Sweet 40 !!

Yahoooo !! I finally dinged 40 on my priest.


And its brought two big changes to my play: My mount and shadowform. This is my first skeletal horse mount. I think they are awesome looking. I chose blue. Running around gets very tiring, especially the closer to level 40 you get, so I am very relieved to be able to ride. It makes things so much quicker. I also got to play in shadowform for the first time & it is very pleasant. Kills come much quicker and easier, and I can face higher level mobs with confidence.

The mount and shadowform sure seemed to quicken things last night. I played less than two hours and gained the entire level (70k-plus XP and with only 5%rest bonus when I started), and finished six quests in Arathi Highlands that netted me from 3.5-5.5k XP each. I only grouped once, with another kindly priest, for less than 5 minutes to kill Mazrel for the quest we were both working on when we ran into each other in Stormguard Keep.

I'm looking forward to speeding along as a shadowy priest. Cya.

Priestly Fun

I've been leveling an undead priest for the last couple of months, and speccing him full shadow. Johnnypriest has been a lot of fun, and just reached level 37, which just surpasses the highest I've ever gotten a priest. My plan is to make him my main, but also continue to level my warrior, Commish. That way whether someone needs a tank or a healer, I can jump in.

I've also been two-boxing with them a bit. But since I use my iMac and MacbookPro, its a bit clumsy when I have to look at both screens and work with two keyboards. It only becomes an issue when Johnnypriest has drawn aggro, and I'm so focused on Commish, I don't notice till its too late. =-(


The patch 2.3 XP changes have made things leveling much faster. I'm gonna take both these guys to Outland soon !

Still New

I've been playing this game since August 2005, and I'm still a long way from having seen it all. Granted, I probably create too many alts, but I enjoy that. I have seen no Burning Crusade content, except for the new Blood Elf starting area, and a bit of the Dranai one. I inherited a couple of 70 characters so have trotted and flown around Shattrath City, but haven't really seen the Outlands (I prefer using my own toons).


Anyway last night I started questing in Feralas with my Orc Warrior. I'd only been here once before - a quick in-and-out for a quest with my Human Pally that I haven't played for a year. It's a beautiful zone, and I really enjoy the scenery, mobs, and the quest lines. This game is so big, I'll never see it all, but am constantly amazed when I go into new areas (even when they're old).

Last night I also tried the new Mac movie feature that came out in the 2.2 patch. Looks pretty cool, and it's super easy.

Something else to blow my time !

Back in the Saddle

After months of distractions, I'm back to leveling Commish. The kids are back at school, so they have no time to play WoW. Thus, I don't always have to play alliance with them. My dwarf hunter has pretty much all the battleground rewards I want from the level 29 bracket (except the battle standard), and I may start to level him again.

But it's great to be more active with AIE again. Very helpful and fun folks.

What's In A Name?

I recently started an Alliance character to level up with my kids. I chose a dwarf hunter and named him "Whatsfordinr". I really grew to like the name, especially when I got the ability to train pets. My Ice Claw Bear I named "Chickenagain". I really enjoyed seeing it on the screen next to my own name.

"Whatsfordinr - Chickenagain"

Then I made the long trek to Wailing Caverns (with a high-level friend) to train a raptor that I wanted to use in Warsong Gulch. I named him "Hordemeat". I really love my litte Hordemeat, and we got quite a few compliments on the name combination from fellow WSG teammembers.

Subsequently, when in front of the Ironforge bank, I got my first ever message from a Gamemaster. I was going to be disconnected in 15 seconds, and I should check the email account of the registered user for further information.

When I got booted and checked my email, I was shocked to find out that someone had reported my name as being offensive/taking away from their role playing experience and that I would have to choose a new one. I fail to see what was offensive about my (old) name, and am perplexed as to why it might "take someone out of the RP experience" !!! I have seen myriad player names and even many NPC names that are far worse in that respect. It's sad that someone spent the time to complain about "Whatsfordinr's" name. It makes me want to report others, but this would only screw others who I'm sure were not the one(s) who complained about my name. I'm confidant that the complainer's name is RP-respectfully derived from latin, italian, greek or japanese. I also wonder whether the GM's actually consider whether the name violates their policy or if they just strip any non-latin (etc.) name that is complained about. What is it with some people?? DOH!!

Okay, it's out of my system now.

