So there I was.  Looking for the eight remaining burning embers I needed to complete the latest Wintergrasp Daily.  We’d already lost, so I figured everyone Horde was going to be gathered outside of the Vault looking for invites.  Or shopping, or hearthing.  You know, what winners do.

But the embers were all ashes and there were bones scattered here and there.  I was alone except for just 2 other green names.  I don’t leave the raid so we can continue to share our efforts.  Turns out there must be multiple raids, because we were basically soloing.  One guy’s kill is not lootable by me.  So be it.  “Divided we fall.”

Anyway I see a green name, Death Knight, run by below, and then a red name.  A Shaman.  Oh, this isn’t going to end well for the Shaman, right?

Except the Shaman was chasing the DK down.  :/  Hmm.

Well, he’s a brother in arms, this DK, and it’s just a Shaman.  So I join in.

The Shaman destroys the Death Knight. 

And inbetween the flashes of Holy Light and Lightning I see the gear.  Okay, it looks like basic PvP stuff.  The maces are orange, so they’re the Crusader Seal maces.  Two of them, nice.  Except why is this guy smoking me?  I’m not hitting him, he’s destroying me.  WTF?

I check the combat log afterwards.  He actually /flexes to add insult to injury.  Let’s see Dodge, dodge, dodge,dodge, miss, miss, miss.  Hmmm.  That’s my results on him.  Destroy, destroy, destroy, destroy.  Those are him on me. …  Did I have my fishing pole equipped?  I check.  No.  Am I wearing my nobleman’s monacle perhaps?  No, I’ve got my epic helm equipped.  What just happened?

I alt-tab out and go into the Armory.  Seems our Shaman has over 1000 Resilience.  Dag.  I’m running 400 or so.  He also had 7k health on me, and double the mana.  Those maces weren’t Crusader Seal maces, not doing up to 608 damage each.  That must have been arena weapons.

Okay, I’m beginning to get the picture.  He’s on two Arena Teams, 2s and 3s.  Face to face type.  He’s gotten himself the Conqueror title, so exalted with every battleground.  He’s wearing solid pvp gear from his head to his toes, pinkie finger included.

And, granted, even if his gear hadn’t been top notch, this guys been PvPing since he left his crib.  I’ve been PvPing since the last couple of weeks.  I’d be outmatched if he was dual wielding spaghetti.

I know there’s mouseover “gear score” add-ons.  I figured why did I need to have that?  Like I needed the boost to my ego (rather, the kick to it’s head) over and over?  “Oh, look.  The NPC vendor selling breaksticks has a higher gear score than me.”  )  I don’t need a “gear score” ability.

Well, if I’m sizing up the competition and deciding whether or not I’m going to be a hero, or a lemming, a little more information would certainly come in handy.

I’ve got five level 80 characters.  Four of them are Crusaders.  I don’t have the time, or inclination anymore, to get the fifth to Crusader, or anyone else in the “up and coming” ranks either.  The fifth started the process, but given he’s my oldest character, and his reputation with the cities is the worst (friendly, honored) I thought “No way.”

My Orc Warrior’s crafted, let me see, four full sets of Savage Saronite Plate armor.  One for himself, two for our Horde Deathknights, and one for my Paladin.  He’s crafted 3 Titansteel Destroyers (himself, Pally, my Alliance Druid).  He’s crafted two of the Titansteel spellpower maces (my horde Shaman, wife’s Alliance Druid), a Titansteel attack power mace (for my wife’s Shaman), and a Titansteel dagger (wife’s Alliance Mage).  I’ve crafted two Spiked Titanium Plate Helms and Boots (himself and the Pally), and also crafted the Tempered Titanium (tanking) Helm and Boots (for the Pally).  A full set of i187 leather gear for my Feral Druid, and my wife’s Balance Moonkin, and the i187 mail gear for the Hunter (who has crafted all this).   And the two epic leather cloaks (for dps and tanking, for my Pally).  Good thing Frozen Orbs are available on the Auction House!

So, all that grinding and gathering and crafting got me to one niveau.  The Crusader grind has added to it by providing a couple more items.  (And cash.)  My Belf Paladin is in 2 pieces of heirloom gear and wielding the grim reaper.  My Nelf Rogue is in the leather heirloom gear and wielding the sword.  My Forsaken Priest is temporarily modeling the cloth heirloom gear and wielding the staff, waiting to pass it on to my Goblin Warlock  My Pally is flying a Silverwing Hippogriff.

And now we PvP.

Goals:  Equip my Paladin in the honor bought pvp gear.  (Shoulders, belt, gloves, so far.)  I’m struck by the fact that I can’t use honor points for weapons.  That explains the Hunter I saw with full epic PvP gear, and using the sword from the Ebon Blade faction rep.

Secondary goal, equip the wife’s Shaman and my own Warrior in better-than-we-can-craft epics.  And, heck, frankly, give us something to do.  We’ve been at a bit of a standstill for a little while now.  (She’s got three level 80 characters of her own.  We’d only do the eyeball burning “Loremaster of Northrend” achievement (and for her an epic cloak recipe) on one couple, our Pally and Mage.)

Third goal: Get a couple of the heirloom items.  My Druid has gotten enough shards to pick up the Thrashblade for my level 60 rogue.  (It’ll go with the Crusader Seals purchased sword.)  (I actually took the Sharpened Scarlet Kris.  Slow+Fast is the new black.)  My Paladin will push for the 325 shard Staff of Jordan heirloom.  That’s going to be for my Worgen Mage.  (Maybe the pvp heirloom shoulders for the Mage as well.  The Crusader Seal clothie gear is very much “Warlocks Only” in look and style.)  The wife will earn enough shards to get the Spellpower plate (and xp boost) for her Holy Paladin.  Maybe the spellpower mace if we stick to it.  Shards are easy enough to come by with patience.

Casual?  Not really.  Personal?  Very.

What happens when a hardcore guildmaster of hardcore raiders designs a game:

World of This

Prologue

You come from a humble background and are brought to the big city to prepare yourself for the war you’ve only heard about.

