Raiding Reminder

I will put on the correct gear.
I will have appropriate hit gear on for a boss fight.
I will not wear my PvP gear.
I will not wear my fishing gear.
I will not hate people that ask for cookies while I am getting a Well Fed buff.
I will plan to lay down a summoning stone twice, once for those that are ready, and then for the slackers.
I will continue to bring my own consumables, flasks, elixirs, buff food, pots, etc.
I will only make fun of people in the warlock channel.
I will come to terms with other locks beating my DPS.
I will continue to mute myself in vent during raids, because I sometimes get chatty.

Oh and lastly…
I will put on THE CORRECT GEAR.

Sartharion+1D

Sartharion plus one drake. We chose to leave Tenebron with the whelp adds as our dragon up. This was the first night I was there for the attempt. First time as a guild we did it. We will most likely run with one drake one more week and then start trying for two.

Naxx 25 First Guild Clear

First time the guild was able to get a second night of Naxx 25 raiding together. We downed Kel on our second try. It was a bit messy as you can see. All the locks lived.

Highest damage FTW! ... DPS was beat by another lock ... pfft pfft.

New 80 Hunter in the House

Mom, Congrats on 80!
Now that your hunter is level 80 you don’t know what to do.

First, a question… did you name your gorilla yet? *squints* Do it now! I don’t care. If he/she is not named yet it is a travesty that you only have the power to rectify.

With that task done…
Sitting around waiting for the next expansion is not a choice. There is just too much fun yet to do!

Professions:
Level up your Death Knights professions. This way you can lose mining on your Hunter and learn the Leatherworking you wanted too.

Wintergrasp:
Go play! Win. Lose. Kill. Be killed. Get a few Stone Keeper Shards from the daily pvp quests. You can also get them in instances when Alliance has Wintergrasp (the fortress is blue). Save up a lot of them you can get a mount. If you stay till the end you get at least one Wintergrasp Mark of Honor. Those Marks of Honor can be turned into some nice gear.

Gearing:
I put in a cry for help to a more knowledgeable hunter blogger then myself. She maybe interested in putting it together. So that my warlock self doesn’t overlook anything important for hunters. If she doesn’t have the time, the two of us will muddle through. There is a lot of craftable stuff that would be fun to get. There are lists for hunters, but none for a non-instancing hunter. So I may have to do that … if I can find time.

Meanwhile there are some titles I think you would love. They fit well into what you tell me you enjoy doing.

World Explorer:
You get into all the nooks and crannies of all the lands. I bet you have a lot of areas where you still have that one little out of away spot to see. If you have problems finding places check wowhead.com. Search the achievement comments. Many nice people have listed the exact coordinates of places you have yet to fill on your map. When you finish you get the title “The Explorer”.

The Loremaster:
I know how you like to quest. I recommend this mega achievement. You have to complete the four Loremaster achievements for each of the lands, Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland, and Northrend. Remember you can see low level quests by the drop down on your mini map button. Once you do this you get the title “The Loremaster” plus a tabard.

Ambassador:
Check your reputations for the five Alliance factions. You maybe close to having completed this one. Become exalted with Stormwind, Darnassus, Exodar, Ironforge, and the Gnomeregan Exiles. Once you do that you get the title “Ambassador”.

The Diplomat:
If you are looking for some grinding (aka killing random mobs for reputation) you can work on this title. You have to get exalted (like to get your penguin) with Timbermaw Hold in Winterspring, Sporeggar in Zangermash, and the Kurenai in Nagrand. All three factions have great guides on wowwiki.com. Once you get to exalted with all three you get the title “The Diplomat”.

There are a lot of other titles you maybe interested in, Salty, The Exalted, The Seeker, etc. There also looks to be some for when 3.1 comes out so you can actually start now if one catches your eye.

You and I also have a date next Saturday. You provide lunch and I will help you with your UI. It’s a fair trade.

Burning Crusade Done... Finally

I achieved the title, Hand of A’dal last month.
I kept the original quest in my logs from before 3.0.2 was released in October 2008. This was before they changed your ability to gain the title.

I was lucky to be on that part of the quest at the time. It took a lot of guild prodding pre-Wrath to get there. Even if I didn’t receive the title it was a quest line I really wanted it completed.
I also met my goal of 11,000 gold. It was passively acquired. Made sure I was bringing in more gold then I was spending on gems, enchants, and consumables. *shock*

Reaching 11,000 gold was really an excuse to go buy myself a Centerion War Hippogriph. I have wanted one for quite a while. So the new title plus gold goal completed was a great way to honor Burning Crusade. It feels completed now.

