their arrival.

It's been a good transfer over. I have my characters, my wife, and a friend and co-addict, all with me on the same server. Each of us have multiple level 30 characters here. Droonda is my wife's character closest to level 40 and her mount. I have four characters with mounts, one level 60. Morticai (36 Forsaken Warrior) and Greenclaw (36 Night Elf Druid) are close to their mounts too.

It's really really good having a built in support network and close friends close by.

Spies in the mix. Twinks must die.

Hmm. Some things make you go "HMMM!"

Last night Freewind, Itarilda, and our friend Nachruf quested some in Duskwood. We were now tasked with slaying Morbent Fel. Not an easy task. He's orange to me, and an elite. And he's guarded. Such an easy fight. We cleared the lower area and slowly moved up the stairs. With a Druid and a Paladin present, and Freewind tanking with sword and board, it went so smoothly. The adds went down, and then we worked on Morbent Fel. I absolutely love it when something goes that well.

Freewind's level 29 now. And he was within 3 bubbles of dinging 30. What's that mean? Yeah, baby: Battlegrounds!

I was going to be top of the pack in there. Level 29 Warrior, what could go wrong? Mmmm, how about twinked Rogues whose enchants damage you more than their swings. I kid you not, I examined the combat logs. Their weapon enchants were doing more damage on me than their weapons were. That's just wrong. Sorry. In order to finally get my Crusader enchant on my level 60's Earthshaker, I had to save up a lot of stuff and sell a lot of herbs. But here, these level 29 characters have what amounts to 50G in enchants on their weapons? It's not their skill at this point, it's the money they're willing to dump on a level 29 sword. All I can do is make their life tougher. Rends, deep wounds, and hamstringing them. And I pay particular attention to them. I even make special "/target Twink" macros so I can find them whereever. I know I'm winning when they single me out for their attention. ;) Win, lose, it's just a difference in two honor tokens. And I'll save my cash for the necessary things. Like buying my wife's Enchanter weapon enchant spells!

Spies in the battlegrounds. Someone stated in the Warsong Gulch /General "They can see where we are." I thought it was the ravings of a poor loser. However, nobody answered back "L2P noob." I thought it was unlikely. Until I saw a zerg approach our tunnel. There must have been seven of them. The 3 rogues with their brilliantly glowing Enchants. I was watching from above, at the cemetary (where I spent a great deal of time it turns out), as they approached. I was going to announce "Zerg incoming" to the raid. Then I saw them turn, and head east. All of them. Hmm, I thought. Curious, I was watching to see where they went. Nobody on my side was over there. Maybe this was a secret way up to my level. Roh roh. They got to the trees and one of the Rogues went behind a tree limb. Okay, this is where I can see the path up, I thought. Or, maybe, this is a secret spot where folks can hide with flags. But nobody is there. I don't see a flag.

Then the rogues two lightsabers start swinging. And then the group erupts. From their midst stumbles a level 22 Druid. She's stunned and going down fast. I look for the flag. I don't see one. What's going on???

Why do 7 Horde approach our base, ignore getting the flag, head to a nothing corner of the map and track down and kill a level 22 Druid?? I didn't see her, no way could they have seen her. She must have been Shadowmelded, and behind a tree limb. These guys zeroed in on her like guided munitions to a bunker. We've got a snitch.

I announce it in /General and nobody says anything about it. The zerg grabs the flags and caps it for the win. I haven't done too badly scorewise. I'm near the top with killing blows (DOTs FTW!) and Honor Kills. (And deaths.) At the bottom is the Raid Leader. Level 29 Druid. 0 Killing blows, 0 deaths, 30 Honor Kills.

The raid rejoins the queue and we're shortly back in. And against the same folks. This time I do not join the raid, preferring to go on my own. Later on in that match, as we're one flag away from losing, I decide to scope things out in wisp form. I go to our flag area and see two enemy rogues in our flag room. (That's where I died.) I announce it to /General. Someone invites me to the raid and I decline. I watch a Night Elf Hunter come in and she's struck by the first Rogue. She sends in her cat and is stunned by the second rogue. /General "And that's the 2nd one." I say. They win, we retire to the Keep.

There I see some cats running around. Level 29 Druid knows the Level 22 Druid. Both are Corporals. Hmmm. Ms. Cat Form-Can see humanoids on a radar map-and-Does not Die knows Ms. Zerged Druid. Both unguilded.

Is it possible to be in Vent and report to your buddies so their WSG experience, not only enhanced by massively expensive enchants, is also given preternaturally abnormal amounts of info? Was I set up here? Sure feels like it.

Itarilde & Freewind.

Druid and Warrior hearthing home after a hard day in Duskwood.

Iodized Salt.

Had a fun weekend. (Except for the moving in part, and taking loads of stuff down to the garage and basement that perhaps I don't need to own at all anymore.)

Got back to Alterac Valley with Darkhoof and conclude the week, so far, with 952 Honor Kills and some 20,000 Honor. It's so easy to get the kills and honor in AV. Last match I got 400+ HKs. And, an added bonus, every AV I've played to conlusion ends with a Horde victory. (And I've been studying up on it and have a better idea what the goals are.)

With the wife now connected the two us returned to Azeroth. Freewind (26 NE Warrior, Arms) and Itarilde (28 NE Druid, Feline Swiftness + Resto) went to Duskwood and began the quests there. This was her first time there, ever, and she liked it. "Like a spooky Elwynn," she said. Of course, isn't it almost mandatory, that wandering elite skeleton guy bumped into us and we had to run for our lives at one point. She faery fired him and that was the end of her story. So between the two of us I tried to tell her that, basically, I need to hit stuff first, and hardest, and she can kick in with her attacks afterward. "What am I supposed to do? Just stand there??" "Of course not. Just let me get them to hate *me*. Then you can join in." We get into our groove. Kill some Worgen, kill lots of Skeletons and Ghouls. (We make the run from Catacomb crypts through tunnel into the Ghoul Cemetery.)

Later that evening our friend Nachmahd (45 Tauren Shaman, Enh) comes on and can help us out. This is when Zauberin (Forsaken 31 Mage, Arcane) and Morticai (Forsaken, 35 Warrior, Fury) come on and head to Hillsbrad. We assault Don Boragh (or whatever that elite dwarven place is called) and kill a Capt. Underhill. But Nachmahd, irl, had been helping another friend with his kitchen installation, :), and logs off early. And Kathleen is tired too, so that concludes our questing together.

Morticai returns to Ogrimmar and looks in his bags. 2 Warsong Gulch token markers. 3 for a turn-in, and it's Warsong Gulch weekend. Auspicious.

So I sign-up for WSG. I figure as long as I can get 25 HK's, win or lose, I'm good for at least a turn-in. WSG pops and I get invited to a group. Being level 35 I'm kind of mid-level. But I can Rend Rogues and Hamstring Carriers, so I can provide some benefit to the raid. And, boy, do I hate Gnome Rogues. So sneaky. Such snakes. So I pay special attention to them. At one point a 39 Rogue comes into our base, and as he and a Paladin take me on, and down, he actually does the "/chicken" move to me. He dies many more times afterwards, at my hands. Oh yes, we win. I'm shocked. And the raid signs-up again and we are almost immediately back in. And we win again. And again back in, and yet another win. Four wins in a row and it's nearly midnight so I bow out. What a blast. Morticai is Fury, as I've mentioned, and Dual Wielding, and he has two 1.5 second Long Swords in his hands. Of the Tiger, and Of the Bear. And I found that if I have a good buckler in one hand, and one of those swords in the other, I've got that much more armor and I'm still making dents. (A Fury Warrior becomes what amounts to a Rogue in Plate Armor. Pre-MC days we had a Warrior who would regularly out DPS most of the other classes in our raids in UBRS and such.)