Chapter 1

Level yourself from 1 to Level Cap.  And be quick about it.  You, slacker, are holding up your friends.

Chapter 2

Raid the latest and greatest.  If you managed to keep up with your “friends.”

Chapter 3

Loot!

Epilogue

There is no happy ending.  That loot is only there to get the next loot which is only there to get the next loot which is only there…  Stress out, burn out, chill out, drop out.  Re-sub.

Too bad his creation has become something he does not appear to be all too happy with.  It’s too damn casual for him, basically.  If you’re willing to climb up a hill to go to school, both ways, he’ll do it in the snow.  If you do it in the snow he’ll go with bare feet.  If you do it with bare feet, he’ll add razor spikes.  He wants that gap between hardcore and casual.  The bigger the gap, the more of a winner you are.  The game must provide you the opportunity to make as big an e-peen as you can.  (Grand Marshal title anyone?  How many lives did that ruin?)

The winners, those who need that gap, always have Darkfall or Conan.  If they’ve got the balls for it.  (Those that don’t will roll on an RP server and park their mammoths on the quest giver in Wintergrasp.  They’re big like that.)

But wait, I invalidate his own argument there.  No, the “winners” have to play in a casual world.  Their accomplishments are meaningless when compared to other players with skillz.  Without the unwashed ranks of casuals to feel good against, what have you got?  You have to have casuals in order to make the leet feel leet.  If everyone else is in Tier 10 too, you’ve got bupkis.

I wonder if we’ll ever see a casual game for casual players.  And no, even I don’t want Sims with Swords.  How about something more about exploration than conquest?  A virtual world that’s more about “living” in it than reaching it’s conclusion over and over (and demanding new conclusions over and over).

I seriously hope WoW2 is not a game where you 1) RUSH TO LEVEL CAP, 2) Raid.  (Then you may as well simply offer max level characters out of the box and let them simply do arenas and puzzle events.  Screw the story and lore and backdrop.  They’re for the tourists who otherwise fund all this.  But then Guild Wars has already done that.)

I’m just piqued that he’s even complaining just a little about the great game they’ve made.  NEWS FLASH:  Count your subs.  Know you’ve created something unique.  Rest on your laurels.  Go ahead and expand on what you’ve got, all of it, if you want for a followup.  I don’t want to see a World of Raids.

I saw this freakish little scene up by the tournament:

Druid in Tree Form, just standing there. (I was killing Cultists.) It was not. It was just standing there.

Seems they had gotten a new pet, the Lil K.T..

And they took it to the penguins to watch it kill them. Two of them where enjoying the scene when I took the screen shot.

First off, we weren’t going to get this game.  I wasn’t totally thrilled with the trailers I’d seen (I thought the graphics looked dated).  The wife was thinking between WoW, Lotro, occasionally Warhammer, when would she get a chance to play?  And it’s $50.00.

But there we were, in Best Buy, and thinking (Logitech G35 headset already under one arm), “Eh, why not.  It’s supposed to be pretty good.”

And I’ve got to say, YOW!  It’s really much, much better than I was expecting.  The graphics are over the top really, really nice.  The fire effects, the armor pieces, the environments, they all look spectacular.

You’ve heard of the Uncanny Valley?  You won’t find it on this map.  Oh, the old people look a little odd, but for the most part, the people look really very nice and varied.  Hardest to make well typically, the Dwarf women looked really nice and pleasant.  Generally, the faces are incredibly good looking.  If you can imagine what’s “good looking” you can make that face.

Story wise, I’ll admit, we did not finish the game.  Not even in the slightest.  What we did, the wife and I, was play through several of the opening sequences.  Each of the races and class backgrounds, and I’m assuming sex as well, has it’s own storyline.  Play a Human and you start out the son of a noble.  Play a Dwarf and you can be a noble, or a ruffian.  Play a wood elf and you start out harrassing the hapless humans.  Play a City Elf and you are on the rough side of town, and the humans are out to make your life a living hell.  (Because Humans are punks that way.)

The Human start was normal enough.  What you’d expect.  That was my first run through.  Next I created a forest, i.e. Dalish, elf.  Interesting.  Very fitting.  (I was shocked at how abusive they were to the humans they’d found.)  I then created a Dwarf to see things from that angle.  I picked the ruffian start and man, this is adult stuff.  Your sister is involved in what???  I really liked his dwarven sidekick.  Guy with black cornrow braids?  Reminded me so much of a Vin Diesel type with his attitude, both in voice, manner, and appearances, and the humor evident in his eyes.  Now my wife created a Human Mage and she started out someplace completely different.  (And gets hit on by some Templar guy, who would have killed her, not that he’d want to, “But, hey, what are you doing later?”)  Then she created a City Elf woman, and the story she went through… Wow.  (Her story explains why elves would sooner shoot a Human dead than humor them.)  That’s some heavy hardcore stuff.  Speaking of which, the feather’s on Morrigan’s shoulder armor look incredible.

But I haven’t mentioned the blood.  It’s everywhere.  I mean, get the plastic sheeting out, Patrick Bateman’s coming to visit.  It’s just over the freaking top.  Even arachnids spout blood like some italian fountain and the stuff gets everywhere.  Well, everywhere on you, the corpse, and then forms a puddle under the body.  (Everything else is, thankfully, still pristine.)  The blood is way, way, way over the top.

Now we also haven’t got to the noody caboody parts yet, and the “sex,” so who knows how well done that is.  (Tasteful, or like the blood, off the wall and into the realm of teenage boy fantasies.)

There’s some very adult language and situations, and a lot of blood, but, so far, it’s turned out to be well worth the price.  We give it two thumbs up.

Ahead by a Century

I don’t know why exactly, but I love this song by the Tragically Hip, a Canadian group.

I first heard them, this song, listening to Iceberg on Sirius radio.  After seeing the cool video on YouTube I was wondering if I’d like the rest of their music as much.  (Oddly, sadly, no.  Ahead by a Century remains the singular favorite of mine of theirs.)