In conclusion, because I was in a bit of a rush to get back into the game, I didn't give much thought to my dwarf hunters new name: "Olddwarf" - as in old dwarf (hey, he has grey hair, and I'm kinda old too). "Olddwarf" doesn't sound as good as the old name when he runs with Chickenagain and Hordemeat - but I still like him anyway.

Three Accounts Strong

My household now has three WoW accounts. After the transfer of two high level alliance toons, we all rolled alliance alts to enjoy some of the fruits. I stalled out at level 19 with my dwarf hunter because I'm having too much fun in Warsong Gulch. My son rolled a Pally and we've been having a blast. My daughter a priest, but since she's only level 14, she concentrates on healing in WSG. Since I hate level 19 twink gnome rogues so much, my son and I decided we'll both make one. So far they're very fast/easy to level.

Guild Fun

I thought last night was going to be another uneventful grinding and questing session, but it ended up being the most fun I've had in a long time. When I was about to hop on the Zeppelin outside the Undercity to head back to Stranglethorn Vale to grind, a call for anyone interested in a Scarlet Monestary run came up in guild chat. Thinking "why not, I'm only lvl 42, and it sounds like more fun than STV" I raised my hand. It ended up being a mixed guild/pug run.

We went through the Armory pretty easily (with a bit of squabbling over a drop), and I hearthed out to UC to avoid respawns and to vend stuff. We wanted to do Cathedral and Kamikiiro waited for me and Shadorath (a non-guildmate, soon to change I think) to return. (The two others had dropped out of our group).

While Kami was waiting, a couple of lvl 60-something alliance, flagged for PvP were in the SM lobby. She kept them pretty much continually sapped, while she called in the cavalry. Soon after Shado and I returned, Witchdocta, Fealty and Shyven arrived to give the alliance scum their due. It was great fun.

After camping the alliance corpses for a short time a raid group was formed, and all six of us went into the Cathedral. I didn't know it was possible to go with six, but in we went.

It was a blast. Thanks to our high level guildmates, it was easy too. They would aggro tons of mobs at a time and we (mostly they) would mow them down. I did die once, but Fealty brought me back from the dead quickly.

I wish I had taken screenshots during some of the action, but I didn't. I do have a few from our fun and frolicking afterwards though.

Thanks to all of you for the fun last night, and Shadorath, I hope to see you on the guild roster soon!! = D

Edit: Ha! I didn't realize until I read this that Shyven was one of those (Azure) that had dropped out of our earlier group. Or that Azure was being camped. I feel so dumb !! I do have vent, but don't usually use it cuz my wife is sleeping three feet away.
= P

Family party

Last weekend I set up a second World of Warcraft account. My kids have been creating and using characters on my account for several months (see this earlier post). While they were pretty good about sharing, sometimes they would argue about who got to play, for how long, etc. I, of course had thought about another account, but never even brought it up, thinking my wife would put the kaibash on it because of the subscription fee. However, the other night when the kids were saying (again) they wished they could play with me (or with each other), she asked why I didn't have another account. When I said because it would mean $30/month instead of $15, she said : "Just do it." By the next evening I had gone out and bought another copy of WoW and BC, had them installed, and the second account was up and running.

Now instead of HOTS (helping over their shoulder), it's PHIG (party/help in game). I like it much better this way. And they do need a lot of help.

My oldest daughter rolled a BE rogue, and I rolled a BE mage to level with her. She did okay at first, but when we got to the Silvermoon ruins, she was constantly running into crowds of mobs and either dying, or leaving me to die when I pulled them off of her. But while she's learning, we're having tons of fun. It's my first mage, so I'm leanring some things too. I think I'm going to enjoy these family parties.

So, if your considering a second account so you can play with family - I say: "Just Do It!"

Finaly Forty

It seemed like it took forever, but I dinged level 40 last night. Thanks to fellow guildmember Asmodiuss, who is a sixty-something warrior, that ran me through the Scarlet Monestary Cathedral. I was about to log out with about 10k XP to go before my ding when he gave me a pst, asking if I wanted join his group that power leveling the Cathedral. Even though it was already 12:30 am, and I work early in the morning, I went. Twenty minutes later I was there.


After choosing the dire wolf for my mount, I went to buy my new skills. When I opened up my talent window, that mortal strike was looking sweet, but was another 10 points away because I had put enough in Fury to get piercing howl. It only took a moments consideration (and realizing I've used piercing howl only a handfull of times) to decide to pay the 1 gold and re-do my talents. Now I am 31 arms with mortal strike, and I also maxed out axe AND two-handed weapon specializations. Can't wait to try it all out tonight.