But I'm not quite ready to sleep. Darkhoof logs on. He's got 945 kills in the week. Can I break 1,000? I sign up for Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch. WSG pops. I ask if they're inviting and get into a 5-man raid. We do pretty good. We actually have 2 flag captures. But the alliance are hitting pretty damn hard. But I'm in my 8/8 Earthfury + Staff of Dominance. I've got the extended reach on my lightning bolts. Witnessing a battle up in the Alliance Graveyard I approach. I target someone, let a bolt fly, and peg him. Kek. The party leader says let's get the flag. I move towards the base and find myself above the flag. No defenders. No party members. Why not? So I hop down, grab the flag, and head out. At the entrance I change to Ghostwolf form and start the run back. Where are the enemy?? I encounter nobody, I even have an escort. I run up into our base and look down at our flag. Present, and guarded. I hop down and cap it. Horde wins. Again. When it rains, it pours.

Maybe tonight I can break 1,000 kills before the weekly update.

As an aside, you might ask why my sudden interest in Battlegrounds? Since I'm not able to raid end-game anymore, what other venue do I have for loot upgrades? I'm wearing full Molten Core gear. Where do I go for upgrades?

Actually, I forgot about this, but I joined Requiem in their ZulGurub raid on Saturday. We didn't get very far in. We killed the Snake Boss, but with only one Priest taking on the Bat boss proved too tough. Anyway, the Snake Boss dropped the Seal of Zanjil. (Some caster ring, blue quality.) I asked if I could roll on it. (Since I'm Elemental now I can use some caster gear.) I was told, in vent, that it would be "bad form" for me to roll on any gear. This was for Requiem people to gear up. I was already geared up. I was being greedy. Sigh. Yes, I see the point. Apologies. But my trip to ZG got me 6g in repairs. And if I'm not going to be able to roll on anything I might be able to use... what would be the point in my going? A steady outflow in repair bills? I suppose the /greeded coin drops (I think I got one coin) could be sold and that would somewhat make up for the repairs. The Zandalarian Hero Charm? Now that would be nice. But... I'm going to get to go on a Hakkar kill? And be allowed to roll on the heart? No time soon.

So, I could raid ZG with lesser geared folks, helping them gear up towards Molten Core, for nothing personally and no gain, or do Battlegrounds, where I have little durability loss, I can earn a little cash looting corpses, and I'm earning rep towards some gear.

P.S. Cleared out my bank some by selling some of the herbs I'd stored up. (I needed the space to hold all my Enhancement gear. Not using it at the moment.) I think I put up for auction 10 or 12 stacks of 20 of various herbs. I'd let Auctioneer scan the market first and then just put the stuff up for sale at the recommended buy out cost. I made 60g. Sixty Gold!! (That's 2/3 of a basic mount. On some herbs!) Wow! That's just absolutely lucrative. So while Darkhoof was waiting for a BG to pop last night he headed out, in Ghostwolf form, and gathered herbs in Durotar and into the Barrens. I used to fish outside the entrance. Now I'm going to gather herbs. Might even set the hearthstone to someplace within easy flight of Orgrimmar but closer to the plantlife. (And one of the BG rewards is a set of boots with 15% faster run speed in Ghostwolf form. Woot!)

Alterac Valley.

To be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing. My strategy, for Alterac Valley, has been to get invited into a group. Then I go find my party members. If they're out there somewhere, maybe they know what they're doing and I'll tag along to the win. Kind of like my Molten Core Strategy. ;) I hope one of them is a Warrior, i.e. Plate Armored Damage Dealer, and I can make sure I can keep them alive. But I'm slowly learning the locations and the things to do. (Armor collection, etc.)

I also look to find battles and then, from the outskirts of these battles, safe at 36 yards or so, I keep my side alive with some good healing, and, now more than ever, to some damage casting Lightning Bolts and Chain Lightnings.

I have got to say I love being an Elemental Shaman. Never really did the Elemental thing before now. I have gone with 30 points in Elemental, and 21 points in Restoration. Faster, stronger, efficient Lightning Bolts that can crit real well, is the ticket. Last night in Alterac Valley I was the top Shaman in terms of kills. I was in like the top 10, 5 maybe??, when the battleground closed with a Horde Wins! I have been in a winning Alterac Valley everytime I've played one through to the end.

I was originally thinking Enhancement was going to be a viable PvP build. 0/30/21 with all the weapon buffing abilities. But it just wasn't. Maybe out in World PvP, one on one, maybe. Probably not though. I had my Earthshaker, and some fairly nice PvP orientated gear. Bloodstained Hauberk out of Zul Gurub, some crafted Black Dragonscale Boots, Black Brood Pauldrons from Blackwing Lair, and some items from the Cenarian folks down in Silithus. Going into AB I wasn't really putting any beatdown on anyone with that. I could circle a clothie, keep them stilled with Frostshocks and Earthbind totem, and just hammer them. If I had time I might win the encounter.

But, wowza, new build, and I was really, really enjoying destroying Warriors, who were engaged elsewhere (heh heh) with someone else, destroying them with a couple 1000+ hits (on a 1.5s cooldown) with my new build. Especially if they were using a Sulfuras, the Hand of Ragnaros. "Legendary this, my friend." I love Alterac Valley, I love my build.

Arathi Basin is another story. I always seem to be in a pug against a very, very skilled Alliance AB Guild. Does the Horde ever get the Farm before the Alliance get the Stables?? I have an epic mount, carrot on a stick, mithril spurs, and if I ride flat out, first through the gates, to the Farm, I can capture it just after the Stables are captured, never before.

Last week in the internet cafe, and an Alterac Valley weekend, I managed 500-some kills and 48,000 honor. I also went from Rank 3 to Rank 4, Senior Sergeant. And I became Friendly with all 3 battleground factions.

Last night I managed 500-some kills in one Alterac Valley session alone. And some 7,000 honor. And I got Honored with the Frostwolf Clan.

I'm hooked, again, as ever, for now, and the forseeable future. ;)

Wired. From in my freakin' house. Woot!

No more internet cafe. And after I get some of the furniture unpacked I can log on game from the comfort of home.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

Was playing some Battlegrounds last Saturday night.

Wasn't planning on doing much. Just wanted to get a little play time in. Hopped on the streetcar, headed into town. Yes, Germany may as well be 1906 when it comes to getting internet service at home through their cookoo clock making mentality. (Black Forest. Nobody makes an entire clock. Everyone only makes one certain part. The money maker is the one who alone gets to put it all together and sell it. Nobody is responsible, nobody really owns the final product. The clock works, but it's too expensive, and, it's 2006 now, so what?) Kabel BW: CAN I PLEASE HAVE INTERNET NOW? YOU HAVE NOT STOPPED ADVERTISING IT SINCE I'VE ORDERED. You can sell it, then provide it. Or, STFU, as we'd say in-game, and get the hell out of the business.

The connection there at the cafe is iffy, it's uncomfortably hot, but I figure I can 1) Sign up for Warsong Gulch there at the Outrider outpost in the Barrens, and then 2) ride into Elfland to go make some trouble.

I put on my spiffy melee gear and ride to Astranaar. Lucky for the locals, I didn't run into any of them. I cleared out the Silverwing Outpost, and then the tower by the Laughing Sisters. Then I reached Astranaar. I took out the two bridge guards on the east end. A mounted Alliance rides towards me. Level 59. He keeps riding. Then he pauses. Turns his horse towards me. I pull another guard and continue making short work on them. Now a Dwarf rides past. Level 60. He reaches his partner and both turn and ride on. I walk through Astranaar and slaughter all the guards. Wee. It's fun having epic gear. Before I reach Maestra's Post I'm called to Warsong Gulch.

I throw on a Lightning Shield. I ask for invites, AND SHOCKING SHOCKING! I get an invite. I didn't realize 60's did anything more than solo the BG's. Really nice. See, IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TO HEAL YOU WHEN I AM IN YOUR PARTY WITH YOU OR IN THE RAID WITH YOU. That's just for you tone deaf ones. Look: If you're not with me, I can't heal you.