“Ahead By A Century”

First we’d climb a tree and maybe then we’d talk
Or sit silently and listen to our thoughts
With illusions of someday casting a golden light
No dress rehearsal, this is our life
That’s when the hornet stung me and I had a feverish dream
With revenge and doubt tonight we smoke them out

You are ahead by a century

Stare in the morning shroud and then the day began
I tilted your cloud, you tilted my hand
Rain falls in real time and rain fell through the night
No dress rehearsal, this is our life

That’s when the hornet stung me and I had a serious dream
With revenge and doubt tonight, we smoked them out

You are ahead by a century
But this is our life and disappointing you is getting me down.

I think the video is great.  Grainy, artsy, dark.  It’s “light” in the right place, when he’s with his girl in the tree, and then dark, and getting darker afterwards, as she’s doing dangerous things and the group is arriving in the car.  And she knows what’s going on.  You see her seeing him begin to doubt and smiling at him to assure him that everything’s fine.  But it isn’t.  She fiddles with her ring.  She knows they’re coming.  Is she ahead by a century in figuring out life’s tragedies?  Or is there something else going on that I’m not hip enough to get?  Regardless, I love the guitar work and the tone.

So, man, what’s this all about?  This isn’t Facebook.  This isn’t a musical interests blog.  This is a World of Warcraft blog.

Well it sure is.

So there I was, dual speccing my third character.  My Druid, Greenclaw.  He’s been Feral for a long, long, very long time.  And there’s this thing with Anzu, and how you need to heal the Eagle totem… I’ve said too much.  Anyway, I dual specced him into a Tree, i.e. Resto Spec.  But I’d never healed with a Druid before.  I’ve got several HoTs, several direct heals, and I took the glyph selections from Talent Chic as well as a tank-oriented healer talent spec.  I dropped some gold in the Auction House for the i187 healing/caster stuff.  I picked up a ring, and then the Argent Dawn ring.  I crafted myself a Faces of Doom for my off-hand, and grabbed the caster dagger from the Tournament quartermaster.  (Sweet that it’s a Darnassian dagger design.)  And also the caster neck and belt from them as well.  In short, I dropped a ton of mats, seals, and gold, to do it as best I could on a short moment’s notice.  I must be resto NOW.  (Actually, in Feral form, as I tried clearing around Anzu’s summoning spot, the Heroic Level trash mobs thrashed me.  Soloing in normal mode was one thing.  Soloing in Heroic mode, in crafted blues and a couple i200 epics?  Very different indeed.)

But, with the advent of the cross-server PUG, maybe I can start from the beginning, Utgarde Keep, something like that, and learn how to heal.

(My wife’s a druid too, so, together, Heroic Setthik Halls, and Anzu, and more importantly, the Raven God as a mount, shouldn’t be impossible.)

Dude, what’s that have to do with the music lead-in?  What does Anzu have to do with Ahead by a Century?

The two are related in that most “LFG’s” I see in general chat are LFG for Heroic TOC.  Where the hell are the regular folks?  The only people raiding are done with Ulduar?  I’ve never even looked inside.  :/

Is everyone ahead of me, gear/progression, by a century?

(How else could I talk about a video I like and dual speccing into Resto for seemingly my own purposes???)

Anyway.  And since life is fairly fun afterall, let me leave you with Vampire Weekend’s A-Punk.  Makes me wish I was back in UofM, Munich Campus, drinking beer in the Boot Room again, this playing on the jukebox…

We were otherwise listening to Men Without Hats’s Safety Dance back then. 

Way before Heigen stole it.

Ah, those were nights!

If Elvis were talking about burning love, you’d be thinking “Wow, he’s talking about something remarkable. Something worth singing about. Something he thinks we’d all be interested in knowing about.”

Ooh-hoo-hoo, I feel my temp’rature rising
Help me I’m flamin’, I must be a hundred and nine
Burnin’, burnin’, burnin’ and nothing can cool me, yeh
I just might turn to smoke but I feel fine

Wow, Dude. Something’s rocking his world.

But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about something remarkably average. That’s to say, something with utter sameness, just the paper mask over the face is all there is to set folks apart.

I’m taking about the races in World of Warcraft.

This thought occured to me as I, Honorus, Human Paladin, astride a charger, facing off against this gigantic Tauren astride his massive, armor plated, kodo. And I was thinking “Who are we kidding. In ‘real life’ he’d squash me like a bug.” Comparing mass, he and his mount were like six of me and mine.

But in World of Warcraft, sparring in the tournament, we are 100% identical, this Tauren and I, and our disparate mounts. We have identical health, identical abilities, identical response times. If I were a Gnome, it would be no different. If he were some 30′ tall Titan, riding on two M1A1 Abrams strapped to his feet, it would be no different. Our differences amount to nothing more than a paper mask we wear for Halloween.

If I was going to picture fantasy battles, I’d picture a group of Humans surrounding one Tauren and he’d be swinging a tree trunk side to side blowing them all away. That’s just the level 1 noobs mind you. Because a Tauren is like four times the mass of a human. Give them some advantage due to their stature.

But in World of Warcraft Tauren = Orc = Human = Gnome. I.e. 10 = 8 = 6 = 4.

So it doesn’t matter whatsoever what race you play, they’re all pretty much identical except for certain “flavor style” racial abilities. (Have you noticed how they seriously toned down racials so we’re all the same? Fear Ward anyone?) In the end it’s just a mask you wear.

If I rolled a Tauren, it’s because I wanted to be a Juggernaut. A powerhouse. A force of Nature. But noooo. In effect I’m just a Gnome that can’t squeeze into unusually small hidey holes.

And with the Worgen and Goblins able to become Death Knights (RETCON MOR!) I mean, c’mon. The Worgen are humans who escaped the Scourge behind the Graymane wall, no? Yes, yes, they succumbed to the disease that turned them into werewolf like creatures, but they were never minions of the Lich King. They were in Gilneas, and the Goblins we’ll get to play soon were on some jungle island, and yet, all of a sudden, the Lich King had actually made some of them Death Knights already, once upon a time, too?

So, pretty much, everyone is identical except for class. It is, pretty much (Tauren Paladin anyone??) irrelevant what race you want to play. It’s nothing more than a paper mask you wear. Only the classes are differentiated.

