Hallow’s End Euripedes

Welcome. I am Euripedes the troll mage. ...mon.Mages are inferior to warlocks. I have accepted my fate over the years and to help my brother and sister mages I write stuff to figure out how to be as good as warlocks. …mon.Some mages just cannot handle it. …mon.Chill man. That is made up for by Northrend having the city, Dalaran. I can now look down all the peons below. …mon.Beyond all that I am most proud of sharing my green poop. …mon.
... mon.

Halloween with The Guild

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=ddf6390f-44b9-4eb7-a872-cf22a5bcd3bd" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Bonus Episode: Halloween!">Video: Season 3 - Bonus Episode: Halloween!</a>

Happy Halloween from The Guild.

Race Changes Live

The link to the Blizzard FAQ is found here.

The service to change your race is $25 and is now live.

Personally if I had any inclination to do this I would also see the race and class combination that are coming out in Cataclysm. Your one true wish may just be to have a gnome priest.

My First Transfer

Molybdenum is now on Mal'Ganis. *fiddles with link on blog side bar to update information.* I was hesitant to transfer but something changed my mind… gold.

A few weeks ago a group of my Farstriders raiders not only left server but faction changed to Horde on Mal’ganis. At the time this happened I was distracted by RL things. So though I was sad they left, the less raiding was good for me. Figured I would worry about it when I got the chance. My chance is now...

They transferred. Friends have transferred before and went unnoticed by me. But these group of people are who I instanced with on a regular basis... multiple times a week regular basis.

My guild is now a few shy of a 25 man. So 25 progression will not be happening for a while.

Then the question of Husband and I transferring came up. Husband thought about it for 2 seconds and said “No”.

It was not the transferring servers that was holding him back but the switch to Horde. I am 99% sure if they did not switch to Horde but to only another sever we would have transferred with them.

Me? Hydra was first a Horde warlock. For those have read me a long time know, Hydra the Undead lock was leveled to around 4. I was told I was on the wrong faction. Under protest of the change, because my girlfriend wanted that long legs of the female Alliance, I rolled Gnome.

I could work with being Horde.

Deciding NOT to transfer our main toons has changed what we do in the game a lot. I was instancing or raiding 4-5 times a week. Now it is down to 1-2.

Husband and I have to decide what we want out of the game. He has chosen the reputation grind for The Insane. I have to make new friends.

Hydra now signs up for Tuesdays raids, which I may or may not get called in. I don’t mind being set out since I need no gear from those raids. I sign up if needed for class balance.

I have a set "PuG" 10 man TOC. If you have read me long enough you know I don’t really PuG. All the people in this group I have run with for a long while. We can clear the place in an hour or so. Most are alts or raiders that missed their main raids earlier in the week.

I need to figure out a raiding outlet for Hydra. If I could get at least one more set night I would be satisfied in that regard.

I have reminded guild that I have a decently geared Bear that is a good purple kitteh too. So maybe I can get a chance to tank something official soon.

I have also leveled Aurum a 29 warlock on Windrunner. *fiddles with side bar again* Aurum is now at the point of receiving runs for gear. A friend transferred a toon to Windrunner so he was a good minion and transferred a few thousand gold and enchants for me.

Renewed attention is being put on Moly.

One of the guys was transferring another toon. Then it hit me … he could be a good minion and transfer gold and goods for me too!!!

So we cut a deal.

Moly would get a realm transfer. On some conditions…
1) He would transfer 12,000 gold from Hydra to Moly. (FYI 20K is the max for level 80 for character transfer.)
2) He would transfer goods I wished to sell for more gold, Arctic Furs, Eternal Fires, and few enchanting mats.
3) He would do run troughs focused on Holiday events to get wait-for-me-at-level-80-epics, like the Headless Horseman Rings.

My part of the deal was I would level in a timely manner. That is no small promise. It has taken me two years to get Moly to level 72.

Some are not so excited about this transfer. I promise to take that into consideration too. (Notice how I was trying to completely change the subject.)That was everything that went into the decision for me to move Moly. But mainly it was the gold. Granted I already had 2,800 gold on Moly. But instant self fundage is better.

Side note… even with all the gold transferred off server the last two weeks, Hydra is still at over 60K gold.

Moly To Northrend! Now

I leveled to 70 in Outland.

Did I go to Northrend then? Nope. It was the Isle of Quel’Danas.

Without a lot of time to dedicate to leveling, I did have the 30 minutes to do the dozen dailies on the Isle. It was very adventagous since the first run of the quest I was able to replace my quest bow with Valanos' Longbow.I took some time to talk to some Horde friends about Northrend. Stop highly recommended to me to take the zeppelin outside of Undercity to Vengeance Landing.