I get /whispers asking if I'm going to keep playing. I don't know how much longer, but I have a goal: Friendly with the Warsong Outriders. !!! (I kid you not.) And I'm pretty close. Two guys from K N R chat with me. Two rogues, Evich and Eviloution. They're farming BG rep. I tell them I'm just glad to see that during my playtime hours (evenings Central European Time) my stateside server is active. And I need Rep too. They tell me anytime I want to join them I've got an invite. Cool.

I did a few more Warsong Gulches, and a couple Arathi Basins, and had a good time. And I reached Friendly with the Outriders. And I put my healing gear (8/8 Earthfury+ Staff of Dominance + +55 Healing enchant) to use, and my fighting gear. I am, in no way, burned out on WoW! Bring it on. Bring out your wounded. Bring on the enemy. ;)

In Italy this week.

In search of the elusive boar ham and parma cheese. Mages are great, for water and muffins, but things like that can only be found by gathering.

"You're an addict."

That's what my friend tells me with an in-game /whisper last night.

See, Friday and Saturday we went over to his house, Kathleen and I, for BBQ, and some Irish Pub, and then some Warcraft.

Last night I figured I'd just hop on the streetcar into downtown and try the internet cafe again. It was like a steamroom. After 9 and the temperature in there had to have been in the upper 80's. This is where you begin to sweat just sitting still. There is absolutely no relief to be had anywhere in this heat and in this country. Thank God for the portable air-conditioner we have set up in the bedroom. 23C FTW!

Anyway, I thought it was a little ironic getting a /whisper about my addiction.

Blood Elf Paladins and Draenei Shaman

At first I thought "WTF?!"

At the second glance I thought "They can't do that."

Now I'm psyched.

A Draenei Shaman. And a Blood Elf Paladin. I like it.

...

See, the original lore for "The Broken" the not-totally-corrupted Draenei indicated shamanic roots. Now Blizzard had said "The Alliance will NEVER have Shamans." So, of course, when the news came of the Draenei joining the Alliance, people said "The lore doesn't work." Now it does.

Blood Elf Paladins? Weaker. BUT in their pursuit of magic, ANY MAGIC, to further their cause, why not that of the Light? Do the Priests not learn Shadow Magic in the Cathedral? The "Light" is not "Good" and "Shadow" is not "Evil". Forsaken and Human Priests both use both forms to further their causes.

I guess the only question is why the Blood Elves are forsaking the magic of nature? (I.e. no Shaman magic.)

What I'd like to see, though, is race specific totems. The totems as we have them now are very Tauren influenced. Troll totems should be more voodoo and Orc totems should be more rock. Draenei totems should also have a unique look.

I'm psyched.

What to do? Where to go? The possibilities are boundless!

Returned to the internet cafe again. The heat there was stifling like an oven, making the pressure feel like that bandaging exercise in the Theramore Clinic to get your First Aid skill.

Speaking of Warcraft... :)

I log onto Morticai, only to see where he was (it's been goblin years since he was active). I just flew him to Orgrimmar. (I can't really play too long, or get into anything too attention demanding, at the cafe.) My friend was on. He lives just up the river from Heidelberg. He's got a Tauren Shaman that is in his mid-40's now. Keeps telling me about going to Zul'Farrak and all that. Nachmahd is the Tauren's name. He too had some characters on Emerald Dream that he brought over. A level 26 Night Elf Druid and a Paladin. Nachweis and Nachricht. He has four characters, but for the life of me I can't think of another German word starting in Nach-.

There is a new Massive Online Gamer magazine. First issue had an interview with the lead singer of Blue Oyster Cult. "Don't Fear the Reaper" and such. (Boy, I liked that song when it came out. And Will Ferrel on SNL banging on that cowbell cracks me up to no end! "I gotta have *more* cowbell!") Anyway, this singer for BOC, he's got a lot of characters. All his charters have names that end in -it. Trapit the Hunter, Axeit a Warrior. Smash-, Rezz-, Bank-, etc. (On an RP-PvP server too.) "Don't Fear the Reapit????!"

But, so, I wanted to get my buddies Alliance characters into our guild. I log onto Darkhand. I am the only one in my Guild that is on. And I don't have /ginvite rights. :(

But, snap, (is that a good use of that word?), I'm alive in the world. I fly from Stormwind City to Ironforge. And Ironforge to Thelsamar. I'm bored. What can I find near my level? Quests. One in the Badlands. Recover some parts from some Ogres. Green. Hmm. Sure.

Mount up, ride out, leaping over trees. (I do that because my wife is jealous of my mounts >;) and she's watching. I really need to get her to 40 on a character. I need internet access at home!) "He looks cool, doesn't he?" Phantom Blade on his back, cool Feather Headress giving him lots of agility. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever," she says. (It really is too hot to be in that cafe.)

So I find the Ogres, sneak into their camp, and then ambush the Ogre closest to the tools. Scrolling Combat Text is going wild! Record hit! Record crit! Record sinister strike! Record! ... I guess if you've never been recorded a sneeze is going to set a record.

And being a Rogue is a whole different way to play. Have to worry about having a dagger in my hand to backstab. Changing weapon sets. Etc. But I cut them down quickly enough. I ride out and return the tools. And I get a new quest. Dustbelcher Ogres have some metal things. Off I go. Glorified errand boy. But this time my rusty Rogue skills finally sieze up. I am slain by an Ogre. Oh, the ignominy of it. I recover my body, and look for revenge. I find a hapless Ogre. I aim for a kidney shot and land a premature eviscerate instead. (So many talents to use, so much to relearn!) HACK HACK HACK HACK, it goes down. I get the metal part, but, meh, this needs better concentration to get back into the swing. I stealth out, and outside mount up, and ride to the base camp. I didn't make a dent in my rested xp so don't mind sleeping out under the stars for a spell.

Each class is very different. Each race as well. And Azeroth is a pretty big world. I can't see myself tiring of it.

Two Toons and Counting.

Last night I journeyed back into Heidelberg town. I heard of a new internet cafe, this one a little closer to Bismarkplatz and the streetcar stop. This was a little more upscale too, with marble floors, multiple levels, lots of computers, and two, count 'em, two spots for people to plug notebooks in. Yay! I got one of those spots.

When I got there Hans and Frieda were smoking on the computer to the right of me, and Fritz and Inge on the other computer to the left of me. If you're a sophisticated, educated, computer-literate German, or European for that matter, odds are you are blowing cigarette smoke all over your monitor and keyboard. Probably have a "handy" glued to your ear as well, and you are talking to yourself like some mad person. Ah, the nicotine tar scum that must build up on your computer. (Except computers you can replace, your lungs you can't.)

But I digress!

Darkhand has now joined the clan over on Kirin Tor. I got him up and running and sent a /tell to the guildmaster of my Kirin Tor Alliance guild. "/ginvite please." So with that Darkhand came out of a year's retirement.

Arcarius logged on and sent the same /tell and got invited as well. My first character, alive again! Naturally I respecced my pet and taught him Prowl, Dash, Claw, and Growl, and then rode over to the Battlegrounds guy to sign up. I logged before either Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basic kicked off. BUT I look forward to playing there. Get Sergeant rank or such to demonstrate "For the Alliance!"

(Best wishes, Bero, if you're reading this, with the newcomer to your own family.)

But then came a bit of a glitch. Back to the character transfer pages. I wanted to give my wife a character. I created and pay for both accounts, and so I figured "Naturally." Except Blizzard figures "Not the same surname, obviously an Ebay transaction. No way in hell." She wasn't my wife at the time I created that account and I saw no reason not to name the account with her names, first and last. But she is my wife now. And my credit card has been paying both accounts since day one. I wrote Blizzard a message and let's see how that goes.