And what a shame. That’s something I think Warhammer got right. And with the introduction of the Slayer, they too have started down the road of everyone can be anything. (The Slayer is the Dwarf equivalent of an Orc unit.)

You know what I’d like? I’d like for Race to matter as much as Class.

Is that too tough to balance for Blizzard? I think the game would be better if they could make the effort and make it work so that race mattered. Instead they’re going the other direction towards homogeneous sameness in everyone and everthing. (Stat consolidation on future gear is only part of the symptoms of this.)

Are we headed to a Hello Kitty Island Adventure kind of game? Suitable for all ages, sexes, cultures, and pulse rates?

Butters: I don’t play World of Warcraft.
Cartman: Butters you said you’re on your computer all the time.
Butters: Ya, but I’m playing “Hello Kitty Island Adventure”
(All stare at Butters)
Cartman: (calmly) Butters go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
Butters: (nervously) Oh alright then.

Or not.

So there I was.

To catch you up briefly, Msaker, by Orc Warrior, used up a lot of good crafting mats to equip my Human Paladin in some decent (non-raider, non-instancing) gear.  Tempered Saronite Helm and Boots for tanking, and Spiked Saronite Helm and Boots for DPSing.  (I.e. the iLevel 200 stuff.)  My hunter used up the last 4 Arctic Furs in all of existence (Dear World, Please forgive me.) to make the Nerubhide and Icestriker cloaks for him.  And the Orc also made the Human his Titansteel Destroyer and Titansteel Shieldwall.  And working on the tournament I picked up the Teldrassil Defender.  (Spiffy graphics, and even though the moon already glowed, it was enhanced with a quick and cheap Crusader enchant.)  So Honorus has been the greatest benefactor of a huge portion of my hardwork in materials gathering.  (That and the wife and I have 9 characters between us with Artisan Flying.  The tournament has been beddy beddy good to us.  It’s not “casual” gameplay at all!!!)

Anyway, so I’m interested in getting a Horseman’s Helm.  (And just getting the achievement to kill him.)  Msaker has the old (level 70) one and loves it.  I wanted to get an updated version for my Paladin.

I spec Retribution and travel to the Scarlet Monastery.  There’s a crowd, but not a lot of talk.  Then folks start talking.  Deathknight /s “DPS lfg.”  Warlock “DPS lfg.”  Umm.  I see where this is going.  DPS folks all gathered around waiting for 1) someone to tank for them, and 2) someone else to heal for them.  (Then off they go to their happy DPS lives while the healer and tank respec to DPS as well and carry on with their lives.)

Well, hell.  I appeared to be part of the problem.  There I was.  Ret Pally, LFG.  Good grief.  (See, tanking is a responsibility.  Healing is a responsibility.  DPS fails to kill a boss?  “Tank better” or “Your healing sucks.”  Hey, sign me up for the acid eye wash.  Bring it!)

Well, the Deathknight says “I’ll start a group.”  Warlock says “Invite me.”  Deathknight says “LFM.”

Well, heck with it.  I’ve actually spent more than a couple Titansteel bars to let them sit unused in my bags.  ”Invite me.”

Invited I linger a bit in Ret spec.  “So, what are you?  Tank, healer, or DPS.”  The Warlock lol’s “I’m DPS.”  I tell them I’m Ret.  But: I can spec Prot, if your good DPS can make up for my bad tanking.  (I haven’t tanked an instance, for reals, in … forever.  Not on a Paladin.)  I respec, equip my tanking stuff and we wait.  Two more Paladins join the party.  The first is actually geared with a Titansteel Shieldwall as well.  And he’s got 27k health to my 22k.  I guess he’ll be tanking.  Except all of a sudden his health drops to 12k.  Huh??  I hover over him and it says he’s Holy now.  Okay, so we’ve got a healer.  The other Paladin stays Retribution.  (He’s wearing an Explorer’s tabard.  I don’t even care what his gear is.  Later, after a fight, while we waited for his mana to recover on his own … That takes FOREVER by the way, I offer him some mana replenshing tea.  “No, thanks.  I have potions for that.”  And so we wait a while longer.  And we wait.  DIVINE PLEA YOU MORON! (I quietly say inside.  Having only discovered this wonderful ability a short hour earlier myself while perusing Paladin Tanking over on ElitistJerks or Maintankidin website.)

Anyway, long story short, I tank five summons of the Horseman.  No deaths.  And none of us were geared in anything exceptional.  Horseman ain’t so tough.  Or my tanking wasn’t so terrible.  (And no helm, or mount, either.  Sigh.)

Then it was back to the Tournament as Retribution.  (The best 2,000 gold (after cold weather flying) that I’ve spent was to dual spec my Warrior Arms/Prot and my Paladin Prot/Ret.)

I am loving the flexibility of the Paladin. 

And, yes, I have LOTS to learn yet to play him effectively in any role beyond smashing weak non-raid single targets.

I don’t know why this thought occurred to me, but it did, and it was “A fool and his durability are soon parted.”

I was thinking that when I got invited to a Chillmaw/Commanders group.  I was the 3^rd person to the group.  And with me they were ready to go.  “They” being a Ret Pally and a Priest.  And the Ret Pally wasn’t putting a shield on and switching specs to Prot.  Meaning I wasn’t going to cat this one, but bear it.

And I’d just, moments before accepting the invite, been fooling around with my action bars.  And while Chillmaw was hammering me I was wondering where my Maul button was.  (“Why do I have a blank space there where a button should be?  Like a Maul button?”)  But I had my Swipe button.  And I had my Growl button.  And we all three lived to walk away from the fight.  Yay.

So my action bars were a mess, kind of, they looked orderly, because, on the recommendation of pwnwear.com (great site) I switched from Bartender 4 to Dominos.

I also picked up an add-on called OptionHouse which reports to me what add-ons are loaded, and what resources they’re gobbling up.

Because I’ve been having issues.  Memory issues.  What?  See, I crash a lot lately.  Icecrown has become Lagcrown.  I herk and jerk across the landscape, I actually lose visibility of my entire interface (without ctrl-z-ing for it) in places when I fly too close to the ground.  (Like a Druid herbalist does a lot.)

