Commish on ER: May 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

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.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

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. :-(

Monday, May 21, 2007

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.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

The World of Warcraft that You Play !

I love this video!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

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. = - (

Sunday, May 13, 2007

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 . . .

Thursday, May 10, 2007

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/

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

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.

WoW Insider: Great team blog site with current news, discussion, questions, polls, videos, and much more. I visit WoW Insider almost every day.
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.
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.
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.
WoW Patches: Having trouble with the Blizzard downloader on patch day. Check out this site to get back in the game faster.
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.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

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!

Commish on ER