I figure $25 is about an hour or so's worth of salary. So a level 19 Hunter, with some pretty decent gear, is easily worth the $25 cost of transfer to me. Because it took a couple of hours to get to 19. I'm only wanting to give my wife the 19 Hunter because the character transfers allowed me to rezz my 48 Hunter back to life. Please Blizzard? Make us happy? <--- Shameless plea, yes. :)

P.S. Arcarius is Kinless' new name. So Kinless becomes simply me, the puppet master. Aka Robert, your humble correspondent. Tschuss, bis spaeter.

That's worth a War Stomp.

I went back to the internet cafe alone last night. But they were full. Not even a spot in the laptops section. I guess I'm not the only one with the means, but not the environment, for using/needing internet.

Two doors down another internet cafe, but without the laptop stations. (I.e. each spot taken by a computer.) But the guy motions me in, taking me to the back. There's an empty spot, with network cable. Hmm. But it's got a big floor fan standing in it. So he tugs on the cable and manages to get the plug past the door frame into the back room. I shake my head, the connection on my laptop is on the opposite side, that would never work. He then goes to a nearby cubicle and disconnects the network cable from the desktop and asks "How about this?" I push the flat screen back, prop the keyboard behind it, and I think I've got room. Out comes the Toshiba, my mouse, and I'm good to go.

First things first. Character transfer. Kinless/Arcarius is now over. Next is Darkhand. I go to the character transfer page. Nothing loads. White screen. World of Warcraft Community Page loads fine. On to the character transfer page. Nothing. White screen. So I go to the forums. Character Transfers thread is five pages long. Blizzard: "So sorry." Players: "WTF Blizzard." I try again, nothing. (I sense a trend perhaps? :)

So, I logged onto World of Warcraft itself and it downloaded a small maintenance patch. Easy enough. And then I logged onto my main character, Darkhoof.

He's right where I left him. In the Lakeside Lodge in Ashenvale. I wonder what folks think when they go there and find a 60 Tauren Shaman just standing there? I see Elves and think "Hmmm. Enemy." And so I attack the first guard. Weak. What, am I playing Cat and Mouse with her? I fire up windfury. Nothing. Then I notice I'm barehanded. Huh? I open up my character screen. There's the Earthshaker right there where it's supposed to be. Black Brood Pauldrons, all the jazz.

I then notice none of my add-ons are loaded. (Well, it's not an add-on problem.) So I turn to the next guard and attack again. I click on the attack button to just to make sure. What's going on? Have I suddenly become a Pugilist? I check my skills, no two-handed weapons. Doh! I've got to redo my talents. So I equip an axe and my Zulian Defender and finish the guard off with some little style.

A few guildies are on. One on Hawaii time so it's morning for him I guess. I say hello. He's wondering if anyone has any gold ore. Darkhoof doesn't but Oddity, my Miner/Blacksmith might. Let me check with him.

Rode to Splintertree, hopped on a wyvern and flew to Orgrimmar to log out.

Oddity happens to be in the bank in Orgrimmar already when he comes to life. Checking the bank account I see I have three gold ores. I make the withdraw and track my guildie down. Omaran's our Main Tank, or one of them, so whatever I can do to help I'm glad to. Three gold ore is nothing afterall. I pass them on to him. He asks if I have any use for metal. I say Sure, I can use it to smith. He opens a trade window, and another, and another. (I had to use the new keyring, Yay!, to free up some space.) He winds up passing me 15 stacks of various metals he had in his account. (Yay!) (Looks like he's redoing his professions again.) Cool. Oddity runs down into Ragefire Chasm and tests his warrior skillz out. Checking the talent tree I see Oddity is 31 or so Fury. Hmm. Seems to work on the Grimtotems in Feralas so must be okay.

I note Omaran is wearing a new tabard. Hmm. Darkhoof's tabard looks like that? I thought I was wearing the old DI one.

So I log back in as Darkhoof and check. Yes, the DI tabard is the same. Ah! He must be wearing the new Argent Dawn tabard. I check my rep with them. Honored. I'm wondering if that's enough to get a nifty tabard.

(This internet cafe isn't so crowded. Everyone is smoking but there's less folks so less smoke. FOLKS FOLKS: NOT SMOKING WILL NOT KILL YOU. In case you were wondering. You don't have to smoke. Really. It won't kill you not to smoke. In fact, it's quite the opposite.)

So I ride out to the Zep. Having now loaded all my add-ons, I've quickly donned the 8/8 Earthfury and my Staff of Dominance. Yeah, baby, yeah. On the Zep I redo my Talent Tree. What to do, what to do. The new time difference means I won't be raiding much with the guild anymore. So I've taken an Enhancement approach. I put 30 points in the me-me-me Enhancement Talents. (No totem buffs, and as much weapon buffing as I can manage.) I've got 30 in the tree now. Stormstrike or not? Hmm. I go to the Elemental Tree. So, for now, I go down that tree. (Like when I was leveling up.) Cheaper mana shocks, improved shocks, shorter shocks, some kind of get a crit with a spell you get a crit with melee talent that's new. I'm 21/30/0 now. IF I find my healing is lacking in instances I'll probably respec and put 21 into the Resto side instead to get Nature's Swiftness. But Enhancement I'll keep.

Well, I get to Tirisfal Glades outside the Undercity. I mount up on the prow of the Zepplin like a pro. As we pull in to dock I ride off. "Yeah. I've played before." I ride up to the Bulwark and find the Quartermaster. I want that tabard. No tabards for sale. Damn. Well, time is getting on so I don't think I'll ride out to Light's Hope Chapel. I'll save that for some other time.

But I've got to play a little with the weapons and new Enhancement tree changes. I ride up to the Scarlet Monastery. I pass a level 37 Human Rogue. He waves at me. Hmmm. I ride past and wave. Yes, yes, all Rogues must die. This guy will gank me and my wife over and over with glee some day. BUT we've got to consider the Karma man. (Like 3 ore become dozens of metals.) Maybe he won't.

I enter the Monastery and head to the Armory wing. Two Scarlet guys, no problem. Five Scarlet guys, no problem. Okay, this will be fine.

Onaeveim logs on. He's the reluctant Resto Specced Shaman from the guild. He hates me for being Enhancement specced. "Don't heal me, Ona. Please, don't heal me!" "STFU." :) He's had a nice fishing trip with his dad. Sends me a link to some Georgia perch thing. Like a record breaking Red Scrapper or something. He's doing well in the guild. Stirring things up like he likes to.

I've got to say: I like my guild, it's progress, and the folks in it. I really got lucky the day I transferred over to Smolderthorn with a handful of people and we created a guild with the right folks that have become this guild today. (Granted, I'm the last of them in that guild. But it's got me an "Honor Guard" spot in the new DI, and they're clearing BWL now.)

I tell Ona, "Good talking with you, later", and give the guild a tres european "Ciao" and log out. Really nice to be able to play again, and chat with friends.

I give the character transfer a try again. HOLY BAT GUANO! I get the transfer page. NO WAY. I pick the server, Frostmane, then they show me my characters there (Darkhand and Honorus). I chose to transfer Darkhand, 45 NE Rogue, to Kirin Tor (friends and family there). Yes, so far, so good. Give them credit card into. Click Continue.

ERROR.

They can't take the credit card. Huh? But the page is back. So I click Continue again. And this time it takes. "Pending Approval." Ah. Nice. Thanks, Blizzard. You guys mean well I think.

Well, that was a fun few hours. Packed up the gear, paid the guy, and left the cafe.

New Look.

Damn. Sure wish I had some internet. Germany <> Customer Service Land.

Internet Cafe in Heidelberg. WTFPWNAGEBBQ Smokers 2, wife 0.

How does the rest of the world do it? Twice this weekend I dragged the laptop into town and hoped to at least connect for a breath of time.

Starbucks on the Hauptstrasse. Sat down with some chilly Java Chip Frappucino's and got the laptop out. (By the way, since when is Heidelberg a steamy tropical town? The heat and humidity are brutal. Worsened because there's no A/C anywhere! It's like being on the equator somewheres. Good Radlers though. (Beer + lemon drink mix. VERY good tasting and refreshing!))