Anyway, my fix last night, while the wife played LotRO, was threefold, and based on recommendations from pwnwear. 

OptionHouse, Dominos, TweakWoW.

I loaded OptionHouse.  I saw that Autobar consumed the most memory at 5%+ or so.  That’s a chunk of memory.  But I can’t live without it.  Gathermate took another 5% or so.  I can’t live without that either.  Healbot came in around 3%.  Huh?  So I dropped Healbot since I’ve always had Grid loaded as well.  (Clique + Grid2 should do me for what I’m doing now.  I’m not a healer type at the moment.)

(I’ll have to work an alternative to using AutoBar.)

I noted that Bartender4 was pulling 2.5%.  And after I loaded Dominos I saw it was only pulling about .5%.  Not a bad improvement.  And I’m sure I could do this with Bartender4, but being new to Dominos, and doing some initial playing around with things, I actually managed to very easily configure my bars for my Druid forms.  And not just my usual Bar #1.  I can now have multiple bars shift when I shift.  Kind of a nifty thing.  (I’m a by the numbers keyboard user, I like to push 1-2-3-4 in something like a “rotation,” so having less-often used spells on the bar above, that’s still form specific, is nice, and keeps my fingers from having to move all over the place.)

(Hmm.  Maybe I’ve found my alternative to AutoBar afterall.  If I can swap bars as I go in and out of combat I may be on to something.)

Anyway, the third add-on is TweakWoW.

Now the thing that sparked my interest was pwnwear.com’s mention about how TweakWoW was updated recently to take into account multiple cores.  Say what?  The number of cores in the processor on my motherboard.  Hmm.  I’m always thinking “modern = two core processor”.  And doesn’t my box say “Core 2?”  Yeah.  But it also says “Core 2 Quad.”  I’ve got 4 cores.  And I knew that since I run a Widget that shows me 4 cores working as I work on my machine.  But I never thought much of it.  I assumed the WoW client would take advantage of what I had and use it to it’s fullest if I told to give me the Cadillac version of the game experience.  Oh?  No.  No, it does not.  I was shocked.  So, using TweakWoW I told WoW that I had 4 cores, not 2.  Four.  And, for some reason, my texture memory was at the minimum setting.  Hmm?  I’ve got a Gateway FX computer.  One of the negatives given in a review of it was that it had a ridiculous amount of memory on it.  6 Gigs.  That’s right, somebody thought “That’s just too much.”  And, TweakWoW advised that I should up the texture memory level (if my machine could handle it) to improve performance in places like Dalaran.  Oh, yeah?  So I upped it from 8MB to 320MB if memory servers.

And so with all these changes I loaded up and into Dalaran.  Hmm.  Was I imagining things, or did everything look … better?  The real test was to go scour Icecrown for ore with my Paladin.  Sweet.  It was smooth as butter.  And that’s with a lot of settings already maxed, or bumped up some from what I already had.

So, thanks to the advice I found over at pwnwear.com, things are running a little smoother again.

Oh, yeah, pwnwear also has a lot of Deathknight analysis.  I respecced Cenotaph into his Blood + Pale Horse leveling spec so that might be amusing.

I was doing quests in Storm Peaks.  Again.  The intro to the Sons of Hodir quests and I was doing some running around for Thorim.

Once upon a time, that is to say the first three times I did these quests for him, Thorim was an icier Vrykul.

Now, the fourth time running into him, he’s a Titan just like his brother Loken always was.

It’s funny, and good, how often and how much Blizzard subtly messes around with the world improving it, adjusting it, fixing it.  The guards around towns usually always sport something different in their gear sets.

Anyway, Thorim used to look mad, or sullen.

Now he just looks bored and petulant.  Drumming his fingers is a nice touch.

Oh. Troll on a helicopter. Been there, done that. Boring.

A page from the nostalgia file.

We decided to stop in a cafe along the beach for a wine and beer and some shrimp.  Somebody at another table said “It looks like the Loch Ness Monster,” referring to the post-sunset scene.  (I had photographed the sun setting already.)

I got the camera out again, zoomed in to the wash of color on the horizon, and sure enough it did look like Nessie.

Actually, with the right point of reference, it looks a lot like Deathwing coming up in a fire of Cataclysm from the waters of the Maelstrom.

Otherwise it’s the sunset as seen from the beach in Bradenton, FL.

Here I am.  On vacation down in Florida.  West Coast.  Nice place.  Pool.  Across the street from the Gulf.  Weather started out a little cloudy and wound up being cloudless and warmer than usual for this time of year.

The place also has  Wi-Fi.  So I did what any sane person does, prepare for the rainy day and bring along a laptop.  Loaded with World of Warcraft, of course.

Now I made sure I had the latest patch of Warcraft loaded before we drove down.  I put the laptop in a room by itself and it patched via the home wi-fi connection.  I only run a few add-ons on the laptop, but I grabbed the Curse Client on-line, and once loaded I took it’s recommendations and upgraded the few add-ons I had.

Now Arcarius has been sitting in the Storm Peaks, in a certain, particular, location probably well known to every Hunter capable of taming a Spirit Beast.  There are 5 or so spots where Skoll can be found.  I always park him in the spot where I last saw Skoll.  (When Skoll was otherwise engaged pounding on a Druid who was waiting for a Guildie to come tame him.)

Whatever add-ons I did have loaded on the laptop, they weren’t configured for Arcarius.  (He’s been a not-so-often played character.)  I got him to 80 from 74 with Heirlooms purchased for a 60 Rogue.

So, Wi-Fi connection, I logged into World of Warcraft.  Disconnect.  I didn’t even take a breath before getting disconnected.  This doesn’t look promising.  So I try again.  Success.  I like checking in on Arcarius, first thing, last thing, and at random times, hoping that some day I’ll log on and he’ll be seeing Skoll in a tameable condition.

Log in. Silver Dragon throws a portrait up on my screen.  SKOLL!  (SKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL to borrow from the Brazilian sportscasters.  Grats to Rio btw for winning the Olympics.)