My next gold goal is 33,000 gold. It was 22,000 gold but since I made thousands of gold in prepping for 3.1 I had to up the value. Plus it took just a little bit to even set the goal. I do need to think of something to buy myself once I get there.

How We Got Portals

I don’t care what anyone says. Warlocks sucked the souls out of Mages. Then turned around and bound those mage souls to portals in Shatt and now Dalaran. Thus permanent portals. ~ Hydra

Discount at the Counter

Spring Break. Not mine, but players.

Any holiday brings out the sellers who quest and gather. They take those items toss them up on the auction house for "just want to get rid of prices".

Times like these I stock up on raw materials for raiding, selling, or later crafting. We are not talking much later to sell either. A week after a holiday and I can get a 50-100% profit.

Frost Lotus is the first on my list. In December I stocked up buying out any that was 6 gold or less. The going rate on my server is 17 gold. Nice little discount. I am looking forward to restocking and making a profit on that one item.

Hmmm... what else should I be looking for pre-3.1.

Stop the Whining

If you have never seen the boss.
If your group has never seen the boss.
If you read that the boss is technical.
If you see that you cannot just over power the boss.
If the fight is not a simple tank and spank.
If a large group has not seen the boss pass 40%.
If you wipe 3 times.

The boss is not “hard” you just don’t have the experience. The raid did not know what phase 1, then phase 2, then phase 3 looked like. So do your role. Or get out.

Don’t go on Vent and say things like “This guy is a bitch.”, “This is impossible”, “This is HARD.”. or “We cannot do this.”

Constructive input please.

I have always been in the perspective of “If you can do it. I can do it better.” Or at least succeed at it too. So get out of my raid.

Remember new fights are a challenge. Remember what Pre Mag’s Lair nerf versus post nerf Mag’s Lair. I am thinking that a new group going into Mag’s Lair today would still find it a bit challenging.

Blackwing Lair, Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, Serpentshrine Cavern, The Eye, Mount Hyjal, Black Temple, Sunwell Plateau … all just might be still challenging the first time through. If you are not up for the challenge… get out of my raid.

Killing With Nails

He will die.
I have seen it done.
I have participated.
It has never been a problem.
Why are we wiping?

… because it was a PuG.

I have been doing one night clears of 10-man Naxx. There are few pieces that I am look to get, namely my T7 helm. Not because I need it more like to have a complete set.

This run I was brought in after three quarters were over. We knocked out construct quarter with no real problems.

Sapphiron down.

Then to Kel'Thuzad.

We hit a wall with our group.
A brick one.

We had five melee, but we have done it with six.
We had three healers, all well geared.
We had experience.
We had what should have been a success.

The clear of the four quarters took under four hours. Not record time but solid for a PuG. But Kel was being a j@cka$$.

First night (yes the first night) we spent two hours just on Kel. We called it. But we were determined to come back.

There were a few replacements the second night, but a new group formed. Two more hours of wiping and we still didn’t have him dead.

I don’t mind the wiping. I knew they were all whispering to figure out the issues. I was doing my job. I stayed out of things that kill me. I kept my distance from the other range. I didn’t kill healers.

I was calm the whole time. Honestly I was resolved that Kel was gong to die when he wanted too. Also I took the time while waiting to do my nails. *grin*

There was OOM Healers before the add phase. There was frozen tank. There was dead melee. It looked to be a mess. The adds swatting at all the healers immediately.

… are the healers the problem.

The RL was flabbergasted at why we were having so many issues. So he gave us the Raid ID. He told us we had the right to fill the raid and get it done.

War Machine filled the slots. We still had two PuG healers and one PuG tank.

… was it the tank.

I don’t know if the PuG tank was defense capped, what his experience is, his gear, his talent build. I don’t remember even inspecting him all the time we were in Naxx.

But the new RL paid him 500G to leave raid. I thought he should have held out for more. At this point we made about 200G in gold from the raid. We spent about 300G on in repairs, flasks/elixirs, well fed food, and other reagents. I would have gone for 700G plus if it was me. *snicker*

Half the group was new.

First wipe there was an unfortunate chain ice cube on two healers when the adds came out. They were readjusting because of initial heal agro.