Anyway, Starbuck's server is Kaput. No connection. Bummer. So, on the way back to the streetcar stop we remember a 99 cent/hour internet cafe. We head there. I plug in.

We're sitting next to a blonde girl who is puffing away like some dragon on her cigarette while she pecks at her keyboard.

But I manage to log on. Yay! So I check on Kinless' transfer. Seems they don't like the name. Again. (What's up with that! Blizzard: It's a Freakin' EPITHET! LOOK IT UP! Since you won't be bothered, here's what Webster's says: "a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing ". Get it? ARGH!)

So, Kinless leaves Argent Dawn, and then as Arcarius joins Kirin Tor. Arcarius is late latin for whats became Archer. Befitting a Hunter, no? (Arcuarius is the latin for archer, from arcus, meaning bow.) Level 48 Hunter. Time for some BG action perhaps? You bet.

So we try to transfer Darkhand over then. My level 45 Rogue on Frostmane. He's entirely alone there and I want him united with my wife and my friends characters on Kirin Tor. Except the page is down. Not possible. But at least I logged on, ran around the world a bit. But the smoke is killing us, so we depart.

Sunday, returned to the cafe. Got set up. (I actually saw another cafe patron in World of Warcraft. Was that Molten Core??!!!) We've got a fan blowing on us this time. Still kind of smokey. I go to the character transfer page. Error. Again, reload, error. Reload, error. Error, error, error. C'mon Blizzard. If you offer a service, how about it be accessible?

Well, there's that, and then this Turkish kid sits down where Blondie was the day before. Because he is European he is compelled by law to light up a cigarette. (Some day, when the mood strikes Germany, they will outlaw cigarettes and make smoking in the country illegal. If there's something that Germans can do they do it hardcore, balls to the wall, no holds barred, 110% of the way. At the moment they can smoke, and they do so with fury and gusto. The day they are supposed to stop, heaven help the person sighted with a cigarette in his mouth. The day will come. They're always about 20 years behind America. (4-6 weeks to get internet connection to a fully wired apartment? That's worse than some 3rd world country! Sorry. And every room in an apartment is just a room. Every space must be room shaped and have a door. 1906=2006 in German apartment technology. But I digress.)

Anyway, the smoke is making the wife nauseous, and I can't transfer my character, so I quickly hop on, run around with him a bit in Ironforge, and then log out. Felt pretty darn good just stretching my virtual legs.

In the end, about when I can resume playing, on Kirin Tor I will have a 48 NE Hunter, a 45 NE Rogue, a 36 NE Druid, and a 36 Forsaken Warrior. Not a bad little stable of characters. A Draenei Paladin and a Blood Elf Warlock will be in the works come the Expansion.

Kinless gets kin.

Took advantage of the new character transfer service. Kinless being on Argent Dawn, one of like five eligible servers to transfer off of, he took the dive, headed over to Kirin Tor where he'll be in the good company of Greenclaw, Freewind, and Itarilda.

Life without WoW.

This living in temporary quarters is a tough thing. No real internet. Some wireless connection of mediocre signal strength and bandwidth. Seems to work fine for the gent upstairs whose wife uses the internet to videoconference with friends and family back home, but for me, I can barely load a webpage with graphics.

So I can't play WoW, unless my good friend lets me use his internet connection on an occasional basis.

Until I get my own internet again I have to find something to do.

I visit my guild's website and raid vicariously with them. (Chromaggus down!)

I work on my genealogy. Well, since it's pretty much established and the brick walls have only become even more resolute than ever, that amounts to creating the coats of arms from the blazons and importing them into the database. Every now and then a branch of a family is added.

We got Sid Meier's Pirates! for the PC before we moved. So I've played that. Eventually I retired, worn out and weakened with age, at the ripe old age of 3o-something, with the plain daughter of a Dutch governor, and, I had become a Governor myself, very rich, living the rest of my days happily and lavishly.

We then got Fable: The Lost Chapters. After 20 some hours of played time I've defeated Jack of Blades. Yes, I rescued my sister and got Avo's Tear instead of the Sword of Aeon's. I have 5 wives, including the Lady Grey, the most recent I married in Snowspire Village. With 25 Silver keys I'm about to head to the Necropolis where a small bird tells me I'll find some nice armor. At the old age of some 64, with max strength, health, and toughness, and magic, I am a killing machine. I collect legendary weapons as a hobby. :)

Once I finish Fable:TLC, Dungeon Siege II will be my next poison. My wife is playing during the day so she can clue me in.

All I can say is: Rested Experience Bonus!!!

Your bored correspondent, Kinless.

Double header.

Friend of mine went to Ireland with his family to help celebrate the birthday of a friend of theirs. But he left me the keys to his place so the wife and I could get a little World of Warcraft play time in.

Nice.

Friday night it was the Forsaken Warrior Morticai and the Forsaken Mage Zauberin's night. We flew down to Thousand Needles and worked to complete some of the quests we had. We did the Test of Strength quest. We summoned the dead Dragon atop the Grimtotem Mesa, twice. We tracked down Rok'Alim, twice. First time we killed him we weren't on a quest. Second we were on the quest and has spent the better part of an hour running around hoping to run across him again. We finally did. We concluded the evening about ready to undertake the Test of Lore quest from the Shaman fellow up in Stonetalon Peak.

Saturday night it was the Night Elf Warrior Freewind and the Night Elf Druid Itarilde's night to play. Freewind being just level 24, and Itarilde just level 25, headed to the Wetlands. We went to the excavation site, found the fossils for the archeologist in Menethil. We also killed a scad of raptors. Ten of every sort at least! We found a few ancient fragments for the archeologist still stationed there at the site. And we killed Sarltooth for a gentleman outside the cave. Sarltooth was orange for me, but with a Druid healing me, and who loves me, the fight was very easy. Looking for our final vase we managed to fight Sarltooth a second time. I'll admit one fight got hairy as we attracted three or four green raptors at once. I fell and before Itarilde did she battle rezzed me (yay!) and we won the battle. It was close though. We then ran up the road to some tomb and killed slimes until one gave up a bag it was carrying. On the way back I asked if we could just kill an orc or two. Itarilde was getting tired and we were wrapping up the night. We did kill two orcs, and then returned to Menethil. (Both she and I dinged while in the excavation site. She to 26 and me to 25.) I turned in the quests and dinged 26. Yay! We hearthed to Stormwind City and trained and then logged off.

Not a lot of play time, but quality. :)

I've been thinking about character transfers that will be coming up.

Kirin Tor has pretty much become a nice RP home for us. We don't RP but we like the fact that there's not (too) much 1337 speak.

So, my dream team, assembeled on Kirin Tor:

Kinless, level 48 Night Elf Hunter (from Argent Dawn and brought out of retirement)
Darkhand, level 45 Night Elf Rogue (from Frostmane and brought out of retirement)
Greenclaw, level 36 Night Elf Druid (already there)
Freewind, level 26 Night Elf Warrior (same)
Pharazon, Draenei Paladin (because a demon Paladin will be cool)

5 for the Alliance.

Darkhoof, level 60 Tauren Shaman (if he leaves Smolderthorn)
Oddity, level 46 Orc Arms/Fury Warrior (if he leaves Smolderthorn)
Morticai, level 36 Forsaken Protection Warrior (Arms/Fury if Oddity stays put)
Darbanville, level 25 Forsaken Priest (if she leaves Smolderthorn)
JohnDoe (no name yet), Blood Elf Warlock (of course)

5 for the Horde

No reagent vendor. No flght point.

No real internet connectivity.

Argh.

What's up with that??

(Heidelberg's Old Town as seen from it's Castle.)

Ay ay ay. The wireless just doesn't cut it.

No WoW until I can get a better connection. Heidelberg is nice though.

From my hotel room.

