RL is FTL!

Sorry that I have not been keeping up with the blog. While I am still reading others, and soaling up all the new 3.1 info, I havehad a major change to my RL that has really begun to take a toll on me…

I was layed off from my job on 2/25.

So now I am unemployed, and trying to not lose my mind. The job market as you know is bad, so the future is scary. For now, I can still escape to Azeroth, and will continue to do that.

So when something good happens, I will post more, I just wanted to let my readers know I had not abandoned them.

Coming Soon…Mounts can SWIM!!

So 3.1 patch notes and PTR have finally hit. While I will not be copying anyone to the PTR, as I am not Naxx ready, let alone Ulduar ready, I am always interested in the changes we will be seeing. Right now, it looks like Paladins may not get beat down with the nerf bat, at least so far. I am sure this patch will give everyone a free re-spec, as it looks like many classes are having talent point changes.

I admit, the thing I am MOST excited for right now…Staying mounted in water!!!! This is the MOST annoying thing to be running along, and you hit a patch of water that is JUST deep enough to dismount you. Then you have to get to solid ground again, then take the 3 sec to remount and continue on. We all know horses in RL can swim with no problem…why not in WoW? So right now, I am waiting for my mounts to swim

In other news…I made another paladin…yeah yeah…I dont need another alt…but I did remove one, and we cant have an empty slot now can we. The plan is to level Ret to 80, then spec into Holy so we have another healer. I am playing solo for the most part, so we shall see how it goes. Our guild healer has also hit 80, so we have been running dungeons with him, and also working our way through the Outland dungeons on heroics. If I could only find a good use for all these old badges, we would be in good shape.

Bits and Pieces Update 2/18/09

Wow, can you belive we are in the middle of Feburary already?? It seemed like Christmas was only yesterday..but I digress..So whats new in my WoW world?

- Well Daxan has finally hit 80, has finally gotten the Explorer title, and is not working on getting more achievments done. I have decided she needs another title, just haven’t found one I like yet, so I will work on anything at this point. I must say I am having a BLAST playing her, so much in fact, I find it hard to go back to my hunter and low level alts.

- As our tightknit group of 4, myself, hubby warrior, 79 priest, and 73 ret pally, we have been going through Outland dungeons, both on heroic and non-heroic, to get the achievments and reputation rewards. So far, we have completed Outland Dungeonmaster, and have done both Blood Furnace and Ramps on heroic, in record time. Good times had by all as usual.

-My first dungeon as a new 80, was Culling of Stratholme. After some issues with a mage, who decided to quit the group during the 2nd boss, and then needing on the drop, we continued on with the 4 of us(a diff ret pally, who was 79) and Arthas of course, and we managed to defeat the instance. Brute force basically. The healer got a nice upgrade though, and I earned some Wyrmrest Accord rep.

- Our core group got bored Saturday night. Being as we are not big Valentines Day people, hubby got me a nice bottle of vodka, and I proceeded to share in his gift. My guildmates enjoyed my online banter(and proceeded to giving me spelling lessons) but I decided in a drunken stupor to take out Onxyia. The rest agreed, and after a over 10min fight, Orgrimmar had a 2hr buff, and we had a screenshot of her head on a stick. GREAT TIMES!!

- I am bummed there are no more holiday events until May. I enjoy the events, but on the other hand, it gives me time to work on other things, like saving money for my epic flyer…then proceed to spend 300g on the Crusader Enchant formula on the Ah…<sigh>

- I am at a crossroads with my alliance toons. I currently have 3 of them, and I have done VERY little play on them since I went horde. I am seriously considering removing them, but Bunnyfer, has all my hard Alchemy work, that I am not to quick to want to give up. I may just keep her around so I can shuttle things through the neutral AH, and ditch the other 2…I just dont know yet..

- An off topic note…my kitten Arthas is going to have his manhood removed tomorrow. I cannot have him spraying all over my house, so the “boys” got to go. He will be a happier kitty for it.

Level 80….DONE!!

I am pleased to say that at 12:03a, Friday 2/13, I hit 80!!! Hubby hit his about 15min sooner than I did. I dinged in Storm Peaks, and it felt like a HUGE relief to get it done.

I also became Daxan the Explorer on Saturday.

Another Patch, Another Nerf

So yesterday, patch 3.0.9 dropped. I had been reading about it all day, and knew it was coming. I have not had the chance to test out the new hunter changes yet, but I have been on my pally. All I can say is “Why, Blizzard? WHY!!”

Ghostcrawler wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to nerf pallies to the ground…The Divine Plea nerf hurts, alot! While they decided to try and sugar coat it with the buff to seals(which I am ALL for), the bruises from the nerf bat still smart. I am sure the pally community is feeling this one.