There he is!  ZOMG!  But, wait!  What’s this crap all over my screen.  Bartender has barfed like 6+ bars all over the center of my screen.  (Dang!  I never set it up for Arcarius.)  Oh, no.  No, no, no.  (Wife is relaxing on bed watching the panicked expression on my face.)

I scan the buttons, forward and backward.  I’m on a Griffin.  I dismount and my pet appears.  The white wolf I also like.  So I do a quick pet summon (I found that button.)  I pick the moth, which I’ll abandon, and then see I’ve still got my wolf out.  Great.  Okay, so dismiss.  Dismiss.   Argh, no, Abandon!  Right click the pet bar … to target him.  Okay, targeted, I abandon him.  Tame, tame, tame.  Where is tame?  Okay, so I normally want to drop a trap.  Rare 80 beast, probably hits for a bit.  Trap, trap, trap.  Damn, no trap.  No tame either.  Open Spell Book.  Don’t get too close and aggro before I’m ready.  Tame, tame.  A beastmaster.  Tame, tame, got it.  Tame.  No trap.  No time to worry about it.  There’s 1,000 Hunters after this guy, and it’s in the flight line for popular tourist destinations.  I’ve got to get this done, and now!  Let’s hope for the best.  Through the buttons on the screen I see I’m close enough.  I target Skoll with the Silver Dragon portrait.  I start my tame.  The thing moonfires, prowls, and jumps me.  Ouch.  The taming continues.  Dang he hits hard.   Really hard.  So, which bar is going to win?  The cast bar and the tame, or the health bar and my life?

Bang.

It was win-win.  I lived, Skoll was tamed.

Now I need to find a good name.

(And some aloe for my sunburned face.  I hit the pool and beach after the taming.)

Woot.  Skoll’s mine.

I use a lot of add-ons.  Ones I’ve come to enjoy using are Outfitter, Pitbull 4 (much easier to use than 3), Bartender 4, Combuctor (for bags), MrTrader (a new tradeskill addon).  But those are essentials.

My favorite, alright, a favorite, happens to be one called EpicMusicPlayer.  If you’ve amassed a large number of cd’s over the years, like I have, and then converted them all to MP3 to listen to on nearly every generation of MP3 player there’s been, then you’d be in luck.  The out-of-game playlist generator is very easy to use, and the in-game player is the best I’ve ever seen.  (You can turn off the dancers.)

I’ve been listening to outside music while playing since my Molten Core days.  If I was quiet in vent that was why.  (Just chilling to the sounds of lounge music.)  But it’s better to have in-game control over your music.

Anyway, since I don’t want to overwhelm the system with the 1000’s of mp3s I just put a few play lists together.  I’ve got one of Chill (143 tracks), House (“Let this house be Progressive!” SM-Trax, and 136 other tracks), Buddha Bar (9 double cd’s worth, or 285 tracks), Chillout in Paris (98 tracks), B-Tribe (59 tracks (I should be in Ibiza, no?)), Collective Soul (Gel, and 46 other tracks), Latin (44 tracks, Caminando Por La Calle, by the Gypsy Kings, a favorite), African (96 tracks, Todii by Oliver Mtukudzi I really like), Green Day (48 tracks, American Idiot+), the 70’s (Kasey Casem works on in 135 tracks), Nirvana Lounge (108 tracks).  And I still don’t have enough loaded.

Coming into the Argent Tournament grounds, flying in on a Griffin, circling above the ice and water, listening to Atman, Path of Love, is an experience.  (Of course that entrance scene is pretty cool with any music.)

Let’s see.  Threes.

Stormsoul’s become my third Crusader.  I pretty much wrapped up my Argent Crusade dailies with 3 remaining reputations hovering at, or near, 99%.  Time to turn in the 4 writs I’d earned.  Playing a balancing act I used 1 writ each for Undercity and Darkspear, and 2 writs for Silvermoon.  Argh!  Now I was solidly 99% for each repuation at this point.  Sure, I could just wait a day and do the dailies one more time. … I’m too impatient for that.  Off to Orgrimmar.  Because I could also add another seasonal brewmug to my collection.  (Now I have blue, yellow, and green mugs in the inventory of several characters.  Which brings to mind Roy G. Biv.  I.e. the rainbow.  Colors left for next years mug:  Red, orange, indigo, or violet.  Red or orange would be very appropriate for the events forthcoming.  But, tonight I’m going to party like it’s nineteen ninety nine.  Warrior’s, appropriately, can dual wield two mugs, and can load up on, and then put away, twice the beer with every visit to a keg.  I was seeing Pink Elekks long after I’d returned to Northrend.)

Oh, wait, sidebar aside, where was I?  Ah yes.  Repuation.  (Heh.)  So after collecting my green mug outside of Orgrimmar, I traveled to Razorhill.  I killed some of the motly crew of humans infesting the old castle ruins.  Then I killed some bristlebacks infesting the old dirt.  Bada ding, Darkspear achieved.  Then I traveled to the Undercity.  Seems I’d left behind a small investigation into a lich guy I needed to look into on an island outside of Brill.  A little running back and forth to the Mage quarter in the Undercity and my mission there was accomplished.  Exalted with the the UC.  I was worried about Silvermoon City.  I’d actually gone and done every quest I had there.  So I headed to Tranquillen and tried to get some Silvermoon rep there.  I grabbed the Kill Knucklerot and his Buddy quest.  Wow, I thought I was in luck when I saw the flash of green.  Except that just got me to Friendly with Tranquillen, nothing with Silvermoon City.  So I ignored the rest of Tranquillen, returned to Silvermoon City and then toured the countryside scanning for a quest, any quest, to do.  Voila!  There was one!  I’d actually skipped the quest to go get Saltheril and his girlfriend pizza, beer, and glow sticks, for their party.  Not a moment to waste!  (And I come with 3 mugs of my own.  I’m ready.)  Party stuff gathered, returned to Saltheril, ding!  Exalted with Silvermoon City.  I went and got a purple strider and recalled back to Dalaran and returned back to the tournament grounds.  Now that I’m a Crusader I qualified for 2 more quests that night.  The quests to shoot the Kraken, and kill the Mistcaller in his cave.  Easy peasy.