I was taunted with the thoughts of plague spreading and mass murder. *cough*

Howling Fjord has been a test bed for the Royal Apothecary Society since landing in Northrend. The tasks to be done there were vile and interesting. This gave a lot of depth to the quests I knew to come in Dragonblight.

Plus there are not spiders on the road out of town to eat your face. Amazingly this is a huge plus.

Moly To Northrend! Eventually

Moly hit level 70 in Shadowmoon Valley.I didn’t go out to Northrend to quest at level 68. I was half way though Hellfire, was ganked by a rogue (One shouldn’t go AFK … on a PvP realm … on the road… on the path to Zangermarsh.) and then heard that Patch 3.2 would change flying to be level 60. So I stayed where I could fly.

Once I had flying I swooped through quests in Hellfire, Nagrand, and Shadowmoon Valley.

In the middle of all that I went to Northrend to train my professions. Might as well continue to get a few skill ups as I am mining and skinning through Outland.

This stalled my leveling.

I didn’t know how to get to Northrend.

I recalled something about something and POOF you were in Northrend. There had to be a way to get there without a mage or a warlock. There are warriors, druids, other hunters, and even pallies getting there.

There was nothing to direct me there. No quest or letter in my mail. I ran from city to city for about 30 minutes trying to remember where everyone was coming and going.

There was no way I was going to “/2 How do I get to Northrend?” can you imagine the … vile dripping sticky response. Not something I wanted to participate in. (At least not in that moment. For some things you need to wait till the mood strikes.)

What did I do? For all things I start at wowwiki.com.

That got me onto the zeppelin outside Orgrimmar … swing a right. I don’t remember seeing THAT there before. *shrug* Only excuse I have is it has been a really long time since I have spent time outside Orgrimmar.

*Hydra whispers into Moly’s ear*

FINE… Brewfest… but who could see farther then your own hand during those days. Weeks. Wait what were we talking about? NORTHREND. K.

The zeppelin outside Org takes you to Warsong Hold.The sheer massiveness of the “outpost” was shocking. All the levels and the solid build of the constructions. This will be a place to make a stand! (I had that Wrath of the Lich King fresh feeling. Has it really been a year already?)

So I picked up my training. I poked around all the corners. I made a nuisance of my self to the guards. They got tired of my insistent questions they stopped talking to me.

Where was the skinning trainer?
…
…
Apparently not in Warsong Hold.

I ran my level 68 elf butt out of the hold, through the spiders, across the lands to Taunka'le Village. Many a pet sacrifices (thanks Baby.) All of that to get me there in some resemblance of one piece (54% durability per the screenshot. I am quite sure it was a straight line running into mobs issue). I could now level my skinning.

Hallow's End Achievement Issue

There is an apparent candy bucket rationing to those who get Northrend candy buckets first. So leave Nothrend for last until you get an update from this forum post.

We are currently experiencing an issue with the Hallow's End candy buckets that is affecting the Trick or Treat Achievements for this event. Certain candy buckets in Northrend, once looted, are preventing characters from looting some of the Candy Buckets required for the Trick or Treats of Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Outlands. The current way to work around this is to get the candy buckets from Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Outland before doing any in Northrend.

Note, doing the Achievements first will prevent some of the Northrend Candy Buckets from being inter-actable.

We are actively working on a resolution for this and will provide more information when it is available.

Update: At this time please do not submit an in-game ticket on this issue, doing so will not result in a faster resolution as we are still working on the issue and will provide more information when it is available. Thank you.

If the buckets are reset... are you going in for another round?

Mimiron Warlock Tanking

Here are my notes to self from learning to down Mimiron in Ulduar. Please note that they were written when most (if not all) of the raid didn’t out gear 10 man Ulduar. As the raid gains more experience and gear I slowly focus more on DPS and reduce my concern for my survivability by using my PvP spec and tricks.
Talents
I run with a PvP spec for the Mimiron fight. This is a Destruction based build (currently 0/17/54) it has some key survivability talents to make it easier on my healers:
Fel Synergy - heal your pet for 15% of the amount of spell damage done by you.
Demonic Embrace - Increases your total Stamina by 10%.
Fel Vitality - Increases the Stamina and Intellect of your Minion by 15% and increases your maximum health and mana by 3%.
Soul Link – 20% damage transfer to minion.
Molten Skin - Reduces all damage taken by 6%.
Nether Protection – a 30% chance to reduce all damage by that spell school by 30% for 8 sec.
Soul Leech - a 30% chance to return health equal to 20% of the damage caused.
Demonic Aegis - Increases Demon Armor and Fel Armor spells by 30%.
Glyph
In PvP spec I have added the Glyph of Soul Link. This adds an additional 5% to what my minion will adsorb. My Soul Link will enable 25% of all damage to be transferred to my minion.