World of Warcraft Patch Day, Addons & Mods

Today is patch day for 2.1. Since February I've been using an Addon Compilation called MazzleUI, that I am totally addicted to and can't live without. I'm hoping that the patch won't affect my MazzleUI. The creator, MazzleFizz - pictured on the left, said she (he?) isn't spending as much time on it and isn't sure how/if it will be affected by the patch.

All I can do is keep my fingers crossed, and keep my eye on the Mazzle forums. If it doesn't work with the patch, I'll have to re-learn the general World of Warcraft interface. {:-(

Update: Some on the forum said it works pretty well if you download the Ace2 update.

Update2: June 2, 2007. At this point, Mazzle works properly on only my higher level toons. It has to do with bongos and how mazzle compresses the bars that do not yet contain spell/talent buttons. Because the low level toons have a lot of empty bar buttons, it screws things up. I don't mind no mazzle on my AH/bank mule, and the kids don't seem to mind playing their low-level characters without it. Hopefully Mazz will be able to fix the issue soon. From the forum, it seems this problem only happens with Macs. :-(

3-Man Scarlet Monastery Library Run

Friday night I was looking for a group to run Scarlet Monastery or Razor Fen Kraul. Two of my guildmates were up for SM (Aquavitae, lvl 35 Mage, and Palatinus, lvl 42 Pally,), but we couldn't find anyone else (see my earlier post about trying to find groups at 3:00 am server time).

So . . . we decided to head out and maybe try the graveyard at least. Once the group was there, we decided to see how far we could get through the Library. Aquavite sheeped and DPS'd, I tanked, and Palatinus healed, buffed, sealed & judged, and jumped in with me to whack away.

It surprised me how well we did with only a three-man group. Even when we pulled three or four at a time, we seemed to handle it pretty well. We did wipe twice when we accidentally pulled a whole bunch or were surprised by a patrol (I'm not sure which).

After the second wipe, which was close to the end & Arcanist Doan, all the mobs in the Library had respawned, so we had to fight through them again.

We laughed about how all the mobs respawned, but none of the chests had (lesson learned: if the mobs have respawned, you should go ahead and reset the instance, so the loot will too).

We ended up making it to Doan and finishing him off. I died, because Doan sheeped the healer, but I watched from above my corpse as they finished him
off with great style. I was quickly rezzed and we celebrated our three-man victory.

It was one of the most fun instance runs I've had, and I was pleasantly surprised that three appropriate level players could pull it off.

The World of Warcraft that You Play !

I love this video!

Hey Where is Everybody ??

I live in Hawaii, and play on Earthen Ring, a US server who's "time" is 5 or 6 hours behind my own. Since I typically logon after my kids go to bed (~9:00 pm in Hawaii, 3:00 am server time), the server is usually pretty deserted. This doesn't bother me - it is actually nice when solo grinding/questing - but it can make it very hard to find a group for running instances. During my usual playing time there are few guildmembers (maybe 6 to 12) playing, and only a couple in my level range. The LFG system is often deserted too. This week I've been using the LFG system each night for RFK, Gnomer, and Scarlet Monestary, with no groups at all.

I've tried /who, and am considering trying the "polite whisper" addon, but I don't like to bother people. I'm continuing to level through questing, but I love the instances in the game and don't want to level past them, and their typically better gear drops.

My other option would be to use an oceanic server. I do have a couple of low level toons on one of them (Jubei'Thos), and their population is much higher at the time I usually play. I really don't want to leave Commish or the Alea Iacta Est guild behind though. = - (

My Kids and World of Warcraft

I've been playing World of Warcraft for nearly two years, and my kids (now 13, 11 and 8) have grown more computer literate over that time. At first they would just watch me play. Then they would suggest where to go, what to do, and give advice. Then they had fun just creating new characters. And now they have started adventuring on their own - when I'm not playing that is. They have several characters progressing into their teens, use my bank alts (when on my servers), and are exploring different servers (PVP in particular). My son (11 year old) loves to duel, which is something I never really got into. Their playtime is extremely limited because of other activities, but it is fun to help them out and watch them enjoy the game. I also find it interesting that to them, playing World of Warcraft is as natural as emailing, AIM-ing, and getting their school assignments online. They find it hard to comprehend that there were no such things as computers when I was growing up. LOL!

My main playing time is after their bedtime, and on most nights I have to ask them to get in bed when I realize they still are watching over my shoulder. They complain to me and their mother, saying that its not fair that I get to stay up and play WoW. I guess Dad's DO have certain privileges . . .