Second attempt was a clean kill and one I would have expected four hours before.

*sigh* No lock helm.

I run with great tanks and healers. I would like to think I am at least good dps. This experience showed me what an almost geared tank looks like. "Almost geared" is not tank enough for Kel.

Yes. It was the tank.

But Kel did die and I was able to finish doing my nails.

She is the Hottie

I am out to lunch with a girlfriend. Her daughter calls, Kory. Complete squealing ensues because I am with her mom. The three of us are now to meet for a movie.

I get a special request. Kory wants me to tell her more about Warcraft. (We have had brief discussions before.)

...why?

Why would my girlfriend's 20-year-old daughter ask me that? Apparently she went on a third date with a guy who plays. She had some of the terms but didn’t know specifics.

After the movie she started asking me questions about the game. What is This. What is That. How do you Win? I answer in ways to try and unconfuse her.

She shows me a picture of Mr. Warcraft Guy. I start to laugh uncontrollably. I had to reassure her that he was good looking. Well as cute as I could tell from a little phone picture.

What made me laugh so hard?

I knew he was Horde from what she said already. She didn’t know his class. Behind him was a Lil’ Richard Plushie from Looking for Group. In that moment I new he must be a fellow lock.

She asked if that was bad. Bad? Well we will see. Then started the texting conversation with Kory in the middle. It was a riot. I liked his answers. I could tell she liked him.

Some time passed. I asked Kory how things were going with Mr. Warcraft Guy.

What is her first problem?

He stays up until 2 AM on Warcraft. He doesn’t wake up until noon.

I warned her about that risk. But I also told her that he is then not out spending money or getting in trouble. And then she tells me "True and I also know I am the hottie in the relationship."

Whatever works.

"Old-school” Twinks

I remember the day when white shoulders were an option for rogue twinks.

I remember when fishing gear was rare on a 19.

I remember not being in a twink guild.

I remember Legging of the Fang.

I remember farming leg kit mats.

I remember the thousands of gold I have made on twink pants.

I remember when I didn’t have tokens in my mail after every WSG game.

I remember studying a premade, watching how skillfully they backed each other up on the field.

I remember telling people “just give me two, maybe three people and WSG will be ours.”

I remember when I watched players moves and skill, learning to weed out the morons and the real players.

I remember the first whisper of someone coming over to say “great game”.

I remember the first whisper of someone coming over to say “l2play.”

I remember when Rumsey Rum Black Label had to be fished and was a treat.

I remember showing people how to go to the Old Hillsbrad instance to get rum.

I remember when the trash talk in the forum made people quit.

I remember my anger over having, yet again, consoling someone over what a forum troll.

I remember being in the middle of drama after drama … but somehow not being burned, a skill itself.

I remember defining Graveyard Camping.

I remember having /dance parties in the Horde flag room with Horde.

I remember buying my Shadowfang.

I remember that I have forgotten more than these new twinks remember.

I remember playing for the same joy today as I did then.

*shakes fist*

This “old-school” twink rogue can still keep up in damage with hunters. I can protect my flag carrier while doing it too.

I can do all of this while figuring out where I keybound my stealth.

Interrogations are Hard

Looking for Group is one of my regular comic reads. Sohmer and Lar always make me laugh with their great story telling.

I recommend you to check out their latest.

Warlock attempt at interrogation.

Hunter tries his luck.

If you didn’t laugh you have never played a warlock or set a hunter pet on aggressive.

Wait. You there. The one that didn’t crack a smile. *points* Get Out.

Champion of the Frozen Wastes

Champion of the Frozen Wastes achievement completed. We did Malygos 10 man. *squee*

I did let my flame stack drop once. But I did eventually get a stack of 16 back up. Which was fun.
From this last weeks Naxx I won the Key to the Focusing Iris. I was able to complete the quest for my Chain of the Ancient Wyrm.

/dance

No Raiding Sunday

I got to watch most of the race. Can you believe the poor crew member that ran after that tire. I caught my breath when they showed it.

I logged into WoW for a bit. I found out that the time changed (oops), I completely missed the fishing contest. I was not upset or annoyed at all. Because I was greeted by the winner, my good friend, Yig. (Congrats! I am really excited for you.)

Another surprise was a whisper from a twink friend. He has been out of game for a while. He was Hydra's 2v2 partner for a good portion of last season. So we chatted a bit... then we killed Horde.