All told, I’ve earned 175 or so Commander’s Seals getting to this point.  I’d already spent 50 seals on two maces, which I briefly used in an Enhancement kick.  (I’m Elemental again.  The Elemental gear I’d gotten just raiding the beginning stuff (H Naxx-25) was still better than anything I could get my hands on for Enhancement not raiding or pvping.)  (I also used a bunch of badges last time around getting the twin Sunwell fist weapons when I tried Enhancement for a brief period previously.)

Three Crusaders. 

Three reputations taken to Exalted in one night.  (The final reps all tend to come at once though.)

My third, and final three?  Three full sets of heirlooms armor and weapons.  Horde pally using Polished Valor items and Bloodied Reaper.  Horde priest (eventually goblin warlock) using Dreadmist and Headmaster’s Charge.  Alliance rogue (and previously hunter) wearing leather gear and using the one-handed sword.  Either I’ll get my Druid a Sylvery Sylvan Stave (in place of a Titansteel Destroyer*) or I’ll get the McGowan hammer for the Rogues other hand.

*The Titansteel Destroyer seems good for cat form, the Sylvery Stave for bear form.  I know I’m using bear form more when I’m slaying cultists and Kvaldir, but it still seems a shame to waste a good Titansteel Destroyer by replacing it.

If your afternoon respite happened to consist of slaying scourge, kobolds, and/or trolls, and you traded scones and earl gray for swords, axes, and magic, and magic carpet rides (see the header), then you’d kind of have a “tea for two” kind of day.

The wife had suggested this would be a “World of Warcraft” weekend.  When she wasn’t off in the PvP/RvR of Warhammer, she’d spend some time with me.

So there I was thinking we’d get our Paladin/Mage couple a little further ahead.

But we had two things which came first.

I had visions of wielding that Borean Tundra axe on my Death Knight.  So we started with our Death Knights and took them to the Borean Tundra.  I can’t get over how much easier it is doing these quests having flight in Northrend at level 68.  It’s not free levels, but it’s a tremendous leg up over our original passage through, twice, with our Horde Warrior/Shaman and our Alliance Druids.  And I thought that quest required us to kill the boss up in the floating necropolis past the Buffaloman Village.  (Alliance have to assist a lady, the sister of a Death Knight turned good, and slay a boss up there, and it’s not a trivial fight.)  So we did all there quests and we were never offered quests in the city to kill scourge.  Finally I figured out (thanks to WoWhead) that I needed to do those bloodspore quests outside of Warsong Keep first.  In fact, that’s all the Horde had to do.  Waltz down Gammathra’s cave, kill him, speak with Garrosh, go to the village and collect our axes.  At some point they’ll just need to just supply quests rewards to us in the mail with ribbons on top.  Or, Deathknights, two of them together, are content burners.

I mentioned kobolds.  Those would be the ones in Dungeons and Dragons Online.  The wife had created a Cleric, so I did too.  Which meant she deleted her Paladin (free accounts are limited to 2 characters) and created a Sorceror.  So, my cleric and her sorceror knocked out a few quests.  We have only made it to level 2, but it’s really rather fun.  We did all the quests on the starting island and have now started the quests in the harbor area of Stormreach.  I absolutely love the idea of “solo” instances.  (I hate the idea of the two of us running into several “solo only” instances, which we did, but the fact that there is a world of instances meant for two, makes it ideal for us.  DDO has got questing in instances down, very well done.)  And the DDO graphics are very, very nice and interesting, something I’ve already mentioned.  This is great “hop in, hop out” gaming.  Currently, this will keep our Warhammer resubs on hold for a while.

And Honorus and Effilda dinged 76 and 75 respectively working for the Trolls now in Zul’Drak.  I’m not sure the quests are in the right order though.  We’ve killed Drakkaru already, but his Drakkari are still holding sway over the frozen reaches and the temples of the avatars.

Arcarius just dinged 80.

It was so long ago, Nov-Dec 2004, that he was created as Kinless on the Argent Dawn server.

Now, wearing leather heirloom items, completing the Zul’Drak questing achievement, and doing several days worth of Pa’Troll and Argent Crusade Dailys, he swiftly went from 74 to 80.  (He was stuck at level 74 in Dragonblight for what felt like forever.  And it was still interspersed with playing other characters even then.)

Now he’s in full Swiftarrow Mail.  He’s 2 seals shy of acquiring the Sylvery Sylvan Stave, and he’s picked up the fairly adequate Zombie Sweeping Shotgun from the Argent Crusade rep.

Now it’s time to tame Skoll, the lightning dog.  Wish me luck.

Dear Newbies of Falconwing Square, Deathknell, Valley of Trails, Northshire Abbey, Shadowglen, Karanos, etc.,

Don’t glower at me.  I see those newbie eyes of yours glaring at me

Yeah.  /sheepish.  That was me. 

That was me littering your newbie zone with the corpses of the scarlet crusade, murlocs, putridhides, and anything else I can blast with my presence.

I know the drill well.  I’ve been through your area here a few times like you’re doing now.  Sometimes it’s not easy.  Those pesky murlocs run all over the place, and have friends.  Those scarlet crusade guys can be tough.

But for me?  I cough a zone away and they all drop dead.  If I don’t have to loot some trivial thing from them to fulfill the quest, I don’t even bother looting them.  Killing them, and leaving them for the vultures, was good enough to please my new masters.

I’m doing this to get city reputation.  And I guess I can’t really be all too worried about your feelings, or your ability to perform the same tasks for the same masters.  Oh, I care.  But I have needs too, and not enough to give you the 10g you ask me for.  “Plz” and puppy dog eyes ain’t going to cut it.  And not enough to put this requirement the Argent Crusade has put on me on indefinite hold.  I’m doing this, so I’m going to do it.

Oh, sure, I have options.  I can do Argent Crusade dailies for writs.  Forever.  Uh, no.