In other news, I have all but 3 of the needed achievments for Elder. I knew I would not get it, but I got darned close! I plan to tonight to get the Love is In the Air one as close to done as possible. I did hit 79 last night in Storm Peaks..in the air actually, and hope to be 80 by Friday.  I am going to push to get it done as close as possible tonight and Thursday, as I am not going to be home Friday at all, going to the Florida State Fair. So getting both hubby and I to 80 will be a nice Valentines treat for us.

Otherwise, things are moving along nicely. I am in DIRE need of a new video card. One trip to Wintergrasp basically firmed it up. While my machine is not a dual core, my main issue with it is the video card. I can probably squeeze a bit more life out of it that way…unless I can talk the hubby into a new one with the tax money…;)

Group Etiquette

First I want to offer my congratulations for my hubby, who was the first of my guild to DING 80. For a casual guild, and casual players, this is big. He plans to follow up with his 2nd 80 within the week, with me hot on his heels, with my pally. I should be 80 by weeks end.So I have been listening to the WoWInsider podcast, and there was an interesting topic about the type of player you are in a group. Are you the strong, silent type? Are you the constant talker? Are you the advice giver? Are you the person you seems to always be jumping around, never sitting still?

Myself, I am a mix of a few. When I am tanking, I tend to take control of the group, making sure everyone is ready, and everyone knows the fights. This is usually not an issue when I am running with my guildies, as they usually always put me in control anyways, and follow my lead.In pugs, this has caused issues, but for the most part, people usually are OK with it. When I am DPS, I just hang back, and do what I do…DPS. Depending on my toon, I may throw a heal, or something of that nature, but mostly, I sit back and listen, unless spoken to.

When it comes to loot, I always ask before I need. I like to know beforehand if I am competing with someone, and I will decide if it is worth it. I also don’t want to ninja something that someone may desperatly need. Again, this has always worked out well for me, and I have been well received in many of the pugs I have been in.

Finally, when it comes to groups forming, once the group is full, I usually always head right for the summon stone, unless I cannot for some reason, then I inform the group as to why I am not going, and ask if a summon is OK. I have found from previous experience, that people who assume that they will be summoned, tend to be the biggest asshats in the group. In my opinion, it is rude to assume that you are going to be summoned automatically, and even worse to start asking for them as soon as you enter group. I have even gone so far as to say something to my pug groups about not getting to the stone, and assuming a summon was incoming. I have made enemies, and had groups broken over it.

Those are just my pug rules. I am sure others may feel otherwise.

 

How much does WoW effect your budget?

So today, while reading the blogs, I came across this article from WoW Insider. Due to me only being able to read the beginning of the article in my feed reader, as work has the WoW Insider site blocked, the key point that was mentioned, was if you were to lose your job, and had to make cutbacks, would you cut out WoW?

My personal response to this is no, I have not. During the summer of 06, I had a very rough year, and lost my job of over 3 years. This also stacked with a lot of other financial issues, and cutbacks were a must. At this time, I was not yet a WoW player, but I did spend a LOT of time at home, as there was no money for much else. Basic TV/Internet, and Netflix, scaled down to the cheapest we could get.

In Aug 06, I started playing WoW on a trail basis. I also managed to get a job. So my addiction was added to the budget, along with the hubbys. Due to never going to movies, fast food, and the like, this was easily affordable. All was good until March 07, when I lost my job, yet again. Hubby then lost his job of over 6 years a few months later. Before we knew it, we were BOTH on unemployment. We had to scale back even more, but always made room for WoW..it was our only outlet. While going to dinner and a movie was a special outing, WoW was something that filled most of our time. There was always a way to fit WoW in the budget.

Today, while I may not be super financially stable, I have added some of the joys back into my life, in moderation. I can always remove them again, but WoW will stay the constant for me. The main reason for this, is WoW is the outlet to forget the real world stresses for a while. I have friends I can log in and play with, and work toward goals with. Being that my spouse also plays, we also dont feel we have to fill in time to keep the other one entertained.

WoW has become a part of my life, and I gladly pay my monthly fee, being I have a job or not.

Daxan the Explorer…Coming VERY soon!

Saturdays are my time to play WoW while the hubby is at work. Once I get done my chores around the house, I usually snuggle up on the couch with my pugs(the dogs, not the groups ) and play some WoW. I was bound and determined to get at least one continent done in old world Azeroth for my Explorer title, and after 2 hours, I have finished Eastern Kingdoms. With that, I also received all of the Elders in Eastern Kingdoms. I now am half way toward my the Explorer title, with only Northrend, and Kalimdor to go.