I'm in the middle of a move. Heading overseas with the Government. I have not stopped raiding yet though. Last night, Blackwing Lair, we took down Razorgore, Vael, the Broodlord, and Firemaw. What a night.

Funny thing is this isn't really any more difficult than Zul'Gurub is. It's just a matter of strategy and experience and gear.

And, yes, at least 40 committed raiders helps. Guild matters.

The Hit's keep on a coming.

Broodlord, and now Firemaw down. Woot.

Two Dragons and some Owls.

I was finally fortunate enough to be with my guild as we brought down Razorgore again.

As a Shaman, the trick to this fight: Keep an Earthbind Totem down where they tell you. Typically on the corner of the inner checkerboard. Then stay back in your corner near the walls and keep a Tranquil Air Totem down. If you are going to heal someone, you can only heal somebody who is going to kill the thing they are fighting. Heal that Mage or Rogue who is going to kill one of the Orc Mages in there. Don't heal the Priest! Because if you get healing aggro you're probably dead. Priests can fade. Shamans can't. ALWAYS keep your Earthbind Totem down. Tranquil Air really appears to help. Heal in a way to stay alive.

That's what I did. Lived to tell about it.

Then off we went to Vael's room. This fight was still tough. Kicked our butts a few times I can assure you. And then I tried something different. I was always putting heals on my party. I'm not in a Tank's party so didn't worry so much as them. We take a steady stream of damage from Vael so I was spending a lot of time healing party mates. I occasionally threw a heal on a tank or a random person. Remember: Mana cannot run out. Vael takes good care of you. He even apologizes to the last person he kills. "Your death is just another failure of mine," he says.

Yes. That is Vael dead below us. We did it! We killed Vael! Said to be the 2nd toughest Boss in Blackwing Lair. Yowza.

Here's what I did different on that last fight. I kind of ignored my party a bit. About half way through the fight I stopped concentrating as much on the party as on the current Main Tank. Lesser Healing Wave is a fast, and substantial, heal. Tank after tank was to go down, but that is planned on. I was healing them all. And then we have our last Tank standing. This is a new guildmate. He is wearing a full set of Tier 0.5 gear. The Heroism set I think it's called. And I'm healing him. And healing him, and I'm watching Vael's percent still dropping. 6. 5. 4. And I'm thinking "Don't say anything, don't jinx this." 3. 2. And I'm thinking "WHAT the hell?!!" And then Vael is moving around more and the new Warrior is out there and I move in and I keep this guy in sight like he's the only thing that matters. And he is the only thing that matters. 1. So close! So close! And then ZERO!!!1!one!!! We'd done it! Our first Vael kill. I knelt down next to his massive head and prayed that his spirit return to a better place.

And, now, for something completely different:

My wife and I created two Tauren Hunters. We do this sometimes, create new hunters, and then go find unique pets. For two level 11 Tauren Hunters what would be something pretty difficult to get? That's right. Owls from Teldrassil. But where there's a will, there's a way.

Here we are, outside of Dolanar, ready to go tame some Owls. I know we must have freaked a few elves out. When we finally found our prey, two level 9 Strigid Hunters, we had a small audience. As we finished taming both of them they applauded, mounted, and rode off. And we hearthstoned back to Bloodhoof Village in Mulgore.

"Need More Cowbell" is the guild we made. Too good a guild name not to have it.

Three Dog Night.

Actually, quite the opposite.

Last night Darkhoof when to Onyxia's Lair, where the guild downed Onyxia. Then we regrouped and went to Zul'Gurub, where the guild downed Hakkar in two and half hours. Following that he fought a few battles in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin.

Downing Onyxia is expected. We've been doing that since our 2nd or 3rd visit to her lair, not counting the week Blizzard made her invincible. We brought a guest Warrior along so they could forge their Quel'Serrar sword. We've been bringing guests along for the last couple of raids. Other guilds charge like 500 Gold for the privilege to go to the Lair with them and get the sword made. We don't want money and are just happy to help strengthen the Horde side. This is obviously a boon to the Warrior in a small guild that wants the Quel made but his guild can't down Onyxia to get it. With his Quel he'll be able to better tank, their gear will be improved and soon enough they will be downing Onyxia too.

Moving on to Zul'Gurub, downing Hakkar in just under two and half hours was a first for me. I was also trying my hand at DPSing for a change as well. Typically in that amount of time we've reached, maybe, three of the bosses. But last night we meant business. And we just mowed the place down. Not one wipe, and five or six dead tops at the boss fights. I was doing a mix of healing and fighting, befitting my new talent build. And when the Runed Bloodstained Hauberk dropped, I got to bid on it and I won! That replaces my Earthfury Vestments with some proper fighting gear. Here is my profile by the way. Oh, yes, when the Seal of Jin dropped, since I am an Enhancement Shaman I got to roll on it. I won that too.

Then, hot on the heals of getting back my Sergeant Honor Rank by doing some AB last week (just two nights), I reentered Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin and put my new stuff to use. A guild warrior was there, he with his new Zinrock, Destroyer of Worlds, loot from the same ZG run, boys and their toys, and a guild priest. Win or lose, it was fun. And we were up against some hardcore BG/PvPers. A guild known by name for it. It was incredible to be rocking their world when a Mark of the Chosen fires, a Crusader Enhant fires, Flurry is on, and Windfury procs.

It's hard to play a 20 alt when you can have so much fun with a level 60 character still.

P.S. The new alliance race. I like it. I was thinking I was going to have to play a Blood Elf. But now I'm thinking, I've got Elves. I have got to play a Draenei. It's like a Tauren, but less beastly. (More space alien than cow.)

Good lord, what's gotten into the wife?

I get my usual afternoon call from her yesterday. Against her better judgement she's made another character. An Orc Warrior she's named Kruel. He's already level 6 or so when we speak. By the time I get home she's already done the level 10 Warrior quest. And when I go help the guild get Thunderfury : Blessed Blade of the Windseeker for a guildmate she goes to Warsong Gulch! (Yowza!)

We get the Thunderfury sword easily enough. Thunderan is certainly no Ragnaros. We expected far worse. One of the easier fights in Silithus is you ask me.

And my wife plays her 2nd WSG without me.

A week or so ago we did a guild thing in the 20-29 WSG level. She with her 25 Druid, me on my 28 Druid. Reaction to the first moment: UTTER CHAOS! I tell her it takes some getting used to. 2nd match and she's gleefully clawing clothies. And dying, but also getting her HK's.

Last night, as a level 10 Orc Warrior, she joins WSG. She was having good fun in the middle ground. I suggested to her at 10 she'd do best just hamstringing as many as she can.

Her 3rd match, to get the 3rd token, I join her with my level 10 Priest, Mortiangelo.

I have noticed: When I play Alliance, the Horde dominate with good tactics, twinks, and Shamans. When I play Horde, the Alliance dominate with tactics and twinks.

So, we go to the middle ground and I'm doing my best to Shadow Word: Pain and bubble her and other Warriors.

Then comes the comment from the peanut gallery. "You should be 16 to be in WSG." Amused, I reply "I'm older than 16. No worries." "Lvl 16 noob." :) I love it. Before I can respond someone else jumps in. "Shut up and let them play." Hey, thanks man. I don't remember your name, but thanks. I add "WSG is 10-19, no?" That's ignored.

So, Ginsing of Kirin Tor, here's what I'd like to tell you. "Ginsing, STFU." There. That's about it. Oh, yeah, you're on my /ignore list.

Yeah, we could be 16. And the wife is already level 12 now! Woot! And this time around, we've done so many alts, she wants to grind out the levels. She doesn't want to leave Mortiangelo too far behind, he's 11 now, so I suggested she get her 30 Mage caught up to my 33 Warrior. I e-mailed her a Mage Guide to Grinding.

And, Ginsing, my Night Elf 18 Hunter is making a macro to "/target Ginsing". Hope to see you online, in the Gulch, where you go down.