Pre-pull Buffs
Before I start the fight I make sure I have food, flask, Firestone, and Fel Armor. I do NOT have Soul Link or Demon Armor on yet. I will explain in a bit, but not until phase 3.
Gear
I typically pull on my PvP boots. My PvP boots are enchanted with a speed increase and have a lot more stamina. For added stamina I have swapped out a ring and gloves. Fully buffed I was hitting 25K health in ilevel 219.

Minion
I use Naltog, my Imp, for his Phase Shift and Blood Pact. While buffing is going on I make sure my imp is un-phased to receive full buffs. It is important to have Fort and Kings if available. I make sure Naltog is phased back before the pull.

I know that Blood Pack doesn’t stack. Except I use it to pick up a stamina buff if a shout or other over riding buff drops off.
Attack
Now I am really to tank. My damage is much lower then in my normal PvE spec. Even so my survivability has skyrocketed.

Phase 1 and 2 I damage like all ranged DPS. I pay careful attention to my mana. I don’t want to have to life tap a lot at the start of phase 3. It has happened and I didn’t get topped off before the phase started. Also, it will help healers who are topping up raid.

USE BANDAGES.

Use your bandages during phase transitions. Mimiron is a very healing intensive fight. Help your healers out. Bandages sit in your bag anyway use them up. Use them on friends! … seriously I have.
Phase 3 Start
Naltog and I have max health and mana at the start. I activate Demon Armor and Soul Link. Naltog is un-phased so he can get heals.

He doesn’t always get heals, you must train the healers. I have linked my talents to let them read how much damage my minion is adsorbing. A HoT on my minion is like putting two HoTs on me.

As soon as the head is engaged I Death Coil, Immolate, and then Conflagulate to get agro.

Looking into Mimiron’s room the raid positions themselves just left of the room. I position myself to the right, still within healing range.

I back the head out of the middle of the room. Just a little bit forward. Those responsible for Bomb Bots will then have a clear view beneath the head.

To hold agro I replace Incinerate with Searing Pain in my DPS rotation. . The reduced cast time and increased threat generation is all I need. With DPS split on the adds and head I have not been over taken. … though I have had the head taunted from me. *sigh*

If any of the adds get loose and on me, I call out in vent. A tank will taunt it off me.

There are points that the head is hit by a Magnetic Core by another raid member. This puts it on the ground and melee can DPS. This ground phase is when I life tap and health funnel Naltog if needed. I will bandage also if required.

I repeat this every air and ground phase.

Phase 4 Start
My tanking duties are not done! Melee still cannot hit the head. I am still designated range tank and will tank the robots head until he is dead.

There are still mines, spinning up, rockets, and all kinds of things to not get hit by to kill you. Oh... and that little part of all three dieing at the same time.

I have yet to have a time that I didn’t lose Naltog in Phase 4. I am still working on figuring out how to get that accomplished. Using Fel Domination and then a quick summon is useful. Need to activate Soul Link again! Depending on what is going on (if healers are actually healing minion or not) I may or may not un-phase shift him after this quick summon.

I am sure there are brilliant locks out there doing this more efficient then I at the beginning. This really worked for us and the healers appreciated my efforts. As we learned the fight, even in PvP spec I was still able to be increase my DPS.Good killing! Hope this was just repeating things you already knew.

Lugnut

Last Sunday I was at the Pepsi 500 in Fontana, CA. It was a perfect race day. The morning was cool and the afternoon warmed up to a nice day. Husband and I for our birthdays received pit-passes and seats. (I have told you how awesome my mom-in-law is correct? She is.)
It was a blast. We got there early and walked the pits then strolled the race surface itself.

The feel of horse power. The scream of the fans. The smell of exhaust.

At one point I closed my eyes listening (btw with ear plugs), smelling, and adsorbed just being there. Then I proceeded to scream my lungs out as Montoya passed Jeff, then stared in confusion as Tony was in 20th place.

I do admit to urging bad things to happen to a few cars. Nothing horrible but just … a missed shift on a restart or something. Sadly this didn’t happen.

Watching how good Earnhardt Jr.’s car was early on, I was really hoping for a good race for them. The Team just seems to get themselves into scenarios not their own fault. I was really sad to see them involved in a red flag crash.