Aurum went out onto the field after a long brake. So long that nothing in Dominos (action bar addon) was set up. Little important rogue things were not there. Imagine my surprise in a 3v3 realizing that Aurum didn't have stealth keybound.

Then I logged off.

What then?

Pumpkin muffins.
Laundry (4 loads).
Paper work.
Reading.
Fried rice.
Empty refrigerator.
Clean counters.
and lots and lots of Hulu.com. (xxxHolic mostly)

Then my WoW enabler got all concerned.
"Why are you not on?" *concerned shoulder arm rub*

So to be annoying ... I logged in to level my Horde.

It was lovely sunday.

Changes Happening

[G] What is a dollar?
[Me] That is RL gold.

I am off to a new job which will help me to pay the bills. My access to the internet and being able to “write” like a drunken orangutan for the unpaying masses maybe reduced.

I was so distraught by the idea, I bought a pair of shoes. Mr. Cole made me much happier.

After informing some of my fellow bloggers my inability to participate in BA Chat in the near future I was informed that meant I needed to blog more.
.
..
…
That was the opposite of what I think will happen. So I will continue to see what I can do with the limited time I have now assigned to blogging.

Current blog ideas that I may or may not flesh out:

• Not Impressed.
• Achievements and Me.
• Spontaneous ball sack exposure and flabby lips.
• Old-school Twink
• Account bound items with 19 and 29 stats.
• What to do for the Warlock in your life.
• General lock instancing.
• She is the hottie in the relationship.
• Favorite quest item.
• Raiding attitude
• Selenium a storage toons tail. (she’s a spacegoat.)
• Undead Hydra.
• Leveling going slow? By Aurum

My Raiding Bane Wintergrasp

I am happy with Wintergrasp (WG) in general. The shear farming value of the area made it a favorite immediately. There are elementals to fear and kite and kill and loot. *bliss* It is elemental plateau all over again but BIGGER. (Only change I would make is the Shadow area would be one-third less and the Fire area would be three times bigger.)

During farming there is the random killing of other players. But then I discovered the real beauty of the area… set times to kill Horde.

How long till the next WG?
Twelve minutes! I will go fish and wait.
No I cannot do Heroics until WG is over.
Hurry up. WG is about to start.
Kill the towers.
Defend the walls.
Stop the feed of vehicles.
DoT everything and everyone.
Yummy. Death Knight flavor tastes like Cheery.
SEED. Curse. Corrupt.
*watches the lovely numbers*

There is a hat, shoes, and a trinket I want to acquire. I need 40+ 15+ 25 =80 lovely marks.

That is all fine and grand. But it is starting to affect my raiding life.

Two things have happened in the last week that I bring this up.

Naxx pet pull.

I don’t normally raid with my felpuppy. I typically run with my imp. In the 10-man Naxx run I was running with felpuppy to fill in some missing buffs or something. We had just been playing in WG. He gets set on aggressive for WG because I am a lazy lock in BGs.

Twice my Felpuppy pulled. First on Heigan, in all the confusion I didn’t understand what happened. Second time was on Instructor Razuvious, which luckily can be reset.

Not until the second time did I even notice.

I could not believe it. What a nub. We did not wipe. Through trash pulls and bosses he was not on passive. It was such a basic mistake for me to make. There are no excuses. Just understanding how it happened.

Raiding in PvP gear.

I ran OS25 with 20 people for the achievement. I was helping to set it up. Whispering everyone I knew. I had finished killing the Horde in WG. I was summoned and went through the entire fight… in my PvP gear.

During this I was checking the damage meter. I was confused. At one point I reset my meter thinking “lag cannot be that bad”. I was in a PuG with some of the better players on my friends list. I was not putting a good showing for warlocks. Let alone for the dps I know I am capable to bring. Ouch.
/sigh

I see the cause of these mistakes as Wintergrasp. Ultimate fault lies in me. I am not keeping to my own pre-raid checks. These both were PuGs. I need to force myself to take the time to do my pre-raid checks.

This was absolutely a good wake up call. What does this mean for Wintergrasp and me?

/pwn mor

I prescribe more killing in Wintergrasp prior to raid so I can have practice swapping from PvP to PvE mindset.

*thinks*

Maybe pre-raid soulshard farming can be turned into suck-the-life-out-of-a-few-Horde-to-save-for-later-amusement.

Nothing says love more for your healer like a soulstone made from another player.