I could loot Runecloth from intelligent mobs across the Burning Steppes and Hellfire Penninsula.  Uh, no.  Been there, done that.  (Msaker is riding a Raptor, in part by doing this.  But as a practical exercise?  For all my Crusaders-to-be?  I may have patience, but not that much.)

See, I was born in 2004.  And cleared a lot of this content in my day (uphill, in the snow, both ways), but got no benefit from doing so.  Today, reputation with the cities, something you newbies have no need for, can most easily be achieved by ripping your content asunder.  Blasting it to smithereens.  Removing it from existence.

No, I’m simply going to put some a’fearing into your mobs, revist the starting zones, and run around in dumb dog form and bite stuff like I was some rabid druid or something.  Consecrate, for goodness sake.

If that pile of murlocs lingers far longer than you’d expect it to, yep, that’s me.  Farming rep.  Sorry for the mess, and the inconvenience to you.

From my Shaman, my Hunter, my Paladin, to you.

Lately,

The wife’s been playing Warhammer using 30-day cards.  She enjoys the fast pace of the PvP, the come as you are, as often as you want, pace of the activity, without having to be in a guild, raid, or party even.  This isn’t just the scenarios, but the RvR action as well.  She also appreciates the graphic quality of the game.  When she next re-ups for another 30 days I’ll probably join her and check out what’s changed since I was last in.  If I do, I’ll concentrate more on the PvP side of things.  (I already have a fun PvE game.)

I decided not to continue my LotRO account.  At level 34 I managed to acquire 2 gold and some silver.  Before I boarded the ship sailing for the Undying Lands I sent all my money to my wife’s main character, a Rune Keeper, and she’ll get herself a horse in a few short levels.  I was playing a Warden.  Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s my miserable hand-eye coordination (though jousting in WoW comes easy), but I wasn’t getting the Warden’s Gambits.  It was not a responsive tanking class.  A Warrior’s (and Paladin’s, and Druid’s) taunts are instant.  They tell a mob “Get your butt over here.  NOW!”  A Warden builds up gambits.  First you use a “fist” ability, which is always accompanied by a yell.  YARRRRR.  Then you may use a “shield” ability.  This has a satisfying shield slam sound.  Then you use another “fist” ability.  Meaning another loud yell YARRRRRRR.  (You still don’t have aggro guaranteed.)  Then you play your gambit.  Did that get the aggro?  Maybe.  Was it fist-shield-fist?  Or was it fist-fist-shield?  Or spear-fist-fist.  (Oh, it’s not 3 abilities.  It’s many abilities, each of which is one the three types.)  Taunt.  Maybe I should have played a Guardian.  I wanted to like the game.  And there’s much to like.  Oh, we got to the point where we didn’t know where to go.  All the quests we had to do were Fellowship quests.  And the Chapters are “gated” so you had to get through certain instances.  Since I was playing a Tank character I wanted to be good at it before having a group rely on me.  I wasn’t there, not with the Warden, and thus had run myself into a deadend of my own creation.  And repeating content?  Uh, not if I don’t have to.

I downloaded Dungeons and Dragons Online.  Since it’s free to play now.  (They sell you stuff, RMT I guess, like extra character slots, certain character classes, i.e. nothing you can’t live without.)  The graphics are very nice.  Like LotRO but another world.  The tropical island you start on with the snow falling, and the fishmen, is very nice looking.  The action commands are opposite to LotRO (and Warhammer and WoW) which meant my sword was doing swinging all over the place.  The wife and I both tried Paladins and knocked out a few quests.  It’s not bad.  And actually very good for being totally free.  One thing I absolutely like: adjustable dungeon/instance sizes.  If you want to solo it, tell it you’re solo as you enter.  In a group?  Tell it you’re in a group.  I’d still be in LotRO if it could simply have been my wife and I going through the “fellowship” quest instances.  (I don’t need it to be easy.  Just possible.)

Otherwise I’m solidly in WoW right now.  My Hunter donned heirloom leather shoulders and chest at level 74, and still using the blue quest reward weapon from the Borean Tundra quest, blasted apart Zul’Drak content.  He even managed to get into an Amphitheater group.  He did every quest but the two group quests and is 1 quest short of completing Fo Shizzle my Grizzle achievement.  Uh, wait, wrong zone.  Whatever it’s called in Zul’Drak!  ;)  Then he went and made Hemet Nesingwary proud in Sholazar Basin.  (I need to go back to Nagrand and knock out those quests of his there to get the achievement for completing all of Hemet’s quests.)  He’s 79 now, in a very short amount of time.  (That +20% xp really does work.)  He’s surprisingly capable, and his pet, the demon dog from Zul’Drak, is a very capable killing machine.

Working on the goodies they offer to Champions, my Hunter, Shaman, and Paladin are all working on Argent Crusade reputation by doing the Pa’Troll dailies.  The Hunter is still working his way through the first Valiant stage.  The Shaman’s graduated, but is now working on getting exalted with everyone.  It’s funny, but my oldest characters had the least reputation with the cities.  Like they’d never been there.  My tournament goals remain: Hunter to get epic staff and rifle.  My Shaman and Warrior to outfit my Goblin Warlock in Dreadmist and skull staff with the swirling skulls.  My Druid will worry about the Worgen recruit.

What I’d read about the next expansion, even though it’s only 5 levels, it sounds like there’ll be another big gear reset.  What I’ve heard is they’re wanting to slow down the pace of the PvP, and the boss fights, by greatly increasing our health pools.  Obviously they can’t improve existing gear, since the damage output from currently existing dangers would also have to go up in order to keep the pacing.  So that means gear from level 81-85 is what’s going to see the big bump up in health (i.e. Stamina).  And that will relegate level 80 Epics, of any iLevel available today, to the trash heap by 85.  (And that’s certainly what they’re intending on doing with such a implementation.)  Since I’m not raiding, or even worrying about it, iLevel 187 (i.e. crafted blues and epics) are going to be plenty fine for what I do today.  And knowing the reset is coming, eventually, inevitably, how much blood, sweat, and tears am I willing to sacrifice in the name of gear upgrades?  Not much.  Not when I have some characters not yet level 80.