Vaelastrasz to 6%. Lots of mana to throw around.

So, there I was. With 39 other people looking at the sleeping Dragon.

Vaelastrasz the Corrupted, sworn enemy of Nefarian. They encountered him last Friday when they first brought Razorgore down. I wasn't there for that. I was here for this.

I was in the Main Tanks group. Told where to stand. We check the totems range. Check.

The fight starts with everyone blasted. The Tank is hooboy taking damage fast. So I drop my totems and back off. I throw a heal. "I've got to manage my mana," I'm thinking to myself. I'm a Shaman and every fight in my life has involved managing mana. The Main Tank drops and then a new Tank comes into action and I'm told I'm on fire. "Okay. What do you need to me to do." "Run to the left." I look to the left and see the crowd. "WHAT do you want me to do?!" "Run to the left."

Ever been the bomb in the Baron Geddon fight in MC? You don't run TOWARDS the group. You run away. To explode by yourself, preferably in a confined space to limit how high you're thrown.

"Run to the left." Run to the group?? I die where I stood. The raid quickly dies around me. I never seen 40 people die that fast. Vael? He's tough.

Running back I clarify things. I'm supposed to run to the back where Vael's tail is. Then I die. Ah. That's easy.

And managing mana? In a Vael fight? What a noob. Vael gives you all the mana/energy/rage that you could ever need. To fight him. Just mash the spells keys, healing, everything. He's tough but lets you do your worst when trying to kill him. He's not a bad creature. He's been corrupted and in his heart hates the fact that he's got to kill you.

Alright, third try that night we got him down to 6%. That's not bad. It's only our 2nd visit to Vael.

ZOMG. Four hours, twentyseven minutes.

Yow. I attended my guilds MC run on Sunday. We started at 6pm. They've downed Rag twice now. Was I going to be there for the threepeat? You betcha.

As you know I've respecced. I'm an 0/28/23 talent build Shaman. I've got Improved Rockbiter *and* Improved Windfury *and* Improved Lesser Healing Wave *and* Nature's Swiftness. (Oh, and Flurry too.)

I was a little worried about how my healing would be. Being all Resto before (but for 2-handed weapons) 0/11/40, I figured that the build had a little to do with things. As the New Yorkers would say, Forgedaboudit. I'll get to that.

We started at 6pm, and it was wham, bam, moving on ma'am. It was a little disorientating at first. I was not put with the Main Tank's group. (Perhaps my upcoming departure, or perhaps the respec?) I was in with two Warriors, a Rogue, and a Druid. Not tanks, so they got the Strength Totem, and the Windfury Totem, and I dropped the Fire Resist Totem when we were fighting fire stuff, and the Healing Stream Totem when we weren't. And I was healing. Everyone.

I pretty much got my bearings as we closed in on Lucifron. And then we got Magmadar. With my respec I actually sold my Twig of the World Tree 2-handed mace when I got my Doomulus Prime at the Cenarian Hold. And off Magmadar, at the threat of it being DE'd (since I want the hammer that you get with parts off Rag!!) I bid on, and won, the Earthshaker. I've been reading up on it. I'm of the understanding it will rock! Woot.

And so we careened on. Gehennas. The Baron. Shazzrah. Then on up to Sulfuron. Then down to Golemag. And at last to Domo. We were plowing through MC at a record pace. No wipes. Hardly any deaths. (What's gotten into us?!)

Along the way a trash mob dropped the Earthfury Bracers. Only two Shamans didn't have it, one of them me, and the other passed so I could get them. 7/8 Earthfury, missing only the legguards, and for legs I'm wearing the Salamander Scale Leggings which have much better +Healing and FR than the EF.

And then we get to the big guy. Ragnaros himself. We lined ourselves up, and I somehow get knocked back from the spot where I shouldn't get knocked back from, twice into the lava and I die. I'm thinking "Oh, crap." But, NO, IT CAN'T BE! Rag is at 16, then 6, then 3, 2, ... 1! What the hell? What did they do? Rag went down like ... he died real quick.


The pic's a little small. But it shows Rag, dead. See the little bars on the right hand side? On the Healing Meter? The pink bar = Shaman. That's me. On the top of the Healing Charts, Four hours, twentyseven minutes, a MC Full Clear, and I, your humble Shaman, top the Healing Charts. The white lines are the Priests, the orange lines the Druids. Wowza. My first Ragnaros kill. And my healing continues to kick butt.


Ah. The Happy Shaman. Decked out in Earthfury, his Staff of Dominance enchanted with +55 Healing. Earthshaker in a backpack. Ragnaros dead in the background.

My guild scares me.

There's nothing we can't do. Tonight, on it's 2nd serious Razorgore attempt, they kill it.

I say "they" because, mid-raid, I gave up my spot for another Shaman. I figured if we were learning, he could learn some too, yada yada yada, they down him next try.

First try we'd gotten all by 8 or 12 eggs. Second try we got all the eggs and Razorgore to 69%. I left the raid then to give my spot to someone else. Some minutes later they announce Razorgore went down.

My guild scares me how good they are.

Sadly, I missed the 1st Rag kill, I wasn't there the 2nd time they took him down, and now I missed the 1st Razorgore kill.

Next Friday. They're going to have to pry me out of the raid group with iron crowbars or something. I'm going to be there and get the screenshot.

Why is that Shaman in MC gear beating up on piglets outside of Orgrimmar?

Ah, he must have respecced.

In anticipation of a move overseas I'm making a few adjustments in playstyle. Since we started raiding, since about October of last year, I've been Restoration specced. 0 in Elemental, 11 in Enhancement for the 2-Handed Axes and Maces, and 40 in Restoration, giving me the best in healing and the raid-important Mana Tide Totem.

And I heal real well. Only +350 Healing now but I still manage to top the healing charts raid after raid. It's not even *if* I am going to top the healing chart on a raid. I do, every raid. Granted I'm not decursing like the Priests are, but I hold my own really well against Benediction equipped Priests. It makes me feel like I'm contributing to the raid so I knocked myself out healing.

The other night we 5-manned Live Strat. I was the only one healing. I never dropped Mana Tide Totem once.

But, lord knows, I couldn't melee worth a dang with that build. And if I am going to be 6 hours ahead of server time my days of steady raiding with my guild are over.

So, last night I redid my talents. 0 in Elemental since I'm really not much of a caster type. 28 in Enhancement taking Flurry, Parry, Improved Windfury, and Improved Rockbiter. 23 in Restoration getting me Nature's Swiftness (and an insta-heal every 5 minutes), Improved Ghostwolf (to help me skidaddle), and the reincarnation every 40 minutes (instead of 60) talent.

Before I could work on maces the guild went to AQ40. Happily, I'm on top of the healing chart again. HOWEVER! I ran out of mana slightly more quickly it seemed (though geared in my MC healing gear) and no means of getting it back. (And those winged things suck mana out of you anyway, so hardly a good test.) The real test on how this impacted my healing will be our weekly MC raid. I suspect I'll come down some on the chart, but I'm shooting for the #1 spot nonetheless. (That's my goal.)

Anyway, after we left AQ40 I returned to Orgrimmar and began beating up on stuff to get the Mace skill up. (The Doomulus Prime I got as a quest reward at the Hold.) Ona, a shaman guildie msg'd me "RFC ya noob." Oh, yeah. "Good idea!" So I took my mace through Ragefire Chasm getting the skill up to 220 or so. If RFC is good, how would the Wailing Caverns be? With my Zulian Stone Axe I got my 2-H axes skill up to 230 or so, and my 2-H maces skill up to 260.

When Flurry procs, and your hands go red, and you get this real satisfactory THACK and the thing just drops like a sack of potatos. Sweet. I was playing around with Rockbiter buff (first time in ages!!) and got some record crits, and with Windfury (444+1002+1024 in a single swing!) and I ran through WC wacking every boss, killing the dinosaur, and then rescuing, again, that sleeping druid guy, I was walking tall.