AIE Guildmember Links

Some great stuff here.
A compilation of AIE guildmember sites. At least those that I've found so far. Please let me know of ones I've missed.
Role Play Blogs
- mostly in character

RoleCraft (RP blog & guide from the resident AIE expert. "Witchdocta")
Deadlei's Character blog
Aiyume's blog
Artanas' blog
Secondaid's blog
Desdemina's blog
Ye Olde Man's blog
Pithius' blog
Nikkolai's blog
Noble Adela's blog
Tippthis' blog
Canilia's blog
Aprillian's blog
Kalisynth's blog
Ranondayo's blog
Thragmol's blog
Ixxi's blog
Brother Vyk's blog
Wa's blog
Faeline's blog


General Blogs
- gameplay, news, events, thoughts and general ramblings

The Thoughts of Artanas
Asleep at the Wheel
Clockwork Dementia by chwith - WoW comics & more
Orc Life
Commish's blog
Crucifudge's metal music myspace page


Podcasts
- WoW themed
The Instance
Ctrl + Alt WoW
WoW Addons
Women of Warcraft

- other
Buzz Out Loud
Jawbone Radio


Others
- anything goes (almost)
Warcade deviant art

ROFLMAO

Oxhorn (aka Brandon Dennis) does some great stuff. Check out his other World of Warcraft movies and much more here: http://www.brandonmdennis.com/

The Music of World of Warcraft

I've always loved the WoW music. Thank you Jason Hayes. I bought the CD from Blizzard, put it on my iPod, use it as background music in my office, etc., etc.

I have three kids, all play the violin. My oldest (13) is in first chair of her school orchestra. I attended their Spring Concert last week, and the musical selection was - sorry to say - quite BORING. I love classical music, especially the violin repertoire, but this stuff was sleepersville. I couldn't help thinking to myself that if I were the musical director I would throw some WoW music into the program. It's exciting, would be fun for the kids, not too difficult, and you could even pull the school chorus/choir into the concert.

Then today I saw this article: World of Warcraft promotion at PLAY! concert in San Jose. It is about a touring orchestra playing video game music (particularly WoW music). Has anyone seen World of Warcraft music performed? I think it would be great.

My favorite World of Warcraft Web Sites

Here is a list of my most used sites. These are some that I find most helpful, interesting, and just plain fun.

1. WoW Insider: Great team blog site with current news, discussion, questions, polls, videos, and much more. I visit WoW Insider almost every day.
2. Allakhazam: Awesome info site. The first place I turn for quest help (look at "quests by zone"). Also has forums, loot info, and much more.
3. Kaliban's Loot List: Find out what drops in every instance. Plan ahead, and go get it. Kaliban's is the definitive loot site. Categorized by class and even build. Now includes a beta "Class Gear Planner". If you're a lowbie like me, look for the "pre-expansion" link for the lower-level instances.
4. UI World of War: The best place I've found to find and download mods and addons. Yes I've tried Curse and WoWInterface, but none are as fast, easy or have more info than this site.
5. WoW Patches: Having trouble with the Blizzard downloader on patch day. Check out this site to get back in the game faster.
6. DKPSigs: If your an active WoW forum contributer, this site creates and updates cool signatures that are extremely customizable. Check it out mon.
   

Bags (space or money or both?)

I'm level 31, with one 10-slot bag and three 8-slot bags, and far too often getting that "inventory full" message when questing and grinding. It's especially frustrating when mining and skinning and you have to trash an item in order to get that next ore/skin.

So, I decided to send my AH toon bag shopping (she was very excited). She had about 70 gold, and ended up purchasing one 14-slot and one 12-slot bag, spending about 10 g. It was hard to spend that gold when I know I'm gonna need it soon for my mount, but the extra 10 slots will probably help me make money even faster.

My question is: Is it better to max out your bag space and not worry about the cost of the bags? or to get just a few more slots and not spend so much? I think its probably best to max out (you'll make up the money in the long-run), but it's not an easy decision when you see that gold go bye-bye.

Starting Over

Greetings. I'm an Orc Warrior on the Earthen Ring server (US), and a member of the Alea Iacta Est (AIE) guild. In RL I'm a commissioner - so I thought the name of the blog was fitting.

I lost my first WoW blog (it's a long story), and am starting over here. Most posts are about gameplay and RL, some will be RP in character.

Just made level 30.

Grinding and instances for the next several levels - then back to battlegrounds!