Of course my birthday buddy won.

Good times.

Now some pictures.

Walking pit road...
Watching driver introductions on the track, Tony Stewart. Jeff Burton ... At Burton's pit box he was taking donations for used lugnuts. This was the best souvenir I didn't know I wanted. I am so glad I picked it up. Later, I could not come up with anything to buy. I am bad that way.
Head fan...
Kasey Kahne's car at a pit stop ...
Than this accident happened ...
Kahne's car after ...
It was a great day ...

Addon: RiadBuffStatus

RaidBuffStatus

Mr. Boocock left me a message asking about an addon one of my tanks was using for an announcement. It is a general pre-raid buff tracking addon called RaidBuffStatus.

It tracks buffs and gives announcements for different things. The wowace site also links to a quick video.

I enjoy the Refreshment Table announcement. The mage can actually trick the addon to announce it over and over again by stop casting. … Okay. Maybe we find that funny. If you don’t have the same strange sense of humor it is very useful. It also announces when the table will expire. So no more “Did I miss the table?” It announces it before it vanishes so slackers can grab some food.

When a Soulwell goes down, it announces not only that it is available but the SIZE of the cookie. This lets me know immediately if I need to destroy the one I have and grab a new one.

I thought I had some screanshots to show you but apparently they vanished. I think the video is a simple enough explanation.

Guild Chat Gone Wild

Guild chat always makes good blog fodder. I went through a few screenshots and I picked out a few that stood out.

Here is one of our healers logging in on his WEDDING DAY.Then there is the pally’s rez macro.Big congrats to Husband who has 30 exalted reputations! Wait. What was the 30th? Explorers' League. There is one quest out in Howling Fjord that gives you 250 reputation. THAT IS IT. I am not kidding. (Oh, he is not that far off from the Frostborn either.)One of our guildies was MIA. We were happy to get an update. Here is when a “Your Mom” joke can be funny because you were not trying to be funny.Sometimes you ask a question and the answer you get back is not what you expect. I cannot even DO this analogy.

Horde Pet Swap

I have been really lazy and have not kept you updated at all.

Did you know about Oath of Dressed to Cuddle came through for me??!!! He is my bestest warlock friend in all of Farstriders (even if he is Horde (and I am totally kissing up because he still has to come through for me again)).

Vent and the neutral auction house in Gadgetzan was used for a clean transfer of Alliance pets for Horde pets. I hear from Oath the pet tree druid has been a big hit.

Oath, I did see you in Wintergrasp but I was distracted by explaining the merits of NOT letting the Horde destroy all three towers. *sigh* I thank you for the quick death. Your pally is uber awesome for that.

I promised pictures. You will see that all pets are now apparently Gnome sized. WE ARE NOT PETS.

I really like the Sen’jin Fetish. First there is the very cool music that starts when you summon him. Then there is fact that each time you summon him there is a different mask!The Mulgore Hatchling is fantastic. He runs around like Egbert.I think the Enchanted Broom is great to sweep up after a raid wipe.I like the look of the Durotar Scorpion. It would have been fun to see him randomly lunge at people, but he does not.The flappy Tirisfal Batling...well flaps.That is it for the Horde pets. I wanted to compare the new bat with my Vampiric Batling. You can see the brown vs. the red color. Not long after we did the pet swap I caught from fishing in the sewers the Giant Sewer Rat. He is almost as big as Demora!Remember to love your pets, just don't LOVE your pets.

Beer Beer Beer Beer

We are hopping all over drinking. Fuzzy screens and whispers galore!Aurum still had the full Brewfest livery from previous years.She also saw the Teldrassil Pink Elekk in Shattrath City.Also found some special mugs in the battle against the Dark Iron Dwarves that allowed a fan of mugs. Almost like a full grown rogue…but with mugs.In Dire Maul’s Grim Guzzler if you have the Direbrew's Remote you can talk to the goblin on right of the band setup. This will queue the band, L80ETC (or whatever they want to call themselves now). If you /cheer them you get a 5 minute +10% all stats buff.With the knock back from when the adds in the Direbrew fight I found out there was more beer in the rafters!I did some dancing in Dalaran. The peace should be disturbed by a drunken dancing gnome on a roof top.Since I just don’t have room for the cloths in my bank I returned the Brewfest livery. That enabled me to get a member card from Larkin Thunderbrew for a Brew of the Month membership.Alexstrasza sent me a letter in the mail.
I am now owner of a Violet Proto-Drake.