Oh,I've run people through WC in Resto spec, but it took a few more swings to kill things. With this build I'm one-shotting Druids of the Fang really often. (I also collected the leggings and chest armor of the Fang. I might farm WC and complete the set. For grins.)

Anyway, that's why I, a MC geared Shaman, was seen outside of Orgrimmar last night, wacking on piglets. Every time I respec my 2-H Axes and 2-H Maces skill is dropped back to 1.

And those piglets? Don't worry, they're okay. I checked on them later and they were all back snuffling about in the dirt. I left before visions of a BLT overwhelmed me again.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Took a bit of a vacation. Down Florida way. Beachside condo place. Small. No elite Sharks patrolling off shore. No murlocs even. Just some porpoises out there. Seemed so ... safe.

Came back to find the new iteration of my guild downed Ragnaros. Twice! In a week! Wow. Not bad at all. That little shake up. A new guild name. A couple new faces, and wham, bam, we're doing stuff we've never done. Our first and second Ragnaros take-downs.

Last night I joined them again and we raided Onyxia. She's been giving us a few problems. We in fact had a new Warrior tanking for us. ("All those dots are driving me crazy! They keep bumping good debuffs off her." "The Warlocks are singing your praises in the Warlock Channel." :) Change isn't bad.) Onyxia went down in 15 minutes. It's been a while since I was there and they downed her. Maybe Blizzard toned her down a bit too?

Then, on the heals of that success, before we'd even left her lair, I made plans for AQ20. I needed to collect a little venom off Kurinaxx. Last two times we went, he'd been really tough. Last night, Onyxia went down, then Kurinaxx went down. I got my venom, and turned it in along with Venox's, and collected my new 2-H Mace. Yowza. What more could we do?

We then arranged a 5-man group to Live Strat. 2 Shamans (I healing, the other melee and backup), 2 Mages (more sheep than an Arab wedding), and a warrior. Woot. Got the Archivist (and completing that quest for me), we got 3 Righteous Orbs, some odds and ends, and the other Shaman got the Crown of Tyranny he was after. That took like an hour. So easy in MC gear.

And Sunday Oddity took Droonda, his wife, to the Scarlet Monastery. She and another Shaman, Me, a Mage, and a Hunter. The other Shaman was off-tanking and meleeing, and Droonda, my wife, was playing the healer. She 35, the rest of us 40+. (Highest was the Hunter at 44.) I was pretty proud of her when the Shaman remarked "At least she's not a noob." Meaning she was playing real well. (It got slightly frantic a few times, nothing bad.) We cleared every part of SM, got all the bosses, collected all the books. We did good.

And I suspect my level 16 Night Elf Huntress has gained another PvP rank. (80 HK's in one WSG on the Saturday I got back. And then a few more runs. Hunters are fun.)

It's all good. Who needs an expansion to enjoy this game well after a year play time?!

Postscript of a guild. Or?

It was bound to happen. The usual end-game guild on the edge of a meltdown, forced to respond to new conditions, unable to go forward wearing it's old clothes.

A "casual" guild meant too many had become too casual in their raiding. That's completely untenable. You can't be casual in showing up to raid Molten Core or Onyxia's Lair. "Ah, why bother with the sign-ups, I'll show up, if they got a spot, great, if not, meh, not a loss."

Enthusiasm goes a long way. In the heady early days where we first entered the Core and the Lair everyone wanted to come along. And they slowly got geared up, and then, what's the point? Better to sit a raid out, or three, to let other people get their phat lootz. Now it's a job. Now it's raiding to gear up other people. We're disenchanting Nightslayer gear now. We've got three Giantstalker Belts in the guild bank.

So attendance falters, the people that do show up have to work harder, to make up for a lack of people, or to make up for the lack of experience among the new people. And even the people willing to show up, their attitude changes. "Hey. Not 40? Let's call it and I can go PvP." Or "Oh. I just discovered I have a family. I can't raid past the 2nd boss. You understand."

The new plan is to create a hardcore Raiders only guild. (With alts too. Huh?) But the old guild won't go away, it'll house the casual players. (Casual *and* raider won't be in the same sentence anymore.)

Collectively this guild rocks. The skill of these players is incredible. I sincerely hope our reinventing ourselves finds us successful in Blackwing Lair shortly.

This is the "make or break" moment. I'm curious to see how it will go.

Good Lord. Patch Day Again?

Albeit a small patch it still means I can't log on after loading it.

Was wanting to create a character on Sen'jin to check out the Bloggers. Might be fun. (And I would not be the oldest for a change! Woot!)

But, Alas, it's Tuesday at Blizzard and the servers are down. They're up. They're down. They're up. They're down. ... ...

When does the Fat Lady sing?

I've been browsing blogs for a few months now.

What I find surprising, but is no surprise really, is how reaching 60 can be quite a let down for some.

I remember when Kinless reached level 40. The noob hadn't been really trying to raise cash in anticipation of that day, and all of a sudden he had a requirement to find 90 Gold to buy his mount.

What's a Hunter to do? Grind on monkeys in Stranglethorn Vale. I spent a couple of days there if I remember it right. Just rolling through the apes and cats and skinning every last one of them. I crafted the leather (free) into leather goods (cost of thread) and sold them to the vendor. (I wasn't very Auction House saavy back then.) Well all this grinding also served to give me a lot of xp. I was level 43 when I finally dinged 90g. I travelled to Darnassus and bought the white spotted riding Tiger.

There I was! Woot! So I rode to the noob area thinking "Look at me! Look at me!" I jumped around the area a bit. Then I rode back to Darnassus, hopped the flight to Auberdine, and sailed to Menethil. Then I rode to Ironforge, and entered it's halls. I'd made it. Woo. That was a lot of work, getting that money to get that mount. But I'd done it. Yeah.

Hmm. Press the space key and the riding tiger yawns. Move forward and press the space key and he'll jump. On a run, if you jump, and twist midair, you can do a 360 in the air before landing again. And ... that was it.

Okay, ride to a raid on Splintertree Post from Astranaar, with the leet on their mounts, that was pretty good. But otherwise? It was okay I guess.

It was kind of a let down actually. I don't know, I was expecting a new game I guess.

I took a Dwarf Hunter, levels 18-22 to Warsong Gulch. For the hours I spent there I got Sgt! Woo. So I went to the quartermaster. The Sgt's cloak wasn't available to me until level 30. What's up with that? It's a piece of cloth. So he got deleted and I made a hunter that could Shadowmeld while her cat stealthed. That would own. But I don't play her much.

I've noticed some other Blogs, dutifully record ding after ding in their quest to 60. But when they reach 60, what then? They find they had a life, or their game card expired, and otherwise what was the point of all that time spent? :/

I was an altoholic on four servers. I now play on just two. I've got 3 Warriors on two servers. A Shaman, two Druids, two Hunters, a Priest, a Warlock, a Mage. A Rogue. Another hunter. (Last two I don't play on the other two servers.) Two Paladins on two servers. Okay. I'm still an altoholic. This is what lets me keep playing this well after a year of buying it and let's me hold out for the Expansion.

I found that some who'd appeared to be on the brink of leaving at 60 seem to rediscover the game by simply trying something new in the game. They made an alt, for example.

If I can no longer raid MC with my guild due to scheduling problems, I'll probably respec from Resto into something more Solo based. I'll go from the top ranked (healing output) healer on our raids to do 5-man PUG stuff, inspired by a video which has a Shaman tanking General Drakkisith. My level 60 Shaman will effectively become a new alt, going Resto to Enhancement will be like a new (again) class. Maybe try my hand in the Battlegrounds. Get a set of PvP gear and put the Earthfury into the bank for the day I might rejoin the raiding.

If you've just dinged level 60, or 40 even, and you see the Fat Lady lumbering up on the stage, but you like the game but you question still playing it, don't worry. Just try something new for a change.