One of the highlights of my travels, was when I was near Ironforge, and I wondered if I could sneak in and grab the elder. So I stripped down to my pretty Lunar Festival dress, mounted up, and headed in. I ran right for the little pit area, and headed toward the Mystic Ward. Ran up the ramp, past a VERY surprised NE, grabbed the elder, and headed for the entrance. I soon was back outside, with maybe 500HP’s down. I quickly healed, and finished my exploration. Afterwards, I wanted to go to Stormwind, via the tram. Well a 80 gnome mage was having no part of that. 2 kills, one in the tram, and my body turned up at the graveyard in Eastvale Logging Camp. I chose to rez at the GY, and continued on my rounds. I flagged again near Goldshire, and while I was standing off to the side with a BE lock, not attacking anything mind you, a low level warrior decided he would take a stab. I think he may have been level 8..well since I had Ret aura on, he died without me even having to dismount..I felt bad, but laughed to the lock, and rode off into the sunset.

Currently have plans to finish Kalimdor by end of the week, and then Northrend on Saturday. I also am looking to get all of the possible elders in. The only one I will not have is the one in the heroic..which I think is kinda lame..Unless I can manage to ding 80 by the time Lunar Festival is over.

While the title the Explorer is not super prevelant on my server, I did see an orc shaman who had the name Dora…with a symbol over the o, with the title, the Explorer…Pure awesomeness!

I am addicted to Achievements…

So last night, Daxan dinged 78…Inside SteamVaults…yep, thats right. SteamVaults. One of my guildies wanted to run some of the Outland instances on his DK, for the achievements. Since Daxan pretty much skipped all the Outland stuff, she went along with hubby’s warrior. We also added a 68 ret pally. So DPS was everywhere. We quickly tore through both Old Hillsbrad, and Dark Portal, and were wanting something else, so we went to SteamVaults. The mobs still provide XP at 70, so I had no issues filling out the last bar to DING.

After the successful runs, we then decided to run to Southshore, and kill some people. The main reason behind this was we attacked a flagged warlock in Zangermarsh, who insisted on picking on people who were 8 levels above him..so we taught him a lesson.

My best achievement of the night…Ultimate Triage…which basically was caused by healing myself with a Heavy Frostweave bandage when my health was less than 5%…Hubby is now trying for this..he is jealous! After getting that, I started looking over achievements, and now I am creating a nice list of ones I want to work on..

I LOVE ACHIEVEMENTS!!

So close….I can taste it!

So my ret pally is about to DING 78…80 is getting EVER so much closer..I plan to buckle down and hopefully push for 80 this weekend. Hubby’s warrior already hit 78, and is about a quarter of the way in already. Since I need to visit the elders for the Lunar Festival, I should be able to squeeze out some extra XP, and edge a tad closer to the hubby. Of course, visiting all the elders will also help me get my coveted Explorer title on her..WOOT. Of course all the riding, she may end up walking funny for a while..LOL..

In other news, well, not much to report really. I am stuck in a SERIOUS rut when it comes to my prot pally. Logging in to level is really becoming a burden. I may end up switching to ret just to get leveled up, then worry about tanking later. I am also going to research leveling as ret, but carry a tanking set..just in case…I dont know.  With the guild being on so much less, and there being so many DK’s and other tanks around, it almost seems useless to be tank specced anymore. I hate all this indecision, and poor Bunnyfer is getting zero playtime, and hubby is getting frustrated as he wants to get his mage leveled up, but I just HATE playing. Hopefully I can figure something out.

So last night, we decided to try and get our DK’s done in Nagrand. We have been skipping all through Outland, to get them leveled, and hubby drops the bombshell on me that he wants to stay in Outland past 68…BLECH…honestly, I hate Outland, and LOVE Northrend…but he is the opposite of me. He says the gear in Northrend is not as good..uhh..ok..whatever. I am the one who brought up 3 toons from 68 to Northrend, and found decent gear right off the bat. He mainly feels this way because all of his toons were in decent gear, and we all know the upgrades were not like they were in Outland at 58..Oh well..I will talk him out of it..

So we were finishing up some group quests, when we answered the call for a Durn the Hungerer group. The group was 4 Dk’s and a warlock. One of the DK’s was a 72 Frost spec. He tanked, and the DPS was high enough that he was dead pretty quick. We were pleased as Durn groups are tough to come by now. We then helped the warlock with the Forge Camp: Hate quests. It was refreshing to find a decent group. Its been tough to get good people for anything anymore. Hubby has also decided to work with me on the Loremaster title, so we also are doing that when we are looking to just kill time. We have torn through Deathknell and Brill, and working in Silverpine now. We are taking it one continent at a time at the moment. It will take a while, but we got time.

Otherwise, I am working on Lunar Festival stuff on everyone. I am a bit bummed that getting the title so far on all the achievments has basically required you to be 80. I understand there are a ton of 80’s out there now, but not everyone can spend tons of time playing either. So there will be no drake for me, but I am going to try an get one of the others. Achievments are fun for me, and I have really gotten addicted to them.